#i wanted to give her a less generic body shape/general shape design so i switched up her jeans for shorts + leggings

[starrysharks]

this show SUCKS

[whitleyschn33]

Color in RWBY’s Designs

I’ve been trying to reblog this post for a good 10 minutes, and Tumblr just refuses to let me, and I don’t think I’m blocked, so @strqyr​ , have a reply

...

Okay, ignoring the out-of-left-field (hah) pivot to politics that cropped up in the comments -

I’m not an artist, but I do follow a few that discuss character design and have attempted some recolors myself, and when it comes to the various designs and colors of the RWBY girls, it’s not so much about the in-universe importance of color, it’s about the more meta principles of character design. Once again, I’m not the most qualified person to talk about this, so excuse me if I get something wrong or ramble.

In visual mediums, a character’s design, more specifically their silhouette and their colors, is what makes them stand out and memorable to an audience; in a lot of cartoons and anime, you’ll likely be able to recognize characters by their designs long before you remember their names, and even if you don’t know their names, seeing the silhouette or even color palette of that character can bring their image to your mind. For example, I haven’t seen an episode of Sailor Moon in my life, but show me Usagi’s silhouette, and I can tell you exactly who that is. I can show you this, and I would bet that 99% of you can tell me what character this is meant to represent despite it literally just being 5 rectangles.

(On a slight tangent, in action shows, colors and the smart placement there-of are doubly important, as they help with keeping track of a character as they move through a cluttered environment and interact with other characters, and keep track of how they move their bodies in that space. To use a specific example from RWBY itself, check out the Nevermore fight from Volume 1 - despite all the debris flying around the screen and the amount of wide shots, it’s easy to keep track of how the characters move around the screen. Yang’s gauntlets help direct your eyes to her punches, and the splash of red in Weiss’s collar makes sure she doesn’t turn into a white blob moving around the screen.)

RWBY specifically is a show that quite literally advertised itself and its character on the premise of color. The show is named not just after the main characters, but the main characters’ colors. The first trailers were the Red, White, Black, and Yellow trailers. Their original designs, while of course using other colors in the palettes, give an overall impression of red, white, black, and yellow, making the characters pop against the stark black, red, and white backgrounds of the trailers, as well as stand out against the background characters that were literally empty black voids of silhouettes. Their initial character designs are tied completely to them representing a specific color, and this color gimmick also makes the girls stand out as characters. Ruby’s red cloak and ruffles, Weiss’s white side ponytail and dress, Blake’s black bow and tuxedo vest, and Yang’s fiery yellow hair and gauntlets are instantly recognizable from a glance, and that’s a sign of good design that makes them distinct.

So, when you get to the later volumes and suddenly the characters are wearing less and less of their original, iconic colors on top of getting new silhouettes, it makes them start looking less and less recognizable as the characters they were originally designed to be, and more like completely different characters. Lets look at Blake and Weiss as an example. If you’d never seen RWBY, could you tell me if these were the same characters?

Alright, let’s fill in the details.

They look like two completely different pairs of characters. It’s not even the clothes themselves, but the colors and shapes of their clothes combined with the radically different hairstyles make the V7 designs look very much unlike the original designs. The girls got alternate outfits in V2, but they all fit the general silhouettes and color schemes of their typical outfits, and were still very much recognizable as the main team, just with new clothes. Such a drastic shift in what types of clothes and the colors they wear in V7, on the other hand, makes them look like different character designs. If you’re going to change what a character is wearing to something very different, keeping the colors consistent helps with keeping them recognizable as the character they are.

Now, changing the design of your character beyond the specific clothes they wear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Characters change as they progress through a story, and in visual media, changes to character design can be used to signify how they’re changing or how they’re reacting to their environment and new situations. For example, in the S2 premire of Avatar, Zuko cuts off his distinguishing topknot to represent his fall from a Fire Nation prince to an outlaw on the run, and in season 3, the GAang don red Fire Nation clothes as a disguise, ditching their usual blue, orange, and green clothing. In the Owl House, Amity dyes her hair purple to represent her making her own choices rather than letting her family control her life (and I picked this up from gif sets, without having even seen the show). Design changes, even to hair and color, can be used to represent change - and RWBY has managed to do this fairly well in the past! For example, Weiss’s V4 design is very different from her original design - her sleeves and collar are tight rather than poofy, her colors are muted and overrun with greys and blues, her whites are mostly hidden and her red is nowhere to be seen. This works, though, because it represents Weiss’s current situation - she’s being controlled by her father, her individuality represented by her whites and reds being driven out, and her dress is mostly tight against her wrists and neck, like shackles and being chocked. It’s a good way of showing a character’s changed situation, while keeping her recognizable from her side ponytail and poofy skirt remaining the same.

The latest redesigns of Team RWBY, however, don’t do this. They change radically, in color, hair, and clothing shape, and there’s no clear reason why. Why do they change how they look so drastically? What prompted them to style their hair so differently, to cut it so short? Why have they decided to choose different colors to wear? To circle back to the initial post, what part of their character development has changed them from the color they were representing to the color they’re now representing?

For more specific question/examples - what prompted Blake to cover herself in a heavy white coat in V4, when she was heading to a tropical island to recover? Why does she wear a bright white coat for official Huntress business when she’s meant to be a ninja? Why does she cut her hair so short? Why does Weiss cover herself in blues and greys in V7 when blues and greys were used to show her unhappiness and imprisonment by Jacques, rather than returning to lots of whites? Why does she go from a sleek ponytail to a thick heavy braid? Why does Ruby replace her cape and start styling her hair differently? Why does she go from a poofy skirt with ruffles to a very sleek, low volume skirt? Why does Yang not wear any yellow anymore? Why do none of them seem to wear anything suited for the cold? None of these questions have real answers. We can speculate all day, but at the end, that would still just be speculation.

Why does Lillie in Pokemon change her hair and clothes? To prove that she’s not just something for her mother to control and dress up to her ideal of beauty; that Lillie can make her own choices and is ready to stand on her own two feet and do what needs to be done, rather than relying on Repels and the player character.

Why does Blake cut her hair and start wearing so much white? ....

Why does Persona 5′s Akechi’s palette switch from bright white, reds, and golds to dark blacks and purples? To show the tearing down of the Detective Prince façade to the true darkness underneath.

Why does Weiss start wearing so many dark blues and greys? ....

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. Things just change on RWBY, key aspects of their designs like their hair and colors, and for the most part, there just seems to be no reason given to change. I’m not saying things like colors can never change, clearly they can, but for character design, especially in a show so heavily focused on colors and how characters are represented by their colors, it’s not a thing that should be taken lightly; if a character has grown so dramatically that the manner in which they express themselves as a character has changed, like the original poster is implying it can, it should be clear to see why this character has changed in this manner.

Without a good reason for it to change, it feels unnatural, like the character isn’t the same character - so when RWBY’s colors seem to be changing without good reason, creating designs that don’t look right for the character they’re meant to be in the situations they’re meant to be in, it causes people to want to revert back to the original palettes. Not because they’re denying individuality of the characters, but because the characters are no longer designed like the individuals they once were, and artists want to bring that individuality and striking design back through the use of the colors these characters use to define themselves.

[thebluestbluewords]

fitting rooms have locks for a reason

Malvie + Ben, a little spicy, technically part of my queer parenting/babyfic/polyamory 'verse. Not explicitly stated, but it's got some pretty heavy d/s themes. ~1600 words.

*

“I don’t think this is ever going to be a good look on me.” Mal says doubtfully, fisting the extra fabric of her skirt up as she steps onto Evie’s fitting dais. “I might just be too short for this to ever look good.”

Evie does not roll her eyes, because she is a good girlfriend who is working with her girlfriend’s changing ideas about her body, rather than against them. “It doesn’t look good now, obviously. You have to shut up and let me finish pinning it first.”

Mal drops the skirt. “Fine.”

Finally, “Thank you.” Evie says graciously, and gestures for their boy to come forward. “Servant boy, more pins!”

Ben ducks his head. Evie’s got him on his knees today, his feet looped together with one of her scarves so he can’t move easily even if she wanted him to stand. He gets quiet sometimes, when they boss him around like this, but they’ve talked about it at length and he insists that it’s better when they let him get to that point.

He’s not that far down yet today. “Your highness,” he says, holding out the magnetic dish with the wickedly sharp straight pins that Evie uses for fittings. She could tie his hands too, but half the fun is pulling him around into odd positions and seeing how long he’ll be able to hold it before she either has to move or scold him.

It’s a good day, so Evie’s going to give him a fighting chance this time. “Stay right there for a sec, babe. Don’t move a muscle,” she says, pulling his arms, and the dish sitting in his hands, up so that she can reach easily. It means that his arms are stuck awkwardly just above his head, but his shoulders are already relaxing into the pose. “Thank you.” she adds, on second thought. A little praise never hurt anyone.

“Evie--” Mal tries, as Evie gathers the fabric she’s been holding up out of her hands. It’s a few simple tucks that honestly, Evie doesn’t even need her to model for. She’s been designing for Mal practically as long as she’s been designing for anyone other than herself, and between clothing and their other activities, she knows the shape of her girlfriend’s body better than her own.

“Shh.” Evie says, and brandishes a pin. “I’m almost done, just hold on.”

Mal shuts up.

It really only takes another second, and then there’s just the hem to get up, and their boy to shove around again, until he’s moving a little looser and easier, just like Mal does when Evie finally finds the dresses that make her feel like the best version of herself, and that’s it.

Evie drops the hem to Mal’s legs, and the spare pins back to the bowl. “Do you want to try walking in that, Mally?”

Mal steps down from the little fitting dais that Evie’s got set up, and does a little runway walk over to the mirror propped against the far wall of the studio. “It’s not bad.” she admits, swishing the flowy skirt around her legs. “I like the pleats.”

Evie tries not to talk up her own accomplishments more than absolutely necessary, but Mal does look a full treat. “Told you,” she says, because well, she did. “Lift your arms, how’s that?”

Mal raises her arms above her head obediently, and gives a little wave. “Good.” she says, and shakes her shoulders out, like she’s dancing. The dress shifts with her, fabric floating along the elegant lines of her body. “I like it.”

“Excellent. Let me see you now, give me a twirl.” Evie says, gesturing. Her own dress is a simple one, form-fitting black with a sheer blue jacket that leaves her arms free for pinning and fitting her designs. It’s one of her new favorites, now that she’s been doing a lot more of the actual work end of her business lately, and a bit less of the studying end. She’s still got her team, of course, and two years of business management classes have taught her how to manage all the loose ends of the little world she’s made for herself, but it’s still nice to have a reliable outfit stable for getting shit done in.

Mal twirls. The hem lasts for two rotations, and then Mal, being herself, even though they’re old enough to know better, gets too excited and spins fast enough to make her hair fly up. The hem, predictably, falls out.

Mal looks guiltily up at Evie. “Oops.” she says, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You might need to re-pin that one.”

Of course Mal wants to make them go through the process again. Evie should serve her right and make her hold her own pins this time, just to give their boy a break.

“That’s fine, I’ll get it set back up where you need it.” Evie says instead, kneeling down to gather the loose edge back up again. It’s not so bad really, just the front piece that’s come undone from her loose attempt at figuring out how high Mal will want her hem. “I’m gonna leave a pretty generous hem this time, just in case we need to take it out more later.”

“In case what, I need to run away again and we don’t do this for another month?” Mal says bitterly. “That’s clever of you. Knowing when I’m going to have another breakdown.”

“Or if you want to wear the dress again, M.” Evie says gently, repinning the soft fabric. “That’s also a thing you can do.”

“People will talk.”

“And what, are you going to listen?” Evie asks, glancing up at Mal from where she’s almost finished getting the skirt up again. “Don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice, babe. I don’t care what the gossip rags say about your outfits, and neither should you. I can make you something blingy to wear over it, if you need to change it up that badly.”

“No!” Mal exclams, smoothing a hand over the top of the dress, where it drapes over the faintly rounded curve of her belly. “I like how it is. Don’t change a thing.”

“Don’t complain if you don’t want to hear my solutions!” Evie says, gesturing with an empty hand. “You’re all pinned up again, if you want to get out of this and let my pin boy do his work with you.”

Mal does crack a smile at that. “Ooh, and what kind of work could that be, I wonder?” she asks, eyes sparkling. “I’ve heard good things about his handicrafts, but if you’re still going to use him for any other projects I’m sure I could find other ways to work with him.”

Evie glances over, just to make sure they’re all good.

Ben meets her eyes. He’s looking a little bit dreamy, but not like he’s in the stratosphere just yet. They’re fine. “I do have a few more designs that could use work,” Evie admits. “And it is easier to get those woven patterns you like nailed down if I’ve got a second pair of hands at my disposal.”

Mal smooths her skirt again. “I think it would be nice,” she says, looking at the both of them, watching them watch each other, “If we could. Uh. Test out the versatility of this dress.”

“See how it’s going to hold up for some extracurriculars?” Evie offers, sweetly. “Test the range of movement you’ve got in the legs?”

Mal’s a blusher, which is unfortunate for her and very fortunate for her partners. “Maybe I want to make sure it’s going to fit a little something else under the skirt?” she says, going for lofty and disinterested, and ending up somewhere around nervous-pleased and eager. “It’s important that it can accomodate, uh, my changing body?”

Good lord, if this is what Evie’s going to be dealing with in miniature she’s never going to make it through their kid’s youth. “You can do all the testing you need, so long as you don’t break anything and you have him back in one piece for the next time I need a helper, m’kay?” she says, and gives Ben a little nod.

He takes the cue, which is good, because it means he’s still in the game. It’s easy enough for Evie to guide the two of them, both of her beautiful idiots, over to the gold fainting couch she’s got in the corner for exactly this purpose. It’s not exactly set up for three, but it’s a simple enough switch for Evie to slip herself down beside Mal, half behind her, so that she can get her mouth on that soft spot behind her ear where she likes to be kissed. It takes a second longer for their boy to finish settling into his own position, but that’s to be expected when she’s got him helping like this. It wouldn’t do to have the help in place before they want him there. This is for Mal, after all.

Speaking of. With all the work that Evie’s just been putting in on the skirt, it wouldn’t do to have Mal messing that up either. Evie reaches down and flips it up, leaving Mal’s pale thighs exposed to the light.

Ah, and their boy is in place now. Good.

Evie trails soft fingertips down Mal’s side, until she’s got her nails, matte red and dark like old blood today, on the pale edge of her skin where it meets the dark fabric of her undergarments.

Ben is keeping his hands to himself, because he’s a good boy who knows what they need from him. He leans his head against Mal’s inner leg instead, nudging his mouth up against the opposite side as Evie’s fingertips.

“Mally,” Evie asks sweetly, directly into her girlfriend’s ear. “Do you want more from us?”

Mal shivers in response, which could be good or bad, and then pushes up into the touch. “Yes,” she breathes, and turns her head to press her next words up against Evie’s lips. “Please, Eves. Need you both.”

[eorzean-tale]

FFXIV Writing Challenge - Prompt 10: Heady

Part 1 of the Oaksong tale

Part One || Part Two || Part Three || Part Four || Part Five || Part Six || Part Seven || Part Eight

MILD NSFW WARNING!

“Please, can I try that one,” the young woman said while making a delicate gesture to another bottle, her smile sweeter than her taste in perfume. The golden bells hanging from a pair of anklets chimed softly as she moved closer to him, almost brushing up to the Viera shop owner. She mistook his slight lean in her direction for something else entirely, and dramatically parted her lips in a wordless suggestion that screamed its intent louder than any voiced proposal might. In truth however, he hadn’t been stealing a peek at her scantily clad body, attractive as it might be, but instead sought to get a better whiff of the perfume she was currently wearing.

He instantly recognised the fragrant scent as being made by one of his main competitors, and suppressed a chuckle. To his sharp nose, it was so sweet it almost smelled like rotten fruit. People like her were far less sensitive to those things however, as they basically bathed in heady perfumes every sun. It was a common saying among the people of Radz-at-Han that you could smell wealth coming long before it was in sight. With how much this spoiled daughter had sprayed upon her person, he had no doubt about that. It felt like it would make his eyes water if he lingered too long, and he quickly stepped back from her.

Before she could get too insulted, he glanced at the elaborately decorated form of her gruff, annoyed-looking father, as if he was the reason he had put distance between them. The man hadn’t really been paying attention to his daughter’s flirtations, however. He was far too uncomfortable from the midday sun and the boredom that came with the long shopping spree his daughter had tricked him into joining to really care about anything but the chilled lemon water his assistant brought him. Still, it worked, and she had the good grace to cover a giggle behind a hand bedecked with more glittering rings than anyone would ever need. It was a bit of a miracle she could move her fingers at all with so much weighing them down.

“If I may make a suggestion my lady,” he said in a low, almost seductive tone of voice. He didn’t mind playing along with such things, as it was good for business. Besides, if she could be persuaded to wash her current perfume off in a shared bath or at least overpower it with one of his own scents, he wouldn’t mind taking her up on that unvoiced offer from before. Her shrewd eyes suggested to him that she wasn’t nearly as vapid and inexperienced as she tried to convey, something that interested him more than just her beauty. Many people were beautiful in his experience, but only a rare few interested him. 

