#it makes sense but I loathe this idea with a passion lmao

[amipenthe]

If the “noah clan actually lived in our modern world but it was destroyed and this is the new one” theory is true I’m going to bang my head against the wall….mostly because as much as I despise this concept it makes too much narrative sense to deny

What bothers me is it makes sense for, in my personal opinion, the dgm narrative but not the dgm ✨vibe✨

[ar-feyniel]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by the darlings @grandlovescheme and @anamazingangie, and since the only thing I love more than writing is talking about my writing until people tell me to shut up, here I am.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

33

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

365,863

3. What fandoms do you write for?

HOTD/ASOIAF - my personal opinion is this universe is the best for ficwriting in general since it's like a huge playground with many sandboxes. As for pairings - Daemyra is the dominant one but I also do Daemma and Daemon/Rhaenyra/Laena at times.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Maternal love

Violet-Eyed Jealousy

Passion driven

Armistice

Purrfection

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to. I usually reply before posting a new chapter or when I have a few recent one-shots. I haven't replied to comments on some of my fics when the fic means a lot to me emotionally, and I am not sure I would be able to reply and engage? Idk if it makes sense, but it was the case with "You're not my homeland anymore" - it was heavy to write, and I was not ready to reply to comments. But I re-read every comment at least a dozen times.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably squeeze, since it deals with heavy topics and doesn't really offer happy Daemyra. If not Daemyra, then you took everything from me.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mean, Rhaenyra comes in every single fic I write so it counts as a happy ending for me. On a more serious note, I actually do not know. Maybe "A Birthday Present" since they run away and start a new life.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

It happens. I have been mostly spared compared to my fandom friends, but I had people criticize my writing and my plot ideas.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Sometimes it feels like this is the only thing I do. I love different flavours of incest (gods, this sounded awful). Fingering is a must, unprotected sex is a treat, size kink is the default. Idk, I love writing about many things and pushing myself. I have even written foot fetish (which is far from my thing irl). I love experimenting with smut, and I am glad Daemyra is canonically codded to have the freakiest sex.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. I love the ASOIAF universe as it is, and I think it offers me enough.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of. I would cry for days if I had.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I helped one person once. They ended up deleting the fic (no offence, it's their right!), but I felt really proud when they reached out and asked for tips and suggestions. I am always very open to brainstorming and helping, and I have written some of my friends' ideas.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Daemyra, if we judge by the number of fics I have actually written. Celegorm/Aredhel was my first ever ship - I got into fanfic because of them. Then there was a Jaime/Cersei phase.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a long outline (20+ chapters) for a fic where Rhaenyra gives birth to Daemon's child in the first year of marriage to Laenor. I wanted it to be really detailed, following the pregnancy and how Rhaenyra went from loathing the child inside her and the role of a mother to accepting it to loving her kid to forgiveness, but I don't think I will finish it in this lifetime - it's just too complex.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Ehhh... I hope I have some. I would say that I am quite good at conveying desperation - be it in angsty or sexy way. People also have been praising my characterisations - this is probably it because I managed to create an OC so realistic that it got his own universe lmao.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions for one. That's because I myself rarely care about what people are wearing, doing, or seeing when I read. Sometimes it's necessary for the plot or symbolism, but I am a dialogue girlie. I can write a whole chapter of them just talking or fucking, not giving you a single description. Also, I think I struggle with "flowery" language - English is not my first language, and I am very used to the idea of "less is more", so my writing tends to be dry at times.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

That is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I don't like it. One word for emphasis? Fine. The whole phrase in High Valyrian I need to scroll to the end of the fic to understand? I won't do it. I will just deduce the context, and that's it. I found that it rarely works as intended. Soves or kirimvose? Fine by me. A whole dialogue? Nah.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Silmarillion.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is hard. Probably Only then I am human - funeral sex somehow made me famous to an extent in the fandom lol? Although I wonder if it would turn out better if it was the current me writing it. But also we feel so good it's almost frightening - who knew I could enjoy writing non-con so much.

Tagging @laiwyah, @charlie-leau, @awfullylongtime but no pressure at all!

[chocolate-parfait]

Hello! Can I get a headcanon where MC(they/them) gets a little lonely so they climb a tree in the middle of the night to get to Comte/Mozart/Napoleon's room window. How would the boys react?

THIS TOOK SO LONG IM SO SORRY!!! +they're more scenarios than headcanons I hope you dont mind ;-; (I also hope you dont mind the amount of cheesiness i put into this lmao)

(+Trees shouldn't stay at a arm's length from houses because they can cause big problems in case of storms or things like that,, let's pretend for the sake of the story that they don't and that's why they're so near the windows)

Comte

Mama Comte was just chilling in his armchair, drinking a glass of red wine while letting his thoughts chase each other in endless circles, vivid images of past memories dancing behind his closed eyelids. More often than he liked to admit, he'd find himself in these exact circumstances, and that night was certainly no different. It was probably way past midnight when the still silence that hovered in the room was interrupted by a small whisper, followed by another and another one again. Attracted by the curious sound the pureblood got up from his sit and walked to the window, opening it with one swift gesture

"Comte, here!"

After his dark pupils focused on a silhouette that was undeniably yours, a rare look of shock and disbelief crept upon his features. Despite having risked falling to the ground like a sack of potatoes multiple times while climbing all the way to one of the highest branches of the tree, the man's expression made the effort more than worth the danger

Before he could ask you what in the world you were doing perched on a tree branch in front of his room at such a late hour, you eagerly told him why, words leaving your mouth in a single breath

"I-i couldn't fall asleep and thought of you and then I had this sudden urge to see you but I didn't know if you were awake so I climbed this tree to see if your light was on and then-"

As his caramel eyes softened and a warm smile appeared on his lips, Comte asked for you to stay still, and mere seconds after the last syllable reached your ears, you heard the fluttering of his coat that was now right in front of your widened eyes

Had he???just???jumped from his window????to land?????on a tree branch????next to you??? MC: why though? Comte: why not- MC: BUT why th- Comte: why not.

Giggling at your reaction while securing you against his chest, something was extremely clear in his eyes. Since you came all the way up there just to see him, it would have been a terrible waste to just send you away, right? And you knew he wouldn't have taken a no as an answer

"Hold on tight, ma chérie. We wouldn't want you falling down, now would we?"

Taking advantage of the position you were both in and with the excuse of possibly falling down, you contentedly snuggled in the crook of his neck; soft, expensive fabric caressing your cheek while his perfume rubbed on you, sure to remain there for at least a week

Comte on the other hand didn't complain nor move away, watching as your hair moved under the moonlight, softly swayed by the wind

Maybe spending a night in someone's company was a better alternative than staying alone, after all

Mozart

Mozart hadn't realized it had gotten that late until he finally closed the fall board of his piano, looking out of the window to see the stars and a full moon shining gently over the dim lit marble pavement of the music room

Almost one year ago on a night with the same moon, you walked out of Comte's door, looking as confused and scared as a little fawn. Since then you worked hard all over the mansion doing all kind of tasks, and though he'd have loathed the idea before, you two ended up getting incredibly close. Only lately he had started noticing many weird little behaviors that were slowly becoming a part of his routine; the way he had now stopped putting off having breakfast to play the piano in order to see you sooner, how his guts seemed to writhe whenever he saw you smiling at someone else, and as if it wasn't already enough, he found his thirst for blood more and more insatiable

Knowing what that meant but still fearing the answer, he tore himself away from the disheartening path his thoughts were taking, finally snapping back to reality. When he did so, a gleam coming from the tree near the window caught his attention. The closer he got, the more he seemed to distinguish your moonlit form standing in the foliage. Was he hallucinating now? Were his mind and heart so full of thoughts of you to the point of imagining your figure in the weirdest of places?

Before he could realize that you were in fact right outside his window, you called out to him, causing the poor man to flinch in surprise. Despite the harsh scolding that followed your appearance, just seeing his face was enough to ease the stingy feeling that was keeping your heart in a tight embrace. Seeing the bittersweet look in your eyes, Mozart couldn't stop his voice and gaze from softening considerably. But how could he not? Over the past months he had subconsciously started to consider you the one closest to his heart, and you were, more than he was ready to admit, his worst weakness

Sighing to himself as he reached past the parted glass panels to brush some leaves off your hair, he asked you "So, what are you doing here at this ungodly hour of the night?"

Amethyst spheres focusing on your expression, you told him the whole truth, not that you could easily make up a lie, seeing the position you were in. "I know you don't like it when people come into the music room, so this was the easiest way..." As if he had the strength and willpower to get angry at you, he thought. "A-anyways I-...I just wanted to see you, that's all."

Oh Gott, if only you could hear the way his blood pace sped up its tempo at the sound of those words, though you probably could see the way his usually pale cheeks were now flushed in a lovely shade of red. He, too, missed you, and now that the constant feeling of longing had met a correspondent in your gaze, it reached its bursting point

Not bothering to ask you permission to, he roughly grasped your wrist and pulled you away with superhuman strength from the offshoot you were sitting on. You were now on sill of the window, facing him and just inches from his doll-like face. Glancing up at him you found a pair of violet eyes staring back at you with the intensity and strength of a storm. Had he always been this bold? Had his irises always been this full of raw passion? Had his body always been this warm?

Your heart was thumping so loud in your ears that it was as if you were standing in the middle of an orchestra, senses all focused on him and only him. All the times were you hoped to be held like this by him came crashing onto your mind all at once, the fiercest blush born from the slow realization of how those fantasies were finally reality blooming on your cheeks

The tight grip he kept on your hips told you he had no intention to let go of you soon, but who would be so foolish to not take advantage of the situation?

That night, after months and months of anonymous, mutual feelings, you and the pianist were able to manifest the most breathtaking of emotions through the words that you'd have kept hearing for a lifetime, the touches and caresses that would have been the same for the years to come, moved by never changing feelings to express an everlasting love; but you were sure, you were oh so sure, that none of them would have ever been enough

Napoleon

Unlike any other day, Napoleon wasn't tired at all, rather, he felt quite restless instead. That morning you had accompanied him and Isaac in their usual "street lessons" to the children of the city, and ever since then, a whole storm of butterflies had been freely running around his stomach. Each time your laughter ringed in his ears, each time your eyes twinkled with amusement, each time a smile as bright as the sun graced your lips, his heart couldn't help but leap with one of the greatest joys known to man: love. He wasn't an innocent boy who couldn't tell an emotion from the other, and he knew that this was a love like no other

Twisting and retwisting his thoughts in the attempt of getting to know about all the facets and implications this new feeling brought him, Napoleon let his feet carry him around the garden, similar to a lovestruck hero from a Shakespearean play tormenting himself over his beloved

He was so immersed in the meanders of his mind, that he barely heard you exclaiming his name in surprise. Barely, that is. As his brain registered your presence, his eyes and heart danced in search of you until they landed on the lowest arm of the pine tree near his window.

He looked at you and you looked at him, the soft sound of crickets the only melody filling the background. You could clearly see the way le Monsieur de Wahaha's shoulders shook in an attempt to keep in the raging fits of laughter that would have been surely let out soon enough. The same way, despite tears of amusement fogging his vision, Napoleon was extremely aware of the embarrassment creeping up your features

"Nunuche" he managed to say in between his strangled fits, "what in- pftt- what are you doing there-"

"I just wanted to thank you for today so I had been searching for you- S-stop laughing at me, you moron! I'm trying to be serious here!!" How could he take someone who was perched on a tree in the middle of the night seriously? You truly were a silly one

With arms opened wide, he walked over the pine trunk and with a tender but still lightly shaking tone that was exclusive for your ears only, he said "Come! I'll definitely catch you, mon amour"

You just stared at him in silence with the widest eyes your head could muster without popping them out of their orbits. You were just a couple meters from the ground, sure, but was he truly this confident in catching you? And did he just call you "my love"?? There was a LOT to unpack for your brain, but the man had no intention of letting you idle by with your thoughts for long, challenging you with his vivid emerald eyes as if to say "what, you don't trust me?"

The fearless Napoleon had this habit of infusing in others a courage so strong, that even the most impossible action seemed achievable; and that, with a bit of adrenaline caused by how quick the silent night escalated when the Nightmare of Europe stepped into the scene, made you follow his command. And you jumped.

The rustling of leaves above your head, a strong pair of arms around your torso, a silent breathing interrupted by a low chuckle that could've melted all the glaciers in the world. His smell, his warmth, his voice, they were all so close and yet so distant, just like his heart. He wasn't yours and you had no right to claim him as so, but being with him was all you needed and wanted the most

"What are you thinking about?" He asked with a curious look, still holding you between his arms. As much as you wanted to answer him, no words were forming in your mind that was so full of him and so empty at the same time. All the boldness from the jump had dissipated in the air the same way one would puff out air from his lungs in the night sky

But when words fail us, actions find their way through our minds. Slipping a pair of arms behind his neck, you snuggled against his chest and whispered "Let's stay like this, just for a little longer, please"

He couldn't help but comply; your wish was his command and he, the Emperor of France, was your slave

[icharchivist]

hello icha!! i finally got around to finishing the stranger haha,, by which i mean i just watched it today. was veryyyy excited for it as i really like the poster design for this one. anyways. this event starting w/ the sort of portrait format or whatever / that narration is like. god. threw me right back to autumn troupe. I kind of love that the storytelling format itself is so distinct for autumn! the moment I realized it was omi I started getting teary… like oh man oh man… omi…. And the connection with him taking photos! ahh!! now that I think about it… omi kind of seems a bit like early version tsumugi, huh? also I keep forgetting this man is a college student lol. suspension of disbelief I suppose. onto the play i think like. mankai should invest in a fainting courch for tsuzuru. i also went to watch the play and 1) im betting yuki had a hell of a time costume design wise like the vines on the body? such fun costuming wise and 2) the ethical implications of whatever this play has,,, fun fun. tsuzuru was clearly having some kind of thoughts. i love zeros design and am always up for a3 characters crossdressing bc 1) i think its fun and 2) the costume design. i also dearly wish this whole thing was animated bc I feel like it’d be o fun to see taichi act as zero. or at least I hope this event gets full voiced one day... moving on to the scene where omi adds soy sauce to the paella I know it’s just like haha homare funny so lets five him a lil bit but like everyone in autumn troupe making their comments on the paella and like homare just jumping in. homare autumn troupe besties. just thinking. also the way they just r like. no no no omi it’s fine if u made a mistake!! it’s ok! we like it (you) anyways <3 it’s got it’s own special taste. something something omi’s perfectly pleasant as he is now but even if he weren’t on his a-game and was dealing with all of the biker gang stuff they would love him just as hard. another thing that got me was omi telling banri that he’ll give him something sweet so juza will stop grinding his teeth in his sleep… guys… guys you’ll give him cavities…. mb omi is a college student after all lol.

anyways when i saw the actual costumes. appreciative of them, i like the lil circuit-esque detailing on banri’s outfit, and that sakyo and taichi (nine and zero) both share that like collar detail? its very symbolic and probably also literal but its a nice way to sort of signify their relation to each other visually! also sakyo just looks nice. seeing him without glasses is so great. whoever thought up the like two mole detail for him was doing gods work.

something that confused me was ryo mistaking juza for nachi for a split second? like. does juza… look similar to nachi? or was it just that ryo only heard juzas voice and made that mistake. if it’s appearance wise too. kumon nachi confirmed. I’m joking lol bc I feel like I would’ve heard at least something abt it in one of the like small conversation comments, plus that doesnt seem like itd fit summer troupes style and kumon is for sure the wrong age… but still.

i really like how for this event, the roles for taichi and omi were kinda reversed. and taichis just so like. idk. smiley. rly lifts ur spirits. its kind of nice how this event contrasts to that cg where taichi is crying on omi. I also think like. idk. considering the story of the stranger. wolf gives zero a sense of purpose and life and I think that zero helps wolf lose his apathy. it’s about “the stranger” and the ending makes him like… not a stranger, right? because he’s got a companion. in the same way, taichi brings omi out of his emotional isolation. the picture taking! also the stickers coming back… thats such a good setup! the found family of it all!!

when he was trying to work out zeros character as soon as taichi mentioned a sharp speaking style I KNEW it was Yuki… yuki would never be as honest as zero is though lol… to me i imagine she’s got a sort of juza internal monologue feel? anyways. the taichi yuki dynamic intrigues me. havent yet decided how I feel abt it but when I do… yes. sorry that I make literally no sense. I think it’s very obvious that yuki is my fav chara kind of? I’m just. hmmm it makes me think! I’ve been monologuing to myself abt the yuki and juza dynamic lately which, to my a3 knowledge so far, doesn’t exist, but its ok bc I’ll make it exist! uhhh anyways this event was very good i liked the pacing. i think it didnt drag too hard and it really properly honed in on just omi and taichi, which was quite nice. they really did a lot for just an event!

time to listen to the event song,,, ok so. ah. i rly enjoyed just for myself it was very much to my taste so. out of curiousity i was like ok lemme look up the composer / producer AND IT WAS YUYOYUPPE....... that guy is like!!!! one of my FAV producers ever!!!!!! i know him from like. his vocaloid days and god leia is still one of my fav songs to this day...! this knowledge gives me so much joy omg!!! like wow!! wowwww!!! like i knew yuyoyuppe was out there doing other stuff (i know he worked on a lot of babymetal music which is cool) but like idk. to suddenly encounter it like this. heheh.... its so nice! made me soooo happy. going to relisten to leia now haha

WAIT ONE MORE THING. i was like "haha let me look at other songs i remember liking a lot" which. for me was rakuen oasis and don't cry. anyways. rakuen oasis is ALSO by yuyoyuppe???? oh my god!!! oh my god... sigh. feel like im in heaven.

OH HI FRIEND!! so good to see you with an a3 update!! :D

godd yeah The Stranger started so strongly and the idea to still incorporate portraits in his story was really something to make us cry!

And linking Omi and Tsumugi like this is pretty interesting :O <hat is your reasoning exactly? :O

For the fainting couch for Tsuzuru LMAO and i'm letting you know there's a webcomics that addresses it in Act 2 (hough there's no spoilers aside from the fact Chikage is here)

Im glad you liked the costume and the play!!! yeah i love the designs and it is always a blast to see them this into it, and yeaaah Tsuzuru has thoughts huh. It'll get voiced sooner than later hopefully and there we'll see more in details :3c but also that's what made the seiyuu live so fun bc they perform the songs in play cosplay and replay a bit of the play everytime and it's *chief kiss*

HOMARE AUTUMN TROUPE SOLIDARITY YES. LOVING IT.

And yeah the scene itself was so cute TwT they all want to reassure Omi and be there for him it's so sweet :( but yeah i love how you say it all, Omiimi TwT

and dLKFJDFLKJFDFD Giving Juza cavities is the price to pay for sleep i guess??

yeah agreed on the costume they all look so cool! and nice catch on how those three seem linked like that with their costumes, Yuki (and the designers) does such a good job! and god yeah for Sakyo.. yeah. He has sucha good design dLKJFDF

aND DLKFJD yeah no Juza is supposed to look like Nachi physically, but mostly his face? like i think Nachi was had green hair? we see a sprite of him in a future story, and yeah, everything is in the eyebrows. so Kumon should be safe? Omi mentions he sees a lot of Nachi in Juza, and while it is mostly due to their passions i think, the fact they're also rough looking guy with a heart of gold must play a part as well. but yeah, he does look like Nachi a bit.

and i love your deeper analysis of the event yeah!!

I feel like Taichi is really an emotional core of the troupe in the sense that is, he tends to catch on what others are feelings easily. And he uses it in the early chapters to ease off the tensions and stuff, but he was being held back by knowing he was deceiving them. So now that he's more free, he can be more of himself. but yeah i also love the contrast with how Omi was the one to help Taichi through his breakdown and guilt, and now it's the other way around, it's Taichi helping him through it. and the parallelism between the play and their dynamic is spot on imo! well said!!

and god yeah the sticker things made me cry sO HARD, and the pictures! and everything!! sobs it's such a sweet found family i'm going to cry :(

And! i love what you say about Yuki, Taichi and Juza on this one. I love that Taichi keeps bringing it back to "that childhood friend" and it's always like. so obvious who it is for us rip. But it can make you wonder if Yuki was more honest as a kiddo when Taichi knew him, though now he's clearly not. I love the mention of how Zero is more like Juza's internal speech (which, if anything is another argument about why you should let Juza wear a dress, cOWARD)

but also your mention of the Yuki and Juza thing, while i can't think of them having a dynamic per se yet, but i actually wrote a post during my reread about how i was baffled at the fact they treated Muku the same way?? like both of them tried to push Muku away because they were scared of how people would react if they say pure, sweet Muku was associated to them. And i find it fascinating because i guess those two are pretty aware of how the world see them, and it used to stop them from fully allowing them to be themselves.

