#just throwing all the tropes i liked in there and potential plot threads

[crandairy-juice]

just making the most self indulgent dnd characters. meet gawain

[leavemebetosleep]

Alright here's a short version of how I'd fix Bride of Discord. As a sort of mental editing exercise.

While not really a good fic for a lot of reasons, Bride of Discord actually has a lot of potential as a story. There's a lot of great imagery, and it has a lot of fic tropes I like and are fun to read. I actually would probably change less than some people would. (If your "rewrite" doesn't keep any of the original anything, it's not actually a rewrite babes)

It's just that a lot of stuff in it is maybe played from the wrong angle.

Also there's no saving the Applejack/Spike thing. That's just gross. I think you could keep a similar subplot, just change it so AJ's crushing on someone else. I like AppleDash, but RariJack would probably work the best here. Maybe in this version she's afraid to confess bc she thinks Rarity is straight since she's so femme.

As for the main couple, I think you could actually make the demanding a wife thing work, just have it play out differently.

Like, Discord is old. He spent a lot of time as a statue, and might not be up to date on modern society. Maybe instead of it being a VERY creepy request that screams "sex slavery" make his request explicitly a somewhat less creepy political marriage.

That was common back in his day, and he IS trying to make a peace treaty with Twilight. Being married to one of her people is a show of good faith, that she won't go back on her word, and he won't go back on his, as well as metaphorically uniting their kingdoms.

He doesn't care who it is, because he's not intending to fall in love with them. At best they're gonna be an extended house guest.

They can even point out that's dated and weird, but he can also counter he doesn't know how else to get a proper show of trust. He doesn't trust them with his own safety, but he does trust they won't go after one of their own.

That could also play into why he's so insistent they get married already. Fluttershy trying to avoid the marriage once she's in his kingdom makes it feel like he's being set up, and like the treaty is tenuous. Or maybe he's even suspicious that she's avoiding because the ponies don't plan to stick to their deal.

That could even factor int the climax, but I'll get there.*

Discord can be lonely, and he can still also be a little desperate for companionship, but I don't think that should be his reason for the marriage. Otherwise he could've just asked for a companion, not a wife. Plus, I feel like per-reformation Discord would be in denial about being lonely. I think he'd only start to realize how much he's been missing out on until AFTER he's gotten to know Flutters.

*So in the climax, Fluttershy declares she doesn't love him bc her friends are badgering her, and he gets creepy possessive and tries to hypnotize her and there's a fight and what-not.

Yeah, instead of that what if it's his paranoia that she's avoiding getting married because they plan to betray him coming to a head?

He hears Fluttershy say something to her friends that out of context sounds like they're going to blast him back into stone after all. So he's think she's a traitor who played him for a fool.

I'd nix the hypnotism, just have him and the six fight it out, and then he kicks everyone out before Fluttershy can explain because he's heartbroken and doesn't want anyone to see.

Lot of minor fixes I'd throw in too, cutting out plot threads that go nowhere. Less heteronormativity. Fixing a LOT of OOC-ness. A LOT.

Oh and I'd change Discord's backstory too. The Megamind rip off thing is meh, and I think Discord's a character you could do a lot more interesting things with that that.

As for Fluttershy, a huge problem I have with this fic is she lacks real agency. I want her to choose to go with Discord, not out of the weird sense of feeling she has to sacrifice herself. (It comes off, for lack of a better word, suicidal.)

Maybe instead, she chooses to go because despite her shyness, she's bold when it matters. She will stand up to him. She's not going to be afraid of him anymore. She's gonna tame him like every other wild animal she's had to deal with, and save her home in the process. She's going to come back. He can't keep her there if she really decided to leave.

Have her be the Fluttershy who tried and failed to use her stare on him.

Also, in the original I never at any point felt like she fell in love with him. Just that she gave up resisting his advances. She's always wary and hesitant to do anything with him. That's fine for the beginning of their relationship, but for this to be a good love story that has to change at some point.

Where's the moment she realizes she finds him a little attractive actually? He's weird looking, but he's so confident and funny and fun and that's really appealing. Where's the part where she's having fun and forgets she's a prisoner? Where's the real bonding? Setting boundaries?

Maybe she convinced Discord to let her friends visit, not because she's marrying him already, but because she convinces him to try to make other friends. And he does it, because he loves her already at this point. And she thinks if he and her friends could get along, they could work thing out. Maybe she was hoping things would go well so she could tell him she wanted to marry him after all.

Maybe she really did want her friends at her wedding, but also to be able to have her parents, her brother.

This last bit has nothing to do with the author's writing. This fic was originally written before the show ended, and we got a lot of lore afterwards she couldn't have known about. That's not her fault she couldn't see the future. But just for my sanity, I'd add in more cannon lore.

And uh. I guess that's all got with what I remember of it. Yeah.

[ripplestitchskein]

I’ve seen a couple posts about this topic so I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. Or at least make my position clear.

I do not think that Stolas needs to be with other people, be that Vassago, Better Than Blitz guy, or someone else. I do not believe he needs to have more sexual or romantic relationship experiences with someone other than Blitz for his character arc or to learn how to be a better partner for Blitz or any of that. I intensely dislike the idea that a character or person has to have a bunch of different experiences to know what they actually want in general or as like some kind of life skill building exercise to obtain enough experience points to “earn” the person they want. I don’t think it’s necessary for Blitz either, he can see Stolas moving on and away and want to work to change without a third party as the catalyst. There’s just a lot of weirdness around these concepts in general. Like the fixation on “healthy” relationships is odd to me, it’s definitely a newer fandom thing, and it has a lot of implications for neurodivergent people I’m not going to unpack here. So yeah.

I’ve also already made it clear that I definitely don’t want Stolas to lose his desire for romance. He doesn’t need to get more realistic expectations or be more grounded in his relationships. I would be extremely disappointed if that was the ultimate takeaway for his character as I feel his desire for romance is a really central part of him and I don’t need the messaging to be about “realistic” romance.

However. The story has opted to hint at the possibility of Stolas *possibly* moving on with someone else, and Viv has implied Vassago is that possibility, so a lot of my speculations or theorizing follow that potential plot line or I try to theorize ways Vassago could fill a role in a platonic capacity while Blitz might think it’s more than it is etc. We still don’t know what role he’ll fill so it is only speculation but it is natural to wonder if it’s a love triangle or misunderstanding in that vein since the nature of the conflict is romantic.

That’s not to say that they can’t do interesting or compelling things with a love triangle plot line, I also don’t buy into the idea that cliched or tropey plot lines can’t be done well, they very well could. I love tropes. I got the watch the same shows over and over and over and listen to the same songs on repeat, read nothing but fan fiction which is basically just remixes of the shows I’m watching over and over brand of autism so I’m all for some cliche romance tropes.

So all this to say there is a difference between lining your theories and speculations up with a particular direction, and furthering discussions about those ideas if it seems like the show is going that way without explicitly endorsing the concept while still having an open mind to see what they ultimately will do with that concept. It may not be that people are yearning for or personally even wanting Stolas to have a rebound relationship but more they are setting their expectations up for that possibility since it is a common story thread.

That’s also not to say people who do want those types of stories are wrong for wanting them. There are compelling ways to write love triangles, just like we’ve seen them handle miscommunication, another often loathed trope. I’m just giving whatever they serve a chance and seeing where it goes. I am very much of the mindset that if I am enjoying what is happening, even if it’s cliche or not the direction I would have gone if I were in charge, then I’ll settle in for the ride. At the moment I trust the writing, I am having a blast with these characters and their issues and the ways things can play out and bending and twisting them into different scenarios. I trust the crumbs they’ve laid along the way and I’m interested to see how it ultimately plays out.

From a personal self indulgence level though I do like jealousy in fiction, I like yearning and angst and misunderstandings and messy things that aren’t desirable in reality, that aren’t even realistic and these cliches do open up for a lot of that. It CAN be done well. Fiction does not need to be clean and wholesome and “healthy”. Characters can do crazy shit real people can’t. I don’t watch shows or read fiction for realism. I do require happy endings though so as I’ve said all along if it seems like they aren’t going a direction I’ll enjoy I’m fine saying “okay, that was fun but I’m getting off the ride now, have fun you guys”.

