#i have A LOT of backstory worked out for q

[astrancva]

The Origin of the Quartermaster

(Note: While this is my default for my portrayal of Q, some of it can be shifted depending on the partner. A lot of what is written here has been developed over the past few years with several partners. At this point, I'm not taking into account the fact that Vesper was buried in Italy)

The man who would become the Quartermaster of MI6 was born Malcolm Wallace Lynd to Nicholas Lynd and his wife Catherine Wallace. He was a twin, his sister Vesper born only fifteen minutes before him. As children, they were inseparable. Both were brilliant in different ways and they spent hours reading and exchanging ideas. Malcolm found he had a gift for technology. The first computer his parents bought him, he took apart to see how it worked. He put it back together better than it was before.

As a teenager, he discovered he had the same taste in men as his sister did. Something that amused both of them. As they grew older, they began to drift apart, their interests taking them in different directions. Even so, they never went longer than a week without speaking to each other.

While Q didn’t know what direction his sister’s path was taking, his own took him farther and farther into the dark underworld of London. He soon found that his skills with computers were in high demand. He sold his services to anyone who would pay, often ending up as more than just a valued employee.

Malcolm became known as Ariel, named for the spirit in The Tempest who had been bound to Prospero after the magician saved his life. He embraced the moniker and used his skills to his advantage.

And then, one day he received a visit from Her Majesty’s government. Though he had known his sister had worked for the Treasury, he had no idea what else she could possibly have been involved in. The story they told him felt thin, at best, and at worst an outright lie.

That night, he set himself to finding out the truth behind Vesper’s death. What he never expected was to fall into the web of MI6. His inquiries, no matter how well hidden, soon alerted the espionage agency to his activities and he was brought in. It was the head of the organization, a woman named M who spoke with him. She gave him an ultimatum. If he came to work for her, she would reveal, within reason, the true cause of his sister’s death. If he didn’t agree, she would have him thrown into the deepest, darkest prison she could find.

Of course, Malcolm was smart enough to take the offer. So she put him to work in Q Branch as a low level technician. Something the brilliant young man detested. However, it was apparent to everyone around him that it was only a matter of time before he would be the head of Q Branch.

True to her word, M gave him all the information she could. Vesper had been involved with a mission for MI6. After the mission, she went to Italy with the agent she had worked with and she died quite tragically. That was all M was willing to tell him. However she did remind him was that he had no clearance for that particular case and if he continued to dig, he would be subject to termination and find himself thrown in a deep hole.

Though he wasn’t happy with what he was given, he took it. And he devoted himself to his work with MI6.

Finally, he worked his way to the top of Q-Branch, taking over as Quartermaster. And from there, he struggled to drag the archaic institution into the 21st century.

[diazsdimples]

Do you have any buddie fic recs that is a /must/ read for Buddie shippers ( sorry I don't ship Bucktommy 🥹)

Boy do I ever!!!

honey, when you call my name - @hippolotamus (Explicit)

"Eddie witnesses the Buck/Lucy kiss, has himself a little panic, and decides to do something about it when Buck does his Buck thing and won't stop pushing Eddie's buttons" It's spicy, it's sweet, it's packed full of feels and there was not a dry eye in the house!!

Whatever may come (your heart I will choose) - @hippolotamus (Mature)

"The Story of Eddie and Christopher Diaz" The number of times I yelled at Hippo while reading this,,,, it is incredible!! 30 chapters of Buckley-Diaz family feels, Eddie's heartbreaking backstory and FUCK if I could read it for the first time again, I would!

James Bond AU Series - @princessfbi (Teen & Explicit)

James Bond AU with 007 Agent Eddie Diaz and Buck as Q. Incredible. No notes. Read them back to back in one sitting, and then read them again immediately after. No prior knowledge of James Bond needed (cause I sure didn't have any) but be prepared to have the sudden urge to go watch all the films.

Kink Club AU Series - @princessfbi (Explicit)

"Canon compliant one shots where Eddie works at a Kink Club as a side hustle and meets Buck there before his first shift in 2x01." This series is insanely good. 5 perfect fics of the boys and BDSM, it is incredibly hot, full of feels and just.... yeah. Incredible. Please do read the tags before each fic though, especially if BDSM isn't your thing.

because we'll all arrive in heaven alive - @neverevan (Explicit)

"During a search and rescue, Eddie disappears without a trace, leaving Buck to grapple with the sudden possibility of a life without him." I was literally on the edge of my seat with every single chapter release. It's SO angsty and delicious and absolutely incredible, and I think also very feasible for what could happen in canon should Timothy ever decide to be as mean (affectionate) as Newbie was by putting the boys through this.

Out Of Order, Still In Line - @neverevan (Explicit)

"When Buck finally gets to the Clinic, the long awaited release doesn’t seem to come; cue Eddie to the rescue." One of the first Buddie fics I read and it altered my brain chemistry a little. Lord have mercy. It's just ... you gotta read it. Like, Jesus 🥵

My Blood on Your Skin (My Rose on Your Snow) - @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels (Explicit)

"When Eddie needs cash and fast to take care of Christopher, his LAFD Academy buddy suggests a job as a bouncer at Elysium - an exclusive sex club in downtown Los Angeles. Eddie doesn't care what goes on there, so long as he's paid, but he finds he cares a lot bout the club's enigmatic owner, Evan Buckley, and it's not long before the two of them are violating every boss-employee rule in the book. But there's something different about Buck and the club, something not quite... human. If Eddie wants to keep Buck, he's going to have to delve into the world of immortals, and all the risks that implies." Honestly I think the blurb says it all. I read this at my cousin's wedding (literally just before the ceremony and during the reception fsdkjdfs) because I literally couldn't put it down. Incredible Greek Gods integration and so. fucking. hot. Sorry Caleb, I hope your matrimony is holy but this was so worth it.

stuck now so long, we just got the start wrong - @daffi-990 (Unrated at present)

"Probational Firefighters Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz meet on a call which ends with them at odds with each other. As the months roll by, they keep running into each other on the job, much to Eddie’s dismay and Buck’s delight. Can they put aside their first opinions and misunderstandings and allow the seeds of friendship, and possibly something more, to take root?" This AU has been eating me alive with snippets for the last few months and the chapters are FINALLY being published!! Stay tuned for weekly updates about our idiots being - well - idiots. Daffi has written them so well and I don't think I could yell louder about this one if I wanted.

Cow Eyes - @theotherbuckley (General)

"'Eddie's in hospital and Buck tries not to break down' fic except its actually just a cute silly little fic" Exactly what is says on the tin. Cute, silly, fluffy and entirely adorable. High!Eddie is fucking hilarious and Worried!Buck has my whole ass heart. Love this fic, have read it many times, will read many times more

Both Blade and Branch - @cal-daisies-and-briars (Mature)

"The chances of being struck by lightning twice are incredibly minute, but Buck still manages to pull it off. During a double date with Marisol and Natalia, nonetheless. Eddie manages to resuscitate him, but as Buck recovers from yet another trauma, Eddie can’t help but notice there’s something very different about him. He’s not quite sure what version of Buck he got back." Orpheus and Eurydice vibes but somehow more heartbreaking because it's the Boys? Literally every chapter I was gobsmacked and the fact that I couldn't read it in one sitting due to Life™️ was frankly criminal.

what humans do - @gayhoediaz

""…and the thought that she had just escaped death by such a narrow margin made me realize the intensity of my feelings toward her.” Eddie swallows. “‘What’s the matter?’ I couldn’t tell her, so I kissed her instead,” Buck goes on, and since Eddie’s eyes are focused on the page, they drift ahead a little bit, and the next few lines have him swallowing once again, taking his hand back to brace himself against the mattress as he slowly starts to push himself up to sit. “Kissing is what humans do when words have reached a place they can’t escape from. It is a switch to another language. The kiss was an act of defiance, maybe of war. You can’t touch us, is what the kiss said. ‘I love you,’ I told her, and as I smelled her skin, I knew I had never wanted anyone or anything more than I wanted her…” Buck trails off when Eddie reaches for the book, gently luring it out of his grasp. " One of the best getting together fics I've read. So sweet, so hot, full of feels, and also just very 🤯 in many places. Just insanely well written and perfect imagery.

Also I have a small list of authors whom I love dearly:

@spotsandsocks @exhuastedpigeon @wildlife4life @thewolvesof1998 @thekristen999

@steadfastsaturnsrings @watchyourbuck @fortheloveofbuddie @rainbow-nerdss @bidisasterevankinard

@aroeddiediaz @jesuisici33 @wikiangela @loveyouanyway @kitteneddiediaz

@actuallyitsellie @dangerpronebuddie @loserdiaz @elvensorceress @underwaterninja13

@smilingbuckley

Literally anything these wonderful people (and the authors of the above fics) have written is well worth a read. I would rec all of their words and make individual recs for all their fics but I fear I simply do not have the words.

I might also humbly suggest some of my fics, which you can find here! Happy reading!!!

[utilitycaster]

(well, my feelings on Laudna are documented but I do think Imogen is a great character)

Oh! I found your blog rather recently but did you write Laudna meta early on? Or did you mean when the recent Delilah stuff went down?

I do not want to go too far into it and I suspect some of it is untagged (I have to find a way to tag for myself and not for the main character tags when writing crit) but in short: Laudna just...isn't a well thought out character. At every single Q&A panel and 4SD Marisha's summary boils down to "I wanted to make someone creepy, and then I thought 'what about a sun tree corpse, and what if her patron was Delilah'" and it it kind of stops there. When you couple it with the fact that Imogen was terrified of having any conflict with her until it became the only option, it really was like...I know Delilah was a big part of her backstory but Laudna did very little with her until episode 77 of the campaign. Like, for reference, Fjord had already helped fulfill 2/3rds of what his patron wanted and then broken his pact, gone without powers for almost 4 episodes, and found a new patron by pretty much exactly that point. There was almost no engagement with what it means to be a sorcerer (which Imogen covers skillfully even with all the new stuff that was thrown at Laura) and it was very little with an anticlimatic payoff for warlock (which, see Fjord, but also I'm not a big fan of Yu and at least they covered that concept adeptly).

Like...I remember at an early panel Marisha said "I don't want to think anymore" and the thing is like...it shows. Made a nonromanceable character and then said yes when romance came up. Didn't initially plan to take more warlock levels (already undercutting the idea of Delilah having much of a hold on her). Envisioned her character would be over her trauma and then extremely wasn't.

There's PCs I've disliked far more, or had more trouble with - Laudna's never been unlikeable. But she's always been just...profoundly disappointing until I gave up on her not being disappointing and decided she'd be there and do some cool things occasionally and never contribute a lot in the way of story.

For what it's worth, and this ties back to some of my thoughts on Campaign 3 generally, I do think that the CR cast could do another campaign in D&D in Exandria and it could achieve the heights of (pick C1 or C2 depending on personal preference; mine is C2 but I respect a C1 answer). But it requires a real session zero. I think the cast counts their mini playtests as a session zero, and I get it, because with the main cast there's not that same need to set personal boundaries or lines and veils because they know each other. But there isn't that same full-group planning. They've been releasing their Candela and Daggerheart session zeroes and just put out their Moonward one as well, and they talked extensively about the Calamity and Downfall planning sessions, and it's just...again, it shows. I think C1 and C2 work because, as I said in my post just now about Marquet, the characters sort of set the world and the campaign came from them. Once you have a more set plot in a more solidified world, I think you need to have that kind of group discussion, and they didn't, and Laudna especially feels indicative of that because I think a few pointed questions and Marisha would have realized there needed to be more to work with.

[shortpplfedup]

We Are Episodes 9-12: They got me, they really got me

My heart has exploded. This show has ruined me. I'm crying on a Wednesday afternoon about a bunch of queer boys all actively doing their best by each other every day. This show is saying 'Your actions matter. Your intentions matter. Your words matter. IT ALL MATTERS.' Also, we unlocked everything about this show by learning two very important backstories: the story of Tan and Fang, and Phum and Fang's family history.

I think this block of eps has been the most explicitly romantic section of the show so far. Bookended by two of the now-requisite-for-Thai-BL change of scenery trips (and man that volunteer camp paid dividends), this was just a great, GREAT bit of Show. One of my favourite things about how the relationships are progressing in this show is that they are allowing these boys to have courtship. Yeah, they might be attracted to each other, like each other, even make out with each other, but there is a gap between 'I like you' and 'I want to be with you' that romance doesn't always explore. Stating your intentions and deliberately and actively wooing somebody still matters. In the West, and especially in the limited western romance we get, sometimes it feels like we've decided it is juvenile and/or old-fashioned, it is somehow uncool, to require declaration, to ask and receive an answer. We have cool-girled (non-gender-specific) our way into the age of the noncommittal extended situationship. This show allows all of these boys to have that bit of romance, to expect it, to require it, and to have that taken seriously.

