#i know you read this because thats my entire follower base

[subway-art-gallr3y]

AAAA I HAVE SO MANY MISSING PIECES BECAUSE IM TIRED

[cherryredstars]

hello cherry! i hope you are having a wonderful new year because i know i am.

little info, this is the same slut who requested overstimulated hobie brown. i read it, gorgeous. literally screenshotted it because of how good it was. i need more of it and i am willing to fight with a spear and a shield for it.

so you know like, 70s/80s are when female domination finally was at it's peak? yes so i would like to request a very dominant and MEAN (maybe even older/more experienced though honestly thats up to you) reader. make her mean its hot. not that being rude is hot, but i like women just as much as i like xy beings and i like my women kinda fucked up

thank you🙏

Pairing: Hobie Brown x fem!reader

Warnings: 18+, NSFW, Slight Degradation, Choking, Penetrative Sex, Facesitting, Face Slapping, Hair Pulling, Sub!Hobie

Summary: Power to the woman.

A/N: So glad you loved it! Hope you enjoy this one too!!

Word Count: 1.8K (Not Edited)

The sound of his head hitting the wall is muffled by his moan. 

His hands grab desperately to your sides, his eyes rolling back when you suck hard at his lip piercing, the sting of pain going straight to his cock. Your hands are fisted around the lapels of his leather jacket, pushing him harder against the wall. Your hand falls away from his jacket, going further down until you roughly cup his bulge. He groans, his head leaning back as your mouth starts trailing kisses against his neck. Smudges of dark red lipstick stain his skin, being accompanied by hickeys as you bite and suck on him. His hips buck into hand as you return to kissing his lips. For a second, he tries to gain control, pushing back on you and fighting your tongue with his. 

Your brows furrow, your other hand leaving his jacket and wrapping the front of his neck. You use your entire weight to push back on him, your hand squeezing his neck enough to make breathing slightly harder. He whimpers when he’s forced back against the wall, quickly losing the battle between your tongues. Your tongue invades his mouth triumphantly, exploring his mouth before pulling away. His lips try to follow yours, but the hand around his neck prevents him from getting far. You tsk at him, shaking your head. You press your lower body against his, grinding your front to his bulge. He hisses, his hold on your hips tightening. 

“That wasn’t very nice of you, Hobie.” You sneer, squeezing his neck tighter before letting go. Hobie coughs slightly, his chest heaving as his breathing comes easy. “A pathetic attempt on your part.”

Hobie smirks slightly, tilting his head to the side. “What can I say, love? Y’make me weak.”

Your hand slaps his cheek, his head moving to the slide before you quickly grab his chin and force his face down to yours. You have a disgusted look on your face, and Hobie resists the urge to whine. “Don’t smart mouth me, little boy. Get on the bed.”

He can feel his cock twitch in his pants, his eyes going hazy as he looks down at you. You scoff, pushing away from him. Hobie quickly shrugs off his jacket, grabbing his white beater from behind his neck and pulling it over his head. He throws it to the floor, looking down as his hands rushes to undo the button and pull them down his legs. His underwear goes with the pants, leaving him fully naked as he rushes to the bed. He throws himself onto it, leaning on his elbows as he sits at the edge. You’ve stripped too, leaving yourself in your bra. The rest of your body is bare, exposed to him. Hobie groans as he looks at your body, biting his lip as you straddle his lap. 

His hands fall to your thighs, squeezing them. Your hand goes to the nape of his neck, massaging the base of his head before your hand grabs a fist-full of his wicks. He winces as you pull his head back, forcing him to look up at you. You tilt your head to the side, your other hand coming up to trace the shape of his jaw. He gulps as your thumb presses into his chin, your face leaning down towards his ear. You blow warm air against his neck, causing his body to shiver. 

“Do you want to make me feel good, Hobie?” You whisper into his ear, your voice dripping with sexual appeal. Hobie tries to nod, wincing again when he remembers his hair in your hands. 

“Yes,” he mumbles, his hands rubbing up and down your thighs. 

You smile, licking the shell of his ear before pulling away. Your hands leave his hair and chin, moving to his chest. You push him, making him fall back to his elbows. Your hands fall to either side of his head, your nose almost bumping into his. Hobie’s breath hitches, eyes dropping to your lips before moving back to your eyes. You raise an eyebrow at him, tilting your head again. 

“Good, then be a good little boy and lay on your back at the top of the bed.” You demand, pushing yourself up until you’re kneeling on the bed. 

Hobie is quick to follow your directions, pushing himself backwards and laying his head back on the pillows. You follow him once he’s laid flat on the bed, his eyes glued to your form. Your knees land on either side of his head. Hobie can’t decide where to look, his breath elevated as he looks between your face and your sweet pussy. You smirk, your hand landing on his head to keep his gaze on your cunt. Your other hand slides down your body, two of your fingers spreading your pussy lips apart so he can see the slick dripping from your entrance. Hobie groans at the sight, licking his lips as his mouth goes dry. 

Your hand joins your other on Hobie’s head, tilting it back. You slowly lower yourself, your thighs bouncing the second you’re fully seated on his face. Hobie’s eyes go to your face, half-lidded as his hands come to your thighs. 

“Suck.” You demand, grinding your hips down onto his face. 

He groans as his mouth opens and latches onto your clit, sucking and licking at it. You moan softly, your eyes closing in bliss. You tighten your hold on his hair, a vibration running throughout your body as he moans against your cunt. Your hips buck, his nose rubbing against your clit messily. His breath comes out in sharp exhales from his nose, warming your mound before being smothered with your cunt. His eyes are hazy, hands tightening on your thighs as he laps at your pussy. Wet clicks sound under you, the echoes of his tongue lolling being amplified by the walls. 

“More,” you sigh out, slapping one hand against the wall, the other keeping his head in place as you grind down on his face, “C’mon, Hobie. Tongue fuck me.”

Hobie’s eyes squeeze shut, mumbling against your pussy lips. You moan out when his tongue prods at your entrance, slipping in and licking at your throbbing walls. You curse under your breath, bouncing down on his face slightly to push his tongue in and out of you. The small sounds of skin slapping against skin masks Hobie’s whines, his hands coming up to your hips to glue your cunt to his face. You can tell his tongue is starting to ache by how sloppy it is when he flicks over your clit and tries to find your hole again. Feeling nice, you bring your hand to your clit, pinching at the bud until it triggers your orgasm. 

Hobie laps it up greedily, swallowing it down as he shakes his head to collect every drop. You hiss, getting off his face as your thighs twitch. Hobie pants under you, the lower part of his face shiny with your slick. His tongue peaks from his lips, licking up whatever he can. Even in his dazed state, he forces his eyes to follow you as you go further down his body. He pushes himself up on his elbows just in time to watch you extend your hand, squeezing hard around his tip. He whines, hips jolting as he falls onto his back again. 

You chuckle, letting go of him as you go to straddle his lap. Your hands are planted on his chest, keeping you balanced as you lift your hips. You tease your cunt over his tip, making him breath out shakily. Your hand slides up his chest, slipping around his neck, effectively distracting him before you slam your hips down on his cock. He cries out as his tip hits your cervix, his back arching off the bed before your hand pushes his chest down flat to the bed. One of his hands wraps around the wrist of your hand around his neck as you begin to squeeze, simultaneously lifting your hips and sinking back down on him. He whines at you, eyes rolling to the back of his head as your walls suction around his throbbing cock.

You scoff, lightening your hold around his neck. “I just started fucking you and you’ve already gone stupid.”

“You’re. Acting. Like. A. Virgin.” You grit out, punctuating each word with a hard slam of your hips. Hobie only turns his head to the side, breathing heavily as his cock twitches inside of you. 

You laugh meanly, letting go of his neck. You force his head back to the position it was in before, slapping his cheek before grabbing his neck again. You glare down at him, your hips never slowing as you begin to cut off his air flow. His head is getting fuzzy from the lack of oxygen and from the pleasure coursing through his body, whimpering weakly as he ruts his hips into you. 

“I didn’t tell you to look away.” You scold. “Keep your eyes on me until you cum.”

He nods the best he can, his hands grabbing at your waist and squeezing the skin to help him fuck up into you. You moan, rewarding him by lightening your grip on his neck. He sucks in air greedily, gasping and choking on his moans. You can feel your orgasm fast approaching, making your hips just barely lift as you chase the pleasure. Hobie can feel your walls clench around his cock, causing him to moan and whisper pleas for you to cum around his cock. It sets you off, crying out as you slam your hips down on his one last time before your body twitches with your orgasm. Hobie hisses as he empties soon after, lazily fucking up into you to help the both of your ride out your orgasms. 

You breathe heavily, your eyes closing as your hand falls away from Hobie’s neck. You slowly push yourself off of him, landing beside him on the bed. His head is already turned towards you, a fucked-out look still on his face. You smile at him, turning on your side so you lean on your elbow. Your finger traces his jawline, your thumb dragging down his bottom lip. You give his cheek two quick pats before you push yourself off the bed. 

You grab your panties and pants, pulling them on before grabbing your own tank top and throwing Hobie’s leather jacket over it. You walk to the cracked mirror hanging on Hobie’s wall. You ruffle up your hair, swiping your thumb against the smudge of lipstick near the bottom of your lip as you see Hobie sit up on bed. You turn when you’ve fixed yourself up, walking back to him. You grab him by the chin, pulling him into a deep kiss. He moans against your lips, following after you as you pull away. You push him back onto the bed, walking away and to his door. You turn one last time towards him, giving him a moving wave. 

“Guess you weren’t that much of a loser after all.”

I’d let reader top me.

[bunnwich]

Uh just a heads up, did you read/saw the Leona and you meeting in the novel? I kinda wanna talk about it

Leona and Yuu Meeting in the Novel

ANON ANON. YOU REALLY BROUGHT MY ATTENTION TO SOMETHING W I L D BC I HAD NEVER ACTUALLY READ THE NOVEL VERSION OF THE MC MEETING LEONA???? Also, I was gonna see if the EN translation had been released but it doesn’t in my area until 8/27 so RAAAAAAAAAAAA. OKAY SO LET'S BREAK IT DOWN. (Using @/yuurei20’s wonderful translation) So as we know, in the game and manga Leona comes off as very… aggressive?

