#i’m not doing every iteration i’m too lazy……

[connielingus423]

So I read Christian’s comment and I don’t think he’s saying he doesn’t care about Vi, y’all.

I think it’s very clear from the creation of the show that Vi is loved and admired and well cared for in these writer’s hands

Everyone was

I think what he was saying explicitly was, the story overall is called arcane. It’s about the waking of arcane in PNZ. And parts of Vi’s story intersect with that. And you can only show so much in one 9 one hour episodes.

Arcane wasn’t Modern Family or Abbot Elementary - those shows are an ensemble but there’s really one or two driving the story. And they’re character pieces where we explore a single individual’s growth or experience.

I think of arcane as an environmental story.

It’s more, “here’s how this thing came to be” aka hextech AND the arcane - to build toward a runeterra that is accessible and understandable for the general public to promote a video game. I don’t think that cheapens characterization nor storytelling. But informs overall story direction WHILE giving us character moments of exploration and growth and pain and love.

Do I wish we saw every minute of Vi’s existence and Caitlyn’s growth? Yeah. Of course. But was that the full focus of the story? No. And that’s okay. That doesn’t mean vi got shafted or hated or ignored. It just means that the story served a different purpose. And recognizing what kind of story we’re being told is a hard task. And it’s a really big lift of critical thinking we as an audience gotta do.

Some folks decided we were getting a character piece and they were wrong. Not their fault. Expectations being set for multiplayer games vs single player games will do that to us. (We as an audience tend to hyperfixate on individuals rather than the overarching story. It’s why folks remember the odyssey, but not Jason and the argonauts as much. The odyssey is about Odysseus. Jason and the argonauts - it can be argued - is about the journey and ensemble)

All this is to say, I don’t think these writers hated vi or ignored vi or sacrificed vi for the story. I truly don’t. I’m so very satisfied with the growth we got of vi. The butch who loves too hard. Who tries every time to do the right thing. Who fails. But gets back up and loves again. Loves some more. Who really is just a traumatized kid in a grown up suit still trying to deal with that using her fists, her street smarts, and her big. Giant FUKKIN. Heart.

I don’t think the arcane team hated Vi AT ALL. On the contrary, I think they loved her so much, they made conscious choices to not depict certain things SO THAT the fandom could engage. Could fill in the gaps. Could interact.

Fan art and fan content is such a strong nexus for iteration in complicated lore like this, I would bet money on the fact that they decided not to show specific things so that we could create it for us. (Ekko and jinx decorating for battle, CaitVi reconnecting immediately after Cait looses her eye, Tobias apologizing to Vi for snapping in his grief. Etc. etc. etc.)

And one could argue that is lazy and exculpatory and not how stories should be told.

But I disagree vehemently. I think stories serve a purpose. It’s why they have a title that tells you what it is and what you’re gonna get.

And this title was Arcane. The arcane woke up. PNZ are forever changed. Machine Herald was formed. Champions rose. And fell. That was the story of this show. The rest is up to us. 🫂

And I for one, think that’s really neat. And a triumph. In storytelling, characterization, and world building. 🥰

But that’s just me.

All that said, I think you’re allowed to be disappointed and sad you didn’t get what you expected! But being a jerk about a misunderstanding isn’t something Vi would do (or at least she’d feel really bad about the misunderstanding after and apologize. Big time).

But let’s not twist words and be cruel to a storyteller (or any storyteller) who clearly has so much love for this story and these characters in their hearts.

Give good faith, get good faith, y’all. Let’s be like Vi, big Hearts, let’s be like Vi and build to the next moment. Love big. Love hard. And do our best to be kind. C’ept for when folks don’t deserve it. 💞

[ghost-van]

WHAT THE PHUCK AM I

-🗡️

[bunnwich]

Okay I’m assuming that the other long ass ask you mentioned was about the Halloween event too and your take on it so fair warning, this will also be about that and will also probably be long. I only play en and try to avoid spoilers but also I love the lion man so I got some of that anyway. But you really hit on a lot of points that I feel are important when people wanna flatten Leona’s character to 2D (even though he is literally 2D I guess), but what we’re seeing now in terms of “Leona chugs respect women juice and hates men” feels like just another iteration of “lazy lion man is lazy and doesn’t wanna do anything.”

And about Leona respecting a potential friend or partner regardless of gender, it’s like two weird sides of the same coin where people will say he hates men but it feels almost infantilizing toward women (Sally specifically in this case) about him being kind to her BECAUSE she is a woman. No! He likes her because she is smart and cunning and clever and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants (poisoning someone to get to freedom)- all things Leona values, and I think there’s probably a certain amount of “finally, my kind of person” with some of the closer analogues I feel being Leona mentoring Jamil and pushing him to go after what he wants as well as letting Yuu “bully” him into helping with Azul because dammit Yuu is using everything at their disposal and figured out the trick to Azul’s contracts, both of which are worthy of respect (and it lets him destroy his own contract). I’ve lost my train of thought a smidge but yes, it’s not about respecting women specifically or a matriarchal society, it’s about being around someone he actually vibes with and respect

Switching topics but yeah, he IS a hypocrite! He’s calling out Skully’s not seeking consent specifically because the behavior annoyed him as a whole, not just the consent part. And possibly Yuu’s or anyone else’s reaction of “oh how gentlemanly” too. I feel like that one goes back to his tendency to seek any and every advantage or whatever he can use to get the result he wants. In this case, he wants Yuu to not be overly impressed or even annoyed with Skully, and that’s the way to get the result.

Okay last one but yes it is so cute to get to see Leona a bit softer and kinder since it’s such a rare sight in twst. There’s this kind of vindication too, at least for me, to see what as so obviously there to me out in the open for once.

Leona has always been soft…but not a gentleman.

HI ANON!! Actually, the other ask was not about the event but honestly, I get why you would think that. (I get Leona asks a lot about different things :3c DFGHJ)

“Leona chugs respect women juice and hates men” feels like just another iteration of “lazy lion man is lazy and doesn’t wanna do anything.”

YEAH YEAH I think I see what you mean with this. I have a couple of thoughts on that tbh- 

Ppl get excited about a character they like and then they end up saying/joking about things without thinking about other ppl in the fandom who are different from them. Which…is fine to a degree but fandom is a community (or supposed to be) AND masc/nonbinary (and/or those with those types of OCs) often ALREADY get left out of fandom content and end up feeling like they aren’t “as valid” as femme folk and their OCs.

The other thing may be that some of these ppl feel in order to “justify” liking this “flawed character” that they MUST sanitize aspects of them. And turning Leona into a “squeaky clean feminist” suddenly and “consent” king is their way of flattening his character in order to make him safer to like?? Or like a vindication for him liking their femme OCs over a masc one?

Maybe I’m wrong, but those are my thoughts.

To your second point, YES EXACTLY!! I have always felt like Leona takes a soft spot for the MC in Chapter 3 and even somewhat for Jamil in Chapter 6 when he sees aspects of himself in him. And I feel like I never see ppl bringing that up about Chapter 3 especially. 

In the manga, you can see how delighted Leona is when Yuuta figures out the secret to Azul’s Unique Magic. He respects Yuuta's tenacity and even though he “says” he only helps because he wants his personal contact destroyed, I have always believed that that is just a part of it. I think he genuinely grows to like the MC more and actions speak louder than words. If he TRULY wanted to be rid of Yuuta or the MC in the game…he would have thrown them out like he threatened to do from the beginning. He’s a pushover…for certain ppl ofc.

You can even see this with Ruggie as well. Leona “says” it’s only for his benefit but we KNOW that he helps Ruggie behind the scenes with his homework “gives him extra money” and hand-me-downs. If it was truly only a business relationship he wouldn’t bother. And in one of his birthday vignettes, Cater goes on about how much he obviously cares for his underclassmen.

I guess what is truly interesting to me is that I’ve ALWAYS known Leona has the ability for softness and kindness. And bc Sally is a sweetie and so cool and YES a lady I think he was just more open about being nicer to her. 

Let’s remember that Leona doesn't have a lot of ppl he's close to at Night Raven College, therefore we don’t get to see that side of him often.

Idk…I feel watering this all down to “Leona is just a feminist” and that is why he’s nice does as you say: infantilizes women AND waters down Leona’s capacity for said softness and kindness and just making it about “manners” he learned growing up, yk?

THANK YOU, HE IS A HYPOCRITE. Leona as much as I defend is…rude AF. He has touched people without consent in vignettes and in the past. So I agree with your interpretation. I think it could even be interpreted as jealousy if someone wants to go that route.  But is it bc he TRULY gaf about Scully's manners? idts

As we know, he’s blunt compared to many of the characters and according to Vil and others has terrible manners. In fact, this was brought up MANY times in the Tamashina Mina event and so I think more the scene with Sally was more to show that he CAN be kind and a gentleman…when he wants to. Rather than showing he’s a simp for women or w/e.

 I'm FINE with ppl saying he’s a feminist or respects women! I believe he does! That’s harmless but- 

I just wish that ppl wouldn’t use this as an excuse to put down others AND remember that Leona isn’t just kind to women. He may have been softer to Sally but he has always been a generous person to those he believes has potential and/or respect.

I agree, I loved seeing him in this! I hope to see more of this openness from him in the future. 

Like you, I feel like I always knew it was there and have been preaching it for years! I already knew he was capable of softness. I think we just got to see it so openly bc it was someone NOT from NRC. 

And IT IS a great vindication for me too! Leona was always big bro, soft for those he admires etc. And I think before it was hidden between the lines and now it’s just out in the open.

Thanks for this ask! I’m glad my yapping is understood and that you could relate to what I meant in my previous post about him.💚💚💚 TLDR;

[grunkulous]

some lazy gideon sketches. He’s so hard to draw btw, if you haven’t tried drawing him for yourself yet give it a go and come feel the pain with me.

WARNING: incoherent analysis rant below, proceed at your own risk!!!

I’ve been struggling with drawing him for a while now, especially his hair and face, and I’ve been thinking about how his design has probably changed the most out of everyone. His appearance has always been incredibly inconsistent, and while it used to irk me (mostly because it makes it hard to find reliable drawing references) I’ve come to have an appreciation for every variation, and I’m starting to realize why they exist at all.

I don’t think there will ever be a completed or finalized version of gideon’s design, and it has to do with his oddly contradictory and complex personality/character.

On one hand, he’s a manipulative, cunning, vengeful, smooth-talking maniac. He owns an incredibly successful media company, of all things, and is a total dick to almost everyone around him, showing little care for his allies. Yet he’s also a romantic obsessive who can’t handle a rejection and goes through the effort of forming an entire league to control ramona’s love life despite not really seeming to even know why he bothers at this point.

But at the same time… he’s also a huge nerd and a hopeless loser who watches anime and binges junk food in his spare time, who ends up yielding to the first woman more assertive than he is. He’s kind of ridiculous, to put it simply, and every iteration has its own interpretation of the character.

It’s very difficult to capture all sides of his character in one, singular design because truthfully, gideon is one of the more complex characters in the series, having such an odd array of characterics that somehow just work, yet are nearly impossible to display all at once.

I think the best design so far is still the comic book version, which has a good overall balance between nerdy, business and crazed lunatic, but I think every design so far has its own strengths to boast, none of them really feeling… complete? if that makes sense? There’s something to like in every version, yet none have contained his full character. There is no perfect look for him. My own version that i’ve drawn feels a little too… soft for my liking. I don’t know how to visually communicate everything at once. You can only get the full picture by looking at every iteration.

in conclusion, character design is fucking hard. I have a great respect for anyone who has to make characters for a living.

[idonotbitemythumbatyou]

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥 2, 8 and 10, with reasoning pls.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

I’m taking this more as “dominant vs submissive role” rather than “what equipment goes where” because you can top or bottom from pretty much any position so a purely mechanical question is just a less compelling question to me.

most of my faves are switches so my argument is more that they would never exclusively top or bottom. Julian would get bored bottoming all the time. He could top all the time but eventually he’d start feeling a little empty and he’d really want to feel taken care of and doted on in a bottom-y way.

