#i've ordered them by creation not by how actively i write them

[rhiaarrow]

I've seen ppl talking abt it on twitter and here and I wanted to sort of contribute my thoughts towards it,

Ppl aren't 'forgetting' about qTubbo's death. It's just that the situations of qBad and qTubbo's deaths, while they had the same outcome, were completely different for multiple factors.

(This isn't targeted at the ppl who think the death is being overlooked because that's their analysis and it's totally fair. It's just that people saying that got my analyst brain drawing comparisons between the deaths and I ended up with this big wall of text so...yeah :') )

1 - The build up (from outside POVs)

With qTubbo from most Povs he just sort of... died with no clear build up. Most ppl didn't see the true extent of his self spiralling because he hid it or they just simply didn't spend a lot of time with him in order to pick up on the stuff that we the viewers picked up on. And then all of a sudden he just died with no obvious lead up (unless you watch his pov in which case there was an obvious lead up) but from outsiders who barely saw him, it just happened.

Whereas

With qBad there was a more obvious build up on other Povs, he told the ppl he loved he was dying or at least they knew that something was wrong. They knew that his death was inevitable and as much as they hate to admit it a lot of them had already come to terms with the fact that he would be gone soon. (Again unless you watch his pov the whole build up from the past few months is less obvious but it was more developed with other players before his actual death) Most Povs at least recognised that there was something wrong with the blue spreading across his face because well...it was pretty fucking obvious

2 - The way they told people

qTubbos "I'm an egg, I only have one life left." while true sounds like a joke because well... he's obviously not actually an egg. Ppl joke abt stuff like that the whole time, the Eggboyhalo joke for example or calling Foolish 'egg coded' early in the server. How were all players meant to immediately go 'ah yes, this player is definitely an egg. Yesyes, this makes perfect sense'. It's easy to see how it wasn't taken seriously by a lot of characters when only a few of them were ever given an actual explanation besides "yeah I've only got one life"

Whereas

qBads "I'm fine, don't worry about me." while actively coughing up a lung, covered in blue infection and regularly having memory issues is an obvious lie. Even if people only saw him for a couple of minutes or even seconds it was pretty damn hard to ignore the blue spreading on his body. They'd ask what it was, he'd try to avoid it or redirect them and that person was hit with an immediate red flag of 'oh, so something is wrong with Bad.' which most shelved away and didn't actively investigate but it caused many characters to express being worried about him

3 - Outward visibility

qTubbo died due to his internal issues; self doubt, lack of self worth, suicidal tendencies, etc (I feel bad writing etc but I know there were other factors I just can't remember them) which resulted in him chosing to live using the life system and later chosing to gamble his last life in a game of Russian roulette with Richas.

(None of this being clearly outwardly visible to bystanders even if he wanted them to notice)

Whereas

qBad died due to external issues; parts of his soul physically leaking out of wounds on his body which caused his body to degenerate so far that even as an immortal he couldn't hold on and stop his corporeal body from just giving out on him and forcing him to reset.

(Which was very clearly outwardly visible despite how much he tried to hide it)

4 - The methods of their return

(Honestly I think this part is what's making ppl think that qTubbo's death is being 'ignored' compared to qBads)

With qTubbo, Creation told them that in order to 'restore' him they need smth that they CANNOT craft. Creation did not elaborate further, so they have very little to work with/very little they can actually do in order to try and help him. So most players while they have expressed they want to help, they know that if they do try to help they'll be running at brick walls because they just cannot obtain what is needed and they need to just wait for Creation to show up again.

Whereas

With qBad they know he'll be back (because he's a demon and that's just how they work) and they know what they have to do. They have to wait and be patient when he does return because he might not remember them and he'll probably need pictures to remember. He told them all of this before he died.

On one hand you have qTubbo: Wait for a prompt from Creation or an NPC to help them craft the item to get him back

On the other you have qBad: Wait for him to come back on his own terms

And for the people used to Bad providing a metaphorical example to prove his point in a clearer manner;

When playing a video game you have more hope when waiting for a loading wheel to stop spinning so you can play the level, than you do looking at a level blocked behind a currently unobtainable paywall :/

In other words, dwelling on things you don't know how to fix sucks ass and no one likes thinking about it until they have a tangible idea for a solution and right now only one of the two deaths has an even remotely tangible solution even if it is just to wait and do nothing.

(I understand that ppls reactions to qBads death have seemed more proactive than qTubbos right now but today was the first qBagi and Em learned of him actually dying so it makes sense that today was sort of centered around that. Tbh it just sucks that qTubbo died on an event day bc I feel like if he didn't we would've got a lot more focus and angst out of it but what can you do. But also it's seemed a lot more proactive because qBads kids are actively searching the server for him for 3-4 hours a day which is just depressing as hell, kudos to Pommin and Dapmin for pulling that off :') )

Wall of text over!

Have a flower for your troubles, after all our cubitos have done to us, I think we've earned some flowers without angsty connotations ;-;

❀❀❀❀❀

[frownyalfred]

tl;dr: what's your opinion on posting roleplay replies on ao3?

i know they are frowned upon on ao3, at least that's what i've seen so far, which i can understand... to some extend. they are allowed in the archive, yes, but they also clock tags and it's annoying to read something you don't understand without the other replies and further context. they are tolerated, but i get the sentiment.

here's the thing... i rarely write for myself. i enjoy writing with others and building something together, and sometimes i create pieces i'd love to share. like, recently i have written a reply for someone that explores two different bruce's; one that has helena wayne/the huntress as his biological daughter, one that doesn't, how she got cursed into another universe, and how one deals with losing his child, while the other tries to re-order his life in order to make her fit. it's something beautiful that works on it's own, something i am very fond and proud of, but i'm torn on wether i should post it or not.

i could've kept the fact it's from roleplay a secret, but that also feels shit, lmao. i could keep it to tumblr, but no one would read what i put out -- let's be real, tumblr works very different compared to ao3. so i thought i'd give reaching out to one of my favorite authors a chance.

sorry for the lenght, feel no need to answer.

Hmm. I guess I haven't given it a ton of thought before now. I don't usually engage in roleplay myself, but I absolutely view it as a legitimate version of creation. Just because it's created a certain way doesn't mean it doesn't belong on ao3 -- it's an archive for transformative works, not just cookie-cutter fic formats.

I would say, err on the side of caution and tag as much as you're comfortable (tagging things after the required ao3 warnings is always optional, I want to reiterate, but sometimes additional tags help readers a lot). Make sure it's clear what the structure of the work is, if possible, but don't do yourself a disservice by making roleplay a dirty word, if you use it.

I don't think you're "clogging" up the tag, any more than the person writing 139/250 50 word individual fics haha. There will always be floods of content in various tags, and people who throw shitfits about that need to grow up. Unless someone is breaking the ao3 TOS, everything else is "etiquette" and that truly is nebulous and subjective, even if people will insist it isn't.

As for the missing context and replies -- I think that's something you can get creative with, if you want. But also, if you never fill in those blanks or provide that context, that's okay too. It's an archive, not a site where you have to actively promote your fic and make it the most appealing it can be to the largest group of people.

A final note on context though: I've found that the roleplay chunks I do come across in the wild look a lot like dialogue planning I do for some fics! If you ever want to turn them into a traditional fic structure, I don't think you're very far off at all. But only if you wanted! As I said above, I think what you have is 100% legitimate and should stand on its own on ao3.

