#loved it loved the focus on a bunch of different characters at least a bit :DD

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Angela continuing to work and Wesley knowing everything XDD poor guy was going through it lol

But AYYY they're having a girl :'DDDD!!!!! AAAHHHHH I'm so excited :)) (I would be no matter the gender lol)

Anyway yes I love them so much 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰❤️❤️😭😭🥰

Sobbing faces because of how much I love them lol

Also the Chenford this episode 🥰🥰 love seeing undercover Lucy content :D

And honestly, lowkey good for that guy xD Fresca or whatever his face is lol. Go live a life free of crime my guy XD

Loved all the little plots (go Aaron, slay 🥰), and I'm happy for Celina :D

Plus the little crossover with feds was fun :D

Speaking of feds it was a great episode, and I'm so glad Laura's okay :) <333

Also AAHHH her and Atlas are cute :)) his acting thinking she was dead was amazing too 😭💔❤️

Anyway I watched the promos and for feds: ooh interesting :o 👀!!

And for the rookie: AAAAHHHHHHH

They better be okay 😭😭😭💔😬 especially Aaron, since Celina seems to be doing slightly better

And o.o Bailey

So if someone's targeting our group in specific, I swear. . . xd no offense to the ones being targeted but hopefully it's those three for a reason and I don't have to worry about Nyla, Tim and Lucy, and Wesley and Angela xd. I'm stressed lol.

Anyway!! Loved this episode :DD

[rawliverandgoronspice]

The Dondon Post (or: the bizarre TotK's side content counterpoints to its main quest's immuable binary morality)

Speaking of strange TotK Choices, I think I have one singe post left in me about this game; and it's about the Dondon quest, "The Beast and the Princess".

(and about other stuff too, you'll see, we'll get to them)

More specifically: about how... strange of a thematic point it feebly attemps to make in the larger context of the storyline, and how it seems to be yet another mark of a world that, perhaps, once tried to be more morally complex that it ended up becoming.

Buckle up: it's a long one, and it gets pretty conceptual.

(good gem boys notwhistanding)

The Princess and the Beast

So, a couple of things about the setup. We are investigating potential Princess sightings; but at this point, either because we have already completed a bunch and know the general gib, because we have met a couple of wild Fake Zelda shenanigans, or through the simple fact that we are completing a side quest, we know there's a good chance it won't lead to an actual Zelda information. So when we ask Penn about what is going on and he replies with the ominous "we saw the Princess riding some kind of beast --a frightening one with huge, brutal tusks-- that the princess seemed to control", we get Ideas. Then the sidequest is registered: "The Princess and the Beast".

So. You know me. And if you don't know me, here's what you should know: my brain immediately flared up with the thought there was no way in hell this wasn't some kind of wink towards Ganondorf's renowned boarish beast form, especially given tusks were given so much focus.

My first assumption was: that's a miniboss right? I will get to fight some small boar-like thing that Fake Zelda rides sometimes. Cool! I didn't hold too hard onto my hope that the relationship of Zelda and/or Ganondorf to the natural world, or to each other would be expanded upon, since I had already been burned before, but my interest was piqued.

You have to understand how starved I was for any hint of complexity or mystery or ambiguity at this point. I was extremely eager for the game to throw anything at me that would surprise me, enlighten something pre-established, make the exploration lead to a meaningful discovery or deepening of characters, world or themes (and not just slightly cooler loot, or a bossfight, or a puzzle devoid of emotional context --cohesion and depth is what motivates my play sessions, especially in an open world game that I want to believe is worth losing oneself into). This was about the most intriguing task on my to do list at the moment, and so I plunged in immediately.

After really REALLY misunderstanding what I was supposed to do (I stalked every corner of every forest surrounding the tropical area at night or during blood moons in hope to see something --which was very much the wrong call), I arrived to the other stable, then was guided to the other side of the river where Cima awaits and explains that these creatures are actually a new species discovered by Zelda; that they are gentle and kind and not at all scary ("Dondons aren't beastly, they're adorable!"), and even somehow digest luminous stones into gemstones. They like the company of people and liked Zelda in particular.

I was... I felt two different ways about this conclusion, and I think it's worth to explore both: disappointment and some sort of... "huh!" Hard to describe this emotion otherwise.

I'll get the disappointment out of the way first, because it's the least interesting of the two. While I think the little emotional arc I was taken on was not devoid of interest --I was indeed taken on by the rumor and intrigued by its implications-- I wanted, well. A little bit more. And if the creatures were to be Zelda's pet project, I would have loved for them to be actually terrifying and feisty, and for her to develop an interest for these creatures in particular regardless. It could have been very interesting characterization that veered out of the perfect princess loving the perfect world floundering around her, always bringing her clear, practical benefits from the interaction.

(I have made another post that speaks of my discomfort that Zelda does everything everywhere and everyone loves her for it --I get what they were trying to go for, but it either lacks conflict for me to buy into that dynamic at the scale of several regions, or they went on too hard for my taste, as she is, at once and in the span of a couple of years at most: a schoolteacher, a gardener, an animal researcher, a scholar, a traveler, a military expert, a knower of landscape, a painter, a horse rider, an infrastructure planner, a [...] princess --at some point it begins to sound made up, "Little Father of the people"-esque to rattle the hornet's nest a little bit, especially if it's not shown as either a clearly godly characteristic or, even more necessary imo, a negative trait; another expression of her killing herself at work to compensate for a perceived flaw she's trying to earn forgiveness for, like she did in BotW. But that's another topic, and the clumsiness of her character arc has been well threaded by basically everybody disappointed in the story already.)

But, if I decide to be a little graceful, I'd like to explore my "huh!" emotion, and take it apart a little bit.

I think there's something interesting to have such strong parallels to setting up a story about the relationship between Zelda and Ganondorf ("The Princess and the Beast", like come on guys that's the conflict of over half the series), or at least Zelda and the concept of Evil since Ganondorf pretty much represents it in this game, and then have it go: actually, there was a horrible monster that everyone was afraid of, but Zelda was wise and patient enough to approach it and realize its potential beyond the tusks, what beauty can be brought upon the world if one makes the effort to look for what exists underneath. It says something a bit deeper about the world and about Zelda in particular. It intrigues, at the very least.

Is it a reach? Probably! Is my first interpretation that the quest is actually about "eww you thought Zelda would be interested in *disgusting vile monsters* and not sweet and gentle and human-loving animals that literally shit jewlery when cared for? jokes on you, she never would feel any ounce of sympathy for anything that isn't Good and Deserving" uhhh definitively truer? Probably! But I also don't want to dismiss that the quest made me think about it. If I had completed it earlier, I might have even felt like it was (very clumsy, not gonna lie) setup about the main conflict.

But that's also a good segway into my next section: the arbitrary limitations between the animal and the creature, the monstrous and the human.

And the fact that TotK points directly at it.

A Monstrous Collection

(these two guys are just. doing So Much and being So Valid despite being massive weirdos the game wants us to be slightly repelled by. I, for one, respect the Monster kinning grind and their general Twilight Princess energy.)

So. These two guys. There is so much to say about these two guys. I don't think I have seen the Trans Perspective on Kolton on tumblr, and I would love to get it because. I feel like it's a worthwhile discussion (just, how gender and identity is handled in TotK overall, I feel like it's a very complicated conversation and I have not seen super deep dives and I'd be very interested in hearing more).

Beyond the throughline of voluntary consumption of magical objects to turn into less human creatures being a weirdly prevalent plot point in TotK (Zelda, Kolton and Ganondorf casually transing their entire species for funsies --Ganondorf being particularly relentless with Fake Zelda, mummy/phantom shenanigans, Demon King and then literal dragon), I want to focus on Kilton a little bit.

Kilton is genuinely the only NPC in the game willing to acknowledge the inherent personhood that monsters have (the game does showcase them picking up fruits, mourning their boss if you kill them, being cutesy and happy to identify you as one of their own if you wear the appropriate mask --and that's not even getting into creatures like the Lynels, who seem to really edge on the limit of being a conscious creature with a system of honor and property and many other things). He does encourage us to think of monsters as more than a species whose only worth lie in how fun it is to eradicate them; even more, gameplay-wise, he does give us a reason to interact with them in other ways than just our sword with his museum. He does encourage us to see that beauty for ourselves and then select what we think is coolest/most intimidating/cutest/eight billion ganondorfs in every pose imaginable

The fact that Ganondorf is considered a monster was a great win for this feature in particular, and is very funny, but it's also... A lot, if we dig at it a little more than warranted. Beyond all of the Implications and all of the things of representation and political conflict and values already discussed ad nauseum: when did he stop being considered a human? What does that mean about the flimsiness of what is a monster and what is a creature and what is an animal and what is a person and what is even a hylian, as sheikahs got absorbed into the definition in this game? Especially with the stones taken into account, how profound changes in nature are a huge part of the plot (even when reversed and ultimately pretty meaningless): how easy it is, to make that slip? Who decides when that slip has been made? What is acceptable to hurt without remorse? What is beautiful and worth preserving? What is both at once? What is neither?

And again, in a classic Zelda conundrum (appreciative(?)): who the fuck gets to decide that, when, and why?

The Bargainers and the Horned God

(major shoutout to these big guys for being the sole and only providers of actual depth to the Depths, and for looking cool as heck)

So. Let's move the conversation to the Depths.

Conceptually: what an interesting idea!! And so well executed (initially)!! A mirror world to the surface, dark and hushed and full of unknown creatures; haunted by gloom and sickness and the unknown. Not a first in the series, far from it: from ALTTP to ALBW, and even taking the Twilight world of TP into account, this idea of a Dark World acting as a deforming mirror to Hyrule and revealing many interesting aspects as we get to explore both is always a very interesting take on corruption and envy and fear/weakness and/or some sense of darkness looming under the perfect exterior. I'd argue even the Lens of Truth of both OoT and MM's serve a similar function, both gameplay-wise, but also in terms of theme: not everything is as it seems. In the world of Light, darkness must hide itself; but darkness also possess its own beauty, its own hardships, and will stare back at you without blinking if you go seek for it. It's, in my opinion, one of the series' most compelling conversation about the cyclical nature of fate, the coldness of godhood, and how small one feels in the face of a universe that is more complicated than it initially appears --which is why Courage must be invoked to push forward regardless.

The Depth's otherworldly ambiance is truy wonderful, whether in the plays of light and shadows, the creatures native to the environment we meet there (wish we met more!), the soundtrack, the strange aquatic/primordial plants, the fact that the dragons visit this place and connect them to the outside --invoking ideas of balance and interconnectivity, that the tree branches look like veins. The coliseums, the mines, the zonai facilities and the prisons do seem to poke at many things about what the relationship to the past was to this place; was it ever truly a place? Did it look like this back then? Why was it buried? Why did it come back? But in spite of it all, I think the Depths struggle overall to question or reveal anything about the surface that we couldn't already assume going in (that the only thing congealing there is Ganondorf's gloom, his lonely domain of Wrongness, only shared by Kohga and the yiga --the only naysayers of Goodness and Light, contemptful and blinded by self-importance and rage). The zonite is mined by gloomy monsters --why, what for?-- so any notion of greed and over-expansion that could have been associated to the zonai is now reabsorbed into Ganondorf's general evilness, since it needs to be reminded he is everything and anything bad with the world: darkness and conquest and greed and capitalism and pollution and bad weather and sickness and darkness and violence and war and death and betrayal and fakeness and lies and patriarchy and exploitation. No matter that he never does a single thing with zonite in the game; rather set up elements of conflict that never go anywhere than, for a second, let the foundations of absolute goodness and absolute evil risk becoming shaky --and you coming to this unwelcoming dark place that hates you, killing the miners and taking their resources for yourself is, on the other holy, royal fur-covered hand, utterly legitimate. The resources were once Rauru's after all, were they not?

