#has some rogue-ish aspects to her

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Should Hotaru have the extra DoT and vibe of black flame or should she have devastating bleed build up. Well I don't really have to choose do I.

Other question should Minako be a dex faith build or an int faith build. Int/Faith mostly because if anyone should be using Radagon's Rings of Light it should be her, but then I'm not sure if golden order fundamentalist quite fits. Also the eternal "int/faith has no weapons" issue.

[gumbootillustrations]

UGH I FUCKING FINALLY FINISHED THIS

so yeah, have the divine warriors of the second war of the magi!!

more deets n closeups under the cut :3

aph!! i like to think that although the incarnations of the divine warriors r generally pretty similar, they do have some minor differences. for example, whereas the matron of the first war of the magi (irene) had one of the sets of wings on her head covering her eyes, the matron of the second war (mcd!aphmau) has both of them held back. this is bc whereas irene had lost her humanity (and therefore the ability to connect with mortals), aph hasn't - and, therefore, her eyes are open to the struggles of humanity. additionally, i took a lot of inspiration from honkai impact 3rd for these designs - in aph's case, i was inspired by elysia's herrscher of human: ego battlesuit and how it looks like a wedding dress (which a lot of folks have interpreted as an expression of her love for humanity, which is smth i want to convey w aph).

i think my favourite part of aaron's destroyer form is his seal (the thingy behind his head like a halo). i wanted to rlly play into the whole destroyer/devourer aspect of his abilities and domains, and i thought a black hole would fit perfectly! it also sort of (unintentionally) plays into how i see the dynamic between the matron and the destroyer and how they're both mirrors of each other; whereas the destroyer, well, destroys (and his black hole devours everything in sight), the matron creates and nurtures (seen in how aph's seal is almost like a white hole). i also wanted his armour to look a lot like the armour that shadow knights wear, albeit without all the spikes and spines and whatnot given that he isn't a shadow knight himself (shad's destroyer form from the first war probably looks a lot more similar to traditional shadow knight armour).

i'm lowkey suuper proud of how travis's keeper form turned out (even if i had to go back right at the end n fix it bc i forgot to add his tail 😭). i wanted this form to sort of be a mix between a high mage and a rogue: whereas the keeper embodies knowledge and magick, travis himself is a prankster who relies on cunning and trickery to gain the upper hand on his opponents. as a result, he's the only one who doesn't automatically manifest a weapon when he shifts into this form - instead, i feel like he chooses to rely more on magicks and witchcraft during combat.

katelyn's design was lowkey the hardest to pin down. originally, i wanted to go for something that was suuuper inspired by roman armour and had a copper and teal/turquoise colour scheme, but it wound up feeling too magical girl-ish and i scrapped it. i've retained the roman inspirations, but i headcanon that her flames are so hot they burn blue, so i settled on a blue-and-white colour scheme w some purple elements. i think my favourite part is her gauntlets! i feel like she uses them as an extension of herself/another pair of hands to punch with. the blue elements also lean into menphia's association with the moon - in ashes, ashes, tu'la is based on the roman empire and, as a result, is where werewolves originate from, and with werewolves having such close ties to the moon.... yeah. i'll probably do a post on tu'la later on at some point.

my blorbo

garroth's design is probably the one that's changed the least, but i'll still need to update his ref sheet anyway. i don't know if i conveyed it very well but the sort-of wing-things on his back are slabs of earth that can be shaped into a shield - originally i had him holding a shield but i wanted him to look a bit more divine warrior-ish so i retooled his design.

the boy! i was tossing up between having vylad or dante fill the role of the wanderer, but i settled on dante as i feel like vylad fits better as a sort of weird guide sort of figure within the narrative. plus, i have a real soft spot for dante and wanted him to remain in the limelight a little bit - i love his dynamic with garroth and laurance and i wanted to explore that further. i sort of wanted to play into his whole red-and-blue colour scheme that we see in canon diaries, but bc kul'zak is a nature deity (specifically of the wilderness), i wanted to incorporate some greenery into his design. i hope i've done an okay-ish job here - overall i'm pretty happy tho, but i can't promise that there won't be any tweaks in the future.

this is a redhead laurance propaganda spreading blog and i Refuse to apologise for it. i'd like to think that laurance's original colour scheme is similar to his justiciar form - lots of beautiful reds and golds and oranges to match the flames of his father's forge - but after he comes back from the nether with a Severe fear of fire he switches to the greens and browns that he's known for in canon. eventually he slowly begins to reclaim his fire and returns to the golds and oranges that he's introduced with (haha colour symbolism go brrrrrr).

but yeah. the special interest is special interesting. let me know if u have any questions!

[dairy-godmother]

Hey I’m wondering if this concept is worth writing. It would be a swapped tangled fanfic but not in the way you’d expect. It’s meant to be like creepy and horror-ish?

Basically, Rapunzel is a wicked witch, runaway princess, and batshit crazy woman while also being happy hilarious. She’s a narcissist like gothel but a lot more goofy. She doesn’t try to hide the fact that she’s using the swapped version of Gothel. (Apparently her real name is Esther which is SO COOL so I’m gonna call her that for this fanfic)

The cool thing is that Rapunzel still has the magic hair but she uses it to keep Esther young and cute, which is NOT good for the kid’s mental health. I’d say the idea is that she’s 18 and Raps is using her powers to keep her looking like 10 or something. She’s never had the chance to grow as a person.

Another aspect is that Eugene is still a rogue, and he’s had an on and off relationship with Raps for a long time, but he’s an actual irredeemable con artist who deserves death, and that’s what draws him and raps to each other.

Esther is the protagonist, and the co-protagonists are the Stabbington twins, a couple of stupid teenagers who accidentally got into some beef with Eugene. I did write a little bit of this story a long time ago, but I can’t find it soooo… any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated before i start writing!!

[ceescedasticity]

I started trying to clean up my Song of Ice and Fire SBURB/classpects thing for AO3 only to discover that, in fact, I may not have touched it for a year or more but that doesn't mean I'm actually satisfied with the most recent player roster or classpect sorting. Does not help that I haven't even been reading fic in this fandom lately but

What I do have is a beginning I like—

They were peddled as curiosities and toys -- trinkets after the style of Old Valyria! They were like large bronze eggs, about the size of an apple, which opened like lockets to reveal tiny mirrors on one side and some sort of intricate interlocking metal wheels on the other. Somehow it never occurred to anyone to take them apart for their valuable components. The people they were given to were very attached to them, and fascinated by them, and tended to keep them on their persons at all times. After a few weeks they mostly didn't even really notice they were wearing an oddly large pendant. No one else seemed to notice the eggs at all. Even under circumstances where they really should have. Even if they were pointed out, no one else ever tried to take them — they might take everything else, but never the bronze egg — and they forgot quickly. Certainly no one ever thought anything strange was going on. They were just toys, baubles, funny things to amuse children or girls or boys not grown up yet. Nothing of real interest. Any thoughts of how unnatural the lack of attention was just.… slipped away. (Later on the [Samwell classpect] would wonder if maybe they were Valyrian. In a bad way. But no one described the Doom of Valyria as flaming rocks falling out of the sky.) And then the [Daenerys classpect] in a house of Undying tripped a trigger she didn't know was there, and far away in a crypt, the [Bran classpect] awoke to a pendant gone suddenly warm.

—and then thoughts.

Daenerys is pretty solidly Witch of Rage.

Sansa is pretty solidly Maid of Hope.

Arya is the Time player, for associations with death (even though I'm sending her into the Medium before she can leave for Braavos). Class is probably Rogue, though I thought about Thief.

Bran is the Space player. Class might be Seer (for Seeing, plus "relates to other people in the abstract" and "try telling them they're wrong. I dare you.") or Bard (for the lack of boundaries and general WTFery of body-borrowing), or maybe Mage (active understanding).

Jon is probably Prince of Void, though Heir could do.

Robb is the/a Heart player, probably Heir, though I thought about Knight. He'd be Knight if the Game had grabbed him early enough in the plot.

Samwell is the/a Light player, and probably Mage. I've also considered noncanon class Gnome [passive accumulation class, tilts male, with a ''mythological role" similar to Sylph?] Or he could be Sylph, actually…

Theon is either Thief or Bard. (He has the selfishness for Thief but I don't know about the flair. Being kind of a creeper at times fits for Bard, and he can be embarrassing, and there's the general WTFery.) Aspect is either Blood or Breath, because he's desperate for both connections and freedom.

And I think that exhausts the list of 'people I would definitely include'. However, the gender ratio is unbalanced, and Danaerys is definitely the odd one out, and there are lot of other young-ish characters in the books with miserable fates that getting yoinked into a Game session never to return might actually improve…

Jeyne Poole would probably be Page or something noncanon, and maybe Life? Or maybe noncanon Aspect Bone [caution, indecision, taking a supporting role].

Gendry could be Rage or Doom, and maybe Knight? Or I have him as noncanon 'Clerk' in one of my drafts but I'm not sure what that's meant to signify…

Shireen I have down as Sylph, but Page might be better. For aspect I have Doom or noncanon Grief [conflict (vs. peace), struggle (vs. acceptance), chaos (vs. order)]… actually maybe she'd be better with Peace [peace (vs. conflict), order (vs. chaos), acceptance (vs. struggle)]?

Margaery would be the/a Mind player. She could be Sylph. She could also be Bard, or noncanon class Dame [mythological role "the dame walked into my office and I knew she was trouble"].

Jeyne Westerling would probably be Breath player, and either Page or something noncanon.

