#not quite long enough to justify a readmore

[rwbwby]

this post is about shipcourse and how fucking clown shoes it all is. i’m slapping it under a readmore for your convenience

the closer i get to 30, the more all this shit seems ridiculous and i can’t see why i cared so much when i was young. i barely hang out on sites where i can’t carefully curate what i’m seeing and engaging with. i mean, take shipping ‘discourse’ for example. there’s people out there telling people to kill themselves because they, idk, wrote fanfic where snape and harry kiss on the mouth or something. honestly as long as you’re tagging your shit properly, i quite literally could not care less.

there’s writers out here who are being forced by absolutely insufferable teenagers to open up about their private lives to “justify” why they should be “allowed” to make this kind of art. that’s the trap, see? it’ll never be good enough. you can tell them that your explicit Snarry snippet is a 1:1 retelling of a horrific event you’ve been through, that you’re writing it to cope with that trauma, and they’re still going to tell you to drink bleach after forcing you to publically expose painful memories.

if you’re not doing any tangible harm to real beings, and if you tag it properly if you’re going to post it somewhere where that kind of content is allowed and expected, write whatever you want. draw whatever you want. get really fucked up with it. put it down on paper and just look at it. regard the miracle that nobody was harmed by this.

[fionnaskyborn]

Alright, I feel like an update of sorts is due. I do not use any social media in order to "be a presence" there - I'm just here to have fun and reblog things that make me happy. Even so, I feel like an explanation for my recent absence is justified. I'm putting it under a readmore so as to not clot anybody's dashboard, but if you want to hear the ramblings of a troubled young adult, well, by all means, be my guest.

As previously stated, I mostly go on here to reblog and save things that bring me joy. I believe to have privated at least one of my own posts talking about some more recent events, but I'm pretty sure some of them remain up. And I can't be arsed to go private them, to be quite honest. To make the long story short - I lost a significant portion of my writing, as well as a lot of other data that was important to me. Most would have stopped at that, but I couldn't accept the possibility of nearly two years of work and three years of accumulating various things that made me smile were gone, just like that. And, well, they aren't. But they are unreachable, for the time being. This prompted me to take a beeline in my lifepath, towards a discipline not too far away from what I originally planned on doing when my "true adult" years rolled around, but still decently enough separated from it to mark this as a pretty significant change of plans. I certainly never considered getting into quantum physics full-on - it was interesting to read about, sure, but I've always been interested in the macro scale of things far more. However, when the time comes to overthrow the technological systems currently in place, I want to be there, in the front rows, among the people who will have access to that kind of technology right away. The only other path to this, other than by being a mathematician, is to be unimaginably rich, and I am a pretty normal person as far as money goes. Just another average Joe on this planet Earth - not particularly wealthy, to afford three vacations per year, but with more than enough money to consider myself financially secure. Just a regular ol' person, trying to get by. That means that I need to start working towards that future right now. And it's all so painfully slow. I've spent most of my life waiting for one thing or another. The idea of waiting another several years for a slim shot at getting my beloved writing back is not an easy one to come to terms with for me. But it's the only chance I have, and I could even be considered lucky - imagine if all of this happened, and I weren't a physicist in the making! I'd have to wait decades instead of an undefined amount of time that could be as early as a single year or as late as ten years to get my words back - words I could never repeat, words I could never write in that same order. The first days after it happened were incredibly painful, and I am still uncertain, but, little by little, I'm getting it back. And I'm getting new things out of this - I never saw painful events as anything but just that. But perhaps it is because this is something I am not helpless against that changed things so much. I am now more than ever motivated to actually learn and excel. Earlier on, I was just rolling with the punches. Life wore me out so much I had pretty much just given up on putting any effort into anything because I was just... too exhausted to do it. My plan was to just do whatever until things either ended up going so spectacularly bad I'd earn myself some kind of intervention, or somehow miraculously worked out. But all of this was a wake-up call. (TO WHAT I REALLY BELIEVE. Sorry. Saw an opportunity, couldn't miss it. On the other hand - see? Unfortunately for everyone involved, I am still the same old dork I ever was.) I now have something - something more tangible than anything I've had before - to strive for. This is the first time in at least seven years, perhaps more, I've felt this confident in any plan of mine, that I've had this concrete of a set of goals. This was also the first time in my few decades and spare change on this Earth that I've managed to turn a large terrible event into a pushing force THIS strong. There's doing things out of spite, and then there's THIS. I do realize that I may very well be insane for this, but I'm not willing to let something that got me through some very difficult times in my life and that helped me grow as a person as much as it did slip away like it was nothing. I saw a shot, and, brother, I'm gonna take it.

I've also watched Gurren Lagann because I've heard it gives people the will to live, and that was something I desperately needed. At first, I watched it numb - or, rather, any positive feelings I had harbored about it were stored in the same place my overwhelming grief over my currently lost work was, and, well, one was more powerful than the other, obviously. But, as I got better over time, I found myself not just logically and objectively understanding why people see it as the greatest thing ever made, but taking the messages and words said in the show to heart. It, and the gradually increasing amount of support I got from the people around me, are the reason why I am where I am today. I truly cannot even start to express my gratitude for the people I found by my side (some after some time, some more immediately), let alone the support they started giving me once I had my revelation and change of trajectory and the way I live my life. It's just about as fortunate of a combination of things you could hope to end up with. The misery from those first days still lingers in some measure, but every day I get a bit stronger and a bit more capable of rejecting it in its entirety.

In the meantime, I will keep working on my project. But not at the cost of hurting myself to get as much on paper as I can - I plan to take things in stride. I'm not sure when I'll be capable of looking for art online like I did before the calamity, but the same strategy applies - if it brings joy, do it, if not, well, don't force yourself to do anything that would make you miserable. Simple as that. I am slowly, gradually, healing from everything that happened, all while having a thing I want to achieve, a thing that will grant me true and ultimate and lasting happiness.

I thought I would never be able to touch videogames as a whole. That mostly turned into "I'll never be able to touch the game series that changed me as a person and it sucks ASS". But even that is proving to be less and less true by the day. Who knows what the future holds? Not me. But as I walk towards a distant goal along a long and winding path, there are plenty of things to do in the meantime. I've got a cassette collection to grow. Playlists to organize. Designs to finalize. Vinyls to listen to. I still want to purchase that hugeass limited edition Trocadero foil print. There is so much music I want to listen to. I still want to enjoy things in life. It may not mean much to the average onlooker, but it means a lot to me because it's such a huge leap from the mental state I was in a week ago when it happened, and the days that followed.

In short, I'm doing fine. Still a bit empty in some places, but only sometimes, and I'm filling those empty spaces with either the motivation I need in order to keep going to reach that future I want so much, or reminding myself that I haven't lost just about everything. I'm patching myself up bit by bit, and I think I'm doing great at it so far.

My final message: I don't care what your stances on anime in general are, watch Gurren Lagann. Suspend your disbelief and just... trust me on this one. If you're having a grand old time in life, it'll only make it better. If you're having a spectacularly shitty time in life, it'll give you the strength to keep going. I'm on episode 15 right now (or... 16? Whatever, I finished the first half of it is what I'm saying.)

Almost at the bus stop now - I'll see you all later.

[haikujitsu]

Will Jack keep trying to fight ghosts with Danny? If so, what are some ways the ghost fighting aspect of their relationship change now that Danny has his powers back? When will Vlad come out of that thermos? Will the Fenton family form any more positive relationships with ghosts like the one they have with Cujo?

Of course he will! Jack’s always been enthusiastic about the idea of his children carrying on the family legacy, and once he’s had time to process all the negative stuff that happened to Danny, he’s over the moon that Danny’s not just a ghost hunter, but the best and most loved ghost hunter in Amity Park.

The dynamic shift is really interesting, actually. When Danny gets his powers back, it also restores a lot of his confidence, and he falls naturally back into more of a leadership role, snapping out orders and taking charge. Jack might be annoyed if he was’t so busy nerding out on how grown up and badass his boy is now. He’s actually very well suited for the backup role, since it’s similar to how his partnership with Maddie functions.

The absolute hardest part for Jack is keeping Danny’s identity a secret. Luckily when he slips up and calls Phantom ‘son’ people assume he’s just being friendly/fatherly. 

People actually feel a little sorry for Danny Fenton– he seems to fade into the background whenever Phantom’s around. It’s obvious that Jack’s burstingly proud of the ghost boy, almost like he’s the son he never had. It has to be hard for Danny, living in the shadow of a ghost. Jazz overhears things to this effect all the time and finds it hard to keep from laughing.

The Fentons go out of their way to try to foster more positive relationships, though at the end of the day there’s still a percentage of the population best dealt with via lasers and a good ectopunch to the face. Princess Dorothea and Wulf are the closest things to actual allies, though Dorothea rarely leaves her kingdom now that she’s the ruler. Clockwork is notoriously hard to locate except on the rare occasions he chooses to be seen. He takes a liking to Dani in particular, and she’s one of the few people who can find his clock tower consistently.

Jazz and Maddie work out a filing system that categorizes ghosts into danger and intelligence levels–though Danny frequently objects to some of these classifications and they do shift as time goes on to a more anthropological approach…ectological approach? Years later these files become the source for A Xenonaut’s Guide to the Ghost Zone, a vital survival resource for future explorers.

Vlad question is answered here!

[brotherdusk]

talk to me about how the great expectation adaption sucks!

anon I hope you know what you've activated here!

I'm gonna preface this by saying - well first of all I should say that I've only watched one and a half episodes of the three that have aired, so who knows, maybe I missed something in episodes 2 or 3 that justifies their choice to completely gut young pip of everything that makes him sympathetic or likeable or even interesting as a protagonist. I doubt it though!

preface #2: I am totally open to adaptations changing things and getting weird with it, especially when it's a story that's already been retold ad nauseam! my favourite adaptation of great expectations is the 1946 david lean version, which strips down huge parts of the story to fit a two hour runtime and alters the ending quite a lot. you could put a cynical bent on it and say they sanitized dickens' rather bittersweet ending in favour of an over-romanticised, old hollywood vision - but I don't care, the final words of that film make me cry every time!

continuing below the cut because I have a shred of self-respect and I'm not gonna clog people's dashes with this any longer 🫡 if you click the readmore then godspeed. spoilers ahead!

so in this essay I'm mostly gonna examine the show's depiction of young pip compared to the original, and then wrap it up with a speedrun of everything else about the show that feels off or rewrites the original intention of the novel for no apparent reason.

the view we get of pip as a young boy is crucial to understanding his actions and relationships for the rest of the story! in the book, he's a polite, sensitive, almost painfully impressionable little kid who lives in fear of pretty much everything - his older sister abuses him, meeting the escaped convict magwitch fills him with mortal terror, he gets criticised and belittled over christmas dinner for the crime of Being A Child, and he's convinced that he's about to be arrested and put in prison forever for stealing one (1) pie from the larder. he has a vivid imagination and it's clear that things leave an impression on him, even if he doesn't realise it himself at the time.

but there's a simplicity to his innocence! he and joe quietly support each other through mrs joe's abuse. they have a mutual respect and understanding. he later becomes apprenticed to joe as a blacksmith, but really he's joe's apprentice in every way. they both live simple, almost childlike existences, with no expectations for themselves, and they're quite happy that way.

Joe and I being fellow-sufferers, and having confidences as such, Joe imparted a confidence to me [...] I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal.

so what's the worst thing that could happen to pip at this point? meeting the beautiful estella and hearing her mock every aspect of his being, of course!

I set off on the four-mile walk to our forge; pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.

[...] I thought long after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith; how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen, and how I had come up to bed from the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common doings.

this meeting is absolutely catastrophic for pip and makes him irrevocably aware of his class. he is desperate to shed his common-ness and jumps at the chance to get a proper education and become a gentleman. being joe's apprentice in life is no longer enough. he never outright rejects joe, he's too attached to him for that, but pip's deep shame forms an uncomfortable rift between them. it reaches a breaking point when joe later visits him in london;

Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming. Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.

so, just to recap on book!pip: he goes through several formative experiences at a very young and impressionable age - threats from magwitch, abuse from his sister that solidifies his bond with joe, and humiliation from miss havisham and estella. these all form deep impressions on his psyche and inform his actions throughout the rest of the story. it's also the catalyst for miss havisham's iconic "what have I done! what have I done!" breakdown later in the novel.

with this in mind, let's look at how bbc great expectations completely fumbles the character of young pip and makes everything outlined above a complete non-event for him:

first of all... why is he so... old?

I have an annotated copy of great expectations (yeah I'm that bitch. sorry) that includes a transcript of charles dickens' original working notes, and he imagined young pip as roughly 7 years old. tom sweet (young pip above) is 18, but he's got a young face so let's be charitable and say they were aiming for 15. that's still such a vast difference? the way a 15 year old reacts to and internalises things is indescribably different to a 7 year old! why!

the show's clearly going for a moodier and more mature take on young pip but he's so fucking boring and insufferable. from the opening moments of the first episode he's quoting shakespeare to get through the tedium of blacksmithing, telling joe he doesn't actually want to be his apprentice, and clapping back at his sister's folk beliefs with #facts and #logic. steven knight has a brave new vision of pip and unfortunately that vision is an atheist redditor.

it's so bad. it's the "overly self aware misfit teen protagonist"-ification of classic literature. I didn't watch the new wednesday series but I imagine this is why it made everyone so mad. this pip's answer to everything is either 1) "k" 2) 😏😏 WELL ACKSHUALLY 😏😏 or 3) read at 8:32pm. why should he care if magwitch threatens to eat his liver or if estella is a bit of a cow? he's already dissatisfied and bored and knows better than everyone else in this backwater village! there's no tragic corruption of innocence to be done here! pack it in! we're done!

the first episode opened with adult pip attempting to commit suicide so I guess the series is going to examine how his dissatisfaction and disconnect from his roots grows and grows until he reaches a breaking point, which is kind of the theme of the novel, but... his connection to joe in particular is so cold and dead on arrival. joe's humbleness and warmth is so central to the book, but here he's just some guy? mrs joe isn't even particularly monstrous, she's just... unpleasant and argumentative and agrees not to beat pip when joe tells her not to. ok? glad that's settled then?