He walked them a few paces further down the line of bottles, to pick up one made of red glass shaped into the form of a unidentifiable flower. It was a bit of a silly, even crude, design, he admitted to himself, but it was one of the first he had made that didn’t just look like a glob. Locking his light-violet eyes with hers as he sprayed some of its content on a sampler, he told her: “This is a very special mixture I’ve been working on, holding as much magic as alchemy. Here, my lady, try.” Instead of handing her the sampler, he held it out for her so she had to bend a little to smell it. To her credit, she didn’t break eye-contact until she actually did, after which she exclaimed in delight: “Oh, but this actually smells like sweet flowers!” 

His smile was prideful as he nodded. “Smell it again,” he suggested, holding the sampler even further away from her and closer to himself than before.” The woman complied, but her suggestive smirk faded in favour of general surprise when she did. “It smells like an entirely different flower now!” He nodded, trying his best not to look too smug. It had taken him the better part of a season to get this formula just right. Her reaction was more enticing than her obvious flirtations had been, as it stroked his ego in exactly the right way. “Indeed. On a sampler like this, it will switch between its different scents rather randomly, but when worn on a person the fragrance will change from morn to noon to eve, with its most intoxicating perfume in the night,” the Viera told her with a look that left little to the imagination as to what he was suggesting. Two could play that game. 

“I simply must have it, my friends would be filled with envy” she declared enthusiastically, before faking a sad pout. “Oh, but I fear they will look for a reason to mock me. If I can’t name every single flower in this sublime fragrance, they will turn my fortunate find against me.” Her father sighed before the alchemist could answer, and retorted: “Dearest, the man has work to do, and it’s getting hotter by the bell. We really should get back before the streets become too unpleasant to travel.” 

“Ah, yes, your father is a wise man, my lady,” The Viera man started to reply, then faltered as he saw her eyes go wide and teary. It was all he could do not to burst out into laughter at her obvious ploy. “But perhaps he would entrust me, as the owner of this fine establishment, with entertaining you for the rest of the afternoon as he sees to his duties back home? Oh, don’t fret my lord,” he added before the man could reply, holding up a hand. “It really is no trouble at all. Every young woman of good standing in this city should learn a thing or two about the delicate arts. It’s only proper.”

Judging by the man’s grateful look, he had judged him right. He really didn’t care if his daughter wanted to gallivant her afternoon away, as long as he could get home sooner rather than later. “I will leave one of the guards outside for you, dearest. Don’t be late for dinner,” he told the young woman as he handed the assistant a heavy parcel of coin. The Viera didn’t need to count it to know it was more than enough for the perfume and the ‘lesson’ he was going to give. What had started as a somewhat annoying disruption of his work was turning out to not just be lucrative afternoon, but if he judged the daughter as well as he had  the father a rather fun one at that. He hid his grin in a deep, respectful bow, then watched the man leave before taking the woman by her bejeweled hand and leading her up the stairs where her delighted laughter would soon turn to quite a different chorus of sound. 

[chemicalmagecraft]

Taiyuu OCT Round 3

@taiyuu-oct

Character Nicknames: Keikei-sensei: Unbreakable Fuwa-chan: Zuruko Kayaki Boron: Nerva Rekka Akai-chan: Naishin-Sunomu Seisho Yuu-chan: Mochizuki Tofu

x x x

Yukino tapped her claws against her notebook as she sat in Keikei-sensei's "classroom." She scoffed. It wasn't so much a classroom as it was a field with a packed dirt stage. But hey, that was pretty much Taiyuu's brand at this point, wasn't it? Dirt-cheap, in both their construction and their ability to actually act like a real hero school, fang'si! Honestly the only reasons Yukino hadn't left yet was that Niichan assured her it'd be less complicated to just wait it out until break and Fuwa-chan finally figured out that her Quirk had an off button. Though... Yukino was still skeptical of how abrupt it was after about ten years of supposedly having no control over it at all and how close it was to Yukino complaining about the whole "hey, I'd like to not have my mind fucked with without my permission on a daily basis" thing, but apparently she HaD aN ePipHaNy so it was all good and should not be looked into further.

All the same, Yukino was still keeping her notes on the sheep girl. And Taiyuu was on thin ice with Yukino. If she felt like they weren't properly ensuring the safety of all of their students again, she would not be happy. And she'd probably involve her family in her discomfort with Taiyuu more than she already had. And if that happened- Yukino sighed and took a few deep breaths. At some point the cover of her notebook had frosted over a little under her claws. Ugh. She was better than just letting her Quirk slip out like that. It didn't look like the frost had bled through to the other side, thankfully. Yukino wiped off a bit of frost, then opened up her notebook. She was actually really looking forward to today's assignment... or maybe activity would be a better description? Today they were going to be showing off their hero names and costumes! Yukino had been looking forward to this for years, and even the recent events hadn't been enough to put a damper on that.

Though... Yukino thought that maybe the timing wasn't the best. They were tasked with getting their costume sketches together about when midterms were announced, with the due date being after midterms were over. Supposedly it was to take everyone's mind off the midterms, but really it was just piling up more work on top of the midterms. Of course, Yukino did pretty well on her midterms, she'd made sure to keep on top of her studies. And she'd finalized her costume design like a year ago, after getting feedback from her pro hero relatives on it too. But she could see her classmates having some trouble balancing the workload. Yukino didn't think it was malicious, of course, but just like everything about Taiyuu it was haphazard and a little mismanaged.

Yukino shook her head and slapped her cheeks. If she kept thinking like that she'd probably get herself worked up again... She took another deep breath, then looked at her design notes again, giving herself a bit of a reminder. She'd practiced what she wanted to do to show off her costume since she had the idea for it, but it was a little complex so she still wanted to refresh her memory. She quickly made a little ice statue, just as practice. Then she ground it down to diamond dust before anyone could get a sneak peek. After she was done with that she turned her attention back to the presentations. Okay, maybe she should've been paying more attention to her classmates, but in her defense she was kinda in the back of the "classroom" and almost everyone only had drawings or rough sketches of their costumes that they were describing for the class. Yukino's eyes were good, but not that good.

Ooh, Boron was going up next. They announced that their hero name was The Flaming Hero: Supernova, pretty nice. Their costume seemed to be some kinda light robe, with a mask and leg wrappings instead of shoes. Plenty of bare skin, to help vent heat. It sounded pretty cool, so Yukino couldn't wait to see them wearing it. Next up was Akai-chan, and wow she already had her outfit somehow. How did Yukino miss that? Akai-chan was wearing a red han'fu and a mask, with her hair done all fancy. Yukino certainly liked it. She took the stage and explained her costume choice. Apparently there was armor under that han'fu, which Yukino thought was... kinda neat, actually. "I have chosen Blood Lightning as my hero name," Akai-chan finished with, accentuating it by brandishing a hand covered in red lightning.

Hot.

Next up was Yuu-chan! Yukino was kinda excited to see her roommate's hero costume, to be honest. "I want to make my hero name... Tofu," he said when he got to the stage. "I've been using Yuu as a name more now, and I want my hero name to be something nice and friendly." Yukino nodded. That was probably a good reason for a hero name, and Tofu was nice and simple. It kinda reminded her of Deku, to be honest. He described his costume, which he said he hoped would make him look friendly and comforting. There was a light robe with a ginkgo leaf pattern, a little tail thingy, and a black turtleneck with black leggings underneath it. And finally, he had his usual box mask, except the hero costume one had a cute smile drawn on. Yukino smiled at the mental image of it.

After Yuu-chan sat back down, Yukino decided to get up. "Can I go next?" she asked.

"Of course!" Keikei-sensei declared.

Yukino nodded and walked over to the stage. She took a deep breath as she did, calming her emotions and collecting her thoughts. She grinned as she jumped onto the stage. The nice thing about constantly having to keep an iron grip on her emotions at all times was that somewhere along the line Yukino had become pretty decent at putting on a cheerful face. "Alrighty!" she turned to face the class with a grin. She raised her hand to the sky, white vapor rolling off of it. "For my hero name, I've decided on The Diamond Dust Hero: Kuraokami!" As she said that, she made tiny shards of ice from her raised hand, causing them to swirl around her hand in a vaguely dragon-shaped cloud that glittered in the Summer sun. "A dragon god of snow is pretty fitting for me, right?"

The dragon coiled down her arm, then she stretched her other arm out to the side as the dragon flew around it. Yukino grinned. "As for my costume..." She activated her Quirk again with her outstretched hand. She formed the sculpture she wanted in her mind, ice crystalizing from moisture in the air under her palm. The dragon made of diamond dust swirled around the sculpture as it formed, slowly melting into water droplets that fell as her telekinesis failed. She didn't even plan it, but the last of the diamond dust melted away as the ice sculpture, a double-scale statue herself in her hero costume making a cute pose, was finished forming. Her grin widened a little. The class oohed and ahhed from the display.

Keikei-sensei clapped. "That was amazing! You certainly know how to show off your Quirk. Though I should warn you, due to how not everyone can make giant ice statues of themselves, your grade is going to be based more on utility and how you sell your costume than what the visual presentation is."

Yukino nodded and gave a thumbs-up. "That's reasonable. Don't worry, I didn't expect to just win with that alone. So, the costume!" Yukino pointed to the statue's frilly dress. "If you can't tell, those ridges are supposed to look like dragon scales, for the dragon theme. I figure it should have a kinda arctic color scheme, whites and light blues and stuff." Yukino cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks heat up slightly. "I... took inspiration from magical girl anime for the general design of the dress. Figured that'd be pretty cool-looking, plus it fits with my Quirk name, Cryomancy, and how it can look like spellcasting. And again, gave it a bit of an arctic feel." She patted her giant, icy skirt. "Plus, those frills will also add insulation to help keep my body heat in. I pretty much can't overheat and my Quirk makes me colder, so no sense not keeping warm. On top of that, I'd like to have a heating element similar to what of a lot of other heroes with cold-based Quirk drawbacks have. And the material the costume is made of should be flame-retardant. I can basically absorb fire, yes, but it's best to err on the side of caution, y'know? Also there are modesty shorts in case I have to kick something and heated pockets hidden in the skirt so I can warm my hands up."

Yukino switched to pointing at the staff her statue was holding in one hand. "Onto the equipment. I'm trained in fighting with a staff and can channel my Quirk through it, so that's a no-brainer. I'd prefer to have it made of metal, maybe aluminum or something, because I can channel my Quirk through conductive materials a little easier, but I can see why a metal staff might not be something you'd be comfortable giving a hero student in the first year." She pointed to the bow slung across her statue's back. "Again, I can use a bow with my Quirk." She held out her hand with a toothy grin and formed a few ice arrows, which she floated around her arm. "I can make my heatseeker arrows pretty quickly, then shoot them faster than normal arrows. And as the name suggests, I can alter the flight path in midair with my telekinesis." She disintegrated the arrows into diamond dust. "Next, it's a little hard to see with the frills in the way, which is kinda the point, but there are wrist-mounted grappling hooks hidden in the sleeves. Made specially so I can conduct my Quirk through 'em. Can use them to trip someone, take their weapons, restrain them, or hopefully a mobility boost. Plus I think they look pretty cool."

Yukino snapped her fingers, causing the statue to turn around. She'd made the statue with a bit of a raised base that was separated to form a moving part so she could turn it with minimal effort. The statue turned all the way around, revealing two raised bits in the bottom of the boot that it was kicking back as part of the pose it was doing. "It might be a little hard to see without any color, but there are bits on the bottom of the boots. On the real deal these would be made of metal and extend to bits touching my feet. My Quirk is basically touch-ranged, so if I wanna use my Quirk through my boots it'll make my boots colder either way. Having small, conductive bits at the bottom should make it efficient enough that if the boots are also heated it won't freeze my toes. And I imagine being able to use my Quirk from my feet as well as my hands is gonna be useful."

And now for the big finisher. Yukino turned the statue back around and hopped onto the base. She took a deep breath, then slowly raised the statue a little. The other purpose of the base was that the raised bit that kept the two halves from misaligning when she turned it around also let her raise the statue up slightly without making the statue wobble, which would probably make Yukino slip up and fall. This was already stressful enough without that. But Yukino had already decided she'd raise the platform with her on it for the end of the presentation, so there was no turning back. She just barely managed to keep from shaking as she felt the platform she was standing on be supported only by her telekinesis. Now the worst part. Yukino jumped, kicking her leg back to copy the pose her statue was making. She lost her balance a little when she landed on one leg, but managed to rebalance with only a bit of wobbling. Yukino sighed in relief, then copied the cute pose and expression of her statue. "And that's The Diamond Dust Hero: Kuraokami!"

Yukino slowly put the statue down, then stepped off. She snapped her fingers, then started to disintegrate her statue. She lifted it upwards, making the powdered ice swirl around it as the statue was quickly chipped away. Soon it was a cloud of diamond dust swirling in the air above the stage, then Yukino made the cloud explode. The tiny bits of ice scattered through the air, most of it melting into raindrops before they could hit her classmates. Yukino grinned as Keikei-sensei and some of her classmates clapped. "Thank you, thank you." She strutted back to where she was sitting. That was fun, but the end was a little tiring... Still, she'd paced herself enough that she wasn't that tired. "Right," she said, "who's next?"

[lycorogue]

Perfect Doesn’t Need to be Perfect: Chapter 2

I miss these early chapters. They were easy. They were small. They were still relatively light-hearted. Then chapter 5 happened and I’ve completely lost this project down an angsty rabbit hole. 0.o I’ll try to get that sorted out in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, enjoy one of the short, fluffy chapters.

**Contains Spoilers for Taurus Pixie’s story Twelve Days of Chatmas**

Summary: Chat Noir has run into a long streak of poor luck, all in an attempt to give Ladybug the perfect Christmas gift. Little does he know, his first try was already perfect in Ladybug’s eyes. Now it’s her turn to try to navigate around Chat Noir’s failed attempts in her own pursuit to find something equally fantastic for him. **A Switched-POV Unofficial Companion Story to Twelve Days of Chatmas by @thetauruspixie​**

Rating: General Audience

Chapter Word Count: 1733

Story Total Word Count: 37,973

Status: chapter 2 of 12; complete

**For reals, if you haven’t read Twelve Days of Chatmas yet, read that first so my story doesn’t spoil anything for you. It’s cool. This story will still be here when you get back. ;) **

See below for chapter 2, or find this story over on AO3, on FFN, or on DA. 

CHAPTER 2:

The little pear tree sculpture was worse off than Marinette gave it credit, but it wasn't completely irreparable. She had taken stock of the damage the night before, and made a point of picking up the necessary supplies after school. Now it was time to get to work.

Too much of the foam base was chipped away when the card stock truck was ripped out of it, so she started off with replacing that. Then she carefully bent the trunk back so it was flat. The bad bend left a scarring crease in the base of the trunk, bit it actually looked good. Most trees had some sort of scarring in their bark. Using tracing paper to make a pattern, Marinette cut out two slightly smaller versions of Chat Noir's trunk from more card stock. Doubling up her own tree trunks, she glued them to the back of Chat Noir's to reinforce it. Finally, she made it 3D by adding a support branch of roots off the back. Resting the tree on her desk, it stood perfectly straight on it's own; no foam required.

Confident it was now sturdy enough for the weight of the filled in branches, Marinette got to work on fixing everything else. Using a decorative hole punch, she created a small confetti pile of green almond-shaped leaves out of construction paper. She then laid them out on parchment paper, and sprayed them down with adhesive before taking a deep breath.

“He's lucky I like him.” Through gritted teeth she started shaking the green glitter onto the sticky green leaves. She kept it as close to the project as she could, and she tried to stop once the leaves were properly coated without having too much excess. With any luck, she'd only find glitter for the next week or so.

As the leaves dried she got to work on reinforcing the partridge so its chubby little head wouldn't bend forward from the weight of the wooden beak and note.

The note. Forgetting what she was doing, Marinette gently pushed the clothespin open and released the torn note from the bird's grip. Folded over, the little note was barely larger than a postage stamp. Carefully opening it, Marinette was greeted by tiny but elegant writing; far fancier than she imagined Chat Noir's handwriting to be.

“Wishing the most amazing girl in the world the greatest of Christmases,” Marinette read the note aloud to Tikki. It was signed with a little heart drawn with red ink, and a paw print colored in with green ink. Giggling a little to herself, Marinette tore off two small strips of tape and patched up the tear running through the center of the message. She then tore off one more piece of tape. Flipping through to the next blank page of her diary, she taped the note to the bottom corner. A smile stretched across her face as she rested her palm against Chat Noir's tiny Christmas card.

After taking a beat, she closed up her diary and locked it away in its box. Rolling her shoulders, Marinette got back to work on firming up the partridge and touching up the coloring Chat Noir had done on the bird.

She let all the components dry while she had dinner, but instantly went back to work once she was done. First up was carefully gluing the leaves into place. Her new ones weren't nearly as drenched in glitter, and the shade of glitter was slightly lighter, but the two-toned leaves added a nice dimension to the piece.

She took a homework break while the leaves dried completely, then it was back to work to add on the pears and – she couldn't believe she followed through with it – the heart decorations. She managed to tuck the corners of the pears and hearts between some of the leaves to add more depth to the tree and make the fruit and ornaments look like they were actually nestled inside the tree branches.