[bellaaldamas]

Back when I was active on my old accounts here (before deleting them all and vowing to never come back but the joke's on me) I knew Tumblr was a heinously ableist site (as was it's girlboss idea of "feminism", only accessible for women and girls with physical, mental, learning and neurological ability privilege). I accepted it because we do not live in a perfect world, people will be misguided and uninformed, some of said people are not incurable, devil incarnate bigots but simply ignorant; and it is your responsibility to curate your social media experience and surround yourself with intelligent individuals. If you depend on social media OR mainstream media for representation you're in for stress and disappointment and that's exactly why one has to always maintain a healthy distance from it.

However, it is almost fascinating to see how pseudo-progressive culture on here has not changed one bit. It is still the modern Disney-esque "feminism" about how it is woman's job to not be a "hormonal moron" who dares to exercise her romantic and sexual agency by expressing her feelings and acting on them (according to said Disney/Frozen-esque feminism, she is making a "perfect victim" out of herself and allows more intellectual and creative men than her shallow and airheaded self to easily take advantage of her "desperation for love"). Tumblr is also still disgustingly ableist, with new disability erasing trends becoming prevalent here.

One of the newer "feminist" trends is the "get a hobby" one, delivered in a condescending, holier than thou manner and completely removing disabled and/or neurodivergent women from the equation.

It is the good old "not like other girls" misogyny but in a "progressive" form. To be worthy of being acknowledged as a human being deserving of basic respect a woman HAS to be writing a novel, painting daily, studying programming and coding, making sculptures that could rival the immortal classics - and that's called a "feminist" alternative to "bimbos who do nothing all day, binge shows and only care about make up".

Needless to say, the people who subscribe to this trend know they are excluding disabled women entirely. They know that for women with physical, mental and learning disabilities most of the "popular/acceptable" hobbies like novel writing and content creation are simply either inaccessible or not rewarding enough to produce the necessary dopamine and energy to keep on with them. But progressives still find brand new "feminist" ways to dehumanize us because "progressive culture" enables it.

Speaking as someone who used to write novels and poems and draw in the past: I, as a disabled woman, have exactly zero hobbies right now. All the writing and drawing are yesterday's news for me and will remain there until the day I die. I've gotten older, my disabilities became worse and more energy consuming and I have neither time nor emotional/mental resource to practice activities that, no matter how much effort I dedicate to them, I will never excel at.

The harsh truth is that if you have limitations or lack a natural talent you will end up with a burn out and with modest or even outright terrible results.

The "progressives" will use a classic bigoted rhetoric of "if X famous disabled person could do it and become a worldwide sensation there is no excuse for you to not try" in order to shame you. But, young ones, don't fall for that. It's just a "progressive" version of "marginalized people only have themselves to blame for not being successful".

Because the fact is that the overwhelming majority of us will never excel or succeed at writing, drawing or learning graphic and other programs to a degree that would allow us to compete with able minded and able bodied people. Some, as mentioned above, do have a natural talent (and a high functioning form of disability) which would make them an exception that only proves the rule. But most of us will invest ten or even thousand times more time and energy into learning than able people would, only to get little to no pay off. And it is perfectly fine if you say "to hell with it, I'm just going to watch movies all day instead".

It does not make one less valid (regardless of gender) to give up on a hobby or activity because it no longer brings them the satisfaction of achievement (especially when there has been no achievement to beging with). Go ahead and do that make up because you'll look in the mirror and smile when you see your face. Go ahead and flirt with that person you think is hot because you only live once. Go ahead and binge watch Sailor Moon and love Usagi for her love of sweets and refusal to conform to the idea she has to sacrifice herself for the Greater Good TM in order to "grow up" and hate the narrative for constantly shaming her for that because media hates women and will always hate women.

Go and do what makes you feel good and if you ever consider coming back to your hobby/hobbies, do it not at the expense of your mental or physical health but because you want it.

[celaenaeiln]

Hi, I’ve been following this account for a while now and I really enjoy your posts. I was very sad about the mischaracterisation of Dick in fanfiction a lot, so finding your posts was very exciting to me. They’re huge writing inspirations for me, especially after a long burnout and writer’s block I’ve been going through this past months. Just wanted to say it real quick.

Also not about Dick Grayson but I’ve discovered this new song called The Kid I Used to Know by Arrested Youth, and it’s been giving me Jason Todd vibes. Just wanted to get your opinion on it, if you’ve ever heard it.

I hope you have a wonderful day today :D

Thank you!

I just went and listened to it - The Kid I Used to Know - and OH MY GOD

IF THERE WAS EVER ONE SONG AND ONLY ONE SONG THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT JASON - THIS IS IT!!!

MIND BLOWN ABOUT HOW ITS PRACTICALLY WRITTEN ABOUT HIM

This. This is the creation and meaning behind Red Hood.

You told me this should be fun, thank for the talk, are we done? This is my masterpiece, a tragedy, I wrote it myself I can practically see this playing as a backtrack to Jason as he's planning his Red Hood activities, right when he makes his debut.

It's full of irony and blasphemy, it's practically hell But the perfect part about it is it's all that I've got Jason's actions and character is everything Bruce worked his life against, his story his blasphemy in the eyes of his former mentor. It's also his anger and resentment about dying and coming back to life only to find that Bruce has seemingly moved on while he's stuck reliving his worst memories. but that's not going to stop him. No, those memories are only fuel. This is who he is.

I'm over wasting time in life trying to be something I'm not His hatred over how Bruce kept trying to make him a Dick Grayson 2.0 during his robin years until he storms out.

'Cause fuck that shit Yeah I don't wanna be that kid No, I'm not gonna hang my head And be another accident And Jason will be damned if he's just going bend over and let his death be swept under the rug. Let Bruce who he really is now. He's going to tear part Gotham and he's going to raise his head and do it proud.

So long to the kid that I used to know So long to the place that I used to go I'm not an R.I.P I'm not another sick, sad tragedy He's better now, he's better than he's ever been. He's got the skills, the fire, and power to become something new. He's not going to be something they cry over in the books or mutter "what a pity." He can never go back to the manor where he and bruce ate sandwiches and how they analyzed crime but it doesn't matter anymore because Jason's not going to take orders anymore from a man dressed like a bat, he's on his own - and he will prove it. Him and Bruce? They're done.

Do you ever feel like you're underwater? Drowning inside like there's no tomorrow? It's the feeling of the lazarus flooding his lungs and the blood choking his throat as he realizes with his dying breath that he won't make out to see tomorrow.

Life gets tough but you should know That I don't plan on letting go Come hell or high water, Jason's going to make bruce pay. He's not going to a footnote in an encyclopedia. He's going to haunt Bruce, he's going to haunt Dick, he's going to haunt Tim, he's never going to let them forget.

I'm not an R.I.P I'm not another sick, sad tragedy He's back - better and badder than ever. Watch out Gotham because Jason Todd is here to prove there's no "The End" to this story.

[nintendoni-art]

Oh yeah, there's an OC tournament, isn't there?

So This is Zori, and I'm gonna do my best to answer some questions about them! Shout out to @bunnymajo who alerted me to this OC questionnaire and @bunniibones who I commissioned a while back for this character that I've colored in!! ✨How did you come up with the OC’s name? 

Got stuck and wrote a bunch of "Z" names, and picked out the one that spoke to me the most. Then double checked to make sure it didn't mean anything terrible in other languages and found out that "Zori"/ "Zouri" was a type of Sandal. Decided to roll with it.

