#everyone needs to love my friends dnd characters just at much as I do

[camarilla-arts]

Reliably Precarious

HBD to @grubloaf and character belongs too him!!!!!

[ask-the-royal-absol]

(It has been one year since I joined the pokeask community with my silly absol. One whole year. How did I get here? Like, damn. It’s just been such a lovely community and I’ve met some truly wonderful people.

I’m sorry I couldn’t get more of you on here. I wish I had the time to draw each and every one of you. This is why I needed the head shot so thank you to everyone who sent it over. Thank you to everyone in this community for being my inspirations, my joy and my friends. I cannot thank you enough. If I could make you all something more to say thank you, I would. (Also forgive me if the image quality is garbage. Tumblr does that sometimes. If you click on it, it'll be clearer.)

I suppose I’ll just go on and say I’ve always admired the community from afar. So many stories I was following. So many inspirational people. The events. The characters. They are all so wonderful. And I followed these blogs for years.

Getting hooked into everything about the ask blog community. At first, I was going to making an ask blog about a royal Goodra/Vespiquen fusion who goes to other places to make political connections for their hive. I drew up a couple of concepts but I didn’t go ahead with it.

I kept following the community, constantly being inspired and amazed by everyone inside of it. I’d wanted to join a community for a while. At first, I joined the Pokémon fusion community. It was fun. I met some great people. But, after a few years, it didn’t fill me with joy. I did fusions on multiple platforms, even making some fusions for the infinite fusions game (they’re still in there). I had a go with commissions. It just became a bit of a chore.

I tried making my own region. It only lasted a month. It left a gap which I didn’t know how to fill. I also did dnd with friends which mostly satisfied this but we didn’t do it consistently enough. I definitely miss doing it. I probably did fusions for 6 years. The blogs are still up. There was nothing I wanted to draw consistently.

Near the end of last year, I had a really tough time. My mental health took a really big dip and I was struggling. It was an incredibly dark time. I didn’t have much going on. Maybe we were doing dnd. I don’t remember though. I started drawing Pokémon because I wasn’t in the mood to draw dnd art.

I don’t know why but I started to draw an absol. I think it may have been inspired by my current dnd character. As I was drawing this absol, ideas started to form in my mind about who this absol was and the world they were from. Ideas kept flowing and flowing.

Once the absol was finished, I drew another character, and another and another. And I just kept drawing. Soon, I started drawing maps and a prophecy for this absol and their world. The name Destino came from the word Destiny. It brought me so much joy. I worked on it for a few days and put it to the side.

Then came around the 27th December 2022. I looked back on my planning for this world and thought perhaps I could turn it into an ask blog. At first, I was so nervous. I didn’t want to go through with it. My partner convinced me to make the blog. That’s when I began to draw the first post. And on December 29th 2022, I created the blog and made a reference post for Destino.

Soon, the first post was posted and I got asks. Exciting stuff! And it was so much fun deciding how Destino would respond. More asks kept coming and I eventually started sending asks to others. The most exciting part would have to be seeing people follow me who I was a huge fan of. Gonna be honest, I’m still so incredibly excited when talking to these people and when they like my stuff.

My love for this blog grew and I’ve spent a lot of my time working on it. I have loved each and every moment of it. It was fun having this smug, egotistical absol interacting with many characters who I am a huge fan of and entertaining to see their reactions. Destino was becoming a bit of a thing. Memes were made of Destino. Destino was insulting every legendary they could come across. For me, it was hilarious. And it seemed others were enjoying their antics too.

I am incredibly thankful each day with every interaction, every like, every follow, every reblog, etc. I’ve had. I’m grateful for this entire community. Every one of you has been so friendly and I love talking to you. This community has filled a void which I wasn’t sure would be filled. And I hope I can continue loving being in this community for a while. Destino is going to stick around for a while. I’ve got big plans for them and I hope to enjoy this journey with you all.

Thank you everyone. I hope I can continue to work with you all and have fun! Let’s get ready for another year of Destino.)

[wildflowerwoodsworld]

So, I figured I should finally get around to doing a post on my four main OCs, bc they keep popping up in fics and I'd like to have a visual reference that's easily accessable.

Starting with my oldest OC and the one that's technically a canon character, my version of Finral's mother, Fiona Roulacase! I've done a Fiona character study here

Fiona is a nice person. That being said, her view of the world is very much "as long as me and mine are safe, I don't care." to save her family, this woman will burn the world.

Not only is she a Spatial mage, one of the rarest types of magic there is, she is a Roulacase and has the family ability of walking/portaling through most wards like they aren't there (this power comes with the price of never being able to use offensive Spatial magic). If she has been somewhere before, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop her from returning there. This shows itself in her personality; she's cocky and her confidence borders on arrogance. She's impatient and finds listening to other people's personal problems tedious if they aren't part of her circle.

Fiona's main spell is her portal spell; Spatial Magic: Seraphim's Gate

Tondra Sturm is, in a word, ruthless. She is Fiona's best friend/girlfriend (depending on the story). I've done a Tondra character study here

She is based on the Evil Scientist/Chessmaster/smartest person in the room archetype, generally five steps ahead of everyone else and she knows it. She often forgets that people are, in fact, people and not just numbers/figures on a board because sometimes the fastest way from Point A to Point B is to just kill everyone in your way (this is generally the point where Julius steps in to stop her from committing mass murder).

She has weg from messing around with forbidden magic "just in case we need it." This woman's backup backup plans have backup plans. She's also the sort of person to put lightning booby traps after water booby traps so if you don't down you get electrocuted.

Tondra has trouble understanding other people and things like emotions. She can come off as cold and even heartless to people outside her circle but does try to listen to the advice of her friends.

Tondra's main spells are Lighting Creation Magic: Thurderer's Spear and Lightning Creation Magic: Lightning Wheel which create a spear and a shield respectively.

Lana Vaude is the least developed of my main ocs, but I love her all the same. She's Finral and Langris' little sister, a Silver Eagle and has a rival in Solid Silva (she has punched him in the face so many times). I've done a Lana character study here.

Lana Vaude as a character is fueled by spite. She's not good enough for her father, her magic is completely the wrong type for him to bother with her, and she's second in her mother's attention after Langris. Finral is definiately her favourite brother, but she and Langris are closer than it might originally appear as Lana wasn't foced into the same competition the boys were and Liliane didn't want either of her children interacting with Finral any more than necessary.

She spends a lot of her time in the Silver Eagles outpost on Raque beach because every time she is in the same room as Solid Silva, they get into a fight and Solid always loses despite A) having the attribute advantage and B) being a year older than Lana and Nozel is tired of listening to his little brother whine.

Lana's main spell is Fire Magic: Starburst which creates lots of tiny fireballs that go flying in every direction

Last, but definitely not least, we have my most recent OC; Lia Bardsley. She started out as a DnD OC (you can find her in @/thoughtfullyrainynightmare's incorrect DnD quotes) who bullied her way into the main story for my Everybody Lives au and expanded from there. I've done a Lia character study here.

Lia is, in a word, chaos. Almost constantly chattering at a speed of five hundred words a minute, this woman cannot sit still and will talk to anyone who so much as stands next to her for five seconds. She has a gift for getting people to tell her their life stories without her giving them a single bit of information about herself; this is very useful in her job as her job is literally to talk to people and catch the problems before they can become problems. This doesn't earn the Green Preying Mantises any stars, but it does mean that the area of Clover they oversee has the least issues out of anywhere in the country.

She's a prankster by nature and her favourite victim will always be Jack, even though he nearly always throws her out a window for her pranks when he's not involved in planning them (the one time he didn't throw her out the window, he threw her off the roof). That being said, Lia has about as much respect for Jack as Yami has for Julius, even if she doesn't always show it. If he tells her to do (or not do) something, then she listens.

Lia's main spell is Air Magic: Chrysalis which creates a platform or barriar made out of air in any shape she choses. She regularly uses this in her day to day life to hover in the air so she's at Jack's eye level when they're talking.

[yuurivoice]

Hi Yuuri I just wanted to say I miss Howell. That’s all I hope you have a good day😊

I do too! There's still a lot about him I want to know and figure out. I was able to delve into him a bit more (and get some much needed closure) with some friends. I don't think he's really a character that I want to do various iterations of in different worlds and campaigns, because it's that specific story of his that I love. If it's removed from that world and story, I'd rather have another shot at a new character.

I was able to salvage a couple of relationships out of the rubble from the entire ordeal surrounding TnD, and I've got no beef with anyone who wasn't literal human trash, so Howell's place in my heart is unscathed in terms of being attached to a really shitty time and situation.

Reflecting on those days, that shit was a nightmare scenario. Obviously my own emotional turmoil pales in comparison to the literal criminal and victim in our midst, don't get that twisted because those most directly impacted by one asshole's actions should be the primary concern. It is a hell of a pill to swallow having something that dear to you go up in flames in such a public and grotesque way.

