#i love rarity just can never draw her right so i just kinda do whatever i want🤷🤷

[serendippertyy]

A raripie for the soul please <3

gf inspired cupcakes 😋💙

[unhealthyfanobsession]

Omg I love all your drabbles they are so amazing and brilliant I can’t believe you do that for free! What a blessing you are!! I was wondering whether there would be a part four to the vacation au and if not could you do maybe more jealous Cassian but in your lawyer au I’m obsessed but honestly anything you write has me happy!

This is so sweet I am so glad you’re loving the drabbles! I did a second part to the vacation AU a couple days ago so I’m going to go with Jealous Cassian in the lawyer AU. I already *kind* of did this but I’ve been doing jealousy light lately and this time we are cranking it up to 100. This one is kinda long and pretty angsty and I think I definitely need to smoosh all these lawyer drabbles into a mini story that follows Nessian from meeting while studying for the bar exam and then through snippets of their careers so maybe that’s what I’ll do next.

Actually facing Nesta in court was an extreme rarity. All of her non pro Bono work was strictly solicitor. Drafting contracts and negotiating deals in different chic board rooms with little glass bottles of Perrier and complimentary latte carts trolling the halls.

Nesta thought that she didn’t want to litigate. She thought that people didn’t like her and because of that she was a bad advocate. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Watching Nesta fight for something that she believed in, truly believed in, was the closest thing to a religious experience Cassian had ever known.

“And I would urge you to consider in your decision, your honour, the fact that even if it should apply in this case, the very law my learned friend is attempting to uphold is currently under review by the Supreme Court and may soon be overturned on the basis of being unconstitutional as well as unconscionable.” Nesta took a pregnant pause.

“If that happens. If this law is overturned, as you well know, it will not be retroactively helpful to my client. My client who was born here. My client who grew up in Queens. My client who can draw you a map of which bodegas has the best coffee vs the best sandwiches and their proximity to the nearest train, and if that doesn’t qualify her as an American, and a New Yorker, then I don’t know what does.” The judge smiled a little at that. It was a calculated risk, the emotional appeal. But Judge Miluski was already on Nesta’s side and she was a born and bread New Yorker and she had the rare distinction of being a member of the judiciary with a sense of humour. “If this law is overturned, which we both know is highly likely, then my client will be sent to another country, a country she has never even been to, not because she did anything wrong, but because this trial happened a few weeks too-”

Nesta trailed off, eyes caught at the quietly opening gallery door. A man stepped in. Tall and thin and… greasy. Hair slicked back with so much product Cassian didn’t think he’d feel it if he hit him on the head with a hammer. Which he desperately wanted to do. That brutish, violent, raised in foster homes in Harlem side of him that even a legal education and a closet full of Armani suits could never quite polish out of him lit on fire at the sight of this creep. This asshole who was wearing fucking asics with his $4000 suit. And no tie. Top three buttons of a pinstripe white shirt unbuttoned. What a fucking rube.

Except that this guy. THIS fucking guy, made Nesta lose her train of thought. This guy who walked into court late and had yet to drag his eyes up from Nesta’s ass, had distracted her. Caused her to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and smile a little. This shy, light, cutesy little smile that absolutely did not belong on Nesta Archeron’s face.

When Nesta smiled it was a sly, knowing, victorious thing that curled across her lips and set Cassian’s heart hammering in his chest.

This… this was insanity.

The man smirked, deep and arrogant, as he stood at the back of the courtroom, hands slid into his pockets. Not even respectful enough of the proceedings to sit down.

Nesta gathered herself quickly. The whole mess over in under 20 seconds, but Cassian noticed it. Even as Nesta went on and cited the law and the competing jurisprudence and the ethics and the constitution, he couldn’t focus. All he could think about was that little smile.

Cassian said his final piece, the judge ruled, as they both knew she would, in Nesta’s favor, and it was all over.

Nesta didn’t even gloat like she usually would have. She just stuck her hand out, the absolute picture of professionalism, and shook his.

“Good working with you, Counseler.” She said, as if he hadn’t pulled her around the side of a building and pushed her body up against a brick wall the other day, moulding her into him as they fought over this case. Discussed their future. Their passions.

She’d rejected his invitation to dinner, but she always did. It was a part of the game. A game that Cassian was determined to win.

“Who’s the tech bro?” The sneakers with the suit and the unbuttoned shirt and the general shitty attitude all pointed to that being the only reasonable profession.

“Babe,” the slimy man in question pushed past the swinging waist high half door that separated the gallery and the space where counsel’s desks sat. “Let’s go.” He wrapped and arm too tightly around Nesta’s waist and pulled on her a little.

