#i'm also not super confident in writing the characters

[fragmentedblade]

The "Dan Heng is Dan Feng" dogmatics annoy me a lot. It entirely brushes off one of the most interesting and prevalent questions posed by the game, incarnated by several characters and stories that give the question different hues with different potential answers, and a constant also in HI3, like a thread waving the two games together

[rookinthecrownest]

Some Updated Thoughts on Lucanis' Romance (Both Positive & Constructive)

I want to make this as balanced and as reasonable a take as I can. I'll put everything under the cut and tag as critical so you don't have to engage with it/see it if you don't want to.

As usual, these are just my opinions. If you really enjoyed Lucanis' romance, none of what I'm about to say is meant to dissuade you from that. I'm happy for you!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. There were parts of it that I absolutely loved too, and I hope I'll do that justice with this post so it doesn't come across as hate. Because I don't hate his romance, I just think there was some places where it could have been fleshed out a bit more.

If you want to engage in discussion with the more critical aspects of this post, my only request is you do so respectfully.

Positives

I'd like to start on a good note by detailing the aspects of his romance that I really liked. There are a few places where I think they did a great job with his romance.

Party Banter & Codex Entries

Although meant to be supplemental material to the story, I think they do a really good job at helping the slow-burn aspect of his romance they were going for. There's one codex entry that goes something along the lines of 'It is not an hour lost, but an hour found' and that is one of my favourite codex entries....ever. It's such a short entry but so meaningful and shows you a lot about his character. You get this profound sense of just how much Rook means to him with this one line.

His party banter once you're in a relationship is also very sweet. I didn't get a lot of it, but what I did get was lovely. Especially when he admits to Neve that Rook is good for him and makes him smile. There's another line about how he doesn't know what Rook sees in him, but he's happy they're with him which is super sweet. Telling Emmrich how Rook is his first relationship? Adorable.

Everything about the party banter and codex entries did a good job of giving us more insight into how his character is dealing with things, when it's not explicitly shown to us in cutscenes (We'll come back to this later). It helps form a more complete picture of the way they wanted to handle this romance in general.

Relationship Cutscenes

There's a few scenes throughout the romance that I enjoyed a lot.

The scene with Illario at Cafe Pietra and the talk of first kisses and kisses goodbye was very cute and well done. It really did feel like a coffee date haha.

The almost-kiss scene was also amazing. The confident stride towards Rook, the wall-lean, his facial expression when he pulls away. You can feel how much he wants it, but something in the back of his mind (whether it's him, or Spite) pulls him away at the last second? I loved that. I'm actually super glad they didn't kiss here. The pull away made for great tension (I'm going to come back to why this is important later).

His line about Rook breaking apart his 'perfectly gathered clouds of doom' was beautiful, and one of my favourite lines in the game.

Although there could have been more to it, his romance lock-in scene with him baking dessert for Rook is also sweet and shows his romantic side and thoughtfulness.

The ending scene of the romance, after Rook comes out of the Fade Prison, is some of my favourite romance scenes in any Bioware game. Any game, period. It was so incredibly well done. From the writing, to the dialogue, to the facial expressions - absolutely everything was perfect. The wings coming out, the fade to black, the banter about falling asleep and playing cards with Spite? Lovely. All absolutely lovely. 10/10, no notes.

His dialogue about killing any god to keep Rook safe is very sweet/romantic. How he wants Rook to tell them this all ends with him asleep in their arms. How Rook's voice is a comfort. This was SO beautiful.

All in all, in some places, I feel that they did achieve the slow burn they wanted with his romance. Even excelled at it, really.

Constructive Criticism

I'm just going to re-iterate that while this section may be longer than the positives, it comes from a place of love rather than just wanting to hate for the sake of hating. I've been a fan of this character ever since I picked up Tevinter Nights, and was looking forward to his romance the most.

The Neve Situation

I'm going to get this one out of the way first because it's probably one of the more.... contentious points in this discussion.

Besties, I need you all to hold my hand so tightly as I say this, but absolutely none of my frustration with the Neve/Lucanis thing is to be construed as hate towards Neve. In fact, I love Neve. I've been a fan of her since she appeared in the comics. I loved her in Tevinter Nights. I love her in the game, I can't wait to romance her. I don't have a problem with these two characters getting together if Rook is not romancing either of them. That being said, there are a few things about his interactions with Neve if romanced by Rook that I can see why they would rub people the wrong way (and why they rub me the wrong way a little bit too).

-Neve and Lucanis can still flirt after Lucanis is locked into a romance with Rook. This is a pretty big oversight from the devs. Its no secret that characters will romance each other if not in a romance with the player character. It happened in DA2 with Fenris/Isabela, in DAI with Josephine/Blackwall, Sera/Dagna, and Bull/Dorian. In ME, I believe it happens with Garrus and Tali as well. So, I don't think the simple fact that they can get together is really what's bothering people.

Importantly, unlike previous games, once the player character is locked into a romance with the other party, the LI doesn't flirt with other companions. I think if the devs had locked the flirting once Lucanis is locked in with romance, much of this conversation wouldn't even be happening.

DATV is a role-playing game. Nothing would take someone out of a role-playing game faster than their love-interest being flirty with another companion - and understandably so. It just feels...icky? Like your player character is getting in the way of a ship the writers wanted. I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to not want to feel like a third wheel in their own romance.

-In Lucanis' mind-prison quest, even if he's romanced by Rook, Neve will still appear. The way Spite describes her seems to imply he still has some sort of romantic feelings for her. Which.... yikes (but this may also just be the way I read his line). If he's not romanced by Rook, Neve being here would make sense. There's not even a mention about Rook in a note or anything. Spite has one line about Rook opening doors and not closing them but that's about it. There's no special romance reactivity in this scene, even though it happens pretty late in the game and after the romance-lock in. Afterwards, he says he trusts you with his thoughts, which is sweet. But this should have been in the cutscene - not skippable banter at the LightHouse.

Set Up & Pay-off

This is a fundamental aspect of storytelling I'm sure you're all familiar with. The classic Chekov's gun. Don't set up something you don't plan to pay off.

Let's go back to the almost-kiss. They set up some fantastic romantic tension here. If you go see Lucanis again after this scene, I think he has a line along the lines of "I'm sorry Rook... I can't ..." But that's all we get. And the almost-kiss isn't really addressed again. Actually I wouldn't even call this being addressed in the first place, because if you wait too long to see him after that cutscene it may not trigger in the first place. This is probably the most egregious example of wasted set up with no pay off. There's no discussion about it. There's no cutscene of Lucanis talking to another companion, or even having some kind of internal monologue about it.

Another example of set up & pay-off is after confronting Illario. Lucanis says he has a plan to celebrate instead of sticking around at the party.

Cut to him drinking coffee by himself back at the Lighthouse.

Rook & Lucanis could have sneaked off to Cafe Pietra, or gone walking in the Treviso market. Or hell, taken the Gondola ride that was in the concept art. Or kissed in the rain under an awning. (I'm never getting over that concept art they showed us...)

The conversation about sparing Illario, how he doesn't want to lose what he has left, including Rook, is fine. But I feel this was another wasted opportunity.

The romance lock-in scene is another example of a missed opportunity/failed set-up. It doesn't even feel like a romance lock-in to a lot of people. If so many players think their game is bugged because that's how you lock in the romance, I think there's a problem. You go from almost kissing to a full on relationship. There is so much that can happen in between that (none of which has to be physical intimacy btw) which could have helped make the lock in scene make more sense. It's the same scene as the one with Neve - but almost...done worse?

Having coffee with Spite & Lucanis. This one is more a writing issue. At the end of the scene he stands awkwardly next to Rook and says, "Whatever this is, I'll take it" and I couldn't help but feel... the writers really just didn't know what they wanted to accomplish with this scene. 'Whatever this is' could have been 'I don't know what this is yet or what to call it, but whatever it is, I want to see it through with you' or something along those lines. Astarion actually says something similar in one of his romance scenes, but he holds your hand, looks at Tav earnestly, and says "Honestly, I don't know what we're doing. But this...this is nice..". He doesn't put a name to the relationship either, but it's the way he says it and how it's conveyed that make it a more effective scene.

He's been imprisoned for a year. He was made into an abomination. He doesn't sleep. He's dealing with PTSD probably. He's a romantic at heart but needs to learn to trust again. It makes sense that he's not overly flirty with Rook, and the romance isn't very physical. This is all FINE.

BUT.

While I listed the codex entries & party banter as a positive (because I do like it), I feel that they leaned too heavily on that for the romance.

Let's contrast Lucanis' romance to Cullen's romance in DAI. After all, Cullen has also gone through some pretty traumatic shit and is literally struggling with Lyrium addiction when you meet him in Inquisition. I want you to remove all of Cullen's side-banter about the inquisitor, all party banter about their relationship, and all the codex entries. When you watch the cutscenes of his romance in order, you are still left with a solid romance. If you're a mage, you even get some heartbreaking mage-specific dialogue about whether or not he'd cut you down if you ever become an abomination.... And I'm getting off topic here, sorry.

My point is, these things are meant to be extra. They are not supposed to be the way you piece together bits of your own relationship and a substitute for companion interaction. And here is where I think DATV's choice not to let you randomly talk to your companions really hurts it as a game.

Romance Reactivity

There's a few points in the game where romance-specific dialogue would have really helped solidify things.

No, I don't mean flirting. I mean dialogue that reads like he's struggling with building the relationship - not bulldozing right past it. It makes the romance-specific dialogue wheel options feel rather useless.

One example is during one of his personal quests, Rook says

"I'm still here aren't I"

No facial reaction, "We need to talk about Illario"

You can see how this is a bit ... jarring, right? Like you may as well have not even picked the romance-specific dialogue? There's a few instances of this, but that one is just the one I can recall off the top of my head. When I pick the romance-specific dialogue wheel in Bioware games, there's always something about the response from the other character that indicates something more might be going on - it could be something as simple as a nervous smile, or an extra line of dialogue, or hell, maybe they flirt back (although with Lucanis I understand why he wouldn't).

If you're not going to show romance reactivity with Rook, give us a scene with Lucanis where we understand why. Show him fumbling to do something nice for them. Show him pacing and wondering if Rook is really into him. Show him struggling against Spite, if he's worried Spite will hurt Rook. Don't just tell us through codex entries. Show us.

Miscellaneous Sentiments & Final Thoughts

On the whole, I genuinely feel like Lucanis has the least content out of all the companions. Maybe it's because they laid off Courtney Woods & Mary Kirby, maybe there's another reason. I don't know. But so often I found myself going back to the Lighthouse wanting to talk to Lucanis but there's no little indicator thingy for him. But every time I go back Davrin, Harding, Bellara, etc. all have something to say.

