#its just. very funny to me. because thats EXACTLY what im going for by using any pronouns but only telling that to people who ask directly

[unjest]

every time one of my coworkers sheepishly ask me what my pronouns are because they heard other people use varying pronouns when referring to me i gain more power

[yoshistory]

i feel like at work there's an unspoken rule somehow that everyone KNOWS im transgender but nobody will say or ask if i'm transgender or what i want to be called. most people say when i DO reveal that i am is because they dont want to say the wrong thing (i dont mind at all unless someone's being malicious).

i think the OTHER part of people who know but dont ask is because they know but dont want to be cornered into ACTUALLY respecting me. because if its ambiguously known then they can she/her/girl/woman/lady me all they want. but if i say im a man and make what i want known THEN they'll get in trouble if they decide they want to #girl me.

[hoodedjelly]

Sleep walk BTS post!

will go in depth with my process and put better quality drawings in here!

Before any of this i was listening to several fiddauthor/ford playlists to hear a song that really got my brain moving. Funny enough i didn't get Sleep walk from one of the 100+ song playlists i was listening to, it was in my oc playlist (thats a mad scientist who would've thought). Originally i wanted to make a fiddauthor animatic (who knows maybe i will), but THIS SONG just caught my brain in a way i couldn't refuse.

So i technically started working on it the late night of September 27, exactly a week ago! which yes yes i hear you all in unison go "WHAT???" to that, and all I have to say to that is.... I have untreated adhd and lots of caffeine in my system! (honestly felt like ford sometimes while workin on that animatic)

Started it off with some notes, then thumbnails. I had my tbob AND J3 open next to me stood up with clips for reference (prob looked a little insane looking back but its fine)

now for the rough animatic! i did this in Adobe animate 2022 (i'll get back to that later) the only thing that really got changed was i wanted to add the diner scene from j3. i realize now that it messed up the timeline i was going for with the animatic but i like to think things are out of order because of the state ford is in, things start to merge together.

After i sat with this rough animatic for a bit, i wasn't sure if i was going to make it in Adobe animate (what i usually do) or make it all in Clip Studio Paint. I wanted this animatic to be way more visually interesting then i usually do, so CSP it is. But! i only have CSP Pro, so i had to draw and export every single new frame from this animatic.

it was a little tedious at first (again never done an animatic like this before) but i got used to it! I edited it all together in CapCut and thats really it!

The missing J3 pages from TBOB spoke to me in a way that im not fully comfortable talking about to my followers. I put a lot of myself in this animatic then i'd want to realize, it's very important to me. The night when i uploaded it i was literally shaking with anxiety (and caffeine-) but the overwhelming support for it is really amazing, thank you so much! if you have any more questions please ask away i love talking about the art process.

Below im going to talk about the code and put HD backgrounds!

thank you for dyemro on here for cracking the code first! now i can talk about my insane little thought process about it

So i never planned to add a code until halfway through with the animatic. i was watching ThatGFFan videos and him talking about gravity falls codes got my brain cooking. i wanted something sweet and simple (i realize with dyemro's post it wasn't as simple as i thought, give me some slack it's my first time). like what you should with making codes you start at the end. And i wanted something that was a nice send off for drawing ford be fucking miserable for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

so i got this. (honestly every time i look at this drawing after finishing the animatic it makes me real emotional)

There are 4 codes in this whole animatic 0:02, 0:15, 0:30, and 0:58

wanted the first one to be REAL noticeable so people can stop and be like "wait... theres stuff in here". people usually think to use the bill symbols, but no! from the description theres a little hint to use the Author symbols

doing that code it leads to: imgu r.com /a/uZa iVfu (and if you know that double line a under a letter means capitalization + im a dumb dumb that used a code image that didn't have a Z so thats just a normal Z)

it makes a LINK! > imgur.com/a/uZaiVfu <

now enough of that boring stuff, heres some HD screenshots and backgrounds of my fav parts

[venomhound]

Hazbin Hotel - Dumb Lucifer Scenario Dump

Here are just a bunch of like random scenarios that popped into my head; usually when I was half asleep or hadn't slept for several days. Im not going to do anything with these beyond this post so if someone wants to like turn these into a short story or comic, feel free. Just link back and give me credit for the idea please ~<3 Id love to see what you make!!

Contents/WARNINGS: Heavy drinking; allusions to Lucifer being outcasted everywhere; potential sad ending on third one; Alastor casually breaking hearts; Lucifer needs therapy or meds or something Actual brainrot below the cut. Not beta read we die like men -ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Who Needs Magic Anyway? ₊˚ ‿︵୨୧

(Little bit of context; this idea came about because I was talking to @writteninlunarlight-years about the whole 'there is only one bed trope thing)

Lucifer and reader are both drinking together. They both get so plastered that the reader cant go home on their own and Lucifer cant make a decent portal. (The portals keep fizzing out, going to the wrong places.... Point is he cant do it right atm).

So Lucifer offers to have the reader stay with him for the night. Even in their drunkin state, the reader side-eyes Lucifer at his offer and the guy just keeps digging his hole deeper Saying stuff like:

Lucifer: I-I meant we can sleep together as friends. Reader: *blinks* Lucifer: WAIT-

Lucifer even offers to make you one of those stupid pillow walls in between you two if your really that uncomfortable. What a gentleman

Anyway, you both eventually end up in his bedroom and Lucifer changes into duck pajamas (because of course thats what he has. what else would the guy have really). Then you both look at each other awkwardly as you both realize you… don't exactly have anything comfortable to sleep in.

Lucifer quickly says that its fine! He will just magic you up some pjs! Easy! Well. The problem is when he does this, his alcohol infused brain defaulted the entire concept of sleepwear to mean 'Lucifer’s sleepwear.' So when he zaps you, you end up with a perfectly matching set of ducky nightshirt and pants to Lucifer’s very own.

Lucifer immediately wants to die.

Bonus: This entire thing has now made me headcanon that Lucifer cannot control his magic when he is drunk

✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿‿✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿‿✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿

Playing the Hero ₊˚ ‿︵୨୧

NOTE: I used a spider here, but really it can be any bug. Or whatever you want. I just did a spider because fuck spiders, and the idea of Lucifer cowering at a mini Angel Dust was very funny to me

Its late at night and as usual Lucifer cannot sleep. Lucifer is suddenly disturbed however, by the reader in their adorable pajamas. They are looking around nervously, with their hands hidden in their sleeves.

The man is immediately ready to do anything they ask cause they are just so darn cute.

The reader sheepishly asks him if he can kill a giant spider that has decided to make itself at home in their room. Lucifer, ever the sin of pride, (and maaayyybe wanting to impress them a little), excitedly says that of course he can! Completely pushing away the fact that, he too, is afraid of spiders.

They both go to the reader's room and as soon as Lucifer sees the spider he panics a little. (”Oh god, that is actually a big spider.”, ”Why are its legs so long??”)

Wanting to play the hero but also not wanting to go anywhere near the accursed thing, Lucifer thinks itll be a great idea to just- zap it.

