#hyperfixation on the disney fairies about to begin

[faeriefully]

y'all, I'm afraid that I am about to fall down a deep rabbit hole that I have been circling for years

[markerofthemidnight]

Sense you mentioned it, what's the name and general plot of the DND campaign you were worried would go on infant hiatus? Only if it's a public/streamed/recorded campaign.

-An Observatory 🌙

Well, then. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this.

The campaign was a sort of slightly (emphasis on slightly) comedic, yet still very much horror-focused, version of the infamous Curse of Strahd.

The channel, if you’re interested, is called SpiffyNeedleGeeks. They’re a very small channel, being most famous for Smash trailer reactions back when Ultimate was just coming out a few years ago. Besides the DND, it’s mostly big AAA games they do, but they also cover horror every now and again each October!

Only about, like, 5% of their 2.5k subscribers pay any attention to their DND stuff. Besides that, they’re running two other (not cancelled) campaigns: Ravnica: Trail of Dragons (which I will admit I haven’t watched), and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (which I have watched).

Anyways, back to Curse of Strahd… I’m pretty sure everyone knows how that campaign goes, but this one has a lot of unique twists and turns to add a sense of spice to it. If I were to sum it up in a very out-of-context way:

Basically, a dragon-worshipping Disney princess, a magical macaroni velociraptor soldier, Interdimensional Shitlord Pinocchio, a green Simon Belmont ripoff, a sword-wielding shiny Charizard with a fairy waifu, Big Bird, and the least scary demon you will ever meet try to fight a vampire and then get deeply traumatised.

Go… check it out, if you’d like! They’re not technically listed as podcasts on YouTube, but it still makes for a pretty fun thing to listen to as, like, background noise!

BUT: I will warn you first, try to avoid looking at the thumbnails of any future sessions at ALL COSTS. The thumbnail art updates as the PC’s designs change in-universe, and thumbnail art updates tend to happen pretty commonly over the course of the campaign. Each contains MASSIVE spoilers, so try and avoid them by any means necessary, as difficult as it may be.

And, if you see a playlist marked “SNG Streams: Dungeons and Dragons”, don’t open that either. That playlist is meant to hold oneshots and silly character creation streams, but for some reason a good 2/3rds of it is filled with Curse of Strahd sessions. JUST CoS, for some reason. And it begins with Session 20, a long way into the 30-session campaign. So don’t click it. Just click Curse of Strahd, and don’t scroll too far.

Anyways, if you do intent on listening to Curse of Strahd- or, heck, any of their campaigns- try and update me! I have been stuck waiting to be able to talk to someone about this after two and a half years of it being a hyperfixation of mine, so I’m… kinda going bonkers at this opportunity?

Anyway, have fun, Observatory! And whoever else is reading this, you can all check this out if you like!

[britishassistant]

A twst and NeverAfter crossover! A Twisted Neverland! There are so many possibilities!

Warning: NeverAfter/twst chapter 7 spoilers

I imagine the RSA princes’ motives might be a combination of the Fairies and the Princesses; something like, destroying twisted wonderland in order to return to the “true” version of the story. Because imagine how unfair it must feel to go from being the most important character in your story to barely even getting a name. I could see that leading to a mindset of setting right what once went wrong, only their definition of “right” is a bit myopic. Nevemind that their plan would doom all of the NRC students because “they’re villains, villains don’t deserve happy endings”

I know he’s taking the role of the Stepmother but Malleus’ goal also gives him a lot in common with the Baron of Bricks. A beginning with no ending. And a conflict with death (which is perfect since Idia, twisted from the ruler of the underworld, is gonna go up against him in canon). Perhaps that’s why he’s not too far gone to save? Because he doesn’t want to completely destroy everything, instead he wants to preserve certain parts of the story at the expense of everything else. Or is he at a point of “if I can’t have you no one can”?

What’s Lilia’s role in this? I can’t imagine he’d willingly go along with this insane plan if he understood what was going on, considering his reaction at the party. So is he being controlled? I guess that would mean Silver is in a similar position to Pinocchio.

If the students are sticking to the script doesn’t that mean that Yuu has to meet with Malleus? Not very often (thank god) but I doubt he’d take kindly to being denied their friendship, not after everything he’s sacrificed to keep it. Man, imagine meeting this eldritch creature and being expected to act all clueless and call him Hornton like you’re not painfully aware that he wants to eat you or something.