Phum and Peem had a rocky start, so it makes sense that it would take time and effort for them to get to a place where Peem feels comfortable admitting his feelings for Phum, even if he has accepted them to himself (him letting Khluen down gently was such a nice touch), and cannot keep himself from showing them at every turn. A detail I love is that Phum continues to apologise for the way he treated Peem at the start. He so so sincerely regrets it all, in a believable way, and he does not take Peem's forgiveness as a given at all. Him declaring himself in front of all of their friends and going all out to woo Peem is part of that apology, along with his actual multiple, repeated 'I'm sorry's. And then him going STRAIGHT to Peem when he had that fight with his dad, and Peem dropping all the flirty games instantly because he knew something was wrong...BURY MEEEEEEEEEEE.

Tan finally told his friends the story of him and Fang and EVERYTHING about this show clicked into place with that information. Understanding how and when this all started for them explains not only their entire dynamic, but also draws direct lines from them to every other couple. The rocky start? That's Phum and Peem. Falling slowly over time? Q and Toey. Afraid to ruin the friendship? Totally where I see Chain and Pun landing. And then across this chunk we get to see the interiority of their relationship now, and the DEPTHS of their devotion to and understanding of each other. They truly, madly, deeply love each other, exactly for who they each are. Plus, enthusiastically mutually horny for each other, which is always fun to see.

Q and Toey spend some time here really talking through their history and their feelings, explaining their past actions to each other and laying to rest a lot of their fears and hurts from Q's sudden disappearance from Toey's life and Toey's sudden appearance in Q's. These two were working at cross-purposes and off incorrect assumptions for so long, them finally getting onto the same page thanks to their meddling-ass friends was just a giant exhale. And Q asking Toey to be his boyfriend in the way it all began, at the place it all began put me so very deep in my feels.

They are really letting the Chain/Pun thing build up in the background, in tiny moments and offhand comments, and every morsel we get of them feels like it matters. I'm sure that's part practicality given the reshoots, but Chain and Pun also feel like those friends in the group who turn up married one day when nobody knew they even liked each other. In my Hospital Playlist analogy for this show, they are Ik Jun and Song Hwa, down to Chain's loving indulgence of Pun's tuneless insistence on singing.

The non-romantic relationships in this show continue to be the cherry on the sundae. Q and Peem's friendship, Phum and Beer's friendship, Toey and Matt's friendship, the brotherly love between Fang and Phum, Pun and Mick's himbo bromance, how ride or die EVERYBODY is for Toey, how fully integrated Phum, Beer, Mick, Toey and Matt are into the crew now, the silly fun they have when all the gang's together...I'm so emotional about this. I will give New Siwaj that he has always understood that great romances need great friendships to support them. I haven't always liked how he has put those together narratively, or managed the tonal shifts involved, but this one is just working gangbusters for me.

Four more eps to go and I have gone from thinking 16 eps were too many to never wanting this show to leave me. At the same time, I'm aware that we're moving into the New Siwaj Red Zone (aka the final act), where things often fall apart with him. Still, I'm having such a good time so far I'm choosing optimism. Time to update my couple scores.

Q and Toey: 3.5/4 hearts

Their romantic arc is more or less winding down now I think, and they're moving into cupid role for Phum and Peem. I have so thoroughly enjoyed this journey and look forward to seeing how they work as a team in the final bit!

Phum and Peem: 3.5/4 hearts

These two are ruining me, I am giggling kicking my feet all week thinking about them. Peem saying the ocean was too far when Phum wanted to take him there to feel better, but taking Phum there without a second thought when Phum showed up shaken and sad...NO YOU'RE CRYING.

Tan and Fang: 4/4 hearts

They are the absolute heart of this show. Just rock solid, undeniable, unquestionable. Tan saying in ep 12 he wants to be Fang's safe zone AND his family? Fang shouting out his love? PLEASE CALL ME SINGLE MORE QUIETLY ABEG.

Pun and Chain: 3/4 hearts

There is no heterosexual or even queerplatonic explanation for these two, and so the candle in my window stays lit for them.

[sonnysonder]

(THIS POST IS PURELY ABOUT THE FICTIONAL QSMP CHARACTERS, NOT THE CREATORS WHO PLAY THEM. THIS IS ALSO MY OPINION WHICH I AM ALLOWED TO HAVE)

Can I be fr for a sec

I'm honestly more interested in who qFit and qPac are as individual characters than who they are as a couple.

And no, you can stop clutching your pearls. This is not me saying I hate Hideduo, or even FitPac. I really like them in fact! They have good chemistry, and they play off each other wonderfully.

But I just wish more people would see the two of them as their own seperate characters.

I think both qFit and qPac presently suffer EGREGIOUSLY from both mischaracterization, and just...people forgetting that there's more to the two of them then who they are as a couple.

I was SO excited when qFit lore really started taking off because I knew a whole lot of cool fan content to consume would come out of it, but I hardly see anything anymore. Ik q!Fit is one of the less popular characters, and it's occurred to me that a lot of people might only know his character through FitPac.

(Which leads to a ton of mischaracterization. Like people even throw out the whole slowburn thing and all the trauma stuff that MAKE them a slowburn but that's a gripe for another day)

But qPac REALLY gets the short end of the stick imo. I have seen MAYBE three works of art, fanfiction, or otherwise that delve into who he is outside of relationships (Fitpac or otherwise!!!) Which I think is SUCH a waste! The dude is an orphan! A skilled fighter! A loving father! A MASTER INVENTOR!! And I'm lucky if one these things are even MENTIONED in most fics I've read.

(Yes, qFit is my favorite character and the one I follow predominantly, but from what I've seen qPac is also portrayed extremely surface level in a lot of works which is a shame!)

Lemme see more qFit lore works, his friendships with other characters, badass stuff with him in 2b2t, heck, stuff with him and Ramon! They have a fascinating relationship!

Let me see stuff that really EXPLORES qPac. His guilt, his highs and lows, his backstory, his SKILLS! WHY HE DOES THE THINGS HE DOES!!!

Anyway this is not me saying not to make FitPac/Hideduo stuff. Make whatever the hell you want, I'm just saying there's a ton more to both characters that's super interesting and has tons of potential, you just gotta look a bit deeper!

PEOPLE SHOULD MAKE MORE STUFF ABOUT THE CHARACTERS QFIT AND QPAC ARE. AND FOR THEMSELVES, NOT JUST FOR EACH OTHER. THEY DESERVE BETTER THAN JJST BEING EXTENSIONS OF EACH OTHER.

Also this had nothing to do with qFit basically being confirmed queer!! That's great love that for him!! I've just had this on my mind for a while now!!

This is also not directed at anyone in particular!!

Thanks for listening to me gripe ig

[gffa]

hi Lumi, your posting about star wars books made me want to start reading them, which ones would you recommend?

Hi! There are a lot of Star Wars books out there and there's a lot I enjoy about them! Sure, I'll give a warning that I'm picking out the best moments and a lot of the books are not always great in their entirety, especially depending on how much you want to stay 100% true to Lucas' story.

A lot is going to depend on what you're looking for--are you a prequels fan? Are you more interested in original trilogy books? Jedi-centric books? Bounty hunters or pilots instead? Etc. Generally, I assume if you're asking me, you're here for the prequels books, but I have a more generalized list of recommendations here or you can browse my novels recs tag.

But I always generally recommend starting with: - Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover isn't a perfect book, I could nitpick some details here and there, but the heart of this book remains unchallenged as the best SW book there is, imo. It elevates the story it's adapting (already a high bar for me, I love ROTS), Stover knows how to turn a phrase to dig deep into a character's motivations, and there's a reason why we're all constantly quoting that book. It adds so much to the story and it's a compelling tale on its own, it makes me love the characters and hurt for them all over again, and there's approximately a thousand lines in this story that you could write an entire essay on.

- Padawan by Kiersten White cannot dethrone the ROTS novelization, but I would say that I think it wound up being my favorite of the Disney era books, because it's such a straight shot to my id. It's definitely on the lighter side, it's a happier look at Obi-Wan's childhood (which I think fits his character better), he struggles and has a lot going on, but overall he's pretty well-adjusted and happy, plus there is an absolute ABUNDANCE OF CUTENESS in this book, it was so delightful and whimsical and adorable, it just made me happy.

- Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule if you're at all interested in The High Republic. This is still my favorite book of the entire series, I think it set the stage incredibly well, it had some absolutely banger lines for someone with prequels brainrot like me, and genuinely made me excited for the entire line-up.

- Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott, which is an audiodrama but has a script version available if you're hoh or just don't like them. It's a solid look at Dooku's time as a youngling and why he left the Jedi Order and backstory with Sifo-Dyas that'll break your heart. I prefer the audio version here because the Asajj framing works so much better with the actress' voicework, it really digs into her feelings about all of this as well, making it a nice gut-punch of a story.

And now I would add Padawan's Pride by Brian Q. Miller (audiobook only, unfortunately) because it's a lovely, charming look at Anakin's time as an apprentice. It's very deliberately written as a lead-in to the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic (which I think you're supposed to be keeping in mind as you read, so I'd suggest reading in release order rather than chronological order), showing the conflict between Obi-Wan and Anakin, between Anakin the Jedi way of life, yet all the love that's growing there and the hope that they weren't wrong to hold onto. Just the right amount of crunch and sweet.

I recently read The Living Force by John Jackson Miller and, while I have a couple of issues with it (it was less spiritual than I'd like, some clunky "attachment" discourse moments that clash against Lucas' definitions, etc.), overall it was a book I loved. It was laugh out loud funny at several moments, it showed the Jedi as deeply caring, it gave time and page space to Jedi who don't usually get much focus, it had some knockout administrative worldbuilding details, and a genuinely fun experience of a story.

There are more that I personally loved (Force Collector was really good for me but not an easy one to recommend, The Legends of Luke Skywalker was very dear to me for being so in love with the galaxy far, far away, Obi-Wan & Anakin: Choose Your Destiny is a Choose Your Adventure style book that's not going to be for everyone but I adored and got so much out of, that's where Theater Nerd Mace Windu came from, the first and third From a Certain Point of View anthologies had 3-4 incredible stories in them each, the ESB one didn't impress me, etc.) and a lot of comics that I think are just as good to read if you haven't started on those, but I think this is a good starting place for prequels nerds.

(I stuck mostly to Disney continuity, it's what I'm more familiar with, and the only Legends books I fully recommend are Revenge of the Sith novelization and Dark Rendezvous, not even my beloved Wild Space comes without a bunch of caveats, but if you're interested in Legends, let me know!)

[insignificant457]

Pierce Brown Light Bringer Q&A

I went to pierces book signing tonight and I will attempt to regurgitate everything I can remember since I didn’t take notes

When asked if there’s any characters he regrets killing off, he said Trigg. But he also said he has a different answer every time someone asks that

He talked about how he writes two different types of deaths—deaths that feel like the end of an arc, and deaths that feel like they cut off in the middle. He said the latter are more like life, and that’s why they hurt more, and why he’s more likely to regret killing them. Trigg is one of these, as is Fitchner

Speaking of Trigg, his aborted arc factored into the decision to add ephraim as a pov character—it allowed him to explore Trigg and his backstory even after he was gone

The other povs in iron gold were specifically chosen because each had a bone to pick with Darrow, and also because he wanted a high, mid, and low color pov

He was complimented multiple times on how he writes female characters, and his response basically boiled down to “I subscribe to the radical idea that women are people”. He said it’s funny that no one ever compliments him on his ability to write complex male characters

Related to the above, both victra and Aja were originally conceived as male characters, but he couldn’t quite make them work until he flipped the gender. He said that after making victra a woman, he immediately knew exactly who she was and she became incredibly easy to write

Speaking of victra (she got a lot of love, as she deserves), someone asked for a random fact about her, and he said she plays Karachi, which is a gambling game, but she doesn’t want anyone to know because she doesn’t want people to think she’s reckless. Everyone knows.

When asked how he feels about Lysander, pierce said “he’s doing his job,” both in universe and as a vehicle for the story. He also said this was always the path he’d imagined for Lysander

Some of his favorite lines are “do not fear for me, pity them” and “worthy”

He called Darrow a drama queen, and said that he often talks out loud while writing, and darrows internal monologues get weird reactions from friends who overhear (“who’s the motherfucking consequence?!?”)

