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shinesurge · 8 months

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Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

#long post #contrary to what i say i do love webcomics so fucking much #there are Reasons i'm fucking angry all the time lmao

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windvexer · 8 months

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This is also why I don't know how to recommend spells to people because to me most spells are just:

Find a Guy who's really good at the thing (probably other people talk about how good he is)

Ask him to do the thing for you

Provide auxiliary support to make his job easier (and say please and thank you!)

And one Guy can often do a lot of things. Like, Rosemary can help with memory problems, sleep, cleansing, protection, healing, and nightmares.

So you can show up and say, "Rosemary, when I drink this tea of you, please infuse me with good memory so I can remember important details of this upcoming conversation."

Or, "Rosemary, when I hang up this sachet of you, please stand as a sentinel of my sleep and guard against bad dreams."

Or, "Rosemary, when I place your pot by the front door, please cleanse the air of all sickness that may enter, and keep the home healthy."

(And yeah, there are Techniques to this, but that's not what this post is about)

But the problem is that sometimes, the Guy might not be that helpful until you get to know him a little more and things get chill between you two. Or he might show you hidden aspects to himself that are not common and not talked about by other people.

So you can get into a situation where you've been hanging with Rosemary for a while and have a really weird dream and all of the sudden, Rosemary can make other people tell you the truth.

That's not a Rosemary correspondence and it's probably not something that other people can do with Rosemary.

But it's something you can do with Rosemary because you've gotten to know each other on a friend level.

A missing factor for me, and maybe for other people, was treating spellwork like a potion-making game where you just gather X amount of Y-aligned correspondence and if you mix enough of them you get a Potion of Y.

Like if you need protection, you just go to a correspondence list and find enough Protection-aligned plants (regardless of how they work or their personalities or attributes) and put them together in a bag and saying an unrelated charm or prayer that you say no matter which plants you put in the bag.

Which is how people end up with 50 little jars of dead plants that stay dead because they have no connection to them, still looking up what ingredients to use in which spells.

Which is fine, but it's also like... not necessarily what everyone is looking for.

So my point is that if correspondences are reduced to 4-5 purposes on a chart, then you get the correspondence brainrot which is like "which kitchen herb is a gentle cleanser, and which kitchen herb is a strong cleanser," when the reality is that if a guy can Cleanse he can show up gently or strongly in his own unique way,

And it all makes more sense by just treating him like a Guy and asking him to do what you need to do.

I genuinely think that if a practitioner is looking for something deeper and more relational in their practice, a really good way is to scale everything back and start using like one activated (evoked, prayed over, petitioned, etc.) Ally in each spell and just asking if he, as a Guy, can or wants to do something for you.

Like if you go absolutely bonkers over a good cup of Chamomile tea, what's the harm in asking Chamomile to cleanse for you? What's the harm in asking Chamomile to protect your home, or bless your sleep?

At the very least you're going to begin learning a lot about Chamomile in an interpersonal way, where you can begin understanding the "correspondence" for yourself. And you can also learn some fucking cool stuff, like, isn't it weird that when I ask Chamomile to protect my home, we all started finding little bits of cash we had lost?

Idk. Magic is just easier when more things are Guys.

#and by Guy I mean Demigod but that's maybe upg for another time

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 1 month

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“Also because I want [Nino] to be more narratively important but that is a rant for another day.” And will that day be someday soon? Wink wink nudge nudge :3c

I am happy to give Nino some love, but before we do, we need to talk about how badly canon has failed him. The reason we need to have that talk is that the love I'm going to give is far more headcanon-y than I usually go in these analysis posts. For most characters, I can give a strong canon-based argument for a core characterization. For Nino? Well, I am pulling this stuff from canon, but I wouldn't exactly label it a "strong" argument. There are even elements of my take on Nino that you could label "grasping at straws".

And I'm happy to own that! I delight in giving Nino all the love he deserves even if it doesn't perfectly match canon, but that means that my Nino is less me leaning into the best parts of canon and more me shifting through canon, grabbing a few shinny bits, and weaving them into something that you may not agree with because my vision for Nino is to elevate him to match Alya in terms of narrative importance because I want the team show season two promised me even if I have to make it myself!

And if you don't want that? Then that's fine! I'm not arguing that everyone should adopt this take. My version of Nino is about as close to an OC as I get when writing fanfic. So let's get into it and talk about why I had to do that. (Also note that I have nothing against OCs. It's just that, when it comes to my own writing, I try to reserve them for original fiction or for very minor roles that no canon character could fill. Totally a matter of personal preference and not some sort of judgement.)

The Many Ways that Canon has Done Nino Dirty

If we look at what is arguably the main group of friends - Alya, Marinette, Adrien, and Nino - then we can see a clear base concept for the first three. Alya is the plucky reporter. Marinette is the headstrong leader. Adrien is the sweet goofball. Nino is... Alya's boyfriend? Adrien's best friend? Chris' older brother?

This is the problem that I was referring to above. Alya, Adrien, and Marinette have clear roles that you could pick out by just watching Origins. Nino doesn't. He doesn't even speak in part one and part two gives him all of six lines. These lines establish him as a nice guy since they're all about him being kind to Adrien, but that's about it. Here's one of them as an example:

Miss Bustier: Agreste, Adrien? Nino: (quietly to Adrien) You say "present". Adrien: (jumps up with his hand raised) Uh, present!

This is a cute moment for sure, but when I look at it, I can't tell you who Nino is supposed to be other than a nice guy, which isn't much to go on. Nice guys can fit a lot of roles.

This isn't necessarily a flaw. Some characters have roles that are immediately obvious and some characters don't. This second class of character usually just has a more complex role that will be discovered and defined based on their actions as the story goes on. However, because Miraculous' writing is all over the place, Nino gets screwed. Instead of his actions defining his nebulous role, his actions make his role impossible to pin down! Here are a few examples:

Nino the Protector:

Season two was big on the idea that miraculous had to be suited to their holders. That's why Chloe kept getting the bee as we saw in Malediktator:

Marinette: I must choose someone who's not impressed by people in power. Who can help me trap Malediktator. Huh?! Of course! That's it. (reaches for the Miraculous of the Bee)

And why did Nino get the turtle in Anansi?

Marinette: I need a protective Miraculous. (gasps, and points at the Turtle Miraculous Master Fu is wearing) That's the one I need, Master! (Master Fu gasps) Uh, if it's okay with you. Master Fu: (smiles at Wayzz, who nods to him) Do you have someone in mind, Marinette? Marinette: Actually, I think I found just the right person.

Okay, cool, we finally have a strong defining trait for Nino! He's a protector! Or, at least, he was here. Other episodes go directly against this role such as this nonsense from Illusion:

Nino: What's up is Ladybug and Cat Noir don't have us to help them anymore. Alya: (nervously) Um, um— uh— what do you mean, "us"? Nino: Well, us, you Rena Rouge, me Carapace! (Alya kicks his leg underneath the table) Ouch! What's the big deal? We can tell Marinette and Adrien we used to be superheroes.

This first issue with this episode is that we see Nino out his and Alya's secret identities without her permission even though the resistance did NOT require an identity reveal to be a thing. In other words, our supposed protector is taking a big risk for no reason. Then he goes and does this:

Nino: Hence my plan. We're gonna film an akumatization. Alya: And how are you, Comrade Ketchup, gonna be in the know when and where this akumatization takes place? Nino: Easy, Comrade Beurre Maître d'Hôtel. I'm gonna make it happen.

Which leads to the four friends antagonizing Gabriel even though Nino knows how complex Adrien and Gabriel's relationship is. A move that makes no sense for a supposed protector because Gabriel was far from their only option. Nino could have picked anyone, but he went with the riskiest candidate possible, exposing his best friend to a potentially massive backlash.

Nino also doesn't even try to contact Ladybug and Chat Noir prior to this insane plan, thereby putting the whole city at unnecessary risk! What kind of protector purposely causes an akuma without also coming up with mitigation strategies to minimize the resulting damage?

Everything Nino does in this episode should disqualify him from ever holding the turtle again or, at the very least, he should have to redeem himself before holding the turtle again. This is especially true since he never apologizes for anything he did in Illusion and this is just one example of the issue. It's actually kind of hard to find moments where Nino acts as a protector even though he holds the miraculous of Protection. So is he supposed to be a protector? Who knows!

Nino, The Empath:

That first example was long, so we'll pick two quicker ones to flesh this out. The first one is how Nino and Adrien's relationship is defined. In Origins and the New York Special Nino is written as a kind and sensitive guy who is acting as Adrien's guide to dating and other elements of the real world:

Nino: Yup. I love Adrien, but he's like a baby chick that's just started cracking out of his egg. He has a hard time understanding the signals people send him. Alya: What signals? Marinette isn't exactly sending them clearly. I mean, look! What is she doing with her arms? Telling him what to do in case of an emergency landing or something? Nino:(sighs) If only this trip could help Adrien finally come out of his shell.

But then you have episodes like Animan where Adrien is Nino's guide to dating:

Nino: Shhh! You know I'm no good with the ladies, especially this one all of a sudden. I mean, dude, do I go up to her and crack her a joke? Shoot her a compliment? Invite her to the zoo? Play it serious? Adrien: Nino, you're way over-thinking this. "Invite her to the zoo", you serious? Nino: Well, they have this really cool new exhibit there. Adrien: Listen, just be yourself, man.

And episodes like Illusion (discussed above) and Psycomedian (see below) where Adrien is deeply uncomfortable and Nino doesn't notice:

Nino: See, dude? I told you! Hilarious, right? Adrien: Uh... (laughs nervously) Right! Really funny, Nino. Nino: I gotta show you his other sketches. It's insane that you don't know Harry Clown! (laughs)

Which might work if these episodes were about Nino learning a lesson, but they're not. Nino learns nothing, so is he generally in tune with others or is he kind of oblivious to other peoples' feelings? And why did Nino ever think that Adrien was a good source of romantic advice if he also thinks that Adrien is "a baby chick"? Pick a lane people!

