#joking. i just tend to focus on characters who are very different but share one very specific trait that i feel like they would bond over

[seased]

im sorry to have a real answer lol but its pretty simple to me. source: i was the dedllie guy

for the rarepair brained, (1) they both had sunglasses (2) they both had mind control subthemes with similar story arcs

for gaining traction, (1) hurt/comfort slash traumabonding were very very big relationship tropes in the fandom at the time (2) callie did not have an established ship yet, despite being very popular in the fandom

so you can see we had an ecosystem primed to latch on to literally anything plausible and nonproblematic for callie, and a ship hitting the market with exactly the kinds of emo traits that were popular at the time... suddenly a rarepair took off

so I've been thinking about this for a couple days and like. where did calf1sh come from??

like im open to any ships in any franchise, including this one but uh.

these characters have never never interacted with each other and I think acht mentioned callie in like. one bit of flavor text??

im fine with rareships and the art is always cute, but I just genuinely want to know the origin of the idea

[cruyuu]

hello 💕 love your sukuita analyses and edits 🙏 my friend and i were looking through Gege's official chosen songs for each character specifically for yuji and sukuna now that the manga is over and i don't know if many people noticed Yujis first song was "Heart ni Ho wo Tsukete" and the lyrics are??????? literally canon sukuita 😭 "burn your loneliness" "don't turn to ashes" "you and i are together" "will we love each other? will we turn to ashes?" like 😭😭😭 if you haven't checked it out please do because we were losing it

Hi jenjen and thank you!

I already heard Heart ni Ho wo Tsukete and I agree. The lyrics are crazy. The song is quite beautiful, tho, shipping aside.

As someone who loves looking into stuff and finding connections, it's interesting to me that a character song is hinting at having a deep emotional connection with someone as a way of pushing on through the worst of "the worringly bad state they are in".

Sure, some would say "It doesn't have to mean that" as in "It doesn't have to be abt sukuita" but I like to think that it does because it's not like the story itself relied heavily on Sukuna and Yuuji- beginning with their reluctant union and ending with their parting- right? It's not like Yuuji taught Sukuna something about love and managed to reach him, right? That definitely didn't happen lmfao.

Also... how do you even begin to explain these lines?

I’m attached Deeply attached to you It doesn’t go in a single line I’m attached to you And the lies we tell each other

Remember that this is coming from a song picked for Yuuji, so it's supposed to represent him. Who is he deeply attached to, so much so that the attachment he shares with that person "doesn't just go in single line"? Who does he tell lies to?

Who, again, said he'd do anything to kill that creep and then asked for his return to his body, said that he is the only one who can accept him and would live with him?

It's all so mind-numbingly sweet, very confusing and terribly funny. It makes me want to hurl myself off a cliff. Gaze into the sunset with the cigarette in my hands and just sigh like I'm seventy thousand years old. It makes me want to squeal, screech and not at all act composed like I usually am.

Like, sukuita's relationship has been at the very center of the story even if it was out of focus for a while. Yuuji was with others and Sukuna was with others but then when they met again... those others just couldn't compete. One of my friends joked that they're lowkey that sentence "I have been looking for you in other people only to realize you've been right in front of me this entire time." and I can't help but giggle. Hell, the story itself is proof of it lol

Like I keep mentioning in my posts, these two tend to just act weirdly around each other. It's not even "just hate", neither "indifference", because everything that Yuuji did made him reluctant to part with Sukuna in the end, and no matter how much Sukuna dismisses Yuuji, he's also praising him and acknowledging him over and over and over. Yes, they can't see eye to eye, yes, they're fundamentally different from one another but Yuuji still managed to try and understand him. Sukuna also ended up accepting Yuuji's viewpoint and considered taking on a different path, finally changing after years of remaining stuck in a single mindset.

Like not one person had managed to change his mindset for all those years yet Yuuji- the idiot, brat, thing, whatever- did. In just a couple of months lol. That was the final seal on just how important he was to him in the end. The only one to beat him, the only one to reach him, the only one to come running back with arms open to still allow him to live no matter if he destroyed everything in his life.

Lol.

Which brings me to:

If we burn our union If we burn everything Won’t we love each other? Won’t we love each other? Won’t it become ash?

It fits them all too well. Love under the guise of hate, killing as an expression of love, hate as an expression of fondness. Everything flipped onto its head because, after all, aren't they too, (from human to curse in Yuuji's case, from curse to human in Sukuna's) when around each other?

I swear figuring out these two (and, in general, just trying to think about their relationship or write an analysis) makes me want to bang my head against the wall. All I'm saying is, if Gege ever goes to create a tragic romance manga, they have my full support because they knew what they were doing, twisting and intertwining these two to perfection before they ripped them away. They made them so entertaining, both as individual characters and when they collided with each other.

Yeah. I despise it here (affectionately).

I hope both you and your friend have an amazing day or night and thank you for the ask!

[ilikekidsshows]

Have you seen the post from descendant-of-truth analyzing the problem of ML trying to cater to 2 different audiences? I think that it makes the issues with the show make a lot more sense when we pair it together with their decision to center Marinette above all else. Plus the 2 audiences feels like a better explanation of their flaws than the 2 genres others have critiqued.

---

I think it’s both, actually, but also that we need to go deeper on both of these arguments than what I've seen. I do strongly agree that Miraculous is juggling its genres poorly and that’s why the writing is consistently so weak, but I also think there’s three genres being juggled, not two. However, I also strongly agree that some of the worst singular scenes and episodes happened specifically because the writers suddenly decided to write something aimed solely at the teens and young adults in the audience. The controversial retool, in particular, turned the show to try to appeal more to the older audience, because it addresses several of their complaints. A thing can suck for multiple reasons.

The thing about combining genres is that it’s not actually that hard to do when you have specific scenes dedicated for the different genres and stay consistent on what your main genre is, romance scenes, for one, rarely get in the way of the action in an action movie, unless the out-of-place romancing is meant to be a joke because of the mood whiplash. However, Miraculous doesn’t do this. Miraculous’ genres overlap constantly, which makes the writers’ end results clash so terribly with the show itself. The thing about the magical girl warrior and superhero genres is that they have very different conventions from each other, and then we also have the school drama genre slowly rising up to eclipse these other two in importance as the show goes on.

Miraculous is, first and foremost, a superhero show with the aesthetics of a magical girl warrior show. This is what the concept, marketing and merchandise focuses on. We have cute magical creature mascots, the heroes get transformation trinkets, there’s a lot of focus on the transformation sequences, and the heroes’ get signature moves/spells that are triggered most often with some more carefully crafted stock animation. But Miraculous is part of the “Zag Heroes” branding, and our heroes are treated as no different from the heroes who just put on costumes in-universe. The Akuma victims are literally called “villains”, as in, supervillains. There’s a lot of focus on what the public thinks about the heroes and there's a bunch of secret identity hijinks.

However, it’s specifically when Miraculous tries to be more like a magical girl show in terms of storytelling that it ruins Miraculous as a superhero show. I have said, for years, repeatedly, that a superhero franchise relies heavily on having a “rogues gallery”, a collection of different villains, for longevity, but magical girl shows typically have one threat per season/series who turns innocent bystanders into temporary foes, and Miraculous decides to do the latter. Miraculous has the weakest rogues gallery of any superhero franchise I’ve seen and that’s a bad thing. Any toys of Akumas aren’t going to sell very well, because they only show up once per season or have only one appearance period, so toy companies aren’t going to be interested in making many toys of characters with weak marketing, which means kids can’t easily recreate the episodes when they play.

Superhero shows also, like, tend to give top billing to its protagonists. So, it’s the classic: “why is the show called ‘The Adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir’ if Cat Noir is just a side character?” complaint, but framed in a way where we very clearly see what the issue is. A comic book called ‘Batman and Robin’ is about Batman and Robin, if it’s a Batman solo book, it only has Batman’s name in the title. Superhero series are also really comfortable with sharing the spotlight with other characters. Because even Batman solo series often have storylines where Robin or some other character shows up to be important, sometimes more important than Batman even. Some of the most popular superhero titles are about teams of heroes. In fact, X-Men has often been Marvel’s best-selling book and the same is true for DC with Teen Titans. It is also notable that giving one team member superior status over the others is a sure way to turn the fans on you for favoritism, so equal billing with different stories focusing on different team members is the standard.

Magical girl shows, on the other hand, are far more often about a singular main girl. Even when there’s a whole team of girls who get focus episodes on occasion, you can always spot a “main girl” in the cast, who is the protagonist and will show up in every episode and will often get some kind of purification/healing power to justify that. This relegates the other team members, naturally, but it’s a genre staple. You can see from this description that Miraculous is using a magical girl warrior genre approach to its team building, which will rub any superhero fans in the audience the wrong way, and has only showcased the writers’ favoritism towards Marinette more the more inconsequential teammates we got.

The school drama genre, ala Dork Diaries, however, has been growing into this black hole that’s swallowing both of the conflicting action genres. (Middle) school drama is the genre where petty, inconsequential nonsense like whether or not your classmate’s preschooler brother thinks you’re cringe is worth an entire episode’s plot. School drama is the genre in which “I won’t be able to see my crush for the rest of the school trip, everything is over!” is an acceptable darkest hour moment for a movie. And, if you look at the retooled seasons, you can see how school drama conventions are taking over the show and sidelining both the superhero and magical girl warrior genres.

In seasons 1-3, we got one episode about class presidency, where the whole thing is treated as wacky hijinks, and which was framed together with the villain of the week being involved in a different election, with the superhero conflict getting directly tied into the school conflict in the end by Marinette’s quick thinking in a dangerous situation winning over her classmates’ trust (a trope common for teen superhero shows). In season 5, we get several episodes building up and dealing with the end of the school year, like arranging school parties, class presidency re-elections, and filling out applications for study programs. All of these plots are played far more seriously this time around and with the civilian conflicts resolved in ways that humiliate Marinette’s school rivals (a trope common to school drama stories).

However, as I stated before, most of Miraculous’ most controversial moments are because the writers wanted to address the older audience. ‘Simpleman’, the third most-hated Miraculous episode (used to be second until the S5 finale eclipsed the recap episode in terms of lowest-ranked episode), is about the writers talking about the thought process behind the show to fans that they think just don’t “get it”. The retool that I think ruined the somewhat working system the show had going, raised the rating (slightly) to appeal more to the older fans, and, before the actual release of season 4, there were comments from the creative team about the plot being more linear now with watch order actually mattering. Continuous plots are something that notably appeal to older fans and what the older fans had been asking for online as well.

We also moved focus away from kiddie superhero action to personal drama. Instead of the heroes having fun saving the day and having endless time for wacky hijinks as civilians, Marinette is constantly whining about how being Ladybug is ruining her life. Deconstructing superheroes is something that the industry constantly tries to sell as a more “mature” take on superheroes. Speaking of those wacky hijinks, suddenly none of the classmates have anything silly kids would be interested in going on, everyone is just shipping the main ship so that the older shipper audience can project onto them, because we all know older audiences only care about shipping (sarcasm).