This is why he and Leeta worked for so long (she’s also a switch), why he and Jadzia would not have worked (she is a TOP) and he and Ezri couldn’t last too long (that worm is a bottom).

Garak is honestly too lazy to top all the time. No I kid. Honestly I think topping is quite revealing - in some ways more so than submitting - unless you work hard to make it exclusively about the other person. so he can’t do that all the time. He could bottom all the time because that way he can be vulnerable in a controlled way that doesn’t reveal too much. but every so often he would need to show the other person how it’s done and/or remind them who exactly he is.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Coming into the fandom this year - specifically writing Garashir - I get the impression that I’m coming in at the tail end of some reaction to a previous iteration of the characters. In my research (scrolling back on old fandom blogs) everyone was pretty well behaved but it’s still like *touches ground* “discourse happened here.”

All this to say, I’ve pieced together that somewhere around 2020, the fandom agreed on the “Garak is a bottom” fanon. That’s actually not the part I disagree about. Where I disagree is that people seem to think this says a lot more about a person than it actually does. So you get a lot of interpretations where he’s sort of wet and pathetic, and desperate, and (most egregious of all) bad at his job. I dislike this interpretation. He’s emotionally ill-equipped because he’s a good spy. Sure that can read like pathetic desperation, but if you take away his competence, then I just don’t find him interesting.

I’ve read some really old fic so, I do see what this is a reaction to. Super Dommy hyper competent Garak also kinda sucks, but I’m bored with wet paper towel Garak.

10. worst part of fanon

For the most part I enjoy fanon. The Garashir folks are generally amazing writers and smart people. but I think accepting A Stitch in Time as absolute canon is too limiting.

[dangerously-human]

rat heart doughnut I’m too lazy to find the emojis

Sooo valid of you, bestie.

🐀 [Rat] Name three reasons why this WIP is great at being insert genre here. (You can send a genre, or let the recipient pick one.)

Ooh, genre categorization is not necessarily my strong suit. I guess, since I'm working more or less within the original genre of canon, I can focus on the overarching fanfiction trope as what sets it apart?

My Heart: Domestic fluff. 1) Baby fic! 2) Soft 💕 3) Changing dynamics at home, not just for Lockwood and Lucy but also for their friends, all navigating this new stage of life together.

Twins: Tragedy. 1) "The end was set before the beginning." The outcome for this family is hella tragic, canonically, and mostly the same for thematic reasons here, and thus I knew the ending before I started writing any of what leads to it in this AU. Determinism is a big theme in Dune, which was partly what I set out to explore - how much can I change while still keeping later key events intact? 2) "It was always going to happen this way." Dune takes a pretty fatalistic view on the whole, or at least, its main narrators tend to, especially Paul. So while characters make some different choices here, those choices are useless to save them from their fates. But it's the fact that they could have chosen another path, that there could be a road out - which we kind of go down for a bit here! - that makes it truly tragic, even knowing (some of) what's coming. Because the characters are still who they are, in the end. 3) "The love was there. It didn't change anything. But it matters that the love was there." You know the post. We've all gone insane about it at some point. That's probably above all the theme of this piece. The love between Paul and Irulan - tbh on every side of this love triangle, in many iterations - matters. The ending doesn't really change but there's some light in the middle that wasn't there before and that counts something.

💖 [Heart] What is your favorite moment in this WIP?

I gave another answer for this, but luckily this gives me an excuse to share more than one thing I love about the projects I'm working on!

My Heart: There's a bit maybe two-thirds of the way through the story where Lockwood is sparring with Lucy and all of a sudden is hit by the reality of the situation, how much their lives are about to change and the fact that he and Lucy made a whole person. Lucy just brought him to his knees with a practice sword and manages it twice over with mom magic. It's kind of sappy and very cute.

Twins: There's this moment in the third act where Paul and Irulan have both kind of slipped up and are sharing a deceptively calm, happy moment, a bubble which Paul proceeds to pop by telling Irulan the name he's picked out unilaterally for their child. Anyway, I really love the way Irulan opens the narration for this scene, which alludes to something Paul says at the end of Dune about how he feels sort of helplessly enslaved to play a fated role of entangled kindness and cruelty:

Eventually, she’ll unlearn wanting. Already she’s discovered that for every concession she wrenches from her husband, the recoil is worse than her win warrants. For every flash of tenderness he grants her, Paul lashes out to punish her, or perhaps himself. But it’s so easy to forget, in the moment, that cruelty always follows his kindnesses.

🍩 [Donut] What's the weirdest thing someone eats in your WIP? What's the best thing?

You know, this question made me realize I do not write food into my stories very often. I should change that, it's a good background detail.

My Heart: I think the only thing eaten in this entire fic so far is doughnuts. I should give Lucy some really weird pregnancy cravings, though, something everyone judges her for except her supreme ally, George.

Twins: Again, the only food I think is explicitly mentioned is grapes. Well, that and spice-infused Fremen dishes, though nothing specific. I guess the latter could count as weird, or at least can lead to a weird time for those sensitive to it.

[esotheria-sims]

Sims Tag

Got tagged by the fabulous @deedee-sims - thank you! 🤗 Throwing in a random in-game pic because I can.

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

Hum, tough one. I guess being struck by lighting is pretty cool, not that I get to see it that often. Also being hit by a satellite, but I’ve literally never seen it happen in my game unless I cheat.

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Alpha, obviously. Although I prefer to call my style ‘semi-realistic’.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

I used to, but now I’m like, nah. Let those sims have some meat on their bones!

4. Do you use move objects?

All the time, bruh.

5. Favorite mod?

If I only had to pick one, then Gunmod’s radiance lighting. Picked based on the fact that it’s always the first mod I get whenever I have to reinstall.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

I think it was Nightlife? But my PC from back then was so weak that I couldn’t get the EP to work at all, save for a couple outfits that were randomly showing up in CAS.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Been pronouncing it ‘aLive mode’ ever since I started simming. I never even knew there was a debate about it until I saw a post on simblr some years ago.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

What, just one? D: I have a bunch of faves, and you can probably tell who they are by the fact that they crop up in every new iteration of my game.

9. Have you made a simself?

Never, nor do I plan to! Having a sim version of myself in the game would just feel weird.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

I don’t know them all by heart and I’m too lazy to google 'em, so pass. xD

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I wouldn’t say that I necessarily have a favorite, but I noticed a lot of my sims tend to have black hair.

12. Favorite EA hair?

Imma go with hairshortcombed solely based on the fact that I don’t have a burning urge to replace it the second I see it in my game.

13. Favorite life stage?

Adults, duh. And teens. They’re pretty fun too.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I do a bit of everything, but I definitely lean more towards gameplay, especially since starting my BaCC.

15. Are you a CC creator?

Yep! Got my own cc tag and everything! 🙂

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

I want to think so! ^^

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

Sims 2 all the way, babey!

18. Do you have any sims merch?

Nah

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Nah

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I think it’s gotten more consistent? I’ve been trying to find a balance between realistic and cartoony cc to maintain that elusive ‘semi-realistic’ look that I’m so fond of, and I like to think that I have a pretty good grasp on it now, after so many years of simming.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

Never had one, lol.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

One favorite cc creator? BRUH. I have a 10GB downloads folder, and you better believe every creator whose cc is in there is my favorite! 🤣

23. How long have you had a simblr?

11 years! Golly, has it really been that long?

24. How do you edit your pictures?

By offering a blood sacrifice on a full moon. Nah, kidding. No blood is spilled during my editing process, though it does feel that way sometimes, considering how effin' long it takes me to iron out all the small kinks that annoy me about my screenshots. I kinda hoped having a dedicated photoshop action would help, but it only speeds up the process so much, unfortunately. :(

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

For Sims 2? Dunno man. Maybe a higher-res remake with all existing EPs/SPs and all known issues ironed out. Which is probably never gonna happen, but a girl can dream, right?

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

I’m partial to Apartment Life because it introduced witches, one of my favorite supernatural life states!

I’m tagging: @blackswan-sims @eleysims @episims @rudhira @ho3sferatu @analog-mothman @nervosims @frauhupfner @mrs-mquve-cc and @gphoenixsims! But feel free to ignore! ^^

[splynter]

any advice for drawing iterators? I’m trying to get a good design but it’s fighting me I know what I’m going for but…

Oh fuck yeah, something I can RAMBLE about.

TLDR: Figure out your character’s identity, build around it, i use simple shapes, robotify

NOW FOR THE LONGER VERSION

Generally when I start designing an iterator I already have a basic idea in mind. Their personality and environment plays a huge role in that. Drawing iterators in particular all depends on what you’re going for. Some people draw iterators exactly like the official art, while others do their own thing and get real creative with what an Iterator Puppet really means

When I draw an iterator, this is the general kind of structure I go for.

I don’t always use it though. SOLA has specific design choices I draw only for them, and that goes for most of my characters.

Antennae really help with iconic iterator silhouettes. It can even help explain their personality. When I was designing SOLA, their antennae were the first things I nailed down: I drew antennae on blank circles. It really helped with silhouette planning and character design. Try different shapes, lines, curves, anything you think that will stand out. I try to make sure every antennae design I make is fresh and different

Another thing you could think about when designing an iterator is thinking how THEIR architect would design them. This makes for cool storytelling opportunities. Maybe how their architects designed them is exactly the opposite of their personality, or maybe it creates some narrative foils as their arcs progress.

The way I draw iterators is fairly simple compared to some. I stick to big shapes, simple patterns, and select colors that are easy for me to remember and replicate. I don’t get rid of my anatomy guidelines and instead use them to give a general illusion that they’re made of different parts. Part of this is because im lazy, but it’s also because I like seeing that kind of definition. The idea of metal, in a way. Lots of patterns are just too tedious for me to draw and redraw constantly, so I also usually keep them to a minimum

But you can definitely get more detailed with everything! Look up pictures of real animatronics, or look at animated ones, or other games. There’s a whole bunch of references to choose from. And when in doubt, draw a shape and play with it. You might get something that works out of it

This went all over the place but I hope that answered your question :]

[thatstheproblemwithnapkinman]

all of this should be taken in a lighthearted tone, i’m a sarcastic little shit who loves both canon and fanon so please do not take any of this as an attack because it isn’t

firstly, you love to be that person, otherwise you wouldn't type it. how do i know that? bc i also like to be that person sometimes

secondly, people aren’t ‘lazy’ for not installing an ad blocker, especially when some websites don’t allow users with ad blockers to see the content. and with so many options, some that are actually malicious, it’s hard to pick the right one (i know you can just ask around but if the internet has taught you anything, its that a lot of people don't have common sense)

im not gonna continue the numbers but yeah, people have amazing curations of characters. its just annoying to find. and a lot of people don't want the best of that character, we want to read the shit parts too (*cough cough* ric grayson *cough cough*), but if you have/know any good jason curations i would personally love them as there is too much lore for me to read atm

i didn’t mention this before so i’ll mention it now: most people know fanon isn’t canon and don’t claim that fanon is canon! some people just prefer fanon is some cases and that’s ok. every iteration of the characters in canon is different, and whilst they shoehorn an in-universe explanation, most of it is just people being bored or wanting to re-use characters (there’s obviously so much more to it than that but icba to give reasons lmao)

look, as someone who loves canon! dick and does get a little annoyed at some of his portrayal in fanon, i get it, but overall fanon isn’t this super evil thing that ruins the fandom and destroys the hard work of comic writers. it exists in every fandom and can be a lot of fun, especially if you know the canon and can just enjoy the chaos

(having said that, i am a hater of the ‘dick grayson can’t cook’ bc that man is an independent king who is more home capable than all the bats minus jason combined)

again, all light hearted, i’m not gonna start screaming at strangers on the internet, i prefer to make prolonged eye contact, smile, and tell it to them in a sickly customer service voice

Canon vs Fanon with the BatFam

being someone that has only recently started reading comics, i find the discourse between canon and fanon super interesting

bc there's a few different camps when it comes to what people think and i'll try to go through the groups i have personally encountered

