#exploring interesting dynamics of dependency and self love is so very interesting

[yes-m-ray]

i hate how the "Laudna just lives to please Imogen" discourse absolutely removes agency and development from both characters, while also completely ignoring 30+ & 10+ years of trauma at the same time.

i don't have the rhetorical might to develop those points in written form, but when i see people saying, with all certainty, how them "don't work together", or how they should separate to "grow"... i die a little inside.

I want to give those people a chance, i hope they don't really believe that after analyzing a 2 year friendship, and 12 DAYS of a formal relationship IN THE MIDDLE of THE END OF THE WORLD is enough to pull those conclusions. But i don't know...

I've seen this same people seething about their relationship since the start of the campaign so... idk

Anyway i trust the players over everything. They are very aware of their character flaws and arcs (even if these people seem to forget that somehow?) so i know i'm in good hands.

But at the same time... ngl, that this keeps happening to the women characters, and to the sapphic relationships specifically, over and over again... it gets a little bit tiring.

[callingcxrd]

God okay I don't normally complain about petty fandom problems or whatever but I just got a poll from a tag on my dash on if two characters are dating that literally one of them canonically HATES and is outright extremely rude to the other who did nothing and it overwhelmingly voted they were. This is not a cutesy baby and a tsundere one of them is just fucking awful to them for no reason YOU GUYS HAVE TO STOP CARING ABOUT CHARACTERS JUST BECAUSE YOU DECIDED THEY SHOULD BE SHIPPED TOGETHER

CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS OUTSIDE OF BEING A SHIP THEY ALREADY HAVE THEIR OWN STORY AND EVERYTHING STOP CONTRIBUTING TO THE EXTREMELY REDUCTIVE PRACTICE OF TAKING AWAY ALL CHARACTER DEPTH AND STORY BECAUSE TWO CHARACTERS STAND NEXT TO EACH OTHER

[celestialtarot11]

Astro observations 🤍🐚

back with another astro post part 1000 (i dont remember how much its been) 😭 anyways yall, please enjoy and feel free to share your thoughts always! I had to go in deep with this one 👀 you know, its astrology

divider creds: @fairytopea

Venus conj. Saturn has been the biggest lesson for me in love. In the connection often with this placement, the venus person clings to affection and love in a codependent way. The saturn person may withdraw & avoid romance altogether, creating an unstable dynamic. Venus person eventually learns their self worth is much more than having to convince someone why they should stay with them :/

That being said so much has been learned from this synastry. I truly became a better person and decided who was right for me, and who wasn’t. It broke my heart but fixed my vision! 

Someone I know has someone else’s mars in her 12h. This manifested as instant attraction even though she was repulsed by him. She couldn’t explain why she felt this way. Its possible mars 12h can bring out what we feel interest in, despite our shame and guilt towards it. It often has to do with our trauma and being drawn to things we know initially aren’t good for us. Which begs the question: why? And thats where the healing begins.

To also add she had her Lilith conj his sun, which definitely brought out an impulse to explore what she thought was off putting. Lilith can make us go deep into our trauma and transform our beliefs from then to now. With the sun it makes sense her beliefs are shifting especially in relationships. Her source of power was repressed due to her trauma, but now this synastry could be a way to regain it.

So random but are Taurus/Libra males more likely to be uncircumcised 😭 #sorry just had to put the thought out there

Jupiter in virgo male can be great listeners and conversationalists. It can also make them cunning, sly and manipulative with their word. With what kind of information they choose to let out at the time.

Chiron in the 4h and not living with stable parents 🤝 trauma. This guy I know has this placement and does not live with his parents, he lives with his grandparents due to the instability in his home life. His mother currently has a boyfriend. Chiron in the 4h can make an individual experience lack of stable family connections at a young age. It can also represent a separation or divorce in the family, or even the native being kicked out or homeless at some point in their lives.

Mercury in Aries and either going from being super blunt and dry, to spilling everything on their mind no shame. A guy with this placement was very dry, enunciating every word he could to be “masculine.” This was his attempt at projecting a dominant figure, as he lacked for it physically (#this is an astro post sorry i gotta get in there) I feel like mercury in Aries could manifest as sounding boastful, arrogant and pretentious. Especially if they don’t have a high self esteem. But the other side of it: mercury in aries can spill everything personal of themselves lacking boundaries.

Gemini Lilith natives know exactly what to say and how to say it. They are efficient with their word and thoughts. Precise and intelligent. Once empowered they acknowledge the importance of words and communication, but if not they can manipulate, lie to their benefit, and distort information to hide the truth. Empowered Lilith knows to honor all perspectives and feelings.

Also gemini lilith is multifaceted. Bring up a topic and gemini lilith can easily talk about it, even if you didn’t expect to know of it. They are tenacious individuals who love to learn more, and question everything presented to them!

Depending on other aspects and placements but women with Capricorn placements and plutonian aspects in their chart are more likely to have a grunge, dark moody vibe to their outfits. Even their vibe is unmatched. There’s a woodsy, whimsical yet dark vibe to them you can’t fully describe or place. Especially if they have venus touching pluto those women tend to go for a moody, gloomy yet striking appearance! They may also prefer whimsical softer styles, and one day switch to a darker vibe to change things up. Venus=fashion. As a result of pluto cap women may go through many different styles and changes in order to find what suits them. And even then, cap women love to explore with their look! They shed their old skin to make room for more.

Taurus Venus men & Libra men I notice tend to be extreme in their looks. Some prefer their real body, not altered by surgery. This can go extreme in one way: do everything naturally to their body but expect crazy results. High expectations. And some of them prefer perfection as well and go for surgery. They want to be symmetrical, flawless, and yet convey this, “effortless,” look. Not overdone but just right. And it can manifest into something unhealthy by wanting to look perfect all of the time. Taurus/libra men can be hard on themselves physically to fit a standard or stereotype.

Meanwhile Capricorn men want to convey this minimalistic, daddy energy. 😭. Not sorry. Some of ya’ll actually dress like dads though. Capricorn men always try to look put together, simple, yet there’s a sense of luxury to them. Depending on their other aspects/placements to Venus, they can give off a warm vibe. For example someone who was my childhood bestie dresses like a dad but gives off dork energy, because he has Aquarius stellium and Sagittarius placements as well. So it really depends on the venus aspects!

Libra dominant men are the type to go from couch potato to hot millennial business dad for an event. The type to get you drooling. The type to catch you off guard when you least expect it. The type you’d probably roll your eyes at when they say they’ll actually dress up, and when they do you’re stuck for words.

Capricorn women and their playlist 🤝 comfort. The only thing that truly understands them deeply. The only thing they find themselves getting lost in rather than getting lost in a person. Because losing themselves to a person is much more disgraceful to them, than getting lost in something they put together themselves.

“I’d rather lose myself in the hands of something I made, flesh and bone than to give you my dignity, my vulnerability, my guilt.” -me, a cap moon probably.

Thanks so much y’all for reading! I really hope ya’ll enjoyed this. Please always share your feedback, I love to engage and hear it! You can also send asks my way if that works! 🤍 have a great one.

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[erisweekofficial]

We're thrilled to shine a light on @zenkindoflove!!! Amanda is an absolute gem in the Elucien fandom AND Eris fandom and has also blessed us with Alexius, her incredible OC for her Eris x OC fics.

Alexius stands out as one of the few male OCs in the community, and the dynamic between him and Eris is nothing short of captivating. Think forced proximity, delicious yearning, witty banter, political intrigue, and all the tension you could dream of. You can see them in both Summer Heat (which has Elucien) and Pull Me in Deeper, which... y'all you gotta read this asap😍🤭🥵 Also the mods are begging you to read Taste of You, a short and delightfully smutty one shot.

And PLEASE admire this amazing art of Alexius and Eris!

Read more to learn about how @zenkindoflove was inspired to create content about Eris AND her extremely helpful tips for writing content about him. (We're taking notes)

What inspired you to start creating content about Eris?  I became curious about writing Eris after he was featured in some of my Elucien fics. When I started my multichapter Elucien fic Summer Heat, I decided that I would give him a male love interest in that fic and create an OC - which ended up being Alexius who you see featured in all of my Eris work. I originally intended for it to be a background relationship, but I decided to experiment and write the scene of their first meeting (a very smutty scene) just to do some character exploration. I didn’t intend to include it in the fic, but then once I wrote it, I knew that it was something special and Eris x Alexius became a true B storyline in that fic with a fully fleshed out love story. After that, I wanted to expand and write fics that focused on them which I've written several now and more to come for Eris Week! It's a bit niche. Hardly anyone writes Eris x Male OC but I'm obsessed now.

What's your favorite piece you've created featuring Eris and why? 

That would be my Eris x Alexius multichapter fic - Pull Me in Deeper. I love it because it was a way for me to explore Eris’ character when he is out of the watchful eye of his father and others in Prythian. It’s also just a fun action/adventure/romance story and I got to explore more lore and character building for my OC Alexius as well. Alexius was designed to be, in my opinion, the perfect person for Eris and that means often standing in contrast to a lot of his personality traits and pushing him outside of his comfort zone. So it was an incredibly fun dynamic to explore. And it’s two gay men who are on a quest to find out (*spoilers*) if unicorns exist XD.

