#don’t ask how I got my fanart like that from what he originally looked like lol

[fengstxr]

One of Jhonen’s freak children, Johnny the homicidal (homosexual) maniac

He’s rotting my brain

[corrodedbisexual]

The original plushie

Steddie | G | ~4.1k | AO3 link

This fanart of Eddie sleeping with a bunch of stuffed toys by @baleful-blurbs infected my brain and refused to leave until this ridiculous fluffy thing got written 😭 Please make sure to reblog those wonderful sketches to support the artist who inspired the plushie silliness♥️

Featuring: Tooth-Rotting Fluff, seriously beware of cavities, Light Angst, Plushies, Childhood Memories, POV Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington is a Sweetheart, Steve Harrington Has Bad Parents, Good Parent Wayne Munson, Requited Love, Cuddling, Getting Together, Boys In Love

The mortifying ordeal of Eddie's crush discovering his secret plushie cuddle nest turns out to be not so mortifying after all. Steve even starts borrowing said plushies to take back home with him; some time later, Eddie finds out why.

Snippet under the cut

“Who’s this?” Steve asks, grinning as he pokes at the teddy’s ridiculous smiley face. 

“Oh. That’s… that’s Mr. Boogers.” Eddie huffs and rolls his eyes. “Please don’t ask.”

Still grinning, Steve turns to him. “Well, now you know I gotta.” 

Eddie groans, rubbing a hand across his flustered face, and figures he might as well tell the story now that he’s dug his own grave. “He was, uh… kinda defective from the start, there were some stitches loose around his nose and there was stuffing coming out of it, like… well…”

Steve giggles. “Boogers. Gotcha.” 

“Yeah. Wayne grumbled about it and wanted to ask for a different one, but I was already in love with this one and clung to him and refused to trade. Cos like, you know how plushies of the same type are supposed to be identical but they’re really not ? And one of them has that perfect face and the others just seem off?” 

Eddie blushes, thinking now would be the moment he finally gets ridiculed for being twenty years old and having strong opinions on plushie faces of all things, but Steve just smiles and nods.

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I once spilled some gouache on a Mickey Mouse I owned and instead of washing him, mom just bought me a new one of the same series.” Steve sighs. “It was obvious 'cos his eyes were a little closer together and his smile wasn’t crooked to the left. I knew he wasn’t the same Mickey.” 

Again, Eddie’s heart aches for little Steve, like pretty much any time the boy reveals stories from his childhood in a tone too lighthearted for the words spoken, in Eddie’s opinion. Rich people really don’t value anything, huh. (With Steve being the obvious exception.)

“Yeah, see? You get it!” Eddie exclaims, pointing at Steve and putting more excitement into the words than he feels. Mostly, he just feels relieved and pleasantly surprised at how unexpectedly he and Steve managed to bond over their shared fondness for their childhood toys. “So anyway, Wayne relented and we took this funny guy home, my uncle patched him up, but the nickname stuck. Mr. Boogers. Boogie for short.”

Steve laughs again, but there’s nothing malicious about it as he looks back to the teddy in his lap and flicks his ear.

“Nice to meet you, Boogie,” he says with an affectionate smile that makes Eddie want to burrow his face into the mattress and giggle like an idiot. 

And maybe scream a little, because what the fuck. It should be illegal for your crush to talk cute to your goddamn childhood plushies.  

Whole fic on AO3

[jadelover69]

UPDATED/REVISED VERS OF THIS

𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒:

sam and her have that grunkle stan-mabel relationship 💪💪💪

azul & yumi gyatt that dipper-mabel sibling relationship

Floyd & Yumi together?? don’t don’t be around them, they seem to always be on a sugar high if they’re together

was originally gonna be twisted off of Stacy from ’a very goofy movie’ 💀💀💀 but uhm we don’t talk about that no more

she has a LOT of crushes 😔😔😔

the reason i chose Rollo and Jade to like her is too mirror gideon and mermando (broski i do what i want)

cater and yumi’s relationship is KINDA (and i mean kinda) like wendy’s and mabels (why?? cause GINGER)

she had a LITTLE crush on epel bcs she thought he was cute

when Epel found out he was so embaressed bcs she was wayyy taller than him AND she called him cute

they’re good friends now tho

she has a lot of crushes bcs yall remmeber how boy crazy mabel was in the series right💀😭😭

has written fanfiction and fanart before!!

was and still is a gacha kid

she’s supposed to be a mixture of kogal gyaru, decora, and just whatever is mabel pines aesthetic

yaps about pretty ppl with rook (thanks to @voidlesslove for giving that out!! its so fun!!)

has a video blog, called ’Yumi Guide to...—͟͟͞͞★’

2 bracelets from her worlds version of grenda and candy

puffy sleeves like a disney princess cause i do what i want!!

eye necklace if u noticed!! hehe bill cipher gyatther ass 😼😼😼

a lot of mabels iconic star colors like this is there too

𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 & 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒:

has a twin brother named Malcolm (i dunno what to name him😭😭) has 2 graunts (grandmas that are her aunts) that might know about TWST Gertrude and Cecily (based off of Grenda and Candy) were her bffs at earth (or whatevrr)

𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄:

Her parent’s got divorced when she was 10 she has an inferiority complex due to her parents always paying attention to her brother yumi had a really toxic bf, who she sees in Rollo!!! (thats what made her ’fall’ for him Sometimes feels like she hates her brother but she hates that she feels that way Gertrude and Cecily (my twst ocs based off of Candy and Grenda) are still looking for Yumi, her brother, Malcolm unfortunately is not Malcolm isn’t looking bcs he thinks she is dead BCS of Gertrude and Cecily Gertrude and Cecily MIGHT have pressured Yumi into going into one of her Graunt’s study, which… the dark mirror took her and sent her to Twisted Wonderland May or may not have made a deal with someone in her dream permanently altering her and her brother’s life 😋😋

𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌 🛼🍄

(jade leech x yumi woods)

• 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬

Yumi knits/crochets him mushroom related stuff like beanies and dolls

He gets her shooting star related stuff!! (he threatened idia to give it to him)

She asked him out right after Book 4, he did not accept (she cried into her pillow for 3 hours)

She and Jade have minor crushes on eachother

Tagging!!

@babyghoul138 @cheerleaderman @twtysevapr @jewelulu

@beneathsakurashade @bunniehunn @the-rini-rush

@theolivetree123 @teighveepao @skrimpyskimpy @skibidibabygirl

@cloudiepuffs @kuragebride @4necdote @blood-red-bumblebee

@quartztwst @anonymousplant @gl00myb3arz

@imafrealinrainbow478484 @justyoureverydaytwstsimp

@angelwishezz @lavanda-fanstamal @amai-sakura-chan

@lpendergast @verysadsnail

lemme know if u wanna be tagged or not‼️

[echooefrost]

TGGTVAV x TGS AU!

Ok so Sage has always been talking about The Gentleman’s guide to Vice and Virtue and I finally got around to reading it and to say the least… I LOVED IT, every part of it! Whilst reading this fantastical tale, I just COULD NOT stop thinking of the Jekyon parallels to Monty and Percy… Just AGRGHHH they are all such big, lovable, queer Victorian idiots! Anyway If you couldn’t tell by the title of this post, I slam-dunked that book into my favorites pile and hastily made another AU. (also,,, SPOILERS! I am warning you. But what are you doing? Go read this book already!) 

In short I’ve basically taken The Characters from TGS and dumped them into the storyline/plot of TGGTVAV, In saying that neither Jekyll or Lanyon are strictly Percy or Monty, if that makes sense? I contemplated this over and over and I just couldn’t cram Jekyll or Lanyon’s characters into Monty or Percy’s. as an example; Lanyon’s personality is a lot more similar to Monty’s than Percy but Lanyon isn’t bisexual (a big aspect of Monty’s character) Yet at the same time both Lanyon and Percy play the Violin, both have dreamy freckles etc. But he just doesn’t fit into either of them, same goes with Jekyll; Jekyll and Monty both share similarities but are both very different, yet not different enough to take the role of Percy. So with all of that confusing explanation, Jekyll and Lanyon remain themselves with a few extra ~touches~: 

Jekyll is going to be sent to the mental asylum in Holland due to the existence of Hyde. Lanyon finds out about Hyde when he involuntarily transforms in Marseilles. 

Lanyon still plays the Violin and brings it on the Tour with him (for the reasons of plot accuracy and me pushing the Violin-Lanyon propaganda) 

Lanyon takes Monty’s position of power (as in his father is an Earl, and sends them on Tour) although Lanyon is rich, racism still very much exists and isn’t a terminated theme.

Before I continue and as a side note: Felicity Does not exist. As much as I wanted to work her into this, I just couldn’t without complicating a bunch of things, and as I said this is an Au, my au and I can do what I want - I do love Felicity but She just wasn’t going to work here.