He threatens to “rip out our tooth” which, sir???? Like from the first time, I could tell that this was just a “flex” and he absolutely was saying it in a facetious manner. Though in the manga they further escalate it, even going as far to have him going to kick Yuuken.

BUT, HERE???? IMO this interaction is much more indicative of his character as a whole. There is so much more nuance to his intentions here. Protecting his dorm, deescalating, being smart. All the stuff that I’ve been saying from when I started playing twst about him just keeps being proven to me. Also that perhaps Leona, actually doesn't like fighting. These are my main takeaways.

1.) Leona is a well-respected and liked dorm leader who is looking out for his dorm's best interests.

And his dorm mates follow his word like gospel for the most part. I feel like ppl tend to gloss over this bc he is lazy or w/e but the Savanaclaw students mostly love Leona and would do anything for him. 

It’s just nice to see so much of the stuff you get reading between the lines at the forefront here. He’s so much more calm and menacing here than cranky and aggressive and that feels so much more him? Leona’s intimidation IMO doesn’t come from his physical strength per se, it comes from the authority he commands, his demeanor, as well as his magic I’m sure.

-- He is wrapped in a strange atmosphere that attracts the stares of everyone around. Even hidden under his school uniform it is clear he is well-muscled, with a scar over his left eye that lends all the more power to his chiseled face. The fists of the older students froze in mid-air at the command, completely throwing off their momentum. Now, like small animals under the watchful eye of a predator, they shrink away, murmuring, 'Leona-san'. Ignoring the confused Deuce entirely, Leona raises an eyebrow at the formerly brawling group. 'Move up a grade and the first thing you do is start a fight in the street--are you all stupid?' 'But that brat is the one who started it first.' 'Huh. And? Don't like what I have to say, then?' 'Impossible! It's not like that at all.' Leona is dressed down, wearing neither the jacket nor the tie to his school uniform, but he does wear the same yellow vest as the three students who had come so close to exchanging blows with Deuce. All three have become properly obedient in front of their fellow dorm member, Leona. --

2.) HE DID WHAT???

SO in my head I always imagined Leona stepped a bit close and sniffed the air around Yuu/MC but in this version HE SNIFFS THE NECK?? LIKE FULL ON PUTS HIS NOSE TO THE BACK OF YUU’S NECK?? WHAT THE HELL???? THATS SO WILD SIR?? I’M CALLING THE POLICE??? YUUYA ,ARE YOU OKAY??

-- ‘Hey. You.''Y-yes?' Yuuya's response leaves him in a sound that is almost a yelp, because Leona has suddenly drawn close enough to place his beautifully-sculpted nose near to the base of Yuuya's neck.Yuuya breaks out in a cold sweat. Having his neck so exposed is frightening in a way he cannot put into words: he is frozen in fear of Leona tearing out his throat at any moment. --

3.) In this Ruggie CALLED Leona over to help Yuu and Deuce fight off the Savanaclaw goons.

That just gives such a layer to Savanaclaw as a whole, that neither one wanted to see Yuu and Deuce get beat up. Leona continues to show he has a soft spot for his underclassmen perhaps. I do think it mostly was about him protecting his dorm mates and not wanting them to get in trouble bc he knew Yuu was taken in by Crowley, the headmaster.

-- 'My name is Ruggie Bucchi.' Ruggie responds, with a deliberate shake of his whole body. 'And this scary personage is Savanaclaw Dorm Housewarden, Leona Kingscholar-san. We already know you're dumb enough to pick fights with upperclassmen, but even you know you won't be winning against our Housewarden, yeah? Times like this, you gotta side with whoever will benefit you the most.' 'Benefit? They're the ones who started this fight, and now they're trying to run away!' 'My my, aren't you a hot-blooded kitten--and here you should be thanking me. I called Leona over because I saw you were in danger, y'know?'Leona looks to Ruggie. 'Tch. Patronizing bastard. You just wanted to give me more to deal with.' 'Shi-shi-shi. That's our housewarden! Settle brawls in an instant like that, and people will start relying on you.' The three students who had been scuffling with Deuce and Yuuya look down at their feet, snickering; they seem to have cooled off after being chided by Leona. As his position in the dorm would lead one to assume, Leona seems to be well-liked.) (!!!) --

4.) Perhaps, Leona’s Lazy demeanor is just a front to something more.

-- Though he has a languid stare, his narrow pupils send a shiver down Yuuya's spine. Yuuya knows, instinctively, that challenging Leona on their own would be disastrously reckless. --

Anyways its just so funny that I never read this bc I assumed (wrongly) that it was just similar to the other version of this meeting and like…whoa. 

I know it doesn't seem like much of a difference now but when twst was newer and we got less depth to Leona, andhe came off as very one-dimensional guy who was aggressive for aggressive sake and most of my HCs were really were speculation for the most part, and at that time as not many bothered to read between the lines about him.

Yes, he is scary (stop sniffing ppl) but also a bit teasing, but lowkey a caring and good leader. I do think his intimidating persona is two-fold. Like…half is so he can command respect from his dorm mates and it’s needed to be the Savanaclaw dorm leader in the first place. And the other half is a front to hide the softer parts of his personality that he denies at every turn, like being idealistic and a good mentor.

5.)  Leona sort of defends Yuu when the 3 goons make a comment implying that Yuu needs to watch who they tangle with.

-- 'Nothing wrong with having guts, but prepare well enough to know who your opponent is.' 'Hahaha! Yeah, just like the Housewarden says!' 'I'm talking to you three, too.' --

IMO He’s clearly looking out for his Savanclaw member’s well being here but I think he does some inkling of respect for Yuu, whether that bc they are strange or simply bc they are affiliated with Crowley and he doesn't want trouble, either or both is interesting to me. 

(TBH I’m still NOT over the neck sniffing thing.)

I will be interested to see the official EN translation of this scene, so I’ll update ya’ll on that once I see it! I NEED to know if they change any of it. Sorry for the ramble but YES please anon, feel free to talk about it with me! I love to yap, thank you for bringing it to my attention!!

(Thanks again to @/yuurei20 for all the translations for this scene!! Your work is so so appreciated!!)

[bulbabutt]

so im white, lets just get that out of the way, but i wanna talk about the orientalism in windblades design.

this doesnt feel like my place to talk about but if no one brings it up then no ones gonna learn about it or second guess it. im tired of other white people not noticing this problem or thinking its fine. if anyone asian (specifically japanese) has any thoughts or personal input it is SUPER fucking welcome! its hard to find people talking about this.

so transformers has a women problem in general. they set up women in the 80s in one episode and never elaborated on it in that show. they added arcee in the movie. they put a couple in the beast wars era, but outside of blackarachnia (becoming a literal succubus) we dont really get any of those characters adapted (besides arcee) over iterations. never any new ones really.

then the comics get windblade. i havent read the comics, this isnt about anything that happens in them. this is about her design how she comes off as as shes been adapted into cartoons. i wont comment on events from the comics outside of her origin, as i know fuck all about it.

so she was supposedly a fan-voted character, but her 'fan-voted' aspects have nothing to do with the problem (in fact the fan-vote was more of a suggestion because a few things dont end up being true) the voted aspects are as follows:

autobot. jet. fights with swords. red & black. named windblade. female. valiant. telepath. from Kaon.

so here's what that ends up looking like.

so they took some liberties. there was other concepts where she was a european knight etc, but this is where they landed. she has this extremely feminine figure, complete with makeup and sculpted hair. many people immediately mistake this look for a geisha (though supposedly being kabuki) she gets little pump heels, it makes her very human woman shaped. birthing hips and all. thats classic girl robot stuff. its the specifics of it that are an issue.

so thats kind of a lot of japanese motifs. the makeup, the swords, the hair... why does it look like human hair? thats a very specific hairstyle on a character who doesnt have hair...

on its own, having a japanese inspired aesthetic isnt the problem. i mean, coding characters to be from different places is fine. having characters coded as a specific race could be fine. jazz already exists, and despite being taken by racist creators sometimes (cough michael bay cough) its not inherently bad that he is black coded, specifically when in the hands of black creators/voices. thats key.

so having a transformer who landed in japan and took on some culture from there. you could see that happening. that could work if in the hands of people who were japanese.

but thats not even her backstory. shes not even from Kaon (as was voted), instead she's from another planet entirely, a more spiritual one, which narratively makes her alienated from cybertronians. this alienation adds to the problem. "shes not from here." "shes not like us."

you'll see many people look at this design and think "is that geisha transformer?" and as the character isnt from japan and knows nothing about the culture that inspired her, the media itself never corrects anyone. no one in the text goes "no shes not a geisha shes actually based on a kabuki performer", no one says any words about it, its just how she looks, its just aesthetics without explanation or cultural background. shes not literally japanese, she just looks it. its easy to mistake without cultural context from a western perspective, so calling her a geisha becomes a rampant problem. general audiences arent looking at forum posts form 2014 where someone correctly explains what the motifs are. shes made by white people, and white people are largely the ones consuming the media. its unfortunate, and could have been avoided if the culture shes inspired by was relevant to her character.

so she's clearly heavily inspired by japanese aesthetics, which codes her as being an asian woman in this media but written by non japanese people. and then she becomes so popular that she has to start making appearances in shows.

she shows up in robots in disguise first. lets compare her to strongarm (the only other girl in the show)

having this japanese woman be far more thin and feminized than the other girl characters is the problem. strongarm is literally the first non feminized main girl transformer (not counting strika) she is much more in line with the men around her, square and broadshouldered, shes the largest car of the bunch. that was an upgrade finally. and then we get windblade. she has ruby red lipstick, human hair, heels, jewellery. on its own? thats fine. but keep in mind, shes heavily japanese coded already. then shes immediately seen as a romantic conquest for sideswipe (though he never gets anywhere, he literally claims ownership) it leans into tropes of sexualizing asian women because she stands apart from strongarm. shes the flirt, shes the very feminine one. is this on purpose? its not their fault windblade looks like that in the comics and strongarm looks like this. but side by side what is it saying? did they intend to say this about their asian woman? no, probably not intentionally. its kind of unconscious bias that tends to happen when you dont have a diverse writers room. no one notices until it hits the audience.

but lets just jump in here with the other weird problem in RID, because shes not the only one who jumped from the comics.

