#everyone has a different version of canon in their mind and mine will never include a single bit of info abt jaybin said after his death

[dukeofthomas]

I'm so mad that so far the only good robin!jason content i've ever found is his original run. Everything i've seen since has just been making him out to be the Angry Bad Problem Child and victim blaming him for dying. How is it that the only fucking good characterization of him is 20 issues from the 1980s

[sweetmariihs2]

Onceler and Lana draft : my oc x canon /AU post.

I've had an idea in my mind for a while now, it won't be turned into a fanfiction or anything like that, perhaps some arts and small comics. It's just a sketch, and this is the first post I'm making about it (I was originally going to add an art I made here, but couldn't finish it and just added this gif instead).

Basically, I'm working on a story based on The Lorax book/movies, specially focused on the Onceler. The story also has another protagonist, which is an OC called Lana Grant (inspired by Lana Del Rey), and the story is about a relationship between her, a model for Thneed Inc, and him, the head of the company and mayor/founder of the town, having to hide from the view of the media and the people in Thneedville.

‼️light nsfw mentions, my OC Lana is Onceler's escort and 'personal girl'.

The main inspirations for the story:

Besides The Lorax book/movie/TV special, there is some influence of the old Hollywood aesthetic and the golden era of Hollywood, with aspects from the 20s to the 70s, a lot of influence coming from Lana Del Rey's (released and unreleased) songs such as nostalgia, memories of glamurous places that will never go back to it's past state, like a fever dream -coded memory. There is a lot of influence from the lifestyle of the American bourgeoisie of the 1900's, inspirations from places like Las Vegas and Hollywood are more enhanced in the city of Thneedville, and there is also some small inspiration from The Great Gatsby movie. There is also some small inspiration from great works in the Onceler fandom, like The Rust Factory, even though I don't rely on it too much as to keep a certain difference from this work and mine.

I saved some inspirations on Pinterest for what the aesthetics of this story would be like, too. There are some edits from @aikoidiota included which I would like to credit! (your editing skills are amazing)

I am really proud of this moodboard tbh. Moving on,

The Characters:

The Onceler:

Even though most of you know who the Onceler is, there are some small things to point out about his character in this story. I don't consider him a persona though, I like to think that he's still the same old Onceler as always, only in a fanfiction.

In this story, Onceler is a mix of 2012 and 1972 (it's how I like to see his 2012 self, as a mix). He looks like the 2012 version, just like everything else in this story, but he smokes expensive cigars, drinks alcohol, and is to some extent aware of the damage caused by Thneed Inc, but he keeps on biggering. Everyone in town pays attention to him, he is the star of commerce and the media, people see him as a celebrity and absolutely everything in Thneedville revolves around and in favor of him. He makes commercials, he makes public speeches, he appears at posters and billboards, he does interviews for TV and the newspaper, he throws fancy business parties, he hosts runway shows for Thneed Inc models, he participates in games and parties with other business partners of the company, he funds city renovations (Onceler is basically the mayor) and more. Sometimes he goes to the casino to have fun and gamble with other rich businessmen (who are less rich and much older than him). Wherever the Onceler goes everyone pays attention to him, he smiles charismatically and is friendly to everyone. If he goes to the casino to drink and gamble, suddenly there are several rich men and beautiful women behind him cheering for him to win, and if he goes to the square he has to wave and smile at everyone (and smile to paparazzis too), to the point where he hardly goes to the square anymore. When he arrives at an establishment, for example a restaurant, a waiter runs to the boss and shouts "Mr. Onceler is here!!!" which makes everyone automatically panic and then receive him better than the others (it's not like the Onceler... Greedler goes to low-income restaurants anyway). Everyone sees him as a celebrity, politician and absolutely everyone loves him and they see him in their media all the time... except for environmentalist protests.

Onceler is his usual charismatic and greedy self. He is a great actor and always acts more friendly and charismatic in the media, in front of the cameras and in front of people, to be known that way and convince/win people over more easily, but when he is alone he complains about having to act like a good guy all the time because of the press and that bothers him. At first that was a bit hard for him, but now he's already used to it. He loves the attention, has fun knowing that he knows how to sell himself and his thneeds to people, but sometimes he gets overwhelmed and gets frustrated about it, also for not saying everything he wants and acting like himself, but specially when people are being too invasive with their questions/saying malicious indirect things knowing that he can't speak up for himself in front of other people/making him uncomfortable etc. Deep down he is his usual self, usually in a bad mood after smiling for hours... except from time to time where he feels proud of himself for 'deceiving' everyone into liking him more. Onceler smokes and drinks because of anxiety, but he doesn't know it and just thinks it's to deal with work stress (which is also true) (he's not a drunk, don't worry, it's just something he does often). He's pretty much the same thing. Proud, stubborn, greedy, and a liar, but deep down he's still not a bad person.

Lana Grant (my oc):

Lana's name was inspired by Lana Del Rey (and her real name, Elizabeth Grant). Her design was inspired by Lana Del Rey, Hilda Furacão, Marilyn Monroe and 20's-60's clothing style. Lana Grant was an environmental activist before joining Thneed Inc (planning to get out as soon as possible) due to financial difficulties and becoming one of the company's biggest and most known models in a short period of time. She is 22 years old, has white skin and her hair is described as "cherry brown", a brunette with red undertones.

Lana has a strong personality and never gives up on fighting for what she believes in, never changing her opinion about what is right. She is stubborn and has strong moral values. She has a huge sense of altruism, helps out at the animal shelter and donates to various causes, even though she is often dependant of the money that she donates, noticing people (or animals) who are in worse situations than her and doing them charity work because of that. She is bold, stubborn and doesn't keep quiet about anything, in fact Lana is not afraid to fight, and when she needs to, she screams the truth in your face without thinking twice about whoever it is or whoever is listening. She always thinks before speaking and her arguments are coherent, and she only fights when necessary (in Onceler's case, sometimes it is very necessary).

Lana's flaw is that she tries to carry the world in her back, and gets overwhelmed by it. She believes she can help if she tries hard enough, but in the end feeling too much for the world makes her feel too much pain too, specially in Thneedville, surrounded by the massive destruction of the truffula trees she grew up around, ruined habitats and dead/migrating/hungry animals everywhere. The capitalist and consumerist pace of the city also overwhelms her, as the Greenville where she grew up was to some extent a rural town that lived off harvesting and small businesses. She hates the Onceler for ruining everything, hurting the animals, destroying the forest, all in exchange for selling his stupid product. She bought one herself, when the Thneed was still a small brand, and wears it as a piece of clothing (her hatred for this company almost made her throw it away, but she considered that it would be the death of a Truffula tree thrown down the drain and decided to keep it), it is a different habit from the rest of the town, who have a different Thneed for each function they need, one of each color. Her hatred for the Onceler extends not only to the things he does, but how he does them, smiling for the cameras and selling himself as a nice guy - which everyone buys without hesitation. She has always known that this act is a lie, because a nice guy would never do the things he does; she knows he is a product, an image, and a liar who draws attention to himself so that the town doesn't pay attention to the trees, and this irritates her. He also lies about the trees and everyone believes him, but Lana used to go on picnics/hikes in the forest and knows very well that this is not true. Other environmentalists also watch the company closely and notice/take pictures of the same things, but even with several lawsuits, Onceler always knows how to defend himself in court (with bribes, but this is just theory; if it were confirmed he would already be in jail).

She hates him, hates his round face, his smug expression, his catchphrases, his vibrant clothes, his flash of money, and she's tired of seeing him on every billboard and poster in town, every TV commercial, every newspaper and interview, and all the dozens of girls who are desperate for a douchebag like him. And when she tells the truth, others still call her and her friends annoying. There was one time she was rooting for him to lose a lawsuit and when he appeared on TV happily saying it was just a misunderstanding, she threw ice cream at his digital, recently colored face. Damn guy.

Lana moved out of her parents' house and into a small, mid-sized apartment in order to gain independence at the same time that Greenville was purchased by Thneed Inc and was being transformed into Thneedville. Realizing what the Onceler was doing to the Truffula forest, she and a group of people protested against the company's advances, however they were always ignored by it. She hated the Onceler, but small businesses closing, Thneed Inc owning every store in town and the lack of money were the main reasons why Lana had to temporarily apply for a job at Thneed Inc, however her beauty and portfolio as an amateur model ended up attracting attention and she became a model for the company for a reasonable pay.

She then tried to reach the Onceler with the intention of making the company take action, but after the discussion with Onceler about environmental issues, Onceler became interested in the model's beauty and boldness in saying what she wanted to his face (most people didn't do that - they either blindly obeyed him, or were rude and "sensationalist"), and after a few weeks of thinking, he offered a special job: to be his escort and perform special services, in secret. Although hesitant for a while, Lana eventually accepted because of the payment. This position allowed her to spend some more time with him and get to know him more personally, and despite talking to the Onceler about the things that he does, he doesn't seem to change his mind so easily. She was forced not to be an environmental activist anymore because of her contract with Thneed Inc and image, people would recognize her and call her out; her face is everywhere, just not as much as Onceler's.

Onceler also began taking her to parties and public speeches as his escort, and a buzz began to emerge in the media that she was his partner, making her gain even more attention. The hatred she felt for Onceler began to dissipate, and she began to see him as a friend with flaws (or something else) after the several conversations they had about personal matters and after getting to know him better. Lana's opinions did not change, but as the story progressed, the fame and luxury of life next to the Onceler made her forget a little about what was happening outside the walls of Thneedville, being reminded of reality and soon being distracted from it by the Onceler and his luxury life again.

Titles:

I actually couldn't choose a title. I really want to, but I don't like any of them enough and I can't decide. Here's what I came up with:

Thneedville Nights

Under The Thneedville Lights

Glamour and Greed (I like this one but it's very cliché)

A Velvet Affair (???)

Velvet Nights (I just think velvet is a very pretty word)

They all sound stupid to me, if you have any suggestion.... help

The Story:

Onceler's canon event here is the same, but a bit expanded. The whole story takes place in the 2012 movie but with features of the 1972 special included in it. I would say it happened in a seussian/fictional kind of 60s. It all happened during the "The Lorax" events: Onceler arrives at the Truffula Forest, starts selling his Thneeds, opens Thneed Inc and creates Thneedville, the trees run out, he goes bankrupt and spends his entire life in his cabin regretting his decisions. Lorax is also a character, but he is not frequent and usually talks only to the Onceler. (Funny how the title character is now a background one)

There is a kind of timeline of the events from this story, the same time Onceler has his life, Lana has hers, and they meet at a certain point. I'm going to make a topic in the post just about the timeline, but at the moment I need to focus on the story.

When the Onceler moved to the Truffula forest, Lana still lived at her parents' house in Greenville. Since you probably already know about Onceler's canon events, I'll only focus on Lana's story. Thneed Inc was growing their name and their industry, reaching more space, appearing on TV, newspapers, billboards and on the radio, the Onceler's name (and image, and voice, and charisma, everything) was being known everywhere, and he was getting a great reception from the people, known for his Thneeds and their incredible uses, but as a person, he was known as a friendly, young, prodigy businessman who was becoming as powerful as older names in the industry. Everyone liked him (except for Lana, who always felt off about his image), and he bought the city of Greenville, starting to transform it into Thneedville. This change for Lana was already strange, but then Thneed Inc started buying and closing the small businesses too, replacing them with new stores and affiliates of the company, demolishing the old town and creating a new one. Lana had been organizing to leave home for a while, since before Thneed Inc arrived in town, and her plans didn't change because of that. She bought a small new built apartment with the goal of just finding a temporary place, but her money didn't go much further than that, and living off her parents' donations wasn't something she wanted to do. When the walls around the city had not yet been built, it was possible to see the Truffula valley being gradually destroyed, especially the part of the valley behind the Thneeds' factory, further away and easier to hide from the city. That not only bothered Lana, but also a group of people (small, compared to huge the rest of the city that didn't cared about it), and small protests began to appear - Lana became part of them.

Lana could see and notice the changes in the environment around her, see the dozens and dozens of trees being cut, hurt barbaloots and swomee-swans being rescued in awful conditions (always related to Onceler's industry) appearing at the animal shelter she helped on, and she always felt off about the Onceler, so all these attitudes of his company, the friendliness he pretended to have in front of the cameras and the lies he told about everything being under control and being responsible with the Truffula valley only infuriated her and the other environmentalists. The Onceler's face was everywhere, and everyone loved him despite the things he did and lied about not doing, the truth was right outside everyone's doors and yet they chose to ignore it, it made her angry.

Lana carried a great hatred for Onceler because he was lying to the media and ignorant about the damages caused by his industry - most of the people were fooled by his fake charisma and his commercials, but she and a small group of people weren't. Lana participated in protests and other small actions against the company, but Onceler always managed to cover it up from the media and make them look like just noisy lunatics, coupled with his charisma and the attractiveness of the Thneeds, the general public always sided with him (as big industries always do). As the small town of Greenville was reformed to become Thneedville, little by little all the businesses were taken over by Thneed Inc, and it got to the point where there was no choice of employment to apply for other than Thneed Inc and its affiliates. Lana had recently moved into a small temporary apartment to seek her own independence, with the goal of raising money to buy a new, better place to live, and while her money was running out, she needed to find a job immediately - but refused to apply for and support Thneed Inc.

She didn't even have enough money to move out of the city, so she tried to be a small-time model and sell her own photos (even some more inappropriate ones), but that wasn't enough. Other independent small stores were closing and Thneed Inc was buying everything. In the end, she decided to go against her principles and applied for a job at Thneed Inc, waiting for any opportunity to come along, just to earn enough money to live in a better place and get out of there as soon as she got enough. Her data and portfolio reached Onceler's hands, but he didn't pay much attention and just noticed the fact that she was very pretty, putting her in a model position without thinking too much about it (he has too many things to pay attention at once and pretty girls weren't a big thing to him when he got successful).

Of course, at first Lana wasn't one of the biggest models, but eventually her beauty caught people's attention and made her rise in the position, putting her in fashion shows, magazines and billboards along with some other girls. Usually promotions are not done by the Onceler but by his secretaries and others involved in the company, so he also did not pay much attention to his models and remained busy with the issue of organizing the company's marketing, finances and affiliates, in addition to always being contacted by several people responsible for several different sectors and having to organize and balance everything with public appearances and a good image for the company (which means, he didn't paid much attention to Lana or the other marketing girls). She had hoped to do this just long enough to raise a good amount of money, to maybe get out of town, but her career at Thneed Inc had risen so high and so quickly that it had become difficult to return to her life as an environmental protester since she would be recognized, and showing support for the cause would get her in trouble. Even knowing that keeping quiet went against her ideals, Lana expected that this would only last for a short time.

That's when the two characters finally cross their paths. Because of the greater importance she had within the company, she made an appointment with the Onceler to report the case of a photographer who was being negligent with the models, and... the environmental problems caused by Thneed Inc, with the hope that her soft tone, polite manners and good solutions would make the Onceler change his mind. He didn't liked it. At first they were polite, and he delined and said passive-aggressive phrases like "I appreciate the suggestion, but I know very well how to handle my company and you know very well what your role is in it, thank you", but Lana didn't gave up and they started to argue. She argued politely though, and had good arguments, and Onceler as always just said "what, do you want me to shut down Thneed Inc? You want me to affect the entire economy? That's not going to happen" when Lana never said that at all. The confident and polite way she expressed her ideas, her courageous attitude of going to the Onceler to question him about his own company without fear of being fired or wanting to take advantage of his money (something that some beautiful women like her try to do), her strong opinions and her breathtaking beauty caught his attention. He noticed in Lana, even in her respectful tone, that she didn't like him, and that made him interested in her. When Lana finally left his office, the Onceler went to the company's employee files and looked for Lana's profile, reading her information and also finding her portfolio (that is, the photos she had taken some time ago).

Onceler then had an idea. The reasons for this idea are not mentioned, perhaps it was for ego reasons (because he knew she hated him) or for personal reasons, but he decided to tell his secretaries to call Lana to talk to him in his office some time later, a few days, maybe a week. Lana swore that she was in trouble, but when she got there, Onceler had a proposal to make: Lana would be his escort and would do some "personal favors" to him, on the condition that: 1 - Onceler cannot do anything without her consent; 2 - Neither of them can engage in any romantic relationship during this period; 3 - Lana would be available at all times, except when there is some justification for not attending (not feeling well is also an justification). The payment was defined 2000 dollars for each night she spends with him. The model was in doubt, because she couldn't stand Onceler but she also needed that money... he didn't even know about her financial issues, and she didn't know that he realized she didn't like him, Lana just thought he was making this offer because she was pretty, and at a certain point, he was. Lana decided to put her pride aside and accept the proposal, just for now, enough to get a good amount of money to support herself, but of course she didn't tell him that. She only asked for the condition that Onceler spend some time with her first, because she had never done that with anyone, and he agreed to take her to dinner first on the same night she was going to sleep with him, two days later. She accepted.

Two days later, there she was, after a photo shoot for a magazine, dressed in a red dress and a Thneed on her shoulder (everyone in town had one, even her, but they bought several of them. She only used that one for what she needed, since she already had it and it would be a waste to throw it away). Lana didn't even thought it would be embarrassing to wear a Thneed on a date with Onceler, she just put it on because it matched her outfit. Onceler picked her up at the Thneed Inc headquarters around 8:00 pm in his white limousine (or rather, the driver did). He was smoking a cigar and drinking whiskey, and the car ride to the restaurant was awkward because of Lana's nervousness and the fact didn't know each other but knew they were going to sleep together that night. Onceler made a joke about the Thneed she was wearing, which made Lana embarassed, and he told her that he realized she didn't like him, and that he saw her pictures, which made her feel embarrassed once again. The atmosphere between them was awkward, and when they arrived at the expensive restaurant it was even more so. There were only rich people in the restaurant, they all knew the Onceler, and they noticed Onceler's arrival with one of his models (and surprisingly the news didn't spread much) - Lana felt out of place.

The menu was very expensive, the decoration was all expensive, everything there was very expensive, but Onceler assured her that he would pay for everything and that he didn't mind. They talked throughout dinner, eventually returning to the discussion about the environment and Lana made him uncomfortable again, but she made Onceler think... maybe he had already talked a little with the Lorax before, but he really considered what she said, and said that he would think of better solutions later, which brought him a little closer to Lana. They talked about interests, careers, ate their dinner, and Lana shared her nervousness with him, who reassured her that everything would be fine, and that he would be helping her with everything. Said and done, they returned to the limousine that took them to the Thneed Inc. headquarters building in the city center, where Onceler's apartment was on the top floor.

Lana spent the night at his penthouse. The next day, she woke up to find Onceler ready for work, and he took her back home in the limousine. He was a bit distant compared to how close he was to her last night, as if he were a stranger to her again. The next few times he called her, the same thing happened; he was affectionate at night, but in the morning he was back to wearing that ridiculous green suit and acting as if he hadn't been so close to her the night before. Lana could swear that the moment he put on that green suit, the top hat and those glasses he stopped being himself. This is a small allusion to his "Onceler and Greed-Ler" personality, showing that he acts like a character he created every time he appears in the media, and this character, despite being falsely friendly, deep down only cares about money and business. It's the Onceler that she deeply hates.

At first, she sees Onceler as a liability and a slightly intriguing guy to be around; there is a slight awkwardness between the two, and she finds his actions extremely questionable. However, when they leave the crowd, Onceler shows Lana that he has a heart; as he once said, when he walked away from a party to seek some alone time away from the crowd, that he didn't like being a character all the time. That this outfit was fake, his comments were fake, and that he would like to be rude to people who are rude to him without any repercussions; he was tired of everyone watching him, despite enjoying being admired and knowing how to sell himself to the public. He was a somewhat intriguing guy when he didn't have an audience to watch him. Besides his ignorance on environmental issues, this was another thing that Lana hated about him, for letting his greed make him forget about himself, and the good person he can be when he doesn't care about money or the public.

She tried to talk to him about it several times and show that she was truly bothered, but it didn't matter much. The truth is that as time went by, Lana became closer to him and the unlikely happened: she was enjoying it. But she would never accept having anything romantic with the Onceler because it sounded ridiculous, she hated him and just wanted enough money to leave. Even so, every time they saw each other, the time they slept together lasted only 30% of the time they were together on those nights, and talking/having fun with him was becoming a common event during the weeks. He shared his past with her, and Lana, on the other hand, shared that she worries too much about carrying the world on her shoulders and forgets that she can't solve everything. There is a mutual closeness, and the two began to consider each other in an unspoken way as something between friends and a business relationship. By the way, I wrote some interesting dialogues for this scene that I could even make a small comic about it. Here is a little snippet! Be aware that they just did the dirty so they're tiredly lying in bed. These paragraphs were in portuguese so if it sounds weird it's because I translated it:

Onceler's voice broke the silence of the room. "Are you comfortable? Are you tired?" Lana answered with only a murmur of approval. He continued smoking his cigar, lying sloppily on the bed, finally breaking the silence as he studied her face. "See... it wasn't so bad, was it? I thought you'd complain more."

"It wasn't bad, just... pretty tiring." Lana settled herself in bed, turning slightly to the Onceler. She felt a strange atmosphere between the two, but he didn't seem to notice... He was too busy smoking his cigar. The girl stared at him in silence, looking at him and his room... Onceler let out a small muffled laugh as he watched her gaze.

"Oh, yeah. You almost left me without energy too." He stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray next to him and lay down better on the bed, resting his face on his arm and looked back at her. Onceler's room was large and comfortable, with a king-size bed, a huge wardrobe, a marble-topped nightstand, and a panoramic view of the city. Not luxurious at all (it absolutely was).

The boy watched her face for a few seconds, staring back at her with a neutral, almost thoughtful and curious look. After a few moments, he opened his mouth again to speak, "You don't look very comfortable, dear. Are you trying to tell me something I don't know yet?" The businessman said, observing her dejected expression with a half-closed gaze. His tone of voice was calm, almost casual. Lana murmured a sound of approval without making much effort, and Onceler made a muffled sound, a sign that he wasn't completely convinced, ironically saying: "Don't say it. I see that you look completely at ease."

"What do you want me to say?" The girl asked, completely wrapped in the blankets.

Onceler watched her as she murmured, a curious look on his face. After a while, he sighed softly and answered with a neutral tone in his voice. "What are you really thinking about."