Frankenstein (still a woman) takes the role of Mateu Robles because I thought it would be fun to play on the idea that Frankenstien created life and that Mateu’s panacea can heal people. After researching and experimenting, Frankestein tried the potion on Elizabeth but it stopped her heart, similar to how Frankenstein's original creation (the creature) ended up killing her love. I thought it would be interesting, that because Frankenstein kind of killed her wife, she created Helena and Dante the same way she made the creature, although they technically aren’t human, Helena and Dante still look and act like humans, and they believe Elizabeth equally as their mother as they do with Frankenstein. (Don’t ask me how a WLW relationship would work in the 1800’s ,,, everyone just thinks that Frankie is a guy {kind of like in TGS} ) 

Queen Lucy is Scipio because a.) We need more female badasses and b.) take ONE LOOK at her character design and Tell me she DOESN’T Look like a pirate queen- I also just think Lucy is a super fun character that I wanted to incorporate here. 

Those are about all the added things/changes - the rest basically just follows the same points of the plot :0 

If I’m completely honest, I probably won’t do much with this I just had an idea and wanted to share it :))

Here’s a little image of them - Also I gave them both slightly longer hair because I looked at fanart of Percy and fell in love. 

[thelaurenshippen]

When you write your characters, do they have specific, locked-in physical appearances? Does that only come once you get the characters cast/does it match what the VAs look like irl? I was thinking about how, when I listen to TBS I picture the characters different than you probably do or how other listeners do.

For me, I usually only picture things like height/build and hair color/length, but even that is different from other interpretations I see in fanart. What’s it like to see fanart of characters who don’t have faces?

great question!!! no, absolutely not, pretty much never. I have a hard time coming up with character appearances even in books--I am just not a visual person! in writing prose, I of course do have to determine what they look like, but it's not usually the first thing that comes to mind.

when I wrote TBS, I had absolutely no thoughts about what the characters looked like beyond certain vibes (mark: handsome, agent green: beanpole, damien: exceptionally average, etc.) but that said, I'm not sure I necessarily picture every single character looking like their actor. and that's largely because we have so much incredible fanart for the show, that every time I see a new version of a character, I'm like "that's it!". so, to answer the last question in your ask, it RULES

but it's a little different depending on how the casting went. with the exception of Chloe and Sam, almost all the original roles in TBS (so, the first four seasons), were written without a specific actor in mind okay, I started to write a long paragraph about each of the characters and then realized it might be fun to go through the whole original cast and talk about how each actor ended up in that role--

(my god this got long I'M SO SORRY I feel like I've hijacked your really nice and straightforward question)

Sam - easy; she was written for me, she is me, and yet I never picture her looking like me

Chloe - I knew I wanted to get Anna to be a part of the show, so I wrote Chloe with her in mind. but I also don't really picture Chloe looking like her!

Dr. Bright - the hidden lore of TBS is that I thought about playing this role for about half a second, instead of playing Sam (thank GOD I wised up). I don't remember the thought process of casting Julia at all because I'm pretty sure I was just sitting in acting class one day as she was doing a scene and was like "oh, there she is"

Caleb - god, it's so weird to try and remember when these people were strangers to me - Briggon was so big-hearted in acting class, that I knew he'd bring so much to Caleb. but it was watching him do a gruffer scene in class that made me ask him - I wanted Caleb's big heart to make itself known more slowly. Briggon has an essence that I picture with Caleb, but I don't picture Briggon as Caleb, if that makes sense.

Adam - in lots of ways, Briggon cast Adam! he and Alex had been buds for ages and when I wrote the episode in which Adam first appears, I needed someone to do a few quick lines and Briggon suggested Alex. and that was supposed to be that - I had no plans to ever have Adam appear in the show again. but then, of course, we recorded with Alex and I simply had to make him a presence in the show. ditto here in terms of essence vs. appearance.

Damien - I remember the moment I (mentally) cast Charlie so vividly. I'd already shared the season 2 script where Damien first appears with Julia and she was very eager to know who I was going to cast - I think we were talking about it before class, because we both knew that we needed someone very specific and very good. and I'm like "idk! I haven't thought about it in depth yet!". and then Charlie was doing some scene or other in class and Julia and I literally leaned forward in our chairs so that we could look down the row at each other because we had the exact same thought at the exact same time. and we shared this look and that was that. I've never pictured Damien as looking like Charlie, because Charlie is way too good looking.

Mark - these next two were really hard to cast. mostly because I had such a specific idea in my head of a vocal tone/vibe, and I didn't know any actors who fit that perfectly. and it took several weeks of sunday classes with Andrew before I asked if he wanted to get coffee and talk about it. and it took that long because Andrew has this very annoying thing about him where he's literally so versatile and so grounded and real and fucking good in every role he does, that every time I'd watch him perform, all I could see is what he was doing in the moment and nothing else. I would get totally lost in what he was doing and, of course, it is that exact quality that makes him such a compelling Mark. I picture Andrew as Mark about...32% of the time.

Agent Green - an insurmountable task. no one in my acting class was right for it. no friends of friends were right for it and I asked around a lot, got sent a lot of voice memos. and then I was doing a short film with Anna and Ian was there - I'd met him once before when he was in a Rocky Horror production with Anna - and I really dug his energy. and he wasn't right at all for what I was imagining Agent Green to be, but I was like "you know what, I want to work with this actor, and it's one small-ish role in two episodes" and then we got Ian in with Julia and all of a sudden I was like "WELL I GUESS I HAVE TO WRITE A WHOLE AGENT GREEN STORYLINE NOW" (this has happened to me several times. goddamn actors). I think the Green in my head is like...the combination of Ian and his common fan art representation.

Wadsworth - I met Alex doing the same short film - she was in it and also doing fight choreographer and was just incredibly competent and cool. I knew I wanted Wadsworth to be someone who could really boss people around but, like.....in a hot way. it helped that Alex and Ian knew each other pretty well, because obviously that dynamic is central to both those characters. and I think, similarly, Wadsworth is half Alex, half fan art in my head

Frank - I hadn't really planned on bringing Frank into the show itself - kind of an Adam situation - but I saw Phillip do a very interesting intense scene in class and just....couldn't stop thinking about it. despite writing the role into the show more or less for Phillip, I don't really picture Frank as looking that much like him.

Rose - this one was pretty straightforward - I wrote Rose, thought through actresses I knew who had a particular energy and could also sing and Alana popped into my head right away! (the only other actress that came close was Helen, who plays Helen in TAMA which, as you can guess, was written for her. she's got an incredible singing voice like Alana does, but Alana was the better fit, and I got to have Helen villain it up, which was so fun, and have a fucked up thing with Wadsworth (Alex and Helen are irl besties)). but I don't picture Rose in any particular way, other than the cover art for SFP!

Charlie - I loved Ars Paradoxica, I loved Reyn in Ars Paradoxica, and it just felt right. I do think I picture Charlie as Reyn actually.

honorable mentions from the spin-offs:

Mags - I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted to get Bryce in the mix of TAMA and wrote Mags for her in the same way I wrote Chloe for Anna. Bryce and I met doing a production of Spring Awakening years and years previously (she was Martha, I was Wendla) and she's such a talent! I don't really picture Mags like Bryce though - I think I picture Mags as being much nerdier.

Beck - Jason "Marley" Beck has a very specific description in the books. he's a tall, hulking white guy with a buzz cut and a kind of frankenstein's monster energy to him. he's pale as shit. when I wrote him into TCT, I looked for actors like that (and found some truly great ones!) but I'd left the role open and when I heard Chris's audition I was like "welp. that's Beck. I guess Beck is going to be Black in podcast canon!" and that's what we did. podcast canon and book canon are technically two slightly different versions running on parallel tracks, and I wanted to go with the actor that I felt best fit the role, regardless of the fact that the book had already been published. so the image of Beck in my head is different for the book and the podcast.

Oliver - ah, Oliver. the surprising fan favorite. or, really, not that surprising, because I had the exact same reaction to Kristian when I first met him. he auditioned for a role in Passenger List and, while I was of course already a fan of his from Orphan Black, I was still shocked at just how much fun the audition was. and to be clear: auditions suck so so so so so bad. and for PL, they were full 6 hour days of watching actor after actor after actor and, well, it's my least favorite part of the process always. but for the, like, 5 minutes Kristian was in the room, I was having a genuinely good time. so of course we cast him and he was as lovely to direct as he'd been in his audition. when Caitlin came up with Oliver, I think we both had something very different in mind. but there was a mad scientist energy to him that made me think of Kristian so I pitched him to her and she liked the idea and the rest is history. and then, of course, he and Andrew's chemistry was a wild lovely surprise, so we brought him back. gun to my head, I could not tell you what I think Oliver looks like.

