#now that its been made optional its canon in my heart and no one can tell me otherwise

[bosspigeon]

something i think is very funny about veilguard is the black sclera FINALLY being an option now

i know i was pretty fuckin loud about qunari/vashoth NEEDING to have black sclera back in the day (it sets them apart a bit more as something more than just "taller humans with horns) , and i still stand by that, tbh, but upon playing da2 (the game with the first Solid Qunari "design"--even if it was like three models reused ad infinitum) for the first time in several years on a bigger screen and higher definition, i've come to a realization

i don't think the qunari actually ever had black sclera, i think their eyes were just so deep-set and shadowed by their brow (because THE HORNS FOLLOW THE BROWBONE, VEILGUARD!!!!) that it just looked like the da2 qunari's sclera were black!

so, we were wrong the entire time

but i WILL keep doing it regardless😤

[talk-danmei-to-me]

Hellooooo! For Danfic club (try and pry that name out of my cold dead hands!) I'd like to request...you can pick either...or both lol

1- Hualian AU, canon divergent, feat. 'The young soldier' Hua Cheng fucking the aphrodisiac's effect out of Xie Lian. Clumsy but rough sex please! Bottomlian!

2- Wangxian, canon divergent. Madam Lan lives and how it changes Lan Wangji as a person. Set in cloud recesses study arc. Maybe wangxian happen during the lectures? I want Madam Lan to be an amazing mom as well as someone who teases tf outta wangxian whenever she notices them making eyes at each other not knowing its a crush. She's their much needed braincell. Smut happening preferred, bottomxian please!

I am a massive fan of sex pollen, so I went with option 1... apologies I did tamper with the prompt a little to age up Hua Cheng. He's in his Wu Ming era rather than Hong Hong-er. Also any excuse to sneak in a bit of creep Jun Wu. Thanks for the prompt and enjoy!

...

'Abstinence is a waste of your time now, don't you think?'

The question haunted Xie Lian as his body succumbed to the effects of the pink hazy smoke White No-Face had blown into his lungs before he vanished. His body burned and his cock ached with unfulfilled need. Xie Lian panted beneath his mask, his breath hot and damp against his skin. Somehow, though his cultivation path demanded abstinence, it wasn't the first time he'd felt such an all consuming lust. His heart sank as he realised he'd been infected with Land of the Tender again.

Last time, his robes had been made of the purest silks. Now, they were rough fabric that caused delicious friction against his sensitive body every time he moved.

Xie Lian fumbled with the ties of his robe until he was able to tear them from his shoulders, they pooled on the ground. The cool air did nothing to soothe the heat raging within his body. What had he done last time... unable to hold his body up anymore he dropped to the floor. His eyes landed on his sword, propped against the wall across from him. Last time he'd stabbed himself. This time, Xie Lian had been stabbed too many times to bear another. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

'Your Highness!' Wu Ming rushed over to join Xie Lian on the floor. His masked face followed his gaze, 'You can't stab yourself this time. I won't let you.'

If Xie Lian had his wits, he would've found Wu Ming's words strange. Yet all he truly heard was that he wouldn't have to stab himself. His body turned pliant under Wu Ming's touch as he lifted him up and placed him in a sitting position. Despite the aphrodisiac burning up Xie Lian's body, Wu Ming's fingertips felt even more scalding. He rolled a nipple beneath his thumb and electricity coursed through Xie Lian's body. His hips bucked up of their own accord and a wanton moan escaped his lips. In a move that was almost tentative, Wu Ming raked his nails across Xie Lian's chest. It was too much and not enough at the same time. Xie Lian had already abandoned so many things, what hardship would it be to abandon one more? As Wu Ming explored his upper body, Xie Lian wrapped his fingers around his leaking cock and began to stroke himself.

He only managed a couple of strokes before Wu Ming's grasp tightened around his wrist, 'Your Highness, allow me.'

Unable to resist, Xie Lian dropped his hand and allowed Wu Ming to do whatever he wanted with him. Wu Ming's touch was clumsy at first, he gripped him too tightly, stroked him too aggressively. The Land of the Tender only served to increase the pleasure. The pain adding to the overall ecstasy Xie Lian felt from Wu Ming's ministrations. The mask on his face threatened to suffocate him as his breath hitched and his heart raced. With his free hand, Wu Ming curled a finger around the edge of the mask to remove it. An obstinate move, though Xie Lian had to admit, it was more comfortable. Without the mask, air could fill his lungs with abandon. His moans felt even more satisfying.

'Tell me what you want,' Wu Ming said, his pace turning frantic as he worked Xie Lian closer and closer to his first climax of the night.

'Anything... everything... make it stop hurting,' Xie Lian forced out between frantic pants.

Wu Ming nodded, toyed with Xie Lian's nipples with one hand as the other worked him until his release splattered across his stomach.

Xie Lian's moans of relief echoed around their hideout, but his cock remained half hard. He looked up at Wu Ming in a daze, 'More,' he begged.

Wu Ming wiped up the evidence of Xie Lian's climax, capturing it between his fingers before he flipped him over. Xie Lian gasped as his cock pressed against the mud floor. His body moved of his own accord and he rolled his hips against the floor seeking the friction that would bring him relief.

Suddenly an arm wrapped around his hips pinning him in place, 'Your Highness, allow me. Do not sully yourself this way.'

Xie Lian stilled and Wu Ming eased a finger within his entrance. His body jolted from the intrusion. He whimpered as Wu Ming added another finger, stretching his body for an unknown purpose. As Wu Ming's fingers pistoned within him Xie Lian found the burning sensation melding into a desire to be filled properly.

'Inside...' he gasped, 'put it inside.'

Wu Ming stilled in his actions, the second he withdrew his fingers, Xie Lian rolled over to see him better. Cautiously, he held his legs out of the way and offered Wu Ming his hole. After a moments fumbling to release his own cock, Wu Ming lined himself up and pushed inside. He set a punishing pace, thrusting into him with abandon, giving Xie Lian no time to think before his cock hit his prostate. Xie Lian gasped and moaned as Wu Ming embraced him, his mask dug into his shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise as they moved together in perfect rhythm, chasing relief. Xie Lian would be marked with the proof of what they had done long after the aphrodisiac had left his system. Wu Ming continued to fuck him into the floor as white clouded Xie Lian's vision. He felt the effects of the aphrodisiac start to fade as he was finally sated. He felt Wu Ming's cock throbbing within him as he hurtled towards his own release and wrapped his legs around him, holding him in place.

'Your Highness,' Wu Ming gasped.

'Inside,' Xie Lian said, digging his heels into  the crook of Wu Ming's back to punctuate his sentence.

Wu Ming nodded before he recklessly thrust into him, his moans deafening beside Xie Lian's ear as he spilled himself inside.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Normally, my meta is pretty focused on what happens in the story, and I bring things from reality to use when it’s useful. But I like pulling stories apart to talk about how the story works, and stories only exist with a thin tether to reality most of the time, and they have wildly different rules.

This one is a little different. This one is going to have a lot of outside information brought to bear to discuss Sherliam’s relationship, but they’re things I think are relevant: A Japanese word and its origins, how creating art and stories works, what being an artist is…and how that all impacts William and Sherlock, how they relate to each other as creations of artists and artists themselves.

Basically, stuff about how art is made and the context it lives in. I think that's more useful than comparing it to reality. It’ll be interesting, I promise! Just a little different than usual.

Let’s start here. I think you’ll see where I’m going with the Sherliam thing pretty quickly, but if not, don’t worry. I’m going to explain.

I saw this post on Bluesky during aro week, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.

Basically, there’s a word in Chinese, that has actually carried over to Japanese (I’ll get to that in a minute) that means, basically, “person who truly understands your songs.” It’s based off this story of this musician would make instrumental music, as one does, and this person who understood immediately, without being told, what the song was about. And this relationship was so deeply important and meaningful that after the second person died, the first destroyed his instrument, because there seemed to be no point in continuing to create music without the person who got it.

Yes, I know, you’re all seeing the Sherliam parallels already, but give me a bit longer before we get there.

This word carried over to Japanese with a slightly different pronunciation (as happens), but the same kanji and the same meaning. My Japanese-English dictionary defines it solely as “an exceptionally close friend.” No other options are provided. So I looked it up in some Japanese dictionaries! They both started with the same origin story of the word, and then both came up with a handful of definitions: Dear friend, person who understands your heart, partner, comrade, eventually it got down to sweetheart, someone you can rely on. My favorite was “Peerless/unmatched friend.”

The word does seem to be fairly formal and archaic and mostly relegated to Literature™ and classic works. It’s not a word that’s canonically ever applied to Sherlock or William.

And yet. And yet.

I don’t know how common the word is in Japanese that they’d recognize or know it. Whether or not it actually influenced the story from background knowledge, intentionally or not. But knowing the concept now, and knowing the concept has existed in Japanese culture as…as an option does change how I think of some of the media I’ve seen before. The word notwithstanding, the concept exists.

As an artist myself, I deeply understand the need/desire/hope/longing/etc. for a person who just. Gets what you’re trying to do. The person who deeply understands what you’re doing and your intentions and the way you expressed yourself. Who understands you via your creations.

I am, as many of you know, looking for a new critique partner right now. I have one, but I need one or two others for Reasons. And one of them already turned up a dud because this person’s feedback had nothing to do with what I want the story to be or what I’m trying to write. It’s a lot of marketing advice. Advice on how to make the story more what they would want, or more like other books.

A good CP needs to see what the intention of the story is, so they can make that story stronger and help that story make that point to more people. They have to understand your art. Not to the degree of a 知音, but nonetheless.

Sherlock and William are, obviously, on the level of understanding each other this way. They just get each other, without explanation, and they both treasure that relationship dearly. So dearly that Sherlock, when faced with the prospect of losing the person who truly got him, would have rather died with him then survive without that connection.

