#i really like making lore and stuff but like

[volatilebrat4103]

Vi x Reader Head canons

This is the first time I have ever written HC's so I really hope it doesn't suck too badly

Request: may I request vi x nerdybutch!reader headcanons pls? (reader is super into Sci fi and fantasy genres)

(Feedback is appreciated - good or bad)

When Caitlyn suggested Vi meet a close friend of hers from another high-class family Vi was having none of it, but after way to much begging from Cait she caved although extremely wary of you and your status. She arranged for you all to meet at the last drop to make Vi feel more comfortable

Vi had already painted a bad picture of you before you even met, firstly you being late to the meet up, making snarky comments to Cait about ‘Pilties think they are too good to be on time’ and such

She had expected some stuck up snobby rich girl too prim and proper to walk through the doors of the surprisingly empty bar instead you leave her gobsmacked

Instead of a snob that she’d want to smack, she found herself a blushing mess when you walked in being the complete opposite, instead a tall handsome woman with short slicked back hair adorning a men’s academy uniform, who didn’t believe nor care about status or norms

She spent the whole day lost in your presence as you ramble on about some cool book you found about ancient lore as well as a few novels

After that day she would visit you everyday where she would sit for hours on end listening to you ramble on about all the newest novels your parents had bought for you.  Half of the time she wouldn’t even register what you were saying as she would stare lovingly enjoying the sound of your voice and your presence (you being her eye candy was a bonus)

The two of you grew closer quickly, Vi often staying the night where she would fall asleep to your voice reading out both of your favourite novel, more often then not wrapped up in your strong arms.

One day whilst you were ranting about a crappy ending to a story you were reading when Vi surged forward to kiss you leaving you stunned – ‘you’re cute when you rambling’ , After that day the two of you made it official

You would often ask Vi to tell you stories from the undercity, cuddled up to her as she runs hands through your short locks

She absolutely loves having your arms around her no matter where you are

Even though she is already feared for her reputation it gets worse with you and she finds it hard to comprehend how her cute, nerdy girlfriend is her scary dog privilege

You are both very, VERY protective over each other

You both pay attention to detail with one another.  Hear her talking about a cool jacket it’s hers by the end of the day.  If she sees you looking at something for even a minute consider it yours.  Mention how you always wanted to have a certain pastry for your birthday, done, she will make a plan and go to the ends of runeterra to get it.

You are surprisingly more stubborn than her and sometimes it causes fights between the two of you

Once you cool off from a fight and take time to reflect on it, you get her an apology gift (usually a sweet treat and flowers) and profusely apologise which more often than not leads to some ‘private time’ to properly express your regrets *wink wink*

Lets face it…she is a total bottom which surprises everyone till they see you

If she is having a bad day she will crawl into bed with you for you to read to her and play with her hair. If it’s a really bad day she will ensure she has skin to skin contact, you voice soothing her worries away.

Everyone always complains about the two of you being sappy, with her being a total flirt she always leaves you a flustered mess

She loves stealing your clothes, jackets, shirts anything as long as it smells like you

She gets annoyed with you having an abundance of books and work laying scattered all over your room and house, always tripping over said books or projects for school.  So being whipped, you use your technical skills to build shelving and storage for your stuff, and Vi being the pervert she is watched you and how your sweaty body moved around and your muscles flexed when working.

You let Vi design a tattoo for you and even get small matching ones

she was always curious to see you wearing tight and exposing clothes (Seeing as your nerdy ass is only seen in baggy clothes or your academy uniform) so one day she pulls out the puppy dog eyes and gets you into one of her tank tops which has her drooling.  From that day forward she began to change your wardrobe.

Although she is an absolute bottom…she is a total munch and you absolutely love having her on her knees for you

You are both extremely kinky which did initially surprise her as you seem so innocent

You genuinely laugh at her bad jokes, some might not like her humour, but she is perfect to you

She is a huge softie even though she is rough and tough (and will definitely knock you to next week) she also loves how you are so gentle and patient with her

 She loves teaching you about the undercity and taking you sight seeing

She is shocked how you always say the undercity is beautiful and how you explain every little detail you love about it, it makes her fall more inlove with you

She is your personal chef, even taking the time to teach you how to cook

When you get stuck on an assignment or project she is always there to calm you down, taking the time out of her day to help you solve it.  Her intelligence is one of the many things you love about her and absolutely hate when people assume she is stupid

Your family take some time to accept Vi thinking that she is just using you and the family, but once they realise she isn’t she becomes one of you with your parents always eager to have her over

Touch and words of affermaiton are both of your love languages

You always help her shave the side of her hair when it gets too long, your were nervous at first but she always reassures you

you design a necklace for her in honour of Jinx/Powder and she never takes it off

you learnt very quickly into your relationship how to read her and know exactly what she needs, whether it be needing comfort after a long day or a sweet treat whilst she is on her period you just knew what she needed

when she gets into fights you always give her a lecture but clean her up and make sure she is okay. Very seldom does she give you the same treatment (and teases you mocking your lectures)

Further into your relationship she would complain about the 'library' of books and collectables you have gotten saying its too much yes if you there was one you wanted she wouldn't hesitate to get it for you

She is the jealous type and hates how oblivious you are to people flirting with you

[carnivoyeurs]

got this increasingly powerful urge to basically just go scorched earth on my worldbuilding and a lot of ocs... reset the oc counter and restart everything......

a lot of what i've made feels very directionless and messy and vague :( which makes it hard for me to do anything with it and i don't like the feeling :(

there's a lot of character designs i have that i really like but i don't have any good Character Development for them because of how messy and incoherent all my stuff is :( i don't really have a plot or anything to drive character development and i'm indecisive about lore and worldbuilding... much to think about. 2025 new year new me

[greenerteacups]

I think "the problem of house elves" is really interesting in that it reveals an issue with what I suppose can be broadly categorised as "urban fantasy"?, that is to say fantasy in a modern real world setting, which nonetheless uses magical creature lore. Inevitably, as an author, you're going to purposely or inadvertently draw parallels to real world "stuff" that's ladened with baggage... and it can be really hard to make it work because readers will be raring to pick apart these kinds of analogies.

House elves are a great example of this, in that, there really are creatures called house elves (or brownies) in English folklore and they really do, in the stories, seem to enjoy doing housework and chores in exchange for things like food and shelter (and shouldn't be given clothes or they'll never come back).

However, by initially drawing a parallel to slavery with House Elf labour (a real-world very dark baggage laden issue) and then not having the time to really delve into the history and complexity of her wizard / house elf relations you end up with the narrative seeming a bit confused as to how we should feel about people having house elves as servants / slaves. On one hand, we only see "bad" families having elves, on the other, we're told Molly Weasley would like one, then we're shown that Hogwarts uses them and that they, mostly, want to work for wizards without pay or holiday. People that grew up in the wizarding world seem to view Hermione's concerns with the kind of bemusement I encountered as a vegetarian kid explaining why I didn't want to eat animals to most of the people around me. This says a lot about the way House Elves are viewed there.

House elves are not viewed as being akin to human and therefore do not fit neatly into human parallels. Dobby is presented as an anomaly because, unlike most houseelves, he does not dream of labour and being bound to a particular wizarding family. I think JKR tries to represent this through Hermione's ineffective activism, but it's clumsily done because Dobby's our first and most poignant introduction to House elves and he was being seriously abused without any protections in place. There's also the Black family situation which.... yeah.

I think a couple of paragraphs of explanation from, maybe, Dumbledore outlining, perhaps, the symbiotic magical relationship of wizards and elves, and how the Malfoys / Blacks were somehow unusual in their cruelty and disrespect to this relationship, would've done a lot to smooth at least some of this over.

The issue, I think the books very quietly imply, is actually more aligned, although not perfectly of course, in a real world sense, with animal abuse / humane treatment of animals than with human slavery, as house elves ( as folkloric creatures) crucially do want to do house work in their nature and their treatment by wizards is therefore what needs to be monitored through the introduction of protections (older Hermione will surely be championing these kinds of reforms). Not perfect of course as House Elves are sentient, talking creatures... but they're also not human beings and it does make some kind of sense that they wouldn't have the same values... it's just, slavery being OK sometimes, is really not the sort of message you want to imply through an inadvertent and imprecise parallel.