Nino's Hobbies

Our final source of confusion is trying to define what Nino even enjoys doing. Horrificator and Queen Banana have him playing around as an amature film maker, but we also see him acting as an amature DJ with the wiki even claiming that he's the head of the school's radio station. So which of these things is his passion? Movies or music?

To be clear, I think it's fine to have multiple passions, but this is a story. You want to keep your characters' non-story-relevant hobbies kind of simple, especially when the character in question is a relatively minor side character who rarely gets much screen time. It's why Alix is only really into roller skating and why Nathaniel is only really into art. You don't want them to be more complex than that.

Even the main characters get this "keep it simple" treatment with Marinette only really being into fashion and Alya only really being into her blog. The girls don't need two demanding passions that would eat up all of their free time, but that's what Nino gets! Film and music are both incredibly demanding passions and it's hard to balance a character who is into both who is also an active superhero. That's a lot for one dude to do well!

I've actually seen fics that cast Nino as wanting to be a director and fics that make him want to be a professional DJ because canon really isn't clear about this pretty basic aspect of his character, but you do need to pick a lane when writing anything that gives Nino a career and so people seem to pick a passion at random.

My Version of Nino

By now, we're hopefully in agreement that canon has made a mess of Nino's character to the point where it's near impossible to say "this is who Nino is supposed to be." However, if you want to write Nino, then you do kind of have to pick a characterization to go with, so here's what I've come up with. Feel free to embrace it or reject it, but know that you will pry my version of Nino out of my cold dead hands because I utterly adore him.

Since Nino is Carapace, I base everything about him around the concept of "protect and defend" because he needs to feel like he deserves his heroic alter ego. I do not want to make canon's mistake of giving him a miraculous that massively contradicts his writing. Especially when that writing makes him feel interchangeable with other characters. At this point, no one from canon screams "turtle miraculous" unless you want to give it to Adrien since he's Ladybug's defender.

I also designed Nino around Alya and Adrien as those will arguably be his most important relationships. He should feel like a perfect fit for boyfriend and best friend respectively. I also took Marinette into consideration because he's going to be part of her team/friend group, so he should work with her, too.

What all that means is that I basically said "okay, this is where Nino is supposed to fit in the story and this is the dumpster fire that canon gave us, how do I pull pieces from the fire and paste them together to make a character that fits who Nino should have been?"

To really get into my version of Nino, I'd almost have to give you a fic to read, but that's way too much for a Tumblr post, so let's keep this high-level and just look at some of my notes on Nino from my lore Bible:

Nino is a major audiophile. He loves listening to music and watching movies/TV shows to study how they play with sound. He wants to be an audio engineer when he's older, but he also has a general passion for all things music and film. He’ll listen to any genre and watch almost any movie or show. He loves to take charge of the music at events so that the music really fits the crowd (and so it sounds good). It isn’t unheard of for him to go see an unknown band or an odd indie film on his own. This will become a major bonding point for Nino and Adrien because of the influence of Adrien's mother. Nino has seen all of Emilie's films and loves them. It will also bond him and Alya as his knowledge of film making will allow him to help her learn the art of filming now that she's doing complex things like actions shots and editing together multiple recordings.

Nino is generally pretty laid back and likes to hear people out. His reaction to confrontation is to try to calm everyone down so that they can get to the heart of the issue. He wants everyone to get along, but he's also not going to let someone take the blame when they shouldn't. Nino protects the innocent.

Nino is incredibly protective of the people he loves. If someone he cares about is in danger, his peaceful nature goes straight out the window. He’s the kind of person who would happily take a bullet for his friends and family. This will lead to him following Alya around once the hero stuff starts because he wants to keep her safe. Never let Alya go out alone if Nino is around or even just aware that a fight is happening. Alya thinks "scoop" and Nino thinks "my Alya sense is tingling." He's NOT there to stop her from doing what she loves, he's just there to be her spotter who lets her focus on filming while he watches for danger, though that will initially be a struggle for him. Treat this as his audition/training for Carapace where he learns to balance protective instincts with getting the job done so that he's ready to perfectly take on his miraculous.

When Nino’s folks split up, his mother insisted that the kids should go to therapy to help process things. They had individual and family counseling. Nino was actually pretty cool with the divorce as he’d seen it coming, but his brother was really affected by it, so Nino spent his time working on ways to help Chris (and being told that he was a brother, not a parent, but he still wanted to help). He learned a lot from going through it and it’s why he’s so good at dealing with emotional issues. He’s also good at not taking those burdens on himself. He wants to help, but knows that it's your battle. Marinette often looks to Nino for guidance on emotional issues because she knows that she's terrible at navigating them. She has given him full permission to stop her when she's too focused on solutions over support. All of the friends will help Adrien figure out social situations, but Nino will be the main guide as he's the one with the strongest skills in that area. Plus Adrien makes Nino's protective big brother instincts go crazy.

Nino’s a bit of a loner by choice. He has "weird" hobbies that easily lend themselves to being done alone and he doesn't have any interest in "forcing" his hobbies on someone who doesn't actually enjoy them, so he spends a lot of time by himself and rarely invites others to share in his interests. He only does that when he thinks that they'll actually enjoy what he's sharing. He doesn’t mind this, but he’s also a very welcoming individual who doesn’t like to see people left out, so he’ll come out of his shell when he sees someone who needs a friend. This usually leads to him making friends who soon become closer with others, but still view him as a casual friend. He’s cool with that. He's just happy that they found their people. Adrien will be the first friend who really stays Nino’s due to an understanding of Nino’s “weird” hobbies. After all, Adrien’s the son of an actress. He’s used to weird indie films and discussions of cinematography. I'd even say that he revels in it and realizes that he has missed it desperately since his mom got too sick to do that kind of thing. Basically, Nino will fill a spot in Adrien's heart that Adrien didn't even know was empty. Adrien can listen to Nino talk about cinematography for hours and never get bored. Before Adrien, no one knew that Nino was this talkative!

If anyone wants more insights into this topic, feel free to send an ask, but I think we'll call this post done now because it's SUPER long.

#nino deserves better #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

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endivinity · 5 months

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Would you be ok with indivituals using some of your fallouty unique deathclaws and other creature drawings as references when theyre running a private Fallout TTRPG campaign amongst friends?

Totally ok if youre not fine with that! I just wanted to check.

it may be possibly time for another long-winded explanation that will enrage precisely two people who will send me weird anon hate over it because they don't understand the notion of transformative works but - It's hard to state in plain terms what I am and aren't comfortable with people using my art for, because even for me there's a lot of handwavey 'am i really uncomfortable with this or is it just a kneejerk reaction' kind of thing with a lot of caveats

there's often a pretty big disconnect between what people view as references - some people will view it as a single image, like "for reference, this is what it looks like" and slap the art down on the table for their players to go WHOAAAA over (repost blogs tend to do this). For an artist doing this, it's usually as a study, or results in a pretty obvious 1:1 because the idea they're pulling from isn't diluted across a range of things.

The other use of reference is several images and enough of your own personal touch to put a unique spin on all of them in a cohesive artwork or design. This is the bit that a lot of people stumble over, because they go 'but I like this thing only' and don't want to venture beyond that. If you're able to not only pull a range of artworks, but a range of artworks by different artists, immense kudos to you. The way I construct deathclaws is from an immense knowledge of weird animals and different media. For instance, Spectral makes use of a deathclaw, a ghost leviathan from subnautica, a xenomorph, and the understanding of vestigial limbs, bioluminescence, diaphanized tissue, and opalization. Transforming this in a tabletop might therefore look like the image itself, but then adding say the aquatic spinosaurus theory in there and making it swim out of an irradiated lake with a paddle tail and a huge back crest. And a bigger mouth with worse teeth that can strip a human's arm down to the bone in one degloving bite. You don't necessarily have to be able to draw it (I'm in a bit of a niche and therefore shouldn't hold everyone to my same standards) but it also says good things about your ability to host a tabletop game if you're able to be creative with the unique ideas you put in it and your ability to visualize and describe them. Embrace that. (Some of the kickback against this was people going 'well artists do this all the time, they take other artists' works for their references, that's part of the industry standard' but that's the point of transformative works and not typically modern tabletop gaming. I'm also just one person doing this. I'm not an industry professional, I'm not a huge company for which my works are publicly available in an immensely popular IP. It may be fanart and I don't own deathclaws, but I still own all rights to the art itself. Some people (that one really furiously angry anon in particular) hold me to the same standard as if I was representative of Bethesda Softworks itself and therefore it's right and proper to take my shit, because it's deathclaws, and all deathclaws are Bethesda's, and I wouldn't be this popular without that, I should expect people to take my stuff, it's the internet - I am just one person making fanart. and I am very tired.) I think the biggest problem I have with people taking my designs for TTRPG assets is that it's the only reaction they have sometimes. the 'wow cool! can I take this?' reaction akin to a little child shoving things in their mouth. That doesn't reflect well on you, and for the artist it doesn't feel good. And most tabletop gaming these days is casual sessions that usually center around getting the campaign itself done with little creativity beyond what the players bring to the table, which results in using other peoples' art they found on google without being creative about it at all, which is why you'll see a lot of artists who have beef with it, because it also doesn't feel good. All this to say - if you ask and are respectful and credit back, it still feels weird to me, but like... sure! I do this for fun and to express creativity, so if it encourages other people to also have fun and express their creativity, I'd feel bad saying no to an earnest request! It's fanart, we're all fans here, etc But also most people who aren't respectful won't ask, won't be creative, or will get mad when I say Can You Don't, so I'm kinda preaching to the wrong crowd here - to those people, you're right, I can't stop you from doing it anyway. but it will not put you in my good books

#staring last year's anons in the eyes for getting mad at me for apparently having the gall to be good at a thing people like #i don't earn money from this and i'm medically unemployed so when people just take it without asking it's kind of just sad :/#the general vibe of ttrpg 'Asset' Takers is the same as AI bros. they don't care for the art or artist. they just want a cool image #so if you don't act like that we'll get along just fine #long post

