#haven't done anything in ages oops

[yayforocs]

vibrating im so excited I'm so excited

[melled42]

Idk if this is a huge request or not, but could you explain more about Bell? (The shitten in your au)

I would be thankful, take care.

Yeah, ive done like... 3 pieces of her max but she gets SO many asks lol. the story isn't really ready for her yet, and i'd like to finish what im working on before i do more with her, but i'll give the basic rundown.

she LITTERALY started as a joke baby post but she got so much interaction i said i'd expand on her design and now she seems to just have a following of simps (oops, like lamb like daughter)

most of the old ideas for ewen and nari with her are out of date now on the art, but heres a bunch of plot and some unposted sketches under cut

Nari and Ewen are married and leading the cult still. all the siblings have kids, grandkids and even great grandkids (excluding shamura). Its only after they decide having a child is someone for them to love and raise, not someone who they're forcing the cycle of trauma on that they have Bell. And they adore her. While growing up, one by one, the former bishops, all her aunts, uncles, and shamura decided it was time to peacefully end their long lives. So she sees death as a good thing, the satisfying end to a long life story. So when Ewen and Narinder are ready to die together, even though they say she doesn't have to, she takes on the crown and ends if for them with a last "i love you" between them. She runs the cult now which is more themed around their shared neck wound "rings" and their relationship than just the lamb. She's called "the black sheep" by her followers (or queen if they're kinky, princess when shes younger). she wields the crown as a pair of horns and a sythe, sine the cult of the black rings also referenced Ewen's large black horns and she keeps up the theme.

Baal and Aym are her "brothers" (more of her body guards and technically her cousins but she refuses to call them anything else) and her body guards, staying after their master's death. They've known her since she was a baby and still treat her as one sometimes. She's VERY protective over them, but also will bully them sometimes, like kicking their asses when training and saying they're just going easy on her like when she was a kid, knowing full well she's overpowered by the crown.

Because shes such an oddity, the mystic seller assigned one of their followers to keep an eye on her and, much like her "ba ba" she found the overpowered demigod shes now obsessed with. With some help from Ewen before they passed, they were able to translate their glyphs. Now that helper follows her around disguised as a poor imitation of a regular mortal to better understand her and the mortal realm. Or at least thats what she convinced them to do since she wants them around <3 probably not to their masters liking lol. I haven't decided on a name yet. Bell eventually give them the purple crown (they/it)

Before they left, Narinder was trying to reawaken the crowns, whether for the memory of his siblings, or that the cult was growing too large to be centered on the red crown. They're not very powerful right now and Bell is the leader of the others, more like a babysitter.

The blue crown is with Kalliope (kalli for short) (she/her), a distant relative of Kallamar's who had to fight, both physically and socially, with all her other of age relatives to get the chance, since Kallamar's polycule made a LOT of kids and grand kids. She's kind of bitchy about it and whines about everyone not respecting her or how hard she worked. shes a flamboyant cuttlefish and trans femme. also the crown is worn like an earring. Bell has little tolerance for her and they have a lot of bitchy girl fights.

The green crown is with isop (a kinda combo of isopod and aesop) (he/him) who is a rubber ducky isopod. he's Leshy's great great grandkid, and really only god the crown because no one else on the peaceful forest farm leshy put together in his later years really wanted it and figured it meant free babysitting. he's pretty young and small with a fascination for chaos and violence that only little kids without developed social perception can have, though he more watches at this point. The others tend to carry him or he rolls around in a little ball. The crown is worn like glasses.

The orange crown is with Mycelia (lia for short) (they/them plural) who is a homunculus mushroomo made through experimentation by Heket and Sozo before they died. they're the only one who is actually older than Bell. They're undying because they're a hive mind of all the mushroomo, who have been progressively growing. They can see everything the others see, can spout new bodies when needed and even feed on their own dead bodies. Bell sometimes just kills them when they're frustrated with them or other things. They'd be a threat but they're very monotone and emotionless about pretty much everything and don't care. They've worked with the red crown just because death is a natural boon to fungus and keeps them alive. The orange crown is worn as a necklace.

Heres some sketches since I haven't been able to get the designs to my liking but people keep asking so :T

[mintsbubbletea]

𝐄𝐢𝐣𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐊𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚 - 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠

Word Count: 1,697

Contains: she/her pronouns, mentions sex, lil bit of angst, cursing.

Proof Read and Edited

A/n: Sorry I haven't updated! been busy with dance stuff. they are also aged up!!

"Hey Kirishima," a voice called out.

"It's your turn to put down a card," the voice reminded him. Kirishima blinked a few times, turning his attention to Denki who had spoken to him. "Oops, sorry. I wasn't paying attention," he chuckled softly.

"We lost you there for a moment," Denki smirked. Mina then followed Kirishima's gaze and gasped softly when she saw the person he had been looking at. "Y/n? From class 1-B?" she asked, causing the rest of their friend group to exchange knowing glances, suspecting Kirishima's potential new love interest. "When did you start talking to that extra?" Bakugo asked, looking up from his cards.

"We used to bump into each other at the store quite often. We ended up talking a lot over the summer. It was kind of our thing, but she stopped talking to me after being assigned to 1-B," he explained, a hint of sadness in his voice as he recalled the lost connection they had. "Aw, Kiri," Mina pouted, patting his shoulder in comfort. Kirishima shrugged, looking down at his cards. "Can we stop talking about that extra and just play Uno?" Bakugo rolled his eyes, uninterested in hearing Kirishima's sentimental story about a girl. "Right, sorry man," he chuckled before focusing his attention back on the lunch table where you were sitting with Kendo and Shiozaki.

You noticed his gaze fixed on you, feeling his eyes on you, but you deliberately avoided looking at him. "He's staring again," you remarked, taking a sip of your juice. "Kirishima?" Kendo inquired. You nodded, placing the bottle down. "You never told us what happened between the two of you," Shiozaki commented as she ate her food. You shrugged. "We just talked over the summer, I developed feelings, and then I stopped talking to him."

"But why did you stop talking to him? Did he say something to you?" Kendo asked eagerly, wanting to hear the rest of your story. "No, it's just…" you sighed, running a hand through your hair. "Tell us, please," Kendo pleaded, leaning forward in her seat. "We hooked up," you mumbled, but loud enough for your friends to hear. "Y/n!" Shiozaki exclaimed a little too loudly, drawing the attention of some people at the nearby table. "Shush! It was only two times. It didn't mean anything," you said, biting your lip nervously. "Two times? It meant something," Kendo observed, noticing your anxious behavior. "It didn't. I don't want to talk about it now," you replied. Shiozaki glanced at Kendo before nodding. "It's okay, Y/n. We understand," she reassured, reaching over the table to squeeze your hand.

-

The day finally came to an end, signaling your much-awaited retreat to the dorms and the comfort of your own room. Walking out of school alongside Kendo and Shiozaki, you discussed which show to watch together. Kendo then pointed out someone waiting for you, and you knew exactly who she was referring to. With an internal eye-roll, you approached him and his friends. Kirishima greeted you with a "Hey Y/n."

You didn't want to come off as rude, as he was a nice guy, but you simply had no interest in engaging in a conversation with him. So, you walked past him, completely ignoring him in front of his friends. Denki laughed, earning an elbow from Sero. Kendo, taken aback, hurried after you, not expecting your bluntness. "I apologize for Y/n's behavior," she started. "She's not feeling well today." Shiozaki bowed softly before following you and Kendo.

"What did you do to her?" Sero asked, being the first to speak up. Kirishima, completely speechless, began, "I… I don't remember doing anything wrong."

"Are you sure? Sometimes guys don't realize when they've done something wrong," Mina chimed in. "Are you taking her side?!" Kirishima questioned her. Mina shook her head. "No, I'm just saying that guys can be oblivious to girls' feelings. I'm trying to help you out, Kiri." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I don't know, I just want to be alone right now," he mumbled, walking away with a mix of emotions he had never experienced before, almost on the verge of tears but unwilling to admit it. His friends watched as he entered the dorm building.

-

"Dude, has he still not come out?" Sero inquired. Denki shook his head. "Nope, he only goes to class and then straight back here. It's been happening for a few days now," he expressed concern about Kirishima's behavior. "We should get that extra to talk to him. She's the one who caused him to act like this. I've never seen him behave like this before," Bakugo suggested. "Are you worried about Kirishima?" Denki teased. Bakugo rolled his eyes and playfully pushed Denki onto the floor. "Yeah, I'm not that heartless, you know," he scoffed. "That's not a bad idea," Mina chimed in, thinking for a moment before speaking again. "Leave it to me. make sure he's fresh and dressed. We don't want him scaring her away anymore. I'll be back," Mina smiled before heading towards your dorm building. You were in the middle of organizing your clothes when you heard a knock on your door. "Kendo, I'm not sharing my noodles with you���oh, hey. Mina, right?" You realized that it wasn't Kendo who was knocking on your door. Mina nodded softly with a warm smile. "Come with me," she said, grabbing your hand and pulling you out of your dorm. "Where are we going? Oh, okay," you couldn't finish your sentence as she continued to drag you along.

You arrived at Kirishima's room, where Sero was fixing his hair. "Why can't you guys let me sleep? I was having a good dream," he whined, not wanting to be bothered. "You'll thank us later," Bakugo assured him as Sero finished brushing his hair to make it look presentable. "Oh," you let out, catching the attention of the other boys. "What is she doing here?" Kirishima asked. "Yeah, what am I doing here?" you turned to Mina, seeking an explanation.

"Are you free tonight?" she asked Kirishima. "Yeah," he shrugged. Then, she turned to face you. "What about you?" Your eyes slightly widened at the question. "Uh, yes, I am."