I can't judge estella or miss havisham because their arcs haven't really gotten going yet. I'm interested in the miss havisham drug addict storyline and cautiously optimistic about the prospect of olivia colman acting out miss havisham's final breakdown and decline, but I won't be surprised if the show finds some way to screw it up and remove all emotional depth from it :~)

as for mr jaggers: why is he described as corrupt? I recall he could be a little creative with the rules when required but was fastidiously, obsessively lawful and self-policing whenever possible. what??

wait I just looked ahead at the upcoming episode descriptions and genuinely what the hell is going on with jaggers. what's up with the bbc doing colourblind casting and then making the characters played by people of colour significantly worse than in canon (this is a bbc les mis thénardier subtweet)

and as for herbert pocket, my bestie my sweetie pie the light of my life...... look how they massacred my boy 😭 the real mr pocket would NEVER!!!!

I cannot express how much jairaj varsani was wasted here. he had a recurring role in the first season of foundation and his character, poly, was so much closer in personality to mr pocket than the actual mr pocket of this show. huge heart huge spirit zero self preservation instinct. he could have been perfect here with a script that was actually good!

(I made this meme about the character in 2021 lmao)

I'm mixed on how central they've made the magwitch-compeyson conflict. I'm always down to see more of compey purely because trystan gravelle is very very good at playing deranged 19th century men, but I feel they've reduced the fear and mystery of magwitch's presence by giving them so much backstory so early.

as the for the mr pumblechook/mrs joe sadomasochism subplot.... sure I guess. why not draw a parallel to pip's obsession with estella despite how much she hurts him. put the wwdits guy's naked ass on screen I'm beyond caring at this point

the tragedy is that bbc great expectations could have worked? I'm very into les misérables and have seen enough adaptations of it that the weird ones that didn't quite stick the landing but made an attempt to do something different are much more interesting to me than oversimplified paint-by-numbers adaptation #847594. the same can be said of dracula, or sherlock holmes, or any other classic story that's been retold over and over. I bring this up because there are so many similarities between bbc great expectations (that I don't like) and bbc les mis (which I do like despite its many many faults) that it's a useful comparison to have on hand. they both strayed from the source material and changed character personalities, to the chagrin of a lot of fans, but despite its odd choices bbc les mis never quite lost the heart of the story in the way bbc great expectations did. in my opinion at least.

maybe the show can pull it back and do its own thing with the story, but it's already thrown away so many opportunities for emotional weight that I just can't see it succeeding at this point. rudi dharmalingam as wemmick has piqued my interest so I'll probably go back to it, and get hurt again by whatever the hell they've done to his character.... honestly I'll probably skim through the whole series out of curiosity to see where miss havisham's plot goes, if nothing else, and angrily liveblog it when I'm inevitably disappointed 😭

hope this satisfied your curiosity anon! this answer was probably more than you bargained for haha. I just adore this story and have many feelings about it ✨

[cinnamonest]

Kaeya Alberich - Yandere Profile

YES I love my eyepatch boy!! I really like him as a yandere, because he's definitely got several traits and behaviors that would make him a very unconventional/different yet absolutely terrifying one to have. Him or Diluc as your yandere is basically like playing a game on maximum difficulty. He's so arrogant dammit why does he have to make it hot

More importantly, someone take the ability to write n/sfw away from me I s2g... I go from trying to make serious content to nasty weird kinks and completely feral in .002 seconds the moment I add that readmore

tws: gaslighting, manipulation, yandere, mentions of mutilation

tws (below cut): noncon, a good deal of sadism, mentions of an*l

-----------------

What are they generally like? Lucid, aware? Obsessive? How do they behave?

He's actually one of the worst yanderes you could have in almost every regard, for two very simple reasons: his crippling psychological issues, and his intense selfishness. The first manifests as severe abandonment issues. It's the origin of his unhealthy feelings, most likely. Kaeya doesn't like the instability of people - based on his backstory, people always leave, or die, and even if they don't intend to, somehow it feels like abandonment, and he resents it. People leave him all alone and afraid and uncertain. That's generally all he knows, and despite the smug exterior, he's actually pushed people away quite a bit, keeps everyone at arm's length to ensure they can't become someone too important for him to accept their sudden absence. He can't care about someone, because that someone is fated to inevitably leave him, no matter who it may be.

That's why, once you manage to worm your way into his feelings and heart despite his best efforts, once he finally caves to acknowledging the feeling, he's aware. Painfully aware, because be can't stop worrying every waking moment about you, your well-being, your location. It reaches a point where he can't go about his job because he's simply too consumed with his worry.

The solution that kept him safest in the past was to avoid developing emotional attachments, but when he does, he's terrified of both your safety AND you intentionally abandoning him. Really, the latter would hurt worse, since he can't fault you for dying, but to abandon him? It would break him.

And, to some extent, he's developed a lot of  prideful anger about it, deep, deep down. He feels that he doesn't deserve to be abandoned, doesn't deserve to just be left behind under the guise of some greater purpose, and he'll be damned if he just lets you toss him aside like he feels others did. Even if you reject him, he won't accept it. You don't get to reject him. He won't allow that. What has he ever done to deserve everything that's happened to him? Nothing. You're the one person who has stayed with him, and you're going to continue to be with him. Forever.

That being said, he's still somewhat confident because he's got that arrogance about him. He doesn't perceive rejection, because he's always gotten a lot of attention for his looks, even if he's never actually followed through on anyone else's attention out of those same fears. He'll write off any perceived rejection as being for some other reason, something besides an actual rejection, and he'll seek to eliminate whatever he feels is keeping you from just accepting him.

Honestly, one of the most likely to have a full blown, classic-yandere-style psychotic breakdown. He can be driven to a snapping point, if there's enough stress or obstacles, and in case of that, he'll be a lot more willing to kill, and a lot more willing to hurt you, but it's a point that would still take a lot to reach.

But what's really terrifying about Kaeya is his delusions, primarily his ability to mentally justify everything he does without hesitation. Even most delusional yanderes struggle - they feel like it's wrong, they know it is deep down, and they take time to convince themselves of their delusions, tell themselves it's ok over and over, beg for reassurance, and get defensive when called out because they know they're in the wrong. The same isn't true for Kaeya. He automatically justifies his actions by default, and has absolutely zero doubt or hesitation to do so. He doesn't even need a complex reason for justification - it's a simple one. He deserves what he wants. Anything necessary to achieve that is fair.

How likely are they to kidnap their darling? How quickly will they do so?

Highly likely and very quickly, right up there with Diluc and Razor. And he's absolutely remorseless about it. It ties back into his delusional state and ability to justify anything he does - this is what's best for you. If you don't get that, that's your problem, not his.

He's another one to not want to pull some barbaric move like knocking you out, rather, he'd rather just trick you into walking right into your new home. He gets that you'll be upset about it, but to him, that's just part of the process. Not that he'll tolerate it for too long. 12, maybe 24 hours is enough time for you to reasonably be upset, but if you're still trying to fight him on this after that, he's going to get snappy about it, thinking you should already be over that by now.

How difficult is it to escape from them? How do they keep you restrained? How do they deal with attempted escape? 

You're not leaving.

It's not worth trying, really. How he manages to do it is a mystery to you, but he'll manage to keep you locked in right there at the headquarters with him. How Jean and Lisa haven't found out about you being there, how he convinced all of his guards to be on his side of things, you have no idea. Realistically, if you get out, he's likely to make you out to be some kind of criminal that needs to be found -- just not to hurt you in any way, so goes the order, and the knights know better than to question why.

He has eyes and ears everywhere, it won't take them anytime at all to find you. He's so confident in that, and combined with his pride, he doesn't feel the need to go get you himself. No, it's a lot more satisfying to sit back and watch as they drag you through the doors of the headquarters, slowly pull you to the end of the room and drop you down at his feet, where he can look down on you with that closed-eyed, artificially wide smile that tells you that you have seriously fucked up.

Escape attempts aren't going to be met with a single shred of mercy, really. The thing about Kaeya is he's ultimately a selfish, selfish bastard with a lot of deep-seeded, highly repressed emotional issues, and he has absolutely no problem with keeping you bound hand and foot, or maybe even make some permanent modifications to your body if that's what it takes to keep you. It's not a wise idea to even try unless you're absolutely certain to succeed, otherwise you may find yourself never getting the opportunity again. You don't really need those Achilles tendons intact, you know. And your ankle bones are just so fragile, they'll snap with just a little twist. Actually, that wouldn't be too bad, giving you more reasons to be grateful when he's doing everything for you.

He's not one to just let it go, either. No, escape attempts are the one unforgivable thing for him, the one thing that will make him totally and completely snap. You don't get to do that. You're the one thing that doesn't get to just disappear out of his life in a flash. Half the reason he sends the knights to get you rather than going himself is to give him some time to let the rage settle down, otherwise he knows he might not be able to control himself and might end up hurting you even worse than he intends to. He's not going to buy any excuses and won't go any lighter on you if you beg and grovel or anything. But you will apologize -- you get to choose how hard it is. You can apologize the easy way, or, if you don't want to, there are many ways to force it out. But by the end, he'll get an apology, and a promise to never try again, out of you, no matter what that takes. It's by far the worst state you'll ever see him in, and really, once is enough to dissuade you from trying again.

How easy are they to trick, deceive, or manipulate?

You'd have to try pretty hard. He doesn't have the sheer amount of years of life experience like Venti or Zhongli, but he's not the captain for no reason - he's perceptive, and highly intelligent.

Rather than simply mastering reading human voice and facial expressions for telltale signs of deceit, he's good at learning individuals in particular - memorizing the patterns of thought and action of a particular individual, and predicting how they will act. He can do it with everyone else with ease, how much more, then, with the object of an obsession? If you're trying to formulate some plan to trick him, he'll already predict what you'll do, if you lie, he already knows. It's creepier than the others, really, because it's not just that he can tell when you're lying, but rather he already knows you're going to lie or try some scheme before you do it. It feels so tailored and personalized to your thought patterns, it almost feels like an invasion of the privacy of your mind, which, really, is the one privacy you thought you had left.

He's great at gaslighting himself, too. He's a very good liar, and can make you believe anything he wants. He'll target your fears and paranoias, make you believe you're going crazy, and he'll do it all so perfectly you'll never suspect a thing. You'll end up coming to him for protection and guidance, exactly as planned.

How lenient are they? What privileges can you have, and what will you be denied?

Pretty strict. He doesn't let you have any outside contact, and you're limited on what you can do when he's gone. He'll bring you some books, maybe something to draw on -- no sharp writing utensils, though. In his mind, that should be enough to occupy you.

You won't get outside walks or visits. It's just too risky for him, and he really doesn't like seeing other people look at you. If you really, really beg, and you've been on amazing behavior, and you're well into your relationship, maybe a few months or so, there's a chance he'll take you out at nighttime, or sunrise, but at the slightest sign of intentions he doesn't like, you'll be dragged back, and you won't see the sun for a long time.

You'll have a very limited wardrobe, he doesn't see why you even need to wear anything, but if you're going to be stubborn, he can get you something simple, like an old shirt and some underwear, but that's about all you can have. Any requests for actual clothing are going to be denied. It's ridiculous for him to spend money on something you don't need, and besides, he prefers it this way, y'know?

What kind of rules do they have? What kind of punishment would they use?

Generally, it's a simple one: obey. You do what he tells you to do, and you don't do something if he tells you not to. This stems to similar rules that develop: be submissive, don't be argumentative, don't be defiant. Follow those, and you can both be happy, and that's what you want, isn't it? It had better be - he's not very lenient, and will harshly punish even small offenses. As for that punishment... most of it isn't going to be sfw. That's just how he is.

What he will do is emotionally manipulate you, and he's rather good at it. You wanted to escape? Ok. He'll let you have your way, let you be alone. All alone. All by yourself, in a little room, with no one at all, which is exactly how you would have left him, had you succeeded. He knows very well how that kind of loneliness bites. He's not totally cruel, though, and he won't withhold affection from you by the time he returns -- he doesn't need to, you'll already be crying and apologizing, which is exactly what he hoped for. Not that he won't briefly mock you for it.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're crying like that because you actually missed me. Oh, you did? Being all alone isn't particularly fun, now is it? I'm sure you understand that now."

How do they deal with rivals, or perceived rivals? Will they get rid of them? Will they kill them themselves, or find another way?

Kaeya's an insanely jealous person. It doesn't show on his face, but it eats at him internally. It doesn't matter if it's a love interest, a platonic friend, even a family member. It's all the same -- people who want to take your attention away from him, people who you smile at that aren't him, people you love that aren't him. He's not one to delude himself into thinking everyone secretly loves you romantically, rather, it doesn't matter. Romantic interests are the worst threat, sure, but friends and family aren't much better.

He sees himself as above killing, though. He has people to do that for him, and he likes knowing that he has that much power. He's not going to dirty his hands with it, and frankly, they're not even worthy of his time and effort to kill them. Knights and other connections can take care of it just as well.

How easy is it to make them mad? What does their anger look like?

As somewhat previously discussed, the primary form of making him mad is attempting an escape. That's on a whole new level of anger because it strikes at a very deep, wounding insecurity. On a normal day, though, he's more easily exasperated than angry. He gets frustrated somewhat easily, especially if you're trying exceptionally hard to be a brat. He has very clear warning signs. His signature little smirk drops, he gets quiet, he balls his hands into fists and digs his fingernails into his palms. At that stage, he's irritable and might snap at you, but won't get too angry until you ignore those signs and push it.

If you do push him, though, he gets genuinely mad, which is a very quiet anger at first -- he doesn't talk much when he's mad. He acts. You'll know he's snapped when he puts down whatever he's doing, and just silently stomps over to you, face completely empty and flat, looking down at you with a cold expression. It's enough to put fear in you, but at that point, even if you apologize, you're not getting out of whatever he's planned.

So they see you as above them, beneath them, or equal to them?

Strongly in the "below" camp, a rather unusual stance for a yandere. Like many things with him, there's an inexplicable duality going on there.  You would think that if you loved someone so strongly you'd kidnap them, kill for them, and potentially suffer consequences just to have them, that you would really think highly of them. On the flip side, you would think that if you really saw someone as lowly, you wouldn't care for them, you'd see them as disposable.

But neither is true for Kaeya, no, he balances both obsessive love and complete narcissism regarding you. You're not disposable, no, he can't live without you, he needs you. But at the same time, you're not gonna be on any kind of pedestal. No, if anything, he sees himself on one, more like a throne, and you on the floor before him, how things should be.

He has a similar mindset to Zhongli or Albedo - you're fragile, you're dumb, you're incapable, and you need someone to care for you, protect you, guide you, someone who knows what's best for you, since you clearly don't. However, he's lacking in the attitude those other two have -- there's no seeing you as an angel here. There's no viewing himself as being absolutely honored to take care of you, or viewing protecting and caring for you as some kind of privilege that they're blessed to do, the way those two do.

