#obviously ocs are different than their creators

[skunkes]

it is so refreshing to see ppl be like normal and regular about other artists taking heavy inspiration 😐 way too many ppl start screaming and crying over it for some reason /gen

i understand why some people might! especially depending on visibility and audience, and level of heavy inspiration.

i know there was a point where ppl thought i was copying a popular artists character and i got so scared solely bc i feared people coming after me.

but i also understand bc I myself have taken heavy inspiration from others before, and also because I myself am not somebody who Sticks (or Stuck bc i dont do heavy focused style inspo stuff anymore, because, surprise! i grew and frankensteined it into my own work after i learned what i like!) with an emulated art style for long

(see: my post where I struggle naming inspirations bc my inspirations arent...extremely, consistently, visibly, immediately influential on my work.)

i like giving ppl the benefit of the doubt for that reason... I now also understand and recommend naming/mentioning the ppl who inspired you when you do so as it immediately sets that level of understanding! (like oh, its a style study/inspiration and not somebody plucking my hard work and planning to cause a scene abt it)

like even recently that person who was copying my art down to the ideas (literally redrew a personal smunker doodle comic about smthng that actually happened to me, as their sona), i decided not to intervene because well, they're young, not harming anyone or screwing me out of anything, there's a chance they learn what they need from my stuff and move on in a few months. that's how you Learn sometimes...i did the same when i was in high school, i grew and moved on art wise... no good would have come out of someone attacking me about it bc its... common !

i do like seeing how ppl are interpreted and inspired by my stuff because im curious, and have enjoyed what ive seen mentioning me directly ^_^ but ill still say the only mistake made in this specific case was getting caught ykwim? "do what you want but dont let me see it" (except i do wanna see it ykwim)

[dat-town]

one look (and it's over)

Characters: student representative!Leehan & content creator!female reader

Setting & genre: high school au, fluff, coming of age, fake dating for like 30 seconds

Summary: You took one look at Kim Leehan and thought you had him all figured out. But oh he was so much more than that and somehow he became a stable point in your uncertain future.

Warnings: stage names are used, OC refers to Leehan as pretty boy and is annoyed by him in the beginning, OC has one neglectant comment about harassment against boys but regrets it immediately, Leehan has this popularity thing going on with all its consequences, people tend to touch him without his consent and it does bother him but tends to play it off, he also reveals an insecurity about his looks at one point

Words: 7.8k

Author’s note: this is also the product of the amount of Ann Liang books i binge read recently, the instagram algorithm and @restlessmaknae’s marketing for Zico’s kids. partly inspired by who! trailer film and Leehan’s iconic “how can she not like me when i look like this?” title is from Leo’s One Look

despite all the spoilers i hope you like it @restlessmaknae <3

read Taesan’s companion piece here

The first time you met Leehan, he said you were his girlfriend.

Not to you but to another stranger, a girl very obviously flirting with him and you felt like an awkward third wheel standing there with your camera in hand.

“Oh,” the girl with thigh socks and manicured fingers pouted after giving you a once-over as if cataloging what she lost against but then she mumbled out a sorry and made a beeline towards her friends in the back of the room.

The boy next to you let out a relieved sigh and that was what managed to snap you out of your stupor.

“Did you just use me to get out of having to say no?” You hissed and glared at him despite the height difference. Lucky for him you weren’t a fan of public humiliation, so you didn’t call him out on the lie loudly while the girl from before was still so close but it didn’t mean you supported his rude behavior. However, the boy didn’t look like he was feeling guilty.

“I did say no. Twice. She was being pushy,” he explained, letting out a frustrated huff as he looked down at you. “I know her type, this was the easiest and kindest way to let her down.”

“You talk as if you had so much experience,” you snorted, the urge to roll your eyes too strong but nothing could have prepared you for the boy’s reaction.