[ownerofthisaccount]

Originally I was just gonna leave the previous post on Agee and Chei as a one off, as I don’t own them and it was just me spitballing. There was also a repost saying I was thankful for the attention it got and that anyone is free to have their interpretations on it, but I deleted it as I didn’t want to bombard the original creator too much. My anxiety can get bad especially when it comes to interacting with popular creators or making fanart due to stuff I rather not get into, but it can lead to me struggling a bit with knowing how to go about things or if I’m being too pushy. Even now I’m a little anxious posting this giant section, and can take it down if asked, but after reading my what if my brain wanted to expand on it with images more detailing what happened that first day.

I will warn this contains body horror, implied and shown death, injury, and a small bit of blood. This is also NOT my work or ocs. Like before, both design and the original story comes from @raisans-art and they should be given the credit for these great character designs and engaging stories. This is just my interpretation on a what if both twins got experimented on.

As stated before, this version starts off the same with Emmet taken first and dies in the process of becoming Agee. But in this version the scientists catch on to Ingo’s snooping and struck him from behind when he finally encountered Agee. There was actually a deleted image showing that directly after, Durant popped out and, seeing Ingo limped on the ground and scientists quickly flooding in, grabbed Ingo’s pokeballs to try to at least save his team with the hope of being able to come back later to save the twins. He escapes through a vent, but in the process three pokeballs are knocked off and left in the lab, where Durant can’t grabbed them because the scientists are gaining on him. This wasn’t drawn cause for the life of me, I couldn’t draw full body Durant without looking like a knockoff lego.

“What do we do now?”

A little while later, the newest experiment Chei wakes up to a “frightening” giant. Meanwhile, the friendly fusion tries to welcome their new cell mate with open arms. I absolutely loved drawing that frame of Agee.

A familiar image from before, but the shadows and Agee’s tail are actually here. This is an outside view of the scientists observing how the two fusions will interact with each other given the origins of the two used for this.

Doesn’t go well. I realized I also missed the scar on Agee’s face, so I added it to the what if lore by having Chei feel threatened and slashed Agee with their face blade. Agee out of instinct and shock slammed their tail into Chei without realizing.

A fun fact I mentioned in the comments last post, but Chei’s tail, chest, and face are made of glass. It’s a softer/flexible and more durable glass, but can still be cracked. As long as the core/soul in the chest is unharmed though, the glass will repair itself some time after with the length depending on how severe the damage was. So Chei will be fine, but Agee still feels bad for hurting them.

Chei takes shelter in the corner to heal while Agee decides to give the new guy a little space for now, still determined though to make this friendship work as he feels a connection to this fusion. There was also a second cut drawing of Chei waking up later to an “I’m Sorry” poorly written on the ground while Agee anxiously taps their fingers together for a response.

Elsewhere in a realm inaccessible to ones like us, a few spirits watch this disaster go down…

And that’s it! That was all the drawings made for that what if scenario. Will there ever be more? I’m honestly not sure as this was already a stretch. But I will be finishing my top ten list very soon if you want more Pokémon drawings from me and to yell at me for putting Lickilicky in my top 10. But once again, thank you @raisans-art for being the creator of the Emmet Chimera Au and may you all have a great rest of your day!

[thatgirlonstage]

Re:zéro asks!

What do you think would be the most interesting/hilarious crossover Subaru could stumble into. Either pre-canon or canon (or maybe even IF story), because he gets into situations, regardless of the timeline.

What ships do you like?

Do you ship rezero characters with characters of other series? If you do which ones?

And lastly, do you think Subaru deserves à vacation?

I don’t really do/think about crossovers so much unless I get particularly inspired for some reason—I’ve had some AU thoughts about Re:Zero but I’ve never really bothered considering crossovers for it. Subaru is a difficult character to transpose out of his setting & original plot without doing a LOT of work vis a vis how you manage his character arc. Though actually precisely bc of that maybe the most interesting crossover to me would be if canon Subaru got a glimpse of himself if he had been dropped in a more traditional isekai (I don’t know nearly enough about classic isekai to pick one though) and the kind of person he would’ve become if he was just handed a bunch of awesome powers and people who think he’s cool without ever being called on his shit (the absolute worst version of himself). Relatedly, to your third question, nah I p much never ship characters outside their franchise. Even if they don't directly interact I need them to at least exist in the same/similar enough context or interact with some of the same people in order to get the shipping tickle in my brain. Again unless something particularly inspires a crossover idea, but even then, I will at most do like, bullet point ideas that are mostly meant to be funny to me. I almost never read crossover fic and I’ve never written it.

On ships in general… okay look. I am a) multishipper galore and always one good piece of fanart from being interested in whatever ship idea you want to pitch to me, but b) not primarily into this show for ships and c) at most poking the Re:Zero fandom with a ten foot pole for pretty fanart and usually staying well away from it except to make posts for my own amusement and like six of my friends. I can’t go in the Ao3 tag for it. Every time I do I start wanting to stab things. My current strategy to make re:zero fandom for myself by slowly luring all my friends into watching re:zero is having a shockingly good success rate but yeah the fandom at large is…… holy lack of reading comprehension Batman.

For whatever it’s worth, just as, things I will yell the most about while watching, I am deeply invested in Rem and Subaru in whatever configuration of relationship you want to put them in, I like Rem/Ram because I’m me, and idk that I really know enough about Satella to have Thoughts but I am So Normal about Satella/Subaru Jesus fuck the love love love love love you bit. (NB: I’m anime only with this series so far, please no spoilers.) Emilia/Subaru do make me soft, Subaru and Otto should queerplatonically own a cottage and 37 pets together, and Crusch/Felis are a t4t couple and I shan’t be told otherwise. Actually the ship I’ve probably Thought the most about though is Julius/Subaru. Why did they put in a loop where they speedran an enemies to lovers tragic boyfriends arc. What was that about.

But all of that is secondary to my desire to watch Subaru get the shit beat out of him 😂 which, to your last question—does he DESERVE a vacation? I mean, sure, boy’s been through the biggest boatload of trauma one can imagine and he’s not a bad person even if he’s an asshole with a lot of baggage to unlearn. Do I want him to GET one? Absolutely not, that boy was made in a lab for me to squeeze him like a stress ball

[scarletsaphire]

I'VE GOT A BUNCH OF WRITING ASKS FOR YOU LETS GO

7, 22, 32, 36, 39, 40, 55, 56, 63, 64, 65

7. How do you choose which POV to write in?

Uhhhh that’s a great question honestly. Most of the time when I have an idea it comes with the POV built in; for multi chapter fics/things from multiple POV’s it boils down to “Who is close enough to the plot to make sense, emotionally charged, and not going to reveal everything immediately/throw everything out of wack.”

Putting the rest under a read more because it’ll be long.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do?

I don’t like mind control, its an ick for me, so unless it’s 1000% necessary for the story I want to tell I won’t write it. I also tend to avoid first person, whether reading or writing. If its original fiction I’m more likely to be malleable with that, but for fanfiction, first person POV is an immediate turn off for me.

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

I’m going to make the decision not to include people from the pham, because otherwise it’ll just be people from the pham so >:p.

(Also to the author’s I’m tagging, sorry about the notification!)

@jackdaw-sprite is currently my favorite fanfic author. Their stuff is just creatively incredible, their writing style and prose is so, so, so well done. I can think of at least 5 of their fics by name that I am thinking about almost constantly. It’s all so absolutely incredible and I cannot recommend it enough.

@clockways has a lot of really good fics they are currently working on and every single one of them is absolutely incredible. The plots are well thought out and well executed, the characters all feel unique to their own stories while not feeling OOC, and they also do really good art.

@five-rivers is also on the list, which I’m sure surprises absolutely nobody. Obviously you have the Mortifiedverse which, as you know Hannah, I’m constantly freaking out over. It’s so so so well done, but also they have such a ridiculous quantity of other stuff and all of it is Top Tier.

36. How do you write kiss scenes?

Really quickly one after another in a weekend. Obviously.

The actual answer depends on the kiss scene itself. In general, I think my approach to kiss scenes is actually close to my approach to fight scenes? Unless there is something specific about the kiss that needs to be described, focus on the emotions its causing in the character instead. Even if you’ve never kissed someone you know what it’s going to look like, so spending time describing the physical appearance of the kiss is more often than not a waste of time. The emotions driving the kiss, or being caused by it, are much more important and interesting

39. Share a snippet from a WIP.

(From the gray ghost coffee shop story ;) (also tagging kad so she can get some gray ghost soup. @kadziduo

Laying in the rafters was Phantom. His ghostly tail was wrapped under the beam and back into his lap, so that the wispy end of it wrapped around one of his hands. The other hand dangled over the side, hovering in the air a good foot over the tallest patron. His head was leaned back against the post, and tilted to the side so that Valerie could clearly see his face, could clearly see that he was deep in sleep.

