#like I was recording him and everything to make him have the trans colors

[janetcage]

I accidentally deleted my Trans Liu Kang edit before saving it I wanna die

[neolithicsheep]

I've been meaning to write this down for some time because there are some fundamental errors that people keep making in crowdfunding/sales that shoot their campaigns in the foot. So here's a list of easy principles.

Who am I and why should you listen to me? I am a freelance chaos marketer who has raised well over $100,000 when totaling up various crowdfunding campaigns, mostly for aid to Afghanistan. In addition I've managed to successfully market everything from stuffed plush koalas to hydration salts. Why am I putting this out here for free? Because despite a years long track record of success in social media marketing no one will hire me because I don't have a college degree, so I might as well help people out who can't afford to hire full time marketing. 

If you'd like to hire me to help you evaluate your marketing and sales and teach you better skills on a 1 to 1 basis then hit me up, I am often willing to barter, esp with artists in a variety of mediums! 

Anyway on to HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

TL;DR: use positive messaging that humanizes everyone involved and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

1. Shame and guilt are demotivators. They will not inspire people to give you money. “Why aren't people helping” “I guess people don't care” “This isn't getting enough shares/donations” etc etc. Online fundraising is often frustrating, heartbreaking, and will make you angry, especially when there's a humanitarian crisis involved. It is critical that if you are raising funds for someone else that you have a place to vent that is not the audience you would like to donate to the cause. 

2. Use motivating messages instead! “You can help!” “Even a small donation is important because it tells Recipient they're not alone, and people care” “We can't fix the whole world, but we can make this one thing right, and that means something”. Emphasize that this is a problem that the reader can help fix with even a small effort. With items for sale, tell a story. "I drew this thinking about how safe I always felt under a tree in my childhood backyard". "I chose the colors in this shawl to remind me of sagebrush and piñon pine in my favorite place."

3. Make it easy for people to give you money. Never talk about your product or cause without a link that leads directly to where people can give you money. They should be able to click one link on your post and land at the fundraiser or your shop. Every required click is going to lose people, so minimize the number of them required. This also means if you have a list of fundraisers for people to choose from the ones at the bottom will be neglected - people will hit the ones at the top. Be sure to take those off when they're met or periodically shuffle the list around to make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the first 5 spots. In online stores people will often only look at the first page or two of items so be sure to shuffle things around and remove out of stock items that are taking up prime real estate.

4. Humanize the recipient - this can be tricksy when raising charitable aid because you don't want to be exploitative. But to use my last Afghan campaign as an example, “We need to raise $500 for an Afghan family” is less effective than “This Afghan family's home was damaged in heavy rains that caused extensive flooding. They only need $500 to repair and rebuild so they can stay in their home and not become displaced.”  If possible, tell as much of the recipient's story as they consent to. Eg “Fred is seven and loves dinosaurs. His favorite is brontosaurus, and he carries a stuffed one with him everywhere. He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and discover a complete brontosaurus skeleton that he can give the same name as his stuffed friend. Unfortunately he's also a trans boy living in Texas and his family needs $1500 to rent a Uhaul and get to Colorado so he can grow up in safety and do that.”

5. If you're not the recipient, humanize yourself while you're at it! “I'd be really grateful if you all could share or donate” “This fundraiser really means a lot to me because…” “Thank you so much for any help, whether sharing or donating” 

6. Treat the audience like humans. Speak to them like they are people you're having a conversation with, not ATMs. This ultimately is the goal of not using shame/guilt and humanizing yourself and the recipient. 

7. Set low goals and bump them up when met. One of the weird things about people is they prefer to give to successful fundraisers. Yeah I don't know either. So you're more likely to get the full amount you need if you set a partial goal initially and then raise it when that's met. Raise it in small increments and raise it repeatedly as those goals are hit to keep momentum going. You can't always control this so if you're boosting someone else's fundraiser you can do it artificially via asks like “Hey y'all can we get together and put $500 on this?”

[psi-spectacular]

Since I saw @kibasniper111 do this for the campers, I wanna do some headcanons I have for the interns! Also they get sadder as you go down, be warned.

Raz

Trans kid who's fully accepted by his parents. Sorry I just really can't see the aquatos being transphobic and genuinely don't think transphobia is super common in the psychonauts universe? He's unlabeled at the moment and uses he/him pronouns.

Nona mixing up Raz's name with his brothers is because her brain had to connect Raz now having a boy name and connecting that to the other brothers so shes just a lil confused but shes got the spirit

He has (currently) undiagnosed autism, mostly because 1. there is no way the aquato family is able to afford a psychologist but 2. Augustus is also autistic and they have similar mannerisms, sensory issues, and stims so most of the family doesnt suspect that Raz is neurodivergent, they just think he takes after his father.

His helmet and googles are very much comfort items, but they also help with sensory issues. While they block out noise and reduce color in the area around him if needed, his helmet also stops him from constantly hearing the thoughts of others, which can easily overwhelm him.

He's mostly able to speak to smaller animals, mainly rodents like mice, rats, and squirrels, since they were the ones that were most common at different areas he would travel too.

He fell into water and almost drowned when he was little and that was the biggest thing that spurred the "hand of galocchio" thing.

Raz spent a lot of time in libraries and bookstores in the many towns he's traveled to in between practice and shows, and that was the way he discovered both his love for psychology and true psychic tales.

Raz is sensory seeking and douses everything he eats in hot sauce and spices. He'll try pretty much anything as long as its free and remotely edible. This extends to touch, he likes rubbing his hands on textured surfaces, especially velvet and fur.

He rubs his gloves on his face, bites, and scratches at them when he's stressed, so they're worn down where he's done it.

He has a plush toy Nona made him when he was a baby that used to be a rabbit but it's been repeatedly bitten, crushed, splattered in mud, and fixed so many times that it barely looks like a specific thing anymore, But he refuses to part with it no matter what.

His relationship with the junior agents goes from "eugh its weird having a kid here, we can't swear anymore." to "hello, this is our emotional support 10 year old, his name is shitfuck, we feed him moss, he's the golden retriver that keeps the cheetahs in our hearts from going insane, we constantly make fun of him and if you do anything to hurt his feelings no one will find your body."

Dona taught him how to forage and cook when he was little.

He enjoys dressing up and acting out roles whenever he can, and is very quick on his feet with his roles. He gets into LARPing later in life.

Raz doesn't have a specific specialty, so he's a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to powers.

Morris

Another trans dude, Wowza. He's been out for a shorter time than Raz, but he's pretty comfortable with where he is right now. He's also bi! Woo.

He's peruvian, and was orphaned at a very young age before being adopted at around age 5 by his moms. He's currently 16.

He was one of Milla's orphans, but he was very young when the fire happened and he doesn't remember what happened or Milla, but his back did get injured in the fire and never fully healed, and that's why he's in the wheelchair.

His moms are rockabillies who own a motorcycle repair shop in the outskirts of Trujillo, They're big into 50's american culture and almost always have the radio on to whatever rock station is playing at the time, which helped inspire his love of radio and older fashion style. The albums he plays on KLOB are the only ones they let him bring because they were copies of records they already had.

He has a regular wheelchair with, you know, wheels, but when he fully learned levitation he found it easier to move around with a chair on a lev ball, especially on rougher terrain, so thats what he usually uses.

Despite his amount of Rizz he has no clue that Adam has a crush on him (not totally his fault, Adam's attempts of flirting are stuttery at best). He's just. Slightly oblivious to the feelings of others.

He acts like he doesnt care what people think. He very much does, and has some very overcompetative tendancies.

He and Gisu met in the motherlobe and have been part of the intern program for the longest, spending three years doing dumb shit in the woods while brushing off their intern duties or whatever they are.

He immediately took Queepie under his wing and they end up becoming really good friends, even if he isn't the greatest DJ. Cause he's, yknow, like 8.

Gisu

She/Her Intersex transmasc bisexual. Binds.

She's an Iranian immigrant who lives in a small town in the midwest, Same town as Lizzie and Norma. They're families know each other and they're childhood friends.

AuDHD and NPD.

She's an only child and lives with her mother and grandparents. She's slightly spoiled and they pretty much let her do whatever she wants, as long as she doesn't get arrested.

She's autistic and has a special interest in paleontology and robotics. She was part of her school's robotics team before joining the psychonauts.

She's very much a romantic, but tends to leap into crushes quickly and gets her heart broken.

Speaking of, she and Norma are QPPs.

Morris and her are besties and each others hypeman.

She has a tendency to work on her projects late into the night to the point of not noticing that its three in the morning by the time she finishes something.

She's easily able to focus on something that interests her, but if she doesn't think its something she would like to do, she procrastinates and avoids it like the plague. She gets easily distracted when she finally does get started.

Has a fursona. Its an otter.

BIG Boy band fan. All paul but also n-street, synced up boys, and whatever she can get her hands on. She doesn't care if its considered "trashy", it sounds good to her ears!

Also daft punk.

She loves Dion for his lack of swag and dumb barry b benson ass expressions

She was raised muslim and is personally agnostic but Sam convinced her Jesus and Moses were psychic and she constantly pisses Norma (catholic) off by bringing it up.

She's smart and gets good grades but doesn't have much respect for authority. She has A's and B's despite skipping most of her classes.

Adam

Transfem gay, but currently unaware of his gender, mostly from repression and not feeling the need to go too far inward. (Dont all guys wish they could wake up in the body of a girl and have no one question it and call him a she?) She/He, 16 years old.

She's from a rich, very influential family in britan known for having a lot of successful and gifted members. There's a lot of push for all the kids to do something "big" with their lives, and many begin to achieve that at very young, most having scholarships and awards at young ages.

And then there's Adam. Her biggest achievements are being

Truman's intern and that time she reached the quarterfinals of the county debate tournament. She's surrounded by ivy bound prodigies and musical geniuses and she's just… some history buff. She fades into the background noise, and feels like she's failing her family despite his best efforts.

Not fully conscious of the amount of wealth his family has. What do you mean your family doesn't send you 80 dollar tea overseas every month?

On a lighter note, He's taken it upon himself to become a bit of a "big brother" to Raz because he has a sibling around his age and he reminds her of them. She's trying to teach him how to play tetris. • As mentioned before, he has a crush on Morris but is terrible at flirting. He's one of Morris' few listeners on KLOB, but mostly does it because he enjoys hearing his voice.

She and Lizzie are absolutely TOIGHT. Lizzie immediately pinned her as a dweeb first time they met and she was right. They became a lot friendlier over time and were pen pals when Adam went back home after their first year.

Adam's eyes are all funky because he's got extra strong aura reading abilities, but the downside is that he basically goes blind for a while sometimes and has to orient around the world by seeing others auras and how they reflect off and affect objects.

Had a cringey katana-and-fedora phase when she was like 13. He tries to repress the memory. Her friends won't let her live it down because they have photo evidence.

Telekinesis specialist

Sam

CW For parental neglect, bullying, and parentification. Hoo boy lotta thoughts here.

Genderfluid Xenogendered Lesbian but not fully out to people who aren't the other junior agents. 14 and uses any pronouns but mainly she/her publicly.

Her family life is... strained. She lives in a pretty small town in the middle of nowhere, southeast america. Her family was normal when she still felt like a kid, but after Dogen acidentally blew up a bullies head, it became a frantic rush of lawyers, policemen, and hospital visits.

Since her parents were frequently away trying to figure out ways to mitigate Dogens abilities and find ways to settle the lawsuit they got, Sam would spend many hours alone. She quickly had to figure out how to cook and gather food outside to sustain herself because they would sometimes be in too much of a rush to prepare anything or be gone for longer than expected.