Great! Because I'm not. You two go hang without us. Enjoy your date!" Mina slyly smiled before she and the other boys rushed out, closing the door and leaving the two of you here. "Did Mina just-?" you walked to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked from the outside. "Yeah, she really did." You tried to open it again but to no avail. "You're not leaving yet! Not until the both of you talk," you heard Bakugo yell from the other side of the door. "Asshole," you muttered under your breath before slowly turning to face the person you're trying to avoid.

He looked at you, sadness filling his eyes, making you feel terrible. You hurt him just as he hurt you. You looked away, fidgeting with the hem of your shirt, unsure of what to say. "What did I do?" he spoke up, breaking the silence. "You didn't do anything-"

"Yes, I did. We haven't spoken in months, and when I tried to talk to you the other day, you ignored me. I must've done something wrong…" he trailed off. You bit your lip, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up in your eyes. "It's silly, Eijiro…" his head perked up at his name. "Tell me, please… I want to fix what I did wrong," he said, now standing right in front of you. You looked away from his gaze, not wanting him to see your tears. "It's silly, I'm just being sensitive," you laughed softly. "It wouldn't be silly if it made you so upset. I won't judge."

You turned your head back to him, your eyes meeting his. "Over the summer, when we had… you know. I fell for you, and I told myself it was just a friends-with-benefits type of thing and that I shouldn't develop feelings for you, but I did," you said, tears already streaming down your face. "And then you mentioned being head over heels for another girl, and it felt like my heart was torn apart." You sobbed, unable to hold back your tears. Kirishima gently cupped your face with both of his hands, wiping away your tears with his thumbs, a look of guilt washing over his face. "Don't cry, there's no need to cry, doll," he whispered. You cried even harder, remembering that's what he used to call you.

"Should we go inside? He's making her cry," Denki chuckled nervously. Sero stopped him before he could open the door. "Nah, let's not intrude unless they start throwing punches in there," Sero whispered. Denki nodded, still hearing your loud sobs coming from behind the door.

"Are you done doll? Can I say something?" he asked you gently, causing you to sniffle and nod, your face still being held in his hands. "The person I was head over heels for was you," he confessed.

You sniffled again. "Really?" you asked, your lip trembling. "Yeah, it was. I didn't want to tell you yet because I was afraid it would scare you away. I didn't know if you felt the same way about me," he admitted. "I was planning to ask you out the next day, but then you disappeared."

"I'm sorry, Eiji…" you mumbled, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry too, Y/n… now stop crying, you've got boogers," he teased, making you turn away and wipe your nose. "Eijiro! Why would you say that?" you whined. He turned to you and held your face again. "I was just joking… I hope I didn't embarrass you too much," he smiled before leaning in and kissing your lips. You smiled and kissed him back, your hand gripping his wrist.

Bakugo suddenly opened the door. "Hey guys, we heard you yelling so- oh god. They're fucking, dude," Bakugo groaned before quickly closing the door. "Ooo, let me see," Denki exclaimed, trying to open the door. "It was just a kiss!" Kirishima shouted at them before the two of you burst into laughter.

[the-cookie-of-doom]

split/kid! Kim AU as promised 😘

send me an ask and I'll tell you about one of these WIPs!

I haven't thought about this fic in so long I forgot it even existed, but I added it to the list just for you <3

In this fic, through ~magical handwaving~, Kim's younger self is split from his adult self. It was meant to only cut out his memories/trauma (bc Kim will turn to magic before therapy), but oops! Turns out all those memories became a whole person! So now there's a ~13 year old knife-wielding Kim running around the compound, and adult KimChay have no idea. The significance of that age is that's how old Kim was the first time he killed someone, and he sees that as the thing that ruined him as a person. So if he can get rid of the part of himself that decided to be a murderer, maybe he can become a better man for Chay. Spoiler, that's not how it works.

The whole idea behind the fic is Kim learning to forgive himself for the things he had to do to survive. It's a lot harder to blame yourself for life going wrong when you have to look that frightened child in the eyes and tell him everything is his fault. Kid Kim is also a darling, and the brother feels make me weep.

Chay’s phone is ringing on the nightstand. He reaches blindly for it, preoccupied with Kim’s mouth on his own.  “Ignore it,” Kim murmurs, giving Chay’s bottom lip a chastising little bite. He’s half on top of Chay, both of them naked, hands wandering, and well on their way to a second round. Kim is making a very compelling argument, but… “It’s hia,” Chay says, and finally grasps his phone, hitting “accept” on the second to last ring. Kim huffs at him and starts pressing warm kisses along his jaw instead. “Hello?” “Chay,” Porsche greets jovially. “Question for you. Why is your boyfriend a child?”  “... He isn’t?” Chay looks down at Kim, now mouthing at his collarbone, just to make sure. And yep, still the same twenty-three year old he’s been for the last four months.  “I’m literally staring at him, and he is.”  “I’m literally naked with him, and he isn’t. I think I would have noticed.” Porsche snorts on the other end of the line. Kim looks up at him curiously, his tongue tracing wet circles around a nipple. Chay tugs his hair to make him stop but it only encourages him to bite. “Want to tell me why you think Kim is a child, hia?”  “I’m a what?” Kim asks, his voice low and rough and dripping with judgment. “Has your brother lost his mind?”  “See for yourself.” Seconds later Chay gets a text alert. He pulls up the messages, and nearly drops his phone when he sees the picture that loads.  There, sitting beside Kinn, wearing obviously borrowed clothes and the stormiest scowl Chay has ever seen, is Kim. Unmistakably, irrefutably Kim. Chay, left gaping and unable to speak, turns his phone around to show his lover.  “... Hm.”  “What the fuck?” Chay whispers. Then, “Porsche, I’ve got to go. We’re on our way.”  He ends the call.  “You’re not surprised. Why are you not surprised?”  “I’m surprised.”  “Really? Because you sounded like I just told you the road flooded in monsoon season.” Chay pushes himself up to his elbows, dislodging Kim. “What gives? What did you do?” “Why do you think I did something?” “Because there’s two of you!” “... I didn’t do anything that would have done that.” “But you did do something.” Silence. Kim refuses to meet his eyes. “Kim.” “It wasn’t anything bad! I just… Look, don’t be mad, okay?” Chay takes a deep breath, and then another. They’ve been together for two years now. They’ve seen each other through a lot. Chay can confidently say they’ve reached a place where Chay would forgive him for anything, because he trusts Kim not to do anything unforgivable.  “Tell me what happened, then we can figure out what’s going on,” Chay says. “I might have… gotten rid of… my memories. Of my childhood.” “... What?”  Kim squirms. He pulls the blankets up higher, suddenly vulnerable in his nudity. At least he doesn’t try to run away.  “You’re always telling me to go to therapy. I thought I could go straight to the source, cut it out, then,” he takes a shuddering breath, “then I would be okay.” “Kim, you can’t—that’s not how it works.” Kim shrinks in on himself. Chay doesn’t let him hide, drawing Kim into his arms when he tries, clutching him close. “That’s—that’s half your life! And it’s just, what, gone?” “I thought it would be. Guess not. I promise I didn’t know this would happen.”  “And you were just going to hide this from me?” Kim shrugs. Chay’s heart clenches wondering how long Kim could have gotten away with it. He never talks about his childhood as it is, like he’s already locked that part of himself away. “When do your memories start, then?” “When I was thirteen, I think.” “Why that age?”  “That was the first time I killed a man.” Kim squeezes his arms around Chay’s middle, hiding away in his shoulders. Quietly, he adds, “That’s what broke me.”  The day he lost his innocence, Chay thinks. He stopped being a child when he took his first life.  Except he doesn’t believe that for a second. Trauma isn’t what makes someone an adult; Chay would know. Kim was still so young, and he must have been terrified. Alone. 

[novelmonger]

After a long delay (brought on by distractions as well as scurrying around with moving preparations), I finally got around to watching The Two Towers with the Design Team audio commentary, with Richard Taylor, Tania Rodger, Grant Major, Alan Lee, John Howe, Dan Hennah, and Chris Hennah.

Here are some new tidbits of information I've gleaned from it:

Richard Taylor's least favorite prosthetic work of the trilogy is that opening shot in TTT when Frodo starts awake and you can see his ear. Richard doesn't think the color-matching was done very well - but in their defense, I literally never noticed it in all the dozens of times I've watched this movie XD

When filming on location up in the mountains for Emyn Muil, people would go to lunch on ski lifts because there were ski resorts in the valleys XD

I never picked up on this (oops!), but the idea was that, though the Uruk-Hai were bred to be hardier and stronger than regular Orcs, the unnatural process of creating them meant that they age and deteriorate faster than regular Orcs. So when they're in the sunlight, their skin gets blotchy, their eyes get cataracts, and their hair starts turning grey.

When they burned the village in Rohan, they accidentally burnt one of their fake dead horses, which cost $2,000 to make. Also, there was one shot (which didn't get used) where the fire from one of the buildings suddenly shot out towards the camera, and the cameramen had to flee for their lives!

They specifically called for extras who actually knew how to chop down trees for the scene where the Orcs are cutting firewood at the edge of Fangorn. They ended up with a couple guys who were champion woodcutters - which I didn't know was a thing!

Richard Taylor said that if he could go back and redo one thing for TTT, it would be to redo the contact lenses for Snaga, because they ran out of time to make any themselves and had to just use commercial ones, and he didn't think they looked subtle enough. It's okay, Richard, I don't think anybody's noticed!

The way they made the inside of the Orcs' mouths black (because Orc blood is supposed to be black, so the reasoning is that no part of their bodies would be reddish or pinkish) was that they had a licorice-based mouthwash they would make every Orc actor swish around in their mouth before each take to blacken the inside of the mouth. And they would have to be careful not to get too much of it on their teeth, or the teeth would all get black too @_@

In the scene where the Three Hunters meet Eomer for the first time, they didn't want Karl Urban to wear the metal hero's helmet they'd made, since he had to dismount a horse. So the helmet he's wearing is made of urethane, but is designed and painted so well it looks like metal. The same goes for the horses' armor, because even leather will irritate a horse's skin when it's not accustomed to wearing anything on its face.