Well, the thing is Lucifer’s hands are very shaky at the moment, due to a combination of having all the reader's attention on him and the fear of holyshitspider. So when he tries to zap the thing he completely fucking misses like an idiot.

The spider goes flying toward the two of them, resulting in both of them bursting out of the room screaming bloody murder and waking up the rest of the hotel.

✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿‿✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿‿✿°•∘୨୧∘•°✿

Don't Overthink It ₊˚ ‿︵୨୧

(Again, inspired by @writteninlunarlight-years specifically her post about Making Flower Crowns for the Hazbin Men. This prompt takes place during Valentines Day, but you can easily modify it to be during a different holiday. Can be platonic or romantic.

Valentines Day comes around, and you decide to gift one to the infamous King of Hell. Because youll be sending it anonymously, you decide to go all out. You get him a super nice duck themed gift, handwrite him a card, as well as get him a stunning bouquet.

What you didn't anticipate however, was Lucifer completely losing it when he receives the gift. Apparently its been decades/centuries since he last received a Valentine, let alone one as nice as the one you gave him.

He was the King of Hell after all. You assumed he got a million Valentines automatically because of his position. I mean, Alastor got piles of them so why WOULDNT the King of Hell?

Because of its anonymous nature, Lucifer's ever romantic heart gets obsessed with the Valentine. You love bombed the poor guy on complete accident. Lucifer starts trying to do his own little 'investigations' to figure out who made it for him, like comparing different handwritings to the one on the card and such. Lucifer even starts daydreaming about who it could be and imagining what they are like.

(if its romantic) Your afraid to tell him you did it because you don't want to complicate your friendship with Charlie. A part of you also feels guilty that you somehow managed to put yourself on such a high pedestal in Lucifer's eyes when... your just you.

(if its platonic) You don't want to break Lucifer's heart and tell him that you just wanted to do something nice. You feel guilty for getting his hopes up for something/someone that doesn't exist.

BONUS: At some point in the story, the reader walks by a trashcan/dumpster full of Valentines meant for Alastor that he clearly just trashed right away. Alastor hates Valentines day because everyone wont. Stop. BUGGING. HIM.

[creacherkeeper]

happy pride everyone

for some reason i was sitting outside this morning and enjoying some shockingly not boiling hot weather and reflecting on a post i had made like ... 12 years ago on here that "blew up" (like 60k notes on early days tumblr) and thinking like. wow i sure do know a lot more about myself now that makes all that make sense but

the post was someone saying like. hey how can you call yourself an atheist and support gay people because gay people go against the concept of evolution. and my reply was like. actually there are gay members of like every social species weve studied it in and i had a bunch of facts laid out about all the different very gay animals of this world (like giraffes having very largely m/m sex)

but now, like 12 years later, i am thinking about human evolution and queer identity and thought it would be fun to talk about. i am by far not an expert and so if there are experts who want to correct me or talk more in depth about this Please jump in but

... why did humans evolve to be queer anyway?

very short answer: because its helpful to raising kids

longer answer: though its debated whether humans are a prosocial or eusocial species, it is agreed upon that early humans cooperatively raised young, including those that they did not personally sire or give birth to, and that we lived in multi-generation communities where younger members would help raise older members offspring, and vice versa

(note: im using the terms amab and afab for human populations potentially pre concepts of gender but work with me here, i dont want to keep repeating genitalia or genomes when those arent always a helpful 1 to 1 either. sex is a spectrum gender is made up etc support intersex rights)

we know that due to fraternal birth order effect (npr link), youre 33% more likely to be gay with each older amab sibling that you have (not 33% total, but 33% more, so like 2% to 2.6 to 3.5 etc). this is true of both amab and afab people with older amab siblings. we also know that a birthing parent having more of a specific antibody makes their children more likely to be gay (and that antibody is not exclusive to but is highly tied to giving birth to amab children)

in addition, evolutionarily speaking, its just as advantageous for your siblings children to do well than it is for yours to. its incredibly rare you would happen to have a very helpful mutation that your siblings dont have. which means that your siblings kids would be about 25% amab grandparent, 25% afab grandparent, and 50% a parent who is unrelated to you. this is exactly the same for your own children

okay, so what does that mean?

to put it simply, it means that having older siblings, specifically older siblings who are more easily able to sire more children, makes you more likely to end up in a same-sex couple, which means you are two adults with no children who are now around to help raise children you are equally invested in the success of than if they were your own

the more older youth or adults you have around to help who are not also using up a bunch of resources by being pregnant and having non-helping-age children, the better off that community's children will be. more people to hunt and gather and create resources like tools, which means everyone prospers, especially the kids

or, to frame it from the opposite view: having gay siblings means your children are more likely to survive and thrive

(kind of funny how conservatives are like gay people shouldnt be around children when the entire point of our evolutionary development was that we were great to have around if you had kids but like. alas)

so, thats the very basic core of it. but you can apply this concept to a lot of queer identities. aroace? working adult around to help who is not bringing in an unrelated partner or having kids. trans? you now either have an m/f couple who can fill two different social niches without having kids, or you have a gay couple who is able to do more varied physical tasks whether or not they do have kids. bi people may have kids or may not, or their children may be more spread out if they have partners of different sexes over time

not to mention you kind of have some built in, ready to go parents in the case that another community member dies, and there are now orphans that need raising. its a lot harder for someone whos already a parent to take on more children, as opposed to an adult couple who doesnt have any

so yeah :) were queer because we were helpful to have in communities and allowed everyone, but especially youth, to prosper and thrive

tl;dr: queer people were an evolutionary advantage to have in an early community because we were helping-age members who were able to cooperatively raise young and take on orphans without using up resources on birthing and raising our own young

yay science :o) happy pride everyone!!!

[beatboxing-puppy]

saw some posts on this website discussing what sort of videogames the dunmeshi characters would play and i think everyone is wrong. everyone is wrong except for me so im going to spell out exactly who plays what. putting it under a read more because im going on a damn tangent.

Laios: He's not a gamer he does not play games on purpose he will only ever play video games when his friends ask him to join them in their multiplayer things. One day tho Falin told him about Monster Hunter and now thats the only thing he plays aside from Spore and he has sunk countless hours into that damn game. Also he probably has played Some pokemon but he doesnt like PLAYING it he just likes it in concept he knows the name of all the pokemon

marcille: people keep saying she would be a cosy gamer playing animal crossing and stardew and other cute games ^-^ its so lalalaaaa NO!!!!!!! no she does not. Marcille plays games that stress her out on purpose marcille plays overwhelming micromanagey games like lobotomy corporation and rimworld and etc. She also likes games with deep lore and mysteries to discover. The only thing that doesn't fit in this category that she plays is Minecraft shes always in there CREATIVE MODE building virtual dungeons and other crazy shit. Also she plays on her work laptop with trackpad ok

Chilchuck: This one is for me. This one im just basing off my own dad ok. Chilchuck used to be a hardcore gamer in his youth but specifically he was playing stuff like world of warcraft and old school runescape he had really big setups so he could run several instances of the game at once on all his alt accounts so he could beat a boss by himself and he was really good at it. But then he had kids and didnt have time for this sort of thing so he stopped playing videogames aside from occasionally helping his daughters beat a super hard mario level. Later in life he probably discovered some shitty little low-commitment phone game like pokemon go or pikmin bloom or some daily sudoku puzzle thing and he plays it every day but its not that big a deal. He has been pressured by his friends and daughters to make a roblox account but he hasnt played it at all.