There are also all these deflections directed at the older fans who criticized the original show. Marinette stops “stalking” Adrien, well, most of the time at least. In fact, Marinette’s stalking was caused by Chloé traumatizing her so badly in the past it drove her into mental instability, so it’s totally not her fault and the audience should just let it go. Speaking of Chloé, she was born evil, so stop asking about her redemption arc. Cat Noir apologizes for flirting with Ladybug and just easily stops having feelings for her, despite Astruc earlier going on a several Tweets long ramble about how we can’t help how we feel when people were asking him about Marinette’s tendency to fall for any guy who prioritizes appeasing her emotions, because we gotta address the sexual harassment allegations. We even get Marinette begrudgingly acknowledging that she used to stalk Adrien while falsely insisting she never does that anymore and was more justified than anyone else.

All the classmates turning into Adrinette shippers is also something that’s clearly for the sake of appealing to fans who only care about the romance in the show, whether they exist or not. Let me tell you, preschoolers are not interested in romance stories, they think kissing is funny and makes for a funny show. So the turn into having almost all the characters constantly talk about Marinette and Adrien’s relationship just feels like ship bait written by people who have no idea what ship bait is. Also, the twist that Adrien fell in love with Marinette in the widely ridiculed ‘Puppeteer 2’ episode is absolutely moronic and only happened to be “surprising” as a reaction to so many fans hating the episode to begin with.

All the weird plot developments are just copied from tumblr blogs of older fans of the show too. The whole “love-square reversal” that led to absolutely nothing interesting is a thing the fandom has been bringing up as a way to “develop” the romance arc for years, and would you look how that was their go-to-idea when they started to devote more and more focus to the lovesquare. Similarly, the SentiAdrien concept originated from tumblr fan theories and was implemented in a way that was clearly directed at people who’d read all those same theory posts that the writers had, with everyone else, especially kids, in the audience being confused.

The issue here is, of course, that Miraculous' targeted audience is still small children, the kids who will want the toys, the costumes and the Miraculous themed bedsheets. So the show's general approach to all of this "deeper" stuff is played for laughs, dropped before the audience can dwell on it or to present it as an interpretative theatre performance where the visuals are meant to entertain the kids and none of the characters address the horror of the revelations in the play so that the supposedly deeper elements of the show remain mere implications. And these implications don't really affect anything in the show as-is. They're only there for the older fans to discuss amongst themselves. It's like they writers are doing the narrative equivalent of dangling keys but it's directed at teens and adults instead of the usual small children.

[wackyscreamswithraisin]

Indefinite Hiatus and Clearing the air BIG TW ON //PERSONAL

Before I say anything this is the fanfic summary: It’s/ it was revolving around Raisin and Malcom (and Hamilton) from the Smart Talk With Raisin short, somehow stealing a meta cartoon remote from the, inaccessible to them; Cartoon Network ‘toonworld’ (like when you see the characters crossover in CN bumpers). They’d watch Courage the Cowardly Dog on their tv in their room like a comfort, but with the remote they start meddling with the character’s awareness of meta for entertainment - and when Barbara accidentally fuses with a glitched artefact, she is unable to be reverted to normal and she breaks the constructs of her own minor characterdom to try and track them down. The fic idea has changed a lot over the years but that’s what it (currently) has changed to. It’s rather Pibby adjacent and would focus on a lot of what’s changed about cartoons between every half decade - yeah it’s very complicated and over the top lol.

I know y’all are sick of me making these long ass walls of texts instead of proper content and I’m really sorry I keep pulling this 💀. I was going to make a nicer pinned posts] of explanation but since this blog is in a confusing place at the moment I just decided to do it quick instead so I don’t put it off.

For those who don’t want to read the full thing: TLDR,

1. I have personal attachment to Fred that has probably affected my judgement

2. My thoughts on Fred as schizophrenic rep is certainly not universal and the partial embarrassment about writing content revolving around him continues to catch up with me

3. The related problems below are reason why I have been so adverse to seeing Fred as being a r-pist m—-ster or SA’er

And 4. I’m starting to accept that it’s not that deep if my fanfic never gets told. Even if it would make me happy, it’s not the end of my work or me if I don’t. Nevertheless I hope you all understand and I’m sorry for any disappointment.

On the personal issue: First, bc some might not know, I am mentally ill and have had a vague diagnosis of psychosis for years that was never fully decided and that I understand now and abridge as ‘schizopsec’, but follows all the traits of OSDD 1B, enough that I tend to use both terms. ‘Fred’ is one of my alters - he’s my main ISH (internal self helper), caretaker, and fictive (fictional introject), and he has been for around 10 years. This is not a joke. This is as cringe as it sounds, even worse in real life when he fronts of course, and is embarrassing for me to admit even when I attach this post to my main blog where I share schizospec upliftment posts. It’s a complicated and excruciating subject matter for many many reasons, and it’s important that I clarify this, even though it’s uncomfortable for me, since this naturally affects my ability of separating Fred the alter from Freaky Fred in my writing and art. This is part of why I have to keep scrutinising my writing drafts. I believe I can keep them separate, but this is part of the reason why I guess my attachment for him and making content to do with him is there at all.

My thoughts on Freaky Fred in episode : As a schizospec, putting the alter aside, schizophrenic representation means the world and the moon and the stars to me, even when it’s bad. I can’t tell if this is an agreeable opinion amongst other schizospec/ psychotic people, but even damaging and dangerous rep involving homicidality like the axe crazy maniacs have something of catharsis in their rises and falls that I can appreciate, depending. Sexually depraved and violent rep however, crosses a line; obviously schizo killers in fiction are heavily drenched in misinformed stigma and is mostly bullshit and can be dangerous- we are dramatically far more likely to hurt ourselves or be hurt - but I think most people would agree that sexual violence is a different evil altogether, and I cannot stand to see the marginalised mentally ill conflated with such horrendous shit.

There’s the problem. I think Fred is a schizophrenic; other than him getting the equivalent to straightjacketed at the end and taken to presumably some asylum or how he narrates/ talks/rhymes in his own head and otherwise barely talks just disjointedly - he’s got that classic 90s-00s cartoon crazy grin and is instilling fear in the viewer through said unbalancedness,his whole deal is very ‘of its time’ on displaying scary madness. And, all that being said, even though he’s clearly not good rep by any stretch of the imagination, he doesn’t harm anyone - he’s even ‘nice’ - or at least doesn’t seem to be blatantly malicious. The bar is on the floor, but that’s already better than idk William Afton or something.

Fred as a predator: The point of view of Fred as a metaphorical molester is pretty obvious and is a popular opinion, and it would be dishonest to say I don’t completely see it, especially with how he says naughty - the implication steers more into the sexual predator area. Hair shaving isn’t violent as much as taking something away - subtracting, and this can be interpreted in a murderous or SA fashion, but the murderous interpretation I stick with, one akin to Sweeney Todd, is a very flattering view of it and I know it. It’s easy to see how it comes off fetishistic which favours an SA view and is naturally the reason why a lot of people see it as rapey.

The episode as a metaphor for SA or CSA enabled in a household that turns the other way is popular, and at first I didn’t like this theory because it felt like a dark theory made almost to tarnish child content with a deeper or darker meaning, which I had seen a lot elsewhere. But this wasn’t really honest; ‘The Mask’ works well as an episode with no subtext but is respected moreso as an episode clearly about domestic abuse and misandry born from trauma. ‘Freaky Fred’ can also be this.

I think the well and honest truth for me is, even when I do everything I can to touch grass, and remove my personal connection to the character/ the idea of him through the alter, away from the conversation; I really don’t want Fred to be a schizophrenic and a sexual predator character at the same time, and I cannot remove my view of him as the first one, but I have to admit that, in some ways, both was intended for him and this episode in some variation. It’s pretty upsetting to think about; I know a majority audience isn’t going to be that invested in the representation of mad people, especially not in cartoon antagonists, but it matters a lot to me. Obviously it would still be bad if he wasn’t a crazy character and it would still be scary and awful if he acted more ‘normal’, but that craziness is there and the combination feels particularly wretched because, once again, schizophrenics are far more likely to be victimised.

What I’m trying to say with all this; Fred is a mad character who despite being the most offputting and scary character I’ve ever seen in my life, managed to become irremovable from my psyche for almost my whole life, for better and for worse, and in some small way, seeing him as so scary and uncomfortable, but equally ‘good-willed’ and harmless by technicality in that episode, made me feel a little less alone. But people who have been yucked out by this blog and this fixation as I said before are fully in their right, and I am taking a step back to consider if I want to continue with making stuff to do with Fred or not.

The fanfic?: I still think about the story a lot but as you can probably tell I’ve made it very convoluted by involving a meta narrative, and as I’m just about to head into university by the time I’m writing this, it’s difficult to tell what will come of this. I will let you all know, but it’s in a continuous grey area and I don’t want anyone to get their hopes up. I’m sorry.

Will I still post art?: Maybe haha, I never know how to feel when I post it. Sometimes I worry it gives off the impression that I ship post-shaving incident Barbred (I don’t) or that I endorse Fred’s ‘freakiness’ at all. And sometimes I think it just looks bad, as in not a good recreation of the ctcd art style, or too sad - like idk why I think the audience is just going to understand these alarmingly emotional pieces when I’ve been pretty scarce on context, I apologise for everyone’s who’s gotten tonal whiplash scrolling. Fred art may come up elsewhere on my other blog which I will reblog here if I think it’s appropriate.

If you read all the way thank you so much💚, I hope you get what I’m saying, and if you don’t I understand. Consider following my main zebedeezing if you want somewhere I post more often though non ctcd related.

[the-ellia-west]

Hello! Just came to drop by and ask about your current WIP, TCOT! I've seen your prompts for it and I want to properly know more about it. Sorry if it has been explained in your masterlists but I can't seem to find a solid explanation and decided to go here instead.

So! What is the story about? Who are the main characters? And what do they look like? And anything else you want to share about it?

Thank you so much for the Ask @justalittlebuddy

And I didn't really ever make a thorough explanation of it. Just a small synopsis, which only explains like the first 7 chapters?

So Here, a massively long ramble about TCOT, what it is, the conflicts, the characters, and everything.

Alllllrighty!

Here we go!

Explanation of the plot and general premise

TCOT is meant to be/ I'm hoping to make is an about 8 book Series of low fantasy setting with high action, high stakes, romance subplots, and way too much drama.

It's meant to be a basic War-centered fantasy story with good vs Evil with tons of interesting side plots and characters that make it its own interesting and unique project.

Main plot has never been a strength of mine, so I stole one from stereotypical children's media and twisted it into my own thing, adding way too many branches until I turned it into a tree.

The Story is meant to be a pitchfork shaped plot with An underline of the war plot while exploring the psychology and character arcs of all my lovelies in depth.

Now I probably accidentally re-explained that like 4 times as I tend to do, but whatever, Its general structure goes with the heroes down on their luck finding more ways to fight back against the Villains until something works. Other than that I can't explain without spoiling like the 17 consecutive character arcs that interweave to make the story what it is.

All I can say, is Kasi's shift from a seamstress to a warrior, Xhaazi's mental shift from a Jokester to a fighter, Chrin's shift from a nervous seer boy into a powerful influence, Sokuna's shift from a defender to a leader, and all the villain's arcs, that I can't say anything about unless Major spoilers. :]

The Characters

TCOT's main focus is on its characters and their arcs as already stated, There's multiple species, trauma, murder, magic, and morals thrown all about like party confetti in this series.