Richard Taylor points out that Gollum's hair is actually one of the most important elements of his design, because without it, he would just look like an alien. The straggles of hair humanizes him and helps us believe that he was once not so different from a Hobbit.

Weta hung a maquette of the fell beast from the sprinkler system, until one time the building was getting an inspection and they had to take it down ^^'

There were 350 sets planned for the whole shoot, though in practice, of course, they ended up doing a lot more work than that, what with rearranging certain sets like the Fangorn ones to make the locations seem bigger than the space they were actually filmed in.

A year before they started shooting anything at the Edoras location, they contacted local farmers and asked them to grow wheat for them, so they would have enough to thatch all the buildings. Because some of the wheat still had seeds, some of them started sprouting during the shooting. I haven't seen it, but apparently there's one shot where you can see a bit of green growing on one of the roofs - unintentional, but it adds an extra element of authenticity to the scene.

They built the indoor stable set close to the mountain where they built Edoras, thinking that surely there would be at least a day or two where the weather wouldn't permit them to shoot at Edoras. But there was no inclement weather the whole time they were shooting there, so they didn't end up needing the stables after all. So they had to break down the stable set and take it all back to Wellington to use later.

To make the rabbits that Gollum hunts, they got rabbit skins and stuffed them with something like gelatin or Turkish delight, so Andy Serkis could get at it with his teeth through a hole in the skin and pull it out like he's eating the guts. I don't think I ever really thought about it before, but I guess I always sort of assumed Andy Serkis was just miming it and they filled it in with CG or something.

They hired a traditional saddle-maker to originally make about 25 saddles for the main actors, thinking they would only need him for that and then let him go. But he ended up working for them full-time to make all the saddles, work on repairs, etc.!

Helm's Deep was the first drawing Alan Lee worked on for the movies, and it was also the first miniature they made.

For Treebeard's leaves, they had to outsource leaves from China to get the right look and shape, but then they weren't the right color, and they couldn't afford to have the factory in China paint them. So there was one guy who spent months hand-painting all the leaves that would go onto Treebeard's body @_@ This is the kind of above-and-beyond work that makes LotR so incredible, I think.

The Forbidden Pool wasn't supposed to be so murky; they designed the bottom of the pool with all of these rocks painted to make it look deeper than it actually was. They had trouble with the water foaming, because there are detergents in paint, so whenever you have water running over a painted surface, you run the risk of the water foaming up. But they ran out of time to figure out how to get the water to flow clean so you could actually see into the bottom :'(

Richard Taylor's least favorite piece of armor was the extra shoulder guards they gave Legolas for Helm's Deep. They wanted to show him also adding some extra armor like the others, but also wanted him to be immediately recognizable in wide shots. Richard Taylor thinks they compromised too much - they should have committed to either more or less. Personally? I never even noticed it was any different ^^'

They were struggling to get the Elf extras to march in time with each other, but what they discovered was that if they told them all to hold their bows exactly upright, the concentration it took to keep the bows in position actually helped them all march in sync with each other! Funny how little things like that work with our brains.

If I understood correctly, that one Uruk at Helm's Deep who screams with a really wide mouth in a close-up is actually an animatronic?! It was the first thing they built and shot for the demo they showed New Line to convince them they could make this project, but actually the last thing they shot for the final version of the movie.

The Uruk crossbows were made from timber that was leftover from some repairs in the workshop XD

Okay, here's a bit of lore that never really comes out in the movie: The berserkers, the Uruks who are first off the ladders (or like the suicide bomber guy carrying the torch to the wall), were designed with the thought that their helmets are filled with human blood before being forced onto their heads, so they'll be filled with bloodlust and be fiercer when they fight.

The greens department was too good at their job! Sometimes, they would dress the set with all the rocks and bits of grass and other things like that to be ready for the shoot, and it would look so natural that when other crewmembers would come in to set up, they would park their trucks and equipment on a part of the set that had been painstakingly dressed for filming!

There was a Gore and Injury team that was responsible for all of the makeup for blood and that kind of thing, and they were all very proud of their jobs. The truck they used to cart all of their buckets of fake blood and slime used to be a fruit and vegetable truck, and it still had the logo on the side that said "Fruity" XD

"We ended up making blood in huge quantities." - excellent out-of-context quote XD

(I feel like I've heard parts of this, but not all of it.) The first battering ram they made for Helm's Deep was way too heavy for stunt guys wearing full armor and also trying to act. But the second battering ram they made was too light! So with the third attempt, they made it lighter with a hollow middle where they could put sandbags to adjust the weight to get it just right. But the sandbags would move around as the ram was lifted, so they had to put barriers ("bulkheads" I think was the word used) inside to keep the sandbags from all bunching up at one end or the other.

Richard Taylor observed that actors and stunt people are actually more dangerous with the rubbery stunt weapons than they are with the real, "hero" weapons. With the sword made out of real metal with a sharp edge, they're cognizant of how dangerous it is, so they're more careful with it. But if you give someone a rubber sword, they'll whack the living daylights out of everybody XD

One of the challenges of using a miniature for the flooding of Isengard is that water doesn't scale very well. Because of water's surface tension and other physics factors, if you shoot water flooding a miniature, it will be immediately obvious that the water is too "big" for the objects it's flooding. So, ironically, they had to put a digital layer of water over the real water they filmed to make it look more realistic.

I can't remember if this was mentioned in the Director/Writer commentary or not, but back when LotR was originally envisioned as two movies, Peter Jackson wanted a dramatic moment with Frodo to end the first movie, and so for a time they floated the idea of one of the Nazgul on a fell beast coming to Amon Hen when Frodo puts the Ring on. John Howe talks about this, and how it's actually not as far from the book as you might originally think, since in the book, Frodo puts on the Ring on the Seat of Seeing and catches a glimpse of some flying creature heading his way. In the book, he takes the Ring off in time so the creature doesn't actually find him, but the idea was to have the Nazgul arrive in the movie. Thankfully, that didn't end up being necessary because they were able to make three movies.

The scene after the battle of Helm's Deep where Legolas and Gimli meet up and figure out who won the competition was John Rhys-Davies' first day on set??? He wasn't used to the prosthetics on his face yet, so he'd sweated a lot and it had become detached and left a weird wrinkle in his forehead. So they had Gino Acevedo, one of the prosthetics people, lying hidden amongst the orc corpses, holding onto a string or something attached to the prosthetic, pulling on it to try to keep it taut against John's forehead. I watch the scene, and I can't even imagine that happening off-screen @_@

In the Flotsam and Jetsam scene, the props guy came up to Dan Hennah before shooting was supposed to start, frantic because the apples weren't floating. Dan was like, "What? No, apples float!" but the guy tossed an apple into the water and it sank. So they hastily tried to come up with a solution, thinking they'd have to core a bunch of apples and stuff them with polyurethane to get them to float. But Dan was still positive that apples floated. So then he grabbed an apple and tossed it into the water...and it floated. And so did the next one, and the next. Eventually, they figured out what the problem was: There were some wax apples among the props that were so lifelike that the prop guy thought they were real apples, but the wax ones were heavy enough that they sank. So they could just use real apples in the scene. But they did have to stuff the turkey with polyurethane so it would float.

They ended up making 139 different versions of Frodo and Sam's packs @_@ They had to make different packs for different stages of the journey, because of weathering and eventually them carrying less and less in the packs as they get to Mordor. Then they had to make twice as many, because they also needed scaled-down versions for the scale doubles.

[lilac-5ky]

Hi there! Your writing is awesome!!! I love your headcanons and fics as they feel so spot on ❤️❤️❤️

I have a request if you are accepting - imma be angsty today - do you have any headcanons for Gintoki when he realizes he loves someone who was in love with him too late?

Thank you for this awesome blog!!! Makes my day to see posts!

A/N: Hi! It's been ages since I've done a request, but I was feeling generous (bad about being this lazy) and thought I'd give it a shot! Turned out more like a mini thing than headcanons lmao oops. HOPE THIS WAS GOOD ENOUGH, HAVEN'T WRITTEN ANYTHING FOR GINTOKI IN AGES, and THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORDS! Hearing such lovely words is enough to make my day!

Warning: Didn't proofread .-. Angst

Gintoki was a bastard. Nothing new or foreign in particular. Everyone acquainted to the silver-haired samurai could name at least 10 negative traits of his, struggling to name just one good quality that would redeem him.

Everyone, except of you, that was. You didn't see Gintoki as the lazy, parasitic, sleazy, sadistic, gambling-addicted drunkard (wow he really has a lot of negatives) they made him out to be. You saw Gintoki for the kindhearted man that he was. The one who went around risking the color of his soul just to save another. The one who was whatever those around him wanted him to be: a friend, a brother, a hero, and why not a lover?

Admiration turned into Infatuation, tricking your heart into thinking you loved him. You'd linger around Yorozuya, offloading whatever menial task you could think of just for the chance to see him. Be it cleaning the leaves from your porch, killing that one cockroach that had sneaked in (one that had him running laps around the house while screaming for help) and even being your plus one to the wedding of a friend.

You dreamed of a day when you wouldn't have to come up with excuses for his company, and seeing as there were only so many times you could call him up to unplug your toilet before you ran low on cash, you decided to pour your heart out.

Kagura and Shinpachi knew. So when you asked Gintoki if he could meet you at your place on his own, they dolled him up and sent him your way with a "Good Luck" whose meaning he didn't quite understood until he saw you cradling a heart shaped box of chocolates-- plush cheeks flushing red, while pink lips curved into a shy smile.

