#i like looking at what other parts of the fandom thing ya know. its interesting and may make me realize somthing i didnt before!

[tomeebear04]

alot of people portray tord as some insane sociopath who doesn’t care about anyone and its particularly heightened in wtfuture content,that being said i personally dont mind these headcanons when i was younger i was totally in favor of tord being a villain but whats your opinion on it? From what ive seen red leader is especially abusive to future tom but i always thought the cast was pretty mean to eachother in the earlier eddisodes but just grew out of it,tord left before the rest of them stopped being so mean to eachother,now its more or less poking fun and annoying eachother here and there

do you think tord just didn’t get the memo and thought it was still okay to act like this? Im all for ‘edgier’ headcanons and story telling but i just personally think to an extent tord isn’t as much as an asshole as people try to make him out to be,at some point the cast have tried to kill eachother and tom literally did what he did in zanta claws (which i forgive him for <33) but i see alot more people give tord more flack than anyone,srry ab the long winded question but i am curious ab your answer ^^

this is a multi-part question so im going to number them to make it more readable lol. also dw about long asks; i like em. lover having conversations about the show with other people

the tord villain question. ah the thing that divides the eddsworld fandom to this day. my opinion on this is a little nuanced. i personally like that direction for his character. i think it's interesting. it recontextualizes a lot of his strange behaviors from earlier episodes. fan interpretation of the actual content of the end episodes have led to a lot of people hating that idea though. i can see why too. i'm not a fan on how people decided to portray tord afterwards. i don't think he was a nice or pleasant person from day one, but i definitely don't think he's a sociopath or psychopath or insane. well not any more insane than everyone else. there's a lot more going on with tord psychologically. he has shown to care about people to an extent. i definitely think he has some kind of personality disorder. i've seen fans discuss schizoid personality disorder and borderline personality disorder in regards to a diagnosis for tord. i don't know enough on the subject to comment either way. imo a good tord wouldn't lose any of the fun aspects of his personality to fit better into any given villain trope. trying to fit square peg in a circle hole, ya know?

tom abuse. this one im a hard no on. i dont know why this got so popular. tord and tom are rivals. making tord an abuser and tom his victim just seems wrong for their dynamic. a lot of that content is fetish driven...and well.. im not touching that topic with a 10 ft shit and piss covered pole. if you're gonna make tord terrible to tom, you have to make tom just as terrible back. they both get under each others skin. i prefer the idea that tord and tom are more friendly in wtfuture since edd is out of the picture. i mean tord has to like him enough to employ him. tom likes him enough to be able to borrow a time machine without much trouble. those are two emotional unstable buddies right there

everyone kinda sucks. this is just straight up true. everyone was out for blood early on in eddsworld. i mean just look at matt. that guy was straight up a menace. yeah the show changed a lot. the tone and the way characters treat each other softened. the tomee bear has a pretty good video on this. i don't disagree with much of what he says. it added a new way to view the end episodes which i greatly appreciate. i could see this being the direction they go for tord in canon

everyone elses crimes. when it comes to talking about the other characters crimes i'd say dont take it seriously if the show doesnt. tom's christmas demolition wasnt taken seriously at all as an act of domestic terrorism. it's a joke about tom's character taken to the extreme for comedy. most things they do are consequence-less. basically, only take it seriously when the show does. tord blowing up the house, killing jon, and betraying everyone was tonally a lot different from tom rapping about hating christmas and nuking bongland. that's the reason why people hate on tord for what he did a bit more. personally i hate tord for being an annoying gooner with confusing politics. but u know to each their own

[bodycountgame]

Hello! I was a big fan of the series a while a go and it is lovely to see that you are back. I'm terribly sorry that other anons put you through a lot with the voting aspect of the game. Absolutely no one deserves death threats for a story that they are bringing to us for free. However, I am not going to lie, I always feel a bit worried when a fandom majority vote is what has long lasting effects on character life/death. It was ok when it was everyone voting with an equal effect. Now there will be a wealth gap to vote. Only people that pay can contribute. And at least where I'm from wealth looks a certain kind of way.

Since you have characters that are in a minority it feels... Bad. Maybe I'm projecting how racist and transphobic my home country is on the vote for this game. I also don't want you to feel like this is an attack on you because that is not my intent at all! I love the diversity in the love interests and it was what brought me to the game initially. I am worried that if you do a majority vote on Patreon that characters that aren't white/cis will face a harsher vote. Trans lives are in danger and I was not surprised when a nonbinary character died first. I was part of the fandom and people treated them very grossly (it actually made me step away for a bit as well). There were many options but the vocally out and proud person got the boot first. What I'm saying is I trust you more than your Patreon supporters. If the people can't all vote as one, due to the actions of some terrible people, then maybe we shouldn't vote at all

anon, i totally understand your concerns because i absolutely shared them. to be completely honest with you, i had totally misjudged which characters i thought were popular or not and watching the three non binary cast members struggle through that first vote felt Bad. my personal disappointment about ellis being the character to receive the least votes in the vote contributed in no small part to the twist in chapter 3 and their revised arc (which was Not planned when i set out writing body count hahaha). howeverrrrrr, i did learn a lot from the process.

my main motivator behind making the vote patreon exclusive was that the voters would be genuinely invested in the game and that the polling would be much harder to game or manipulate. selfishly, i also think it will reduce a certain amount of the absolute barrage of wild anons from the first time around haha!

in addition to that, though, i think its important that i reaffirm what i have said from the start: i am acutely aware that in interactive fiction in general and particularly on tumblr there is a strong preference for white male characters, and i am not here to write some kind of gross POC/women/nb slasher. as much as i want the audience to have a say in the direction the story takes, i ultimately have final say on what happens in the story that i am writing.

the main way that i intend to have oversight of the voting process is by who appears on the polls in the first place; the first poll was the last time the whole cast will be available for a vote at the same time. since ellis, one of three NB cast members, was the first character to die, i've said that neither of the other NB cast members will appear on future polls. if it's women and POC suffering in the next vote, then i'll be applying similar logic. if that means we get towards the end and we need a white boy only poll then so be it!

that said, if people cannot behave then i will simply take away their toys. although i consider the voting mechanic to be one of the things that makes body count unique and fun, i'm absolutely not above doing away with it if there are Shenanigans that spoil it, ya know?

anyway, i hope that assuages some of your concerns! sorry for another giant wall of text wow i simply cannot answer a question concisely atm

[kharmii]

I shouldn't get annoyed by it but I can't help but get annoyed by the obvious favoritsm going on in the Submas fandom...

I dunno its frustrating to see a pair of twins constantly being put up like that and pit against each other when their true strength is in them being close and together....

It makes me loose my interest because its the big names doing the favoritsm and it feels like everyone is following their lead.

I'm usually someone who doesn't complain much about things going on in fandom (I thankfully managed to avoid the gross stuff so far, thanks to the block button where everything that makes me uncomfortable or doesn't spark interest gets the boot.) But I feel the more I stay silent the more upset I get.

It's not only the favoritsm that annoys me but also the deconstruction of the character. Its basically just a skinsuit for someone's OC and that ticks me off so much.

It ticks me off when media does it with established characters and it ticks me off when some alphabet freaks do it in my fandom.

The japanese fandom is such a breath of fresh air. They do diverge a lot too but it doesn't feel like OC material... and at the core the twins are still themselves.

Honestly this is also a reason I don't mind shippers. I don't like the ship in of itself but I do appreciate that they're still themselves for the most part. Just with some kinks and fetishes shoved in. (some more alright then others... a lot of them are... ewwwwww)

But yeah I hope it's okay to vent out a little here. I'm not someone actively in the fandom more a silent fan from the sidelines but it just bothers me how the fandom devolved over time into that hive of scum and villany it is now.

I'm not sure if I understand 100% what you are saying, but it might be because I don't know who the popular artists are anymore. Seems like most of them have lost interest and are being replaced by new people with recent fixations. Even looking at the tags with another account that everybody hasn't blocked, I'm still not seeing the same people I saw when PLA was at the height of popularity.

Even the Volo tag is lagging. Masters just did an event with him in it, and the tags didn't even blow up. I didn't see any of that clique of people who badmouthed me on Discord over what I said about trans people. This is why Japanese artists are the best. They haven't slowed down on content. I'm still seeing regular art of almost everything I'm into.

Maybe you're talking about fans who post one and not the other? In some context that works -such as PLA fans where Ingo is there with no Emmet- but a lot of fans also treat Emmet as a self-insert. I see that a lot....like he's austistic LIKE ME and I want to make him this stand-up guy. Am I the only one who has ever written fan fics where Emmet beats Volo at something and is a total douche about it? -Like he does end-zone dances and is all like IN YOUR FACE!! (.....because in the very first games, he'd taunt you if you lost against him). People take them both too seriously sometimes.

At least I can tone out all that other stuff and still find the sweet angst with the Japanese artists.

Art credit: ぽち@oniptt Twitter.

Side note: I hear ya about deconstructing a character and making it about the alphabet sexual nonsense. Someone did that recently on a Geten RP blog on Twitter. They were all like, "This Geten is asexual agender aromantic, has sharp teeth, eats human flesh and raw meat.."

I'm thinking....I don't like the goofy fetishes, but I do like me some shipping. There has to be a happy medium here, like this is what people are like if they don't have sexual fantasies to fall back on. It's like......I'm not into sex and romance, so all I have to fall back on is cannibalism. Yep, cannibalism, and I'm happy about it, godammaaaaaaattt!!!!!

[minsarasarahair]

My Danmei Experience based from this template in this twitter thread but I don't really read much nowadays especially this year so this is "my whole experience" in general. Not by year. If I really like something I tend to stay for a long while so its hard for me to get into new titles.