“Well… yeah,” he simply confirmed with a small nod after barely hesitating and just pointed at his face. His stupid handsome face because if you wanted to be honest, he looked exactly like the type of guy girls your age would be daydreaming about. His hazel brown, longer locks framed his freckled face nicely and his orbs reflected the blue lights of the aquariums around you behind his stylish glasses. You weren’t even sure he needed those or if they were just a fashion item like his baggy jeans and plaid shirt were. He looked like the kind of boy who thought they were too good for everybody.

“Alright,” you muttered, sarcasm dripping off your tone before turning your back on him and heading towards the tunnel under the shark aquarium because you wanted nothing to do with the likes of him. Briefly you wondered whether the girl from before saw this and thought you were the jealous kind of girlfriend but you had better things to do than worrying about that.

Unfortunately, the pretty boy didn’t get the memo and managed to catch up to you quickly. His stupid long legs easily kept up with your steps.

“Hey, wait up. It would be weird if we went separate ways and she found me again.”

“Not my problem,” you reminded him and the guy had the audacity to look like a kicked puppy with his doe eyes. It was unfair. You sighed. “Whatever. Just stay quiet.”

The guy did not in fact stay quiet. He babbled about random fun facts about the sea animals you were seeing, pointing out cool hiding ones you would have missed otherwise and he seemed to know more fish species than you ever heard of in your life.

“How do you know all this?” Your curiosity got the worse out of you at one point when he was talking about the coral reef and star fishes in such detail your past Biology teachers would have been ashamed of their own knowledge.

“Oh. I come here a lot,” pretty boy answered with a shrug and a big smile, his pearl white teeth glittering under the fluorescent lights. “Would you like me to take a picture of you? It’s one of the last rooms.”

Out of instinct you were about to tell him no because you were used to taking your own pictures but thinking about it for a moment, it was only right. He lied about you being his girlfriend and stuck to your side, so you couldn’t film like you planned. The least he could do was to take some pictures.

“Sure,” you handed him your camera and stood in front of the colorful aquarium, posing naturally, then you turned towards the fish and poked the glass between you. The boy didn’t even complain and later you had to admit that he did take it seriously. The photos came out nice enough to set one of them as your new profile picture.

“I’m Leehan by the way,” he said as he handed back your camera and as if on cue, your phone started ringing. You glanced at the caller’s handle before answering, sandwiching the phone between your shoulder and ear to take the camera back.

“Hi, mom. I will be out in a minute,” you said, waving the guy goodbye just to not be rude while you listened to your mother explaining the location of the parking spot she found. You might not meet ever again but you could be well mannered about it even if his previous attitude still bothered you.

When you were younger, you wanted to become many things: idol, actress, tv show host, news anchor… You had always had the passion of performing and ever since you had won the beauty pageant in your region when you had been 4 years old, you had kept hearing that you had the face for these things, too. As if having been a pretty baby helped much with teenager pimples and acne scars.

It was a bit more than three years ago when you decided to take your fate into your hands and do something with this interest of yours. During the summer after your middle school graduation, your family moved to Jeju, so your parents could oversee the opening of the new branch of their business. Not knowing anybody around there but loving the beautiful spots, you started making weekly videos about your days, studying, discovering bakeries and stationary stores. A term passed and life brought you to Gwangju, then Daegu, then last time Daejeon. Over the years your content changed a bit focusing more on realistic high school life portrayal, aesthetics vlogs going around new towns and skincare tips you learned while your subscriber numbers increased gradually. By now, you were an established content creator with a loyal following and some long term sponsors. You only had one more year to graduate and then you could do this full time.

Unsurprisingly senior year had found you in a new city too, this time Seoul, and your viewers had been eager for new exploring types of content, so you had done your research and headed out to look around a bit before the upcoming term made you busy. That was how you had ended up at the aquarium too, not that you could salvage any footage from that day after meeting the arrogant pretty boy.

But oh, how wrong you were about not seeing him again. He was literally on the poster advertising your new school when you went to pick up your school uniform with your mom. Suddenly Seoul seemed to be a much smaller city than you expected it to be.