No, as much as he loves those things, he'll never admit it, not even to himself really. Rather, his mentality is that you should be grateful. Here he is, a very highly respected, accomplished, capable person, and you...? You have what to offer, exactly? That's right, nothing, really, only cuteness and obedience, the latter of which you refuse to give him even though you really ought to. He's taking on the burden of making sure you don't get yourself killed, and how do you repay him? By getting mad about it, throwing a fit like some little kid? He puts up with your tantrums, which are really undeserved, by the way. He puts up with your disobedience and repeated rule violations, your sheer determination to defy him when he's going out of his way to do what's best for you.

One day, he thinks, you'll mature a little bit and understand why he does what he does, and when you do, you'll come groveling and sniffling about how sorry you are, how you'll never defy him again, how you'll be good and obedient from now on, and he'll love every second of it. He looks forward to that day quite a bit.

"Sigh... you know, you're pretty lucky I love you so much. You could stand to show me a little thanks, don't you think?"

How determined are they for you to love them? How hard will they try to make it happen? Or are they content just having you?

He's strongly determined, and yet... doesn't do much to try. It goes back to his mindset that really, you're the one who should be grateful for him, and eventually, you will love him. He's not gonna grovel to you or try different ways of making you love him, no, he's far too proud for that. But he's a smart man. He knows the effects that complete and total isolation other than one other person can have on someone. He's just going to sit back and wait for that effect to kick in, and slowly watch your fragile little mind deteriorate until you're desperate for affection. At which point, well, he can use it against you.

"You were so mean to me before, weren't you? You fought me every step of the way, and now you're just going to turn around and act like that didn't happen...? Well, if you're really sorry, I'll forgive you. But how am I supposed to believe you really are...? Maybe you can think of a way to prove it, hm?"

Bonus: Is there anything that makes them unique, in comparison to other yanderes?

Probably the severity of his degradation. As aforementioned, most yanderes, even the more confident or cocky individuals, either worship the ground their beloved walks on and sees themselves as beneath them, OR sees their darling as some sort of fragile, angelic being, and they are simply a protector or caretaker to that being.

It's a bit different with him, ever the narcissist. It's a strange duality born out of a rare mix of neediness, obsession, and pride. You're more like a toy, or a pet - an invaluable pet that he could never part with, but a pet nonetheless. He certainly looks down on you more than the average yandere - he mentally associates you as naive, fragile, even dumb like a lot of the aforementioned protector/caretaker types, but without the reverence to make up for it.

It's a bizarre duality that not even he fully understands - don't think for a moment that that means he'll ever tire of you, or view you as disposable. No, he's actually one of the most obsessive ones, yet very demanding of attention and praise, rather than giving it.

He frequently tests you - things like leaving the door unlocked, waiting outside just to see if you'll try it. Seeing you open that door, watching your face go from ecstatic excitement and drop to wide-eyed terror, it's priceless.

"My, my, you didn't waste any time at all, did you? Why do you look so surprised...? You should know I wouldn't slip up that badly."

Pet names, but in the most infuriatingly condescending way, and uses them more often when he's mad and trying to warn you that you're pushing his limits. Particularly fond of "sweetheart," especially with a low warning tone and clenched teeth.

General perverseness: how sexual of a person are they? What’s their drive like? How touchy do they get? Do they have any reservations about sexuality?

Horny fucker, all the way. The man has a lot of stress and frustration in his life already, that much more if you're... less than compliant with your new lifestyle. Sex, especially rough and hard, is a fantastic stress reliever.

Very little reservation. He's not crude about it, but he tends to make subtle innuendos very frequently, and laughs at your embarrassed reactions. Definitely the type to pull the whole shtick in which he says something with a blatant sexual undertone, then elaborates in a way to make it sound like having meant something else, follows with that smirk and says, "Why? What did you think I meant?" It's something he really enjoys doing, and loves to get embarrassed reactions out of people, particularly yourself.

"Touchy" doesn't begin to describe it. Pretty much from the moment you meet him, he's got his hands somewhere on your person. He grabs your shoulders when he stands behind you, he wraps an arm around you from the side when he walks up to you, he's always pressing his hands on your back and sides whenever you're navigating the streets, walking through doorways, wraps an arm around your waist when sitting next to you. It's highly uncomfortable, but really, he's just got something very subtly, but very strongly intimidating about him. You almost don't want to confront him on it. If you do, he'll laugh it off, and stop -- for maybe 48 hours or so, and then he'll be right back at it.

To the surprise of, well, everyone who's ever met him, he doesn't actually live up to the rumors of having been around the block, so to speak. His experience is actually little to none - that kinda happens when you push everyone around you away. Not that he'd ever let you know that, of course, and will probably lie if asked, but you can gleam a little bit of truth from slightly awkward movements and a bit of noticeable shakiness.

How forceful are they? Do they care about your willingness?

Kind of like Razor, the issue is that he loves you, and what better way is there of expressing love? He's not much for gift-giving or words of affirmation - no, he's a lot better with words of degradation, it comes more naturally to him. And he's certainly not one to enjoy acts of service -- well, not doing them, he'll gladly take them as a sign of your love, though. No, he expresses love through touch. It's like how, when you hug someone you really love, someone you missed, you squeeze them extra tight - the love manifests as a physical urge for some strong expression. Humans are physical about their emotions -- we punch walls when we're mad, we jump up and down when we're happy, and when you love someone, sometimes you just really, really want to pound them into a mattress as hard as physically possible. That's normal. That, and really, he's got his vices. He's actually fairly weak when it comes to resisting temptations, and prone to give in to urges for physical sensations like drunkenness and sex.

Is another one to be convinced that, with time, you'll come around. And is absolutely the top candidate to be one for using your own body against you - if you get wet, if you whimper, if you cum, that's just proof that you really do want this, that you're just being difficult because you enjoy being a brat, and he'll be sure to tell you that.

What sort of kinks or fetishes do they have, or would they fill?

This is nearly indistinguishable from punishment, sadistic bastard

D/S dynamics

Arrogant fucker wants to be served and worshipped, you could see it coming from a mile away. Anything that puts you beneath him is going to make him happy - anything where you're where you're supposed to be. There's a lot of options, but it doesn't really matter, as long as he feels like he's in control and ownership of you in some way, and as long as you act accordingly.

He wants it to be something that’s not just for sex, but rather, he’ll end up carrying it over into normal life, whether you like it or not. If you just went along with it in hopes of getting it over with once he cums, you’re going to be in for a treat when it starts to carry over. He gets a little too used to being worshipped, and decides he likes that submissive attitude on you enough to want to see it all the time.

Petplay/Collaring

It really helps that he sees you as something of a pet already, but really, the collar is the selling point. Even if you never go outside, there's something unbearably hot about the possessiveness of it all - really, it's there to remind you of your status as property. He wants to own you, and for you to be forced to acknowledge that he owns you, and there's really no better way to do that than something with his name on it. It's even better with a leash, one he can pull on when he's fucking you to pull you back onto him over, and over, and over, hearing it choke you the more he shortens it.

But really, having you crawl towards him on all fours and obey little commands so simple they're humiliating is pretty nice, too.

Impact pain/painplay

There's really nothing quite so powerful feeling as watching you cry and squirm from it, y'know? He's another one that just likes the marks his hands, belts, or anything else can leave all over the skin of your ass and the back of your legs. The thing with him, though, is it's not even always a punishment, he just does it for fun, and that makes it unpredictable. Will definitely make you count, it's a sadistic torture for your mind and body.

Throatfucking

May be used as a punishment measure, may just be because he's craving it, either way, even if you have a gag reflex, you won't for very long. He'll train it out of you gradually, grabbing the back of your head and just slamming all the way down into your throat, holding you there, making you choke - it's a beautiful sound, really, listening to you gag, all while your throat spasms around him, it's the best feeling, really, and will definitely be used as a threat if you need incentives to behave.

Choking

Ties into the dynamics, but really, there’s not much to say on this one. He likes the power trip from having his hands wrapped around your throat, seeing you struggle, watching your face go red, hearing those little choking noises. It puts power over you into his hands, and if you get pleasure from it against your own will, that’s even better.

How do they feel about pregnancy or babies? Do they want them?

Absolutely one of the ones to use it as a tool. If you have a baby, you'll be so much more bound to him. You'll need him more, you'll want him around more, you'll be much less likely to leave, and in a way it feels a little bit like a sign of ownership over you.

That being said, he's also acutely aware of his jealous tendencies, and realizes he would also be very likely to become jealous if he felt like you loved a baby more than him, or gave it more attention and affection than you do him. He doesn't like the thought.

So ultimately, the latter side prevents him from willingly trying, but if you really, really have defiance issues even after he's tried everything he can to break you help you adjust, he might consider it.

What kind of (nsfw) punishments would they use?

If it's mild enough, he can just take the route of extremely rough fucking - it gets rid of the frustration, he likes hearing you whimper and squeal, and he can leave lots of little bruises as reminders of what not to do in the future.

But, again, he already gets off to putting you in pain - it'll be that much worse when you've done something to deserve it. Harder hits, no mercy whatsoever, and he just loves all your little cries, wiping away your tears and smiling at you, right before bringing down whatever instrument of pain he's chosen again. If you really, really make him mad, and he really wants to make you cry, he's not above fucking your ass, either, watching you cry and beg, but you'll learn with time that begging doesn't ever get you out of anything.

What body parts of their darling do they like the most?

Definitely an ass man. Likes fucking you in doggy, seeing the ripple every time you bounce back off of him, pulling your hair or arms to add some force. He likes seeing all the little red marks that his hands and belts and anything else will leave on the skin, views it like marks of possession. Grabbing, beating, fucking, it's all good.

[bisexualmaedhros]

ok writing this under a readmore in case tumblr puts it into any main tags. i won't be adding any of them to this, but i know these days tumblr sometimes takes words from the post itself and i don't want to write every prominent name with a bunch of substituted letters or slashes or anything. so.

negative thoughts re: beleg/túrin (romantic) and russingon (romantic) under the cut

obligatory disclaimer that i can't tell you what to ship and i'm not trying to, i'm just putting my own opinions on my own blog, in case there happen to be anyone else who feels the same way. as the old adage goes: don't like, don't read.

i'm not going to say that these ships are completely unfounded, nor am i the type of person to insist that a ship have canon "evidence" to back it. i can see where people are coming from and why they like the ships.

i, personally, do not at all and they make me quite uncomfortable.

they do seem to be some of the biggest ships in the silm fandom though (especially russingon), so they can be pretty hard to avoid sometimes even with tags blocked. usually i would just avoid creators who make content for these types of ships altogether, but it feels like everyone who makes art for the silmarillion consistently ships at least one.

in other media, i'd be a lot harder on ships like these (incest with russingon and uncomfortable age gap with túrin/beleg, but i'll get to that second one later). but at least with the silmarillion they feel... less out of line than in other stories, if that makes sense? silm feels more like reading a mythology collection rather than a novel, and often in mythology there are relationships that are... not great. and i could probably write a whole separate thing about that, but that's for another time if i ever do it at all.

túrin/beleg & russingon still make me greatly uncomfortable, but they at least feel a little more tonally in line with their original work than other instances i've seen of popular incest or age gap ships in other fandoms. whatever. it's just frustrating sometimes, with maedhros being my favorite silm character, that he's 1/2 of an incredibly popular incest ship. it's already bad enough when you like a character that's part of a main ship because then it's a lot harder to find fan content for them that's not purely ship-related, but the incest thing definitely makes it a lot worse.

ok, i'll talk about the túrin/beleg thing now. usually i'm kind of a sucker for the doomed immortal/mortal stories (i love beren and lúthien!). i think the lifespan/aging thing between humans and elves can pose some complications, sure, but generally i'm okay with it as long as they meet when they're both adults. i mean, the same with humans in general— a seven year age gap between a 19 year old and a 26 year old is a bigger difference developmentally than one between a 49 year old and a 56 year old.

but the thing that makes me uncomfortable is that beleg knew túrin since the latter was a child. if i'm understanding everything, he was sort of a mentor figure for túrin? right? so i really don't like the implications of them later having a romantic relationship (or, god, i hope that at least if they do, it is actually later).

i'm not saying you should never write about fucked up situations or relationships. i'm a fan of the silmarillion, for god's sake. i'm just talking about stuff that makes me personally uncomfortable. AND. i've been thinking about it.

i may be totally off the mark here, but it does sometimes feel like these ships are kind of born out of a lot of fandom's impulse to ship whatever handsome (usually white) guys they can, rather than looking at alternatives or appreciating non-romantic bonds.

don't take this as a "men aren't allowed to be just friends anymore!" thing. what i'm saying is:

why do these relationships have to be viewed through a romantic lens in order for their intensity to be seen as justified or worthy of portraying in art?

is it not enough that maedhros and fingon be cousins and best friends, supporting each other through The Horrors despite everything? why does it have to be romantic for people to appreciate its weight?

is it not enough for beleg to be a dear mentor to túrin, one who didn't give up on him once? a friend? a companion?

the prevalence of these ships in specifically romantic contexts just feels to me like another example of how many people view non-romantic love as secondary or not as interesting. and it kind of feels like it can sometimes keep us from appreciating and building on the dynamics given to us in canon already.

[toflyandfall]

I just saw a photo of "What persona. Dick Grayson isn't a mask. Not like Bruce Wayne is" from Detective Comics #725 and I find it interesting that Dick and the rest of the bats, with the exception of Bruce, don't wear "masks" per se. They are who they are with or without the domino mask/helmet. The only time I can really think of Dick faking things is when he pretended to be an incompetent BPD cop. How was he able to avoid creating and living, half the time, through a "persona" like "Brucie"?

Oooh, this is a lovely, meaty question.  There’s a lot more analysis of Bruce than I planned because let’s be real, it’s kinda weirder for a guy to run around with half a dozen personas than for someone else to run around as himself.  I hope you still find it interesting, but if you want to skip straight to the more Dick-centric stuff, head under the readmore.

A simple but significant factor is that Dick thrives on the company of people in a way that Bruce does not.  I suspect if you talk honestly to many introverts, you will find they too have an extroverted ‘mask’ they put on to the larger world, though probably not quite so extreme.

Another factor is that the civilian social circles Dick and Bruce travel in are vastly different.  Though they each have a reason for being in those circles, that difference itself enables Dick to escape much of the scrutiny that Bruce’s public identity undergoes, because he doesn’t frequently associate with the much more media-hounded elite.