Fanon is wrong, toxic, and is bad for the characters

not going to fully disagree but i feel like there is a perspective thing in play. not everyone can afford to read comics and a lot of people don't want to go to those dodgy websites that attempt to track you and give you a million viruses. also, a lot of people will start with fanfics and then progress into canon characterisation. AND some fic writers actually write in canon characterisations (i'm trying to for mine anyway)

Webcomics are bad because they aren't the same as canon and people thing they are

ok, look, no one reads WFA for hard hitting batman stories, we read it for the fluff. some of s just want super light-hearted stories about the batman having a snowball fight, or playing vigilante bingo, or who can do the most 2 finger push ups. and we get bonus stuff like jason having a flashback/panic attack (im so sorry i'm tired and i can't remember the proper word) and bruce helping him ground himself AND TELLING HIM HE'S PROUD

we just want the fluff ok, we know it's not the full character on display

i know red hood outlaws isn't well loved too but it's a fun introduction to the characters (and we got dick and babs wedding and it was beautiful)

Fanon confuses new canon readers and can make it hard for them to enjoy it

i agree with that fully. luckily i started with dick and he's basically the same, if not better in canon that fanon. but i know characters like tim get butchered by fanon purely bc its the things that are fun and easy to write about that stick and so he just became a shell of himself.

dick was a fun one bc you actually got to see him be a badass in the comics as opposed to the golden retriever he is in fanon. the dude is unhinged and that's so much more interesting

People don't read the comics bc they can just read fanon works

see point 1, but i think a lot of people (like me) get super interested and then start to read canon. i started with DC through a Percy Jackson crossover fic years ago that i recently re-read and it sent me down the rabbit hole. now i'm waiting for my copies of nightwing vol 2 and 3 to arrive having read vol 1 and fear state today

fanon is a gateway

am i saying that fanon is amazing? no

but i think we should work more on educating about canon instead of antagonising, as it will make the community a better place

[meowzfordayz]

nicknames

Author’s Note: mentioned in talk to me that nicknames hcs may be written… and here they are !! Was my original intent to just list nicknames w/ brief synopsis? Mhm. Was there overcompensation starting around Kyojuro bc the prior hcs seemed long, but what w/ the overcompensation the final hcs ended up being the longest? Mhmmm.

nicknames

Hashira x Reader, Kamaboko x Reader

Word Count: ~3,200

CW: explicit language, mild sexual content

~faqs~

For you

Definitely calls you [y/n]-chan

—Which, btw, can be an affectionate honorific between lovers (regardless of gender!)

Well

More like, [y/n]-chaaaaan 😇

Totally smug bc only he’s allowed to address you w/ that honorific

If he ever calls you just [y/n], then he’s either

Stressed

Horny

Will shakily call you baby if you rile him up enough

For him

Zeni, Zenitsu-chan, ⚡️Zap Zap alternatively, Zapped⚡️

Zeni’s your go-to when you’re sleepy, lazy, feeling cute

Zenitsu-chan for when you’re trying to embarrass him

—As much as he loves addressing you as -chan, flip it on him and he gets suuuper flustered

—Especially since you seem to do it solely in public ??

—Not once have you called him Zenitsu-chan behind closed doors

—And no, I will not elaborate on ⚡️Zap Zap alternatively, Zapped⚡️

For you

Occasionally calls you [y/n]-sama

Bc you’ll slap him and he likes it

“I am not a kami, and I am not your superior either.”

But usually sticks to random things in nature

My little leaf

My big bug

My pretty pebble

My wiggle worm

—Fun fact !! I’m fine w/ spiders, but worms ?? Anything w/ more than 8 legs ?? 😳 #gtfo

For him

Hashibira Inosuke

He hates the formality

“Oii! Don’t act like you don’t know me!”

Don’t act like we don’t fall asleep spooning 😓

Whenever he does something amusingly stupid — boar headed dumbass ~w/ fondness

But if he pisses you off? Hashibira ~only you can bring him to his knees

Interpret that as you will 😉

‘Nosuke when you miss him

‘Nosuke’s his favorite — makes him as happy as it does sad

Happy bc it’s a reminder of what he means to you

Sad bc, well, it’s a reminder of what he means to you

And of how difficult it is to be apart

Himejima Gyomei

For you

[y/n]

Might not seem like much

But he’s, yanno, traditional

So for him to call you by ~just your first name

Demonstrates a comfortability, a familiarity, that nobody else has w/ him

Would call you anything tho if you just thought to ask

For him

Honey

Also, big softie hahaha let’s be real tho, he’s totally a big hardie 

Similarly tho, you tend to call him ~just Gyomei

He’s so used to being call Himejima-sama or Himejima-san

That simply calling him Gyomei flusters him

“Gyomei…” you murmur, forehead resting against his

“[y/n],” he whispers

You could go back and forth repeating each other’s names for hrs

It’s gross sickeningly sweet

For you

Princess

He likes its ✨versatility✨

“Princess,” he murmurs—sultry, seductive, teasing—drunk on how you squirm needily beneath him

“Princess,” he rasps, heart cracking as he takes in your huddled form, “Princess, what’s wrong?”

“Princess,” he grumbles, batting at your pesky hands as you attempt to tickle him, “I’m not ticklish, stop- S-stop- Ahhh.” (he’s ticklish)

“Princess,” he smirks as you cling to his haori, “I’ll be back soon. I promise,” he pecks your nose, “Demons ain’t got nothing on my love for you,” he swallows, throat tightening, tilting your chin up to kiss you deeply, reassuringly, “Nothing.”

For him

So I could say prince and call it a day

But that’s a tad too cringe for me 😬

Instead, let’s say

Oba

Obi

Oba-obi

Ban

Ban-ban

Bani

Nai

Nai-nai

Basically every iteration/shortening of his name

Except for his actual name

Sometimes he loses track of them

And doesn’t realize he’s Ana

“Is my name really too long for you to remember?” he nudges you playfully

“Nooo,” you roll your eyes, “But you’re so cuuute! My Oba-oba!”

He rolls his eyes back

Lowkey squealing inside

He’s 100% your Oba-oba

And very cute

The cutest

For you

Darling and sweetheart

Quoted from talk to me: “He’s just so… tender? Gentle? His soul is fricking kindness incarnate like literally 😭”

His guilty pleasure he doesn’t feel guilty about it at all is knowing he can influence your scent depending on what he calls you

Darling, and you smell faintly of vanilla and giddiness — of affection and closeness

Sweetheart, and he smells traces of spearmint and confidence — of yes I’m sweet and yes I’m your heart

He’s tried other nicknames

Love — roses, soaking under a waterfall

Dearest — citrus, a bit of embarrassment

Precious — lavender, the quiet of sunrise

But he can’t get enough of your hazy vanilla

Can’t get enough of your stutter inducing spearmint

You’re the only addiction he indulges in

The only addiction he trusts

For him

Tan

—Personal favorite of mine teehee

—Something about it just oozes intimacy imo

—I’m struggling to come up w/ anything else

—Bc in my brain, he’s… Idk ?! He’s Tan ?!?!?!

Tan as you run drowsy fingers through his mussed hair, his head safely in your lap

Tan as you peer at him over the rim of your mug of tea *sip sip*

Tan as his abs glisten above you, droplets of sweat caressing your skin, pupils dilated, warm warm warm TanTanTan p-please “I’ve got you darling.” p-please “Know just how to take care of you darling.” p-please “Love you darling.” TAN

I’m not thirsty you’re thirsty jEeZ 😵‍💫

For you

Anything sweet + “my”

My honey

My sugar

My sakura mochi (c’mon, you had to know this one was coming 💝)

Also anything remotely related to sweet + “my”

My bumble bee

My tree sap

My strawberry (she’s called you every fruit she knows)

Is it overwhelming?

Absolutely

Do you care?

Absolutely not

You’re perfectly content to be her sweet anything, anytime, anywhere, anyhow

—Altho can be lowkey confusing when she’s eating something sweet

—Bc like, she coos at her food? So is she cooing at her sakura mochi, sakura mochi, or you her sakura mochi ??

For her

So you reeeally want to call her something ❄️special❄️

Something that gets her blushing, melting, flustered, puddle

But like

Everything does that?

You could call her limp noodle and she’d squeal

“Ohmygosh my yuzu I’m your limp noodle? That’s so adorrrable! You could just slurp me up, couldn’t you?!”

And uhh

Yeah, you could just slurp her up 😋

But now you’re blushing, melting, flustered, puddle

Eventually you resign yourself to just calling her random things

It’s pretty entertaining, yanno, the spin she’ll put on whatever you come up w/

Tatami mat

“Staaahp you’re too muuuch my wagashi. I’d totally let you step on me !!” 🤭

For you

Gorgeous

Beautiful

Stunner

Eventually had to clarify that she wasn’t just constantly objectifying you 😅

But that her nicknames for you reflected her perception of your personality too

Will cup your face and call you Magnificent

Just to watch how rapidly you blink

“You flatter me,” you mumble sheepishly

She grins cheerfully, “Of course I do. Pretty.”

For her

Papilio paris (Paris peacock) 🦋

Vanessa indica (Indian red admiral) 🦋

Parantica aglea (glassy tiger) 🦋

Hypolimnas bolina (Great Eggfly) 🦋

Pieris canidia (Indian cabbage white) 🦋

Argynnis paphia (Silver-washed fritillary) 🦋

Papilio macilentus (long tail spangle) 🦋

Did you become a butterfly nerd just for her? 🤓

*insert vigorous nodding here*

—Did I Google “butterflies in Japan” for the purpose of these hcs? *insert more vigorous nodding here*

Tbf, you usually just call her my butterfly

But when you’re feeling extra cute-needy-lonely (really extra anything), then the scientific names come out

And as a fellow nerd, Shinobu’s like

😍😍😍

For you

Don’t come at me but- 😶

I’m tired of Kyojuro calling Reader “my little flame’ or “my fireball” or really anything related to goddamn fire

Do I think it’s in character for him to do so? Yes

Do I think it’s cute? Yes

Everything this man does has me like: 🥰

But am I tired of it? Yes

I feel like he wouldn’t have a particular nickname for you ??

Just… whatever seems right in the moment is what pops out?

So he could call you my little flame

As well as

“Hello my everything, I missed you,” returning from a mission

“Good morning selfish person that I adore,” waking up to you hogging ⅘ of the bed

“You’re doing great bean sprout!” cheering you on as you spar against someone

His nicknames express his vulnerability, his pride, his exact, specific feelings in each exact, specific moment

You’re his sun, moon, and stars

His favorite tune to hum

His favorite weather to walk in

Everything you do has him like: 🥰

For him

Donut boi 💀

Okaaay Ik, Ik, Ik

I just ranted about being tired of Kyojuro calling Reader anything related to goddamn fire

BUT PLS BEAR W/ ME 😭

He’s your sunshine

HOW COULD HE BE ANYTHING ELSE ?!?!?!

☀️☀️☀️

It’s cheesy enough to redden the tips of his ears

But not so cheesy that he can’t handle being called it in public

Which is fortunate, bc the ratio of you calling him Kyojuro and you calling him sunshine is 50:50 

—WAAAIT

—I nearly forgot your other nickname for him !!!!!

Kyo

Sunshine’s fine around friends

While Kyo’s acceptable for less… casual, audiences

Obvi still implies your intimate connection, but it’s much better to accidentally call him Kyo vs sunshine in front of Shinjuro 🥴

Plus, Kyo has the additional perk of being easier to stretch

i.e. Kyyyyyo

—You only call him suuunshiiiiine when you’re trying to get on his nerves 😆

P.S. You can’t (get on his nerves) 😌

P.P.S. His love for you >>> than all your attempts to annoy him ever

For you

Jerk = you’re cute

Idiot = you’re adorable

Dumbass = you’re precious

Dumbfuck = let’s fuck you’re beautful

Bitch = you’re my favorite

Cunt = I’d die for you

Babe = babe, my babe

It took a while to decipher his, err, terms of endearment

Now you just smile knowingly

“Idiot, stop drooling,” as you gape at his deliciously sweaty muscles 🤤

“Babe, I said Pass me the rice,” as you eat dinner together

“Dumbass, didn’t you hear me before you left? I said Don’t come back injured,” as you lean heavily against his chest — he’ll tend to your wounds as soon as he’s convinced himself that you’re really, truly in his arms, alive, home

And even if you haven’t deciphered all of his… nicknames, syntax

The softness in his touch, the tentativeness in his gaze

Actions speak louder than words when it comes to Sanemi

That much you’ve fully deciphered

—So sue me I didn’t feel like playing into Kyojuro’s nicknaming tropes, but I’m totally onboard w/ Sanemi’s 😂

For him

Nemi

—Idk what it is w/ me and shortened names, but Kyo, Nemi, Tan, and Zeni are highkey my overall favorites

—Ik practically everyone’s name could be shortened (i.e. Gyo; Suri; Shino; Chiro; Ten), but those just feel… off ??