And this is what I would say, except... except for the dead. The fallen warriors, the poes, and, most important of all: the Bargainer statues.

The Bargainers are, in-universe, godly creatures guiding the fallen to a place of final respite, regardless of moral alignment. The poes are all, fundamentally, cleansed of judgement: they are lost souls whose past reality does not matter anymore, and all deserve that peace regardless. In spite of the heavy paradise/hell parallels drawn in that game, with Rauru/Zelda/Sonia as the guardians of Light where Ganondorf gets to become a Devil-like figure, it is confirmed here that no such thing exists when you actually die in this universe.

It almost feels as if the fabric of Hyrule itself, in a brief moment that refuses to elaborate on its own point, goes: "yeah, whatever is happening here between Light and Darkness, it doesn't actually matter. This conflict is futile and doesn't understand the real nature of being alive, dead, a god, a person, a monster, an animal. The truth lies elsewhere --but you will never be told what it is."

It's: wild.

One of the game's most striking traits of narrative brilliance in my opinion --to the point where I'm wondering whether it's there on purpose or was effectively an oversight since every other aspect of reality breaks its own back trying to reassure us that everything is at its correct place, receiving the appropriate treatment by the universe in a way that is never to be questioned.

Another case of that ambiguity being allowed to exist without being immediately crushed and repressed is the case of the Horned God (interesting parallel to Ganon's actual horns that he develops in this game in case the hellish parallels weren't clear enough already): a demon Hylia sealed into stone and pushed far from humans in a clear case of questionable behavior since, while the Horned God isn't exactly nice, does propose a different philosophy you are not punished for exploring; and yet, a proposal that has seen itself persecuted in a very real sense by the goddess of absolute goodness, patron of hylians, Zelda, and many more. Pushed away from view.

Interesting.

And Yet, Light Must Prevail

Okay, so, after all of this, we're left to ask... What the fuck is up with morality in Tears of the Kingdom?!

What do we trust? These half-breaths in the occasional sidequests that Light and Darkness is just the wrong frame of reference, that nature cannot be this simple, is ever-shifting and can be recalled or reaffirmed by arbitrary forces, and might even not matter at all in the universe's fabric, despite having so much of its lore soaking in the dychotomy? Or... everything else about the game, this insistence that Good must not only be assumed as whatever tradition the kingdom has passed down for thousands upon thousands of years, but remain utterly unquestioned the entire time? That Bad is without cause, graceless and unworthy of investment?

Are the Bargainer's statues the only thing worth listening to, that morality is a fable the living tells themselves --or should we be moved when Darkness destroys Light, when Light suffers to preserve itself and the world --but not when the Other is rightfully slain?

Was Kilton correct to see beauty in the monstrous? Was Kolton onto something when he let go of his previous form because there is no clear distinction between what should receive an arrow to the face and what shouldn't? Or should we rather focus on Zelda losing her human form as a beautiful and tragic sacrifice --but something that never actually altered her nature as a hylian, the descendant of a lineage of Good Kings meant to rule forever?

Is the Dondon good because it always was, or was it worth Zelda's love in spite of the fear it initially provoked?

Either way, at the end of the game, evil is slain. Ganondorf is, not killed, but --like his angry BotW boar counterpart-- destroyed, as monsters tend to be. He explodes over the lands of Hyrule, freed from Darkness; freed from everything wrong, since the foreign menace that embodied it all was wiped out in one fateful sweep of a holy blade cradled in sacrificial love. Nothing wrong remains. The Sages reaffirm their vows to protect the kingdom forward, and a very human --hylian-- Zelda smiles: Hyrule now forever and ever basked in eternal Light.

[fillinforlater]

It’s that time of the year again. What are some of your favorite smuts released in 2023?

Monday of Appreciation: Part 104

Hello everyone, Smite here!

2023 is coming to a close and it's been quite the year, a mixture of "this is a bridge year for greater things to come" and "WE LIVIN' NOW MF!" What is a bit different this year is that the highs weren't as high and the lows weren't as low compared to previous years---maybe that is just me getting older, maybe it's hindsight. Either way, I'm good and this year was good.

But some things are more than just good. I'm of course talking about these writers and their stories that I have featured today. All of them deserve special mention, but I want to focus on two of them specifically.

In a year of great, fantastic and already legendary fics, these two stand out.

Without further ado, let's dive into the final MoA of this year:

-1-

@fanfiction4sooya: Can't Save You Now ft. Chaewon, Kazuha, Sakura

I- I- I just read the damn tags and new I one day had to give this a shot. ff4sooya has crazy ideas, futa galore, different dynamics and kinks, which is SO MY THING. This has Mommy and Daddy involved in an absurd (and absurdly hot) threesome that I couldn't take my eyes off.

Now I definitely need to read more and you should too because I bet there are a bunch of Masterpieces in that long Masterlist!

-2-

@iznsfw: Drunken ft. Olivia Hye

Is it really a Monday of Appreciation post without IZ?

Seriously, what this genius is able to cook up in a commission or in the currently ongoing (HYPE) IZ DAYS OF CHRISTMAS is absolutely incredible. We have long stories with in depth characters and love drama that ends not only smuttily but sweetly. Who the fuck needs books, when you can just binge IZ?

With "Drunken", they have once again hit it out of the FUCKIING park. There is never enough Daddy kink fics, yes, but mine seem like nonsensical cringe porn compared to this beauty of a piece. I love how it plays with my heart, no I'm not crying---okay, now that is hot.

Let me change that: there is three very fucking special stories today!

(I think this might even be better than Levi's Hyeju, wtf)

-3-

@cataboliac: Enkindle ft. Wendy

Firstly: I LOVE YOU CATA, BIG QT!

Secondly: "Enkindle" feels a bit like coming home, like a day in Paradise, like the one person that shines so bright in your life that you don't want it to go. And you know, that is the great thing: this might be Cata's final fic, the farewell, but not only is his life gonna be great and he'll be super happy - we also get to read this again and again, and I'm sure I will one day.

Thank you, Cata, for hanging around!

Thirdly: I'M GONNA KISS YOU, CATA!

-4-

@writerpeach: Delectation ft. Wonyoung, Yujin

1.000 Notes, and it's still not enough for what is my pick for fic of the year (FOTY? FOOTY? There is a scene like that, yep). IZ*ONE truly never dies, but it is IVE and these absolute super stars, bomb shells with flawless faces and different, yet irresistible bodies that have us in a frenzy.

Talking about frenzy, all those 30,699 words are a frenzy. I thought Peach would set it up with a long and painful tease that has us edging the entire time BUT NOPE this has so much fucking smut, so many lines of neediness and horniness, it is impossible to finish in one try or two tries or... I dunno, seven-hundred tries?

It's detailed, it's straight forward, it's sex from every fucking angle, I can never get tired of this. I will go so far and say this is Peach's magnum opus, the GOAT fic by the GOAT writer. At least for that day, I can say this without a doubt.

Peach, you are crazy and thank you for that <3

#PeachPavedTheWay #AnnyeongzForDaddy

[mrkified]

YOU GRABBED THE SHOES AND RETURNED BACK TO HAECHAN.

“what are you doing to my phone, you stalker?” you playfully hit his shoulder while taking your phone out of his hands and putting it into your pocket.

“i was just-“ haechan started to speak but he was interrupted by a voice that was too familiar.

“yn? donghyuck?” giselle came out of nowhere with yangyang, karina, and anton following behind her — with guilt plastered all over their faces.

“um.. hi giselle!” you nervously played with your fingers as you replied to her.

“what are you guys doing here?”

karina was the first to speak up, as you were at a loss for words and haechan was thinking about what to say. “we wanted to bring you guys together so you could talk it out in person. we don’t want you guys to fight over a boy — especially a boy who you both shouldn’t fight over.”

“okay ouch”

yangyang was quick to reply to donghyuck, “shut it haechan.” it was like this scene played out already, with a slight feeling of deja vu but you couldn’t pinpoint when it happened.

your friends forced you and gigi to spend the day together, trying to have you both make up but there seemed to be no luck. when you tried to speak to her she would speed up, which was the only flaw in the plan that your friends created — she had a way to escape. you sighed in defeat as you skated around with donghyuck.

skating with him seemed to boost your spirits, at least for a little while. at least until your phone started blowing up with messages from twitter and instagram. there were messages from a bunch of different accounts telling you rude comments and nasty threats. you were beyond confused until something clicked in your mind — it had to be connected with jake.

you didn’t know what to do. the only thing on your mind was to run away, to be somewhere quiet to be able gather your thoughts.

so that’s what you did — you ran away because you couldn’t face anyone after the humiliation jake put you though. you admit that it shouldn’t effect you this much, but the embarrassment just kept piling up and up.

you desperately wanted to know why jake was tormenting you like this. he wouldn’t let you go even though HE ended things and HE left you for another girl. you couldn’t understand it. he even ran after you at the after party like he didn’t just break up with you because he met “someone better.” you couldn’t understand any of it and you just needed a break.

no one noticed you were missing. donghyuck was in the bathroom and when he came out anton unfortunately dragged him into a conversation. yangyang and karina were in a heated debate about the best animal crossing character, which unsurprisingly yangyang was losing because obviously it’s bob.

the only person that noticed was giselle. she lessened her focus on her moves and started to look around. she could tell you were upset by your body language and knew that she had to help you out even if she was still angry at you.

so that’s what she did, following you to the park behind the rink where you sat on the bench to unwind. “what happened this time?” she spoke out to you. it startled you as you didn’t realize she was there.

“jake”

“god it’s always jake. i need him to get hit by a bus or something asap.” she rolled her eyes as she sat down next to you. “what’s the damage?” you handed her your phone as she sat there and watched the video.

“you’re joking.. he is so pathetic i want to rip him up.” she handed back your phone and gave you a hug. “how are you feeling”

“mainly angry because i just want him to let me go, but mainly relieved that your here — i love you aeri.”

“sorry to sour your love confession but i have a boyfriend” she pouted before sticking out her tongue. it was relieving to know that she was still there for you. this is what you needed to fix your relationship — even if it meant a little bit of hate from jake’s fans. “but we do need to talk.”

“i know.”

you held her hands as you told her everything. you told her what had led up to now and why you did what you did. all she could do was look at you until you were done.

“i’m sorry i put you through that” giselle gave your hand a squeeze.

“it is NOT your fault? i just kept overthinking and then i just took things way too fast with haechan because i was scared and i just-“

“its okay! hearing your side made me realize i was being unreasonable okay? i want you to be happy too and if that means it’s with my…ex..” she shivered “then so be it, i approve. i’ve been thinking it over and it’s unreasonable of me to use my relationship with him to not approve of yours. especially ‘cause i’m technically the reason for your falling out.” she gave your hand another squeeze and pulled you in for a hug.

you both walked back to the rink hand in hand to where your friends were looking for you both outside.

ONE NIGHT ONLY — 14. surprise date

synopsis — three years since your falling out with lee donghyuck he has suddenly transfered to your college in hopes to make it big with his friends in his band. unfortunately for you, your unresolved friendship started causing problems between you and the people around you, especially since your best friend is his ex. so — why have you found yourself in his room with a raging hangover?

prev. | m.list | next

TAGS; @j2upiters @aerivrs @haesluvr @hyuck-me @tywritesstuff @aek1ra @ourbeautifulaffair @222brainrot @bugcattie @nosungluv @manooffline @amrqxz @haechansbbg @odxrilove

[heloflor]

So this was supposed to be part of my other fop post but it got way too long (both posts did tbh) and is a different topic than the other one. So yeah here’s a bunch of random thoughts about the show in general from what I’ve seen of it. For context I’ve only seen the first 4-5 episodes + “Battle of the Dimmsonian” + the Cosmo-Wanda-Peri scenes in “Lost in Fairy World” and “Operation: Birthday Takeback”.