Small mercies though, at least you weren’t classmates. Not that it saved you from hearing the girls gush about him or his other popular friends. It was a typical high school thing, everywhere you went, school cliques and dynamics were all the same. As the new transfer student you fit in alright, but you had experience in that, in being the new kid in town. You got yourself some popularity too after one of the girls asked for your IG and saw your followers’ number and another classmate was watching your Youtube channel apparently. You didn’t become an outcast nor were you caught up in classroom drama, so it was all good just how you liked it to be.

It happened a few weeks into the term, on a nothing special Tuesday. You were sitting in the canteen with some of your classmates you befriended, spooning fried rice into your mouth and listening to Eunjoo squealing about the new Olive Young discounts, when you looked up and your eyes met a familiar set of brown eyes. The first thing you noticed was a sly smile on the boy’s lips then the second that he wasn’t wearing glasses, so either you were right about them being fake or he wore contact lenses.

You forced yourself to look away despite feeling his gaze on you and focused on the girls’ chatter about Innisfree’s new skincare collection, agreeing to go with them later to check it out. Suddenly, you heard a creak of chair legs dragged across the floor and the canteen quieting down for a long moment before the murmurs picked up. Then an empty tray with only remains of the daily lunch menu was slid onto the table across you and Wonhee on your left gasped.

“Hello, girls. Hello… Y/N,” came the now familiar smooth voice and you caught Leehan pointedly looking at the name tag over your uniform before locking eyes with you. “I didn’t know you go here.”

“I just transferred this year,” you said, unfazed but you couldn’t help but observe how different vibe did the boy give off now compared to the aquarium. Maybe it was the circumstances or maybe it was the uniform’s doing, the suit well-fitted, his necktie nicely made and the fabric’s tight stretch empathizing his broad shoulders. Nothing about him now indicated how laid back he had been back at the aquarium, how relaxed, if not for his lazy smile. Here he was composed, seemingly aware that each of his movements were followed by curious eyes. Huh, maybe he did have as much experience rejecting girls as he had claimed despite his age.

“Do you know each other?” Eunjoo chirped in, cutting your train of thoughts short.

“We ran into each other before,” you explained briefly and while it didn’t seem to satisfy the girls' curiosity, luckily Leehan didn’t seem keen on elaborating either.

“Well, it was good to see you again,” he nodded towards you then flashed a charming smile at your entire table before taking off, leaving a trail of whispers and gossip in the wake of his steps. You looked after him and wondered what Yongsan High’s prince wanted from you.

That could have been it. Acknowledging each other’s presence, greeting each other on the school hallways, nothing less, nothing more. That was until Principal Im called you into his office, offered you tea and mentioned that ‘it was brought to his knowledge that you were some sort of Internet persona’, his words, not yours. It felt weird talking about it with a teacher because none of your previous schools had a problem with it. But as it turned out it was quite the opposite. The principal wished to use your ‘expertise with standing in front of a camera’ to the school’s benefit. So that was how you ended up doing a photoshoot for the school’s Open Day with none other than Kim Leehan.

Although you had no actual modeling experience, the principal reassured you that you didn’t need to be professional for this kind of shoot. He was even delighted by the idea of you vlogging the experience for more exposure. So on the day of the shooting, you headed to the classroom assigned for the shoot right after classes and talked with the photographer about recording the entire session and set up your camera. You were doing last minute adjustments with the brightness and white light with the new angle after filming getting your hair and ‘no makeup’ makeup done by the stylist the school hired (like woah, they took it seriously) when Leehan showed up.

It was obvious that he had experience, he moved around the lighting and photography equipment with ease, charming everybody with his easy smile and kind greetings. He sat through getting his makeup to not glow or look tired on camera without a word of complaint and instead chatted with the woman about her dog. You caught yourself staring at his genuine smile a little too late.

“Y/N!” Leehan’s smile widened slowly, a little cheekily, showing his dimple and he shot up from his chair to walk up to you and your camera. “So it’s you.”