Lana stared at him for a few moments, considering whether he really wanted to know or not, and whether it was worth the effort to tell. She let out a sigh, giving in to his request. "I'm tired. My hips and back are sore. It feels like I've been lifting weights for hours," complained. She settled herself in the covers to get more comfortable, in the darkness of his room. "You really don't know how to deal with girls."

A small laugh escaped his lips at her comment, after the pause he responded with a friendlier tone. "Hm, well, I don't usually deal with girls really," he admits calmly. Onceler kept staring at her in the darkness. "It's not normal for me to have you here, you know. It's weird seeing you in my bed. A girl who was my adversary, who protested by calling me selfish and greedy... but at the same time it's kind of fun."

"I know it's fun for you." Lana murmured back in a tired voice, looking down at her hands under the covers. All that mattered was the fact that she wasn't looking back at him or at the room. Once again, he thought about her sentence.

There was a short silent pause as he stared at the woman on the bed, noticing her distracted gaze. His mind began to work, trying to understand. "And for you, is it fun too?"

His question seemed to have caught her attention. A soft sigh escaped Lana's lips. "How I feel shouldn't matter to you."

"If it didn't, I wouldn't have asked."

Lana's gaze traveled to his face once more. She settled herself better under the covers and looked at the Onceler, considering that maybe, just maybe, she could talk to him a little bit, since he was so insistent. But she didn't want to risk her job, so she only said enough. "I don't know." She answered the question he asked earlier, about having fun. Her voice had a softer and more delicate tone, but it still held truth.

"But you're not feeling unhappy, are you?"

Lana pondered his words. "No. I'm not unhappy either."

Onceler couldn’t help but have a curious expression as he stared at her silently, observing her as she observed him back. He let out a soft sigh. “And how do you feel, then? After all, you are my escort now.”

"Yeah, I know." Lana replied, thinking about his words. She wondered what could have made him think of her now, so suddenly - unusual. Once again, he was a hard guy to understand, and Lana was still trying to figure it out and get used to the way he acted. She didn't want to talk too much and lose her job. "It's like I'm playing house. I'm a terrible actress."

There was a hint of humor in Onceler's expression, while she could feel a hint of surprise in his soft voice as he answered her. “I wouldn’t say you’re a bad actress, you know. You’re doing a good job of pretending you don’t hate me.”

Lana continued to stare at him, not finding the humor in that sentence. She was acting truer than he had imagined. "I don't even know what I think about you anymore."

"You hate my company, at least. You know what you think of me, don't you? I'm making you work a job you find questionable because of my money." The conversation between the two seemed deeper than usual. The room was silent, only the sound of their breathing could be heard. The silence of the night, the warmth of the bed. Onceler was not very good at interpreting her feelings, but he could tell that this bothered her. "But you are here, with me. Because of the money. That's why you can't despise me so much."

"No, I don't know if it's just that. You confuse me a lot. You don't make any sense, I don't understand, I don't understand you."

Her words were confusing, as if she didn’t know what to expect from him. It intrigued him, awakened in him some desire to understand her better. “Maybe you won’t. You don’t know me well enough.”

Lana seemed to be trying to decide how to put into words what she was feeling, but she didn't want to show it too much. There was a need for communication and distance at the same time between the two, and communication should only go so far. "You're so confusing. Remember earlier today, when you asked which side of you was my favorite and I told you it was the one in the bedroom? I'm talking about the 'you' now. I prefer you like this, thoughtful, sincere. But when it gets to the morning you act like you don't care about anything or anyone, and you go on TV and out on the streets with that fake smile on your face. You're still irresponsible and ignorant even after spending hours talking to me the way we are now. This doesn't make any sense to me."

The Onceler remained silent, just listening to her words. He noticed that she was trying to express herself, but becoming more frustrated as she tried to. Her frustration affected him a little. He let out a low sigh. "I'm a businessman, Lana. I have no choice... I need to be seen as someone who is trustworthy and have everything under control. That's how the game works. I need to stay that way, that's the only way to keep my company running. If I let you see too much of my my personal side, things could go wrong. I need to act the way you said, in front of everyone... It's the only way to keep the company safe and keep the money coming in."

"Even with me?" Lana asked in a soft and slightly apprehensive whisper. They both knew she didn't agree with his words about business and money, it wasn't new.

After a slightly frustrated sigh, he answered calmly, but with something in his voice that seemed regretful. "Yes. Even with you." The man frowned slightly as he answered, trying to keep his tone conscious and calm. His words were precise and direct, showing how serious he was about the matter. "Especially with you. I can't let you invade my world, my routine. That's dangerous, and I need to stay focused on my work."

Lana continued to look at him, seeming to digest his words with an expression he couldn't exactly put into words. Maybe disappointment, maybe confusion. "It seems like you're only polite to me when we're in this room. Who I talk to in here is very different from who I see outside. And I can't even blame you, especially because you pay me, and you pay me very well. I'm just your escort and you don't owe me any explanations."

"I can't afford to..." Onceler paused for a moment, thinking about the words, the reality of the situation. "...to be vulnerable. With you, with anyone else. I need to maintain this image in order to keep the company running as it should. That's how it works. I'm a man with a very difficult job, with a lot of pressure, a lot of money involved, a lot of responsibilities... Thneed Inc comes first, always." There was a hint of frustration and disappointment in his voice. Onceler's gaze was fixed on her as he spoke the words, watching her reaction, hoping she would understand. "I can't let you invade my routine, but I still have you here, with me. It's the most intimacy I can offer you... but that will have to be enough to you." He continued to stare into her eyes, while searching for words that could explain the situation they were in. "It would hurt less, if you didn't really saw me, if you just did your job and didn't question anything."

Lana understood his perspective, but she didn't understand why he acted indifferent towards her even when they were alone anywhere other than in the bedroom. The girl wanted to question him about it, she really did, but upon hearing his last words she found a piece of information that caught her attention even more. Onceler had indirectly asked her to leave that aside. And he was right... yes, it was the initial plan anyway. But it was very strange to have to stop caring about how he treated her outside the bedroom when they had such personal conversations inside. His behavior was not consistent with what he was asking. "I... understand." Lana actually didn't understand very well. "You're right, you... hired me for a reason. And it wasn't to make friends. But then you need to stop confusing me. I'm not sure what you want. I understand that I'm your escort, of course, but then you start venting to me and I start seeing myself as your friend. Then in the next day you decide to act indifferent and treat me arrogantly. That's what confuses me, am I your lady-in-waiting or what?" She asked in frustration, but her voice didn't raise.

Onceler was uncomfortable, he didn't know how to answer her questions anymore, not in a simple way, not in a way that didn't leave him completely exposed and vulnerable. "You're my lady-in-waiting, Lana. I don't want to have a bad relationship with you, okay? It's good to talk, to create a bond, especially in the context of the things we do. But when we're done, you have to understand that I can't keep giving you attention, Thneed Inc needs me all the time. That's why I wanted an escort, because I have needs but I can't have a girlfriend, I can't give any attention. It's a difficult situation, of course, but what can I do? We have an exchange agreement. We talk every now and then because whether we like it or not, we're coworkers, and I want to have a good relationship with you. Got it?"

Lana's eyes were fixed on him and then they looked back at the silent room, her eyebrows slightly furrowed and her gaze thoughtful. Onceler couldn't put into words exactly what her expression was. "I... get it. I guess I got things mixed up."

The businessman let out a soft sigh, feeling calmer after hearing her words. "You see... I don't want to confuse you, I hope you're not feeling bad about all this." He added, trying to comfort her. "I just needed to make it clear, since you brought it up. I'm quite happy with the arrangement we have, and of course, I enjoy your company. Can we just relax, hm?"

Lana noticed his proximity and allowed it without many reservations, but her mind was still trying to understand. Once again, he was being so affectionate and yet he had just said that these caresses, this closeness, all of this was just for comfort. Just for comfort. Especially because Lana was his lady-in-waiting, and it wouldn't make sense to keep showing her affection, unless he liked the feeling of giving affection, which was most likely. Lana sighed, resigned. Maybe she was just a toy in his hands. And he was right, she gave her consent to this and was earning an absurd amount of money to do what he asked. She just didn't expect it to be so difficult, or so confusing. As he caressed her body, the man closed his eyes, trying to ignore the conflicting needs he felt inside himself. He could feel his interest in her intensifying, but he also felt a touch of confusion, of hesitation. She was his escort, she was only with him for the money, it shouldn’t mean anything more than that. But for some reason, whenever he touched her body, felt the scent of her perfume, or heard the sound of her voice, he couldn’t help but give in to the interest he felt. Onceler let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes again. He couldn't help but feel a little vulnerable and confused... frustrated. His need for her was real, but he knew it didn't mean anything lasting. It was just business, and nothing else.

Did you liked it?? 💋 It's not a fanfiction though. I don't want to write a full fic, it takes a lot of time. But I'm proud.

Going back to the summary, this is a recurring problem between them, but they put it aside and pretend that nothing happened. Onceler throws parties so that the company can continue to appear in the media, gather rich people and continue doing business, and to get some buzz, he invited Lana to accompany him publicly as a poster girl. Furthermore, after she started sleeping with him some time before, her position mysteriously rose in the company and Lana became the main model + began to appear more prominently in fashion shows. At parties, Onceler always made red carpet entrances, and appeared grabbing Lana's waist and carrying her everywhere as if she were his girlfriend, this caused rumors and sensationalism on TV and in the newspapers, which was great for him and bad for her, who just wanted to make the money and leave, and which also made people look into her past and discover that she protested against Thneed Inc. After that, chaos was installed. People started talking about Onceler's supposed girlfriend, and he kept denying it and saying that Lana was just a poster girl. Lana’s fellow environmentalist friends thought she had switched sides, and threw tomatoes at her on one of the red carpet nights. Reporters began invading her privacy and asking invasive questions about her ideals, whether she believed the company had changed, whether she regretted protesting. Onceler didn’t want them to do to her what they usually did to him, because he was used to it and knew how to deal with people, but Lana, on the other hand, was static.

It was weird. Girls who were Onceler's fans and believed they could have a chance with him started to hate her, and Lana was sometimes spotted by reporters, who would show up and start making her uncomfortable again. Lana even went to Onceler with a newspaper in her hand to show him the sensationalist article they were writing about the two of them, and Onceler said he couldn't stop the newspaper from publishing articles, but he would do his best to limit what they were doing to her image. Money and bribes were involved - which shows that for Onceler, Lana became more important than an escort, because he was willing to spend money to protect her image and paid for several things for her too. It seemed more like a friends with benefits, but with money involved.

It was at one of these parties that Onceler's Ma met Lana. She doesn't like Lana because she doesn't want her son to be too busy with women and forget to work/pay more attention to girls than to the money he'll give to his mother and family. Besides, it's easier to manipulate him when he's alone than when he has someone to be by his side whispering things in his ear. So the first thing she did was criticize Lana's dress and say that it was too low-cut for a party of that size, but she had forgotten that Onceler had asked her, Mrs. Funtzler and Mrs. O'Schmuntzler to choose a green dress for his model to wear, and she decided to let the other two take care of it so she could do something else considered more important. When Lana said that Onceler had left it up to her and the other secretaries to choose, Onceler's Ma was embarrassed. She doesn't like Lana. (Brett and Chet on the other hand think she's hot and act like idiots around her, making lame pick-up lines.)

These comments from people and from TV went on for several months until one day reporters spotted them in a very compromising situation, nothing more than a photo of them kissing and very intimate touching. From that moment on, they were screwed. Onceler and Lana decided that they would start fake dating, and he went public, grabbing her by the waist and saying "Oh my, you guys really found out! I was waiting for the right moment to reveal this, but it looks like you were smarter. You caught us. Lana and I are together, and you can consider her your Miss Onceler from now on."

Newspapers and TV stations have been talking about it. "Onceler's New Girlfriend!" was written all over the front pages. Reports saying, "It seems the president of Thneed Inc. is no longer a single man. Lana Grant, a model for Thneed Inc, is a former protester against the company from the time she wasn't it's model yet. The former environmentalist is now in a relationship with the Onceler and is getting a lot of backlash from her former group, but Lana claims to be on good terms with the businessman now. 'I know he's doing what's best for our city,' Lana says. The couple seems happy, but many citizens claim the model is only with him for the money. Is this the new big couple of our city, or is it just a temporary relationship?"

All this attention bothered Lana, and she always had to look smiling and in love with him whenever they were together in public. Eventually, as the development progressed, Lana showed up one day at his office, saying that she couldn't take it anymore. "You need to choose between me or your business. I'm not going to stay here feeding this lie to these people with you. I don't want to be your fake girlfriend. If you sleep with me, call me your girlfriend and use me for your public image, but don't have time to act like a boyfriend, I demand that you make a decision. This lie is killing me, because I like you, but having to face all this knowing that I'm just an ornament for you to carry around with you makes me want to stop doing it. I'm tired of pretending to myself that I don't like you, and then pretending that I do in front of others." She found herself in a state where, when she was with him in public or in the bedroom and he treated her with affection, she liked it. But then Onceler would step out of the way of the cameras and say, "phew, I'm glad it's over, you can do whatever you want now, Lana." And then in the bedroom, when they were sleeping together and spending time talking and having fun, they acted and felt like a couple. It was a fake couple, but it wasn't a fake couple, and yet sometimes it felt like a fake couple. And she was suffering real consequences of this in her personal life. That was stressing her out. Onceler then said that he liked her too, but couldn't give her the attention he wanted because of work. They said they would make it work, and then beyond the public eye, they started dating each other for real. Even though Onceler worked a lot, he would see her and ask her to sleep with him a few times a week (sleep with him + spend time together at his penthouse), and that was good for Lana. Onceler also stopped considering her his escort and instead of paying her to sleep with him, he gave her money because he wanted to.

Now we come to a very important point in the story. I'm not sure if this happens when Lana is just his date during the parties he takes her to as a company poster girl, or if it happens when they are already dating (but I think it's the first option). Onceler was going to call her to go to his office to "see him", and Lana wasn't home to answer. He called Miss Funtzler and asked her to find out where Lana was, immediately. What happened is that Lana was at the animal shelter where she usually helps out, and when Onceler called, he identified himself to a woman who seemed to be some kind of receptionist there, and said he was looking for Lana (at this point everyone already knew she was a model for the company, so Onceler looking for her wasn't strange). The lady replied that Lana wasn't feeling very well and couldn't answer the phone. Onceler asked why, and heard crying in the distance, but the receptionist didn't answer. She eventually gave in and handed the phone to Lana, who sounded very sad, and told Onceler that she couldn't do anything with him today because she wasn't feeling well enough. He wanted to know why because he was worried, but she wouldn't tell him, so Onceler said that if she didn't tell him, he would go find out. She didn't tell him, so he went. When he got there and found Lana crying in a chair, he asked what happened. What happened is that she went to try to take care of a barbaloot in emergency condition, choking on slime from his factory, and the bear died.

Onceler hadn't really paid attention to the consequences his actions had caused, and when he heard this news and saw the poor barbaloot, he felt a wave of remorse take over him. Much like when The Lorax makes him think in the 1972 special, Onceler thinks about what he's doing and promises Lana that he'll try to reduce Thneed Inc's impacts. A while later, when he returns to his day-to-day life, he sees how much this is going to cost him money, and he says he'll look for a solution later. At the same time, walls were being built around the city and people could no longer see the Truffula forest. One day, Onceler was making an announcement in a speech during one of these company parties, with Lana by his side, and he announced to everyone that from that day on they would begin taking actions to reduce Thneed Inc's impacts on nature. Lana looked at him in surprise, and this was an important point in their relationship because she truly believed that talking to him and making him understand had a result. Onceler did this to gain Lana's trust and also to gain the trust of the people, believing that it would reduce the protests and hesitation that some people might have when buying the company's products - in a way it helped, even though many protesters were not fooled by his lies, there was that repercussion and counter-argument of clearing the conscience of consumers to environmentalists who say "He already said he is doing his best to help, stop complaining!". If Lana had any reservations about the environmental impacts before, they were gone now. Onceler finally had her without hesitation in his arms.

The months they spent together without any major discussions about the environment were the best. Onceler lied to her and to Thneedville, and Lana became invested in that lie. The more time she spent around him, the more Lana learned to be the golden girlfriend of the president of Thneed Inc., the owner of the city. The more she enjoyed the parties, the interviews, the visibility, the money, the expensive jewelry and clothes, the limousines, the penthouse and magazine covers, the games at the casino. She began to enjoy the life of luxury and to enjoy being by his side. She liked being known as Onceler's girlfriend, even though sometimes she felt a little overshadowed by the idea people had of them, and was disappointed that people cared more about the two of them as characters than as real people. She liked being Onceler's golden girlfriend, but sometimes she didn't like being reduced to just that. Lana ignored this feeling, and told herself that life was too good now to find reasons to complain.

That's when everything went down the drain. Onceler had that private conversation with the Lorax and saw the last tree falling. That's when he knew that everything he had built during the last years was just a matter of time until it all fell down before his eyes. He managed to sell Thneeds for about 2 more months and kept lying to Lana and the media, but then the Thneeds in the stores were running out. Suppliers asked for more and there were none left. Thneed Inc had no choice but to go public and declare bankruptcy. There was great commotion in the city, reporters asked questions everywhere, paparazzi kept taking pictures of Onceler in his humiliating moments trying to balance things out and act natural without admitting that he had screwed up everything, but it was true, he had. Onceler didn't even know what to say to people. He didn't wanted to lose her, but he also didn't wanted to lose money or lose his industry, so he tried to come up with a solution while he kept lying to everyone, became too invested in how everything was going so well that he forgot to actually take action about the problem, and in the end everything went down the drain.

He laid off several employees and many people left the city. The factory was empty. Later on the day he declared bankruptcy, when he was in his office at the factory, Lana arrived, crying, extremely, deeply hurt and angry. "How could you?! How could you lie to me all this time?! I trusted you, I gave you everything I had! You used me all these months, touched me, used my image to cause a fuzz, I knew it! How could I fall for this?!" Onceler was so guilty, so bad about himself and his own troubles that he didn't even know what to say. It all happened so fast, and if I had said that it had lasted more than 5 minutes it would have been too long. Lana couldn't take it anymore, she exploded with rage and went after him; she felt like killing him there out of anger, and even though she didn't have the physical capacity to do so, she hit him in the chest anyway, hysterically. Onceler tried to call her, "Lana, Lana! Stop! Listen to me!" but she kept screaming "You fucking liar, you bastard! I hate you, you son of a bitch! I hope you die alone, and choke on that damn money of yours! Liar, liar!". He tried to grab her and make her stop struggling, but it was difficult. Onceler couldn't even speak. In a desperate moment he didn't know what to do and yelled, "Security!".

The security guards immediately came in and saw what was happening. They grabbed Lana by the arms and pulled her away from him, who continued to struggle. She continued to scream, even as she was dragged and taken away from him, "I hope you drown in your money, with no one to save you, you don't deserve it! I never want to see you again, never! Never again." Onceler just watched her leave until the doors to his office closed, and everything went silent. That was the last time he saw Lana, and he didn't go after her again. He was too ashamed to apologize, to look for her, and he believed that he didn't deserve to have her again. Lana didn't deserve to go through the pain of continuing to be by his side.

When Lana left the factory, there were reporters everywhere asking questions and generally wanting to get as much content out of the couple's sadness as possible to put in the news reports and on TV. Lana turned to one of them and said, "He's an idiot, a liar! I didn't know he was doing this, I didn't know. He said he had everything under control. He lied to everyone! I never want to see him again!", without caring about the repercussions, the stage, none of that mattered, she was just very angry and very hurt. The people of Thneedville commented on whether Lana was putting on a show to get rid of the Onceler image and take the blame off her shoulders, or if she was being sincere. In any case, the company was forgotten and when it went bankrupt soon (a year or two later) everything was replaced by O'Hare Industries. She thought about going after the Onceler, because after her anger subsided she thought about having a calmer conversation with him, but she never did. She promised she wouldn't go, and instead waited for him to show up and apologize - if he didn't, it was okay, she was still hurt and didn't want him back (even though deep down she still did). He never came. Lana heard from people that Onceler had left town to a place he didn't say and wouldn't be coming back. She didn't hear from him again.

Lana was taken off the billboards and stopped appearing in magazines, and people stopped caring about her. It was as if she had a bad reputation, people whispering on the street every now and then, "Look! She's Onceler's girlfriend," as if it were a dark secret and she had done something really bad. Years went by and Onceler stayed in Truffula Valley. You know what happened, he isolated himself from the world and never left. What happened during that period is a little unclear, I didn't focus much on that part of the story. Maybe Lana left town, but I bet she didn't, even if she had plenty of reasons and enough money to leave. She had a few boyfriends, but nothing long-lasting. The truth is that after Onceler, her life didn't take off as much as it had back then. Lana didn't liked being remembered by older people as the Lana she was 40 years ago, because they look at her now and act like she looks horrible after all the years had passed. Imagine old people coming up to you and saying, "Wow, are you Lana Grant from the Thneed Inc days? The Onceler's girlfriend? You were beautiful when you were younger, that romance between the two of you was so beautiful, but the Onceler chose to do really bad things, right? What a shame, you could have had a beautiful future." And Lana is like, "Yeah... (why the hell are you talking about the most painful moments of my personal life as if I'm not here? You act like I'm a character from a TV show)".

Lana managed to move on, and remained as well-groomed as ever, her glow not losing over time. Eventually, after years of maturing, even though she was hurt, she no longer hated the Onceler. Since she was very young, when these things were still mass-produced and easy to find everywhere, she kept newspapers, advertisements, magazine clippings and articles about herself, the Onceler and the two of them together. Although it was a painful moment, it was an important part of her life that she could not forget, and she kept them in a box for a while, until eventually putting them in a photo book, almost like a scrapbook. She kept photos of herself, photos of them in interviews, in public, articles, photos they took together, and even photos of the Onceler alone, because she did not want to forget him. He was special, even if he hurt her in the end. The two were too young and immature at the time to understand what they were doing, and even though she didn't forgive him, she believed that Onceler was a good, young guy who was too absorbed in his fame and money, and the conversations and private moments he had with her were proof of that. He had a good heart, but didn't know how to manage all the responsabilities he held at once, and he was irresponsible, she never excused that. She held fond memories of him as a first crush from when she was younger.