My intro to Danmei - Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

Stole my heart completely - Tian Ya Ke (Faraway Wanderers)

Dark Horse - You Yao (Are You OK)

Surprised me - Sha Po Lang (Stars of Chaos)

My intro to danmei - Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

My story in this one is I became a fan before the donghua even aired. You know me. I see Long haired bishie. I'll definitely check it out. I remember seeing the cool animatics and trailer featuring Wei Wuxian playing his flute. Its one of the first donghua teaser. I can't find it anymore though. If you know, you know. That's when I start to became interested in it. I just love how the story values other characters aside from the main couple. Everyone have their big roles for the story. I love especially the Yunmeng Shuangjie story. My favorite character is Jiang Cheng. My favorite Wangxian scene is mostly before Wei Wuxian's resurrection because I treasure their progress and them getting to know each other. I tone down my love for it now because of what the fandom has become. I swear I can talk about JC here freely during the 1st season of donghua but I don't know what happened after The Untamed. The MDZS tag became a war zone about who's the best ship or which one suffer the most as in someone will attack you just because you talk about your favorite character JC lovingly as if its a crime to like him(Sorry to say that I'm the type of story enjoyer who don't focus only in morally good characters because I appreciate character designs and how he was written like his body language) so I mostly focus my energy now to JC tag and shipping Xicheng. I dislike it when fandom is trying to erase Wangxian's flaws and use it as their weapon to demonize JC because what I like about Wangxian is their flaws in the first place.

Stole my heart completely - Tian Ya Ke (Faraway Wanderers)

I'm grateful to the Word of Honor drama for introducing me to this story. I really like the love story in this. When I said love story, I meant the found family troupe and romance. Both of it! I prefer the book more than WOH but WOH is still decent at least until episode 30 I guess lol. I hate the miscommunication part. I really let my guard down in this one because they said Wen Kexing is the stereotype character I hate the most (pleasure seeking character who frequently visits brothel) but surprisingly I find myself liking him despite how annoying he is. Zhou Zishu is the same. He's a supporting antihero-like character in Qi Ye (prequel) who did atrocious things that hard to forgive. I like both of them. And the fact that both of them is at their late 20s when their first meet. I love how they understand and communicate with each other like a normal person despite not really a normal person lol. They only become normal in the presence of each other and their beloved only disciple, Chengling. I also tend to lose interest to my ship after the confession phase and when they are going out but when it comes to WenZhou, I love imagining their married life. Also, did you know that WKX has already decided ZZS as his lifetime partner without even knowing ZZS true appearance in the book? Like he know ZZS has disguise but he can only imagine his own version of ZZS in his mind lol He's so in love with a hobo just simply because he love his company. I find that cute and heartwarming. I just love the contrast that they look indecent or explicit but they have surprisingly cute sides as couple. I like that they live their 2nd life without rewind button or having the choice to change your past choices. They decided to move forward despite how messed up their past are and even raised a morally good hero, Zhang Chengling who love them dearly. You can tell ZZS' life is no longer his but for WKX and Chengling.

Dark horse - You Yao (Are You OK?)

I found this one because of the donghua adaption in IQIYI knowing its just an isekai comedy donghua. I didn't know its gay and surprisingly has 4 canon gay CP! Imagine how surprise I was! Its very short but I find it interesting and had a hard time moving on from obsessing over it. Their romance is very subtle though but focus in pair's emotional connection. The donghua give them the WOH treatment where the character flaws are toned down. They are antiheroes and morally grey characters in the book. Anyway! What I like about it is it gives a different spin to transmigration genre and every CP play an important role to get across a message to the reader. For example, LouZuo aka the Medicine pair explore the conflicts between natives and outsiders (transmigrators). We have scheming Lou Zhu who only care about himself and have conscience for only selected people which is kinda understandable after knowing how the natives mistreated the outsiders like him from Zuo Yunqi's memories where outsiders are executed publicly just because of their advanced knowledge or jailed if they are useless. Then we have the natives travelling CP, Long Daxia and Qian Zhenduo who witnessed their own world get ruined by outsiders and by emperor that they trusted. Another CP known as the Poison pair, Prince Yu and Li Ke's story explore Prince Yu's revenge against the emperor and his regrets that he can't be a good person for Li Ke. Lastly, the bickering pair Fan Aiguo and Xie Liang from Sick chapter who originally share one body but later enjoyed the company of each other despite their differences. Their story explore the side of ordinary people who are trying their best to help others. So yeah, it has 4 sides of the story. I really love the message of the story where the villains are the people obsessed in escaping reality and we have MCs who treat the new unfamiliar world as their new reality. Its against the charm of Isekai genre. Isekai fantasy is usually story focus on escaping reality but in You Yao, the transmigrator characters don't treat the native people as characters. Instead of thinking about an exit, they adapt.

Surprised me - Sha Po Lang (Stars of Chaos)

My story about SPL is funny. I read it out of spite. MDZS gained puritans in the fandom so I'm like "I shall read the most problematic pseudo-incest age gap danmei with racism I don't agree with but sometimes we need to read problematic stuff to be aware and be a critique hoping there's no puritans here. Yeah, MC wearing a monocle is handsome too so why not?". Also, we have donghua VA of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng for the SPL audio drama as besties here so its a win-win situation to me. I can finally see them living happily in different universe. I was really surprised because its not that problematic? Its problematic still but I imagined worse than this. Like Loveless or Junjou Romantica? That's my standard of worse? I think ChangGu is actually the most romantic Danmei couple I ever encountered that I actually like. I'm saying this as someone who's not into heavy romance story. The main couple has a very well-balanced dynamic, no power imbalance and definitely a power couple. Chang Geng who values Gu Yun's wish, conditions and dreams to the point of changing the country's system for his loved one who's a general is hard to accomplish yet he surprisingly did it? That's romantic to me! The politics and economics aspect are also interesting. Their story made me care about the world. The best selling point of this story for me is the growth of the MCs as a person, their feelings and relationship. Also the ancient China industrial revolution-steampunk setting! Its really one of a kind and something new. I like to believe that Gu Yun started dating Chang Geng out of pity and his platonic love for young Chang Geng. He only fell in love with him romantically when they exchange ideas for future. Like yes, he already care about Chang Geng in probably familial sense. He is his home after all. But loving and being in love are two different things. I like that the text made sure that Gu Yun didn't fall in love with the young Chang Geng but the adult Chang Geng who value his dreams that are hard to achieve.

[sins-and-wins-with-vix]

Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Rebooted” E2: The Art of the Silent Fist

Disclaimers: Show owned by LEGO. This is not a professional review/critique - it’s mainly intended for comedy!

Make sure to reblog, comment, and like, and tell me your thoughts!

- Theme ✅

- How convenient for the animators that Wu’s memories are all in third person ❌

- “No robots…” Lloyd forgets that Zane isn’t dead… yet. ❌

- Where did Nya get a green suit for Lloyd? ❌

- “There’s a reason [Wu’s] lived as long as he has.” Yeah, because he’s part of nearly every mythical, immortal creature in the book. There’s so many different forms of magical DNA in this guy that, frankly, I’m surprised he isn’t radioactive ❌

- “You guys go ahead. I will stay back and watch [the blades].” Wow, they didn’t even try to argue with him, huh? The DISRESPECT ❌

- Wait, why does Nya like Cole? We saw that the two were assigned as a perfect match, but we never saw hints of Nya actually liking him and now we’re supposed to believe she’s suddenly in love with both of them? What?? ❌

- “But Cole… Cole is not Jay (positive)…” OOOHHHHHHHHH🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

- Seriously though, this is such an awful line considering Jay is her canon love interest. And don’t say they didn’t know Jaya was gonna be canon because I do not believe there was a second they were actually going to make Cole and Nya a thing ❌

- I’m not even gonna sin them for tweaking Garmadon’s design from the end of last season because this one is objectively better ✅

- “Check out the new Sensei… lookin sharp!” Jay is a Garmadon simp confirmed and I really don’t know if that’s a sin or not anymore

- “SILENCE” *WHACK* Ohoh, I’m gonna like him, aren’t I? ✅

- How did Zane not notice the blades being stolen from in front of him? He clearly wasn’t sleeping, and Pixal later even says she wasn’t built for stealth ❌

- “Pixal? What are you doing?” “Discontinuing an old droid!” D*mn ✅

- Was that even a Pixal scream? It sounded a lot like Nya ❌

- “How about we take her apart to find out!” Jeez Kai calm down. Imagine what the others would say if he wanted to dismember a human ❌

- “Relax, not a weapon!” Then why didn’t they just bring them inside in the first place?!?! ❌

- “These nindroids are so much fas-“ Give me perfectly timed cuts for 400 Alex ✅

- “wouldn’t that mean shutting down Pixal too?” “Don’t tell Zane!” The ninja don’t even seem to consider Pixal as a living entity. They only even take her into account as a reference to Zane, nothing else. You can’t convince me they would be this chill about taking out the power if a human’s life was on the line. Basically what I’m saying is the ninja are racist ❌

- “We are all different, but I do not feel so different around you…”⬇️ ✅

- “Ever since we left I’ve been worried about [the students].” “Oh, Dareth’s looking after them.” Was that supposed to ease Cole’s worries cuz I’m pretty sure it made them worse ❌

- “Ya know, Cole, you don’t get the credit you deserve. You always put others ahead of yourself! I know the other ninja get all the attention but I just want you to know, you’re a good guy.” This is literally just the writers trying to convince us to care about Cole at a point in which such a small amount of the fandom actually did. I love Cole, I always have, but I think anyone who was in the fandom prior to the Wildbrain era can attest to how ignored he was as a character. This went off on a small rant so to clarify, I’m not sinning this because of how underrated Cole used to be (personally I think that’s more the fandom at the time’s fault than the show itself). I’m sinning this because it felt awkward and forced ❌

- “Don’t tell Jay.” Why? There was nothing inherently romantic about that line, or this situation in general, so what is there to not tell Jay? ❌

- “This is where all of Ninjago gets its power.” Zane mansplains something that even Dareth should be able to determine Pixal already knows ❌

- “I will call you Mindroid!” *angry mindroid noises* Worry not, Mindroid. One day we will join together and seek vengeance against all those who mock us with labels like “fun-sized” and “vertically challenged.” We are living versions of the pocket knife - cleverly concealed until the final moments in which we are revealed to deliver the killing blow.