“It’s me,” you confirmed but you weren’t sure why he looked so giddy about it. Was he worried it would be some clingy fangirl of his?

“I heard you’re Internet famous,” he noted and then looked pointedly at the camera. “Are you going to film the shooting too?”

“That’s the plan. If that’s alright with you,” you looked at him, questioning. Even if he said no, you could record your solo parts and use just that and the preparation during editing. You wouldn’t have wanted to make anybody uncomfortable with your filming. Leehan however didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Sure, you can even put my face on the thumbnail,” he winked at you, teasing, right before the photographer called for you.

Even with all his playfulness, Leehan took the job seriously. Whether it was experience or natural talent, he had a knack for easing into natural behavior despite the constant click-clack of the camera and knew how to smile into it when it was needed to make the photographer satisfied. You took a bunch of photos depicting school life at Yongsan High: flipping through text books, fake writing essays, solving equations on the board and working in pairs on a task. You honestly weren’t sure why they needed so much for a simple Open Day brochure but it was a one of a kind experience and not at all bad.

“Thank you for your hard work,” the principal’s secretary distributed drinks for everyone when the shooting was wrapped up and you bid goodbye to every adult with polite bows before dismounting your own camera.

You didn’t expect Leehan to wait for you but for some reason, you weren’t all too surprised either.

“Want some?” He held something out for you and looking down you saw that it was a pack of shark shaped gummies. So random.

“No, thanks,” you shook your head and put your tripod and camera into your bag, ready to go. But you couldn’t without making a comment. “You’re pretty good at this. Modeling, I mean.”

“Hm. It’s good for extra pocket money,” Leehan shrugged between chewing two pieces of gummies. You were sure it wasn’t the first time he heard it from somebody. “And no, before you ask, I wasn’t paid for this either. I mean in general.”

With his face and overall good looks you weren’t surprised to hear that. Not to mention it was a positive thing that he had already found something to earn money with.

“Do you wanna do this after graduating?” You asked, suddenly curious because you realized that you didn’t know anything about him other than his fascination with sea animals, that everywhere he went girls just fell in love with him at first sight and that he acted like you were friends for a while when you had been nothing but strangers.

“Nah. Maybe as a side gig but hopefully I will get into a uni with marine studies,” he said and you knew that it was very judgemental of you to be surprised at his career choice, especially after seeing how enthusiastic he was at the aquarium but it only proved your stance that you barely knew each other. And apparently Kim Leehan kept surprising you.

“That’s cool,” you mumbled, not wanting to voice out your surprise in case he would think you thought of him as an air-headed pretty boy even if there would have been a tiny bit of truth in that.

“What about you? Will you turn content creation into a job?” He nodded towards the tripod in your hands. He didn’t ask about it in a way some of your more distant relatives did, condescending, like you were a child they needed to warn about how unstable of a career it was. He seemed genuinely curious, so you gave him an honest answer too.

“Well, I will try to. But I plan to get certificates for digital marketing too and maybe help others boost their online presence too,” you said because while your plans might not have been unheard of in this time and age, you knew that it was far from what your conservative country encouraged. If nothing worked out, your parents would have been glad to welcome you at their company too but you didn’t voice that out because you would have preferred paving your own way.

“That’s pretty cool, too. What’s your account’s name by the way?” Leehan asked, fishing out his phone ready to look it up and his eyes sparkling with curiosity which was unfair really because it made it hard to say no to him. “Oh come on, I’m sure I could ask any of your friends.”

You knew he was right, he could even just search your name on Naver and find it. You weren’t sure why you felt so self-conscious thinking about him checking out your channel or other socials. Plenty of other people did.

“Fine,” you sighed, telling the boy your IG handle and in a weak attempt of not seeing his reaction, you swung your bag onto your shoulder now that you were all packed up and headed towards the classroom exit.

“Cute,” you heard Leehan’s comment, quiet and unexpected, from behind you just before he caught up to you with his long legs. “You set the photo I took as your profile picture.”

