#like it was very in character for him. he’s a whole complicated mess of identity and strength

[lavenderjewels]

feel so validated it was confirmed gojo killed the higher ups because I loved the page turner shock in chapter 223 of seeing the higher ups slaughtered after Gojo lightly talking to Gakuganji

[stickdoodlefriend]

Considering how 911 has forgiven every terrible parent of the main characters, not forgiving Eddie who has devoted his entire life to Christopher since he was born would be absolutely ridiculous. Like Buck's whole speech to Chris on why to forgive Eddie is him forgiving his own parents who drove him to self-harm to gain attention? Which is way worse than what Eddie did. We've been told time and time again how much Eddie's parents messed him up in canon, and now suddenly they are the more 'stable' choice to parent a kid?

Another point if we continue with Eddie losing Chris is it would reinforce the very harmful lie that Eddie thinks: he cannot have joy, forgiveness, and identity outside of his son.

The blowout with Kim only happens once Eddie tries to find closure with Shannon in a very messed up form on non-consensual therapy. Eddie recognized what he was doing wrong and tried putting a stop to it. He was not going to go to Kim again after telling her about Shannon. But once he finds some sort of closure, he is punished harshly by his son walking in and then walking out of his life, making his worst nightmare come true.

He finds forgiveness with the help of the priest and joy in a very very long time? The newest clip seems to punish him immediately with now Chris might not even come back.

CHRIS'S POV

Even from Chris's POV, it doesn't make sense that somehow both the Diaz grandparents suddenly gained emotional intelligence and maturity to raise Chris in a healthy environment to get over his trauma when they couldn't do that for more than 30 years?! Chris is avoiding, I doubt he is getting therapy there to deal with it. It was traumatic and he is valid for being mad but staying mad is hurting him. Eddie's whole arc and issue stem from the toxic masculinity that he needed to unlearn which makes him the king of repression. You know who caused a silly goofy man (Eddie at his core is very silly and is forced to be serious) to repress? His parents who are now somehow better options to deal with Chris's complicated emotions?

They think Chris loves the water, but they don't know the enormous work Eddie did to help Chris get over the tsunami. Chris breaks down during COVID because he misses Carla and his friends which dredges up his abandonment issues? They don't know that it was Buck who supported him through it and how Eddie adjusted his relationship with Ana to make him more comfortable. They don't know that Eddie quit the job he loved so Chris wouldn't be scared of losing him. They don't know how scared Chris was when Eddie got shot. We often focus on how Buck broke down and how Chris hugs him but Chris is breaking down with him together.

THE WILL (DISREGARDING ROMANCE)

Eddie's not stupid. He didn't put Buck instead of his parents in his will out of spite. Because really when it comes down to it, Buck was the best option for the will in canon. In the very beginning, we were told Tia Pepa and Abuela can't take care of Chris full time (thus, Carla). But Carla is paid for her job, she won't be on the will. Eddie has no other family in LA and we don't know how his situation is with his sisters. However, considering canon implies then to be younger (thus his parentification), Eddie would consider them too young (subjective) to raise his son. None of the 118 is as involved with Chris as Buck is. In fact, a big reason is the fact that is that Buck allows the Diaz boys a safe space which Eddie was not allowed to have growing up.

Buck has respected Chris's autonomy (admires it even- canon from s2), supports and listens to him without making him feel bad, expresses his emotions and finds ways to support him (like finding equine therapy, accessible skateboard) and respects his decision even if he doesn't like it (going to Texas). And I'm not saying because of Buddie or anything. Even if they remain platonic co-parents (co-parenting as described by Oliver Stark and Ryan Guzman), they serve as parallels to things Eddie wouldn't have gotten from his parents if he was in Chris's position.

Eddie was forced to manage his mother's emotions while his father was absent. Chris has a dead/absent mother but never has he had to manage Eddie's emotions. When Eddie has a mental breakdown, he calls Buck and is told to focus on his own healing (equine therapy). Time and time again, Eddie has said that his problems are not on Chris to help.

When Chris wakes up crying from a nightmare about the tsunami, Eddie gets him help and never criticizes him. What do you think happened when Eddie would wake up from his own nightmares after being discharged from the army? He was living with his parents, Shanon and baby Chris, there's no way his parents didn't know about it. We have proof in canon that Eddie never received any help and Shannon was at the end of her rope until she abandoned him. All his parents did was fight him for custody and applaud him for almost dying (aka silver star).

POSSIBLE FIX

One way to maybe fix this is by working with the theme of Eddie reclaiming his agency. If he goes to Texas to fight for his son, to have that communication, group therapy even, letting Chris know he is working on making himself better and that Chris needs to confront his issues and how running away and not feeling with grief is how the Kim situation happened in the first place.

Or, I understand that Gavin McHugh might want to take a break and return to the show except a few scenes. We can give him the Denny or May Grant treatment, where they are there but we don't see them anymore, just referenced. Like have a video call saying he wants to come back, show Eddie ecstatic and ready to hug someone at the airport, fade to black, and next time we can have Eddie on cloud nine but also scared of losing Chris again.

TLDR; It's unfair to punish Eddie when every main character's terrible parent has been forgiven and reinforces the idea that he isn't allowed to have joy, forgiveness and identity outside of Chris. Keeping Chris with his parents implies they are a better choice when they're the reason Eddie has these issues. There are better ways to handle the situation while minimizing Gavin's screen time.

[wildestheart4ever]

Browsing through someone’s Jason Todd tag and can literally feel myself getting bummed out by his life/existence as a character

At this point, I don’t care if I’m appreciating this seemingly forever doomed character incorrectly, I’m clinging to happy/silly notions and also - I’m giving him the joy of having a friend/love interest that will never turn their back on him no matter what self destructive tendencies he has towards any relationship in his life

This friend is going to stick to him like a barnacle

That unfortunate isolation of his Robin days? She will walk to the manor on foot if she has to, the character besmirching from his family? She doesn’t like them anyway and will slap whatever idiot has the gall to say that shit to her face

Is she extremely loyal to her detriment? Has some sort of separation anxiety?? Maybe, but what’s a good character without some kind of flaw

Let him be possessive in that she is the one person that he got to keep in his life and is his alone, who is explicitly loyal to him and not Batman - her loyalty and affection isn’t determined by the line of morality he follows

She’ll follow him to hell if he asked type of thing

Anyone who remembers or paid attention to my past attempts of oc sharing, you’d know her as Vanessa Agustin [Forgot the original last name I gave her oops]

Now including character info:

Jason was the first to grow a crush. It was hopeless, there was dramatic pining ala romantic period drama novel - it was adorable. Bruce was genuinely worried he couldn’t keep their vigilant identities secret ‘cause Robin always wound up a blushing flustered mess whenever she came into the picture - he was very relieved when Robin calmed down after a while

It becomes a whole complicated will-they-won’t-they thing ala unfortunate Jason vs Robin [This is far more innocent than his concerns about his place in Bruce’s life as Robin] before she started getting suspicious about the shared identity

Vanessa started getting a crush much later…..unfortunately shortly before Jason’s relationship with Bruce started to grow strained.

There’s a whole scene in my where Robin is brooding on the rooftop of his old apartment building. Conversations are had, her tentative confirmation of his identity and fear of him running away grew, and in a attempt to get him to stick around, she kissed him

It’s a very desperate/hopeless situation

Her family took what money they had and moved after Jason’s death, looking to get her professional help after a depression spiral

She has a younger sister named Naomi

She moved back to Gotham and lived with her uncle before graduating.

Studies online

Subsequently started looking for trouble and fights to get into. Few of the Bats got involved a few times before it was Dick that clocked who she was

Tried inviting her over, you know, in a attempt to friendliness and catching up

She did not vibe with the manor’s current state of erasing any reminders of Jason

Definitely did not vibe with Bruce and his current…..Bruce-ness

She still remembers their last interaction in which she verbally flipped out on him and blamed him for everything at Jason’s funeral

And the unwanted visit to her room she got where he basically threatened her to keep her silence [Mind you, she only had an inkling of their secret] - just the idea of this spiraling grown man waiting for her 15 year old ass while her sister was sleeping on the top bunk still burns at her mind is a level of discomfort I wanted to add on top of Bruce’s violent/angry/suicidal behavior

She probably thought he was threatening her family’s livelihood or something - whether it was true or not will remains unclear to her

Gets into vigilantism. Sorry, no wild curls flowing free in the wind for her, she’s keeping her mane in a tight braid where it won’t become a nuisance. I’m basically giving her Jason’s hoodie/vest, muzzled face combo….. and brass knuckles

[I got the scene of Bucky Barnes whipping someone in the face with a heavy chain link stuck in my head and thought ‘Yes, this is her method: Grab a heavy object and beat someone with it’]

Vibes with Stephanie, her opinion of the Bats lessens even further with their shitty treatment of her and tries protecting Stephanie from the resulting short lived Robin tenure fallout

Jason coming back includes him basically stalking her to see how she was doing, grows very confused to find her living with her uncle [He’ll look into the family situation later] and just……sits on that rooftop across from her building and stares at her

It’s giving very reminiscing of an old crush curiosity, is it still there or is it not? He doesn’t give it further thought

This is a purely self indulgent scenario: She looks for him after his Joker/Batman confrontation. Them in her flimsy excuse of a safe house, her desperately cleaning away the bloody wound of his throat, anxiously reciting prayers - cut to scene of her quietly watching him let out his frustration and humiliation on her sad measly furniture.