Because what was the point of doing things, of making things, of being, without that person who got it. How to bear living once you’ve finally found that person?

And I think this kind of gets to what Louis was seeing in Sherlock and hoping he would do to validate William’s existence. Sherlock got William. He saw his intentions through his plans, and saw who he was and what his soul was even under all the masks and walls and machinations. He understood why William would want to die, and that he was actually trying to die intentionally almost immediately.

And because Sherlock actually understood William’s existence, he could actually validate William’s existence. The same way someone has to understand what my book’s story is trying to be to actually help it. The same way someone actually understanding what the fuck I was trying to write makes me feel…well, like writing and sharing it with people is actually worth it, because I can do this.

And, because Sherlock understood William’s intentions and plans, he made changes to the story William planned, because he saw the weaknesses from a distance, saw the intentions without drowning himself in what was already there the way William the Author did. Because he saw the intentions, but also the actual effects.

And William’s plan came out stronger and more effective and more beautiful for it all. Because Sherlock was there to see it, to understand it, and to help.

After all, Sherlock is an artist, too, even if we only see him with his violin on occasion. He knows what it’s like. And he knows William helped give him a stage to show off what Sherlock wanted to share with the world, too (forensics, etc.).

And I think it’s interesting, after all that, to remember that Yuukoku no Moriarty is created by not one artist, but two. Did they understand each other’s intentions the way William and Sherlock understand each other? Almost certainly not, especially given that we lost one of them from the series. But they had to work together, to understand each other’s intentions and art, in order to work together and create the story. To fill in where the other fell short, to give feedback and strengthen the story together.

We don’t know much at all about their working relationship or how the series came to be from the two of them. It’s really impossible to speculate if they felt in sync or they wished they were working with someone who Got Them better. But I think either way, Sherlock and William’s working together to create a story that was stronger, fuller, and better than either could have come up with alone is an interesting reflection of their story’s two creators anyway.

[goodboylupin]

Better late than never! Welcome, one and all, to

The 4th Candy Hearts Challenge

A fun, stress-free Wolfstar mini-fest!

(If you remember how this goes , feel free to skip my introductory spiel and check for new rules!)

They’re sold by many companies and known by many names: Candy Hearts, Conversation Hearts, Sweethearts, and Love Hearts. Whatever the brand and whatever you call them, they’re the signature sweet of the season. Sure, you could buy your beloved a box of chocolates, but that’s an option any time of year! Good luck finding these bad boys in November!

Not that candy hearts are bad! Sure, they’re kinda chalky… and they taste stale no matter how fresh you bought them… but it’s not about the taste with candy hearts, it’s about the pastel, the experience, and above all else: the sayings! Who doesn’t remember going through a pack with friends, trying to find the kookiest message? Digging through a box to find one that was just the right level of romantic to give a certain special someone? (And maybe the heartbreak when you received one in turn where the message was just a big, pink smudge?)

Now, candy hearts have been around for a long time. And with a constant rotation of messages so we always got fun variety in a box, they’ve had a lot of sayings.

Through a great deal of internet sleuthing (and a little creativity on my part), I’ve collected over seven hundred of them.

Some are a little raunchy (TEASE ME), and some are downright rude (EW NO). They range from classic (BE MINE) to contemporary (SWIPE RIGHT) to were-at-one-point-contemporary (FAX ME). Some of them are, quite frankly so hyper specific it’s a wonder they made it into circulation at all (ME JULIE BEST MUM).

And they are all, even the weird ones, ripe with potential as fic prompts!

The way this mini-fest works is simple:

From 12:01am EST Feb 1 until 11:59pm EST March 1, drop me an ask containing these emojis: 🍬💕

If you don't want to send an ask from your main tumblr account (or don't have a tumblr account), you can do so anonymously. However, you must include the ao3 handle or tumblr sideblog from which you plan to complete the challenge.

I will shake my Great Big Box of Candy Hearts and pull out a unique candy heart for you and only you!

With your message in hand, create whatever that candy heart inspires and your own heart desires! Fanfic, art, graphics, playlists, head canons, shit posts, interpretive dances, cosplay, meta essays, it’s all great as long as its central focus is on Wolfstar, the relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black!

You can either directly quote your candy heart message in your work or use it as a broader inspiration.

You are allowed to use the same candy heart as inspiration for multiple unrelated works and submit all of them to the fest.

You do not need a beta before submitting your work, but I do encourage you to get one. I want this to be as stress-free an event as it can possibly be, and in my personal experience, it reduces stress to have someone else look over your completed work for at least spelling and grammar so you don’t have to reread your own stuff and psych yourself out before posting. If you don’t have any fandom friends with whom you feel comfortable sharing your fanfiction, there are also online resources to find a friendly stranger (including, hopefully, our discord server — see rule 17). But if ultimately, you’d rather be your own editor, I certainly won’t reject your work!

Include the following caption at the beginning of the tumblr post or AO3 beginning notes: For @goodboylupin's Candy Hearts Challenge. My candy heart prompt was ____. I will not reblog your work or allow it in the collection until you have included the caption.

If posting on tumblr, please make sure the @-tag of your caption is working so I get a notification! It should show up on its own automatically as you type. Also tag the work with #RSCandyHearts, preferably within the first five tags.

If posting on AO3, post your work to the collection and tag it with goodboylupin's RS Candy Hearts Challenge (this tag will show up in the suggestions when you start typing it).

As long as the rules have been followed, I will reblog every work on Tumblr, and leave a kudos on every work on AO3. (If I haven't done so on your work and you see I've been active on this blog, then both the @-notification and #RSCandyHearts tag failed. Send me an ask with a link!)

If, after completing your first work, you want another helping of candy hearts, that’s more than welcome! Since I don’t want anyone to get a sugar crash, there is a two-day wait period between submitting a work and getting a second (or third or fourth or wherever you are) candy heart.

If you find you cannot come up with anything for your prompt, you can drop out and send a new ask to get a different candy heart. However, you need to give it an honest effort for at least one week before I give you a new one.

Works are expected by March 15, but this is a low-stakes, self-posting challenge! If you need more time, just message me or drop an ask. And if you want to drop out, that’s totally fine! I’ll even delete your first ask where you requested a candy heart if you prefer. I only need to know for the sake of my own record-keeping. Let’s all just be honest, considerate, and try to have a good time!

If you need a really long extension: Your candy heart is yours until January of next year, at which point, if I haven't heard back from you with an update or request for extension in the past few months, your prompt is going back in the Great Big Box of Candy Hearts so somebody else can have a go at it. The AO3 collection closes at the same time.

I will keep a masterlist of works pinned on my blog until at least March 22.

There's a discord! Feel free to join to discuss your prompts, your progress, your love of Wolfstar, or just to have another little circle in your sidebar.

Over the past two challenges, there have been a small handful of people who requested a candy heart, did not create anything and did not speak to me any further to tell me they were dropping out or having trouble. I work hard to make everyone a custom graphic and keep this fest running smoothly, therefore: Any creators with multiple instances of ghosting are suspended from getting another candy heart until next challenge.

Since this is not the usual timeframe for #RSCandyHearts, I'd love it if you could reblog this post to signal boost!

My ask box is open now to receive your candy heart requests 🍬💕

[eff-plays]

How do you feel about Wyll's views on his father not changing at all? I felt kinda weird listening to Wyll literally tell his dad "there's nothing to forgive" like he was apologizing for casting out his teenaged son and Wyll's like NAh. He feels the same about that whole situation as he did at the start of the game, I think I would've preferred some sort of change or development? not even something big but denying his fathers apology feels weird, even "I understand and respect why he did it but I wish he just listened instead of assuming I had anything but good intentions" ?? Like he was 17 when he made a deal with a devil to save the city, and he did!!!! But maybe that's just cause I'm mad that Ulders first words after being saved are shitting on Tav for his son being a demon lmaoooo

what are your thoughts on it if you have any xoxo

I have thots, but disclaimers upfront because I will be talking out of my ass for most of this:

All the D&D I've played have been in entirely homebrew worlds, because most of my friends are also writers or at least worldbuilders. So I have no previous experience with the Forgotten Realms or its canon, i.e. I had no idea who Ulder Ravengard was and why Wyll being his son was a big deal, though I assumed he was someone very important.

I never actually um. Finished Act 3. Yeah, I uninstalled the game before I finished it lmao. I kept thinking "oh I'll come back to it once Larian have fixed it!" *looks into the camera like I'm on The Office* I finished Karlach, Astarion, and Wyll's quests, though I didn't start the Ansur part of it because it felt kinda random, and obviously I knew we wouldn't be getting a cool epic dragon for an ally, so I decided to leave that bit for later with the other bigger companion quests like Lae'zel's, Shart's, and Gale's. Jokes on me, right?

But I did save Ulder with Wyll, and did pick the one option to show via tadpole that Wyll is a good sweet boy. And I got the underwhelming "nothing to forgive" reunion. So I do know that part.

I played only like. An hour of early access. And then dropped it and uninstalled the game because it didn't grab me. I certainly didn't meet Wyll, and even if I had, I think it would've been post-rewrites.

Okay, now onto my actual thots. It's extremely long lmao I love yapping.

First of all, I think Ulder disowning Wyll could have actually worked quite well if they'd kept old Wyll, who I hear was kind of an obnoxious, arrogant dude. Like, if your teen son is a bit of a knob, and you're the most important nobleman/politician in an important city, then it "makes sense" to disown him as a disciplinary measure. You know he can take care of himself, you know he's capable of greatness, but he's a bit of a dickhead and needs to grow up. So tell him to leave and maybe in a few years he'll sort himself out. It's fucked up, but it's the sort of thing I can see a guy in this situation and in this world do.