Cassian curled his fists into his palms so hard his nails bit imprints into the skin of his palms. Babe? Telling her when to leave? The pulling? No.

“I’m Cassian.” He held out his hand. “ADA. What firm do you work for? Haven’t seen you around.”

“Tomas.” The man scoffed, “And I’m not a lawyer. Not interested in all that gibberish you’re type is always spewing. Sounds like pure nonsense to me. I’m a tech investor.”

Yeah. That sounded about right. No actual skills. Not an engineer or developer or even a business manager. Just an idiot with a trust fund throwing money at whatever looked cool.

“Well, Tomas. Do you know why they call that big exam full of all that gibberish you hate the bar exam?” The weasel just raised his eyebrows. “It’s because once you pass it, then you are an attorney. And allowed to cross past this BAR.” Cassian pushed Tomas back out the little half door again. “Which separates the civilians in the gallery from the lawyers making their cases. So maybe learn how to show a little respect.” Cassian scoffed, flicking his eyes to Nesta, “In a few different areas of your life.”

“What the fuck, bro?” Tomas rolled his eyes. “This is why I fucking hate going to your lawyer parties and shit. Jackasses like this.”

“Tomas, please.” Nesta placed a hand on his chest, Cassian tensed, and that seemed to calm Tomas down. Not Nesta’s touch, but another man’s jealousy.

“Why don’t you bring the car around. I have to work out a court date for another matter with Cassian but I’ll be right out.”

“Yeah, ok.” Tomas glared, keeping eye contact with Cassian as he kissed Nesta’s cheek, hand travelling too far down her back. “Hurry though.”

“Of course.” Nesta smiled that same tiny little smile that made her look like a doll on a shelf and Cassian wanted to scream.

“What the fuck are you doing with a piece of shit like that?” Cassian minced no words as he turned to face Nesta.

“Excuse me?”

“Pretty straight forward question, Nes.”

“You… you don’t know him. He’s not like that once you get to know him.”

“Sure he’s not,” Cassian scoffed.

“What is your problem?”

“My problem is that your boyfriend, who I’ve never heard of or seen before today despite knowing you for years, had a chance to see you in court. Had a chance to watch you all fired up and passionate and brilliant and instead he walked in late, stared at your ass instead of listening to what you were saying, and then shoved his way up here and pulled at you to leave like you were some kind of toy he didn’t mind tearing the arm off of.”

Nesta blinked. Huffed out a breath. “We’ve been on again off again for a while. That’s why you haven’t seen him before. And he just doesn’t like lawyer stuff that’s why he’s like that in here ok? Not that it’s any of your business.”

“So you’re dating someone who not only doesn’t recognize how brilliant you are but won’t even let you talk about your job?” That was wrong. That was so wrong. That was… why Nesta was so intense with him. Why she debated and fought and talked for hours. Because she couldnt do it at home.

“Why do you even care, Cassian? Let’s just set a date and-”

“Fuck you, Nesta.” Her jaw fell open. “Fuck you for even asking me that. You know why I care. You can’t play dumb with me like I assume you do with him.”

“You don’t know anything about my relationship!” Nesta defended a little too vehemently.

“I know you can’t yell at him about his take on immigration laws,” Cassian stepped closer to her. “I know you can’t get a little tipsy off your favorite Malbec and go on a rambling tirade about the corrupt judiciary and your twenty three- or twenty five depending on the night- reasons why voting for judges completely undermines the integrity of the legal system.”

The was almost no space between them as Cassian looked down, gently set his hand under Nesta’s chin and raised her gaze to meet his. Burning with anger and passion and barely concealed desire. “I know that he didn’t understand why you were crying when RBG died. Because he doesn’t care about how appointing Supreme Court judges works or what that meant for the future of the court. And because I know that you weren’t with him that night. You were with me. Just like election night in 2016. And the Kavanaugh trials. And when the travel ban came into effect. You found me. Because I get it, and I care about your thoughts on all of those things. I’m devastated by them too. You were with me, Nes. And don’t you dare pretend that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It does,” Nesta let her cheek sink into his palm. “It means everything Cassian, but…”

“But we fight,” he smiled. “We bicker and yell and cross ideologies and disagree on all the little things. But not the big things, Nes. Never on the big things. We disagree on how to change the world, not what we want to change in it. Isn’t that what matters?”

Nesta swallowed. “I can’t risk losing you.” She said quietly. “I need you. For all of those reasons, I need you to be in my life and if we… I hurt the people I love, Cassian. So if I let myself love you, I would only hurt you. And I can’t bear the thought of hurting you.”