Quentyn I've considered for Mage, Seer, Knight, and Heir. I'm leaning Knight? I shouldn't be considering him for anything I did not read that book carefully enough. For Aspect, Doom? Or noncanon Stone [permanence, stability, not reactivity or responsiveness]?

Myrcella would probably be a Blood player, or I also have Life down apparently? Class either Maid or something noncanon.

Loras could be Heir or Prince? Or Knight, I suppose, or something noncanon. If we're repeating classes/aspects he's probably Heir of Mind. If not, something of noncanon Aspect Charm.

Arianne would probably be Breath or noncanon Fire [transitoriness, reactivity] or Nerve [Recklessness. Impulse. Decisiveness. Taking control.] Maid works well, but she could carry Thief.

Podrick is another candidate for Life. And another candidate for Page, for that matter. Or some noncanon possibilities.

And I don't even have that much of an idea for Tommen or Gilly but I'm not sure I don't want them included…

ahahaha this is ridiculous.

[my-demons-personified]

Day 48- the drums of liberation are beating

it’s been a while. Not because nothing has happened but because I just don’t know how, when, where, or why I must post. You could say I got gay bait writers block

so I got a Blåhaj now! His name is Blåhaj but the B stands for Bungus which stands for Bustling Fungus so he basically comes with 3 names. I love him so much. Just merely holding him gives me a mood boost so good it makes me play games better. My first replay of Celeste with him was a new PB of 1:06:19.037 which is a really good decrease from my first few runs that ended at around an hour thirty-ish (longer than that but fuck off) and I don’t think my parents are catching on.

I don’t know how my parents aren’t catching on because I shaved my legs and stuff. They are VERY aware of my love for casket and Guilty Gear in general as well. I think I’d have to straight up tell them at this point because I don’t think my mom’s caught on even after I told her that my gaydar is very good so she shouldn’t be surprised if I end up gay. I’m thinking of asking her if she thinks I’m any flavor of gay and say I’m asking because kids at school say I give off a homosexual energy.

I also took Blåhaj to Miku boy’s house and every time I go there, I learn something new about the T in the alphabet mafia’s true name… why does this guy know so much about estrogen?? It’s getting concerning that he knows how to COOK the stuff and seems to look more and more feminine by the day like are you not telling me something? I’m not only getting better at bracket, I’m also playing I-No a little bit. I’m shit at her but you know how it is. The Limp Bisket Guilty Gear Strive plushie is arriving in May too! This whole be gay do crime thing is getting good…

I also had my first therapy session in YEARS and while I didn’t tell the therapist about the town inside me, I probably will next session. Yesterday’s therapy session was pretty productive and I like my therapist. It’s crazy how having a good therapist and being willing to actually cooperate makes therapy addictive… I really don’t know how to explain all of the gay gay that’s been going on. What the hell will she do when I say, “My friends have been calling me gay since 7th grade and recently ever since I picked up the game ‘Celeste’ I’ve been getting called trans and some of my friends are exposing patterns in my thoughts, feelings, and actions to show that it completely makes sense without plot holes but the thing is is that they’re most likely very right but I’ve been saying that I’m not either attracted to men or think I’m a woman even though I’m feeling both very hard and it’s starting to really get to me because while they only found out the trans allegations a few months ago, I’ve been feeling this way to a lesser extent since early 2023 when I played a romhack of Pokémon emerald called ‘Pokémon emerald rogue’ and was allowed to be a black girl in a yellow and black colored fit and it was the first time I felt anything like that before and everything is very confusing and I think it’s affecting every aspect of my life in one way or another but I’m too deep into repressing it to come out about this and I’m already black so I don’t need more things for cops to shoot me over and new things for people to bully me over so I feel trapped.” Like I wouldn’t know how to respond to the run on sentence final boss either tbh. I can kind of splurge like that on the internet since none of you know me and there are zero consequences to saying this, but imagine if my mom overheard this. That’d fuck everything up.

I’ve also been congested for a while. Not related but also I’ve had to take like 8 tests since the last time I posted. It feels really good to release all of this like a Makankōsappō fresh from the fingertips. I’m gonna go beat Celeste again. 20 times isn’t enough, I need to hit 30.

Mfw literally everything is shit and I want to die but a really good song is playing in my earbuds

[sisaloofafump]

I second all of those! And also:

Batman: Hush (2002) is amazing at introducing so many important characters at an entry level: Bruce, Dick, Tim, Alfred, Harley Quinn and the Joker, and Gordon. It also reintroduces Catwoman and starts her relationship with Batman, and explores his friendship with Clark and Lois. It also gets into much more about his upbringing than just the night of his parent's murder. My only hesitation is that it came out right before Jason’s return and lays the early foundation for it, so it’s important to have some backstory regarding that going in. The art and the writing is great and while the story line gets intense, it has plenty of lighter interactions and art. It was originally published as Batman #608-619.

An in-depth recommendation list:

Gold/Silver/Bronze Age

If you’re interested in his goofy Gold and Silver Age comics—start with a highlight collection! I recommend Batman Annual #5 (1963) from the 1940 Batman run. My personal favourite sub-era to read is the early 60s because it is both weird and easy to read.

Prominent Series:

Detective Comics (1937): It was originally an anthology series but (almost) each issue #27 onwards has Batman in it! There are stories about other characters like the Martian Manhunter, and various non-hero detectives in each issue too.

Batman (1940): A Batman solo series. Often includes three stories in each issue.

World's Finest Comics (1941): He has a solo story in the first 70 issues. Issue #71 onwards are team ups with Superman!

Batman Family (1975–78): A short bronze age anthology staring Batman, Batgirl (Barbara), and Robin (Dick), however it really focused on highlighting supporting characters like Vicki Vale, Huntress, and Ace the Bat-Hound. It mostly includes reprints but each issue should have an original story as well. This was later merged with Detective Comics for 15 issues.

Prominent Character Issues:

Detective Comics #27 (1939): Introduces Bruce/Batman

Batman #1 (1940): Introduces Selina/"The Cat"

Detective Comics #38 (1940): Introduces Dick Grayson/Robin

Batman #16 (1943): Introduces Alfred (although his last name is Beagle, not Pennyworth)

Superman #76 (1952): Oh no! There's only one room left on this cruise and we have to share (Batman & Superman's first meeting)

Detective Comics #233 (1956): Introduces Kathy Kane aka the first version of Batwoman

Batman #139 (1961): Introduces Bette Kane aka the first version of a Bat-Girl

Detective Comics #359 (1967): Introduces Barbara Gordon aka current canon's "first" Batgirl

Detective Comics #357 (1983): Introduces Jason Todd. (His backstory is rewritten a few years later however)

Dark Age

These are a few very important comics to Batman's history and you'll often see them referenced. You don't have to read any of them but it's important to loosely familiarize yourself with the contents.

Batman: Year One (1987): When they reset all of DC's continuity, this was the Batman origin they created. It set a new gritty vibe that some people loved, some people hated, but needless to say it is one of the most influential comics DC has ever put out. Features Bruce, Gordon, Selina, Alfred, and Harvey.

Batman: The Killing Joke (1988): This is a majorly influential Joker story and quite dark. It solidified the Joker's modern characterization and parallels to Batman. Barbara Gordon/Batgirl is assaulted and permanently(ish) paralyzed in it.

Batman: A Death in the Family (1988): Jason's death arc. The readers had voted on whether he would live or die. This was the result. Also published as Batman #426–429

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989): Dave McKean illustrated this!!. That's all I should need to tell you. It is a very interesting abstract exploration of Batman and Gotham's rogues and leans heavily on the horror aspect. I'll warn up front that there is a lot of demonization of mental health issues. It established Arkham Asylum as a major part of Gotham lore.

also the very famous but non-canonical:

The Dark Knight Returns (1986): A hypothetical future story where Bruce comes out of retirement. Carrie Kelley is the the new (and female!) Robin and helps him fight the Joker, Two-Face, and Superman. This is the first (and the best) of a trilogy.

Modern Age:

(I'm stretching the timeline categorization definitions here but trust me)

World's Finest (1990): This is a wonderful Superman & Batman team up from the early 90s and has really great interactions between everyone's various personas. Steve Rude's art is so much fun and his versions of Lois and Bruce Wayne make me want to cry with how beautiful they are.

Kingdom Come (1996): a hypothetical story about the Justice League turning into villains. Deeply influential and famous but more importantly, absolutely gorgeous. Do yourself a favour and just go stare and Alex Ross' art for a while (including in 2005's canonical series Justice)

Trinity (2008): A great look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League. The first half focuses on the Trinity's similarities and differences in what they symbolize. It has a very interesting integration of Tarot too. However, they're absent for the vast majority of the second half — focusing on what the rest of the JL does in their absence. You don't need to read all of it.

New 52 & Rebirth

The New 52 (2011) relaunch event made a few major backstory changes to the Batfamily. It unparalyzed Barbara and reinstated her as Batgirl. Cass and Stephanie both lost their Batgirl (and Robin) histories and were completely set back to ground zero, ready to be reintroduced with new origins.

Honestly just avoid all of the New-52 for as long as you can, but if you do get tempted later on:

We are Robin (2015) and Robin War (2016): Features Duke Thomas, his friends, and later Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian. If you're going to read anything, read this. It is genuinely very good and worthwhile.

Batman & Robin Eternal (2015) focuses on the whole family (including Harper Row/Bluebird!!) and re-introduces Cass and Azreal. It has a LOT of family bickering and team ups. Ironically, it doesn't really have Bruce or Damian in it.