[hollowfaith]

「 GET TO KNOW YOUR RP PARTNER! 」

( repost, please don’t reblog )

「BASICS」

▐ NAME: – Lethe ▐ PRONOUNS: – she/her ▐ SEXUALITY: – cute boys ▐ TAKEN OR SINGLE: – omg married u///u ▐ FIVE FACTS:

i unironically love mobile gaming b/c it's about the only type i have time to play (besides ffxiv) all while carrying it around in my pocket. (p.s. 9 days until wuthering waves releases come play!!)

i have a love for miniatures. to curb that i only collect ones for my BJDs now and hunt for them via lucky finds in antique shops.

i do chinese > english fan translation for novels and series i like. update times are sporadic, however (cough these days most of my writing is just RP stuff)

my favorite genre of YouTube videos are 1) gossip/review channels for cdrama land, 2) horror let's plays from ManlyBad*ssHero, 3) real life disaster stories (ScaryInteresting is very thorough & the cave diving ones are super freaky). i like listening to them while doing the dishes/laundry

i can sleep sitting up on long plane and bus rides! women envy me men hate me etc etc.

「EXPERIENCE」

▐ HOW LONG (YEARS/MONTHS): – it's gotta be close to 10~12 years by now

▐ PLATFORMS USED: – tumblr, but ezboard (forum RP) made up a good chunk of my early RP days

▐ BEST EXPERIENCE: – a lot, but any time characters from different fandoms just kinda connected and became friends/enemies/lovers whatever after a thread. the crossover interactions are always magical in a mfrp group

「MUSE PREFERENCES」

▐ MALE/FEMALE/OTHER: – hansum dudes

▐ FAVORITE FACECLAIM: – i change it up every now and then but besides girl up front i was really into this guy for a while b/c he was cute:

▐ FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT: – where's the crack + comedy but okay fluff and angst are both rad, smut im like an amateur at lolol but i'll try

i also want to try more action RPs like fight scenes, they seem challenging but the potential for coolness tempts me every time ▐ PLOTS OR MEMES: – plots are great but i'm more of a "have vague outline throw self in threads" kinda RPer. things tend to change as you RP since it's such an action/reaction cycle between you and the other mun so it's nice to keep things flexible between the start and your end goal? i also think some of the best plots can happen out of a random meme response tbh ▐ LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: – length doesn't matter to me as long as it addresses stuff in the other reply. i've had threads with long and short replies within the same RP session and that's fine, whatever fits the flow. wordcount only matters for rank up hahah ▐ BEST TIME TO WRITE: – apparently in the PM during breaks in work or late at night. mornings i'm too busy....most of the time (or still asleep) ▐ ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSES: – i wanna say i'm 25% mary sue (the muse, not the trope) god we will never stop crushing on cute guys or wearing cute dresses when we can get away with it

[grcveyacd]

💕

send 💕 and i will tell you some muses of ours i think could work as a ship.

quick side note, all your muses are honestly amazing and so well thought out and tbh i loved reading all of their little bios <3

ophelia and cassius — she is a mess, and has a habit of getting involved with people that aren’t good for her or a mess themselves. i have yet to throw her into any potentially dangerous type plots / threads so, i think the sense of danger that surrounds him would be interesting. she obviously could be oblivious to it, and their dynamic could be strictly random hook ups for him to get his mind off of the shit that he’s dealing with, and then her side is her calling him when she’s been drinking away her own personal turmoil. she is very loosely marissa cooper from the oc based, just to give you an idea of what messy ophelia can sometimes be like. 

gabriel and miles — gabriel is a poet, writer and all around nice guy. he can be oblivious at times but, he does make up for things that he misses. i do think they would be a couple of soft boys together, and would really bond over mutual love for the classics. ophelia is his sister so, again, he does deal with his own messes as well. he does not have a relationship with his parents due to how he was treated, and then later how his sister was treated. i see potential, and then we can always add in sprinkles of angst here and there, just cause it’s me, and i do love my angst. and that could always include his brother meddling in, or his sister, or really anything. 

camden and nova — am i thinking of the whole skater boy / ballet girl trope? probably but, the song came to my head and i just love the idea of it? of course, camden is a goofball, never really all that serious. he has been part of the x games, and is well known to those that actually enjoy skateboarding. he would be intrigued by her, and though he wouldn’t know a thing about ballet, it fascinates him, and watching her dance would be calming to him. maybe she’s the one that has that conversation with him about her not knowing if that’s what she wants to do? and he could help her navigate through that? then him taking her to competitions, and showing her that world.

[honorhearted]

SHIPPING INFO! ♡

Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST. Don’t reblog!

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE? If this means overall, I'd never feel comfortable elevating one ship over the others on this blog. But if this is referring to Ben's overall canon, I don't truly have one! When I first watched Turn back in 2020, I didn't ship Ben with anyone -- my ships mostly came through fic experimentation and RP, so my favorites in that regard tend to be Ben/Peggy (the dramatic potential alone is *chef's kiss*), the found family aspect of Ben/Mary with Thomas as a surrogate son, and my always favorite bickering dynamic, Ben/Anna.

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING? Pretty much anything! The only thing I won't write is r.ape as a plot point. Don't ask me to do it, 'cause it ain't happenin'. In regards to tropes, enemies to lovers is my absolute favorite, so I wish there were more loyalist characters out there to throw at Ben.

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE? I've never encountered any discomfort while writing age gap ships, so I'd say as long as the characters are adults, I won't be bothered.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING? It probably seems like I'm not since I have so many lol, but I do need there to be chemistry first. I've had to nicely take a couple people aside over the years and tell them it's not working out -- in those instances, we planned a ship before actually writing it, which I will never do again due to the potential discomfort/hurt feelings.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED N / SFW? For me, I always throw in a "read more" once a.rousal is mentioned, or once the physical touches progress beyond kissing. Sometimes, I just do it right from the get-go to save the dash from any potential awkwardness.

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH? Oh gosh, you're going to make me list out all my ships? *cuts to everyone chanting Ben is a h.oe in the BG* Okay, so I mostly tend to ship with OCs on this blog, so I'd say that's over half of my dynamics for sure. Then, I have an Anna, a Mary, and I used to have a Peggy; the rest of my ships are crossovers, and I love each and every one of my ships cuz my writing partners are fab-u-lous and make this experience so much fun. <3 If this is also asking about platonic ships, I have a lot of great friendships on this blog that I adore, as well as some sibling-ish and paternal-ish dynamics that make my heart go !!!! <3

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU? I've never had this happen tbh. Like, maybe I'm just very easy to read, interest-wise, but whenever I'm interested, I kind of just shyly drop hints, and then we usually end up on the same page and shipping together. So no, nobody has to ask to ship with me, but I don't want to be forced into shipping something either. Getting sent a shippy ask when we've never even interacted before, for instance, isn't something I'm comfortable with.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP? I mean, any time? lol

ARE YOU MULTISHIP? Yep!

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS? I definitely get very invested in my ship threads, so I guess obsessed? But I'm also never going to ignore any non-shippy threads, 'cause I'm also very happy to write platonic/familial plots as well.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM? I feel like I already answered this? lol It varies, because I never started off with a ship for Ben. I first started experimenting with Ben/Anna, so that has a nostalgia affection for me, especially since I don't write it so much anymore, but I also flip-flop in between Ben/Mary and Ben/Peggy as my absolute favorite, so I guess I just constantly switch between those three. OH, and thanks to Aly, I also really like Ben/Philomena cuz of the reverend's son/sultry actress appeal, 'cause *eyezooms* I love me some opposites! <3

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU? Just befriend me! I'd like to think I'm pretty easygoing, but chatting with me in DMs is definitely a way to become ship partners, cuz I tend to WANT a ship if I'm actually friends with the mun. I've certainly had ships in the past where we didn't really talk, but those were never as fun.

TAGGED BY: Yoinked it!

