#it is ALWAYS plot relevant and always a character study

[omnipresent-menace]

Wild to me that the best piece of writing I've made in like upwards of 5+ years is going to be a fic where a triangle and a 30 year old dude have sex like multiple times throughout the plot.

[awful-little-goose]

my ideas of pokemon teams for the circus crew!

Also, some of these pieces are my actual first serious digital pieces (yeah- I made that pomni one even before artfight in July- it's been rotting in my files for a while)

Anyway, this was super fun, and I also made a team for Caine, and I'll probably render it or something!

Now, more details

I established some rules for myself as I made the teams for each character, and each of them had to have-

- one eeveelution: the idea is, since TADC is based on studying characters and their growth, the best pokemon to show the growth of people evolving in different directions is, of course, eevee!

- a pokemon to represent their appearance: since appearances and avatars are a BIG focus for some characters (Pomni learning about her new form, Zooble struggling with their body, Gangle’s whole deal with her mask, etc etc) it made sense to me that have one pokemon that reflects that in their teams

- one to two pokemon linked to SOMETHING that’s related to the character: for example, the fact that Jax always has keys, or Ragatha’s thing with knives, or Kinger and bugs. This can also come from things we know about the characters, that comes from outside the show: Ragatha liking horses, Gangle being a nerd (hence why she gets not only Mimikyu but also two pikachu clones, that also reflect her deal with her masks).

- a pokemon reflecting their main personality trait: yeah, I know, it’s always frustrating when characters get dumbed down to one trait by the fandom. But TADC offers us characters that are very diverse in their ways of presenting themselves, with unique personalities, that also fit in typical roles we’ve all seen before (the mom friend, the charismatic bully, the grouchy one, etc etc). I feel like this over characterization is meant to OVERLIGHT the fact that theyre MORE than just that main trait. And to give it some attention, I tried giving characters mons that reflected their "typical" character trait: a mischievious Gengar for Jax, a duo of shifting plusle and Minun for Gangle, a confused Spinda for Pomni…

- (optional): something relevant to plot points in the episodes. That’s how Pomni gets her little Sandile from Caine (after Gummigoo explodes-), or how Zooble gets their giant scolipede (inspired by the gloinks and the gloink queen).

And last rules:

- I’m allowed to twist the Pokémon’s designs a little bit

- each character’s fit should reflect a little bit of their main pokemon

- no one gets a legendary, mythical, ultra beast and what not: they’re normal ass humans, they get normal ass pokemon. For example: Caine, on the other, has a total of 0 completely “normal” pokemon! Since he is NOT a random joe!

- have fun!

So yeah! That’s all the rules that led me to my choices! If you wanna take inspiration from those, go ahead, but yeah! I hope that was fun to read all that, you little freak

[kuromixheartzzz]

WANNA BE MY FN DUO?! | side

michael kaiser. 19. a super big streamer. plays mainly fps games. ness is literally in every stream of his and is quite literally called his pet. he has a weird relationship with ness like it’s not normal. his fan base is filled with toxic fangirls. his biggest enemy is isagi, his most viral videos are his competitions with isagi. lives with ness.

alexis ness. 19. kaisers lapdog. he does stream sometimes by himself but is mostly in kaisers streams. when he streams by himself, he plays minecraft and has the best builds too. his chat is filled with messages saying “leave kaiser!” or “STAND UPPPP” but there is nothing he can do about it. kind of obsessed about kaiser. but fuck it we ball!! lives with kaiser.

sae itoshi. 18. rin’s older brother. pro esports player. definition of nonchalant and has a whole ass fangirl club over it but he don’t gaf. he’s a genius at all games. he doesn’t understand that rin does NOTT like him, he thinks he’s going through puberty. he knows shidou but purposefully ignores him and his advances. 

rensuke kunigami. 17. works at the restauraunt. literally the kindest man everrrr. he’s super good in his role and works part-time cause he’s studying to be a doctor so he can save people and be a superhero. doesn’t know that chigiri has the biggest fattest crush on him and he keeps doing shit to make chigiri fall deeper but he doesn’t even notice cause that’s just how he is. but soon though.. soon.. 😈

otoya eita. 18. womanizer. cheater. player. philanderer.. any synonym for the following words, he is. there is actually a groupchat filled with all the women he cheated on (he doesn’t know about it) and they are all plotting revenge on him. he also likes to pretend and act like he’s a ninja. one time he tried to do a trick on a girl ended up karate chopping her and she beat him up. learned his lesson and never tried to do that again.. he’s best friends with karasu and mutual friends with hiori. 

tabito karasu. 18. he thinks everything is mediocre. he knows hiori from high school. they played on the same youth team and helped hiori out. he gets roped into otoya’s shenanigans all the time and it ends going horribly wrong. however he always stays unscathed despite it all. probably because he’s smart unlike a certain someone.. best friends with otoya and high school friends with hiori. otoya and karasu sometimes visit the apartment. 

julian loki. 17. another pro e-sports player. he’s literally charles mom. he has to always fix whatever mess charles, shidou, and y/n gets themselves into. a single mom.

(a/n: OKOK I PROMISE NOW ITS STARTING!! also btw.. these characters are side characters so some of them will like be more relevant and then some of them will be like rare appearances. also kunigami is pre-wc)

prev <- masterlist -> next

taglist: @kyeeeeeeeweeeeeeewi @emikikus18 @l0v3ly-st4rs @olix111 @kuronarnze @soph1sticatedly @ang3licprinc3ss

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Errors, "Errors," and Sci Fi: The Nail Gun Gray Zone

I have more thoughts on errors in sci fi, specifically what does and does not count as an error. So I made a graph.

I'm a firm believer that at some point, your story will just be better if you bend certain rules of reality. A story with 100% realistic gun battles will be impossible for audiences to follow. One with ultra-realistic dialog will be boring and impossible to follow.

HOWEVER. Ice floats in water. Residents of now-Phoenix in the 1700s might've not known that, but it's hard to imagine anyone alive today who hasn't at minimum seen an image of a drink with ice in it. So GI Joe (2009) hinging a major plot point on a block of ice sinking in liquid water is widely regarded as silly and world-breaking. Same goes for The Strangers (2008) making a character unable to use her phone while it's plugged in and charging. Even in 2008, a solid majority of U.S. moviegoers owned cell phones and regularly used them as they were plugged in. Errors. Firmly.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have "errors" that only bug a small subset of your audience with relevant expertise. You can always count on some of that subset to take to Reddit and whine pedantically about a 10-round gun firing 11 rounds, but I doubt those count as errors. My personal example is the lack of a character named Surprise in Inside Out — I've studied and taught Paul Ekman's theories, so to me the fact that they included only 5 of his 6 "universal" affects is always going to look weird. But I know that's less an error than a pet peeve, because there wouldn't be much for the character Surprise to do that isn't taken up by Fear or Joy. (The sequel also has a Surprise-ish and a Contempt-ish character, so there's that.) Same goes for the water main not being pressurized correctly in Batman Begins — I'll take city planners' word for it that Scarecrow's plan wouldn't work, but COME ON. It's a sci fi movie about a furry who makes a living punching aliens. If you want realism, watch a documentary.

That said. There's also that middle zone. What I call the Nail Gun Gray Zone, because it really is hard to tell how much some errors are obscure and piddly, how much they're mainstream and obvious. Because. Nail guns can't shoot nails. They're not projectile weapons. Not unless the story takes the time to show a character modifying the tool to override the fact that it has to be pressed flush against a board before it will fire. BUT. If you told me "99% of modern Americans know that!" I'd believe you. If you told me "only professional contractors know that!" I'd believe you. That poll clarified basically nothing — roughly 25% of respondents had used a nail gun, ~25% didn't know much about them, and ~50% had only seen one used. (I didn't ask "do you know that a nail gun can't be used as a projectile weapon" because then anyone who read the question should by definition answer "yes.")

Anyway, I think that a lot of online arguments about errors/"errors" in sci fi can be captured by the Nail Gun Gray Zone. Most of us can agree that only pedantic blowhards would say that the lack of Surprise ruins Inside Out, and most of us can agree that it'd be nice if The Strangers had simply broken Kristen's phone. Nail guns? One person's "oh come on, that looks ridiculous!" is another person's "it's called a nail gun, right? so why not use it like a gun?" and I don't think doing more polls will resolve it one way or another.

[writingquestionsanswered]

I'm tired of my ideas always being big. It's overwhelming. I like seeing others' WIPs and ideas because they're just so simple... Like, that comic about a mermaid living in the ocean in our modern time and dealing with plastic trash. So simple and my own brain is bursting with ideas. But my own WIPs... they just start huge. I'd like something smaller... but I don't know how.

Stories Always Get Too Big

Stories can get out of hand quickly when they sprout too many independent threads. There are three primary culprits that serve as sparks that create these threads:

1 - Setting 2 - Non-Protagonist Characters/Relationships 3 - Back Story

The thing to remember, though, is that no matter how interesting your setting is, no matter how compelling your other characters are, and how fascinating the back story is, those things are not your plot.

Plot is the sequence of events through which the protagonist (and potentially other main characters) attempt to resolve the story's conflict by overcoming obstacles and setbacks in pursuit of a goal.

In other words, focus on this:

the protagonist > their normal world > the event that introduces a problem they must resolve > the goal they formulate in order to resolve that problem > the events that occur as a result of their pursuit of this goal > their attempts to overcome obstacles and setbacks encountered along the way > their attempt to solve the problem once and for all > failure or success > life in a changed situation/world

Anything else doesn't need to be there unless it is critical in order for one of the above steps to make sense.