We should have had an opportunity to delve a little bit more into his relationship with his family, unpacked the stuff with Caterina & Illario a bit more, and unpacked him being made First Talon. Which, if you read Tevinter Nights, you know he actually doesn't want the job. If they weren't going to include it as a cutscene, then extra dialogue (a-la-Inquisition) would have been a good place to fit that in.

On the whole, I still like aspects of his romance. I'm looking forward to romancing him again. I just feel that the romance could have benefitted from even 1 or 2 extra small scenes. If I can go on 1000 walks in the forest with Davrin and Assan, I should be able to have a real conversation with Lucanis about the relationship, his hangups about it, and try and work through it.

Keep the almost-kiss in there. An extra kiss before the finale would have been fine, but not necessary. What was necessary, imo, is a whooole lot of buildup throughout the course of Act 2 so it doesn't feel like you're getting whiplash in Act 3 when you do kiss and have the implied sex scene.

I think the concept art that was recently released feels like a gut punch to us Lucanis fans. Because it shows that Bioware had the skeleton of a great romance, and chose to axe nearly all of it.

It really feels like they didn't quite know what to do with his character and romance and just said 'put it all in the codex and banter and let them figure it out for themselves'.

Quick Notes

The argument that we should 'run to AO3' to fix our issues with the narrative, to me, is unproductive. Fanfiction should supplement the source material, not act as a replacement for good storytelling.

I don't think telling people to headcanon a majority of a romance they were looking forward to is helpful either. Headcanon is not supposed to replace storytelling either.

Boiling down the criticisms of Lucanis' romance to 'you just want more steam/sex/etc' is also unhelpful. Maybe it's just who I follow, but I have barely seen anyone (on here or reddit) state that this is their main problem with the romance.

Okay, that's it!

Bye!

[kokomyass]

Genshin headcannons ☆ Traveller finding out that you are in a relationship with genshin characters pt.3

Genshin x Fem!Reader

Genre: ☁️

Trigger warnings ⚠️: none!!

featuring: Itto, Tighnari, Lyney

synopsis: in which, traveller and paimon find out you are an ✨️ITEM✨️!!!

Notes: for itto you are part of the L/N (last name) clan, for tighnari you are a forest ranger and for lyney you are his wonderful assistant!!

a/n: thank you anon for the request I enjoy writing these and it makes me giggle with I write them because I feel like I can imagine them happening....anyways enjoy lovlies!!

Itto

The Traveller and Paimon had found themselves in Inazuma again, this time just for some fun.

To their suprise one of the first people they encountered was the infamous Arataki Gang having what seemed to be a meeting in the middle of nowhere making an absolute ruckus with Shinobu stood with her arms crossed wishing she was somewhere else.

"Alright, gang! Today's meeting is super important! We gotta decide what to buy for our new, amazing, drop dead gorgeous, special member....AKA my girlfriend!" Arataki Itto's voice echoed.

"Well, if it isn't Bull Chucker! Fancy seeing you hear...making a LOT of noise as usual...." Itto turned his head and noticed the Traveller and Paimon making their way to where he was stood, a beam making its way on his face.

"Well, if it's isn't my amigos, the Traveller and little Lavender Melon Paimon!!" he boomed out.

"Hello, Traveller and Paimon it is nice to see you once again." Kuki said calmly in contrast to Itto's voice.

"Hey guys! Nice to see you too! What are you all up too? You seem awfully excited Itto....well more excited than usual..." Paimon asked with confusion.

"Well I am glad you asked, we have a newest member who also happens to be-"

Before Itto could finish his sentence, you approached, holding a pot that steamed with a delicious aroma.

You had a confident yet gentle smile on your face as Itto looked at you mesmerised. The Traveller definitely didn't miss this romantic gaze.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone," you said, setting the pot down. "I brought food for everyone too eat!"

"Y/N! You're just in time! Everyone, meet Y/N from the L/N clan AND my girlfriend. She has joined the Arataki gang to be in charge of making meals, since she loves to cook for people!"

"Hello all, nice to meet you. I have heard so much about you! All good things don't worry!" You chuckle as Paimon and The traveller looked back and forth between you and Itto looking stunned.

"The L/N clan?!?! How on earth did you pull a member of the rich, powerful and famous L/N clan? I suppose your good at some things...."

"HUH?! Shut it Lavender Melon!! The way we met isn't important-"

"Oh, it's rather romantic, don't you think Itto!" you wrapped your arm around Itto's after interrupting him and resting your head on his arm, as he sweatdropped.

"He broke into my residence to get some flowers, but I caught him and then we got chatting and obviously I fell in love with him!"

"WHAT?!?!?" Paimon and The traveller shouted as you and Kuki laughed and Itto couldn't look up.

"What can I say....I am a charisma king, I must say!"

Tighnari

Despite being in a relationship with the smartest person you know, his knowledge clearly didn't rub off on you because you felt like you were getting dumber by the day.

It all started when Tighnari had asked you and Collei to go identify some mushrooms to distinguish if the were edible or not to update the Avidya Forest Survival Guide.

After seeing a mushrooms that 'had to be edible' in your terms you decided to take a bite. Whilst the flavour was lovely to start off the with dizziness that came after was a clear indicator that it was probably poisonous

"Collei! Who is this and what's going on?!" you see through your lidded eyes a high pitched flying fairy and someone who looks like they are from out of Teyvat.

"Traveller, Paimon! Perfect timing! There is no time to explain but please help me take her to Master Tighnari!!"

Next thing you know you pass out completely and wake up with Tighnari sat on your bed checking your temperature and checking for any rashes.

"Tigh...nari??" you mumble reaching for him as he holds your hand.

"Ah Y/N, you are awake. Now what did I tell you and what have I always told you about the mushrooms you eat? What made you think eating this mushroom would benefit you! You have to listen to me or worse things could happen and you-" He stopped rambling and let out a big sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry, Nari...I promise I won't do it again..." you were now sat up looking guilty as he engulfed you in a hug that you reciprocated.

"Don't worry, just....be careful. I don't want to lose you."

"AHEM!!! Sorry to interrupt but the are still 2 very confused people stood here!!" Paimon burst out.

"My apologies, this Y/N a forest ranger and my girlfriend, she also takes care of Collei from time to time. Y/N, this is the Traveller and Paimon that I have told you about." Tighnari casually said patting your head as he got up to go to his table.

"Hey guys! It is a pleasure to meet you! I apologise for the circumstances...I can be rather clumsy at times..." you chuckle slightly as you sweatdropped.

"Nice to meet you too! I hope we become close friends! We didn't know you had a girlfriend Tighnari....it must be refreshing since you are opposites"

"Quite! It Master Tighnari says no about something I can go to Master Y/N and she will say yes!!" Collei happily exposes you and herself as you sweatdrop and Tighnari's head snaps back.

"COLLEI!!" both you and Tighnari shout as the Traveller and Paimon sit there chuckling.

Lyney

It was very dark at night and the Traveller and Paimon had just finished doing a commission for Katheryne and decided that the weather was nice enough to go on a scenic walk.

What they didn't expect to see on a cliff was a figure who looked like Lyney and another figure opposite him sat on a picnic blanket.

After some consideration they both mutually decided to approach you both.

What they didn't know is that you and Lyney were on a date, something you barely went on due to being busy. Lyney was the most romantic person you know and he always knew how to show you magic that you had never seen before that sent your heart aflame.

"My dearest rainbow rose, it pains me we cannot spend time together as romantically as we used to...when we are at work we are forced to keep is hidden..."

He holds your hands tightly and when he removes them a rainbow rose was in one hand and a box of expensive chocolates was in your other's you embrace each other.

"Uhhh, I hope we aren't interrupting anything...." Paimon suddenly speaks up scaring you both as you jolt away from each other pretending nothing happened.

"O-oh Traveller and Paimon!! What are you doing here?? I mean nice to see you again...." Lyney chuckles nervously as he hadn't intended for anyone to see him and you. You relationship was secret after all.

"Nice to see you too....but we should be asking what you are doing here embracing a woman!! And why do you look suspicious?!" Paimon laid all the questions on him, he let out a sigh giving up.

"Well, this woman here is Y/N, my personal assistant and also....my girlfriend. We have been keeping our relationship secret because it's a personal thing we don't want others to see."

"Hello Traveller and Paimon! It's lovely to meet you! Lyney has nothing but praises for you both!" you speak up smiling warmly.

"Hi there Y/N, nice to meet you too!! We are shocked you have a girlfriend Lyney considering how secretive you are...."

Lyney let out a heartly laugh intertwining his hand with yours.

"Well, I too would've said that 1 year ago but Y/N managed to steal a magicians heart, the hardest trick of all." Lyney looks at you lovingly as you look back at him lovingly too.

"Well, you guys are so wholesome and sweet, we are in support of your secret-"

"CLICK!!"

Everyones head snapped around to see Charlotte the Journalist taking pictures.

"CHARLOTTE NO!!" everyone shouted as The Traveller and Paimon sais their farewells and quickly caught her making sure she deleted those photos for good.

~•○☆○•~~•○☆○•~~•○☆○•~~•○☆○•~~•○☆○•~

a/n: thank you once again for the amazing request and if anyone wants anymore of these or anything help lemme know and I'll try my best!! love you all 💜🌙💜🌙💜🌙

[veren-cos]

Bachelors (sdv) x reader on their period

Gender neutral, but purely because of the prompt, afab reader. I'd say everything I write is gender neutral besides the very rare Trans masc reader ☆

Not proofread and I wrote this in like 25 min- I'll update this when I'm less tired.

Harvey

• A literal doctor.

• Is not weirded out like at all. He is all like, "Oh okay! Do you need anything at all?" And moved on with life

• Maybe has a little blush when you first talk about it? It's a completely normal thing at work (and in life), but it's just because it's you that he wants to make sure he handles it well.

• Would probably get you chocolate. And a heating pad. And blankets. And all the things.

• Aka would just spoil you a bit more than normal, periods suck and he knows-

• If you had any like disorder involving you Period he would be extra on top of stuff.

• Will make sure you are well stocked on and properly take pain meds!

Elliott

• Would just absolutely spoil you!

• Runs a bath, gets chocolate, threw your pajamas in the dryer to get them extra warm, heating pad.

• Might give you a massage if they are super painful? Probably would do it regardless but he would definitely offer if he knew that got bad.

• Idk why he knows so much, maybe it's because of Leah? I don't really write about the bachelotettes, but I feel like she would be super open about it so that's why Elliott knows a lot.

• But yeah he'd be super good to you! Would make you food just because. He is great at spoiling people, but not actually great at knowing what to do physically haha. (I think I mentioned in a previous fic where he just makes you soup if your in pain, he would do that here too)

Shane

• So if I just take Shane as a standalone character I don't think he'd know a lot / want to know/ care.

