#idk i just really love his backstory because he really was dealing with some kind of existential crisis

[mysticalskunk]

you know that feeling when you really like a character but you cannot find any good content for them because people just ... don't really get them.

[melrosing]

so stuff I’ve not liked about the finale and S2 more generally…. unfortunately it’s a lot and i'm thinking i might need to say this in several parts but first and foremost: the pacing really was shit and i don't just mean there weren't enough action scenes i mean the whole season they've had almost nothing to say about these characters and have just been making us think they do by having them repeat the same ham-fisted monologues about power and peace and the cost of war and whatever whilst moving at a glacial pace from one minor plot point to another and by the end of it most of these characters STILL haven't changed, and where they have it feels undeserved, and yes they really are at roughly the place they started so what have they even got to show for these eight hours of TV?? like damn

and I do get that the writer's strike has really effected them here and HBO hacking two eps off their season affected them too and that really can't be helped. but the pacing has been pretty poor from kick off and I can't just put it down to this being a more 'internal' season. i do not care about big battles. it's fine to have a season of a show that’s more about the characters’ interiority rather than plot action. that’s the exact reason why I like AFFC so much.

but these characters barely have interiority like idk what to say. some like Rhaenyra, Jace and Alicent have been spouting the same monologues every episode about wanting peace/wanting agency/wanting peace again etc etc, and the more interesting moments like Alicent's apparent suicide attempts, Rhaenyra's butchering of the dragonseeds etc... I mean where IS the interiority here?? unless they are spelling out a character's thoughts in the most literal way they can (as per Jace's diatribes about the dragonseeds), they leave their audience to do absolutely all the work by showing us nothing, and just leaving us to figure that the characters must be having some kind of thoughts but y'all can decide what they are.

and even Daemon, whose entire ARC was about his interiority.... like look I was so so ready to love this arc. i love fucked up little dream sequences. i love harrenhal. i was really enjoying the angle they took with alys. i was here for it. but now we've seen the whole of his S2 arc, im going to say yes, it was intended as a redemption adjacent kind of arc, and it isn't a very good one. Daemon has a handful of weird dreams, gets shouted at by some Riverlands folk, and he's a changed man.

consider the character everyone compares Daemon to (and who I'm always more than happy to talk about) and that's Jaime. and look at the sheer ground covered in ASOS: Jaime breaks out of a dungeon, Jaime meets a younger version of himself, Jaime gets his hand hacked off, Jaime reveals his anime villain backstory in the bath, Jaime deals with Roose Bolton, Jaime has a weird weirwood dream, Jaime fights a fucking bear - and at this point we're still only about halfway through.

now in contrast, what have they actually managed to do with Daemon this season. where has that finale moment with Rhaenyra been earned. this is not slow pacing for the sake of powerful character development, it's slow because they don't have anything else to say.

and also look at the state of characters like Aemond who seemed really promising in S1, yet in this season he barely reflects on the fact that he hadn't meant to kill Luke, and this war is an accident that he started, etc etc - he's just a killing machine lol. there were some nice touches in there, like i say i enjoyed Helaena telling Aemond how he'll die in the finale. but I no longer trust these writers to do anything with their more inspired ideas because they just consistently fail to do so.

look at Baela!!! like my god, has Baela had the opportunity to do anything except A) what she's told and B) counsel men on their feelings. she has like one moment looking at Daemon and you feel like the series is going to explore how complex it is to be Daemon Targaryen's daughter.... but my god they never do!! so where IS this interiority we've spent eight episodes on! what have they got to show for it!!

and i talked more weeks back about how frustrating i've found the writing of women more generally in this series and as of the finale I am finding it so egregious and so condescending. women want peace. women want to protect their children. women are tired of men. women are tired of war. women are trying to end this war peacefully. women are pacifists. women hate violence. and so on and so on and so on like jesus christ who am i even talking about here. even i don't know. it's so boring. it's so dry. and it requires female characters to always be the paragons of virtue, never do anything truly condemnable, never be unlikeable, never fucking anything except stand around saying how much they hate this. im bored of it and it makes me angry that they would do this in a series that specifically seeks to make everyone grey and everyone complex - they keep suggesting that might extend to the women before abruptly shutting it down again. see Alicent and Rhaenyra even STILL, after EVERYTHING, trying to peacefully shut down the war for the sake of love and friendship in the goddamn finale. I don't believe it anymore!! it's not cute! it's just dull!!!

and finally that just kind of brings me to how shortsighted a lot of the plot developments seem, when you see how the characters fail to reckon with their pasts or shit that just happened. Rhaenyra and Mysaria make out, and then that's never mentioned again and the tone never changes between them. Rhaenyra is done thinking about Luke. Helaena is done thinking about Jaehaerys. Aegon actually didn't mention Jaehaerys in the list of things he's 'lost' in that finale. Alicent's relationship w Viserys was just now condensed to 'we were fond of each other but he always liked your mum better'

like idk it's just. if this season's pacing is all about giving characters the chance to change and grow into the people they'll be when this war REALLY kicks off.... do it. write it. do not just write the same monologue a dozen times and hope it'll hit harder with each. doesn't work like that. sorry.

[lilyofthevalleyys]

just wanna say i have wind breaker brain rot right now (the manga)

10/10!! highly recommend reading/watching it!

i’m hoping that i can find the manga but i dont have high hopes. some merch maybe? the chance is probably really low too though :/

more photos under the cut! + me talking about them

also i really want suo’s earrings but they’re impractical so i probably can’t get them 😭 maybe next time 😔

also please tap on the photo for higher quality!

also x2, there blood in the second photo, not a lot but just a warning!

LOOK AT THEM

i haven’t watched the anime on my phone to screenshot yet so i don’t have any good pics but KIRYUU <33 he’s the longish haired person. can you tell he’s my favourite. and Nirei being best supporting character <33

i had mixed feelings about kiryuu at first cuz i was uncertain about his vibe BUT HES AMAZING

kaji is a favourite too!!! his headphones, lollipop and hoodie is so iconic. i also love his parallel to sakura! sakura has someone to ask advice for who’s similar to him :))

introducing the four kings of furin/bofurin!

MOMOSE, the zojo king (the guy with a hood and sweater paws) we don’t know much about him yet (i hope we get more) but i just like him so he’s a favourite! so my top three are kiryuu, kaji and momose, in no particular order

tsubakino, the jikoku king (the one in the second frame)! the way the whole town just accepts them!! and their crush is treated like any other normal crush! they’re so older sibling vibe i love them so much

hiragi, the tamon king (the one in the third frame)! the dad of the group and the one who pops those stomachache pills/tablets like it’s nothing. tbf having to deal with the leader of furin, who legit yells into the broadcast mic thing, isn’t easy 😭

mizuki, the komoku king (the guy in the first frame)! nothing much is known about him either but he’s seems serious and is the strategy person of furin. also he takes off his glasses when he fights which is just really cool

also i realise i haven’t said this but the one with dual colored hair (kinda like todoroki shouto) is the main character of the manga, sakura, who’s goal is to be at the top of furin! he’s got ✨ trauma ✨ but he’s slowly learning to accept and rely on people :)) he also blushes at any kind of romance (and also when he’s shy or embarrassed), even hand holding. i don’t know how he’s gonna date people honestly

and of course, the leader/representative of furin, hajime umemiya! he’s really just like an elementary school kid, as Suo says. hes the sunshine character who you wouldn’t wanna piss off. he’s also the one who united furin with the four kings when they used to be a dog-eat-dog kind of school, so major respect to him!