The Rebirth era and following (2016–) does mostly keep the same canon as the New 52 created. However, following the Dark Crisis event, everyone's backstories were merged with their previous incarnations. It is not clear to what degree this effects each character, however Stephanie is back to having been Robin now.

If you’re reading the Rebirth era, I recommend starting with the Detective Comics run rather than Batman. This is just personal preference but I strongly stand by it. It highlights lesser known characters (initially Kate/Batwoman, Steph, Cass, Azreal and Batwing, with Tim and Bruce) but most importantly, it’s way better written. There are a lot of batfamily crossover events (like Joker War, or Fear State). So yourself a favour and read the collected editions so you catch all of it in one place. Just be mindful that two major events happen in the Batman run that affect the whole stream (Batman #51 and #77).

Batman & The Outsiders: is amazing and I want to second its recommendation. It focuses on Cassandra and Duke. Read Detective Comics #983–987 first. B&tO is continuing off from it.

Batman: The Knight: a 10 issue series about Bruce's training years and the friendships he made. Introduces a prominent character who shows up a lot in Batman #100 onwards. This is just really great

Batman: the Brave and the Bold: There are a lot of stories under this title. The 2016 launch features Duke Thomas with Batman blasting heavy metal music out of his chest. The new 2023 one is an ongoing collection of gorgeous and semi-experimental stories

Batgirls: If you like Barbara, Cass, and Stephanie, I highly recommend reading the first arc of this. The art and the story are a lot of fun

Task Force Z: Jason is roped into leading a government team of resurrected villains. It is quite an interesting exploration of his current ethics. The rest of the family do make appearances as well.

and additionally:

Wayne Family Adventures: an official (but non-canonical) Webtoon about the various domestic shenanigans of the Batfamily. It's light and funny and heartfelt and updates every Thursday.

-------------------------------

The recommendations that OP provided are amazing for getting to know individual batfamily characters and a great starting place. I hope this helps flesh out other avenues too.

I know that seeing lists like this can be super daunting. Honestly, just choose whatever and start. You'll pick up a lot along the way. If you're ever stuck or want to meet a certain character, OP provided great recommendations for that.

Lastly, I want to recommend my favourite oneshot, and it has absolutely no bearing on any plot, characters, or world.

Batman: Dreamland (2000): It's Batman exploring Area 51 and he looks like this:

What more could you possibly want?

hey if i wanted to get into batman comics where would i start. i am asking this purely on the basis that u reblog a ton of comic stuff so u don’t have to answer if u dont want to haha

@amongusbabiescustodybattle

I'm so sorry I don't know how long this has been in my asks. Disclaimer: I haven't read comics in a while and these are purely my own opinions.

If this list is too overwhelming, start at either Detective Comics #568 (if you want 80s batfam vibes) or Detective Comics #934 (if you want modern batfam vibes).

I'd say a good starting place if you want a place to jump in featuring the entire modern cast of characters is Batman (2016) and Detective Comics (2016). A few Batfam characters have solos from this time too (These are at the start of Rebirth, which is one of the more recent reboots, this is where I started).

For individual characters, here are some recs. Most of these will not be from within the past 10 years.

Batgirl (2000): Cassandra Cain's solo, fleshed out her character a bunch. There's a few problems that are relics of the time but it's generally pretty well regarded

Batman and the Outsiders (Rebirth) is good for both Cass and Duke Thomas

Two good Duke comics are We Are Robin (2015 I think?) and Batman and the Signal (2018)

Batgirl (2009): this is Stephanie Brown's solo that only has (I think) 12 issues because of the New 52 reboot

SIDE NOTE DO NOT READ THE NEW 52 COMICS THEYRE SHIT AT LEAST MOST OF THEM

The 90s runs of Nightwing and Robin, starring Dick Grayson and Tim Drake respectively

Birds of Prey (1999): This is where you'll find a lot of Barbara Gordon as Oracle content

Batman and Robin (2009): Dick Grayson as Batman after Bruce's presumed death. Damian Wayne as Robin.

Red Robin (2009): Tim goes off the rails

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2005). Jason is back and murderous.

I'm also a big fan of Batman (2016) Annual #3 because of the Alfred content

Those are all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure some other comic people can think of a lot more (@junkoandthediamonds you are The Comic Person maybe you could give them some recs? No pressure)

Some individual issues I would recommend are:

Jason's robin run from the 80s: Batman #408-425 and Detective Comics #568-582 (thank you @dailyjasontodd because your post came up on google for this)

Tim's entrance: As a normal dude, Batman #436. As Robin, Batman #457. These issues are from 1989 and 1990 respectively.

Steph's debut: Detective Comics #647 in 1992

Steph's Robin run, Robin #126-128 in 2003 or 2004ish?

War Games. This is a 2004 event spanning multiple comic runs and crossovers. Stephanie's (fake) death. I'm not sure how good it actually is.

No Man's Land. This 1999 event was the debut of Cass.

That issue where Jason comes back and beats the shit out of Tim. It's in Teen Titans vol 3 issue 29

Damian's debut: Batman #665 (2006)

This is all I can think of atm. I hope it helped! If anyone else has some recs please rb with em!!

<3

[scarlet--wiccan]

feminization and yassification of rogue? do you think it was a byproduct of the hypersexualization of the 90s or a genuine aspect of her arc that wasn't properly done bc men

I'm gonna preface this by saying I'm not a Rogue blog, and I'm not a reliable source for Rogue's character history. I'm just skimming a catalogue of her costumes right now.

She definitely has a unique aesthetic and she's worn a number of unusual costumes that stand out in the superhero genre. There is certainly a difference between Rogue's early appearances and the way she's drawn now. That probably is, in part, because she reached peak popularity in the 90s, and that is now the image her that is stuck in everybody's minds-- and 90s comics were more cheesecakey and exaggerated. That aside, I don't know if I would say she's more feminine, or if the semiotics of fashion and character design have changed since the early 80s.

When you look at Rogue's early appearances, she's usually drawn to look young and little bit punky or counter-culture-ish. The one exception is that crazy giant sweater. I think that the short, sometimes rough or severe hairstyles do communicate a butch sensibility, similar to classic Rachel Summers. Generally speaking, this is a girl who likes to wear layers and look scrappy.

When you get to the 90s, you start seeing longer, looser hair and bodysuits more typical of those worn by female superheroes-- but her most iconic costumes of the era feature bulky jackets and headbands tied around her forehead to keep hair and sweat out of her eyes. She looks tough, because her role on most teams is to be the physical powerhouse. Do you see how this conveys similar character choices, just with a different visual language?

There was a period of the 2010s where she wore a lot of low-cut tops and jackets, and that is probably because artists want to sex her up whenever her powers are neutralized or under control.

So, that's my initial take on Rogue's visual development-- yes, she has gotten sexier and more conventionally feminine, at least by modern standards, but that has more to do with the general taste level of superhero comics than anything else. Her core aesthetic is "tough chick who punches things" and while she's had some weird costumes in the interim, she has returned to that classic bomber-jacket look.

[basedsakura]

s-tier sasusaku fics

disclaimer: not all of these are necessarily romantic sasusaku, or even healthy sasusaku

these are my all time favorites for different reasons, but i guess i should establish some sort of standard according to which i judge fanfics: 

characterization: i don’t expect the characters to be identical to their canon counterparts, otherwise i wouldn’t be reading anything other than the original material. however i’m also not fond of fics in which the only aspect of the character the author had gotten right is the name. i don’t like fanfics in which sakura is a cold and calculated genius or ones in which sasuke is a sexually deviant casanova. you might as well create a whole new character and write original work

prose: ok so obviously this is very subjective and considering my taste has changed immensely from the start of this year, let alone during the last 5 years, all the fics below are going to differ greatly. i like to read stuff that hits the spot between purple prose and bland just right. vivid descriptions, exposition, world-building, all that jazz, but without treating me like an idiot. leave some stuff up to the reader. a bit of negative capability didn’t kill anyone

grammar: i mean -- yeah. not much to expand upon here. i’m not a native speaker, so i’m not exactly an authority on this, but solid grammar is a non negotiable for me.

style: i’ve got some serious pet peeves in regards to formatting (when the author doesn’t want to separate their paragraphs for some reason for example) but another thing is i hate when there’s random japanese throughout the fic. it’s fine if the author decides to use suffixes the way the characters do in the manga, or if they want to use japanese words for terms that are well known in the fandom (shinobi, bunshin, hitai ate, jutsu etc.) but stuff like ‘’teme’’ ‘’ hime’’ ‘’baka’’ ‘’kami’’ is cringe (to me (especially since its mostly used improperly))

pacing: obviously this is a matter of preference, i personally love slow burn, but pacing is SO crucial for a good romance fic. the writing can be great, the characters can be on point, but if i feel the relationship is moving at an unnatural pace, if the development feels unearned, it instantly throws me off. i understand a lot of authors wanna get to the sauce quickly, but if sasuke is a rogue ninja focused on revenge, no he’s not going to want to marry sakura as soon as he sees her again. he would be impartial, nostalgic at best. there’s nothing wrong with letting the feelings develop naturally

there’s probably more but im honestly too lazy and i wanna get to the fic rec part. these are in no particular order: 

blind by ObsidianSickle

It was almost time, Orochimaru was going to take his body as a vessel. He hated being used...he refused to be used. With that thought, he took the kunai in his hand and slashed across his eyes.