“He crashed here one night,” Mama Rose said from behind her. Valerie didn’t take her eyes of Phantom. There was something wrong about the whole situation, and she knew it had something to do with that ghost. You can never trust a ghost. “Literally, from the broken window. Found him asleep, just like that, so I made him a chocolate shake. He helped me clean up the mess, and he came back the next day.”

“I can chase the freeloader off for you,” Valerie said, her blaster whirring to life at her wrist.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

That’s a tough one. Daytime Stargazing, as much as that fic fought me, has a scene at the end with Sam capturing a picture pf Danny in the middle of an eclipse, phantom (ha) stars visible only around him, creating an aura. That one would be really cool to see.

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has the choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers reactions to certain ones?

Its going to come as a surprise to absolutely nobody yet again that it’s Danny. He’s. So easy to put in situations man how could I not love him. Valerie’s a close second, but Danny is just so versatile. Something cute and silly? Danny. Crack dissection fic? Danny. Slightly angsty magic adventure? Danny. It’s like one size fits all and that size is a half dead child.

56. What’s something about your written that you pride yourself on?

I’m very proud of a lot of parts of my writing tbh and I’ve never heard of humility in my life so you’re getting multiple B)

I have a knack for coming up with and fleshing out ideas. I write incredibly quickly and do it well on the first try, which means I don’t have to spend a lot of time editing if I don’t feel like it. (Will editing make it better? Yes. But I don’t feel like it.) I also am good at emotionally charged lines me thinks.

63. Something you hate to see in smut.

I’ve spent a good long while thinking and frankly its the same things I hate in most writing: Poor characterization and bad spelling/grammar. Most smut specific things I can sit through if the rest of it is good, but I can’t deal with those unless Specific Circumstances are met.

64. Something you love to see in smut

Possessiveness. It’s fun in fiction.

65. Tell us about what you’re looking forward to writing in your current project, or a future project.

The ice skating scene. You remember the ice skating scene I told you about don’t you? I want to write it but I have SO MUCH ELSE TO WRITE BEFORE HAND. >:(

[namakes]

Frye for the ask thing!

she………..

First impression: I thought she was cute! I remember for the Deep Cut reveal being like “ah, people probably aren’t going to like her much” (and yeah, she kind of got the Pearl treatment). Figured she would just be the peppy character of the group. I also originally thought she was kind of short, or at least shorter than Shiver.

Impression now: Frye’s energy in story mode is different than her initial introduction, especially in her boss fight; girl’s out for blood and having fun doing it. I’m having difficulty wording my thoughts on exactly how she’s changed in my mind, but. She’s a really interesting character, and I like seeing how she acts on TV vs how she is in story (when she’s mostly just around her friends). It’s like... she’s still excitable, but now that she’s not in front of a camera she can let loose. Frye strikes me as the sort of person who’s never really still (and if she is, something is probably wrong). I also now see her as being pretty tall, and Shiver as short (combination of Frye’s slouch and Shiver’s platforms making them look closer in height). Still very cute, of course.

Favorite moment: “You ready to fEEL the pain?” Okay, but probably just her boss fight in general. She doesn’t have a lot of scenes (yet, praying for Deep Cut in the DLC), but I especially like her final phase scene when she wipes the ink off her face like a tough guy (“You think you can treat my eels like shrimp? WRONG! All you did was wake us up.”). It’s a little thing, but it has a lot of personality.

Idea for a story: too many……. agh. Aside from what I’m already working on, I’d had an idea for a (second) Cyberpunk AU I started a draft for (after playing Ghostrunner), and I’d seen some fanart that gave me the idea for an AU where her she keeps sneaking in to see Shiv on palace grounds or something (kind of like Aladdin maybe? not really but. sort of). Man, in-series I’d love to see a Deep Cut treasure hunting excursion.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t think I have one? Haven’t really seen anything going around where I’m like “nah”, so… I guess a headcanon I don’t see often: she’s got really long arms, and her top fangs curl outwards slightly.

Favorite relationship: DEEP CUT agh. They’re all just so sweet together… Big Man has the braincell (most of the time. sometimes he loses it). I imagine their treasure hunting specialties are all different; Frye finds the loot, Shiver scouts/plans, and Big Man dates/places values on their finds. Her and Shiv have especially had a hold on me the past few months, though. 

Favorite headcanon: I love the idea of her being from the Deepsea. It’s just… cool…… (i did a write up on that here, so I don’t have to do it again).

[jojo-schmo]

No way.

NO WAY!!!!!!!!

YOU are the original artist!!! That's INCREDIBLE!!! You found this!! I am so so happy!! I finally get to tell you this directly!

Oh my gosh I remember really looking up to you and your art growing up! Your drawings (and this one in particular) had a really positive and nice influence on me in the beginning of my venture into fanart and the Kirby community as a whole! I gush about this in my original tags of this post but I might as well just share the story here with some additions:

"But Jojo," you ask. "That seems a little ridiculous. Don’t you think saying this drawing changed your life is a little much?"

No. NO. IT IS THE TRUTH. Let me tell you. It's around 2008. Little baby middle schooler Jojo had just gotten Squeak Squad. The first Kirby game I ever owned. My introduction into the entire franchise as a whole. And I loved it even tho there was a lot I didn’t understand. Like who any of these characters were, or why copy abilities existed. I had zero knowledge of the lore so far. But Meta Knight completely intrigued me. what was this blue sword wielding little Kirby dude doing here?? He was so cool and could shoot lightning and make tornados, but he had pretty white eyes and pink cheeks under that mask?? I’d replay his boss fight over and over again just to get that glimpse at his face. and I’d sit and wonder what it all meant. plus the boss fight was hard!!! it cost me to beat it at the time but I’d still do it over and over to see his face for that millisecond.

AFTER LIKE A YEAR OF THIS it occurred to me that there was a Kirby wiki online. My folks were finally letting me spend more time on the old clunky family laptop, so I went to his wiki page and found all the pictures of his face from the games so far. And my budding middle school fangirl mind ATE THIS UP. (Mind you, this is years before we saw him in 3D for the first time! The most detailed picture was probably from like Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu (which was a Japan-exclusive release until literally 2023!) 

I needed more!! So I promptly looked up that one fateful google search……… the one that changed me. meta. knight. maskless.

I was bombarded with the cutest, loveliest drawings of this master swordsman with a precious face. This drawing was always towards the top of the results!! It's the most memorable one for me! Plus, idk if you've seen any of them. But people would include this drawing in those "maskless Meta Knight art compilation" videos on Youtube that I would watch a lot, so it kept popping up in my life for a bit afterwards haha

I stared at this drawing and came to the conclusion that I had to see even more. When canon wasn't enough, people could just.... CREATE their own?! INCREDIBLE!! So I searched for more and found an entire community of Kirby fanart, writings, discussions.... I never knew such an expansive community could exist about something I liked! What can I say? It was the late 2000s. I don't think most kids spent a lot of time on the internet for non-school related purposes those days. At least I didn't.

And so, I went feral about a fandom related topic for the very very first time! I lost my MIND. HOW can a character be so cute AND COOL??! All of these characters were cool!! I was a changed child. I consumed the Hoshi no Kaabii anime like it was the only piece of media on earth. (The subbed version because I like Dedede's voice more in that one. These days I accept the anime's flaws and enjoy it for what it is hehe) I drew comics about the characters, but mostly Meta Knight. I made my first kirby oc ever to go on a grand adventure on him (and his mask was conveniently half broken during this story so I could draw his face as much as I wanted to.) I got every game I could possibly own on the DS, Wii, Wii Virtual Console, and so on... (I played Return to Dreamland so much as a kid that when the remake came out last year I remembered where all the energy spheres were on my first try of each stage hahaha!!)

I filled my notebooks with Kirby art to the point my mom was like "Jossie. you REALLY need to branch out. these are just orbs. you should probably draw other stuff too."

And so I kept drawing throughout the rest of my childhood! But Kirby was the biggest catalyst for my growth as an artist! It was the fandom that started it all for me! And now as an adult I'm committing to long projects like the Forgotten Land Roleswap comic that add a lot of meaning and joy to my life to work on! I'm openly sharing my work rather than lurking as I have done until recently.

So yes. YES. TLDR: This drawing did help change my life. When I see it again I feel nostalgic and warm and I'm reminded of the happier moments of my innocent and exciting first venture into the world of fandom.

(And it's also one of the reasons why I insist on drawing Meta with white eyes to this day. It's a detail that is very sentimental to me since his pretty pearly eyes on his original sprites technically kickstarted my introduction into the Kirby fandom community :'D )

THE END!!! And to any artist/writer/creator! Your work makes a difference in people’s lives even if they can't say it to your face!!!!