(the next one contains a bit of spoiler on suo?? idk but just a warning. it’s more of a mini analysis)

a more formal introduction of suo and nirei, sakura’s vice captains and the supporting characters! nirei is good with people and collects information on people in his notebook. he’s the sunshine in the trio, and the other two are the sunshine protectors! suo is a joker, but don’t let that kind face get to you. he’s like the main instigator of most of the (harmless) shit that goes down in 1-1. he’s also mysterious with little information about him. oh and he doesn’t eat?? not in front of other people at least. i really wanna know his backstory tbh

but also:

suo. hes mostly easygoing with a smile on his face all the time. but also freaking scary when pissed off like if someone was looking at me like that i’d run and never look back. yes sakura is right, that’s not the face of someone who’s kind, not in this case. i’ll make a post psycho analysing him later

but he takes fourth on my favourite character list! then tsubakino, umemiya, nirei, hiragi, tsugeura, kusumi, suzuri, choji, togame, the twins etc. the list goes on.

point is: wind breaker is great and i highly recommend reading/watching it.

thats all! imma go make a post analysing suo later, because seriously he’s so mysterious. thanks for reading!

[loudclan-clangen]

HEY so the last ask reminded me that this is set in Alaska! As someone who used to live there it makes me very happy to see, so just for fun I brainstormed lore ideas/questions for a Clan there n I thought id share :) this is Long lmao i apologize

The terrain for one thing. Growing up I remember all the horror stories of people getting stuck in muskeg and not being able to get out before the tide comes in. so that’s always freaky, but i imagine that if theres any in the area then the cats might try and take advantage of it as safely as they can? for prey and such. on that note whats their water situation like anyways? braided rivers?

any specific ideas for what area of mountains the cats are in? are they in the higher ranges, the ones wrapped up in clouds, the rocky kind like the ones around Denali? the greener ones with all the trees? is their territory frequented by hikers and/or tourists or are they relatively untouched wilderness? I think i remember it being said that LoudClan is somewhere more towards the south, is it intended to be generally vague? :0

Predators!!!! The cats can deal with all sorts of unique stuff in a setting like this, bears n lynxes n wolves… eagles… possibly even wolverines since theyre up in the mountains? i’d be curious to see how a clan would react to a wolf pack passing through the area lol. also ive always just loved the concept of a queen finding an abandoned lynx kitten or smth and unknowingly adopting it and it just keeps… getting bigger… whoops… oh well its the clans weird child now

So many fun lil prey animals too, ground squirrels n ptarmigans n such!! I bet ptarmigans would totally harass cats during breeding season and that could be funny. maybe standard apprentice training is to learn the different ground squirrel alarm calls. maybe they even sometimes encounter dalls or caribou or moose on patrols (perhaps moose have even been known to kill before, so theyre considered dangerous).

Also just….. the day-night cycle??? I’d honestly be pretty interested to see how that ties in, like it’s daylight forever in the summer-early autumn and pretty much perpetually nighttime in the winter-early breakup. do the cats have any thoughts or beliefs towards that? do they like to look up at the northern lights, and listen when theyre so clear that they can hear them?

Okok thats all now sorry. I got way too excited lol i miss AK sm, i left when i was little 💔 if any of this has been discussed already in a lore post then ignore me its been a hot minute and i rattled this off on a whim!!!

Love this! Okay, let me try to hit all of these questions in a way that will hopefully be understandable for everyone so if you're the asker please skip past the definitions/backstory.

A 'muskeg' is like a swamp or a bog. I assume that you're referring to the area outside of Anchorage that we always called the 'Mud-Flats", because that's where I heard stories of people getting stuck. (Specifically there's a very famous urban legend of a soldier stationed in Anchorage who went out with his buddies, got stuck up to his waist, ended up tied to a helicopter, and when they tried to pull him out with the helicopter he uh... separated. And his legs can supposedly still be found in the flats. (I WANT TO CLARIFY THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE. THERE WAS A SOLDIER, HE GOT STUCK, HE DROWNED, THE SEPARATION HAPPENED AFTER HE WAS DEAD AND THEY TRIED TO RETRIEVE THE BODY. THEY DID GET HIS LEGS BACK TO MY KNOWLEDGE.)) It's pretty much a long stretch of quicksand (but it's like more mud and silt than sand? idk how to really describe it i haven't been there much cause ya know, hearing stories like that will kinda cure your curiosity as a kid.)

Anyway, Ghostclan's territory used to be Mud-Flats, but long before the cats moved in twolegs came and installed the Rip Rap (big jagged rocks that are placed on the coastline to keep it from erroding) that make up Freezingclan's territory and that kinda took some of the danger out of it. Since the tide no longer comes up so high, while getting stuck is certainly not a good thing, it's not a death sentence as clanmates have time to gather help and dig you out. Though it does make it hard/near impossible to launch an attack on Ghostclan without an insider to lead you around the wet spots. Larger prey can sometimes be found stuck in the mud, having died from exhaustion, but the wetness causes the meat to rot quickly, and what is left draws the attention of larger predators, while also adding the issue of having to avoid getting stuck as you retrieve it, so it's not really a reliable source of food as much as it is a last resort. Ghostclan also contains the territory's braided river, which the cats call the "Friendly River" because it's three smaller streams that meet up into one large one. (I didn't do the best job rendering this on the map but that is what I was trying to represent. I'm not a landscape person, I'm doing my best.) Because the territory is a narrow valley set right on the coast they don't have a ton of room for the rivers to braid, but the thought was there!

It is intented to be generally vague, because I'm not an expert on geography and I live a couple of hours from this exact area, I didn't want to say "yeah it's here" and then have people correct me with minute little things. Plus if it's entirely made up then I can alter things to my liking. But the territory is inspired by the land along the Seward highway, where on one side it's these big mountains and on the other it's just a short sloping coastline. It looks like this in real life:

(You can even see the railroad and layer of rip rap that I included in the territory map) I imagine it's a place where the road veers inland so that the clans can have more space to roam. While the railroad runs through the mountain the highway is just on the other side of it. The mountains here are nowhere as tall as Denali, but they aren't anything to scoff at either. I imagine them being something like this, (which I believe is Exit Glacier?):

The lower areas are densely forested with tall trees and thick shrubs, but the greenery gets thinner and shorter as the elevation rises until you get to the higher ridges and peak which is pretty much just rock. Loudclan camp would be located at the transition point between grass and rock, so that there is no place above them where their enemies might hide and wait to pounce. As for humans, the territory used to belong to a small mining town. They dug the mine, installed the rip rap, built the buildings, and leveled the area of the mountain that Loudclan camp is set on, but over time resources dried up and people left. Now it's nearly untouched save the railroad, which still runs through the mountain regardless of whether there's a stop there anymore. The fact that you have to either cross railroad tracks or mountains to get to it, and its remote nature mean that hikers don't usually put in the energy to venture that way. (My mom grew up in Sutton, a former coal mining town and railway hub that was long past it's glory days by the time she was born and so this fictional town is kind of an omage to that).

The cats absolutely will interact with unique predators! The game has done me the favor of adding in wolverines already (and let me tell you, they cause PROBLEMS), but the cats might also face off against an aggressive little ermine (which are much fiercer than their appearance would have you believe) or even find themselves stumbling upon a blackbear gorging on blueberries early in the fall. They aren't really in the correct area for a wolf pack (and to my knowledge i don't remember writing about any) but who knows what's to come? Okay, now onto Lynx. Up until about 30 seconds ago I was under the impression that domestic cats and lynx could hybridize. Why did I think that? Well because everyone and their mother up her SWEARS that their female cat got out and mated with a lynx at one point or another. That or their big long hair tom cat is part lynx. So who was I to question whether that could even happen? Well apparently it can't but oops, too late, already headcannoned that several characters are part lynx so fuck it. These cats are special. They've speciated. Juneaucliff's dad was a Lynx. What are you gonna do about it? Huh? Regardless, yes, the cats do interact with Lynx, but they speak the same language, so it's a bit of a different situation. It probably won't be mentioned unless people ask about specific characters, but anyone with ear tufts/unusually large stature/big paws may have been descended from a lynx at some point.