And are all the students aware of the nature of their world? Was it harder for some of them to awaken than others? Specifically the ones without an obvious analog from the other stories? Like Jack, or those twisted from plot devices instead of characters? (Epel: I’m a goddamned apple)

Sorry for the long disjointed rant, your au just combined my two current hyperfixations:D

Thank you for the ask, dear anon!

These are literally my two hyperfixations right now, I am vibrating in place—

(Also this is just one of the two possible crossovers I’ve had in mind. After all, if Disney interpretations of fairy tales exist within Neverafter, who’s to say our intrepid heroes couldn’t wash up on Sage Island one fine morning?)

And yes that is what’s happening with the RSA princes—much like the Neverafter princesses they have basically decided that the villainous world of Twisted Wonderland is only making people residing in it unhappy as things get worse and worse every run. Therefore the only way to save everyone and make them happy is by making sure this backwards, twisted world no longer exists.

Yes, Malleus’ goals are basically an amalgamation of the two—like when the stepmother started out and the Baron, all he wants is a way to keep Lilia from getting sick and to keep his human in Twisted Wonderland without needing to ever worry about parting. Except, then he discovered that his story was written to be a tragedy where he confronts loss and learns to move on despite it. And in his current mindset, the being formerly known as Malleus Draconia was not prepared to accept that this narrative would only take from him that which he held dear.

Isn’t it better that he sacrifice the very thing binding him to this tale, the name of the heir to the Valley of Thorns, if it means he can surpass the Thorn Fairy and destroy all that which is unnecessary to his happiness? Even if his current power is insufficient to do so, all he needs to do are consume the other manifestations of “Dorm Head” or “Villain” until he is the only being left with any claim to these titles, no?

He’s not quite at the point of “if I can’t have you, no one can” but he is getting there. Oh boy is he getting there.

Lilia, Crowley and by extension Sebek are trying to work against the Diasomnia Dorm Head to get things Back on Track (or what they think Back On Track is). As fae, they’re a bit more aware of the ways in which the narrative should run, and the beings whose attentions they do not wish to attract for fear of them making the story worse.

For Lilia and Sebek this is hard as they need to try and keep Diasomnia running like how it was when the Dorm Head was still mostly person shaped, while ensuring no one deviates from the script by force, if they must. They can’t do much about the Dorm Head, as he’s basically drifting around doing whatever he wants to try and gain more power, but for the more human students? Well, it’s not like these individual, self-centered mages can really fight back against Crowley or Lilia’s capabilities, right? Just stick to the plan and everything will be fine, they promise.

Of course, this is without the additional factor that every parallel version of Twisted Wonderland our heroes end up in after they die incorporates more of the darker and grittier aspects of the original tales than the ones before it.

Kalim al-Asim hasn’t had the freedom to think for himself since the start of the year, for example. Crossing the Octavinelle trio is a sure fire way to find yourself vanished without a trace, the dorm students of Ignihyde seem to be halfway to the underworld already, and some say the dorm head of Heartslaybul will paint the roses red with the blood of those who fail to live up to his exacting standards.

Yuu, Grim, Silver, Rook and Ortho are all part of Team “maybe we shouldn’t have to follow our stories to the letter to find happiness but we don’t want the world destroyed either thnx”.

Grim, quite understandably, does not want his story to end with him turning into a monster that either kills his friends or gets killed by them, and so is trying to find a way to avoid this fate.

Silver and Rook, thanks to their more light-aligned origins, are similar to the RSA students in that once they’ve “awoken” they’ll stay that way across every version of themselves. Silver is taking it much harder than Rook is, though it’s not easy for him either.

Ortho, thanks to Idia modifying his memory databanks so they can be transferred across dimensions, is able to pretty much “awaken” whenever an alternate version of him is destroyed.

Yuu’s notebook, which they originally used in their Villainous Paranoiac ‘verse to record everything that happened to them and try to figure out a way to prevent overblots, functions very much like Timothy Goose’s storybook, if more…prone to overwriting its wielder with the memories stored within.

Most of the students who “wake up” usually join this side as well. It’s actually much easier for the students who aren’t twisted from defined character within their story to “awaken”. After all, it’s much harder for a person to be twisted into a worse version of their story counterpart if that counterpart is say, an apple, a pair of cards, or a wolf that never appeared in the first place.

Thank you for ranting though! I really enjoy reading through things like this!!

[jasminedragonart]

Beauty and the Beast you say? Hyperfixation unlocked. Even if you don’t like it, I am curious what thoughts there may be

PS I love your work 💙

Let's do Beauty and the Beast.

