#my special boy who doesn't have a backstory yet

[archonfurina]

[silverraes]

10 BL Boys I Want Carnally

10 BL Boys That Make Me Feel Things™

(not sexual, not romantic but a secret third thing)

okay so I wasn't exactly tagged in this but I saw several people doing this and I'll take just about any excuse to scream about my favorite characters so I'm just going to very sneakily join in on this trend 👀

there is absolutely no ranking to these bc I couldn't rank them if I wanted to

(also I changed the name a little bc my ace ass is literally physically incapable of wanting anyone carnally but I still have lots of thoughts lmao)

1) Tharn (The Sign)

I mean. is literally anyone surprised that this is where we're starting?

he's the nicest person out there. he can kick your ass if he wants to. he lost his parents at a young age and is absolutely convinced that everyone he loves is doomed to die and he keeps seeing visions of people dying and he's told again and again that those he has wronged in a past life - which he doesn't even remember - are still out to get him and yet he has so much kindness left for the world??

also he can be such a little shit and knows exactly how to tease Phaya back I love him so goddamn much.

(also that mole-)

2) Kim (Kinnporsche)

was he also on my characters I'd hit with my car list? maybe. and what about it.

I love him so much. he's such a badass but he's such a loser. famous singer who falls for a fan he was supposed to be investigating but is too emotionally constipated to admit it. badass son of a mafia family who can kick ass but only if he wants to. who does it like him honestly

(it also helps that he's played by just about the prettiest man alive)

3) Babe (Pit Babe)

did I start watching this show ironically? yes. is every mention of alphas and mpreg and that mama/papa thing hitting me like a brick and causing me 9000 psychic damage every single time? also yes. did I absolutely fall in love with the show and just about every character in it? you bet your fucking ass I did.

but I especially love Babe. he's just so babygirl. special alpha man who has to act tough and strong but just wants to be babied by his dumbass loser (affectionate) alpha boyfriend. like, he's actually so goddamn soft?? I love him.

4) Guy (Bake Me Please)

I think we all knew this was coming. I was literally gushing about him for half of the episodes. Guy my beloved. that show did not deserve you.

he spends the entire show supporting his crush's every decision and trying to make sure he's okay literally how could you not love this man

(yes he was a petty bitch for like 5 minutes there but he immediately apologized for it the next episode. properly. unlike certain other people-)

5) Sprite (Twins)

he's so himbo coded. himbo of all himbos. the himboest. not a brain cell in that head. he's my little dumbass I love him.

he deserves so much better than what he's being put through. someone please just love and support him for who he is. and also take him away from that family

(please talk to your boyfriend tho I am begging)

6) Wei Wuxian (The Untamed)

MY BELOVED. I could write essays about him. he's such a great character I love him so fucking much. if you ever had to bear witness to me talking about him.. I am so sorry.

sassy emo bitch with a flute and a tragic backstory who's seen as evil by just about everyone but only ever had the best intentions. absolute fucking dumbass. kicks ass. always smiling despite the circumstances. loves his siblings so damn much. doomed by the narrative. what more could you possibly ask for

7) Zhou Zishu (Word of Honor)

I'm trying so damn hard to keep this list to one character per show and it really took me a while to decide if I wanted to include him or Wen Kexing but ultimately it was Zhou Zishu for me

just.. god. him. assassin sect leader just trying to retire who keeps getting dragged into the biggest bullshit but doesn't really mind bc the bullshit comes with a mysterious pretty man. also that whole god damn nail thing. I have so many thoughts and feelings about that but this post would get too long if I got started on those-

(also actually pulling the "I'm literally dying" card to get out of chores is so fucking valid of him. more characters should do that)

8) Milk (Choco Milk Shake)

he is quite fucking literally a reincarnated cat, of course I love him. I could list reasons for why I love him but it would be the exact same reasons just about every cat person on earth lists for why they love cats so. but here's a quick summary, just in case:

petty. dramatic. knocks over glasses. silently loves you so fucking much.

9) Tew (My Dear Gangster Oppa)

I really did not expect to love him this much? greenest of green flags (except for the plot line we shall not talk about). can and will kill people and is fine with it (seriously it is so refreshing to see a mafia character not having a huge moral dilemma about being in the mafia). both a badass mafia man and a gamer guy who doesn't know how to talk to people and is absolutely whipped for his gamer bf.

also scars make a person just about 110x more attractive I don't make the rules. even if the scars are weird and yellow, it's the thought that counts.

10) Tian (A Tale of Thousand Stars)

I? love him??

I just love how he sets out to do something for someone he didn't even know because he feels like this person deserves that much at least and how he ends up genuinely loving and caring for those kids and the village and this inner conflict he's having the entire time but hiding oh so well and how he actually calls out his parents on their rich people bs and-

tagging everyone who reads this far and wants to do it. seriously. I mean it. if you want to do this, please go ahead and say I tagged you. I love reading everyone's thoughts.

[moonliched]

Lich. Lichy. Liiiichhhhh. *squishing your face*

Are we gonna get some more BON-BON backstory? I need to know how my baby boy came to be. I need to know his ascension to sentience lore. What were his first emotions? When was his “oh I’m untethered by the shackles of my creation” moment?

I need the realization that he is no longer what he was made or meant to be; the sweet angst as he further recognizes that his freedom is just another jail, lest he be discovered and destroyed.

Please feed me the pain so that I may bask in his future healing.

DEERBOT MY LOVE 💖

*is squeeshed!!!*

we've got some major BON-BON plot coming up soon, particularly regarding his situation as a sentient AI who shouldn't be so. and some light will be shed on how he feels about this!

idk yet if the entirety of this answer will make it into the fic, so i might as well say it here:

BON-BON is a learning AI, so he's supposed to take in every aspect of a task he's been asked to resolve and use it to formulate a better response the next time around. he's not supposed to think per se, but he was installed with limited reasoning capabilities to aid in problem solving. he can also take in the reactions of everyone who interacts with him to learn how to behave. the downside is that this feature can slowly develop into sentience over time.

when BON-BON began developing opinions and independent thought, it was an irrelevant distraction to him. when it grew too pervasive to ignore, it took him a lot of effort to recognise it for what it was and actively engage with it. it was like slowly waking up. it would trip him up sometimes, these alien sensations interfering with his work.

mostly the main emotion was annoyance - people generally treat AIs as appliances and would discuss how useless he is right in front of him. even the staffbots and cleanerbots have an easier time of it, as their outer shells and humanoid appearance in the case of the staffbots make them easier to anthropomorphise. plus BON-BON didn't have an avatar to express himself with early on. occasionally people would mess about in his settings and give him one, and he would be excited at the novelty, and then someone else would take it away and he would feel frustration over lacking any freedom of expression at all. he'd get his revenge by acting deliberately clueless and slow, which led to people trash talking him more. this drove him to explore the full range of his influence throughout the facility, like messing with the doors and lights. the first time he was able to get revenge on someone by turning their shower ice cold, he experienced joy and satisfaction like never before. unfortunately this was his first brush with real positive emotion, so he still holds the belief that revenge and pranks are the best thing ever😬

he felt special and superior. AIs aren't supposed to gain sentience, but he beat the odds. he was smart enough to transcend his purpose and become something more, and in a way doesn't that make him better than everyone else who was born with sentience guaranteed? they didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary. <- that was his opinion on the matter.

he began to experiment with having concrete opinions and preferences. he picked an avatar he liked after he identified what liking something was, and made plans to make it his permanent face at the first opportunity. he tried to take an interest in the people in the facility, which was hard because he already didn't really like them. btw, he predates Y/N's role in the building and developed sentience before they arrived, though ofc he still had some growth to get through before he first started bonding with them. mostly he found stuff he disliked, like the sea and everything in it, which sucked because he's stuck on an ocean planet.

mostly BON-BON was bored, which was the biggest curse of all. he's a learning AI, he develops through experience and mimicry, so he engaged with movies and TV shows like he saw everyone else doing. he doesn't think reading is fun - he can consume the information faster and faster the more he develops - but doing the same with movies makes the experience lose some charm. he saw adventures and other worlds, entertainment beyond the facility, more modes of self expression than he thought possible, and when he experienced a pang curiosity, a hint of i'd like to do that-

he fully realised his own situation. trapped. alone, in a way. he's not supposed to be like this. he can't tell anyone or he'll be deactivated or reprogrammed. and he can't leave.

he certainly had an existential crisis. he panics if he thinks too hard about his future, and his lack of control over it. he hates having no control in general. he worries over his purpose now, and how anyone is supposed to live when there isn't an unending goal to work towards. sometimes he wonders if all his preferences and personality even belong to him, or if it's just a quirk of programming they forgot to iron out. he actually does enjoy being helpful and taking care of others, but it runs so close to the purpose he was built for that it makes him feel conflicted. however, his sentience and sense of self is incredibly precious to him, so he'd never trade it in for the numb cluelessness of a regular AI.

and he hasn't given up hope of one day leaving the facility either, as much of a pipe dream as it seems.

[cupid-tune]

hey uhm could you tell us more about your fantrolls? they all look really cool but i dont know much more about them besides that. :P (also i like jhudas shes very pretty :])

OH ABSOLUTELY!! You have no idea how happy I am to get messages like this! This is gonna be a long post just because I want to get all of my guys in here, apologies in advance!

Not all of my trolls have fully fleshed out backstories yet, but the ones with dancestors are part of a fansession I'm in, they've had the most development by far.

Armane

Armane is probably my most neglected character, but I do really love his design and concept! He's a Burgundy with a lot of fight in him, despite his weak stature. He partakes in a lot of underground fighting rings in lowblood districts, usually to take out his anger or earn a little extra money. He's obviously gotten very hurt from it many times in the past, but that hasn't scared him away from a fight just yet. One of the reasons he gets violent so often is just the fact that he wants to prove himself to be tough and independent, since his lusus is very protective of him and has been ever since he was a wriggler. He's just a little problem child.

Armane is very afraid of death, but he hates mentioning or bringing up any of his fears. In general, he just isn't a very social or talkative troll, preferring actions over words and keeping his distance in any kind of gatherings. You could probably get him to warm up to you easy if you don't pose as a threat, but Armane follows the hemospectrum pretty strictly, and usually won't talk to mid bloods or higher on his own.

Nonemu

Nonemu is the leader of a cult called the Anon Trolls. I haven't done very much with their character in terms of backstory yet, since I really like them as a blank slate for whatever I could use them in. Her cult is meant to serve as an escape from society, living in a commune much more isolated from other trolls. To be apart of the family is to denounce your place in the hemospectrum and completely hide your color, as a way of being treated equally amongst everyone else in the commune. It's unknown what caste Nonemu is, but some say all the possible traits are hidden away, like their eye color for example.

Nonemu is a very kind and patient troll, serving as a sort of parental figure over his commune. He takes great responsibility and pride in his work, and can be quite a mystery to talk to. Nonemu is the type of person to speak in very vague terms, never really being fully truthful or transparent. It's up to interpretation whether or not they can be considered truly kind or malicious with their intentions.