this is like a classic imho. i’ve read it after 5 years and while i do have some issues with the writing, it’s nothing terrible. it’s a sweet, sweet character-study slowburn

monomoth by Ohtze

Everything ends, eventually. Eight years after the war, Sakura's unhinged and Sasuke's obsessed. The fields are filled with corpses. AUish, canon-divergent, Sakura-centric.

this MAY be my all time favorite. the story, the pacing, the atmosphere -- probably one of the most serious and talented authors in the fandom. it’s a pretty dark AU-ish fic, definitely not the healthiest either sasuke or sakura have been, but a hell of a read. still not finished though

instant message by Keelah

She gave him names to kill, in order not to be killed herself. But having blood on her hands was turning out to be much worse than dying. "…There's still round 2…3…4…" When does this game end? She asked. "Don't you see, Sakura?" He said, "It never does."

i can’t believe that a first person POV, highschool! horror stalker AU fic is probably the finest slowburn i’ve ever read. each interaction feels so earned, you genuinely feel like you’re reading about sakura and sasuke from naruto and how they would act in this AU situation, not some random characters the author decided to call sakura and sasuke. possibly abandoned

once more, with feeling by jinnyskeans

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

this is a fun ballerina!sakura and tattoo artist! sasuke fic. the characters are not all that IC, but it’s definitely a fun read, and while it’s not a current favorite, i remember i used to cry over this shit when i was 14 lol. so there’s definitely some quality here if this seems like your thing. plus the author is an SS fic powerhouse, so plenty where that came from

i let it fall, my heart by arabesque05

Sasuke's memories of Sakura are not based on sight. No: Sakura was a press of desperation along his back, a sob to "please, don't hurt them". Sakura was a cool hand around his wrist, startling against his feverish, new-cursed skin. Sakura was the taste of apples; the breeze of an open hospital window; the stinging pain of a third Chidori. Sakura resides in the heart.

from their ss anthologies to their meta, this author came and went and left me with a gaping hole where their writing has been. honestly some beautiful stuff. this is a oneshot, but i seriously recommend everything this author has written 

shinobi: team 7 by gallyrat

while this is a team 7, not a sasusaku fic, it’s worth reading for both the world building, the team 7 dynamic, the sasuke and sakura as the author imagined them. i felt like their relationship was very ic, among many other things that are great with this fic. unfortunately discontinued

string theory by diwata

The aftermath of the war brings many things to Konoha; Sakura copes poorly. (1970s AU)

“He’s a war hero, now. So are you. It’s nice to have you home, Sasuke-kun. Welcome.” “Things are different now. But -- I’m home, Sakura.”

this is an anthology, but same as arabesque05, i recommend literally everything this author wrote. so incredibly good

ok im getting tired and bored i’ll probably update this but here you go for now

[ramblingsekai]

Oh god, I bought Rogue Legacy 2 and Slay the Spire and I’ve been so distracted playing them that the Stray Bad Dogs event snuck up on me. I’ve barely been checking tumblr and twitter and just happened to notice bc the L/n event ended last night. Anyways, I decided to do some scrolling thru tumblr and decided to make some random HCs that I couldn’t figure out how to make into longer posts. Just gonna be something fun and kinda scrambled thoughts I’m dumping into one post. I think I did something similar one time but it ended up being only 25ji HCs, but this time I’ll try to do more than them. Let’s gooo.

MMJ HC

Assuming that MMJ is using something like YT or Twitch to stream their stuff, I like to think that MMJ’s friends end up getting mod status or something similar. Eventually MMJ get full-time mods that aren’t their friends, but I think it’d be cute if the other characters pop in to watch the streams when they can and end up helping out if they’re there.

Kohane and An would type messages to cheer on MMJ as well as reminding ppl to be respectful.

Shiho, Ena, and An also end up being the ones to block spammers and delete more hateful messages. Bc there’s always going to be trolls, but hopefully other fans also help out too.

I’d like if Nene helps out with modding in general too, but I’m not sure how close Nene is with MMJ. I think she might be friends with Minori after Scramble Fest, but it’s hard to say.

If it’s Twitch, maybe Mizuki ends up helping out by making highlight vids every once in awhile (I think Mizuki is a fan anyways so not out of bounds).

All their friends usually end up reblogging/retweeting posts about special events for MMJ.

Like obviously the other characters aren’t full time and are just helping out when they can, but I always wonder how well MMJ is handling the more streaming live/online videos aspect of their careers at this point. I know that the latest Haruka event in JP talked about a new producer for the group, a not Tik Tok app, and MMJ getting flamed bc of a new song sounding similar to another one as well as showing Haruka dealing with her previous feelings about her temporary retirement. This is all based on what I saw on Twitter and some machine translations, but I’d rather not form assumptions based on machine translations and unfortunately there aren’t any fan translations for the event online so I guess I’ll just wait for now.  

VBS

So something I’ve never been able to clearly remember, did Akito ever properly apologize to Kohane about the whole stage lights thing in the main story? I feel like Kohane and An just sorta forgave him after learning the truth, but Akito himself never actually said ‘I’m sorry’. So I kinda want Akito to at some point to properly say that he is sorry to Kohane. Bc even if he wasn’t the one to close the lights, he still intended to try to scare off Kohane bc he didn’t think she was serious about performing music. Now I get it, Akito is super serious about music and thinks that if you’re saying you want to surpass Rad Weekend, you need to be serious. However, Kohane was still a rookie at the time. Just bc she was still new, it didn’t mean she wasn’t serious about it. Akito was new at some point too and had to learn about Vivid Street and music too before realizing his dream more. So I guess it just sorta rubs me the wrong way that Akito tried so hard to scare off Kohane, bc Akito himself was a rookie too at the start and he didn’t give Kohane a chance to pursue the dream. I also wonder if Akito has high-ish standards for An since she’s Ken’s daughter and is serious (in his POV) about surpassing RW, so in a way he felt like An wasn’t living up to his standards. I should probably have reread the main story before typing this, but Akito’s actions and attitude in the main story always seemed pretty hypocritical and petty to me, so I kinda just want him to sit down with Kohane and give a proper apology.

I know it seems like I dislike Akito from this, but I honestly like the guy. Out of all the guys in Proseka, he’s actually my favorite alongside Toya. A thing to keep in mind, Akito is a teenager, and teenagers do dumb and petty shit often bc they’re teenagers. I don’t excuse his actions, but I get it. And he did seem to learn from the whole thing and ended up becoming good friends with An and Kohane still. Plus, I think he’s actually pretty perceptive towards others feelings ( i.e An’s events, Ena and their dad, Toya, etc.). 

So my HC with Akito is that maybe he was so harsh with Kohane bc he saw a partial reflection. Kohane has a lot of parallels alongside Toya (not seeing RW but still trying to surpass it, quieter/calmer personalities, etc), but I think Kohane also has some parallels with Akito. Both don’t come from a musical background, so they had to start from the ground up, their respective partners are more experienced in music than they are, etc. But maybe when first seeing Kohane, he’s reminded of his younger self and soccer. Akito was really crushed about soccer during that summer festival event and ended up being lost until he found a new passion in street music. But the road was probably hard since he had to go it alone, plus this was probably going on at the same time as his home situation with Ena and their dad having their first fight. It got easier over time, especially after meeting Toya. So I wonder if when he first saw Kohane, he saw a version of his younger self and was trying to somehow spare her from the displaced feeling he felt after being crushed in soccer. Again, not to excuse his actions bc it’s still kinda shitty, but showing another POV of what he did.

Obviously, Akito and Kohane are good friends now, but I also hope that Akito and Kohane’s friendship as well as An and Toya’s friendship grow more in the future. I saw around Twitter ppl complaining about how VBS feels more like 2 groups who happen to sing songs together rather than one cohesive unit like w/ the other groups, and I get it. But I also disagree, since I think VBS is learning from each other and the whole 2 pairs thing is sort of a rivalry thing. The pairs push each other to be better as well as helping each other out. Akito helps An out with her feelings/actions towards Kohane as her partner, An reminds Akito that he’s not alone and has a group of friends he can rely on, Kohane is an unpolished diamond that is slowly revealing her shine which is pushing the others to keep moving forward/improving, Kohane is also a sort of opposite of Toya in that she’s a more natural type of musical genius who understands the feeling behind music (we see this with her lessons from Taiga and how open with her emotions she is) while Toya is the more classically trained genius who has put hundreds of hours into music. So Kohane and the others help Toya out with his feelings and music while Toya/An/Akito also helps teach Kohane the ropes. Their combined rigorous training and Kohane’s hard work outside of their practice ends up causing Kohane to level up faster (VBS Miku points that out too at some point in an event later lol).

So yeah that’s all I’m going to put for now. I said I’d do multiple groups, but I ended up doing like 2 groups and they were pretty large rambles too lol. Still, I haven’t done a long ramble in awhile so this was kinda fun for me. I noticed I’ve been slowing down with the longer posts bc I’ve kinda caught up on all the fan translation stuff so now I have to reread stuff or just wait for it to come out on global.

I realize I sorta ended up posting more incorrect quotes stuff than rambles/theories stuff lately. I wonder if I should cut back on that or not? (let me know if that type of stuff is annoying).

But still, let me know your thoughts on what I said. Agree, disagree? Did I miss something? Feel free to let me know. Thanks for reading!

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hey, you’re always really great with recommendations! I’ve been watching Downton Abbey again and I really enjoy the Tom/Sibyl dynamic but there’s not enough, do you have any recommendations for historical romance where it’s similar, or at least where there’s an emphasis on class difference, possibly a bodyguard-ish vibe. Thanks!