To start off with, I like the old animated film. It was my grandma's favourite and I loved watching it with her. I didn't really appreciate it until I was around 15 years old though, before that it was one of those movies that I would watch if it was on, but i wouldn't seek it out to watch it.

What I think is quite sad about this film, and a lot of the fairy tales Disney has produced in its past, is that there is no way they could remake this now. I know they have, but we were VERY lucky that we got the remake that we did and that it came out in a time where Disney's feminist agenda wasn't so awful.

I have this horrible fear that if they did remake it that Belle wouldn't be Belle anymore. The story would change. She'd be some woman who would want nothing to do with the Beast by the end of the film (like woke Amazon's Cinderella, or even Disney's Mulan.) It's good to change the narrative, but if you're a company who is remaking a film you are just remaking it, you are following the old plot and merely adding little bits in. A remake isn't a remake if it's a completely different story.

Belle's romance with the Beast is the heart of Beauty and the Beast and it works on so many levels.

Let's start with the title. Beauty and the Beast. We can interpret this, firstly, as how the villagers say it in the opening song. Belle's name means Beauty, therefore she is the Beauty in Beauty and the Beast. But if we analyse the title further we can look at what the plot is about. The whole movie hinges on the idea that the Beast falls and is loved in return by someone without his beauty. And we know he was beautiful, it's stated at the beginning. His narrative hinges on the fact that he's stripped of his beauty and that beauty itself isn't purely what we can see. Beauty and the Beast, therefore, becomes the Beast's title, it's his struggle with beauty itself and his perception of it and how him being turned into this creature has warped who he once was and made he himself into someone who can't see his own beauty anymore. We could also look at this from a symbolic point of view. What is beauty in this movie? What is the beast? We, as humans, have both sides inside of us, we coexist with this concept that we can be monstrous and beautiful at the same time and that there is beauty in the monstrous side of us too. Look at Gaston, he is, supposedly, a handsome man, yet his actions are monstrous. He is the Beast in this movie because his actions make him so. We could, therefore, apply the title to him as well.

If we move on from the title we can start to look at the characters. I want to focus on Belle a lot because I feel like a lot of who she is can sometimes be forgotten in the wake of a lot of criticism of this film. Belle doesn't have stockholm syndrome, I'm just going to say it. She doesn't. Her feelings for the Beast develop because of his own actions to her, not because he stayed the same and she saw goodness where there was none. The Beast changed for her. She noticed this change. In fact, I hate the idea that people change for other people. The Beast didn't change, he just found his humanity again. Actually, we'll start with the Beast.

So, the Beast when we first meet him properly is acting not good. He's threatening Belle's father, he's imprisoning him and Belle. But, I mean, in retrospect, we can see his reasonings behind his actions. We need to remember certain things here, while we do see this mainly from Belle's point of view, we need to remember that things have happened to the Beast. He's living his own story and we get a glimpse of this at the beginning. He turned away a stranger in the dead of night and was transformed into a monster because she was secretly a witch. Was he a child? Was he not? I don't think it really matters. What does matter is that some stranger came to his door, he turned them away and he was cursed for it. A bad thing, maybe. But this is medieval times. Yes she was an old woman, but he's a prince. Do you know how many diseases were rampant in the medieval period? Royalty was sequestered away for a reason whenever illnesses broke out. He's used to keeping his distance from the people, and yes, he shouldn't have made fun of her appearance but, again, he's a prince, this is his attitude that he does actually learn and change from as the years pass.

Back to Belle and her father. Her father breaks in. Let's remember that shall we. Her father breaks in, makes himself at home, and while his staff are more than happy to have this guy here, he is the master of the house, he should have the say on who stays in his home. Also, I know the rose is just a rose, but, again, if he's willing to steal a rose what else is he willing to steal? That, along with self esteem issues, his royal status and the fact that maurice broke in, I mean, the Beast kind of has reasons to imprison Maurice. He does. I'm not sorry about it.

Anyway. With Maurice in custody the swap happens and we now have Belle living here. Here's the thing, he knows she's pretty. The villagers tell us they know she's pretty and the Beast has eyes, he knows she's pretty too. His lack of self esteem, the fact that he now has her living with him, that she's the daughter of the man who crossed him, he's not wrong to be a bit tetchy at first. At first. I do not excuse how he yelled that she could starve, but, again, he's been alone a long time and his anger issues stem from that old witch who ruined his whole life. The point I'm trying to make is that the Beast, after that, is very hands off with Belle. He lets her keep to her side of the castle, he pretty much leaves her alone. The only thing he takes issue with is her destroying something that is keeping his hope for change alive. I would be pissed too. But let's remember that he also helped her right after with the wolves.