drift (who while being a samurai in the comics (literal?) doesnt.... LITERALLY wear a suit of samurai armour) shows up. with his two minicons who act as his children (who hes very strict with). theres a heavy overuse of the word honour. he owes a life debt, hes very humourless etc... they also never explain why he wears this armour. he came straight from space. he doesnt even turn into anything big that warrants it, hes just another sports car. bumblebee and sideswipe are sports cars too. but why is drift a sports car? tokyo drifting. drift. you get it.

so drift also is a comics original character. he, however, looks nothing like that

i will assume that drift looks different for one reason....

i mean. i shouldnt have to tell you why that was bad, right? you guys get why michael bay movies are bad? (if you genuinely dont please enjoy this series as a starter) ill just assume you do. knowing that that drift is bad, can we also say windblade is suffering from a similar problem?

this show brings in these FOUR new characters and heres how they look side by side.

so. okay the minicons are raised by drift, they share his aesthetic, okay. we dont know where he got that aesthetic but yeah they share it. windblade.... its unclear in this show if she shares the being from another planet like idw part. shes on a mission from god to be here and thats all we know. but the point is they have no similar origin. yet they all look like they could be from the same place. that they shares a (japanese inspired/coded/stereotyped take your pick) culture. meanwhile our from ep1 mains look like this:

so that feels. specific.

its not inherently bad to code robots as japanese, however its a problem when it seems to be for aesthetics alone. its stereotyping. they look nothing like the rest of the cast, everything like each other, and are from completely different backgrounds. they literally have the same colour palette? theyre not even like that in the comics.

sidenote, if you add sideswipe (who's alt mode has kanji on it and an asian voice actor so we can assume some coding there too) they look like this. yes they all have swords.... no one else does!

yes, windblade is the only character with a white face. makeup. yes sideswipe claims ownership over her to fight off one of the minicons. its not wrong to show windblade being harassed by a man, but it is wrong that no one ever says "leave her alone" you know? like thats just whats to be expected of her. it sucks. but at least her voice actress was asian! that wont happen again.

so. moving on to cyberverse, she becomes a central character. character wise? shes great. she gets to do a lot, no one sexually harasses her here, we're free of that era.

comparing her to the other autobot women, shes more in line now. if thats a good or bad thing overall is less the point (ie theres no autobots built like strongarm was, they are all just as thin and curvy as windblade is) but to me its still very apparent that shes still implying human hair. even with how simplified all these designs are.

like you can see how these red lines around her eyes get lost at a distance, same with the clips in her 'hair'. its clearly just trying to adapt her original design and im not saying thats a wrong choice they made, but i am saying its really busy in comparison

maybe thats a nitpick. but here it seems much more pronounced just how specific her head piece is because we can compare her to chromia, who is from the same place. do these two characters look like they have the same culture? not really. chromia and arcee look more alike. maybe thats just because they were designed later, but its unfortunate none the less.

even comparing her head to the seekers, what she is kind of supposed to be, they get the same old starscream mold. maybe she'd look better if they just did that? or something similar? like, give her a helmet. no one has hair. please stop implying hair. we all know what youre doing.

none of this is me saying i find these shows bad or that i hate windblade, i genuinely love her! and i love both these shows! it just feels hard to love her because of how she was designed. its not a problem with having a japanese coded character, its how stereotyped the look is. how othered it is. it leans into racist tropes. its orientalism, using japanese aesthetics to make her look interesting and different. you can tell she was made by white people.

how is it that despite being around for 10 years now, no ones tried to redesign her?

also look at the toys! look at the god damn toys!

she can take that head piece out to have a FAN. why does she need a fan?? shes got fucking WIND JETS ON HER BACK! its very obvious why they did this. shes a japanese woman, she can fight with a fan to complete the aesthetic! despite her character never having even been there! and no other transformer using a fan weapon! shes so COOL AND DIFFERENT like that isnt she?? holy fucking shit

to go back to those original voted concepts for a second? if we went back to the drawing board?

a telepathic valiant female autobot who can fly, has a red/blue/black colour combo (with yellow accents) uses swords, and maybe even with canonical asian heritage....

could they even do that? is it possible?

...

OH! wait it SUPER IS! who'd have thought!?

im NOT saying "we dont need windblade! we have a better girl with the same concept!" cuz thats stupid. do not misunderstand, theres room for WAYYYY MORE TF GIRLS! the literal 1:13 ratio is FUCKED! i know windblade had to fight to exist too and that sucks!

i just think it's CLEARLY possible to do this better, and it SHOULD be entirely possible to have windblade (who was LITERALLY holding court as the MAIN girl transformer for years) to be, i dont know, not so racistly designed? i think its entirely possible to fix, i just wish they would have tried already.

and this is just what my white ass has thought about since meeting her and not seeing anyone else bring it up. like going hunting for a real take about it just meets you with the rampant misogyny problem in fan spaces. its hard to find people talking about it in a normal way, but if they have before id love to know.

i just wanted to put my thoughts about it down, maybe get people to think about it more or talk about it more. cuz jeez, i would really like them to fix the problem. like they fixed the arcee problem in idw, right? can they fix windblade next?

[count-geiger]

alright guys i got a surprise class cancellation so i can tell yall about the stb dress rehearsal show last night and how it went. this is gonna be a long one grab a drink

no JUICY DEETS if you were expecting that. i am not a leaker and will never be. more like a gushy review than anything

so if you wanna hear about how will wood now knows about my university’s garfield club, feel free to read.

first of all, i can’t actually say much about the content of the show itself. sorry if that’s what you were hoping for but, if you’re going to a show on the tour, YOU WILL THANK ME LATER.

however i can say some stuff

like first of all: it is very much a kind of theatrical performance. no shit sherlock, you may be saying. okay sure but what i mean by that is that it’s not JUST a concert.

it’s very narrative based, that’s the most i’m going to say on it.

additionally, based on stuff ww said after the show while everyone talking feedback and such…

after the tour starts, PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS ON TUMBLR!!! this is the kind of thing you’re going to want to see without any idea going in.

like it’s also very much a comedy show and knowing all the jokes beforehand will kinda ruin it.

so if you wanna post about the show on tumblr after you’ve seen it, maybe like. tag it or something. or put under a cut.

anyways i digress

the show was absolutely fantastic

genuinely the most wonderful i’ve ever seen in my entire life

i laughed my ass off, i cried a little, i thought way too hard about my own life decisions

all the things you’d ever want

it was NOT what i expected it to be. but it was even better than whatever i was expecting

so PLEASE take my word that all of you are going to love it.

okay that train of thought is over anyways

the vending machine at the studio only took ones (LITERALLY FUCK OFF THATS SO DUMB) so i spent most of the show with the driest mouth known to man

i’d had a sprite from said vending machine when i first got there because they also don’t have any water in it (????????) but not even like a whole can it got warm super fast

that’s just a random aside

multiple people complimented both my button down shirt AND the oingo boingo shirt i had underneath

including will’s girlfriend!! who is very pretty and seems very very nice.

she took our phones at the doors and checked our IDs and such and she was fine with the fact that i do not own a piece of ID that confirms my date of birth so that was cool.

the phone pouches we had were handmade by her apparently! they were really cool and she did a great job

anyways

i met will after the show after trying to offer feedback while we were still doing that that and stumbling through my horrific brain fog to say nothing of value because i was terribly sleep deprived!

me and jay (@jayjamjary) went at the same time

now some background.

me and jay are friends IRL, we go to the same college. people who both A. follow me and B. consistently read my ramblings in the tags will know this. but there are like three of those people AND i’m putting tags on this post so yeah

anyways we are both members of the executive board of the (officially recognized) GARFIELD CLUB at our university.

i am dead serious

and because the garfield club’s primary demographic is gay/trans autistic people, there’s a huge population of will wood fans in that club.

so jay brought two excellent drawings he’d made for the club, originally to recruit members, for will to sign.

because we have garfield show and tell contest on wednesday and we wanted to fuckin win

ANYWAYS.

these drawings, by the way, just happened to be of garfield being crucified and of garfield as hatsune miku.

will’s reaction to seeing these drawings was, and i quote, “what the fuck”

his reaction to the existence of the garfield club was, and i quote, “what the fuck”

both like a very amused, bewildered what the fuck.

he then signed them with possibly the greatest thing he’s ever signed ANYTHING and i’ll have to force jay to post them.

anyways

i also showed him a drawing i made for him, because i wanted to make a drawing for him.

he said my drawing was really really cool and he was really happy that i got his nose right because he never sees that

i was SO happy to hear that i was like ready to cry i was scared that drawing sucked

cuz i just did in the course of like a few hours while sitting at a random table in a big room on campus and all that whatever

but like yeah he called his girlfriend over she complimented it too

he signed it!!!

we took a picture and it looked a million times better than the two other pictures i have with him so that’s great

anyways

i’m trying very pointedly to avoid saying anything about the actual show because i want people to be able to go in blind

because *i* did and it was amazing

and i’m so glad that the show i’m going to is going to be super different apparently so i’ll ALSO have no idea what to expect from that

also, for anyone curious, i’m going to asbury park/halloween show november 3rd (and im going as young ford pines, specifically that time in tbob when he was possessed by bill, so if you see that there, that’s me)

anyways

man take shot anytime i say anyways

you’ll be fuckin dead

i had a great night, it was a spectacular show, you’re all gonna love it when you see it

[dreamsy990]

so it all comes to this.

to say i was excited to play 3 would be wrong. actually i was sort of dreading the game. i went in with expectations for the worst and was pleasantly surprised. which is not to say that its good. but its certainly a game! that i played! and now you get my thoughts. unfortunately a lot of my thoughts about the end of the game are kind of hard to separate so. if youre wondering where my thoughts on endgame stuff is. its at the end.