As things started to calm down, her parents would leave her alone with Dogen while they went off doing whatever else, and when they came back they would be too tired or too stressed to help her with anything.

She spent most of her days in the companionship of animals, almost always got up whenever Dogen was hungry or sick or had a nightmare, just to feed him and make sure he was okay.

Her parents basically treated her like a third adult when she was like 10, venting to her and letting her do most of the chores in the house when they were away, and they never really left her with a babysitter because she's "so mature for her age".

She has a strong fear of developing it herself, so she represses her anger. When someone is being mean to her and she starts focusing more on not blowing up than whats happening so she gets an unfocused look which leads to more teasing.

She eventually decided to just play into the "stupid weird girl" role, hoping being the butt of a joke in a friend group and making people laugh would help ease up her anger if she just laughs it off as her being dumb. (This ended up leaking into her and Norma's relationship and was part of the reason why they broke up.)

She did actually get in prison! She had a meltdown when the teasing became too much and attacked one of the girls in her "friend" group. She got sent to juvie for that. Her parents had to get a lot of recommendations from Compton to get her into the intern program and send her away.

The anxiety is genetic!!! Yayyyy!! Same with the autism.

Her trauma's left her with a very dysfunctional view of relationships and uses the animals as a way to feel like she has some control over her life and that she isn't a servant, she can lead too and help others improve themselves. This ended up leaking into

Heavy backstory stuff outta the way, back to the present. Sam's nickname is barncat because she runs off in the middle of the night and comes back the day after covered in mud and whatever else. She's basically made herself queen of the questionable area and forages for food and scrap metal at night. also she occasionally hacks up hairballs. no one wants to know why

Despite her.. questionable pancakes, Sam is actually a very good chef! She's just better at using more dubious ingredients.

She has PCOS and is on birth control to regulate it (projecting...)

Also IBS! She gets random tummy aches a lot and has zero clue why it happens.

Sam's kinlist includes raku chan gregor samsa and that canary she saw once when she was a kid

Sam constantly masks back home and the motherlobe is the only place she feels she can be weird and free. She used to have longer hair but she lopped it off sometime during her internship because dysphoria (i hc its like end of summer so near the end of the intern program that year)

Sam ends up deciding to become Raz's weird older sister. Sam has no braincells, raz simultaneously has a lot of and no braincells at the same time, but when they're together they somehow add up to -7. She gives Raz advice that ranges from suprisingly helpful to very dubious

She really does love her grandpa, even if she's seen less and less of him throughout her life.

Her specialty is zoolingualism, but I think she'd be skilled at abilities that require her hands, like Psi-Punch and confusion bombs. She used mental connection to create a lasso of sorts she calls "critical thinking" which lets her lasso enemies and tie them down.

Norma

Cw for emotional abuse and manipulation.

Norma's a trans girl, who uses she/her pronouns exclusively. She's a lesbian, 15 years old. She's also Afro-Filipina.

I've mentioned this, but her mother is the mayor of the town they're from. They've very much in the higher rung of their town when it comes to wealth.

Norma's mother is very cold and analytical, constantly seeing most things she does as transactional. Every positive interaction is a step towards a vote, every negative action reflects badly on her status. Average politician. This extends to her daughters and how she expects them to act.

She's the kid that's always trying to be on her parents good side, because failure isnt tolerated in their family and definite high expectations for both sisters and how they're supposed to behave. The two of them constantly needed to fight to get their mothers affection and love. But Lizzie's pretty much given up on trying to appease her, so despite her powers being seen as "less rare", she's the preferred child now.

Her mom uses her as a token of "I'm not transphobic! I have a trans kid!" Despite, in private, constantly misgendering her and insisting she barely change her name (norman to norma) You know how transphobes are a minority in this verse? Yeeep. Its better for her mom to pretend her views are something else so she can get more votes.

Should I add the two of them had a catholic upbringing? Big amount of guilt on her end but at the same time a sense of superiority and entitlement. She's devout and retreats into religious studies as a coping mechanism

Raz makes her feel threatened in her status as "#1 student" and she's very aggressive about it.

She's still not over her and Sam's breakup and is slowly starting to obsess over her and why it ended.

Norma is a big fan of detective shows like Columbo, Sherlock, and Death Book. She absolutely wants to be a detective and solve mysteries, part of the reason why she joined the intern program.

She has NPD, BPD, Autism, and struggles with insomnia.

Despite her last name, neutral to christmas.

Shes a teachers pet and would remind the teacher of the homework just to piss a specific person off.

Touch averse, only lets people she trusts touch her.

She's a closet weeb and uses her psychic abilities to make her glasses glow like an anime character

She has a sherlock based tumblr (or livejournal or whatever you want them to use) and gets into ship discourse at 3 am. She also writes amateur death note yaoi. On paper. She gets so embarassed about it she burns it as soon as she's done.

She misses the time she spend with her sister and envies how much freedom she has from rebelling against her parents. She wishes she could do the same but also wishes they could go back to normal so Lizzie can have a seat at the dinner table again.

She can do glassblowing with her hands.

Lizzie

Same CWs as Norma, Cw for emotional abuse and manipulation.

She's closeted genderqueer and a lesbian, uses They/She pronouns. She and Norma are twins but Norma insists she's the older one.

She's just given up on her relationship with her parents. No matter what they do, she isn't going to go back to constant competition and stress. She doesn't want that anymore. The Natividad sisters give off "rich parents in a gated community" vibes but Lizzie abhors their entire lifestyle and spends like 90% of her time outside the house doing random shit

She's realized the privilege that comes with her position, and decided to hang out more in punk spaces and with kids considered "teen delinquents" or "the wrong crowd".

She prefers dumpsterdiving and thrifting over the stuff her parents buy her, stitching and crafting her own clothes is an act of rebellion because they constantly scold her for wearing "Rags".

Her parents finally gave up, deciding to go "Fine, you want to be stubborn? We'll just pretend you don't exist." They give her somewhere to live but otherwise don't acknowledge her existence in the family until she learns to behave. She created a second hangout spot in an abandoned building with her friends and she'd spend long hours there.

She'd rather be a high school slacker who hangs out with poorer punk kids who arent "in the right groups" and actually have a social life than fighting for the spot of "perfect precious angel child" for the rest of her life. No matter how many punishments they give her. She won't let anyone know, but the way her parents treat and talk about her really hurts.

She has undying hatred for hostile architecture and drags Norma along to melt the spikes.

She fake smokes. Using candy cigarettes and using her powers to make smoke because it makes her look cool but she doesn't want lung cancer.

Very into Christmas but more into the gift making and pagan traditions.

She reads vampire romance novels for flirting tips (and also cuz they're her guilty pleasure). She also pretends to be a vampire sometimes.

She enjoys going cryptid hunting and scouring local forums for information.

Hates wearing fancy dresses. Ripped up skirts and suits ONLY.

Introduced Norma to anime, favorite is Akira and fave manga is Battle Angel Alita.

[your-old-sins-tournament]

12 YEAR OLD OCS; SIDE A

Aldara [@kozzax]

I've carried her with me as long as she's existed. Even just doodling her in the corner of a notebook has gotten me through some of my roughest days. She's everything to me. Her story and world have developed so incredibly far from her original creation-- which, for the record, was for a school assignment --but she's always, always been here for me. Yeah, she's changed over the years as I've grown as a storyteller and artist, but the thing about change is that it's not always bad. She's still Aldara, she'll always still be Aldara at her core. When I draw her as a comfort for myself, it's like a piece of me from a time when everything was just that little bit easier has come up to the present and told me that everything's going to be alright. When I work on developing her story, it's a gift to that younger version of myself. A promise that we can grow and develop and change and yet we can still keep the parts of ourselves that are the most important. She means the world to me.

As for propaganda about her, on her own-- she was originally meant to be a "little sister" sort of character. Kind and caring and bubbly and happy, with a naivety that followed everything she did. Her original story had her simultaneously being the protagonist of the story who couldn't read, when everyone else could, and being old enough to have had kids that were stolen from her by her ex-husband. She's never been an active player in the plot, which is now an intentional choice but in my childhood was very much not.

Back when I was twelve, she'd been part of a group trying to free a bunch of cats who had been experimented on by humans, except her group just kind of naturally had magic powers as well. While her powers were never overly powerful, she was always good enough to stand alongside people with far more training than her and who were objectively more powerful than her without much, if any, consequence.

I've refocused her, now. She's kind, still, and she cares about people in a way that a lot of my other characters just don't quite reach. She's still naive, and still a sweet person who lights up any room she walks into. At her core, she hasn't changed. All that's changed is that the world she exists in suits her better, and the role she fills in it makes more sense for her.

I don't think she'll ever change, at her core. Her design changes on a regular basis, but the core concept will always remain the same. Her personality has never changed, not as long as I've had her, besides fleshing it out further. She'll always be Aldara. She'll always have the bits of myself that I put into her when I was twelve, and I'll always love her for that. She's maybe the best thing I ever started creating, and I will always consider her and her story to be a love letter to my childhood self and the way the creativity that poured out of me at that age let me develop into who I am today.

Description: No matter how long I've had her, she's always kept the same set of colors. She's always kept the way her tailtip is colored, and the arrows on her forehead and chest. She's always kept the colors on her wings, though they have changed locations over the years, and she's always kept her ear tufts. While her design may have grown more complex over the years, I've fought hard to keep the essence of what makes her recognizable as herself. I don't want to erase the character that I created when I was twelve. I never want to erase that character. She holds the shards of my twelve-year-old heart, and I will never let myself forget that.

Dan (Hanson Ōkami) [@cabincryptid51]

My trans awakening. I played as him in a Maximum Ride Amino even though I didn't know anything about it! My friend made me join so I could play their love interest and Dan is who I made. He already had a name in the lore but I didn't like it so he ended up having about 20+ secret identities. At some point his evil brother kidnapped, making everyone believe that he was dead and then the role play group stopped. But my friend and I had lore that continued because we wanted to have an arc were he died then came back to life where he would loose his arm and get dragon wings (I have a picture of this but I literally have no idea where it went). Anyway, I love him <3 My silly goofy himbo boy!

[hughiecampbelle]

I mean you know I had to come and be shipped. Male character please. ISTJ, Virgo, and Gryffindor. The Eldest Sibling. I'm 5'9 which is considered average and in my family is considered short. Trans Dude with long hair because I refuse to cut it although this also means I've lost more hair ties than I can keep track of. Glasses. Penchant for wearing graphic t-shirts, patterned button downs, jeans, or hoodies if the weather permits. I own no single pair of normal socks anymore (that's a fact I pride on, they're all some sort of pattern). Sarcastic. Quiet until you get to know me or until I'm comfortable. I swear a lot which shocks people. Mentally Ill (depression, anxiety, OCD). Autistic. Dream Job is to be a film editor or honestly in the industry in some capacity. I watch too many movies in about every genre. Read a lot, probably more than I should in comparison to actually adventuring outside. But I love roaming cities, heading to concerts, plays, musicals. Record store trips, thrift shops all the time. Listen to any genre of music and have too many favorite artists to list. Irrational fear of deep sea fish. Favorite color is green. Favorite animal is a tiger. Does this help, hopefully! Honestly if you're overwhelmed with ships don't bother with mine just take it easy and I'll be fine. PS. Obv your shipped with Roman, I just. Yeah I mean you two would absolutely vibe.