• But!

• Jas. I'm not sure what age she is supposed to be (literally anywhere from 7-12 imo) but I feel like Shane would have read up on Period stuff in preparation.

• So he would actually be more informed than Elliott!

• Now onto the actual stuff lol-

• He wouldn't be super pamper-y like Elliott and Harvey, but he would definitely help around the house more.

• Animals are all taken care of, crops are all watered, took care of some weeds, etc.

• He would also probably be a bit more physically affectionate purely because he knows you like it.

• Might be a bit embarrassed about it at first but after the first one he gets the gist of what to do.

Alex

• Would be relatively informed just because he is a health nut, but also doesn't know what to do because the most important woman in his life is postmenopausal-

• Probably would just give you chocolate and hugs because he knows like. Emotional and cravings.

• If they were super bad he would ask his grandma for help!

• Wouldn't be embarrassed about it! Once again. Health nut. Gets you pain meds!

Sebastian

• Okay. So. Sebastian.

• Literally lives with 2 ladies. Both very strong confident women. He wouldn't be uninformed by any means, but he probably is still awkward around the topic lmao

• Like if you were complaining he would be like "...." "am I supposed to do something about that?"

• AND HE DIDNT MEAN IT IN A RUDE WAY he was genuinely asking. But he just doesn't know and also is an awkward guy?

• Would do the least out of all the Bachelor's. Maybe just be more emotionally available because Period mood swings be rough. Makes more time to talk about things with you.

• Grabs you ibuprofen or Tylenol, whatever you have in the house.

Sam

• So Sam lives with a kind of coddling mom, does not have sisters, so like. His mom wouldn't talk to him about it. He has no 'personal' experience with it.

• Would be the most clueless-

• But he would definitely be like, "oh babe that sucks let me know what I can do"

• Gives you more cuddles, helps on the farm.

• Super enthusiastic about making you comfortable! He makes it into a way bigger deal than it is but he is genuinely curious about stuff so you think it's cute.

• After your first one when your together he is much better prepared / informed so he isn't all over the place.

• Just very cute and well meaning.

An* I hope this was at least a little cute / silly / comforting / whateveryouwantedoutofthis! I base everything off of personal experience because, like, it's all I got- but more people should be comfortable talking about this! It's completely normal and just a basic human function. So if yours is different than what others describe, that's okay! If yours is exactly the same, also okay! Idk where I'm going with this, but there is no shame in having a period, and that's on that!

This also came off way more dramatic than I meant it to be, but I live for the drama so it's okay (this applies to both the fic and the author's note-)

Masterlist

[kajibunny]

⋆⁺˖♧° let's play ‪♡ (jo togame x reader) ⟡₊♢⊹

✿ summary: it's a fact that jo togame likes to play. you decide that you want to play with him, too. will one match of shogi and a bet lead to your endgame?  ✿ contains: mutual pining, super suggestive, lots of sexual tension, he calls you 'kitten'  ✿ a/n: this idea just popped into my head randomly while browsing the wb character facts that says togame plays go and shogi and i had to write it! at first it was supposed to be cute and fun, but then it ended up becoming kind of spicy too lol (⸝⸝⸝- ᴗ -⸝⸝⸝ ;) i dedicate this to @togament, come play with your man asjdnjsnsk and for all you togame lovers out there, hope you enjoy! ♡ ✿ wc: 1k

jo togame had quite the competitive streak when it came to strategy games like go and shogi. playing often cleared his mind, and he's acquired tons of practice by having recreational matches with his elder friends at the local public bath house. 

he noticed you from across the room, eyeing his earlier game in the common area, as it piqued your interest. (well, that, and he also piqued your interest.) it was refreshing for you to see such a handsome young man playing shogi with the elders and looking like he had the time of his life as he did. 

togame made his way over to you after his game ended, and asked you if you wanted to play a round with him too. 

"are you sure? i'm quite good at shogi, you know." you asserted, and he chuckled a bit at your claims. "oh yeah? then show me." 

"let's play then." you said as you sat down across from him, the board positioned in front of the both of you.

he liked a challenge, especially if that so-called challenge was from someone as cute as you, your arms crossed trying to look intimidating, but you were no more intimidating than a little bunny. togame found you so adorable.

"hm? how about we raise the stakes, loser fulfills the winner's wish." he said with a calm tone, as if he knew he was going to win. 

"okay, you're on. i guess i'll start thinking of my wish now." confident that you weren't going to lose either, as you had watched his previous game, and had an idea of how he played. 

"i won't go easy on you, kitten." he had a small glint presenting itself in his mesmerizing green eyes. 

"it's fine, i can take it." you assured him, not taking your eyes off his, even for a second. 

your shogi game with togame lasted for almost an hour, proving himself to to be a formidable opponent. 

it also didn't help that he was just too attractive for his own good that you couldn't maintain your concentration, and it pulled your focus away from the game whenever you caught yourself absentmindly staring and admiring his hazy eyes laced with thick eyelashes, the prominent veins in his big, calloused hands as he moved the piece, the same hands than ran itself through his tousled black hair whenever he was deep in thought about his next move, and when he looked at you with half-lidded eyes awaiting your turn, it just became too much for you to handle. 

you were in such close proximity to him too, the only thing standing in the way of both of you was that damn shogi board.

once he had occupied your whole territory with his pieces, you knew you were done for. you thought you had no weaknesses, but it turns out that you had one, and it was jo togame.

"checkmate, kitten." 

it was over, his king had captured yours, and you had no chance of escaping. how is this possible? you were so sure of yourself, but togame pulled up some tactics that you had never before seen in the history of shogi.

you definitely hadn't seen it coming. togame's moves were just too unpredictable. nonetheless, you blamed yourself inwardly for being so distracted by him during the match. 

afterwards, you two talked for a bit more as you thanked him for the match and helped each other pack up, your hands occassionally grazing and lightly touching his as you two arranged the shogi pieces. 

"okay, since you won, tell me what you wish for." you turned to him. you felt a warmth creeping up on your cheeks as he mischievously smiled, his hand motioning you to come closer to him so he could tell you. 

togame whispers in your ear, and you could feel his warm breath tickling your face. "i want you. you're what i wish for. let me know if you want to fulfill it." togame is a simple, straightforward man. if he puts his mind to something, he does everything he can to make sure he gets what he wants. 

and oh god, did you want him too. 

it all escalated way too quickly from there. it wasn't just a game anymore, it was reality. you weren't exactly sure how it happened but, in an instant, you two were all over each other, kissing unabashedly, tongues fighting for dominance as if all that built up tension from competing with each other translated into your mouths and hands. 

"i-ah, i was going to wish for the same thing too, by the way." you murmured in between his lips. "let's grant your wish too, shall we?" he softly backs you onto the wall, pinning your wrist against it with his hand, as he continues kissing you, controlling the pace this time, his mouth dominating yours completely. 

he tasted so good, a hint of lemon flavored ramune on his lips. you couldn't stop, he was like a magnet, the attraction between both of you way too strong that you couldn't separate yourself and your body from his. you felt like your make out session with togame lasted even longer than the shogi game you had played with him.

you knew togame liked to play to win, but that night, you felt like you had won too, and you were certain that your match with him had actually ended in a draw. 

but you couldn't settle for just a draw, you were way too competitive for that. there was no way you'd let him leave with the satisfaction, in fact, you were going to show togame how ready you were to have another round with him.

© kajibunny 2024 / all rights reserved

[sorcerousundries]

If you're taking requests, could you please write something about which Lotr and The Hobbit characters would be most attracted to a reader who's really intelligent and good at debating them? Like I'm picturing a sort of Rivals to Lovers dynamic where the reader is super smart and really good at arguing their points, but I'm curious which Tolkien characters you think would be most into that type of partner 🤔

I can totally picture Eomer falling for a person like that because he honestly seems perfect for Enemies to Lovers arcs, but tldr what Tolkien characters do you think would be most attracted to a super intelligent person who could debate them into the dirt? Thanks!

I have been alone all my life but with the compensations of intellect.

Lord of the rings and The hobbit characters react to an intelligent reader

Warnings: none

Includes: Elrond, Thranduil, Gimli and Éomer

A/n: thank you for your request <3

Content under the cut

Elrond — Friends to lovers

You and Elrond would meet in a fairly formal setting, maybe during a business gathering or a dinner of sorts.

You would be chatting with some high noble who would introduce you to lord Elrond and the two of you clicked immediately.

He would often invite you for tea and insist you stay for dinner, maybe offering you a bed as the hour gets later.

He is knowledgeable about history, lore and the affairs between both men and elves alike, he would likely be drawn to someone he can engage deeply in discussions of middle earths past, present and future.

The debates between you and lord Elrond would be competitive but friendly, if he lost he would shrug it off, the pinnacle of healthy masculinity. If he won, he wouldn’t care, maybe tease you if your friendship started to grow closer but never in a cruel, condescending way.

He would grow feelings slowly yet steadily, he would never force himself on you but he couldn’t deny the flutter of his heart whenever you’d smirk triumphantly as besting him during a debate of which medicine would be best to use for a rope burn, the simple action making his heart warm.

As your relationship turns romantic your playful banter wouldn’t stop, it would only grow, turning into silly debates before bed as you two move in chorus around the bedroom, performing your separate night routines though you’d never allow the room to grow silent as you chat about whatever topic comes to mind.

Overall he’d enjoy having a partner that he could chat away with, it’s rare that he finds someone who equals his intelligence, let alone best it.

Thranduil — Shared traumas

Thranduil would likely already be acquainted with you, after all the king knows everything that happens in his kingdom.

Though he only started to cultivate a relationship with you when you outwitted him in his own throne room, for the first time a millennium the king of the woodland realm was left speechless, you intrigued him, instead of sending you away he invited you to join him in his study.

The debates between you two would be filled with romantic tension, heated discussions would be filled with you leaned so forward your nose would also my be touching his, as you did something that countered his you would pull back, thoughts of how his eyes would dart down to your lips so quick you almost didn’t see it would flood your brain.

He would love discussing battle strategies and such, even better if an elf and you saw the battle for yourself.

Nothing pleases him more than falling back on you when he doubts his leadership skills, after having to listen to courtiers and advisors drone on about their ideas and excuses, he can go to and simply sit across the room as you answer his questions logically, not even looking up from your book.

Your relationship would start to turn romantic when he confided in you about his troubles, his worries for his son, even telling you about the death of his wife.

And who knows, maybe he’ll pull you in for a kiss before you turn in for the night.

Gimli — opposites attract

Gimli would first see you at the court of Elrond, during the forming of the fellowship.

He never thought his heart would lurch from his chest when he saw an elf sitting at lord Elrond side, chin held high and regal.

