#i like thinking about the worst versions of my characters

[imaswellkid]

Get to know your moots ✨

Thank you for the tag @morallyinept 🧡 I love reading yours and everyone’s answers ☺️ Genuinely love this game.

What's the origin of your blog title? It's from a Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, and something I want to be.

OTP(s) + Shipname: Han & Leia, Anora & Igor.

Favourite colour: orange, green.

Favourite game: Time’s up, but not the board version. When you use little scraps of paper and write down names you know are going to confuse your opponents and favour your teammates.

Song stuck in your head: Toxic, the Fargo season 5 version.

Weirdest habit/trait? I can’t finish a hot drink. Always leave one last sip at the end. Apparently, I already did that with my milk bottles.

Hobbies: napping, going to the movies, visiting exhibitions, writing, building Lego.

If you work, what's your profession? Archivist.

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? Frankie Morales’ hat.

Something you're good at: hugs.

Something you're bad at: so many. Frying meat. Taking a compliment.

Something you love: my people. Cliffs. Hugs.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Frankie Morales, Star Wars, Paris, my job.

Something you hate: hate. I don’t like gossip either.

Something you collect: Star Wars pins, Star Wars Lego, Star Wars T-shirts, shells and little rocks, ticket stubs, and @fuckyeahpaperco everything.

Something you forget: my phone.

What's your love language? Touch.

Favourite movie/show: my favourite movies of 2024 are Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant and Anora. For shows, I very much enjoyed Fargo and everything Star Wars.

Favourite food: cheese and peanut butter. Not together, though.

Favourite animal: Matthias Schoenaerts in Bullhead. Alright, dogs.

What were you like as a child? Independent, serious, on a bike most of the time.

Favourite subject at school? History.

Least favorite subject? Math. Fuck you, math.

What's your best character trait? Fuck me, I've no idea. I think I always try my best?

What's your worst character trait? Constant self-deprecation and chronic lack of self-confidence.

If you could change any detail of your day right now, what would it be? I’d be sitting next to Frankie in his truck. He’d have that look on his face that says, wait till we get home, I’m gonna fuck you into next week.

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? Scott Fitzgerald, Jeanne d’Arc and Frida Kahlo.

Recommend one of your favourite fanfics (spread the love!): my favourite of all time will always be Take Me To Church by @frannyzooey 🧡

NP tags: @frannyzooey @pedrit0-pascalit0 @dreamymyrrh @nicolethered @julesonrecord @angiewatson @just-here-for-the-moment @whatsnewalycat @ithinkwehitametaphor @obiknights and anyone who feels like sharing 🧡

[team-canon]

I refuse to do it badly no matter what you ask.

Persona is a game series about exploring the human psyche. People always joke about the anime tropes and the dating sim aspects, but it makes it work better in my opinion, because the characters being archetypal and having a mechanic designed to let you get to know them better makes that exploration of the psyche much easier. You see these characters at their best and worst, and it reflects in the form of unnatural entities created by the subconscious; Shadows, which are a dark and bastardized caricature of the person's innermost secret they don't want to share, and Personas, entities that a person can create from within themselves, forged from those same inner feelings and fueled by accepting them, which does its creator's bidding and has the power to harm the Shadows and other creatures inside the "other world"(for lack of a better term) that exists in a different form in each game.

The Persona as a concept is a whole discussion on its own, but in simplest terms, there's several hundred, some of them specialized to and only used by one person, others able to manifest for anyone that can go through the arcane process that allows their use. Regardless, the Persona's name, appearance, and power all comes from various folklore characters throughout history and culture, a part of the collective will of mankind

In Persona 1, the entire town is plunged into the other world of that particular game, and the main character Naoya has to get his school back in order while he and his friends work their way through the complex mystery of why all this happened in the first place.

Persona 2 is in two parts, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. IS is about the new protagonist Tatsuya, a reporter named Maya, Tatsuya's classmates, and some of the party members from Persona 1, all trying to figure out what happened in the town of the setting, that causes people's wishes and rumors to come true at the cost of reality bending further and further. EP takes place a year or two later, with Maya as the protagonist, working to uncover why no one else remembers what happened in Innocent Sin, and why the same type of events are happening all over again

Some people think Persona 3 is the real start, but that's a weak stance. That said, 3 is where the social elements get introduced, so I appreciate it all the same. The story follows a boy named Minato, or, as an option in the PSP version, a girl named Hamuko, who moved to a dorm in a new city, and discovers that the other kids in the dorm, like Minato himself, have the ability to use a Persona, and they all have been tasked with using their power to investigate the massive dungeon tower known as Tartarus, believed to be the taproot of the Shadows that plague humanity every midnight. But the real fun is that, because it's only a nighttime problem, in the day when everything is normal, Minato can go to school, take tests, do part time jobs, go on dates, and bond with friends, and in doing so better understand other people and himself, and through these crafted bonds awaken the power to summon and wield more Personas, becoming more and more powerful during the Shadow Hunts.