Noah!!!! I ship you with: Kendall Roy!!!

He loves your sarcasm. He can't help it, whenever you have a comeback or comment, it always makes him smile. You're fast with it, too. And you don't censor yourself. You're like that with everyone. He loves it. You can keep up with him, with Rome and Shiv. You have endless comments about his father though you're smart enough to keep those between you and him. He also loves how much you swear. The word fuck is like um or like with his family, it's between every word. He appreciates that you can keep up, that you're not shocked or disgusted by his own swearing. It doesn't make you a bad person or any less smart, it's just a way of expression.

You love that when he puts his mind to something, he gets it done. Kendall can get a little one minded when he's focused on something. That can be a little annoying to others, when he gets that focused, but you like it. It brings out this determination in him that you don't often see. It shows you, and the world, that he isn't just Logan Roy's son, but an entire being and entity on his own. That he's far more capable than people give him credit for.

Your relationship is emotional. Kendall is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. After being on a high and making pitches and taking over as CEO, he gets low and needs to isolate and typically drifts to the water. It's not always easy dealing with that, but you make it work. You make sure you're always communicating, talking, and working things through. He really is grateful for you and all that you do. You knew going into it that he was a complicated person with a lot of feelings and not that much, if any, support from his family. It's work, but in the end it's completely worth it. You love one another so much.

Your first date is to a record store. You know from the beginning that Kendall favors one genre above all else and is constantly wearing his headphones. You love fishing through the records and CD's, telling him all about the different artists and genres and time periods. And he loves to listen. If it were anyone else he might've been bored, but you make it interesting, you make it fun. You make him want to learn everything there is to know about all genres and types of music. It's a store you visit often after that, making fun of one another and what you listen to.

Relationship Headcanon: Kendall always keeps a hair tie on his wrist for you. He always replaces is when you need one. You never noticed for the longest time, he just always seemed to have one. Then one day it clicked: Kendall doesn't need them. His hair is too short. He wears them for you, when you need one. You don't say anything about it, but it's something you're reminded of often whenever you look at his wrist. He's doing it for you, because he loves you and cares about you and thinks about you.

Screaming, crying, I want to vibe with Roman so bad he is baby boy!!! I really hope you like it! 💜💜💜

[plum-pitt]

More rottmnt headcanons!!!!

This time for my silly billies, or more accurately, the main cast outside of the teetlz. I’ll probably have less to say on them than the core four, but there’s a few things about these goobers i’ve just GOT to throw out there. Oh also go look at my previous post in this series (this is where i talk about the turtles!) if you haven’t it’s pretty neat. psst! i’ve got another in the works going over character dynamics so keep an eye out for that

Casey Junior: Typically goes by CJ to avoid confusion, whether the J stands for Jones or Junior is up for debate. Trans fella, He/Him. I think about elderqueer!Future Leo helping him figure his egg shit out in the middle of the apocalypse all the time and it brings me great joy, (Watch Future!Donnie whip out old recordings of leo’s crackly ass second puberty voice whenever CJ gets insecure about his💀). Spends half his time in present day NYC seeing people’s faces and going “Damn, did i watch that person die as a kid or am i trippin?”. Since his name got shortened to CJ, a lot of people have taken to shortening it further to “Cee-j” which ended up inspiring his vigilante name; Siege. (I’ve literally never seen anyone try to give any Casey’s vigilante persona an actual name before so there ya go, no further reasoning beyond ‘it sounds cool’). Got adopted by Future!Casey, after being taken to a resistance base camp by his mortally wounded Bio!dad who basically dropped dead on arrival. (Hey it’s like Links backstory in ocarina of time but like- he gets a mom and 4 turtle dads instead of a tree)

April O’Neil: bisexual but with a strong fem preference, and She/Her! Naturally gravitated towards the field of journalism because unlike her previous jobs, being surrounded by weird shit is actually pretty beneficial when you’re trynna report on interesting stuff! It’s actually this shift in career focus that helps her feel less insecure about how weird her life, and by extension, she, is. I mean hey it’s payin the bills, hard to resent that. The first turtle she met was Donnie, the guys were playing basketball when Don missed a pass and the ball bounced away so he had to go get it, only to run into April for the first time. Ofc the first thing she pointed out wasn’t his emerald complexion or stinky sewer smell, but that he was wearing jupiter jim merch, and the rest was history. The turtles all feel bummed about how busy she is since going to college, but want also support their big sis too much to make a stink about it, they know she misses them too. I like to think Leo just portals into her dorm sometimes and her completely normal ass roommate who came from out of town just had to deal with that with 0 explanation given.

Splinter: This right here is a textbook example of an eternal disaster bisexual in action. Jesus fuck this rat can fit so many mental disorders in him. His combined mommy and daddy issues ensured he’d only romantically pursue the most red flag ridden mfs on earth for all time *cough cough* BIG MAMA *cough cough* Because he had bad vision problems post mutation (Rats actually have really bad eyesight irl so i feel like that could be a side affect of being mutated into one) he went out of his way to properly color code the turtles early on so he wouldn’t mix them up. When he first took in the turtles his ass did not know they were sentient (his only points of comparison for them were Draxum’s feral lab experiments) and basically treated them like more like pets up until Raph started talking and he realized “oh shit i’m a father of four now fuck” (this is also why he called them colors to begin with, their names didn’t matter too much if they couldn’t understand them) Once he figured out they were actually kids he finally gave them real names, but he still calls them by color out of habit and now they’re more like silly nicknames. Everything his kids think they get away with without him knowing he 100% knows about. He may be past his prime but his ninja instincts and dad bullshit detector are sharp as ever.

Cassandra Jones: Raging, feral, She/Her, lesbian. Adhd, emphasis on the H. Has at least 1 parent but they are not very active in her life, i mean at least i hope not bc goddam if they’re knowingly letting their kid lead a gang of girlsscouts and get wrapped up in a murder cult then i’ve got some serious questions. Look to Lieutenant and Brute as pseudo parental figures, though it’s largely unreciprocated even if they do somewhat care for her safety at the very least. One of the very few people (outwardly at least) to not at all be changed by the apocalypse. She’s still just as if not more trigger happy and crackheaded during the end of the world than she was before, she is nothing if not consistent. Willingly signs off on Future!Donnie giving CJ the chainsaw hockey stick at like 5 years old, it’s only Leo stepping in to nip that at the bud that prevented that disaster waiting to happen. Adopted CJ basically onsight. She was the one there when his bio-dad showed up and died right in front of the base, saw the baby, scooped him up, and that was that.

Draxum: This man a walking queer coded disney renaissance villain and u think i’m NOT gonna hit him with the gay stick? blasphemy. He/Him, also i read this fic that made him Tamil and i fucked with it heavy so now it lives in my brain rent free. (Go read the But First They Must Catch You series by mudlarkspur on ao3 it’s like my favorite separated au of all the ones i’ve read and i’ve read A LOT of those mfs). Definitely was a lil bit smitten w Lou Jitsu, at least before he rocked his shit and destroyed his life’s work weather or not this starts rearing its head again following his reconciliation with a certain rat man remains to be seen. Began training Mikey in the mystic arts post movie to help him control his powers but eventually somehow also acquired Donnie as a protege (They bond over their shared love of terrorism). Hes not very good at dad stuff like showing affection, but his way of showing it definitely entails giving them the knowledge and skills to take care of themselves should the need arise. Made peace-ish with Leo post movie, after a lengthy dr feelings sesh, Leo still brings up the roof incident all the time though just to fuck with him bc he’s a petty cunt whom i adore.

Aight that’s all i got for now, lmk if you wanna hear about any other characters or just share your own headcanons!! It brings me joy

Have a good day :3

[collectivecartomancy]

Justice: “White Man’s Paperwork”

👀 Looks like you’re interested in learning tarot. Have you checked out Tarot in Community, my online space for queers, feminists, and leftists to learn tarot and merge it with their work in the world? Learn more here!

I have no empathy for those who grease the wheels of the powerful. Still, this week's trials of Fani Willis and Alejandro Mayorkas can teach us some things about America. Specifically how the sham trials and everyday procedurals correspond to tarot's Justice card.

American leaders presume to rule by divine right. This is another unbroken link they have to their European lineage—whatever their actual race may be. This is why they swear on the Christian Bible. This is why our money says "In God We Trust."

The motto "out of many, one" doesn't so much indicate that we are a cohesive people.

Rather it reminds us that out of all the laws around the world, we will all be ruled by this one, oppressive set. That out of all the Gods in the world, one has been chosen, and the rest of us are expected to submit to him without issue.

Alejandro Mayorkas and Fani Wallis find themselves before the court for being the wrong color or culture in to high a place.

The role of the court in these cases, and tarot's Justice is to enforce not law of the land, but the customs of communities that matter.

No one actually believes tarot's Justice card means real justice.

A better term for Justice is "paperwork." It talks about everything official, everything documented, every document that can eventually be used to trap you or free you.

The traveling passes slavers gave those they enslaved are reflected in this card. Marriage licenses, deeds, leases, and wills all fall under its auspices.

When I was a kid, when my mother would talk about marriage, even just in a general way, her boyfriend would bark "white man's paperwork."

To him, such formality were trivial, artificial. What mattered was love and family. But Black love and black family means little in the face of white supremacy. Rarely, but sometimes, white man's paperwork is all that stands between you and losing both.

Justice does not depict the goddess Justitia. Justitia wears a blindfold to show her impartiality. The figure on tarot's Justice card is the titan goddess Themis.

Themis was the prophetic dispenser of divine law, and presided over the oracle of Delphi.

An early wife of Zeus, she was often the one to let him know how divine order and fate actually worked. After all, the Titans preceded the gods. She intended to help Zeus become a good governor of human life and destiny.

Jutitia is the Roman version of Themis' daughter, Dike.

Dike is associated with the execution of sentences and trials, as well as deciding when people will die. In this Roman form Dike, and Justitia is more a concept than a diety.

She indicates impartiality before the laws and customs of society. She's there to ensure the law is evenly applied.

Where does it start to break down. Well, Themis is also associated with customs. She encourages conformity and piety. She was a goddess of people getting together...like juries.

She also presided over gender and gender roles, making her a precursor of the current fights about trans rights in the court.

I'll be teaching this month's workshop in Tarot In Community on places we find the people's justice in the cards.

That's on Thursday, so if you join before Thursday at 7pm ET, you'll be able to access the link!

(Don't worry if you can't make it. The recording goes up within a few days of the initial workshop!)

Themis’ role is intended to be divine. That's why they require not blindfold.

God may display favor, but God doesn't discriminate between their subjects. Thus, the thinking goes, neither would Themis.

But under white supremacy, the paperwork, the rules, and the legal theories of Christianity all convene under this card.

This is what rightfully makes Justice the opposite of the equity and social justice most of us crave. The white man's word is conflated with the word of God. On paper, they are monotheistic. In practice, they worship themselves and money.

The trinity of white supremacy holds white man up as the Father, the Bible as the Son, and the spectral nature of money as The Holy Ghost.

What justice can we reach in the face of all that?

When I think about tarot's Justice card, I think of people who bought their own children out of enslavement.

It's Sojourner Truth suing her New York slave master for selling her child to Alabama. She won.

Enslavement, after all, was a legal institution. Slave law as it was called was big business.

There are times when an appeal to the law is the only power you have in the situation.

The enslaved Africans apprehended on The Amistad understood this. They needed an opportunity to speak to the people with the power to free them or keep them in chains. They had exhausted all other options. They knew what little they had left.