Just chiming into the house elf convo as I find this issue in fantasy writing endlessly fascinating and as an aspiring fantasy writer myself, quite frightening!

This is so well-put, I almost can't bring myself to add anything to it — really excellent and considered treatment of the ways that the elf relationship was probably intended to read differently than it did in the text. More attention to the elf/brownie legend would have gone a long way for me in fixing my unhappiness with S.P.E.W., because it would have given a canonical basis for thinking Hermione's actually just wrong about this relationship, and that she's somehow missing an important historical context. That's a great point.

Staging elves as an intermediary between humans and animals whose treatment mirrors animal rights conversations is a really smart way of talking about it, too, as it captures the moral dimension of Hermione's quest without making everyone else look abjectly terrible for not supporting it. Staging her as, say, the PETA of the Wizarding World, where everyone thinks she's campaigning to Give Copyright to Monkeys, etc., makes Ron especially seem much more reasonable. I'm going to think about your interpretation a lot in how I write house-elves in the future.

[1moreff-creator]

*Loud gasp* Oh my gosh I’ve got the perfect one!

What if the Despair Time and Eden’s Garden classes…were to merge? That’s right, all 32 of them together! Who’d get along? Who would butt heads? What dynamics, hijinks, and unexpected friendships would form? There are two situations I’m thinking of…

A killing game scenario. For additional context, assume that Tozu and Mara have adopted MonoTV as their pet and all three are hosts together. Also, the building is a combination of both settings, with Eden’s Garden Academy serving as the ground floor, its boiler room and storage closets beneath, and then two upper floors being the floors we know of from Despair Time (playground, relaxation room, movie room, DT cast’s dorms, etc). Anyone can use an elevator to reach all floors freely. Of course, there’ll also be a huge trial room to accommodate all of them.

A non-killing game AU; feel free to include Mai here. For this one, I’m unsure if I’d like them all to be part of one big class or just two really close-knit classes that happen to frequently overlap with activities. Go with whichever would fit better for you. The same questions at the very top still apply, but now with the setting of a typical school life; studying, tests, people hanging out when they have downtime, maybe occasional field trips, etc.

Funnily enough, I have considered this very concept a couple times! It’s fun to smush characters together like this as a thought experiment, lol. However, 32 characters means there’s a gigantic amount of dynamics to consider, so I’ll mostly highlight the ones I find most interesting in both a killing game and non killing game setting. Let’s go!

Spoilers for DRDT CH2, P:EG CH1. CW: Murder, suicide, execution, (implied) eating disorders, bullying, harassment (Arturo).

(Btw for the non-killing game I’m assuming they’re all a single class, not that it changes much. And for the killing game, I imagine a merge of the DRDT and P:EG lore, though obviously it’s hard to imagine the details when we know little about both of them)

(Also expect zero structure I am just bringing up people in a random order :v)

MonoTV & Tozu & Mara

Starting with the mascots! MonoTV and Tozu would make for a pretty silly duo. The fun part of this is that MonoTV, being generally less dramatic than Tozu, would probably irritate the guy in humorous ways, while still showing him up in things like… actually having ideas for motives from the start and such. Basically Tozu regrets adopting the damn thing and wishes to punt it into the sun more often than not.

However, Mara likes it, so Tozu keeps it around. She finds it entertaining, and it helps that Mara doesn’t have to worry about the students destroying it, since it has its own ways to “punish” them without needing Mara’s help.

Teruko & Damon

Protag duo rise up! Damon would obviously scoff at the idea of an Ultimate who gets into whatever the Hope’s Peak/Eden’s Garden Academy amalgam in this universe is through luck alone. However, Teruko wouldn’t really let that bother her, and she’d make fun of him for other stuff too. You know Teruko’s dynamic with Charles from the start of CH1? Yeah that but with Damon. They probably wouldn’t interact much by choice outside of a killing game, but their shared aptitude for class trials would mean they end up tolerating each other more in a killing game setting.

Charles & Damon

They both actually have similar views on talent at the start, so they’d actually get along quite quickly. Assuming Charles actually sees “Debater” as a worthwhile talent, that is. They probably would be kind of outcasts in a school environment (well, until Whit and Mai manage to drag Charles into the group, then maybe Damon will follow him and be more social), but in any killing game, Charles’ hemophobia will still presumably speed up his arc as it does in canon. Then, I’d assume Charles would have a talk with Damon like he had with Teruko in 2-3, trying to get him to be less an asshole, basically.

Min & Eva

Eva’s talent wouldn’t be a secret for long I think. Min, being a massive fucking nerd, would probably recognize the name of the person who solved the Riemann Hypothesis (as Eva is implied to in her FTEs), and thus would question how she’s the Ultimate Liar and not the Ultimate Mathematician or something like that. Cue a bit of questioning later, and Ultimate Mathlete comes to light. I think Min would share the sentiment that “Mathlete” is underselling it a bit, and would tell the others off if they tried to make fun of her for it. Not that it would work very well coming from the Ultimate Student, but you know. I think Eva would tolerate Min, at least, and surely they’d have fun discussing math together, at least.

I don’t know what Eva’s reaction to Min’s secret (poisoning competition) would be, though. Like, I imagine she’d understand it, considering how EG CH1 went, but it’s not an easy thing to learn about someone. They might stay friends outside a killing game, but I can imagine that inside of one, Eva would make a show of distancing herself from Min and being disgusted by her actions, only to then poison someone herself to try and pass it off as Min’s murder. Maybe.

Veronika & Eva/Damon

I don’t think anyone from the EG cast is as obviously fucked up as Arturo, so no matter the context, I’m pretty sure Vero would still hang around him the most. However, Damon and Eva have enough obvious bullshit going on that Vero would have fun psychoanalyzing them! Probably. Both of them hate it, a lot, and try to avoid Vero if possible.

Whit & Toshiko

Matchmaker duo! Although they have slightly different approaches to their talent (Whit only matchmakes as a job, while Toshiko seemed to be pretty ready to do it for fun when the idea of shared rooms was brought up), they would probably have quite a bit to talk about. Their combined gremlin energy can reach critical levels really fast, though, so it’s gotta be monitored. I can also imagine Toshiko helping Whit get with Charles with his bad luck in dating, at least outside of a killing game.

I don't think Whit would think too much of Toshiko's secret. Maybe he'd tease her about it for a bit, but he'd stop when he noticed she's genuinely bothered by it. Toshiko would find Whit's secret understandable... unless Whit actually talks about his mom to Toshiko before the reveal, in which case she'd probably be slightly unsettled in retrospect, but eventually she wouldn't think too much of it either.

Levi & Diana

Another matching talents duo, this time fashion related! I can imagine that it’s Diana who approaches Levi first, wanting to connect with someone through their talent. They also both have a thing for doing what others want from them (being “a good person” in Levi’s case, and Diana’s whole chameleon thing), so I can see them finding some common ground there. Their dynamic would be pretty similar to Levi’s dynamic with Eden, I imagine.

The big question is how Diana would react to Levi’s secret, both the murders and his lack of empathy. Ultimately, I think she’d try to see the best in him and still consider him a good person, because Diana is great, but she'd be uncomfortable around him for a while. For the murder, not the lack of empathy thing.

Eden & Diana

I mentioned Eden before, because let’s be honest, her and Diana are relatively similar. Together in a killing game, their hope would shine incredibly bright, if I may say. Eden would definitely support Diana’s chameleon speech if she gives it, and they’d team up on their quests to reach out to those who separate themselves from the group, like Teruko and Eva- okay the more I write about them the more similarities I see lol. And outside of a killing game? Well, then we need to combine them with-

Eden & Mai & Diana

It’s too much positivity in one spot! We’re reaching critical levels of wholesomeness, we need to emergency exit right now!!!

Btw, I don’t think I need to say it, but outside of the killing game everyone would love Mai, EG cast included. That’s, like, the point of her character. But she’s not really present in a killing game, right?

Mai & Cara

Though they’d probably never interact in the killing game, the amount of narrative haunting these two got going on would combine into the biggest narrative haunted house you’ve ever seen.