“So you date him.” Realization was an arrow sailing into Cassian’s chest. “Because you won’t hurt him. Because you could never actually love him.”

Nesta swallowed. “See? See how awful I am?”

Cassian moved his hand to her back, pulled her into his chest. “Go,” he whispered. “Go do whatever you need to do. I’ll be here. And I’ll be waiting for you to realize that I’m not going anywhere. That I can take it. Whatever you want to throw at me, I can take it, Nes.”

[0poole]

I LOVE No Straight Roads

Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.

But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it. 

First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.

Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.

Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.

Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:

Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all. 

Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness. 

DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists. 

As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.

Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?

Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.

DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor. 

I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.

Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.

1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally. 

Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.

Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one. 

Tatiana and Spoilers:

Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.

I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.

It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start. 

That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with. 

Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.

Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too. 

Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time. 

And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.

But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.

[chaptersofnow]

Twin children of Rarity

Majesty and Vanity!

bios under the cut

Name:  Majesty Nickname(s): Jes, Jessie, May, Curly (mom) Age: 24 Pronouns: she/her Identity: Cis Lesbian crush/relationship: soft on Happy Daze Parents: Rarity Siblings: Vanity (twins)

Special Talent: Crafting Jewerly Occupation: Jeweler, Store Owner, Element Location: Rarities Boutique Chapter of now (element of harmony): Symbol of Devotion Artifact: Majesty's Anklet

Likes: clean spaces, beautiful insects, a nice dinner, spending time with friends Dislikes: hurting others, show offs, rain, hikes

Bio: One of Rarity's Twin children. She and Vanity were best friends growing up, she never realized Vanity had made up this ‘competition’ in his head over who was the best sibling. Unluckily for Majesty she often fell into these schemes due to her competitive nature. she is a people pleaser, especially to her mom. she will do whatever she can to get her approval and often is the winner of the praise.

Rarity loves her kids equally and always made sure Vanity wasn’t left out, but this didn’t stop vanity from seeing Majesty’s victories and accomplishments. she was friendly and talented and had many friends.

shes dear and very close friends with pinkie and Aj’s kid Splat. despite her composed lady like nature shes also good friends with Luna’s trouble making kids Loser weep and Finders keeper. she is also close to she very nice and keeps in touch with Vanity’s only friend Cloudleap. which this annoys Vanity a good bit.

Majesty graduated from school early, annoying Vanity who was having to take summer classes. She is currently a Jeweler in Cantorlot having opened her own store there at a young age of 21, Annoying Vanity the kid who is still living with mom. And now she has been named an Chapter of Now (the new element of harmony) being named the Chapter of Devotion,, the nail in the coffin that is Vanity’s ego.

she in almost every way has followed in her mothers hoof steps and at the same time is making her own mark and name on the world.

Majesty is a good person and tries her best to be there for others. but often at a fault ends up not being able to see all the sides to how others are feeling. such as not seeing her brothers jealously. she tends to look at the positive side of things to a fault where she blind sights herself. As an Element she was there when they now Chapters of Now saved the Princess Ordomia who was turned into Queen Erroria by the Darkness hidden inside her. When they saved Ordomia they were granted the abilities to use the elements. Majesty was named the Symbol of Devotion, she is a pony who will always be there for her friends and everyone else. she will stick by peoples side and be there for all they need. she is lucky to have opened a store in cantorlot as now the Chapters of Now have been permanently moved to cantorlot to be trained to hone their skills for whatever darkness may bring their way. she has been mainly trained by Rainbow dash the old element of Loyalty while receiving visits from Flash Magnus who now runs with the cantorlot guards.

fun random fact of her character:

Once while spending the night at her friend Bunny Hop’s and Twinkle Wish house (Trixie and Starlights kids) she got gum stuck in her hair and the kids and trixie in a panicked tried to cut it out themselves, failed miserably and gave majesty a terrible hair cut.

Majesty has had a fear of cutting her hair since and has gone to only get 3 people cut her hair: her hair stylist Coco Butter, friend and fellow element Voyage, and her mother Rarity

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Name:  Vanity Mirror Nickname(s): Age: 22 Pronouns: He/Him Identity: Nonbinary Gay man crush/relationship: mmm i mean i guess Cloudleap isn't too bad looking.. SHUT UP! Parents: Rarity Siblings: Majesty (twins)

Special Talent: Designing, sewing, drawing Occupation: Clothing designer Location: Rarities Boutique

Likes: coffee, down times with cloudleap, makeup, putting makeup on cloudleap, spa days Dislikes: 'perfect ponies', rain, perfume