But the law is designed to work against those who aren't deified in this country.

As a Hairston, my family's particular slavers were often encouraged to go to college to study slave law so they could be better slavers.

Enslavement and its legal bolsters are why we have the electoral college, why foraging is criminalized, college is expensive.

White folks will deny themselves help and pleasure happily, so long as they know a Black person will be denied that pleasure tenfold.

That's the other working of Justice. The balancing of divine scales. The settling of scores. The paying of debts.

Reparations for enslavement, the practical administration of them should they be delivered, would be the work of this card. So would any approach to abolition and manumission that went through the court.

The Emancipation Proclamation is a good example of what I mean when I say Justice is a representation of white man's paperwork.

Justice, as tarot presents it on the Justice card, is at once necessary and evil. It will never be where real social justice or equity lives. The best it can do is keep the customs of the land going.

It's not there to deviate, alleviate, or rock the boat. It's there to keep the ship upright and sailing. It's there to further muddy the line between divine law and the work of nation building.

Like Americans, ancient Greeks believed that their nation was divinely inspired. The Gods lived in the soil and had affinities, even liaisons, with humans. This troubled the line between human and divine.

American sees itself as more Roman than Greek. Notably, the Eagle was a symbol of Roman military might. We find the eagle on the Emperor card as drawn by Patricia Coleman Smith. Its that power that defines America.

In Ancient Greece, the Eagle was a form Zeus was known to assume. Zeus, the husband of Themis. Zeus, who needed the the guidance of Themis.

And so it is still, as we watch the former president be indicted again and again. The power of the leader against the power of the court. This is not the usual order, as the court was designed to advise and strengthen the Emperor. We'll see where it goes.

We're living in times where we are at the mercy of the merciless court. We are living in times where law means nothing to oppressed and oppressor alike.

Justice shows us the caprice of the law when it comes to needs of the most marginalized. It reminds us it can make someone who clawed or lucked their way up marginalized once more.

Further Thoughts

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The Right to Free Thought: Rereading Tarot's Swords

How To Read Tarot Cards For Yourself

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[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

Jason's first eight kids, in order of when he obtained them, as posited by me

Nadiah, found at two years old. Vaguely middle-eastern looking, but her records are woefully incomplete so it's anyone's guess. He found her in an apartment curled up next to a corpse for warmth, and once he picked her up she refused to let go of him for the next twelve hours. She's a bit hyperactive and scatter-brained, and enjoys coloring on everything (Jason had to invest in a tiny whiteboard so she'd stop scribbling on his walls).

Two months later he picked up Darius at age six. He's of Romanian descent, with ink-black hair and dark brown eyes. The boy was taken into foster care after his mother killed his father in front of him, and ran away from his foster home due to untreated PTSD from said event. He's skittish and flight-prone, and wouldn't let anyone other than Jason or Nadiah come near him for the first three weeks of living with him.

Six months later he's all but gifted one of his goon's kids as a newborn, a small girl named Katina. The girl's bio mother knows she isn't cut out to be a parent and trusts her boss with the kid's safety and wellbeing. Katina is an extremely well-behaved baby who's more than happy to spend time with her family, and so long as she has something soft and fuzzy to cuddle she's okay with anything.

A year after that come a set of twin boys, Darshan and Karan, age four. They're of west indian descent, and their mother died in childbirth- they were being raised by an auntie, but she was an accidental casualty of an attack by Black Mask's forces. Darshan is the more adventurous one of the two, always leading his brother into ridiculous situations, while Karan is the one who manages to get them out of danger before anyone realizes what's going on.

Four months after the twins, and two months after Jason's moved to a bigger house to accommodate his growing family, Xinyi shows up on his doorstep demanding to be adopted. She's nine years old and was adopted by one of those vlog families, but when they kept filming her in invasive or humiliating ways for views she fought back, leading to them wanting to "return" her. Jason takes her in, and on a completely unrelated note Gotham ends up passing stricter laws on monetizing children like that, with Bruce lobbying the hardest.

Two months after Xinyi, Darius brings home a boy named Alon, age seven, and asks for him to be adopted. Alon was raised mostly by his mother who had recently passed from lung cancer, and he's a shy, quiet boy who prefers to solve puzzles rather than interact with people.

And four months after Alon, a scared and desperate thirteen-year-old girl named Emma comes barreling into Red Hood's life, begging for his protection. She was disowned by her parents for being trans and knew that Red Hood didn't hurt kids, plus she had a mean talent for throwing knives and a willingness to fight dirty, so she's figuring that even if he doesn't want to take her in she can at least work for him. It takes all of fifteen minutes before all the other children have accepted Emma as one of them, at which point Jason throws up his hands and decides to invest in a bus.

I love this. Please consider making this an entire fic. Because this is the best and as someone said recently, I am all for seeing DC characters be very parent shaped

[hollyhomburg]

Before I Leave You (Pt.38)

(Sneak Peak) (Omegaverse au, Mafia au, Bts x Reader)

Summary: Everything sort of falls apart, but you and Namjoon help it all fall back together.

Pairings: Omega! Reader, Omega! Jungkook, Omega! Seokjin, Alpha! Namjoon, Alpha! Hoseok, Alpha! Taehyung, Alpha! Jimin, Beta! Yoongi,

Tags: Angst, hurt/comfort, implied sexual content, m/m, yoonjin focus, Tae x m/c focus, Secrets, Verbal arguments, Shame, Dysphoria, Trans characters, Trans! Taehyung

W/c: 12.0k

A/n: All aboard the angst train! this is chapter 1 of 3 that will focus on tae’s coming out! i expect them to come at bi-monthly intervals! thank you for being extra patient! super emotionally charged stuff like this takes me a while to write 

Previous Chapter- Masterlist

Chapter 38: Killing Kim Taehyung 

His face crumples, and he pulls you in just slightly, just a little pressing the briefest of kisses to your forehead. It’s the only bit of comfort that Yoongi allows himself to pull from you. “Yoongi- oh- what’s wrong- what’s-?”

It’s then that you register the scents, angry. The whole pack home and every one of them a tangle of distress. You'd had the door closed before he'd come in so you hadn't realized that the others where home let alone that there was something wrong. 

The pack’s scents are all terrible, all stinky and sticky filling the house with anxiety. Jimin’s gunsmoke, Jungkook’s rotting flower, Namjoon’s liquor coffee, Tae’s peppery cinnamon and Hobi’s metallic medicinal sugar. Even Jin smells a little gross- a little like a cross between curdled cream and wet puppy. Yoongi- Yoongi smells like the ocean, his salt and chocolate all murky, washing over you.You resist the urge to clamp a hand over your nose. It’s making your eyes water. 

“Tae’s asking for you.” He’s somber- doesn’t say anything more about what just happened with Jin it happens too quick. “He’s not letting any of us comfort him.” You rush out in the direction of her unhappy scent, nearly tripping through the doorframe in your hurry. 

One of Tae’s dresses sits on the floor, dropped from where you were folding it, discarded.  

You barely register Jimin trying to calm Tae in the crowded entryway. Jin’s in between the two of them, while Jungkook holds Tae up in the doorway. Jimin’s crooning, still in his work clothes that smell like too many people. White shirt rolled up at the elbows. He drove at quite frankly dangerous and record-breaking speeds once he'd received Jungkook's panicked texts. 

He holds Tae’s face between both of his hands, skimming his fingers up and over her eyebrows, eyes panicked. Arms scrambling to try and pull Tae into them. 

“Tae- I’m here baby, just come inside, we've got you, Babyboy-“ Tae shivers, swaying where she stands. She can’t see anything through her tears- can’t see but smell? 

Your comforting cake scent washes over her, hints of vanilla, a little soggy, a little wet- your body reacting to your pack’s distress. And Tae almost falls over in relief. Tae stumbles, pushing Jimin’s hands away. 

Jimin just stares blankly after her,  blinking, like his brain is struggling to make sense of the fact that his comfort is neither needed nor preferred by the one person who should prefer it. 

You barely spot the hurt look on Jimin’s face before you have an armful of Tae pressing small wet sobs to your shoulder. She drags you close by your waist- hands scrabbling like she needs to hold onto something. But only you could keep her from rocketing and crashing into nothing- bursting in a flurry of rose-colored petals or delicate feathers after taking flight. 

The short cut pokes spikey into your neck. Gone is her gorgeous shoulder-length shag, now buzzed on the sides and long at the top. Gone is the little piece that she usually tucks behind her ear or her tiny bangs that she'd constantly blow out of her eyes. Gone is everything that makes her happy with just a few clips. 

Everything that makes her boy is put front and center, it’s a good haircut in the sense that the barber had obviously know what style would make Tae look more conventionally handsome and a terrible haircut in the sense that you hate it instantly for what it does to her face. 

Her cheekbones look sharp against her ruddy cheeks and her jaw looks sharper without the hair to hide it. Even her eyes look more masculine when she looks up at you from her spot on your shoulder, face screwing awful with misery. 

It fits Tae as well as her masculinity does (which is not at all).  

Tae collapses dropping her full weight onto you, the heaving sobs coming stronger as she lays her crushed heart out for you to take care of. Hoping blindly that you will fix it- you always fix it and you always fix her and she’s not above begging. 

You, not Jimin. 

Minnie is the person that Tae should always run to first, the person she should always want first but not today and not with this. Now, Jimin stands in the doorway, stunned, shaking in time with Tae's sobs. Mouth hardening to a line, lower lip quivering. Neither needed or wanted by the one person he needs and wants above all others.

Tae makes a noise that sounds like your name, and Jimin flinches.  

Coming Saturday August 27th 5pm (time zone adjustments below)

[peacesmith]

posted also on ao3

title - fooled around and fell in love

pairing - christopher smith x male reader (trans-friendly!)

rating - fluff

word count - 884

summary - on one of chris' day off, he decides to go to a music store to add to his collection. he meets a cashier who catches his interest.

notes - christopher is a BI-con and i refuse to take criticism, eagly is there, lowkey throwing in my headcanons for chris when it comes to music but its slightly canon. i really focus more on chris here because i love developing characters. chris goes dumb for a second and has a gay panic, reader is a real charmer. literally based off of my experience with a cashier.

For someone like Chris, you’d expect him to go to a bar and maybe do a couple of hookups on his day off. Well, surprises do happen. Instead of doing hookups like he usually would do, he decided to go to a music store.

Its no secret that Chris is a music connoisseur, he owns about a thousand CD’s and record player disks. Their always spread out around in his trailer, mostly because he doesn’t bother to put them up after playing it.

His collection includes a lot of older songs back from his time, mostly rock. Cinderella, The Poodles, Pretty Boy Floyd, Wig Wam, and a lot more. It mostly depends on the mood he’s in or what he’s doing. There’s always some sort of music going on in his head or trailer.

And so, he decides that today, he should go to that music store that people have been talking about. Maybe he could add more to his collection.

When he walks into the store, he’s immediately hit with the smell of candles. Mostly giving off a more cinnamon type of smell. It’s comforting.

The place isn’t colorful, but it’s very organized. It’s mostly one color, but there’s a lot of variety of that one color. It’s nice, Chris is already starting to like this place.

He looks around for a bit before finding what he’s looking for. The rock section. It’s divided into different genres of rock, pop rock, punk rock, experimental rock, even hardcore metal. It brings a smile to his face to see all the different types there.

This store is almost starting to feel like a safe place here, makes him want to come here more. Maybe just to look, or connect with others, just maybe.

