#kinda just combined 3 suggestions into 1 ^^''

[hellalugosi]

just kinda thinking...

is the sentimentalist in the room with us right now? ...maybe they are

and the natural world? perhaps we might also say that of a daytime sky

he's suggested something blue and gold in-show as well

now where have I seen that color combination before

oh

blue skies and everything, huh

hm, and what was being discussed elsewhere one minute and thirty seconds before that decor suggestion?

ok

(sources and rambling under the cut)

1. Season 1, Episode 4

2, 4, 8. Season 2, Episode 6

3. Prince Lestat - Anne Rice

5. Peeled Lemon with Slices - David Hockney

6. Golden Age Wallpaper - Ai Weiwei

7. Set photo of Daniel's apartment

So anyway, everyone's probably already seen the Book!Loumand Trinity Gate ceiling (#3 included here) getting connected to Daniel's place but it might be interesting to also round up some data points from within the show itself that may further support "Armand influenced that apartment/that is the former Loumand NYC home/that is perhaps even a former DM NYC home" theories.

It's intriguing that the tapes' delivery is brought up so late in Season 2, perhaps trying refresh this thread in the audience's minds. This isn't the first time the vampires' access to Daniel's life has been questioned and the short timing between the lines in #8 and #4 is striking with #4's potential implications. And if we're really examining these plates of corn, we might also note the wallpaper's design features a theme of surveillance and control, which is certainly a choice for one's living room in general, all the more so with Armand's known behavior, and more than a little interesting in the context of potential decades of stalking.

Is any of this a smoking gun for anything in particular? No! But it sure does seem like something sus is afoot.

And it's interesting for a possible sentimentalist to suggest the colors of a possible past home as the interview neared its end. What might he have hoped to recapture?

[triona-tribblescore]

for the eepy suggestions, maybe one of the brothers comforting the other after a long day? :]

This is entirely self projection im sorry

Love the HC of leo working in Hueso's, but its tiring sometimes you know? :') luckily his bros can help restore a lil bit of that energy again <3

[butterflydm]

restructuring the wheel of time into ten books

So a little while ago, there was a poll about people's favored choice for how many books should have been in WoT -- I voted for 'ten' and this is, I guess, my argument for a ten book series.

Books 1-5, I don’t really have any notes on when it comes to structure. Every book is complete in and of itself. While books 2 & 3 do have something of a repetitive structure, I think that works better in a book series than in a tv series.

The only suggestions that I would have structurally would be minor things like “tweak Rand’s power levels in the early books to keep him more in line with what he does later” (aka what the show is doing, lol) and maybe not having Ishamael present during the Battle of Falme and having that purely against the Seanchan, so that we don’t have super similar climaxes for Rand two books in a row (Rand could get his wound in Tear instead). And those are the sorts of things that I think it might be likely that Jordan would have done if he’d known exactly how long the series would end up being -- ex. he clearly backed down on Rand’s power jump when he realized that the series would be going for longer than he’d originally planned.

One minor plot change that I would do is put Perrin feeling Rand tug at him as the epilogue of TFOH or thereabouts. Just a little hint of Perrin in there, showing that he'll have a bigger role in the next book.

Book 6, though... I have some thoughts there.

Lord of Chaos/A Crown of Swords: this is the first book where the beginning really takes some time getting off the ground -- there are several Salidar chapters that could have been combined. This is really the first place in the books where characters hang around doing nothing (we're told more than once in Elayne & Nynaeve's PoV that they're barely being taught anything and that being there feels pointless), waiting for it to be time to actually Do Some Plot (the big Healing of severing) and it's just the beginning of a bad trend.

The other structural change that I would suggest is not doing the weird feint with Mat's character where he starts off doing a "Rand's general" storyline and then creakily transitions over to Salidar instead. Since Mat isn't actually going to Illian, he doesn't need to be marching south. He could just still be in Cairhien/Caemlyn and have Rand take him to Salidar from there. As it is, we end up spending several chapters on a storyline that gets abruptly terminated part of the way through the book so that Mat can do a completely different storyline instead and that really pads out the pages unnecessarily (this was a really bad trend that happened with Mat's character in particular more than once in the books; his storylines would just stop in their tracks and get shifted to something else entirely and never go back to his original storyline; ex. we literally never find out why/what the murdered caravan of Tuatha'an had to do with anything, because Mat never bothers to tell Rand their message because he spends the entire rest of the book series doing completely unrelated things and only ever sees Rand again for a brief conversation that is dominated by everyone catering to his slaver wife -- we never get payoff for the vast majority of Mat's storylines, even the minor threads). It really does feel like Jordan started writing the book, then went "oh shit, Mat needs to meet & marry the DotNM" and just abruptly changed Mat's story to yeet him to Ebou Dar without actually rewriting the earlier bits in the book.

Outside of that, the main change I would suggest being made in these books is improving Min’s characterization and Min and Rand’s relationship by NOT having Min change herself for Rand. Let Rand fall in love with Min as she is, not the dolled-up version of Min that she invents for Rand’s benefit (there are other characterization tweaks I would recommend as well, but Min is kinda the biggest issue imo).

The main ‘story arc’ for Rand that's set up in LoC is ‘defeating Sammael’ and it should take place over the course of a single book, not two separate books. Parts of ACoS would be saved for the next book but the Illian climax should happen in the same book that the story starts. I would title this book “A Crown of Swords” so that the focus is on Rand’s story, not the Forsakens' (and part of the oddness here is definitely due to Jordan changing his mind about doing the Taim-Demandred combo, so he sets up something that ends up going nowhere).

Inciting incidents:

Egwene is summoned to Salidar leading to Rand sending Mat there as well

Min arrives in Caemlyn, leading to The Box Incident

Turning point:

After the Box incident, Perrin and Rand stage a fight so that Perrin can go find Masema

Egwene sends Elayne, Nynaeve, Mat & co to Ebou Dar to look for the Bowl of the Winds and they actually take advantage of Mat being ta’veren right away instead of waiting around for a month (all the delays in Mat's various storylines had a knock-on effect in delaying everyone else's storylines, imo -- the Slog happens because everyone is waiting on Mat, whether they know it or not)

Climax:

Rand defeats Sammael

The attack of the Seanchan on Ebou Dar begins

A Crown of Swords/The Path of Daggers/Winter’s Heart: The Path of Daggers only needs some of trimming imo. Once that trimming is done, I think Elayne’s section of the prologue of WH could slid into it fairly neatly as a bit of an ‘upbeat’ epilogue, which would be a contrast to the darkness of Rand’s ending in the previous book and his defeat here when he tries to repel the Seanchan from Ebou Dar.

Also have Mat interact with Tuon throughout this book, essentially like he did in WH (Mat's interactions with Tuon in WH make sense with his previous characterization; it's in CoT & KoD when Jordan had him completely reverse on his moral outlook on slavery so that he would be willing to make out with a slaver - genuinely, how Mat goes from sympathizing with slaves in WH to sympathizing with slavers in CoT remains one of the most baffling writing choices that I've ever run across; especially with how limp and one-sided it made everything about Mat & Tuon feel in those books for me, because Jordan drained all the potential interesting conflict out of the pairing so that he could focus on Mat navel-gazing about his self-inflicted prophecy woes, making him just Min 2.0. *sigh*). This book I would choose to be named “The Path of Daggers” out of the available options.

Inciting incidents:

Elayne & Nynaeve use the Bowl of the Winds as Ebou Dar is invaded by the Seanchan and Mat gets left behind during the escape

Perrin & co find Masema, etc.

Egwene uses the rule of law to take control of the Salidar Aes Sedai

Turning point:

Mat first meets Tuon -- maybe give Mat & Tylin’s first meeting to Mat & Tuon instead, where he accidentally greets her using the Old Tongue, thus sparking her interest (cut out Mat & Tylin’s ‘relationship’ entirely, it was zero percent needed and is needed even less if Tuon arrives in the first wave of the attack, as I'm suggesting here)

Rand learns about the invasion by the Seanchan and goes campaigning

Egwene & the Aes Sedai jump to Tar Valon and begin their siege (since they no longer need to kill time to let Mat's plotline happen)

Climax:

Rand fails to defeat the Seanchan & gets attacked in the Sun Palace but kills the attackers here instead of us needing the Far Madding detour (which just felt like a less emotionally-impactful version of The Box to me and Jordan giving in to his desire to write a travelogue)

Faile learns Masema is dealing with the Seanchan and kills him, cutting off that entire path of slog by not getting kidnapped (we really only need one kidnapped wife imo)

Mat escapes Ebou Dar, kidnapping Tuon along the way (there's our allotted Kidnapped Wife)

Egwene is captured by the White Tower Aes Sedai when the rebels block off the harbors to Tar Valon

Winter’s Heart/Crossroads of Twilight/Knife of Dreams: All three of these books would have greatly benefited from being massively cut down to a single volume. This one also has a touch of TGS in it, mostly because Egwene had a lot more story left after KoD than pretty much any other character except maybe Mat.

Specific items to change or cut:

Cut out Far Madding entirely (Rand killed the attackers in Cairhien). Since Tuon arrived with the initial Seanchan invasion fleet in Ebou Dar, Nynaeve can be honest with Rand about Mat being left behind but Rand can see (in his color swirl vision) that Mat is no longer in Ebou Dar and has already escaped, filling that plot hole (the list of contrivances to keep Rand from knowing what happened to Mat frustrated and annoyed me so much when I was reading books WH-KoD).