(also i havent played remind so theres no remind thoughts here. its all just base game kh3)

combat (with some other gameplay notes)

so. im not a big fan of the combat. to preface, i played the rest of the series on standard, but with kh3 i was told it was easy so i did proud! and yet it was still the easiest kh game.

kh3 is the first game in the series where i feel as though 'mash x to win' is a valid criticism <- thats not entirely true at the start, but later in the game it does feel a lot like that. almost every fight is mindless because of how easy it is. you can see it in the enemy health bars, theyre absurdly large because of how easy it is to take them down. they need to have that high of health so the fight isnt over in under a minute.

i dont think the base combat is bad. unsatisfying, maybe. But not bad. except for attraction commands.

attraction commands feel like part of a pattern in kh3, where they try to recreate what made the other games so good without understanding WHY it was good. what theyre recreating ofc being reaction commands. technically its the same as some reaction commands, sure, being a giant dramatic attack, but it doesnt work because theres no situational awareness in them.

attraction commands dont feel cool because theres nothing in them that requires use of your surroundings or that is tailored to the enemies youre fighting, since theres only a couple that can be used at any time. there's nothing strategic about using them either- reaction commands normally would give you a specific advantage, or could be used to avoid attacks, only sometimes dealing damage on their own. in kh3, all attractions do is deal damage. they are impersonal and often obtrusive- if youre like me and hate attractions, youll still often accidentally use one, since theres no way to disable them.

this is more abstract than anything, but something about attacking feels unsatisfying. the combat feels like it lacks any real sense of impact or weight to me. but thats all personal and not exactly good criticism so. i digress

also the bosses in 3 suck. you know its bad when the most memorable boss fight in your game is the tutorial. most of the boss fights in this game are so unmemorable that ive literally forgotten them. except of course demon tide. i despise demon tide. it was fine in 0.2 but not here. every time you fight it feels like a missed opportunity for something cooler.

i think flowmotion is worse now. i get that it was a bit too overpowered, but with how much it was limited i ended up hardly using it. i didnt like flowmotion because of the attacks, i liked it because of the movement. so to me, it ended up being a reminder of how kh3 failed instead of a fun feature.

also i know a lot of people like being able to switch keyblades in fights, but honestly i feel like it removes an element of strategy the other games had

the ui (and other visual things)

this isnt something i talked about in my other reviews. but in kh3 i must bring it up. if you follow me you may know my hatred for kh3s ui. so im going to talk about it again! this is the abridged version though. heres my whole rant if you want my full thoughts on it. but the short version is that i dont like it. i am someone with terrible vision and i can play every single kh game without glasses because the ui is just big enough that i can read it. most of the time i can read subtitles too. but in 3? i struggle even WITH glasses to read anything. the ui is too small to make out anything almost all the time. its really only by muscle memory that im able to play. my glasses broke while i was playing, and i literally couldnt play until i got new ones because i couldnt make out a single word on screen. its bad design.

im also upset that there ui art has been replaced with renders. its just a shame honestly. i loved the art in the older games. the renders feel bland in comparison.

and thats generally my take on the look of modern kh. sure its pretty, but its bland. kh has always had a certain cartoonish vibe to it thats starting to die out, and i think the shift to unreal engine was the first marker of that change. i like the look of old kh. its not too technically impressive but its incredibly charming. kh3 is anything but. the characters feel far less expressive, the worlds are realistically rendered, it feels unfitting for a series like kh. its hard for me to find kh3 as charming as the other games. the only word i can think of to really describe it is corporate.

i dont know if this is a rare take, but i think technically impressive visuals are far worse than distinct ones. kh used to have a unique look! now it just looks like every other semi-realistically rendered rpg.

story (featuring: more gameplay notes)

my problem with kh3's story was unavoidable really. dream drop distance set this game up for failure and so im not going to complain about dream drop distance. ANOTHER TIME ill talk about dream drop distance. i dont have time to make a post that long. i do have a lot of problems with the story that werent a result of ddd being terrible so i guess ill just bring up those.

one of my biggest issues with the game is how unimportant the roxas plot is. youre led to believe the game will revolve around it but then sora does nothing to further it. at all. at the start he CONSIDERS doing something, and then hes told by ienzo "no its fine ive got it. go do something else" and its barely ever mentioned again until the end.

this relates to my overarching problem with the plot: it feels aimless. in every kh game theres a REASON theyre going on a journey. soras looking for his friends, roxas is working a 9 to 5, the wayfinders are all following each other, etc. but in kh3 sora is looking for "the power of waking". what is the power of waking? i literally have no clue. thats how poorly defined it is. its an abstract goal, its not tangible or even really achievable. its just a macguffin. when the plot suddenly decides to happen at the end the whole journey feels pointless. you could skip every disney world past twilight town and you would probably be fine. it's not a journey, you're not exploring for a purpose, you're just killing time until other people handle the plot.

i also really hate the new organization (i refuse to call them the real organization. theyll never be the org). theyre painfully boring and poorly put together. the old org had structure, they had very specific goals, every member had a purpose. you knew how they worked and why they did what they did. the new org is just completely lacking in that. calling it an 'organization' is stupid because there's nothing organized about it. and even disregarding all that, the new organization also lacks any real personality. the members feel so boring, which sucks, because almost all of them are returning characters who used to be really fun. and why are most of them even there? no one except maybe xigbar seems to actually care about their mission. the old organization had a common goal and a reason everyone was there. they were nobodies, they wanted their hearts back. there's no reason for any of the new members to stick with xehanort. and if you say "well they were norted!" i then must ask. what exactly is norting? like really. it hasnt been possession since birth by sleep. norting is whatever nomura needs it to be in the moment. its not clearly defined, its just another macguffin.

also because i dont know where to put it, the battle of 10,000 heartless is just a terrible successor to the original fight. there's no stakes, no buildup, no friends fighting by your side, no reason to care. they just throw thousands of heartless with no ai at you. literally no ai, if you stand still they wont attack you. its a drag if anything, an homage to a better game done absolutely no justice.

back to what i was saying about the roxas plot, roxas' return is just such a nothing scene. theres nothing about it thats cathartic, his lines are impersonal and bland, theres nothing 'roxas' about it. roxas' defining feature has always been how emotional he is, and there's none of that here. its nothing. and then he does nothing afterwords. he has seven whole lines in this entire game, six of them are in this scene, and the last one is an inconsequential jab at sora at the very end. and then he fades into the background.

the writing in this game in general is actually weirdly worse than normal. it feels a lot less, idk, human? the older games were weird and absurdly cheesy but this is just. strange. look at the scenes with riku and mickey in the realm of darkness and youll see what i mean.

WHILE IM ON THAT SUBJECT. RIKUS KEYBLADE BREAKING IS BULLSHIT. remind me to rant about that another time though im not gonna go on a tangent about that here

also i would give my thoughts on the ending but i literally couldnt care less about xehanort. so i dont really have any! the final boss was alright though

i have more specific thoughts, but generally, the game feels aimless and underwhelming.

positives

i love axel and kairi! theyre a fun duo and ill never shut up about their parallels so seeing them together is nice. i wish they did anything but thats BESIDES the point im being POSITIVE here

also. the music is great. i love the music sm. its nowhere near my favorite kh soundtrack, it feels a lot more grand which isnt my thing but its still some of yoko shimomuras best work. also hearts as one. its the PERFECT conclusion to roxas' theme and arc. the progression of it from melancholic (roxas) to desperate (the other promise) to triumphant (hearts as one) is just so good. i wish the rest of this scene was as good as the music so i could compliment it more wholeheartedly yknow?

its actually funny also! kh isnt the funniest series, most of the time when it IS funny its completely on accident. but kh3 is like days in the way that it just. actually has funny writing. the jokes intended DO land and its just a breath of fresh air.

oh also riku being well adjusted is the funniest possible conclusion to his character arc. 10/10 im so happy hes normal. never give that boy an emo arc again nomura

conclusion

over all, kh3 is exactly like how my teachers described me in elementary school: it has a lot of potential, but doesnt apply itself. this couldve been a decent game but it simply doesnt do most things very well. i give it a 5.2 / 10. its not an actively bad game but its a game i have trouble enjoying. sidenote im retconning my opinion on bbs to say its 4.7 / 10 because a: my opinions have changed and b: i think 3 is better but i dont want to give it a very high score.

[damianbugs]

Don't we all just love it when EVEN IF A FICWRITER portraits Talia as positive character AND shows Damian's trust and calmness when talking to her (in the fic he's always scared around the others - Bruce, Tim, etc.), people just can't accept it and keep see her as horrible IN THE FIC. Just why?..... 😭Like, we're not even talking about Morrison's canon, we're literally only talking about tHE FIC. READERS, WHY.

sorry, just screaming because you seem to be upset with Talia treatment too.

it is racism and misogyny my friend 😔 fandoms with white male dominated characters tend to be ignornant as a given, but the batfamily fandom specifically has a very big issue when it comes to how brown and black characters are perceived. i'll stick to just talking about talia in this, but it applies to other characters too.

talia gets double the horrible press because not only is she a person of colour, but also a woman of colour. like you said, comic writers (read: GRANT MORRISON) established this horrific characterisation of her and for many years the other stories followed this and it rewrote her entire personality. thankfully, more recent comic writers (read: ram v ❤️) are tackling this and rewriting her already rewritten character — but i am afraid the damage is already done. this is only made worse by the animated movies and shows ALSO adopting this version of talia as their base character.

now when it comes to fics you get two terrible outcomes: people who only know morrisons talia and write her based on those comics, or the more often seen, people who don't read comics but read fics written with morrison talia and assume this is how she has always been. then there's the third more sinister thing of people who Know this characterisation is racist and ooc, but use it anyway because it gives way for them to write whump and angst about one of the sad pathetic white boys.

this creates what you mention about readers who for some reason only accept this HEAVILY CRITICISED characterisation and RETCONNED actions and refuse to see her as anything more than the evil brown lady. especially when it comes to damian fics, she is often written as this caricature of stereotypes in order to highlight how his white american family "saved" him from his abusive uncivilised middle-eastern family. the ignorance and racism is very poorly hidden when you say it how it is.

i give people the benefit of the doubt, because yk, sometimes they honestly don't know the racism and microaggression that was put into her rewrite and they're not aware of who she was before grant morrison got their claws into her. they're just ignornant and not educated on this topic, and thats not their fault.

but once readers and writers ARE aware of this and continue to perpetuate it — then they're just as racist and misogynistic as the rest of them 🤷��‍♀️

[outfoxt]

Affixes, Clitics, and Particles

i think that these parts of language are really cool! so im going to try to explain them :D also i definitely did not get sent down an hours long rabbit hole of linguistic papers and i also definitely didn't find out that the reason i wanted to make this post is actually a misconception :D i love ignoring things :D

Affixes:

the wikipedia article for affixes says that "in linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form."

in hopefully simpler terms, this basically means that an affix is a letter, or a group of letters that form a single sound or syllable, that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form.

some examples of these are the somewhat well known prefix and suffix, but also the beloved infix:

prefix: undone suffix: spotless infix: abso-fucking-lutely

sidenote: my favorite thing about english infixes is that they pretty much only work with expletives. in fact, there's a tom scott video about expletive infixations!