Then the events of The Lorax happen, where the boy/Ted plants the seed in the center of town and the wall around Thneedville falls. When Onceler came out of his 40-year depression and started planting the truffula trees again, Lana showed up and said she was looking for the Onceler. He didn't recognize her at first, and based on her angry demeanor, was afraid she was one of the vandals who had invaded his property over the years, throwing rocks at his windows and even at him, and didn't reveal himself at first, saying he knew the Onceler, but didn't know if he should trust her enough to tell her where he was (She was angry because he scared her off with that warm, sweet reception he always offers to visitors).

Onceler was very rude to her and told her to leave, and she didn't like his attitude either, treating him equally badly, calling him a grumpy old man (they're both old at that point). The old man said he couldn't tell her about Onceler without knowing if she was trustworthy. Even though Lana hated talking about her past and being recognized by old people because of it, she had to remind him of who she was and why she was trustworthy, so she told him that she was "that Onceler's girlfriend from the golden era of Thneed Inc, Lana Grant" and was immediately recognized. Some of the Onceler's hidden feelings were rekindled and he felt a mix of guilt and nostalgia when he saw her again, it wasn't like he had fallen in love again, but the time he lived with her by his side left a big mark on him. Lana was also his first lover and crush, and even though they had a bad ending, he didn't forget how good that time was.

Onceler said, "Why do you want to talk to him? Hasn't he hurt you enough?" and Lana replied, "Because I'm getting old and I'd like to work this out with him before it's too late, because we've never worked this out. I know he was just as much of a kid back then as I was. He was irresponsible, yes, but I know he was good too. I just want you to tell me where he is so I can go to him." Onceler thought about it and eventually showed himself to her. The two talked. He told her that he deeply regretted what he had done in the past, and that he loved her, but he was too irresponsible to know how to deal with all the responsibilities he had on his hands, and that he was too greedy to realize what he was doing. He didn't look for Lana to apologize because he thought she didn't want to see him, and he was too immersed in his own shame and sadness that he never left the valley again. The rumors he made up about leaving town were lies, so people would forget about him. He didn't want to put himself in danger because he knew people could hurt him, and that's what he could do at the time. Today he has replanted much of the valley, and he wants to make up for what he did in the past, but he doesn't believe he deserves forgiveness.

He and Lana talked a lot and she forgave him, even though Onceler didn't think she deserved it. I didn't think much about this ending, but I like to think that she took him for a walk in the city, now a city that is no longer run by any corporation, and showed him the things she kept from when they were young. Happy ending.

Alternative Ending:

I decided to imagine what would have happened if Onceler had listened to/listened to the Lorax from the beginning. He could have invented something that harvested only the leaves of the trees, which could grow back in a few weeks, and gotten more seeds that could be replanted to compensate for the trees that had been cut down, and expanded the size of Truffula Valley and separated the sectors into "newly harvested", "harvested 1 week ago", "2 weeks ago", "3 weeks ago..." and "ready for harvest". They could have torn down the city walls to allow the citizens to see what he was doing to the valley, and since he was on good terms with Lana, they could have easily gotten married, something kind of like Elvis and Priscilla's marriage (of course, without the toxic parts). They could even have children when they got older. Let's consider this a non-canon universe.

Environment:

Even though the story still takes place in Thneedville, there are some changes that should be taken into consideration.

The period of Onceler's fame and the growth of Thneed Inc lasted for at max of 5 years, perhaps 3. Considering that his fame time lasted 4 years, let's consider that Thneedville got done in the second year after he got famous. This way, the characters spend some time living in Thneedville before Thneed Inc went bankrupt, unlike in the film, where Onceler went bankrupt before the city's renovation was even finished.

The city was done before the Onceler went bankrupt; in fact, considering that his fame lasted around 5 years, the city would have been done around the end of the second/start of the third year.

Onceler is very similar to O'Hare, everything in the town revolves around him and his company. Thneed Inc not only makes Thneeds, but they own a construction company, they make cars, they make food, they make roads, they make clothes, they sell apartments, and everyone in the town, even if they're not directly working at the Thneeds factory, they're working at these outbuildings of the company. Ice cream shops, supermarkets, hotels, everything. Onceler has been buying up the small, independent shops in Greenville so the residents basically have to choose between working for Thneed Inc or leaving town, as there is nothing else in Thneedville. There must be a small grocery store here, or maybe a flower shop there owned by some stubborn elder couple, but that's it. Soon they won't be able to handle the pressure and by the time we get to O'Hare's Thneedville everything will be taken over by the pure capitalism.

2012 and 1972 adaptations are both taken into account, so there's Onceler Hills, a plaza with a golden statue/fountain just like the one from 1972 and also the annexes in the city. However, at the same time there is still a residential neighborhood, shopping center, casinos, cinemas, squares, etc. Many people also live in apartments. The factory workers live in Thneedville as well.

Thneed Inc Building:

In addition to the factory that is outside the city, Thneed Inc has a building in the middle of Thneedville, where fashion shows, parties, photo shoots with models (not only in the Thneeds/clothing part but also in promotional photos for other products made by Thneed Inc), etc take place. The maintenance part of the company is at Onceler's hands at the factory, he is the one who deals with the most important part such as contracts, expansion of the franchise, partnerships, and the Onceler always has to be present in the media at parties, photos, interviews, fashion shows and others, so he's a very busy guy. All company decisions also need to be known to him before, usually coming from his secretaries Miss Funtzler, Miss O'Schmuntzler and his mother (even though this last one sometimes does things without asking him first)

The parties are held to gain engagement on TV and in the newspapers, to sign contracts with other important names in the business, to maintain commercial agreements, to share company updates through public speeches and more (by the way, TV's, cameras, reporters and newspapers are all 60s style). They also promote Thneed products and sometimes there are fashion shows to show the versatility of Thneeds as garments and diverse functions. The guests are celebrities, reporters, businessmen, as well as their own models, the Onceler family and some employees. There is a red carpet at the entrance where there are many photos and sometimes autographs signed, but this is more unusual.

Onceler lives at the penthouse. When you take the elevator up to the top floor, the only door available is his. He has security guards who only let him (or authorized people) in. When you enter his penthouse, the first thing you see is a large open area (apparently rounded) with a kitchen area, a living area, and a dining area with a table, all separated but part of one large room. On the opposite side of the entrance door, there are "windows" that surround almost half of the room and there's a balcony outside, it has curtains for privacy. After that, there is a hallway between the living room and kitchen with other rooms and he has a guitar room, a desk to work at home (he never uses it), several giant pictures with newspaper articles talking about his success, photos of him, and lastly, the bedroom. The bedroom is rounded like the living room, and also has large windows that look out onto a balcony, but Onceler has curtains to cover this balcony and have some privacy. In the bedroom, in a separate room, he also has a closet full of expensive and diverse clothes (which he usually doesn't wear) and a huge bathroom as well, with two sinks, a sofa, a bathtub and a shower. He also has another bathroom like this outside the bedroom, near the living room.

Ending:

This is all just a huuuge sketch. I don't know what to do with it except telling you guys the story through a tumblr post and make silly arts about it. I'm trying to figure out how to draw Onceler in my artstyle, and at the moment his face is looking a bit too much like other artists' Oncelers, he's a bit undercooked. But let's pray I find it out soon 😭

I took weeks writing this post.

[aquaburst3]

By popular request...or an anon commenting me last night about enjoying me creating posts about the flaws in TWST and wanting me to talk about the worldbuilding aspect specifically along with me having some free time between jobs, here it is!

Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is all personal opinion. If you enjoy the worldbuilding in the game and find zero problems with it, great! I don't care. You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine.

Where do I even begin? The shorter question would be, "What isn't wrong with it?" xD But seriously, oh, boy—there's a lot. Hell, this is pretty much my go-to example how NOT to write an urban fantasy world.

The closest thing I can compare the world of TWST to is the movie Bright—and that's NOT a good thing. For those of you who never had the misfortune of watching that late 2010s trainwreck, it's about a cop played by Will Smith teaming up with an orc to retrieve a magic wand. Sounds cool, right? However, like with TWST, the worldbuilding is something to be desired. It's an alternate universe where two thousand years ago there was a big war between The Nine Races where the orcs supported the Dark Lord, but an orc defected and lead an army that defeated him. Despite everything, it's pretty much exactly like real life with a few added fantasy elements. It even brings up real world pop culture references, containing such cringey and problematic lines like, "Fairy lives don't matter" after the Will Smith cop squishes a pixie that's on par with a raccoon in that world.

The worldbuilding in TWST feels like that. It's exactly like real life but with a few Disney and fantasy elements slapped on top, like magnets on a fridge. There is hardly any deviation from real life. Things like planes, cell phones, methods of measuring, days of the week, etc all exist just as they do irl. When you stop and think about it, half of these things shouldn't exist and the other should be a little different.

Yana also never thinks of the implications all of this alternate history. Magic always existing and the Greek gods being real should have a huge ripple effect, creating a completely different history compared to real life, but yet it doesn't. Hell, the whole idea of knowing that the Greek gods are real alone would massively change world history, since they would be a proven concept, snuffing out every other religion in existence! The world should be more massively different than ours with Disney sprinkled on top. There's no imagination about how a world like this would work. To quote Lindsey Ellis, "You cannot import elements from our real world without including all of the history that comes with them. You can, but it's lazy, and it sucks." xD Sure, you can write a fantasy world with cars and stuff, but the histories and the ways those exist in those worlds cannot be the exact same. There must be some divergence for it to make sense.

None of the new worldbuilding elements sense or feels woven in. It feels like Yana tossing out whatever idea she comes up up with at the wall and seeing what sticks. A lot of it starts to fall a part or even contradicts itself.

Take the whole Stitch or Tsums events. The existence both of these imply that aliens exist. That brings up a lot of questions like...

What is this world's policy for alien life?

Are aliens well known entities for this world?

What are other's reaction to this?

How did his story play out in this world if that's the case?

Everyone in this world has a Disney counterpart, right? If that's the case, wouldn't that mean there's some TWST version of Stitch running around Night Raven?

Is any of this ever addressed? Nope. That's stupid. World shattering shit like that should be addressed. While I know these are probably more than likely corporate mandates, especially since Tmus are a Japanese Disney product while Stitch is super popular in Japan, she could've added a disclaimer saying that it's a crack au that has nothing to do with the canon. The fact that these are both canon is mind boggling.

Plus, both of these events create a giant plot hole. If aliens are known to exist in this world, then why the fuck can't Yuu go home? If aliens exist, wouldn't there be portals and other ways for them to go home? It just makes Yuu and the rest of the cast look like total dumbasses for never thinking of this!

It goes beyond stupid events, but happens in general. The game routinely brings up similar elements without thinking of their implications on the game as a whole. Take the whole existence of STYKs. It was never once brought up or foreshadowed in the game, but brings about a lot of questions that are hardly explored. Like if this has existed for hundreds of years, how the fuck hasn't anyone heard of it? If STYKS is attached has a branch which is like our world's, someone should've blew the whistle eons ago. Surely, someone as smart as Idia or another mage should've been able to hack them and expose that to the public. Right? Wouldn't there be more of a public outcry for stealing people away, including royalty? Wouldn't there be government oversight about this? None of these questions are never addressed. Yet that element is slapped in without a second thought. Same also goes for all of the new lore in regards to Lilia's past, those pointless prophet dreams or how Playful Land works.

The magic system and how overblot works also fall apart the more you think about it. According to the light novel, only one out of ten humans is a mage. The percentage goes up in other races, but it remains about the same. But that makes no sense. TWST isn't like the HP universe where mages are isolated from the outside world, they are a part of society. Wouldn't it be the DOMINANT gene after over centuries of mages fucking mortals? I think it being more like the ATLA or BNHA universe where mages are the majority would make a lot more sense. That's what I did in my fic. Hell, it would make the world more unique, because usually fantasy stories have it where mages are a minority.

How overblotting works is never fully explained. All that we know, despite being on the seventh fucking story arc, is that whenever a mage uses Okay, sure. But there are times where that isn't the case. Characters who hard use up any magic like Leona and Vil overblot. Even if you argue that they were emotional during those bits or something, wouldn't the other part play a bigger role, since they used up so little magic in those cases? How in the fuck is that unknown concept to the general public? Wouldn't that be common knowledge? Diseases like Alzheimer's aren't something that everyone experiences, but this existence of those things are still common knowledge. Hell, why is it extremely rare in the first place? Wouldn't it be more commonplace? I feel like having it be a biological consequence of a mage using up too much magic and it being a well known down side to the world like how it is in my writing makes a lot more sense and is much simpler.

The lore around the fae also make zero sense. Common elements in fae lore like never thanking them or accepting gifts from them for you owe them a favour to cream and honey making them drunk are never brought up or mentioned. These are not random tropes brought up in shit like Baldur's Gate 3, but ingrained shit to the fantasy genre. You can't strip them out, because it is what makes the fae, fae. Hardly any types of fae from folklore are ever brought up outside of dragons and Tinkerbell style pixies. Characters like Vil who act very fae like are completely human. To be honest, I genuinely get the sense that Yana has done no research into this topic at all, because that's how out of touch they seem compared to how they are in folklore and other fantasy series. But if that is actually the case, then she should've looked into it more or consulted another writer who knows a lot about it.

Plus, the whole idea behind Briar Valley also makes no sense. They are completely isolated from the rest of the world...because…well, nothing, besides possibly vague hatred of tech. That's dumb. Countries don’t isolate themselves for no reason. There is always some sort of explanation for them to do that, whether it's manufactured for political gain like Panem or out of protection like Wakanda. Seriously, am I the only one that thinks that Brier Valley is just the fantasy Amish? As for the Spinning Wheel Wars, that will be explored in more depth as the fics go on.

If you want to see a world similar to TWST done right, watch The Owl House. That series, too, has a modern fantasy world. Unlike TWST, it seems like a fantasy world with modern elements instead of the other way around. Despite having phone-like devices and manga, it feels like stepping into another world.

Either way, if you wondered why I came up with completely different worldbuilding for my fics—this is exactly why. The worldbuilding in this game is pure dogshit. I wanted to create something leaps and bounds better than the bullshit we got. The fact that me, an amuetur writer, gets complimented and praised for the worldbuilding in my fics and it being better then the game is truly sad. Yana is a seasoned professional with a published manga with dozens of volumes under her belt, she should be better at this than me, not the other way around! Same goes for @stormkitty97, because she helps me brainstorm ideas for my shit and uses it in her writing, too.

The biggest sin of all is that there are some genuinely really cool ideas in TWST. The idea of turning into a monster whenever you use up too much magic is terrifying. The story could've done so much more with that if it made more sense!

As much as I might get hate for saying this, Yana reminds me a lot of Stephanie Meyers in the sense that she can come up with cool concepts and ideas, but has no idea how to execute them properly. I would love to see a better professional writer tackle a concept similar to overblot, because it would be cool and scary in the right hands.

I think one big lesson that amuetur writers like myself can learn from the worldbuilding in TWST is that if you are a "Pantser", aka someone who writes on the fly, like Yana, great, all the more power to you. Hell, I confess that I'm more like Brandon Sanderson in the sense that I'm a mixture of both a "Pantser" and an "Architect" Writer, and I came up with some elements of my worldbuilding on my TWST fics as I was writing like the characters being able to teleport. But for fuck's sake, have a solid plan for your worldbuilding and stick with it. Because constantly throwing ideas at the wall beyond the outlining stage will eventually make these contradictions arise and make your world fall apart. Also, if you are building a modern fantasy world like TWST, always think through the implications each element bring. Adding in elements from our real world will always drag along all of the history tied with it. Having your modern fantasy world seem like TWST or Bright is the last thing you want.

[lore-of-mobius]

Part 4/response

Okay so Imma skip over the first part and get into the details.

On Shadow The Hedgehog

It is heavily implied when Black Doom says "humans are a great energy source for us... they will be well kept," everyone acts mortified. In other words Black Doom is implying the Black Arms are going to use humans as well livestock. This is further backed up by what happens right afterwards when he sends his children the Death Leeches to eat Sonic and friends after he paralyzes them. This is straight up confirmed in the Encyclo-speed-ia on page 154. "Black Doom has used the Chaos Emeralds to move the Black Comet to the planet's surface and begins cultivating all life to feed his minions." So it does come down let the Black Arms win and eat everyone, or stop them by either killing them, letting Shadow do it, or let them starve.

It still falls under that category, especially after Sonic would have learned the following information and well met Black Doom.

So it is correct and the Encyclo-speed-ia does say that, there is a detail that people forget about hive minds given how they are depicted. That is hive minds do have individuals acting of their own accord while still being part of one. Symbiotes from Marvel and the inhabitants of Gardenton from Amphibia. And for real life look to bees and ants. In other words they are a Hive Mind lead by Black Doom, but they are individuals. This is kinda made evident by Doom's Eye acting on it's own accord without Doom.

On Eggman

So I don't remember where it was said but I recall in the comics they do say the Badniks are looking for Eggman, and that they just aren't coordinated in their efforts until Metal stepped in. Alternative ring leaders can include Orbot and Cubot and now Sage.

Letting Eggman go isn't what Sonic always does as he has been seen chasing Eggman down or throwing a rock at him as he tried to get away before.(Whether or not the ending is canon it is still giving us a look at Sonic's character.) On Sonic Heroes

So funny you should mention Goku cause Sonic as I and many other people have noticed is pretty similar to Goku. Not necessarily caring about heroism alongside the battle shonen adventure. Second Sonic like Goku in that way as he does spare Metal in this case on wanting to fight him again, even more evident in the Japanese version. "If you wanna settle the score, you can come back as often as you want." Which in contrast to his reasoning for letting Metal go in the comics, it is very different. Some that goes into it well is ALtheBoi in the video The Soul of Sonic Stories. Basically Sonic doesn't learn about friendship or to better listen to his friends. That Sonic isn't really the one that goes on a character arc but those around him as they are inspired and his unbreakable spirit to undergo change as he always keeps a smile on his face. On top of Sonic at this point knowing Eggman is never going to change and expecting him to is well dumb. That "you and I are same in the way that we have our own styles that we won't change. Yours is filled with evil and mine is not. There is no way I can lose!"

On top of not stopping to start monologuing to some fox bullies and say "don't do that," but rather lead by example. On top of not feeling upset if say Tails get captured but rather running in full steam right away as "his anger explodes with surprising consequences." Or how instead of trying to talk to and rationalize with Shadow they first me Sonic is ready to throw hands.

On Adventure 2

Yeah when I wrote this line "On top of that this part appears as a moment when Eggman could have turned good," I wasn't really thinking and yeah I disagree with myself here. I think what I wanted to say is basically the threat is over and Eggman in this moment wasn't hostile if you will. The say is saved and the adventure. He let's Eggman get away sometimes other times he is going to try to catch him, Sonic goes with the wind.

Again, remember my point is Sonic is opposed to killing or imprisoning his opponents, and in the case of the Black Arms letting Shadow do it. In other words Sonic doesn't have a strong ideology leaving Eggman alive, again he is not a hero like Batman is as he doesn't care about heroism. This preachy monologuing about not killing or trying to make Eggman become Mr. Tinker is a mischaracterization of the Sonic he have seen in previous games. Or the stuff I talked about with Metal Sonic. Also, again I am not saying Sonic is Deadpool with a "willingness to get actual blood on his hands." But that he is not opposed to it if push comes to shove, and he is not opposed to allowing Shadow to take out Black Doom or in another case Eggman at all(say he's not Mr. Tinker). Or in the case of Mania Adventures, leaving Eggman next to a bomb that Eggman intended to kill Sonic with that for all Sonic new could have been intended to have enough power to wipe out several miles. That Sonic doesn't believe he can't "take away someone's freedom" in the paradox of tolerance, and that he is okay with erasing Mephiles from the timeline for example.

Think of it like Mario, canonically Mario isn't opposed to killing his opponents but doesn't aim to unless push comes to shove.

Oh yeah Sonic did try to kill King Arthur, even though they were an illusion he didn't know what and did intend to kill him.

Sonic Has Been Mischaracterized In The IDW Comics Part 2

Part 1 On top of this Sonic has shown no signs of being opposed to killing. For example, in Sonic Mania Adventures Sonic has left Eggman hanging in a trap that Eggman made that he intended to kill Sonic with. Yes Eggman didn't die status quo and all, but that doesn't negate that Sonic left Eggman in this trap what was intended to kill him. While I don't know a whole lot about the game, in Shadow The Hedgehog Sonic would have to either kill the Black Arms Aliens by either doing it himself, letting Shadow finish them off, or letting them starve in order to protect Earth from them which he seems to have no problem with. On top of this Sonic's response to Shadow in the Japanese version of Sonic Heroes saying "then it looks like you'll have to die." Being "that's my line," which would imply he says this from time to time, probably to Eggman whenever he announces another one of his plans of world domination. Also, Sonic has been shown to be okay with imprisoning his opponents as we see in imprison Erazor Djinn in Sonic And The Secret Rings.

Soooo… Yeah this does conflict with his IDW depiction, but so does Sonic Prime. So here's how I see it. One can deal with some of the things said by Sonic by headcanoning them as misinterpretations through the lens of other characters like Surge, Kit, and Eggman. While he still has a view of restorative justice thanks to Amy and Mecha Sonic, it is not his soul way of going about things.

[twistedtavern]

now I wanna hear about all your Neige aus

Honey, you've got a big storm comin

I'll give a semi detailed run through of all four bec you deserve it 🥰

Cursefic Neige: The original, hardly any different from canon Neige, the Mew of all my Neige aus. I am quite sure I am never gonna write the cursefic, but this is where all of my RSA stuff originated that I use in Shining Wonderland. He was tricked by the twisted version of Zira (who I made an RSA dorm leader) into casting a spell that would summon some random person from our world (Yuu) into Wonderland, put a love spell on them, and plop them down into Night Raven to "brighten everybody up". He fell for it, roped in all the other dorm leaders, and twisted Zira (I just called him Zeroh) and twisted Aurora turned the love spell into a curse when everybody left them unattended. Everyone in NRC went batshit insane after a while, everyone started dying, Yuu got yoinked to safety, the curse wasn't broken so Neige ended up getting yandere'd and he ended up poisoning everyone involved including himself and Yuu because holy shit they caused literally everyone at NRC to kill each other. It's kind of obvious why I won't write this fully.