So, let's take your mermaid example... though I haven't read that comic so I'm winging it here:

the protagonist = mermaid normal world = doing mermaid stuff inciting incident = finding plastic trash in the water goal = clean up/find the culprit and teach them to do better events = cleaning up, learning about humans, tracking down culprit climax = mermaid appeals to humans to do better finale = mermaid is living in a cleaner ocean

Now, let's say your brain starts to go off on a tangent about a deep oceanic rift and an evil merman wizard who lives there... stop right there. It's a fun idea, but what does it have to do with this story? How does it relate to the trash, clean-up, finding the culprit, or appeal to humans to do better? It doesn't. Theoretically, you could make it make sense... like, maybe the merman wizard likes the trash and wants the ocean to be dirty and gross, so maybe he is opposing the mermaid's attempts to clean up and to appeal to the humans. Okay, that works, so you can keep it. But, let's say you also have this idea about these creatures that live around the hydrothermal vents, and the mermaid meets and falls in love with a scientist who's studying them. Okay, again, interesting idea, but this one is much harder to fit in with the rest of the story. Sure, you could say the scientist is studying marine pollution instead... that brings it back around to the main conflict, but still, what does this relationship add to the story? How does it help or harm the mermaid's mission? How does it help to explore the story's themes or help deliver the message? It doesn't really sound like it does, so this would be an example of a thread you can probably snip.

And the thing is, it would be okay to follow a thread like that while you're plotting or writing your first draft, just to see where it goes and see if you can make it work. Part of why we edit and revise is to snip out the threads and elements that aren't pulling their weight. But learning how to curb them as they occur to you will help save you work later on down the line. Try writing those ideas down in an ideas document, and maybe those can be worked into different stories, a sequel, or a companion story.

One final note: I am very much aware that there are some epic writers out there who let wild tangles of threads sprout as they write, and they follow them all without abandon, relevant or not. That's okay, too. These are writers for whom that works, who don't feel overwhelmed by all of those threads, who want to write something bigger and more unwieldy. Maybe in time as you get accustomed to writing smaller, tidier stories, you embrace the bigger stories your brain wants to tell. Or maybe you don't. Whatever works best for you is all that matters. :)

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[suzukiblu]

Im curious to know if Kon's going to show up in Katch? Like, will there be clonecest?

No comment on whether or not Kon is gonna show up, but no clonecest planned for that one, naw. The only really, like, RELEVANT pairings planned are the on-screen Kara/Match and the previous off-screen Kara/Kon. And, you know, five feet to the left Clark Kent is being a ride-or-die Wife Guy, haha, but that's not really plot-relevant. It's not meant to be a suuuuuper pairing-focused fic, obvi, the pairing stuff is more a vehicle for the pack dynamics/character study/plottishness, but obvi I am also taking the opportunity to rare-pair it up in here, hah.

LISTEN KARA ZOR-EL NEEDS TO GET LAID MORE OFTEN IN THIS FANDOM OKAY. THAT'S JUST AN OBJECTIVE FACT. And EVERY fandom ALWAYS need more lady alphas.

( also you can possibly assume off-screen Kon/YJ has also happened at some point, I certainly won't stop you from Kon demanding team cuddle-piles for gender-affirming reasons. NO, Cissie, you can quit Young Justice but you can't quit the team cuddle-piles, and no, Anita, you are NOT too cool for the team cuddle-piles, now get over here before Team Mom starts smelling like sad whipped cream. )

[tempestmothstorm]

Ok so I mention my fantasy au for ddlc a couple times but I’ve been busy for months because of life stuff and also more brain rot for different stuff. So like. I haven’t gotten to it for months. Oops

Anyways I’ll just put the basic lore I have here because I do have a lot of ideas for this au and I am shaking the bars for my enclosure cus I really wanna talk about it

This is basically if ddlc and its concepts were put into a stereotypical rpg instead of dating sim and the club is now a cool rpg party who spend the hypothetical game encountering and bonding with each other like in the side stories. The plot would be simple and about finding the cure for a fantasy plague/curse that has been slowly ravaging the land (spooky glitch effects) only for it to slowly unravel into the wider lore and how it connects to base game ddlc

Monika is a main character and the paladin leader. Orphan from the capital turned famous knight who had become disillusioned and abandoned her high status to become a wandering mercenary to help the people in the curse. She eventually finds her own patron god, You! It’s like Oneshot where you are the narrator observing and guiding Monika, except she doesn’t actually know who you are or that she’s in a game so you have to hide it while also making sure she doesn’t repeat the sins of the past and stuff. She slowly learns to open up and trust her new companions and love her life to the fullest without worrying about perfection or success and stuff. Maybe she doesn’t need to be the legend or the perfect hero. Maybe she can just be with her new family. Maybe she could just let herself belong (the sure hope her arc lasts and isn’t ripped away by her own hands haha)(she gets better)

Sayori is the simple first best friend/second in command/heart of the group. She’s just the happy go lucky bard without that deeper tragic backstory the rest of the cast has. The daughter of a fisherman in a small starting town, Monika first encounters her after defending the town from a monster. Sayori and the town throw a celebration as thanks, letting Monika learn to loosen up and be open. On the flip side Sayori seems to have no relevant plot, only to suddenly reveal her own doubts later in the story. Having always felt useless and aimless, whether in her hometown where she had no place or job or with the party as she had no apparent use, she starts to feel insecure about her place in the group over time. There’s probably be the classic ‘heart of the group get incapacitated and everyone realizes how essential they are as the rest fall apart’ plot beat, and Sayori’s gets to learn just how important she is.

Yuri is the local smart guy wizard of the team, part of some mysterious wizards coven when the party first encounters her. Monika and Sayori are looking for info on the curse’s origins and the coven assigns Yuri to help temporarily guide them through a dungeon. On the way Yuri gets to learn what actual companionship looks like as people who are connected not only through a common goal or interest, but people who genuinely care for her. The coven didn’t really interact or care about her well being, and she was too disconnected from the outside world to learn enough about her field of study, so she decides to leave the coven to travel the world with Monika and Sayori. Over time they also learn about her backstory (because every mysterious rpg character needs a tragic backstory) about her being the daughter of a faraway kingdom’s royal family. Having been born with destructive magic powers, her family had tried everything to suppress it , without regards for their own daughter. They eventually gave up and sent her to the coven for life, basically disowning her. There could probably be a plot point where the party has to meet up with her parents for politics reasons and there could be some heavy drama where Yuri gets to admit that she’s finally found people who accept and understand who she is and how to help her. Yay

Natsuki is that one edgy rogue who starts out as an enemy to the party. Runaway turned thief turned mercenary, she’s doing whatever it takes to survive out in this world. The party finds her as part of some rival mercenary band being hired by some random kingdom they encounter. The kingdom assigns the two groups on the same mission, but Natsuki’s teammates are assholes and push all the work onto Natsuki and the main party (they’re supposed be parallel her other friends). The four of them have to work together and start out antagonistic, but they slowly realize how messed up the situation with Natsuki is and how she really deserves better (for a lot of reasons). Natsuki meanwhile is experiencing an actual feeling of belonging and concern from others and is very conflicted, so when the rival mercenary’s decide to betray the main party and take the credit, she stands up for them and fights back, officially completing the party. She eventually learns to open up and trust people for the first time ever, having a place to call home and people she can feel safe with. She’d also have a ‘confront your past’ moment where they have to travel through her hometown that she ran away from. She feels terrified having to come back and potentially face her past, but not only is the town in way better shape her father had already died years after she left. While it seems like her whole backstory is unresolved, she comes to the conclusion on her own that she doesn’t need to be stuck in the past and no amount of confronting her father would change anything. Because she’d already found a family that loves her without him, and she’s promises she won’t end up like him.

And so the classic rpg party is formed and have their work cut out for them as they attempt to find the origins of the curse and eventually stop it. But it’s slowly revealed that the curse runs deeper in the origins of their world than they’ve thought possible. They can only either succumb to the darkness or deny reality itself to survive their fate. Who knows if they could face the reality of their world and still choose to save it. This world exists to give them a better ending. With all they’ve seen, could that still be possible?

There’s other stuff like more detailed backstory since I kinda skimmed over everything, certain plot points, and overall meta lore and how it connects to base game but that’s the rundown so far

Since it’s funny and technically correct I’m gonna call this the Doki Doki Isekai au

[residentcryptid]

TLoZ: Call of the Void ★ it's the lore post

Are you tired of seeing me post music with absolutely zero context and/or explanations besides "haha silly goofy tune"?

If yes, you should click the read more button :-0

SPOILER WARNING FOR TLOZ ECHOES OF WISDOM

what is this?!?!?

It's a fanmade soundtrack project for The Legend of Zelda series!

TLoZ: Call of the Void started out as a one-shot TTRPG campaign that I was going to run for my friends in ye olden days, which did not end up happening. Honestly, that was probably for the best because the first draft of this was not very good!!

ANYWAY!!!!!

There are going to be between 25-30 pieces of music in total and they will (IDEALLY) be available to listen to across all platforms by DECEMBER 2025.

so, what's it even about?

Our story takes place about 400 years after the events of Tears of the Kingdom, in a somewhat more technologically advanced Hyrule than the one of the past. Lately, though, folks have been reporting disappearances, large swarms of monsters suddenly appearing near villages, and unusual violet chasms. Many have begun to believe that these events are connected, somehow.

There's this old prophecy that states that a hero, a priestess, and a sorcerer will rise to save Hyrule from... whatever it is that's causing all of these problems, but our heroes will soon discover that there are a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle.

The TLDR is that this story is full of red herrings, the real big bad here is Null, who Vidar is working for, and despite traveling across the land, the sky, and the depths, our heroes aren't able to fully stop our favorite orb shaped ancient evil from breaching containment and nearly succeeding in plunging the world into nothingness.

ok cool, now who are these people?

these guys are the most relevant to the plot, which is why they're the only ones listed here!

i will make a separate post for side characters, which will be linked here once it's up (which may take a while because i still need to design and draw all of them....... crying)

Link

Link was born in a small village, a short walk away from the Lost Woods. He grew up being warned of the dangers that lay beyond. To their dismay, he'd sneak out in search of these things, armed with nothing but his father's old broadsword.

On one of his ventures into the Lost Woods, he stumbled upon one of those weird old temples. There, he found the Master Sword. Eventually, that led to him becoming Zelda's personal guard. They're pretty close friends now.