BUT. Wyll isn't an arrogant and obnoxious dude. He's very mature, very kind, and always well-meaning. Nothing indicates this was different when he was a teen. So Ulder disowning him feels disproportionately cruel from the start, and it is, but it also feels like it comes out of nowhere and makes Ulder looks less like a strict parent and a politician doing what he thinks is the best out in a bad situation, and more like ... well, like a fucking asshole. Hence why it feels so fucking unfair and unfinished that Wyll just forgives him, or rather says there's nothing to forgive? It feels like Wyll constantly has to take on the role of the adult, of the emotionally mature one, of the one who is too good-hearted and understanding to ever feel anything negative, while his garbage dad gets to just be a douchebag towards his son without much cause or consequence.

Furthermore, we never get the sense that Ulder feels bad or regrets what he did, or that he's at least conflicted, even with his apology. It's just "Yeah I disowned my son. No I don't expect him to come back better in any way." And then he flips on a dime after a single conversation, so his decision to disown Wyll feels like it was easily undone and not of any consequence. Wyll forgiving him immediately feels just very unearned, and like the narrative itself frames Ulder's actions as understandable? (On that note, showing Ulder some tadpole visions to prove Wyll is good, I prommy, feels so cheap? Like y'all really did that, huh? And Ulder, who assumed the worst when his beloved son showed up in a warlock pact, would just take the vague visions of a stranger when his son looks like a saucy incubus? Ok.)

Now, if Larian had wanted to stick with this, I think it could've worked this way if Wyll was afforded any sort of emotional depth. Like, if Wyll said "there's nothing to forgive" initially, because he loves and deeply respects his father and thinks, logically, that what he did was right, so he tries to justify it to himself in order for that cruel act to make sense. But then he realizes that it still hurts, that it was unfair, that it was cruel, and that he can't forgive his dad, not this easily at least. That initial "nothing to forgive" would've worked excellently as a kneejerk reaction, a defense mechanism, and something for him to later retract when he realizes that "nothing to forgive" means "nothing you do would make me forgive you". That would've been juicy as FUCK.

If Larian had instead wanted to afford Ulder more depth and make us understand his actions (which they wanted to do with Wyll saying there's nothing to forgive, signalling to us that Ulder in some ways was justified), then they should've made Wyll a huge brat as a younger teen. If they'd done that, we as modern players would still find it a bit unfair, but a nobleman disowning his rowdy-ass son for taking an escapade a step to far, to teach him a lesson? That makes sense, doesn't it? It would've been a strict parent thing to do, but assuming Ulder knew his son would make it on his own, cutting him off from the privilege that's turning him into a dickhead would be a sensible course of action. If that's what happened, then it would've also made sense for Ulder to immediately get pissed off when he saw Wyll transformed, because he'd assume that his cringefail son didn't learn his lesson at all. AND it would've made sense for Wyll to say there's nothing to forgive: because he knows he used to be a huge fucking brat, and his Mizora thing would've just looked like another prank Youtuber oopsie to Ulder, who had no reason to believe otherwise.

Now, Larian did neither of these things, or rather, tried to do both without actually committing, because then it would make one of the two look "bad" (i.e. like a real flawed human being). That's why it ends up feeling incongruent and, say it with me now, unfinished. There is no logical progression to their actions, because, say it with me now, nobody bothered to give them consistent motivations or depth.

Here's the two plots laid out in order to illustrate what I think would be logical courses of actions for both characters, compared to what Larian actually did:

1

Wyll is a baby boy, baby > Ulder is a ruthless politician who's obsessed with his image > Wyll steps into dogshit (Mizora) and smells funny now, but can't explain where the smell is coming from > All the nobles are like "ew this stinks lmfao" > Ulder decides to disown his son for the sake of his power and image, justifying it to Wyll by saying it's what he owes to the people of Baldur's Gate > Wyll comes back, still baby boy, baby, but with horns now > Ulder is horrified about what this might do to his image again and tells him to fuck off > Tav shows him that Wyll is badass now and was always badass, stopped the cult of Tiamat etc > Ulder's politician brain fires up again and he realizes his son might be GOOD for his image, apologizes for disowning him > Wyll, still trying to tell himself his father did the right thing, says there's nothing to forgive > Realizes later that what Ulder did was fucked up and retracts his forgiveness > Ulder now has to figure out his priorities and relationship with his son while Wyll has asserted his autonomy and personhood.

2

Wyll is a known rich brat > Wyll steps into dogshit (Mizora) and smells funny now, but can't explain where the smell is coming from > Ulder is fucking tired of his son's dogshit shenanigans and disowns him for his own good > Wyll travels the world to become a cool hero dude, but gets turned into a devil so he looks bad > Ulder assumes his cringefail son is still cringefail > Realizes he's not cringefail anymore and apologizes for disowning him in that very vulnerable moment when he needed him most > Wyll says it's ok because he was indeed a massive brat who took it a step too far, and Ulder had no way of knowing his crying wolf was real this time > Flawed but happy family!!

3 (canon)

Wyll is a baby boy, baby > Wyll steps into dogshit (Mizora) and smells funny now, but can't explain where the smell is coming from > Ulder assumes his baby boy son did a prank youtuber oopsie and decides to disown his son for the sake of his power and image?? > Wyll comes back, still baby boy, but with horns now > Ulder assumes his baby boy son is cringefail??? > Tav shows him that Wyll is badass now and was always badass, stopped the cult of Tiamat etc > Ulder realizes only now that Wyll was never cringefail ?? and apologizes for disowning him because he actually loves him > Wyll says it's ok ?? > Everything is fine and back to normal, nobody did an oopsie and nothing changed.

Y'see what I mean???

And the thing is, given that I was able to piece together what they were going for and two entire potential angles that could've worked excellently, it's clear that there are bits of potential, little inklings of what could have been, but the writer just didn't bother exploring deeper at all? Like they had some ideas that they threw at the wall and then didn't rewrite or think about them at all. It feels like a first draft of a character's story, where you have some ideas but haven't figured out the overall structure or progression of events. Instead you just throw in everything you have and pretend that's a finished story and that the inconsistencies are just "depth" and "nuance", when in reality, you're just asking the player to fill in the gaps you couldn't be bothered with, and when they can't do that because it makes no damn sense, you just ignore them lol.

Um. Yeah. Those are my thots, lmao.

It's just unfinished. That's what it is. Straight up!!!

[auxiliarydetective]

OHC Day Six: Role Swap AU

But I'm Just A Tailor

The person we'll be displacing from their canon today is my beloved fashion icon, Akaito Coraline. And it all started with this gif:

Look at that lacing! At first, I was just joking about how Cora would be obsessing over that detail, and care less about how she was damn near being sliced up by Mihawk then about finding out who made that coat for him.

But then it came to me.

What if she made it?

I hereby present to you... Akaito Coraline - Cross Guild AU

Normally, I don't give warnings on the specifics of spoilers after OPLA (unless they're also spoilers for more recent animanga happenings), but in this case:

This post will include spoilers on the arcs that OPLA Season 2 will be based on! If you want to avoid those, click away now!

This also means that the exact happenings on how this AU would play out will necessarily change once season 2 is out, but for now, I'll be working with what I know about Alabasta.

SO!

The first divergence is that, instead of ending up in the East Blue after fleeing from Germa, Cora runs straight into Sir Crocodile's arms. And Crocodile is no fool. He's a very informed man, so he realized who Cora is very quickly. As such, he hires her into Baroque Works as his personal tailor, under the codename Miss .

He promises her that she'll have all she could ask for. All she has to do is to make clothes for him and to keep quiet about his operations. No assassinations required. That doesn't mean he doesn't support her in learning to fight with her rapier and devil fruit though.

It doesn't take long for him to introduce Cora to the royal family of Alabasta. They're kind and welcoming and give Cora a lot of freedom in learning about the country's culture, its fashion and different methods of clothing design. Cora finds herself growing close to Princess Vivi especially, but she knows it's only temporary.

Things start to turn chaotic when a group of teenagers who call themselves the Straw Hat Pirates start picking fights with Baroque Works. They wreak havoc in Whiskey Peak - taking in Vivi in the process -, defeat multiple agents on Little Garden and even steal an Eternal Pose to Alabasta! Sir Crocodile is very upset and Cora can feel trouble brewing. The ever-terrifying Miss All Sunday is acting strangely too.

But then, the Straw Hats show up at the Rainbase Casino.

Cora's entire world is turned around.

Suddenly, things aren't easy anymore.

There's a man on the phone with Sir Crocodile, someone who identifies himself as Mr Prince. His voice is oddly familiar. Too familiar for Cora to just sit idly. She finds the mysterious man in the middle of the casino, and her heart nearly stops when she sees him. Because it's Sanji. The Sanji she has been mourning for over ten years, who she thought was dead. She knows it's him but he won't stop pretending that he doesn't know who she is. He has to know, she saw it in his eyes, but he doesn't want to let her in.

"It's because we're supposed to be enemies now, isn't it?"

No matter what she tries, he won't drop his act.

That is until they meet again in the middle of a civil war and Sanji is fighting Mr 2, one of Baroque Works's best agents... and one of Cora's best friends. Mr 2 has the ability to change into anyone he has touched, which is part of how he fights. Change into people his opponents care about and hit them when they're paralysed and conflicted. Just as Cora arrives, she can see Mr 2 wearing her face, see Sanji refusing to hit someone who looks like her. Now he can't lie to her anymore.

In a move that her boss would only consider stupid, Cora steps between the two combatants, nearly getting herself stabbed. But it works. Even without her drawing her rapier, neither of them want to hurt her.

The civil war for Alabasta ends. Baroque Works has fallen. With no other options, Cora leaves Alabasta with the Straw Hats on their ship, but she can't get herself to stay. She's just not cut out for a pirate's life. After all, she's just a tailor. So, she leaves the ship at the next island, aiming to find a job with the Marines instead. Surely, they need someone to make the thousands of uniforms they need, right? It sounds like the perfect stable job.

