#he's very mindful of ash's likes and dislikes too! it's super sweet

[silverselfshippingchaos]

this is so funny

[copsecore]

My Thoughts About Hot Boi Summer ‘23:

CW/TW: i will be non-specifically AND specifically referencing at least semi-nsfw content so please dont read if that doesn’t fly with you in any way, please be responsible!

[PSA: THIS IS MY OWN OPINION OKAY - AND I MEAN NONE OF IT WITH ANY MALICE - TY]

DAVID:

Holy shit what the fuck this was Amazing (im referencing the poll on this post because erik did the results on stream, so yeah). David was in my top three picks for the poll and I was gutted that he didn’t seem to get very high - but i think that’s coz it was the first video, so maybe people had forgotten about it/it wasn’t as much in the forefront of the majority’s minds by the time the poll was released. Pretty much no negative thoughts.

VINCENT:

WE NEED MORE CUTE 7/11 DATES OKAY PLEASE ITS SO SWEET. Ofc the snack puns coming in Clutch ugh i loved those. My only issue (“issue”) was literally the same as why i wasn’t over the moon when sam was voted for the ba (sue me. i liked it anyway) and that was just that we had a vincent one a few months ago, and also a pretty pre-sexual vid after that. Also the fact that lovely literally grabbed his junk in semi-(hah, pun)public, but it’s the anti-PDA in me that disliked that part, so feel free to ignore it!

AVIOR:

Also in my top picks!!! I was a tad gutted when we didn’t get his. Saw a lot of posts begging for people to vote for it because yk him n starlight have been in literal Hell for years and therefore they deserve some smut time. Super cute vid, “A Romantic Night” is totally the right descriptor for it and also AYO WHIMPERY AVIOR??? YES. sorry ahem it’s the demons.

GAVIN:

It was so good. The premise of getting a more subby gavin? chef’s kiss, more please. everything about it was good and i WISH the ba had been how i expected it to go, but we aren’t here for my criticisms of That, so whatever. It links back to an old non-canon Huxley preview vid that was taken from us (RIP) when the channel lost loads of vids, or at least thats what it reminded me of, with the whole BBQ-and-somewhat-sexual-teasing aspect it was amazing and i would like to see more switch-esque gav in the future (*manifesting*)

LASKO:

Not too much to say considering I started this post as a way to lightly complain about the poll results, and Lasky wasn’t on the poll, obviously. Regardless, I’m glad this video went the way it did, I think we’ve seen a lot of lasko being quick to jump the proverbial gun in the last few years, with his non-canon vids, and hooking up with gavin, etc, so it was nice to see him break away from that and ask to move slower coz hell yeah dude, progress and growth!! and i think it shows how much he wants the relationship to be more natural, and not racing ahead, even if he does in part want that - it was sweet as hell.

ELLIOTT (ft. The Dragon):

I gotta say it right off the bat that i just found the video on the more boring end. *POLICE SIRENS BLARING IN THE BACKGROUND* AH FUCK-

I’m just not overly surprised that i think Eli got some of the lowest results on the poll, I enjoyed the video, and i liked it (this will be a recurring statement) but i just didn’t like it As Much. Lots of people (including me, ngl) wanted more of the dragon - but erik’s not about to do weird fantasy not-fully-bestiality-esque stuff guys - and i’m pretty sure I only liked it coz cmon it’s erik doing another hot voice, im gonna be down horrendous BUT NOT FOR AN ACTUAL DRAGON. i am Not donkey from Shrek. And yeah, i know Eli’s powers can be kinda limiting with what they can bring to the (pun not intended) sex-table, but does all of his spicy stuff have to be in a Dreamscape? idk.

ASHER:

My Second Favourite Hands Down. How people picked Sam over riding Ash in the front seat of a rental, i’ll never understand /lh the horn may make me jump every time, but it’s okay, there’s repentance in the tongue kissing, and i stand by that, it was the best bit (or one of the best bits), No Criticisms (except Ash please don’t have sex in a RENTAL. wait until you get to a bedroom at least PLEASE-)

GUY:

Again, i liked it but not as much. I love Guy, he’s one of my favourites, i can’t really say why i didn’t like this video as much as I normally would, maybe the concept just wasn’t rolling with me as well - the whole idea of post-concert seemed vaguely random, but you could argue that about all of these, so it doesn’t count. did anyone else see this or was it just me, coz if it is then i will quietly wave my flag of solidarity from my hole in the ground where nobody can see it.

ANTON:

I voted Anton. It was the sadness with the feelings and the horniness spicyness towards the end, ugh I loved it, Anton come home from war soon please (im terrified he might die because despite everything, nothing Death Related had happened in project meridian yet, and let’s face it, it’s gonna.) - it was nice seeing a different but also soothing take on the “your lover is leaving for an indefinite amount of time” thing, and how it changed in comparison to James’ video on it. Anton deserved the continuation okay. No aggression though.

SAM:

This is where I might get more argumentative because I was so disappointed that Sam won the poll, even though I love sammy. It seemed slightly out of character?? with everything we know about Sam, it just seems so unlikely that he would go to a club, let alone start getting, uh, “busy” n shit while at one. he’s not a big fan of PDA because of his past, in my opinion, and i think overall he’s very private, so the setting and stuff just seemed out of place, it would’ve made more sense for Milo’s or smth to be set there - but hell I can’t tell erik how to write his own characters lmao - and still, the ba was Great. with a capital G.

MILO:

I fell asleep listening to this the first couple of times, which says a lot already. The sensual massage trope has been used as a gateway to presumably spicy off-screen things before (Aaron’s HBW ‘21, Asher’s HBS ‘22) but idky it wasn’t hitting as well as it normally does, maybe it’s wearing thin on my brain. ofc it’s redacted content so i’m gonna eat it up like it’s ass (crude but true) but i listened to it through without falling asleep and was like “yeah it’s good, i like it, but also eh,,,” - like i mentioned, it would’ve made more sense to me if Milo’s and Sam’s were swapped around - anyone agree?

CONCLUSION:

as always, all the videos were really good, and despite whatever came across through this post, overall, i enjoyed all of them, so please don’t take this as a criticism towards erik or any of his work, trust me, i absolutely adore it - i say it every time, but every time it’s worth saying, and also please don’t cancel me. this was a really long post, so a lot of people probably won’t read it, so if you made it this far; well done! have a star 🌟- don’t be afraid to leave any agreements or disagreements in the notes, i love discussing stuff with people! thanks for reading

[ocprompts]

UHHHH HI. EXPLOSION EMOJI. love your blog btw :3 found it via sneep snorping through a follower of one of my sideblogs's tumblr (b!david is very cool)

SO BASICALLY i have these four little guys who are in a BAND together !! their names are BENNETT, PIPER, NATHOS, AND ASH !! i plan to make a videogame about them and one of my closest friends helped design two of them (more like redesign really, i made the four guys before i decided on them being in a band together and so their designs were all over the place and so i made their designs more coordinated with eachother, and my friend redesigned piper and ash with me mentioning the basic things i had in mind) (i also very slightly changed the redesigns (as in i literally just made ash's eyes purple to match with xer jacket color and some other tiny things HGJFIKM))

gonna just copy and paste their artfight bios here, wouldve done the links but you need an account to actually view the links HGANKFJN

Name: Bennett Hubbard Nickname/s: Benny Boy (jokingly) Age: 21 Birthday: November 3rd Species: Human Height: 6'2 Gender: Male Pronouns: he/him Sexuality: No one knows Relationship status: Single Occupation: Bassist for the band The Drawing Board, burger flipper on the side Personality: A bit blunt, but means well. Will stand up for what is right. Likes: Music, his friends, sweet and spicy food (not at the same time), bugs Dislikes: Ignorant people, pickles (will only eat them when he absolutely has to)

Name: Piper Cline Nickname/s: N/A Age: 21 Birthday: May 24th Species: Human Height: 5'5 Gender: Female Pronouns: she/her Sexuality: Pansexual Relationship status: Single Occupation: Keyboardist for the band The Drawing Board, repairwoman on the side Personality: A bit shy at first, but once she knows you well enough, she'll trust you with her life! She's a bit of a nerd. Likes: Music, her friends, science Dislikes: Pretty much anything wet and squishy. Sensory issues </3

Name: Nathos McBride Nickname/s: Nate, Natorade Age: 21 Birthday: July 14th Species: Human Height: 6'4 Gender: Male (transmasc) Pronouns: he/it Sexuality: Pansexual Relationship status: Single Occupation: Drummer for the band The Drawing Board, side job TBD Personality: Super sweet! He's calm and collected, and ready to take on anything, as long as it isn't too caught off guard by anything that comes across. Likes: Music, its friends, stuffed animals Dislikes: Rude and arrogant people

Name: Ash Lopez Nickname/s: N/A Age: 21 Birthday: February 16th Species: Human Height: 6'4 Gender: Non-binary Pronouns: xe/xem Sexuality: Greysexual Relationship status: Single Occupation: Guitarist for the band The Drawing Board, side job TBD Personality: Literally the silliest guy ever. Chronic practical joker. Likes: Music, xer friends, bright colors Dislikes: Being taken advantage of

i also put the 4 of them into separate rps !! the one bennett is in is the only one thats started. also that where i got the nickname benny boy from (but the things that happen in their respective rps arent considered canon, more like an au, also that would be wayyy too much trauma to stuff into them when im already gonna give them trauma in the videogame story itself HGAKFJNDCJKM)

ANYWAY !! here they are, bennett piper nathos and ash respectively :] formatting is bad so have One Giant Ash

and heres piper and ash, drawn by @pastel-bleu-art !!!

a bit hard to tell from the pics (ILL MAKE A BETTER REF SOMEDAY ...) but piper is a bit chubby :] ANYWAY thats about all i have to say about em because i dont wanna say too much because of GAME SPOILERS ... but just. quick synopsis: they are chosen by the great goddess oda to save the universe by defeating the cacophonous six !! but shit goes down. oh and btw i feel that it's important to mention that they are essentially weezer but gay /silly

i LOVE gay and silly people <2

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

thank you for agreeing to an exchange! 🗣️💕

fandoms: obey me! ; genshin

name: raven / pronouns: any / sexuality: ??? (no preference for OM!, but male preference for genshin)

personality traits: introverted (distant, little interest in getting close to many people), extremely independent (often refuses to rely on others), confident (arrogant), straightforward (blunt, sometimes tactless), decisive, even-tempered, good sense of humor, playful, teasing, mischievous, realist that leans optimistic, curious (nosey), a bit of a troublemaker/rulebreaker, does not shy away from conflict

hobbies: video games, watching anime, drawing (digital), painting (watercolor, acrylic), baking (but NOT cooking), reading, cosplay, thrill-seeking activities

likes: cats, sweets, good food, cool weather, aromatic candles, lattes, traveling, piercings, tattoos, puns (!), learning foreign languages, cleaning, new experiences, trying new foods, trying new skills, people with a good sense of humor (quite subjective), people who are flexible and open-minded

dislikes: dogs, spiders, bitter foods, hot weather, strong scents, pessimism, rigidity (in personality or environment), feeling restricted, possessiveness, conformity, having to be responsible for other people (i.e. people being dependent on me), boredom, when people don't stand up for themselves (i tend to look down on/clash with people who are overly insecure).

types / categories: intj-a ; 7w8 (yes i know type 7 is super uncommon for intj) ; love languages: physical touch, quality time ; zodiac: virgo sun, sagittarius moon, scorpio rising

misc.: clumsy ; accidentally misuses slang or phrases bc i can never remember how they go (e.g. "let's bust this popsicle stand" instead of "blow this popsicle stand") ; able to pick up new skills relatively quickly ; studied french, korean, and latin in university (as well as psychology and medieval history - i could not pick just 1 area) ; prone to being a bit directionless in life ; prone to bad luck but tries to find the humor in most situations ; tends to be pretty quick/harsh when deciding to cut people out of my life ; life approach: to live a life of varied experiences, to not take life too seriously

appearance / aesthetic: 5'1 / 155cm, round cheeks w/ a dimple on right cheek, button nose, green eyes, wavy ash brown hair (often switch between growing it out really long or cutting it super short, dyeing it; i like to change it up. hair is currently bleached and toned white). no tattoos (i want some!), several piercings (5 in one ear, 4 + an industrial in the other, navel piercing), clothing-wise my style tends to be hipster or comfy/casual goth? idk i love flannels and fishnets and combat boots. my overall color scheme is black/sage green/gray.

Hi Raven! Thanks for the request! Of course, I love doing matchup exchanges! I hope you like your matchups!

In Obey Me, I match you with...

Barbatos enjoys baking with you. He's canonically the best person at both baking and cooking in the game so no matter how good or bad you are, whatever you tow make together will always taste amazing. Luke's so jealous of both you and Barbatos.

This guy will do his very best to make sure you never feel like you have to be responsible for him. He's a butler, if anything he feels like he should be the one looking after you!

Barbatos is also the best person to talk to about all of your language and history interests. He's been around for so long and seen so much that any questions you have are easy for him to answer.

Loves your misused phrases. If it was anyone else, he'd correct them but he never wants to make you feel bad about your slip ups. He finds them endearing.

Barbatos is pretty busy most of the time taking care of Diavolo and the castle but when he does have free time, he wants to spend it with you.

Whether you're baking, learning a new language, or trying out a new skill, he just wants to be able to spend time with you.

In Genshin Impact, I match you with...

Your good sense of humour balances out Cyno's...unique sense of humour.

Cyno's another one who won't make you feel like you have to be responsible for him. He's gotten used to taking care of himself as General Mahamatra. He'll actually have to get used to letting someone else go small things for him.

He'd love your baking! Cyno doesn't really take much notice of what he's eating but if you've made it, he'll savour his food a bit more. He doesn't want your hard work gone too quickly and without proper acknowledgment.

Usually busy with his Mahamatra duties but all of his free time is spent with you. He doesn't mind what you do, as long as you're together.

He would like to go for walks with you finding stray cats and saying hello to them.