I don't blame anyone who feels any type of way about how it was handled and the aftermath of it. The truth of it all is, one person's really fucked up actions had widespread effects on a lot of people. The radius of that bomb was no joke.

Howell is very dear to me, and those Sundays were genuinely the favorite day of the week for me over that time. The backlash, anger, resentment, and then emptiness of it all really took its toll, as I'm sure it did on everyone caught in the blast zone.

The bad guy got got in the end, and I'm thankful for the folks who made sure that happened.

That year as a whole was really difficult. That wasn't the only heavy thing I had to work through that year. There was a stretch of six months that were probably the worst of my adult life in terms of interpersonal turmoil. The universe really took a bat to my kneecaps.

Saying ALLLLLLLL of that to say, if I had lost my love for Howell, it would have taken a significant toll on me creatively. I would not so freely share the parts of myself it takes to create the stories and characters I do now. I can pretty confidently say that something like Echoes or Shattered would never happen.

I struggled mightily with BitterSweet Chapter 3 for that reason. It was hard to want to carve out pieces of myself to share with the world, and certainly very difficult to work with anyone else out of fear that their bad actions could rob me of my passion even more.

But I learned a lot, and over that time I also think I was able to show my community how serious situations get handled while I'm at the helm. I hate that me and the team have been on the frontlines of a few really serious community PR nightmares, but I do think we've been able to exhibit an ability to treat things with maturity, respect, and direct action.

So Howell means a lot to me. We've been on two journeys, one fictional, and one real...and boy we've gotten our asses kicked more than a few times.

There is a chance, albeit a small one, that there's a DnD story to be told with Howell and some friends, for the world to partake in. Don't know if it'll happen, but the chances aren't 0%...

[alpaca-clouds]

Thinking about Power Fantasies and Wishfullfillment

I am thinking about Wishfullfillment and Power Fantasies a lot recently. Mostly because someone has shamed me for writing exactly that. Power Fantasies. Or, let's be more honest, for me writing a rather unusual kind of Power Fantasy. The one, where the power that I fantasize about is not a physical, violent power.

Technically speaking, there are technically like two acceptable types of Power Fantasy within fiction:

Punch real good and get to punch all the bad guys.

Get the hot gal/hot guy.

Genre fiction is usually where this can be found - and yeah, it always is a variation of this. Generally media that is focused more on a male audience will usually go more for the "get to punch stuff real good" power fantasy, while maybe putting in a little "hot gal" for the visuals. Meanwhile, a lot of media focused on a female audience, will focus on "get the hot guy (and fix him)" as the power fantasy, with maybe a bit of "get good at punching". (And yes, this has less to do with "what gets written", but more with "what gets published/made into movies/films/games by big publishers/studios".)

What is noticable about it: Obviously for the most part the romantic power fantasies are very much heteronormative. And yes, the other part of the power fantasy is almost always about physical violence, and about being the strongest, and most influencial person there is.

And here is the thing: That is not really the power I fantasize about. I do not want to use violence to kill the bad guy real good. Sure, if someone handed me a Death Note, you'll bet, that I would see what would happen if I noted down "Elon Musk" and "Donald Trump". But in general it is not the kind of power I would want.

My power fantasy is "to be able to talk people into being fucking reasonable for once". Or rather: "Be able to talk and have people just listen, gods darn it." Which is, yeah, why ever since I started playing TTRPGs more than half my life ago, I had the tendency to play the charisma heavy classes. And which also is the reason why my DnD standard class is the bard.

So, yes, whenever I currently write about my BG3 Tav and he is talking sense into some BBEGs (like Gorts, or Emps) and stuff... Yeah, that is very much my own sort of power fantasy. Just as his "I am gonna make friends with everyone" is very much a power fantasy of mine.

Again, there is a reason for me to play bard.

Yet, a former friend wrote a whole ass essay shaming me for it and how unrealistic it was and how the character "forced his morals" on everyone else. (All my questions on how the person's own characters killing their villains were not forcing their morals on said villains were ignored.) And it created a whole ass discussion, where even more folks then kept shaming me about this - and about my love for Solarpunk with worlds, in which again the world is actually a peaceful one.

And... I think this is really sad, right?

Like, how is it that the only viable variations of writing power fantasies seem to be "violence" or "get to have straight sex"? I find it especially kinda sad, that violence especially is the thing people can fantasize about and it is considered "normal".

Sure, you can say: "Well, some forum discussion is not saying much." But something that I keep thinking about: "Well, I am writing those stories for myself, because there is not a whole lot of that avaible in media." Because most mass media is about characters punching real good and then punching their problems. Sure, I can think of a couple of animated kids media in which the BBEG is in fact defeated by words. Steven Universe comes to mind. And, I mean, ATLA kinda tried, though they still needed to have the big bad battle in the end. But in general it really is the exception to the rule.

Mass media tends to focus on violence to tell stories. Alternatives to it are rarely even considered. If you look at the blockbusters and what not, pretty much all involve a finale that does centrally feature a fight or battle.

Yet, especially in terms of movies I cannot think of a single one, where the main character goes in there: "Okay, bad guy, let's just talk about this", and then does exactly that.

And the same goes about the worldbuilding. Why (outside of the normatilization of the entire "western narratives" thing) do so many people struggle with the idea of a Solarpunk world, where the world itself is fine? Why do they struggle to imagine a utopia where there is no sinister plot hiding and Soylent Green is in fact not people? Why do they actually get super angry at you, when you write stories like that?

Because it is so fucking normalized.

But, like... How is it that you can write a wishfulfillment world where the wishfulfillment is based around how very much at war everyone is - just so that the MCs can be the biggest, most badass heroes there are! Why shouldn't people be able to write a wishfulfillment world, where the wishfulfillment is actually that the world is nice and peaceful and the heroes are just really good at science and politics?

And let's face it: This is very much all about capitalism. It is very much about having a very strange relationship to both violence and anti-violence. And... Yeah, no, we need to move past that.

So, that said? I am going back to writing self-indugent power fantasies about my dumb bard going around, talking people into joining the good side for hugs and cookies, and also having a lot of queer sex. *coughs*

[sodrippy]

one of these days i need the full story of your dnd mishap

😭😭😭 please

the short story is our party had three people (2 players + DM) who thought we were playing a fun friendly magical campaign and two people who wanted to recreate a critical role campaign amongst themselves...i think if youre familiar w cr you might immediately see the issue there.

long story is people put WAY way too much personal shit into their characters and almost immediately started taking the actions of characters as genuine irl slights and like. two sessions in had already lost sight of the difference between the pc and the player.

oh shit this got really long im sorry i dont think you care This much but i havent thought about it in a while and it bewilders me every time-

SO i was playing a cunty rogue and had TOLD everyone 'hey she is probably gonna clash w the party at first, but she'll warm up to everyone really fast, so dont worry about that' like it was clearly in the spirit of building a realistic character who had her own hangups etc. which i assumed the others would understand bc they'd done the same. plus is it not boring and unreal asf if a bunch of strangers meet after a murder of someone close to them and all just get along immediately w no suspicions or secrecy? cmon man.

and yet. the two cr-people got really weird about my pirate character stealing (???) and sincerely pulled the dm aside to express their concerns about the 'level of violence being enacted' and asked that we all try to be aware of what class of people we did crimes against. like. they wanted me to stop stealing from the 99% and ask everyone if they were rich before i picked their pocket ig. ALL THE WHILE. ONE OF THE OFFENDING PCS WAS IN THE MAFIA?????? LIKE. DIRECTLY EMBEDDED IN THE MAFIA THAT RAN THE TOWN.

i suppose that pc was off the hook bc he did possess the elf cock that the other guy wanted so bad, so. love won. i guess.

anyway they ended up taking hours out of our sessions to just dialogue-rp about slowly falling in love in a complex way or something. except then the non-elf player was like 'actually, dm, can you give me a love interest npc i need to add more depth to my character.' or smth, to which our dm lovingly crafted a beautiful working class hero of a guy. which the pc proceeded to hard reject. what was the point of any of this? we may never know<3

need to be clear as well this was all happening over discord bc we all live in different timezones, my very close friend was up at 2AM for this bullshit every week. AND he didnt even KNOW these other people very well, but suddenly theyre finding fault w not just his character but him as a PERSON? i just rmrd they accused him of like.....negatively influencing me??? like. MORALLY???? brother we have been friends for 10 years you are nothing to us you dont know us like that lol.

but they did REALLY really hate my character, which eventually made me feel like shit all the time bc like. obviously im putting work into her, its a creative construction and to have it railed against that badly is not fun. so i said ok you know what, ill just make a new character, hopefully thatll keep the peace and we can salvage this.

