#i know the writers really want richter to not be hated but this is so shallow

[goron-king-darunia]

I want to open this by saying that I'm sure everyone put in their utmost effort and that their translations are correct. I am not chalking up any of my observations here as a failure or mistranslation on their part. I'm also not saying that just because the stuff in the event doesn't match my headcanons doesn't mean the stuff that happened isn't canon somehow or that the event should cater to me specifically or that somehow the people at Bamco don't know what their own intentions are. These are my observations and opinions and I'm petty as shit because I have been in deep with DotNW for years and I'm very precious with it and I'm sure I have nostalgia goggles for it the same way ToS fans have nostalgia goggles for the original game that make them overly precious with how the Shepherds of Regeneration were handled/mishandled in DotNW. With that out of the way:

Richter and Aster are cute as always of course, even if I do NOT get the direction the writers went with some of these lines. But it makes my feelings for Ratatosk even more complicated than they already were.

Ratatosk calls Richter out for what the narrative agrees is Richter looking down on Emil and treating him as a kid. Richter and Emil do push back on that and the narrative does imply that while Emil is correct that Richter is at least in part trying to keep his confidence up, Richter himself admits that he still sees Emil as the scared kid he met in Luin and not the man he became through their journey. So on the one hand it's kind of nice to see Ratatosk have something between paternal, fraternal, and self-love toward Emil, wanting Emil to be able to do things himself and shine and be his own person because that courage really earned Ratatosk's respect and he's glad for Emil to be handling things with his own power, even if that means "holding back" from using their spirit powers which Ratatosk considers extensions of his own strength. Emil's independence is something he agrees is better for Emil, even if he doesn't understand Emil's strange logic about it.

Like, it's nice to see Ratatosk openly caring about the other version of himself, the part he hated so much he made it an entirely different self, even if it reads a little bit like narcissism because, like. That's growth. Ratatosk cares for and believes in that part of himself that he shoved away before and embraces Emil as his own person but also as a valuable part of himself. That proves the journey he took in DotNW had an impact on him and what he considers strength and what sorts of qualities he considers valuable to foster in himself through his new self AND old self.

But at the same time Ratatosk is SO FUCKING MEAN TO RICHTER. And, I'm not expecting him to be friendly. These two were fighting one hell of a cold war with each other in their own world because they both had reasons to feel hurt and both had very valid senses of being wronged and wanting justice and that doesn't go away just because they got swept into a new world where at least some of the harm from before was undone. Aster may be back and (If I remember correctly) Kharlan or at least a world tree that is partly like Kharlan has been brought to this world, so like. Yes, the major points of pain for those two have been addressed but that doesn't magically make those emotional wounds go away. I get it. I'm glad they're not super chummy or whatever and pretending they're letting bygones be bygones because having those things unfairly ripped from them AT ALL doesn't simply undo what was done and doesn't mean they didn't suffer and aren't still suffering.

But Interpreting Richter's desire to, like, not have Emil drown or almost drown to death as "underestimating and looking down on" Emil or seeing him as some weak human or treating Ratatosk as some stupid weakling that would let Emil drown is, like, super uncharitable. I'm not calling it a mistake. In fact I do think it says something about Ratatosk for him to be mean as fuck to Richter. But at the same time, it just complicates how I feel about him because, like... I get that you're still mad my dude, but holy shit Ratatosk. Richter can genuinely care about Emil and implying that he doesn't after everything you went through is uncharitable as fuck, bro. Again, I think it genuinely works for the story, I'm pretty sure the point IS that Ratatosk is still growing and still has problems he needs to grow from because, like, being uncharitable toward people who are ultimately trying to help you is generally a flaw that people need to work through, so the narrative setting this up as something Ratatosk can still grow from, that he isn't just a stagnant lump that's done growing and changing, is good. But holy hell. I will never not find that abrasive, which is really sad because I know a lot of people including my closest DotNW mooties love Ratatosk a lot. And during his better moments I enjoy him, but holy hell. If they wanted to write him like a hate sink they wouldn't need to change much.

And then we have whatever this is. XD This screenshot is just funny as fuck to me because this is playing very loose with BOTH the implied canon of the game that Richter and Aster could have been "More than Friends" in DotNW because their relationship is suspiciously vague beyond, like, "best friends" and Rilena is barely a character (sad.) But it ALSO goes against the retcon/rewrite/technically canon compliant expansion of Onshuu no Richter where Rilena and Aster are, if we trust the fan translation, implied to be engaged.

Like, make up your mind, Bamco. Is Aster gay for Richter, Straight for Rilena, Bi for both of them, or whatever the fuck kind of nerd loser shit you're implying here where this absolute rizzlord is SOMEHOW STRIKING OUT WITH THE LADIES AND NOT GETTING ALONG WITH GIRLS?! I can't even tell if I'm supposed to read this as "so gay he doesn't know how to get along with women and Rilena is the tomboyish exception off-screen" or "so straight he gets nervous around pretty girls" or "absolutely insane rizz in mixed company but abrasive personality when left alone with a girl" or even "secretly misogynist somehow." Because I think we're meant to read it in context as "Aster is jealous that Emil pulls bitches and Aster somehow isn't or can't pull bitches?" Aster you pulled the baddest bitch ever by landing Richter, shut up! XD He even brings up Rilena in the next line but not in a context that implies he misses her company or anything more direct like "I miss my wife, Richter." Regardless of what we're actually supposed to pull from this about Aster's relationship with Rilena, Aster is landing bitches, I guarantee it. The autism gets him mad bitches. Don't lie to me Rays. I know your word is technically canon, but you are wrong. The council has decided but the council is stupid and I'm ignoring it or whatever the meme is. If we're meant to pull from this that Aster is not a hit with the girls, you are daft, Rays. Because either you're trying to tell us that Rilena is the only girl Aster could pull and yet later imply that he still wants to ogle other women, or that Aster is available, adorkable, and NOT PULLING ANY GIRL HE WANTS. Like, I'm sorry, these are bot absurd to me. Whatever you say is law, Rays, but even if I didn't already ship Aster with Richter, I would absolutely be ignoring whatever this is. Aster could land anyone he wanted, change my mind.

Also, Richter has a long beat of silence after this implying that Aster/Rilena IS considered canon here, or that he's at least aware that Aster is straight. But that only redoubles what I said before. Why isn't Aster directly saying "I miss flirting with my fiance." or anything more direct? Because being vague about it makes it sound like he wants to CHEAT. I refuse to believe Bamco treats all men the same way they treat Zelos. Aster is not a fuckboy, like come on. Also the long beat of silence for Richter implying that the gay love is entirely unspoken and unrequited oof ouch.

(Feel free to argue with me or refute these ideas by the way, I am one nerd and I built these headcanons in a shed out of the tiny scraps of content we got drip-fed before Rays was even in development and it's been a while since I completed the game and my brain is a sieve at the best of times so, like. I am once again not trying to say my word is gospel here. I am saying I have opinions and I want to bang out the dents here and understand what they were going for so I can adopt the canon stuff I see fit and absolutely burn the rest. XD)

Also, I don't know how to feel about this.

If it was only this, I might soften up on Ratatosk a bit, making a "concession" to hide himself away while Richter helps Emil so that it doesn't bother Richter. But pulling this out now when Ratatosk is offscreen and can't explain himself, in fact, doing it behind Ratatosk's back so he specifically cannot speak for himself, almost cheapens the stuff from before where Richter guessed, and Ratatosk basically confirmed, that at least part of the reason he was hanging back and letting Emil do things was because Ratatosk trusted Emil to handle himself and was agreeing to let Emil handle things on his own.

Waiting to bring this back I think is meant to be a surprising reveal like "aw, Ratatosk does care!" but because it's not coming out of Ratatosk's mouth and because it's being delivered as a different and separate idea that is phrased as though it negates the idea that Ratatosk was hiding so Emil could do things on his own just... cheapens both reasons instead of consolidating both reasons as proof that Ratatosk cares about himself AND about others and he's willing to work with Emil and even Richter to do what's right for Marta and the team. I understand this is maybe a little picky of me because "He's not apologizing the way I want him to" is petty. But coming from Tenebrae who is saying this without Ratatosk asking him to, is it REALLY Ratatosk apologizing?

I know Tenebrae divulges that it's Ratatosk's pride that prevents him from apologizing directly, and I know Ratatosk outright tells Richter in a different Chapter of Rays not to forgive him and that he wants a rematch as a sort of subtle "I can't say it to your face, but I understand my rash actions in our original world were wrong, and you're right to be upset and you don't have to forgive me and I won't ever ask you to and I want you to be able to see us as Equal now that I understand you and see you as Equal (thus worthy of a rematch) but This Is Me reaching out and saying in my own way that I'm sorry and that I'm saying it, not because I want forgiveness but because I owe it to you that I acknowledge my mistakes. I need you to know that you made an impact and that I understand and that you are heard."

But Tenebrae apologizing on Ratatosk's behalf and putting words in his mouth is just... again, really cheap to me. I believe genuinely, in what the narrative is saying here, that Tenebrae says things on Ratatosk's behalf because Ratatosk is too proud to ever say it. But it means way more for Ratatosk to tell Richter to his face "Don't forgive me. Keep hating me. Let that hatred burn in your chest so we can fight again someday." than to have Tenebrae here like "by the way I want you to know that Ratatosk is actually sorry and he just won't say it so I am telling you that his explicit reason for not showing up while you were coaching Emil is not actually because he believes in Emil and wants Emil to win on his own merits, oh no, he actually cares about your feelings and won't say it. Please ignore that he showed up earlier to chew you out for not believing in Emil thereby ignoring both his stated purpose of supporting Emil by going around picking fights with you and my own stated reason that he's trying not to upset you with his presence."

Tangentially, the fact that Aster gets called by the title "Professor Laker" baffles me too. I'm sure it was explained in a different scene and I just don't remember or haven't seen it. I'm not saying he couldn't have earned it but the fact that they're implying he was already qualified in his own timeline and just died before getting the title is really sad.

Also they are straight-washing him so hard in my opinion. Like, yes it's not explicit in the game, not even in the JP version as far as I'm aware. But the fact that it mattered so little in the context of the DotNW game and now both Rays and Onshuu are trying to prove how VERY STRAIGHT ™️Aster is is just... really funny to me. But him being this much of a lecher about it is absolutely insane.

Granted I pegged him as a letch, but for Richter exclusively and that sat better with me because at least in that context, they would have mutually been interested in each other. Having Aster who is still implied, vaguely but still implied, to be with Rilena TRYING TO OGLE OTHER GIRLS IN THEIR BATHING SUITS?! Unacceptable. I am contextualizing this as gay-best-friend behavior because I otherwise cannot square this with what we've been shown about Aster before otherwise. Unless THIS is the reason that for some reason he can't get along with girls. Maybe he doesn't get that this kind of comes off a little skeevy to, like, not want to leave an area because you want to see your opposite-sex friends in their bathing suits. It would be different if they were hanging out or if it was a little more clear this was a friendly thing. But it comes so out of left-field for me here that it just... feels like they forgot they were writing Aster and not Zelos? This just sounds like something I would expect from Zelos, you know?

I can buy Aster as bisexual, really I can. I would even concede that even if it never got brought up in canon that Aster was meant to be straight and with Rilena. Heteronormativity. Me preferring him as Richter's gay boyfriend has nothing at all to do with the canon and straight characters are allowed to exist. But a lecherous creep to anyone but Richter or at the very least someone else who is clearly interested in him back? No. My man Aster is not Lupin III. This is not a guy that gets excited for girls in bathing suits. I refuse. I don't care if it's canon, Rays, you are lying to my face. Maybe I'm being hyperbolic but still.

Again, I'm not saying they aren't making a purposeful choice or are wrong here. It's their character, they can write him how they want. This is just a really unexpected way for them to characterize Aster and I kind of DO NOT vibe with it? Am I alone in this? I have just never gotten the vibe that Aster is the kind of guy who would actively announce that he really wants to see his female friends in bathing suits when he clearly has other places to be.

And I say this as someone who has absolutely based some of my headcanons of Aster's behavior, including guessing ahead of Onshuu that Aster would be adept with a gun, on Lupin. They both have a vibe of "No active thoughts but somehow still geniuses" in their own genres. But the lecher quality is 100% never something I would pin on Aster. This guy likes mischief and a good time but this man is NOT Zelos Wilder. Even if I buy that Aster likes, tits and coochie, this is not a man that gets all hyped to see his allies in bathing suits. This is a guy who downloads 18 petabytes of porn on the company laptop like a decent human. This is a guy who feasts his eyes on what others deign to show him of free will and never stoops to asking for it. I will buy that he's a horny teen trying to make the most of his second life. But I don't care that a brush with death would fuck a guy up. Aster is not a creep. This is not a funny haha quirk like with Zelos, Bamco. Don't slander my boy.