I see Cyno as someone who also knows a few languages (if only so he can make jokes in those languages as well). He'd love to sit down with you and spend an afternoon going over all the languages you know, comparing your knowledge of the languages you both know and helping the other learn a bit of the languages the other doesn't know.

A big fan of quality time. He enjoys the comfort your presence provides him with.

[my-pokemon-rambling-blog]

I personally think Cynthia is overrated. I like her as much as the next person, but I think she’s overhyped. I played DPPt, and, yeah, she was hard, but is she worthy of having a whole section of the fandom worshipping every step she takes? No. I can’t really speak on the manga counterpart because I haven’t got to those chapters, so I’ll talk about the anime. I think the anime opened up a lot more of her character. She likes sweets. She is indecisive, warm, gentle, etc.

I heard about what happened in M8 in JN, but I myself refuse to watch JN until I find a subbed version for it because I like sub over dub. As for my very heated opinions on JN, I think M8 added on to my strong disliking of JN. I think I like BW more. As for the handling of Cynthia, I think we needed more time with her to really understand why she decided to retire I guess. Idk if it’s stated explicitly or I’m just pulling info out my ass. I think Cynthia is okay in the anime. Honestly, all the champions kinda suck in the anime imo. Diantha is probably the best out of all them.

In PMEX, the only side game I played other than Go, Cynthia gets way too much treatment. I saw there was an Aura alt for Cynthia. I will say, I am VERY biased since my no. 2 fav character is Riley. Like, do you know a character who is heavily associated with aura? Riley! No! It’s Cynthia! Uh?!?!? No? Riley fits the bill perfectly. It would’ve been cool to see Riley debut in PMEX through that event or smth idk. I’m not up to date with Masters.

I also think Cynthia is an easy scapegoat for people to hate characters. That doesn’t make any sense at all. What I’m saying is Cynthia is used to explain why people hate certain characters. For example, people meme on Diantha for being super easy, which is fair. What I don’t think is fair is to compare her boss fight to Cynthia. Cynthia is one of the hardest trainers in the series period. Comparing Diantha to the likes of, idk Lance(?) would be an easier connection.

Coming back to the M8, I heard of discourse about Cynthia vs Ash. As for the match itself, I think 1) that matchup is bullshit. 2) Steven or Iris should’ve fought her. Maybe Alain. As for what I’ve heard, I heard people say it was sexist that Ash won against Cynthia. I personally don’t see it. Cynthia, a woman, lost to a boy. Therefore it’s sexist doesn’t make sense to me. Don’t get me wrong. I think Cynthia losing to ASH of all people is stupid, but I wouldn’t go so far to call it sexist. What I will call sexist is if all the female trainers lost round 1, but that didn’t happen.

When I think of strong trainers, I think of Whitney, Norman (because I was a stupid kid), Winona, Sabrina, Morty, Lenora, Steven, Elesa, absolutely no one in XY, and Red. Cynthia too, but those trainers come to mind first. Cynthia is strong and tough to beat, but is she on the levels of Steven Stone for me personally? No.

Also, I think Volo’s character actively fails in regard to Cynthia. Like, Volo can’t really stand without context of Cynthia. The theme doesn’t make sense, nor the team without Cynthia. And I get that most if not all of P:LA doesn’t stand without context of DPPt, but I think all the characters stand on their own without their descendants as context. All but Volo, and even Cogita for that matter. Who is Cogita but a woman who lives in fuck off some where in Hisui? Well, she gives directions to legendary mons! Other than that, what else? Nothing. Kamado was a cool guy. He had a fear of Pokemon due to traumatic experiences in the past. He’s protective of the town he calls home. That is somewhat of a far departure from Rowan. I want the same for Volo.

[theeeveetamer]

Scarlet Blaze Liveblog: Chapter 6

So I was actually gonna make myself a PB&J sandwich before this and both the peanut butter and the jelly were hella expired. Feels like an omen.

As per usual spoilers are under the cut. And in Tumblr woes, turns out my tag bundles plugin for Xkit doesn't work for the beta post editor anymore, which means I had to just remember the tags I use for this thing. Super lame. I swear it was working last time, but they've definitely updated the post editor since then so I guess that messed it up again.

Explore Stuff

I know I said I was going to try and remain positive but like… Weird call to have Petra be like… protective… of the guy who murdered her dad… That was certainly… a choice

Ashe is literally here because Dimitri told him to prioritize his life over his loyalty JFC Dimitri you are too sweet for this world. Also Ashe is angsty because he doesn’t know what he’s fighting for now. Interesting

Dorothea… we “helped Ashe see the error of his ways”?????

I’m really starting to dislike her. I actually really didn’t mind her in Houses but between her endless bellyaching as a recruit and this line, and I’m starting to dislike her

Wait, Manuela was in charge of the deer at some point in this timeline???

This makes her “I must protect my precious students uwu” bullshit from AG even more bullshit. You had! Classes! Other than the Eagles! What about THOSE students!

More Insurrection stuff. I guess we now have confirmation that the insurrection happened as a direct result of Ionius wiping out Hrym

“Sorry, did you just threaten to make an effort?” lmaooooooo RIP to Lin

“Psst! You may be aware of this already, but the Bert can be cruel”

*looks back at all my interactions with Hubert*

Don’t know what gave you that impression, Hapi

“Count Glucester prizes his people above all, and we created a situation where he wanted to fight.” I mean. Yeah. We’re like. Trying to conquer his homeland. People uh, people don’t tend to like that very much… Doesn’t usually lead to a lot of great outcomes for the people you conquer.

Apparently I just randomly learned how to make Peach Sorbet??? Not sure what triggered that, but ok

My god my switch HATES this game it’s running like a freaking airplane

I find it hilarious that Edelgard is apparently bad at running a street stall but Hubert is okay at it lmao

I guess threatening murder would encourage people to buy more

I’m about to go grab an ice pack from the fridge and hold it on the back of this thing. This is ridiculous. I JUST cleaned the fans, it can't be the dust! I literally played like 40 straight hours of FOMT and it was fine!

Ferdie Expedition. Let’s go for a lovely mountain date.

Don’t get to stare at his face :(

Weird how much of an Empire fanboy he’s become in this timeline, considering he’s like… yo fuck the Empire in canon

Oh my god you can “restore” weapons you’ve fully forged and it literally just… takes away all your upgrades for no benefit???? WHY???? Luckily I saved the game before it stole my TWENTY FUCKING AREADBHAR FORGES JFC

Like ok my best guess is that it’s so you can reset after you upgrade the forge, since I believe after a few upgrades then forging your weapons will give you more durability and might per forge, but it’s not retroactive? But like? This is just mechanically stupid. Honestly. Just make it retroactive or don’t vary the amount you gain for forging??? What a fucking slap in the face to fully forge a weapon (which takes dozens if not HUNDREDS of rare resources) only to be told “lol go fuck yourself actually redo it”

YOU DON’T EVEN GET THE UMBRAL STEEL YOU WASTED ON FORGING BACK!

Support Conversations

Hubert/Linhardt C - Wait Lin and Hubert are talking about how interesting Shez’s powers are??? Didn’t Lin have like? An entire fucking support where he was like “your powers are not interesting to me”???

“My method of ‘hooking’ would complicate our relationship with so valued an ally” Hubert is a murderer lol

“Why don’t you try sweet talking with tea instead” pretty sure that’s Ferdie’s MO

Why. Why does this feel like Edelshade. “The only option left is aggressive persuasion, driven home at the point of an axe, let’s say” … hmmm who is the ONLY eagle to canonically have a preference for axes…

Hubert is even like “who are you talking about how dare you” and Lin is like “haha oh no one does this bug you? I bet it bugs you.”

AND THAT’S THEIR ONLY SUPPORT LMFAO

Linhardt/Ferdie C - Lin: “I’m not drawing I’m just drawing” o…kay?

Linhardt can draw apparently

Lin: It’s important to be accurate when doing research, not artistic. Ferdie: *confused Ferdie noises*

Why do I get the sense that Lin is sick of the BE’s shit

I find it weird that he only has C supports with both Hubert AND Ferdie?

Dorothea/Monica C - Anyone else get the vibe that someone on the dev team realized Dorothea’s JP VA could sing so they crammed a bunch of random singing in? I do. I get that vibe

Why is the nobility fighting over tickets to see an opera. Seems like the kind of thing nobility should be able to get into super easy while the pleb masses fight for tickets in the nosebleeds

“A lot happened and now I’m here” wait Dorothea has motivation to be here aside from just “went to school with Edelgard for a month”??? Are we ever gonna???? Talk about what that is, or???

Shez/Bernadetta B - Oh my eardrums are already broken it’s only the first textbox

Anna is a drug dealer lmao

Shez/Ferdie B - Ferdie is horrifically depressed, got it. That explains a lot

Side note, I find it very interesting that Ashe doesn’t have supports with ANY of the BE, despite being recruitable. Lorenz at least had supports with Annette, Raphael had supports with Ashe and Felix, Ignatz could talk to Sylvain and Annette, and Marianne could talk to Ingrid. Bernie gets to talk to Dimitri, Petra gets to talk to Dedue, and Dorothea gets to talk to Flayn as well. Only Lin can’t talk to any of the BL exclusive characters.

Side-side note, but I kind of want to count which student has the fewest support conversations. Linhardt strikes me as having not that many compared to the BL or the other BE. Four of his support lines only have one conversation, and two of those terminate at C support.

Side Battles

I’m pretty sure the explore points are exactly the same as AG. Lame

Dorothea: “It fills my heart to see my friends do such great things” you mean. Murder. Like. The murder we’re doing right now? Alright…

Oh Leonie is here I guess

MOMMY JUDITH!!!

So I know now that Judith is not playable, which is bullshit. Clearly she’s got a fully rigged and animated model if she can appear like an enemy like this. How hard was it to just make her playable???

Main Chapter Battle

I’m rewarding myself with popcorn after this, to make up for the PB&J disappointment

“The fewer casualties the better” know what results in the least casualties? Not… not starting a war. That really keeps the war casualties down

“When in doubt, take ‘em out!” oh Caspar, you lovable himbo

Oh look Balthus, Ignatz, and Lorenz are our recruits this time

Balthus is still dead to me for not having a support convo with Dimitri. The gay subtext was right there, ripe for the taking… At least he had a line fantasizing about a sweaty grapple between Holst and Dimitri that one time

Oh my god how many hints are you going to give me to go do that side mission

AND IT DIDN’T EVEN MATTER BECAUSE I DIDN’T DO IT FAST ENOUGH ASDFGHJKL

Ignatz: I will fight you until the end!!!

Yeah about that… *Yoink*

So what does the auto battle button do

I mean I’m not going to test it but does that mean I wouldn’t have to play this game anymore?

That sounded really pessimistic. But ok look, I’m not using the merc whistles even though this is NG+ because a horrible little gremlin part of me wants to S rank all the battles ever. This game has way too many side missions.

Petra: Stealing is evil!!!

Also Petra: Canonically prefers the thief class in this game

Someone on this team wasn’t thinking when they wrote that one, huh lmao

Edelgard: Count Gloucester was on our side once! He might surrender!

Did you??? Did you miss the WHOLE part of this chapter where that was a trick to catch you off guard??? Why the fuck would he surrender now??? When he intentionally tricked you before by pretending to side with you just to fuck you over???

I mean he’s going to because of course he is, but if anyone in the deer had an actual spine or coherent adherence to past plot events or motivation, then he definitely wouldn’t!

Yep I was right. Why do none of the deer have a spine lol it’s actually getting kind of comical

After Battle Stuff

What is with this Daddy Gloucester whitewashing. That guy was one heck of a bastard in the original Houses, but between this and Lorenz’s paralogue they’re just like “look at how awesome and wonderful and totally not responsible for anything bad ever he is” <3 and I am not here for it

I guess they took all of his evil and gave it to Rufus

Oh I got Thrysus. I didn’t get Thrysus in AG. Bullshiiiiiiiiiiit

Guessing it’s because Lorenz is the head of his house now in this route. But still.

Apparently Lorenz and Lorenz Daddy are just too valuable to replace and Shez has dialogue options about that for some reason

RETORT SARCASTICALLY!!! GET EM SHEZ

Hubert liked that lmao

“Oh right. I forgot that only mercs are replaceable” FUCKING GET ‘EM SHEZ

Wow Edelgard is real pissy about that

“That’s just the way of things in Fodlan! but I intend to change this” Ah, yes, you’re doing a great job of changing that by… doing nothing about it right now and treating mercs as replaceable. Truly a 4D chess strategy Edelgard

I’m 100% convinced that the Alliance has only held together this long because they faced absolutely 0 threat from anything ever. Like honestly we’ve been at war for fifteen seconds and the entire power structure of this place has completely fallen apart

I mean really it’s actually pathetic. They’re like those fainting goats

https://youtu.be/_JF0Jys5ITc?t=10

^The Alliance literally the second any external threat that isn’t Almyra occurs^

Seriously, how long have these guys been a country? Like 300 years right? You’re telling me they’re literally older than America and in that time they have developed exactly zero sense of national pride or ownership for their lands, and most of them are just completely cool going along with whatever the Empire does to them? Just like? “Yeah, conquer me daddy~ My lands are fertile and my people are (variably) willing participants ;)”

I’m just saying this is like the dead fish equivalent of international relations. Just lie back and let Adrestia do whatever they want to you, I guess

EVEN THE DEER WHO ARE LEFT ARE LIKE “yeah we’re here but if this goes bad we’re out lol”

Except Hilda. Hilda is cool

EVEN ORDELIA??? “Yeah, the Empire experimented on my children and basically condemned my only surviving daughter to die, but like we’d be cool siding with them I guess” like excuse me what???

Like I know everyone has a spine made out of jelly in 3H but at least there everyone had a jelly spine so it didn’t stick out so much

It’s a weird contrast from the BL who are (almost) all like “YOU CAN HAVE MY HOME OVER MY COLD DEAD FUCKING BODY!”