Clitics:

wikipedia defines a clitic as such: "a clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase."

in layman's terms: a clitic is a letter, or a group of letters that form a single sound or syllable, that has the function of a word in a sentence, but depends on another word or phrase based on the sound rules of the language.

a few examples of clitics can be seen in finnish (which also has a great many affixes but we're not talking about those right now):

-ko/kö -han/hän -pa/pä -kin

the spelling of the clitic depends on vowel harmony. if you want to learn more, this dissertation is all about finnish clitics!

you may be asking yourself how to tell the difference between clitics and other parts of speech. well this study has just the thing for you! quite a few tests are suggested by the author of this study if you want to be able to tell if something is a clitic or not, including some of the following:

a phonological test observe how the clitic forms a phonological unit with an independent word. (do not ask me how this one works i dont know) accentual test "clitics are accentually dependent, while full words are accentually independent." put simply, if you can't put stress on it, it's probably a clitic syntactic test a word can stand on its own and be subject to normal word processes such as tense changes while a clitic cannot do this

Particles:

"'Particle' is a cover term for items that do not fit easily into syntactic and semantic generalizations about the language[.]"

read: "particle" is a miscellaneous, catch all term for anything that doesn't fit into the above two categories (or any other word categories like nouns, verbs, etc.)

the author of this study (who i'm going to refer to as Zwicky from now on because it's easier) says that theres no such thing as a particle and that its distinction from affixes, clitics, words, and clauses is unnecessary. i think thats an. interesting take.

anyway even though Zwicky just said theres no such thing as particles (which, how could he do that? theres kids around! we dont want to ruin the magic!) he concedes that there is actually a group of words that are commonly called particles that he agrees are actually particles. but he decides to call them discourse markers instead. because fuck you.

i dont like any of the words that Zwicky included so i made a list of my own:

-ね (ne) eh (canadian english) innit (common transcription of "isn't it", british english)

the funny thing is im coming out of this still not entirely clear on what a particle is. i thought i knew, i did some research, realized i didnt know, and now i'm here. based on how Zwicky puts it, it feels like the category of "particle" exists to accommodate the fact that there might be words* that arent affixes, clitics, words, or clauses but it feels like Zwicky is just being contrary. I should probably have done more research but this post was supposed to be done 24 hours ago.

out of context highlights from my research process: - sanskrit - the panini rule - doch - verbosely long section titles

*i dont actually mean words, i mean a morpheme which is a letter or a group of letters that form the representation of one sound that carries meaning, but i didn't want to make that sentence long and unreadable

if i'm wrong, please tell me! i would appreciate being corrected, i know i am not an expert on this topic in the slightest.

[cdroloisms]

if i had to be accurate i think exile was not at all obsessive or systematic abuse, i genuinely think it was revenge gone wrong wait hear me out. we have proof that the whole cdream is obsessed with ctommy theory wasnt realistic or canon and if we take into account how weirdly cdream sometimes acted in exile with the whole letting tommy have fun with the trident etc we can kinda make paralels to similar stuff irl which is why i always looked at exile as revenge based bullying gone horribly wrong. like cdream really did act like a highschool bully and you know why it comes across like that? because both ctommy and cdream are hella young. a lot of people wanna make it more traumatic more abusive more horrific or gory or whatever but the simplest explanation is often the first one, it was all bullying. and i find it very very weird how people on the other side did not consider bullying bad enough for it to be taken seriously so they had to invent intestine cakes and whatever the fuck else just to consider exile "bad enough" to be taken seriously when bullying is already more than bad enough.

isolating the victim? check. aking them do something against their will? check. lying to them? check. pretending to be their friend? check. making them believe their other friends abandoned them? check check check.

also the way it was done, like really? literally the trope of no one coming to the party and victim sits alone feeling sad? what is this, a cartoon show about the power of friendship??

exile was neither "not a big deal" nor "horror movie levels of abuse" it simply was a sad arc with themes that do hit too close to home for many. the psychological ramifications that came from it? whole nother issue that needs a seperate analysis because yes, bullying victims can and do develop paranoia and some of the other stuff ctommy exhibited but not all like the whole ctommy still being scared of cdream, following him obsessively even months after it was clear cdream wanted nothing to do with him anymore, etc did throw me off because thats not really regular bullying or even abuse victim behavior??? i digress

tldr exile was bad thats a fact but it wasnt SAW movie franchise levels of bad

sorry for the rant, wanted to get my lore thoughts out

tbf exile being 2 weeks of vengeful peer abuse, also known as bullying, is straight up just canon

the "obsession" take that we specifically had issue with had a lot of issues in the way that it very deliberately rewrote c!dream's entire character to explain ALL of his actions through an obsession with c!tommy. specifically, there was a lot of malice ascribed to him LONG before exile in order to say that c!dream basically wanted to do something like exile from the very beginning to c!tommy, but wasn't able to until exile happened because c!wilbur was protecting him or some other shit. that reading relied on the worst possible faith retelling of everything c!dream has ever done + a good amount of just straight up narrative rewriting to emphasize how young and innocent and vulnerable c!tommy is and how obsessive weird creepy stalker grown ass man who wanted c!tommy to himself c!dream apparently was from day one, a take that emphasizes exile as The End Goal of months of obsession instead of being in service to some other goal as is canon. that's the obsession take that was passed around quite frequently that we specifically took a lot of issue with.

on the other hand, c!tommy being c!dream's victim because c!dream disproportionately blames him and took all sorts of shit out on him and found a degree of vindictive pleasure in hurting him is literally just. canon? that's canon.

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 13

welcome the the tenth fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. i was always yours (even before you knew it) by paladarns

Lance thought Keith was just an asshole. Lance has always thought of Keith as an asshole, all throughout traveling into space in a large mechanical lion, all throughout bonding moments. All throughout becoming closer as teammates and friends.

Even now, with his hands pinned above his head and Keith’s thighs straddling his waist, Lance thinks Keith is an asshole.

Lance had always thought he could see right through people, but now he’s starting to think he has a bad judgement of people.

---------- a fic in which keith is obvious and lance is a bit of a gay nervous wreck

takes place as if season 1 is the only season to exist but its now years later

so many things to love about this fic. so so many. so i am going to list them. a) secret relationship bc i love that shit and eat it up every time, b) ‘takes place as if season 1 is the only season to exist but its now years later’ -- paladarns my love thank you for this truly excellent description of where i write my fics like 80% of the time. c) keith has game, and d)  HE WAS ALWAYS KEITHS EVEN BEFORE HE KNEW IT IM SOBBING BEST TROPE BEST TROPE

2. Wake Up, Sleephyhead! by @transbakugou

Keith has never loved someone like he loves Lance. Lance is his sun, his stars, his happiness. Their hands fit together like they were created to do nothing but hold each other, and he fits perfectly inside of Lance's arms. But he can never let anyone find out how much he loves this boy, how wholly and endlessly. Who knows what the Galra would do with that kind of information?

One morning, the lie comes crashing down around them.

Maybe it won't be as bad as they feared.

i love gay whipped klance and truly every single fic that has ever been written based on a vine is truly amazing, this fic is no exception. also secret relationship lol i am a sucker

3. Something Secret by @kingswriting

It was funny at first. Their arguments became more banter than actual disagreements, yet the entire team continued to assume they were at each other’s throats.

And Lance knows they’re not. He is fully aware that every sharp word, every sly smirk, every heavy handed push, and everything in between is anything but malicious.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss the softer side of things.

Or, Lance and Keith are in a secret relationship, but honestly want to omit the 'secret' part.

okay u can always tell what tag im following obsessively at certain times lol. for yall i present yet another secret relationship fic. ahem. this one is cute! banter and flirting and misleading and kisses and GOD its so sweet

4. Things Held Sacred by yarrie

So maybe, just maybe, Pidge was right. Maybe, just maybe, Keith had shot himself in the foot with his first attempt at resolving the blanket-hogging situation, because now Lance seemed to think it was a game and the rules were: steal the blankets, get sex.

To be fair, Keith hadn't exactly been...dissuading him very well.

okay so heres how this works. every fic rec friday so far has been from a specific collection of mine called ‘rereadables’, which was literally started because of this fic. i dont even know what specific part of this fic gets to me so hard, but you know when you read something that makes your stomach go all swoopy? and you can’t stop smiling? thats this fic! i remember i finished it for the first time and then i scrolled right back up to the top and read it again, then again, and again. like i cannot get over this fic. it gives me butterflies every time

5. Communication is key, they say by @ellana17

They already had communication issues before… Or: a malfunction with a healing pod leaves Lance able to speak only Spanish for a few days.

the idea of lance getting stuck in spanish and then almost immediately using that to flirt with keith without him knowing. like. i love that SO much that is quite possibly one of the funniest concepts to exist

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[hotandnonbinary]

An analysis/character study of Buck and his relationships through the lens of Echo and Narcissus.

I have spent literally 3 days writing this overly complicated, rambly explanation of how my two hyperfixations fit together so take that as you will...

This is egregiously long (~3,000 words) so if thats what makes you not read it i completely understand

If you do, I sincerely hope you enjoy my labor of love analysis of my favorite freak buck buckley 💖

The Story of Echo

Echo was a nymph who resided near a mountain that was frequented by Zeus when he did typical zeus things and cheated on his wife, hera at every given opportunity. Zeus only cared for the other nymphs and ordered echo to distract hera when she followed him to the mountain and so echo did so, charming hera with her voice and distracted her as zeus continued his escapades. when hera realized what had been done she cursed echo to only repeat the words that were said to her, never to be her own person again, doomed to merely reflect others onto themselves.