Shining Wonderland Neige: Ah, yes. The real Neige. He doesn't do any of the absolute crazy shit cursefic Neige did, so we're safe now. This is the part where I made all of the lore that the other three Neiges use, which is that his mother died when he was born, his father remarried, father died, stepmother hated him and forced him to cook and clean, decided she was fed up with him when he was 10, took him to the island where Night Raven and Royal Sword were located, and then abandoned him there. Extreme denial and abandonment issues in hand, Neige found the cottage with seven orphaned dwarf children, basically raised them on his own for years (he just thinks of them as little brothers though), took up acting to support this newfound family, got famous, eventually went to RSA with his dwarf kids, met RSA!Yuu, and got assimilated into their harem. Turns out, the dwarves parents were the overblot monsters in the mine in Twisted Wonderland in the prologue and Vargas Camp, and during spring break the boys end up beating both of them and restoring the parents, Neige's abandonment issues flared up and he overblotted, he got beat, then thanked for raising the dwarves and promptly adopted into their now reunited family. Happy ending! At least until RSA!Yuu has to leave. This is the base Neige, and this exact lore is apolied unless otherwise stated with changes.

Frost Neige: Okay, so. I looked at Shining!Neige's unique magic, which is basically kissing the homies goodnight into a coma, wanted to give him a more intimidating power for the sake of his overblot, and took the snow part of Snow White very literally. I changed his power to putting people in coffins of ice that basically puts them into hypothermic shock coma until he gets them out. It then spiraled from there. I factored this power into his backstory and the abuse he suffered under his stepmother, so tw from here onward. There was an incident when Neige was about six years old where his stepmother was being especially harsh towards him for not cleaning properly, and he had an outburst that froze her in a coffin for seven days straight, and he could not get her out. From there, she called him a monster and told him a lie that it was his power that caused his mother and father to die, and made sure that he believed it. When she abandoned him and he found the dwarves, he raised them while constantly afraid that some sort of "dark side" of him would come out and hurt them. He puts out a smile and sings away the fear he constantly feels, and yet his mind only rewards him with thoughts that he is merely luring everyone close to freeze them "when the time is right". He suffers from genuine intrusive thoughts that only worsen this cycle. Please, for the love of god, someone give this boy a hug and tell him that unique magic doesn't form until WAY after the baby/toddler stage.

Icy Heart Neige: So, I looked at Frost!Neige and said "hm, what if he was ACTUALLY evil?" and this mf dragged himself out of the depths. Fear not your basic yandere, fear the motherfucker who is a platonic, parental, AND romantic yandere ALL AT ONCE. He actually stayed with his stepmother all his life, but had actually frozen her for good a few years ago and has not let her out since. She had seen potential in his power that she could use for her own gain, and thus raised Neige to do the same. He had been taught from a young age that fear and intimidation are the keys to getting what you want, especially with such a formidable unique magic. When they had eventually gone to the magic school island on a trip, Neige found the dwarves when his stepmother sent him out into the woods to not have to deal with him for a while. He came back with seven smaller children, and since she was having none of it but also didn't want Neige to whine, she told him he could keep them only if he raised them himself. I know. What the fuck. So he basically kept the dwarves like little child-pets and it was exactly as unhealthy and fucked up as it sounds. You think Kalim and Jamil's dynamic is bad? Get a load of these guys. The dwarves were Neige's only outlet and source of affection, however one-sided it was. He forces them to call him Papa (the others do not, and he is only one who considers himself to be in a fatherly position) and he calls all of them his babies, and their personalities are all a result of how they've coped with Neige's near constant presence. When they all go to RSA, he meets RSA!Yuu and shows his true colors after they come to stay at Dormalim (the Snow White dorm) and falls into a very possessive love with them. Once the dwarves' parents are found, his "babies" are promptly confiscated back to their REAL mama and papa and he absolutely fucking snaps. I don't really have a planned end for his story, but know that it isn't good for him.

Reverse!Neige: This post is already pretty long so I'll just link to this post and you can read the summary of him that I put there.

Anyways, they 😳

[sortinghatchats]

The Sorting Hat Chats

“The Basics”

The basic structure of the sortinghatchats system is that you aren’t just sorted into one House, but into two tiers of Houses: Primary and Secondary. 

Your Primary House defines WHY you do things. 

Your Secondary defines HOW. 

To build this system, we’ve drawn on the Sorting Hat’s songs, general HP canon, extracanonical data (ex. interviews with JKR)… and then extrapolated.

People are complex– for joy or for utility, due to social pressure or careless recreation, people often use the reasoning or methods of Houses that aren’t their Primary or Secondary. We call this “modeling” or “performing” a house and we will explain it in greater detail later. These additional layers help us capture some complexities in characters that we couldn’t get using Primary and Secondary alone. People can vary hugely in how they embody their Houses; in this system, Aang, the heroic pacifist protagonist from Avatar the Last Airbender, shares most of his Houses with HP’s Lord Voldemort.

The way you decide which Houses are yours is not necessarily by looking at what you do, but at what would make you proudest and most content if you were strong enough to do it. Your sorting is what you want to be and what you believe you should do, whether or not you actually live up to it. That’s how people like Peter Pettigrew can end up in Gryffindor.

PRIMARIES

Your Primary is your why. It’s your motivations, your values, and the way you frame the world around you. It’s how and what you prioritize, and what you weigh most heavily when making your decisions. People often also assume that others share those priorities. A common response to our system is “but you must oversort into Gryffindor/Slytherin/Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff–everyone has that type of morality, deep down!”

Gryffindor Primaries trust their moral intuitions and have a need and a drive to live by them. They feel what’s right in their gut, and that matters and guides them. If they don’t listen to and act on that, it feels immoral.

We call Gryffindor morality “felt” but that doesn’t mean they’re all impetuous, emotional hellions. Gryffindors can still be intelligent, deliberate creatures who weigh their decisions and moralities carefully. Reasoning, intellectualizing and debate can be support for a Gryffindor’s felt morality– but those things can never make a fully satisfying morality in themselves. Some things are just wrong, no matter what pretty words you use to explain them.

Ravenclaw Primaries have a constructed system that they test their decisions against before they feel comfortable calling something right. This system might be constructed by them, or it might have been taught to them as children, or it might have been discovered by them some point later in life. But it gives them a way to frame the world and a confidence in their ability to interact with it morally.

Ravenclaws do not lack an intuitive sense of morality or gut feeling about things, but they distrust those instincts and have a need to ignore or to dig down deep and dissect those internal moral impulses. Living within their built moral system is as important to a Ravenclaw as to a Gryffindor; it’s the source of the morality that differs between them–what they trust.

Hufflepuff Primaries value people–all people. They value community, they bond to groups (rather than solely individuals), and they make their decisions off of who is in the most need and who is the most vulnerable and who they can help. They value fairness because every person is a person and feel best when they give everyone that fair chance. Even directly wronged, a Hufflepuff will often give someone a second (or fifth) chance.

This doesn’t mean all Hufflepuffs are inherently tolerant human beings, any more than all Gryffindors are inherently good, moral creatures. Hufflepuffs tend to believe that all people deserve some type of kindness, decency, or consideration from them–but they can define “person” however they want, excluding individuals or even whole groups.

Slytherin Primaries are fiercely loyal to the people they care for most. Slytherin is the place where “you’ll make your real friends”– they prioritize individual loyalties and find their moral core in protecting and caring for the people they are closest to.

Slytherin’s reputation for ambition comes from the visibility of this promotion of the self and their important people– ambition is something you can find in all four Houses; Slytherin’s is just the one that looks most obviously selfish.

Because their morality system of “me and mine first” is fairly narrow in scope, Slytherins often construct a secondary morality system to deal with situations that are not addressed by their loyalty system.

SECONDARIES

Your Secondary is your how. It’s how you approach the world as a person interacting with it, and how you make your way. It’s how you problem-solve. It’s not necessarily what you’re best at, or even what’s the most useful to you, but about what skills and methods you value as being intrinsic to you. Do you improvise, do you plan? Do you work on something a little bit every day? Do you charge into the fray and tell people exactly what’s on your mind? What do you do? How would you describe the way you meet the world?

Note: the term “Secondary” is not meant to imply that how you do things is any less important than why (the Primary House). It’s simply the way our terminology fell out and we’re too lazy to change it. The importance of motivations v. methods is a personal sliding scale– it’s perfectly valid for a person to identify with their Secondary House over their Primary. (When drawing from canonical sources, we assumed each character likely was in a House that matched to either their Primary or their Secondary. For instance, Harry is in Gryffindor for his heroic Gryffindor Primary, but Ginny Weasley is there for her brash and bold Gryffindor Secondary.)

Gryffindor Secondaries charge. They meet the world head-on and challenge it to do its worst. Gryffindor Secondaries are honest, brash, and bold in pursuit of things they care about. Known for their bravery, it is almost a moral matter to stay true to themselves in any situation that they’re in.

Ravenclaw Secondaries plan. They collect information, they strategize. They have tools. They run hypotheticals and try to plan ahead for things that might come up. They build things (of varying degrees of practicality and actual usefulness) that they can use later– whether that’s an emergency supply pack, a vast knowledge of Renaissance artistic techniques and supplies, or a series of lists and contingency plans. They feel less at home in improvisation and more comfortable planning ahead and taking the time to be prepared.

Hufflepuff Secondaries toil. Their strength comes from their consistency and the integrity of their method. They’re our hard workers. They build habits and systems for themselves and accomplish things by keeping at them. They have a steadiness that can make them the lynchpin (though not usually the leader) of a community. While stereotyped as liking people and being kind (and this version is perhaps a common reality), a Hufflepuff secondary can also easily be a caustic, introverted misanthrope who runs on hard work alone.

Slytherin Secondaries improvise. They are the most adaptive secondary, finding their strength in responding quickly to whatever a situation throws at them. They improvise differently than the Gryffindor Secondary, far more likely to try coming at situations from different angles than to try strong-arming them. They might describe themselves as having different “faces” for different people and different situations, dropping them and being just themselves only when they’re relaxing or feel safe.

But the Journey Continues…

These four basic Primary and Secondary houses are summarized starting places that we use as a basis for further discussion. What are some ways this gets complicated?

A Gryffindor Primary values morality and action, yes– but the moralities of individual Gryffindors vary intensely. They can range from selfless service to dictatorial world domination to confident self-interest.

Hufflepuff Primaries can be cruel, considering only a sparse few to be included in their definition of “people”; or terrifyingly condescending, deciding that they “know best” and are obligated to enforce that best on others.

“Cold, calculating, logical” Ravenclaw Primaries can build systems that are warm and empathetic, or creative and artistic, or fiercely passionate.

Slytherin Primaries, selfish and small, can become loyal to so many people they look like a kindly Hufflepuff; or, so long as their people are safe, a Slytherin might bury themselves in selfless outward moralities, crusading for a cause.

The Secondaries have their own range of possibilities outside the traditional “stereotypes.” A Gryffindor Secondary can be shy, quiet, and reserved– but their stubbornness (however quiet it is) and their devotion to honesty and forthrightness still earns them a place in that sorting.

A Ravenclaw secondary might hate school, learning, and reading, preferring to gather physical and practical knowledge and excelling that way. You can have Ravenclaw secondaries with learning disorders, memory problems, scatterbrained tendencies– the important thing is that they value and find strength in the idea and act of preparation and gathering knowledge, skills, or tools in advance.

A Hufflepuff Secondary can hate people, scorn displays of kindness, and keep their nose tactiturnly to the grindstone– a different Hufflepuff Secondary might be a warm and gregarious friend, offering smiles to strangers. It is consistency, fairness, and hard work that make the House, not their reputation for niceness. Hard work comes in many forms.

Here are a few ways a Slytherin Secondary can appear to others: obviously slimy; so clumsy that their maneuverings just come out cute; sharp as an axe but so much easier to conceal; bluntly honest until backed up against a wall, when they turn into smoke and vanish; adaptable in ways that put everyone in a room at ease; a tireless trickster who delights in playing (or toying) with people. At the end of the day, a Slytherin Secondary defines themselves by their reactivity, creativity, and ability to change– it doesn’t matter what they are changing to, or from, or why.

BURNT PRIMARIES

In addition to the diversity within each Primary, we also have something we call “burning.” A burned House happens when one of the four Primaries loses something intrinsically stabilizing to their system without losing their feeling of how important their original priorities are. This can come from trauma, disillusionment, exhaustion, or just… life. To a “burned” Primary, unburned members of the same House often look childish, naive, or just annoying.

Burned Gryffindor Primaries are Gryffindors who have lost their faith in their internal moral compass. Doing what is right is still just as important, but they don’t know how to know what’s right. To an outside observer, burned Gryffindor Primaries often look more stable and calm than unburned Gryffindors, but this is a deeply unsettling thing to be on the inside of. Many burned Gryffs will find a new system to adopt and live by–but this new system is never as comfortable, satisfying, and natural as their original system.

Corie Halsing from Summers at Castle Auburn, Peggy Carter (who latches onto her somewhat glorified idea of Steve’s “better” Gryffindor Primary) from Agent Carter, and Zoe and Shepherd Book from Firefly are all examples of Burned Gryffindors.

Burned Ravenclaw Primaries have not lost their belief in their morality system– reviewing, discounting, and changing their moral system is often a common and casual Ravenclaw activity. Burned Ravenclaws have lost faith in their ability to build or find a system of truth. Sent into a spiral by realizations of the impossibility of objectivity, or by finding an irresolvable contradiction in their current system, they “fall.” This is the least sustainable of the Burned Primaries, and Burned Ravenclaws don’t tend to stay Burned for long, usually finding a new system.

Some examples of Burned Ravenclaws who stay fallen are Javert from Les Mis (who commits suicide once he Falls) and Bruce Banner from the Avengers (first movie). Jemma from Agents of SHIELD is a Ravenclaw Primary who does find a new system, but spends a good portion of the second season Burned– once a curiosity-driven scientist, the deaths of her friends drive her toward a new system of fear and xenophobic caution.

Burned Hufflepuff Primaries have decided that it’s too hard, impractical, or ultimately futile to care about everyone, and so they have shrunk their circle by changing it from a system that defaults with “I care about you” to a system that says “I cannot care about everyone, so I only care about my people.” It has switched from a basically inclusionary system to a basically exclusionary system.

Burned Puffs look a lot like Slytherin Primaries in this way except that a Burned Puff wants to care about the whole world. They wish they could, but they just can’t. This exclusion of others feels wrong and even evil (burned Houses often consider themselves “bad people”), but the world is an unjust place and you have to try to live in it.

Mal from Firefly and Dean Winchester from Supernatural are both examples of Burned Puff Primaries.

Burned Slytherin Primaries have gone from an inner circle of a few to an inner circle of one (their own self). They have decided that having any people is no longer an option. They’re worried about those people getting hurt or they’re worried about losing those people and being hurt themselves. This character type is often the Ice Queen or portrayed as ruthless, chilly, apathetic, or selfish. With no driving moral forces but their own needs and desires, these people are often cast as villains. Sometimes, Burned Slytherins even burn so far as to kick themselves out of their inner circle, and then don’t even have their own ambitions to guide them.

Jeff Winger from Community, a Burned Slytherin of the first type, struggles to attach to even the friends he makes in the study group. Many of his character plot-lines focus on his fears of abandonment and exclusion, and self-interest is what he’s always able to fall back on.

Can Secondaries Burn?

Secondaries “burn” differently than Primaries. While with a Primary (see above) each House burns in a different way, fully burned Secondaries all look fairly similar. (When they’re still in the process of or partially “burnt,” you can still see hints of the original Secondary to give you a clue).

Secondaries are about methods; a burned Secondary happens when the methods stop mattering. An exhausted or extremely disillusioned person might stop having a preference toward their methods and just do whatever seems the most likely to finish things quickly or effectively. A person with a burned Secondary will use any tactics, from any Secondary, and find joy and comfort in none of them. It might be because their old methods began to seem useless and flawed, or because they somehow lost the strength and confidence to use those old tactics.

When we first meet Bucky Barnes in The Winter Soldier, his brainwashing and intense mission focus has burned his Secondary. He doesn’t care how he gets the job done so long as the job gets done. Helena from Orphan Black, another brainwashed killer, also displays the burned Secondary.

Nico di Angelo, the put-upon son of Hades in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus novels, burns his Secondary over the course of the books. His Hufflepuff Primary survives grief, betrayal, loneliness, kidnapping, starvation, and mistrust– his Primary still drives him to help those in need. It is his Secondary that takes the damage as Nico rapidly loses any preference to method and just exhaustedly gets the job done. (His interactions with Reyna in the final book suggest Nico, with the help of friends, might be able to recuperate his burned Secondary into something more capable of joy.)

Even though from the outside most Burned Secondaries will look the same to a reader or outside observer, it’s important to note that from the inside, the experience will be fairly different. A Burned Hufflepuff Secondary is going to wish for, want, and grate at different things than a Burned Gryffindor Secondary. Even though both will tend to do “whatever it takes” to survive or achieve their goals, different things are going to bother them more, satisfy them more, or bring them hope. 

A note: 

Our system is based on the Harry Potter canonical sorting system, especially in the way that it is defined by choice. You can go up to the Hat and sit down and hear it say that you would do well in Slytherin, but if you would rather be in Gryffindor, then you’re a Gryffindor. That’s something we very intentionally keep as a defining point of our system because of how much respect we have for it, both as a facet of life and as a defining motif of Harry Potter. If someone is a Hufflepuff Primary, Ravenclaw Secondary, but identifies as a Slytherin– then, as far as we’re concerned, they’re a Slytherin.

Another Way of Looking at Things

Above we’ve given you a set of brief descriptions of each Primary and Secondary (burned and unburned). Here we’re going to talk about a few ways we group and differentiate between each House. We’ve found looking at the system this way helps when trying to understand where a person or character might fall on it.

Splitting Up the Primaries

Idealist v. Loyalist

Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Primaries are the Idealists; Hufflepuff and Slytherin Primaries are the Loyalists.

Idealists focus on concepts and truths and what is right and what is good. They are big picture thinkers and have moral drives that closest to what we think of when we think of typical moral drives: this is right because the most people benefit, this is wrong because people get hurt, this is gray so we have to look at the specifics. There is a system of rights and wrongs and in betweens and those things all matter.

Loyalists care about people. Whether it’s a few people or a whole world of people, at the center of their moral system is to do what is best for those people.

Decided v. Intuitive

Hufflepuff and Gryffindor are our Intuitive houses; Ravenclaw and Slytherin are our Decided houses.

Here, the Intuitive houses place an importance on the gut instinct. People are people and that matters, they might say. When asked why, they’re most likely to respond “because of course it does.” The Intuitive houses are united by the moral fire and righteous passion of characters like Mal from Firefly, Steve Rogers, Katara, and Harry Potter.

Intuitive Houses are perfectly capable of questioning, doubting, defying, and changing their beliefs– but they are at their most content and joyous when they are in a situation where they feel able to act on what they think is right without wavering or hesitating.

Decided houses still have gut instincts toward morality, but have constructed systems that they use outside that first intuition.

Ravenclaws are likely to step back and question their gut and, most importantly, place more value on the answer they get from questioning it than on the gut instinct itself. The feeling that drives “of course people matter” is valid, but it’s not enough for a Ravenclaw Primary. Ravenclaws will build their system and test it against examples and logic; or adopt a trusted ally, culture, or religion’s system wholesale and trust that above their own heart. Going with their gut against their reason makes them feel guilty the same way a Gryffindor going against their gut to do the “smart” thing would feel like a sell-out.

A Slytherin’s base morality (roughly: “me and mine first”) is a very Intuitive thing, so why do we call them Decided? That basic morality of their people mattering leaves a lot of gaps in interacting with the world. Different Slytherins deal with those gaps in different ways– sometimes by ignoring them and sometimes by constructing them. Sometimes a Slytherin will adopt a system that looks like one of the other Primaries, living by that other morality unless something threatens one of their people. Because this external system is an important part of how many Slytherins interact with the world, they are included as a “Decided” House.

Also, Slytherin Primaries “choose” their prioritized loved ones in a way that Hufflepuffs don’t. While that Slytherin loyalty is often very passionate, it’s also something that is decided on.

There are some hard corner cases in drawing all these lines (for example, what happens when an idealist’s “right” is a loyalist’s people-first system?) and we will talk more about how to differentiate those in the individual Primary posts.

Internal v. External 

Gryffindor Primaries and Slytherin Primaries are the Internal Primaries. Their morality derives from inside themselves-- from a Gryffindor’s “gut” or moral compass, or from a Slytherin Primary’s love and valuing of their self and closest people. External influence won’t sway them when they know they’re right. These can be really valuable and powerful primaries when you’re up against gaslighting, corrupt authorities, or external pressures. 

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are the External Primaries. When what they FEEL contradicts with their external moral inputs (things they’ve learned, things they see in front of them, input from trusted advisers or communities), then they feel obligated to ignore that “little voice inside” for the sake of what’s actually good and true. Being moral isn’t about making the choice that makes you feel good. It’s about making the choice that’s good. 

Splitting the Secondaries

Builders v. Improvisers

In the Secondaries, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are the Builders; Slytherin and Gryffindor Secondaries are the Improvisers.

Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws build. Pushed into hard situations, it is what they already have achieved and brought with them that helps them most. Ravenclaw secondaries make tools to do the things they need, to do the things that delight them, to defend against the things they fear. Hufflepuff Secondaries make themselves into people who can do the things they need, to do the things that delight them, and to defend against the things they fear.

Hufflepuffs toil and work hard at what they want to accomplish and build up a system that is powerful because it is built on sturdy integrity. People trust them to show up, because they always do. They move along at a steady pace: the tortoise to the improviser’s hare. This can look like community building, being the reliable friend who’s always there when you need someone. It can also look like the hard-working student who studies hard and gets all of their work done thoroughly. If a Hufflepuff Secondary cuts a corner then it’s because the corner shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Ravenclaws data-collect. They build systems and hypotheticals and plan out contingency plans for their plans. They like knowing what they’re getting into before they go into a situation, and while they might still be good at improvising, they don’t prefer it.