AKA the normal human response when you’ve been an independent nation for several centuries and an external power comes in and says “mine ;)”

And the only two Lions to defect are the two who have zero responsibility over people or land, and one of which apparently only surrendered because Dimitri told him not to die for him. The other one is Mercedes who I haven’t gotten yet but presumably it’s about her serial killer brother this time. Oh and neither of them have any family in the Kingdom to protect (since Jeritza is in the Empire and Lonato defected to the Empire like the little traitor bitch he is)

Ok this liveblog got real shady for a second, I’m putting the umbrellas down now

Wait Byleth is here too??? I thought Byleth was in the Kingdom????????????????? How did you get here?????

“Remaining in the Kingdom was no longer an option???” Why???

OH WE JUST AREN’T GOING TO BE EXPLAINING THAT ONE I GUESS

I’m guessing it has something to do with Jeralt’s unexplained and unaddressed Rhea issues. Not sure why that would be though, considering Rhea NEVER FUCKING DOES ANYTHING IN THIS GAME

Fortalices and palisades… gonna have to google that one later, Hubert

Ok so it’s a baby fort and a fence. Dunno why we had to get all fancy here

I’m sure there’s already at least one Medieval history buff in my inbox going WELL ACKSHUALLY about that last bullet lmao

I also didn’t make popcorn because it’s like 4 am and I’m too lazy to melt butter :(

[tsunderedoctor]

Can I do the match up thing?

My MBTI type is INFP

And my personality? I'm not one to say on my own, since different people see me in different ways, but I try to be quiet, and nice. Polite when i first meet people, addressing them as I should, but if they're like, mean, in any form, to my friends or my family, I will, on sight, throw hands. I try not to be a violent person, but insulting the people I care about, especially the ones I know are sensitive on certain subjects, or being transphobic, homophobic, or sexist, I don't hesitate to hit someone. And I'll make it hurt. Away from people like that, I'm super soft, like my favorite color is pink, and I'm five foot three inches, (161.7 cm), very petite, and very soft spoken. (i have brown hair and brown eyes and freckles :') im ununique) I'm a barista and I absolutely love that and baking.

(i don't take very good care of myself because I'm too busy taking care of others- so sometimes i literally get too exhausted to move-)

I don't have a type besides taller than me fr-

if you need to know where im at in op, i just finished ennies lobby, but you can pull from anywhere fr

(👉🏻👈🏻 if that's still going on, if not you can just delete this :3)

Ashe, I'm so excited to do yours! Thanks for requesting a matchup from me!!💖💖

And hush miss, you're very unique! Also I love that you're a barista! That sounds so cool! Girl, same. I eat like once a day if I remember to, but I will straight up force food down someone's mouth if they miss breakfast lmao

Let’s get your matches!

Vivi

Since you didn’t specify a preference, I hope it’s okay I did a female pick. I do think you and Vivi would go well together! She’s an ENFJ and shares similar beliefs as you! She has no problem arguing and fighting with someone she knows is wrong!

I think due to her upbringing and seeing the poorer class of her country, she would also be a huge advocate for minorities! She has a heart of gold and strong empathy, so she can put herself in other’s shoes very easily and can understand their pain. 

She finds the ability you can go from soft-spoken to a fighter to be admiring! She thinks it’s awesome you have so much empathy for others, but also she can worry you might pick a fight with the wrong person, so she has your back in case things get too rough!

Vivi is taller than you, so woop that’s good! But she’s not the type to tease you for being smaller, she does find it cute, but won’t go out of her way to make you feel different because of your height difference. 

I could totally see her wanting to learn cool barista tricks and maybe some coffee art! Would also want to help you in the baking, she seems the type who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty and finds the time baking together to be romantic and sweet! 

Denjro (Kyoshiro)

You said I could pick from anywhere, so- 👀👀

I’ll try not to go into too much detail on his actions in the manga/show, but Denjiro is also a very empathetic soul, I believe! He went from being a samurai for his country and leader to being an enemy spy. He knows what it’s like to be hated and disliked for being different. 

I feel he would also admire your ability to want to stand up for others and will stand right next to you! His samurai spirit feels with joy knowing he has someone who wants to defend others and is so noble! 

He’d find your baking skills to be rather cute and wants to try new things you make, even if he doesn’t have a sweet tooth, he still wants to try it! Might become a coffee addict if you aren’t too careful with you being a barista, he wants to try all those fancy drinks!

He’s about 10ft tall, so I think it’s safe to say he’s taller than you 😂😂 Another one who doesn’t judge you for being shorter, will probably princess-style carry you if you let him! He finds your small size to be cute and is extremely gentle with you due to his own size and strength!

Due to his samurai nature, he’s extremely loyal and values commitment, he will not take anything you say in heart for granted and will keep all your secrets! He’s the type of man that you can trust knowing no matter what, he would rather die than betray you! 

[jadelotusflower]

March 2021 Roundup

Reading

Benevolence by Julie Janson - One of those books that caught my eye at the library (I’m a sucker for the “top picks” shelf) and I’m glad I picked up. The story of Muraging, given over in 1813 to the Parramatta Native School, but always trying to find a way back to her family and culture in the brutal early days of colonisation - resilient in the face of so much hardship. Janson is a Burruberongal woman of the Durag Aboriginal Nation, and Muraging is based on her great-great grandmother and Durag oral histories. An engrossing but often difficult read, about a period of history not often told from this perspective.

One Day by David Nicholls - A book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for so long I don’t even remember buying it. I vaguely recall seeing the movie adaptation on a plane once so must have enjoyed it, but can’t say I would recommend this book. Depicting St Swithin’s Day every year in the lives of two absolute character cliches, from one night stand, to friendship, romance and marriage. The concept is neat and the writing has wit, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about Dex (insufferable twat) and Emma (not like other girls) or their love story. Okay, it’s not that bad. It kind of grew on me by the end.

Watching

Superman and Lois (episodes 1-5) - I’ve had reservations about this show because of this but am giving it a shot. I have not followed the Arrowverse/Crisis but a friend did her best to explain it to me, although honestly I found it this show works just as well as a standalone. The premise is simple - Lois and Clark return to Smallville with their twin sons for teen superhero angst part two. To be honest, it feels so much like a Smallville revival that...I kind of wish it was?  

Tyler Hoechlin makes a good Clark, but that padded Superman suit is an embarrassment - get rid of those fake muscles and show us some super collarbones! Elizabeth Tulloch is growing on me as Lois - she’s very...subdued, but imo lacking that spark Kidder, Hatcher, and Durance had. Honestly, subdued it how I would describe the show overall. Also the colour palette is sooo drab because gritty realism I guess.

I enjoy the family drama aspect of it, although I wish one of the kids was a girl. I mean, I understand why they’re twin boys - the son becomes the father and the father the son and all that - complete with both sons being named after both of Clark’s fathers (is there a name for the trope of the hero’s kids being named after his dead family/mentors as if the mother had no input??). The Captain Luthor/Morgan Edge plots are still in the setup stage so hard to comment on them. 

I sound harsh, I don’t dislike the show overall (and there’s some really good elements there). We’ll see, I guess.

Man of Steel/Batman v Superman/Zack Snyder’s Justice League - I’ve never really been a huge fan of the Snyderverse, and have been trying my best to avoid the Discourse about the Snyder cut over the past few years (from both sides). I have however been following what Ray Fisher has had to say, and can’t deny my interest was piqued by the idea that there was an entirely different film out there that did right by its characters. So I went back and revisited MoS/BvS before embarking on JL to give the franchise another shot.

While I still don’t really vibe with Snyder’s aesthetic (it’s just a bit bleak and muddy for me) I think these films are actually better when viewed together as one long story. I can appreciate that he made an effort to step away from the Donner nostalgia, and tell this epic modern myth of gods among men, and can enjoy it for what it is. The Snyder cut was entertaining enough, and I quite enjoyed aspects of it - Cyborg is indeed the heart of the film (but I honestly wish it had been explored in his own movie), and Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash break up the dreary tone.

It was nice to see the Amazons again (and I loved “Amazon’s, show your fear”/“we have no fear”). I like this take on Clark and Lois, even if most of the relationship happens offscreen, and there’s certainly more in the Snyder cut - even if I wish there was greater depth to Clark’s arc in particular, less of the god and more of the man.

I did however notice a pattern in these films in that I was interested/compelled by the first world building/character half, and having my eyes glaze over in the endless action cgi-fest of the second half (I have this issue with Marvel too). And the Snyder cut is indeed endless - it rivals Return of the King for number of endings but is much less cohesive, like Snyder was throwing everything at the wall since this might be his last chance. There’s a nice montage at the end with a bit of hope, and I was thinking well this is a nice uplifting note to end on, thank you! But nope, twenty more minutes of grimdark prophecising (in isolation, an interesting scene, but felt so out of place to show the team torn apart again immediately after we’ve just seen them come back together).

I also lol’d at David Thewlis getting a front credit for what amounted to his cgi face behind a massive helmet. Collect that paycheck, my man!

Coming 2 America - I watched the original as a teenager more times than I can count, truly iconic. Look, I dislike the sequel/reboot/remake merry go round when it dominates the scene, but to be honest I am a sucker for a sequel that’s lovingly made and really just an excuse to get the band back together and have fun. Worth it for the costumes and dance sequences alone (especially the En Vogue/Salt n Pepper/Gladys Knight mashup), but I really enjoyed this overall. There’s nothing groundbreaking and it doesn’t try to be. Was it necessary? No. But did I enjoy it? Absolutely.

Actually, scratch that. The costumes and hair are absolutely necessary.

The Prom (dir. Ryan Murphy) - Now I love a movie musical and this was...fine. It’s sweet and I enjoyed Meryl Streep doing her best Patti Lupone, and Nicole Kidman clearly having fun (even if she can’t Fosse to save her life) although I can’t say I found any of the songs memorable. James Corden, however, is pure cringe for reasons outlined here. But overall it’s light and fluffy, and not a terrible way to spend two hours of your life.

Superstore (seasons 1-6) - I’ve been binging on this for a while, and it’s a fun little show about the employees of a big box store - it’s nice to see America Ferrera back on screen (with producer credit). A great, diverse cast, but MVPs for me are Lauren Ash as Dina (you may recognise her voice as Scorpia from She-Ra), and Kaliko Kauahi as Sandra. While it did touch on some real-world issues - corporation malfeasance, unionisation, etc - ultimately it’s lighthearted and pleasant, especially the series finale that just goes full happy ending with a nice break from grim reality.

Allen v Farrow (dir. Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering) - I’ve never watched a Woody Allen film, and the clips I’ve seen of Woody Allen films haven’t changed my mind on this point. But what struck me seeing the clips of Manhattan in this documentary is just how young Muriel Hemingway was - this is not the Hollywood standard 22 year old playing 17 (which is problematic in other ways) but an actual teenager with a baby face and childlike voice, in bed with a 40+ year old man and I am baffled that this film is so highly regarded - if nothing else it’s right up there on the screen.

But of course there is so much else, which makes this documentary hard to watch at times. To those who have followed these events there’s not much new here, but it does an excellent job of compiling the sources together and giving a timeline of events, as well as refuting many of the pro-Allen arguments, and giving Dylan a chance to speak for herself. There’s also a companion podcast which is worth a listen for added perspective.

Writing

I actually finished something, finally! Posted Debrief, a Smallville one-shot (3920 words). 1670 words done on my other Smallville wip.

Posted chapter 41 of Turn Your Face to the Sun (1865 words). Now that the Obi-Wan show is actually happening, I need to get this finished before it all becomes moot.

Total: 7455 words this month, making 23,962 for the year.

[riotfuckery]

Class teddy bear

lzuku Midoriya x super affectionate f!reader

A/N: Hello my beautiful readers! It’s your friendly neighborhood big tiddy goth gf and lowkey weeb 💖Here we have a slight crack/fluff fic featuring reader loving on the sweet broccoli headed boy. This fic was especially inspired by @birds-have-teeth and their blog so go check them out! My affectionate/nurturing side goes haywire whenever I see him. Yes I know people don’t like him but I have the insatiable urge to wrap him in my arms and tell him what a good boi he is so here we go. Shoutout to writing senpais who gave my last fic lots of love and thank you for the support 💖🥺💖 @trafalgar-temptress @queensynderella @kingtamakimurder 

You were always affectionate. Always ready to give hugs and hold hands if someone needed it. You had open arms for anyone (besides that nasty grape bastard) and everyone was used to it, the girls of class 1-A being extra affectionate with you. You were most thankful for Mina, Kirishima, and Tooru who especially seemed to share your joy in being close with others.

You never pushed your affections on anyone while always asking for permission the first few times. You slowly got the entire class used to it. You even got Iida used to it, which is a mystery in itself. Platonic cuddle sessions were common between your friends, even the male ones. But you could never get one certain green curly haired boy used to it.

It annoyed the hell out of you but you were blind to the fact he wasn’t used to affections from girls, much less pretty girls. Pulling him in for a hug made him freeze for a few seconds or even passing out on a few occasions. He never complained or rejected your actions so that confused you even more.

You were early as usual and made your way to class. Suddenly you saw the sharp toothed unbreakable sweetheart in the halls walking next to the always yelling angry explosive blonde. Your heart raced excitingly and you called out to your favorite red headed cuddle buddy to indulge in your daily routine.

“KIRIIIIIIII~” you sang as you sprinted toward him in the mostly empty hall. Ignoring the weird looks you always got with smile, you ran with open arms and a bright smile. He turned and smiled brighter than the sun at you, bracing himself for impact with his own open arms. You launched yourself at him and he caught you with a laugh, wrapping his arms around your waist and squeezing you in a bear hug that made your day just so much brighter.

You latched yourself to him like a koala, nuzzling your cheek against his and holding onto his strong broad shoulders. “Good morning Kiri!” You sang, giggling softly in pure glee as he held you. “Good morning teddy bear!” He greeted back happily, showing off his sharp teeth with a blinding smile. You heard a very aggravated “Tch” next to you and you turned to look at the angry hedgehog.