He picks out a couple of vinyl records, about 3 or 4, before going up to the cash register. As soon as he gets there, he’s greeted by a handsome man. Doesn’t look too far from his age, but definitely younger than him. The cashier gives him a smile and takes the vinyl’s from him.

“Good afternoon, found everything alright?” Asks the man from behind the counter as he scans the vinyl’s. Chris is starstruck. Why is it that suddenly, he’s found this guy attractive? He needs to say something, quick!

“Yeah… yeah, I found everything alright. There are some good music choices here.” Chris nods before going silent again, it wasn’t like him for him to be this way. Usually, he would’ve had something to say, but he’s just silent.

Chris looks at his name tag, “(Y/N)”, he hums. Whispering his name, a little too loud, before quickly going quiet once he sees him look at him.

(Y/N) raises a brow before giving a friendly smile. He finishes scanning and tells him his amount of money. Chris complies and gives him his amount before saying thank you, taking the bag from him. He stands there for a little bit after (Y/N) gives him his change. He wants to say something, but he doesn’t know what.

“Cool Eagle, thought those weren’t allowed in America as a pet?” (Y/N) says, leaning on his forearms a bit. Making eye contact with Chris.

Chris lets out a small chuckle, looking at his car parked across the street. Eagly screeches before flapping its wings. “Thanks, he’s my best friend, so I bring him everywhere I pretty much go.”

That gets a small chuckle from the cashier, causing a blush to form across Chris’s cheeks.

It’s a little weird for him, it’s no secret that Chris has slept with both men and women. He’s always been interested in both men and women, but he’s never thought about it until his dad called him out for it. He felt weird. But now that he’s really thinking about it, he doesn’t know how to feel. A part of him wants to explore that side of him, but the other half of him says it’s wrong.

He’s only felt this way about Harcourt for a while, but kind of gave up. Resorting to hookups again. The thought of an actual relationship never crossed his mind until he met her. But now, he really wants to try for an actual relationship.

Chris coughs into his fist before squeezing out a small thank you, finally broken out of his thoughts, ready to walk away before he’s stopped by the sound of the other male. Turning his head to look behind him in curiosity.

“Hey, how about me and you hang out sometime this week? I wouldn’t mind giving you my number, I love your taste in music!” (Y/N) says enthusiastically, quickly scribbling his number on a piece of paper before handing it over to Chris.

Chris looks over at the paper, a smile forming on his face.

“What do you say? We could talk more about our taste in music together and what not.” (Y/N) gets from behind the counter and stands closer to him. Holding out his hand.

“(Y/N), by the way. That’s my name if you didn’t know.” Chris grabs his hand and shakes it, responding with ‘Chris’.

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind, what do you say Friday?” Chris lets go of his hand, already missing how it felt in his hand.

(Y/N) smiles and nods. “Call it a date then!”

[dangerous-mess]

Holiday Troubles

Characters: Aizawa, trans male reader

Contains: Unsupportive family, transphobia, homophobia, misgendering, mentions of a deadname (D/N), mentions of religion and praying, mentions of dysphoria, angst, hurt/comfort, angst with fluff ending. This was written mainly as a comfort fic during the winter holidays but wanted to post this here (originally posted on AO3). Please read with caution as this content may be triggering for some

Word Count: 2K+ 

The holidays were always rough for you, being not only gay but transgender as well. There were the off-putting tension and feelings every time you walked in the room, and the side glances and judgemental glares that were shot your way if you were even caught wearing something feminine and not masculine. Mostly from your parents and family, feeling the obligation that you had to follow gender norms in the hope to not only pass but to be taken seriously in your own identity.

The holidays got a little easier once you married your now husband. He made visiting your family a bit easier and made the holidays in general, more enjoyable for you. This year, unfortunately, he had meetings and a nightly patrol that he couldn’t get out of, so you were left to go to the Christmas family gathering by yourself.

The day came, and needless to say, you were a nervous mess. You dressed up in a suit, something masculine of course to appease your family and keep those comments at bay. Though, you knew you weren’t in the clear as there was still a high chance of being deadnamed and misgendered by family who were unsupportive or others who just didn’t try. Your husband, Shouta, let you know before he left early that morning that if you needed anything at all to give him or Hizashi a call and they would come and get you in a heartbeat. He said Hizashi, just in case he couldn’t be reached, which was fine with you, Hizashi had become a close friend to you.

You arrived at your parent's house a little later than they asked, just cause you were nervous and needed more time to prepare for this evening. You knocked on the front door, adjusting your suit as you waited for someone to open the door, only to be greeted by one of your younger siblings. They gave you a big hug, before dragging you inside where you were greeted by family. Your grandmother was the first to deadname you. She called out as you talked to your uncle, a devious smile on her face as the name rolled off her tongue. You cringed hearing it and so badly wanted to correct her, but if your mother caught wind that you did, who knows what drama may pursue. You endured the conversation with her, as she made sure to drop in your deadname every chance she could get.

“Honestly D/N, you really should stop playing dress up and realize that you are a girl. Your husband would be so much happier to have a wife who knows her place and not some confused girl.”

You took a deep breath and bid your goodbyes to your grandmother as you went to find someone else to talk to. Eventually, dinner was called, and you all gathered around and your grandfather said a prayer. You looked down at your feet the entire time, not really wanting to participate in the prayer. Soon it wrapped up and a line formed into the kitchen to get food. After everyone got food, everyone gathered around and talked, telling stories of things that happened within the past year in their lives, as well as asking questions to others to get the latest scoop. You just decided to eat silently, trying to not participate in the gossip fest happening before you.

“So Y/N, how are you and your husband doing?” Your dad asked before he took a sip of a beer. You held up your pointer finger, signaling that you needed a moment as your finished chewing food before you smiled and spoke.

“Oh, we are doing well! He sends his deepest apologies that he couldn’t make it, hero duties called.” You smiled, taking a quick glance around the room. Some whispers were exchanged, knowing it was about you and Shouta. It was clear that besides your family not supporting your identity, they also did not support your marriage to a hero. Especially a hero who was supportive of you and your identity.

“Honestly, how she manages to keep such a hero man, is insane. Like who would wanna marry some confused lesbian?” One of your aunts spoke out. You gripped your glass tightly, biting your tongue, not wanting to start any issues.

Other family members chimed in to add on to your aunt's comment and soon it became too much. You quickly excused yourself and went to the bathroom farthest away from your family. You pulled out your phone and texted your husband. You told him that you needed him or Hizashi or someone to come to pick you up, as you originally walked, as it was nice earlier prior to the sun setting. You quickly got a reply, saying your husband was on his way, and that he was getting someone to cover the rest of his patrol. You felt a bit bad to interrupt and have him leave his patrol, but god you just needed him right now more than anything.

You hid amongst the rooms as you waited for Shouta to send you a message or signal that he was here. Your mom called out your name, walking down the hall looking for you. The smile on her face dropped as she saw you and grabbed your arm.

“Come on Y/N, we are about to exchange gifts. Stop trying to hide and be nice and spend time with your family. It took a lot of work and effort to get everyone here, like your grandparents who haven’t seen you in ages.” Your mom aggressively whispered at you, as she pulled you towards the living room. You stayed silently, hoping that your husband would be here soon.

Your mom let you go and pointed to a chair near the tree. You sat down and were handed some gifts. You slowly opened them, trying not to draw attention to yourself. The first gift was in a gift bag, and opening it exposed a colorful piece of clothing. You pulled it out and it was a sundress. Although you didn’t mind breaking gender norms, dresses were never your thing, they held too many bad memories and made you dysphoric. You frowned, not having the energy to fake a smile. You felt your mind start to spiral before a voice pulled you out.

“Oh, D/N do you not like it. I made sure to even get the right size and everything. I thought you could put that on and surprise your husband when you go home. Imagine how he would react to see his wife, finally coming to terms with herself.” Your grandmother called out, staring at you the entire time. You went to open your mouth when another voice spoke up.

“Actually, I think my husband looks handsome and perfect just the way he is in the suit he is wearing, but thank you. Maybe we can save the dress and give it to one of my students, I know one of them would get much better use of it.” Shouta’s voice boomed out, making a hush fall across the room. You never heard the front door open, but then again Shouta was very good at staying silent. You looked at your husband, feeling all your emotions and feelings starting to rise to the surface. You caught a dirty look your mother gave you as you stood up and made your way over to Shouta.

He held out his hand as you got closer and held it tightly, quickly bidding goodbye for you both as he quickly led you outside to the car that was waiting outside and still running. “I had Hizashi drive me over, hope that’s okay.” You just nodded at him, not letting go of his hand until you got into the car. As soon as you and Shouta were in the car, Hizashi sped off.

“Heya listener, how did it go?” Hizashi asked out, peeking into the mirror looking back at you.

“I lasted longer than last year, so that’s a new record at least.” You joked, trying not to cry. At least not now, you had to make it until you were home and in bed, with your husband holding you close.

Hizashi talked most of the ride home, while Shouta kept glancing back at you. You tried to listen to what was being said, but you couldn’t focus, so you just looked out the window, slightly dozing off. You woke up to the feeling of being carried, your eyes adjusted as you saw Shouta was carrying you into the house and to the bedroom. On any other occasion, if he was carrying you like this you were bound to tease or crack a joke or something, but in this moment you just stayed in his arms, gripping onto him tightly. Once you both got to the bedroom, he helped you undress and slip on something comfy. After he finished helping you, he quickly changed and climbed into bed, pulling you close to him and holding you tightly.

For a while, you just laid there in his arms, fighting back the urge to scream and cry. Though, after he comforted you and let you know it was okay to be upset and that you could let it all out. In which you did, you sobbed in his chest for what felt like hours. You screamed and sobbed and let out all the feelings you bottled up for the few hours you were at the family gathering. Eventually, you ran out of tears to cry and were only left with your own thoughts. You were overthinking, mostly dwelling on the words your family spoke out to you this evening, and couldn’t help but question if it was true.

“Sho...I’ve got to ask you something, kind of important.” You gently pushed away and sat up in the bed, looking at him. He stared at you, and nodded, letting you know it was okay to continue on. You took a deep breath and went for it, “Am I enough for you? I brought a lot of baggage and trouble into our relationship and I know it can’t be easy for you dating me, specifically with the backlash and comments that get made by my family and others about me transitioning and just. If you were with anyone else, I feel like you won’t get all this drama and I’m sorry I’ve brought so much of it onto you Shouta.”

You watched as his facial expression changed and you quickly looked away, finding interest in anything that wasn’t his face, afraid of what his reaction not only meant but the words that were about to follow. “Y/N, please look at me.” You slowly looked up and he placed a hand on your cheek. “I love you Y/N. I love you for you, you are my husband and I won’t want anyone else besides me. You are more than enough for me. And we both have a lot of baggage but that doesn’t change my feelings for you, we can work through it all together. I meant what I said in my vows and at our wedding and I still stand by it. Forever and always.”

You fiddled with your fingers before speaking up, “I love you Shouta so much, I’m just afraid one day I won’t be enough, cause as silly as it is, I don’t feel masculine or manly enough, that you’ll find more of a ‘real’ man one day and just leave me behind.” Tears filled your eyes and you looked down, just wanting to hide under the blankets.

“Y/N Aizawa, you are absolutely masculine and manly enough. I will never find anyone else or more a man than you. You are all I want, and all I need. I love you so much, don’t ever doubt my love for you, cause it is never-ending sweetheart.” Shouta spoke out, lifting your head up and placing a small kiss on your forehead before pulling you into his arms, holding you close. You just stayed there close, as Shouta whispered sweet nothings into your ear as you drifted off to sleep.