TAGGING: Yoink it from me! <3

[ducktastic-dad]

@diistortion  ;  🚢 throws a deer and an old bird @murderxfcrows at lucifer   send 🚢 or ( 'SHIP' ) for shipping sheet answers  ━  accepting.

alastor ;

do i ship our characters together?: yes | no | a little | not yet but maybe soon

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see (currently): childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between ( they've interacted a fair bit already, they just need a bit of a push !  maybe in a new thread ? 👀 )

what now?: let's plot something | send me shippy memes | i'll send you shippy memes | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter

anything else i want you to know about me / my character / my shipping habits: lucifer is still hoarding all those inbox gifts btw,  ( most of them never saw the light of day i'm SORRY, )  in his room probably locked away in the most cartoonishly overkill safe so no one can know he secretly gushes over them, & also i think it is absolutely hilarious how mad your alastor gets whenever he thinks my lucy is attractive/cute. cope, mald, seethe. currently they are giving "something is ALMOST there" to me. now i want a THREAD, LUKE. 🔪🔪

naberius ;

do i ship our characters together?: yes | no | a little | not yet but maybe soon

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see: childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship | power imbalance

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between

what now?: let's plot something | send me shippy memes | i'll send you shippy memes | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter

anything else i want you to know about me / my character / my shipping habits: i DO see the potential in a goetia x lucifer type ship, read naberius' bio and if he's that ancient i think it'd be safe to assume lucifer knows of him, even if it's only in passing !  maybe if they had some hobbies in common they could bond through that ?  or lucifer going to him for some sort of knowledge ?

[apothekosm]

🚢 throwing this right back at you with big ole heart eyes

Leitha ( @moonsworn ) & Ana'Hira sitting in a tree???

send 🚢 or ( 'SHIP' ) if you ever considered shipping our characters romantically and want me to fill out the following form for our muses. bold all that definitely applies, italicize what could potentially apply. feel free to add more if you think certain options are missing or you just want to add more.

do i ship our characters together?: yes | no | not yet but maybe soon (in that i almost immediately saw it in my mind's eye. I see two cute people pointing in the same direction, I cannae help but consider.

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see: childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between ( a secret third thing that is me coming into your ims high as hell one night begging you for another chance to write you a love song, i mean thread, and you giving me the opportunity and now we have some mystical merger of vibrations, momentum, and a certain... je ne sais quoi. )

what now?: let's plot something (on your own time! ofc) | send me shippy memes (omg hii~) | i'll send you shippy memes (hey~) | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter

anything else i want you to know about me / my character / my shipping habits: Less a reveal of my own internal romance politics and more an open question for you: When Ana'Hira is staring into Lei's eyes, absolutely covered in gnoll blood, holding out an absurdly long lock of her hair for them to take, what will be going through their mind? Will there be sweet words shared? Or will there be a quiet understanding that, Xanathar was indeed correct in that, the greatest aphrodisiac, next to destroying one of your enemies completely, is being with someone who just gets it?

[mickie86]

🚢 / @blcdlust

bold all that definitely applies, italicize what could potentially apply. feel free to add more if you think certain options are missing or you just want to add more.

do i ship our characters together?: immediate yes (those memes have me fucking feral for them oops) | no | not yet but maybe soon| right now

would i like to ship with you?: yes | maybe, i'm willing to try | no

type of relationship i could see: childhood or high school sweethearts | exes | engaged | married | long-term relationship | crushes | unrequited love | fling | long distance | online relationship | just dating | new relationship | toxic lovers | friends with benefits

tropes i'd enjoy writing for them: friends to lovers | enemies to lovers | exes to lovers | fake relationship / dating | forbidden love | grumpy and sunshine | star-crossed lovers | surprise pregnancy | second chance | soulmates | amnesia / mistaken identity | forced proximity | secret relationship | slow burn relationship

would i rather plot first or jump right in and see where it goes?: develop their relationship first | jump right in | something in between (i wanna jump right in and plot details out!!! i wanna throw 3am headcanons at you and chat about them but i also want the threads right fucking now)

what now?: let's plot something | send me shippy memes | i'll send you shippy memes | write me a random starter | i'll write you a random starter | i'll be responding to your meme responses asap my dear <3

anything else i want you to know about me / my character / my shipping habits: i'm super chill with shipping but i also love to build on things!! i love to throw around random vague ideas and create something bigger and better together, i love the kind of ships that contribute to character development (and verse development bc i need to develop mickie's vamp verse moreee). otherwise, i'm just super stoked to throw these two together and see how they click!! get ready for mickie to match that freak energy <3

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

I felt like barfing out my thoughts

Hi, hello, long time no see. This isn’t really any sort of update or anything; like the title says, i just have some thoughts and i want to put them into words lol. And i’m putting it here instead of twitter cuz of the bigger word count fa;ewiofna;e

THIS IS A WHOLEASS JUMBLE OF WORDS THAT DON’T REALLY MEAN ANYTHING, SO FEEL FREE TO JUST SKIP PAST

Anyways, um... i feel like i’m kinda losing the thread on bnha. It doesn’t really have anything to do with how the story is going or anything (though i will admit my focus is stronger whenever there are major moments with aizawa and mic, which,,,, there haven’t been much lately fla;oewfnwai), but more to do with the fact that i’ve been here for 4 years straight, which is,, the longest time i’ve been in one fandom at a time??? i’m super impressed of myself by that, but also?? kinda burnt out and honestly kinda super lonely?

Since finishing my multichap, i’ve actually had a little time to try and catch up on fanart and fanfic i’ve missed, and,, i dunno. none of it’s really getting me; even content that has all the tropes and ships i’m super into hasn’t been really grabbing me. It’s nothing to do with the quality of said works; they’re all well-crafted. Idk i’m just not feeling as enthusiastic as i once did.

Not to mention like 95% of the people who were in the em fandom back when i first joined have all moved onto other fandoms, so a lot of the time it kinda just feels like i’m t-posing and screaming silently in a very big and empty room lol. And this isn’t meant to throw shade at anyone!! I genuinely hope all my mutuals are having the time of their lives with whatever series they devote their attention to. It’s just hard for me to keep being invested in a thing when everyone i know that was there with me have all moved on lol. And then also i feel like i lost a good 2/3s of my audience cuz of my extended hiatus, so that also puts a damper on things.

Ideally, I want to stay with bnha at least until the story concludes. But i’m not sure how long that’s gonna be, and how invested i can keep myself until that point. Right now my focus is being pulled in like 4 or 5 different directions: bnha, OC stuff, real life stuff, and a few other small interests i dabble in every now and again like botw. So it’s been uhhh... tough... to keep one stable thread going rn lol

Now that I’m graduating, I want to try and post more often, i’m just,,,, not sure what i would be posting. Again, ideally, I would love to get some spark for erasermic and rooftop squad stuff. But my brain has just been mush when it comes to coming up with any sort of art/story ideas lately. I don’t know what it is, but it feels like i just can’t come up with any sort of semi-to-fully fleshed out plot anymore. And not even just with fandom stuff, but with original stuff too. Over this past semester, I managed to come up with an original story and characters that i actually kinda like and want to pursue, but i just keep running into these blank spots that, no matter how hard i try, i can’t find a way to fill them in. I can’t bring myself to blame depression for my mental fog, just cuz in the past i was going through a bad depression bout, and that time ended up being the peak of my creativity, so idk what’s really going on with me right now f;aoweifn

I know a good portion of it is probably cuz i restrict how many stories i consume cuz i don’t like the threat of potentially jumping fandoms. I have a whole list of anime recommendations waiting for me and other shows/stories/whatnot that i’ve been passingly interested in, and i hesitate to watch any of them, cuz there’s always that chance i’ll get too invested. Unfortunately, i’m not one of those people who can have a bunch of hyperfixations lying dormant until someone speaks the magic words and suddenly i’m all about it again. The way my dumb brain works is that I have 1 Big interest and a few very small interests. The small interests are basically always there, and i can consume them quickly and briefly without ending up consumed by them. But once that 1 Big interest changes, it takes a lot of time and effort to try and keep up the enthusiasm for that previous Big interest, and often times, it doesn’t work out and i get to the point where i basically don’t want to see anything pertaining to that old Big interest anymore (if that makes,,,,,, any lick of sense at all omfg)

Idk. This is a whole mess and a half of words lol. Guess what i’m trying to lament is my inability to consume new media without fear of it taking over my brain af;oewina. I want to find new stories, I want to expand my horizons, but i always dread the possibility of jumping ship to a different fandom. And I know i know it’s a really stupid thing to be worried about, but idk. I invested a lot of time into bnha, a lot of which got lost when i went on my hiatus, and a part of me is just like “bro you’re not DONE here”, but like,,, brain no worky. And i’m not entirely sure what to do or how to feel lol

TL;DR:

- I’m getting kinda burnt out on bnha but i don’t really know whether to try and hold on or just let go; and if i let go, i don’t know what will happen lol

- i want to try and post more, but i’m not sure what i’ll be posting

- my brain is Big Stupid and it’s frustrating

[novantinuum]

Okay. So let’s discuss that leak a bit more rationally this time. Jen take two.