I can't say a lot about their arcs, but each and every one of them goes through some transformation into something completely different from what they were at the beginning, and This list of characters has an incredibly important arc which weaves together to create the big main plot:

Kasi, Xhaazi, Chrin, Sokuna, Marril, Shyre, Viasaki, Kila, and Geon

I will give you a parapgraph about each because I'm feeling talkative

Kasi

Kasi is a young Outlander who lives outside the walls of Feyrama's Capital City of Terefin with her father Julan and her twin brother Xhaazi. The twins never knew their mother and Julan doesn't like to talk about her. Kasi is a hothead with strong emotions and a tendency to throw-things-first-ask-questions-later. She's fiery and passionate, but she also has extreme emotions in the opposite directions, as in she gets overly excited sometimes, breaks down crying at minor inconveniences, or has panic attacks. But she's gotten good at controlling herself and seeks solace in her loved ones and her job.

Xhaazi

Xhaazi is Kasi's twin brother and a jokester, younger by an hour, and very easily excitable. Just like his sister, Xhaazi has a tendency to feel emotions very strongly, but he doesn't let life phase him and tells jokes to cheer up his friends and family as he loves seeing others smile. Their approval is everything he wants and more. He's upbeat and excitable, enjoying silence as well as loud places. He loves spending time with others and will help wherever he can in any way he can.

Chrin

Chrin is a very powerful young seer boy, who is related to secondary nobles through distant family. But no matter what happens, Chrin is all sunshine and smiles, seeing the silver lining on every cloud and keeping a level head in even the worst scenario, a stark and well-needed contrast to the twin's extreme reactions. He cares for everyone and just wants his efforts and love to be appreciated, as well as to help create a better future for himself and everyone he loves.

Sokuna

Sokuna is an adult shade who ran away from the other shades to protect her daughter from the ruthless training and bloodshed that comes with being a soldier raised from birth. She does everything she can to make a happy life for herself and her daughter in a world that hates them, trying to see the sun between all the rain.

Shyre

Shyre is a young noblewoman and Heir to the third most notable family in Feyrama, the family in charge of negotiations and Trade. She is kind-hearted and well-meaning, though a little naive to the true problems and violence of the world. Shyre can be categorized as a chronic optimist with a lot of passion and not a lot of street smarts.

Now... onto the villains...

Geon

Geon is Less of a villain than he is... actually I don't know what he is. Geon is a Prince who is the bastard child of the Roselite king and an Ahelite Sorceress (Ahelites are an Elven servant race) Born blind, he was shunned as inferior in every possible way by everyone except the only legitimate son of the King and Queen, his older brother Damian. Goen is kind, compasssionate and soft spoken, with a tendency to go against orders and isolate himself because no one in the palace besides his mother, Damian, and his assigned Aid Trissa, care about him. Well at least he's like this until... Shit happens.

Marril

Marril is a paid Assassin. He is also a Hitman. But mostly Assassin. He was cursed at a young age to serve the Shades and their king, and has been trying to scramble free of its torture for years. Guilt-stricken and angry, he is rude, callous, and generally a menace to people he doesn't like, he uses sarcasm and violence as coping mechanisms. He is formal, but a very generally angry person with a lot of trauma who just kinds of needs some help and a cup of coffee.

Viasaki

Viasaki is the First Lieutenant under Tias and The Vessel, controlling a battalion of soldiers. He is a strategic genius who uses most of his time to care for misfits and lost soldiers. But despite his empathy, he will usually follow orders without question. He wavers between his own thoughts, and listening to the voices in his head, while sometimes being controlled by The Vessel. The only thing truly keeping him anchored to reality is his utter hatred of Kila and Tias.

Kila

Kila is Tias' Warrior, also known as the second in command or most trusted of someone with high rank, you only get one, if one of your soldiers volunteers and proves themselves worthy in skill. Kila is worthy and works to stay worthy no matter what. Worthy of status, worthy of love, worthy of a home, worthy of not being thrown out of the mountain at any second, worthy of not being hit for doing a bad job. Kila is a raging perfectionist who sees the world as the strong and the weak. She is a chronic people pleaser and hothead who like to do things her way even though she tries her best to be the perfect servant.

(The only reason she doesn't try to please Viasaki is because she sees him as weak)

Anyway, those are my lovely babies, time for

Conflict

All of the Conflicts from TCOT come from the characters and circumstances

But the main ones are these:

The Main Trio really Fuckin' hates Marril

Viasaki and Kila CANNOT FUCKING GET ALONG

and

Y'know, war

Each book will be structured around a specific character, and developing their arcs, some will get multiple, it's just generally the arc that gets the most progress, and the character that has the most POV time.

Book 1 is basically an intro and set up for everything, but I love it, and I can't wait until we get into the real meat of this shit.

Anywayyyyyy, Book 2 is slated to be a Kasi book, #3 is planned to be a Viasaki one, and I'd have to find my google doc for the rest.

Anyway, thank you again for the ask and this chance to ramble! This is the premise and characters of TCOT! I hope you enjoyed and You'd want to read it!

(Also, if anyone wants to draw these little losers or look at Physical descriptions of them, I am trying my best I swear to make those.)

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @multi-lefaiye

Who You Are:

Multi/Xavier || They/he

I'm a 23 year old aspiring author who loves to write stories exploring grief, trauma, and mental illness! I love horror and anything spooky that makes you think and leaves a lasting impact on you.

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Adventure, comedy, fanfic, fantasy, horror, paranormal, psychological, romance, thriller, and tragedy. Young and new adult, and adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

I would love to write horror forever honestly. Horror appeals to me because it examines what scares us and why, and I feel like horror gives us a real look into what makes us who we are like no other genres do. My favorite stories are ones that explore humanity through having it face The Horrors.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

I'm really not a fan of realistic, slice-of-life type works. Sometimes it can be fun, but I don't like works that are purely realistic without anything funky going on. I do have one WIP that comes close to slice-of-life, but that's probably the one exception haha!

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

My target audience is honestly myself. I write the kinds of stories that I wish I could've had growing up, and if anyone else gets anything out of them, then that's just a bonus.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

I focus a lot on grief and trauma and how they impact people. I love to explore the psyche of a character that's gone through hell and how they come with it, and I love recovery narratives. I don't really know how to explain what keeps me coming back to those sorts of stories again and again.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

One thing I really dislike is when stories make a character's trauma an afterthought or otherwise don't acknowledge or explore it. I understand that not every story has the place for that, but at the end of the day, I think more of them should explore how their characters are affected. I also really dislike recovery narratives that treat it as a linear process with no bumps in the road or pitfalls. Recovery is messy, non-linear, and difficult, and I want to see that reflected more.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

I'm working on quite a few things, haha! I like to joke that I have a very short attention span, and I do genuinely struggle to focus on one WIP for an extended period of time. One that I keep coming back to is called For We Are Both Fragile Things--a romance story featuring themes around mental health, grief, and trauma, ultimately ending in tragedy.

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

Sometimes I feel like I have all these stories in my heart that I'm just bursting at the seams to release, and if I don't write them, then they'll rot away inside me forever. I have to write, because I don't know what else to do.

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

I've been writing stories since I was about six! What first drew me to it was a desire to tell my own stories and share them with the world, even if "the world" was just my friends and family.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

I get inspiration from a wide variety of sources! Admittedly, I get a lot of inspiration from the media I consume and enjoy. For We Are Both Fragile Things is inspired by a few different things, but a big inspiration was my desire to tell a story that the reader knows will end in tragedy but still keeps them invested anyway. I think it's impressive when writers can pull that off, and I want to give it a shot!

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

Gosh, that's a hard choice! I think… one thing I'm really proud of is Vultures Are Holy Creatures, a character study centering around my OC Roach. It's incredibly personal to me in many ways, but more than that I think it's one of my most emotional pieces of writing.

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

I have had a couple of short stories published in school literary magazines, but nothing more official than that. I'd certainly like to, but I've been making my peace with the idea that not everything needs to be traditionally published.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

I honestly just love the idea of holding a physical copy of one of my books in my hands someday. I think that would be a really good feeling. However, I hate the idea of trying to interact with a traditional publisher and being forced to tone down aspects of my work, especially how queer my characters are.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

I just love to write! I love to write and see where things go. Not that big a fan of planning, though, if I'm honest. It can be fun, but outlining especially tends to bore me and make me lose interest in a project if I spend too much time on it.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

My writing process is messy. I struggle to find motivation to sit down and write most days, and when I do, it's usually when I actually can't for one reason or another. Something that's been helping me, though, is roleplaying! I've done quite a lot of that over the years, but recently it's been helping me a ton with finding the energy to write my personal projects. In terms of my actual process, I suppose I'm a bit of a plantser--I don't do well with no plan, but planning is hard and I prefer to go with the flow.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

I've been a writeblr for about a year! I actually tried to join the community in the past, but I was too nervous to reach out to anyone! I'm a lot more comfortable now, though. I was inspired to join because I wanted to not only share my own work, but see others' as well!

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

Oh, I have so many favorite writeblrs that I don't think I can list them all here! Off the top of my head… @writeouswriter, @albatris, @nicola-writes, @wherearetheplants, @jezifster, @kingkendrick7, @gailynovelry, and @funky-writer-man are all absolutely delightful!!! I'm sure I'm forgetting people unfortunately, but if we interact regularly on writeblr then trust me, I'm a big fan of yours. (I also want to give a shoutout to my lovely partner @skitzo-kero, who may not be strictly a writeblr on their main but has absolutely incredible work!!)

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I love the community that people have built and how much people support each other. It warms my heart to see people sharing their work and lifting each other up.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

I think writeblr has quite a few problems it needs to reckon with. Namely, ableism and racism are huge issues that I feel too many people on writeblr are content to sweep under the rug and ignore rather than address directly. I'm white so I don't want to speak over any people of color, but I think the issue late last year with a particular user who refused to write people of color spoke volumes about how prevalent this issue is. Discussing racism in good faith is not "petty drama," and I think there are conversations that need to be had. On a similar note, I feel like ableism in writeblr is massively under-recognized. Many people don't take accessibility into account with their posts and rely on ableist tropes and language, and once again it's considered "petty drama" to bring it up. In general, I think people on writeblr should be more mindful and listen to each other--don't be afraid to ask questions to those who have said they're willing to answer, and be willing to accept good-faith criticism about your work and depictions of marginalized characters. I also think writeblr should have more of a focus on uplifting disabled writers, writers of color, queer writers, and other marginalized groups rather than complaining about drama.

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I try my best to contribute to the writeblr community by uplifting those around me and supporting their work! I may not be super big or active in the community, but I love to support people and share their incredible work around.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

I love interacting with anything people post, but I love seeing excerpts especially!!! Any amount of writing people are willing to share, I am there for it.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I like to make silly in-universe jokes about my WIPs, most of which make no sense out of context.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

You can find me on ao3 and deviantart as multilefaiye! :D I use that username or variations of it basically everywhere.

[agrazza]

hiiiii about to be SO annoying with this one, I'm coping with the OD break very normally, you see 🤪

Istorvir: 1

Amalica: 3 (is she truly always that calm? or is she sometimes internally going apeshit under a veneer of pleasantness?)

Rooster: 4

Sebastian: 12 (genuine laugh, not a snarky one)

Nyloth: 17

Finn: 18

TG: 28

Julius: 31 (if he ever does feel it lol)

Astarion: 37

Dalyria: 43

Rory: 48

Honestly, me too, so thank you for these, I had a blast <3

Istorvir: 1 (What’s the lie your character says most often?)