How do you approach writing dialogue for Eris? 

I tend to lean into Eris being more careful with his words - so he is sharp, concise, and efficient in his word choice. Depending on who he’s sharing a scene with and the context, he can be severe and short or he can be long-winded and eloquent. And of course, he has banter and jabs a plenty. So I try to balance all those sides of him depending on the context.

Do you have any advice for other creators wanting to make Eris content? 

Eris inhabits a unique space in canon where he is truly a free agent when it comes to relationships. So, I would recommend if you want to write romances with Eris to lean into self-indulgence and write the pairing/story you really want to tell and try to let go of what you think will be popular. And if that ends up being Eris x OC rather than a canon character, know that it can actually be such a rewarding experience even if you don’t have a built in audience. Creating an OC to pair with Eris has been immensely fun and has broadened my creativity. Eris is a complex, interesting character with so many layers and building someone to fit him and find out what is underneath all of those layers can lead you down quite an obsessive path. But a fun one. 

Please give us a name for one of Eris’s Brothers

Kian. He is the third oldest and is more of a scholarly type. Now that second brother Conan is dead, he is next in line after Eris.

Please give us a name for one of Eris's Dogs.

Lithia. She just had puppies in PMID and Eris is worried about her. 

[prince-liest]

any advice on how to write smut as an aroace person? I'm in it for the more niche stuff (consent issues, negotiation, navigating consent issues, I'm all about that) but I just KNOW these characters would be passionately making out in between. so I'm just left going back and forth trying to describe them doing that when personally I'm neutral about kissing at best and find it feels super weird at worst lol

Oh, gosh, hahaha - I'm ngl, I think it really depends on the character! Like, I've written a lot of smut and so on over the past couple of years and aside from blatantly pandering to my own kinks to a rather flagrant degree, I write it the same way as I write anything else: by thinking about how the POV character would experience it!

To follow the making-out example: I write Alastor as aroace and generally pretty neutral-tolerant about kissing, so whenever I write a kiss from his point of view, he ends up occasionally curious about the physical sensation of wet/warm/staticky (since it's usually Vox) or about how his partner is experiencing it, occasionally bored and distracted, occasionally actively very interested if blood gets involved or he likes the reactions he's getting. Meanwhile I write Mu Qing in a relationship with Feng Xin as extremely demi and otherwise sex and romance-repulsed, so he tends to be very into a kiss with Feng Xin...but also surprised and stressed out by his own desire after, y'know, 800 years of celibacy and so on.

For allo characters, it obviously can differ as well. The way I write him, Vox is pretty horny, obsessed with Alastor, and has had Alastor on a weird pedestal of love and hatred for a long time, so any radiostatic kiss I write from his point of view is going to be intense. He's going to enjoy the sensations, marvel at the fact that Alastor is letting him do this, fantasize about taking it further, catalogue every little thing about the experience like Alastor's comparative inexperience and how much that makes Vox feel special, or how sharp and sexily threatening Alastor's teeth are, etc. In comparison, I write Lucifer as a little bit depressive and having taken a hit to his self-esteem on the front of sex and romance after separating with Lilith, so in my fic where he hooks up with Angel Dust, he's also enjoying the physical sensations, but in a way that's much more focused on the emotional tenderness and feeling taken care of, and then frequently diverting into his performance anxiety.

Overall, I think that intimacy is a great way to explore characters and relationship dynamics, and (perhaps this is very aroace of me) I wouldn't necessarily approach it much differently from how I approach writing characters in any other situation. Rather than thinking of it as writing this mystical thing called smut, think of it as writing this character going through these particular acts, and engage with the writing as "what does this mean to this character, what would they enjoy, what would they focus on, what are they getting out of it," etc etc. And I think that fits in really well with what you're already interested in writing!

And, hey, if you're really not interested in writing the sex itself... honestly, there's no need to! You can always just fade it to black. Have the consent discussion, the awkward fumbling, the missteps, write a short lead-in, and then tack on something like, "They fell back to the bed. This time, when X's hands tensed and curled into the bedsheets, it was for a much more pleasurable reason" at the end or whatever.

[izzyspussy]

@fanficfanattic you will regret this

okay so. it wouldn't be the revenge specifically because that is its own story and i think the whole general Thing is really dependent on the characters in it (as it should be! most of the time) and the shameless characters really don't mesh well with it (as it also should be! most of the time). HOWEVER. if the characters of shameless were put into a plot/setting framework of a golden age pirate romcom with a defining theme of self actualization especially regarding gender expression and/or trauma recovery...

the milkoviches would be the ranking crew on one ship, with terry as the captain. the gallaghers are also the ranking crew on their ship, and frank is the captain. very early on in "canon" or perhaps pre-"canon" they mutiny and elect fiona as captain instead. kev and vee own a bar at a pirate port. i wouldn't pick nassau because like. that is reserved for real life and black sails. to me. maybe tortuga or maybe port royal. anyway one day the bar was owned by some guy. the next day the bar was owned by kev and vee. nobody knows how that happened. every "episode" the bar features in there is a new version given. none are ever confirmed.

i like the families knowing each other/having close enough experiences that a main relationship conflict with any of them is each not understanding that their circumstances are actually not the same (i.e. how ian can't quite grasp that being gay is a much bigger deal for mickey than it is for him; they live in the same town, they went to the same school, they're in the same tax bracket, they both have a shitty dad who hates them personally and no mom, ian was in the closet too, etc, so there's kind of this disconnect there where i think ian expects mickey's experiences of homophobia to be at least similar enough to his that it shouldn't make that much of a difference - but of course there is actually a huge gulf between a shitty dad who hates you because you were conceived through infidelity and shows it by insulting you but mostly is absent anyway and a shitty dad who is. a fucking neo nazi and organized crime boss who regularly beats you blue. and i think the same is true for other members of each family, like how fiona judged mandy, and i guess in later seasons i didn't watch [insert gallagher] says some kind of something implying gallaghers are better than milkoviches and mickey points out if that's true it's only true by an insignificant margin. not that any of that was ever textually explored because the writers weren't actually interested in exploring anything. who said that).

and also! i always love a character or characters that are famous, or infamous as the case may be, in-universe. EveryoneTM knows who the milkoviches are. EveryoneTM knows who the gallaghers are. and they each have a distinct reputation that comes with their name. and! i also like the knowing Of each other for a long time before getting to Know each other dynamic that the canonical milkovich and gallagher kids have via having gone to school together and buying (or bullying) goods and services from each other. love childhood Ugh This Guy Again to lovers waaaaayy more than childhood friends to lovers. personally. not to mention the capulet and montague vibe.

anyway so i'd want to preserve that as much as possible. so idk maybe frank and terry used to be whalers for the same company or even on the same ship, and the kids lived in an isolated island whalers' families ghetto (which would also preserve frank's and terry's frequent long absences). wait wait yes. okay. here it is i've got it.

they are employed/indebted to the same company but actually work on different ships, and they generally dislike each other because they are both supremely dislikeable, but there are limited socializing opportunities in a whaling community so they are extremely bitter frenemies because it's either that or nothing. and obviously they hate whaling because who doesn't, but terry hates it out of anger toward the company (reasonable) and frank hates it out of laziness (also reasonable tbh). anyway so at some point they start talking about mutinying and going pirate, and frank thinks they're talking shit but terry's serious. and terry's also scary and frank's a coward, so alright looks like he's going to mutiny and go pirate because he said he was going to and terry said yes he sure was.

so terry starts (drunkenly) strategizing, and his strategy is the very peak of violence. and frank is not exactly a paragon of compassion, but violence is pretty high risk and you know once you kill a guy you can never get a loan from him again. and maybe a little tiny itsy bitsy weensy ickle part of frank just doesn't want to do murder because it's murder. so for once in his pathetic little loser life he puts up a fight, kind of, and argues with terry that all that isn't necessary and it's possible to unlawfully secure a ship through other means. and he actually manages to not back down about it until terry gets too annoyed to keep the discussion going, and because he's already piss sloshed and frank is the only man he's spoken to outside of work in like twenty years, terry doesn't kick the shit out of him for being an annoying pansy or whatever and instead makes a bet with him that terry will get a ship his way and frank's way will fail. they obviously don't have any fucking money or literally anything the fuck else because they are fucking whalers, and anyway it's more to their style to bet years of service on the other's ship instead. so if frank fails to take over his ship, he and his family will be indebted to terry instead. and if terry fails to take over his ship (or doesn't have enough survivors left to sail it back), he and his family will be indebted to frank.

unfortunately, they both successfully mutiny and take control of their respective ships, so the wager is void. frank doesn't press the issue for real but he constantly bitches and moans that technically he didn't lose so terry owes him. terry makes it Well Known that if he ever runs into frank off neutral grounds and not on a job he will kill him extremely dead since, you know, technically he didn't lose so frank owes him.

anyway fast forward. the milkoviches and the gallaghers both become Big Name pirates. they make port at the same place and frequent the same bar and do business with each other, but they are ENEMIES. (i think i like port royal for this, because it was not quite as definitively a pirate port for a lot of the age, so it's more believable for the bar to be neutral ground that terry would actually honor since offending the colonials that also hang out there would ruin it for everyone - and most importantly would fuck up his business in addition to putting a black mark on his reputation.)