Have the love confessions and Rand sleeping with Elayne, but don’t do the bonding yet. Have Rand leave Min behind in Caemlyn when he takes Nynaeve off to do the cleansing, so she can (emotionally) bond with Elayne & Aviendha. Since Min was just at ground zero for a terrible attack that was focused on Rand (which should, to Rand, prove his fears about being a danger to the people he loves to be correct!), it really is so bizarre that he keeps backpacking her around to dangerous place (Far Madding) after dangerous place (the Cleansing) after dangerous place (parlay with the Seanchan) and mostly shows that Jordan a) just had no more plot beats for Min until she played pregnancy test for Tuon in the epilogue and b) primarily saw Min as Rand’s Hero Reward rather than a character in her own right. But the whole affair mostly just undermined Rand’s character journey for me (he's so isolated! ...except for his live-in girlfriend).

Don’t do the Shaido plotline at all (have the Shaido scatter back to the Waste post-Dumai’s Wells); instead this should be where Perrin starts his wolf boot camp, so that he actually has a more appropriate amount of time for training before the Last Battle (and his emotional storyline would be a conflict with Faile over her killing Masema). I guess you can do the Whitecloaks storyline here.

Have Mat be the one to make a treaty with the Seanchan, and have Semirhage order the ‘airfleet’ against the White Tower instead of Tuon doing it. Instead of Mat accidentally giving himself away for nothing, have the Mat-Tuon marriage as part of the deal to seal the treaty, since Mat has figured out that she believes that he needs to be her husband, per prophecy, so he uses that to actually get concessions out of her. Because we aren’t trying to convince the readers that Mat is the sort of person who is capable of falling in love with a slaver in the space of a single month, we don’t need to spend two whole books wandering the Altaran countryside doing random shit and instead can get to the politics of it all. Let Mat actually continue to be smart and empathetic in this section of the storyline, rather than lopping off those parts of him and turning him into a zombie bootlicker yes-man. You can still layer in elements of Mat seeing potential in Tuon to be more than just a slaver, just don't have him toss his entire brain & morals away in order to kiss her ass.

Out of the available titles here, I think “Knife of Dreams” is the best one.

Inciting incidents:

Egwene undermines Elaida from within the Tower

Perrin starts Wolf Boot Camp

Rand & Nynaeve cleanse saidin

Turning Point:

Rand faces off against Semirhage and captures her

Egwene finds out from Verin about the extent of the Black Ajah in the White Tower

Aviendha leaves to go to Rhuidean to become a WO

Mat finds out that sul'dam (and thus Tuon) can channel and actually uses it as a negotiation tactic against her, please let this man use his brain during literally any of his conversations with Tuon, I am begging you. The way he reacts in the books to finding out that Tuon is a sul'dam and then that Tuon can channel is SO FUCKING BIZARRE. He just Does Not Care about slavery at all in CoT & KoD and is all Me Me Me about all of the Tuon revelations. In the previous books, Mat claims to be selfish even while constantly doing heroic/selfless things, but in CoT & KoD, he really does just come across as a genuine selfish bastard, someone who only thinks about himself and who doesn't give a shit about anyone else.

Climax:

Tuon and Mat agree on the terms of their marriage alliance and Say The Words

Elayne defeats her fellow claimants to the throne; maybe Min helps root out that Darkfriend captain in her guards, which would lend weight to her being able to do the same later for Tuon and also make it so that Min is at least as helpful to Team Light as she was to the Seanchan

The Seanchan (sent by Semirhage before she went to face Rand) attack the White Tower.

The Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight: ToM has never made any sense as a title, so I would call this combined book “The Gathering Storm”. This section is more about putting things in a somewhat different order than they happened in the books, with a few tweaks.

Inciting Incidents:

Egwene defeats the Seanchan at the White Tower

Semirhage is freed by Elza and captures Rand, and (stealing @markantonys's excellent suggestion) Nynaeve is the one targeted when Semirhage forces Rand to her will, making Rand push Nynaeve away 'for her protection'

Rand and Egwene have a tense encounter that makes her doubt his sanity.

Turning point:

After taking the test to become full Aes Sedai, Nynaeve gets Lan's bond from Myrelle and then, since Myrelle was literally right outside the Black Tower at the time, Nynaeve and Logain deal with the Black Tower

Egwene deals with the assassins in the Tower (Gawyn subplot)

Perrin deals with the dreamspike and kills Slayer | Egwene deals with Mesaana

Aviendha returns from Rhuidean and reunites with Elayne & Min

Climax:

Rand attacks his father, leading to the moment on Dragonmount

post-epiphany, Rand actually goes to check in on his friends and loved ones, thus making his epiphany have an impact on the storyline -- he Travels to where Mat is and is the one who helps Mat get from Point A (Altara) to Point B (Caemlyn) and letting them actually have a real reunion, delivering Aludra to Elayne, where she is ready to make weapons. In Caemlyn, he talks to Elayne, Aviendha, & Min, leading into the bonding moment.

Mat saves Moiraine from the Tower of Ghenjei.

(epilogue) Tuon arrives back in Ebou Dar and takes control of the Seanchan forces, letting everyone know that there is now a treaty with the Westlands. Her going back with a treaty already tentatively in place would actually make the triumphant tone that the books try to take her with her return make a lot more sense than... readers apparently supposed to be happy??? that one slaver is taking over from another slaver, even though Tuon is just as willing to do awful shit to our protagonists as Suroth was, so it feels like a distinction without a difference to me. Technically, is Tuon marginally better than Suroth? Eh, maybe, but not by much.

A Memory of Light: Most of my changes here either follow from earlier ones (we already have a treaty with the Seanchan, so Mat can just go to Merrilor to start General’ing right away), but apart from that:

Let the Emond’s Field Five (plus Elayne) have a group reunion! (easier to do in this version where Mat's storyline isn't all about sucking up to Tuon, I admit)

Let Perrin and Mat be at Rand’s funeral! (genuinely so bizarre that Sanderson didn't do a one-sentence fix of this tbh; that would have been the easiest thing in the world to fix. One sentence is all you would have needed.)

Let Moiraine be the person who realizes that Rand is still alive, not Cadsuane.

The battle itself could have been cut down somewhat in order to leave more room for character interactions (we probably don't need three separate sword duels for Demandred; kinda excessive). This is a goodbye to people some of us spent over a decade loving; we should be given proper goodbyes to them.

I also feel like there's no need to have everyone and their brother know that Rand is in a relationship with three women? And it felt pointless to have people know that Rand is the father of Elayne's kids too. Have Rand tell his dad (and then have Tam actually act like he has that knowledge during his scenes with Elayne; it is genuinely bizarre how formal Tam and Elayne's interactions were in AMoL; she knows that he's Rand's dad! That's the grandfather of her kids!) but there's no need for a continent-wide memo about Rand's love life. I know this was likely all because of the epilogue where the whole world knows about ~the three~ grieving widows but this is all about a theoretical world of only ten books total, so some tweaking of the epilogue is happening regardless.

Inciting incidents:

Moiraine arrives (with Mat) to help heal the rift between Egwene and Rand

Darkfriends attack Caemlyn through the Ways

Climax:

Rand vs The Dark One

Everyone else vs the Shadow’s forces

So, that would leave us with ten books total (plus the New Spring prequel):

The Eye of the World: the journey begins

The Great Hunt: more important plot elements are introduced, like the Seanchan; Rand begins to learn leadership

The Dragon Reborn: Rand accepts being the Dragon Reborn & takes on a full-time leadership role; Mat now has his luck & Perrin has met Faile

The Shadow Rising: Perrin takes on a leadership role when he leads the defense of the Two Rivers

The Fires of Heaven: Mat takes on a leadership role during the Battle of Cairhien, creating the Band of the Red Hand

A Crown of Swords: Egwene takes on a leadership role by becoming Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai

The Path of Daggers: Elayne takes on a leadership role by putting in her claim to become Queen of Andor

Knife of Dreams: Rand & Nynaeve reverse the Dark One’s counterstroke and then Rand tries and fails to make an alliance with the Seanchan (fake!Tuon); Perrin goes to wolf boot camp; Mat makes a treaty with the Seanchan via marriage alliance to the DotNM; Elayne gets all ten Houses she needs to secure the throne; Egwene has all-but won over the White Tower as well.

The Gathering Storm: we all prepare for the Last Battle; Rand has his epiphany, in whatever form it takes; Mat saves Moiraine; Perrin defeats Slayer; Egwene and Elayne prepare their respective areas for TLB.

A Memory of Light: the journey ends (for this age)

I feel like this gives us a more consistent build-up to the ending, with each piece building upon the ones before, and not taking an excessive amount of time with subplots in the endgame. Each character also has a more consistent progression as well.