so i pitch a new character and oh they LOVE her. they fucking love her concept. which was so.........the first character was a lot easier for me to play bc she was a little more like me, and this character was specifically the opposite....how am i meant to take that reaction, yknow

which also reminds me: the original pirate rogue i played was a tiefling (yeah yeah gay stereotype i know. im not subtle or original, whatever) and there was a complaint (made only half-jokingly, ykwim) that she was too white.

shes not even HUMAN what the fuck do you mean shes too WHITE. IM not white that should imbue any character i create w an inherent not-whiteness. but even still, again, she is half sea creature. shes not. human. to be assigned a race like that....hello??

anyway so these two cr-rp players eventually blocked me and my friend on tumblr without saying anything, and got confused when we found out and said 'yeah ok we dont wanna play dnd with some guy who has blocked us on other social media' as if WE were the weirdos. like they saw no problem w continuing this disastrous campaign as long as they got their mandatory monologue time.

the worst part is my dm made SUCH a stunning campaign and world and it was so so so fun outside of this mess, i still feel really bad they never got to realise the world fully. plus my character had a sickass backstory thing where she was like. slowly unlocking latent magic the longer she spent underwater bc her demon parent was abyssal and stuff. which is whatever but the sick part is she was developing SCALES and maybe GILLS. in like a nasty gorey way it was gonna be so cool. but noooo lets talk about strange morality and your lameass god for 1.5 hrs. at 11pm on a friday.

[sugar-omi]

If you are interested, can you plz share how you see the Our Life (1+2) characters as DnD classes and races included? 😆⚔️🍃🏹

Im craving Our Life with some medieval whimsical vibes, Baxter dancing with swords, Derek singing with bar goers while MC goes pickpocketing the villains, Cove as a MERMAN living his life like Ariel. So many wonderful thoughts wanted to share ✨️✨️✨️

okay this took so long bc i know nothing abt DnD so i did a bit of research!!! my friends have talked abt DnD and i never understood but knew it was smth cool n involved alot of creativity, but now i just think this is sm cooler <33 anyway im not creative at all rn so im referencing everything from this website im using👍

tags : Fluff, 'Dungeon and Dragons' headcanons + drabbles, cove is the only one w hc's for if you're dating (+ qiu kinda?) i couldn't think of dating hc's for everyone else in this world as well but you could imagine some of the hc's that way

synopsis : DnD races and classes of ol:nf & ol:ba characters.

qiu:

okay I couldn't decide but qiu is half-elven.

(his dad is so whipped for his elf wife<3<3<3)

i can't really think about what class he'd be in, but i think i could see him as a bard

he's the laziest bard though 💀 and thus is mostly a wanderer.

qiu will wait until they're on their last coin and then will go perform

would perform a very good show while MC pickpockets the assholes that were disturbing the bar just a moment ago

otherwise, he just performs for you and his friends.

they'll have/be at a party with all their friends, and will perform some type of magic trick to entertain everyone

qiu will sing you little songs, read you poetry he wrote while watching you sleep that morning<3

for any important dates like birthdays, or anniversary (if you're dating), etc., they'll do a cool magic trick and perform a elven dance that he learned from his mom

tama:

human! BUT. she's a druid

she loves the forest, the forest loves her

maybe a bit of sorcery as well? idk how this works lol

she has a little house in the woods omg

goes foraging and learns lots of sorcery stuff from ren

will show you how to cast cool spells

also you're the first person she comes to show you any new spells she learns!!

you two beat up any bandits/criminals you come across

renee (/darren):

human and like i mentioned in tama's, is a sorcerer

!!! wants to be like her mom in canon right?

i think she's a teacher n teaches young sorcerers/wizards

baxter:

isnt baxter special. just crossovering worlds 💀💀

anyway.. he's an elf! is also rogue...

bringing baxter's issues/trauma into this DnD au as well <3

you find it very weird that a elf is on his own, but ignore it ofc and befriend baxter anyway

after much warming of baxter's cold heart, i imagine he settles in some civilian town or nearby and opens a bar!!

and every night its full with laughter and good music, and occasionally he'll come out from behind the bar

(honestly, he's mostly just cleaning the glasses and looking pretty <3)

and he'll pull you or one of your friends into a dance

omg imagine its not just a bar, its also a bed & breakfast

of course he's decent enough at cooking, so every morning he lays out a nice breakfast for his customers

derek:

knew this was derek insantly!!! he's half-orc

orcs dont have horns, do they.... well they do now

(realizing he's more Oni than anything in my head...)

anyway i need you to imagine arataki itto and if u don't know who that is Please find the beefiest fanart of him n thats derek LOL

derek grinning with his fangs and he's like 7 feet tall and buff, covered in scars.... yessir <33

i imagine he's a wanderer, but before that he was a cleric.

derek always helps people, he's very reliable but i imagine he's tired and somehow ends up working for baxter!

he's chef during the day and security at night!!!

no fighting in baxter's bar/diner unless you want a ass-ful of derek's boot <3

i also imagine when he's not running the place with baxter, he's helping the towns folk

the kids love him

they make flower crowns and run to the bar/diner to give them to derek <3333

ofc there's that one shy kid who offers one to baxter! bc they think he's really cool!!!

cove:

like you said he's a merman!!!

mmm, but i also imagine he can shapeshift into a "human"

(this is some ariel shit isnt it LMAO)

(also im imagining mer!cliff x human!kyra. mmm, i wonder if she'd be a bard? or maybe a healer, cleric maybe? why do i wanna write a whole fic on this now....)

although i imagine he needs to stay hydrated to stay on land like that. so please remind him to drink water when you're out n about otherwise he'll turn back into a fish in the middle of the market LOL

(you've learned this the hard way

!!! imagine if there's some way for you to come into the sea as well, be it a air bubble or potion of some sort and you have lil underwater adventures/dates n cove shows you all kinds of cool things <3333

he brings you lots of pretty things

if you like jewelry, he has his dad help him string up some pearls into a necklace or bracelet. or even better an anklet

+ if you're dating/crushing on each other

he'll do his little mermaid mating and courting rituals

like bringing you food

(will show up on your doorstep in the middle of the night w a big fish he caught or some breakfast derek smuggled him (cove doesn't keep many coins since mer-currency is more like sand-dollars or smth like coins made out of ore only found in the sea. the ore is good for nothing else than to be coins LOL))

OH MY GOD HE CAN CHIRP N SHIT

will chirp n shrill and do other cute mer sounds that you don't really know what they mean sometimes

COVE: *watching you dreamily* MC: *flustered from the staring* what?... COVE: *flirtatious chirp*

[justaweasel]

So, Solomon is my DND character (see profile) and I love him so much and try my best to keep his lore in tact with my DM's plans andddd this was like the most Solomon thing and I have to share with everyone

Solomon has made little pals with the rest of the party, he knows not to get too close with his friends, though

He's lived and lost many a times by now. However, he doesn't seem to learn his lesson. Humans always yearn for some sort of affection, platonic or romantic. Slowly, he and the party get closer, at first it was just for fun, doing whatever he wanted, and thwarting whatever threats to humanity they came across. But.. then.

Something changed.

He celebrated victories, sees that little light in their eyes shine as they do this or that for the first time. How something originally was meant for his own gain, turned into something more. He started to get close. Too close for fate to like. Soon, they had defeated a big boss together, they celebrated. They went to a restaurant.

That's when the differences started to bubble to the surface.

Everyone was having fun, telling each other about themselves. Until that accursed question came up.

"Hey, Solomon? We don't get to hear much about you. Mind to tell us?"

His smile faltered, even for a moment. He thought of all the redirections he could do, how he could change the subject to something or the other.. but. His stupid human brain yearned to share himself, yearned to show his weakness and hope to god they wouldn't tear him down or outcast him as so many have done. So, he decided to show just that bit of vulnerability that they had earned. Things didn't go in his favor, though. They had laughed. Questioned in that way where you could tell they didn't see him as they did before. It was clear they wouldn't understand.. and simply wouldn't make the effort to.

It's better to be alone, where you could understand and comfort yourself. A lesson he had been aquatinted with all too much. Why be with people who couldn't make that least bit of effort anyway?

They'd called it a hissy fit, too. That's what had broke him. They're different. Mortal. As much as his kitsune friend cusps the brink of immortality, she will never get there. She will never be like him. Cursed by time to see all of those that he cares about die.

Of course she'd understand the feeling, but you can't truly know how others feel until you're in their shoes. She'd never get there, no one would. He's glad for that, of course. No one should feel how he's had, but it's difficult to not be able to truly confide in anyone. Try as someone might, they'd never understand.

Solomon turned to the only true constant in his life. Demons. His pacts. But most of all, Barbatos. He didn't care if the demon insulted him, he just needed someone there. He didn't care what taunting remarks were thrown in his face. He didn't care if it hurt him at all. He just.. needed to be with someone who understood.