Bio: One of Rarities Twin children Vanity mirror, or just Vanity as he refuses to acknowledge his full name is the son of Rarity. He's been somewhat of a brat since fillyhood but usually directing his snarky comments towards ponies who were usually deserving of it. He was best friends with his sister Majesty and Cloudleap. As they got older Majesty became the perfect daughter who opened her own jewelry store in Cantorlot, has tons of friends and is now the Element of Loyalty. While Vanity was still living with Rarity with an artist block frustrated with the work he's doing and constantly berating strangers for doing small shit like standing in line too long thinking of what their going to order or just telling him 'he looks tired'. He's grown to hate his sister and the two barely talk beyond when they have to. Which lucky for Majesty she lives a few towns over and can avoid her terrible brothers mean comments. Cloudleap and Vanity are still bestfriends as Cloudleap is the only one who seems to put up with Vanity anymore (excluding Rarity) and Cloudleap lives with his mothers in their cottage away from others so he doesn't have many friends beyond Vanity (plus not to mention that most others avoid cloudleap because of Vanity's known temper) Vanity knows he's a jerk and kinda treat it as a quirky personality, the only times he ever truely feels bad about the way he behaves is when he see's the way Cloudleap or his mom looks at him. Vanity feels like his life is a spiral downward and he struggles to look at the good things he has. He not a great person but Cloudleap is one of his biggest supporter and helps to point him in the right direction. Vanity has recently been looking into a job in Manehatten, and suddenly moving their to take on a gig as a clothing designer there. He didn't tell Cloudleap and it's kinda broken the pegasus's heart. Rarity calls often to check on him and Vanity tells her everything is great, but he's lying as he stressed up keeping up with everyone else and isnt happy with his work. He would never admit that, or that he defiantly moved her in hopes of trying to be equal to Majesty or make his mom proud. He wants to walk in Rarity's hoofsteps so bad.

[earthnashes]

In the reverse dragon au what is rainbow dash’s thoughts when rarity tells here twilight is a dragon

Well, Rarity doesn’t tell her at first, and her silence concerns the ever loving hell outta Dash. Rarity’s a social butterfly, she likes to converse and trade small gossip and express herself vibrantly… but this Rarity isn’t like that at all. Dash hasn’t seen Rares this upset since the dragon incident many years ago, the one that shook whatever doubts Rarity had about dragons’ morality.

After they return from the open fields when that lavender dragon flew off and Rarity turned in her reports of the incident she just kinda… stopped. Not physically: she still did her daily training and ate and everything, but she seemed to be entirely lost in her own thoughts, eyes dulled with whatever her mind haunted her with.

At first Rainbow thought it was because… because Twilight died. It was a hard pill to swallow, that possibility; there was no trace of the librarian in the remains of the library and the search team couldn’t find any remains in the fields either. Initially she feared that meant the dragon ate her friend (to her pained horror) but Rarity confirmed that Twilight was, indeed, alive. She wouldn’t elaborate how, where, or why she knew that, and while Rainbow originally thought to grill her friend for more details (Where is she? does she need help? Why are you keeping this from me? What about Spike, where’s the kid? Is he okay? Why did we let that dragon leave, Rarity??) Rarity asked her to give her a few days. And just seeing the state Rarity was in was enough for the pegasus to agree, but she was reaching the end of her patience now.

By the time Rainbow was just about to say “fuck-it” and corner Rarity for answers, the unicorn approached her with the promise that she was ready to tell. Everything.

And so they leave to somewhere private, probably Rarity’s home, and they sit down and have what feels like one of the longest talks Rainbow’s ever endured. Rarity explains what happened in that clearing, how the dragon spoke to her, begged for its life… how the dragon claimed it was Twilight herself, that she meant no harm.

How she had nearly slain the dragon when Spike stopped her from doing so. The dragon, one of the very things they’re specially trained to kill, doing nothing more than just… flying away. Never attacking, never retaliating, just… leaving, broken and bloody and clutching Spike with so much familiarity it hurt to see, what that implied.

And when Rarity finally stops talking about it Rainbow’s… honestly at a loss. It isn’t often that she’s speechless but there she was, without a word to utter, staring blankly at the little cup of tea steaming gently before her, untouched.

The two friends sat in silence mulling over the information, before Rainbow finally lets out a quivering sigh. She feels herself shaking a little bit and she looks up at Rarity, her best friend, looking so lost and pained and almost disgusted with herself for reasons she doesn’t seem to quite grasp. 

She did the right thing, right? Moving to kill the dragon? Dragons aren’t creatures of morality, dragons do nothing but lie destroy, maim, eat, kill. This incident is too similar to the one from the past, from several more after it: it isn’t often a dragon can parade themselves as a pony but when it does, it’s usually to infiltrate towns, cities, and gut them from the inside out. They’ve done this for years, she’s done this for years, and her judgement has rang true and has saved lives numerous of times. She did exactly what would be expected of her in this situation.So why does it feel so wrong this time? Why did she let the dragon go?