You hummed because what else could you have said? It was pretty obvious. Leehan seemed surprised at first though but then his mouth tilted in a teasing way.

“Where’s my credit?” He singsonged, easily keeping up with your walking speed.

“In your dreams. I don’t want dating rumors,” you told him. You weren’t famous in a way you would have to worry about people dissecting your life but so far you had managed to keep your family and relationships out of the public eye and you wanted to keep it that way. If you captioned the photo with ‘taken by the pretty boy I met at the aquarium’ some of your followers surely would have gotten way too invested in your non-existent love life. Plus, you had thought you wouldn’t see each other again.

“What if it’s not a rumor?” Leehan asked just to tease. It was easy to tell from his tone or the way his eyes glinted when you looked at him.

“Says the guy who lied about having a girlfriend when asked for his number,” you deadpanned with an eyebrow raised, challenging him to disagree with you but the boy only cackled.

“Touché.”

He followed you on Instagram and after one cute animal post in your DMs, you followed him back. You didn’t text much at first, just sharing some memes over Principal Im’s mild reactions to your photo shoot and random sealife content. Then the principal asked the two of you to greet the parents at the school gate on the Open Day which made you bond over mutual annoyance over responsibilities like this. You would never understand what difference it made to have two students offer brochures by the door instead of stacking them on a table free to take to the overall experience of parents, but there you were, on brochure hand out duty on a fine Friday.

“Do I have a sign over my forehead saying ‘touch me’ or something?” Leehan grumbled after the nth parent thought it was appropriate to place a hand over his shoulder or touch his cheek just to coo about how handsome boys attended this school. You got some comments on your looks too but the aunties were impressed by Leehan’s visuals way more and neither of you could say anything because that would have come off as disrespectful and wouldn’t have done any good for the school’s reputation.

“Do you want to take a break? I can cover for you,” you offered because seeing him at unease twisted something in your stomach. Honestly, both of you were there mostly just to look pretty, so if he left to be alone a bit, you would have been fine still.

Leehan seemed taken aback by your offer though if his widened eyes and slow blinking was anything to go by.

“No, it’s fine. Thanks though,” he shook his head eventually and put on his fake smile when the next batch of parents filed through the entrance.

But something shifted then between you, some sort of unsaid understanding over vulnerability. Something that made you think that maybe you could be more than just two people in the same boat. You could have been friends talking about stuff friends did.

Maybe that was why, when you were done and ushered to your respective classrooms, you brought up the first neutral topic that you could think of to fill the void while walking on the empty hallways.

“Hey, are you friends with the school radio club leader?”

Leehan seemed lost in thoughts, so your question made him falter a bit, his eyebrows creasing, confused about the sudden topic.

“Taesan? Yeah, why?” He asked tentatively, turning to look at you briefly and see your expression.

“Is he dating my class’ president?” You asked because even though you weren’t one to bump your nose into others’ business, based on what you saw, you could barely believe it wasn’t common knowledge. Leehan must have been on the same page because his eyes immediately shone with excitement.

“Oh, you noticed too!” He pointed out, giddy, and it was nice to see him smile so wide after how uncomfortable he had looked before.

“It was kind of hard not to. I was at the senior interview last week and they kept glancing at each other,” you said because honestly, they must have thought that they had been subtle about it, always looking when the other hadn’t but it made you feel like a third wheel.

“That’s just great! I can’t wait to tease Taesan with it,” Leehan grinned, bouncing a little on his feet, his soft-looking hair falling into his eyes behind the glasses he decided to put on that day too. “They aren’t official or anything. Taesan was actually convinced for a while that pres hated his guts but as far as I know there has been progress.”

You weren’t an expert at love by any means but based on what you saw, your class president was far from hating the other guy, so you just hummed in acknowledgement. Leehan misunderstood your silence though.