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pointless-discourse · 6 months

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homestuck characters as related to trans stuff

head canon

JOHN EGBERT

closeted repping tgirl who will likely not realize she's trans until after 16

avoids mirrors, unhappy with appearance but tries to avoid looking at it

gets dressed in the dark

once she comes out she's gonna dress like the most hideous anime girl for the first few months

like goes HAM

her fav nerd shirts paired with a weird fucking skirt but eventually it looks really good just because of how much time she spends on it now that she likes how she looks

DAVE STRIDER

cool cis guy that will respect the pronouns

will treat people the same regardless of transness

goes down the transfem nonbinary any pronouns route in mid 20s

unfathomably chill

JADE HARLEY

divisive subject. either cool nerdy tgirl or closeted trans guy

tgirl jade puts a lot of effort into dressing for the sake of mirrors

doesn't necessarily look GOOD (ultranerd furry island social recluse) but she looks intresting

however tgirl jade doesn't voicetrain and not only is her voice kinda clocky but also very hoarse from lack of use

closeted transguy/transmasc nonbinary jade is very online and performative feminine stuff until he realizes in his late teens he's trans

does not learn what trans is until late teens, very in sheltered parts of the internet despite being very online

was out online years before he came out irl

third option: chill cis girl who, during

ROSE LALONDE

terf

no hate to rose she is one of my top three characters in all of homestuck but she is very terf vibes

she spends a lot of time "debating" with trans people online (harassment) and frequents a lot of terf forums

i think that after a few years of earth c and maybe meteorstuck she grows past it and eventually to her it's not a fight she's proud to be the lead general of but a phase she's really embarassed of, much like her other silly 13 year old traits

i also really like tgirl rose, not for character basis but i think its cool and i (obviously) love trans headcanons

KARKAT VANTAS

i am very divided between ftm and cis guy.

cis guy karkat is cool, he's very much just some guy who's comfortable in his "girly" hobbies and, while isn't really tied into his physical appearance, isn't dysphoric and is just a little insecure

however: humanstuck karkat will always be trans in my mind, just for the persecution bit, although i would also buy ethnically-middle-eastern adopted into a white american family karkat

he'd be a truscum or just kinda shitty to nonpassing trans people i think, we've seen how many alternian empire boots he licks so conforming to the status quo as a pick-me minority is not above him

again i think he would grow out of it in his later teen years/early 20s (like in the comic) but i don't ever see humanstuck karkat escaping the eternal shame that kind comes with being trans

ARADIA MEDIG0

ily weird unnerving tgirl aradia she is like so that to me. she reminds me of the boymoder NEET memes i see chronically online trans girls on reddit posting

but also i do equally enjoy weird girlboss cis girl aradia

either way she is far too etheral to be bothered with gender stuff

like you could come out to her with sixteen hard to pronounce xenos, pass so badly you unearth masculinity/feminity so prominent it burns to the touch, and she would not give a single fuck. and she would never mess up with pronouns and shit

tAVROS nITRAM

i see her as a hardcore deep deep in the closet repper tgirl as like a core part of my interpretations and yet i can never imagine her coming out

like i just see her boymoding forever

not really? like i think it would happen eventually i just can't visualize it

hypothetically i could see her being one of those cool goth girls named lilith but it seems very removed from the original starting point

2OLLUX CAPTOR

repping tgirl or amab nonbinary or just plain cis

either way still horrifically greasy and that will never change

there is no self reflection that will even vaguely incentivize sollux to maintain his hygeine

:33< NEPETA LEJION

cis girl

maybe comes out as ftm in 20s? if trans, i could also see nepeta repping till death

like just a weird cis girl who is like "oh, you're trans? just like in my warrior cats rp discord server!"

again, gives more of a fuck about gender than aradia but it is close

she just cares if you will listen to her talk about her ships and art

nepeta is the type of person where it might take her a while get the new name and stuff right

"HER PRONOUNS ARE THEY/THEM!"

but she would be your staunch defender

KANAYA MARYAM

eh? nothing strong here, i don't really have a hc for her

but there is a lot of mtf symbolism in the comic and i do enjoy that

like a socially awkward youngshit who's not out to many people because she can't really bring herself to correct people in public but still has a really passing voice even after first coming out

bad facial dysphoria

do like her as intersex. feels right

TEREZI PYROPE

nonbinary

no genders, all the genders, new genders, old primal genders, everything

both simultaneously afab and amab but not intersex?

the living embodiment of androgyny

probably has a very long list of neos/xenos but is any pronouns

you cannot misgender her. hes too cool.

VRISKAAAAAAAA SERK8!!!!!!!!

transgirl transgirl transgril

literally not even a headcanon at this point vriska is a trans girl and that is that!!!!!!!!

if you disagree im kickng your ass so hard it comes out of your mouth. your days are numbered and that number is 0. (not 8 :( )

EQUIUS

option one: cis gymbro chaser.

he sleeps with trans men to steal their t shots

in the streets he'll occasionally say the weird shit but i know he'd be crankin his hog to futa/cuntboy shit by night

option two: trans girl

never comes out because of insecurity but indulges in long hair and the occasional skirt in private and then feels really bad about it

option three: insane roided trans man

t gave him big muscles and big sex drive

option three poiont 5.

racist sexist homophobic nonbinary

like drops the most despicable shit in conversation and finsihes it off with "my pronouns are actually they/them), like one of those nazi femboys

GAMZEE MAKARA

does not gaf

cis (? idk) guy who is fine with any pronouns and crossdresses for fun

i guess not technically cis? but still identifies as a man when it comes down to it. like barely guy

FEFERI PEIXIES

cis girl who is a little infantilizing

if you're transfem she will give you makeup tips

but still a little hugboxy

"oh no you totally pass even though you're 8'100 and have a full beard! women come in all shapes and sizes!" (not shitting on the made up trans girl here, passing is fucking hard and it has no bearing on personal worth)

JANE CROCKER

jane is a repping/closeted trans man and you can pry this from my cold dead hands

the mustache? the projection onto only male figures?

also i think its fun with jane's ties to the girls-only fuchsiablood club that he ends up a dude

also st4t janeroxy my beloved

DIRK STRIDER

gonna be honest here no strong leanings

i am a firm believer that estrogen would save her but i dont really think of dirk as anywhere on the gender spectrum

maybe just cis dirk? i could buy cis dirk

JAKE ENGLISH

one one hand i would like the transmasc rep being not restricted to hairless twinks and i would enjoy ftm jake that way

transmasc nonbinary jake is an insane concept to me but i do find myself intrested

a little iffy on the trans headcanons (especially transmasc) because a big part of the concept of jake english is that he's a big strong man who takes on the literary role of an objectified girl character and having him be

ROXY LALONDE

ex twinkhon femboy now BDD gigapassoid

literally one of the most gorgeous trans women you will ever meet

creating e substitutes in her laboratory since age 12

again not even those most immersed in trans culture and the ways of clocking would be able to tell thats how good she is

her speaking patterns hail solely from those cutesy minecraft/unboxing youtubers she religiously watched as a small child

however she is fully convinced that she doesn't pass for shit so she believes that every genuine complement and people treating her like a woman is just them being nice

she'll attempt to boymode and go "stealth" in scenarios where she doesn't want to be visibly trans but it fucking backfires because everyone assumes she's ftm

DIRK STRIDER

trans man with literally no basis because my dirk-themed friend is also a trans man

4channer transman robotics nerd dirk my beloved

DAMARA MEGIDO

transfem ig? or cis woman

very girl adjacent

idk i dont think about the dancestors much

RUFIOH NITRAM

cis man

MAYBE trans man

i am also cool with that

MITUNA CAPTOR

cis man

MAYBE transfem nonbinary

KANKRI VANTAS

trans man because very few cis men were tumblr "SJW"s

and he reminds me of of some chronically online trans guys i used to hang around

also hes very fuckign petite and girls and feminend and twinky dinky and im just projecting my dysphoria onto him sorrie kankri fans

MEULIN LEJION

cis fujo girl

when she discovered trans men she was like 'YAAAAAS MPREG'

will respect your pronouns and shit but is VERY HORNY

lowkey chaser that will also date cis people

PORRIM MARYAM

two choices: cool goth transbian or lesbian terf

cool goth transbian is the nice one. first off, she looks a lot like some transfem transition goals ive seen online.

second, cool feminist could also be trans rights and trans people are kinda forced into being political

third, being flat as a board could also be interpreted as her just not having tits (tho she does seem like the type to DIY HRT)

TERF porrim (correct): first, a lot of "feminists" turn out to be bitchy to trans people

second, her activism for groups she's a part of and groups she likes is good, but she really infantilizes kankri, and considering that's the beforan equivalent of hemoracism, if trans people didn't fit her motto she would not hesitate to shit on them

LATULA PYROPE

cis girl. maybe she/they

ARANEA SERKET:

trans girl serkets trans girl serkets

would also buy cis girl that makes you wonder if she's actually a repressed ftm because some of her actions are a littttttttle suspicious

HORRUS ZAHHAK

cis man who ends up hanging out with a lot of trans women anyway due to shared intrests in hyperpop and furry stuff

again very respectful, very small chance that he's chaser-y

KURLOZ MAKARA

i honestly do not know and this isnt because i dont really care about his character, it just evades me

transcends gender

could be cis woman, fuck if i know. i'd buy that

all and neither a gender above our human comprehension

CRONUS AMPORA

trans man that proves tboys are real men because they can be just as creepy and awful as cis men

thinks him being trans means he's immune to all types of discrimination

uses it a pity point/to get out of stuff

MEENAH PEIXIES

maybe tgirl? idk

may just be cis

possibly transmasc nonbinary

tho i lean mostly towards cis woman whos gnc and actually cool with trans peopel (be aware she will still groom them tho)

equal opportunity grooming

CALLIOPE

technically transfem anyway because her body isn't sexed so shes kinda intersex

but even if she wasnt a cherub she would still be transfem anyway

chronically online transgirl who spends most of her time in internet spaces with cis girls of her same age

warrior cats fan

humanstuck calliope hung around the warrior cats girls since elementary and never left