Rainbow seems to see all of it running through her head and finally, it elicits a reaction from her: anger.  

“Can’t fuckin’ believe this, all this time a dragon’s been hiding out here all willy-nilly, just under our noses, and I didn’t even notice!”

Rainbow glares hard into her harmless cup of tea with her teeth grit nearly hard enough to grind. “Right in the open, smack-dab in the city, and it befriended us?! US?!”

Rainbow has long since forgotten about her cup, having got up to pace in agitation behind her seat. Rarity doesn’t move to stop her.

“For Celestia’s sake we’re Hunters! We’ve been trained for this shit for most our lives, hell we lived through the real deal most our lives and we still couldn’t tell?! Bastard’s gotta be good at magic to maintain a spell that long, that complex, and still keep it hidden.”

Rainbow’s feathers are beginning to bristle now, hands clenching so hard she nearly draws blood as she growls, “That fucker played us. Destroyed the library gods know what else before we got there… And now it’s got Spike?”

The pegasus stops at that as her eyes widen. “Wait… wait it’s got Spike. It nabs a kid and Celestia isn’t doing anything about that? What the fuck? W-we need to do something! Why isn’t she doing something? We ca-”

“She isn’t doing anything because I didn’t add it in the report.”

At last Rarity speaks and Rainbow’s fur stands on end at the comment, staring hard at her friend while said friend continues to look down into her cup. Infuriatingly calm.

Rainbow starts and stops words trying to leave her mouth, unsure of what to say, before she finally settles on the biggest question of the night:

“Why.”

She doesn’t phrase it into a question. Rarity at first doesn’t answer, and Rainbow takes a stiff step closer as she demands hoarsely, “Rarity, why. That… that’s… the kid’s in danger! Rarity it’s been days, by now the kid’s hurt and scared or… o-or worse and you allowed it to? To just take the boy and not say a damn word?! What’s your problem!?

“My problem is that Spike KNOWS Rainbow!”

Rarity doesn’t stand, she doesn’t yell, but her ears are flat and her blue eyes almost seem like they glow against the candlelight as she meets Rainbow’s gaze. “You don’t think I’ve thought about this? That I’d let a defenseless child just be carried off into danger without a single care? Spike knows what Twilight was. He always knew. And he covered for her.”

“He stopped me from… from killing the dragon. When you found me disarmed? It was because of the colt. And he kept insisting that he knew, that he knew, kept asking me why did I do it. He was so angry with me, Rainbow… horrified at me. I…”

Rainbow’s stare bore into her, studying her for a long while, before she threw her arms out and says, “Alright, so the kid’s insane! Maybe he’s hypnotized or somethin’! You can’t honestly believe he’s right in the head if he thinks that, right? Nevermind any of that, that doesn’t change that fact that he’s still in danger Rarity!”

“He isn’t. Not from the dragon. You weren’t there to see it Rainbow, he ran to it, the dragon. And it… how she just…” Rarity mimicked cupping her hands and cradling them carefully to her heart, “she just picked him up and held him like he were her own child.”

Rainbow made a disbelieving and harsh scoff as she said, “You can’t seriously fuckin’ believe that the dragon was good?”

Rarity’s silence was telling. Rainbow’s expression dissolved into an incredulous one and she gave the smallest shake of her head, eyes searching Rarity’s face. “You… you’re joking, right? You can’t honestly be considering this?“

“I… I don’t know.”

“Rarity you need to know! I dunno if you remember, but the last time you ‘didn’t know’ had a dragon kill nearly an entire village!”

She regrets mentioning it the moment it comes out of her mouth. 

Rarity shoots up from her chair and whirls on her with her horn engulfed in magic as she snarls, “I still have nightmares of that night, Rainbow Dash, the faces of those villagers haunted me for years and they still do!”

It’s Rarity’s turn to pace now (she never paces), her hands running haphazardly through her mane and nearly pulling as she continues, “I know it’s foolish to think so, even after everything we’ve seen and I can’t find it in myself to fully believe it and even then, I still couldn’t kill the dragon! I-I couldn’t bring myself to let the last arrow fly because I don’t know.” Rarity slows her pacing to a stop and just hides her face in one tired hand.

“It.. not once did she try to do anything. All this time we knew her, she didn’t do a single malicious thing toward us, or toward anyone. Even when she��. And I don’t know why.”