As she waited for the tree to dry one last time so she could add the bird back onto its perch, Marinette started up a list; instantly and a bit frustratingly crossing off each item the moment she wrote it down.

She needed to come up with the perfect gift for Chat Noir. He seemed so hurt about his present, and he had put so much pressure on himself to get her the perfect thing that she couldn't fall short in doing the same. He was more precious to her than he realized, and this was her chance to make sure he knew that. She was stumped on what to do though.

Scarves, hats, mittens, shirts, vests, necklaces, earrings, pins; everything Marinette came up with wouldn't work. She was a fashion designer; her default gift for everyone was a piece of clothing or an accessory. None of it was a good idea. Her silly kitty would most likely be too excited about her gifting him something to remember to not wear it as a civilian. Then she could possibly run into him, and see him wearing the gift she made for Chat Noir, and then she'd know his identity, and-

She shook her head to try to get out of the spiral. Even if he was disciplined enough to not wear anything she gifted him while in his civilian form, it wasn't like he could really wear any of it while powered up either. Which meant, either he had to wear it alone in his house and nowhere else, or he'd never use it. That wouldn't work at all.

Blanket? Marinette tapped on the word, circling it a couple of times. That could be the best option for her. People rarely take blankets out of their rooms anyway, so he could use it without her seeing. Plus, it was always comforting to just curl up under a warm and semi-heavy blanket during chilly winter nights. Was it special enough for him, though? Would she have time to make him one? What design should she use for the blanket? Something not too obvious, in case he wanted to use the blanket in communal rooms in his home.

Looking out her window, Marinette knew she needed inspiration. It was time to go to her well.

“Tikki, spots on!”

Less than ten minutes later, Ladybug landed atop an apartment building just four blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. It wasn't the Trocadéro, but unfortunately the park was swarming with tourists this time of year, and she just needed some time to sit and think. It wasn't the same view that usually amazed her no matter how often she saw it, but the Seine still sparkled under the lights of Paris to her left, and the Eiffel Tower still spired before her on the other side of the river.

The sun was sinking below the horizon past the Eiffel Tower, and it cast a purple and deep magenta glow within the overcast sky. Curling up into a ball, Ladybug sat on the roof with her knees pressed against her chest and her chin resting between them. The lights running up the Eiffel Tower turned on in the twilight, and the whole of Paris joined suit. The yellows, blues, oranges, and Christmas reds and greens created a sea of lights below her. It was calming, welcoming, and inspiring.

Warmed by how serene her city looked, Ladybug uncurled. Dangling her legs over the ledge of the roof, she leaned back and admired the Eiffel Tower as it sliced through the cotton candy clouds.

The clouds are kind of blanketing the sky. Could I make something that looks like Paris on a winter's night for Chat Noir? She hummed softly as she pondered how she'd be able to execute something like that. She really fell into the zone as she meditated to the arrhythmic clicking of her swinging feet gently tapping against the side of the building. She could do a gradient fabric, and a quilted stitch so there were pockets of fill to mimic clouds. She could even purposefully avoid a symmetric square quilted look, instead pocketing the fill within a quilt of cloud shapes.

A duet of cooing pulled her attention from her designing. The flapping of wings grew louder, and two pigeons flew straight for her. She flinched and leaned slightly out of the way as they buzzed past her, close enough for her to notice their orange turtle-shell patterned wings and brown-gray bodies. Whatever they were, they weren't regular pigeons. A moment later, she registered that both birds had something gripped within their toes. One was carrying a trio of red roses. Its partner had a handmade card wrinkling slightly in its grip.

Homing pigeons? That didn't quite feel right to Ladybug either, but the duo seemed to be on a mission, so she mentally wished them save travels and hoped they found who they were looking for.

It seemed weird though. Even with Mr. Ramier in Paris, Ladybug didn't recall ever seeing anyone use homing pigeons before. She scanned the rooftops, trying to see who might have released the birds.

Nothing. There was no one on the rooftops nearby. No one on balconies. At first Ladybug was just curious as to who is using the skilled but archaic method of communication, especially with regards to sending what looked like a very romantic Christmas gift. However, after spying not a single soul in the area, it became an intriguing mystery she was itching to uncover.

She wandered her rooftop to try to get a better view, but there were still no clues anywhere. It was like the birds simply appeared. After a couple minutes, Ladybug decided that was a good enough explanation for her. They appeared from nowhere, and vanished to the horizon. They were an enigmatic package carrying a sweet gift for someone. A beautiful mystery of life not meant to be solved.

With a satisfied shrug, Ladybug headed back home, her head filled with fantasies of Adrien sending the pair of birds to her, and the card being a love letter. She giggled at the elation she'd feel if that were true, as well as the insanity of such a thing happening.

Imagine, Adrien Agreste sending Marinette Dupain-Cheng a pair of birds holding a Christmas gift and a declaration of love. A girl could dream.

Thank you for reading. Read Next Chapter

Read from the beginning: Chapter 1

Please let me know if you want me to add you to the tag list.

@discoveringmiraculouswriters

[weforgotthatwearethestars]

No Memory is Gonna Save You Now (part 1)

I’ve written a thing!

While out on patrol, Peter looses most of his memories. Through the kindness of strangers, his friends, and his family, he learns exactly what those closest to him mean to him.

It’s basically just amnesia trope plus starker (don’t like don’t read please) 😊

Also here on Ao3!

Tags: amnesia, temporary amnesia, team as family, canon-typical violence, fluff, angst, happy ending

He wakes up to dark green and sodium light and pain.

Sitting up, he groans and tries to sort out his limbs. The legs get folded under because they’re annoyed no matter what it seems. The spine gets hunched around the aching ribs and generally unhappy organs. One arm, the left one, is doing all the leveraging while the right one seems to be the only thing properly screaming. The neck is rolled while the head is dropped to inspect the screaming arm.

He groans as he finds that the right arm is much more sticky-red than the other is as only the fingers on his left are coated in it. Gingerly, he rolls the sleeve back and finds -

A list.

Tower

Loby

Fri

Lab

Tony

Idly, he thinks, lists are written on your skin, not carved in, right?, and I’m pretty sure I put that there based on the blood.  

“Oh, by my lucky stars, it’s you!”

His lungs are working double time, his heart quadruple, while his ribs twinge and his stomach rolls, whole body buzzing with something .

Also he seems to have become well acquainted with a tree.

“Oi, love, you’re alright? I didn’t mean to frighten you so bad.”

Without much thought, his hands let go and his body unfurls while his feet hold him in place on the branch. He comes face to face, though the wrong way up, with a lovely girl, curly brown hair, shining blue eyes, and a frown. No, wait, smile if he was on the ground. She giggles as she flaps one hand, the other holding a plastic cup and squeals, “I can’t believe I’m meeting Spider-man! Heather’s never gonna believe me!”

“Whose Spider-man?” he hears someone ask.

But, no, not quite hear, because it was also feel, and not just the vibration but the movement of the words-

I said that.

That’s what I sound like?!

He hits the ground with a thud and a flare of pain while she snorts and laughs near involuntarily. With another groan, though this one is mixed with a chuckle, he gets up. Sorts his limbs enough to lift himself from the ground, right way up this time. He’s taller than her, broader too, but she is excited and happy and practically bouncing where she stands.

"I know you probably get this alot but could we get a picture together?" she asks and she looks so bouncy that he doesn’t have the heart to ask her why would you want a picture with me ? Instead he smiles, nods, and chuckles in a way he hopes doesn’t sound as awkward as he feels. They bend close as the girl taps the screen into giving her the front facing camera. Then they’re posing and she says “Smile!” and he sees himself for the first time.

The large white lenses are a little startling, but the red, blue, and black, the detail of webbing and the obvious care taken to make the whole thing look like a second skin, comforts him in a way he wouldn’t know how to express. The suit, what it represents, is important and good and makes him feel like he can do just about anything.

The girl grins down at the photo, humming happily and swaying a little. He comes to realize that she’s been glassy-eyed and floaty the whole time and maybe, “Are you drunk?”

She fixes him with a pout while she rolls her eyes and replies, “It’s not like I’m smashed, mate, just tipsy.”

“Um.” he replies as he shuffles his feet a bit.

He knows he should find this ‘Tower’ place. It’s the first thing on a list that is carved into his arm and since he doesn’t seem to remember his face or his name (at least what this person thinks is his name) the list that’s carved into his arm seems like a good place to start.

But....he can’t just leave her here in the dark and the trees and tipsy (possibly drunk).

She looks up from her phone to take note of his pensive stance before she seems to roll her eyes with her entire being.

She sighs loudly as she turns and says, “Well, I suppose I should be glad that chivalry isn’t completely dead.” while walking into the night.

With little hesitation, he follows.

She chats idly as she follows a map on her phone and he learns that she’s an exchange student (from the UK) in college, misses her girlfriend (Heather) terribly, and is finding New York less and less confusing by the day (when sober). There’s a shriek and a groan to their left and he is too proud of himself for doing more than jump and gasp a little.

“Where the hell have you been Millie! We thought you were dead!” comes quickly and sharply from a guy in a crop top and spiked heels, while a girl in a floral button up and stompy boots rolls her eyes and drawls, “She coulda killed any junky who’d’a jumped ‘er.”

He smiles at this and hangs back while the girl, Millie, throws her arms around the two with a strong laugh and says, “Oh, my loves, did I worry you? I never knew you cared!” The guy shrugs her off with a smirk and a huff while the girl catches Millie and pulls her in a little tighter than is probably strictly necessary. “And look!” Millie says with a wave in his direction, “I had a knight in shining armor to escort me back!”

Her two friends turn to look at him as he sheepishly waves back and says, “H-hey.” Her two friends also want pictures and while the guy thanks him profusely, the girl gives him a purposeful nod and he tries hard not to disappoint. Eventually though, seeing them all safe in each other’s hands, he figures he better be going.

“Back to Queens?” the girl, River, asks with a raised eyebrow. He rubs at the back of his neck with his left, less mangled arm and says, “No, ah, I’m actually heading to a - uh -a ‘Tower’ but I’m not, well, exactly sure where it is.”

They all blink at him a bit before Millie burst into giggles saying, “‘A’ Tower. A-avenger’s ha ! Love , this is precisely why my Heather loves you!” Her friends seem to catch on because the guy, Michael starts laughing with Millie while River just sorts and rolls her eyes. He simply stands there and laughs a bit with them because, well, laughing is nice. And, apparently, he likes it when people laugh at his jokes, even the unintentioned ones. Who knew? I sure didn’t .

Before his laugh goes hysterical, he stuffs it down and says that yes, he really does need directions. Yes, his suit is very fancy but it seems to be having some issues. Yes, of course , that’s how he got hurt. And, no, he does not spend too much time in Queens he’s just a little turned around here, thank you very much.

They give him directions and wave him off, seeming generally none the wiser that he has no idea where Queens even is , much less why he’s associated with it so readily. Maybe it’s another city , he thinks, since this one is what Millie called New York .

The walk is long and dark in patches while others are brightly lit. Sometimes there are people and sometimes there’s not but it is never, ever silent. He can hear things from what he thinks must be quite far away, as sometimes he turns a corner expecting someone talking or a car reving or a bird cooing only to be surprised that it’s not right there but much, much further down or simply not there at all. It’s disconcerting, but not as weird as his feet. Sometime’s, as if they have a mind of their own, his feet will stick to the sidewalk and refuse to let go. Eventually he realizes that he’s the one doing it, somehow! And since, it seems, that sticking is easier than not-sticking, he finds a box that doesn't look terrible, rips off two pieces, sticks his feet to them, and tries not to think about how he’s decently sure humans don’t do that .

He keeps walking.

Eventually he turns a corner and realizes River’s sarcastic addendum of, ‘you can’t miss iet’ was true. It’s giant , oddly shaped, and has a huge ‘A’ on it ( oh! ‘A’ Tower! Ha, I get it now! ). Looking at the list again he starts to think, O k so, Tower, done. Now ‘Loby’ probably means the lobby of the Tower but does ‘Fri’ mean friday? Does this mean I need to be there on friday or before then? Maybe I have an appointment? Wait, what day is it anyway!?  

Needless to say, he was panicking a little.

But, regardless, he didn’t really seem to have anywhere else to go, no other direction but this one.

So, to the ‘Loby’ it is.

Inside is just as intimidating as the outside. There are metal detectors and barriers but past those is a large desk with a single security officer on their phone. Everything is made of metal, glass, or white, polished rock of some kind. Marble, maybe?

He adds ‘not an interior designer’ to his List of Things he Knows Now.

He wanders forward, hesitantly, as the guard stands.

But before the guard can tell him anything, “Hello, Spider-Man. Boss is waiting in the lab for you.” as the elevator doors to the right side of the large desk open to an empty car.

The disembodied voice is female, almost lyrical, and incredibly unnerving. Though, it would seem, not to the security guard, as he simply waved, smiled, and sat back down at the desk. As he debated whether or not he should listen to the voice in the walls one of the metal detectors lights up green and he figures there probably isn’t much arguing with the voice anyway.

So he walks through the detector and as he passes the desk he pauses and asks, “Hey, man, uh, could you tell me what day it is?”

The man looks truly confused but answers, “Thursday, sir.” all the same.

He grins then switches to a thumbs up when he remembers the mask and chirps, “Thanks!” before getting into the elevator. The doors close and the car starts to rise.

“Um, hello?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“I - ” he starts confused but then waves away that line of questioning. Later , he thinks, there’s a list to sort through and the ceiling-lady could be wrong . “So you mentioned ‘lab’ earlier and I was hoping maybe you could tell me if I’m supposed to be there on friday or not?”

There’s a slight pause then, “You do have lab time schedule with the Boss at noon -”

“Ok then I should just come back then could you bring me back d-”

“No, Boss wants to see you ASAP.”

“No, but -!”

“I can’t disobey -”

“No, stop! Stop the car! I - !”

The elevator lurches to a stop and he crushes the hand rail in his frantic scrambling to stay upright. “I have a list! In my arm!” He half yells out as he pulls the sleeve up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. “It says: Tower, Loby, Fri, Lab, Tony, and Tony is underlined, in case you can’t see it. So I think Tower means this building, Loby means the lobby of the building, and Fri must mean friday and if you say I have an appointment -!”

“I’m F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

He’s stunned for a moment then, “What?”

“My name is F.R.I.D.A.Y., Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth.”

He blinks, blinks again, then “That is a really weird name.”

She almost sounds smug when she says, “Blame Boss, he’s the one that named me.”

That gets him grinning. He likes ceiling lady. Add that to the List of Things. Well, Friday, not ceiling lady.

Whatever.

“Ok… I guess that counts? So, you’re bringing me to the lab?”

“If you let me move the elevator I can bring you to Boss’s lab right now.”

“Heh,” he huffs embarrassed, “yeah, no, that’s good. To the lab is good.”

The elevator begins to move again and he tries desperately to contain his excited bouncing. He got a good feeling about this Tony person. The name is underlined on his arm, an already painful task made even more painful just to get a point across.

Hopefully, he won’t be mad about the hand rail he crushed.

“Hey, Friday? Is this ‘Boss’ guy going to be in the lab you’re taking me to?”

“Yes, Boss is in his lab right now. He’s been looking for you since earlier this evening.”

The car comes to a stop and the doors slide open, so he steps out and looks around. It’s a long, drab hallway with only a few doors, all slidey and reinforced with metal.

Did I accidently wander into a prison?  

“Boss muted me,” Friday says with an air of annoyance, “so I can’t announce you but I’ll open the door.”

A door slides open, sniffling and whirring drifting out into the hall. Paired with the hiccuping breaths and the annoyed huffs, it’s obvious that someone is crying or at least extremely frustrated.

Another thing to add to the List of Things , he thinks as he walks toward the doors with a lot less hesitation, incapable of not helping people .

He gets to the door to find a sad and sorry sight, though the lab itself looks amazing. There are tools and machines and projects on the tables, the floors, the walls, even hung from the ceiling! It seems to range from complex mechanics to advanced biochemical and he wants to sink his teeth into everything without ever coming up for air.

The only thing that stops him is the gorgeous man and adorable arm robot.

The robot is obviously trying to comfort the man, whirring as it rolls back and forth with a glass in its hand. The man is someone to be concerned over, though. Besides the fact that he’s the most gorgeous thing he’s ever seen (not that he’s seen all that much), the man seems to be very upset. There are holograms projecting charts, video, and raw data of all kinds displayed around him in a somewhat haphazard way. But he’s sat, hunched over, trying and failing to collect himself as he bats the concerned robot away.

“Um, hi?”

The man runs a quick hand roughly over his face as he sits up, squared-shoulders and stern frown, as he booms, “What the hell a-!” and stops. The man’s eyes go wide and his jaw drops but he doesn’t move any further than that.

“I, uh -” he starts, stops from nerves and second-guessed thoughts, then continues as the man continues to gape, “Ms. -um- Friday let me up. She said that her boss wanted to see me and I’m actually looking for - well, it’s kinda- Gah !” The man is faster than he looks because he’s across the room and throwing his arms around him before he can really think to stop him. He hugs back mostly to make sure he doesn’t get bowled over but the beautiful man.