Not even his admiration for lady Galadriel could compare to the way his heart jumped at the sight of you.

While he’s not typically seen as a debater, Gimli has a strong sense of pride surrounding his culture and way of life, he would be drawn to someone who can engage in conversation about dwarven history and culture with him.

He would hold an immense level of respect for you, often coming to you to double check any technical blueprints or a different perspective if he’s struggling to visualise how something would come together. He would appreciate someone who can offer unbiased opinions not swayed by any existing rivalry between elves and dwarves.

Any debates with him would lively and high spirited,he would engage enthusiastically defending his views with passion and light hearted humour, your discussions could range from history and craftsmanship to the simple differences between elves and dwarves.

He would let out a small “oh!” As you kiss him on the cheek, nodding him a farewell after helping him find scrolls about an ancient smithing technique, his smile turning his eyes into slights as he pumps his fist once you’ve turned your back.

Eomer — Enemies to lovers

Eomer would find your intelligence intriguing and infuriating at the same time.

His warrior ideals and loyalty to Rohan would initially clash with your more logical approach to things, your debates would arise over strategies in battle most likely.

Early on in your relationship, misunderstandings were the main fuel to your bitter relationship. Your critical views on his leadership or warfare would be interpreted as disrespect, driving a wedge between you two.

But as the power of Sauron grows, you’re forced to put your differences aside.

He would begrudgingly admit that you’re actually very useful in a fight, offering new ideas that contrast his own.

However one night as your both sat around the fire, when every other solider has turned in for the night, he might open up, revealing to you his fears about not being a good leader, you in turn offer him insights and philosophical perspectives that resonate with him.

He thinks about the conversation when he nods silently before sauntering off to his tent, laying in bed staring up at the white linen cloth of his tent, the words he forgets as he slowly realises he in-fact wasn’t listening to your words, instead focusing on the curve of your lips and the brush of your eyelashes against your cheeks every time you blinked, the way your eyes gleamed as the fire crackled.

He frowns as the words “oh shit, I’m in love with them” echoed in his inner monologue.

He doesn’t tell you through words rather showing you, right before the rohirrims marched to Gondor he would give you heated kiss, displaying not his passion as a warrior, but as a lover.

[nightlyrequiem]

I just got an idea of Valeria trying to court a painfully obvious and slow reader. I was reading your bimbo hcs and just thought of it. All I can think of for reference is Adrien Agreste from miraculous. The reader would unintentionally friendzone Valeria, making it seem impossible for Valeria to succeed. Do with this information what you please :p ^_^

-💋xoxo

I love love love the oblivious trope. Adrien's level of obliviousness was definitely something else. Especially with the wax statue scene...

I just think it's super fun when a character has to really work for that relationship. Like yes, show me you're truly committed. If they aren't willing to be unknowingly rejected five times, then I don't WANT IT!

also since you mentioned the bimbo headcanons then I'm going to assume you wanted Reader to be similar here. I like this idea so much I might write a little one-shot for it someday

Valeria and Oblivious Reader

Valeria absolutely ADORES you. Even if you maybe aren't too bright. You and Valeria met because you worked at a clothing store. She just happened to stop by one day to check it out and saw you very enthusiastically styling some woman.

Suddenly Valeria had no sense of style and needed you to help her out. She approached you confidently and was pleasantly surprised to find you not intimidated by her. In fact, you gushed over her tattoos and touched her arm. You also loved her 'super cool haircut.'

Valeria proceeded to show up whenever she could. Chatting you up and befriending you. It wasn't hard, you were so friendly and eager to talk to her. Unfortunately, you didn't pick up on flirting. At all. At first, it could be excused, she was being subtle and testing the waters but one time she told you how kissable your lips looked, and you just replied with all the lip products you used. Valeria did not care about the brand of lip-gloss you used. Although she did go and buy some. She'd put it on her lips and pretend she just kissed you.

Bless her heart, she was doing her best. You took her compliments on your figure as friendly bantering.

Valeria was very generous with her gifts and money, too. Always showing up with roses. Jewelry. She even paid for your rent a few times and always paid for your dates hangouts. Oh, you like that dress but can't afford it? Valeria will get it for you. You just have to give her a kiss first. You laughed off her silly words.

When flirting didn't work, Valeria tried to make herself seem more physically attractive. Tighter shirts to show off her chest and arms, taking extra care into styling her hair. Valeria was proud of her physique and would often flex for you, hoping to get a compliment. She tried out eyeliner, but you had to wipe it off and fix it for her. Not that she minded of course. You had your hands on her face and were practically staring right into her eyes.

"Just a few inches and we'll be kissing." She said. Her voice was serious and low, hoping you'd take the bait and close the gap. You just giggled, and she left feeling defeated.

She even tried confessing at one point. She sat you down one day and told you how much you meant to her. How happy she was to have you in her life. When you responded by saying you knew exactly how she felt and that you felt the same, she got so excited thinking you two were finally going to become an item. Then you spoke again, shattering those dreams.

"You're such a good friend!"

Valeria just stared at you before forcing a smile onto her lips. She agreed then left.

She had attempted to ask you out numerous times, too. She figured taking you to a fancy restaurant outside of the city would be self-explanatory. She even dressed up for the occasion. You were thoroughly impressed and yet somehow still missed the mark. Referring to the date as a 'hangout.'

She'd boast about her wealth and achievements in hopes of attracting you. Valeria makes so much money, she could take care of you. She actually just had her bathroom remodeled, didn't you know? The bathtub is big enough for two people, you should come over and join her for a nice warm bath and some wine. She just got a new bed too and it's so comfortable but too big for just her. She needs someone to come keep her warm at night. She'd love to cook you breakfast in bed sometime. Oh, and she saw this beautiful sheer lingerie set. You'd look gorgeous in it. Incredibly obvious flirting and you somehow, SOMEHOW thought she was being friendly.

"Oh, I've never shared a bath with a friend before."

Valeria wanted to rip her hair out.

Things were looking hopeless. She was beginning to think you did pick up what she was laying down. That you were just friendzoning her on purpose. She invited you to her house one day and made you dinner, listening to you ramble. After you were finished eating she invited you to sit with her on the couch and once you were sat, she grabbed your thigh and got up in your face.

"I want you to be my girlfriend."

She made sure she was very clear this time. No room for interpretation.

"In a romantic way. I want us to sleep together and wake up together. I want to live together and go on romantic dates."

You gasped, all surprised. You totally didn't see this coming. Why didn't Valeria give you any clues?? Of course you want to be her girlfriend. It took a year and a couple of months but you finally got the hint.

[glitter-stained]

Jason Todd Meta: My opinion on the csa headcanon

Does Jason's behaviour suggest he was a victim of csa?

There is very little, in terms of clinical signs, that’s going to point to csa specifically, because most symptoms, for psychiatric disorders, aren’t specific to one disorder or cause. One thing that’s usually a good hint would be children making very sexual statements/references/jokes/behaviours that are very inappropriate in context (a good example of this would be Roman Roy from Succession); night terrors are bed wettings amongst children/teenagers over a certain age. But that is absolutely not necessary: many, if not most victims of csa don’t display these specific signs, and a twelve years old that suffers from night terrors is not necessarily a victim of csa. The one thing that tells you for sure, in a person with trauma, that they have been a victim of csa, is that they’re telling you they have been a victim of csa. I’m insisting on that part because there’s a whole bunch of therapists (cough cough psychanalysts) that will tell you confidently that your psychiatric symptoms stem from a childhood sexual trauma (cherry on top of the shit cake if it’s incestuous) that you didn’t know about because you’ve repressed it. I repeat, that’s bullshit. If you meet a clinician who tells you that, RUN. So, a warning: this is probably the least “psychological analysis” of my “Jason psychological analysis posts”, because Jason’s symptoms do not allow us to conclude formally for or against a history of sexual abuse. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do some meta, make sure we're on the same page with what's analyzed here, some textual analysis, discuss what the csa headcanon does and does not imply in terms of his behaviour. I think it’s a good idea to start with it so we know where we’re standing with our analysis, regardless of the fact it’s maybe not the most interesting in terms of psychopathology and neuropsychology.

A couple of disclaimers:

I only talk about the comics I want to talk about. This is for two reasons, which are that 1) I do what I want and if I don’t like/don’t find something interesting, I’m not gonna waste time on it; and 2) I’ve been reading comics for a couple of months only, and there are, like, a lot of them. If there are comics you wanna see analysed under that lense, feel free to suggest them! I might not want to, but it also could be that I haven’t read them yet. Additionally, I'm not interested in questioning the morality of Jason's actions here. Ethics are fun, and I like talking about them sometimes, and morality sometimes has a place in talks about demonization but largely speaking this isn't the space for that. I separate talk about morality and psychology stuff as much as I can for a reason, so if you are looking here for excuses for his behaviour or arguments as to why he is a bad person, you're in the wrong place. Moral judgement is irrelevant here for the most part.

On the events of Red Hood: Lost Days:

Jason has, at some point in the comics, been a victim of csa. When Talia kisses Jason before pushing him off a cliff right after he got out of the Lazarus Pit, and when she initiates sex with him in Lost Days, that’s not consent!! That’s a grown woman taking advantage of a traumatized teenager who is, on top of that, deeply indebted to her. That’s a predatory act, with a steep power imbalance, it’s sexual assault, and on top of that there’s an element of suggested pseudo-incest. That decision was retconned, and thank god, because it was a brutal assassination of Talia’s character based on a good bit of racism, and also because the way it was portrayed doesn’t make it clear that Jason is a victim in a situation rather than that super annoying trope of “teenage guy gets to bang a hot MILF and hahaha lucky him”, writing a male character in a situation of SA without acknowledging it as SA or taking it seriously is one of the tropes I hate most, it reinforces stigmatisation and isolates victims. For all of these reasons, I’m not gonna include that element in my analysis, but it’s important to note that if you do include those scenes in your conception of it, then Jason is undeniably a victim of csa and everything discussed about it applies to him.

What if it were a lie?

I’ve said it before (and I’ll say it again), I deeply, violently hate headcanons/tropes where a character lies about being a victim of csa (whether it’s for manipulation, personal gain, any reason really I don’t care). It’s rare as fuck in real life, however it’s a common trope that feeds into fear of being wrongfully accused that causes push-back and increases social stigmatization. CSA is a painful thing associated with intense feelings of shame and already a deep fear of not being believed. Imagine making a considerable effort to seek help after something terrible happened/is happening to you, and you have to brave your fear of not being believed on top of that, and once you’ve made all that effort you get rejected and villainized because it’s just easier for the person you’re reaching out to not to believe it. So I’m awfully weary of this type of headcanon, and I think a general rule of thumb is “if your interpretation of what the character is saying is that he’s talking about how he was abused, especially if he’s talking about sexual assault, then it happened.” If you don’t like that, if you don’t feel like that’s good representation, then you can question the story, think it should be retconned, or rethink your interpretation of what the character says if it’s ambiguous, but hcing that the character lied about his assault is not a hypothesis we’re going to accept here no matter what. So we can start by scratching that one out: Jason never lies about being a victim of csa, or wilfully hints at it even though that’s untrue, at any point.