Senshi: THIS guy is the one that plays animal crossing. He logs in when he can but hes not on that every day grind. Also he doesnt play the newest one he doesnt play horizons he plays one of the DS ones. Wild world probably. He either doesn't like or doesn't know about the nintendo switch. Whenever one of his villagers say that they want to leave he'll nod solemnly and say smth like "Well... I suppose it'd be selfish to ask ye to stay, friend... Just promise me you'll stay safe and never forget me... Go and explore the world. Wish ye the best." Plus his island would be covered in weeds. He also has some mobile games he enjoys angry birds and candy crush and crosswords (gotta keep the brain in shape!) but other than that he doesn't videogame much because he prefers board games and tabletop stuff he isnt too jazzed about all this modern technology plus a console or a laptop and all that gaming equipment is a lot to lug around and hes a nomad he would NOT have that shit

Falin: Now FALIN is the cosy gamer. kind of. Falin plays animal crossing new horizons sometimes and has fun making a bad island on purpose. Very mildly "bad" tho the worst she'll do is use the drawing feature to hide a giant penis on the beach or whatever. Or she'll give her villagers silly outfits. She also plays minecraft (either skyblock or she makes a new world and explores and builds a couple houses and then forgets about it and makes another new world) and roblox (likes 'trolling' strangers by dressing up funny and acting kind of strange in roleplay servers but she's never actually mean or anything.) But the big thing she likes is story-driven indie rpgmaker games. She's the person who will say shit like "Yeah I played Blums Booglies the quest for Big Dinners and it was so good I cried for 9 hours" completely unironically.

kabru: social gamer like laios but the games he plays on purpose are the sims (he likes to cause them problems) and online multiplayer games (he likes to peoplewatch). I can also see him doing absurd and tortrous challenge runs of games like No items no pokecenter one type hardcore nuzlockes. im correct

izutsumi: ACTUALLY trolls people on roblox. And she plays needlessly gory flash games. Maybe she calls people dumbfucks over valorant voice chat sometimes

[solarianradiance]

John: hey karkat! John: watcha up to?

Karkat: FIRST OF ALL. Karkat: IF YOU ARE GOING TO INVADE ANOTHER. ENTITIES ABODE THAT IS HIS HIVE. Karkat: I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO AT LEAST HAVE THE COURTESY OF KNOCKING ON HIS RESPITE BLOCKS DOOR. Karkat: LEST HE RIGHTFULLY BLOW YOUR INCONSIDERATE AND EMPTY FUCKING SKULL CLEAN OFF YOUR CLEARLY INEFFECTIVE SHOULDER OUT OF BEING STARTLED BY YOUR SUDDEN APPEARANCE.

Karkat: DO YOU PEOPLE JUST NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF PRIVATE PERSONAL SPACE AND WHY IT'S RUDE TO JUST COME AND GO ONTO OTHER PEOPLES PROPERTY WITHOUT PERMISSION LIKE THAT? Karkat: ITS GOD DAMN BARBARIC YOU UNMANNERED JACKASS!!!

Karkat: BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WILL ASK IT AGAIN. Karkat: IM DRAWING MY HUMANSONAS.

John: your human...sonas? John: you're being a furry, but with humans?

Karkat: I AM GOING TO PRETEND I DIDNT JUST HEAR THAT AND SAVE US BOTH THE RAGE INDUCED VIOLENCE YOU ARENT WORTH THE EFFORT OF. Karkat: INSTEAD I SHALL GIVE YOU THE BREAKDOWN OF WHY I AM DOING THIS. Karkat: IT IS NOT A FURRY THING. Karkat: IT IS A THERAPY THING.

Karkat: SEE I PROMISED KANAYA ON HER WRIGGLING DAY I WOULD TRY AND MANAGE MY ANGER BETTER. Karkat: WHICH MEANT SEEING A THERAPIST. Karkat: SO BASICALLY WASTE MY TIME HASHING IT OUT WITH A DUMB BLONDE LAVENDER BIMBO THAT SHES MARRIED TO FOR A COUPLE HOURS OF HOURS EVERY WEEK. Karkat: WE WERE NOT GETTING ANYWHERE FOR THE FIRST FEW NIGHTS. Karkat: WHICH I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN BECAUSE ITS FUCKING STUPID AND SHE KNEW IT. Karkat: THEN SHE SUGGESTED THAT I USE AN AVATAR OF MY OWN MAKING TO ROLEPLAY IT OUT AS ANOTHER PERSON. Karkat: WHICH, YKNOW, IM GOOD AT. SO I VERY CALMLY SAID Karkat:"Fuck it, why not?" Karkat: SO I STARTED DRAWING THEM AS SOON AS I GOT UNSTUCK FROM THEIR HOME, JUST SO I COULD WALK THROUGH THE MIND OF A HUMAN THAT SWAPPED HIVES WITH ME.

John: that sound like something rose would suggest. John: glad you're at least trying to hold to your promise, don't see a whole lotta that these days.

John: but now i gotta ask. John: why are you drawing two of em?

Karkat: WHAT PART OF "You are being rude." DO YOU NOT COMPREHEND? Karkat: DONT JUST LOOK AT THINGS THAT ARE NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

John: you said humansona's John: as in plural. John: you're not exactly hiding anything anyways. John: it's right there for all the world to see. John: no need to be krabby about it.

Karkat: I AM NOT BEING KRABBY! Karkat: I AM BEING PATIENT TOWARDS YOUR ASININE BEHAVIOR! Karkat: BECAUSE Karkat: I AM LITERALLY INSIDE MY OWN PRIVATE FUCKING BEDROOM YOU GASLIGHTING PIECE OF SHIT! Karkat: THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF ME BEING IN HERE TO BEGIN WITH! Karkat: TO KEEP MY AFFAIRS PRIVATE! Karkat: WHICH YOU AND EVERY OTHER GOD DAMN SNOOT SERPENT BEHEMOTH OF THE SAVANNAH SEEM HELLBENT ON MAKING PUBLIC! Karkat: YOU UTTERLY INVASIVE AND ABOUT TO BE ASSBUSTED GHOST!

John: ...

John: well. John: exscuuuuse me for taking an interest in my obviously isolated friend.

Karkat: ...