“ Never scare me like that again, Peter! Lovelace , I have heart problems ! You can’t just disappear off the face of the universe like that!” the man says, loud and angry but there’s a tremble in his words and in his arms that speak to how worried he was.

But he can’t focus on that, as he’s held tight and squished close by the man, because, “Is that my name? Peter?” The man pulls back, gripping his - Peter’s, it would seem - shoulders but holding him out to gape at his face.

“Wh - I - yes, of course your name is Peter. You should know that, why don’t you know that?” The man whirls away, back to his holos to swipe them all away and bring up loads of new ones. Peter stands there, a little confused. He takes the lab in a little more, itches to get into a project but he still doesn’t feel like he has permission to do so.

Peter refocuses on the man instead and decides to say, “Friday is annoyed you muted her.”

The man’s head whirls back up to him, first confused, then it all seems to click before, “Unmute, baby girl. I’m sorry about that, really.”

“It’s ok, Boss.” Friday responds immediately, sounding content and maybe a little fond around the edges.

“So you’re ‘Boss’?” Peter asks as the gorgeous guy goes back to his frantic work.

“Yeah, I’m in charge here. My lab, my rules.” the man replies distractedly. With what Peter reads as a clear dismissal, he goes poking around.

Besides , he thinks as he starts to wander, now, Friday will say something if I’m doing something truly stupid, right?  

It’s an unknown amount of minutes before he’s interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. His immediate response is not to see who it is, though. It’s one thousand percent to jump up on the work table he’s in front of and land in a defensive position, facing the hand that was touching him. It turns out it’s just ‘Boss’ (I should really ask his name. Or maybe just what I call him. ).

“You ok there, Pete?” the man asks, part amused, part concerned. Peter feels himself blush but tries not to get too concerned over it, since he’s still wearing a mask.

“Y-yeah, sorry, uh, didn’t mean to do that. Heh.” Peter stutters out.

The gorgeous guy smiles a little fondly up at Peter then asks, “Need a hand?” as he holds a hand up to him. Smiling, Peter takes the hand gratefully and hops down. “Peter, where did you get the cardboard from?” Peter looks up only to find the man looking down, so he follows his gaze to the cardboard he’d had on his feet until five seconds ago.

Peter smiles sheepishly at the other man and says, “Yeah, ah, I kept sticking to the ground so I just stuck them on my feet? I can kind of, um control the sticking but I’m not very good yet.” The other man is giving him such a complicated look that Peter decides to try and change the subject. “So, um, wh- ah, well, ok - what’s your name? I’m sorry I should probably know this, too, but I don’t. I don’t really remember -”

“Anything.” the other man finishes with a grimace.

Peter shrinks in on himself further, not sure why but hoping desperately that he hadn’t disappointed the other man. “I talked to Strange. He said he took all of your memories and put it into this.” the man says as he holds up an I.D. card between two fingers. Peter takes it, glances at the picture but quickly focuses on the name underneath.

Peter Parker.

“He didn’t have time to separate everything out so he just….took everything.” he continues on with a flap of his hand, whirling around to key something else up. The holos flicker on around his head as the man asks, “Baby girl, scan Pete’s brain. Full front to back, anything we can do. And shut his modulator off, that thing sounds wrong when you talk.” There’s a beep from his suit and - maybe that’s why I sound so weird .

“On it, Boss.” Friday chirps as the holos begin to flash on around him. The man seems to be complaining about someone or something when something else catches Peter’s eye. He grabs the holo, adjusting it around so he can read it. He expands and manipulates it in a way that feels natural to him so he tries not to think too hard about it as he starts to see - no, that can’t -

“I’m part spider?!” Peter’s voice startles himself just as much as the other man, stopping mid rant, buried in holos, to look over at Peter with an incredulous look on his face.

“I tell you a wizard took all your memories to keep a hive mind of aliens from scrambling your brain and that’s the thing that you’re focusing on?”

“That explains the sticking, I guess. And the get-up.” Peter murmurs as he continues flicking through what must be his own lab results over the years, ignoring the man’s question just as his own had been ignored. “I wonder, does that explain - ha!”

Peter pulls up a video labeled ‘strength eval.’

It starts with the gorgeous man explaining to a younger guy (a lab tech maybe?) how much different weights are and how he intends to combine them on to one, reinforced, barbell. The whole thing looks like gym equipment got swallowed by a forklift and even more hydraulics, but if they’re testing superhuman strength, it would make sense that the superhuman would need something more than a normal human’s gym equipment to lift and spot them.

He expects that the video may cut to someone else, someone more….familiar to him but, instead, the person Peter assumed was a lab tech lays out on the weight lifting bench. It clicks, just then, as the gorgeous man on the video starts telling the younger guy to be careful and don’t push himself and this is just to get a baseline so no -

That’s me , Peter thinks.

Peter sees what must be himself go through several variations of weights until they’re all piled on the bar and the guy, himself, in the video, is laughing a little as he lifts it like it's nothing . “Ok put the 10 ton weight down, we’re done.” says the gorgeous man in the video, sounding half-way disbelieving.

“But I can lift more, let's try -”

“Pete, we don’t have more. I thought 10 tons was over kill !” and then the two dissolve into laughter and the video ends.

Peter looks over at the man, who’s looking right back, face serious but a little lost all at once.

“You really don’t remember anything do you?”

Shaking his head, Peter glances around, finds a stool to collapse on, then does just that.

He rolls his sleeve up again, turns his arm to show the man as he says, “This is all I had when I woke up. I didn’t know where or who I was, just…. that everything hurt. Especially this arm. When I looked at it…. I found the list.” Placing it back in his own lap, Peter stares at the skin, healed too much to be anything but accelerated. He chuckles, “I ran into this girl. Apparently her girlfriend is a big fan of Spider-Man. Or...me, I guess. I - I thought maybe she’d got me confused with someone else but then, when I asked where a ‘Tower’ might be, they pointed me here. Then, when I got here, in the lobby, Friday knew me and had me come to the lab. I thought m-maybe, whoever ‘Tony’ is, that they’d be here. I thought that they’d fix this because -”

Peter cuts himself off with another chuckle, wetter this time, “I know this sounds stupid but it’s underlined .” He looks up at the man, who’s walked a little closer to him with a face that says he may be in just as much pain as Peter is. “That’s gotta mean something. Right?”

They are silent for a moment, as the man inspects Peter’s arm with reverence and fear swirling in his eyes.

“Yeah, underoos, it does.” the man finally replies as he puts a hand on Peter’s shoulder, something shifting in his posture, on his face, in his head.

“I - My name is Tony Stark. As far as I know, I’m the only Tony you know.” He’s got a fond smirk on his face, eyes shining with determination now as he holds out his hand and continues, saying, “And you’re right it does mean something.”

Peter takes and shakes Tony Stark's hand, a little mechanically. But his smirk is infectious and he feels himself smile, faintly. “It means I’m going to fix this. And I promise I won’t stop until I do.” And Peter, to Tony’s credit, feels better about this whole situation than he can ever remember feeling.

It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.

***************************************************************************************

Sooooooooo, what do you think??? 😅

Please let me know! I’ll be posting every weekend on here and Ao3 until the end!

Like, reblog, or just send me a message, I’d love to here what you think or even make new friends 🥰 Thank you!

(part 2 coming later tonight as I posted this chapter last week on Ao3 do to tech issues)

Next

[wolpertinger-prince]

I'd love to hear about your favorite pokemon!

OKAY so my long time favorite is Ninetales. I loved Ninetales ever since I was a little kid because I just loved graceful animals and ever since I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, I was in love with that graceful, mystical fox. I honestly don’t know if I still love Ninetales as much as I used to, but I still have this deep fondness of Ninetales because of how much I loved her when I was young. She’s a pretty basic-looking fox monster, isn’t she? Over the years, Gamefreak came up with so many more fox Pokemon with much more creative designs and gimmicks, but Ninetales will always be the best fox Pokemon to me. I also looove her Alolan form. I might actually like Alolan Ninetales better than Kantonian Ninetales, but I’m still not sure (at least I still don’t have a plush of Alolan Ninetales.... hmmm.).

My other long time favorite is Suicune. Another really graceful, beautiful animal. Their aesthetic is what I kind of strive to be perceived as: elegant with both a vague sense of femme and a vague sense of masc. Strong, yet dainty. I always kind of admired how the species they’re based off of is so much more vague than Raikou and Entei’s. I used to argue with people that said that they were supposed to be a wolf in YouTube comments. Because logically, they would be a leopard, since Raikou is a tiger and Entei is a lion, right? But they really don’t look like a leopard, do they? Even though logically I always knew they’re supposed to be a leopard, they always looked more like a fusion of a wolf and a horse. My two favorite animals at the time I started liking Pokemon, which is probably another reason why I took such a liking to them. They sound like what I imagine a polar bear sounds like, and that’s beautiful.

I’ve always had such a fondness for Absol that I’m surprised I never regarded him as a favorite of mine sooner, but. Absol was the first Pokemon I really sympathized with. The whole being blamed for natural disasters thing. I would wake up to reruns of the Hoenn seasons of the Pokemon anime playing on my TV and got really excited when one day it happened to be an episode starring that cool Pokemon that saved me and BulbasaurS from Articuno in PMD: Blue Rescue Team. I always knew she was a good Pokemon and I wish it was as obvious to the townspeople in that episode as it was to me. They were also the closest thing Pokemon had to a wolf at the time to me, my reasoning being that Absol is misunderstood the same way wolves are (my big thing at the time was being mad that wolves were always the bad guys in most media)! So you could imagine my confusion when I went to look up fanart and saw Absol lumped in with the cat Pokemon because of his face. I still think her anatomy is more doglike than catlike.

I went nuts over Buizel. I coveted that Buizel Pokedoll plush on PokemonCenter.com every single day probably for months until the day I actually got it from Nintendo World. I imagined myself as a Pokemon trainer with Buizel as my partner, somehow being able to take down a Ho-Oh on its own (I don’t think I really understood that Ho-Oh was a powerful legendary Pokemon at the time tbh). The weird thing is, I don’t even like water-type Pokemon, or anything to do with water powers in general. The other weird thing is that I don’t really remember actually using Buizel on my team when I played Pokemon Diamond. I assume it’s because Diamond was my first main series Pokemon game and I guess I didn’t really understand switching Pokemon from you PC and leveling them up until I got way, way later in the game. Buizel is one of those Pokemon that I kinda forget exists, but whenever I remember him my heart goes doki doki.

Between Buizel and Quilava, I’m pretty sure I loved weasels before I even knew that much about them irl. When I heard about HeartGold and SoulSIlver coming out, I knew I was choosing Cyndaquil not because of Cyndaquil (although he is really cute), not for Typhlosion, but for Quilava. I was just gaga over Quilava. He has such a simple design but man he is so adorable. The middle of the evolution lines for the starter Pokemon have always been very underrated and I always thought Quilava outshined both his pre-evolution and his evolution. Typloshion always just kinda came off to me as a generic tough guy, while Cyndaquil at least is cute in a more unique way than your typical cute Pokemon. But Quilava oozes with personality. I’m like 75-80% sure if I had a Pokemon partner it’d be him.

Turtwig. My first starter Pokemon ever. I remember seeing the starters for Sinnoh as Sinnoh was slowly being revealed on Pokemon.com - as I’d gotten into Pokemon right at the tail end of Gen 3 when RSE were already kinda obsolete and PMD first came out - and I immediately gravitated toward Turtwig. Even if I slowly learned to love the other two, Turtwing just felt the most “me”, yanno? Actually, if I were to pick which starter Pokemon was the most “me”, it’d still probably be Turtwig (if not, it’d be Cyndaquil). Something about the shape of his head and his stumpy little body and the way he sounds just appeals to me specifically, yanno? He’s cute in a way that doesn’t appeal to everyone and I always liked that about him. Piplup and Chimchar were way more popular than he was, probably because Piplup was more conventionally cute and Chimchar was cool - I had to stand up for my turty-boi because other kids made fun of him. He’s a lot more popular nowadays than he was back in 2006 when if you were a girl would wanted to be a popstar and if you were a boy you wanted to be gangsta. Or something. Idk I was never really in touch with my peers.

And of course my newest favorite is Lycanroc, specifically dusk form! I would love to be able to go back in time and tell my kid self that not only are there gonna be actual wolf Pokemon, but wolf Pokemon with blue shiny forms (she loved blue)! Shamelessly how I came up with my namesake, dusk form Lycanroc is the Pokemon I imagine I’d be if I were a Pokemon. I just generally like how all of Lycanroc’s forms are designed (even if dusk form is a recolor of midday form shhh I excuse that because I just like dusk form’s coloration much better); something about a wolf being translated into Pokemon’s art style is so cool. Another thing it did for me is give me a favorite rock-type Pokemon, because I really never liked any rock-types beforehand (probably because I’m a furry). Midnight form Lycanroc also has the same body type as Lacmac from the Rayman cartoon aaaaaand yes I bitched for someone to trade me a shiny male Rockruff for the shiny female Rockruff I wound up with when I shiny hunted Rockruff until my partner let me have it so I could name him Lacmac. Would’ve been much less a pain in the ass if non-shiny midnight Lycanroc was blue because he looks cooler in blue than in red anyway, but whatever.

Thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble about why I love the Pokemon I love! I mean, I stayed up later than I intended to typing this but I enjoyed every second of it! Even if I’m probably gonna wake up tomorrow and realize I forgot to talk about like ten other Pokemon.

[ink-and-flame]

Kinktober Day 3: Bondage in the Park (F/F)

Kinktober Day 3 Prompts: Bondage (public, under clothing) // Arm & leg sleeves (ambinders) // Licking (non-sexual)

Fandom: [None] Original

Tags: exophilia, bondage(Shibari), public scene play, 

Pairing: Werewolves - F/F

“Sit still, your squirming is going to ruin the design.” Sara huffed and narrowed her eyes at her mate. “You always do this. Every time we try Shibari you squirm. Sit still or there will be spankings!” 

“I can’t help it, it tickles.” Gwen whined and fought to stay still as the rope corset was wrapped and knotted around her waist leading slowly up to her breasts. 

Bondage was familiar to both females, but this would be the first time that they would try anything in public. Gwen had agreed to wearing a rope corset under her clothing for part of the day with the understanding that while bound she would not be able to shift. The bondage not only felt tight on her body, but forced her to remain in her human form, while her mate had the freedom to change at will. This restriction was something they had both wanted to experiment with and of course being the more submissive of the pair Gwen volunteered. 

“I know, you have such ticklish sides dear, but I don’t want the design to be lumpy or skewed. I promise it will get better once I move higher up.” Sara smiled gently at Gwen, who was actually larger than herself in both forms, which added some level of difficulty. Sara was a runt and worried she would never find anyone to give her a chance. Then Gwen crashed into her life and nothing had been the same. 

Creating the corset, and the additional portions for the harness, was taking a bit longer than Sara thought. At first she was simply going to do a waist corset of lovely blue rope, but Gwen insisted that some of it push up under her breasts and loop behind her neck. The hope was that the rope would provide some support so Gwen could go without a bra, that was yet to be seen as this was a new design they were trying. 

No strangers to bondage, or Shibari in general, this was a new knot technique for Sara. She was looking for ways to link and knot the different sections of rope so that they would lay more flat against the skin, be a bit more subtle under the clothing. At least for the corset and harness portion the rope needed to remain as flat as possible. A second color of rope, some light purple, would be threaded between Gwens legs with a strategically placed not and then tied to the corset for support. This had been tested a few times and was surprisingly effective without causing pain as long as she wasn’t bound for too long. Walking around together would be a treat.

With the corset portion finished Sara moved to the harness carefully weaving the rope under Gwen’s breasts and up around her neck to create some support. Stepping back she looked over her work so far and gestured for Gwen to stand. “Alright, see how this works. Try just walking around, maybe bounce a little?”

Gwen nodded and stood up. Walking around and a little bit of bouncing later and it was clear that it might be obvious she was braless, but there was still some support. It was more Gwen’s hard nipples than the excessive jiggle that was giving her away. “Now for the best part.” She giggled and clapped her hands together wiggling her hips looking at the purple rope. She was excited to try this, knowing that she very well may orgasm while they went on their walk, but hoped that she could resist. 

They had a bet going, if Gwen made it through their entire walk without orgasming, then she got to choose their next scene with no restrictions. If she did cum, then Sara got to remain in charge for the rest of the month. As both were switches this was a bet they were eager to see who won. Either way, they would both be happy with the results. 

Tying a thick knot in the purple rope, Sara had Gwen remain standing and spread her legs while she positioned the knot. It wasn’t directly on her clit, just under it, rubbing the sensitive flesh between her folds right beneath it. Using that knot to measure Sara tied a second knot behind it to nestle against Gwen’s opening. A toy could be attached but they were going to skip that this time. Making a third measurement she removed the rope and tied a slightly different shaped knot so that it was a bit wider, this one would press against Gwen’s sensitive anus. In her human form it wasn’t as pronounced and sensitive as in her were form, but Gwen liked it all the same.