Two other ideas I’ve seen floating around that I think are worth mentioning:

No, just because Jason lived in the streets as a kid doesn’t mean the only way he survived was through underage prostitution. I genuinely don’t understand that idea, yes being a street kid makes you extremely vulnerable, yes it makes the risk of resolving to underage prostitution to survive higher but it’s absolutely not a fatality. That idea is, quite frankly, weird. Do you automatically assume if a real life person tells you they were in the streets for some time at a kid that they are a victim of csa? Also, I've seen the idea go around that because some people have a strong reading/hc of Jason as bi (which I have no problem with I love bi Jason), that would be an argument in favour of the csa hc. Please don’t do that. There’s no link between queer sexual orientations and childhood sexual abuse, that’s a harmful myth that we should work to deconstruct or, at the very least, not continue to vehiculate.

Another important thing to keep in mind: childhood sexual abuse =/= childhood sexual trauma.

Now, a traumagenic situation is a situation that might induce trauma (so development of, acute stress disorder, ptsd, cptsd, derealization, any traumatic pathology really). These situations exist on a continuum of probability to be traumatized by this situation. For example, a flood, a car accident, witnessing a murder and being sexually assaulted are all traumagenic situations, but the probability of developing trauma from them are very different. It hinges on personal, situational, social, and environmental risk factors (that have nothing to do with being weak, anybody can develop trauma). A definition for traumagenic situations can be found in the diagnostic criteria for ptsd in the dsm-5:

A. “Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Directly experiencing the traumatic event(s).

2. Witnessing, in person, the event(s) as it occurred to others.

3. Learning that the traumatic event(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend. In cases of actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event(s) must have been violent or accidental.

4. Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s) (e.g., first responders collecting human remains; police officers repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse). Note: Criterion A4 does not apply to exposure through electronic media, television, movies, or pictures, unless this exposure is work related.”

Note that the this last criteria has been added from the DSM-5 in order to explain cases of PTSD observed in at-risk jobs like cops exposed to repeated detailed child abuse, first responders collecting human remains, or, crucially, vigilantes repeatedly exposed to brutal crimes. This means that Jason, when he works on the Dumpster Slasher case, when he is horrified to find Gloria in the immediate aftermath of her rape (and later finds her dead body, because witnessing the consequences of these traumatic events is also an important component of that second-hand trauma), is being exposed to a very traumagenic situation. As I said before, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will experience trauma (thank fuck for that), but there are factors that influence that. SA related situations has an already pretty high probability of inducing trauma. On top of that, age is a big factor in that: the younger you are, the less resources, emotional regulation, development and coping mechanisms to face the traumagenic event you have (though there is such a thing as “too young to have PTSD" -when your memory is simply not developed enough for the memory to traumatize you because you will not remember the event.) At fifteen, with his memory fully developed but his brain going through so much changes because of teenagehood and his past history, Jason would be at risk. On top of that, you’re more at risk to get traumatized if you’re already stressed out when the event happens, so Jason’s mental state at this point in his robin run is also a risk factor. All to say, it’s very plausible for Jason to have sexual trauma without being a victim of sexual abuse in relation to canon events. Besides, in headcanon territory when it comes to Jason’s childhood before Robin, there are so many ways to be exposed to sexual violence : witnessing/finding his mother being a victim (considering the position of extreme vulnerability Catherine was in), witnessing assault in the streets, being the victim of attempted SA and escaping, watching street kids get picked up and later find their bodies/being told by other kids, as a cautionary tale, in excruciating detail, testimonies of their own assault… Or for example, if we’re thinking about Arkham Knight, being constantly threatened with SA, it being hinted and joked about and hanging over him like a sword of Damocles is something I could see Joker and other inmates do that could definitely induce sexual trauma even if it doesn’t happen ; what matters most, in trauma, is that the fear is real. Mechanically, when we’re looking at the way trauma works even on a biological level, the overwhelming fear is at the core of the pathology. (This is also why you can develop PTSD after a psychotic episode.) Like, my point isn’t that one of these things happened to Jason, or that he has to have sexual trauma from the events of the Diplomat’s Son or anything -mostly just that this is a possibility, something very serious that happens and an important nuance that I never see in discussions on the csa headcanon, and while it’s not exactly what the debate is about, I think it’s something important to ponder.

Do you consider the csa hc to be canon?

So, there are a lot of Jason stories, and I’m very pro “not take in account what is said in comics you dislike in your conception of canon” because if I did that absolutely no bat character would be readable, I have to believe that no character is defined by their worst writers. And boy, does Jason have a lot of bad writing… On top of the personal retcons, there are also the canon retcons: like Battle for The Cowl is retconned… Unless someone decides to reinject/revamp it into the narrative (please don’t please don’t it’s irrecuperable let it lay with the Flying Todds where it belongs). So, let’s see. There are three writers/arcs that imply/mention the csa hc: Starlin’s writing of Jason’s post-crisis Robin Run (canon though some stuff in it seems to have been retconned), Winick’s writing in Green Arrow: Seeing Red (canon as far as I know), and Battle for the Cowl (retconned). It’s worth noting that one of those are considered to be foundational works for Jason’s character (Jason’s post crisis Robin Run and Starlin’s part in it), and another was written by Winick, who wrote the other two foundational Jason stories: Under The Red Hood and Red Hood: Lost Days. On a personal level, I’m very mitigated about what I like and accept about it. I base my whole love and characterization of Jason about his post-crisis Robin Run, I love that little guy so much, Starlin’s take on Jason’s Robin Run is absolutely canon to me (which does not mean I like Starlin as a writer, thank you very much). On the other hand of the spectrum, the only reason Battle for the Cowl isn’t my least favourite comic ever is because The Killing Joke exists, absolutely not canon, get this thing away from me. And then in the middle, my feelings on Seeing Red (on the entirety of Winick’s Jason really) vary depending on the day, because I do like a revenge story that challenges the status quo with tropes of “bad victim” and it sets up Jason as a character based on love rather than morals which I adore, but there are also some elements of psychophobia in the writing that I (who approach stories through the filter of psychopathology first and foremost) can’t just look past, and also the way it intertwines with classist stereotypes. So do I consider Seeing Red to be canon? In good faith, yes, but whether I’ll accept it as such really depends on the day. In terms of the csa headcanon: it’s heavily hinted in BTFC but not outright said, it’s there as a undercurrent in Starlin’s run because of his intention (to make Jason die of AIDS). And then we have Seeing Red. Basically Jason lists elements about Mia’s life, including her past with underage prostitution (so, just to be very clear, csa), and says they’re very similar, having both lived on the streets, and understand having to do bad things when it’s necessary. This is not the same as saying “I was a victim of csa”, and what he’s saying could be interpreted differently (we know that he was stealing tires, and “only what he needs to survive”, so he could have been referencing small-time theft.) So, it could be a reference to something else, I totally understand why some people want to interpret differently. It just… Feels like such a weird and weak argument to be equating boosting tires to underage prostitution, to me it’s very ooc (in comparison to UTH Jason), and it would feel like weak writing from someone like Winick. Aka it’s not technically canon, and you don’t have to accept it as such(I understand the mentality of "I'm rejecting this interpretation because it feels like demonization of csa victims" perfectly), but personally I think it takes a lot from Jason’s character in Seeing Red and from this story in general.

[thequietkid-moonie]

hi moonie! ❤ i've been waiting for requests to open again and i'm finally going to request something now 😌

how about yandere nagito, kokichi, kazuichi and rantaro with a darling who's super distant and closed off from others but only comfortable with them, only laughing and smiling when they are near them?

i'm looking forward to requesting more and i hope you're having a lovely day 🍀 love you! <3

Distant darling is only open with them

[ YANDERE HEADCANONS ] [ Nagito, Kazuichi, Kokichi, Rantaro ]

[ Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair ] [ Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony ]

⚠️ Yandere, I don't support this kind of behavior in real life, I just write it for fun!

I'm really excited too V-chan!! I'm having a pretty good day but now that i had your request is way better!! ^^

Thanks for requesting such an amazing prompt with amazing characters!! I had a lot of fun writing this, hope you like it too!! ❤️❤️

Nagito Komaeda

Even since the moment Nagito met his darling he knew it was a person filled with hope, a person with a bright potential and a future filled with hope, his admiration quickly grows as an obsession as he has the opportunity to see you more, an obsession that only grows more and more with each passing day

For Nagito it doesn't matter if you let him be in your live or doesn't even aknowledge his existance, for him is more than a blessing being able to be near you, and he wouldn't blame you if you don't want anything to do with trash like him

Nagito didn't mean to be pushy to enter in your life, but since he can't be away from you for too long and that need of being around you only grows with his obsession it was obvious that at one point you two will end up meeting. He expected for you to hate him for even daring to be around you but if you don't mind him being near you or even accept him he is shocked for it, and yet he will not dare to doubt you and just accept it

Once you let him enter in your life there is no way to get away from him, Nagito had swear to himself (and even to you) to be always with you and do whatever is needed to help you bright in an inmense and infinite hope and for that he become really clingy and dependent of you, doing whatever you ask him and accept whatever you say to him with a smile

Nagito just get used to you being cold and distant towards him, he doesn't expect nor think he deserve something else, won't even dare to ask for more, so when you start to open up more to him, even if is just a little he is incredibly surprised and even brush it off as if it was his imagination at first, but as you start to grow more and more comfortable around him there is no way for him to deny it

Nagito will probably try to deny it for as long as posible because he doesn't feel like he deserve it but it start to become more obvious in diferent ways, you had started to talk more, you start to express more of yourself and even smile, sometimes he is lucky enough to heard you laugh, and if he pay enough attention he can see your body language directed towards him, it was obvious that you started to feel free to open up to him

Nagito noticed your change but is too scare to accept it, so it isn't going to happen until someone else point it out (and even so it would take him a while, unless is you), and when he does finally accept that he is the one with who you feel the most comfortable he swears to himself that protect that feeling and never disappoint you

Your smile becomes his reason to continue living, and being the only one you allow to see it give him a boost of confidence, sudendly he feels special and important (but never more than you). Nagito even become more intense in every way posible, wanting nothing more to be with you and be able to make you happy, now he is even more eager to do everything in his power to make you happy and just fullfil your wishes, to help you reach the greatest hope