“You can get a hug too Bakugo, I know you’re jealous cause you’re secretly a cuddle bug too~” you smiled cheekily at him. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked away with a small blush on his cheeks. You giggled once again. Kiri put you down and you readjusted your uniform before walking right up to Bakugo.

You looked up at him with an excited twinkle in your eyes for a moment before you pulled him for a short hug. You wrapped your arms around his thin waist and nuzzled your face in his chest. (Damn Bakugo, what you doing out here lookin like a whole ass snack???)

He froze before a moment and then hugged you back, wrapping his strong arms around you while resting his chin on top of your head. All with a bright pink blush on his cheeks and his ears, his signature scowl still stuck on his face. You pulled away and gave him a playful smile. “See? I knew you were secretly a cuddle bug, takes one to know one. But I’ll keep it a secret tough guy.” You shot him a flirty wink before running to the classroom. The distant screaming of Bakugo combined with Kirishima laughing and the popping of his explosions making you yourself laugh.

You made it to the classroom, and were greeted by Mina and Tooru who immediately took you by the hands and pulled you down to your desk, where you set your stuff. You gave a bright good morning to Iida and Todoroki and received a polite good morning and nod respectively from the boys. You knew they weren’t big on affection even though you had a feeling if you got Todoroki used to it, he would be the biggest cuddle monster in the world.

The next person who came into the classroom was the target of your affections and long time crush. None other than the greenette with wild curly hair, cute freckles and big green eyes that made your loving side go into an almost violent frenzy. Your eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and gave a girls a knowing look. They gave a small nod and went back to talking to whatever they were discussing. They were used to your loving antics by now and shared a hushed giggle with one another. You shot up from your seat and parkoured over several desks from your seat in the back of the room.

You got to him and immediately pulled him into the room and grabbed a hold of his hand, interlacing your fingers together while guiding him to his desk. You then pulled him into a tight hug. You pressed his face in your chest and softly pet his hair.

“Good morning, my sweet green bean! How’s the cutest sweetie in the world today?” You cooed at him. Ignoring the giggles from your friends, you released him when you realized he probably couldn’t breathe. You said a small sorry and took a good look at him, he was full body blushing and was trying to stutter out a good morning back. Poor boy was so overwhelmed he froze in place while his mind was racing a billion miles an hour.

You were confused as to why he was so red and you thought he had a fever. So you checked, taking his cute face into your hands while you looked at him, your thumbs rubbing comforting circles on those chubby freckled cheeks automatically. Your actions soothed his panicking and he just silently enjoyed your affections.

Poor broccoli boy thought he would melt into a puddle. Seeing you so focused on him made his heart race. He admired your face silently, looking carefully at your beautiful sparking eyes and the slight pink tint on your soft lips. He wondered if your lips tasted as good as they looked.

What you did next almost made his heart stop. You gently pulled his face to yours and brushed your nose with his, all while smiling so happily he thought dying like this wasn’t the worst way to go out. His heart was beating against his ribcage so violently it almost hurt. He snapped out his haze when he realized he had to reply.

He blinked a few times and tried to clear up the heat radiating off of him with a deep breath. His face turned from fully red to just a bright pink blush on his cheeks and ears. He took in another deep breath and focused his train of thought to forming a response.

“G-g-goodmorning Y/N-chan! I’m doing great!” was all he could manage to get out in his wild state of mind. He cursed himself internally for stuttering in front of you and wishing he was smooth enough to make YOU blush.

You still hadn’t let go of his impossibly cute face, thinking of how cute it was that he was resting his face in your smaller hands like a tired puppy. You internally squealed in delight. He was so cute that you wanted to kiss him but it took every ounce of your self restraint to not to when you realized you both were in class. You quickly glanced at the clock and reluctantly let go of his face.

“Oh my, class is about to start! I’ll see you in a bit cutie pie!~” you beamed at him before you left, walking away to your own desk with an extra pep in your step. He froze for a moment, trying to process the interaction with you. He placed his stuff under the small table and sat down at his desk. He took a few moments to collect himself and then pulled out his hero journal.

He scribbled down your actions and his thoughts on what you did this morning. He willed away his blush somehow when everyone else filed in. He was trying to figure out why you were as affectionate as you are not that he disliked it. All throughout the school day, he would sneak quick glances at you.

He couldn’t fully pay attention in class. It was a rare chill day so he didn’t have to worry about trying to form a coherent thought while you’re in your hero costume. He tried to focus on his lessons, but his train of thought always led back to you. He was quite smitten with you, little to your knowledge.

He recalled how soft your hands were and how gentle you were with him. He was daydreaming about you and your life together, if he was so lucky to get to spend his life with you. You were warm and inviting, always smiling and befriending anyone and everyone. You even got Kacchan to give you hugs. KACCHAN!

That in itself was no easy task, heavenly beings knows Izuku tried to make peace with the ash blonde. But you seemed to do it so easily. You were smart, unbelievably beautiful, friendly and so KIND. He was struck with a wave of insecurity.

What if you didn’t like him the same way he liked you? He got help and got lucky, inheriting one for all and a spot in UA. What if his luck ran out before it got to you? What if he couldn’t make you happy? Did he even deserve you? What if you found someone that suited you better? Could he take it?

His thoughts were interrupted by a cold hand placed on his shoulder. He jumped about 10ft in the air from shock before he whipped his head to look at who broke him out of his thoughts. It was Todoroki thankfully, he sighed in relief. The half and half boy spoke first.

“Class just ended. I saw you couldn’t pay attention in classes today, so I took notes for you. You like her don’t you? Y/N?” Izuku gave him a surprised look with a light pink on his cheeks and then nodded once. He’s been friends with Shouto for awhile but his observational skills and blunt tone always surprised him.

“You should tell her, she likes you quite a bit you know? She coddles you more than anyone else in class. Just ask her out.” Todoroki stated as both boys were walking back to the dorms to change and do their homework in the peace of their rooms. Izuku was filled with determination as he and Todoroki walked. He made a plan to ask you out on a date in your room later that night.

You arrived at your room, opening the door then shutting it and plopping your things down roughly after taking off your shoes. You loudly groaned at the amount of homework that was assigned as you took off your uniform and bra before making your way to the dresser to pick out something comfortable to wear.

A green pair of sleep shorts and black oversized t shirt with all might on the front of it is what you chose. You smiled at color combo, thinking about the cute greenette and his wild curls. You quickly pulled them on and went to grab your bag to take out your insane amount of homework. ‘I know we had a chill day but going plus ultra on the amount of homework is a bit ridiculous isn’t it?’

You tied your hair up in a messy bun and set everything up before getting to work. You did your math first, just to get it out of the way. (I hate math, bruh id rather write a thesis on zuko from avatar the last airbender’s character arc.) Then onto English, then social studies, then hero studies.

More than a few hours later, everything was done. You dragged your hand down your face before harshly rubbing your eyes. ‘Fuck I finally finished’ you internally groaned as you looked at the digital clock on your desk. It was 8pm. You packed up your stuff and then flopped down on your bed like a ragdoll.

Before you could get a full chance to fully relax you heard someone knock at your door. You got up and looked through the peephole, just to see your crush. You panicked, not wanting him to wait at your door but you also thought you looked like a mess. (You didn’t you beautiful thing 😘) You quickly opened your door just to come face to face with the shy boy.

“H-hey, cutie pie! What’s up?” You cringed at your stutter. His body language was trying to be confident but nervous to say the least. Not that you were any better. He was anxiously playing with his fingers but looked you dead in the eye for second before shutting them tightly. A bright blush overtook his face as he glanced at your outfit, the shirt was so big that made it look like you weren’t wearing pants. Before his R rated thoughts could take over he spoke.

“I-I LIKE YOU A LOT Y/N-CHAN AND I WAS WONDERING IF YOU W-WANTED TO GO ON A D-DATE WITH ME THIS SATURDAY!” He nearly yelled. Eyes still squeezed tight in embarrassment as he gripped his scarred hand together. Saying you were caught off guard was an understatement.

Your crush, the cute green bean? The sweet shy boy who could barely look you in the eye sometimes and passed out during your hugs, just asked you out on a date????? You were overjoyed of course but also taken aback by him nearly yelling his love for you.

You were stunned for a moment, mostly because you didn’t expect this. You snapped out of your confusion while a bright smile took over your face. While you were silent, Izuku was waiting for your rejection. His heart was racing out of nervousness and he started to sweat lightly. Your response stopped his self doubt and anxiety from spiraling out of control.

“Of course, Izu-kun! I would love to go on a date with you! I’ve liked you since the beginning of the year and you always seemed so nervous around me so I was just a bit surprised.” You replied brightly. His eyes opened in shock and he stopped shaking. When did he start shaking?

“I’ll uhh- pick you up here on Saturday at 6? Is that alright?” He was talking normally now albeit still nervous. You nodded at him with a bright smile before you took a step foreword and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. You felt him freeze. He stared at you in amazement and with the all the love he could offer. When you stepped back you saw he had placed a hand on the cheek that you had kissed, with the blush on his face still on his cute cheeks.

“See you then cutie~!” You sang as you stepped back into your room and gently shut the door. He broke out in a bright smile while he walked back toward his dorm. He was so excited and happy that he was practically vibrating. Not only did you say you’d love to go out with him but you confessed that you’ve liked him since the beginning of the year? He was overjoyed to say the least.

When he got back to his room, he flopped down on the bed with a bright smile on his face while staring at the ceiling. He pulled a pillow to his face and let out an excited squeal into it. The first step was taken and now he just needed to gather up the courage to take the rest of them with you.

Izuku‘s was heart racing and his cheeks hurting from how hard he smiled. He couldn’t wait till Saturday.

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2018

I’m kinda sad this series of posts is coming to a close, especially with two mediocre years for the kind of hit songs I enjoy.

I was very depressed in 2018 so I thought maybe it was the reason why I didn’t like most songs I heard, so I revisited the entire catalogue of 2018 hit songs from the year-end lists and... no, it wasn’t just me.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

As I mentioned before I was super depressed in 2018, which wasn’t helped by the death of two family members including one I was super close to, and by catching a mysterious infection on a finger that doctors didn’t seem to be able to cure and which made my left hand hurt all year long, until I had to have an operation in early 2019 to fix the issue (plot twist, it wasn’t an infection, which is why nothing was working). On the plus side, my s.o and I decided to get married but it only happened the next year.

Ok so, hit songs weren’t that good (stay tuned for that), but albums? Some great stuff dropped in 2018. Unfortunately, Eminem’s Kamikaze wasn’t among those great albums and at that point he was basically dead to me. BUT! A Perfect Circle came back, which was completely unexpected! Nine Inch Nails released Bad Witch which contained the excellent and super hypnotic Over And Out! Mike Shinoda released Post Traumatic and every single Linkin Park fan was like “oh god what a mood”! Moby, which I hadn’t liked for years at that point after loving his stuff so much when I was 15 or so, released Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt and it was unexpectedly good! And The 1975 released A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which, in my opinion, isn’t quite as great as their second album (I refuse to write its super long title again), but still super good. Just like the previous one, a lot of songs had crossover potential and I’m very sad it didn’t happen. Stay tuned for the unelligible songs.

But you know what? The album of the year, at least to me, was always going to be something much darker. Fortunately, the end of the year was when VNV Nation decided to drop its best album of the entire decade, Noire. In these trying times, an album about the fight between light and darkness was exactly what I needed to hear. I was super emotional when I first listened to it. Armour might just be the best song on the album. Collide explodes into a million colors after a super slow start. Wonders is a big mood. Lights Go Out is a super angry song which basically says ‘we’re dancing while the apocalypse is happening because they won’t let us do anything else’, and we need more stuff like this. When is the Future was a super solid first single and yeah, exactly, where is the future we were promised as kids? Only Satellites became one of my fight songs in record time. And All Of Our Sins is terrifying and super good. Just an amazing album all around. I certainly hope they make more in the future, but if they don’t, that would be a super high note to finish on.

As for unelligible stuff, there’s Chun Li (Nicki Minaj) which I found super weird at first, but it grew on me a lot as the year went on. I’m very surprised it’s not on the US year-end list, by the way. And I wish more stuff from Indochine had charted... again, I know. Apart from that, it’s all The 1975. Love it if we made it should have been a hit but wasn’t a safe bet for a leading single so it kind of makes sense. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME despite its stupid title was a much more convincing hit, and yet, it wasn’t one, and that pisses me off more. And It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) is one of their best songs ever. Catch me on the right day and I’ll call it better than The Sound, even. This should have been a hit. I’m so angry it didn’t happen.

But hey! Their new album is getting released in just a couple of days! Maybe 2020 is finally going to be their year? Wait and see.

Holy shit there hasn’t been a shorter list of honorable mentions since my 2008 list.

Remind Me To Forget (Kygo) - Good but (ironically) a bit too forgettable to be on the list.

Later Bitches (The Prince Karma) - So bad it’s good at its finest right there. Not enough to put it higher though.

High Hopes (Panic! At The Disco) - Tiptoes the line between good and super annoying too much to be higher. Not even the best song on the album (that would be Say Amen (Saturday Night)). Not sure why this was more popular.

Sicko Mode (Travis Scott) - God I want to love this song so bad. I tried so hard and it never completely clicked for me.

Next To Me (Imagine Dragons) - Believe it or not, this was the last cut from the list. I sincerely hope that Imagine Dragons will make good music again in the future and that their new songs will stop sounding like a person dragging themselves accross the wet sand of some post-apocalyptic beach covered in ashes.

So how do I know this was a bad year for hit songs? Well I not only struggled to find ten songs for this list but also struggled to find a suitable #1. Then I just went “I’m gonna put the only 2018 song I ever put on my mp3 player at #1 by default.” Does it make 2018 as bad as 1990? I’m not so sure. The top 3 I made for 1990 contained two songs I absolutely adored, including one of my favorite songs of all time. On the other hand, it was a bit easier to find ten songs I liked (not loved) in 2018. So... I don’t know.