NOW THIS IS MY BOI. This is not a guy who wants to see free cleavage, even from the pancake squad. This is a guy who proudly proclaims he has no athletic prowess like it's a TALENT, grins like a dope and announces himself as the hostage to his captors, and APOLOGIZES TO HIS BESTFRIEND/BOYFRIEND FOR GETTING MURDERED. Aster telling Richter to shut up about his feelings during a serious discussion and then APOLOGIZING because he knows that even though it was necessary to keep Richter's feelings out of it that it was mean and that it's important for Richter to know that he DOES understand how his untimely death affected him.

Even with how much I just do not get about what they were going for with the DotNW squad in this event, this moment from Aster was so good. Especially because Richter calls him an idiot under his breath because it was already water under the bridge and he's just happy to be with Aster. Their chemistry is just so bang-on and cathartic to see. Richter hiding the fact that he's enjoying himself behind excuses of having to tag along with Aster. Aster bragging on his behalf about how Richter's actually a nice guy who cares about and is good at taking care of others, even if he doesn't show it. Aster demolishing junk food during his break and Richter calling him out on it later like "practically your whole day was a break, all you did was eat yakisoba." It can definitely be read as brotherly or even best-friend banter, but my god, to my shipping ass, that stuff smacks of romantic chemistry. I'm so weak to them. Honestly, Aster's such a good hype man for Richter that I bet if he hyped up Rata, I would like Rata more too.

Also goes without saying how Richter fucking apologized for Alice being a dick when it's not his fault and then agreed to help Emil train up to beat Decus even though he doesn't see himself as an expert. We have the two other skits where Richter admits that he doesn't see himself as an expert in most things and doesn't understand why others would come to him for sword training, either, and yet when Emil asks for help on that too, he also offers to coordinate so they can train together. I really love seeing that, though unspoken, Richter genuinely enjoys spending time with Emil and sees them as allies. I doubt he's forgiven Ratatosk. But because they have a sort of truce and Richter genuinely grew to like Emil over the course of their journeys, he doesn't seem to mind putting up with Ratatosk because Aster's safe and he enjoys Emil's company. Not to mention him trying to learn to cook later when he notices Emil needs it.

Bamco may have pulled a lot of unexpected stuff for this event, but I'm glad Richter's whole "doesn't want to be thought of as a mother hen but has THE MOST mother hen energy ever toward everybody but especially Emil" is, like, a consistent thing. They just keep delivering. I love this soft man so much.

So yeah, as much as I don't get the direction some of these interactions went in, still my favorite Rays event and forever salty that global fans never got swimsuit Richter and the official translations for all these delicious skits.

Honestly, though, I am a complete freak when it comes to anything Richter. Short of completely assassinating his character, I would enjoy anything and everything about him so I'm glad he got to shine as Emil's big supporter. He and Aster doing their utmost to help Emil win because Alice went out of her way to be a massive jerk is delightful.

And while it's uncomfy for Alice to call Decus a slave, even when it's not meant that way and even though Marta still lays her affection onto Emil way too thick, it's a genuinely great display of the DotNW characters' interpersonal dynamics, even if I am utterly baffled by and disagree with some of the choices.

Translated by Polka. Proofread by Aera and Seine. Video editing by Scarfy.

[ariaofsorrows]

My Thoughts On Castlevania: Nocturne’s Richter

So I recently watched the trailer for Castlevania: Nocturne, and I… have a lot of things to say regarding Richter’s characterization in the show. Minor spoilers for Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood. but it’s not like you’ll be playing the games anyways

Since yesterday, I was already worried about the direction Richter’s story would go, and it seems like I was right to be worried. Richter is presented as broken and sad, without much to live for. I believe this is so that the viewer will be more sympathetic towards Richter when he eventually becomes evil, just like how Dracula’s backstory was presented so that you feel bad for him.

However, having Richter be broken from the beginning would actually lessen the impact that his possession will have in the future. Symphony of the Night is all about contrast. Alucard is the main character instead of the Belmont family. Richter, the guy we knew as the hero, is now one of the villains. The reason why this contrast works so well, especially if you played Rondo of Blood beforehand, is because not only do we get to see Richter at is peak career-wise, but he also see him at his peak emotionally.

In Rondo of Blood, which is what Nocturne is adapting, Richter is happy and full of life. He is a sweet boy that’s excited to do what he’s been training for all his life. He also cares so much, maybe too much about the people around him and the job he’s doing. Right after, in Symphony of the Night, Richter is at his worst. He’s broken and desperately clinging on to fame that is fading away. He doesn’t know what to do, now that his life’s purpose has been fulfilled.

I’m definitely biased here, but I do like the games’ execution of Richter’s story a lot more. It gives me a lot to think about instead of leading me by the hand like the show is doing. Now that’s Richter’s already sad in the show, there is now an expectation that he will go bad instead of it being a surprise and a contrast like in the games.

Also, Richter’s eventual villain arc will get him sidelined, opening a spot for Alucard to save the day again because he’s the he- *gunshots*

Anyways, that’s it for the first of many posts I’ll probably make about Nocturne.

[beevean]

What did you think of Annette from Castlevania: Nocturne? Personally, her altered background did nothing but add even more filler nonsense on what is already a cramped season. And even then, her character arc took up more attention than Richter's, which is quite appalling since her arc had nothing to do with the main storyline (all it did was drag the show even more).

Not to mention, she spent most of the season hating on Richter for no reason, calling him a "child" and "useless as fuck" on certain occasions. I also can't forgive her for chastising Richter as a coward when he ran away at the sight of his mother's killer, when she literally blew their plan at the Chateau and indirectly killed Edouard when she saw Vaublanc, her mother's killer. And even then, no one blamed her for that, which makes it even worse since she constantly makes everything about her and her tragic past as a slave.

So the sudden hint at their romance was both cheap and forced as their chemistry is non-existent throughout the story. I still remember how Steve Stark, a background designer for both Netflixvania shows, fighting against the fans for this decisions, claiming:

"Go complain about something that matters."

Which by itself is a self-own. If it didn't matter like you claimed, why go through such lengths to change her entire character. Surely it must matter to you.

N!Annette should've been an original character while the original Annette is left well enough alone (to which I'm trying to do in the rewrite). And to dunk on the people who would say that game Annette had no personality and is pointless, need I remind you that Rosaly from Curse of Darkness never appeared in the game at all yet the writers behind the manga dedicated their time to flesh her out in the manga itself. So it's not the characters that are the problem, it's the writers.

Sorry about that whole rant. Caught myself blabbering there.

She is not a character. She is discourse bait, and as such, I don't engage with her or the discourse surrounding her seriously.

You pretty much said everything. Annette is insufferable because in theory her flaws make sense. She's brash, angry, has little patience for anyone, wants to do things her own way, maybe even looks down on "privileged" people out of mistrust and bitterness: all behaviors that I can see stemming from the background of a runaway slave. Her breakdown indirectly causing Edouard's death? We have a decent conflict here! (ignoring the fact that Edouard is also not a character so I don't really feel anything for him.) But then she becomes utterly infuriating when the asshole dares to make fun of Richter for his lack of magic, when he all but told her that he lost his powers due to his mother's death - or at the very least, he told her that his dead mother could do magic and maybe that would be a sore spot for him! And the worst part is, Maria and Tera are standing there with no reaction! Tera, you useless idiot, this stranger that already proved herself unreliable is pushing your adopted son's trauma button! Do something!

Same when Ricther runs away, she is all too happy to insult him, call him "useless as fuck", and you think that Cecile would knock some sense into her and be like "hey girl you also ran away from the man who hurt you and killed your mother, maybe don't be so quick to judge", but noooooooo we need to talk about how Annette's character is literally "ex-slave" (hey she says it, not me), culminating in her saying "as if those french people could ever understand us!" woman what is you doing could we please talk about Annette now and stop coddling her????????

And you can look around and think, oh, maybe they're right. Evil, violence, and oppression everywhere. Even these French with their high ideals. What do they know about what we've suffered? And what do they care? They'll build their new world, but it won't be freedom or equality or brotherhood for us.

You were drawing a parallel and trying to teach her empathy for someone that, before being a white European, is a victim of vampires and evil just like her, and you end up telling her that no one else will have empathy for her??????????

And remember: Richter likes this asshole so much that the memory of her is what unlocks his magic! Not his mother. Not his grandfather. This stranger who has been cordial at best, and antagonistic at worst. what's with these shows and having the most godawful romance stories this side of twilight

So the sudden hint at their romance was both cheap and forced as their chemistry is non-existent throughout the story.

Annette suffers from a similar problem as Sypha and Isaac: they're stuck in the role their videogame counterparts have, even when it makes no sense. Sypha bullies Trevor as much as Alucard does, and in fact she seems to like the latter more (when Alucard is a cock to Trevor and he understandably lashes out back, Sypha tells him to grow up, the absolute fuck), but oh wait, she needs to fuck Trevor as per canon! So she travels with him and they're suddenly all cutey and lovey. Isaac is forced to resent Hector for his "betrayal" of Dracula, when if you watch the season, Isaac should only blame himself for being an utter negligent dumbass in regards to Carmilla, who was the real mastermind and he knew it. Annette is nothing but scornful towards Richter, but we need to push them together because hey Annette was meant to be the love interest, and the writing is even worse here because at least Trepha takes two seasons to become canon, but here we go from "stupid Belmont, useless as fuck" to them blushing together in the span of, like, seven episodes?

If it didn't matter like you claimed, why go through such lengths to change her entire character. Surely it must matter to you.

And this is what I mean with "discourse bait". Nothing about Annette is genuine. She is a stereotypical, safe, flat character, she's both the "tough girlboss who is mean to nearly everyone but we swear she's kind inside!" and the "tough black woman with a slave past, tragic enough to make her badass but without more questionable parts like her for example betraying fellow slaves to save her own skin" (so that you get called sexist and racist if you don't like how much of an ass she is! How convenient. Even though I'd argue is much more racist that she freed herself with god powers rather than her own human ingenuity...); and on top of that she's derivative from a game character, a fairly minor one too, so that if you don't like that she has "replaced" the original you can be told that you are, once again, racist, and anyway the original Annette was bad anyway so why would you care, you stupid purist? They did the same with Isaac, before he became the Gary Stu of the story.

And this is why the genuine racists who don't have a better argument against her than "muh wokeflix, how dare they have black people in my fantasy series" piss me off. You are poisoning the well. Stop it. Get better arguments.

And to dunk on the people who would say that game Annette had no personality and is pointless, need I remind you that Rosaly from Curse of Darkness never appeared in the game at all yet the writers behind the manga dedicated their time to flesh her out in the manga itself. So it's not the characters that are the problem, it's the writers.

You can make the same argument with nearly every character in both shows. The hints of personality are there, they only need to be fleshed out! Rosaly was fleshed out into being more than a "kind girl": she became too kind, and stubborn and naive and suffering from loneliness, and that made her interesting while still keeping true to her general archetype and role! They could have deduced from the games that Trevor is a charismatic, friendly individual with a hotheaded streak, instead of turning him into the most cliché cynical drunkard! They could have deduced from the games that Annette, despite her role as damsel in distress, has a lot of courage, from the scene where she nearly kills herself out of spite for Dracula, instead of a generic badass with godlike powers! But no character is kept faithful, there was no respect or care for anything, nothing but inflated superiority that they can do better (with fans sadly agreeing), everyone is just a bunch of OCs masquerading as canon characters for the sake of being clapped for "fixing" the stupid writing of the games, even when said characters were already fleshed out enough like Alucard or the Devil Forgemasters so they really had no "muh 8-bit game" excuse (and if they couldn't keep Isaac's flamboyant personality then they're just homophobic cowards)

tl;dr i don't like annette and i can only hope that alucard hijacks the story so much that she'll have minimal screentime. i mean he's hardly better, but at least i can call him a cunt without risk of getting doxxed or shit

[yuikomorii]

Hey Admin! I just really love your mindset and analysis but based on your insta stories, mind telling us your unpopular opinions or confessions too?❣️

// Aww, thank you, I’m glad to hear that!! But I wasn’t expecting someone to ask for my unpopular confessions or opinions. :”)

Anyway, I’ll try to write some. Feel free to add your thoughts regarding this if you want to. <3

1. More than half of the fandom portrays Yui in such a different way from her canon version, whether if it’s positive or negative. In the routes she says or does something but so many people understand the total opposite that it appears as if they aren't paying attention to her.

2. Kino is one of the few characters who is naturally funny.

3. The superior rivalries are Koubaru and Shuma because they actually helped each other develop as characters and made the plot more interesting. Even if it sounds impossible, Kanato and Azusa have a better chance of getting along than Ayato and Ruki. From Ruki's perspective, Ayato is the man who stole everything he ever desired: Karl's "love" and Eve.

4. Laito has done many horrible things and is not the best brother, but he is not heartless, but rather mentally damaged. A part of him enjoys seeing others suffer, while another part feels bad for them.

5. You can’t be biased towards Ayato when you call him the most heroic Diaboy with the most likeable traits because those are facts. Rejet confirmed a bunch of times that Ayato is the main hero and a character “you can’t bring yourself to hate”. Even the Japanese fandom sometimes refers to him as “メインヒーロー.” He is supposed to be the most heroic love interest, that’s the role he was given.

6. Some OCs are more interesting than all the DL main cast characters and honestly their creators are more creative than Rejet writers.