Hey, thank you! I try my best.

Definitely have some recs for you! I think that what you're looking for is a good, old-fashioned interclass romance. I'd recommend:

The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt--This is Georgian era, so obviously a bit further back than Downton, but still a similar vibe. The heroine is a rich girl who's inherited a property, the hero is the steward of the property. Their class conflict is a huge part of the plot. He..... delivers. It. Good.

Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt--The heroine is upper class (the younger sister of a duke) and she's also blind. The hero is a veteran, retired due to injury, and he's acting as her bodyguard. They basically have to go on the run together after someone begins targeting her, and it gets heated super fast. Shoutout for one of my favorite dry humping scenes in romance.

Seduce Me At Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas--The heroine is upper class, and the hero is essentially a manservant/employee attached to the family. They've known each other since they were pretty young, and he has hangups about being with her; she doesn't share those hangups at all. He's also worried that he'll hurt her because she's been left with health issues after a long illness, and most of the book takes place after she returns from a two year absence to recover her health. Very angsty. TW: this book was written some time ago, and the hero is of Romani descent. I think Kleypas tried to handle it well here, but I do think it can be unintentionally fetishistic at times.

Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas--This one doesn't have the "service to the family" aspect, but I think you'll still find a somewhat similar vibe. The heroine is upper class and the hero is very rough and tumble. He's totally self made and kind of has a chip on his shoulder. It's like... If Tom had already made a success of himself but was still being shunned by society, but she's full steam ahead on marrying him.

Courting Trouble by Kerrigan Byrne--This one is a second chance romance. The heroine is an upper class widow, and the hero was her teenage sweetheart who her father forced her to say no to when they were younger. Now he's a successful doctor and they begin to rekindle things.

The Rogue of Fifth Avenue by Joanna Shupe--The heroine is an upper class girl of Gilded Age New York, meant to get engaged to a man her father approves of soon. The hero is actually a lawyer who works for her father and has a dark past~ and her father's disapproval is a huge part of the story. This is the first in a trilogy, and I would say that all three books have a fairly big interclass romance, though the other two heroes are like... successful organized criminals lol.

[asleepinawell]

Book Recs

I was gonna do one of these at the end of the year, but I’ve somehow managed to read 26 books this year already (12 novellas, 14 novels), almost all featuring queer authors and/or characters so this is already a long list.

Note: There’s a few on here I was kind of meh about, but in most of those cases it was a ‘book might be good but it’s not for me so i’ll mention it to put it on people’s radar anyway’ type of thing. Insert the usual necessary tumblr disclaimer about all of this being only my opinion and your opinions are valid too etc etc.

In order of when I read them:

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir - Fantasy novella from the author of gideon the ninth that’s a twist on the classic princess trapped in a tower waiting for a prince story. Quite fun. (novella)

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht - Dark fantasy about revenge and magic. m/m couple but like I said it’s pretty dark and twisted all around so definitely not a happy queer romantic story. My opinion was interesting premise that could have been executed better and probably should have been a full novel to embellish on the world building potential. (novella)

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine - Probably tied with murderbot as the best things I read this year. Scifi, f/f couple, wonderfully done exploration of what it means to fall in love with a culture that is destroying your own. More of the many queer anti-imperialist books that have come out recently and certainly some of the best. The second one is a direct continuation of the first. (2 novels)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - This is the third in the Baru Cormorant series (The Masquerade) and was my favorite so far. The second and third book were originally one book that got split I believe and the second book didn’t stand alone as well (though was still great), but the third book really made up for that. Dark fantasy world starring a queer woc whose country and culture is destroyed by the imperial forces of that world colonizing and assimilating them. She vows revenge and decides to work her way up within her enemy’s ranks to enact it from within and bring an empire to ruins. Really really fascinating study of so many different aspects of our own world and the systems which enable and allow bigotry and how bigoted and violent narratives are used to control minorities. This is definitely a darker series and I was particularly impressed with some of the commentary on the racism prevalent in non-intersectional feminism as depicted through a fantasy world. Can’t wait for the last one to come out! (3 novels, 1 forthcoming)

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - There’s six of them--5 novella and a novel--and the first is All Systems Red. Told from the point of view of a self-aware droid/android that is rented out by a corporation to provide protection in a dystopian capitalist hellhole future that isn’t that unlike our current capitalist dystopia but is in space. Muderbot hacked the chip that controlled it and instead of going rogue just wants to be left alone to watch its favorite tv shows. Murderbot is painfully relatable and the books are both funny and poignant. Highly recommended. (5 novellas and a novel).

Winter’s Orbit - Everina Maxwell - This was a m/m romance novel with a scifi backdrop of royal intrigue. Generally I’m more into scifi with a queer relationship in the background than vice versa, so it wasn’t my favorite, BUT I think it was still well written and someone looking for more of the romance angle would enjoy it. Has all your favorite romance tropes in it, especially the yearning. (novel)

The Divine Cities - Robert Jackson Bennett - Three book series. I’m very conflicted about this one. Set in a fantasy world where an enslaved nation overthrew the country enslaving them and now rules over them. It’s a story of what happens after the triumphant victory and within that it’s also a murder mystery tied into the dying magic of the conquered nation. It also has a six foot something naked oily viking man fist fight a cthulhu in a frozen river. The second book was by far my favorite, mostly due to the main character being brilliant. My conflict comes from the fact I don’t feel like the story treated its women and queer characters well. Like it had really great characters but it didn’t do great by them overall. That and the third book didn’t live up to the first two. But still definitely worth a read, can’t stress enough how cool some of the world building was. (3 novels)

Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant - This might be the only one on here I disliked. It’s got a doomed boat voyage and creepy underwater terror and monsters and a super diverse cast of characters, but I just didn’t enjoy the writing style. While having a diverse cast is great, there were a lot of moments where it felt like characters were pausing to explain things about themselves that felt like a tumblr post rather than a normal conversation you might have while actively being hunted by monsters. I also bounced off all the characters. But a lot of people seem to have liked it so if you’re into horror and want a book with a f/f main couple then maybe you’ll enjoy it. (novel)

Dead Djinn Universe - P. Djèlí Clark - Around the early 1900′s, a man in Egypt discovers a way to access another world and bring Djinn and mysterious clockwork beings called Angels through. As a result, Egypt tells the British to get fucked and Cairo becomes one of the most powerful cities in the world. So Egypt, magic, djinn, a steampunk-ish vibe, oh and the main character is a butch queer woman who enjoys wearing dapper suits and looking fabulous while she investigates supernatural events. Her girlfriend is also mysterious and badass. And she has a cat. There’s three novella (one of which technically might be considered a short story) and then the first novel. You should absolutely read the novellas first (A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). Super fun and imaginative series. (3 novellas and a novel, more forthcoming)

River of Teeth & Taste of Marrow - Sarah Gailey - From the book description

“In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan.”

Queer hippo riders!!!! Very much a western but with hippos. Main couple included a non-binary character. Loved the first one. The second one I was more meh about due to one of the characters I was supposed to like having obnoxious man pain that a woman had to take the brunt of the whole time. Also there were less hippos. But queer hippo riders! Definitely read the first one, and they’re both novellas so no reason not to read the second as well. (2 novellas)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers - I may be the only person who hasn’t read the long way to a small angry planet at this point, but I did grab her new novella and I loved it. It made me want to go sit out in the woods and feel peaceful. The world it’s set in feels like a peaceful post-apocalypse...or diverted apocalypse maybe. Humans built robots and robots gained sentience, but instead of rebelling they just up and left and went into the wilderness with a promise that the humans wouldn’t follow them.The remaining human society reshaped itself into something new and peaceful. It’s the story of a monk who leaves their habitual monking duties to go be a tea monk and then later wanders into the wilderness and becomes the first human in ages to meet a robot. Very sad there’s no fan art yet. (novella, more forthcoming)

The March North - Graydon Saunders - This was such a weird book that I’m not sure how to explain it. The prose style is hard to get used to and I suspect a lot of people will bounce off it in the first chapter. There’s no third person pronouns used at all and important events get mentioned once in passing and if you blink you’ll miss them. Set on a world where magic is extremely common to the point that rivers sometimes run with blood or fire and the local weeds are something out of a horror movie and most of the world is run by powerful sorcerer dictators, one country banded together (with the help of a few powerful sorcerers who were tired of all the bullshit) to form a free country where powerful sorcerers wouldn’t rule and the small magics of every day folks could be combined to work together. The story revolves around a Captain of the military force on the border who one day has three very powerful sorcerers sent to them by the main government with the hint that just maybe there’s about to be a big invasion (there is) with the implication of take these guys and go deal with this. The world building is extremely complex and very cool...when you can actually understand what the fuck is going on. There is also a murder sheep named Eustace who breathes fire and eats just about everything and is a Very Good Boy and belongs to the most terrifying sorcerer in the world who appears as a little old grandma with knitting. It had one of the most epic badass and wonderfully grotesque battles I’ve ever read. But yeah, it is not what I would call easy reading. Opinions may vary wildly. I did also read the second one (A Succession of Bad Days) in the series which was easier to follow and had a lot more details about the world, but overall I was more meh about it despite some cool aspects. The chapters and chapters of the extreme details of building a house that made up half the novel just weren’t my thing. (novels).