🌼  - How old are they? (Or approximate age range) One Hundred and Eleven years old. [Around 14-16, age range]

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Depends on the continuity I use them in, but in the project they originated from, they do have a small crush on someone. S'just they aren't sure if they're even real...

🍕  - What is their favorite food?

Smoked/Preserved Fish, but they can be bribed rather easily with baked goods as long as they aren't too sweet.

💼  - What do they do for a living? Chao Guardian and General World Protective Services.

🎹  - Do they have any hobbies? They adore learning about new things to the point where they'll "borrow" objects. They also like people watching while doing scouting work, and pranking said people with their powers/skillset.

🎯  -What do they do best? Surprisingly, Electromagnetic Flight. Due to clarification on their species being unavailable during their creation, since nailed down Zeti lore is nigh impossible to find their fine attunement on electromagnetic fields found in nature, they can just straight up fly. It's like how spiders do it. Side note, now you know that spiders can fly. You're welcome.

🥊  -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do? When it comes to things they love, If they aren't taking a lazy flight during dusk/dawn, they'll actively go out and see if anyone they know needs assistance with anything, and if not, put themselves through self-imposed challenges in order for something to do. When it comes to things they hate, it's being forced into fights. It's not that they hate fighting, that can be part of one of those challenges they give themselves. It's being forced into a fight where they know the thing they're fighting could be weaker than them, because it's not a fair fight. They also aren't huge fans of being forced into hopeless fights, but that doesn't mean they'll back down from said fight.

❤️  - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Another one of those answers that depends on continuity. But generally said memory would be about helping a friend with an important task if it means they follow their dreams. Or hell, making new friends, to begin with.

✂️   - What is one of your OC’s worst memories? Goodness, quite a number of continuity based questions this thing has... But lets see....I suppose in a general sense, it would be ones where despite all their strength or abilities, they're in a situation where they're utterly helpless to do anything.

🧊  - Is their current design the first one? Nope! Original design was far more lanky with more feminine attributes, looked a bit more like Zeena, really.

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC? Several Months of Studying both the Chao systems from SA1/SA2, as well as the A-Life System from NiGHTS. I also needed an antagonist in a thing I was writing. It was literally by sheer chance they turned out to be a Zeti, since when brainstorming, a copy of Lost World was being played nearby.

🌂  - What genre do they belong in? ...Dungeon Crawling Roguelike with Pet Sim Elements? Nah, but for real, they'd do well in either Action or Slice of Life stuff.

💚  - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality? Non-Binary Panromantic

🙌  - How many siblings does your OC have?

Biological? None. Adoptive? ....One. Depending, once more, on continuity used.

🍎  - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

They don't really remember their biological parents, but they do have a good relationship with the gang of violent criminals that have adopted them. It's ok though, they're chao, so they're super adorable violent criminals.

🧠  - What do you like most about the OC? I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that they tap into a part of my psyche that still believes in the inherent goodness found in mankind, maybe it's cause they're really fun to write/draw about, it is a mystery...

✏️  - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Too Much/Not Enough.

💎  - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC? ...

Don't worry about it.

💀  - Does your OC have any phobias?  They aren't really scared of a lot of things, but being enclosed/trapped does stress them out a little.

🍩  -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival? Zori's worst enemy is their own sense of loyalty and inability to stay down when it's obvious that they're outmatched in a fight.

🎓  - How long have you had the OC?

Oof, I think they're around 5-6 years old... ----

I think that's all I got for right now, but I do suggest ya check them out over at the tourney that @sonic-oc-showdown is holding out rn, and vote for them if ya like!

[strawberryybird]

Thoughts on Edeleth?

in the era of bot messages, a hero rises from the navy blue darkness... thank u profusely for the untold joy that human interaction brings ;0;

anyway: edeleth. LOVE THEM. LOVE THEM A LOT.

and also here's a 3 paragraph response as to why i love them but not in the fandom content creation sense.

Truth be told, they're not actually my fire emblem 3H ship of choice! But this is because I consider their story to be, in large part, resolved. I really enjoyed the edelgard/byleth relationship that ran through CF when I played; especially poignant as the relationship the route lord has with Byleth is the thematic hinge of each storyline. I liked all the accompanying discussion of free will/autonomy and inheritance and mothers and dark/light and rebirth, and every like theme you could throw at the game like spaghetti on a stovetop splashback. As 'shallow' (scare quotes intentional) an exploration that the game/CF route gives us... it hit the mark for me. It showed the foundation of a complex, tense, and a relationship altogether necessary for Edelgard & Byleth, in order for them to make it through the story. I loved that. I legitimately burst into tears when colour of sunshine played out the TV at 1am.

Having said all that - I got my depth and resolution from the game at the same time. It showered me with thoughts about what a relationship between E&B would look like after the story ended. I then started thinking about it and came to my own personal conclusion that I had already seen the very apex of their relationship (word choice intentional). There was very little fanfic I could write that would provide a story more compelling than the cutscene I just played towards (with the dragon and the burning city and the heartbeats and the crest stone, all that good shit). All this culminates in a story that is, ultimately, already told.

They are, put simply, my canon couple. The relationship that is Edeleth is my loadbearing pillar for a lot of my generosity towards the story the viddy game tells. I absolutely love them for it. I adored getting to be a part of that story!!

So, when I turn to fandom, by and large, I'm not actively seeking out Edeleth content. That's not to say i don't like it, not by any stretch of the imagination, it just means I'm incredibly nonsensically subjective about my Edeleth tastes. Just for fun, here are some fics i haven't stopped thinking about since pre-pandemic.

It's also very much worth saying that I have grown up really rather a lot since playing 3H for the first time, so my thoughts are much more.. collected, shall we say, than they would have been. I've also been tempered by the passage of time, reading Jane Eyre for 4 years against my will (long uni anecdote) and also falling directly into the combination of the locked tomb and the raven cycle brainrot. (IE: my hobby reading has actually satiated a lot of the media thematic cravings instigated by the Edeleth in my head. I think about Edie & Byleth very fondly for this. Also because I still love them very much).

I strongly suspect this was wayyyyy more than you bargained for by sending an ask, so I hope it was at least mildly entertaining hahaha. thank u for coming on this rant with me, it was longer than the wait time for those damn cathedral gates to lift in garreg mach. let me in. seiros let me into ur cathedral i need to teach ferdinand how to heal people through the power of song.

[bigfan-fanfic]

Also since you know about Percy Jackson, what do you think about Piper McLean? Every person I ask this question, they all said they hated Piper. I am the only one who actually likes her? And thinks she misunderstood? Is this how it feel to like a character everyone hates? Granted she’s not perfect I’m fully aware of her flaws but I still like her. What’s your thoughts about the daughter of Aphrodite?

Buckle up, buddy, I'm writing another essay.

First off, I'm gonna say I do like Piper. I think, however, she suffers from both a lack of research and many missed opportunities. Let's get the valid criticism out of the way, then address the hate, and finish with what I like!

So, Piper suffers from some egregious missteps when it comes to writing a Native American character. Not having grown up in Native culture myself, please take my criticism with a grain of salt and listen to actual Native fans who can more accurately explain and describe their grievances. I can only point to what I've heard, such as her being pointed out to wear an eagle feather accessory, which feels like commodifying her heritage, since that culture places a huge importance on eagle's feathers and even had Piper earned them from a tribe, they'd only be worn ceremonially. There are a number of notes about her "kaleidoscope eyes" which are rather pointedly not the brown you'd see from most people with Native heritage, along with the issues related to having her not only be in a boarding school but also be in there for kleptomania??? It's kinda stereotype city. This also includes her sexualization (which I will talk about too but this is in the Native lens of having a female Native character being sexualized) in her descriptions and her claiming. Her and her father also are written with largely ambivalent attitudes towards their Native heritage, with Tristan outright not wanting to be seen as Cherokee. Not that this can't inform her character in an interesting way, but it was mishandled, and maybe an excuse for Riordan not to have to write or research Cherokee concepts. It's not his story to really tell, if you wanna have a Native girl reconnecting with her heritage even through her father's disillusionment.