7. People who complain about Yui being “too kind, too childish, too sweet” and lacking “attitude and self respect” in Ayato’s routes, are the most insensitive ones. Just say already that you like the pressure being put on Yui, making her solve your Diaboy’s problems and teach him how to love despite the fact she doesn’t know that either. Besides, she’s usually a kind and cheerful person, the only times she got an “attitude” are when she’s absolutely done with the bad behavior of the Diaboy. Also, Yui's version in Ayato's routes is the official one; it doesn't have to be your favorite, but if you don't like her there, you don't like the true Yui.

8. I like the fact Rejet learnt about Romanian history and made the Mukamis and Yui Romanians, but what Karl did to Romanians in one of the worst time periods, is beyond horrible.

9. We won’t ever get a new DL main game because LE ended their journey. However, I hope they make another AU or a fanservice one.

10. Yui deserved better, the Diaboys deserved better, the moms deserved better, Richter deserved better but not Karlheinz. He's an intriguing character, but he shouldn't be redeemed, which is fine because not every character requires it. Furthermore, he committed far too many atrocities against innocent people to merit a redemption arc.

[mewkwota]

Hello this is a brief tirade for myself regarding Netflixvania, so if you don’t want to hear anything negative about this adaptation then very sincerely, please move on and keep your peace.

I will not be holding back. And if you go in after the fact and take issue, this was your decision and I will not be responding to you.

--

Already from Season 2 I had this weird lingering suspicion that the writers have a thing for Alucard, like I’ve told a friend before that it felt like an Alucard-Only run. And sure, the guy is cool, everyone and their mothers love him I get it. But he doesn’t get that grand chance to shine until several hundreds of years later.

Perhaps it’s my own bias towards the Belmonts, but Trevor was done Dirty. Alucard gets all his cool tricks, and all Trevor got to do was pull out a sword after Drac got stabbed by ~You Guessed It~.

And assuming these leaks are true, as I’ve been trying to avoid them like the plague, my suspicions couldn’t be any more confirmed.

I am all for having your own takes or adaptations, but if you’re getting(?) permission from the source material themselves to make something that large of a scale and do it that poorly of justice... You should have stuck to fan fiction like the rest of us.

If you didn’t give that much of a shite for the Belmont Clan, hell if you really hate them that much, why didn’t you just go straight for Symphony of the Night since you wanna ride Alucard so badly. You could’ve already written Richter as such a horrible guy at that point, easy writing points for you.

I’ve actually been approached more than once with things relating to this adaptation by people knowing I love Castlevania, but don’t know that I dislike Netflixvania. That is on my fault for not being clear in order to avoid conflict, but how much clearer can I make this? I can’t look at it. It makes me want to vomit.

That Alucard, makes me want to vomit. Who are you?

I’ve given this show many chances. Like many. I PAID for the last two seasons since I normally don’t even use Netflix. But now I know that I really can’t trust them to do anyone right, let alone a Belmont.

So you can pry Juste from my cold, heartless hands.

And heaven forbid if I have to see that heinous picture of Richter again, I will need to knock myself out to forget about it entirely. I’m usually good at weaving my way around things but now I gotta get better (he was the only one I saw by accident, for better or worse).

I am just not ready for more people to write him all stupid-ugly. Again.

[sugalaritae]

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

10. How do you decide what to write?

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

50. If you had to write an OT7 fic based on your instrumental song, what prompt do you think you would write?

luce coming in with the fucking questions that are going to make me think (how dare you make me think, luce!! USING MY BRAIN?!?!?!)

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics? (look i started putting the questions in my answers and so i have to keep doing it!) seeing the world through the eyes of a character, Struggles especially with mental and Trauma, and maybe friends to lovers. i mean everyone writes these and i love them which is why i love writing them. i don't necessarily describe the world in detail around the character, i don't particularly care what outfits look like (unless i'm describing the guys outfits lol) or the rooms that they are in; i want these details to be slightly oblivious sometimes, if it pertains to the story that is different. but i have noticed that i really lean heavy onto what the world looks like through the eyes of the characters especially when they're going through a mental health thing.

10. How do you decide what to write? i've always written. since i was a young kid i told stories. my parents used to write down some of the stories, i would dictate to them and they wrote them down (i need to find these). that translated into writing fanfic (before i knew what fanfic was) in a binder and in journals after i fell in love with every.single.man. in lord of the rings. i've written short stories, started a few novels, finished writing a novella, and again fanfic. it's just what i need to do. i love writing. (i also hate it. i fucking hate it.)

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore? inexperienced v. experienced (when it comes to smut), i am leaning slightly away from the dom/sub thing tho i still read it ... or rather, i should correct myself... male dom/female sub. i want those roles reversed baby!!! college aus.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it? hmmmm i honestly don't know. i'm sure there is something out there. OH! a few aus that i have wanted to read lately have been pacific rim (i might have to read it because i've only found one) and there was one other specific au that i was looking for and i couldn't find but i can't remember what that was!!

50. If you had to write an OT7 fic based on any instrumental song, what prompt do you think you would write? hahahahaha i am writing a yoonkook fic based on this max richter piece (sort of...) but ot7?!?! i have been obsessed (and i mean obsessed) with vivaldi's four seasons lately, but more specifically winter this version (because the variation and pacing is so fucking brilliant!!!!)

and as for the prompt i think it would just be so much fun to have it be some sort of metaphorical dance around relationships be those platonic or romantic. the slowness of some at the beginning and then the quick steps, the trips, the falls, the anxiety(!!), the storm of falling in love. it would be lots of fun!

questions for fic writers - ask

[awigglycultist]

Okay so, to all the new starkid fans: welcome!! I'm incredibly excited that there are more fans in the fandom, can't wait to see all the fics and art and such, and seeing starkid get more attention is great!

I know there's been quite a bit of mixed reaction coming from the starkid fandom, a lot of people are very excited, a lot of people are also nervous about the new fans, and I've seen people who are just, completely hating this.

So let me try and give some advice to both the new starkid fandom coming from mcyt and the rest of the starkid fandom.

Please, please, tag stuff that has to do with mcyt as mcyt (or if you're talking about the ranboo's stream tag that as ranboo and tubbo), I think most people are good at this but it's important. There are several starkid fans who are triggered but mcyt or just hate it, or simply don't want to see a bunch of mcyt things in the starkid tag cuz they aren't into mcyt.

Be respectful. This goes to both sides. First of all to the mcyt fandom, be respectful to the starkid actors, this is a problem that the SK fandom already has and were worried that having a bunch of new fans will make this problem worse. So just don't be respectful, don't ask the actors about their personal lives and such. And to the SK fandom: be respectful to the mcyt fandom, I know having a huge influx of fans is shocking and crazy and a lot to take in I know some of you don't like mcyt or the mcyt fandom, but please if you don't want to see mcyt stuff, simply block mcyt tags, and maybe help the new fans out and tell them what they should be tagging as what or what they should and shouldn't be saying and stuff.

Also I've seen that mcyt isn't the best at reblogging fanart and fanfic, and we'll the starkid fandom isn't the best at that either so just a reminder to please reblog art and fics! It really helps the artist and writers out!

This last one isn't really advice to help everyone get along and stuff but absolutely suggest that the new SK fans go check out other starkid musicals! And check out Tin Can Bros and Shipwrecked Comedy while your at it!

You should especially go check out Starkid's Black Friday and Nightmare Time! (here's a post that helps explain these a bit) and if you plan on watching them and don't want spoilers you should probably block the black friday and nightmare time tags.

TCB is Starkid's sister company, its run by three of the starkids (Joey Richter (he played Ted in TGWDLM), Brian Rosenthal and Corey Lubowich). They do alot of skits but they've also done several projects. Spies Are Forever and The Solve It Squad Returns are musicals that are, absolutely amazing, and solve it squad back in biz is currently happening! Sisbib was meant to be an animated series but, TCB isn't exactly able to make a fully animated series, so instead they're doing live readings of it. Vol 1 already happened and Vol 2 is happening tonight, but don't worry, on the 22nd you can buy the digital ticket version of it (you can buy tickets and also see more info here). There's also several other projects that they've done.

Shipwrecked Comedy is, well I wouldn't quite say its also a sister company, but it is closely tied with SK and TCB. They've done many projects as well (although no musicals but, all of they're stuff is also absolutely amazing). And please for the love God do not mix up Starkid, TCB, and Shipwrecked, yes they are all related to each other but they are all different, run by different people, with different projects, so please if your talking about something that has do with only one of these do tag as a different one and (ex: don't tag something that only has to do with spies are forever as starkid) this is already a problem amongst this fandom and doesn't need to become a bigger one.

TLDR; just be respectful, listen to each other, tag things properly. And maybe go ahead and check out other starkid musicals and check tin can bros and shipwrecked comedy

Also if/when you start watching starkids other musicals or tcb's or shipwrecked you want to talk to someone about it, or if you have any questions on any of their projects or questions about this post or anything my asks are open or you can dm me

[k1ng-for-a-day]

DBD Headcannons #4: What Danganronpa character/ultimate would they have or be?

This is definitely going to be the weirdest thing I’ll do, but honestly I’m fucking stoked about this. I love Danganronpa immensely and I have my own little things for it. Alright here we go... (I have also excluded some characters since I didn’t know who would fit them). (Also ask boxes are opened).

❤️Dwight Fairfield: Makoto Naegi. That’s it. That’s all I can say. If I had to choose his ultimate than it would definitely be ultimate leader. However, it would be different from kokichi’s ultimate since he isn’t “evil” as you would say.

❤️Meg Thomas: Meg is definitely Akane Owari due to her ability to run. Additionally she’s very athletic, and I can definitely see her as this character. She would definitely be the ultimate runner.

❤️Claudette Morel: Surprising enough, Caudette’s character was the most difficult to find. The main reason for this is due to the people who have the ultimate, or the substitute character for the person. In Danganronpa there is an ultimate botanist, but he isn’t what I would assign Claudette. I would also assign her with Mikan, but I feel like they aren’t really similar. Instead I have nothing. Her ultimate is super high school level botanist.

❤️Jake Park: He would deadass be Rantaro. They are so immensely similar that I can’t see anyone else fitting this role. He would also be the ultimate... adventurer..? I’m not too sure. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

❤️Nea Karlsson: Nea definitely has those Ibuki and Maki vibes, however ima go with Ibuki on this one. Both of them have this very grudge, alternative aesthetic that kind of creates an interesting mood. She would probably the ultimate rebel or adventure. Again I’m not sure.

❤️Ace Visconti: Celeste Ludenberg. He’s a gambler after all, and they definitely have similar traits. Both of them are usually in it for the money, and don’t think twice about their actions. And he would be the ultimate gambler,

❤️Feng Min: Chiaki Nanami and ultimate gamer. Are there any questions?

❤️Kate Denson: Kate Denson is definitely the living embodiment of Kaede Akamatsu. Her personality is to become a sort of musician, which is what Kaede tries to do. She is also very calm, nice, and such towards other people as well. She would definitely be the ultimate guitarist.

❤️Adam Francis: Honestly Adam has those Shuichi vibes and I’m all for it. Though he enjoys writing literature like Toko, I can’t imagine him switching from calm to insane when he sees blood. It just doesn’t make any sense to me y’know? Hence we I chose Shuichi instead. He would definitely be the ultimate writer.

❤️Jane Romero: Jane would definitely be Junko before she was revealed as the ultimate despair. She is definitely a fashionista type person, and can be very diva-ish at times. She would be the ultimate actress.

❤️Yui Kimara: Yuri would DEFINITELY be Tenko. The stalker she faced somewhat scared her to the point she didn’t enjoy men much at all. She doesn’t completely hate them, but it made her feel more terrified. Her ultimate would probably be the ultimate survivor due to her backstory. Not because I love her a lot, (even though I do).

❤️Zarina Kassir: Due to Zarina’s calm nature, I feel like she’s similar to Maki and Kyoko in a sense. Mainly leaning towards Maki. She would be the ultimate analyst.

❤️Felix Richter: Byakuya Togami. Ultimate technician. Need 👏 I 👏 say 👏 more 👏

❤️Cheryl Manson: Weirdly enough, Cheryl gives me these Himiko vibes. She is sweet, innocent, and can be naive at times. She is kind of pure too. She would probably be the ultimate lucky student or ultimate hope.

❤️David Tapp: I know I said his name again, but Shuichi definitely fits in with David Tapp as well. And he would obviously be the ultimate detective.

❤️Quentin Smith: While I was looking through the survivor list and characters, I wanted to see who would fit Quentin the most. Then it hit me. Seiko Kimura. Hear me out: they both have some sort of familiarity with pharmacy and they both kind of focus on healing. With both of these components in mind, it made it easy for me to realize Seiko would definitely fit this state. And Quentin would be the ultimate insomniac.

❤️Laurie Strode: Laurie is definitely Kyoko Kirigiri. She has this detective nature about her that can simply figure out something within seconds. Additionally she acts very calm, and is somewhat hard to track down. She would be the ultimate survivor.