SPOILERS for “Operation: Birthday Takeback” for the last three dashes (2.4k words below):

- Putting it in first since it’s still related to Peri but I’m pretty amused by the whole “Tumblr sexyman” situation. I mean, less than two weeks ago all canon pics we had of him were baby pics. It’s the same deal when I see people call him a father figure to Dev, I can’t help but be like “wdym father figure? He’s barely an adult! He’s too young!”

It’s like imagine you have a neighbor who have a baby when you’re 9-10, then they move out and 20 years later you meet their kid as an adult. You can clearly tell they’re an adult and treat them as such but also it’s a bit weird bc your last and only memories of them were of a baby. Idk, I see Peri’s character as an adult but also he’s still a bit of a kid, you know? I feel like I explain this better in the other post tbh.

- In retrospect it’s also very funny to see how, when people talk about the decline of fop, they point at the inclusion of the new characters, including Poof. Yet look where we are now! If you thought the baby was the problem, apologize to him, now! /j

But yeah more seriously, personally I never minded Poof. He was definitely a useless addition, like outside of the handful of episodes focused on him he mostly just stands there looking at the other characters, but he was also a cute baby, so I’ve always been fine with him being around. He’s a useless but inoffensive addition, and I think the decline of the show around that time had less to do with him and more to do with the writing as a whole.

- Last thing about Peri before moving on to the show in general, which tbh I could've put in the other post: I've seen people talk about the idea of Hazel and Dev switching fairies and I kind of agree with it.

Not only because Cosmo and Wanda have the experience needed to help a kid like Dev (though it wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows) while Hazel's situation is easier for Peri, but also it's worth noting that Dev needs a parental figure, which Cosmo and Wanda can be, while Hazel misses her older brother, who Peri is around the same age of. Idk, I feel like this could work, or at least make things easier for everyone involved (but also especially for Dev).

- Something I originally wanted to put in the tags of the other post but fuck it: I’m really not a fan of them releasing the episodes so soon one after the other. With serialized shows, I’m always been more of a fan of having an episode a week you can chew on and theorize about, rather than being given everything at once. Also it takes a while for the cargo to get on the ships if you catch my drift.

I’d also complain about seeing all those plot-related episodes one after the other with none of the more casual stories in-between that give us more character moments, but honestly that’s on me for looking up spoilers.

- Going to the early show, I think the first episode is such a good introduction! I especially like the amount of focus on Cosmo and Wanda, it’s good to have them reintroduced given how flanderized they became in the og show. I’m especially happy with Cosmo! He arguably had it worse than Wanda in the og and it’s so good to see him shine this much in this first episode (also I love his human form having a bit of a gut)! On that note, they did a fantastic job having them around a lot while still giving Hazel enough time to be introduced properly and get us to care about her as the MC!

But yeah I really like this first episode, fantastic beginning to the show! The only issue I “really” have with it is the way Cosmo and Wanda go back to being godparents just because Hazel made a strong enough wish or something, it felt a bit arbitrary rather than them just telling her who they are.

And on that note, big fan of that one scene where they immediately notice her trying to run away and try to talk her out of it. I love the contrast between them starting off as disasters being barely capable of passing off as humans at the beginning of the episode, and them being perfectly in their element the second they start talking to Hazel about her running away in this scene. It’s such a good way to see how much experience they have with taking care of kids!

- I’m not going to go episode by episode but one thing that bothers me a lot in the second one is that rule of “kids should get whatever they wish for”. Doesn’t that...go against the whole concept of having rules in the first place???

They should’ve replaced it with something along the lines of “a kid should always get the fairy that fits them the best”, not only bc it would work perfectly well for the episode, but also from what I’ve heard Foop (now Irep) is coming back and I could 100% see him use that rule to his advantage given Peri and Dev were such a bad match (I’m guessing anti-fairies don’t actually follow Da Rules but maybe they could still use it as an excuse regardless since fairies do have to follow them or something?)

- Call we talk about the fact Hazel is clearly autistic? Like is this a canon thing in the show? Are there people out there talking about it? No because seriously:

The fidget toys (Cosmo and Wanda’s disguises), her special interest for rocks, her anxiety over making new friends which is reinforced as uncommon when that one girl she befriends comments on how easy and not scary it is to approach other people (also Hazel’s “what am I supposed to talk about with them? School lunches?” comment in the teachers friend episode), her liking for fries which could be seen as her being potentially picky (bit of a stretch tho), her comment about liking the DMV if only for the reaction she gets that makes her seem “different”, her struggles to come up with a wish on the fly with minimal/vague instructions (episode 2), her character arc throughout the show apparently having to do with her not wanting things to change (me too girl), her being considered mature for her age, the angry outbursts when things don’t go how she hoped, pretty sure there’s also a lot of stimming that I have yet to pick up on (see if any of them repeat often). Like, there’s no way ALL of that was a coincidence!

I’d also like to mention at the beginning of the Dino episode, when her dad is explaining things to her, he starts talking louder and louder in excitement until his wife tells him to quiet down. Makes me think her dad’s likely neurodivergent as well. Also this moment hurts my soul a bit, as someone who’s both been on the receiving end of it and done it to someone else, in both cases it sucks.: /

- Took me until like episode 4 to realize the town she lives in is named after the Dimmadomes, with the hat in it (the very first shot of the intro). Also you can see their infinite house in the background, both in that shot and the show in general, and I absolutely adore that they committed so hard to this joke! That giant ambiguously-shaped-like-a-hat skyscraper that we never see the top of is just *chief kiss*.

- On that note Dev’s introduction in the first episode made me laugh, if only for the references. I also find it kinda funny he has such a big speaking role considering he doesn’t do anything for the rest of the pilot and the next few episodes. Then again I guess it’s in character for him to make such a show of introducing himself.

- Still on general stuff, I’m a bit curious about how the timeline went in regards to Cosmo and Wanda retiring and going on vacation “right after” Timmy (iirc they don’t voice it like that in the show). Like I’m having a hard time believing they would just ditch their then-child son to go on vacation, and then come back when he’s an adult. So I ended up having a bunch of headcanons.

Basically, after leaving Timmy they do take what was supposed to be a short leave to think of their future since it feels strange to get a new kid after so long with the same one + I like the idea that Cosmo and Wanda’s marriage did suffer while living with Timmy and they want to work on it before getting a new kid (the whole thing about them feeling confined, made worse if the “stopping time for 50 years” wish is canon) + Poof/Peri is struggling with the reality of having to leave Timmy behind and is nervous about his parents having a new godkid because of it.

Eventually they decide to retire, got to marriage counseling, possibly get Poof/Peri into therapy, and raise their son until he’s an older teen/young adult, at which point they leave for their vacation. And while the vacation is 10 thousand years for them, it’s like, 5 years at max in their present. And in that meantime, Peri starts his godparents studies (or however it works), leaves the house and changes his name.

Btw Cosmo and Wanda would 100% invite him to the vacation, he’d just refuse in a mix between wanting to be away from his parents for once, wanting to maybe surprise them a bit with his work and/or just get started with work, and not knowing how long the vacation would be. He’d also probably tell them to just use this time as some new honeymoon to finish rebuilding their marriage (though by that point it must’ve gone back to being strong). Oh and Cosmo and Wanda would send Peri postcards every so often, which would also let him know how long they’ve been gone.

Once they come back from vacation, I’d imagine there’s like less than a month between them “moving to the human world” and meeting Hazel, hence why they didn’t reconnect with Peri. They didn’t really know how to contact him and were busy with the move, and afterwards they had a godkid to take care of so they couldn’t exactly go back to Fairyworld.

As for Peri, he hears through the gravepine that his parents are back, and would be happy until he realizes they’ve been gone for 10 thousand years, hence him freaking out about meeting them again (he doesn’t know how much they might’ve changed with how long it’s been). Also he can’t contact them bc he’d hear about them coming back due to them taking in Hazel, meaning they’re in the human world and he doesn’t know where. Also he might be intimidated to contact them, which doesn’t help his decision-making.

So yeah, that’s all for how I could imagine this whole vacation thing going and how it fits with them having a child.

- Since I’m talking about Cosmo and Wanda’s marriage, I’ve heard about the whole “they fixed their marriage” before watching the show and oh my god I can’t get over how fucking adorable those two are in this show!!! I fucking love them.

- And on that note I’m incredibly amused that this show had the balls to reference the mpreg. Twice. Especially since it doesn’t even specify the whole “that’s just how fairies work”! In the eyes of people who never watched the og show, “A New Wish” just casually dropped the fact that Cosmo’s a trans man (bc let’s be real, how else are you supposed to interpret those lines if you haven’t watched the og show?) or you get the vibe that the writers wanted to make him trans (+ Wanda by proxy since she’s Peri’s bio mom) but weren’t allowed so that’s how they got past the censors.

And I love this because you just know Hartman would be furious about it! With our current society more aware of trans people and how men can in fact get pregnant, I could definitely see him sweep the whole mpreg thing under the rug, hoping people would forget about his “”accidentally-progressive”” (and also very sexist 😒) episode, but nope! New show said Cosmo was pregnant and gave birth! And better yet it didn’t even elaborate further! It just goes “btw this guy has an uterus and was once pregnant, here’s his bio child if you need more proof” and then walks on like nothing happened, I love it!

- Going back to the episodes talk for the last three dashes, there’s that shot at the very end of “Operation: Birthday Takeback” that I really dislike. It’s the one when Dev lashes out on Peri, with him hovering over Peri who’s laying on the ground in fear.

Really not a big fan of this shot bc 1. It makes Dev look way too much like a villain, especially with the way Peri’s laying like a servant that gets beaten up, and 2. Peri, honey, you’re a grown ass man; why are you so scared of that 10 years old scarred kid that’s lashing out while in a very vulnerable mental state? What are you doing on the ground buddy? I’m not asking for him to fight back but at least stand up! Don’t act like that kid can actually hurt you! Btw I’m completely fine with Peri afterwards looking like a dejected puppy (after Dev makes his wish), it’s just that one shot with him on the ground that I dislike.

- Obviously I’m genuinely curious to see how things are going to go in the next episodes (which apparently air tonight?). Like obviously Dev is going to spiral but if you have a scene at school how will it go? How will Hazel feel about the whole thing? What about Peri? Is he going to be gone for a few episodes? Be a temporary third fairy to Hazel? Crash at Cosmo and Wanda’s for a while?

(Personally I’m hoping for the third option, it would be a good way to still give him appearances to show the main plot’s still going without giving him to much screentime, which could take away from Hazel. Also given how much he wants to appear independent, I don’t see him being a third fairy to her, though I think he’d be ok with staying at his parents for a bit, if only for emotional support (though tbh I doubt they’ll do that, most likely he’ll be doing his own thing off-screen for an episode or two). Also I want to see a “human” design for him)

OK so I wrote this yesterday before the Irep episode came out, so on one hand nevermind all that but on the other hand I’m letting it in bc I AM curious as to how things are going to evolve with our main cast, especially with Dev spiraling and pushing both his bestie and fairy away.

- Btw is nobody going to talk about how Vicky’s dress might be a reference to one of the “Oh Yeah” shorts?

- VERY LAST SECOND ADDITION, SPOILERS FOR IREP: So yesterday before I finished both this and the other post the new episodes dropped, with a few clips shared on Tumblr. And OH MY GOD IREP’S DESIGN!!! The fact that they kept him as a cube makes me so happy!!! I was HOPING at least ONE part of him would be a cube and they delivered!!! He looks like absolulte dogshit I love it!!! Bc yeah for some reason I remember Foop as a character you’re not supposed to take seriously at all? And as a result I really like how stupid Irep looks. A+ design right there! /gen

[xxxninjaxxx23]

You brought the light I needed in my life

Part 2

(The next morning)

I don’t know something about this song just seems so genuine when the morning sun is beaming through your window. Maybe the opening beat got to me 🤷‍♂️

(Tara’s Pov) I woke up to the sunlight beaming in my face once again. ‘sigh’ I told Sam numerous times that I wanted blackout curtains for my room but she insisted on slim curtains that let sunlight in my room anyways. She said something about being too emo or like that character Wednesday Addams who’s actually my favorite.