So, let's talk about the hate. People complain alternately that Piper is either OP or damsel in distress. Piper is not like the other demigods, who have been training for years to fight. In fact, Leo is similarly sidelined in combat because his skills take precedence in other ways, like hers - but nobody complains that Leo is a damsel. So yeah, Piper who's only been training with a dagger for four months or so is gonna be less useful in combat than literal Roman legionnaires. And her abilities are not OP. She has clear limitations, and people that are not effected. And I absolutely love her arc of learning to use her power creatively like Hazel does. AND she in fact does this because she's been so insecure about her lack of combat use. She actively seeks improvement and trains, so of course she gets better over the series! Piper also gets hate for what I can best describe as being pretty. My whole take on Piper as a child of Aphrodite is that she's meant to reject toxic femininity (the rite of passage, forced beauty, etc.) But like, just because she chooses to accessorize or dress more feminine, or even focus more on her hair isn't against that. She's choosing to in order to express herself. She starts off as kind of that "not like other girls" mentality and then comes to discover that inner beauty is what counts, so she doesn't have to feel like she needs to reject femininity altogether, you know? Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

I like Piper, although she has flaws in her writing and creation. She's got a vulnerability to her that I like, especially because she makes that her strength. She's willing to be emotional and help the group actually process things. She's making sure people are coming together cohesively. Which some people may say is locking her into traditional gender roles of emotional labor, but personally, I don't think so. Even if the fans don't, the rest of the team does value Piper, and in turn they try to help her realize how strong she is, and once that breaks through her insecurities, she goes from being one of the least powerful to one of the most useful of the seven. My personal gripe is that way back in the first book, they mention her powerful singing voice and how she'll learn the songs of her tribe, and then they talk about the snake song, and when she meets the Kerkopes she... doesn't sing the snake song??? Like, that could have been a moment where she asserts her identity and full power, and instead it's kind of a missed opportunity. But oh well.

[erstwhilesparrow]

i've been sort of on-and-off poking at scott and pearl in double life for months and months now, and it keeps itching at me that i... can't totally make them work. like, there IS a pretty clear narrative right there: pearl goes off with martyn to the nether, scott is irritated / hurt by her not being around while he's taking all this inexplicable damage, there are attempts both at reconciliation and at further alienation, and all of those attempts fail. they die. such is the death game.

and this is fine? but i think... i haven't seen last life, and despite my best efforts to take double life as Its Own Thing Separate From Everything Else, it feels like there is Something Missing. grian says in his first last life episode something to the effect of "this is all new, what happened last season doesn't count or matter anymore, each of these seasons is standalone" and it just isn't. like, i appreciate the effort, really, but it so is not!

let's talk about martyn? the thing i am particularly thinking about: i watched double life first, limited life next, and then most recently third life. there was a good number of months before i saw third life where i was sitting with the limited life finale going, "??????" about it. it all... kind of almost made sense in exactly the same way that scott + pearl kind of almost made sense. it felt like trying to grab handfuls of sand. there's stuff on the screen martyn is responding to that i get and tracks, but there's also a bunch of stuff that's never on screen in that season that nevertheless is really important to making sense of him and his actions. ren's absence was deeply important! knowing that martyn was Like That in third life was deeply important! martyn was! actively bewildering to me! until i watched third life!

granted, martyn specifically is also kind of dead-set on making the seasons connect, but there are smaller examples. desertduo in double life doesn't work without desertduo in third life. bigb and ren's falling out immediately becomes a richer thing when you know about Blue Sword Boys and Renchanting. i don't think i would have been nearly as compelled by pearl and bigb in limited life if i didn't know about pearl's isolation and bigb's Whatever The Fuck That Couples' Counselling Bit Was in double life, and i'm sure that alliance will become more compelling when i watch last life!!

and so i am arriving at the realization that i have stumbled into a reading of scott + pearl that has this. bizarre gaping hole in the middle of their relationship that i don't know anything about. i am constantly writing and thinking around this gap, and it resists being filled in because The Thing That Happened Is Right There. there is a thing that happened and they know about it but i don't. it is for sure A Flavour of relationship, to have The Thing We Cannot Talk About pulling things into its gravitational well at all times, but it's super interesting to me that it only exists because [i watched the series weird, the series and its medium is Like That enough that i could watch it weird and have it feel like a fine and valid choice that opened up interesting considerations other people didn't get to have, the push and pull between creator and audience where 'makes sense on its own' and 'calls back to previous significant events' need to be balanced For The Content]? that's just. really neat to me.

other people have said this with both fewer and more interesting words, but it's SUCH one of my favourite things about this medium and in particular about the traffic series that even though everyone has kind of have the same touchpoints (i knew about the beheading and the cactus ring WELL before actually watching third life! we all know how limited life ended! "that time the ranchers' house got burned down" and "that time there was a warden on the surface" are phrases that have meaning!) there is also Participation In The Creation Of Story in the sense that who you watch and in what order creates a different story for you than it does for someone else who watches different people in a different order!

i think. i have thought / talked a lot about how audience in mcyt spaces are Really Significantly Part Of The Storytelling before, but it's been about, like, stream chat interactions, or theories on social media being seen by the creators and made true, or the awareness on the creators' end of Having An Audience They Must Tell Stories For. but it's fun to me that it's this, also?

the traffic series is... a closed box, in the sense that you know when you watch it that (1) there were three hours worth of recording that happened for that session, during which time Things Occurred, and (2) that whatever you see uploaded on youtube is in fact The Whole Thing This Particular Creator Deemed Worth Sharing. there's nothing outside those three hours. if all you care about is one person's pov, there's nothing outside those uploaded videos you need to worry about.

but there IS a box and there ARE other things in it, and you can put together such fascinating pictures of What's Going On but you're never going to have the entirety of it, the Everything In The Box, only Many Things In The Box Held At A Certain Angle. and that's a story! one of many! and you can just do that! you did that by watching it the way you did! isn't that so fucking cool?

[gatalentan]

So this is largely me thinking out loud and i don't expect anyone but me to care about this but. Ok, my thoughts in order

1. I have... maybe 18 years of Wiki editing experience and I am a good archivist. I admined one of the most popular fan wikis (3mil views per month) for ~6 years where I have 30,000+ edits. Yes that's a lot. No I don't know what grass feels like. But what I'm saying is I'm good at documenting.

2. The Abbott Elementary wiki has excellent episode pages, but very poor character pages. This is absolutely not a neg against the wiki or the contributors, far from it. The episode and transcript pages are very well done and comprehensive, and as someone who has done transcripts myself and knows how long it takes, they have so much of my respect. As a heavy-user wiki editor you tend to find your particular editing niche you enjoy and that's your thing you do, and you do it well. It's like any other type of fan creation, like finding a type of fanfic you like to write, or a particular art style you enjoy drawing in. That's what they're doing over there and they're great at it and I use those pages a lot.