As a preface to all this, until I watch the actual episodes and actually see for myself what is real and what is not, I still am doubtful of the legitimacy of almost every single leak after the first one- particularly the two audio leaks and the Venezuelan fan “text leak,” which do not seem to even have provable sources like the first one did. The only leak in between these I could easily see being real is the shaky shot of Garnet and the others running across the water. My reasoning is that... the VA work seems super off from its usual quality? In particular, Steven sounds off. I don’t believe it’s real.

However, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here. 

I’m gonna take a moment and discuss this latest leak as if it were real, and discuss how on earth it could fit into canon, what its pros and cons are as a storytelling decision, etc etc. So let’s go!

So.

The first thing I noticed, actually listening to it, is that... everyone in the fandom seems to be playing up the “oh no is this the end of Steven and Connie’s relationship??” angle... when truth be told, the conversation is pretty low key and chill beyond the surprise of Steven’s proposal. It’s not even an argument, not really. It’s just a relationship discussion. Hell, I could easily see their relationship actually blossoming further because of this awkward conversation- because if this IS really all out of nowhere, then this is outright Steven admitting that he has feelings for her. “Will you marry me?” is a charged statement. Thus far, Steven has kept his crush on Connie a bit more on the down low. He can’t help blushing when he’s around her, yeah, but he hasn’t talked about it? This could be- albeit super, super awkward- how Connie finally learns for 100% that he has romantic feelings for her.

The second thing I noticed... is that this reads as a spur-of-the-moment stupid teenager decision. Lord knows I’ve said some pretty stupid bs as a seventeen year old. This doesn’t seem to be something Steven’s put a lot of thought into, it sounds out of nowhere. I believe it may be resultant of him mixing his feelings for Connie, his fear of being left behind by the people he loves, and his fear of actually addressing all the tumultuous emotions within himself. He wants to escape himself, and foolishly, he thinks fusion could be a solution to that. Thus, what would be a more perfect solution than pulling a Garnet and: A) Marrying Connie, and B) Permafusing as Stevonnie, that way they’ll always be together and Steven doesn’t have to be alone with himself.

The thing is, that would never work. Garnet has been very, very clear (in Mindful Education) that when one person brings a bunch of emotional instability into a fusion, the fusion may end up falling into hallucinations... and will ultimately fall apart. Steven simply isn’t in a place where he can be a part of a fusion for such a long period of time, because he desperately needs to work through all of the stuff that’s plaguing him internally. And second, Connie is absolutely right. The two of them have distinctly unique lives right now, and are doing their own things. That should be celebrated. They should have the space to be separate people. It doesn’t mean Steven and Connie can’t be together, but their together in this moment can’t be exactly like Garnet’s together.

And there’s the other thing. I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this scenario doesn’t make sense with Steven’s schmaltzy romantic awareness, (and I used to be in this boat), but... if you really look at what kinds of people he grew up around... what examples of married couples he has in his life... beyond television and fiction, to be fair he only really has Garnet to go off of as a template. Garnet is the one big relationship he’s known for years and years. He never got to see his dad and mom’s relationship in action. Almost all the adults in town are single fathers or mothers, barring Lars’ parents, who he barely sees. It’s years before he at all knows Connie’s parents, and they’re not exactly visibly in his life all that much. Steven absolutely seems to know a lot about the concept of romance, enough to spend an adorable amount of time making a wedding planning album, but one genuinely has to ask how much he knows about romance in practice. From what I can tell, not much. 

If he were in a better place where he wasn’t all mentally freaking out and grasping at straws, I think he’d look back on all this and realize that asking Connie to marry him this young was super silly. But again, teens do stupid, impulsive things.

Pros of this potential plot thread:

It gives Connie more to do than just acting as a support vehicle, nodding along with everything Steven is saying. Instead, it gives her the chance to vocally object with him, to tussle with big life stuff with him, and assert her agency as a character in ways we genuinely haven’t seen from her in a while.

As far as I’d see, it could lead to a further blossoming of their relationship into a more romantic one. This would lay everyone’s feelings out on the counter.

It slaps Steven with the reality that uh, running away into a fusion is a stupid ass idea and he shouldn’t do that, next solution! Try again.

Cons of this potential plot thread:

How Crewniverse wraps it up and frames it within the show would genuinely make or break the idea. If it’s the “last straw” before corruption, as the so-called “text leak” claims, then that would read uncomfortably like Steven is playing into the harmful “man can’t have woman, man gets angry and throws a fit” trope. For the record, I doubt corruption would immediately follow such a conversation... I doubt soft lil’ Steven would ever react in that way... and I don’t think it will even end on a negative note, but this is important to mention. Crewniverse would have to be very careful with how they handle this scenario.

Overall, at this point I could see how this potential plot thread could weave into canon in a satisfying way. My only worries are based on conjecture and not on the content of this audio leak itself.

I’m still doubtful, but kinda intrigued.

Can’t wait for March 6th to roll around so we can start piecing this mystery together!  

[pixelgrotto]

Remixing a tomb plus a highway to hell

Last month I finished DMing Tomb of Annihilation for one of my D&D groups. It’s a campaign that sees heroes adventuring to the land of Chult to stop big bad lich Acererak, who’s made a device known as the Soulmonger that’s emanating a Death Curse and screwing up the world’s resurrection magic. It’s also a spiritual successor to Tomb of Horrors, one of the classic deathtrap dungeons of tabletop RPG history that came about because D&D creator Gary Gygax wanted to screw his players over for opening doors wrong. In short, it’s certainly one of the more memorable adventures for D&D 5e, but the version of Tomb of Annihilation that I ran for my players was actually extremely remixed and hacked apart, as is the case with every official Wizards of the Coast module that I run. 

There were a few reasons for this - my players were coming into this campaign fresh out of Curse of Strahd, and everyone was level 8. One of the players had died early on in Curse of Strahd - in the very first session we played, hilariously enough - and was temporarily sustained by the mists of the Shadowfell only to collapse upon returning to the material plane. With this in mind, I felt that it would be a great twist to have the party venture on a quest of resurrection only to learn that resurrection magic throughout the world had stopped working due to Acererak’s nefarious plans.

Additionally, I wanted to give my players the chance to try out alternate characters if they so desired. In the name of grand ambition, I decided to have my players create two sets of characters, and wove a homebrew story, dubbed “Fiends in Waterdeep,” that would run analogous to and eventually intertwine with Tomb of Annihilation. The first set of characters - consisting of some of the veterans who had survived Curse of Strahd - would investigate the streets of Waterdeep, which was suffering from an invasion of devils and demons that seemed unconnected to Acererark’s dark doings. The second set, consisting of new level 8s, would venture to Chult, the vaguely African-inspired landmass in the south of the Forgotten Realms, to track down the source of the Death Curse. After progressing through seemingly unconnected storylines, at the end of the campaign the disparate plot threads would mesh. The Waterdeep explorers would travel to the Nine Hells only to learn that the fiend invasion was caused by the abduction of the Queen of Hell’s newly born infant - a soul-devouring mass of flesh that could open portals into other worlds with its burps and farts - while the Chult expedition would delve into the jungle to find Acererark, smash the Soulmonger and free the aforementioned child. 

In short, I basically made a complicated D&D adventure even more complicated by layering my own story on top of it and running two campaigns at once. I think I was looking for a challenge, and oh boy, I got one. I probably won’t be undertaking something like this ever again, because it required a lot of planning hurdles on my part. For instance, my players and I usually gamed for about 5-6 hours at most, which meant devoting 2 and a half or 3 hours to both sets of characters. If one battle lasted too long or a social interaction went south, I’d have to adjust this timeframe accordingly, and every DM knows that players will always defy your expectations in one way or another, so there was a lot of improv on the fly to make sure that our sessions stayed well-paced. 