Rand

tEotW: worries about being a male channeler

TGH: told he is the Dragon Reborn but assumes the White Tower wants to use him as a false Dragon

TDR: goes on a journey to prove whether or not he’s TDR and proves that he is; taking control of Tear

TSR: becomes the Car’a’carn

TFoH: takes control of Cairhien

ACoS: takes control of Illian

TPoD: has his first major failure when he is unable to repel the Seanchan from Ebou Dar

KoD: succeeds in cleansing saidin but fails to make peace with the Seanchan

TGS: has rock-bottom moment and then his epiphany; he learns he doesn’t have to do it All On His Own

AMoL: re-seals TDO

Egwene

tEotW: sets off an adventure

TGH: experiences great trauma at the hands of the Seanchan

TDR: Black Ajah Hunter

TSR: Goes to the Aiel Waste to begin her training

TFoH: One of her mentors (Moiraine) dies

ACoS: is called to take on a leadership position

TPoD: takes control of the rebel Aes Sedai

KoD: besieges Tar Valon and is captured

TGS: become Amrylin of a united White Tower

AMoL: leads in the Last Battle and becomes an inspirational figure

Perrin

tEotW: discovers that he’s a wolfbrother

TGH: is first placed in a leadership position when Rand disappears

TDR: meets Faile

TSR: defends the Two Rivers (Slayer introduced)

TFoH: feels the tug of ta’veren and leaves the Two Rivers again

ACoS: saves Rand

TPoD: finds Masema; Faile kills Masema

KoD: Wolf Boot Camp

TGS: deals with Slayer in the Wolf Dream

AMoL: leads the wolves at the Last Battle (instead of it being Elyas)

Nynaeve

tEotW: sets out to protect the four kiddos

TGH: adopts Elayne as a fifth kiddo

TDR: Black Ajah Hunter

TSR: Tanchico & the SAD bracelets; Egeanin

TFoH: defeating Rahvin & capturing Moghedien

ACoS: Salidar & Ebou Dar

TPoD: using the Bowl of the Winds

KoD: cleansing saidin

TGS: the Black Tower plotline

AMoL: with Rand at the climax of TLB; being the Ultimate Protector

Mat

tEotW: finds the dagger

TGH: blows the Horn of Valere

TDR: discovers his luck

TSR: Rhuidean & prophecy

TFoH: the Battle of Cairhien & the Band of the Red Hand

ACoS: Salidar & Seanchan invasion in Ebou Dar

TPoD: meets & kidnaps the Daughter of the Nine Moons

KoD: forms a marriage alliance with the Daughter of the Nine Moons

TGS: saving Moiraine

AMoL: General of the forces of Light at the Last Battle

Elayne

tEotW: meets Rand, heads off to Tar Valon

TGH: gets a found family in Egwene, Nynaeve, & Min

TDR: Black Ajah Hunter (meets Aviendha)

TSR: Tanchico & the SAD bracelets; Egeanin

TFoH: bonding Birgitte; Circus storyline

ACoS: Salidar & Ebou Dar

TPoD: using the Bowl of the Winds & heading to Andor

KoD: becoming Queen (plot climax)

TGS: bonds Rand (emotional climax)

AMoL: powerful leader during the Last Battle

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/27/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Adopt Our Crew - Adopt Our Quiz!; Queerties Reminder; Cast & Crew Sightings; How to Help W/New Stuff; Hunt for The Pirate Home Twitter Watch Party; Articles; OurFlagMakesADifference; Love Notes; Goofy Shit For Morale

== Adopt Our Crew ==

Had some fun stuff going on across the platforms today with Adopt Our Quiz hosted by @adoptourcrew! You can still go do them! I'm including them here for those who don't have the platforms. Ordered from left to right 1, 2, 3. You can see the answers here on twitter (which have cool animations)

Answers below in picture form:

Twitter Thread Instagram Story

== Queerties ==

Just a reminder to vote for the Queerties if you're up for it!

TV Comedy Best TV Performance Wanna help another Taika/Rhys verse Queertie? Vote for Kaimana for Best Film Performance in Next Goal Wins!

== Cast And Crew Sightings ==

It's the weekend so as you can imagine there aren't many sightings. Definitely some personal stuff posted but nothing campaign related so I'll leave it out. Couple things I didn't know you could do was look at peoples likes on twitter, and now I know how to be a proper stalker if I ever wanna get into that kinda thing, which I don't, let me tell you. That being said, these are to make people feel warm fuzzies so here we are! Alex Sherman is out here liking our tweets all over the place! He's been doing it for days, just sweet to see the support.

Kristian Nairn sending love and support to fans on their art!

== How To Help ==

How To Help Save OFMD Task List - US

How to Help Save OFMD Task List - Outside US

Some new stuff added to our usual How to Help Lists, feel free to check them out!

== Talking About the shows Creativity ==

If you wanna talk about the shows creativity, referencing some of the awesome show-crew like Ra Vincent, Production Designer for OFMD can be great! Here's Ra Vincent's site Great inspiration and pictures to use to show off to the networks. Please be sure to credit them just like anything else you're using. Other great crew members for inspiration: Gypsy Taylor Costume Designer/Stylist!

== RADIO! ==

Some awesome new suggestions from @AdoptACrew Check out the thread here. Link to the NPR suggestion site: Here

== Reminder - Twitter Watch Party ==

=HuntForThePirateHome=

HuntForThePirateHome Watch Party Starts Sunday Jan 28 at 3 PM EST, 12 PT, 8 PM GMT. Hashtags for that event are:

#HuntForThePirateHome

#AdoptOurCrew

#SaveOFMD

== Petition Update ==

We hit 82,000!! Definitely things slowing down, but I think in generally we're focusing more on going after specific platforms (not saying more signatures isn't good, just saying we seem to have shifted priorities)

== Articles ==

I didn't see any new articles today, but I did see one I didn't notice the other day so I'm including it now:

Why Our Flag Means Death’s Cancellation Should Make You Angry

==OurFlagMakesADifference==

I had a couple people ask about what's going on with some fan led Palestine Efforts so I'm linking the current thread from Our Flag Makes A Differences Resource thread on Twitter. I know there is a great tumblr thread but tumblr search sucks so please share it with me if you have it!

== Love Notes ==

Just a little reminder for tonight--- you deserve happiness. You deserve kindness, and grace and you deserve a break from all the stressors that bug you on a day to day basis. Sometimes it's other people who can give you that break, and sometimes the only person who can give it to you is you. If you can, talk a little nicer to yourself today, give yourself a little extra time curled up in bed, or watch an extra episode of your favorite show. Remember to give yourself some love too, lovelies. You deserve it. You're gonna be okay.

== Goofy Shit for Morale ==

So I'm gonna combine a couple things tonight and end tonight with some fun goofy shit also feat. Rhys, Samba, and Taika

@buckrogers2491's post

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Samba Schutte (@sambaschutte)

Alright, night lovelies! Let me know if I missed something or made any mistakes! (I think I double checked everything this time!)

[aboutchigiri]

001. calpico + a hint of weed | curaçao nights

cw: cursing, mentions of fwb/hookup dynamics, suggestive joke, kys/kms jokes & ofc usage/discussion of marijuana use 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️

wc: 570

you happily trekked outside, your bag hiked up along your shoulder as you leaned against the door waiting for chigiri to trudge out of the club, pushing through countless crowds of people.

"good fucking luck to megs and yoichi because i swear i just saw two back to back bachelorette parties walk in." he sighed before walking in stride with you, moving towards the tattoo shop.

"so, did you finally decide? because i think i'm convinced we should get the star and cloud combo." you spoke, pushing your phone in his face.

"i'm getting the cloud but you get the star." he said definitively, handing the phone back.

"ok but don't put yours in a weird place. put it somewhere normal." you rushed, pushing into the store while the small bell jingles and alerts nagi that someones entered the shop.

the store's atmosphere was calm and slightly cluttered, it kinda brought peace to you and the smell reminiscent of something you knew of all too well. you walked further into the store before seeing the front desk, vacant. nothing but the desk, a small couch and table set out in front of you. you scanned around for any sign of life other than the distant buzzing and light melody of a song that you had grown to love.

"is this shit closed?" chigiri wondered, his head swiveling around for some bit of information but before you can reply, a melodious voice rang out.

"can i help you guys?" he's leaned up against the doorway that seemingly led to specific, set-apart studios. the boy in the doorway sent your mind down a long, winding road of memories before you came back to reality.

you knew those steely gray eyes that were almost always low and bloodshot, covered by white hair that fell just right above his eye. it could only belong to one person. a person that you had grown apart from, yet you felt immediately drawn too.

"nagi?" you asked, ignoring his initial question. his eyes parted slightly larger than normal before falling to their low state.

"shit, y/n?" he asks, before taking in your appearance fully. platinum eyes rake your entire body before his tongue darts out to wet his lips. chigiri's eyes widen when he realizes who he is, everyone standing around in shock.

"nagi, what are you doi-" reo appears, glancing over nagi's outstretched hands.

"oh shitt, y/n? chigiri?" he speaks, pushing past them.

"no wayy, you guys work here?" chigiri starts, he smiles knowingly at you before returning his attention to the two men in front of him.

"own it." nagi throws in, moving out of the doorway and closer to the two of you. his gloves pulled off and discarded in the trash can near the desk.

"perfect. wanna hook an old friend up?" you ask, phone pulled up to the tattoos that you and chigiri decided on. reo looked slightly nervous, almost poised and ready to apologize on nagi's behalf.

"i'd love too, you know i would. but, i only take appointments and i've already got some girl back there that i'm working on." he sighs, clicking his tongue slightly as his eyes scan your body knowingly.

"well, whenever i find out how to make one. i expect a friends discount." you winked playfully, the tension that used to fill up space between the pair of you, gone with time. you smiled softly, watching his lazy grin flood his face.

✎ yn and nagi hooked up for almost a year until they graduated and stopped talking completely.

✎ aside from the hooking up, y/n and nagi were SUCHHH good friends. like they actively hung out and chatted casually.

✎ chigiri is an instigator and proud.

✎ bachira has a list of all the guys you've ever hooked up with. nagi is number 1. kunigami is 3 and oliver is 2.

✎ nagi fully left his client in his studio alone to talk to you and chigiri.