okay so. positions. terry is the captain. they don't have a quartermaster at all because terry is a tyrant and won't allow it. mickey is the closest they've got, as the only one who is brave, angry, and informed on everything enough to occasionally challenge terry. don't get it twisted, it's definitely not often. the general rule of the ship is that everyone is subservient to terry and nobody looks out for each other in a way that might get in terry's way. but just. every now and then, mickey will make a fuss about something or redirect terry's anger (sometimes he ends up as a whipping boy in the latter case, but never intentionally. yet! ☝️). mandy is also brave and angry enough to challenge terry, and she does sometimes, but she's at an extra disadvantage because she is not informed or (pseudo-)respected like mickey is. yet.

his official position is bosun, but really mickey is a jack of all trades. he does a little bit of everything, and is the understood second in command despite terry not allowing for a real quartermaster or first mate. mickey keeps the inventory, ensures that everyone gets their correct percentage of rations and loot shares, assigns whatever duties terry couldn't be assed to, and carries out discipline for whatever offenses terry doesn't take personally (sometimes obeying terry's orders including the method/severity of the punishment, sometimes punishing someone terry said to but didn't give specifics on how so mickey can decide that for himself, and sometimes completely of his own volition; usually the latter is either for neglecting a duty, endangering one of the milkoviches in some way, or of course something mickey took personally lol). (compare to izzy hands)

iggy is the navigator/pilot, has good control of the boat, can read currents, winds, and stars, but mickey reads the maps. he's happy with this position and is one of only two brothers who never enter into the power struggle. he likes sailing, he likes the frequent semi-solitude, and he likes not having to be involved in on-ship discipline or in making any hard choices. (compare to fang)

in what i watched the other brothers really didn't have much personality so idk about them, but they each have some level of rank/leadership over the non-milkovich crew members. one is in charge of commanding the gunners, one is in charge of commanding raiders, etc. mickey will give them a general "this is what terry wants" guideline and mostly leave them to it unless what terry wants is something particularly (and needlessly) dangerous, in which case he does his best to give them more specific orders that will hopefully lose less crew without them getting pissed off he's stepping on their toes, which would of course make them make the situation worse out of spite/power display.

mandy is the cook/surgeon when terry is around, but she's a strategist and raid leader when mickey's in charge (compare to roach) - which happens because the milkoviches have a fleet, mostly just due to their reputation and the fact less established pirates and sometimes merchants will surrender once the flag goes up and bargain to be annexed into terry's command rather than slaughtered (which works maybe. 30% of the time), and terry is so power hungry and paranoid that he can't stand to let any of the other captains in the fleet actually captain one of his ships for too long at a time. he's always going from ship to ship just to undermine his captains and exert his own power over each crew, leaving mickey to head the flagship.

mickey ends up with all the responsibilities of a captain but not much respect; everyone knows he's not the real dad boss and he has to fight for every single order he gives. the real reason(s) he's the understood second in command is because 1: nobody else wants to be that close to terry (again, compare to izzy hands lol) and 2: none of his brothers are as (realistically) ambitious as he is (they want power but aren't aware of or willing to put in the work to gain/maintain it + they don't jump on opportunities as fast, etc). so nobody ever calls mickey 'captain' or 'sir' or anything else that denotes or implies a higher rank, both to keep him cut down and out of superstition that terry will somehow Know and take offense to anyone except him being given even that much authority.

and of course all of the milkoviches including mandy are general enforcers of the milkovich rule on the flagship. they all participate in mutiny-busting, routine intimidation, etc. and they all give unofficial punishments for insults or just for pissing them off. manny, who i assumed is an uncle and have no interest in being corrected on if i'm wrong, is a fence.

sveta (and yevgeny) would be included Later as a prostitute working at a brothel near port, with the same general Circumstances of Meeting mickey (and ian) as in canon, marrying mickey for financial/social status reasons while he's forced (which i kind of assume is the canonical situation since she seemed genuinely happy on their wedding day), and then the same plotline of mickey having a problem with her madame but instead of the madame turning all the girls out she gets killed by definitely mickey for sure ("i kill, you take credit." "why the fuck would you not want credit?" "don't want precedent you kill boss get promotion when i will be boss." "..." "you should be happy, this give me good reason to not kill you." "...jesus, you fit right in with this fucking family.") and svet buys the brothel property under mickey's name (since she can't legally own it herself) and becomes the new madame while he keeps pirating, so now he (and mandy) has somewhere to go separate from other milkoviches while at port where he can actually fucking relax for once in his fucking life. & ig if you really want sandy to be here she can be a fence too, but tbh if i ever do write anything in this fandom again i have no intention to include her or any other characters introduced past season four :)

on the gallagher ship frank is captain for a while, at least in name. he is usually both drunk and seasick in addition to his natural laziness and inability to work with others, so a lot of the time he doesn't even try to captain and lets fiona handle it without interference. every now and then he gets some kinda fucking bug up his ass and goes banging on about his rightful authority or whatever and sends them on some deeply stupid and pointless farce and/or will say they're doing something and then give orders that absolutely will not accomplish that thing. for a while, the gallaghers follow along with this, then they start just not obeying him/quietly belaying his orders to other crew, then they start telling him directly they're not going to do what he wants, then actively preventing him from giving orders in the first place (usually fiona locks him up, or lip knocks him out, and debbie got to knock him out once too, but if it ends up being left to ian he'll do something more creative and lowkey humiliating like shoving a gun rag into frank's mouth or dunking his head in the pickle barrel), and then finally they officially commit mutiny and kick him off the ship entirely.

the gallagher ship doesn't include any extended family. no aunt ginger, no uncle clayton, no whoever the fuck else was in there. their non-gallagher crew is all the mentioned neighbors and etc that they're friendly with in canon, minus kev and vee.

fiona is captain, lip is quartermaster, ian is navigator and he likes to correct and expand maps and has big dreams of going straight (ha ha) and becoming a chartered cartographer/expedition leader. lip and ian also lead raids. carl is the master gunner. debbie is officially bosun but has a pretty in between job. she assigns shifts and chores and supervises and all that, but she doesn't ever handle discipline, and she also does the more i guess administrative is the best way to put it quartermaster duties that lip is too bored by to do. she also is always on the up with the rumors and can typically be relied on to know who's who and where they are (*mickey mouse meme* this is a tool that will help us later).

liam is the surgeon. several non-gallagher crew members think he's a witch because he is way ahead of his time wrt medicine (simply because he treats based on evidence lol) and because he so very rarely talks. he has no strong opinion on this perception as it usually doesn't interfere with his ability to do his job and often keeps strangers from approaching him uninvited (the boy. is autismal. and also has selective mutism. which really should be called something else by now but i digress).

ian knows all the myths and legends, though he doesn't really believe any of them, and frequently regales the crew with them. lip doesn't really like the stories because he suffers from a whimsy deficiency, but when he has the patience for it he'll back ian up on the lute (Later, mickey will play for ian too, or sometimes for his girls to sing/dance to).

so the milkoviches and the gallaghers both use port royal as their port of call, and they both spend a lot of time in kev and vee's bar. kev and vee are personal friends with the gallaghers, but as said their bar is neutral ground so they keep civil relationships with literally anyone who abides by that neutrality, including the milkoviches, other pirates, merchants, fishers, pirate hunters, naval officers, natives, colonials, anyone as long as they pay their tab and don't cause trouble.

sheila and karen are merchant class but seem like gentry to ex-whalers, especially since actual gentry nearly never deign to go somewhere so close to the docks, and even tho technically after a while being quite successful pirates they are richer in terms of material wealth (but still not in social wealth). karen loves to come to the bar whenever she hears pirates are in town. she loves the thrill of the baddest boy a bad boy can be (and also the thrill of bad girls who are proud about it), and she loves the attention she can get when she dresses up in something classy just to go slum it with a bunch of society-fringe sailors. lip is her favorite, sure, but he gets it in his head that she's his shore wife or whatever and that she'll eventually tearfully beg him to retire and stay on land with her (extremely loud buzzer noise).

jimmysteve is a fence. and a drug runner. and a semi-pro snitch. he (in some ways, much like frank) thinks he is much cleverer than he really is and that he can play multiple sides at whim. he gets himself in trouble with the pirates for breaking neutrality, and gets himself in trouble with more than one royal navy for thinking he could snitch but only when he felt like it lmao. he somehow always manages to weasel his way out of trouble and back into good graces (again, much like frank, except frank gets his hundredth chances through pity or trickery and jimmysteve mostly just uses daddy's name and plantation money).

kash and linda are also merchant class and have a little curio shop and bakery. ian likes to do basically the opposite of karen and 'sneak' away from the lowbrow area of town that caters to sailors to shock and impress all the not-poors with how Just Like Them he is, which is how they meet and start hooking up.

but of course it IS a romcom about self actualization and. you know. comedic romance. so the Main Plot is actually just gallavich and not as much of an ensemble here.