Anyway, that was Atlas and you're sad now

(Also you can't say anything cause it's my birthday)

[itsjustbyler]

Who is Mike Wheeler for you and his top 5 moments in your opinion?

Hiii!! This is going to be big because it's been a while since I posted anything focused on this guy.

For me, Mike Wheeler is a complex character. Like love him or hate him. Unfortunately, many hate him. I'm on the love him almost always, hate him sometimes team. He is a character with flaws, which makes him very human. But I love him despite all his flaws, even though sometimes he makes me want to pull out my hair.

Mike is loyal, kind, fair and not afraid to fight for the people he loves. He is extremely smart and has an impressive ability to connect facts. The best plans of the first seasons came from him and I'm sure that if he had been in Hawkins in season 4, he and Nancy would have made a strong team against Vecna. (looking forward to this duo in season 5).

His biggest flaws for me are not thinking before speaking and sometimes not owning up to his own mistakes, placing responsibility on other people. Of course, many of his actions come from trauma, depression, the pressure he suffers as a child in the middle of all the chaos in the Upside Down. But, you can't justify everything with trauma. Mike has flaws like all the other characters and that's normal.

Unfortunately, he has very low self-esteem. He believes he's just a random nerd while all his friends are special in some way. In the first season he associates the fact that Dustin can contort his arms as a form of super power. In the second season he believes that Will's connection to the UD makes him a super spy. And of course, he sees El, the person who actually has powers as superman a superhero.

What Mike fails to see, and thanks Will to actually point it to him, it's that Mike is especial. The heart, as Will says. The other members of the party needs him. He is a leader by nature. He is so smart and so important to everyone. especially Will hehe.

As the seasons go on, we notice Mike trying to conform. In the first seasons, Mike is a proud nerd. Despite being bullied, he continues to play DnD and continues to embrace the things he enjoys, like dressing up as Ghostbusters on Halloween. The change actually occurs in the third season.

It's clear that Mike associates growing up with putting his interests aside and finding a girlfriend. We see Mike pulling away from his friends, especially Will, because he wants to spend as much time as possible making out with El. He even lies to his friends, something that Mike from the first seasons would never (I'm talking about him saying that he needs to take El home because of the time and his friends themselves know that it's too early for that and even called him out on it).

I think season three is where Mike is trying to force conformity the most. He stops playing DnD, starts wearing the clothes his mother picks for him (confirmed by Eddie at the beginning of season 4) and starts focusing on the relationship with El in an exaggerated way. Looking at reddit a while ago, there were people saying that Mike was turning into his father and I think the third season is the one that gives that impression the most.. I mean...

In the fourth season we see that Mike is returning to who we knew. He joined Hellfire, started playing DnD again, he's dressing like Eddie. I think Eddie is very important to Mike because Mike sees him as a cool guy who is not afraid to show what he likes, who don't care about what people thinks of him and is proud do be a freak. That's all Mike was scared to show on S3. It's sad because Mike never had it at home.

While Will had Jonathan, Dustin had Mike himself and Lucas had his family to tell them that's okay to be different and that what makes people think they are freaks is actually what makes them special, Mike had no one. His father doesn't care, he can't connect with his mother and Nancy is focused on herself and her own things. While Eddie hadn't say that directly to him, he inspires Mike to try. He even voices to Lucas that they are nerds and freaks and they don't want to be popular.

But of course something happened when he was going to Cali. Suddenly he is wearing outfits that reminded us of S3, he has a huge change of behavior that wasn't there on episode one and clearly something is off. There is something wrong with his relationship with El and worse with his relationship with Will. He even made that comment to El about Angela at dinner and thats clearly a parallel to his father behavior. So yeah, it was a very S3 Mike, having both the rain fight from S3 and clothes to parallel with.

Again, we are seeing Mike pushing Will away to focus on El. Except... we are shown that Mike was actually hyper aware of Will... "You were moping, rolling your eyes, barely talking". That's the first change. We found out that Will and Mike only talked a couple of times during that six months (for some reason a whole year for both of them) and while we can assume why Will had not tried to contact, we don't know why Mike didn't try to, only finding out that he did try and whined about it all the time with Dustin later. Miscommunication trope. After the whole fiasco at Rink o Mania we see what's wrong with him and El too, El is lying to him and he can't say ily.

Now with the part that many will disagree with, but that's okay. Mike's sexuality. Mike does not have a confirmed sexuality and has been placed in the middle of a love triangle where he is the center.

Mike can't seem to balance his relationship with both of them at once. If he fights with El, he get closer to Will. If he gets closer to El, he leaves his friendship with Will aside. Since the first season we have NEVER seen the three of them together with Mike completely fine with both of them. At the end of the third season, when he finally resolves things with both of them, they both leave Hawkins and S4 starts with everything different.

People like to justify this with "Mike noticed Will's feelings or that he's gay and is uncomfortable around him" which isn't true. Both the duffers and Finn have already confirmed that Mike has no idea. He is oblivious. People also say that this is normal, that real teenagers act like this. The thing is... Mike isn't a real teenager. His motivations, actions, thoughts must be in accordance with that character's narrative and with the way the writers want us to see him.

I had said that one of Mike's flaws is that he sometimes blames others for his attitude. We see this clearly in his relationship with El and how different this is in his relationship with Will. Mike lies to El in the third season and when El gets angry (rightly so), he blames Hopper and Max as if she had corrupted El. Mike has a big fight with Will in the third season after him and Lucas made fun of Will and ends up saying things that made Will sad. He immediately goes to Will's house to apologize and his words are "I was being a total asshole, could you please step outside so we can talk?".

In the fourth season Mike fights with El because he can't tell her he loves her and his words are "Who said that I didn't?" and "You can't let this mouth breakers ruin this, ruin us". In his mind, the people who bullied El are to blame for El not feeling loved by him. Also in the fourth season he fights with Will about Will not telling with him that El was being bullied, to which Will responds that there would be no way for him to tell him since Mike didn't even try to talk to him, they argue and once again Mike goes to Will to apologize and when Will tries to take the blame, Mike says "No, you don't deserve anything. The truth is the last year has been weird. Max, Lucas and Dustin are great but it's Hawkins and it's not the same without YOU (not Will and El, just Will) and I was worrying so much about El and feel like I lost you". Again he takes the blame, even if it wasn't just his fault in this situation. I love Will, I understand why he didn't try to contact Mike, but he can't just blame Mike when he didn't try either.

When El leaves, Mike is stuck with Will. Everything goes to shit and they share a lot of heart to hearts. For some reason, Mike hides Will what the real issue is. His words are "I should had said something (?) and if I just said that thing (?) I think she would be here with us". Well, he knows damn well what he should have said. El cries to him for it and he didn't say it.

Another heart to heart with Will in the desert and here goes Mike "I should have explained myself because maybe she would have take me with her and things would be different, but I didn't know what to say". Well... What's there to explain, Mike? You could just have said that you love her. In fact, I think she would fell really loved without Mike even saying it if Mike said the same thing he said to Will to her instead.

And then before the van scene, Mike's words are "I'm scared that she doesn't need me anymore. The truth is: when I stumble her in the woods, it's not fate, it's not destiny, it's just simple dumb luck and one day she is going to realize that I'm just a random nerd that got lucky that superman landed on his doorstep".

That again shows Mike's low self esteem. He thinks that people around him are close to him because they need him. Also, Mike is moving backwards here. While on episode one he says he doesn't want to be popular and that he proudly is a nerd and freak, now he thinks that he is a just a random nerd that is lucky that people needed him and if they don't, he is going to be left behind. The way he says that breaks my heart, he really believes that.

Will gives Mike the painting and his speech about Mike being the heart and Mike absolutely melts into it. Mike is finally seeing how other people (Will) sees him. Except that Will is lying and everything he said are his feelings, not El's. El does not feel that way, in fact, we don't know how El feels. It's sad, but it's the truth, El never said anything to Mike about what she likes about him and we never see her saying it to other people too. When El is talking about Mike with Max we just find out that she doesn't know if Mike is a good kisser and that Mike is just her first boyfriend.

That's one of the reasons Mike is so insecure about his relationship. I've seen some people saying that Will's speech is how El feels even after the confirmation that it was Will's and his speech has nothing to do with her.

Well, this is not a byler analysis and I'm here to talk about Mike, but I need to say the last thing about it. It's such a interesting writing choice to instead of making Mike monologue to El on his own without hesitation, they decided to have Will telling Mike to do it and making not only Mike but us to remember of his van speech and Will's feelings for him.

We will have to wait and see where they are going with it and how Mike will react to this information, but Finn's word are "the duffers said it will pay off" and "I think there is going to be a mutual understanding and acceptance". So, I'm sorry for people who wants Mike to be homophobic toward Will and seriously, if you do believe that Mike would be something like that, even after he pushing Troy for being homophobic with Will, you don't know Mike at all.