- “Stupid technology!” Kai said, to the glass case ❌

- “oh who cares about probability!” this is character development… I have absolutely no idea where it came from or how Pixal developed but it sure is there ❌

- How unlucky was Pix that she just happened to land on the ONE laser we’ve seen throughout this entire episode? ❌

- *Mindroid breaks into office* “Great! Now they come in fun-sized!” ✅

- “This is no time for a lesson, Kai!” Actually, the climax generally is the time for the lesson, Jay

- The nindroids might have Storm Trooper aim but that doesn’t make it okay for the ninja to dodge in the worst possible way just to show off ❌

- Lloyd - beloved Green Bean - you’re supposed to cup the water in your hands, sweetie… not just stick your whole face in the pond like you’re bobbing for apples… ❌

- “This is why I took an oath of peace!” Why? So you and your son could get mauled by a giant, robotic dragon?? ❌

- Mindroid dies, and although killing him is 100% sinnable by death, this is actually a sin because he appears unscathed later on multiple times ❌

- Why does it take so long for Pixal to lose power? ❌

- “Your mission was important. I was not. I am to assist; I assisted.” The show never acknowledges how tragic this scene is. Well, it does, but only with Pixane, not Pixal as her own character. We constantly get to see glimpses of Pixal’s insecurities, but rarely see them built on or developed. ❌

- The only source of power for ALL of Ninjago is operated by this one tower and no one thought that was a bad idea ❌

- “We are compatible?” “Yes, yes we are.” ✅

- Look, Pixane is my favorite canon ship, but I still hate the way it happened. It was rushed, under-developed, and just didn’t feel right. ❌

- But also, Pixal only has feelings for Zane once it’s obvious that he feels that way about her so… recipromantic Pixal canon? ✅

Sentence: Mindroid coming for your kneecaps

[spectralsleuth]

Saw you were lookin’ for some asks dont mind if I do 👀

To start off, I’m such a big fan of your writing! I genuinely look forward to every single update of yours and find myself rereading a lot of work in the downtime. You are such a good writer!! My never ending praises aside, here are some asks!

-You incorporate OC’s into your fics so seamlessly! They feel so natural in your fics that I legit get excited anytime they show up (srsly can’t wait for Lou Jitsu vs Hidden City, Sal’s my boy) lol how do you find the right balance when introducing and maintaining OC’s in your fics? I feel like that’s a particularly difficult balance beam to tread but you absolutely crush it.

-A previous ask you answered about Cass and Raph in LSoW got me thinking; how do the brothers handle humans crushing on them? Would they be receptive or dismissive? Do they develop crushes on humans- and if so, how is that perceived (by family or the general public)? The drama 👀

Last ask, I promise:

-I absolutely loved your crossover with Empathy is Learned! Got anymore crossovers planned in the future? Oooor if you could do a crossover with any other fic, which one(s) would it/they be??

Thanks for taking the time to even look at this! I hope these are some fun asks for ya :) I hope you have a lovely day!!

Omg thanks so much... I'm so happy people enjoy my writing it's crazy to me. I've written before, but it's always been just for myself so I never really know if it was good or not. (Years of text based DnD is to thank lol.) (Okay I got carried away answering this so sorry in advance.)

On OC's:

I got a lot of comments on LSoW from people who say "generally I don't like OC's BUT-" which is so funny and flattering. Because I am absolutely one of those people who don't care for OC's in fic.

Let me be clear: I LOVE that people write self indulgent self-insert of OC based fic, where they make the craziest off the wall story etc. Every time a fifteen year old writes a story about the cringiest Mary-sue/stu self insert, or non canon character, an angel gets its wings and I mean that one hundred percent. It makes me so happy I literally grin when I see it. I HOWEVER generally filter out the OC tags on AO3 when I'm looking for something to read myself.

So when I started posting LSoW I was expecting to get maybe like, 100 kudos MAX, maybe one comment or so. Which is great! I love writing niche fic just for me, and one other person who I assume I must be drift compatible with. I just could not figure out a way to write the story I wanted without a few OC's- Rise didn't have a big enough character catalog for me to draw from!

When I went to write the OC's, I knew that they had to have a very simple backstory, that was also very fleshed out. (Xander and Sal have full family, Dr. Heo and Carter have full jobs and history together, etc.) For another contradiction I wanted them to be interesting enough that someone reading wouldn't just be skipping ahead to when they weren't present, or just simply plowing through to get past the part where they were doing exposition. They had to be enjoyable! While also forwarding the story!

They also had to be distinct. Anyone who's ever watched a Whedon show or movie (Buffy, Firefly, Avengers-) knows what I'm talking about. It drives me nuts when the characters in a show are constantly the funniest person in the room, with the same personality traits, and the same girl boss/badass tendencies.

(Fandom challenge Impossible: Give a female fan favorite character another trait besides 'girlboss/mom/lesbian'. I'm dead serious.)

(Also a disclaimer: I LOVE making jokes and doing bits. I FANCY that I'm pretty funny, and I love making people laugh. But you can do that without making it a character personality trait. For example: Xander doesn't really crack any jokes in LSoW! He's just funny because we the reader know more about the situation and his thoughts than he does.)

But the BIGGEST THING I kept telling myself while writing the story, was DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THE TURTLES. Because the whole point of the story is the turtles! And Yoshi! The OC's are there to facilitate that. It's a hard balance to hit. I have all sorts of touchstones I keep in mind while I'm writing, and that's a big one.

(A SUPER good example of this done super well is @faiakishi 's Bella from Dawning of the Hour. She's a great OC that's super interesting, and a super important narrative element, but she never detracts from the main story. Big Bella fan here lmao. There's also the rest of the OC's/interpretations of franchise characters (TIGERCLAW), but Bella stands out as truly original.)

On the Turtles dating Humans:

(CW: CSA mention, SA mention, non graphic talk of minors dating etc.)

I actually talked a lot about this to @/tangledinink in feverish discord chats lmao.

When the boys were growing up they got a very detailed talk from both Yoshi, and their Doctors. ONE: Because nobody will know better than themselves if something was medically wrong with their bodies, TWO: The boys are all intersex (minus Mikey) and they had to understand that there was nothing wrong with them on TOP of the turtle thing, and THREE: Because Yoshi knew the boys would be getting a lot of attention, and you never know what kind of attention that form will take.

THE BEST WAY to protect children (any child) from being sexually assaulted or abused, is making sure they know what that abuse LOOKS LIKE. You don't have to make them terrified of being sexually assaulted, but them knowing how their body works, and also how to say NO and set boundaries, will combine to help make them safer.

Yoshi didn't know what would happen in the future and in a perfect world the boys would never leave his line of sight, but that's not always how things happen. (In a Short Season, Xander parroted Yoshi's instructions before going out to make sure the boys knew what to do if someone grabbed them (in any way) and it was to bite and be loud.) So the boys grew up knowing their bodies, knowing how to say 'no', and knowing that there was probably going to be people out there who would treat them as a novelty, and who wouldn't be appropriate to them as celebrities OR non-humans.

(Remember Emma Watson having to deal with that countdown to her turning 18? Or any other amount of child stars who had to deal with adults being predatory to them.)

But ALSO THIS IS HAMATO YOSHI. His sons are HANDSOME and HEARTBREAKERS! Leo has dated a lot but never anything seriously, and his inability to be intimate with anyone but family kind of puts a damper on any more permanent relationship. (He is gay.) He's the number one turtle people ask out because he's the most approachable. Because he made himself that way!

Donnie is in a sort of relationship with Kendra. (THIS WILL BE A FIC I'm working up to it lmao.) I have a head canon that Yokai and other empyrean based creatures are capable of having rivalry based relationships. IE Yoshi and Draxum in the canon show, the unhealthy dynamic between Yoshi and Big Mama, etc. (Caliginous relationship) Donnie is in a puppy love version of that with Kendra, while also lacking the context of yokai society to understand why he wants to punch her very badly, but also if anything happened to her he would die. They hate each others guts and also she was his first kiss. She is not a nice person I am not a Kendra apologist she's terrible I love her. (Donnie is bi!)

I know a lot of people head canon Mikey as ace, but he is a thirteen year old child you don't have to be head canoning him as anything. it is the very rare 13 year old who knows their orientation, and even if they DO I bet you donuts to dollars it will change eventually. This is normal and healthy. Mikey in LSoW has had puppy crushes on boys, girls, teachers, Violet, the mailman, Adam, and Rupert Swaggert. (Eugh eugh eugh.)

Raph is absolutely irresistible to the entire student body and is completely unaware of it. He's not stupid but he's face blind and bad at picking up subtext in conversations. He's gone to multiple people's houses and spent the whole day with them, without realizing they were trying to make it a date. (Raph is bi.)

All the boys have considered identifying as girls since their Dad is the martial arts equivalent of David Bowie and Fine With That, but have settled (for now) on being boys (age 10 the last time they considered this) because quote 'Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim are boys and they're awesome' unquote.

They don't get any fucking privacy for their relationships, and Leo in particular had a very bad experience that closed him off from dating big time. (Stamps 'THIS WILL BE A FIC' on this as well.) But also, as of the LSoW canon they are like, 12-14 and not doing a lot of dating ANYWAY. They are BABIES.