3. Character pages are the ones that take a ton of time and archival, much more than I think most readers understand. For a good, solid page, probably 6-10 hours of writing minimum is required to write a chara page from scratch, not including the time spent rewatching the material. To update post episode for all charas from all charas different perspectives, at least 2-5 hours per episode (for an uncomplicated series, for high fantasy series with tons of lore... yikes). For this reason, poorly maintained chara pages is true of most wikis that aren't EXTREMELY active (the majority of wikis, believe it or not, have maybe 2-5 contributors at best, oftentimes just one guy with autism (me, i'm the guy)). People think they can do it, cause why wouldn't it be easy? so they try, then realise just how long it's gonna take and then bail and they're never seen again. It's why most wikis (except for Big series) are an unupdated ghost town. It's unpaid volunteer work for no praise or reward, so it's understandable. It's also very demoralising work. There's no kudos or comments or likes, nobody tells you good job. So it's a huge timesink just for the knowledge you contributed to the fandom, and hoping someone finds it useful, but never hearing if it was. "Anyone can edit a wiki" is true, but I can tell you point-blank that the reality is that most Good wiki pages you've ever seen were 95% written by just one person, and it's Work. The burnout is real and I've felt it, it's why I've been on effectively a wiki hiatus for nearly 2 years.

4. Because the Abbott cast is significantly smaller than the one I used to work on (52 main charas over 4 games vs a core cast of 6+1), writing good chara pages is something I could theoretically realistically do, because it's not as large as I am used to in my last experience, but it would, as I said, still be a huge time commitment.

5. I wish the pages were better, because there's so many times I've wanted to look up a fact and have been unable to do so - and making this a reality is within my means and totally within my experience. But:

6. Because the wiki hasn't had effectively useable chara pages for 2 seasons I'm not sure whether long-time active fans would think to consider the chara pages a resource after seeing them previously and knowing they're empty (I am guilty of this, I don't bother looking at them). So I'm not sure if the time commitment would be worth it. I also don't know if I would be able to commit to iterative updating once S3 rolls around, but at least there would be a stronger foundation for other people to contribute to?

7. I'm also not sure how the admins over there would feel about me blustering in out of nowhere, lol. Having been on the other side of that table I would understand the hesitation of someone coming in swinging.

I don't know. I'm considering it.

[melishade]

After finishing the story and watching the visuals of aot, did it gave more ideas to work on?

Honestly, not really.

So for some context, I was a manga reader for AoT, and I specifically was in order to get more ideas for Attack on Prime. When the manga chapter for Assassin's Bullet came out, and Eren started laughing like a maniac over Sasha's death, I knew how I wanted to end the story, and I knew that the Rumbling was going to be activated. That is what spawned the creation of cm186: one of the first of many documents I had for AOP. (There was another that I had on a flash drive but the flash drive got busted and it costed too much to repair it and it devastates me to this day. Back up your files on different formats writers). cm186 was a lot of the brainstorming and rough drafts of that final battle and the aftermath of that battle.

Now I had an idea for an ending, it was just a matter of filling in the in between. How to get to that point. I continued reading AoT and continued writing for that 4 year gap that Isayama ignored. The Paths chapters dropped; that became some free ass real estate. And then AoT dropped the final chapter, and the final chapter wasn't something that I was particularly happy with. And I've stated in my author's notes of other chapters as to why that was the case.

Before and after the AoT manga ended, I was still writing, brainstorming, outline, analyzing, all that stuff for Attack on Prime. Even as I was writing chapters, I had written concept idea and scenes for future chapters that were either scrapped or changed via dialogue and action. Even now, as I've reached the climax: Guren No Yumiya, I still have to go back to previous chapters and fix certain things because I either don't like the direction I've taken, or the big scenes that happen in certain battles don't feel as impactful, so I have to add stuff.

Aot's anime ending remained mostly the same. I like the fact that they fixed Armin and Eren's conversation, which was one of the major problems that I had with the manga; however, there are still a lot of problems that I have with AoT's ending which would have benefited from an extra few chapters. Such as:

-Ymir's relationship with King Fritz, -Mikasa's role in the story, and the fact that she still holds onto Eren and thinks of him fondly when he killed 80% of all humanity (Also she kissed his decapitated head. That's still pretty gross.) -Also the whole Eren causing his mom's death because it's been shown in the show that abnormal titan can ignore a few individual people if they see a large host of people (i.e. Rod Reiss' titan) -We don't really see the fruits of the Alliance's labor post Rumbling. -Everyone looking at Eren rather fondly. This is kinda fixed in the anime, but it rubs me the wrong way in the manga. -The lack of time we really spend with the warriors and warrior cadets which causes their character development to be a little lackluster. I guess I'm thinking in the context of "I've known them for so little time compared to the main cast of three season"

There's a lot I could talk about, but I'm certain there are others who can explain it far better than I can. But AOP is essentially me addressing what I didn't like with AoT. Aot's anime ending did nothing to change that.

[athenasparrow]

Have some questions from me too, I think you haven't answered them yet - 3, 11, 12! 😘

Hello, lovely @annabtg. Nope, haven't answered these ones yet! Thank you for playing!

Getting to know your fic writer

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

I'm still new and my process hasn't solidified yet; I've changed styles and approaches several times. Creating love stories about Lily and James is so vastly different from my day-to-day writing. For one-shots, I write (usually in one sitting) from beginning to end, then come back to it a day or week later to read with fresh eyes. For multi chaps...

During the creation of DWOHT I wrote everything in order (aside from the scene I wrote for the microfic). I had the storyline, the development of the dynamic between Lily and James, and the plot all figured out. It just came as I wrote. Then during the editing & release, I ended up adding a lot to it as I went.

For Miles From Nowhere (my wip multi-chap), I wrote all of my favourite scenes first. I did this because they were the scenes I found easiest and portray the relationship in the zone I love to write about (flirty!). I have many other scenes I WANT to include, but they are not flowing as easily so I'm now constructing this fic out of order.

I rarely outline – my study is all about outlines and hitting points, I like the freedom of creation in this space. The only fic I have an outline for at the moment is my MAFS Au because it's easier to keep track of the contestant activities drawn from the actual TV series this way.

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

ANNA! This is so hard! I don't have three favourite fics!!! I HAVE SO MANY!! I am going to limit myself to current fics/one-shots I've read in the last two weeks.

Do It Right (series) by @annabtg

Dead To Me by @itsjamespotter

Love is a lie by @wearingaberetinparis

12. How does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

Hmm, two ways to think about this! I find the Jily Fandom extremely supportive and lovely! Especially yourself xx No author has ever denied me a little advice if I have a question - that's been amazing.

In terms of comments: I love reading people's thoughts so it always puts a smile on my face when someone leaves some feedback on my work. The first one-shot I released after DWOHT I went "oh bummer, nobody likes it!" because it was an underwhelming response in comparison to DWOHT - but then somebody told me this was quite normal for a one-shot vs. a multi-chap so on I went 😂

To sum it up: comments = big smiles! Leave a comment if you can xx

@annabtg you are a consistent and lovely commenter, so shout out to you for spreading joy! You have inspired me to be better with my comments too!

[daandova]

[ ... ] ─── i do it so it FEELS LIKE HELL - i do it so i feel real.

i am only thirty and like the cat i have nine times to die. ─── [ ... ]

O MY ENEMY DO I TERRIFY ??