Whether she pulls him into a hug or trying to help him come down from that breakdown is still up to consideration of whether or not Jason is the type to allow that kind of thing in this point of his life [Further pointers to his character are appreciated]

Can she say anything? Will her attempts to comfort him be met with animosity?? After all, what’s her affirmations of her continued friendship in the face of his father’s rejection?

Idk what he got up to after that confrontation, I assume he kept his head down and quietly continued with his business

[redandrew52]

ghost council lore master post

I try to not do as much non-art related stuff on this blog but this is related to what I make and I have gotten some questions so I just decided to create a master post. It is just bullet points for important parts of each character & if you have any more specific questions or feedback feel free to hit up my asks

you can find artwork of them here

also trigger warning for talking about death/mention of suicide

Hibiki Ishii - 142 - No.1 of the Ghost Council

secret death circumstances (but he says he was assassinated since he worked for the Japanese military, none of the others can confirm it to be true though)

Chinese, but abandoned then brought to Japan and renamed Hibiki 

Worked as a low rank military officer for the Japanese government 

As No. 1 of the ghost council he’s supposed to be the leader and he’s also in charge of the lower level ghosts who manage incoming ghosts, which he’s good at that part not really the whole leading thing

Loves to mess with people, even if it mentally destructive 

Rather childish, acts with a lot of mystery 

Knows his stuff but nobody thinks he does because of how he acts 

always smiling (like genuinely- you will not catch him frowning even a little bit)

he/him

Eloise Bolton - 116 - No. 2 of the Ghost Council 

Died in a boat crash and drowned 

English 

Her job in the ghost council is literally just helping other people stay on task…basically (like she's the ultimate assistant) 

She also does like miscellaneous tasks (AKA sewing peoples council clothes and stuff)

Very prim and proper and enjoys being fancy

Kinda naïve

Thinks Jökull is really cool but has no courage to talk with him outside of council matters

she/her

Reece Raymond - 26 -  No. 3 of the Ghost Council

He was pulled into gang stuff when his parents died because he was forced to live with his aunt and uncle, and he didn’t enjoy it but he couldn’t really get out of it since he was young

Died protecting his gf, shot in the eye because of a gang conflict

Born in Botswana, but when his parents died he moved to the U.S. to live with his aunt and uncle

Goes by Raymond because he likes it better

Only been on the ghost council for a year

His job is basically just like a protector, keeps away bad spirits, makes sure there are no issues in other parts of the ghost realm, stuff like that

He’s mysterious in a different way than Hibiki

Pretty chill, but if you piss him off you piss him off

Questions people heavily 

The amount of people who think he’s a girl is most people but I’m here to inform you he is a cis male (he/him)

Besties with Sophia Torres 

Sun Chung-Ae - 28 - No. 4 of the Ghost Council

Died of suicide (hung herself) at 13 

Was heavily taken advantage of online by pedophiles

When she died, her incoming ghost shaperon guy (I haven’t named them yet) was hijacked by an evil spirit, so she was taken to this high ranking evil spirit (also does not have a name yet) who lives in a barely visited part of the ghost realm and offered her a deal, he takes her eye in exchange for changing her appearance and personality completely 

She accepted, but another term she had to except is that her secret identity was bound to Hibiki (because let's just say he’s also made some deals with this dude) so if anything goes wrong with him, jigs up

Her job is managing the citizens of the ghost realm and making sure everyone has what they needs for a good afterlife 

South Korean

Friends with basically everyone 

Super chipper and outgoing 

Likes to help Eloise by designing clothes for her to make with Taro

she/her

Yrjö Bylund - 38 - No. 5 of the Ghost Council

Born with a slew of medical problems which caused more to develop as he aged, more notably he had non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, epilepsy and muscular dystrophy

Died due to complications at 20

Finnish

Job on the council is to help with council issues (like conflicts)

Very chill and reasonable

Not necessarily shy but he is hesitant 

Enjoys helping people if they need help

Besties with Hibiki (strange combo, ik)

When he was alive his arm and upper body strength was really poor due to the muscular dystrophy but since he has died it doesn’t affect him as much 

he/him

Jaya Kaur - 54 - No. 6 of the Ghost Council

Was stabbed on her way home from the market one day for no apparent reason 

Has 4 kids and a husband, they’re all still alive

Half Lebanese half Malaysian, lived in Malaysia 

Basically took over Hibiki’s job of being head of the council; she doesn’t have all the special No.1 perks but she gets shit done

Motherly and wise 

All the other council members are kind of like her children in her mind 

she/her

Taro Ikeda - 36 - No.7 of the Ghost Council

Shot in the head by their crazy ex

Japanese 

Was a great runner and made a lot of jewelry n stuff

Has two younger siblings, a sister (Kozue) and a brother (Aoki), who they loved very dearly 

When they came out to their parents they didn’t really get it but still decided to be supportive of them changing their name and appearance and such (they didn’t really like the piercings though)

High pain tolerance 

Main job on the council is literally just miscellaneous tasks 

Has a really poor relationship with Hibiki because he would always make fun and prank them 

Had a complete attitude change after death, very stern, snarky, and untrusting, but tends to get along with most members well 

Loves Yrjö a lot (possible love triangle situation between hibiki, yrjö and taro…)

they/them

Sophia Torres - 25 - No.8 of the Ghost Council

Stabbed by her stalker 

Worked as a bartender 

Mexican 

Does basically the same thing as Raymond 

Newest council member (less than a year)

Did I already mention Raymond and Sophia are besties? Well Raymond and Sophia are besties (higher powers knew they’d be unstoppable if they knew each other while alive)

Sophia ain’t taking shit from NOBODY

Daredevil of great proportion

A girls girl 

Not afraid to speak her mind 

Loves long nails 

she/her 

Santiago Franco - 94 - No.9 of the Ghost Council

Died of heart failure, struggled with heart disease his whole life

Lived in a small town in Peru where he was the local mailman 

Everybody in his village knew him, so when he seemingly disappeared they went to check on him and found him dead in his writing room 

Non-verbal 

Peruvian

Enjoys writing and reading in his free time

Carrying into death, he is the council mailman as well as the one who takes notes on their council meetings 

Very shy but nice

Jökull is (almost suspiciously) very friendly with him

he/him 

Jökull Arason - 64 - No.10 of the Ghost Council 

Cause of death is unknown 

barber & farmer in a small village

Icelandic

Is in charge of public speaking and general speaking tasks

Hates Hibiki more than Taro, Raymond and Sophia combined 

Dresses very proper 

Is nice to pretty much everybody else but does speak with a tone of superiority 

Sarcasm lover 

Sassy as hell

he/him 

[ac-liveblogs]

I was thinking about Dan Heng again (bc I always do whenever Kyogre updates me on HSR) and thinking about Dan Feng's sin and like, on how the whole thing regarding him trying to resurrect his dead friend seems to have turned into this big, long, convoluted lore mystery instead of a real compelling character arc for him...

I realised (despite it nagging at me for ages) that I never mentioned it here - but I always felt its kind of a shame that it turned into an abstract complicated mess. Because in looking backwards at 'the mystery of Dan Feng' so much and failing to think much about Dan Heng now, HYV really missed the opportunity for a very interesting character trait they could've given Dan Heng.

If Dan Feng's sin really had been, as originally speculated before XL launched, to make Blade immortal because he couldn't bear the thought of outliving his best friend... well, he succeeded. He got what he wanted. Selfishly, not thinking of the consequences, he did that, on purpose, to someone he cares about. It wouldn't have been an accident. Rather than restoring a life taken too soon, Dan Feng - full knowing the consequences - chose to extend one that didn't last as long as he wanted it to.

Dan Heng is that same soul. Dan Heng, despite being hunted by Blade and eventually learning how horrific what Dan Feng did to him was, might still understand Dan Feng's feelings. He's a long life species and the Astral Express is full of people who aren't. The Trailblazer has SPACE CANCER in their chest, damn!