I face planted into my pillow “I guess there’s no point In going back to sleep.” I climb out of bed and head into the kitchen to eat breakfast. “I don’t smell anything or hear the stove running. Cereal it is then I guess.

As I finished pouring some milk into my bowl of cereal, I heard Sam walk in the kitchen, turning the stove dial “Oh come on!! I just poured a bowl of cereal!”

Sam put her hand over my mouth “Shhh! Y/N is still asleep and put some pants on Tara.” I looked down, forgetting that I only wore a long over shirt over my body.

“Eh fine, I do it in a minute. But first. I want to know about Y/N sleeping in your bed, did you touch first base with them already?”

(Sam’s pov) Of course she would ask that “No Tara I didn’t touch, first base….the hangout with really fun and all but…..I don’t know. Do I really want to put a blind trust In someone again?”

Tara ate her cereal “You “trusted” them enough to sleep in the same bed as you.” She then smirked “Don’t think I didn’t see you cuddling with them, lover girl, last night to be exact. I took a pic of you both because you looked so cute together. The post already has a bunch of likes and still going.”

I almost dropped the bacon when I heard that “You did what?! Why would you post pictures of my private life Tara?! That’s so not cool!”

Tara flinched a bit “Jesus Romeo, don’t get a stick up your ass. But at least everyone will know you can have a romantic relationship with someone.” Sam glares “No Tara that is personal. It’s no one’s business of what I choose to do in my life…look I don’t know if I really want this because, who wants to be in a relationship with the daughter of the first Ghostface killer?”

Tara shook her head “Sam…you really need to stop letting this get to your head and give Y/N a chance. You deserve love too.”

I kept my focus on the bacon “I always tell myself that. You’ve seen how it ended with Ritchie and I can name a few others that were no different than him.”

“Suit yourself” Tara said as she finished her breakfast and went to watch tv in the living room, putting her bare feet on the coffee table again.

I threw the bowl in the sink and bolted to the living room “Tara how many times do I have to tell you?! That is not a footrest!” I pried her legs off the table, earning a glare from Tara. “Well you don’t want to rub my feet. I’m just resting them” she said.

I rolled my eyes “If I give you a foot rub, will you stop putting them on the table?” Tara nodded as I sat down next to her “Alright. Put ‘em here on my lap.”

(Y/N’s pov) My eyes fluttered open from the morning sunlight in the room. “Well that was some dream I just had… I wish it didn’t have to end soon.” Oh well, I’ll see if Sam wants me to help her make breakfast.

As I leave the room to the kitchen, I find Sam sitting on the couch with a girl “Umm am i interrupting something?” The girl bursted out into a laughing fit “Tara stop it!” Sam said. ‘Tara’ quieted down with her hands in her lap.

“Well Sam, are you gonna introduce me to your new “friend or what?” I could have sworn I saw her wink.

Sam clears her throat “Y/N this is my younger sister Tara. Tara this is Y/N my new lov-Friend!” Sam quickly said, hiding her blush but Tara noticed “Weellllll I’m going to get ready to start my day. You two kids have fun here or wherever but not too much.” She said winking once again as she left to her room.

I was stunned “Well your sister is quite….something. At least she doesn’t dislike me, that’s a start.” Sam shook her head “She’s quite a handful and a gremlin. Always never afraid to speak her mind, even if it is the harsh truth…but that’s why I love her.”

I nod “She’s capable of standing up for herself and becoming independent her age, that’s quite impressive. Seems like she learned from her wonderful sister who guided her.” I said, sitting down next to Sam.

Sam smiled then looked down at her watch “I do have to get ready in a bit. You want to share that breakfast with me.?” I nod “I thought I smelled bacon” we both laughed.

(Later)

(Tara’s pov) I was tapping away on my phone in the diner, waiting for Chad to get here. Sam came by noticing that I was here “Did you actually bring money this time or do you want to add another free meal to your huge tab?” I smiled “No, not this time. I managed to bring my wallet.” I picked out the item I wanted then Sam left with the written ticket.

“Ok now to wait for Chad.”

(Sam’s pov) I brought the order ticket over to the cooks then decided to mop the corners when I saw how dirty they were. Y/N really is one of a kind, I’m glad I made a good first impression on them. I smiled as I got the bucket and mopped up the cobwebs and stains.

“Aww my little girl is growing up too fast. Already found a new partner to kill later down the road I see?” Said a voice I’m all too familiar with….I wish I hadn’t heard him but he follows me around like a fly on paper. I looked up to see him sitting at the table in front of me.

“What do you want?! I told you to stop talking to me!” He grinned. “That’s no way to talk to your father now is it Samantha?”

I gripped the mop “I’ll ask one last time. What. Do. You. Want?”

He puts a hand on my shoulder “Nothing really, just concerned about the new (boyfriend/girlfriend) you picked up from the pen again. Still looking for a worthy one just like your old father hm? Only they don’t really know about us.”

I scoffed “There’s no “us.” I’m not like you and never will be!” He crossed his arms with a smirk “You always say that but what’s gonna happen if this new person finds out who you are? Either they would cut you off or attempt to kill you and piss on our legacy like those others did! I hate to be a downer sweetie but you’re gonna end up going down my path again if they choose the second option.”

I gritted my teeth throwing the mop at the wall “Shut up! Shut the fuck up! That wasn’t me becoming Ghostface! I killed Ritchie because he tried to hurt my family! My other relationships left and never came back, because of your stupid legacy!!”

He didn’t speak for a bit but nodded his head “touché princess, touché. It seems like you have a lot to think about. Like it or not, you have to watch your back with this new love interest. Don’t hesitate to use the knife and gut them if you have to” Then he vanished.

I cover my face for a bit and let out a breath before finishing my task.

(Tara’s pov) While I was waiting for my food, I watched an interesting show Sam just put on in the corner. ‘She’s probably thinking about him again. Billy is a part of her after all’ “Hey love, did you order anything for me?” Chad said, laughing. I smiled and shook my head “No big guy I didn’t. But that’s ok because I ordered a decent sized sandwich we can both share.”

He gave me a peck on the lips “Alright, sounds good to me.”

A few minutes later, I see Sam walking out with a tray that had my food. But halfway to the table, she stopped and stood still for a bit. “Sam?” Her eyes went wide for a second and her shoulders tensed. “Sam…you ok?” Then the tray dropped, spilling the food all over the floor. She collapsed, breathing rapidly with her fingertips on her head.

The manager walked out from the kitchen “What’s going on? Sam-“ Chad and I rush over to the pair, I already seen this enough to know what it is

“Sir! She’s-she having a panic attack.” The manager got concerned and reached for the phone “That won’t be needed sir. I’ll handle this.” I walk slowly towards Sam and placed both hands carefully on her arms “Sam…Sam, it’s ok. I’m right here, just breathe carefully ok? Do it with me…1….2….3….breathe.”

Sam relaxed her shoulders and let her hands hold mine as she calmed her nerves down. After a couple of deep breaths Sam was back on her feet but she collapsed into my shoulder, crying her eyes out. I hugged her back, trying my best to comfort her.

“I’ll go clean the mess up” Chad said, I nodded.

(Sam’s pov) I have no words on what just happened an hour ago but the next thing I know, my boss is speaking to me “Sam…I think it’s best if you head home and get some rest, I’ll cover it from here and make sure you get you paid.” It’s clear he wasn’t in the mood for an argument either so I took off my apron and thanked him as I headed home.

Halfway to the apartment, I collect my thoughts.

‘God what I mess I am. I can’t even have one good thing in my life without my dad following me everywhere I go, running his mouth. I hate to say it but he’s not completely wrong. I really like Y/N and all but what makes me think they won’t be another Ritchie? Then I would have to kill them and be lonely once again.’

I wiped my eyes ‘sometimes I wish I could go back and destroy that fucking mask, then yell at my grandfather for driving dad towards insanity.’

As I made it home, I decided to take a shower. I got a few text messages one notably being Y/N saying they would like to do another movie night soon. A few tears rolled down my face and I didn’t have the strength to reply back.

After my shower, I heard a knock on the door “who is it?” I asked. “It’s Y/N” I opened the door and smiled a bit, “hey, what are you doing here?”

Y/N fixed (his/her) hair “Ah yes. I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by and say hello. I also live in this complex too by the way.” I was taken back

“Wow, so I guess we’re new neighbors then?”

“Fraid so” Y/N said.

I rubbed my arm “Well….you can come in if you want. I was just going to pour a cup of wine.” Y/N smiled “My favorite! Make that two cups I will pour for us.”

I sat down on the couch resting my eyes as Y/N offered to serve the wine.

(Y/n’s pov) ‘ok…I have to tell her. This could be my chance to start something new between us’ I whispered as I took the full cups to the living room.

I set the cups down and took a seat next to Sam. We sipped our wine and stayed quiet for a while until I decided to start a small conversation about our hobbies and our takes on romance novels.

“I’ve been….thinking about you a lot.” Sam said, at the end of our conversation. It surprised me a bit but gave me a pinch of excitement! “R-really?”

Sam breathes a bit heavily before speaking “Unfortunately I have been, a lot and….I’m afraid.” I gently took her hand into mine and she accepted.

“What’s there to be afraid of? I was actually going to confess my thoughts to you as well. I know we haven’t known each other for that long, but I’m feeling something between us the more we see each other Sam and it still continues to grow.”

Sam nodded her head, frowning “I-I like you Y/N I really do from the bottom of my heart but….I’m just not ready for another relationship yet, I’m sorry.”

I tilt my head down in a bit of disappointment, despite her request to stay with her last night and sleep in the same bed as her. “It’s because of your last relationship isn’t it?” Sam nods

I look up at her. “I understand. I won’t force you or rush into something you don’t want too soon…or at all. I’m fine with us being friends if you want.”

Sam caressed my hand “I think that’s for the best….I just need some time to process everything that’s going on in my messed up life. If I CAN get my head straight then maybe we might have a chance after all.”

I gave her hand one last gentle squeeze “I’ll be waiting for you when that time comes.” Then shared a hug before leaving.

(Later that night)

(Tara’s pov) The arcade was fun a second time! Despite Chad breaking the joystick off the giant claw machine in the end. At least the owner was nice enough to let me have a prize from the machine before throwing us out. Chad dropped me off but had another class tomorrow so he went home to rest.

As I unlocked the door and closed it, I hear Sam’s faint crying coming from the living room. I peek around the corner to see Sam drinking a cup of wine as she let her tears fall.

I wanted to comfort Sam but seeing her in that kind of state told me to leave her alone for a bit. So I went into my room and changed into my night clothes.

“Oh Sam…..what have you done?”

I tried my best to fall asleep, hoping she would be ok to talk about this tomorrow. Or whenever she can.

(To be continued. No worries, am already working on a part three)

[cloverandstuff]

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION/ANALYSIS IN ALIEN STAGE

MIZI

First up, we have Mizi! Our lovely little pink-haired lady who was the most cheerful and optimistic of the bunch.

Lets starts with some of the basic stuff and then we'll love on to the more complicated things.

[Please be aware that I am using everything that is freely available and I may not know anything about any of the paywalled Patreon Posts and such]

Canon and Basic Information

Mizi grew up in the Anakt Garden with Ivan, Till, and Sua. We can assume that Luka and Hyuna were in a different 'batch'.