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson - In this world parallels universes exist and we’ve discovered how to travel between them, but the catch is you can only go to worlds where the ‘you’ there is already dead. This turns into an uncomfortable look at who would be the people most likely to have died on many worlds and how things like class and race would fit into that and what we would actually use this ability for (if you guessed stealing resources and the stock market you’d be correct). The main character is a queer woc who travels between worlds with the assistance of her handler (another queer woc) who she has the hots for. She accidentally stumbles on a whole lot of mess and conspiracy and gets swept up in that. Really enjoyed it. (novel)

Witchmark - C.L. Polk - Fantasy world reminiscent of Victorian England (I think?) where a young man with magical gifts runs away from his powerful family to avoid being exploited by them. He joins the army and fights in a war and comes home to try and live a quiet life as a doctor, but a murder pulls him into a larger mystery that upturns his life. Also he’s extremely gay and there’s a prevalent m/m romance. This one was a fun-but-not-mind-blowing one for me. (novel, 2 more in the series I haven’t read)

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon - This was one of those that everyone loved but I couldn’t get into for some reason. I tried twice and only got about halfway through the second time. It’s got dragons and queer ladies and fantasy world and all the things I like, but I wasn’t that invested in the main story (which included the f/f couple) and was more interested in the smaller story about a woman trying to become a dragon rider. There are few things that beat out a lady and her dragon friend story for me and that was the storyline that felt neglected and took a different turn right when we got to the part I’d been waiting for. But, I know a lot of people whose reading opinions I respect who loved it, and if you like epic fantasy with dragons and queens and treachery and pirates and queer characters then I’d say you should definitely give it a try. (novel)

Bonus: I didn’t read these series this year, but if you haven’t read them yet, you should.

Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice) - Ann Leckie - Spaceship AI stuck in a human body out for revenge for their former captain, but that summary does not come close to doing it justice. Another one examining imperialism and also gender and race.(3 novels)

Kushiel's Legacy Series - Jacqueline Carey - This is two series, six books total, and starts with Kushiel's Dart. Alternate universe Renaissance-y Europe in a fantastical world where sex isn't shameful and sex workers are respected and prized. Lots of political intrigue and mystery. A lot of BDSM and kinky stuff too (the main character is a sexual masochist, oh and also bi!). I first read this series when I was fifteen or sixteen and it definitely made a big impression on me. Same author also wrote the Santa Olivia series which I’d also recommend. (6 novels)

The Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir - I mean, if you follow me, you know. If you don’t follow me you still probably know. I’d have felt remiss to have left them off though. Lesbian Necormancers in Space. Memes! Skeletons! Biceps! Go read them. (2 novels, 2 forthcoming, 1 short story)

Books On My To Read List:

Fireheart Tiger - Aliette de Bodard

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho

Black Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse

This Is How You Lose the TIme War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee

Also, if anyone has any recs for scifi/fantasy books starring queer men (not necessarily having to do with a queer relationship) and written by queer men I’d love them. There’s a lot written by women, and some of them are great, but I’d love to read a story about queer men from their own perspective.

[scatterpatter]

Critical Role Characters by someone who knows next to nothing about CR

Under the cut because Aye

So context: I really wanna start watching Critical Role, albeit I'm intimidated by the sheer length of it, but I realized I've been spoiled to... Almost nothing about this series or the characters, so why not joke around and guess as much as I can about the Mighty Nein ;D

This is Caleb!!! I forgot his name earlier but I HAVE seen content of him before. He's the edgy one. He has some kind of tragic backstory and I think caused his parent's death or something? Definitely has to do with his fire magic. Cat person. Like seriously he's the token edgelord from what I've seen. Probably the "You look happy? Who are you and what have you done to Caleb" character. Probably needs a nap. And therapy. Definitely therapy if your fanarts are anything slightly accurate to the plot.

I thought it was Fyord but turns out it's Fjord. I'm good at spelling pls believe me. I think this one's the "I CAN kick your ass if I want to, but I have social anxiety" one. Like the big sweetheart trope. Big dork. If I'm wrong this'll be awkward but I'm sticking with it. Probably a fighter or barbarian? I want to hold his hand.

I have never seen this person before in my life but apparently she's one of the main characters? "Beauregard", according to the wiki. Well I can't recall any fan content so I'm gonna make assumptions from this image alone: looks like a monk from the art, and boy HOWDY radiates bisexual energy. Cocky, sometimes TOO cocky. Def has that "I can fend for myself" energy. Probably struggled to make ends meet growing up or something like that.

I forgot her name but "Nott"!!! I've seen fanart of her before, and I'm love. Big "I'm going to cause problems on purpose" energy. Often depicted with bandages so I think she had some kind of tragic back-story. Actually if I remember fanart right, didn't she used to look something more human-ish and was like? Cursed to be a goblin or something? Had something to do with drowning maybe??????? Don't hold me to this. I was gonna guess rogue but this gear looks more ranger-esque. "I cause problems but I DO adore my friends more than anything" energy

JESTER!!! One of the few whose names I didn't have to check the wiki for! Baby girl baby! WILL fuck you up if you deserve it but prefers to take a more peaceful route energy. Ray of sunshine. Probably a cleric. I want to protect her with my life. If I get into this series and find out she's secretly evil I WILL ragequit. I want to platonically date her so much oh my god she's so CUTE

"Yasha", I've seen her name before but didn't remember. HELLOOOOO LGBT COMMUNITY. This is the one that wlw's go feral over. And I can see why. Pretty lady. Strong lady. 11/10. Probably some type of warrior- maybe a barbarian or fighter?... Fjord is one of those two and she's the other, is my guess. Looks scary but probably a big softie. Probably has some kind of curse with those wings- probably necromancy related. Probably raised in a tribe or community with strong warrior-aspects, judging by how combat-expert she looks and her tattoos

"CADUCEUS"!!! Sorry I forgot your name. THE CONFIRMED ASEXUAL HI!!!! Beautiful boy, 11/10. I adore him with all my heart. Looks like a druid. Transition goals. Didn't show up in the very beginning I think. I actually know nothing about his personality. I mean c'mon there's no way you're NOT a big dork if you dress like that. Has big "I've known the Mighty Nein for 10 minutes but if anything happened to them I'd kill everyone in this room and myself" energy. Maybe. Idk he's just perfect.

WHO THE FUCK IS VETH AND WHY ARE THEY ON THE SAME WIKI PAGE AS NOTT-... Ohhh. Oh I was right about remembering something about Nott being cursed, wasnt I? This is pre-curse Nott isnt it? Welp! Still has that "im going to cause problems on purpose" energy andhdjanxnc- i was about to guess that Nott fell through a sheet of ice and that's how she drowned(?), but then I realized this art is specifically from a "winter" series oop.... Prediction: Veth took the name Nott after probably not wanting to show her face around her family(?) once she transformed into a goblin. I Just Think She's Neat

THIS IS THE TIEFLING THAT LIKE DIED OR SOMETHING BUT IN RECENT MONTHS CAME BACK... OR SOMETHING. IDK. ALSO DRIVES THE LBGT COMMUNITY WILD. YOU GO "MOLLYMAUK" I BELIEVE IN YOU. They are... So cute wtf. I don't even know what to say. I can see why the LGBTs love them. Heck.

Fun fact! I know NOTHING about the plot! Other than the fact that there was not once but TWICE that the Mighty Nein ploymorphed something into a turtle but that turtle was also v threatening so they had to change it into something else. Beautiful.

Why are they called the Mighty Nein? The heck if I know! Cuz there sure ain't 9 of em so that pun doesn't add up! Probably something plot related. Who knows. I've been told my haircut sometimes looks like Matt Mercer's and I'm not sure if that's a compliment but I'll take it as such.

[honourablejester]

Some thoughts for potential characters for an Arabian Nights/Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor style D&D desert campaign, since Genie Warlock is now an official thing

Point of note: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is one of my favourite Ray Harryhausen movies, and one of my favourite Classic Hollywood swashbuckler/fantasy/adventure movies (allowing for its extremely 70s sensibilities and attitudes), and its influence is probably going to be very clear here. Heh. (Honourable mention to the 40s Thief of Bagdad also)

Firstly, I feel like a specifically Arabian-Nights-ish setting might let you get in some of the more unusual races more easily. Depending on if we’re going fully desert with this, or if we’re adding in Sinbad-style coastal/mountain/jungle shenanigans, you’ve got room for things like aarakocra, yuan-ti, tabaxi, genasi, tritons, sea-elves, goliaths, tortles, etc.

(Sidenote on monsters for the campaign: you cannot have an Arabian Nights inspired setting and not include a Roc at some point. It’s just not done, I demand giant birds. Actually, given the variety of monsters in Arabian Nights and all the myriad spin-off stories from it, you could probably throw in just about anything. All the sea monsters. Anything found in a haunted desert ruin or Cave of Wonders style dungeon. All the constructs, Jaffar in Thief of Bagdad certainly felt free to throw in all the mechanical murder weapons.

On that note. Actually. Warforged PCs. The ‘Silver Maiden’ who didn’t want to assassinate a king for some sorcerer. Or did assassinate a king for some sorcerer, and is now dealing with the fallout. Huh.

But. Anyway. I just. Love the Roc. It’s iconic)

Some backgrounds that fit nicely for your stereotypical Arabian Nights adventures: pirate, sailor, fisher, criminal, charlatan, urchin, courtier, sage, far traveller, guild artisan/merchant, possibly also archaeologist if we’re counting ‘delving into desert ruins’ under ‘archaeology-ish activities’

Classes and subclasses that instantly jump out:

Rogues are instantly the archetypal hero type here, given Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba, et al. Heh. Swashbucklers and arcane tricksters also jump out among subclasses, because adventuring sailors and magic thieves. Rogues just grok really well in general though. Roll up all your sly, streetwise, impulsive, treasure-driven, secretly noble thief princes and line ‘em up!