I should also mention that Bohemian Rhapsody made the French year-end list again, at #83, and that is hilarious, but putting it on the list feels like cheating. Consider it to be an alternative #1!

10 - Finesse (Bruno Mars)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

I know. Everybody likes this song. I’m no exception, and I love its aesthetic, but I also like it wayyyyyy less than 24k Magic.

9 - New Rules (Dua Lipa)

US: #16 / FR: Not on the list

Basically, same thing here. I like it but I’m using it mostly as filler for this list. The lyrics are pretty great, though.

8 - This is America (Childish Gambino)

US: #51 / FR: Not on the list

This would be much better if the radio version had kept the gunshot sounds from the music video, but on the other hand it would have been pretty terrifying to hear gunshots on the radio while driving, so eh... this was probably the right decision to make. Apart from that, this song and this video have already been analysed by countless people on the internet and I don’t see what I could contribute after all this time.

7 - Sweet but Psycho (Ava Max)

US: Not on the list / FR: #42

This sounds like a song from the bygone era of Bad Romance and to be honest, it would have been annoying several years ago but in 2018 that was genuinely a refreshing blast from the past.

6 - Speed (Zazie)

US: Not on the list / FR: #74

To be honest, I never expected Zazie to show up on one of my lists again, but 2018′s general quality forced me to do it. This is a song that starts super slow and keeps getting faster, and it’s mostly about overcoming depression. Everything I needed that year.

5 - Let You Down (NF)

US: #29 / FR: Not on the list

I don’t think I know a single other person or critic who likes this song, and yet it charted super high. I don’t love it, and the chorus is grating, but there’s some damn powerful lyrics in there, and a lot of it is extremely relatable.

What can I say, in this day and age, if you give me a super-watered-down version of early 2000s Eminem, I’ll take it.

4 - Marry Me (Thomas Rhett)

US: #76 / FR: Not on the list

Yeah, it’s a slow emotional song and I tend to dislike those, but I heard this song only maybe four times in total and it destroyed me every single time.

No, I don’t have anything else to say about it.

3 - Un Été Français (Indochine)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

I do not like this song’s chorus, it’s a mess and a half. There’s a lot of much better songs on the 13 album. 2033 should have been a single. But this is the one which charted instead. And you know what? I’ll take “super messy and clunkily written song about how the far right is gonna destroy this country if we let it exist any longer, sung over a nice tune” over everything I mentioned previously on this list.

In a better year, this wouldn’t have climbed higher than the honorable mentions. But yeah, I’m not gonna repeat my entire 2017 lecture about Indochine. It takes a lot for me to dislike one of their songs. Even at their weakest, their hearts are in the right place.

2 - Flames (David Guetta & Sia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #13

We’ve finally reached the songs I genuinely love and uh, yeah, there’s only two of them. This is sad. But this song is a lot of fun! And the music video is absolutely ridiculous in all the best ways.

It was also a super useful song to me. You’re being super sad and unenergetic, you’re climbing into your car to buy some food, you’re turning the radio on and suddenly you’re hearing “Go, go, go, figure it out / Figure it out, you can do this / So my love, keep on running / You gotta get through today / There my love, keep on running / Gotta keep those tears at bay / Oh my love, don't stop burning / Gotta send them up in flames” over a super good beat and yeah, definitely. You can do this.

1 - La Même (Maître Gims & Vianney)

US: Not on the list / FR: #1 (!! holy shit quality wins for once)

This might just be the weakest #1 I’ve ever put at the top of one of my lists, since the only criteria that put this one there was “this is actually on my mp3 player and none of the other songs are”. Also, somehow, I only discovered it last year even though it was the biggest song of 2018 in my country, apparently...

Even so, that’s a fantastic song with great lyrics and a wonderfully catchy tune and that would have been enough to put it at #1 on its own, I think. But look at those lyrics! (here’s a rather good translation) It’s about how society judges people by their looks in public. The chorus literally goes “If what I am bothers you, well, tough”. That’s even the title. And I like the music video a lot, with this white box in which people are put and as soon as they aren’t in it anymore you notice how different they act or look, like the buff guy who turns out to have prosthetic legs, or the grandma who turns out to be covered in tatoos. Simple but cool idea.

It may be a weak #1, but it’s an extremely useful song, because having “si je vous gêne, bah c’est la même” (”if I bother you, well tough”) turning in your head like a playground taunt, it really does wonders for your confidence.

And to think some French friends thought making these lists would make me hate Maître Gims’ music once I discovered it.

Next up: the last list?! It’s been a wild ride.

[crackimagines]

Child!Byleth AU General Info/Trivia

This list was made in response to the ABSOLUTELY OVERWHELMING positive reception to Child!Byleth! I was not ready for this many people to request more of this smol boi, because honestly? Part 1 was intended as a oneshot of about 3 parts, not an entire AU.

Regardless, this is just a list full of info about the small professor, it’s mostly just trivia and fun facts, both in-canon for the AU and writing facts.

Hope you enjoy!

-----

In-Canon

LIKES:

Professionalism - Stems from being a mercenary

Cute Things - Mostly due to Jeralt getting him his stuffed bird, which he still has and loves to death.

Teamwork - Nothing cheesy like because it makes everyone bond, it’s because it’s more efficient and keeps morale for the men up. (Merc POV)

Sweets - Thanks to Mercedes and Annette. Unfortunately, this now means they baby him.

His Students - TOUCH THEM AND YOU’RE FUCKING D E A D

DISLIKES:

Being treated like a child - Stems from Merc days, as he’s worked hard to prove himself. Everyone in Jeralt’s merc group treats him as an equal, which he appreciates more than anything.

Selfishness - He despises anyone trying to work for nothing but fame and fortune. If he sees anyone getting anyone hurt for their own gain when it could’ve been avoided, he honestly thinks about killing them then and there.

FAVORITE PEOPLE:

Jeralt, Flayn, Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude, Bernadetta, Ashe, Shamir, Mercedes, Annette, Raphael, Marianne, Lysithea, Dedue, Petra, Ignatz, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, Catherine, The Gatekeeper, Sothis, Dorothea

NOT AS FAVORITE PEOPLE:

Leonie, Ferdinand, Lorenz, Alois, Linhardt, Hilda, Leonie, Manuela, Rhea, Cyril, Also Catherine, LEONIE, Seteth, Jeritza, Hubert, Caspar, ALSO MERCEDES, ALSO ANNETTE, Also Sothis, Hanneman, Gilbert, DID I MENTION LEONIE

TRIVIA -

- Doesn’t swear unless he’s very VERY VERY ANGRY

- Dimitri is the only one Byleth feels comfortable saying they’re like an older sibling.

- Is positive Claude is going to kill him in some horrific pranking accident

- Likes Edelgard, but think she’s too arrogant for her own good sometimes.

- Jeralt and Byleth rarely talk about things a son and father should, but they still care for each other as family.

- The only one who’s seen Byleth’s true colors is Flayn. On that note, she is the only one who can make him blush.

- He used to dual wield daggers but switched to a sword because he had to teach the students. Otherwise, he would’ve stuck to them, but dual wielding was deemed was too complex for the academy.

- Bernadetta amuses him a lot with how afraid she apparently is of him, but he does want to actually befriend her.

- Still doesn’t know who Cyril is despite him shouting his name to Byleth everytime.

- Spends some time with Lysithea talking about how to make people not view them as children.

- Thinks Leonie’s obsession with Jeralt and telling how much better she’s going to be as Jeralt’s apprentice genuinely creepy.

- He doesn’t say it, but he’s glad to speak what’s on his mind to Sothis without being judged (mostly).

- He’s never named his stuffed bird due to still being conflicted on what to actually name it.

- He sings to himself, but the only one he’s actually had the courage to sing for a little is Flayn. Anyone else, he’d have to kill them because if there’s witnesses, everyone’s going to flock to him.

- He hates being in fancy events like balls, because it’s the most boring thing he’s ever had to do in his entire life, without exaggeration.

Outside-Canon

- For the art I use for child!Byleth, this is where I got it from.

https://www.deviantart.com/orbiculare/art/Male-Byleth-808382426

I didn’t know what to do for a tiny Byleth until i found that, and yoinked it cause that’s EXACTLY what I had in mind for him. So, thanks to that artist for making the visual aids easier!

- Originally, I was going to plan to make child!Byleth based off of Tanya from Saga of Tanya the Evil (Or as I like to call it, My Little Nazi). 

I decided against it because that’d be TERRIBLY edgy, and considering that adult Byleth wasn’t that much of a dick, it wouldn’t make sense if the tiny one was either.

- So instead of Tanya, I then based off his personality off of three people.

Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening: 

The personality bits I took from him was his caring nature for teammates, and a bit of their stoic-ness(Is that a word?).

Laphicet from Tales of Berseria:

The last person I took inspiration for writing tiny Byleth is Laphicet. To put it briefly, he’s a very young boy and is quite unknown to things like emotions, but his eyes light up whenever he learns something new and well...acts like a child.

CZ2128 Delta (Shizu) from OVERLORD:

You have DEFINITELY seen me use her for the earlier asks of before this blew up. In OVERLORD, she is a battle maid, but is basically a robot. She is almost completely emotionless, talks like a robot, and their combat prowess is of a fucking beast. (Minus the fact she uses assault rifles). I took all these from her and incorporated into a child, (Laphicet) and eventually growing out of it into quite a caring person (Robin).

The love for little Byleth’s stuffed bird was directly inspired by Shizu. She loves cute things and will completely hug the SHIT out of them, and she also gives things she likes stickers. (This is planning to be in an short fic, so keep an eye out for that!)

In part 1, where Byleth is acting super mature but also like a robot was directly inspired by Shizu. 

In short, without Shizu, there’d be no child!Byleth.

The rest of the traits come from Byleth themselves, (mainly being the brick wall for a face).

- If I had to choose a “theme song” for the AU, it’d probably be Overlord’s Second OP, ‘Go Cry Go’, the song lyrics being from Byleth’s POV

[rabidbuffalo]

Melody ( @summerxmelodies) & Ash’s letters, courtesy of Pvt. Joker!

Dear Mel, 

 Sorry I haven't written. It's been a hell of a time. ***** everywhere. That's what we call the Vietnamese. It only took me one try to get through boot camp. Couple of the guys that were with me failed. No idea what happened to them. Word is they're just sending them through over and over until they pass. I found someone to help me write to you. His name is Joker. He's a photographer. (I'm a Combat Correspondent.) 

 Cowboy, that's our squad leader, he says Joker will make us famous. I guess they're sending pictures and shit back home. (We are. There will be video footage as well.) I don't wanna be famous, I just wanna be home with you. 

 We're in a place called Hue (pronounced Way) right now. All the guys ask why I don't go with the hookers they bring in for us. Only one that knows I got a girl back home is Joker and that's 'cause he's writing to you. I figure no one will believe me anyway. Most of 'em are scared of me. (I'm not.) 

 Oh, I was sergeant of a platoon. Can you believe that? They let me be in charge of a bunch of grunts! 'Course it only lasted 'til I flipped the bird to a Colonel. Demoted me back down to Private. It was fun while it lasted. Cowboy says I got real skill, though. Never thought anyone would ever say that about me. Finally found something other than cars that I'm good at. 

 I really miss you. All the time. I hope you're doing okay. I can't wait 'til I'm done and I can come see you. I'll try to write again. I don't know how long Joker will be with us. I didn't really want to tell anyone else that I have trouble writing. He figured it out. I hope I get to see you real soon. I love you. I'll write again when I can. 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (I made him sign it for you.)

***

Dear Ash, 

 It's so good to hear from you baby! I miss you so much. I can't tell you how proud of you I am. Come home to me, okay? You're amazing, baby. Why'd you flip a Colonel off? Maybe they'll let have command again. Just don't go flipping off the higher ups. 

 I'm doing good. Better now that I know you're alive. I never stopped writing, but I was so scared. I love you so much. I can't wait for you to be home. Even mom and dad are looking forward to you getting back. 

 Joker, thank you for writing for him. You don't know what hearing from him means to me. I can't thank you enough. Mom asked me to let you know that if you're ever in town to please stop by for dinner. 

 Love forever and always, 

Mel

***

Dear Mel, 

 Proud of me? You might want to wait on that. I promise I will come home to you. There's nothing more in the world I wanna do. 

 I flipped him the bird 'cause he was an asshole. Lots of shit happened since I last wrote. Cowboy went and got himself killed. I took command of the Lusthog Squad. That's my unit. Fuck them ***** in command. This is my squad now. Joker's not happy about it. (Could be worse!) 

I can't believe your mom and especially your dad are looking forward to me getting home. That's crazy. I thought they hated me. A lot. 

We're getting ready to move out again. Hopefully it won't be much longer. I'm fucking done with this shit stain place. I love you forever. 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (Hi, Melody! You're welcome. I'm glad I can do this for you! All in all, Mother's a good guy. That's what we call him. Animal Mother. He still won't tell me why. He just grunts and laughs when I ask. Maybe that's why? Not sure! My real name is James, and now that he's found that out, he won't stop calling me Jimmy. If I'm ever in New York, I'll be sure to stop by! Never know where I'll end up! We really do have to move out, though. We'll write again when we can. Take care of yourself. -James)

***

Dear Ash, 

 Sorry to hear about Cowboy. You take care of your men and Joker. I know they're in good hands. 

 Lot has happened while you were away. They did, but I think they realize how happy you make me? They just disliked how old you are honestly. Plus that whole thing with the law. You've always been good to me so they've got no reason to dislike you for that. 

You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Big Bad Wolf. 

 I'm so ready for you to be home. 

 Love, 

Mel xoxo 

 ( Hi James. Please be careful. Watch out for Ash and yourself? I look forward to hearing from you both. I'm glad Ash has a friend over there. Be safe boys!)

***

Dear Mel, 

 I was really hoping we'd be back in the states by now. They're really dragging this bullshit out. We're just slaughtering ***** left and right. We don't even have a mission other than stay the fuck alive. 

Thanks about Cowboy. Haven't lost anybody else yet.