"I shall give you less power over that tongue by which I have been deluded, and the briefest ability to speak" (Ovid's Metamorphoses Book III)

The Parallel

The not immediately obvious parallel I'm drawing here is that Zeus is actually Daniel and Hera is the Buckley parents. Daniel obviously wasnt running around having sex with random women, but he was going somewhere his parents, Hera, couldn't follow. Even as they constantly pursued after him and attempted to bring him to a place where they could keep him safe and hover over him, they couldnt actually stop his leukemia. Buck, just as Echo was, is seen as a distraction from this pursuit after Daniel, even if it isnt anything of his own doing. They don't actually want another child to look after and care for, they want what they already have and that is being taken away from them. Buck, in the same sense as Echo, was supposed to be a tool to solve the issue. Hera would find Zeus by conversing with the nymphs and Buck would save Daniel by being born as a savior baby. Neither solution worked, and both Hera and the Buckleys were instead left scrambling, not actually getting what they wanted, leaving them to lash out against what was supposed to be the solution. Buck's "curse" then (I hesitate to use the word 'curse' here because as a bpd buck truther i dislike the idea of calling a disorder something your parents 'cursed' you with) is the same as Echo's, an inability to determing and express his personhood on his own, instead needed another person to reflect off of, to become their echo. He waits until he is told, or inferences, what he is supposed to be doing and who he is supposed to be for another person and then he changes to do and become exactly what they want or he thinks they need. They are his source of personhood and how he determines his actions, evidenced largely by his "software upgrades" but also present in many other changes he likely isnt aware of himself but we can determine as viewers, such as:

Evan, the hurt child to dote upon. creating a new behavior that has him being seen as Daniel as it is the only way he can get the attention he needs.

"We live with the reminder every day, staring us in the face!" (4x05: Buck Begins)

Firehose, the man who sleeps with any and every woman he can. yet again the way to gets attention and determines who he is, never getting to know people as he only gets the attention if he doesn't.

"You're cute, and very good at whatever it is we just did, but let's not ruin everything by actually getting to know each other." (1x01: Pilot)

Buck, the firefighter who saves people. Basing his entire life and personality around how he can help other people, never actually looking to see what he might want from life past that, unable to accept that he can do something else and still be a person.

"No, being a firefighter is my life!" (2x18: This Life we Choose)

Other examples include (but this is so long and everyone knows this already):

following connor to california from peru

being a sperm donor for connor and kameron

dating natalia after he died in the lightning strike

dating tommy after figuring out he likes men

other things im definitely forgetting

The Story of Narcissus / The Meeting of Echo

Narcissus is born beautiful, but his parents worry that because of this, he will not live a long and happy life. So, they go to a seer to receive a prophecy about their newborn baby

"Being consulted as to whether the child would live a long life, to a ripe old age, the seer with prophetic vision replied ‘If he does not discover himself’." (Ovid's Metamorphoses Book III)

As he grew up, many began to desire him due to his immense beauty, none could look at him unaffected by desire. But, full of pride at his own beauty that no others affected him, he would never be moved by the visage of another.

The nymph Echo saw Narcissus one day in the woods, long after she had been cursed. When she saw him she was struck by his beauty, just as all others had been. She desired him, just as oil burns when exposed to flame, and just as easily as it ignites. She who could not speak first, but could not stay silent when others spoke to her had fallen in love with a man who only saw himself. Oh how she wished to get closer to the man she admired, to introduce herself and talk to him as easily as his band of admirers did, but:

"Her nature denies it, and will not let her begin, but she is ready for what it will allow her to do, to wait for sounds, to which she can return words."

She had to wait and watch, patiently listening to what he would say, so she could use his own words to communicate. Once, when he was separated from his other admirers, she took her chance when he asked if there was anyone here. She replied with his own word 'Here.' And upon him saying let us meet together she cries 'Together' and rushes to embrace him. But when she does so he cries out in alarm, no longer is she his voice repeating back to him but her own visage touching his body 'May I die before what's mine is yours!' as all she repeats is 'What's mine is yours...'

In the shame of her rejection she wanders the woods alone, living her life hiding among the leaves and in caves. As her love endures in her solitude, her sadness only continues to compound upon itself. As her sleepless thoughts rush through her she cannot express them aloud, only existing in her love for Narcissus through his love for himself. Her body wastes away as only her bones remain, turning into the stones of the caves she had hidden herself away in. Yet she remains without a body, in the sounds and voices she Echoes. The sound that lives within her only accessible by the sound of others. Heard by everyone and yet understood only as the words of themselves, never truly accepted as she is.

The Parallel

(Disclaimer: i am NOT calling all of buck's love interests narcissistic but i AM comparing them to Narcissus' role in Echo's story)

the prophecy of Narcissus in this case does not represent how long the LIs themselves will live, but how long their relationship with Buck will last instead. the relationship will last "as long as they do not discover themselves" or in other iterations of the story "as long as they do not wish to know themselves." In all of Buck's relationships he becomes someone he isn't to try to reflect what his partner wants. For this reason he also is never the one to choose someone. He can want someone but "his nature denies him, and does not let him begin" but "he waits for expectations, so that he can return actions in turn."

With Abby, he has to be someone she can rely on, but also a fun distraction from her mother dying. The relationship ends when her mother dies and she decides she wants more, that she can't live surrounded with the reminder of her dead mother and how Abby herself gave up her chance at living. As Buck was merely a reflection of what she wanted in that time, she had moved past needing him and wanted to discover herself. She couldnt live with the reflection of who she used to be in her journey to discover herself. Yet still he clings to her after she leaves, letting his love for her destroy his life until there is nothing left of him but his love for her, wasting away in her apartment. It isnt until he meets Eddie that he truly breaks out of this, gaining his body back to rejoin the voice that was left.

For Ali, buck saved her life. He was a heroic firefighter who helped her on the worst day of her life in a time she felt unsteady and unstable. Buck then reflected what she needed, and what she saw in him. He was an indestructible firefighter and that was just about it. But when he goes through his own traumas and dangerous situations, she is faced with a Buck she has never seen before. No longer is he this perfect man, he is just as human and prone to getting hurt as she is. When the ladder truck falls on his leg, she watches as he experiences exactly what she went through on the worst day of her life. And she can't live with her own reflection. She didnt realize she was leaning on him in such a way until the illusion was broken, and then she couldnt handle it. She leaves him after he shows that he isnt this perfect picture she built up in her head. In this case, it isnt Ali herself that he gets caught up on. Its the reason she left, the ladder truck bombing and how its stopping him from being a firefighter. He still wants to be the perfect indestructible firefighter she thought he was, no injury is going to keep him from doing his job because his job 'is his life'. He needs to cling onto it as hard as he can, because there simply isn't a Buck left without knowing exactly what role he has to fit into, and the role of self-sacrificing firefighter is one he has filled perfectly for a long time. As he said to his parents:

"I have walked through fire every day of my life!"

In Taylor's case, Buck is actually different things for her. They start out as purely people who have sex, and he understands that. He doesn't put himself high on her priority list and doesnt think he's all that important for her. He's okay with just being fun for her. But when they get into an actual relationship, then he starts seeing himself as being the perfect boyfriend for her. Someone who can de-stress her from her job. This is likely due to, yet again, meeting her by saving her life. He saved her from danger one time and so he expects that he can keep saving her, even if he wants to save her from herself. He thinks that if he is a good enough caricature of a boyfriend, then he'll start getting the highest priority on her list. This isn't to say Taylor didnt care for him or didnt love him, she did. She just knew she prioritized her job over her boyfriend but this didnt make sense for Buck, even as he really did that with Ali. he thinks that she'll change for him as easily as he is for her, or that even if she didnt. He "thought he could learn to live with" it. he was in this case almost reflecting what he saw as her apathy. If she didnt change he could just ignore it in order to keep getting the benefits from the relationship, as he thought she was doing likely due to the beginning of their relationship. Taylor saw that he was apathetic toward their relationship and only forcing himself to go through with it, which is a dramatic and overly exaggerated version of what she was doing. She merely had her priorities in order, self success over bowing down to a potential relationship (as she should), which could be seen as forcing yourself into a relationship if youre not giving it one hundred percent. She saw a perverted reflection of her own feelings and decided she didnt want to become that, or even deal with the man who trapped her in his apartment after saying he loved her.

Natalia, in contrast to Taylor, similarly to her character overall is really boring and obvious. Also, there really isnt much to analyze about her behavior (since she doesnt even have any). Buck died in the lightning strike and shes a death doula. She thought it was cool that he died but wasnt still dead. It was fascinating to her as someone who deals with death all the time. This, in turn, made buck also act like his death was almost a joke, an interesting fact or story to tell about himself. He acts as if it didnt lead to a coma dream which made him completely rethink his self worth (kind of? he doesnt really seem to believe this). Along with the fact that his friends (family) also witnessed this and had to deal with the fallout and mental struggle of seeing him die. I have nothing to speak on regarding her seeing him as a reflection of herself as she basically isnt a character (better than mirabel marisol).

Tommy is actually an interesting case here. Buck's first relationship with a man, the one who made him realize he was interested in men in fact. But this fact is also the downfall of their relationship. Buck entirely defined himself through this relationship. He didnt have to think about his sexuality past the fact that he was interested in Tommy and dating him, that was the answer to any potential question he could have about himself. Anything about the relationship was just written off as 'oh im into guys now' even if they didnt really have a connection or anything in common. Tommy saw him as someone into guys and so thats all buck became. This is partially due to the bad writing of season 7 that was buck kissed him and thats all that happened with him being bi but it does lead to some fun analysis. Tommy himself likely saw this in Buck "I'm your first, not your last" and all that. He saw that buck was just putting himself through the steps of the relationship just because he liked guys, and thats what tommy wanted to avoid. He did like dating Buck but he knew that bucks priorities were in other places (eddie) and wanted to avoid his own heartbreak. He likely knew this from the start "My attention?" anyone? but he wanted to date someone, so he put himself through it, which led to buck doing the same thing. And so when buck is faced with adversity "Do you love him?" he tries to cling and ask tommy to move in because he doesnt know who he is without this relationship. he hasnt looked inwards and tried to look at how this revelation has affected him, he was again merely defined by someone else and their thoughts of him.

Buck's relationships all have this pattern in common, he reflects whatever his partner is or wants and when they see that he is just like them and not whatever they thought he was, they leave. They focus on themselves in a way to avoid being the reflection they are seeing that was a version of themselves. A truth they wanted to avoid. Not once has Buck initiated a relationship under his own power where he is his own person, devoid of any expectations or preconceived notions of what he should be.

So, What?