Also, Nagito never dare to question you anything he just accept you the way you are, so he never really pry into the details of the reason of your distrust and distant attitude towards others (he may actually wondered why but always brush it off as saying that is none of his business), he won't ask you even when you finally open up to him but if he get to know that is someone's fault because they had hurted you in the past it would be more probably that he will take things into matter because he hates the idea of you suffering, and he does it with the excuse that is because that bastard made you feel despair

Kazuichi Soda

It doesn't take him much time before falling in love with you, Kazuichi is the type that could fall in love at first sight, and when he does he does it hard, and just as quickly it is for him to fall in love it is to grow obsesive over you, in no time you had become the only thing that wander around Kazuichi's mind (not that he is complaining)

Kazuichi is delusional, he sees you as the peak of perfection and beauty, everyone most know and admire your beauty (but he doesn't concentrate on doing other admire you, he is more focused on admiring you himself and trying to give you everything you deserve), as well he doesn't even ask you or tries to win your trust before hand, he just came into your life and isn't planning to go away, one day he just came and talk to you as if you two already know each other from all your life (but with a little too much respect, maybe even as if you were royalty)

Although, even when he sees you as perfection itself he is unable to think that you don't like him, that posibility will break him completely so his mind doesn't even think on that, instead, when you act distant towards him he just doesn't believe it, it would take him a while to catch the idea of you not being comfortable or not wanting to share much with him, and when he does he is blaming himself for it, thinking that is probably his fault and he has to make it up for you

And just like that Kazuichi tries from all the ways he can think on to make you forgive him and to get in your good side again, he does everything he can for you, shower you with all kind of compliments and praises, trying to protect you from any kind of threaten (or at least, to anything that he sees as a threaten), Kazuichi is actually pretty open with his obsesion because he doesn't see anything bad in it, in his eyes everything is what you deserve and out of love

It will take him a while to notice that you had become more open and comfortable with him, and won't really notice it until it become more obvious, he doesn't get the little hints and just keeps trying to make it up for you, but when he finally does he couldn't be happier that you finally seem to be accepting him

When he finally sees your smile for him you had grow now even more beautiful! his praises and obsession only increase, from that day he just gets more determinanted to serve you and make you smile, it would take him a while to notice that you only feel comfortable to show yourself with him but if he does it only give him a boost on his ego and selfconfidece, someone so perfect like you shows him their perfect smile! obviousle he will feel honored! sudenly he feels incredibly special for being the only one allowed to see the smile of someone so special and perfect

Speaking of, he may don't brag about it with other but he will not shut up with his compliments and praises. As well, he is already pretty jealous but if he sees you smiling towards anyone else he wil be increadibly jealous, he thought he was special! he will never take it against you but it isn't probably that the other person will be safe (at least to his deadly glares and threatens)

Kazuichi doesn't pry for deep details, he asks more for superficial detais, personal details only when it comes to your likings and so on, so is probably that he won't exactly nor wonder why do you act the way you act, it is up to you if you decide to tell him or not, but if he ever get to know if is someone else fault that you don't feel comfortable being yourself he will be completely offended for what happened to you (like if it had happened to him), is more likely that he won't search revenge for you but it trigger his protectiveness, from that day he is keeping a close eye to anyone who dares even aproach to you, he had swear that no one will hurt you again in any way

Kokichi Ouma

Kokichi isn't the type who falls in love imediatly, for him is a slowly process, it started by a simple interested, your distant personality catches his eye and immediatly atracted to him but as the time pass that interest slowly and careful grows more and more, it reachs the point where he was so curious about you that wanted to know everything he can of you without noticing, becomes an obsession without him able to stop it

Kokichi is really smart and doesn't do anything without a plan, so even if he approach to you casually he has already a plan to get to know all your secrets, while in the outside he is just being goofy and childish in the inside he is getting all the information he can of you by all the means he needs

For Kokichi all of this was a simple game, he was just playing around with you, he planned to make you the victim of his silly jokes until he can get a reaction of you, however Kokichi didn't know (or at least he didn't want to accept it) but this was a game he was losing, the more time he pass with you and the more he gets to know about you his love and obsession done nothing but grow more and more, he thought he was the one in control when in reality he was already down bad for you, but he will not dare to admit it because he didn't want to feel that vulnerable

Once Kokichi knows everything he can of you the new part of his plan started, make you laugh. Kokichi wanted nothing more than have some fun, do some silly jokes and be consider funny by the ones he cares, even when he is terrible with expressing his true feelings, and since the day you catches his interest Kokichi had cling onto you and doesn't plan to let you go you become the one he wants to make smile the most

Kokichi is incredibly smart and is always paying too much attention to you, so he notice when you start to feel more comfortable right away, even if is only a little and there are only small hints of it that is more than enough for him to feel like he is starting to win the game, and to make him feel a boost of confidence on himself and his plan

When he finally manage to get a smile, or even better, a laugh from you is the point of not return, even if is something that lasted one second it was more than enough for Kokichi to fall in love all over again with you, that moment is what make Kokichi realize how beautiful you are, how much he loves you and how much he wish to see that beautiful smile again

Kokichi doesn't want to admit it, not even to himself (even when he has it clear) but he is quite dependent of his darling, he can say all he wants that he doesn't care for you and he does whatever he wants but in reality your opinion is what matters the most for him and he is desperate for you to love him the way he is, so when you finally smile for him, and only him, he becomes even more dependent, he becomes dependent of your smile and it becomes his purpose in live to continue making you smiling

It may wouldn't be so intense if it wasn't because of your distant personality, now that you allow him to be the only one you are able to express yourself freely and truly smile he is not willing to lose it, he is going to make everything in his power for you to never lose that smile and for you to smile for him and only for him. That honor of being the only one you smile at makes him even more possessive, it makes him feel special and it makes him want to be the only one to enjoy that pleasure

Kokichi already knows everything about you, so he already knows, or at least have an idea of what happened to you to become so distant from others, and if there is someone to blame for it he will make them pay without a doubt, they deserve it for trying to erase your beautiful smile

Amami Rantaro

It doesn't happen imediatly, it takes some time for him to happen, he falls in love first and then his obsession grows slowly but stronge, and even when he notice those growing intense feelings inside of him he just accept them because are feelings that grow out of love

It isn't difficult for Rantaro to enter in your life once he gets interested on you, even when he can be pretty misterious he is really charming and attentive, he appear to be trust worthy, he even openly accept if you don't trust him yet or aren't comfortable around him right away, or at least that what he says because inside is something that bothers him but stay calm reminding himself that is just matter of time, he will let you know that he isn't a threaten and you can trust him

Rantaro will be kindly pushing you to accept him, he understand that you prefer to be are distant to everyone and even wary but he isn't planing to let you go, so he just insist too much, but he do it so kindly and gentle that can go unnoticed or don't bother you at all

As the time pass Rantaro grows more clingy as his obsession grows, he just loves you so much that can't stay away from you and even when he isn't physicaly near you somehow he always knows where you are and what are you doing. He excuses himself by saying that he just want you to be safe, he had already lost all his sisters and despite everything he have done to trying to find them he haven't even find a trace of them and that lead him to be terrified by the thought of the same happening to you, he doesn't know what he will do if you ever go missing so he prefers to watch you closely to asure that you won't just disappear one day

Even when his unhealthy and obsessive behavior can be pretty obvious at times he always manage to cover up as being worried of you or even accidents, he is so good at covering up and finding convincing excuses that it is scary

Rantaro is a really observant and perseptive person, he is smart enough to notice when you start to feel more comfortable around him, even if there are just little hints like you getting a little more closer to him or starting to express a little more he notice it right away, and it makes his heart melt, Rantaro was used to your distant attitude and even when this was something he expected and wanted is still flattering, it gave him even more motivation to continue

Once you open up to him completely there is no way to stop Rantaro, he just feel like he is special for you, maybe as special you are to him, it make him think that you had fully accept him in your life and that would lead him to be more possessive and protective over you, he just had find out how beautiful your smile is and he isn't planning to lose it, besides he is really mature and is used to take care all of his sisters, he knows what it is the best for you and wants nothing more that see you smile

He wants to spend every second of the day by your side only to be able to discover all your other beautiful expressions, but, as much as he loves that you finally feel comfortable to express yourself with him Rantaro wants to be the only one with the privilege to see that beautiful sight, he had grow a little bit depend on you so if he even see you starting to express mor with another person, even if is a little Rantaro will feel threaten, and if he is trigger enough he will do something about it (not against you, never against you)

Rantaro had tried to find out the reason of why you are so distant to others, and won't be calm until he finds out, one way or another (without hurting you, of course) and if there is someone to blame Rantaro will hate them with his life, he won't do anything against them (unless that person hurt you badly), but if they cross his path or dare to even look at you again he probably won't be able to hold himself back

[just-a-little-cellist]

Hello! I saw that your requests might be open so I figured I'd send one in! I might actually send in a couple if it's alright ;-;

Could you please write something about the Fellowship (+ Faramir, Eowyn and Eomer if possible) with a reader whose hands are always super cold and prone to frostbite? So they have to wear like 3 pairs of gloves in brisk weather just to keep their hands safe.

I have a condition called Raynaud's Syndrome where the blood vessels in my hands actually constrict in the cold so I lose circulation to my fingers if I don't wear layers of gloves and hand warmers, and I actually run the risk of losing my fingers so with colder months moving in I would love some comfort about it. Thanks so much dear, thank you and take care of yourself!

(of course it's alright! send as many requests as you want x I don't write for all of the fellowship individually (not totally confident with all their characterisation yet 😅) so I'm just going to do the ones on my character list :) I hope this is ok!)

(Includes Sam, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir, Faramir (separately) x gender neutral reader - no warnings, all SFW)

Sam:

Sam is constantly worrying over you the second it starts getting cold. Every 10 seconds he's checking up on you, asking if you're feeling ok, are you too cold, do you need another pair of gloves? Even if you insist that you're completely fine, he'll insist on giving you his own gloves, 'just in case', and if you're travelling then he'll fuss over you being sat close enough to the fire.

Pippin:

Pippin will make a lot of jokes about how you always seem to be cold until you explain your condition and he realises how serious it can be. He still teases you sometimes, but he's much more sensitive about it and only makes jokes once he knows you're completely fine and you've got enough layers on. (He's secretly nervous over you a lot but tries not to outwardly worry you too much.)

Aragorn:

Aragorn is more of a silent worrier than the others. Obviously he'll make sure you have everything you need to stay warm and then some, but his support is wordless. You'll often find yourself with extra gloves in your pack that you're certain you didn't put there, or with blankets covering you that definitely weren't there when you went to sleep. He doesn't fuss too much though, he trusts that you know your condition and limits far better than he does.