—Anywho

Surprisingly, he doesn’t scowl or tell you to piss off when you call him Nemi

He just goes quiet, eyes widening slightly

You don’t notice his curling fingers (he’s hiding them in the sleeves of his haori)

Or the way he bites the tip of his tongue (still inside his mouth)

They… they’re calling me… I have a nickname ?!

—Cries 🥺

—#Sanemi must be protected at all costs

“Do you… mind?” you’re hesitant

Normally, he’s Sanemi-san

But you always feel so affectionate, so giddy w/ him

And Sanemi-san just doesn’t express that like Nemi does

You want him to know how you feel

To feel secure in your commitment to him

To feel secure in your belief in him

To feel secure in your love for him

He doesn’t trust himself to respond w/o his voice cracking

Settles for an almost imperceptible shake of his head

Jaw tensing from the bubbles in his stomach

He doesn’t mind

If it’s you, then it’s perfect

For you

—Y’all I’m running out of steam 😮‍💨

—Whenever I write hcs/preferences, I list everyone alphabetically (by last name)

—And typically write in that same order too

—I also do my best to write a similar amount—no favoritism 😤

—Perhaps a tad, but never intentionally

—Going by inspo rather than down the list doesn’t help either, bc then I get extra stuck on whoever I write toward the end

Lovely

Especially when first getting to know each other

He rarely remembered your name

Would smile apologetically, blushing faintly, “I know we’ve met before, but… I can’t quite remember who you are.”

You never took offense

Would nod patiently

“I’m [y/n].”

“Lovely,” he’d murmur, mostly to himself

Eventually, his greeting evolved to, “I know we’ve met before… lovely?”

And you’d giggle pleasantly, “[y/n]. I’m [y/n].”

“What a lovely name!”

“You always say that.”

“Unless your name changes, I’ll always think it’s lovely.”

He hadn’t meant to be flirtatious

But the sudden narrowing of your eyes, the shy dent between your eyebrows — How lovely!

Muichiro def made a mental note Call [y/n] lovely more often

Aaand then promptly forgot said mental note

Regardless, he still calls you lovely bc your name doesn’t change

And gradually-naturally-inevitably

He finds himself graced with your company

More and more often

Until he’s able to greet you

“Hello [y/n],” waving nervously, excitedly, “Lovely as always.”

For him

Silly

You try not to poke fun at his airheadedness too much

He may be difficult to offend

Too airheaded lol

But you’re cognizant and respectful nonetheless

Altho, you can’t help muttering an affectionate silly from time to time

“[y/n]... do you know where my other zori is?”

“Silly,” you chuckle fondly, “You didn’t leave them next to each other?”

…

…

“Oh. It’s right here.”

What you don’t know is, from time to time, he plays it up

Tilts his head, glancing at you w/ a curious expression

“Did you forget my name again, silly?” you wink

Nope

He hasn’t forgotten your name in a while, actually

But he feels… soothed, adored, cute ??

Whenever you call him silly

Bc, silliness and all, you’ve stuck around this long

And every time you call him silly, he’s reassured that—silliness and all—you’ll continue sticking around

For you

No nicknames for you

But dw!

He occasionally waxes poetry about you instead 🤗

Like, y’all could be eating udon for breakfast, groggy af

And he’s just

“[y/n], you’re my first conscious breath of every morning, a reminder of how delicate, how fragile, how terrifyingly vulnerable, it is to be alive. And yet, that first conscious breath is always vital, always necessary — as beautiful and soothing as it is daunting.”

You stare at him bug eyed

Since when does he say that much in one sentence ??

But then he doesn’t utter anything else — just finishes eating, leans in to kiss your cheek, and goes on his way for the day

That’s more like it

You figure you’ll get used to it

Like, there’ll be some tick, some warning sign, that he’s about to go off

But there never is

His monologues are distant enough from each other that you lowkey forget he even does the thing

And then BAM

You’re sitting behind him one evening, rubbing his shoulders as he kneads at your thighs, and he murmurs

“I’m constantly scared to lose you. To lose the calm of every sunrise, the promise of every noon, the finality of every sunset. You’re my marker of time, my reason, the thread holding together the days. Without you… if someday… you… you didn’t, didn’t make it back, I fear, I know, the days would disintegrate into each other — just as a demon fades to nothing, so too would my grasp on reality without you.”

Sheesh

Like, Can you repeat that please?

But he simply smiles to himself, pats your knees before standing up, offers you a quiet hand

Nothing else said as he guides you to bed

Just a warm, familiar kiss before he drifts to sleep, chin tucked into your hair

For him

Flowers

Something about how you know he dislikes it

Yet can’t bring himself to ask you to stop

So like… does he really dislike it ??

Besides, you’re very thoughtful about which kinds of flowers you call him

Sakura when you can tell he’s hurting: to remind him that to persevere does not always mean to be strong 🌸

Akaibara when you can tell he’s in need of extra loving: to remind him that I’m here and I’m not going anywhere 🌹

Magunoria when he leaves you grasping for words, mesmerized by his very being: to remind him that he’s as beautiful—in mind, body, heart, and soul—as ever

You figure it’s something arbitrary like Flowers are for women

But nuh uh

You’re going to call him by every incredible flower you know

Bc flowers are for everyone

Bc flowers are especially for Giyuu

At least, to you, they are

For you

—IT’S 4AM BUT I’VE MADE IT TO TENGEN 🥳🥳🥳

—Also highkey got sidetracked writing sick day

—Alsoalso I need to stop getting inspired by songs (I mean… not actually, but-)

—Bc I currently have 8 wips, of which only 3 are requests

—I think for every 1 request, I get distracted writing 1-3 other fanfics 🥲

“my” + Pet Names

My kitten

My bunny 🐇

My goldfish

Suggestive? Affectionate?

Either or and both

Prob doesn’t answer the question, but Tengen himself should answer it for ya

That also didn’t make sense

—Aight

—I need sleep

—But Imma keep this tidbit in bc it’s #comicrelief

—Not that this fanfic’s stressful/needs #comicrelief heh

—Tengen still calls you “my” + Pet Names btw

—I wrote that earlier at a reasonable hr

—I’m baaack ~8 hrs later !!

What w/ his flashiness, Tengen calls you embarrassing adorable nicknames

Cuddled in his lap? “Aww, are you cozy my kitten?” 😻

Distracted while he’s talking to you? “Hey, my goldfish, are you even listening to me?”

—Ik, Ik the goldfish-attention-span thing is urban myth, but anYWAY

Stomach grumbling as you hurriedly cook dinner? “Hungry, my bunny? Everything’s smelling delicious — let me help you?”

Calls you pet names in bed *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

Has one particular nickname that he weaponizes bc you react so splendidly to it

In public, tho, he sticks to [y/n]

Unless you misbehave

*insert weaponized nickname here*

For him

I feel like this man devours compliments nicknames

Call him handsome

King 👑,

Sexy

Master

Daddy

Just lil ego boosts to sweeten spice his day

He’s not detrimentally insecure

Like, he has his nonchalant moments of self doubt—I’m nothing special!

But you also catch him flexing at himself ??

If anything, you recognize he might benefit from compliments nicknames addressing his emotionality and mentality

Ofc, you still call him handsome, sexy, and etc

But you make a point to throw in “my” + intelligent man, sensitive lover, and brave soul

“I’m proud of you, my intelligent man.”

“I’m grateful for you, my sensitive lover.”

“Are you okay, my brave soul?”

You appreciate him

A lot ☺

So if you inflate his ego a lil too much some days?

Oh well

He deserves it

King 👑,

[arthoure]

Pokemon Violet and Open-World Design Hell

I’ve got Quibbles with Scarlet/Violet -- the performance, the clunky intro that takes a thousand years and would be tedious even for the 8-year-olds it’s aimed for, the lack of scaling at gyms (which is something even I know how to code, unless you’re building on top of some kind of spaghetti code monster with all sorts of hidden variables and restrictions, which is actually more than likely) -- but I’m not going to voice anything in depth, because there’s only one thing I want to say about those games.

So far they’re fun, and that is a miracle, and the developers who worked on it should probably be praised for what they were able to accomplish, because a three-year dev cycle is not enough time to put together an open-world RPG for a global audience.

There are a million things about this process for an IP like Pokemon that take up extra time in that very small dev window, too. The localization. The rigorous art and design iterations that have to go all the way up high ladders to get approved because so much money is tied up in this franchise, and because the merchandising is so tied to it. The testing and iterations for any new mechanics that the players will expect from a new installment, and the balancing of previous mechanics within the new system. The QA!!! OH GOD THE QA!!!!!!!!

Now add the challenges of open-world design to that. Non-linear plotting. Balancing freedom of motion with a sense of direction and purpose for the player so they don’t feel lost. Balancing levels and pokemon types in a game where your level is always changing, which is now impacted by where you go and what you do and whether you stop to catch everything or plow through to gyms or fight every wild pokemon you come across or run away (ETCETERA! ETCETERA! ETCETERA!), in a way that’s fun for adult players but not challenging for small children. Placing new sights, activities, and rewards in ways that encourage exploration while having to avoid the repetition of these placements so players don’t get bored or predict what’s next--unless you’d like them to predict what’s next, to build a sense of anticipation! Open-world design is fun as hell to tinker in; it’s also an absolute monster.

I’m not aware of the conditions at Game Freak, but I’m having a hard time imagining any of this was accomplished without a significant amount of overtime and stress. There are no lazy developers. Every single person working on a Pokemon game right now--I mean the ones on the floor, the artists and coders and designers and QA and all the rest--they’re there because they fucking love video games, they fucking love Pokemon, and they beat out hundreds if not thousands of other qualified applicants for their personal position. When you see a game that arrives as some kind of disaster, it’s because some kind of disaster was happening behind the scenes. 

It’s OK to criticize the Pokemon games. They’re not nearly as polished as their price point warrants, which is frankly insulting to players from a company that regularly makes record-breaking amounts of money on its IP. The bugs have created frustrating jams for people, even forcing unsaved restarts (though the game does autosave a lot, thankfully). It could be a lot better, and it’s easy to see exactly how, and that’s very frustrating. But the game is still fun, and it’s trying a new format in a way that I believe is ultimately a success, and considering the restrictions imposed upon the devs, I personally think that was an impressive feat. I’ll be continuing to play during my next little snatch of free time.

[wutheringmights]

Can I be greedy and ask for all of the boys ? And any characters you have strong opinions on? Pretty please? With lots of cherries and chocolate on top? ( for the ask meme ofc)

Anon, I'll finish up all of the boys in the Chain just for you. And trust me, I have an Infinite Amount of Strong Opinions. You have no idea how Opinionated I Am.

If anyone is coming in late to this, here are the boys I have done already and a short summary of my thoughts (click the hyperlinks to get the full Opinion):

Warriors: he's best when he's the trashy anti-Link, and I like him so much

Twilight: kind of boring, but I have a soft spot for him anyway because you never forget your first

Wind: should have been aged up a little so that he can have that identity crisis I'm craving

This... gets long. Really long. 3-hours-of-work-long. Before you read, please note that even when I speak negatively about something, it’s not to diss anyone who does like the thing. I’m not vague posting or being passive aggressive. This is all written in good humor and good faith. 

That being said, let’s a-go!