...Except now I can say this to your face!!! :D

This may come off as a little silly or overly sappy, but I still wanted to tell you. Your work helped contribute to a little "butterfly effect" chain of events in my life years and years ago, haha. And I know lots of other people also look at your art fondly!

I'm quite happy to see you're still drawing and present on the web! A reverse image search on this drawing didn't yield any clues to its origins so thank you for coming forward directly :) Please don't feel obligated to respond, I just am happy for the chance to tell you this. :3

Life did take a nice direction for me, and I genuinely hope things are also well in yours <3

I wish I could tell the original artist that this drawing permanently changed the entire direction of my life in 2009. I want to shake their hand, look them in the eye, and admit I would not be who I am today if this drawing didn’t exist.

[sisyphean-everchase]

Inspired by @autisticjon ‘s post that said simply “jon horse au” and sent me into a 6 hour frenzy to draw this and oh also we have a werehorse!jon au now, so, like, here’s the jon horse au fanart (almost?) nobody asked for. You’re welcome dhgjfjg

[caliginouscreature]

If you may have a fictotype, how do you tell your “noemata” apart from strongly-held headcanons or projecting?

Psychological nonhumanity is a hot topic for all kinds of debates and discussions, and understandably so.  There’s tons of room for variation, and infinite possible reasons and presentations for it from copinglinking to fictherianthropy.  But with non/alterhumanity of any origin, lack of “memories” is a known struggle with those wondering whether or not they may “count” (and is something I intend to dedicate a separate post to talking about later).  This is where a new community term, “noema” (pronounced “no-ee-muh”), was introduced to possibly fill in an area of ambiguity left in the wake of such worries.  It’s a term left rather vague on purpose, making it useful for describing many kinds of feelings.

It is often described as feeling like “just knowing” something about your ’type, whether it’s something about their body, past, home, opinions... could be anything!  But, in some circumstances, how can you tell the difference between true noemata, and fan theories one has dwelled upon so long and hard that they just “feel right”?  Can you trick yourself into thinking you “just know” something by forgetting how long you’ve actually thought about it?  Is “feeling right” all it can take to count?

In this thinking-out-loud post, I’d like to point at the character of Snufkin from the Moomins franchise-- a character who seems like a great example to use due both to how I myself find him relatable, and how I’ve seen other Moomins fans receive and interpret him through fan content.

Isn’t he spiffy!

There is no other fandom I’ve yet been in where so many of the fans (at least in the english-speaking one, that I myself was in) had never actually interacted with the bulk of the source material.  Sure, some watched the ’90s anime on youtube, but large quantities of fans never touched the books or comics (even those that have official english versions, pirated or not), or sometimes even only got their material through fanart and fanfic.  A quantifiable amount of english-language Moomins fanworks from around 2019 are going off of nothing but what “feels right”.

Now, this isn’t just me looking for an excuse to whine about the shallowness of the Moomins fandom, or me trying to invalidate people who don’t really interact with the sources of their ’types.  But in my opinion, it’s a comparison I can’t help but make.  How far can you basically just go off of vibes?  How do you know what counts?

It’s like, fascinatingly easy to get your brain used to a certain headcanon.  Even some diehard Moomins fans-- ones who actually do go to the trouble of digging up and consuming obscure canon material-- could admit it’s easy to forget that Snufkin isn’t confirmed to be canonically transgender.  “Trans Snufkin” is an extremely popular headcanon in the english Moomins fandom, and most who hold it, myself sometimes included, would tell you it’s because it simply “feels right”.  It’s to the point that many consider it a vital part of how they write and read Snufkin!

Projecting onto a character you see a bit of yourself in is also pretty easy to do, by accident or otherwise.  Most Moomins fans I see doing this do it with Moomintroll, but it’s arguably even more obvious when it’s done with Snufkin.  I once saw a fic (which I won’t link, so as not to possibly get them teased), which the author admitted was written as a form of vent art, where Snufkin hated coffee... but if you read Comet in Moominland, where Snufkin is introduced, one of the very first things he ever says is asking for coffee, he likes it so much!  Something similar goes for fics that make Snufkin speak any swear words, a thing he is confirmed to dislike.  How much of this is active self-indulgence, and how much is due to it “feeling right” to the author?  I try and notice when I may be projecting on a character or not, because I find it to be useful in my work, but we can’t all be so self-aware (and who knows, I may be less self-aware than I think!).

Back to fictotypy... I am well aware that one’s ’type ID isn’t always going to be a 1:1 to how it is in canon.  To compare the phenomenon to fictives, I’ve met multiple manifestations of the same character across different systems, and none of them are identical (even if there are multiple fictives of the same character within one system!)!  If someone turns out to be a Snufkin, and they can’t force themself to like coffee, that doesn’t make them any less a Snufkin.  They may just be a Snufkin from an adaptation where his opinions on coffee are unclear, or a Snufkin from an AU!  ... or maybe they just hate coffee that much, hehe.

But how can a Snufkin-- or someone who may be of any character/species ID-- tell their possible noemata apart from some other similar non-noemata thing?  When I come to a “headcanon” or “interpretation” of something from fiction, it often feels like a process of going “Hey, it’d be cool or interesting if...” or “It could make sense that...” and then pondering and scanning canon material to possibly back it up so that it can sound legit enough to not ping as OOC to an onlooker (at least if I explain it, depending).  Ponder any of these long enough, and they can wind up “feeling right”, in a way, even if I took an active role in figuring out how they might work and know they may not be truly canon. Are my numerous theories and headcanons about the species that the Groke belongs to that have little-to-no canon backup the result of me being very autistic and having an immense passion for worldbuilding, or could their combination of how I relate to the Groke herself make them evidence of noemata for a possible ID?  When I get offended if Snufkin is written or treated a certain way in fanworks, is it just me being a stickler for canon compliance and feeling hurt when traits in him I relate to are demonized, or could it also be a sign I may be a Snufkin?  I’m already pleased that I look a bit like him in real life, but I’m not sure I feel if I am a Snufkin, as it’s not really as intense a desire as some of my other possible IDs... folks argue that such IDs need not be intense or constant and can be experienced casually, but how can I tell the difference?

When, as beings with human brains wired to delight in such pattern recognition and ascribing meanings to the like, can anyone tell the difference?  How do I tell my noemata apart from what may just be thoughts about my possible IDs that I like to have?  As someone who’s questioning several possible IDs and is uncertain about ’most all of them, it’s hard for me to know the differences that define this.

A fun little question to any artists with ’types from fiction, to close this post off with: When you write or draw fanart of the character or species you may ID with to post in public, do you base their interpretation off of what you feel are your noemata, or do you tend to lean more to what will be more definitely canon-compliant?  Why or why not?  If you do the latter, does it make you question your ““validity””?  Is making fanworks of your ID a pretty personal experience, or is it more of a separate thing you can do for fun?  Does it vary?

[rumbleonthemill]

there was a time when I cared, but nowadays I'm like "there's straight up evidence to what I say, if people still believe giant lies just to justify their hate against a person, then who am I to stop them from being stupid mobs" and that perfectly describes everything.

long post.

What is Neighbor x Player?

video, because people are lazy to read

text:

TLDR.

a ship about two adult unrelated men.

Neighbor x Player (later, Nicky) is as old as HN, the ship originates from prealpha/alpha 1 (as the early fanfics and arts suggest) the ship is between the Neighbor and the Player character. later people started calling him Nicky, because most of the community didn't know the canon storylines, and that they changed (this issue is present). don't blame me, I did what they did, I didn't invent anything. I personally ship the Player (Nicky, Michael, calling him whatever!) with the Neighbor, both are 30+. end of story. I usually mention the AU under the artwork, but feel free to ASK ME if you have any questions.

not tldr:

2023 - this is my last explanation attempt in the topic, because I see the confusion on the newcomers’ face. after this, I won’t care if someone misunderstands things on purpose. I did what I could.

Neighbor x Player aka Neighbor x Nicky is the first ship that the old, first generation HN community has created.

[shipping is when you pair two characters because of reasons, and want them to be very close friends or lovers.]

Neighbor x Player is as old as the HN game itself. already during prealpha fans began to pair them, and as soon as Player got a body in alpha 2, people started using that look on fanarts. as soon as he got a name, they started using that too.

Player went through so many changes during canon development, the body was the same, but the soul / character role itself kept changing. 

this is why Player is different in everyone's fanart and fics. 

it is not " the Nicky," people use the name now, because that's how the Player character is called now. 

for me, and most people, it has nothing to do with modern HN.