But things turn out very differently. Cora does find work with the Marines, but not making uniforms. Instead, she's tailoring the suits and coats for the upper ranks. But this job is anything but stable. It doesn't take long for a big execution to take place at Marine Headquarters. A war breaks out, with Cora getting stuck right in the middle. She tries her best to avoid the fighting, to defend herself whenever she can, but the chaos is so fundamental that she can't do anything except hide and wait for it to be over.

When the smoke clears, Cora finds herself staring it to piercing, golden eyes of Dracule Hawk Eyes Mihawk, a Warlord just like Crocodile had been. He... kidnaps her(?)... out of the ruins of Marineford and brings her with him to his island, a dark and gloomy place with a large castle in the middle. Apparently, there's a whiny ghost girl on the island too... and Zoro, that green-haired swordsman that was with the Straw Hats. Neither of them are supposed to be here, it seems. But Mihawk, despite his cold exterior, lets them stay. And he'll let Cora stay too, if she makes clothes for him, that is. As it turns out, the World's Greatest Swordsman is into fashion. Who knew!

It's definitely not what Cora had expected her life to become. Living in a castle on an otherwise uninhabited island (safe for the killer gorillas), alongside a moody swordsman, a quirky goth girl and a mossheaded, directionally challenge pirate, albeit the latter only temporarily. But using her skills and passion and having discussions about fashion in return for meals, a home and swordfighting lessons from the World's Greatest... Not a bad deal.

Finally, a stable employment... right?

No, this AU is called Cross Guild AU for a reason, her state of employment will change again, though not as drastically. But this post is already long enough, and if you know about the Cross Guild, you know where this story is headed.

General Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats

One Piece Taglist: @supermarine-silvally

Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[codecicle]

Ok so. Chip star wars au backstory. Basically, what I'm thinking is that the story is pretty much the same, with some obvious adjustments.

Chip grows up on board the Midnight Rose (a space ship this time, not an ocean one lol). It's the early years of the Empire, and the Black Rose pirates are both pirates and kind of an early rebel cell? sorta? They're still pretty powerful, like in the riptide canon, as the Empire is still kind of getting its shit together. And when I say they're *sort of* rebels what i mean is that, while they do actively dislike the Empire, they're not fighting them directly so much as they're being a general nuisance for them and stealing their shit and disrupting their plans.

As for the hole in the sea...well, I have two ideas for that would be.

Number one is that it's, like, a weird Force thing, which there are A Lot of in Star Wars. It's sort of like that weird fucking cube-planet-thing they get stranded on in The Clone Wars for that one arc with the Father the Daughter the Son--it's that sort of batshit fucking star wars thing, and it basically, like...sucks them in and the events of the Hole in the Sea oneshot play out pretty much the same way. This one I like because it has the wackass magical element to it and could thus account for the wackass Chip Lore that we're currently being insane about in the hiatus.

(The aforementioned Wackass Chip Lore does throw a bit of a wrench into the AU, since we don't know anything for certain about it, so when Riptide starts back again and we find out more this part of the au could be pretty much derailed, but adjustments can always be made and the sw lore is crazy enough that I'll probably be able to figure something out).

Second option is that the "Hole in the Sea" is a weapon of sorts--something the Empire is maybe working on in secret, something that they maybe found that was like, the ruins of an ancient space-civilization with super weird, cool technology yknow? And the black rose pirates end up there somehow (one idea is that it's like a gravity well, like they had in Rebels I think??? It might have been tcw i can't remember. Something that can pluck ships out of hyperspace like it's nothing). It could also be a combination of these two options--maybe it's some weird space magic thing the Empire was studying but then some Weird Magical Bullshit happened and drove them all out, but the Magic was like, awake, or something, idk I'm tired and that's all I have for now. This ask was not originally this long LMAO

Oh my fucking god I understand I get it. What if the hole in the sea was the Empire experimenting with the dark side of the force to build the superweapon that can just. Yoink a fuckin ship out of hyperspace and send them to some form of a rebel prison, but it ended up malfunctioning because the original designs were ones they stole from that ancient space-civilization you mentioned were made with the light side of the force/jedi use in mind. it ends up creating a sort of whackass void/black hole of the force in this pit deeeep deep into outer space and just like the Allport blockade, the Empire ends up telling any ships that try to leave the docks not to go there. the only people that can go anywhere near it are the ones that live on the nearby planets (like the underground towns and crew the albatrio found while in the black sea when chip got his heart ripped out), the Empire visiting bases (like the navy base from 114), or any rebel trader that's either stupid enough or skilled enough to disobey the Empire and make it all the way there and back alive. Since Captain Rose was one of the pirate lords, maybe it was an intentional and direct attack that just ended up backfiring and left them with no other option than to quarantine that set of planets and hope nothing else happened and no-one survived (they literally all did LMAOO)

[frauleinandry]

a persona 3 reload review

uuuuuuh so i was meant to post this like... two weeks ago, but then real life hit me in the head like a frying pan. now that i've had the time to edit this though, here are my thoughts on p3re! this is also a minato route review, as i played kotone's in P3P (i know it's not his canon name, but i don't want to use makoto due to P5 confusion).

on the whole, reload is a fantastic game. the gameplay easily rivals P5R, and surpasses it in some aspects. the new content is typically great. i also enjoyed minato as a character (well, as much of a character as persona protagonists are anyway), though that leads me to the main gripe i had with reload...

... and that's the lack of kotone's social links. to be precise, two of her social links, the absence of which greatly hurts the overall story.

don't get me wrong, i'd still rank reload a solid 8/10, but it could have been a 10/10 with the addition of those two links (plus one other spoiler thing), and I think that's a shame.

my in depth analysis is under the cut - note, it's very much not spoiler free.

okay, so, i'm gonna split this into 3.5 segments - the good, the mixed, and the bad (you'll find out what the 0.5 is later).

1. the good:

minato - while i'm still a kotone girlie at heart, he's not a bad protagonist at all! his dialogue options have a very distinct personality to them unlike joker and yu, and his character arc is one of the best of all of the persona main leads. an aloof, apathetic boy who learns to love the world/his friends so much he's willing to die for them... it's good!

koromaru - minor, but worth mentioning. you can pat him, and it's so cute. in fact, everything about him is perfect. from his all-out attack screen, to his animations, to... well, everything. no joke, if I needed to sell this game to a non-persona fan, i'd use him as the main draw.

hangout events - while I think being able to chat to everyone in the dorm already made SEES one of the more developed casts, having additional scenes really helped flesh out the party members who are less prominent in the plot (fuuka, pre-january aigis, ken). more things to do at night is also great, given there was nothing to do in the evening after maxing your social stats in the older versions. the perks they give you are great too, but i'll talk about that more later.

voice acting - not gonna lie, i generally don't like the persona dubs, and normally always play with the JP audio. given reload features some of my favourite voice actors though and was basically fully voiced, i decided to give it a chance this time. and i don't regret it! while some actors are definitely stronger than others, none of them were actively jarring, and quite frankly, they hard carried a lot of the social links. kudos to the cast!

strega - while they could have gone a bit further with it (jin needed a linked episode for sure), takaya finally got the development he sorely needed, and his and jin's final battles were actually interesting, instead of being annoying distractions from nyx. in fact, i'd say takaya's new content is easily the best of the new reload exclusive material. in portable, he made no impression on me whatsoever, but now, he finally gets to be the anti!minato he deserves to be.

1.5. the tartarus (aka good part 2, electric boogaloo):

i have so many things to gush about in terms of the new combat/exploration system, i decided it needed its own section! the glow-up tartarus got was massive. i was pretty disappointed when i heard they were keeping it randomly generated, but somehow, atlus pulled it off! i'll talk about individual things below.

collectables/monad doors - one issue with OG tartarus is that it's monotonous. breakable collectables make it much more entertaining to romp through though, as smashing things is Fun. the monad doors interspersed throughout are another good addition - if you want a break from roaming, you can challenge them, but if not, that's fine!

floor layout - another thing that makes tartatus more fresh to explore is that the HD graphics really make the differences between the blocks pop out. the generally smaller floors with more unique layouts really helps too.

shifting - it's baton pass, though without the ridiculous power/sp bonuses that made baton pass a little bit too gamebreaking in persona 5. in other words, perfect!

theurgy - out of all the battle-specific improvements, theurgy and the personality traits have got to be my favourites. showtimes were fun, but too random/gimmicky to be that useful, and ultimate skills tended to fluctuate between being absolutely gamebreaking or too SP intensive to be worth using. blending them into one feature with a content-specific gauge fixes all the problems with them while keeping everything that made showtimes/ultimate skills good.

ambush mechanics - this was one of the things i was most worried about before playing reload. ambushing in P5 is fun, but ambushing in the other persona games...? not so much. reload manages to fix this though by making the shadows less sensitive, which makes the early game a lot better, and but introducing dash-ambushes once the floors get bigger. if the persona 6 ambush system works like this, i'll be happy.

navigator skills - fuuka being retooled to work more like a playable character was an A+++ decision. making her skills player-activated but with an SP cost is so much more immersive than randomly getting a stat boost/enemy info.

unfortunately, while i think most of the tartarus additions were great, there were a few new mechanics which weren't... dreadful, per say, but could have been implemented better.

great clocks - they're better than nothing, but quite frankly, i would have preferred it if benched units got 50% exp instead. they incentivise you to drop two units for a period of time, which is annoying, given i want to use everyone on my first playthrough. late game, great clocks are also a pain to summon, for reasons i'll talk about below.

twilight fragments - i think they're a neat idea in theory, but they need to be easier/more reliable to farm. once you finish off the bulk of your social links/elizabeth's requests, replenishing them becomes a nightmare, which is annoying because you need them for great clocks.