In the name of pacing, I also stripped much of the fat out of Tomb of Annihilation, which is largely composed of a really long hexcrawl. D&D 5e’s hexcrawl exploration and survival rules have never been particularly good, in my opinion, and the rules in the book expect you to roll LOTS of random encounters and deal with stuff like inclement weather, mosquito attacks, hunting, getting lost, etc. I incorporated some of this stuff (the hunting, since we had two rangers in the party), but I pre-rolled all of the random encounters and potential locations the party could go ahead of time, getting rid of some of the ones I didn’t like, and largely handwaved stuff like getting hopelessly lost. Reddit explorations have revealed that by far and large, everyone running this campaign does the same thing - particularly for higher level players trying to get through the jungle without feeling like they’re wasting time. (And from my firsthand experience with Out of the Abyss, there’s nothing worse than going through multiple D&D sessions and feeling like you haven’t accomplished much.)

My approach to streamlining Acererak’s deathtrap lair at the end of the campaign was similar. I skimmed through the entire dungeon with all of its bajillion floors (which could take an average group months to get through) in favor of using the 10 rooms that I liked the most, which was more than enough. Tomb of Annihilation, while probably fairer than Gary Gygax’s Tomb of Horrors, is still in my opinion full of wacky stuff in the final dungeon that just isn’t my cup of tea for D&D, including one trap that can get characters stuck in real-world Victorian London. (Okay, that’s cool on paper, but to actually run it as a DM, especially when your players are in the final hours of their adventure? I’ll pass.)

Additionally, I made Ras Nsi - the warlord-turned-yuan-ti - into more of a developed NPC who was actually willing to help the players slay Acererak. In the book, he’s very much a Darth Maul-type bad guy who looks cool but has a minimum of characterization. This is because Tomb of Annihilation leans into the stereotype that Ras Nsi and the rest of the yuan-ti are all merciless bastards with inscrutable plans, and while this may be fine if you’re familiar with the Conan the Barbarian serpentfolk tropes that inspired the yuan-ti, it’s not great if you’re trying to build a believable world with compelling characters. Much has been written about how Chult stumbles at portraying a fantasy Africa - largely by depicting the characters as foreign saviors and the Chultans as relatively helpless - and while some of this was alleviated in my game by the fact that one player’s character actually was Chultan, I still felt it was necessary to give some of the indigenous races a chance to help undo the curse that, after all, was first and foremost affecting their land.

Switching gears, when it came to the accompanying Fiends in Waterdeep homebrew story, I recycled some material from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, which I’d previously run for two different groups, and also took inspiration from the Wizards of the Coast module Descent into Avernus. At the time of planning, Descent Into Avernus was the most recent D&D hardcover, and all the reviews I’d read painted it as cool in concept but a major pain in the butt to run in reality. So, I decided to use only the nifty bits - a journey into the first layer of the Nine Hells via Mad Max-style tanks powered by souls - and mixed it with my own tale that was influenced by a profile of Fury, the dragon queen of hell, that I’d read in the third-party 5e supplement Legendary Dragons. It turned into a mildly amusing story about Fury warring against her ex-husband Asmodeus, and the players ended up serving as therapists in what amounted to an interplanar lover’s spat. I’d recently started therapy when I came up with the campaign concept, so this is probably one of those unique instances where real life truly influenced art. And hey, the unpredictable whims of all-powerful, world-shaping deities make for great adventure hooks, and judging by how Greek mythology seems to have re-entered the modern zeitgeist these days (I’m thinking about Hades, one of the most popular indie rougelikes out there, as well as that Netflix series Blood of Zeus) it seems like I was on the nose!

In the end, this two-tiered campaign lasted roughly 70 hours and climaxed with all sets of characters reaching level 10. Acererark’s Soulmonger was smashed, the feud between Fury and Asmodeus smoothed over, and after enduring the eerie mists of the Shadowfell, the hot temperatures of Chult and the flames of Avernus, the story of these motley players - who’d started questing with me back in 2018, and endured a move to online games in the era of COVID - came to a gentle end. I’m a believer in the reality that campaigns don’t necessarily need to last forever, and with real life throwing some of my players (and myself) a few recent curveballs, this seemed like a solid finale point. A consistent campaign running over two years is in many ways a dream for a lot of D&D players and DMs, and I’m glad I got the chance to make it happen.

[tomahawk-swing]

AU! (-blaps hands on table- TELL US TELL US TELL U-)

send me ‘AU!’ and i will ramble about an AU i want to use more, develop and have thread in, or one i just don’t get to enthuse about enough on my blog.

[[ The first AU that comes to my mind is the Beyondard!AU :3c  it’s got to be my favorite, and not just because it’s the most developed now. I got to use it a little on discord, it has a whole fic project that I haven’t touched in months, and I drew quite a lot of doodle for it already.

It’s got to be the story that resonates the most with me, amongst my (few) AUs :’)  I’ve always loved a post-apocalyptic setting, and Beyondard as it’s introduced in the EXE anime is quite close to that. 

In this AU, Dingo travels alone on a quest for revenge ... and hope. This is the only verse where his parents are (might be ?) still alive. It’s not an overly grim and dark world, which leaves room for angst, but also lots of heartwarming, human moments ... and possibly, a “good” end :3c 

There are many tropes in this AU that I love, besides just the setting. Dingo slowly gets to find comrades in his quest, much against his will. He’s proud and stubborn, like his canon counterpart, but taken to extremes. This Dingo throws a knife at your face before asking for your name. He trusts no one but himself and his many blades :v 

I love this AU for the development potential it has. The fic I mean(t) to write for it was solely for the purpose of unraveling Dingo’s character, by making him run into all sorts of different people, who would all bring out a specific side of him. Slowly, bit by bit, he’d stop being an “anti-hero”. 

What’s stopping me in this story is that for Dingo to shine through other characters ... I need other characters ;-;  I don’t want them to be just plot devices, I wanna give everyone a proper backstory in this AU. It takes creativity that I don’t possess :( 

So yeah, I’d LOVE to write more of this AU. I’d love to have threads with it, but I’m always stuck between trying to stuff things in my to-be fic’s continuity, or just exploring different scenarios with the same base context. ]]

[morethanaprincess-a]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO / Depends. I think fans usually love Sonia or hate her.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / In some aspects.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO /

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL / Verse-dependent. Mostly good, unless Despair-verse or post-Neo World Program/post-SDR2 for canon verses or Talentswap!AU for my Ultimate Mafia Boss AU. Sonia's reputation is pretty terrible in these.

How strictly do you follow canon?  

I do the best I can, considering that for most Danganronpa characters, there's limited information unless they're a protagonist. Considering DR, depending on the timeline of Sonia's class, takes place in various settings, realities, and states of mind, it can be a challenge to keep everything consistent. While I don't do a lot of threads that take place strictly in the SDR2-verse, where I do try to keep events canon to how they unfold in the game and as precisely as Sonia is presented as I can, other verses tend to be a bit more canon-divergent in order to fill in character building gaps that the game and anime don't really offer. The biggest change I tend to do is that unless I'm writing a thread of Sonia's arrival or first year at Hope's Peak or during the Neo World Program of SDR2, I don't tend to write many of her slang or word mix-ups. While Sonia reads and writes her 30+ languages better than she speaks them, I still believe she picks up on foreign languages easily and learns from her mistakes. She's a smart person, considering all of her talents mentioned in the SDR2 game alone. I also tend to disregard some of Hajime's free-time events with Sonia, particularly in terms of the hero legend and how she would allow the fabled hero to immediately marry and rule with her. My Sonia, for the most part, is a self-rescuing princess (and has a tendency to want to rescue everyone else too!).