CALIBORN

evil trans man

transmasc for same reasons as calliope

humanstuck caliborn avoided all female socialization because he didn't socialize and instead spent his formative years on 4chan

the nature of the /lgbt/ board probably gave him some shame about being ftm

DAD EGBERT and crocker as well, very similar people

cis man who is a staunch ally

MOM LALONDE

cis ally

she's trying? can't say anything more

will occasionally and unintentionally say some out of pocket shit about trans people she knows when drunk

will mess up the pronouns a lot because very scatterbrained

GRANPA HARLEY:

cis man who lowkey fetishizes trans people

straight but fucks non-passing transmen because he doesn't see them as men

trans women are some exotic fetish

if jade came out he would repair his ways tho

NANNA EGBERT

transphobic

not even a terf because she has beef with feminists

but again if john or jane came out she would badger them at first but her love would win out and she would change her views

BRO STRIDER

personally i see him as a cis man but i think trans man bro strider is cool and also an icon

DIRK'S BRO:

cis bisexual man who is cool with trans people

ROXY'S MOM:

cis woman who is in a fucked up evil messy situationship with a transgirl

will trans rights

GRANDMA ENGLISH:

either a. elder trans woman

or b. cis woman (a little nonbinary) who is accepting

does not know the terminology

"oh so you want to live as a woman now? alright, i suppose. i had a friend like that back in college"

HIC:

evil elder trans woman who has an illegal diy hrt empire

will sell out the trans community if it benefits her

grifter

LIL CAL

i dont know it s scary

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zzthekaiju · 5 months

Text

Best of the Reptiles in Media - 02 - Heart

Here we are again taking a look at some of my favorite scaly heroes. And this time, we go to the realm of animation. That golden frontier where anything is possible.

A lot of people have asked me what my favorite animated film is. And ever since 2016, I've had the definitive answer. It's a film from Japan staring who might be one of my favorite animated protagonists of all time. One that I wish was recognized by way more people than just the cult following his movie got.

You could say that this character...has a special place in my Heart.

And yes, that is his name. You'll learn to appreciate it.

Omae Umasou da na (You are Umasou) (2010) is an anime adaptation of a series of children's books revolving around a belligerent Tyrannosaurus Rex who ends up adopting a baby Ankylosaurus, with all the mishaps that implies. I'll admit, when I heard about this film for the first time, I wasn't sure what to think. Surely, this free film uploaded to Youtube wouldn't possibly--

It proceeded to rewrite my brain chemistry forever. It really is a great film. It's beautiful to look at, the animation is really action-packed and cute at the same time, it's got a gripping story (which I'll get into), and above all, it's main character is a martial arts-practicing Godzilla-looking T-Rex who engages in interspecies adoption. WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE ASKED FOR?!

But enough beating around the bush, why is Heart so compelling to me?

Let's start with an introduction. Heart is a Tyrannosaurus Rex from a prehistoric world whose lost egg winds up found and adopted by a kindly Maiasaura. Unfortunately, a carefree life of fun and peace with his mom and half-brother Light is brought to an end when he discovers his true nature as a "Big Jaw" (as in, carnivore). After running away out of fear of what he might do to his family, he grows up hardening both his soul and his combat skills so that he may survive the unforgiving badlands outside of the forest he grew up in (complete with training montage).

Then, as if life wasn't done throwing him curve balls, Heart is imprinted upon by a little baby Ankylosaurus he was just about to eat (complete with calling him the Japanese word for delicious, hence the name). Soon, Heart is caught between going with his true nature or taking a few cues from his own adoptive mother...

Design-wise, Heart isn't winning any accuracy contests, but then again, no creature here is. And it hardly matters, either. This dino manages to find a great balance between looking like the kind of character I'd want a plushie of (seriously, why haven't we gotten on to that) and one that conveys great ferocity and coolness. A major part of how that's conveyed is his expressions. This guy is a GOLDMINE of reaction faces for almost every occasion. So much so that, long ago on my Instagram page, I posted a compilation of faces that either cracked me up or just showed his facial range in general.

What's your favorite? Let me know in the notes/reblogs!

Anyway, then there's when he fights. And MAN, does it go hard! Heart doesn't exactly wear kiddie gloves when he's put in a combat situation, utilizing heavy kicks and deceptive agility as his opponents barely keep pace. We see him go up against sauropods and other Big Jaws, and really, I just need to show you these GIFs to sum up what it's like.

But that's not where Heart truly shines. It's his role in the narrative. You see, in most dino media aimed towards younger audiences, the big mean carnivore is the villain. This was most prevalent in works like The Land Before Time with Sharptooth, and the Carnotaurs from Disney's Dinosaur (both of which were the stuff of nightmares for little dino nerds like me). Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Giant theropod dinosaurs are indeed scary, so of course they make for good villains. But then you consider that most of these predators aren't hunting our adorable plant-munching protags because they're evil. It's just in their nature as predators. What are they gonna do? Go vegan?

And that's the troublesome crossroads Heart finds himself at. You could say this film offers a deconstruction of the "vicious meat-eating dinosaur" archetype. The Anti-Sharptooth, if you will. We're obviously meant to root for him because he's the protagonist and an altogether pleasant guy, but at the same time, both herbivore and carnivore are fully-sapient beings here, and Heart must feed.

The film does NOT restrain from showing him hunt down his prey, but it has the intelligence to show that this is not malice or even pleasure, it's simple survival instinct. He is a huge shade of grey in what would otherwise be a very black-and-white scenario in any other film. And it gets even harder for Heart when Umasou enters the picture.

For the record, almost all of Heart and Umasou's interactions are the definition of adorable. Little Umasou is such a little ball of sunshine both inside and out, and poor Heart just doesn't have the...well, heart...to either eat or abandon him. Seeing his exasperation while keeping him safe while also training him in the ways of fighting like an anime protagonist (complete with training montage) is all kinds of endearing and a testament to Heart's strength of character. Of course, it leads to the inevitable point where he has to let him go...but unlike the source material, it doesn't take. Umasou knows that he and his adoptive dad are as different as can be, but he doesn't care. He's his family, and vice versa, something Heart comes to accept whole-heartedly (I did it again, didn't I).

And with that, the ending to this amazing nature vs. nurture story is very bittersweet, starting with Heart and Umasou reuniting with the former's mom.

Actually, before I keep going, I just want you to know that this scene in which they finally see each other again made me go from "wow, great movie, ten out of ten" to "I NEED TO TALK TO MY MOM!!!" in less than a minute. Seriously, if you're looking to strengthen your maternal bonds, watch this movie and watch the magic happen.

Aaaaanyway, after a heated battle between Heart and the one implied to be his real dad, the truth remains that he can't stay. He's resigned himself to a life as an outcast, never being compatible with his parent and brother's kind while at the same time being shunned by his fellow Big Jaw for adopting food. Nevertheless, he leaves in high spirits, having mended what had for the longest time been a broken bond. That, and he doesn't have to be a straggler alone, anyhow.

Really, Heart is everything I love about a lot of protags in one big package. He's a reptile (a dinosaur no less), he's a badass, he's a nice guy, he rages against what he is in order to be WHO he wants to be, and he's undoubtedly dad of the year. I hope more people come to recognize and appreciate him as much as I do.

Also, he's heavily implied to be in a steady relationship with an adorable Elasmosaurus, so he's got that "interspecies romance" trope possibly going for him too! C'mon, fellow You are Umasou fans old and hopefully new, you can't tell me you don't see it too!

#best of the reptiles in media #ramblings #dinosaurs #you are umasou #heart

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dawns-beauty · 4 months

Note

hey there! i wanted to ask you some more mod questions :) do you have any go-to mods you prefer for character customization? not necessarily ones for the same playthrough. this could be skin textures or cool presets or racemenu things. hope you’re having a wonderful day <3

Hi! Oh-h-h man, I use a TON of these mods for NPC design alone

Get ready for a big 'ol list of as many links as I can post XD Hopefully some of it is new or interesting to you!

First off, some QoL RaceMenu things:

Another Race Menu Rotation Mod - you spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round, like a record, baby...

Stand Still in RaceMenu (OAR) - mostly useful if you open RM after initial character creation, like me. Stops your character from moving, though it takes a little bit to happen for me

RaceMenu Overlays (my beloveds)

Freckle Mania 2 (works fine for Skyrim SE)

Lamenthia's Marks of Beauty

Skin Feature Overlays

Vanilla Warpaints Absolution

Koralina's Freckles and Moles

Koralina has also done some nice makeup mods, and Makeup Mods - Male Support has some invaluable patches for them and more

RM Sliders

Another type of mod I use from practically everything is Expressive Facegen Morphs. I tend to use the version packed into High Poly Heads most of the time, but if you just use the default heads the original mod is worth it. The amount of nice, subtle face sliders it adds are just *chef's kiss*

ECE Ear Shape Sliders for RaceMenu is a new one to me, but I am never going without it. It allows for waaaay more (and better!) ear shape variations than RM alone.

More Scars Slider adds a nifty way to layer different scar types. I highly recommend the Northborn Scars patch.

Hair

Mild Hair Colors is a nice replacement for vanilla hair colors.

I feel like I use every non-SMP hair mod in existence, and only like bits and pieces of each lol.

High Poly Vanilla Hairs was my standard default hair replacer (and I still think it is unmatched on braided styles) but I'm also using Vanilla Hair Remake more and more.

Beards

I like vanilla mashups more than completely new stuff like Beards of Power, so really just use Beards, SV Beards, The Art of the Beard, and Blackbeerd's Beards.

Brows

Kalilies Brows - offers some less perfectly plucked options

Blackmoon's Brows

LM's Eyebrows SSE

Body Textures

Right now for body textures I'm using Tempered Skins for Males, due to the fact it has an option without insane muscles (even has a smooth, ab-less abdomen!)