Once the knots were positioned the rope was secured to the corset and pulled tight so that it wouldn’t slide or rub against the sensitive flesh it was against. THe pressure would be constant and only Gwen moving would push her body differently against the knots. The last thing Sara wanted was to give Gwen rope burns on her genitals, that would put a damper on their good time.

“There, done, how does it feel?” 

Gwen squirmed and whined while biting on her bottom lip. “So.. so good, too good. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.”

Sara laughed. “Too late, get dressed.” 

Gwen gave her mate the most pitiful look, but honestly she was looking forward to this. Walking to their closet proved to be difficult as she kept having to stop and take breaths to calm herself. A few laps around the room took care of the initial sensitivity and Gwen went back to the closet selecting a lovely summer dress with matching cardigan that would cover the rope nicely. This was just for them and it wasn’t proper to include others in their scenes without permission, but this was something that blurred the lines a bit and was ok as long as they were careful about where they went and how they behaved. Which was why a walk through one of the less used parks was selected.

Sara smiled up at her mate and remained in her human form in solidarity. Slipping her hand in Gwens they walked to the car and Sara got to enjoy Gwen trying to find a way to sit that would not overstimulate her. “We have not even left yet and you already look on edge.” The glare she earned was worth it and Sara laughed as she pulled onto the street. 

Almost 45 minutes later Gwen was leaning against a tree panting, her forehead resting on her arm as she counted backwards from 20 and tried to think of the most unsexy things possible. At first it had been fine, the beginning of the walk was pleasant, almost relaxing as Gwen grew used to the sensations centering near her core. However as time went on her sensitivity increased and she found herself struggling to maintain composure, which is how she ended up leaning on the tree. 

Refusing to give up she turned and headed back down the path. There was a small area with seating and a few vendors nearby. She gestured for Sara to follow and both women ended up in front of an ice cream cart. Ordering two cones they sat down to enjoy their treat, thus giving Gwen a much needed break from the stimulation.

“You could just throw in the towel.” Sara offered licking her ice cream with a slight grin. 

“Never, I can do this, I just wanted a snack.” Gwen lapped at her cone and tried to focus on her breathing as she remained as still as possible. 

The ice cream was melting fast and Gwen ended up with a bit on her face. She looked at Sara who laughed gently and leaned forward licking the sweet treat off her mates face.  “Delicious, maybe we should bring some home for later.” Sara licked Gwen on the neck and over her lips, teasing gently. 

“No fair, you are cheating!”

“Not cheating, you had ice cream on you, I was helping.” Sara offered.

The cool treat finished she stood up offering her hand to her mate, seeing that Gwen had calmed down enough to continue. “Why don’t we head to the car. I can think of things I would much rather be doing, and the scent of your continued arousal is driving me crazy..” Tugging Gwen along Sara moved them back to the path and continued back to the entrance to the park. She was just as eager to get home as Gwen probably was. “I can’t wait to taste you my love.”

[nightslain]

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻.

Repost, don’t reblog.

BASICS.

full name. Leon Belmont nickname. Lion of France, Cherub, Kitten (courtesy of Mathias lmao) gender. Cis Male height. 5′10″ age. 22 zodiac. Cancer spoken languages. French, Romanian, Gaelic

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

hair color. Honey Blonde eye color. Pale Blue skin tone. Fair accent. French voice. His typical speaking voice when he is relaxed or in polite company is soft and lilting, slightly slow-paced with several subtly drawn out syllables; very clear and precise enunciation. When talking to his men or to his squires, he adopts a firmer, louder, brisker tone that is less gentle and less drawn out. His voice doesn’t grow harsher per se, but commands a little more attention and notice. dominant hand. Right posture. Straight and poised, shoulders back and head high. It’s rare to see him slouch or slump. scars. Several littering his body that he sustained from his earlier days of knighthood, mostly collecting on his torso. tattoos. A marking in the shape of the Gebo rune impressed on the inside of his left wrist birthmarks. A prominent cluster of freckles above his right ankle most noticeable feature(s). His bouncy, voluminous curls! A lot about Leon is quite striking, ranging from his bright, pale eyes to his high-arching brows, but I think his curls are what draw the eye most of all and are the most dominant feature in his design.

CHILDHOOD.

place of birth. Carnac, Brittany birth weight. 5.7 lbs birth height. 14.3 in manner of birth. A natural home-birth that took place in his parent’s manor during the early hours of a summer morning. first words. “Light”, “bird,” and “papa.” siblings. None parents. Raoul Alaine Belmont (deceased), Emeline Belmont (deceased), Rosamonde Cariveau (foster mother), Demetre Cariveau (foster father) parental involvement. His mother was the most prominent figure in his early upbringing given his father was often absent on duty--but neither of them were able to spend a great deal of time with him since Leon was orphaned at around age six. He has much more recent and clear memories of his childhood spent in the Cariveau household, in which Leon was much closer to Rosamonde than he was to Demetre, who acted more as a rather rigid and uncompromising tutor sooner than a father figure. Rosamonde was always much kinder to Leon and he remained very fond of her.

ADULT LIFE.

occupation. Knight / Vampire Hunter current residence. House Belmont, Wallachia close friends. Mathias, Elisabetha, Trefor relationship status. Verse dependent, though typically either involved with Mathias in some capacity or otherwise married to his second wife Sorina. financial status. Wealthy driver’s license. n/a criminal record. n/a vices. Stubborn, hot-headed, impulsive, emotional, naive, gullible, clingy, loyal to a fault, sensitive

SEX & ROMANCE.

sexual orientation. Demisexual romantic orientation. Demiromantic preferred emotional role. submissive  |  dominant | switch preferred sexual role. submissive  |  dominant  |  switch libido. Moderate to high, but this is limited to his interactions with very specific people. Leon does not experience strong physical attractions or urges at all until he has developed an intimate, meaningful emotional connection with someone. However, once he has bonded with someone to that degree, he makes for a very passionate and physical lover with an almost endless desire to please. turn on’s. Intelligence, wit, confidence, strength, dark hair, sharp features, compassion turn off’s. Aggressiveness, ignorance, selfishness, laziness  love language. Physical touch. Leon is a very physical person in general and uses his body more so than his words to express himself (though he can be a very vocal man in conjunction with this too.) He loves nothing more than physical gestures of love and affection, ranging from touches to kisses and anything in between. relationship tendencies. Leon is incredibly compassionate and affectionate in relationships. You can expect him to very often express his affections in a physical fashion as much as a verbal one, alongside numerous little gestures that simply let the other person know he is thinking of them and their needs. Once his love has been won, there is next to nothing he will not do for his significant other; their wish is his command and he will see to it that they are well cared for and loved unconditionally. He is a very touchy lover and deeply enjoys being in contact with a significant other as often as possible, one of his favourite ways of spending time with them simply being laying in bed and holding one another, whether or not conversation is part of the scenario. Expect a lot of cuddles and kisses from this fellow.

MISCELLANEOUS.

character’s theme song. Lament of Innocence by Michiru Yamane  hobbies to pass time. Reading, cooking, gardening, fishing, riding, sparring, swimming, woodland strolls mental illnesses. None physical illnesses. None fears. Losing the people he loves, failing others, becoming a monster, being a bad or absent parent, his children resenting him self-confidence level. Relatively speaking,  moderately high. In a general sense, Leon is very sure of himself and his capabilities, though he struggles with certain elements of guilt and self doubt at some turns. However, he clings to his faith in himself and very rarely fails to do something he sets his mind to, triumphing over each of his short-comings and personal demons. Leon is the kind that can bounce back from just about anything, however terrible it is in the moment; he strives to succeed and knows in his own heart that he can and will do so. vulnerabilities.  Leon is much too trusting and has a very kind heart that is sometimes easily taken advantage of, even though he is generally ruthless as a warrior; he is a gentle soul deep down, but his forgiving nature is not always a good thing. He is also easily strung along by people he trusts, and generally puts that faith easily into others. Leon has a painfully honest mindset too which sometimes tints his view of others; it doesn’t always cross his mind that people might be lying to him for personal gain, since it never occurs to him to do the same. Mathias’ betrayal came as such a sickening blow in part because of this.

tagged by: @goldendless​ 💕💕 tagging: @apos-teriori​ @patienti-a​ @bloodxsong​ @rueverity​ @extremepath​ FOR ANY MUSE OF UR CHOICE LMAO @ghostlyanon​ and anyone else who wants to give it a whirl!

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

MBTI, Mental Health, and Uncertainty

This is a long post but I think it might be one of my most important ones, and I hope you can take the time to read it.

In light of a couple recent questions I want to address mental health in a different way than in the PSA post. I do still stand by that post! But it was intended to be more along the lines of providing succinct encouragement with clear steps, rather than a means of providing deeper context.

MBTI is an unreliable way (at best) to deal with mental health. It was not designed for it. It has a few aspects that are useful in a limited way, which is honestly how I feel about MBTI at large - it is one tool in a very large toolbox, and it’s not necessarily the best one at that, and plenty of people get along fine without using it at all. (in fact if you’re not up to reading the rest of this post consider this paragraph my main point and the rest all elaboration on that theme).

On a larger scale, a lot of Tumblr advice is a terrible way to deal with mental health. I recognize I’m offering advice here on Tumblr but in general my statement re: all things mental health is that stigma, accessibility, and poor clinicians are all serious barriers to good mental health information and treatment, but that doesn’t mean that the more accessible options of “randoms on the internet” or “psychological theories with a strong internet presence” are a viable substitute.

I think a personal example may be helpful here, so: I have some very severe food allergies. I’ve had them my whole life. And I do fully believe that they’ve shaped aspects of my personality. In some ways, they’ve made me more cautious and desiring of control over my environment. They’ve pushed me to explore things like cooking. They’ve required me to become someone who plans ahead, who advocates for herself, and who’s comfortable saying a firm “no” to intended hospitality. They’ve given me some areas of anxiety. They’ve made me a faster reader. They’ve arguably contributed to my sense of humor.

If I could push a button and get rid of my allergies, I would, without question, because they are often a source of stress and inconvenience. But they did contribute to me as a person, and had I grown up and developed without them, I would probably be different in some ways - and I have no idea how exactly I’d be different. Would I be as fast a reader or as detail-oriented if I didn’t have to read ingredients lists at a glance? Maybe - I was a bookish kid. Would I be as responsible and assertive? Possibly - I’m an oldest child, I was always on the stubborn and independent side. But really, who knows?

I went to a doctor when I was in grad school for a check-up and a top-up of my epi-pen prescription. I said I hadn’t had to use the epi-pen in years. He mentioned that he had a friend with the same allergy who had a reaction once every year or so because he was a little scattered and a huge socializer and people-pleaser, and so he often had reactions to baked goods around the holidays - baked goods that I would unequivocally politely turn down. Same condition. Wildly different responses.

Mental illnesses or conditions are highly analogous to this experience - if they’re debilitating and unpleasant, even if they’ve caused you to develop in positive ways, you’ll be glad for those benefits but you may wish you could flip a switch and get rid of them.

But other conditions might be so central to your identity that you genuinely would not be you without them, and the issues that arise are because your identity is not well-accommodated in your environment

And while I can speculate on which sorts of conditions fall into which bucket (most people with depression would put it in the first; autism, for many autistic people, is in the second; this is a huge topic I can’t do justice here but you can even see this categorization in my language). But in the end, it’s a case-by-case choice dependent on the person with that condition. For more on the nature of ‘abnormal’ conditions and self-conception I highly recommend the Oliver Sacks essay “Witty Ticcy Ray” specifically, and his essay collections The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. But if you can’t get to those my point is that people’s relationships with things that affect their cognition are complex and deeply personal.

So coming back to MBTI. Is MBTI the reason why I am vigilant and others with allergies are less so? Well, we don’t entirely know where type comes from, but maybe. Maybe it’s my upbringing, maybe it’s my inherent self, maybe it’s something else. We don’t know. I don’t know.

With mental illnesses, there’s a second factor. Allergic reactions are physiological and predictable- doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, if you eat the thing you can’t eat, your body will initiate the immune response. But when your illness or condition also affects your cognition, MBTI isn’t just a reason for how you respond to the condition. Your type, or at least your personality that you attempt to categorize into a type, is both influenced by and feeds into the outward signs of said condition. The outward signs of mental illnesses are themselves diverse! The PHQ-9 survey, a very common depression screening tool, doesn’t require that you display every single possible symptom - just a certain amount of them together (and even then it’s just a starting point for an individual follow-up. So we don’t know what’s ‘you’ and what’s the condition and what’s the combination thereof and even if you and the effects of said condition can really be seen as separate entities.

What this means practically is that figuring out how personality type, in any system, impacts mental health is an astronomically hard task, because both type and mental illness are best described as collections of a sufficient number of coexisting patterns of thought and behavior, not an absolute yes/no. If you’re trying to figure out yourself, again, MBTI is one of many tools and should not be your only point of reference - it’s a good starting point but at some point you’re going to have to leave it and jump into the vast unknown of what the self truly is (I feel very cheesy typing this but funnily enough I think Jung would back me up here). But only you can really do that. I certainly can’t do it for you.

Something that I think a lot of people forget is the origin of MBTI. MBTI was developed using Jung’s idea of cognitive functions as a starting point, and the catalyst was Myers and Briggs (her mother) noticing that Myers’s husband (an ISTJ) was really different from them (both high Ne users) in terms of personality. They took a theory because it matched what they observed in real life. I am unsurprisingly in favor of this. You want to know how people act? Interact with them! You can sum up larger trends in a theory, but it will always be a simplification of the infinitely complex truth. You can’t know how MBTI will make any one person act with any certainty - you can only guess.

Similarly, things like loops and grips are a bit of a one-way street. MBTI theorists observed that certain patterns of stress behavior tended to crop up more frequently in individuals of the same type and came up with names for them and a theory to describe why they may occur. This does not mean that the same behaviors cannot exist in people of other types. This does not guarantee that a person of a certain type and under stress will fall into a loop, a grip, or really do any specific action at all. As I have said many times and will say again, mental illness and stress have real, measurable neurochemical effects and people will ‘self-medicate’ (eg: seeking endorphin-releasing activities when unhappy), and type doesn’t enter into it (which is also why I think the advice to look at your stress behavior is not particularly good).

Finally, even if you are in a loop or grip, if you’re having a difficult time, a decent therapist will probably give you advice that isn’t out of line with MBTI recommendations, because there’s more than one way to come to the same conclusion! A lot of advice is broadly applicable - start with small steps and be gentle with yourself, for example. Play to your strengths - and you don’t need to know MBTI to know what you’re good at. You need to have a general sense of who you are and MBTI is a way to categorize who you are, not a way to do that initial self-discovery.

In conclusion: I know I sound like a broken record, but if you’re interested in human behavior at large please, please treat MBTI as one of many aspects of it. If you have the opportunity to take a class or do some serious reading about neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, sociology, or basic statistics I recommend it, and whether or not you can do those things, interact with people! Sitting behind a computer screen theorizing how an archetype that must necessarily describe literally hundreds of millions of people is not really a helpful exercise! “Go outside” isn’t a threat to be read in the tone of ‘get off my lawn’; it might be said in a mildly exasperated way but it is meant as an invitation to a vast resource that you are not using to its fullest.

[thrandilf]

Dauntlessly True to Himself Ch 2

The day usually started with Leon spending an unnecessary amount of time preening in front of the full length mirror in his bedroom, and the day of his archery demonstration was no different.

“I really am the best merchant around!” Leon had missed the comforting weight of light archer’s armor. It was brand new from his own shop, since his original trusted coat was destroyed when he’d been injured. Leon felt confident and at home as he adjusted the pauldron over his left shoulder and turned around to check how the calf length coat flowed with him. His right shoulder area twinged with pain and he huffed, eying his reflection in the mirror as he slung his quiver onto his back.

“Damn it- just for a day, pull it together,” he mumbled. Leon compulsively checked that his face was blemish free and that the soft amount of makeup under his eyes to disguise his occasional restless night was perfect. He’d spent even longer than usually fussing over his hair, as if he couldn’t style it in his sleep by now. His new archery coat was strikingly similar to what he used to have, except it was a lighter shade of purple iris with even more embellishments down the front of turquoise and gold, designed to guide eyes all the way from head to toe.

Valbar might not judge by appearances, expect such meticulous perfection, or even notice how Leon aimed to impress every day, but he didn’t care. His charming smile and charisma came in handy for haggling with vendors and at this point it was the one aspect of himself he hadn’t lost.

He cheerily waved at passerby on the street, a spring in his step as he imagined Valbar’s proud expression when Leon finished the course. He’d set up the course the night before himself, with targets set at varying distances ranging from fifty to eighty yards, a few angled targets, and even a set of three wrapped around a giant tree trunk to test speed, depth perception, and general reflexes. Leon could pull such a stunt in his sleep, but after the years he worried his talent was forgotten. He couldn’t disappoint Valbar in any way, shape or form.

Leon’s determination brewed inside of him, hot and potent as he and a stablehand groomed and saddled his horse. The sun was minutes from its full height in the sky as Leon rode out to the training field, proud and striking as he made a dramatic galloping entrance. He automatically scanned the small crowd of archery students and other curious knights for Valbar. He noticed the slouching hooded boy Forsyth had glared at and Luthier standing next to Valbar in the back. Leon beamed with joy at seeing Valbar, despite how skeptical Valbar looked.