You can get Ravenclaw Secondaries who look like Hermione, who studies and can tell you the important (and less important) details from Hogwarts: A History, but you can also have creative Ravenclaw Secondaries who thrive on allowing themselves room for flexibility. You can have painters who, when they studied color, studied all of color until they understood not just which colors work well together, but why they work well together; gardeners for whom looking up how to care for the individual plants in their garden isn’t enough, so they dive head-first into plant biology and soak up all the information they can. When a problem comes up later in painting, in gardening, in life– they can pull something pre-made or pre-learned out of their mental (or physical) pockets and put it to use.

As Improvisers, Slytherin and Gryffindor Secondaries feel best prepared for something when they jump into the middle of it and start reacting to the situation. Going in with a plan can sometimes mess them up.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is a great example of a Gryffindor Secondary who needs to improvise: when they gave her scripts to make her inspiring, they fell flat. Her heart wasn’t in them because they felt contrived and disingenuous. When she stepped up lead, when she did inspire, it was spurred on from her gut, taken from the moment, and filled with real feeling. She couldn’t fake it and she couldn’t plan or predict it.

Likewise, a Slytherin Secondary dodges and maneuvers, not charging like a Gryffindor Secondary but changing. They read things moment to moment and meet opportunities head-on. If a Slytherin Secondary goes in with a plan, they might miss an opening that they would have been able to grab ahold of and use to make their point. Remove their ability to be flexible in the moment and they’ll sometimes go so far as to stare blankly at you. Jeff Winger from Community is a good example of this: given time to plan something out he won’t, because he knows that he’s most likely to get what he wants if he just jumps into the action and gives an inspiring (and manipulative) speech at the last moment.

Situational v. Inspirational

Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Secondaries are the Inspirational Secondaries. Their greatest strengths often lie in the effects they have on others. This is not always true nor is it the sole truth of these Houses– but it’s a common and useful tendency between them.

To a degree this is best summed up by the idea of trustworthiness. The forthright presence of a Gryffindor Secondary, sure, secure, and living on their sleeve, tends to inspire in others a desire to follow or believe in them. When they plow forward with their charging improvisational Secondary, Gryffindors often find people following behind them or opening doors in front of them. There can be something so inherently honest about a Gryffindor Secondary that inspires trust.

Gryffindor Secondaries have a tendency to sway even unwilling others to their goals. As leaders by example, or excellent and often unaware speech givers, the certainty with which a Gryffindor Secondary moves can inspire others to believe what they believe. Katniss Everdeen’s unasked for and powerful status as the Mockingjay, a symbol of social change and revolution, is an example of this; so are the unasked-for armies that form around Keladry of Mindelan in the Protector of the Small books. Gryffindor Secondaries are often unaware of the changes they are causing in the hearts and lives around them, though some learn to turn it to their (or the world’s) advantage.

Hufflepuff Secondaries, too, fall into this phenomenon of trustworthiness. There is less of a tendency to follow them to death and mayhem, but more of a tendency to believe them when they speak or ask for favors. Gryffindor Secondaries tend to light people up and make them want to be better– Hufflepuff Secondaries, often background characters even in their own lives, tend to make people feel safe. They’re likely to get secrets, to be allowed places they shouldn’t be, and to thoughtlessly be handed responsibility, powers, and favors. This is a very quiet power and one that can be used for either good or evil.

Even the taciturn misanthrope Hufflepuff Secondary we keep bringing up (they exist!) can have this effect–they are less likely to have powerful loyal communities form around them in quiet support, but they’re likely to be someone who everyone just knows you can rely on. Even unlikeable Hufflepuff Secondaries tend to be relied upon heavily, trusted to get things done– even if their quiet contributions are being overlooked and belittled by people who only understand flashy kinds of power.

Slytherin and Ravenclaw Secondaries are the Situational Secondaries. Situational secondaries tend to excel inside of certain types of situations, rather than succeeding because of an ability to call for aid or inspire those around them. They are at their best in situations that are suited to their skill sets, and are less affected by the larger context the situation takes place in. They would have similar levels of competence in a room filled with their peers as they would in a room filled with strangers.

A Ravenclaw’s core strength of drawing on previous knowledge and a Slytherin’s of adapting to situations both rely on that individual’s skillset. While they can draw on support from the people around them, that’s not where most of their advantage in a situation is going to come from. Support from the people around them is unlikely to be the deciding factor in most everyday situations because that support would not add compatibility to a single person’s adaptation skills, or to a Ravenclaw’s knowledge base.

And while the “inspirational” Hufflepuff Secondary builds things through consistency, creating communities and influential reputations, a Ravenclaw Secondary builds things internally– lists and knowledge and well-vetted strategies. These things only grow more complicated and more likely to prompt disagreement when the thoughts and plans of other people are added into the mix.

Similarly, a Slytherin Secondary has neither the benefits of community that the Hufflepuff Secondary has, nor the ability to inspire that the Gryffindor Secondary has. They are more likely to look like lone wolves, whether because they intentionally present as competent and confident enough to not need help, or because it’s hard for the people around them (especially those who aren’t Slytherin Secondaries themselves) to keep up with their quick shifts and flexible, ever-changing methods.

One of the few places where you do get a Slytherin Secondary who is helped by the people around them is when you have two skilled Slytherin Secondaries who either already know each other or who have compatible methods. That can result in a kind of double-teaming of the situation, with quips layered with information and nudges toward strategy that can leave the people around them both unsure of exactly what’s going on, and swayed toward certain plans of action without being altogether sure why.

Solid v Fluid 

Hufflepuff and Slytherin Secondary are our fluid secondaries. They will become whatever is needed to fit the space they are in-- to keep the peace, to win their goal, to stay safe they will change who they are and how they act. 

Hufflepuff Secondaries have to “feel it” “all the way down” for this transformation to work for them. This ability may come from empathy, altering their mind and point of view to “see through” the eyes of whoever they’re interacting with. It’s genuine-- in the moment-- but it’s flexible and dependent on context. 

Slytherin Secondaries are more likely to just be “code switching,” changing up their mannerism and presentation to fit a new space. They don’t have a need to “mean it” or to feel the emotions they are expressing all the way down to their toes. They act, transform, change. 

Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are both more static and more stable. They don’t “transform” the way the fluid secondaries do. With Gryffindor Secondaries, this has to do with their need to be authentically themselves. They lose a lot of power -- and a lot of satisfaction and comfort -- by not allowing themselves to genuinely react and be. 

Ravenclaw Secondaries are strongest in areas they’ve already learned, prepared, studied, or experienced. As such, they may have a hard time being “flexible” in spaces where they don’t already know how to walk the walk and talk the talk. 

Models and Performances: More Layers?!

If you’re pulled toward multiple primaries or secondaries, it’s worth looking at whether or not you model some of them. A model is a place you can live. It’s not as intrinsic to you as your Primary or Secondary, but it can still be hugely important.

A model can be useful; it can make you happy; it can make you feel like a good person. It can further the goals of your Primary or help you be more effective in your Secondary. It can be what you want to spend all of your time working toward as long as your Primary isn’t being threatened. You can drop your model (or models! you can have multiple), but that doesn’t mean that you ever want to.

You can model a Primary OR a Secondary (or both!). Just saying “[character] models Slytherin” isn’t useful– though our older posts will often fall into this bad habit. For example: Gale from The Hunger Games models Slytherin Primary– it’s this ability to prioritize of the people he loves (and who Katniss loves) that allows actual Slytherin Primary Katniss to see him as a good friend and ally. However, Gale looks nothing like a Slytherin Secondary, modeled or otherwise. In contrast, Jemma Simmons from Agents of SHIELD is learning to model Slytherin Secondary– her powers of improvisation, deceit, and manipulation are growing in an awesomely terrifying manner as she’s put into harder and more complex situations– but she’s still often baffled by Fitz’s Slytherin Primary, herself having a solid Ravenclaw Primary.

A performance is a toolkit. If a model is a place you can live, then a performance is a way you can act. It doesn’t feel like it’s really you, not deep down, but it can still be important to you. For people who have consistent performances, this is the layer that often interacts most directly with the world around them. It’s the part that people see the most because it’s the part most on the surface. Someone who often finds themselves a host to parties but who doesn’t do that intuitively might develop a Hufflepuff Primary Performance in order to present themselves properly as a caring, empathetic host. A Gryffindor/Gryffindor passionate about science might develop a Ravenclaw Secondary Performance to “seem” more appropriate in that social context.

Models and performances can be taken on for reasons of delight, necessity, or utility. There is no unifying reason that people choose them. Shirley Bennett of Community uses her Hufflepuff Secondary Performance (sweet voiced endearments and smiles) sometimes for fun, sometimes for manipulation, and sometimes as a threat display.

Due to the strict gender roles of their culture, Katara of Avatar is expected to employ a performance of the often feminine-coded “motherly” Hufflepuff Secondary while her brother Sokka has to don the stereotypical “brave leader” performance of a Gryffindor Secondary. Over the course of the series, they dismantle and complicate these roles, learning to embrace the strengths they have rather than the ones they are supposed to have

Lorelei Gilmore of Gilmore Girls, who shares a Slytherin Secondary with her mother, has such an intense dislike of the manipulations and subtleties of her childhood house that she created herself a forthright Gryffindor Secondary model to use during emotional conflicts.

A note: 

One person might have just a Primary and Secondary House. Another person might have a Primary, a Secondary, two Primary models, a Secondary model, and a Primary and a Secondary Performance; another just a Primary, their Secondary House having been burned away. Neither of these options are more or less complete than other, and lacking models and performances doesn’t mean that you’re any less complex of a person.

The Quiz: 

If you’ve read all this way (or if you didn’t), you might be interested in our Sorting Hat Chats quiz, located here: https://ejadelomax.itch.io/sortinghatchats

The quiz can take anywhere from ten minutes to three hours, depending on how much you argue with it. You can argue with it! Remember, the wizard chooses the House... 

Want to learn more? Check out some of our further posts here: 

Gryffindor Primary

Ravenclaw Primary

Hufflepuff Primary

Slytherin Primary

Gryffindor Secondary

Ravenclaw Secondary

Hufflepuff Secondary

Slytherin Secondary

Our posts are also all archived on our blog: sortinghatchats.wordpress.com

[freddieofhearts]

Bye bye, dears (for now!)

I know there have been a lot of rumours and some posts about me leaving, so here I am to set the record straight and say a quick ‘au revoir’. This post is long, and I don’t expect everyone to read the whole thing—if you just want information on how to keep in touch, or about access to my removed fics, scroll to the bottom. ⬇️

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Why are you leaving?

Firstly, of course I’m not leaving Freddie. This is just an ongoing hiatus from the social side of fandom, because while I have some incredible friends here, who have done all they can to support me and have made this experience wonderful in lots of ways—it’s also true that the social space has become more and more toxic for me.

I get a wild amount of hate. Despite never having my ask box enabled on here, people create new accounts just to message me and tell me all the problems in this fandom are my fault, that I’m faking being sick, that I should kill myself, that I’m fat, etc. I also very regularly get hateful comments on AO3.

Obviously I realise that I’m not the only one who receives these cruel attacks, but it’s become increasingly hard to handle them—especially as some people (‘real’ accounts, not faceless anons) do continue to blame me for wider problems in the fandom. It makes me feel consistently sad, anxious, and paranoid, so that I can’t focus on anything Queen-related that I enjoy.

More pressingly, it’s affected my mental health, which is—imperfect at the best of times. As I’ve occasionally alluded to in older posts on this blog, I have a history of anorexia, OCD, PTSD, and some other overlapping issues. Most people who know me in the fandom are also aware that I’m ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ to Covid-19, significantly immunocompromised, and have been isolating at home for eleven months.

The combination of all of these things + the constant toxic messages has really been triggering me, and leading to an uptick in disordered behaviours, which my body cannot sustain. Every new instance of hate from an anon—every time there’s another indication of groups in the fandom wanting to ostracise me further—my reaction is deeply self-punitive and unhealthy. Ultimately I need to be out of this environment for, at least, a protracted period. My therapist, my partner and my close friends in the fandom support this decision.

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So, what went wrong?

In 2019, I expected to be an absolutely tiny blog in the Queen Tumblr landscape. The fandom was already well-established, and I have never worked to ‘build a following’ on here—I think I’ve linked my own fic a maximum of three or four times!—in fact, more or less the opposite. As I mentioned above: ya girl is nutty as a fruitcake. As a result, I often avoid extremely niche things in daily life which cause severe anxiety for me, Relevant examples here: I never look at my timeline. I never intentionally look at my follower number. Yup, it’s strange, I fully admit it, but it’s best for me to go with these things—usually. In Queen fandom, however, this avoidance both of analytic stats and of most direct engagement led to some problems... My followers grew without me realising, and way more people were reading my blog than I was aware of. I was still in a—“Wow, this fandom is very frustrating, and rife with ableism, racism, etc., so how do we fix this???”—mindset, and I wanted to share my opinions, sure! but I also thought I was sharing them with 15-20 like-minded people.

Now, intent is not impact, and I recognise that I was brusque, didn’t phrase things particularly sensitively, and absolutely did hurt some people by criticising the fandom so freely. I still regret this—and I regret just as much the fact that some assholes have used my criticising the fandom on my own blog as implicit justification for attacking authors. I have said on here many times that I don’t condone that behaviour—but I also think there’s some truth in the presumption that these anonymous malcontents felt my critiques somehow ‘permitted’ them to engage in abuse. For the first few months, though, I genuinely had no idea there was a link at all—and so I was initially slow to condemn this abusive behaviour in public, because I was taking it for granted all authors agreed it was shitty. It took someone directly telling me (shoutout to @a-froger-epic) that people had identified a connection between my posts and the anons, before everything fell into place.

I would like to offer my apologies to the fandom at large for not being more quick on the uptake about this, because I feel that had I realised sooner that these people were taking ‘inspiration’ in some way from me, it might have been easier to put a stop to it. It does seem that there is still a lot of confusion about whether I support them and which of their views I agree with. Let’s be 100% clear on this: I do not support the anonymous commenters on AO3. At times there is some, limited overlap between parts of their views and parts of mine, but even that is less than you may think—I often see anonymous comments from so-called ‘Freddie fans’ that I substantially disagree with.

Perhaps even more importantly: I do not support anyone who sends anonymous hate on Tumblr.

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What’s all this about ‘overlap’ with the anons?

Let’s do a mini-summary of the myths vs. the truth. There are views I hold which are genuinely unpopular in the fandom—but which I own up to completely, and have never tried to hide in any way. I’ve never needed to use anonymous to share my opinions because I’m completely open about them! What people who don’t know me tend to have ‘heard’ about me, though, is usually a drastic distortion of my real opinions.

What people think I think:

- Freddie should never top.

- It’s okay to send anon hate if someone writes Freddie ‘wrong’.

- It’s more important to correct ‘wrong’ portrayals than to respect other writers.

- It’s inherently wrong to be more interested in band pairings than canon pairings.

- Freddie should be overtly written as a r*pe survivor/victim (and not doing this is wrong).

- Freddie should be overtly written as having an eating disorder (and not doing this is wrong).

- Kink fics are wrong.

What I actually think:

- I believe Freddie did have a strongly defined sexual identity with marked preferences, but I don’t think Jim Hutton lied when he said that Freddie topped. I believe Freddie did top, but this isn’t the time or place to get into my thoughts on why/when/how much. I do believe that my analysis of the sources relevant to this subject is as historically accurate as one can reasonably be in matters of sex (where historical accuracy will always be particularly limited and imperfect)—but I don’t think it’s morally wrong to write Freddie as topping more than he probably did.

- I don’t believe there’s only one ‘right’ version of Freddie (all others being ‘wrong’). I do believe it is possible to be more right or less right—but I’m also conscious of the fact that this scale of value is not one by which everyone measures fanfiction. As a result, then, I don’t think that any perceptions surrounding ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ justify sending anonymous, non-constructive criticism, or outright hate.

- I do believe constructive criticism is a good thing. I welcome and appreciate it myself; I have received it on my fics in Queen fandom, and it has made them better. I have been in writing workshops which included very forceful criticisms, and the value of such feedback has been intimately and immediately part of my life as a writer for years. However: in this case, I have accepted that my opinion differs from the general community preference, and so I no longer offer any constructive criticism (outside private beta-reading). I haven’t changed my view, but I’ve changed my practice to align with community norms.

- I do not think any single, individual writer has a personal responsibility to write about Freddie Mercury in any given way. That ranges from including the more distressing topics to which I’ve devoted attention (such as trauma)—to concentrating on ‘canon’ pairings like Jimercury—to, even, focusing on Freddie at all.

“Now, that doesn’t sound like you, @freddieofhearts,” you might be thinking. And I know it doesn’t; I think something I’ve done a poor job of articulating is the difference between how I view each individual fan—namely, as free to shape their creative experience at will, even in ways that I might find distressing or offensive; even in ways that you might find distressing or offensive—and the way I view the Collective. I think people have interpreted some of my critiques of ‘Queen Fandom’ as meaning something like: “You-in-particular, a specific Queen fan, are doing it wrong and should change everything about how you do it; also you don’t really care about Freddie.”

And—that’s not it. What any given fan, as an individual, does, isn’t a problem. And that can be true alongside—concurrently with—a multivalent critique of how the fandom is lacking in representation of Freddie’s life, with all that that (wonderful, deservedly celebrated, but also profoundly traumatic) life entailed. I still hold that view; I still have myriad problems with ‘the fandom’ (structurally, collectively, historically and presently—from the 1990s to the 2020s). Some of what I want to work on (away from the social life of fandom) is expressing those critiques with greater nuance, in ways that can’t be misinterpreted as shading any particular fanfiction author or subgenre of story.

In brief: I haven’t changed my mind, but I think Tumblr is an untenable environment in which to discuss the things I want to analyse, especially as there is an ever-present danger of hurting someone.

*

Can we keep in touch? Where is the fic?

I will drop by this account periodically to check out posts that friends have sent me, so you can always sent me a private message to ask for my contact details on the other app that I’m using now for fandom friends. Multiple Freddie conversations and projects are going on over there, off-Tumblr, with a much ‘gentler’ environment and no bad actors—I personally love it!

All my fic has been downloaded and saved. I don’t want to deal with constant harassment on AO3, but I’m happy to share a copy with anyone who missed it and wants to read/re-read something. I also saved everyone’s lovely comments and thoughtful con-crit, so none of that has been lost or erased.

Thank you to everyone who welcomed me to the fandom, made me think, taught me, shared with me, sent me into fits of the giggles, collaborated with me creatively, and otherwise made this one hell of a ride! Love you all. ❤️

[cross-d-a]

fic tag game

aaahhh @vishcount thank you for tagging me!!! These are so fun and I adored reading about your fic journey~!  ೖ(⑅σ̑ᴗσ̑)ೖ ❤

OH as a note!! For the ppl I tag at the end I don’t expect you to read all of this bc it’s A Lot!!! but I figured you might want to do this game yourself? haha :)

Name: cross-d-a shortened version of my first ever username. unfortunately stuck with it now haha but i’m fond of it :p wish it was cuter tho!!

Posting the rest of this under the cut so it doesn’t eat up people’s dashes!! 

(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Fandoms: 

oKAY YIKES there are....honestly too many too name. I’ve got a short and obsessive attention span so it’s either all or nothing with me usually. When I can stay in a fandom for a long period of time it’s a miracle. I’ll name the bigger ones that I’ve all written fic for! Even if I’ve never posted them haha

Right now I’m very firmly into Daomu Biji (dmbj). It feels like it’s both got a crap ton of content and yet barely anything at all haha. Maybe because the English fandom is so small. But at least there are a bunch of dramas and books!!! I really, really, really adore dmbj so much!! And a large part of that is the fandom!!! It's been a really cool and unique experience! Everyone in it is truly so kind and wonderful, and I’ve made some really incredible friends because of it (looking at you vish!! ❤). I’ve got a bunch of wips, but I’ve only posted two fics for dmbj!

Before this I was very into Guardian and mdzs. MDZS was my first foray into cdramas and Guardian’s Zhu Yilong really suckered me into watching more haha I also have fics for both these fandoms!

My very first fandoms were Fullmetal Alchemist, D. Gray-Man and Naruto. My very old ffnet account has fics for these and I’ve got a bunch of newer wips on my tablet. Then Star Trek, Twilight, BBC Merlin, Sherlock, Death Note, Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon, Battlestar Galactica, Avatar the Last Airbender and Marvel were a few of my main ones in high school. Plus a bunch of anime (like Fruits Basket! and Kuroshitsuji and Natsume Yuujinchou). 

Then college hit and I renewed my childhood love of Tolkien (mainly lotr and the Hobbit), and Star Wars. I also found Teen Wolf! Then after college it was Stranger Things. 

I find myself in a cycle of mild fondness and complete obsession with these fandoms haha I go back to Star Wars at least once a year!! Then I’m in the gffa hole for a few months. Marvel also reoccurs, depending on how interested I am in new content! Star Trek I always always always go back to. TOS is my comfort show and it will never fade from my heart ❤

But for now I’m stuck in cdrama hell and I love it

Tropes: 

Time travel, found family, whump+hurt/comfort, fairytale-like elements, resurrective immortality (thanks to a “Nine Lives” Hobbit fic), CROSSOVERS

I’m a slut for all these things so they often worm their way into my plots haha

I also just- love weird premises. I think that’s the anime influencing me haha

Fic I spent most time on: 

My series he leaves sand and stardust in my wake (main fic is hurricane on the edge of oblivion), I have...spent five years on now. I have done so much research for this fic it’s insane. 

The premise is force ghost!Obi-Wan getting shunted back into his tiny 10 year old self. I incorporate a shit ton of legends and I try to stay as canon as possible. I basically want this au to feel like it’s 1000% plausible while still getting all my gay shit. It’s chock full of whump, redemption, found family, minor characters turning into major characters, and I’ve got slavery uprising on the mind, too. It’s just- everything I could ever want to explore in the Star Wars universe basically. 