The prey animals I think are more dangerous than the predators honestly. So many of them are specifically adapted to the terrain in ways that the cats aren't. Imagine chasing a snowshoe hare across the mountainside, following directly in their tracks only to suddenly feel the snow fall away beneath you, because while their big feet allow them to skid across the crevasse without disturbing the crust of the snow, you're just a little bit too heavy and you sink a bit to far and now you're falling to your death. You're sitting on the edge of the river during a salmon run, watching an eagle dive down to grab a fish. What are the chances it changes it's mind and grabs you? A cat weighs a lot less than a king salmon. And moose would be a danger. 9/10 they won't even glance twice at you but the one time you get unlucky enough to jump down from a tree and land between a cow and her calf? Maybe with no snow a cat could outrun a moose but those long legs mean that there's no feasible escape in the colder months. Even in the warmer months a cat can be trampled by a herd of caribou if they aren't vigilant while walking along the flat lands of the valley. Ptarmagins are easy food, but they're annoying and they spook off every other kind of prey within their designated "territory" and are just generally a nuisance. Some of them are useful, though, Dall sheep wool is is great for insulating nests and shed antlers from moose and caribou can be used to strengthen camp walls and build dens or can be broken into smaller sections to splint broken bones.

The day/night cycle absolutely plays into it! That's why starclan moved into the Black Water Pool. It's the only place where night always exists. In moon 14 Part 2 Twistedtail explains to Wildfirecry that starclan had to move, saying "We couldn't survive there. Not when the sun silenced the stars for seasons at a time". Many cats believe that their ancestors can't see them while the stars are hidden, that the light of the sun blinds them, and therefore are more likely to do devious things in the summer when the sun never leaves the sky in order to avoid punishment. They don't live far north enough to experience perpetual night but even so, only having 6 hours of daylight in the winter does make patrolling and hunting much more difficult. As of right now, the northern lights mean something different to every cat. They each interpret them/were taught to believe something unique about them. Are they the last words of dead cats frozen in the air? Are they the souls of your ancestors dancing across the sky? Maybe they're a sign from starclan, demanding that the lead healer come speak to them at the black water or a sign of good luck for a little born beneath them. No one really knows, except for that they're something important. (I'm not committing to anything cause they could be used in so many interesting ways that i don't wanna limit myself ya know?)

anyway, thank you for the ask, this was so fun to talk about! My apologies for not answering as many asks as I had hoped to over my break, I was on a trip and then had to buckle down on school work and then got sick (just a cold. im fine) but things are looking good for a beginning of July return time still! (Note because I know what tumblr reading comprehension is like: I'm not returned quite yet. I still have to write a paper for school. But soon! Yay!) If you have asked an ask in the past month: I'm so sorry please be patient. There's so many of you. If you were sending me actual, physical mail I would be completely buried in it. I love it, and hope you keep doing it, but... just know it might be a minute... or two... or ten.

[zephyra-in-the-house]

Helloo! I wanted to say that I loved second chances sm, when I found a random chapter last year I read the entire fic in a couple days bc I had to know what happened next, then reread it every now and then while waiting for the updates

I like how we can see both sides of the coin with shadowpeach, how they both care but are still struggling for different yet similar reasons, their struggle with what they went through, dealing with each other's personality traits and habits(their own too) that are still hard to let go of, the glimpses of the consequences of the punishments and their backstory in general

And maybe it's a me thing, but I feel like your Wukong acts like he's a bit aro spec, maybe demi aromantic, and I love that he does, especially while still explicitly loving(and like longing for?) Mac sm

I got that feeling after rereading one of the conversations shadowpeach had in the kitchen when Wukong said something about just wanting to be near Mac, and having him as his best friend was so great kinda like there couldn't possibly be anything better

I know it's probably to show how he grew up, or his personality, and that he's dense (specifically when it comes to reading Mac's feelings towards him) but I feel that just adds to the similarities with the aro experience bc there's a side of the aro community that is blind to more romantic stuff, and romantic-coded gestures or more intimate closeness is just closeness all the same

And your Wukong gives me the impression that he just wanted Mac to be close to him, didn't matter what kind of close, and that he holds the title of "best friend" as a really special thing. Be it BECAUSE of Mac, or maybe since before becoming friends with him, like not just anybody would be his best friend (Also it was maybe to show his trust issues, but still)

I think Wukong said somewhere that he just wanted Mac to be happy to be around him, as happy as SWK was to be around Mac. And I know his inability to put his feelings(love) into words more than referring to a strong or special friendship is probably to show that he's not good with Feelings™, but I like to think that maybe he is enamored in the way a queer platonic love would feel like, so calling it a strong or special friendship kinda does cut it to some degree I think

Also the way Mei (everyone really, but she's more expressive about it, and we see her more than other characters) sees Wukong as a hopeless case, but I think Wukong would see Mac loving him strongly in any way as the best thing ever, as long as it's strong love, he wouldn't mind, love is love, like he just wants to be as special to Mac as Mac is to him

Also I'd love to see them be together even if they don't have the same kind of love for each other, bc the love they have for each other would still be just as strong, and would let them have just as strong of a bond, (in the future, as things are going I have hope, I do hope they end up together in this universe, even if nothing of what I'm saying fits them by the end)

I mean no disrespect to your original idea, or if that's not what u intended, I tried looking through your blog and I haven't found any mention of something similar or headcanons about it

But yeah, idk if u mind ppl putting headcanons on your stories? Some ppl do mind, so idk I just wanted to say that regardless of that hc of mine, I think how you write them is so cool and interesting, and I find that about Wukong really cool even if it's not really where the story is heading and it's been really fun to reread

Also sorry for the weird english, it's not my first language ^^'

First things first:

Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

I absolutely love in depth analysis like this it's so interesting to read and to hear what people think of my story. I 100% love writing this story specifically because it demonstrates how these two are completely different and yet eerily similar people who are just struggling to reconnect with other people despite them both having their flaws and traumatic experiences. It's really fun to write and explore and I absolutely love everything that you said here about it~

Duuude!! I fuckin looooveeee that headcanon! Holy shit that's so awesome! Honestly, I didn't even realize I was writing Wukong that way but now that it's been pointed out I can totally see it!

As someone who is kind of on the ace spectrum, I think I may have just subconsciously made it that way. Just like every other author I know, I have a habit of adding my own traumas/ideologies to my stories so I really shouldn't be too surprised LOL

But don't worry! I don't mind people making headcanons about my story~ In fact, that's my favorite part of writing is seeing how people interpret the story and seeing how they formulate it into drawings or headcanons like this! It's so cool!

Initially, my intention was to write Wukong as being oblivious/in denial about his own feelings and in general just bad with feelings. However, I really love your idea too! It's definitely one of those things where Wukong is just happy to be around Macaque. Macaque is "his person", the one he feels happy and comfortable around, the one he feels he can be open and honest around... and yeah I just realized how much that sounds like the beginnings of a queer platonic relationship LMAO

In any case!

I absolutely love your analysis and I 100% agree that Wukong would be okay with Macaque loving him in any way, shape, or form so long as Macaque feels as safe and comfortable and happy as Wukong himself feels when they're together. ❤❤

Thank you for reading!

[avinwrites]

Ithaqua x Reader Headcanons!

This one isn't taken as seriously, as in it has more jokes and stuff, sometimes headcanons will be like this, sometimes, I'll be more serious :3

Alright, first things first we have to decide a personality for him

-I think he’s definitely quiet, more soft spoken, a little introverted, but still playful, but it takes time to get him to the smiling point

-in the first match, he’s taking it really seriously until the end, he’s a little afraid that he actually killed the survivors

-if You or anyone for that matter, comes up to him, he’ll be polite, but slightly unsociable

-in the future, interacting, more matches, maybe tea after a game, he’ll be nice, talk about his backstory, provided you tell him about yourself as well

-he might say you remind him of his mother, nice and caring, unfairly mistreated, and someone he…

-he’ll come back to that point

-sometimes he will play around in matches, if you're ever overheating, he will gladly blow a gust of cold wind towards you

-he can’t do much if you're cold but that’s where u come in

-if ur cold, they’re cold, let them in lmaoo

-but ultimately, he’s a fun person to be around, once you get to know him

-cue taking you on rides on the stilts, snowball fights in Leo’s Memory, always letting you get the dungeon if you want it

-the “games/matches” turn into actual games with him

-genuine smiles from both sides, and the childhood he never got to have 

-you both just want each other to be happy and you’re both very willing to be that person for one another

Extra additions!