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  

Is your muse looking for a friend and/or significant other who's just fascinated by everything they do and will support them no matter what? Someone who doesn't care about where you come from, your family, your looks, your socio-economic status but only who you are? Someone generous, kind, gentle, optimistic, smart, well-read, well-mannered, and will always be your muse's biggest cheerleader? Then your muse will definitely want to meet Sonia Nevermind, Hope's Peak Academy's Ultimate Princess and occult and serial killer-lover extraordinaire. She's poised to inherit a European country that thrives under absolute monarchy, a ridiculous amount of wealth and prestige, her own military, and more homes and assets than one person, and one family, really need. But get her talking about her favorite books/movies/TV shows, particularly horror and romantic dramas, and she'll be ecstatic. She loves exploring haunted locales, questioning the motives and methods of serial killers (real and fictional! I hope you've seen Friday the 13th, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. Is your muse Team Freddy or Team Jason?), and experiencing a 'normal' lifestyle unbefitting of a royal. Novoselic has no amusement parks, so your muse can really wow Sonia by introducing her to her first roller coaster! While she can't actually participate in Freemasonry or murdering people (Despair and Talentswap verses aside!) due to her title, she's still quite intrigued by it all. And like any proper Novosonian, she adores her chocolate and her wine. She's got a massive sweet tooth, perfect for her usual sweet and kind demeanor.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

She's not terribly edgy or sarcastic in most of her verses. It's very easy for Sonia to get duped by someone, as she's quick to consider people friends unless otherwise shown differently. She's very poised and polite due to her upbringing and doesn't often act on every impulse she has or speak her mind, especially if her opinion is divisive or negative, unless she trusts your muse. It's easy for her to accept friends into her life and far more difficult to accept romantic love, as she's frequently facing people who love her for her looks, title, and apparent purity, which frustrates her. She doesn't want to be put on a pedestal, she simply wants to be treated normally. She also doesn't get into too many fights, especially if she's been slighted. This is not a muse who's going to throw a punch, but she's excellent with firearms of all sorts. Pistols? Check. Rifles? Mastered them. Rocket launcher? Her favorite! And of course, she learned how to drive a tank before she could drive a car. If you're looking for a meek and shy muse to write with, Sonia's not that type. She's reserved in some things, but if your muse is really out of line? She'll call them out on it. She also has a tendency to want to lead in everything (it's a struggle for her to give up control, she can't help it!) and is a workaholic unless your muse distracts her.

Sonia has a fair amount of Rich People Problems. If that doesn't interest you or your muse, you may not enjoy interacting with her. But she remains as humble as she can about it all. She's terrible at putting herself first and admitting feelings for anyone, automatically assuming the person she cares for wouldn't want to be close to her, platonically or romantically, because of how complicated her life is as a future monarch. There's a lot of press, official appearances, and times she has to be a Princess before a person. She never wants to feel like a burden to your muse, which can sometimes come off as passive. But in life or death situations? Her bravery comes through.

And let's not go into how her Despair verse could be potentially triggering to some muses and/or muns. Sonia's absolutely disgusting when in Despair: lots of gore, lots of torture, lots of death, lots of blood, and a fair amount of sex with bad intentions. She's a gross human being (and has to deal with all of that in a post-Neo World Program verse!).

What inspired you to rp your muse?  

I've been roleplaying for a pretty long time (not necessarily all on tumblr, but for awhile. I'm old!), and I've played action/fighting muses, know-it-all/brainy/witty muses, and muses who border on the mean girl trope with a heart of gold. But I've never really played a sincerely kind and good person. I tend to prefer writing female characters (I'm just more comfortable writing women than men most of the time!) and I've always had an interest in royalty and European history since I was a child. I played and watched Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc originally and while I found it fun, it didn't really hold my attention for long. It took 5-6 years or so for me to try out SDR2, and upon getting introduced to Sonia it was just a perfect fit. I love how kind and open-minded she is, how much she believes in the best of everyone, and how her interests in the occult, serial killers, anime, and dramas are a stark contrast to her royal upbringing. So many royal characters are complete snobs with no interest in commoners, which was never the sort of muse I wanted to write. But I loved the idea of Sonia's fish out of water situation of being the only foreigner in her class (and likely most of the school), who's just so happy to be there even though she gets various customs wrong and is just plain weird due to her personal interests. Additionally, I have a strong interest in horror, the occult, and serial killers myself, so it's been fun incorporating my thoughts on what Sonia would like outside of what the game and anime offered.

What keeps your inspiration going?  

This might be corny, but it's Sonia's innate curiosity about the world and everyone in it. Admittedly, I'm not terribly up to date on current and popular anime (and I've only played DRV3 once, so I don't know those muses as well, and I never completed that game's Talent Development Plan), so it's hard when I don't always know the franchise of the other muse Sonia's interacting with, but she's still so fascinated about others and is inclined to ask questions and take on new experiences. But when I'm feeling stuck on inspiration, I'm returning to books, movies, and TV shows. For Sonia specifically, I watch and read a lot of historical and royal-focused dramas, as well as horror and classic literature. I also follow blogs featuring royal history and modern royal coverage (though when it turns too gossipy, I tend to cringe!) for plot ideas. 

Still, it's the hardest for me to interact with other muses whose muns automatically assume I'm familiar with their fandom, especially when it's popular. I tend to do a fair amount of apologizing in that case, as most of my favorite anime are considered old or classic at this point. 

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. 

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.  

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO / Most of the time!

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  

Not terribly. In general, if someone doesn't like my portrayal, I question why they're following me (especially if we aren't writing together). I'm much more the type to respect someone's space if they decide to unfollow and/or softblock than want criticism of my portrayal. Of course, it's different if I'm writing with someone for awhile and we have multiple threads and character development, I'm a little more open to criticism but likely won't change my portrayal based on it. 

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?

I do! In general though, I tend to prioritize threads and IC asks over OOC, starting with what I've got muse to write with first. I have anon turned off and so I don't really get a lot of random questions about my muse anymore unless I've posted a meme asking for muse headcanons, but when I do get them, I try to answer them to the best of my ability.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?

Not really. It's okay to disagree with my headcanon, that's totally valid! But if it gets to the point where I'm being told how to write my muse, I get annoyed. When I write with a mun, I accept their headcanons in our threads, no questions asked. I prefer the same courtesy with my muse and their headcanons too.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  

Doesn't really matter to me. My general assumption is, is if someone disagrees with my portrayal, they likely won't write with me, follow me, or accept ask meme submissions from me. 

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  

We probably aren't roleplaying together. They likely either don't want to write with a Sonia or my version of her, and that's ok! What isn't ok is gossip and anon hate. I've turned off anon for this reason and won't turn it back on unless I need to (for example, a mutual I trust wants to send something on anon IC). It's a significant weight off my shoulders, not dealing with OOC anon rudeness.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?

Sure! No one's perfect. The only one that bothers me is different spelling for US English and UK/AUS/CAN English. I'm from the US and it's just easier to write in that, so I don't get anything wrong.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?  

I like to think so! I'm pretty easygoing and understanding of things like hiatuses, no writing inspo, etc, as long as I'm told that's what it is. Of course, I have my preferences for writing style (I don't do much one-liners or crack RP, just not my thing. I write a lot and try to avoid purple prose as much as I can!), but otherwise I like to plot, to wing it, coming up with new AUs and ships, etc. I also like chatting fandoms and such OOC as well! Admittedly I'm not great when it comes to mental health struggles, as I go through them myself and while I'm pretty high-functioning, RP and tumblr is my escape from my career and horrible stuff IRL, keeping me grounded and such. I like roleplaying, chatting fandoms and fun things, and just having a good time over here and on discord.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by: @monsieur-de-paris​ (Thank you!)

Tagging: Since this is a very long meme, whoever wants to do it. 

[latin-dr-robotnik]

What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces? (ft. beevean)

The following is a project I’ve been cooking for some weeks, trying to find out some reasons behind the general lackluster feeling that surrounds Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces. As you may have spotted already, this is not a solo project, since I’ve had the opportunity to talk about this very same topic with @beevean and she raised quite a couple of interesting points that I’m going to bring up as we go through. 

Also, Spanish speakers: you can catch the Spanish version of this post here, it’s probably a more polished experience with additional text.

Long post below, so, bring up a ladder and a boombox, I’ll explain along the way. (there’s also a tl;dr at the bottom if you are that type of person)

Sonic Forces stands as a divisive point in the Sonic fandom, that much we all know, and we are not going to discuss the game’s general quality at all on this post. But we are going to take a solid look at Classic Sonic and, most importantly, its music, since I consider that’s the most clear symptom of a bigger problem with Classic Sonic in general, in this post-Generations Modern Sonic world.