2. the mixed:

while reload did a lot of things right, as per above, there were some things that didn't quite hit the mark.

linked episodes - i'm gonna be blunt. anyone who thinks these are better than social links is smoking something. one thing i like about party member social links is that it gives them a subplot outside of the main story, focusing more on their mundane struggles as opposed to their supernatural ones. half of the linked episodes just develop the main plot more though (and really should have just been included in it), meaning the linked episode exclusive subplots are underbaked.

another problem is that some of the linked episodes are just... kinda badly written. ryoji's completely lacks his existential dread, akihiko's comes off as a poor attempt to make his arena behaviour less OOC, while shinjiro's... it feels like persona 5 writing, in the worst way possible. it's like atlus completely forgot that subtext is a thing that's Good, actually.

while I have been fairly critical of them so far though, there are a couple of linked episodes i liked. koromaru's actually worked with the format, given he's a dog, but the real winner here was takaya. i loved all of his. if linked episodes appear again, i'd rather they be locked to antagonists like him.

art direction- i'll say right now - the UI is fabulous, the model shaders are great, and tartarus looks fantastic. the environmental design on the whole though is a bit iffy - a lot of the environments didn't translate to the super HD very well, and the lighting sucks in general. i needed to turn down the brightness it was so eye-searing. the animation of the 2D cutscenes is also pretty mediocre, and while the 3D cutscenes tend to look better, they're held back by some of the character models looking a bit goofy (mitsuru's is probably the biggest offender). i also think they were too scared of making the sprites 'ugly', and therefore on the whole they're slightly less emotive than the ones in the older versions of the game, which is a pity.

3. the bad:

minato's social links - the vast majority of the minato-exclusive social links are just flat-out not great. serious props to the voice actors here, since they hard carried them. quite frankly, they're just... bland, except for maya's and suemitsu's, which. uh. have problems. on the topic of social links, while i'm happy the romance isn't mandatory anymore, i don't like how half the girls explicitly confess to you. i much prefer the more subtle vibes of the P5/P4 romantic options, as yeah, most of them can lead naturally into romance, but they don't make the MC feel like a harem anime protagonist (derogatory). it kinda brings to mind this twitter post; sometimes, subtlety is simply better.

the absence of shinji and ryoji's social links - i can live without saori, rio, and most of the new and improved SEES member social links, but this is where i draw the line. while shinji dying is better storytelling, just like with chidori, having the option to save him is also important. lock it behind new game plus, yes... but keep it. also, him priming kotone to support akihiko one he's gone is far better than him just flat-out telling minato that he's dying. ryoji's missing social link though is infinitely worse. where is his slowly mounting horror as he starts poking holes in his backstory? his desperation to validate that he's actually real? that he exists?! like yeah, it's nice that the linked episode doubled down on his bisexuality, but i'd rather keep the psychological breakdown aspects of it, y'know?

the difficulty - i started playing reload normal - the level i'd typically use for a blind run of a persona game - aaaaand swapped to hard the second i unlocked theurgy. even then though, the game was a cakewalk until january hit. while i love theurgy, the game is absolutely not scaled around it, especially since you can charge/concentrate them. doing that, you can easily rack up thousands of damage without even going ham with fusion. unfortunately, reload is just... really easy.

the plot's too faithful to the original - while reload added new content, it pretty much left the story untouched outside of the beach scene. that's... not good, as persona 3's narrative had some pretty big problems. the biggest issue is the unchanged pacing - the strega storyline really needed to start a month earlier, and ryoji needed an extra month to integrate with the characters due to his lack of social link. this is one of the things i'm explicitly docking a point for - reload still doesn't kick off until the yakushima arc, which is well over a third into the game.

despite my criticisms, i do want to note that my experience with reload was predominately positive. it's (extremely) sad that you still need to play portable to experience the full persona 3 story, but p3re is still a fantastic game, and has a lot of gameplay features i'd be delighted to see in persona 6.

that's all i've got to say for now - until next time!

[nakitengoku]

Hi I see u reblog posts all the time with 'vex' and 'vance', who are they?

I'm so glad you asked! Buckle up, this'll be a long one.

In Short, Vex is my cyberpunk 2077 self-insert turned oc through Character Development and Quirks that I don't possess! You can find all the posted drawings I've done of him here, here and here, but I can give you a rough summary bc I love talking about him and he makes me ill <3 I've even made him his own Spotify Playlist

First off, Vex's original concept came a while ago when I had first watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. (Original designs below) I named this self insert Ghost and he was supposed to operate as a shady BD dealer

I wouldn't come back to this idea for a whole year, where a friend of mine who had been posting about the game convinced me to play. I decided to revamp Ghost, including his Name Change to Vex (to fit the theme of the main characters name starting with V). Through many back and forth a between me and my friend, and through playing the game, I had eventually fleshed out Vex.

Crash course in Vex Lore, due to rough circumstances and having no other options, he signed a contract with an upstart xbd (hyper-realistic 3d experiences plugged straight into your brain. Vex's specifically was in the pleasurable kind (he's a pornstar)) producer. For Nine year, Vex worked under this Producer, slowly becoming more and more of a hit star, especially among fanatics. But he wanted to be done with it and move on with his life, and lean into his side gig of being a Merc for hire. The producer, learning that Vex was gonna quit, begged him for once last recording. During which, the Producer tried to have Vex killed by the hands of his co-actor. Vex learns this in the middle of a scene and flips it around, instead Killing his co-actor and his producer.

He then hides the body, moves and tries to make a job for himself in Atlanta, but after nearly 2 years of miss after miss, he's forced to return to Night City, thus kicking off the start of the game!

Other than his backstory, he is part of the Worlds worst polycule composed of the Canon Characters, Kerry Eurodyne, River Ward and Johnny Silverhand, and the Non Canonical (though they're both canonical in my heart) Vex and Vance.

You may now be at the point of 'Phoenix, you've only been speaking about Vex, who the hell is Vance' Well, my dear beloved Mutual, Vance is @mail-me-a-snail's V! They're more inclined to talk about him and if you're really curious, they have an entire tag about him on their blog! Just know that I love Vance so strongly that Vex has to deal with it

(They've also recently posted one of their drawings of Vance and Vex and I'm over the moon about it)

There's also our mutual Bad Ending for Vance and Vex that you'll occasionally see me mention in Tags. That's the ending where Vex never escaped his Producer, instead continuing his work and becoming extremely popular and Vance never leaving Arasaka (a huge corporation). This ending is just for the two of them to rip each other apart in mutually assured destruction done out of love, commitment and understanding <3 (of which has its own Spotify playlist)

General rule of thumb is if you see a Vex with short hair and a blue collar, that's normal Vex. If you see him with long hair and he's missing his collar, That's the Bad End Vex.

That's it for Major Plot Points! He's a pretty kind and caring guy, but Hates Johnny's guts and will only refer to him as Silverhand (for multiple reasons). He's main weapon is a katana. He'll eat random food off the street bc of ingrained habits and won't think twice about how nasty that it. His preferred mode of transport is a motorbike bc he can't drive a car for shit. He's my sopping wet cat of an oc that I shake around like a limp piece of prey between my teeth.

Hope you enjoyed this rant about him! Thank you so much for asking ! (And feel free to keep asking, I love talking about him)

[sparklepool101]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

"Tagged" in @kindlystrawberry's open invitation (who is one of my favorite fic writer ever, seriously PLEASE check her stuff out!) and using this as an excuse to ramble :p

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

66!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

192,170 since 2020!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

A little bit of everything! The top couple that pop up on my profile are Craig of the Creek (21), Project Sekai (14), Rise of the TMNT (5), and Kid Cosmic (5). But honestly? Whatever I'm into at the moment has a good chance at getting a fic. (My notes app is nothing but draft ideas.)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sure As Sun Turns to Moon (I'll be With You) (FNAF) - 1,697

I Can't Lose You Again (ROTTMNT) - 847

Another Danganronpa Chatfic >:3c (Danganronpa) - 478

Wish We Could Turn Back Time (Don't Hug Me I'm Scared) - 430

Five Times Casey Moved to a New Cave and One Time that He Moved into a New House (ROTTMNT) - 421

So one of these is not like the others lol. I can explain though. So, top down:

SASTTM got published when Security Breach was super popular and tapped into the public outcry for Freddy being Gregory's dad. It's been sitting unfinished for over a year now at 28k, but I do have plans to finish it! I've cut the draft down a lot to actually make it a feasible writing project now, but I'm not going to publish anymore chapters until it's done. I want to finish it properly because this fic helped me grow so much as a writer and it means a lot to me.

I Can't Lose You Again will get touched on later on, as well as Wish We Could Turn Back Time.

Five Time Casey Moved was a fic that I wrote in a haze after watching season one of ROTTMNT and then the movie. It was published the day after the movie came out iirc and has a really special place in my heart for several reasons <3

And then the chatfic.

I got my fandom start in Danganonpa and in middle school, chatfics are the funniest, coolest things ever. So once I decided to start writing, obviously I had to do my own. It has aged horribly, is horribly written, and honestly should be deleted and never see the light of day again. Or at least be orphaned. But I made myself a promise to never delete my old fics unless they were actually horrific because you know what? Everyone starts somewhere. So it's still up. And one day it will get dethroned from the top kudos list and I will throw a party <3

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I usually respond!! It makes me so giddy to receive even the shortest comments, and I always try to pass on that good feeling <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

So out of my published fics its I’d Make a Deal with God (I’d Get Him to Swap Our Places) which is a ROTTMNT fic I wrote about the movie before it came out to speculate on the future. In it we see both Raph and Donnie get kranged, leaving Leo and Mikey crying in a subway. A friend actually told me to kay why you know what myself because of it (in a very much joking manner) which was SUCH a compliment!!!