I also find it relevant with the fact Yuki says in his personal song that while all of this way people judge him weight on him, he rather be himself, and "I want to love myself". Meanwhile we have Juza who's also aware of the way people judge him and it weight on him, and he wants to change himself from this person he hates, this self loathing - and in a way, he can grow in a way to be "someone" he may not hate, even on stage. I feel like those two have quite a bit in common in this way of being rejected by their peers in some sort of way.

I really want them to share some stuff at some point because there's really a groundwork on it all :(

But i'm really glad you liked that event!! agreed on the pacing and i do love what it brings to the characters! it really fleshes them out and have them move forward a little and it's pretty sweet.

AND OMG THAT'S SO COOL FOR THE SONG!! i'm so glad you liked it, but that's incredible it turned out to be from one of your fav producer!!! ahah sometimes life is like that where you end up finding the stuff you loved back into new stuff! and the fact Rakuen Oasis was from him as well... that's so cool!!! just, so so cool!

im pretty sure he has more songs going forward so i hope you'll enjoy the ride even more!!

thank you once again for sharing your thoughts about a3 :3c it always makes me so happy to see them!!!

Thank youu <3 have a good day :3c

[eddiesdiaz]

piggybacking off that beautiful proposal ask (love u Anon) because I know u can write the inside of Jackson's head better than anyone. At what point for Jackson did "Stilinski" go from an insult he used to sneer through his teeth (with all that repressed sexuality - probably a lil homophobic - hottest in school - destructive douchebag and proud of it - full of loathing and hatred) to his full on end goal, and what mental gymnastics did he do in the beginning to try and talk himself out of it?

first of all that’s honestly the biggest compliment you could ever give me lmao so thank you for that, seriously, i adore you. (here’s the proposal ask that this kind of precedes i guess)

when they’re younger, it’s purely an “i’m better than you and i’m gonna make sure you know it” thing. he doesn’t single stiles out in the beginning; he treats mccall the same way, and all the rest of the dorks in their class. he’s an equal opportunity kind of bully, you know? of all the kids he taunts, though, stiles is the only one that ever dares to fight back. it’s annoying as hell, but it’s also infinitely more satisfying when he comes out on top, with a “nice try, stilinski” so smug and patronizing it leaves stiles scowling. so just like that, he stops caring about everyone else and zeroes in on stiles, makes him public enemy number one, bottom of the food chain, butt of all his jokes. it’s simple.

when they get to high school, though, it gets a hell of a lot more complicated. his feelings for stiles morph into something he doesn’t recognize, something he can’t quite put into words. it’s like he’s under his skin, leaving jackson burning from the inside out, urgent and desperate and all-consuming. it’s stronger than anything jackson’s ever felt in his life, and he writes it off as hatred because it’s the only thing that makes sense. (maybe it’s denial, maybe it’s blissful ignorance, or maybe it’s a little bit of both.) he carries on with stiles as he always has, with passionate arguments and scathing criticism. he calls him “stilinski” like it’s the biggest insult of all, and he gets physical when he has an excuse to, inadvertently seeking out the undeniable electricity he feels whenever they touch.

they kiss exactly one time, in the back of the van scott and stiles stole to kidnap him. stiles is in his face, calling him a monster, and the part that pisses jackson off the most is that for all he knows, stiles is right. he fights, though, bites back with a “fuck you, stilinski, you don’t know me.”

“see, that’s where you’re wrong, jackson. i think i do. i think i’m the only one that’s always been able to see right through you, and that drives you crazy.”

they stare at each other for a long moment, tension physically palpable in the air. jackson doesn’t know who leans in first, but suddenly they’re kissing, fast and frantic and so, so hot. he fists a hand in stiles’ shirt to ground himself as stiles murmurs “can’t stand you, god, you’re so fucking impossible” against his lips. jackson shuts him up by taking stiles’ bottom lip between his teeth and biting, hard, before licking into his mouth hungrily. stiles lets out an indignant little huff and tugs on jackson’s hair until he moans.

the whole thing is a revelation in so many ways, none of which jackson is prepared to deal with. he shoves stiles off of him abruptly and just like that, the moment’s past. they pretend it never happened, and they never talk about it again, to each other or to anyone else.

once the kanima nightmare is finally over, he gets the hell out of that godforsaken town and doesn’t look back. he moves to london, and he doesn’t talk to stiles at all, though he does occasionally cyberstalk him. which turns out to be a very bad idea, because he feels jealousy burning deep in his gut when he finds pictures of him with some girl, malia, who appears to be his new werewolf girlfriend.

he comes to terms with his sexuality while he’s gone. which, to be fair, was never just a blatant case of douchey rich boy homophobia like people might think. he’d always been the first to defend danny, had gotten in full-on fist fights with people who so much as looked at him the wrong way, but it’s different, somehow, when it’s himself. like most of jackson’s deepest issues and insecurities, it stems from his parents and his compulsive need to please them. he knows there’s nothing wrong with it, logically, but he’d never been able to make them proud even when he played the part of the picture perfect son. he didn’t want to give them any reason to resent him any more than they already did. so he repressed it, pushed the internalized shame down with all the other things that didn’t fit in the box of who he’s expected to be.

he’s done a lot of growing up since he left beacon hills, though. he’s spent a lot of time alone, with nothing but his thoughts for company. it was terrifying at first, for someone who hated himself more than he’d ever pretended to hate anyone else, but it brought him to realize that he needs to rely on himself, not on people that don’t give a shit. for most kids, it’s a given that their parents will love and support them unconditionally, and it sucks that he doesn’t have that. but he doesn’t, and he never will, and he decides it’s time to move on.

he considers getting emancipated, or running away, but ultimately he decides that they’re not worth the effort. so he stays, but he stops giving a shit what they think. he does what he wants, he acts how he wants, he is who he wants to be, and he doesn’t apologize for it. it’s exhilarating not having to be perfect, to flunk a test or skip a workout or cry when he’s upset without crucifying himself for it.

he goes to a gay club and he picks up a guy that looks a lot like stiles. jackson refuses to kiss him, because he knows it won’t match what he remembers and it’ll shatter the illusion. if he keeps his eyes closed, though, he can almost believe it’s him, and he has to bite his tongue to hold in the “stilinski” he nearly sighs as he comes.

things are good. he and his parents stay out of each others’ way, and he’s developed a lot more self-love (or self-tolerance, at the very least), and he’s accepted the fact that he has a hard on for his childhood enemy with whom his entire relationship, looking back, was likely rooted in sexual tension. he’s made his peace with it.

he’s not expecting it at all when derek calls him one day out of the blue, almost a year after he’s been gone, and tells him what happened to stiles. that he was possessed, and taken advantage of, and now people are dead. allison’s dead. it hits way too fucking close to home, and jackson’s stomach is in knots as he ends the call and then immediately dials stiles’ number.

the line picks up, but all jackson’s met with is silence. it’s unsettling, to say the least, because he can’t remember a single instance where stiles was this quiet. so he prompts him, gently, says “talk to me, stilinski.”

at first, stiles yells at him, tells him he has no business calling to check up on him because he abandoned them all without a word, without a second thought, and what does he care, anyway? they were never friends.

but when jackson confesses to him, quiet and honest, that he knows what it’s like to look in the mirror and see a monster, stiles lets out a deep sigh and starts admitting things to him. he tells him his girlfriend left him and his friends walk on eggshells around him and his father can barely look him in the eye. he tells him he doesn’t recognize himself anymore, that he can’t even remember what he was like before all this happened. he tells him he wishes he could take the place of the people he killed, that he would gladly give up his pathetic shell of a life in exchange for theirs. jackson listens, and he genuinely sympathizes with every word, and by the time they hang up they’ve both cried a little and stiles is telling him “thank you.”

they talk pretty regularly after that. sometimes about heavy “no one but you could possibly understand this” stuff, but sometimes about anything else, too. they usually text, because time zones are a bitch and when jackson gets home from school, stiles is just starting first period, and his friends have asked him on several occasions now what has him grinning at his phone like an idiot. they call each other every so often, too, when stiles is having a panic attack or when they can work out a time to watch a movie together.

one saturday night (way too early on a sunday morning for jackson), stiles calls him from a party. jackson’s worried at first, asks if he’s alright, and he can tell stiles is a little tipsy when he tells him he just wanted to hear his voice. they talk for a few minutes about nothing in particular, and just before they say goodbye, stiles says he misses him. jackson doesn’t hesitate at all as he responds with an “i miss you too, stilinski.”

it leaves him reeling, thinking about it for the rest of the day, because that’s when everything changes for jackson. when it hits him that the name he used to call stiles to belittle him, full of condescension and disdain, has become a term of affection. something he says fondly. and with that in mind, it stands to reason that what he feels for stiles has gone beyond just wanting to fuck him.

the old him would have shut it down, blocked stiles’ number and shoved it all away under a dark cloud of denial. he’s grown, though, and he has no interest in repeating his past self-destructive mistakes. so he leaves it be, plays it cool and tries not to overthink or dwell on the fact that talking to stiles has become the highlight of his days.

he turns eighteen, and he finishes school, and once he’s done both of those things he’s officially met the terms of his trust fund, which he takes and goes on his merry way, leaving london and his parents behind for good. he moves back to beacon hills, and stiles is there to pick him up at the airport with a hug that’s intoxicating, soft and vulnerable but still as electric as ever, leaving jackson’s skin tingling everywhere they touch.

stiles insists jackson stay with him for as long as he needs, until he figures out what he wants to do. they’re on his couch that first night, sharing a pizza and watching some shitty movie on netflix, when stiles asks him “so, did you finally work through your gay crisis while you were gone?”

jackson laughs, surprised, but he answers honestly. “bi crisis, technically, but yeah, i did.”

stiles looks at him intently, from his eyes to his lips and then back again. “you should take me upstairs, then,” he says, leaning in close enough that jackson can feel his breath on his skin.

jackson wants to say yes. he wants to carry stiles to bed and finally take what he’s been craving for longer than he ever even realized. but he also wants more than that, and he wants to make those intentions clear to stiles. so he takes a leap.

“let me take you out first. on a date.”

stiles is all too happy to oblige, and when they finally do have sex (three dates later, because he’s trying to do this right) jackson quickly learns that his little lookalike one night stand didn’t even hold a candle to the real thing.

when the issue comes up, after a summer of pack hangouts and lazy days with stiles and family dinners (the first he’s ever actually experienced) with the two of them and the sheriff, he tells stiles he’s done with distance, that he’ll follow him wherever he wants to go. stiles looks at him with wide, disbelieving eyes as his scent goes sweet and warm, and he gives jackson the best blowjob of his life as a token of his appreciation. they don’t actually end up going far, because stiles wants to stay close to his dad, but they do get a place of their own a couple weeks before they start their first semester at the local college.

it’s surprisingly easy, being with stiles, considering the shitshow it took for them to get there. they still bicker and tease and taunt and push each other’s buttons (and jackson wouldn’t have it any other way), but they never actually fight about things that matter. their relationship is solid, the healthiest one jackson’s ever had, and he’s glad everything happened the way it did. it was hell to go through, but he doesn’t doubt that if they’d gotten together any earlier, when he was an insecure asshole, they probably wouldn’t have been so lucky.

the realization that he wants to be a stilinski himself isn’t nearly as dramatic and earth-shattering as all of his previous revelations. they’ve been together for a couple years and stiles is panicking because he isn’t sure if his major is right for him, if it’s what he really wants to do, but he’s afraid of having to start all over. jackson takes his shaking hands in his own, kisses his forehead, and says “hey, we’ll figure it out. it’s you and me, stilinski.”

stiles’ heartbeat instantly starts to slow, and there’s an unbelievably fond smile plastered on his face even as he rolls his eyes. “are you ever gonna stop calling me that?”

“mm, no, sorry,” jackson answers easily, shaking his head. “i say it with love, though.”

it’s the closest he’s ever come to saying “i love you,” because he still hasn’t conquered all of his demons just yet, and in that moment, he realizes how true it is.

because the thing is, his own name doesn’t mean a goddamn thing to him. it ties him to two people that let him down, that he has no desire to be associated with. but stilinski? it holds more significance to him than any other name. hell, more than any word in the dictionary, for that matter.

so yeah, he decides, he could definitely get used to the idea of being jackson stilinski. it’s perfect, and as soon as the thought crosses his mind, he can’t imagine it any other way.

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Endgame is a movie about payoffs

An incomplete list of all the great ‘payoffs’ in this movie.

Hulk’s character arc/story is resolved offscreen and Hulk as a character is killed off. Shh no tears, only Banner now.

Loki’s death was meaningless

Thor’s character arc/story wasn’t even regressed, it was reset

Tony and Nebula’s relationship went nowhere

Vision’s body was shoved in a closet for five years I guess

Doctor Strange’s 14 million futures and 1 solution relied on a fucking rat

The main six avengers never got to be on screen fighting together

Natasha was killed off and her death is barely mentioned

Red Skull’s presence was revealed to simply be the writers going wOuLdN’t iT Be CoOl rather than having any deeper meaning or reason for it. Boy would it have made sense for the Avengers to maybe talk to the Stonekeeper since they know next to fuck all about the infinity stones. Or maybe resolve the whole ‘Steve and Red Skull’ thing, because it’s not like that was formative conflict for Steve Rogers.

Loki’s death was seriously fucking meaningless

Rocket sort of just existed. What did he do? Nothing. Who did he interact with? Barely anyone.

Gamora’s character arc/story is reset to a blank slate because she is a new person.

Drax’s whole reason for living was revenge and to strike back at Thanos. Never see Drax in Endgame except as part of the exhaustively long checklist of ‘HEY LOOK X PERSON IS HERE’

Clint going on a murderspree doesn’t matter at all except to give a reason why he isn’t in the first part of the movie. It has no bearing on the events and no one ever speaks to Clint about it. He doesn’t even act any differently from the mostly serious and broody Clint of the previous films. There isn’t even any tension about him coming back, Nat just says ‘Hi Clint come back’ and he’s like ‘k’.

Peter Quill, who I don’t even like, has only a single scene in the movie where his entire growth as a character and relationship with Gamora is reduced to stupid physical humor and a joke.

Carol Danvers was pointless. She exists to save Tony and Nebula, which Thor could’ve done with bifrost and to blow up Sanctuary, which could’ve been done far more interestingly. And yet the movie tried to weave her in pretty well by making her part of Natasha’s galactic avengers and then...did nothing with that idea. Was it too hard to consider maybe she shows up with whats left of NovaCorps or some Kree battleships?

Thanos proves that he was jobbing hard in Infinity War. What’s that, Thanos without any infinity stones could easily beat Tony in Mk85, Thor with both his weapons and Steve Rogers? I guess the entire fight on Titan was him just pissing around. It steals all the weight and strength that Infinity War gave the Avengers by showing that Thanos could’ve squashed any of them at any time and was never actually in danger.

‘Stark. You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.’ What does that mean? Why does Thanos seem to respect him? Fucking who knows, since we see that in the past Thanos only vaguely knew about the Avengers and thought they were dumb nerds. I guess he read about Tony underneath a Snapple lid. 

Back to Natasha’s death - she dies and the movie decides it needs to focus on fucking Bruce of all people, when she and Steve had become very close friends over the past seven years, and from the implications Steve was the only one that actually kept in contact with her post-Snap when the Avengers all retired or fucked off. Fucking Bruce. 

Hey while we’re here, let’s keep up with Steve and his relationships. How about the fact he and Bucky never reunite on screen? How about the fact that all we have gotten between Steve and Bucky since Steve got his best friend back was what, three lines total between Infinity War and Endgame? 

Or how about Steve and Sam! You know, Sam the therapist that helped break Steve out of his shell. Sam the loyal friend who stood by Steve through thick and thin. Sam, who kind of was Steve’s first ‘real’ friend in the modern day. Sam, who only shows up at the end so old Steve who abandoned his friends can chuck him a shield. No reunion. No real meaningful moment. Just hey I’m old take my shield.

Or Steve and Wanda! Did you guys forget that the secret Avengers adopted her? How they were kind of like a family for that time after Civil War, with Steve the Dad and Natasha the Mom and Wanda their adopted weird magical girl? You know, how they took Wanda under their wing and started teaching her and treating her like a real person? Guess they did forget!

What about Valkyrie too, by the way. Valkyrie who spent a thousand years as a cynical drunk and then Thor helped her out of her self-loathing funk in Ragnarok. And then she I guess just said ‘sucks to be you’ and didn’t even try to help him? Or how about that Thor just kind of chucks her the throne like a party favor. Not even like he recognized she earned it or anything, Thor just said ‘hey, fuck my responsibilities I want to go be a failure in space, so take my job lmao’. Nice. I hate Ragnarok with a passion, but for fuck’s sake. 

Nidavellir. Establishes that Eitri is the last of the dwarven forgemasters left, and still has all his knowledge and skill. And that he forged the Gauntlet. And the plans for the Gauntlet are still there. Clearly, that means Tony should just whip together a nanite gauntlet in his basement overnight.

Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. You know, how Captain Marvel set them up as good friends, and then she allegedly shows up wanting to know where he is. Oops. That didn’t make the cut. Or her seeing Fury again after so many years. Double oops. Shit, this is even from the stinger of the last movie these yucks wrote, and they couldn’t even do it. Again - like Gagnarok and others, Cpt. Marvel is not even a movie I liked but COME ON NOW.

The intelligence/wisdom of the infinity stones. The space stone ‘judged’ Red Skull and cast him out. The soul stone has a ‘certain wisdom’. Ultron was made from the intelligence that lurked in the mind stone. Vision was linked to all the other stones and could sense almost a distress from each other stone as Thanos claimed them. NVM, stones destroyed lmao.

Infinity War went out of it’s way to make visually striking and different battle sequences and pulled out all the stops to really showcase powers. We got to see smart and interesting uses of all the stones during the battle on titan. Thanos actually had a wizard duel with Strange, showing that he is so much more than just a brute brawler. He blended caster and bruiser seemlessly. The color palatte was bright and arid, full of reds and oranges and blues and greens, well lit and extremely well choreographed. Tony showcases the amazing functionality of his Mk50 experimental armor. The battle at Avengers compound is dark, a color palette of grey, dark grey, light grey, and brown-grey. The choreography of the fight consisted of ‘surround Thanos and hit him with sticks’. We saw none of the MK85 suit. You know. The LAST suit Tony Stark would ever make. We saw none of Stormbreaker or Mjolnir’s power in Thor’s hands, only the most basic ‘fwoosh lightning’ from when Steve holds it. Where was Thor and his flying, his glowing eyes, Mjolnir-as-a-character that was present in all his fights in the past? Where was Steve’s mixed martial arts and his really acrobatic and distinct fighting style? Where was Tony constantly pulling new weapons and tricks out of his suit? The final fight of the Infinity Saga with the big three, and it’s as inspiring as a mid-aughties superhero duel. Just kind of slamming together and grunting. (I guess all the good fight choreographers were stolen by Alita)

‘I can do this all day’. The iconic line of Steve Rogers in the MCU, a touchstone for his character that is emblematic of his entire life and his drive, that says in six syllables the sum total meaning of what it is to be Captain America. Is played As A Joke.

Pepper Potts, whose character and relationship with Tony Stark to date can be summed up succinctly as ‘Tony no’ while he shouts ‘TONY YES’ now totally agrees with Tony and is all gung-ho about him deciding to risk his life, his daughter’s life, their lives, and the fucking universe to go a-time-travelling. What.

Steven Strange, whose movie was about him struggling to become a sorcerer and let go of his past and his preconceptions as well as the Ancient One seeing potential in him despite his roughness is shown to all be a charade. She actually knew all along he was going to be an OG badass and is so enamored with him that she’s willing to hand away the infinity stone she and her order have protected for millennia at the simple mention of his name.

Acausal time travel. Instead of enriching the previous movies by seamlessly blending into them for the time heist, Endgame goes out of it’s way to say ‘HAHA YEAH NO, THIS IS A BRANCHING TIMELINE’ so when you watch Dark World, Avengers, etc, there’s no intrigue of like ‘oh man, such and such is going on just around the corner’ because they so thoroughly bungled time travel and everything we saw in Endgame breaks the timelines. I can’t believe JK Rowling did a better job creating consistent and coherent time travel that carried narrative weight and tension in a children’s book.

Undoing the snap. All the speculation and theory about how, why, when, what, and it turns out all you have to do is just snap to bring everyone back and then act like the intervening five years of social decay and collapse never happened. 

Theodore Ross is very specifically shown in Infinity War to be the Secretary of State. Hm. A character who’s always been an antagonist, always against the avengers...in a high ranking government position...right before 50% of the population is dusted...right, yeah, nothing. Not the President after the snap. 

The snap itself. Smash cut to 5 years later, show some quick flybys and pay a bit of lip service to ‘oh yeah things are bad’ but that’s it. Don’t investigate it. Don’t show us how bad things are. Don’t explore it. In fact, everything seems pretty ok. People are still playing Fortnite five years later and cheerfully dabbing and taking selfies, so it’s all good right? Not like half of all life vanished instantly over night and the world is supposed to be falling apart. Nah.