(Enter Casey Jones)

ON CROSSOVERS:

I have one crossover with my white whale of authors (you know who you are) I have pecked at with them that I think everyone will go fucking nuts for and love, but I won't mention it in case we can't get it off the ground! (A completely okay and normal thing to happen lmao.) I think that one will end up happening though because I am too excited about it, even if it's not any time soon.

I am super open to crossovers and cowriting, especially since writing with Li because I learned SO MUCH it was like speed running improvement.

The thing is it has to fit! There's some crossovers that wouldn't have a lot of substance because there's not really a lot to cover. When it came to EiL for example, there was PLENTY to cover and do, it was so fun! But other fics might not have a lot we could do for each other. (At least, not until I get some more world building done.)

That being said I do love talking crossovers with other creators it's so fun...

If you guys ever want to use my OC's feel free, just ask me in advance! I don't mind pings.

THESE ASKS ARE FUN THANKS FOR SENDING THEM I feel like you just threw a steak into my zoo exhibit. I am recharged and rejuvenated my crops are watered my skin is clear. This felt very pretentious to write I am mortified.

[thatgirlfluxwoman]

your bio says you like Wednesday

wednesday is not only the greatest betrayal in television history but the most maddeningly trite, disturbingly vapid, and internally confused ideological train wreck I've ever had the deeply sorrowful displeasure of allowing to pass through my corneas may god have mercy on burton or whoever else was responsible while someone slapped his brand name on it, and on all of us who are fated to live in a world where something so culturally, socially, politically, and artistically noxious as this Mary-sue-lead, transparently TikTok-targeted, phone-worshipping, vaguely bigoted, backfired virtue-signaling, fake leftist capitalist "my immortal"-esque fanfic earns a second season through what I can only be explained as manufactured consent. something must be done about Netflix's Wednesday. This thing is a condescending insult, especially to young people, the socially conscious, and members of marginalized and "'"outcast"'" groups (LiKe GoThS & ppL who CAN cONTroL BEEEEES) who genuinely suffer from what this thing hollowly masturbates to while looking us dead in the eyes and saying "yeah, you like that, don't you?" It is a Gatling gun of random buzzwords and empty references to social issues, grotesquely and impotently disguised and screaming "I'm commentary!" before pissing its pants, squealing like a pig, and at its most coherent offering nothing more than to demonize mental illness and make any marginalized identity out to be a mavonnaise-stained Hot Topic hoodie through Wiseau-ian dialogue, inappropriate "grittiness" for its source material and Harry Potter setting, and incessant hackery. I am shitting. I am pissing. I am standing over a warm bubble bath cradling a toaster and sobbing, chanting g-d's secret name and praying that there is indeed a hell so I can be eternally punished for having given this moral abomination one fraction of a fraction of a cent also it's not a good Addams family adaptation anyway let me know your thoughts in the poll below

/ref

What. My guys I just liked the show- Uhhh...good for you ya don't like it? Not sure why you complaining to me... Uh...Ok. It's not a show everyones gonna like. I just liked it... It was too long to read. I'm not trying to be rude. Sorry. It's just uh....Why? I get it. Wednesday wasn' ass good as all the other addams family. But I personally enjoyed it. I don't realy into like...movie critic things. I just watch a show and see if I like it. Are you this to every Wednesday enjoyer? Well uh... they got something interesting in their inbox

Crazy part is: I'm not even in the fandom anymore. I just...I liked it. I actually. If ya look through my posts I'm uh...I'm a roleplayer. I roleplay in the TADC (amazing digital circus) Fandom. Most of my posts are...unrelated to Wednesday. So nothing to worry aboout? Good you got your own opinions. People can have opinions. I respect that. And I respect people don't like the show. That's totally fine. The only question is: What does a underaged teenager have to do with this? I'm like...13 my guy. WHAT?? I just hyperfixate on things...It's normal for me...I'm getting diognosed for ADHD soon... I just had a hyperfixation on it a while back...

[purgemarchlockdown]

Breaks glass and enters the ask box

Hi, I’ve seen that you requested the violent asks. I got some for ya to start:

12.) The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them.

18.) It’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

21.) A part of canon that you think is overhyped.

Oh thanks! I wasnt sure where the og ask game was so its nice to have these!

12.) The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them. ...Does Muu count? I feel like people like Muu overall but I also found that a lot of Muu analysis and fan depictions feel kinda shallow? I try not to rag but I always feel like there's a lot unexplored with Muu. I have a personal hatred of the Milgram Comment Section (I'm an Amane fan and 90% of the comments are utter bullshit to me.) and it really gets to me how people take her as Just a character who seemed to be a victim but is actually a bully- like. Come on- if Muu was actually good at manipulating people she wouldn't be in this prison, she would still Be the Queen.

That and Muu's cycle motif, princess themes, victimhood, manipulation, her life in a place where friendship cannot grow, etc etc. Is super interesting and deserves to be explored more! She's a fascinating character with a lot of nuance and interesting ideas to explore and I dearly adore her.

18.) It’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Uh....everything? That's partially a joke but also I hear that outside of the Tumblr spaces I frequent a lot of the things i like the most about Milgram aren't talked much. It's why I wrote multiple posts about saviors and Amane and cats and all the other stuff. I couldn't find them so I just...wrote it myself lol.

I think there should be more exploration on what Milgram and the characters are exploring Thematically and the overarching themes of the series as a whole. There's so Much about these cyclical events and power and dehumanization and its so good and I Need More People to sit in a circle with me and think about Cat Amane Momose!

ALSO THE COVERS!!! THOSE COVERS HAVE SO MUCH MEANING AND PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING ON EM!!! I DID NOT WRITE 3K+ WORDS ABOUT THE ANIMAL COVER FOR PEOPLE TO SLEEP ON THE INSPIRED CHOICE THAT IS THE ANIMAL COVER! I LOVE THAT THING AND OTOME DISSECTION AND PSYCHOGRAM AND-

21.) A part of canon that you think is overhyped.

This relates to 18 a bit...I don't enjoy exploring the...murder...that much...ironic I know but I kinda see Milgram analysis as like. Certain people taking care of certain points of interests because that's what they know the best.

I don't think any single person can analyze everything, so I really do appreciate the work the people who look at these crime scenes and figure out what else might be going on do! This isn't a indictment against them or anything. I treasure this kind of analysis dearly because I don't really know where to start with that kind of stuff.

However, I do think when most people think Analysis this sort of stuff is the first thing they think of. Which again isn't a bad thing but I just think there's other things to explore!

(...I was trying to be mean with the violence ask game but It seems like I dont have it in me lol)

[the-pigeon-queen]

every day i laugh about how i followed you for your webcomic, and saw your yugioh art and was like "huh thats cool. i dont think i'll ever be into ygo but its cool to see art for it!" and then i fell assbackwards directly into the ygo fandom. and then i saw that you did tf2 art and i was like "huh that's cool. I'll never get into tf2 but the art is neat" and here i am drowning in how much i love tf2. do you have any other fandoms you want to try to get me into? anything niche? (i love love love your art btw. its absolutely beautiful and i still get butterflies when i see it)

lolol sometimes the fandom chooses you I'm afraid XD

It's super sweet to hear that you followed me for my original art :']c And I'm glad ya stuck around through my different fandoms lolol

Also I'm really happy you like my art too, that's very sweet to hear :']!! <3

And I can certainly list some fandoms/things I've gotten really into! I feel like my interests are kinda scattered, but if you like both tf2 and yugioh too, yours might be too lol :']

Now, the number of fandoms I've participated in is fairly small. To keep this list tolerably short, I'll only mention the fandoms I have or currently look up content for.

Big Fandom things you've def already heard of or might already be into:

Fallout 4/Fallout - Were you here during my Fallout4 phase? It was after tf2, I think lol :0 If not, Fallout in general has a great aesthetic, some fun lore, fun characters, and a pretty extensive fandom :0 I also really loved the game itself, and I suck at fps games :']

Stardew Valley - I haven't really dove into fandom for it, I just look at the pretty art :'] (Elliot my beloved,,,)

Balders Gate - It lived up to the hype for me, I've loved playing it ^^ Haven't participated in the fandom for it myself, but I know there's plenty of people who make plenty of good stuff. Great characters :'] I do wanna draw my player characters,,,

Undertale/Deltarune - Don't let the fandom scare you from the games if you haven't already played them :'0 they're so genuinely good

Steven Universe - were you,,, were you here during my steven universe phase,,, just ignore the infamous part of the fandom :'0 (I did not enjoy Steven Universe Future, the spinoff, I'm sorry if I missed the point but it missed me,,,)

Smaller Fandom things:

Castlevania on Netflix - All of the characters are exceptional, the animation is exceptional, the story is action packed but the characters have room to breathe. Isaac is my favorite character, hands down!

Dislyte - yeah,,, it's a gacha game,,, and I don't even know if it's a good one lol BUT hear me out: the character art and the settling/world concept is so good. There's so much room for good stories, I just wish the game would give us more than what it currently has :'0 I'm currently writing a fix-it fic for the main game story :']

Tiger&Bunny on Netflix - It's an anime with two seasons, and I believe there's been two movies, and there's a short manga add-on (it's an anime first, so the manga is supplemental) It's about superheroes that are sponsored by their network to fight crime. I really enjoyed the characters and world building :0 BUT IT IS CRIMINAL WHAT THEY DID TO LUNATIC MY BELOVED they'd better walk it back if season 3 happens

Petshop of Horrors - I... I don't know what to say lol it's an older manga, and it might not be perfect, but something about it just got me idk. It's def the most niche thing on my list that still fits the criteria of 'I liked it enough to actively try and consume fan content of it'

That's all I can think of atm, if I think of any more I can always revisit this and list em :]c

[fieldsofview]

The Orphan Story - Baby Steps into Storytelling

I had a realization today because three of my interests (Spider-Man, D&D, and Writing/Storytelling) got their wires crossed - bear with me because this is probably going to be a long-winded post.