Karkat: YOUVE BEEN HANGING AROUND TEREZI VRISKA AND MEENAH TOO MUCH LATELY. Karkat: TO HELL WITH IT. Karkat: HERE. Karkat: I WAS ABOUT FINISHED DRAW THEM ANYWAYS. Karkat: GAZE UPON MY THE WORKS OF MY IMAGINATION AS TO WHAT I WOULD BE LIKE IF I WAS HUMAN!

John: holy crap karkat! John: these are really good! John: i didn't know you were such a capable artist! John: i'm actually impressed.

Karkat: WELL. Karkat: THATS THE FUNNY THING. Karkat: YOU THINK YOU KNOW A PERS-

John: you said these were your humansonas? John: for therapy? John: why do you have 2? John: and why is one of them a girl?

Karkat: WHAT? Karkat: IS THAT NOT ALLOWED? Karkat: I CAN EXPLORE MY FEMININE SIDE IF I WANT.

Kanaya: In Case You Are Wondering Kanaya: I Too Made A Humansona

John: AAA!!!!!!

Kanaya: BLEEEH!!!!!!

John: KANAYA! John: how long have you been in here with us?!

Kanaya: The Whole Time! Kanaya: Did You Not Know I Was In Here?

John: NO!

Karkat: SEE?! Karkat: THIS RIGHT HERE. Karkat: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. Karkat: THIS IS EXACTLY WHY YOU KNOCK AND ASK BEFORE ENTERING ANOTHER PERSONS RESPITE BLOCK. Karkat: CUZ ITS AS RUDE AS IT IS DANGEROUS. Karkat: YOURE LUCKY IT WAS KANAYA AND I AND NOT SOMEONE LIKE EQUIUS. Karkat: WHO WOULD REFLEXIVELY PUNCH YOU INTO GORE UPON BEING STARTLED. Karkat: SO SAY IT WITH ME. Karkat: WHEN YOU ENTER ANOTHER PERSONS ABODE... Karkat: FUCKING KNOCK FIRST.

[fictionfixations]

part 3 of me going through the new book 7 update

part 1 (short where i ended after running out of mystium)

part 2 (after i got more mystium, now im doing rest of the story as im FREE of the battlemap)

heres your reminder that in the wish upon a star event lilia has a wish for humans and fae to be able to co-exist

...

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU okay im sorry i cant hold myself back i HATE these guys with a passion and you guys will too its just an instinctive reaction at this point

YOU SHUT UP ALL YOU CAN DO IS BLABBER BUT YOU CANT DO SHIT! TELL ME IF YOU WERE THERE ON THE BATTLEFIELD WOULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING OR WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN JUST A BURDEN THAT DRAGGED EVERYBODY DOWN? YOU PRAISE MALEANOR FOR STANDING HER GROUND AGAINST HUMANS AND CALL IT NOBLE BUT SHE FUCKING DIED

bro if you had a face to punch in i would. oh wait. youre already dead.

now act like it and shut up dude

NOOO MALLEUS

egg-sama dont go :(((

LILIA PLEASE

genuinely i have to wonder how lilia survived after this, before malleus was born, having all this guilt and self-hatred for failing :(

ruining the mood here but oh my GOD I hate the blind debuff YOU FHEWUISHFSUIHFUH DUDE

D:

in the 10 years since maleanor died its been changed from briarland to briar valley.

malleus lasting so long because lilia tells him to. also his egg is glowing and idk if thats like some morse code idk what its saying

yippee places of other events appearing. now we just need event characters to appear

AHHHH joSAIHDJOAJDIj. hes singing the song hfsuidfh. it sounds different, probably because hes not used to singing it. but then when he sings it to silver it sounds.. smoother??

that he got his signature spell because he wanted for any scrap of information on how to hatch a dragon egg, that he'll take anything

..EIGHTY YEARS???? sorry im not sending as many screenshots because im trying not to cap it

HARVESTONNN

i need a fic where lilia joins them on like the trip to harveston and maybe he gets like vaguely recognized, maybe like cause it was spoken of that they found this fae or like they had an image or something and its fluff times.

well its been 270-ish years since then but come on :(

wait could this be lilia?

eggsama WHAT ARE YOU SAYING. YOU KEEP GLOWING. and its not skippable (what i do is tap to see all the dialogue and then tap past it cause i read fast instead of waiting)

MALLEUS!?!?!?

notice the emblem lilia usually has is gone because he stopped being a general (actually i cant show a before and after but if you scroll up theres an image of him with the emblem on his chest)

"My magic, my remaining lifespan..."

lilia, is that why youre going to die early? is that what you described when you said you were like. adventurous or something like that (i forgot what he said exactly) in your youth?

im going to cry again this is unfair

they dont deserve my words.

..SHUT THE FUCK UP- okay CALM im CALM.

AHHHHH IM NOT CALM

sorry breaking the mood but 'you truly are poor sleepers' sounds funny to me and i cant explain why. its like. malleus simplifying it so much that it sounds dumb

youd know wouldnt you sebek? because your existence literally means you are loved 🥺

💀

lilia...

WHY ARE WE FIGHTING HIM AGAIN MALLEUS PLEASEE can we just skip over this battle we already know we wont win 😭😭😭

RETRY TICKET?? IM SUPPOSED TO WIN?? WHAT?? guys what the fuck no wait i think im supposed to endure for 5 turns

dude wh at

what even happens if you use a retry ticket wtfs the point???

WHAT DO YOU MEAN. IM SORRY????? STOP GIVING ME THE RETRY TICKET WHAT

giving myself the most hp i can to try to endure cause holy fuck what do you mean RETRY TICket?

okay. i did it. i got so confused because i made it to turn 5 and on the very last attack died and it hit me wtih a retry ticket but you just had to win by enduring his attacks for 5 turns, no dying

good thing i got a lot of healing units with a shit ton of hp but holy fuck i was boutta throw hands like what do you MEAN win against a 300k enemy who can heal all of his health back

aight we're dipping out of lilia's dream now WOo that was long

ORTHO

dude is this the first time we actually see the ignihyde dorm background (in main story i mean). cause like. we didnt see ignihyde at all really we were in styx the whole time in book 6

ok that tracks considering we were all the way in book 7 and we got hit with the title screen

THATS

THATS THE END oh.

[the-pea-and-the-sun]

Ummm two of your favorite sitcoms I should check out

& what’s a card game that would be fun to get into. Or how do you play blackjack/count cards

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE its genuinely so good an super foundational to post 2000s sitcoms it kinda shook up the established sitcom format w some unconventional directing and also by portraying a low-class family where most sitcoms up to that point portrayed upper-middle class families. its also um. funny. one of the few shows where i feel like im really fond of every main character

THE NANNY childhood favorite of mine very classic comforting sitcom I LOVE FRAN DRESCHERR shes amazing.