For the ladies, I'm using Reverie - Skin. I think the body textures are a little on the smooth side (pore/wrinkle-wise) for my preferences, but the elf face textures preserve the brow ridge, which I LOVE. With it, I also like Female Bosmer Normal Map Fix.

For race-specific stuff:

Khajiit

For Khajiit, I use Lioness Look (textures only) and Khajiit Male Lion Textures.

LM's Beast Teeth - excellent teeth for Khajiit and Argonians

3D Khajiit Brows

I like to use Khajiit Overhaul heads, though the default male head is pretty funky, so I use this preset as a base.

Separated Khajiit Earrings for Character Creation lets you add earrings to any Khajiit hairstyle

K.C.C.E Khajiit Character Creation Extended - like EFM for Khajiit: offers a whole lot of sliders

Orcs

For Orcs, I like Closed Mouths for Orcs, but if you like the bigger teeth default look, I recommend Orcodontist.

I also made a mod for making orc horns horn-colored and more.

Bosmer

For Bosmer, you can't beat Cuyi's Bosmeri Antlers (and perhaps Sharpened Teeth.)

Argonians

Probably my fave Argonian hair mod is Hott Argonians with Argonian Feather Hair (Hairstyles only.) It has awesome unique feather textures. I also like to use my whole series of Argonian mods XD

Argonian Creation Extension is like K.C.C.E. but for Argonians. Good stuff!

Color Matching Feathers for Argonian Tails

Kabu's Argonian Fins

Argonian Face Horns

Dunmer

Dunmer Scarification - I have some hesitation about recommending it, because right now the compatibility with different skin types isn't great. But! love the idea and hope to work with it in the future.

Bodies (nudity warning)

YMMV, I haven't tried all these in game, but I want a spot to save them anyways. I would like to set up the mod (AutoBody?) that uses presets to add variety to NPC body types at some point.

Tested and approved:

Argonians Are Not Mammals

Female Hands Redone

The Common Guy

Realistic Body Presets - CBBE

CBBE Barbarian

Untested:

Himbo Fat Preset

CBBE - Hefty Mama

CBBE Bodyslide Preset - Warrior Woman

CBBE Rugged

(If you know of any other good body presets for variety (especially male ones), lmk)

#skyrim #skyrim mods #answer #mod recs

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ranticore · 4 months

Note

We know the werewolves were one guys specific indentured servants. Are there any other monsters that were just one specific guy’s? Actually. Is that wizard still around and how does he (it?) feel about it? Did Revelation’s specific underlings also get hit especially hard or just it?

Anyway your Kosa setting is cool as hell and I love everyone and also Revelation. And its wife guy (guy who is a wife guy to it).

hiii i'm going to answer all your asks in this one post to make things easier, thank you so much for giving me a lot of stuff to think about

Anyway, werewolves! It's accepted that pretty much every wizard had a lot of servants, this guy (Onozar The Transcendent, the green wyrm with red markings) just happened to have a lot in the general region i do most of my worldbuilding in (the two of Kosa is here, the Ama plains, other areas etc). That means werewolves are pretty common here, and have spread elsewhere from here, but other areas and regions have their own different population densities of werewolves and other 'beastified servant' type monsters.

Onozar isn't open about it, his faces are now very different to how he looked back in the day (aka the face on the werewolf masks) and he has very purposefully put his past behind him. Yes he did terrible stuff and was essentially a magical dictator once upon a time. But that was so long ago and he was punished for it so as far as he's concerned he's done with it and the werewolves are unrelated to him (and if somebody else brings it up omg you're all so obsessed with the past, don't you know people grow and change?? it was NORMAL to have slaves back then okay it was just part of the culture and it's honestly really suspicious and hurtful that you would bring this up to attack him at a time like this, and-)

Revelation was not a big shot among wizards. It had servants yes but not so many that they became their own species of monster (many of the monsterifications were chosen as a form of dramatic irony based on the individual person's personality). I still have to design a bunch of other monster types but I'll say yes they were probably hit harder than they should have been, everybody in and around Revelation's tower were made An Example.

It's a little easier to scapegoat the guy who has no real influence and no real friends in this social circle ain't it

He's only good at killing crawling beasts lol, that's partially why king harpies evolved after all - to fight and kill the crawlers, which are very strong but not very fast. His type eat mainly rabbits and hares, and he tends to be not quite fast enough to consistently catch them himself, the much swifter and smaller cobs and pens take care of that (he still runs far faster than a human tho, he's had some luck catching antelopes if he gets close enough before the chase). He is part of a flock, he just kinda... drifted away from living with the others, splitting his attention between Revelation and his other duties. Like many kings he's fighty and opinionated, with the added assurance of a creature that knows it's too big and strong to fall prey to... pretty much everything else. He enjoys art and beautiful things and has happily worked in alliance with the local wolfmen packs in the past in return for some of their dye products.

So his flock is a multi-type coalition between a collection of eyries (or whatever word I'll use for the small harpy settlements that form under the banner of a single flock). He's not the all-king of the flock, but he is the king of the terror bird types. The other types within the flock are all ground-nesting but not necessarily flightless harpies. His eyrie has about thirty individuals living there and he had three tiercels (not including Revelation). Revelation didn't kill all his flockmates but it did quietly disappear his other tiercels at some point. I need to do a little more work on them but yea

These different characters actually represent different time periods in the setting (the guy, Ambrose, is from the 1600s, while Mikalai and Cuinn come from the 1800s!). I think the whole thing with Revelation is much earlier, going for a more medieval look with those guys. It means that Revelation's march is technically just a part of history for Cuinn and the rest of them :) The world didn't end. But it DID change (.... not many wyrms around these days, anymore, i wonder what happened to them...)

#ice storm over kosa #lot less magic in the world by the 1800s as well wonder what happened to change that

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hvllowheart · 10 months

Note

hi! regarding your last post about abandoning projects, do you have any advice for overcoming that?

I do!

1. Write something you're passionate about.

Now, I get that everyone constantly says that, and you'll think, "that tells me absolutely nothing" bc passion can only get you so far and usually fluctuates a lot. It's something I've started to realize happens to me. One day I wake up and have a new idea I love and think "wow this is gonna be a piece of cake to finish" despite me knowing it's going to entail a lot of planning and once I get the inital idea out of the way and get to that planning stage my attention for the project... dies.

What I mean with that is to write something you're passionate about is that you shouldn't write something into the project you feel like others will like. Or if it's a project with tropes in it, that you have to follow those to the T.

If an idea is boring, don't write it.

If you have a cool idea that might not fit the vibe entirely, write it down. Keep it in mind for later when it could fit the vibe better.

Incorporate as many things you love as you like and then worry about how the broader plot can shape around them.

2. Don't write in order of what's supposed to happen.

I know it'll make you feel better to feel like you have a clear point A to B but truth is, some parts are going to be extremely boring to write. You won't want to write all about the logistics of a scene happening right that moment or the spicy dialogue that carries the scene bc you're way more focused on another detail that drew you to write a particular scene.

In those cases, I usually just put whatever is supposed to happen in brackets [insert car chase here] and move on the bits I'm excited to get to. You might wake up a couple of days later thinking you want to revisit that car chase scene and write it all in one go now that you've stopped obsessing over a different scene you cared for before.

3. Make the experience more fun for yourself.

If you feel like you're burning out and losing steam from writing and planning the project, take a step back and do something else.

If I still feel like doing something with the project that isn't necessarily write it, I tend to end up making edits or a playlist or looking for inspiration pictures that might give me an idea of a new setting or what a character will look like. And that's what usually keeps my brain working and thinking about the plot.

As soon as another idea pops into my head bc of the space I took not writing the projects itself, I write it down and get reinspired to work on it.

4. Look for inspiration.

As mentioned in 3., I can't recommend enough to look for inspiration in pictures or boards on pinterest or a song or a quote you really love. Trust me, seeing a cool picture or reading a quote that immediately makes you think of a specific character makes you itch to get back to writing.

It also allows your writing to grow when you take the time to look for inspiration. Writing everything in one go might make you feel productive but the quality could potentially decline the longer you're at it and when you come back to it you'll ask yourself what the hell you were on writing some of the stuff. So taking that time, finding new locations/side characters/some dialogue snippets you could incorporate, will make you feel excited to actually see those ideas and inspirations become part of your project.

5. Take breaks.

This is another one of those things you always hear and think, "that's what leads me to abandon it in the first place??" and while I agree (been there) It's also important not to get burned out by the project.

The breaks shouldn't span entire weeks, of course, but don't beat yourself up when you can't get to the project for a couple of days bc of life happening or something else being more interesting.

Taking those breaks ensures you not only build anticipation, but it also let's the project breathe and allows you the space, to again, think of the broader plot or a specific scene that could be cool to incorporate.

6. Find someone to talk about the project with.

In our day and age, we're lucky to have such big writer communities. Chances are, someone out there will get aboslute brain rot from the project you're working on. Talking to people like that will not only allow you to have someone to bounce ideas off of, but it'll also keep you focused and in a way, hold you accountable to actually see it get to a point you can and want to share more.

Starting up a WIP blog, like the one I and many others have, or a writerblr blog will attract people to the idea and have them reach out to ask questions that again keep you thinking about fun parts of the project and develope the idea.

I have a friend I constantly talk to about every idea he and I get. Not all of them ever see the light of day, but we talk about them, send ideas we think could be cool, and write small snippets of scenes bc we are excited about the project. That not only gets you to a starting point, but also makes the planning way smoother and means you're getting instant feedback.

And that's what usually gets you to write more instead of watching your project collect dust in the drafts.

7. Write every single idea down.

This is also something everyone says, but it's true. Chances are, you forget the idea and kick yourself for it later or you think it won't be as good as you imagine it and then you have a missing scene you don't know what to do with where that idea could have fit.