Something that's really prevalent in the Spider-Man fandom is the trope of "Dead May Parker" in fic. Usually, it starts with Peter's aunt and primary guardian, May Parker, being killed off-screen to set up the fic, often with just a small blurb about it like it wouldn't completely shatter Peter's world, but ya know.

It can be done in any number of ways (car crashes, cancer, and being caught in a supervillain's crossfire are all pretty typical for this).

There are a myriad of common storylines that build from this choice. IronDad, Homeless!Peter, and Foster!Peter are all really prevalent. Sometimes it's so that characters that people ship with Peter will be pushed together out of a need for Peter to live someplace new and/or needing someone to lean on. (I could go on, but you get the idea).

I could spend a lot of time talking about each of these storylines and the ways they can be done well or poorly, and the greater implications for the fandom as a whole, but that's not what this post is about so I will leave that here.

Peter Parker as a character, despite his many iterations among the various Spider-Man comics and adaptations, has always been a character with tragedy engrained in his story (Richard & Mary Parker, Ben Parker, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, the clones, his marriage, etc., etc., etc.). It's not necessarily out of the norm for more tragedy to occur, and having his only living family and primary guardian for most of his life die would definitely be on par with the rest of his life.

However, I don't think that the instances of the "Dead May Parker" trope in fic are because of this. At least, not when you dig.

I think people do it because it's easy.

I'm not saying that writing grief is easy, but that's part of the problem. Most of the stories using this trope don't bother to show the grief. Her death is just a device used to further other relationships.

Generally speaking, it's easier to write stories with fewer characters. Balancing a large cast with varying points of view, backstories, voices, motivations, etc., is always going to be more complicated. For a writer who's starting out, or perhaps someone who just doesn't want to make things harder on themselves for their hobby-writing, it's easier to do what you can to shrink the relevant cast. And for something like Spider-Man, there are more side characters relevant to his life than I think any person could possibly count - especially when you look across all the versions/adaptations that exist.

(That's part of why I love this fandom, despite its flaws. There are SO MANY stories to be told and so much room to pick apart what's there and transform it into something new. Fandom is transformative in nature, after all, and comics like Spider-Man are a buffet to choose from.)

I also think that it's easier to put a character like Peter Parker (especially if you're writing him as a high schooler as so many adaptations seem to permanently keep him as) into convoluted situations if he doesn't have a primary guardian to keep an eye on him. Especially one who's loving and caring and is actively parenting him. (I would argue that this is the perfect time to write him as an adult with his own autonomy and whatnot, but you know, that's not what the movie makers seem to want so... I digress.)

And lastly, I think someone being young and completely orphaned with no caretaker to look after them is also a sort of trauma that is easy to understand. I'm not saying it's a trauma that's easy to live with, but as an outsider looking in, it's easy to say "Oh, well yeah, of course, that person is struggling. Look at the hand they've been dealt."

A character - just like people - with more complex reasons for 'Why They Are The Way They Are" TM, can be harder to empathize with, especially if those reasons are not something the reader is familiar with. And it's most certainly harder to write, with all the layers, intricacies, imperfections, and generally weird ways that the human experience works. (In the same vein, it's why people with certain traumas, triggers, mental health issues, etc., are often dismissed or harassed, but that's a whole other can of worms that I'm not going to dive into atm.)

"But FOV," you might be wondering, "How does all of this relate to Dungeons & Dragons?"

Well, y'all ever heard of the Orphaned Rogue Trope?

In the greater online D&D community, there are a lot of common tropes and character builds that people are familiar with. They're common enough that you get a lot of memes shared around about them and a lot of people building characters that both lean into the tropes and/or subvert them. (The horny bard, the dumb barbarian, the warlock with daddy issues, etc.)

One of these is the 'Orphaned Rogue'.

(Please keep in mind that I'm referencing 5e specifically. I've played many editions - don't quote the old magic to me, Witch - but 5e is the most common edition to ever be played and has brought a massive influx of people to this game in the last decade, so that's what I'm talking about here.)

A lot of people start out with a Rogue as their first character, I would argue disproportionally so. There are a few reasons for this. 1) Rogues typically (I'm not going to argue over subclasses here, don't come for me) don't have any magic, and magic-using characters are typically more complicated to learn to play than non-mages. 2) For players who aren't as familiar with high fantasy, a thieving, backstabbing character is usually still one that people can recognize. (Similarly, I think this is part of why a lot of people also start by playing Rangers). 3) Especially at low levels, Rogues don't have a whole lot of character abilities. They're really really good at the few things they do, but that's about it, so it's extra easy to step into as a beginner.

So where does the orphan part come in? Well, a lot of beginners to D&D are also beginners to storytelling in general (with exceptions, you'll always have the people who side-stepped over from LARPing, theatre, writing, etc.). This means that they're new to the idea of creating a character that has no reliance on their own personal history. Their character can be literally anyone, and they will be able to interact with the story in whatever way they want to.

Creating a character is one of the most overwhelming things for a new D&D player. It's a boundary to entry that I've seen turns a lot of people away from the game. It's work that has to be done before you even get to roll your first die. It requires math, decision-making, and creativity in a way that not everyone is prepared for right off the bat.

(Yes, I know I might seem to be exaggerating here, but please remember that we live on the hellsite for creatives. This is not the norm for a lot of people. I once invited a co-worker into a game who was an avid non-fiction reader and had never done any theatre, not even drama class. She had genuinely never put herself into a fictional character's shoes since she was last playing Let's Pretend as a small child at recess. It was a hard learning curve for her, but she grew to love the game a lot and now is an avid LARPer as well.)

Your character has to have somewhere that they came from. They are a person, through and through, and should therefore have lived experiences that shape their point of view, their actions, and the way that they interact with other people.

It's not easy to think of an entire history for a person all at once, all while you're just trying to wrap your head around the math and learn the rules required to play this damn game that your friends have been bugging you about for who knows how long.

And so - orphan. No existing family means no extra characters to have to build personalities for or shared experiences between your PC and them that you have to write.

It's easier. It's removing a barrier to entry to the game.

(This is probably also why amnesiac characters are also really common first-time PCs, now that I think about it.)

So what's my point in all of this?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

I think it's really easy for anyone who has been a storyteller of any kind for a while to see the annoying, problematic, or sometimes downright concerning ways these tropes manifest. There are connotations for the stories that use these 'easy' orphan tropes, and these can and should be talked about. As I said above, I could talk about the "Dead May Parker" trope and the problematic themes that regularly exist in these stories until I'm blue in the face.

But, at the same time, I think we should also take these things with a grain of salt. New storytellers of any kind are going to make mistakes. They're going to write imperfect things. Humans never pop into existence with a fully formed skill. These things need to be learned through practice and exposure, and these choices most often aren't made with malicious intent.

Long ago, when I was a wayward young teenager, my first major foray into fanfiction was through an A:TLA fic that I put on ff.net. (No, I will not link it here. No, it was not under any USN I use anymore. Don't ask.) But, looking back, even though I was so immensely proud of that story, it also had a lot of things in it that I wouldn't write today. Things that my gut reaction would be to judge and raise an eyebrow at, if I read them now. But I also learned a lot while writing it, and there was a lot of heart in that story, too. I was just writing from a naivete that made me think I had the know-how to tackle themes that I was too young to fully understand.

In many ways, I am still proud of that fic, not because of the story itself, but because of the effort I put into it and the things it taught me about storytelling and writing as a learned craft.

I think my point is this: everyone has to start somewhere.

Sometimes people need to start off with those easier stories so that they can learn enough and build enough confidence to tackle the bigger ones.

So, do I think we shouldn't critique something when it does have harmful implications? No, we absolutely should. Critique and open discussion are how individuals and communities learn to grow. (No, I am not advocating for you to leave criticism on random people's fics. I mean critique of tropes in general. It's never cool to leave negative comments on people's fic.) Open discussion is good and healthy, and it's part of what makes fan spaces and communities flourish and bond.

But I do think that those critiques can be done from a perspective of learning. I often see people so far split down the middle that it alienates people from each other.

In fan spaces where the content shared is inherently made as an act of love, freely given and freely received, it's easy for people to say that no criticism is ever acceptable. "It's free content, just enjoy it and move on!" & "You're taking it too seriously!" are often phrases I've seen spouted about both these communities. And they are true things to an extent. It is fictional and freely made content. There is a point where it can be taken too seriously. The other side will often say things like, "Enjoying ___ media makes you a ___ supporter!" & "Anyone who writes ___ is a terrible person!" I would argue that these also have some truth to them, but they are also taken too far.

(If you like a fictional trope that has problematic or harmful indications, it's a good idea to unpack why you like that trope. What draws you to it? What enjoyment do you get out of it? A lot of times, the answers to this are not actually harmful, but they can be, and it's always good to self-reflect.)

Fictional stories are a way for us to feel aspects of the human experience that we cannot experience for ourselves. It's also a way for us to find catharsis when a character does experience something similar to our own lives. It's a way to broaden our views and feel our way through the wide range of human emotions. It is not meant to reflect life perfectly, and yet it is often done best when there are still echoes of reality embedded in its soul. (I digress, again.)

Communities - even online ones - thrive when the people in them are doing their best to be open to each other's perspectives.

Nuance is never easy in online spaces. When the person on the other side of a post is an anonymous little picture with no connection to your life, it's easy to take one small piece and blow it up to be your whole picture. They become that one post, that one hot take, or that one fic in your mind. But that's not people.

People are always learning, growing, maturing. Every skill takes time. Everyone has to start at their first step - even if it's the orphan story.

So keep talking about those tropes. Keep discussing the harmful trends that crop up across fandoms. Keep breaking down the root of the problem and sharing ways to build better ones.