Isn't he anxious? Wouldn't he get scared about outliving them the closer he gets to them? Wouldn't he later become more scared about what he might become tempted to do to them to avoid that? Wouldn't that, as Dan Heng's friend, lead to some concerns? That's something everyone would have to seriously grapple with, and a fear that Dan Heng would have to overcome (where his predecessor failed).

Would he pull away? Does he trust himself? Is he so sure he and Dan Feng are different enough he can resist the temptation? Even Dan Feng knew it was a bad idea. And their spearmanship is identical.

It'd give Blade more of a presence too - not just Dan Heng's past haunting him but a potential horrific future for everyone he cares about. (Blade is just... so underutilised in the XL storyline, I'm kind of embarrassed for him. It really felt like HSR was more interested in talking about DF's past than the actual situation between DH and Blade now. I really don't care about mats - HSR has the time and budget to actually show that conflict in a meaningful way, and decided not to.)

I dunno. It's kind of a shame they didn't go with the much simpler storyline. I feel it being on purpose opens more interesting doors than what actually happened, and makes Dan Heng's conflict about his connection to Dan Feng feel a lot more urgent, if he's afraid of repeating his mistakes.

ADDENDUM: This also just fits with the XL's storyline regarding immortality more coherently than the resurrection and the accidental consequences that resulted. You spend a lot of time learning about the Alliance's views on the Abundance, directly through the lens of immortality (and a subplot of someone trying to inflict it on the Trailblazer!)

Learning that part of Dan Heng once tried to do that to someone he cared about is a lot more directly relevant to the story you're already part of.

[asbestos-11]

on the note of prev, i'm not too keen on tmasc aven hcs cuz they kinda rub me the wrong way?? idk what it is about it but i just inherently don't like them.

now as for amab nb aventurine, i'll gobble that shit up no problem. like something about being beyond gender itself with a body that's masculine and feminine at the same time. mmmm delicious (idk amab nb aven fills me with a lot of gender euphoria)

that being said i think certain characters make so much more sense when looked through the lense of "oh yeah they're trans".

like to me blade and firefly are both trans, wherein both have a complicated relationship with their real self and the body they inhabit/ the monstrosity they seem to hold themselves as. blade shedding his previous life and identity by literally dying is so not cis of him and the ensuing dilemma of hating the body given to him and the immortality that came with it, is just so &#&*$!&!&

firefly when i untangle the mess in my brain over how you're so gender, oh how i will get to you (gotta re read the scene where she speaks to tb at dreams edge). but firefly being a tiny cute girl in a big huge mech is something that is incredibly gender and her whole thing where iirc she's wasting away in the real world, idk man not very cis. god hyv release her from the basement already i need to explode.

on that note i think ratio being trans adds to his chracter. man made genius, man made man or something. thinking about him building himself up from nothing into the person he is today (big muscly trans men give me that gender euphoria and yk what good for big muscly trans men for beating gender itself at it's own game).

also march transfemme real and you can't convince me otherwise, i mean she's literally colored like the trans flag, what's more obvious than that???

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Okay, the thing is that I’ve seen some people speculate about the Winter King’s backstory and past assuming, like, that he’s always kinda been Like That. Like, that this version of Simon Petrikov has always been an evil heartless bastard or at least just a little less caring and loving than Mainworld Simon and that’s what led him down the path of the Winter King. 

But speaking personally… I think this is a less compelling story as it relates to Simon’s character arc. I think it’s a lot more interesting if the Winter King was indeed ‘once just like’ Mainverse Simon.

That he used to be that selfless, dedicated and loving man - and he still managed to stoop this low. I mean, well, Simon seems to have come to the conclusion that this version of him was just ‘messed up’

and that was mostly part of a trend of him in these last two episodes just kinda going

You know, like, I don’t think that the lesson he should’ve learned from his adventures in Winterworld is just “wow, that one specific alternative version of me sure does suck!”. Farmworld, via its version of Finn, was a reminder for Simon of just how much of a traumatic experience the Curse of the Magic Crown is. Winterworld should’ve reminded him of the torment and indignity he was trapped in and how often he was a danger to himself and others 

And of the truly fucked-up and terrible things he was capable of doing due to that torment and desperation of the Curse.

The Winter King is like a Whole New Exciting Way for Simon to lose his identity due to the Magic Crown, preserving his mind and memory by destroying the love and dedication and care that the Magic Crown never quite managed to fully burn away - his actual ‘immutable essence’. And this doesn’t work if the Winter King was always just Intrinsically a significantly different and worse person than Mainworld Simon, y’know?

And remember, we know the Winter King was in full on Ice King mode when he ‘conquered the crown’ (AKA cast that terrible spell to condemn Princess Bubblegum to the same terrible fate he’s been suffering). 

And Mainverse Ice King was absolutely capable of trying to perform some fucked-up mind-altering spells of his own. 

The only thing is that he was never quite that successful.

The main thing I am still unsure of with my favored reading/interpretation of how Winterworld Simon became the Winter King is…. There’s like, two different mutually-exclusive readings of what happened after the Curse was cast on Peebles and Simon regained his lucidity that are both very appealing to me from a thematic perspective. And I’m really not sure which one I like best.

Because the real issue was never ‘would Ice King be willing to cast such a horrible immoral spell?’, especially as one could easily imagine that whatever lucidity would allow Ice King to understand how his Crown is harming him and devise such a complicated spell would not necessarily extend to enough lucidity to fully understand the consequences of his actions. The issue is Winterworld Simon Petrikov, having regained his clarity of mind, choosing to maintain this spell for a hundred years. There's a reason why that's the thing Mainverse Simon fixated on when he figured out what's going on.

My first thought (and that’s something I went into more detail in a previous post) was this: Ice King’s madness was never wholly separated from Simon’s personality. Like, yeah, it was the Crown’s Magic that drove him so Mad and Sad - but it was also the trauma of losing Betty and surviving through the Mushroom War and feeling forced to abandon his beloved Marceline. 

And that Madness was based on Simon’s psyche. Ice King’s loneliness and romantic obsession and Princess-nappings are all based on how much he loves and misses Betty

And now, Princess Bubblegum has been forced into a mirrored recreation of them. 

The Candy Queen isn’t suffering from just the Magic Crown’s madness in general - but specifically from how it was shaped by Simon’s heart. And since you can’t actually separate this manifestation of Ice King’s Madness from Simon’s love for Betty - the Winter King ridding himself of one also rid himself of the other. 

And since so much of Ice King’s Madness was interwoven into Simon’s psyche and especially his love and his kindness - throwing away all of this Madness into someone else also decimated these aspects of his personality. Princess Bubblegum already paid the ultimate price for Winterworld Simon’s sanity - but in a way he also paid a grave cost as well; becoming an unrecognizably different person he would previously find morally disgusting - even morso than Ice King.

Because the lines between Simon Petrikov and Ice King are always going to be a bit blurry and messy, and because Simon can’t probably live a life totally free of his Madness and Sadness but he’s gonna have to accept it for an actual mostly happy and sane life as someone who is recognizably Simon Petrikov. 

Buuuut… that still basically means that casting of that Curse just kinda irrevocably transformed him into a Heartless Bastard. And that’s maybe not as compelling as if this change from kind and dorky Simon Petrikov into Evil Brian David Gilbert was done of his own free will

Hundreds of years of the Magic Crown eating away at his sanity and memories couldn’t truly destroy Simon Petrikov’s ‘immutable essence’. He still missed Betty more than anything even as this longing was twisted into something horrible, and still loved Marceline like a daughter even if he didn’t understand it. The one thing that could truly destroy this love that is so core to Simon’s being is him choosing to become selfish and cruel and uncaring. 

And since he was in Full Ice King Mode when he cast the spell… I dunno if I can actually call it a fully-conscious act of cruelty. Deeply fucked up? Yes. But it’s hard to say how much Winterworld Ice King actually understood what he was doing. And while I think it’s much more emotionally compelling if the Winter King started from the same place as our beloved Mainworld Simon. The only difference can’t just be the pure luck that Mainworld Ice King was just never lucid or focused enough to successfully cast a spell that would transform him into an equally terrible person. 

For this angle to work, this decision to continue doing the bad thing has to come from a lucid Simon who is still kinda recognizably Simon and still chose to continue perpetuating the Curse Ice King cast on Princess Bubblegum.

This might seem unthinkable, especially considering how obviously disgusted Mainworld Simon was at the Winter King’s actions. But you have to consider just how much Winterworld Simon would be desperate to not be Ice King again, Mainworld Simon was once willing to die then live the rest of eternity as IK. The fact that he’s so willing to throw away his sanity again now is so worrying because it shows just how badly he’s being doing - because at first, Simon was fighting so badly to avoid diving back into this pit of madness. And that Spell must've seen like the only chance he was gonna get.