He could fix that.

Leon gradually came to a halt in front of the group, tossing his hair over his shoulder as he gave them all a smile. It was satisfying being on a horse in front of a crowd of people on foot. “Good afternoon! Welcome! I’m Sir Leon, not that anyone doesn’t know who I am, and I will be giving a lesson on navigating this year’s archery games! Archery on horseback requires both precision and speed, as well as expert horsemanship. While you’ll have to fire rapidly, it pays to know how you’ll be moving with your horse. There’s a point in a galloping gait where all four hooves are off the ground, which makes for the smoothest time to fire…”

He rambled on while idly running his fingertips along the edges of the fletching on his arrows, praying to whatever gods that were still alive that he wasn’t about to actually do something stupid. Leon finished his lecture and, with all eyes of his students and scattered friends on him, rode to the start of the course with his light bow in hand.

Leon turned smoothly onto the opening stretch of the straight dirt path and draped his reigns over the pommel, letting his horse canter without his lead. Adrenaline shot down his spine from years of warfare and he reflexively readied an arrow in a fluid motion and drew it back-

“AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!” he bellowed in agony. Pain paralyzed his right arm down from his shoulder to his fingertips, muscles and nerves screaming to stop the strain. Time seemed to freeze and he fired the arrow, the release a welcome relief. Tears threatened to spill into Leon’s eyes and he bit his tongue, anger at himself, his inability, his loss burning inside of him.

There was no way in hell he could draw another arrow with his shoulder.

Leon was officially, finally facing how done his career was. He couldn’t even pretend or lie to himself anymore thinking he was indefinitely in reserve.

He was legitimately useless to Valbar on the battlefield. It couldn’t be.

[[MORE]]

In his muddled shock, he could feel every hoof fall under him. If this was his last time with a bow in hand, in front of his beloved- the last battle, even if it was against himself, he’d give it his one hundred and ten percent. Valbar was there. Leon had never been anything but his best self with Valbar watching.

Leon’s right arm and upper back made every motion torturous as his horse galloped and he quickly switched hands. His right hand gripped the bow with seized up muscles as his left frantically fumbled for arrows. Leon grit his teeth and rapidly fired as many arrows as he could, only having passed by a few targets. It was awkward, clumsy, and he could barely see, much less hold himself steady anymore. The arrows rested on the opposite side of the bow, his left shoulder had barely ever done such a motion before, and his instincts screamed that it was all wrong, but he attempted to hit every single target he’d set up.

The entire course only took forty seconds, but Leon was too far gone to hear the scattered applause and shouts, or notice his horse was slowing down to bring him back to Valbar and everyone else before he simply let his feet leave the stirrups and flew off his mount.

~-~

Death tasted like mana herbs.

Leon groaned and discovered he wasn’t dead, and had just spit saliva coated clumps of herbs on himself. His entire body was numb except his face. He managed to wiggle a foot and open his eyes to the crowd of spectators standing around him. He was exceptionally pleased to see Valbar’s face above his, with a hand in Leon’s hair. If only it was under different circumstances. “You okay?” asked Valbar.

The initial shock of impact was wearing off and Leon tried to talk around the bitter leaves. “Yur uh difficult persob to argue wiff.” Valbar gently wrapped an arm around Leon’s waist and lifted him from the ground easily, helping him to his feet. Despite the dulled pain in his upper back, being in Valbar’s arms for a moment made Leon smile lightheadedly. Leon wavered but could brace himself against Valbar enough to stand, forcing down the herbs with a cough. “Ugggghhh. How’d I do?”

Silence.

Leon looked around in confusion at the huddle around him. “Well?”

Luthier took one for the group as he put his hands on Leon’s back and channeled a healing spell into him. “After the first shot, you missed every single target by a country mile.”

Well then. Leon leaned on Valbar and snorted, laughing so hard he wheezed. A few students hesitantly giggled and Leon wiped at his face. “God, okay. Alright. I’m retired for a reason everybody- sorry to disappoint.”

A teenage girl raised her hand and bounced on her heels. “Is it true you shot a necrodragon but didn’t hurt it because your arrow went through both eye sockets?”

Leon nodded, puffing his chest out but then winced. “Yes, that was quite a battle. Necrodragons are only really susceptible to seraphim magic.”

“Are you ambidextrous?” asked another student. “I’ve never even tried to shoot left handed.”

Leon blinked in confusion. He’d expected them to all disperse with disappointment. Instead, all of Valbar’s students and a few outsiders were surrounding him eagerly. “Er, no. I’ve only shot left handed a couple times. It feels really different to switch sides, although it’s not a bad idea for you young, able bodied people to experiment.”

“Could you teach us with Valbar?”

“I bet you have tons of stories!”

“I’m still scared of riding a horse without holding the reigns, how do you do it?”

Leon couldn’t help a grin spreading across his face. Warm pride blossomed in his chest, perhaps even moreso than if he’d actually shown off. “You guys still want me to hang around and teach after that?”

“Yeah!”

Valbar affectionately nudged Leon. “I think you’ve already taught them something, Leon.”

“That’s true.” Leon gingerly stretched his arms, sighing in relief that he could still move fluidly with only a few minor aches that would eventually fade. “Only you can know your own limits- on the battlefield and anywhere else. And-“ he turned to face Valbar with a fond expression. “-no matter how proud, arrogant, and stubborn you are, it’s okay to need help.”

“That’s right.” Valbar surveyed the group. “Alright, let’s get some practice in! Leon, up to being my assistant?”

“Always.”

Leon favored his right arm for the rest of the day, but thoroughly enjoyed working at Valbar’s side. He gave archers tips and pointers on foot, directed simple calvary exercises, and couldn’t stop feeling elated with Valbar close by. While Forsyth was strict, Lukas was reserved, and Mycen was a rare sight but one to be reckoned with, Valbar was warm and kind. He focused on team exercises and positive encouragement, eyes sweeping over his pool of students and making sure no one was left behind. Leon tried to adopt the same teaching method, giving praise and aid wherever merited.

“Canter! Good!” Leon had the timid student who was unsure of themselves out on a lunge line, putting their horse through their paces while the student held their bow, eyes constantly darting to their saddle horn. Leon tsked and called out to them, “Eyes up! Straighten your posture, relax into it- good! Keep it up!”

He didn’t even notice Valbar watching him until he was helping his pupil dismount (with more encouraging words than actual muscle). Leon turned and almost ran directly into Valbar, stopping just short of his imposing chest with a laugh. “Oh! Hi- my bad.”

“Will you join us for dinner?”

Leon shrugged. “Sure, why not?” He grinned at the small group of adolescents milling around, getting ready to leave for supper. “If anyone’s qualified to gossip about you to all of your adoring students, it’s me.”

Valbar chuckled and clapped Leon on his good shoulder. “I know, you could make me blush with your wild, vivid tales of our adventures together. But-“ he gestured to the field as they walked. “-I don’t think I’m the only one adored here, Leon. Beneath all that snark, you have a soft heart after all. The ability to teach proves your skills even better than a simple demonstration would’ve. You’re far more than your ability to hit a target.”

Leon could never stop Valbar-induced smiles from spreading across his face with pure joy. “Oh please- now you’re flattering me. I quite like it! Listen though, I know how much you helped me when I was just some scrawny archer who was terrified, hopeless, alone, and far from home. If you give anyone the sort of confidence and stability you gave me, you’re the best teacher in all of Zofia.”

Valbar finally did blush. “Well, how to respond? You’re biased for one thing- no one else admires me in every way as much as you to begin with.”

Leon’s heart skipped a beat in fear that he’d gone too far, but he laughed as he read Valbar’s easygoing gait and sly grin as only pleased. They mutually avoided mentioning Leon’s romantic inclination towards Valbar. Leon knew he’d been let down gently in the past, and was more than happy to just be friends with the most important person in his life. Valbar bringing it up so casually made an ancient knot of tension loose in Leon’s chest. Valbar genuinely didn’t mind after all. “Hmmm, yes, I suppose I am. I see the truth clearer than anyone else.”

“Oh? And what’s the truth?”

“Oooooh, I could gush about you for hours, but if I had to pick one thing- you give the best hugs.”

Whatever Valbar was expecting, it wasn’t that. “Hugs?”

“Yes!” Leon’s own cheeks tinged pink. He had no qualms about singing Valbar’s praises, but it was such an intimate thing to admit. “Those bulky muscles of yours give strong, secure, perfect hugs where I feel like I’m cocooned in pure security and warmth. Sometimes you even pick me up a bit and my feet leave the ground and I totally relax in your supernatural hugging abilities. You’re astounding.”

“Wow.” Valbar huffed fondly. “No wonder you’re a merchant. Now I want to be hugged by me.”

Leon opened his mouth to continue but he inhaled deeply instead, eyes widening and stopping in his tracks, urgently tugging Valbar’s arm. “Wait- do I smell-“

Valbar nodded, sniffing too. “Ah, it seems Prince Conrad has been stress baking.”

“COOKIES!” Leon bolted forward, Valbar momentarily forgotten as he sprinted towards the intoxicating scent radiating from the dining hall and kitchen. “MOVE, I’M GAY!” He had so much momentum he couldn’t stop in time as a group of people rounding a corner in the crosshairs of his path and he body slammed someone in his cookie inspired frenzy, shrieking as they toppled over.

“Oh gods, you haven’t changed a bit.” A familiar groan sounded from below Leon and Leon gasped with disbelief.

“Kamui?!” Leon sat up off where they were sprawled on the stone pathway and grinned, brushing himself off. “Oh I’m so sorry- I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Not just Kamui.” A tanned hand appeared in Leon’s field of vision and Leon widened his eyes. He pulled himself up with help by Jesse, who giving Leon his best smile complete with a friendly wink. “King Jesse of the Eastern Sands, at your service.”

Kamui rolled over on the ground with a sigh. “Why don’t the pretty boys help me up?”

Another familiar voice pulled Leon from staring at Jesse in disbelief. “Stop your drama, kid!” Saber pulled Kamui to his feet with a roll of his eye. “We gotta see Celica, it’s just easy to get lost in such a huge castle.”

“WATCH OUT BELOW!”

A crowd was gathering again at the sight of new arrivals, and this time it was clear why. Three falcon knights circled high above the castle parapets, swooping down admist wild cheering to land in a triangular stance together. The three girls struck a pose with the gathering of spectators around them, introducing themselves with flourishes.

“Palla!”

“Catria!”

“And EST!”

“The Whitewing Sisters!” Clair broke through the crowd and almost fell into Est’s arms with excitement as Est dismounted. Est laughed and hugged her as Clair gushed. “I’m so excited to meet you!”

“It’s fun to see Valentia again! This part of Zofia is beautiful!” Est bounced on her feet excitedly as Catria and Palla surveyed the area around them.

Catria nudged Palla and gestured away from everyone. “The throne room is that way if we saw correctly. Let’s go.”

Jesse held his hands up and waved. “Hey! Wait, wait we should all go together! Did I lose anyone? All three Pegasus riders, me, Saber- Genny and Atlas, you guys stuck?”

Atlas and Genny emerged from behind the alicorns. Atlas had made visits to Zofia Castle for Celica before and shrugged, still in his fur trimmed woodcutter outfit. Genny stood next to him scribbling excitedly in a leather bound journal. She looked up and smiled brightly. “Oh, this sequel to our adventure is going so well! I can’t wait to see Celica.”

Valbar stood in the center of the group and beckoned everyone towards him. “Why not have dinner first? Celica has been resting in private lately.”

“YES! CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!” Leon grabbed Valbar and Kamui’s hands and led a charge into the dining hall, laughing and elated as they surrounded Prince Conrad who was handing out warm cookies from a table covered with baking pans. Mae, Boey, and their children were helping him with cleaning up, Boey gently shooing all of the little ones away from the table to wash their hands.

Conrad was shaking with a severe lack of sleep and the area under his eyes was an exhausted gray but he smiled for Leon. “Oh, my biggest fan! It’s relief to have at least one thing under control.”

Leon eagerly gave Valbar a cookie so fast he almost dropped it and then unceremoniously shoved one in his own face with a low groan. Kamui rolled his eyes and had to grab one for himself, reaching around Leon. Leon listened to the alicorn riders and all of the new arrivals mix together around him to introduce themselves and get situated at Alm’s huge table for dinner as he entered a chocolate induced trance. His eyes fell closed and Leon moaned again, a soft sigh escaping his lips as the warm bittersweet chocolate melted into the brown sugar and vanilla against his tongue. It was baked to perfection- the center moist and rich with the lightest crisp on the edges. His toes curled and Leon hazily opened his eyes to take another bite of sugary heaven. “Ooooooooooooh, aaaah, hmmmmm- /yes/.”

“I feel like I should leave the room,” joked Kamui next to him.

Leon ignored him and grabbed another cookie, sitting by Valbar with another sensual groan, ignoring the stares and giggles at the table and missing how Valbar’s face was pink from Leon’s shameless noises of euphoria. “Aaaaaaahhhhhh- God it’s so GOOD!”

Conrad laughed weakly. “I’m glad. I’ve been barely sleeping with all the event planning.”

Alm was busy greeting everyone but got enough space to himself to sit down. “Conrad, please, sit down and promise me you’ll sleep tonight and just-“ he glanced around to make sure Sir Mycen was out of earshot, “-make my grandfather do everything, since he clearly doesn’t need sleep like the rest of us. Wow, everyone! It’s amazing to meet you all again- Celica is expecting you.”

Saber dished himself up a heaping plate of potatoes and meat. “She better be- she invited us.”

“Oh don’t be so grumpy to our majesty!” chastised Jesse. He flung his blond curls back and grabbed a plate. “We were unfortunately delayed by weather conditions. We were all traveling together for days longer than we anticipated.” Jesse beamed happily. “I’d say we got quite cozy!”

Catria and Palla groaned as Est and Genny giggled. “We’re flying back ALONE,” declared Catria.

Palla made eye contact with Jesse as he opened his mouth. “No, Jesse.”

Jesse turned to Est. “H-“

“I’m married.” Est held up her hand to show off a wedding band to ooohs and aaahs from around the table. “I’m having my honeymoon once we get back!”

Genny set her pen aside only to eat a bite now and then, absorbed in her writing and barely paying attention to her own plate. “I’m married too.”

Mae shrieked and smacked the table across from Genny hard enough to rattle the silverware. “TO WHO????”

“It’s a secret!” Genny hid behind her book, grinning as Mae bounced in her seat.

Gray leaned forward towards the Whitewing Sisters and Clair sighed loudly as he spoke. “Tobin and I have been thinking-“

“No we haven’t,” interjected Tobin. “Don’t blame me for this-“

“-and we’ve decided that a group of Pegasi would be called a flerd- a flock and herd! Are we right?”

Palla thought about it while Est readily nodded. “Uh- you know? They’re more horse than bird, so I guess we always said herd.”

“I like ‘flerd’,” Est said.

Luthier, at the discussions of Pegasi, leaned forward in his seat from all the way down the table. “While language itself is ever evolving and contractions may become words themselves over time, the idea of mixing two definitions for the sake of-“

“No, no, it’s Flerd now,” agreed Catria, cracking a smile.

The conversations paused as Boey arrived late, herding his three recently washed toddlers. “Prince Conrad’s cookies are done! Leon even saved you some! What do you say?”

“Yay!” chorused all three children.

“I’ll take that.” Boey sighed and sat down next to Mae. “I know kids are supposed to eat in the nursery-“

“It’s alright,” said Alm with his typical gentleness. He glanced at the kids excitedly getting themselves fresh cookies. “They could be my son’s playmates someday.”

There had been rumors going around about what the royal family would name their new prince. No one was supposed to know until the christening, but it wasn’t going to stop anyone from speculating.

“Ah yes.” Jesse straightened himself in his seat. “Prince Jesse, was it?”

“Oh please, he’s DEFINITELY gonna name his kid Prince Gray,” replied Gray.

Clive caught on to the game and grinned as it bounced around the table. “May I submit Clive as a good possibility?”

“Kamui is an honorable name.”

“Hmmm, surely you went with Lukas.”

“Prince Tobin, cause I’m your BEST friend, right?”

Alm waved his hand. “I’m not allowed to tell! It’ll be a surprise!”

Boey lifted one of the toddlers up to cuddle between him and Mae. “I’d say Boey, but we have that covered.”

Mae nodded energetically. “Boey, Zoe, and Chloe!” She held one of the triplets on her lap, careful to not get any chocolate on herself as the child happily ate their cookie. “I’m missing one right now- oh there they are! It’s okay, they’re all cuddly and mostly harmless.”

Leon blinked with confusion as he felt a small tug on his sleeve. He looked down at the child next to him. All three of them looked practically identical with bright pale pink hair, Boey’s skin tone, and Mae’s eyes. Leon had never known exactly how to interact with kids even when he was one. “Uh, hi.”

“Purble!” The toddler rested their cheek against Leon’s thigh and pointed at his hair.

“Yes. I’m purple.”