Shouta always made the holidays more bearable, but he also made life in general easier. He made waking up a little easier and helped with your hectic thoughts to calm you down. He truly was the love of your life and the best you could ever ask for. You couldn’t have gotten any luckier to have a husband as sweet and perfect as you. He may not be the number one hero to the rest of the world, but in your eyes and his heart, he was, he was your number one hero.

[parkers-gal]

fluffy hair

wc: 1.2k (fluff)

tom x ag!reader - tom joins the reader in her interview

"Y/N! It's been awhile!" Zach greeted you through the screen, and you laughed, nodding your head. 

"I miss you guys there, in the studio. How is everything?"

"Good, good. Everything's chill here. What about you? Album release and all that?"

You giggled again, shrugging. "It was fun, low key, and safe."

"Good, glad to hear that. Should we start?"

"Let's, yes." 

"Great. I am so obsessed with this record; we're just gonna go down the line for each song." 

"Got it, sounds like a plan." You laughed, looking behind camera, and Zach took note of it before continuing. 

"Shut up."

"Excuse me?" you laughed at him, and he went wide eyed. 

"Oh! No, no, no, I meant the track, the intro-"

"OH," you laughed again, face palming yourself. "Duh, obviously. Continue."

"Right. It's very... melodic, with what, the strings and everything. And your voice cuts in and just tells all those haters to shut up and- what was the meaning behind that?"

You laughed, looking off camera to Tom for a split second before answering. "Well, I mean. With everything happening, it's hard not to tell people to just like," you put your hands up, palms outward in a stop position. "to just- shut the fuck up, y'know? We're fighting for our lives, all these white, straight old... men."

Zach laughed, nodding, and the conversation continued until you switched subjects to the next song. 

"Thirty-four plus thirty-five," he state with a grin. "Now what's that about." 

You laughed loudly, shaking your head at Tom while he told you a joke. 

"Is someone back there?" Zach cut in with a laugh. "They can join if you'd like."

You looked to Tom before shrugging sheepishly, and he rolled his eyes before plopping next to you on the beanbag. 

"This is Tom, the inspiration."

"Y/N!"

You laughed, looking to the camera. "I'm joking, joking," you kissed his forehead, ruffling his hair. "He's my lovely little boyfriend."

"Mhm," he hummed in satisfaction. 

You went on to answer the question, "Well, when Peter sent some string samples over, I heard this one and it was so pure and sweet and completely.. Disney, if you will. And I was sitting with Scotty and Tom and I was like 'what's the dirtiest thing we can write with this?' and well, we got thirty-four thirty-five."

Zach laughed, "So it's not based on real life?"

You laughed before Michael, the other interviewer, cut in with a comment. 

"I actually didn't know it was about sixty-nine until the outro," he laughed, and so did you. 

"Ah- good, that's good actually. Enjoy it without being told how you're supposed to interpret it."

"Did Tom contribute anything to the song? Let's- let's go in depth with the lyrics and how you came up with them."

You laughed again before answering. "Well, I was working on the first verse with Scotty and I was like 'what the fuck can we put here?' and he- he jokingly said 'gimme them babies' and I was like 'holy shit that's perfect. That's going in. We're not changing that.'" You looked to Tom, whose arm was around your waist. "Tommy came in not long after that and wrote the pre-chorus. He was so intent on putting the 'I been drinking coffee,' part. It ended up being my favorite out of the song. He was in the studio with me when we recorded that, basically telling me how to sing it. It was hilarious and scary how bossy and smart he was about producing a song."

Tom rolled his eyes, kissing your temple. 

"Is that true, Tom?"

Tom blushed as he answered. "Yeah. She had just gotten new string samples and she was super excited about and I just- I wanted to be there, make memories. Especially since, at the time, I wasn't working." 

"Tom what's your favorite track?" 

"I think," he thought for a moment. "Well I like all of them, but I like 'my hair' a lot."

"Also inspired by him," You cut in cheekily, and he eyed you with a playful glare. 

"Did you contribute on a lot of tracks?"

"Oh for sure," Tom nodded. "It was quite an experience; doing music instead of acting. It's so strange to me, but it was amazing fun."

"Which track did you do the most work on."

You laughed, and Tom rolled his eyes. 

"Probably 'nasty.'"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I was there when she was recording vocals, and I just kept telling her to do it again."

"That's actually," you interrupted with a laugh. "that's actually where that intro line is from. 'This bitch really gon' make me,'" you quoted. "because he kept making me doing it again and again and it was hilarious."

"I want to talk about.. six-thirty."

"Okay," you nodded with a smile. "Good track."

"What does it mean? Like the title?"

"Well on a clock," you were motioning with your hands. "The hands are pointing down at six-thirty."

Both of the interviewers oh'ed loudly, laughing at how they hadn't figured it out. 

"The bridge in there, I love it so much."

"Thank you, thank you."

"Do you think you've found that person you can play video games with at two A.M.?"

You glanced to Tom with a gentle smile, eyes softening too. "Yeah," you looked to the camera. "For sure, I think I have."

To was giddy at your response, subtly pulling you closer into his side and kissing your temple again. 

"Now let's talk about the positions music video."

"Oh this should be fun," Tom commented, and you laughed at him. 

"I'm sure everyone else interpreted the title much differently than you did." 

You laughed, nodding. "Probably."

"How'd you come up with the concept?"

"Oh, obviously the real world. We need people like that in office- like, imagine if that were the Cabinet of the White House? Women and gays and trans and everyone. I think we're in desperate need of a reboot."

Zach laughed, agreeing. "A reboot of the Cabinet. I like it, and you're absolutely right," he looked to the monitor. "At the end there, you were giving a medal to a postal worker."

"Yeah," you clasped your hands together in excitement. "I think the US postal service has definitely taken a huge hit this year. They've suffered a great deal; I think including that in my video was almost essential. They need to be recognized and acknowledged."

"But also like the step stool," Tom cut in with a laugh. "She was too short for the postal worker and they were like 'we don't have higher heels,' so I brought that out."

"You twat," you laughed, grabbing his nose lightly like in a child's game. 

He huffed, laughing, pulling you closer and kissing the tip of your nose in response. 

"Can we talk about my hair before we end this lovely interview?" Zach asked once the two of you settled down. 

"By all means."

"We'll get to those whistles in a moment, but the whole song is so.. intimate. Have you found someone like that? To- to appreciate your hair in all forms and designs?"

You looked at Tom again, and he blushed, already knowing your answer. 

"Yeah, yeah I have. My boyfriend just loves my hair, all styles and colors. It's nice, because I feel like the world doesn't really... see my true hair? But Tommy loves it dearly. It's a special place in my heart for that kind of love." 

Tom smiled, head tilting and eyes crinkling, and you ruffled his chocolate curls. 

"Also though, I really love his hair. Fluffy."

[violethoneyb]

“Being happy, fortunately coincides with making you happy.”

as a writing prompt :)

sorry it took me a few days to get to this prompt but i hope you like it! this one was so cute to write and i love how it turned out. (once again, apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes there may be, i really have to stop writing these at 1am) anyway, happy early new year!🥳(prompt list)

“Merry Christmas!” Carlos exclaimed, handing another box to Seb, this one wrapped in green wrapping paper with a big blue bow on top.

“Carlos!,” Seb uttered incredulously, “I thought we agreed on a $30 budget this year!”

“I know, I know.” Carlos held his hands up in defense. “For the record, I was staying within our price limit until I saw these. I thought of you and just knew had to get them.”

Seb frowned at him as he began to unwrap the box. “You know it makes me feel bad when I can’t reciprocate all these expensive gifts.”

“I do know that and I’m sorry. I promise this is the last one.”

Reluctantly, Seb tore off the rest of the wrapping paper and underneath was a converse box.

“You got me shoes?,” Seb asked, “Why?”

“Open them! You’ll see why!”

It had been almost a year and a half since East High had put on their production of High School Musical. A year and a half since Seb had stepped into the spotlight as Sharpay in such a groundbreaking way and creating a whole new world for Seb. But that role ended almost as soon as it began. Soon enough, Seb was forced to give everything Sharpay back to the costume crew. Including, the trans pride converse that they had fallen in love with. And no matter how much they bargained with Miss Jenn in an attempt to keep them, she wouldn’t budge and he had to hand them over.

“Carlos…” Seb began, voice soft and almost inaudible.

“I know you loved these shoes when you played Sharpay but weren’t allowed to keep them so, I figured I’d get you your own pair.” Carlos said, nervously fiddling with one of the handmade bracelets Seb had just gifted him. Suddenly, he’s thrown backwards on the couch by Seb who is wrapping their arms around him in a tight hug.

“Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Seb now has tears of joy streaming down his face.

“Oh honey,” Carlos hugs Seb back just as tightly before releasing them, “You’re so welcome. Although, I need to sit up to be able to breathe.”

Seb pulls back and allows Carlos to sit back up and breathe again.

“Where did you even find these? They’ve been sold out almost everywhere! And anywhere they can be found, they’re crazy expensive.”

Carlos shrugged nonchalantly, “I have my ways.”

“You better not have spent a boatload of money just to get me these, I will fight you right here, right now.” Seb says, attempting to look stern but failing because their small smile keeps peeking through.

“I swear I didn’t!” Carlos promised. “But I know how much you loved these things and me being happy, fortunately coincides with making you happy so I was able to pull a few strings and got them at a price that wouldn’t make you rip my head off. Although, I don’t think you could hurt me even if you wanted to. You’re too sweet.” Carlos booped Seb on the nose, causing Seb to break out into little giggles that made Carlos’s stomach do flip flops.

“Well come on Sharpay, give me a little fashion show.” Carlos pulled Seb off of the couch.

“Okay, okay.” Seb grabbed the shoes and ran to the top of Carlos’s spiral staircase to put them on.

When he began his descent, he made various “fashionista” poses to show off the shoes.

“Ever the drama queen.” Carlos laughed.

Seb halted in the middle of the staircase and scoffed, looking mock offended, “Says you!”

Through the lighthearted bickering, all Carlos could think about was how lucky he got. The sun streamed through the windows, hitting Seb’s face at the perfect angle and causing them to glow. Their blonde hair shining and replicating an almost golden color and their bright blue eyes looking as deep and mesmerizing as the ocean. Carlos felt so much love for this beautiful boy that he was able to call his.

Before Seb reached the bottom, Carlos rushed up to the side of the stairwell and offered out his hand attempting to create a romantic scene.

“Am I Cinderella now?” Seb smiled, taking Carlos’s hand and allowing himself to be lead down the last few steps.

“As long as I’m your prince.” Carlos said, dragging Seb into the living room and spinning them around a few times like they were dancing at a ball.

“Always and forever my love,” Seb grinned, wrapping their arms around Carlos’s shoulders and swaying them back and forth.

“Do they fit okay? I asked your mom what size shoe you wore cuz I wanted to make sure I got the right size but if anything’s wrong I can return them and-“

“They fit perfectly,” Seb cuts him off, “Thank you a million times over. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

Carlos smiles. “Of course honey, I’m so glad you like them.”

Seb leans in and kisses Carlos sweetly. “I love you so so much.”

“I love you too.” Carlos leans in and kisses Seb again, longer this time and a bit more passionate and they only pull away from each other when they have to breathe.