But if you see someone in their 'orphan story' phase, understand that they are new and learning. They might need a push in the right direction or a friend to guide them for the better.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Ya know whats funny? (in a ugh way) The more you think about it the more V9 Trailer Proves they don't pay attention to what they've done in the last volume and neither does Most of the Fandom. Showing a 'Knight' and making it a possibility that its Juane in some form or fashion for RWBY to discover? well that'd be pretty hard since fell after them. Voice saying 'friends she made and lost' ? Well that's gonna be tough to make Juane a surprise of being the possible bad (ik ik) for it if he's the only one who would know about it. Said Voice saying about lessons learned when infact no real lessons were learned other than 'Do crime! It helps you and only you! =D' The 'What are you' part of the trailer just adds annoyance when that wasn't a consideration: She was acting so much like she knew what she was: 'huntsman' ( ' ' for obvious reasons) Girlboss (the bad kind that flunks everything and hurts everyone) Silver eye warrior that seems to have so little importance that no amount of extra cash grabs-sorry 'novels'- could fix the questions that get brought up. (Also alot of people bring up the area looking like PS2 Graphics and i'm like 'bruh even PS1 games had sharper power than this'.)

sorry last part maybe a rant but I had only seen parts of the trailer through images and didn't actually watch until now so its sharp in my mind..

The trailer sadly reminds us over and over again how little CRWBY and fans pay attention to the previous seasons. With the "and lost" portion we think the trailer shows when Weiss tells Ruby at least Penny is gone so that technically can be covered, but if Jaune is a bad guy I am not sure how CRWBY will build that tension with RWBY given they have no idea he fell.

Oh anon, do not get me started on my furious feelings regarding the whole "lessons learned" thing. If the show wants to act like it had the mains learn lessons, the show did jack shit to actually show it. The mains just have the narrative bend backwards to assure the mains they did absolutely nothing wrong and are perfect protagonists. They are not perfect though, they screwed up, a lot. And that isn't a problem anon! It really isn't. It's interesting and character building when characters screw up, the issue is, the narrative pretends their failures and screw ups are not in fact failures and screw ups. The mains will literally retell history to paint themselves in a better light and the fans of the show eat it up and treat it as law rather then being willing to analyze what is happening on screen and have an honest discussion about it, never mind the fact that the characters don't even do that. I could try and guess what the line "lessons learned" refers to but I don't have very high hopes that it will actually be something meaningful.

That is just as confusing a statement to be tossing around. We had no hints even that Ruby and co was questioning their decisions to be huntress's, and if the show is going to toss that in now? Well one I don't believe they will, but two if they are now....I mean it would be long long long overdue lolz. After all the shit they've pulled and lived through it would make sense for them to be questioning their choices but it also feels like it would be way to late to do that to have the same impact you know?

Hey don't apologize anon! I should apologize if I go all over the place I am very tired but I really wanted to reply to this tonight while the trailer was at least somewhat fresh in my mind lolz.

[ribbonpinky-art]

feeling melancholic and hopeless again. so im gonna just write out my emotions and none of it correlating. self pity post galore

im thinking about things. life is rough. so stressful. my mental illness is worsening by the day. lots of stuff happens behind the scenes that i choose to not talk about

and what im thinking about now, is that who was once one of my absolute comforts (junko).. im thinking abt that adorable little fumo plush of her i ordered several months ago is just sitting on top of my other plushies.. that i wasn't even excited to have her when she first arrived.

i didn't care.

and that hurt, knowing i didn’t, remembering how much she once meant to me.

same with my Chang’e. i want nothing to do with either of them now. they no longer bring me an ounce of comfort, only dread and remnants of a self indulgent story of kindness that once lifted me up. it all died. feels too idealistic. i feel like im too much of an outcast to let this story exist outside my private circles. i dont even want it anymore, or if i want to ever again

i think as of lately, focusing on oc’s (including ones i havent spoken of yet) has been better for my state of mind

doesnt help that im kiiinda only appreciated for my Junko works!!!! awesome!! i dont want to draw her anymore !!! fml!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! other people are better at drawing her than me anyway, ya wont miss me. lemme focus on my evil lady oc instead...

maybe im being melodramatic, and i do not care. perhaps in a few months i will be enamored with them again? idk. idc either

i feel more disconnected than ever to fandom, when i was seldom a part of any of it in the first place. im that person that exists on the outskirts, not really part of their community. im disconnected to people. i cant make connections with anyone, but i never could .. ok . i could, with a couple folks here and there. im grateful they want me around (not counting my partner of course, theyre the best thing thats ever happened to me. im not just lucky, im fortunate af we met at all)

im aware of my own issues- im autistic, im unmedicated when i probably need meds to regulate my emotions, i live in a toxic family. im triggered terribly easily, and when im hurt, it *hurts*.

 i fear that, because of my strange way of speaking and how a lot of my conversations are stilted, and what i perceive as unusual behavior-- i fear i make other people creeped out/uncomfortable. irl or otherwise. like, maybe ppl will be friendly to me at first, but after a year and i dont say much anything and im just this creepy, quiet weirdo to them now. and thats so silly. whats creepy about me?? im a pint size thing who cant even look anyone in the eye very well. is that creepy?? ok, i struggle to talk sometimes, i might be uninterested in conversation but i dont want to be disliked for it-- idk ((ok i have “Creep” by Radiohead set in my mind because of my mental state, and its kinda funny to me for some reason)

i genuinely feel like i lack intelligence. i suck at thinking. i suck at thinking of words, remembering things, and the tiny mistakes i do make are SO small that it should be impossible to make the mistake in the first place. was i always like this? i feel like i used to be smarter , lol

i am quite literally, a complete failure in my family. i cant stress the truth in that enough. even my grandmother is disappointed in me and only wants to see a text message from me saying i got a worthy job in my field. that only thing that matters to anyone, my one and only point of interest in everyone i speak to in my life even outside my family, is that i dont have a real job. thats it. everyone is waiting for me to be.. someone.

because im no one.

but none of them have been a particularly positive influence in my life, seeing as im stuck here.

i genuinely feel disgusting for existing. my body feels wrong to be in when i am visible to any human being. perhaps even to any animal and bug, too. i dont want to be looked at, to be remembered by anyone who wont understand me

nothing is changing!!!!! and when it is, its worse than before!! why cant i just be brave and GO

..

..

..

not all of this reflects reality. i beat myself up a lot. mirrin knows it. i know it.

it hurts

[sylvanfreckles]

No. 16: Bad Luck

Part 16 of Deck the Hells

Fandom: Critical Role Rating: T Warnings: violence, kidnapping, verbal abuse

Summary: Fresh Cut Grass is very nearly abducted. Good thing they remembered everything they've learned from their friends…including when to ask for help. (Read on AO3)

...

“Well, well. This must be my lucky day.”

Fresh Cut Grass stopped, not wanting to run the orc woman over. “Oh! Uh…smiley day to ya?”

She smiled, gold-capped tusks gleaming in the sunlight. “And who might you be, little one?”

“Why, I’m Fresh Cut Grass. And who are you?” they risked a glance around for any of their friends, but they were all alone at the moment. The others had scattered to different corners of the market.

“Are you just the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen?” the woman asked, crouching down to get a better look at them. “You can call me Bela.”

“Nice to meet you, Bela,” Fresh Cut Grass stuck out a hand, but the orc woman took it to examine instead of shaking it. “Well, I’d better go.”

“Not so soon,” Bela crooned. She tapped the casing on their right arm and flexed the joint. “You’re a marvel, aren’t you? Who was your maker?”

Imogen had taught them about this. Fresh Cut Grass gently pulled their arm out of the woman’s grasp. “I don’t think I’m comfortable with this line of questioning, Ma’am.”

She laughed. “Not comfortable? Don’t be silly. It’s just a simple question.” She reached out again, hands on either side of their face, tilting it this way and that to study. “I really must know more about this design. Who is your master?”

Ashton had taught them about this, too. “I don’t have one,” they declared proudly. “I’m my own being.”

“Really, now?” Bela’s smile deepened. “We both know that can’t be.”

“I’m gonna ask you to remove your hands from my person,” Fresh Cut Grass said, still keeping their voice polite. It wasn’t worth causing a scene here.

“Your person?” the woman laughed again. “You’re not a person, little one. You’re a machine. An object.”

Well, now they really weren’t comfortable with this conversation. Chetney had taught them something about this, but they weren’t ready to choose violence. “Well, you’re welcome to your opinion on that subject. If you’ll excuse me, I really must be off.”

“You just said you didn’t have a master, so where could you be rushing off to?”

“My friends are waiting for me.”

Bela smiled. She was smiling an awful lot, and it didn’t necessarily seem nice. She was showing a lot of teeth when she smiled. “How could something like you have friends?”

Ah, right. Laudna had taught them about this. “Well, to start, I’m a someone not a something.”

“Oh, of course you are.” With a nod, Bela slid a hand behind their shoulders and gently directed them out of the flow of traffic. Fresh Cut Grass went along with the momentum, if only to maintain the conversation.

“And friends are, you know, friends. You make ‘em yourself.”

“You poor thing,” Bela simpered. There was a sparkle to her words that shot right down into their central processer. “You should understand that they’re not your friends. Not really.”

They were pretty sure Dorian had taught them about this. Fresh Cut Grass concentrated, trying to follow the thread of Bela’s words. It was hard, but they managed to shake off the charm that was winding its way deeper into their being.

“That wasn’t very nice,” they said, blinking up at the orc woman. “I really have to go now.”

They tried to wheel away, but she put an arm in front of them, pushing them even further back into a nearby doorway. “You’re not going anywhere,” she whispered. Her voice was smooth and slick, nearly sapping the strength out of their body. “I’m sure you’re worth a lot of money to someone.”

Maybe it was time to try what Fearne had taught them. The flap on their chest popped open, and a gout of Sacred Flame scorched up Bela’s arm. She gave a shout of alarm and jumped back, then her face twisted in anger as she yanked a heavy cudgel off her belt.