Sometimes, usually just before bed for me, I get ideas, and since I have my phone close by, I just open the notes app, write down the snippet of a conversation I just thought of or a cool detail I'll add when I get back to the file and BOOM I have the next plot point figured out without actively forcing myself to sit in front of the computer and thinking "what is supposed to happen now??"

Even if the idea is silly or seems wack, I can't recommend writing it down enough. You'll thank yourself for it and in a way train yourself into passively thinking about what could happen next.

I have a dedicated page in my files just for random ideas I got in the middle of the night and while some will not make it into the draft itself, it's still fun to think about them or even write a short scene involving the idea just to see where it goes. Maybe it'll inspire you to take your project into a new exciting direction, too!

8. Don't obsess over word counts/progress made.

It's a recent shift I've noticed, where people obsessively focus on how long a scene/chapter is. Like one being 5k long means it's somehow better than a scene that's only a couple hundred words long, but concise and has the kind of structure that keeps you engaged.

If you feel like a scene is done and you're happy with it, even if it's short, leave it. Maybe you'll come back to it and add more, but maybe you'll realize it's perfect the way it is and doesn't need unnecessary details added.

9. Don't get lost in the details.

This is something I've neen prone to do. Obsessing over a single detail or scene to the point that working on it becomes exhausting because I couldn't move on.

It's what kills your drive to write on the project fairly quickly and relates to the point I made to just put whatever is supposed to happen in brackets to revisit later.

The details are usually what make the story feel personalized, but it's also so easy to get lost in them. Writing the broader scene down and revisiting it sometime later to add those details is going to keep you writing and engaged with what you want to make the project into.

10. It's YOUR project, don't forget that.

Sometimes I've started things I thought were fics or stories I'd love to explore only to realize I'm not the best writer for those or that the writing part just isn't as fun as I hoped it could be.

You need to be aware of when to cut your losses. If the project starts to feel more like a drag than what you initially started with, scrap it OR, and this is something I've started to seriously do, is to rewrite/re-plot it from the beginning.

It is time-consuming, but you'll feel better for it in the long run if you take the bits you like and forget the ones you don't and build the project anew. It's tedious but really rewarding once you manage to get to the parts that were there before discouraging you from finishing the project in the first place. And the most important thing is that you're happy with your project.

♡

Of course, what works for me might not work for others, but those are some of the broader things I can recommend you try :) I hope I was able to help a little!

#asks #writing advice #kind of??#this is so long help #long post

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ladytabletop · 1 year

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Game Roundup 2023 - Part 1

So I made it a mission to read through the games I've gotten in various bundles in the past. And it's uh... an undertaking.

But! I've read a lot of cool games and encountered a lot of new concepts.

For reasons (namely that I have a few thousand games) I am not going to mention every game in these posts, just ones that caught my attention for one reason or another. And in keeping with my reflection on ratings earlier this year, I'm going to refrain from critiquing the stuff I mention here - I may say "this one isn't one I'd personally play" or "there was some unpolished stuff in here", but I'm going to focus mainly on the positives and why the game grabbed me.

So, here we go!

Blades in the Dark by John Harper

Yeah, yeah, I know, this game is talked about a lot! But consider me a recent student of TTRPG history outside of d20 systems. I got the chance to play this game for several sessions and read the rulebook cover to cover. The stuff that works, really works. The stuff that doesn't? Bogs the whole thing down. But I find clocks to be such an intuitive mechanic, and downtimes is really a delight to me. There's a whole ton of Forged in the Dark stuff that toggles a bunch of the game's switches on and off to make things more streamlined. Was very glad to read this one.

Lumen by Spencer Campbell (GilaRPGs)

I made it a mission to read SRDs this year. I want to understand the how and why of the games I've been reading: why are they built the way they are, what is accomplished in building them this way, and can I build games this way myself? Spencer has a really solid handle on what he wants his games to do. They're power fantasies with little if any chance for failure. It's not about whether you do the thing, it's about how. I ended up having the chance to meet Spencer at GenCon, and I'm really excited to see Lumen 2.0, which is going to be completely diceless. Power fantasy games aren't my thing typically, but I really appreciate the intentionality of this system's design.

Are My Wings Even? by Sadia Bies

What a lovely, simple game that lets you play dress-up! This one isn't necessarily as polished as some of the others but you can tell it was designed with so much care and personal meaning. I love a tactile game. I love dressing up. This one has so much potential to be really tender. It won't be for everyone and that's okay, but I really adore it.

Sprouts by Julie-Anne "Jam" Munoz

This game came to me in a bundle for Trans Rights in FL, but I actually dug into it when I was looking for RPGs to play with kids. You draw your character on a post-it, and it's just a silly little guy! It has a pretty simple roll mechanic and advises a "get from point A to point B" adventure style, which takes place in actual 3D space in your home, because didn't you know? Sprouts live in your home, like dust bunnies! It's got really great language for children and emphasizes cooperation, and that you can't mess up your drawing - sprouts are sprouts.

The Wildsea by Felix Isaacs

I know, I know, I talk about this game too much! But really, it's been the gateway into other games for me. I think technically I probably read this last year, but I had to brush up for GenCon this year, so I'm counting it. Lots of folks have compared the tracks in this game to Blades' clocks, but they sprang up parallel, funnily enough! It has some definitely shared DNA in its design, and it rewards you for things out of combat more than things in combat, if that's how you want to play. The setting is lovely, the community is lovely, and really it was a joy to read, even as long as it is.

I'll do another of these soon, I imagine.

#the lady rambles #game roundup 2023 #well I had more to say than I thought #trying to grab some big stuff and some small stuff

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pomrania · 18 days

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So in the notes of that "skywhalefall" post, I've seen a bunch of people calling it a type of "cosmic horror" and. Like. Either their definition of "cosmic horror" is a lot broader than it is for me, or I failed at getting across what I intended to convey, or I have a really fucked-up sense of what isn't "horror".

Suppose it's best to start with definitions. From what I've gathered, "cosmic horror" is a type of horror that focuses on how humanity is small and insignificant and powerless in the grand scheme of things, and what exists is far weirder than you could ever imagine, and a whole bunch of it is inherently "hostile" to life as we know it (not necessarily out of malice, just out of environmental incompatibility, like radiation). And, most importantly, it's HORROR; if the emotion you get from it is "wow there's so much cool stuff out there", then either the intended response failed to be engendered in the audience (due to lack of skill, or a changing context, or someone having a stupidly high threshold for "getting scared"), or it's not actually "cosmic horror".

I do not like "horror". I find it an entirely unpleasant emotion to experience. I do however like "weird stuff", alien creatures and environments completely outside of our normal experience. I love it in fiction, when it's able to be properly conveyed; and it's fascinating when it's NOT fiction, just a corner of our actual real-life world where what we take for granted doesn't exist and yet life still manages to be there. Like the really deep ocean.

(Some people call those weird-looking fish "nightmares". And like, it's true that you -- as a relatively large chunk of relatively undefended organic matter -- wouldn't necessarily be safe from them at least TRYING to eat you, but you'd have worse problems if you were in the same environment as them, like the temperature and the pressure and oh yeah the fact that it's completely under water so you wouldn't be able to breathe. And I don't know about other people, but for me, THAT aspect of it is more likely to show up in any nightmares I might have; you can theoretically frighten away or fight off any creature, but not the water surrounding you on all directions.)

I just... are people using "cosmic horror" these days to describe "thing that comes out of nowhere and is completely different to life as you know it"? Because that makes even LESS sense than using it to describe a particular aesthetic, since at least "tentacles" and "like only part of it can be shown in three dimensions at a time" are from foundational works in the subgenre. I mean, it's POSSIBLE to write cosmic horror describing, say, an actual-ass tortoise -- I've read that, it was cool -- but that doesn't mean an tortoises in general should be considered "cosmic horror".

Or is it like, it's considered "cosmic horror" if it forefronts how people aren't in control of everything in the world? Because, ah, that was just everyday reality for almost all of human history everywhere; and even when you don't have to worry about predators who might think you're prey, or the fickleness of weather for your crops, there's still natural disasters, and environments that are very much not hospitable to humanity. Does "being caught in a storm at sea" or "suffering from oxygen deprivation on a tall mountain" or "there's a wildfire" count as "cosmic horror" for people?

Maybe we just need a better term for "the universe is vaster and WAY stranger than you'd previously imagined", which doesn't include the "...and that's a bad thing, for you in particular" that you get for "cosmic horror". "Cosmic wonder" might work, if it didn't sound like a lipstick brand, or some New Age workshop.

#filler tag #not a reblog #rambling

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icedragonlizard · 5 months

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Let's talk about Ice Dragon

I mean.. this thing is literally my namesake! Let me give it recognition.

I know I frequently post about characters such as Susie, Magolor and Marx, and yet I have "icedragonlizard" as my username which would imply that I should be more all over this big chubby blue dinosaur.

Funny of me to be acting the way I do.

However... despite seldom talking about him, I do love this thing.

I chose this username for two reasons: 1.) to stand out and 2.) while Ice Dragon may not necessarily be my top favorite character in all of Kirby, it is however one of my very favorite designs in the series!

I adore the appearance of this big cute silly thing.

He's big. He's chubby. He's blue. He looks very squishy. I want to hug him even if he'd bite me or turn me into an ice cube. He just straight up looks like a dinosaur, despite having dragon in his name. This is like the perfect sort of kawaii dinosaur design you'd expect in Kirby.

He looks like the substitute decoy from pokemon, LOL.

We don't have much reptiles in Kirby. There's also Landia, of course, which is another dragon. And there are also Galbos, an enemy species with evolved variants such as Galboros. I've noticed the visual similarities that Ice Dragon has to Galbos. May they be related at all?

I think the biggest problem with Ice Dragon is that he... isn't much of a character. He's very under-utilized. As far as I know, all his main appearances are: a boss in Dream Land 2 where he debuted, he's a painting that Adeleine summons in Dream Land 3, 64 and Star Allies (the former two as bosses, the latter as playable), he's a hologram in Planet Robobot, and if I'm not mistaken he also shows up in the clash games. I've never actually played the clash games but I've seen images of him in it.