Error world, where Neighbor asks the Player to erase him from the game shows their real relationship, because HN has fourth wall breaking. the game lets you know, that both play a role, like actors, and in reality they don't hate each other.

in longer words, it is a ship of the two men, based on the facts that there were only these two characters in the game, chasing each other in a big house. Both vice versa stalking each other throughout the gameplay. that was HN for long time. people assumed Player (aka Nicky) was around 30 (which is correct) and Neighbor being a bit elder. it was also crystal clear after a point, that they don’t really hate each other. I can tell for sure, tumblr, the main shipping source site, most likely stopped at these informations.

I arrived a bit later, and the chill community with accepting people, with this only ship in the form of great fics and fanarts, immediately lured me.

it’s a quality ship.

and if HN can have 7438975982 storylines in canon, then so can the fans.

are these two characters a couple in one fanfic, and then a family in another? why the fuck not? it’s fiction! AU’s exist, and the topic is already overdiscussed.

And this ship [as I saw] was based on the hunter - prey situation, which is a basic type of shipping. Neighbor being the one, who hides and protects his secrets, and Nicky/Player being the stubborn, sassy guy who tries to enter his basement. they were there for each other. Neighbor in most cases being the alpha male, and Player/Nicky being the other half of him, the breakable person with more feelings. (remember, we didn’t have a single kid character in the old HN. not even kid forms of said characters.)

...

the ship was much more. it was burning passion that felt like playing with fire, because it was variable and full of possibilities. also because the characters were just like that. people didn’t know much details about these two yet, so as you can see in the fanworks, everyone added headcanons and more stuff into this pairing, slowly building it.

wow, crazy! it’s an average ship, huh?!

I’m not here to go into details, because this post would be 10 pages if I did. if you make some research about it, and don’t immediately blindly judge, then it turns out to be a basic ship, which 2017 tumblr was full of. not different, than the rest of the crack ships. still legit, since prealpha/alpha 1 Player existed and bachelor Neighbor did too.

no matter, how many death threats do the haters send to fans, and no matter, how negatively they try to show this pairing to newcomers, it is what I described it to be. a simple ship about two men.

now, some will say that things in HN changed since 2017, and I must add, that they will endlessly change, by the looks of things. HN turned inside out. with the launch of HN2, the cartoon, and later games, more things will change. (edit: I was right :/ )

this won’t stop people from getting back to their roots, or the times they keep in their heart and remember as the golden times.

nobody can tell anyone, what to like, I hope everyone knows this.

don’t like it - scroll past. easy as that. but from now on, if anyone just decides to hate on this, or any ship in any fandom without getting to know the reasons and the background first OR listening to the shipper’s explanation, then that’s the condemned thing, not the ship itself. 

--

p.s.- so far, in the HN community, I blocked two people, who really did ship kids with adults, and 3 people were reported and removed from a certain site. we don’t do that here. or anywhere else.

[estellamiraiauthor]

And the results are in! So it looks like my initial hypothesis was PARTLY right. Based on what I’ve seen on online fandom (both the POTO fandom and others) in recent years, I expected “No, never” to be the top answer, and it was. BUT, I did not expect the TOTAL number of responses to all of the “Yes” and “Depends on” options to be greater than the “No”s…. So I guess the answer really is “There’s about a 50/50 chance it depends on SOMETHING”?

I think there’s a lot more to be done with this, if someone were to really do a proper survey and analyze the data. I’m not sure I have the time or energy to do it, but I would be very curious about how the answers differ by age (I’d hypothesize that younger fans who grew up with high-quality images a Google search away might be more likely to choose “No, never,” and older fans might be more likely to be “Depends,” but it would be interesting to test) or by what version/s of the story you really consider yourself a fan of (Less sure how I’d expect this to go, except maybe that people who are primarily interested in one specific well-known version (ALW or Lon Cheney, for example) might be less likely to consider it a “spoiler”?). But even with the limited information we have here (and the fabulous tags—thanks to everyone who chimed in!), I think there’s a lot to ponder.

So, first of all I want to address the tags that either A) said that the FACT that he was disfigured (as opposed to SPECIFICALLY WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE, which is what I was trying to ask but I’m sorry it wasn’t clear!) was not a spoiler or B) his specific physical appearance is not a plot point and therefore not a spoiler. Both of those were aspects I wasn’t thinking of when I wrote the question, but are definitely good points, and worth considering.

So how do we define “spoiler”? A quick Google search gives this definition:

a description of an important plot development in a television show, film, or book which if previously known may reduce surprise or suspense for a first-time viewer or reader.

In the strictest sense of the word, then, maybe the Phantom’s specific appearance in most iterations of the story I can think of is NOT really a spoiler as it doesn’t check that “plot development” box. It’s been awhile since I read Leroux, but if I recall correctly I do think there is a point at which a true first-time reader in 1911 would learn for the first time that Erik was a mortal man at all, which may have made THAT a spoiler. But because the story has grown so far beyond one individual serial novel into a kind of fairy tale, and everyone now KNOWS he’s a man, I don’t think we can call that a spoiler any more than  “Red Riding Hood’s grandma is really the wolf in disguise!”

Looking at the second part of that definition, “which if previously known may reduce surprise or suspense for a first-time viewer or reader”, though, the clear intent of the creator in many of these cases WAS for the audience to go in blind, and to be shocked at how horrible, or how human and pitiable (or both), the character’s appearance was. The original audiences of the Lon Cheney film were NOT expected to know what he looked like going in… the film is clearly set up to shock the audience along with Christine. As someone mentioned in the tags (and I personally remember), the ALW musical also initially protected the Phantom’s appearance. I suppose there were probably backstage Polaroids and things if you knew the right people, but no official promo shots of the full makeup, and any fanart would be based on what someone could remember from the 10 minutes or so when the deformity is visible during the show or on grainy VHS bootlegs. I didn’t know what the Phantom looked like unmasked before I saw the show live, and had such horrible nosebleed seats my first time that I didn’t REALLY get a good look until a couple years later when the internet got better! The flow of the show is also clearly set up to make it a reveal… Christine gets a good look in act 1 but the audience does not. Phantom of the Paradise is similar… you get glimpses before the very end (and Swan and Phoenix get a closer look), but if you’re assuming an audience watching a film reel in 1974 with no pause button, that final scene is supposed to be a reveal (and an earlier shot was edited out to make it so).

NOW. Intent of the creator, of course, does not necessarily matter. I’m honestly surprised that ANYONE voted “Yes, always,” because to me, Lon Cheney is the one very, very clear exception, at least today. Regardless of what was intended almost a hundred years ago, people who have ZERO interest in POTO, who have never Googled “Lon Cheney Phantom” PERIOD, much less “Lon Cheney Phantom unmasked” know what he looks like. That version of the character is better known without his mask than with it. So it seems hard to call it a spoiler, although it definitely was once upon a time, because it’s just so well known.

That said, as a Star Wars fan I also think it’s unfortunate—unavoidable at this point, but unfortunate—that certain things that worked beautifully as twists cease to be so over time. So maybe those “Yes, always” answerers simply WISH that it was still possible to watch the Cheney film as originally intended?

Still, even assuming death of the author, does it make a Phantom film, stage show, book, comic, whatever MORE or LESS enjoyable to have the Phantom’s face be a mystery until the reveal? I can only really speak for myself here, but for me, at least, it really depends on the version. I knew what Cheney!Erik looked like before I saw that one for the first time, but I remember being curious to see Claude Raines and Herbert Lom unmasked, and waiting to see what Charles Dance’s Phantom looked like only to NOT get that reveal (which was initially disappointing to teenage me, but it quickly sunk in that that was actually a really cool way to handle it, because it didn’t really matter what he looked like, so much as how it affected him and the other characters). None of those films are my absolute favorite or anything, but waiting for the reveal was definitely a part of the enjoyment (at the time, in the 90s, when I was was a tween or maybe teen).

The ALW stage unmasking has never really been SHOCKING to me… again, because I had very, very bad seats the first time I saw it live and then had nothing but VHS bootlegs for years, it wasn’t as much about the visuals as about what was HAPPENING in that scene. When I finally got a good look at the makeup… honestly it still seems a little corny to me up close and in detail (i just can’t get over the exposed skull thing… how would you not get an infection and die?) but understanding that they needed to both make it visible from stage and make sure the actor’s real face was still visible and mobile enough to sing and show emotion… it does the job, you know? My favorite ALW phantoms are the ones that kind of CRUMBLE when unmasked, if you know what I mean? They go instantly from sex god to broken old man. It’s more about body language and character interaction than anything.

Now, the 2004 movie… I actually kind of wish I’d known what Gerik was going to look like going in, because my reaction wasn’t “OMG how terrible!” or “Oh you poor thing” but more of a “OMFG THATS IT???” It was… disappointing. Obviously YMMV, but they’d already taken away most of the backstory that made the character sympathetic, had him watching over Christine as a child… and then he didn’t even look that bad. It made him very unsympathetic (TO ME! Gerik fans, you do you and have a blast doing it ❤️), and so I do think I might have been able to enjoy that movie more if I’d known what to expect going into it, to manage my expectations i guess?