Ace & Ingrid & Jean

Ace originally gravitated to Levi in the killing game because he felt safer around someone as strong as the Stylist, only to later fall out due to the whole death threat situation. Jean and Ingrid have the same quality of bringing safety through their evident strength, but without the death threats, so I imagine Ace would hang around them quite a bit. Especially if Levi still gets pissed off at Ace in the first trial, which I feel Ingrid in particular wouldn’t let slide as easily as the DRDT cast in general did. Also I can imagine both of them being pretty good at reminding Ace to eat properly after his secret reveal, and stopping him from bullying Nico as much as in canon, so those are pluses.

Although, Ace might not even bully Nico anyways. Because-

Ace & Toshiko

With Toshiko being the smallest and physically weakest across both casts (I'm assuming Eden's stronger than her surely), I think it's likely that Ace would target her more so than Nico. She's not as shy as Nico, which is kinda the actual reason Ace went after them, but the point stands. However, I don't think Ace would get very far, since Ingrid would absolutely put an end to it before it can get too bad. Also I don't think Toshiko would try to kill the guy so. Would probably go better than canon DRDT.

David & Kai & Cassidy

I imagine Kai and Cassidy would know David due to being terminally online, but David probably wouldn’t recognize them. Cassidy doesn’t mind, Kai’s ego is hurt a bit. Regardless, neither of them can get as close to David as Xander due to David actually knowing about Xander before meeting him.

In a non-killing game setting, I’ve always imagined two possibilities. Either David never lets the mask slip until everyone parts ways at the end of their school years, in which case he’d stay on friendly terms with everyone even if he's miserable the whole time, or he’d slowly stop forcing himself to be so cheery all the time, which the others would obviously understand as well. Kai and Cassidy are included in that.

However, in the killing game, we know David doesn’t slowly drop the act as he gets more comfortable, but rather goes from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds. David’s crash out would freak a lot of the cast out the same way it shook the DRDT cast, but these two in particular would be greatly affected.

David & Wolfgang & Damon

David and Wolfgang had very similar reactions to their respective secret motives in their killing games, so they’d become quick allies and co-leaders due to that. The main point of contention would be that Wolfgang wanted private discussions, while David wanted people to say their secret aloud. However, that comes from the fact that DRDT’s secret motive included an universal secret reveal and David wanted to cause a murder before that point, while EG’s version was just blackmail without a reveal.

If the motive is like EG’s, then I think David would agree with discussing them privately. If it’s like DRDT’s, I think Wolfgang could be convinced to David’s strategy, as long as David didn’t reveal that he actually wanted a murder to happen. Because I think Wolfgang genuinely didn’t want bloodshed, so he’d just agree to it to make the reveal less impactful when it happened. Basically he'd also fall for David's plan.

On another note, because of this team up between Wolfgang and David, I think Damon would end up disliking David at first, maybe even seeing through David’s persona like Teruko did.

Finally, there’s still David’s official heel turn to talk about. I would fucking love to see “Evil” David in a discussion against Damon and Wolfgang. Not because they’re equally matched or anything; Damon and Wolfgang are much better at actually debating than David, but David’s the Ultimate Shit Talker. I think it’d be fun to watch him rile the other two up with lies and play-acting. It’d probably fall to other people, like Teruko, Charles, Eva, etc., to actually stay calm enough against his act to think clearly. Maybe Wolfgang and Damon would also get there eventually, but I think it’d take them longer.

Xander & Wolfgang

They actually wouldn’t have much of a reason to talk to each other much, I don’t think. Outside of a killing game, they don’t really have any common ground to discuss, beyond maybe some super personal family stuff. Maybe Xander would recognize Wolfgang’s mom, though, which could lead to some interesting conversations depending on what happened with her. They’d be friendly with each other, but not particularly close or anything.

And the same could be said of the situation inside a killing game… except that eventually, Wolfgang would come to be extremely pissed off at Xander. See, because Xander stabbing Teruko clearly has some pretty large implications for DRDT’s plot, it would likely still happen in the case of a lore merge of sorts. And Wolfgang wouldn’t exactly be happy that Xander chose to attack a woman he barely knew anything about for reasons no one really knows at the start.

Teruko & Wolfgang

Which leads to the trial after Teruko gets stabbed, and I actually think Wolfgang would quickly jump to Teruko’s defense. Barring Charles and Teruko herself, Wolfgang is probably better at solving murders than the entire rest of the DRDT cast combined (/affectionate), so he’d spot the problems with the idea that Teruko killed Xander and would back her up. Of course, who actually would kill Xander in this universe is impossible to know, since his death is entirely a result of Teruko’s luck, but we know it probably wouldn’t be Teruko herself. It could even be Wolfgang himself who kills Xander, in which case the dynamic would be different, but I’m assuming for this hypothetical that Xander’s murderer would be someone else.

Anyways. Because of this perceived team up during the trial, Wolfgang would try to reach out to Teruko after its end, only to be pushed away as Teruko begins her “fuck everyone else here” arc in earnest. He’d probably try for a little bit, but once he sees the discord her actions are causing, he’d allow her to push herself away without further intervention. He wants to keep the group together, so if someone’s gonna cause issues, he’s not gonna let them in. Not everyone thinks that way, though.

Teruko & Eden & Eva & Diana

I mentioned this in the Eden & Diana section, but these four would end up being a weird little group of “the two who are trying to distance themselves from everyone” and “the two who won’t let them.” You can add the rest of the Baking Squad (+ Mai) here in a non-killing game AU, since Teruko wouldn’t want to push them away, but in a killing game situation, she’d do just that as I established.

Diana and Eden’s crusade on Eva don’t last too long, though, as the Traitor Perk would probably still be a thing she takes. While she probably wouldn’t draw first blood, as Xander’s attempt on Teruko’s life happens shortly after the first motive announcement (not even the after the motive; after the announcement that there will be a motive), Eva would still try to kill soon after with the same reasoning as canon. I don’t know if she’d still target Wolfgang, but I’d say it’s likely.

This also means that it would be Eva who gets ordered by Teruko to try and attack the mastermind. I figure she’d try, because why the hell not. But I think she’d go for Tozu, only for MonoTV to pull a “get down mister president!” and get destroyed in his stead, right before Mara shoots Eva just enough to get her down while leaving her alive for her execution. Cue DefaultTV scene, though if Min is still alive (which of course she is, I’m the one making the AU after all), we might get some interesting reaction out of her after the XF-Ture Tech line. I can’t tell what would happen later, though, because the purpose of the killing game in a merge like this could change, and with it the decisions of the masterminds. In any case, Teruko lives due to Luck and Eva gets executed.

I don’t know where the killing game would go from there, by the way. Ace maybe wouldn’t crash out as hard as he did in canon with Jean and Ingrid on his side, but maybe he would. It's especially unlikely since Nico's murder attempt would be less probable with Ace bullying Toshiko instead.* So. Yeah. Back to your regularly scheduled character-dynamic-with-no-extra-plot headcanons!

*Yes I know Ace was already planning to murder before the Nico attempt in canon, but again, I think that's less likely with Jean and Ingrid in the picture.

Rose & Ulysses

Narcoleptic duo! Funnily enough, I actually think the more interesting part of this dynamic is their memory. Ulysses would probably envy Rose’s photographic memory, while Rose would probably envy Ulsysses’… lack of that. Though I can see her taking up the habit of writing things down to remember them, since her memory is lacking in other areas. She wouldn’t need to keep the book, anyways; she could just write it in pencil and erase it since she’d remember the text no matter what :p

J & Mark

Chill buddies! They'd stick together without necessarily talking too much. When they do, though, it's usually J complaining about fame with Mark quietly and repeatedly agreeing. They both have halfway hidden identities, so even while J probably recognizes Mayhem and likely enjoys his music, she doesn't bring it up too much as long as Mark doesn't bother her about being a Rosales (which he wouldn't). J would actually drive off Jett in both killing game and non killing game scenarios, as she'd notice Mark isn't vibing with his energy all that much (and she doesn't really either), and would voice that earlier than Mark. Because of that, Jett would hang out with Cassidy more often in these AUs. Maybe.

Xander & Cassidy

Absolutely recognize each other. Xander watches Cassidy's streams, and Cassidy knows what Xander does. They become very quick friends as a result, sorta like Xander with David. In a killing game AU, Cassidy would be really torn up by Xander's murder attempt and subsequent death, trying to argue that he must have had some reason to do it. Although I don't think she'd do the shit David did in the name of Xander's ideals, but you get the idea.