#DAANDOV. ──────── a writing blog for an ORIGINAL CHARACTER for the LAST DRAGONBORN in 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚'𝐬 𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐕 𝐬𝐤𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐦. [ ... ] focusing on motifs of :: the tragic hero , being nothing but a vessel for prophecy , gods leaving husks behind of their champions , coming out the other side of the hero's journey worse off , dogged loyalty , getting chewed up and spit out , feminine rage , how much more of myself do i have to give? , being doomed by the narrative [ ... ] crossovers are preferred & no knowledge of elder scrolls is needed to interact ── blog established october 2023 , character est in 2018 , loved by ouija , 21+ , she/her , rules below the cut

affiliated with @recitedemise

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ⸻⸻

( ₁. )  character timeline .   ( ₂. )   pre-est connections .   ( ₃. )   spotify .   ( ₄. )   aesthetics .   ( ₅. )   pintrest .   ( ₆. )   carrd .

001. general  ⸻ this blog is a writing blog for my oc VALVARI ALANTAR who i've built over the past five years. intrinsically tied to the legacy of the dragonborn mod, she is a canon divergent last dragonborn. i use caps from baldurs gate just because of it's character creation.

SPARK NOTES :: valvari's adoptive fathers own museums across the world. she's grown up first learning deep history, and being more book focused, but as she began showing a bit of a temper and anger streak, she was sent with one of her father's to start adventuring to begin finding artifacts and curios that are gathered to store in the museums. just recently, they've opened a new museum and val is going to start adventuring on her own in order to help fill it.

002. following ⸻  this is a highly selective blog , i am keeping my circle very small right now and will only interact with those who make concerted efforts to plot with me. i practice mains, i'm not interested in exclusives. i do not follow writers under the age of 21. if you're ever softblocked and you still want to interact, please feel free to follow again, it's never that serious i promise.

i softblock liberally if we have not interacted, i'm not interested in being a number to people. i don't expect to be responding to our threads every day, i don't expect constant ooc talk, we all have lives and other muse interests. what i expect is interaction with other posts that show you're interested in my muse. a like or a reply to a post goes a long way. when time goes on and you're radio silent but still active on dash, i'll likely just softblock just so i'm not feeling unwanted. i promise it's not a big deal, it's just about curating my dash to active mutuals.

003. formatting  ⸻ i don’t care about formatting or icon usage on your end , you do what makes you most comfortable. i personally use normal text with some formatting, and icons only show up in writing if i feel like it. i'll use them if i'm feeling it, otherwise there may be threads or posts where they're absent because i couldn't be bothered to add them. if there's something about my formatting that doesn't work for you let me know and i can adjust.

004. shipping ⸻  i love shipping and am always open to discussing it. val requires chemistry to ship with and i require being comfortable together ooc. it's not going to be a focus on this blog and i'll never be the first to ask in order to keep people from feeling uncomfortable. if you are interested, let me know, i won't consider it forceshipping, but be aware i may say no.

please note :: val is sex positive and a bit blunt, so she may flirt if she thinks your muse is attractive but i'm ALWAYS okay with her being shut down. i promise it's never that serious, and i'm not trying to beg for a ship. she will also drop the topic the moment someone isn't interested.

005. plotting ⸻  i rely heavily on plotting and interacting ooc and my attention will be focused around those of my followers who i have a plot for and rapport with. it isn’t necessary to have one off the bat , but if interactions are going to go anywhere , plotting is required. i typically prioritize these threads/muses and if we go a period of time without interacting or you showing interest in my muse/blog at all, i'll softblock so i can keep my dash to the people i'm actively writing/chatting with.

006. interacting ⸻ i will like starter call , but do not wait to see one on my blog because it won’t happen often. instead , please send memes. they can always become threads. and they are great ways to explore our muses while we aren't working on our active threads. send them and send them often, i'm never agitated if you're sending multiple. i'll delete any i don't have muse for but i'll always answer some.

007. triggers ⸻ there will be adult content present on this blog including , but not limited to :: sexual content , potential mention of self harm , violence , adult language. if you are uncomfortable with any of these please tell me and i will avoid them in our threads. i don't have any specific triggers, however i will always tag potentially triggering things as : trigger tw

008. ooc ⸻ hey i’m ouija , 30+ i’m just a nerd. I have a full time job and a home to maintain so my activity will vary. icon border by ariapsds and icon psd by jaynedits

i've grown comfortable existing on the edges of fandoms and just fitting val within them, thus i'm very crossover friendly. rape, incest, pedophilia, hate / bigotry (ie: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc) is not accepted on this blog. i may keep myself distant from callouts or personal drama that appears (mainly just because i don't like calling attention to myself), however i'm not against them when it comes to keeping the dash safe and letting people know about problematic people.

[thrythlind]

TORG

Torg is probably one of the earliest seeds of my interest in genre blender settings though it was eventually cemented by Fred Perry's Gold Digger and my own fanfictions. I was able to play a few games of this back in the 90s, short run games and one-shots that didn't go very far.

The basic premise of this game was that there were two cosmic forces, one of creation and one of destruction. And the force of destruction created Darkness Devices in order to tempt people to serve its cause by using them to slowly limit and destroy possibilities until things got to a point where the cosmic force could crush it all at once.

Part of how this would work is that the Dark Lords would anchor the axioms of their realities (called "Cosms") to the level of magic, tech, social, and spiritual development that they most desired with a handful of corollary side rules unique to each reality. And once they've succeeded in shaping their reality to their desire, they would begin to go out and conquer other realities and forcing it that image as well.

If a critical mass of residents from one region came into another one with the aid of the appropriate dark powers, then the invading realm would over-write the native one. Magic or tech native to the target Cosm would fail and residents would find their minds and memories rewritten to accept their position within the new Cosm.

The ultimate goal of these villains is to achieve enough power to claim the title of "TORG" (which I've heard is an acronym based on the working title of the game system)... but of course they're a pawn for destruction seeking to break everything, them included.

The original game focused on a version of Earth that was being invaded by several other Cosms:

Aysle - A fantasy realm of D&D style magic.

Cyberpapcy - A realm of advanced cybernetics and religious oppression.

Living Land - A realm of sentient dinosaur people and prehistoric or stone age action.

New Nile - A pulpy story of 1920s superheroes, gadgeteers, occultists, and a madman who believes himself to be a pharoah.

Nippon Tech - A near future (honestly, RL 2020s) realm of corporate greed and financial oppression. And because it was the 90s, cyberninja.

Orrosh - A realm of Victorian horror and colonialist invaders. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, white supremacists.

There were later one or two other Cosms involved, including a sort of "good guy" Cosm that still came across pretty pretentious.

The world of the original game eventually fought off their invaders and the world of the more recent version, Torg Eternity, explicitly features an Earth where things didn't go near as well.

The But...

I liked the basic idea here but there were things that bothered me at the time and bother me more now.

First of all, the fact that Social development was quantified.

Cosms had 4 axioms rated from 0 to 30 that rated the development of native magic, tech, spiritual involvement, and....social development.

On the one hand, they talk about the potential of these axioms fluctuating in different places and with enough people changing entirely. But it describes changing a rating by 1 point over 10 years to be very fast, with 1 point over 500 years being more likely.

(looks pointedly at real history)

Okay.

The very idea that there is a hard cosmic law that limits society from advancing is horrific to me and I hate it. And from a game play perspective, it is actively saying "you don't get to make real substantial changes to the world" to the players.

And yes, you can ignore that for your own game, but it does represent a rather horrific impression that that is the default.

To be clear.

I'm completely onboard with horrific invaders enforcing alien thought patterns, behaviors, and even natural or supernatural laws onto people. That sort of identity theft is a thing I dip into quite a bit.