the Plot in question happens because mandy gets sick of shit and decides she wants to just fuck off. she just has to figure out where to fucking go instead. she doesn't want to just run away. she doesn't want to be alone. the gallaghers just kind of seem like the only real choice. she knows them by reputation to be damn good pirates but as kind and generous as pirates can reasonably be. they don't torture, they don't rape, they don't hurt young kids or pregnant people, they don't kill unnecessarily (and yet all of them are still alive, so like. for Real they must be fucking good pirates), etc. she figures if she seduces one of them on the last night of their leave, they'll take her back to their ship to fuck her and then in the morning the chaos of making way will make them forget to make sure she disembarks.

she picks ian because fiona is busy with jimmysteve, lip is busy with karen, and the other three are too young for her. and also. she thinks ian is cute, and she's seen him act like a whole gentleman with her own eyes more than once. she like. actually kind of wants him. and he's sitting alone. so she goes over. at first he seems into it. he's not intimidated by her even though she knows he knows who she is. he listens to her when she talks and has relevant things to say. he's funny. he's charming. he doesn't treat her like a whore. it takes like half an hour before mandy's goal has changed from "seduce him to get onto his ship" to "fuck him so much forever and maybe have an epic romance or something". but of course when she starts really putting the moves on, he just flat out rejects her. he does it gently, but still. just a straight-up full-stop no.

so then. mandy's plan changes to "get mickey pissed off enough at this guy that he ends the stalemate and kills his whole family and then convince him to give the damn ship to her". and well, the best way to do that is to make mickey think ian hurt her (which also will later provide them all an excuse to give terry as to why they blew up his legendary status's structural support rivalry from his backstory - they started it).

so she makes a scene in the bar, and she uses some very skillful body work to make ian look like he's aggressing her - which only works on him despite him also being very skilled in that area and usually very tactically observant because he's unnerved to have been hit on so boldly by a woman.

as it happens, at least two of her brothers (notably NOT mickey himself) are in the bar when she does this, and she kind of thought that would be enough to at least start a fight if not the war she's planning to work them up to. but. they don't really do anything. maybe they cuss at ian or throw something at him or whatever to warn him off or let him know it's time to leave if he knows what's good for him, but like. they don't even get up. so now mandy is humiliated from being rejected by ian AND humiliated to have made a scene, to have publicly positioned herself as a victim, and nobody caring enough to put down their fucking grog.

so now she really doesn't know what to do. she's upset, she's embarrassed, she doesn't want to go back to her own ship almost doubly as much as when she sat down at ian's table. in the end, mandy makes it onto the gallagher ship regardless, by stowing away. she does recognize that it's their ship when she carefully tucks herself away in the farthest corner of the hold, but really... where else could she go? on any other ship she'll be treated even worse than on her own, at least in a day-to-day sense, and that's only if she manages to convince someone else to take a woman crew member in the first place. and if she's caught as a stowaway, which she inevitably will, any other crew would put her to death. when she's caught on the gallagher ship they might whip her and put her in the brig, but they won't hang her or toss her overboard, and she thinks she can probably plead her case to them given enough time. she'll just have to try to stay hidden until they're well out to sea to buy that time in distance back to port.

the only problem with this is that terry is off on another ship just now, and mickey is in charge-ish. and unlike terry, or even like some of the other brothers, mickey 1: notices when mandy doesn't board and 2: cares. he makes them wait for her, getting increasingly pissed off until he seems almost as scary as terry, until finally one of the brothers who was there steps forward to fearfully admit he saw ian gallagher mess with her.

first, mickey punishes that guy. he gives up the other brother who was there pretty easily, so mickey punishes that one too. they are both expecting a terry-level It's Personal punishment - everyone knows mandy is mickey's favorite - but it's not even quiiiiiite on the level of a mickey-level It's Personal punishment. he's not holding back on purpose, and he absolutely is taking this so fucking personally, but. they're family too. he wouldn't torture them unless they tortured him first. or made too credible of a threat that they were going to.

anyway, when that's done mickey immediately assumes ian has kidnapped mandy and is certainly forcing himself on her at this very moment, or else he murdered her for bruising his ego last night and mutilated her body so no one would know to tell mickey someone needed to be return-killed. so uh. well. mickey is officially pissed off enough that he orders the ship off course to hunt down and kill ian's whole family. and for once he's not contested on it, even though it's against terry's preceding orders, because first of all. he is so so evil right now and no one wants to breathe too loudly at him, let alone argue. and also secondly... mandy's family. none of them would want her dead unless she killed them first.

so the milkovich flagship hunts down the gallaghers, and they make no secret of it. terry catches wind, but the teller includes mandy's presumed fate at ian's hands, so he's pissed at being disobeyed and double pissed at mickey for daring to take initiative, but he approves of the reasoning enough that he decides not to catch up with them and crush them back underneath his thumb until after they've razed every last gallagher from the earth. insert atla book one style imminent redemption arc anti-villain misadventures here (perhaps even complete with manny purposely giving mick bad intel to keep him sailing around in circles lmfao).

meanwhile. mandy gets caught as a stowaway. luckily, it's ian who finds her. like in canon, he impulsively confesses that he's gay - or whatever euphemism or obsolete term they were using for that back then - and asks her to pretty please call her brothers off. mandy, having been hiding in the bowels of a ship at sea in the 18th century, had no idea that her brothers were on. whoops! together, she and ian explain a severely abridged version of what happened to fiona and convince her to let the milkovich flagship catch up to them. mandy swears up and down that her brothers won't sink the ship while she's on it, and she can convince mickey to board so she can explain before leaving the gallaghers without her presence's protection. (fiona had never had any personal beef with any of the milkoviches, beyond just thinking poorly of them as people as a whole and having a particular distaste for many of terry's best known atrocities, but now mandy is definitely on her shit list and mickey is on the thinnest of thin ice.)

so the milkoviches catch up to the gallaghers. they do some damage to the ship before they notice mandy on deck, but it's just warning shots anyway. they had every intention of exploding them into a billion pieces, but a warning shot is just the proper thing - even if you've got no plans to accept a surrender or give any time for return fire before you obliterate them into viscera and sawdust. but then it turns out mandy is right, and mickey orders an immediate (slightly panicked) ceasefire, and thoughtlessly boards when mandy asks him to even though that's objectively tactically very stupid.

as privately agreed, mandy tells mickey it was a misunderstanding. that ian hadn't actually menaced her. he'd just been clumsy with his words and actions and she'd taken offense, but he'd apologized and then she perfectly willingly went back to his berth with him where they spent the whole night thoroughly and consensually enjoying each other's company. they simply slept through the morning bells, and by the time they did wake up it would have been such a horrible inconvenience to take mandy back to port, and she'd figured mickey would have left without her by then anyway. she didn't realize it would cause such a hubub, and btw she and ian are courting now.

mickey is pissed obviously - not least because now he's going to have to face biblically apocalyptic wrath from terry - but mandy is really really his favorite, and he's relieved she's okay, and maybe he's a little bit relieved he doesn't actually have to vaporize like twenty people too but that is for absolutely fucking nobody to know up to and including mickey himself fuck you very much. so all she gets is the milkovich pirate captain version of Go To Your Room Right Now Young Lady. she is unconcerned, and offers her hand to ian so he can make a small production of gallantly kissing the back of it before she goes over the gangway.

mickey stays just long enough to give ian the milkovich pirate captain version of a shovel talk, which involves a lot of disturbing kraken imagery (it's kind of homoerotic too, but surely that doesn't mean anything haha. unless...). for some totally unknowable fucking reason, ian seems to be entertained by mickey's uh. way with words, more than he is threatened. at the end of mickey's speech he's even smiling. he offers a reasonably chilling rejoinder, and then fucking bows like he's some kind of bougie rich fuck seeing a guest out of his big bougie fucking house. fucking... dickhead. fuck.

anyway so yeah. it's so over for mickey. cooked! and soon to be stuffed and basted ;)

[shoyastars]

Villain Mistin au

Where Mistin was ‘convinced’ to stay as a villain by their ex girlfriend, somehow making it to the point they’re both Fiancé’s. However Ray seeing them on the street after years of searching, he decided to make his move.

His plan was simple, they can fall for him or Binary Star… but one problem… they’re fiancé didn’t seemed to like this, and not in a, “don’t steal my future partner” for example… it seemed more predatory, as if they were going to try everything they can to convince and control Mistin, not to get with him.

It clicked, she wasn’t just using them… they were also trying to get into Mistin’s older brothers good graces. He was known to have a healing ability… but as much as they’re brother can heal…. He can also hurt…. And kill…. They’re brothers ability was unclear in how it works to Ray, the NAHA is still pondering whether it’s a good idea to find and capture alive or kill on site.

However Ray’s problems were not connected with the NAHA, it was with Mistin’s ‘fiancé’ and how they’re practically brainwashed into thinking they love her. So the new plan was to get them out as soon as possible… out of the relationship, out of the soon to be ‘special day’ even if it seems wrong, he won’t stand by while they see Mistin look miserable without knowing they’re miserable.

Getting to know them is easy, growing closer to… however, taking off the red tinted glasses? Not so much.

Will Mistin be able to take off those glasses and see the signs in front of them? Or will they simply cut Ray off for they’re future ‘Partner’?

We’ll probably never know….

And that’s all the details I think I’ve shared for this lol! Anyway I’m kinda interested in others oc’s villain au’s I wanted mine to be kinda slow burn, yet like super reasonable as to why Mistin doesn’t just get up and leave. Because I did mention before they’re ex girlfriend was very manipulative and controlling, she even resorts to violence if she sees she’s not going to get her way… in this au, they’re more ‘convincing’ than ever, she still resorts to some kind of violence if not given her way, however I believe that is enough you want to hear about her.