Out of everything I've written? There's a half finished ROTTMNT fic in my junior year AP Lang notebook which takes place over one week and ends with Mikey dying which is... really angsty. Like worryingly angsty. It's still an interesting concept that I think could be fun to explore, but even if I do ever finish it idk if it'll see the light of day.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'm really not a fan of unhappy endings, even in fics. Hurt is best served with a side of comfort in my opinion, so everything I write ends up being really light and fluffy.

Three fics come to mind as having the happiest *ending* though.

The first is Would You be so Kind (As to Fall in Love with Me?) which is a Craig of the Creek fic entirely focused on two characters realizing that they love each other and that polyamory is an option! It's super sweet and I refuse to believe it's not canon tbh.

The other two are both Project Sekai fics from Tenmay this year, The Royal Summit (Where Friendships Blossom) and Sunbound Promise. They're both fantasy aus where Tsukasa and Toya grow closer, the first being their first meeting and the second where they become brothers. They're both so sweet and self indulgent, the endings make me so happy <3 <3 <3 <3

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got one comment on SASTTM where someone was bitching about neopronouns which I think counts. But overall people have been really nice and anyone who doesn't jive with the fic just moves on lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope, and I don't know if I ever will. It's just not what I really want to write :p

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Occasionally! None of them have been particularly "crazy", though. I try to keep those things pretty grounded. I have a lot of crossover ideas that don't get written though :p

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but if anyone ever wants to do so you have my full permission! Just shoot me a message somewhere to let me know

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I don't know if I'd be able to either, co-plotting would be fine, I'm doing that with my sibling and a prsk magical girl fic, but writing,,, I couldn't :,)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

There are a lot of ships I love. But for all time favorite, I have to go with the one that I keep going back to read fics for even though I've lost pretty much all other interest in the game: Promptis (Prompto/Noctis from FFXV) I just keep coming back to them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Where to start with this list.

The main one if probably my Project Sekai fantasy au fic The Eastern Side of Bolganio. It's so special to me, but it's a majorly ambitious project and I've gotten so little response with it that it's hard to write. I'm normally pretty good about not focusing on the numbers when it comes to fics (writing for small random fandoms help, there are some fics that I'm surprised have more than two hits, much less two kudos), but the fact that it's such an ambitious project that I've barely made a dent into... idk

I really want to finish it though </3

16. What are your writing strengths?

idk, people say that my characterization is really good? I saved this one for last to answer but now I'm tired

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm going to try and not be too self deprecating lol.

I'm really bad at describing environments/movement and dialogue at the same time. It's always either White Room Syndrome or a clunky mess. I also suck at titles. I always try to not use song lyrics, but anything that I do always sounds horrible.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I love it when it's done well! I love it when fic authors delve into the heritage of characters and bring in elements of it. I've done it a fair couple of times and always take great care to make sure that the translations aren't too horrific.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

So the first ever fanfiction I wrote was my exceedingly angsty, take on who the other souls in Undertale were before they died.

HOWEVER, I consider the first *fandom* I wrote for to be either Percy Jackson or Danganronpa. My first actual attempt at writing a fanfiction was a Solangelo prompt which I wrote two sentences of before abandoning and the first time I tried to write canon characters in situations, doing things, was it that damned chatfic XD

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ouuuugh we're just going with a list here

I Can't Lose You Again - I told you these would show back up again. Anyways, writing this fic was so fun. I really felt like I knew what I was doing, and apparently I did based off the comments! It's so special to me <3

Wish We Could Turn Back Time - This is my Roman Empire. I haven't updated this fic in years but I think about it everyday. I'm working on cleaning up the outline to be less ambitious so I actually have a chance to finish writing the thing, and I can't wait to finally give it the ending it deserves! It's also actually shaped my life in so many ways <3

After The Dinner Horn and Offscreen; a CotC oneshot collection - Maybe putting a oneshot collection here is cheating but shhhh. This actually is an umbrella title for almost all of my cotc fics (especially on platforms where I can't be bothered to upload them individually unless they're multichaptered). So many of these fics either shaped me as a writer drastically or mean so much to me on a personal level it's WILD. And also a reflection on how much the show means to me I guess? Idk that's enough psychoanalyzing for today.

Coercion Cancellation - This one might be cheating because it's the one I'm currently working on, but shhhhh. It still counts. It's for an indie horror game called Imaginary Friend Asylum ((prequel to The Friends We Left Behind)) which you should check out

Also adding on the two Project Sekai fics from question seven about the happiest ending. They're just so, so self indulgent <3

Tags: I don't have the guts (nor memory) to tag anyone on here, so it's fully an open invite! Hop on over here and ramble your heart out about the things you've written!! I can't wait to read it!!!

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

I love Dream but he can be dark, he can be cruel and he's done some very unforgiveable and monstrous things. He is not your average good guy or heroic character. Yes sometimes he can be the most kindest, empathic and wonderful conceptual being but he can be the opposite and it makes sense since Dream is made up of every wonderful, fantastical, magical thought, imagination and dreams but he's also made up of the disturbing, the vile and the monstrous.

Yes, exactly! Honestly, even without delving deeper into potential motivations or biases that he might have been written to have, his basic, on-the-page actions are pretty extreme! Banishing your girlfriend to 10,000 years of torture in hell for saying "no" is incredibly dark! The fact that Desire is able to casually toss the insult "Killed any girlfriends lately?" might also be a hint that Nada isn't the only one. Also his best human friend started the transatlantic slave trade, and the woman who, per Lucien, broke his heart like no other is a brutal murder-loving witch who is also probably transphobic. Something about "you reflect the company you keep" there...

Really, it's weird to see people get all defensive of Morpheus when he makes other notorious "problematic fandom boyfriends" like Anakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren, or pre-character-development MCU Loki seem like tame, sane options! Sure, those guys could kill you, but none of them seem able or keen on ruining your after-life as well!

And as for what you say about how he embodies the collective thought... I suspect that The Sandman Companion's darker and less charitable claims about Morpheus having racist and sexist tendencies were *intended* as a reflection of that. After all, if general culture nowadays has a racism and misogyny problem, then a being made of the collective subconscious thoughts of a culture might also have a racism and misogyny problem. I haven't read the excerpts from the Companion in full context yet (haven't yet reached that chapter in my own copy) BUT the Companion's analysis does appear to fumble in that it flips the script: rather than Morpheus reflecting society's biases, instead society's biases are the result of Morpheus' anger towards Nada warping all of reality to permanently curse all people "like Nada" to have terrible fates. So rather than him reflecting reality's issues, he CAUSED them to exist! That makes him WAY worse!

I'm hoping to examine the evidence for this further once I get to that part of The Sandman Companion, because yeah, that's some "yikes" writing if it's supported by the actual text.

So yes, Morpheus is canonically an incredibly dark character, and the intent of his writing may paint an even worse picture still. He can be good and caring and loving when he wants to be, but to ignore that he's just straight up evil sometimes would be to ignore canon.

EDIT: Also, I feel the need to point out that a lot of this is about BOOK Dream! The show already appears to be attempting to stop any "Dream is racist" issues by having his sister, niece, and nephew all now be black, and changing his trusted confidant Lucien from being a white man to being Lucienne, a black woman. While the show isn't free of its own possible moments of accidental anti-black writing, it definitely seems to be making a concentrated effort to avoid interpretation of Dream himself as prejudiced in the same way that the books might suggest.

[dreamingangelwolf]

Hello tumblr, I am not dead yet *fist pump*

Finally answering one of two tagging things from @aranict - this is long overdue, to say the least…!

3 Ships:

1. Dabi/Hawks from My Hero Academia. Literally one interaction was all it took for me to go ‘oh god I ship it’ and, damn, I ship it hard. It may not be canon, but the potential for it is unreal - the snark, the parallels, the tension, the drama, that delicious enemies-to-lovers foundation, yesssss. Helps that each of them has a very attractive voice to me, too, haha X) This latest season is going to hurt me, I can tell…

2. Rowan Whitethorn/Aelin Galathynius from the Throne of Glass series. As much as I wanted these two to be much more of a slow burn than they actually were, I can forgive that when they work so well together as a couple. Crying shame also that we never got to see them literally fighting side by side, but we got “To whatever end” instead and y’know what? Iconic.

3. Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII. I have loved these two for nigh on 15 years now. I found FFVII because of them. I love the innocence of their fledgling relationship, I love the tragedy that it fell victim to, but mostly I adore how happy they made each other, and how complimentary their personalities were. (I have just reached Gongaga in Rebirth too and when I say I spent 50% of this part of the game clutching my chest over my heart - augh. The Feels.)

First Ship: Had to stretch my memory back a bit, but I’m pretty sure it would have been Lenne and Shuyin from Final Fantasy X-2. That was my first ever FF game (criminal, I know, but fight me) and their story grabbed my 14-year-old heartstrings like nothing else at the time. In retrospect, it might have been the tragedy of it again, and that was probably the first tragic romance that really resonated with me? Admittedly, ‘1,000 Words’ probably helped with that, heh (still love that song).

Last Song: ‘Choke’ by The Warning, whom I discovered in the last few days and damn. Talk about fresh talent. There are very few bands for me where I prefer the live version of a song to the recorded one but these girls are breaking all my expectations. Will also recommend ‘Hell You Call A Dream’, which is the song I was recommended and that got me hooked!