Legolas:

Legolas panics a little when you first explain your condition to him. Humans are just so fragile and he forgets sometimes! It means he's constantly keeping an eye on you, and will get whatever you need at the drop of a hat. He doesn't particularly feel the cold, so he will practically pile any of his spare clothes on you to keep you warm, and he doesn't sleep much, so he watches you to make sure you don't get cold in the night.

Boromir:

Boromir is a gentleman, and is definitely the type to offer his cloak as soon as he feels a chill in the air. Even if he's cold now, he assures you that he is fine and that you need it far more than he does. If you're in Gondor with him, he'll have custom gloves specially made for you to keep your hands as warm as possible. (He's also taken to carrying a spare pair around with him, just in case you should need them.)

Faramir:

Faramir, upon learning of your condition, will immediately try to learn more about it. He'll do as much research as he can and will provide whatever will help the most to assist with managing it, and if there's anything additional you suggest he leaps to get it done for you. He's also the best about comforting you if you have anxiety surrounding it, ensuring that you both know how to manage it as best you can and that he'll do anything to keep you safe.

[menlove]

wait enlighten me on the i’m so tired being about paul grind i don’t know if i see it

ofc! it's just interpretation obviously but it's one of those that makes me eye it a bit. but. it's one of those that every beatles wiki will be like "it's about yoko" but he's never said that and honestly the song doesn't fit with their relationship at the time like at all. she WAS writing him a lot of telegrams and their relationship was certainly getting Weirder at the time, but I wouldn't think it would inspired sleepless, tortured nights yet

the song is very much like. a sort of rising anger/irritation with the situation and the person in the song which is very much where paul and john were at at the time. I'm not a "something happened in india" truther, but I do think things between them were going south. had been since brian died and only got worse with paul getting engaged.

this part particularly To Me reads as very paul

bc at the point john and YOKO were at if he called her and was like "hey I'm in love with you and I'm going insane and can't sleep over it" I don't even know that HE'D be scared she'd say he was joking and turn him down. like she was very much the one doing the chasing there for a while and her telegrams seem pretty damn confident about where that relationship was headed. where they were at just didn't seem like the tortured, aching, harm that he talks about in this song. it was the beginning obsession of new love which is a TOTALLY different feeling than this song gives off.

paul on the other hand. I think it would be incredibly reasonable to assume that if he told paul "yeah I haven't been able to sleep because you're driving me insane, I'm in love with you, and it's like actually genuinely hurting me" paul would go "that's a hilarious one john thanks" like 💀 way more in character for paul to brush something like that off than yoko

also as just a further lil reach lol in the esher demo there's this:

obviously john was just misspeaking and meant to say my arms but. interesting especially bc at this point him and yoko had never slept together or been intimate at all. that's USUALLY something I'd call bullshit on with affairs, but they've been pretty open about their relationship timeline. she's also. I mean. yoko isn't very charming lmao I'm not dogging on her she just isn't and she knows that, john knew that, the world knows that. she's just a very blunt person who at the time this was written was just coming off as sort of strange and mysterious to him.

so saying yknow "when I hold you (/fuck you) I wonder if I should get up and lock myself in a mental institution" would again just be a really weird and nonsensical thing to say about yoko. about the notoriously charming man who in this scenario you'd be fucking, though.......... homosexuality was BARELY legal let alone smth john had come to grips with so this whole doom spiral around this person & fucking them & what that means for you, well! very interesting, anyway

anyway that's it! I just am super unconvinced this song is about yoko. and there's really only 3 sort of romantic interest options in his life at the time it could be about and it just wouldn't fit for yoko or cynthia imo. so that leaves paul. and their quickly crumbling relationship.

[darqx]

Hi I understand if you don't reply, but I was wondering if you have any advice to beginners who want to start making their ocs a reality? (Like in the sense of having Charecters that have been in your thoughts for a while, but it's hard to encapsulate them into physical form?) As I have some that id like to make either into a game or comic but I'm a little stuck..

Also I'm curious if there will be any other content with the best boy himself rire?? : 0

Hullo! Ah, (physically) designing characters, how fun ❤️ - there is part of a reason why I only have a handful of them lol XD; ANYWAY here are three things that help me, so hopefully they can help you as well :)

(I'll use Demon!Rire as an example as unless you are an old guard of mine, he will probably be the most recognisable of my characs.)

--------------

❓What do you know about them?

First of all since you already have your character in mind, congratulations you are most of the way there already! It's helpful to know the general vibe of them. And I don't mean the super detailed things that may arise from like..."Get to know your OC" quizzes - we are more looking for the core feeling of a character here. If you dumped this character into different AUs what things are going to stay the same/similar? Some things you should consider are:

What is their personality like? Why do they do the things they do?

Do I already have any physical traits for them in mind? Hair/eye/skin colour? Body type? Age? Name??

📝 Write a simple paragraph or some dot points about your character with these things in mind.

---EXAMPLE---

Sophisticated and charming, Rire outputs an aura of power and elegance. His pleasing physical appearance and gentlemanly demeanour usually enchants or commands people. Realistically, he is extremely manipulative and sadistic, and finds entertainment in the reactions of others.

---/EXAMPLE---

🤔 Make informed choices

Ok cool, you know something about your charac! Now build upon what you know to make them real - it is important here to try and match your design choices with the characterisation and "why"s of the character, and less with what you personally think will be cool/cute/whatever. What I mean by this is just pretend they are a person you are describing to a forensic sketch artist - you are giving "facts" as to what you think they look like not making stuff up (eg you would NOT be like "oh yeh she was totally a punk rocker however i'm going to say she wore a long flowing gown cos I think she'd look prettier in it?"*)

*Note that designing a character with opposites in mind can work out if you can at least answer the cursory "why" of it being a part of the character design. For eg maybe the punk rocker is secretly the alter ego of a socialite - flowing gowns and high fashion by day, grunge by night. Like Batman.

📝 Feel free to use dress up doll games and image searches for particular types of clothes/hairstyles/etc if you need inspiration. Thumbnail a bunch of different designs and see what works.

---EXAMPLE---

In my prev example paragraph I highlighted a few things in red. Here I'll break down how they can help craft a physical appearance:

Sophisticated and charming / elegance - to me, these combined make me think of ballrooms and black tie functions and nice suits. A well tailored outfit and someone who knows how to wear them.

Gentlemanly demeanour (well to some degree lol) - since I already know he's hundreds of years old (973 to be exact) I decided that an aristocratic Victorian-esque aesthetic would suit him. Somewhere in between a modern look and something with a bit more fantasy steampunk flair. He smiles quite genially until he's doing it with all his teeth.

Aura of power - he's got to be a bit of an imposing character so he's quite tall (or at least taller than all of my other characs) and carries himself confidently. Hooray for the ability to loom. Dark colours for this character, to cut an impressive figure.

Pleasing physical appearance - kinda stereotypical type of good looks that aesthetically most people would be like "yeh he's pretty". Athletic build - muscular but not bulky, broad shoulders, tapered waist etc etc.

Extremely manipulative - first of all, he looks rather human, for a demon - his entire species is designed very particularly like that. Then there's the sunglasses. The "why" [does he wear them] is they function to hide his eyes (one of the main parts of him that give away his demon-ness), but also as a bit of a red flag to the audience that something isn't quite right with him. I mean, look past his charm and he wears them all the time. The black and yellow colour scheme also ties in as warning colours ⚠️

Put them all together and this was one of my first sketches of Demon!Rire.

*Note that I already more or less knew how he looked other than his outfit; you will probably have a lot more sketch duds as you figure out what your character looks like.

---/EXAMPLE---

🔐 Don't lock yourself in

Despite the fact I've just said "pretend your character is a person", remember you're still their creator so obviously you have final say over them. Sometimes you'll find that they grow and change from what you initially thought of them (or you just evolve in how you draw them). Don't be afraid to make the tweaks and changes that enhance these - whether they be physical or core characteristics - and you'll get closer to the true character you always had in mind.

---EXAMPLE--

I now draw Rire with a more pronounced V-shape, longer, wavier hair, and somehow he ended up with way more pronounced eyelashes than I usually draw on my male characs. Which works out quite well considering how I tend to draw his eyes. Anyway the point of this is that these things developed over time as I kept drawing him.

---/EXAMPLE---

🍀 Try it out with your own characs! Have fun and don't force yourself to try and get it "right" on the first go.

[cursedcatchild]

Ok, so I watched TOTTMNT and I am here to rant. Also, SPOILERS ahead!

So First of all, if I had to sum up my thoughts into a single sentence it would be: For the love of God, put those turtles back together, where they belong!!

I didn’t hate the show, but I didn’t come to like it either. And no, I did not have any prejudgment just because it was a new iteration. Honestly I was super hyped for this version, because the movie was a blast. Yea, I ended up being disappointed. But let me just elaborate on that:

First let’s take a look at our turtles from worst to best in my opinion.

Mikey:

Yepp, ladies and gentlemen so far I have never seen a single iteration where I didn’t come to like a Mikey. He’s always among my favs. But this version felt super shallow. He had just as much screen time in the series as his brothers and yet I still have no idea who this guy really is. His jokes were lame not really landing, I couldn’t really point out any particular goal or insecurity that anyone could relate to. Also, the guy is super oblivious. Like he took ten minutes to realize he walked into a robbery when he went for groceries. Heck he was having a casual conversation with the robbers. 

Leo: 

Another kinda shallow guy. Sure we seen a bit of insecurity, he literally quoted Rise Leo saying “ I’m nothing without them!” but it felt irreal. Because Rise Leo had a reason to think that, he wasn’t as much of a functional member of the team and he was always taken for jokes. But right from the beginning of TOTTMNT we see Tales Leo commanding his brothers, they listen to him  and even say it multiple times how planning is Leo’s thing. So at this point this Leo is just fucking blind. ( Also April slaps instant self confidence into the boy.) 

Raph:

Ok, this is also the first time, but I never really took a liking to a Raph before Tales Raph. Boy is filled with anger and sass, yet he’s not coming off as a total jerk like 2012 Raph. And of course he's not a super softie like Rise Raph ( I don’t hate Rise Raph for being a softie, he's my second favorite Raph) either. He had some fun pipe up and overall a personality I got. I think he’s the most perfect Raph I have ever seen. 

Donnie:

The best character of the iteration in my humble opinion. He was relatable, funny, honestly he was stealing Mikey’s job as the comic relief, but at the same time he’s the smart guy. The boy is ranting about not being the IT guy and then goes reprogramming an evil robot. Oh and he saved so many lifes, because he stopped a fucking train crash. He’s epic, I swear.