✎ rin came up with the nickname nikki for niko as a combination of his first and last name and it has stuck for years. it's canon in this fic because i said so RAHHH

✎ isagi and bachira's house is named macho dojo casa after ken from the barbie movie but they were both too high to rmr what it was actually called.

taglist [open: send asks] ~ @fishii28 @xionri @hy1pnos

(if ur name is in purple, i was unable to tag you! check ur settings and send me a message)

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

The Chapter 4 Essay Part 2: Gonta Gokuhara

A metapost on my thoughts on Kokichi’s overall motivations and Gonta’s actions during ch4. Split into two parts. You can find Kokichi's half here: (LINK)

This section is admittedly a little bit shorter than Kokichi’s, but that’s just because Gonta’s motivations are a lot more clear than Kokichi’s. That being said, I’m also worried that since I am so obsessed with Gonta I might forget something important that supports my point because to me its kinda self-evident. So if anything seems like it’s missing or doesn’t make sense, please let me know!

In my opinion, nothing Kokichi did to Gonta was personal, in both positive and negative ways. He didn’t target Gonta because he hated him in particular, but he also didn’t team up with him because they were already friends. Gonta was just an easy target for him to take advantage of, both for stopping Miu from killing him And in progressing his plan to stop the killing game. Gonta’s actions in chapter 4 are a combination of genuine manipulation by Kokichi using what made him an easy target, and motivation caused by Gonta’s desperation and preexisting insecurities that had been growing since the start of the killing game.

Throughout v3, the one thing that Gonta wants more than anything else is to protect his friends from the killing game. It’s pretty clear that he trusts his physical strength more than any other part of himself. The literal First thing Gonta says in a group setting with everyone else is this:

(prologue)

He doesn’t even know anyone yet! But he’s already prepared to physically defend them from the exisals! He also tries to stop Kaede’s execution along with Kaito and Tenko:

(post trial, chapter 1) (And- wait- is Gonta missing his bug box in this cg? Oh my god….)

Gonta is shown to be most confident when doing things that involve his physical strength. There’s less hesitation and uncertainty in his actions, unlike what you can often see in him during class trials or group discussions.

Gonta is also more than willing to give up his life for his friends, even as early as chapter 2.

(post trial, chapter 2) (he’s the first one to make this suggestion)

Outside of physical defense against active threats, Gonta really just wants to help his friends in any way he can. Here’s a couple examples:

(post-trial, chapter 1) (daily life, chapter 2) (daily life, chapter 3) (investigation, chapter 3)

On the other hand, Gonta has really bad self esteem issues. It’s telling enough that one of Gonta’s common floatlines is literally “Gonta idiot…” When he’s not casually calling himself dumb he’s apologizing for it. For this (and honestly, many other parts of Gonta’s character that I’m pointing out here) I really recommend just paying close attention to Gonta on a replay of the game. I could literally sit here for a week finding and listing all the times Gonta calls himself stupid, but it feels pretty self-evident considering how much he does it. Here’s just one example:

(investigation, chapter 1)

It’s the combination of his deep desire to be helpful and protect the people around him, and the repeated deaths of his classmates, that really start to wear on him as the game progresses. I think this mixes with his already present self worth issues to form a pretty nasty complex; Gonta explicitly blames himself for almost every single victim’s death in the game. Let’s walk through the chapters for a moment here:

Ryoma: “Gonta coulda saved him… No, Gonta shoulda saved him…! // When piranhas attack Ryoma�� If Gonta had dived into tank… / Then… Gonta coulda help Ryoma. But Gonta got scared. Too scared to do anything. / Sorry! Gonta really sorry!”

In chapter 3, Gonta joins Angie’s student council out of his desire to protect everyone. This is made clear in how, before pulling him in, Angie compliments Gonta and calls him smart. She then says this:

(daily life, chapter 3)

This time, organized as a part of the student council and with Angie’s god on his side, Gonta hopes that he can finally be useful and successfully protect someone.

Angie: “Maybe Angie got attacked while she sleep in her room, and get brought there? / If so… Gonta coulda saved her! If only Gonta saw! / But Gonta was sleeping… Sorry, Angie… Gonta no could save you!”

…To quote my favourite V3 lets play (shortonegaming) on this moment: “He made up a version [of Angie’s death] so that he could blame himself.”

Tenko: “T-Tenko…! Gonta so sorry… Gonta no could protect you!” and then a little later “It’s all Gonta’s fault…! Gonta fail to protect friends again!” and AGAIN later “Gonta so ashamed…! Why Gonta no could protect friends!?”

That’s two deaths in a row that Gonta (at least believes) he was right next door to and failed to stop. You can see from how he says this repeatedly, with lots of dialogue from other characters in between, the sheer amount that this is impacting him.

Miu: “But… why this happen…!? Why… Miu killed!? / Gonta not understand… Gonta not understand anything… /…But Gonta frustrated and sad! Gonta no could protect Miu! // Gonta so sorry! Gonta sorry he no could protect Miu!” Even with Miu’s death, to which he’s waking up disoriented and confused, he blames himself for failing to stop it.

(Sidenote: Looking at all these reactions back to back makes Gonta’s disorientation after waking up from the virtual world SO much more visible. I left the beginning out of the quote I took, but when you first talk to him during ch4’s investigation, he doesn’t say anything for a few moments. This is very unlike his immediate, intense reactions in the earlier chapters. When he does start speaking it feels kind of disjointed, uncharacteristically calm, and confused before he starts riling himself up blaming himself for Miu’s death. I never really noticed it before looking into this. It’s kind of disturbing)

The only reason I personally think he doesn’t react this way about Rantaro immediately is due to being in shock that someone died to begin with. That doesn’t stop him from saying this not long after:

(investigation, chapter 1)

This complex- made of the desire to protect everyone, self loathing, and feelings of uselessness at being unable to help investigating due to being “stupid” and failing to protect anyone physically, the only thing he thinks he’s good at, every. single. time- only gets worse with each chapter. And in Chapter 4, Gonta finally reaches his breaking point.

At the beginning of Chapter 4, you can talk to Gonta as Shuichi is leaving to meet up with Kaito and Maki to train. He tries to stop Shuichi, worried about a murder potentially taking place at night (again), but Shuichi reassures him that he’ll stick by his friends and that he can’t break his promise to meet up with them. Gonta responds like this:

(daily life, chapter 4)

Which leads to him saying he’s made up his mind, and has a plan. Which is, of course, to try and take down Monokuma physically, even if it costs him his life. He initially drops the suggestion after Miu starts talking about the virtual world, but the day after, it’s still bothering him.

(daily life, chapter 4)

Almost every free time event you have with Gonta this chapter (except for like, one, where he talks about the “tiny bugs” he can barely see), Gonta is trying to think of ways to help.

(free time, chapter 4) His last possible free time event before Miu takes everyone into the virtual world has this dialogue, which is just so sad to me.

(free time, chapter 4)

“Helping everyone” and not being “useless” are almost the only two things Gonta talks about this chapter. It’s this mindset and motivation that made Gonta an easy target for Kokichi to take advantage of. He’s in a bad place mentally, and nothing he does seems to help anybody. Not to mention, with the student council gone, he’s suddenly just kind of… alone. There’s no one there (other than potentially Shuichi, during free time) to keep him steady.

And yeah, I am definitely not including Kokichi here. A strong reason I don’t think Gonta chose to go along with Kokichi out of friendship was because of this interaction early Chapter 4:

(daily life, chapter 4)

Gonta’s trust in Kokichi was broken because of the events of the insect meet and greet. The insect meet and greet’s implications for Kokichi and Gonta’s relationship are a bit strange, but since it’s not super relevant to chapter 4, I’m not gonna get into it. The point is, regardless of the nature of their relationship in chapter 2, it’s clear that Gonta doesn’t consider Kokichi a very trustworthy person in chapter 4. It’s likely that he doesn’t consider him a close friend either. I hesitate to say that Gonta didn’t consider him a friend at all, because he’s Gonta and he wants to have faith in everyone, but at the very least he was trying to be wary around him.

This explicit distrust in Kokichi might make it seem strange that Gonta went along with Kokichi at all in the virtual world. But in reality, Kokichi was very aware of Gonta’s distrust in him, and used it to his advantage in setting up his plot.

(daily life, chapter 4) (I skipped some dialogue in this exchange, but it hits the main points)

Kaito inadvertently eggs Gonta on here, but Kokichi literally drops the idea at Gonta’s feet. Gonta isn’t going with Kokichi to help him look, he’s going to make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble. And as Kokichi said, he knew Gonta would offer to do something like this if given the chance.

Kokichi uses Gonta’s distrust in him again when they encounter the flashback light holding the secret of the outside world together. Gonta’s immediate instinct was to go find everyone else, but Kokichi yells for him to wait, and then this happens:

(post trial, chapter 4)

He KNOWS Gonta doesn’t trust him, and with that distrust, he can make him doubt anything he says. I’ve already talked about how Gonta is ready to give up his life for everyone else, especially this chapter, so suggesting that he check if the light is a trap set up by Kokichi is guaranteed to make Gonta pause.

But it doesn’t stop there. Kokichi pushes harder:

(post trial, chapter 4)

Gonta thinks for a moment, but this is what made him choose to come back and look at the flashback light himself. Here, Kokichi uses the thing that has been haunting Gonta more than anything else all killing game, especially this chapter. He knows Gonta has tried and failed to protect people, he knows how upset it makes him. What better way would there be to convince him to do whatever he wants than to offer a way for him to finally be “useful” to everyone after failing them again and again?

Anything after this point and before Miu’s body discovery is purely headcanon, so I won’t get into my thoughts on that. But I think this moment shows that Gonta was under a lot more control that people often think. I don’t mean to say that Kokichi is entirely blameless, or that Gonta wasn’t manipulated at all. But AlterEgo!Gonta says himself, “No, [we] not tricked,” because he wasn’t. He made the choice to see the secret of the outside world on his own, and made every choice after that to continue with their plan. There was no trickery involved. It was Kokichi’s carefully chosen words that dug right into his insecurities, doubts, and hopes that directly influenced him into making the choice that he did.