UM HONESTLY. I KINDA ONLY KNOW ABT BLACKJACK but i hear baccarat is fun for ppl who like skill based card games.. also u can do tarot readings w regular card decks which i think is very cool 👍

ILL TELL U HOW TO COUNT CARDS im so glad ppl r reading my abt me page AND I LOVE TALKING ABT IT ITS ACTUALLY VERY COOL OK SO

BASICALLY rules 4 black jack are easy. ur ignoring colors and shapes on ur cards (this isnt easy i know..) those are all numbers now. the ones that have numbers on them r the number they are and the ace is either 1 or 11 depending on which is better for u (or the dealer) and all the other cards without numbers (king queen jack) are 10. ur goal is to get a higher number than the dealer without going over 21. u and the dealer both start with two cards and u can only see one of the dealers cards and u make ur decisions based on that. dealer has the advantage (except when they dont. ill explain this later) because since the dealer doesnt do anything until u bust or stand it makes it so that ur at risk of busting first (since u cant bust with just two cards). u can hit (ask for another card) or stand (no more cards im all done) or u can double (ask for another card AND double ur bet bcz ur so sure this next card is gonna be a good one) AND u can also split if both ur cards are the same. then u have two hands, which means u can bust on one and keep playing on the other. also sometimes u can get a natural blackjack. this is awesome and important but u dont do anything to make it happen exactly it just happens when u get an ace and a 10 as ur first two cards and then u get a 3:2 payout 👍

OK SO THATS JUST REGULAR BLACKJACK most ppl when playing regular blackjack are just following their heart when they make choices so their odds are dogshit but for every hand u have and card the dealer has there's actually a right answer. heres a link to a chart with all the right answers. memorizing this is called basic strategy 👍 and its actually a lot harder than actually counting cards but counting cards is useless without it. there are some cool little lines and phrases that make memorizing it easier. it isnt terribly hard though i think, they still make some middle schoolers memorize the periodic table and this is basically just like. three of those. ppl who play blackjack for funzies regularly are looking at absolutely trash odds like a lot of the time only slightly better than a slot machine but if ur playing with perfect basic strategy ur odds go up to abt 49.5 percent. but ur STILL losing more than ur winning so thats where actual card counting comes in. so theres more than one card counting method but the one i know is hi-lo where u just keep a "running count" of ur current odds for winning by looking at the cards that are coming out of the deck (its actually a shoe, bcz its more than one deck) and using that to determine what kind of cards are left. 10 and ace decrease the count by 1, 6 and below increase the count by one, and 7 8 and 9 dont change the count. a high number means theres more good cards in the deck (because more bad cards have already been dealt) and a low number means theres more bad cards in the deck bcz the good cards have already been dealt. there are some variants to basic strategy based on the current count (and also based on a few rule variants and shoe size) but basically. higher count = bet more. lower count = get outta there. if ur playing w more ppl at ur table ur seeing more cards per turn an ur count will be more accurate 👍whats pretty interesting is that the thing thats giving u the advantage over the dealer despite the dealer not being able to bust before you is that you get 3:2 on natural blackjacks. so ur basically relying on the fact that youll just win automatically sometimes to have ur advantage over the dealer and are just mitigating loses the rest of the time when this doesnt happen.

SO THATS IT its actually not super hard u could probably get pretty good at it in just a few months or even weeks. the only thing is that when ur using basic strategy perfectly and counting cards perfectly ur odds only go up to 50.5 percent which. GREAT ur beating the house and playing for long enough should eventually mean more money over time but ur still only averaging more money over time. and just like how ppl working with dogshit odds occasionally win big, u working with slightly better than 50/50 odds can occasionally lose big and a lot. also if ur betting small, ur winning small. so in order to really make a worthwhile profit playing blackjack u kinda already have to have a lotta money. like if ur making $100 worth of bets an hour ur only averaging abt a dollar profit per hour. to be averaging (not making. AVERAGING) california minimum wage you'd have to be betting like $1600 an hour. so it isnt quite the get rich quick scheme that a lotta people think it is but it IS pretty fun and is kind of the only part of gambling i enjoy. probability is cool 👍

[dollivication]

💗NON IS BACK AND IVE BROUGHT SPARDA BRAIN ROT!!! we have established icky grandpa Sparda holding you on his thigh, touching places he shouldnt be !! Hes jus so calm and casual about running his big hand up your shirt, up and down your thighs or over the small of your back that even if you DO know better, its hard to push him away !!!

If youre Vergils kid i think he would be jelly..’IM their father, they r MINE’ !! telling grandpapa sparda to BACK OFF but ofc Sparda only laughs at the threat and keeps going. When u visit hes so happy..tea with honey and cookies while u sit in his lap and he spreads your legs <33 if youre good, he’ll fuck you with his fingers (very gently ofc, he doesnt want to hurt his beloved grandchild!!) while kissing the top of ur head and inhaling your scent :33

i THINK if yuu r Dantes kid and dante finds out he would find it funny..even more so if youre the one to tell him, he laughs it off and pats ur back. Silly you!!! Ickiness runs in the family!! Mayb he WOULD be a lil miffed if he finds out his papa got to touch yu like this before him, but i think (Sparda being the family man he is) wouldnt take your virginity from you, thats a privilege reserved for yur daddy!! (Not to say he wont prepare you, gently rubbing along your cunt and rubbing your clit while explaining yu what to expect…)

I think even Icky sparda is still a loving, gentle guy..i think his ickiness would stem more from love and not lust (cough cough DANTE..) !!

— Sorry if this doesnt fit w the mood we got going on here (◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ) 💗NON SIGNING OFF!!!

THIS FIT LITERALLY EVERYTHING WE HAD GOING ON. FRET NOT 💗NON I AM LITERALYH TNDNFNGNHMHRJSJDJC IM TWEAKINGOUT IM TWEAKING

💗non you are my literal flood in a drought INFUCKING LOVE OLD MAN DICK I LOVE SPARDA DICK!!!!! that icky old old man….

sparda is a firm believer in slow & steady wins the race… epitome of gentle when it comes to his loved 1s he hates rushing into stuff, which obviously he applies to his grandbabies!!!! he’s just soso loving and caring towards you, it almost feels natural for him to be touching you in a way no family member should ૮꒰ ˶> ༝ <˶꒱ა !!! UHGHHGGYOU ARE SOSOSRIGHT 💗NON WE WRE LITERALLY ON THE SAME BRAINWAVE

vergy will be absolutely FLOORED at the fact that his dad is touching HIS kid laik wtf the audacity???…. he is going to be in absolute shambles if you prefer sparda’s way of doing things 2 LMFAO he’s going to be so petty. he’ll fuck you rough to prove himself, and be confused when you go crying to sparda abt how mean he was… and even at his grown ass age his PUNISHMENT will be being forced to watch sparda fuck you with so much tenderness. and he can’t do anything because. that’s his dad…. and sparda says he needs to learn how to treat you properly.. UGGGHHH