Darrows experience in light bringer (in particular his reading of the path to the vale) was very much inspired by pierces own struggle trying to write light bringer. He said they both had to learn that the right path is not always forward, sometimes you have to go back

Light bringer was by far the hardest book for him to write (he said “if you ever want to know what the hardest book for an author to write was, just look at how long it took to do it) but he said it’s also possibly his favorite

When asked if any characters or relationships surprised him, he said yes absolutely. Sevro was apparently supposed to be a tertiary character, but basically hopped off the page, and victra was another surprise. He also said (light bringer spoilers) the relationship between Cassius and Lyria was also a huge surprise, but he realized on writing their first interaction that they would absolutely love each other

He also said that the snark between Darrow Cassius and sevro just flowed really easily, and that Darrow and Cassius understand each other, but that Cassius simply Does Not Get sevro

When asked about bringing the jackal back as a clone, he said it was an effort to explore cloning in a way that, in his opinion, has not been done particularly well in many other media. He also said it came about because there was more to explore with virginias relationship with her brother

Tongueless was a hat of death kill, but he told us the original backstory he had planned for him. Apparently tongueless was a high up leader of the syndicate, who was deposed by Lilath when she came in and instigated a coup

He said he tries to write using “South Park writing rules”, meaning instead of saying x and y and z happen, he always uses x happens but y happens or y happens therefore z happens. He said this helps keep things from feeling predictable or trite

When asked what he hopes people take away from the series, he said he doesn’t want to say, because he fears that would be showing his hand for red god. But he did say that what he hopes people take away from light bringer is the same thing darrow tells sevro in morning star “we keep looking for the light, but we’re it”

And lastly, in the signing line, I asked him when sevro found out his father was ares, and he told me it was “probably around the same time darrow found out”, and said a lot of that is because sevro had spent a long time hating his father, because he could always sense he was being shut out. He mentioned that children can tell when there are walls there, and it can actually have a very damaging impact on their mental stability (mental instability? I said. sevro? Never.) anyway rip to my sevro joined the sons pre series theory, you will be missed, but it’s nice to have an answer thanks Pierce

Anyway it was a very fun time, if I remember more later I will add it

[yuurei20]

Compilation Master List: Q&A

(Not all but many!)

Ace ・I noticed that ace seemed to think the title of magic-less prefect was cool ・I suddenly remembered out of nowhere Ace had ghosted his ex

Trey ・I can''t remember a time when we've heard Trey use honorifics with anyone else in the student body.

Cater ・I have a curious question about a voice line from Cater's Bloom broom card. ・Is Cater Diamond attractive with both genders? ・Is it mentioned how many followers cater has on magicam? ・Do we know what caters dad does for work?

Leona ・So in the second novel, after Leona's overblot does it go into his past or is it just the speech afterwards? ・Does Leona have a favorite first year/freshman? ・Does novel Leona treat Yuuya differently compared to the game. ・I remember hearing once that leona can drive a car? ・Do Leona consider mc/yuu as friend or just a normal classmate?

Azul ・Can I ask about Leona and Azul's contract? ・Does canon ever say anything similar about how Azul was acknowledged as dorm head and when he assumed the position?

Jade, Floyd ・I wanted to know if it was ever mentioned anywhere that Jade ate his siblings. ・Is there any reference to the Tweels being afraid of sea snakes? ・Floyd's union birthday vingette in JP ・Is it true that Jade doesn't have any members in his club

Jamil ・When Jade corners Kalim with his UM in book 4, Kalim admits he knows who's been mind controlling him, but promised long ago to never tell. ・On the EN server, Jamil's lesson start line is translated as "No antics, please." ・I've seen people mention Jamil might actually care about Kalim more than the surface level ・So what's the deal with Jamil Viper's parents

Vil ・Could you explain to me why Vil is so insistent on correcting Epel's accent?

Rook ・Regarding Rook: do we know whether he arrived at NRC aboard the black carriage because he was actually picked by the Black Mirror? ・I was wondering if it's ever mentioned about Rook disliking anyone

Epel ・I've noticed Epel keeps adding 'kana' to the end of his sentences. What does it mean?

Idia ・How does Idia feel about Leona? ・How many times do lilia and idia interact in person? ・Does Idia's hair burn? ・Does idia sometimes use "de gozaru" to end sentences? ・I think I remember there being a lot of madness surrounding Idia being close to Yuu. ・Has there ever been a name given for the MMORPG Idia and Lilia play together? ・How do you think Idia got his unique magic? ・What's Idia's relationship with his parents like? ・Does Idia have any peeps that he can get along with, other than Ortho? ・Could it be that Idia actually considers the prefect to be a friend?

Malleus ・In twst is it obvious knowledge for the characters in game that malleus is like 100's of years old ・What honorifics does the cast use for Malleus? ・Do you know how Malleus got the dorm leader position? ・Did Malleus have a special tutor growing up or did Lilia also serve as his tutor?

Lilia ・Do you remember any instance of Lilia calling Silver 'his son' in JP server?

Silver ・Do the other members of Diasomnia know that Silver is Lilia's son?

Sebek ・When Sebek enters a battle, he says, "I'll swallow you whole." What does that mean? ・Is it possible that "human" can be used to describe everyone who isn't fae?

Crowley ・I swear the model of Crowley even in that moment was holding a whip ・Is there anything about Crowley Actually being stingy in game ・Have you seen the voice lines for Crowley's card? ・What's this Crowley's fan theory rejecting Deuce's application for a Magical Wheel club about?

Lucius ・Is there any canon indication that Lucius is Treins familiar?

Prefect Questions ・How many people know about Yuu is actually from the other world ・I was wondering what yuuya does during the OB battles? ・Is there anything in the novels where Yuuya going into a club is brought up? ・Does Crowley give the MC any allowance? ・Do you think a magicless prefect would be able to get thru NRC's curriculum w/o grim? ・Do the characters seem aware of the backstories of the other characters? ・When Yuuya arrived in Twisted Wonderland, did he instantly understand the language there? ・Has the Perfect ever given gifts in the birthday tracker? ・Is Yuuya more prominent in the novel than Yuu in the games ・Characters reacting to prefect ・Do you have any idea as to why the novel Yuu has severe social anxiety as opposed to the other Yuus? ・Did the novel talk about the effects of blot on normal people without magic? ・Ghost Prefect?

Students ・Do you know how many siblings each characters has ・I was wondering if it was "common" knowledge that the overblot happened or if it's only the students that were present that know about it? ・Do you perhaps know which character is the most frequent DUO character? ・Was there ever an official height chart anywhere? ・Did the 5 student overblots happen over the span of 5 months? ・Can i ask about what happens After the overblots? ・Was it ever said in the game or by the guys themselves where they go or what they do during the holidays/ winter break?

NRC ・Does any part of the story mention the cost of tuition at nrc? ・Does NRC have a nurse or a doctor for the infirmary? ・I was wondering how animal linguistics works ・Does Twst follow Western or Asian school system ・I've been trying to find out how many students go to nrc for fic purposes ・I was wondering if clubs are mandatory for students and when club enrollment begins. ・Are the student numbers chosen specifically or do they mean a specific thing? ・It is common knowledge that Night Raven College is an all-boy schools, but what about Royal Sword Academy or Noble Bell College?

Magic ・Concerning light and dark magic, has there really been like a significant difference between the two? ・So how many people do we know the circumstances of how they got their unique magic now? ・I was wondering how the novels described how it looks when each character's Unique Magic is cast.

Language ・Do you know why 'land of pyroxene' was changed to 'the shaftlands'? ・It seemed like Mickey was saying he saw the Silver haired weird eye colour boy... ・In EN, (Najma) calls (Jamil) bro/dude and he reacts with "since when do you call me bro/dude!?" I was wondering what this exchange is like in JP? ・In the new update malleus UM said fae malefience and not fae of malefience would you know why? ・"Cold One Duke"

Behind the Scenes ・How true is that Yana is not involved in the writing of all events? ・I'm especially curious about (Yana's) involvement in the starsending, chef, rabbit fest and harveston event. ・I was wondering if you knew anything about the artists who work on the game? ・Do you know if some of the characters were supposed to be girls or the school coed?

Various ・Has there been any comment about dinosaurs in twisted wonderland? ・I was curious about what's the largest and the shortest Twistune/Rhythmic. ・I keep seeing the fandom joke about S.T.Y.X being the government or something ・How on earth did the heroes stories work if they, uh, yk, dont have the villains? ・Is there info anywhere on how much a madol/thaumark is worth? ・Do you know if there is a timeline for the main story and events that would make for the best reading order? ・Reading Order Pt2 ・Book 7 Theory

[cupcakeslushie]

Okay. I've been tip-toeing around this AU for a while now, but I just got caught up, and now I think I have a (decent) grasp on what's going on. So I wanna go over everything I know so far to see if I'm right or wrong on anything. Don't know if you'd be willing to correct me or not. Either way, I hope my mistakes can help you understand what to clarify to other fans like me. But, I also have some questions. You probably won't be able to answer most of them, but it's at least worth a shot.

First, where's Venus? Like, why is she not in your comics that are (sort of) separate frome the canon now story. The ones that skip to the future way after all the turtles reunite. Did she die? Did she escape? Is it because she wasn't introduced yet when you made those comics?

Two, why do you keep on making references to the future timeline? I know you're planning on possibly making your own stuff leading up to the events of the movie. It just gives me a jumpscare when I see certain...imagery in those comics. I guess you're hinting at what your version of the future apocalypse would look like, but it just hurts to see. Specifically in the comic explaining both the events and aftermath of the movie and the bad future timeline. It's starting to really confuse my brain as to where this story is headed. What's meant to be the main focus? The Hamto's reuniting? The aftermath? Or the future?

Third, did you make all those min-comics before you started the actual AU? Or did you do them during?

Fourth, are any of those mini-comics relevant to the actual story now? Or have you changed your mind on a few things? It's just that everything is so all over the place, I don't really know whether to trust if they're accurate. I know most of them are just there for funzies, but the longer ones concern me. I guess I'm just not used to the storyteller doing sequel, start, prequel, start, sequel, prequel, prequel, sequel, and then end. Or maybe it's just me, and I'm sleep deprived.

My little observation speech is gonna take a while for me to get out in your asks because when I get theoretical, my speech gets long, and my proper English goes down the drain. So I'll be back. I appreciate your work very much. Despite the pain it causes me, it's still amazing.

I’ll try my best to clear up what confusion I can!

1. As far as Venus. The answer is kind of a mix of, I was still figuring out her design and backstory while coming out with some of those early comics, and then, once I had that down, I wanted the boys to grow strong bonds as a main cast. That’s why a lot of the side characters are only making small appearances in the Sep!AU Life stories, as those are mainly for the boys reconnecting. (Usagi shows up the most because I love him and am totally biased towards him).

This maybe hasn’t been stated outright, but I wasn’t really expecting so many ppl to like Vee as much as they do, and now im trying not to spoil too much of her story. It’ll unfortunately just take us a while to get to the meat of it. Since the boys reconnecting takes up a lot of the early s1s2 story, Im trying to follow the familiar Rise blueprint of Draxum, Shredder, Krang, and then in s3 we’ll have crazy fun new stories with the extra characters.

Ive also decided to take this little nugget from one of the Q&As, and use it for Venus instead of Jennika. It was a much needed bit of inspiration to explain why Venus sorta disappears for a while and will go through some major physical changes (not yet revealed) before the family can figure out a way to reach her.

2. I’m not sure if you mean jump scared in a bad/triggering or neutral way, but if you need me to tag anything on those posts please let me know!

The glimpses of the future timeline, are being scattered throughout wherever they parallel the present story in little ways, but that’s only for now. As we get closer to the movie plot, bigger chunks of the future will be revealed, because the future versions of the boys will have a larger role to play in the present timeline. So we will need more backstory than what the canon got. And also I just enjoy drawing my future versions so sometimes I don’t think too hard on a reason. I just like throwing them at ppl with no warning or reason.

When s2 ends, I plan on collecting all the future related stuff that’s been released, and recapping it for easier reading. Right now, it’s just little sprinkles of foreshadowing to give ppl an idea that, ‘oh crap. The doomed timeline is a bummer’. In my mind, I guess i thought it’d be kinda like a fun scavenger hunt for clues, but maybe ppl don’t like that 😅

3. All of the side-stories were written as the main comic was/is being released. A lot of them resulted from asks that just spawned the need to expand on certain ideas, or a desire to give all the turtles their time to shine.

For instance, when I was doing Donnie’s section of the main comic, it was a good few months where we hardly saw anyone but him and Venus. I wanted to just mix it up, and give Raph some love with his ‘Raph Time’ short. When Leo was front and center in the main, we hardly saw the others, so Mikey and Donnie got their little ‘Secrets’ short (and it was also I fun thank you for EW making it so far in the tmnt sep competition).

4. Anything that has been reworked/revised or just plain dropped should have an ‘Edit’ note because yes—I have gone back and changed some things, but more so from the asks i got in the early days, and some movie idea drafts.

All the short comics done in the last year, especially the ones that are listed in my pinned post, are canon and fall somewhere in the timeline. They’re like supplemental reading though—extra meat to give the world and the characters more personality. They do have particular backstory plot and important info in them, but nothing that shouldn’t eventually be re-visited/repeated in the main story.

um I hope that cleared up some things! I know it’s kind of a crazy amount of lore. I’ve tried my best to organize it in the pinned post, huge timeline, and search bar tags, but I know it’s getting harder and harder for newer ppl to jump in as it just get bigger. Thanks for reading regardless!