-he got claw claws, like sharp ass things

-he’s scared to touch you for the first time

-it’s all fun and games until feelings get involved

-literally

-y’all’re playing one of your games

-you trip and fall

-his first instinct is to help you up

-but his claw catches your finger and a relatively large cut begins to bleed

-oh shit.jpg

-he’s gets really really upset

-you'll have to be like “no no it’s really ok”

-take his claws in your hands

-run each finger over the smooth nail-like points and curves

-he’s smitten

-“comparing hand sizes”

-it’s cliche but true

-he has trouble holding your hand, but putting your palm up against his has him blushing behind that mask

-do it often

-Hates chairing you but also really likes to win the game

-will leave u alive until the end tho

-if he’s doing really good and gets all survivors out before all ciphers were completed, he’ll give you little challenges and continue playing even though you’ve already lost

-once again, will always give you the dungeon escape

-he’s just nice like that

-only you though, someone else tries to get him to let them escape, he's chairing them

-and with the tea parties/meals

-he's not big on cooking

-(but i am) but if you are, that/s great

-if not, it's no big deal, you're both happy with snacks

-he likes to chat over a nice hot cup of tea

-despite being mostly uneducated, he likes to talk about philosophy

-here's where we get into all guesses territory^

-he likes to think about the idea of nature versus nurture

-he's a good person, he loves his mother, and his mother raised him well

-he has the nurture belief, he thinks highly of his mother

-plus, if nature were true, wouldn't that make his twin a good person

-no, he doesn’t think so

Other things he likes includes:

-warmth

-quips and banter whilst playing

-his fav thing to eat is prolly warm cookies or some kind of meat soup

-hates super spicy things, but likes things with a lot of flavor

-like cilantro

-i hate cilantro, i got the soap gene

-but I bet he loves it

-his favorite game mode to play is– idk I would say –blackjack because that's the most ‘game’ like and if he's teamed with u he doesn’t have to hurt u

(And then, right after I wrote this, I started writing a one-shot of playing blackjack with Ithaqua on your team :))

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Talking abt Stormblood bc it's not as bad as ya'll made it out to be

I thought Stormblood was amazing. Kinda slow in the beginning but it picks up after the Reach gets destroyed. I swear to god I cried at the ending cutscene where they were singing the Ala Mhigan anthem I have never felt so damn patriotic for a fictional country in MY LIFE.

For me, I think Heavensward and Stormblood both sit in the same camp of "high highs but LOW lows" because both of them have great moments but then utterly fail in others. For example, I thought Stormblood's villain cast was amazing especially compared to Heavensward. The more political aspects of Stormblood's story were also a joy and the whole thing did feel like an exhausting two front war. I think where Stormblood failed where Heavensward and the other expansions (up to SHB at least) succeeded is the character development. As for Heavensward's lows... it's the entire second half leading up to the final confrontation. Yeah I said it. After Haurchefant died the writing kinda took a nosedive in quality and then gradually built it's way back up to the Final Steps of Faith which I felt was an amazing finale. I will go into Heavensward another time bc I feel the need to defend Stormblood a bit.

Obviously we need to talk about Lyse now so let me preface this by saying that I LOVE Lyse. She is amazing and I liked her a lot- HOWEVER. I can't deny my girl was done DIRTY. I feel like Lyse just didn't really grow? Like pre Stormblood Lyse and post Stormblood Lyse are supposedly different people but nothing feels different? Character development doesn't need to be drastic as Alphinaud's ARR-Heavensward development but I feel like there is nothing different at all about Lyse. I guess you could say there's a difference between Lyse as "Yda" and normal Lyse but I don't think there is? No I don't have any proposal's on how to "fix" her writing I just feel like maybe we skipped a couple steps? I feel like in Stormblood we didn't get lots of individual character moments as opposed to the other expansions where we always got some moments where the main story takes a backseat for a cutscene or two and we talk feelings. Because that's where I feel ffxiv's character writing shines. In those moments of reflection and quiet we get lots of characterization. Or maybe it was in Stormblood or a) I forgot or b) it just didn't fucking matter in the end. The later is probably the worse.

I feel like Hien also has this problem where it feels like he did a lot of his development off screen before we met him. Which would be fine if he was just a supporting character but he's kind of the main character for our time in the Far East and in a good chunk of the post Stormblood MSQ. Again- I love Hien. That's my homie- but he just feels sort of nothing at times? Like there are just gaps in his character or really important moments that we should have seen but we just didn't. Again, I have no offers on how to "fix" it but it just feels really off.

I think Stormblood did a much better job with the villain's writing this expansion. Like the characterization and backstory of the antagonists this expansion (barring Asahi bc he felt kinda tacked onto Post-Stormblood stuff) was amazing. I really felt for each of the villains this expansion. I do think there is something to be said about how ffxiv girls always kinda get cucked when it comes to writing bc I thought Yotsuyuu deserved better and Fordola begrudgingly beginning to align herself with the heroes post Stormblood feels like untapped potential. Idk what it is but the writers seemed to have thought out the villains more this expansion than the heroes.

Like obviously I love Zenos everybody fucking knows that about me- but Yotsuyuu bro. Hnnng. I kind of love how she's not a fighter and how she deals with her femininity. Like I was so fucking sick when post-Stormblood her fuck ass dad shows up and remarks that she's still pretty and he could sell her off???? God. I'm sorry I loveeeeee exploration of the female experience in any media and maybe it's a personal thing but Yotsuyuu really parallels my WoL. Yotsuyuu is just female rage to the max I love her and I completely understand her. Yeah, if I grew up like THAT I would have also turned on my own country. (/j)

Actually let's circle back to ffxiv girls getting done dirty by the writing because Y'SHTOLA???? HELLO????? My girl did NOTHING for the SECOND EXPANSION IN A ROW????? Y'shtola was out of commission for literally all of Heavensward and only came back during the Dragonsong questlines for convenience AND THEN she gets cucked after the big inciting incident of Stormblood and just doesn't wake up until (from what I remember) the final battle??? WHAT THE FUCK MAN??? I think Y'shtola in general just has kind of a big writing problem as well but like her characterization is so good I can't help but like her and that can be said for a lot of ffxiv characters especially this expansion.

Aiyaa anyways, tldr Stormblood overall plot was super ambitious and mostly good, character writing fell kinda flat this expansion. Stormblood is also unfortunately sandwiched by two objectively better expansions bc Heavensward is so fucking hype and Shadowbringers is... Shadowbringers. Yeah I finished Shadowbringers and I kinda feel for Stormblood lmao like how do you immediately get followed up by THAT. It's not even a competition. I feel like Stormblood was really long- which I do appreciate bc uh I sped through Shadowbringers in like four days 💀. Pacing is very important and I think Stormblood needed to be long to be believable. It feels like it takes span across several months which makes sense because we're fighting two fucking revolutions.

However, I think Stormblood really wins when it comes to the trials and raids. None of the dungeons really stuck out to me BUT THE TRIALS. Ohhh my god. Susano my fucking beloveddddd ugh that fight is so fun. Also the Yojimbo/Gilgamesh trial from the Hilibrand quests is a great time it's always a good day whenever I get it in roulettes. I have yet to do the Alliance raids bc I kindaaaa got distracted with Shadowbringers but I think the Omega raids as well as the accompanying questline was a delight. If Stormblood wins over ANY expansion it's for the content. I've already finished the Shadowbingers raids (the lesbians got me) but I think the Omega raids are still a lot more fun. As for the Alliance raids, well, Stormblood has to top the Nier raids for me because I think they're GLORIOUS. But yk what I'm sure it will bc from what I've gathered everyone says Stormblood has some of the best content.