Tony Stark’s death. Did he die to bring back the universe? Did he die to save his friends? Did he die to save his daughter or his family? Nope, he killed himself to kill the already beaten Thanos and his final words were all about himself. bUt ThE cAlLbAcK

Thanos. Killed off. Replaced by a cartoon villain version of himself. The Thanos that is the main antagonist that the Avengers beat? Not the Thanos who we got to know and who starred as the center of Infinity War.

Nebula. Best character in the film. Has no conclusion. No catharsis or reaction to Thanos’ death.

Groot. Split second shot of him and Rocket. No reunion.

Groot, again, and the rest of the Guardians. No chance to see Rocket’s reaction to the realization his entire family is gone or the effect it has on him. What was that scene in Infinity War? “Me? I got a lot to lose. I got a lot.” No relevance.

Stormbreaker. Major plotpoint of Infinity War. OP axe forged by Thor nearly sacrificing his life to a star. Yeets through a blast from a full-stone gauntlet. Is just a beatstick in Endgame, does nothing.

Infinity stones, again. Infinity War made them front and center, showing their many uses and delving deeper into the lore of them. Endgame makes them paperweights that can only snap.

I could go on and on and on. This is just off the top of my head, right now. Payoffs? I guess if you count the writers violently elbowing you in the ribs and shouting HEY ITS THAT SCENE FROM THAT OTHER MOVIE like you’re a drooling idiot as a ‘payoff’ it’s ripe with them, but actual meaningful payoff for a decade of characters and storytelling? Hah. No.

Edit: I will continue to update this as I think of/recall more examples

[saigebeaumontt]

( danielle rose russell, cisfemale, she/her ) I, FREYA KAVINSKY am a SCHOLARSHIP student and would hereby like to submit my application to Kingswood Boarding School. I am SEVENTEEN years old and will be a JUNIOR. I would describe myself as HEARTFELT and EAGER, but also UNINHIBITED and PIGHEADED which I plan to work on during my time here. This is my request to join the VICTORIA building as a house MEMBER and look forward to hearing back from you.

im trash ik but here’s a brand new baby to play w!! her pinterest can be found HERE pls ignore the photos of crystal reed, that’s freya’s original fc sdfghj

tw; death, drug/alcohol abuse? w/ implications of self destruction

so first thing’s first, freya was born n raised in chicago alongside her father and her older sister

her mother had died during freya’s birth--though freya doesn’t...blame herself, necessarily, there are days where she imagines what life would’ve been like if her mother was still alive

her dad’s a mechanic and the sole provider for their household, which meant that he was gone more often than not

regardless, he tried to be as active as possible in his children’s lives

her sister always took up the role of..well, mother, in a sense

freya and her are incredibly close b/c of this

even so--her father had wanted them to be as active as possible, as out of the house as he was--so it didn’t seem like he was gone as much as he was

so, with a few strings pulled and familial connections, freya was able to attend ballet lessons at a young age, alongside an instrument of her choosing, at a discounted price

she chose violin btw...very relevant

and like, to everybody’s surprise--she sort of excelled at both--it almost came naturally, though that didn’t mean she hadn’t put in a buncha effort regardless, y’know

practice makes perfect, yadda yadda

took up a few more instruments for fun, such as piano and like...i dunno, guitar of various forms (including bass guitar) though she likes violin the best

that led to her attending a p prestigious performing arts high school in her city--which wasn’t done by pulling strings

her father worked even more shifts, her sister got a job to help pitch in, they took out loans, yadda yadda. anything they could do so she could pursue this...dream

except...ballet and violin has never been freya’s dream--its just something she happens to be good at

everybody just...assumed, that since she was so talented, she had to want to pursue it

not the case at all, really. she loves it, really, but...her passion has always surrounded animals

specifically marine animals, which is odd considering freya had never seen the ocean before

really...marine anything, she loves. maybe it’s because its something she hasn’t experienced , but ykno

ANYWAYS

she felt sort of...stuck, b/c she never wanted to disappoint her dad or her sister or any of their family friends who were all rootin’ for her

this led to some...rebellion, of sorts, when she was a freshmen

nothing...BAD, per say, but y’know. baseball bats to mailboxes whilst hanging out of the window of a pick-up truck, vandalizing abandoned buildings and historical monuments, shoplifting from convenience stores.

okay so like...a little bad

that was just the crowd she found herself in, y’know, in her teenage angst

has definitely been arrested a few times, but has always managed to get off scotch free ??

it’s luck, im telling u. she only has like..three things on her record rn

ALSO learned how to ride a motorcycle and was in a punk band based in her school n did bass for it, ‘cos that’s what rebellious teenagers do n whatever

and this, well, y’know. did disappoint her father and her sister and all their family friends but at this point freya was like ?? i can’t stop

her boyfriend at the time was a major contributor to her troublemaking tbh

when he transferred to kingswood, freya’s lil 15 yr old heart was broken.

spent her entire sophomore yr working her ass off and getting her shit together so that kingswood would look at her, and pick her, too--

and like...it finally paid off, y’know? her junior year they’d graciously given her a scholarship based off of her music AND academics

so she was absolutely thrilled

granted, she was only able to start attending halfway thru her junior year, at the beginning of the second semester...but she was there, at least, right?

very ecstatic to find her boyfriend and surprise him

they’d been doing long distance, and he had no idea that she had gotten in

found out his dorm number, walked right up to his door--knocked, and he answered with his shirt off n a number of hickeys on his chest

it was a surprise for both of them lmao

obv. freya is not stupid, if not a lil blinded by love at the time. they broke up, she was heartbroken

sorta shut herself in for a few months ‘cos she was so sad abt it

so it’s kinda like she’s still new, tho it’s been a few months since january

but she’s BACK and she’s POPPIN’ and she acts like it still doesn’t bother her !

but like...it does. it rly does. she’s still mcfreakin’ hurt abt it, she’s just handling it in another way

aka, a lil bit of partying...a lil bit of drinking, casual drug use, hooking up, etc. etc. just bein that bitch, y’know?

ANYWAYS

has always had a lil bit of a tomboy aesthetic ?? despite being a freakin’ ballerina, it just not her aesthetic man

constantly wearin’ dark colors n reds and leather jackets n denim on denim n cuffin’ her pants n whatnot

even brought her motorcycle 2 school w/ her

EXCELS at science, wants to become a marine biologist or smth when she’s older

just...hasn’t told anybody that

DON’T B FOOLED BY HER APPEARANCE THO

she’s not some antisocial punk, okay, she’s not anna

very humble but not in a way where u have to be like ‘ugh u have talent u idiot’ , she just doesn’t like bragging about it ?

even tho her ex is an idiot she’s still glad to be there bc of how prestigious kingswood is

 kinda tries 2 befriend as many ppl as possible ?? she isn’t a people pleaser, though, n it’s sort of like...u get what u get, w/ her

she doesn’t act as if she’s got a whole separate life or nothin’, she balances both her rebellious nature and her talents n w/e

fun fact her mother was a leader of elizabeth but like...does she know? no. does it matter? only to ppl like lilah smh

ANYWAYS AGAIN

i’d consider her like....a gryffindor, to sum up her personality ??

very brave, fearless, can be stupidly reckless. gets herself into trouble even now

prolly is a lil bit of a hoe but we love that for her, okay ??

but also ?? will die for her pals ?? n is very true to herself ??

we call her accidentally messy

neutral good tbh ?? very wholesome person

will take care of u if ur sick, is v protective of those she loves

also doesn’t rly....believe in love rn, or is at least very over the concept.

girl next door ?? i dunno

sometimes...she does these bad things...’cos she thinks she deserves it, in a way?

like she’ll drink too much n get a real bad hangover or do a drug when she knows she’ll have a bad trip

so she’s got a lil bit of self loathing

however she knows it’s a problem

she’s just...not willing 2 do much abt it rn

living her best life lmao

ambivert, will go to parties but will also sit in w/ a book gladly

can b v v stubborn, is in debate b/c she loves...to argue, sometimes sksk

m8 i dunno she’s got layers..like an onion

wanted connections

her...ex would be nice, however it’s prolly better suited to send in as a WC unless there’s a dude from chicago out here whose made the mistake of cheatin’

HOWEVER, i would love pals !! friends of any sort !! she’s friendly !! like her !!

ride or die!

unlikely pals!

good influences!

bad influences!

she’s in a band w/ ezra im p sure

i ALSO would like hook ups!

accidental hookups!

casual hookups!

fwbs ?!?

Bad. hookups!

she’s probably accidentally hooked up w/ somebody’s partner so

enemies ! for w/e reason !

rivals!

frenemies!

fake friends !?

everything!

gimme everything !!

[jeanmoreaux]

28. The first book that comes to mind, tell us about it. Rant.

hey!! sorry for my late response, hon! this ask has been sitting in my inbox for close to 2 weeks due to multiple reasons, two of them being my terrible time management and my limited amount of spare time to waste away on tumblr. mainly, though, i just didn’t know what book to rant about bc i feel like if i rant about a book there has to be a good justification as to why this book deserves my bashing. so i tried to think of a rant-worthy book and i came up empty. but then the other day, i walked into a book store, unknowing of the inspiration that would hit me and help me to finally answer this ask. as i made my way through the numerous shelves full of great books, a familiar cover caught my eyes and filled me with abhorrence. the book i am taking about is Adam by Ariel Schrag. 

for all of you who haven’t read this book yet; good, keep it like way. it’s the most utter piece of garbage i have ever laid eyes on. honestly, i have never hated a book with more passion. It’s beyond me why it has a 2.87 star rating on goodreads. apparently, it was initially praised as a revolutionary, subversive queer story, but actually it’s a homophobic, transphobic, racist, and misogynist disaster that is not worth the paper it was printed on. seriously, it physically hurts me to think about how trees had to die for this dumpster fire of a book to exist in physical form in bookshelves around the globe.

i conjecture the author’s intent was to promote the idea that sexuality and gender can be fluid and that love knows no gender, which is in itself a great message, but, oh boy, the execution was just horrendous. worse than anything i have ever seen, and ten time as problematic.

*spoilers ahead*

((my brain tried to erase this book’s content form my memory, so i forgot the names of every character except for the protagonist’s one since his name is in the title lmao)) basically, this story follows this cis boy, adam, who’s nonstop horny and would literally do ANYTHING to get laid, which shows in the questionable decisions he makes throughout the story. he spends his summer at his sister’s apartment in new york. through his sister, who is a lesbian, he comes into contact with various other lgbtq+ individuals, of which some are trans. he meets a cute lesbian at a party, and decides that she is his one true love (yikes), the-girl-of-his-dreams (quite literally! he dreams of her and later meets her at this party and it’s supposed to be an adorable dejà vu kinda thing but it is NOT. it’s just cringy and uncomfortable). he then sets his mind on seducing her. since she’s a lesbian, he decides to pretend to be a trans guy ((like what the fuck, dude????!!!?)) so she’s willing to go on a date with him ((which does not make any fucking sense to me bc she’s still a lesbian and he’s still a guy, but whatever)). in the mean time, his sister has some drama going on that’s quite yikes, if you know what i mean, and there is also a lot of other horrible stuff going on, such as fetishizing various minorities and reinforcing harmful stereotypes, that makes you wanna bury the book somewhere no one will ever be able to find and read it. 

adam keeps telling people he is trans, and is quite proud of his “performance” as he keeps lying to everyone’s faces about being trans. there is a lot of drama happening, but i forgot most of it. what i do remember, though is that eventually adam and the-girl-of-his-dreams start officially dating and, consequently, they start having sex. adam insists that they only have sex in the dark, using his made-up gender dysphoria as an excuse. at first he use a strap-on to keep his masquerade up, but at a later point in the story adam just tells himself “fuck it, i wanna have REAL (uhhhm, wtf as if only penetrative sex is real sex), UNPROTECTED sex with this girl who still doesn’t know i am lying to her about being trans. so i’ll just insert my penis into her vagina without her consent.” i believe he tells her after the fact, and she’s like “i know, it’s chill. i found out that you’re a cis guy a while ago, and what can i say, you’re such an amazing guy i still fell in love with you, despite being a lesbian (!!!!!!!! WTF)”

they keep dating for a few month, and when they break up the girl starts dating an older guy shortly after. suddenly, she isn’t a lesbian anymore (i don’t even think she considers herself bi), and the ending kinda suggests that adam turned her straight, which is hella problematic, to say the least. don’t get me wrong, this change of labels is not intrinsically bad, but the way it is presented in the context of the book suggests that you can “turn people straight” and that being gay is “ a choice” or “a phase” that ends when you meet the right person of the opposite sex. furthermore, the way the characters are crafted and the story is told, Adam also suggests that queer people are annoying assholes whose only defining characteristic is their queerness. this notion of anti-queer character portrayal and conversion is also present in the storyline of adam’s sister.  i think his sister who labelled her lesbian in the beginning turns bi in the end, too, bc she just Can’t™ with lesbians and trans people anymore since their all selfish & self-righteous pricks.

and it’s not like this book judges adam’s actions or critically comments on his bad behavior. there are literally no consequences for adam unless you count the break up as one, which i think you can’t be they still happily dated for a considerable amount of time.

i hope you get the gist of why i loathe this book so much. there is nothing subversive or revolutionary about this sort of portrayal of lqbtq+ issues and characters. the representation & messages contained in this story are damaging as fuck. i have no idea how this book was repeatedly approved of by several instances in the process of publishing and no one in this chain of decision making voiced concerns and was like “i’m sorry but this is a really shitty book”??!!? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE SOMETHING LIKE THIS GETS PUBLISHED??!!? after this massive fuck up, ariel schrag probably can’t ever again publish a story under her name.

frankly, i desperately want to throw Adam into the destructive, all-consuming flames of eternal hell fire so it vanishes into ever-lasting oblivion. 

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 8)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Parts 6 and 7

Read the pages here: Part 8 (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

I personally love exploring character dynamics and character interaction! It's definitely what I tend to focus on in comics and stories. Plus you get to draw lots of closeups of people's faces and have a lot of fun with expressions. And that's what Part 8 is full of.

IN THIS EDITION, after the usual script and thumbnails, I'll take a bit of time to talk about expressions and characterization (my thoughts on Raizen and Hokushin specifically, but also some general thoughts on how I approach writing characters and character interactions). More details of some of the panels from part 8 so you can see the faces better!

Script and thumbnails

(If you look closely at the top of pg 2, you can see the page behind was where I started drawing my random dream sequence hahahah)

It’s always kind of funny to look back at the script and see my rushed typing (or texting on my phone, since I’m often doing this on mobile...) - odd typos and dangling/incomplete thoughts like ”my blodd” (lol).

Part 8 was one of the first sequences conceived in the development of this story. As a result, the script and the thumbnails both line up very closely to the final, because I’d already been thinking about it for so long and playing the scene out repeatedly in my head. I had a very concrete sense of how I wanted to direct it, unlike many of the action sequences from previous parts. The main areas I struggled with were historical details (the karaginu was originally labelled “tarp” in the script as a placeholder until I decided what it would be), and the biggest pagination change was probably moving Raizen’s “Maybe you just didn’t take enough off lol!” to the previous page so that Hokushin’s (literal) punchline would be at the beginning of the next.

Expressions

I have a huuuuge soft spot for subtle expressions - the kind where just a bit of extra line or texture around the eyes or the mouth, plus the dialogue or context of the scene, adds nuance to an expression. Especially ones that otherwise can read as relatively neutral. Even a very simple expression that’s just dots for eyes and straight lines for the upper/lower lids and eyebrows can have a lot of variation in how you interpret them, simply based on context and slight adjustments. Here are some examples with Raizen, where his face is super basic:

A: pretending nothing is wrong, calmly answering question

B: pleased with self for being smart - clearly a happer expression than A

C: similar to A, chillaxing and answering question

D: no big smiling mouth so he looks more like he’s focused on intensely sniffing the air

E: same as B basically, but a bigger smile of “everything’s fine!” (when you read the text)

F: extra thickness for his upper lid gives the sense that he’s in the middle of his casual sexy/chivalrous how ya doin’ expression

G: ... which changes in this panel to be more a realization (“oh shit I’m on fire”)

Actually, Raizen and Hokushin are both pretty difficult face types for me, being more “mature” looking male faces with stronger features/jawlines and narrower eyes. Hokushin especially has been challenging because his design has really low eyebrows which result in a default glare. Togashi still manages to make him fairly expressive and not look like he's glowering all the time. With my more limited art skill and lack of confidence, I tend to soften his expressions by really laying on the top line of his eye (this sounds like I'm putting mascara on him or something lmao), and also adjusting the size of his pupils (within reason or it starts to look even less like how I draw him normally, which is a big problem since his shaved head is a defining aspect of his series character design so he already looks pretty different). Here are some comparisons of his face - bearing in mind I had to keep his eyes wide open because of the seals in the story:   

A: crying/relief

B: this one here is supposed to be a bit miserable/self-loathing because he really didn’t think Raizen was going to look for him

C: shock, unexpected

D: thinking + ���ugh plan B”

E: worried/apologetic and then “OOF/URK”

F and G: a progression to show the differences in rendering the eye. First is a bit angry because he’s realizing where all the blood for the seals came from, then he notices Raizen’s hands, and G is that example of softened expression (more lines on the top eye, larger pupil) to show how bad he feels about Raizen’s injury. 

One last thought on expressions. They can easily lose their nuance when inking (the slightest shift to a line can change the expression completely), and especially for someone like me who has unsteady hands it can be a bit of a nightmare. The nice thing about ballpoints is that they can retain a bit of the pencil sketch quality, which helped me freak out less when inking the last page with Hokushin’s glare. Here’s a comparison of the progress:

Though this particular expression isn’t that subtle, you can still see some differences as the drawing gets built up. When the pencil lines are gone and the drawing gets rendered in bw only, a lot of shading is lost. The messy lines can be interpreted more flexibly by your brain since they’re less defined and you haven’t “committed”, so the final version looks and feels less expressive. (This is why a lot of artists prefer their sketches to the finished piece, myself included...) Characterization This will get very specific to this comic, obviously, but hopefully my approach (and biases haha) will come through. With something like a fancomic, there are obviously existing expectations around the characters, but the benefit of working with these guys is that they’re not as prominent in the story or the fandom, so I feel more comfortable playing around and filling in the gaps. (This is probably why I like minor characters so much.)

In the case of Raizen and Hokushin, we know these two have a close relationship and history only through assumption and insinuation. We never see them interacting directly in the series at all. Actually, we don't see Raizen interact with anyone except Yusuke in non-flashback sequences (aside from the kudakusushi. In the anime, more scenes were added with his estranged friends, mostly their fond memories of him beating them up lmao). But it's very clear that they're extremely important to each other. Hokushin obviously speaks of his king in an exceedingly respectful fashion. Meanwhile, Hokushin is actually the last name Raizen says before he dies - his second last line, to Yusuke, is "Take care of Hokushin and the others" - or in my Taiwanese edition, "I leave Hokushin and the others to you". (Lol “the others”. Also I need to draw a comic about this at some point.) Despite this zero actual interaction, it's still extremely easy to imagine it because their characters are so clearly defined. In fact, they're both such consistent archetypes with enough particular quirks that they practically write themselves. So it wasn't difficult to extrapolate and imagine much younger versions of them, and how they may have interacted if they had only just met, which is the foundation of North Bound. Archetypes and stereotypes walk a fine line together, but they do serve as really useful building blocks for sketching characters quickly. This is why I really enjoy symbolic systems like astrology (or some of the the modern incarnations - personality assessment frameworks) because of all the character sketching it helps you do really quickly. Astrology in particular because, without even caring about birth dates or charts or whether astrology is "real" or not, the basic idea of a sign and its bucket of traits and symbols is simply a great resource when you want fleshed out character archetypes to build off of. I talked a bit about this in my Lenormand post, but I think of zodiac signs as one of the many games humans have developed in our attempts to categorize our world into recognizable patterns, and since we've been at it for thousands of years, there's a wealth of reference material, scenarios, analyses not only of the individual archetypes, but for all sorts of combinations and relationships. Some of it very well-thought out, and some of it just lots of fun to read. For my purposes, applying this to North Bound, Raizen is basically a Leo. He's dramatic, positive, powerful, passionate, a straight-shooter. Not only does he embody its main traits, he's literally a king (or eventually one in this story, I guess). And he even has a mane, for crying out loud. Meanwhile, Hokushin is a solid depiction of a quintessential Virgo - hardworking, practical, analytical, stoic, kind - and literally the loyal servant that typifies the Virgo paradigm. The Leo/Virgo duo is a classic partnership, and at the point where we meet them in the series, the relationship we can see has stabilized to exactly that. At the same time, there's tons of potential for a hilarious dynamic as well, especially imagining how they got to that point. (If you wanna have a laugh, look up some analyses of Leo and Virgo relationships and you'll see what I mean.) His freakouts next to Raizen's "hahhaa everything's fine!" carry most of the humour (similar to how his freakout at Yusuke's vandalism of the rurimaru stones carried a ton of the humour in that episode lol). Obviously there are other things that further finetune their characters so that they're more than bland cookie cutter personalities (Raizen's deep thinking about the future of the Demon World, for example, and Hokushin's sense of humour and appreciation/enjoyment of fighting), but in broad brushstrokes, these archetypes work incredibly well, and make it so easy to come up with scenarios and write interaction to the point that I'm now ridiculously behind in actually turning them into comics ahhhhh...