Heavy silence weighted itself in the room as the two Hunters stood still as a statue, both unsure of where to go from there. Rarity kept her face hidden in her palm, Rainbow kept her gaze on Rarity, her shoulders sinking with a feeling of guilt and just a barrage of emotion. She didn’t truly know what to think, it it’s clear Rarity had struggled with this more than what she let on, all those days spent in a thoughtful silence.

Rainbow gave a heavy sigh and tilted her head up to the ceiling, searching the rafters for an answer. They of course didn’t give her one, so she turned her gaze back to the unicorn and gave an unseen, half-hearted shrug.

“So then what’s the plan?”

That surprises Rarity enough to look up. “What?”

“You can’t have put this much belly-achin’ in the whole thing and tell me you haven’t thought of a plan to figure it all out, right?”

Rarity stares at the pegasus, takes in her posture: shoulders hunched and hands in her pockets, unsettled by the information but now far more willing to hear her out. It isn’t an apology, she’s never been good with those, but Rarity sees it for what it is: Rainbow ultimately trusting her judgement.

It’s… reassuring to say the least, especially when she’s doubting her own judgement.

She releases a breath she wasn’t fully aware she was holding and stands up straighter, giving Rainbow a strained smile.

“I believe you could say I have an idea, yes.”

————————————————————–

Welp here you go. Dialogue’s hard. ;_;

[randomuser678]

3, 9, 10, 23 for the salty ask thing :3c

Ooh boyFirst of all thank you for sending an ask! Now let’s go.3-Yes! Mainly bcuz of ships. Like there was one who shipped something with an age gap that made me uncomfortable and there was once bcuz they shipped a lesbian with a gay guy (just my headcanon btw). I think that’s it but I tend to be really petty so idk9-Well, in Dangan, it’d be Celeste, cuz she killed my fave (still like her design, and the way she’s written tho), Togami, and like, I understand his appeal and stuff, he’s just not my cup of tea, he’s too rude for my tastes, and that one pedophile from drae, and probably someone from the new game but I’m not sure just yet. But I don’t really hate them ( expect the one from drae), cuz that would require too much of my time, cuz when I hate something, I absolutely despise that something. So I basically like all of the characters, there are just some I’m neutral abt. 10- Well I didn’t like dr3 that much, but I don’t really hate it, I just think it was ok at best. But I think my most disliked parts are the ones that feel to rushed, like dr3’s ending, the chapter 3 on dr1, their constant use of hope vs despair and the talent vs effort thing that was barely touched on the dr3 anime, and that went nowhere cuz Hajime kept his Kamakura superpowers and was only capable of getting his happy ending bcuz of it, that really bothered me, but only bcuz they brought it up on the first place, cuz if they didn’t I would be fine with Hinata having all of those powers, but NO we gotta be deeper than that or whatever.And also, I don’t like the heterosexual arcs, but those are kind of more abstract, but you know what I mean; character development that came from forced straight romances; characters bonding out of nowhere and the game acting like they are already married, while treating the gay relationships like jokes; reducing character interactions and forcing a boy into every girl, reducing her character( the biggest examples being Akane and Peko, I think); killing badly written love interests for the sake of angst and character development; yadda yadda,the list goes on, you get the idea.23-Ok don’t freak out or anything.Saionji, Teru and YamadaLike, don’t get me wrong, they are all terrible people, but I don’t hate them as much as the fandom does, I kinda of like all of the potential they have.Like, Teru is a passionate chef, who came from a poor family, so he tries to act all fancy, he’s pround of his sexuality, and bi/pan characters are a rarity, specially the ones who are so ok with it. So while he is a terrible person, and really bad representation (Cuz y'know, bi perverted guy) but I love the lost potential there was, and I specially like his backstory, his cute mom, and what the writers could have done with him if he wasn’t reduced to a comic relief all the time. And also he tried to kill Komaeda, so bonus points.I like Hifumi for the same reasons, lost potential and I like how much he loves anime and his SHSL, and he wasn’t as bad as Teru even though he was annoying and bland most of the time. And I aldo feel kind of bad by what happened to him in chapter 3, he genuinely wanted to help Celeste and really thought he was doing the right thing, but in the end he died just because he trusted in the wrong person.And also I like their designs.Now for Saionji, on the first playtrough I hated her, she was just plain mean and even without that I didn’t think she was that interesting, but thanks to certain ppl that I follow I started liking her more, then I noticed just how much she was suffering through out the game, with Mahiru’s death and stuff, she seriously didn’t have a break after that and I felt really bad for her. So after a while, I just started liking her more. (And also I like Faulero’s interpretation of her character, with her being a “Meta Brat” bcuz Saionji never took any shits from other people, and she’s really good at reading their insecurities, like what she did with Souda)But I totally understand why the fandon hates this characters, it’s kind of hard not to, so I don’t care if people dislike them. I usually like the character’s lost potential more than anything really. And since in pretty much all of these cases are just writers not caring enough abt their characters to give them more development and not make them into bland stereotypes, and whenever there’s a character who suffers from this thing, I just change the character for my personal liking.That said, other unpopular characters I like are Nekomaru, Sakura, Monomi and Akane. But I really believe these guys don’t deserve to be disliked, especially Nekomaru! Like, Akane and Monomi I can understand, but Nekomaru literally sacrificed himself twice just so ppl he cares abt could live. And Sakura also sacrificed herself just so a bunch of ungrateful kids and her girlfriend could live, and it hurts even more cuz almost everyone was scared of her, two of them even tried to kill just because she was “scary looking” and she was able to stop the murders, cuz after she died, the only other death was the mastermind’s. I really think those two are unpopular cuz muscles are harder to draw, but it makes me sad that they are so underrated.And also I love Akane’s free time events, and she’s a “I’M GONNA PUNCH YOUR FACE, I’M GONNA PUNCH MY FACE, I’M GONNA PUNCH MY FEARS AND ANXIETIES” type of character, I love those characters, they are usually so tragic and beautiful.So yeah, thank again for asking and sorry for taking so long!!Love answering things!Byyyyeee!