-Sky-

What I love about them: He has one of the best character arcs of all the Links. I love that he starts off being lazy and kind of a jerk, but grows as a person because he wants to save his friend. And I love that he's truly the most courageous Link. He has no other successful hero of past or legacy to lean back upon to reassure him. He walked into that fight with Demise with no assurance from anyone that he would succeed. Yet, he does it anyway. Because he's a true hero and someone had to be one. And he's rewarded with a curse that he does not initially take seriously. He thinks he's saved everyone, yet he's cursed his spirit, possibly his bloodline, and his entire legacy of the kingdom of Hyrule into a doomed cycle of destruction. All because he dared to face evil incarnate. I love him.

What I hate about them: You know how I called Twilight boring? I should have saved that critique for Sky. LU Sky is actually the most boring interpretation of his character. All of his negative traits? Gone. All of his positives? Also gone. He's the blandest version of himself, and like Twilight, I now feel like I gotta add some spice to him to make him more interesting while still keeping him recognizable. Even so, he's still one of my favorite Links.

Favorite Moment/Quote: When he kicks Twilight's ass at sword fighting. That's stuff is *chef's kiss*

What I would like to see more focus on: You would think that there would be more angst out there about him realizing that he's actually been cursed, but it's still kind of hard to find. He's the Cursed Knight! The beginning of a terrible legacy! Imagine meeting a bunch of heroes for the first time, and instead of being relieved at having someone who understands your experiences, you're filled with horror at realizing that your victory was a false one. You didn't win. Your spirit will never be at rest. Imagine dealing with that realization for the rest of your life. You could never be at peace.

What I would like to see less focus on: I love that he loves his wife, but he's more just the fact that he's married, y'know? I would like to see a little less blind devotion to Hylia and Zelda, and more complicated feelings about being manipulated into being the hero.

Favorite pairing with: Sun/Link/Groose OT3! I have no reasoning behind this other than I like Groose and Groose definitely had a crush on SkSw Link.

Favorite friendship: I won't answer Groose again even if I want to, so I'll say Warriors. I cannot begin to describe how elite this friendship would be if you gave it a chance. They're just two boys dealing with unique positions of leadership and responsibility. They would probably even bond over being shitheads at different ends of the shithead spectrum. It's so good, okay?

NOTP: Ghirahim. I'm not too adverse to this one, but the ship hinges on whether you can redeem Ghirahim or not. In my opinion, Ghirahim is awesome because he's such a fun villain. Redeeming him ruins the fun.

Favorite headcanon: I have a whole life story planned out for Sky. Basically, he lives to be close to 500 years old by the power of the Triforce. He is the Link throughout the Era of Chaos who banishes the Dark Interlopers to the Twilight Realm and seals the Triforce in the Sacred Realm. He actually seals himself in the Sacred Realm as well to keep the Triforce safe, and he fought Ganondorf in when he broke in. Sky, like Time and Wind, does not get a happy ending.

-Four-

What I love about them: Four is origin of the heroes of Hyrule being known for being children. What a legacy to leave behind. He's such an interesting case of an incarnation of the Hero's Spirit, too. He fought Vaati, and he did his job so well that Demise's next incarnation had to be Ganondorf. Four did his job the best out of everyone, and it came at the cost of creating a magic sword that changed him permanently. I like to think that the Four Sword was not meant to split him, that it was a mistake he made with the design. And it's sad, isn't it? You made a defective sword, and like any good sword, it has a symbolic double edge. It gifted you with so much, and yet he can never be the same again. And his story is never well-remembered because it is overshadowed by the Links who fought the King of Evil. He's does so much, yet his legacy is underappreciated.

What I hate about them: I want to prepare you for this Opinion, because I know it's unpopular. Are you ready? Okay. I don't like the Colors. I'm sorry. I want to like them, but they don't interest me at all. Because they are parts of Four’s personality, they have to be one-note archetypes which does not make for exciting storytelling. I also haven't found a fic yet that has been from Four's POV that did the internal monologue of the Colors in a way that wasn't a pain in the ass to read. Maybe if someone can figure out how to do the Colors in a way that doesn't feel like a drag, I would like them more. But in the end, I think Four himself is more interesting than the Colors.

Favorite Moment/Quote: The fact that he didn't want to touch the Master Sword because he doesn't trust magic swords. That is every I need to know about his opinion on his own adventures.

What I would like to see more focus on: I want more of Four as Four. It's getting harder to find content of Four being his own person first and the Colors second.

What I would like to see less focus on: Four being the Colors first and his own person second. There is something about viewing Four as this cover identity for the Colors that doesn't feel right. There's a balance that needs to be strike between his ability to split, how that affects his every day life, and his own identity of being Four. I think I may have read one fic that hit that sweet spot for me, but still.

Favorite pairing with: Shadow. I'm such a sucker for befriending and falling for the enemy. That is all.

Favorite friendship: Dot! Their friendship is super cute. I like the idea of them being super close when they were younger and struggling to keep the friendship going as they age due to how much their paths in life diverge.

NOTP: This isn't necessarily a Four or an LU problem, but people who ship the Colors together? Bro. C'mon.

Favorite headcanon: I'm torn between two different Four and the Master Sword headcanons. On one hand, Four thinking that the Master Sword is just legend until he meets Sky and everyone else is just a fun idea. He sees the legendary sword for the first time and his mind is blown. On the other hand, I also like my Four with a side of hubris. What if he had the option on his quest to draw the Master Sword himself? What if he could tell that if he did that, the consequences would be terrible. He's not sure what would happen, but he knows it would be terrible. So he decided to make his own sword instead to disastrous results. Wouldn't that be tragic or what?

-Time-

What I love about them: Last winter, I did a two hour powerpoint for my friends about the Legend of Zelda timeline. During that powerpoint, I was rating every iteration of Link. What I said about the Hero of Time then holds true to my thoughts of LU Time now. Time is the original Link, more so than Sky in the lore and Legend/Hyrule in real life. Every other hero is a reflection of him. So the fact that his story is about the loss of childhood and the tragedy of that is incredible, and you can see those themes reflected in every other game. Moreso, he’s the only Link with a confirmed tragic ending. Not only does he end his life unsatisfied, but his adventure is failure on every timeline. In the adult timeline, Hyrule is swallowed by the sea. In the child one, Ganondorf returns again. In the fallen timeline, Hyrule fell. I like the idea since that the games themselves are the legends that are past down about each hero, Hylians have also remembered Time as a tragic figure. Yet, they also remember that the happy moments for his life come from small acts of kindness. Even someone as sad as him finds joy in helping others, even if it’s just to small deeds that will not be heralded as grand heroic quests. It’s beautiful.

What I hate about them: This is more about Mask than Time, but Mask is not an adult in a child’s body. He did not rewind time in Termina enough to be considered mentally an adult. He’s a young teenager at best, and that’s me being generous. He is a child who was forced to be an adult and despite the gods being done with him, he cannot conceive of ever having a childhood again. So he can say all he wants that he’s an adult, but he is not. That’s just what he thinks he is.

Favorite Moment/Quote: Anytime we get a flashback to him being a younger adult is great. I want to see more of his in this his early adulthood.

What I would like to see more focus on: I think I just want more of Time being... not a bad leader, but being an imperfect one. I honestly think he’s only the leader because he’s the oldest and enough of the heroes recognize the title of Hero of Time. But he is not the leader type, and he is struggling to keep it together and has to defer to Twilight and Warriors for help a lot. 

What I would like to see less focus on: I’m not the biggest fan of Dad!Time for any of the Links. He’s not emotionally ready for it. And I think he defaults to treating the boys like adults because that’s how he wanted to be treated when he was their age. 

Favorite pairing with: Malon. He has this great partnership of equal respect with her and it’s just. So good.

Favorite friendship: Linebeck. I know. This exists only in my head. But if these two ever meet, you cannot convince me that they would not get along swimmingly. It would be so good (once Linebeck gets over his crush on Time and stops hitting on him, of course).

NOTP: Child Timeline Zelda. Let me explain: I fully believe in Bi Time supremacy, and when in OoT, he definitely had a crush on Sheik. However, one of the worst parts of rewinding time and being in the child timeline is that Zelda is a completely different person now. They may have been friends in the other timeline, but her life experiences are completely different now. She is not the same person as he once knew. And it’s tragic to know someone as who they could have been, not as they are.

Favorite headcanon: After Termina, Time spent a lot of time with the Nabooru because out of everyone he knew, she’s the only who took him seriously even as a child. She has big older sister energy, and he considers her a part of his family. However, being treated as such made it easier for him to ignore his issues and put off his healing process by a few years.

-Legend-

What I love about them: Veteran of Heroes! What a freaking title. I love that he keeps on finding adventures, and that he keeps hustling. Even if he complains about never getting a break, you can tell that he loves helping others. He loves being on the road, never settling down, and finding adventure after adventure. Honestly, if any of the Links had a calling to be a hero, it’s him. Is he tired? Sure. Is he a little jaded after having saved Hyrule and a bunch of other kingdoms multiple times? Yes. But at the end of the day, he likes being a hero. This is who he is. His complaining is not genuine; he just plays the martyr because, at this point, he’s earned the right to.

What I hate about them: If you can’t tell by now, I have a, uh, different interpretation of Legend from popular canon. Fandom Legend is not right to me. He is unrecognizable. It is hard to write him because I feel like I have to balance what other people think Legend should be versus how I think he is. The people who are big Legend enjoyers probably feel the same way about my version of Warriors, and that’s fine. I’m not going to gel with every character and I don’t expect everyone to gel with how I see characters either. It’s goes both ways, y’know.

Favorite Moment/Quote: I like how subtly he tried to approach the Wolfie problem at first, trying to ask questions and get more proof before confronting Twilight. It’s a good touch.

What I would like to see more focus on: If I had to choose one thing, it’s this one throw away line about him never wanting to settle down. I’m telling you, folks! He likes his lifestyle! And did you see him when he does presenting the origins of the hero? He’s not bitter about being a hero! Legend is moody, but he is not angsty about the whole hero thing. Have fun with him please!

What I would like to see less focus on: If you can’t tell by now, Legend is my least favorite Link. There is a lot I want to see less of, but just to name one thing, it’s the headcanon that Fable is his sister. I live and die by common born Link, and whether he’s a legitimate heir or the royal bastard, I am more than bored with the persistent Prince!Legend content.

Favorite pairing with: Marin. It’s a good tragic story and I like it well enough. She’s cute, and he’s cute with her.

Favorite friendship: Warriors. I’m with everyone else on these two have peak sibling energy. They tease and pick on each other, but only they are allowed to mess with each other. They’re each other’s bully, and it’s always good to see.

NOTP: I do not have enough energy to have a lot of strong opinions about Legend’s romantic relationships, but I will mentioned that I have lost a lot of love for Ravio recently and am liking seeing him with Legend less and less. I have no better reason for this than the fact that I finally played ALBW and hate how many of my hard earned rupees he’s taken from me by withholding important, lifesaving items. Rat bastard.

Favorite headcanon: Remember my headcanon about him being the coolest bad boy folk hero on the block because everyone thinks he kidnapped Zelda? Yeah, I still stand by that one. I did good there.

-Hyrule-

What I love about them: If there is any Link that I would call a gutter rat, it is this one. I struggle a bit to talk about Hyrule since his games gives us so little, but in the end, I always fall back on him being a hero of the people. He is the one who has nothing and relates the best to people who are at their lowest. Yet, he is still a hero. He earns the right to be a hero because he helped Impa in her time of need. He’s selfless and competent. Even if he never got a traditional education, I bet he’s wicked smart too. He is the Link that symbolizes all of the parts of the Triforce the most. And, god. I cannot talk about him without mentioning the blood sacrifice part of LA. It’s such a cool concept, and I cannot imagine what it must be like to go from being the rough and tumble, win-at-all-costs fighting to protecting yourself first because if you don’t, the consequences are disastrous. It’s paradoxical, and it must be such a different mindset to fall into. But it must also be a blessing in disguise since now he has a reason to finally care about himself.