"Gin-toki," the name shattered on your tongue. "I... I love you. Go out with me, please."

He stared at you for quite a while, as if you'd just uttered the world's most complicated joke. He wasn't sure if he should laugh or ask you if he knew what kind of crap you'd spat, and him being eager to verify his reputation chose the second.

"The yard seems clean enough to me. I'll be going now," he said, rejecting not just you, but the boxes of chocolate as it fell open onto the ground.

The next few hours were the hardest. Sleeping on the same pillow where you daydreamed all about your future with him felt like sleeping on glasses of your shattered dreams. Not even an answer, not a single explanation. He'd broken your heart with such ease that it terrified you. How plausible was it that in this new era of canine looking Amanto and flying cars some alien had taken over his body and wore it around like a heart-less, soul-less puppet?

Denial.

It was easier to deny all that had transpired and pretended it never happened. You even passed by Yorozuya the next morning, willing to give this another chance, telling yourself that man wasn't Gintoki. But when you saw his apathetic face reading the newest Jump and picking his nose even in your presence, you couldn't stop the tears from streaming down your puffy eyes.

Anger.

It didn't take long for you to join the ranks of Gintoki's haters, seeing the man as nothing short of the Devil himself. Every terrible thing that happened, you pinned on him. Bumping onto the kitchen cabinet? He was jinxing you from afar. Running out of gas in the middle of town? He must have stolen it while you were asleep. A terrorist attack nearby? Weren't those goons Gintoki's old war-pals? Every natural phenomena, every misfortune of this world and the next was Gintoki's fault. Love? The mere notion that you once loved him made you laugh. Hatred was all you had left.

Bargaining

With each passing day, you felt your fury redirecting at you, gnawing and clawing at your insides, while small "What If's" plagued your mind like maggots. What if you hadn't confessed that day? What if instead of your place you'd called him to a restaurant? What if you'd gotten a different brand of chocolates? What if--

Depression

You couldn't remember when the last time you'd gotten out of bed was. Balled up tissues framed the four corners of the room, the tears contained in them enough to cause a shipwreck. You didn't want to see anyone anymore, afraid that if you did you'd spot a resemblance between them and the man your heart longed to see the most. You didn't hate him anymore... you missed him. You missed the sound of his name so badly that it threaded itself between pitiful chokes and sobs like a rosary.

You missed him.

Acceptance

The days in your calendar kept shifting until a month had passed. Taking baby steps, you'd done your best to return to an inchoate routine. You woke up, washed your teeth, showered, checked the functionality of your toilet's flush, ate breakfast and went to work, where you stayed until the stack of paperwork diminished, and until you were rewarded for your efforts in the form of a promotion. Your coworkers cheered for you, and for a moment life felt good again because you'd stopped searching for the familiar hue of a silver mop.

You were fine.

The route Gintoki took to and from the pachinko parlor he frequented was predetermined. On hot days, he'd stop by that one ice cream joint with the world's greatest (and most affordable) soft serve. On cold days, he'd trade that for a warm bowl of red bean soup. Then he'd be on his way to the convenient store to grab the latest Jump and finish his day with a drink at the old hag's place.

Gintoki always took the same route, except of that one day he hadn't. The worn-out soles of his black boots carried him in the opposite direction of all those places and even home, bringing him to stand outside the two-floor house with the porch that needing cleaning regardless of season; your house.

He hadn't heard anything from you since God knows how long, and why would he? No one needed to remind him how much of a jerk he'd been, for the words in his brain repeated like a broken record he couldn't afford fixing. He was worse than a jerk. A despicable caricature of a man that couldn't own to the fact that he'd grown fond of you the same way you'd come to love him.

The look of absolute endearment whenever your eyes spotted him, a look that didn't change despite the crudeness of his actions. He loved that. The shaky fluctuations in your tone whenever he'd sit close enough to feel your hair tingling his face. He loved that, too. The smile that shone as bright as the sun itself and the little hand that waved at him -gosh, how he longed to hold that hand in his and compare the difference in size- goodbye. He loved that all so much. Too much. He loved you.

Or else why would he be standing out there when his beloved weather girl had issued a thunderstorm warning?

With his hands buried in his pockets, Gintoki circled the picket fence of your porch, head tilting between the wooden cracks at a chance to see your face. How was he supposed to start? Would an apology do? Would letting himself be beaten by that rusty rake or drenched from head to toe by your garden's hose do? How many "I love you's" would he need to spell out to convince you he was any less of a bastard than you made him out to be? What would it take for your forgiveness?

His fingers weaved through locks of silver, threatening to pluck them out. If he told you the truth, that he thought you deserved something better than a basket case samurai with no more than 300 yen in his name, he'd seem like a complete idiot. If he told you that the ghosts of the past he'd tried so hard to evade were catching up to him, you'd mistake him for a coward. And if he selfishly grabbed your hand and forced it against his chest, he knew he'd never be able to hear the three little words that directly countered those you'd said before.

"Gintoki, what are you doing here?"

The track of guilt gave way to the sweetest melody known to his ears, hope daring spur him on. He wore his gentlest smile and turned around to face you, the same hope digging like a knife inside his wretched heart at the sight of fingers -ten, in total- intertwined together, five of them belonging to you and the other to a man whose face didn't matter. All that mattered was the joy plastered on your pursed lips, one he saw fade away the second your eyes locked. One that was meant for him no more.

"The yard seems clean enough to me," he pointed beyond the fence, boots diving in the first of Ketsuno Ana's warnings as the sorrowful record resumed.

"I'll be going now."

[bookloover35]

Peter Parker X Fem reader - Tony Starks Daughter.

Peters Pov:

Tik tok tik tok

Ugh I thought as I looked up at the clock.

Can this class go a little faster or I will be late for my meeting with Mr. Stark.

And he hates when people are late for important meetings, sounds a bit ironic because he is often late for important meetings himself.

My thoughts were interrupted by our teacher calling my name.

Teacher: Mr Parker, the principal wants to see you in his office.

Okay why would the principal want to see me.

But I got up and took my stuff and started walking towards the door.

My best friend Ned looked at me strangely.

I just shrugged my shoulders and told him I would write to him later and then continued on my way to the principal's office.

(Timeskip).

Yns Pov.

Yn: Yes Dad, I'll come with him as soon as he gets here.

Yes, I had to use my powers.

Tony Stark: Okay as long as no one saw you and see you later.

And love you honey.

Yn: I promise dad no one saw me and I love you too.

We said to each other and hung up, dad has asked me to pick up peter.

Because of two reasons, that he is too busy and two he thinks school takes too long.

I don't understand why he asks me.

I who have never even met him.

I can tell you a little bit about myself.

My name is Yn Stark and I am 17 years old and I have brown hair and brown eyes just like my father.

And if you haven't caught my last name, I'm the daughter of the multi-millionaire Tony Stark himself.

I don't know who my mother is.

And I've been homeschooled my whole life.

Peter: Who are you?

I turned around and saw a boy my age.

Damn he's cute.

Yn: Are you Peter Parker?

Peter: Yes, I'm Peter Parker, who are you?

And what have you done with our principal!

Yn: Okay calm down, one question at a time.

The answer to your second question.

I haven't done anything to your principal, he's at a conference and I've only borrowed his appearance, To get you here.

And the answer to your first question.

My name is Yn Stark my father has asked me to pick you up.

Peter: Did you just say Stark, like Tony Stark.

Yn: Who do you think I'm talking about?

There is only one Tony Stark.

Look, I promise I'll answer all your questions when we get to my dad's, and one more thing don't freak out.

Before he could ask or say anything, I used my powers and transformed into his Aunt May.

Yn: Oops, I forgot to tell you that I can shapeshift.

(Timeskip)

Yn: Dad we are here now.

I shouted and started to walk towards my bedroom but was stopped by Peter.

Peter: Wait you promised to answer my questions.

Yn: Right.

Okay go ahead.

Peter: How old are you?

Why has Mr. Stark never mentioned you?

And do you have any other superpowers than just shapeshifting.

Yn: I am 17 years old.

Why my dad has never mentioned me is a secret.

And yes, apart from shapeshifting, I can read people's minds.

Like right now you're trying to figure out why it's classified and that you think I'm pretty.

Peter: Wow.

I went up to him and closed his mouth.

Then I left and told him.

Yn: Hope to see you again soon Peter Parker and one more thing you look very good too.

The end.

[viveela]

your art is ❤ I wanna squeeze them to death (affectionate) also do you read sp fanfiction? if so do you have recs? 🙈

Ah thank you sm!! I'm so glad people enjoy my fanarts, I honestly didn't think my whole shift to south park posting would go this well lol I'm very glad to be proven otherwise!!

As for sp fics ...this is gonna be a long post lol.

So I have been reading some, buuut I guess I'm kinda picky...I am kind of particular about fics in general honestly. If I love something I want to see it portrayed authentically, that goes for every fandom I've been in. I know aus are fun but I want to be able to mainly consume canon compliant content, rarely do I read anything else oops. Unfortunately I've found that to be kinda hard since aging them up and doing all sorts of aus is heavily the vast majority with the sp fandom so I don't really have too many fics I personally have to recommend; just a handful that stood out to me, but I will happily share some!! They're all style and creek tho as I haven't found any I like that aren't yet, but I hope to find some for other pairs or nonromantic ones soon.