DANTE IS MORE RELAXED ABOUT IT YES!!! his literal mindset is “grandpa touches you weirdly?? wtf! it should’ve been me.. (◞‸◟).. anyways dw abt it its normal<3” LMFOAOOSDKF at least you’re getting along with your peepaw!! AND YOURE SO RIGHT ABOUT SPARDA PREPARING YOU TO GET FUCKED BY YOUR DAD!!! OHYMGOSHHSRG

the typa guy to walk you through the whole process of what’s gonna happen.. he knows it can be scary! but he’ll tell you that your dad loves you as much as he does and that it’s something you should look forward to! the language he uses w yew is so careful as well,, all while teasing your slick hole.. SIGHS… (＞人＜;)

icky sparda is still… strangely honorable… he loves his family soso mauch he thinks it’s completely okay to show it in unique ways tew :3 even encourages his family to not exactly fuck each other but make love do you get what i mean… idk he’s as icky as he is as proud of everywan HELEOFG

[izanori]

9 more testament-related yonkoma coming right up! the previous 8 can be found here

how to read yonkoma + translation notes + etc under the cut ^^

How to Read Yonkoma/4-koma (<- means "4 panels"):

short answer:

long answer: here

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Translation Notes:

lil hanamaru: was titled Hanamaru-kun in the original text. a hanamaru is a flower drawn on japanese kids' schoolwork when they do a good job, like a gold star. since the comic shows the flower very obviously here, i couldnt lie to you all and title it Lil' Gold Star, and i think we have no other flower-related equivalent to this, so ive decided to use this as an opportunity to teach those who dont know this little japanese culture fact. feel free to google what a hanamaru looks like!

among us: this was titled Infiltration in the original text. because im quirky, i changed it to Among Us. when people complain about translators adding in stuff that didnt exist in the original text, this is exactly what theyre talking about. im so sorry. i have to reference amogus every chance i get (fwiw: i can do this because its just comedy. i wouldnt randomly add funny references during more serious scenes)

how about a bout: original title was something like "You're Fighting!?" but uhhhh. okay, i dont even know why i changed the title of this one 😂 i think at the time i couldnt think of a way to translate the title, so i came up with something punny and related to the subject matter. just now as i reread the original text i understood it, but i like my pun better than the original and dont feel like going back and changing it. do you forgive me? 😿

memory over the material: in the very first panel, testament says in the original text something like "you can't erase me physically or any other way." because this is all comedy, i added a reference most tumblr users should get to add to the mood.

i think thats about it! tldr, i think im funny and sacrificed direct translation for comedic effect when i felt like it. common industry practice, really. i wouldnt be so loose when translating if this wasnt all comedy!

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i wanted to add that if you want to follow me to see when i next share a translation, you should follow @cicistash instead of this blog. ill put all translations there... and art in the future, but ill tag the art so you can filter it out.

thank you so much for reading my translations! im sorry for the long wait between the first one and this! i hope the next one comes much faster. and sorry if it looks ugly, of course, im new to editing scans and such

[mamadarama]

I was going through some posts I missed and came across the “tatsumi is mature but still does 19 year old things” and I just wanna say I’ve never been able to put it into words when my friends ask but like. That’s exactly what I love about this game.

We’ve got scandals and drama and weird crypto currencies and convoluted backstories of implied murder or identity theft or military shit or relations to underground gang activity or so SO much more and yet the writers still succeed in reminding you that this is a game full of high schoolers.

Natume was one of the five oddballs and suffered through so much during the war where it affects him to this day, but he also refers to his tech savvy and love of the occult as magic and loves the junior he “adopted” to death. Despite Aira struggling against every odd to become a real idol he still buys merch and looks on the internet to look for content of the ones he likes. Rinne was destined to become the monarch of his homeland but ran away in an attempt to find happiness and acceptance and is an amazing strategist who uses it to take down corruption, but his sense of humor is entirely made up of sex jokes and romantic teasing like Aira being “hiiro’s little girlfriend”. The amount of characters that assign themselves the mom friend role just because. Trickstar. I don’t think I need to explain Trickstar-

Like this game has made me cry so many times and it has its ridiculous moments but it also has its genuine ones while also being the most teenage shit I’ve seen in my life and I feel like so few media can balance those and still have a decent story like that. Sorry for the long ass post I just have so many feelings about this kind of stuff 😭

YEAH this is exactly what i was talking about in a previous ask when i said i have nothing meaningful to add to the enstars cast that isnt a headcanon . its all very well thought out and the interpersonal relationships are nuanced enough to feel realistic but outlandish enough to be interesting .

worldbuilding and character design is one of my special interests and i say this any chance i can get: the most important part of building a character (and a story in general) is realizing the importance of comedic irony and comedy as a whole regardless of genre or tone. it makes characters feel more 3 dimensional and relatable because people arent stagnant and theres multiple facets to any individuals personality (this is also why some of the most popular animes of all time have filler episodes or funny bits that show the characters personalities, every event hits with 3x emotional impact the more you know about the characters as people but that's a different discussion) enstars does a really good job of this . like for example if wataru were to have had a realistic reaction to eichi starting the war it wouldnt be nearly as good of a story. the fact that eichis ridiculous ass backwards plan to get wataru to fall in love with him actually worked is a perfect example of comedy used to make a story more interesting. another thing similar to this is how sometimes its better to not detail something and let characters do things for a mundane reason or even no reason at all . for example subaru hating chiaki just because he annoys him, or shinobu being on the broadcasting team despite his character not being associated with technology otherwise and therefore having no real backstory on why he likes radio stuff. its all really well planned worldbuilding with an insane amount of subtle details , which is why enstars is one of my favorite stories to analyze . the only thing i could possibly want more out of it is hardcore tragedy but thats entirely a personal preference rather than a critique because im a slut for catharsis and i love sad endings , especially ones where characters die . (don't worry im in therapy)

[unbloodiedmartyr]

honestly i feel like we need to talk about child corporal punishment more it feels like... well not quite taboo to discuss having experienced it but like a weird grey area that you cant quite bring up with people because its 50/50 that they'll either be like no thats completely normal why do you even care, or just utterly aghast at it, and so youre stuck in a grey area where you feel either kind of like you're the insane one for caring or like, idk, you almost feel like people are taking it way too seriously. like if anyone calls it abuse you get defensive and uncomfortable about it because that feels so wrong yk? you almost immediately want to go, "no no no its not that deep, you cant seriously be calling it abuse," because that feels utterly unjustified and like it's minimising the experiences of people who have actually been abused. but then again, saying "yeah my dad never hit me, except before i turned 10", doesn't quite feel hashtag normal. like my siblings and i used to fight over which car seat we got in so we could be behind him and therefore less easy to hit. strategically rotating which seat we got during holiday road trips so we could make sure no one got punished 'unequally' is probably one of my most memorable childhood experiences. And its definitely affected the relationship i have with him as well as the person ive become - like i remember when we studied feminist philosophy in highschool we had a socratic circle about the inequality between the sexes and i very confidently brought up that i was frightened every time my dad made a quick move around me or raised his voice as evidence for like, the existing social inequality and inherent power dynamic between men and women??? - but then again its like. well im fine right? i havent been abused. its totally legal (depending on where you live ig) and its not like he ever left a mark, so its whatever!! and its not exactly frowned upon in a lot of social circles. like, ok there was this one time where my brother was being annoying in the car and my dad got angry and yelled at him and then hit him in a bank parking lot and then some elderly man called the police on him, so they came and started interrogating us while we were waiting in line. and the policeman told my dad, "look man i get it but you cant do that in public," and let us leave. the reason i know this is because it became a funny story that my dad would tell to other people, framed as a "wow this crazy old dude called the cops on me one time" story. so like!! clearly what he did is not considered a legitimate issue, which makes me feel so insane for still even caring about it. ik theres definitely a cycle of abuse element here, my dad's father once literally broke down a door to a room my aunt was hiding in because she'd pissed him off, so obviously in comparison my dad is a pacifist and would never even begin to comprehend what he did as anything other than measured discipline. idk maybe this is just privileged white person shit thats trying to make something sound deeper than it is but like, i really do wish we could talk about it more because its so normalised and also so profoundly alienating at the same time