And, yes, Simon Petrikov is a character full of kindness and love and selflessness - but that never meant he was the sort of Cinnamon Roll incapable of ever hurting anymore and especially not when he’s desperate or lashing out. That’s kinda the fallacy Simon himself fell into when he had that total identity crisis in the second episode. He just couldn’t find a way to join his previous identity as the patient and fatherly man who took care of Marceline 

With the fact he made a little girl cry. 

But yes, both we the audience and Simon himself have to face the fact that despite possessing such strong fatherly instinct and a desire to help children - Simon can also lash out in his trauma in a very cruel manner that goes against all of his own values.

And by the end of the fourth episode, he was tempted to let himself die - even though that will also utterly destroy a whole universe of sapient beings living in his head. It was brief thanks to Fionna knocking some sense into him and obviously the Literal Suicidal Depression involved was also seriously clouding his judgement. But that is still Simon nearly dooming a whole realm of other people  because he was feeling absolutely desperate.

Not to mention him kidnapping someone and forcing him into a terrible experiment for the sake of trying to summon GOLBetty.

A desperate attempt to reconnect with his lost love (and in a way, a missing part of his identity as Betty Grof’s other half). Which I mean, yeah, ‘it’s just Choose Goose’, but also last time GOLB was summoned it nearly fucked up all of Ooo and the only thing GOLBetty could do about that is get herself as far away from Simon as she can. And now Simon is gonna try and summon his Eldritch GF again in the middle of a major population center.  

And of course, Winterworld Simon and Mainworld Simon are never going to be fully exactly the same person because ‘Simon Petrikov’ is not some immutable unchanging concept and we know that they’ve had different experiences. It was really so sweet to see Mainverse Simon pay forwards the kindness he’s gotten from his loved ones when he was stuck as the Ice King towards the Candy Queen

But it also reminded me that the Winter King himself never got that sort of kindness and grace in the first place. The Curse was cast one hundred years ago. Back then, Marceline was still avoiding him because she couldn’t stand to see what he had become, Finn and Jake were not his friends on account of neither of them being born yet and… they also directly or indirectly helped him get his entire rest circle of friends.

So Mainworld Simon emerged from an Ice King who was not absolutely free from misery and loneliness… but has also experienced happiness and friends both from people who just loved him for who he was at the moment 

And grace and kindness from those concerned for his condition and honestly doing their best to make sure he’s doing his best in his current state and trying to bring out whatever of Simon was left in him. 

While Winterworld Simon emerged from Ice King at his worst and his most miserable. 

And while the Winter King’s callousness about Betty would kinda always be a worrying testament to how much Simonness he has lost - it is extra disturbing for the viewers and Mainworld Simon because they have seen Betty sacrifice her entire being for his sake. That would just reinforce his own love and dedication to her in his mind… not always in the healthiest of ways.

But the Winter King has experienced nothing of that sort. He was not freed in a self-sacrifice fueled by love that literally defied time itself. Wintdrworld Simon only regained his lucidity because of a deeply fucked up and selfish action he has taken as the Ice King. And as far as he knew, that was his only choice except death or the eternal despair of being the Ice King.

And so maybe Winterworld Simon managed to convince himself that he can stay like this for just one day. Just one day of enjoying both lucidity and Magic and then he’s going to undo it because obviously he knows that it’s terrible what the Ice King did! I mean, yeah, Princess Bubblegum and the rest of the Candy Kingdom are suffering but they’re also going to suffer when the Ice King comes back so it’s really a lateral move for them. For just one day!

And then by the next day, Winterworld Simon finds one more excuse why he can wait until tomorrow to bring everything back to normal. And day by day it becomes just a little bit easier to justify perpetuating something so terrible. Day by day he gives up a little bit more of his morals and his selflessness and his love. Until he finally finds out that he just doesn’t care anymore about being a selfish heartless bastard.

The same way the Magic Crown took his sanity and identity gradually - he’s now so desperate to cling to them that he chose to tear away at what was once the core most parts of himself

Until he became just as unrecognizable.

Both of these ideas are really compelling to me but they’re also kinda opposite. Maybe there’s a way to balance them both in a way that preserves what makes them so interesting for Simon’s character in the first place??

[ciaossu-imagines]

Could you do answer the questions to prompt seven for HOMRA?

C

Of course I can! Thank you so much for the request and I hope you’ll enjoy the headcanons 😊

Send me a fandom and I will name a character… 

Who I will protect at all costs

Okay, but I think I’ve answered this enough so that everyone knows my answer here. It’s Eric, for all the reasons I’ve already stated when talking about him previously – I just connect with him hard and want so much good for him.

Who deserves better

It’s really hard to narrow this down. All of HOMRA are, to some extent, underdogs. They’ve all had some real hard bumps and experiences in their life that they just didn’t deserve. Mikoto didn’t ask to be the next Red King, he has troubles connecting with others, he feels alone in a lot of ways. Totsuka was physically weaker than others and I think it’s shown that he was kind of bullied a little or maybe that’s just so ingrained in my personal headcanons before he got in with Mikoto and Kusanagi. Kusanagi puts a lot of pressure on his own shoulders and he often gets involved in a lot of shit because he loves his friends but I also see him as not really fitting here because he’s the most well-adjusted, in my mind. Anna’s past is tragic. Yata has his whole complicated thing with struggling to find a place for him and Fushimi to belong, then the whole friendship deteriorating with Fushimi. Kamamoto was bullied because he was the fat kid and is still bullied about that, especially by Yata. Shouhei struggled, I think, in middle and high school to find his identity, fell in with a bad crowd, and on top of that, he can be too selfless for his own good, which I do think leaves him a little vulnerable to cleaning up other people’s messes for them. Bandou has that wicked inferiority complex. Chitose has the whole thing with his ex-girlfriend. Dewa has Chitose. Eric’s whole past is tragic. Fuji is the only other one, besides Kusanagi, that I don’t really see fitting here but even then, he’s not really very ambitious, didn’t do well in school, and a lot of people look down on him. In their own ways, all of them deserved a little better but I really wouldn’t have wanted them to have got better because then we wouldn’t have gotten the amazing characters we did get.

Who was killed off too early

Hmm, I wonder what my answer is going to be here? It’s not like there was a character who, when the anime came out, was introduced posthumously. Not at all…sarcasm aside, of fucking course it’s Totsuka. We really only get properly introduced to who he is as a person, his bonds with the others, how he acted and what his life was like in the additional material that came out either alongside or after the anime. I really would have liked to see, before the anime’s first season came out, MOR and DOB come out as teasers, even Lost Small World and Stray Dog. Make each chapter into a half-length episode, 10-15 minutes a piece and introduce us to the character’s and groups properly. Get us interested with and attached to these characters before the reveal of Totsuka’s death and then move us into the first season proper. To me, it would have been a smarter and more effective method of story telling and probably would have made the show into something that really would have become very much a cult classic favourite, especially if the animation budget was kind of boosted just a little bit.

Who I used to hate but now I love

There wasn’t really any members of HOMRA that I really plain out hated from the offset or something, but I was largely neutral about the ABC boys when I watched the first season. They didn’t stick out in my head and I wasn’t as in love with them as I am now. It was only after reading MOR that they all became my absolute favourites within HOMRA.

Who I used to love but now I hate

I think I’ve mentioned this before but Mikoto was my absolute favourite in the first couple episodes. My lord, he was hot, his power was cool, I loved his voice, everything about him was amazing. He was my favourite HOMRA member and I was all in on him. While I still really enjoy him, quite a bit in fact, he’s no longer my favourite HOMRA member. In fact, he’s pretty far down on the list, though I should clarify that I like every single member of HOMRA.

Who needs to be killed off asap

I really don’t think HOMRA needs any more of its members to die. I think they’ve experienced enough of that, thank you.

Who is unfairly hated

KAMAMOTO!!!! I practice Kamamoto love on this blog and hope it spreads much further and much more pronounced within the fandom. I think that, because he doesn’t fit the stereotype the other boys do – bishie, badass anime boy – he just isn’t as seen and appreciated. He’s fat (because he likes to be), he sports facial hair, he has a horrible sense of style, but he’s still this fantastic character – he’s supportive, loyal, he can have genuinely funny moments, he’s generous, he’s true to himself – and I personally don’t think he’s all that physically unattractive…well, besides the, like I said, AWFUL fashion sense.

Who is unfairly loved

I won’t say it’s completely unfair. I see the appeal of the character, though he has never ever been among my favourites but I do think that Yata fits the best here. I’m taking not only the fandom in mind here but also thinks this applies within the show itself. Even forgetting the other supporting characters, like the ABC boys and Kamamoto, Yata gets such a huge emphasis in the show that I find there are definitely points within the story where it feels like the author’s have decided it’s not K PROJECT anymore but instead it’s the Yata story. He eclipsed, at points, the characters who were supposed to be the main focus, like Mikoto. Within fandom, I think a large part of why he’s so loved lies within the ship of him and Fushimi and yeah, I get the appeal of the characters and the ship, I get the appeal of Yata as a character for those who have OCs or self-ships for him, but I just think he’s kind of overrated.