Stan x Kyle: A Ballad of True Hearts It's ongoing but really good so far! I really enjoy it, I'm a huge sucker for the fantasy look from the show/game and when it comes to aus this is like the only one I really indulge in. I really like how they're characterized and the tense dynamic they have that reflects the one seen in the current state of the series. The underlying plot has me very intrigued too! Sign of Devotion Adorable canon feeling story where their fantasy world is rarely portrayed as in the show with them simply playing pretend (which is my fav way to see it done). I loved this one to pieces and idk I just really like the idea of some feelings arising between them from trying to stay in character!! To Be More Than My Daydream I really enjoyed this one because it really nailed down how comfortable the two boys have gotten with each other's presence. I enjoy the idea of Stan taking a while to realize how his feelings changed over time and the way awareness of this slowly comes to light. It's written so tenderly and sweet it's really cute, I love the way they are here. Say it and mean it (for both our sakes) Such an awesome fic covering the distance that has grown between the two and how they're both happier when close to one another. They are both wanting and missing what they once had before but so bad at communicating this to each other until now. It was just perfect, loved it. Tweek x Craig:

Signs Point to Yes Incredibly fun fic, super in character, felt like an actual episode. The call back to the fortune teller is great. It was just such an enjoyable fic that really captured their dynamic and the struggle to save a relationship they didn't even ask for but now want. Super cute!

A Stripe of Love This fic was made before there was that much info on Stripe I believe, but it is very cute and I enjoyed it a lot. I am also always a fan for people bringing in Tweek's unofficial/official parrot into the mix, even if briefly. Overall, it's just a really sweet read.

Baby steps

Really cute exploration of how the two would feel about the awkward transition from faking to actually putting real feelings into their actions and being a little more vocal about it. Tweek's nerves are captured really nicely too.

That's all of them, hopefully my tastes in fics overlap at least a little with yours and you gain a nice read out of this!

I also plan to write some fics myself so maybe keep an eye out for that...?

[suzieb-fit]

Another new week starts.

How are we all doing on that most wonderful of days - Monday.....?

Ok, that was mostly sarcasm.

But Monday doesn't have to be MoanDay. Hey. I'm an actual genius, right? That just popped into my head.

I know I'm very lucky to be early retired, at least for now (I may have to go back to work eventually for morbid reasons, but that's another conversation, lol).

But when I was working up to last year, I had a pretty intense daily work life, and I still did my best to appreciate every day, no matter what particular day that was.

But anyway, my Monday morning so far has been positive.

Sleep? Don't be silly. Mucus? Yeah, I don't wanna talk about it. Insulin pump efficiency? Ha, nope. Getting there, though.

Oops, this is turning into one of my essays.....Reel it in, woman!

So even with all that nonsense going on, I'm on with life.

Right. On with my day......

Up before six. Out for my 30 minute walk. An early one, but I'm happy with that. Great way to wake everything up.

Upper body/ab workout soon after gettinghome.

I like this one. Not done it for a long while according to the app data.

I then got my Monday house chore put of the way. Cleaning the bathroom (no pic of that, haha), then time to sit on the floor by the big window for breakfast.

Favourite time of day. I love my frothy collagen/inulin decaff filter. And I have found I love breakfast, no matter what changes I keep having to make. Tomorrow will be keto porridge made with coconut "flour", cashew butter, frozen blueberries and more collagen.

I had to get moving again, as my blood sugar was running way too high this morning. It had actually been settling down, so that was a curveball. I thought it was possibly a faulty insulin pod.

I haven't done anything for my YouTube channel for ages, so I got on with a HIIT workout. Takes longer to upload than it does to actually do the workout 😅.

Monday's fitness ended with lower body pilates.

Before starting that, my blood sugar went in the exact opposite direction, so obviously not a pod issue. Just a, y'know.....ME issue, lol.

Anyway, meh to all of that. I feel good.

Basic 15hr fast as usual. Same high quality food as usual, and a good, positive day all round.

Hooray for a happy Monday 😊.

[neon-vocalist]

happy tcom sunday! as i mentioned ur getting two things from me today :) the first is the supposedly "helpful" one askjhg so here's the current state of my timeline + a teaser at the plot for my next novel-length project! (under a cut bc it got long, oops)

i try to keep everything i write consistent within one universe. everything builds on everything else, and they each slot into place! as i write more oneshots and plan more big fics, the first thing i do is look at the basic outline, the ages of the characters, and figure out where it should go chronologically— and make little tweaks from there.

so. i have three established sections that i've basically defined by who's dating and who's not, and kiiiiind of by the state of the units / age of the people.

the section i have eloquently dubbed the "pre-current era" is the messiest one. nothing makes sense, the details are not laid down— basically the only thing i need to keep in mind with this one is that touya's still a boy. the first fic of this section is in other words, i love you, specifically with the non-romantic lens, in which akian are like 13ish, an's mom has already fucked off, and touya and kohane don't matter. then there's in for 4, hold for 2, out for 6, which is very early MMJ formation and pretty close to the next timeline.

my "current era" is where most things take place! from my planning document: "akty, icsk, and anhn are established pairs, mnhr are flirting, and mizuki is single ; ena and an hate each other. tsukasa is in the wandasho polycule, everyone's a girlfriend ; shizuku has not tet asked him out. everyone is in their late teens, all units have formed, and touya is trans."

the trans touya oneshot (we took it too far) is the first work of this section — it kind of bridges the gap between my main section and the stuff that comes before it. touya's a girl now, everyone's 16-18, don't ask me about specific character ages or i'll cry lmao

after that comes nothing worsens, nothing grows, which is "at least a couple months after wtitf," and basically kicks off akito's ED arc

then there's our beloved the consequences of mediocrity, which i have described as "things come to a head with akito's family and he is at the end of his fucking rope, anhane breakup, things get rocky between akitouya, minoharu has STILL not been established." within this section is love me, i say, take what you want of me, which occurs "sometime in the nebulous void before chapter 28". i am not as good of a planner as i pretend to be.

more stuff happens here, probably, and i haven't written anything out for it, but between tcom and my next big project comes the shift into the "post-current era." in which shizuku finally makes a move on tsukasa and he says yes! in which minoharu have finally gotten it together and kissed already! in which ken kidnaps like 3 kids and the azusawa parents are confused but supportive!!

now... the next project i've outlined is currently known to me as unnamed big dramatic fic, and ideally, it will be both big and dramatic once i'm done with it (as if tcom wasn't big-dramatic enough). this is basically everyone's character development section. it's a massive turning point in the lives of ena and akito, and in an and ena's relationship. this one kind of... fixes everything? and oh MAN am i gonna have to do a lot of research into the japanese legal system.

look forward to it! it'll most likely be shinosibs-centric with prevalent an and a bit of touya. i'm personally really excited for it, and i plan on starting work on it as soon as i'm done with tcom.

wow this post got long. hope you enjoyed!

[greypetrel]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @theluckywizard for the tag! It's been fun to compile :3

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 6

2. what’s your total ao3 word count? 356,534 (from last October. It's higher since I haven't upload a lot of ficlets I wrote here, oops)(But! it's my AO3 birthday, yeeeeh!)

3. what fandoms do you write for? Dragon Age, there's a crossover with LOTR/Silmarillion. I don't know if I'll ever write anything solely on Tolkien lore, I tend to reason per OCs in stories and I feel slightly bad in treating other's characters as my own.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos? - Home Was Never On The Ground (CullenxLavellan, long fic)(also known as Monster Fic) - She of Many Names (CullenxLavellan, a Dragon Age and LOTR - crossover) - The Night Before First Day (Some CullenxLavellan but very on the sidelines. it's Solas acting as Santa. And it rhymes.) - One For the Road (FenrisxLavellan, Angst is over 9000, 2 chapters.) - Death and All of His Friends (HawkexMerrillxIsabela, I'll get on with it but everything is on hold because I want to get Monster fic done before the year ends)

5. do you respond to comments? Oh yes, of course! Jumping on my seat and being very happy about it. I'm wordy, so chances are that comments will be answered with more lore.

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Death and All of His Friends, right now.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The Night Before First Day.

8. do you get hate on fics? Not that I know of. The worst hate I got in the fandom were some assholes who commented on an adoribull fanart here on Tumblr. I didn't want to learn how to say "F*ggot" in Russian, but I did. They didn't expect me to understand and reply in Russian, and they never got back.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind? … Tried to. I'm self-conscious about my writing, so it never got posted. I don't know if it ever will. It was just to see if I could, but for now I'd rather keep it personal.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written? Yes! I love making connections between things and fiction and see similarities and who inspired some others. I have She of Many Names, which is a Dragon Age with Lord of the Rings crossover. There's some Silmarillion, but as long as highlighting characters background goes. A person on Instagram commented on one artwork of my Lavellan (miss cinnamon "I cry if you tell me that there are kittens under the rain" roll) asking me if she was Sauron. I laughed so art imagining her as an evil overlady that I HAD TO write it. "It's all a big misunderstanding".

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

12. have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven't, but I'd love to!

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship? You'll pry HawkexMerrillxIsabela from my cold, dead hands. HawkexFenris has the best ANGST. FaramirxEowyn. Been there since I was 10, will probably die on that hill. I see the fascination of Solavellan, but Cullavellan is there above, of course. And, MaharielxMorrigan. I am surely forgetting something, but it's one case of "I am asked what's my favourite movie and suddenly my brain thinks we never saw ONE movie in our life".

OH OH OH EnjolrasxGrantaire. I SAID IT.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? I have another chapter half blorted down for One For the Road but I'm not feeling it. It's sliding towards a triangle and it's losing all the appeal to me.

16. what are your writing strengths? Oh shit, that's difficult ahahahahahah. As above, I'm self conscious about my prose. I'll try, tho.

Dialogue (been writing my own comics for years, those are just dialogue. I have exercise on that, ahahahah)

… angsty, emotional scenes?