——————————————————————————

Possible questions

——————————————————————————

Why isn’t Mistin with double?

Mistin always saw him as a friend, they never really saw him as dating material when growing up. More like a third brother to them type way. The way they look out for him and help him out when being messed with by the older kids. They didn’t know he thought of them in such a different way, until he eventually told them.

Does the toxic fiancé/Girlfriend have a brain wash ability?

Hm, I’m not too sure… that would seem too easy, so I’m going to say no, I haven’t really thought of the ability because they’re in the main story was someone of the past who changed they’re personal take on a relationship, the person who only saw their relationship as beneficial than actual love. Mistin feelings were never returned because it was never real. Mistin wanted to be loved… not used…

How come they aren’t so aware in this au?

They didn’t think they’d be able to find someone better, also… they’re self worth was beaten down many time in their times being a villain. Meanwhile with Ray they’re slowly regaining they’re self confidence again.

How did Ray become aware of Mistin’s family?

Oh come on, I’m sure Ray took background checks on us.

Will we get a fanfic of the au?

Depends if when i finally get the Ao3 writing done, I might consider making it. It might go more in depth with my characters and possibly mention more upon what relationship Mistin and their ex have from then to now. It will include a toxic relationship, an unhealthy dynamic between her and them. Maybe even exploring more family lore behind Mistin.

That’s all! Have a lovely day, afternoon, or night wherever you are!

The next chapter of The Star Hero & The Misty Crook will come soon.

Next chapter is called…

Is It Really You?

[barblaz-arts]

What's the creative process like for you when you're designing your own characters?

I love how much life and personality Vega and Sora have. They are so different, very individual, and so personable. They fit right in with the cast I'm so used to seeing that I forget they aren't canon lore. And I love that about your style and creativity. Their story as next gen are just as captivating as the original cast and I'm so excited to see where you go with these two and any other characters we haven't gotten to meet yet.

Honestly I'm not quite sure what my process is when it comes to the appearance of my characters.... I can't like verbalize it atm. Never really been good with words, which is why I prefer to identify as an artist rather than a writer... It's pretty different depending on the character, but mostly it hinges on the personality.

Now with the personality tho, the way I mold it, it's gotta be based on purpose and relevant dynamics. Whatever personality I give the character has to be made with those things in mind.

Take Sora for example.

Her purpose has to be something interesting. Something that adds new things to the table that the other "protag", Vega, doesn't really bring for interesting interactions and fresh character explorations. So her purpose are:

- the reluctant "partner in crime"

- the new character that doesn't know much lore so the audience gets to learn lore as she learns

- the psychic to parallel the first gen protags

- Vega's foil to clash with but also learn from(as it was with Wenclair)

- the look into the normie side of the story and how outcasts are viewed

So with that, we have Sora. A psychic who pretends to be a normie. She's has shame and fear as opposed to Vega's pride and tenacity. Knows nothing of her heritage because of her denial that grew from the self-esteem issues her father's abandonment caused as opposed to Vega who grew up with everything paranormal because of her family's acceptance of diversity and individuality. The emotional to Vega's logical.

I'm sure there are technical terms for this kinda stuff and wayyyyyy better ways to explain it for people who actually studied literature and media. But all I have in my arsenal is the fictional stories I've consumed and my obsessive compulsion to dissect them. So with all the stories I've grown to love, that's what I noticed makes a great character. One who's existence serves a clear purpose in affecting both the story and the characters that they have a significant connection to.

[total-drama-brainrot]

Hello! About the fake dating!au, I was wondering how the episode Niagara brawls would play out if Alenoaheather was happening. Would Alejandro and heather still be paired up or would one of them be paired up with Noah?

Well, to be entirely honest, I haven't really thought too much on it yet. Mostly because it's still kind of up-in-the-air as to when Noah's elimination would take place in this AU. I think we've sort of settled on post-merge, so he would be present in the Niagara Falls challenges, but the timeline's still really vague so I personally haven't really invested any time in figuring out the semantics of how each episode would play out.

But since you asked, I might as well toss my hat into the ring! I'll just type out my thoughts as they come, so please excuse this response if it's a little all-over-the-place or formatted weirdly.

Off the bat, it's been fairly well established that the canon final four remains unchanged, so at the very least both Sierra and Cody are still present in this challenge; this is important, since in canon the only reason Heather ends up partnered with Alejandro is because Sierra is the one who rejects him as a husband first. I don't really see a reason to change the canonical play of events here, unless a brainstorming session later on down the line necessitates Noah being paired with either Heather or Alejandro for whatever reason. Mostly just because keeping as many "pre-written" plot points as possible lessens the workload on our shoulders (us, of course, being me and @perpetualexistence, and occasionally @ur-local-brown-multifandomist).

But that does leave the question of who Noah would be paired with.

And again, this would be super dependant on who's left in the competition at this point; since Noah's made it to the merge, we know someone has to have taken his place in the London elimination- just that small change could have potential consequences on all of the subsequent eliminations afterwards, so the merge cast might look almost completely different to World Tour's "official" line-up.

And this is also super dependant on whether or not it's Blaineley who wins the Aftermayhem challenge- I'm not sure if any of the others intend to swap her out for a more interesting/plot relevant contestant (which, as much as I do love Blaineley, she's just find of there with no real relevance to the story) like perhaps Lindsay, Leshawna or maybe even Beth- I assume it'd have to be a girl, since the show itself works to even out it's gender ratios, but it could hypothetically be anyone.

So Noah's partner could be... literally anyone, save for the Final Four (Alejandro, Heather, Sierra and Cody).

...Unless?

Now, don't judge me here, but I do kind of like the idea of Noah ending up with Heather as his partner. Maybe it's the vast potential of how their (entirely self-constructed, and self-indulgent) character dynamic could play out in this scenario, or maybe I just want the opportunity to write Noah trying and failing to pick up Heather, eventually leading to her being the one to carry him across the Falls tightrope like a pathetic, soggy kitten. Or maybe I'm just getting my Noaheather on- who knows?

All I'm saying is, they'd be giving a lot of Connecticut Clark and Malfina vibes and I'm so here for it.

And maybe I just want to see something new; there's so many explorations of how an Alenoah Niagara Brawls challenge would play out (and they're all wonderful, don't get me wrong!) so it's time to give some other pairings the spotlight!

Plus, this particular scenario would not only allow the contestants to see Heather and Noah acting like the "fake" couple they're supposed to be, but Alejandro could also play it as either a double-breach of his trust (since he's also supposed to be "fake" dating Noah, at least, and he has his whole romantic rivalry with Heather) or take advantage of his position and try to charm whoever he's partnered up with and either secure a valuable ally for later on down the road, or beguile his next elimination target into a false sense of security- since a huge part of Alejandro's character is his conniving flirtatiousness, and I don't want to completely negate that.

Now that I'm thinking about it, Alejandro's flirty nature could be a conflict point between himself and his partners. That's a thought for another time, though.

But, again, it's still very up-in-the-air and I don't really think I can give a definitive answer until a proper elimination order has been established- or, at the very least, the elimination order pre-merge. So, uh, sorry for the lack of a definitive answer!

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I want to talk a bit about a thing I played around with... this last February, apparently (in the midst of quitting my job and upending my life? wow). Consider this a sort of vague and casual interest check, as well, simply because I'm curious.

Note that this specific little self-indulgent project isn't publicly available and most likely won't ever be - I just had a couple people I know run through it for fun, as it's super rough and ultimately kind of pointless as-is. But I am actually interested to hear what people around these parts think of this kind of interactive fiction as a fanfic format. If I suddenly decided to go all in on writing, I don't know, a post-game Selûnite mini murder mystery in something like this, would this even be a kind of fanwork anyone would want? Or want to participate in, even?

In any case, what "this" even is is me messing around, first in Twine and then in Ink (which was brought to my attention thanks to Heaven's Vault being one of my favourite things ever). Then trying out what hosting things on itch.io looks like, after which I tried out both Unity and Godot variants of plugging the Ink into an existing engine - this was pretty much a test vehicle for me to play around with for a couple of evenings in a private little game jam. Outside of poking around Ren'Py five million years ago, this is the first time I've actually tried making anything interactive in this sense. And honestly, I loved it!

It's really not much, writing-wise, at about 5k words total. Just a bunch of scenes harnessing that sweet, sweet BG3 hyperfixation, shaped purely around me trying out different things in a technical sense and using the characters as a sort of shorthand while doing so. So you have fairly classic branching dialogue trees (Wyll), scenes that change when you leave and then come back (Jaheira), scenes that briefly diverge but end up at the same place and set some flags in the process (Aylin, Lae'zel), some stuff hidden behind checks you need to make (Halsin, Shadowheart, Isobel), and completely random events that may or may not happen during certain scene transitions (Orin). What I identified as the essentials, really.