[thesmpisonfire]

Q! Brazilians Background, Lore and Summary, as I could gather from Day One

Backstory:

Felps is at fault for crashing the boat, he didn't had a license for controlling the ship since he thought it was just like riding a bike

Pac, Mike and Cellbit already have a story together, Pac and Mike have been previously betrayed and saw friends die due to Cellbit's fault

Pac and Mike are a Duo, Do Not Separate

Cellbit and Felps have been friends for ages

Pac and Mike have a backstory when dealing with Herobrine, coming from an old rp series called "Herobrine: The Legend", where they started getting haunted by Herobrine at age 14, managed to banish it around their 17s, and then it came back to haunt them when they were 19, and its still around

Forever had a lover, Brunim, that looks eerily similar to Phil and it's the reason Forever is obsessed with Phil and took such a hit when Phil kept pushing him away

Q!Characters server lore and summary:

Forever has brought weed with him in the boat, and made a deal with Quackity to create a prison, lock up everyone, and get rich with a drug empire

Later, all Brazilians agreed to make a mafia without anyone else knowing

When Richarlyson was adopted, first thing they all did was teach him how to steal quick and then how to kill. That diamond sword of his is crazy

Forever didn't care much for Richarlyson at first, leaving him with the other 4

He went after Philza, finding him with Tallulah, Chayenne, Dapper and BBH. He and Phil fought when Phil offered to help him build a home, when Forever wanted to live with him

Forever then said he didn't want Philza as his sugar daddy anymore, and left their place crying

He then decided he'd build a prison and lock up Phil to force Phil to love him

Forever got tricked by Quackity at first into believing Tallulah was Q's child and that Phil had kidnapped her and vowed to help

Later, when Cellbit went find Forever, Quackity tried to convince him of the same. Cellbit talked to BBH and made a deal to get some itens or else he'd help Quackity get Tallulah, BBH payed him

Quackity and Cellbit fought, Quackity started berating all the eggs, and Cellbit stepped in when Quackity talked about Richas, saying Q only hated the eggs because he had none

Quackity jumped off the wall, and so Cellbit felt guilty and offered 1% of Richas' paternity to Q, who accepted

Meanwhile, Pac, Mike and Felps were almost dying to a LOT of mobs while trying to find a place to settle. Richas was honestly the MVP here bc he defended all 3 of them when they barely had armor and weapons

(Between these two things happening, Forever was trying to find Pac, Mike and Felps)

They regrouped and everyone grumpily accepted Q as one of Richarlyson's dad, they had settles over a couple of mounts and decided they'd build a big house complex on the hillside (A favela)

Suddenly, they saw a white man walking around and Richarlyson had disappeared. Out Of Character, what happened was that the mod Richas' admin was using crashed and he stopped looking like an egg, but Quackity managed to save it lore wise by saying it was Osito Bimbo/Cucurucho that had kidnapped Richas so everyone went with that as well

Richarlyson showed up fine couple mins later

While everyone went out to gather wood and food, Cellbit went with Richas to mine

As they were digging down, Richas fell into a cave, with Cellbit immediately jumping for him and managing to kill some mobs and get Richas out of there

He told Richas to not tell his other dads that they fell into the cave, but else they went down carefully

Cellbit met Felps building, and got him to go down with him and Richarlyson to the cave

This is when Richas died

Cellbit immediately held Felps to make up a lie to make up for their failure. They settled in saying a "Cloaked figure with white eyes, probably a Necromancer, invoked tens of Skeletons that killed them and Richas", hoping to take advantage of Pac and Mike's trauma with Herobrine to be believed

Cellbit's plan worked when Pac immediately asked if it was Herobrine who took Richas' life, but when Q overheard the talk he said it was probably Cucurucho again who killed the egg

After this, things became more chill with Richas. He stayed with Mike building their favela while Pac and Cellbit went down to mine

Here is when the things get a bit more freaky, Pac and Cellbit went all the way down to bedrock and found a weird, man-made cave system, lightened up with torches. It didn't seem like strip mining, since there were literally no holes in the walls that would indicate that an ore was mined out

They kept exploring and ended up lost and had to dig their way up

All the time they joked it was Cucurucho's tunnels and he was going to be upset with them

Meanwhile, Forever got back worried for Richas' death, and so he stuck around to help protect him

Felps, Mike and Forever made a farm, and also a bed for Richarlyson, plus Mike had made a canvas and painted Richas a nice painting of him :)

Someone trapped a chest they had next to the farm, someone they just saw a glimpse of, and when Felps opened the chest, it exploded and killed him

Time passed and soon BBH came by to see how they were, he then noticed Osito Bimbo watching them and Forever and Cellbit chased him down, since he started running. Cellbit got distracted by BBH calling him and Forever kept chasing

BBH warned that Richas was too vulnerable by sleeping in the living room since people could just kill him when they weren't looking

So, naturally, they build a secret room behind a wall and locked Richarlyson in there with stone since they had no means to build a fancy door

Cellbit then talked to BBH in private, since BBH had similar characteristics as the Necromancer Cellbit had made up (white eyes, cloak) and asked BBH to pretend to be the Necromancer to help him out

BBH agreed

They finally managed to build a security door, locking Richarlyson in there (it's NOT a captivity room) and then covering the door with a painting

They all logged out after that

Richarlyson got his life back since it was his first day

[jingchu-time]

Spoilers for all of DRDT so far (all the way to the end of Ch.2 - Pt.1)

(This is my first attempt at a character analysis, so forgive me if it's a bit messy, I'll try to fit it up later. Also my first time using tumblr, intimidating but I'll figure it out.)

-

(TW: Talks about parental death and neglect. Mentions of racism, not talked about in much depth)

---

Intro:

Whit is one of the most interesting and mysterious characters in Despair Time. Despite being so well-loved by the fandom, his character is not taken nearly as seriously as I believe he should be. Objectively, Whit has one of the most in-depth characters, which isn't talked about with how often he gets reduced to a possible love interest for Charles. I also love their relationship (and ship it as well), but compared to Charles, Whit's other traits are ignored in favor of their relationship, which is unfair with how complex Whit's character actually is. Likes his backstory for example.

Part 1 - Whit's Backstory:

Whit's backstory is still shrouded in mystery, since it's only Chapter 2, but that isn't to say we know nothing about it. During Episode 4 of Chapter 1 Whit talks about his home life. He reveals that he's an only child, and briefly mentions that he thinks having a sibling would be cool, since he could be friends with them. This will be mentioned again later in the analysis, so keep this fact in mind. He then goes on to talk about his parents. First, he talks about his father, Lin or Steve. Whit says he doesn't see him a lot since he works overseas. All Whit is able to say about him is that he's quiet. Then Whit goes to talk about his mother, Elizabeth. Whit shows actual happiness when he talks about her. He doesn't go in depth, but he does call her pretty and sophisticated. He says he even bleached his hair to be like her. He clearly admired her a lot. He finally goes on to talk about his since nobody is ever in their house for long periods of time, he couldn't have pets. His home seems decent solely based on this information, but we have gained another part of it recently. In Episode 9 of Chapter 2 (what a jump) the secrets of all the cast are finally talked about. During the trial, Whit admits his secret is, "Your mother is dead. You always omit that truth." This isn't all that surprising when you consider how Whit deals with stuff like death (which well talks about in a different section) or his secret quote, "We tend to idolize the Dead."

So that's all of Whit's backstory, right? Insert *Sore wa chigau yo!" meme here. Is it all we've seen in the story, yes, but there was a Q&A done a while back that gave us an even greater idea of Whit's past. Anon asked if Whit was Biracial. The creator said yes, since his father is Chinese and his mother is American. It's also mentioned that for the first part of Whit's life, he was raised by his mom, so he doesn't have many Chinese experiences. What is mentioned next is what I care about the most. It's said that his father was very absent from his childhood (and life in general it seems). I think this makes it safe to say that Whit probably experienced some form of neglect from his father. He could barely say anything about him, the house is so empty that he can't even have pets, the way he talks about having a sibling. His mother is dead, and his father is never around. Whit was probably a lonely kid. The idea of having a sibling could fill the void because of his basically non-existent family. Also, regarding his mother's death, I'm gonna guess it was around his teen years, though I'm not sure.

Why mention his backstory first? Because this fandom never acknowledges anything about his past besides his dead mom when we clearly have more to look at. I also think this backstory can explain a lot of Whit's actions throughout the game. Speaking of…

Part 2 - Whit's role as comic relief, and how he (and Ace) subvert the stereotype:

Whit is easily seen as comic relief by most (I hope). Comic relief is a character used to defuse tension from certain scenes in shows/movies, plays/musicals, or video games. Whit is clearly made for the role, but another character, Ace, plays (or did play) the role as well. How can they both share the same role? You see, all roles have different stereotypes that are repaired with them. Comic relief is no expectation. I would say that comic relief tends to come in two types.

Characters who take absolutely nothing seriously. The lack of seriousness can be so bad that their jokes can fully screw over the tone of a scene, or story as a whole.

Using flanderization, which is just exaggerating a certain trait (or even sometimes traits) in a character. Character traits like paranoia, anger, happiness, or even sadness will become so amplified that you, much like the story, won't be able to take them seriously.

Whit and Ace fit these two stereotypes very well. After Whit's introduction in Episode 4 of the Prologue, Teruko calls him frivolous. A word, when used as a trait, is characterized by lack of seriousness or sense, which is a fairly accurate descriptor for Whit. Ace fits the second very well. Ace is characterized as both extremely aggressive, and as an extremely large coward through the entirety of the Prologue and Chapter 1. It's hard to take either character seriously at first glance.

Yet both Whit and Ace manage to subvert the stereotype and do interesting new things while doing it.

Ace goes through (negative but natural) character development after Chapter 1. He takes on a fully aggressive persona so that he's not seen as someone that can be easily killed off, the more intimidating the better. If he's seen as all bark no bite cowards, then he'll be an easy target. The cowardness is replaced by more anger and now the anger isn't funny now since we see it negatively affecting both the rest of the cast and Ace himself. He loses the role as comic relief by going through his natural character development. He subverts the trope by getting proper development, which leads to him losing the role entirely.

Whit subverts the trope by fully admitting that he's trying to be it. In Episode 4 of Chapter 1, Whit talks about how his constant joking is just him trying to lighten the mood. Whit wants to find a way to make the others happy, or at the very least lessen the stress they have because of the current situation they're in. He does this by joking and teasing. Whit subverts the trope by admitting he's trying to be the trope.

Both Whit and Ace subvert the same trope in vastly different ways, which are both effective for both of them. This does lead me to a question. Why does Whit do this? Well…

Part 3 - Goals vs Motive, actions, and what differentiates Whit and Hu:

When discussing characters' popularity, Hu and Whit are basically opposites. Whit, as mentioned earlier during the intro, is one of the most popular characters in the DRDT fandom. Hu, on the other hand, has gained a distaste by a majority of DRDT fandom because of how she's acted during the course of Chapter 2. This is very interesting, since the two are fairly similar. This is probably surprising to many, since the two seem so, so different. Hu is a serious mom friend, while Whit is a jokester.

I won't deny their differences, but what makes them similar is actually really important. The biggest similarity between the two is their goal. "Help the others through the killing game". This goal is special to these two because while the others are all (mostly) actively trying to find a way to either get out or end the killing game. These two don't though. They don't make any active attempts to find a way to or escape like the others, or their attempts are way more subtle than everyone else. So, if they have the same goal, why do they go about it so differently? Motive. A goal is what a character wants, a motive is why your character wants to achieve their goal.

We already know Hu's motive. Her motive is feeling useful. I'll discuss it more whenever I get to making a Hu analysis, but Hu has self-worth issues, making her believe that if she isn't doing some then she is completely useless. The idea of being useless seems to scare her. The reason Hu wants to help the other through the killing game is because it will make sure she isn't useless. Her actions to achieve her goal are by giving all her love to certain people, since she's aware that she can give equal love to everyone. She'll do whatever it takes to keep those certain people safe and happy, even excusing their bad actions. She plays favorites so that there will always be someone that finds her useful.

Whit is very different in regard to motive, since we don't really know fully what it is yet. We can make assumptions, but we can't be fully sure yet. Our best answer currently is simply, nobody can. This leads me to the next section…

Part 4 - Whit's calm persona, and it's relation to his motive:

Whit likes to make others happy. Whit also likes to help others. I believe these two traits heavily influenced his persona. Whit doesn't show emotion. We've seen happiness, concern, surprise, regret, confusion, and neutrality. He legit says "Jeez" after watching Min's execution in Episode 12 of Chapter 1, which is very tame compared to the others. Then he says, and I quote, "Oops" after seeing Arei's dead body in Episode 8 of Chapter 2. That is not a normal/socially (and morally for that matter) appropriate response to a dead body. What does this mean? Well, Whit doesn't show a real hint of sadness, or what he has is a very closed off version. Why does this point matter? Well, Whit is doing what nobody in the cast can. Whit is able to be a kind while being a reasonable/neutral force in the killing game. Hu and Eden, while kind, are both easily swayed by their emotions. Whit is less swayed by emotions like that and is shown to be logical when it counts. Like when he reminded David that they only knew Xander for a few days, so there was no real way of knowing if how Xander acted was in or out of character during the scrum debate in Episode 8 of Chapter 1. Whit can manage the role of a jokester and calm person very well. However, his calm side has grown a lot over the killing game.