What I hate about them: Who started the Hyrule is innocent headcanon? Come over here because we need to exchange some words. If there is anyone who would be a realist and know how the world works, it’s this guy. And while we’re here, who came up with the Hryule is always lost headcanon? I also have some words for you. And you know what? WHILE WE’RE HERE, who let him be named Hyrule? I’m have more than choice words for you. His name scheme is the bane of my existence and the express reason why I don’t write him more. God.

Favorite Moment/Quote: That one panel where he takes utter delight in Warriors hiding from his scorned lovers? That is a central pillar in my understanding of Hyrule.

What I would like to see more focus on: Again, his relationship with other people. Even if his games are lacking in NPCs, we know from lore that he’s a good guy who will jump in to help others. He must know plenty of people, and I want to see who exists in his world with him. 

What I would like to see less focus on: I have an on-going joke with my brother that certain characters are Catholic, even if Catholicism does not exist in the world of the thing we’re watching or playing. Of course, we’re not being serious. we’re just joshing around. So imagine the gut punch I feel whenever I see people say Hyrule is Christian and realize that they’re being serious. I just can’t take it seriously.

Favorite pairing with: Aurora. It’s cute and I’m a sucker for that hero and royalty dynamic, especially when the hero is a peasant. It’s so cheesy, but I love it.

Favorite friendship: Legend. But not the way everyone else pairs them up as the grumpy one and the sunshine one. I think of it more as them being the pinnacle of boys being boys. They’re shitheads. They do stupid shit together. They both have a dark sense of humor. They joke that they’re practically the same person sometimes.

NOTP: uhhhhhhhhh.... Is he paired with anyone else?

Favorite headcanon: I love the idea that he just likes his way of life and refuses to accept anyone saying otherwise. Legend wants to teach him to read? Sorry, but he’s never had to read before in his life so he’s pretty sure he’ll never need it anyway. Want to participate in the treasured Hylian tradition of piercing your ears when you come of age? Why would he ever do that when a monster could rip those earrings off? He’s stuck in his ways and it frustrates everyone else to no end, but he has no interest in ever changing.

-Wild-

What I love about them: When I was 9, I spent my time online on Legend of Zelda forums. I remember one of my forum friends saying that they wanted a Legend of Zelda game where Link lost. And I think of that friend whenever I think about Wild. BOTW Link is the best Link that has ever been. He is the epitome of every trait we associate with any Link. He’s smart and sassy. He’s hard working and kind. But underlining all of that is the fact that he’s still the one who failed. If Demise’s Curse in SkSw is the set-up, the Great Calamity is the payoff. And I haven’t even talked about how confirming him as being non-verbal before the Calamity does so much for his characterization. I don’t even know where to start or how to articulate it. By game storyline alone, Wild is one of my favorites.

What I hate about them: You guys knew this one was coming, but I’m going to have to say it anyway. Fandom Wild.... not good. I’ve said it for half of these boys so far, but god is it true. I have a way I see Wild that is rarely done in the fandom. Fandom Wild has a lot of the traits I also see in Wild, but to all of the extremes. I will mention one thing in particular as being a pet peeve, and it’s how some people headcanon him as always being nonverbal. I know what they’re trying to do, and I think they’re on to something, but they’re also missing the point of what BOTW Link’s character arc is. I just wish more people would forget fandom and work more off of the games for how to characterize him.

Favorite Moment/Quote: Weirdly enough, my favorite moment is when he got mad at everyone for making fun of his Gerudo outfit, so he dumped Goron Spice in his cooking. It’s encapsulates a part of his character I think a lot of people forget about.

What I would like to see more focus on: I think he has a really complicated relationship with his past. He said himself that his old self felt like a different person, and I think that should be explored a lot more. That idea actually fascinates me so much that instead of CTB, I almost wrote a character study fic about Wild. His emotions are not as simple as feeling guilty about letting his friends die and not preventing the Calamity. His emotions would be so complicated and because I don’t have the time to explore it, someone else needs to do it for me.

What I would like to see less focus on: There is a weird fascination with Wild having memory loss and essentially being like a kid again. And this feels infantilizing to me. It honestly bugs me a lot every time I see it.

Favorite pairing with: I can’t decide between Zelda, Mipha, and Revali. They’re all different dynamics and they’re all good.

Favorite friendship: Paya. I firmly believe that Paya is Wild’s best friend. I am the only one in the world who believes this. But I am also the only one in the world who is correct. 

NOTP: Wild is good with everyone. Good for him!

Favorite headcanon: An essential scene of my Wild character study I will never write is one where his horse dies. He goes into shock and walks back to Kakariko to talk to Impa. But once he goes to her, he breaks down in tears and has an absolute melt down over the horse. And Impa sagely says, “It’s not about the horse, is it?” She’s implying that he’s actually mourning the loss of his friends, Hyrule, his life, everything-- but through his tears, he keeps tell her that she’s wrong. He barely remembers them. He doesn’t know them. He doesn’t have any feelings about them. He just really loved that horse. But Impa refuses to listen to him, just repeating over and over again: “it’s not really about the horse.”

And that’s it! That’s all of my opinions! I know a lot of my opinions are polarizing, but everything I said is in good faith, and I am not trying to diss anyone for how they approach these characters.

I welcome you to send me your Opinions on the Links, even if it’s just to disagree with me. I’m cool with it, and I like knowing what everyone else thinks!

[airlock]

a few days ago, I finished the Azure Gleam route on FE Warriors: Three Hopes! so here’s me, back at it with all the opinions and takes and criticism and whatnot

and first of all: again, there is ostensibly a bit of a route split depending on if you spare Byleth or not, and again, I have ended up down the route where you just kill them. my approach this time around was to kind of play it by ear, try to bring Byleth in but not try too hard -- and still I seem to have ended up in a state of the Hevring map where you simply can’t progress without slaying the Ashen Demon, so as far as playing by ear goes, I figured that meant it was time to pass the buck once again. (on Scarlet Blaze now, though, I’m not kidding around; I’m genuinely not going to stop until I pull it off.)

but hey, back to the ones with less warm hands I guess:

annette is SO CUTE in this game I cannot withstand it and it cannot possibly be legal. every cutscene she happened to be in, I was paying more attention to her than anything else. a fair amount of it is just iterating on what was already an absolutely darling design in Three Houses (both pre- and post-timeskip), but it’s also really never been done better than here. I think I especially appreciate the seamless combination of the pretty dress and the heavy ass-kickin’ gauntlets, but of course, the braided loopies also absolutely stand out and must be mentioned if nothing else as a runner-up there. plus, design aside, she’s just as delightful of a character as usual, too -- you see, I’ve been through the desert on a horse with a face--

OH right, though, there was some other character who’s the protagonist of this route or something, and I was probably supposed to lead off talking about that (just as I did with Claude in GW), even though he’s not remotely as adorable, right. fine, fine, let’s move on to that

the thing is, though, if GW was finally Claude’s time to shine after being thorougly shafted by Three Houses... AG appears to be the first-ever route where Dimitri is boring. like, he still has a few outstanding character moments here and there and even a little bit of a character arc, if not one that was paced particularly well (that seems to be a consistent problem with this game, huh), but the long and narrow of it is that he just sort of gets everything he wants in this route without much trepidation, which denies us those intense lows and highs that were crucial to making the character as captivating as he is to a lot of people in the first place, even if I’m sure that a lot of these selfsame people must have been far less opposed than I to a storyline where Dimitri has a good time for once-

least I can say about this route, though, is that even if it’s doing staggeringly little with its protagonist (and, as I’ll complain about later, its antagonist as well), it does do a great amount of good by its remaining cast. where Three Hopes was happy to write off if not outright kill Dedue just to finesse Dimitri’s spiral, here we’re instead treated to Dedue as the center of one of the most beautifully indulgent cutscenes ever. Felix, as well, is forced to mature faster as a result of old man rodrigueroo’s switcheroo, which means he gets more time to show off the less unpleasant sides of character. Ashe gets his clash with Lonato redone with very few differences here, which mostly feels lazy, but it’s a surprisingly huge improvement to be taking that moment on with an Ashe who’s there because that’s where he chose to be, rather than because the church sent him there. even Shez seemed to have gotten a lot more room to grapple with their mysteries and anxieties here than in GW. in a way, I guess you could say that we don’t get no full-boar Dimitri on this route because it put the emphasis on what happens when his support network is actually working-

on the flipside though, it is a bit strange how much of their usual characterization a lot of the Lions seem to cast off as just past teenage cringe in this game. like, I do appreciate that Ingrid isn’t providing any further fuel for the “huhuhuhu CEO of racism” crowd even if she’s not really going to win ‘em over no matter what -- but come on, Sylvain growing out of being a philanderer? five years of war didn’t beat that out of him in Three Houses at all, so what gives?

but speaking of Shez, this time around I played as the female version (whom I’ve named Shez/her, resulting in my brother doing a spit-take when he saw it), and it’s kind of interesting how she comes across as a somewhat different character despite having nearly all of the same lines, because the voice delivery is just THAT different across the goose and the gander. I’m really not sure if I should consider that a feature or a bug frankly

anyway, I’ve made a note to whing about the antagonist, and this is as good as part as any to move onto that, so let’s have a look. you see... say what you will about Edelgard as a character and as an antagonist -- and by Seiros, people have absolutely the fuck done so for the past three years and are still at it right about now, myself included- -- but one of the better points she’d always had going for her was the sheer sense of agency. so you can imagine how pleased I wasn’t by the fact that half the plotline on this thing here hinges on completely removing that. I would frankly rather Edelgard had died (by Dimitri’s hand or Thales’s), or been locked away, than been kept around just to be mind-controlled. that does absolutely nothing for her character, and doesn’t even really enchance the storyline either.

not helping matters much is that, once Edelgard is out of her position as the route’s main antagonist, no one steps up to replace her competently in that capacity. Ludwig and Thales try their hands at it, but notwithstanding the initial disadvantage there that Thales is one of THE most uninteresting villains in this entire franchise (and I do not say that lightly), they don’t even terribly much bother to make the pecking order between those two crystal clear. and I mean that less in terms of de facto rank than just in terms of story weight, like... you know the thing where the Empire’s movements in war become laced with pointless cruelty after the switch there? there’s a reason why this would happen because of Ludwig (he’s cruel, selfish, and not bright enough to conduct things less destructively anyway), and there’s a reason why this would happen because of Thales (he approaches the Geneva Conventions as a drinking game). but there are also subtle distinctions in how plunder and misery under either of them would look, and the game just doesn’t care to stick to either possible look very consistently. is the Empire doing all that obvious stupid villainy out of callous incompetence, or because wreaking havoc and destruction is actually the goal? you get a different answer at different times -- so, who’s actually flying this eagle, again?

all this put together, I have to say, the latter half of this route is a freaking slog. like, it’s the opposite of whatever people must be experiencing when they complain that GW was over too soon; I felt like we were done with this storyline before the halfway point of it, and everything thereafter was essentially a pallid excuse to keep the game going. every mystery that was going to get solved, gets solved before then. Thales’s intervention in Arianrhod is the dead last plot beat that isn’t completely trite and predictable, outside of a few of Claude’s later stunts which don’t really get all that much attention from the story anyway. and whatever old men Hevring and Bergliez were supposed to be doing around here as Camus types, it’s not panning out, plain and simple.

and while I’m dragging things -- man alive, I feel like I’ve gone so high and then so low in terms of the base camp song. I like the idea of each route having a distinct one in theory, but in practice I just missed the GW camp song the entire time I was playing AG- and I don’t think it was just sheer saudosism either, because I’m in SR now and I actually like the camp song again, even if I don’t love it as much as GW’s.

there’s a bit less for me to say overall in this sojourn -- not because the route was that much lesser per se, but also because I’m fresh out of first-impression comments to make. like, the worldbuilding is still great, nothing to report there; the gameplay is still enjoyable whenever it’s not a pain in the ass (although at least now I know how to check S-rank requirements and whether I’m currently meeting them in the middle of a battle, which is a vast improvement-). and unlike GW’s Holst and SR’s Monica, here we do not have a heretofore unbuilt character making their debut; Rodrigue more or less takes up the analogous position (at least until he gets killed in a cheap and uninteresting manner that does a disservice to his great death scene in Azure Moon), but he was already a major character previously, so, little change.