Where I find it distasteful is that this hard limit of imposition is the default nature of the setting.

You can't share cultural points across Cosms. Unless you're one of those special Storm Knights who keep their own identity when traveling to other Cosms, then you hold tight to your own native-concepts and reject other concepts on a basic, cosmic level.

Which brings me to another problem.

You can't have healthy interaction between Cosms by default beyond a handful of Storm Knight envoys.

The most healthy way for different Cosms to exist is to stay separate and never interact with each other. And yeah... separate but equal is not a thing I like to deal with.

You can't have a character go around and acquire trainings and techniques from alternate Cosms... because their most base nature will reject that other Cosm.

Say you have a bunch of heroes from different Cosms finish the campaign by kicking out the invaders and even freeing the other Cosms from their tyrants...

Well the next thing is they all get separated not to mix again.

[shnowyfox]

all my mlp ocs in order of creation

DayDreamBreeze. also my original gamertag on minecraft! i uhm. shes not supposed to be a cheese changling. She's inspired by a fluttershy toy i had and the beautiful artwork for the honey queen chrysalis from ink rose's interpretation of her backstory. i swapped the honey for water and she's supposed to be a pegasus? but i drew her as a changling here for some reason and i have no clue why

Casey Cockatrice. Seeing pony youtubers discuss the show in their oc form, and thinking "wow, they're all just pegasi" i was like "i should do that but not be a pegasus" so i made an oc and never did that lol. probably a good thing though. anyhow. Casey was originally supposed to be an angel cockatrice but I didn't know how to do that without just making a chicken with a lizard tail until just now im realizing i should make it a dutchie omg. Casey enjoys the ponies and wants to befriend them but is confined to the everfree forest, so she has dawned a blindfold so she doesnt hurt anyone and she likes to hang out with zecora and collect herbs with her. she still just kinda does chicken/dragon things most of the time like pecking at the ground and sitting on treasure. The ring in her comb is supposed to be a halo. halos stuck in the character's design physically (usually through the hair or something similar) was a common thing i did for characters that were close to me at the time.

Lemon Lily. She is. very bright. she was supposed to have a much more subtle color palette but i didnt do that and now she looks like sprite lmao. anyhow. i drew her randomly when i went through a small mlp phase a few years ago, mainly just attraction for chrysalis, but i guess she exists. her cutie mark is supposed to look like a water lily made of lemons but it kinda just looks weird idk. i'd say her talent is supposed to be like.. maybe floral arrangement? i think i had some inspiration from early mlp background ponies and i remember the florists were my favorite.

JASON!! my favorite little idiot. he's a griffin i made in pony.town after realizing if i use the singular freckle and closed the eyes, it looked like he had tiny eyes and angry brows lol. all i do with him is act vaguely like skydoesminecraft and boop people with my bird fingers.

DayDreamBreeze 2.0. i literally drew this bitch and didn't do anything else with them. ever.

then is autumn breeze whom i've drawn literally in like my last post so im not doing it again rn. she's my LOE pony and if you want her lore go to the post where i drew her on my phone.

Honey Suckle. The only OC that I have surviving evidence of actually writing their backstory and whatnot. They were created with the idea of them experimenting on their body trying to turn themselves into a bee (basically beeatris as a horse, i know none of you know my persona beeatris but its pretty much her without the demonic activity and disney fairy influence), though i have thought of maybe changing it to her wanting to become a breezy or a changeling. She lost her horn because of this experimentation and is fluffier and has patches of hair on her eyes because of it. i forgot if she had a cutie mark or if i just didnt draw it or if it's overgrown? I think a lot of this character's experimentation was based off of memories of my brother who had leukemia and tried experimental treatments, mainly the fuzziness he got from his chemo or steroids i forgot which one it was. I also drew her as a kirin, idk if that was supposed to be a thing of like.. me doing it as an alternate idea of what she's aiming to achieve, as an alternate form of what she was born as.. or if it was just a doodle.. but it was pretty cool. a good quote for her is the vine thats like "i am a wolf on all levels but physical"

Next is Pegasus. I originally had a different name for them but i don't think i can share it here. Pegasus is also related to my brother though and is very cool. they're really just a celestial body as a pony like Celestia and Luna, but with more of a crystal pony inspiration. also, they speak enchanting table only and i think thats really funny. same size as Luna. also, she can hide in Luna's hair.

Stone Hoof. based somewhat off of Smokey Quartz from Steven Universe, i thought it'd be cool to also give them speckling like an appaloosa horse or vitiligo. you can't see their cutie mark but it's supposed to be a yoyo and i put it in the shape of the symbol of leo since im a leo and i designed them on the same day as pegasus lol. they are intended to be a friend to Honey Suckle.

Finally, we have... I didn't name this one actually. uhm. well! it looks kinda like scootaloo, especially g3 or 3.5. which was unintentional but she was one of my favorite ponies and i had a few toys of her so it kinda makes sense that this is what my brain thought of when i thought "well loved my little pony doll". The hair is based off of the fettucine hair on those g4 plushies and also somewhat based on dreads. the patterns on their hooves is the heartshaped horseshoe from those promotional toys where you can scan them in for video game perks. and the wings are colored after discord's wings. I also got inspo from Stitches from Animal Crossing.

those are the horses. 1 like = 1 more horse post.

i also have customs i made as a kid that i dont have pictures of but i could redraw. but they're basically just "this character but i painted this animal on their face."

[acacia-may]

If you're still doing your headcanon game, I would love to know your four headcanons about Vanessa.

Hi there anon! I am so sorry it has taken me a bit to get back with you properly. I would absolutely love to write some headcanons for Vanessa for you! She is one of my all time favourite Black Clover characters, and I hope you will like what I've come up with for her 🥰

Headcanons are below the cut! (Warnings: Mentions drinking, alcohol, retching, kissing, childhood trauma, nightmares, and abuse)

Headcanon A:  realistic

Vanessa helps to organize a lot of the fun activities, social events, and parties the Black Bulls have, and she has a bit of party planning committee with Charmy, Gordon, (and eventually Grey when she is comfortable joining up). They make sure everyone's birthdays get celebrated and Vanessa and Charmy especially are always thinking up reasons to have a party with everyone (for the food the booze but also because they want to spend time having fun with their friends 😂).

(Also)

Vanessa is Her Majesty the Queen of Witches' biological daughter. (A/N: They just look uncannily similar, and her fate manipulation powers share similarities with Her Majesty's future sight magic. Also, Her Majesty seems to have much more control and authority over Vanessa than the other witches. I know she really wanted Vanessa's power, but we don't see the Witch Queen locking up the other witches in towers and controlling their lives to the same extent even if she considers them all her "daughters").

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

As Her Majesty the Queen of Witches' biological daughter, Vanessa is actually the crown princess of the Forest of Witches so she currently outranks all of her companions (even Noelle who takes a lot of pride in the fact she is the "royalty" on the squad) and is one of the best-educated members of the Black Bulls. As she is next-in-line to be the Witch Queen, she has actual diplomatic skills and shrewd business sense--essentially she was taught to rule. However, since she spends most of her time intoxicated, it doesn't often dawn on her squad mates how strategic and intelligent she actually is. Under different circumstances, she would have made an absolutely fantastic, if a bit fearsome and formidable, monarch. She just has no interest in that kind of life after the way she was raised.