Istorvir’s lies are different now than they used to be. In his newly Eilistraeen, Silver-Citadel-ed life, the lie he tells most often is that he’s not worried. Istorvir is *constantly* worried, actually; he does not have as peaceful a demeanor as he projects. He also believes that his anxiety is a sign of his faith not being as strong as it should, which makes him feel ashamed. Nyloth and Amalica are helping him work through it.

Amalica: 3 (is she truly always that calm? or is she sometimes internally going apeshit under a veneer of pleasantness?) (How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?) Amalica is actually pretty genuinely calm, though it took some work to become that way. She credits her unshakeable faith in Eilistraee for it, though she also has a relatively peaceful disposition naturally, compared to her female relatives. Nyloth is the one most likely to see her genuine emotions, if she is putting on a front; usually of grief, for those she couldn’t help or for the cruelty she witnesses other experience that she can’t help. She shares both her highest highs and her lowest lows with him. She has definitely been hiding her sense of humor for a while, though. From that perspective, the reserve is a front.

Rooster: 4 (What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?)

He used to get up very early and climb onto his roof and watch the sunrise (hence the nickname). Then he’d make tea for his mom before she woke, and before she got too sick to enjoy it. He was a disaster in the kitchen with anything more complicated, but he liked that little routine.

Sebastian: 12 (genuine laugh, not a snarky one) (What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!) Hmm… This was a tough one. It is hard to make Sebastian genuinely laugh. He probably would give a genuine chuckle for good impressions though, or hearing a joke from someone he didn’t expect to be funny.

Nyloth: 17 What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

These are probably the same— his facial scars. He tends to focus on his throat scars, because they were the most memorable and painful to recover from, and when he does look at his reflection, he tends not to be able to see his face as a whole, for the scarring.

Finn: 18 (Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?)

Oof. I don’t think Finn had anyone in his pre-vampire life to love. He loves feeling useful? And he has a tendency to get perilously close to unconditionally loving his commanding officers, thanks to his relationship with his dad.

TG: 28 (What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?)

“On Darkness” Tavran Gregory tells people what he wants is to help Astarion settle the vampires in the Underdark. What he really wants is a way to feel like he’s making up for the pain he caused in the world while he was Bhaalspawn, and to make a home for Astarion that can protect the vampire when Tav is gone. For himself, he really just wants to feel safe(/free-- he has a hard time telling the difference).

Julius: 31 (if he ever does feel it lol) (When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?) Julius was excellent at compartmentalizing. If he ever felt a twinge of guilt, he responded by finding a way to justify it to himself; the world isn’t fair anyway, might makes right, etc. He did care about Finn, to an extent, but he didn’t feel guilty for using him. He told himself that Finn’s life would be better, if their plan succeeded, and that excused whatever minor hurt he might have caused.

Astarion: 37 (What’s a secret they haven’t told serious romantic partners and don’t plan to tell?)

He actually loves the way Tav looks in his hideous, terrible bard’s outfit.

Dalyria: 43 (What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?)

Dalyria misinterprets all flirting as insincere, due to the time she had to spend as a honeypot trap for Cazador. If she’s comfortable when she realizes the misunderstanding, she will relax and become more playful. If not, she will get colder and double-down on pretending to misunderstand.

Rory: 48 (Who would they say ‘yes’ to if invited to do something they abhorred / strongly didn’t want to do?) Rooster. Not without copious complaining though, and an extraction of a return favor. Also Astarion. She secretly thinks he is Cool.

[galaxy-fleur]

what are yours unpopular opinions about your ships and maybe leon from the remake ? you mentioned that twitter side is wild so i got curious., i hope the question is alright?

By Twitter being wild I mostly meant people being real nasty to each other over very small things, haha! But I have tons of thoughts on many ships, so I'll gladly babble away. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so, anon >:) Gonna preface this by saying that just because I'm talking about a ship in a 'negative' manner (like pointing out what kind of issues the characters would deal with) does not mean I'm calling it 'bad'. I like conflicts in relationships and I like thinking about how these conflicts would contribute to the development at large. It's my way of saying 'I enjoy this dynamic and I'm going to explore it!'

With that out of the way, Imma go ahead and do them all just for the fun of it:

Eagleone: my unpopular opinion for this one is that Ashley is actually the more bold one in the relationship! In fact, she's usually the one who takes the lead on... pretty much everything. She has that reckless spunk in her that Leon both loves and dreads, depending on the situation. Another one is that I personally don't see Ashley being all that burdened by what happened in Spain. She's just fine bringing it up and even joking about it with him. It's a shared experience that brought them together, and I don't see her looking back at it as a negative thing. Also, Leon is the homemaker between these two. Ashley likes to go out, have fun and do her thing. Malewife Leon for the win.

Vallenfield: actually not sure if this is an unpopular opinion per se, but I don't really view Chris as this oblivious idiot that doesn't realize Jill's feelings or anything. And I subsequently don't see Jill pining for him much either. Their relationship is very natural in how it changes overtime due to their trust in each other. It's more of a slow, mutual understanding of: 'Oh. Things feel different now. But also sort of the same. Let's roll with that'. They are a very down to earth couple.

Aeon: Ada is not a mom. I'm sorry. She's just not. She's a deadbeat dad. At best. That woman is horrible with kids, stop making her a soft housewive, I beg of you. She'll leave for milk and never come back. LMAO On a more serious note, though, I see Ada as someone who has big issues with being vulnerable and communication at large. That makes any close relationship very difficult for her to maintain. She's having fun and flirting until things get emotional, and she instantly pulls away. It's not even because she's cold and unfeeling. A part of her, a human part of her we all have, longs to be understood and embraced as she is. But she just can't bring herself to be this vulnerable. Leon is not an exception to that.

Chrisker: Funnily enough, when I think of Chrisker, I moreso focus on Chris' feelings towards Wesker than vise versa. Poking fun at Wesker's obsession over Chris is entertaining, but there's just something so appealing to me in the angst of feeling so betrayed by someone you thought you knew and admired. Sprinkle in some unspoken romantic tension that was genuine but never got resolved, and you got a perfect cake of sadness. They are my 'doomed by the narrative' couple.

Serennedy: I don’t think I have any actually unpopular opinions with this one, but I like to think that Leon tends to hold back on the puns and quips when he's near Luis. That's because he knows he's a damn hypocrite for always huffing and grumbling at Luis' jokes, while he basically does the very same thing himself lol. He still slips up though, and Luis doesn't let him live it down. On a sadder note, I like to think of Leon taking Luis' lighter, much like he takes Marvin's and Krauser's knives to remember them. He doesn't smoke, of course, but he still keeps it on him.

Clairejill: Again, not sure if this is an unpopular opinion per se, but I don't think they'd be this cool, badass couple or anything. I actually think they'd have a relatively soft and quiet relationship instead, built on mutual understanding of each other's experiences and a desire to be one another's rock. Jill is there when Claire feels like she's not doing enough, and Claire is there when Jill feels overwhelmed by guilt and regrets. They're also very supportive girlfriends. I love them.

Cleon: Hmm... I guess my unpopular opinion is that I see it as a very rocky relationship. Not because either party does not care for the other. Moreso because of the growing differences between them that take place over the years due to their occupations. I like to think of them having to face these challenges. Maybe not in the most graceful manner, but they do pull through in the end. I like my Cleon a bit complicated and emotional.

Metaltango: my unpopular opinion on it is that I don't think Krauser was this violent and cruel asshole to Leon during his training. I actually think of them forming a very genuine and close bond, one where Leon trusted and relied on Krauser to the point of sharing some very personal things with him. And I also think Krauser showed genuine tenderness and care for Leon in turn. He trained him so that he would never have to be hurt like that again, so that he could become strong enough to protect those he wants to protect. Makes it that much more tragic to see him mocking Leon for it later.

Shake: no idea if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but Jake sucks ass at flirting. He's abhorrent at it. Sherry is the charmer between these two. She gets all cheeky about it too. Watch this tough, scary man blush like a school girl because his girlfriend just complimented him on his new jacket. No one is allowed to tease him about but Sherry, of course. He has a death stare that could kill.

Chreon: These two would have issues with communication. Well, to be more precise, it's a somewhat complicated situation where they both remind each other a bit too much of their own pain and past mistakes, if that makes sense. They understand each other's burdens more than anyone else will, but it's also... hard seeing your own worst moments be reflected in the one you love. They both would find themselves getting a bit frustrated and saying something insensitive sometimes. Specifically because they project their own issues onto each other. It's like metaphorically grabbing your old self by the shoulders and shaking them. I like to play around with this duality with these two.

Valeveira: I actually think Jill secretly enjoys Carlos being unserious with her but she's just too proud to say it. Especially if we're talking post!re3 events, where she knows he is a good guy and has trust in him. She'll also steal some of his quips and use them during her own adventures.

Mithan: No idea if this is an unpopular take or not, but I headcanon that one of the biggest reasons Rose seems to be so distant from Mia in her dlc is that she looks so much like her father. I see Mia being absolutely wracked with guilt after losing Ethan like that. Potentially even forming a sense of resentment towards Rose, which just makes her blame and hate herself even further for these feelings she can't control. She feels like a horrible mother that is just going to hurt Rose one day, too. It's sad, really. Mia also leaves most of Ethan's belongings to Rose and Chris, because she feels like she doesn't 'deserve' to have him near her after what she did. Mithan is my go-to for exploring grief and loss.

As for my unpopular opinion on remake-verse Leon... People baby rookie Leon a bit too much in my opinion. He's not nearly as naive and innocent as some paint him as, and he actually has lots of depth and nuance that, unfortunately, gets forgotten or overlooked. I understand the appeal of this wide-eyed cute guy and all, but I do wish he would be given a bit more agency and maturity in the fandom.

Rookie Leon is my favorite iteration of him along with Death Island Leon, can u tell I'm sorta passionate about him lmao

[beauty-and-passion]

FSS3: an update

Hey,

Two days ago, I finished the first draft for FSS3, a fanwriting of Sanders Season 3 (season 2 finale included) that I am doing thanks to the sweet contributions/ideas/prompts given by the people of this fandom.

When two days ago I was writing the final episode that would end Sanders Sides, I realized that 

it was boring

I was not satisfied by it

it was not what I planned

not all concepts seemed to be developed well

There was one possible solution only: to check everything again.

Some of you might think this is useless, because I already planned everything in advance, right? Well, when you write, stuff tends to be added or to change. Also, when you plan in advance, everything seems very smooth. But once you have the final result of your planning, things might be different. Still, it’s better to have it, because it makes it easier to go back from the start and check if everything really is as smooth as planned.

And so, here’s how I checked it.

Those are all the main concepts/plots I developed in each episode. I needed this to check

if all plots were developed during the season

if there weren’t too many temporal gaps

If they have been all wrapped up

But since this wasn’t enough, I also put the main ones into another graph

This gave me a better vision of how the themes have been developed and also how Character!Thomas should be developed.

And if you see these post-its, they all have a title. The title of a song of Character!Thomas’ playlists. After all, his playlist follows his character arc, so why not using it as a base to see if/how I followed his arc correctly?

And speaking of characters, I couldn’t leave behind the real main ones:

Here I wrote down what they did for each episode, then added the song titles. In this case, the songs don’t just help me see if I followed their arc, but act as a reminder of how I should write the Sides and focus on their personalities.

This also made me realize the dark boys never had a chance to talk about society, which is of course a huge oversight because they clearly love doing it every time they can.