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 13

welcome the the tenth fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. i was always yours (even before you knew it) by paladarns

Lance thought Keith was just an asshole. Lance has always thought of Keith as an asshole, all throughout traveling into space in a large mechanical lion, all throughout bonding moments. All throughout becoming closer as teammates and friends.

Even now, with his hands pinned above his head and Keith’s thighs straddling his waist, Lance thinks Keith is an asshole.

Lance had always thought he could see right through people, but now he’s starting to think he has a bad judgement of people.

---------- a fic in which keith is obvious and lance is a bit of a gay nervous wreck

takes place as if season 1 is the only season to exist but its now years later

so many things to love about this fic. so so many. so i am going to list them. a) secret relationship bc i love that shit and eat it up every time, b) ‘takes place as if season 1 is the only season to exist but its now years later’ -- paladarns my love thank you for this truly excellent description of where i write my fics like 80% of the time. c) keith has game, and d)  HE WAS ALWAYS KEITHS EVEN BEFORE HE KNEW IT IM SOBBING BEST TROPE BEST TROPE

2. Wake Up, Sleephyhead! by @transbakugou

Keith has never loved someone like he loves Lance. Lance is his sun, his stars, his happiness. Their hands fit together like they were created to do nothing but hold each other, and he fits perfectly inside of Lance's arms. But he can never let anyone find out how much he loves this boy, how wholly and endlessly. Who knows what the Galra would do with that kind of information?

One morning, the lie comes crashing down around them.

Maybe it won't be as bad as they feared.

i love gay whipped klance and truly every single fic that has ever been written based on a vine is truly amazing, this fic is no exception. also secret relationship lol i am a sucker

3. Something Secret by @kingswriting

It was funny at first. Their arguments became more banter than actual disagreements, yet the entire team continued to assume they were at each other’s throats.

And Lance knows they’re not. He is fully aware that every sharp word, every sly smirk, every heavy handed push, and everything in between is anything but malicious.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss the softer side of things.

Or, Lance and Keith are in a secret relationship, but honestly want to omit the 'secret' part.

okay u can always tell what tag im following obsessively at certain times lol. for yall i present yet another secret relationship fic. ahem. this one is cute! banter and flirting and misleading and kisses and GOD its so sweet

4. Things Held Sacred by yarrie

So maybe, just maybe, Pidge was right. Maybe, just maybe, Keith had shot himself in the foot with his first attempt at resolving the blanket-hogging situation, because now Lance seemed to think it was a game and the rules were: steal the blankets, get sex.

To be fair, Keith hadn't exactly been...dissuading him very well.

okay so heres how this works. every fic rec friday so far has been from a specific collection of mine called ‘rereadables’, which was literally started because of this fic. i dont even know what specific part of this fic gets to me so hard, but you know when you read something that makes your stomach go all swoopy? and you can’t stop smiling? thats this fic! i remember i finished it for the first time and then i scrolled right back up to the top and read it again, then again, and again. like i cannot get over this fic. it gives me butterflies every time

5. Communication is key, they say by @ellana17

They already had communication issues before… Or: a malfunction with a healing pod leaves Lance able to speak only Spanish for a few days.

the idea of lance getting stuck in spanish and then almost immediately using that to flirt with keith without him knowing. like. i love that SO much that is quite possibly one of the funniest concepts to exist

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[thornswoggled]

you know what it is. 106 stream of consciousness. lets go

WOW ok just by the thumbnail alone im surprised. i did NOT think we were gonna get to see the rest of hildas scene with lindel so soon. like i had no earthly clue where this chapter was going to start up

chapter title lindel feels very reminiscent of ch1 "future chise" illus

"misery makes strange bedfellows." hmmmm. all small caps too for some reason

yamazaki prepping us to view lindel as a secondary antagonist by drawing his face in shadow like every other frame

ARE THOOOOOOSE FUCKIIIIING DWAAAAARRVES????????? HELLOOOOOOO???????

why did we not meet these thangs the first two times they went to iceland. maybe she decided to add a little spice

oh my god missing subtitles. literal empty bubbles. comicgrowl needs to be dealt with. severely

more talk of eggs and chicks. which could mean nothing

looking at the slider.... this is another slightly longer chapter. huge for a guy like me

OMG we get to see what happened that time rahab summoned them oooooooooo

lindels shirt in this scene is really cunty. sorry. who said that

"this is the 2000s era" ok so we are still playing coy with what year it is. probably a good idea

"my first time meeting the current you." so yamazaki is weaving in the concept that rahab can meet people on different parts of their timeline. which feels a little op and a good deus ex for conflict resolution but thats my own personal beef with timeline fuckery as a plot device

wadda hell. this dragon hatched fully fledged like a damn bulnosaur

ohhhh this dragon is the one flying behind lindel in that one color spread for arc 3. the one i captioned with "whatever. go my dragon"

adolfs protestation about magic is like. yes. i agree. because tamb does not have a robust magic system and its attempts to form a solid action-based plot are largely impotent, which is FINE, we are here for character development anyway. i once made a webcomic with the same problems so i dont mean to throw stones in glass houses but like. yeah the distinction between mages and alchemists and how magic works is not something i have ever been sold on

great callback to chise summoning those wasps in arc 1. i enjoy seeing a scene from the early chapters reimagined in the modern art style. tangent, but in the supplements the note for that scene was something like "chise has never seen this kind of bug in real life so she probably remembered it from a nature documentary"

pokemon-ass messaging here. fucking catch em all

just now noticing the twins got their hair swoop from hilda

"i managed to avoid lying." i was about to ask how exactly he lied but then skipped ahead and read the answer whoops

lindel hurrying hilda out the door but he doesnt even know what she came here for yet. like she didnt get to tell him about the red dragon yet LOL

im also just now realizing that the dragon we saw at the end of 105 was the dragon adolf hatched and not the dragon that cursed chise. ok 🧍‍♂️