My interpretation for it is: Mike is a gay boy trying to conform. He witnessed how Will was bullied bc of his sexuality and he knows how bad Lonnie was with Will because of it. His father watch the news everyday and he sees how the propaganda against queer people are. He is not purposeful using El and I hate when people says that. He is figuring out himself. He loves El, he loves her so much. What he is starting figure out is that the love he feels for her is platonic and that doesn't mean that this love is less strong as a romantic one. He is scared of losing her. He lost her once and he doesn't want to lose her again. And that's maybe what he wants to explain so much. That's maybe "the thing" he has to say that it's scary to him. If Mike thinks that El is dating him because she needs him, what is going to happen when she finds out he can't love her the way she wants to be loved? He is going to lose her. Mike is not ready for this conversation and that's why he agrees when Will said that's scary to open up to people you care about the most because they could not like the truth right after he said that he needs to explain himself.

I really really wish people would go read about internalized homophobia and how far it can go before calling us delusional for recognizing it on Mike's attitudes, not only going to Google and reading "internalized homophobia is when someone is gay and doesn't accept it" and closing it right after. He is starting to realize that the way he feels about Will is the way he is supposed to feel about El and this is scary as f*ck... I've been there... Mike is lost in the middle of what he really wants and what people wants for him and he doesn't know how to proceed. Everything being worse with him being in the middle of the supernatural shit happening and he watching over and over again both Will and El as a target of it. Just like Nancy on s1, Mike will have to chose if he stays in a loveless relationship like his parents because that's what people expects from him and it's "normal" or follow his own path and stop trying to conform.

Mike has depression and PTSD. His relationships are not the only part of his character. We can see that he barely eats anything in the fourth season, with shots of Will watching him messing with his food instead of eating it. There is also a shot of Will reacting concerned about Nancy's comment about the mess in Mike's basement because he knows that this is not normal, Max also comment on it so it's really something they want us to notice. We haven't been in Mike's POV for a while and it worries me a lot that the duffers decide to make Mike Vecna'd so that we can finally find out everything that's going on in his head.

Mike has the most overlooked trauma in the show imo. Everyone just act like he is just being difficult instead of actually pay attention to WHY Mike behaves like he does sometimes. Unfortunately, this happens with the audience too. People who hate him and write whole essays about how he is not the same just see the surface level of his actions and instead of trying to understand his reasons, they just hate on him.

He had to see El "dying" right in front of him. He had to witness his best friends body presumedly dead being pulled out the water. He witnessed everything that happened with Will throughout his possession. He had to fight the mind flayer, saw his friends struggling without knowing who would survive, saw someone (Billy) dying right in front of him, saw his sister almost dying because of the mind flayer too. He had already seen Will being targeted by the Mind Flayer and then had to see El being targeted by it too, without her powers. He had to come up with a lot of plans to save their friends that could have gone so much wrong and he would blame himself for everything. He has to deal with being queer in the 80s, were the AIDS was at its peak and associated exclusively with queer people.

I think this is to big already so I will just finish saying that I want to see more Mike in S5, not only related to that unresolved love triangle but also the Mike we love, that come up with crazy plans and the leader that he aways was, the one that is going to jump in on every change he has to protect his friends and will fight for what's right.

Now finally, my fav moments:

Mike and his reaction to Will's body being pulled out the water

From the moment Heroes starts playing, I see Hoppers reaction and Mike vocalizes "It's not Will, it can't be" to the moment he comes home and hugs his mom I'm destroyed. No matter how many times I watch this scene, if I'm rewatching the whole season or just watching it though a reel. I cry hard on this one. All the damn time.

Mike pushing Troy for being homophobic to Will

This shows how brave Mike Wheeler is and how he stands up for his friends. He was the target of Troy and his bullying for years. Still, he defended Will when Troy made homophobic comments about him and he doesn't even thought to much about it.

Mike's monologue to Will

It's one that also makes me cry a lot. He is being so genuine here, so vulnerable. It's like while he is talking he himself is realizing that asking Will to be his best friends is the best thing he was ever done.

Mike and his break down to Hopper when he found out he was hiding El

This is so sad. Mike had to see El "dying" right in front of him. He thought he lost her. He blamed himself, thought he was going crazy but them he finds out that Hopper knew where she was all the time. Mike breaks down not only because of this, but I feel like it was about everything that happened that season. It was too much for that kid.

Mike and his cute and flirty apologize to Will after their fight

I mean... this is so cute. Both of them were tearing up. Mike using his Will Voice TM. He apologizing for everything that happened between them and promising that whatever comes next, they will be a team no matter what. The interruption trope and the fact that if Jonathan hadn't entered the room, they would keep staring lovingly at each other 😭

honorable mentions to: Mike jumping off the quarry to protect Dustin, Mike and his sassy face to Steve at their movie date, Mike and his theatrical speech as a DM and Mike's reaction to Will's painting. but you told me to pick just 5 and this is already too long LOL

Ty for the ask!

[puppys-teeth]

🍇 🍐 🍍

🍇 Is there a particular scene/episode/book/etc that you want to just write a million fics about, over and over? Which one?

Finally was able to think of one for this and I even made a post about it. The scene of Marie and Spirit in Steins home, she’s crying about Stein missing and Spirit saying they have to get back to work. I LOVE that scene. I love to imagine Spirit with overwhelming guilt, wishing he can go after Stein but he left Deaths side once and the world almost ended because of him. He wants to go after his best friend, to be the one to bring him back, but he can’t and it fucking kills him. He is Lord Deaths weapon, he needs to stay in Death City with his Meister.

And I think it’s thing like that that make Spirit see that being a Death Scythe isn’t all it’s cut out to be and it probably isn’t the best job for him but there’s no way to change to something else now right? It just opens so many doors that we can all explore and have fun with

🍐 Is there anything in canon that you absolutely hate and love to fix in fics? A wrong choice made, a fuck-up in characterization, a misunderstanding never cleared up, a conversation never shown onscreen, etc…

Uhhh the fact that stein and spirit aren’t making out sloppy style on screen?

I do hate that Maka and Spirit never reconcile in the anime so that’s something I wanna work on but you gotta do it right ya know? Being such a big steinspirit fan, it’s fun to play with even more. With her being steins student and she adores stein so much, while believing that she hates her dad.

🍍 What kind of AUs do you like? Are there any AUs you hate or just generally have beef with?

I guess maybe fantasy if we’re not already in a fantasy like world. Like dnd fantasy with elves and orcs and kingdoms and shit idk

Crossovers with certain things are cool, like genshin or avatar cuz I just love assigning elemental powers and weapons to characters

And then every fandom will have specific AU’s because of the storyline. I love stories where everyone’s alive and good and happy, just to soothe my heart. Not saying every story should have that, but that’s why AU’s exist! To comfort me in my own head.

I hate mafia AU’s. I have never understood the mafia fascination people have, whether it be an AU or those popular Macie movies. I just do not like it and you can never make me like it idk

[starry-eyed-steve]

Okay, so normally, I scroll past any ridiculous Steve takes, especially when it comes to death theories or theories about s5 in general. However, I just saw such a bad take that it actually made me angry, I need to make my own post. (Warning, this gets a bit petty towards the end)

Basically, the OP claimed Steve needs to die in s5 for the following reasons:

He has nothing going on in his life. He works a minimum wage job and is stuck in his hometown

He only has Robin and the kids, nothing else

It would not be satisfying if he lived

Steve can't grow more as a character because he already had too much development, so it would be better to end it there

He's only useful for protecting the group and nothing else

His death would be great for other characters because if he scarifices himself, the others are then able to go out in the world, live their lives, and do great things

Okay, that's a lot to unpack here, and I'm kinda speechless people really have such a low opinion about him.

First of all, saying Steve has nothing going on because he works a minimum wage job and doesn't have a concrete plan for the future is such a weird thing to say. He has a job, and even if it's not the best paid one, he still has an income. It's not like he's has nothing to do after he graduated (which he did the first time). If you think Steve needs to have it all figured out by 19 in order to be allowed to live, kindly fuck off. Almost no character has a concrete plan for the future. We never see Robin talk about her plans as well. Besides Nancy wanting to go to Emerson, we don't really know anything about the other characters' plans. The idea that minimum wage jobs are considered as something not worth pursuing or that your life must suck if you have them reeks of privilege. Not everyone can or wants to get a college degree. The people who work in customer service or have manual labor jobs are very valuable members of society, and to imply just because Steve has a minimum wage job working at a video store, so he better dies, is a horrible take. But also again, he is 19 (!!!) and should be allowed to have opportunities to figure out his plans for the future. Plus, he explicitly told us his end goal, he wants a loving partner and kids, and that's reason enough to keep going. (Even if he wouldn't have this goal or plan, he deserves time to figure things out, seeing as he lived his life in survival mode for the past 4 years.)