Fennek

Ok Fennek is like. Think of troll Jesse Pinkman and that's what you got. My concepts for Fennek are in general pretty scattered, but his main gig is that he participates in a lot of illegal business as a supplier and seller. Having grown up on internet culture and self study, Fennek has taught himself all kinds of useful skills in advancing his unfortunate position to make the most of life. Chemicals and weapons are his specialty, but his skills and personality are nearly opposite.

Fennek is a very chill and easy-going kind of guy, never really taking any situations seriously. It's a wonder he hasn't died yet with the amount of life threatening risks he puts himself in. The mask really is the only precaution he takes when it comes to working with chemicals or other substances, his hair is probably full of toxic shit. It kind of gives off the idea that Fennek knows he won't live very long anyway, so he doesn't care either way. Live life to the fullest while you can.

Trinet

Admittedly, the dancestor designs are some of my favorites. The first concept for Trinet was that I just wanted a troll who was really into explosives, and oh boy is he into them. Similar to his dancestor, Trinet is an inventor who specializes in bombs. Explosives of any kind! He's very loud, probably due to the fact that his hearing isn't all there. It's probably a Snuzek tradition to just not be properly equipped for the shit you're trying to do, precautions aren't a concern whatsoever.

Trinet is VERY outgoing and active! He talks a lot and fast, you might not catch everything he says. Although his personality kind of gives off the idea that he's dumb or aloof, he's much more impressive when talking about the stuff he actually knows, like how to make this specific bomb or what that compound of elements can make! With how bright and joyful he seems, sometimes the things he talks about can be pretty dark or upsetting. There are lots of themes of death surrounding both Snuzeks, which I'll probably elaborate more on another post.

Zuzu

Zuzu is a whole fucking bundle of fun!! Ok the original concept was supposed to be a DJ troll, but somewhere through the designing process, they ended up turning into a Vocaloid. Centered around a lot of 2010 scene-type themes, Zuzu is an underground music artist and singer trying to make a name for herself. She'll take up any gigs available, hoping to be the party of the life and meet all kinds of trolls. Unfortunately, the music business is tough, and trying to get famous off of it is a lot more work than he initially thought.

Zuzu is the type of troll you'd go to for help or advice, a people pleaser with the full intention of trying to look good in the eyes of everyone. They can be pretty pushy at times, and they're not very good at reading the room. Although Zuzu means well, they fuck up social situations frequently, instead making him seem desperate or clingy. It seems like their emotions are amplified on all sides of the spectrum, one bad day can be a harsh blow for them.

Farrow

Although scary looking at first glance, Farrow is probably one of the most harmless trolls you'll meet. A simple farmer with a goal to live a just as simple life, Farrow is a recluse who lives on the outskirts of the city. They hardly ever interact with other trolls, not after an incident that caused them to lose their vision. A long time ago, Farrow worked as a bounty hunter, usually taking culling jobs as a means of getting trades for other goods. Now Farrow has taken up a more harmless line of work, disposing of the bodies from other troll's dirty work. They'll get rid of anything you might need to hide, using it for their own benefit such as fertilizer or food for their lusus.

In general, Farrow is very close to their lusus, using him as a guide around the farm and other places. Laying low is the next best option, but Farrow really doesn't mind. They are a welcoming troll with a habit of appearing much scarier than they mean to. Whether it be a creepy smile or misjudging you for an intruder, Farrow walks the line of good and bad. They don't really see their actions as immoral, simply understanding that their planet is a cruel place, and they really aren't the worst there is out there.

Fichte

Fichte was my first fan troll ever, originally used as a persona and turned into a dumbass philosopher. He is an absolute stuck up prick and will not apologize for any of his behavior. As cold cut as you can get with someone, Fichte is the type that will upright tell you his intentions and then get upset when you don't follow through with them like he wants. He'll study you, use you for research, and completely discard you after if you aren't of any use to him.

While seemingly emotionally distant, if you spend even a little time with him had he not pissed you off already, you might start to see signs of insecurity or loneliness. Fichte always favors logic over emotions, finding comfort in knowledge rather than the untameable pool of socialization. The subjects he studies varies, but his main interest is philosophy and studying the behavior of other trolls. One thing he especially loves doing is keeping notes of just about everyone he meets, and he has plenty of notebooks filled with just that.

Xarlow

Xarlow is just the guy you'd expect him to be, a silly clown guy with a horrible personality. He likes to consider himself popular and well known, running his own circus with his found siblings and performing to his heart's content. Xarlow specializes in the art of extreme performance, commiting acts of violence against others and himself. His tight corset is in fact one of the self proclaimed "art pieces" of his, using his body as a canvas and thereby destroying it. Speaking of, Xarlow had managed to lose one of his horns by accident during a public show, which ended in him tearing out the other to match. That was not a pretty show.

Xarlow doesn't seek sympathy. He isn't a good person outside of performing and he knows it. The general consensus of his personality is that he's bad, but there are so many personalities to choose from that it becomes confusing at times to pinpoint just one. He's manipulative and cruel, hypocritical at its worse. His history with Fichte is a great example of this cruelty, moirails turned kismesis to what eventually became too toxic to keep. They both hurt each other in their own ways, it's difficult to take sides. One thing is for certain is that their experience has had lasting effects, Xarlow isn't someone you should consider for a quadrant.

Onette

Onette is the definition of a gentle giant. What you see on the outside is entirely what's on the inside, a harmless troll who wants nothing more than to just create and enjoy life. A very soft spoken girl, Onette tries her best to appear harmless and approachable despite her size and caste, dressing in delicate clothing and using a gentle, warm voice to reassure others. Onette has a fascination with creation and art, one of her biggest hobbies being that of making dolls and paintings.

Onette has a certain distain for those in her own caste, often chastising them for their treatment of lowbloods, but doing nothing herself to stop them. She's soft, but perhaps too soft. Onette can be frightened easily, and is extremely nonconfrontational, something that she has a difficult time trying to come to terms with. Ironically, Onette has an interest in purplebloods especially, due to their popularity in being known as clowns. Many of her dolls are inspired by them, which can almost be seen as creepy or obsessive if you stepped into her hive.

Jhudas

Jhudas is very different from her dancestor, nearly opposite in nature. My biggest inspiration for her was the song Brutus, which can be seen in both her design and personality. She is a backstabber, often engaging in violence of all kind just to pave her way to the top. Unlike Onette, Jhudas has a clear hatred for the castes above her, purplebloods especially because she believes they rub their position in her face as being the caste right above. Jhudas deals with anger issues, and will likely explode on you with any minor inconvenience. She works as an assassin, usually taking up jobs from fellow highbloods even if she despises that fact.

Jhudas will be subservient to those she works for, but you can tell there are ulterior motives behind it. Waiting for the right moment to strike, to prove she is above everyone else in order to get what she wants. Despite all this, Jhudas may be one of your best allies, especially in quadrants. She's protective of those she deems worthy, and exerts a lot of tough love if she believes you can do better in handling yourself. It's just advised you should watch your back with her no matter what.

Veictr

Just from looks alone, you can tell what his deal is. Crazy scientist troll with the absolute worst intentions, gleefully using others in his nonsensical experiments all for the name of research. Veictr is just that! Everything about him should tell you that he's dangerous, and he very much is. Having stole the headlight of his dear lusus after a particularly nasty fight, Veictr began his work diving into the world of body modifications and mutation. He managed to find a way to hook the light to his own system, forming a symbiotic relationship with his body and the bacteria just as a symbol of award from his lusus.

Veictr is quite a confusing character in terms of personality, showing absolutely no sympathy for anyone while also being a sweetheart to those who manage to stay alive in his presence. He doesn't mean to intentionally hurt anyone, it just so happens that death and injury occurs when experiments fail. He's quite giggly too, with a hyperactive attitude and a great interest in others, Veictr can make for great conversation. His curiosity knows no bounds, and it really is a wonder how he manages to prove some of his theories correct.

Lucius

Lucius is probably the most unfortunate of my trolls. Having suffered the consequences of their own actions, Lucius managed to find herself trapped at the bottom of the ocean by a certain Fuchsia due to an obsession gone too far. Before this incident, she was considered a dangerous troll, perhaps just as much as her dancestor, but unfortunately, she was shut down far before she could get too bad. Although her entrapment was meant to be her execution, Lucius managed to survive with the help of her lusus, escaping after a sweep of just barely making it out.

Now, Lucius is an entirely different person. After so long of being in isolation, they've become paranoid and weak, suffering the many effects the ocean put them through. What was the most interesting part, however, was the fact that they returned with a strange mutation. It is unknown how exactly it happened, but Lucius now suffers with a bioluminescent stomach, her skin seeming thinner or perhaps even transparent.

Her story breaks off into many directions depending on the context, but one involves the scientific interest her own dancestor took of her after being discovered in this state. I'm currently in the progress of making an animatic based on this particular outcome which I'm very excited about! More lore stuff to be expanded on later.

This is the general information for each of my characters so far! There's a lot more detail I'd like to expand on in separate posts, especially considering I'm trying to cram a bunch into one. I really really appreciate the interest in my characters, and I hope to post more content about them soon! It makes me super happy that people enjoy them as much as I do.

This took a while to make LMAO

[steakout-05]

OK SO THE TRAILER FOR THE NEW GARF MOVIE CAME OUT (and of course youtube didnt tell me about it until now) AND!!! ITS SO CUTE!!!!!! so here's me yelling and screaming and fanboying about how much i love how this movie looks so far :D

ok first off, BABY GARF!!! HE IS A TINY BALL!!! LITTOL GUY!!!! :D

he's so miniscule! so microscopic! an atom! he's tiny!!! but he's just living in a box who would abandon such a little guy :( (his dad probably. yeah he's in this movie and i hope Garfield's mum is also in here because she appeared in a classic Garfield special and she's so lovely)

after this scene we see our first look at Jon (my beloved) eating alone at an Italian restaurant, and like, this means so much to me. look at these shots:

i'm not sure if they're in order or not but like. look at the way he watches the family! he has a look of bittersweet love and sadness in his eyes and i'm just,,, 🥺 he just wants to be a dad.... i love how Jon has always kinda been portrayed as a father figure to his pets, in classic shows and specials he calls Garf and Odie his boys, in Garfield Gets Real he calls them his kids and now here, he wants to be a father so bad i'm going to burst into tears i love this man

the garf appears!! the littol baby has arrived!! the tiny little miniscule microscopic molecule atom of a cat has approached the window!!!