An interesting thing here is that the large difference in social circles between their civilian lives is actually caused by their own personal similarities: they are 100% committed work-a-holics.  It’s just that they have differing civilian approaches to their goals.

I want to start with Bruce because as you point out, his use of persona is distinct among the bats and his reasons for using them in part explain why Dick and the other bats do not.

Bruce is a child of privilege, he has always lived a lifestyle of privilege, regardless of the tragedies that have occurred during it, and his default view of the world, through no fault of his own, is natively that of the extreme upper class.  This drastically influences his perspective and approach to change, and changing the world is his perpetual goal, the reason he put on the suit in the first place.

Bruce works a top-down society approach toward systemic change, and he works it all the time.  This is actually my favorite but woefully under-emphasized part of him: he is not just someone who punches people on the street ‘for justice’, he uses his company, his money, and his social position toward substantial systemic change. This post does a wonderful job covering the ways he does this through his corporations and personal wealth, as does this one.  I cannot recommend either enough because I constantly want to push even the most casual Batman fans to understand: Bruce Wayne is not just a violent punchy puncher man.  He is a traumatized person genuinely trying to use all his resources including himself to make the world safer.

Detective Comics #725

Bruce has many personas he maintains, and he uses all of them according to what suits his need--Batman for places the law can’t go, Bruce Wayne the CEO pushing for systemic changes, Matches Malone for street information, and Brucie the society high roller for society information and social influencing.  He is rarely ever not in a persona and simply ‘Bruce’.

His top-down perspective of enacting change are what dictated the usage and necessity of these personas. He has the means and capacity to basically disappear from society if he so chose--he in fact does so to train during his younger years so successfully they don’t even know how long he was actually gone. 

The Batman Files

So he doesn’t need the personas.  Not Bruce Wayne, CEO, or Brucie, or any of them really, to protect his identity.  That tells us that Brucie is a deliberate choice he made at some point.  He could have been a recluse billionaire Batman indefinitely.  Even though he fully has the status and means to not maintain a job or a persona or, let’s be frank, a life outside the mask at all, it’s his own work-a-holicness that led to the creation of his public personas.  He’s an obsessive strategist, so if Brucie is a choice, that leads us to why?

Bruce does many philanthropic things with his money, but he isn’t the only rich person around, especially not in a city as old and corrupt as Gotham.   But he’s one of the very few ones doing good with it.

The comic you mentioned has a very beautiful moment where Bruce touches on that, and in full context you can feel how consumed he is by this goal of creating the Gotham his parents would have wanted.  Batman mentions he never sees himself in that place, and the morbid interpretation is that the city kills him before he reaches it, but the hopeful interpretation is that in that shining city, Bruce Wayne and Batman and Brucie and all his masks will no longer be needed.

Detective Comics #725

Back in the old days they’d call it noblesse oblige: the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged. Thomas and Martha Wayne ingrained this feeling of responsibility into Bruce by example, and as all things related to them, he obsesses over it.  It urges him to fulfill expectations within segments of society he finds onorous for the betterment of society as a whole in order to carry out their unfinished works.

Enter Brucie.

Brucie serves a two-fold purpose.  Since Bruce has chosen to maintain personas among society, it becomes a false face to justify any oddities Batman might bring into the life of Bruce Wayne by setting himself up as a eccentric, popular social scion.  But that persona itself also allows him to manipulate the upper crust of society.

I have some insider perspective on the kind of society events Brucie attends.  They’re all about the who’s who of making connections, name-dropping and networking, and unspoken class-based elitism.  Charity events among the upper class have these things at the forefront and the cause is the background.  You don’t get your hands dirty, you don’t go out and make change yourself, you pay money to be socially seen and sometimes it happens to go towards a philanthropic cause.  If you want to raise money from the rich and keep people with deep pockets coming in the door, you have to have social currency yourself. This is where, and why, Brucie comes in.  I believe Brucie ws crafted to maintain Batman’s cover but still attempt to carry on his parents’ legacy to grease the wheels of the rich in the directions he chooses: one of generosity towards those less privileged. 

Superman/Batman #51

The inevitable flaw of Bruce’s approach to his personas and their philanthropy is that in a city rife with corruption, money distributed from the top has many opportunities to disappear well before it reaches the bottom.  As in many of ways they are complements to each other, Dick’s approach balances that out, because his approach to helping his fellow man starts out at the street level...literally.

Nightwing #153 (Nightwing: The Great Leap)

Dick, we know, does not come from privilege.  His mother was from a middle class family before she joined the circus, and despite being world famous athletes, most circus workers are lower to middle class.  The people he grew up with, was comfortable with, were all working folk who expected everyone to pull their weight right alongside each other.  He enacts this everyone-together approach in almost all aspects and phases of his life. 

Batman #615

Even once he had settled into being Robin and adapted to living at the manor, he didn’t feel belonging to a culture of privilege, materialism, or high society. He preferred shotgun in the limo to chat with the driver to riding fancy in the back.  Once he was able to start making his own decisions about where and how he lived, despite having both Bruce’s money and then later inheriting a substantial amount of his own, he chose mostly lower-class communal places.

Batman Black and White #6

Dick also doesn’t see the value of throwing money at a problem when there is an option to fix it with his own hands.  We see this frequently, from building his own car instead of buying a finished one or outsourcing the work, to deciding the best way to clean out the BPD was to start at the bottom and work his way up (literally), to quitting college because his classes never got prioritized over crimesolving.  Most of his day jobs ended for similar reasons. 

Nightwing #153 (Nightwing: The Great Leap)

Despite the showmanship training, he gravitates away from spotlight on the rich and wealthy, who are notoriously the kind of people who do not get their hands dirty or go out and take care of things themselves, and prefers to find or build communities around the kind of people who do.

Finally, Dick is an extrovert.  He doesn’t need to act extroverted as Brucie does because he is extroverted.  He likes people and likes being around people.  Whether by conscious choice or not, he tends to put himself in situations where he is surrounded by people in nearly all aspects of his life.  He chooses apartment buildings whose occupants frequently pass each other on the stairs; jobs that involve interacting with many co-workers, patrons, or students; and collects superhero teammates like Boy Scout badges.  And all of these behaviors come very naturally to him.  

He doesn’t need a mask or a role or a persona for those kind of interactions; his mask is pre-supplied as “neighbor” or “co-worker” or “teacher” by the situations he puts himself in.  It helps make him an exemplary leader, because just by acting authentically to himself, he automatically builds up little communities around him any time he arrives somewhere.

Bruce, on the other hand, is an introvert.  For him, interacting with people isn’t easy, automatic, or comfortable unless it has a purpose, but as a strategist, he knows the necessity of human interaction as a catalyst to achieving dynamic change. So he adapts personas to suit people’s expectations.  Extroverts have more social currency; the life of the party can generate more resources than a brooding wallflower.  

So, it boils down to just a few elements: Dick believes in living and interacting at the street level to accomplish the things that he wants to, and he is extroverted enough that the level of social interaction that entails is not a burden to him.  He surrounds himself with the types of people he is more familiar or perhaps more comfortable with, which happens to keep him further out from the media’s eye than associating with the upper crust does. The lower profile is more incidental than intentional, but it lessens his need to have a cover story for every single bruise and lets him get away with even less of a ‘persona’.

Bruce, on the other hand, is introverted and follows a more classist view that systemic change needs to be effected from the top down.   His personas are more of a self-assumed duty than a necessity, as a way of trying to carry out his parents’ legacy.  Any of his children could have chosen to follow his path in business or the high society limelight, but the sense of obligation toward it is something personal to him that most of them don’t share.

[airlock]

it's inadvisably early in the morning and I just finished watching a video talking about the public perception of Twilight over the years, and it got me thinking about some things that I figured I might as well inelegantly ramble about in my limited platform that one or two people like to read my text posts on

but before I take this to the inside of the readmore, I have a small confession to make. you see, when I was a teenager...

... I fucking hated Twilight actually. that's barely a confession, but hey, I told you it was going to be small

anyways, onto the disorganized reflections about the deceptively simple matter of disliking things in media and fandom, typed from my phone and likely riddled with tpyos

in this day and age, I think it's very unlikely you'll uncover a person, especially a mature one, who likes Twilight without at least harboring reservations over its more tres problematique aspects or the simple fact that they're not really the most fascinating thing that a monkey has ever committed to a typewriter. at the same time, though, the phenomenon of vociferously disliking twilight is long gone; for the most part, Twilight either your guilty pleasure, or something you don't think about very much at all anymore.

this has made it rather easy to construct the retrospective narrative that, even if being a twilight fan back in the day might have been a little bit cringey and embarassing, everyone who vocally disliked the books back then was someone pathetically hanging their entire identity onto bashing a thing just because teenage girls liked it.

now, I'm not here to stand in defense of the whole of the phenomenon that was Hating Twilight, because hoo boy, not all was right in that kingdom. it led to an immensurable quota of bullying and harassment, and much of it was rooted in sexism, queerphobia, machismo, the works. still, some part of me doesn't see how exactly it's fair to forgive Twilight for being imperfect while also casting that other coin of olden times only ever in the worst possible light. it's not an exact equivalence by any means, but I think it's something comparable.

it's also just kind of like... when I think about to what exactly I disliked so much about Twilight, when I try to get to the core of it in the most honest way I can... it comes down to the sparkly vampires. yeah. it's not that I hated it because it was effette (although I wholly admit that I was there on board with people taking the mockery in that direction), so much as that it seemed like this story was written about vampires that weren't vampires in any interesting way. not nocturnal bloodthirsty undead monsters, just attractive guys with a couple of superpowers. might as well have set it in smallville.

you might be thinking, that's such an unimportant thing. and it absolutely was! but nobody is any longer pretending like they had a deep and interesting reason for liking Twilight; why should it only be Valid (TM) to have disliked it all along if you were one of the people who actually had a good reason to feel that way?

there are certainly some things that the sentiment doesn't justify -- doesn't make it right to give the people who did like the books a hard time, and doesn't make it right to talk about these dislikes as if they are objective assessments of quality, to name a few things. again, it's not an exact equivalence. but I think this unwillingness to just let people have their petty, personal dislikes is one manifestation of a deeper and more insidious phenomenon in modern fandom culture.

one thing I also remember from those yonder days is that, from time to time, people would take me to task on why disliking Twilight seemed to matter so much to me. whether it be because of times when I was genuinely being uppity about it, or because of times when people simply projected this sense of caring very much at simple expressions of dislike and/or some rounds of having fun lambasting the disliked thing. at those times, I'd do the thing that many people did and fall back on concern trolling over the book's ostensible romanticization of abusive behavior. (which, to be clear, is not something I am now categorically saying Twilight doesn't do, I'm just now past the point of pretending like I know enough about the series to make such a serious accusation affirmatively. maybe I should have just stuck with calling out the part where a dude falls in love with a newborn. I know that that's a thing that happens, unfortunately)

thing is, that particular strain of behavior -- deflecting with social commentary as a response to being taken to task on your petty dislikes -- reminds me quite a bit of something else. like, say, the fact that most people in fandom these days are absolutely unwilling to ever admit they dislike something just because they do and instead always have to make it out to be a cause of social justice instead.

one of the bigger reasons why this happens is purity culture and the desirability of signaling wokeness to others even in situations where it does not fucken matter, but I think another of the biggest reasons is that, if someone simply does come out and say "yeah, I dislike the thing for reasons that aren't very deep", they tend to get responded to like they grew five heads. best case scenario, they get labeled a killjoy. worst case scenario, they get the woke-fu turned on them, because hmmmm, how suspicious that you dislike this character who is a minority of some sort. (if the character is not a minority of any sort, then naturally, people have written slash fic about him, therefore you are homophobic for disliking him. it always works!)

now, there is a certain amount of etiquette that is fundamental to not being a dick about disliking things -- the golden rule being that you don't ruin the fun for people who do like the thing -- but I think it's high time we recognized more broadly that pettiness creates as much community and life as love does. somewhere beneath all the chest-thumping and celebrity harassment, there were once people genuinely finding community in their shared distate for this tedious little book that it seemed like the world couldn't get over. I think that, whenever you give people that opportunity to bond over a shared dislike, they'll bite; it's better we just figure out how to wield this, with etiquette and honesty, and accept it. it's leaps and bounds better than making people feel like they have to destroy something before they're allowed not to like it.

hell, I'd say that the best thing out there is when fans and haters of a certain thing can still find common ground. can you imagine how thrilled I was when I heard about how the Twilight series apparently has a whole lot of more interesting-sounding side characters who were just unfortunately shunted to the background of The Love Triangle Of Mr. Obssessive, Ms. Everygirl, And Mr. Secretly Actually In Love With An Ovum?

[solacefruit]

Not an ask from the ask game - but do you mind explaining how you came up with some of your worldbuilding for MAMS?

- The Elders arranging pairings for genetic fitness

- the winds

- Housekeeper names

And which piece of worldbuilding has you feeling the most of that 'smug these things fit together in a logical and intriguing way I haven't seen much of elsewhere' feeling?

Hello there! I don’t mind explaining the thought process behind these, so sure, I’m happy to chat a bit about these world-building features. This will all go under a readmore as usual, so answers below!

The elders’ role.

It’s my opinion that elders would be highly valued in every clan, although their specific duties and cultural role might vary. Even before I started writing fanfiction for Warriors I always intended to give elders significant political and cultural weight, and I had a collection of little thoughts about how that might look like. For many years, one of the things I knew Windclan elders did was essentially host a micro-democratic system--i.e., they would vote on issues after a long debate, so as to give each cat an equal voice in the final decision. 

Some elements of Windclan life are decided exclusively by the elders in this way, and the arrangements are one of those elements. The arrangements came out of two thoughts for me: the first being that Wind (the founder) is a mother and a leader simultaneously, which I felt set a precedent for Windclan to allow mollies to have litters and hold power; and the second being the canon visitors to Windclan, whose purpose there was very unclear and honestly not really plasuible to me. In canon, they just come chill for a while and there’s not really any benefit to Windclan allowing them to do so. 

So from those two thoughts, I went: okay, what do the visitors offer the clan that would incentivise Windclan to invite them back every single year? And the answer is fresh bloodlines, particularly as the cats of the visiting group change so frequently as they are joined by newcomers. Likewise, I considered what impact it would have for Windclan to have a leader who also had experience raising kittens, and the answer was that she had the insight to know an insular, unmoving clan would not last. Hence why she also came to an accord with the barn cats of the nearby farmlands.