I also really don't get the second point. What is wrong about Steve having a real friend and a group of people he cares about? Shouldn't that be reason enough for him to keep living? Shouldn't having friends who you care about and who care about you automatically count as something that is enough. Besides, again, he also has a job, likes to go on dates, and it's implied he's still into sports.

The other characters also have each other. They hang out all the time to play their dnd games. Jonathan only has one friend (who now isn't even in the show anymore) and a gf. Nancy barely has any friends as well, besides her bf, who wants to slow mo break up with her. Should they die because they only have like 2 people they are close with? Or is it different because they want to go to college and do well in school, which is the only good purpose characters are allowed to have in order to be deemed worthy of living?

Imo it wouldn't be satisfying if Steve would die after everything he has been through. The show beats him to a pulp every season. He was tortured, maimed, and he sacrificed already so much for the group. He has the most physical trauma, besides Hopper. Even if the show doesn't address it, it's still there. (I hate it sm, but also I blame mostly on limited time that almost no character gets to explore their trauma.) It would be such a disservice to his character if he went through all of that for nothing. What kinda message is that? Killing off the character who is the most hopeful despite everything he went through is not satisfying. None of the main characters' deaths would feel satisfying after going through the horrors like that. (Besides Murray because fuck him)

If you think a character or person can only grow so much until they reach some arbitrary point where they are the perfect version of themselves, you're pretty naive. Nobody stops growing. Even if someone goes through growth, you don't stop your whole life. Maybe start rooting for an arc for Steve, where he gets even better. Where he gets to figure things out, where he becomes a better version of himself. You wouldn't say this to any other character. Just because his growth arc was more noticeable doesn't mean all your other faves didn't grow. Do you want them to stop living because they made choices to be a better person?

You're really underestimating Steve's relationship to the group if you think he's nothing more than a punching bag to them. How can you watch the show and really think this. He's Robins best friend, he helps her grow and be comfortable. He's Dustin's older brother figure. He gives him comfort, and he will most likely help him in s5 with his grief over Eddie. Even with Max, he functions as a brother figure, especially in contrast to her stepbrother. Yes, his primary role in the group is fighter and protector, but he is more than that. He's a friend and important to so many characters.

I think the last point was the thing that made me angry the most. All those other takes I've seen time and time again, but this last one is just disgusting. First of all again to imply that Steve can't do great things because he doesn't have a career plan at 19, which is just gross. And then if you also think the other characters would be so appreciative of this as if they don't give a fuck about Steve. Like Robin and Dustin would be devastated, how much of his death would affect them and their plans to do amazing things? They would be severely depressed and untreated (lets be real mental health issues were not taken super seriously up until recently) they will live with those impacts for the rest of their lives. Trust me I know how terrible depression is and how it fucks with your life plans. Maybe some characters who are not super close to him might use his death for motivation and to achieve those "great" things. But for most parts, his death would have a negative influence on them, on top of the trauma they already endured. If you think his death would only benefit the group, you're underestimating his impact on people. Like Dustin already has a hard time getting over Eddie, Robin would lose the only person who completely understands her, Max would lose another brother figure and a chance to bond with him more. Nancy would lose yet another person who was close to her. How many people should she lose until she snaps completely? But again, it's the implication that Steve's life is worthless because he doesn't go to college or has a shitty job or only has a few friends, that gets me. His life is worth less than other characters' lives because they seemingly have things figured out because they are (book) smarter than him. And btw Steve has a dream for the future, he wants a family and peace, he wants to be a better parent than his own parents were, and if you think that's meaningless or less great, then fuck you!

With those points and logic, Jonathan should also be a contender for character death in s5 as well. He doesn't have a job, he gets high with his only friend who won't be there in s5, he didn't apply for his dream university, he's about to break up with his gf. Jonathan only has his family and barely any growth over the seasons. He is a very stale character. In other words, according to those points made by OP, he has nothing going on and should sacrifice his life for the group as some form of character development.

Or Robin should also die in s5 according to those points. After all, all she has going on for her is a minimum wage job she works with her best friend, school, and a so far miserable love life. We don't know any of her future plans so fuck her I guess. She better sacrifice herself for the group. Or is she allowed to live because she's smarter than Steve (which is a pretty ableist thing to say) and gets to embark on a romantic journey next season?

To sum it up, stop saying Steve has to die because you think his life is meaningless because he's a teenager who hasn't things figured out. Stop saying shit along the lines that Steve isn't smart enough to get to have a life. Stop implying that intelligence is the most valuable thing a person can have and anyone who might lack it is deemed as less worthy of living. Stop saying Steve can't do amazing things if he doesn't go to college and therefore shouldn't be allowed to live. And stop deeming Steve's dream of a family as less meaningful (or meaningless) than academic/career successes. He deserves to live like every other character in the show.

[jediwizard]

Hiiii I was wondering what your top 5 series are because I'm bored and I don't wanna do schoolwork so I'm gonna distract myself with screens

thanks for asking

my ultimate comfort show is friends. I've seen every episode a billion times, but it still makes me laugh and I still feel like I'm watching it for the first time. it's nostalgic and it just feels like home. I would like if there was more diversity tho..

i love how I met your mother (except for that awful ending). its so comforting and the show discusses real problems that young adults face like unemployment, divorce, infertility, losing a parent etc. characters go through real problems that real people face.

heartstopper obviously. again, I feel like I'm mentioning a lot of comfort shows rather than genuinly good shows but heartstopper is just.. so perfect. it is a bit cringe at times but teenagers are actually like that. everyone in that friend group is so loyal and kind and there's no drama and overall toxicness you'd find in most netflix shows like riverdale, elite etc. and I feel like this is one of the first shows I've seen with good queer representation. the paris squad remind me a lot of my friends and I, and we actually watched the show together. and we're gonna binge all of s3 and then talk about it (it's gotten to be a bit of a tradition)

id like to say that I love the owl house, even though I've never officially seen it. I've watched a lot of clips of it on YouTube and I know what happens and whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed with school work, I'd watch like a 40 minute video of lumity. and I also relate to luz noceda on a personal level. I found out about this show only last year, when it was on it's final season and I was 16. I wish my 12 year old self watched it, because she would have LOVED the owl house and found comfort in this show. watching the owl house at 16 and 17 for the first time shocked me because I felt like my 11 and 12 year old self had come to life (and btw we even look really similar so there's that..). I just started watching Hilda and it's a lot like the owl house and Hilda reminds me of myself too, so idk. they're both really great shows

and lastly i'd probably have to go with stranger things. I love the gravity falls-dark suburban-fall vibe the first two seasons had. season three was really fun, but I didn't like the fourth that much. I also hate how it takes so long for each season to come out. again, I related to robin a lot and I love to play DND with some of my new friends. I started watching stranger things when I was around 11 with my old friends and I remember collaborating on pinterst boards and stuff, so that was fun. i'm going to watch the last season with them too.

ive seen a bunch of episodes of doctor who and some clips on YouTube and I love that. I need to properly sit down and watch Dr. who

superwholock in general is great, but I don't really feel like mentioning spn and Sherlock because of all the queerbating and homophobia surrounding the shows. (sherlock's amazing though)

i should also probably mention derry girls. this show is literally a love letter to the 90s. I guess anyone who grew up in a middle class housegold in the county could relate to this (my mom definitely does). like heartstopper, it's one of those shows that portray teenagers as they are. Heartstopper deals with mental health and self harming, while derry girls is a lot lighter. the characters are so quirky and loveable. and while I was born in 2007, it feels really nostalgic. and it has one of the best soundtracks I've seen in a show. (the best 90s indie like sixpence none the richer and the cranberries so yay)

i know you asked for five, but one day at a time is SUCH an amazing show too. it's about a latina family (grandma, mom, daughter and son) and it's so funny and really informative and just an overall fun family sitcom, but it doesn't shy away from dealing with important issues like racism, immigrant families, growing up in a three generational household, raising a teenager daughter who's a lesbian, being a military nurse and the trauma you have to deal with afterwards etc. elena is a lesbian and she's so nerdy and I just love her so much <333

lastly, probably gilmore girls. it becomes shit after about season 4 and you'll get annoyed by the characters but the first few seasons are really good. it's really cozy and I feel like all the shows that I've mentioned have a similar theme (cozy, autumnal type stuff) and this list wouldn't be complete without gilmore girls.

anyway, that's it. peace out

[theresattrpgforthat]

I have ADHD and memory issues, but the _Patchwork World_ writeup seems to focus on learning the rules and chargen, which are the aspects I have the least trouble with (I can do them asynchronously, alone and between sessions) -- my main issue is with maintaining attention over the duration of a play session. Are there games designed to be played in short bursts -- maybe sessions of 10-30 minutes?