Who needs to sort out their priorities

The writers? The creators? I know that’s outside of the scope of HOMRA though, so trying to focus on just that group. When I do that, I really can’t come up with an answer though. Part of what I love about this group is that they don’t always focus on the right things, they’re messy, they get into trouble, they don’t have their shit all straightened out. There’s a couple exceptions, of course, but a large part of the appeal of HOMRA, to me, is that they feel real and most real people don’t have their priorities completely straightened out all of the time.

Who needs a hug

Every single damn one of them? HOMRA did not have a good time of it in any of the canon materials. Even in MOR, we see so many moments that are rough on them. These boys, every single one of them, needs a big hug followed by a self-care day with massages, pampering, plus whatever makes them individually happy, followed by a veritable feast for supper and the world’s best night of sleep – I’m talking like a solid ten hours of deep sleep with the sweetest of dreams.

Who needs to get out of their current relationship

Again, while I can think of some answers here, I am going to have to go with nobody. The complicated, sometimes messy, bonds between all these boys (and Anna) or with them and the people in the world around them are a large part of what drives the story and makes it so good!

Who the writers love

Yata, for the reasons written above, and, going along with that, Fushimi. Again, there’s just sooooo goddamn emphasis placed on these two, to the point where, in some episodes and especially in some additional material, I really do think the authors really didn’t want to tell the story of K PROJECT but wanted to tell the Yata and Fushimi stories or plain out would have preferred to make a BL anime based around these two.

Who needs a better storyline

Totsuka and Mikoto. I can still very much behind having them die. I think it makes sense narrative-wise. I think it’s a great decision and one I would still keep if I were personally writing the story. In some ways, both of their deaths were needed and inevitable. What I have issues with is, like pointed out above, Totsuka really needed more introduction before the anime proper – he needed something to make the audience genuinely care about him, outside of them just thinking he’s a cute anime boy or being curious about what his relationship with everyone was like. MOR is what really brought about, in my mind, the storyline Totsuka needed and I still wish it came out earlier. Mikoto is such a fascinating character. I get that some of his appeal comes from him being mysterious, but I do wish more focus was given, especially within the anime’s first season, on really fleshing him out, giving us more of a peek inside of his mind and personality.

Who has an amazing redemption arc

I guess Eric and Shouhei are really the only ones I can think of who fit here at all. Between the two of them though, Eric had the better redemption arc. He went there to kill Mikoto and instead ended up becoming one of HOMRA and it was a beautifully done little story.

Who is hot af

All of them. HOMRA is a gang of very attractive men and let’s not lie – that’s part of why we love them. They’re also varied enough, in their looks, their designs, their fashion sense, their personalities, that there’s a HOMRA boy for everyone’s taste.

Who belongs in jail

Chitose can go to horny jail, in my opinion, any time he talks about Anna and how she’ll grow up into a looker. I remember that comment, though I don’t think it was worded quite like that, and visibly and noticeably flinching away from my screen because just…fucking yikes and gross, my dude.

Who needs to be revived from the dead

Nobody. If someone was revived from the dead, it would kind of defeat the purpose and impact of the deaths within the show. However, if I have to choose, I’m going to cheat by not using HOMRA proper but the Red Clan and say it’s Genji Kagutsu, just because I’m curious about him.

[alphajocklover]

First off happy Jockeversery!! My question is for anyone of you but who started Insta-jock? Who was the first customer to use it? How long has in been in circulation?

Hi! Thanks for the congratulations! I'm actually calling it the Alphaversary, but Jockeversery does have a certain ring to it. Now, onto your questions. I'm really hoping this next part doesn't come across as rude. I do want to clarify I'm not talking about anyone specifically, just a pattern I've noticed. I hate to say it, but sometimes I get a little bit annoyed at how little attention people pay to continuity when sending in an ask, particularly when it comes to InstaJock. I understand that looking through all my InstaJock post for specific stuff would be annoying, but if you’re going to ask a question about it, you might want to check them out, just to see if there's already an answer or if there's something you don’t understand. I’ve gotten a lot of prompt from people who don’t understand how InstaJock is supposed to work. I get not knowing who created it, since I’ve only mentioned The Master, the mysterious big bad behind instajock, in a few post, but I keep getting prompts about being slowly transformed by InstaJock, which is against the whole concept. InstaJock works instantly, that's part of why it’s called InstaJock. Instant Jock. That's how it’s been since the first post about it. But that misunderstanding has happened so often that I had to make up a second, mysterious bad guy who's been hacking InstaJock, just so I can mess with the concept. I’m not mad at anyone. If I was mad, I wouldn’t answer the questions, but it does sometimes make me feel insecure about how much attention people are paying to the actual story part of my erotic stories. I hope I’m not offending anyone, this just reminded me of this and I thought I’d take a moment to vent.

To answer your questions, along with a few things about InstaJock I think need clarification, I’ll list them off 1. InstaJock was created by a mysterious man known as The Master. He’s an incredibly powerful, rich and sadistic man. I haven’t expanded much on his personality or what he does, so it makes sense you have questions. He’s essentially the kingpin of the Transformation World I’ve created in my stories. A very rich, powerful man with lots of money, sketchy connections, and no problem using his power to make innocent people his playthings. InstaJock itself was set up by him in order to make himself a worldwide harem of jocks, and he was the one who transformed my character's Uncle into his own personal fucktoy. I’ll admit, I don’t have all the details worked out, in fact I haven’t even decided what exactly he looks like, but all you need to know about him for the stories so far are that he’s sadistic, hates my character, and is untouchable.

2. How InstaJock works is that it’s supposed to turn anyone who makes an account on the app into a dumb jock. The details about their new identity, including their sexuality, race and personality, all depend on how well the victim can navigate the complicated setting page. As soon as the victim takes a selfie for their profile and sets up an account, they’re transformed. It’s an instant transformation, but someone has been messing with the app to make it transform people in other ways.

3. The first person to ever use InstaJock? I’ll admit, that is an incredibly interesting question, one I’d probably like to explore more in a future story. I will say that the first transformation by the InstaJock app probably wasn’t typical. 

4. How long has it been in circulation? My character has only known about it for a year, but it’s completely possible it’s been around much, much longer. The Master could have easily kept it hidden for quite a long time, and probably has other methods of transforming people my character still doesn’t know about.

[ffverr]

forgive me if youve posted abt this before but do you have any headcanons about how Monet and Beto would interact in your X-Corp AU....

Cracking my fingers because, GREAT QUESTION!!

ok so, the first glaring point is that Monet is fully Roberto's type and I fear he's immediately down bad.

First board meeting they've had was organised by Warren and none of the members knew who else would be involved (for drama).

The minute Beto saw Monet he was: 1. Shocked they've never really met before!?!?? 2. Damning himself on how he's been missing out all his life on the living incarnation of his type, beautiful, smart, could wreak a wall and a little mean. He had immediate visions of the power couple they could be how could he not...

Roberto probably:

Now Monet, immediately knew that this man was extremely extremely silly and was about to be a huge headache.

She probably misjudged him at first, hugely underestimating him (like most do) and dismissing him as a vapid nuisance. But she is someone that's calculating and honest so she gave his character a fighting chance to prove itself.

But then ofc, she realises he's extremely good at his job, very tactical and smart and that's her demise.

I think on a deeper level she's also disturbed by how genuine he truly is. Roberto is someone who is loyal to a fault and has a lot of faith and appreciation for his friends and allies. He does get insidious for hero related reasons but deep down he's a very morally upright guy that never compromised his core ideals. (He's been extremely intense about that since his first issue, I love it😭)

She might try to block him out by thinking he doesn't truly see her for who she is (the complicated identity and all) and he just sees a pretty facade and she probably does plays into that. But she'll realise soon enough that he's actually extremely serious and appreciative and that he does see the whole picture. She starts finding him useful and somewhat endearing but they probably got much closer when he was very supportive of her through tough spots and that counts a lot.

Now also, he's a first class yapper, probably gets on her nerves so bad sometimes 😭 their departments don't always cross paths but he insists on them meeting often. (He TOTALLY doesn't take the excuse of Warren sending him with her on trips to just hang out and try to get to know her....that's totally not a lie he makes up ...)

Meme courtesy of @lilliputiancat

As they get to know each other, they absolutely love irritating each other (monet more than him) and that sparks their competitive spirit.

I think they both get in the silliest year long competition trying to always one up each other it's a MESS but they're sooo invested in it.