❤️Élodie Rakoto: Like Claudette, finding Élodie’s character was difficult. She would definitely be the ultimate explorer, but the character was difficult to find. I still have no clue who would fit her spot.

🖤The Trapper🖤: The trapper is really fucking basic. If I had to choose, he would be Monokuma. He would definitely be the ultimate lucky student.

🖤The Hillbilly🖤: I probably shouldn’t reuse characters, but Jantaro definitely fits the Hillbilly. For one both of their parents hated their looks, and they were kept away from them due to this form. For his ultimate, he would be the super high school level farmer.

🖤The Nurse🖤: Mikan obviously. She would also be the ultimate nurse lmaoooo.

🖤The Shape🖤: Michael would be the ENBODIMENT OF KOKICHI. Or Nagito. Basically they are both immensely insane, and have their own way of getting what they want. However, Michael is a killer unlike them, so he’d be the ultimate killer.

🖤The Huntress🖤: I feel like the huntress fits Chihiro a lot due to their somewhat feminine features. Additionally they both are somewhat childish and naive since one of them hasn’t grown up yet. I also get a small hint of Himiko as well. She would be the ultimate child caretaker.

🖤The Cannibal🖤: Gonta Gokuhara and ultimate cannibal. That’s all.

🖤The Nightmare🖤: Freddy... Ahh Freddy Krueger... I feel like Freddy would be the ultimate nightmare, obviously, but his character would be Tsumugi. I know it’s just ultimately stupid, no pun intended, considering she’s the ultimate cosplayer. HOWEVER, she is also Junko Enoshima in disguise. To elaborate further, Freddy manipulates your dreams into think it is going to be a simple, wholesome dream, but it becomes your worst nightmare quickly. He’s so filled with despair to the point fear fuels him. He definitely suits this, and will cause the most despair inducing incident on all of man kind! I went a bit far huh...? Sorry-

🖤The Pig🖤: The pig would definitely be Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack. I say this due to how she may seem nice, soft, gentle at first, but once in full force she’ll gut you till your end. I just love a small contrast between characters such as these due to how they can easily commit anything, and you wouldn’t notice. She would definitely be the ultimate despair. Her code ultimate would be the ultimate puzzle breaker.

🖤The Clown🖤: I was gonna say Kokichi Oma for this one, but Teruteru fits the spot much more. Definitely the ultimate clown.

🖤The Spirit🖤: Rin would definitely be Kirumi. They both are very intelligent, and attempt to do things perfectly in order to satisfy others. She would be the ultimate envy though.

🖤The Legion🖤: The legion are obviously the warriors of hope, (excluding Monaca because she’s awful and we hate her 🤩). For each character, however, Joey would be Masaru, Frank would be Nagisa, Susie would be Kotoko, and Julie would be Jantaro. For their ultimate, they would be the ultimate assassin club.

🖤Ghost Face🖤: This one is kinda difficult to decide.... it’s either Kokichi or Nagito Komeada... fuck it Nagito it is. And Danny would be the ultimate photographer.

🖤The Oni🖤: Peko Pekoyama. Ultimate swordsman/katana wielder. Need I say more?

🖤The Twins🖤: Call me crazy on this one, but they would be the despair sisters. That’s right, Murkuro and Junko Enoshima are these twos components. I had no other choice tbh. Their ultimates would be the ultimate siblings.

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: I'm curious, do you like Marta, hate her or just feel neutral about her? I know you're more of a Richter (and by extension EmilXRichter) fan, but you don't seem to hold a lot against her aside from her fantasy knight and flirting phase with Emil at the chapters 2-3 and her battle quotes (which they could have changed to show her character development like when Emil takes over the fights in Ratatosk's place).

I’m fairly neutral, I think. She has potential that I think wasn’t quite reached in canon because they “skipped” a lot of growth and just made her “suddenly Emil’s girlfriend” near the end without actually spending time developing that. I have seen versions of Marta that I like in fic, too, which enhance her better qualities like her gentleness but also her tenacity, so I do see why some people like her. That said, I’ve also seen fics where I’ve hated her (and honestly, that was probably the point.)I feel like she’d be better in the hands of a competent writer that put more emphasis on her GROWTH rather than the stages of her growth like in the game. Because the game was very much “Here she is being cute and sweet because she has a crush on Emil and thinks he’s the hero that saved her. Oh no! Emil is shy and maybe not her hero? Too bad! She loves him anyway and wants him to be her knight! Here’s a chapter or two of her just forcing her ideas of what he SHOULD be onto him! Uh oh! Emil doesn’t like that. They fight! Now suddenly she changed so she’ll treat him better! Except not really because it's only a little bit better. Oh, now she’s actually getting the hang of... oh. Nevermind. They kissed now and suddenly there’s no need to improve because she’s perfect now? I guess? Oh, the game is over...”I would have liked to see more “She tries really hard at flirting and doesn’t understand why Emil isn’t receptive. She changes her style of flirting but still nothing. She realizes it’s making Emil uncomfortable ON HER OWN because it’s pretty obvious (to me, anyway) and I think it would be stronger if she noticed without being told (though that does weaken Emil’s arc of learning to tell people when he wants help or would like them to stop, etc.)” and more “She’s trying to be better, but slips up sometimes. She catches herself making mistakes and corrects them. She gives Emil space and lets him come to her.” etc. And what would really make it for me? More affection FROM EMIL (not just Ratatosk) that comes about organically. His decision to kiss her basically comes from “I may never see her again, because I plan on dying.” and even then, it’s kinda ruined because instead of letting him speak, she just... kisses him. I guess for some people that’s romantic but, like... he’s trying to pour his heart out and she just shuts him up! XD I would have liked to see some hand-holding. Just really casual stuff. Or hugging more when things are normal and not just hugging when something worrying happened. More like what we see in the opening! I want more of them enjoying each other’s company without it being some plot-important scenario. Dare I say it, but I think Marta Sidequests like what was done for Richter would have helped. Just Emil and Marta hanging out and doing stuff just FOR FUN and not because “we need to get this core blah blah blah, oh you almost got hurt blah blah.” Being in constant peril and tracking down shiny things is not bonding. That’s like being coworkers. I want more soft moments, dangit!

[shadows-echoes]

Writer’s Questionnaire

tagged by: @negotiator-on-site and @deviantramblings . Thank you guys for the tag! I spent way too long thinking about these tbh.

Short stories, novels, or poems?

For reading? Novels. I love absolutely delving into a world and completely immersing myself in it. In my experience, poems/short stories are like looking through a window: the more you look, the more you’ll probably see. Reading a novel, or an entire series, is more like walking through a door into another world, and that’s exactly what I want from a story. I want it to completely consume me.

With all of that being said, what’s the exact word count that draws the line between a short story and a novel? 10,000 words might be a short story, but is 25,000 still considered a short story? 100,000? 300,000? Where is the line drawn? Tbh, I’m 100% down with any long-ish story that draws me in.

As for writing… Imma keep it real with you chiefs, the shortest stories I’ve ever written are for D:BH. Pretty much every other fic of mine is 25+ pages, and a couple of the longer ones are closer to, or exceed, 180 pages. I haven’t finished those. They’re all drafts, so to speak, and the amount of editing needed makes me balk whenever I think about it, but they’re there. The stories that I’ve actually finished are all short-ish stories lol (at least in comparison to some of the other stuff I’ve written).

What genre do you prefer reading?

FANTASY!!!! We live in a non-fiction world that can be quite depressing at times. If I’m going to fling myself into a story, I want it to be magical. I want it to have something that this world doesn’t. I want magic and dragons and mystery and soulmates and forbidden love and all the crazy shit.

What genre do you prefer writing?

Fantasy/fiction.

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?

It depends on the story. Most times, I’ll write one scene and it develops into an entire plotline as I write it. Other times, like with Of Blood and Biocomponents for example, I’ll spend a lot of time planning everything out before I write it so I can work in a number of clues and Chekov’s guns’, etc.

What music do you listen to while writing?

When I really need to focus, I’ll listen to anything instrumental. That can range from soundtracks (e.g. from The Last of Us, LotR, Hans Zimmer’s stuff), to more individualized and upbeat songs (e.g. Lindsey Stirling, Peter Gundry, Max Richter, Hidden Citizens) to classical (e.g. Chopin, Wieniawski, Mozart), or even just ambiance rain sounds on youtube etc. Otherwise, when I need to get in the mood for a certain scene I have entire playlists dedicated to evoking a certain emotion (e.g angst -obviously-, sadness, love, adrenaline rushes).

Fave books/movies?

I don’t really have any favorite movies so I’m just going to list a whole bunch of books/series I love: 

ACoTaR by Saraj Maas

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda

Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett

ASoIaF by George Rmartin Rmartingeorge Martin

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (a classic that breaks my heart)

Night by Elie Wiesel (a classic that breaks my soul)

1984 by George Orwell (a classic we practically live in rn and it terrifies me)

Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda (the plot twist at the end of this series blew me the fuck away. It’s been years and I still haven’t found my wig)

Any current WIPs?

Only around like… 16? (Excluding all of the half-formed ideas and prompts in my “Graveyard” folder, that is). Which is incredibly surprising to me? I thought it’d be way more. However, most of those WIPs are all… heartbreakingly long and only half-finished, so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Lace-up combat boots, black jeans, and a random, probably blank, t-shirt.

Create a character description for yourself:

Hi, I’m Jayde, an average human person who thinks obsessively writing and learning new stuff are fun activities. I look like Idc but I actually care too much; I’m a ride-or-die bitch. Intovert™ (I would much rather have a first conversation w/ someone be about the trolly problem or systems theory instead of the weather). Often low-key enraged by society.

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

Aspects of them? Of course. Actually writing them into a story? Nope. I totally draw on my experiences with certain people to help me write. That’s a given with any writer. However, unless I’m writing a biography on them with a full Chicago-style bibliography then I leave real people the heck alone.

Are you kill-happy with characters?

Depends on the characters. I have killed off a couple, but my soul is fueled on angst and there’s only so much of that a single death can provide. Nah, it’s usually better if people are alive and just… injured or... problematic.

Coffee or tea while writing?

I’m usually most productive writing-wise at night, so it’s either decaffeinated green tea or hot chocolate for me (bc I do try to have some kind of sleep schedule even if I fail with that goal).

Slow or fast writer?

So, so slow.

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

Anything, really. Sometimes an idea will just pop into my head and I’ll have to write it. Other times, it’ll start with a feeling, a situation, or an experience that slowly morphs into a fic the more I think about it.

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?

Idk what I would be, but I’d love to be literally anything/anyone with some kind of magic or special ability. Like, bruh, I’m already human, gimme something else. Gimme some of the good shit.

Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche?

(Well-written) LOVE TRIANGLES AND MUTUAL PINING!!!!

I’m so fuckn horny on main for a good love triangle. When they’re done badly, they’re atrocious. That’s a given. But when they’re done well??? Hot damn. Like the kind of love triangles in ACoTaR, the Shatter Me series, or even the Trylle series (which first got me into it all). The kind where problems develop naturally between the MC and the first love interest, where the MC has to work with the “bad guy” for some reason or other and it turns out he’s actually super fuckn dope (*cough* Rhysand *Cough*). The kind where the more MC learns about the people she’s/he’s/they’re around, the more their feelings start to shift based on that knowledge.

I do not mean the kind where the MC just can’t make up her/his/their mind bc omg Hot Person #1 is so hot and looks to be carved from marble, but omg Hot Person #2 is also so hot, looks to be carved from marble, and is also mysterious.

As for a cliché I hate (if the poorly written love triangle doesn’t count in and of itself), I seriously dislike the damsel-in-distress thing. Don’t get me wrong, that card can be very well played in some cases, but when it’s the only card in the whole damn deck for 200, 300, 400+ pages? Nah, brah. I’m out. I’m certainly not asking for BAMF MC every time, but like,,, at least give the MC a goddamn spine you absolute cowards.

Fave scenes to write?

Pining and angst, baby.

Most productive time of day for writing?

The ungodly hours between night and day, when the outside world falls quietly into slumber and one’s imagination runs wild in the dark.

Reason for writing?

I started writing because I had some ideas and realized that nobody could/would write them in the exact way I imagined them except for me? I’ve continued writing because it has almost become a coping mechanism to explore and organize my thoughts and feelings and daydreams in some kind of coherent way. Plus it’s fun.

_

Tagging: @deviantsupporter @deviancy-wasteland @sunstrain @writerscavity @aerynwrites

[hencethebravery]

TITLE: Hated Day, 1/1 (Ao3)

SUMMARY: Sometimes, there’s nothing left to do but give up and call it what it is: a tragedy. He was left living one half of this tragic, mutually agreed upon life while the other half, presumably, felt nothing at all. How dare you, he thought, bitterly, how dare you feel nothing at all. [A Captain Charming “Modern Tragedy” AU]

AUTHOR’S NOTES: @eurydicewouldfollow is absolutely to blame for this. Also, his Kindle is $15, so if it breaks, I’ll pay for it. WARNING for major character death and kind of heavy-handed allusions to the current US political calamity. I’m serious folks, this is not a happy story. It’s dotted with hope, but ultimately I’m calling this a tragedy and leaving it at that. A note on the setting: I’ve imagined this to be something like the precursor to Gilead in Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, so a kind of pre-dystopia. The title is taken from a quote by Virginia Woolf in The Waves, “So each night I tear off the old day from the calendar, and screw it tight into a ball. I do this vindictively. […] I do not pray. I revenge myself upon the day. I wreak my spite upon its image. You are dead now, I say, […] hated day.” The bulk of this was written while listening to Max Richter’s album, Sleep, which is available in its entirety on YouTube.