You also have to keep in mind how absolutely unstable Gonta must’ve been at this point. He was already nearing a breaking point with his feelings of powerlessness before going into the virtual world, but then he got hit with the secret of the outside world. AlterEgo!Gonta openly admits that it made him feel suicidal. (“Cuz, when Gonta remember the secret of the outside world, Gonta think… /…it would be easier… to die.”) With the outside world and the killing game both inescapable hells, Gonta just couldn’t imagine any way out. And then Kokichi suggests the mercy kill plan. In his state of mind, Gonta truly believed that this could be the way to finally “save” everyone.

Of course, Kokichi had only just recently seen the secret of the outside world too. Even though he must have known it wasn’t true, he had no idea the extent to which it was a lie versus the truth. He probably wasn’t in a very good mental state either. But still, just like he would do again in chapter 5 to everyone else, Kokichi used the despair caused by the secret of the outside world to get Gonta to go along with his plan.

This is what I believe was the driving force behind Gonta’s half of the Kokichi and Gonta dynamic in chapter 4. Gonta’s self loathing, which was present before the killing game began, compounded with his desire to be useful and protect everyone else from the threats of the killing game. As more people died, Gonta became more and more desperate to do literally anything to help everyone else. Kokichi used these things about Gonta to push him to do what he wanted him to.

…To close off, there’s this moment right before Gonta and Kokichi leave to kill Miu that’s really stuck with me.

(daily life, chapter 4) (Read left to right, top to bottom)

It’s not common for the other characters to defend Gonta’s intelligence. But Kaito, unknowingly, says just the right thing to Gonta at just the wrong time. Knowing that Gonta was about to set things in motion to mercy kill everyone for this exact reason… I wonder if Kaito remembered this moment. Maybe it was just another reason he got so defensive over him during trial 4. I just wish he had said something like this to him sooner.

If you got all the way here and read all this… first of all. THANK YOU! Oh my god. I’ve been working on this essay for several days now between studying for my finals. It feels really great to have it all written out after literal years of loving V3 and loving this chapter. Please, please, please let me know your thoughts! Even if you disagree with me! Chapter 4 is so special to me and I love talking about it!! o/

(Screenshots taken on youtube from justonegamr, Bittersweet Gamers, ShortOneGaming, ProZD Plays Games, and my own copy of v3 on IOS. Thank you @/ishimaruhourglass for helping me find some of these!)

[donascozylivingroom]

HOW TO SHIFT PARALLEL REALITIES.

This is if u struggle to understand the concept.

I'm an old lady of 30 yo and I found out about shifting parallel realities when I was 22 so I've had quite some time to simmer on it and even some success with its application.

We are definitely in the era of shifting parallel realities, finally, now.

People talk about it much more, so I decided to make a logical written explanation of it.

For those of you that struggle with affirmations and mental diet, meditation is definitely important. it's a way of knowing urself and ur mind better.

The ability to silence ur mind at will or focus it on a "mantra" comes with a lot of mindfulness - observing ur mind and what it does w/o judgement.

To be smart and get to the age of 30, you start accumulating a lot of knowledge and kinda have a mental toolkit for a lot of things. So me posting this sh@# is from tried and tested things, not just my musings of the day.

ok so parallel realities.

i learned this from Bentinho Massaro in 2015, i don't really follow the guy anymore or would suggest u do it necessarily, i just wanna give him credit.

So he explained basically that when u get to tomorrow, u will be in the present moment, even though in ur mind it was the future. And yesterday you were in the present moment, too, although u call it past. One second ago and one second after are still in their own present moment. so there is no time, there is only the One present moment.

So basically because the Universe is infinite, all possibilities already exist.

In this reality, you can make choices, u could go to the grocery store today or stay home and play video games. You have free will. You could basically start those things you know would help you achieve your dreams, or not. It is a choice. Every second of the day you have choices. You could speak now or not speak.

But all these choices are parallel realities that already exist.

i believe the universe still creates by combining things/realities that were not combined before based on us, and our free will choices, so being infinite and mathematical it keeps on creating through us, free will agents of consciousness/gods.

Anyways, he explained parallel realities like this: imagine u are watching a movie on ur laptop/device. You could stop it at 1:06, print the picture, and then stop it again at 1:07, print that image too, and send one pic to China and one to Austria. Same way you could print pictures hours apart and place the screenshots one after another.

That's kinda how parallel realities work, u could "print" ur desired reality and bring it to ur next nanosecond.

Just moving ur hand up and down, u are going through thousands, possibly tens of thousands of parallel realities.

What brings your desire closer is focus on it, so affirming and visualizing for example are tools.

But just know, ur desire is one nanosecond close!

I personally first shifted when i affirmed that whatever I visualize becomes my reality in 3 seconds. And it was incredible, I shifted from my mom's studio apartment to a beautiful penthouse in NYC! But I shifted back really fast because I got scared.

I shifted a few times more, but this one was the most incredible!

Anyways be careful with this if you can't control ur mind to not visualize scary things or affirm bad things, but yea you could counteract that with a really good self concept that whatever negativity u affirm or visualize doesn t manifest.

Basically you shift all the time, getting ur desire in time is still shifting, shifting is always the case, we are always shifting through parallel realities. But be careful out there peeps!

[yntaro]

Let’s talk about Romance Mangas!

My say to those I have read and loved: (not ranked)

1. This Manga hurts my heart. I read it while on high school and it kinda hit me with how lonely I am because I never had an Ayane-chan and Chizuru-chan, and Kazehaya-kun to downright change my life to better. But I did enjoy those time because I had romance manga to begin with. Kimi Ni Todoke might be the one that get me into read romance mangas. I liked it because I somewhat relate to Sawako, being outcasted and all. I grew to love their story, and found myself hoping that maybe love will come to me too.

Kimi Ni Todoke (From Me to You)

2. In this spin off featuring Kurumizawa Ume (a character from Kimi Ni Todoke) and Sawako’s cousin Eiji Akahoshi, my hope for meeting love blooms even greater. They were soulmates as the title suggests so they were literally speed, but then I haven’t read the latest chapters yet because I can’t find them (if anyone know, pls let me know). As I was saying, they literally skipped the slow burn but still works because we can now root for the former second leads. (Yes, Eiji is from another romance manga from the same author: Crazy for Love)

Kimi Ni Todoke: Soulmate

3. What do you do when you accidentally married a man twice your age?? Some may not want age gap romance, especially when the age gap is 20 years, but you might change your mind reading this manga. It’s wholesome and you can actually find yourself smiling and rooting for their relationship to work. This manga has been going on the internet, it’s popular so you may had heard of it, it’s where I heard of it, so I think I don’t have to had any say except I enjoyed it and I am finding or accepting manga recs similar to this.

Gomashio to Pudding (Sesame Salt and Pudding)

4. WHOLESOME IS THE WORD. This manga is fresh breath of air. I’m pretty sure most of you guys have heard of it as it’s one of this month’s anime. I just love how cute they are in each chapter, even the other couples. And I thoroughly enjoy Himuro’s monologue. :)) If you guys were bothered by random pacings, you should watch the anime instead. They swept up the plot.

Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague)

5. Wahhhh this is really addictive, I can’t stop myself from thinking that the whole time I am reading. A combination of slice of life, comedy, and romance genre, huh. Who knows it will all work beautifully as in this masterpiece. (Also, Sousuke Shima’s character design reminds me a bit of Miura Kento from Kimi Ni Todoke)

Skip and Loafer

6. HOT. I have no other words. Some may misunderstand though. But it’s what I think of it, like will you look at them!!! They’re attacking me. I hope we got to see how their relationship progress soon. Btw, I’m all in for Ichi, I’m sorry dear Oji.

Uruwashi no Yoi no Tsuki (In the Clear Moonlit Dusk)

Aaaand I just rumbled my thoughts on the last part. I may edit it for a more serious discussion later. Thanks! :)))

[plazmafields]

Some thoughts about Kerry:

Spoilers ahead, needless to say.

1)

I saw a video comparing the two versions if Chippin' In (Kerry's vs. Johnny's) where someone in the comments suggested the reason Kerry leaned more mainstream rock is because he only wanted to make music for money. I completely disagree with this and here's why:

User Friendly was the last song Kerry put out before deciding he wasn't going to perform live/tour anymore and went into a deep depression. Looking up the lyrics, you can see he was becoming very distressed with the lack of control he had over his career, and the things he says in the song sound like a cry for help that wasn't received by listeners the way he had hoped. We never hear his version of the song, and I believe that is intentional. Vapid, loud, chaotic, almost over-stimulating laser-pop is such a huge juxtaposition to the lyrics, and yet it's the only version we get to hear. Clearly User Friendly meant a lot to him or I don't think he would have reacted the way he did; combined with the cover being done by a pop group groomed by the music industry to sell as many albums as possible, it all went against Kerry's original intent with the song. Then there's the story of how he wrote Bleed the Beat: he was working his ass off for people he couldn't stand and that song was his outlet during that time. He'd play until his fingers bled just to get his frustrations out. Music is his medium for release, just like it was for Johnny.

In Johnny's version of Chippin' In, the phrase "chipping in" has two meanings: getting your first implants, and, the same as our universe, helping out. Johnny's song uses both meanings interchangeably during the choruses, the verse before it dictating which definition is being used. Johnny's arm is (from what I can tell looking at the design) military issue. The song is both about the corpo military forcing him to get an implant, and also about believing he was doing the right thing when he joined by "helping out" the armed forces. Since, in this universe, militaries are owned and/or sponsored by corporations, Johnny views corporate jobs and military service to be the same level of morally wrong (The Ballad of Buck Ravers attests to this).