Interests include monsters, where the monsters are, how to defeat the monsters, and the foods you can cook with monster parts.

Link also communicates exclusively through Hylian sign language, which is commonly taught and used throughout Hyrule at this point.

Princess Zelda

Hyrule's crown princess, who's known for her bubbly, energetic personality & love for learning.

Zelda often spends the little spare time she has traveling through Hyrule, studying the plants, animals, and other natural curiosities of her kingdom.

She's also determined to find the root cause of the disasters that have plagued her people for centuries and do away with it for good. Perhaps her light magic will play a role in that…?

The pressure of being the crown princess gets to her sometimes and the visions she's been getting lately haven't helped ease the anxiety.

Kije Dragmire

The younger Dragmire brother, whose very existence was the first warning sign that the prophecy may be flawed. Only one Gerudo male is to be born every 100 years, so it goes. It never accounted for twins. Or for the younger one to be the bearer of the Triforce of Power. Weird situation all around.

Growing up, Kije's always been something of an afterthought. That's not to say he was forgotten, but it was very clear that no one expected him to even… exist. Being routinely left out of things did allow him more time to study magic on his own time. Silver linings.

Kije is a masterful sorcerer who favors fire, lightning, & wind. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't born able to do any of that. It was through meticulous study & the creation of his own personal spellbook, as well as his strong sense of tenacity & determination.

Outside of magic, he's also taken to studying the history of Hyrule & making jewelry for himself & his friends. He'll never pass up a chance to talk about weird and cool rocks & the best places to find them. He & Zelda could go on forever about stuff like that, really.

Io Ota

Io is a researcher & inventor whose pursuit of knowledge has put them directly in harm's way more times than they can remember. Most of their expertise lies in creating useful (and cool) gadgets & the long-lasting effects of the Upheaval.

They're also responsible for creating an updated model of the Wild era's Sheikah Slate that the current figureheads of Hyrule (and Link) use to communicate from a distance.

While they were originally from Kakariko village, they set off to do their own thing by the time they were 14, citing everyone's concern over their wellbeing as an "annoyance" that was getting in the way of their studies.

Now they've set up shop in the Windvane Tech Lab, located southeast of Mabe Village.

Ganondorf Dragmire

Ganondorf is the oldest Dragmire sibling (by what, a few minutes?) & is quite adamant that he should have been the bearer of the Triforce of Power. And that his younger brother should not exist. He's regarded as a natural-born leader, warrior, and a... generally tolerable person to be around. That is, if you're willing to put up with his brutal honesty & excruciatingly blunt manner of communication.

As the oldest of the three, he's set to succeed Chief Rika as the leader of the Gerudo, which most folks were pretty content with. He's always been the most serious and, to some, the most dedicated to his people (not much of a competition when Kije & Deva are never really around). Unfortunately though, almost everyone thinks it's weird and cringe to try to assassinate your own brother with the help of a strange little bug-eyed shapeshifter.

Honestly, he never cared about Vidar's personal goals (didn't even him seriously, really), nor did he care about what happened to the Princess or her goofy green swordsman, but it was hard to resist an offer to get rid of Kije in order to rightfully claim what should have been his piece of the Triforce. Alas. Some things are just not meant to be.

Vidar Leucanthe

A teenage shapeshifter with a chip on his shoulder. After a lifetime of being kicked around by the people around him, he developed a hate for Hylians that led him to partnering with an ancient being to bring about the end of the world. And yes, he knows he'll die too & he doesn't really seem to care.

Vidar has a morbid sense of humor, sometimes behaves like a feral cat, and avoids forming close bonds with other people. Often refers to himself as "we" and seems to have a strong inferiority complex, only displaying a modicum of confidence when masked or in a non-human form.

Originally, he was from Mabe Village. The circumstances of his birth were quite unusual, inexplicable even, and he's the only member of the Leucanthe family with the ability to shapeshift & the only one with those dark markings all over his body. He later comes to figure out why that is, but for most of his life, he's just been treated like a monster or a bad omen of sorts.

After a brutal monster attack in his village (that was blamed on him! for no reason!), he cut everyone off and left. Hasn't spoken to his folks since that day. Eventually, he stumbled upon a rift, which interestingly, he wasn't affected by. He can just go in and out of the Stilled World at will... Again, he will later figure out why that is.

His current home is located in the Great Sky Island, hidden away from all of the other villages up there. In his spare time, he likes to carve miniature critters out of wood. His house is full of them (and several other trinkets from across the lands).

is anyone else working on this??

as of now, no 🥲 just me sadly rip

[psychagoguedigitalmusical]

Epic: The Musical - Lyric Textual Analysis 1 - The Infant and the Horse

(Skip to the end if you want to just see my analysis of The Infant and the Horse.)

I hope you like Epic: The Musical (if so, you're in good company here), because we're gonna be talking about it here. We're gonna be talking about it in depth, and we're gonna be talking about it a lot. And we're gonna be talking about it for quite a while.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blogpost, one of primary approaches in the development of Psychagogue: A Digital Musical is through a close and thorough analysis of Epic. Eventually, I plan to analyze other seminal works of musical theatre and miscellaneous other specific relevant works. In a sense, I know I like the body of Epic, but in order to create something, I need to understand its bones, its sinews, its nerves and muscles. By surgically extracting key information, I can study the specimen to build up a foundation to understand why I like it and use that framework to reverse-engineer them to create something of my own.

Like any good house, I am building on a solid foundation of bones. In this case, the bones are the basic storytelling elements of the narrative. Specifically, the text itself. And if you haven't done a lot of literary analysis before, that's okay, but I will say now that whenever I use the word "text" in this blog, I am being deliberate with its meaning. I mean "text" in this case to mean the explicitly written words that compose the work. If that seems obvious, then consider what text isn't. Text is not subtext. Text is not an implication (even a really strong one). Text is incontrovertible, an undeniable fact of the narrative. You can have implications and interpretations that are supported by the text, but I am making that distinction here early on. If we use the show-tell dichotomy, text is the explicit tell. Subtext is the implicit show.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at this S✨P✨R✨E✨A✨D✨S✨H✨E✨E✨T

I might change the format for later entries, but for now, the spreadsheet is divided into 5 main sections:

Song info - Basic information about the song including its title, a link to listen to it, and a link to the full lyrics.

Core elements - I have a running theory that every narrative-driven song (that should be like all of them in a Musical Theatre context I think?) has a core conflict, a resolution of some sort, and the central philosophy, tension, or question can be identified within a single quote. This often, but not always, is the title of the song itself.

The Narrative situation - In what ways does this song actually move the plot forward. Like, what literally happens in this song? Unfortunately, 40 songs in a row about some people in a blank white room singing about their feelings wouldn't make for much of a story. In the context of a musical, I will be working under the idea that they are purely told in song, without any non-song connective tissue. If you go see buy some tickets to your local theatre's staged production of Legally Blonde: The Musical or something similar, you'll likely see a hybrid approach, but I'm going to take Epic's approach on this one and keep everything song-only. (That's right, that means no ARG either. Probably.)

Factual Character information - What do we learn about these characters? Factually, demographically? What contextual information do we actually have about this person singing about his feelings? Odysseus is a soldier from Ithaca. Zeus is a god from Ithaca. Morvic is an adolescent from a small coastal town.

Character relationships/philosophies/perspectives - Similar to factual information, but more about how each character interacts with the world around them. What do they believe in? How do they feel about the situations and characters around them?

With the preamble out of the way, here's the actual results I came up with. Note that this phase of analysis focuses purely on the lyrics of the songs in Epic: The Musical. (This also means that yes, at this phase, the information here will be obvious. You might look at these results and think "duh". That's intentional. This analysis is important as part of the overarching effort of understanding the writing techniques Jorge Rivera-Herrans is using to make information obvious.) For now I am not touching on any musical motifs (yes, Penelope's leitmotif can be heard in the pause between lyrics, yes Odysseus is definitely thinking of her in that moment, no that is not directly stated or implied by the text of the lyrics. Implied by the text of the music itself maybe, but that's a conversation for another day.)

Without further ado:

Epic: The Musical - Lyric Textual Analysis 1 - The Infant and the Horse

Central Conflict:

Odysseus is faced with a difficult choice. He either has to kill a defenseless baby or allow his home and family to be completely destroyed once the baby grows up. He loves his family dearly but is distraught at the idea of committing such an act.

Resolution:

Odysseus must make this difficult decision right now.

Thesis Quote (Fundamental question or philosophy):

"It's just an infant, it's just a boy"

What factual information do we explicitly learn about the situation?

Odysseus and his men have been at war against the Trojans for 10 years

Right now, Odysseus and his crew are beginning to execute a decisive counterattack.

Odysseus and his crew are planning to enter and take the city.

Odysseus' attack becomes interrupted by some unknown force

Odysseus gets a vision of the future from the gods. This future is certain, but can be changed if Odysseus takes action right now.

Odysseus must kill Prince Hector's son in order to avoid the future that the vision shows.

Prince Hector's son is a baby

If Odysseus does not kill Prince Hector's son right now, the boy will grow up and enact vengeance upon Odysseus. Specific consequences include, but are not limited to destroying his home and killing Penelope.

If Odysseus attempts to circumvent this fate another way, he will fail. The gods themselves will ensure that if the boy lives, that this fate will come to pass.

What factual information do we implicitly learn about the situation?

Troy has had a slight upper hand in the war up to now.

The crew's attack on Troy is successful.

What factual information do we explicitly learn about a character?

Odysseus is a soldier in a war who has been fighting against Troy for at least 10 years.

Odysseus is a noble of some sort.

Odysseus has never been in a situation where he has had to consider killing a defenseless baby.

Many of the men in the crew have families at home.

What factual information do we implicitly learn about a character?

Odysseus is the commander of a group of soldiers.

Penelope and Telemachus are Odysseus' family members.

Zeus is a god, but not the only god. He has powers including knowing information about people's lives and the ability to give people visions of the future. The gods interfere in people's lives.

What information do we explicitly learn about a character's relationships, perspectives, or philosophies?