[dandyshucks]

realizing i wanted to ask - how did u first fall in love w/ guzma (irl) ? :o (@dmclr)

ougghh (/happy) Clara you always ask such good questions omg 🫶

umm... okay so. i should give a general "abuse CW" label i guess fjfkdl but I'll keep it vague and to a minimum of mention! also putting it below the cut because I RAMBLED SO MUCH, SORRY IN ADVANCE

tumblr kind of went crazy for the guy when the anime finally introduced him in 2019 (it took SO long to get to him, over 100 episodes in the su/mo arc 😭) and at first i didnt think much of him rly, but then somehow eventually (a few months later) i found out through osmosis that he's got trauma going on and my ears kind of perked up a bit LOL

(underwater just to set it apart from the rest of the post so it doesnt blend in and get confusing fndkdl) screenshot of the post i rbed where i first mentioned liking him fdsjkl

around the same time, i was having some realizations about my own experiences with childhood and family etc, and there was some other stuff going on in my life (also. the plague started so uh. that too.) that was just kind of culminating in like. A Lot of stress and fear and stuff. so seeing this character who has experienced somewhat similar things was ... comforting in a way? shared experience or something, idk. plus I've always been a sucker for misfit archetype characters, especially if they make a little family out of other misfits :')

another big part of the intrigue (because my crushes always start with a sort of 👀 phase fdsjkl, I have to think somebody is interesting in some way and want to find out More about them, and then feelings develop from there) for me was just the fact that he was Angry. like... the way I've personally learned to deal w abuse has been to always be meek and fawn. so seeing someone who went in the opposite direction, to become angry and strong and defiant instead, was SO fascinating to me and I was very curious to learn more about him.

so I looked into him more, loved what i found, related to him a bit, accidentally by some random occurrence stumbled upon some bf audios of him somehow??, wished he were real so we could hang out, thought about how I'd act around him and started to feel a little flustered about it ... it's all downhill from there once u reach that point smh 😔😔 (/silly)

for a long time i didn't really fully step into s.elfship territory w him - i dabbled a little but he wasnt The Focus™ in my brain yet. also we (as a system) have had a host change since then, so there was a previous juno that was not Me (even though we kept the same main name between us two parts), and they didn't like the guy as much as Current Me does djfkdl - theres also some ... relatively significant personality differences between the two versions of Juno, so I think Juno2.0 (me) meshes with him a lot better now than Juno1.0 did in 2020/2021

and then last year, i found and joined the s.elfship community and um. I absolutely did not mean for him to become The Main Guy and never would've guessed he would be, but... well,, we dont always plan things i suppose, feelings just happen 😭

anyways. it maybe seems kind of messed up but his ~tragic backstory~ is what drew me in initially bc it helped me feel less alone and scared when i was Going Through some pretty major shit lol. and then after that, i just kind of took the character base that pkmn had in place and ran with it to build on it and sort of make my own version of him that I could be friends with and eventually fell in love with ^^;;

TL;DR it was a mix of timing, similar history of abuse, intrigue bc of our opposite reactions to the abuse, and um... the way he is like,, strong and builds a safe place for other young ppl who feel unsafe or not accepted in general society fdsjkl

i get embarrassed talking abt it bc ppl seem to really hate it when abuse victims are weak in any way and need help, but ... i do really like that he is strong in some ways and would be able to give me a sort of safe place to let my guard down and receive help and care (as shown by the way he provides a safe place for the grunts, all the misfits and outcasts of Alola) ^^;;;; honestly kind of a Big part of it for me (and for pretty much all my s.elfship dynamics) is that he is able to protect me and care for me, because I have not like. experienced that ever. at least not properly. when your parents are the ones being abusive, you not only do not experience protection and care but you're also being actively hurt in some way by the people who are supposed to keep you safe. so to be freely given care and safety is kind of crazyyyy to me LOL, that is something i like a lot about him :')

OKAY RAMBLE OVER. i really tried to keep this as short as i could but,, brevity is not a strength of mine (esp when it comes to him) LOL. THANK YOU for the question !!! its fun to look back at how it all happened tbh :]

[bibibbon]

Maybe you have noticed but in regards Izu...the narrative punish him(fuck you Hori) as well the majority of the fandom. Some Shinso fans think Izu should have come clean to Shinso about his quirk regarding the Izu vs Shinso 2.0 (coincidentally Aizawa stopped trained him after Shinso lost) and how in "Izu and Shinso are friends" Izu should pity Shinso as well we, the readers, while Izu's past is not seen as a big deal.

Some do say " yeah bk was meanie" and that if we are lucky.

I dont get why Shinso thought Izu(the kid who calls himself deku, not dekiru) whose quirk break his bones (of course UA does nothing. Has any teacher help anyone with their quirk?) And is mostly like from poor background is a golden child....

Meanwhile Shinso is really silent about BK.

What I'm trying to say here is...how Hori and the fandom ignore the ramifications of Izu's abuse or use to prop others characters.

"Shinso is a good guy bc he punched BK for Izu" cool...but why cant Izu do that? Why we dont get a word of what Izu thinks about that? Why he cant have closure?

(We see this in ships too. Ochako the super cool GF defeats BK...and Izu's pain is not important, not the healing! He has a gf duh🙄😒)

Yeah this is actually one of the biggest problems I have with the bakugo and izuku relationship/ rivalry or whatever it is (it's definitely not romantic or a friendship) izuku never gets to reflect or be the one to stand up for himself and some people say," oh it's IZUKUS character he doesn't realise that what bakugo has done is bad and he just forgives everyone who ever does him dirty" or something along those lines which really annoys me because ITS COMPLETELY FALSE. We can see in the first chapter after the suicide incident that izuku can actually feel negative emotions towards KATSUKI and that he actually knows and realises that what KATSUKI is doing is WRONG. However, because of hori's love for katsuki he can be never make him seem like the bad guy which 1) ruined katsukis development 2) ruined izukus and other characters development.

Concerning the shinso situation I don't think Izuku has to own up TO NOTHING!! No offence but hori made shinso kind of dumb when he chose that out of ALL hero class students you CHOOSE to target izuku who YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE DOESN'T SEEM TO FIT IN OR GO BY YOUR STUPID SILVER SPOON IDEOLOGY. Iam all for shinso and izuku being friends and I have talked about ways how to change the narrative so izuku and shinso's interactions can make sense in the narrative but yeah idk what's going on with hori.

Lastly, when it comes to izuku and his backstory the fandom mainly ignores it because it's not consistently brought up as something that affected izuku even though we can clearly see it did. Hori also stated that he wished he didn't make bakugo as mean and you can clearly see him try and undermine bakugos actions by making him think about izuku and only izuku also the fandom will eat anything that's BKDK which they think is a better version of saskue and Naruto but in reality this is a toxic wish version.

[pbelgaumkar]

I JUST FINISHED SWORDCATCHER (and why does it seem like no one else has on here?)

Wasn't expecting to like it and get as invested in it as I am rn?? There's something about both Kel and Lin that really draws you in

Just documenting my thoughts below for fun:

- In the very beginning, I was kinda rooting for Lin and Kel (sorry I am kinda heteronormative and boring) but then as soon as she had her first interaction with Conor, I knew there was gonna be something there - but by the end, I have to say nothing at all is very clear there

- I TOTALLY CALLED LIN HAVING THE GODDESS IN HER ON TEVATH, although honestly I thought it would be for real (all the dreams and the stone etc) and not her scheming (which is so much better)

- So wanna see more of Lin scheming to get what she wants, and I'm totally seeing an arc where she gets ahold of too much power/magic but needs to make the choice between what is ethical and what she wants etc

- I'm predicting that Antonetta is gonna betray Kel at some point for her own gain/the Silk Charter/whatever

- I was really loving the Kel and Vienne interactions so I was honestly really sad to see her die :(

- Kel seems to have some sort of tie to the sea? And if I'm remembering correctly the three gods are war, death and the sea - interesting connection there and I wonder if anything will come of that

- I also feel like Silla is gonna be involved in some sort of betrayal against Kel ? (Idk I just feel like everyone's gonna betray him at some point because Cassie likes her main characters to suffer a bunch)

- I'm very curious to see what becomes of Conor next, because so far he hasn't done much of import, I'm interested in what kind of scheming he's going to pull off and whose interests are going to be protected

- Why do I feel like Mayesh is gonna die and there's gonna be some sort of struggle within the Sault over who succeeds him, and of course this will affect the coming war with Sarthe

- The King coming into his own was unexpected, there's gotta be some sort of agenda there too + his unexpected (physical) strength

- What I'm hoping to see is more of Kel's self exploration and him finding himself, his thoughts, his motivations outside of House Aurelian and Conor

- ALSO WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE KING ON THE HILL AND THE RAGPICKER KING????? GIMME MORE BACKSTORY ON HIM AND JI-ANN OMG I SO WANT TO KNOW (Does he remind anyone else a bit of Kaz Brekker and Inej?)