If I could go back and rewrite our stories I think I would rip out all the pages where you become the h e r o. I know that you might hate me for robbing you of what could have been:    the glories    the adventures    the challenges    the legends— But at least you might still be here. At least we might still be happy. -- j.p., “but I guess I was never much of a writer”

It happens the way that so many had warned it would—like a frog that’s been left in a pot of water on the stove. Initially, it might feel like nothing more than a light simmer, so you’d probably fail to notice much of a difference. Hell, you might even find the sudden warmth pleasant at first. The temperature rises so slowly you don’t even realize what’s happening, not until the flesh has already begun to blister, until you’re in too much pain to do anything other than close your eyes in exhausted, agonizing defeat.

From the very beginning, David Nolan had been suspicious of a political party predicated on the belief that sewing division was the path to control. That free will was an illusory privilege people had been brainwashed to want. “Not so,” the party chanted from their podiums, “there is far too much to fear.” One too many pipe bombs in coffee shops; too many dead, middle class high school kids with the “wrong kind” of drug in their system. The world was going to hell, they often reminded their fearful, desperate audience. The world is going to hell, and only we can fix it.

He signed petitions and shared articles on Facebook; canvassed for politicians and marched at rallies. Despite the fact that he was only a pre-veterinary student with little means, he knew that he was living in a moment that demanded his resistance, so he resisted. He couldn’t bear the sight of his friends looking so downtrodden, so obviously frightened by what they saw on the news everyday. And he knew that while he was probably the least likely to suffer beneath the yolk of this new regime, that didn’t mean he would allow others to do so. “Fight for what’s right,” and all that. And even then, it only ever seemed like a temporary thing. They couldn’t possibly have to do this forever, right? This was how the system worked—sometimes you got dealt a dirty hand, but it could always be fixed.

“You would think so,” says the frog, boiling in his pot, “but you’d be wrong.”

Killian Jones, on the other hand, never paid much attention to politics. He had spent too much of his childhood just trying to survive , let alone allow himself to be worried by things he could do nothing to change. He understood the system well, but it was an understanding built upon an assurance of personal reward. If others couldn’t figure out how to work the system to their advantage, well, that was their own fault.

Every once in a while there’d be that niggling feeling at the heart of him, like maybe he could be better, do better. But he would often shake his head, tossing the thought aside. Or he would simply take another pull from his flask, allowing the burn of it to bring his nagging conscious to heel. Killian was one of those people who had known that the frog was bound to die before it had even gotten itself into the pot in the first place. Not the smartest of creatures, frogs. Hopping along, minding their own business, not realizing that they’ve only ever been prey.

Eventually, David would come to learn the root of this cynicism, and it would break his too-big-for-his-body heart into a dozen or so large, unruly pieces. Such a small boy Killian had been, when his father left him in the dark. Left for the larger monsters with only his brother for company, still too just a boy—old enough to understand a sense of personal responsibility, but still too young to care for anyone other than himself. To be fair, he had “given it a fair shake,” in Killian’s words, but in the end it had been too hard, and he too would eventually vanish, fading into the world as if he’d never been.

Curiously, Killian still had a single photograph of Liam pressed in between the pages of his notebooks (of which there were many). Every time he would begin a new one the photo would once again make the journey from the old book to the new, more wrinkled and faded than it had been before.

“I could never bring myself to get rid of it,” he confessed one evening, his eyes glazed over and words mildly slurred. “I tossed it onto the street once, but I couldn’t leave him.”

Killian had never looked so human in the ensuing silence, and David could picture it in his own head so vividly. A sad, lonely boy staring down at his brother’s face, so angry yet still compelled to keep him close, even though it was only a photograph. “And you think that’s somehow a bad thing?” Dave had finally asked, “to want to remember him?”

Looking back, he knows it was a stupid question. It should have been obvious, but he hadn’t quite arrived yet—at his understanding of who Killian was, of why he was. Of what he might become.

They meet at a fundraiser that David had helped organize at a local college bar. The night begins on a fairly positive note. In tough times such as these, surrounding oneself with likeminded people, it feels like a saving grace. It feels like confirmation that you are not the “crazy one,” that you are not alone, and maybe, just maybe, if you fight hard enough—you can win.

Killian had spilled a beer all over their sign-in sheet, and David would forever wonder whether or not it had been on purpose. Killian would insist it was an accident, but David would never fully believe him. Especially given what he now knows, that Killian Jones was far too much of an insecure wreck to ever just walk up and introduce himself to someone he might fancy. Instead it was a “clumsy fall,” and a boisterous laugh, and a poking fun at their “useless efforts.”

“Don’t you see we’re all fucked, mate?” he asked gleefully, standing aside and watching David rush to mop up the spilled liquid. “I know you’re trying to save the world and everything, but surely there are better things to do with one’s time.”

“You mean like get trashed and harass well meaning people in a bar?”

In David’s admittedly fuzzy memory, it seemed as if Killian’s eyes had grown a shade or two darker at that comment, so brief it would have been easy enough to miss. But David, well meaning, defensive boy that he was, had shoved it aside, deciding instead to trade barbs with this sloppy, grinning, maniac with far too much hair and dangerously high levels of charisma. At first glance, Killian seemed like he could’ve been one of them—one of the party supporters with their deeply cynical pretension; their outdated and dehumanizing ideologies currently infecting the human race on a global scale. That was, of course, until an actual group of supporters had stumbled in, drunk and loud and looking for a fight.

David had even momentarily forgotten all about him in his haste to crowd his friends out of the bar. At least until he felt a hard shove at his back, and suddenly found himself lying facedown on the sticky wooden floor. Stunned, he turned to face his attacker, only to watch, mouth agape, at the sight of that small, scrappy boy with far too much hair, deck his bald, tattooed assailant directly in the face. In hindsight, he wonders if he could’ve saved himself a lot of heartbreak by flagging the recklessness right there and then. It was so fucking obvious, wasn’t it?

Sometimes, when he imagines this moment in his head, over and over again, a torturous loop, he won’t take Killian’s hand when it’s offered. He’ll pick himself up instead, wipe the blood off his lip, give a grunt of “Thanks,” maybe a manly nod, and walk the hell out of there. It’s what he should’ve done. But the reality was, he did take his hand, and he did hold it for a little too long, and he did offer to buy him another drink.

“Since you spilled yours,” he said laughing, trying to ignore the adrenaline rushing through his veins—the jagged edges of fear winking at the corners of his vision.

David’s apartment is too empty, and his memory is too sharp.

Killian winds up living there completely by accident, and really, if anything is to blame, it is David’s heart (that he has made plans to remove as soon as possible). After that night at the bar, he starts seeing him everywhere—on campus, at the coffee shop, in the library. It’s likely that David had seen Killian everyday before that night, only he had never known it. It is hard to temper the fury that he feels at the possibility. That perhaps there were days, weeks, or even months of time in the precursor to this… whatever the hell this is. This feeling that exists between life and death that no one had thought to give a proper name to. Grief, is what they might say, but it is certainly not that. It is, undoubtedly, too small a word for what this is.

“Oh, I know who you’re talking about,” Ruby interrupted in the midst of his recollection of the night before, “he’s slept on Belle’s couch a few times.”

It’s how he discovers that Killian isn’t really living anywhere, and how he finds himself staring at the empty room in his apartment full of boxes he still hasn’t unpacked. Ultimately, he considers the fact that he isn’t making an awful lot of money anyway, and having a roommate might be helpful. It’s a practical decision, really.

“I’m not interested in your pity,” Killian hisses back at him, his eyes suddenly cold and cruel, when only moments ago they had been warm and inviting. It would have been easy to strike back in the moment, to say something like, “To hell with it,” and leave him behind, but there had been his heart again—beating painfully in his chest, making it hard to do little else but consider the vicious, lonely thing in front of him, and want to find out why it is so tender.

“You can think whatever you want, Killian,” he replies calmly, his hands curled tightly in his pockets, “but I just thought I’d ask. Honestly, I could use some help with the expenses.”

He leaves him then, quiet and seething, his face still red from his earlier outburst. In hindsight, everything seems far more dramatic than it probably was. In reality, Killian had probably stared at his back for a few moments and turned the other way, off to brood or drink or whatever he did on weekday afternoons. In his imagination, in the relentless replaying of his memories, Killian glares so hard at his back that a target appears, and it remains there; day after day, month after month, until finally, the bullet hits.

David wishes that Killian had been a messier roommate. Maybe then there would be something left, instead of it feeling like he had never been there at all. Is that all you were? A phantom from the very start? To be fair, he had left some things behind; clothes folded neatly in drawers, a pair of shoes tucked under his bed. But all those things feel a little bit too much like performative gestures, as if they’ve been curated to create an impression of Killian Jones: The Living Man. He becomes somewhat enamored with the sight of his sweater thrown over the back of a chair. It was a rare sight—Killian had almost never left a piece of clothing draped haphazardly anywhere, let alone in a shared living space where anyone could be inconvenienced by it.

It’s quite possible that he’ll never move it.

A surprisingly clean roommate with an unsurprisingly heavy weight resting on his shoulders. Making him sluggish and irritable; his brow furrowed, his eyes dark, and his flask full. David Nolan is not a man without flaws, he has made mistakes (regardless of what Killian might think), and while he can sympathize, he’s not certain he has the emotional fortitude to carry it in the same way that Killian does. It’s not something that David can force him to change. The only person that can alleviate that sense of guilt and regret is Killian himself, but he does despise it. The knowledge of this vibrant, brilliant person hidden away beneath all that blackened rot.

“Your guilt accomplishes nothing,” he tries to remind him, knowing full well he may as well be talking to a brick wall, “it’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

Oh, how he longs for that guilt now—craves it. Inhales and exhales, searching desperately for a whiff of it. Perhaps he’s left it behind for David to find, a fine accompaniment to the note that he’s left pinned to the front of David’s bedroom door. Nailed to the wood like a butterfly mounted on a cushion.

In the interim between David’s meddling and Killian’s cursed fucking note, the world changes a little bit more. It gets a little bit darker, a little less easy to ignore. The frog’s been long dead and at this point you’d barely even know that it had been a frog at all. The time for fundraisers and peaceful marches has passed, and that bullet that had been headed for David’s back? It leaves the barrel of the gun.

David is awoken late one night by the sound of police sirens and the apartment door slamming shut. He leaps out of bed, sliding into the hallway on sock-covered feet to find Killian, dressed head-to-toe in black, a bloody bandage wrapped around his hand.

“Killian?” he mutters, still half-asleep. “What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with,” moving past him towards the bathroom, pulling out the cork of his flask with his teeth, “back to bed with you.”

He sees it on the news the next day, something about a government building being vandalized, a molotov cocktail thrown through the window. Killian is all smiles, however, he even has the gall to whistle as he walks by him and into the kitchen, presumably intent on making a cup of tea. As if someone just “makes a cup of tea,” after something like that.

“This gonna become a habit?” David shouts at him from the couch, his eyes glued to the screen.

“Haven’t the faintest idea what you mean, love,” he answers over the shrieking sound of the kettle. Dave has to admit, he does smile.

Those few months before things had started to get a little too scary for David’s liking, they were admittedly, quite lively. They had been some of the country’s darker days, but Killian had managed to make them brighter. To infuse humor and strength when everyone else had felt weak and hopeless. His antics seemed to range from fairly harmless, like drawing male genitalia all over the president’s face on public murals; to dangerous but effective, such as breaking into party headquarters and stealing classified documents. He had even managed to leak most of them to the few honorable media outlets left, and he had invited a few of their friends over to watch the truth unfold before their very eyes.

Sometimes he would arrive home looking particularly vibrant, his cheeks pink and his smile wide. He would force David to share a drink with him, no matter how late, and he would tell him of all his adventures. And then there were other nights—maybe it hadn’t gone so well, maybe he was just tired from having to keep doing this; perhaps feeling overwhelmed with the weight of what had to be done to fix the mess these human beings had made. On those nights, David might not hear him come in at all. Shutting the door as quietly as possible behind him, treading lightly towards his bedroom. And in the morning, David wouldn’t ask about his night. He would just smile, make him some tea, and ask about what he had planned next.

Like so much else these days, hindsight would like to remind him that he was falling in love. But unfortunately for him, it often arrives far too late.

How do you describe the morning after in a world where he no longer exists? Answer: you don’t. It is a bleak, indescribable space where time ceases to function, where all that makes the world alive is sucked into a vacuum somewhere, and you—this thing that was left behind to ponder this great lack, you sit in silence and wonder at the absolute nothingness that sits before you.