If you go to the official Alien Stage website that showcases all of the members profiles, we can find some information about Mizi.

Now, we have to be careful cause this can both be canon but also also from the POV of the alien caretakers.

This page says that Mizi is 22 years old, 162cm tall and weighs 50kg. This is all facts. What's also there is her likes and dislikes.

She doesn't have any uncrypted dislikes that we can read but there are some likes which are available for us to read. They are the Anakt-made artificial flower and toothbrush. This is what was available to me on the Official Alien Stage website.

Alien Stage Official Website

However recently, the official profiles were released that showcase more information! Here, we find that Mizi's birthday, which is still questionable due to the way that human pets are obtained, is on the August 20th.

We also find that her ID no is 020205, and thats she is affiliated with the 50th Anakt Garden.

Here, we can find that Mizi's disliked consist of vegetables and studying, which are relatively abnormal for the situation she is in.

This is all infortmation that can easily be obtained from the official site for the show. It may or may not be well known, but they are shown under the character's profile description.

Her segyein parent is named Guardian Shine and it is stated in the artbook that the scene of Mizi saying goodbye to her was described as "a mother seeing her daughter".

Semi-Canonical (Still mostly Canon)

Now we reach the parts where Im analysing a little but its seems pretty much canon.

This is mainly be circulating around the patreon posts by Vivinos and other such stuff. I will try my best to link everything I can.

First up, the lovely messages that everyone gives!!

This is where I got the lovely translations from!

Now, if we read through all the messages that Mizi gives the others, we notice one thing very quickly; all her messages are all very long, detailed and often seem sincere. At least, more so than any of the others.

She will compliment them in earnest and go on a bit of a ramble, as though she's writing down whatever immediately comes to her head. They are all still very kind and sincere, showing just how good of a person Mizi was.

In the messages board for her, it seems that all the note-makers knew Mizi and thought very positively of her. Another thing that two messages mention is the fact that Mizi has in fact seen the ocean and speaks of it very fondly.

Next up, the Diary Entries from Field Day!

This Official Patreon Post (This is freely available)

This is where we get a glimpse into other talents that Mizi has besides music. It seem pretty obvious that Mizi is the most athletic out of her group, seeing how she placed first in several of the events.

She also enjoys and shows pride in her accomplishments. She talks about how she can't wait to write to her guardian about it.

While we are aware that the guardians do keep track of thw children, Mizi is the only one out of all of them who seems to be in contact with them on her own volition and actively looks foward to it. This furthur cements how good of a childhood Mizi seemed to have with her guardian.

Now, we look at the interviews involving Mizi and Sua

The Official Post about for the BTS Interview of Sua and Mizi

In this, we'll be placing more focus on Mizi. But I will be doing Sua after this.

Mizi, throughout the entire interview, seems to be genuinely excuted to be a part of alien stage. She doesn't seem to realize the true horror of the event for humans.

It also makes it clear just how much of her dream goal seemed to involve Sua. She wanted to perform with Sua on the big stage ever since she was little.

These two spent their time watching the night sky when the celings opened up and talk about what they could see. They also spent their mandatory playtime together, singing most of the time.

I'll go into more detail about the aspect of their relationship eventually but for now, it's more about Mizi.

It's also made clear that despite everything that Mzi was passionate about, she despised studying and was bad enough at them tha she required extra classes.

She also shows a fascination with her home planet, Earth and would declare the spaceships she couldn't see clearly as Earth.

We also now know she needed glasses because her vision was horrible. She got them while she was in the Anakt Garden.

Mizi very specifically says 'parents' in the interview, ans not her guardian. This seems to go to show just how close of a relationship she had to her guardian. She is excited to hear from them, cares about their opinion, and shares her wants with them, which they actively supply for.

And the final part, which I think could be the most heartbreaking;

Mizi is fully unaware that those who losein Anakt Garden will die. She believes that if she loses, she will just go back to the Garden. She fully believes that if she won, it would be with Sua, wanting to perform with her for as long as possible.

She didn't know about the truth of Alien Stage and it doesn't seem like ayone bothered to correct her on this.

[This will be continued but i had this in the drafts for so long, I thought I may as well post what I had]

[emerxshiu]

FORGOTTEN LAND'S SECOND ANNIVERSARY :3

I AM SOOOO BACK

I started this drawing yesterday around afternoon and finished it just a few minutes earlier.

I went with a messier type of drawing instead of more clean like the elfilin one from yesterday, i find it fun doing it like this, mostly cause i dont have to worry about making it perfectly so i dont get as frustrated as normal. Id place this one as my second best digital drawing. im pretty sure i havent posted what i consider my best digital drawing here, tho i do have it in instagram, i might post it here one day, tho these two are way too tied up, i love how this came out, its not exactly like how i imagined it but its really close to it, and also itd say that since i dont tend to play around lighting that much, this was such a joy to draw and i cant help but stare at it a lot, at least until i start hating it because i made quite a lot of errors. i also changed my elfilis gijinka just a tad bit from last time, but its not that big of a difference, mostly.

ofc i had to draw elfilis for forgotten land's anniversary, i tend to deny it in my head but yeah they're my fave of the kirby characters even tho i hate them a bit. I wanted to draw some more doodles, like, elfilis eating cake, kirby car, a bunch of other stuff (not elfilin cuz i already drew him yesterday) but when i tried i couldnt draw anything more, guess this drawing burned me out a lot, huh?

you can definitly tell i spent all the efforts on him cuz if you look a bit closer to the bottom part you'll see its almost barely detailed, but i mean, they're the focus so make sense i guess for me not add that much detail there. um also, maybe because i dunno i had OVER 130 LAYERS jeez no wonder firealpaca was slowing down so much, i need to manage my layers better next time, tho i did do something i keep forgetting, wich is naming them (most of them at least) that was a real life saver

Also, antares (fecto elfilis' spear/cadaceus), as always, was a pain to draw, but this time its probably been draw the most accurate out of every other drawing ive made with it in it, i didnt notice it was like, a little curved when it reached the blade

some close ups since his face is a bit hard to see

silly :3

fun fact! actually, this is technically a redraw, somewhere around between february and march i started a fecto elfilis drawing for the first anniversary, but i couldnt finish it in time, and i never finished it

thats...quite the improvement! (i remember being so proud of it)

also his wings are like that cuz i did not want to draw the pattern, its way too hard, i literally copy pasted it, wait, i was talking about the 2024 version but i looked at the 2023 one and i just noticed it also has the pattern copy pasted, i guess some stuff never changes since i still abuse the ctrl+c ctrl+v to this day

Also i ended up making a huge error there, i was planing to add the phantom spears from orbital pulsar (the attack he does first when you battle them at lab discovera) but theres an innacuracy, when they do the attack, they always close their eyes, i had actually sketched him (well i mean both these drawings are basically the first sketch (2023) or second sketch(2024) with some color, shadows and lighting. i didnt do lineart in the 2024 one cuz i wanted to be a bit like the og i made (too bad i sketched that one with black since the og was sketched with white due to me drawing the bg first)) with his eyes closed but them decided to make them open for a reason i cant remember, maybe i thought itd look nicer? idk

ive had the idea of redrawing this for quite some month now so it was kinda already planned

background cuz i think it came out really pretty

doesnt have the little stars since without elfilis and the structures it looks fucked up. the actual sky in game is more blue, but the clouds have some orange, in the 2023 ver. i made the sky orange, and in the 2024 ver i wanted it more accurate, but i didnt wanna loose the orange sky, so i did a gradient. pretty...

also here's a screenshot i took when i was like halfway trough it, its barely noticeable but i changed his mouth in the final drawing

I really love katfl, like a buncha whole lot, its basically almost my first mainline kirby game. 100% the demo, finished the game in almost one day, i literally play it monthly, like, every month i put the card in my switch, start it up, get morpho sword, and go shred elfilis in lab discovera. i would probably not even be here on tumblr and the kirby fandom if it werent for it. and i love it so much i genuinly cannot express how much i like it and treasure it with words or anything

Thank you for reading my unnecesarily long rambles lol

I hope i'll post tomorrow and dont forget like usual

Jambuhbye!

[kriskrossapplesauce05]

Okay so, I'm still in the kotlc fandom, right? But I haven't kept up reading the books in a while since I was very busy with school and tbh the fandom gave me a bad taste since everyone is always like "Everything is about Keefe now" and "the writing has decreased drastically" (i cannot confirm or deny this because i'm still stuck on the sixth book [lodestar, ithink???], but i hope i can make a judgement of my own soon)

Anyhow I decide to take a break from the series and pick up a new one called "silber" (it's a german series and pretty nieche, so finding info about this could be a bit difficult) and I kid you not it has SO MANY resemblances to kotlc, or at least the characters do, 'cause plot wise, it's very different.

Basically, the MC (Liv, ♀️, 15-16) after moving with her mom, sister and their nanny (Lotti) to England, to meet the mom's new boyfriend and his kids Grayson (♂️, 17-18) and his sister (♀️,17-18) and get this.

Grayson and Florence both have brown hair, okay, pretty average. But after it's revealed that Liv and co. will move in, Florence freaks the fuck out and Grayson seems very indifferent, up until that point, Grayson and Florence are repeatedly reffered to as "perfect" by the MC. Sound familliar?

Anyhow, we skip forward and we meet a bunch of characters, but one I want to focus on is Henry, Henry is characterized as the sarcastic, rebellious one of his friend group and in the book it is often refferenced that he has some sort of

family issues tm

okay, common trope, nothing special, lets get back to grayson, in the beginning the writer likes to scare the audience into believing that the MC and Grayson are gonna get together, yk, the step siblings. But nevermind that, that whole thing get's thrown out the window like after the first quarter of the book. But we find things out about Grayson, such as the fact that he likes sport and he has a fear of letting down the one's he loves,......anywayyyyy

Okay, now get this, Grayson and Henry are Best friends from childhood...*deep inhale* Also did I mention Henry was blond???????

And the most obvious things for last are:

- Liv, the MC, has a big FAT crush on Henry and the writer is not subtle about this AT ALL, like, it's very much in your face

- the second thing is, that henry has expressed that he wishes he could meet someone LIKE HIM (refferencing the MC, Liv)

Am I cursed? Am I cursed ? Or just imagining things like ???? Am I doomed forever to only read books wearing the lense of kotlc, everything is kotlc I could read Pride and Predjuce and still only percive all the connections it has to kotlc, I can't escape kotlc please god help me help help help

[fangbangerghoul]

✨Writing Interview Tag Game✨

Tagged the other day by @roguishcat Sorry this is so late I turned off my notifications at the start of my semester. I've been really stressed lately.

When did you start writing?

Kindergarten. Jk. Um...fanfiction? 2007/08? It was personal writing with a friend in a bunch of notebooks. Didn't start posting till 2022 when The Batman came out. (dont look into this fact)

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I almost exclusively read Vampire/fantasy Romance. So, there is a difference. There have been a few books outside of that category I tackle but its normally related to my college work. I do think those horror/goth themes seep into my writing.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I do not think my writing has been compared to any other writing, at least not to me directly. I do really love the world building Charlaine Harris created. It is so lovely and to be able to write such an addicting 13 book series is something I hope to achieve as well.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I'm lazy so here's a picture:

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

It used to be absorbing other content by other artists but lately I couldn't tell you. I've been considering quitting writing for some time because I just don't enjoy it as much as I was.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Yes, angry violent woman. No it does not surprise me. There have been some themes of sexual assault and abandonment. Also doesn't surprise me.

What is your reason for writing?