- Going to be super interesting to see what happens when Kel's interests and Conor's interests diverge at some point

[hidden-poet]

I just finished reading chapter 3 & 4 of commander snow and WOW!!! How are you not on New Yorks best selling author list? Jesus your writing is AMAZING!!! 

Okay the way he grabbed her neck and kept kissing and biting her neck while she was searching him for morphling in so much distress was so hot 🥵🥵 (I mean all the sexual content in commander snow is so hot; don’t even get me started on him eating her out and forcing her to give him 2 bjs in less than 24 hours 😂 soooo much to unpack there in those scenes *CHEFS KISS* MUAH)!!! He’s so proud of himself after that too with digging into that apple pie and feeding it to her 😂 And what’s this whole deal about him not fucking her until he goes back to the capitol? What does this man have planned for her?

The way he has this constant need for validation to feel love and nurture from the her warms my heart 🥹 even tho this man delusional as fuck and I shouldn’t feel bad for him but you got me conflicted over here and I WANT HIM TO CORRUPT ME😭 He’s so possessive over her and her independence 😫🥵

Coryo really out here using readers toothbrushes in both commander snow and snow lands on top 😂 but I find them sharing it so hot. I also love how this man has a constant slapping kink in each of your fics hehehe 🥵

Idk why but the way he takes over her whole bed is so funny to me 😂 but him taking her wrist and rubbing it 🥹 even though he’s the one who damaged it in the first place 😂 and the tending to her mother and comforting her (again his own damn doing LOL) 

When he says “I’ll never understand why they run.” Really boy? Really? Are you really that delusional?

I really appreciate you making these super long cause that’s my jam and can’t get enough!!! Also what I love about your dark coryo work is that you make them DARK DARK which is my absolute undoing in the world of dark fiction 🫠

I am missing so much moreeeee here but your work is making me go FERAL RN I HONESTLY CANT THINK STRAIGHT WITH THIS MAN ROAMING AROUND IN MY HEAD 247😫

I also wanted to talk about snow lands on top real quick. I LOVE Mabel absolutely love her. (Bad bitch fearless energy) especially when she drops his clothes on the floor refusing to wear them "no, thank you" 😂 And can we take a minute to acknowledge how CUTE the name Mabel is?

The way you portray Dr. Gaul is soooooooo scary scary ACCURATE to the tea! That woman truly terrifies me 😂

The way he just threatens her and her family and commands her what to do and what not to do 😫 the asking her to help him with his sock made me giggle lol.

I see grandma’am is still the same bitter old lady 😂 And the whole thing at the dinner table with the bread is so funny yet so cute on Mabels part🥹 coryo was getting really agitated at that 😂 she definitely tests his limits which is why I love Mabel sm!!

Okay him teaching her how to read and write 🫠 he's basically training her like a dog 😂 from district scum to captiol gal!!

And not this man drugging her and sprinkling his manhood all over her stomach while she’s laying there like sleeping beauty 😂 still have to give him some respect for not going all the way with her whilst in her deep slumber 😂

I cannot WAIT for the next part to drop on both these AMAZING stories!!!!!!!!!!!

This is possibly my favourite ask ever 🥺😭 you are far too kind!

Thank you for taking the time out to read my work, and further time to write out this lovely comment! It’s means so much.

Commander snow is only nice when you are nice. Which is so hard because he is so terrible!

I am really trying to link his sad backstory as to why he acts certain ways towards the reader.

Also!

I did not even pick up that both Coroys used the same brush! Good eye! I suppose it is just super hot!

I think he is more cocky than delusional in that scene.

“I never understand why they run” because I always catch them.

—

Coriolanus snow also haunts my head! He’s got free realestate there.

—

I AM SO GLAD YOU LIKED SNOW LANDS ON TOP.

Thank you again! Please let me know what you are thinking about each chapter, I love your thoughts ❤️❤️

[dearfriendsinhigherplaces]

hi!! first omg you are the first person i have seen with both a RDR2 and a BG3 and that's so cool me too!!

i wanted to ask about your bg3 DR because I'm redoing my script and also want to cut out the whole "parasite" scenario and/or divvy away from the main plot. How did you write your script to go around those kinds of things? thanks!!

sorry i’m responding to this late, i just seen it. this also might be a bit long lol. i’m just gonna loosely explain my dr plot, and info dump a little bit if that’s okay. (some bg3 spoilers). also i love finding bg3 and rdr2 shifters, there’s not too many of us.

so, it took me way too long to figure out a way that all of the companions could meet each other without the tadpole bringing everyone together, and i still really haven’t figured out some details yet (i’m just gonna let the dr figure it out because idk what to script).

my dr doesn’t really have a plot at first, i just live in a camp in the woods outside of baldur’s gate with my partner. me and astarion meet because he randomly stumbles upon my camp, looking for something to feed on (our first meeting plays out like the scene in the game where you can let him bite you for the first time/when you discover he’s a vampire, except at this point in my dr i’ve never met him). he doesn’t feed on me but i offer to let him stay at the camp since he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.

for his backstory i know i didn’t want the possibility for him to ascend, so i scripted that cazador’s dead (don’t know how he died, astarion doesn’t either), but when he died astarion booked it out of szarr manor, hence him running into me. i wanted him to be able to be in the sun, but there’s no tadpole so i scripted he has a ring enchanted with magic that gives him sun immunity when he wears it (he randomly found this right before cazador died). so for a while it’s just me, my partner, and astarion living in our camp together. and i shift there for the first time the morning after me and astarion meet.

for gale, I used to study magic at blackstaff academy and that’s where we met, we’re old friends. i find him the same way you find him in the game, in the portal.

i want a pretty peaceful experience in my dr with no fighting or death (i know i can’t handle it which is the main reason i scripted the mindflayer stuff out), so i just scripted we can all help people and be heroes without any harm happening. i think there’s still going to be some conflict with the emerald grove, with the druids and the tieflings where maybe we can help them somehow without fighting goblins (i want the tiefling party to happen in my dr). a lot of the details are just “figure it out when i get there, see how things play out,” because i swear scripting around the bg3 plot is so complicated.

as for how or why everyone who ends up at the camp might stay there together, all the main people in bg3 are kind of going through something, with or without the tadpole. even without the main conflict of the game, they’ve all got their own side quests for things they’re dealing with.

in my dr, all of that is still going on and everyone is trying to heal. gale has the thing with mystra and the bomb in his chest, astarion is healing from his trauma, shadowheart is coming to terms with not wanting to follow shar anymore (i’m only at the end of act 2 so i’m not sure how some things play out in the game), lae’zel’s whole thing with vlaakith, karlach still is trying to figure out what to do about her engine, etc. so even if you script out the main plot, there’s still all this personal stuff that they’re working through that maybe you could help with (unless you’re scripting all that out too which is fine).

but in my dr all this stuff brings everyone together, and it very much becomes a found family situation, especially since a lot of the companions don’t really have anyone else in their lives. my drs typically don’t have plots, i just want to live life chilling with my pals. the end goal for this dr is hopefully everyone is able to heal and be in a good place, and then maybe we’ll all move into gale’s and tara’s house in waterdeep lol. my script mainly focuses on me and my backstory, and i don’t really have many scenarios scripted so it’ll all be a surprise to me when i get there and meet everyone.

hope all that kinda answers your question. i’m also still figuring it out lol. it’s ok if you can’t get everything to fit together 100% because it will play out in your dr in a way that makes sense.