(they're judging everyone)

[sunderingstars]

Ooh can you explain ur thoughts on sampo and the songs breezeblocks, cha cha, and genius?

ʚ 💌 ɞ sure thing! beyond just liking the way they sound (i tend to associate upbeat, brain itchy, and overall “quirky” songs with sampo), here are some reasons i like these in particular:

breezeblocks by alt-j

⟢ the main reason i chose this song is the repeating lines near the end: “please don’t go, please don’t go / i love you so, i love you so / please break my heart.” the phrase of “i’ll eat you whole” being repeated throughout also a nice touch.

⟢ i found this part of the lyrics pretty indicative of how i imagine sampo handling interpersonal relationships mentally (regardless of how he expresses it on the outside). with all the hate / love / betrayal motifs present throughout his character, it made sense to me that he would latch on tightly to those he feels he can truly trust, albeit in a slightly traumatized and conflicted way.

⟢ whatever past he may have gone through, it causes him to expect heartbreak, which is why he might associate pain and/or betrayal with love. additionally, a sampo with an unstable identity or experience (i.e. doll, emanator, aeon, etc.) would likely have a side of him that he’s afraid will hurt those he cares about. however, i don’t see that as stopping him from sticking around, but rather something that causes a complicated internal mess (like the push and pull of “please don’t go” and “i’ll eat you whole”).

⟢ i also think the other lyrics like “she may contain the urge to run away / but hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks” and “the fear has gripped me but here i go / my heart sinks as i jump up / your hand grips hand as my eyes shut” could convey sampo’s relationship with elation vs. belobog as well. he may feel trapped and in need of escape, yet is held down by certain aspects of his identity or path. belobog could be a sort of “trust fall” in this scenario, with his friends acting as a lifeline that, despite the fear he may feel, encourage him to take their hands and find better for himself.

⟢ (since doll!sampo has invaded my mind for months and refused to leave, i think “she bruises, coughs, she sputters pistol shots” is a nice touch too since it can link back to a sampo whose only purpose is to be hurt by others.)

cha cha by freddie dredd

⟢ i’ll be honest, this was a completely self-indulgent addition. i really like the way it sounds and thought the chorus especially hit that “brain buzz” i tend to associate with sampo.

⟢ however, i do like how the lyrics start out in a different language, flowing smoother and slower, before turning into the choppy, punchy beat of the chorus in english. similarly to in the dark and let me go, i feel this does a good job of conveying how i see sampo’s internal versus external world. externally, he can be quite chaotic and unpredictable, but internally, i believe he feels things deeply, especially fondness and protection for others.

⟢ the lyrics aid this, as the non-english lines speak of moonlight and stars and dancing, while the english lyrics establish emotional distance by acting flippant. again, i tend to think sampo feels love very deeply, which is mirrored by the soft, emotional beginning. however, his outward persona tends to be perceived by others as the more chaotic english sections of the song!

genius (feat. sia, diplo, and labrinth) by lsd

⟢ this one definitely leans into the more egotistical side of sampo, especially when considering “curio hacker” and how he may be paying a price to gain something later on. “i’m a genius” very much reads like sampo being confident in whatever his master plan is and indulging in feeling good about himself a little (as he should!).

⟢ i also think “do you think i’m stupid? / do you think i’m batshit crazy, having you on my mind? / do you think i’m helpless? / my algebra gon’ equal you every time” is a link to his feelings towards the elation / aha / the masked fools, especially any resentment implied by his themes of “hate” and “betrayal”.

⟢ sia’s part in the song actually pivots away from what i’ve been talking about though, and i tend to see her part as a more earnest depiction of how sampo might flirt with or feel about others he’s romantically interested in. when put in context with the rest of the song, i also read the whole piece as one long “flirt,” since i think sampo’s way of doing it would be very much as confident and forward as the song’s lyrics. (plus, he would probably spin dating as a “genius business decision” or something like that!)

🪐 .𖥔 ݁ ˖ asks are still open for anyone who wants to request songs :))

[frownyalfred]

Apologies for the extremely long ask.

Omegaverse as a concept is so complicated and interesting as to me as a trans person.

On the one hand, the writer in me is intrigued by the world building implications and the opportunity to explore gender roles/dynamics. The concept of having a secondary dynamic alongside your actual gender is also fascinating to me and it's something I typically would have expected to be in something like sci-fi before I actually got into fanfiction.

I especially love deep diving into pack dynamics. Admittedly, that's where most of my interest and attention is focused on when reading and writing Omegaverse. I just find the concept so fascinating and any opportunity to write characters with heightened instincts, alien or otherwise, is just so much fun.

But on the other hand, I'm also very aware of how Omegaverse came about because some Supernatural fans wanted to play around with the idea of pack roles/relationships based on a messy study of wolf hierarchies. I'm also aware that intentional or not, a lot of early Omegaverse fics and tropes leaned really heavy into more homophobic and transphobic stereotypes, especially between M/M pairings.

I do feel like this has changed a bit over the years, though. From what I recall, a lot of early Omegaverse fics just really over relied on the stereotypical "which guy is really the girl?" trope that you saw a lot in the early to mid 2000s when discussions of queer (but mostly gay) relationships were brought up. I feel like the discussion has become a lot more nuanced since then and I know there are other trans fic writers like me who enjoy writing Omegaverse simply because it provides an opportunity to explore concepts of gender, sexuality and identity in a relatively fun way.

Not all Omegaverse fics/tropes are created equal, though. And every trans person has a different reaction/feeling towards this AU. I definitely feel like the odd one out, though, sometimes since I mostly come to Omegaverse for pack dynamics, less so for the smut (although I have written some in the past for fun or for friends). But I also believe there's validity in writing smut just for the purpose of enjoying smut.

Overall, I think this AU has a lot of potential, but I also see why it could make people very comfortable. I do wanna say that your fics haven't made uncomfortable and I do enjoy your takes on this trope. And I especially appreciate your willingness to listen to other trans people and their thoughts on Omegaverse. It goes a long way.

Side tangent: I will always be amused by how this whole trope came about btw, but also because the original author of that study followed it up by saying his first paper was absolute bullshit actually and shouldn't be viewed as a factual study of wolf pack hierarchy. Man messed up his original study, but he's a dedicated scientist and I love him for debunking his own work. But also the fact that he had an unintended impact on fandom is such fucking gold to me. I love this man so much.

Thank you for putting my thoughts to words, anon! There's definitely a long history there, and I agree with you that the genre itself has changed a lot in recent years, I think for the better.

I don't begrudge anyone for not liking or wanting to read a/b/o fics at all. I think it's intriguing but has the potential to be deeply uncomfortable or even like you said, transphobic for some people. I try to tag everything very well here that mentions it, etc.

I think what I like most about recent changes is that the genre has shifted to be less about "how can we get these two characters to breed?" and more to discussing pack dynamics, the implications of designations and gender roles, and building interesting biological rules and intricacies in an author-unique universe.

[carriehobbs]

I saw you tagged Ellery Wiseman on that poem and am dropping into your inbox to ask for anything you'd like to share about your Button!! (Do you have more than one? Who do they romance? How is their relationship with Nick?) -wayhavenots

omg pd tysm for asking!! 💕💕 there is absolutely nothing in the world i love more than having an excuse to talk about my ocs

i (with some rare exceptions) am the kind of if player that makes a new oc for every romance route i play, so i actually have 5 buttons 🫣 (technically 6, rip elliot wiseman who was from my very first mind blind playthrough, when i just wanted to see if i liked the game. you were very depressed and never became a fully-realized button, but your sacrifice is remembered and your name is retired out of respect). i have a page with very, very brief details on my buttons (and also my detectives for wayhaven) and links to their tags here, but if you use tumblr mobile you've probably never had the opportunity to see it.

this got so very, very long, so the rest is under the cut

my 5 buttons are: ella, ellie, elle, ellis, and ellery (can you guess what naming convention i lifted from the game's default names? lol). what's universally true for all 5 of them (though with some nuance, they all have slightly different feelings about their relationships) is that they're as close as they can be with their parents (because i like john and hope as characters and i find "i really love these people but our relationship became incredibly complicated and we now have to find ways to reconcile our disappointment/anger/etc. with our love for them" to be really compelling. i love mess) and with nick (because i'm a middle child and i accidentally projected my feelings about my siblings (and especially my older sister) onto the button&nick relationship. i physically can't be mean to nick because i cried for about 45 minutes the first time i read the end of chapter 3/chapter 4 and for the first time really considered my sister's mortality, and that changes you).