The combination to those two factors made it clear to me that Windclan’s tolerance--and even enthusiasm--for the visitors came from early in their history as a failsafe against inbreeding, and it seemed right to me that the elders--who long ago would probably have been Wind’s closest friends, the cats who helped take on some responsibility while she raised her litter--are the ideal thinktank for tracking bloodlines and deliberating on appropriate matches for warriors. It seemed like a neat and realistic solution for several problems. 

The nine winds. 

I knew I wanted to include a significant and unique element of Windclan culture in m.a.m.s. because it’s the ideal environment to do so, being a bigger story than my previous ones. The nine winds developed out of both Doylist and Watsonian interests for me. 

The Doylist (in-universe) reason is that canon suggests Windclan views themselves as intensely spiritual because of their position as closest to the stars and/or Moonstone (?)--but that didn’t really click with me, because all the clans feel they have a deeply personal, powerful relationship with Starclan. I felt there had to be more to their everyday relationship and “we sleep under the stars” doesn’t actually cut it for me as a notable cultural practice that justifies that feeling of connection. I wanted to be true to Windclan’s sense of being in conversation with Starclan, in a way that most suited their lifestyle and territory. Hence, the wind as divine messenger. 

The Watsonian (out-of-universe) reason is that I considered Windclan’s supposed connection to Starclan and stars, and then I thought of astrology, and then I thought of “what if astrology but actually interesting and potentially valuable?”, and then I devised the nine winds. Sorry to anyone who finds astrology fun or valuable, but for me, I don’t really find it compelling conceptually because (and obviously this is a super basic, watered down definition, forgive me) it is predominantly about explaining who you are based on when + where you were born and accounting for why you act or feel the way you do.  

That feels stagnant to me, so I wanted to take the concept of astrology and go, “what if it tells you who you can/should become?” and that felt very right and much more in line with stories I like to tell. I loved the idea of life as a work-in-progress, nebulously guided by ancestors, and I enjoy the difficulty in disproving the nine winds: either the wind is right because you could stand to be more x, or the wind is right because you became very x (as you should have). An emphasis on interpretation was important too, so that each cat has a personal relationship with 1. their own harbinger and 2. the day-to-day movements of the wind generally. 

As a side-note, I was also aware that systems of categorisation--Hogwarts houses or whatever else--are very appealing to readers, and I had a feeling people would go a little wild for the nine winds as a concept. I’ve so far been pretty good at predicting what it is that people really like in my work, especially as far as world-building goes, and it always makes me excited when I know I’ve about to share something new that I think everyone will go a bit mad for. 

Housekeeper names.

I wanted to achieve a few things with Cypress in m.a.m.s., and one of them was that I really wanted his relationship with Talltail to develop out of a cultural miscommunication that only becomes visible to both parties in hindsight. In the end, of course the relationship is very real, but from Cypress’ perspective, I needed something to push him to take the leap into the unknown, because I felt just curiosity and a desire for adventure weren’t quite enough to make him leave the comfort and safety of his home. But a noble, handsome traveller who turns up on his doorstep with interesting stories and a quest, who almost at once offers his name to Cypress in gratitude for his hospitality? The boy thought he’d fallen directly into a cat romance novel. 

I also felt that the sacred secret of one’s name is a super interesting cultural counterpoint to the clans, whose names and naming system exist to be known and as a way to identify each other. I got the idea initially from Old Possum’s Book of Cats, actually, a long long time ago, and have always found the thought of every cat (and particularly pet cats) having a private name pretty delightful--especially as kind of this last fierce independence, the one thing that is theirs and theirs alone. 

Personally, I also just love any kind of ritualised social conduct--another reason I love court intrigue. The sharing--or not sharing--of names has so many subtle little ramifications, and while I didn’t explore those in m.a.m.s. I love to think about it. 

And which piece of worldbuilding has you feeling the most of that 'smug these things fit together in a logical and intriguing way I haven't seen much of elsewhere' feeling?

I think they all go together really well and a lot of what makes this story feel unique is the combination of all these little things happening concurrently--or at least that’s my theory! I think of all the things I’ve written in m.a.m.s. the nine winds are probably the most intriguing, though, by virtue of implying much but sharing only a fragment of the whole? But that’s just a guess. 

I think the nine winds as a concept is the thing that is most specifically a me creation and probably the most unlikely to have been developed independently by someone else, so I’ll go with that! Admittedly I very rarely read Warriors fanfiction, so I can’t be sure, but I don’t think there’s anything quite like what I’m doing out there at the moment. 

Frankly if there was, I like to think I’d already know about it, because I’d be their biggest fan. Thank you for asking, and I hope these answers are interesting!

[mojaves]

I didnt shut up here im sorry

also idk how to put a readmore on mobile SORRY

with cullen ik he went through all that at the circle in ferelden. and then in kirkwall meredith was coddling him quite a Lot but. despite seeing first hand all the mages in kirkwall were put through in and out of the circle. and then seeing meredith be like yeah they all need to be killed actually because Maybe one of them Is a blood mage oh also this is entirely justified btw (: and. not a single templar, cullen or otherwise, is like. you know what maybe this is a little extreme and we should take a step back.

not saying literally only cullen is at fault there but they had years. so many moments to realise that the treatment of mages here is Entirely unjustified. and then they just. didnt. then they saw what happened at kirkwall and were still like. yeah we're right (: and lord it makes me Insane

tbh the entire chantry and the seekers and the templars are just one Huge Echo Chamber of Nonsense where no one's mind seems to change no matter what happens. somehow?????? god i am going to start biting things. idk what point im even trying to make here

like at what point in inquisition does cullen redeem himself. idk maybe he does but isn't that only. sort of. with his own romance route?? idk!! i don't wanna put myself through that dhdhdjfhff anyway. not to say he's an objectively bad character or even that youre Not Allowed to like him. he is just. a little dense 💕 and also if anything should Not be a romance option for a mage unless he like at Some point within the game actively changes his templar ideology for the better. but even then. idk. doesn't feel good scoob

cassandra is definitely at fault too thats a whole thing i could go into but i dont want to make this post 5000 miles long. also truly dont know Enough about cassandra or the seekers as a whole to be able to make a Post and i dont wanna spew out nonsense

[berri-hopefulspouse]

for whatever you want! 📌 💕 💔 🏳‍🌈 🍀 (I tried very hard to limit myself...)

Genshin Impact time it is then 👀👀 Under readmore tho cuz this is LONG ndfjsjdjsjdd

📌 how did you find your hyperfixation?

I heard of it initially around the launch date of the game, however I remember that I wasn't very interested at first due to the gacha aspect of Genshin. Mostly just because, usually, gacha games don't appeal to me too much. However, when you and a few streamers I watched started getting into it, I started to get a bit curious. Then, one night while bored, I watched one of them stream the game. And I saw just how beautiful the art style and graphics were...and I knew I had to at least give it a try.

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

Why must you make me pick one- /j

I feel like I've rambled about Aether & Venti enough to you about why they're my favorites, so let's do Albedo!

Albedo is just??? Literally such a sweet bean. He struggles with loneliness, and isolation, likely due to both his dedication to his studies and his general "colder" scientific disposition. He struggles with the inner apathy in him, that wants to destroy everything in the name of alchemy, and yet he wants so badly to be good. He wants so badly for someone to just save him. And I want to save him from that, even if it means just spending a little time each day making sure he feels seen and loved like he deserves. Not seen just as a great alchemist, or a teacher, or even an artist- but seen as a person. A person with their own struggles, issues, and feelings.

Story quirks and personality aside, he's also just??? So fucking pretty???? Im not even usually into blondes but this game really do be hitting different for me. I just wanna tousle his hair and braid it and see what it would look like if he had his hair down. Plus!!! His eyes!!! Are so soft!!! So focused!!! On everything he does!!! He just seems like someone who could be so graceful and delicate with everything he does, but due to his occupation, he's simply calculated and careful.

Not to mention Klee???? Klee!!!! Big brother Albedo taking care of his baby sister!!!! I just sjcndhxjsjchd aAAAA why am I such a softie for people who are just So Good with kids.

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

Okay, I won't lie, the characters I actively dislike are few and far between- but I do have a couple. Most for petty reasons, so I'll talk about someone with an actual justified reason.

ALBERT. MY GUY. YOU FUCKING BASTARD. LEAVE BARBRA ALONE!!! Stop trying to be the r/niceguy for the love of god the secondhand embarrassment ALONE is enough to make me hate you, let alone the fact that because of the recent event you made her CRY?! AND THINK THE WORST??? LIKE! I will LITERALLY send you into Cider lake, do not FUCKING TEST ME! I hope karma brings you fucking justice soon. Like! I know obsessive. But I at least don't fucking stalk people and basically threaten that "the most precious thing to you" is stolen! MDXJSJDAAAAUGH!

This mans frustrates me so INEXPLICABLY MUCH. I will YEET HIM.

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?

I always have some headcanons,,,

Aether goes by he/they pronouns, but doesn't exactly put a label on it.

Albedo is ND as fuck. Whether it be ADD or somewhere on the autism spectrum I don't know quite yet, but he's on there somewhere.

Venti has little nose freckles... and a few on his knees from the sun.

Aether is demisexual as hell, while Albedo is just gay as fuck.

(More confirmed but still putting it here anyway) Venti being okay with any pronouns! He don't really care!!!

Barbra being the one to give Ren confidence in their gender & sexuality, just like they did for her 🥰

[Citrus TM Minors Beware]

Aether is a switch, but prefers soft dom, while Albedo is usually a dom. Whether soft or hard really do depend on the level of Brat Ren is showing that day.

Aeth probably has a hair pulling thing. And Albedo probably loves overstim.

Neither of them expect the hell-list Ren has in terms of what they're into.

🍀 do you have any kins or comfort characters from your hyperfixation?

I have some of both!

Comfort charas: Albedo, Aether, Venti, Barbra, and Ganyu

Kins: Sucrose, probably Bennett.

Bonus! Gender Envious: Xiao, Venti, Albedo, Venti, Ganyu, Venti, Diluc, V e n t i-

Thank for the ask Creame! 🥺

[imaginative-spirit]

hii! i found your twitter acc when i was searching for sefikura meta/analysis, and i found your tweet! i wanted to ask if you know some blog posts (or any posts) of their relationship analysis, as i am quite new to the whole ffvii series and i am intrigued by their relationship. i wanted to ask through cc but i noticed you dont have curiouscat so i’m asking through tumblr, sorry ;;

I didn’t mean to put all of this under a readmore but tumblr is being an ass so that’s what we’re doing now, I guess...

Hello!! Unfortunately I can’t really come up with anything on the spot, because despite seeing posts like that around before, I’m very unorganized and bad at keeping track of posts... so I decided to write you one on the spot instead, lmao!! I’ve been planning to write a more coherent, longer analysis for a while but still haven’t gotten around to it, but I’ll share some of my condensed thoughts here. The sefikura relationship is what intrigues me most about FFVII after all, and I usually yell quite a lot about them on twitter!

You say you’re new to FFVII, which means that I should definitely give a spoiler warning here. I’m going to address spoilery stuff from the OG, Remake and also some of the compilation material, because it’s hard to talk about their relationship without doing so. (I’ll also assume you’re familiar enough with the world of FFVII to know what I mean when I talk about stuff like SOLDIER, Shinra, Jenova, the Lifestream and such... this would get too long if I explained all of that here, lol)

Okay, so. Cloud and Sephiroth are narrative foils, which means their stories and arcs parallel each other in many ways. The most central themes surrounding them are their loneliness, sadness and how they cope with trauma.

Sephiroth was most likely raised by Hojo in a Shinra lab, and if you know Hojo, you know that there’s no way Sephiroth was treated as anything but an experiment. He never knew his mother, and the only person he had any respect for - Professor Gast - vanished when he was young and this seems to have given him abandonment issues. Cloud, on the other hand, had a mother but not much else. He felt alienated by the other children growing up in Nibelheim and seems to have been generally disliked by the adults as well, due to them blaming him for the time Tifa got hurt. In other words, they were both very lonely as children.

Shinra sent Sephiroth to war when he was very young (people disagree quite a lot on how old Sephiroth actually is but it’s assumed that he was around 12), and as the years went by, Sephiroth became the poster child of SOLDIER. We know that Cloud grew to idolize Sephiroth for how strong and brave the media made him out to be (A.K.A. had a celebrity crush on him), and that was what inspired Cloud to leave town and try to join SOLDIER.

As we see in the prequel game Crisis Core, Sephiroth at this point is well-respected by his peers after his efforts in conquering Wutai. His two only friends are Genesis and Angeal, who are also SOLDIER 1st Class, but they end up leaving SOLDIER, which means Sephiroth gets left behind. Considering that he already had abandonment issues to begin with, being abandoned by his only friends must’ve hit hard. I’d say this sets the foundation for Sephiroth’s downward spiral. However, at this point, I would argue that Sephiroth is still a good person at heart, despite all the trauma he has endured. He persists, refusing to hunt down his deserter friends, and even begins a hesitant friendship with Zack, who was Angeal’s apprentice.

Cloud befriends Zack as well, but doesn’t make it into SOLDIER and instead remains in the ordinary Shinra infantry, which is a crushing loss for him because he can’t achieve his dream. It’s at this point I like to imagine that if Zack had introduced Sephiroth and Cloud to one another, things could’ve gone better. Sephiroth is older than Cloud and outranks him, but with how isolated Sephiroth has been for his entire life I think there’s potential for a meaningful friendship here. They’re both very lonely and neither of them is really a people-person, so I think they’d get along well once Cloud gets over his hero-worship and Sephiroth manages to open up a bit. I would say that sefikura, if Nibelheim didn’t happen, has the potential to be a healthy relationship.

But of course, that’s not how canon goes. The Nibelheim mission happens, Sephiroth finds out that he’s not human and finally snaps after years of mistreatment, burning the town to the ground. Cloud manages to kill Sephiroth, ends up spending several years as an experiment, gets injected with Jenova cells, goes into a coma, wakes up just in time to watch Zack die, and ends up so traumatized that he creates a false identity for himself as a former SOLDIER 1st Class.

We’ve now reached OG FFVII. At this point, Sephiroth, while technically dead and chilling in the Lifestream, uses Jenova as a vessel to move around and takes advantage of Cloud, using him as a puppet for his own gains. He constantly dehumanizes Cloud and generally doesn’t give a damn about him as a person, while Cloud resents Sephiroth but can’t resist his manipulations. In a lot of ways, I think Sephiroth projects his own trauma onto Cloud here, because if Sephiroth had to suffer as Shinra’s puppet for his entire life, then Cloud should suffer as Sephiroth’s puppet as well. As a victim of horrific abuse, Sephiroth has a lot of justified anger, but he takes it out on the wrong person entirely. It’s definitely a very unhealthy situation.