“Are you jealous?” He asked, more astonished than teasing as he jogged in front of you, so he could look at your face while walking backwards. An unnecessarily hazardous thing to do, so you halted your steps when you reached the corner of your classrooms' hallway.

“What? No,” you furrowed your eyebrows because where the heck did he take that from?

“So you don’t like Taesan?” Leehan asked as if it was something he needed to confirm, best friend duties or whatever. Even if you liked his friend, you wouldn’t have talked about him with Leehan. That kind of behavior just didn’t make sense to you.

“No, gosh, I was just trying to start a conversation,” you sighed exasperatedly which exuded a chuckle from the boy.

“Cute,” he noted and absentmindedly reached out towards your head. You froze in your spot the same moment his hand stopped mid-air too having caught himself. You felt heat rush into your cheeks thinking that he wanted to… what? Ruffle your hair or pat your head? Either way, Leehan smoothly recovered as he pulled his hand back and ran his fingers through his own silky locks, waving goodbye to you before heading off to his class.

It was silly how something so small and insignificant like that suddenly made you nervous around the boy. Well, nervous might not have been the right word. You would have liked to think that previously you were indifferent or slightly intrigued at most when it came to Leehan. He was just another boy after all, just one more face that you wouldn’t see anymore when your family moved again. You had become great at not getting too close with anybody after the constant goodbyes had become too much to handle. Yet, you caught yourself waiting for the boy’s random animal fun facts and felt yourself getting flustered when you caught him as much as looking in your direction at the school canteen. It was getting ridiculous.

When you mentioned to Hyewon that one guy made you feel this confused, she told you that it could be just because you weren’t used to being friends with boys and that you needed to get out more. That's how you ended up at Wonyoung’s house party that weekend. The cheerleader welcomed you with a wide smile despite not talking more than ten words with you before but you guessed that it was normal. The more the merrier and all that jazz.

You had never been a party person, it was too loud, too chaotic. You weren’t sure how this was supposed to help with your problem but Hyewon seemed to have fun, especially when she made Gyuvin dance on the dance during a round of truth or dare. You talked with some people from class and strangers both and it wasn’t bad, you did have a good time but after a while it was a bit too much. Very unlike your usual Saturday night when you usually edited your videos to the tunes of your feel good Spotify playlist.

You needed some fresh air after being in the stuffy house for hours among dozens of other sweaty bodies and luckily Wonyoung’s parents’ house had a back garden, perks of living in the suburbs. From outside, the party’s music was muffled through the walls, toned down but still audible. You closed your eyes and let the night breeze cool your face. You only snapped out of it when you heard the sound of movements from the other side of the terrace. Initially you thought that it must have been a cat, so you were quite surprised when behind the huge kimchi jar there was none other than Kim Leehan.

“Jeez, what are you doing here?” You put a hand over your rapidly beating heart after such a jumpscare and eyed the guy sitting against the wall.

“What does it look like?” He asked, sheepishly for once with a scratch on his nape. It was so unlike his confident persona that charmed half the girls in your year. There was something lovely about it though, that he allowed you to see him like this.

“Don’t tell me you’re hiding? From girls?” You asked in a hushed voice and at first it was supposed to be a teasing joke but considering Leehan’s silence there must have been some truth in it. “Seriously, you are like 180cm, what can a bunch of girls do to you?”

You blurted it out without thinking but the moment it left your mouth, you realized how ridiculous that sounded. It didn’t matter that he was a guy or he was this tall, nobody deserved to be made to feel uncomfortable.

“Sorry, that was insensitive of me,” you apologized immediately, not wanting the boy to get defensive or hurt due to your unnecessarily harsh words. “But if they bother you so much, I’m sure there are better ways to deal with it.”

Obviously you had never been in his shoes but you wanted to help, you wanted him to feel comfortable enough around you to share the burden, to not play it off when things got like this.

“Most girls are fine, they are respectful and I don’t mind being looked at,” Leehan sighed wistfully, leaning his head back against the wall, looking up at the sky, starless from all the light pollution in the big city. “But… some are too much.”