People crying. watches Aisling

17. what are your writing weaknesses? Language and mispellings. English is not my first language, and as every person who speaks more than one, I have a very confused brain. I re-read my own writing again but there's always something missing. I also tend to write prose without a precise plan: I started writing fanfiction after YEARS of not writing prose after some comments that caught me in a moment when I was particularly fragile and convinced me my prose was never going to be ok. In order to ease me back into it, I started writing Monster Fic purposefully without a plan of action or a plotline not to stress myself too much and convince my brain it's just a hobby to relax. It worked, but in long fics I prefer having plans, I read it again and I think it shows that there's little planning ahead. When synthesis ability was being distributed, I was trying to pet a dog.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Uh, English not being my first language counts? xD Beside that: I wrote some SIMPLE lines in wannabe-Latin, some words here and there in French. If it's something long, tho, I'm against it. Personal preference, I'd rather have my readers understand what's being said if it's important, rather than showing that I know more than one language. Personal preference, I also tend not to like movies that are all done in dead languages that nobody speaks, with subtitle. Glad the writer can master ancient Latin, here's a cookie, now what.

19. first fandom you wrote for? … Inuyasha in middle school. I drew small comics for my friends over it. And, I drew a parody comic of the Iliad in my first year of high school, which is the first fandom with a COMPLETED fic.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written? … Still with the difficult questions AHAHAHAHAHAH. These two because I got to use friends' blorbos and I was so nervous but also had the best of times: - Three Cards Trick [ Maria Hawke becomes the official third Science Sibling. They adopt a skeleton. ] - Saving Grace [ Aisling as a companion for Kerry Hawke in DA2. She refuses to pay for elfroot, but will find a way to acquire "some" from the Templars. ]

- Could be Worse. [ Mahariel, Morrigan, and Aisling becomes Ghost Hunters in modern time New York. It should have been a scam. ] I live for quotations and it set my head on fire and it's yet another modern AU I'll get back to sooner or later.

- Death and all of His Friends. [ Raina Hawke, human disaster but mildly successfull trash raccoon, fucks up royally at the end of Act 2.] Originally prompted by salsedine but I'm linking the polished AO3 version. Raina Hawke won the lottery of having issues similar to mine, and writing her has always some form of therapy. But I did it, I like the three parts, and I completed it and posted it anyway.

- Not the Years but the Mileage. [ Booby traps in the Temple of Mythal. Cullen breaks stuff that should be in a museum. ] And this one because again, quotings. Arbor Wilds (that mission is flawed, but the environment? Not.). And that piece of dialogue where Aisling can't talk and Cullen just understands her mumbling.

- Something Fishy. [ Raina and Garrett Hawke, loyal knights at the court of the Red King of Amaranthine, gets sent on a... Fishy mission.] This was probably the funniest to write, and nothing. I thrive in angst or in absurd crack fics, and this by now is my peak crack.

... I wrote for years and I hope it was remotely interesting.

TAGGING BACK: @shivunin @ndostairlyrium @heniareth @oxygenforthewicked @rosella-writes @scribbledquillz @star--nymph @zenstrike and YOU who are reading.

[justanotherwriter140]

Kung Fu Panda 4 - The Trailer

Another really, really long discussion post.

PLOT PREDICTIONS/POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!

I know I'm late to the party. Oops!

Well, I think it's as good of a time as any to write another discussion post because what's better to write about than the Kung Fu Panda 4 trailer? Nothing, evidently, because take a wild guess what I'll be rambling about today.

The first (and possibly last—aside from the Christmas day teasers and product advertisements) Kung Fu Panda 4 trailer was posted to YouTube on December 13th, just under three months before the film's current release date (March 8th). It quickly gained mass public attention, garnering over 140 million views across all social medias on which it was released within its first day of being online. That's...utterly insane.

As an avid Kung Fu Panda fan, I'm thrilled at the attention the new film is getting; however, I'm not ignorant to the many concerns that both fans and casual viewers alike have regarding the content shown in the trailer. In this post, I want to acknowledge and discuss any and all opinions I've seen so far, both positive and negative.

Before I begin, though, I want to let it be known that this isn't a hate post. I want to be respectful and fair above anything else. I will be discussing things that I dislike in the trailer as well as things that I like, and if you don't agree, that's alright! This isn't a persuasive essay, it's an extensive ramble of personal indulgence in the terrifying freedom with which the internet presents us in today's day and age.

So, given that freedom, let's talk about the Kung Fu Panda 4 trailer! Spoilers, nitpicks, and annoyingly specific thoughts lie ahead.

My attention is immediately brought to the changes in the art style. I enjoy stylization a lot, and I think that if done well, it could work favorably when applied to the KFP franchise. The previous movies have toyed with temporary art style changes, usually in backstories and dreamscapes, all examples of which were done expertly and fit well within the respective films in which they appeared. I guess that's all to say I'm definitely on board with alternative art styles being utilized for storytelling purposes (or just because they look awesome).

With that said, though, I'm very much hoping to see the incredibly intricate painting backgrounds/landscapes make a comeback. They've always been a highlight of the films for me and I think that they're a unique detail that adds to the franchise's feel. Suffice it to say, I will be disappointed if that tradition is dropped.

I can't think of a good segue, but I want to point out a detail many fans online were discussing upon the trailer's release: Shifu's staff.

The golden band that has been wrapped around Shifu's (formerly Oogway's) staff since the second film has miraculously disappeared. This is a very odd inconsistency with Shifu's character design.

While it's a small detail, I wanted to point it out and hear some other opinions as to why the staff suddenly looks different. I'm assuming the shot hasn't been fully rendered and as a result, some of the easter eggs that the fans (including myself) like to nitpick simply haven't been added yet.

Outfit change (kind of)!

The trailer features a snippet of Po's battle with a sting ray, which could be interesting seeing as none of the previous films prominently featured any kind of marine life. I'll admit that I'm a bit skeptical about the overall importance of this battle (I'm primarily referring to the relevancy this has to the rest of the film) as the sting ray never appears again in the trailer, but I want to refrain from making snap judgments until I actually...you know...see the movie.

Something tells me this is an introductory sequence of sorts—not necessarily what the film opens with, but perhaps the first time we see Po. The hat and cape are reminiscent of KFP's iconic opening, and the bridge that Po later pins the sting ray against somewhat resembles the bridge in the first movie's dreamscape.

This frame looks cool, but I could have gone without the "Keep your surf off my turf!" bit. On a positive note, I like the paint stroke in the background, it gives a very distinct vibe and I can appreciate it.

The progression of Po's expressions in the "inner peace/dinner please" sequence is fun to watch.

On the other hand, the implications of this scene do not line up with the other movies at all, and—put bluntly—they scare me a little bit.

I fully believe that every individual will realistically have to achieve "inner peace" multiple times in their life. We are constantly changing and growing, and our understanding of ourselves and the world around us will reflect that change.

However, this is the fourth installment of this series, and when themes are repeated three times within the same franchise, they become redundant. It is a sequel's job to make sure that themes aren't repetitious and that the audience feels like they're experiencing something different each time.

Please understand that I don't mean the idea of inner peace should be completely dropped, as I think that the sudden irrelevance of inner peace in a KFP movie would stick out like a sore thumb. Even so, as things are currently, I don't think we need another movie about finding inner peace.

That all is to say Po's seeming inability to achieve even a temporary sense of inner peace in this segment is jarring. If it's a trailer-specific clip or a skit included for laughs, that's fine! But I'm sorry guys, I can't do another "Po finding inner peace" arc. I'm not strong enough.

Moving on!

Thoughts:

The portal looks awesome! Bonus points if the tendrils are made to look like bits of paper—maybe in reference to the Dragon Scroll?

Viola Davis as the Chameleon was an amazing choice, kudos to the casting director!

The lizard army looks pretty cool! I'm excited to see them in action.

As for Tai Lung's legitimate resurrection, I don't know how I feel about it. The "bringing back dead characters" trope has never been a personal favorite of mine, but I want to wait and see what the film has to offer. I understand everyone's qualms regarding this specific plot point, though, and all the ones I've seen so far are valid.

The Chameleon looks cool! I love seeing fanart of her on Tumblr, as well, all of the artists I've seen so far have given such interesting and fun interpretations of the character. I'm excited to see what she brings to the franchise!

Admittedly, I have some reservations regarding her "powers." The third film already explored the notion of stealing life force/kung fu from other kung fu masters (both alive and dead), and as many other fans have pointed out, the Chameleon's abilities seem awfully similar.

I've seen a lot of people talking about how the shadow in the frame above looks like it could belong to Shen, and I don't disagree, but my attention is more so on the fact that the Chameleon has Po's staff—maybe traveling to a foreign city with an outlaw wasn't the best idea.

As for Zhen, anything I could say about her has already been said, for better or worse. I didn't find her voice to be especially irritating in the trailer, but (in my opinion) her design is unfitting for the KFP universe. It's not bad at all, but it doesn't fit.

I can't see myself caring too deeply for her character, but this likely won't be of any consequence because—this is a theory I've seen floating around, I haven't heard anything solid to give credit to the idea—I don't think she's going to end up as the Dragon Warrior.

As for her dynamic with Po, I'm interested. While their interactions have been short and not especially telling in advertisements, it seems like they have the potential to be an entertaining duo. We shall see.

We're back to the fun frames—this looks super cool! The circular structure in the middle of the palace (?) reminds me of a tulou, which is a traditional Chinese communal home of sorts.

I'm very happy to see Li and Mr. Ping making an appearance, they had a fun dynamic in KFP3 and they each have very sentimental and meaningful relationships with Po. The frame above seems to imply that they accompany Po to the city, which has the potential to create a really fun atmosphere for the film.

This looks cool, too! The action sequences look like they're going to be fun.

Zhen's earring looks eerily similar to the architecture of the Chameleon's lair, which leads me to believe that Zhen is either working with the Chameleon at the time of the film or is a former student of the Chameleon.