for a (not really that brief, whoops) rundown of my buttons' whole deals:

ella: equally humorous and confident, very high insightful stat, romancing ambrose. she's independent, intelligent, ambitious, loyal, great at compartmentalizing, and, quite frankly, arrogant. she can be really abrasive sometimes (while she can be a kind and compassionate person, most people don't get to see that side of her and so she can come off as really rather unpleasant - think that know-it-all kid in your class that everyone kind of hates). ella naturally is rather funny/confident/intelligent/etc., but i think, after the incident with hope, she ended up amplifying these inherent traits of hers and making them into a sort of armour that keeps her safe, but also isolates her. i think she's afraid of showing weakness and i think she feels this subconscious need to prove to everyone (including herself) that she's capable. her relationship with nick is the worst out of all of my buttons (but is still incredibly high, think 160/170-ish approval), mainly because she and nick clash the most. she's very independent and knows what she wants and will pursue it (even if it's a boyfriend her brother doesn't like or a career her parents don't want for her) no matter what anyone else thinks, and nick can be a little hover-y (though this improves over the events of the game). she does really love nick (and does actually care about his approval, even if it won't stop her from doing things she knows he won't like), even if she finds him kind of annoying sometimes. she views the incident with hope as a horrible accident that wasn't anyone's fault, and i think she sees better than my other buttons how everyone in the family was affected by the fallout. fun fact: several years post-game, she and ambrose have identical twin girls (ella jokes that she wanted two kids so she and ambrose had twins because "we're efficient". they have girls because ambrose is a girl dad. i am not accepting notes) that share a birthday with nick (because i need ambrose to be forced to participate in a large yearly party that at least partially involves celebrating nick. do you know how many years nick rented a bouncy castle and then proceeded to bounce on the bouncy castle with the girls? it's every year until they decided they're too cool for it. nick's heart broke that day)

eleanor/ellie: more humorous than confident (with confident stat increasing through the game), but has a decent morbid stat too, very high insightful stat, romancing grayson. ellie fulfills my need in every if game/rpg i play to have at least one character who is so, so nice to everyone (my detective alina fulfills this need in wayhaven). she's kind, considerate, forgiving, has a strong sense of morals (except at work, where she's very expedient), and tends to blame herself when things go wrong. she really feels just unbearably guilty about most things: the incident with hope (if she'd acted differently, if she'd been different, etc., maybe it wouldn't have happened), nick's accident in chapter 3, nick having to take care of her through high school... she really struggled after the incident with hope because she needed nick and depended on him so much, but then hated herself for how much she needed him and feeling like she ruined his life (she did project this onto gray when he started hanging around, which is why she didn't like him at first, but over time she realized it wasn't his fault and moved on. and then she got goopy feelings for him). she's not blind to nick's faults, but she adores him (200 approval easily). i think a lot of her growth over the course of the game comes from learning to trust herself and to believe in herself. fun fact: she once made a joke to gray after they started dating (in front of nick and sally too 😬) without thinking about how there'd be "no kids or dog until we have a house". it was way too early in the relationship to be making a joke about having kids or a house. they didn't even live together yet. she's still a little mortified that she said that

elle: confident, very high insightful stat, romancing kent. i love elle because she's kind of relentlessly forward-thinking. she doesn't really dwell on the past except to figure out how to improve the future. she believes strongly that it's what someone does that matters. she's my button who's the most interested in trying to get herself into the npo program. like ella, i think she views the incident with hope as a horrible accident that isn't really anyone's fault, and i think she really makes an effort not to dwell on it or assign blame for what happened. she also has terminal foot-in-mouth disease (talking about bondage with kent in front of your brother, best friend, and instructor after revealing that you'll probably get tortured together, anyone?), which is the bane of her existence. while i think all my buttons struggled with some agoraphobia post-the incident with hope, i think elle really struggled with it: she loves dogs and used to volunteer at an animal shelter, but had to stop because she couldn't handle being outside of her home without sally or nick (she could go to school if she spent the entire day with sally, and then would go straight home) and it took several months for her to feel like she could go places without one or both of them again. once she was able to leave her home independently, she started volunteering at the animal shelter again, and is still there. fun fact: post-game and further into their relationship, she ends up accidentally moving in with kent. it starts by just spending a lot of time at his place because it's so close to nick's (i think a lot of her and kent's dates just involve hanging out together), then more and more of her stuff migrates over, until one day she realizes she's been there for two weeks and all of her clothes are in kent's laundry. she formally moves in after that. she's also my button who's most likely to elope!

ellis: humorous-morbid (slightly more morbid than humorous), tentatively more innovative than insightful (i keep swapping the stats), romancing sally. he's "just some guy" (affectionate) to me, if "just some guy" had gallows' humour. he's been kind of desperately in love with sally since he was 13 and figured out what love was. ellis is the kind of person who looks fine on the surface but really isn't. whereas elle doesn't dwell on the incident with hope because she wants to move forward with her life and not have this one event define her, ellis doesn't dwell on it because doing so will wreck him. he was the closest with hope growing up, since they shared a sense of humour and he felt that she really understood him, and it profoundly hurt when she started to pull away as he got older. he trusted her more than anyone growing up and it hurts a lot now to think about how the people he relies on most now are nick and sally instead. he's not as forward about the guilt he feels and how it affects him as ellie or ellery are, but it's still there. he's also very close with nick and really admires him: nick is ellis's model for what it means to "be a man" (more so than john, but i don't think ellis is really aware of this). ellis also views gray as a sort of quasi-older brother figure and is actually more likely to ask gray for relationship or life advice than nick (mainly because he'd feel a little awkward talking to nick about stuff like relationship advice - also look at nick's relationship track record, gray's probably the safer bet). fun fact: ellis is either the same height as nick or one inch shorter than nick (i can never remember), so if they're out together and the topic of height comes up, he tells people that he's at least two inches shorter than he actually is. this is because nick will lie about his height to make himself taller if given the chance, so ellis gets there first and forces nick to be 5ft9 for an evening (nick hates this).

ellery: humorous, higher insightful stat than interpersonal stat, romancing (m!)glitch. she's such a smartass. she's all jokes and has a quip ready for any situation, but, like ella, i think these are inherent characteristics of hers that get amplified as a defense mechanism. i think it's in chapter 1 of the demo that there's the line that says it's better to have people laughing with you than at you, and that really fits ellery. ellery blames herself for really everything to do with hope and nick, but if she brushes it off with a joke she can pretend to be fine (she's incredibly not - her guilt defines a lot of her relationships with other people and how she views herself). she's also incredibly devoted to her family (to the point where she can't listen to someone criticize them professionally because like. that's her dad. this sometimes causes issues in her and glitch's relationship, because glitch is unafraid to criticize unity when appropriate, but they figure out how to manage it over time). speaking of glitch: she is such a loverrrrrrr 💕💕💕 they really are intolerable together because they're that couple that's just all over each other. everyone around them hopes they'll tone it down after the honeymoon stage ends but they do not 💕 i imagine them moving in together incredibly quickly too. i don't know the exact timeline of the game so far, but even this early on, ellery knows that he's it for her. ellery makes me think the most about what it would actually be like to not only grow up with people who are able to hear your every thought but to never live with someone who can't read your mind. i always imagine ellery as being very comfortable communicating telepathically when she chooses to (she almost got held back from preschool because she didn't speak until she was 3/4 - not because she had speech or language delays, but because why would she speak out loud when she could communicate telepathically? eventually telepathic communication had to be (temporarily) banned in the house to get ellery to speak verbally, and once she did the ban was lifted). telepathic communication also means an entirely different way of communicating between people: visual jokes, jokes where the comedy isn't in the punchline but in the way the joke is constructed before it's been told, being able to rely on the person you're talking to picking up subtleties from your thoughts if you're having trouble expressing yourself in words, etc. and glitch is the first person she's ever lived with who can't read her mind (sometimes she'll be in another room half way through a conversation with glitch in her head and she'll ask him for his opinion on something she thought, only for him to have to remind her that he cannot hear her. luckily glitch finds this funny when it happens and lightly ribs her about it). she gets incredibly frustrated with herself sometimes because she doesn't know how to explain to him how much he means to her or how much she loves him. she tries, but she never feels like it really encompasses the depth of the feeling (it's the one time she wishes he was a ment, so he could hear it). fun fact: about a year into their relationship, ellery wrote glitch a really bad love poem to try and express her feelings for glitch in a way that's meaningful to him. glitch loved it and insisted that it was beautiful, but she thinks it's amateur and is kind of embarrassed about it because he quotes actual love poetry to her all the time. this poem does actually exist because i wrote it to try and get in her head space and figure out what she'd say, and it's mid at best (i am not a poet)

[unrealization]

⭐ !! / give me all the combos, no matter how out there they may be :D

@truethes MULTIMUSE MEME | Accepting!

[WELL there are a ton of possibilities with our muse lists! Obviously ANY DR muse will work with mine, but I'll list out a few specific ones I'd be very down to do! This... Is gonna be a long one I'm afraid. You did say ALL the combos, so I'm going to oblige!]