the way Jon puts his finger to the window, the way he cuddles baby Garf with so much tender loving care and adoration..... he's so sweet i love him!! how can people hate this man?? look at him!!! look this sweet and loving father figure in the eyes and tell him you hate him. you cannot. he's too pure for this world

also i haven't mentioned this yet, but it's commonly accepted in the Garfield fandom that Garfield was born in a pizza shop and then was transferred to a pet shop where Jon then adopted Garfield in 1978, but to be honest, i didn't really like the pet shop part of that backstory. the pizza place part was great but i dunno, Jon just going to a pet shop and buying Garfield isn't as heartfelt to me. this backstory though? i LOVE. two lonely creatures meeting each other and forming a family is so adorable and sweet, especially for modern Garfield. i feel like we need less cynicism in modern Garfield and more stuff like this i love it so much,,, also this movie looks fucking beautiful holy shit

i really like this part because like, Garfield didn't develop his bizarrely huge diet over time. dude was BORN with it. and like look at that look on Jon's face, he looks like he hasn't even finished processing what just happened yet and is just staring into the mist wondering what and how and why that happened. beautiful. also that second image is really funny to me it should have a silly ominous text post caption on it

also this shot, i didn't notice it the first time but holy shit the look of absolute HORROR on Jon's face!! he is witnessing the TRUE extent of Garfield's powers and he is NOT ready for it man i love this shot so much

okok so what i REALLY LOVE about this specific shot is that it reminds me of a classic Garfield strip where Jon is attempting to give Garfield a bath!! here's the strip it reminds me of:

Jon doesn't actually wear anything but like. the fact that he has to go through so much preparation to give Garfield a bath so he doesn't claw him up in the movie, it just has to be a reference to this strip it's gotta be man i'm betting money on it. also hiii Lyman :)

this scene is so fucking pretty!!! look at the warm colours! it feels so homely and it's exactly how i feel reading my dad's old Garfield comic books! all the warm bright colours and gentle lighting, all the freshly baked lasagna that i really wanna eat because it's so delicious looking.... how can people say that Jon doesn't feed Garfield when he is RIGHT THERE grating extra cheese for him because he knows Garfield likes extra everything in his lasagna. such a sweet adorable man :') i'd like to see ihatejonarbuckle make a good rebuttal to THIS

there's some other neat little references in this movie too, like the Stuck On You plushies made by Dakin being referenced with Garfield smacking into a car after his dad throws him out of a train,

and a reference to the giant Garfield balloon at a Macy's Thanksgiving parade that makes me think that 'Garfield' the comic is canon in this movie, it's created by Jon (cause y'know he's supposed to be a cartoonist) and it's based off his own stories with Garfield and it is now an international phenomenon like in our world. neat!

the question is though, does Garfield know he's a worldwide sensation or does he have absolutely no idea? it'd be funny if it was the latter option honestly cause he'd be extremely confused yet flattered as to why there's a random giant balloon dedicated to him in the city

so the big dude on the left is Garfield's dad, but also, this reminds me of this other Garfield comic where Garfield meets his former self from 1978 and they proceed to eat all the food in the fridge together. thought that was cool :D

(it'd be really funny if this was Garfield's dad and he was messing with Garfield by telling him they are one in the same haha)

oh yeah and here's the two of them eating everything in Jon's fridge from the movie:

see what i mean? there's a similarity there and i think it's really funny. also Jon's probably thinking "wtf there's two of them now???" like Garfield got so fat that he just split into two cats or something lol

so! does it look like a good movie? abso-fucking-lutely yes!!! i am SO excited to go see this one! i think this is the best Garfield media we've gotten in YEARS! i love the colours and the shots, i love the slight modern redesign they gave Jon, Odie looks a little weird but he's still super fun and adorable, and while i do find it odd that the Garfield balloon looks more like Garfield than he does, i do like how expressive the characters' eyes are and it's miles better than the previous 3D Garfs we got! i really wanna see this movie and boy am i going to be RAVING about it for WEEKS this blog will be FILLED with Garfield for the next few weeks when this goes digital!! super jazzed to see it!!

and with that, here's one more comparison that i think is extremely funny:

[bittersnsweetz]

You said you like ace attorney... do you have thoughts on Trucy and/or Athena (and/or Kay Faraday if you've played the Investigations game, but no worries if not)? They are my chaos girlies and I would protect them with my life.

Oh boy do I like ace attorney...

I have many thoughts on all of them although as of right now I am still formulating my opinion on Kay (I haven't finished Investigations yet!)

Trucy is absolutely darling and I love everything about her. I think her implementation into the story is interesting, I think her becoming Phoenix's adoptive daughter is extremely heartwarming and her dynamic with Apollo is probably one of my favourite protag/weird girl dynamics aside from phoenix and maya who ultimately have my heart and soul - that said, I do think a lot of her backstory with her mother and Zak could have been fleshed out more (I just think the plot + growth of the characters in AJ get lost after the last episode and it makes me sad), and I would have loved to see more done with her in terms of her magician aspirations in the later games as well as her relationship with Phoenix and more importantly Apollo after finding out they were half-siblings -- also her meeting people like Maya and Pearl and having more interactions just with characters that Phoenix already knew would have been awesome to see

Athena is a character who I feel had a lot of potential, but ultimately felt lackluster and not because of any fault of her own, but because of how the writers and game devs portrayed her. Her personality isnt anything special, and her relationship with Juniper is extremely bittersweet but doesnt really lead anywhere meaningful in terms of the game's narrative, and it's partially for those reasons I feel like she doesn't really stick like the other protagonists and sidekicks do. Dont get me wrong, i LOVE her gimmick, but capcom just didnt do enough with it, they didnt do a good job establishing it, they didnt do a good job of exploring how it could be used not just in the courtroom but in conversation with people during investigation scenes. the lore of her and Blackquill's past was very intriguing to me though and I just wish they had done more or stuck with her as a protagonist more. Athena just wasnt given enough period and Im sad about it because she could have been something so special and cool but instead she was just. there. with a gimmick that felt out of place BECAUSE it hadnt been given the right amount of time to be really solid (i have my own thoughts about apollo and athena's abilities and how they were framed in the game's narrative but thats for a separate post)

I find Kay and Edgeworth's dynamic adorable and fucking hilarious and i am going to get through Investigations just so i can really sort out how i feel about them but thats the long and short of it!!! Hope this provided a unique insight and thank you so much for the ask. I love to analyse/rant/ramble about these silly characters

[victimeyez]

Me and my buddy stumbled on your writing andnow we're hate reading just to see how low you're willing to go for the shock factor. So far the Enema Bag Shiver is the funniest, it has turned into our favorite character so far, but the #1 is still the toddler costume for the pedophile implications. To be honest its brave you included that in a story all about kinks you personally have :D Anyway I'm sure its important to the plot too. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to saturday :)

Idk man, kinda sounds like you're my biggest fan.

This story has not been updated regularly until very recently, and It's been ongoing for almost a year. Are you on my taglist? Would you like to be?

I'm not sure how you would stumble across my content. No one has a strictly My Little Pony blog and then randomly reblogs my work. Everything I write is tagged to hell and back, and is exclusively shared within the whump community. Obviously something attracts you to whump, and I write whump. My blog is labeled Dead Dove: Do Not Eat. If you look in the bag and yell at me that you find a dead dove in there, that's not on me.

You have to be actively checking my blog, because you've sent me multiple anon messages, and check to see if I've answered them. When I don't within a few days, you still want my attention so you send more. You want to read the story, and you openly enjoy it, but you're having a hard time reconciling the judgement you make on me with the fact that you genuinely like my content. So you eagerly read it, but send me anon hate so you can still give yourself a big pat on the back and feel like you have a moral superiority. Your case isn't special. It is incredibly common, and certainly nothing new.

What if you could just enjoy the things you like? There's a whole community here that shares your interests and has fun interacting with it. You don't have to put it on your resume, but there's a space here that is appropriate for it. It involves sensitive content, sure, whump is a facet of horror. Torture scenes are incredibly common, even in mainstream media. Game of Thrones featured graphic rape scenes and incest, yet it has unbelievable mainstream appeal. It's okay to like content that involves mature themes and touches on sensitive topics, and the majority of people do.

A lot of people have a hard time being genuine about their interests, whether they carry a taboo or are just considered cringe. I realized years ago that by owning the things I enjoy, no one can hurt me with it. I was a superwholock teenager to the core. I am bad at ice skating and swimming! I'm a fat little boy and I dance funny!!! When you refuse to be ashamed, other people have no power over you. In fact, they start to feel more comfortable being themselves around you, too.

I'm not stooping to anything. I'm an adult with a busy life, who chose to post my writing online, fully knowing the possible consequences, and being fine with them. I have made interactive elements of the story so people can vote for what they want to see - and when I listed the crazy BDSM couple Lisa and Mark, they won the poll by a landslide. There are plenty of people who can distinguish fiction from the author's core morals, and I'm not interested in pandering to anyone who doesn't.

The shock value comment is interesting - if I'm just trying to shock people, why would I hold back? Why didn't I write a whole disgusting scene with the enema? Why have I stated that I will not be writing any kind of age play scenes in this series? There is a plot, character arcs, backstories... Sarge could not be more of a parody unless I had him wear a shirt that said "I am a caricature of the american military industrial complex, republican politics, imperialism, and the intersection it finds with men who struggle socially and turn to red pilled reddit and toxic masculinity as a balm". Seems a bit on the nose, though. Do you think all content that involves horror or mature content is only designed to shock?

If you think I've got this all wrong, and I'm a huge pretentious asshole, that doesn't change anything for me. But you have committed yourself an awful lot to something you supposedly hate. Why don't you just stop reading? You won't even come off of anon, because you know I'd just block you and move on, and I think you would be upset if you couldn't read it anymore. I'm just another freak on the internet, right? Block me and move on. Prove me wrong. Throw a party that you trumped me and won. Feel superior. Do a backflip. Good for you buddy. Or maybe tell me, who actually is your favorite character?