[floralmotif]

Destiel and editing

@obsessionisaperfume here’s the Kuleshov Effect post I talked about. Hopefully it is sufficient. TL;DR: Editing is probably the most powerful tool film has and how it’s used tells the story. Literally. In the case of SPN, there is a lot of instances that can be read as destiel riding in on a giant brick.

Ok, so preamble for those who don’t know what it is: The Kuleshov Effect was named for Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It deals with a “mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.”

The original test that coined the name was a short series of clips showing an actor in a black and white film with a stoic expression, intercut with various images. It’s about 50 seconds, have a looksie.

The short was built to see what meaning people would give to the man’s expression and as Kuleshov expected, they reacted accordingly based on what shots were intercut. So the stoic face was read as hungry, lustful, sad, whatever by most people even though it was all the same expression.

You can invoke this effect without both pieces ever seeing each other. You can create a vast head space for a character that the actor may never see by intercutting the actor with something like... war stock footage. We can understand what the character is going through without it ever being spoken and without the actor saying or sometimes really doing anything in relation to it.

That isn’t to say that actors aren’t important, of course they are. But a lot of understanding a filmed work look to the editing. The same way books look at word choice, sentence structure, etc. Editing is the last stand of “authorial intent” (as a nebulous term. Not by a single person) between the production and the audience. It’s the syuzhet, the filter of bias that sets the tone and the pace and the narrative and almost no one is truly privy to it until all of production is over.

Now, directors, producers, various others depending on the work often help dictate the editing to an extent. They decide what version of shots to leave in and give an idea of what they’re going for. Some take a much more active role and are part of the editing process to a great extent. Sometimes it’s just the director helping, sometimes it’s like... 8 other people in production. Sometimes a film studio drops all their footage for their several million dollar property off at a trailer house and says “panic number’s on the fridge, I’ll be back in the morning.” and expects the final edit not to suck.

Editors exist for a reason and it’s not just to cut the film to an edible size, set pace and presentation. “When to cut” and “how to think like an editor” are important to the process on their own and they are their own people.

Authorial intent is honestly kind of hilarious. Especially in works with multiple “intenders”

But let’s poke the intent bear anyway, shall we? ‘Bunch of examples under the cut.

Let’s start with 12.10 since it was recent and was pointed out specifically by @bluestar86​ not long ago.

Gah... I don’t have any gifs. I keep trying to make them but they don’t want to work for whatever reason when I post them.

I’ll add them in later if I remember/get them to work.. *sigh*

So in 12.10, we’re shown the scene Cas tells about what he remembers when he and Ishim’s fleet killed Akibel. At one point, Akibel states something like: “ “how can you know humans and not love them?” with the camera cutting to Cas’ reaction.

Another instance happens in 12.09 after Billie is killed and the BMoL meet up with the Winchesters on the bridge. When the Winchesters are getting back into the impala, the BMoL tell the Winchesters they were “unprofessional” with the camera then finding Castiel and then cutting to him entering the car with foliage framing the foreground. It’s a PoV shot.I have a feeling they’ll be after Cas before the season’s end.