 I'm glad they see that. I wish they could see how God damn happy you make me. Bet they flipped their wigs when they found out how old I really am, didn't they? You're the only good thing I got back home, so I gotta take care of you. Promise I will forever, Little Red.  

I'm so ready to be home. Soon. (We hope.) 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (He said he's not putting hugs and kisses, but I'll do it for him. XOXO! Wish you could see the way he lights up and smiles when a letter comes from you. I tried to capture it in the photo I enclosed.  There's one of me, too, just so you know who what I look like! And one of Cowboy from before. Hold onto that one for him. We got lucky and I found a way to develop some film. I wrote on the back of the photos for you! Thank you for the well wishes! Stay safe! - James)

***

Dear Ash, 

 I think everyone here is just as ready as you for the war to be over. I know I am. I'm glad everyone's still alive. 

 They did. Dad especially. Think he's still sore about it. He'll get over it. I know you will and I'll do the same. 

Always and forever, baby. My handsome Marine. I hate that you're over there, but you look really good in the pictures baby. Short hair suits you. So does that big gun. What is it? 

 Love,

Mel 

 (Thanks James. Wow. The pictures are amazing. I love them. Nice to be able to put a face to you. Why do the guys call you Joker? I've added a few photos of me. I know I sent Ash off with one, but he might need a new one. I know you guys have been through hell. Stay safe!)

***

Dear Mel, 

 Tell your dad I'm sorry I lied and I won't do it again. I just want to take care of you. Tell your mom I sure could use some of her meatloaf and that casserole I like that I never remember the name of. Joker thinks it's green bean but I don't remember a lot of green beans in it. 

 It's an M-60. I named her Melody. You shoulda seen me in boot camp. They shaved every bit of my God damn hair off! I miss my hair. Especially the way you used to play with it. Hell of a lot harder to do that now. 

 Thank you for the pictures. I didn't want to tell you but the original one you gave me got all fucked up and then I lost it when my helmet got knocked off in a fucking ditch. Joker keeps trying to take one of the pictures. He said you're gorgeous and there's no way you're real. (You look like an angel? It's just not possible! Haha! Mother's a lucky man!) 

Miss you. 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (You truly are beautiful, Melody! Nice to put a face to the letters, too! They call me Joker because I have a tendency to make jokes. Mother says it's because I'm scared. Maybe he's right. I'm not gonna lie, it's scary as Hell here. Hopefully we'll be done soon. Take care of yourself! - James)

***

Dear Ash, 

 Mom and I cooked a bunch of food. Sweets and meals. Don't know if it'll make it to you in one piece or not, but we tried. Share some with Joker? And the other guys if enough survives. 

 You named that big gun after me? Dad told me it's a machine gun and people don't carry it around like that? 

God, I love you so much. Miss you even more. When you get home you can grow your hair out again. I miss playing with it too, but you are super handsome in your military stuff. 

 I wouldn't have been upset if you'd told me baby! I'm glad I sent you some new ones. Should I send one for him too? Glad he's there with you. 

I love you so much Ash. Miss you too baby. So much. Mom and Dad say you're welcome to stay with us when you get back. Spare room is yours. 

 Love, 

 Mel 

 ( Thank you! My mother says you're very handsome, but obviously I'm partial to Ash. I'm scared for all of you. Always thinking about you guys. Stay safe! Hope you all get to come home soon!)

***

Dear Mel, 

We got the sweets, but the rest of the shit didn't make it. But thank you! We shared what we could. People are starting to believe you might actually be a real girl now. (You should see the smirk on his face when he said that! Ha!) 

 Yeah. It's a machine gun. People don't carry it around like that but I do.  It's fully automatic. I just pull the trigger and rain hell down on those fucking *****. No don't send him one. (Yes, send me one!) 

 They're gonna let me stay there with you? Fuck, I must've done something right for a damn change, huh? Don't know what exactly I did, but I'm glad they changed their minds about me. 

 Command says just a few more weeks, but I'll believe it when I see it. My tour was supposed to be up three days ago and I'm still in the Crotch. Maybe soon. I miss you and I love you. 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (Tell your mother I said thank you! Not that I don't love him, but it blows my mind that he got a doll like you. Maybe there's hope for me yet! Until next time, James)

**

Dear Ash, 

 Well I'm glad something made it to you guys! 

Are they? I'm glad. I know shit is ugly over there, but I am proud of you for how you've taken care of Joker and the others. You're a good man. 

 Wow. You really are the Big Bad Wolf. Love you. So much. 

 I've sent a few more pictures, just let him have one of the copies? 

 Yeah, they are. You're family. It's a long story that can wait until you get home. 

Love you more than anything and miss you more, baby. 

 Love, 

 Mel 

 (There's definitely hope! You're a good looking guy. Plus, you've been so sweet to write for him. I thought he was dead for the longest time, but I kept writing just hoping I was wrong. It was so hard. Hope you guys come home soon!)

***

Dear Mel, 

 We're supposed to be on a plane back to the States in a week. I don't know if this will make it to you before I do, but just know that we're headed back. What's left of the Lusthogs anyway. Joker included. 

 I let Jimmy (JAMES) have one of the pictures. He teases me that he's using it to jerk off to. Can't say I blame him for that one. We don't have anything pretty to look at over here. Just pictures of you. 

 I really hope they're not shitting us and we're headed home next week. I love you. 

 Love, 

Ash 

 (Aw, gee, thanks, Mel! I do what I can. Despite popular belief, I'm actually very nice. I'm glad that I've been able to keep you two in touch. Mother's been much more tolerable since he's been able to write back to you. I can't imagine being on the other end of this and just waiting. Hopefully he'll be back to you soon. Don't know where I'm headed yet if they're telling us the truth and we're actually headed home in a week. It seems like a pipe dream that's too far away right now. We'll see. If not, we'll be writing again! Keep your head up! - James P.S. Thank you for the picture! I'm happy to know you!)

[roxannarambles]

Top 3 Favorites Of Fire Emblem 3 Houses

It’s time once again for Top Three! This time, for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a game I’m rather late to playing but have finally gotten around to!

I’ve decided to divide it by houses and give my top three favorites from each of the playable characters from the three houses/four routes. 

(Contains a few plot spoilers.)

Black Eagles

1.) Caspar

Caspar isn’t a perfect guy; he tends to have a disturbing tendency toward black-and-white thinking on morality, dividing the world into pure heroes and pure evil, and he doesn’t always stop to ponder the more intricate details of moral quandaries. Yet, despite that fact, in his heart he means well, and you cannot help but love him anyway. He’s enthusiastic and earnest, whole-hearted in what he does, and will fight fiercely to protect his friends. His voice actor is simply splendid and I think half of why I adore his character so much; the delivery is just perfect. The character will bring humor and energy to almost any situation, and both those elements are valuable standouts in a game with often heavy story themes.

2.) Petra

In a lot of ways, Petra is simply fulfilling a warrior princess archtype; a self-reliant huntress, proud, fierce, grateful to the blessings of mother nature, confidant, driven. With all that, it’s hard to find anything to dislike about her. She’s genuinely open and caring with everyone, despite the injustices against her country. She works very hard and carries the burden of an entire country on her shoulders with poise. She also makes for a powerful assassin unit.

3.) Linhardt

Linhardt is, to be perfectly honest, probably suffering from some pretty bad depression. His tendency to skip sleep some nights in favor of binge-studying, and then to sleep excessively and at all odd hours of the day, doesn’t read as “quirky” to me so much as a plain and very real symptom of depression (which can manifest in a number of ways, including insomnia and excessive sleep). His general attiude of apathy, again, seems a rather plain sign of depression. Considering the troubles of his past that he mentions he’s been trying to avoid confronting, this does make sense. While I don’t particularly enjoy Linhardt’s apathy and sleepiness, he’s actually quite a nice intellectual and a very good friend, when he puts his mind to it. 

Blue Lions

1.) Ashe

Ashe is a Very Good Boy, My Good Son. He’s as sweet and pure as a summer’s afternoon and I won’t suffer any fools who say otherwise. He dreams big and he actually puts the effort out to pursuing those dreams. Even when others try to dissaude him, or tell him he’s being niave to have such glowing ideals of knighthood, he fights for them anyway and follows his heart. He also cares deeply about his family and does all he can to take care of them, putting their needs above his own. And, he’s flippin’ adorable. What a lovely person.

2.) Felix

Ok, look. I don’t always like rude, bitchy, acerbic tsunderes. But when I do, I like me some Felix. Apparently. Felix is a disappointingly rather two-dimentional character in a lot of ways, since he falls into the “obsessive swordsman trope” that Lon'qu, Rutger and others also fall into. He obsesses over his swordplay and over improving himself, but there is no real core to WHY he obsesses over it; what drives him. The support conversation with Byleth and Felix explores this, but the conclusion never actually reaches any reason why he obsesses over it. He simply wants to be strong for the sake of strong. He has no idea why and never actually finds a reason. I find this deeply unsatisfying. Still, despite this fact, I cannot help but enjoy him anyway. His bitchiness and tsundere behavior is highly entertaining to me. And he does seem to at least draw some very clear lines: as obsessed as he is with power for sheer power’s sake, he is truly disgusted at excessive bloodshed and cruelty. He’s equally disgusted at romanticizing battle or dying for your ideals-- although I think his interactions with Ashe make him consider that sacrificing for your ideals may not be so terrible after all. 

3.) Annette

She’s bubbly, cheerful, energetic, loves to learn, is super friendly and often silly and provides comedic relief. The Blue Lions are generally a bunch who carry some pretty heavy emotional baggage-- so Annette’s presence is pretty essential to lighten the tone at times and help buoy people up. That’s not to say Annette doesn’t have her own shit to deal with, considering her father left her and her mother when she was still young. Still, she is a resiliant person who manages to carry on with aplomb despite that pain. And we get to enjoy her reconciliation with her father during the Blue Lion route, which is quite nice. 

Golden Deer

1.) Claude

Claude . . . Claude has so much great potential as a character, but I feel he was short-changed, in the end. He has an intriguing combination: he’s a man who has built up a reputation of being a sneaky, devious schemer, somebody to not be trusted and who does not trust others-- who relies soley on himself. Yet, on the other hand, he also has big, flowery dreams of creating a world that has destroyed racism and xenophobia, that welcomes and celebraties diversity and differences of all stripes. For all his claims of being self-serving and mistrustful, his dreams are enormously altruistic and compassionate. There was great potential in exploring this contradiction in his character, as well as tracing Claude’s path of slowly opening up and learning to trust others with his tender heart-- such as with Byleth. The trouble is this never actually HAPPENS in his route. The main plot focuses mostly on the actual military strategy; it does not go into the character development he so deeply deserved. His support conversations with Byleth were intended to show this character development, but without actually showing how he got from Point A to Point B-- wary and mistrustful vs. learning to open up-- it rings hollow to me. It’s frustrating, because I do love Claude dearly (deer-ly, haha. . .). He deserved, quite frankly, so much better.  

2.) Leonie

Leonie is very straightforward: what you see is really what you get. She’s a Commoner from a small village with big dreams of heoric mercenary life-- not all that dissimilar, really, from Ashe’s big dreams of heroic knighthood. She managed to drum up support (both emotional and financial) from her village and now feels obligated to do them all proud and pay them back for their support and kindness. While she can be a little single-minded at times about her adore for Jeralt (sometimes even lashing out in jealousy at Byleth), overall she’s a strong-willed, clever, and very determined young lady. I can’t help but love her. She also excels as a fantastic unit to use in-game, powerful, versitile, and getting so much done through pure grit, without any of the advantages or leg-ups that the Crest-bearing nobles are in posssession of. 

3.) Ignatz

I do realize this is Sweet And Pure Archer Son Number Two on my list, but there’s no way he’s not going on the list. He’s just too wonderful. Look at my son!!! He loves his family dearly and puts aside his own dreams to honor their needs and wishes! But he also can never quite give up on his artistic dreams and his friends all gradually encourage him to have the confidance to pursue them! He is so polite and sweet and friendly and shy! He has adorable little daydreams about the Goddess and has a crush on Saint Cethleann! He has such a huge glow-up after the timeskip and turns into such a dependable, strong young man who fights for justice and always holds such tender compassion in his heart! He’s great. :)

Church of Seiros

1.) Seteth

I would be repeating myself if I wrote anything here expounding upon my love of Seteth, which is as wide and deep as the blue-green seas. So I will just link you to a previous post. That should explain exactly how my feelings evolved over time about Seteth. He was an absolute surprise and a joy to discover. I never expected to fall in love with him; when I first started playing I always expected that Claude would be the one to steal my heart, not this mysterious man. But life’s funny like that.

2.) Alois

This man is a giant freaking dork and a goober, and I feel a great deal of affection for him. He makes me feel happy and safe and he is a great adoptive brother/dad/uncle/whatever. Truly, the game and the church would feel much emptier with him not around (and much quieter, haha). 

3.) Shamir

Shamir, when you first run into her, simply seems rude and cold. In fact, you will probably always have that impression of her, unless you read her support conversations. Once you access her supports, a whole new story is told. While she’s reserved and can be curt, she really does have a warmer side, growing to truly care for her allies. She’s deeply thoughtful and reflective, full of surprising insights. She’s also a remarkably talented mercenary and assasin, but while she insists she’s simply a sellsword, she does care about more then just the pay and survival. 

[withlove-so]

Hi I wanna gush about Ashe

This is gonna mention stuff from the IGN character profiles, so tread lightly!

If you don’t want to be spoiled about the game AT ALL, avoid this post. If you don’t mind knowing about weapon affinities and some character info, you should be okay. A plot point is mentioned, but it’s a fairly well known one if you’ve read even a bit into Ashe’s family and stuff. 

“Ashe Ubert is one of the characters of Fire Emblem Three Houses”

Oh my god you’re kidding. HIS NAME IS UBERT.

ASHE UBERT.

I may just call him Duran anyway, but Ubert is too good to pass up.

Same stuff we knew before, but I think it’s cute that he takes his studies seriously 🙌

This is where it gets interesting! (Not counting his weaponry and stuff, which I am very excited about!)