Persona 4 sees Yu, the protagonist, going to live with his uncle Dojima and(painfully cute) cousin Nanako for a school year. In the small town they live in, he and some friends he make find that there's another world, accessed by going into a TV, where Shadows swarm them, Yu can summon a Persona to fight those Shadows, and also there's a giant talking teddy bear that people either love or hate. At the same time as that, mysterious murders have been happening in the town, which the bear helps Yu and crew figure out have been done inside the world within the TV, so the students band together to use the power of Persona to explore inside the TV and find out who the killer is. But on the way, they discover what was hinted at in earlier titles: Shadows are created directly from the darkest thoughts of a person, and inside the other world, a Shadow can form themselves to look like a person and goad the one they look like into doing things they wouldn't normally do

Persona 5 goes the opposite way fro. 4, sort of. Ren is the protagonist, sent to a different city after getting in trouble with the law, made to stay with a friend of his parents who doesn't trust him, and made to feel like an outcast in the school he's sent to, he and other outcasts find a talking cat, and that cat leads them to a place that he tells them is made by the human collective unconscious. In this place, everyone has a mask put on them, and Shadows roam halls of places called Palaces, bastions of indulgence where a person's belief of themselves being something creates a reality where a Shadow if them is that for real. And when Ren and the other outcasts remove their masks, remove the representation of the facade out up by society's rules, the mask becomes a Persona that can fight against the Shadows, and if the one that created the Palace is defeated, the person who made it will give up on what lifestyle choices they made to reach that point. With this, the outcasts become the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, and vow to pull heists on the Palaces of people they feel have wronged them or society in some way, to make them give up on their poor actions and confess to their crimes, with the ultimate goal of going after the corrupt politician who was the reason Ren came here in the first place

There's a lot more. A LOT more. But this is the simplest description I could do. If you want more, we can talk in PM, or you can ask someone who can speak more concisely

Someone explain the Persona games to me, someone who knows nothing about Persona.

[ronqueesha]

A youtube reaction channel I like watched "The Fly" this month, and it got me thinking about blorbo thoughts.

It occurred to me, that if Sarit had been a little more careful with her experiments, she might not have gone on the run from the United Colonies authorities. She would not have tried to lay low in a small independent mining operation on Vectera, and she would not have stumbled across the artifacts and the galaxy-spanning adventure that opened her eyes to so many new things.

A Sarit who did not accidentally fall into the greatest adventure in the galaxy would have ended up a lot like Jeff Goldblum's character in The Fly. Not so much with the gross body horror stuff, but with his ego and narcissism. His self-centeredness and intellect overcoming his basic humanity.

Well... maybe a little gross body horror stuff. Sarit without a found family to give her love and support, as well as her deep bond and eventual marriage with Andreja, would have allowed her obsessive madness to continue unchecked. More parts of her organic body would have been cut out and disposed of, replaced by perfect and efficient machines that would ensure she never had to suffer with a broken body again.

Rather than how Cyberpunk generally keeps it mechanical augmentations in a basic human form, I could see Sarit not caring about retaining the original shape of the human body she dislikes so much. She would be obsessed with efficiency and the full capabilities of technology melded with her mind. I could see her looking more and more like a Warhammer tech priest the longer she was allowed to let this go on.

(art by Nictanova)

All that being said, however. Sarit isn't nearly as practiced as a Warhammer tech priest or a Cyberpunk ripperdoc when it comes to replacing body parts with machines. She's just a mad scientist with a spooky lair with robot assistants. It's very likely that a Sarit who never when on this life-changing journey with her Constellation family would have simply died on her own operating table after one operation too many.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

I can understand someone not liking Gansey that much but I Can Not imagine calling him boring. Sir that’s President Freak of Clowntown right there…

[royaltea000]

you mentioned the demons strike back (2017) and even though wukong's demon monkey real form is scary as fuck, it also got me hnnnghhhhhhhhhhhh thAT RASPY DEEP VOICE , JESUS!