Seb beams from ear to ear. “Best Christmas ever.”

[who-is-page]

The Curiosity and Curse of Canon

Author: Dash Type: Essay Words: 1,372 Summary: A discussion on the differences between Dash and the basilisks from the HP universe, and some commentary around non-fictionkin/fictive ideas and interpretations around canon connections. Author's Note: Created in connection to/inspired by Prompt #2 from the Fictionkind Dreamwidth group.

[Part of the Sol System’s Alterhuman Writing Project for NaNoWriMo 2021. If you don’t want to see these posts, block the tag #inkedpaws]

I’m a basilisk of startling similarity to both canon and some fanon appearances of basilisks from the Wizarding World or Harry Potter universe created by J. K. Rowling.

Within the canon, basilisks are said to have magic-resistant hide comparable to that of a dragon, with deadly venom and a gaze which could kill any living entity who make eye contact with it—save for phoenixes. Males were said to have a scarlet plume, and basilisks are described as green with bright yellow eyes with functionally no pattern or color morphs that are ever mentioned. They have a lifespan of 900-1000 years. A basilisk egg can only be created from a toad incubating the egg of a chicken. Spiders are terrified of them, and roosters can kill the basilisk with its crows.

This is, while not an exact match, unnervingly close to my own species. Perhaps the only immediate differences are that my species of basilisk does indeed come in different patterns and morphs based on, I suspect, subspecies and ritual differences, and that the ritual to create a basilisk egg is not so simple as it is described. Spiders and roosters are also not, as far as I understand it, especially important to my species either—rather, I am more familiar with our hatred of phoenixes and certain magical mustelids. I also do not know the if the lifespans match, though I would not be entirely surprised if 1000 was the upper limit of a basilisk’s life. There’s also the fact that some females and intersex basilisks may have plumes as well, though it is not nearly as common as males’ feathers. Like in some fanon stories, I also have a semi-transparent secondary eyelid to utilize when I want to prevent my gaze from killing someone while still retaining some semblance of sight.

It is curious, given that I do remember my previous life with clarity, but can find no record within the Harry Potter nor connected canons of any tyrant wizard kings who terrorized muggle and magical citizens alike somewhere in the modern United Kingdom, who would likely have existed prior to the 1692 International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. It seems such a classic story to tell, of an evil mage who uses his diabolical minions and villainous(ly handsome) serpent to keep the population and dissenters in-check while he steals all their tax money, and of the rebel (asshole) hero and his mighty (asshole) phoenix partner which thwarts him in the end—I’m almost surprised I can’t find anything which even resembles it, given the seeming bizarre closeness of everything else.

I’ve talked with a partner of mine, who is also from a magic-oriented world which contains basilisks, and while his and I’s world are similar in certain aspects—such as magic primarily being sympathetic in its designs—it makes me wonder where exactly I come from, and how useful it might potentially be to label myself as a “Wizarding World-adjacent fictionkin/fictive.” On one hand, it might be the best and most fitting descriptor for me now and looking into spaces centered around that identity could be useful in potentially limiting down whether or not it’s just happenstance that there’s so many similarities.

On the other hand, when it comes to discussions which relate to or mention this fictional universe there’s one thing that immediately jumps out at people before all else, content of the topic included: the author, J. K. Rowling, who is a well-known figurehead (and dare I say leader) within several hate groups, and who is currently spearheading the effort in the UK to criminalize transgender healthcare and whittle down queer rights overall. A despicable person on all fronts and especially embarrassing to be connected to in even involuntary forms when one themself is transgender and queer, as my system is.

Given the rightful animosity toward Rowling, there’s an unfortunate possibility that using the label would result in misdirected dislike and hatred towards myself as well. Even transgender individuals who are utilizing what remains of the related fandom in transformative, pro-queer, “TRANS RIGHTS!” ways have been attacked online and accused of indirectly supporting the queen of TERF island herself. All I’m doing by comparison is existing, which is sin enough in the eyes of some. Overall, quite a frustrating situation to be stuck in, and something I’d like to avoid. Internet attitudes that assign blame over fictotype associations just don’t jive with me and never have.

It’s a bit of head scratcher, to say the least. I honestly might just try to take a middle position and occasionally utilize the terminology to better find the resources I want, without publicly aligning myself in any sort of fashion that could have consequences foreseen or otherwise.

But even with that said, the idea of “canon” itself in how it’s viewed by others as a wider concept is a bit puzzling to me. Is there a way my universe was “supposed” to be or “meant” to be? Is there some sort of mold that I would be or am expected to fit into, because of how the Wizarding World functions in games and books?

I suppose there’s a major benefit in the fact that I can find no trace of my life in fictional literature, Wizarding World-related or otherwise. As I’m not even a side character, much less a main character, there’s no preconceived notions about who I should be, or how I should act, outside perhaps the thinnest of connections to Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk by virtue of species. And even then, the basilisk who was imprinted on Salazar Slytherin is not an individual we ever seen speak: they are more comparable to a tool than an actual character within the novels and movies, which is, admittedly, accurate for how humans historically have treated basilisks within my world as well. Still, I find it odd and off-putting that people might judge me before even meeting me, based purely on what they know about a world I might hypothetically be from.

It bothers me quite a bit when I see fictionkin and fictives attacked for things they’re supposedly responsible for, by virtue of being part of a specific world or by existing within a particular canon. Not only because I think it’s frankly an immoral thing to do, but because I also feel like it reduces and misunderstands that each individual’s relationship to the world or universe they hail from is going to multifaceted and unique. The opinions, feelings, and actions they have and connect now to their former (or parallel, or psychological, or etc.) home may not line up in any way with what non-fictionkin/fictives expect or assume. Somehow it seems like people cross the lines of “endorsement of” with “have an involuntary relationship with or connection to.”

For me, I interact largely with perspectives and memories of my home by creating fictional textbooks, memoirs, and similar in connection to and inspired by it, both to honor it and to reclaim the part of my life lived there. But that’s not how my systemmate Stormy (“Page”), who is a Mass Effect character interacts with the Mass Effect world and her memories, nor how my systemmate Noel interacts with her possible Temeraire-adjacent home and memories, which I feel just further illustrates the point I’m driving home here about the complexities of where one person might see themself in relation to their canon or canon-divergence. It gets even more complex in cases like Noel and I’s, where the worlds are suspiciously similar but due to factors of existing in wholly different time periods and regions than what is described within the canon, it’s impossible to know if they really are our canon. But if we lay any sort of claim or connection, even on the caveat that this is not based off absolute knowledge and is instead merely due to similarities and the usefulness of doing so within public spheres, we’re liable to get completely misunderstood and misinterpreted.

It’s an aggravating situation to be in, and not one I’m entirely sure of how to tackle outside of just jumping right in and navigating to the best of my ability, changing things as needed or useful or relevant.

[prettywarriors]

Ok ill bite whats the worst mg series

alright, whats the worst magical girl series in your opinion?

Thanks you two for letting me do some yelling. The obvious guess would likely be one of the recent edgelord shows right? Magical Girl Site or something similar? But nay I say, for while MGS and Day Break Illusion and such and what not generally tell you what to expect right away. Don't like super violence and suffering? Watch something else is the clear message from the get go. One of the bait and switch series then like Madoka or maybe Yuki Yuna? For what faults they may or may not have, at least these series do something and are interesting, even if you're not huge on what goes down in the series. A parody then? They range from affectionate to banned in New Zealand but regardless of quality and their feelings for MGs, it's a parody. It's a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously (plus they're usually short so you can just forget about them forever).

So what makes a series terrible then, I am sure you are asking. IMO? Setting expectations for an interesting and enjoyable series, and then dashing them to hell.

Come with me below the cut, as I talk about Key Princess Story: Kagihime Eternal Alice Rondo!

Spoilers abound so if you care about those for a 15 year old series, click away.

Background: Kagihime was a 4 volume manga that ran from 2004-2006 that was picked up for a 13 episode anime adaptation near the end of its run. The manga is created by a pair (Kaishaku) who you may know for making Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto. Kannazuki no Miko, and Steel Angel Kurumi, and the anime had a script written by the same writer (Mamiko Ikeda) for Tenshi Ni Narumon who also did some script writing for Princess Tutu and Seven of Seven. The anime also had 6 character music videos which are fairly simple but a nice addition to the series for the main girls. Discotek has been publishing the anime in the states in recent years, and the manga was brought over by *squints at book spine* Dr Master Publications.

The Premise: Girls transform and enter weird outside of reality spaces to fight each other with giant keys to take each other’s stories to create a third Alice In Wonderland story.

Well, an off-brand Alice story written by Alternate L. Takion, rather than Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson, that while the series uses all the aesthetic hallmarks of the tradition Alice, the little we see of the in universe Alice story is clearly different. Which is fine, at the end of the day, it’s still about someone who loves the Alice stories and wishes there was more, and even makes his own fanfiction version. His? Oh yeah, while the girls do all the fighting, the main character is Aruto, a teen boy who loves Alice, and for reasons we don’t know till late game, can enter the liminal spaces that the ‘Alice Users’ fight in. He chases a girl who looks like the Alice he sees in his story, who is named Arisu, and gets roped into this fanfic battle royale. He is also the older brother of the very needy Kirihara, who also ends up being and Alice User. As does Kirihara’s bff Kisa. To round out the group of enemies-turned-friends-who-will-work-together-to-collect-the-Eternal-Alice-without-having-to-fight-eachother group is a young genius researcher Kirika who wants to know more about Aruto’s connection that allows him to enter the spaces where the girls fight.

Then there’s all the other girls, some of whom still have real importance to the story and some who have a few panels or 2 scenes total. But with a whole bunch of girls to design, the creators reached out to a whole lot of other people to have them create designs! Eventually the battle gets down to the last few girls, there’s a confrontation with the guy running the whole thing, and while the anime and manga vary quite a bit the whole time, in both version Aruto ends up with Kirihara. Oh and Arisu was created by Aruto’s super imagination powers.  

The Promise: Here on is subjective, particularly with what I personally saw as potential from this series. because I need you to understand how much I want to like this series. 

~Alice in Wonderland themed: I know some people aren’t alice fans and that’s fine you do you but as a big alice fan this is great. We have a few alice episodes and themed characters amongst series like CCS and MGRP, and even Alice themes in other series like Tweeny Witches and Alice 19th. But damn it I am down for Alice series.

~Giant Keyyyyyyyys: Yeah yeah Kingdom Hearts but these keys are much more staff like for a lot of the characters which ads and air of elegance rather than the KH ones that for me at least feel well designed for big ol props rather than actual weapons. We also get...

~Weapon variety: It counts as a key if it’s a thorn whip that can be shaped like a key right? How about a giant pocket knife? Crossbows can also be keys. Hush. And we have this variety because

~Guest Artists: For magical girl series where we have a variety of outfits designed by different people, we have Kagihime, Uta~Kata, and uhh I guess Magia Record? But that’s a mobile game with a hella number of characters and with how mobile game works I wouldn’t count it just because it’s less the intent of the series to have variety and more the nature of having lots of girls. (Precure doesn’t count because unless I missed a memo each season’s set is still by one designer). If a series isn’t about a team and therefore doesn’t need cohesion, bringing in other artists is a great way for variety and new looks. 

~The long term goal: Fighting with other people who love the same piece of media you do in hopes of creating new material that will be viewed as official? That’s just fandom nowadays. But it’s a legitimate interesting concept, and opens up so many doors for a message for the series, be it ‘what you create is no less valuable than the canon work’ or ‘it’s hard to let go when something you love doesn’t have more to it but you can still love it for what it is’ or ‘bond with the people who like the thing you like ya idiot instead of fighting about it’. The concept is interesting and there are so many narrative ways you can take this.