You felt your fingers twitch, sudden anger rising in your chest thinking about scenarios of what could have happened that made him come out to hide there. Did they grab him or touch him in a way he didn’t want to? Did some drunk girl force themselves upon him when he just wanted to have fun with his friends?

“Are you okay?” You asked, worried, keeping an eye closely on the boy’s facial expressions.

He hummed. It was not a very elaborate response but it was better than nothing. In the following silence though you weren’t sure what to do with yourself. You looked back at the door, wondering when tipsy high schoolers would stumble out to smoke and to break this idyll. It must have looked like you were about to leave, not wanting to bother him because he spoke up, rushed as if he could miss you any minute.

“Can you stay?”

The depth of his voice was more apparent when he talked quietly. Or was it because of the dim light and the open space? You could practically feel it vibrate through your cells. There was no way you would have said no to that.

It was you who just hummed this time, not trusting your voice, and you squeezed yourself next to Leehan, into the space between him and the kimchi jar, the house wall cold against your back. It made you shiver lightly because in the recent lovely spring weather you forgone wearing an extra layer. The boy noticed though, he shrugged off the plaid shirt he wore over a white tee and covered your back and shoulders with it.

“Thank you,” you mumbled, suddenly surrounded by his warmth and the smell of sea salt even after he pulled back his hands.

“Tell me something,” Leehan whispered and despite initially not knowing what to say, you ended up telling him about your inexperience with parties and how moving around a lot affected your relationship with people and your sense of home. You told him that you were thinking of getting your own place instead of moving with your parents to a new city next time but you were afraid because you had never lived alone and you weren’t sure what your parents would have said either. You were so young yet the last few years had been so uncertain, a constant countdown until the next destination and you wanted to settle down for a bit, to call a place home for more than a few months. You wanted to get to know people without the constant fear of eventually losing touch with them.

Leehan was a good listener. He asked the right questions and shared his own perspective of things. There was nothing arrogant in the way he said that distance didn’t matter with the right people. At one point, once the heaviness of the topic subdued into a lighter conversation about your favorite places to be, he leaned his head on your shoulder, his locks tickling your ear and his closeness turning your cheeks rosy.

It was cozy, staying there with him, just talking. You didn’t even notice the party sounds dying down until Haewon called you to ask if you had already gone home without her. It could have been embarrassing how you didn't even notice time passing in Leehan’s company but you felt nothing of that sort. Shyly, you handed him back his shirt and wished him good night before catching up with Haewon.

You should have known that the girl famous for her intuitions wouldn’t leave it just like that. You were ambushed the moment the two of you were alone on the night bus.

“Sooo… where did you disappear off? Were you with Leehan?” She singsonged casually while you almost choked on your spit because you had never told her that the boy making you feel conflicted was Leehan. The pretty, popular boy of your grade, the prince of Yongsan High. The one almost everybody wanted. So cliché, so unnerving. And yet…

“Wh– what? How?” You spluttered, flustered but it only made Haewon giggle and coo at you.

“Please, I have seen how you look at him.”

“Oh, gosh, is it that obvious?” You groaned, hiding your face in your hands. You didn’t think you were that gone. Scratch that, before the party you wholeheartedly believed that it was just curiosity and being friendly on your part. Maybe Haewon was right and you had no idea how simple friendship worked with boys.

“It’s cute. And don’t worry, I don’t think Leehan noticed. He’s used to more… aggressive type of love declarations.”

“I’m not declaring my love for him!” You objected because that was too much, too soon. You just realized that you liked him and you haven’t decided yet what to do with this new, fuzzy feeling spreading in your chest.

“Why not?”

Why not indeed? Was it not wanting him to lose this fragile safe space he found with you just because you couldn't stop yourself and fell in love when all he needed was a friend who understood? Or was it your usual mindset of keeping everybody at an arm’s length to not get too emotionally attached?  You had no idea and it was too late into the night to figure it all out then.