[suggers-got-dingled]

ok so I know it's been two whole days and everyone's probably ~~over~~  the buzz by now but I never will be until my dying day and I still have many feelings that keep bursting out in sudden rushes of weeping, smiling emotion every time I think about and look at my photos from the TV choice awards so whilst I'm finally feeling more human yet shattered and still in my bubble of happiness and daze and joy and laughter that seems to treble in potency late at night I'm here to relive the best moments from 4th September 2017 which is now officially declared National Ryan Hawley Day by his number one fan and tv husband Daniel Benedict Miller *deep breath* here we go...

getting off the Leeds to London train to find out Iain, Sally, Charlotte and John were also on it and we were completely oblivious to the fact we were sharing the same enclosed air as soap's best loved cast and most loathed man lmao (honestly we should have known from then on that it was going to be the most momentous day?!????)

seeing Iain once again as he walks past and ignores a group of very bitter robron fans whilst everyone tries their best to hold back with a couple of oooh's here and there, awkward tension that you could literally cut with a knife and comment of the night "can we all hush because he won't give us robron back at all" WHAT IS THIS TUMULTUOUS LIFE I LIVE I HIGH KEY WANTED TO LEAVE EARTH

the same very bitter robron fans forgetting about any foregoing drama, gathering together both in person and online to love and appreciate and support our boys. Meeting fans we'd spoke to for months (even years) for the first time and instantly connecting because of our mutual passion. It was just so pure???? and lovely??? and comfortable???? how happy and delighted and wrapped up in dryan we all were sat on those cold, hard floors cuddling for warmth, bonding and crying over how kind everyone was being as we posted our photos. It was one of - if not my favourite - times in the fandom (aside from the soap awards) and it made me realise why we're all still here on this rollercoaster journey

all being in a designated group waiting in anticipation for Danny and Ryan content as well as their arrival on the red carpet and making the loudest most inhumane noise as soon as the first photo was released, to say all eyes on us was an understatement IT WAS GR8

getting the news of more photos and videos and interviews and articles and reacting together it just made the experience so!! much!! more!!! special!!!

 chatting with Kate Oates for a good few minutes and her giving an awkward side eyed chuckle as we tell her we miss her and need her back HONESTLY she is such a babe and I think she just about gets our current despair lmao bless

completely missing Danny and Ryan rolling up looking a solid 12/10 as they dive straight in the door and feeling deflated but also on top of the world (pretty sure my only view was Ryan's blonde locks sticking out from the crowd of heads and I have never felt more fortunate)

deciding to sit round the front in the dark and wait for any signs of the boys whilst contemplating how and why this god damn ceremony won't just start and it ending up being THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DECISION OF ALL DECISIONS

some random man asking if we're waiting for Danny Miller because he sensed 'that vibe' I don't think I've ever related to a passer by so much in my life it was amazing 

seeing Danny first (of course, how many times does that boy want to take a cig break outside?!?!) him casually strolling over to us after he'd dealt with the sought attention on the other side whilst we're all must remain cool and collected, must try and not transport my thoughts from my brain to my mouth about how much I want to rip that suit without a tie off him and ruffle his perfect hair

him being the sarciest little shit??? "you travel about you lot don't you" were the very first words to come out of his mouth and I'm just??? thanks Danny for reminding me what a high key mess my life is it's all because of you I hope you know that!!

him saying he'd record Ryan's speech before the knowledge of him winning was actually in (LOL HE SO KNEW AND I'VE NEVER KNOWN SOMEONE BE SUCH AN ENTHUSIASTIC FANGIRL FOR RYAN HAWLEY I WOULD HAVE SOLD MY SOUL TO SEE HIS NERVOUS BEAMING LIL FACE THE MOMENT HIS NAME WAS ANNOUNCED)

Danny saying Ryan said he'd come out to see us later and us being all *insert everybody calm down it's happening gif here*

THE MOMENT WE FOUND OUT RYAN HAD INDEED WON BEST ACTOR AND NOW BOTH OUR BOYS WERE AWARD WINNING ACTORS there were genuine tears of merriment with hands clasped over faces it was a beautiful sight to behold and I've never been as ecstatic  

Danny coming out (again) once the show was over and Emmerdale had smashed yet another award show, us applauding from a distance and Danny cheering with us from the other side of the road

us getting told to be quiet by the security for the hundredth time that night

 then the biggest blur of the century occurring almost immediately afterwards as Danny tells us he's gonna bring the winning man out to us not even giving us chance to compose ourselves

A WILD RYAN HAWLEY APPEARS WITH THE BIGGEST GRIN ON HIS FACE CLUTCHING HIS SHINY AWARD AND MY LUNGS NEARLY GIVE IN

DANNY FOLLOWS RIGHT BEHIND HIM LOOKING SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY AND PROUD OF HIM HE WAS ON THE BIGGEST HIGH AND I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM LIKE THAT EVEN WHEN HE'S WON HIMSELF, HE HAS SO MUCH SUPPORT AND LOVE FOR HIS CO STARS IT'S SO UPLIFTING

RYAN'S FACE AS HE HEADED TOWARDS TO US WHEN HE TURNED HIS HEAD AND SAW US ALL THERE I'M LITERALLY NEVER GETTING OVER IT him straight away asking us if we'd voted, thanking us for doing so whilst telling us how much winning means to him with his dedicated adorable speech. Him saying he thought John would win and being totally shocked, he genuinely never expected it all and he was so grateful and appreciative as everyone was congratulating him and singing our proud praises WHY IS HE SO FUCKING LIFE RUININGLY LOVEABLE AND ADORABLE AND MODEST HE'S THE CUTEST ANGEL I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIS SMILE AND HIS SWEET WORDS

Ryan just melting my heart to mush and reminding me why I hold so much admiration for him I'm just so honoured to have seen him right after his win and so unbelievably pleased we could show him outright the love he deserves and has instead of hearing it from second person IT WAS SO CHILLED AND SO PLEASANT TO SEE RYAN SO RELAXED MEETING US I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN HIM SO AT EASE AT A TIME WHEN HE ACTUALLY LEAVES HIS HOUSE (the drinks and Danny’s company probably helped)

DANNY JUST STANDING BACK AND LETTING RYAN DO HIS THING AS HE PRACTICALLY PUSHES HIM TOWARDS US EMOTIONAL AWAITING FANS I'm getting flutters in my tummy typing this out why am I like this why do they do this to me like???? what the fuck??? he just started filming randomly after he purposely went inside to bring him out and let him know there's plenty of people who are proud of him??? like he needed to witness him all there with us and he came out with him as backup because he wanted to record the moment we all gave him double the love he gives him on a daily basis I will never ever ever ever recover from this HOW WILL IT SINK IN HELP ME

us being completely unaware that Danny was filming at first and then just being in a state of belief about it, after we found out it was on Instagram and watched it back it was meltdown I tell you I have never been so thankful to be hidden behind a bush LMAO WILL I EVER GET OVER DANNY GLADLY EXPOSING US ALL AND CAPTURING THE FOCUS OF MY FRIEND JADE AND HER LIL CONFUSED WAVE NO I WILL NOT IT MAKES MY LIFE LIKE YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE

Danny getting us into trouble by the security for the third time that night and him just howling about the fact whilst carrying on filming despite the professional demands HE'S JUST WALKING AROUND FILMING HIS KING WHY THEY GOTTA RUIN THE VIBE IDC IF PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING RYAN HAWLEY AND DANNY MILLER ARE WITHIN REACHING DISTANCE IN THE SAME ZONE LET US ENJOY THE EUPHORIA

Danny being a cheeky, playful little shit 2.0 "where's that video going then" "never you mind" *smug smile and wink* "you so knew Ryan had won didn't you that's why you said you'd film the iconic moment for us???" "oh I can’t tell you that can I" *another smug smile and wink* I LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY HEART

A DRYAN PHOTO MY FUCKING DREAM COME TRUE I WAS SHOOKETH TO THE CORE I STILL AM I CAN'T STOP WEEPING OVER IT EVERY TIME I CATCH A GLIMPSE OF MY LOCK SCREEN

explaining what being shooketh is to Danny and hearing that word from the horse's mouth what a weird encounter

ridiculously happy Ryan Hawley holding his award up in every single photo like a proud child receiving their first medal with a school sticker smile IT'S ALL I NEED IN LIFE HE'S SO PRECIOUS

Ryan still finding the time to be the caring dad being concerned about how fans are going to get home, introducing himself with a handshake and reassuring them with a "don't be nervous" I was all awwwww'd out it's just sheer lunacy I can't cope with him

DANNY COMPLAINING ABOUT GIN AND TONIC BEING £20 SAYING RYAN CAN GET THE DRINKS IN SEEN AS HE WON AND DIRECTING HIS NEED TO GET WRECKED IN RYAN'S INFLUENCED AND BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS AURA "let's go get fucked" - that both ends my life and resurrects me every time it crosses my mind p l e a s e

us being all I LOVE ROBRON, hugging and just genuinely being inconsolable after the power duo said bye and headed off to enjoy the party together like there's so many mixed up memories it was that overwhelming and surreal I think I'm still in the midst of a dryan hangover

walking round London at midnight on autopilot and a delusional bubble just going through the motions breathless with no idea where we are or what we're doing, not even looking when crossing the road, nearly getting run over and not even caring because if we died right there and then we'd die at peak levels of happiness

heading back on a 5hr megabus journey just absolutely shook to the core, recapping and waking up from two hours of broken sleep turning to each other and being like OH MY GOD WE ACTUALLY GOT A PICTURE WITH DANNY AND RYAN

I ended up walking through Leeds at gone 6am in the pissing down rain, my onesie and no makeup but it was well worth it to see Emmerdale sweep the board clean and the two men I owe my life to TOGETHER! IN! THE! FLESH! Honestly I wish I could bottle up the moments and the feelings and just dish it out for everyone to experience because literally nothing compared.

I really do have such an overwhelming amount of love for Danny and Ryan and I'm about to cry again like wow they are just too cute I've never seen a friendship so heartwarming, two people being so loving and tender and supportive towards each other in real life whilst being in a constant cycle of snogging, fighting, problem facing, soul consuming and devoting deeply onscreen. I'm still in disbelief I can't even concentrate on reality nothing else matters but them those two married tv husbands and I don't think I'll ever love anyone more. I was just here living a normal, basic life being a normal, basic human being and then dryan came along and changed everything hehehehe the pain. Seriously, Emmerdale has destroyed every particle of my sanity lately but it's times like this when it hits me that there's no denying they own my ass completely EVEN ON MY DEATH BED THE EVENING OF THE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2017 WILL STILL BE THE LAST I SPEAK OF DESPITE THE REST OF MY DIRE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LIFE EVENTS CONTINUING AS I GROW OLD

[lilacsoutofthedeadland]

TR+HP Massive Fic Rec List

EDIT: Looks like this will be constantly updated whenever I see fit. ;U;

Before going through this, I want to address that anyone looking through this list should expect some really dark ideas/imagery, etc. Considering the pairing(s) we are dealing with, this should come as really no surprise. Most of these works will already be appropriately tagged for readers (by the original authors) to avoid anything they’re uncomfortable with, so keep an eye out and read things carefully. I think I only needed to really give a warning about one fic rec, so generally things should be fine.

LAST UPDATED: 04/09/2017

Note: Mostly alphabetical by author…If you see the same author listed several times, that’s a sign you should definitely check them out. These are only some of my most favorite fics and/or really good fic concepts, meaning that if you check the author’s other works, you might find other amazing works that I have neglected to mention. Warning for possible spoilers…I get…‘passionate’ about really great scenes, though I don’t think I outright spoil in great detail, any of the actual endings of longer fics. Anyway, happy browsing!

Mostly Tomarry, but there may be a few stray HarryMorts or other Harry+Tom+Horcrux+Voldy varieties. Straight-up smut is rare here, but occasional. Smut may be included in the fics, but not as the focus.

Going through this WILL take a while, especially with the longer fics, so I recommend taking your time, maybe relaxing with some tea or something. Have fun.

My reviews range from somewhat intellectual to just plain memespeak/swearing, to a mix of both. I will apologize in advance.

*******

ao3 links

Completed:

In Somno Veritas by ansketil, ladyoflilacs (I bookmarked it, and remembered it being quite good? It’s Voldemort/Harry, rather than Tomarry.) 

I Have Seen Your Heart by Arliene (This is exceptional. Instead of Harry being the one to brave the past, it’s Tom arriving in the future, although Harry’s perspective is more of the focus. DAT ENDING. TOTAL MINDFUCK. Last three letters of this fic: “TBC.” I AM SHOOK. )

and all I could hear was your pulse by belatrix (Very haunting and gorgeous.)

The Coffee Shop AU by BigJellyMonster (Short, sweet, and really cute!! Barista!Harry and author!Tom. I love oblivious!Harry and Tom making Harry his muse.)

Love Potion Disaster by BigJellyMonster (Really cute!! Exactly what you expect after reading the title.)

Petrified by BigJellyMonster (OK. BUT WOW, that ending! I had to reread that last line because damn, did it take me off guard.)

The Soul of a Statue by BigJellyMonster (I am a sucker for Greek mythology, and Pygmalion and Galatea was one of my favorites from an early age. Still is a favorite, in fact.)

Icarus by budchick (I really loved this one. The summary is precious. Tom’s father actually has a big role in this one~ So good!)

All For Show by cannibalinc (Harrymort. Whoo boy, this was incredibly intriguing. Very political. Lmao at Dumbledore’s portrait in Chapter 4. Also, poor Draco.) 

Ozymandias by chocowilliams (Ah, I love the title. And this fic is beautiful, sad, and creepy. That ending, wow.)

Drowned piano by Clarisse (transnymphtaire) (This is really pretty and haunting. From Tom’s perspective. Master of Death!Harry is beautiful and creepy. Love the imagery and tone of this.)

Lies by Clarisse (transnymphtaire) (A Soulmate!AU, though instead of the usual fare, it is lies that appear on the skin. Pretty dark in a beautiful way. Tom isn’t the one doing the damage this time, luckily. Time and place for that in other fics, haha.)

A Lesson in Defense by thecrimsonmonarch (Time Travel. Professor!Harry Charmingly awkward, embarrassed Harry trying to flee the advances of a student. *Gasp* how scandalous! Tom is so thirsty in the end. Boy needs Jesus.)

You’re a Parasitic Psycho Filthy Creature Finger-Banging My Heart by Cryptkeeper (orphan_account) (Damn, that title tho. One of the rare smuts in this rec list. The separating?? images are really cute and I aspire to grow up and look half as cute as some ghosts with skulls, flowers, candles, and incense sticks.)

Try series by d_aia (This is just a really great series. I recommend this.)

Don’t Trust Me by DeeDee (I’m pretty sure I saw flayu’s fanart of this fic floating around somewhere. Both the art and this fic are great.)

A Visit to Wool’s by Durrant (Short and sweet. Time travel at a young age. Tom is still in character, and it’s a very cute fic.)

Dream Boy by Evandar (Sin. Well-written sin. Dark and seductive.)

Butterfly Heart by The_Fictionist (I’m sure everyone and their pet cat knows who this author is, btw. This is a beautiful Hannibal-inspired fic. If you enjoy Hannigram and Tomarry, you will be extremely satisfied. Haunting, gorgeous, and captivating.)

The Circus of Riddles by The_Fictionist (I’m going to say this phrase/variations of it a lot, but I have a weakness for ‘blank.’ In this case, stories of the fey. This fic is exactly what I want out of a story like this. Excellent.)

Impressing Professor Potter by The_Fictionist (Damn, Tom is thirsty as heck and is one smooth mofo in this fic. Poor Harry does not stand a chance. my boi tommy you need jesus.)

Kisses Cursed series by Lydia_Theda, The_Fictionist (Damn, some of you are making it hard for me to arrange this alphabetically, but whatever it’s all good. Beauty and the Beast, Tomarry style, with some other works~)

Love’s Loathing by The_Fictionist (Damn, The_Fictionist, back at it again with the great fics. I’m so sorry for this stupid meme, end me. The summary on ao3 will basically give you the clearest message of the plot than anything I could ever write about this amazing work.)

in death we seek devotion by flat_teeth (onetrickpony) (A very dark Soul Mate!AU. Beautiful.)

falling slowly series by Flufferdoodle (This was a very good series. The first part was really well-written, while the second really gave me feels.)

Broom Closet by IsysSkeeter (Short and sweet. The ending from Tom’s perspective is amazing, my god.)

The Closing Of The Year by kcstories (The summary alone is amazing. A very interesting read with a focus on Albus Severus Potter’s take on Tomarry, and getting used to living with Tom.)

The Locket by ladydea (Holy smokes this is fine smut.)

Lucifer by leontina (Leontina) (Short and sweet, at least in comparison to some of the monsters in this list. Interesting, and I love the beginning! You’ll see why when you read the summary…)

Target by LittleMissXanda (Hitmen!Tomarry. Harry is accidentally assigned to Tom-it’s not his policy to attack other hitmen-and sneaks away before Tom could notice him…or so he thinks…)

An I for an I by lordmarvoloriddle (WOW. This was amazing. Harry doesn’t actually go to the past, in this one. It’s really, really good. Gorgeous. I have no words.)

Father figure by lordmarvoloriddle (Whoa, man. Poor Ginny, but at the same time, get rekt. Very hot. Dat ending. Why are there so many excellent endings?)

Lest You Are My Enemy by Maeglin_Yedi (One of the first fics I’ve read. Just realllllly well-written and gorgeous. God, Tom is just really charming and deceptive and seductive. I feel like I should go to straight to hell after reading this. Welp. It was well worth it and I don’t regret a thing.)

The Soul Adores by Maeglin_Yedi (I remember this fic being really good. Some Snape/Harry and the three of them together, as well, in addition to the standard Tomarry we come to expect and love.)

Voice in the Walls by MalignSensualist (Harry starts to hear things. Mature Tomarry with praise kink and some Voldemort.)

Don’t Fuck With Florists (They’ll Fuck You Up) by MayMarlow (What do I love? Time travel. Master of Death!Harry. Flowers. That’s all in here. Harry tries to convince Tom that being Dark Lord isn’t the way to go, and that politics are where it’s at. I adore this fic. Not to mention that there is gorgeous art by talented artists.)

Thy Pyrrhic Victories by MayMarlow (I love Alice in Wonderland-inspired works. Victorian literature generally interests me. I happily downloaded it, seeing that unlike the other fics on this list, this one is not actually readable on the site. The way this fic is presented is just creative and wonderful. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with some of the roles the characters take…)

Everything’s Fine in the Beast Division by Merrinpippy (This is part of the Tomarry Valentine Exchange. This has great characterization, and has the cast of Fantastic Beasts. Also has Tom giving Harry the locket. I am a complete sucker for fics where Tom gives Harry the locket and/or ring. I cannot reiterate that enough.)

Thank you Shakespeare by Merrinpippy (First, I love the Shakespeare references. Second, I loved Harry and Tom’s interactions. Just wow.)

To Be Set Free by Merrinpippy (I remember reading this and always anticipating the next updates. This is a Cinderella AU. The HP universe really lends itself well to things like this, though it also really helps that this was written very well, haha. Just read it. I have no more I can say.)

Gilgamesh by Morgan Steelgrave (m_steelgrave) (This one is pretty different from most time travels. Heavily-focused on Tom…and you’ll find out why once you read it. Very hauntingly beautiful.)

All The World by Nillen (This is really, really good! Tom is a detective. There is a really crazy twist. I had this bookmarked, but apparently it did not show up when I was looking through them? I’m really glad I remembered it by myself!)

The Fragrance of a Moon Orchid by nuttyasafruitcake (Soulmate!AU with a twist. When you meet your soulmate, you gain the sense of smell. I adore the descriptions of the flowers in this fic.)

Haunted and Hunted series by ObsidianPen (This is extremely excellent. I’m sure many people have already read this by now. Some minor Drarry, moreso Draco crushing on Harry, which Voldy is incredibly quick to try to eradicate. This series pretty much made me fall in love with piano-playing!Harry. Locket was my bae…)

Simple Request by AnOrcaLullaby (Harry’s era!AU with no Voldemort. Tom wants Harry to pretend to be his fiancé…)

To Kill You With a Kiss by Paimpont (I think a lot of people rec this…? With good reason. I vaguely remember something like that…or I’ve finally gone insane. It’s really good. Nothing more needs to be said. Tom is a professor. Take that, Dumbles.)