In terms of how the two songs compare, obviously Kerry's version of Chippin' In is meant to have more wide appeal. Not only are the lyrics more tame, mostly just talking about the implants themselves and only having one verse that even mentions anything "political", but I believe Kerry understood that the best way to get his music to the most listeners was to go for a more mainstream sound and universally relatable lyrics, so he toned it down. Everyone hates corpos, sure, but not everyone wants to bomb Araska HQ. This is probably a stretch, but we can see from the flashbacks that Kerry didn't have any implants during his time in Samurai, so maybe Johnny was like super opposed to implants after having one forced upon him, and Kerry's version of the song is kind of saying "hey if you want implants get implants, they make you look cool don't feel bad about it."

2)

I do support the idea that Kerry should have been bisexual like in the source material. I absolutely get that bi erasure is a big problem, ESPECIALLY with male characters. However, I respect that in the game you can only romance him with a masc V; I'm not going to mod him to he bi, I'm not gonna ship him with women. I see it the same way I see Cullen from DAI: he is canonically bisexual, just not attracted to my male Inquisitor (in Kerry's case, fem V). Maybe Kerry had such a traumatic divorce from his ex-wife that women just kinda scare him right now. We can see high heels and bras and blush littering his house, so we can assume that at the very least women are still getting naked for some reason or another at his parties. Maybe he prefers men romantically, or maybe he's just not ready to date women again, and we as players should respect that just like we would a real person.

3)

Kerry was 100% going to kill himself when you show up to his house. There are shards advertising robotic security systems in numerous places around his house (meaning he fired his human body guards), shards with negative reviews of his last album, there is only one camera and it is by the front gate (none inside the house), he gave his cleaner and cook "the day off" that very day, you see in emails that his ex-wife is giving him the option of all or nothing with custody (you take the kids or you don't get to see them), and he isn't enjoying making music anymore, his one passion in life. He had a gun with him in the bathroom, and I believe by the way his speech slurs and he makes the impulsive decision to get Samurai back together, that he is drunk for that entire scene and has a drinking problem. It is my opinion that the reason he doesn't reveal any of that to V is because he knows Johnny will hear it and judge him, call him weak, or make insensitive jokes like he does to V when he gives you the quest. The only time we see Kerry be somewhat vulnerable is 1. Over text when talking about the crazed fan, since he probably thinks Johnny can't see those (I believe he can) and 2. In the epilogue when Johnny has been removed from V's head (Kerry says he doesn't want to lose V, and during the credits he tells V he just wants their lives to be less hectic so they can spend more time together).

4)

It took me a couple playthroughs to warm up to Kerry, Panam is probably still my favorite romance, but I think Kerry might be the best romance option for a Skreetkid V. He perfectly embodies the plights of Night City at every income bracket: no matter where you are on the food chain, if you're not at the top, you're getting fucked over. He clearly likes living in comfort while still embracing his rebellious side from his youth. But now, he has the cushion of money and status to save him if things go tits up (when you get a wanted level in Westbrook district, close to North Oak, the officer on the police scanner says "I swear, if its Eurodyne again" suggesting that he is very reckless but hardly ever faces real consequences). Maybe he stays in his gilded cage because he fears facing real hardship on his own, without friends, without a support group, without Johnny. He has a strong sense of pride, though, and would never admit to needing Johnny, even if they were best friends. The way Kerry wants to show Johnny a riff he's been working on after the concert, only to be disappointed when V takes over again, I think it really shows that as much as they disagreed, their friendship held the band together.

5)

I don't remember if Johnny hints at it or I saw someone suggest this on here, but the idea that Kerry only "dates" V because Johnny is in his head is ridiculous to me. The first time he called you to deal with the Us Cracks tour gear, he wanted Johnny. Every time after that, he wanted V. He definitely realizes which of the two is helping him; he can tell them apart. The Johnny that Kerry remembers wouldn't have done a selfless thing in his life, lest risking his pride and reputation as Night City's biggest fuckboy. Whether you really schmooze him up or tell him he's going overboard, Kerry appreciates that you helped him. And I think after the concert, when he hands V his gun, Kerry's body language suggests that he wasn't planning to give the gun to Johnny, he thought about it because V was back in control. V helped get the band back together, V helped decide if Denny or Henry should play the gig, V was the one who brought Johnny to Kerry's house. Johnny won't take over to do it himself despite probably being able to. I only wish you didn't meet him so late in the main story, so that his story could have more time and space to breathe.

[kitchenwitchtingss]

WITCHY SAGE SKEWERS

They've got witches at the barbeque now????

I rarely ever see witchy grilling recipes for summer, so when in doubt, make your own!

The witchy part comes from the seasonings mostly, but also the intentions. Any food cooked with good intentions goes much farther than that with none.

That being said, sage, rosemary, black pepper, and thyme are kinda like the go-to bad vibes be gone type herbs lol.

I use bok choy and yellow squash in this recipe, but you can totally use whatever vegetables you have on hand at the time.

Oh! You could also try to spice the recipe up by subbing the butter for some sort of BBQ sauce. Sounds yummy.

INGREDIENTS (seasoning measurements are just suggestions):

4 chicken thighs, skinless + boneless (can be substituted for pork, tofu, or any fatty meats)

1 yellow squash, washed.

1 bunch of bok choy, washed.

1/2 tbsp Dried Sage

2 cloves Garlic, Minced

2 tsp Ground Thyme

1.5 tsp Black pepper

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tsp brown sugar (you don't need it if you don't really want anything too sweet)

1 tsp honey (or more brown sugar)

1 tsp salt (plus more for the chicken)

0.5 tbsp Paprika (plus another half for the butter)

1 tsp Dried Rosemary

1/4 cup (4 tbsp) Unsalted Butter

Zest of half an orange (if you don't like orange, you could use lemon instead.)

1 tsp orange juice (or more to taste)

You can add lemon juice if you like a little more tang along with the orange juice

PREP: Mince garlic, soak wooden skewers, wash veggies. Slice yellow squash vertically into thin slices, along with bok choy, slicing vertically across the center. Set aside.

DIRECTIONS

Cut chicken thighs into about one-inch pieces. Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar, ground sage, and onion powder. Massage chicken until coated nicely. I like them pretty seasoned but really it's up to you!

Soak wooden skewers in water for at least 12 minutes so they don't burn on the grill.

In a bowl, combine mix melted butter, minced garlic, onion powder, salt, paprika thyme, black pepper, honey, and rosemary together in a bowl. Add in orange zest and a tsp of orange juice. I also added a little bit of lemon juice. Set aside.

Toss chicken thighs, bok choy, and yellow squash in olive oil.

To assemble skewers, string on a piece of bok choy, gently folded over itself a couple of times, and pierced through to keep it folded on the skewer. Then, string on a piece of chicken. Next with your thinly sliced yellow squash fold that over just like the bok choy. You could also cut it into bite-size pieces and pierce right through it without needing to fold it over itself. Repeat this pattern until the skewer is full.

Heat the grill, clean the grates, and oil them. On medium high-ish heat, cook the skewers on each side for 5 minutes. Each time you flip the skewer, brush on your sage butter sauce. Make sure the chicken is done before taking it off the grill. It could take more than 5 minutes on each side to cook. To be safe, I cook them for another 3-4 minutes after flipping both sides.

Take off the grill and brush with more sauce if desired!

Enjoy! I made these with some herb-crusted potato wedges and grilled peach salad. They were delightful.

RECIPE NOTES:

I love skewers because you can put any fruits, veggies, and meat on it, and it works. A fun lunch idea is to skewer some peaches, cook them slightly on the grill, and throw it into some sort of salad. Very tasty lol.

I like using Bok Choy because it's very absorbent, and any marinade you put it in, it will soak up all the flavor. Just be careful not to share it on the grill.

Yellow squash is also what I use in this recipe, but the good thing about skewers is that you can use any vegetable. The more colorful, the more fun!

[innerstrugglesworld]

Spa day with the brothers??

Spa Day with Demon Brothers

1. Lucifer

You have to invite him first. For Lucifer, doing activities unrelated to work is a waste. But since you asked for it, he's willing to make time for you.

He let you choose whatever place and treatment you want. But usually, you both do it in his bedroom. You want him to use your sheet mask? Got it! Put those mask to his face! Want to paint his nail? Just do it, honey. He's yours.

2. Mammon

Mammon circles important dates in your calendar so that you always remember to have a spa day with him. He is a model afterall. His look is important.

He takes you to the fanciest spa in town, and books the couples package for the two of you. Sometimes you feel bad that Mammon spoils you so much. But hey, you deserve it! he's willing to give you the world if you ask.

Don't worry! Relax and enjoy the spa!

3. Leviathan

Since Levi has social anxiety, it's kinda hard to take him outside. You and Levi usually do spa day at home.

You two find a 5 minute crafts video on top life hacks to achieve the perfect spa day. He looks nervous and excited to do DIY Spa Day with you.

4. Satan

He’s already been having spa days before meeting you. He discovered the therapeutic benefits of massages, the calming effect of hot baths, and the tranquility of the spa's serene atmosphere

Now, whenever spa day rolls around, Satan is the one who guides you through the various treatments. He recommends specific massage techniques, helps choose the best aromatherapy oils, and even brings his favorite books to read in the spa's relaxation area. You are surprised by his knowledge but secretly appreciate his expertise

5. Asmodeus

Asmodeus is the ultimate spa enthusiast in the Devildom. He's the one who suggests and plans spa days for the group regularly.