THEME: Quick / ADHD friendly games.

Hello friend! So I’m going to break down this ask a little bit to hopefully make it more helpful. I’m going to include games that can be played in short bursts, but I’m also going to highlight some games that might help in other ways.

I’m also going to include some advice I’ve picked up about gaming from ADHD - tips that I got specifically from creators who have ADHD themselves. I recognize that it works differently for everyone, so your mileage may vary, but hopefully one or two of these tips will be useful!

Disclaimer: I do not have ADHD myself. I am forwarding advice from other creators. The two creators that I took tips from are the following:

10 Tips to Make Your Tabletop RPG More ADHD Friendly, by How to ADHD.

DnD and ADHD, by Azrai.

Both of these videos are focused on D&D, but there is advice that is translatable across games.

One of the biggest helps to understanding the obstacles to gaming with ADHD is the re-contextualization of how an ADHD-brain works. As far as I understand, ADHD brains have an easier time focusing on something if it’s engaging. If it isn’t engaging, or if your brain can’t sort through the information to understand what’s going on, it just kind of… shuts off. So the biggest thing is to think about what makes playing games interesting.

Short Sessions and One-Shots.

I can definitely understand the effectiveness of short sessions and one-shots. You don’t have to retain information from a previous session, and short games are usually rules-lite so you don’t have to keep a lot of information in your working memory.

Oh No It’s Gay, by blake stone.

a quick, single-session dice-stacking RPG about flirting, falling in love, and being super queer. rules for both two-player and multiplayer games are included.

I’m recommending this game because of the dice-stacking mechanic that I think might be engaging. The game itself is pretty simple, and I don’t see a session lasting longer than a few minutes. This game seems to work best with two-to-three players, and the dice-stacking requires you to pay attention when it comes to making sure the dice stack stays up. At the same time, you don’t have to hold much information in your head, and most of your actions are determined based on how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling flirty, then you’ll probably be stacking lots of dice!

Subway Runners, by Gem Room Games.

Life is tough for the cash-strapped in Prociopolis. Ever since the secret to immortality was discovered, nobody retires anymore! With all the steady jobs taken and no sign of any new ones opening up, there’s only one sure way to make some quick cash: sign up as a Subway Runner and work for the Metro Authority to hunt monsters and repair subway lines below the city.

The minds behind Gem Room Games prioritize making games that can be run quickly, and Subway Runners is an excellent example of that. Characters are randomly generated, so you can cycle through the generator until you find one that you like. Then you can download the character sheet and print it off if that works easier for you! You roll a number of d6’s whenever you attempt to do something, with 1-3 being bad, 4/5 being a partial success, and a 6 (or more) being a full success. The staggered success is similar to the way Patchwork World works, but instead of trying to keep track of moves, you just need to find which skill of yours makes the most sense to use.

Subway Runners is a great game for one-shot play! If you hold sessions for longer than 30 minutes I would recommend having a break partway through and doing a re-cap when you come back from the break, to make sure everyone is on the same page and is able to focus on what is about to happen next. If you hold sessions for 30 minutes at a time then I can see the game as functioning as essentially a min-campaign, in which case a quick re-cap before each session is absolutely fundamental.

Finally, if you’re going to be playing shorter sessions, it might be more logical to play online so as to reduce transport costs and the amount of time you need to set aside for a game, and Subway Runners is designed to be run online!

Firebrands: Mobile Frame Zero, by Meguey & Vincent Baker.

Humanity has spread through the Milky way, using interstellar transit gate technology to colonize the galaxy. Mobile frames are the hard-working, hard-fighting combat- and labor mecha they’ve brought with them. You are romantic ace mobile frame pilots, caught up in an undeclared war for the future of the Bantral system.

I don’t know anything about how Firebrands-style games play, but I do know that they are effectively built to be a series of mini-games. You might be able to play one mini-game per session, in order to keep each session short. The biggest downside might be that each mini-game uses a different set of rules, but if you’re only doing one mini-game at a time, that might not be an issue for your group.

The Score, by Tin Star Games.

THE SCORE is an all-new kind of collaborative story game that lets you create the world's greatest heist movie with just 18 cards in under 18 minutes of game time. It's a revolutionary take on shared storytelling that needs no GM, no complex rules, no hefty rulebooks and gives you all the idea prompts you need to be the mastermind.

This game is still in funding but it's meant to be played in 18 minutes, which is probably the shortest tabletop roleplaying game on this list. You can check out the link above to find reviews, playthroughs, and a short guide on how to play!

Visual References and Tactile Player Pieces.

A game that has a visual reference can be stimulating and can help someone keep focus over an extended period of time. This visual reference might just be pictures that you share online to help you visualize what’s going on, or it might be something that is can be seen and interacted with in front of you, to help keep you engaged and interested. This is probably a mandatory thing in games that are long, with a lot of rules.

Lancer, by Massif Press.

Lancer imagines a future where a survivor humanity has spread to the stars after weathering terrible ecological collapse on Earth - the end of the Anthropocene as a consequence of unrestrained consumption and poor stewardship. Thousands of years later, humanity lives in the wake of a desperate revolution, one where the victorious radicals now manage the galaxy they've won.  

Lancer is a mech game, set in the far future, and it has a lot of moving pieces, but it also has an immeasurable wealth of player aids. The creators (and fans) of the game have provided the Comp-Con App, which acts as a Compendium, a Character Creation Tool, and a Character Keeper all in one. The App helps you track damage, plan out your mech build, and mark off deployables as you engage in combat.

I play Lancer in person with a small play group, and we use a hex-map and chess pieces to keep track of what’s going on in combat. This gives us pieces to pick up and move, and it also gives us a visual reference to track where we are and what we want to do next. While our game has chunks of narrative play to provide plot points, the bulk of our game sessions involve combat, and the nice thing about that is that you only really need to know what your objective is, and therefore you can focus on moving across the map and wiping out your enemies. If you want to make combat shorter, you can stop partway through or break it up into smaller skirmishes with a few enemies at a time.

I’m the GM for the game, but I personally cannot keep all of the rules straight in my head - luckily I have a player or two who love rules and will happily remind me how inflicting Burn works, whether I can shoot things in soft cover, and what exactly a Veil Rifle does.

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast, by Possum Creek Games.

Welcome to Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, a slice-of-life tabletop RPG about a heartless witch, a peaceful house, and all the folks who have made their home inside. 

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast is a very special game. It uses pre-set characters, quick-play chapters, and an adaptable ruleset unlike anything else out there. It takes less than a half hour to learn how to play and get started, but with new chapters and secrets to unlock folks can stick with the game for years and years.

Jay Dragon, the Project Manager for Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast, places accessibility at the forefront of all of Possum Creek’s games. Each chapter of this game has slightly different rules, but you use the same characters for each one. Many of the games use tokens, which will be earned, spent, and placed on tracks to make things happen in the story. Each session looks as if it is meant to last 40-60 minutes, which is a bit longer than you might be looking for but is certainly shorter than a typical D&D session.

Because of the token usage in this game, I can see this game having a big tactile element. The character art is also colourful and engaging, and provides you with a really strong visual reference that can help you identify with whichever character you decide to play. Yazeba’s B&B chapters also mean that not every character has to be present for each game.

If you want to check out this game, there is an Ashcan Version on Itch.io, and if you want an Online play option, you can check out Yazeba’s Online by One More Multiverse! The Online game has a whole map of Yazeba’s that you can actually move your character through, and I think that really improves how easy it is to keep engaged with the game.

Light Rules and Communal Player Resources.

If there are not a lot of rules or math that has to be done, you don’t have to spend time thinking about how you do something and you can spend more time focusing on what you want to do. Communal player resources can also be a big boon because if the entire party has the ability to see what’s available, it’s not up to just one person to remember what kinds of tools you have at hand. I personally love online player-kits that are visible to everyone, because you’ll never lose your character sheet, and you fellow players can help you find the pieces of information that you need to figure out what it is you want your character to do next.

Camp Flying Moose for Girls of All Kinds, by Alicia Furness.

Camp Flying Moose for Girls of All Kinds is a PbtA game about teen girls at a summer camp filled with strange supernatural occurrences. Inspired by Lumberjanes, and my own experiences of summer camp, the game investigates mysteries, monsters, and teenage identity. 

You mentioned Patchwork World as a game that you felt worked for you. Patchwork World stands out to me as a PbtA game that lets you customize your character, but only really requires you to remember the moves that you specifically have to make. Camp Flying Moose is also a PbtA game and also lets you create a character by putting pieces together. You will choose a two special moves that define your character, assign numbers to five stats as you like, and answer two characters about your experience at camp.

I’ve also created a communal character keeper that you can use to track all of your character information as a group! You can check it out here.