Last Movie: The Crow (1994), which my local cinema put on now that trailers of the remake with Bill Skarsgård are making the rounds. To my friends’ exasperation, it was a bit lost on me. I like the concept and the basis of the story, but I didn’t quite dig the goth-ness of it (eternal apologies, Brandon Lee - it’s no slight on you, I promise). I can appreciate it as a cult classic, and for its importance at the time, but personally it wasn’t what I want from a film nowadays. Can I still call myself a 90s kid

Currently Reading: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. I’m about 1/3 the way through, off the top of my head, and while it’s not gripping me like ToG (or even, dare I say it, ACOTAR) did, I’m liking it so far. It has, however, spurned a SJM Bingo Card between me and my two friends (who have also read the entirety of SJM’s books and are cheerleading my foray into Crescent City), which is proving to be highly amusing X)

Currently Craving: udon noodles in some kind of broth. Preferably a light, beefy one. Sick as I currently am, I just want the warm, thick, soft noodly goodness as a source of comfort and a way to flush out my sinuses. I curse my lack of takeaway options and my inability to cook one of my favourite foods for myself.

Okay I’m not tagging anyone else because I’m running on my last few brain cells and still need to get myself to bed, so I’ll wrap up with a thanks to aranict for the tag and a promise to get to the next one soon!

[v-arbellanaris]

i have a question. or not really a question and more like a request for advice.

basically: my mahariel is currently canonically involved with alistair in dao until the landsmeet where he dumps her because he's now king and was unhardened. this is all planned and on purpose because it was the least tragic outcome for my worldstate. mahariel later gets in another relationship that presumably works out well unless da4 does something to either hof or the other person. but that's not the point.

the point is, i made her romance alistair when i liked him. and now i... kinda don't. i'm not sure what happened but he's starting to annoy me. you could make up some "you just grew up" stuff probably but i was 17 when first playing and now i'm 20 so not much growing up could happen.

and now i don't know what to do. do i just never play dao again (actually plausible because i fried my brain on top of having adhd and now i cannot replay games without just skipping dialogue because it's not captivating anymore) to avoid cringing at his romance? do i change her entire romance and the worldstate (it used to be carefully planned to not kill either alistair or hawke because i didn't want that kind of unhappy ending for mahariel and because my hawke is andersmancer and anders is literally the reason i started the game so i'm NOT breaking my blorbo's heart like that) but i feel like that would undermine the 3 years of building canon? do i just accept that i have to get through alistair's romance if i ever replay dao on my babygirl?

i literally have no idea what to do and if i should even do anything. like it's pixels and not that deep. help

also no hate to alistair enjoyers i get the appeal but seems like it ended up not being my cup of tea.

sorry for the wall of text and it's probably very incoherent i have no brain and it's 1 am and i'm not even currently focused on dragon age but i needed to ask someone for an opinion apparently

AHHHHH i love it when aliwarden drama its soooo good. for obvious reasons, like kal's worldstate, i love it when he dumps you for various reasons.

i think this makes sense though! each individual is different, and the past three years have been enough to age anyone twenty years, so it's understandable if you look back at him with a different perspective. that being said, i also understand being really reluctant to undo 3 years worth of work on character and dynamic building.

from my perspective, you have several options:

ONE, you replay dao with your babygirl and see where that takes you. sometimes, that's a return to the whiteboard or to have the opportunity to explore the game can open up loads of new areas for consideration you might not have been able to think of out of game because in-game you just sometimes have to make a snap decision. i DID also do this w my kal pt which made me change canon from alistair getting exiled to king alistair married to anora which i'm really happy with because 1. kal having to live with the consequences of her actions in a very real way 2. the inherent messiness of that whole situation after is something i enjoy intensely. and you might find another romance more interesting to pursue for mahariel you might not have thought of!

TWO, incorporate this perspective growth into your character! i think one of the most tragic aspects of the aliwarden romance - if you're doing a Specific kind of pt, like yours, and like my alikal runs as well - is that in a lot of ways, for a lot of characters, the tragic inevitability of their falling apart can always be there from the start. wynne's warnings become a prophecy rather than just her brownnosing. for kal, she was always going to be on the opposite character arc that alistair was going to be on because of how their stories start and end - kal has already gotten her revenge at the start of the story, whereas alistair is heading towards the resolution of a revenge story at the end. so maybe it's worth it to try and think about the headspace your mahariel starts in, and how she develops through the story, and how the story shapes her - and how that differs or doesn't differ from alistair. how does her growth through the story impact alistair's?

in defense of alistair's... childishness? i suppose? he acts young because he is very young! he's nineteen! a lot his humour is a mask for very deep trauma and insecurities. and his decisions can be very frustrating for a HOF but i think considering that he's grieving the loss of a lot people he cared about - ofc he talks about duncan specifically but he does also talk about a lot of the other fereldan wardens, everyone who had made the wardens a family for him over the last six months for a guy who has never had a family before and deeply, intensely, wants one is really insane. and i think it really puts a lot of his actions into perspective and contextualise that. and maybe going through the game and re-experiencing Actual Alistair and not Fandom Perspectives On Alistair might help you reach a decision about where you want to go with him narratively.

i hope that was of help to you!

[goodboylupin]

It's that time of year again! Welcome, returning participants and newcomers alike to

The 3rd Candy Hearts Challenge

A fun, stress-free Wolfstar mini-fest!

(If you remember how this goes , feel free to skip my introductory spiel and check for new rules!)

They’re sold by many companies and known by many names: Candy Hearts, Conversation Hearts, Sweethearts, and Love Hearts. Whatever the brand and whatever you call them, they’re the signature sweet of the season. Sure, you could buy your beloved a box of chocolates, but that’s an option any time of year! Good luck finding these bad boys in November!

Not that candy hearts are bad! Sure, they’re kinda chalky… and they taste stale no matter how fresh you bought them… but it’s not about the taste with candy hearts, it’s about the pastel, the experience, and above all else: the sayings! Who doesn’t remember going through a pack with friends, trying to find the kookiest message? Digging through a box to find one that was just the right level of romantic to give a certain special someone? (And maybe the heartbreak when you received one in turn where the message was just a big, pink smudge?)

Now, candy hearts have been around for a long time. And with a constant rotation of messages so we always got fun variety in a box, they’ve had a lot of sayings.

Through a great deal of internet sleuthing (and a little creativity on my part), I’ve collected over five hundred of them.

Some are a little raunchy (TEASE ME), and some are outright rude (EW NO). They range from classic (BE MINE) to contemporary (SWIPE RIGHT) to were-at-one-point-contemporary (FAX ME). Some of them are, quite frankly so hyper specific it’s a wonder they made it into circulation at all (ME JULIE BEST MUM).

And they are all, even the weird ones, ripe with potential as fic prompts!

The way this mini-fest works is simple:

From now until 11:59pm EST February 14, drop me an ask containing these emojis: 🍬💕

If you don't want to send an ask from your main tumblr account (or don't have a tumblr account), you can do so anonymously. However, you must include the ao3 handle or tumblr sideblog from which you plan to complete the challenge.

I will shake my Great Big Box of Candy Hearts and pull out a unique candy heart for you and only you!

With your message in hand, create whatever that candy heart inspires and your own heart desires! Fanfic, art, graphics, playlists, head canons, shit posts, interpretive dances, cosplay, meta essays, it’s all great as long as its central focus is on Wolfstar, the relationship between Remus Lupin and Sirius Black!

You can either directly quote your candy heart message in your work or use it as a broader inspiration.

You are allowed to use the same candy heart as inspiration for multiple unrelated works and submit all of them to the fest.

You do not need a beta before submitting your work, but I do encourage you to get one. I want this to be as stress-free an event as it can possibly be, and in my personal experience, it reduces stress to have someone else look over your completed work for at least spelling and grammar so you don’t have to reread your own stuff and psych yourself out before posting. If you don’t have any fandom friends with whom you feel comfortable sharing your fanfiction, there are also online resources to find a friendly stranger (including, hopefully, our discord server — see rule 17). But if ultimately, you’d rather be your own editor, I certainly won’t reject your work!

Include the following caption at the beginning of the tumblr post or AO3 beginning notes: For @goodboylupin's Candy Hearts Challenge. My candy heart prompt was ____.

If posting on tumblr, please make sure the @-tag of your caption is working so I get a notification! It should show up on its own automatically as you type. Also tag the work with #RSCandyHearts, preferably within the first five tags.

If posting on AO3, post your work to the collection and tag it with #RSCandyHearts (it will probably not be common enough to be a drop-down option, just type the whole thing out and hit enter).

I will reblog every work on Tumblr, and leave a kudos on every work on AO3. (If I haven't done so on your work and you see I've been active on this blog, then both the @-notification and #RSCandyHearts tag failed. Send me an ask with a link!)

If, after completing your first work, you want another helping of candy hearts, that’s more than welcome! Since I don’t want anyone to get a sugar crash, there is a two-day wait period between submitting a work and getting a second (or third or fourth or wherever you are) candy heart. You can send the ask earlier, but I will wait two days before answering it.

If you find you cannot come up with anything for your prompt, you can drop out and send a new ask to get a different candy heart. However, you need to give it an honest effort for at least one week before I give you a new one.

Works are expected by March 1, but this is a low-stakes, self-posting challenge! If you need more time, just message me or drop an ask. And if you want to drop out, that’s totally fine! I’ll even delete your first ask where you requested a candy heart if you prefer. I only need to know for the sake of my own record-keeping. Let’s all just be honest, considerate, and try to have a good time!

If you need a really long extension: Your candy heart is yours until January of next year, at which point, if I haven't heard back from you with an update or request for extension in the past few months, your prompt is going back in the Great Big Box of Candy Hearts so somebody else can have a go at it. The AO3 collection closes at the same time.

I will keep a masterlist of works pinned on my blog until at least March 7.

There's a discord! Feel free to join to discuss your prompts, your progress, your love of Wolfstar, or just to have another little circle in your sidebar.

New rule: Over the past two challenges, there have been a small handful of people who requested a candy heart, did not create anything and did not speak to me any further to tell me they were dropping out or having trouble. I work hard to make everyone a custom graphic and keep this fest running smoothly, therefore: Any creators with multiple instances of ghosting are suspended from getting another candy heart until next challenge.