He's an expert at spa treatments and can even give massages that rival the professionals.

Asmodeus always arrives at the spa with an extensive collection of beauty products, face masks, and aromatherapy oils, ready to share with you.

He takes spa day as an opportunity to give beauty advice and you secretly appreciate it, knowing he's the most knowledgeable on the subject. Additionally, Asmodeus takes dozens of selfies during spa day, showcasing his radiant skin and making the day an Devilgram-worthy event.

6. Beelzebub

Beelzebub initially wasn't too interested in spa days. However, once he experiences his first spa day, he quickly changes his mind.

Beelzebub discovers the joy of relaxation, especially the post-massage feeling, which helps relieve some of his stress from training.

He becomes the heartiest eater during the spa's post-treatment snacks and even starts suggesting spa days himself, primarily for the post-spa feast. Beelzebub finds the combination of relaxation and indulgent treats the perfect way to recharge his demon energy.

7. Belphegor

Belphegor initially resists the idea of a spa day, claiming he'd rather be sleeping. However, once he's convinced to give it a try, he becomes the master of power naps during spa treatments.

He strategically schedules his treatments to align with his usual nap times, ensuring he can get the maximum amount of sleep while still participating in spa day activities.

Belphegor's relaxed, half-asleep state during spa day becomes a source of amusement for you, who playfully tease him for his ability to doze off anywhere.

He secretly appreciates the tranquility of the spa and its contribution to his overall well-being, even if he won't admit it openly.

masterlist

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ꒰ ㅤ like and reblogㅤ ꒱

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 4)

[pt 1] [pt 2] [pt 3] [x] [pt 5]

we're getting close to the end, guys!!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the fourth language and will contain spoilers! it also assumes that you know what the symbols mean already.

additional note: i went and added alt text to my previous posts in this series! sorry for not having them before :)

numbers!!!!!!!!

before i get into anything else, i think i might as well start with numbers, which are the most unique part of this language and really leans into the portrayal of this society as mathematical and scientific lol. like the arabic numeral system, this number system is base 10, which we can see from the ruler. whether it’s base 10 or not isn’t super relevant to the gameplay or the language, i think?? except that it mimics the arabic numeral system, so it’s familiar to us. i am not a mathematician or logician or what-have-you, so i wouldn’t know—my expertise does not lie in this area lol

we only have evidence in the game for numbers with up to 4 digits (one on each side and end of the center line) so we don't know how the alchemists would've represented really big numbers. however, the placement of the four numerical digits around the central line suggests to me that this language might have a system that counts by four digit placements, rather than three. (to clarify: in western cultures, we often count and represent numbers in groups of three: thousand (1,000), million (1,000,000), and so on, with a new word for each set of three digit places. in many east asian languages, large numbers are represented in groups of four instead (examples that came to mind were chinese, japanese, and korean, but that’s just what i’m personally familiar with; there certainly might be others). in chinese, we have 万 (10,000) and 亿 (100,000,000), single words instead of “ten thousand” and “hundred million”. the word for million is “hundred-ten thousand” (百万).) since this language naturally seems to represent numbers in groups of four, that's my suspicion. unfortunately, the addition-only calculator in lab 2 only goes up to 9999, so we don't know what happens at five digits; my best guess is that the center line changes (maybe becomes two lines instead of just one, since one line also represents 0?), but obv there's no guarantee.

moving on from numbers, this language is relatively consistent when it comes to visual representation of linguistic categories: verbs have an open circle, locations have the sideways u/semi-circle deal, and people have a triangle-plus-line element to them. interestingly, “fear” once again is more of a noun than a verb in this language in terms of appearance. at this point, i’m inclined to think that this a quirk of the developers, rather than the language; even though fear is often used as a verb in the language itself, its appearance denotes that it’s primarily a noun, which may indicate that the game developers also thought of it as a noun first and verb second.

other interesting combinations of elements/radicals in the language include “mine”, which combines the radical for location and the triangular feature of scientific elements/materials (i.e, “the location where you can find materials”). the word for “seek/want” and “laboratory” share a radical, which suggests that that radical means something like “answer” or “curiosity” or something like that. another fun thing i noted is that the word for “alchemist” shares a similar shape to “i/me”, which might be indicative of a thought like “i am an alchemist”, and that those two concepts are linked, culturally or historically. i also think it’s interesting that “fire” and “fear” visually look more similar to each other than the other nouns—again, could possibly indicate something about how the alchemists conceptualize them? they obviously live in an environment where they encountered monsters that were scared of fire, and they in turn were scared of the monsters—i wouldn’t be surprised if it were the case that these were connected in that way.

i’ve been trying to figure out if this language has a particular pattern when it comes to representing words with an open circle vs dot, but so far i can’t find anything. might just be random/artistic choice!

this language once again returns to the pattern of being SVO, with plural suffixes rather than prefixes like the warrior language. in fact, i would say that grammatically, especially in terms of sentence structure, the warriors and the alchemists seem to be the most similar. no verb-initial languages in this game i’m afraid, haha.

one more language to go!!

[chuluoyi]

LOVER'S PLAYLIST

“can i go where you go? can we always be this close, forever and ever?”

a little thank you from me to you—for all the love and interactions for my silly little blog during two months of me being here!

[ status : closed ! ]

1K MILESTONE EVENT PLAYLIST

. . .

NOTE ok first thing first, this is long overdue already bcs now i've gone past 1k—it's now 1.5k! thank u sm aaa <3 i never expected this. i still think my writing is kinda average and all but thank u for all kind words and interacting with me!

so what is this event? simple. pick your fave, prompt, setting, add your idea—then send it straight to my askbox!

how does it work? let us get a move on...

INFO

i will write 7 fics, ranging from 2k ~ 5k words, and mostly made up of angst, fluff or a combination of both

i will choose from what’s been sent to my askbox. so it’s possible for me to combine two similar requests or drop it (sorry!)

each prompt and setting can only be used once. i'll regularly update this post to cross out prompts and settings that are already taken!

anons are allowed, but since this is a followers event, i’ll prioritize the ones who choose to be off anons—i appreciate you for doing so!

with the speed of my writing, as always, please kindly expect delayed releases. there are still weekly series and regular requests—ah, you just have to make me reach 1k now, don’t you? :')) and now it’s 1.5k… really, love y'all!🫶🏻

now on to ordering...

HOW TO ORDER the format: character — prompts — setting — additional ideas

✧ pick your character ! for this event, the character roster are limited to:

✧ pick your prompts ! rules: max up to 3

1. “nah, i’d win.” 2. “i can show you incredible things.” 3. “i just have to ask. will you go out with me?” 4. “you don't deserve to be unhappy. and i don’t want to be unhappy, either.” 5. “i will protect you.” 6. “why did you do that?!” 7. “we are getting a divorce.” 8. “shut up and kiss me.” 9. “you have been kind of obvious.” 10. “if you feel safer with me being here, then i’ll be here.” 11. “it’s me and not him!” 12. “i suck at telling people my feelings, but i love you. i still do.” 13. “i can't do this anymore.” 14. “don't act innocent when we both know what filth come out of your mouth just five minutes ago.” 15. “tell me the truth. what are we?”

✧ choose your setting ! rules: max up to 1

♡ happy marriage: you are married to the love of your life♡ married on purpose: marriage of convenience with your enemy seems to be what would solve your problems right now ♡ lover’s quarrel: fights, words you don’t mean—is this what it takes for your relationship to end?

ah i ran out of ideas. i’m opening the last four slots to cater to your desired ideas—give me your best!

✧ lastly, shoot it right to my askbox! please tell me it’s for the event so i won’t confuse it with the regular requests! add your own idea too while at it, it'll be waaay more helpful!

if you want to use the available setting:

e.g. “for 1k event, gojo — prompt x and x — married on purpose — and i have an idea: yadda yadda yadda

if you want to suggest your own setting:

e.g. “for 1k event, megumi — prompt x — and i have a suggestion: yadda yadda yadda and it should be yadda yadda yadda

end of the word, thank you again for 1.5k!🫶🏻 if you have any questions regarding this event, feel free to ask me! hope you'll enjoy the 7 upcoming fics from this event!

[multishipperofgaydeadwizards]

oKaY listen! Jegulus is my OTP and I LOVE me some Bartylus too, but REGULUS & PANDORA 🥹🥹🥹

My babies!!!

Just that they understand each other in a way nobody else can and and and AHHH

1. Okay first of all: SHIP NAMES

Their most common one is Regdora which - kinda boring? Like it’s not bad, but when we have names like STARCHASER or NOBLEFLOWER or FLOWERPOT for other ships that just won’t do. Therefore my suggestion:

Stargazer

Because Star - Regulus (no explanation needed) and like gazer as kind of a synonym for seer?? Alternatively I have Starseer or Waterbox (Water for Reggie like in Moonwater + Pandoras Box yk), but Stargazer just sounds so Stargazer.

2. I OBVIOUSLY love them as an „Arranged Marriage I don’t want AT ALL (why are there butterflies in my stomache??) trope“, BUT also as the „we are queer best friends and jealous of each others partners, but idk why” trope!!

Also how many AMAZING Dynamics they have??

- Grumpy x Sunshine

- I hate everyone, but you and you love everyone, but you love me the most

- Soulmates

- Best Friends to Lovers

- ENEMIES TO LOVERS (Arranged marriage trope)

3. The DENIAL the both of them would have (especially when they are both seers) like:

„I saw a prophecy that showed me and Reggie in a Cottage with a child that could be related to us - MUST BE BECAUSE HES THE GODFATHER“

„Had a Dream abt Panda standing in front of me in a wedding gown - GOOD TO KNOW IM GONNA BE HER BEST MAN“

DO YOU GET WHAT I MEAN??🥹

or the Arranged Marriage Trope??