The television is no longer on but he can still see it; the sight of Killian’s hand, his wrist his—he feels himself choking on his own throat at the thought of it, the sight of all that blood, out in the open where anyone could see it. Forces himself to stand, to take a step, to walk towards his bedroom door and maybe sleep, he cannot remember the last time he slept… and that’s when he sees it. The butterfly on his door, a wrinkled piece of paper torn from one of Killian’s notebooks, and on it a carefully written message:

Dave,

I know I made a lot of mistakes.

But loving you wasn’t one of them.

-- K.

His first instinct is to crumple it up in his fist, toss it into the trash. But he leaves it there, hanging on his door. Forces himself to read it every time he goes to bed, anytime he needs to change his clothes. He knows it’s probably not healthy, but it’s not as if he’s had any company over lately to berate him for it, so he leaves it where it is. To mock him, to comfort him, he is not sure which.

The night before he had lost him, presumably the night he had written the note hanging on David’s door, they had gotten into a fight. David remembers it feeling unusual, as they hadn’t gotten into a fight in quite a while, and for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what it was they were actually fighting about. Was it Killian’s recklessness? His desire to be a hero, to atone for the mistakes he had made in his past? Or was it something else? Perhaps this unspoken, unrealized thing that had been sitting between the two of them for weeks—months, if he was being honest with himself.

“I thought that this was what you wanted,” Killian had shouted tiredly, his voice gruff with overuse, “for me to be the bloody hero.”

“I never asked you to do that,” standing from the kitchen chair, pacing back and forth across the living room floor. “All I wanted was for you to forgive yourself. Don’t put this on me.”

“Oh, can’t I?” The bitter edge to his voice catching David by surprise, “I can’t fathom how you would expect otherwise, given how infallible you seem to be.”

It’s obvious that he regrets the words almost as soon as they fall from his lips, but thick headed man that he is, a retraction doesn’t seem likely. It is a moment not unlike that afternoon on campus, when David had offered him a place to say. A moment in which David had two possible decisions, one of which would push him away, the other of which would pull him in. He paused, thoughtfully, tried to ignore the sight of Killian’s tongue sneaking out to wet his lips.

“I’m just worried,” he finally says, quietly, dropping heavily to the couch, “all those other times, you got lucky. Someday soon, you might not be.”

Thankfully, Killian is quiet, and the tension he had been carrying in his shoulders seems to deflate as he takes a seat at his side. He is warm, smelling of cigarettes and burnt rubber. His hand hovers over David’s knee, and in a moment that seems to stretch on forever, finally ends with the weight of it on his bones, the heat of it burning through his jeans.

“It’s not your fault,” Killian whispers, his thumb moving methodically back and forth. In David’s recollection of this moment, Killian’s words sound like an omen—they echo within the walls of their apartment, they fall out the window and into the street, traveling into a future where the two of them can no longer exist together. “I want you to know it’s not your fault,” he says again, “but you have— somehow, you have made me want to be a better man.”

It is such an idea, isn’t it? A hell of a thing, to hear that you have altered another man’s life so drastically by just being you. And a part of him wants to run away, to brush aside this moment like all the others, but something inside of him had urged him to stay, and he will be glad of it.

“You can be a better man and stay alive, Killian. I mean, look at me, I’m incredibly alive.”

“Aye,” he answers after a thoughtful pause, his eyes straying towards David’s lips. “That you are.”

In the movies, they might have shared a kiss in this moment. Perhaps the screen would fade to black, the music would swell. But it wasn’t to be, like so many other moments, lost to yet another great “Perhaps.” Instead he had only sighed, patted David on the knee, and looked resignedly back towards the floor. “I appreciate your concern, Dave, but I have to do this, you know that I do.”

“Yeah,” trying to figure out why his throat suddenly felt so tight, his face so hot. “I know you do.”

One morning, and he is unsure as to how long it has been since, he wakes up and finds himself entirely too conscious of the sun on his face. To his great surprise, he had forgotten what it felt like—the warmth of it, the nurturing, wrapped-in-a-blanket feel of it on your skin. He taps the note on the way out the door. Makes a cup of coffee in the kitchen; watches Killian’s sweater as if it will suddenly start folding itself. He watches the news, like so many other mornings before, and he finds something else—anger, hope, a feeling that he can recall from inside the walls of a hot, crowded bar.

On the news, the world seems to be full of people. The last few days, he had been starting to wonder if he were the last. But no, it is still a crowded, wonderful, horrible place, and on this particular morning, when he could feel the sun on his face, he decided that it was still worth fighting for.

[golden-masquerade]

Tagged by @writing-under-stars

1. Was there someone or something that inspired you to start writing?

I don’t know if I can pinpoint it to one thing. I’ve always loved creating stories and writing them down. Mostly because it was the best way to get my stories across to others (I had a speech impediment at the time, according to family. Just family. Everyone else said I talked fine. Yeah. Family.). These days, I mostly just wrestle over which is the bigger struggle: having a story in my head or writing it down. 

2. Do you write extensive lore for your worlds? (If you have your own worlds)

YES! It’s one of my favorite things to do! Lore, local color, cultures, customs, LANGUAGES! It’s really fun to invent my own things.

3. Do you prefer large casts of characters, or do you limit it to a few?

Really depends on the project and what the plot demands. I generally do try to keep a small cast of well-rounded characters, but sometimes you need that giant LoL cast of diverse people that are flat but enjoyable. Characters are the most important part of my works. Why would you care about their stories if you don’t care about them?

4. Do your characters travel a lot to accomplish their goal? Or do they stay in pretty much the same place?

Depends on what their trials of life demand from them. Sometimes I keep things local (horror story, slice of life). Lately, I’m working on a fantasy epic with a lot of adventure themes, and that does mean traveling around. It really just depends on what the story needs from my characters.

5. If you could bring one character to life, who would it be?

Mallory Richter. She’s basically become my alter ego, the person I want to be. Really, I just wanna speak my mind and do what I want without fear of what people think. I wanna dive head first into life without any fears of... the dark? I dunno.

6. Do you prefer writing your protagonists or antagonists?

The project I’m working on currently has a lot of focus on the antagonists, which kinda makes me sad because the protagonists are getting a backseat treatment. Villains can be fun to write and watch interact with other villains (reminds me of my City Of Villains days), if only because clashing personalities are more fun to write than harmonious ones.

7. Do you mind being around other people when you write? Or do you prefer to be alone?

So long as no one is watching me write, I’m cool. I can write in public, but the last thing I want is someone watching me write and bother me.

8. Have you ever created your own magic system?

*HEADDESK* Twice. Reminds me of why I hate writing magic so much. Either you need rules or you don’t need rules. I just.... can’t do it.

9. Have you ever accidentally created a lot of romantic tension between two characters? If so, how did you deal with that?

Back in my fanfic days, I end up making up a new character with her own arc, and then she gets romantically involved with the protagonist.... when he already had a girlfriend. It was purely the characters acting on their own. I hated having it happen, but it published and I couldn’t go back. Eventually, the romantic feelings passed, because the story couldn’t afford to keep them around.

10. Are there any authors that you look up to?

Not especially. I’m someone who likes to separate the author from the work, so I don’t really pay attention to technique or symbolism or interpretation. I just want a fun, engaging story that I can tell everyone about.

Alrighty, here’s my questions:

1. What’s your opinion on fanfiction as a whole? Have you ever written any?

2. Is there a word you find yourself using over and over again as you write?

3. What’s the best advice you ever gotten to writing?

4. How do you get over writer’s block?

5. Does your current project have a playlist? What kind of music/songs are on it?

6. How long have you sat and looked at that empty paper as you tried to write? (It’s okay to admit it. Don’t worry, no one’s looking!)

7. What’s the one cliche of writing or literature that you think needs to stop/die out?

8. Is there a type of character that finds it way into your writing? What draws you to these kinds of characters?

9. What’s the worst/least interesting genre to write? Would you write a story of that genre if someone offered you $50?

10. Do you set deadlines for yourself? Does it work?

Tagging anyone who wants to answer!

[theblackheart-ofart-blog]

…what here needs love…

the black community is always in pursuit of change. the black people always look for the future to spark change. the future-meaning-our next generation. /black communities/ black people/ black men/ black women/

our future is me, our future is that black boy walking home from school after being bullied for his blackness, our future is that black woman being discriminated against in her workplace, our future is my friend, Tatiana Webster.

Here’s an interview with the star of “What Here Needs Love”–

What is your artist name?

TATIANA, for now. I’m pretty sure I change it at least twice a day.

Where are you from?

I’m West Indian. My mom is from Jamaica and my dad is from Anguilla. I was born in New Jersey and grew up in Georgia, so home feels like a lot of places to me.

What’s your city and state like?

I moved to Grayson, Georgia when I was nine. It’s a little town just north of Atlanta. We have farms, one grocery store, our local Grayson coffee house, and one elementary school. I graduated with the same kids I went to elementary school with. I love how peaceful it can be, and it’s nice to have the city close by for when things get too quiet or boring.

What got you into film?

In elementary school, I decided I would compose the scores for movies. On family night, we would either go to the movies or rent one from Hollywood videos every weekend. I love storytelling and imagining myself into stories. Every aspect of film, from the cinematography, performance, writing, music, sound, color, etc. is important to the story; Collaboration is essential to the art of filmmaking, and I think that’s what made me fall in love with it. There is no small part to making a film, it is all layered and complex.

Who got you into film?

My parents and brothers always supported me no matter what. They’d put up with me shoving the camcorder in their faces 24/7 even when they were annoyed. I don’t know if I would’ve kept going without their support.

What/who are your influences?

Ava DuVernay, Tavi Gevinson, Christopher Nolan, Hans Zimmer, Max Richter, Kendrick Lamar, Wes Anderson.

You recently did a film, what’s it called?

It’s called WHAT HERE NEEDS LOVE?

Give text to the essence of your film in an 8 word phrase?

A family’s house fire and their path towards peace.

How’d you get the role?

I did an audition in NYC, and then I found out I got a callback a week later.

What were your initial feelings when first getting on set? Did it feel like home or was it foreign to you?

Both! I was definitely nervous at first, but everyone on set was incredible. We shot in the woods of Berkshires, MA, so we all lived together in the same house. It was huge, and everyone in the cast and crew felt so welcoming.

Who’d you play in the film?

I played the daughter, LEAH. She’s very headstrong and passionate.

So you played interracial? Was that something you thought was interesting or hard OR did it not phase you?

In the film, my father was Jewish and my mom was Black. It was an interesting process because race was a bigger conversation in rehearsal than in the film itself. It never directly addresses that conversation, but I think at the heart of the story Leah’s parents are just two people that love each other deeply.

Why did you think that story was important to be told?

It’s a beautiful story about a father and daughter finding love and reconciliation through their pain. I think it’s easy for people to hate when their in pain, but choosing to love is something that takes true strength.

Being a black artist, do you feel the pressures to be good or dynamic. If so, then why?

Sometimes I feel a huge pressure to prove myself because Black artist are so underrepresented, but most of the time I feel empowered by how dynamic it makes me.

What is your dream job?

I want to be a film director and writer. At some point, I want to start an art collective and make music.

Does being a woman make this easier, harder, or are you indifferent to that?

Women are underrepresented in the film industry, especially Black Women. It is challenging, but I am excited to take on that challenge.

If you, Tatiana Webster had a slogan, what would it be?

Stop talking about what you want to do and go do it.  

What do you hope to see change in the world throughout your life?

I hope to see a greater sense of community in people around the world, especially for Black people. In my lifetime, I want to see that we are really looking out for each other.

What makes you most proud about being a black woman?

So many Black women are overlooked, but I have so much pride in our resilience and beauty. We have learned to manifest and create for ourselves rather than wait for someone to do it for us.

[beevean]

Do Castlevania for the ask game!

Favorite character: it's a threeway between Hector, Isaac and Shanoa. I really cannot choose D:

Least Favorite character: in the games? There is no character I hate, but Hammer in DoS was very annoying. In the whole franchise? Lenore :^)

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): I don't really have serious ships lmao, and they don't even amount to 5

Character I find most attractive: are you serious? Most attractive character in Castlevania? How am I even supposed to make a top 10, let alone choose one? D:

... Am I being too obvious if I just say the three boys in CoD? I'd just make a fool of myself if I lied...

Character I would marry: Hector. I completely understand Rosaly when she picked him up like a stray kitten :P

Character I would be best friends with: you know what? Jonathan and Charlotte seem fun to hang around with :)

a random thought: every day I wake up, and I thank Michiru Yamane for her contributions to humankind. How did I live so many years without her

An unpopular opinion: it's really funny to me when fans dunk on DoS for its "generic anime style", but don't even bother with PoR. I don't think DoS looks that bad. It's been 17 years guys, we get it :P

My Canon OTP: Hector/Rosaly they have no right to be this cuuuuute 😭 thank you Sasakura and Kojima for writing Rosalie to be the cutest thing

My Non-canon OTP: can't think of anything

Most Badass Character: Again, are you serious? It's easier to list the non-badasses. Sypha, Alucard, Juste, Soma, Hector and Maria are all so disgustingly OP that it's not even funny. Bonus points for Shanoa for being both powerful and for surviving one hell of a trauma and still finding the strength to live on.