The Dream Eater by partofforever (Art and horror. My fam. God, this was beautifully creepy. OH SHIT THAT END. Btw, this author has more fics in their native language, for you lucky people who can read them~)

Forget Me Not by partofforever (I remember reading this a while ago. I also remember it was incredibly beautiful.)

The Journal of a Young Clerk by partofforever (Sad, but it ends happily. Soulmate!AU where you stay eighteen years old until you find your other half.)

The Swan Prince by partofforever (Ballet!AU. Memory loss.)

The Three Roses by partofforever (This was beautiful but IT MADE ME REALLY SAD. I don’t regret it in the slightest, however.)

Winter, spring, summer, autumn… and winter again series by partofforever (I read this some time before, but I do remember it was pretty cute. Very pleasant and pretty imagery. Also, like many Tomarrys, time travel shenanigans, though less emphasis on the shenanigans part. Interesting and profound. A lovely read.)

Try by ponnu (Short, sweet, and not happy. This isn’t your standard Harry-goes-back-in-time-and-things-mostly-work-out type of fic. AT ALL. Very interesting.)

Pianissimo by Apuzzlingprince (Harry’s kindness and compassion usually serve him well in many Tomarry fics. WELP. NOT IN HERE. Very dark, but definitely lovely.)

We’re going to be beautiful, Harry by Apuzzlingprince (Ohohoho. A reeeally nice soul mate one. Tom is reaaaaally darkly possessive towards the end. Whew!)   

The Perfect Murder by QuillOfFortune (The title and summary alone are simply amazing. Just read it. Starts out as shenanigans, but then gets much, much darker.)

How’s the weather (am I better) by RenderedReversed (Not into a/b/o, but this is written extremely well and focuses more on Tom and Harry’s relationship than actual physicality, which is pretty rare in most a/b/os. Lots of feels. I love how Harry was so convinced Tom would abandon him, and that Tom proved him wrong. Also, I love how protective Absol was. And Harry’s Altaria made me think of my first shiny Pokémon-Swablu, who I evolved into an Altaria in my Pokémon Ruby game. Nostalgia.)

Thomas Riddle and the Lamb of Dreams by RenderedReversed (This was a very interesting AU! Harry is a god here, specifically the God of Dreams, and Tom is his “champion.”)

Underneath the Boughs of an Elder Tree by RenderedReversed (I’m a sucker for fairy tales, The Tale of the Three Brothers, and wandmaker!Harry. This fic just happens to have all of those elements. Love the ending and closing line.)

Vernal Equinox by RenderedReversed (…The simple reason I didn’t get into Miraculous Ladybug was because I personally didn’t like her costume sorry not sorry I am very particular about my superhero costumes but the OTP is cute so I’m the only one depriving myself, but damn. You read this fic, and just go from…intrigued…’wait, wat,’ to ‘!!!’ This is a Soulmate AU+ ‘Dark’ Superhero AU. You’ll be very surprised at finding out what side people are on. This is a oneshot, but you can’t help but wonder about everything. It really works well as a standalone work, but the potential for so much drama and blood and betrayal… Oh god, and the ending.)

Bad Reputation by rightonthelimit (Role Reversal~ Very nice. Based on fanart.)

Can’t Get Enough by rightonthelimit (Holymoly, this is some fine quality smut.)

Counting Bodies Like Sheep by rightonthelimit (oh snap. Zombies, man. ALSO WHY DO SOME OF THESE TOMARRYS HAVE SUCH MINDFUCKERY ENDINGS. BEAUTIFUL. WOULD READ AND/OR HAVE READ AGAIN.)

Little Lion Man by rightonthelimit (Also based on fanart. Detective!Tom and Psycho!Harry. Very good!)

Running Up That Hill by rightonthelimit (Deaf!Tom, and heroic Harry. Draco and Gang are bullies. OH SHIT DAT TWIST AT THE END. Probably one of my favorite modern!au’s.)

Say Something series by rightonthelimit (Basically sin. Features Tom as Harry’s stepdad. Infidelity and a whole lot of other things. Some Cedric/Harry, though Tom does not stand for it for too long.)

Secrets by rightonthelimit (A fic where Tom is working at Borgin and Burkes and it escalates into some explicitness against the counter and Tom smugly thinking Borgin would be appalled by the actions taking place on said counter. Very good and a realistic ending.)

Stripped by rightonthelimit (Very fine smut. Consensual somnophilia.)

of demons and mortals by seulo (This is beautiful crack. It’s straight up hilarious. Our usually terrifying Dark Lord is a harmless knitted doll. Nice ending and the mention of Draco’s role in this, at the end, made me laugh in the ugliest of ways.)

Kismet by SweetSorcery (Egyptologist!Tom and curse breaker!Harry. Noice.)

The Love of a Good Wizard by SweetSorcery (I think this is another one I’ve seen recced frequently?? Pansy is time traveling with Harry, this time.)

Set the Sails (and don’t look back) by Terrific_Lunacy (Pirate!Au with physician!Harry and pirate captain!Tom. HARRY IS A COMPLETE BADASS. THAT’S IT EVERYONE ELSE CAN GO HOME. WE DON’T NEED YOU. HE’S NOBLE AND CARING BUT SNARKY AND IRREVERENT TO TOM AT THE SAME TIME. THIS YOUNG MAN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT DEATH AND GIVES ABSOLUTELY NO FLYING FUCKS. I want to grow up to be just like him. Man, is he a hardass. Also there are hints of him being some kind of otherworldly/ethereal being, or at least half? Ooh.)

The Hekan ritual by Titels (Demon!Tom, Exorcist!Harry.)

love is touching souls (surely you touched mine) by ToAStranger (This fic has a special place in my heart. I. Just. Wow. When I finished reading it for the first time, I was really moved. It’s so beautiful. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come back to read this fic. The fingers on both of my hands are not enough…I am not exaggerating. I love how Tom is presented as excessively charming but still unrepentantly evil, yet salvageable…gah. If I wasn’t on the aromantic side of the ace spectrum, I’d have a crush on both how he and Harry are portrayed in this fic. Precious, kind, strong, righteous Harry. Probably my most favorite characterization of the two of them, ever?? Read it.)

For the Good of Us All by toomanysunkenships (A very great Time-Travel fic.)

Fowl Pals by Watermelonsmellinfellon (I really enjoyed this one. The title basically sums up the fic, so none of my blathering nonsense is necessary.)

Ice Cream Stalker by Watermelonsmellinfellon (This was incredibly adorable. Again, the author is good at titles so I have no need to explain.)

Moments in Time by Watermelonsmellinfellon (Read this a while ago. I remember it being very good. M-preg at the end, not usually my thing, but DAMN I WAS JUST HAPPY THINGS ENDED WELL. THEY DESERVE IT.)

Póthosca by Watermelonsmellinfellon (I AM WEAK TO THIS ONE. A creature similar to boggart shows up, showing one’s deepest desire. Imagine the SHENANIGANS. Or you know, just read the fic.)

Backslash by wynnebat (This was really good!! Tom and Harry at Borgin and Burkes.)

Through My Veins by xxTwasADreamxx (Look me straight in the eye without blinking and tell me that its summary doesn’t sound at least a bit intriguing to you.)

The Gardens of Riddle Manor by VanillaGhost (Rapunzel/Beauty and the Beast fairytale-inspired. This one was absolutely gorgeous. Read it.)

My Name is Tom by VanillaGhost (HelpthisissogoodI’mdying. Android!Tom. The Golden Trio’s act of kindness backfires like you cannot even believe. Disturbing and pushing the limits of the Uncanny Valley. It’s gorgeous and has lovely art.)

***

In-Progress/Incomplete:

Hem of Your Garment by adVENTitiious (I really adore this one. One of the first time travels I’ve read. Really good!)

Macchiato by aquilagrey (This one is really adorable! Barista!Harry and CEO!Tom!!! Their interactions are very cute and in character! Luna is also here being cute! Why is this fic so cute?? )

Chasing The Careless Traveller by Arliene (THIS IS SO GOOD. Time travel, like one would expect. BUT. Wow. The inclusion of Blaise as a companion of Harry’s is something new and fresh. So good!)

Whirlpools series by asterismal (asterisms) (Very promising series, at currently one fic. Poor Tom, but damn, Harry’s thoughts in the closing lines are phenomenal.)

Moments by BigJellyMonster (So good so far. Lovely imagery within some dreams.)

Trapped Away From Sea by BigJellyMonster (Ohohohoho. Merman!Harry. This is based on the Little Mermaid AND Killing Stalking. …Judging by that, you know it’s gonna be good. DAT CLIFFHANGER. I also love the language barrier. And boy, do I love how unlike the readers, poor Harry has no idea that this particular human is more of a predator than any shark in the ocean.)

Consulting Dark Lord by Chess+Wraith (Tom the consulting detective. Partner Snape. And Harry…whoa. Very promising. Tom and Harry are so close to meeting, dammit.)

Times of Peace series by conquerorofheaven (This is some pretty good stuff. Time travel with Harry becoming the new DADA instructor or something of that nature. Very possessive Tom, which let’s face it, is probably a thing 99.8% of us like for this pairing.)

How to prevent a War by CrazyJanaCat (Read this some time ago. Actually my first bookmark for this pairing! I remember some really great scenes/ideas.)

The Root of All Evil Is Love by Crystia (This is so pure. I think I stumbled upon this fc because of a certain fanartist~ The summary is concise, but hilarious. Oh Harry, my sweet child you always have the worst luck, but that’s pretty much canon.)

The Portrait by DariaSilver (This is really, really beautiful. Tom and Voldy are portraits. Slight Drarry. Why is Tom so charming? I cry knowing this isn’t finished. The only thing giving me hope in humanity is that in some alternate universe, this fic is complete. Rest in fucking pieces.)

The Divine Right of Kings series by darklordtomarry (das_omen) (I’m surprised I haven’t found this series sooner! Grey!Harry that is incredibly interesting…and an information broker! The plot is concerned with slight au…focusing on royalty and politics. The plot, as well as character interactions and relationships are quite intriguing, particularly within Harry’s family. Also, the James and Sirius bromance is hilarious, especially regarding the scene in the very first chapter of the first fic that caused the nearby Draco to run away.)

Lord of Time by DebsTheSlytherinSnapeFan (I think I remember some really good ideas from this. It’s been a while since I first read through it, so I don’t think I can give it the summary it deserves. Luckily it’s very lengthy if you find yourself enjoying it. You probably will. A very interesting time travel fic with an epic length, drama, and a lot of consideration put into the time period it takes place in.)

Looking Ahead by dinopire (Art Student!Tom, Photography Student/Model!Harry. Jesus I really like this one. A whole a lot of potential!! What is here so far is reaaaallly wonderful!!)

The Wand Chooses by DreamerEye (Very interesting concept. Wandmaker!Harry.)

Dance with the Devil by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33) (One of my slightly more recent loves. Harry with a Horcrux!Tom and Voldemort. Harry is amusing. Very promising potential.)

White Innocence series by emriel (This is one of the more recent fic series, and it has been very promising. It’s a Harry goes-back-in-time-but-as-a-kid fic. The way little!Tom is depicted is AMAZING. I really do love it. I especially adore fics that show a child!Tom with really accurate characterization.)

Dreams and Darkness Collide by Epic Solemnity by Dark_Cyan_Star (Holysmokes this was dark and violent and oh do I love it. Harry is so dark but it’s balanced with him being pretty relatively heroic about his killing intent, so it’s a bit closer to his character. I also love a good-by good I mean well-written, he is still beautifully pretty amoral and complex-Minister for Magic!Tom.)

Grimoire for the Devil series by fadingstarlight (Geneveon) (Slytherin!Harry aka Hadrian. Alternate Universe and very EXPLICIT, like wooooo, XXX-rated, man.)

Baby, You’re Mine series by Fairygirl34 (I love the idea behind this series. Tom just being an evil bastard and taking what he wants without remorse, which, in this case, is Harry, and to some lesser degree, little Albus. Harry already has Ginny, but apparently that doesn’t matter at all. Welp.)

Nursery Rhymes AU series by Fairygirl34 (I’m weak for this sort of fic idea. Many nursery rhymes have a creepy origin, and this series expresses a love for such a dark thing. Very promising.)

Phantom Love by Fairygirl34 (Another recent one I found. Tom obsessively watching and leaving gifts for the Phantom Harry. Harry not falling for his tricks and trying in vain to resist his advances. I love that while Harry is the Phantom of the Opera, Tom, in a twisted turn of events, is the Angel of ‘Darkness.’ That’s pretty great. And there’s only two more chapters left!)

Dancing With Deceit by The_Fictionist (Ahhhh, this one was very good. Just read it.)

Fine Green Eyes by grayclouds (Pride and Prejudice-inspired! I regret only subscribing to this and not bookmarking it because this took some time for me to rediscover. This is really amazingly written and I cannot wait for the next update.)

Lithium by grayclouds (One of my first Tomarrys. It’s really great! There is some Cedric/Harry, too. A very good read.)

Loveless by Hyoushin (Very good. The focus is more on Tom. I especially adored the Paradise Lost reference in Chapter 4. That was especially fitting for Tom.) 

The Fox and The Stag series by KaedeRavensdale (I really remember liking many elements of this one. There was a lot that made this pretty unique. Also, somewhere in the first story, Tom goes back to the future with Harry, which is relatively rare.)

Turn Back 53 by Kefalion (Sadly abandoned, but I’m honestly grateful for anything. Wow, this is so well-written. Lmao, at some point they kinda do a ‘meet-cute??’ with Harry and Tom meeting face-to-face while bumping into each other. They keep meeting this way, actually. Also why is Tom so hot in this fic like SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. Smoking those Muggle smokes, damn, man. Catching Harry like some fucking fairy tale prince. He needs to be arrested…and not even just for being a murderer.)

Would Be He: Lion or Lamb? by KillerInADress (Ahhhh, I really love the interaction between Tom and Harry in Chapter 2. Really hope this updates.) 

Field Theory by Machiavelli (Childhood friends!AU. Harry saves Tom…and the tags inform us that ‘this will probably get quite dark’…)

If Them’s the Rules by MayMarlow (Our glorious pairing, Tomarry, is essentially built on the time travel trope, so it should be no surprise that I’m reccing this particular fic. In this story Harry goes back in time to raise Tom. Usually when I read fics with similar plots, there’s always a little something I’m not really into. But not here. There’s also a very interesting plot with Grindelwald, outside of the Tomarry. The Grindelwald + Harry interactions were also pretty nice. Oh, silly Harry for forgetting about the other handsome genocidal dark wizard during this time period. To be fair, he does have his hands full with young Tom.)

The Train to Nowhere by MayMarlow (Who do I love? MayMarlow. One of the earliest Tomarry fics I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Very intriguing premise. I love Harry’s visits to the ‘train station.’ I love the feelings that accompany this sense of otherworldliness whenever I read about Harry is in this other realm.)

+

The Other Chapter 36 by Mavrick (This fic is one of the works responsible for why I said my list was, “’Mostly’ alphabetical by author.” Also, just realized. This fic is also in the incomplete section, despite being completed...mainly because I wanted to keep it together with “The Train to Nowhere.” Welp. That’s entirely fine because I adored this. A tribute to the above fic. God, I loved how creepy it was with the paintings. I felt chills. Beautiful and scaaaary, if that’s what you’re into. I’m definitely into that.)

Labyrinth by Mer_des_Miroirs (A regency!au with other references. Excellent and interesting.)

Kings of Flowers and Skulls by Merrinpippy (So basically if a fic was destined to become a fast favorite of mine…this one definitely embodies a bunch of things I love. And I sincerely love flowers, skulls, and fairy tales…which are all in here. Tom and Harry as opposite, but complementary otherworldly deities…also a HUGE plus. Ahhh…so good~)

Words Fail by NeaMarika (One of my favorite time travel fics. Really good, it’s different from most because people are aware of Harry’s status as a time-traveler. Also, oblivious!Harry strikes again, to my COMPLETE AMUSEMENT. Oh boy, poor Tom. Lmao, boi can’t even comprehend the possibility of anyone possibly rejecting his handsome, fiiiiiiine, genius self. )

Scarred Match in Time by NicoDiAngeloLover7, vampireangel389 (Tom is actually pretty nice in this one, but what really sticks out to me here is how Harry’s memory loss is treated. I really like the startling but distressing images we get from Harry, who only has vague notions of his experiences.)

Divine by ObsidianPen (I am weak for mythology. This is no exception. This has endless promise. Oh lord, this is so good.)

Incendiary by ObsidianPen (The summary and the tags are definitely what caught my attention! A very interesting au idea! Also, Harry’s parents are alive and he has a sister and is generally much happier, yay! Young Grindeldore and the Triwizard tournament. Also, despite this being an AU, poor Harry somehow manages to also be involved in the tournament, though his rival, Tom, is also a champion…Can’t wait for this story to progress to that point!)

No Glory by ObsidianPen (Incredibly dark and haunting. Another great work from the author. Voldemort/Harry with an incredibly well-thought-out plot.)

Wanderingly by ObsidianPen (Labyrinth!AU. This is incredibly promising. I’m honestly very excited to see how things are going to progress.)

Memory of Stars by Ownlildreamworld (morg) (Very intriguing plot, thus far. Kinda political, with Harry trying to come to some sort of compromise with Tom/Voldemort.)

Nature versus Nurture series by RenderedReversed, Zenithyl (I love the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins and Horcruxes being fused together. So. Yeah. Rereading this to refresh my memory while I’m compiling this list would be counterproductive, but from what I remember I spent some solid hours reading this with a lot of appreciation. The chapter amount might look incredibly daunting, but each chapter is only at least 100 words. So. Not so scary.)

this ain’t no fairytale series by RenderedReversed (One day, this series decided to slap me in the face-in the greatest of ways-and I soon became hooked after the first fic. Characterization is spot-on, and I love the world building. Their relationship is lovely and profound, and I love that both Tom and Harry are keeping secrets from each other about their pasts, though are slowly opening up to each other. My fantasy gaming experience is mostly in the Fire Emblem series, but this fic is encouraging me to look into the highly-rated Recettear, on Steam, which this au is based on.)

Until Death Do Us Part by Rendered Reversed (I really love fics where there is powerful imagery and otherworldliness. Tom and Harry and Gods, here, so yay. Also Yandere!Harry. BIG YAY.)

Zubats, Zubats Everywhere by RenderedReversed (Bruh, it’s a Pokémon AU. That’s honestly the only excuse I need. I love their roles in this. It’s a nice, playful breath of air.)

Not Strong Enough by Sayon_170 (Help me, child!Tom is the sweetest most and possessive little thing. Harry goes back in time to raise Tom. There’s an OC, but it’s actually very interesting to see the budding Tomarry dynamic from that character’s perspective. Tom has not yet matured enough to cultivate his cultured, charming mask to present to the rest of the world, and it’s pretty alarming and fascinating to think what will happen to Tom and Harry’s relationship in the future. Harry, good luck.)

that one mutant romance series by seulo (…Have I mentioned I’m also into comics? I AM. Hello, X-Men. This is Tomarry with mutants. Amazing concept, strong characterization, and beautiful, haunting imagery. My favorite scene is when Harry turns into his dead mother. Also, I’m sobbing over the author calling Tom ‘T-Ridds,’ in the notes somewhere. God, that’s funny.)

in blood our eulogies shall be drawn by shilu_ette (Time travel. Master of Death!Harry. Tomarry and Drarry.)

Lanificus Orsa series by Sineluce_Velius_Tristitia (Time travel. Master of Death!Harry. Very intriguing. I especially loved the second fic, and its later parts, like the ending.)

47 Days to Change (a translation) by snow_owl01 (This is a translation of a Chinese fic that someone was kind enough to translate! I remember really liking this. Basically, time travel where Harry goes back to raise Tom.)

The Spellmaker by SonnyGietzel (Very interesting ideas in this one. Very bookish!Harry. I cry because the only Tom Harry ever gets to talk to is the barkeep. And then you look at the last date updated…IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL.)

Good Intentions by Strange_Soulmates (I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS FIC. PROBABLY ONE OF MY FAVORITES. Child!Harry is such a pure and precious cinnamon roll. Tom, on the other hand, is a sinnamon roll. There’s something both poetic and beautifully fucked up when you read about little Harry unknowingly helping his new BFF Handsome Prince Tom design the motherfricken’ Dark Mark. In which vandalism will probably be the least of Tom’s crimes. I also love how tiny Harry is so wise and kind, but is still unable to recognize the extent of Tom’s evil. He thinks Tom is being cool, I can’t even- Tom is so in love with Harry that you’ll feel like Lily and James in the beginning of the unlikely duo’s relationship, all warm and approving. It’s really so sweet. Also, the end of chapter 4 is glorious, pls read it. To quote chapter 3 and James’ decision of bringing Harry and Tom closer together: “It was the worst mistake he ever made in his life.” If that doesn’t make you want to keep reading, I don’t know what else will.)