Too fucking true - listen. I may have found the human version soooo fucking hot but I am a monsterfucker first and foremost those longass fangs they gave him got me titillated and afraid at the same time smile at me again monkey boi 😳

[cluescorner]

Randomized Robins AU - Ages + Worst Trait Exercise:

Steph (25):

Says her worst trait is her murderous rages (she is exaggerating for dramatic/comedic effect, she’s killed 3 people tops and for very good reason)

Thinks her worst trait is her spitefulness (one of the few traits she definitely got from her father + one that prevents her from fixing her relationships and living her best possible life. She’ll refuse to interact with someone she dearly loves after an argument (happens significantly less after Tim’s death) or will say things she knows are hurtful just for the sake of having the last word. This trait will worsen in some ways as the list of people who have wronged her and those she loves grows, but will also ease up as she matures and realizes the harm it’s doing to her relationships with those she loves most.)

Her worst trait really is her spitefulness

Cass (26)

Says her worst trait is her self-righteousness (she believes that her goals are righteous and, as a result, she is righteous. Cass becomes very defensive whenever someone questions the mission and often does not second-guess herself. This is a trait she only develops later in life as she grows closer to Bruce/learns to understand herself more/starts to love herself more. But she knows she isn’t perfect and when somebody she trusts criticizes something she is doing she is willing to listen. She just usually isn’t the one to START the introspection.) 

Thinks her worst trait is her self-righteousness. 

Her worst trait actually is her obsessiveness (she gets it from Bruce and, while not as bad as him, she will easily become preoccupied with her night-life and the mission if someone isn’t there to pull her back. She will do this to the point of self-destruction and it hurts her relationships with the people she loves, especially Steph.)

Tim (24)

Says his worst trait is his spitefulness (he actively rejects the idea of mending his relationships with the older members of the family and this causes him to also lack good relationships with the younger ones)

Thinks his worst trait is his obsessiveness (similar to Cass, if he gets fixated on a task or idea he will neglect everything else in his life in order to dedicate more time to it. Unlike Cass, he will almost never be dragged away from it unless Pierrot snatches control of the body and forces them to take care of themself.)

His worst trait actually is how manipulative he is (the KING of guilt-tripping and using people’s emotions against them. He’ll do whatever he needs to do to get what he wants, he’s not above crocodile tears. And he will do it to whoever he needs (or wants) to with little care for how his actions impact others.)

Pierrot (Insists: “Age doesn’t apply to me! And even if it did, I'd probably be the oldest. Or the youngest! I’d never be a middle child, though.” Mental assessments by the Bats have put him around 21, with a margin of error of 3 years. Pierrot has called this “blatant character assassination by my eternal rival!”)

Says his worst trait is that he is an irredeemable psychopath without any regard for the wellbeing of others (this is a lie and everyone who's important to him understands this). 

Thinks his worst trait is his parasitic nature (he literally would not exist had Tim not suffered the way he did. Plus he is a living reminder of one of the worst things that happened to many of his loved ones. He is a parasite injected into a functional person's body and contributes to his continued suffering. This is also a largely incorrect judgement of himself, caused by his actual worst trait.)

His worst trait actually is his limited sense of self (he doesn’t really know who he is outside of ‘inheritor to the legacy of the Joker (a man he despises yet also views as a father)’ and ‘chip in Tim’s brain that became sentient’. He slowly develops an identity over the course of his life and relationships with other people, but he lacks the foundations of identity that most people have. Pierrot will often almost become a caricature of himself and what others perceive him to be because it's the only person he knows how to be. This causes wild swings in how he behaves and relates to others, sometimes to the detriment of himself and others.)

Dick (17) 

Says his worst trait is his clinginess (he is a very extraverted person who likes to be around others, which mixed with his fear of abandonment after his parents died means that if he goes a few days without seeing/talking to a friend he will get very anxious.)

Thinks his worst trait is his anger issues (he gets ticked off very easily and will explode on people. He’s kind at his core and is usually very nice, but he has a temper that can escalate significantly. Spoiler (and later Twist) help him channel this anger into something positive.)

His worst trait actually is his anger issues.

Barbara (18)

Says her worst trait is her disability (internalized ableism, she thinks of herself as less valuable than the other Bats because she cannot be out there in the capes like they can. She will grow out of this as she matures and as she learns how invaluable her support for the team is.)  