~Gays: Between the anime and manga, we have at least 5 wlw. Is it a magical girl series without some gays? (side note- the manga had a short thing where the MC wears a girl’s uniform and is pretty comfortable in it and while there is no way this was the intent, between that and the emphasis on the stories that live in girls and how the fight zones have no men, I’m just saying, Trans girl Aruto.)

~Greater Fairy Tale Premise: We meet a Little Match Girl based MG who is obsessed with Andersen rather than the Alice books, and touch on a Sleeping Beauty character in the manga. The manga at least implies that classic stories and fairy tale authors uh. Live on in a liminal space as immortals with world warping powers within that world and there could be opportunities for other girls in the real world to fight for Little Mermaid 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The Good: Everything has positive points, no matter how bad it is.

~Character Designs: Some of those looks slap. As do most of their weapons. 

~Backgrounds: I have a strong opinion on backgrounds in anime that can be easily boiled down to old watercolor backgrounds good, modern filtered photos as background bad, and as a 2006 series, this might not be Memole nice but they’re quite attractive. 

~Splash Pages: Easily my favorite thing after the designs, each chapter’s title page for the manga just has a character standing in a setting. Which is not everyone’s thing I’m sure but it’s a nice simplistic way to let the characters breathe imo. Even if at least some of the settings were deffo traced. But that’s how backgrounds work to some extent? If I ever get to the Met again, I am tracking down this exact photo, but here is a likely candidate for an example.

~Different Versions: I do not understand the need to make an adaptation that tries to be a 1:1. Kagihime had the same ideas and characters and did some of the same beats but very much had a different finale story and a lot of changes in the middle (like the Alice cops in the manga). Again, not something everyone probably wants I’m sure, but I very appreciate this, especially since the Anime kept good pace with the number of Manga chapters (reading the manga again while watching the anime at 3.8x speed just now was very interesting to see the different interpretations of events in a different medium.)

The ‘Fine’: Yeah.

~Anime Visuals: Look 2006 was still early enough into digipaint that I will give it a total pass on these. The colors are too bright but in a very bland way, the lineart is nothing interesting, and the faces are. Iffy. But it’s not total garbage to look at (probably helped by backgrounds and character designs...) it just came out in an era where not enough people knew how to stylize things to account for the weakness of the tools of the time. (It was 4 years earlier but I feel Kagihime is the polar opposite of Chobits with its painfully bland color palette while still being just. Flat. Sorry for the drive by Chii.) 

~Music?: There sure were songs. Obviously, they are nothing to me.

The Bad: CW for.... somehow all the big things to an extent. 

~Fanservice: Look, I am fine with fanservice, especially for a series that’s, ya know, not targeted at kids, big Mai Hime fan here even if I would recommend skipping the panty thief episode. And honestly the series generally isn’t fanservicey, at least by the modern standards of having the camera choosing under the skirt rather than an over the shoulder shot like I’ve seen plenty in other shows. Even the sexier outfits like the rose whip dominatrix aren’t bad BUT. When the girls fight. One takes her phallic key and drives it into another girls chest between the boobs while the loser cries in pain and then her book comes out and when the victor rips out pages, the loser’s clothes also rip. It is very SuperS Amazon Trio assault metaphor-y. There’s also a bit of fanservice with the sister becauseeeee....

~Incest: If you read the premise up there, first wow good job because I’m sure not re-reading that, you might have noticed I said MC ends up with his sister. As someone who is a big mythology fan and watches plenty of anime, I have a decent tolerance for your obligatory ‘oh we’re siblings but actually cousins so our feelings are okay’ or whatever the fuck Citrus has going on I don’t know that series and I don’t vibe BUT. I have limits and boy did this series go beyond that because multiple episodes are dedicated to the sister being in love with the brother? And the brother returns her feelings but knows that they are wrong so he put everything he likes in his sister into his version of Alice who, of course, physically manifests as Arisu who he creates accidentally with his uh. Magic imagination powers. But again in both versions MC still ends up with his sister. Hey, at least the manga eventually said the boy was adopted when the sister was like, 3, so if nothing else no blood relations? The anime did not ad this. -_-

~Under Utilized Characters: Arisu’s gradual revelation that she has no childhood memories because she isn’t a real person is so interesting and they don’t do nothing with it but also? That’s the kind of thing I personally would love to dig into and Kagihime, while touching on this world shattering revelation, easily loops back to So Anyway She Should Fight For The Man and to hell with developing a life or personality outside of what has been written for her. The rest of the main 5 were 2 note characters which. Could be worse? The most interesting character ends up being the child genius who accidentally murdered her childhood bestie (and/or lover? depending on version) and her coming to terms with that (the friend is alive but the version changes how and why she thinks she’s dead). Then the villain has the motivation of ‘i lost my creativity and now have become an immortal living outside of normal space and am getting girls to fight each other because that’s like a story so I’m still relevant right?’. But shoutout to the anime for then taking death of the author literally. The numerous other girls are canon fodder outside of like. The manga version of the dead gf and the little match girl.

~Battle Royale: This is not a thing I have an issue with generally. Again, but Mai Hime fan, I need to read MGRP 11, BUT by not developing the non-main girls there is no emotional connection which makes them just canon fodder and that’s boring as sin for a royale system. The initial main character fights revolve so much around the MC guy being there that they fall flat, and the 2 or 3 final battles in both versions still feel without any stakes. Also for a royale thing most of the characters don’t actually die, which cool! Neat! Except when they do? Some nobodies and a somebody are murdered (at least in the manga) and the tone never feels like it’s supposed to be upping the stakes, it’s just. Some people are dead now. And do you want to guess which of the main characters died?

~Gays: Oh boy the best friend of the brother-complex sister is in love with her and (in the manga) dies. She does apparently get better for the last chapter but the death itself is only felt by the rest of the cast for a page or two before we go back to feeling sad big brother wants to kiss his mentally generated sister clone rather than his actual sister u_u. Bury your gays is nothing new, but I wonder if it was also intended to be justified because Guess Who Is Creepy and a bit Perverted? Oh look the lesbian keeps the used swimsuit of her beloved and manipulates events to get an indirect kiss and when she sees the sister trying to strange Arisu for a moment she decides to do it for the sister? It’s not good. You want bad gay rep in a magical girl series, well here ya go. We also had a nobody in the first(second?) episode whose story pages reveal her having a kiss with a girl, and then we also have the prodigy again and- in the manga- her. Uh. childhood lover who she thought she killed but the girl has been wiping her mind over and over so prodigy remembers ‘killing’ the friend and not the she’s alive so she can keep? fucking with her? Toxic!

~Sexual Content: But wait you say, you already covered fanservice! Ah but that is sexual content for titilation. This is sexual content for dramatic backstory! The red riding hood character was sexually assaulted, another character was manipulated into sex first as a teen and then more often to ‘get into the publishing industry’, and the same writer forces some aggressive kisses on the MC. None of it is gratuitous which is nice, but also, was it necessary? Not making a new point for this but read riding hood’s dog was also murdered so unnecessary animal death gets tossed on in there. 

~Male Lead: You can have a male, non magical character as the main character surrounded by magical girls. This is not how to do it. If I can make a vicious and hopefully not understood reference, Aruto is basically Tate from the Mai Hime Manga. If you understood that, I am so sorry. If you didn’t, congrats! Don’t read the manga. Or do and send me asks about the iconic final page of the first volume (18+). Anyway, this dude is boring, everything revolves around him, BUT I’ll be generous and say at least this isn’t a harem series? It looks like it out of context but it’s just a triangle with a fun attached scientist and token lesbian.

~Premise: They didn’t make good use of it. The initial goals of ‘take other girls pages from their soul books because if we get enough we unlock a third alice book’ is good! And then we add the twist that that was never going to happen and either if we get all the pages we can grant a wish, or these fights are just happening for the amusement of and asshole. Either way, yeah okay I guess. But at no point do we ever achieve this forbidden wish granting book and the asshole just. Lives. Nothing happens to him. His peers don’t even dunk on him. The only real changes from the beginning and the end of the series are: the siblings are now chill with dating, and the scientist lady won’t turn into a child in magical spaces. Oh. Yeah.

~Why did we make this adult a child sometimes?: I think we know why. Stop trying to get those types of folks to watch your already meh series. I also could have sworn at points in the past looking up images for this series I’ve seen extra art for Yuuri the Thumbelina-y Alice User that seemed like it would fit alongside anything by POP. You know, the Moetan guy. If you don’t know, god I wish that were me. 

Wrap Up: I have definitely forgotten some points and am well within my rights to ad to this whenever I remember more points but uh. Yeah.  

Listen you want an alice themed battle royale with nice outfits? Rozen maiden is right there. Battle Royale magical girl series that’s good with fanservice? Mai Hime. Series with different outfits while being based on a classic story? Pretear.

Hope anyone who read all of this at least got what I was saying, even if they don’t agree with it. And thanks for reading because whoops. 

[antiloreolympus]

4 Anti LO Asks

1. I can’t speak for actual trans people but I think a lot of people get terf-y vibes from LO because considering her conservative views on sexuality, gender roles, her use of racist and antisemitic tropes, and her ignorance about LGBT+ identities and struggles that it’d be weird for her NOT to be transphobic. Like she has all these bad views on everything but is researched on trans issues? Incredibly unlikely. She literally colored her leads down to stereotypical gendered colors, it’s safe to say she’d be smart to not bring up trans people in comic less she wants to go down the route of her spiritual predecessor, JK Rowling.

2. Just watch, Kronos will be taken care of because Persephone will grow super tall and use her OP fertility powers like a highlighter pink kaiju to put him back in his cell and everyone will love her and be proven wrong for ever doubting her but she still needs a little punishment which will be staying with her mom half the year but it’s ok because she’s the real hero only and gets to have sex with her sugar daddy half the year <3. It’s all stupid. God forbid the Olympians team up and use all their strengths to take a threat out, it will be her to make it happen and her alone. I hate it here.

3. What I don’t get is is there even class divides in actual mythology? Like Zeus and Hera are obviously on top and people follow their leads, but there’s no record of minor deities or nymphs being poor/lower class, is there? Like everyone seems to have sweet homes and chariots and want for nothing no matter who they are, it just seems the royal couples just go a bit more extra on it. If anything Olympus and other pantheons should be more utopian because of their lack of class divides and lack of a capitalist system unlike mortals, but instead RS does ... that 🤨.

4. The thing is you don’t need a set age to make a character relatable? There are so many Webtoons on featured and canvas where the lead character aren’t teenagers, yet the audience still finds them relatable and who they want to root for because they’re written with personalities and plots that people relate to, not because they’re the same age. It’s about writing them in a compelling way, not slapping a number on them. Even LO disproved that because hades isn’t a teenager yet people still find him relatable, or Eros, or Hera, or anyone else. Persephone would still have a legion of fans even if she was thousands of years old be used duh, she’s the claimed lead character, people tend to root for them no matter what. Rachel purposely making her as young as possible was clearly her working through her kinks and she can’t handle everyone can see right through her hamfisted excuses. She made a stupid writing choice thinking no one would notice/care, and now she can’t write herself out of it because it’s only one part of a long list of stupid writing choices she made that people will and should criticize, which we all know she can’t handle. Play dumb games, win dumb prizes.