Odysseus considers the soldiers under his command his brothers.

Odysseus is motivated by his connection to Penelope and Telemachus.

Zeus doubts Odysseus' ability to make the difficult decision in choosing who must die.

What information do we implicitly learn about a character's relationships, perspectives, or philosophies?

Odysseus is an effective commander who has the trust of his men.

Odysseus has and values inner strength.

Odysseus has and values pride.

Odysseus values the ability to fight through pain.

Odysseus understands that it is important to have a motivation in order to keep yourself going.

Odysseus is highly confident of his own ability as a fighter.

Odysseus does not want to kill a defenseless baby. He wants to follow his sense of morality and does not have an inherent bloodlust. He would rather take on some amount of sacrifice than go against his morality in this way.

Odysseus is skilled at finding alternative solutions that do not involve killing.

Zeus is stubborn.

One thing I noticed was that the highest density categories for this piece were Explicit Narrative info and Implicit Character Perspective info. Makes I suppose for the first song, especially when the audience can reasonably be expected to come into the experience with some pre-existing knowledge. For establishing Odysseus, it was interesting to see what information was stated outright vs implied. I'll be curious to see how this proportion shifts from song to song.

If you're interested in ever viewing my analysis in depth, including the concrete lyrics backing each of these bullet points, as well as additional notes, I'll be keeping this spreadsheet link publicly available in View-only mode. Over time I will be adding more tabs for each song. My next post will be either another one of these analyses for "Just a Man", some Psychagogue world-building info I've been putting together over time that is almost ready to compile, or some musical ideas I was able to scrounge together.

Until then, that's all I've got for now.

[kaibutsushidousha]

What plot element soured Oberon for you?

The worst thing a twist can do is be less interesting than what was suggested before it. I won't stop to explain Avalon le Fae's world arrangement because I think I already did it in extensive detail here. The problem with Avalon le Fae is that I think that if I try to imagine what it would look like without Oberon, what I get is a perfect tragedy. Gaia's rules are fair and forgiving, so everyone has a healthy share of blame in their collective inability to be saved.

The outcome can be horrifying without falling into grimdark territory due to the added presence of a malicious force driven to punish everyone starting by who deserves it the least. The absence of one genuinely evil guy we can point to and blame matters a lot, as you can see Far Side Tsukihime do right by minimizing Roa's presence and portraying Makihisa as as much of a victim as anyone else.

Oberon can't make himself necessary as a final boss either because Cernunnos has all the history that lets him serve better as the face of the fae's sins and their consequences.

I already posted my chapter tierlist here multiple times and one question I always expected to get but somehow never did was "what's stopping Avalon le Fae from reaching to reach the top tier", but as I hope I made clear, the answer really is as simple as "remove Oberon".

This message is especially relevant recently, because if anyone is fascinated by the ways Oberon feels physical discomfort upon seeing people around him, which he copes with by studying the history of his world to develop reason to vilify the race's collective and nurturing a distort sense of responsibility towards his world's demise, all shrouded under a second-nature layer of dishonest affability; they can read The Hundred Line: Second Defense Academy to get all of that in a story that is made better by its Oberon's presence rather than worse.

Babylonia is a good story with a really satisfying emotional climax at Ana vs Gorgon. If there's one part 1 Singularities scenes that really sticks the landing, it's the one. Unfortunately, after successfully wrapping up its plot, it goes on a tedious appendix about a voiceless kaiju, which drags on for a third of the chapter's total length while only Kingu's character really benefits from it.

She's not helped by her playable inclusion either, as the ability to speak somehow leaves her even more one-note.

[twosides--samecoin]

hey! i appreciate you offering me some advice!

i’m workin on my first ever fic (and creative writing for that matter lmao) and i keep running into the same issue

i’m really struggling to come up with plot/story. if i have like key moments or anything i have no issue writing it. i have a few pivotal moments that i want to happen but filling in the moments between them is super hard for me. is there any way to get over this?

Most people have a few key scenes they want to see when they think of writing a story, and it's normal not to know how to link them together. My longfic was my first try at creative fiction. Here's some of the thought process behind how I took my fic from an idea to a story arc!

Planning a story arc is about developing the journey. How did your main character get from Point A to B?

There's so much that goes into this answer, so here's a table of contents for this post:

Writer mental health: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process

Planning Documents

Question Everything

Study [Part 1] Themes & Motivation

Study [Part 2] The Source Material & Your Inspirations

Study [Part 3] Storycraft

Sidequest: Questions, themes, motivation & storycraft for a story about nothing

🧠Writer mental health: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process: I've written a post or two about perfectionism and writer mental health. Stories are sort of like plants; writers are like gardeners. No plant or story is fully formed from the jump. If your idea is a plant, then it grows from a seed. If a writer is a gardener, then they're tending a plant that grows over time. Allow yourself to make changes. Be willing to draft the story, edit, then sleep on it for a day or two and edit again before you post it online. You can always press the edit button after publication. I'm starting with this because the sooner you develop a growth mindset, the more likely you will avoid common writer mental health pratfalls. Treat writing like an oil painting in a museum: it began from a sketch and wasn't done all in one go. This point might not feel relevant until you have a bad day as a writer.

📝Planning documents: Take notes on anything and everything. Most writing software will have an outline/table of contents feature to help you organize. One document could be character notes, another might be a timeline of events. One could be scene ideas. Don't feel pressured to explain yourself too much. Treat these documents as scrap paper where you can write down quick ideas and move on; use a bullet point format. As my fic grew, my documents and the contents changed. Mine are now quite messy, and I don't feel the need to use them every chapter. I've outgrown them to a degree, but I still have them for my own reference.

I encourage you to avoid deleting large sections, even if you retcon an idea. Instead, move them to a cutting room floor document. You never know what you're going to need, and though it's in your head right now, you never know what you might forget.

❓Question Everything: While you know who your characters and what some big pivotal scenes are, you need to ask Who, What, When, Where, Why & How about these people and events. If you're from an analytical background such as law or journalism, you were trained to think this way when you learned issue spotting.

Asking these questions about the pivotal scenes and characters will spawn further questions you need to answer, which will then help you figure out what to write in-between the big scenes. If your pivotal scene is a fight between the Hero and a Big Bad, or the Love Interest proposing to the main character, you should ask questions about how the characters got there. What is the conflict between the Hero and the Big Bad? How did the MC and Love Interest meet? What challenges did they have along the way?

The genesis of my fic began with these questions. I thought:

"[What] would I do to fix the canon Fallout 4 [Who] RJ MacCready story?" I was then granted a vision of RJ hiking in the snowy mountains of [Where] Banff National Park. The [Why] was "Med-Tek didn't work out". That partly answered the [When] (North America in the post-apocalypse, over two hundred years since the bombs dropped; at the end of RJ's canon story). [How] did they figure out he needs to go to Banff?

After this idea took hold of my brain, I kept asking questions. As I answered them, I kept notes.

[What] happened at Med-Tek? [How] does RJ get from Boston to Banff? If this fic begins at the end of his canon story, [Who] is the Sole Survivor who helped him through it? [Where] are the key locations in Banff RJ should go and [Why]?

Some questions are more pertinent to explain than others. For example, travel was a big question I had to solve given my story is set in a post-apocalyptic version of our world. Distance travel- unless you're a caravan or the Brotherhood of Steel- is a luxury for your average Wastelander. So I looked up the closest real world equivalent to a vertibird (a tiltrotor aircraft such as the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey), spent time researching forums and roughly figured out how much fuel and how many stops a vertibird would need between Boston and Banff.

Another writer in the Fallout fandom might not find that pertinent or put in the same research. I value being able to point at something and say, "Oh, I figured that out" to help me better inform my writing.

📗Study [Part 1] Themes & Motivation: Ok, so you're thinking about how the Hero got involved with the Big Bad and the conflict between them; you started with the proposal and marriage between your MC and Love Interest and are now thinking of how they met and how their families react to their partnership.

What are your character's goals and objectives?

What is their background? What makes them think or feel a certain way? Keep in mind that people are complex. A traumatized person isn't always "acting" traumatized to the other characters or the audience.

What are some activities you've observed in real life relationships?

What do your characters like to do when they aren't working?

Who are your characters outside of the events of the story? Who are they before the story? Who are they after? If the story events didn't happen, who would they be instead?

What does one character observe in a room that another will not notice? If one character turns their nose up at a concept or idea, why or why not?

How does your character react under pressure?

What classic literary tropes apply to your character/story? Can you mix and match, or subvert a classic trope?

A love story is rarely ever just a love story. A superhero movie is rarely ever just about superpowers and fighting. What themes, concepts or ideas do you want to explore? Do you have any intellectual curiosities or side hobbies you want to bring to your writing? I really love studying philosophy and enjoy hiking. I am a big fan of works that examine the relationships humans have with nature and each other, as well as the nature of power. These are two things that make my fanfiction different: my characters react to their environments. They observe differences between Banff/Boston and remark upon what happened to Earth when the bombs fell. One of the best compliments I ever had on my fic was from a reader from Alaska who saw their childhood home reflected in Banff's boreal forest; who almost felt as though they could smell the environment by reading the story. My wife @edaworks is a multihyphenate and autodidact- statistician, sociologist, attorney, hobby archaeologist and cosplayer among many other things. In her fic, she brings completely different ideas to Fallout than I do.

📙Study [Part 2] The Source Material & Your Inspirations:

If you struggle to think of ideas relating to the central conflict, you can always return to the source material.

Are there details you notice that you have questions about?

Is there a character interaction that intrigues you?

Is there something you feel the original creator didn't explain? (For me, I wanted to figure out how resource-intensive travel like flight is possible in Fallout.)

Outside of the original text, think about works by other people that inspire you to make your own work. What intrigues you about what they do? How does your fave author or director handle the moments in between the pivotal scenes?

What literature outside of fanfiction do you enjoy? (Some of my fave books are House of Leaves, Infinite Jest, Walden, Le Petit Prince, The Catcher in the Rye, The Road, Ulysses, Blood Meridian and The Lord of the Rings.)