And once I noticed this, I also realized what was sitting wrong with me: it was Roman’s character arc. Only by adding his songs, I realized that after the season 2 finale, I reverted his arc and made him full of doubts again. It could’ve worked if season 2 finale was one episode, but since we’re talking about 4 parts, Roman should start season 3 with a better understanding of himself.

Once I corrected this point, Thomas’ arc improved as well and I was ableto take away one prompt that was more of a nuisance, rather than something useful.

And so, I planned season 2 finale again. Now Roman goes through a real arc, Patton is not in the back anymore and I have a chance to show Janus’ character better: this guy is useful, but he should be used well, otherwise he will end up being just a way to make jokes.

Now you may ask: why are you telling us all of this? The reason is that I learned some stuff that I want to share - and that I hope it could be useful for people who wants to write/plan to write anything.

First of all, this second check after the first draft confirmed me the importance of planning/putting down a whole project in advance, before submitting it to the public. Just imagine if I started posting stuff, without writing the end: I would’ve reached the last episode and realized that the beginning didn’t work. Then what? Take everything down and start again? All while people already read the first bad stuff I gave them? I would’ve lost credibility and people would’ve wasted their time.

Also, some episodes I planned are very good and I love them, so I would’ve hated to reveal them mixed with the bad stuff.

It also made me question, once again, how can Mr. Sanders think that writing a couple episodes at the time will help him properly wrap up the series. Sanders Sides currently has so many threads and plot points to explore, it’s impossible to properly wrap them up by planning just a couple episodes at the time. Even by planning the entire series in advance as I did, I realized there were a couple things I forgot! How can he not entirely forget/dismiss huge themes and concepts, if he doesn’t write the whole thing at once?

Last but not least, this served me as a reminder of how fun writing is. Planning the season 2 finale again made me happy, I loved the better focus I gave on Roman and Janus. And I can’t wait to replan/rewrite Roman during season 3.

Speaking of that: as you can see from my graphs, I planned 24 episodes. And I like that number, but I also realized some episodes are very short and they can be put together into one. Also, Roman’s rewrite will probably lead to less episodes in the first part.

So... well, I might end up wrapping all of this in less episodes than planned. Which is better, in a way, because it follows the trend of the first two seasons being less than 20 episodes.

In any case, I will keep you all updated.

Bye for now and I hope you are all having a great summer <3

[singlecrow]

For the fic meme! Any of these that you feel like answering I'd love to hear about! I saw in an earlier ask that one of your 'guilty pleasures' is miserable h/c and also I know you love your AUs so I'm following up on those by asking:

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

and

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

and I swear I didn't just go down the alphabet in order on purpose but I'd also be very curious to know:

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Hi Rosie! thank you for these excellent questions I like them a lot!

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

I tend to dither about angsty ideas and then go ahead and write them anyway. The angstiest story I have ever written (in modern times? I was much worse about this when I first started writing fic) is Samhain (when you hear the river rising). Hawkeye, in that one, turns out to (maybe?) be escaping within his mind from a horrible abusive reality. It's meant to be a scary story, but it came down on the angst as well as creepy sides. There's also a couple of apocalyse AUs in various fandoms, and this odd dystopian MASH AU though the notes say I wrote it for a friend so maybe it wasn't entirely my idea!

One thing I don't do even in angsty stories, though, is violence against women. It's a conscious decision which I've always stuck to. I'm not sure why that's different, but it feels like it.

Also, I am way in my Murderbot feels and I don't think that's a fandom you and I share but I hope you'll forgive me for manifesting an idea that is lingering at the back of my mind that I don't want to write! really don't! but is sticking with me anyway.

For the Murderbot folk then: on this reread I've been wondering about the canon divergence AU where Murderbot doesn't have the hacked governor module on the first PreservationAux survey. Everything goes wrong similarly, but without it, the PresAux gang don't escape. But, Mensah can't be killed by GreyCris because killing a major political leader will start a full-on war.

So this is a cheerful story that starts with Murderbot killing the rest of PresAux and then standing guard over Mensah while the corporates try and negotiate with her as a hostage. BUT. as we know, the governor module doesn't change an individual's personality, only their means of expressing it. So it's had the same experiences. it still loves her, it still wants to save her, it just... can't. And she has no idea that it's even a person rather than a faceless killing machine.

The thing is, I think this is a good story! That idea of a prisoner and a captive, Mensah as prisoner in body and Murderbot as prisoner in mind. But, ah. Angst. Maybe.

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

Definitely the roller derby AU. And, I don't know if you'd call it an AU, but triple shot and extra hot raises the important question of what would happen if Starbucks opened an establishment on Deep Space Nine. What I like about that one is it absolutely follows the premise to its logical conclusion. Someone in the comments was like, I thought this was a joke and it was just a series of vignettes of various characters meeting in a cafe but no it's actual Starbucks on actual DS9. I was very proud of myself.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

I am trying to focus on my other work right now so don't have anything fanficcish that I'm working on (except my little project for your exchange). But I'm still really fascinated by the cis girl Hawkeye idea and I've actually got about 2000w of it stowed away. Here is a bit.

“Here,” BJ says, throwing Hawkeye a spare blanket. “Our stove unionised a couple of days back. Better to just wrap up before it goes out.”

Hawkeye grabs it. “Who are you writing to, your wife?”

“Yeah.” BJ pauses, then reaches behind him for another letter, with every inch covered with dense, narrow script. “Listen, what do you think that says?”

Hawkeye follows his pointing finger. “I’m taking Erin to Mom and Dad for a week,” she reads. “That way she’ll get some experience of— huh. Your wife is taking your kid to your in-laws for dysentery?“ 

“I thought diabetes,” BJ says. “Potter thought dressmaking.”

“Dystonia,” Hawkeye says thoughtfully. “Dreams. Dracula.”

“It’s definitely not a capital D,” BJ says. “Which is of course the only reason my wife isn’t taking my daughter to Ohio to meet the king of the vampires."

Hawkeye laughs. It’s warm in here, despite the stove withdrawing its labour, and she’s starting to relax a little as the nightmare lifts. “You settling in okay around here, then?” she asks. “I remember my first few weeks. They were brutal.”

“Yeah,” BJ says, holding up his hands. He’s looking at Hawkeye like he’s never seen her before: Hawkeye in bathrobe over pyjamas and sweatshirt. Hawkeye is average height for a woman, which makes her about a foot shorter than BJ, and keeps her hair tied back in plaits. She never eats enough because the food here tastes like used sanitary napkins, so she’s slighter and more angular than she was in civilian life. She knows that if she hadn’t met BJ off the transport plane; if she hadn’t been driven him across hostile country for forty miles while being shot at, he would think she was fragile.

“Hey,” BJ says gently. “How’d you end up doing this? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Hawkeye tilts her head. “If you mean, how does a woman end up doing this, then that’s what you should say.”

“You.” BJ is stubborn. “I figure, you and I are going to be working together a while. Why shouldn’t we get to know each other?”

“You’ve just got a ‘satiable curiosity, haven’t you, Dr Hunnicutt?” Hawkeye murmurs, worrying the frayed edge of her sleeve between two fingers.

“I have to,” BJ says. “Not like there’s much else to do, here on the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo.”

So I would like to finish that! But it has a plot and stuff, which I don't have time for right now. In due course.

[quincyhorst]

HC Potpurri - Red Matador: The Defender Trio (+ END)

Pretty much the last characters to cover, José, Antonio, and Rafael. Underrated trio. And yes, there's two missing DFs too, but they belong to different cliques.

Mentioned before, but Rafa and Antonio are from Andalusia (From Málaga and Seville respectively), they became buddies during the Community Cup, blah blah. When RM was formed they were placed alongside José, who quickly warmed up to them. Or maybe he himself inserted into the friend group, who knows...

Note: Despite sharing the position neither Querardo nor Laudelino managed to become part of the group. To put it simply, Que's atitude doesn't match well with the laid-back DFs (I guess only José being almost on his terms); plus, the topic of bullfighting is something that makes the three rather uncomfortable (Albeit their position is neutral). Then again the captain himself prefers to hangout with his forward homies than the ones of his position, so...

Though they DO interact a few times during training, José being the perfect middleman between what the captain wants to do and what the other two DFs can do. (After all, remember the anime mentioned RM had its focus on the defense. There should be a way for them to cooperate, otherwise...)

As for Laudi... Yeah, he's Laudi. What else did you expect. In rare occassions he does join them in, but that'll mean being involved on some bizarre adventure.

Other optional member of this group is Juan, also from Andalusia, so 2/3 DFs are fond of him already. However he struggles to join in by himself, so unless he isn't encouraged he'll most likely won't. When Juan got benched Rafael got worried for him, but at least the keeper's new friendship with Federico was comforting to see.

With Fermín, Antonio and José are intimidated by him (Yes, even if Toni is the taller one), but Rafa is also willing to be nice to the bull keeper.

...And yes, despite his looks Rafael is the biggest sweetheart of the three (And perhaps of the whole team); disliking to see people being lonely. If possible, he tries to pursue and listen to those who do need some company. This comes mainly from his childhood, when Rafa was often left aside by other children due to his "cryptic" aspect. Nowadays on a better position thanks to his flamenco dancing, he wishes to help those who also can't fit in.

Meanwhile, the other two are a mixed bag. Antonio is too laid back and not very talkative, and José is just Pedro with slightly more energy and worse sense of humour.

In few occassions José has compared Rafa to a vampire, mostly as a harmless joke; though he has a tendency of getting annoying with it. However even then its true that the flamenco dancer has some behaviors that can raise an eyebrow at times. A very dedicated goth, or something else? Nobody can really answer (?

Curiosity: In the dub, José and Pedro share the Costa surname, hinting that they could be related. And being honest I CAN see some similarities between their designs. So in my setting, I like to see these two as family. Not sure how yet, they are just fam and that's it. They also played together for Castile and León in the Community Cup!!!

They are on different groups, but Pedro and José still talk every so often. In some occassions the little DF likes to join the other MFs on their pranks.

...For now unlike the other groups, these DFs mostly spend their time on the background, not doing much of importance. But they do have few moments here and there, and I guess the most important one would be Toni's romance with Céleste Astarloza; a french tourist we've mentioned before.

Something interesting to mention about Antonio is that even if Isaac is known in the fandom as the "girl crazy" RM player... Toni apparently likes them that much he needs one to be recruited in-game. I can see him being interested on a romance, though his tendency of being reserved is still an obstacle. Because of that, at first he tended to follow Isaac around, as to learn (and ask him tips) on how to flirt. Yet ironically, NOT following his methods gave him better results. Instead of approaching and flirting straight away, Toni preferred to befriend Céles first, mantaing a proper relationship during the eliminatories, till he was ready to try and flirt. Isn't it too risky to try and romance someone during a month-long tourney? Yeah, honestly. But don't underestimate the Inazuma logic, nor the skills of an artist (?

While they didn't become a full couple when the FFI ended, they did end up developing strong mutual feelings for one another. Céles might have to return to France now, but she promises she WILL find a way to visit Málaga and meet Toni again. And if not, she's willing to invite him and his family to her town.

(Ah, and as for Rafa and José, they did their best as Toni's wingmen (?))

...In a way or another, them being irrelevant does save them from having any discussion or discord before the final Block B match, at least :D

...I think that's all, for now. Thank you for reading this post, and all the previous ones. I think Red Matador is the team I ended up developing the most (At least when comparing it to the other FFI teams posted so far, only BW being a similar case). In my defense not even the japanese did much for these spanish kids except for like 3-4 players, so I gave them a chance myself (?