Finally, Phantom of the Paradise… this is definitely just a “me” thing, but I’m glad I hadn’t seen Winslow unmasked before I saw it (at 16, please give past me a break), because I don’t think I would’ve watched it in the first place. I… have a thing about eye trauma and even though the makeup/prosthetics are not SUPER realistic (shout out to the reblogger who said Winslow looks like papier mache LOL), if that unmasking hadn’t been presented exactly as it was—at the end of a movie I had absolutely loved every minute of, and shot the way it was so that we (and Phoenix) get to see him as “Winslow” again and mourn him immediately after… it honestly might have put me off the movie entirely. (Just a note here to say YES, I’m aware that it’s problematic and ableist to be put off by injuries/disabilities that real people actually live with… as an adult I have worked on desensitizing myself to eye stuff and am MUCH better about it now, but at 16, kinda fake-looking or not, I definitely had a strong and unpleasant reaction. It’s also possibly tied to actual childhood trauma so please don’t judge.)

So. That’s just me. I think other people are going to feel differently both about specific versions and about the issue as a whole… but I think the important thing here is that SOME people are going to have a better experience NOT being “spoiled,” some people’s experience is not going to be better or worse either way, and some people might actually enjoy some versions MORE knowing what they’re going to get into in advance.

Let’s talk for a tiny bit here about the other option I didn’t really think would get any votes: “Depends on how butthurt they would be about having their face on the internet.” OK, so this was SORTA a joke answer, and also could be read as another way of saying “Yes, always,” because what self-respecting Phantom would want their face on the internet? (Okay, I’ll give you Robert Englund, he probably wouldn’t mind.) But again, some very good tags here that give some very good food for thought… does it matter if we’re invading the privacy of a fictitious character?

Well, putting it like that makes it seem a little ridiculous. A fictitious character by their very definition doesn’t HAVE any privacy to invade. But I do think there’s a connection between how we treat characters and how we treat real people, and that there are probably some positives and negatives to exploring disfigurement (and broader disability) through art

Tiny aside here: I have quite a few friends who are wheelchair users (I am not), and one of them recommended a manga to me that has a couple of characters who are also wheelchair users. I read it, and when we were talking about it later, the same friend said to me that he liked being able to recommend that story to people because it portrays some of the less glamorous aspects of life with a disability realistically so it lets non-disabled people see what certain things are like “behind closed doors” without ACTUAL disabled people needing to share intensely personal details about their own lives. So, on the one hand I think fiction (if well researched and ya know, not inspiration porn or whatever) has the opportunity to sort of spread understanding and empathy by delving deeper into a character’s mindset than would be appropriate to do with a friend or acquaintance. But I also wonder if something like that, a manga where we DO get to learn how each of the major characters came to be disabled, might not also sort of encourage that idea that we are entitled to the “backstories” of real people?

Taking that back to Phantom and to facial disfigurement in particular, I admit that I do really like the idea of a Phantom character becoming comfortable enough around Christine, or an OC, or Raoul or the Persian or whoever we’re shipping him with, or with Mme. Giry as a mother figure or Ayesha the cat or WHOEVER to not feel the need to wear a mask all the time, and IF I’m going to seek out unmasked art specifically it’s probably going to be of that “comfortable” variety. I’m also self-aware enough to realize that I’m drawn to things like that because I have a very hard time opening up completely to people about certain things and it’s really kind of a nice fantasy to be comfortable sharing something that used to make you THAT uncomfortable. But really, even if it’s not in a comfortable, willingly unmasked setting, I think fiction is essentially a safe space to explore pleasant fantasies, yes, but also things that might make us uncomfortable. It’s pretty deeply uncool for Mary Philbin!Christine or ALW!Christine to rip Erik’s mask off without permission. I think we all know that. But I think we can also identify with both Christine’s curiosity and Erik’s fear and anger there. We may not ACT on those emotions in the same way in real life, but fiction (and art) are safe ways to explore things like “What if I fucked up by way overstepping a boundary and immediately regretted it” or “What if something I don’t want anyone to see were exposed to the person I MOST wanted to hide it from.”

Thinking back to my eye issue as well, I also think engaging in an empathetic way with fictitious characters can help to desensitize us to things that we may initially have a negative reaction to, and lead to greater empathy in the real world.

That said… I do think we need to handle things sensitively, even in art, because we don’t know who is in our audience. Bottom line, I don’t think we should refrain from drawing unmasked Phantoms because the fictitious Phantoms wouldn’t like it, but that we should keep in mind that our audience may include people with facial differences and… IDK not be too fetishy or awful?

I haven’t really touched on “Depends on how old” or “Depends on how early in canon they’re unmasked” but I think those are both somewhat self-explanatory. I see people set certain boundaries there regarding spoilers all the time… “if it’s more than a year old it’s not a spoiler” “anything that happens in the first ten percent by length isn’t a spoiler” etc. I personally think it can be hard to set one numerical target that applies to EVERY WORK OF ART EVER, but both are factors that definitely play into it. “How old” and “how well known” SORT OF interact with one another too, but especially with things like foreign language versions and indie books/films/etc, something can be OLD without necessarily being Chaney-level famous, so it’s interesting to see how the votes for “old” and “well-known” were split almost equally. I wonder how many of those responders were torn between the two, or whether one was the obvious choice?

Finally, I have made it ALL THIS WAY without talking about my own Phantom retelling (gratuitous link here), but please let me touch a little on one of the reasons I asked. So, I think I kind of assumed when it was published that at first, the unmasking would be a bit of a spoiler (not THAT it happens of course; it is a Phantom retelling after all, but specifically what Rei, my “phantom”, looks like)… but then, over time, it would cease to be a spoiler because the book would already have found its audience.

But… maybe this is just my vanity as an author talking, but almost five years later, I still think a lot of the people who WOULD enjoy my book haven’t discovered it yet. So I have continued to hold off on commissioning and sharing “unmasked” art… while also wondering if people wouldn’t really care either way.

As far as the way the narrative is set up, it’s definitely meant to be a reveal… but Rei hides LOTS of things about himself that are revealed little by little over time, and most of those “reveals” are not things I consider spoilers, even if the *character* hides them as long as he can, and have definitely posted art that shows them. I’m honestly not sure why Ive hung on to the unmasking for so long, except maybe that I was hoping a reader would do it first.

This poll… did not actually answer my question! I was kind of hoping for an overwhelming “No, never” response as a blessing to go ahead and do it… under “depends on how well-known” and “depends on how early in canon”, it would be a no-go. And Rei definitely wouldn’t want his face on the Internet. So I guess I look to the “how old” responses and say… this book still hasn’t found all the readers i think would enjoy it, but without a marketing budget or a celebrity endorsement or anything, it’s not really likely to find them at this point.

The verdict? I’m seriously considering it.

And in the end, while a “not-so-bad” or “laughably horrible makeup” deformity CAN take some of the emotion out of what should be an important scene, the most important thing is usually how it’s delivered—how it’s written, acted, sung. The very best media holds up to repeat viewings… so maybe the best answer is that if it’s any good, spoilers don’t matter so much after all?

(A big THANK YOU to everyone who answered the poll, added tags, and read this far!)

[nanaminokanojo]

[10:00 PM] Ryomen Sukuna

LOG 14 OF MY JUJUTSU KAISEN TIMESTAMP DRABBLES

CHARACTERS: Sukuna X You WORD COUNT: 1,202 GENRE: fluff | kinda smut? | kinda angst | salaryman Sukuna TRIGGER WARNING: nudity | some touching lol | profanity | possessiveness | unhealthy amounts of jealousy lol SPOILERS: n/a

collection masterlist

photo/fanart credits to @/Natsushio on Weibo

"Baby."

Sukuna knows you heard him. Still, you continued walking as if you didn't, going ahead of him about ten paces ahead, your posture and the overall attitude in your gait speaking volumes of your current mood. He easily kept up with you, placing an arm over your shoulder, but much to his surprise, you shrugged it off you and walked the remaining expanse of sidewalk towards your shared apartment. He just watched in annoyance as you walked into the lobby and got into the elevator before him.

"Trouble with your princess?" this nosy grandma, who lived at one of the units at the first floor, asked.

Sukuna just smiled awkwardly, bowing slightly as he passed her by on his way to the elevator. When he finally got into your unit, he found your coat lying on the hallway, picking it up only to see your jeans a few steps ahead then your shirt. He finally found you in the kitchen already wrapped in a robe which you didn't even bother tying up, agitatedly pouring yourself a glass of wine, the cerise liquid sloshing around the glass violently.