I did a bit of exploring ways to incorporate small changes to encounters depending on which order you do them in. As a very simple example:

The above basically means your dialogue changes very slightly depending on if you found Shadowheart before talking to Aylin. Additionally, if you ask Aylin to tell you where Shadowheart supposedly went (which is completely optional even if you do talk to Aylin first), you'll have a bit of extra dialogue in the scene with Shadowheart when that flag up there gets checked. So some very, very basic reactivity - just for flavour, here.

My skill checks were plain d20 rolls without modifiers and with fixed DCs - a simple "create your character" intro bit would be perfectly doable, though, to get some stats and bonuses going. But roll badly enough and you can always make a complete ass of yourself in front of the Blade himself!

Visuals are super rudimentary, obviously. Taking a zoomed-out screenshot of the BG3 camp and blurring it to get this nice, chill background where that damn fire actively interferes with readin-- I mean, look at this, dynamically changing the look of the text to convey a shift in mood!

And, of course, a little structure of options and checks to get some of the good old "choices and failures having meaningful consequences":

(...for Shadowheart, at least. Sorry.)

In conclusion, this was all very fun to try out, and I can see a bigger project spiraling completely out of control because it's so tempting to try to cover everything in the universe and make everything branch out infinitely! But I also definitely want to do more of it, beyond this little proof of concept/experiment. I'd also love to encourage people to try their hands at this themselves - both of the tools/languages I mentioned and linked up there are very beginner-friendly and very well-documented. Give them a try! There's also a sea of works already out there to jump into, to see how these things can be used and the interactivity part leveraged to great effect - I've still barely scratched the surface, myself.

[rewritingcanon]

aside from all of the really frustrating issues with j*gulus, the ship dynamic itself i see is just inherently so ooc for both james and regulus, to the point where the fanon interpretation is not even them anymore, it’s just two random OCs. like, i think regulus is a really interesting character and i think the implication of how much his love for sirius (and kreacher) interfered with his desire for approval and conformity has a lot of potential to explore. but at the end of the day, he still was a spineless bigot (i do really like regulus as a character, but this is a fact) who idolized a bloodthirsty fascist. most of his actions are motivated by self interest. and on the other side. we have james who, despite the fanon interpretation of him, isn’t a golden retriever sunshine boy. i’d like to think that part of him was, but people tend to forget that james was also petty, vindictive, mean, and loyal to a fault. in a hypothetical scenario where james and regulus even had the potential to develop into a romantic relationship, i see a few things that would prevent it from happening: 1. one of james’ main priorities is sirius. i don’t think james would entertain the idea of pursuing something with his best friend’s estranged brother (a relationship that is clearly still very sensitive for him). 2. if sirius were to somehow be okay with it, i think the idea of anyone even on the fence regarding blood purity politics would severely put him off. like i said, he’s loyal to a fault and he’s stubborn too. even if regulus suddenly rejected blood supremacy, and even if they became civil with each other, i think james is just too stubborn to be able to completely forgive regulus’ past obsession with voldemort and would probably be unable to 100% reconcile his perception of regulus.

plus i just think their interactions would each other would be so stale and boring. sorry for the random rant, but i am just scratching my head at this LOL

nah you literally summed my thoughts on this up too. like what are they gonna talk about??? sirius?? 😭 and yes both are multi-faceted characters. i know i shit on regulus a lot on here but its mainly just because i get annoyed at the people who totally re-characterise him— his canon character interests me but only in the context of his family or himself.

we can establish that james wouldn’t get on with regulus (he absolutely wouldn’t), but i don’t even think regulus could get along with james. james is sirius’s blood traitor new brother, the one that stole him over, maybe even the one who “corrupted” him (depending on what your interpretation of regulus is and if you think he would blame james for sirius’s actions to alleviate the responsibility on sirius). how would jegulus work without the shadow of sirius? its not like hinny where harry and ginny had a deep bond and quality time outside of ron being there— they’re building from the ground up.

[bebx]

Thank you for responding back! I am glad that my texts had you having a "good kind of whoa" moment :)) Of course, I still remember your amazing participation with diversely intriguing takes in spite of mainly focusing on only a couple of characters throughout your peak era. You have been my gateway to Tumblr and to confidently celebrating my love for a show, its characters and dynamics so profoundly. And I am ecstatic that my introduction to the world of fandom thriving here happened with you unknowingly guiding me through its orientation. Because after I had to venture around on my own, despite behind the shield of lurker, I realized how toxic and vainly spiteful some people can be, all due to differing opinions, framing then harassing one another, overall devolving the ambience of this site to downright Instagram toxicity when they all should be equally rejoicing about their common subject of enthusiasm getting a feast and that just made me long for re-experiencing your peaceful way of practicing free speech more. You radiated a very warm, uncomplicated aura with an assertive mind, despite the blood and gore and other unconventional topics of interest, compared to the absolute exhaustion one suffers by just skimming through their blogs or archive which are otherwise also saturated with thought provoking analysis. So, it has been very grey haha when I had to go exploring independently and not remain reliant about any ST news or fanarts, especially concerning Hawkins Lab Plotline on your blogs anymore since November 2023. Brightest side of this rollercoaster exposure is that I discovered many others with alike interests as well as views! Although I have to sacrifice my morals and principles while checking out the posts of some of them who tend to have a very strangely twisted and unavoidably problematic side. I feel wrecked by guilt while liking their posts which are relevant to what I predominantly seek them for but then I remember "hey just because I like Harry Potter doesn't mean I will have to stand by J.K Rowling". So yeah...haha that helps in upholding the neutrality, but this just makes me miss the simple times more. You have been such a great source of collecting the finest qualities of fan materials either through your own blogs or the posts you reblogged. Very well researched and organized. It was an authentic and easy way for me to keep a track of all the most artistic crafts related to the fandom through the exhibition on your archive. This is why I previously said in my preceding text that I appreciate people with a good taste of art, referring to you. But I am also thankful for the opportunity of liberation and self-dependence this unforeseen phase paved a way to, resulting in various discoveries which may have missed your radar. So yeah this is pretty much why I still remember, I hope I have sketched a bigger picture of my timeline with everything here and how you play the key role in it. It's always the little things with bigger meanings. But this is not the only reason, this was just for starters, I will shed light on other factors ahead.

Secondly...(yeah Ik I have written so much, I should just stop but I just have so much more and vital stuffs to say which I hope you would like to hear too.) I never felt your posts were all silly other than the intentionally hilarious ones such as incorrect quotes and other memes which could make the day of anyone who is familiar with the show. Underneath or beyond the humor, I felt they had a lot of heart and soul. Which is precisely why I was so anticipated for the marriage between the new *gasp inducing as well as fulfilling* updates and your insightful approach, full of creativity and writing skills with your characteristic capturing of classic human themes that know how to intricately weave so much of complimenting theories, observations and heartbreaking as well as heartwarming stories around it which I religiously consider as some of the best and underrated fanfics out there. I don't know how much you have been aware with TFS spoilers as I am not sure what did you exactly mean by not stumbling upon any real spoilers but so many things you stood for when there was hardly any substantial evidence, it's like you literally spoke them into acknowledged existence. I am not gonna risk spoiling most of it for you but I would just say that you made a post once, commenting on a theory highlighting the potential relation between Vecna and Mindflayer, the question of the true master of puppet and "how each time a gate opened, a boy was taken" and that has aged so well, that's all I can say. Rediscovering that post gave me chills. So you see, so many of your interpretations have hit the bull's eyes, as without giving something massive away, the prequel has humanized his character extensively. Like this was everything JCB could have asked for since S4 released and poor guy had been alone taking a mysteriously empathetic stand for him in public, which we got pleasantly mystified by as it also vindicated our resonating defense deep down, so we followed after. Subsequently I had this inside joke from that time (Nov 2023) that, "Damn, the makers humanized him more than any fanfic ever did, even collectively." So, in a way, this is everything we could have asked for, ourselves. You have this incredible penchant for seeing beyond what's purposely being misleadingly narrated, once it got backed up by a vaguely but still authoritative source, you get to the bottom of all the potential alternatives. Trusting your instinct based on Jamie's subtle and interesting support paid off! You realized something so unpopular once and presented compelling reasoning points which were the closest to what it is canonically revealed ultimately. You perfectly encapsulated the soul of something or someone which was too monstrous for the majority to be a subject of deep thinking let alone any redemption, which can be magnificently seen through every fanfic, short or lengthy, you wrote about him and Eleven and not merely through some "peek into mind" insights posts here and there. This play literally calls for a celebration. You have been nearly a lone wolf, I mean yeah there were plenty others here however with your unique perspective and standard nevertheless differentiating from other stans, this was almost your sole battle which in my view has been surprisingly validated by the stage play so much, beyond expectation actually. Like a perfect reward for loyalty and dedication. I still am halfway through what I am here to convey, the text limit is gonna reach soon so, will share the rest on another upcoming part.

I read everything and this is one of the kindest things anyone has said to me. thank you for your kindness and authenticity, it means so much to me and it may have awoken that part of my Henry hyperfixation, that’s been laid dormant for a while, a little too.

I wish words could describe how grateful I am for you, but I’ve definitely screenshot these and saved them so I can come back to look at them later when self-doubt starts making its presence known.

thank you for being so thoughtful, supportive and kind. it means more to me than words could ever describe.

also, yes, I’ve seen The First Shadow trailer and it’s absolutely beyond expectations. I have no doubt that the play is exceptional in every way.