Hope you guys liked this series! Muchas gracias por su apoyo! 💪

-----

Extra thing, but while I'd love to add some pictures for this group like I did with the rest... José and Rafael are seen together in two animes scene, and so do Antonio and Rafael in another one. But nothing of the three together, F 😭

I did this edit of them to compare their heights, hope this makes up for it (?

[nightwatch-ithaqua]

i almost never see art w the pigtails and its like damn. i feel like kind of look.. bald without them lol?? but maube thats just because im so used to seeing myself with them that anything else feels kind of weird. im used to it now since i almost never see anything else (opposite problems fr..) but i still cant help but feel i look TOO similar to my brother without them..! which.. i actually dont mind too much, i guess. i talk a lot about him negatively but in all honesty im actually very attached to him (as a character, rather than the guy who fucked up my life.)

i like reminding myself that everyone is their own person and will never be exactly like me because i tend to forget about it, especially with .. some stalking issues ive been facing lately where my ex has been stealing vital parts of my identity just to be petty and fuck with me. but when its not malicious, i find shared attributes quite interesting.. i still think the differences are more interesting though, because everyone is so different in even the slightest things.. like even if there are shared experiences, it affects the people differently, and i think tjats cool..

i lean very heavily into .. a lot of different things, itd take forevr to list everything too since i consider all of my traits to be significant and major aspects of me so i wouldnt want to leave anything out, but i guess to oversimplify, i really like being 'cute' and silly and shit like that. i do like more "serious" and dark aesthetics too, i think its kind of a given with me considering the majority of my sources are focused around those, but i focus much more on the lighter ones most of the time. ive made a lot of jokes about my sources vs the music i listen to because theyre a good representation of the interesting part of what im trying to get at and i find them funny. eh.. i couod put a lot of words into this but i feel like i wont be able to properly .. say the thing im trying to say, so i guess im done with this specifically for now .

🪷

Ithaqua isn't at the front at the moment but I didn't want to leave you waiting. He's fronted less and less after the drama we mentioned before but I did ask and he gave me the go ahead to reply. (Though these asks have intrigued him and he'd love to attempt fronting a little more)

I explained the contents of this ask and he trusts me understanding him well enough to know how he is.

One thing a vast majority of our system finds fascinating is exactly that. The idea of how everyone is their own person living their own lives doing the best they can to thrive and survive and even if it means that they are raised to be hostile or gentle. That everyone has experiences that shape them.

It's always been such a fascinating concept. He'd understand you wanting to separate from your brother so much, for very obvious reasons

One of the things we enjoy talking about is realism. The very reality of life even the dark topics most people find themselves uncomfortable talking about. It's amazing to us that they are even so uncomfortable with the dark truths of life. But we can't judge, there are still some topics that genuinely disturb us but they are far and few between.

- ☁️ (apologies if you'd have preferred his direct response. He needed time with Alva but he too didn't wish to leave you hanging)

[fungal-wasted]

as someone with visual processing issues, i really appreciate your descriptions when my brain isnt cooperating <3 i was wondering if you had any tips on creating ids? it sounds like a fun skill to learn and also very useful!!

Hi! Thank you for reaching out! I will try to give some help. I personally do have low vision and rely on screenreaders sparingly, though I've started using them on mobile more often.

First I'm gonna give you some general advice that could apply to most descriptions, and then focus some more on content commonly shared in the Hollow Knight fandom.

General Concepts

"ID" stands for Image descriptions, and they exist to make content available to those that cannot perceive visual content properly for different reasons. Usually, these descriptions can be found in two places, right below an image in plain text, or in the "alt text", which is a feature that allows you to describe visual content in a way that's available to the screenreaders, but where the wall of text doesn't obstruct the rest of the post. In my personal opinion. it is generally preferable to put it below the image, just so people without screenreaders can still benefit from it, but there is nothing wrong with leaving more detailed descriptions in alt text.

My personal advice for you to start a description is to ask yourself:

What do I see at first glance?

What is the purpose of the image? / What do I think the purpose is?

What information do I need to state so the image achieves this purpose?

Let's talk a little more about this, using fanart, with the consent of @silkysong

What do I see at first glance?

When you look at an image, there are certain things that stand out at first glance. Our brains tend to process things as a whole, we see certain objects in the middle, and how they interact, then we can note some specific features of an image, then we can focus on the context, the background of an image or the colors used. Basically, we must try to describe things as we see them

An easy list that can help you decide what to say first:

What kind of image is it? Digital fanart, traditional fanart, an edit (image created pasting assets made by others together), a photo, a screenshot, etc.

What is the main object seen? Or what are the main characters seen? If it belongs to a specific franchise, name it here.*

Where is it? (Short answer: like a location name, a plain background.)

How do the objects or characters interact? Describe actions like: "the Knight swings its nail towards Hornet."

Is the appearance of the object or character different? How?

What is the background like? What is the lighting?

(*) While everything else can be optional, if you're low on spoons this can be a quick description that lets others know what the image is about.

But what defines what info needs to be there?

Time for question 2 and 3!

What is the purpose of the image? /What do I think the purpose is?

Ok, so, why am I sharing this image? Or why do I think the original poster shared it?

If it's a meme, then focus on what elements are needed to tell the joke, if it's an edit, then focus on what makes it different. And if it's fanart: what things would you like people to notice about it? A specific artstyle, the poses in a scene, the colors it uses, a new design, you decide.

As you can see, this is what can make descriptions so different. If you're the person who made the image you know best how much you want to focus on details. In other words, if a detail will have a meaning or an impact to the viewer, then try to describe it.

What information do I need to state so the image achieves this purpose?

Let's look at an example:

The image descriptiion is: "[Start ID: A drawing of the Broken Vessel and the Radiance from Hollow Knight over a white background. The broken vessel stands looking to the front, one of its eyes is black, while the other, next to where its mask is cracked, is bright orange. The end of its cloak twist and are colored orange as well. A tiny version of the Radiance seems to be sitting on its head, where its mask is shattered and full of infection. /End ID.]

First sentences gives us:

Medium (what kind of image?)

Characters (main objects)

Franchise (context for said objects)

A quick description of the background. (where are the objects?)

If for any reason you're not interested in any of those elements, you can already skim past it or press skip in a screenreader.

The next sentences describe what pose the broken vessel has and any relevant details of their pose and their cloak. Then we describe where the Radiance is and what she's doing. This lets us know what the drawing is trying to focus on. If we had a background, that would be the next element to describe.

Finally, we see the "/End ID." which helps people using screenreaders know when the image description ends and any other caption you add starts.

EXTRA NOTES, Hollow Knight edition:

Describing canon characters in detail is optional. It can be useful if you want your art to be enjoyed by people not familiar with Hollow Knight, but it is not necessary. Original characters do need a better description, however, since people aren't familiar with them. If you think it's relevant for you, add any style choice that differs from the canon designs, such as adding limbs on Hornet, among others.

If you do not have the energy to describe much you can say things such as:

-An anthropomorphic [insert a bug]

-A fictional creature with [base features such as scales, wings, legs or any other recognizable elements]

-An insect-like character with a white, horned shell and a dark cloak (to refer to vessels).

[ninas-gf]

pspsps hand over ur sara ships. neow

oh boy, this might be a long one...

kokosara: this was my first sara ship, and it was also the first ship i got attached to in genshin overall !! the idea of a sapphic enemies to lovers ship is what drew me in, but i also really liked how they held some level of respect for each other? that aspect made it easy for me to imagine them getting along in post-war inazuma. they'd both be willing to set aside the past and focus on the future of their people instead, and they're also very capable women so i think they would work very well together !! one thing i will say is that my perception of kokosara (the details of their dynamic and their individual personalities) seems to differ from the majority of the fandom's view, and that might be why i grew apart from the ship a little? i still think that it is a top-tier ship though <3

yaesara: ok, this one started off as a half-joke. i initially thought that the dynamic between these two characters was funny (which it is, don't get me wrong) but then i thought about it some more and was like... WAIT A SECOND... and realized that there is so much potential for yearning and angst and a bunch of other tropes that i love. in fact, just thinking about it right now made me discover a certain parallel between these two: while sara is practically a stranger to long, supportive, and loving relationships, yae is the complete opposite. she's had many friendships over her long lifetime, and she understands the pain of loss on a level that even sara (a general of the military who is certainly no stranger to death) doesn't. thanks for fueling the yaesara brainrot, bc every time i think of them i discover more reasons to like them !!

ittosara: for a while i struggled to pinpoint which dynamic i enjoyed the most for them. rivals? friends? lovers? the answer is yes. i mean, how could i resist a rivals to friends to lovers ship (just look at my username jsdkjsd), but ESPECIALLY one where i love both characters an unhealthy amount? and they also have so much content that links them together (the bulletin boards in inazuma, the voicelines, sara's appearance in itto's trailer, etc.) but it just makes me want to see them share screen time again even MORE... (i also really love the fan interpretation of sara being the tengu from itto's childhood who carried him back after their fight) and personally, i see them as actual rivals who would need to work to understand each other on a deeper level before actually developing any kind of platonic or romantic feelings for one another. it's very similar to kokosara in the sense that i interpret it very differently from a large portion of the community, which is just one reason i tend to avoid content of them. i really don't mind letting my own ideas cycle through my head :]

beidou x sara (saradou? sarabei? beisara? idk): now THIS one is funny, just bc of how it randomly popped in my mind one day and how i then spent about a week brainrotting about it sjdkjsdksjk. is part of it just me putting two muscular electro women together? maybe. i was having fun imagining scenarios where beidou would visit inazuma with her fleet and end up on some kind of mission with sara. to me, sara having a very serious demeanor and beidou being more of a carefree rule-breaker makes me think that they would have a fun dynamic (especially at first). but at the same time, they also share many of the same experiences and i think that they could bond over that !! <3

there are other ships that i'm open to, but these are the main ones !!

[thatbangtanbloom]

petals | bts [1]

petals | bts

teaser | [1] (could be read without the teaser)

characters: kim namjoon, kim seokjin, min yoongi, jung hoseok, park jimin, kim taehyung, jeon jungkook, reader

pairings: ot7 x reader

categories: angst, fluff, (light???) smut

genre: idol!bts, idol!reader (fem!reader)

warnings: reader is a bit sensitive but comes out of her shell slowly,, uhh,,, grinding???, making out ;) , sad kissing????, hoseok is lowkey whipped for reader, so is jimin,,, taehyung is a little mean for like 2 sentences

a/n: this first chapter introduces the reader, j-hope, and jimin! more members will be introduced with reader next chapter :]]

❀

The seven of them may not have been bound by blood, but they were in every other way. Their interests often aligned and common actions were shared where sometimes they did not know where one began and one ended. They began their days together as they made their way to the practice room and ended it when they loaded into vans to make their way back to their shared dorm.

It wasn’t as though they had never noticed the fundamental difference between the seven of them and you. They were keenly aware of it whenever the stylist squeezes you and your other girl group members into shorts opposite to their pants or the added slits to accentuate your figure when suits were the dominant style. Yet, your performance was the tipping point.

Each of them had drawn silent as they watched you move like a siren across the stage. The male dancers seemingly falling at your feet while your white chiffon hugged your every curve, floating like water with each move to the beat. Never mind that you were in a group with seven other girls, all of their eyes could only be glued to you.