And the fact he sadly has little recognition in the fandom in general.

He's much less major than other boss characters like Whispy Woods and Kracko. At least those two show up in like almost every game.

He doesn't even have a mask of his likeliness in Merry Magoland!

At least he does appear in the anime, though. I think it was cool the way they handled him, where they gave him a small version and then he just grew really gigantic.

There's unfortunately just very little to work with or talk about with Ice Dragon. One can try to rectify this with headcanons, which I've tried.

I do have headcanons for him.... it's just not a ton due to how little and minor of a character he is. For one, I headcanon that he's the king of whatever is Popstar's main snowy/arctic area, whether that be Iceberg (from DL2 and DL3) or White Wafers (from RTDL). And I imagine he's friends with King Dedede or at least gets along with him well, since they both serve as kings in their respective lands. Adeleine and the animal friends may know him and get along with him well, too, since the former even has paintings of him that she can summon.

If Ice Dragon was more major than he is... if they made him a more frequent boss and did more with him, I'd be all over it. I'd talk about him a lot more. I'd develop more headcanons for him at that point!

I once thought about that if Forgotten Land was willing to include dinosaur-like creatures during its game, then a primal version of Ice Dragon would've been absolutely perfect for the Winter Horns section.

If they ever do a Kirby game that includes dinosaurs, whether they be the villain faction or something else, then I think Ice Dragon himself or a relative could show up, and the aesthetic of his design could be a great base for other dinosaur creatures that get added in the series.

^ Just an idea, more ideas could be made.

This could be said for a lot of other characters in Kirby, I know, but I think a lot of really cool and awesome stuff could be done with Ice Dragon if HAL were to utilize him as such. I'd love to see it happen.

Oh and by the way, I'm aware that a plushie for Ice Dragon exists... it's from the Roly-Poly Friends merch line, but it's extremely rare to find and also costs a ton of money. It's out of my luxury to get it, sadly.

I would love to see a Sanei plushie of this guy come out at some point. I did say after all that I'd expand on my plushie collection more when they introduce more Sanei plushies later down the road, didn't I? Hahahahaha. Although I have the feeling that may take a while. That's fine. No need to rush. But if an Ice Dragon plush from Sanei comes into existence, I'm going to get it in a heartbeat. It'll be great.

#kirby #ice dragon #ice dragon kirby #kirby's dream land 2 #kirby's dreamland 2 #kirby's dream land 3 #kirby's dreamland 3 #kirby 64 the crystal shards #kirby planet robobot #kirby star allies #team kirby clash deluxe #super kirby clash

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valentine-writes · 1 year

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hiii would love to see anything about miguel or spot!! if it’s not too much trouble!

in a good way.

「 tws + notes: no tws, unedited, might be ooc, almost all fluff, ok maybe a little angst but nothing crazy, pining becuz im a sucker for the chase, they are Yearning 」

「 gn!reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

↳ ft. miguel o'hara/spider-man 2099 and the spot/johnathan ohnn

author's note: I LOVE U ANON!! IT IZ NO TROUBLE AT ALL!! i hope these suffice,, plz 4give me if miguel's part is lackin just a bit!! im workin on writing him more accurately (*ﾉε｀*) <3 and y'all ATE UPPP the hcs for the spot last time so,, i hope y'all end up liking these too!! (also psstt,, usually i take into acc reader's personality here but since nothing specifically was requested, i'll try to keep it vague! sorry if certain parts aren't what you'd like!!)

MIGUEL O' HARA headcanons:

"i didn't know i was capable of being happy right now / but you showed me how"

▸ he's already lost,, a lot. this man is someone who had lost everything he had ever loved in pursuit of keeping it with him

so when he finds himself growing attached to you?? he feels like it's something he simply can't afford

he's doing everything to make sure he doesn't end up too attached, that you never get any closer to him

however– overtime, he finds that you are unavoidable. whether you're doing it on purpose or subconsciously, you always manage to pull him back to you.

just when he thought he had finally left you behind for good, you lure right him back in.

▸ i've seen a lotta hcs saying he's like,, smooth w/ it and stuff– BUT... part of me thinks that he doesn't have a clue about what to do with his feelings towards you

and he is far too prideful to ask for any sort of help or advice from anyone.

...so does it take an immense amount of time for him to even consider that it's okay to wanna be close to you? yes.

but he's weak for you. he knows it. part of him really, really doesn't want to be. but he is. and though he tries to convince himself it's not evident, it doesn't take a genius to realize it

▸ especially because miguel allows more to slide if it's you. this especially manifests in touching.

while miguel's not all "ew don't touch me" he doesn't really care for brief, friendly touches. this is different when it's you.

he might be speaking to you after a mission. while he talks, you're silently tracing the tips of his fingers with your own, observing his hands like they're the most interesting thing in the world.

"are you even listening to me?" he questions. there's a slight hint of irritation in his voice, his brow furrowing slightly. this expression of his softens almost immediately as you look up at him, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"...your talons," you comment quietly, "they're retractable. that's cool."

he makes no effort to pull his hand away from yours. maybe he even secretly hopes you'll do it again sometime.

▸ miguel might be haunted by loving and losing from his past. but maybe loving you isn't such a bad thing. maybe it's a pain he's willing to endure. he'll try for you.

for you, it's worth it.

▸ OK GETTING LESS SERIOUS HERE. so i understand in atsv his fangs are retractable. but in the comics, it's noted that he tends to open his mouth very little when talking to conceal them.

i love this first of all.

now, miguel's not necessarily insecure of his fangs or his teeth (which are slightly crooked because of the new growth of his sharpened canines) but i imagine that he finds it easier to just keep them hidden and avoid any questions.

if he has to explain he's not a vampire to someone again he'll genuinely explode

"morning, migs–" you greet casually. another sign of his lenience towards you– he lets you give him nicknames.

"morning." he mutters back, just barely audible to you

you blink at him, trying to process what he said. "huh?"

"i said, good morning." he repeats, still mumbling without much of a volume change.

"damn, okay, okay– what's with all the grumbling? something got you stressed?" you're aware your question is stupid. knowing miguel, who always finds something to stress about– even at 8:30 am

he shakes his head this time, much to your surprise.

"i'm not grumbling." miguel insists.

"sounds to me like you are."

("nuh uh"

"fym nuh uh–")

miguel– when not bossing people around– is out here, mumbling and grumbling in casual conversation

and you're the one who's trying to remind him to speak up.

▸ no matter what relationship you're in– friendship, queerplatonic, romantic, whatever– he's generally a bit more reserved about it.

he sees it like this: if you two are close, why would it be anyone else's business?

however a certain holographic companion and her big mouth (which i wanna kiss oh so sweetly i heart lyla) ends up making a little joke about you two in front of a few other spider-people

lyla's casual abt it– saying sumn like, "don't mind him, he's being grumpy because his favourite isn't around."

name-drops you before miguel can tell her to shut up– and everyone's like "?!?!?!"

and the word SPREADS

▸ but like. is it really too much of a surprise? more than often, he finds himself trying to check up on you to see how you're doing.

"just making sure you're fine." is his weak little excuse just to see your face and hear your voice again.

when something is just mildly wrong though... he's the type to scold while taking care of it.

"i'm fine," you shrug, trying to rub some warmth into your arms, "just a little cold."

"i told you to bring a sweater." he groans, looking around for his.

those seemed to be miguel's favourite words sometimes: "i told you."

"i know..." you mumble sheepishly, staring at your shoes.

before you can say anything else, he drapes his sweater over your shoulders. "next time, i'm letting you freeze."

you look up at him with a little smile, mouthing a quiet "thank you" to him.

(there is no next time. he lets you keep the sweater.)

▸ ok one last headcanon cuz im obsessed w/ the little details abt this man. so. canonically (and i love this) HE DOESNT HAVE SPIDER-SENSES LIKE MOST SPIDER-PEOPLE.

instead, he has elevated super-human hearing and vision. but– (if you're like me) when this information is revealed to you,,, the immediate thought is to mess w/ him as much as possible.

trying to sneak up on him and startle him has become a common game between the two of you– so much so, that he's almost expecting you to be around every corner he passes if he hasn't seen you in a while.

he catches you before you get the chance on occasion. you forget to hold your breath and he hears you. your heart is beating hard, out of the sheer adrenaline rush of hiding and he picks it up. maybe you didn't notice that you're not fully concealed.

each time, he'll sigh exasperatedly and pull you out of your hiding spot.

"you think you're so funny." his grip is still on you, and though most would read his expression as annoyed– you catch the slight glimmer of amusement in his eyes. you're just lucky he finds your antics endearing.

on the chance you do manage to genuinely catch him off guard, he curses loudly, immediately going on defence mode

"shocking hell," he groans, upon seeing it's just you, "i was going to web you to the wall."

miguel probably does accidentally web you at some point. "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" he'd say.

(he might act like you're a complete headache sometimes- but ur his headache <3)

THE SPOT/JOHNATHAN OHNN headcanons:

"you make me wanna cry in a good way"

▸ he finds an excuse to talk to you always. (SINCE WHEN DID "I WANNA HEAR YOUR VOICE" NOT BECOME A GOOD EXCUSE) calling you up, messaging you– if you give him permission, he'll ramble a ton to you. about physics, the multiverse– anything he's passionate about.

it means the world to him if you ask him questions about it, actively engage in the conversation, or even just showing that your listening by welcoming his endless chatter. he even tries to impress you with his knowledge. he wants to be perceived as cool in your eyes so bad. craves admiration,, or at least appreciation. and nothing makes him feel more admired than you listening to him talk.

but he's obviously not tryin' to talk your ear off and bore you to death. he wants to hear your voice too– and takes genuine interest whenever you decide to ramble back with whatever's been in your head recently– maybe it's something you find particularly interesting, a piece of media you really like, something you're passionate about– he'll pay attention and listen to every word.

you get a turn and he gets a turn! ´͈ ᵕ `͈

if you happen to share a common interest– whether it's because you got him into it, he got you into it, or you both just liked it in the first place– the back and forth about said topic will be as endless as you want it to be

▸ the type of guy to bump into you constantly while you walk with him (is this also a habit of mine? we'll never know...) and it is PURELY unintentional. he can't walk in a straight line to save his life

he's walking with you casually, and all of a sudden, his shoulder will crash into yours, nearly knocking you off balance

he fumbles over his words a moment, reaching out his arms to catch you– and he manages to break your fall. he regards this as a very smooth move on his end, in spite of the fact he was the cause of you nearly eating pavement

"sorry! i'm so sorry– are you okay? i mean, yeah, you probably are. i caught you. you're welcome–"

"my hero." you reply, with a playful roll of your eyes, giving him a light smack on his arm (earning a little "ow" and a nervous chuckle from him) as you restabilize yourself.