So … A tabaxi archaeologist-slash-arcane trickster who grew up a street urchin and found themselves getting sent into strange desert ruins for cash from a very young age, until they just got a taste for it and went into business for themselves? Or a water genasi sailor-swashbuckler who’s looking to buy/acquire their own ship and are willing to go a lot of strange places and take a lot of strange jobs to get the capital up? Or a halfling street thief who very inadvisedly fell in love with royalty and is looking for enough cash to successfully masquerade as a noble suitor?

Warlocks, since genielocks are the reason we’re here in the first place, so we’ll obviously throw that in. Fathomless, fiend and undying also fit very nicely, depending on where we’re bouncing in our desert voyages, fathomless for coasts and undying for tombs

For the genie, because I’m still in love with the ‘live in your vessel’ idea, I’m feeling like Jafar’s peddler disguise from Aladdin could come in here. An actual peddler, guild-artisan, who encountered a djinni in the desert, and now has a few odder tricks up their sleeve, and on occasion sleeps in their lamp. I feel like rock gnome would work here? Not sure why. Alternately, we could go with the original fisherman-frees-a-genie-from-a-bottle, and get a poor (sea-elf?) bastard who is very out of their depth over here?

Bards, my darling bards, leaning into the court shenanigans a setting like this offers. If Scheherazade herself was anything, she was a bard. Lore, whispers and eloquence all jump out nicely. Also, here’s where you see my Golden Voyage love, because my absolute favourite character in that was the Vizier. He had it all. Genteel manners, tragic backstory, facial disfigurement, honourable motives. Sure, you have your Disney Jafar viziers, but you also have your historical Jafar viziers, and everybody loves some court shenanigans.

So. A human/half-elf courtier-turned-fugitive lore bard, who ran badly afoul of his court’s new ‘court wizard’, to the tune of a hideously disfigured face that he hides behind a quite beautiful mask, who’s out looking for people to help him fight said wizard and reclaim his kingdom for its just rulers?

On that note, Sorcerers and Wizards are obviously genre staples (admittedly often as villains, but hey). If you’re leaning a bit on some ‘court wizard’ shenanigans, then sorcerers with subtle spell might have an interesting edge, and pretty much all flavours of wizard would fit right in

Putting the yuan-ti in as the wizard/sorcerer might be a bit on the nose (though possibly not as much as the genie warlock with, say, a basket as a vessel), but they do also fit very nicely with both the court shenanigans and also tomb-diving aspects of this kind of setting/story. So. A yuan-ti pureblood illusion wizard who’s trying to find a specific tomb/cavern, a-la the Cave of Wonders? Or a tiefling sorcerer whose life’s goal is to successfully become court wizard and/or vizier?

Of the martial classes, I feel like Monks oddly fit quite nicely. Sun soul might even get a decent look in, as well as long death and mercy. Possibly it’s still the rogue thing, but Arabian Nights as a genre just feels very Dex-based to me. We survive on skill and savoir-faire and slyness, not force and faith.

Also, random inspiration here, but the RL archaeological discovery of the 5000-year-old 6ft tall Iranian lady found in a Burnt City with a golden artificial eyeball wired into her skull is of some influence here. A sun soul monk lady with a golden eye from a ruined desert city taken over by a blue dragon would be … a very cool thing. I feel. Heh

And of course, anything else you feel like. Just because my brain is ruled by rogues and sorcerers here doesn’t mean that’s all there could be. Light, tempest and knowledge clerics feel nicely evocative as well. Storm barbarians. Swarmkeeper ranger with a locust swarm, if we want to throw in some earlier influences. Stars druids work really nicely for the navigator idea, both as desert walkers and nautical navigators. Anything you want, really.

I guess I’m kind of surprised that I don’t really hear much about coastal desert-y style campaigns in D&D. It has all the monsters for it. And, like, if ever there was a genre of story focused on tiny heroes facing really weird monsters, the Odyssey/Sinbad the Sailor type stories are very much it.

[kitkatopinions]

For the character ask I would love to see Clover

Clover for the RWBY character asks! Tbh, I don’t know a good deal about him (I haven’t seen the last two seasons of RWBY nearly as well as the other seasons, but I’ll give it by best!

My top three ships for the character

Clover/Winter, Clover/Marrow, and Clover/Ironwood all have juice. I always headcanoned that Winter had been attracted to aspects of Qrow’s personality, but can’t stand the rest of it, as he’s too wild, too unseemly, and has too much of a history for her. Clover would actually be great for her, then. He’s got the charm, the devil may care attitude, the winks and the teasing and the big heart and caring nature underneath, without any of the stuff that I think Winter wouldn’t be able to see past. Clover/Marrow I think could be cute. There might be some contention, since Clover is his boss and he’s very new, but idk, I think they could have something. And as for Ironwood/Clover, I don’t see much of it, but he’s charismatic and challenging and adventurous, and I think could compliment Ironwood. Plus, he really does respect and value Ironwood, I think, and I just like that for James.

My three least favorite ships for the character

Clover/Harriet is on this list, and it’s a shame. I think their personalities could compliment each other, but eighth season ruined the idea of them for me. Clover/Tyrian, for obvious reasons. And Clover/Robyn, I honestly really think Robyn doesn’t have much chemistry with anyone, let alone Clover.

My biggest criticism for the character

Honestly, I don’t mean to sound like a Clover hater, but by golly, I wish I’d seen much less of him. Qrow had other relationships to develop that I feel were more important and it feels like they tried to jam pack their growth as friends into the story at lightning speed just to force an emotional reaction when he died, instead of letting Qrow interact with Ironwood or Winter (who he had relationships with prior that largely wound up neglected) and then they acted like he was suddenly the most important thing with Qrow. I have other complaints, but for the most part, this is what truly trips me up. Some of his character and how Qrow reacts to his character doesn’t feel genuine, because he didn’t have time to be that developed or significant. I was blown away by how big Qrow’s reaction to his death was, because I was sitting there going ‘But, Qrow has only known him for like, two months, right? The audience has only known him for like, a season, right? Why should we care this much?’’ I feel like if they’d let him be a cool more in the background character (like Glynda was in V1-3,) and then not killed him, and if they hadn’t tried to make him into something he wasn’t and try and force connections, then he could’ve really flourished. That’s not to say that he and Qrow shouldn’t have been friends and shouldn’t have interacted. Some of their moments are kinda cute (”I win again. Maybe we should, call it quits?” “Shut up and deal.”) But I think the focus should’ve been on James and Qrow or at least Qrow and Winter.

My favorite thing about the character

The attitude. I love characters who tilt towards the cocky, arrogant side, and I like flirty characters and a ‘rogue-ish’ character, but I also like that there seems to be more brewing under the surface, like he’s intelligent and everything he says is for a reason. Throughout season seven, I actually thought he was going to be a villain or at least ‘betrays them, but he hadn’t realized it’d be like that/he had good motives/he realized he was wrong,’ because his questions seemed leading, his behavior seemed a bit guarded, he seemed like he was analyzing Qrow for reactions. Now, it just seems like he was a good guy, who just happened to be highly intelligent, but didn’t apply himself with tenacity and high ambitions like Winter, so it isn’t as obvious. I really dig a character with a rogue-ish attitude that clearly has more under the surface.

A headcanon I have about them

I once heard this from someone else and I love it: Clover’s always had a problem with proving himself as talented, strong, and smart, since due to his semblance, a lot of people chalk his achievements all up to his semblance. Clover was never considered a smart kid, a good kid, or a strong fighter in school, as most of his teachers, friends, and even family members would tell him how lucky he is to have a semblance that makes things easier for him. Clover’s always kinda resented his semblance because of it, but also knows that he does have an advantage a lot of times that other people don’t have, so he never feels like he should allow himself to be upset to have a semblance other people would kill for. I also headcanon that when Clover met Qrow, he felt even more guilty about resenting his own semblance, since Qrow would clearly love and embrace such a semblance. 

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

You know how I said I’d thought Clover would be a villain? I might - I might do that. I honestly think Clover as a villain would be really cool and could’ve meant something! But, if I didn’t go with that, I just generally would’ve kept Clover more in the background and maybe get three seasons out of Atlas to allow characters like him time to grow in importance naturally. Also I’d give him a different weapon. I’m sorry to whoever thought giving Clover a fishing pole as a weapon was a good idea, but I definitely would change it. Maybe I’d give him a grappling hook or something. Same basic function, and I don’t expect him to do the Perfect Cast every time he’d use it.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

His allusion was to the story ‘A fisherman’s good luck,’ and the morals of that are supposed to be ‘patience, constancy, and perseverance, in an honest cause and duty, can never fail to bring a happy end.’ And I guess that in RWBY, they once again decided to do the opposite, and drain all hope from the story, and just go with ‘nothing in Clover’s life paid off because now he’s dead and people are belittling his dead corpse.’ Very stupid in my opinion. I truly think CRWBY said ‘We want him to have good luck, what’s an Aesop’s Fable about luck?’ and then said ‘Oh, it’s about a fisherman? We’ll give him a fishing rod, allusion done.’ If I was going with ‘Clover is a secret baddie’ I would have him tricked into thinking he was doing something good and regret it, and try to make it right. I’d try to get across the message that Clover had stumbled in that patience and perseverance in an honest cause and started getting misfortune because of it, but when he returned to the good and careful life he had lived for most of his life, he was able to make up for it and have a happier end. And if I went with Clover being a good guy the whole time, I’d totally just go into the headcanon I have, that Clover had always wanted to prove that his accomplishments were because of his perseverance and devotion to an honest cause, and not due to his semblance. And then, you know, I’d have that pay off for him with a happier end and not kill him.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

How To Get Into DnD in 10-ish Easy-ish Steps

Cates here. I just wanted to add my thoughts about joining or starting a DnD game for the first time, as someone who’s been there, done that, and still can’t calculate Rogue Sneak Attack damage to save her life. It can definitely be intimidating entering the world of DnD, but for me the best thing about DnD is running around with a group of people who would literally take a sword in the gut for you. Find a supportive and welcoming group (or start one!) and you’ll be fine.