They would like to think that it were the performances that had them glued to your every move - that it wasn’t the remnants of false dreams that led them to watch you like a hawk. Almost like wolves, they would be eager to pounce at you if there was one misstep. Yet, you made none.

Hoseok was the proudest of them all. He purposely would stay up to watch you practice, giving helpful tips to evoking further emotion.. but this? Seeing you move this sexily as an enchantress almost made him feel weak in the knees.

They had attempted a lot to make you feel welcomed into their tiny home of seven. When BigHit informed them that the top trainee from Produce 101 would be joining their company left a sour taste in their mouths, but after learning it had been you who captivated millions, their worry lessened. BigHit had provided themselves on growing from the ground up - working organically to cultivate each trainee with precision, sincerity, and perseverance. Their own premonitions of how you functioned as an artist did make them question your credibility. It was only a matter of time before their watchful eyes looked after you since your pre debut days. The trainee girl division of BigHit had been long gone, but BigHit could not let go of you, not after so many monthly evaluations, tearful performances, and years going down the drain.

It was not as though you were coming into the group empty-handed. You had your own fan base from the show and project group who swore to stay by your side no matter what. Admittedly, your fan dynamic was a bit more mixed - guys eagerly flicking to see you and the other girls in school uniforms while you belted your heart out. The latest addition was the reassurance that BigHit needed to their girl group that they intended to put together.

“She doesn’t belong here.” were the first words you heard when your bags finally were placed down. It had been Taehyung who had uttered such words. You instantly find your blood run cold from the words. You could not quite understand why Taehyung was so against you. The two of you had never spoken more than three words to one another outside of promotional shoots where you were slated as an MC for the few shows variety was on.

Nevertheless, you tucked your head down and followed your other group members to the practice studio where you would dance for hours on in. You would practice until your limbs ached, taking every moment of a break as one step closer to the solace of your bed when comeback preparations were soon approaching. But every time you rested for just a moment, you could remember the echo of Kim Taehyung’s words. She doesn’t belong here.

Unbeknownst to you, not every member of BTS was antagonistic towards you. In particular, Jung Hoseok admired your tenacity more than anything. The two of you spoke in quick words, him congratulating you on your variety show appearances and complimented the way your freestyle had improved over the years. He was in complete awe of you.

“You’re here again?” His soft voice greets you at seven in the morning on the fifth-floor practice room of BigHit Entertainment. You would be embarrassed that you are currently laying on the floor looking utterly disheveled with your gray sweatpants loosely hugging your hips and the way your shirt is drenched with sweat if this were the first time.. but it had not been. He has two iced Americanos in hand and his lovely heart-shaped smile to match. “I swear.. you’re one of the hardest working people I know.”

His words lift your heart and you scramble to stand up and bow deeply to him, “Thank you, senior.” You say before bending a full ninety-degrees to show your respect.

“There’s no need for formalities… aish… are we not close?” Hoseok teases playfully as he places his keys onto the television monitor’s counter and shrugs off his jacket. He has always been one of the more friendly members of your senior group. Most likely because he catches you in the practice room four days out of the week when your leader, Roa, has not realized you snuck out of the dorms in exchange of the four walls. “You can just call me Hoseok. Or j-hope if it makes you feel better.”

You shyly rub the back of your neck, “I.. I suppose we are.” You admit sheepishly as you watch him pass you the iced americano into your hands. His hands are soft and gentle as they overlap over yours. “Congratulations on Billboard and the Grammy’s…. It must be very exciting,”

“Yah, yah, you said that yesterday.” Hoseok has always teased you as his hand raises to your head and pats it gently. In particular, Hoseok has always found your shyness cute. He thought it was sweet that despite years of being an idol, you still never lose the softer parts of yourself. “Let’s talk about you. And Reverie, huh?”

Your girl group, Reverie, had ultimately been a successful feat despite Korean netizens eager to question the validity of putting former IOI members and BigHit trainees as the first girl group the company would produce as opposed to using ‘fresh’ talent. Reading article after the article had made you insecure when they commented on your rather ‘boring’ facade compared to the other members that had charms that seemed to overflow. Were you that bad?

As though reading your thoughts, Hoseok gently clears his throat. “You should show me your dance.” He contends with a warm smile.

Despite only having these secret times in the practice room, Hoseok felt as though he could read you. He noticed your demure way of approaching things that were unfamiliar to you - the sharp contrast for when you performed on stage. If anything, he wanted to help you find the same confidence you felt on stage. He wanted you to find it with him.

“I can do that,” You say as you take another sip of your iced Americano and rush to place it in front of the mirror. You steal a peek from the corner of your eye as the older man settles into the chair and shrugs off his jacket. The other members (most likely Jimin since he tended to be as much of a practice fiend as he was) would not join for another half an hour, so Hoseok was eager to spend this time with you.

His eyes follow your every moment as he leans forward like a man entranced. He’s always admired the fluidity in your movement; the way that you texture changes without warning and how sharp each move is when it needs to be. Like water, you move as one with no disconnecting movements until you want it to be. Quite literally, he thinks your poetry in motion.

The latest comeback is equally as alluring as it is power-based. BigHit quantifying that girl groups should not be held to a double standard meant the choreography being just as difficult as your male counterparts. More than satisfactory for you, it let you feel a greater sense of accomplishment when you hear Hoseok’s claps of approval.

“You’ve improved a lot.” Hoseok remarks with a bright grin as he stands to his feet before walking over. “Though… I would say that this one move could be drawn out more. You’re focusing more on the timing rather than the execution.” He watches as your features contort at his words as you try to piece together what move in particular was he talking about. Could it had been the pas de bourrée? “Here,”

He moves closer to you with a reassuring look in his eyes as his hand rests on your shoulder and slightly presses down, “You’re supposed to have your shoulder go slack, right? You shouldn’t be so tense. Relax.” He says as his fingers trap down your arm to graze over your elbow and tuck it in more. “Your arm was taking away from the focus on your legs. You know the choreography, so why do you dance like you don’t?”

“Ouch,” You say with a forced laugh. You knew he meant well, but from to time, Hoseok did tend to critique you more like you were a member of his own group rather than a junior. Regardless, you were still thankful for his key eye for detail. You never would have deduced it was because he was looking out for you far more than just as a senior, but as something more. “You said last time you wouldn’t be so harsh,” You joke after mustering the courage after fixing your posture and your eyes reclaiming Hoseok’s.

Hoseok chuckles softly, “If I knew you couldn’t take it, I wouldn’t say it,” He remarks gently before turning on his heels beside you. “You’re practicing for the partner stage within the comeback, right? Then you should do it properly.” His voice lowers ever so slightly when he speaks, “With me.”

This hadn’t been the first time you had practiced with Hoseok. Early morning practices often consisted of him arriving at roughly the same time each day, if not earlier, with his small critique prior to him opting for a more hands-on approach. You saw it as nothing more of a senior looking after his junior, but Hoseok saw it as far more than that. How could he not when you were this cute without realizing it?

He wanted to ruin you.

Your thoughts melt away when you feel Hoseok’s hands settle onto your waist, pulling you closer to him as the two of you make eye contact. The way that he looks at you, his pupils slightly dilated with an intensity you can not quite discern, makes you let go of the breath you had not realized you were holding. How come it never felt like this when you were dancing with the actual backup dancers?

“Your leg should rest on my hip, like this,” Hoseok says as he purposely tucks his hand in the dip of your waist to press your waist against him. He’s warm to the touch, much like the sun itself and you have to bit back the blush that threatens to paint on your cheeks. “There, you’re doing good. You’ve always been good at listening.” He praises you as he guides you through the next move. Each moment you spend closer to him has you nearly buckling in the knees when his voice tickles your ear. Did he have any clue what the hell he was doing to you?

You may not have realized it, but Jimin ultimately did. The shorter man has grown familiar with the scene as he tucks his bag under his arm and lingers by the door to watch. He’s not surprised that Hoseok had shown up an hour early for practice in the wrong practice room when he leads you across the room. Jimin has to wonder if being attracted to you is infectious when it seems he is equally infatuated with you. Perhaps even more than Hoseok.

Jimin chuckles to himself as he pauses the music and leans against the door frame with an amused grin. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you two were star-crossed lovers.” It’s almost biting the way your face changes of recognition when your eyes meet Jimin.

You immediately pull away from Hoseok to bow deeply to Jimin out of respect, “It’s not like that. He was helping me-“

“You should let me help you too,” Jimin almost pouts as he repeats the familiar action of discarding his jacket and strolling over. “I can dance too, you know?” He teases as he notices the chuckle that Hoseok had been holding back. Both of them found you being flustered adorable, especially when this normally wasn’t like you. What happened to the alluring siren on stage? They practically craved to have you put them in their place.

Unlike Hoseok, your history with Jimin runs deeper than your ties to BigHit Entertainment. The younger man had known you at your lowest point, kissed away your tears on the night that your first group, I.O.I, had disbanded after the project’s deadline came and went.

You had never mentioned it, but you remembers the last night in the IOI dorms like it was yesterday. You had never wanted to know the pain of your group disbanding again. You had called Jimin that night because you didn’t know who else to call. Somi had been crying in the bathroom for hours, saying how it felt like SIXTEEN all over again, and you could only console your dongsaeng for so long. Kyulkyung and Nayoung already were going to be debuting in PRISTIN with eight other girls as though IOI never existed and was another project group. The time zone left you unavailable to call you parents and Jimin was all you had…

“I’m always going to be here, you know that, don’t you?” Jimin had whispered into your ears as his fingers gingerly stroked your cheek. He looks into your eyes, hoping that your words give some semblance of comfort when your heart ached to no return. How many times would it be that you had to build yourself up to be strong just for everything to fall apart outside of your control?

You sniffle when Jimin makes you look into his eyes, “I-I-I know,” You stammer out as you try to regain your control over your emotions, but it hurt. It hurt so bad that your head was pounding and it felt like you could hear the blood rushing to your ears. “It just.. I just want it to stop hurting, Jimin..” You grip the fabric of his shirt as though he were the one person in this world that piece you back to gather.

“It will take time.. but I will be here until the very end.. you hear me?” He whispers as he stares into your eyes. His soft monolids drip honey when they meet yours. “YN-ah… look at me.”

With a sniffle, you nod, “I am.. I am…” You whisper as your eyes scan his own. You never quite realized how long his eyelashes are or the way he holds the entire galaxy in his eyes up so close. You never have clung to him this much either, so it leaves you a bit breathless when Jimin says nothing for a while, just admiring you. “Jimin?”

“Mmm?” He asks as he does his best to wipe away your tears and not think about how pretty you look right now. He was here just to comfort you, but why can he not stop himself from looking at your lips? From thinking about how badly he wants to help you forget and kiss you?

“You’re pretty,” You say simply as you sniffle slightly and wipe away a stray tear with your sleeve.

“You’re prettier,” He tells you with a soft laugh as his thumb brushes against her chin. He wonders how close it would be for him to close the distance between the two of you with just a kiss.

Jimin has always complimented you, reassuring you of your every perfection, but this time he seems to mean it a little bit more as he presses you tighter against his chest to hold you close.

“Jimin…” You whimper as you hug him closer to you. “Please.. please help me forget,” you whisper softly for just the two of you to hear.

So without thinking, you cup both of his cheeks to close the distance between the two of you. Your arms snake around his shoulders to pull him closer as his arms instantly wrap around your own waist. He is warm to the touch, but fits like a perfect puzzle piece.