Being the fact that Ashe was born in October and dislikes ghosts, I just KNOW he heard a lot of ghost stories growing up, based purely on my Halloween bias. Even if they don’t have a Halloween equivalent, I can not be deterred.

THIS JUST IN, ASHE UBERT IS BABY

Also, he likes travel journals!! This is good fodder for Post time skip, just imagine the stuff he’d write in the moments leading up to the war! Or even during it! It’s got my hands itching to write, it telling ya.

He likes looking after children, so I’m going to need some Ashe and Cyril content, or I’ll do it myself!

He likes cooking and sweets, so now I just want him to try teaching Annette to cook and he makes her some yummy candy and she! Is just so happy!! God it sounds so cute.

Since he likes reading, he has been officially labeled Dork. I don’t make the rules.

Him liking violets is also super cute! I wonder if you can give him one as a gift (Or some of the other stuff as well.)

Now, as for what he dislikes, um, OOF.

Enclosed spaces, that a mood honestly, and some good writing material, yes please 👌 imagine him becoming easily overwhelmed and it causes him to feel compressed and he can’t breathe and it’S NOT A GOOD TIME FOR ANYBODY.

I don’t like enclosed spaces, and that overwhelming feeling can definitely transfer to different situations, so I’m totally gonna use that.

Ashe Ubert is, and I cannot stress this enough, baby. He’s afraid of ghosts and I love it, and I need to know who else is so they can comfort each other.

Now the wild part I’ve been holding off, he doesn’t like violence or deception. Well then you aren’t gonna like quashing your adoptive father’s rebellion hah. This is going to be absolutely crushing, and the fact that it was mentioned his dislikes has to mean SOMETHING, I can just feel it! I’m so ready for his character arc you don’t even know!

Now for the mechanically interesting stuff. I really thought he was going to be profiecinent in swords, but I have to admit this is just as good! This is the equivalent of little girl big axe and I love it. And it also explains why he was shown as a Paladin in the character classes video. I definitely think his budding talent is cool! I probably won’t use it since his house is literally the Lance House, but it’s certainly fitting.

If we’re able to mix and match weapons like I remember hearing, I’m definitely gonna equip him with a bow and axe! I just hope his hit rate will be able to keep up... with two of the most inaccurate weapons in the game... (Gods I’m gonna kill this boy, aren’t I)

(Also for my crack classes, I wanna equip this boy with Gauntlets. Actually, I wanna equip everyone with Gauntlets, but that’s not the point lol)

— — — —

Some So notes about my schedule and stuff, you can skip if you aren’t interested!

I don’t think I would mind doing more of these, though I’d really like to catch up with some of my requests...

I’ll be going on vacation from the 18-23, so maybe I’ll look at some more character profiles, since I won’t have time to do any writing then. (I was told that if I was on my phone for too long, my friend was going to chuck my phone into the ocean, so I gotta play it safe, ha!)

But before then, I wanna get some more writing done first! This time I’m actually off a lot of the time next week! (Mostly because of vacation but COUGH that’s not important) I was scheduled for two off days this week, but ended up being called in for one and working on D&D stuff the other, so I only got to do one this week 😩 but this time I should ACTUALLY have two free day not counting vacation, so I think I’ll be able to get two or three done! So please look forward to them!

[yoolee]

SLBP Next Gen OC Babble

UH warning for Major Character Deaths (that did not necessarily occur in game – but did in history), exactly zilch consideration given to reality when it comes to offspring. And, to be fair, exactly zilch consideration given to much of anything. I’m just writing. WHO KNOWS what will come out until it’s done. Know how in greek mythology Athena just banged her way straight outta Zeus’s head, fully formed? Mood. I feel you Zeusy. I do.

These don’t all exist in the same time/AU? Though I also overlap them willy-nilly as I please. FEEL THE SELF-DISCIPLINE. (It feels like nothing. Nothing at all). This isn’t all of them. Just the ones that my fingers needed to get out of their system. I’m just along for the ride. If I ever add the rest it’ll be to this post.

BABY BOOKWORM (F): Brilliant, brutal, beautiful – looks like Saki, with Mitsun’s intellect behind it. In another time, she might have been a scholar, completely content (if somewhat cloistered) with her books and her studies, but war compromised her life in a big way. Her father was determined to protect her, but also wanted her to be able to protect herself, so he taught her swordmanship alongside her brother and retainers, and she looks enough like her twin brother that she’s not above swapping places with him to give herself more agency. Her father was beheaded by the Tokugawa for supporting Baby Monkey’s bid and as a result her relationship with aforementioned BM is strained at best. She blames him for a lot – including what she perceives is a weak will and inability to do anything with the power he was born with, but also feels tethered to him and his success because of how much her father loved him and her brother still does. She will push and push and push and push and is not entirely capable of accepting that she might be wrong in any given situation. Never relaxes. Permanently stuck in acerbic tongue rage mode with only rare, brief glimpses of Being Actually Human.

BABY BOOKWORM (M): A fast, fast thinker, but quiet about it. Grew up on stories of how wonderful Lord Hideyoshi is (and then was, in the past tense) so did his best to emulate until it became natural. Laid-back, friendly, but oh-so-manipulative. Comes across as the friendlier of the two, but is actually even more hard-wired to Logic over Emotion than his sister. Has a mind for tactics and strategy but doesn’t care to apply it – he’d rather be on the battlefield, in the middle of the mindlessness of it, than using his brain to bring it about. Gives the impression of a taut string about to be plucked, if you pay close enough attention, which most people don’t because next to the vibrating rage of his twin, he seems super chill. Never actually relaxes, though he tries, unless he’s around kids.

BABY MONKEY: His father was a farmer who became a soldier, and Baby Monkey is a soldier who wants to be a farmer. He craves peace and stability and can’t entirely stomach what’s necessary to attain it. Constantly feels like he is trying to live up to a myth. Genuinely kind person. Manipulative when he has to be, but not as good at it as his father, and each failure makes him feel a little smaller in his shadow. Happiest when the people around him are happy, so he gets back up every time and tries again, and tries desperately to shove down his own dislike for the spotlight so he can use to it to make them happy.

BABY TANUKI: Has the world—except for her father—wrapped around her delicate, darling fingers, and she might very well strangle it if given the chance. Doe-eyed and dear she is perceived as something of a simpleton, fragile and sweet and gentle and tender and loving and she is none of those things. She is calculating and vicious and quite nearly straight up immoral, except sufficiently unmotivated that for now it’s enough just to be adored by everyone and think them fools for it. There is a sort of seething fury at her lot in life, in knowing that troops won’t follow her into battle or bow at her feet in fear of the blood she’s spilled, and the only person who gets that is her father, who begrudgingly raised her to find power she clearly craves in other ways, without ever spelling out that what was what he was doing, trusting her to be smart enough and strong enough to take what she was taught and find some way to do what she wants once she figures out what that is. She is clever and capable, just doesn’t have a goal. The endless, endless mind games she plays and the adorations she collects are mostly a manifestation of the crushing boredom that comes from being a lady of the castle, as it were. Scary MF. Intense and deceitful. But for all her uncaring, she’s never actually really hurt anyone (maybe a few sore hearts) or been genuinely cruel – and in fact, she’s probably smoothed more situations and saved more souls in her quest to be loved and cherished by all than not. WILY.

BABY FLOWER: Loves her father but is painfully exasperated by him. She is his greatest treasure, most dearly loved, and even though he tells her that literally every time he sees her, she is always secretly happy to hear it, and the way her father’s quiet melancholy clears for just a moment when he does. Dutiful, responsible, serious and elegant, she genuinely enjoys being a Lady and all that it entails. Constantly, CONSTANTLY clamps down on her urge to gather and collect pretty things because she’s seen what it does but oh, OH how that impulse is there. Has had a crush on Ai for basically forever, but the older girl only sees her as a precious little sister and is pretty firm about that, to baby flower’s eternal heartbreak XD Can drink every Echigo retainer under the table, every time, without ever turning her cheeks pink, not that she does so often, because even if no one else can tell what happens to her mind when she takes that first sip she can, and the places she can go when she does frighten her, though she grimly appreciates knowing they are there if she needs them. Has an inherent nobility and grace that serve her very well.

BABY POET (Mitsuhide lol): COMPLICATED BUNDLE. Has an absolute, unbreakable, unbendable, unflinching code of honor. The world is black and white and there is no such thing as gray, and they live by that in a way most humans can’t manage or commit to. In a manner that often throws people though, they aren’t particularly judgey unless called on (usually by Baby Demon) to voice their thoughts, which are always, always honest and rarely easy to swallow. They don’t care what others do – it’s their own honor that matters, but it just makes them that much more of an astute observer, since they have little stake in others. They are incredibly perceptive and incredibly adept at getting to the heart of things in a way that can be unsettling if you haven’t been honest with yourself. Seems very quiet and polite and poetic—and to an extent, they are—but they also have a bit of a ‘burn down everything that is bad  - including ourselves if are so - and start anew from the ashes’ take on life that can be, uh INTENSE. Not in any rush to do that – they’re pretty sure they’ll know when they’re called to do so. And they won’t flinch.

BABY DEMON: Solemn, quiet, serious, honorable. Saw a little too much a little too early and will spend his whole life trying to make up for debts that aren’t his – as well as the ones that are. Fully aware that if he manages to build the world in his vision there won’t be a place for him in it, which is probably why he hangs with Baby Poet, who knows it too. Often forgets about the little moments for himself – he works very hard to protect them for his followers (birthdays, blossom-viewing, weddings, good meals) but rarely, if ever, participates himself, until his retainers seek him out and drag him into it because they know he won’t break out of warlord mode without them forcing him to do so. Actually painfully shy and very, very sweet under it all, but ignores that because what value does that bring anyone?

BABY TIGER: Almost a carbon copy of his dad. Bold, brave, bigger than life. Charismatic and unstoppable, but not stupid (though he can be). Eyes are always shining about something. A realist who chooses to live as an optimist. Not a lord - the Takeda clan has been defeated by the time he is a teen, disbanded or absorbed into others, but he still loves people, and he is still a leader, and he will still protect anyone who asks it of him. Wanders hither and thither with Smolsuke, who chose to be his shadow like Sasuke was for his dad. Could care less about things like unity and Divine Rule - he cares about the people in front of him, and the lives they live now and what he has to do to keep them safe and make them better. 

RANDOM RELATIONSHIPS:

Baby Bookworm (F) x Baby Tanuki: Should their paths ever cross they would loathe one another to their cores – mostly, yes, for the similarities simmering under the surface, the shared rage and brilliance. In particular, Tanuki would hate Bookworm for having the agency to go to battle, disguised as a man or not, and Bookworm would loathe her simply for the family she’s from and what they took from her, in addition to being a deceitful horror – because Bookworm would see through her instantly. Just like Tanuki would see through her and know just where to poke to make her hurt. IN THE MODERN WORLD they would be best friends who would rather die than admit a modicum of affection for one another, and probably occasionally contemplate murder, but would also be super chill roommies where Bookworm read and Tanuki murders throngs of zombies on a video game before getting dinner and bitching about the dumb people in their lives. Pants-wettingly TERRIFYING when they choose to be a united front.

Baby Bookworm (F) x Baby Monkey: Unadulterated rage and fearful sympathy. Bookworm hates him for not doing what she feels like he could be doing, not taking the power he has to make things better, and he feels guilt over what she’s lost and finds her presence exhausting (because it is). He also dislikes that she makes him feel inadequate, because it (possibly ironically, given her goals) makes it even harder to step up. Despite all of that, he really, truly wants her to be happy (in part, yes, out of his own guilt in her unhappiness) and that is motivating in its own way. They steer clear of one another, because it drains them both to go at it, which they do, every time, and so they spare themselves unless there’s no other choice.  

Baby Brave x Baby Dragon: MEANT TO BE. Childhood love to something forever-lasting. They get to be happy because I said so. Fight me.

Baby Deer x Baby Jokester: They do settle! They stay in Europe for years until they decide it’s time for a family and they make their way back. Their parents know. Despite them supposedly running off without a trace, Nobuyuki shows up the day his first grandchild is born and kisses her brow before leaving, and a traveling merchant with a toothy grin sometimes stops by to deliver letters and goods that he refuses payment for. They don’t see their cousins, but their children meet theirs, someday.

Baby Flower x Baby Tiger: Baby tiger has been in love with her forever (or thinks he has been), but she pretty firmly prefers girls and has made that clear, so over time, they become best friends. Would not hesitate to die for one another, but they are both strong enough and smart enough and absolutely determined enough to manage to save the other’s ass without dying, because living for someone is so much better. He never quite gives up the torch he carries for her, but he tries to – even using her for advice on wooing and such XD since he’s pop’s ways work about 50% of the time.

Baby Bookworm (M) & Baby Monkey are also BFFS, as are Baby Tiger & Smolsuke

[dclohv-blog]

howdy everyone, i’m lara (like the croft) and this is my gutter dumpster boy ANTONIN! he’s horrible, but i’m going to try not to be; i’m 23, use she/her pronouns, and live in the central time zone. college and my job keep me up into all hours, so i’m always around to make life interesting. under the cut, you’ll find my application (which is so long and doing way too much, so bless u if u make it all the way through), in addition to which i’m also trying to whip up a good full biography page, though my proclivity for procrastination probably isn’t going to make that an easy task. please come give me all the plots, and come yell at/with me, because i’m super excited and up for anything and everything !!

* △ — the dark lord has targeted [ ANTONIN DOLOHOV ] !  the muggles say he / she / they hold(s) resemblance to [ GASPARD ULLIEL ]. the [ TWENTY NINE ] year old [ MALE ] was [ MAGNETIC & PASSIONATE ] before the war, but have now become [ CONTROLLING & VIOLENT ]. though they were once a part of [ SLYTHERIN ], they have now taken up the position of a / an / the [ RUSSIAN LIASON TO THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL MAGICAL COOPERATION ]. whispers throughout the ministry claim that the [ PUREBLOOD ] is actually [ A DEATH EATER ], but i wouldn’t report that to the daily prophet.