[selchwife]

SIGHS. i dont want to play inquisition again and im not hugely interested in restarting our lady shall weep (FAMOUS LAST WORDS) but i started thinking about revas again and retooling his backstory in my head to be more like pfeil's. It is my destiny to keep making the same oc over and over. YOU'LL HEAR IT AGAIN.

anyway my thoughts. he's orlesian now. his dad was elf thancred. elf thancred is a city elf and he was revas' mom's servant at one point and that's how revas happened. briala was not doing her cool elven spy business at that point but i think that thancred would work with her whenever she did start doing that. i dont remember anything about the dragon age timeline and im very dizzy so a lot of this is just vibes right now

anyway revas grew up with his mother and her husband. in canon half elves physically resemble humans but i tend to throw that out like a lot of the fandom does, so he had round ears but a kind of elfy vibe nobody really fucked with. i think he also had very light hair like thancred's, which his parents did not have. necessarily there is Talk. he's also still trans but honestly this is not as big of a deal. idk his deadname but his Orlesian Name (fucking lol) was tryphaniel

he was raised to be a chevalier and like, legally speaking his stepdad is on the record as his Totally Legit Biological Father, We Promise You Guys, so he can do it. he's given all this bs about how chevaliers are the awesomest fairy tale heroes and probably believes it up until he's called to participate in the (massively tasteless in canon but im not rewriting the whole goddamn setting for one daydream) hazing ritual of going into the elf part of the city and just attacking people. i think he looked at the other chevaliers and was like "what if i killed you guys instead," and now he is on the run <3

so he dyes his hair dark and changes his name to revas and decides to go like...idk wander and look for thancred and do the kind of Protecting The Downtrodden And Disadvantaged sort of heroics that he was made to believe were true. i think he would make a fun companion in the universe where inquisition was a good game. he would probably have some war table stuff you could do with thancred after wewh depending on your choice, but if you fucked over briala in any way then revas would just leave the inquisition. honestly i think given that my self inserts are very moralizing types he would have a lot of instances where it's possible for him to be like "PISS YOURSELF YOU FUCKING AUTOCRAT" and bail. barely trusts the idea of a large chantry organization to begin with but will make temporary concessions due to Massive hole in the sky and scary darkspawn guy and other such bad situation. is he still a mage? maaaaybe because i love spellswords.

anyway. my dream

[quaranmine]

Literally only comfort for me in the lonesome dreams universe is that Watcher!Grian eventually finds out that Jimmy is a listener without Jimmy telling him (recongnizing the wings somehow, Feeling this Weird energy coming from him, Jimmy letting him see some of the destruction powers, noticing the obscuring of things if he ever got pushed to try and See things, idk lol) and through this loophole of Grian finding out but not having had Jimmy tell him Jimmy can finally have some solidarity lol. Also brainrot about whether or not Grian is trying to get them out of the games, and whether the players remember the games, and like how Grian would handle everything and therefore how he’d treat Jimmy, and like them working together to try and escape. And if Grian noticed, who’s to say the Watchers haven’t? Sorry idk if you have any plans and this is super unsolicited but like AJHDKAHDJAHF the brainrot bro I have not stopped thinking about lonesome dreams since I read it yesterday 😭 Like AGHH the way he’s so lonely and his name is Solidarity like,,,,, Ik there’s another fic of yours where it’s canon and I look forward to reading it :)

OMG HELLO ANON!!!!!! no this isnt unsolicited at all, i am literally THRILLED when people talk to me about listener!jimmy, especially lonesome dreams-verse jimmy because it's still one of my fave fics i have done.

i tend to use "lonesome dreams-verse" when talking about fics that take place under these headcanons but honestly, i pretty much base my entire interpretation of jimmy off of this, so it's almost more useful to note when i am not using it lol. so yeah--jimmy in htbahb is the same one from lonesome dreams too! they're not in the same series because one deals far more with the life series than the other, but it's the same deal. if jimmy ever appears in IBW, it will be the same.

this series of fic suffers from.....many ideas and not enough writing LOL. Lonesome Dreams was initially conceptualized as a backstory oneshot to go with a larger multichapter fanfic center on Jimmy. It was set in Last Life (hey, 3 of the southlanders were former evolutionists!) and focused on him using some of his Listener powers to break them out of the games. it was really funny though because i came up with it in the middle of last life before martyn canonized anything watcher related and i accidentally predicted half of it. But I never really was able to get it into an actual fic, lol, so i just wrote Lonesome Dreams instead. I'm still interested in doing a fanfic where Jimmy helps them all break out of the death games, though.

i like your idea of Grian noticing that Jimmy has some weirdness around him and saving Jimmy the trouble of having to tell someone. my general idea is that grian remembers the loops in full because he is a watcher, but everybody else has sort of hazey memories of things. They might rememeber enough to reference things in past seasons, but it isn't enough to realize what's going on. Jimmy, however, also remembers everything because being a Listener makes him more immune to this memory magic or whatever. So that's one opportunity for grian to notice some things--jimmy knows about things he maybe isn't supposed to. imagine that from grian's perspective though lol hes angsting in being the only one to remember xyz and then jimmy pops up knowing something he shouldnt and grian is like TIMMY? TIMMY OF ALL PEOPLE KNOWS THIS?

there was also planned flower husbands Moment in the last life fic where jimmy was sad because scott only sort of-kind of remembered 3rd life, and not any of its intensity or emotion, whereas jimmy remembered all of it and still loved him. oops, i planned to break all your hearts with that one.

i often headcanon that grian doesn't have his full powers in the games, since the watchers are suppressing it. they're not really good at fully preventing grian from doing anything, but they can prevent him from doing a lot of stuff. it's like one versus however many of them there are, right? i'd say at least two watchers in charge of the life series just like evo, but we don't know that. so grian is sort of outnumbered. that's why jimmy could help ;) so grian is wanting to get them out of the games, he just doesn't have the power on his own to successfully do it

as for the watchers knowing about jimmy--i go back and forth on this. i basically think that as long as he didn't use any of his visual powers or his wings and only Listened then they might not know. like, they can Watch you destroy something but you can't see if someone is listening or not. eventually they would find out, though, because he would have to show his hand at some point to get anything real done. martyn says in his lore that the watchers do not like the former evolutionists who are associated with the listeners, since the listeners helped the evolutionists escape (which is why jimmy was helping them in lonesome dreams.) so they Definitely know jimmy is associated, just like martyn and pearl and bigb are, but i havent decided if they know he's a full listener or not.

one of my other lonesome dreams-verse headcanons, that i actually have a half-written oneshot for, is how jimmy's destructive powers go against him. he has some chronic pain issues from this, because it's self-destructive too. it reminded me of my own autoimmune disease--basically my own body attacking itself? kind of happens to jimmy too. but this is because the Listeners are generally not visible to humans. or corporeal. they're very wispy, the sound of the wind in the trees around you, etc and so Jimmy pretty much kept his human body, with just the addition of wings. Meanwhile, as in my fic htbahb, grian looks WAY more like a watcher and is just projecting a more human image of himself all the time. all of that was basically to say that jimmy doesn't look very conspicious to the watchcers in the first place, since he still has a human body. he also got forgotten/ignored by them in evo so....it IS possible they don't know the full extent of his connections with listeners, i think

ultimately, though, i have several formulated ideas of people finding out Jimmy is a Listener, and it mostly comes from him telling them. He's not supposed to tell, of course. But I like putting characters in difficult positions, and I think that with the life series especially, that Jimmy is like. The risks outweigh anything else. He has to tell people, because getting everybody out of the games is a lot more important than potentially upsetting the Listeners. I like putting characters in situations where revealing their secrets is the only way to move forward--this is what happened to Grian in htbahb too, when he has to use his powers to save people (because he ofc cares more about his friend's lives than his own secrets).