Whit has always been generally calmer compared to a majority of this cast. You can take his dialogue after the killing game was revealed during Episode 5 of the Prologue as an example. However, his persona is something growing in intensity over the course of the series. When Min was executed, Whit showed off at least some form of sympathy, compared to when Arie died. He barely acknowledges her death, focusing much more on comforting Eden. This is all odder considering that while he and Arei didn't always see eye to eye, he still had more connections to her than Min from what saw. While everyone else slowly descends into madness, Whit just keeps amplifying his calm persona.

How does this relate to his motive? At the very least, for Chapter 2, Whit's motive is something along the lines, "Because someone has to". Whit likes helping others. If he doesn't help the others through the game, literally nobody else will. Mainly because this cast is extremely mentally unwell. Also, having a goal and motive doesn't mean they'll be good at achieving said goal. Whit hasn't been particularly helpful despite his efforts, but I'll explain why this is a little later. Anyway, if you compare Whit and Hu's motive to help others, then it makes sense why they're so different. It also explains why Whit is more easily likable compared to Hu. Neither of them are bad, not by a long shot, but we still have to wait for more of both. I would like to move into my next section, since this section does reference something in there…

Part 5 - Whit's ability to see the best in others:

This is one of Whit’s lesser known traits, which is so odd because this trust is seen so much in his character. Whit’s main relationship is with Charles. He and Whit have lots of interactions. Like during the Prologue, where half of Charles’ introduction is him and Whit. Or during Chapter 1, where the pairs' friendship begins to develop. And Chapter 2, where we get to watch their friendship fully develop. At the start, both of them disliked each other. Charles disliked Whit for his jokester person and how often Whit would use him as an object for humor, which didn’t mix well with how much Charles hates being looked down upon. Meanwhile, Whit didn’t like Charles for his very rude and arrogant personality, which make sense considering how much of Whit’s persona(s) are based around being kind to others. What happens in Chapter 1 is what I’d like to discuss in relation to the topic of this section.

During Chapter 1, Xander tries to pin the blame on Charles by using Charles’s hemophobia. Charles’ phobia makes him breakdown when he sees gory or dead bodies because of his unresolved childhood trauma. After Charles gets lured into seeing Teruko’s dead body and runs away, he ends up running into Whit, who was in the cafeteria, mid-breakdown. At first, Whit assumes that Charles is messing with him, but ends up realizing he wasn’t. Whit ends up making the choice to stay and help out Charles. Levi brings up in Episode 9 of Chapter 1 that Charles could have been faking it. In a game where any wrong moves can lead to your death, Whit decision to stay and help could’ve gotten him killed if Charles had been. Yet Whit choice to stay, ignoring his own opinions about Charles at that point, decided to see the best in him. He chose to see the best in Charles despite only really having his intuition as a reason.

To continue this point, I’d like to bring up Teruko and David. Teruko is fairly straight forward, as during the dressing room scene in Episode 2 of Chapter 2, Whit says he doesn’t think Teruko or anyone else in the cast is a bad person. We get a small look into Whit’s thought process. He believes that, despite everyone acting callously, they aren’t bad people. They are human. They are just human with emotions and weaknesses, and that’s fine with him. He believes, even when Teruko herself doesn’t, that there is still a good person in her. That despite the current asshole she is being, she is still a good person, even if it’s a little deeper inside. This thought process also relates to how he handles David. Whit is the one who had David’s secret. David’s secret is, “You exist to manipulate others, others exist to be manipulated.” It is very hard to see this secret and believe whoever it’s about isn’t a bad person. But Whit having it actually makes this makes sense. Whit, much like Hu, likes to see the best in others. Unlike Hu, however, Whit keeps this fact to himself unless he’s having a moment of vulnerability. It isn’t hard to believe that he, despite how obvious the secret is, convinced himself that David wasn’t a bad person. Hell, we get some confirmation of this during Episode 11 of Chapter 2, when after David’s real personality is reveled, Whit makes a certain comment. “I was keeping that secret out of concern for your career. But if this is how you really act, then your career might be in trouble for reasons out of my control.” A majority of the fandom think he’s lying, and I won’t deny the possibility, but I feel like we should look at this comment from more than one angle. If we bring up the idea of him believing that the secret was simply worded badly, then it’s no wonder he of all people wouldn’t wanna take that risk. I don’t think anybody would want to ruin someone's whole career based on a secret that could be purposely worded badly. “...reasons out of my control”, this quote basically confirms that if David hadn’t gone insane in Episode 11, then Whit would have blamed himself for David’s career. Whit is a caring person, so this idea is very plausible.

If it was anyone else, then the idea would be unlikable, but it’s not unbelievable if you consider Whit’s character so far. A person who cares for others and has risked his life holding onto the idea of seeing the best in them. Whit is the only character who would hide a secret like that. Since I brought up Charles, Teruko, and David, that brings me to a different section…

Part 6 - Gaining importance through others:

This section should be fairly brief. Whit, while has not really been a major player, keeps having connections to characters who are. If most had to assign the DRDT cast cliché Danganronpa roles, then it tends to go Teruko is the protagonist (obviously), Charles is the support (stretching but okay), and David is the antagonist. Whit, as mentioned in the section before, is connected to all three. However, that isn’t all when it comes to his connections to major characters (this wouldn’t be a section if that was the case). Let me bring up Eden, Arei, and Hu. Whit has come to Eden’s defense twice now. First in Episode 5 of Chapter 1, when Arei and Arturo are insulting the cake which she was actually really proud of. Whit makes a joke about how cake=birthday song, which is able to distract the group from the insults and everyone becomes much less hesitant about eating the cake. Then in Episode 9 of Chapter 2, he buys Eden some time, since Teruko was asking about the note (that made Eden super suspicious), by bringing up the alibis. In Episode 1 of Chapter 1, we get to see that Whit and Arei were investigation partners. It’s not big, but is still a point of connection. Finally, he and Hu had a a fairly long talk about the killing game during the dressing room scene during Episode 2 of Chapter 2.

Whit keeps being given importance because of his connections with major players in Chapter 2. No matter how big or small. I honestly don’t have a good translation to the next section, so…

Part 7 - He is very different compared to the rest:

Whit handles most stuff in a very special way. Firstly, while a majority of this cast will become aggressive or start fighting with each other. Whit, however, is very different compared to the others in this case. Whit will make passive-aggressive or sarcastic comments. He is also very conflict avoidant, which will be dissected later for reasons. And second, his method of investigation. Compared to the majority of the cast, who go the logical route of investigating the body and scene of the crime in depth, then investigating other areas. Whit is one of the three character (the others being Charles and Rose) who don’t examine the body. This is odd considering that Whit doesn’t really seem to have a reason to not too, I think I know why, but it will have to be talked about a little later (I'm sorry, but this is the last time I promise). Anyway, as mentioned earlier, Whit is a very calm person. His type of calm (yeah type) is different from that of Hu or Veronika. Hu is calm but is very easily angered by her situation and constantly struggles to keep composure. Veronika is much more similar, but unlike Whit, Veronika finds joy in their situation. She finds the killing game fun and interesting, completely fine with her situation. She’s only calm because she doesn’t find the danger frightening. She’ happy because she hates being bored. Whit is only calm because, as mentioned many times, he had to be. Someone has to be calm and kind during their situation. One is more selfish than the other, and that makes them different. All the talk about Whit’s differences reminds me of one thing that only her has…

Part 8 - Whit’s intuition:

Before I get into Whit’s intuition, I want to talk about what intuition actually is. Intuition are just gut feelings. They are ideas that, while there i no logical reason to believe it, you just feel like you do. Whit’s intuition has been mentioned during Episode 4 and 9 of Chapter 1 and during his and Charles’ FTE. He claims, using his intuition, that one day, Teruko will be happy, that Charles isn’t faking the breakdown he is/was having, and that one day him and Charles were going to be friends. His intuition hadn’t been mentioned once through the first part of Chapter 2. I think this mostly because of the calm persona, He has to be more logical. This doesn’t mean his emotions won’t influence situations, but now he had to try to rationalize his decisions based on those emotions. He can’t just say it’s his intuition anymore, not with how the group is currently.

I still don’t have a good way to transition so let’s just-

Part 9 - Whit’s social life and conflict avoidance:

Whit isn’t a fan of fights, unless it for the sake of someone else. In Episode 2 of Chapter 2 (it’s a great scene okay), Hu and Whit are discussing how much the Mastermind knows about them. Teruko, being Teruko, finds a way to twist it into distrusting others. Whit then makes one of his passive-aggressive comments towards her. Then, only a little while later, Teruko is equally rude when Whit tries to call her a good person, and this time Whit keeps quiet. Whit won’t argue with someone unless what that other person is doing negatively effects others. His conflict avoidance is seen during Episode 4 of Chapter 2, where he refuses to try and break up any of the fights. His reasoning is that his talent isn’t couple counseling, therefore he can’t be the one to break up any of the fights. This is an excuse that Charles quickly shuts down. So yeah, Whit doesn’t like conflict, which is probably part of why he became a jokester in the first place, but we’ll come back to this though after the next section. Speaking of the next section…

Part 10 - The 4th wall (and finding information):

Whit is the character that shows the most awareness of the 4th wall. In Episode 8 of Chapter 1, Whit legit tells the audience to pause to read the list, since it would be useful. There is no way that he was directing that at the cast, since they can’t fuckin’ pause their lives. Then in Episode 10 of Chapter 2, Whit breaks the 4th wall, but in a far more subtle way. Whit says he doesn’t remember which secret Eden got, which leads to us, the audience, to be shown the list. Whit gave us a direct way to relook at the secret list, which is very weird since he could have just looked up and silently read the list. Something that Ace points out (kind of). Whit is the only character to show this much awareness of us, The weird thing is why would Whit want to help us? We’re the whole reason that he and the rest of the cast are stuck there, dying for our entertainment. So why would he want to help us? This is a question we’ll have to wait for an answer, since even I’m not sure yet. A downside of only being through half of the 2nd Chapter.

This section is the one I brought up earlier during Part 9, and will be connecting some of the mysterious points I didn’t expand upon earlier…

Part 11 - How does his backstory influence him:

You’ve probably noticed that despite his backstory being brought up first, I haven’t given it much though since. This is because I believed we all need a better understand of Whit before I could describe how his backstory affected all of what we’ve discussed. Before that, however, there is one part left.

If you remember, I said that Whit was a lonely kid. Along with what I said earlier in the backstory section this is also because of his talent and love life. Whit’s talent is something others have to pay for, mentioned in the Q&A earlier. He sets other people up as a way to earn money, which begs the question of why Whit took up the talent in the first place. Since we don’t have a proper answer yet, so we’re going to move one, just keep that as food for thought. Anyway, Whit is said to have a pretty bad romantic life despite his talent. He apparently just can’t find a partner, despite his efforts. This isn’t all that surprising when you consider that Whit isn’t all that socially competent at times. It’s hard to describe, so well use examples instead. During the FTE, Whit is shown to be completely shocked at Charles’ anger toward him. Whit hadn’t even considered the idea that the stuff he did earlier could be seen as negative. Even when it’d probably become obvious to anyone else at that point. Then, during the Computer Lab scene during Episode 7 of Chapter 2, Whit makes a dark joke about Min’s death in front of Teruko and doesn’t even think of the bad implication till Charles points it out to him. He is able to apologize and fix those behaviors, which is an interesting pattern of behavior. Not understanding a wrong till someone points it out to you, and then you improve it. Unless you point it out to Whit, he probably won’t notice the problem. I think these behaviors say a lot about his past and it’s effects on him.

Whit’s past would explain his social incompetence at times. His father wasn’t there to be a good example and his mom probably wasn’t there for his teen years, which is a huge time for development in minors. This leads to him not having the proper role-models.

(This is an off section, but I felt the need to bring it up. Whit is biracial, Asian American, American/Chinese, a race that faces a lot of discrimination in America. The DRDT creator is very well versed in his research of the topic and ideas he handles. Ace is a lovely example, including the higher chances of anxiety and chances for eating disorders they have. I won’t say I know anything, but I wouldn’t completely discard the idea of him facing discrimination in the past.)

So yeah, Whit was a lonely kid, why does it matter? It matters because if he is as much of a former loner as mentioned, then that would also explain why Whit keeps people-pleasing. (I think there is a want for acceptance, but a struggle to believe that it’s possible without the personas.)