“Fine. We do this the hard way,” she growled, shoving Fresh Cut Grass back into the room behind them. The cudgel came down, and though they tried to block the blow with one arm it was still strong enough to knock them over. Bela kicked them over, wrenched an arm behind their back. “You’re worth less as pieces, but a platinum’s a platinum,” she snarled in their ear.

All right. Orym had taught them about this.

Fresh Cut Grass took a deep breath—or at least what passed for breath with their kind. “Help!” they screamed as loud as they could, sending out an accompanying blast of psychic fear. “Somebody help! I’m being kidnapped!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Bela backhanded them, but that seemed to hurt her hand more than their face.

“Ashton!” Fresh Cut Grass yelled. They managed to wiggle away from Bela, but she tackled them before they could get to the door. “Orym! Anybody! Help me!”

A hard blow to the back of the head stunned them for a moment, and Bela yanked them further back into the room. “If you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll dismantle you now.”

If they’d had a heart, it would be pounding. As it was, that little coil of stress inside was winding tighter and tighter and tighter. They were afraid it would snap, and they’d become a monster again, and who knew what kind of damage they’d wreak with no one to stop them. They didn’t want to kill Bela, but they had to stop her before they cracked.

No one had taught them about this. The stress was winding tighter and tighter as Bela fought them. She was so much stronger, and every time they tried to call for help she just hit them. They tried to calm down, but that just seemed to leave an opening for her to hurt them again.

There was nothing they could do.

They closed their eyes in despair…when vines erupted from the ground to wrap around Bela and haul her away.

“FCG?” Fearne catapulted into the room, Mister shrieking on her shoulder. “Oh dear. Are you okay?”

They accepted her hand to be pulled onto their wheel, but she lifted them all the way into her arms to rest against her hip. “I think I’m okay,” they replied in a small voice.

“Well, you don’t look it,” Fearne replied. She was glaring down at Bela, who was still struggling with the vines. “What exactly were you doing to my friend?”

“Friend,” Bela spat. “You don’t make friends with things like that.”

Fearne glared at her, bouncing Fresh Cut Grass against her hip. “Well, that’s just your opinion. And it’s wrong.”

“Listen here, you—”

The faun raised her free hand, flinging a scorching ball of flame into Bela’s chest, knocking her back against the wall. “Do not talk to me or my friend ever again,” she replied.

“You poor thing,” she added, carrying Fresh Cut Grass out into the sunshine. It was much nicer when she said it, they decided. Comforting. Spoken like someone who wanted to take care of them, not just pity them. “Let’s go find Ashton, and we can watch them beat that woman up.”

They might have tried to dissuade her—Bela had probably suffered enough, and Ashton could be ruthless—but it felt nice to know they were surrounded by people who cared so much. “Thanks for saving me back there, Fearne.”

“Oh, anytime,” she replied, hugging them closer. “That’s what friends do.”

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

4 and 19 for the salty ask game

you didn't specify a fandom but im pretty sure you followed me for owl house stuff so i will assume you meant the owl house fandom.

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

lmao if youve followed me for any time at all you would know i fucking hate the huntlow ship. huntlow ship my beloathed <3< <3< <3< :333 at least how 90% of the fandom portrays them. ppl will see a white angsty boy and immediately find the one shippable girl and file down all her character and make her his emotional support decoration.

to be clear, huntlow in the actual show is fine. i don't think them getting together would add anything to their character arcs, and since the show is running on a tight schedule i think they should have just cut that subplot out. i think there are ways to make them interesting but the show doesn't have any time to do that. there's barely anything substantial about the ship in canon anyway so i think it's fine. it's ignorable if you dislike it and its enough to extrapolate into a funny post canon ship if you do. my opinion on huntlow in the show is like my opinion on gustholomule. it's fun to consider but it's obviously not important to the story i actually care about.

but the shippers??? hoooo the shippers. first of all while i don't like to think about most fandom stuff from the stance of representation it's really important that owl house is like. THE gay cartoon rn. the creator had to fight tooth and nail and write around a bunch of stuff to get queer couples on air and make the fandom more receptive to it outside of a fetishistic thing or a "cute background couple that everyone acknowledges is canon but no one actually explores" thing. and then the moment a blond boy looks at a girl everyone explodes. im not calling ppl bigoted for shipping it bc i dont know the exact reasons every single huntlow shipper likes the ship but the fact that they also try to use rep to justify it? even though 90% of them didn't give a shit about the non white boy half of the ship before the ship became a thing? not a great look for the average huntlow fan lmao.

also the mischaracterization of both characters, especially willow, is super annoying. it shouldn't be a hot take but characterizing willow to be a brute that tries to beat up everyone who looks at her wrong? and indicating that hunter, a survivor of child abuse, is attracted to her because of this? uhhhhh don't like that! its one thing to portray this and explore why its bad but that sure isn't what 90% of the shippers do! youre allowed to depict any dynamic you want but im allowed to say that depiction sucks shit! same with making willow to be either a 50s housewife or a manic pixie dream girl she isn't any of that? literally just make a self insert to ship hunter with if you want his ya love interest ass so bad.

anyway ive complained more about the huntlow ship and its place in fandom here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others. a lot of my points are in the tags lmao. that isn't to say all huntlow shippers are annoying some of them make genuinely good content thats in character for both of them! but the shipping community is. bad. and i already didn't care for the ship anyway so they haven't made my opinion better. it was a mistake for the show to put hunter's conventionally attractive angsty ass into a shippable position lmao.

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

I think part of this phenomenon is because the fandom skews younger since at the end of the day toh is a disney show rated for kids. but there's a phenomenon ive seen with a lot of young skewing fandoms where fans assume just because the thing they like is diverse, that automatically exempts them from being bigoted or even having implicite biases. like "i cant be racist my friend is black!" but it's with fandoms so they have even less of a leg to stand on. ive been guilty of that too in the past and im trying to examine my biases both in fandom and more importantly in real life.

the fandom has a serious favouritism towards the white and/or male characters. just look at the disparity of opinions on the blight parents, even before clouds on the horizon. or even better, before s2 when all we had on them was just a background shot in lilith's flashback. people were already portraying odalia as a catty evil woman and alador as his uwu tortured husband whos scared of her, before we even knew their names.

same goes for other female villains compared to the male ones. all the villains are different so there isn't a one to one comparison but generally, the reactions to villains like darius (right after his first appearance in edas requiem) and graye were a lot more nuanced. most people who talked about them were trying to write meta about them or finding them sexy or thinking about a redemption arc.

and compared to female villains like terra or kikimora? i am serious about this they were objectively more compelling villains than darius or graye in their debut, if you discount kiki's minor appearances in s1 and just look at hunting palismen, her first episode as a major villain. and yet most people talking about terra and kiki after the fact were just calling them bitches or other more sexist stuff i won't say. and being mad at them for...doing bad things to the protagonists? bc they're villains? i get the lack of thirsting but no serious meta? ive grumped about it here. also i wasn't in the fandom during the week between agony of a witch and young blood old souls where everyone wanted lilith's head on a stick but from what ive heard? yyyyeah i don't think they were just mad at her for being a villain.

same thing with the white characters people always give so much more focus on the white characters compared to the poc. luz had a bunch of angst like amity in season 1 but 99% of lumity content focused entirely on amity angst. the hyperfocus on hunter is something to note too. i get that fans love angsty characters. i do too. but him being a white boy definitely didn't hurt his popularity lmao.

its a problem in the show too so not all the blame falls on fans. the show focuses on majority white characters as well. even though the show is very racially diverse, luz's most important relationships except her mom are eda, amity, and hunter, and gus and willow are pushed to the side. same thing with their portrayal of some female characters i love what they did with terra and kiki but their portrayal of odalia...oof. i've grumped about that here.

but yeah if you point this out a lot of fans get uncomfortable or even angry at you for accusing them of, in their eyes, being a Bad Person who likes Bad Things and have Bad Thoughts. so they argue back that there's no definitive proof that any biases are happening on a personal basis. and yeah i can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that you're actually secretly racist or sexist but if you just look at general trends in the fandom? the bias is there. it's not a problem of individual people it's a problem of fandom culture.

anyway i don't want to say fans who do this are bad people because judging by the ages of some fans toh might be baby's first fandom for some of these kids. they haven't had enough life experience to really examine their biases or even determine their principles. it would be mean to condemn kids for having biases, especially since i also did that at their age and i'm still trying to deconstruct my biases now. these kids need to learn about nuance in media and also that fandom is not activism, but it's not my job to teach them this. this is annoying but it's a reasonable price for being in fandom. especially a fandom for a show targeted at kids.

[couhawla]

WELCOME

hello fellow loser! i’m celine and you’ve stumbled upon my multifandom sideblog. this little pinned post is going to be a about me to get to know me and what this blog is about better. i kindly ask you to at least take a quick scan of this post, especially if you are planning on interacting with me and want to avoid issues/a block (i love blocking ppl, so be careful ;))

below the read more you will find everything you need to know. if you need clarification, please do so!

celine

22 years old

she/her (female)

mixed (white-black)

german-american (bilingual too!)

finishing my marketing bachelor

this blog will include me being a horny bitch, saying mature things and interacting with mature things

i'm not planning on anything hardcore, but i can't promise anything lol

because of this, i will not be interacting with anybody that doesn't have a age 18 and over VISIBLE in their bio

i know some of you youngins will lie about your age (i sure did hehe), but respect the fact that talking to you guys about this stuff makes reasonable adults uncomfortable

this blog focuses more on videogames i'm currently playing, but will likely include tv and movie fandoms in the future fandoms include:

dragon age

mass effect

skyrim

fallout

legend of zelda

animal crossing

sims 4 (probably won't be posted here)

stardew valley

roots of pacha

cyberpunk 2077

pokemon

horizon franchise

probably more lol this is specifically for dragon age fans since that is what i'm currently fixated on lol:

i am vehemently a anti-solas, anti-anders, anti-sera person

meh about morrigan, sten and vivienne

cullen is my canon romance in inquisition

my inquisitor canonically supports the templars

my mage!hawke is torn between templars and mages

i personally think circles should be repurposed and restructured

mages are inherently dangerous due to their nature of being easier to possessed and people aren't wrong to fear them

comparing mages, a group of people that is easily possessed by demons, with marginalized groups (especially people of color) makes YOU racist, so don't call other people racist for supporting templars or supporting circles ya hypocrite :)

people's choices in a videogame doesn't inherently make them bigots, racists, etc. in real life...its a vidyagame ya loser if any of this bothers you strongly and makes you want to argue with me or be a little brat, i recommend you block me and find something to do that makes you happy (or i'll block you :0!)