Xander & Wenona

There's gotta be some kind of beef here. I imagine Xander would repeatedly try to rile her up into some kind of discussion, only for Wenona to scoff and quickly cut that off. They'd probably cool down outside of a killing game eventually, but Wenona wouldn't be too upset at Xander's death inside of one.

Arturo & Wenona

Wenona is, I think, the character from EG that Arturo is most likely to find as a "beautiful person." Even if she's not that famous since she doesn't really do public appearances, she is filthy rich. This leads to Wenona understandably hating and being disgusted by the dude. She'd probably threaten him with lawyers outside of a killing game, and would just stay far away from him inside of one.

Ace & Grace

The loudest room in the world is the one that contains these two. They would exchange insults very often, and the others always have to intervene to stop them from going into hours long shouting matches. Beyond that, Grace would hate the idea that Ace is an Ultimate who doesn't practice, since she takes her talent so seriously. Damon would also judge Ace for that, but Grace would be more vocal about it. Would make for a fun dynamic me thinks.

Nico & Eloise & Desmond

Nico and Eloise have relatively similar personalities, so I think they'd get along well enough. Desmond would therefore end up hanging out with the both of them a lot, acting as a sort of anchor for one of the chillest trios of characters around.

Hu & Ingrid

Mom friends unite! They'd get along by trying to get everyone in the cast to get along and be nice to each other. Hu's shorter temper can also be kept in check by Ingrid, though I don't think Ingrid would really stop Hu's shouting match with David after his magical girl transformation. Their relationship might strain when Hu's secret is revealed, though, because I can see a world where Ingrid starts treating her with more care when she finds out about Hu's attempts, which would bother Hu. However, with some healthy communication (which might genuinely be possible with these two; a miracle, I know), Ingrid would agree to stop and their relationship would mend.

Arei & Diana

You remember that thing about Diana and Eden being so similar that a lot of the potential arcs end up being kinda similar? Yeah. Arei's meltdown in the playground could be triggered by Diana instead of Eden without much issue.

However, would Arei's arc even happen with the EG cast in the building? In the killing game, Arei ends up genuinely believing she can get better because she finds out David "perfect Inspirational Speaker" Chiem kinda sucks, so she comes to the conclusion that "good people" don't exist and thus she and David can be "less shitty together." However, that's because everyone else in DRDT is clearly insane, so it's not hard for Arei to go "even Eden must have done something to hurt someone," because Eden ends up being the only real counterexample to the "no such thing as a good person" philosophy.

But in the EG cast, you have Ingrid (whose secret is that she uses out of date cleaning supplies, so we know she isn't hiding any crazy skeletons in her closet probably), Diana (we don't know her secret but there's no indication there's anything wrong with her), and maybe Jean and Wolfgang, depending on how seriously Arei would take the "wolfish mind" secret or if she even finds out about it. Because of that, it's worth asking whether the larger amount of counterexamples to the philosophy would mean Arei doesn't come the same conclusions as in canon DRDT.

Ultimately, I do think Arei would still reach the same mentality, just with more caveats. "Even Eden and Ingrid and Diana and Wolfgang and Jean must have done something to hurt someone" doesn't roll off the tongue so much, but it's still similar to the thing Arei said in canon and works, so Arei would probably try to change for the better in these AUs too.

Nico & Jett

Since Jett would have a harder time approaching Mark with J hanging around him, he'd probably try to find some other shy person to become a bro to, and Nico kinda fits. Nico would also appreciate the outfit, probably, since they'd find wolf masks cool. I think Nico still wouldn't be too receptive of Jett's energy, but I think they'd get comfortable with him faster than Mark seems to be getting comfortable with Jett in canon. Maybe. Idk.

Whit & Cassidy

The prime shenanigan causers in the combined cast, with puns and hijinks for days. Cassidy would probably ignore Whit's secret and continue causing mayhem with him until the very end.

Teruko & Jean

Believe it or not, I actually think Teruko would like hanging out around the guy, at least before she starts pushing people away post CH1. I say that because Teruko does seem to have enjoyed hanging around Xander before the Situation, and Jean has a similar boisterous and generally positive attitude as him. I don't think Teruko would necessarily seek him out or anything, but they'd enjoy just kinda chilling together.

-

Okay look I need to cut myself off at some point or I could talk about this forever. I invite whoever has thoughts on this to talk about it more, because there's a lot that could be done with this concept, but I can't be writing this post for the next year so I'm leaving it here. Hope it was enough for you! Thanks for the ask, this was a lot of fun!

[brittle-doughie]

So I was in the middle of my daydream about the full history/lore of crk world in general, there's lots of things to unpack but I think I just forgot em already😭 anyways, here's some ideas for the pre-corruption and early off the oven beasts

The beasts' names: Since they're from the first batch of cookies to be made, I think the witches named them based on their ingredients or so, so I pick the already existing cookie-related names for them here.

Whole Wheat cookie

Chai​ Spice cookie

Light Milk cookie

Soft Sugar cookie

Sea Salt cookie

-Headcanon​ that they're the one to defeat the witches, save the other living cookies, somehow split reality to another realm which then becomes earthbread, and uses the knowledge that they had learned from the witches to build civilization there. Hence the cookies in ancient time worshipped them and call them their god.

-They're​ obviously more powerful than normal cookies but I don't think as much as they currently are, the size difference still wasn't much to be noticable at least.

-Light Milk cookie is the smart one, the first one to learn how to use magic and discover how to create/extract life powder, maybe even procreation too. (he ain't blue, just really light cyan)

Um​ spoilers​ ​for newcomers​ -​Time​ travel is a thing in crk appearantly? Ykno,​ with White lily and Dark enchantress thingy. So it's possible for Gingerbrave and the gang to be from the first batches who didn't escaped with the beasts but instead stumbles into the already developed earthbread, somehow.

-fancy colors of the cookies are the side effects of magic maybe? Like, the cookies made by witches (older release cookies like Gingerbrave, Moonlight etc. ) are very average-normal-edible-cookies looking while the ones born on later eons look a bit different.. I swear I'm not trying to—*gets shot*

Spoilers for witch's castle -Since the​ first cookies are witches turned(possessed) cookies, the beasts WILL have beef. Even though in my opinion, they're not the same group of witches that made them, them vengeful asses just don't care. But also, they probably won't going to appear until some time later when the mess of ancient heroess vs no longer heroes starts, if DEVSIS ever going to import them in crk in case witch's castle flops(they fr flops)

Aight​ Reader​ might be coming in as one for the surviving cookies from the early age, seduced all em five great beings, died of old age, revived by one of them gods when they got corrupted and are no longer gods(I bet 20bucks it's SM), beasts got trapped a d they went out to find a way to get them out; just to died again by accident while the beasts still in the tree- no not really change that to sleeping, so then they can wake up again when the tree fucking snaps in half and the beasts break free, with the power of magic or love, a booty call or something like that, now we're back again with a newfound harem trailing behind us. Sweet.

Pinky promise I tried to make this as bearable as possible please don't find and strangle me😔🙏 .💋 anon

Some neat stuff.

[the-way-astray]

lyrical breakdown . . .

(Verse 1)

There once was a boy from a series for kids

Fan favorite, created as comic relief

exactly!!!! he was created as comic relief!!!! actually he wasn’t even supposed to exist, but. anyway why did shannon give him the legacy plotline . . . please . . . go back to when he was just a side character . . .

But there was a girl who didn’t find him comedic

Her name was Stria, his name was Keefe

accurate.

(Verse 2)

So let’s just say for this song they’re the same age

And either she’s fictional too or he’s real

he should be real so i can put him in the very real dirt

And Stria for some reason is her given name

lmfaoooo i have definitely explained this one. it comes from astray, like my username. astray -> astrya -> strya -> stria . . . we ignore that it means stretch marks. i did not know that

Just wait for what their story will make you feel

hopefully unadulterated rage. that's what it's making me feel

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to love

LOVE IS CRAZY . . . and yes we are unlikely. in fact we are extinct

She was nothing to him

Now she’s more than enough

keefe would not give two shits about me . . . i would be nothing to him. actually

She thought he was toxic

i still think that. actually

Now she understands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

MY HEART IS COMMANDING ME TO HATE KEEFE IRWIN SENCEN

(Verse 3)

She wrote a whole rant about everything wrong

With how he would talk and the way that he’d act

this is correct. almost the only part of this song that isn't slanderous lies

The day they met she said she was right all along

Told him off and rolled her eyes when he said he felt “attacked”

how did we meet in the song's lore . . . and okay keefe. feel attacked. see if i care. in fact this should encourage you to consider staying away . . .