His backstory also explains his seeing the best in others' mindset. People tend to think that the only way to look at negative events in life is through negativity, but that’s wrong. When you have nothing, then you’ll leach onto anything to hold onto, like optimism. This idea was used in the canon Danganronpa games with Nagito, and I think a similar principle is shared with Whit. Whit probably attached onto something positive because he literally had nothing else. Optimism, in that case, is the easiest answer. Whit deals with life, and the killing game by trying to find the good. Whit's life might not be great, but that doesn't mean he has to see it that way. It's probably why he keeps omitting the fact about his mother's death. Why look back on the past when there is so much left to do in life. He probably thinks this is what she would've wanted, based on his idolization of her.

This all brings me to my last section…

Part 12 - His belief in privacy:

Whit is very adamant in respecting others' privacy. In Episode 1 of Chapter 2, Whit brings up the idea that everyone keeps the secrets to themselves until they have more time to work through it properly. This gets ignored by Arturo, who does it anyway. I've already gone into depth talks about privacy with Charles and David. What I wanna talk about is why Whit is so big on it. Because that is a question we haven't gotten an answer to. Why? Well, while I'm not sure, I think it has something to do with his past.

I have also lost my mom, like Whit. When I lost my mom, people wouldn't stop questioning me about it. Whit described his mom as sophisticated, so that makes me think she could've been fairly known in the community. Whit probably had a lot of strangers question him about it, despite his feelings about it. Mix this with Whit's pleasing other mentality, then his adamantly about respecting others' privacy. This is the only part of his mentality that goes against his more logical character. Charles even says he gave Teruko the secret he had because he wouldn't trust Whit to sacrifice someone's' privacy when it's necessary. Charles has a strong understanding of Whit's, so I'd trust him. This is the only part of Whit that he never changes, even when he has different personas on. It's consistent.

This concludes the final section to this analysis, so onto the conclusion.

Conclusion:

Whit is a character that gets overlooked by a majority of the fandom despite being pretty much universally loved. His past is so much more than what we've seen or is talked about. His caring nature is something that has so much hidden depths. And, unless he is the Chapter 2 killer, there is so much left to find about Whit.

---

(Thanks for reading. Again, sorry if it's a bit all over the place. I hope I could shed some more light on Whit's character for ya'll. Have a good day/night.)

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Script progress + Updates💙

Hello and welcome new followers, long time no see! I was very busy most of this month, but I am back and ready to continue from where I left off on the game! This game development post might be a bit long but I tried to condense everything! :]

"How are things going so far?":

It's going slow and steady! I haven't been able to do too much these past few weeks, however, I wrote a few parts out before I got too busy and couldn't do anything else.

I want to be very careful when it comes to spoilers but, based on your choices, some of these areas will give off immersive cozy/homelike vibes that really express Noah and the player(Y/N)'s view towards each other. In the old 2023 script I was very new to writing so the small semi-hints of romance weren't the entire focus compared to the horror aspect but there's a better balance between both genres now and I'm still aiming for a meaningful slow burn versus it just being all over the place. :] I liked writing them a whole bunch which lead to a lot of these taking place in the mid/end of Day 4+, they just need to be placed in specific areas that call for it. With that being said, it felt really comfy adding key details about Noah and creating meaningful sections in the game. I was even going to draw out some of the unseen script/scenes but I believe the best thing to do is give deeper lore from the [Extended Demo] first. Even though my writing style has improved I still have to fix the multiple pacing issues I wrote last year.

"Playtester's advice":

I wanted to continue working through Noah's backstory but I kept having moments where I'd get sidetracked into wanting to fix up the start of the game again. Eventually, I talked to my play testers about it and they gave me a few encouraging pointers.

To help keep my process at ease, I will fix the beginning of the game when I take breaks from writing up Noah's backstory. :]

I talked about this during early 2024 but the start of the game that leads up to the cabin is still getting reworked. I was able to get some of it fixed for the [Extended Demo] but I wasn't done. Things are still up in the air but, I will say that I have a better view of everything than I did before. :] Another priority that needs fixing are the backgrounds! I've improved a lot on drawing and they need to be optimized. When you first start up the game, you wake up in a holed out tree in the swamp with the choice to leave this area and possibly end up in the forest. I was going for a very immersive form of symbolism that only a few noticed but, I believe I can do a better job about this. Unfortunately I don't have any new backgrounds to show right now but maybe next week I'll have some finished up! :]

"Art process/Noah's sprite sheets":

As far as Noah sprite sheet goes, it's still in sketch mode.

I didn't draw anything since I was gone so I need to do a few warm ups before I get to them. There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and old sketches that I never got a chance to doodle so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

My Q&A / Ask box has been reset!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks in the past, unfortunately they all disappeared except for 1 while I was gone. I have no idea what happened but I can only guess it just got reset.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask or resend them in here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience while I was gone! I was ready to accept the interest for this game to fade out and coming back to see that it didn't happen makes me happy, I really appreciate it. :,]

[jerislimarc]

The Jerislim AC mixed with EE plot in scenario that Slim is alive but they still brake up in the finale

(it was an animatic at first but bruh I'm not gonna make it)

Sorry for my English

The first half is basically canon backstories of Jericho and Slim according to Matt and Lamp.

Then goes the Ep.3 prison arc or hcd (you can choose as you wish). They escape, and, maybe just share an apartment for some time(?) and keep on doing crimes.

Jericho after some time starts to reflect on Slim's behavior but still doesn't have enough courage to confront him.

One day Jericho was on his usual thief business and running from cops. He injured his hand and can't move it too well, which means that the hand doesn't constantly vibrate like the rest of his body does.

One of the cops handcuffs this hand with a Epithet eraser cuffs, and, suddenly Jericho's ability to stick to the walls disappears. And he falls down on that cop.

It appears that, because he was always constantly vibrating and basically facing through objects he was facing through eraser cuffs when the cops tried to put it on him the first time, so when it didn't work they decided that he doesn't have an Epithet.

But now, when he couldn't move as fast as usual, the cuffs seemed to work, that meant, that Jericho actually had an Epithet (This Is also based on Matt's description of Jericho's powers in his Q&A).

Jericho feels that Slim probably won't like this…

At home, when Slim comes back, Jericho calls him in the kitchen to talk, while Al goes to another room.

Jericho recaps what happened to him today to Slim and to prove himself, he puts on eraser cuffs on his injured hand.

And then he stops vibrating and knocks on the table to show that he can't phase through it either.

Slim at first tries to find some other explanations for this but Jericho shrugs. Jericho finally tries to confront Slim about killing Epithet users or helping bliss ocean to erase Epithets since he now understands that his Epithet made him into who he is today and that it made Jericho's life a lot happier than if he didn't have those powers.

Slim on the other hand starts to get angrier and angrier. He brings up his sister and that she died because of Epithet users and that while people will continue possessing such a power, people who don't will be hurt or killed.

Jericho switches the conversation to himself to show. Wouldn't Slim kill Jericho now when he knows that he's inscribed?

Jericho grabs Slim's hand that he was holding a knife for peeling Apple and puts it near to his neck.

Slim in rage at all the news starts a fight and in the end cuts Jericho's neck a little.After seconds, he realizes what he did and starts in panic apologizing but Jericho shoves him and goes away. Jericho gathers his stuff in the back pack and leaves.

Slim stands in the hallway for sometime and starts throwing and breaking everything that he can land his hand on.

Cut to the events of the finale of the Anime campaign. Everyone tries to stop Bliss ocean from erasing all Epithets.

Jericho meets main team of Percy, Molly, Ramsey and others and gets to the floor that was free of bliss ocean officers, unlike the previous ones, but Slim was there. Even if he was kicked out of the bliss ocean he still sneaked into the building and unlike the other contestants, he actually decided to fight on the side of the bliss ocean and stop other people from getting through.

Slim sees Jericho and offers him to just go away, but he refuses, reminding that he doesn't want to lose his Epithet.

Slim adjusts his hat and agrees, pulling Alcatraz and getting his ghost armor to start the fight.

He loses, and even then, Jericho reaches the hand to Slim to ask him to give up and join them to stop Bliss ocean.

At first he seemed to reach his hand back but it was Alcatraz. Slim with his free hand stops Al's hand and gets up, going away from Jericho and others.

Their roads split.

I have the rough sketch of Animatic on my patreon for cheapest tier if anyone need it:

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Time for a lighthearted review!

By now a number of people have heard of ボクの神隠し(boku no kamikakushi), aka “My Spiriting Away” or “My Mysterious Disappearance,” aka the BL manga that Okamoto Nobuhito, voice actor of Bakugou Katsuki, was involved in. It is available to read for free in Japanese here with a total of three chapters. This post contains spoilers for the ending.

Here’s a Q&A peppered with my thoughts on it.

The Premise

Crybaby Uzuki idolizes his childhood friend Haruto who always protected him, but since they started high school, their relationship has soured, leaving Uzuki utterly alone. One day, the pair are kidnapped by a strange man and forced to participate in a mysterious game of life-or-death.

How is Okamoto involved?

Okamoto is credited for the 原案 (gen’an). A corollary industry term in English would be “original idea” or possibly “scenario.” In my experience with comics, this suggests he created the characters and premise, then wrote the concept out and submitted it to a second party to be fleshed out for full production.

The script is credited to Production Beijyu (プロダクションベイジュ), a company who offers a variety of production and promotion services with a focus on editing and proofreading books, magazines, manga, and anime.

The manga—so the artwork and all of its production—is credited to 戸真伊まい, a name I can only guess is read as Tomai Mai, which sure sounds like a pen name and doesn’t appear to be linked to any other published work. This could be for a lot of reasons; the artist might be totally new or they might have worked in other genres and chose a unique pen-name for BL, but the only thing I found attached to this name online was their Twitter account.

How’d it get made, anyway?

As far as I can tell, Okamoto must have personally reached out to Beijyu and applied for their services to help make his idea a real thing. Beijyu gear themselves towards small, independent artists and authors, especially those who haven’t debuted with a magazine or printed publication yet.

For those unaware, manga is a massive industry in Japan, and it can be extremely difficult to get your foot in the door. Many creators talk about having their concepts rejected repeatedly by magazine after magazine, or getting a single one-shot published and then struggling to keep the momentum. There’s a reason all of the huge Shounen Jump creators talk about the intense pressure to keep their work popular and to avoid getting dropped from publication by any means necessary.

Boku no Kamikakushi is available for free and I haven’t heard of any plans for a physical release. To be honest, this suggests to me that Okamoto genuinely wanted to get his story made regardless of profitability—he isn’t just a celebrity attaching his name to a series for attention. There wasn’t some industry demand or opportunity that he took advantage of for professional gain, he must have been the one to initiate this endeavor, and honestly, good for him.

Is it really bkdk?

Nah. I will grant you that the tropes at play certainly reveal Okamoto’s tastes, and we sure could extrapolate about his feelings on bkdk from those tastes. But beyond the similarities in backstory, base themes, and design aesthetic that people have pointed out, the couple have very little in common with bkdk, and in fact, the way they diverge is kind of hilariously shocking??

Okay, fine. What’s their deal, then?

Uzuki is a yandere rich boy who likes to get choked. Haruto is honestly a hapless, horny victim in all this.

What!?

Yeah. The “mastermind” behind the kidnapping is Uzuki himself, who staged the whole thing with his butler. Basically, their high school classmates tease Haruto for being associated with Uzuki, the son of the richest noble in town; Haruto resents it so he distances himself from Uzuki and rejects him. Uzuki ends up lonely with no friends and missing Haruto, so he stages his own kidnapping and puts them both in the “death game” as a way to force Haruto to remember his childhood promise to protect Uzuki as his hero.

That’s insane???

YES. IT IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE.

It’s especially funny because the parameters of the death game don’t technically require them to have sex or get intimate, Uzuki is just a fucking freak and Haruto is confused by his own horniness and goes along with it. The first trial involves a selection of drinks, one of which contains poison, and they have to keep choosing one to drink from until someone dies. Haruto ends up poisoned, and Uzuki uses his prize (“one wish”) as the winner to get the antidote and save him, of course passing it to Haruto via full-on mouth kiss.

Haruto has a gay crisis about it.

The second game: whoever raises the other person’s heart rate to 130 beats per minute first wins, and the person with the elevated heart rate dies. Haruto’s heart rate spikes from aftereffects of the poison, and Uzuki’s solution is… for Haruto to choke him… on the bed they woke up on… so his heart rate increases as well. And then he asks Haruto to kiss him, too, and they just start making out until Uzuki’s heart rate hits 130. Haruto gets upset because he lost his head and ended up dooming Uzuki, but then somehow they arrange for this death to also be nullified, and they end up continuing to play the game for three days.

Three whole days!?!

THREE DAYS! This kid traps Haruto in a dungeon so he can make him participate in weird, sadistic, horny shenanigans for three days!