From the start we, and Belle, see that the Beast has some good qualities to him. For all his anger he did ask Belle if she was hungry and he did save her when she was being attacked. These glimpses are in stark contrast to Gaston who we don't see any redeeming qualities of anywhere in this movie. It's why the Beast can become the good guy in the end, because he wasn't shown to be a complete Beast from the beginning. We are given sympathy for him when we hear how he became a Beast and then we are shown again and again that he isn't this monster that he's shown to be on the outside.

It's nuanced and I love it.

Again, compared to Gaston, the Beast, in my opinion, is allowed to be the good guy, he didn't give Belle Stockholm syndrome and he finally found himself again because of Belle and her ability to see more than a monster.

Gaston is a menace to women. He is. He has the catchiest song, but he is a full on narcissist. I enjoy his character a lot because he's very charming and he's funny but he's villain coded from the start. Also, the only reason he likes Belle is because she's beautiful. He doesn't like that she's educated or that she's nice, he just likes that she's pretty and that their children will be pretty. He's terrifying because he's realistic. There are men like Gaston out there and they are charismatic, but if you listen to what they're saying, it's actually terrifying. He rouses and sets a full on mob on the Beast. He gets Belle's father institutionalised. He threatens her with her father to get her to marry him and then he locks her in her house.

Remember, the Beast imprisoned Maurice (who is turning out to be quite a menace as i write this) not Belle, she just took his place and he was very nice with her afterwards because he knew it wasn't her punishment to take. Gaston on the other hand did all this while proclaiming it was what was best for Belle.

Finally onto Belle. Like I said, Belle doesn't fall for the Beast until he shows her his humanity. She has standards too. She would rather be with a furry than with Gaston. Namely because the Beast betters himself. He learns to read, he interacts with the world again, he smiles and he dances and he lives after years of misery because Belle showed him that she cared about him, that there was still something human left within him, even with the last petal falling from the rose.

Not much I can say about the side characters. I like them, they give it magic and it's tragic that they were trapped in this spell with the Beast- again showing how extreme this freaking witch was. But the main story is what holds my attention even after all these years.

I feel like if you say she was pressured into loving the Beast then you've not really watched the film properly. Even the remake didn't suggest that Belle was pressured or just loved him because she was stuck with him. They both made the effort and I think their story is really nice.

I think they could have given the Beast a better human design, but I think it's just the way with characters who spend a lot of time as one specific thing will always look weird when they transform back. Like, Kenai, I know he's Kenai in the beginning, but by the end when he's under that blanket and human again I'm so used to seeing him as a bear that it's weird.

If you have more to add to this analysis then yay, I love this movie and I think it's great.

Also, sorry I've just tagged this onto an ask, I was going to make a separate post but this works too and thank you for liking my art!!

[thefivecalls]

Things I associate with each of the sides for no reason

Logan:

I understand he's supposed to be dark blue or indigo. Regardless, he will always be teal. This teal:

For some reason when I got detention that one time I got a Logan vibe so yeah theres that

"Space... The final frontier..." But uhhh just the opening has his vibes

Why is he always whereing a neck tie and not a bow tie? If anyone has necktie vibes its Janus not Logan

Logan also has chaos incarnate vibes that are only in check because of his last shreds of humanity one of these days he'll break and when he does thomas can and will set something on fire using bill nye the science guy tactics

He is waking up early and going to bed late

He is framing posters

He is dancing in your bedroom to awesome music that has never been such a vibe before that moment and will never be again.

Broken clocks

Beaker from the muppets? I don't quite get it but yeah

Rock of ages

Getting a pitcher of soda or tea or whatever and setting it on his desk, then getting 23 straws and taping them together so he can lay in bed on his phone and safely drink it without spilling

Grilled cheese

Kahoot music

Remus:

Death waltz. Not the synthesia no the one that takes 14 people to play.

Canoeing

Obviously he has close combat weapons but have you thought about giving him a bow and arrow? I have and yes thats a vibe because he is one of three people I've ever met with those vibes ok

Portable speakers

He is bonfires and fireworks.

He is hyperfixating on something and writing a story until 4 in the morning.

Potions!

The fact that witches ingredients are actually just named strange things but are edible somethings? Like mustard seeds being newts eyes and the like

Acid

In my human anatomy class we dissected deer hearts and when we found the blood clots we called them the Forbidden Jellies.