(far as gameplay goes, I suppose one thing I can say is that goddamn, just like some of the Lions were among the most busted units in Three Houses, here some of them have the absolute best personal skills around. the only regrets I have wrt running Sylvain’s Gordian Stroke on sword classes are that, one, he kept leveling up way ahead of the rest of the crew, and two, my brain will now never release me from the jokes about Sylvain’s sword getting longer. ... I guess that would’ve been even worse if I’d gone with his default lance-wielding class line.)

still, in the end, I have to say I found Azure Gleam to be noticeably inferior to Golden Wildfire as a route -- and I don’t just say that out of sheer Claude bias, not when I definitely would not say that of the analogous Azure Moon vs Verdant Wind comparison. but oh well, it’s not as if it was a bad time, per se; if nothing else, I can’t overstate how good it is to see Dedue being treated properly as a character this time.

either way, we’ll have more to discuss once I’m back down from the eagle’s nest -- but I think I’m far enough in already to offer up a few things! y’know, just things like “monica good”, “caspar sounds like he just somehow hit reverse puberty”, and “nothing but the utmost awe for Billy Kametz’s absolutely unimpeachable final performance”. oh, and of course, GATEKEEPER REAL.

[eyelinerda3euro]

i forgot how absorbing being in love is.

don’t get me wrong, what I had in my past relationship was the purest form of love I could have hoped for me, it was honest and genuine and generous and really deeply felt. exactly what I needed to experience and at the right moment. what really did play a big role in the relationship iter was that from the day we fell in love we never experienced any longing or sense of waiting for each other. i had nowhere to go and you hosted me in your house, which eventually became our house. i pushed your boundaries really far because this is sometimes what love does. and i obviously pushed mine too. we changed the color of a door, we changed the bedroom furniture together, you moved your studio and gave me the room with the best lighting of the house. you also stopped painting when you gave me that room and got depressed about it but you never really realised it and maybe i’m just guilt tripping myself into thinking this but maybe it’s real. it was the most complex and deep situation i dealt with in my own life and I would do it a thousand times again, building that complexity brick by brick. but daily things got me desensitised and most of the time I could not make a sense out of my inner feelings. it started to feel like a everyday pray to an unfaithful follower. i never realised. until all this happened.

now i’m completely drenched in this feeling of desire. i’m in a stage in which what’s the dearest to me is my will and my ability to exercise it. to declare my existence in the face of a never-ending war to my own existence. and this deep sense of wanting to be with this person is very meaningful for me. but what really feels old and new at the same time is finding myself soaked with this love fantasy, incredibly naïve and absorbing. sometimes it feels like a distraction from every day life, the life and the tasks I seek refuge from: love is the happy place where I lay down and rest. love is comfort thinking for me, which is also a form of laziness itself. it’s a sweet escapism and I will love you more if being with you has the taste for exiting the normal world. i always want to feel somewhere else because it’s from somewhere else that I come from and I raised myself. always detached from something, love must resemble the perfect way to dissociate from the world.

[permanentcrossfics]

Twelve Hours in Miami // h.s. - Part 3

Read Part 1 Read Part 2

You held up the rubbery ring to him.

“M’not puttin’ that on,” he said.

You snorted. “Not even for me?” Even as a joke it felt demanding, assumptive, that he would do anything for you.

“I’ve got this,” he said, pulling the vibrator from your grip, “if I wanna do summat for you.” He frowned, feeling around, before he twisted it and it hummed to life in his hand. “Ahhhh,” he crowed. “There it is.” He grinned at you and you snorted.

“It’s weak,” you said.

“Sure about that?”

Read NOW on Patreon // Tumblr // Wattpad 

Up later than intended here -- sorry! April was a very, very busy (but positive, mostly) month. Thank you for reading these unexpected pests -- I hope you enjoy. This is the last of their total twelve hour arc, but if you’re curious about an addendum, feel free to head on over to Patreon (however, it’s not necessary to enjoy this story, not to read at all if that isn’t for you). Happy reading, loves! x

1:11. 

The harsh buzz of his phone vibrating on the nightstand made your eyes fly open, startled from your doze. Harry tightened his arm around you while his other hand shot out to grab it.  

“What is it?” you asked drowsily, burrowing against his chest. 

“Flight reminder,” he murmured, voice gravelly from his own doze.  

Dread cemented in a lump in your stomach. Twelve whole hours together, and somehow it wasn’t enough. “You can use the shower, if you want,” you said.

“Probably a good idea.” He sighed heavily and dropped his phone on the bed. “Later.” 

“Harry….”

“Later,” he repeated, wrapping his other arm around you and drawing you tighter into his chest. “I’ve got time.” 

Not enough, you thought but didn’t say. 

Four hours and a little bit to go, and they were going by much, much too fast. 

Twelve hours. Twelve precious hours, and you were spending so many of them sleeping, too, with both of you falling in and out of it, curled up together under the thin sheet. Every time you’d opened your eyes and seen the clock, your heart had picked up in a spike of anxiety, but when you’d looked at him and seen him with his eyes closed, brow furrowed, whistling through his nose, you’d groggily laid your head down on his chest until you were pulled back under, only waking again when a panicked thought would remind you of the truth. 

Twelve hours and time was running out. 

Cheek to his chest, you closed your eyes and listened to his breathing. He was warm and familiar. Despite being a recent occurrence, nothing about being pressed against him, skin-on-skin, felt new, or strange, or indecent. 

“Are you tired?” you whispered in a sandy voice. 

“M’exhausted,” he said, equally as garbled and worn. “Couldn’t fuckin’ sleep last night.” 

“Because of me?” 

You were teasing him, but he grunted and didn’t say anything else, and you opened your eyes, this new information settling in and making you hyper aware of the fact that he’d agonized over his decision to come to your room this morning. 

“Why?” you asked, soft enough that, if he wanted to, he could ignore it. You wouldn’t hold it against him.

“S’only twelve hours,” he mumbled at last. “Y’know? Not sure if that’s really fair.” 

You noted the use of the present tense and burrowed your cheek closer, squeezing him around the middle. 

The kit that had been delivered was on the table next to the clock radio. It was an embarrassingly lurid fucsia thing, and the man who’d delivered it had hardly been able to look you in the eye. Wordlessly, you reached across him and picked it up, resettling into his side to pluck at the plastic sealing it. He, to his credit, didn’t say any one of the smarmy lines that would be all too easy to indulge in, and when you popped the top off, the contents jumped out. Two condoms, which you pressed into his chest and he snickered under his breath, catching them. A packet of lube, a miniature bullet vibrator, and…. 

You held up the rubbery ring to him.

“M’not puttin’ that on,” he said. 

You snorted. “Not even for me?” Even as a joke it felt demanding, assumptive, that he would do anything for you. 

“I’ve got this,” he said, pulling the vibrator from your grip, “if I wanna do summat for you.” He frowned, feeling around, before he twisted it and it hummed to life in his hand. “Ahhhh,” he crowed. “There it is.” He grinned at you and you snorted. 

“It’s weak,” you said.

“Sure about that?” 

You didn’t say anything, but your mouth went dry, and you shivered as he drew it up and down your arm and then across your chest and over your nipple lightly. Squirming, you grabbed his wrist, and he snickered, his voice breaking with exhaustion when he repeated, “Sure about that?” 

“You’re an idiot,” you declared. 

“Sure about that?” 

“Yes!” 

He laughed, but when you pushed away from him, he went after you and you shrieked, flattened into the bed, and you thumped his back. “Harry,” you said, grinning despite yourself, breathless from his weight. 

He pressed scratchy kisses into your neck, and you could feel his chuckles against your skin as he peppered them up and down the column and then over the top of your chest. When he nuzzled your breast, though, your breath hitched, and his next kiss on your skin was more reverent -- a small touch of his tongue before his lips fell tenderly to complete it. Laughter fell away gradually, replaced by sighs and the gentlest moans from both of you -- his deeper and drowned in his throat and yours higher and unrestrained, urged on when he kissed harder, the vibrator abandoned somewhere neither of you cared about. 

“Is this ok?” he mumbled without breaking away. He kissed the inside of your elbow and you gasped, fingers sliding into his hair as you nodded breathlessly. 

“Please,” you said. “Please, Harry--” 

He shuddered, then, and you jerked when he bit down sharply just under your breast. The jolt of adrenaline shot straight through you, and he kissed and nipped his way up your sternum, down over your belly, and then back up until he was at your shoulder, and it was then that you lifted your head and opened your mouth.

“Fuck!” His groan was deep and you could feel him tense under your touch, shuddering in your bite. Seconds later, you made a sharp noise when he returned it on your shoulder before turning your face into his cheek and nipping his jaw. He rewarded you with another groan and caught your lips in a kiss that quickly deepened and you whimpered, pushing your hands up his back to pull him closer. His cock was hard in the crease between your thigh and pelvis, and you moaned when he rutted his hips once, twice, instinctively seeking relief. 

“M’gonna….” He swallowed hard and your hands simultaneously reached for the abandoned contents of the kit scattered in the sheets. You got a condom by your fingertips first, and you clapped your hand to the back of his neck to hold him in the kiss before letting go to fumble with the packet. You slid the latex disk out before he lifted up for you to roll it onto his cock in one quick motion, and you smoothed your hand down to finish the job.

“Good?” you whispered. He nodded, eyes barely open and his jaw tight and sharp. He exhaled with rattling force, then, and dropped his forehead to your shoulder. You kissed his at the same spot you’d bitten, and when he shifted, you opened your legs wider and swallowed back your beating heart. 

“Ok, I’m…” he mumbled, turning his face into your neck. He peppered kisses up it and your jaw, and you inhaled sharply when he rolled his hips over yours, cock nestled over your clit. You whimpered and dug your left hand into his back while his own laced with your right next to the pillow your head was on. “Ok?” he prompted, voice strained.

You nodded quickly. “Mmhm.”

He kissed you through his first slow, sinking thrust, dipping in and out of you to give you time to adjust and open easily for him, swallowing up each of your noises and taking your deathgrip on his playing hand in stride. You were wet, and it wasn’t difficult or painful, but it was… he was… a lot. You pulsed with each bit more he stretched you, and you could feel him throbbing inside you, too. 

“You’re ok,” he mumbled against your mouth. You sighed, parting your lips when his tongue dipped between their seam, and he took the inch you gave him without a moment’s hesitation. You groaned together on his next thrust, and you squeezed your thighs around his hips when he repeated it, finding his angle to glide in and out. 

You huffed laughs and sputtered gracelessly against each other’s mouths, in a raw, unskilled and unpracticed way that was analogous to an inability to walk and chew gum at the same time but, somehow, held more primal appeal. You were robbing each other of finesse and patience, each one as guilty as the other, and there was some pride in that, too. If you focused and separated out each sensory experience, you could feel his necklaces dragging against your skin, back and forth in time with each roll of his hips. 

His moans were what killed you, though. Soft, lazy rumbles trapped in his throat and smothered into your mouth, his own curved in unspoken pleasure. There was something selfish in the way he grabbed you, held you, kissed you, fucked you, trying to get everything all at once because he wanted it. He broke with one that went straight to your toes and pressed his forehead against yours. 

“Look at me,” he pled. “Look at me, look at….”

You cracked your heavy lids open and caught his tremulous smile as he nodded. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes glinted under the shadow of his sweaty hair. “That’s it,” he murmured. “That’s it, honey… oh….”

His eyes fell shut with his groan and you had the distinct thought that he should be looking at you, too, if you had to keep your eyes open. Your mouth moved uselessly, though, yielding only whimpers and soft iterations of his name. You kissed his neck, his jaw, his shoulder, and his bicep, feeling borderline hysteria swell in you because nothing was enough. Nothing satisfied you, you wanted your mouth everywhere, your hands, his mouth and hands. Twelve hours wasn’t enough. It was almost over and you’d just gotten him.