Do you enjoy comedy? Do you have a particular sense of humour because your parents raised you on Laugh-In and Richard Pryor? How can you infuse your story with jokes?

What movies or TV shows had an impact on you as a kid? Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is a love letter to the stories he was inspired by. In turn, Kill Bill inspired my own story. I'm also influenced by stories about courageous kids navigating a corrupt adult world as well as industrialization vs nature, such as in Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Akira, Princess Mononoke. A lot of what I like is hyperdetailed in some way, be it via dense themes, immaculate cinematography or intricate set design.

What music do you listen do? Are there musicians who explore themes that resonate with the story you're writing?

📚 Study [Part 3] Storycraft: Learn about story structures and basic plot types to help you figure out how to build the overall story arc. Get to know your genre.

Note that you're not required to choose a story structure/plot type/genre. Approach to story delivery depends on cultural tradition, genre and the means with which the story is told. An awareness of them will help you understand how you can build your story.

A radio play, college graduation speech and a bedtime story are all part of the oral tradition. Despite being different stories intended for different audiences, all three could be told with a variety of story structures, or the same one. This chart from r/screenplay compares different approaches to story structure. There's even an entry for the Scientific Method.

If your story falls somewhere in the action/adventure genre, a story structure that might help is Joseph Campbell's monomyth; a three-act structure that watches a hero move from a known to unknown world and back again. Published in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces posited that many heroic works can be boiled down to a similar story structure. You might know it as The Hero's Journey. A good movie for examining The Hero's Journey is Hercules (1997).

(The above image is from Bookfox. <- The linked page has similar graphics & explanations for other structures.)

After acquainting ourselves with the Ordinary World of Ancient Greece and Hades' meddling, Weirdo Freak Whom Do Be Too Strong Hercules visits the Temple of Zeus, who tells Herc he can earn his godhood- the Call Of Adventure. Hercules now wants to go the distance and find where he belongs. Zeus sends him to Meet The Mentor, Phil. After a training montage, Hercules and Phil go to Thebes and cross The First Threshold into the Unknown World. Herc wants something, encounters trials & a massive ordeal, then returns to the Known World a changed man.

Let's say one of your pivotal scenes is a huge fight between the Hero and the Big Bad. You could place that almost anywhere on the right side of the wheel. The Call to Adventure could be the first fight. The fights and conflict could get worse until a major fight happens at The Ordeal. Whatever you do, the audience needs to see the pivotal scene contextualized in some way. Whether you begin the story with a fight or are leading up to one, we want to see why it happened. You want to lay the groundwork and context for the pivotal events.

The pivotal events don't mean anything without context to support them, and the audience will not root for your characters if we don't see them struggle and/or aren't given reasons to care or get to know them.

Keep in mind it's not all about drama. Ideally, The Hero's Journey helps an author deliver layers of information that ranges from telling us about the characters' journey/everyday lives to showing the audience details that leads toward the central conflict. Maybe your characters are having a casual lunch and they see people running and screaming down the street. It's out of context in the moment, but it tells the audience, "Something's going on in this story that isn't right". Setup, payoff: the audience learns the reason why things aren't right when you contextualize them through supporting evidence.

These videos [1] [2] by Extra Credits explain the monomyth through an analysis of the video game Journey.

"But Tumblr User twosides--samecoin," you ask, "I'm not writing a heroic journey. What if I want to write a story about people just hanging out?"

👕Sidequest: Questions, themes, motivation & storycraft for a story about nothing

While your Hero doesn't need to slay monsters, some degree of conflict is necessary in most stories. Even the slicest of stories in the slice of life genre like Lucky Star have at least an episode or arc that has some problem to solve.

Seinfeld is known as being "a show about nothing", except that's not quite true. It's a slice of life comedy series that explores the misadventures of a friend group. Many episodes are predicated on telling a certain joke, gag, or are about seeing how the characters act in absurd situations. It's never about nothing. When the show was pitched to NBC, Seinfeld said: "We want to show how a comedian gets his material". The show is about mundane/everyday situations and turning people's worst tendencies into comedy gold.

Example: Seinfeld, season 5 episode 2: The Puffy Shirt

Who: is Jerry Seinfeld? Jerry is the titular character and a comedian. Also-ran are Elaine and George, as well as Kraemer and his new girlfriend, Leslie.

What: the fuck is that garment? The puffy shirt in question is considered a MacGuffin.

When/Where: Early/mid 90's NYC. Jerry's apartment, a photo studio, a restaurant, The Today Show.

Why: It's funny to see a grown-ass man act a fool about a bad fashion choice because of a miscommunication. He has to go on The Today Show and the host mocks the shirt, leading Jerry to snap about it, which then offends Leslie.

How: Jerry mishears Leslie, who has a very quiet speaking voice. In an effort to be polite, he accidentally agrees to wear the puffy shirt on The Today Show while pretending to understand her.

Themes: Miscommunication, humiliation, consequences arising from false politeness, awkward situations

Motivation: Jerry was motivated to be nice in an effort to accommodate Leslie's low talking volume in order to move the conversation along. He didn't realize he was agreeing to something he didn't want to do. This episode is not just about the humiliation Jerry suffers in the A plot- there are also B and C plots containing their own jokes that add to the tension of the episode, which all fall apart when Jerry snaps. Several plots and character arcs create pacing that feels like a boiling pot by the end of the episode: It's layers of mini jokes that support the main joke, which doesn't get a full punchline until the end. It's still one of the funniest 30 minutes of television ever produced, over three decades later.

Hope something in this ramble helps! Thanks for the ask, @publikoccurrences :)

All of my consultation, beta editing and screenshot commissions are free, but if you find what I share helpful: Consider reblogging, buying me a Ko-Fi, or check out my writing on AO3! You can send me an ask about any writing topic and I'll be glad to answer.

[chaoticbardlady99]

Mummy-Napped (Astarion x GN! Ghost Reader)

Synopsis: You have haunted Cazador Szarr's estate for an extensive amount of time and during your haunting, you became Astarion's first ever friend. With your help, he was able to defeat Cazador and free the other spawn. You and Astarion are still adjusting to your new form as a cat as the gang continues to claw their way through Baldur's Gate. Unfortunately, they forgot to destroy the heart of the Mummy and well- you are a throwable sized.

CW: Dead Dove (mentions from Astarion's past), violence, gross descriptive imagery (?), shenanigans, descriptions of torture of a cat (yes, I'm sorry, but it's plot relevant for the reader character)

Author note: This is a mini-story based on "Darling Never Stop Haunting Me" and can be read independently- in the story the character is female, but for the purposes of this piece, gender is not important to enjoy the story because I wrote the reader as gender neutral. Anyway, likes, comments, and reblogs are always greatly appreciated and to everyone who has always been so kind and supportive- I love you, thank you, and it means the world to me.

You were definitely not about to sleep after they told you the story with Orin, Yenna, and her cat. 

 No. Fucking. Way. 

 And you suppose that really works out in your new companions’ favor because they forgot to destroy the disgusting jar heart from the other day. 

 You are hopping up and done on Astarion’s chest and also slapping his face with your paw. You do feel bad, he was actually having a nightmareless trance for once, but he would probably prefer to be woken up than die.

 “Gods- ,” he grumbles and grabs you- sending you flying directly towards the Mummy at the end of the bed.

 You scramble up on your feet and try to scurry away, but the mummy picks you up and begins to study you. A light of interest sparks in his eyes.

“How exceptionally spectacular- a marvelous creature, really.”

 You hiss wildly and lash out- trying to make as much noise as you possibly can. Scratch and the Owlbear begin to join in- too scared to attack the mummy themselves. 

 “Shit!”

 Oh so now Astarion wakes up!?

 The mummy merely flicks his wrist and you are suddenly in a completely different place. He sets you down on his desk and you begin to tremble.

 It smells really really bad and there are a lot of hungry looking ghouls. Mummies are also notorious for killing cats- yes it may be for religious purposes, but that doesn’t mean they asked beforehand! 

 You have grown rather attached to this form and you missed Astarion- you don’t want to find out what happens if you die!

  The wallpaper is old and molding- the smell of rotting corpses is damning, to say the least. You feel like you could die from nausea alone. 

  A sinewy, moist hand begins to pet you and you stiffen like a board. It just keeps scratching and your purring is merely from trying to soothe yourself at this point. You had thought the thought of Astarion being kidnapped and sacrificed by Cazador was terrifying, this is somehow worse. You really haven’t been in danger in a very long time- not true danger anyway. 

 He walks away for a bit, leaving you alone in the room with a bunch of hungry eyes and your heart beating out of your chest. The poor cat you are haunting is equally as terrified by what is happening and you are trying to contain both of your panic to the best of your ability.

 The mummy jump scaring you did not help.

 He pops out of nowhere and begins petting you again with his disgusting fingers while laying out a surgery kit. Your stomach drops all the way to your ass. 

 You don’t want to die! You want to live! With ASTARION! Not SOME MUMMY!

 He begins to shave off pieces of your fur and it’s painful- mostly because it’s actually just him ripping out your fur while the ghouls hold you down by your arms and legs. 

 You then feel a large needle go into your belly and another in your neck- you feel hot, like your body is on fire and you get the sense you do not have much time before you become some undead cat creature. 

 You could abandon ship, but you aren’t about to leave the poor kitty alone.

“Welcome to your new home!” The mummy spreads his arms, “I am Mystic Carrion- your new Lord.”

 He has far too much cheer. It’s the whole being a cat thing you are sure.

“I-huhahaha, funny story,” you try to get out from under his hand, fighting the horrid feeling in your body, but he won’t let you, “I actually have have- a -a hhhome- his name is -Starion an really like to go back to -“

“Shhhhhhhhhhh,” the petting gets more aggressive and painful, “go to sleep little one- your anguish will be gone when you awaken.”

 Uh oh. Your eyelids begin to flutter shut and you collapse. The mummy walks away and you hear the snarling of ghouls walking towards you.

Astarion! Help!!!!!