Thinks her worst trait is her disability 

Her worst trait actually is her overly-independent nature (In an attempt to overcompensate for everything she can no longer do, she has resolved to do literally everything that she possibly can without any help from others. This results in many instances where she either takes on too much and winds up not being able to fully realize any of her tasks or where she makes her life and the lives of others significantly harder by refusing help when offered/not asking for it when she needs it.)

Damian (16)

Says his worst trait is his perfectionism (he is overly critical of both himself and others, taking any flaw or problem and amplifying it to an absurd degree. This is due in part to his life with the LoA (where even a brief misstep could lead to death), in part to how others treated him initially as Spoiler (any flaw was fixated on and used as a reason to either mistrust him or portray him as unworthy of the mantle), and in part due to the fact that he is Bruce’s son (the only person with worse perfectionism problems than Damian). Gradually, Damian has improved in this regard but it’s still a massive barrier to both his own happiness and his relationships with others.)

Thinks his worst trait is his perfectionism 

His worst trait actually is his perfectionism

Duke (16)

Says his worst trait is his definitely-real secret evil side (says this as a ‘my dad is a villain so who knows??’ joke)

Thinks his worst trait is his impulsivity in his words (Sometimes he will crack a joke or say a remark without thinking it through, leading to a LOT of hurt feelings and drama. He’ll say something without thinking it through and wind up seeming insensitive. This isn’t done because of malice, rather because Duke is someone who’s quick to act and speak. But while the mantle of Insight and his awakening powers have helped him with his actions, they do not always help with his loose tongue. As such, Duke gains an unfair reputation in the media as an instigator and will accidentally cause family drama through what he says.)

His worst trait actually is his impulsivity in his words

Jason (14)

Says his worst trait is his bad manners (he grew up on the streets and has no idea how rich-people society works, which he’s pretty insecure about considering he’s now the youngest kid of Bruce freaking Wayne). 

Thinks his worst trait is his reactiveness (Jason never got the privilege of planning ahead for various events in his life, so he instead needed to rely on being swift and harsh in how he could react to situations. It’s saved his life on multiple occasions and helps significantly in his role as Spoiler, but it can also lead to extreme overreactions (accidentally causing kidnapping scare after Jason ran away following a fight with Dick) and a struggle to plan things out ahead of time. As he grows more secure in his place in the family and in life, this trait will lessen but never fully dissipate.)

His worst trait actually is his reactiveness

[destructive-delight]

something that's been becoming increasingly clear to me this year is that i don't actually get bsd at all...

[mostofthingsmostofthetime]

Just finished the show a few days ago, so that's why I'm only just posting this now.

[francy-sketches]

I'm gonna have to work on my final project non stop for like a month straight bc I procrastinated on it too much fuck my stupid baka life

[wellhungspeaker]

sometimes i feel a little weird doing fandom-y things for rhps (because ive never been in a fandom this small before also because it just feels a little weird sometimes) and ill doubt myself and think "does everything NEED a fandom?? scoffs" even though. im hyperfixated super crazy style.

but then i remember that i have no mouth and i must scream has a fandom and i realize that life (fandoms) finds a way and if there is at least one person who likes something, there's probably going to be fanfic about it and some kind of ship WILL be involved

[theprincessandthepie]

ough. just watched some fanvids that got me thinking about an old fandom of mine.

[greenerteacups]

I absolutely adore the way you write Harry and Ron as clever and snarky in their own ways (Harry's conversation with Snape was hilarious and clever in Norberta). All too often in Dramione fanfics they are shown as lesser than because writers want to make Draco and Hermione exceptional, but your D and H are incredibly interesting and smart on a level that still allows them to shine next to remarkably wonderful Harry, Ron and all the other fascinating characters you write

Thank you so much! This is a really touching compliment, because I share the same pet peeve. Something I was careful of when writing the fic was not to pitch Harry and Ron too OOC (as with all canon divergences, you increasingly can't help it, and I think it shows in Harry the most — I just have to steer him a bit harder than JKR does in order to develop him when I can't rely on his internal monologue). I think there are three major reasons that Harry and Ron get washed out in Dramione fics — the first being a simple plot mechanic to get Hermione alone and in a mental state where she would be open to a connection with Draco, which, admittedly, is pretty unlikely if Harry and Ron remain in the picture. By the time OOTP wraps, she and Draco are just so ensconced in their separate social circles that she seems to regard him as irrelevant in HBP, so obviously, if they're going to get together sometime in that timeframe or afterward, their social situations need to change. On the other hand, though, if a fanfiction is taken in some respects as a theoretical argument for how a ship could happen, I always thought Harry/Ron bashing was implicitly a sort of weak argument for D/H, because it requires Hermione to be totally iced out of her own friend group before she considers Draco as a friend or partner. Not to mention that you lose the opportunity to develop these rich auxiliary relationships (Hermione and Harry as unofficial siblings, Draco and Harry as foils, Draco and Ron as foils, Harry and Ron as platonic soulmates) that provide shape and contrast to Draco and Hermione's relationship. The books are a story about love and family! Different kinds of love! And deep platonic love, honestly, more than anything else!