“Harry….”  

He must’ve heard it in the way you said his name, because he thrust harder, then, each fall of his hips heavier than the last and punctuated by grunts that were beyond man. 

“Don’t stop,” you whimpered. “Please… please don’t sto-- oh!” Pleas turned to babbles and you clutched him closer, hands slipping and finding their place on his body again each time. Both of you descended into a language neither of you spoke but somehow understood, following a path made up of instinct and cues. When he rolled over and took you with him, you bore down on his chest and squeezed his hips with your thighs as he guided you by yours, restrained but encouraging, but it didn’t last long before he groaned gutturally through his teeth and his stomach tensed to pull himself up. You locked your arms around his neck as he found your mouth again, but you were just finding your rhythm when he broke with a shuddering breath.

“Over,” he whispered. “Over-- on your-- is that--?” 

Between the both of you, you managed to clamber off him, and you melted from your hands and knees onto your stomach, holding the sheets in your fists with your cheek pressed into the mattress. You shouted wordlessly when he thrust in again, his hands on your hip and ass, and your eyes watered with the even, deep rhythm he found. You could see his lips moving and eyes rolling up in the mirror on the wall, and you stared, transfixed and with your abdomen growing tighter and heavier. 

“Tight,” he said under his breath in awe. “Tight, tight, fuckin’... fuck….” 

You turned your face into the bed and your pitchy moan echoed through the mattress.

“Lemme hear,” he said. “Oh, lemme….” 

“I wanna--” You gulped, mouth dry. “Harry, I wanna--”

“I know,” he muttered, his thrusts rough and choppy. “Fuck, I know, I know….” 

Whimpering, you lifted your hips slightly, and it was then he pulled out completely again and rolled you onto your back. “C’mere,” he said, pushing your knees apart. “C’mere, good girl.” 

He pressed his fingers to your clit and your back bowed away from the bed as you cried out, throat tight. He stroked, and pressed, and teased until the room was spinning from how your head rolled from side to side. You were pretty sure he was inside you when you came, but your orgasm was so deep and powerful all you could do was hold onto him through it and cling to consciousness through endless pulses. You went lax with a wet, ugly sound, and he followed suit in seconds, trapping you against the mattress. You writhed together, seeking grounding relief, and he tucked his head into the crook of your neck as your knee went between his thighs, arms winding around the other and slipping on sweaty skin…. 

“You’re ok,” he groaned. “You’re o-ok.” He smashed a kiss to your shoulder and you absorbed every rattling breath he took. He sputtered laugh. “G-got you good there.” 

You nodded and closed your eyes against the spinning room.

***

3:50.

You didn’t even remember falling asleep. One minute you weren’t and the next you were waking up to the sound of your shower running. You sat up with a start, hand flying out beside you, and you blinked, quickly doing the math. Just over an hour and a half left, and then he’d be gone. 

“Fuck,” you whispered, dragging your hand down your face. You didn’t even know when you’d fallen asleep, so you didn’t know how long you’d been out or how much time was wasted just lying there unconscious. Your robe was on the edge of the bed and you eased closer, with sore limbs and joints, until you could grab it to pull over your shoulders. You nuzzled the collar and took a deep breath, catching what he’d smelled like before the sex on it. From the corner of your eye, you saw a tied up condom in the wastebasket, and you snorted, burying into the soft fabric. You didn’t even remember him when he came. Not his face, or what he’d felt like, or any of it. You’d been so far gone yourself, you’d missed it.

Everything that’d happened had been real.

The bathroom door opened and you looked up as he strolled out in a towel. He met your eyes and you blinked, noting the softness in his features. He nodded, a slight bob of his head, and you returned it. When he dropped the towel, your lips quirked in amusement. Just twelve hours ago, the sight would’ve scandalized you in more ways than one. Now, you’d had sex with him and it was like he did this every day. 

Clothes on, he moved through your room in organized chaos, gathering up what he needed and double checking this, that, or the other thing in the process. Already, he looked a little less like Harry, and a little more like who he had to be. Who he should be, who people expected him to be. Not even an hour ago, he was in bed with you, naked and unguarded, and now he was sharper and looking from the corners of both eyes. 

“Do you have everything?” you asked, finally breaking the silence. 

“Hmm?” He looked up. “Yeah,” he said before you could ask again. “Yeah, I think… just feel like m’missing summat….” His brow was furrowed and again he retraced his steps through your room and bathroom and you stayed out of his way, curled up on the edge of the bed. You knew better than to get in the way of Hurricane Harry. 

“I’ll keep it for you,” you said. “If you have. Or, you know—“ you went on, faltering when he looked at you— “send it on. Probably not to London, because you won’t be there for… but if you tell me where, or who, then I can.”

Where was he going? Who would he be with? Would he be coming home at all? Twelve hours had already been tight, but suddenly they felt scarce compressed between months of vague wondering and waiting. 

“Thanks,” was all he said. “Ok.” He exhaled, smoothing his hands down his t-shirt. “I think that’s….”

You stood when he picked up his bag and followed him towards the door. Should you be? Was this pathetic? Trailing after him like—? 

You squeaked when he stopped short and turned. “What’s wrong?” you asked reflexively. His eyes were wide and his jaw was set, sharp, and his face was a little pale even in the shadows. 

“I’m gonna be back home soon,” he said. “Ok?”

“I know,” you said. 

He licked his lips. “So when I get back….” he took a deep breath. “I’ll see you when I get back?”

You were working rapidly to fit the pieces of what he was saying together, and you nodded, although you weren’t entirely sure what you were agreeing to. How soon was soon? When would he be home? What would you be figuring out, and what did that mean in the meantime? Were you, even tentatively, starting something? What went with that, for him and for you? The idea of him even flirting with someone else made your insides molten. Before, the thought would tickle and prickle uncomfortably, but you’d had twelve hours with him where he was yours and vice versa. You’d slept with him -- knew things about him and what he liked, what made him feel good. He’d made you feel…. 

He exhaled, lips turning up at one corner, and he pulled his shoulders back. He looked simultaneously relieved and cocky. “Right,” he said, mouth still twitching. “I’ll see you when I’m back.” Before you could wonder, he slipped his hand over your waist and leaned in. The kiss was quick — not like most of the ones you’d shared over the course of the day — but he squeezed your cheek. “I’ll see you,” he repeated. 

You smiled slightly and stepped back as he opened the door, and then… he was gone. Until he wouldn’t be again.

Twelve hours and everything had changed completely. Nuzzling the collar of your robe again, you turned and slowly padded back into your room. 

[highwarlockkareena]

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you ali for the tag on this collaboration with @nyx4, ali! @wendashanren

tagging: (I mostly talk about collaboration for this one but if you check #showyourprocess most people talk about how they made their creations or check my first post about giffing here!)

@elysean for this set @timothyolyphant for this set @sugardaddyahxu for this set @jun-hee for this set @bloominflowers​ for this art

I wanted to collaborate with Jackie on a set. We’d talked about it anyway, and thought about what we could work on. So when I saw this request on mdzsnet, i knew this was the one for us.

wei wuxian, black/red, cql, yp!wwx/sunshot campaign scenes/nightless city scenes, the lyrics from "the war" by syml

I knew Jackie loved Syml, so she’d want to make this request, so I put both our names down to claim it, then when Jackie was online checked if she’d prefer to do this one solo, or shared. She loved the idea of a collab, so we got to work.

First we listened to the song a couple of times, thinking about how it worked for wei wuxian. then we broke down which lyrics we wanted to use and the general scenes for them.

We split them out across a number of gifs (originally it was 4 but I don’t have a screenshot of that) with a general idea of scenes we’d work from for each. As you can see, I do plan but my notes tend to be sparse reminders rather than detailed. jackie wanted to dig the angst knife in deep and wanted the ‘my war is over’ to coincide with wei wuxian falling off the cliff, so we worked back from that for our scene choices. 

Jackie:

Originally it was going to be 4 gifs, all of them with the lyrics that made it to the final set, but it would have been too much text on each gif so first we decided on a gif without text in the middle before deciding on spreading out the song a bit more which led to the 7 gif set.

We started making gifs 1 and 3. in my usual fashion i made about 10 gifs to pick which scenes i wanted to work with & jackie made 1 because she isn’t an idiot. 

Jackie:

Kareena does make a ton of gifs just to choose one or two, which is both amusing and amazing. I have proof!

Luckily we’re both admins on WoHDaily, so we used the drafts in there to share a post we could both edit gifs in & out of. 

I’d wanted to do a silhouette edit similar to one in @lan-xichens lovely overlay tutorial, but it wasn’t coming out the way i’d liked, so I had to keep trying different things until it worked as I’d envisioned. 

I finished a touch before Jackie who had taken time to pick emotionally devastating scenes for her gif, so we used my red throughout both, but then  tweaked each gif with feedback from each other. 

Jackie:

When we first decided on the scenes, I waited for her to do the first gif so I could match her colors. Once she made the first one, I showed her this template I made so we could visualize how it’d look.

Then we moved on to the next gifs. This was harder, because we didn’t want to overload the set by making every single gif super fancy, so we tried out a variety of things to see what would hang together nicely. 

Above is an example of one idea of mine that got discarded. I think i had 3 iterations before we got to the gif below. 

Jackie:

I then moved on to gif #6 and I made a gif which Kareena completely shut down. She said, Jackie, this is really ugly. I accepted it, because she is the one with the skills here, and because she was right. (KAREENA: this is a lie - the gif is *gorgeous* but it just has a lot going on in an already busy gifset.)

There was too much going on in that gif and it didn’t really fit with the set we were making. The gif we ended up with fit much better and I’m glad she said something. For the last gif, I showed her a few shots and we both agreed on those two (wwx crying, walking backwards on the cliff). I made a couple of gifs that Kareena was nice enough to say were gorgeous, but I thought they sucked. Third one is what we ended up with.

For me, most of the work was in getting the scenes to fit the lyrics and to work with the color scheme that the requester gave us.

We continued to work this way, making ideas and sharing them, tweaking or discarding or remaking as necessary until we were both happy with the gifs. It wasn’t too hard to get them to work as a set, it was mostly about communication and honesty. jackie and i get on well enough to crit each others gifs without worry, so we both liked what was created. We pushed each other, Jackie knows I’m very lazy & she didn’t let me slack. I pushed her in other areas so that we both tried out new skills. 

Once the seven gifs were made, it was time for typography! We spent a little time discussing our love of simple fonts, sharing a few examples, before I handed over to jackie as the typography queen.  

Now, fonts:

Yup, I like simple fonts and for the typography not to take over the whole set. Luckily, Kareena feels the same way, so early on we decided on two fonts, one of them to highlight a word here or there. I showered her some fonts samples, we agreed on a style, and then I got to work.

The fonts used were:

Ostrich Sans  https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ostrich-sans

Memories  https://www.dafont.com/memories-2.font

I kept it simple, just looking where the text would look best. I didn’t know how to wrap text around a shape before, which is what I wanted for gif #3. Turns out it’s very easy and people probably know this already but I’m a ps noob (lie). Still putting this here just in case anyone wants to know.

Using the Ellipse Tool/Custom Shape Tool, I made a circle 2px bigger than the bw gif i wanted to wrap the text around. I didn’t want the shape to be visible, so I chose Path there. (If you choose shape, the actual shape will be visible in whatever color you have chosen)

With the Type Tool, just hover over the line of the shape and a squiggly thing will appear. Click and start typing. I then dragged the text and fit it over the bw gif. I made the shape on the side so I could see it clearly, but you can make it over the actual shape you want the text to wrap around. Listen, this is the best I can describe it ✌

We discussed how to post the set. Since it was a group effort, should one of us post it or should we post it via the net? Since we’ve also got another request lined up to collaborate on, we decided that I would post this set & Jackie would post the next one. 

TLDR: 

It was fun, it was about communication and compromise. Pushing each other in our weak spots, nitpicking at each gif to make them the best we could, agreeing why one gif might not work in this set. It was about mixing two styles but still creating something we both liked! It was enough fun we have two more collaborations planned, just to keep having fun and to keep learning.