[headfullofdolls]

I do genuinely think making Frankie intentionally autistic would be a natural evolution in understanding their character. Like a realization that the traits are core to their character beyond just them being new to living, things that would stick around much longer than them just getting used to existence. An understanding from the writers that if their character can so easily "unintentionally come off as autistic," perhaps the core of that character inherently aligns with and strikes a chord with that experience.

Snippets from the leak (and very long analysis) below.

They have the ingredients, if only they take the opportunity to embrace it.

There's potential for a similar evolution with Lagoona.

We've already seen in the show that Lagoona has idealized, fairy tale (scary tale) ideas about love, and specific archetypes in mind. If her arc is about learning real relationships, including romantic ones, aren't like the ones in fairy tales and telenovelas, you could organically take that in the direction of her first major romantic relationship not working out because it was built on these idealized notions. Especially considering our first time seeing Gil in the show is as the dream guy in Lagoona's story, you could create an arc around her idealizing him, falling in love with him, but then realizing the relationship doesn't click as well or easily as she thought it would (not necessarily from anything bad between them). She could start to recognize love in different shapes than she'd expected, in different places than she'd usually look, and surprise herself with what she finds.

There's no reason Lagoona needs to be straight, or otherwise. But within her arc, there's an opportunity to go beyond her learning about real relationships and romance, to explore a character discovering their orientation. It'd also draw a more distinct parallel to her growth from her initial false friendship with Toralei—based on dependency, uneven dynamics, and abstract ideas of what it means to be friends—to finding real friendship with Draculaura and co—based on mutual trust and acceptance.

Again, I don't think they'd need to paint Gil in a bad light for a potential romantic relationship between him and Lagoona to not work. In fact it'd be better and more meaningful if they didn't, both within the context of the arc itself being about Lagoona's self-discovery, and the context of their rocky relationship in g1.

Of note, Gil's only mention in the version of bible that got leaked is in relation to Lagoona.

Given the g3 show's current track record, it's undeniable his character will get expanded on beyond a relationship to Lagoona. And that none of that shows up in the leaked version of the bible is one of the (many!) things that points to it being a document in ongoing development (I could honestly make a whole other post about the characterizations that don't align with the final show).

On that note and as a final point, same as with Gil, Howleen's only mention in the leaked bible is in relation to Clawdeen.

Here, there's an idea of Howleen being a yet-unknown relative to Clawdeen, not very expanded upon. However, Howleen being a yet-unknown younger sister to Clawdeen, in addition to maintaining the relationship they had in g1, also makes a more compelling story than Howleen being a younger cousin of various relation. The main issue is figuring out how that fits with the timeline of their mother getting stuck on Beheme. It's probable making Howleen a younger cousin was an idea considered mainly because it avoids that issue entirely.

That being said, there's enough timeywimey shenanigans surrounding Beheme, and open-endedness around Selena Wolf's disappearance, that they could've still worked something else out.

But there's also potential to explore Howleen being a half-sister, or becoming an adopted sister later on. Both would be interesting dynamics not often too represented or explored in children's media, and could be valuable as relatable or teachable experiences for the show's target audience.

These are just my ideas of how Frankie, Lagoona, and Howleen could be expanded upon from the initial concepts in the leaked version of the bible. What I'm getting at is there are ways to get from this point, the specific version of the bible that was leaked, to a final show where Frankie is autistic (and maybe AuDHD), Lagoona is bi/pan/ace even, and Howleen is in some way Clawdeen's sister. Because, like I said in my last post, show bibles change, develop, and get updated as writers work on the show.

And as I mentioned earlier, there are several characterizations in the leaked version of the show bible that also don't line up with what we've seen in the finalized show, already halfway through the first season.

The leak doesn't provide any canon confirmation or deconfirmation. It just provides insight to how the writers were thinking about certain ideas at the time it was last updated.

[simlit]

ALL OF THEM FOR EIF YA BITCH

first of all, how rude.

What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

His resilience. Eifra is constantly seen as an easy target, and physically, he's not particularly strong, but he's endured a lot and has the ability to bounce back from just about anything.

What is your OC's fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw?

His kindness. It's the one thing he's most taken advantage for. He's aware of it, and people constantly warn him, but I don't think even he would choose to be different.

When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?

All of the above lmao. Depends on the threat. He does naturally frighten easily, but he's also a very seasoned hunter. Even if he's afraid, he has the ability to temper his nerves to withstand a fight, but if he knows it's a fight he'll lose, he'll happily flee.

How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

Eif would never endanger others, but he would put himself through a world of pain if he thought it would help someone he loves. Again, all depends on the context.

How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

Not... easily. He would have to be put in a very precarious position, to know it was his only option, or if someone's life depended on it. But he's also not so much of a goodie two shoes that his moral compass is swung so far to one side.

What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

Ah, this is a fun question. I think I mentioned before I actually intended for Eifra's PoV to only exist as an introduction to Zeh's. But instead he became pretty much the defacto protagonist and narrator for the sequel. I didn't expect to love Eifra as much as I did, and I got attached to him, both as a writer, but also through Zehel. In the same way that I fell in love with Yeryn's romance, Zehel and Eifra's relationship *is* the main dynamic of Arcaen'vel. Eifra is Zehel's crux. He's his driving force and he pushes both the plot and Zehel's character development forward. I went in thinking Zehel would be the main character in what I thought was his own story, but Eifra really had another plan (though I'm sure if I explained it that way to him, he'd disagree and hold Zeh's pedestal that much higher lmao). The two share the spotlight in different ways. But if you asked me like three years ago if I thought the successor to Yeryn's line would be some random hybrid kiddo I'd have slapped your face.

Would your OC ostensibly be able to get away with murder?

NO lmfao. Eifra would never just commit murder. But he certainly wouldn't have the braincells to get out of it if he did.

Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

Yes! Zehel's theme for Eifra is "A Sky Full of Stars" by Coldplay, and I can literally not listen to this song without thinking of him. "Cuz you get lighter the more it gets dark, I'm gonna give you my heart."

What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

Tbh, I think Eif would work in any AU, but I'll have to choose the most boring and say I'd love to see him in a modern storyline with Zeh. Just because Eifra adapts so well to our timeline.

What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it?

Bow and arrow. He can hunt well regardless, but his arrows are also the only way he can channel dragonfire. It's the only defense he has, not having been born with arcane magic.

Is your OC self-destructive? In what ways?

Yes, and no. I think he sometimes gives too much of himself away, but I wouldn't say he's actively tearing himself down. But he'd be willing to let people walk all over him if it'd make them happy and that's not a particularly healthy way to live, either.

If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

Probably LOL. I mean he's a much MUCH better person than me, but his self-deprecating humor is so relatable. He's a really uplifting person, which is actually the type of person I most enjoy being around, but he does lack the petty shittalk side I require my friendships to have so that I may thrive lmao.

How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

I don't think he much cares how other perceive him, but I think he'd like his friends to see him as reliable. Someone that can be depended on, even when things get difficult.

Does your OC have a faceclaim? If so, who?

We all know I don't do real human face claims, but I do have an artwork I pinned ages ago that encapsulates his vibes down to his stature and dress style, the only thing off about it is the hair, otherwise really spot on: here.

What is your OC's pain tolerance like?

Surprisingly high. Eifra has been through... shit. And he's conditioned himself for things most people have never had to. He's been forced to survive most of his life, and I think that gives someone a lot of internal strength. He also has an incredibly good hold of his mental. In a situation where he knew he'd have to endure something to save someone, he wouldn't even miss a beat.

Is your OC more cold and detached or up close and personal?

He's very personable, but honestly he understands people wanting space. He gets attached to Zehel so easily because he feels like he owes him his life (he kind of does lmao), so it's a bit of specific situation. Normally, Eifra is the type to only approach if asked, but he'd always be able to reply. He's incredibly charismatic.

How does your OC behave when enraged?

I think Eifra has only been truly angry a handful of times in his life. Only once severe enough to have some physical repercussion. Usually he lets things slide off him, and doesn't get caught up on negative feelings.

Does your OC have a tendency to get jealous? If so, how does this manifest?

Unsurprisingly not at all lmao.

Does your OC have any illnesses or disorders? How do they handle it?

Neither, but I suppose in the context of their world, he's sort of "broken". He's half elf, half dragon, but he was born magicless, and his wings never developed properly. He's also not able to shift into dragonform, which is usually something that gets bred out over many generations. As he's a "first generation" mix, this is exceedingly odd. He's the only known halflyn to have one dragon parent and not be able to shapeshift.

What character alignment would you consider your OC to be?

Lawful/Neutral Good

What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Desire. Eifra has an incredibly difficult time asking for anything, even if he needs those things to actually survive. He feels embarrassed and burdensome to ask favors of others, and hates to be indebted to them. He constantly sees himself as a weight holding back his friends, and would rather starve than to ask for money for food or anything similar.

What is your favorite thing about your OC?

His tenacity. Eifra is such a hard person to keep down, and even though I find these people really annoying irl, I think in stories, juxtaposed characters like Zeh, they become so much more likeable, and important. I think Eifra has a lot of qualities I gravitate to, but being in Zehel's head for almost four-hundred pages, my love and violent need to throw my life on line to protect Eif at all costs is so deeply engrained in me LOL. Zehel really following in Daddy's footsteps by being the world's second biggest simp, only in his case it exists within a platonic friendship, and honestly, I think it's the most fitting storyline I could have written for him.