(Verse 4)

But Keefe had this thing where he hated himself

He was going through it, that much was for sure

pro keefe propaganda in a strieefe song? fork found in kitchen . . . *stops myself from ranting about how i don't care if keefe is going through it, he still faces no consequ-*

He thought long and hard about Stria’s words well

Decided she was right and he should thank her

are we talking about the same keefe. i think you may be singing about a different keefe than i am

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to friends

i love how the first chorus goes "hatred to love" and then decides to dial it down a notch with "hatred to friends" in the second one

He was nothing to her

CORRECT!!!! RAHHHH!!!!

We’ll see how it ends

this song's ending is slander and lies. don't listen to it

She thought he was toxic

But she’s soon to understand

One must always follow

What their heart commands

KILLING KEEFE MAIMING KEEFE BITING KEEFE EXPLODING KEEFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Verse 5)

Stria couldn’t believe he would own his mistakes

yeah there's no way i'm believing that because it didn't happen

But he swore he got it and promised to change

. . . did he though. did he really . . .

She didn’t believe it and thought it was fake

it probably is. waiting for the other shoe to drop (it will, trust) (don't listen to katie's propaganda, this song is leaving some stuff out)

He took in stride, which Stria thought was strange

he would never . . .

(Verse 6)

Alayda watched from the sidelines and was grinning

yeah, sounds like her

And Katie (that’s me, I’m Katie) took notes furiously

and then warped and skewed the notes beyond repair and put them into rhyming verses and sang it in a song. but i guess that's too long of a line to include

Alayda said, “Katie it looks like we’re winning”

alayda is also a traitor to the sokeefe nation. in case anyone cares

But I ship him with Sophie, so I said “who’s we??”

YOU LITERALLY ADMITTED TO WRITING A STRIEEFE FIC AND YOU WROTE THIS STRIEEFE SONG DON'T PRETEND YOU AREN'T A TRAITOR TO THE SOKEEFE NATION

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to something

"something" is still hatred. hope this helps

He was nothing to her

Now he’s surely more than nothing

actually, he's less than nothing

She thought he was toxic

But soon she’ll understand

One must always follow

What their heart commands

my heart is commanding me to beat katie up with a shoe. and i still think he's toxic

(Verse 7)

Keefe day by day proved he meant what he said

. . . what version of keefe is this song about????

And Stria rethought the whole rant that she’d made

rethinking some parts, but definitely not the entire thing

She said “fine okay, I guess we can be friends”

i hate his sense of humor i would never be able to get along with him

He wanted more than that and asked for a date

can i please leave now

(Verse 8)

She said before they could be something more

She had a condition, he must be okay

i would never consider this. this is stria slander

With sharing her eternally with four times four

Just like the amount of letters in his name

THIS SEEMS LIKE A WELL-INTENTIONED SIXTEEN MENTION BUT IT'S JUST AN EXCUSE TO BRING UP THE FACT THAT SHANNON HATES ME AND WANTS ME DEAD AND MADE KEEFE'S MIDDLE NAME HAVE FIVE LETTERS SO THAT HIS FULL NAME HAS SIXTEEN LETTERS THIS IS KATIE MANIPULATION I'M NOT CRAZY

(Chorus)

And he said yes!

he could never live up the the very high bar that my true love, the number sixteen, has set

An unlikely couple

Hatred to love

THIS VERSION IS BACK

Just him and sixteen

Now that’s more than enough

just sixteen is more than enough. sixteen and keefe is less than enough

She thought he was toxic

Now she understands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

my heart is commanding me to elope with sixteen and leave keefe in the dirt

*ridiculous electric guitar solo by Katie’s brother*

the best part of the song. also you forgot some key lyrics. here, i'll fix it for you

*katie laughing*

okay, that's enough of that

i agree. that's enough of strieefe for a lifetime

As promised, 8-verse song about strieefe!

featuring my brother at the end 😭😭

For those who don’t know the joke, Stria @the-way-astray HAAAATES Keefe Sencen. So naturally it’s a ship! And after this memories post happened, well, I had no choice!

LYRICS UNDER THE CUT

(Verse 1)

There once was a boy from a series for kids

Fan favorite, created as comic relief

But there was a girl who didn’t find him comedic

Her name was Stria, his name was Keefe

(Verse 2)

So let’s just say for this song they’re the same age

And either she’s fictional too or he’s real

And Stria for some reason is her given name

Just wait for what their story will make you feel

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to love

She was nothing to him

Now she’s more than enough

She thought he was toxic

Now she understands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

(Verse 3)

She wrote a whole rant about everything wrong

With how he would talk and the way that he’d act

The day they met she said she was right all along

Told him off and rolled her eyes when he said he felt “attacked”

(Verse 4)

But Keefe had this thing where he hated himself

He was going through it, that much was for sure

He thought long and hard about Stria’s words well

Decided she was right and he should thank her

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to friends

He was nothing to her

We’ll see how it ends

She thought he was toxic

But she’s soon to understand

One must always follow

What their heart commands

(Verse 5)

Stria couldn’t believe he would own his mistakes

But he swore he got it and promised to change

She didn’t believe it and thought it was fake

He took in stride, which Stria thought was strange

(Verse 6)

Alayda watched from the sidelines and was grinning

And Katie (that’s me, I’m Katie) took notes furiously

Alayda said, “Katie it looks like we’re winning”

But I ship him with Sophie, so I said “who’s we??”

(Chorus)

An unlikely couple

Hatred to something

He was nothing to her

Now he’s surely more than nothing

She thought he was toxic

But soon she’ll understand

One must always follow

What their heart commands

(Verse 7)

Keefe day by day proved he meant what he said

And Stria rethought the whole rant that she’d made

She said “fine okay, I guess we can be friends”

He wanted more than that and asked for a date

(Verse 8)

She said before they could be something more

She had a condition, he must be okay

With sharing her eternally with four times four

Just like the amount of letters in his name

(Chorus)

And he said yes!

An unlikely couple

Hatred to love

Just him and sixteen

Now that’s more than enough

She thought he was toxic

Now she understands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

An unlikely couple

Hatred to love

She was nothing to him

Now she’s more than enough

She thought he was toxic

Now she understands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

One must always follow

What their heart commands

*ridiculous electric guitar solo by Katie’s brother*

If you made it this far, congrats! Check out my serious kotlc songs by looking up #kotlc songs or #original music on my blog!! Or not. You could always just judge my musical abilities forever and ever by this recording of me making Stria angry, which, okay, valid.

@the-way-astray @alaydabug2 @thishumanformislimiting @worldsunlikemyown @permanently-stressed @lisalovesapplesauce @jeannefostergoriot

[victoryarchive]

Ok. I’ll bite. Hermit! Tommy? Because that looks an awful lot like a really cool Watcher au something? Please share!

Omg if you insist lmao

Buckle up this is gonna be a lot.

This all started when I was thinking about Greek mythology (a common occurrence I fear) and I was thinking how even though Helios is the sun and the god of the sun many people these days assign that role to Apollo (the god of light). And that got me thinking more and more about how as time progresses stories change and gods become gods of things they never were before. New gods exist. Old ones are completely forgotten. Their names change. Look at Roman mythology for a great example of this.

And because I’m one hell of a nerd this immediately translated to ‘how can I use this in fan fiction’

Another thing you must know about me is I hate to fall back on Minecraft mechanics, it feels lazy for me to do it (it’s fine to read I just hate writing it) and must always find a way to make things like respawn and different worlds fit into the lore of the story.

Thus began the world building:

Every watcher is a god of something, Xelqua/Grian: the sun, Pearl: the moon, Kristin: The underworld, XD: [redacted], etc. Each watcher has the ability to create a world (or multiple depending on their power) for their people to live (Grian: hermitcraft, Pearl: Empires, Kristin: the Antarctic Empire, XD: the DSMP, etc) Within these worlds it is very common practice for the Watchers to choose a devoted follower to give a small portion of their power to oversee their world, to make rules and keep everyone safe, an Admin. (Grian: Xisuma, Pearl: fWhip, Kristin: Philza, XD: Dream, etc.)