With that said, I feel like the "plot twist betrayal" is incredibly obvious, but that's likely the point—the movie could very well play it off as being extremely evident (maybe even to a comical degree).

The posters of Zhen are very KFP-esque, and I appreciate the comical frequency of the posters—having so many on one wall almost overlapping one another is overkill.

Sorry, I had to.

Po and Shifu's dynamic has always been top-tier, and hopefully, KFP4 adds to the long list of awesome interactions between them.

This is a 6-second sequence comprised solely of Po choking on peach petals. Alright!

The textures on the chair are beautiful! The silk of Shifu's clothes looks wonderful, too; however, I have to nitpick (not to be genuinely critical, rather just an observation) the arrangement of Shifu's robe (?). If you reference Shifu's appearance earlier in the trailer, the robe goes over his left shoulder instead of his right.

The image above could be mirrored (inverted?) for the sake of the trailer. In the previous clip, Po was facing the right side of the screen—having Shifu facing left could be a way to relate two segments that (obviously, considering the backgrounds) aren't in the same scene.

Anyway, points for awesome weapons!

(Sorry for the bad quality, I couldn't find a great frame to pause on.)

The color palette of this frame is gorgeous, the shades work with one another very well and the way they're applied reminds me of the colors used in the first KFP movie.

I love the architecture! Interestingly enough, the designs to the far left and against the red wall in the background remind me of ancient South American compositions.

The swirling designs on this doorway (?) look very similar to the ones in the frame! While I know it's more than unlikely for there to be South American influence in a KFP movie, when I say "all of my thoughts about the KFP4 trailer," I mean all of them.

To my knowledge, the picture above is of Mayan architecture (which is often confused with Aztec and Inca). Please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't deeply researched any of the previously mentioned empires in years.

This looks awesome. I love how the "camera" is moving, almost swinging, and how the characters are briefly disproportionated so the shot looks more dynamic.

I really like the look of this part. The color palette is fun, the animation is impressive, and the glowing chameleon trap is a new addition to the films—none of the other movies have featured traps before!

This door (?) in the background is cool-looking!

I...like the colors.

Okay, cool. WHERE ARE THE FURIOUS FIVE?

To be completely transparent, the Furious Five's absence is enormously disheartening. I'm aware that the director stated that they're all on separate missions—which I'd be fine with if the movie either utilizes a B-plot following their respective missions or somehow intertwines their missions with the overarching storyline—and that they'll "make an appearance," but...☹️

I don't see the FF as side characters that can reasonably be absent from a film with no repercussions plot-wise (and viewer-wise, depending on the audience). Each member represents a form of kung fu, and they have proven influential to Po's character throughout the series (especially Tigress, but that's neither here nor there given the context).

That all is to say I miss the Furious Five. KFP4, give me five minutes of content, it'll tide me over for the next five years. I can write so much based on a singular micro-expression, you have no idea.

The Furious Five's absence is disconcerting, but otherwise, I'm not completely turned off from the film yet. It has a subpar trailer but one could reasonably argue that all of the KFP movies had lacking trailers (purposefully so, likely for the sake of being deceptive).

Believe what you like! We won't know anything for sure until the film releases, and even then, movies are subjective (which is both a blessing and a curse).

Thank you to those who decided to deal with my erratic trailer thoughts and read this post! I know I didn't discuss the storyline/plot in much detail, but I want to hold off on doing so until the film releases.

If you're interested, all of my thoughts regarding the story (that I still stand by) can be found in my previous "really, really long" post. I refrained from discussing the storyline much in this specific post because the trailer wasn't especially telling of the overall story, and I've already expressed my opinion regarding the film's plot.

Rest assured, I'll be writing a very lengthy plot-centric post come the release of the film. I'm very excited to admire the animation and hear the iconic Hans Zimmer KFP soundtrack (because we already know it's going to be phenomenal).

To end on a positive note...

It's giving accidental renaissance.

Happy (belated) New Year and thanks for reading---I need a break. 😭

[sapphire-weapon]

Sorry to bring more discourse to your blog, but it's about the whole "problematic" shipling thing, because it's a part of older RE plot, that absolutely does my head in. It doesn't fucking make sense. We can talk ALL day about how Leon is canonically responsible for genocides. It's canon that these things have happened because he never has the backbone to finish the job or manage his feelings like a grown adult. It's an interesting talk, but it's NEVER (or very barely) addressed that way in the actual material. His whole "turn the other cheek, because he needs a vague romance" trope is really just one massive fucking plot hole and I don't know why people aren't completely pissed about it. His messy narrative is one of my least favourite things in the series. It almost turns me off of his games and movies entirely. I enjoyed REmake, 7 and 8 the most because at least the characters add up. Their motivations are clear. It's a fully formed story and we know who does what and why. They just haven't fucking done that with Leon. They can't decide on whether to flesh him out properly or to keep throwing him early naughts b-movie tropes that arguably, just make him less likeable (to me).

Sorry for the rant. But holy shit. Anything about his character outside of "I'm angry, let's shoot" has been fucking terrible, in my eyes. They have no idea what to do with him. His choices constantly fucking contradict themselves. He's like a nonstop, unstable "what to doooo?" asshole and I DON'T KNOW WHY ANYONE ELSE ISN'T MAD ABOUT THE CONSTANT PLOT HOLES AND SENSELESS BULLSHIT THIS CHARACTER DOES I HONESTLY DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW HE BECAME MORE POPULAR THAN CHRIS, CLAIRE, WESKER, HUNNIGAN, ETHAN AND JILL OTHER THAN "HE HAS COOL BANGS AND TELLS JOKES SOMETIMES" LIKE WHAT?

I know I'll get roasted and shredded for saying it, but jesus christ man, it's such an enormous pet peeve of mine. I just want the remakes to finish their job of understanding that Leon hasn't been written well and he's gotta be fixed. That Ashley actually has a whole load of potential and Ada has only ever been an empty, racist and sexist stereotype that can't be fixed unless they bother to actually write any sort of story for her other than "sexy Asian is mean sometimes, but her terrorism is okay because the emo boy kissed her this one time and has known her for a combined 15 hours."

Phew. I am mad. I'm sorry for exposing you to this. I've only gotten into RE like less than a year ago and the stupidity and lack of literacy and analysis in this fucking fanbase is crazy to me. If I see one more "sibling coded toxic age gap, Leon is flawless omg ashley little girl so silly" post I'm going to shave my head. Even my phone is glitching because it can't keep up with my seemingly very unpopular rager.

homie i'mma need u to fuckin breathe and understand that this is the same series where the only reason that the main villain ever had to hate the main protagonist was the fact that the main protagonist laughed at his science project -- and then that detail was retconned out of the remake, and now there's no reason for wesker to hate chris at all, actually.

this is the same series that killed off its main villain way too prematurely, realized immediately that they fucked up by doing it, and, instead of just retconning it and bringing him back, they tried to "oops! all weskers!" it, then didn't know what to do with that, then just decided to write it so that he had a son, but then nobody liked him, either, and now they're just going FUCK IT LET'S JUST REMAKE THE WHOLE THING.

this is the same series that is so unabashedly and unrepentantly racist that it sends its white american protagonist into the heart of africa, whereabouts he encounters a village with actual mud huts in it, where the townspeople are dressed in actual tribal clothing, and they chuck actual literal spears at him.

this is the same series where the creators openly admitted to not allowing their main female protagonist to visibly age because they thought it'd hurt their bottom line.

this is the same series where the objectively best title in it has a story that's so fucking bad that the dude who wrote and directed it said that he'd only support a remake of it if the remake fixed his shitty fucking story and actually told a good one.

this is the same series where rachel fucking foley exists and is meant to be taken seriously.

this is the same series where a dude fucking a spider is, questionably and arguably, canon.

leon is not remotely the worst part of resident evil's storytelling, nor is ada the most offensively racist part of it. THE ENTIRE NARRATIVE OF RESIDENT EVIL IS NONSENSE DOG GARBAGE. leon and ada are just par for the course.

if you are not a raccoon and/or opossum who enjoys gorging yourself on garbage, perhaps resident evil is not the series for you.

that's why they called it raccoon city in the first place.

because the playerbase must inevitably be filled with raccoons, because only raccoons would enjoy the sheer amount of garbage that the story throws at them.

[burinazar]

[some brief suicide ideation mentions in this post] for those kind of newer to the ebilxperience, my mental health has been way waaaay better since like late 2021 to now than it has for most of my life up to that point (people who followed me before then might remember some...intense sadposting). I just haven't really felt...too super bad very often. I feel bad sometimes but not so bad I wanted to die, which used to be a regular problem. The episodes of intense suicide ideation in response to feelings of wasted potential or the inevitability of feeling isolation from other human beings just sort of stopped happening. I would chalk all of this up to unknowable brain chemistry, by the way, and not any external causes I've been able to identify.

At the time that this changed, what also became clear was the inability to get shit done that we had all just thought was depression did not go away when my depression magically cleared itself out of the way. I still kind of really sucked at getting shit done. This is what ultimately enabled the late-ass-and-i'm-still-not-entirely-convinced-im-not-somehow-faking-it ADHD diagnosis from my psych who was like Oh. Actually That Tracks. The things I'm not good at making myself do largely extend to anything that both involve a risk of rejection/hurt feelings, anything that requires some believe I personally 'deserve it' (job apps, asking for references), and things that don't have built-in accountability/deadlines (funny stupid example: i'll do a job app for sure if someone I know referred me to the position and is going to be aware/disappointed if I don't submit it, because that too is a form of fearing rejection! so oops, i hacked my rejection anxiety into making myself take a risk).