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

   Astarion is getting on his armor and weapons while Karlach wakes everyone up. Scratch and the Owlbear cub are shaking and worried about you. Halsin is really struggling to calm them down. 

 Even fucking Withers is concerned! How you were able to get Jergal to like you is a mystery to him, but at least it means he may resurrect you for free. 

 Astarion is first out the door; Karlach, Tav, Shadowheart, Minsc, and Wyll in tow. The others stay behind in case the Mummy comes looking for his heart (which Astarion conveniently has). He didn’t really care who went- he just needs to find you fast!

 He honestly kind of forgot he has a ghost living inside a cat as a companion now. He thought he was pushing Boo off of him and he certainly did not mean to fling you! 

  Gods, he finally gets to formally meet his first friend and first very loyal companion, only to fling you right at a mummy!?

 There is no way you are going to want to travel with him after this! Why would you!? He just flung you to your second death!

  Most people and felines don’t like that! (Astarion tries not to judge other people’s kinks- he’s better than that (sometimes)).

 And he has a feeling that you are not a part of the population that enjoys that kind of thing. If he had to take a wild guess anyway.

 Your scent is very fresh- which means that it hasn’t been all that long since you first arrived so there is still plenty of hope.

 Astarion creeps up to the open door- signaling for everyone to wait unless they hear a ruckus. Ideally, this will be a quick in and out, then they will come back and take care of the rest of the monstrosities. 

 “I am Mystic Carrion, your new lord!”

 Astarion hears you laugh nervously, but the next words out of your mouth make him emotional and it’s kind of embarrassing. 

“I-huhahaha, funny story,” you sound like you just drank a massive mug of ale, “I actually have have- a -a hhhome- his name is Starion an really like to go back to -“

“Shhhhhhh,” Astarion hears a small thud, “go to sleep little one, your anguish will be gone when you awaken.”

 He waits only two seconds more- the Ghouls are licking their lips and the Mummy is picking up a Bonesaw. Astarion misty steps into the room, his companions are beginning to pile into the main parlor.

“Hey- you disgusting, filthy poor excuse for a necromancer,” Astarion taunts, holding the Mummy’s heart in his hands, “they said they wanted to go home and I don’t particularly care for individuals who don’t listen to my friend. 

“Nor do I think you should be allowed to live,” He smirks, stabbing the heart and the mummy collapses to the ground, “Toodles- tell Cazador I hope he chokes on Orcus’ cock when you see him.”

 The mummy evaporates and the other creatures hit the floor- stone dead. Astarion immediately runs over to where you are laying out on the desk- some of your belly fur is missing and your neck has a few cut up spots, needles with various types of fluids are sitting next to you and two have been used to far. You look up at him, your mouth foaming as you choke on whatever is trying to take you. Your eyes are wild with fear, but they soften ever so slightly when he comes into your view.

“St-sta-,” your head begins to lolll to the left a bit and your eyes are becoming glassy.

“SHADOWHEART!” Astarion screams, “SHADOWHEART- GET THE HELLS OVER HERE NOW!” 

  The Cleric comes racing into the room and immediately begins casting lesser restoration and throwing every healing spell she has at you- even going as far as using the rest of her Channeled Divinity from the day before to ensure you are well and truly healed.

 Astarion is ecstatic that you are okay, but when he picks you up- you burst into tears.

“I-I thought I- he wouldn’t stop petting me and he-“ you nuzzle closer to him and whimper, he pets your back and doesn’t say anything. 

 He is honestly afraid if he tries that he may begin crying too. He has only truly been able to talk to you for three days and it already hurts him when you're feeling miserable. At this rate, he is just going to have to buy a new cat every time the one you are inhabiting passes away. 

 Halsin is at the front of their room at Elfsong when they arrive and immediately begins to check on you- finding no further significant injuries or concerns. Astarion had left you with him and came back with a bucket, a bar of soap, and a big fluffy towel. 

 The water is just the right temperature- he made sure to ask Tara the other day because the fountain water at Szarr Palace had been freezing cold and he felt bad for having to use it to clean off the dirt. You had been shivering for quite some time afterwards- you thought you had kept it from him, but he could hear your teeth chattering. 

 Astarion picks you up and gently puts you in the bucket- you sigh in relief when the warm water soaks your fur- between Halsin and Shadowheart you were able to get most of it to grow back. However, that doesn’t change the fact that there is a disgusting film beginning to coat the surface of the water.

 “He wouldn’t stop petting me.” 

 The words echo in Astarion’s mind and it makes him want to sob while simultaneously punching a hole through the wall. It rips up so many of his own old wounds- especially the ones that are beginning to come back now that Cazador is dead and his brain is no longer just focusing on surviving another day. 

  It reminds him of the beginning- before he was numb to all of it and it devastated him to be touched against his will. That was when you were protecting him and you were basically invincible.

 He never really had to worry about you beforehand, except if Cazador went on a Ghost Hunt. You knew stopping Cazador all the time would get Astarion in more trouble, but the few times you had been able to intervene… not even just a few times. You have helped him thousands of times and he couldn’t even keep you away from a mummy. 

  You were supposed to be safe with Astarion, not in danger of being pet by a mummy when you didn’t want to be and moments away from dying. You had looked so terrified as your eyes were fighting not to roll back- you had been shaking the entire walk back to Elfsong. 

 Astarion failed you and he doesn’t know if he will ever be able to forgive himself for this.

 “Do I really smell that bad?”

“I- what?” 

“Your eyes,” you say with a concerned look on your little kitty face, “they are watering- why?”

“O-oh nothing, you don’t need to fret about me, my Dear,” he waves his hand dismissively, “however, I will need to get a new bucket of water because his hands were positively filthy. Stay right there.”

 Astarion leaves the room before you can ask more questions and he goes back down to the bar, asking them for another bucket of warm water and he even buys you a cooked fish. He doesn’t have the energy to steal anything right now and he has no idea how to make any of this better.

 You are going to tell him you don’t want to travel with him anymore. You will move along in your life and he will never see you again- stuck in the shadows and still the useless monster he has always been. His Ghosty will be all gone and it’s all his fault. 

 You are there waiting for him, an even more concerned look on your face. He picks you up and moves you to the new bucket, the water staying clean as he grabs the soap.

“You still want to have me around, right?” You ask abruptly.

 Astarion sputters, “how is that even a question!? I should be the one asking you that!” 

“But why?”

“Because I practically handed you over to a mummy!” He says in exasperation, “and… I didn’t get there in time.”

“What?” You cock your head to the side in confusion, “I am alive, aren’t I? I am very very grateful you showed up when you did and I really appreciate you helping me clean up- I definitely didn’t want to have to go the ole natural route, ya know?

“I just thought that… maybe it was more effort than it was worth- to save me, I mean.”

 Astarion shakes his head, scrubbing the soap into your fur, “no, nothing is more effort than it’s worth when it comes to you.

“You are my first friend, the only person who has ever been truly loyal to me, and… you are my home.”

 “You are my home too,” you don’t even skip a beat, you head butt his hand and purr when he scratches behind your ears, “and nothing could scare me enough to keep me from you!” 

 He knows- you have always been there, even when he is being a shit. You are so tolerant of him and he will never be able to repay you for all the little joys you have brought into his life.

 So for now, he dries you off with the extremely fluffy towel- you are very excited about it- and then grabs a book he knows you really like before curling up in bed.

 You lay next to his head on the pillow with your head on his shoulder and he reads to you until you both fall asleep.

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

Thank you for reading!!!

[loren91]

Young Royals and the three act structure, Part one

Seems like there was some potential interest in a full three-act story structure analysis, so I’m taking this opportunity to indulge myself by going full nerd. I’m going to attempt to make the argument that limiting the show to three seasons is actually perfect for Young Royals, by highlighting the pattern the story follows.

A few things to keep in mind before we start.

This analysis is not about the characters deep inner emotional lives. We are not here to pass judgment on their actions. We are simply identifying the beats of the story in a neutral and objective manner, for the purpose of analysing the structure of the story.

As you will notice, the points I have identified are all from Wilhelm’s perspective. That’s because he’s the point-of-view character, the main conflict is shaped by him and his emotional state. He’s the protagonist. Each subplot however, will follow the same pattern and has its own purpose, but I’ll get more into that another time.

I’ll be referring a fair bit to Lindsey Ellis’s video essay on the subject, because I like how she describes the structure pattern in sequences. So I’m gonna borrow some of her language. Also, note that the examples she uses to describe the tree-act structure are all feature films. Since Young Royals is a series, it’s gonna divert slightly from her description. But that’s what is so great about this structure, it’s flexible. It’s not meant to be set rules, but rather guidelines to help keep your story relevant and engaging all the way through. If you find this stuff interesting, I’d highly recommend watching her videos!

The three act structure is absolutely not the only way to tell a story. There’s many different formats that works just as well! It’s really about finding what structure works best to tell your story. The three acts however is the most common format you’ll find in more commercially viable works, such as Disney films for example.

And finally, I’m not a writer, but an animator, and I have studied film theory/structure. I’ll do my best to motivate the plot points I’ve identified, but if you’re a proper story expert and disagree with me, I’m happy to discuss!

Okay, let’s get to it.

A three-act structure is constructed of just that, three acts, and roughly looks like this. Essentially, a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or the set up, the confrontation, and the resolution. These acts may vary in length, act two usually being the longest and act three usually being the shortest. But what truly defines them is the tension of each act, meaning what drives the conflict forward at that point. A story will have a main conflict yes, but that conflict will take on many forms depending on where we are in the story. Lindsey Ellis describes each act as consisting of multiple sequences, and defines each sequence by its individual tension as well. Though all points of tension should always stay related to the main conflict! So the main points we’re looking to identify in the story are the main act tensions and the main sequence tensions. 

Let’s go through season one of Young Royals and talk about each story beat.

Act 1

Act tension - Wille has to attend Hillerska.

Sequence 1

We start with the Set up/Hook. The purpose here is to establish the world and the protagonist along with their internal conflict, such as their flaws and/or desire that makes them feel incomplete - The way Wilhelm’s character is introduced informs us that he is royal, but struggling with his role, because royals have set rules to follow.