Jimin can not say how many times he had thought of this moment - the way you would fit around him like missing puzzle piece. The way he would kiss away every worry from your pretty little head as his hands bunch up the sweatshirt at your waist as he would kiss up your stomach before peppering kisses along your thighs. He’s dreamed of what it would feel like to finally hear your soft moans for him and him alone, but he still holds back as he lets you take the lead. Especially when you are this sensitive.

His lips are soft and pouty; they feel like the inside of a rose as his jaw slacks to let your tongue brush against his own. The taste is sweet with a bit of a tangy flavor: much like that of strawberry lemonade when each finger that presses against your side feels like keys being paid against a piano. For the first time in a while, things feel stable, sure, certain.

You’ve never wanted anything more in your life. You have no doubts as your hips grind against his own on the floor of your dormitory. His moans are soft each time your hips rhymically brush against the hardening tent within his pants. You like this reaction from him, the way his hips buckle into your own as your own teeth begin to nibble along his plump ones to elicit another mewl of pleasure from him. He feels like a dream, the way his hold on you tightens to bring you closer to him ; a sneaky hand that brushes along your hip to graze against the strap of your bra and tug it down in anticipation. You’re thankful that your door is locked in case one of your fellow members were to walk in on you grinding against your best friend after a fit of tears. God, you want him. You want him. You want him.

“YN-ah….” He groans as you begin to paper kisses along his neck. “I.. I want this… you have no idea how badly I want this… but I don’t want this if you’re just trying to forget,” He whispers as he forces you back to look at him. “Do you understand that?”

You grow silent as you watch his chest pant up and down in excitement. You know he wants it as badly as you do. You would be a fool to not see the way that he looks at you like you are the only one in the room. But you feel ashamed from how quick you are to close the gap between friends and lovers in the blink of an eye. Would crossing this boundary ruin things for you?

Jimin wonders if you remember those memories as vividly as he does. Sure, it had been a couple of years since that time, but he could not forget the way you fit perfectly around his lips. The memorable roll of your hips that nearly had him crying for him to be inside of you. He could remember all of this when you stared at your figure years later no longer as just friends, but with you as his junior and him as his senior.

Was it incomprehensible that he would wish to cross those paths again?

- - -

Don't be a silent reader! Let me know what your thoughts are! How do you feel about Taehyung not liking the reader very much? What do you think about the reader with Hoseok and Jimin? Let me know your thoughts :)

[probably-haven]

after binge reading i have come to a new revelation: I’m not a fan of most Xiaoven fanfics

Don’t get me wrong, I love the ship and its one of my favorite to think about.... but most of the fanfiction for the ship just- doesn’t sit right with me for a number of reasons. 

Disclaimer: these are personal opinions from my own taste and are in no way an attack against any authors out there, because frankly fanfic authors are great and not like i could do better lol. As these are personal opinions, I acknowledge here and now that a number of people disagree and that they are under no obligation to change their opinions in any way as it is not and never will be my intention to tell others what they should be thinking That said- read at your own risk if you want- meh, anyway-

time to share some opinions that have been on my mind lately

The biggest reason.... is how they handle Xiao. And I don’t even mean mischaracterization because Xiao is such a complex and yet simultaneously simple character that as long as you’re somewhere in the range of “Xiao vibes” it’s really hard to write him out of character because of his complexities. What I mean is something that i actually completely agree with as being accurate to his character. In nearly every single fanfic I’ve seen, there is some element of idolization that Xiao has for Venti, or for the sake of reference, Barbatos. He tends to think himself beneath Barbatos and/or indebted to him, whether that be because he’s an archon, because he saved him, or simply because of Xiao’s tendency to dehumanize(yes i see the irony in that word usage) himself.  This by itself isn’t an issue but its often how this trait of his is treated.

Imma just list a few ways I’ve seen this be handled within Xiaoven fics. - It isn’t handled, it’s just there and accepted as a part of who he is in the story - It isn’t handled but his trait is treated as source of humor within the story - Venti(and others) roll with it (finding humor in it, just cant change it, encouraging it, making jokes about it, etc.) - Venti takes advantage of it(whether accidentally or purposely) - it’s actually addressed(by Venti or someone else or the narration- can go a number of ways, but just- even a brief reference to the fact that its not a good mindset fits in here) - savior!Venti(Where venti disagrees with it but the way it’s written gives off “god among mortals” vibes- like he’s just being humble and truly is above him in reality) - its the focus of the story  - not directly addressed but shown to be destructive.  - they chose not to not include this in the story’s characterization of Xiao(just saying that this is valid ahead of time) Theres others but i have a lot already.  Note that I tend to read more ‘serious-toned’(idk if that makes sense) fics so that may skew my perception

Now there’s a few that i have issues with on their own- both instances of it not being handled, Venti(and others) rolling with it, Venti takes advantage of it(purposely(and without good intent)), and savior!Venti. Xiao not only has this trait, but he is unfamiliar with what is normal in relationships or emotions as a result of isolation and inexperience. He is also either not aware of or not concerned with what is considered strictly “healthy.” Combining these makes for a rather dangerous combination and just accepting it as “oh he’s just like that, it’s who he is” or making it out to be something funny- It’s not wrong or bad by any means necessarily, and I could still possibly enjoy it to an extent depending on a series of different factors, but its- not as often.  Even in the case where I do enjoy reading it however, I would still feel uncomfortable sharing it with or recommending it to others because in the first instance it feels like normalizing a destructive and dangerous mindset, and in the second case it does the same while simultaneously making a joke of it. It’s the same deal with Venti or other characters rolling with it, but that’s probably gonna be mentioned later too. Not to say that this is a “wrong” way to handle it, that it makes the fic bad, or that authors even are normalizing anything by doing so, just that in my specific instance- not a fan. 

I’ll get to the others when i talk more about Venti, but for now: It’s the focus of the story. I think I saw like... 2? where the story was like- focused on this and why its a problem which- power to them, address those real world problems like a boss- but also i wouldn’t actively seek it out or anything- like, good job, but doing so just leaves it open neutrally for other factors to decide how good a story i think it is. 

not directly addressed but shown to be destructive. You’d think i wouldn’t like this- but frankly in fanfiction not everyone wants to address every character flaw verbally because it can through off story, narration, dialogue, and general flow to do so. This can be with an event, an action, a dialogue, a mere comment, making it actually fit into the it’s actually addressed category except that its- subtle enough to make its own category. plus i live for show not tell- in everything- its a thing. im- very much a fan of when the fics do this but the subtlety is easy to miss and its not common so- 

It’s actually adressed- doesnt have to be a lot- just mention anywhere or imply anywhere that maybe idolizing someone as a god and savior and being in a relationship with them while having little knowledge of standards, emotions, relationships, or healthy behaviors in general- maybe isnt the smartest idea in the word. (”Call me Venti, not Barbatos” by itself is not enough to fit in this category tho as a note)

-

Now lets talk about Venti...

uh.... those who have followed me for awhile will probably already know this but... I have a lot of opinions on Venti and a pretty- “niche(?)” perception of his characterization that isn’t shared by a lot of others- so I don’t actually read as much Venti fanfic in general as you might expect because I often end up disagreeing with how writers portray him, which again, in no way is their characterization wrong, but- “their perceived truth” conflicts with “my perceived truth” and by extent so does the characterization, though neither is any more correct than the other from an objective point of view, if that makes sense... but anyways now that that’s said, moving on before this becomes a philosophy lecture, as fun as that would be for me.  I’ll try to keep my “perceived truth” out of this for the first bit. 

Venti’s response to this: 

He rolls with it: this depends on the mood of the fanfiction. If they dont put a lot of stress on that trait of Xiao’s it totally fine but if the trait seems to be a major part of Xiao’s character, it seems like normalization once more. (more on this later)

he takes advantage of it purposely: if its an AU or something and Venti’s like a villain(i saw a few) then- villain venti isnt my cup of tea but i have no qualms. If they don’t portray Venti in a negative light while having him take advantage however that’s a bit uncomfortable to read for me because it feels like normalizing taking advantage of that mindset as well as the mindset itself. However, i did see a number of instances of Venti using it as leverage for like- self care- which i definitely have no qualms. Xiao: [insert probably destructive idolizing statement about being indebt] Venti: How bout you pay me back by actually sleeping for once smh or other variations are okay and depending on the vibe are actually a really fun dynamic as long as it doesnt turn into romanticizing or normalizing it, y’know?

Venti accidentally taking advantage of it.... I love angst- and in most of these theres a sense of guilt when he realizes- and i just think thats a lovely way of addressing the dangers of such a mindset for both sides. As long as it doesn’t keep repeating to the point of romanticization its totally cool to read in my eyes(not irl ofc). If Venti never realizes he accidentally took or is taking advantage it feels a bit like normalization, and if he does but just- doesn’t care thats- a rip.

savior!Venti...... i- i hate. the story giving off vibes that Xiao’s mindset is technically correct while Venti oh so humbly tells him to treat him as an equal like the wonderful and charitable person he is.... i just- no. of course thats over dramatizing it- I think the main thing that gives it this vibe is when Venti doesn’t seem either concerned, surprised, uncomfortable, or otherwise have a negative feeling towards Xiao’s mindset. Just- it makes the whole thing weird in my eyes when Venti doesnt really seem to have his own reason to oppose the mindset idk- 

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fact time!

Venti is the god of freedom. His backstory is freeing Mondstadt from a god’s tyrannical reign. His origin is a windsprite, just another breeze bringing changes for the better. His form is a nameless boy who played an instrument and then died, thus failing at his only dream and only ever accomplishing anything because of the help of others. He slept for a thousand years after the archon war to avoid putting Mond under the rule of yet another tyrannical god. He only even became a god because Andrius chose to let him. He wouldn’t have even had that chance if the nameless bard had survived, he’d remain just another wind while his friend ascended to godhood. Venti sacrifices his own power for his people’s freedom. 

now that I’ve laid out a number of canon facts, time for opinions:

Venti has little to no desire to be seen as a god. He thrives in, comes from, and emphasizes a lack of superiority in quite nearly everything. The first Ragnvindir, who canonically turned his back on Venti after Decarabian’s fall, likely did so because one- he anticipated power would corrupt and Venti would soon become just another tyrannical god, two- he suspected Venti used the nameless bard in an attempt to rise to godhood, or three- idk insert other possibilities to acknowledge again that i could totally be wrong.

Look me in the eyes and tell me Venti wouldnt trade godhood for his friend in an instant. His godhood was only granted to him because his friend died and could easily serve to constantly remind him of what could have been and what he lost. Venti takes no enjoyment from being seen as superior and in my opinion, I feel that it could actually make him largely uncomfortable when his divinity and abilities as an archon get involved-

also self promotion for my favorite posts- check out #archon war era venti if thats interesting to you

so anyway Venti rolling with it or making jokes about it just doesn’t sit right with me.- 

-

Okay! enough talking about that mindset!

idk- i have... a few/lot of other gripes and stuff or just things that kinda throw off the vibe for me but that’s the main one plus my general personal pickiness when it come to Venti fanfics- but this has gotten long enough already- 

idk i just felt like rambling about it and i haven’t done a long post in a while so-

again, I love the ship and its actually one of my favorites- just the fanfic isnt my thing..... that doesn’t mean i don’t still love it and come up with a whole ton of brainrot and ideas on it tho lmao