„Dream Abt making out against a door with Regulus - HOW WEIRD”

“Wow Pandora looks like a goddess in that dress, her glare makes me feel fuzzy and I want to smooth the frown on her forehead with my fingers while she looks up at me - IVE GOTTA REALLY LIKE THAT DRESS TO THINK LIKE THAT”

4. Once they ACTUALLY start dating they would literally be inseparable. They would cuddle and kiss and talk 24/7! Even their me-time they both need turns into us-time and is just as effective. They would start to panic if they don’t see each other for more than a DAY. Also their dates would be sooo cute!! No matter whether it would be the cozy queer cafe around the corner or the flashy pureblood dance balls. They would have such a comfy aura and nobody would mind their pda cause they would be so comfortable with each other.

Sometimes they would just spend a day in absolute silence but a COZY COMFY DOMESTIC ONE yk???

Also the “I hate physical touch except for when it’s you” trope!!

5. Just then going to a pride parade together with matching outfits in like their 30s, already married and a bi flag on Reggie’s cheeks and a Pan one on Dora’s and they would be so PROUD.

Or just the courting process in the arranged marriage trope PEAK!!

6. They are love. They are soulmates. They are Stargazer (or Waterbox still unsure bout that one)

This got WAY longer than I originally intended but oh well :)

REGDORA!!! FAIRYSEEKER!!! MY LOVES <33333

you don't understand how much I adore them. I love love love them. they're my everything's <3 my hunnies <3 my sweet little babies <3

okay so, 1. I actually don't mind the name regdora, but yes, it's blant and ugly compared to everything else. personally, I know them as fairyseeker, which is what you can find them under on my blog lmao. stargazer is a GORGEOUS ship name... though I think of regularly every time I hear it lmao

i LOVE the name waterbox. idk why I just adore it

2. yesssssssss!!! istg they have the best troupes (next to bartylily). them as arranged marriage partners sounds so fun. imagine they're just kids when they first meet, and they're told they're supposed to get married when they grow up to combine the rosiers/lestranges

at first, they don't mind (they're tiny and have no idea what being married even means). they start hogwarts, and both realise that they're into their same gender people (once again, i bring up my mtf dora + ftm reg). so both spend a lot of time just convinced they aren't into each other. reg is a lesbian after all, and pandora is gay... then they come out as trans and both are like: oh-

3. grumpy x sunshine is so them omfg

them bith as seers???? Christ. them being so fucking blind is just so fitting. they never even consider that they might like each other

them as oblivious little fuckers so true. they are in deep denial fr. regulus is foaming out the mouth at how pandora is, but it's completely platonic

4. HSEIBSIEBSOENSO YESS OMFG

All they need is each other. they're always together, getting one of them alone is impossible. you can try, and you will fail

that trope is SO them. it's insane

5. they would definitely love their time at a pride parade. they're having the time of their lives and they've been happier

6. I love it when asks go this long. it just sucks because I usually can't add anything on because you guys are just so correct already 😮‍💨

thank you for sharing your brain with me. I appreciate it a lot <3

[alkalische]

Quick Design analysis of Hoederer's changes

Darknights Memoir Appearance (DESIGN 1)

-he's soooo ferrety here. silhouette is a lot rounder and softer (esp around the shouldersand boots) and his hair gives a nice prickly texture at the top, adding some visual interest

-colour pallete is also limited, with red being used to visually draw your eyes to important areas (his face and the little dangly thing which i assume to be the kazdel signifier)

-combined with the goatee and the ripped up cape he ends up looking a lil scraggly. which is fitting for a merc who who's constantly on the move

-I feel like his hair being so shittily cut might imply practicality. Maybe he cuts off the fringe so it doesn't get in his eyes.

-he's also pretty heavily armored and dressed for the cold kazdel climate. I feel that it kinda looks like his posture is stooping a little with the weight of the armour which is interesting. He looks bulky and weighty.

-Position of sword implies that he's right handed

-interestingly he's got a crossbow on his back, which doesn't make in into any of the other designs. suggests he can use one.

----

Chapter 10 Appearance (DESIGN 2)

-It's been a couple of years. His face looks less sallow, his cheekbones less pronounced. maybe he's been eating better. His hair is also longer. He did keep the parting, though.

-Notice he's facing you with his right side (can also be seen in his 3rd design). It's cause he's only got one eye and he's looking at you with it

-His shape language changed to be a little more sharp, a little more triangular, suggesting tension and danger. You can see triangles and sharp edges being emphasized throughout the design (shoulderpads, chestplate taper, kneepads)

-He's still as armoured as his previous iteration, it's just that the armor design is also a lot less bulky, it's got the prominent 'sarkaz occupation in victoria' look that a lot of the NPCs tend to have

-The armour doenst use as much geometric shapes, instead having patterns of intricate smooth curves. You can also see this on manfred's arm

-Anyway the less bulky armour suggests that he doenst have to be carrying supplies around with him as he does whatever job manfred sends him out to do. He's kind of got a place to return to at this point.

-He's holding his knife in his left hand here. Is he just holding it temporarily or can he use both hands? My theory is that he probably favors his right hand.

----

Playable Appearance (DESIGN 3)

-This design is kinda a combination of his first and his second design. He's gone back to having rounded design language, but still retains aspects of the sharpness and danger of his second design.

-He's actually shed most of his armour here. He's not wearing any kind of chestplate. Literally just wearing a T shirt (you can see a strip of exposed skin on his bicep and also in his e2) Bro is wearing a cape and light armour over T shirt and pants no WONDER he takes so much damage

-The flowing cape lets him keep some of that nice spikiness and balances out his roundness.

-Red thread all across the design, binding him to W and Ines.

-Generally a notable increased amount of red being used across the design.

-He's got more scars on his face, and has returned to charmingly shitty short haircut. Oh but the back part of his hair is actually as long as the second design's one, it's just tied up. Poor hedley doenst have thick hair genes.

-His shoulder pads are reminiscent to his merc armour, but the arm guards are the same as the kazdel's armour.

-I really like the way they make him turn his good eye to the camera to get a better look at us it makes a lot of sense

[chordsykat]

Mildy Devious but Very Practical Sorcery to Endear People to Your OC

So, you're doing it! You're starting a new fanfiction with an original character, self insert, or someone else otherwise foreign to the regular canon cast - good show! But! This is not your first rodeo and you know from experience that it can be a tough climb, getting readers to accept this new face into the fold. You realize such things take time, but for this fanfiction, you're looking to employ strategies that will get the audience on your new little baby's side, pretty immediately... what ever shall you do?

The following list of writing tricks is offered with the understanding that you, the writer, consider yourself fairly capable at the skill, and understand that this guide won't cover obvious things that so many other tutorials recommend -- like having an interesting backstory for your character and being relatively good at spinning a yarn. None of these suggestions are replacements for good storytelling! They are, in fact, merely supplemental to it.

That out of the way, let us begin...

Easy Tricks:

#1, Make Your OC the Villain

May seem counterintuitive, but hear me out. No matter what you think and believe about your own character, people are probably going to go into a story distrusting the new guy. It's just the way it is. So why not meet them where they are? Besides -- it's fun to see characters grow into heroes rather than starting them out that way. Wherever they end up, the people reading about them will be relating to them way more, by the time they get there.

#2, Pit Your OC and the Canon Cast Against an Irredeemable Villain

Nothing gets people on the side of some rando faster than a villain who is so unstoppable, so cruel, so utterly loathsome, the readers can't help but cheer on anyone who would stand against them. It doesn't have to be some all-powerful megalomaniac, either. Evil ex-girlfriends work great for this one. The slimier and more despicable the better!

#3, Torture Your OC (Kinky)

The author's barely hidden fetish suddenly comes out to ensnare the new guy and simultaneously flips a sexy switch in some readers' minds that makes them say "That's kinda hot". Is this one a bit unethical? Probably.

#4, Torture Your OC (Non-Kinky)

If you're not into sexual Jedi mind-tricks, then good old-fashioned antagonizing of fictional characters works wonders to bring an audience to care about someone, no matter how real they may be. Bonus points if they die (see tip #7).

Advanced Tricks:

#5, Make Your OC Insanely Attractive

This one needs to be handled with care, as making a character attractive and making them believably so, are two different things. Some readers straight up hate it when someone is described as too-pretty, too-popular, too-rich, or too-famous, so it usually takes time and a little finesse.

#6, Make Your OC Save the Day

As with the attractive-factor, you gotta score points in believability before you can just let this one happen. People don't like OCs who take the spotlight away from the canon cast until they've earned the right to do so. That said, if you do manage to pull this off, you may be rewarded with that rare and wonderful thing -- your OC having its own fanbase.

#7, Make Your OC Dead

If your fairly-likable character dies at the end of the story, you might find people elevating them to very-likable martyr status. That said, if your OC wasn't worth rooting for, for the entire time they were in your fanfic, don't expect their untimely demise to redeem them. Big gamble, all things considered, and you pretty much have to assure they're going to stay dead for at least one story arc... But people *do* tend to view the dearly departed in a more forgiving light, even if they're not real.

As was stated in the introduction, a lot of these do not make up for good storytelling and solid character development, but they can be great in addition to all that. Too, you may want to combine some of them, and see what kind of results you get. And as always, the longer an audience knows someone, the more they tend to trust them. Therefore, if you want to follow one big piece of advice and plan to go the distance anyway, then please... Don't stop writing their story!