[katasstrophy]

Do you have any hcs for Kaiser and/or Ness backstory?? I'm worried we won't have that much time left with them so I've been pondering, and Ness def gives me only child, middle class (maybe upper middle class), and lonely childhood vibes 😔 I feel like part of his obsession with Kaiser and a big part of his personality is accepting any and all crumbs of affection and recognition, which leads to an easy dependence on a sole model. I like to imagine though, while he didn't get to spend the most time with his parents especially as he started school, that he used to go mushroom and truffle hunting with his mom. I also see Ness as someone who likes or used to train as an ice skater!! I think it suits him and would be helped/lead to his flexible ankles. Also, has some kind of music background whether it's playing violin for a bit or being a choir boy.

He and Kaiser def have major theater kid energy, but I also see Ness as a lit nerd!! Used to be a bit of a snob about it too the little shit but he likes classics, mystery, and fantasy. Def see him as a LOTR fan while Kaiser doesn't know LOTR or Star Wars lmao.

And I think it'd be cute, if their friendship started more normally (though...who knows smh), that Kaiser and Ness used to talk about plays and musicals together. I think Ness would be a tragedy and romance fan (Cyrano de Bergarac, Medela, Titus Andronicus) while Kaiser loves EVERYTHINGGGG but is ofc a huge proponent of the classics, and is very pretentious about his personal meta and deep takes on them.

Also, between the two, only Ness knows some video games. Not a lot, but I think he would have played nintendo games like Kirby, Legend if Zelda (fave), and Mario and would know MegaMan, DOOM, some Resident Evil and such. I see him being given game consoles as a kid to make up for his parents not being there for him, which worked but the intent pushed Ness away from really enjoying video games to the fullest. But I think he'd have a soft spot for a lot of OSTs from different series, and with time, I think he could be a horror game fan but only now and then.

Meanwhile, Kaiser is like...bankrupt when it comes to video game knowledge and references. Anything he knows is from brief osmosis from being an attention seeker as a kid trying to make friends by lying out of his ass. If he ever were to play video games as a young adult, I think he might be interested in MMORPGs but his attention is short with them and he gets pissy if he's not instantly amazing at it. Which I see happening a lot bc I think video games would be a weakness for Kaiser lmao.

Sorry this ran rather long!! Ty for your time!!

hi nonnie!! no worries at all my apologies for replying so late. i have like, a few headcanons for our unhinged bastard münchen duo but some of them i plan on exploring in fics later on so i’ll be keeping those selfishly to myself for now sorry <3 but i feel like kaiser and ness won’t disappear on us any time soon!! we’ve already been with them for quite a while, and after the ubers game we’re still getting the pxg france match, so there’s plenty opportunity for us to learn about their backstories. imo they’re such interesting characters that it would be a waste - and if i can be so bold, bad story writing - not to explore their dynamics further in the manga. so i’m sure we’ll know more about them in due time!! but yeah it’s kinda criminal that their blue lock wiki pages have barely any trivia on them :((

sadly i’m not very well-versed in either theatre or video games but it seems like you def know your stuff!! and that’s really the beauty of hcs - that if it feels right for you why not own it? i can tell you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into mapping out their childhood and interests :)

so let me leave you with this lil brain nugget i’ve been pondering about: i really do wonder if it was ness who made kaiser into the self-obsessed bastard he is today. i feel like kaiser wasn’t born with a superiority complex. he was always good at football, but never thought too deeply about it until he met ness. ness was the original egoist. i mean, from his current skill set, he still surpasses isagi in many aspects. so it was ness who was really good at football, who didn’t have an equal until he saw kaiser play and it shattered his entire worldview, because just like isagi, he realised kaiser embodies that “perfect form of soccer.” and he made it look easy, effortless. so ness became obsessed and decided to devote himself to kaiser, who measured up to be the best in his eyes, and thus, slowly, kaiser started believing himself to be the emperor that ness made him out to be. wouldn’t you develop a god complex if someone was constantly at your beck and call and praised you for it? defended you against everyone who tried to stand in your way but ultimately failed? i’m pretty sure that’s not how their story will go but it is an intriguing food for thought no? (okay now that i'm reading this back it's low key giving a reonagi foil lol but i still stand by it)

i also wonder if kaiser’s rose tattoo has anything to do with his desire to leave bastard münchen but being unable to do so as of right now, hence the thorns symbolising that he is “shackled”. which means he’s looking for something or someone to set him free by “unlocking” the keyhole on his left hand. my guess is that isagi is definitely involved in that process somehow but we shall see!

[south-sea]

💝 Metal, second chance shadow, Mephiles, and semimodern

the outline for this has been sitting in my drafts since apparently september 10, so i'm glad past me had the smarts to include a link to the ask game this came from

💝 A headcanon about their love language

metal:

i'm sure i've iterated on this point a few times, but in general metal's not one for Things so much as actions. things do not have much meaning to him unless their utility is immediately evident, and he's absolutely dreadful at gift-giving. frankly the concept is so beyond his grasp it doesn't even occur to him as an option when left to his own devices.

it's just all around much more natural and intuitive for him to act on something immediately when it's clear something needs doing. is there a task he could quickly and effectively do, so shadow doesn't have to do it for whatever legitimate reason? okay, easy, not even a question. why wouldn't he do that thing before anyone has a chance to even ask him? is there something material (like, say, a whole motorcycle) shadow is eyeing while metal is right there? well, metal still has a comical amount of currency due to past Shenanigans™️, so why not? (this sort of thing in particular is extremely rare, but still.)

or, more self-interested, just generally being close. the benefit the two get from contact and spending time together is extremely mutual. metal is just a tiny bit sappier about it in comparison to shadow. which shadow is largely unaware of on account of being so used to (and spoiled by) openly affectionate company these days.

second chance shadow:

depends on the person. for metal, it's actions and all the little things like including him in things he doesn't necessarily need to be included in, fixing dents and paint chips, etc. their dynamic from the very beginning has always been shadow treating metal no differently than any other person.

for a certain other person, it's mostly about exploring new places and foods. she basically introduced him to the concept of enjoying food for the taste/experience, rather than dealing with it for the sake of fuel, so he very much learned it from her and instinctively returns it in kind.

for others, it's largely a matter of suspending his outward image for the sake of their benefit. not to the point of total martyrdom or sacrificing his own comfort, but little things. if they're upset, he'll offer his hand or let them hug him when he normally wouldn't be so open to that sort of thing unless he himself is already somewhat attached to that person. he's not opposed to contact from strangers/near-strangers or anything, but if it's a toss-up between maintaining a facade he doesn't even bother keeping up 90% of the time anymore anyway, and comforting a person in need, the latter will always win.

you might say that empathy and habitual drive to bring comfort is coded into him.

semi-modern shadow:

this is going to sound funny next to all the other responses, but literally just his presence. if semi-modern doesn't want to be found, he will not be found. if semi-modern does not want to talk to you, you will not be able to contact him. this makes up a majority of his existence in relation to just about everyone outside of team dark, and even they don't get to see him all the time.

but he makes exceptions. he makes it a silent, but noticeable point, to spend time with rouge and omega outside of missions/hiding in his room to rest. be that just a walk, for a quick meal, whatever. it's his presence that matters in those moments, more than his contribution to conversation, and so on. which speaks volumes compared to how little he bothers to stick around with others outside of necessities.

he's also a bit known for quietly leaving things in common areas for people. like leaving a package of rouge's favorite foods, or a pack of bullets for that really specific antique gun omega has, on the table. he doesn't make a show of who it came from or why; they know it was him, and that's all that really matters. even if it wasn't obvious, he doesn't do it for the acknowledgement, he does it literally just because he was thinking of a person important to him and wanted to do the thing. in those cases, it's usually because he saw those things while he was already out and about, not that he went out of his way to get them.

redeemed god mephiles:

pre-revival they're impossible to answer for outside of "the reflexive urge to protect [semi-modern]". so let's go with post-revival, after they've returned to and once again fallen from godhood, and finally reunited with semi-modern in a new form.

in their capacity as almost-a-god-again and eventually solaris-again, their love is that of a typical fantasy god. even after they return to a tinier, fragmented version of themself with diminished powers, they retain the ability to remotely "check in" with certain individuals following the event this whole arc stems from.

they're rarely visible, and the person might only get the vague sense of comfort if they're standing in the sun, near a fire, or catching a coastal breeze. maybe the person will dream of something indescribably safe and warm and incomprehensibly gentle. in exceptionally rare cases, they may even appear to the person in those dreams, against a golden-white backdrop. maybe the person will wake with a lingering sense of comfort and minor ailments lessened, but the why or how of it fades within minutes just like any other dream.

they more or less go from being an eccentric little gremlin to a refined, dignified obviously-a-god's-mind-in-a-smaller-body presence, and a lot of their actions follow suit. gone is goofy guy mephiles subtly demanding attention and company, replaced instead by a gentle mini-solaris, all memories intact, subtly guiding and supporting without biased influence. giving their charges the agency to make their own decisions is, in a way, some of their love language too.