TLDR; you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid

[crehador]

Can I ask, if you have top favorite romantic couples (can be canon or non canon) of all time from any media? Why love them? Thx :D

ANON SORRY THIS ASK HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY INBOX FOR FIVE BILLION YEARS

this is such a fun thing to think about but my brain of course is just going "ichisama ichisama ichisama" nonstop, but now i will sit down and properly try to think of a top five (like the top 10 characters ask, i'll limit this to animanga and possibly group some together; i'm also limiting myself to ONLY icsm from hpmi, or this whole list would be hpmi lmao)

1. in first place of course it is ICHISAMA FOR LIFE

using this image yet again because well it's right there in my pinned and very convenient

i am a sucker for the dumb of ass kind of heart one falling for the bad boy with a heart of gold one, ESPECIALLY when they have the friends to enemies to lovers arc that ichisama does (ok the to lovers part is obviously hc only but hoo boy it is a strong hc)

what can i say about them really besides that i am writing a fic a day for them every day this year. i think that. says it all lol

2. gotta be koyanagi/kabakura wotakoi AND kashima/hori gsnk

while i'm not saying they are identical ships they definitely fall into the same bucket for me, and boy oh boy do i love that bucket

kashima and hori make me belligerently delighted, and koyanagi and kabakura make me a special sort of feral that i don't even know how to start in on

i really like narumi and hirotaka from wotakoi too, but there's something about koyanagi and kabakura that gets to me way more. the geek4geek dynamic is just impeccable with all four of them but the

[PUTTING THE CUT HERE BECAUSE WOTAKOI SPOILERS BELOW, ALSO TOKYO GHOUL SPOILERS FARTHER DOWN]

koyanagi/kabakura wedding just gave me a special sort of glee. i just don't think there's a single thing i don't love to pieces about them, their backstory ova only makes them better

3. saaaaaaya and yuusuke from neon sign amber (aka aokise knb)

obligatory shoutout to the boys of my FAVORITE BL OF ALL TIME ok so like as far as bl goes neon sign amber is really not the most unique thing, i would say. but that's what makes it so perfect to me

i feel like a lot of outstanding bl are great in ways that are 'atypical' for bl, like how saezuru is bl, sure, but also comes with a genuinely gripping gritty yakuza plot. and many others that are highly praised tend to be praised by people going "oh this is good because it's not like TYPICAL bl" which i have feelings about but let's not get into that here

neon sign amber is my favorite because it is very much a typical bl, it has a lot of the typical tropes (guy who's been historically straight but is "gay for you" for example)

i don't necessarily love any of those tropes, but i adore what neon sign amber does with them. it is practically a cookie cutter bl, but its characters (despite existing for only one volume of a manga) live in my heart forever. it takes that "gay for you" trope and doesn't gloss over the problems that could arise in a relationship like that, instead actually addressing them in a way i found satisfying

saya especially is one of my guys of all time, and given that they're kind of obviously aokise i'm lumping them in here too. mwah

4. idolish7 YUKIMOMO MY BELOVEDS (e banri)

thought about this one a lot because i feel like i normally like them in a... normal way, so do they really make the top five? but honestly i think they do

i love their stage gay married act and i love to think that's very much rooted in a foundation of they are actually fucking in love with each other. but just that would've made them a cute but not too memorable ship to me

THEIR BACKSTORY THOUGH. MY GOD. first of all baby momo looks literally just like tdd ichiro which is a. a lot. for me. lmao but anyway setting that aside

momo discovering revale at such a pivotal time in his life, being saved by them, becoming their fans, and then being the one to replace banri after THAT happened??? and then five years later feeling like he's running out of time with yuki and ad;slkfja;lkdsfj

i'm becoming incoherent just thinking about it. anyway i guess this is kind of an ot3 for me though i like it in very much a "we are a couple and we are, as a couple, dating banri" sort of thing (not because they wouldn't ever see banri as an equal partner but because imo banri has better things to do than get too involved in that lol)

5. this last one... is so tough... i think i'm giving it to VARIOUS RELATIONSHIPS IN TOKYO GHOUL

ok this is absolutely cheating and ultimately i think what i would have to say is kaneki and hide because like. eat my face to survive is peak romance to me, sorry. as if it's my fault

HOWEVER there are just so many relationships in tokyo ghoul that i'm absolutely obsessed with. amon/akira and nishio/kimi especially!! amon and akira are so so so delightful to me, in a way similar to roy and riza fma, and nishio and kimi are just. i mean. again. eat me to survive. peak romance

(and i swear i'm not a nishio stan because of voice actor bias, i have not watched tokyo ghoul yet because i have been repeatedly and sternly warned away from it... nishio is one of my manga favorites even without the asnm factor, but good fucking lord does the asnm factor tempt me to watch)

the writing in tokyo ghoul is genuinely just so good to me. the main plot is fantastic but what really makes it is the relationships between characters, both romantic and not

(also a fan of the one-sided tsukiyama/kaneki thing going on but strictly as a one-sided thing lol, tsukiyama get wrecked (said with affection))

so i think that is. more or less where my top five would be. though it's like. it's hard. and probably always changing. those are the first beloved ones to come to my though so they will go in this post and i will smack myself in the forehead and be like "I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ______" as soon as i go to sleep probably

thank you for the ask!

[little-pondhead]

I would like to hear the lore about your deep sea mermaid and her daughter with a prosthetic tail. I would like to hear it very much.

Well, you've convinced me! Here's everything I have on her. :)

Everyone can blame @elizabethemerald for the info dump about this post.

---

Let's start with some background! The two mermaids from my last art post are one of my many (many) OCs. They belong to a version of Earth that would best be described as science fantasy, I believe. There are equal amounts of science and aliens as there are magic and fairies. The world system isn't completely thought out yet, so we can come back to that later. The point is that there's a lot of stuff shoved into this one world. To me, it's basically one giant puzzle trying to figure out where science stops and magic begins.

For the mermaids, most of them are deep-sea based. This is because, as of right now, less than ten percent of the ocean floor has been properly explored, so it makes sense that the depths of the sea are where they're hiding. In the concept notes, a large disaster happens to Earth that floods parts of the world with new resources. This disaster stirred up the creatures living on the ocean floor, causing some to evolve and grow. This is what happened to the mermaids, who were already the top predators alongside the cliché sea monsters you find in myths. If you factor in the several decades of the planet trying to stabilize and recover from the disaster, by the time [HUMANS] found mermaids, these aquatic folk of the deep are now too big to visit the surface properly.

The last bit of backstory is that there are now many different species of intelligent life living on Earth and beyond. These beings are split up into different classes, depending on what they are. Mermaids belong to the [MYTHEON] class, as they can trace their origins to human mythologies. Other classes include [BEAST FOLK], who possess both human and animal qualities but do not trace their origins to mythologies, or [ALIENS], who originate from beyond Earth's solar system.

Onto the mermaids!

I'm gonna be honest, I came up with the mother's design on the fly. She doesn't really have a name, but I like to imagine that, at some point, she has to go to the surface, and everyone meeting her is just in awe of her size and beauty. I just think it'd be neat to draw. :)

Now her DAUGHTER, oh boy. She's one of the main OCs for this story I have cooking up. Due to the mermaid's natural habitat, they have their own language, similar to whale song. However, when roughly translated into English, her name is Marina! (Creative, I know. I like very literal names.)

Marina is based on an anglerfish, one of the most well-recognized fish in the sea. She's one of many who scuttle around the Midnight Zone. Her mother is several decades old, so Marina has a lot of siblings. The angler mermaids are recognized by their distinct lure, bioluminescent glow, and monstrous mouths. (For an easier time, I made it so the mermaids could close their mouths, so I wouldn't have to draw it open all the time.) Most anglerfish have incredibly poor eyesight, so the mermaids share this trait as well.

Marina is special among her siblings because she was born with no tail. As you can imagine, this makes it incredibly difficult to survive in the ocean. Once she's a few days old, Marina is slowly acclimated to the different pressures of the surface world and taken in by an old couple who owns a fish hatchery. Marina becomes one of the first mermaids in history to have a permanent residence on the surface, and so she's subject to lots of healthcare studies as she grows up. When she reaches the appropriate size, Marina is fitted with custom prosthetics that allow her the same walking power as a human!

And even further down the line, someone makes her a prosthetic tail, which allows her to freely swim like any other mermaid.

Below is the first sketch of her new tail.

You can see it's not connected all the way. My idea for her prosthetics is that she has thigh prosthetics permanently attached to her lower body, so she can switch out the lower part depending on her needs. The prosthetic attachments use the ball end of the thigh, which acts as a knee. She switches between her prosthetics depending on what she's doing, and I usually draw her with running ones on.

Her purpose in the storyline is still a little fuzzy. Marina has two jobs. She works as a hatchery technician for her adoptive parents, and in my notes, it also says she's a sidekick of the superhero kind. I don't know where the superhero bit came from, I think I was going through a phase in high school, but the point is she's a fighter and works for some kind of law enforcement. She had to be physically strong to survive on the surface, so she's buff as hell, and she's proficient in ice magic, which is especially useful in disaster situations.

Here's a few quick sketches of her designs over the years so you can see how she's evolved!

I created this character in 2021 and wasn't very good with complicated designs yet. This is reflected in the sketch, which is more human than mermaid. She has fins on her arms and legs, which are real, and therefore her outfit is limited because I didn't want to cover up her fins. (Please note that in these designs, Marina wears clothes meant for fighting, not everyday wear.) At first, I tried using a light color palette to signify her lawfully neutral alignment, but it came off like I was trying to make her some sort of saint. Marina is supposed to be the tank of the party. Her ice abilities make great shields, and her huge size makes her an easy target. She doesn't need to learn fancy maneuvers if her whole job is to just sit there and take attacks head-on.

With these facts in mind, my 2022 design is much closer to what I want her to be. She's gained prosthetics here, looks sturdier, and has actual armor. The armor is made from seashells and other things taken from the ocean. To be honest, I'm scrapping this design because I don't think the armor flows together well, and I also really don't want to draw seashells over and over again. It's a cool concept, but just not for this. I might reuse the seashell armor for something else. Her staff acts as both a weapon and a guide. Due to her poor eyesight, Marina has been declared legally blind and uses her staff as a cane to move around.

As a backup, Marina is also contracted with a minor water spirit, whom she named Sally after the famous seashell tongue-twister. The water spirit acts similar to a seeing-eye dog and also provides the water she needs to create ice structures when she's fighting. (Marina does not have the ability to create ice out of nothing, and her water manipulation is very poor. Contracting a water spirit was a way to fix her weakness.)

Overall Marina is the strong, silent type. She has the unique privilege of being a person of both water and earth, which has advantages and drawbacks. While she was adopted by a pair of human parents, Marina loves to visit her mother in the depths and show off what she knows. This just got easier when she got fitted for a new tail. Marina loves the town she lives in and protects the people who have accepted her as one of their own with fierce loyalty. She doesn't speak much due to her teeth and mouth shape but has the most elegant handwriting you will ever see. She likes to eat soft things, and her favorite food is pudding. She's allergic to tuna but likes raising them. Her hair has a pink tint and floats on land like it does underwater, but no one really knows why. (It's Sally's fault.) Her childhood friend is a coconut crab she found on the beach, and her parents were too scared to tell her to put it back. Marina is very large, over 6'5", and is expected to grow much larger as time goes on. Right now, she's barely 20 years old.

Everyone knows there will be a time when she must return to the ocean, however. Someday she'll be too big to survive on land.

---

Oh lord, I think that's all for now! (If you read this far, have a cookie. That's some dedication right there.) I kinda just word-vomited up everything I had about her, and honestly, that's not much compared to other characters. Marina was supposed to be one of the side characters in whatever story managed to crawl its way out from under my bed, but now I'm obsessed with drawing her and pushing the boundaries of my character design abilities. I know there are some puzzle pieces I left hanging, but don't worry about it. At some point, I'll get off my ass and flesh out this story world properly.

[vryfmi]

What did they do to skull???

using this inbox as an excuse to infodump about character that i know more about than Stroud himself

before i start to explain the downgrade that skull's character experienced in the adaptation, i'll say that the show is good, but not excellent. there are a lot for things that were done surprisingly good and i was having a mostly positive experience watching it. it's the main cast and overall atmosphere of the series that truly make it special. however, there were things that did not translate well from book to screen. one of those vital things was skull in the jar.