"Proshipping is essentially the belief that problematic and taboo subjects should not be censored in media and that people should be able to enjoy whatever they want in fiction without being harassed over it. Being proship does not mean supporting every problematic trope or ship..."

by this definition of proshipping, i would be considered a proshipper, especially in terms about the harassment. if you enjoy taboo subjects like pedo*philia, in*cest, ra*pe, ra*ce play, etc. have fun BUT your ships are not welcome here if they fall in line with this. i will not harass you, i will not give you a speech. i will judge you in my head, but i will say nothing towards you. i will simply block you and move on with my day.

i will also not go through people's blogs to check that their ships fall in line with this from the get go. i'm 22 and a college student finishing my bachelor's degree, i don't have that kind of time anymore. if i do follow you and notice suspicious posts or you make suspicious remarks, i probably will look through your blog and make judgements.

please respect what i'm doing here. i have no interest in being part of this discourse. i spent the last 5+ years not really interacting with fandoms outside of reading my little fanfics, so the discourse is lost on me.

the obvious racism, misogyny and bigotry is not welcome here under absolutely no circumstance!!!

[shy-magpie]

RQG 165

Live blog under the cut

"Hide the fang" sounds like a euphemism, either for killing someone or sex

I love how fast Alex is getting.

Oh first minor storm, so they got some experience with normal issues before hitting magical territory

Briefing time. Oh the one hand I still want to like Earhardt: mostly due to lingering affection from the trip to Prague, but also because I don't want to write her off over what she is like in her worst moments. On the other hand, racism isn't "I said something stupid because I was in a mood"; being reckless with the lives of other people, especially people who trust you, isn't something that can just be overlooked.

Yeah cold turkey is not the kind way to help someone break addiction. Sounds like she is actually doing better physically and mentally.

Having trouble reading her tone, she seems almost bored with the possibility of them being in danger? Ok she sounds a bit more "here" now that its moved to specifics and actionables.

Well those are some things to keep aware of.

They are to shoot at white flags? That's a bit of a line, I expected more protest but Hamid is trying to stay out of the rank issues. Zolf kind of has to back her right up until he mutinies. Cel is noted as baffled. Not sure how this hits Azu. She sort of has a point in that she was hired as an expert and for all we know pretending to be in distress is a common tactic around here.

Helen obliges the needs of the story by having Azu request an exposition dump from Hamid. Aw its nice to hear him recognized for what he knows not just what he does but he sounds nervous or hesitant. It is kind of scary when you are turned to as the one who knows the most on a subject but you know how far from an expert you are. Plus he learned in University so explaining things with accessible language when you only discussed it in a place that values jargon is hard.

Fredrick gives a practical example.

Oh Cel has experience because people live in Wild Magic areas in America.

Elf Lore! Elf Lore! Elf Lore!

Oh nomadic Elves in the North; not all Elves are nomadic these are because they are ducking the shifts of Wild Magic.

Cel is confused because they expect similar groups living in the Wild Magic areas of Russia.

Zolf clarifies that the warning is restricted to people approaching from the air. Which fair enough, everyone said how risky this is as a one time thing to save the world so probs not worth it on a regular basis.

Fredrick says staying high is protective.

Hamid is checking in on Wilde with daily gossip sessions so he doesn't isolate himself.

Re: Wilde's theories:

Eh I'm not personally a Fredrick/Siggif shipper but I could see where someone else might.

Kiko is a wild card and may hit on more than one person. Well yes? Good for her? My understanding is that part of declaring clear interest early is willingness to move on if not reciprocated rather than pining at them all voyage.

Hamid tells Wilde about Siggif being interested in Azu.

Wilde thinks someone should "take the bullet for the team but it might help everyone if Earhardt got some action while they are up here". To which Hamid grimaces, because yeah.

Except for the last it sounds like Wilde is mildly hung up on people's sex lives when personally I find unofficial rank/alliances/who looks to who more interesting but allos amirite? Even in fandom discussions with other aces, shipping is often the easiest lens to discuss relationships/dynamics between characters.

The last was not the kind of joke I like but I think was made to make a point about Wilde not being as deft at his little games anymore and forcing things. So I am going to take a moment at Hamid's grimace rather than be distracted from listening. Wilde always did like playing with boundary pushing. Hell, the first time we met him in the series, he broke into Hamid's apt mostly in a "and what ya gonna do about it" move. He might have grown on me but the man can be an ass.

Altruism!?! Also did he just imply Hamid should be the one to sleep with her?

Aw Hamid is encouraging the Kobolds to be more individual

Huh not following the transition back to Wilde.

Oh no rolling for it. Kobolds make themselves real scarce when not working. I think thats a good sign like they aren't afraid they'll get in trouble for taking time for themselves where the boss can't reach them.

Cel remains awesome and wants to develop their friendship with Skraak specificly. Aw Lydia wants to clarify it was friendship not to gain this mechanical stuff Alex is giving Cel. So 3 ranks in Kobold culture

Hamid is careful to not intrude on Cel & Skraak's time. He knows he needs to be gentle & give them lots of room so they don't get frightened, but he knows he needs to put in the work to break down that "the world will end if the boss gets mad" thing.

Oh Kobolds have a thing about people knowing where they sleep.

Yes the Sasha joke was necessary.

Oh Cel figures out where they are likely to sleep so they never come across them accidentally.

They have a simple game called hide the fang. Its not a euphemism, it just means hiding an actual fang. They are actually playing a silly game just for them and Cel is the only one out of the cohort they trust.

Lydia wants Cel & Skraak to actually be friends. They are also encouraging(?) Azu and Kiko.

Azu finds a package in the crows nest. Its ticking. She takes it to Zolf who goes with her to show it to Cel.

I love this image of Cel in the engine room.

I love Cel. Few things scarier than a clock/the passage of time.

Cel opens it with extendable tools. They have a complete set of extendable tools and Lydia makes it sound sensible. Cel is relaxed because they think its a courting gift from one of Azu's admirers. Zolf is hovering prepared to heal them after the inevitable explosion.

It is trapped so opening it leads to a small explosive charge, but Alex has his 'I'm up to something' voice on & I half remember seeing a spoiler before ducking. Plus Lydia doesn't take it as an actual threat.

Confetti!?!

Alex the condition of the clock is not our priority here. Come back after explaining what the heck is happening.

Cel was actually right from their first guess

There is a note.

Azu is still on the "wait we trust this thing stage" and Zolf is leaving now that he isn't needed.

Cel is dangling the note over Azu's head

"sorry. Here's a clock."

So its an apology from Siggif? Ok that tracks

Please like Carter would be that direct.

She was engaged when she followed the palidan of Aphrodite? "He couldn't come with" and they are friends, he's a potter.

Rock popouri sounds neat

Oh Azu tried to move on but the woman wasn't as serious about it.

Cel was married!?! Multiple times!?! Ah they have a healthy attitude and are imparting their wisdom on Azu.

Azu has the fang behind her ear.

Oh ow, really Sasha never got to do a slight of hand but Cel is using it for the fang game? Oh she did to cheat at cards with Azu.

That viral post was awesome.

Lydia teases us about that roll being the pivot point in whether Cel would have pursued Azu, but she already expressed concerns about a romance with that kind of age gap & as half the players involved that is a totally valid line. You don't need to like, read, or write, much less play a romance that makes you uncomfortable.

Unusual rock formations? If you squint it looks like it says "do not go here"

Azu picks up Hamid on the way to take this news to Zolf who is in the kitchen.

"Draal has been continuously underfoot" smelling and tasting things

Zolf keeps shouting "what do you want?". Draal keeps giving him double thumbs up and going "nice".

Zolf bumps this up the chain to Earhardt immediately.

Hamid knows mountains are in the area in general but not the specifics because maps are incomplete.

Azu apologizes for not looking to Earhardt so Zolf stops to reassure her that she did it right.

Hamid takes a look from the crows nest, there are shifting colors and it looks spikey.

Zolf is professional and efficient in reporting to Earhardt. She joins Hamid in the crows nest. Hamid is polite about asking if they should turn as well as raise the ship.

Zolf summons everyone with the "oh no" bell

Oh there is a borealis, wasn't that a sign of high magic Cel said the nomadic Elves avoided?

Its a rib cage so big they mistook it for a mountain?

Its a bear? "its a grizzly sight" it died about a year ago and has been picked clean.

"Hamid is just muttering swear words...because he can't cope" The cohort is forming a chain off the rail to get a better look. Zolf is falling into hunting the kracken mode. Cel is unimpressed, this is bigger than any they saw in America. (20 stories vs US's 3)

Wilde sounds lively and shares a dirty joke with Hamid.

There are more? Several more?Oh its corpses as far as the eye can see but in an 'elephant's graveyard' way not a 'what killed them' way

They risk going into the cloud cover to stay well above it. Hamid marks it on his map as "ursa major". Alex has to make it ominous.