Visigoths vs Mall Goths, by Lucian Kahn.

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is a tabletop roleplaying game and dating sim about the conflicts and romances among the warriors who sacked ancient Rome and 20th century spooky teens, set in a suburban Los Angeles shopping mall during 1996. There are a lot of bisexuals.

I talk about this game a lot, and that’s because it’s good. The player aids are easy to understand and follow along. There is a map of the mall to help your characters figure out where they want to go next. There is a day tracker that the GM will move along as you play, which ensures that you finish the session within a reasonable time. And there are things that you as a character can do even when the spotlight isn’t on you to help keep you engaged even when it isn’t your turn - characters can embarrass themselves in order to give a bonus to a friend while they roll.

I also find that this is a game that encourages competition, so if you like games where the goal is to (humorously) one-up other characters, you might find this game to be up your alley! This game is also PbtA, often hailed as a hall-mark for being rules light.

I also made a character play-kit for this game, which you can find here! There’s also an Online Supplement made by Chloe Sutherland that makes it easier to play this game online.

Finally...

I recognize that a number of games on here don’t look like they run in very short sessions as designed. For a lot of games, I think having a game table that is on board can be the biggest help. You want a game group that understands your need for re-caps and short sessions, and is willing to work with you. Perhaps meeting online makes it easier to schedule a short game, or maybe taking a 5-minute break halfway through an hour-long game gives you a chance to get your focus back. I’d also recommend talking to your GM about what you find interesting in play. If you’re into romance and all the group is doing is fighting monsters, I can see it being very easy to lose focus.

Some final tips:

Keep the table small if possible (only 2 or 3 players), so there is a shorter wait time between each turn.

Our table lets people do things when it’s not their turn, such as get up to stretch their legs, munch on snacks, and doodle. Keeping our hands busy and letting our blood flow gives some of us the re-set we need to keep focused.

Ask your GM to give you one piece of information or one obstacle at a time. Then you don’t have to try and remember all of the things happening around you at once.

[personalzombie-tv]

There's so many things i wanna say re: informed consent and aftercare in regards to ttrpgs and other roleplay situations but i can not get the ideas in the right order. Gonna give it my best shot though.

A lot of people who suck have been yelling on tiktok about consent surveys and checkins becoming more popular with mainstream DnD. And like- it's just like in bdsm really. You gotta know what you're getting into, provide continuous consent to it, and have a way out if it gets to be too much. The only real difference between sexily pretending to be someone's maid or whatever and pretending to be an orc in a massive collaborative storytelling session is the content of the pretending and how likely anyone involved is gonna get their rocks off to it. It's still the same kind of effect on the brain and you're gonna be processing emotions that come from that. It's super important to know exactly what to expect and be able to set hard (and soft) boundaries about what you are and are not ok with experiencing there.

There's a reason safewords are considered so important in a lot of bdsm circles even when the scene isn't a situation where a plain "no" might go ignored. It's an immediate stop and return to the real world outside of the play. Having that in non-sexy rp is an amazing tool. It lets the gm or other players know "hey this needs to stop now" without having to say those words or worry about whether it's a full stop or a pause. It pulls everyone out immediately and gets them on the same level. I think anyone who's unexpectedly encountered more than they could handle in a game can appreciate the ability to do that.

The thing I haven't seen talked about as much as that though is the concept of aftercare. Like, especially in high rp settings where emotions are running high you gotta be able to take the time afterward to calm down. You need to be able to talk to your friends and remember you're playing a game, they still care about you even if your character and theirs just tried to murder each other. Maybe it doesn't get talked about much cause there's no real word for it that doesn't have the sex connotation but we really should be. I've seen first hand how dropping after intense rp can hurt someone and leave them not wanting to continue playing. You gotta make room to take care of your friends. Especially in online gaming where you can't exactly just hand them a slice of pizza and tell them how well they did acting and how much you love them.

I don't know how to end this. I've just been thinking a lot about these things. I'm glad consent forms and check ins are becoming more normalized in the gaming space. Good for everyone that that's happening even if the old guard dudebros are pissed off about it

[emeraldstorms]

Hi! I'm pretty new to the DD fandom. I saw your post about Matt making up Mike. But people talk about him like he is real? Is this fanon? Is Mike made up or not? I feel kind of stupid to ask because everyone else seems to know what's going on lmao

Please, don’t feel stupid for not knowing 6 decades of comic books by heart.

I’ll try my best to summarize the “Tale of Mike Murdock” as far as my recollection of things allows. I’m sorry I can’t keep it super short because sometimes I need to point out how silly Matt is. Like, I love him, but what a dumbass. 

(DD fans feel free to correct me if I misremember something).

Okay, here it comes(dialogue paraphrased lol)

Not to sound like J. Jonah Jameson, but… this is all Spiderman’s fault. 

In the beginning, Spidey and DD had a rivalry going on. While both acknowledged that they were on the same side, they weren’t exactly fans of one another.

Spidey finds out Matt is DD. Of course, he isn’t gonna out him, but he also apparently can’t just do nothing, but has to let Matt know he knows. So he writes Matt a letter, basically saying “I know you’re DD, but your secret is safe with me” and sends said letter not to Matt’s house or something. No, he mails it to the law firm “Nelson and Murdock”.

In a not so surprising turn of events, Karen Page opens the letter. You know, managing her bosses’ mail as secretaries do. She reads it and tells Foggy about it. Foggy and Karen confront Matt.

Matt is then like “haha, stupid Spiderman! Confused me with my… um… twin brother Mike!”. He says this not only to Karen. No, he also says it to Foggy, who is his best friend since law school, has been to Matt’s childhood home and to his Dad's funeral without seeing hide or hair of a twin brother. 

So Foggy says, “You don’t have a twin brother.” 

Matt says, “Do too! He’s just a loner and also Daredevil.”

Karen and Foggy remain skeptical. But Matt has the advantage that his friends don’t know about his super senses yet. So when a man, looking like Matt but interacting with the world like a sighted person, appears, they do buy it. (It’s a 1960s comic book after all).

For a while Matt juggles his three identities, but at one point it becomes too much (especially the Matt-Karen-Mike triangle getting out of hand). So he fakes DD’s and thus Mike’s death. Then he’s like “Very sad. But my brother trained a successor to be DD in case of his death.” So he can go on being Daredevil, but no longer having to play Mike as well. And that was that for a while.

Anyway, since Matt is not only a dumbass but also a dork, he had a dossier about Mike. For reasons, the dossier got in the hands of Reader, a blind inhuman who has an ability called “Literary Manifestation” aka what he reads (in braille) becomes real. This works three times between two resting phases (with kind regards to DnD xD). So he reads the dossier about Mike and Mike manifests. For emergency cases, Reader has a braille note on his belt, spelling “erase”, but Mike senses the danger and flees before Reader can use the note.

Mike then kidnaps Foggy to get Matt to meet and talk to him. Afterwards, Matt feels it would be wrong to “kill” Mike and lets him go. 

Mike becomes a criminal - I’m not sure if because Matt created him as a “roguelike character” or because he has no other choice with not having any papers. So he joins a group of burglars at one point whose leader has a Norn stone. The burglars use it to open doors, make walls disappear etc, but Mike steals it and uses it to change reality.

So far he is real only for himself, but he changes the world so people remember him, his mother, his brother, childhood friends etc.

TLDR: Mike was just a fake identity of Matt, but now he is real because of inhuman power and a norn stone 

I hope this helps and you’re a bit less confused. <3

[linnetagain]

I know people are coming here to gush about Season (as they should, I am absolutely obsessed and go tell my friends about every update) but I just HAVE to tell you that And All Things End is my favorite interpretation of Gale ever EVER

I think about him and how you wrote his relationships with everyone all the time aaaa and the way he treats Clara 💕

There needs to be more bamf archmage Gale fics out there I love that fic so so so much and I know it's been on hiatus awhile but Astarion's letter subplot still has me so invested!

As someone who plays dnd very casually and always in homebrew settings I learned so much lore from that fic alone, it holds a special place in my heart :]

(Also Good Men and Monsters is fantastic and more people should be talking about it imo)

Tldr you rule and your writing is incredible I hope you have a fantastic day 💕

Thank you SO MUCH!! I do really enjoy writing And All Things End, and I only stopped because I was having a hard time switching between established nearly-lore-accurate post-game BW and slowburn-mutual-pining modern AU BW. Their headspaces and backstories and motivations are so different, even if the general sketch outline of the characters is the same. I am SO stoked to know you like it, and I absolutely do intend to come back to it someday, because I'm so excited to explore where it's going!!

I also really hope you enjoy the ending of Good Men because I am having a hell of a time writing that!! It's as close as I'll ever get to writing them as the darkest versions of themselves they're capable of being and it's a fun tonal shift from my other stuff!