One of my favorites is in 8.17 (when it doesn’t make me sad), while Sam is talking to Meg. It’s intercut with Cas and Dean’s Crypt Scene to an interesting parallel. It’s a bit muddy, but it’s there:

Meg: So some chick actually got you off hunting eh? That’s a rare creature. So tell me, how did you meet this unicorn?

-And the scene cuts to Cas in the crypt with Dean. They have the start of their tiff, followed by a J-Cut and we’re back to Meg and Sam talking. Now take a look at this exchange and then think about how it relates to the next scene with Dean and Cas.

Meg: You hit a dog and stopped, why?

Sam: That whole story and that was your takeaway?

It is kind of a weird takeaway... isn’t it? Moving on.

Meg: No, I heard the rest. You fell in love with a Unicorn. It was beautiful, then sad, then sadder. I laughed, I cried, I puked in my mouth a little... and honestly I kinda get it.

Sam: Really?

Meg: ...We’ve got company.

Sound familiar to another situation?

-Cut back to a closeup insert of Cas and his Angel blade. The above discourse serves a few purposes with the lens I’m applying to the cuts here:

1) It parallels a relationship between Sam and a love interest to Cas and Dean. How many times has that happened? Oh yeah. Constantly.

2) We know that Dean has been paralleled to a dog before. Cas hits Dean, then stops... he breaks his connection to Naomi by any means needed. He chooses “them”.

Meg: Go. Save your brother...and.. my unicorn

We know what she’s talking about. She’s saying her feelings for Cas and how important she is to him but using the established metaphor. Cas is likened to a unicorn by Meg- who’s connection to Cas draws us further into the intercut parallel by specifically referring to Cas in metaphorical terms and comparing her situation with Sam’s. That situation being what’s happening in the crypt during their conversation. You could argue that Cas and Dean are each other’s unicorns but for the purposes of this, Dean is the dog Cas hit to make him stop, and Cas is a rarity that changes you. On its own, the scene allows for some drama and the continuation of Sam’s story but we don’t learn anything new on Sam’s end. We also don’t really learn anything new on Meg’s end. We already knew she had something for Cas  It mostly serves to give motivation to Meg’s actions but why tell the whole story at that time? The famous “Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem” cut to the river scene in 8.02. Remember, a physical person edited that. Why put that scene there? What were they trying to accomplish? Some instances from season 11:

Dean and Sam’s intercut difference in takeaway at the end of 11.11

11.18: Amara’s reaction shot when her attempts to reach Dean are cut off by his concern for Cas.

11.21: Amara uses Cas to find Dean, we see her placing her hand over Cas’ heart, then cutting to Dean behind a cage motif.

11.22: Casifer going limp on the cut after Amara inflicts her power on Dean and Lucifer’s “vessel” being out of commission afterwards. You cannot convince me that Amara didn’t access Cas’ function through her power..

Isn’t it interesting that throughout season 11, the closups on hearts and pining have all involved Dean or Cas?

Here’s a favorite from all the way back in 5.04. This episode is full of editing choices that tell us about a potential relationship between endverse Dean and Cas: 2014!Dean kills his own man and 2009!Dean intervenes. From the shot of the remaining men and 2009!Dean, we’re led to believe the convoy is disturbed by 2009!Dean. It’s not until 2014!Dean starts talking about his “pretty messed up situation” does the camera cut to 2009!Dean, who, along with the audience, realizes that 2014!Dean isn’t pointing at him, he’s pointing and talking about Cas, and from Cas’ expression, there’s a reason for it. This scene sets up, almost entirely through editing; an unseen structure of the conflicts in the episode and the endverse. The way the relationships for Dean have progressed in this version of the future.  Also in 5.04, there are several great ones in the meeting scene just before they take the fight to Lucifer:

2009!Dean: We were in uh... Janes.. cabin last night, and apparently we, and.. Risa. Have a connection.

Within this dialogue alone, there are several shots showing character relationships. There’s Risa’s disgusted arm crossing, 2014!Dean’s sort of sad glaring, realization of what is known about him in the room and who is present, but most notably Cas’ inhale of realization and smile at the end of what is said. Cas isn’t being spoken to. He has seemingly no reason to have a reaction shot here that says without words “Of course he did” unless there was some reason to place it there. It’s a very specific reaction. 2014!Dean shoots the rest of that conversation down right quick.

There really are so many instances of this. I can only think of a few. I’m sure many others could think of more. Feel free to add your own. Doesn’t have to be destiel related.

Even if we don’t get many match cuts in this show (for some dumb reason), we aren’t short on very heavily framed instances of the Kuleshov effect giving us little glimpses of whatever swims around in the post production of SPN. The final decisions that tell the story mixed with our own expectations and perspectives. Many hands working to create a world.