“Why can’t I decide how the hell I want to live? I want to live a normal life!”

The thing that sets the story in motion is the point of attack. Something happens that is outside of the protagonist's control/knowledge - That would be the royal court deciding to send Wille to Hillerska without his permission. This gives the protagonist something to react to.

Sequence tension is established - Wille does not want to go to Hillerska. The rest of episode one reinforces Wille’s discomfort at the school.

Next, we get to the inciting incident. An event that disrupts the status quo, and our protagonist has to get involved - The initiation party, particularly when Wille and Simon almost kiss at the end. This leads him to acknowledge his attraction toward Simon and become more proactive in his pursuit of the boy. 

The sequence tension is resolved. Notice how in episode two, Hillerska is no longer the main focus for Wille, but Simon is. The seeds for what will become the central conflict have now been planted. The conflict is usually driven by character motivation. This is where we can consider the protagonist's Want vs Need. The want drives the main tension - Wille wants to be with Simon. But we’ll find want he needs later on in the story.

Sequence 2

The purpose here is to build up the creation of the main tension of the story. The main antagonist can also be established here -  August keeps getting on Wille’s nerves. Especially when he’s trying to hang out with Simon.

That’s our sequence tension - Wille is working to befriend Simon, but August keeps getting in the way.

The end of the sequence sees the first major plot point, the Lock-in. Where our protagonist makes a decision that changes everything. Usually, something they can’t come back from - In Young Royals that would be the first kiss. Wille and Simon’s relationship has fundamentally changed. The main tension is now established.

Act 2

Act tension -  Can Wille be with Simon, despite him being a prince?

Sequence 3

At the start of this sequence, the protagonist has most likely achieved some kind of milestone or learned something - He’s definitely like that.

To keep the story interesting, writers will add so-called pinch points in between the bigger plot points. These usually act as reminders of the antagonist or the pressure our protagonist may feel - Wille feels he needs to break it off with Simon because a prince is not supposed to be gay. As we established in the set up, royals have rules. 

Sequence tension - Can Wille deny his feelings for Simon? Queer pining ensues.

Sequence 4

The purpose of this sequence is to build up towards the midpoint. We see the protagonist making attempts to achieve their goal - The want never changed, Wille still wants to be with Simon, despite the pressure. Wille invites him to spend the weekend with him.

Sequence tension - Wille is trying to prioritise his new relationship with Simon, but August is still being annoying.

Then the midpoint hits. A major disruption, either from a character action or a force of nature. Can be positive or negative, just something that changes the aim of the quest without resolving the main tension - This time it’s literally halfway through the season. End of episode three, Erik dies and Wille becomes the crown prince. Everything has changed.

Sequence 5

Everybody has to adjust to the new world order after the midpoint disruption. We’ve reached another pinch point - Again we are reminded that royals have rules, and Wille makes another attempt to follow those rules. By embracing his new role, he breaks up with Simon once again, then sort of pursues Felice and joins the society.

Sequence tension - Wille adjusting to his new title while mourning his brother.

It’s common for subplots to advance around this time - Like Simon giving August the drugs to sell.

Sequence 6

Another plot point, where our protagonist may stop and reflect. Maybe have a heart-to-heart with another character, and perhaps make a decision - This is where we see the football field scene and the end of episode four. Wille reaches out to Simon for help, reconnecting with him. This leads them to pursue a relationship once again. They are put in a false sense of security. They are finally together, thinking all is good. BUT, we in the audience know that August has the video of them and the writers keep reminding us of him and the threat he poses. Even if Wille and Simon don't know it yet.

Sequence tension - Can this happiness last?

Sequence 7

(Here’s where the story leaves the classic structure for a bit, and adds an extra sequence for some more drama, as filler. In theory, they could have skipped this sequence and gone straight to the video being released. This part is mainly here to give motivation for August’s character, making his actions clearer)

So we are essentially given another pinch point, a reminder of antagonist or pressure -  August tries to break them apart by telling Wille about the drugs, which leads to the music room fight. 

Sequence tension - August is becoming more hostile.

Wille saving Simon from being framed for the drugs is more related to August’s money subplot. And the Lucia hug scene is mainly there for character building purposes. I’ll talk more about that stuff in part two.

The plot has advanced to the culmination of the main tension. The crisis that serves as build-up to act three - August releases the video. At the end of act two, the protagonist faces their biggest challenge yet. They’ve hit their lowest point - The aftermath of the video's release and Wille is totally lost. 

Act 3

Act tension - Can they save their relationship after the video?

Sequence 8

Begins with the protagonist making a big decision that creates the new act tension. The tension in act three will be different, but still related to the main conflict - Wille and Simon talk in the locker room, where Wille says he won’t do the statement. 

Sequence tension -  Can Wille avoid making the statement?

We’ve reached our last major plot point, located at the end of the sequence. Sometimes known as the twist in the third act - And what a twist, Wille does the statement anyway. This narrows down the tension further, to focus on a more character-driven intimate place for the next sequence.

Sequence 9

Sequence tension - Can they be together despite the statement?

Climax, the last big fight - Simon tells Wille off for being selfish and breaks up. Wille also finds out that both August and his mother betrayed him. The protagonist’s need has emerged from this journey and is now clear to us - Wille needs to decide who he wants to be. The want and the need should be different from each other, but still connected. Wille wants Simon, but in order for that to happen, Wille needs to break out of this cycle of self-preservation and stand up for himself against the royal court.

The climax will most likely lead to some kind of character growth - Wille is now pissed because he’s lost everything and realizes how corrupt the royal court is. As Lisa so beautifully put it, “A flame is ignited in him”. Hugging Simon in public is a display of his character growth.

And finally, Resolution. The point where the story is usually wrapped up neatly, but if left ignored, you get a cliffhanger - Which is exactly what happens in this season. Nothing is properly resolved at this point. Resulting in an open ending/cliffhanger.

Oof, that was a lot. How are we all doing? So these are the main beats of the plot. Makes sense? Let me know if you need any further clarification 😅 I was gonna get into how the rest of the show fits this format as well, but that’ll have to be in a separate post. Here’s part two! 

[catboygirljoker]

fun writing tip: you can justify making your blorbos as good at sex as you want if you also make it depressing

i will try not to be too graphic or horny and keep it mostly to character study analysis themes core motivations plot conflicts etc type discussion. still, id really prefer that folks under 18 do not interact with me on this post or about this topic in general, thanks!

for obvious reasons this post is gonna have a cut

UNLIKE HIS DIIIIICK [EXTREMELY LOUD AIRHORNS]

. sorry i just feel like hed appreciate that joke. uh anyway

Brief discussions of: BDSM, including sadomasochism; edgeplay; derealization/dysphoria; self-destructive recklessness in a sexual context.

ok. so there's this fictional guy. and i kiiiiiiind of have a crush on him. and i'm a basic bitch, so, like, obviously, when i think about him hornystyle, i want to imagine him being good at sex.

the thing is, "good at sex" is not always a particularly interesting trait to give a character! it can often be an eyerolling power fantasy trait. like "this is my oc Chuck Dongburger he has a ten pound cock and can make a babe cum just by lookin at her" yknow. it's a trait that, handled incorrectly, is more likely to flatten conflict than create it—more likely to make stories more boring than to make them more interesting.

also, "being good at sex" isnt a magical blessing that descends upon someone by chance. it is a quality that stems from a set of experiences and traits. it is a skill that one develops, or fails to develop.

so the question is, how do i justify him being good at sex? how do i make it feel believable and interesting?

the answer is simple! make it depressing! (that is, relate it directly to the character's central themes and conflicts, and therefore make it a natural part of/inclusion in their story)

in canon, xigbar has had multiple bodies, lost his heart multiple times, allowed himself to be a vessel for darkness on multiple occasions. he has endured all of this to carry out the will of his masters. every social role we've ever seen him take has been subservient to someone else, even if it has usually also involved social power over others, too.

here are the sex/relationship headcanons i have that expand on this:

related to: gender/sexuality

bisexual. for starters. obviously. his transness i have Deep Headcanons about, but his bisexuality is just "idk im bi so hes bi hee hee"

luxu is a binary trans man who experienced severe dysphoria in his original body and never felt like that body really belonged to him in the first place. to the best of his ability he has only chosen cis male vessels, including braig. in those cases he feels extreme disconnect from his body but not [very noticeable] gender dysphoria. the only thing connecting him to his cis male bodies is his sexual characteristics. theres this great art piece that has never left my brain that conveys the idea im going for. his face his hair his bones none of those are his, none of thise feel real, none of those feel right. but what does feel right is his dick.

related to: him being Good at Sex™

he is Very Experienced. he's tried a lot of shit and had a lot of bodies and largely had nothing better to do than be a horndog and kill time suckin and fuckin. he is down for just about anything with just about anybody. he knows how bodies work and knows how to deal with the exceptions and roll with awkwardness and uncomfortableness.

he is pretty good at reading people—it's a skill he has had to develop over his lifetime. he is sometimes wrong, but usually right, and reading people, understanding them, lets him feel like he has some kind of control or power over them. this is relevant because this is part of what makes him Good at Sex. he is shockingly responsive and attentive; not completely unselfish as a lover, but he won't blindly exert his will onto the other person and expect them to respond just because he has a big dick or is going faster or harder or whatever.

related to: his backstory as luxu

sex for him is a means of exerting control over the world, proving his own competence and worth to himself and another person, gaining some simulacrum of human connection, distracting himself from his derealization, grounding himself in his body, expressing and claiming his masculinity. all things, i headcanon, he also achieves (or seeks/has sought to achieve) from keyblade mastery.

he views his bodies as disposable, and knowing that he can just jump ship if he totals a body means that he processes pain differently than most people. not in a "all pain makes him horny" way*—it's more that pain doesn't make his self-preservation kick in the same way it does for other people. in bdsm/kink settings he is a masochist [as well as a sadist] and more reckless with edgeplay (when it comes to himself) than he really ought to be.

obviously i have specific personal motivation for wanting to headcanon this (he and his body are both Significantly Older Than Me) but i don't think he's too bothered by an age gap. some people it makes sense to me to imagine that they'd really want to date within their age and maturity range, but i think xigbar's chill as long as the person he's dating is a self-posessed adult. considering how long he's been alive, he's gonna have a significant gap in experience with ANYBODY; there isn't that much of a difference between him dating a 25 year old vs a 45 or 85 year old.

he has told close romantic partners about his Whole Deal before. it has never gone well. ("what do you mean youve been moving into random people's bodies in order to stay alive long enough to bring back a guy who intentionally manipulated his students into killing all of their students via senseless war??") they never understand and he doesn't know why they don't understand (i also headcanon him having severe cognitive dissonance vis a vis the MoM but that's a different post). his instinct is to put up a wall and go "well theyre just naive and stupid and haven't seen what i've seen, theyre too sentimental to understand this". he still keeps trying (if with less frequency) because he is desperate for someone to understand.