Community. When I started writing in 2007/08 it was with a friend and the comradery filled a need I didn't have. I started again last year and found some community. It was great for the time being. Now I am not sure. I know most people say you should write for yourself but being a depressed person since the age of 9 it hard to center yourself like that. Another reason I am thinking about just quitting for some time at least till I find that spark again or reason.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

When the parts I had the most fun writing get complimented. I also appreciate the comments that pull favorite quotes. They are really wholesome and make me feel like my writing is appreciated.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I am okay with being the writer of the story that lives rent free in the back of your mind because it had such a mind-blowing event. Or maybe just a story that is thought of fondly occasionally.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Perhaps character psychology?

How do you feel about your own writing?

Right now, I am not my biggest fan but that's okay. I really wish I had a more poetic approach to writing or at least better with descriptions. I worry sometimes my writing is all events and no emotion.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

Though my reason for writing is community at the end of the day when I can write I try to focus on stories I will enjoy or need to get off my chest. There have been a few fics in the past I wrote solely for mutuals, and I do not mind doing that because it brings me a lot of joy to create for others.

(I know some of the answers may have sounded a little sad. I want to clarify I am not looking for sympathy this is just truly how I feel at the time being and that is okay. I am okay with it.)

Tagging with no obligation:

@bearlytolerant @interplanet--janet @staticpallour @lisa-and-shadow @therealgchu

@soloavengers @arisenreborn @dryad-of-the-dogwood @eridanidreams @kimberbohwrites

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @crabs-with-sticks  |  AO3: CrabsWithSticks

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Found Family in Crisis!!!!!! How This Local Woman's Life Just Keeps Getting Worse!!!  

Jacs and Dema talk music, tragedy, DMing tabletop games, and OCs who won't follow the damn rules

Dema: Good morning! Happy Saturday. Are you writing today? 

Jacs: I'm hoping to! Though I might be taking a break from my actual project to do some fun oneshots. Give myself a bit of time away from the tragedy of my bang fic and write something happy haha

Dema: That is very fair! Especially with heavier fics. How do you get in the zone to write, regardless of the project? Or does it vary depending on the vibes of your fic?

Jacs: Normally it involves getting nice and cozy under a blanket on the couch with a good cup of tea. I'll sometimes put a playlist on to get into a particular vibe, I've got a bunch of character playlists which can help get into the perspective of whatever oc I'm writing that day.

Dema: I won't get too specific with this question but, if there is one song on your playlist that especially fits your bang fic, what would it be?

Jacs: Hmm, I'd say probably 'Sampson' by Regina Spektor. The song is based on a tragic biblical story and is all about what could have happened if things had worked out differently. If the love had been enough to save them, then they wouldn't have been remembered by history but they would have been happy.

Dema: Oh okay, arrow straight to the heart. I see, I see.

Jacs: Yeah, I'm a known tragedy enjoyer, just rolling around in the sadness like a dog in a puddle. In order to get optimal levels of tragedy you gotta have some happiness first just so that readers can really see that it didn't have to be this way (but they never could have changed it).

Dema: I can't wait to read it! I also love tragedy, and especially in that ratio. Is there a particular one-shot idea you have kicking around, to cleanse the palate?

Jacs: Not sure! Though probably something with my oc Luca Trevelyan with Dorian, though I haven't actually managed to get very far through that particular playthrough yet....I'm a bit of a serial oc creator who then never gets around to actually playing them in the game.

Dema: Do you always make your OCs in game? Even if you don't get around to the playthrough? 

Jacs: Yep! It’s probably my favourite part of Dragon Age, or any CRPG. I really like thinking up characters, with their conflicts and histories. I'm a forever DM in real life, so I'm fairly used to making up characters and then never playing them, although at least with Dragon Age I already know the events of the game they'll be going through, so I have a better idea of their development arcs. I am trying to do a re-playthrough of the whole series before Veilguard comes out, but we'll see how successful that is haha.

Dema: Do you find that DMing has informed the way you structure your stories?

Jacs: I'd say that it probably has. When I DM I'm always keeping a hand on the pulse of all the characters, their emotions and where they're at in their arcs, because my aim is really to tell a good story. So I think it can help me to see things from the big picture as well as a more mechanical perspective. Though sometimes I do need to tell myself to stop looking at the big picture and just focus on what is at hand.

Dema: I'm a bit in awe of DMs. To me it seems like being the conductor of an orchestra, except all your musicians are improvising. Do your characters sometimes feel like players? Or do they tend to stay within the lines?

Jacs: They do end up getting away from me sometimes, or they'll do something that leaves me going 'huh, why did you just make that decision', because I know it's accurate but I'm not entirely sure why. Though sadly there's no actual player to ask...just my brain. I was intending to make quite a whimsical and happy Brosca, but she just keeps doing morally grey things!

Dema: HAHA ah yes, relatable. I find it's such an interesting balance, for me, between wanting everything in the story to feel a bit inevitable (especially in a tragedy!) and embracing the realism of some things just not having a clear explanation, especially character decisions.

Jacs: Yeah for sure! It's great when characters are messy and contradictory, I just wish it wasn't so hard...I had a character at one point who was making a whole bunch of decisions I wasn't expecting or had planned for, and I'd try to think 'ok why is this character doing this?' and all she supplied in return was 'I'm lactose intolerant'...which honestly was a very in character response; just straight up ignoring the question. 

Dema: A character in writing, or a character in a campaign you were DMing?

Jacs: A character I was writing.

Dema: Hahaha, incredible.

Jacs: I sometimes have, I guess little 'conversations' with my characters in my head where I tap into the section of my brain that they live in.

Dema: That's a great strategy! Is that how your characters first come to be?

Jacs: Hmm, I think the conversation part comes a bit later when I have some context for them, either in their history or in the game itself. It starts off as a lot of collaging together different ideas until it makes a full character. Often I start off from a particular theme or emotional angle I'm interested in exploring. So one started off as 'religious trauma', and another from 'idealism in a cruel society' and so on.

Dema: Has that first theme or idea ever come from a really unexpected source? And related to this, do you tend to be primarily inspired by the source material itself? I know that's a big reason so many of us love DA in particular.

Jacs: I think the themes are usually all ideas that I'm already interested in, but it's super fun seeing the way it can connect to the worldbuilding and lore. I think it's really important for characters to have specifics which tie them into the world around them, so thinking about how their family might have lived in the particular part of the world they're from, how they and the people around them either adhere to or go against it, and what impact that would have on their story. It's really fun looking at how a theme can change based on where the character comes from, like a character with conflict based around religious trauma is going to be different if they're human, Dalish or a city elf, and the world will react to them differently because of that.

Dema: Now I simply must ask you if you ever write AU fics.

Jacs: I haven't written many to be honest, though I do have some ideas for some. It can be hard translating a story that is really rooted in the specifics of one particular world and translating that to another. So I'm always really impressed to see when other people do it so well! I often find you can find a good parallel for one aspect of a character, but then you have to try to fit a second aspect or character conflict in and it doesn't fit the new world at all!

Dema: I feel the same!

Jacs: Writing; it's hard man.

Dema: It is! So why do you do it!? And a follow-up question: writing is hard, and you're signed up for a Big Bang! What made you interested? Is it your first one or have you done this before?

Jacs: It's like a wonderful little puzzle; except it can be all wibbly wobbly and just like real life it doesn't always need to make sense- it's lovely just to embrace the humanness of character writing!

So a bit of context, I recently finished postgraduate studies, and realised I didn't have any hobbies! I used to love creative writing of any sort when I was but a young whippersnapper (they say, in their mid 20s), so I decided to embrace the cringe and get back at it. I've never participated in any fandom events, or even written something this long that wasn't academic! But I'm really loving the community around this event and getting to chat to other writers as we all write (and suffer) together!

Dema: In the last minutes, and just for fun: can you come up with a click-bait title for your fic? Without giving anything major away, of course.

Jacs: Maybe something like 'Found Family in Crisis!!!!!! How This Local Woman's Life Just Keeps Getting Worse!!!’  (To quote the venerable Sir Terry Prattchet: And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.)

Dema: Ten out of Ten, would click again. Thank you so much for setting aside this time to chat with me!

Jacs: No worries! I had a great time!

[cactuupng]

Just curious, do you have any headcanons about Mumbo that you haven't shared yet? Either S10 or just in general~

I love hearing people's different headcanons on the characters :D

When it comes to Mumbo headcanons, I just have a bunch of random one off ones that I find funny or silly, and those are the ones I haven't really shared LMAO

Uhhh some that I can think of atm that i DOMT remember sharing (also the ones i find silly):

- Mumbo's a natural blonde (shocker look at the art)

- He's so agender, aroace and autism

- Mumbo has a lollipop in his pocket at all times because he sometimes needs to chew on something or like.. do something else while focusing on building or doing redstone (he basically just keeps one in his mouth while working, he noticed that it makes him focus a lot more)

- Mumbo writes and draws on his arms, whether it's out of boredom or he needs to remember something but struggles with it (He definitely has written very basic crafting recipes at least once) (also other hermits at first thought they were tattoos)

- Mumbo very much still sees most of the hermits he met when he was 17 as parental figures, especially Xisuma

- Mumbo used to use fake candy cigarettes to make himself look like he was smoking in the early days of Hermitcraft bc he wanted himself to look cool (he wasn't) (most of them caught on quickly) (they played along for a bit until one of them gave him and ACTUAL cigarette) (Xisuma was NOT happy /j)

[dirtyoldmanhole]

in defense of revelation

most of y'all know me as a pre-tumblr tellius fan who recently got suckered into fates/(especially revelation) in the past year and how often i've repeatedly stated how very fucking glad i was not around for peak fates fan/hatedom. even living afar from the field in other fandoms for that brief 2015-2021 time period, fates discourse was... special, to say the least.

me being me, i do want to take a step back and consider in good faith... why?

why the outsized hatedom for rev especially?

every FE game has its warts with its strengths. and i feel like i'm in a unique position of seeing from a more macro/neutral standpoint having abruptly fallen in love with fates/rev when it's left in the dust for shinier games, and whose viewpoint was never really colored either which way while also living the historical context of the series. (shoot at one point i was a by-default fates hater/"pre-DS fe" snob; I freely admit to eating my own words).

the odd bit of it all is that revelation is by far my favorite of the routes. yes, gunter's outsized impact on the plot is a large part of it, but I actually think I would still like it over conquest/(certinally over birthright and a good 90% of FE games) even if another character had taken that role, as long as it was handled in a similarly complex way (anankos' cosmic horror shtick was fuckin' rad).

let's start with the common criticisms (a few picked from this halfway reasonable reddit thread that attempts something similar) and others gleaned elsewhere from the interwebs over the year.

the unit balancing

IMO this is the fairest criticism of the list; i can see why a bunch of underleveled units handed out slowly before the cast rolls into valla would be a legitimate annoyance to old hats and newcomers alike.

that said: something about gameplay with Fates that i think was brilliant is there's a massive intentional difference between royals and every other character. royals get special weapons, they're a class unto themselves literally and also in being able to solo entire swaths of levels. (birthright being a literal name of one of the routes, for pete's sake.) i've attempted both a rev run with royals and a rev run without royals (using gunter too lol) back to back and honestly the sheer difficulty spike is genuinely fascinating from a story perspective.

you feel how utterly powerless non-royals feel.