You were behaving rather out of character, making a mess out of your clothes when he knew just how much you hated it when he leaves his things scattered about. On top of that, you left the cutlery drawer open with the corkscrew you used on top of the counter, droplets of red wine littering the granite top. You just passed him by without saying anything, refusing to look at him on your way to your bedroom.

I see how it is, he thought, taking long strides to the direction you went. He eyed you sternly, having had enough of your attitude. "Y/N, what's going on?" he demanded.

You flinched visibly at the way he addressed you. He doesn't call you by your name unless he was dead serious about something. "It's nothing. Don't mind me."

"Woman, don't tell me it's nothing when –"

Before he could finish, you walked into the adjoining bathroom, turning on the tap to the tub to tune him out. You were evidently being passive-aggressive now, and he detested it when you did that.

"Just go back to your party. I'm sure everyone's wondering where you've gone," you told him, picking up your glass from the dresser top. "Especially Miss Hanako." You shot him a sardonic smile before taking a swig out of your wine, the way you said the woman’s name dripping with vitriol.

And then it hit him. You've been dishing out barb since you told him you wanted to leave the company party he was partly hosting for his department. You did so when the secretary to the president arrived and started chatting him up. He was now thinking your behavior thereafter had something to do with it. You were fine before that so it could only mean one thing.

He didn't know whether to laugh or what at the thought of it. When he decided to pursue you, he didn't have qualms about it even if you were a good six years younger than him. He knew how problematic it could get having an immature partner, but that's where you were different. You held yourself with such confidence, grace and equilibrium way beyond your age, you shared the same pragmatic mindset he had and you didn't seem to have a proclivity for drama like others your age. You hardly ever fought because of petty things and he loved that about you.

But then, you're still young and he didn't hold it against you that you're suddenly acting like a brat. If anything, he was happy about it because you were never ever jealous. It sometimes made him doubt how you felt about him when you yourself would be pointing at other chicks for him to look at while saying things like, "Baby, look at her ass. Damn, she's sexy." And now that the green-eyed monster is rearing its head to the surface, he couldn't say he didn't like it.

"What about her?" he asked cautiously, making you jump the hoops.

You sneered, the action very intimidating despite your angelic features. “Oh, I don’t know, Sukuna. You tell me. You seemed to be enjoying her company. Don’t stop at my expense.”

He leveled his expressions to you. “Well, she is something, isn’t she? Smart, too.”

“Yeah, you deserve each other,” you hissed, the anger flaring up in your eyes making him stir alive.

“But she’s married.”

“All the better!” Seeing through what he was doing, you turned towards the bathroom and slammed the door shut. He didn't hear you lock it so he followed suit.

"If you're jealous, just say so already!" he told you. He wanted to hear it out of your mouth.

"Why would I be jealous? She looks like a bad rip-off of 80s Brooke Shields!" you spat, confirming his thoughts. You climbed into the bathtub sulkily, eyes on the bubbly water.

Sukuna knew he shouldn't even be thrilled about the prospect of it. If you were jealous then that means you were kinda doubting him in terms of his loyalty to you, and he should not like that, but at the same time, you were also being possessive which you rarely do. He couldn't help it.

Loosening his tie, he began shedding his clothes off, stripping naked before you, revealing the tattooed expanse of his skin and his impressive musculature as he tossed one garment after the other.

"What are you doing?" you asked as he approached, the way you mumbled the words causing him to just sigh, feeing defeated at how endearing you looked hugging your knees to yourself. "I thought I told you to go back to your party."

He didn't say anything as he went into the tub, sitting opposite you, but it wasn't long before he was pulling you towards him, positioning you between his legs so your back was pressed against his hard chest. He then began planting hungry kisses on your neck, down to your shoulders, his large hands wandering all over your body, one already having found itself on your breasts while the other coaxed your head to turn towards him so he can kiss you, his movements urgent yet languid and gentle.

"I'm all yours," he breathed against your lips, grinning. "You know that, right?"

"I know." You shrugged, facing forward again. “I don’t like the way that witch was touching you though. And you were all smiles about it, too.” You smacked him on the thigh, eliciting that deep laughter you adored no matter how mad you were at him. “Don’t laugh! It’s not funny.”

“It kinda is.”

“If you even think for a second that anyone can have you, Ryomen Sukuna, you’re wrong.” You looked him in the eyes, your dark orbs boring into him while your hand touched the side of his face, your crimson-painted nails looking like claws against his cheek. “You’re mine.”

He wrapped his arm around you, kissing you on the temple before placing his chin on your shoulder. "Jealousy is ugly, baby," he whispered in your ear, "but I gotta say, you wear it so well."

-END-

Okay. Before I get another "untimely (and unsolicited, if I'm allowed to say) lecture" about the etymology of the word "Ryōmen (両面/りょう)" meaning "two-faced/two-sided" and not a surname or given name , let me say it now, I KNOW, but thanks anyway. Sukuna and I are neighbors, just 4 hours by train. Geez. However, I am using his whole name in literature form, so if I do switch it up and use it as a surname for him (cause heaven forbid, the Kamigami rain hell on me) it's all for fun and literary creativity. No need to get too pressed over it.

No more fighting on my comments to point this out @fushigummy @kenkinori XD

And I have nothing against the 1980s or Brooke Shields. *waves at her fans*

It's established. I love bathtub scenes although I detest the idea of stewing in my own filth. But yeah, look forward to more bathtub drabbles.

I say too many things. Bye.

Thank you so much for reading. Likes, comments and reblogs are deeply appreciated! Hope you enjoyed it.

© ORIGINAL WORK BY nanaminokanojo. CHARACTERS ARE INSPIRED BY GEGE AKUTAMI'S JUJUTSU KAISEN. [20210603]

PHOTO/IMAGE/GIF/FANART CREDITS TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

[humunanunga]

@ask-the-rpg-3 @jakei95 This does raise an interesting point, and it could be worth discussing if it can be done without becoming a brawl. I’ll precede this by mentioning I myself am nonbinary and go by they/them, and this is not an invitation to a dogfight or a dogpile.

The same gender will still look and feel different from person to person between presentation and the experiences that contribute to personal relationship with it. There are enbies who use gendered names or pronouns, some exclusively so. To add to that, some people first come out as nonbinary before coming out as transmasc/transfem or vice-versa. I actually got more connected with my own local trans community because of a senior (whose name happens to be Kris) who came out on Facebook as nonbinary (they/them) and later came out as a trans man (he/him). I have a genderfluid sibling who’s been out as a trans man and currently as a genderqueer butch. Our other brother, meanwhile, has been out as a binary trans man without adjustment.

To quote myself from an art post of sonas with different genders and pronouns (see: /tagged/sonaverse), I’ve wanted to explore how my own relationship with gender could’ve gone differently. I experience very little dysphoria, so there could be timelines where I never made it this far in finding myself, or even grown attached to my assigned gender. On the other hand, there could be alternates of myself with more dysphoria. I also wonder how much greater a role my body would have played if I had a different birth assignment. Would I feel more invested in feminizing myself had I happened to be amab?

There are other enbies for whom this would be more discomforting than enriching, but I personally find that branching out with my alternate sonas’ genders is a safe way to explore my relationship with own canon gender-- not to pick it apart, but to learn more about it. Chances are there are others who feel the same way too, just as there are others who feel the same way ask-the-rpg-3 may feel. (And as it happens, the post with this set of alternate sonas included one based on a dream in which I had an Xtale self.)

Which brings me back to Frisk and Chara. I’ve been an Underverse viewer since the first animation and can confirm that, to my recollection, he/him has been used exclusively for their Xtale counterparts and never for their canon selves. I am willing to believe Jakei when she says she means nothing enbyphobic by Xtale’s kids being masc. It’s true that people can do harmful things without meaning to, and I can recall one such instance of that before, but it’s an outdated receipt and she took it down later the same day. For the sake of not letting myself fall into toxic behavior, I allow people the right to improvement whether or not I decide I want to stick around long enough to see it for myself.

It’d be fair to say that no piece of media is for everyone. It’s fair to say that what one enby or binary trans person finds affirming or relatable could aggravate another’s dysphoria. We’re not a monolith, after all. That these fanworks are both fanart and original creations certainly complicates the matter, but I can respect that Jakei has not retconned the canon Frisk or Chara’s genders or pronouns, only her own au’s counterparts. Which is fair and not unique to the Undertale fandom.

I don’t usually step into discourse, so I’ll be stepping right back out after sharing my input. This doesn’t have to change how you feel about XT/UV, and if it’s still upsetting for you, it’ll be less of a headache to walk away than to continue engaging with it. UTMV is a large collective of fanworks and aus, too many to keep track of them all, and crossovers are a major part of how the community participates, so there’s always a chance of coming across ones that aren’t for you even in the ones you like. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to pick and choose the ones you engage with and set your boundaries with anyone who brings them into your personal space.