As you can imagine a lot of career related and interpersonal activities, as well as various day to day life tasks, fall into a combo of these things. I haven't really been able to fix that and by objective life milestone measures continue to underachieve in both career stuff and interpersonal relationships. But...it hasn't gotten me down for the past couple years, and the biggest reason is I've been able to get a lot of joy out of my art and writing during this time period.

And this....allows me to...kind of avoid having to look at how unfulfilling those areas are. But I really need to...face it.

Because I've become more and more aware that there are people, ones around my general age range, ones who may face similar Brain Issues or corresponding obstacles, that do go and find self fulfillment in more than one of these fronts. I actually got super sad about this last night for the first time in ages cuz I heard from someone who has a lot of interests in common with me but was finding fulfillment on multiple fronts, creative *and* interpersonal *and* career.

And maybe it's greedy of me to want it, but god, the life where I get to do all my silly creative bullshit/wrting/art/pet ownership but *miraculously, also, somehow* have a job and career that I don't feel conflicted and unhappy and 'i never really tried to make my dreams manifest' about, and am able to make new friendships and like date and stuff, I...do think I want that for myself and have been denying both that desire and the fact I might have the potential to achieve it.

idk this is kind of nothing but tl;dr i'm gonna start trying again and just wanted to ramble about it on tungus for a sec

[ranidspace]

Hello, sorry this is very long but I thought I wanted to maybe help with the laundry thing. It's kinda really broken down and I don't know if that's exactly what you were looking for but I hope it helps in some way

depending on how much work you wanna do there's a couple different options and things can be like mixed and matched if that makes sense in this moment and after you read this

most of the time it's recommended separating light colors and dark colors (growing up my parents had a third category as well that was things sort of in between) because colors can bleed into each other. I personally haven't had any issue in the time frame I've been doing my laundry on my own, however sometimes newer jeans or denim can have extra dye in them so I usually try and keep that in mind when I have newer jeans and shorts but if they're clothing. that's been washed multiple times before I don't think it'd be an issue. There's a product that is supposed to help with this that as far as I can tell is doing Something but I can't say with certainty it's saving anything, but if you'd like to try it, they're "shout color catcher"

so a first step I'd say is collect your laundry into one central area

divide into piles. maybe lights and darks (if youre worried about dyes bleeding), maybe heavier fabrics and light fabrics (heavier fabrics take longer to dry and some times people keep them separate so they can dry them on higher settings)

it also might be good to keep in mind if you have things with buttons and lace or holes (intention ones or added with age) and things with straps and keep some of those mingling to a minimum because the buttons and zippers and such can very easily get tangled and can lead to tearing the clothing

regardless of how your separate them, a good frame of mind if having them in groups that can be their own loads of laundry. it's super handy to have a basket of some sort to transport them from place to place if it's gotta be a ways away

pick a pile to wash and put them in your washing machine, if its a top loading machine and there's an agitater thing in the middle than load around that, if there isn't one it's recommended you still load it in a sort of doughnut shape. I know there's a reason for it but tbh I am unsure of why exactly

I'm not familiar with front loading machines so as far as im aware just shove that shit in there

determine what size load you have, small, medium, or large. I usually default to just filling it all the way up, but it can change based on the sized of the piles you've made and such

determine the water temp, I've heard cold water is less likely to cause clothes to bleed or shrink so I have been washing everything besides a couple things in cold water

You can also decide this based on your clothing care instructions on their tags

pick your detergent. I realize now that's maybe an earlier step, oops. I don't know a lot about this step, the pros and cons of different ones and kinds. I use a lot of gain growing up my parents used a lot of Tide

I find pods to be the easiest for me, my partner prefers liquid

it's recommended you not use a ton of it because it can gunk up the washing machine. It's something like 2 tablespoons. I'll be honest I usually throw in one pod and be done, with the assumption that's about right. I don't know exactly but that's how I do

pick what you wanna wash with and put that in it's place (i am unfamiliar with washers that have drawers to put it in, I've always just dumped it right on the clothes so I hope it's easy for you to know where it goes)

you can had fabric softener or scent beads bit those can be a bit tricky. Fabric softener causes clothes to feel softer because it coats the fibers and after a while it's builds up and actually makes your clothing Less soft. And I'm not certain if the beads do the same, but I've been told that some times the beads don't really melt or dissolve well if it's cold water so you may need it to be warmer or hot water for those to be added

close your lid

then set the setting for how clean you want it, I guess this could be done with the other settings, this is sort of the order I do it in so apologies if that makes it a bit confusing to follow

for the settings I usually default to the super setting or whatever is sort of the heaviest duty setting. If your load is full of more delicate, then that may be a better options. You can also reference the clothing tags for this step as well

then hit start if it's a start button or if it's one like mine then it it may be a part of the previous step, the dial sort of presses in and you turn it, there's a noise and you can only turn it the one direction, and then lift up on it and the water will start

check in on it occasionally to hear if it stops

once the washing machine is finished, you move them to the dryer or hang them up to dry. This is a personal preference and possibly clothing requirement lile things with rubber or melt-able parts to it. If you intend to hang anything up make sure you got the space and the hangers. Once you've determined what should go into the dryer, add it all in

I usually dry all my clothing on the low setting and it works out well enough. I heard once it helps prevent shrinking, I don't know if that's true or not but that's why it started. it could be an issue for heavier fabrics like towels so you may need to go up a setting. This can usually also be determines by checking the tags

Toss in a dryer sheet or those wool dryer balls (this is supposed to help with static and maybe something else but I am unsure)

be sure to check the lint trap, ideally the lint is removed between every load. This helps your clothes dry easier and also keeps your dryer from being a possible fire hazard. If it seems like your cloths are taking a particularly long time to dry the lint trap may be a part of the problem

then set how long to put them in there for. Besides needing items quickly, I've never had a reason not to put it for the longest setting hit the start button

then collect your clothes, a basket is super helpful here, and start again with the next pile until things are done

I hope that's coherent and not to fucked up cause I did it in a notes app and that doesn't always autocorrect me

so sorry for not responding to this earlier but yeah this has a lot of info

[peachiseas]

I would like to hear about the side character treatment too please... I do remember feeling like there weren't enough reactions on both sides. I think the MC being quiet didn't bother me too much because I usually pick the quiet/shy options, but there were definitely more moments where I wish they could have talked or like... the ice cream moment broken up over suddenly 21 questions while eating ice cream.

Derek's DLC always makes me cry due to the fact that I struggle with his exact issue a lot even now and do not know how to not overwork myself or always put everyone else first so it always ends up hitting a bit too close to home oops

I adore Derek's struggle and like thematics in his DLC, especially in a time where everything is super uncertain and no one I know my age are feeling fulfilled especially with their college experiences. Imo its genuinely just so good and handled so well, and his family + Liz are my favorite batch of side characters just from how developed they are and how much they care for Derek and the MC respectively. (Very long post ahead bout side characters underneath the readmore)

That being said, Baxter's DLC side characters... to put it simply, Miranda and Terry were done extremely dirty in the DLC that was supposed to have them feature as supporting characters. We barely get any noteworthy character development with them beyond the redundant one note "oh they like each other but haven't said anything about it" which was the same plotline before the DLC was even worked on. And then when you think Step 4 we're going to see their motivations outside the basic one note "we like each other" plotline, they get their roles essentially replaced with Jude and Scott who we are supposed to care as much for despite the fact we don't know much of anything about them until step 4 and even then their both still one note. Xavier was there to egg on Baxter and MC scenarios but the whole thing falls flat if your MC isn't on good terms with Baxter, it reads like once again an overstep on boundaries.

With Jorge and Nico, you got to know them but you also saw them grow Outside of the mc and see them develop their own hobbies, fashion sense and different views on the world. Nico can straight up not like the MC but explains his reasoning and put that ill will behind him and it is Believable. Jorge has issues with being the middle child and that feeling of neglect in comparison to his younger brother and that whole fight was just excellent writing because you see so much development and plotlines come to a head that when they make up, it feels Satisfying. I think that became a staple in regards to Our Life characters, you expect the characters to be well written because most of the time they are!

But what do we know about Miranda beyond her basic occupation and one hobby? How does she feel about Jude and Scott arguing? How does she feel about Baxter beyond the mc? Does she disapprove of him now? It is one thing to write characters who are more quiet and reserved but it's another thing to make a bare bones character and equate no character development to being shy. Miranda is a nothing character and it's so weird that her brother gets more personality than she does and he's only in one step.

But Terry is so much worse in comparison, we get Terry accidentally making jokes at the MC's own expense which is such an insane thought to me because he should be far more aware of any potential issues because from what was written in his lackluster parts in step 3, he is hyperaware of societal norms and what should be said and what shouldn't. There is no care for Terry at all and we still know absolutely NOTHING about him beyond the fact he's the friend who has a van, has a girlfriend, is Cove's best friend and is a lifeguard. He has no motives, he doesn't actually have any narrative reason to be in Baxter's DLC beyond the fact that Miranda likes him. You could replace Terry's entire presence in step 3 and 4 with Cove or Derek and nothing would change whatsoever. I think it’s even worse considering he’s the first explicitly trans character in game and the only black trans character in the game. It felt like they didn’t even try.

In fact, that's the main issue with the entire set of supporting cast in this DLC. You could replace them and nothing would change, they are just there to waste play time and prop up Baxter to make him look good but they have no character development or plot development at all! You have Jorge, Nico and hell, even Liz had so much development in Derek's DLC that it felt organic to them! But we see none of this with any of the supporting characters in the cast, especially Miranda and Terry who deserved far more than just a forced plotline about having a trip together just so you can Once again have Baxter come in and be the good guy so the MC can't help but feel like he's becoming a better person! They are just shells of what little characters they already were and it's just so transparent that the devs thought diversity quota first and character development second when writing them that it's so disappointing having it be so full force in this DLC.