Now none of these watchers just spawned as watchers, no they became watchers through people worshipping them and writing stories about them as gods. These stories held power so the person held power and became essentially immortal and can do pretty much anything with that power, at least until they are forgotten.

So far the story begins with Xelqua brining his players back from their silly death game and being intercepted by a very very old goddess, one who had almost been completely forgotten. This primordial goddess is peace, not just the goddess of peace, she is peace. She is called Prime. She asks Grian and Xisuma to take her last worshipper and devotee, Tommy, and protect him from another Watcher. And with a little bit of convincing Grian’s like ‘yeah fine ig I’ll take the kid. How difficult can one child be.’

Now that’s as far as I’ve written aside from the beginning backstory stuff, but I’ve got a lot of stuff planned, including an entire few chapters inspired by ‘god games’ from epic the musical, where Grian has to go fight for some mortals life. One of them. I know which one. Yall don’t :)

There’s also a lot of Grian and Pearl back story from when they were kids and still mortal like thousands and thousands of years ago and how they eventually became literal gods.

Tommy learns how friends are supposed to work and gets mentored by none other than Mumbo Jumbo, or Impulse i haven’t decided yet. The only thing I know about Minecraft is redstone so he’s learning redstone.

Also it would be a damn shame for me to not include False and Tommy flying together a bunch bc they’re the only to avians that can match each others speed.

There’s some stuff going on with techno being an admin on an anarchy server. He comes in later in an absolute rage.

Also Joel is a demigod… it makes sense I swear.

I’m having a lot of fun playing around with the world building and each individual characters back story so I will expand on anything if people ask about it :))))

Thank you for asking this has been fun

[thewadapan]

My pal @irlnautica has just shared her essay defining the Transformers version of the Doylist/Watsonian perspective dichotomy!

"Budianskian and Furmanist: A new model of storytelling analysis"

Bob Budiansky believed that the most interesting thing about the entire Transformers setup was that the Transformers were on Earth. The vast majority of his stories revolved around ideas of culture clash and worlds colliding; Bob’s Autobots would be perplexed and fascinated by human behaviours, from small-town life to professional wrestling. [...] Budianskian storytelling is concerned with looking at Cybertronians from an external perspective: exploring what sets them apart from you or I, showing how they interact with a world not their own, how and why they hide themselves as human vehicles to conduct their war. Budianskian storytelling is about the Transformers being robots in disguise. By contrast, Simon Furman was far less enamoured with humans and the ways the two species played off each other. [...] To be sure, his stories take advantage of the characters being robots, but rarely is it particularly concerned with them being vehicles. Furmanist storytelling looks at Cybertronians from an internal perspective; it’s concerned with how they interact with each other, and the lore and history and substance of their own world. The point of the robots as characters isn’t to contrast with the human experience, but to be a stand-in for them. Furmanist storytelling is about the Transformers being more than meets the eye.

If you enjoyed my essay on Transformers One, I guarantee you'll find stuff to like in Jo's writing too. Much of it is giving an overview of major examples of Transformers stories, but whenever it steps outside that specific context, you'll find it raises interesting questions about "the promise of the premise", what exactly it is that makes certain kinds of stories/themes/allegories better-suited to given properties/settings/concepts than others.

I feel strongly that these terms can be generalised to cover all forms of sci-fi—hell, any story where the premise involves a "break from everyday reality" in some form or another. Are we in that world, or are we outside it, looking in?

(I think, for most people not in Transformers fandom, the ethos behind Furmanism in this specific context is frankly baffling. What is the point of writing about these giant alien robots if you're really just writing about humans? Personally, it's the culture-clash stuff that continues to compel me as an adult. Nevertheless, this essay makes a valiant effort to justify the appeal of Furmanist stories as best it can!)

[meirimerens]

hello . i have been scrolling through your inherent the earth/khan/notkin etc tags and rotating them in my mind and i love the idea of notkin+catnip+dandy playing music on just vibes and daniil coming to the town -> seeing them -> tries to give them sheet music. do you have any more thoughts on da music players.. would they learn it eventually or would daniil just have to iron grip his mind and upbringing to jam w them.. would murky or sticky interest themselves in playing music afterwards..

hiiiiiii ^_^ thankyou for checking out one of the better tags on this blog i ♥ the works i have in it. the annoying the orphaned and the inflammatory-arthritic shall inherit the earth. also whatever is going on between these two.

as gar as Music goes :

frankly i don't think dankovsky would Try of his own volition to give them sheet music that's not something i think he does. for multiple reasons 1) when he comes back to the town he Has Other Things To Do (wink wink etc. but also he lends a hand to the burakh medical practice) than try to teach orphans solfège 2) He Fucked Around And Found Out Last Time what it did to get into the normal functioning of the town (including its inhabitants) so he's like Let me let them.

however comma i think some kids would come to him to learn. main (and perhaps only) one is Catnip to me. she's the Good Handwriting Bad Grammar half of the duo she makes with Dandy who i decided in my head is her brother so she can write down a music sheet pretty good. + i think she hangs out with capella (my lore) as a grown-up and capella is a sheet music type of girl. dandy might follow he's the Bad Handrwiting Good Grammar so he's probably already prone to #understanding sheet music a bit better. notkin is completely uninterested he's been playing music by ear/Vibes Only since he got into the streets age 7 he's not interested in being academic about it. he's never been interested in being academic about anything. i still hold that the kids will try to get dankovsky to play with them but when he mentions "what do we play and how can i follow do you have a sheet" they're like What is this guy on about. they just make stuff up eventually or start by following by ear music that dankovsky might play on the record player he brought back to town. the only other one who could be/is sheetmusicpilled is khan who has been pianopilled from an early age to me. both of the kain children actually but maria does it wildmode.

murky is uninterested in the playing/learning of music she has her own thing (going outside and pacing, medicinal herbs, Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy by hanging out at Shekhen where Taya is growing up), she loves listening to it though. sticky is uninterested in the playing/learning of music he has his own thing (medicine), he loves listening to it & dissecting the records player to find out what's inside though. i think that's something he and khan not-really-bond (sticky still can't stand his ass) over because khan loves himself the new century's technologies of record players, cameras, the telephone,...

mostly it's less the Kids Playing Music With Dankovsky, and more Dankovsky Playing Music With The Kids. he slithers his cello line into something they've already practiced for years and it's one more to the group.

[kalin7art]

shipsnthenight -> kalin7art

So... hi. I need to talk to you guys for a bit.

In the span of 48 hours, I as a European, watched as 180 million people were subjected to the most blatant, political and propagandistic stunt ever pulled from a self-described "democratic government" in modern history, and I can't pretend that what is happening is not a mirror (with different platforms of course) of how it started in Italy in 1922, or in Germany in 1933.

It makes me sick. Physically sick to my stomach.

I am Italian, as some of you know, and I have heard from my grandparents' own mouths what it was like to live under a dictatorship. It's a topic that hits very close to home for me, and seeing what has happened to TikTok since it came back up for Americans is 100% proof that THAT is his (you know who I'm talking about) endgame.

Even if I'm not an American, I can't keep living my life pretending that all of this is not happening. At least on the internet, the very least I can do is try to distance myself as much as possible from the blatant propaganda, and that now includes twitter, TikTok and all the Meta platforms as well.

Sadly, as a European I can't let go of WhatsApp because 99% of people uses it here even for work, but with everything else I'd like to try and see if I can exist without needing those platforms.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... ...hi! I'm an old-guard milliennial who'd like to be let back in here please.

I haven't really used this account properly since 2017, so I'll have to learn some new tumblr etiquette, I guess.

Also, 2017 was a long time ago, so... here's a list of the things you'll probably see me post about:

My art (ranging from official book covers I've worked on for italian editors, to fanarts from the fandoms written here below, some of my own stuff, and also fantasy/dark-fantasy and sci-fi characters)

Everything LGBTQ+

Arcane LOL/Caitvi (I don't play lol but love to learn the lore)

Mass Effect Trilogy

Baldur's Gate

Elden Ring / Soulsborne

Blue Eye Samurai

Horizon (game)

TLOU (game + show)

HOTD + GoT

Pokémon

Video games in general

Some TV shows and movies but not as much as I used to watch

Taylor Swift (WHERE IS REPTV SIS COME ON)

In the next few days I'll probably spam y'all with some drawings, just to get this old blog up and running again. I'll also try and use bluesky if I remember to do so, you can find me there at kalin7art.