A quick look at Classic Sonic

When Classic Sonic debuted in Sonic Generations (2011) as this new-but-also-old Sonic, gaming as a whole was still being bombarded with this “retro-revival movement” that brought back many classic franchises (like classic Mega Man with MM9 and 10 after a decade since MM8), and SEGA itself was in the middle of that train with the recently released Sonic 4: Episode 1 (2010). While Sonic 4 tried to marry Sonic’s current style with classic level tropes and even Genesis-inspired music in a seamless way (showing Sonic’s physical transition from his Sonic 3 days to Sonic Adventure as a smooth one), this new “Classic Sonic” guy in Generations suffered from a mixed message about his origins: is he Sonic from the past, from an alternate universe, or both? Is his music supposed to sound like arrangements of his classic 16-bits tunes or just modern-sounding remixes like the rest of the soundtrack? The fandom still debates about it to this day.

This all led to the introduction of a character that, although considered a “Sonic” like the other “Modern” one, could not establish his own identity beyond Generations’ anniversary-title plot threads. No unique music style, no unique traits, he was just a simpler Sonic.

Major manifestation of the Classic problem.

Fast-forward some years to November 2017, Sonic Forces’ release date. Besides gameplay, story and character criticisms, the music of Forces turned out to be quite controversial for a part of the fandom. Although I personally consider the Avatar songs as top-tier Sonic music, I share similar concerns as the rest about the rest of the game’s music, specially the Classic Sonic level themes. 

With Forces, it seems the composers managed to solve some of Gens’ Classic Sonic music problems, as this time there was a better and more consistent attempt at making Classic’s music sound more at home with the “Genesis days” tunes, but even then the composers fell into other traps that ended up being more damaging to the final product.

Years later after the game’s release, I finally brought up this very same topic during a conversation with beevean (I encourage you that, if you find the following snippets interesting, read the entire conversation), and she had the following thoughts to share as to why Classic Sonic’s music was so... underwhelming:

the classic music in forces is the weakest part of the ost, some tracks are okay while others suck, and the main reason for this is that they hired the wrong people for the job

Okay, that wasn’t a fair cut on my part. She talks a lot more about each and every aspect behind the music, and about the people that composed it, she had the following to say:

Okay, about Forces’ music. First of all, the Classic tracks were handled by two people: Tomoya Ohtani, who also composed pretty much 90% of the OST and has been working solo since 2013 (relevant later), and Naofumi Hataya, one of the two geniuses behind Sonic 2 8-bit’s and Sonic CD’s OSTs (plus some miscellaneous work in Heroes, Colors, Generations, etc.). If you loved tracks like Sky High, Palmtree Panic or Stardust Speedway, you have to thank him.

This is already a reason as to why the Classic music in Forces doesn’t resemble the music in the Genesis games. While I can understand that it would have been impossible to hire Masato Nakamura again, Jun Senoue would have been good for the job, having composed music for Sonic 3 and most importantly Sonic 3D Blast. But apparently Senoue was MIA until 2019, so who knows.

I’d like to point out that Naofumi Hataya’s involvement will play a bigger role later in this post, as we keep searching for what went wrong and we look for a potential solution when adressing Classic Sonic.

Beevean continued with:

There are mainly two problems here:

1) some of the tracks just don’t fit their stage. I already mentioned that Ghost Town sounds way too happy for a city under attack by giant robots. Death Prison sounds vaguely Egyptian and the difference with the original, bass-heavy composition is staggering. Chemical Flow is the most generic thing and would fit everything and nothing, and again comparing it with the original iconic track is just sad. I think the reason Casino Forest and Iron Fortress are my favorite Classic tracks is that they go very well with their respective stages. This is a problem Adventure 2 had as well, associating a particular style to a particular character, and while I think Forces did it better, for me the priority should be fitting a level.

2) Ohtani was once a very versatile composer (the guy could go in one game from Wave Ocean to Crisis City, for example), but since Lost World, the first game in which he had the responsibility of an entire soundtrack, his style quickly became “anime”. Runners’ tracks? “This sounds like an anime opening!”. How do you recognize his only track in TSR? It’s the one that sounds like an anime opening and uses a synth.

And look, I love Ohtani, he has nothing but my respect, and he made some of my absolute favorite tracks in the series. But I do think they’re making him work too much - he’s the best when he can work with at least another person, and has the chance to span a little. I also think his style is incompatible with the Classic music, which was never anime: even at its mellowest in Sonic 1 it always had a little jazzy/new jack swing touch. Basically the only thing they got right in this game is having a wicked bassline :P

It ain’t *only* the composers’ fault

Following beevean’s words, I’d like to add my own take on the problem. You see, I do agree that the composers maybe weren’t up to the task of nailing the classic Genesis tunes’ vibe (Hataya got real close, though), but at the same time I do think they weren’t properly oriented or didn’t have enough time to keep reiterating on the frameworks they were working with. Like beevean said, some of the tracks improve quite a bit after leaving behind that mixed as hell “almost Genesis but not quite” soundfont.

The composers will work on what they were told to make and I have a strong, albeith unconfirmed, feeling that the Classic Sonic composers where asked to “make it sound retro” by someone higher up on the project management chain, and after checking on their progress, simply said “meh, it’s retro enough, no one will notice”.

The “make it sound retro” argument, in my opinion, opens up a big discussion about Sonic music, because there is no easy way to make it “retro” with Sonic. You just can’t pump out a few nostalgic chiptunes and call it a day. Sonic music may have originated back in the 16-bit days of the Sega Genesis, but his identity is so much more than just that Genesis FM sound. I personally believe, similar to another thing beevean point out, that Forces focused too much on sounding “retro enough” instead of fitting each track better to each level theme or even tap into what really made Sonic appealing on the classic days. 

This last point is something that SEGA struggled a lot during the past decade, they introduced Classic Sonic as an entity separated from the current Sonic, yet they simply don’t give Classic Sonic enough development as it’s own character. He’s there because he’s there and we don’t know what to expect from him beyond “he represents the good old days”. But not even SEGA itself knows what that means.

So, what really makes up Classic Sonic’s identity?

For me this is the true heart of the post. Knowing full well what makes Classic Sonic should be the key to every project that features him. 

There are lots of points to make about Classic Sonic’s identity and how to establish him should he return once again on a 3D Sonic title (not even using the “modern” anymore, and I personally wouldn’t like to see him again on a 3D title for another decade, if ever), but seeing as the main topic of this post has been music, I’m going to focus on what music style makes Classic Sonic shine.

I already said that throwing some generic chiptunes won’t work, but I DO think that Genesis-inspired tunes can still work, should they stick to what made the classics so great.

And what is that? Well, you have several options here: you can choose from more J-Pop and jazzy tunes to some sick R&B and New Jack Swing beats, all the way through to late 80′s Acid House and wacky 90′s Dance music, even cinematic-like scores and ambient sounds.

Personally, I think the heavy R&B (with its fair share of New Jack Swing) influences are a constant throughout Sonic’s first years, and that kind of sound is one that goes well with his cool attitude™. Spring Yard Zone has always been referred to as “16-bit Every Little Step”, while Sonic CD... well, and Sonic 3... well... JAM. Even Masa’s demos of Sonic 2 feature some sick basses that aren’t all that different from what I was thinking (Chemical Plant and Metropolis come to mind). Sonic CD (JP, also the work of Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata) in particular springs up to my mind as the purest representation on everything that Sonic was about on his old days, but “pure” doesn’t necessarily mean “refined”, so I think the Sonic CD style coupled with some more smooth Pop for emotional moments (straight from Nakamura’s school of smoothness) and harder 90′s raves for boss fights (think how iconic Stardust Speedway Bad Future has become) could make up the perfect blend for Classic Sonic to follow in terms of style points, but also considering the general themes of each zone (Wacky Workbench being this Dance-heavy zone was a stroke of genius if you ask me, the same with Spring Yard being a jazzy urbanscape.)

Sonic is a product of the late 80′s and 90′s pop culture, he has the moves of MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, and of course, Michael Jackson (also his shoes). As such, no generic “retro nostalgic” tune will fit with him, unlike many other gaming franchises. By embracing Classic Sonic’s wacky nature gems like Sonic Mania happened, and just like I pointed it out to beevean, if you were there the week that game was first announced, you probably saw how much people were gushing about Studiopolis Act 1 sounding so much like Sonic CD with that funky beat. People instantly knew that was the Classic Sonic music they wanted to hear.