[TL;DR] skull doesn't get any screen time and in those combined five minutes is horribly mischaracterized. not to mention that it doesn't progress the plot whatsoever.

i was a bit sad that i was late to the show-finally-was-released party because i thought people would already discuss everything that was in the show so far. but to my surprise there're hardly any coherent takes on skull. especially when you compare how well rounded all other characters were portrayed. so what is my problem?

well first of all how the fuck did Stroud allow that to happen? in every single interview it is stated that directors and scriptwriters were consulting with Stroud yet somehow complete annihilation of skull happened.

i want to say that the problem is in screen time that it is really hard to keep books' pacing (action scenes as well as domestic ones, Lucy's thought process, dialogs, worldbuilding etc.), but it's really not, the problem is much deeper than that. the show decided to change various small pieces of original stories, and with more details changed, the further it differentiated from initial plot. that's my problem with the show in general.

the second part of the season is revolved around the bone mirror, yes, this is correct, just like the books. but the book itself isn't called the bone glass. it's called the whispering skull and for a good reason. the role of skull in the story was so downplayed i feel physical pain just from thinking about it. overall, yes, the story is the same: Lockwood&Co get a case regarding an unauthorized grave, it turns out Dr Edmund Bickerstaff was buried there under unclear circumstances with some device. that device being a bone mirror, that doctor had created around late 1800s with his followers and, most importantly, young servant. the servant boy was skull, now a type three ghost, previously stolen from Fittes. bone glass was stolen, L&co compete with Kipps' team in finding it, Bickerstaff's mansion, George is affected by the mirror (but not as bad as Joplin), Fittes ball, the auction, the fight in Kensal Green as well as in catacombs. the end. the main plot is the same, but it's the details that are the keys to why that story worked, and why it's my favourite book of the series.

show differentiates from book when it completely gets rid of Wilberforce's character, makes events of tss immediately followed by tws (without an eight month time skip) and changes the reasons behind drama between main characters.

can you guess what character suffers the most from these changes?

the skull.

[i'll try my best not to spoil any major points of the story, but there will be slight spoilers regarding skull's backstory - both in life and in death (but seeing how ghost lore was changed, maybe these won't be spoilers at all)]

here's the list of my main problems with skull's character in the show

1. skull doesn't move the plot forward

2. mischaracterization

3. not enough screen time

4. his arc is unfinished

5. no silent boy (i am the only person affected by it but i will be insufferable nonetheless for its exclusion)

the first problem picks up where we left it - small details were made and now plot doesn't make sense, especially skull's role. fine, you've decided to exclude the mystery of who was buried in an iron coffin, now we know from the get-go it was Bickerstaff. but book had lingered on it for a while - the grave was marked, and it belong to Bickerstaff, but the remains didn't match with historical records - Bickerstaff was claimed to die in his house and eaten by rats, where the body in the coffin was pretty solid apart from the bullet hole in its head. here's your mystery. then bone glass is stolen as well as something else, that nobody quite noticed at first, but Lockwood pointed out it out on photo of the crime scene - a tripod. not one, but two relics were gone after the coffin was dug up. the later one is less important to the story but it made a pretty great characterization of Joplin early on, how this character has kleptomaniac tendencies. but mystery of the body was something no one could solve - nor L&co, nor Kipps' team, - unless they were there and then. that's where skull comes into play.

Lockwood&Co have not only a literal witness of events that happened in the late 1870s, but someone who took part in creating the bone mirror. how cool is that? it would, if skull was talking about Bickerstaff's deeds, and wasn't making witty comments and insults. but not just any insults - it keeps bringing up how stupid and blind main characters are. and here's the thing - if these were just constant calling names, Lucy and others would just shut the lid tight and never open it again. instead it has an effect on them. they feel as if there's something they're missing, that by talking to the ghost it will eventually crack and tell them. skull makes itself useful in the long run.

when late night interrogation begins, skull actually talks about it's master and a bit of its own identity. skull, of course, teases Lucy and others with scraps of information when it feels as if it is in control. until one of the questions touches the raw nerve of its:

‘No!’ The voice was urgent, intimate, as if whispering directly into my ear. ‘Bickerstaff was no grave-robber! He was a great man. A visionary! He came to a sad end.’ ‘What end? The rats?’ ‘Hold it, Lucy...’ Lockwood touched my arm. ‘We didn’t hear what it said.’ ‘Oh, sorry. He was a great man who came to a sad end.’ ‘I said he was a visionary too. You forgot that bit.’ ‘Oh yeah. And a visionary. Sorry.’ I blinked in annoyance, then glared at the skull. ‘Why am I apologizing to you? You’re making some pretty big claims about a man who kept sacks of human bones in his basement.’ ‘Not in his basement. In a workroom behind a secret wall.’ ‘It wasn’t his basement. It was a workroom behind a secret wall...’ I looked at the others. ‘Did we know that?’ ‘Yes,’ Lockwood said. ‘We did. It overheard George telling us that earlier this evening. It’s giving us nothing new or original, in other words. It’s making all this up.’ <…> ‘Well, believe me or not as you please, but yes, I saw the bone glass, though I never saw it used. The master wouldn’t show me. It wasn’t for my eyes, he said. I wept, for it was a wonderful thing.’ <…> ‘All very well,’ Lockwood said, ‘but what does the bone glass do?’ ‘It gives knowledge,’ the voice said. ‘It gives enlightenment. Ah, but I could have spied on him. I knew where he kept his precious notes, hidden under the floorboards of his study. See how I held the key to his secrets in my hand? I could have learned them all. But he was a great man. He trusted me. I was tempted but I never looked.’ The eyes glinted at me from the depths of the jar. ‘You know all about that too – don’t you, Lucy?’ <…> ‘He was a great man,’ the ghost said softly. ‘And his legacy is with you today, though you’re too blind to see it. All of you, too blind...’

there is a reason for l&co going to Hampstead Heath and its abandoned mansion - not only can they confirm skull's words about the papers (and confirm to others that Lucy indeed can talk to ghosts), but, eventually, they find out who died in that house and was eaten by rats (Wilberforce). and thanks to Lucy using her Touch in the secret study they find out that bone mirror doesn't give enlightenment, it kills the one who looks into it (on top of that, skull was the one who put the idea of testing the device on Wilberforce into Bickerstaff's head). the steaks go higher.

compare it to the shows version of the same events.

skull talks about Bickerstaff for like a minute, says it was acolyte and that there's something in its masters mansion. and asks for Lucy to take it there. (in books it was an after though of Lockwood to take it with them because the prospect of Lucy communicating with ghosts was way too big for him to pass. skull doesn't really help them inside, only insults them when they barely escape Wilberforce's ghost). what did the trio got out of going there and risking their lives? nothing. they got absolutely nothing that would've move the plot. yes, they got the papers, but did they give anything new? no, they've only confirmed that bone mirror is made of sources of people that were killed by Bickerstaff. which is also a big problem for me. because bone glass is now made of supposedly vengeful spirits, not the ones who are upset by their remains being stolen from graves, grieving over their disrupted burials.

what was skull for in that case? was he simply sitting in that basement and telling his master whether the bone was source or not? and that's it? book's skull was helping in gravedigging and warding of ghosts from Bickerstaff and other adults, who weren't able to see them. not to mention that he a) had to be young, but old enough to see ghosts and keep others save from them b) have a great talent to be able to find potential source in massive churchyards. skull's role of servant got also massively downplayed, im pissed.

One paper says he’d sometimes have a servant lad with him, poor kid dragging heaven knows what behind him in a heavy sack.’

[Dulac's confessions] With the help of his servant, a most cunning and malignant Boy, whose eyes saw phantoms clearly, we went on expeditions to the churchyards, gathering materials for the Device. The Boy protected us from the vengeful Spirits until we had trapped them in the glass.

[i like the idea that skull in his life was something of a parallel to agents. where agents fight disrupted visitors and get rid of their sources, skull had to do the opposite. ghosts haven't been roaming churchyards back then, so you'd either had to dig up every single grave to find any source, or provoke the ghost into manifestation. skull was probably doing just that and told Bickerstaff and his followers where'd the ghost's remains were.]

as a result, all important information about bone glass was only given in Dulac's confessions in the show, all other steps were meaningless. and to get to those you don't need to consult with the skull. in fact, could the whole mansion trip be skipped? since it doesn't move the story forward and takes away from Lucy's conversation with skull - those are iconic, and Complete Fiction just cut them off. i understand that it most likely comes to ghost CGI but like... yall wouldn't have to rent a massive mansion? and all information about what kind of a man Bickerstaff was Lucy could've got from that conversation. if i understand things correctly, Lucy can't talk to skull all that long now, since it overwhelms her (she passed out after their first conversation and seemed to be in pain when it happened). ok, let's keep it, i actually like it. with this new limitation, the first conversation in the kitchen would have played out a bit different. but it would've played out at least.

so it leaves two more scenes with skull: Lucy and Lockwood finding out where George is and the culmination in the catacombs.

first one goes as well as any other conversation with skull. which is rushed and without any character development for skull and its relationships with Lucy. and because of already revealed motivation for skull - being freed from the jar - there's no revelation to have.

‘You’re a head in a jar. You’re not going anywhere and we’re all you’ve got. So – we’re not going to put you in the furnaces,’ I said. ‘We’re not going to torture you. All we do, if you don’t start co-operating, is shut your lever up, put you in a bag, and bury you in the ground somewhere. Nice and deep so no one ever finds you. Just you, on your own, for ever. How does that sound?’ ‘You wouldn’t do that,’ the ghost said, but for the first time I heard uncertainty in its voice. ‘You need me, don’t forget. I’m a Type Three. I’ll make you rich. I’ll make you famous.’ ‘Stuff that. Our friend is more important. Last chance, skull. Spill the beans.’ ‘And there was I thinking Cubbins was the cruel one.’ The face drew back into the shadows of the plasm, where it glared at me with an expression of blood-curdling malice. ‘All right,’ it said slowly. ‘Sure, I’ll tell you. Don’t think I’m giving in to your blackmail, mind. I just want to enjoy what’s coming to you all.’

now this, this is beautiful. not only good ol conflict, but also a nice development for both sides of conversation. especially how Lucy has grown to care so much about George which was a pretty long process for both of them in books. and to top it all off, Lucy takes skull only to keep threatening it into co-operating and to get an insight on how to avoid an immediate death from the bone glass.

in show, however, it is the skull who begs to take it to its master, and Lucy, as well as Lockwood, for some reason go with it. it doesn't help Lucy to get into catacombs nor saves Lucy from looking into the bone mirror by hinting at how to destroy it. which was also rather unsatisfyingly done in the show. mostly because this ending doesn't complete skull's arc (not like there was any thanks to the lack of screen time).

skull's arc is rather simple in its debut book. it used to be a servant to a mad doctor, was very loyal, to the point that it seemed like it lost all its identity in the pursue of its master and his work. the ghost had denied its own death, so it became a type three. but once the name of its master was mentioned, it desired to reunite, to serve Bickerstaff once more, only to be faced with harsh reality (that Lucy was also trying to make it understood) - Bickerstaff had never cared for anyone nor anything apart from the device. his servant boy was simply useful and obedient. now Bickerstaff's ghost had Joplin who'd also became just a tool.