And then when they finally escape and everything is revealed, Haruto is just blankly confused and has this absent look on his face, repeating that he’ll protect Uzuki. The butler says that Uzuki performed excellent mind control, but then Uzuki imprisons the butler so it can be “just the two of them.”

What the fuck, Okamoto???

Right? And you know what, it isn’t my jam at all, but can we just take a moment to recognize that a professional voice actor who is popular and prominent in the public eye wanted his weird horny BL idea to come to fruition, so he went forth into the world and made it so? And he didn’t even hide behind a pen name or anything, he wants people to associate him with it, he’s promoting it! He loves the hell out of it!

Like, I’m pretty astounded by that, and honestly I respect it. More people should just make things that cater to their own tastes without any self-consciousness about it. Wave your freak flag high, Okamoto.

[sparklepoint]

hey i saw stuff about ur asau (hermit!yusuke is perfect and kitteh ann is the fluffiest little baby and i love her) and i just wanted to ask if you have the other arcanas planned? is it a direct one to one swap or is it different?

omg. ty for giving us a chance to introduce

 ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ card shuffle ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

@floodbender’s and mine roleswap au in which the story roles are remixed based on randomly reassigned arcanas + canon backgrounds

it’s kind of a work in progress so this is not q definitive & some arcs are less developed than others, but we do in fact have something planned for everyone :3c let's meet the cast!!

starting with <3 bitter bitch besties <3

○ the fool – akechi

he has pretty much the same backstory as canon, but without Metaverse access; therefore his only outlet has been trying to prove himself academically etc. to show them all

it isn’t really working. even with all the effort, he still gets written off automatically most of the time

there is no arrest/probation/anything out of the ordinary that brings him to staying with Sojiro and going to Shujin, just a last minute arrangement by his previous foster placement 

Akechi POV: you’ve been booted from a family who didn’t want you there for the n-th time in your life and are now moving to stay with some rando who doesn’t want you there either. and everyone at the new school immediately labels you a troublemaker with a problematic background

(of course Shujin is going to make up rumors regardless)

personality-wise, it is as you might expect from a no powers AU Akechi - at the start he’s a bitter, cynical bastard masking behind his Pleasant Boy mode

would have eventually snapped in some self-destructive way if he didn’t meet someone who gets it

rest of the story is spent rehabilitating this man with the power of friendship, mutual understanding, and insane romance. and flufy kity

akechi and makoto: the world is a cruel and unjust place. *minutes later* omg lady ann!!!

i. the magician – ann

flufy kity

backstory inherent to the arcana role

she does not have hang ups about not being human specifically and embraces cathood quite well

instead her issues stem from feelings of comparative inadequacy and not knowing what her role in life and on the team is supposed to be, especially after the PTs get a dedicated navigator

similar to her canon arc, she does mostly handle these feelings by focusing on trying harder & with more purpose rather than growing resentful

when Morgana coined the ‘Lady Ann’ nickname it stuck and now everyone calls her that

still has a widdle crush on Shiho

the only reason Akechi has any side confidants

vii. the chariot – makoto

Makoto handles pressure from Sae far worse in this one

attempted to investigate and expose Kamoshida’s behavior on her own last year and got kicked off the student council for her trouble

grades are suddenly hard to keep up even though she’s putting in the same amount of effort if not more. keeps being left ‘accidentally’ out of the loop about important info. school just kind of making it clear it doesn’t like her anymore

entire social circle crumbled and no support from Sae who at this point is simply mad at her for ‘sabotaging herself for childish reasons’ 

would have eventually snapped in some self-destructive way if she didn’t meet someone who gets it

disillusioned, desperately lonely, and stewing in a lot of suppressed rage

in light of this it’s not surprising that she and Akechi end up bonding pretty much right away in spite of his typically raised hackles

used to be friends with Haru in middle school

vi. the lovers – haru

while Okumura still has a Palace, his behaviour towards Haru is more distant and less outright abusive, and she does not have an engagement hanging over her

instead Kamoshida creeps on her, fixated on adding a demure chaebol princess to his conquests 

Haru’s having trouble rebuffing him as she has issues setting down boundaries with men in general due to her proper upbringing, and is of course scared of his position of authority

in particular, the rooftop garden becomes a hazard for being cornered instead of a sanctuary; 

(fortunately it is also a prime place to be overheard by anyone who's heading up there for definitely not a teen vigilante meeting)

Kamoshida lets out that Haru is the Okumura Foods heiress, which makes her seem like a stuck-up rich princess to the Shujin rumor mill and leaves her ostracized

with regards to Makoto: in Shujin Kamoshida Issues forced them to drift apart, and now, even though both of them want to reignite the middle school friendship, each is reluctant to involve the other in her own respective mess via association

(pictured: childhood friend matching bwacelets)

after that is sorted, they reconnect and begin a prolonged awkward romance dance

(meanwhile the rumor mill is busy debating which one of them is dating Akechi)

iv. the emperor – joker ren akira

legal name, under which he is mildly famous, is Ren Amamiya, actual name he goes by is Akira

for these claiming your chosen identity reasons, his codename is Daybreak :)

his parents are both in the entertainment industry, and the second Palace belongs to his father

Dad Amamiya is a formerly acclaimed, currently washed-up movie director. a nightmare to work with who uses his old connections to run people he doesn’t like out of the industry and ruin their careers

his wife is aware of his transgressions but is too attached to the lifestyle to care 

to Akira’s parents, he is more or less a prop in their public performance as a happy picture-perfect celebrity couple; in his father’s Palace, his cognition is played by an actor

he had long since learned that going against his parents achieves nothing, and has been going through the motions keeping his head down until he meets the team

the meeting is a chance encounter prompted by Emperor-typical  overwhelming fascination with Ann, which in his case is because he’s That Much Of A Cat Person 

rest of his arc is about separating himself from his parents’ legacy as somebody who still wishes to pursue a career in entertainment

ii. the high priestess – morgana

he has Ann’s parents and last name since she doesn’t need them anymore

unlike her, he doesn’t handle their constant absence well and is therefore desperate for the Thieves’ companionship (while being just as tsundere about it in human form as he is in canon)

he kickstarts the Kaneshiro plot despite not being on the student council: since he is a very special smart boy, he can absolutely solve Shujin’s mafia crisis all by himself!

(it is probably rather obvious how well this goes)

his arc is a more mundane version of his canon one about recalibrating the self-worth issues and loneliness until he can be comfortable with himself and his place in the group

his awkward crush here is converted into being an even bigger Ann Stan than the rest of them

still besties with Akira. also perpetual ninth wheel

ix. the hermit – yusuke

Madarame does not have a Palace

without the international recognition from stealing Kitagawa-san’s masterwork he has to subsist on smaller-time forgery and predatory contracts and the like

his main victim is Yusuke’s mom, who lived long enough to start actually raising her son, but her poor health made her the perfect exploitable dependant 

after she succumbs to her illness, Madarame proceeds to take his frustrations over losing the convenient setup out on Yusuke in his typical insidious way

over the subsequent years trapped in an abusive living situation you’re told to be grateful for, the comments about how she would have lived longer and created masterpieces if she didn’t have to take care of you accumulate to create the most depressed teenage boy in the world

as far as Madarame’s concerned, if Yusuke’s too miserable to keep up with his schoolwork, it’s just another instance of him being a drain on everyone in his life. Madarame’s not going to cater to him and pay for his scholarship – he can just stay in and keep house, if that’s all he’s good for

that leaves Yusuke just listlessly haunting the place, convinced that all he can really do with his life is wait to die and go to hell for the sin of being himself: he sees his life with Madarame as perpetual penitence for his mother’s death, his work as almost ritual sacrifices to appease him, and the shack as his purgatory [--beginning navigation]

his Palace is stylistically themed after the Shinto Yomi with more general underworld theming as well; cognitive Madarame is of course the final boss, although he only drops the benevolent underworld guide pretence once thoroughly provoked

the gang finds out about All This after a series of Mementos requests from Madarame’s latest underpaid helper

post change of heart we’re getting Yusuke the fuuuck out of there

Sojiro ends up taking him in, first temporarily and then permanently

neither of us has the vocabulary to concisely explain the respective holes in their heads this Yusuke and this Akechi have about each other

team navigator. please take a moment to imagine yusukespeak navigator lines

iii. the empress – sumire

the Okumura setup is still happening (sorry Haru), but the PTs recognize it as bait and stay away, instead ending up doing a different palace entirely

the Palace Ruler for this arc is the Yoshizawas’ abusive coach (not the one from Sumire’s confidant)

a classic unethical teen sports situation with disproportionate pressure and a concerning disregard of their physical and mental wellbeing as long as they Get Results tm

neither of the sisters is good at standing up for herself, which in Kasumi’s case spirals into continuous self-denial for the sake of The Sport and in Sumire’s exacerbates her feelings of inadequacy

at the moment Kasumi is being pushed to compete despite an injury which would put her out of commission, which is the deadline/reasoning to deal with this ASAP

the palace theme is Colosseum/gladiatorial arena, with the implication of entertainment of the masses at the expense of the athletes’ lives

(pictured gladiator!cogsumi)

xi. justice – ryuji

Ryuji is the one to get slapped with the arrest record courtesy of Shido in this one

the consequences for a 14yo on scholarship and with no support system outside of his mom (except he just feels guilty about creating problems for her) are predictably devastating 

he winds up at Shido’s Palace afterwards by accident while loitering around the Diet building, which is where his awakening happens

he’s spotted entering or exiting the Metaverse, which leads to Shido making him the job offer he cannot refuse

initially framed as “help with secret research” in exchange for erasing his record and bankrolling opportunities for a sports career, but it’s not like there are any easy ways out once the requests starts getting seedier

he’s just the Metaverse assassin/errand boy for the conspiracy, no astroturfed public persona

to an extent Ryuji convinces himself this is for the best since many of his targets do very much have it coming and it’s AN outlet for letting out some steam over the bleak as shit view of society he now has, but ultimately this arrangement and all the murder involved make him utterly miserable, and on a level he understands this is not going to end well for him

gives himself away to the Phantom Thieves early and in the dumbest way possible

for all the above reasons, he’s not at all hard to persuade to switch sides and start double-agenting

did you guess who’s faith no you didn’t

○ faith – hifumi

we just really like hifumi so she’s included

at first her deal is a toned down version of her canon arc, with her mom pushing her towards an idol-like career based off of shogi. then her father actually dies

mom’s grief response is to lean in further into building her career, thinking that this is what her dad would have wanted; Hifumi’s own grief response is to start crumbling under that pressure until “I wish I could just be the person my mother wants to see” is the prevailing sentiment

this is where Maruki’s unethical therapy comes in and actualizes her into the perfect teenage celebrity personality

thirdsem Hifumi is terrified she will never be enough as herself and it takes the team effort to get her to let go of the idol persona, but conveniently there are SO many people with parent issues here to talk to her about it .

bonus: xvii. the star – futaba

Wakaba survives the assassination attempt, but is left unable to continue her scientific work, igniting Futaba’s interest in researching the topic herself

her confidant’s Mementos quest block is still her uncle, who is not as horrifically abusive, but treats them poorly and demands Futaba reimburses him for taking care of them financially

Sojiro is still a pseudo-parental figure in her life, but his role is limited since he cannot insert himself into the situation without permission and Futaba conceals the extent of it from him

she becomes available as a confidant during Yusuke’s arc, which still overlaps with the Medjed crisis

her fixation with cognitive pscience leads to digging into the Phantom Thieves leads to offering to deal with Medjed for them – but only if they prove themselves to her by sorting out a specific request that hit a little close to home. cue Yusuke arc

from then on she’s their tech guy

and that's everyone ✧∘* thank you so much for expressing interest and thank you @floodbender for cowriting this post with me ♡

[tigreblvnc]

BLUE LOCK MATCHUP — @ay-na

Your match is...

— Karasu Tabito

✦ I'm not going to beat around the bush: I had a lot, A LOT of trouble picking someone for you!

✦ I find that you're looking for a set of qualities and the absence of flaws that very few characters in Blue Lock possess.

✦ ... Is it the natural high standards of INFJs? :D

✦ Because when one had the qualities, they also had the flaws. And when one didn't have the flaws, they lacked the qualities as well.

✦ This is kind of the story of making a manga based on competition and learning to sacrifice things to achieve your goal; it naturally leads to characters with dark and less glorious aspects.

✦ Fiction is also conducive to amplifying traits, giving rise to sometimes very stereotyped characters. Even though I think Blue Lock manages to add nuance by giving unexpected and somewhat realistic backstories to its characters.

✦ SO.

✦ I chose to assign you Karasu, who I think is the best compromise between what you're looking for and what you dislike in someone: he's clever, quick-witted, persistent… And he has that little unique twist thanks to his childhood that makes him a character with more layers of depth than it seems. Like many players, arrogance is one of his flaws, but honestly, you don't watch Blue Lock if you don't enjoy seeing a bit of cheekiness on screen.