Leon was ready to accept being cuddled until they giggled and fully hugged him from the side, so overcome with joy that a wave of uncontrolled magical static jolted them both. Leon jumped with a shriek, the sensation not painful but deeply unsettling. “Agh! What- oh no!” Leon sprung out of his chair and desperately tried to pet his hair down, panicking as people laughed at their antics. His soft hair relentlessly stood on end as he had a catfight with his own head, facing away from Valbar specifically.

“They’re going to be quite powerful mages,” commented Luthier. “Delthea was casting all sorts of accidental spells at a young age.” He paled at the mere memory of it and Delthea giggled.

Kamui warily scooted away from the gleeful toddler next to him whose hair was standing on end. Valbar, however, scooped them up into his arms and smiled as they immediately started eating his dinner with their bare hands. “I miss having my own little one. Having three must be quite a handful.”

“Oh yes.” Mae nodded. “I’m sorry if it’s a bad time- you were a father?”

Valbar chuckled as the toddler on him managed to get potato on his leg. “It’s alright, the wound isn’t as raw anymore. I lost my entire family to a pirate raid. However, as much as I loved having a son, I don’t see myself having another kid.” Valbar tried to help the child on him clean their mouth with a napkin and didn’t bat an eye when they suddenly decided to doze against his shoulder. “My life is going in a different direction, and there are enough people around me to love.”

Leon clamored back into his seat, still fussing with his hair as he fondly eyed Valbar. Even after Leon’s embarrassment at the archery field, Valbar still valued him. Valbar loved everyone. It made Leon’s heart swell with affectionate pride, impressed that his own feelings could blossom further. “You’ve never been bitter. That’s so sweet of you, being so good with kids.”

“I love them.” Valbar looked at the child snoozing on him with such affection as if they were his own. “Right now it feels like I have 50 kids with all those recruits.”

The conversation would’ve continued but a sudden hush fell over the dining hall. Within a moment of glancing around, Leon could see why.

Queen Celica entered the room flanked by Sir Mycen and Mathilda. Mathilda rarely appeared in public anymore, while she usually said it was to stay at her and Clive’s estate to be a mother, those in the castle had figured out that she was a personal guard to Celica when needed. Several people rose to their feet and Jesse scrambled out of his seat to bow but Celica smiled and offered him her hand up. “My friends, you bow to no one. It’s so good to see you all again.”

Genny and Mae exchanged a glance and then ran to hug Celica together, squishing Jesse (who didn’t seem particularly bothered) in with them. The Whitewing Sisters joined in on the group hug and Celica was practically hidden from sight, surrounded by loving friends. She was just as casual as Alm around the castle, happy to see familiar faces.

“We missed you!”

“Are you okay? You just had a kid!”

“You should demand we visit more!”

Celica stood on her tiptoes and waved to Alm frantically, laughing as he and Mathilda rescued her. “Yes! I’m only suffering from being fussed over too much, the baby and I are just fine. He’s fast asleep and well fussed over.”

“Would that be Prince Jesse, my lady?” Jesse teased.

“Forsyth is a much better name!” stated Forsyth.

Leon jumped in on the fun, not missing an opportunity to declare his love for Valbar. “Now let’s be honest- Valbar is the best name.”

“Is this what you’ve had to put up with?” giggled Celica, sitting next to Alm at the head of the table.

“Yes, dear. They’re relentless.”

Celica warmly looked around at everyone, inner circle and commoner alike. “We have less than two weeks before the festivities to get ready- lets make it the best Zofia has ever seen!”

[infini-tree]

bc i cant watch the new season bc stuff is Buggy on my side, some tpod au headcanons/concepts before i Forget Abt Them :

general stuff

hot off the heels of kfp3, the sudden displacement and sudden rushing back of qi messes up with all of china and now several bad guys are Aware and want to capitalize on this wild energy. and by several its mostly jindiao

restructuring of villain order. idk what happened in s2 so dont Spoil It but jindiao's the final big bad that needs to be dealt with but the water deer clan still appear throughout the entire "series" before then

po isnt here as a teacher. he and the five are busy with repairing the valley and essentially rebalancing all of china. youd just hear references of them. this also means that ping or cart have no reason to go to the panda village which is an Absolute Travesty

the four constellations of the jade palace are their respective teachers

zhizhu and bunnidharma are the same character

jindiao is just a bearded vulture powered by stolen qi-- none of that “actually a dragon possessing a vulture body and that isn’t Addressed”

the kids'/constellations' weapons have star motifs based on namesake, but eventually their powers evolve to have aesthetic aspects congruent to the respective kid. for instance, basically what im saying here is that jing’s healing aura does the tpod equivalent of ed alchemizing things to look Edgy As Hell

bao

drama kid that hangs out w mei mei sometimes; callback to that one panda paws short where they try to upstage each other

main character arc is learning to be less selfish and accepting help

since bei's a softshell tort the barrier would be both flatter than the canon, but more malleable/absorbs shock better

can also be a simple bubble shape

can be soundproof-- good for secret plan making and team hangouts !

other kids can give it secondary effects if they combine forces (fire barrier from fan tong/invisibility from jing/overall increase in radius from nu hai; abilities can in theory stack but it adds overall pressure on bao)

nu hai

name not literally written as "girl" here

could be lei lei, with that being her old childhood nickname that unfortunately stuck and shes trying desperately to unstick. still Hyperfocuses on kung fu/tigress and gets excited easily

technically the youngest (bao's the Alpha Twin lmao), very self conscious about it and as a result of trying to emulate tigress and the aforementioned anxiety she tries to overcompensate by bossing people around since shes the Designated Leader-- main arc involves growing past that and realizing that she should be a friend first before a leader

her ability's the hardest to really specify-- she could just keep the ranged hadouken thing to balance out the melee/tank/healer in the proverbial party with her being ranged. or just give her an actual bow and arrow

jing

“angry weird kid”; up the weird/macabre part of her personality a bit more

weird quibble but her and bao should switch clothes. the medals on her hanfu makes more sense for attention-seeking bao, while the muted colors/sporty headband thing are more appropriate for jing "this place smells like dead bodies. neat" pawsofdestiny

main character growth is being less stubborn and less-one track mind abt fighting

still has healing ability, but can just ‘heal’ to do what are essentially stat buffs

still has that whole “possessed/manipulated by jindiao” plot/arc bc that was legit the best part of the first season and i would be remiss if i took that out

fan tong

for the love of god stop with the toilet humor based cowardice. like continue being timid and scared of confrontation but please

lbr hes bullied bc of how he doesn’t get certain cues/jokes by other kids outside the group; smarter than he looks but is too timid to actually Say His Thoughts. main character arc is being confident and “being brave isnt about not being scared of stuff its doing things Despite being scared” all that stuff

still a sword boy ! his sword originally manifests as a jian (like guiying’s) but after some time it morphs into something that looks like a dadao or niuweidao as a stealthy reference to humble origins

[nerdylittleshit]

As 2018 came to an end I tried over the last days to catch up on some of the movies I wanted to see this year. There are still a lot of movies I haven’t seen yet, and I only included movies that were released this year, except for one (that is released in Germany, I know some already had their release in the US in 2017). So, time for some movies reviews. And let me know what you have watched this year, what you can recommend, and what I have missed. 

Arrival

Technical this movie was released in 2017, but I really wanted to include it in this list because it was so GOOD. The plot looks like your average Sci-Fi movie (overnight spaceships appear on earth), but it really isn’t. First of all the way the spaceships and the aliens are designed is really unique, and really gives you this feeling of something otherworldly. The main character is a linguist and her job is it to find out how to communicate with the aliens. I don’t think I ever thought as much about language as I did while watching this movie. And this movie had one of the best plot twists ever. First of all I didn’t see it coming (and yeah that says something), second it really changes how you watch this movie and third it changes the movie on an emotional level. I cried so much. 10/10

Your Name

It’s been a while since I watched an Anime movie, and this was one of the few that had a theatrical release in Germany (it’s also the most successfull Anime movie ever in Japan I think). The story centers around two teenagers, a girl from the countryside and a boy from Tokyo, who for some reason are able to switch their bodies for a day, which happens two or three times a week. They start to leave messages for the other while being in the other body and the starts as every other body-switch-comedy until at some point the body switch stops and the boy can no longer reach the girl. He starts to investigate and I won’t tell you more because the movie developed into a direction I hadn’t seen coming. It’s a beautiful, moving movie, and even if you normally don’t watch Animes you should make an exception for this one. 10/10

Black Panther

I admit that before this movie I knew little to nothing about this character, and while the trailer looked cool I had no huge interest in the movie. I only saw it because it was the last Marvel release before “Infinity War” and I wondered if there were any hints towards “Infinity War” (there aren’t). And then this movie completely blew me away. It is easily in my top 3 of all Marvel movies and I also think it is the best Marvel origin story. I loved Wakanda, I loved the world building, the music, the costumes, everything. This movie also has the best villian of any comic book movie. Because, let’s face it, most villians are forgettable. Killmonger however is different. Because never before I watched a movie where at some point I had to agree with the villian. Sure his methods were wrong, but not his motivation. And I think that if you make a movie about the first black superhero the question about race will always be the elephant in the room. Other directors might have a less serious, less political movie, but not Ryan Coogler. He asks complicated questions about race, about privilege, about responsibility, where there are no easy answers. This is both a big fun superhero movie, but it is also deeply political, because it can be both. And it is also a movie that you can totally watch without ever seeing a Marvel movie before, so don’t take that as an excuse. 10/10

The Shape of Water

I love Del Toro, I love the stories he tells, I love the way he uses colours in his movies, and this is no exception (though I think it is not his best movie). This movie is a fairytale. I don’t think it ever tries to be more, and it tells you so in the beginning, so don’t expect it to be more. It totally works that way, but the characters pretty much stay in the roles they have been given. It is also a story about outsiders, about the ones who don’t fit in our society, because they are women, or disabled, or people of color, or queer, or... fishman. This movie might be set in 50ies but in many ways the issues it adresses are still relevant. And the villian is very white, very male, very straight. And very American. I don’t think the movie was very sublte in its political messages. It’s a great movie, but I don’t think it was the best movie of the year. 9/10

Call Me By Your Name

Many moons ago I read the book this movie is based on. I’m not a huge fan of adaptions in general, because many times the book is simply better and not every story works on a big screen. However this movie somehow managed to evoke the same feeling in me that I had while reading the book. It is very sensual, and it also takes its time to tell its story (but so does the book). I really have to praise both Timothee Chalamet and Arnie Hammer, because so much is told through their faces alone. Quite a beautiful love story. 10/10

Lady Bird

I think this movie worked for me on a very personal level. It is set in 2002 and centers around a 17-year-old-girl and typical teenager problems. I was 13 in 2002 so this felt a bit like a trip down memory lane. Nothing about this story is new, and there are dozen of other coming of age movies, and yet this movie felt to me very personal and intimitate. It centers a lot around the relationship between the young girl and her mother, but never takes sides. Absolutely loved Laurie Metcalf in this movie, who played the mother. If you are not interested in young adult and/or coming of age stories or in general teenage girls this movie won’t work for you. But I loved it. 9/10

Annihilation

I probably wouldn’t have seen this movie in the theater and mostly watched it because it is on Netflix. It is visually stunning, and if you have the chance watch it on a big screen. The trailer made it look like a horror movie which it isn’t. Instead it is very dark Sci-Fi, with some (body)horror elements. The movie made me really uncomfortable and I think that was the intention of the director, but I failed to emotional connect with it. It is an interesting movie but read some trigger warnings before you watch it. 7/10

Avengers: Infinity War

This was probably the movie I was most exicted for this year. This movie really doesn’t work without context: if you never seen a Marvel movie before or maybe just one or two it won’t work for you. This movies depends that you know these characters, that you know their stories and their relationships to each other. All the emotional build-up happened in the movies before, so that this movie could largely concentrate on the plot. Give it to the Russo brothers to handle such a huge ensemble cast (though of course not every character got the same amount of screen time, but that’s ok). It is a hard to judge this movie because it really doesn’t work on its own. One of the few times the entire theater was silent during the end credits. If you love Marvel you will love this movie. 8/10

Deadpool 2

I might be in the minority but I liked the first Deadpool movie better. Maybe because the first was so new and unusual, but the second time a lot of the jokes didn’t work for me. Also the entire story arc around Vanessa.... please don’t. I don’t think this movie was bad, but I enjoyed the first one more. 7/10

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Someone said this is Star Wars fan fiction made into a movie and I think they are right. It is a fun and entertaining movie, but it kinda felt... unnecessary. If you are a hugh fan of Han Solo you will probably like this movie but as a general Star Wars fan... they could and should have released this story as a novel or comic and investigate the money for this movie in a more original story. 6/10

Ant-Man and The Wasp

First of all you can totally watch this movie if you haven’t seen “Infinity War”, just skip the post credit scenes. Second, it was a fun movie. Just as the first one. Hope aka Wasp played a bigger role, which I really liked. Compared to other Marvel movies this one felt small (pun inteneded) and focused a lot on personal relationships rather than saving the world. It is entertaining but doesn’t have the impact as “Black Panther” had. 7/10

Bohemian Rhapsody

I loved the casting, loved the costumes, the sets, the music. It was for the most part a very entertaining, very moving story. But if you are interested in Queen and/or Freddie Mercury please read additional to this movie a biography. A lot of the story felt to me very generic for a music movie. And they did a huge change towards the end of the movie, to make the story look more dramatic I guess, that I didn’t really like. 7/10

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Though it wasn’t perfect I really liked the first Fantastic Beasts movie and somehow everything I liked about it isn’t in this movie. We hardly learn anything about the French wizarding culture even though the story takes place in Paris. The Beasts are complete unneccessary for the story except for the Niffler. Characters make choices that seem illogical (Queenie). Major plot holes/logic errors (McGonagall, Creedence etc). Too much plot crammed into one movie. Some really problematic aspects (Nagini, Leta’s parents etc). And while the first Fantastic Beats movie worked on its own, this one was so full of Potter references you were probably lost if you never read the books. As a huge Potter fan I do hope J.K. Rowling has a master plan for the plot to make sense, and that next time an experienced script writer helps her to muddle through all of her ideas. 6,5/10

Mortal Engines

I saw this movie because a friend of mine wanted to see it and the Speampunk aesthetic looked really interesting to me. The look, the costumes, the music, the effetcs of this movie are great. The casting is ok. But man the story. Nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. The movie really had potional because of the world it is set it but unfortunately it wastes it. If you like Steampunk you can watch it but don’t expect too much of the story. 5/10

[maryellencarter]

memed from @camshaft22 , originally an askbox meme but it's short enough that i can just have opinions at all of it rather than waiting to have the free time to get out of the house and answer asks. (i still have at least a few askmeme questions sitting in my inbox from like a month or two ago... :P)

1. do you find force users or non-force users more interesting? -- non-force users by a mile. there could theoretically be exceptions, like if anybody really got deeply into alternate perceptions / interpretations of the force rather than just kind of toeing the jedi party line as established in the movies, but i haven't seen any that really grab me.

2. which character do you want to be most like? -- oh, now there's a hell of a question. both this and the next one, really. see, let's start at the beginning: when i was a very smol tortoise watching a star war, and by smol i mean like eighteen because that's when i first saw a star war... when i was a smol, i wanted to be han solo (not least because he was hot in a very conventionally masculine way, do not underestimate the importance of that to a smol afab tortoise programmed with much body-loathing ;P), but i identified a lot more with chewbacca. i mean, let's be honest, i was not in great psychological shape as a tiny, and this particular oddment is something i'm still very much sorting out, but: from tiny!jt's perspective, at least, han+chewie is a nonromantic primary relationship that gets displaced by the han/leia primary romantic relationship. but it's still (from anything you see onscreen in the ot) primary *to chewie* even after it becomes secondary to han. that kind of nonreciprocal primary relationship, tagging around after someone who would let me express that kind of devotion and not find it creepy even after they inevitably found a "real", romantic relationship that would be more important to them than me, was the best endgame i could imagine for myself, and frankly i felt like it was way too much to hope for within my own species. i may have spent rather a while wishing i was a dog or something, so that it would be acceptable and appropriate for me to want the most important relationship in my life to be nonromantic. tiny!jt was a *mess*. this was way before i got into fandom, so i didn't really work through it at all or write it down anywhere, either.

uh. that got long. continued under the next question.

3. which character are you actually most like? -- so anyway. yeah. to continue. then i found my way into legends (then still the eu but yanno) and the x-wing books. and then there was wes. ^_^ it would be several more years before i even figured out i *had* ptsd, but here was somebody who had ptsd that presented almost exactly like mine but was also stable and functional and not-depressed and in fact actually cheerful. not to mention he was *also* hot and male and most importantly human, but still showed the kind of undemanding loyalty i was aiming towards, and had it accepted.