And just to make this section even better, I recently asked beevean about her thoughts on what makes Classic Sonic’s music identity. I now urge you to go and read her full analysis because it’s so deep yet very accessible, as I’ll be collecting just a few parts of her response for this post. Trust me, that post is so useful, go and reblog it now, I’ll wait here.

About Classic Sonic’s music styles, beevean says:

So… which is the style that fits Classic Sonic better?

The big love letter to the Classic series that is Mania used CD as an inspiration, and while Mania’s OST is excellent and one of my favorites… I don’t automatically associate New Jazz Swing with Classic Sonic. Before Mania, it was only in one game, the odd one in the bunch too.

3D Blast is my favorite Genesis soundtrack, and as I said it combines the best of two worlds (plus it’s just full of bangers), but it influenced the next era more than the Classic one. The same could be said for the American OST of CD - and besides, tracks like this are nothing like Sonic anyway.

Sonic 1 is the first one and all, but that mellow style fits that particular game more than Classic as a whole, I think the closest OST to this style was Advance 1, actually - another slow-paced, simple game.

So the choice is narrowed down to the ultra-popular Sonic 2 and the refined Sonic 3 & Knuckles. And I’ll be honest, while I think S3&K has higher “highs” compared to S2… my brain immediately jumps to the latter. When I think of Classic Sonic, I think of Genesis brass (the real deal, not that fake synth they used in Forces), twang basses, a swingy rhythm (too many to choose lol), and tons of energy.

Only one Classic track in Forces came close to this description. The others sound more like either a pale imitation of Sonic 1 or modern tracks with a bad soundfont, and that’s when they’re not a complete insult (no i won’t link to it you know what i’m talking about :V).

Author’s note: it’s been, like, two months and she still refuses to talk about Faded Hills, lol

Author’s note: sorry, beev.

(TL;DR) Closing thoughts.

So, what did go wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?

A lack of definition on what Classic Sonic even is about, carried from Generations, made the task of defining his style more difficult.

The composers weren’t up to the task, or they were simply asked to make Classic Sonic “sound retro”, generic sound be damned. 

This also means management of the project wasn’t that interested in the Classic portion, or they ran out of time to make it better. This is something that the entire game seemed to have a problem with as well.

The music didn’t fit the stages, and even if it did, Classic’s identity was all over the place. He was there just to be there, and his music suffered from that (compare it to Mania).

Tomoya Ohtani (often credited as the maker of the arguably worst tracks of Classic Sonic in the game) has experienced a shift on his musical style over the last few years that led to his tracks start sounding very similar to each other, this, coupled with the fact he was working on the other 2/3rds of the game’s OST, caused his Classic tracks in particular to suffer.

Classic Sonic’s tracks didn’t take from the 90′s Pop and R&B influences that plagued the old games, and as such, the current Classic Sonic doesn’t have an identity as strong as the original 90′s Sonic. Beevean’s take on this point involves Classic Sonic tracks that feature strong, legit Genesis brass, with twang basses, swingy rhythm and tons of energy.

Once again, I’d like to thank beevean for providing such insightful information and opinions (you can clearly see we both tend to have different takes on what made Sonic back in the 90′s, but in the end agreed to a similar set of requirements to make good Classic music, like basslines and lots of energy), which helped this post a lot more than you can imagine. I wanted to post this back in late January, but the extra time allowed me to keep thinking, searching and listening, while also opened the door to ask beev again about her opinions. This is probably the first “big” article I’ve written this year, and I hope to return soon enough with more. 

[sazandorable]

Slash: The Magnus Archives!

OK SO, since testing was A Great Success and we had a lot of fun with this at the francophone Magnus Archives meet-up this weekend, I’ll share how to play the game of Slash: The Magnus Archives!

(or Slash: anything else, but TMA works especially well for this particular game by virtue of having so many characters and many open or potential plot hooks)

First off, here is the real actual game that this is based on (... disclaimer: i have never actually owned or played that game, oops), and here is my twitter thread liveblogging our first few games (/!\ features spoilers up to S4 finale). You know you want to play it. You know you do.

Good news, it’s super easy!

What you need to make your very own:

a lot of index cards (or regular paper & scissors; I folded and cut about five A4 sheets into 12 small rectangles each)

a pen

~3 to ~6 friends in your fandom(s), depending on deck size

humour and imagination

somewhere you can be loud, because there WILL be screaming

(optional: dirty minds)

How to make it:

Write the name of a character on each card.

That’s it!

How to play:

The barebones:

All players draw the same amount of cards (we played with 6).

A card is put in play as the first half of the ship.

Everyone plays one of their cards. This is a character suggested to ship with the first card.

An OTP is picked from the suggested ships; the perpetrator gains a point.

Cards are discarded, every player draws a fresh card from the pile, and another round starts.

Optional rules:

(This is how we played): each round has a Matchmaker who chooses one of their own cards to play as the first half of the ship and is the one who selects their winning OTP.

We played with the Matchmaker role going around clockwise. You could also have the winner of the round become the next Matchmaker, etc.

Each player can defend their suggestion by describing a scenario. Essentially this game becomes a fest of crackfic scenarii and it’s just the greatest. Ask your friends to really sell to you the fluffy love story of Nikola and Sasha. Ask them.

A theme is also announced (drawn randomly, decided by the Matchmaker, decided by another player, ...). This can be anything: angst, fluff, roleswap, powers swap, magical girls AU, blind date, meet-cute, OT3, Hanahaki, A Leitner Made Them Do It, secret exes, arranged marriage, NSFW, “give me the ship name”, “describe their first kiss”, ... We had a whole list of tropes that we passed around for inspiration. This is my biggest recommendation and a huge part of the fun.

You could also play it closer to CAH, with less players or less time: no Matchmaker, the first card is drawn randomly from the deck, cards in play are put down face-down, shuffled, and all revealed anonymously at the same time, and the winner is decided by popular vote. (And the winner has to narrate a scenario now?)

Don’t reshuffle discarded cards into the deck, or only the losing cards, only winning cards, etc.

When you reach the end of the draw pile, continue playing with dwindling hands. Our last rounds, with everyone forced to play the very last card in their hand, were amazing every single time without fail.

For an OT3 (or more!) round, let people draw an extra card.

Let the winner or the Matchmaker create and put in a secret new card each round/game. (Untested, I just thought of this. IDK if I can actually recommend it. May be too dangerous.)

I don’t know how to make it work but I’m sure there’s fun things to do with only 2 players too, or OT3 rounds with 3 players, etc. Go wild and tell me how you did it!

Whatever you think of!

Recommendations:

Encourage everyone to do whatever they want. Swap cards around, skip a round, play 2 cards at the same time, react to someone else’s story, collaborate on storytelling, etc. If someone is struggling, ask them leading questions, throw them plot hooks ideas. Decide whether to completely ignore things like chronology or living status, or whether to take it as a source of inspiration (this is how we made Robert Smirker/Dinner guy work). The only goal is to have fun.

Go especially wild on the theme when playing Jon as the first half of the ship.

I made a “Statement-giver of your choice” card for a fun joker. Either the player can pick anyone, either the Matchmaker picks a character the player now has to sell to them.

I also put in “a Leitner”.

There are a few cases in The Magnus Archives of some names applying to various actual characters. You decide how to deal with that. Which Michael is that? Who gets to decide? The Not!Them and S4 finale spoilers can also lead to a lot of fun.

For ease of play, I wrote a short description to help remember who tf characters were, so cards would read for example: “Robert Smirke (XIXth century architect)” or “Joshua Gillespie (coffin guy)”

However it’s actually better, IMO, to refrain from putting in too many completely random characters, to keep it interesting. Coffin guy stops being that funny if there’s also dinner guy, government conspiracy guy and Peter Lukas’s mother in the same round.

We did make cards for all of the Entities, but same, it can complicate things depending on the amount and tastes of players. (Nelja’s round of shipping the Web was fun though.)

An option is to make those cards and rotate them in and out as they’re played to avoid having too many in play at the same time.

Optional: laminate the cards.

Have fun!! We sure did!!