▸speaking on his little “ow haha” moment… headcanon that even though he’s not really all that sensitive, he reacts like he is. the type of guy to say “ow” at every minor discomfort.

he has a mild headache? actually his brain is melting inside his skull and he needs to whine about it. he has a cold? he’s literally dying. when he’s comfortable with you, he’s comfortable enough to complain– even about trivial things

he's well aware it's not actually the end of the world. he's just silly enough to act like it is. very reactive fella :>

totally the type to exaggerate just to see you react,, he thinkz itz funny–

"oww,," he whines, rubbing his arm where you'd just given him a light punch, "you're so mean to me."

you try to stifle a laugh. "man, c'mon. i didn't even hit you that hard."

"it's gonna bruise :((("

"can you even bruise in uh..." you trail off, staring at the his post-collider incident body, white and spotted with black portals "...your state?"

"ok now that actually hurt."

▸ he's more selfless with you. ohnn often finds himself wanting to do anything in his power to make you happy. anything for you. anything.

may be just a teeny bit insane about the way he carries this out, but it's mostly innocent and sweet gestures

like, if you casually mention wanting something, he'll 100% dimension hop just to bring it back to you.

and while you know that he's probably stolen it,,, you can't find it in yourself to blame him. he's got the purest of intentions. his demeanor changes from nervous and awkward to proud, as he presents you with the thing you were just talking about a few days ago.

“no way, dude!” your eyes light up, taking the bag of candy (or whatever you like if you're not a big fan of sweets) he just presented you with, “i haven’t had these in ages- i swore this was discontinued, though. where'd you get them?”

“i have my ways.” you can hear the dorky grin in his voice.

he loved watching your face light up in excitement over even the simplest of gifts.

▸ feels like he's holding you back sometimes. he's well aware that his situation means that you two can’t really be in the public eye. it hurts him to think you could be living a completely normal life if he was just never in that stupid collider… or if he let you go, so you could find someone else

he’d never break up with you though. he feels too selfishly about you– if you’re gone from his life, who else could love him the way you do?

sometimes, these thoughts and worries keep him up at night. expect late night conversations, his face buried in your shoulder as he holds you tight, as if he’s scared you’re going to slip away if he lets go.

there are nights where he has a hard time believing you really wanna live like this.

“hey…” you whisper, pulling away slightly so you can look at him. you gently grab onto his jaw, tilting his chin up so he meets your gaze.

his entire frame is trembling, leaning into your touch. he doesn’t speak.

“you know you’re irreplaceable to me, right?”

he melts at the tenderness of your voice, the patience you have with him. he pulls you in just a little tighter. your comfort never fails him.

▸ TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU THIS MAN IS 100% FOR YOUU. on your side. always.

someone was mean to you? they're an asshole and he hates them.

someone was condescending towards you? they're an idiot and they've got no clue who they're talking to.

but if someone dares to bother you beyond just making you mildly irritated and/or upset– if someone makes you cry?

DAWGGG,, ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE. nevermind if you insist you're fine or that you can deal with it yourself. he's asking for full names, addresses, details– he's revenge motivated. anything for you.

▸ ok moving onto normal fluff for the last bit (ﾉ)'ω`(ヾ)

corny. corny. corny.

he's incredibly endearing with his earnesty as he tries to expresses his adoration for you... but also very cheesy and dorky when it comes to showing you affection.

it's sickeningly sweet, the way he stammers over every compliment, trying to explain how much he loves every bit of you.

giving him a genuine compliment back to shut him up has him nearly fainting.

johnathan likes getting verbal reassurance and praise,, but he's much better at showing his affection via physical touch– of course, only if you don't mind. doesn’t wanna make you uncomfortable!!

but if you're comfy, he ends up craving physical affection as well– i talked abt this in these headcanons but IM BRINGING IT UP AGAIN AS PART OF TOUCHSTARVED JOHNATHAN NATION.

one day, you're leaning into his side sitting close to him on your couch. your cheek rests against his shoulder while your fingers are gently tracing his arm up and down, brushing against his skin with a feather-light touch, absentmindedly. he squirms a little beneath your touch, the room being too quiet for his liking.

"so... what are you doing?" he asks, glancing over at you.

"guess." you reply, not looking up.

you're tracing... something. he can't seem to get why though.

"oh uh- okay." he thinks for a moment, a bit puzzled. after a second, he perks up, piecing it together slowly in his head.

"are you tracing a letter?" johnathan asks curiously.

you nod silently.

"okay, okay– uh... L?"

another nod.

"O?"

nodding again, there's a small smile on your face.

"V? ...oh–" he chuckles slightly, now understanding what you were spelling.

he's amused at your strange way of affection. guess he isn't the only one capable of being sappy.

you laugh softly, finally tracing an E on the skin of his forearm, followed by a U and a little heart <3

"you could've just told me, y'know." in spite of his words, he knows that he likes this. you and your silly ways of showing that you care. the ways you tell him that he's cherished.

you huff, giving him a light smack on his arm. "you're no fun." your eyeroll does little to conceal the grin growing on your face.

he flinches from the playful hit. "owww..."

(YOU TWO ARE SILLY 2GETHER!! SILLY NATION!!!!)

#I HOPE THESE WERE OK!!!! tysm anon for feeding my inbox #methinks i could've done a bit better for migs but idk what y'all wanna see from him tee bee aich #atsv #across the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #spider man: across the spider verse #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara headcanons #the spot #johnathan ohnn #johnathon ohnn #the spot atsv #the spot x reader #johnathan ohnn x reader #the spot headcanons #atsv the spot #again IDK HOW TO TAG FOR THE SPOT #atsv x reader #spiderverse

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tennessoui · 12 days

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Hey Kit!! This past year when the Acolyte came out, my heart broke and I decided to step away from Star Wars. It’s fine that others liked it but personally I didn’t; actually to be frank, I REALLY didn’t like it. Star Wars and Anakin got me through a lot, so watching Disney take an actual shit on his origin and then his redemption ark by half-assing the lore, felt like a punch to the gut, and I had to step away. (This is my personal opinion, if you or others liked it that’s great! I just didn’t). However, when I saw that u published the body politics au, I decided to sit down and catch up on all your fics (btw I love the Hanahaki one!), and it got me back into the fandom. I’m glad one shitty (imo) show didn’t push me away permanently and I have you to thank for that. I’ve met so many great people thru Star Wars and made a lot friends so it had really been kind of hard to turn away from it. I just really wanted to say thank you. your writing is, as always, too beautiful and inspiring to ignore. Star Wars means so much, and I’m so thankful that your work was able to help me look past all the stuff that made me unhappy with it. I hope you have a wonderful day!!

this is very kind to send to me and a very nice morning read! i admit, i actually have not watched the acolyte, though not for any particular reason. i've definitely heard mixed reviews about the show and its take on the jedi order and the sith, which have been sorta sad to read cause i do like the jedi (though i guess i never label myself as pro-jedi cause like? they're the good guys? you're not like. pro-percy jackson or something right? pro-katniss everdeen? you just sorta read the book and you're like oh yeah these are the good guys. might find aspects of a character annoying but i'm definitely not supposed to be rooting for the Capitol or smething right)

but i've also heard from other people that as a pew-pew show, it delivers on that front! lightsaber fights are cool and everyone has a funky haircut that they pull off somehow which does feel quintessentially star wars

my general view of the disney plus star wars shows is that i'll watch the ones that strike my fancy, and if one of them doesn't then i won't. the star wars disney execs produce a lot of content (and i truly mean content, i.e. material to be consumed - not necessarily art) and a lot of it i'm probably never going to watch. it wasn't made for me, and i definitely get the lurch and disappointment you may feel if you look forward to something for ages and then it's not what you wanted in a thousand small ways or a handful of big ways. i think that's especially hard to guard against nowadays when trailers for tv shows rely more on aesthetic and punchy one-liners and brief second cameos than they do explaining the actual story of the show

but you can be a fan without loving the direction some shows go in or the choices directors make!! if that looks like only watching shows that have been peer-reviewed, or if that looks like ignoring everything but a small corner/subset of a massive fandom, or if that looks like turning from the media itself and diving further into fanart and fanfiction and interacting with people online then that's what it looks like! especially now that the world of canon star wars media isn't just 6-9 movies + 2(?) non trilogy movies, you should absolutely go about watching star wars content with a you-first mindset 100%

you know how many people were disappointed in the obi-wan kenobi series?? soooo many because he was a sad little pathetic and broken man with greasy hair. but that's exactly how i like my obi-wan kenobis, so i was thrilled every episode lol but i'm sure other people hated it and boycotted and whatever. but i found my corner of the fandom who also enjoyed that and it's been wonderful <3

so anyway thankyou so much for your very kind words i hope none of that sounded too preachy i was mostly trying to agree with you that it's really great that one (shitty) show did not keep you away from the fandom forever and that you're back!!

welcome back :)

#asks #there is a lot i could say about disney channel star wars shows #but i shant #im late for pub trivia #but im thinking them for sure

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