"they even forbade me from speaking my language" so i think lindel is implying here that hes part of the sámi people which tracks. i wonder if they were speaking one these languages when he met elias? i still dont know why lindel bothered to ask where elias came from when he could have inferred it from whatever language he spoke

adolf explicitly states that he left germany before ww2 which i think was very funny on yamazakis part (DO NOT GET IT TWISTED, she said, HE IS NOT A NAZI) but at the same time. why was he fleeing british soldiers. maybe they just assumed he was a nazi cuz of his name and accent. idk

ok so its time to go back to school already. silky being convinced that theyll be stuck there for months again is. so funny

"do you think we can ask the college to send letters for us" what do you mean by that. does the college not give you the means to send mail. are you expected to just use the royal mail. why arent you using royal mail anyway. hello

ok so she stomps on the floor and a new door springs up. it looks like an exterior door based on the lock. is this a sort of uhhhh howls moving castle/witch hat atelier windowway sort of situation. is silky going to break into the college so she doesnt have to miss her kid. she looks so stupidly nefarious i know the reason she looks so creepy is going to be funny as fuck

so overall i cant say that lindel and adolf are my fav characters or that i am terribly invested in them so i dont feel i got a TON out of this chapter but i am excited with the last page we got. happy for the lindel enjoyers and the lore dump yall got. i guess im not sure what purpose this new dragon is serving either because its (probably) not related to red vs white dragon conflict. i guess you could say that its a third dragon that emphasizes the importance of choosing your own path rather than being locked in this fated cyclical battle the way the red and white dragons are, which would be in line with tambs greater themes. like a third choice, i guess. adolf is also shaping up to be in a similar position to chise - that is, he has a unique relationship with magic, and his master has to lie for him so he wont be unduly researched lol. i am interested to see how much time we will see chise actually studying or being in class considering all the other things shes now expected to be responsible for. her ass is not studying 💯💯💯

[kings-highway]

Sneaking into the advice corner: how do you write non-serious but also non-crack conversations? How do you balance the mundane friendship-building levity bits with the need for purpose and capturing the themes or progression you need without jumping directly into the heavy stuff?

Thank you!

so so so sorry it took me so long to answer this one! just busy and wanted to make sure I could give it the attention it deserves

now, obviously, the master key to this kind of question is just to understand people very very very well, because all questions of dialogue sort of eventually become questions of psyche, but thats a lot of work so Im gonna run through some things I use to address a few of the points mentioned above: non-serious but non-crack; balance between levity and seriousness; and how to avoid jumping into the hard stuff.

1. Non-Serious but Non-Crack

this answer might not gel with everyone but the truth is... just write the crack conversations. based on some comments ive seen on my own stories recently, fandom has turned the word "crack" into anything that isnt intended to be emotionally enlightening or significant. you might be looking at perfectly normal conversations as crack conversations. Or, you might be VASTLY overestimating the average intelligence of the conversations between friends. People are WEIRD. As long as you play it straight and dont make a joke out of your own writing, you can pass off pretty much anything as non-crack if its meant to be characters goofing around and being silly. How the fuck else do you think I pulled off daichi straight up biting a pencil in half in TETRIA or the Peace Sign in In The Woods? Crack content played straight is just regular funny.

2. Balance

im gonna say one piece real quick and then go more in depth.

**Your funny ha-ha jokes have to come before your serious Oh-Nos**

If you finish a serious conversation with a stupid joke, you've ruined the serious conversation. If you finish a joke by having the characters somber up, you've heightened the intensity with the contrast of humour. You know that scene in Mulan where they transition from "A Girl Worth Fighting For" into gazing into a razed village? Imagine how fucking annoying the scene would be if they found that village, and then when marching off to continue on their way broke into that song exactly as it was performed? Terrible. [TBH this mostly applies to scenes that flow into each other, not so much if they are separated by chapters, scene breaks or time skips.]

A much more challenging piece of advice is to try and have a good mental map of how all your characters feel about certain topics/emotions. for example, if you want your character to be avoidant of feelings, theres no reason to make them bad at avoiding feelings, you can use genuinely funny jokes to break up serious conversations and distract the reader (and other characters) exactly as the avoidant character intends to. This just requires some awareness of your scene and will carry more of a weight on the other characters who may realize (or come to realize) what that character is doing. etc, etc. For all types. This sort of transitions into the last one...

3. When to Get Serious (And How to Make It Natural)

now you've probably heard the classic writing advice "people will say everything except what they want to say" and I have a LOT of issues with that for various reasons, but its a good benchmark for understanding the timing on these things. Saying what you Want can be almost impossible. If youve ever had to break bad news to someone - and I mean really bad news, "someone passed away" bad news - youll know how paralyzing doing so can be. You end up doing everything BUT saying that. You pick up a glass sitting on the table and make a joke about how, from the corner of your eye, you thought there was a spider in it. This isnt true, youre making it up you need to tell them something important. You both laugh about how gross that would be. you need to tell them. You think it'll kill you if you say the words out loud but you need to say something so you joke about what would have happened if youd poured yourself some water and there was a spider inside. This is supposed to be a conversation about their father passing away. And now youre talking about drinking spiders. Everyone is laughing. (crack conversation amirite?)

Look, I have severe anxiety about expressing my wants and this bullshit happens to everyone. Do you know how many days I spent telling my roommate about the plotlines of haikyuu before finally suggesting we should watch it together? SO MANY. Because I was just terrified of rejection. This works for everything. People HATE feeling bad. People hate feeling bad so much they'll do the weirdest shit to avoid it. And honestly that's when you get your best humour.

Of course, similarly, since people hate that feeling, they're often likely to COPE by making quips. Typically, if two characters are fighting each other, I find it better for them to be 100% serious. BUT if two characters are communicating while fighting a 3rd thing, theyre WAY more likely to start making little one liners. Obviously if its the climax of your story, hold off, but the very classic "WATCH OUT!" "NO I WAS JUST PLANNING ON GETTING PUNCHED THANKS FOR THAT." (screamed across a field mid fight) kinda never goes out of style. you just dont want people making jokes WITH the things theyre fighting (in my opinion) - this whole concept can be combined with point 2, where these jokes can be inserted in a climactic conlict only BEFORE the emotional beat hits.

But when it comes to timing, it can be hard. Here are a few quick things to keep in mind:

1. If there is external pressure (man coming to kill you RIGHT NOW) that anxiety disappears. These are the scenes you want to break into 100% seriousness right away.

2. If there is tension to break or potential conflict between characters (are YOU the Killer??) characters will avoid this like the plague. Beat around the bush. Possibly for as many scenes as it takes to turn it into a #1

3. If there is bad news or a message to deliver (Your Mom was Killed by the KILLER.) you can hesitate and beat around the bush but it probably should be passed along in that scene.

4. do NOT try and break the tension with humour AFTER the intensity. Sincerity is a good thing, and allowing your intense scenes to be intense and to be heavy and serious even if theyre not funny is really important.

and finally, of course... all advice to be taken with a grain of salt. If you write a scene that breaks all of this advice, and you love it, and its exactly what you want... then that scene is perfectly written. Do what makes you happy.

thanks again!