Normal picks:

Mukuro and Junko

This is the most obvious one, I think. Mukuro's dynamic with Junko is easily the most important one to her character. Ironically it makes it REALLY REALLY HARD TO GET INTERACTIONS WITH THEM GOING because of how far into headcanons their actual past tends to be. Definitely one I'd love to discuss or just mess around with at some point. I do absolutely guarantee it will HURT though.

Mukuro and Makoto

I jokingly said that I was considering offering a salary for someone who would do this one with me. Danganronpa If introduced a really interesting dynamic between them and I have ALWAYS wanted to explore it more. I don't even mean, like, as a romantic ship or anything. I have SO MANY plot ideas for this one that I've been rotating in my mind for ages.

Izuru and Hajime

Ok, hear me out. I know they're the same guy and all, but there are some interesting possibilities here. Hajime faces the thing he became. I even have a rough idea for a way to make them both technically exist after the ending of SDR2 as an addendum to my horrible postgame verse.

Tsumugi and Kaede

There are a lot of angles here, actually. A more direct confrontation between them in the early game? An AU where Kaede is around for the later parts of the killing game? A lot of interesting things we could do.

Tsumugi and Rantaro

Same as above. I am quite partial to the theory that they knew each other from a previous iteration of Danganronpa, but I'm not married to it if you're not fond of that angle.

Out there pick:

Sayori?

You asked for out there, so here you go. I have a Danganronpa verse for Sayori I've never really gotten to use. I've never even written it out on tumblr before so I'm technically debuting it here! I can't think of a specific combo for her at the moment, but if you wanted to do something very out of left field, I'd be very happy to.

The self-indulgent section where I talk about OCs:

Akira

So, quick note: I will literally write my OC Akira with any character. I'm kind of obsessed with this character and I very rarely get the opportunity to use her. A few ideas for interesting match ups:

Akira and Imposter

I think they would be interesting, especially pre-tragedy. Imposter's talent is actually pretty similar to hers, and more importantly I honestly think she might be unable to mimic him since he's able to change his whole identity so easily. One of the rare individuals she could probably have a face-to-face conversation with without her talent causing problems. Post-Tragedy I don't know how well that would go for either them.

Akira and Junko

Pre-Tragedy, Akira would probably pick up a bit of Junko's more sinister nature due to her talent working the way it does. Post-tragedy... Yeah, Akira has more or less stolen Junko's identity and is pretending to be her in order to run an Ultimate Despair splinter cell/cult. Junko being around and still alive would complicate her narrative quite a bit.

Etsuko

I'd feel bad if I didn't mention her. I'm kind of in the process of reworking Etsuko a bit, but the core ideas are still there. Anxiety-riddled Reserve Course student who's mind was shattered in a failed attempt to create Izuru Kamakura shortly before Hajime did it. Really dangerous post-tragedy as she's driven by an insatiable desire to feel and inflict the only emotion she's still capable of feeling. Namely, fear. Really dark character that will most likely inflict extreme violence upon anyone she meets post-tragedy or just avoid a social interaction pre-tragedy. If this basic description interests you I can talk about her a bit more, but I feel like it might be better to hold off until I'm happier with where she's at as a character first.

[cuephrase]

I cannot keep two words straight in my head smh. I meant the first wip and the third wip. No abandonment meant (though I would not be opposed to hearing about that one too 😅)

asjdfhjsd no worries haha!!

first wip/jigsaw: so although i personally enjoy jason being an anti-hero/being on (sort of?) better terms with the batfam i really like am so frustrated bummed that we don't really get to see how jason got there. however, i also think his current dynamic with the fam is very interesting bc idk, to me, it feels very delicate/fragile and like there's not a whole lot of trust? idk how to summarize all the nuance without giving you an essay you did not ask for, but basically, his current relationship with them is Complicated, yeah?

and i don't have a lot of interest in writing a fix-it/exploring a 'what if things had gone differently' scenario/trying to fill in that missing gap bc...idk. i just don't lmao. BUT!! a reconciliation fic still sounds like so much fun, bc like i like the idea of jason being part of the batfam right but like i don't want to erase all the drama from canon so BASICALLY-

tl;dr: i think jason's current relationship with the batfam is like a bone that broke but wasn't set properly so it needs to be re-broken to heal properly. so i want to start in a place where he's "comfortable" with them, then have him blow everything up. just stomp on all the eggshells. it would very much so be a Things Get Worse Before They Get Better type of reconciliation fic haha. i want it be messy and painful and full of missteps and misunderstandings- it would not be an 'X apologizes and magically everything is better' fic. (which is not shade to anyone who writes/enjoys those!!) i may also challenge myself to stick strictly in jason's pov to really lean into the Unreliable Narrator of it all.

this probably sounds like such a mess, omg *buries face in hands*

pretty bird: this one is a super dick-centric, kinda character study type fic somewhat focused on his sexual trauma, so mirage/catalina/liu, but also just kind of like exploring dick's relationship with himself and like...how he perceives himself? bc he is such a Performer, yk, and he is incredible at it. and he has all these close, meaningful relationships, but sometimes he can still feel so isolated to me in a way bc of how much he keeps to himself and idk i just really want to like get into his head.

also can't really articulate this one without an essay you didn't ask for haha, but it will be a very fun tonal challenge for myself bc i have a very specific vibe i want to achieve that'll require a very careful balancing act.

and then just for funsies, and bc it's also about dick haha,

abandonment: au (inspired by dan mora's black and white oneshot from batman: the brave and the bold) where bruce puts dick into foster care instead of keeping him, but they cross paths later when batman runs into dick and jason who are looking for their missing brother. at least a smidge of identity porn bc dick is willing to trust batman but won't trust bruce wayne. like i have this scene in my mind where batman offers to set the boys up with his friend bruce wayne and dick is like 'absolutely not' and batman is like ?? and then he realizes omg this is the kid i gave up omg.

just imagine dick trying to independently (with jason) try to hunt tim down with batman being like !!!! trying to assist but also not wanting to overstep and also trying not to get too attached (and failing) hehehe. complicated dick and bruce is just so fun, yk?

tysm for the ask, lily, (and for tagging me in this game to begin with!!), i hope you're having/had a beautiful day!!

[bloodyentrails]

Also you didn't list Titans, but I wanna see your answers for Titans 🙏

i frequently forget titans exists and then you come and remind me!!! 😆😆😆 anyway, shows i have complicated relationships with for 100:

Favorite character

JASON!!! jaaaaason! jason my beloved. i watched the show for him, so, i mean.... what else is new. but he's really one of the best-characterised teens i have ever seen? i think because so much of that show is not ... my thing, it still confuses me so much that he exists on this whole other plane of character and he feels so real and human and curran walters is so good, and i wish i could tell him personally.

Second favorite character

that's a tough one. i'm going to go with gar i think? he feels so underwritten and they never seem to figure out what to do with him but he's so unendingly kind amongst so many characters who are so self-absorbed and often plain nasty and i want a show with just him and jason hanging out and maybe kon gets to be there too as a treat. gar teaching kon how to human was so fun! the show is so often lacking in fun!

Least favorite character

dick grayson??!! so much of what i dislike about characters in the show is sort of crystallised into a whole mess with him, the aforementioned self-absorption, the way he is so blind to his own hypocrisy. the lack of empathy or leadership, of heart? and i get to spend so much screen time with his ongoing identity crisis and i don't want to. get your shit together, dick!

The character I’m most like

probably also jason. very sensitive to bs, very sensitive about power dynamics, very sensitive to rejection. i have, however, you may be glad to know, not been involved in criminal activity on a larger scale. or i'd probably be gar the mom friend. i would make food for everyone, they eat so rarely. or sleep regularly. that's me.

Favorite pairing

jaytim. i know they aren't canon but fuck it, the chemistry is off the charts! second favourite pairing is sebkon because, christ the bdsm coffee date energy of it all!!! i think the canon pairings are mostly bland.

Least favorite pairing

hank and dove aka dank. i would like to wipe my memory of their existence.

Favorite moment

i love jason connecting with leslie in their session so much. it's been 2 1/2 seasons of people endlessly telling him how wrong he is, it's so good to have him connect with someone and be ok for a bit.

my other favourite moment, if i'm permitted 2, is seeing him again in season 4 feeling more relaxed and just so fucking playful! he' been playful all this time but had nobody to play with!!?? and here's tim and the ship that launched so many headcanons for me!

Rating out of 10

7/10? i think that is quite generous but i have watched it twice now and when it hits, it really does but also so often it doesn't? i'd watch it again mostly so i could get worked up about all the things that bother me but also there'd be things in it that i also hold very dear??!! what the show could have been. just imagine.