Most Epic Villain: Dracula. Duh :P I do have a soft spot for Isaac and Walter as villains, but I wouldn't call either of them epic...

Pairing I am not a fan of: Any Belmontcest pairing, I know that the situation is too weird to be considered actual incest but it still feels uncomfortable to me. Oh, and then fucking Lenector makes me want to set something on fire.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Mathias. He should have appeared more in LoI to really feel his tragedy, let alone actually showing Elizabetha on screen. (obviously every single character in Netflixvania also counts, can't even pinpoint to one in particular)

Character I most identify with: If Richter really felt like his life was worthless after he defeated Dracula, and those weren't just the words that Shaft put in his mouth, then his feelings are rather relatable...

Favourite Friendship: JONATHAN CHARLOTTE JONATHAN CHARLOTTE! Also, Alucard and Trevor's reunion in GoS is really cute <3

Character I wish I could be: Maria. I want to be the Goddess of Destruction as well :P

[creativelitlover]

Hey lovely bookworms, as promised I have a special blog post… An Author Interview with the amazing M.A Phipps (Molly Phipps). Author of Ultraxenopia and Type X, A Project W.A.R Novel.

Upon discovering the brilliant Ultraxenopia, and being submerged in a world of terrorism and oppression, following Wynter Reeves on her gruelling journey of suspense and discovery.

My dreams have been haunted and my mind lost, obsessing over what will happen next! Hugely anticipating Type X… Which I’m so close to devouring! So look out for more fan art and a review.

Anyway, here is what Molly had to say, as she kindly answered all of my questions. Enjoy. ☺️

Meet Molly Phipps. 💜

“As I’m sure you’ve already gathered, my name is M. A. Phipps, and I’m an American fiction author living in the UK. From the time I was a small child, I remember having a passion for literature, but it went so much further than the normal day-to-day dreams we tend to have as kids. Sure, there were moments when I wanted to be an astronaut or a ballerina (or yes, even a wizard), but the one thing that never left my mind was how much I loved books and how amazing it would feel to see my name on the cover of something I had written. It’s been a handful of years since I began seriously writing fiction, and now I can finally say that dream has become a reality. ​ On the more personal side of things, I’m the wife of a hunky Brit and also a mother to one rambunctious (but adorable) little girl. I also have an equally crazy Jack Russell Terrier named Milo. Although I was raised in the US, I’ve lived in the UK for the better part of a decade now. I’m a big time movie buff, and I love comparing books to their film counterparts. You will never hear me say, “BUT THAT WASN’T IN THE BOOK!” probably because film studies was a huge part of my major at college. Oh, and I feel it needs to be said that I am quite possibly the biggest Lord of the Rings nerd alive. ​ In regards to my writing, I want to explore every genre of fiction possible. I want to test myself, explore the farthest reaches of my imagination, and above all, share my stories with the world.”

Interview questions:

1. If you get my emotions running wild, then for me, you’ve nailed it! A book should make you cry, laugh and even curse! And I’m definitely guilty of all of the above. Your book, Ultraxenopia hit my emotional levels to the maximum… so I was wondering, when writing these amazing, nail-biting moments, do you too, have your emotions whacked up high?

You know, it’s been a while since I actually wrote Ultraxenopia (I wrote it back in 2014), so I can’t really remember what I was feeling at the time. Saying that, what I love about writing first person perspective is you really get to dive into the character’s head and allow yourself to feel what they’re feeling. So yeah, I suppose my emotions do get whacked up a bit when writing.

2. Speaking of scenes, I’m dying to know, what was your favourite scene? And did you struggle with it or did it come easy?

As grim as it sounds, I really loved writing the torture scenes during Wynter’s time at the DSD. She has this amazing sort of “Dr. Frankenstein and his monster” relationship with Dr. Richter that I just find so interesting to explore.

What’s really fascinating to me is that I’ve actually had people message me and say they could really feel Wynter’s pain in those scenes, as if I’ve experienced that sort of agony to allow me to write it so believably. It never occurred to me before that, but I’ve struggled with a few physical disabilities in my life that have caused me quite a severe amount of pain and hardship, so I suppose that’s why those scenes were so easy for me to convey. I could get in Wynter’s head and remember what that pain felt like—even if the actual cause for mine was way different.

3. I believe inspiration for writing is everywhere, but was there anything in particular that inspired you to write this story?

There were a lot of inspirations for the story in Project W. A. R., many of which have roots in history. The DSD, for example, was inspired by Unit 731 which was an experimental weapons testing unit of the Japanese army based in China during WWII. Long story short, they tested biological weapons on human subjects, resulting in the deaths of approximately 3,000 people at that camp alone and a further 300,000 from subsequent use of the weapons they created thanks to human experimentation.

The State itself actually came about from two inspirations. When we’re first introduced to Wynter’s world, it’s very much your sort of technologically advanced version of the totalitarian regime of North Korea. Its origins, however, hold more similarities to how Nazi Germany operated, which readers will get a glimpse of in the sequel, Type X.

Aside from the grim stuff, I based Jenner on Jim Sturgess because I just love him and he has the sweetest smile.

4. One of the hardest part to read was when they were testing on Wynter- I was so worried about her, I was full on going crazy, shouting at the Book, desperately wanting her to punch Richter right in the face! I imagine it would be a hard scene to write, it was so emotional. So what was the hardest scene to write?

I actually found the torture scenes to be among the easiest to write (as creepy as that is). The scenes I struggle with tend to be the scenes of long dialogue—not the actual dialogue itself, but all the filler (ie. what everyone is doing between the dialogue). Saying that, I might be projecting a bit with my latest WIP and how gruelling that often was to write. I don’t remember there being any particularly difficult scenes to finish in either Ultraxenopia or Type X.

5. As much as I hate , I also love Dr Richter… you have written the perfect bad guy in my opinion. He as a past that you can’t help but feel for, he is creepy and cute. He is ruthless and cunning and I don’t think there is a limit to what he is capable of… so which do you prefer to write, the villain or the hero?

I’ll admit, I really do enjoy writing villains. I think I have a knack for them and there’s just something so fun about writing a character who has zero reservations and is willing to do just about anything to get what they’re after. The hero usually has to show a bit more emotional restraint whereas with the villain, you can cut loose a little. I enjoy writing both, but I think I find villains a bit easier to write overall.

6. The build up of romance in your book was perfect. I knew exactly why they’d fallen for each other. You truly gave me the sense of love building bit by bit watching them grow together, I loved it so much. That be big said, do you prefer to write romance or read it?

This is tricky because despite having the emotional range of a teaspoon, I am a bit of a romantic at heart. I do love me some good old-fashioned romance, but I also find a lot of it (especially in YA) to be a bit…over the top? I can’t really handle the super cheesy lines some of these popular characters come out with—I much prefer realistic romance where characters aren’t spouting these very elaborate old-timey sonnets every five seconds, which I think is why I tend to always incorporate romance into my work, so I can write the sort of romance I like personally. Saying that, I do love getting worked up over my favorite ships!

7. You have created some truly amazing characters, I have to say my favourite has to be Jenner. Do you have a method on creating them?

Not particularly. Characters come to me very easily, I barely have to work at it. I think a huge part of it is because I have a very visual brain (so I see stuff in pictures instead of words) so I’m able to play out my stories like a movie in my head. I also draw inspiration from so many things that the characters tend to just materialize without me needing to force it.

8. Are you an organised writer or is your work space chaos?

I am definitely an organized writer. I need to make outlines and have playlists. If I don’t, then it’s chaotic. I didn’t make proper outlines or playlists for my current work in progress, and it took me over a year to finish writing because of it. I know what works for me, I just need to make sure I actually do it!

9. I was wondering, I like to listen to music while I write, I actually have different playlist for writing different scenes, hehe. Do you need quiet or do you listen to music when writing too?

I absolutely have to listen to music while I write, but not just any music. It has to be instrumental/orchestral and it has to feel like the scene I’m writing (which is why my playlists are sometimes very strange LOL). I tend to make a playlist with the same number of songs as chapters in the book I’m working on so there will be a song correlating to each chapter. I then play that song on repeat until the chapter is done. Most of the music I listen to is from film scores. For example, my Ultraxenopia playlist has a few songs from The Hunger Games and Cloud Atlas soundtracks.

10. I must say your book covers are beautiful, that being said, do you ‘cover buy’ books? Are you drawn to them and do you like people on the front covers?

I am definitely a ‘cover buy’ reader. I only ever pick up a book if I like the cover or if I’ve heard so much about the book the cover doesn’t matter. I tend to prefer more artistic/symbolic looking covers, but I also like covers with people on the front (especially if big, pretty dresses are involved!)

11. Are there any other genre you’d like to explore?

I’m actually SUPER into adult thrillers as a reader, like even more so than YA. I would love to become the female version of Dennis Lehane. Dude knows what’s up (Shudder Island FTW!). Saying that, you’ll notice everything I write has some sort of thriller aspect to it for that reason.

12. What other projects are you working on?

I recently completed a YA fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast which I’m reading back through now so I can send over to my beta readers and then pitch to agents in March. Then, it’s onto Project W. A. R. book three!

I’ll leave you with a slideshow of my fan art, you’re welcome. ☺️

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Author Interview 💛 M.A Phipps Hey lovely bookworms, as promised I have a special blog post... An Author Interview with the amazing M.A Phipps (Molly Phipps).

[violent-as-flowers]

Welcome to my 2017 Yuletide letter, Yuletide is a fanfiction exchange for rare fandoms that happens during the winter months. I’m on AO3 as ViolentFlowers and I’m a lurker who likes to write with a deadline breathing down my neck.

I’m not strict on the format for gifts, I love first/second/third pov, past or present tense, fic or art; so please feel free to write in what you enjoy the most. Any rating is fine.

Likes!  I enjoy stories about women with established relationships where the sharp edges of the characters remain, but because of or in spite of those edges the characters still fit together and make each other happy. I like restraints and power plays. I’m into snarky characters that bounce back from being pushed down. I’m also way more into Rivals to Lovers then Friends to Lovers. I love femslash.

I’m open to dark themes, but I also really enjoy it when even dark stories can make me laugh. I enjoy crack so feel free to play around. My favorite type of story is one where the normal tropes are subverted in interesting ways. I’m very fond of music, band, or musician AUs. Throw them into any of these fandoms!

I love porn! I enjoy reading about characters exploring their bodies as they fantasize and figure out what gets them hot and bothered.  Stories that include masturbation would be amazing. I’m interested in both plot-driven stories that have a sex and PWP (Plot What Plot/Porn), but I’m also fine if you fade to black on the sex or if the characters just show affection to each other. Hugs, hand holding, kissing, support, and love are also great! If for whatever reason you don’t want to write porn please don’t force yourself, I love the bond that characters can have with each other when they love each other and that doesn’t have to be detailed porn… unless you want to write that.

Do Not Wants - No incest, please. I do not want men raping women, but I’m okay with rape in other aspects. I do not want watersports or scat.

I would prefer if underage characters were aged up to 16 for explicit porn. For fade to black sex, I don’t mind if the characters are underage.

Fandoms!

Daria (Cartoon) - Jane Lane, Daria Morgendorffer, and Quinn Morgendorffer

Deadpan delivery. I really liked how Daria and Jane’s friendship is explored on this show, but I think the combo of Quinn and Jane would be amazing on the level of total snark. Also, I’d love to see what Daria and Quinn actually agree on, in those tiny moments when they get along. You do not need to include all of the characters I’ve requested in your story.

Daria - I enjoy Daria’s unique take on the world and I like that she’s outside what at that time was considered to be normal. But I also enjoy that there’s a vulnerability to her sometimes that creeps in around the cynicism. I’d like to see her handling adult life choices like how many days she can spend not leaving the house, what the internet would mean to her, how she can totally handle a credit card and any other story of Daria succeeding or failing her progression to adulthood. Canon level high school stories are fine for this too.

Jane - I have a big thing for confident characters and Jane is overflowing with confident disdain. I’d like to see her go somewhere unexpected with her art. Make a joke piece only to be stuck making that type of art instead of other more personal art, dealing with critics, dealing with other artists, professional jealousy! Show me, Jane, the artist!

Quinn - I’ve grown to like Quinn more and more over time, she’s set up as the ‘normal girl’ foil for Jane and Daria to bounce off of, but I like to think that Quinn has just found the levers that she can pull to get what she wants. It might be easier for her to fit in then it is for Daria but she’s still trapped in what peoples’ expectations of teen girls are. I’d like to see something that explores the stress of trying to conform to expectations when no box can fit perfectly. Or even how fitting in doesn’t actually get her the things that she really wants. Is she into something geeky or embarrassing on the side? In the same vein that one time she stole Daria’s identity and was making it popular was a really interesting episode to me.

Shipping Femslash prompts!