It’s my first big project. I started doodling and scribbling ideas in the margins of my notebook in my Scottish History class. I adore it so so so much. But, because of my hyperfixation and fleeting intense obsession with things it makes it- really difficult to consistently update. I leave it for months at a time and I am constantly guilt-ridden about it. Because it’s my baby and I have a lot of wonderful readers. I fear I’ll never be able to finish it. Especially since I’ve written so much and I’m still only in the beginning of it. ( ; A ; )

Also, I’ve spent so much time with Xanatos, Feemor and Bruck that they just feel like mine now. I can’t read any fics that involve them, it’s too strange. Which is a damn shame because I love them so much haha OH ALSO!! I think it’s the first really big fic to include those three?? So I’m very proud about that haha (I’ve had so many ppl comment about how they actually Give A Shit about these three and are Invested bc of me haha)

Favorite fic(s) you’ve written: 

hurricane on the edge of oblivion (with nowhere to go) (Star Wars)

My long-term passion project. My love-letter to Star Wars, I suppose. Reading it now I feel like a lot of it is clunky or long-winded, but I think it really shows the foundation of my writing today :) Main characters are Obi-Wan, Xanatos Du Crion, Qui-Gon Jinn, Bruck Chun and Feemor. Eventually we’ll get to Maul, Savage, Feral, Shmi Skywalker, (more!) Ahsoka, Anakin and a shit ton of clones ❤

things we hunger for (Guardian)

My Ye Zun self-indulgent fic. It’s a time travel amnesia Weilanzun! Honestly has some of my fav writing I’ve ever done. It’s so soft and really indulges in the hurt/comfort. It gives Ye Zun the friends and family I think he deserves. Also, he gets to grow into a (mostly!) functional person and I adore him.

the beast that slumbers within your soul (mdzs)

Jiang Cheng centric fic!! I feel like all my favourite fics I’ve written are love letters haha. This is one def my love letter to Jiang Cheng. This fic possessed me for two whole days. I wrote 16k in almost one sitting. I went to sleep at 6 in the morning bc I couldn’t stop writing. And when I drifted off I kept thinking of new ideas so I’d whip out my phone and write down lines and notes. I- have never ever ever felt that way about anything. It was- insane. It felt insane. It was so amazing. I’m still riding the memory of that high.

 Basically Jiang Cheng actually finds Baoshan Sanren and it turns out she’s a fox demon and Jiang Cheng is descended from wolves. It’s- okay I said the fic above this had my favourite writing?? That was a lie. This has my favourite writing I’ve ever done. It’s unfinished bc I am in dmbj hell but I am still excited about the next chapter which features Wei Wuxian’s pov!!

the whispers of spirits (dmbj)

My current passion project. In a way it kinda feels similar to hurricane? Bc multiple povs, incorporating different aspects of canon (we’ll get there!! I promise!), shit ton of research, etc. etc. I really really really love it for so many reasons. I’m basically taking all the things I was unsatisfied with in Reboot and Sha Hai and running with it. Found family and whump galore! It’s also a love letter to the women of dmbj who really deserve so so so much better.

Honourable mention to:

One Day (you’ll have given more of yourself than is meant to be taken) (Marvel)

This fic also kinda possessed me. I just- couldn’t get rid of the idea of a trans!Thor. And I mean a mtf Thor! It’s just? So many people look at Thor and go “that’s a Real Man.” Full stop. They never think there could be anything more, and it really really really bothered me. So I wrote out my feelings. I’m not trans. I don’t have that experience at all. I’ve had issues and confusion about my gender but nothing like this. I just wanted to do justice to this idea of Thor in my head. And I still feel a bit nervous having posted it. But I've gotten so many comments from people who really connected with what I’ve written? So I’m very very thankful I wrote it and it has a very special place in my heart. It’s a very cathartic fic.

Fic I spent least time on: 

Probably we rise (Star Wars) and I think it shows haha. I wrote it in response to Dave Filoni posting a drawing of Ahsoka and Gandalf telling her “People thought I was dead, too, and look how that turned out...” So I incorporated Ahsoka (and Din and Grogu and Ezra!!!) into the ending of Rise of Skywalker, kinda explaining how I think they could all still be alive. :)

Longest fic: 

hurricane is my longest fic (159k) but I’m kinda worried whispers will eclipse that.....

Shortest fic: 

Of my posted ones it’s The Five Moments it Took Tony and Scott to Admit They Were Best Friends (and the first time they ever did), currently clocks at 1.6k. It’s unfinished tho so maybe that doesn’t count.... otherwise it’s we rise which is completed and 2k.

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks: 

hurricane overall has the most of all these. Though I don’t think hits counts as much bc it’s multi-chapter. If you discount multi-chapter stuff, most hits goes to my obikin smutfic Homecoming, bc people are horny af haha

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: 

If I had energy I’d like to rewrite the beginning of hurricane bc it feels so so wordy. I’d want to expand on One Day bc I really would like to write a whole series with trans!Thor. And like- I’d really like the focus to finish any of my WIPs.

Share a bit of a WIP: I really wanna share my Guardian/dmbj crossover that I started back in August. Bc I adore the idea of wu xie&shen wei&ye zun triplets! Plus time travel!!! I dunno if I’ll ever finish it tho ( ; A ; ) It just feels like a lot to deal with right now.

This scene takes place during the Mountain Awl arc. Guardian crew and desperado fam run across each other at the village! Wu Xie has recently found out that he’s adopted and he’s searching for answers in the area Sanshu originally found amnesiac!toddler!Wu Xie in :) Gonna pull two snippets bc I’m v excited and this might be the only time anyone else sees this fic haha:

“Oh?” Pangzi focuses on Yunlan now, lips twisting. “You think I’ve ‘got the wrong guy,’ huh?” He laughs, but it’s not a nice sound. “That’s rich! Are you that cocky or are you just stupid?”

Bristling, Yunlan drops his hands and scowls. “Excuse me?”

“Sir,” Shen Wei tries. “I think—”

Pangzi’s eyes snap back to Shen Wei, sharp and blazing. “How dare you fucking steal his face!”

What?

Automatically, Zhao Yunlan turns to Shen Wei, but the professor looks just as shell-shocked as Zhao Yunlan feels which- is seriously something. Since everything about Shen Wei is so carefully controlled, kept to the minimum. Except for those delightful little smiles that bloom across his lovely face, or the startled little bursts of laughter that fall from his lips. Or even when anger and frustration spark across his features, cracking his calm veneer open enough that he can see a glimmer of what lies beneath, the fire in those eyes. Zhao Yunlan delights in those moments, makes a game of making Shen Wei’s control slip.

He tells himself it’s nothing more than a game. Nothing more than trying to find out what makes Shen Wei tick.

Zhao Yunlan’s always been very bad at lying to himself. Or very good. Depending on who you’re asking.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Yunlan splutters.

But before anyone can say anything else, a very familiar voice calls:

“Pangzi? What’s wrong?”

Yunlan can feel Shen Wei stiffen, and Yunlan himself is pulled to that voice like a planet in orbit, like the inevitable plummet to the ground.

Another shadow wavers in the doorway before it steps out onto the dirt. Light illuminates shaggy hair, limning it gold, sharply casting everything else in shadow. But as the figure nears, the contrast softens until Yunlan can see the newcomer’s face properly and- and—

“Wu Xie!” Pangzi growls. “We’ve got ourselves an impostor!”

The man wearing Shen Wei’s face steps up to them, brows furrowed and mouth pulled down into a sharp frown. He glances between them, eyes landing on Shen Wei. His scowl deepens. He opens his mouth, but then—

“Wu Xie?” Shen Wei breathes, all trembly and lost and hopeless.

Heart in his throat, Yunlan turns to Shen Wei again. Turns and flinches at that stricken look upon Shen Wei’s pale pinched face.

“A-Xie?” Shen Wei chokes. “Didi?”

and

Pangzi snorts. “Professor?”

“I-it’s true!”

Startled Yunlan swings his attention over to Jiajia who clenches her backpack to her chest, face screwed up in admirable determination. “P-professor Shen took me and Xiao Quan on a field trip to investigate an archeological site around here!”

“Oh?” Wu Xie drawls all slow and amused. “Well, what a coincidence. We’re archeologists, too.”

“With guns?” Yunlan bites out.

Wu Xie raises a brow, grin full of teeth. “Well, you can never be too prepared.”

“Right,” Yunlan drawls right back. “Are you a professor, too, then? You come here with your students?”

Wu Xie outright grins. “You could say that, I suppose.”

Out of the corner of his eye, one of the men rolls his eyes. He’s the one with sharp features, glasses and looped earbuds. Does he think it’s appropriate to listen to music at a time like this? Yunlan admires the man’s gall.

aahhhh vish thanks so much again for tagging me!! This was so fun to relive my fic memories!! I’m gonna tag @alwaysaslutforshakespeare @jockvillagersonly @tehfanglyfish @lichelleme @undyingsunshine @humanlighthouse  @thewindsofsong I’m curious about your guys’ writing and fandom journey!! As always, no pressure to actually complete this!! I just thought it was fun ❤

Wow if you read all of this I am very humbled and impressed, thank you!!

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

[sullustangin]

Satele and Theron: "Not Mother” and Son

Note:  As always, fan fiction is everyone’s sandbox. I may disagree or critique them, but it’s not personal.  I’ve been through ship wars, characterization debates, and ‘author intent’ arguments since the days before AOL and IRC chatrooms. I’ve seen a lot, and I tend to take a detached view toward fandom.  It’s not my intent to kill anyone’s joy. 

**

Sometimes, when I think about SWTOR fandom and pro/anti Satele factions, I can’t help but remember this reddit thread:

I got a girl pregnant and she wanted to get an abortion but I didn't want that. She ended up not getting one but now she is not involved at all

Shorter version on upworthy for TL;DR.

Basically, Dad is resentful of child he wanted because, after requesting that the mother not get an abortion, she gave up all custodial and parenting rights to him.  Now he doesn’t like being a single parent and refers to her as a “deadbeat mom” because she’s not involved with the kid....even though she told him up front she wasn’t going to be involved and didn’t wish to be involved. Satele is sometimes villainized because she made this decision -- and stuck with it.  

I don’t think Satele is a good mother or a bad mother.  She didn’t want to be a mother at all, so I won’t label her that way.  Biological fact: yes, she is a mother.  However, that’s not the role she has chosen to fulfill for Theron; she opted out on Day 1. 

Based on what we read in Annihilation, Satele gave up Theron at birth.  Zho became his father.  She never had any intent of raising this kid.  Satele did not wish to become a mother, but as a Jedi, from the second she felt his presence in the Force (because all life has a Force, whether or not they can sense it or use it), she felt obligated to have him.  I don’t know what, if any, canon references are made about voluntary termination of pregnancies in the SWTOR universe.  Maybe more people  than just the Jedi hold the belief that termination is unacceptable, maybe not.  I don’t know.  That said, Satele made her choice at Theron’s birth not to be a mother.  She did visit him until he was six months old (Lost Suns comic), which might be interpreted in a few different ways.

Is it regret? Thinking about changing her mind?  Or is it that continued obligation?  I might speculate that she was sending/bringing breast milk, since for the first six months, children rely on their mothers’ immunities until they can get vaccinated; it’s part of why it’s recommended to try to breastfeed if it’s possible for the mother.  This is SWTOR so for all we know, sci fi space magic means that babies can be vaccinated once they pop out.  Then again, maybe it is like it is in our world.  Still, Satele can be a decent human being and not want to be a mother at all. 

Also, just because she wasn’t pregnant anymore doesn’t mean that the symptoms magically disappeared; even if a child is a stillbirth, the mother still produces milk.  Often, they are suppliers for hospital milk banks because they still have milk production even if they don’t have a baby.  Satele likely had to cope with this and avoid being detected by the Jedi Order; it had to go somewhere!  Satele was ultimately unwavering in her belief that giving up Theron was the best decision for him and her.

Remember too that Satele’s mother Tarsiele got pregnant with no publicly known father.  There are good odds that Satele doesn’t know who her father is, and it didn’t bother her.  So she didn’t tell Theron or Zho who Theron’s father is, because she assumed Theron would be Force-sensitive and join the Jedi order.  Satele wouldn’t have wanted him to have the connections to Jace since that would complicate his Jedi training; it’s ok to know who your Jedi parent is, since you both exist in the Jedi order with limited attachments -- you’re both on the same page.  Adding a non-Jedi father to the mix complicates things and feelings, especially given Satele’s concerns about Jace falling to the Dark Side -- and potentially dragging a Force-Sensitive child with him.

The only thing I think I can fault Satele for is not informing him or Jace, after finding out Theron was not Force-sensitive (which she knew after the kid was left at Haashimut).  Theron totally struggled with his identities when younger: he was raised to be a Jedi like his mother before him, but it turns out he’s like that nameless Force-null father.  Whoops.

But Satele made her choice not to parent this child.  She may have felt that coming back to tell him about Jace would be meddling or giving Theron false hope that one or both parents would swoop in and save him.  We’ll get back to that in a second.

Cut here so it doesn’t eat a dashboard: below is some critique/analysis about the padawan system and how it may have fed into Theron’s expectations of a relationship with his mother before he was found to be not Force-sensitive and after.

As for Satele and her padawans, I’ve never been a huge fan of her being a “surrogate mother” or “cool aunt” in fan fic. It’s not my cup of tea, personally.  In part, it’s because I stick to the idea that Jedi don’t want people getting attached and hesitating about doing the right thing; that includes masters and padawans.  Masters don’t raise padawans like children. Based on what we see in the films, they’re raised in the creche with other younglings. It’s like boarding school or an orphanage in the sense that there are staff and people who care for the kids, but they are not parents; they don’t form those connections.  The Master then picks the padawan when they’re ready.  We don’t have apprenticeships in the modern world like we did in the pre-modern world, but when someone was apprenticed to someone else as a blacksmith or a tailor, they knew they weren’t their kids.  There was a relationship there.  There was a care system there.  But that didn’t replace a parent-child relationship, nor did it supply the attachments in such a relationship. In terms of masters and padawans, sometimes attachments and relationships happen, and we hear about a Master falling to the Dark Side and taking all their students with them.  Ideally, attachments and inappropriate relationships do not happen.

This ties back to Theron’s hopes for a relationship with Satele and what they were/are/will be.  Theron probably hoped to become her padawan one day or encounter her as a fellow Jedi; not being Force-sensitive killed that dream.  If Satele had gone to him after Haashimut, she would be adding insult to injury by meeting him or writing a letter to him, telling him about Jace... and then walking back out and going radio silent, not taking him home with her. 

If she had told him, that might lead to Jace being the dorky dad we all love to imagine, but what if he didn’t?  I love Jace!Dad headcanon, but that’s all it is -- headcanon.  He might have ‘noped’ out of the situation.  He might have said “Here’s a trust fund, I’m busy.”  I want Jace to be Super!Dad and I’ll write him that way when it comes to grandkids and stuff....but I won’t ignore the other possibilities that exist (and may exist in fics that are not mine!).  Given Satele’s original thoughts about telling Jace about Theron and vice versa, she may have considered this too. Also, telling Theron about Jace may have been the equivalent of dumping a baby on his doorstep with no escape route -- that’s not fair to Jace, no matter how much we like to believe Jace would have been “w00t!!” over it.

Theron and Satele worked together several times.  Theron told Satele and Jace and the Pub player in SWTOR that he understands her choice, and he’s not angry.  He’s dedicated his life to SIS and the people of the Republic; personal stuff comes second (which is why he’s the emotional disaster we know and love, but also one of the best agents the Republic has).

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry about her or care about her.  Feelings are hard to deal with for Theron, but he still has them. That was evident from his reaction to the Tython raid (because he did not know that she was not on Tython at the time).  Also, his first impulse thereafter was to give her a Holo call; the player walked in on the end of that on Pub side Forged Alliances.  Theron Shan cares about people; he’ll do a lot for them even if they don’t like him back, as we see with Teff’ith and (pending game choices) the player character. However, that doesn’t mean that he’s clamoring for a full-fledged relationship with Satele as mother and son.

Rather, Theron is bothered by the fact that Satele never acknowledges him; we saw that on Rishi and Yavin, especially on Imp side.  He’s "her agent.”  Even Jace acknowledged Theron on Iokath, as unhappy as Theron was about the staging of that proclamation. He does seem bothered by Satele’s disappearing act after Eternal Fleet with no notice to him (and still no word nearly 10 years after that event in-game). 

I don’t think Theron, who is now approaching 40, wants a parent-child relationship with Satele; that ship sailed.  He just wants to be acknowledged as meaning something -anything - to her. It’s not unlike adult adopted children finding their birth parents and wanting some acknowledgement of existence and connection, even if they had the best adoptive parents in the world and neither party wants to be besties. That sort of acknowledgement would have eventually come if he had been her coworker as a Jedi or padawan...if he was Force-sensitive.  

That twist of fate affects Theron more than his lack of relationship with either parent; he got dumped by “his father” Zho for that.  His bio parents didn’t do anything to “punish” him for turning out the way he was -- Jace didn’t know, and Satele already made her choice, regardless of how Theron was going to turn out.  She hoped and predicted he’d be a Jedi.  She didn’t change course, because she accepted the consequences of her decisions made 14 years before.

As a result of this, I don’t write Satele  as a cold or cruel human being. I’m more inclined to go on a “wtf Master Zho” crusade; Theron calls him his father and hopes he would be proud of him, but I blame Zho for Theron’s attachment and emotional issues (whatever labels you assign him; I go for avoidant). Satele made her choice and stuck to her guns.  She never wanted to be a mother, and she’s never pretended to be otherwise.  Satele never offered Theron false hope about their relationship.  She can’t be a deadbeat mom if she never committed to being a mother at all; she gave him up.  She gave up the relationship.  That did not exclude the possibility of becoming colleagues or friends as adults, which we saw progress toward.  The relationship between a mother and child compared to that of colleagues/friends is not the same. 

Satele’s departure after Eternal Fleet hurt Theron, because as adults, they did have a relationship, as professional as it might have been.  People feel awful when they get ghosted, no matter how brief or deep the relationship was; from what we can tell from his mail,  Theron referred to it as caf and lunch a few times. Theron still experienced a feeling of loss when she was gone, evidenced by the cantina scene on Odessen, and concern for her well-being after that camping trip in KotFE Ch. 12.

That did not mean Theron mourned her like a child who lost his mother; it may have simply been the death of another dream of a relationship, not unlike the alienation from Jace and (pending headcanon and in-game choices) the loss of the player’s character after Eternal Fleet.  We’ll see how Bioware continues/finishes that relationship between Theron and his “not mother”, likely at the player’s choice (just like the relationship with Jace on Iokath and with the player).

[sandalaris]

fanfic tropes ask: de-aging, pornstar au, disability, accidental marriage, and huddling for warmth!! 👀

de-aging:

Unlikely but I’m not opposed to writing it.

It depends on the de-aging. If we’re talking some an AU where everyone’s been aged down, then probably not. The urge has never struck me and I probably never will at least. But if it’s more of a supernatural/sci-fi forces somehow de-age one or more characters, then possibly. I wrote one before, where a couple of characters were cursed into bodies about ten years younger than they were, and had to figure out how to break the curse when everyone around them didn’t take them seriously as kids/teens.

pornstar au:

Not fully, but yes. Like I don’t think I’d ever write a fic where all the characters were involved in the porn business just because AUs where everyone is in the exact same career holds very little interest to me, but I’d be down to write a fic where one or two characters were involved in the porn industry. It’d probably be a Teen Wolf fic where Stiles, who does porn, meets and hits it off with Derek, the son of the local youth pastor - or maybe Derek’s the youth pastor - and then drama would ensue.

If I went FDtD with it, because I do see a potential fic there, it would have some er, questionable things involved in it that only a small niche would probably like and I’m not going to mention here, lol. Richie would be 100% happy with his job as a pornstar, constantly on the hunt for just the right script to interest him and willing to explore his boundaries, while Seth would be reserved, double checking each contract and having strict guidelines he follows. I’m not sure how I’d fit the Fullers in, so this would most likely be a Richie/Kisa fic involving Kisa having a truly very shady but completely binding contact with Malvado that they find a way to get her out of. She’d go behind the scenes in the end, because it may be a career others chose but she never did, making sure everything is on the up and up and that everyone’s that there actually wants to be there.

Now that I think about it, I think I could possibly write a Community pornstar AU fic where the Study Group was all involved in the the porn industry to an extent. They aren’t all pornstars, but they each do various things in the industry and that’s how they all meet. Not really sure I’ll ever write it, but maybe. Then again, that’s not so much a pornstar au so much a everyone’s in the porn business au.

disability:

Yes! As long as it was rooted in canon. It wouldn’t have to be canon, but I wouldn’t just like rewrite a character as having been born blind/blinded in childhood if they weren’t in canon.

For FDtD it would go one of two ways; I’d include Seth having an anxiety disorder into a fic, because there’s a lot of evidence in show that he has one and that could be interesting to explore. OR, much more likely, I’d write an all human AU Dakota/Richie fic where after Richie is declared Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity for the murder of Earl McGraw, Dakota sets out to prove that Richard’s recent diagnosis of schizophrenia if fake by hiding who she is and applying to be a doctor at the hospital he’s been sent to. But once there, instead of finding the monster she imagined him to be, Dakota finds a highly intelligent, socially awkward, young man who is both angry and terrified of his mind for turning against him... things would progress from there as Richie learns to manage his illness and Dakota learns to forgive him.

For just about any fandom there’s always an apocalypse AU where someone’s lost a limb or had a sense damaged or anything like that. If I ever write a canon-compliant Bethyl, I’ll go with those theories about how the bullet could’ve ricocheted along the inside of her skull and the brain damage that would’ve caused. Or in Teen Wolf there’s a good chance Stiles would’ve gone deaf in one ear after the amount of close range gunfire that been done next to his head. And Frank from the Punisher having memory issues from the shot to the head he took is 100% a headcanon of mine.

accidental marriage:

A thousand times yes, but it wouldn’t be the actual ship of the fic getting accidentally married, because I find it more interesting to subvert it.

I’ve thought about this before for SethKate actually, in two different fics; canon-compliant and AU.

AU: Kate has a horrible break up with her boyfriend just before leaving for Vegas on a.. business trip? Vacation with friends? something like that... She only means to drown her sorrows a little, but ends up getting black out drunk while meeting and befriending a handsome stranger. They decide to try and win a couple’s give-away and, in their drunken stupor, think that getting really hitched is better than just lying on the application form. The next morning, hungover and fully dressed (no drunken hook-up here), they realize their mistake. It probably would’ve just been a funny, if embarrassing, story down the line if Kate’s technically legal husband didn’t have a foul-mouthed, short tempered brother who throws an absolute fit when he finds out. Kate doesn’t know what Seth’s problem with her is, but the sooner she annuls her marriage to Richie and gets the hell away from them, the better. Of course, things don’t go according to plan, because this is a SethKate fic and they are one-hundred percent going to fall for each other while bickering.