(Note the “easy-ish” modifier in the title. If you’re a hardcore DnDer who thinks that 5e is a travesty and we all should have stuck to 3.5e, or if you’re the kind of person who gets annoyed about DnD suddenly being “mainstream” and “popular”…chances are some of what I’m about to say will make your eyeballs twitch.)

1.       Use other media as a way into understanding DnD. My absolute number one recommendation would be to see or read the play She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. Not only is it a beautiful send-up to nerd culture in general and DnD in particular but because the main character is playing DnD for the first time, it actually provides a decent overview of the mechanics of the game. Another entry point is, of course, Stranger Things—the first season in particular establishes a pretty solid picture of what playing DnD is like.  

2.       From there, find a podcast, YouTube channel, or similar where a group plays DnD, and watch to get a sense of how things work. Film Reroll is fun but that’s GURPS, a different system than DnD. The Adventure Zone is another good one. By far the most popular is Critical Role. I personally don’t care for Critical Role (put away your torches and stink bombs, please,) but it seems to work for other people.

3.       Purchase (or check out from your local library,) the DnD Player’s Guide, 5th Edition. (The most current edition.)

4.       Now that you have a sense of how DnD works, find a game. Bug mentioned some good avenues, like comments sections on Podcasts. To that I’d add check out Reddit subs, Facebook groups, and your local game store if you’re lucky enough to have one. Most game stores have resources for finding parties or even host games at the stores themselves.

5.       Another option: get together a group of friends, form a party, and stumble your way through one of the early level adventures. If no one wants to DM, do what my second party* does and rotate DMs. We each take turns running an adventure, and while each of us does so our character is off on another quest/on vacation/bringing goblin corpses back to life/etc. Ideally, you’ll have at least one person in the group who has some experience with DnD, but if you don’t…so what? The internet is an endless bounty of information. Some of it is even accurate!

*As opposed to the one I’m in with Bug where I’m the permanent DM. 

6.       Figure out what you want from a game of DnD. Are you there for the complicated character backstories? Does the complex system(s) of magic fascinate you? Do you want to be like Legolas from LotR, or like River from Firefly, or like the Incredible Hulk? This will help you get a sense of the kind of character you’d like to play. Some people will wildly disagree with me, but here’s my rough-and-tumble ten second mini guide to figuring out your class as a first time player.

Want to be the smooth talker, the one who gets info from the local bartender? Be a bard, or a rogue who leans into Charisma instead of Dexterity.

Want to be really useful/involved in combat situations? Be a barbarian.

Want to use magic? Be a cleric. Your team will thank you. If you want a more “hardcore” magic class, go with sorcerer over warlock or wizard.

Want to come up with unusual solutions to specific problems? Be a druid.

Want to be sneaky? Be a rogue or a ranger. 

Want to be some combination of the above/figure it out as you go? Be a fighter. Fighters get overlooked as a class because they seem so generic, but that’s actually the advantage of playing one. It’s so broad you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, taking on just about any of the roles I listed above.

7.      Keep in mind that to set your party up for success you’re going to want at least one of each of the following: a healer, a magic user, a ranged (long-distance) fighter, a tank, and a talker. Now, this doesn’t mean you need a party of five, because one character can take on multiple roles. For instance, in the game where I DM, mine and Bug’s brother plays a character who is the party’s main talker and their main magic user. We also have a healer who can be a tank when needed. Basically I just wouldn’t recommend that you have a party consisting of a wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock, or a fighter, a barbarian, and a monk. Cover different areas of expertise and you’ll have a happy and harmonious party that actually stands a chance of surviving their first combat.   

8.       Resist the urge to use unusual races or classes for your first game. Trust me when I say that you’ll have so many other things you need to work out, sorting through a class or race that isn’t clearly outlined in 5e is a headache you don’t need. More to the point, it’s a headache that your DM doesn’t need. The amount of work that goes into figuring out how to give an unusual class or race a good combat experience (ie, one that doesn’t kill them and one where they don’t kill all the enemies with a snap of their fingers) is a ton of work…and that’s only one aspect. If you really want to be unique, look at the subclasses and subraces. There are some delightfully strange varieties in there.

9.       Similarly, for the love of the Ellimist make sure everyone is clear on the goal of your standard game of DnD: you are a party of adventurers. For the game to work, you need to, for whatever reason, work together. Keeping a whole bunch of secrets from your party, excessively lying to your party, and going against the party’s goals are all ways to make the game waaaaaaayyyyyy less fun for everyone involved. This doesn’t mean that you have to be an open book, but keep in mind that is a COLLABORATIVE, not COMPETITIVE, game. Save the trickery and theft and all for the monsters your party will fight. For instance, in my first game I played a gnome who was disguising himself as a woman because he was on the run from a sorcerer who’d kept him enslaved. He lied about his gender and his name and was vague about his backstory, but he didn’t tell any lies that were aimed at getting a leg up on his party members. Eventually as they bonded he came to trust them and revealed his past, and the party helped him disguise himself as an elderly dwarf so they could take down the sorcerer (it made sense in context : ). Tl;dr: work with your party, not against them.

a. For all my “well, but in my party…” friends, if your game features a bunch of cutthroats all trying to assassinate each other, or if your character was secretly planning on murdering another player’s character for Reasons, that’s fine. All I’m saying is don’t do it in your first game, or you’ll never get off the ground.

10.       Within reason, ignore the minutiae. Don’t worry too much about money, food, or how much weight you’re carrying. (At this point I’m assuming some of my hardcore DnDers’ eyes are popping out of their heads.) Again, note that I said within reason: this doesn’t mean that you can take whatever kind of weapon or armor that you want, and you shouldn’t have a never-ending supply of arrows, nor should you be able to purchase that super rare artifact. But if you focus too much on this stuff, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone (yourself included) invested in the game. If this sort of hyper realism appeals to you, add it in after a few sessions. But give yourself a break at the start and don’t roleplay every afternoon tea.

Remember, a good DnD game is a game that you enjoy playing. A good DnD party is one in which the characters AND the players respect each other. Don’t metaphorically or literally split the party, and you’ll be fine. 

[sableu3]

Day 48

100 Days of 100 Prompts

x-men-ish canon AU

It has been illegal to have special abilities ever since one GMP (genetically modified person) went rogue and nearly took out the entire Ark. Back then it was common practice to have genetically modified babies. But it wasn’t just better eyesight or perfect health that they ended up modifying. The scientists accidentally discovered a gene that presented differently in every baby. It unlocked a part of them that made them extraordinary. These children developed special abilities. There were children who could control an element, move objects with their mind, bend light, teleport, the possibilities were endless and it always presented differently. But one day, one of these children lost control and the rest were either locked up or killed outright. It was the most horrifying culling in the Ark’s history. Such children were banned but there were always cases of the gene carrying over and unlocking naturally within the next generation from seemingly normal parents whose gene lay dormant. These children were usually rounded up and arrested as soon as their ability became known. If they were lucky, their ability was easily hidden.

Monty grew up in farm station but he loved electronics. He could see and control the electricity in everything and it fascinated him. His best friend Jasper could get anything to grow. Murphy could get out of any thing, he could see the probabilities in relation to his own survival. Miller could camouflage into any background or just go completely unnoticed in the middle of the room. Raven could fix anything, she was the youngest zero-g mechanic in 50 years due to her ability to SEE how things would fit together and work. Bellamy was telekinetic (meaning he missed killing Jaha on purpose since he could control the path the bullet took) while his sister Octavia was empathetic. Clarke had the rather unusual ability to see and control every aspect of the human body. (like the brain chemistry and knitting bones back together and blood flow.) It would make her an excellent doctor but her mother never forgot the darker aspect of her ability. She could kill as easily as heal. WANHEDA! Abby could control any liquid, bodily fluids, water, oil. She can stop a patient from bleeding out. (So Clarke could make an enemy stop by locking their muscles in place or take someones pain away by blocking their nerve receptors, maybe she can save Maya by forcing her body to process the radiation better. The possibilities are endless)

So the kids in lockup? Most of them are there for having an ability. They dropped their guard for one second and got found out. Jaha decides they are the perfect candidates to send to the ground.

Monty will use his ability to try to fix the wristbands but he keeps frying them by accident. They weren’t really designed for contacting the ark that way. Jasper gets speared but Clarke is able to save him quicker this time. Bellamy can use his ability to get the wall up faster. Octavia is caught in the adrenalin high the kids are experiencing from being on the ground. Perhaps she mediates between Bellamy and Clarke, feeling both of their desperations. She gets to the bottom of things and they both learn the ark is dying and what Bellamy did to get on the ship. They work together sooner and that shit with Murphy doesn’t happen.

Some kids don’t have an ability, they were locked up for other reasons. Wells for example, just came down for Clarke. Finn got locked up for the same reason as last time.