The county fair

The circus that comes around at fall festival time

Homecoming game in football/rugby

I feel like if he played an instrument he'd be a baritone

The lime green smoke Disney villians have

Roman:

Zootopia the movie

Hopping. Or bouncing in place.

My family's crest?? I think its because of his crest but he had those vibes before the outift upgrade???? Idk

The ponytail thing that give you a unicorn horn when you've got short hair but bangs that are beginning to grow out

He is picnics at the park

He is also going shopping

He is also dancing in the rain at four in the morning with the outside lights on and the music blaring but its ok the neigbors are four acres away and they sleep like the dead.

When I went to my first metal concert and I saw the mosh pit? The exhilaration that comes with wanting to join but not wanting to get crushed is a Roman thing.

Pancakes

Cold pizza at midnight

Succulents!

Fire and cane whiskey

The warm smiles that the bearer never gets to see because they don't get the chance to see it in a reflection

Butterscotch

Janus:

Springtime showers that makes snowmelt rivers

Prom. Dont ask this is just a him vibe ok

He seems like the guy that would make a blanket cacoon/nest when his bedsheets are in the wash and can I say mood

Sunlight

Looking off my back porch and seeing the feilds of corn beginning to dry out in late fall every three years.

Pumpkin soup

Apple cider

Lemonade

Not only is he snowmelt rivers he is also the first thunderstorm of summertime

Sun tea. Not the brand the stuff that you make via harnessing the suns power

Cucumber facemasks

Wildflower honey

The person who youd never guess goes to comic con but is actually the one who wins first place in the costume contest every year

Oversized sweaters

German Sheppards and yellow labs sunbathing after playing for hours

Antique mirrors

Burlap canvas bags

Oil paint

Espressos at ten at night

Late night chinese food runs

Dragons

Spice. Not the average spice either I'm talking could eat a carolina reaper and yes he'll be more red but he could still talk and thats more than I can say for myself

Virgil:

The red rubber balls from kick ball in elementary. By god I can smell the plastic just thinking about it

Flappy stims! Almost every time I flap he comes to mind I never really questioned it

The weighted blanket my dad got that I steal from him all the time

'He's a Mary poppins in a world of hasselhoffs" my friend once said that not even talking about Virgil but like. Come on.

Basically all of Star Lord's vibes are Virgils

Deadpool

Jack Skellington (kinda obvs)

Sample perfumes that are like the size of a pinky

Telescopes

Not writing an essay but instead learning all about world history or astronomy or psychology

Earings. Specifically hoops

Black pearls

Boardwalks that have tiny shops along them with a bunch of food.

Going to a club or a party with flashing lights and even though you're kinda nervous you have fun and live like tomorrow is still a dream away.

Ripped movie posters that the theater is selling

Tying ropes together to make nets.

Fairy lights

Taping movie theater tickets to your wall after you've gone and seen it

Scarecrows sitting on bales of hay at sunset next to my willow tree and the cicadas are on their 13th year so they're the loudest they'll ve until another 13 years have passed

The glint in someone's eye when they think of something mischievous

Bang by AJR

The corpse bride's tale/song

Patton:

The lazer eye meme. This one

Graham Crackers. Not smores, not candy crack-just the cracker ok

Pep rallies

The pet store??

Sugar sculptures

Corn pits (strictly midwestern thing)

Driving for hours upon hours and seeing the strange statues some towns have as you pass them by

Silver sparkles

Art herpes glitter

Photo booths

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on the county's main road

Wedding crystals cabinet where you put the fancy china you're going to give to your children that never gets used once but is probably worth half your house

The chubby bunny challenge

The moment when you tip your chair back too far and you know it but you can't do anything because you'll be on the floor in a second anyway

The thing maya did from Girl Meets World when she slammed lockers closed and caused the chalkboard to let its dust fly

Dusk.

That moment when everything is going by so quickly so you step back and watch the world go by for only a few seconds but then you're back in the present laughing with your friends

Snow cones melting and getting the syrup all over your hands

Orange Side:

All things citrus but especially lemons no not oranges lemons

Sunglasses

Men in black 1 not the rest just the first

Pineapple too hes got a lot of pineapple vibes

Combat boots but with spikes

Also lace?

And tea. Like, all kinds of tea but especially the really expensive stuff that I've only tasted like twice thats imported from Ireland

Himalayan salt lamps.

Sensies. the wax melting things

Candles too

Once we meet him I'll have more but this is it for him for now

Thats it! If this gets notes I might do emile remy and thomas but I think I'll leave this be for the moment. Have a great day y'all!