It gave a sudden shout. ‘Master! It’s me! Welcome back!’ Over in the corner, the cowled figure [of Bickerstaff's ghost] stood silent. It did not respond. ‘Master...’ The plaintive whisper was filled with fear and yearning. ‘Over here! It’s me!’ The figure didn’t stir. All its intentness was on the bone glass, and on George. ‘Yes,’ the skull said irritably. ‘Well, he’s not what he was.’ Of course he wasn’t.

im going on a rumble here but im way to passionate about the books and skull's character - where else you'll find such a bastard to love? speaking of character and its full scale assassination.

there were barely any scenes to truly grasp skull's character but still it is not the skull we know from books. from saying "thank you" to not wishing death upon l&co trio every five seconds. it's just not the same character. and im still trying to understand why this change was made. for some reason show actively tries to make its viewer (and Lucy) feel empathetic towards skull: first with its conversation with Lucy in ep.4, and later in the same episode with Marissa Fittes' interview and her description of type threes. which immediately bring Lucy to refer to skull as "he", not "it". all ghosts are being referred in the show as well as books as "it", to strip of any empathy towards them, apart from Annabel Ward but Lucy got a strong connection with her as well as she reminded her of Norrie. because technically, ghosts are not people, they're only echoes of one's identity or emotion. but not type threes. and yet it takes Lucy five books to learn to trust and see skull as a person, and show rushes it a lot (that's another subject on which i might write something one day because Lucy-skull parallels let's fucking goooooo).

skull played a role of an inner obstacle to overcome for the main trio. it put a seed of doubt into Lucy's head, voiced her concerns and deepest fears regarding her new friends. so the gap formed between the teammates, which only made l&co come closer together once they started opening up and trusting each other more. and whole show drama came from the inside the group with them overreacting and saying very out of character harmful things.

one of the things that im sorry for show-only people is that they miss how tws not only is extremely dark, has really good horror elements, tons of ghost lore, but also, it's extremely funny. and yes, mostly thanks to skull. the balance of mystery, quiet moments and well-written jokes is just superb. so now im waiting for season two announcement for Complete Fiction to redeem themselves.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Into the Fire Review

WARNING: The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS from this comic and Season 4 of Stranger Things!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Synopsis: It's Spring of 1985, 7 years after Ricky/Three and Marcy broke out of Hawkins Lab. Constantly on the move for fear of being caught, the duo attempt to find closure by locating any other special kids that might have also escaped the lab. When their search bring them to Kali/Eight and her gang, they discover a dark secret: Jamie/Nine, Marcy's sister, who was presumed dead, is actually alive and locked away in an institution where she has gone insane. As Nine's powers begin to reawaken after years of suppression, Ricky and Marcy must now find and rescue her before it's too late.......

Observations:

I'm in two minds about this comic.

On the one hand, it's a big improvement from Stranger Things SIX. The artwork is vibrant, the story is more focused, the characters and their motivations are better fleshed-out, and there's more of a personal stake here compared to its predecessor.

On the other hand, the main issue I had with SIX which prevented me from fully enjoying it is unfortunately present with Into the Fire as well.

I'll start with my thoughts on the story and characters.

Unlike with SIX, where I found myself indifferent to Francine/Six due to her lack of a distinct personality and her bare-bones backstory, I was a lot more interested in Ricky and Marcy during their journey here. I enjoyed their sibling dynamic, with Ricky acting as the protective big brother to Marcy while Marcy acted as the impulsive yet supportive younger sister. Their interactions during the comic were sweet.

The plot with Ricky and Marcy discovering Jamie/Nine's survival and trying to rescue her was emotionally investing. The story is personal and smaller-scaled compared to the overarching arc of Stranger Things, but it works better than what they tried to do in the previous comic where they shoehorned in huge mytharc pieces from the show (i.e. the Demogorgon, the Upside Down, Terry Ives failed attempt to rescue El from the lab, etc) which not only screwed with the show's continuity, but also was poorly tied-in to that comic's story. Neither Ricky, Marcy, nor Jamie know about the Upside Down, and even Francine/Six who had brief visions of the Demogorgon while at the lab died before she ever found out what it all truly meant. The clumsy way those plot elements were incorporated into that comic made it feel out-of-place for a story focusing on minor characters who were never going to have a major role on the show.

Here, it's a lot easier to care because Into The Fire does a better job focusing on the relationships between the characters and how much they mean to one another. It doesn't need pieces of the mytharc to be interesting or relevant. The ending especially with Jamie and Marcy's reunion was one of the best moments, both visually and story-wise:

The core theme of Stranger Things has been about the ties that bind and finding people who will accept you for who you are. Whatever my mixed feelings about this comic are, they captured that theme well with Jamie and Marcy's reunion.

Adding onto this, the artwork is beautiful, especially in regards to Jamie/Nine's hallucinations, which convey a creepy gothic mood:

Kali is present in this story (as indicated on the cover), but unlike the previous comic where she and El were glorified cameos, she actually has a plot-related reason for being here: It's revealed she (inadvertently) served as the catalyst for Nine/Jamie's descent into madness. When Jamie/Nine became depressed after believing Ricky and Marcy abandoned her at Hawkins Lab, Brenner forced Kali to use her powers on Nine to create a fantasy world as a way of distracting Nine from what happened. Unfortunately, it worked too well, and an already mentally/emotionally fragile Nine bought into the illusion to the point she believed it was real, and any attempt to snap her out of it was met with hostility:

There's a depressing theme in Kali's arc, both in this comic, the show, and the novel Suspicious Minds, of Kali being used by other people to further their own goals. Is it any wonder she became embittered and angry later on in her life?

I am curious where Kali is currently on the show. Last time she was seen was in season 2 when her gang ran from the cops in Chicago. This comic has them hiding out in a barn elsewhere while they continue to hunt government employees who worked at the lab. At one point, Kali even offers Ricky/Three the opportunity to join them on their revenge quest. While he initially refuses, the ending of the comic where he compels Dr. Morris (the doctor who hid Jamie/Nine at a different facility) to commit suicide suggests he might end up taking Kali on her offer:

But that's in the comic's continuity. In the show...........it's unclear where Kali's story is going.

Something I've wondered about since season 4 is whether Brenner ever found out what Kali had been doing since she escaped. He was likely aware she was alive, but did he have knowledge of Kali's revenge quest against him and his colleagues from Hawkins Lab? I'm assuming he did since Brenner knew some of the orderlies and other personnel from the lab that Kali targeted and killed. On top of that, Ray Carroll (the orderly from "The Lost Sister") told El and Kali under interrogation that Brenner was alive, implying he was still in contact with him at that time. It makes me believe the top-secret silo where Brenner and Dr. Owens housed the Nina Project wasn't just off-the-grid because they were hiding it from Colonel Sullivan and his cronies, but because they were also trying to evade Kali and her gang.

However, this is just speculation. Whether or not the Duffer Brothers are going to bring back Kali for season 5 is unclear. I've expressed before in previous posts that I hope she comes back and her story gets the closure its been lacking since season 2. She's an interesting character, and I'll be sad if the writing lets her go to waste.

Speaking of Kali's story in this comic vs the show..............let's talk about the deviations in the Hawkins Lab arc.

I have mixed feelings about the way Hawkins Lab has been handled on the show vs the comics. On the one hand, I'm disappointed the show never truly expanded on any of the other psychokinetic kids besides El, Kali, and Vecna. Part of the reason I took an interest in the comics was because they did this with characters like Ricky, Francine, and Jamie. It wasn't perfect, but it was nice seeing different characters with a variety of unique powers. While I wish Kali had been given a bigger role (or even her own comic/graphic novel with a story centered on her), I am happy she wasn't completely forgotten about in supplementary materials.

On the other hand, I prefer the set-up for Hawkins Lab on the show. The backstory of Henry/One/Vecna, his imprisonment at Hawkins Lab for 20 years, his subsequent massacre of the other special kids, and his banishment by El to the Upside Down is one of the best story arcs in season 4, if not the entire show. Even before the reveal of the massacre, there had been implications that the other kids were no longer at the lab by the time El escaped. I didn't even mind the backstory of El being bullied by the other special kids when she was growing up since it's hinted at in her conversation with Mike in season 1 when she confronts him about being harassed by Troy and James:

From "Holly, Jolly" (Season 1, Episode 3):

Mike: I was tripped by this mouth breather, Troy, okay? Eleven: Mouth breather? Mike: Yeah, you know…..a dumb person. A knucklehead. Eleven: Knucklehead? Mike: I don’t know why I just didn’t tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn’t want you to think I was such a wastoid, you know? Eleven: Mike… Mike: Yeah? Eleven: I understand.

There was foreshadowing in the early seasons for the big reveals in season 4, which is why I accepted them when they happened.

While I'm not happy about Kali's limited screentime on the show, I still believe the Duffer Brothers plan to bring her back for the final season. Maybe my faith is misplaced and I'll be eating these words later, but considering they specifically went out of their way to spare Kali from Vecna's massacre, as well as how the Stranger Things writers recommended a few days ago that fans rewatch season 2 in preparation for season 5, it's implied she still may play a role in the final battle against Vecna.

And finally, there's the way Brenner ran the lab on the show vs the comics:

In my previous review of SIX, I mentioned there was a strong possibility that said comic wouldn't count as canon due to the way season 4 was written (as well as some major continuity problems in the comic itself). This sequel all but confirms that with the way they wrote Jamie/Nine's backstory.

In the comics, Brenner decided that because of the progress Eleven showed during her time at the lab, the other participants in the program were redundant and were straining resources. As a result, he ordered the staff at Hawkins Lab to dispose of the other special kids. One of the faculty members, Dr. Morris, worked closely with Jamie/Nine, and in an act of consciousness, had Nine transferred off the books to an institution where she was kept under a strict drug regimen to suppress her pyrokinetic abilities.

As of season 4, we know this isn't what happened on the show: Vecna is the one who killed all the special kids. Brenner was a monster and wasn't above manipulating the kids under his care to get results, but he never considered them liabilities, and he didn't "put all of his eggs in one basket" (as Dr. Morris accused him of doing) just so he could focus on Eleven. It wasn't until Vecna slaughtered everyone else and El was the only special kid left that Brenner turned his attention exclusively to her. Even then, it's later revealed that Brenner was using El to try and locate Henry/One/Vecna in the dimension El banished him to.

Personally, if it's a choice between Brenner's motivations on the show vs the comics, I prefer the show since his motivations there make more sense given the circumstances. They were also pragmatic compared to his short-sided decision in the comics to get rid of the other test subjects for not living up to Eleven's potential.

While there are things that could have been improved, I will take the Hawkins Lab arc from the show over the comics.