Jimmy has a bit of an uneasy alliance with the Listeners in general, because he is on their side and owes them a lot but would probably ultimately rather be free and on his own. they're nice to him, but also a little coercive. I feel like after a couple loops of the game he would probably feel sort of abandoned that they havent helped him yet (whether or not they were trying to doesnt matter, just that jimmy feels like they havent helped.) so he might not feel so bad about telling people xD except that it invites a lot of vulnerability and awkardness to suddenly come forward now, so it would still be very tough.

jimmy and grian are not brothers in lonesome dreams , but i DID have an one-off idea for a oneshot where jimmy admitted he was a Listener to Grian in a scenario where they are siblings. I may write it because it has been plaguing me for like two months now. it would probably get uploaded in the series with lonesome dreams, but might not be The Official Reveal Scene if i want to write something different later, you know? but the way i built this out in my head was SO GOOD lol

it's also worth noting two general dynamics with grian and jimmy. firstly, All the former evolutionists know that he is a watcher. they know that because the watchers told them so when he was taken. now the hermits on the other hand, they do not all know, because they met grian afterward and that's his business that he doesn't always share. but the evolutionists all know and they just like....dont always know if they should talk about it or not. But nobody knows Jimmy is a Listener because he never told anymore. Another interesting thing is that Grian hates the Listeners--he was taught to hate them, by the Watchers! But even after breaking off from the Watchers, it hasn't quite occurred to him that they might have lied to him about the Listeners being bad. Like he was taught a bit of propaganda because of course he was, they were the enemies of the Watchers, but he doesn't really realize they were lying a little? For all grian is concerned, they're just two sets of god-like entities with too much power that he hates. So that's um...a little fun for finding out about Jimmy....

this is. so much information LOL. i have thought about it greatly.

but yeah, jimmy needs a little support :( i think the listeners would be unhappy if he told people, but i think they would get over it eventually. BOTH jimmy and grian probably need to know there is someone else out there who has had some similar experiences. they're two lonely little birds :((((((

[gnomeniche]

OCs: The House at the Hellmouth

sorry i haven’t posted in a hot second i was thinking too hard abt oc-ifying my deemis humanization designs bc i love drawing their faces and shapes and i wanna keep them. so here’s The House At The Hellmouth, or hellmouth for short. it’s a low-stakes urban fantasy about these guys and their sometimes-magical issues.

for various reasons, three dudes who barely know each other have ended up living together in an extremely haunted house whose basement contains The Hellmouth™, a portal to a dangerous part of the magical world that must be watched over lest shit leak into the mundane world. most of the story is about them learning to live with each other and themselves as they slowly get more embroiled in the mysteries of the house and each other’s backstories.

it’s still very obviously inspired by deemis but hopefully it will grow into its own thing as i develop it. i put it in a more grounded genre even tho i love the weirdness and abstraction of deemis for that reason. it does use several ideas from my normal au but not as many as you’d expect? it’s way way more fantasy.

also i unbritished them. first of all to distance it more and second because it’s easier to write urban fantasy in a place you’re familiar with. the hellmouth is in Kansas because why wouldn’t it be.

so given that + the magic portal world in this universe + the focus on Home, they’ve got an Oz Motif going on. which is appropriate given that deemis is very Alice-like. kids’ isekais from diff countries.

anyway here’s the guys. average monster of the week party.

orange: Clove Spindlebinder. the not-so-brainless “scarecrow”. scatterbrained but talented and creative. an embarrassment to his powerful wizard parents. sent to the hellmouth house from the magic world to toughen him up. would really prefer to do sewing magic but his enchanted thread has many useful applications in dealing with creatures. his parents are Rosemary Spindlebinder and Thyme Wyrdrender, two powerful members of the wizard council who are extremely divorced. the only thing they agree on is that they are disappointed in him. rosemary has custody, so he only counts as part of her family.

dark blue: Lucas Taylor. the not-so-spineless “lion”. quiet and awkward but resourceful and stubborn in the face of weird shit. literally just some guy aggressively concealing his ability to see magical stuff because he doesn’t want to be called a freak. answered clove’s Help Wanted ad intended only for magical people. stays even after he sees the hellmouth bc he doesn’t have to pay rent as long as he helps with the horrors. has a bad relationship with his family and especially his twin brother, Linden, who tried to distance himself from him as much as possible when they were kids.

teal: Ambrose Sherman. the not-so-heartless “tin man”. persnickety and mischievous but extremely lonely and motivated above all by care for his loved ones. an unaging undead who took the fall for his resurrector’s crimes to protect him. condemned by the wizard council to guard the hellmouth as punishment and has been here for a few decades. cannot go far from the house. his resurrector is Peregrine, who is maybe some kind of lich who dabbles in forbidden magic? idk but he’s bad news. unfortunately ambrose is very in love with him.

also the house itself is a character. it has something of a personality (not necessarily malevolent, sometimes friendly, often capricious) and its internal dimensions shift. sometimes it simply grows new rooms. the mystery behind the house and why the hellmouth even exists is Part Of This Story but damn if i know how i’m gonna have that shake out yet. i do have ideas for arcs but i don’t wanna write it all out here so that’s all for now.

here’s some bonus scribbles. i’m still figuring them and their designs out so this is all subject to change.

[stellariders]

Outside of regular Stella/Stellaride content what do you hope to see from S13?

I want to see Ritter evolve. He's had some many moments where if given the right development & opportunity to shine he'd be an awesome leader. No I'm not saying he needs to be a LT in S13 but he's perceptive, smart, & with the right influence he can have a pivotal season.

I want Kylie on Truck 81 like yesterday. Love to see her & Stella's dynamic & just her in action period. When she was floating, she didn't have many moments to shine on truck. I'd like to see her get a save.

Cruz.... it's not lost on me how he was helping Severide with paperwork in the finale. I want to see Kelly working more with Cruz in that capacity

ohh boy i love this question and i just know this is going to be long!

i agree i want to see so much more from ritter in every way, professionally and personally! i want to see his boyfriend come back, i want to hear about his family and backstory, i want to seem him interact more with somone that isn’t herrmann or mouch. let him and damon and carver be friends. i want to see him organizing more events for the young firefighters retreat that we heard him and gallo do in season 9. maybe take on a mentorship with someone he meets at the academy. i just really want him to excel in season 13 and he deserves more screentime then he’s getting.

i want to see violet healing. i want to see her go to therapy and try to learn to love again. it’s obvious that she likes carver but she’s terrified to lose him and won’t let herself care about him more. i also want to see more of her with stella and lizzy. i love her friendship with both of them individually and i want to see them as a trio too. i also want to see her with kelly. if we’re going to have to watch firecop storylines again i’d love for kelly to take violet under his wing.but also, i want to see a personal relationship with them too. they are too big brother/ little sister coded for it to go to waste. also, more professional storylines from her.

i want to see damon and kelly bond like typical brothers. we’ve seen kelly be an amazing big brother to katie, who i want to see come back. i just hope kelly doesn’t project his thoughts about benny onto damon and blame him for whatever reason. it’s clear that damon still cares about kelly no matter what and he wants a relationship with him.

and speaking of kelly, im begging the writers to let him be at the firehouse more often and not play firecop every chance he gets. id love to see him interact with herrmann and cruz more. he needs friends. also, ive already said it before but i want to see more of him and violet.

i also want kylie on truck which i feel like is the natural direction to go in. my guess is once herrmann becomes chief and mouch becomes lieutenant, mouch goes to engine and kylie moves to truck. i guess my biggest question is when that would happen because herrmann isn’t even captain yet. so it feels like it’ll be awhile before she moves to truck 81. i just want to see more of her in general. i love her and stella’s relationship.

i don’t specifically know what i want to see from carver and cruz tbh. we already know cruz has leadership skills from when he was squad lieutenant. i think i want to see him teach at the academy more. that would be nice. i think from carver i want to see him figure things out with violet while also dealing with the trauma his brother put him through.

herrmann and mouch it’s obvious there storyline will revolve around them trying to move up. i kind of want to see kelly helping one or both of them study idk but i think that’d be nice. i want them to question kelly why he isnt taking the exam because i honestly want to know the answer to that.