*i want to make this crystal clear: i do not headcanon xigbar as being automatically turned on by receiving or causing pain in every context, because he is a boss in a video game franchise where he fights teenagers. i am not comfortable sexualizing those fights!

(i do however think there are contexts where he might indulge in some "battle sadomasochism" when fighting another adult—maybe he makes it weird for them on purpose to fuck with them, maybe they're both into it and it's all foreplay, etc)

related to: him being subservient

youd think that when i talked about him being subservient to others, i was building up to a headcanon about him being a sub. however it feels most correct [and fun] to me to imagine him being a dom-leaning switch vers (doesnt get dysphoria from bottoming because. prostate). social role and personal dynamics dont necessarily correspond to sexual dynamics!

the headcanon i was actually building up to was that he craves affirmation in specific ways from specific people. he is desperate for someone else to give him worth. he wants to do a good job serving an authority he deems worthy of respect. he wants to be useful, he wants to serve a purpose and have a role. he hates feeling like he needs something from someone else, and feels much more comfortable if they need something from him.

he doesn't have a praise kink in a traditional sense, but he does really get his rocks off from being Good At Sex and from his lovers clearly and obviously enjoying themselves. he doesn't wanna be told hes done a good job, he wants to know, to tell from experience that he's blown someone's mind.

furthermore, in romance, he becomes a massive simp. if he likes someone enough to fall for them then they hang the fucking moon for him. he is outside in the rain crying throwing up begging for a sniff. absolutely pathetic. its not a total transformation of personality, i think he'd really hide it and really want to hide it. but i think in most situations it'd be subtle but observable. every joke he makes is directed to them and checked against their reaction; he stands at a middle distance outside of conversation kinda watching them, observing every move, memorizing their gestures and tics and quirks. he feels i love you before the first date but won't say it until five years into the relationship.

related to: i couldnt put it in the other sections and i really only made these section headers so it wasnt just big walls of text oops

he's a low empathy emotionally constipated bitch at the best of times, so he substitutes emotional intimacy with physical intimacy. picking up people at bars or dances or what have you for one night stands, satisfying them thoroughly, and then immediately dropping out of their lives.

he actively avoids romance (and any emotional closeness, including the completely platonic kind). but he hasn't always been this way. i think Dark Road was the most recent in a long long string of experiences where he lost people he was close to. he's tired of hurting people and getting hurt.

. im not gonna get into it because im trying not to be like too too horny in this post but hes So fucking brat tamer coded to me. i think you will understand at least the surface level reasons for this. i guess if i wanted to relate it to Themes i'd say something like "there is a specific romantic and sexual fantasy in being an asshole and even hurting someone and them still wanting you and trusting you and loving you and even enjoying it" but. well we dont need to go there do we

these are just the Depressing / Character-Related / Themes-y headcanons. some of my headcanons are just like "i think this would be funny and/or in character and/or hot" but you see how long this list is anyway. if i started in on all of that then we'd be here forever.

also, these are just headcanons! they're informed by analysis but shaped heavily by what appeals to me personally, what i find hot, what i find compelling about his character. if your headcanons for him differ from mine in any way, i don't think you're Wrong, because we're talking about the sexuality of a guy who comes from a video game franchise where characters are barely allowed to hold hands. this is all just toys and playing

anyway thank you for reading this post lmao its so long

JUST LIKE HIS DIIIIIIIIIIII—

[ashenquillalso]

Did someone ask for me to info dump about my characterization of Grian? No? Well, too bad, you’re getting it anyway

The way I organized this is based on the character study document I made like, a year and a half ago, so some of the details matter and some of them don’t. They’re all gonna be included anyway, though, because I said so :]

His full legal name is Grian H. Dreamslayer. Why? Because Scar said so LMAO. I literally have no clue what the “H” even stands for (Hermit?) but like. Does it really matter? Idk man he’s just some guy so I’m not gonna think about it that much

He is an avian hybrid, with traits specifically derived from crows. He also has “Watcher” traits, which are manifested visually as pink/purple-y feathers & an Evo symbol on his forehead. He also has “void magic”, which is basically the ability to harness the void and bend it to his will. However, he doesn’t like his Watcher traits, so he uses the void to hide them! He can make permanent darkness cover his feathers so all of them look black, and casts his forehead in shadow to hide the symbol. He also tends to hide his headwings, which he does by creating a sort of “rift” around them so they aren’t visible.

Grian is very reactive to his environment. He’s willing to be proactive when the situation calls for it—especially because he’s a natural leader—but, he usually prefers to see how things happen naturally. He’s somewhat complacent out of reflex, but when he’s in his right mind, he hates taking orders & is not fond of authority figures. With small/everyday things, he can be really argumentative against things he disagrees with. In important situations, however, he typically airs on the side of caution. Grian likes to pry for information, but isn’t always the most tactful. He knows knowledge is power, but sometimes he’s too conspicuous about gaining said knowledge, and people can be tipped off by it.

A few other details about him:

Smells like: wind, spring air, clean/fresh

He is street smart: has special knowledge of hunting & foraging, as well as close-quarters combat

Likes: tea, pastries (big sweet tooth)

Dislikes: coffee (he drinks it anyway and whines the whole time)

Passions: flying, studying magic

Habits/”quirks”: his wings are very emotive, he bites his nails & pulls his hair when stressed

Special, plot-relevant skills: gunslinger, knife enthusiast

He has a terrible sleep schedule (night owl)

Idk how to end a post but that’s all for now! I’ll keep posting stuff about other characters to here, I think :]

If you’re interested in reading my fic, it’s This Profession is Not Scar-Safe on AO3! Beware of hermitshipping, as it’s a Scarian-centric fic.

Thanks for listening to my drabbles :]

[affableramen]

I can answer to all accusations posted on Twitter/X 3 days ago.

1. “Finding out a popular pantalone artist uses generative AI is disappointing…” (@/dottolones).

Using Character AI for chatting is not the same as generating an AI image. All my artworks are drawn by hand, my sketchbook pages are frequently shared on my blog and speed paints also present my process from the start to finish. I draw my sketches with my own hand, usually in a traditional way, then applying it into digital (Procreate).

2. “For clarity: they use AI chat bots and send said chat bots their artwork”, (@/dottolones).

The screenshot of me chatting with a bot was posted on a private twitter account (with a lock on the profile) and this discussion was taken out of the context. What I did in the screenshot was asking if the bot thinks my art looks similar to the character. It was made for entertainment purposes, and none other art than my own was used in the chat. I deleted the post later because I thought it was irrelevant to my blog. I admit using Character AI, I never denied it. I use Character AI for communication purposes with characters I like, which makes a therapeutic experience for me, just as for some others it makes with ChatGPT. For the context, before that post I also discussed a problem around my follower using my art plot for a bot without my permission, just casually admitting it to me. I judged it. Once again, this conversation was for approved followers, and it was posted under the private account, and the author of the conversation above took it out of the context without providing the original target of the discussion. Taking words out of context of course creates a major miscommunication between individuals.

3. “I do not know if they use AI to generate artwork. their art appears hand drawn…” (@/dottolones).

I always judge the art made by AI and I never supported an image created by artificial intelligence. They are lifeless. If you want to learn to draw, pick up a pencil (reference: latest conflict around AI generated images using Studio Ghibli images).

4. “Notably, they’ve deleted their posts admitting to using character AI ever since i posted this (i hadn’t unfollowed them on my personal account yet) but made no comment on it”, (@/dottolones); “@/heyuelamian. I wasn’t going to name and shame but the fact they ignored me pointing out their hypocrisy (they complain that people steal their art to post elsewhere, yet use Character AI which steals from writers and has built-in avatar generation) shows they dgaf about AI harm”, (@/dottolones).

I did not delete the post “ever since” @/dottolones posted this tweet. I do not know this person and I didn’t even know they followed me. I deleted it because it lost its relevance to me. People do steal my art for creating their own content purposes, but it is also irrelevant to these accusations.

5. “Mind you, the same person who stole someone’s fanfiction for their pantalone char ai bot as well”, (@/dotttores).

I do, indeed, have a history of plagiarism in August 2023, however the plagiarised work I posted was deleted instantly after the author asked me to take it down. It is also important to mention that I was the person who sent this plagiarised work to the author, as I was seeking their approval. At that moment of time, I was not educated about plagiarism and proper referencing. I thought I was inspired by the work. I admitted my mistake, and we had this certain conflict settled with the author in private. I never interacted with the author again.

6. “they often took theories they had minor contribution to or no contribution at all as their own w no credit” (@/gothicpantalone).

About theories. I did not use someone else’s theory in my discussion without referencing, at that moment I studied Chinese course, and I translated an in-game artefact from Chinese into English to get a better grasp of Chinese language in the game. According to this, I constructed my theories. I also played the game and read archived materials. I did not post many theories. My old (deleted) account was for creative and not lore purposes.

After this post I will no longer be active on this account. I hope that my responses explained the problems well and I thank you for hearing me out. It was nice creating content for this community, but from now on I wish to no longer be a part of it.