(A/N: I'm not sure how unrealistic that was so I'm adding another one. It has very slight Vanessa x Finral vibes though I'm really thinking it's more just Finral being Finral but just to warn you in case it's not your cup of tea you might want to skip this one. Also mentions retching and the offer of kisses) The first time Vanessa ever got drunk was with her squad in the early days of the Black Bulls (when it was (mostly) just her, Yami, Finral, and Gordon), and it was an absolute disaster. A goat got loose in their Hideout, her dress got completely ripped up as she tried to chase after it (leading to her penchant for walking around in her undergarments), and she (well-meaningly and somewhat innocently) offered to kiss all of her companions--Gordon politely declined as did the Captain who had had just about enough of all of this chaos (they don't pay him enough for this). Equally-intoxicated Finral was the only one who tried to take her up on it (because he's Finral), but she ended up retching on his boots so it was bad times all around. This all lead to Captain Yami's creation of the squad's "one rule" ("no babies on the squad") the very next morning (once everyone had sobered up). At the Captain's order, they are never allowed to speak of it again, and Captain Yami told Gordon to burn his observation diary. Surprisingly enough, however, none of this deters Vanessa from drinking ever again.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

For several years after Vanessa left the Forest of Witches, she was utterly terrified of the dark. She could not sleep unless she had a candle lit in the room because she was so afraid that she would wake up in the dark prison of her tower. She also suffers terrible night terrors due to the trauma, and candlelight helps ground her when she wakes up from them. Though she tried her best to hide it as not to cause any trouble for her friends, Gordon, Yami, Finral (and Henry) always (subtly) made sure she had plenty of candles.

(Also)

One of Vanessa's greatest fears is being a burden on others. After escaping her terrible situation in the Forest of Witches, she goes out of her way to help others and give them the love and support that she never had growing up, often taking the role of everyone's "Big Sister" and a shoulder to cry on for her friends. However, she finds it incredibly difficult to be able to be vulnerable enough to allow them to return the favour because she doesn't want to add to her loved one's troubles or drive them away by being "too much" for them (or so she fears). She became an expert at hiding and swallowing her own pain and became so dependent on herself for everything that it is difficult for her to seek help, comfort, and support from others. She tries to keep things light, cheerful, and focused on other people, when inside she has a lot of deep, internal pain and suffering from the absolutely horrific things that she has been through in her life that she refuses to address or tell anyone about, constantly assuring them that she's fine and urging them not to worry about her. Most of her squad had no idea about the kind of suffering and abuse she endured prior to joining the Black Bulls until after the visit to the Forest of Witches because she is such a private person about her past and always seems so happy. Her happiness is genuine, but her past is a bit like "the monster in the closet" for her--locked away and ignored but always still there. Her desire to make others happy is also incredibly genuine, it is just sometimes difficult for Vanessa to believe that she herself deserves to be happy as much as her friends as there is still a part of her who blames herself and her flaws and "weakness" for her abuse.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

Vanessa has a Clover Kingdom grimoire because her biological father was from the Clover Kingdom, and she is actually part of the Clover Kingdom nobility (though from a lesser noble house which is not very prestigious or influential and has mostly mediocre magic). Vanessa's magic was mostly inherited from her father who had string magic (which he mainly used for sewing, tailoring, or replacing strings on his violin). The fate manipulation component comes from a combination with her mother's, Her Majesty the Queen of Witches', future sight magic (which had been Her Majesty's plan in having Vanessa all along as she could foresee that a combination of her own future sight abilities and string magic could result in Vanessa's power to manipulate destiny which the queen desperately wanted). Vanessa doesn't know anything about her biological father or his family, and, if anything, assumes her father is probably dead; however, he is still alive and heartbroken at having been separated from his daughter by the Queen (he loved Vanessa and would have been a good parent if given the chance). One day (after the end of the series), she will eventually find her biological father and they will be reunited with each other.

[tsukuyomiland]

Someone:

-Abuse my affection by making me an emotional slave that had to be ready to talk to them at the time they said or otherwise get guilt-tripped ("I feel so alone" "you said you would be here").

-I had to be ready to comfort them at any time, with situations like me having my baby niece crying in my arms and they DEMANDING my total attention even knowing it, or demanding drawings to make them feel better.

-Lies to me. Blatantly.

-Makes me feel miserable filling my life with constant negativity. I wasn't allowed to express any kind of personal happiness publicly because it "hurt their feelings". Me drawing better than them also hurt them, I felt compelled to pretend I was less skilled.

-Contacts IRL friends of mine and tell them my now husband is "manipulating me". (He was in fact saving me of their toxic influence).

-Steals my art. Lies to me when I demand my art to be removed. Sends me a broken link to a blog. Later I find out they only changed the username and I find my art again used without my permission.

-Steals concepts and characters I created. Lies blatantly about their creation to erase my contribution and real origin.

-Erases my name from collabs.

-Writes a journal on Deviant Art full of blatant lies. When I call out, they say my screenshots are fake.

-Copies drawings from me (and other artists). They get comments like "nice pose", they only say thank you without mention it was referenced-copied.

-I demand those drawings to be deleted or at least, get credited. I'm ignored. The drawings are still there.

-Impersonates me, takes my username and posts stuff with the intention of discredit me. Some allude to things like "how to make fake screenshots" showing that they were aware of their activity and were ready to use that argument against me even knowing it would be false, showing their bad faith.

-Sends me repeated insults, some as tasteless as calling my newborn son "broken condom". Allusions to the fascist dictatorship my country suffered. Calling me lazy for not drawing my comic... The day after I gave birth. And much more. I have screenshots of all of them, so I have proof.

-Accusations of plagiarism. I only took the characters I made and put them in a completely different context. Telling my story is a copy of theirs is like saying Gone with the Wind is a copy of Jurassic Park.

-Accused me of being friends with a person with who I exchanged barely a couple conversations and with which I have no connection at all.

Me:

-Decided to cut a friendship after months of emotional suffering that was affecting my relationship with my husband, my mood, my skills, after I found a "secret blog" full of stuff I feel unable to support, after they told me a thing that was the final red flag I was able to put up after a history of ignoring red flags.

-I decided to choose my own happiness.

-I decided to choose mental health.

-I never insulted.

-I never lied.

-I felt manipulated, with the feeling my only value to them was my drawing skills to be used for their project and my relative popularity in a fandom to help them to get noticed themselves. I had the feeling the only reason they clinged to my friendship was that they would lose the use of my skills. The episode of the stolen drawings confirmed it to me.

-I only asked my stuff to get removed, ready to move on and hoping my characters and concepts won't be used never again. After they lied to me, I decided I earned my right to recover and use what was mine. I even surrendered one of those characters completely as a gesture of good will because they had an attachment to said character.

-I've shown repeatedly actions of good will and hopes of stable terms.

-I deleted my Deviant Art account, that they helped to boost in watchers, in order to not be accused of 'taking advantage' of their action. I haven't had an account on dA ever since.

-I've sent private emails to manage our problems directly. Ignored by them.

-There is no one left on their side who was a witness of our friendship, relationship and exchanges at the time, because I was the only friend they had then -another lie: they said once that I wanted to isolate them so I could be their only friend, totally false because I always encouraged they could search new friends in their area and even helped them actively to set the accomodations for an Erasmus trip. In the opposite, they are who made actions to get me afar from my irl friends and husband so I could focus only on them. They can say whatever they want to the people surrounding them now and be believed because they don't know me at all, never worried about knowing my side, and I don't expect it. My image is at their mercy, and they don't hesitate in using lies. There is nothing I can do against it that doesn't require legal action.

But I guess I'm the baddie, huh.