But of course, unlike Sephiroth, Cloud doesn’t let his trauma define him. He reaches his breaking point and falls apart completely, but he gets back up, because unlike Sephiroth, he has a support system of friends who stand by his side and work together with him to defeat Sephiroth at the end of the game. For most of his life, Cloud has been chasing Sephiroth. This is where he finally catches up and surpasses him.

And here, the tables turn. Cloud kills Sephiroth but that’s never stopped Sephiroth before. This is where Sephiroth first develops his Cloud-obsession. He fixates on Cloud so hard that his hatred keeps him from completely fading away into the Lifestream. Cloud is literally his lifeline. (Isn’t it romantic? lol) He returns in the sequel movie Advent Children, where he fights Cloud one-on-one and basically just taunts him for 10 minutes before Cloud kills him again.  It’s implied that Sephiroth can keep coming back as long as Cloud exists as well.

Canon beyond this has, for a long time, been unknown territory. There’s a sequel game called Dirge of Cerberus that the fandom at large pretends doesn’t exist because it’s... kinda weird to say the least, lol. And it doesn’t really have anything to do with sefikura anyway. People have written post-canon sefikura as something that continues to be toxic, but there’s also fic that offers redemption and forgiveness for Sephiroth, acknowledging that he was a victim too. It’s left very open-ended.

All of this basically explains how I see sefikura. They’re two people who were alike in many ways, who could have been friends before everything fell apart around them, if things had been different. But they never did meet, before it was too late. Instead, they keep chasing each other, full of hate even though they’re probably the only people in the world who could truly understand each other’s trauma. The only real difference is that Cloud had friends to back him up while Sephiroth was abandoned, and I really, truly wish they could get an opportunity to reach some sort of understanding. And that would basically be it...

...but then the Remake happened. Diving into speculation territory here. I firmly believe that the Sephiroth we see in the Remake is a time traveller, or is at least aware of the future to some degree, and that the remake is actually a sequel where Sephiroth is quite literally remaking OG ffvii. He’s completely obsessed with Cloud to a degree that he never was in the OG, and considering how loyal the developers stayed to the characterization of basically every other OG character this immediately stuck out to me like a sore thumb even though it took me until the end of the game to piece it together.

I’m not kidding here. Sephiroth is desperate for Cloud’s attention in the Remake. He's constantly trying to touch Cloud, everything he says to Cloud makes him sound like a pining ex-husband, and he generally doesn’t do anything to harm Cloud except scaring him shitless simply by showing up. He actually has quite a few moments when he’s very gentle with Cloud. At the end of the game he basically even proposes to Cloud by asking Cloud to join him and genuinely seems upset when Cloud rejects him. And even then, he claims he doesn’t want Cloud (nor himself) to die.

For the life of me, I can’t wrap my head around what Sephiroth’s goal is in the Remake and I have no idea what they’re planning to do with his character in future parts, but I’m very excited to find out. The sefikura content in the Remake was very delicious and at this point the only thing they could do to surpass it in the future would be to have them actually make out on screen, lmao.

I hope this is coherent enough to read, I basically just tried to condense everything I could into a neat little essay and there’s definitely things I didn’t mention here, lol. I’ll write a proper, more well-thought out analysis another time!

Also, if you want to ask me anything else or talk to me about sefikura in general, my DMs are always open, both here and on twitter ;D

[sporesgalaxy]

OH GOD I NEED TO KNOW TOO! WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT BOI??!!

He’s…..been through a lot :[

OH GOD IT’S SO LONG. GOTTA DO A READMORE

First of all, in Anime Campaign, Sylvie’s only 12. So just. Keep THAT in mind all through this. Oof.

 Things also go really differently with Mera. According to the episode 0 summary, he REALLY looks up to her at first, and wants her to be his mentor. So when it turns out she’s lying, he’s very, very upset.

He runs into her again at an anime convention in episode 4, and goes APE SHIT. Mera got a 1 rolling to remember who Sylvie was, so not only does she wish he wasn’t dramatically pestering her about revenge, she doesn’t even know what his deal is at all. The first time, (after tolerating honestly quite a lot of him standing on a table yelling at her) she makes Indus block him and the rest of the party drags Sylvie away, but the next time he tries to confront her, Mera scratches his face, and because of her Epithet, the shallow wound just doesn’t go away. Sylvie is literally dragged away by the party again, and Rick fails an attempt at blood magic healing. By this point, everyone is just kind of exhausted with Sylvie getting side tracked from the investigation they’re supposed to be doing, so they all move on from it pretty quickly, but Sylvie continues Stewing With Rage And Vindiction.

He starts voicing a desire to Actually Kill Mera, which SUPER weirds everyone out! But he doesn’t confront her again.

The next time we see Sylvie is a very short cameo in episode 5, where he’s thrown on a game show team with a bunch of villains. After a bit of his now-signature Enraged Complaining, he’s. Uh. I guess you guys were only really signed up for Sylvie spoilers, so I’ll be vague about the who and how and just inform you that he was sent to the Shadow Realm, basically.

In episode 6, the party is a Magical Girl Team consisting of Rick Shades, Phoenica Fleecity, Abby Laurie, Molly Blyndeff, Percy King, and Mera and Indus. In episode 6 episode 2, the whole gang is also sent to the Basically Shadow Realm (I haven’t actually watched Yu Gi Oh this is probably not a good descriptor actually) because of reasons. Skipping a lot of big spoilers to get to Sylvie again, the next time we see The Boy, he is of course VERY pissed to see a lot of people he’s considered his friends working with Mera, his sworn enemy. The scratch Mera gave him looks worse, and the weird realm they’re in is making him a little shadowy around the edges.

He’s delerious at this point, partly from having been in this weird realm so long, but mostly because he’s let himself be consumed by hatred for Mera to the point that he’s willing to do some WILD mental gymnastics to justify lashing out at her and anyone around her, including his friends. He attacks the party for a while, accusing them of being dismissive of Mera’s crimes– in truth, they’re only working together because the Fate Of The World Was Hanging In The Balance And Stuff, but he doesn’t give anyone a chance to explain themselves at all before he starts throwing sheep around.

Once he starts attacking, most of the party is just focused on Not Getting Beaten Up, but Rick is determined not to hurt his friend. He uses a mediocre roll and a lot of dark magic to try and reach out to Sylvie, and make him understand that they’re still his friends and they don’t want to hurt him just because they happen to be stuck with Mera. Still too emotionally compromised to fully trust them or even articulate a response, Sylvie stutters for a moment, before running away, apparently crying.

The party finds him again a little later. Resigned and sniffling, Sylvie starts trying to explain himself. He claims that his problem isn’t actually just with Mera and her crimes from episode 0. He’s been slighted, defeated, bested, and ignored in several big ways by several characters throughout the campaign at this point, which he recounts with increasing frustration. It’s all he’s been thinking about the entire time he’s been trapped. He explains that he became convinced he could never escape, that he’d disappear a failure. But, he suddenly focuses on Mera again, and screams that now that she’s here, he won’t let her get away again. He transforms into a horrible nightmare boss monster that the party must defeat.

AAAND THAT’S ALL THE CONTEXT YA NEED FOR MY FAN ART!!! :D

If you want the resolution, let me know and I’ll explain it to you, this is just long enough already and I'l probably be compelled to do some direct quotes from the little cutscene that happens.

[nuttyrabbit]

So it’s been a while since I posted Gambit’s bio, and I think it’s about time I started posting bios for my other characters, don’t you? 

This is Frost the Snow Leopard, and next to Gambit, he’s the character I’m the most proud of out of all the characters I’ve made. He’s also the one I’ve put the most amount of work into when taking into account both the character and everything surrounding him.

But this wasn’t something I did on my own.  Huge, HUGE shoutouts to my best friend @pidgeonspen who not only helped make Frost’s initial design, but also did his redesign, did this entire beautiful ref sheet, helped me figure out a lot of character stuff and of course, helped me with the bio. 

Speaking of the bio, let’s get right into it! Everything is below the readmore 

Age: 30

Occupation: Self-proclaimed Emperor of Osakiru 

Personality: Cold, calculating, driven and authoritative - these are but some of the  words that can describe Frost. 

His immaculate ability to inspire both the best and the worst in those around him is drawn from his ambition, his driving ideals of both strength and self, and his sheer intensity.  He is a skilled manipulator, able to easily influence those around him into fighting for his cause using a his natural inclinations towards both strategy and diplomacy.  Frost is a very pragmatic individual, often making decisions based off of what he feels is objectively the “best” for both his country and himself.  He is not someone who angers quickly, nor is he someone who will resort to violence unless he deems it necessary. However, if he feels he needs to, he will use the threat of violence to get his subordinates in line, and more often than not, he will use both fear and violence to subjugate those that dare to resist, justifying it under the guise of a “greater good”

He also possesses a keen insight which allows him to quickly and easily derive information about people, places, and situations that he then uses to his advantage. 

Skills: As his name implies, Frost can control ice; he employs his power both offensively and defensively, and to great effect. However, this power does not come freely. The sheer cold he produces takes quite an extensive toll on his body, and  using it for too long can have detrimental - possibly even permanent- effects on his body. because of this , Frost has had to spend most of his life learning to control this power, with him only recently having found a way to do so. While he can now control his power without actively concentrating on it, it still poses a huge risk to him. As a result,  in combat Frost  only uses his powers when he absolutely needs to, instead usually falling back on both his swordsmanship and hand to hand combat skills instead.  Since he has had little to no formal training in either, he’s instead self-taught,  spending hours upon hours studying and training himself, with the end result  being a fighting style he can truly call his own.  When it comes to his swordsmanship, his focus is primarily on quick, precise sword slashes  that dispatch foes quickly . His hand-to-hand style is one that is  heavily counter-focused , taking advantage of  openings with hard-hitting, precise strikes.  When he is forced to use his powers however, he usually channels them through his katana, minimizing the toll his powers take on  his body, and boosting the power and range of his strikes

Hobbies: Training is Frost’s main hobby, and one he takes very seriously. Reading- While Frost places great value on the importance of honing ones’ physical strength, he places just as much importance on the strengthening of ones’ mind, and as such, he is an avid reader. If he is not in his personal dojo, he can often be found in his study, perusing the many books he has acquired via his conquest or otherwise.   While he occasionally dips his toes into the realm of fiction, his preferences lie in the realms of history and philosophy, both spritual and practical.  Mental challenges-  In the same vein as his love of reading, Frost has recently taken to occasionally indulging in mental exercises in an attempt to truly stimulate his mind.  Games such as Sudoku, Shogi, and even Risk are ones he not only enjoys on the rare occasion he gets to play them, but ones he is also extremely good at, since they play to his strengths.  Meditation-  This is less so a hobby and moreso a problem solving technique Frost has found useful.  Whenever he needs to figure out the solution to a complicated issue, he will often sit in silent meditation  to clear his mind so he can come to what he feels is the perfect solution.  

Likes: The pursuit of strength, seafood (In particular lobster and salmon), reading, comfortable silence, mental exercises/problem solving of any kind, clothing (Suits and jackets in particular. He gets them custom made), order/control,  sake, and hot baths/saunas (he finds them relaxing)

Dislikes: Disorder, insubordination, cowardice, excessive heat, “talking heads” shows,   sweet foods and drinks, and excessive noise (He can handle it he just dislikes it) 

Flaws: Frost’s cold, calculating worldview ultimately leads him to see people less as individuals to be treated with respect and more as tools to be used to reach whatever ends he desires.  While Frost is an excellent strategist, his plans tend to be rather complex in both scope and execution, requiring many moving parts to work in tandem. As a result, his plans can fall apart if exposed to an overly chaotic element, albeit there is usually a slight margin of error there anyways.

Backstory:  From the very start, Frost’s life was marked by constant struggle, in part due to his powers. When his gelid powers began to manifest in his early childhood, Frost needed help to survive - his powers would begin freezing him to death lest his body temperature was regulated. As he lived in poverty, the most viable option came in the form of quite literally boiling water for baths at regular intervals in an attempt to keep him from freezing himself over.  Unfortunately, these powers  had a tendency to attract attention - something his family truly didn’t need nor want, living in squalor among one of the most crime-ridden parts of the country. 

      Frost’s father himself was a low-ranking thug in the local yakuza, while his mother stayed at home, looking after Frost – and over her shoulder constantly.  Frost’s parents demanded Frost “keep [his] head down and don’t draw attention.”; and for a long time, he did just that. But try as he might to “blend into the background” as his parents wanted, his inability to control his power continually drew attention to him, often leaving him ostracized and sometimes even harassed by his peers. Even his older brother was of no use, instead content to follow in his father’s footsteps and pretend all was well, also desperate not to make a “fuss” as it were, the few times he stood up for the young leopard ultimately making little difference..

      Alone, living in absolute filth, burdened with powers he could not control, the young Frost was miserable, and he constantly hoped and prayed that things would change, that he wouldn’t have to live like this, that things would just somehow get better. But those prayers would never be answered, and for a long time it seemed like there was no way out for Frost–until he found it.  One day, while enduring yet another round of harassment from his peers, something in Frost just *snapped*. For the first time in his life, he truly unleashed his power and froze his tormentors solid.  The incident quickly drew unwanted attention, resulting in his father pulling him out of the school to prevent any further mishaps, desperately hoping things would blow over and return to normal.  But they never would, for Frost had learned a very valuable lesson: the power of fear.  

       The faces of those around him - frozen in fear, their hands trembling, their jaws slackened - desperately backing away from him, in what seemed like pure terror, told him everything he needed to know.  But perhaps almost as telling was his father’s solution to this issue;  instead of trying to figure out how things had gotten to this point, he had simply chosen to keep quiet, too worried about “making a fuss”, perfectly content to let things go on as they always did. And when Frost had finally snapped after years of torment, his father’s solution was to simply hide him away, trying to wait for things to go back to normal.   In fact, when Frost thought about it,  that is what everyone else had done all this time. They were content to simply let things go on as they always had, too worried about causing a fuss or shaking up the “status quo”, too concerned with saving themselves above all else . That is when Frost realized something: if he truly wanted to improve his situation, he would have to be the one to do it; him and no one else.