(which last is partly because wedge is an oblivious noodle, but still. ^_^ honestly that's probably something to analyze when i'm not one-finger typing on my phone: how much of that kind of relationship being a goal for me is just me being wired kind of subby, and how much is the abuse thing where asking for any kind of emotional reciprocation is Wrong and Too Much. :P)

uh. i had a point here somewhere. um. so i wanted to grow up to be wes, but i didn't think that was an attainable goal. i felt sort of more like wedge with the duty and guilt and everything, but wedge is also way more of a leader than i am, so that's a thing. honestly there was a point there where i felt most like cheriss, just kind of... trying to grow up and dealing with a whole bunch of life shit and intermittently wanting to die a lot. ;P

and now apparently i *am* growing up to be wes and i'm still not sure what to do with that, besides writing a lot of fanfic (which is what i am doing). and trying to figure out the whole subby brain thing. and the executive dysfunction thing. and the not wanting leadership positions thing. and still working on the ptsd thing. and the self-esteem thing. there's a lot.

i'm less wedge, though. which is good. less catholic guilt is always nice.

4. what headcanon will you defend to the death? -- er. i'm not really sure i have any of those. as opposed to just canon things i will make sure people remember and acknowledge. maybe the hoth cuddle pile? you will never convince me the rogues on hoth did not sleep in a giant cuddle pile.

5. what planet would you most like to visit? -- i frankly don't know enough about star wars planets to give a shit.

6. what planet would you most like to live on? -- ditto. not taanab, for sure. mini rancors (and possibly 46-hour days if you don't just disdain that as illogical made-up numbers they threw into the planet guide for variety's sake... ;P I have opinions)

7. who do you hope you never meet? -- of the characters? pretty much any of the bad guys, but my first thought is vader.

8. what is one thing you would change about any movie, show, book, etc? -- ahahahahaaaaaaa. just one? i can't pick. can i say fix all the things about tlj that made me go "okay never watching that"? because there were at least four or five just among the spoilers that i heard. like if it had to be just one i'd make it so poe doesn't disregard chain of command, because that's the one that's making it so i can't rewatch tfa *either*, but from everything i hear, that movie was a hot mess. (alternatively, can i just change the fandom so that people stop saying "if you don't love tlj unquestioningly you're a reddit douchebro!"? because i don't want to unfollow roguepod on twitter but unless i block literally everyone *they* follow there's no way for me to keep that particular Hot Take off my dash and it's consistently re-infuriating me. :P)

uh. i have feelings, apparently. ;P

9. have you ever made fanart or fanfic? do you make edits or any other fan content? -- so much fanfic. so much. i counted last night and just the fics i haven't published yet add up to somewhere around 80k words.

10. do you think the jedi were right or wrong? -- i think the jedi were self-important douchenozzles with a habit of being wrong whenever the plot demanded it. is this a reference to something specific they were right or wrong about? i don't think they have the one true view of the force, and i think they're obnoxious about thinking they do, much like many other religions, so there's that.

11. who is the most underrated character? -- new canon, finn. or rose, possibly, not that i've seen her, because see above re hot mess. old canon, hobbie.

12. do you care who rey’s parents are? -- honestly, i'm at the point in dealing with an open canon where i cannot give fuck about any of the unanswered questions, the upcoming releases, or anything that might happen in the future at all. i haven't even read thrawn alliances. i am Over It, and that is about 99% the fault of the people who keep calling me a reddit douchebro by association. i probably won't see epIX unless kat or sophia tells me i absolutely have to. i'm a legends-only fan at this point. i didn't want to be, i like getting excited about new things, but every time i try it, people are douchewaffles and it's depressing. :P

13. if you could resurrect one dead character, or prevent them from dying, who would it be? -- new canon, hobbie. old canon, there are so damn many options, but probably mara or pellaeon.

14. what is your favorite alien species? -- i'm not sure i actually have an opinion. i have lots of favorite alien characters but like... idek. star wars has a bunch of really well designed alien species and they're all cool.

15. who would you like to bang? -- honestly i don't really care about banging any of the characters. shipping them is more fun. although i would let princess general leia step on me, whether in a sexy way or not.

16. which movie/episode have you watched the most? -- probably anh. the falcon's flying sfx aren't as good as in esb, but if you watch esb without rotj it's just a downer, and i don't really enjoy rotj. like it just doesn't click with me.

17. what is your favorite line? -- uh. from the movies, or from all the star war? uh. either way that's a hell of a question. the one i quote the most from the movies is definitely "we're all fine here, how are you?", but that's more just... versatile. from the books, my favorite is obviously one of allston's, but i'm not sure i could *pick*.

18. what is your favorite star wars book or comic? -- starfighters of adumar. because it is the best one. objectively. ^_^

19. what’s your opinion on legends/expanded universe? -- i'm extremely glad it isn't canon anymore (see also my issues with open canons, but also a significant amount of it was just trash) and extremely glad it's still around.

20. what do you hope will happen in future movies? -- i have no hope. hope is dead. i am, as previously mentioned, Over It. (let oscar isaac kiss john boyega onscreen)

21. if you could switch any character’s gender, who would it be and why? -- in canon? no. there's no point in turning a lady character into a dude, and neither the creators nor the fans are capable of handling anyone who's currently a dude being written as a lady or nb type, even if it was retroactive and they'd always been written that way. just no. it would go Badly. :P

that said. in fanfic? and i am so not capable of writing this yet but i want to. in like five years when we're all living in caves scratching our fanfics on bone. i want to see a cis afab wes janson who just hasn't internalized any of those lessons about not taking up space. who's still brash and loud and enthusiastic and flirtatious and just... female. who doesn't feel any need to explain that she doesn't (or does) want kids, or acknowledge anybody else's opinion about how she dresses or who she fucks. who's smart and badass and competent and out to have fun. and like... *pulls hair* i mean you know the trope. a sexy lady character who knows she's sexy will pretty much always at least consider sleeping her way to the top or whatever. (tim zahn, seriously, stop using that trope. it's not edgy.) i want to see lady!wes dressing up all fancy because it's fun and she enjoys having people admire her body, and like just... not even considering ever having sex for any other reason than "i am attracted to that person, i wonder if they'd like to bang". like it's hard to demonstrate a negative but you know if you read a story like that, where it wasn't called out but just there, your brain would go all fidgety and "what the fuck something is not normal here". or at least mine would. but you know? :S apparently i have a lot of feelings about this too. like trying to portray a lady who's that confident and... and undamaged by misogyny, would be a hell of a thing.

22. favorite droid? -- bb-8. the cutest smol. target has a kit to turn a pumpkin into a bb-8 and i swear i'm thinking about getting a funkin to do that to. even though i already have a bb-8 penny bank and a bb-8 lanyard in storage.

23. what’s your favorite star wars musical piece or theme? -- i'm not great at identifying pieces of music so i'm just gonna go with the opening crawl music.

24. how do you pronounce twi’lek? -- i don't. ^_^ more specifically, i do kind of pronounce it in my head when i read, but it's sort of... neither twee-lek nor twye-lek, but something sort of in between that isn't quite a schwa and might involve an umlaut. Sort of Twülek, if you said it with an Austrian accent. That probably doesn't help at all. XD

25. which character do you have a love/hate relationship with? -- This keeps being a question. I'm honestly not sure I *do* love-hate relationships. I'm like Tinkerbell, I only have room for one emotion at a time. ^_^ Especially with fictional characters, I either love them or hate them. (Unless they're completely meh and I just forget about them, that happens sometimes.)

[starglasszodiac]

SGZ Anniversary - Cassie and the Comic

The big one, the origin story!!!! And honestly one of my favourite memories to look back on. :’D I’ll be talking about both the idea itself and the evolution of Cassie’s character in what is a BEHEMOTH of a text post, so here we go!

While July 19th, 2015 is the official origin day of SGZ, it started a bit prior to that. I have this story already somewhat explained on the blog’s FAQ page, but I might as well reiterate it here:

SGZ started as an idea in the summer of 2015 after my buddy Laura showed me two webcomics: Paranatural by Zack Morrison, and Vibe by Dan Ciurczak (two comics I highly recommend, please go read them!). I loved how vibrant and beautiful their artwork was despite how different their stories were, and how wonderful the writing and humour was. My two biggest creative passions have always been visual art and writing, but ironically this was what really flicked the switch in my head to actually try comics, the literal combination of the two. Why I didn’t start sooner will forever be a mystery to me, but I suppose a lack of exposure to comics as a kid had something to do with it. Better late than never, right?

The specific launch day of July 19th is an homage to not only the creation of the idea but of the main protagonist, Cassie. After thinking “hey, I could do this!” I started wondering what I should make a comic about. While working at my retail job (on the slowest day in existence), I began to make a list of things that I liked or wanted to write a story about, and stars / astrology was one of them. I had always loved that aspect of mythology, and my affection for stars is a mystery to no one.

I worked at what was effectively a Blockbuster clone in my hometown (RIP Cherry Hill Video) and we had scrap pieces of paper that we made from old movie facings, so the first ever notes and doodles for this series exist on these scraps. I’ve still got quite a few of them, but they got a bit scattered when I moved for college. I’m hoping the rest are at my house somewhere.

I got the idea of a girl with a star in her eye, and called it the Starglass. And, well, the idea went from there! I started researching all of the zodiac signs and symbols, and drew the first (digital) drawing of Cassie when I got back home that day. Which, looked like this:

Seeing this again is not only weird and oddly nostalgic but it’s a testament to where my artistic sensibilities were prior to going to animation school. The idea for SGZ happened mere months before I was thrown into that 3-year fray of insanity so the evolution is pretty odd in places, especially how my knowledge of shape language, anatomy, etc. evolved and how my style adapted to that. I had almost NEVER drawn humans prior to going to college, so a lot of the art for this series deals with my inability to do so at the start. ^^’ The awkward phase, if you will. And as such, it is the first story idea I had that primarily focused on humans.

Looking back on it, Cassie’s character in terms of personality was pretty different than what it is now, but from a visual standpoint there’s (surprisingly) a lot that stayed. The basic idea of her hair stayed, right down to the double ponytail and orange clasps. Her freckles, eye colour and general face shape too, even if that ended up modified after solidifying her character later.

Her main colour was always red, in fact after making the headshot I remember having NO IDEA what to do for the rest of her body, so it just ended up being RED. Then I added the blue for the contrast, but I still wasn’t happy with it at the time (a perhaps subconscious origin for her blue pants though, lol). I also find amusement in the fact that my current concept for her mother Nora has her wearing blue flats much like these.

Based on the notes I have and what I remember, Cassie was older at this point (like 15 or 16 probably) and seemed to be a lot more sarcastic (this is a norm for a lot of my characters, trust me). xD Some of the first character interactions I ever wrote largely involved Cassie being sassy to one of the signs, back when a few of them were being over dramatic (looking at you SCORPIO). I cackled reading those interactions again now that my characters have changed so much. They’re not well written at all but they still let me look back to that time with fondness. :’D

What is also interesting is the progression of her name, or the fact that she didn’t have one right at the start. My earliest notes have simply Starglass or SG whenever I wrote dialogue. I started trying to think of a name, and contrary to popular belief, settling on Cassie actually had nothing to do with Cassiopeia. Though I do really enjoy the irony of that. xD It started with Cass, which could be short for either Cassandra or Cassidy, and I ended up going with Cassidy. I then changed it to Cassie, as I find the -ie suffix makes it a lot cuter. I am biased though, my name ends with it too, aha. There is a note that spells it as Cassi and for the life of me I cannot determine if that was a typo or not, but when I write fast I miss letters sometimes. The nickname of “Star” was one the table for a while too, and now that Star VS exists it’s even funnier. I specifically recall my mother telling me that she was going to suggest Star on the Facebook post I had made for the art at the time, but thought maybe it was too obvious. She was right, though this idea lives on in the nicknames that the signs end up giving Cassie later on, my favourite being “Little Star”.

While development for the story and characters started right away, it got a much welcomed jumpstart at the beginning of my second year at animation school. We were given a character design project that would span the entire year, and would require a story concept to complete all of the assignments. We were told this fact in first year to give us time to prepare over the summer, and I had just pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment that day, but upon hearing this news I was not tired at all. Character design was already my favourite class, but this put it over the top. That beautiful feeling of inspiration that hits you is the BEST and in that moment nothing else mattered. Not even my fatigue, which I promptly dealt with the next day.

I used this as an opportunity to spend time developing the designs and story progression of all the characters, while getting marks for it at the same time! This is largely the reason I was able to launch the comic a few months after completing that year of school, as it ended up giving me full-sized references, colour schemes, and a much better idea of the story as a whole. Based on when my school years took place, I can actually track the progression of the characters pretty well through the artistic skill upgrade I was getting too.

The progression is pretty wild honestly, especially between 2015 and 2016:

(oh god these are so old help me) 

(these aren’t all of them either but I did my best jdhkfhsjkfhskjf)

From 2016 onwards I had the basic idea of her, so her colours stayed more or less the same once I actually added them. Cassie’s hair was one of the things that required a lot more iterations. I had her general idea down for a while, but when it came to making the character pack of her for my character design class, I remember having to sit down and actually figure out how her hair would work, structurally and otherwise, for that High Quality Refinement™ that was required of the project. Her older drawings had the part in her hair be in the middle, and that posed the problem of covering her eyes too much. If she was a more reserved character in any way this could have worked, but nah. I knew from the beginning she was going to be an outwardly eccentric child, one I wish I could have been when I was growing up.

Now for anyone that knows me as both a huge nerd and an artist, when it comes to fantasy stuff I LOVE armour. Absolutely love it. You see it everywhere in the things I make both inside and outside of SGZ, and I adore making themed costumes based on that (see my Feather Knights series for the most extreme example of this ever, ahahaha). So, it stands to reason that I would do the same for Cassie at some point, and I did! 

There was a particular focus on a helmet for a while too, whole plot points in fact! This helmet was, story wise, a long-standing plot point that proved difficult to change once the focus shifted. The initial idea was that the helmet belonged to Cassie’s science teacher (who is still a minor character in this as of now) and he gave it to her knowing its significance to the Starglass, thus establishing a sort of connection between Cassie’s normal life on Earth and the supernatural shenanigans that happen on the Astral Plane. The night she brings it home, she discovers that this little friend laid dormant inside:

This is Flicker. A character I’ve actually never revealed to anyone prior to now but hey, why not? The idea of Cassie having a spirit companion certainly didn’t come out of left field for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure how this character would appear, or what dynamic they would have with Cassie. I didn’t have pets bigger than a hamster growing up, so the idea of Cassie having a potential dog or cat companion would be new territory based on my own experiences. 

Flicker, as they are right now, acts as a sort of sensor for spirits that are roaming loose on Earth, and alerts Cassie to them... even if she’s not always up for a spirit hunt. They do have a backstory associated with how they appear and what their purpose is in the overall context of the world, but that isn’t revealed until much later in the story. For now Flicker is a cute little friend that cannot say much, but is devoted to protecting things, especially the Starglass. Luckily they still made the cut when it came to the helmet idea, and you should be meeting them officially pretty soon in the comic! :D

While the initial problem was getting any sort of cohesive look to the helmet or any other armour in terms of concept, I found as the story developed along with Cassie’s design, both her hair and her star sweater ended up being her two most “iconic” qualities aside from her eye, and using armour would have covered that up. 

On top of that, Cassie didn’t really end up being the type of character that would use armour, as one might expect from a character that has to fight and defend things a lot. She’s one to do things a little differently, and both her and the signs discover that, well, different works! It wasn’t a matter of her physical strength for the majority of the problems she faces, but rather strength of heart, and that’s a very personal note for me to touch on with this character. As such, nothing about an armour concept ever came out of the sketch phase:

It still makes for really interesting ideas though, so I’m sure I can work these into something else I’m working on. :’D Knowing myself, I’ll find a way. (The wings are VERY Cardcaptors though lol)

What did stay, however, were her swords:

She had at least one sword at the very beginning of this concept, but it eventually evolved into two. I find it interesting that sun, moon and star symbols were always present, regardless of what iteration these swords went through. Their official names are the Sun Star and Moon Star Swords respectively. Aside from the few doodles here and there for the zodiac weapons, this was the first appearance of any kind of fantasy weapon in SGZ. I can confirm that Cassie and the signs were going to have weapons from the get-go though, this IS something I made after all. xD

I think I also need to mention the main influences for this series, as the love for those things is very evident in my work, from the visuals to the storytelling and everything in between. Aside from my general interest in fantasy topics such as mythology and astrology, here’s a list including (but not limited to) the series that inspired the making of SGZ:

Kirby, Steven Universe, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra, Cardcaptor Sakura / Cardcaptors, Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and pretty much any other show I’ve watched about surviving school while going on crazy adventures. That stuff may be cliche now but I’ll be damned if I don’t love it still.

I grew up with some of these and the rest are new, but they’re all near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I’m happy that I can put that love into something I’ve made, and share that story with the world. 

I know I’ve got a lot more ranting about this story to do in general and the comic is still going, but I want to say some special thanks to some of SGZ’s biggest supporters: 

Laura, Eleanor, and my classmates and teachers at Seneca College. This comic wouldn’t exist without you. <3

I’ll be honest, working on this series got me through some of the toughest years of my life so far, and this was one of the first times where something I made actually came to fruition in some way, and had a genuine development period that I can look back on. I’ve grown a lot as both a person and an artist since then, and doing this look back in time really solidified that for me. I have a cast of characters that I love, and now I get to tell their story. So if you’ve stayed till the end in this gigantic post, thank you. I don’t know where this story will lead me, but with any luck it’ll be somewhere in the stars. Thanks for reading, friends. <3