Ngl... feels like coming home <3

I'm gonna tag this with my favorite ships and stuff you're most likely to see me post art of, so if you see this in the tags and you wanna drop a follow, I got you.

[ford-between-dimensions]

[Ford stares at the page in quiet awe]

You have copies of the pages…? Yes, those are mine. That’s my handwriting…But it can’t have been that long ago. It looks like it’s aged nearly half a century. How did you…

Who did you say your mother was again…?

"I found the prism you mentioned..."

[Rebecca pulls it out of her bag]

"What do we do now?..."

@rebecca-pines

…Ah. You’re back…

About that…well. It won’t be necessary.

[tw1nkee28]

No one asked for this, but I really needed to infodump about him to someone or I was gonna go insane.

˙⋆✮ Info about my CoD oc, 'Dawn'! ✮⋆˙

⚠️Warning!⚠️ There will be a lot of words and one image containing (mild) nudity below the cut. (A shirtless man, in case you are uncomfortable with such)

The first image is a reference for the finer details of his character such as his hairstyle, his facial details like his nose and eyes, and his major scars.

The second image is more of how I envisioned his body type, but I struggle with consistency and being able to convey some bodies in different angles and intricate poses.

——————————————————————————

These are just some drawings I've made of his character as I was developing him.

While he is a rather calm individual, being stoic and silent most of the time, he does still get rather angry on the inside. Which is what I was trying to convey in the first image.

He respects his peers and superiors, but when they do legitimately stupid shit, he can and will rock their shit depending on how bad it was.

I've included this in his lore before but I am too nervous to share some of the finer details of his lore and will only be vaguely referencing it, sorry ☹️🫶

——————————————————————————

I made a janky, very brief timeline of his career above.

Now, I haven't filed through complete details so some things such as his rank and experience in the field may or may not be entirely accurate with the time he was working especially since I made his character on the fly and did little to no research at first. Only now am I actually trying to expand his character and lore and am realizing I did not do nearly enough research. Most of this is just what I thought sounded nice at first.

——————————————————————————

More in-detail information below ↓

Name: Julius Harper Aliases: Dawn, 7-28

Nationality: Filipino Ethnicity: Eastern Asian

Age: 32 DoB: June 19, 1992

Pronouns: He/Him Gender: Cis Man Sex: M

Sexuality: Unlabeled, prefers men

Height: 6'2

Languages: Tagalog, English, FSL (Filipino sign language, for Dusk)

Which CoD universe: Modern Warfare (ii)

Branches of Service: Marine Corps

Affiliation: Shadow Company

Specialities: hand to hand, a variety of front line infantry skills, long range, basic first aid

Personality: usually grumpy and quiet. switches between sassy, rude, and teasing(towards close people) and quiet, obedient, and stoic. He's technically a strong and silent type around most people, usually very distrusting and distant. He's very good at following orders unless they're outright stupid, then he'll put up a fight about them.

Backstory: (my attempt at being brief, sorry🙏) given to an (underground) training organization with unconventional training methods at a young age, was tortured and ridiculed for disobeying (his scars on his face and chest🫶), escaped with force when he was 17(nearly 18). Had to travel by himself to the US and rely on strangers to get him there (no money in his name).

Eventually joined the Marines at 20, met Dusk (his Colonel). Blah blah blah, went up the ranks. At 28 he dragged Dusk out of the field half exploded and left the Marines soon after Dusk did. Joined Shadow Company 🫶

Issues: PTSD, nightmares, paranoia, nervous at being touched randomly

Habits: never takes off his mask unless he's REALLY comfortable, sleeps with it on more often than not. Hovers close to people he likes cause he doesn't like to reach out and touch people, settling on subtle hands on shoulders or light brushes of skin. Watches and evaluates anyone and everyone in the same room as him, constantly searching for any red flags or threats.

Scars: One over each eye (resembling clown markings)

One running over his bottom lip and down his chin.

One running from his collar bone to below his navel.

A mix of bullet, knife, and other scars from his field work scattered over his arms and hands.

Preferred method of showing care/affection/love language: acts of service, quality time, ("secretly") physical touch.

Preferred way of receiving care/affection: words of affirmation, physical touch

Eye Color: left eye pale yellow with brown center, right eye green with yellow center. has heterochromia

Hair description: short and dusty brown with two streaks of early greying. Two long pieces in front of either ear, short in the back.

Clothing description: SC Uniform - beige tactical vest stocked with red and yellow(ish) glow sticks(?, I forgot the actual name for it), roll of thin rope, and three mags. Black, long-sleeve zip-neck shirt with the shadow company insignia on the sleeve. Black balaclava, black helmet and goggles with attachable headphones connected to comms. Black tactical cargo pants, black belt with two storage pouches attached at either side of his hips, and a right handed gun holster. Very dark brown/black combat boots.

Not in uniform - form fitting short-sleeve shirts and jeans most of the time. Occasionally switching it up for loose shirts when his compression shirts feel too tight and strangling for a casual day. He wears belts to at least make it seem like he cares about his outfits, even though he doesn't really put effort. Picking up whatever dark colored shirts and jeans he can find and calling it a day most of the time.

Body description: well-built Filipino man with hooded eyes. He has a bit of stubble along his jaw, forgetting to shave often. Freckles are speckled over his face, arms, neck and shoulders, and legs. Body hair over his chest, arms, and legs mainly. Occasionally lets other Shadows paint his nails when they ask (requests black but can't say no if they choose another) so sometimes has painted nails.

Favorite activities: sitting outside with nature, playing guitar, going to the bar with Dusk to spend time and catch up, reteaching Dusk guitar

Blood type: O

Favorite animal(s): Cats, snakes, birds in general

Favorite food/dessert: Pork Adobo, Graves' cooking (it's his guilty pleasure at cookouts, you can't convince me that Graves doesn't sit at a grill making food for his Shadows for a cookout on an off day)

• born in Marawi City; Mindanao, Philippines

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He's generally like a big dog that doesn't realize it's own size, like a great Dane of sorts. Protective, loyal to a fault with aggressive tendencies towards those he doesn't know/trust. Silent and strong, unless he's with someone close to him (very few people in his original universe, maybe two people at most. Though I do headcanon him to be relatively close with the Shadows and Graves in my shadow company AU, being more welcoming with touch and close proximity but still acting grumpy like he doesn't want it, despite enjoying every brush or touch of skin to his.)

He enjoys his quiet time and regular meets up with an old friend of his, back from his Marine days, the both of them learning electric guitar and playing together sometimes to loosen up.

He's a workaholic all in all, not having many hobbies or activities out side of his work.

He lives at base, having been out on the streets before starting his career in the military.

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He earned his scars on his face and chest when he was about 16-17, fleeing his state as soon as he was nearing 18 (lore reasons that I'm too nervous to share with people) and living on the streets with a lengthy theft history until he joined the Marines at 20 years old. Where he met his previously mentioned 'old friend', his Colonel, call sign 'Dusk'.

His shadow company number is 7-28. No I did not do research on the actual numbers, I just chose random ones that sounded nice on my tongue. Plus 28 is like,,, my number, if you couldn't tell by my user.

If anyone understands the number system better and would like to help me out by correcting me, I would appreciate that very much. But for now, it is Shadow 7-28.

His lore and titles were developed before I put him in Shadow Company canonically, so shit like him being a Lieutenant and other things that would require him to have years and years of experience to get would be from his career in the Marines before then. I'm assuming he would have to start fresh since he joined a new company? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believeeee he'd have to start fresh with SC with things like titles.

He does still keep his old mask since Dusk helped him with it, but now he really only wears the shadow company uniform and gear. Swapping his plain black balaclava for his old one with the skull-like details when he's back at base relaxing.

Smaller details about him!! ↓

Favorite color - Green !!

Favorite activities - sitting outside with nature, playing guitar, going to the bar with his found-family Brother (Dusk) to spend time and catch up

Favorite animal - cats ! Specifically black cats (he feels they're misunderstood)

• HATES ships and deep water

• used to (attempt to) pick up stray cats he found on the streets and try to bring them home as a kid.