Jane Lane/Daria Morgendorffer -  The way that Daria and Jane make room for each other makes me want to see how they would end up getting together as a couple or how their relationship might end up changing as they work through a disagreement. I really want one of them to go to college and think that they are leaving their old lives behind for something better only to find that when they meet back up that they missed their friendship more than they realized. And maybe it’s not a friendship but something more? Now with all of their experience they can see how clearly they care for each other and how they don’t want to let that go again.

Jane Lane/Quinn Morgendorffer  - Jane and Quinn are two different characters staring at each other across a long divide of expectations and snark. I’d love to see what it would take to bridge the gap between them. Is Quinn going through a phase and wanting to make out with a girl? Does Jane not know what to do when she finds out that Quinn is mean to her because she’s had a crush on Jane since forever? Does Jane feel drawn to Quinn in a way she’s never felt comfortable with?

I would also love anything dark for this fandom, zombies, outbreak, vampires, end of the world, demons, basically anything that makes these three women have to work together or use their unique personalities to survive and thrive. I’m also up for soul bonding, musicians, Victorian, steampunk. Have fun with this.

Scott Pligrim vs. the World (2010) - Knives Chau, Kim Pine, Envy Adams, and Roxy Richter

Basically femslash anywhere and everywhere with these ladies. I’m okay with either the Movie or the Comic version of these characters. You do not need to include all of the characters I’ve requested in your story.

Kim Pine - Kim Pine seems to have no idea what to do with her life and the raging ball of issues she still carries around with her isn’t helping. I really liked that she was so complex, that she carried a feeling of confusion, that her life was not going the way she wanted, that she drifting through time without goals or purpose. And while the end of the comic/movie gives her some closure I just really want to hear all your ideas as to what life has in store for Kim! Does she get her shit together? Does she make it in music? Start another band or two? Go back to school? 

Envy Adams - I really love Envy. She’s petty and mean, but mostly just really self-centered in a way that doesn’t seem evil, she just wasn’t good either. I really want to know what things were like from her point of view. Did she have a good reason for dumping Scott or a bad reason that would make sense? What did she do after the comic/film? Did she get a new band together?

Roxy Richter - She dated Ramona in college and is a ninja! There’s a lot of stuff that I want to know about that part of her life. I hold the view that Roxy isn’t dead and would be really interested to see what she thought of how everything turned out. More Roxy please!

Knives Chau - Knives, she’s cute, she’s sweet, she feeelllllssss things deeply. She’s also angry and confused and so very much growing up and she’s making things up as she goes. Basically, Knives is overflowing with thoughts and emotions. But I really like that she’s both sweet and harsh, that she’ll pick up some daggers and try to fight things out. I would love to see Knives interacting with Envy and/or Kim some more, maybe after all of the things that happen all of them could talk about moving on or even what it means to be an evil ex. I’m also really interested in Knives trying a cheat code, exploring her alternate endings, respawning, or other weird video game issues in the Scott Pilgrim world. 

Shipping Femslash Prompts!

Knives Chau/Kim Pine - I’d love to see more of what happens between Knives and Kim, was that drunken kiss the only kiss that they shared and it keeps Knives up at night, or did that blossom into a relationship? Or did they drift apart only to meet up later in life and find themselves once more drawn to each? But this time are the roles reversed and Kim is the one looking up to Knives or is Knives still looking like Kim is the sun in her sky? Does Knives at least knock Kim off balance by how far she’s come? Or are they both down on their luck? Has life knocked them around so much that they actually end up hooking up without even recognizing each other? Just another drunken one night stand, only surprise, it’s that person that they haven’t thought about in forever– That person they couldn’t stop thinking about.

Envy Adams/Kim Pine - In no way do I think this meeting of minds would be friendly, but I have a burning desire to have Envy and Kim hang out together and (possibly)have a pissed off make out session, or angry hate sex. Maybe during the Scott Pilgrim movies’ Chaos theater preparation/rehearsal/sound check or maybe after Kim has hit the big time as a musician/music writer/professional shit talker/producer who runs into Envy at an event.

Envy Adams/Knives Chau - I would be really interested to see these two meet back up in the future. Is Knives better known, more important, different? Has Envy’s career taking off, bombed, ended up in the middle? Do they hit it off or is this just about payback? Is Knives good or did she become a bad girl?

Ramona Flowers/Roxy Richter - They used to date! What was that like? Why did they break up? We only got a brief glimpse into Ramona’s past and even then they both still seemed friendly in the comic. Ramona let her stay at her place. How did Roxy see their relationship?

I love all of these characters so feel free to match any of these women together and write a story exploring how their relationship would or would not work.

To be honest I love stories about musicians and bands so please feel free to play around. All of these ladies in a band? Awesome! These girls in all rival bands? Even better.

Darker AUs for this set of characters would also be great. Anything that mixes the Scott Pilgrim universe with another video game world that was much darker would be neat. What if they all lived in a game like Silent Hill or some other horror title? How would that change the tone of their story?

Anya’s Ghost - Elizabeth Standard, Anya Borzakovskaya, Emily Reilly, and Siobhan

You do not need to include all of the characters I’ve requested in your story.

Anya Borzakovskaya - I’d love to see Anya deal with more ghosts or supernatural. What happens in the future? How does she deal with college and moving away? Does she share her experiences of the supernatural with anyone?

I’d also be interested in missing scenes with Emily being creepy (if you want to go with possession and/or creepy ghost non-con that would be awesome).

Emily Reilly - I’d love to see the events from the book from her point of view. Did she actually move on after the events of the book or is she still lurking around? I’d think she’d have a pretty interesting perspective on things. I’d also be interested in some creepy ghost voyeurism, with Emily spying on Anya (sexual situations would be a plus).

Siobhan - I’d like to see her encounter the supernatural like Anya did just to see how she’d handle it. Does she freak out? Take it in stride? Call Anya in a panic? Does Anya ever tell Siobhan about her freaky ghost encounter?

Elizabeth Standard - I’d like to see what would push Elizabeth to the point of letting go of her bad relationship. I felt she was a pretty sympathetic character and would like to also see her deal with the supernatural. How would she handle it? What if she’d been the one to find Emily’s bones.

Femslash pairings (Any rating is great! Porn is awesome):

Anya/Siobhan - I’d love to see these two grow closer while dealing with the supernatural! Possessions, witches, spirits, werewolves, things that go bump in the night. How did they become friends? What kind of embarrassing crush on Anya has Siobhan been hiding? Or is it Anya that has the crush? Or does it turn out to be both? What happens when one or the other starts dating a boy/another girl? Does college change anything? Dealing with the supernatural? Getting a car?

Siobhan/Elizabeth - Siobhan is sort of a bad girl, I’d love to see her and Elizabeth, the popular girl, hook up. Sneaking around and hiding their relationship? Fake/pretend dating to get back at Sean? Siobhan and Elizabeth growing closer while trying to handle the supernatural?

Elizabeth/Anya - I so want this pairing too! Has Elizabeth been trying to deny that she really likes girls or has it been a thing that she just tries not to think about because of course, she likes boys, right? All of the coming of age stories realizing that maybe they’re not straight, with spooky things.

Emily/Anya - Something creepy and messed up for this would be awesome. Possession, paralyzation, or Somnophilia would be really interesting. A missing scene from the book would be great too with creepy creeping.

Other ideas: Summer Camp! Ghost Busting! Cuddling for warmth! Bit by a Werewolf!

Lady of the Shard - Acolyte, Radiant Goddess, and Old God

You do not need to include all of the characters I’ve requested in your story.

The Webcomic is available to read for free here: https://gigidigi.itch.io/lady

While the webcomic is sweet and fluffy I would also be super interested in a dark more non-con take on where things could have gone.

Acolyte - I love the devotion and care the Acolyte shows for the Radiant Goddess. I wish there was more hair brushing and help dressing or undressing and makeup application.

Radiant Goddess - So tall, so much face touching, and lack of personal space. Yet so much self-doubt and self-sacrifice. I’d love a story that goes into the past of how the Radiant Goddess fell in love with the Old God, or what the Radiant Goddess’ life was like as a human.

Old God - The Old God is a temptress, luring unsuspecting worshipers to her with sweet words and manipulation. I love to see more of her working her magic on others(the Acolyte or Radiant Goddess or other) and the control she exerts once she has them under her thumb. What other uses does she have for her loyal worshipers? She seems to have the ability to make the Acolyte feel things, how would this be used for sex or fun? Did this work on the Radiant Goddess?

Femslash pairings (Any rating is great! Porn is awesome): 

Acolyte/Radiant Goddess - I love all of the face touching, blushing, and size difference between these two characters. I would love to see more shared dreams, breakfast in bed, bathing and hair brushing, or maybe some kinky goddess worship. Or maybe a callback to when the Goddess reached out to feel the universe and ended up touching the Acolyte but this time the scene plays out further with phantom sex.

Acolyte/Old God - The parts of the comic with the Old God really seemed like they were heading somewhere dark and I’d be very interested if you wanted to go down that path, but I’d also be okay with fluff as well. Some possible themes: loyalty kink, pinning, forced arousal, abusive relationship, mind control, brainwashing, non-con, mind wipe.

Old God/Radiant Goddess - I would also be interested in all sorts of things for this pairing fluff, tragedy, abusive relationships, all the way to mind control and non-con. Tell me how they got together, tell me how they broke apart, a glimpse at the final battle, the first time the Radiant Goddess realized something was wrong, or maybe the one time everything was perfect.

I would also love a threesome with all of these characters.

Other Space - Karen Lipinski, Tina Shukshin

Karen Lipinski -  Karen is terrible with feelings and I’d love any story where she is forced to admit that she has them. Where her being successful is the first clue she has that something is wrong. What would it have been like if she’d been captain of her own ship, still stuck with Tina and the crew?

Tina Shukshin - Tina is completely self-absorbed, I’d like to see her take over and be captain of the ship. How horrible/awesome would that be? I’d like to see way more of Karen and Tina interacting with each other. What was their time at the UMP Academy like? Did they hate each other on sight or was their dislike something that grew out of their hookup.

Femslash pairing (Any rating is great! Porn is awesome): 

Karen Lipinski/Tina Shukshin - I really like Karen, and want her to get closer to Tina… But Karen can’t seem to handle emotions so it’s way more likely that they’d get dosed with space sex pollen or be accidentally married or get shot into space sharing a tiny escape pod that was originally a reality show closed set where they used to shoot porn.

Feel free to use any sort of cliche SF space plot, space madness, accidentally becoming gods to a tiny civilization, trapped on a planet, aliens made them do it, fake married, hey I grew a tentacle, end of the world sex, or good old body swap.

I’d love a story set back when they were both at the UMP Academy. Maybe a story where after Karen and Tina have their terrible first time together, they for some reason keep having unsatisfying sex over and over until they manage to have really amazing sex, which ruins everything.

I’d like them to wrestle in space jello for dominance! Neither of them lose, both of them win!

Over the Garden Wall - Sara, Beatrice, Adelaide, and The Beast.

You do not need to include all of the characters I’ve requested in your story. I love the whimsical feeling of this cartoon, it’s just on the edge of going fully creepy and messed up but never quite goes all the way. If you want to get really creepy with this request feel free.

Sara - I would be really interested in a story it was Sara who ended up in The Unknown and interacted with the various characters from the show(Beatrice, the Woodsman, Adelaide, Lorna, the Beast) or even ended up there later and just had her own new adventures. Or it might be cool if she helped someone from The Unknown get back after getting trapped in our world, like maybe Beatrice.

Beatrice - I just want more about Beatrice, what was her life like before she became a bluebird? Did she have a reason to throw the rock? How does a curse like that even happen? How she did she manage to turn her family back(really magic scissors??? How did that even work? She’s a bird with no hands)? What was the tearful reunion with her family like? How odd it was to be a bluebird? Considering how creepy Adelaide is, what was the meeting between Beatrice and her like? How did Adelaide sell Beatrice on the idea of exchanging other people for the scissors?

Adelaide - Is creepy as all get out and I’d like to know more about her. I’d love any creepy story of them capturing people to use as servants and backstory as to where she got her magic objects and creepy house. We’re they the one who cursed Beatrice and her family? Did she have something to be with creating the Beast? Feel free to go as creepy and as messed up as you want.

The Beast - Much like Adelaide, I’m really interested in creepy stories about the Beast and how it came to be. What is its connection to the lamp? How do the different people of the unknown view the Beast? What are the stories that are told about it? How does it affect the world of the Unknown and the trees? How did the woodsman get the lamp in the first place? There so much interesting ideas that could be explored with the Beast.

Shipping ideas! (Any rating is great! Porn is awesome):

Sara/Beatrice - I’m super into the idea of these two meeting up and hitting it off. Helping each other out and/or being really suspicious and having to earn each other’s trust.

Creepy noncon with Adelaide/Beatrice or Adelaide/Sara, I’m open to stories where things get really messed up in the context of Adelaide making deals and the idea that Beatrice or Sara could end up caught in Adelaide’s web.

Thanks again for writing for me! If you have any questions please feel free to send me an anonymous ask or look through any of my past yuletide letters for inspiration (I also still love any fandom I’ve asked for in my past letters and would be overjoyed to get a story for one of them).