Matelotage by Strange_Soulmates (A pirate!au for Tomarrytines. WOW, ANOTHER AMAZING PIRATE!AU. AND THIS ONE HAS JUST STARTED. The characterization in this is simply superb, and Harry is strong, but still retains his morals and selflessness. He cleverly bargains with Tom, and is just all-around awesome??? Tom is also described quite well with his propensity for cunning and violence, and Barty is winning a special place in my heart.)

More Precious than Rubies by Strange_Soulmates (I am waiting with bated breath for this to be finished. It’s beautiful. I’m not sure how else to describe this. A fairy tale turned on its head, where the princess, sorry Harry, wizard stuck in a tower falls in love with the dragon guarding him. Possessive Tom is already a thing I’m into. Possessive Dragon Tom? Hell yes.)

Light House by teecup_angel (…This is super great. Very nice concept. Check out the summary. I have no more words.)

Blurring Reality by Terrific_Lunacy (The first fic I found by this author. Oh no, it’s too good please save me. IT’S REALLY GOOD. Dancing!AU. The characterization and story are really great. I love this so much. Please read it.)

Let’s start the show by Terrific_Lunacy (…It’s probably a good thing if I rec most/all of the fics of a particular author. This fic has class issues, the circus, and political intrigue. It’s pretty fucking interesting, in layman’s terms. Harry is bae, but I pretty much love him in all of this author’s fics. So.) 

Rebuilt by Terrific_Lunacy (Really dramatic, magnificent Steampunk!AU. Lots of world building and characterization. Really, really good with a very intricate and impressive plot. I feel smarter after reading it, haha.)

An echo of the past by TosMichiyo (I reaaaallly liked this one. One of those rare Tom-comes-to-the-future fics.)

Twin Skeletons series by transpreussen (Time travel. What is different about this one is that poor Harry isn’t alone like he normally is. He has friends with him in the past, yay.)

Push and Pull by Vespairty (Time travel with Master of Death!Harry aka Hadrian. WWII, also focusing on Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Harry writes letters to Tom, and vice-versa. Can’t wait for them to finally meet up!)

Wear Me Like A Locket Around Your Throat by VivyPotter (I remember being really intrigued by this one. What caught my attention the most was the summary. It’s our old friend time travel, but the unique description of a time turner explosion leaving golden scars on Harry is really pretty imagery.)

I Waited For You, In The Shadows Of Time by watchingvfall_n_drown (This one is pretty special to me and close to my heart. I stumbled upon it one day, and was hooked ever since. It’s a bit different from some of the other fics I rec. Lots of purple prose and beautifully flowery language, if you’re into that. I just really love the general air of ethereal otherworldliness about it. Most of that vibe is from Harry, or at least how Tom/Voldy/Marvolo/whatshisname sees him as. Jesus son, are you moonlighting as a poet when you aren’t murdering people.)

Your Name on My Heart by whitedandelions (I remember liking this. A SoulMate!AU that’s a bit different than what we’ve come to expect.)

In Noctem by windwrites (Dark!Harry. Remember it being interesting. Politics. Doesn’t look like it’s going to update soon, sadly.)

Memento Mori, Memento Amor by You_Light_The_Sky (This is actually going to be rewritten, and I am incredibly excited for that day to come. I remember really loving this idea. Harry putting the pieces of Tom’s soul back together.)

Teaching History (is Old News) by You_Light_The_Sky (I love this one. It’s hilarious and crack-filled. If you read this one after a depressing Tomarry, you’ll feel much better. Read it, fam.)

*******

fanfiction.net/other links

Also known as I burned by brain going through my ao3 links.

*If you only post fics on tumblr, sorry for me being a pleb and not looking there.*

complete & in-progress:

Their Verdict of Vagaries by: Angstier (81 chapters. I remember it being pretty good. And it’s very LONG. So. Read. It.)

Framed & Fractured by: Antediluvian Poet (I am weak for fics about magical paintings..i.e. see earlier examples of this phenomena in the recs. This is time travel, though ‘unconventional,’ as the author puts it. It’s written with a very creepy and haunting mood. Ah, and Tom is so great. Very in character and I just love the way he’s trying to figure out Harry’s secrets. I’m really curious and excited, imaging how things are gonna turn out!)

Iridescent by: BloodyWar2411 (The plot is similar to this manhwa called Totally Captivated, but the author addresses this later. I have also read both works, and I think the similarities are coincidence. It really is not very hard to imagine Tom as a mob boss, after all.)

October by: The Carnivorous Muffin (It’s full of purple prose and incredibly verbose and full of interesting diction. Some may feel that these qualities are a turn-off, but as you can tell by my own ao3 username, I really appreciate the T.S. Eliot quotes in Chapters 9 and 10. The later plot might range from confusing to bizarre, but god do I love how otherworldly and inhuman Harry/Azrael is depicted.)

Fate’s Favorite

Destiny’s Darling

Past’s Player

(The Fictionist’s old stuff. One of my first Tomarrys. Bless.)

Secret Keepers by Hijja (Really good. Nice interactions, meaning written well…they are not especially happy together in this, haha.)

The Anti-Midas by Libertine (Really really good. Dat ending. Mindfuck-ish?)

Wand Cores by Lydia-kitten (Grindeldore side pairing. It’s been a while, but I remember this being good. Sadly doesn’t look like it’s updating any time soon…)

Rain and Regret by TheMuser (This is Harrymort. Beautiful and sad.)

The Diary of a Mad Wizard by Passo (Damn, that ending is priceless.)

love in lower case by Passo (It’s a very lovely and pleasant fic. The fourth wall is pretty much broken in a very fascinating manner. Harry basically escapes from the world of fanfiction, but still ends up with Tom, fortunately. Very poetic and pretty.)

Devil’s Advocate by Rose Ferguson (Incredibly good with nice art. The link to the sequel is on the bottom of the page, if you scroll down.)

Desirable Undesirable by SpiteSpawnsLies (Oh….oh my.)

*******

The dear god please help me section:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/451383/chapters/1905781

Right, so this is a link to a fic that, last I checked, was not dead??? Did I get the URL wrong?? Anyone have a pdf of whatever this may be?? I WAS ALREADY SHOOK BECAUSE OF THE MINDFUCK OF AN ENDING but I’m pretty much deceased because I cannot even read it anymore. To jog memories, Harry was a single parent and Tom was Albus’ teacher…and Voldemort was still a thing, but Tom’s well, MORE evil twin or something. It was really well-written. I think Cedric was in there, and his role was a twist. THE ENDING IS SOMETHING I’LL NEVER FORGET THOUGH. IF YOU READ IT YOU’D KNOW.

To a lesser degree:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11992546/1/Bombastic

I honestly cannot remember what this one was about, but I trust in my past self’s judgment. Anyone know what this one was?

No links, but summaries (most likely ao3 links):

One where Harry appears back in time and catches Tom’s attention. Not a lot of dialogue. There is a New Year’s party and Tom trying to make advances…only for Harry to flee.  Harry is angsting but Tom shows up later, telling Harry that he’s already guessed that he’s a time traveler. Tom also says something about hoping that his kiss wasn’t so offensive that Harry ran away like a damsel in distress or something.

I think there also was another one where Tom is working at Borgin and Burkes, but meets Harry, who time traveled??? Harry cannot stop Tom from killing and generally being amoral, and there is a really bittersweet scene of them banging after angst, with Tom covered in the blood of his unfortunate victim, and Harry just resignedly on the rocks. Literally.

Hmm…I think something might be wrong with my bookmarks. I keep remembering plots for fics I want to add here, go to the fic and see that I bookmarked it, but did not see it the 3-5 times I have been double-checking my bookmarks. Ugh.

*******

This list basically covers what I personally love about most Tomarry fics I like to read. I had to stop myself from adding any more before things became too crazy, haha. Generally, I love most time travel fics. I definitely have more fics bookmarked that I have not included on this list, and probably only subscribed to some so I don't have their links now. I’ve also probably missed a few I would have really liked to add to this list. Some fics have probably been deleted without me knowing, as well, though I thought ao3 informed you of deleted works you’ve bookmarked???

…Now that I’ve finally finished this list, I guess I should start going back and leaving some VERY BELATED kudos and comments, haha. The whole reason I haven’t already done so was because I didn’t like my username, and only found out how to change it, like a few days ago. Welp. I think the last time I tried, probs years ago, you could only make pseuds?? That or I’m dumb. I’ll be better from now on, though. I hope people find some new fics to read, or perhaps revisit some old favorites.

Please tell me if any links are incorrect/dead. If you want your work taken off this list, PM me immediately and I will remove it as fast as I can.

I’m also always up to chat about Tomarry, so feel free to stop by my askbox~

[comicteaparty]

May 30th-June 5th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from May 30th, 2020 to June 8th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What flaws does your protagonist possess, and how do you show this in story?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

he tends to run away from things and people!

i show this by having him run away from things and people!

She's reckless and always thinks she's right. I show this by having her follow her opinions into dangerous situations haha

I have no idea how to answer the second part of that question

My antagonist

also reckless and always thinks she's right

what a pair

wow, you guys are typing a lot.

eliushi [a winged tale]

As the only wingless child, Florence is used to others ostracizing her. This causes her to believe that she’s worthless or at least a crappy replacement for her mother since she has trouble reading. This is shown by her being passive when confronted with the other winged children and tolerant being left behind. When her mother disappears, her first thought is to find her mother (to make sure mom is safe of course) but really because she feels she can’t possibly fulfill the roles her mother did for the winged community.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

man i gotta read a winged tale seriously

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

For my comic uh lmao. It's been touched during OIYD!'s ctp chat but Cara tends to think critically on her romantic relationships, and thus even when things she goes well, she has her doubts and tries to end it before it develops lmao. Also she runs from her problems a lot (been addressed by her friend Ana through their last discussion). She done goof a lot of things but OIYD! will be pushing on her to how she gonna deal with those mistakes and her shortcomings too.

also like i guess how its depicted uh through dialogue and her body language. she physically closes herself off a bit when Ana was roasting her, and upon meeting with Richie too. so yeah lmao

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Phaedra's faith and devotion to her patron goddess is, to her, a great strength - but in light what she'll have to go through, it could very well be the source of her breaking point. She's never had to consider other perspectives - to her, the line between good and evil is as clear as the horizon, and no one can tell her otherwise. I haven't gone into it much yet, apart from a few sentences in the first chapter, but it'll become painfully clear later. Her family has dutifully served the goddess for generations, and as such, Phaedra has effectively put all her eggs in one basket, and is extremely proud to have done so. As time goes on, we'll see how that works out for her...

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

AAAA

blurred lines between good and evil

I love that

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Hooooh boy! My characters are basically just big buckets of flaws and personal issues. Izrekiel's flaws: * As a result of his amnesia and past traumas that still have an effect on him despite his inability to remember them, he changed from originally a fairly passionate, happy person to a rather reclusive and distrusting mess. I try to show this with his reluctance to speak much of the time, and how difficult it is for him to befriend Agatha. * He's also very quick to anger, which I show later in the story when he gets into somewhat petty fights with people. * Oblivious to even the most obvious of things, he often misinterprets people or misses nuances altogether. He is definitely not a social butterfly and comes off rather awkward most of the time. It happens a lot when someone makes a joke around him, and he just stares silently. * The rest are big ol' hefty spoilers! Agatha's flaws: * She can be incredibly bossy or "mom-ish," especially to her younger sister, but also to any random person whom she deems needs help. This is shown pretty obviously with her immediate urge to "fix" Izrekiel. * Definitely overbearing. She has the best intentions of friendliness, but she will stick her nose so far into your business that her nostrils will flatten. Mainly, she asks a lot of questions, and it can be rather annoying and obtrusive. * She also has a habit of not listening to what her younger sister, Maret. has to say. She often unintentionally ignores her, thinking her more "adult" issues to be far more pressing.(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Sunny: -She’s fiercely independent. As a result it takes her a longer time to trust people and tell them what’s wrong. -Doesn’t like the idea of people telling her what to do, because she craves the sense of control she was denied in earlier years -Dislikes showing sadness since it makes her uncomfortable. So she defaults to anger instead. As a result, she’s more likely to lash out in anger and regret the actions she did in the heat of the moment. -Sunny needs to realize that people aren’t inherently monsters either, that people can be morally grey. Her black and white morality may be challenged in both her writing and her relationships. But we’ll see about that. Liam: -Pretty blunt about criticizing people. He grew up in a critical household but needs to learn that there are different ways to give criticism -Highly uncomfortable with conflict. You’ll find him trying to fix the issue as fast as possible and when that doesn’t work...he’ll flee and even outright lie. It makes him seem untrustworthy and unreliable. -he loves his family. But they are his biggest fears too; the fear of disappointing them, the fear of losing their love. -for a calm guy, he tends to hide a lot of incredible self loathing and guilt. How that will affect his relationships, particularly sunny, has yet to be seen.(edited)

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Nyx thinks with her axe. She’s pretty clever if she has to be, but her usual approach to problems is „off with their head.“ The consequences off that are what drive the majority of the story - she nearly gets herself and the people around her killed. The big problem is she‘s a drifter - she rarely sees the consequences of her actions.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Nyssa‘s a bit spoiled and soft and while she overcomes that easily enough, it‘s the combination of her believing she can fix absolutely EVERYTHING and her incapability of dealing well with failure that brings her to her breaking point.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I really love that I can identify with everyone’s character flaws and that makes it all the more relatable

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Lead girl: Naomi Belfry had to deal with fleeting moments of affection from her parents trying to give her a stable childhood altho everything came crashing after her father's absence. Trying to keep this spoiler limited, like children in her position, she escaped reality through imagination lens and her obsession in her interests in forensic and observation. - I plan to show this, whenever something perks her interest, whether it's witnessing a crime scene, dangerous object or observing people at parties. Naomi also lacks a sense of trust in others due to broken promises but it conflicts with her yearning for companionship and love. Will see how she juggles her different sides. I plan for her to be morally gray. Trisha Bennett: She is a big-hearted girl and loyal friend to Naomi. Despite the rumors of the Belfry clan, Trish sees the lonely girl who tried to push others away. Trish's flaw is that she always puts other's happiness before her own. From a young age, she cared for her siblings, sometimes her grandma. Everyone basically pushed responsibility to her, due to her inability to say no. She listens to Naomi's rambles about a new mystery she's discovered.(edited)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

nervously stares at the dumpster fire that is Trigger Elliot

eliushi [a winged tale]

Give us all the FLAWS

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

there's so many ! Trigger's biggest flaw is his constant running away from his problems and taking ANY sort of responsibility. He takes his short comings out on those around him, and is constantly in a bad mood in the comic. His biggest hurdle is his past with his ex GF, Boggmouth, to which is his biggest fear and one that he's been trying desperately to run away from (so far that he changed his name, dyed his hair, lost his glasses, etc) Vahn has many flaws as well, mostly surrounding them as a mystery and that inability to step up to the plate. They're similar to Trigger in running away from problems, as they are more comforted with familiar spaces than new territory of becoming more or something else. Vahn also has a past they have yet to deal with!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

wow i really like reading people's different character flaws! Krispy, your character Trigger is such a complex character. I should get on reading it (edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I’m curious how everyone thought of their flaws for their characters. Did they come to you naturally? What would you say makes a flaw compelling to read/draw/experience?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't really make a character and then go, 'alright, time to add some flaws.' Like.... the same trait or even the same action can be seen as good or bad depending on who you ask?

eliushi [a winged tale]

Totally agree. A trait when taken to the extreme can be a flaw (too kind —> becoming a doormat). How do you make sure that flaw is the “right” one or the one that most fit with your character and plot?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Even the extreme-ness may be different depending on who you ask. Some people may feel it was 100% justified; others may feel it was too extreme, or even the opposite, not enough!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I like to imagine how those flaws would work in real life. If those flaws carry the story and force the characters to develop/face consequences, I usually include them

eliushi [a winged tale]

So true keiiii and I like that approach shadow!

So what makes a trait a flaw for you keiiii

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like look at all the disagreements IRL...

I don't like to divide character traits into flaws/virtues, personally. Like, yes, there are times I notice a trait and go "oh yeah, that's totally Bad, totally a flaw." But as a storyteller, I don't use that kinda judgment as a primary tool. I guess it's in the same vein as the whole 'no one is a villain in their own story' school of thought?

eliushi [a winged tale]

That’s fair!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

It took awhile to develop my character's flaws! I start out drawing the character for fun. For some characters, I made them with intention of flipping Anime tropes, I felt some of them are so shallow, I want to flesh them out in my own stories. So as I write, their flaws are reflected in their upbringing. The personality gets revised over until I have certain ideas in mind, then their flaws come along with the creation process.? I have two sides of my brain cell where, I want to draw these children in a fun, safe environment. Then I got this other side, influenced by teen stories/games where I want to give them risks, be delinquents, have messy choices. I gravitate to stories of teenagers finding themselves?(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

What I do pay close attention to is: do the characters have major disagreements ever? If the answer is no, then I may have a problem.

eliushi [a winged tale]

All the juicy conflicts

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I think I gravitated toward portraying a flaw I knew I had when I was younger. Something I'm able to look at with a more critical eye, now that I have more experience. Something I can portray both critically and sympathetically - so people can still like the character, but want them to grow past their flaw.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like, even if I don't think of a trait/action as bad, SOMEONE in the story would probably not agree with it. Stuff like that.

And vice versa

I do think HoK focuses a lot on greyness as an undertone, though. Not every story would benefit from this approach.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I like to design my flaw aligned to the LIE the character believes (in reference to character arcs) and see what sort of negative consequences that will be interesting for the characters to try and overcome

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

In my previous comic, almost every major player was BAAAAD, and that was the point of the story.

But HoK is not like that.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

ooh the Lie that a character believes? That's interesting, Eli.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I think that makes for a good sympathetic protagonist - we're all told things that we may have to unlearn, or learn to read differently. For the protagonist, it's an awakening to the truth of the world around them. Their job as a protagonist is to accept that awakening, for better or for worse.(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Yeah I like to approach character arcs using this reference https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/character-arcs-2/amp/ the flaw comes easier to me once I have the specific LIE developed

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ooooh that's a good one Eli and to piggy back off of you, LadyLazuli, a lot of character flaws I chose were observed from either close friends, family, and even myself! There's something about intimately knowing about these flaws that you can see how it unfolds in real life

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

this would be so helpful, I have a teen character for my slice of life, that I couldn't figure his flaws out, other than being anxious. Will look into these books.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

You can try! It would help a lot I read somewhere that one of the reasons Princess Mononoke had such great characters wasn't because they were inherently good or bad.

Rather, they each had differing goals and that is where the conflicts are.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, one moment in that movie that really shines in that aspect IMO was when Ashitaka talks to Eboshi, and she retorts, "so you want us fight the samurai instead!" (i.e. instead of fighting the forest animals) This was not treated as a big moment in the movie; it was quick and pretty understated. Nonetheless, I feel it really hit the nail on the head with that particular theme.

like, "our disagreements are distracting us from the TRUE enemy: this third party!!!" is totally a valid theme, but it's not the only resolution in that kinda situation. I'm glad Princess Mononoke went for a different direction.

They did have a third party (heck, a fourth party too), but it wasn't what the whole situation was about.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I’m curious how everyone thought of their flaws for their characters. Did they come to you naturally? What would you say makes a flaw compelling to read/draw/experience?

yuh that's a good question. I just kinda look at the experiences I had so far or what my family or friends experienced and I'm like "what is a good thing about this flaw, what is not so good?" like there's some juggling to figure out like in some situations its great and others it's just lmao pain.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

In my case, I didn't really "think of flaws" for my characters. My characters just kinda popped up in my head, and as I got to know them, their traits—both good and bad—revealed themselves to me.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for Cara's case its like lmao idk. a reflection of how my mom and I handle dealing with romantic relationships, and just seeing where that goes lol

for Richie, it's like that but what we like in men/masc-presenting folk but take it up to 10x and see what happens LMAOO

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

So basically it could be a case of veering one trait into the extreme

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

(Also, I totally agree that the characters in Princess Mononoke are stellar! Especially Ashitaka and Eboshi.)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah, but I also made sure there's nuances too since they aren't a true reflection of our own chimera they need to stand out as their own characters after all, not a voice piece

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yeah, the scene I still remember from that movie was when lady eboshi showed ashitaka around Irontown and he sees how she helps the lepers and the women be empowered. It showed that she’s a morally grey character

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I always like messing with that kind of of diacomtomy between people and just lmao idk I just like seeing that despite differences things are connected lol

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I really like the Disagreement-focused approach. Where would the characters disagree with each other? With YOU, the author? Would they ever call you out on something? Would you agree or disagree with the callout?