(also given people mostly emotionally got attached to the royals.... in the other two routes they were probably willing to wait a little longer for their blorbo to appear and assuaged by many cutscenes of them.)

also tangent, but gameplay wise: i also kind of want to push back at the redditor in the thread above who mentioned rev as a sandbox experience of Fates; I can see why they would say that as it's perceived as the neutral route, when personally it's better framed as the valla-specific route with a very tight cast focus (ie the characters that actually impact the plot); having almost the whole cast being playable was just a type of newgame+ bonus. like i wouldn't expect a nohrian character to get much limelight in birthright in favor of the hoshidans, so too would I not expect a non valla-related character to get as much focus and decent treatment in rev.

very petty add on: if i can make mister zero stats grandpa OHKO ryoma in rev on my second run, git gud shrub

the story

so here's the thing.

i'm objectively biased by being head over heels for gunter as a character and his outsized impact on lategame rev - but i don't think i'm wrong with saying that people were looking for the wrong thematic beats regarding revelation's story with how it was framed beyond itself.

if you focus on the adults - mikoto, arete, gunter, garon, and the unaffiliated characters that didn't get a chance to shine in the other two nation-specific routes (azura, lilith, anankos, corrin's backstory in the northern fortress) - revelation will blow your socks off with how nuanced and interwoven between the characters mentioned above the story is.

you just need to give it a fair chance.

gimmick maps

this is honestly where i laugh a little and simply gesture to three houses' objectively terrible same-y maps. TH had other strengths; its maps are not one of them. i'd rather take a memorable gimmick in a heartbeat than 4/5ths of a game i straight up do not remember the levels (a criticism that could also go for FE11/12/most of the series pre FE7).

the snow shoveling map in particular draws the most ire (fair lol), but let's take that map out, and.... honestly none of the others feel egregarious? FE's done 'only three characters deployed" before (the cave chapter which is pretty short and not too unbalanced). the moving platforms have been done in FE7. the traps in anankos' lair were honestly pretty fun for instilling more of the horror/claustrophobic vibe and didn't have total buzzkills like powerful ranged magic bosses to ruin your day (FE6/7/16 lookin' at you).

of fates' routes, conquest's maps age a little bit better by being generally emotionally married to the story beats more, but personally i find they're a little overtuned at times. honestly the worst i can say is that conquest's maps overshine the other two routes when the other two routes had pretty decent-to-good map design that age well by their own right.

the babyrealms

sure, and.............? honestly i feel like every FE game has its completely anime whack-ass mechanic from space.

the best part is the children mechanic in fates is completely optional and segregated from the story - if you hate it that much it doesn't even have to exist. god knows i wish the My Unit/time travel of Awakening onwards didn't exist, or the kids of FE13 didn't exist, or the whole "secret space technology" of FE16 didn't exist, or the toothpaste hair of Engage, or the fucking gameplay of FE4/6, and frankly the laguz can be a bit tough to swallow as an idea if you didn't grow up with the anime tropes of cat girls or shapeshifters at the time (and the anvilicious anti-racism themes) -- all of which are way more plot relevant to their respective games.

'just fighting zombies for the latter half'

ironically i'm usually the first person to absolutely despise the 'fighting non-characters/nameless zombies' trope. so i do sympathize.

one: honestly that critique isn't that much different than the FE-bog-standard 'fight twenty maps packed with samey soldiers of the Bad Evil Country' (FE9 with daein alas) - if anything, like FE8, zombies are a nice change of pace and rev even one-ups sacred stones by giving the possessed vallites an extra bit of fridge horror if you give one temporary shit about the vallites.

a better defense though, is much like how i think viewing Final Fantasy 7 as anything but a massive homage to sci-fi horror would be a miss to its story, visual, and emotional beats - i also think it'd be a miss to not recognize that revelation is the cosmic horror of fire emblem.

the slowly-revealed possession of someone very precious to corrin. the needless deaths of named cast members. anankos' entire freaking design. the last four-five chapters of fighting your own parents/parental figures who both plead with you to kill them while also trying to convince you to let them kill you, holy fuck. peak psychological horror here too, and i feel like fates is in a uniquely better position with its focus on incestual family dynamics to drive home the emotional impact to the player (if you've married some specific characters like azura and gunter) as well as pull from classic gothic horror - especially brilliant with the nohrian's constant linkage to vampires, another staple of gothic horror.

oh gunter, gunter gunter.

I can't get around this point since I have heard him specifically mentioned (lol) as a failing of revelation. oh zero stats granpda. what are we going to do with you.

(keep in mind i'm not going to be able to tackle all of these sub-points since this would literally be a 20k essay by itself which this blog kinda frankly covers in various degrees; this is a summary).

but let's start with the more objective bits.

ultimately, i ... think a lot of people were really skeeved the fuck out by gunter's possession plotline in the sense it was a huge bet that the series had never done. there were a handful of gunter fans from conquest who would normally be all over his expanded spotlight that fall into this bucket, in addition to the folks that just did not jive with his type of arc/character and who were never gonna like rev. (that's fine, y'all got two whole other games to play in).

giving its jeigan character actual teeth, actual cold-blooded motivations and hatreds and a betrayal that worked entirely at odds with the royal-simping game (and series) didn't help. he never apologized for it either.

giving its jeigan a spotlight role when youth is valorized, and old age demonized to a questionable degree didn't help. (ya notice the ages of all the heroes and villains? the really squicky visual character consistency of beauty equals goodness in anime / that FE is no better at?) his story almost lowkey requires a little maturity to get, higher than the average age of a fates player.

giving its jeigan a nuanced personality that could be caring and protective as much as deeply manipulative (even and especially to corrin) didn't help. locking behind half of their relationship to CQ supports and half his backstory/chats with the rest of the cast being unlocalized likewise didn't help.

giving its jeigan actual sexual menace didn't help. ( in an already sexually-charged game, there are a few very specific lategame possession scenes where that also bleeds over to his role, nevermind his CQ S-support. and crucially, when that slipping mask jarred directly against the father role that people project on him with corrin).

.... and all of those points is exactly why i think his arc is some of the most brilliant writing in the series.

Fates was especially good with taking tired tropes and twisting them just enough in a fucky/power-tilt-y way that it left the player off kilter while giving the games, ultimately, a bittersweet resolution.

some folks don't like that feeling; but i think it was an injection of real charisma and balls in a series that always draws from its specific time-period in history.

thank you for reading ~

[zoeykallus]

Hey! This is a bit much, so there is a trigger warning for the rest of this.

I had someone that I thought was a friend 'out' me in front of a bunch of guys. We had been on the topic of sex and my 'friend', knowing I have a history with SA and r*pe, made an offhand comment about:

'Well, you started early in your childhood. I personally think 5 years old is a little young, but what do I know?'

I guess she was trying to look cool in front of the guys? Or make herself look better? I've cut off the friend, but the looks I got from the guys in that group make me sick.

Regardless, I was wondering how you think the Batch (+Gregor and Fives, if you think it would fit?) would react to someone saying something like this to their friends or partner when the Batcher didn't know about it. Or, at least someone making fun of their friend or partners SA/r*pe trauma in a public setting like this.

I know that this is a lot, so please don't feel pressured to do this at all! If you need to delete this, it is 1000% fine. I do want to say that I'm good, and things are okay now, just so you don't worry about that. I love you, I love your work, and thank you for all that you do! Good luck, best wishes, and much love!

- 🪼

Aloha!

First off, I'm sorry you made this experience, not only the violation, this breach of your physical (as well as mental) integrity, but also this thoughtless and unreflective, rude behavior of your former friend.

Ooof. I thought about this one for a very long time, keeping it in my drafts for even longer. Opening the file, thinking for a moment, and closing it again. I have long thought about whether I can and want to write something about it. But these are the wrong questions. This is more about whether I should. Finally, I have decided to go into the subject, hoping to be able to provide some comfort.

The HCs are relatively short and to the point, at least that was my goal. I didn't want to go into too much depth, especially since I wanted to include all the characters you asked for and leave out too many triggers.

The focus is mostly, almost only, on the guys' reaction to mentioned friend.

I'm glad to read that you are in a good/safe place now! Thanks for letting me know 💜

The Bad Batch/Fives HCs x Reader - Outrageous And Thoughtless

Trigger Warnings: Mention Of Abuse/ SA/Hurt/Mention Of Traumatic Events/Strong Language/(18+)

Situation:

In the presence of your partner, a friend makes a remark regarding your past and reveals sexual abuse you were subjected to in the past. Something that your batcher does not know yet.

Hunter

At first, he can't quite grasp what he has just heard. Immediately afterward, his keen senses perceive how the situation overtakes you, panics you and makes you feel insecure. He frowns in annoyance and turns to your friend who has been talking so thoughtlessly. "Will you please back off!!! That was very inappropriate!" Your heart races, plagued by memories and above all the fear that Hunter now sees you in a different light, you stand there rooted to the spot, all muscles tense. Adrenaline is produced in your body, as in a fight or flight situation. Hunter approaches you, taking your hand carefully, tenderly. "Take a deep breath," he says softly, "And exhale again." As your acquaintance is about to speak up again, Hunter interrupts with a sharp look. His expression clearly says that silence is the best option now. Your hand trembles in his, and Hunter pulls back with you, away from everyone else present. He looks at you, quietly, gently. He smiles tentatively.

"It's all good. You're safe with me. You know that, right?" You nod, of course you know you are safe with him, and you are very grateful for that. "Good," he says contentedly, "You don't have to explain anything to me. Everything is okay. Take a breath first. You can talk to me anytime you want, but you don't have to." You take a shaky breath and nod again. "Thank you," you say softly. Hunter kisses your temple tenderly. "There's no need to thank me. That you are safe and secure with me is a given."

Echo

His eyes widen. Echo stares at your friend and grits his teeth. His gaze wanders to you and he sees the anger and panic bubbling under your surface. His hand clenches into a fist. He would like to break your friend's nose, but he pulls himself together as best he can. "How dare you say something so insensitive, so thoughtless?" Your friend looks at him in surprise. As they are about to answer, however, Echo raises his hand to interrupt your friend. "Don't bother. I don't expect a meaningful answer from someone with so little subtlety," he says, growling. Your friend looks at you, smiling, trying to salvage the situation more poorly than good, but Echo puts himself between the two of you, his anger almost palpable. "I think the evening is over, you should leave now," he says harshly.

His tone doesn't tolerate any backtalk, and no one dares to contradict him. His shoulders are tense, you can see it in his posture. When you are alone, a part of you does not dare to look him in the eye. You have the uneasy feeling that everything is different now, that Echo perceives you differently. But Echo's feelings for you don't shrink in any way, he has the same sincere respect as before, and you won't lose his affection anytime soon. "Look at me," he says softly. As your eyes meet, he smiles and says, "I hope you'll forgive my outburst, my interfering. What came out of your friend's mouth was incredibly tactless." You swallow, nod, finally daring to take a breath. Echo spreads his arms wide, and you automatically lean into his embrace, grateful for his closeness, protection and understanding.

Wrecker

He has just turned over the grill when he hears the words. His brothers are also all sitting at the table, with you and a friend you brought along. It has suddenly become very quiet, only the sizzle of the grill can be heard. Wrecker spins around the huge tongs in his hand. He blinks, within seconds he is torn between worry, anger and confusion. Worry and anger prevail and the handle of the tongs creaks under his hardening grip. He looks directly at your friend and says, "Why do you expose her like that in public? That's not something you do with a friend." Your friend, who doesn't really think much and just wanted to stand out among the men, realizes that the attempt is about to backfire. "That's a good question," growls Crosshair, who moves the toothpick back and forth between his lips with a piercing look. That's the first sentence he says tonight. You sit silently in between. For a moment, you toy with the idea of forcing a laugh or running away, doing something to take away this feeling of exposure. But you feel heavy as lead, as if you were stuck on the camping chair.

Hunter says quietly but clearly to your guest, "It's best if you leave now." Wrecker has put the barbecue tongs in Echo's hand and comes over to you, somberly eyeing your friend as they nervously make their way out of the way, hastily avoiding his gaze. Wrecker sits down in the chair next to you, grasping your hand tenderly. "What would you like to do now, dear?" he asks gently. You look at him questioningly. "What?" "Do you want to talk? Do you want to be alone? Should we just keep enjoying the evening?" he asks. You take a deep breath. "Can we pretend that didn't happen just now?" you ask quietly. As if on cue, movement comes into the round. Tech gets up and starts setting the table, Echo continues to tend to the grill, Hunter hands out drinks, Crosshair gets a deck of cards from the Marauder, and Wrecker stays with you. He acts normal, he doesn't press you, he doesn't ask questions, but he stays close to you just in case you still need a hug or a listening ear. Neither he nor his brothers will ever bring up the subject again, but if you want to talk, you can count on Wrecker.