The other side of the coin is that bashing sometimes happens as a natural consequence of having to Do Something About Ron. The need to retcon Hermione's crush and/or relationship and/or marriage with Ron to clear the stage for Draco means that a fanfic author has to just fiat some stuff from the books out of existence. And so you get Death Eater Ron, or Ron as a terrible boyfriend, or cheating, or just being cruel. Or dead! I've read a few where Ron just gets unceremoniously fridged, which is maybe a little better than character assassination, but also pretty sad for all rare us Dramione Ron Enjoyers. Like, I don't think that Ron and Hermione would work out, but I think that's because they share zero interests and tend to aggravate each other's insecurities, not because they don't care about each other, or God forbid, that Ron was secretly a shit person and a bad friend for seven years.

Then you have the final group, which is people who actually do dislike Ron for his behavior in the text. Everyone has that right, so I don't hate, and I can especially understand it if you read his arcs in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows a certain way (I hate the first half of Deathly Hallows, actually, almost exclusively because of the dumb ass Ron's Vacation subplot). JKR doesn't do him any favors here, because she doesn't give him a real reconciliation with Harry or Hermione before he comes back in Deathly Hallows — all their fights sort of end with a shrug and a joke and a comment like, "wow, that sucked, let's not do that again," which is not unrealistic, if you're talking about teenagers, but also does not solve the problem that caused the fight, and we know that because it keeps happening in other books: someone steps on Ron's feelings, he lashes out, they get hurt, and instead of asking for sympathy or trusting his friends to mend his feelings if he explains them, he storms off to sulk. (This is a pattern that I imagine starting at the Burrow, when poor Arthur and Molly just wouldn't have had time to have proper sit-downs and debriefs whenever their kids fought, and so Ron's self-soothing method was to isolate — we see hints of this in Chapter 32-33, and again near the end of Chapter 38 — until he can pretend to get over it.) But going from just canon, it's not impossible to come up with a reading of Ron as this selfish jerk who gets jealous of his friends and screws them over when he gets mad at them. A lot of those people come to Dramione for the catharsis of watching Hermione find a bond with someone who just... doesn't do that, and I don't blame them at all. All the same, I hope Lionheart!Ron can offer an opportunity to experience the joys of Ron Enjoyment for a wider demographic.

[andthebubbles]

tfw you're deliberately making yourself so attached to your fictional characters to combat loneliness

anyway i miss them. i was just writing them yesterday lmao

[new-eyes-extra-colors]

Is Shaun Nora's child? If so, does she view X6 as family due to his closeness to Father, or just as a friend?

shaun is nora's biological child, yep, and post-institute when asked she says she has two sons (referring to shaun and synth!shaun--but a minor plot point in my fic is that she doesn't tell anyone about synth!shaun being a synth. if pressed for details, she just says her eldest passed away recently and that typically shuts down any further questions).

oh, edited to add bc i don't think i was clear: she treats synth!shaun as a son too. she takes to him straightaway. he's still a child who views her as his mother, and she still wants to be a parent. they have a good relationship.

she does view x6 as family, but in a found-family sort of way that doesn't have anything to do with them sharing dna. she thinks shaun calling himself "father" is extremely--i think paternalistic is the right word, and she emphatically does not approve. she feels family is a lot more than genetic material, and so is parenthood, which relates back to her family situation mentioned here.

she and x6 grow close as they work together and kind of outside the bounds of father's knowledge. x6 is a smart guy and figures out nora's still working for the railroad, and for his own reasons keeps it to himself, and nora's aware that if she actually reported how snarky and independent x6 is, he'd be sent to reconditioning. so their relationship is tense for a while, but eventually grows genuine and very close.

i think outside of nick, x6 is the companion she's closest with by the end of things.

[chromaticroses]

self care is blocking v3 haters ☺️🙏

[kerorowhump]