The canon-compliant version would be much shorter: sometime after season three, they learn that in order for them both to get out of Xibalba Kate and Richie sort of accidentally got Xibalban married. It’s no big deal, it doesn’t change anything between them, they’re still fully platonic friends, and it won’t stand up in any court of law, at least not in this realm. But still Seth can’t put a finger on why it bugs him so much. Richie gets it though, smug bastard, and he’s going to use it against his brother until Seth man ups and makes a move already.

huddling for warmth:

Probably. It’d be pre-ship, either where the feelings are still soft and new, and therefore unrecognized by the characters, or fully realized on both sides but not yet ready to be acted on, like Jeff/Annie from Community. Or if I was writing post-season 1 FDtD, it'd be Seth and Kate cuddling in the convertible while broke and on the road, fighting against the desert chill at night by curling up together. Lots of secrets shared in the quiet dark, faces tucked close but unable to see the other, the feel of the other, whole and alive, against them, reminding them both that they got out, they made it, they aren't alone. Building that foundation for who they will become to each other down the line.

[constitutionalweasleymonarchy]

for the writing meta ask- 3, 10, 20 would all be great to hear about! thanks (:

Hello, I’m a completely terrible person because you definitely sent me this ask about two months ago.

Part of the reason I put it off so long was #3: What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? The question then cheekily goes on to say “consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway,” so of course, what did I do? Sat around trying to figure out a way to write the thing I can’t be arsed to write, and then when I still didn’t do it, sat around feeling annoyed about it.

Anyway, I wondered a bit about what scene that really is for me, and honestly I think it has to be Ron proposing to Hermione, because I have these really clear little snippets in my mind of basically everything having gone wrong with whatever Ron had planned, and after that all falls to shit, Hermione learns what was supposed to have happened either through a comment Ron or someone else makes, and she basically confronts him, “Did you have something to ask me?” *staring eyes* and when after all this Ron unceremoniously gives her the little box (because he had a good plan but it all went to hell), she looks at the ring and then hands it back and sort of dazedly or excitedly implores him to “Do it properly” (because yes, I like the one knee thing, and I’m convinced Hermione would as well, though she probably acts like she thinks it’s a silly thing). And he does because of course he does.

So there you have it -- I love a good proposal but can’t currently be arsed to do any of the work surrounding this one. I actually did a Romione proposal short story wayyyyy back in the day (like 2009) where I did some version of this scene. It was just objectively bad (not because of the scene, just overall bad) and I took it down and it will never again see the light of day.

#10: How would you describe your writing process?

Long periods of drought where I don’t write anything for weeks or months except for a few measly sentences here and there, either because of being busy with RL (how rude, apparently people expect me to work and do laundry and stuff) or because things just aren’t coming together the right way on the page. It doesn’t help that I definitely edit as I go -- it’s a habit I’ve never been able to break; I can’t bring myself to do word sprints and go back and clean it up later.

Anyway, long, agonizing periods of nothing, followed by a period of time where I’ll sit with my computer for hours or days on end, drinking my weight in tea and absolutely ignoring everyone and everything else while I churn out an entire short story.

A cactus. My writing is a cactus.

#20: Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

I like how I sit around thinking about all the (not actually very clever, probably) things I do in my writing, and then the moment someone actually asks me this question I forget everything I’ve ever written. The second I post this response I’m going to remember something I wish I’d said. 

I don’t know whether this counts as symbolism or some other device that my midnight brain currently can’t name, but in Irrational I do a thing with Percy’s glasses; they’re like a sort of security blanket. He touches and adjusts them unnecessarily, which is a fidgety, nervous thing to do with excess energy, especially because he’s so laced up -- but it’s also a sort of reassurance, almost like making sure they’re still there, like a shield. He takes them off at some key points when he’s getting really vulnerable in conversation with Audrey.

I think it’s fun to tie fics of mine together that otherwise don’t have anything to do with one another, by setting them in the same timeline/universe and referencing some of the same OC’s. Audrey’s dad in Irrational, Jack Greene, has a cameo in Must Be One of Arthur’s Boys, and he’s also going to be a significant character in a new fic I hope to start posting to AO3/FFN soon, which is about Eileen Snape and has absolutely nothing to do with Percy and Audrey’s storyline. Similarly, Arthur’s Boys has a scene that references the infamous stag night for George, which is a thing that George and Ron tease Percy about in Irrational.

Actually, if you got me started, I feel like I could talk about Audrey forever. I mean, I love that Percy gets paired with someone who is devoid of canon information except a name, so really she’s an OC and it’s amazing to see all the different approaches to her. I created her for Percy. I asked myself, who’s this person he’ll work out with better than anyone, who actually loves and respects him (because we don’t do unhappy relationships here) -- and I was dissatisfied with an Audrey who is either a carbon copy of Percy or a foil to his personality meant to “fix” him or challenge him or loosen him up or whatever. So I have all these thoughts about why I believe this version of Audrey works with Percy, as well as a lot of feelings about how I’ve deliberately written her to be very ordinary -- not bold, sassy, bitter, sarcastic, or otherwise special, and definitely not Not Like Other Girls (TM) -- and tried to write a realistic romance that could happen to anyone, that just so happens to be set against the backdrop of this extraordinary world where unreal things happen.

Ooh, also, I can’t very well ramble about this, because it would give it away, but “clues for future scenes” made me think about this, so I’ll drop this tidbit here: A character in Irrational has (unwittingly) already figured out the answer to the exploding wands situation -- and mentioned it in a conversation without even realizing they’re right.

Thank you for the asks!

[masterhandss]

WATCH ME RAMBLE ABOUT THE HAMEHURA SPINOFF

My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom! have officially taken over my headspace, and I really want a platform to talk about it. I’ve read the manga and novels over and over again, and I’m so happy to seeing the reactions of everyone to each anime episodes.

Though surprisingly, other than obviously the original novel, what actually piqued my interest in the series is actually the spinoff manga for hamehura, “I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags... In a Dire Situation!? Verge of Destruction Arc”. Yes, it has a spinoff.

(This might be considered spoilers for the spinoff and anime, be warned!) I just want to ramble about it and give my critiques, opinions and expectations. My words might not make sense if you haven’t read the spinoff, but I think having a general gist of the events of the original anime/novel/manga is enough to read through my vents and rambles. also there’s screenshots here so there’s that. 

It’s basically the same plot as the anime, but if Katarina regained her memories of her past life during the events of Fortune Lover, within the school year, instead of when she was 8 years old like the original novel.

I don’t even really know if I’m in the right place to comment on it, considering it only has like 6 chapters (with the 7th one still being a month away) anyways and has a lot of time to expand and grow it’s concept, but gosh darn it, I want to talk about it!

I really really love the premise of the spinoff, and i think it’s much more compelling than the original novel. The novel wins by being more wholesome and heartfelt, but with the spinoff, we get to see Katarina play this “game” in hard mode” where she doesn’t have the connections that she would’ve had if she remembered sooner. There’s a sense of urgency in the plot that you don’t really have in the novel because she had already won everyone over before the game even begins. Both premises are charming, but this one really lifts up the concept of the title.

While I’d love to say that i’m excited to see this alternate version of the plot and find out how Katarina would solve herself out of her destruction, sadly the spinoff still follows the original material very religiously, preventing the spinoff as really coming out into its own (again, I could be wrong, there’s only 6 chapters so far after all but from what we have so far, it’s practically identical to the manga/novel). 

I think one of the greatest strengths of the spinoff is that it would take it’s time in the Magic School because Katarina only has one year to put the odds in her favor, instead of years, so it means we wont speed through her school life like the novel/anime/manga did. 

This is why my favorite part of the spinoff is Sienna, Katarina’s main underling when she was still the villainess of Fortune Lover. I love her because her existence provides a reason for the writer of the spinoff to find ways to insert her into the original plot, or to write new ones altogether in order to include what I imagine to be Katarina’s new best friend in this timeline.

Sienna’s existing can also be a sign of a possible future conflict regarding Katarina’s behavior post-accident. In the original novel/manga, it was okay for the snobby and spoiler Katarina to suddenly become dense and gluttonous, because she was 8 years old, and thus in the eyes of the adults, still had a lot of time to grow and develop her character. It’s still weird of course but it can be written off as such. With the event happening during the events of Fortune Lover, characters such as Maria and Geordo are obviously confused but her change of heart. Personally, I’d love to see her underlings and other students call her out on her behavior (especially since we are about to see the dynamic of Keith and Katarina in this timeline) because of how abrupt and sudden this change was. The spinoff tries to run away from this problem by writing off Mary and Alan as “not knowing much about Katarina other than rumors” but I doubt it, considering how much they would probably encounter each other in social gatherings and such. For them to not have an independent impression of her seems lazy to me to be honest, because not having an opinion on her means that she can act in any way that she wants and it can be considered as her being normal to them.

Because of how faithful this spinoff is to the original material, the banter that characters would have about Katarina feels undeserved, such as Geordo being possessive of Katarina during her interactions with Alan, despite not being interested in her until now. Bare in mind that at this point, Geordo had already met Maria (who piqued his interest during their first encounter, according to Katarina in the original novel) and only just gained interest in her fiance because of her out-of-nowhere change in personality. the banter between the twin princes doesn’t feel right when you factor in that he doesn’t care about Katarina enough (yet) to find his brother as a threat. To be honest, I wouldn’t even have this problem if the spinoff wasn’t so loyal.

This also opens up the question of how she will gain rapport with the characters in Fortune Lover. The spinoff pulled off Mary and Katarina’s friendship through their similar interests in gardening, but without the mistake of taking Alan’s in game dialogue, Mary has no reason to be attached to Katarina at all, and is definitely in love with Alan.

I mean i’d be okay if the spinoff writes off their relationship as just friends, but then again that ruins the charm that the original novel had (which is that Katarina catches love interests like she does with pokemon) which can be both a good thing and a bad thing (I don’t mind if they don’t have the harem, but maybe that makes it too far from the source material idk)

This is why I don’t want the spinoff to be religiously loyal to the source material! Keith’s introduction makes me nervous because there is absolutely no way that the spinoff can follow the original method of winning him over without making it look ridiculous, so obviously his route will have to be written from scratch. It’s not the rewrite that makes me nervous, it’s how similar it’d be from the original novel. The same would have to happen with Sophia (who has probably lived in fear and isolation without a real friend FOR YEARS), Nicol (who is intertwined with his sister), and Alan (depending on how far Maria is into the plot). From what i’ve seen from the spinoff so far, Katarina can still realistic gain the character’s of Fortune Lover as her allies, but they won’t be (or atleast might not be) as attached to her as they do in the original novel (like Mary and Sophia maybe)

My only biased exception to this is her and her maid Anne, because it’s pretty endearing to know that even the spoiled version of Katarina is still attached to Anne, so as long as they are together, she doesn’t really mind the difference. 

I would really love it if Katarina could gain allies outside of the established cast, to emphasize how different her situation is now that her circumstances are different due to the time of when her memories return. I just don’t want the spinoff to suddenly make the characters interested in Katarina, even though she’s lived her life until now as a spoiled and selfish noble.

This brings me to another concern of mine: Maria, the protagonist of Fortune Lover. So far, Katarina has already won over her friendship and has forgiven her and Sienna for their actions against her after seeing their efforts to fend off other harassers. My problem isn’t really how quickly she got won over or anything (despite this already solving her problem of being accused of orchestrating her bullying that could cause her end just before the final graduation event of the game), it’s more of what she represents.

You see, what made all the characters of Fortune Lover so attached to Katarina is that she lacks the outlook of a noble, being someone who lived as a normal school girl before being reincarnated. She is a very empathetic person who is able to sooth the worries of the characters but literally not seeing it at all (examples being Alan with his rivalry with his twin, and Mary & Sophia with their appearance). She alleviates the pain and worries of others by being what they need. In the original novel of My Next Life as a Villainess!, the readers/viewers already know that her villainess fate is already thwarted because she had already accomplished what Maria was supposed to do during the events of Fortune Lover (befriend Sophia = gain Nicol’s affections / interest Geordo = gain his affection / differentiate Alan & Geordo = gain Alan’s affections / be a first real source of comfort and company = gain Keith’s affections etc.)

I can’t really speculate on much of the plot of the game, but luckily the anime dvd box comes with the actual Fortune Lover game routes of the 4 boys so I might be able to comment on this better in the future. 

Maria is basically the same as Katarina (or Bakarina, if its less confusing); both characters are outsiders to the world of nobles and royalty, and it’s through their own personal outlook that they help and befriend the characters of the game. The spinoff would probably stick the two by the hip now that they’re friends in order to solve this problem, but it’s basically a race between the two of which of them can apply their personal quirks in getting the characters to ally with them. Again I can’t really speculate bc I don’t know the actual routes of the boys, but yeah. 

For example, Geordo has met the heroine while she was trying to climb a tree with a skirt, which he has never seen before, while her also being the pretty light-magic user commoner, and this definitely made her interesting to him (Note: this is an event that occurs canonically within the events of the game, Fortune Lover, but is not presented as something that had occurred in the manga). 

Now we have Katarina acting out of character and eating tons of sweets, while trying to salvage the dress of her peer after she spilled a drink on it, and this character change made her interesting to him as well. Katarina, considering her actual personality as time progresses in the story, is definitely much more interesting than Maria’s (I say that with biases of course) so Geordo would most likely find her to be the more unpredictable and interesting out of the two, but it looks like the only way (or what seems to already be the chosen way??) of writing the spinoff out of this mess is to make it appear like the Maria event didn’t or hasn’t happened yet, because while the original novel does state that Geordo would have fallen for Maria if he wasn’t already inlove with Katarina before they entered the Magic School, Geordo has yet to address his relationship with Maria. (yeah I get it there’s only 6 chapters yet jhgsdgfjsdg BUT STILL IT’S A LOT TO THINK ABOUT)

I don’t know what kind of dynamic Maria and Katarina would have in the spinoff, especially since you need to factor in Sienna, but in the original novel, Maria was pretty submissive to Katarina and would mostly just follow her lead. Maybe with this new friendship, Maria might not actively approach the main love interests (unless it’s by accident, since they don’t have to always save her from bullying Katarina and Sienna already try to solve that themselves) which gives time for Katarina to win them over with the quirky personality. At least, this is what I hope the spinoff goes for lol. (side note, it’s actually interesting to see what it’s like when Geordo literally only uses Katarina as a shield from other women, so when the shift from tool to romance occurs, i think it’ll be pretty nice to see)

To be honest I don’t even know what I’m rambling about, I’m sure I’ll love the spinoff regardless of what direction it takes lol. I’m just nervous because I really really love this concept an I want it to be different from the source material because it literally has the potential to be its own story (idk if this spinoff is even official at all, like I think it has the permission of Yamaguchi Satoru, but idk if its licensed)

Before I end this long ramble, I just want to note that i actual like the art style of the spinoff (illustrated by nishi) more than the original artist nami. I feel like this more simple artstyle captures the shift between Villainess Katarina and Bakarina more smoothly, while the original illustrations kinda makes it looked forced (mostly the manga tbh, the novel covers and art is fine). With nishi’s art, you can easily grasp that these two personalities are both Katarina. 

Anyways that’s it, my hands hurt lol. Might edit this in the future. 

[greentrickster]

Fanfic Writer Game

Tagged by @gemstoneslesbian ! Sorry it took me forever to do this, as I have mentioned, at the moment I am Willing But Tired.

How would you describe your fanfic style?

...emotional whiplash, erring on emotional hurt/comfort and Very Soft. I don’t generally set out with a genre in mind when I start, so I tend to wander all over the place with them, and danged if I’m any good at identifying what genre my stories are once I’m done!

What tropes would you never use?

Whump, unrequited love, anything less than fully-consensual sex between participants who are legal to do so with each other, any trope that’s generally used for angst fuel, tragedy, sad endings in general.

What tropes do you ALWAYS use?

I’m not sure? Not gonna lie, one of the big things that gets me writing fanfiction is seeing the same thing done with the same characters a bunch of times, getting super bored with it, and then trying to find something new to do with them. I’m sure I use certain tropes quite frequently, I just don’t know what they are specifically. Is there a trope that covers “giving the character everyone says needs support/therapy/both just that”? Because I do that a lot. Even if I didn’t plan to. Cathartic tears are just a thing.

Where do you write?

I like best to write in my bedroom, the living room couch, on a table at one of my local libraries, or on a table in the indoor central court of our local mall. These last two haven’t really been available to me since last March; the mall is open again, but I miss writing in the library. :,(

How many names do you write under? Why?

Mostly just variations of ‘Tie-dyed Trickster/tiedyedtrickster,’ and of course greentrickster here on tumblr. I like people to be able to track me across sites if they’re looking for my work!

What’s your usual rating level?

Generally G-T. I’ve done some M stuff, but that was just happy established-couple sex for the most part, and I tend to write erotica more than smut. Haven’t gotten any complaints about it yet, though. ;)

First fandom you wrote for?

A Yugioh/Yugioh GX crossover crackfic, which has since been hidden from the internet, but which still exists in my files. And yes, it was for the Kids WB version of both shows - I don’t care how different that version is from the original one, I adored it and, frankly, adding a bunch of guns and death and crap would not have improved the quality of my viewing experience. 

How long did you read fics before you started writing them?

No idea, it was a pretty long time ago. Could have been anywhere between a few months and a year.

Do you usually write chapter fics or one shots?

One or two-shots make up the majority of the fics I’ve written, I’ve done two more anthology style stories (Geta!verse for DBZ and Masks for Voltron Legendary Defender), but I’m finally getting to the point where I can start, maintain, and finish multi-chapter fics. The average length for those at the moment is between 10,000 to about 45,000 words (Ningenkakushi is incomplete, Masks is an anthology, and Saturation is an outlier, so none of them are being included for this).

Your fandoms:

Currently I’m writing for Ace Attorney, other fandoms I’ve written for are A Hat in Time, Voltron Legendary Defender, DBZ, Pride and Prejudice, Bleach, Axis Powers: Hetalia, Cabin Pressure, Naruto, and Gravity Falls. As for fandoms I consider mine or tend to come and go from frequently... there’s at least forty of them, and more that I used to be wildly into and I’m not so much anymore, and still more that I don’t really consider myself part of as I only consume the canon content for them and am content with it. Basically, I’m massively multi-fandom, but I tend to focus on one at a time for the most part on this blog, for reasons known not even to myself.

As for tagged, hey, @fullbattleregalia , I CHOOSE YOU!!!

[pinayelf-archive]

Cullen’s Revised Redemption - my take

This was previously an undetectable read more but decided to update it and also make it (more) public since people have asked for it. This is very wordy, so grab a bag of chips or something lmao.

Disclaimer and Request (PLEASE READ)

I am putting this above the read more because I need people to see it before they do anything with this post. The reason I had the first version of this basically invisible is I’m genuinely not here for people yelling and fighting in the notes so that being said:

I wrote out the first one so I had something to link to people in the case someone asks me why I’m romancing him with an elven mage

This is a hot button issue and I know people have feelings varying from either extreme sides or in the middle so

If you vehemently hate Cullen and find him irredeemable that is fine and valid, but please do not come onto this post and reply why. To be frank, you won’t make me dislike him considering I hated him initially

If you think his redemption is perfect that is fine and valid, but please do not come yelling at me for this post.

Let us agree to disagree NOW.

I love Cullen. If the URL wasn’t obvious I’m saying it now. But I am also allowed to feel that his redemption wasn’t fully realized and lackluster and wish it didn’t happen off-screen. 

I believe Cullen does want to change. Failing and slipping at first is realistic. What didn’t work is that it wasn’t fully realized. If you disagree that is fine.

Cullen’s PTSD is a reason for the things he did. It is a reason NOT an excuse. Mental illness is not an excuse to do bad things. You can say that while acknowledging his trauma. Said by a person who also suffers from mental illness

“Ellie why do you care so much about a white dude, he doesn’t deserve your time and energy!!!” - because he is a comfort character of mine, he is fictional so I have the ability to make him safer for me and for my OCs and I think that’s more than fair

This is NOT the only right way to write a fix-it for him you can 100% write your own, this is just mine and an example of one

Now...let’s go!

This is meant to have been a longfic, but I can never finish anything I write so you’ll get a condensed version. This is for my worldstate where Imryll (my main Cullenmance) is the Inquisitor, but I also use this same redemption in all my timelines, just tweaked a bit for whoever the characters are.

DAI starts and Cullen has just stopped taking lyrium. He wants to change, , he is full of regret and ready for it but is obviously harder than he anticipated. Especially since the Herald, Imryll, wants to ally with the mages. He and Imryll do not get along, Imryll doesn’t trust him and they have had a couple of public fights. 

Imryll allies with the mages. Cullen is worried abominations might occur. The ones from Kirkwall see Cullen and refuse to interact with him. Some hate him and look at him with disdain. He’s made an announcement saying he no longer operates under the Templar Order and denounces what Meredith did. But they still don’t trust him.

He is frustrated by this and Leliana calls out the fact that he still doesn’t trust them because he believes they’ll turn into abominations, so why should they trust him? Cullen says he’s seen it happen, like in Kinloch, especially if they’re exposed to power. Leliana points out how the same thing happened to Meredith. Cullen snaps out of his frustration, admitting he knows he’s wrong but it’s hard to accept it. Leliana tells him he must accept he is wrong if he wants to really change.

(Note: In my canon Leliana becomes his support for this rather than Cass. I love Cass but she is too static in her beliefs and will just enable or stunt Cullen from growth. They are still close friends but it’s Leliana who he confides in with about this - they both have the same faith but Leliana is more open-minded and will help him grow)

The Templars and the Mages clash at Haven and Imryll demands Cullen to do something about it. Cullen is hesitant and doesn’t do much, he doesn’t want to believe his comrades are acting this way. This sours his relationship with Imryll and the mages.