(My fave screenshot ever 🤣🤣)

Now story wise:

🔥What the fuck was this dumpster fire?! 🔥Who thought splitting up the turtles would be fine?! 😑Especially in a 12 episode season? Look, I don't mind solo or duo time. There were plenty of good ones, for example Rise. I adored the Mikey vs Leo cook off episode or the Gumbus one, but for the sake of my sanity Rise had twice as many episodes and the turtles were not split up for the majority of the story.

Like I'm not joking when I say they were together in 4 episodes intotal.😨😨

Now I heard rumors left and right that the fact that they need to make a show was thrown at the team at the last minute ( IDK how true is that) , but goodness gracious even if I was presented with the task with a “ Due tomorrow label” I could still write a better story. Especially with the goldmine what the writers decided to ignore.

Yes, something that would've made TOTTMNT be really unique….. School people! We were promised that we will explore the turtles from the teenage side. Ummm….Hate to break it to ya all but I think there is no better way to do that than putting them into school.

It would’ve been fire to see them trying to fit in, balancing all the cool hero stuff with school life, maybe wrecking the school, seeing how other teenangers adjust to the fact that now giant talking turtles are their classmates. It wouldn’t be some crazy mind blowing plot, but I swear it would've been amazing.

Now don’t misunderstand me. Despite the story feeling like being all over the place it wasn’t that super bad, but I’m pissed that it could've been better with ease.

Also another thing that bugged me, is the feeling of something missing. IDK if anyone else who watched it felt like this, but I legit felt like if we just grabbed the for example farm arc from 2012 TMNT and aired it as season 1. The fact that the turtles were split and they kept mentioning that they have always been fighting together made me feel like I should’ve seen them do that.

Anyways, If I did not take your will to watch it away, go and check it out. It's not horrible but not great either. I’m disappointed and I'm gonna need Rise back, thank you very much!

[nights-at-crystarium]

Hooooo boy ALRIGHT *rubs my hands together*

I'd already committed to making Fragments when I realized that building up a new character (wol/oc) could be done through other characters. Perhaps that's not even needed in some short and simple npc ship story, which this story's grown out of. My ambition's proportionate to your support and encouragement, seeing that people like what I do, I felt more confident to indulge and go deeper, write a proper ShB love letter, as I like to refer to Fragments nowadays.

At the same time I don't wanna overhype something that's never been in the plans. I'm adamant about keeping this story focused, anything that gets more than 1-2 comic panels is relevant to Vivi in some way, hence you won't see, let's say, a detour to uriancred even though I ship them. Try to please everyone, end up pleasing no one. If we at some point asked ourselves "what does this have to do with wolgraha?" that'd mean the story's lost its direction and crawled apart. And, why, yes, wolemet has EVERYTHING to do with wolgraha, glad that I realized it before it was too late!!

That being the logical reason, I also can't force myself to write about those who don't quite make it to my blorbo tier. Alisaie gets a lot of attention, while Alphinaud's just. There. Sorry :'> Still he has reasons to stay out of this, they just don't vibe that well with Vivi.

I may be unable to give equal amount of screentime and thoughtful approach to everyone in the ShB cast, but those who got lucky to be relevant to Vivi AND feed my brainworms will get their due tributes.

There's a risk that you won't unsee this once I point it out: the comic's still in the introduction phase where I shamelessly grab a character to tell something about Vivi. Of course I'm trying to be subtle, I also must respect said character, consider what they would and wouldn't do. ShB has brilliant, masterful characterization that's super easy to work with imo. Everyone feels like a person, you just analyze them a bit, see what makes them tick.

Speaking of real, I just can't imagine them sitting at a dining table in their battle outfits. What the fuck. No. Hence I gave them some casual clothes. I like it when things are grounded, when they make sense. I ask a lot of hows and whys.

On the topic of the Scions (not) being yesmen to the wol: that's simply the whole premise of Fragments, they mix like oil and water with Vivi. The writing process went like: Vivi falls for Exarch. Why not for ARRRaha? He doesn't only like Exarch, he likes the First as a whole. Why? He's happy to leave the Source behind. The Scions belong to the Source. Scions = duty = bad for Vivi. Why duty bad for Vivi? Oh he's just a pathetic piece of shit who wants to be Free. I gave him the archetype of a manic pixie dream boy from the start, then I just overanalyzed what it means for a guy that's supposed to be a selfless nodding hero.

Conflict's more fun to explore than total agreement. Are we there to be entertained, or what? That being said, conflict for the sake of conflict could become just as bland, balance is key as they say.

[yamujiburo]

1. You are INCREDIBLY patient when replying to asks. You always politely link them to your FAQ or to your master post. For the bad faith asks, you always are kind in your responses. I wanted to give you kudos. Even though you are well within your right to ignore/skip these asks, you still put thought into your responses. I'm giving you some kind words because I just KNOW it would be draining getting the same messages all the time.

2. I'm a fat person, and I've got a whole host of body issues, but your Jessie really helps with my self confidence. She still sees herself as sexy, and Delia still sees her as sexy (probably sexier lol). I also loved your logic behind the character design: sometimes healing and stability bring weight gain. That in itself has made me feel a bit better about myself. Not trying to treat you as a therapist. I just want you to know the impact your Jessie can have. It's so rare that we see fat characters in a positive light! I do hate how many people have a problem with your design though. :(

3. Aroace James also makes me feel seen. I am coming to terms with the fact I may be aroace myself, and it's been hard. I've always loved James, and I'm grateful you've spun him into a character I can relate to. I'm always all over your blog looking for more James crumbs lol.

I appreciate it! I like to assume the best in people and always answer in good faith. While I wasn’t super vocal at the time, I’ve had my fair share of bad takes on the internet and I feel like those who responded to me with patience and understanding had a longer lasting impression on me and led me to change my mind later. Gave me much to think about. Not everyone’s entitled to that patience but I think there is merit to handling things with kindness sometimes. You never know who’s on the other side of the screen and what they’re saying could just be out of genuine ignorance. Sometimes someone putting it in a gentle way is just the push you need. A lot of the time, I think people just want to be heard and are also willing to listen if they don’t feel immediately shut down.

I’m glad you think so! I love seeing fat characters and I love seeing fat characters who love themselves. Fat is beautiful, fat is cute, fat is hot

Hahaha I should do more with him! Aroace James makes a lot of sense to me given his background. I try not to write ABOUT the experiences of identities outside of my own but I think it’s important to at least show it!

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 6 October 2024

I haven't been as good at posting about shows as I wanted to be, so I'm trying a round-up format instead because it feels like a lot of GLs skirt under the radar. It's exciting that we're in a time when there's enough GL airing that it's worth doing a round-up! This was a great week for the lesbians to figure themselves out, so it feels like a good week to start. No idea how regularly I'll do this, need to figure out a cadence that makes sense.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to Oct 6):

Reverse 4 U 5/8 (Thai, Tuesdays 1:00 PM EDT, Netflix / YouTube) This week the girls finally sorted themselves and we got set up for the main plot to start next week. I was initially really stoked about this one and then a little bummed that it's not taking it's very cool premise and the stakes it establishes as seriously as it could be, but I'm still hoping it will start to have real stakes in the main plot stretch.

The Two of Us s2 ep 6/6 END (Thai, 29 Aug-3 Oct 2024, YouTube) It was so great seeing women in their 40s being romantic together but I did not love the plot of this one; I find their romantic conflicts too juvenile (lots of easily-triggered jealousy). The moments they're being sweet are great though.

Unlock Your Love ep 4/8 (Thai, Wednesdays, GagaOOLala / YouTube [cut version]) This is the first episode that this series felt a little more assured; I liked the series this production company produced with a short run time, it feels like this series has been worse off for its longer episodes. That being said, when these couples get to do their thing like in this episode, they have good chemistry.

Chaser Game W s2 ep 3/8 (Japanese, Thursdays 12:30 PM EDT, GagaOOLala) @lurkingshan is already doing a great summary of this week to week in her JQL weekly round-up!

Affair the series ep 6/8 (Thai, Fridays 11:15 AM EDT, iQIYI/ YouTube) Finally! I liked that it was Ek pointing out that Wan was unhappy the entire time she was gone that finally got Pleng to give in to her desire to be with Wan. This show is so melodramatic but the emotional threads follow and the character motivations are clear and consistent; I'm enjoying it in spite of not loving melodramatic storylines in general. It helps that the acting in this one is excellent.

The Loyal Pin ep 10/16 (Thai, Sundays 12:15 PM EDT, YouTube) Glad we finally got confirmation of Patt's history! And I'm relieved Anin knows she has an ally, though I feel like it's given her false confidence that worries me. These two are stressing me out by how bad they are at being careful but I do love how desperate they are for each other, as well as how beautiful this show is.

Red Whisper ep 2/8 (Korea, Wednesdays and Sundays, YouTube) Starting with cheating is not my fave but is par for the course with these SukFilm short series; my fave so far has been their first GL so if you haven't seen that yet I'd honestly recommend that instead.

Recent One-offs

Out of Breath (re-release in a bingeable version; Korean, YouTube) Highly recommended! Also the creator, Soo not Sue, announced she's working on another series to hopefully air before the end of the year, which I am super stoked about.

The Suffering of Xiqing Mountain (Chinese (censored), YouTube)

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so

Recently ended that I haven't had the wherewithal to write about:

Hoshikuzu Telepath (fansub) Thank you to @yuiyuihan for your hard work making it possible to watch this series! I I haven't read the original manga but I do know they changed the kiss communication to a forehead rest; Unsurprised that this adaptation, starring idols in the same group, would be left ambiguous in terms of whether their feelings are friendly or romantic. I liked what this series was trying to say, but in all honestly didn't love the execution. It's too bad because I absolutely love the concept of an alien being helped by girls obsessed with building rockets.

The Secret of Us 8 eps [complete] (24 Jun-15 Aug 2024, YouTube) I first included this in my recommendations from the summer and then retracted, but I ended up liking this series and then never updated again. So to set the record straight: Though it lost me in the middle, the ending on this series won be back over. I really appreciated the way this series handled filial piety and balancing that against personal happiness. I appreciated SO MUCH that the main characters decided together how to handle Lada's situation with her mother. I finally understood too late that Earn believed the lies Lada's mother told her in ep1, and that affected some of their decisions in the middle of the series. I still think the execution was wobbly, but the acting and chemistry between the two leads carries this series through. This has some of the best domestic fluff in any GL, as well as my favourite GL counter lift to date. And it's gorgeous. Tentatively recommended with the caveat that you do have to either enjoy or power through the melodrama in the middle.

Starting soon:

Apple My Love, Thai, 12 October, GagaOOLala

Pluto, Thai, 19 October, VIU

The Nipple Talk, Taiwanese, 1 November GagaOOLala

My Ex's Wedding [in theatres in Thailand 14 November]

Petrichor, Thai, 23 November, TBD