HEADCANONS

1) patronus — Snow bursts     from beneath the feet of his steed, plumes, waves like a powdered sea,     settling into his hair, dampening his shoulders; a strange cacophony of     sensations this is, to be flanked by friends, to sit astride a steed known     from birth, to chase after a family of deer with such plebian fervor – but     to do so while wielding such magnificent power. Wand rolls between gloved     fingers, cutting down branches and bursting birds into plumes of smoke and     feather as he passes, the master, the pointed lead of the deadly formation.     All it is, is fun – they give no thought to slaughtering deer, to gutting     them and leaving them to bleed upon the snow simply for their amusement;     Antonin cannot help but wonder if his horse has some sort of moral     objection to chasing such a close cousin to its death – but the thought     only makes him laugh. Long before he killed the poor boy whose last sight     would be the walls of Durmstrang, he finds his release in the bloodshed of     animals. After all, they cannot really     fight back, can they? Perhaps the mountain lion can, the bear, the     cougar whose skin now serves as a rug in his mother’s boudoir, but never     the deer. And there is something almost erotic about complete and total     domination. Surely his comrades smell his power, even now – they’ve seen     it before, and they’ll see it now, even if the prey has neither the power     nor the foresight to fight back. But this is joy in its essence – a band     of brothers, warriors, like-minded personifications of violence itself who     kill not for the pride, the purpose, the profit, but for the thrill of     watching blood spill over an untouched bank of snow. Antonin throws a wild     grin, a haphazard glance, over his shoulder to one of his comrades, who     thrusts his wand in the air. He looks to the other, who does the same. He     looks forth, wand thrust forward and battle cry, a flurry of     indiscriminate curses slipping from chapped lips, and urges his horse     forward.

  The first deer falls with a whip-crack and a plume of red light, and -

   From his wand, in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts, amidst a classroom full of onlookers, bursts a Snow Leopard, snarling, slinking about the circle until it comes to curl     about Antonin’s legs, broad nose prodding at his calf. With cyanide lips     curled upward, he looks down upon his creation and knows – this is his soul.

   In common lore, the Snow Leopard symbolizes Intuition, Solitude, Secrets,  Allure, Sexual Prowess, and PURITY. A solitary animal, it watches, observes, and collects information, striking only when beneficial. It cares well for its own, and is often associated     in legend and lore with self-discovery through excruciating trial. It is only appropriate, then, that Antonin produce such a manifestation of his own soul, for his own trial by fire (or ice) is ever burning.

2) amortentia —  “But the real question – does your Amortentia smell of me?” The subtlest hints of     Antonin’s amortentia change quite regularly, but the base is always the     same. Pine, sometimes fresh, sometimes crackling at the base of a dying     fire; red wine, surely just fresh poured; roses, but only just – perhaps     no more than a few petals upon a bare collar; the salt of the sea, quite     like the Baltic coast, for its smell is different than any other stretch     of ocean he’s come upon; the distinct smell of sex –sweat, musk, the faintest floral of a familiar perfume.     Amortentia is not something that Antonin likes to dwell on – love is a strange thing, ever changing; he     would much rather fuck than     love. But he cannot help but be torn in a thousand directions upon     catching a whiff of his perfectly brewed Amortentia – home, the woods     surrounding the small (“small”)     manor to the north used as a vacation home, the sea… and familiar beds, familiar whiffs from upon familiar     locks. Familiar perfumes and colognes upon sheets – the familiarity of a     head of raven hair and a pair of strong hands. It always changes – but love remains ever constant.     Constant – and unwanted.

3) boggart — “I fear     nothing. Why would I? It is I who     should be feared.” Antonin would rather die than admit any sort of weakness – and fear is just that: weakness.    And perhaps that is indicative enough of his truest fears, that he     cannot admit weakness, that he cannot admit fear, or humanity if he possesses any at all. Failure, in truth, is his greatest fear – rejection,     incompetence, impotence; he got a taste of it in the form of doubt, doubt     and the knowledge that his omnipotent darkness, that his overreaching     power has its limits. Fear that even he     is mortal, that even he can     fall to error. Antonin does not fear death; to fear death would be to fear     the skin into which he was born. But he does fear failure, as cliché as it sounds. Failure would     mean disappointment; failure would mean letting a legacy fall to ash and     ruin; failure would see a hall of proud portraits, proud men, proud names     to uphold, smolder, burn, and fall to irrelevance, disrepair, and shame. His boggart sees this, of     course; where Antonin assumed that he would face a boggart and see it shrug, it grows, expands to a     hundred times its size. It is a wonder that it fits in the room in which     it’s contained, upon facing Antonin, for where a nondescript shape once     stood, a burning manor now stands. A raven-haired woman (“Mama?”) falls into the ash,     clutching at diamonds with one hand and what remains of a picture frame     with the other. A hunched figure stands over her, a man, a familiar back     which has never shut him out until now. He calls out to them – to his     mother once, twice, thrice, then his father (but only once) – but they do     not turn, for they do not hear him.     Perhaps they choose not to – or perhaps they simply cannot fathom any     sound but the burning of their house, the dismantling of their great     legacy. And all because of him.

4) wand —     ELM; What is truly ironic about this     wand wood, in particular, is its reputation for never making mistakes.     When Antonin drew his first blood, committed his firstmurder, his mother, for a time, did     her very best to pass it off as a mistake, a misfire, a malfunction of the     trusty wand which was made to be     precise at all times. ‘Elm wands     never make mistakes’, Gregorovitch had said. Elm wands never make     mistakes – and they certainly never lie,     either. Antonin, of course, stood by his wand, and his choices, and     his actions which disproved his mother’s claims; there was no use lying     about something as honest as his wand, after all. And why would he lie?Shame is an unfamiliar sensation.     Elm is a particularly fitting wand for Antonin, in addition, because it     notoriously prefers wielders with innate purpose and dignity; an elegant     wand for an elegant purity, and highly capable of all that Antonin will     doubtlessly ask of it.

5) LITTLE BLACK BOOK; I know it’s cliché, and I know that it makes Antonin seem a bit too much like Joey Tribbiani for comfort, but he actually has a little black book of past conquests. A small leather booklet, he keeps it in a slide-away panel within the trunk at the end of his bed. It is a rather sordid little thing, with comments, notes, likes, dislikes, sweet spots all listed upon crisp pages. He writes in his thick book of consumed hearts with only the finest ink, and treats its maintaining like ritual. It grows more often than it remains stagnant, and has seen many a night alone in the common room, pages flipping near dangerously dripping candle wax, spine pressed open while ink dries; Antonin is a studious lover, and should he ever return to a past conquest, to a page in his book, he will know them like a well-memorized song. No one knows of this little black book, for he does not flaunt it, nor does he wish to share its contents with anyone. At times, he makes vague, suggestive, allusions to it, calling it his box of hearts, but those who listen simply assume that he is simply talking into the darkness to satisfy his own ego – little do they know, he has more than just intent.

6) MOTHER KNOWS BEST; Antonin is, for lack of a better phrase, a giant mama’s boy. His mother is his entire world; from the very beginning, he was more devoted to his mother than to anyone else. He’d pick her flowers from the garden (“From my garden, Ant? Those were mine to grow.”), follow her about during her rare afternoons spent painting in the solarium, and generally worship at her feet. Of course he loves his father unabashedly, but the love he feels for him is something more akin to fear for comfort. He feels a great deal of pressure in his father’s presence, but in his mother’s he feels nothing but warmth and encouragement. She was never a traditional mother, hardly giving him the outward affection so many other boys received, but even the slightest pat of approval atop his boyish head was reassurance enough. He would kill and be killed for his mother – she gave him life, and he would gladly give or take it at her command. He will build a legacy, an empire, and will build a castle at the heart of it all for his dear Mama.

7) WHEN THE ANIMALS SMELL A PREDATOR…; There was very little like time spent in the stables, amongst the horses, in the quiet of early dawn before the birds awake and the snow outside is greatly disturbed. Antonin is an accomplished equestrian, and knows a great deal about the care of horses and the technique associated with all equine areas of interest. He is quite fond of the steeplechase, and of hunting from horseback, but there is merit to a simple ride through the woods to clear one’s head; the horses are unjudging company who expect nothing of you, they are easily controlled for the most part, and they make Antonin feel innately powerful simply by being. Sitting astride a horse is elevating in more ways than one – but what is most notable, perhaps, is the way that, for the slightest moment, as Antonin pushes open the barn doors in a flurry of powder and cool air, the horses go silent. Horses are notoriously noisy, demanding creatures – but for just a moment, in a space no longer than a breath, a blink, a beat of the heart, they are entirely still, with big brown eyes upon him, watching, waiting. But then the noise resumes, for they know that this predator is on their side.

8) GOD HATES WITCHES; A small incident in the life of a magnate, an iron prince, a legacy in flesh, but a small one – on regular family trips to Moscow, he disappears for an hour at a time; his parents worry not for his whereabouts, for they know that he is more than capable of wielding the streets of Moscow on a tight leash. Upon the steps of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior he sits, black jacket billowing in formidable breeze, a cigarette between his lips and a smirk playing at their corners. It is a personal joke he shares with only himself; he once heard, as a boy, a man preaching on the steps of this very cathedral that all wielders of magic and might, anything contrary to the man’s God was an abomination, that should they step foot inside the cathedral, they would burn on the spot. And so he sits on the steps, tempting fate, tempting expectation, teasing the myth that so many muggles seem to believe so fervently. Of course he believes it not – but the symbolism, the irony, and the chance to smoke in the face of a deity is too much to pass up.

9) OF OLD KINGS AND DEAD REGIMES; Antonin’s favorite subject to study is history – history of magic, and certain facets of European muggle history, specifically. He has a collection of old history books hidden away beneath his bed, sorted into meticulous categorical piles; needless to say, he’s read through the lot of them time and time again, for they never cease to amaze and fascinate. Antonin has a particular proclivity for cruel kings and long-standing empires with bloody histories; his own family history is one that he knows like the back of his hand, their legacy of domination, terror, and omnipotence being something to behold and something not easily forgotten or passed over in the annals of magical history. He excels in History of Magic, though he, during his studies, was not the sort to openly speak out in class; his knowledge, no matter how insatiable and overreaching, is one best kept silent. His aloofness is only magnified by time spent alone in the library, reading by candlelight in his usual armchair, with quill between his teeth, and notebook and historical tomes spread on the table before him. He could list every king of every notable dynasty from the beginning of time – and he takes pride in the knowledge that his name will share a page with the lot of them soon enough.

10) NAME ANALYSIS:

ANTONIN: “beyond praise, priceless”; A fitting name for a boy of such high caliber. His ego and his expectation linger just above the clouds; Antonin was born to be great, to be praised, to dominate. He is priceless, he is without compare; his mother and father were fully aware of the connotations of their heir’s name, and he has certainly lived up to it thus far. Of course, he intends to go above and beyond the expectations laden upon his name, for he is beyond praise,and he is beyond compare.

SVIATOSLAV: “he who worships the light”; Antonin’s middle name is such for Czar Sviatoslav I of Kiev, who was known largely for his merciless and effective conquest of two of the greatest and most potent powers of Eastern Europe. He was known for his insistence upon being surrounded by nobles, and like, war-minded, individuals for the entirety of his adult life, and for his ceaseless determination to dominate in all fields. He was considered a decent ruler; very little is known about his personal life, as he was private in most things aside from his political campaigns, but persists in history as a key expander of the empire as a whole. Antonin, needless to say, is quite proud to flaunt such an accomplished name.

DOLOHOV: “of the Dolohov dynasty”; The Dolohov name is one that does not need explaining. The Dolohov name is one implicitly known, one feared and loved and revered – and rightfully so. The strength of the bloodline is paramount; the potency of the Dolohov name, the family tree and its ever-reaching roots, the legend riding upon the back of each patriarchal male born under such a name, is all that truly matters. Family and honor above self; pride and respect above personal ambition. The name comes first – the heart is secondary.

AESTHETIC

The sound of leather shoes on freshly waxed marble, chipped china shoved to the back of a dark cabinet, too-strong cologne, popped buttons on a crisp white shirt, velvet tassels with golden chain, bruises hastily covered with mother’s white powder, snow stuck to the bottom of a thick fur coat, the click of a lock overshadowed by a loud scream, hickeys in provocative places that never seem to fade, whiskey and honey in a silver flask, hidden tattoos in different languages, sitting still and stiff for a family portrait, blood splattered across snow, the groaning hull of a salty old ship, soft words reserved only for mother, history books in stacks upon old leather armchairs, halls and halls of portraits that never smile, the rush of adrenaline after giving a hard punch, a cigarette tipped between pouting lips, commanding fingers wrapped about a lily-white throat, the smell of sex on black silk, wine dribbling down a split lip. You are an old king in a new body, and you will devour their gods to make room for your own. You are loyal to your blood as it spills, infects, sublimes.

EXTRAS: 

- basically, he went to Durmstrang first, but was expelled because he got involved in some shady business that ended up getting a bunch of people hurt - but does he care?? noooo

- he’s a total playboy, and a charmer that’s more snake than charm; he’s loyal to voldemort, but his own interests always come first. he’s the ‘spoiled prince from russia’ who likes to have the violent kind of fun, and thinks that the sun shines out of his butt, basically 

- has an enormous Machiavelli complex. It makes him doubt if he should be a follower or not; and it makes him wonder if love is a waste of time, and if fear should replace it all

- he’s just !!!!!!!!! A DOUCHE !!!!!!!!!! but he’s fun and good in the sack so ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

- he’s also v bisexual (”my sexual preference is often”) and likes to drink people under the table. 

- currently working at the ministry, but mostly in an honorary position since the russian ministry really wants like... nothing to do with anything to do with anyone else. but he feels very uppity about being a ‘liaison’, for what it’s worth

- antonin dolohov is what happens when joey tribbiani goes to the upside down, thanks for coming to my ted talk