• doesn't like training new recruits but is always put in charge of training them because of his leadership skills. (This happened to me in band a long while back, apparently my teacher thought I was a 'silent leader' and was really good at leading others subconsciously even if I hated being a leader??? That's him, that's Dawn. Silent leader)

• has nightmares frequently

• will deny liking someone, going as far as saying he hates them even if as soon as they leave the room he smiles on the inside because, hey! Someone wants to be close to him! That's new!

• tried drawing once, it looked like a kids drawing. he never picked up a pencil to draw again

• has really nice handwriting?? Wtf???

• He's a lieutenant!!

• spent years training to be a sniper that he's now unnecessarily still and silent while working on smaller tasks that require even the slightest bit of focus such as paperwork.

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Info about 'Dusk' since he's a big part of their lore ↓

These are all the drawings I've done of him so far ↑

While I haven't gone deep into lore for him, I do have a few small facts about him that have played a part in Dawn's lore.

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• He is 6'3, standing only an inch taller than Dawn.

• he was Dawn's Colonel for most of their career before they joined Shadow Company.

• just before Dawn had left to join SC, Dusk had gotten caught too close to an explosion. Having been dragged back to the base by Dawn himself and after healing, was left with very little sight and hearing on his left side. He struggled to be able to do many tasks that he needed to be able to complete to keep his job afterwards and had to quit.

• he cut off his long hair after the explosion burned off a lot of his hair, being left with very little long hair left on his right side. He felt it looked odd and cut it off so it could regrow at its own pace. Some parts of his scalp on his left side having damaged the actual skin there making it very hard/impossible to regrow it in some patches.

• he started learning guitar before joining the military, having been the one who inspired Dawn to learn and having lent Dawn their first ever guitar.

• was the one who gave Dawn his callsign

• he's Filipino, one of the many traits he and Dawn bonded over

• acts as Dawn's older brother later on in their career together after years of knowing each other. He has two siblings at home while Dawn is an only child

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Fun fact! He was slightly based off of my older brother, named Dusk :)

While some parts of his character were based off of him, the name was surprisingly not, it just happened to match up with Dawn while I was making them 🫶

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If you couldn't tell, Dawn is my baby and my favorite OC. I love him very much and will probably expand on his lore and such at some point, but for now, this is what we have.

Thank you if you read all of this ❤️

[bacchuschucklefuck]

class swap design masterpost for convenience (from top to bottom: bard!riz, cleric!gorgug, sorcerer!kristen, barbarian!fig, artificer!adaine, and rogue!fabian)

[magiertama]

Jiyan and the Rovers look incredible on brown paper

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Re: the staffing problems, this is the missing context:

It’s not that Acheran, or even Calgar has staffing problems. Guilliman has staffing problems. Yes, even with the zillions of Primaris marines Cawl defrosted. And for once, it’s not because the franchise keeps demanding overtime from its minimum wage workers. The workers are highly paid and respected, but training them literally takes years (decades?) and the customers keep eating the entire floor. I don’t think the game does a very good job showing this, but Acheran’s staffing problems fits in very well with GW’s depiction of Hive Fleet Leviathan in 10e.

I don’t particularly like Acheran, but I don’t dislike him, either. I do think his characterization has kinda been screwed over in meta. He only exists in relation to other, more important characters. Once Gee-dubs reassigned Sicarius to the Victrix Guard, they pulled Acheran out of their ass to fill the 2nd Captain slot, and then never really elaborated on him. SM2 is the first time he’s ever played a major role in a story, beyond a few mentions in campaign books. And what’s his role in SM2? To be Titus’s grumpy boss who can only spare three men because the game engine is built for three-player teams. Compare what we know about Acheran to, say, Iulus Fennion. Fennion isn’t a major character, but thanks to the Cato Sicarius books, we know his timeline, his buddies, his grudges, how he interacts with baseline humans, etc. Acheran ain’t got shit. Even his mini is a repurposed generic model.

With that said, I don’t think his characterization was hastily thrown together, either. All the Necron stuff (which is less an Ultramarine thing and more a Guilliman/Cawl/Trazyn the Infinite thing, btw) indicates that the writing team did their research into the lore, and Acheran’s behavior does make sense within the context of the greater lore.

As for the Warp, it works the way oceans worked for medieval sailors: vast, awesomely powerful, and tempestuous, with Here Be Dragons scribbled just about everywhere on the map. It’s an inherently irrational dreamscape, which is why it’s useful for FTL. The iron laws of reality don’t apply there, including concepts like time and distance. That’s why time is literally broken in the present setting. Waaaaaaay too much Warp is leaking into the Materium due to the Great Rift, causing distortions to reality all over the place.

You know what character in Space Marine 2 I genuinely don't like? Acheran. Cannot for the life of me get a solid read on that guy, and it does sort of drive me up a wall.

To me, he has like, passive-aggressive middle manager energy? He just spends so much of the game just vaguely making threats and second-guessing Damocles Squad it's almost ridiculous. And I do understand where he's coming from: having a guy who used to have your job reinstated under you could lead to internal strife in the company but it always seems like he's on the fence up to the moment Damocles Squad actually gets shit done and then he's all for whatever they're doing.

Am not too fond of him, is what I'm trying to say.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Why The Ending Sucks

Ok I figured it out. Hear me out:

The entire comic has a running theme best summed up as "who is controlling the narrative, and why are we listening to them?"

Hussie plays a caricaturized version of himself that he describes as "buffoonish" and "oafish". Caricature!Hussie is well-meaning, but a dumb idiot who's incredibly biased in favor of certain characters and in disfavor of others (the most obvious example being his "love" of Vriska, but there's also the way he constantly disparages Eridan). As a result, you have to be VERY SKEPTICAL and VERY CAREFUL when approaching Homestuck's narration, because even when the "best" narrator is at the helm, he's not 100% trustworthy and incapable of giving the readers an unbiased view of the story.

I say "best" because, importantly, Hussie isn't the story's only narrator. He and Doc Scratch explicitly fight over control of the story - Doc Scratch, the child abusing predator who engineered Alternia's fascist murder society, whose shaping of its history is explicitly described by character!Hussie as "fanfic". He is then killed by Lord English, who is described by Hussie as embodying the "toxically masculine" and by extension, the patriarchy, and Caliborn explicitly takes control of the story. John even grapples with Caliborn's version of events, calling out how sexist and misogynistic and shitty it is.

So if we're keeping score: control over the narrative is LITERALLY wrested away from Hussie (who was already struggling to be unbiased) by fascists, abusers, and the patriarchy. It's stressed multiple times that Caliborn/LE are responsible for literally everything that ever happens; the reason the Game Over timeline ends the way that it does is because the alpha timeline is, in essence, the narrative LE is telling: the forces of fascism get to claim the new universe, thereby propogating itself, while friendship dies and all hope is lost.

Who's in control of the narrative, and why are we listening to them?

There are other minor examples of this, too: Aranea is an exposition fairy, and she's biased as fuck and wrong ALL THE TIME about her own teammates. Karkat's explanations and rationalizations are constantly tinged with his own self-loathing and self-blame. Sollux and Meulin are both prophets as per their Mage class, but are both so bogged down by their own emotional issues that the futures they pick out are actively harmful. So on and so on. At nearly every turn, you have to interrogate who's telling the story, what their motivations are, and what they're overlooking or deliberately obfuscating.

So given that this theme is so prevalent, and so thoroughly weighted toward "well, actually, maybe you shouldn't take narration at face value and should interrogate it and come to your own conclusions," it would be Really Weird for the story to go "actually, you can totally trust the narrative now because everyone gets a happy ending".

So, I know that it makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist, but here's my genuine take on Homestuck's ending:

The ending is shitty on purpose because the viewer is intended to take it as a dare to refute the narration and make something better.

Why are we letting character!Hussie tell the story? He's a biased idiot. Why are we letting the various avatars of LE and Caliborn tell the story? They're fascist, misogynistic, predatory assholes.

And - because Homestuck is a story about life - why are we letting idiots, assholes, abusers, and creeps dictate the story of real life? The world is full of forces that would try to take control of the story and make everyone else play along, represented in microcosm within the text of Homestuck. We cannot let those forces win.

So please go out and do something kind and hopeful and loving in the world today. Thanks for reading.