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Also tuyetnhi I agree. While we can also include flaws of our own, there comes a time where our characters eventually develop into their own person

It’s like watching your child grow up

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I learned that young durring my RP days in the early 2010s

lmao

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

And when Ashitaka reveals a rather selfish thought of his. Eboshi: Does that arm of yours want to kill me? Ashitaka: If it would lift the curse, I would let it tear you to pieces.

(I've watched this movie way too much throughout my life tbh )

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I really like the Disagreement-focused approach. Where would the characters disagree with each other? With YOU, the author? Would they ever call you out on something? Would you agree or disagree with the callout?

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) absolutely! Your characters won’t always do what you want. Sometimes they have ideologies that make you want to shake them or disagree. Because in the end, the characters aren’t you

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I actually didn't see that as particularly selfish about Ashitaka (and I think that's a good thing that we see these differently)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

They will make mistakes that you might not in real life. let them.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah lmao that's why in cara's situation I'm like "same" but also "Noooooooooooo why u do that"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@shadowhood (SunnyxRain) And they might not even see those actions as mistakes, depending.

And YOU will make mistakes (or "mistakes"... again... depending) that the characters wouldn't make

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

even stuff I don't even realized from other friends who looked at Cara and they're like "she's her biggest cock block; it's that personality." lmaO

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

You don't know how many times I've wanted to slap the shit out of my characters

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

honestly

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

@shadowhood (SunnyxRain) And they might not even see those actions as mistakes, depending.

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) exactly! Hence these are the Lies they might have developed! They might have lies they grew up with that don’t match with ours

And yes....there are times I want to facepalm whenever I see my characters make a mistake I wouldn’t have. But I know that they’ll eventually develop out of it....or face natural consequences.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Anyone else here doing more grey-focused stories? Not every story needs to be that, you can have very mature stories that aren't grey. But yeah

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I have a very grey character

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean... I guess it depends on labeling. I have very strong opinions, but I feel like my characters could very easily be seen as grey by others

Especially my villain

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think "grey-focused" is less about the characters and more about the narrative, but yeah, it's pretty case by case

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I think in that case Cara would be considered .... light grey?

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

This character did something VERY bad, and his actions have caused people to be split about his actions But he has deep regrets and guilt about it, even though it was a necessity at the time(edited)

Whether or not people forgive him or understand his motivations

Only time will tell

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh yeah, my narrative definitely can be seen as grey.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

since it's her narrative focus in the story but as there's some dark moments, most of it is just her just figurings thing out

dark moments as in lmao "i'm hurt in the feels"

not life death situations lmao

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I switch between perspectives a lot in WotP, so it definitely can be seen as grey

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I don’t like grey morals that much, actually. My favourite narrative device is genuinely good people working at cross-purposes. Nobody is evil, or grey; but their personal histories and goals set them into conflict with each others.

These histories often cause or are brought by their flaws, too. But a flaw doesn‘t necessarily make you grey.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't mean grey as "an even mix of good and bad." I meant more like, the narrative does not take sides.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for Richie, i guess for his development as something that is a mere figment of fantasy and trying to be like "wow I wonder what being a person is like?" and he might just become a grey character if he ever experiences Cara's world lol

ahhh

yeah this story is probably pretty grey then lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

You can have a narrative taking side and still be good-people-in-conflict.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

There is one scene I wrote where the morally grey character meets someone who he’s affected. She hates him, but understands his motivation. Both of them have a heart to heart and agree that they were simply two people who were involved in a tragedy, and it hurt everyone.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That's a thing too! But I'm specifically curious about stories where the narrative does not take sides

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

So in the end, it was a scene where the audience can sympathize with both, but these characters are in conflict

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I feel you can't really have a character who will be universally seen as 50:50 good:bad. Different people will have different opinions about the same character.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

that's so true like

idk, i guess this is an annoyance when protraying folks

and i'm like "ya just make it like it is, if you're intimate with their background or have relevant experiences with it"

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

In real life you’re going to meet people who may not like you

Some may even hate you

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

that's why I'm like gearing Cara as like that lmao

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Not everyone is going to agree or like you, and it’s the same with charavters

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yepppp

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Just because another character dislikes your main protagonists does not necessarily make them a villain

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

That's what I'm thinking too. I may see a certain character of mine as leaning more good, and another as leaning more bad, but I know my readers are likely going to disagree. I call my villain a "villain" because he opposes the "heroes," but honestly, I know that a large part of my readerbase is going to take his side in the end.(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

In every villain’s mind they are the heroes of their own story

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It reminds me of a quote from the Inheritance series

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't 100% agree actually, but I do agree with something in the same vein

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

[me looking at my story] "who really is the antagonist? it's probably all of you" [points at 3 characters at the same time]

lmao

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like not everyone actually thinks of themself as heroic -- but most will see their choices as reasonable given the circumstances.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I agree. Probably should have reworded it as “everyone thinks they are the protagonist of their own stories”

A protagonist can be “villainous” too.

Also tuyetnhi lmao you have so many antagonists

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

omg I missed this really good convo on Princess Mononoke, I LOVE Lady Eboshi's character. I was busy talking about character writing for another show(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yes she is a wonderful character! Let’s use her as an example

In her own mind she sees herself as a protagonist defending the leper’s and the women

And having to fight her way to the top from being a slave

She could have her own story herself!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like Cara has to fight her dreams, her family, her firends and her self as a cock block ya LMAO

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Eboshi is fantastic. She's not good, she's not evil, she's just a person doing what she thinks is best. Even if she ends up doing more harm than good, her aim is to protect her people and strengthen her town. She does some truly heroic things as well as some heinous ones. And I love how Ashitaka lands squarely between the two factions - in his own way, because he seeks peace, he almost acts as a villain for both the gods and the humans. SO COMPLEX it's lovely.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

aggressively throws love at Studio Ghibli

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

A related question that's fun to ponder is, who or what do they blame when things don't go well? (Obviously the answer's gonna vary a LOT depending on the circumstances, but something fun to think about)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

lmaoooo oh man

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Gosh, that's a great question.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Cara would blame herself if it's something she consciously done wrong, but if it's something out her control she'll blame the person or thing she thinks caused the inconvenience.

Cara: "Stupid sexy... man coming out of my dreams looking..... ass"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Don't we all wish we had a stupid sexy dream man to blame

(maybe not but lol)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Izrekiel would blame himself. Agatha would blame the powers that be. Ryukou would blame Izrekiel. Maya would blame Ryukou....

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Hmmm that is a good question

Sunny blames others in the heat of the moment, but she’ll think back and regret it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for Richie uh lmao he blames himself for most things.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Liam blames it all on himself, and won’t tell anyone

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Phaedra blames herself initially. Then, as with all things, deflect the blame to Ocean Satan.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

if it something Cara done tho, I think he'll have to do some mental gymastics that he isn't outright hurting her feelings but getting his point across (hypothetical situation here lmao I need to draw faster)

ocean satan lmao

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I feel that energy from him tbh

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ocean Satan/lucifer probably has his own fan following tho

Chethanists

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Fata Morgana! Or the Bone Church (RIP)

but yeah, when the origin of all your world's problems is a single entity - BLAME IT

very easy

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

just like blaming an alternative god for the misfortune of humanity lmao

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

In my story, Naomi might go into deep thinking if things don't go well. It means the mystery got deeper and she wants to find out why did it not go well? It depends, I should write a case where the blame can go easily to someone, but the MC has a different reaction than others.(edited)

It depends on situation, I'm trying to think about something that makes the character blame someone? Jasper might be the type of kid, who self blames his own incompetence.(edited)

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Thorn is impressively good at figuring out how to assign blame/responsibility to the right parties in the right proportions, but to be fair, he's had a lot of therapy

varethane

That thing about never having a character everyone will like is so true-- I feel like the most consensus I've ever had was over Teeko, the main character of my previous webcomic. Almost everyone agreed that she was a cinnamon roll, but there were others who considered her irritating (or at best, found her irritating at first but then got to like her)(edited)

I'm pretty sure the lead of my new comic will be significantly more polarizing

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

(He has PTSD from a dragonslaying mission that went bad, where he didn't give the order that made it all go wrong but was in a strong position to stop it and didn't, so Responsibility been kind of a major theme in his brain ever since)

varethane

Her major flaws are that she's kinda selfish and impulsive, and while I have a whole Arc planned, that type of character is just guaranteed to rub some readers the wrong way

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Meanwhile, Leif is very well-conditioned to assign responsibility to "anything and anyone except my country's leaders and system of government"

Which is also changing over a long-term character arc! And there's definitely debate in the comments sections at any given stage about how reasonable he's being now

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

My favorite flawed character ever is Leona from Prague Race. I loved that comic but not gonna recommend because it is on forever hiatus. I'd never seen her flaws before in any other character and yet felt them deeply. Her flaws are to the point where you're not even sure if she is a good person. https://www.praguerace.com/comics/1438038533-06.jpg https://www.praguerace.com/comics/1438197522-07.jpg https://www.praguerace.com/comics/1438802007-08.jpg(edited)

varethane

She isnt, at all, but I still love her as a character ahaha

(Well okay she is a little bit at least)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Ahh I remember Prague race

It’s fantastic. I really enjoy the antihero/unconventional qualities Leona has(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i LOVE her

I love her look

I love her attitude

she is like

my favorite character ever in webcomics

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ahhh so is her flaw having her desires supersede others?

Or desiring entertainment even at the cost of hurting others?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

She is exceptionally curious, to the point of recklessness(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

A related question that's fun to ponder is, who or what do they blame when things don't go well? (Obviously the answer's gonna vary a LOT depending on the circumstances, but something fun to think about)

Flo: blames herself Ash: blames anyone but Flo Ice: blames anyone but themself Bell: blames the person who is deemed logically wrong

I think Leona’s flaw is self-centredness. AFAIK it’s because she is going to die? Terminal illness? then she feels the world owes her everything

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

She was like that before that happened though

Like in the opening where she drags her friend into a sketchy shop and plays with the mysterious artifacts and falls into a new world

eliushi [a winged tale]

Ah so just a selfish character then?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

All the while being like

"hey neat!"

eliushi [a winged tale]

Disregards others’ boundaries for her amusement and purpose

It’s a great flaw to explore

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Oh that one is a very good flaw

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Before this point it was more disregarding her own life for her amusement and purpose

It's her own fault she has a year to live

eliushi [a winged tale]

It’s all starting to come back haha

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

So basically she’s self entitled

Those types are tough to pull off

If there’s one character flaw I want to see more, it’s characters that struggle with taking a stand

eliushi [a winged tale]

For sure. I find antihero and passive protagonists especially difficult to write/draw

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i might be the opposite because people complain about my protag being too passive lol

He just wants to live

/not live

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Hmmm, I’m the opposite actually! I dislike conflict so I try to either run away or hide when it happens

So for me it’s easier to write someone who is scared of conflict and is seen as a coward than someone more active

eliushi [a winged tale]

Eli did the proactive choice to follow the minor goddess right? I see that as having agency

I meant more of writing them as compelling characters

Especially as protagonists

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ahhhh i'm glad

i agree that stories usually read better when the main characters have a goal

it gives you a thread to follow throughout the story

eliushi [a winged tale]

For sure. Having a clear external goal to augment the internal one is key

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

What if the main character’s goal is not having a goal

Or being viscerally against the goals of everyone else

eliushi [a winged tale]

Against the goals is a goal in itself I think haha

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Where it’s seen as against the cultural norm to have one....like Eli

Omg full circle lmao

eliushi [a winged tale]

But if the goal is to be passive then... that’s where I find it is difficult to write compellingly

Unless you have side characters that boost the agency

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ugh can't talk about eli while talking to eli

i got confused lol

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I think with those types it works with other characters also having goals

Exactly Eli!

.....oh my god this is getting confusing

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ack now i got confused in the opposite direction

i think

eliushi [a winged tale]

Exactly shadow. Hence I designed ash, ice and bell to be strong voices to counteract quiet Flo

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I love me some well-written passive characters TBH

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

mm i agree. if the mc doesn't have a lot of agency, other people need to to drive the plot forwards

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yeah! I did the same thing by having sunny be outspoken and Liam be the one that runs away

And she ends up having to call him out on his shit!

I wonder if their passivity can be both a strength and a weakness tho

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think I actually gravitate more towards passive ones than to overtly proactive ones, with all other factors being hypothetically equal

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

stares at Danbi

eliushi [a winged tale]

But I find there’s a point in which your passive character needs to make a change for their arc; stasis = death. Ultimately depends on the narrative and theme and with a negative arc it’s something to play with

Danbi is not passive I don’t think

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Hmmmm danbi has a passive nature But you’re right now that I think about it

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think part of it is I'm currently in the "I need to take a break from those ultra-motivated shounen action MCs" phase

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Me: Eli is passive! Eli: no Shadow: Danbi is passive! Eli: no

:p

eliushi [a winged tale]

I find the passive protagonist is like the boy in hyouka

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

what's he like? i haven't read/seen that

eliushi [a winged tale]

Or a lot of those anime’s where the love interest or others drag them into things

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ahhh those types

You’re right about those being hard to write about because they can become satellite love interests

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm thinking more along the lines of, when the story itself isn't about WE RESOLVE THIS BIG CONFLICT YES

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

With no motivation except for their friends/love interests

eliushi [a winged tale]

https://hyouka.fandom.com/wiki/Houtarou_Oreki

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I have not actually read this, so not sure why this is the example to come to my mind, but: there's this manga? in which humanity is facing extinction, but people are just calmly accepting instead of panicking or rebelling. They're not trying to fix things, they're just living out their lives

varethane

In Wychwood, Felix is an extremely passive character (it's one of his biggest flaws, he's absolutely terrible at standing up for himself and..... I mean, atm he doesnt really have any opportunities to make decisions for himself, but if he does he second guesses himself and ends up doing nothing lol)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I see that as more of a choice of acceptance keiiii

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ooooh okay I see Eli

eliushi [a winged tale]

But I mean we all have different definitions and thresholds we refer as passive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it's okay for us to define "passive" differently, as long as we're aware of how the different definitions affect the discussion

eliushi [a winged tale]

Yep yep

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

If I knew we were all going to die and there was nothing i could do about it, I think I'd just live out my life too. Spend time with family and cook good food.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

In that case there is one character I have like that, but the reason he’s passive is because his hyperperfectionism has marred him and he’s severely depressed now

eliushi [a winged tale]

I’m more referring to a narrative passive character https://www.jimenainovaro.com/blog/2019/9/7/passive-protagonist-how-to-tell-if-you-have-one-and-how-to-fix-it

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Anyway, HoK is like that: it's not about FIX THIS BIG PROBLEM WITH THE WORLD. The world does have massive problems, and there are multiple groups of people trying to fix, delay, or otherwise address those Big Problems in various ways. But the story itself is not about that.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Right so if the story is not about saving the world, in relation to the actual theme of the story, I don’t think Danbi is passive

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

ELUISHI

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

mm we're talking about the benefits of passive characters but that link is "how to fix it" ah

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

YOU’RE HERE

eliushi [a winged tale]

Oh hai!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I feel like that article is written with the assumption that you want the readers to root for the MC, which I think is.... not necessarily what you want.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Hello????

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ah

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

It depends on what kind of story you want to write I guess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah like lmao root when you feel like it worm

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I guess for my story it's just lmao done out of my curiosity and just seeing that to form.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Full disclosure, I do not read fast enough to have read the entirety of that article by now (edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Exactly shadow

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But I think that also brings up an important point

eliushi [a winged tale]

https://threekookaburras.com/blogs/news/14720925-writing-tips-whats-wrong-with-a-passive-protagonist perhaps another viewpoint

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

WHAT is the "ideal reader reaction" you want with the story? (can break this down to "with this one scene/ arc" etc)

(can also have multiple ideal/desired reader reactions for the same story/ arc/ scene)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ooh that's an interesting question

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(I also really like parentheses)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I feel like that article is written with the assumption that you want the readers to root for the MC, which I think is.... not necessarily what you want.

I recall you mentioning HoK is more like a character study. I think more conventional storytelling want the audience to be invested in the protagonist

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i honestly don't really have an answer

just want people to know these characters and this world

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Personally the reaction I want....is for other people to learn along with them

And hopefully touch their hearts

And yeah keiiii you DID mention that it’s more focused on character development at one point

eliushi [a winged tale]

Ideal reader reaction by act 1: exciting adventure here we go! Act2: oh no Act 3: oh that makes so much sense why everything is happening but how will they succeed Act 4: hope

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

OH that’s what you mean?

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

What’s an act four

eliushi [a winged tale]

Oops I meant season

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think. My four chapters are similar to Eli's

eliushi [a winged tale]

(Season 1 is act 1; seasons 2&3 act 2 and last season is act 3)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for me, like if to make my characters relevant to the audience isn't the main goal. like relevant characters doesn't equate to folks understanding to the nuances of their struggles. at least for me. I just want to write the story for the sake of it and what folks react to it uh lmao that's their reaction. stick for the ride if you want to see things panned out is my mind set

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Arc 1: people are excited then sad...what the fuck shadow Arc 2: oh my god oh my god this happened it’s chaos angst time Arc 3: melancholic but going up in a way Arc 4: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Arc 5-7: this is sweet as hell

eliushi [a winged tale]

Yeah I should rephrase: there can be many reasons why you want the audience to NOT root for the protagonist (ie protagonist is a serial killer and the reader is more keen to know if justice will be served)

But these are done intentionally and the protagonist is not passive in the narrative sense(edited)

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

Act One: Buildup Plot Point: NO NO NO NO Act Two: angst Plot Point: Act Three: Ships

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like, I don't necessarily want anyone to agree with any of the characters. But I want people to be able to see why they think or feel the way they do. More importantly, I want people to FEEL that their (the characters') feelings are real and powerful. So I guess for every arc of HoK it all comes down to: "my heart is breaking and healing at the same time"

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Natasha I relate to the ships coming in later part

same

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

I’m tryna have at least one ship sail in act two XD

eliushi [a winged tale]

I live for the AHHHHH and

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

dang I just love throwing curveballs

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

we can tell

eliushi [a winged tale]

Shadow will draw the ships for me

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Oh the AHHHHH part is a ship

YES I DRAW ALL THE SHIPS

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

The is my favorite part of the story

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

not saying which ship tho sorry

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

Aside from the ships

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

lol

if I have to break up the structure for OIYD!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yes the is a good scene More please

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

... nah it's too soon to share ask me again in 5 years or somethin

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

@Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!) mood

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'm like lmao i'm on ch. 3

and it's early to draw some conclusions of what structure i had set up, but I do have a clear idea where I want going with it. just... have to draw it lol

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

Dude I’ve basically scripted my act three and I haven’t even gotten to my first major turning point

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same mood, same boat

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I’ve only scripted up to arc 2

And I’m already feeling the chaos

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for me uh.. I guess its main arcs are there

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

My act one is the most solid, followed by act three. I’m slowly figuring out the middle XD

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Because shit gets dark in the end of arc 1

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I had chopped off like 8 chapters lmaO

Deo101 [Millennium]

I script... like one scene at a time if that..

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

so it's a lot shorter than it was originally intended but at least

it is more impactful for me lmao

just non canon content now lol

eliushi [a winged tale]

You got this Natasha!

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

YEAH!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also can't script super ahead, at least with this story. With my previous comic I scripted like 2+ years worth of content in advance

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that's my first webcomic lmao

and ... I stopped after the first chapter lmao

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

What reader reactions I want for my comic? Uhhh... Volume 1: Pretty world! And also some mysteries... Volume 2: Even more mysteries... culminating in the moment Volume 3: IT'S EVERYTHING I COULD'VE WANTED

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah my next comic I'm planning ive got a script for like a whole thing but for this one im like "hmm... what seems fun?"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

For me, I think the main factor is that the previous comic was heavily dialog-driven (you could convert it to an audio drama with minimal changes), while my current comic is very visual (you really can't convert it into an audio drama...)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

EVERYTHING WE WANT CLAIRE?!!?!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Everything you want

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

EVERYTHING?????

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

man, it must have some good cheese in there

Deo101 [Millennium]

oh are we answering what we want our readers to think?

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yea

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yiss

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'm like "I'm not qualifed to answer this because lmao"

Deo101 [Millennium]

I want my readers to be like oh this is fun! the whole time, i think

dont want it to change, want it all uphill

no stress or nothin just fun times

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Deo reading your webcomic is like going to the beach Pretty chill

Deo101 [Millennium]

hell yeah!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Space beach!