     Yet despite these revelations, Frost was still very much at a loss as to what to do: He knew that he was the only person who could improve his situation, but he was still at a loss as to the how. He knew fear would be an effective tool in reaching those ends, but he was still at a loss as to what those ends even were, much less how he would even use it effectively.  But as fate would have it, he would not find his answers in the present, but the past.  Stuck in his own home with no recourse, Frost stumbled upon a dusty, nearly tattered book on his father’s bookshelf.   The book itself told the tales of great kings and empires gone by, of men turned myth, who were respected, beloved, and most of all, *feared*.  But that alone was not enough to give Frost the direction he needed. It was only when he began to pay attention to the news, to the state of his country, that it all came together. It struck him with a revelation: it wasn’t just his parents or his teachers or the adults around him that were complacent and fearful of change, it was the entire country. The entire country was just as stagnant, squalid, and content to lie in its own filth as the small corner he was forced to call home.  Those in power - the formal Osakiran government, and the Yakuza syndicates that held the leash, were far too weak, too complacent with their comfortable lives to bring the change the country needed. It brought to mind those emperors of old Frost had read about; men who rose to power, uplifting and uniting their people all the while. Not like the privileged cowards who ruled now… and that’s when Frost realized what it would take to salvage both himself and  Osakiru, what separated the historical rulers from the present: strength.  Osakiru would need someone who was truly strong not just in body, but mind and will as well.  And it was then that Frost realized that he and only he could become that man.  He would have to dispose the feeble cowards and take their place at the top, not just for himself, but everyone else.

       Frost knew what he had to do now, and he was already training both his mind and body in preparation for the task to come. All he needed was an opportunity, and one such opportunity would soon make itself known.  One day, the syndicate Frost’s father had spent his life working for finally came for him, punishing him for one mistake too many, dumping his fetid corpse onto the street for all to see. All, including Frost and what was left of his family.  His brother, seeing the very clear writing on the wall, decided to flee the country, attempting to take both Frost and his mother with him to safety. But despite the pleading of both his mother and brother, calling his actions “suicide”, Frost would not flee. He knew what he had to do, the image of his father’s corpse only cementing into his mind his mission.  And so they fled, leaving Frost alone, and it was then that Frost, not even an adult yet at the age of 17, pledged himself into the service of the very syndicate that had taken his father’s life, seeing the path to the top through them

      Frost began his climb to the top then and there. Despite the many mistakes he made in those formative years, which  showed themselves through bruises, scars, and even a missing finger, Frost pressed on, pushing himself to become the *best*. He trained his body, his mind, his *will* to the point where he could not take any more, yet he kept going, pushing himself to greater and greater heights, modeling himself after the very rulers he had read about all those years ago, all in an effort to be the very image of strength he knew he had to be. His efforts  would not go unnoticed, and within a few years, Frost found himself to be the 2nd in command of the entire syndicate.  But this was not enough, and Frost knew this, and soon enough he struck down the patriarch, and took the entire syndicate for himself, as well as the thing that would come to be Frost’s trademark: his katana.  Though it was merely a talking piece hung on the wall of the patriarch’s office, Frost would make the blade his own, a true extension of himself in every sense of the word.

       From here on, Frost would truly begin his conquest of Osakiru and one by one, the other yakuza syndicates fell to Frost, surrendering their power, their influence, and most of all, their resources.  As Frost’s reach grew, so did his numbers, whether it be through assimilating the other syndicates or people joining his ranks of their own volition. Four individuals in particular, all of whom Frost saw untapped potential in and who saw in Frost the key to their own salvation, would come to make up his inner circle, soon to be known as the Black Lotus.

      Eventually, the last of the syndicates fell to Frost’s forces. Now, all that was left to do was to overthrow the formal government. At this point, they knew that  Frost was on his way, and that it was too late to stop him; they were outmatched, outplayed, and ultimately overwhelmed.  When his icy blade ripped through the Prime Minister’s chest, spilling crimson onto the steps of Osakiru’s Capitol Building, it marked the final, bloody conclusion of Frost’s 11 year conquest.  No longer would Osakiru be ruled by yakuza thugs or ineffectual Prime Ministers.  Now it would be ruled by an *emperor*, one who would bring Osakiru into a new golden age.

       Despite the success of his initial conquest, Frost knew the real work had only just begun; there was no time for celebration, and he quickly got to work imposing his will unto the country. He cleaned the streets,  both figuratively and literally, reorganizing the pathetic OSDF into a true army, and created a new police force to unflinchingly carry out his will and being the emperor’s eyes and ears. He knew that in order to secure his vision, sacrifices would have to be made, and so he quickly consolidated all of Osakiru’s media under a single banner in a bid to suppress any thought of rebellion, and to push his ideology onto the people. Schools suffered the same, their curriculum changed to emphasize nationalistic pride and personal achievement. Every able-bodied adult was put to work under his rule, for the betterment of economy and to aid in building his ideal nation.  Among the first orders of business was renovating the decrepit palace to fit Frost’s vision, a symbol of his immense power and of the dynasties he sought to emulate. He made sure that no matter where you were in Osakiru, his presence was *felt*.  He became at once the most beloved figure in all of Osakiru and the one everyone feared the most.  

         Two years later, and Frost continues to rule Osakiru with an iron fist, still seeking new ways to develop and strengthen both his country and himself. One of his latest approaches involves seeking new, diplomatic relationships with powerful allies, such as the Kingdom of Acorn and G.U.N., hoping for both an economic partnership and one to strengthen defenses against the likes of Dr. Eggman - the one factor that keeps Frost from expanding Osakiru’s territory. With his sights set southward to Osakiru’s historical rival, Chun-nan, Frost knows it’s simply a matter of time. Eventually, the opportunity will rise, and Frost happens to be a very patient man.

[5eforgemaster]

Conversion Kit: The Assassin

Continuing my Conversion Kit series of articles, we discuss the Assassin subclass! Turn any character into a master of ambushes and terribly efficient killer with just three levels of Rogue.

Below the readmore, you can find Additional Support for this kit, as well as Pitfalls and Character Suggestions.

Kit Overview

Investment Type: Multiclass Dip

Minimum Investment: Take 3 Levels of Rogue, selecting the Assassin archetype at level 3.

Overall Impact: Your character now has the mechanical backing to follow through on clever schemes with lethal force.

Investment

Much like our last conversion kit, once you select the Assassin subclass, you can immediately set off to do what assassins do best. Once again, you'll need to satisfy the multiclassing requirement- just a score of 13 in Dexterity, plus a score of 13 in whatever attribute your other class of choice requires.

You don't necessarily need a Dexterity higher than this, but remember that your bonus to Stealth rolls keys off of it. You can mitigate the problems of a low Dexterity score by taking proficiency in Stealth and using the Rogue's Expertise feature to double your proficiency bonus.

Truth be told, you can abandon Stealth entirely if it doesn't fit your concept. However,  you'll want to keep in mind that the assassin's primary feature requires Surprise. While by the Rules as Written, Stealth is the only way to gain surprise, many GMs will allow betrayals or sudden strikes to grant surprise.

Perhaps you can take advantage of Deception or Persuasion to lure your target into a false sense of security, or use a spell like Dimension Door or Invisibility to suddenly appear behind (or even before) a foe and strike them down.

All that said, regardless of the method you'd like to use, you're very likely to want stealth proficiency. It's the least reliant on GM interpretation and applies to the greatest variety of situations.

Narrative Impact

Though the most apparent Narrative for a character using this kit is that of a professional murderer, it is by no means the only route you can take.   Your character is now mechanically incredibly reliant on first strikes. Hunters-turned-warriors (such as most rangers) gravitate to this approach to combat by default, but characters lacking the stomach for battle might turn to this path to end fights quickly. Elite warriors might prefer ambush tactics, and even certain paladins may find a swift death to be all that their foes deserve. In truth, you could utterly ignore this kit's narrative impact and carry on as if you had never taken a single level in another class. However, I'm inclined to see that as something of a wasted opportunity to set your character apart- where did your character learn to fight dirty? Do they see it as a necessary evil and regret their actions, or do they believe they're justified as there's no justice on the battlefield?

Mechanical Impact

From a mechanical perspective, the Assassin offers lethal first-strikes. Whatever your method of attack- a greatsword, a spell, thrown dagger- your Assassinate feature guarantees you a Critical Hit, as long as the attack hits a surprised target.

I cannot emphasize enough how unbelievably good a Guaranteed Critical Hit is in Fifth Edition D&D, and believe me, if I had a way to highlight that bolded, italicized, underlined phrase I would use it. I thought about including a gif of someone slapping a desk. I need you to see those words and realize what they mean.

A critical hit multiplies all of your damage dice. If you can find bonus dice, you're going to hit incredibly hard. If you have multiple attacks, they will all be critical hits. A critical hit on a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's sneak attack is a lucky break. A full round's worth of critical hits on a Fighter's attack routine or a Wizard's Scorching Ray is a dream. Get the drop on an enemy, and that dream is your reality.

The simple truth is, the Assassinate feature alone is enough to enable ambushes as a tactic.

Kit Support

There are several feats you can take advantage of to make this kit more effective. However, even if feats aren't allowed in your game, or all of yours are already accounted for, you're not out of luck. If you keep some rules of thumb in mind, you'll find yourself faring better than someone who approached their build haphazardly.

This list is in no particular order. This is not an optimization guide, and I don't want to commit to the math necessary to rank these options, nor do I want to limit your creativity. That said, as an Assassin, you want to look for:

More attacks. These are easy enough to get: engage in two weapon fighting, pick a class that has the Extra Attack feature, or find a way to get Haste applied to you.

Extra dice for your attacks: Smite and Sneak Attack are good examples. If you have your eyes on a higher level Rogue feature, the extra sneak attack dice will help with this (if you're using an appropriate weapon).

Similarly, spells that grant multiple attack rolls such as Eldritch Blast or spells that have large dice counts like Chaos Bolt. Both of those can be picked up by classes that can't normally access them using the Magic Initiate feat.

You might also consider certain feats, depending on your build and game:

Alert gives you a large bonus to initiative. Depending on how your GM runs Surprise, you may need to win initiative to take advantage of Assassinate- Alert all but guarantees that you'll move first, especially if your Dexterity is already high.

Lucky adds some reliability to your assassination attempts by letting you try again when you roll poorly. Lucky is good to the point of being considered 'cheese' by the community, and many games ban it, but there is objectively no better way to ensure you don't ruin your big moment.

Skulker is somewhat similar to Lucky for ranged characters, though not as effective. If you're a ranged Assassin, this keeps your position from being revealed. You'd be hard pressed to convince your DM that the enemy is still surprised, but maybe you can retreat and try again. The other miscellaneous stealth bonuses are a nice plus.

Spell Sniper doubles your range for attack roll based spells- it'll be easier to surprise foes from a couple of hundred feat away. As a bonus, you ignore all but total cover and even get access to an attack roll based cantrip if you didn't have one already.

Actor might improve your odds of pulling off a social skill based assassin, just check with your GM to make sure they'll rule in your favor before you invest too heavily in the approach.

Pitfalls

There's not a whole lot you can do as a player to make this kit go wrong. Your biggest obstacles are overspecialization and, potentially, your DM.

In the first case, there will be times when Assassinate will fail you. Perhaps the situation isn't right, perhaps you missed your attack, maybe the enemy got the drop on you. None of that matters though- just keep in mind when making choices about your character that not everything needs to improve their critical damage. Dealing hundreds of points of damage with your first strike only matters if you pull it off.

In the second case, some DMs are combative. You might have a DM that feels as though you're somehow "cheating" by assassinating big threats and coaxing your party towards ambush tactics. Some DMs will simply grumble about it and you may need to back off somewhat.

Others will attempt to sabotage you, either by presenting scenarios that make assassinations difficult or impossible, overwhelmingly pitting you against foes that are impossible to surprise or are immune to critical hits, or, in the most egregious cases, abusing their power and arbitrarily depriving you of surprise when you should have it.

The best thing you can do here is keep a level head and talk to your DM. They likely don't actively want to ruin the game for you, and perhaps they have a reasonable motive- maybe you're taking the spotlight away from other players or even making the game less fun for the DM themselves (believe it or not, this is a reasonable concern for the DM- they should have simply been honest with you in the first place, but berating them now won't help either of you).

Whatever your DM's reasons, you can likely compromise if they're honest with you. If your DM gives you any variation of "this is your fault for picking a specialized feature" or "it's just the way it is", you may need to ask if you can rebuild, as they're unlikely to sympathize with your position. Ultimately, your playstyle may just not align with the DM's or group's. There are hundreds of articles about conflict resolution, some specifically tailored for D&D groups, so for the moment I'll table the specifics and perhaps update this article with a link to a quality one at a later date.

A Few Suggestions

I don't want to leave this article on a low note, so I'll close with some classes you can combine with the Assassin subclass for some exciting (if somewhat obvious) character concepts:

Way of Shadow Monk: This monk path offers several supernatural abilities relating to darkness, silence, and hiding- not the least of which is the ability to teleport between patches of shadow. If that doesn't scream "ninja" to you, I don't know what will. The monk also has access to Flurry of Blows, which can make your assassinations quite potent.

Oath of Vengeance Paladin: The Paladin's Smite might be the easiest on-demand way to take advantage of your Assassinate feature. Very few of this Archetype's features synergize with this kit, but access to Haste and Hunter's Mark doesn't hurt, and the narrative of an avenger fits well with the style of combat you'll be employing. If you liked Pathfinder's inquisitor class, this may be for you.

Fiend Patron Warlock: Eldritch Blast is always good, but you have an extra edge with it. Honestly, there's not much too this other than having an easy on-demand ranged damage option, but something about being a contract killer for your Patron seems like an exciting narrative. Works just as well for other patrons, but the fiend seems most likely to employ contract killers. You can take the Blade Pact Boon and Eldritch Smite invocations if you want to step on the Paladin's turf.

With some examples out of the way, I'll take my leave. There's near limitless potential for this kit, as there's some synergy to be had with nearly every class, so you can experiment with confidence.

[27dragons]

Name of Piece:  So Into You Square Filled: A4 - writing format: perspective flip Rating: M Warnings: None Summary: This is not what Bucky wanted. But it might just be what he needs. (Bucky’s POV for the events of square T1, My Better Half.) Created For: @tonystarkbingo

Bucky dragged his gaze away from Tony’s ass. He was the fucking Winter Soldier; he could manage to keep his attention on the mission for five goddamned minutes. Even if Tony Stark did have the most delectable ass known to mankind.

Mission. Right. They’d had a nice little fight with the villain and his henchmen, but that was over now, and they were on to the tedious chore of going through the villain’s hideout to remove all the traps and particularly nasty items before the SHIELD cleanup team came in behind them. Bucky needed to be alert – there was always the possibility of the building being booby-trapped, or that the villain had left behind a key minion or two to avenge him.