This is all to say he hasnt had a relationship like this with anyone except for Eddie. 2x01 has buck acting like he thinks he should. Hes bratty, hes mean, hes posturing because he thinks he has to act like the tougher man to keep his position in the firehouse. He goes into this with what he thinks eddie is going to be like. The overly competent, overly handsome man is obviously going to hate him and try to posture, so he preemptively Echoes that. But eddie shatters these expectations.

"You're a badass under pressure, brother... You could have my back any day." (2x01: Under Pressure)

All the posturing, kicking him out, and replacing him expectations broken in one simple conversation rooted in one compliment. Eddie doesn't think he's better than buck, he isn't replacing him, hes simply an addition to the already existing status quo. Calling him a badass, saying they can work together, calling him brother. It is so against everything he expected that he genuinely cant Echo anything because he no longer has anything to go off of, all he can be is Buck. This is seen with how he opens up so quickly to Eddie and how quickly it is reciprocated. Buck is accepted as himself, for just being him, and that is something he has rarely gotten to experience and so he revels in it, brings it to the farthest it can go. They know each other so deeply, they cant hide from each other. One sentence, one look, even just being around each other, they open up about the truths they're hiding from anyone else. They don't have to separate to explore themselves, they do it together. They're not afraid of reflecting the worst parts of each other because how can those parts be the worst if they are a part of someone they love? There is no one else Buck can reasonably have this deep of a connection with or an easy surefire way he can solve his issue of reflecting onto others in the way that he does. He needs this connection, this mutual understanding of 'You're never too much for me, come as you are.' 'This goes beyond friendship, I love you to the core.' Buck isnt just pieces of himself, he isnt just the voice in his bones (HOW DID I MISS THIS WITH THE DANIEL THING? LITERALLY HAS SOMETHING SPECIAL IN HIS BONES LMAO) he is all of himself, sound, voice, bones, and body. He is seen as he is and is loved for it, something no one else has bothered to even try to give him.

Buck needs to be the one to reach out in the safe space that has been created for him to be himself. I truly believe that for buddie canon to be done well it needs to start with buck (eddie wouldnt think he deserves it but thats a different post) to finally break his cycle of settling and changing who he is for other people.

[silentstaresfanficandfanart]

Hello hi good definitely night!

I just finished reading Halcyon and WOOO that was awesome! (Also I get the spino discourse now heheee).

I however noticed an issue: there isn't enough words. I wanted to keep reading. I want to keep reading of these guys. Where can I read more of Darling and Hare (and Hearts and Diamonds and Tiger and Wolf and *proceeds to name every character*)????

GOOD DEFINITELY NIGHT HELLO AND HOWDY TO YOU TOO!!!

WOO!!! im SO SO SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT pBTTHPPTH i hope the spinosaurus was to your taste <3 i know he was to lovettas- Hehehe- and OHO? is that so! my my well good news i do plan at least one big update to the fic near the beginning where you can get FAR more interactions with all the suits as Ciero sets up his little squad AND that means more interactions with several of the characters and I also plan a special scene with Acianne but im not sure yet on that one! As for where can you read more~ Ill have to work on that! I plan to make more books, but if you want more lore and info and stuff like that you can look through my blog on the Halcyon tag, and if you follow them youll probably see my other account thats specifically for Halcyon which has a lot of the early concept art and stuff in it! Which means MORE THEM!!!! Untill then though youll either have to make your own or wait~ sadly- heheh- though a friend of mine is working on a halcyon fic- we'll have to look forward to that! I hope you look forward to more Halcy- OH THATS RIGHT I DO HAVE SOMETHING YOU MIGHT LIKE I have a LOT of notes from the development of Halcyon and id be happy to share some fun neat changes that happened over the course of the books development!

Originally Acianne was a boy, but i decided I wanted to have more female characters 2. Heartbreaker had a perfectly good family wife, he only became like this after his wife died trying to save him from a superhero while he was on the job, she was a hero herself, and originally had love based powers, these were passed onto him and strengthened by her spirits love for him, and they were also passed onto Ciero! 3. Heartbreaker had a thing for Aciannes mother as she was very kind and polite to him and reminded him of his late wife, but understandably she had no interest in the man-

4. Cendre's conflict with his parents has been going on MUCH longer than he ever admits in the story and that's why during the spinosaurus thing he was glad he could blame those bruises on the spino 5. Hearts actually used to work at a zoo and was a very important figure in hyena conservation and they've always been his favorite animal! 6. The reason the younger siblings are a bunny, a kitten, and a puppy respectively, is because they're meant to represent the idea of "a future where things are more peaceful and calm" to contrast with their older siblings who are "the hare" (though shes actually just a bunny like her little brother- a tiger and a wolf!

7. Originally Cendre was going to get his powers saving a girl on a merry-go-round that caught on fire in a mall, and the girl he saved became a dear friend of his who went on to get into a fistfight with his parents in the hospital and she had to flee to not get arrested and she was the first person acianne didint kill for comitting a crime in front of her originally 8. Originally Ciero was actually an Ensemble stars oc and he wasn't supposed to go into halcyon at all but i loved his design so much i replaced the oc with another guy and made Ciero his own character : ) 9. Originally Acianne was the only main character, Ciero straight up just took over the entire story honestly, and im glad he did, he really was the heart of it- hehe- pun intended

10. Diamonds sibling group comprises of elemental vibes, her being earth, and her brothers being water, fire, and air. It was the fire sibling that died, and the only one i havent drawn a design for is air! He was killed by acianne while he was frankly, on an utter rampage, he's always had a LOT more energy and a lot less empathy than his siblings and Diamonds always was worried he was going to die.

11. Ciero has been banned from at least one craft store for "musical antics" and "unconsensually ballroom dancing with a mannequin" And one person was so angry about it they called the cops about it, Acianne wound up showing up instead because she listens to police radio calls and she had to drag him out by the ear for his poor behavior. He learned nothing from this incident.

[changbinsboobs]

i hope you recognize with your last post you are actively promoting homphobia, and harming and making queer stays feel unsafe in an environment thats supposed to be everyone's safe space and escape. you CANNOT presume someone's feelings towards queer people and you especially cannot speculate someone's sexuality (like you did with your "readings" for felix minho and jisung) through TAROT. BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW THEM. your post is extremely harmful, you are perpetuating narratives of perversion and exposing queer stays like myself to hate in a space that should be safe for everyone. and the delusion you have to believe changbin is "talking" to you.... disrespectfully, get some help! and delete your post - and your entire blog - while you're at it!

Idk if this is the same person from the last comment or not, but i assume so.

I do not think my last post is promoting homophobia nor do i think it is my responsibility to coddle every other person on the internet. You have responsibility over your own self, what you consume and how you react/let it affect you.

And i don't think you have the slightest idea what tarot is and what its used for because, thats exactly what its used for. U use tarot on people, situations, yourself etc you don't know about so that you gain more clarity about it.

And you saying my post is exposing queer stays like yourself to hate is just insane😂 ur acting as if the worlds all flowers and butterflies and im the only person that out of my own will is actively spreading hate towards queer stays?! Are you hearing yourself?🫣🫠 Ur the one exposing yourself and projecting right now! And by the way - the internet is NOT A SAFE SPACE!!!! Not for me, not for you, not for anyone. You are not entitled to anything. No one is! And just some friendly advice - you can't expect and demand from people to accustom themselves to your needs - you'll just frustrate yourself. And you also can't speak for everyone. Someone has requested this reading because they were curious (might've even been you who knows). I did it because that's what my blog is about. And i state in all of my readings to take them with a grain of salt and that you shouldn't take them as facts! My content is lighthearted and based predominantly on interactions with my followers. So, respectfully, i will not be deleting the post just because you demanded, i will not delete my blog either and i advise you to get some help because you obviously need it:)

Oh also i just noticed - you've been following my readings for a while to know so much about me and my readings. If you think im so delusional, and project so much, and that my reading are harmful and whatnot - then why do you continue reading them?😂 i literary cannot comprehend your logic, cuz when i don't like something or someone i simply just distance myself :) u should try that too💗

[ask-ikevamp-charles]

NSFW content rules/boundaries

< This potentially may never be used if no one ends up sending something that falls under this BUT it’s important it’s here just in case. Better to be safe than sorry 😊 >

[ This is a role play blog so role playing is allowed. If there’s something specific you’d like to act out, please talk to me and I will do it if I’m comfortable. I am 21+ so NSFW with limitations is allowed. 

Sexual topics: flirting and suggestive questions/comments are okay. Sexual questions/comments can also be educational/informative, I’m very comfortable with the topic in such discussions. ]

These ^ NSFW rules can be found on the original rules of this blog. Here I will explain more in detail what it means. I decided to put the rules/boundaries in question form because it seemed easier to make things clear. Will be adjusted if needed.

Is the admin really that comfortable with NSFW based content?

Yes, I did an entire semester project on it for one of my college classes (public speaking) 😂 The professor said if we could make the topic fit the project prompt and rules, we could use basically any topic. Had to run it by him, I got approved and BAM! It was all so interesting that I continue to research these things in my free time. Also, I enjoy reading erotica, it’s fun 😂

What falls under NSFW interaction?

Any exchange where you insert yourself into an explicit sexual question/prompt. 

Ex: An exchange discussing how you’d like the character to do something sexual with you or vice versa.

Ex: If you have built your own story with the character through exchanges and you want to add sexual topics.

How explicit can the roleplay get? 

At the moment, I think I’ll stick to writing as explicitly as Cybird does for their spicy scenes. If there are any changes I’ll update here. 

I have a role-play idea I want to act out with Charles, how can I set that up? (Both anon & non-anon)

Simple, DM me and tell me what you're thinking. If I feel I can create a good scene and I'm comfortable with what you're suggesting, we can set it up. 

How do I know if something I said made the admin uncomfortable?

Easy, I’ll tell you immediately. 

Something the admin said in my response pushed past my limits, what do I do? 

Easy, tell me immediately. Don’t just ignore my response. I can’t understand or correct the situation or apologize if you don’t communicate with me. With ALL sexual topics, in ANY situation, communication is important. I always try my best to word things as best I can while not crossing boundaries while also being in character, I can mess up sometimes, so please just be honest and tell me 😊. That being said, if you want to engage in prompt role play, you need to clearly tell me your hard limits in DM.