Tech

He's very direct himself sometimes, but what he just heard is way off the mark. Tech is sitting next to you and your friend is sitting across from you. He lifts his eyes from the cup he was looking into earlier, lost in thought, and looks at the person sitting across from you. "That was very inappropriate," he says, frowning critically. He can't for the life of him imagine what could tempt a person, a friend at that, to abuse your trust like this. He is sure that you told this person these things in confidence, because he himself knew nothing about it until now. Since you neither deny that the statement is true nor do anything else in this way, he assumes that there must be some form of truth in it. "Why? It's not a lie. I thought you knew about it," the friend says promptly. Tech can feel you tensing up next to him, he can guess how uncomfortable you are with all of this, even though no words are crossing your lips at the moment. "No, I didn't. And even if I had known, that's not a subject you just bring up casually. It's a traumatic subject, and the way you deal with it is very inconsiderate."

You finally say quietly, "Maybe we should postpone this meeting and back off." Tech looks at you, his expression softening. He nods at you and takes your hand as you both stand up. Your friend tries to persuade you to stay, but Tech says, "I don't think we'll be doing this again," and gently but firmly pulls you with him. On the way home, he says, "I have to say I'm surprised. I thought you were good friends." "I thought so too." Tech says, "You need to pick your friends better." His hand gently squeezes yours as he asks, "Are you okay?" "I'm confused" you admit, "And I'm scared". He stops and looks at you. "Of what?" "Of you seeing me differently now," you admit. He shakes his head, softly stroking your face, "You're still the same person, the person I love. Nothing about that has changed. What I've come to know and love about you is still there, no one can just take that away from you."

Crosshair

He's so perplexed, the toothpick he was chewing on before falls out of his mouth. Crosshair stares at your friend, who thinks they're being particularly funny or whatever. Then his gaze moves to you, and he sees how you seem to be getting smaller and smaller, because your colleague keeps talking. "Shut up," he finally snaps, giving the blabbermouth a sharp look. All is quiet, Crosshair's somber expression seems to unnerve your friend. "'Say, are you shitting me?' How do you come to talk such private things entrusted to you like that, as if you were telling a joke? Did they drop you on your head too many times when you were a kid? Or bathed you too hot?" Your friend just stares dumbly at Crosshair, wide-eyed. This reaction is probably unexpected. The Sniper growls as he pulls a fresh toothpick from his belt and puts it between his lips, "You better get out of here before I get the idea of hurting you."

Everything about this situation has surprised you so much and thrown you off course, that you simply remain silent and observe the situation as if you didn't even belong to it. Only when your friend is gone and Crosshair addresses you do you awaken from your rigidity. He says, "We're not inviting that person again. Only over my dead body." You nod and say quietly, "Okay." He frowns worriedly as he sees your strange expression. "I have to say a few things I understand better now, though. Like your reticence when we first met, your jumpiness at every touch" You absolutely don't want to talk about it, you just want to forget that Crosshair knows about it now. As if he reads your mind, he says, "We don't invite that person anymore and this never happened". You nod and breathe such a sigh of relief that he notices it too. "Hey Kitten, but just so you know if you want to talk, we can do that, okay?" Again you nod, grateful for his understanding, grateful that he has once again acted as your shield as he so often does.

Fives

His gaze jumps back and forth between you and your friend. His muscles tense and he almost feels a bit sick, from anger, but above all from concern for you. He can see from your reaction that unfortunately it wasn't just a very tasteless joke. There are a few of his brothers present, and he can roughly imagine how exposed you must feel right now. So his first reaction is to remove you from the crowd. Fives grabs your hand and pulls you with him. "We have to go now," he says with a grin to the crowd and says goodbye. He gives your friend a very sharp, admonishing look as they attempt to follow you, though. "Just stay away," he hisses at them, on the verge of lashing out, he just barely holds back. "Fives... I," you start, but break off again. You don't know what to say to him at all. "It's okay, you don't have to explain anything to me," he says softly and walks with you out of the bar into the open. He takes one last look to make sure you weren't followed, especially by your so-called friend, then calls a cab for you.

"Fives?" you ask him as you sit together in the back of the cab. "Yeah?" You gulp and ask, "Now that you know about it....," but break off again. "What's up with that? Do you want to talk about it?" he gently prods. You shake your head, "Not really. Not now anyway." Fives nods and says, "Then we don't have to talk about it either, sweetie. Relax, you'll talk to me when you feel ready. And if that's never the case, for whatever reason, then I have no problem with that either" "You're the best," you say with relief, leaning into the arm he puts around you. "I know"

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

I decided to not tag anyone, just in case.

[tinypinkmouse]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

Five is way too few and the fic far too many to choose from. At least I've been reminded how much I enjoy the majority of my fic, and that's a good thing. So this isn't some kind of top five really. On another day I'd probably pick five entirely different fics. But these are some of my favourites.

Rust in My Mouth, Guardian, Mature (for injuries/violence), Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. This is a pre-canon story where Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan meet earlier (I love the basic premise of earlier first meeting and have written many different variations on that idea). This involves quite a bit of worldbuilding for Shen Wei and Dixing to give Shen Wei a hobby of underground fights. I felt like I was missing stories that focus on Shen Wei's fighting abilities. We don't really even mention him training or anything all that often, surely he must sometimes? This fic was mostly me trying to work out the worldbuilding of Dixing having some kind of fighting tradition, and then throwing in a first meeting on top. In retrospect I ended up liking the mood of it a lot and then wrote a sequel to it as well (I think there's another sequel lingering in my WIPs). The worldbuilding is not the most original, but I like it well enough. And I'm very happy with how I wrote the bits where actual fighting happens (I'm generally not very confident in writing that sort of action).

Like It's the Very First Time, Guardian, Explicit, Shen Wei/Ye Zun/Zhao Yunlan. (CW: incest) This is an AU where the twins are living together when Zhao Yunlan meets them. Also there's a few gender changes here, both Zhao Yunlan and Ye Zun are women. Shen Wei is a man, though his feelings on that could change. The twins come with shapechanging powers where they can change their body to fit their gender if they choose to. Honestly, other than including some of my ambiguous feelings on gender (a lot of it in my head, because it's from Zhao Yunlan's POV and she is not aware of what's going on with the twins and gender) I love this purely because of the complete bisexual disaster that Zhao Yunlan manages to be (I'm very proud of that).

Spiders Crawling, Guardian, Explicit, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. This is a monster AU, because I love all of my various monster AUs and I have to include at least one. And I love spiders!Shen Wei to bits, so spiders!Shen Wei it is. He is made of lots and lots of tiny spiders, except for when he comes together and looks like Shen Wei. I don't even know what else to say about this, other than spiders!Shen Wei! Oh, yes, Zhao Yunlan will fuck that, because that's Zhao Yunlan and he can be horny about a bunch of spiders, thank you (it's a bit of an adjustment even for Zhao Yunlan). Writing the sex was interesting, and took me a bit of figuring out (how do you make a hoard of tiny spiders sexy) and yes I am extremely proud of it.

Be Who You Are, Embrace Again/The Fraud Love Group, Explicit, Yang Xiuxian/Ye Ziyang. I wanted to include so many weilan derivatives (I think I've written some of my very best stuff there) I love my weilan derivative fics to a ridiculous degree. In the end I went with this one because it might just be one of the best things I've ever written (at least in my opinion). Sure I'm extrapolating characters from a trailer (that's all that was out for Embrace Again at the time) and the about seven minutes where Yang Xiuxian appears in his movie, but hey, that's the fun of it all, right?

As Always, Just You, Beast Wars/Machines, G, gen. This is a very short post-canon thing where Cheetor is having feelings and contemplating his life as he grows closer to death. Quite an old thing to include and not exactly a huge fandom either (and definitely makes no sense without the context of canon), but it still makes me all emotional, even if it could have been written better.

[liquidstar]

arc 4/season 2 of re:zero really did have a bunch of sets of siblings with lots of focus on them. it seemed to be a bit of a recurring theme for the season. family bonds as a whole were really important, especially where the backstory was concerned, but in contrast to that, the sibling relationships seemed to be about moving each other forward. in different ways though...

like, you have frederica and garfiel. they're estranged half-siblings, but frederica still obviously cares so much about her little brother. the reason she left was because she wanted to make a place for him and the rest of the people in the sanctuary in the outside world. garfiel was stuck inside the past, fearing the outside world for what happened to their mother. but when he finally faces his trial again, it's the memory of his sister that gives him the motivation to move forward.

similarly, in emilia's second trial, it's her conversation with archi that enables her to face the present for what it is. even though trial archi seemed to be pushing her towards the world of the trial itself, that's exactly what reinforces her will. with her memory of the real archi, she calls him "big brother" for the first time, and she thanks him for always being worried about her. the sad thing is, unlike all of the other sibling duos, archi has already been dead for a long time. but even then, like we saw in the first trial, he gave his life because he wanted emilia to keep moving forward.

and in otto's backstory too... he spent most of his childhood completely unable to interact with the world around him. the constant noise was too overwhelming, to the point that he couldn't actually hear anything else. he had no way to understand or communicate his feelings. and though his parents did their best to understand him, he was still stuck in this state. it wasn't until oslo decided to teach him how to write that he was finally able to express himself. despite the fact that it was harder for otto than other kids, he finally managed his first real message to his family, "thank you for everything." and with that, he cried for the first time since was born, and was able to move forward again.

even the antagonists this arc are siblings. meili and elsa dont get as much focus into their relationship as the others (not for this arc at least), but one very obvious development is that elsa has someone she cares about. elsa "bowl hunter" granhiert, a serial killer/assassin/vampire who takes great pleasure in watching people die, and tearing out their organs, has a person she cares about. this is a humanizing trait for her, and that's on purpose. loving meili literally makes her "more" human. someone that she's also willing to give up her life for. and later on, in arc 6, we see just how much elsa's death impacted meili and how she hasn't been able to move forward since that day.

this theme is even more noticeable in the negatives too. in rem and ram's case, who have already been set up as a matching set all the way back in arc 2. they're identical twins, they've loved each other literally since they were born. ram awoke her powers as a newborn just to save her crying sister. they share a deep and powerful bond. but... what the hell happens when that goes away? because rem had her name and memories eaten, ram forgets she ever had a sister. her character digresses, her entire world is now centered on roswaal, she's more devoted to him than she was before. without her sister, ram moves backwards.

and of course, there's the sibling duo that this entire season centers around- subaru and beatrice. i've talked before about how subaru's relationship with echidna and roswaal is like a foil for his relationship with his actual parents. subaru has been raised living in the shadow of his father, but his actual dad never once forced him into it- he encourages his son to stand on his own and be his own person. roswaal is the opposite, he corners subaru in an attempt to make him a mini roswaal. subaru's mother was always watched him closely, but never made his choices for him. echidna is the opposite, where she wants to manipulate and control subaru's every action to satiate her own goals and desires.

but echidna is also beatrice's actual mother, which places beatrice in the role of subaru's sister in his fucked up found family echidna had created. but beatrice and subaru were never forced together, they chose each other. beatrice was left alone in a library for 400 years, abandoned by her mother and left to wait for a person who would never truly come (who never truly existed). she has been stuck for so long, unable to break her chains. but the action that finally does free her from this stasis is when subaru asks her to choose him. the only way for them to escape this "family" and move forward was for them to choose each other.