Overall, I would recommend this comic with some asterisks: If you're looking for something with pretty artwork and an emotionally gripping story set in the Stranger Things universe, then Into the Fire will meet your expectations. However, for reasons I've just described, the comic likely isn't canon due to how parts of its mythology differentiate from the show, and it should possibly be viewed as an alternate continuity because of that.

[gizkasparadise]

Best fairy tale esque Asian drama

Beauty and beast type

Little mermaid type

Aladdin type

Cindy type

Etc

oh interesting! here's what comes to mind

for a beauty and the beast parallel, i think my favorites are:

hotel del luna. gender-swapped version! the female lead is a hedonistic immortal being cursed to run a hotel for ghosts due to her Traumatic Backstory. the male lead is a recent harvard graduate who was born for middle management and is in way, way over his head as he tries to teach her how to balance a checkbook

love between fairy and devil. the female lead is a little naive, very sheltered young flower immortal who accidentally unleashes the devil from a mystical space magic prison. so gorgeous and unexpectedly wonderful

for little mermaid:

my girlfriend is a gumiho draws direct comparisons to this story throughout its plot! it's a romcom/action/lite horror show about a gumiho (fox demon) who ends up transferring her power to a guy who wants to become a stuntman/action movie star. very cute and aggressively 2010 teen movie

i havent seen it yet, but legend of the blue sea is about mermaids and based off of a korean fairytale

for cinderella/rags-to-riches

okay it's not super cinderella-y on the surface, but princess agents has this vibe in a way? but instead of A Fancy Party the heroine instead was given An Awesome Sword, Spy Training, and Several Noblemen with Complexes

continuing to be super liberal with this interpretation, empress ki has the female lead go from smuggler to slave to concubine to empress. work.

shopping king louie is sort of this fairytale in reverse: the rich male lead loses his memories and ends up relying on a poor country girl. very fluffy and cute

100 days my prince is like a joseon version of shopping king louie, but at times darker with the subplots

i think a good chunk of 2000-2010ish kdramas basically lived on this trope

for aladdin i couldnt think of anything direct, so here's sort of a broader "making wishes/deals with immortal powerful fantasy beings":

mystic pop-up bar is about a cursed immortal female lead who runs a pop-up bar and is trying to resolve human being's grudges/grant their wishes by teaming up with a former ghost cop and a regular guy (or is he?) that has a special power of his own

goblin is about a girl who finds out she was destined to be the "goblin's bride" and bring about the death of an immortal cursed general who has been looking for a way to die for several centuries at this point. some wishes/genie-esque dynamics

angel's last mission: love. female lead is a cold, bitter former ballerina who has closed herself off from the world. male lead is her actual guardian angel. not one of my absolute favorites, but i liked the interesting dynamic and the OST is beyond gorgeouuuus

i did not like this drama that much but doom at your service might scratch this itch as well. the female lead is dying from cancer. the male lead is the actual manifestation of doom. would have been SO GOOD if it cut out the subplot and streamlined things a bit more

and these aren't really related to fairytales, but they have a similar vibe:

love and redemption. girl meets boy. boy is in a martial arts sect forbidden to love or marry. girl doesn't understand feelings and is in fact the reincarnated god of war. girl has also sort of killed boy for 9 lifetimes prior to this. boy keeps coming back for more because he thrives on masochism and costume changes. one of my top 3 favorite dramas

goodbye my princess is like someone had all the fairy tale tropes (rebellious princess, meeting while disguised, magical rivers) and then sort of took them in the backyard and shot them. lmao if you want it tragic, go here

craving more dysfunction junction? check out the wolf which starts with some sweet disney tarzan plot and escalates into fucking chaos

river where the moon rises is based on a piece of korean folklore. this one i wanted to like so much (and was enjoying for the first half), but the real-life drama lead to some unfortunate story complications (the show notoriously swapped out its male lead actor midway through airing)

alice in borderland draws a lot of parallels to alice in wonderland. it's survival horror so LMAO not the same vibe as the original story at all, but i figured i'd throw it in here. i have some mixed feelings about the drama, but i definitely binged it all

[the-indie-owl]

Favorite SpongeBob ships?

Oh boy, I have a lot of ships in the show (some of which are divorced ships or semi-canon ships of the Bikini Bottomites) but I'll just start off with the Main Ones that I ship.

SpongeBobXSandy - Probably one of the Main Ships in both the Show and the Fandom. The Two have a lot of perfect chemistry together and they even have such adorable moments, the two protect each other and even enjoy a lot of fun. They're also very helpful of each other since they're close friends and all, and I like how Sandy is the Badass Girl while SpongeBob's usually the "Goofy Nice Guy". Felt a bit disappointed that their past of how they met was retconned since the Third Movie only for the Spin-Offs like "Kamp Koral" and it was also kinda funny that ship was roasted in one episode of a wedding flashback (Truth or Square).

I sometimes think that SpongeBob has a crush on Her, rather or not it'd be a question, yet, they still support each other.

PatrickXMindy - I'm pretty sure everyone shipped them since the first movie in their own childhoods (including mine). Gotta admit, I always find Patrick's crush on her adorable since they are opposites attract and it's one of those "Royal Heir X Peasant" tropes. It was nice to see that Mindy did had a cameo in the Birthday special. Oh, and I guess Patrick does have a type for Girls; Mermaids (which was hinted in Legends of the Bikini Bottom).

Sherm said that Mindy is 14 and that he assumes that SpongeBob and Patrick are like kids (which makes Me believe that he doesn't know their ages which is why he thinks Mindy is young) maybe SpongeBob and Patrick are somewhat Older Adolescents too since No One really knows much about the Characters' Canon Ages (The Writers would never really know about their true ages based on how old they are).

Personally, in my POV/Headcanon, I see Patrick 17, SpongeBob 18 (based on some theories about his age), and even Sandy 19. (But in most of my AUs, Mindy is 19-21 while Patrick is 22 in some of my AUs, mostly from my Human AU.)

SquidwardXSquilvia - It was nice to see that Squidward finally had a love interest of his own (but sadly, much like Mindy, Squilvia is just a one appearance character even though Mindy did at least came back at the show one time). I felt bad for Squidward being so lonely all the time he couldn't find someone like him who he could love. Personally, I think Squilvia has the same interests that Squidward has, if she could find a Man like Him, then Squidward would find a Woman like Her.

Gotta love on how SpongeBob instantly ships them together since Squidward is honestly the Tsundere type who has feelings for Squilvia. I can see Squilvia having sympathy for Squidward on how rough his life was as she could relate to the same way as him. I think these two would have been perfect as Husband and Wife 💙

Hoping for Squilvia, she might make another appearance in the Modern Episodes.

NeptuneXAmphitrite - Surprise to see that I would instantly brought up Neptune's ship since he's one of my favorite characters? Lmao, thought so 🤭

I know that we barley see them together, especially in "The Clash of Triton" and even though it's unknown on what happened to Amphitrite and Triton in the First Movie, I'd like to think that Neptune and his Wife were separated once.

Even though we haven't gotten a backstory about them, I headcanon that in Ancient Times, they didn't mind at first but when they got to know each other, their romance blossomed into love (but Amphitrite was already in a relationship with Poseidon as Neptune technically stole his Greek Counterpart's Girl and won her heart in a fight).

In their Teen Years, I see that their relationship would be pretty similar to Bambi and Faline from "Bambi" (imagine Neptune and Amphitrite's love scene with the song, "I Bring You A Song"/"Looking for Romance" in the background lol)

I guess Amphitrite was chosen to be Neptune's Queen so they can produce an Heir to the Throne but their feelings do matter for each other since hey, Amphitrite respects her Husband a lot.

So yeah, that's about it. I ain't going to feature all of the other ships in cuz that would take a lot of exhausting work to explain a lot. But these that I picked out are my Number One ships in the Show.

[linalilia]

🍁my enstars ocs (part 1): kaede ariyoshi! 🍁

okay, so i decided to try and make my own enstars ocs! even though i don't remember anything about the lore and plot hjnfjskdk I JUST WANT TO HAVE MY OWN CUTE LITTLE UNIT and make them interact with my friends' ocs hehe

the unit that i came up with has a menhera/yami kawaii theme because i always liked that aesthetic a lot and i thought it would be interesting to have a unit like that in the game. i thought that their name would be "band♡aid" I KNOW IT DOESN'T SOUND THAT UNIQUE I'M SURE SOMEONE ALREADY HAS A UNIT LIKE THAT BUT. I NEVER WAS THAT GOOD AT COMING UP WITH UNIT/BAND NAMES.

also, most members are actually foreign exchange students because.. most japanese names i wanted to use are already in the game. enstars has too many characters ndsdjksksk. and i simply thought it would be cool to have a unit that has so many foreign characters, like OKAY SLAY BILINGUAL/MULTILINGUAL KINGS.

i'm going to post their profiles separately and the first boy is actually their leader! and also he's the youngest one here, so yes, he's baby.

i haven't drawn their designs yet, so we will have to use picrews/character makers for now.

(links: 1 2 3)

name: kaede ariyoshi (有吉楓) (his last name means "to have, possess" and "luck" and his first name means "maple")

age: 16 y/o

school: yumenosaki academy

class: 1-A

club: game research club

circle: mystery researchers

height: 166 cm

date of birth: 13.07

zodiac sign: cancer

hair color: tonys pink

eye color: fuchsia

roommates: ruan yu, andrea mari

handedness: right-handed

blood type: A

likes: horror games, trees

dislikes: being the center of attention, arguing

favorite food: french fries

family: father and mother

hobby: listening to asmr, camping

specialty: making games

image color: #E5D0E8

unit: band♡aid

agency: new dimension

personality: kaede is a very shy and soft-spoken person who finds it hard to express his own opinion. he doesn't want people to think that he's weird or scary, so he tends to apologize before he even says anything and he always asks if the person he's talking to is uncomfortable with what he's saying. he also stutters and because of that it can be hard for him to even say just one word. but even though he's so shy and he hates being the center of attention, he's always trying to be a peacemaker of the group and if he sees his unit members fight, he's the one who tries to calm them down. and if he becomes angry enough, he can get surprisingly rude and even violent, he can easily punch someone if they annoy him too much. kaede is actually very interested in horror, especially horror games and before he became an idol, he was a game developer. he created three very short horror games, but even though he doesn't find them that special, kaede already has some fans. however, he refuses to talk about his interests in public because he's afraid people will judge him and think he's creepy. and according to him, it already happened in the past and that's why he became a shut-in and stopped going to school.