Attention: @goodboylupin​ has been shadowbanned. I have already sent a support ticket to tumblr but do not know how long this will last. My @ -tag is therefore broken (it will look like you @’ed me successfully but I will not receive a notification) and it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that you remember to tag your post with #rscandyhearts in the first five tags!!! If you need to speak to me about anything, your best bet is ask box or discord, because while it may look like a private message has sent, I won’t receive it. Unfortunately, people who send me asks will not get a notification when I answer them, you’ll just have to check my blog. Sorry for the inconveniences, I promise they suck worse for me. 💔

(And this announcement post won’t show up in tags, so please reblog to signal boost!)

My ask box is open now to receive your candy heart requests 🍬💕

[vacantgodling]

hiii at long last i am coming for my first go at being annoying in your inbox (it will happen again).

ok so all of your wips are so fucking intriguing to me and i love them, but i'll admit i am IMMEDIATELY very very interested in god eater. (and also others but for now i am limiting myself to asking about one wip per ask)

so even just reading over the wip intro for god eater, i'm already so fucking fascinated by the worldbuilding. i'm especially SO interested in taj, so....

a question! if it's not too much of a spoiler, i'd love to hear more about taj and thei's relationship! how it developed over time, how they each see each other, how it impacts their character arcs... anything you want to talk about! go nuts! :D

TAJ!!!! beloved man he’s clearly So Normal haha (he’s not)

so bc all of this has happened prior to canon it’s not spoilers or anything but for as long as taj can remember he’s been a legna—he hardly remembers a time where he was mortal, though realistically he knows he Was at some point. he’s always been particularly adventurous so it wouldn’t surprise him if he just up and decided to leave the upper one day to experience the under. the thing is though; mortals can’t be exposed to the light of the waning moon for a long period of time—it’ll kill them basically (i mean even for certain beings it can have some interesting affects on them ie: nevaeh had hair blonde like the sun and pretty dark sun kissed skin before they embarked on their quest in the under; the light of the waning moon pretty much immediately inverted their entire color palette so they have blue skin and dark blue hair etc) so mortals who go to the under have 2 options: if they’re strong enough or want to try on their own they can try to become demons (and is in part why the fallen angels immigration center exists to guide those through that process. lulu was a mortal who also just left the upper eons ago but the light of the waning moon turned him into a powerful being in his own right and it’s possible that others can too… though it’s a toss up depending on how your body reacts to it. in this world the only difference between demons and gods is that gods have followers that they bestow power onto that keeps their followers alive meanwhile demons subsist on their own powers) or they can follow a god. following a god has its perks… sorta. it’ll allow you to exist in the under, a lot of time when the god bestows you powers they’ll change your appearance to how they see fit however you’re tied to that god. if that god is eaten or killed for instance, then all of those who served them will usually die as well, unless they can find another god to take them in before their time runs out.

so all of this being said, taj used to follow a particularly haughty god, and that god got cocky, evoking the wrath of thei, the god eater. people really underestimate thei because he looks small (he’s the third shortest in the main group— little bear’s like 7 foot and taj is like 6’8-6’9 ish but he’s only like 5’7) and because he appears uninterested or meek. but if you frustrate him enough he’ll cry which essentially releases the lowkey eldrich horror that is his god eater form and yeah you’ll wish you hadn’t pushed his buttons 💀 quelling taj’s former god was super easy for thei, and the legna that fought to protect it all fell as well, except taj. and thei let taj live—or more like told him find another god if he wanted to live. but taj decided fuck it, i’m gonna follow you (at thei) instead.

so the beginning of their relationship was really rocky. thei was really confused as to why the fuck taj was following him, especially in such a weakened state when thei could easily kill him. and he tried to scare or make taj leave because he didn’t want to deal with well whatever the fuck was going on… but at the same time. thei is soft hearted and he did feel kind of bad? he got in his own head about it a lot which made him get more frustrated with taj bc he couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just leave him alone. meanwhile taj isn’t really sure what compelled him so hard to follow like. a literal slayer for what he is, yet here he is following him. in a sick sort of attachment perhaps? you’re the strongest being here who killed my god so now i’m your problem? but when he started to get to know thei more thei ended up unintentionally showing taj a lot of himself and his struggles. how being the god eater is overwhelming (since he’s literally the link to the collective consciousness of the singularity itself and all the other god eaters before him) and how while he’s capable he really just needs someone to understand him tbh. so even though taj was weak, and tbh the waning moon should’ve killed him; somehow it didn’t. and it hasn’t. and he’s been growing steadily stronger the longer he’s been around thei. thei doesn’t really question it too much—at the time that nevaeh comes down to the under taj and thei have been inseparable for a long time and thei relies on him readily and easily. taj however is definitely an enigma because… if he truly is a legna then how is he alive with no god? taj always chalks it up to the fact that maybe because thei accepted his care and let him in that thei is now his god and is giving him power but that’s Not Really the case.

it lead to this whole conversation with lulu here trying to figure out what is up with taj -> hereee

and it’s safe to say that i know and lulu knows what’s going on and little bear slowly figures it out too (and if u have any guesses about what’s going on with him feel free to sling them at me and i’ll confirm or deny lmaooo).

in terms of impacting each other i mean tl;dr thei has been able to live more comfortably with taj around. like taj really does take care of him in every sense of the word and in return taj gets freedom and companionship. they’re very in sync. whenever they need to fight or even if they’re just deciding what snacks to get at the store they have a very comfortable familiarity about them. it’s not like Technically romantic—i’d classify it as more qpr territory (but u know me i’m never against shipping my ocs crack or otherwise CHOKE) but i mean. even the fact that bc thei has to work up to unleashing his god eater powers so taj engages enemies before him to give him that time speaks to their dynamic. despite his initial thoughts, thei trusts taj more than anyone and taj feels the same about him :3c

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Arezu thinks that because they're both wardens and wearing Clan uniforms that she and Ingo more similar to each other than they are to the other two. She is sadly very mistaken. Actually, does she even know that Ingo isn't native? Sure he's the weirdest person in Hisui, including the protag, with weird clothes and turns of phrase, but that's easily handwaved as prophet bullshit. Unless the Pearl Clan kinda rolled him out like, "hi, thank you all for coming, this is Ingo, he's our newest warden and... drumroll please... a prophet of Sinnoh who fell from the sky onto our lands! Boom our Sinnoh is clearly the correct one since they blessed us with him and not you, suck it haters." But yes, Arezu is really the only one on this trip who actually cares about their god, aside from maybe Lilligant and the protag. Even Sneasler, a noble descended from Sinnoh's champions, is just here because that's where her dude and the entertainment are. Ingo and Cyllene are most definitely in the "not my god" camp.

Yes, oh my god, and now I also can't help but think that in OoP she was pretty bummed out that she was tasked with keeping Rei out of the fray when Emmet turned out to be a really good battler who made that fight look awesome lol. Wait, okay okay, so we know that when you fight Ingo with his own team he says part of Emmet's pre-multi battle lines. What if, were he to battle against another person with Sneasler as either his ace or a 1v1, he did part of Emmet's pre-super double battle lines instead? Telling them to give it their all, because if a battle is not serious, it is not fun.

Well, my thinking re: catching pokemon to break the frenzy, was because when you catch an alpha pokemon in the game it's completely chill afterward. Fighting them to a k.o. might work too, since part of breaking the nobles' frenzy is wearing them down enough for the bags of comfort food to actually work their magic, but if the option is fight or catch, catching is probably easier in most cases because it won't completely exhaust their pokemon. And also catching in pokeballs is really the only thing I could think of that could be even vaguely vaccine-esque that'd also work with arceus sending a teenager from the future to fix things, especially if we keep the seek out all pokemon mandate. Maybe arceus gives the protag the ability to like, imbue pokeballs with a bit of their power or something, idk.

If battling can break the frenzy if they're knocked out, then the best case scenario would be for Lilligant to frenzy first, because should the others somehow not be able to stand up to her, Sneasler would be on her level and also super effective against her. The frenzy would give Lilligant an extra boost, so it likely couldn't just be Sneasler though. If battling on its own doesn't work and the nobles have to be caught somehow... well that might cause problems with the clans, for one thing.

LOL YEAH... sorry arezu you might have been right if you were paired with Literally Any Other Warden but nope you got the weirdo one instead. and HMM that's a good question... lol you know what would be funny is if the other wardens don't really know not bc ingo intentionally didn't tell them but bc he. didn't realize it was news. like everyone in the pearl clan knew immediately bc they were There when he got there, but the diamond clan wardens? everybody just forgot to update them on it. but that might not be super believable either... it might be like ounce of prevention's adaman, where she knows he's not native bc that's fairly obvious just from talking to him but didn't realize he was from The Sky. or maybe not idk!

wkwjhwjh YEAH she mighta been huh. and. OOOOH... aaaa man that little bit of trivia still hurts my heart so much and this spin on it is SO good... yes yes i love it. also the fact that he presumably remembers the multis lines in canon bc he would have been hearing those semi-daily when they battled together, but if the super doubles lines are also so close to hand then that means he's also heard those really frequently, maybe bc they spar battle each other in different formats a lot too which is already a hc of mine and YEAH. I LIKE IT

no no yeah i think the reasoning for this au works i was just saying that it's kind of. a goofy decision on the part of canon to make that work shksjhskjh. i think to make the "seek out all pokemon" thing more plot relevant it's actually a very elegant solution!! and ooh "imbuing pokeballs with divine power" is a cool thing... then i wonder if instead of balms, it works functionally the same way but you're hucking blessed pokeballs at them instead? hmm

ooh yeah, maybe sneasler's battling to keep her attention and wear her out, and then the protag is busy lining up a throw? but YEAH problems with the clans is a fair point... although lilligant's warden would be there to sign off on it so maybe that would give them some legitimacy? idk