(This idea is taken from a text post that I can no longer find :c) One of the mages give birth and the others are overjoyed and crying. They need supplies and Cullen offers to help but they all refuse to speak to him until he arrives back with Josephine. Cullen wonders why they are celebrating and crying and Leliana says that most mages never stay with their family because they are separated. Another realization hits Cullen.

Cullen joins Cassandra in looking for rogue Templars and when they encounter the group, Cullen attempts to reason with them but they don’t relent. He sees his old self in the leader and realizes what he sounded like. After dealing with the Templars he and Cassandra see a group of young refugee mages starving and hiding in a small cave. They quiver in fear when they notice his Templar gauntlets and refuse to come to Haven despite them being in near-death from starvation. Luckily, Varric is there and convinces them to come. 

The encounter dawns on Cullen what the Templar Order truly looks like to mages. This haunts him. It is the same fear he had for years after Kinloch - the difference is, the order protected him but no one truly protected the mages. He finally accepts that the order he once romanticized so much is corrupt.

The next time he sees that his Templars are the ones who start the altercations. He does something about it - but at the same time angering his lieutenant. 

During the fall of Haven, the Red Templars show Cullen anyone is apt for corruption, seeing the people he once trusted become the army for a magister breaks his heart. He witnesses the mage recruits give their lives for the Inquisition. He watches Imryll sacrifice herself for the sake of the Inquisition. When have the Templars ever done this? He’s never witnessed this. He must make amends. He must. 

Upon arriving at Skyhold he requests to be judged by the mages and Fiona - the ones from Kirkwall especially. He tells them it’s time he answered for his inaction and the things he enabled. Surprised, Imryll calls Fiona to form a council of mages to judge him. 

Cullen prepares for whatever sentence they are to give him. All the while after owning up to what happened in Kirkwall, the Inquisition loses some support, including soldiers who leave due to their disillusionment in him. The day of trial comes and to Cullen’s surprise they sentence him with reparations. He is to do the Inquisition mages’ bidding and to work with Fiona along with his Inquisition duties.

Besides the loss of support, many begin to look at Cullen differently and turn cold towards him, like some staff and people who have joined the Inquisition. He helps build a mage tower and joins Fiona in doing small missions  to help the refugee mages. While some mages warm up to him, some don’t and while hard he accepts they never will.

One day a missive arrives at Skyhold stating that mages from Starkhaven are taken hostage by Red Templars for a hefty ransom. Josephine insists they pay the ransom and plans to take a loan out from an Antivan bank - however Cullen sees the situation as time sensitive. He is afraid that if they wait too long, the Red Templars will kill the mages. Josephine, and Leliana surprisingly argue against this, seeing it too risky. But Cullen has a terrible gut feeling, and after finding the location of the abandoned keep they are located in, he takes some of his troops who are willing, and mages who are looking to save their brethren.

The raid goes all right, and the troops manage to retrieve the hostages without any casualties, however at the last minute, one of the templars set off hidden explosives that begin to set the the keep ablaze. As it falls into ruin, Cullen makes sure everyone makes it to safety. But then he sees a young mage girl trapped under rubble, and in spite of his lieutenant demanding he leave her, he doesn’t. He runs to her rescue and seemingly dies as the castle crushes both of them.

The troops return to Skyhold with the news that Commander Cullen has died in the rescue. Shocked, the remaining advisors and Imryll set off to find a new Commander.

Surprisingly, Cullen and the young mage girl, who introduces herself as Lyra, survives. Lyra mustered up her remaining strength to put a barrier around them as the castle fell. Cullen and Lyra then set to Skyhold in order to get her to safety. Cullen does everything in his power to make sure she is safe, and shocks everyone at their return. 

After this event, Imryll begins to warm up to Cullen. They form a friendship as Imryll often spends late nights at the mage tower doing research. Cullen initially stayed there to make sure nothing happened to Imryll (as she was not very popular with his troops or certain Orlesians). Despite them being from separate worlds they find they have a lot in common. 

When asked how he feels about the Dalish, Cullen tells her that in the Circle, elves were not treated differently and it does not matter who you are. Imryll tells him it’s a very blind way to view discrimination, as despite her existence not revolving on her being a Dalish elf, her being a Dalish elf is how people will always view her. Cullen finally understands when he accompanies her to Val Royeaux to deal with Josephine’s assassination contract and he sees how Orlesians treated Imryll in spite of her title. He speaks to her about it, and apologizes, saying he will never understand how it feels, but he will make sure she and the other elven members of the Inquisition feels safe. 

And all the while, Cullen begins to see what protecting those who need it is truly like. 

Cullen opens up to Imryll about his withdrawals. She tells him she supports him not taking lyrium again and encourages him not to. While suffering from a terrible spell, Imryll uses a healing spell to alleviate his headache and it triggers a memory from Kinloch. He freaks out at Imryll, who he scares off. He and Imryll don’t speak for a few days until he goes up to her and explains what happened. Imryll then says that if they are to be good friends they must always remain transparent with each other and learn boundaries and communicate well. Cullen agrees.

Cullen quitting lyrium inspires some of his troops to leave the order and quit lyrium. To be able to cope and deal with it, Cullen asks if they can have a rehab clinic in Skyhold. Imryll agrees.

As Cullen’s friendship with Imryll deepens he realizes he’s falling in love with her. Unsure what to do and already assuming she will never feel the same way he tries to shove the feelings aside despite Imryll showing signs of reciprocating. 

As time goes, Imryll’s relationship with Cullen’s lieutenant worsens because of the decisions she makes as the Inquisitor. The Lieutenant and Imryll get into a fight when Imryll allows the mages to make their own separate army group, as the lieutenant feels it will make them corrupt with power. He calls Imryll slurs and tells her that she has no right being a leader because of who she is. Cullen publicly calls him out, to which the lieutenant responds he is only doing because he wants something from Imryll. Cullen tells him he is doing it because it’s the right thing to do, and that the lieutenant should not speak or Imryll or any elf or mage in the way again. When he refuses to apologize, Cullen kicks him out of the Inquisition. 

Meanwhile, Imryll struggles with learning how to be a Knight-Enchanter. She questions her self worth and her bravery. Cullen comforts her, telling her she is the best person he knows. He tells her she is brave because of how she still continues to fight and to lead the Inquisition, not in spite of who she is, but because of who she is. He offers his support.

During the Shrine of Dumat, Cullen is hurt badly after attempting to keep a Red Templar Shade from Dorian. He refuses care, saying the others need it more. Imryll insists he does and asks if she can use a healing spell to alleviate the pain of his bruised chest. He lets her. Amidst this, they share a kiss and cements their romantic relationship.

Cullen and Imryll’s romantic relationship flourish and for the first time in his life, Cullen feels he’s found someone he can have a healthy love with. He also finds he has friends - real friends, which he hasn’t had in a long time.

During Samson’s capture - memories flash back and threatens Cullen to slip. This makes him realize that his say on the matter is biased and lets Imryll and the others choose what to do with him. (Imryll conscripts him but doesn’t have Cullen handle him, she has another recovering ex-Templar work with him and spend time in the rehab they’ve built in Skyhold).

When Imryll chooses Leliana as the Divine, Cullen shocks his former colleagues when he says he approves of the choice.

After Corypheus’ defeat the idea of the rehab clinics begin to spread and open up in other places - which begins to open conversation about how the Chantry exploits their own Templars.

Following the events of Trespasser, Imryll disbands the Inquisition. With land Cullen inherited from his parents he and Imryll build another rehab clinic as well as a place for former Circle mages to find a home in, and learn how to live lives outside the Circle (this post is Cullen-centric so I’m not gonna write a long thing about it but in my canon Divine Leliana and Vivienne find a middle ground and build centers/schools where abandoned and former Circle Mages can find a home in and learn, without them being prisons)

And scene! If you reached this end thank you for reading all that. A lot of the later stuff is mainly skipped over because this focused more on how Cullen changes - the repercussions from his actions and how he actively shows the changes.

[queenaryastark]

Why do think Jon can't or won't have any romances if he died and is resurrected? Like uh... erh you think he physically won't be able to uh get it up again so he'll never have a sexual relationship again or do u mean that you think he won't be able to emotionally form romantic attachments or...? I deff think Jon is going to be darker after and all that but i think him inhabiting Ghost might result in him being slighty different than Beric and Stoneheart. Idk what is ur speculation on it? Thanks!

I agree that if Jon is dead, his experience will be slightly different from Beric and Stoneheart since his consciousness has probably already transferred into ghost. But even there, the mind of the human starts to fade. That’s the beauty of GRRM’s work. There are always consequences, even with magic involved. Or especially when magic is involved. We don’t know how long he will remain in Ghost or what shape his body will be in when he returns to it. So while Jon might not lose as much of his personality as his predecessors, he will still be a fire wight. Though, tbh, with Jon being the third fire wight, it doesn’t seem like GRRM’s style to have him be in better shape than the other two. If anything, just as Stoneheart is worse than Beric, it seems like Jon would be even worse. Here are GRRM’s words on this element of his series:

GRRM: “Part of it was also, it’s the dialogue that I was talking about. And here I’ve got to get back to Tolkien again. And I’m going to seem like I’m criticizing him, which I guess I am. It’s always bothered me that Gandalf comes back from the dead. The Red Wedding for me in Lord of the Rings is the mines of Moria, and when Gandalf falls — it’s a devastating moment! I didn’t see it coming at 13 years old, it just totally took me by surprise. Gandalf can’t die! He’s the guy that knows all of the things that are happening! He’s one of the main heroes here! Oh god, what are they going to do without Gandalf? Now it’s just the hobbits?! And Boromir, and Aragorn? Well, maybe Aragorn will do, but it’s just a huge moment. A huge emotional investment.

And then in the next book, he shows up again, and it was six months between the American publications of those books, which seemed like a million years to me. So all that time I thought Gandalf was dead, and now he’s back and now he’s Gandalf the White. And, ehh, he’s more or less the same as always, except he’s more powerful. It always felt a little bit like a cheat to me. And as I got older and considered it more, it also seemed to me that death doesn’t make you more powerful. That’s, in some ways, me talking to Tolkien in the dialogue, saying, “Yeah, if someone comes back from being dead, especially if they suffer a violent, traumatic death, they’re not going to come back as nice as ever.” That’s what I was trying to do, and am still trying to do, with the Lady Stoneheart character.”

Interviewer: “And Jon Snow, too, is drained by the experience of coming back from the dead on the show.”

GRRM: “Right. And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice, now we’re getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.” -- Time

So based on GRRM’s words, we can rule out Jon having an experience anything close to show!Jon where his death was only a benefit. He essentially used it as a “Get out of the Night’s Watch Free” card, even though that line of reasoning makes no sense. Him dying and being reanimated as a zombie would not result in him being physically and mentally the same, nor would it lead to everyone being fine with what he is. He would either be killed as a deserter or burned as a wight.

So as for Jon not having a chance for romance in my opinion, I would rule it out both emotionally and physically. 

As an animated corpse who has lost a degree of consciousness, I have my doubts about him being able to form new meaningful relationships. Beric and Catelyn have become hyper focused on the last goals they had before dying. Since Beric’s goal didn’t include his fiance, he barely remembers that he has a fiance, let alone anything about her. Nor does he remember where his home is. All he is about is carrying out his last orders which were to enforce justice on the Mountain and stop the Lannister’s terrorist acts on the common people of the Riverlands. So that’s it for him. Catelyn seems to be in a similar situation where her last act was to kill a Frey while also thinking of her lost children. So she is looking for Arya while murdering every Frey she can find and extending that vengeance to Jaime since Roose delivered his regards as he stabbed Robb. Stoneheart has lost a great deal of who she was to the point that she can’t hear reason, not even with Brienne. 

Jon’s situation has to be similar. His dying thoughts were of Arya and planning to meet Ramsay Bolton in battle. It stands to reason that his diminished mind would center on that, unless his time in Ghost allows him to focus on something or someone else. 

As far as physically goes, based on Beric and Stoneheart, Jon’s heart wouldn’t be beating so no blood flow would be going through his body, he wouldn’t need food since his digestive system wouldn’t be working, and he wouldn’t even need to sleep. Essentially, he is not alive and has no normal bodily functions. Unless he dies with a permanent terminal erection, a part of physical intimacy is out. He could probably still give oral if he’s able to keep hydrated for that purpose. Sorry, TMI. In short, in my opinion, if Jon is dead emotional and physical romance are out. But JMO.

That’s one of the reasons I’m still open to the possibility that Jon isn’t dead. Before the show killed and resurrected the show version as Gandolf the White 2.0, his status was up for debate. There were many who steadfastly believed he was alive. GRRM even said in an interview that whether Jon was dead or alive was up for debate until the next installment. Since he essentially brushed off the interviewer’s attempt in the quote above to redirect the discussion to undead!Jon and went on to discuss Beric, that suggests that canon Jon’s status is still undetermined. And there are a lot more possibilities for him if he’s alive. 

[fyrapartnersearch]

|| 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖗𝖘 ||

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𝐼'𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝑒 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎…

𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉…


haha ^^


To all the curious ladies and gents out here, you may call me Imp.

Short, sweet and straight to the point. ;)


I am a lady in her twenties, with a strong penchant for roleplaying, writing, and drawing. The Holy Trinity if you will. I am a huge nerd and aesthetic lover boy - plain and simple. One of my main passions being video-games, illustrations, comics, live-action films, series and anime/cartoon shows, elements that shaped me during my years of growing up.



It’s been a while since I’ve posted my first ever ad on any website, and I was very much positively surprised by the amazing people that have reached out to me.

And since I am a greedy little mf, I wanted to fish for more partners. I’ve been roleplaying for a few years now and gradually gathered a good amount of experience throughout the years, but it’s always fun to meet and learn something new.




Name: Imp



Age: 27 years



Experience: 11 years



Preferences: 1:1 Roleplaying



Partner: Should be at least [18+], but I rather much prefer my counterpart to be 21 years or older 



EMAIL: impish.and.angelic@gmail.com

I am a very creative sort of individual with hundreds of ideas constantly occupying my little impish head. And I am very spontaneous too, so I can always adjust to a new setting, depending on how good and compelling the concept is.

Inspirations come from various sources and origins, be it a fandom (an already existing universe) or an original storyline. Please read through these paragraphs carefully before you decide to contact me! It’s important to avoid any misunderstanding later! And I would less likely respond to a message with the title ‘Hey, wanna rp?’, since I hadn’t had any good experiences with these said messages.  Thank you. 


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Communication: It’s certainly chill. You can talk to me about whatever occupies your mind since I am very open and always happy to listen to others. I also tend to be chatty, sharing a meme or a joke every now and to loosen up the mood. If you consider choosing me as your roleplaying partner, be sure to maintain a certain consistency. I have nothing against going on a longer break or even a hiatus, but the whole `ghosting stick´ is something I have no patience for. So if you’re unsure of upholding a stable, long term partnership, feel free to skim past this ad. 

 Plotting: Also very important to note! I am fairly quick when it comes to building new characters, concepts, premises, storylines, backstories, etc… This means there is certain flexibility available which allows me to adjust. Even though it is a hobby, I am still extremely passionate about good storytelling and interesting character arcs. I hope to meet someone who is just as enthusiastic and willing to put in the same amount of effort as I am. If it’s only me who’s pulling all the weight, I will lose interest fast, just to get it out there. Aside from that, I love going a little crazy with the possibilities and push things to their absolute limits. Of course within the boundaries of the given setting.

 Pairing & Romance: Okay, right off the bat, I am a hopeless romantic through and through. I enjoy good and strong chemistry between characters just as much as the next, and this will be no exception. I prefer the good ol’ MxF pairing because I have more experience with this. But I also like playing a FxF dynamic or MxM. Everyone is welcome! When it comes to pairing itself, I want to make sure our creations are compatible, for I hate forcing characters into a romantic relationship for the sake of progression. A natural flow is what I am aiming for. ;)

 Mature? Yes, very much so:  Adult and taboo topics are absolute. There’s no way around it because, in my stories, it is a running theme. The adult world is not easy to handle, but it’s definitely interesting to explore. That includes violence, cursing, shocking content, and all that dark stuff. My limits are few, safe for a couple of minor pet peeves that I have, I am pretty much open to some experimentation. When it comes to action-heavy scenes (be it an intimate situation between two characters or something on a cataclysmic scale), I won’t fade to black since I am not a huge fan of censoring. However, I will not force or push my partner into something they are not comfortable with. If you want to know the extent to how far I am willing to go, what sort of content or how detailed my writing will be, you can ask me directly. As for smut or lemons, whatever you call it, it will never be the focus of any of my roleplays, but I enjoy a good erotic scene with a lot of tension (if they are good). 

 Boundaries: Not a big fan of things like pedophilia, necrophilia, scat, bestiality, or those dreaded ‘futas’.

Inspirations and interests: There’s a pretty broad spectrum of what I deem interesting and inspirational. From fallen angels and demon/monster hunters, mages, criminal masterminds, cybernetically enhanced characters to futuristic dystopian settings, ancient kingdoms who have fallen against the test of time. All of it causes my heart to skip a beat. For original content, I’ll just give a brief list of bullet points of the general themes that fall in line with my current interests. 

Writing: My texts are lengthy, detailed, and elaborate. Third-person is usually my preferred way of playing my character unless there’s a special case where an exception can be made. Word count usually fluctuates, though I have a standard form of 400-500+ words per response. It also highly depends on the given situation. I don’t want to set anything in stone… just to give you a basic idea of what you’re in for. I also expect my partner to have an at least adequate, if not decent grasp on basic grammar and punctuation. 

 Doubling: Yes, absolutely! If you are prone to doubling, chances are I might accept you as my partner straight away! Although I have nothing against the simple form of roleplaying, doubling is something I’ve done since my first time joining. 

 Characters: Very character-driven with the main focus being on interaction. I take my time writing characters and love nothing more than well-structured sheets that illustrate the vision of their creator. (But!) There’s no need to write 10-20 pages worth of character information, but I wouldn’t want to limit you either. As for the depiction of the given character, I won’t be as presumptuous as to tell you what sort of medium you can and cannot use. Face claims such as photos of real models, illustrations, 3D models, drawings or descriptions are all okay. As long as it gets its point across, I am happy.

 Aversions: A few minor things that irritate me, or let’s say, aren’t really my style are one-liners, low effort responses and out of character behaviors in canon characters. We all have different takes on characters, which is totally fine by me since I basically do the same. Though if the character acts and behaves unlike their personality dictates, it will break the immersion. I hope to stay true to my own words when saying this. If it happens on my side, just let me know! Another pet peeve of mine is that one plot that has been done time and time again…. and I’ve grown quite jaded towards it, which is ‘supernaturals trying to fit into human society’ thing… I mean, I’m not opposed to borrowing from this idea, but for me, it grew old pretty fast. Speaking from experience.

 Passione: My wish is to find a partner whom I can have a good time with and develop some chemistry. After all it is a fun hobby. We both should have fun with what we’re writing. Brainstorming among other things is one of my favorite things to do. To see how things unfold and how the characters react to the given situation is the highlight of any story.

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FANDOM:



I love roleplaying fandoms just as much as I have a blast with building something original universes. Worldbuilding is my preferred cup of tea… but if we opt for something more fandom inspired, I highly welcome in on expanding on the given universe and add some original lore too!

Hellsing: Haven’t done that one before and I am curious as to how things play out, especially in such a dark and mystifying universe like Hellsing. There’s a lot of subject matter that we can delve into, plus I am a big fan of powerful vampire characters!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: I would love you for this. No, seriously, I would. This fandom has sucked me into a downward spiral and there’s no possible chance of escaping this inescapable void. The absolute insanity of this franchise had me hooked from the second I laid eyes on it and I would be forever ecstatic if you’d message me on behalf of roleplaying Jojo. I have plenty of ideas for this one, just you wait.

Full Metal Alchemist: One of my favorite mangas and animes ever made. Recently I’ve begun rewatching FMA Brotherhood and felt a small hint of nostalgia swelling inside my blackened heart. I’d be open to play it, though it is not one of my top cravings at the moment.

Justice League / Young Justice / Justice League Dark: Huge DC fan, though I much prefer the animations and comics over the live-action cinematic. Let’s just say, I like the expansive and dynamic set of possibilities and deep, well-written cast. For instance Hellblazer Constantine or Raven.  

Bayonetta: Need I say more? Let’s dance boys!

APH Hetalia: That includes the 2P version ;)

The Boys: Well.. the 2nd season came out. And I am simply stoked.



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ORIGINAL: 



Supernatural: From angels to demons, from gods to monsters, I’ve seen it all and I absolutely love it. There can be any sort of creature or being involved, ranging from vampires to sirens to elves, you have it. However, I’ve never done something quite relating to angelic beings and their offspring before. I’ve read up on Nephilim and angels and found it rather fascinating, and it’s a different approach from the usual vampire vs werewolf cliche. 


Crime and intrigue: I never stray too far from the supernatural path, but hell, there’s nothing better than some good old gritty mafia inspired stories with a complex cast of characters and a solid storyline.

Sci-fi and urban fantasy: So this could be basically anything from genetically engineered superhuman (superheroes / - villains) with a dark take on the human psyche, dismantling the idea of heroism and villainy. Or a world where mankind began their interstellar journey to colonize neighboring planets, galaxies before transcending their own humanity by merging themselves with deadly technology. I have a few plans for this…

Historical and mysterious setting: So one of my favorite eras is the Victorian time period, 30s - 40s - 80s, Renaissance or Ancient times during the rise of the Egyptian / Roman / Sumerian Empire. During these times, a dark discovery was made by man, learning that they were not alone in this world. In fact, they weren’t even the supreme race that destined themselves to dominate the world, for another race of humanoids have lied dormant deep beneath the earth, slumbering through the millennia only to be re-awakened by a cataclysmic event. These ancient humanoids are gods among men, superior in every way imaginable, and they have made it their mission to reclaim their right to rule. But their nature is not what most people think it is…

The idea: I have an idea for a plot, in which I can give you if you ask for it. It is however merely a suggestion for what we could write - not a mandatory thing. If you don’t like the idea, we can always figure stuff out and keep on home-brewing till we find something we both can enjoy. There’s no need to immediately end things if the first thing doesn’t really fire you up.



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If you’re still here and haven’t fallen asleep reading through my loooong paragraphs, then I would like to thank you for bearing with me this far. I am looking forward to your messages. 

Have a wonderful day!