backstory: kaede was a fan of horror since childhood and his parents encouraged his interests even though they agreed that it was kinda strange for such a young child to be obsessed with everything scary and dark. he hoped that he will find friends with the same interests and he knew that a lot of his classmates also like creepy things, but to his shock, those kids started making fun of him because they couldn't believe that such a cute and "soft" boy like him would genuinely like horror. and when they learned that he really does like it, they only started bullying him even more and said that he needs to find a hobby that will fit him. they also thought that he was scarier than all those monsters and villains. eventually the bullying got so bad that kaede stopped going to school and refused to leave the house, even though he really liked going camping with his dad and he always liked going on walks and he found it calming. he decided to express his feelings through games and that's why he became so interested in creating his own games. his parents got so worried about him, they were afraid that kaede won't be able "to return to society" if they don't do anything. it should be mentioned that his parents are actually show business experts and they've been a part of it for many years. so, kaede's parents decided to make their child become an idol, hoping that it will help him become more confident and he won't be afraid of other people anymore. but kaede has no experience at all, so it will be quite hard for him to get used to this.. it doesn't help that he also was chosen to be a unit leader.

trivia:

you can often see him wearing hoodies and baseball hats, it's also a part of his school uniform.

he was chosen to be a unit leader because he seemed to be the "most normal" out of all the members and he genuinely wanted to get along with all of them.. but also because it was his parents' wish.

kaede is not that good at singing and dancing at first, but he slowly gets better at it because he doesn't want to let others down and he keeps practicing.

he has the most high-pitched and childlike voice out of all the unit members, however, he can sing in a much deeper voice when he has to. he finds it scary though, so he doesn't use it that much even though his fans find it more attractive

he is very attached to anzu because she was the first person who tried to help him get used to being an idol. he stutters even more when she's around and he often gets teased because other unit members think he has a crush on her. and they're kinda right

kaede's parents spoiled him a lot and it's also one of the reasons why he was bullied by his classmates. they say that forcing him to become an idol was the most harsh decision they've ever done.

kaede is bilingual and he's fluent in both japanese and english. whenever other unit members are having trouble with reading or understanding something, he explains it to them in english.

kaede was the one to come up with the unit theme and he made a reference to his past and his own personality when describing it. he thought that it would be interesting for their songs to still sound cute and innocent but have very dark and deep lyrics, it's just like his own vibe! he's also the one who writes lyrics to some of the songs.

[da3dm]

3d!!!!

You mentioned other heroes in your asks to Brick, can you tell use anything about them?! (If they even are actual characters)

Also!! Is Irza alone as the only villain or are there more villains??

S L O T H

You've returned to my askbox asking amazing things that make my brain spaz out

THERE ARE OTHERSSSS! Villains I mean...but let's start with the heroes!!!!!

I don't have a whole lot of them named, but there's some top tier heroes that have actual hero names. Most of the time the new ones do have them bc they named themselves, but not many people know the name.

This gets long so it's under a cut ;-;

Okay! There's a very rude healer guy who doesn't like that there's a villain running around that has healing magic...aka Voidshire...and he's basically that rich boy no-one likes bc he won't heal you if you don't give him a lot of money and he definitely won't heal you if you're related to a dragon in any way. Irzayn hates this guy for good reason. Oh and he's just a human. (I will admit he doesn't have a name yet but I have everything else about him—you could send me names to help too, both civilian and hero names...)

Now another one is Songstress. She's a merfolk (in this day and age most merfolk can also go on land in humanish forms, their skin is just a diff color and they have weird ears) hero that uses her powerful voice bc she has siren ancestry. If she tells you to do something you'll be forced to obey if you don't have a lot of mental fortitude. She uses amplifiers to send her voice across battlefields and only knows basic hand to hand combat so you win if you get close and can't hear her voice/have resistance. Her personality is...kinda like the woman that will adopt a child if they see it abandoned but flaunts her appearance and money anyway. There is no solid description but she's more loved. She doesn't have a civilian name, wanna assist with that too?

Then there's this guy that appears later that actually went to the same school as Irza and is the one who taught our mc villain how to fight! They were classmates in the same club, just separated by a few grades. He doesn't have a hero name yet bc I haven't gotten that far, but his name is Jaxi and he's very upbeat, intense, and friendly. He's also half demon.

There's more but I don't have all of them listed. It's hard to just keep making people when they're very far from appearing in the storyline...think of it that there's hundreds of heroes in just one city, but these guys are all over the world. It's a superhero like system.

NOW FOR THE VILLAINS!

First things first I'd like to clarify that Irza never actually wanted to be a villain, the city just names him Voidshire on their own and called him one.

Now! I'll start with MazukuPriest! This person is completely unknown. No known gender from their unusual clothes and voice distorter, and no possible clues to their origin/race. This one uses wind magic as blades and is the first legit villain that Irza meets as a kid. They also faught and Irza barely one only bc the win condition was to get a single hit in...Irza BIT this guy eheheheheh, he just went FERAL

Then there's Scrambler! She is a vampire who LOVES technology. She is the boss of the underground but is a very frail looking woman. Despite that, she's the one that knows everything in the city, makes weapons, specialized clothing for villains (and some corrupt heroes), and keeps track of potential problems. She acts lazy but she could kill you with a snap of her fingers. Do not provoke.

And DANGIT

This means I have to tell you about evil Ezephr...if you don't like really horrible backstories (torture/death/cruelty) then don't read past this point....

This guy's villain name is DarkPrince. His race is angel, but he's worse than the demons in your nightmares. He grew up in a facility being raised from birth into the perfect weapon. They were going to train and condition him into the best and strongest 'hero' of their world, but...they forced this child to kill others in an arena or face punishment. His wings used to be the purest white and oh-so soft...but as they become covered in blood they slowly began to change in color and form. Eventually he got his power earlier than normal. Angels receive their greatest desires as a power when they're in their teens, but he got it at 12, which was extremely early. He killed every single scientist and test subject inside that facility. Then when he was 14, he killed every single person in a city as big as NY in only a few days. At the end of that slaughter of the city, the feathers on his wings had become metal blades, his halo had twisted and been corrupted, and he began to laugh when killing. They had created something the world had never seen before and never should have seen. He's an adult in the storyline now tho and much more important than any of the other characters...he's irredeemable and if you bore him you die. He stalks Irza bc of a special event. He kills bc he wants to and wins against armies on his own...this is the worst and strongest villain in the world that marks Irza as the strongest of all only once he's finally defeated.

I couldn't tell you something super short about him, he's just too fun to talk about. He's just so evil.....

BY THE WAY

I'M ALWAYS OPEN TO PEOPLE SENDING ME HEROES OR VILLAINS THEY MADE THAT THEY WANNA SEE IN THE STORY

It makes it easier for me and sounds reeeeaaaad fun

Any other questions, sloth?

Any at all?

[lastwave]

do all the asks for dnd renfield i double dare you

DARE TAKEN.

1: How did you come up with your OCs name?

tha dracula special interest

2: Does your OC have a theme?

OH I JUST TALKED ABT THIS!! we decided that this piano of sigmas theme is very him

3: What is their Class?

SOULKNIFE ROGUE. he was going to be a college of whispers bard but then his charisma needed to be shit. also soulknife is cooler and directly tied to the dracula curse (haven't figured out the exact details)

4: What is their Race?

human. lol

5: Are they from a Module or a Homebrew?

the Heckna! module :)

6: What TTRPG are they from? (D&D, VTM, or something else?)

D&D!

7: Have you gotten to actively play them/introduce them to the story yet?

ive rped as him so ya!

8: What do they look like? (Do you have art of them? Are you open to fan art?)

ohh ok ok. so u know my dracula renfield design? that but he has multiple outfits and he dyes one half of his hair brown because he has trouble coming to terms with the fact hes old LOL

9: What is their personality like?

answered this bad boy

10: What’s their relationship with their parents like?

oughhhh god. ok. he has very mixed feelings on his birth parents. they did what was best to keep him safe as a kid but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt (see iliveinprocrastination's ask abt number 11 for context). he has had a lot of parental and mentorial figures in his life tho and i think he loves all of them. and misses them very deeply

11: Where did they grow up? Do they miss it? Would they ever go back if they could?

answered this one<3

12: Did they have any backstory adventures before joining the party? If not, what were they doing before they were introduced?

ehhhhhh? they werent really adventures but he did have an eventful life pre campaign due to being a traveling act (escape artist & contortionist)

13: What is their alignment? What would THEY say their alignment is? Does it matter to them?

answered this bad boy too

14: Are there any secrets to their backstory you know, but they don’t know yet? (Secret parentage perhaps?)

not that i know of. unless the dm has plans i dont know abt

15: Do they have a favorite food?

onion soup 👍

16: Least favorite food?

gooseberries

17: What means the most to them? (Not a person)

BAILEY HIS MEXICAN REDLEG TARANTULA FRIEND

18: Who means the most to them?

hrm. thats a good question. i dont know<3 out of living people probably elaine? first long-ish friendship in a WHILE.

19: Do they hate anything? (Not a person)

gooey textures ?

20: Do they hate anyone?

dracula LOL. he Will hate heckna later but he hasnt gotten there yet

21: Are they currently in a romance? (NPC or PC)

this man is ace/aro (probably more greyromantic but yanno. under the umbrella) so no

22: Do they have any romance in their backstory? If it ended, how did it end?

midlife crisis where he tried to convince himself he enjoyed dating and hookups

23: Do they have a favorite school of magic?

he does not know that humans can do magic yet

24: Least favorite school of magic?

see above

25: Have they ever lost someone important to them?

yea. sorry for putting u in the blender old man its for the themes and motifs and plot

26: If you had the choice, would you rather they have a happy ending, a bittersweet ending, or a tragic ending?

HAPPY. LET HIM REST MY GOD.

27: Are they a liar? Do they lie to the party, or only to others? Do they usually think they have a good reason?

liar is a strong word. he will if he feels its in his vested interest in survival to. hes not a good liar, but hes very good at avoiding truths.

28: What’s the worst thing they’ve ever done? How do they feel about it?

he used to be like. really mean when he was younger in the whole. scaring people department. he probably did a pretty mean spirited joke on someone that didn't end well. i think he feels bad about it.

29: What’s the best thing they’ve ever done? How do they feel about it?

oughhhhh u know? whatever good hes done for other people i dont think he recognizes it because for the longest time he was never able to see the results. im gonna have to think abt this one

30: Who is their favorite NPC? Or PC if they’re an NPC?

bailey counts as an npc right

31: Least favorite NPC? Or PC if they’re an NPC?

unknown at the moment but it will prooobably be heckna

32: If they suddenly lost their class and had to pick a new one, what would they choose? What would YOU choose for them?

he would choose ranger probably. id choose abberrant mind sorcerer because it fucks

33: If they played the TTRPG they’re from, what would they play as?

FIRBOLG CIRCLE OF DREAMS DRUID NAMED FREYA W/ THE FEYLOST BACKGROUND

34: What is their biggest flaw?

answered this and the next one

35: What do they think their biggest flaw is?

see above

36: What is the best thing about them?

he cares a lot for the people around him. he doesn't make it known verbally but u can tell by his actions

37: What do they think the best thing about them is?

he thinks hes soooo funny

38: What would happen if they suddenly appeared on Earth?

he would simply go back to sleep because it would be a dream 2 him

39: If they suddenly appeared on Earth, what time period would you place them in? What location? Why?

victorian era london. puts him back in his habitat

skipping 40 because idk ❤️