Hey my rank just changed!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Wha

Deo101 [Millennium]

when you read my comic I want you to feel like youre sittin poolside with a cool drink and some sunglasses

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it does have that vibe yeee

Deo101 [Millennium]

fuck yeah thats everything I could want babeyyyy

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

It has mojito pina colada vibes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

aww yeee

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Mine is just sangria

WITH SHOTS

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I guess for OIYD! is just "bloody mary please say sike"

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Is eightfish’s like....champagne

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Refreshing glass of ocean water

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Is this the "what drink would your comic be" topic?

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

lmao

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

salty

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

salt

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yes

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

Ooooh good question

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Time to bring up my answer to that question again: "liquid bacon fat, so that it stays in your heart forever."(edited)

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

Hot chocolate

Dark chocolate kind

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Holy shit that’s two sides of the spectrum right there

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Omg keii

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

keii idk how I feel about that if I'm gonna have caradiac arrest reading your comic lmao

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Heart Attack Of Keol

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Clogging my arteries oh lord

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

You're killing me today kei

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Omg

But wait is Phantomarine also a glass of ocean water

Deo101 [Millennium]

not read it yet but I feel like its that blue drink from applebees

do you know the one im talkin about, the one with the shark gummy in it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

whaaaaat

We don’t have Applebee’s here do explain

YES?!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

drop a big salt chunk at the bottom of it and YEP that's Phantomarine

Deo101 [Millennium]

very sweet but there are like 2 shots in it so you will get 1: brain freeze and 2: more tipsy than u think!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yuhhh

my mom always buy that drink deo

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I kinda want to try it now

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

It's good

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Applebees come to Canadia plz

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

lmaoo

wait what

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

We canucks want to get a brain freeze pls

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

there's no applebees in Canadaland?

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Nope

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

omgGGG

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

We have a tims tho

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

also this might be getting a tad bit off-topic so watch out

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

okay tru tru lmao

dang tragic like

imagine making drink references in your comic and someone is like

"yo what is that? lemon juice?"

"........... lemonade?"

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Sorry rebel. We are just perpetually off topic

Deo101 [Millennium]

the page that had orange juice in millennium everyone was talking about the orange juice

and same with the page that there was milk

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

actually this would be an intersesting question like lmao if your comic still makes references to your native place of being

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

The logo was funny deo

And cute

Although at first I thought the cow was a space pig...

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like having orange juice in space i'm like yaaaa lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

okay but the page with milk also had a murder skeleton

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

But space pig

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Skeleton milk

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Mmmm yes taste the calcium

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

so much calc

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Enough to bone milo

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah everyone was like "he just wants the milk!"

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Page with the clock everyone was talking about the clock

The way deo draws inanimate objects is just

Really memorable

I guess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

whu

Deo101 [Millennium]

you would be the first person in my life to have ever said that

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

omg

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

(or maybe you just don't have anything else more interesting on the page :p)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

The devil is in the details

Or should I say

bone milk

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Crunchy

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i don'tt hink I can handle bone milk since i'm starting to develop an intolerance to lactose

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'd love to draw my ships but anxious brain thinks, I shouldn't because no one knows them

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I remember that there was a talk about the page on deo’s server

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh man ships worm lmao

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

And someone mentioned carbonated milk

Deo101 [Millennium]

I dont wanna think about carbonated milk

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

people like guessing Richie or Dean for Cara and i'm like ya'll missing the 3rd option

"it's the friends we made along the way"

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ot3 ayo

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think I was the one who mentioned carbonated milk though

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

dfjalkgjaeoifuiodj

Deo101 [Millennium]

gjsdaghsagjkhgjkasg

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

OT3

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

YOU WERE

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Do it I dare you

Deo101 [Millennium]

shadow big brain w ot3

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I meaaaaaaaan

I have a love triangle

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

if they were compadable with each other

probably LMAO

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

But if they get together

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but lmAO

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

its a metaphysical paradox

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

AAAAA

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

But yeah I love the OT3 option

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

It would be actually interesting to see polyamory in a comic not about polyamory though

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

[puts down things to consider]

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Cara/Richie/dean

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'm like I want to see as a possibiltiy

but it's also errrrrr enriched with Viet stuff and i'm like bruh

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I too, like Eightfish, dare you to do it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

how that would affect Cara's relationship with her family

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I agree Eightfish! I like the secret polyamory in a comic, like Marmalade Boy had a poly family and only when I was older, knew about it. I reread it, was like holy cow! It is a poly family(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

:000

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same with Dean's too since they're both tradtional vietnamese families to some extent

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(Apologies for taking forever to type this) "Maybe no one talks about Interesting Things in your scene because there is no Interesting Thing in your scene" used to be my big fear, to be honest. But I feel more confident after a recent epiphany, and if anyone else has that fear, please know that if YOU see Interesting Things in your story, that absolutely counts.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

aww thank you!! I need that reminder.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'm like man

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

It was a joke because deo's milk scene literally has someone being cut in half! But I do agree with you keii!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like I would like to, but I ain't poly and I don't want to mis represent those communties ya kno? riP

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

And there's bound to be someone who likes the same interesting things as you

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah keiiii I worry a lot that all my comments are about asses or something because they just dont care about anything else i'm doing

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Because Lavender Tea was on haitus since I thought my main lead boy was boring but I realized my friends do like simple characters which don't have to have complex pasts.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I'm always like "lol my comic is full of boring conversations" But then every once in a while I get someone who says they actually really like the boring conversations and that just makes me :)))(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

People like to hyperfixate on the weirdest things in stories

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) YES!!!!! Interesting Talky Scenes FTW

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Also I actually like the casual conversations you have eightfish

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Well like would you have as many reader if your comic was just ass panel ass panel ass panel? :P

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like sometimes I see people asking "how do I make a talky scene interesting" and I'm like... BUT TALKY SCENES ARE INTERESTING???

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

people can have the ot3 in their dreams and I'll recognize that but for me lmao I'm like i can't

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

It is a little challenging to make talking scene interesting visually

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ye

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

it is actually, like the way to keep it interesting I heard, is the angles, and not always focus on their face shots.

Deo101 [Millennium]

hands

give them an activity and focus on hands babey

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

OT3's, eh

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Background props and angles is what I show

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

feet

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i guess suffering through complex angles in my panels do really pay off

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I wanted to challenge myself to draw silent panels and minimal dialogue.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I wonder if I sort of lucked out with HoK, in that the characters are often (though not always) locomoting while talking. That probably makes it easier to make it visually non-boring?

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Ladylazuli i see you eyeing that ot3

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

same, I like to draw background props, different angles.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh lord what u done shadow

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Beautiful things tuyetnhi what you talking about

Deo101 [Millennium]

ACTUALLY huge sidenote but you reminded me joichi, whats helped me get my writing way more to where I like it is every conversation being like "what if I took out all these speech bubbles?" and then actually going through and cutting most of them out

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

what u MEAN DFJAKGJDKFdjl

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think the ship shadow is thinking of might be more ot7billion

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

fkaljfdghakldfj what

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

the more the merrier

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh god

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I have shipped OT3 before. I researched quite abit into Poly and started making a story on the side, just to understand the system and responsibilities. Just know that it's not perfect, but there's some differences(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah, I looked into poly relationships to but lmao even with the research and asking first hands accounts, I don't think I can do it justice

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

... me with monagamous relationships tbh

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like it's hard working with a person in a monogamous relationship but also doing the same with 2 or more oh lord man

it's a lot of work for the persons who inciated and participating in such relationship struggles

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

it is still a big challenge. The good things I did hear for poly folks is, a strong sense of trust, and balancing the love between other partners. Also consent always(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I’ve read testimonies of poly people and they stress that you need a LOT of communication

There’s a lot of trust and mutual respect needed to pull off poly

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

mhm

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'd argue you need that for any relationship!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Actually yeah you’re right! Every relationship needs that!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I may stick with monagamy couples most of the time. The only time I'll draw poly is a mention of couples, i feel I'm not the right person to write drama about poly relationships yet.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'm like thinking like for poly persons that working with 2 or more partners like

Deo101 [Millennium]

thats why I dont write drama about any relationship LMAO

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I have thought about writing a poly relationship once but er....I was thinking of doing villains in a toxic one

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

how does that play out like... since I think the possibility with being burnt out with communication with multiple partners

and the partners themselves like their relationships with the main poly person's partners too

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

And showing how it deteriorates through time when one partner is abusive and it destroys the other two

Oh I’ve seen an abusive poly in real life before

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

One partner chose to have multiple male partners

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

so I have rip

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

But her boyfriend didn’t want that...and the female partner wouldn’t allow him to have other partners

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

also uh same but it was one guy with women as his multiple partners

the guy had a toxic masculinity mindset.

and i'm like to my friend like " Are you still going out with him?"

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

was he cheating on them though, or was it consented? Because infidelity is different from poly. My poly friends can't stress that enough(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it was consented but from what I see it that for to established relationship he wanted like the women to be him as his partner

and they agreed to it

but he also was meeting with other women other than his poly partners

so i'm like

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Okay that’s....not good. And I think that’s what needs to be addressed a lot I wonder if there are comics out there that talk about poly relationships

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

idk. like if it works with them, that's on them but i'm like idk how I feel if my partner will do that when I agreed to be only monogamous to him

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

yes exactly. Yes there are and usually healthy poly relationship. I have to go find it, but not many comics.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

so lmao it didn't sit well for me due to my morals I guess

but if he, and my friend, and his poly partners had it work, I guess more power to them?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Okay but if your partner decides to be poly without you, that's not being poly, that's cheating

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

No, eightfish the thing is that they agreed to him seeking out multiple partners while being monogamous

so it's more like an poly-open relationship thing?

at least that's in my understanding

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Not only that, banning your partner from seeking out others is hypocritical

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like his partners doesn't have an issue with it

that's the distinction

idk man i don't understand well, and even equiped with this knoweldge I rather read other poly folks works about the subject than attempting poly relationship dynamics myself lmao(edited)

that's my two cents on it lol

yeah

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

like for some poly people, they like the idea of having multiple partners, so that there's less pressure to be a perfect partner. Some compare it to; having more than one friend? what do you guys think though?(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

idk I just have friends

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I say that's some valid points. like they're varying degrees

Deo101 [Millennium]

im not poly so I cant comment

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

and the poly experience is varried so there's not right all to be all so yeah lmao.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

yeah I think so too. TBH, I was feeling mixed when they compare romantic partners to having multiple friends?

but because I think the love for a partner is much deeper, but that's just me?(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I say it's valid if you feel that, but i know folks will beg to differ on other responses

I guess for my experience, friendship love can be deep as romantic love and i'm not nesssarly lacking if I don't have love from a romantic partner nor a platonic friend

it's varied, fluid, and if it works for your understanding... I don't see the harm

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

ah when you explain it, I can see why, I do see friendship can be pretty deep and emotional.(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think for me, I feel love very deeply for my friends and also my boyfriend. the differences are paper thin between the way love feels for me, it really comes down to "I chose him to be the one im kissin and stuff" cause its not even "spend the rest of my life with him only", because I fully want my close friends to be with me the rest of my life! I would love to live near or with them and see them every day, so its not that sort of foreverness thats different.

its not something that I'm self aware enough to be able to pinpoint.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah!

Deo101 [Millennium]

also this is VERY off topic I feel

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

... very tru

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

oops, it was interesting though. I've been questioning about the differences between romantic love and friendship(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Paper thin differences between deep friendship and strong romance are actually pretty relevant to HoK Though probably still off topic for this week's topic

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

I feel like I'm arriving four years later to the party, but if we're talking about character flaws then oh boy do I have some for you! In O Sarilho, we have: - Nikita's big inability to open up to people and having absolutely no tools to deal with the traumatic things that happen around him. It's so much better to keep it all in, ignore the people who are trying to help you and just let it all come out through anger; - Shizuka always says the wrong thing. Always. It's her natural talent. She doesn't mean them that way but now they're out and that's what counts; - Franquelim avoids conflict (with good reason) to an almost complacent point; - Dária is completely unaware of her privilege and tbh her own sheer luck!!; - Steffano has some problems with making his intentions clear and privilege too, in a way he also a bad time standing up to his father's antics and correlates his relationships with how useful they are to him (and vice-versa)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I’m always curious about the creator’s process arriving at their stories and characters, including character flaws! I’m wondering how these flaws affect the character developments/dynamics and propel the story?

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

at least for me, I am trying to write a story about cooperation, so figures the major flaw my main character would have would be... being very uncooperative

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(Osarilho is amazing and illustrates that perfectly )

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

()

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Oh nooooo I was typing a long reply and accidentally deleted it

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

F

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

OHNO I wAS LOOKING FORWARD FOr IT

looking at @keii’ii (Heart of Keol) is typing... with such antecipation

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I should type in notepad and C&P but I never learn...

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

well, I think character flaws need to relate in some way to the major storyline, to the big events and themes of the story, but a lot of what I got comes from my interactions with other people, seeing what they think and also how I think and evolve and rationalize stuff... but obvs that all needs to be molded in a way that serves the narrative

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Anyway, I was starting to talk about my experience writing my previous comic, which was a conflict-driven story. What is the conflict (and/or theme), and why are these characters personally involved? What traits, goals, etc. of theirs keep them tied to this very unpleasant mess?

I didn't actually have to sit down for many days trying to figure that out. Once the biggest piece of the puzzle fell into place, the rest just followed pretty smoothly!

And the biggest piece of the puzzle was "what is it that I want to talk about with this story?"

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

yeah! that kinda tends to happen xd find the big piece and the others follow

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

So I think that's sorta similar to what @Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho said about cooperation. In my case, it was "romance can be VERY DESTRUCTIVE"

(I had seen too many "finding Mr/Ms Right fixes all of your life's problems" stories at that point in my life)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

romance doesn't put bread on the table

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

So I had: - one extremely manipulative, baby-faced MC & his love interest (figuring out that he was manipulative was a part of the First Big Piece that fell into place) - one guy who actually found his True Love, married her, but still had serious problems. He had not even begun to resolve those problems when his wife unexpectedly died - another guy whose OTP was himself x his sister who did NOT want any of that (no assault happened, but that does not make this okay) They all had other aspects that I'd consider flaws, but you can see how those flaws are central to the story.

HoK, on the other hand, isn't really a 'there is something objectively terrible going on' kinda story. (I mean there is, but the story doesn't focus on that.) So I approach it from a different angle that I can't quite articulate/describe right now.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

with terrible things it's easy to divide the characters in proactive/complacent axis

the "something terrible is happening, are you gonna do anything, or are you gonna let it happen?" but also the third option you are making the terrible thing

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yus

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

some people transform into tigers.. to cope

carcarchu

i don't know if i've ever consciously thought about giving my characters flaws. all i think about is "this is the role they need to perform, and this is how they're going to do it"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it's not like an MMO character creation process: "pick body. pick face. pick strengths. pick flaws." It's a lot more.... simpler and complex at the same time

Nutty (Court of Roses)

In Court of Roses, Merlow's main flaw is that he spends so much effort making others happy and comforted that he entirely neglects himself. He's had a traumatic experience in his past, and since it's still fresh and painful for him, instead of opening up about it, he drinks to numb the pain, if just for the night. Until the nightmares awaken him, of course. While he is an extremely social boy and thrives off the company of good friends, he is so, so afraid of them getting caught up in his troubles. So much so, that after an especially terrible nightmare, he attempted to run away into the woods to escape them "being hurt" in some way. He's constantly putting others before himself. Hopefully he'll learn through the other main bards (especially Nocturne) to take care of himself without guilt, or in a self-destructive manner.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

As I think of Eliushi's question; when I typically think of flaws, I imagine they need to effect the character's life or relationships with others. Some of my older teen or adult characters, I can naturally imagine their flaws, since they are closer to real people.

While my cinnamon roll-like OCs are a little harder to figure their flaws, it can't be too dark or out of character. I figure I'll figure it out as I carry on the story(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Cricket is mean, antisocial, and irresponsible. All of the rest of the pirates hate her because she went behind their backs and did something destructive that got them all in trouble. She also has a learning disability that she's really hard on herself about, calling herself "stupid" for not being able to read. She also has no problem with killing or stealing. Captain Harriet Hopper is more of an outwardly good person, with strong moral values and a general capability of commanding respect, but she has very low self confidence, second guessing her leadership decisions and often relying on reassurance and guidance from others rather than taking control of a situation.

The rest of the cast are pretty much just ruthlessly evil with only a few exceptions.

DanitheCarutor

Julian: - They're completely humorless, they do not laugh, they do not smile, everything is VERY serious business! When a joke doesn't fly over their head, they will not find any shred of humor in it. All jokes made by them are purely accidental. - Julian has no self-worth. Self-care is practically non-existent, they don't care about sleep, hygiene, eating and anything else that would help them feel even remotely better. Also, other than with Apollo, they will never stand up for themselves or give anyone lip unless it's to defend someone else. - They are an OCD level workaholic/cleanaholic, and will clean and keep themselves busy regardless of environment. While they did pick up good domestic responsibilities and work ethic at a young age, these positive habits have turned into excessively defensive ones. - They're a tiny ball of stress that second guesses themselves constantly. They are on edge nearly 24/7 about everything, especially when it comes to their partner and his instructions. - Very unambitious overall, they don't see themselves with a future so they don't try to have one. - Julian can have quite a temper and can be an absolute stubborn mule sometimes. They used to get in a lot of fights, especially when defending other kids, now they're like those grouchy old people who'll yell at you to get off their lawn. - They refuse help from others, seeing their own needs and presence as a burden they try to keep as low a profile as possible. I try to show these flaws through Julian's actions, interactions, the subjects they talk about, body language and appearance. Admittedly a lot of their personality hasn't shown through yet, currently in the comic their slew of mental health and domestic issues are overpowering who they are as a person, they're essentially living in survival mode. Later on their personality will start to show more, with their general flaws not being as heavily influenced by poor mental health and a bad environment.

DanitheCarutor

Apollo: - While growing up, his education wasn't taken very seriously by him or his family, in turn he slacked off a lot of school and now isn't the brightest bulb in the box. The lack of good education is also coupled with being very sheltered, he started out in private school then moved into homeschooling, so he never developed any significant life experiences. - He lacks basic survival and emotional comprehension skills. These skills were never encouraged or experienced during his upbringing, so he never developed them. - Apollo is very much a spoiled brat, he puts his wants first before considering other people. Although being someone with a general good nature, he tries to do his best with his close friends, he's just not very good at being considerate. - He is extremely gullible and overly trusting. If someone he considered a good friend told him you could create diamonds through your nose by snorting wasabi he would probably believe them. - Apollo doesn't have a whole lot of respect for himself, letting people use him and swindle him out of his money and possessions. His upbringing has a lot to do with letting people take advantage of him, but it also has a lot to do with his underlying guilt for past events, he just doesn't see himself as someone worth respecting. - He's a raging alcoholic due to the previous point. But he is very stubborn about it, insisting he does not have a problem, and that he can quit any time he wants to. - Apollo is a very lazy person overall, he refuses to learn basic skills, doesn't even take care of his personal and environmental cleanliness needs half the time. I try to show Apollo's flaws the same way I show Julian's, although with him there is a lot more focus on actions since he's a much more active person. His bad decisions are a major cause for some of the current predicaments in the comic, and have had a large roll in the story so far.(edited)

SPOILER

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Fotis' flaw is that he lets emotion take over him and tends to jump to conclusions. He's very precocious and has had to grow up too fast (he's only 14 and has experiences not many adults have, or should have) but he's still young and inexperienced. He makes errors in judgment though he learns fast. When he thinks coolly he's more likely to make a pretty solid call. But when he's angered, or feels intense grief, or intense joy or desperation, he tends to make less informed choices. Unfortunately living in WWII and Nazi-occupied Greece makes for a very unforgiving environment for trial and error. It shows often in the comic when he talks about things with older people- people that fight with their own demons and challenges.

kayotics

Oh crap, I almost missed this topic. My main character has SO many flaws

Deo101 [Millennium]

and we love him for it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

it's not too late

list them!

kayotics

I must prepare myself

kayotics

Some classic Toivo flaws: - Serial romantic. He loves the idea of being in love, and is desperate for it. - Flighty. He's hard to keep around. He's afraid of commitment for various reasons, and coupled with the serial romanticism, leads to a lot of heartache for him. - Related to the last one: avoidant in general. If he can avoid talking about hard conversations, he will. - A lack of coping mechanisms. This comes out in a very real way in chapter 3 when it's revealed that all of the ghosts in his house are literal ghosts of relationships, made by him trying to avoid dealing with the breakups. - Impulsive and leaps before he thinks. He's the stupidest genius you'll ever meet. He's super smart, and pretty wise, but he's going to act first before he even thinks about it. (sometimes this is a positive thing, and leads to ingenuity) - Petulant. He's pretty childish a lot of the times. - Brash. This doesn't come out as much in the comic, but when he's dealing with new people or people he doesn't like, he can be quite rude.

I'm sure there's more but those are the big ones.