Can I simply ask Charles if he’s interested in something without age verification? 

Yes. You will receive a simple yes or no based response, nothing more specific. 

Ex: Charles, would you be interested in having sex with a guy? - Yes! I’m open to it 😊

Can I ask Charles about his thoughts on certain kinks/philias without age verification?

No.   

While sex ed is taught in middle/high school, it's not ever anything related to kinks. It's usually safe sex basics and reproduction stuff (at least thats what I remember). 

Can I send flirty/suggestive things without age verification? 

Yes. If I deem something is pushing this rule to its limit, my response will serve to tone down the question. 

Requirement for NSFW interaction if you are sending an anonymous ask: 

Use something to identify yourself to sign off your ask (emoji, letter, random word)

DM me so I can see age (18+👍🏻 , specific age is not needed) make sure to include the sign off used in your ask so I know which one is yours.

You can remain publicly anonymous but it’s important I am able to verify that you’re an adult. If you’re a minor and you interact with the blog despite the clear MDNI, that’s on you and your lack of responsibility. I apologize if this comes off rude but I’m following the age rating of the games themselves. These games have explicit age ratings; because of lots of different topics btw, not just sexual.

Don’t take the character response as a sex ed lesson; always inform yourself on whatever you’re curious about. Talk to experts or experienced individuals and do your own research, if you’re a curious minor talk to trusted adults.

If you don’t use the anonymous feature then none of this applies to you, feel free to ask/comment/prompt whatever you’re comfortable with. 

Here are some examples of kinks I’m comfortable with. I can’t realistically list off every single kink so if you’re curious about a specific philia/kink just send in an ask or DM me about it and I’ll tell you if I’m comfortable:

👍🏻 Kinks  

Blindfold Sex

Exhibitionism/Voyeurism 

Breath Play

Sadism/Masochism 

Humiliation/Degradation/Praise Kink 

Role Play (I know it’s a role play blog but this category means professor/college student, doctor/nurse, boss/assistant etc.)

 Temperature Play 

👎🏻 Kinks (I won’t write for these either because I’m not on board with it or because I don’t have enough writing experience with it)

Anilingus  

Anal sex 

Cuckolding 

Foot Fetish 

Tentacles 

Golden showers 

I understand it's a lot of rules to keep in mind and some might feel uncomfortable DMing me because they don't want to reveal their account. However, these rules are meant to help keep things as safe as possible online. All DMs are completely confidential. 

If you’re still unsure about something regarding this please don’t hesitate to DM me or send an ask. I tried to think of the most important points but it’s possible I missed something.

Thank you 🌙

[sharpth1ng]

hey again!! thank you for answering my ask, and for the clarification! i figured you probably had it all sorted out because you're a grown adult and seem to know your stuff but i still said something anyways just in case haha

i should have been more clear with my original ask but i myself still find all this stuff quite confusing so thats my bad sorry 😞 basically it has nothing to do with the labour of printing or if the company publishes it or not, it’s because fan fiction is already grey area, it’s ok when no one is making money off it. as soon as at any point someone makes any money off it, like these printing companies, or commissioning someone on etsy, or even just going somewhere local to get the pages printed, it now becomes illegal - fanworks infringe on the creator's intellectual property and you need a licencing agreement if it's not public domain etc blah blah blah you get it lol

as soon as the word "pay" comes in, it's illegal - you can't pay for anything, even if you are the one that wrote the fanfic (which fucking sucks). but your merch and stuff is completely fine because the references are based on your original writing, like theyre not gonna be like "how dare you sell this tshirt with a bloody B on it thats illegal!!" bcs that whole thing is entirely unique to your work and has no ties to the original property 👍

but thats just my understanding of it, and the specifications of it can get really confusing!! same thing happens with fanart too, technically you aren't allowed to sell fanart - that's why people often only sell it irl at cons to avoid copyright strikes. but then again there is people selling fanart on redbubble and in fanzines etc so like, i honestly don't know how that side of it works as well?? i think its under a different law since it’s a transformative work maybe...??

its all very confusing i wish clarification was more clear 😭 but you sound like you've looked into it and know what you're doing so thats fantastic, and i'm glad to hear. thank you again for answering so quickly i dont mean to be a bother. ur a talented writer and i loved debaser, keep it up 😊

Yeah no problem! I do appreciate the effort to give a heads up. And like to be fair I’ve done my research but I’m not a copyright lawyer or a legal scholar and the law on this stuff is very confusing to me.

In terms of the fanart stuff my understanding is that it is illegal to sell but for the most part fan Artist are too small for copyright holders to go after, it’s just not really a thing that’s done for the most part. There’s even a number of situations where selling fanart led to those artists being directly employed by the copyright holders. I think it’s very rare for fan artists to get sued for copy right and the only examples I know of are from Disney.

For the most part fanart sold is illegal, but it’s similar to torrenting content where its not really enforced so people do it anyways, and often at a pretty large scale. The stuff on red bubble and in fanzines is also illegal as far as I know, it doesn’t count as transformative.

Honestly I think it’s very unlikely that anyone printing my work would get targeted like that, mostly because this fandom is small and I’m even smaller. I only have a little over 1000 followers here and while that’s more followers than I’ve ever had before in my life it’s pretty much microscopic on the internet. Beyond that there’s less than a handful of printed copies as far as I’m aware.

Honeslty I have a lot of issues with copyright law- obviously it needs to apply to things like generative AI which is essentially a very environmentally damaging collage machine, but in terms of fanart and fanfiction I really don’t see how it could be construed as taking away profit from copyright holders.

People for the most part only read my work because they were already into scream, and a number of people have even told me my work got them to watch scream so if anything I’ve created profit for them. Fandom is the reason these original works have the legacy they do, and fanworks are a massive part of that because you can only consume the original content so many times before you get bored.

Beyond that we wouldn’t have some of our most highly acclaimed cultural works if copyright law had existed hundreds of years ago. Like, Shakespeare would have been fucked.

Alright lmao rant over. Tl;dr I’m doing my best to do this all in a legal way, but it’s good for folks to be aware that there may be an issue with the legality of printing my work even if they aren’t paying me. I think it’s unlikely any of you will face repercussions because this fandom is miniscule but if you’re worried maybe don’t post on Tumblr- but feel free to dm me or post in my discord 👍

[mudstoneabyss]

can you make a list of your top indie horror game recs ::3

yeah! so these wont be in order of what i like the most, they're just going to be here in whatever order I think of them. i'm also trying to go with what I think are more lesser-known ones, and if one is more popular it'll because I think it's one people write off that are actually good. as i'm writing this i'm going back up to say the descriptions for these will become less detailed because i got tired and cant keep repeating the art!! the atmosphere!!

Scarlet Hollow: A heavily choice-based horror mystery visual novel about going back to Scarlet Hollow- a small town in south historically ran by your family- for the funeral of your late aunt. its episodic and there are currently only 4 of the 7 episodes out. even with just them it is my favorite game. I love the writing and the art and the whole atmosphere of the game AND the soundtrack brought Brandon Boone (the composer) into my top 5 artists in my spotify wrapped last year

Slay the Princess: Another choice-based horror visual novel (and dating sim!) by the creators of Scarlet Hollow where you are tasked with, well, slaying the princess to prevent the destruction of the entire world. It's only a demo right now-releasing q3 of this year- but I'm excited for the whole game! my selling point for it with my followers is that the narrator (and some other characters) are voiced by Jonny Sims and hey podcast fans you like him check out this game

Endacopia: A click and point horror game inspired by Humongous Entertainment games such as Pajama Sam. Currently also a demo and set to release in October of 2024, I can not emphasize enough how excited I am for it. The game's style is so fun and there's lots of little details and the music??? There's two musical numbers in the demo alone. Some of the style and writing also reminds me of Undertale and even Homestuck somewhat (I say as someone who hasn't read homestuck)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity: This is an 8-bit style horror game inspired by the 1980s Satanic Scare coming in 3 chapters with multiple endings, a very good example of games not needing high-end realistic graphics to be scary

Doki Doki Literature Club: Glances at my icon. who could've seen this one coming. I feel like most people know about ddlc by now, even if they don't know anything past "horror anime dating sim". It starts off for a long while a seemingly normal, if bland, visual novel dating sim until-seemingly suddenly- twisting into psychological horror. There's, however, a lot of foreshadowing once you see the beginning again after knowing what will happen. Honestly I think this games brilliant and its such a shame it somehow got lumped in with "cringe" mascot horror (its not even a mascot horror game?). For me a lot of the horror comes from the amount of scares left up to a random percentage- and how subtle a lot of them are. You can replay it and have a fairly different experience than you did the first time- and be scared by completely new things. There's also this existential and cosmic horror element that is less one you experience while playing it, i think, and more thinking about it afterwards. This isn't even touching on a lot of the secrets and easter eggs. a few years after the original game came out, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus was released, and it leaves the og game experience essentially untouched while adding a new vn experience the length of the og game (thats seemingly horror-less) as well as some more lore to the world, not of the game, but around the game, and builds more on the existential/cosmic horror. Needless to say from the length of this, I adore this game. also take the content warnings seriously, in the (free) og the game opens with warnings and a link to a page with specific tws, and in ddlc+ you are given the options to see those warnings listed before starting the game, as well as the ability to turn on tw pop-ups before game events

Home Safety Hotline: Also currently a demo, a horror game where you work for a home safety hotline, answering calls to help people deal with pests and other household problems. as the game progresses you get some more... off-putting calls and access to more unusual problems. I love games that put you into the role of someone who works a mundane job dealing with horrifying shit (similar reasoning to why I like the I'm On Observation Duty games, which I think are more popular rn than I want to put on this list)

NiGHT SIGNAL: By the same creator of Home Safety Hotline, this one's a short one about getting a new tv set and finding some strange channels during the night, inspired by The Twilight Zone and a 1995 game, The Dark Eye. A lot of the art in the game is done with clay which creates this really nice uncanny look and atmosphere- details about which you can see in an artbook you unlock after playing the game, which is REALLY cool I adore seeing the creativity behind and what goes into games like these.

and there's a bunch more I like, these are just the ones off the top of my head and I also dont feel like typing a bunch more dfnafnsk I'll also say if yall haves one you really like that I havent mentioned feel free to send an ask talking about them