Bucky lifted his weapon to cover Steve and Sam as they ducked into the next room. No immediate threats popped up to start shooting at them, so Bucky let his gaze drift again as the rest of the team started reviewing the contents.

God, Tony had a nice ass. Even in the suit! It was too bad that Tony hated his guts, because Bucky had always been an ass man. He’d give about anything to get into that ass, just set up camp and live in there—

The explosion caught him by surprise.

[’ware the readmore!]

“You must have been wishing for something strongly to have caused such a reaction,” Wanda said, and Bucky felt a blush run up his right cheek. Which was all he could feel, because he’d apparently wished himself right into Tony’s body.

“This is bullshit,” Bucky said. This wasn’t what he’d wanted.

“It’s like a ‘Get Along Shirt’ but more,” crowed Clint. Bucky wondered what a Get Along Shirt was, but he knew damn well what his response should be. He flipped Clint off, and felt oddly justified when Tony followed up with a similar gesture only a fraction of a second later.

Shit, he really was stuck in Tony’s body. The right half of it. He couldn’t stop staring at his own body on the floor. It was sort of novel not to feel the constant low-level ache in his shoulder and back from the weight of the metal arm. It was nice, but not so nice that he wanted to stay in this situation.

He lurched suddenly, and felt just a little bit of vibration in his (Tony’s) throat as Tony made frustrated sound. “We’re leaving now, is that okay?” Tony demanded.

“Okay, okay.” Bucky was going to have to pay more attention to Tony now, just to pick up on those little cues. He hesitated for a second, and then took a step.

Holy shit, he could feel Tony’s ass flexing. Oh god.

He took another step, and another, and abruptly realized that he’d been so fixated on Tony’s (their) body that he had no idea what they were doing. “So, uh. Where are we going?”

“Back to the ‘jet. I want to contact Strange, see if he can get us out of this mess.”

“Fair enough.” Bucky took another step, and then became aware of an awful, tight squeeze in his chest. “Wait. Something’s… wrong.” He pressed against his (Tony’s) chest, running down the catalogue in his head of potential problems. “Did we get hit with some kind of gas? Or—“

“Slow your jets,” Tony sighed. “Feels tight, like you can’t get enough air?”

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed. He had to forcibly stop himself from trying to take a deeper gulp of air.

“Yeah, that’s just me.”

“No, this is not normal,” Bucky said. It felt like there was a crushing weight on his chest.

“It is if you spent five years with an electromagnet where your sternum used to be,” Tony said. “The reconstruction team did a great job, but I’ve got a permanently reduced lung capacity. That’s just how life is.”

Hydra had once tortured Bucky by strapping him down and putting weights on his chest until he had to struggle for every breath. “You fight like this?”

“Don’t have a lot of choice,” Tony said. “I’ve got some filters in the suit that keep the oxygen content a little on the high side so I don’t strain as much, but yeah. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we’re benched until you’re back in your own perfect body.”

Now that he knew it wasn’t the sign of an enemy attack, the pain wasn’t really any worse than what Bucky lived with in his shoulder. Just in a different place. “My body ain’t perfect.” Of course, it wasn’t any better, either, and Tony didn’t have the assurance of the serum to keep him strong. The thought made Bucky stagger a little.

“Just hold still and let the robots do their thing,” Tony said.

Bucky still flinched a little when the removal rig reached up around them. It was too much like Hydra’s brain-burning gear closing in on him. He closed his eye and prayed for it to be over quickly.

He could feel the pieces of armor sloughing away. He could do this.

It wasn’t too bad, as long as he didn’t look. After a moment, he felt the angle of his leg change and knew that Tony had taken a step, which meant it was his turn now.

“Undersuit next,” Tony murmured.

Oh, Jesus, they were going to undress. Bucky hoped the heart, over on Tony’s side of the body, didn’t lurch. It took him a moment to gather himself and start to help unfasten the seals.

It’s just a body, he told himself. Pull yourself together.

They peeled down the top half of the suit, and Bucky made himself focus on the scars on Tony’s chest, and the pain that must have come with them. He didn’t let himself touch Tony’s body any more than he had to.

Then they got the suit down farther, and without warning, there was Tony’s dick. “Shit!” Bucky closed his eye tightly. “You’re not wearin’ any underwear!”

“Why the hell would I wear underwear in a suit this tight?” Tony asked. “It’s practically underwear on its own!”

Which was a point, but Bucky still had to work hard at not watching Tony’s dick.

“I’d think you were in the Army long enough to not be so modest,” Tony snarked at him.

Not to mention that Hydra’s only concern for Bucky’s clothing had been to ensure it was protecting him on a mission. “You didn’t sign up for this. I’m tryin’ to be polite.”

“Look, let’s just get this done,” Tony said, “and I’ll be dressed again.”

That was probably for the best.

Tony was frustrated with the situation. Bucky understood that, because he was pretty frustrated with the situation, himself.

So tempers were running a little high, despite Bucky’s resolve to be calm and polite. But really, what could he do when Tony was so obviously wrong? It felt weird and strange to put pants on left leg first, even weirder than not being able to feel his left leg (Tony’s leg) at all.

And Bucky had never understood some people’s enjoyment of spicy food, though he’d been willing to humor the insanity from a distance, right up until Tony wanted to eat hot peppers with the tongue he was sharing with Bucky. No. Bucky’d had enough involuntary pain in his life to willingly subject himself to more of it.

Though maybe he should have given in on that battle, because arguing about it had just served to remind Bucky that he was sharing a tongue with Tony. Which meant that the inside of the mouth that he was tasting was Tony’s. This was the taste of Tony’s mouth.

This was what Bucky would taste if he kissed Tony very, very thoroughly.

Fuuuuck.

And then, to make matters worse, they had to get ready for bed.

Which meant another change of clothes. Bucky tried not to sneak another peek at Tony’s dick while they were doing that, he really did, but then--

“You’re lucky I even own pyjamas. I’ve been sleeping naked since my teens.” Of course Tony said that while Bucky was balancing them on his one foot. They nearly fell over and smashed their face open.

And then Tony jerked his thumb toward the bathroom.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Bucky didn’t argue about the way Tony squeezed his toothpaste (the wrong way) because he was too busy sweating about what was inevitably going to happen before they left the room. Sure enough, as soon as they’d fumbled through flossing, Tony turned toward the toilet.

“Do we gotta?” Bucky would like to say that he didn’t whine when he said that, but he’d have been lying.

“No way I’m holding it all night. Come on, let’s get it over with.”

Bucky could hope that Tony did this backwards, too -- but no, of course not. Tony used his hand to tug open the pyjama fly and waited not entirely patiently for Bucky to reach in for his -- their -- dick.

It wasn’t quite where Bucky expected it to be, and he wound up groping it a little more than was probably strictly necessary just because of the awkward angle. “You curve the other way.”

He half expected Tony to mutter something about how that wasn’t surprising considering all the other things they were opposites on, but instead he just started mumbling about science and surveys.

Bucky couldn’t stop thinking about how that meant if they were face to face, their cocks would line up perfectly. “Can we just pee and save the science for later?” he snapped, his half of their face flaming.

“I like how you’re not trying to talk me out of the science,” Tony said cheerfully.

Bucky rolled his eye. “I grew up with Steve Rogers. I know when it’s futile to try to talk someone out of something.” And this wasn’t so bad. This was good, this was banter and camaraderie. Bucky could do this.

If he could just stop thinking about Tony’s dick.

Bucky couldn’t feel his left hand, but that wasn’t entirely unusual; sometimes it took a while to come online. In the meantime, his cock was demanding his attention, and oh, that was nice. Bucky’s dick had been a little off-and-on since Hydra, either a raging inferno of need or no interest at all, with very little in between. But this felt like a good morning, a nice normal morning wood.

Lazily, Bucky curled his hand around it. It was a little less sensitive than he was used to, but that was nice, too. Maybe he’d be able to make it last instead of going off like a bottle rocket.

He stroked upward, rolling his hand over the head, and oh, yeah, there it went, just a little precome to make things slick and easy. Oh, god, that was nice. He did it again and that was a little odd, it was like half his dick was numb, down the left side. But it was still responding to his touch just fine, so maybe it was another weird healing thing. He squeezed a little, and--

The sound of a soft catch of breath reached his ear. Not him, but--

Memory flooded back, all at once. “Shit!” he hissed, yanking his hand off Tony’s cock. “Shit, dammit. Fuck.” Who knew how pissed Tony was going to be about that?

Jesus Christ. Tony was notoriously lacking in modesty, but surely he’d draw the line at having his dick jerked for him while he was sleeping.

“Mmwha?” Tony mumbled. “Matter?”

Oh thank god, Tony had slept through it all. Bucky wasn’t proud of taking the easy way out, but he absolutely wasn’t fucking stupid enough to pass it up. “Nn, musta been a dream,” he said, trying to make himself sound closer to sleep than he actually was.

Tony didn’t call him on it, so Bucky figured he’d gotten away with it.

He spent most of breakfast trying not to think about how good Tony’s dick had felt in his hand, or how adorably rumpled Tony had looked when they’d peered in the mirror.

It took them a while to hit their stride in the gym. Tony had to keep reminding Bucky to set the weights to levels that his strong but non-serumed body could handle, and the difference in their gaits made the treadmill an exercise in comedy.

But then Bucky took them over to the punching bag. “Look,” he said, “we can do this as long as we keep to the same rhythm.”

“And how do you propose making sure we do that?” Tony wondered.

“Marching songs,” Bucky said. “We used ‘em all the time in the Army to keep fellas marching in time. Ought’a work for this, too.”

Tony huffed a little. “Okay, we can try it.”

It took them a few tries to really get into it, but the old marching cadences worked perfectly. Bucky taught Tony one of his favorites, a blue chant that never would’ve been allowed in front of an officer but which had got him through more early-morning hikes than he could shake a stick at. By the time it were done Tony was laughing so hard he could barely keep up his share of the punches.

Tony had a really nice laugh.

Of course, then they had to get in the shower and Bucky was back to blushing. He almost sprang wood while he was soaping up their balls, but some determined consideration of one of Steve’s inspiring do-or-die speeches deflated him. Thank god.

Bucky hoped they got this fixed sooner rather than later, because otherwise Tony was going to catch on to him.

Shaving, at least, held no hidden traps. Tony’s goatee was fussy and complicated, but Bucky knew how to move steadily and decisively. By the time he was done, the tension in Tony’s side of the body had eased a lot, which was gratifying.

He tried to run, but his legs wouldn’t move. Black coils snaked out of the shadows and wrapped around his legs from ankle to thigh. He tried to fight, but the shadowsnakes caught his arms, tangling them, too. They stretched him out, spread-eagled, and as much as he fought and struggled, he couldn’t move, even an inch.

There was a mirror in front of him, a distorted fun-house sort of terror, and for the first time, Bucky saw what was behind him. He opened his mouth to scream, and the tentacles filled it, pushing past his lips and down into his throat until he was gagging on them, choking.

The giant blade whirred and spun, a sawmill’s deadly circle, and descended. He tried again, desperate, but couldn’t even turn his head.

Slowly, the saw cut through his head, dividing him in half, a surprisingly neat line straight down his center. Gibbering creatures waited in the shadows, waited to take the halves of him away. His left side pulled away, and as it did, it melted into Tony’s features. No! You can’t have him! Bucky tried to scream, but he couldn’t move. Tony’s eye met Bucky’s in that dark mirror, and--

Bucky jolted awake, panting. Tears leaked from his eye, and his throat felt thick, as if those awful shadows were still in it.

“Stop it,” the other side of his mouth murmured.

“Tony?”

“No, don’t,” Tony whimpered. “Stop it, no!”

“Tony! Tony, wake up!” Bucky reached over to smack lightly at Tony’s side of their face. “Wake up!”

Tony gasped, dragging in a harsh breath. “Oh god.”

“You okay now?” Bucky patted down Tony’s face to his chest, pressing lightly against his heart, feeling the way it raced. “You back with me?”

“Yeah, I...” Tony’s voice was hoarse, as if he’d been screaming. “Sorry. I was...”

“You’re not the only one with nightmares.” Bucky kept his hand on Tony’s chest, couldn’t resist stroking lightly with his thumb, reassuring himself that they were together and whole.

“They were going to kill you. And you thought I was going to let them.”

Bucky’s throat ached. Tony wouldn’t. Not even when Bucky had first come and they’d barely been able to be civil to each other. Tony wouldn’t have let someone else hurt him. Bucky had known that from the very beginning. “I was being cut in half,” he offered. He didn’t -- couldn’t -- tell the rest, that it was Tony that was being cut away from him, that he was so terrified of losing.

But he kept his hand over Tony’s heart, and they talked, making light of the darkness. Joked and cast their fear back into its own teeth. And just before they drifted off to sleep again, Tony’s hand covered his.

It was too bright. Bucky froze for a moment, then opened his eyes. The white ceiling and fluorescent lights of medical greeted him.

Bucky blinked. He lifted his left arm, shoulder aching, and looked at his metal hand.

It was over.

He ought to be relieved, he knew, but somehow, he already missed that strange closeness.

He wasn’t hooked up to any monitoring devices, though, so he got up and stretched -- two days of magically-induced semi-coma would make a body stiff -- and then realized that his stomach was ready to stage a revolt if he didn’t feed it soon.

He slid off the hospital bed and padded on bare feet through the facility, heading for the common kitchen.

It was nice to have complete control of both sides of his body as he took ingredients out of the refrigerator and cabinets, and slid a large pan of frittata into the oven to bake. Then he went back to the counter to cut up fruit. A full house of Avengers ate a lot.

Hurried footsteps were followed by a gasp of, “You’re okay.”

Tony had worried about him? Bucky looked around with what was probably a somewhat dopey smile. “I woke up down in medical,” he confessed. “They’re going to be pissed when they realize I left without checking in.”

“Probably,” Tony said. He came closer, as if drawn by a magnet. “Then they’ll want to run all the tests on us.”

“So many tests.” Bucky scraped up the pieces of mango he’d been dicing and dumped them into the blender. “We should have breakfast before they catch up to us. You want a smoothie?” He winked at Tony. “I’ll even throw in a hot pepper for you.”

And then he was going to spend some quality time in the shower, remembering the taste of Tony’s mouth. He glanced up and caught Tony watching him with something like confused wonder. Maybe soon, he thought, he’d try to get another sample.