✦ "I'm good with deciphering and reading people" is very Karasu-coded :D He learned this before playing football. It was his way of coping with his situation at school; analyzing people allowed him to anticipate reactions and thus play on his opponent's weaknesses before they could discover Karasu's own. To support this, here's a quote from his Wiki: "His hobby is observing, analyzing, and assessing humans." As they say: attack before being attacked. It's a strategy often adopted by those who have been mistreated.

✦ So, I would say that Karasu isn't inherently bad, but it's a layer you have to break through to reach the less brutal aspects of him.

✦ I think you'd be quite skilled at detecting this defense mechanism. It's probably something you've observed a lot. We already see it in nature: a wounded wild animal will try to defend itself by attacking those who try to approach it.

✦ "So I don't see myself being able to communicate for long periods of time without tiring out." The ability to communicate is the reason why I eliminated so many contenders for your matchup because those with the qualities you seek often suffer from a lack of communication. I'll revisit this at the end of the post to explain my thinking.

✦ And that's why I chose Karasu: I don't think he's the most excited or extroverted character in the roster, but I find him communicative enough to initiate conversations and seek out dialogue. Just as much as he knows when someone needs silence and peace. After all, he's good at analyzing people.

✦ "I'm an emotional person, but I tend to hide it in order to not be taken advantage of." Again, Karasu coded.

✦ "Even if I barely know the person, if I feel a connection or an urge to make them feel better, why not? This world already has too much misery, there's no need to add more to it." This statement makes me smile because I imagine this trait would be a source of great discomfort for Karasu, who I don't see as someone used to people caring about his well-being. In fact, this is a flaw that many characters in this manga share, and the fact that they all want to prove their worth through victory shows that most are trying to fill a void. But I digress.

✦ Someone pointed this out in a matchup, and it's true: the theme of loneliness is very present in Blue Lock. On a larger scale, and going a bit off-topic so I won't go further here, it's also a theme very present in Japan. So, it's only natural that it is reflected in the work of a mangaka.

✦ "I'm not proud to say this, but I give more than I receive, which makes me feel like I'm not doing enough or if the other person is sick of me, I need reassurance quite a bit if I were to be in a relationship." This is a common issue with MBTI types who have Extraverted Feeling (Fe) in their top two functions. For the INFJ, this function occupies the second place, the Auxiliary, which makes the INFJ highly focused on maintaining external harmony, even at the expense of their own feelings. And the fact that the INFJ is not very communicative about their true emotions doesn't help their situation, leading them to be exploited by others, as they'd rather remain silent than risk ruining the atmosphere by complaining.

✦ I think one of Karasu's love languages is words of affirmation. Since he spends most of his time taunting his opponents on the field and boasting about his abilities, his way of showing that he cares about someone is when he takes the time to reassure them about their skills, plain and simple. To me, a love language is a natural ability of someone, but turned toward a positive purpose.

✦ "Dealing with negative emotions and feelings is a bit hard for me. And more often than not, they come out bursting after bottling everything up in the form of tears." Oh my. I read this part after explaining the INFJ's workings earlier and: yes, it's a consequence of never saying anything. I honestly think that a behavior like this would catch Karasu off guard, and at the same time… well… he'd wonder what he did wrong to make you feel that way. Once he genuinely cares about you, he won't just stand idly by; he'll rethink every situation before the critical moment to understand the problem. Fortunately, the guy is more talkative and knows where to find you to start a conversation. In those moments, his voice is calm, and he doesn't have that mocking expression on his face at all. On the contrary, there's something very inviting in his tone that makes you feel comfortable opening up.

✦ Yes, I can totally see him being good at this and reserving those moments only for the person he loves.

✦ YOU.

✦ "I'm trying to work on processing and communicating my feelings, but when you're surrounded by a toxic environment, it's a bit hard. But I'm managing." I had the image of you retreating to your room, where Karasu simply joins you after knocking on the door. Honestly, he's even capable of waiting outside, sitting down and maybe falling asleep against the door, until you give a sign of life. It's okay if you're not ready to talk now. You'll talk later. And if you tell him, "I need to be alone," he'll leave and wait for you to come to him. It's really that simple, as long as you tell him.

✦ "I've been raised as an overachiever and tend to get lost to the point I neglect my health, so I need someone who can pull me out of such unending loops of forgetting that I'm a human with needs." I headcanon Karasu as a man with the financial means since we saw him well-dressed in public and interested in business and commerce. Even though the crow is goal-oriented, I can totally see him loving expensive vacations, luxury items, and fun trips, especially during the summer.

✦ "I feel guilty when I ask for help, like I'm not competent enough if I need guidance. I'm being helped with understanding this concept, but still." This is something many characters in this manga deal with, but not only; in real life, too. So, it will be a common topic of conversation between the two of you. You'll work on it together at your own pace since Karasu also struggles with this issue, so he understands even more how hard it is to "admit your vulnerabilities." After all, we only ask for help when it gets to that point, right? That's what he thinks, but over time, with patience and trust, you both learn that it's not about admitting your vulnerabilities. It's about accepting that others also have skills and can teach you things.

✦ "I'm a little hesitant about publishing them, so I printed them in a small number for my friends." You might think the ideal partner pushes you to publish your books because they're worth it, but I don't think that's true: the ideal partner accompanies you on your journey to build self-confidence, until YOU are the one who decides to publish your work. Which, in my opinion, could be yet another unexpected facet of Karasu that he only reveals to a select few people.

✦ "I'm into fantasy, cyberpunk, futuristic, action, and slice of life games." If Karasu played video games, it would have been mostly during his childhood, though I can also see him as a kid fascinated by observing nature. We see it a bit in the manga; in reality, many things fascinate him. A butterfly caught in a web, for example. I think this ties into his love of observing and understanding. I know some video games are about making choices, sometimes difficult ones. It makes you reflect, critique the world around you, a system, morality. These are things I’m sure would interest Karasu. In fact, anything that sheds light on human nature.

✦ So yes, it’s likely that if choices need to be made during a game, he’ll think it through with you, weighing the pros and cons. In the end, your debates are so intense that they pull you into the game as if it were the movie of your life.

✦ "I'm into anything that is connected with the stars and sky. So watching the stars above and relaxing on the roof is my ideal thought for a moment of relaxation. I've also been learning about constellations lately too." I'm sure there's a character in the roster who has this as their favorite activity (unless I'm confusing it with Isagi, who loves walks), but I can't remember who. So I'm going to give this trait to Karasu :) I think it makes sense with his interest in observing the environment, not just people but nature too. He really loves birds, and I'm sure he'd be the first to point to the sky when spotting a hawk. He knows the names of so many species that the man is a walking encyclopedia.

✦ Anything to do with night walks and endless late-night talks: he's your guy. And it’s going to sound weird, but I think his chara design really matches the night, doesn’t it?

✦ "Sports: running, yoga, and I know how to play football a bit." Well, of course, this was the little cherry on top. A footballer with a companion who loves his sport can only be thrilled. Some might prefer to find a new rival, but others, like Karasu, just enjoy making someone proud who understands the game he’s made his career.

✦ "I like being alone, but I don't like feeling lonely." A major flaw of our current screen-obsessed society! I think Karasu is good at being that silent presence in the room that makes you feel accompanied. The kind of person you can read with without needing to talk, just appreciating being in the same space. Classic quality time.

✦ … I'm reading your love languages, and OH MY GOD, I'm so happy I hit the nail on the head!!! You have exactly the love languages that suit Karasu, and he has exactly what you need!!!

✦ *erm*

✦ I headcanon Karasu as someone who’s very sensitive to positive remarks about who he is, more than about his football technique. Because his technique is directly tied to the arrogant image he’s built and wants to project; someone who truly understands his personality and fears, and compliments him on his qualities, really has the power to shake him in the best possible way.

✦ Now we get to the part about "traits I like in a person" and also the reason why I eliminated so many contenders lol.

✦ "I love ambitious and purposeful people who are set on their goals and burning for what they want." Honestly, Blue Lock is the best manga for this kind of search lol.

✦ But the rest…

✦ "If said person can make a joke, whether it's sarcasm or an unexpected pun- you have my heart." / "I tend to get along with traumatized people who are seeking salvation and reflection" / "I also find myself drifting more to people who can express themselves better than me in any aspect" / "Traits I absolutely hate in a person: liars and manipulators [...] And most of all, disloyalty" / "characters with too much stubbornness"...

✦ So the characters who had the skills you were looking for also had the flaws you didn’t like. And those who didn’t have those flaws were missing the qualities you sought.

✦ I did think of other characters, but as I said earlier, we’ll talk about them at the end of the post.

✦ Lastly, two appearance traits caught my attention:

✦ "a mole on the left side of my chin" Karasu has his under his left eye :)

✦ "I'm 157cm" -> 183cm for the crow, so hello to big cuddles.

✦ Now let's move on to the headcanons!

✦ Those moments when you’re both working from home, and you're starting to crack because of too much work; you go make yourself some tea in the kitchen and spot Karasu sitting on the couch in the living room, typing away on his laptop. You ask him what he's doing, and he gestures for you to come over; with your steaming cup in hand, you walk over and notice he’s on an airline’s website. The crow looks up at you and says, "I booked us tickets to the ski resort for this winter."

✦ He always double-checks that everything is packed and nothing’s been forgotten. He’s the one who drives, handles the logistics and organization so you can fully relax. He’s seen how hard you’ve been working this past month. Now it’s your turn to rest!

✦ When you arrive at the resort, you unload your stuff at the chalet. It's warm inside because, of course, he even thought to have the heating turned on an hour before your arrival.

✦ He tries out winter dishes with you. Honestly, he’s pretty good at it, and his favorites are the ones that need to simmer for a long time to be enjoyed.

✦ He’s brought along a few books you bought a while ago but never had time to read because of work. Now it’s time for long reading sessions with a good cup in hand, while gazing at the snowy scenery outside.

✦ Speaking of outside, you’ve chosen a few walking paths along the mountain to explore. With or without a guide; you're there to observe nature and the winter wildlife hidden in the white landscape. Sometimes a bird flies overhead, and Karasu always knows how to identify the species.

✦ Lots of couple photos.

✦ Matching ugly Christmas sweaters, but it’s a secret only you two know.

✦ It’s also your time to write and put your thoughts on paper. Sometimes you read a passage to Karasu before blushing because you're not sure why you did that. And it always makes him silently laugh because he knows it means you're getting more comfortable. He comments on the aspects of your writing that evoke analyses in him, the depth of your characters and the worlds you imagine. It’s actually a skill he doesn’t have—creating a whole world and integrating characters into it coherently. He mostly compares it to a football team thrown into an unknown world, and that comparison makes you laugh, genuinely.

✦ And it makes you think back to how you met.

He was probably the football player who caught your attention on the field among the 22 players.

Because there was something extra about him. You thought about it for a long time and decided there was something in his strategy, his way of always being in the right place at the best moment to block the opponent, something so formidable that it reminded you a little of a predator carefully positioning itself to surprise its prey at the perfect moment.

You know a bit about football, and you definitely know the rules, but you had never imagined an approach like Karasu’s. Because the guy made a good impression on you (anything that makes you think and that you take the time to understand is a good impression for you), you often returned to watch his games from the stands.

Without ever announcing yourself.

It happened one afternoon when you came to see him as usual. Some of his acquaintances had come to see him and sat a few seats away from you.

When halftime came, Karasu climbed the stairs, a towel draped around his sweat-soaked neck. At first, he raised his hand in a wave, and you honestly thought it was for you.

Nope: he climbed the steps and went over to join his friends, sitting right next to you. He talked with them, and although you didn’t understand everything because the excitement of seeing the player who fascinated you being so close was getting a little too much for your emotions, you still overheard what he thought of his performance:

"It wasn’t bad, but I could’ve positioned myself better. If it weren’t for number 9, I could’ve pulled off a feint."

And at that moment, you smiled before adding:

"Actually, even if number 9 hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have gotten the ball because of number 11 tailing him."

Karasu immediately turned to look at you, mouth slightly open, not knowing what to say.

It was the truth, and none of the guys he was talking to had noticed it.

"… What else did you see?" He asked, one eyebrow raised, the other furrowed.

And that’s how it all started. A single detail you had noticed managed to capture the raven’s attention until the very end.

A word about your match: Honestly, I really enjoyed writing this matchup—the snow, the fireplace, Karasu with a scarf you knitted for him, sitting on the couch together with his arm slid down your back to your hip... Also, for the other contenders I thought about: Barou, but way too stubborn for you. Chigiri, I think with his quick wit and the trauma of his knee, could have made for a good combination, but there was something missing—something aggressive and positive to elevate your duo. Finally, I also considered the following bunch: Rin, Kaiser, Reo, Sae, but eliminated them all because one was too uncommunicative, another too manipulative, one too clingy, the other incapable of humor… So for me, Karasu is the best possible match for you.

© TIGREBLVNC 2024 | SEPTEMBER ‘24 MATCHUPS EDITION.