Summer was approaching fast. It meant humid and sunny days, and way too many term end tests. It also meant two months without seeing Leehan which planted a kind of dread in your chest whenever you thought about it. At least you weren’t moving this time, not with your CSAT exams coming up in the second half of the year, so you had a bit more time to decide whether you wanted to stay here even if your parents moved away after your graduation.

Things only subtly changed after that party at Wonyoung’s. You didn’t necessarily look for each other’s presence at school, probably because both of you knew the rumors would be a pain to avoid if you did otherwise. You did text more though and not just about the previous neutral topics. Having been in Seoul for longer, Leehan started recommending places for you to visit for your YouTube channel and he knew that you wouldn’t belittle his complaints when he was annoyed by the way he was treated. He was also the perfect person to turn to when you had a bad day because he would listen and then he would make you feel better with his odd little jokes. He was such a dork under that popular pretty boy surface and you loved being able to see this side of him too. He also made sure to keep you updated about the school radio leader’s and your class president’s progress.

On a particularly hot June day, it was Leehan who nudged you in the side when he walked past you in the hallways.

“Let’s get ice cream after school,” he suggested casually as if it didn’t make your heartbeat go crazy, so you walked two blocks down from the school while arguing about the best Baskin Robbins flavors and went over the popsicles section of the corner convenience store only for Leehan to dig out the most artificial green colored one for its alien packaging. You laughed about the color of your tongues and the icy dessert melting all over your fingers and you had so much fun that for those few minutes you forgot about all the uncertainties in your life. Nothing mattered, just that moment with Leehan.

Haewon’s question (why not?) echoed in your ears at times like this.

It became a new habit sweeping well into summer: hanging out outside of school, looking for places with refreshing desserts to beat the heat. It was Italian-style gelato one week then bingsu or hwachae the next. You didn’t film but you kept posting pictures on your Instagram and you really underestimated the curiosity of your followers because one blurry reflection on the window was enough for people to conclude that you were on a date.

You knew for a fact that Leehan had the habit of stalking your comment section ever since he got so worked up about somebody making a mere comment on you gaining weight, but he didn’t say anything about this incident, which was probably for the best because honestly, you weren’t sure you could have played it off as coolly as when you had talked about not wanting dating rumors back in the day. Because what if it wasn’t rumors?

Next time you met up, Leehan pointed a finger at you in accusation even before he sat down at the table you already occupied.

“You went to an ocean-themed cafe without me?”

You blinked up at him in surprise, trying to make sense of what he was talking about when you remembered what you posted earlier to your Instagram.

“I was cafe hopping and found it by accident,” you explained that it wasn’t planned. If you knew, you surely would have told him about it. Even when you found the pretty coffee shop, you were so excited to tell him about it but then you had to remind yourself to tone it down, to not make your feelings too obvious.

“Still… Next time, you should take me with you,” Leehan said, pursing his lips a little child-like and you wanted to pinch his cheeks just above his adorable dimples. You curled your fingers into your hand to stop yourself.

“I’m not used to filming in company,” you told him because it was kind of a principle you had to fully pay attention to the people you were with instead of focusing on snapping pictures or recording. Maybe it was because your parents didn’t like it that you had your camera on you when you went out with them on those rare occasions they were free to give in to your request. With Leehan though, he might not have minded it but you were sure he would be distracting in the most heart-fluttering meaning of the word. You couldn’t take your eyes off him and it would be a mess. Your viewers would notice the same way Haewon had noticed too.

“Please~” The boy pouted (unfair!), fluttering his eyelashes under the loose strands of his long grown fringe and you felt your resolve weaken immediately.

“Just because you are pretty, it doesn’t mean you can just do that and I will give in,” you blurted out a protest in a weak attempt of keeping your composure. You didn’t even notice your subscious slipping through until Leehan’s pout turned into a content smile.

“Oh, so you do think I’m pretty.”

“I… that’s not the point!” You protested but Leehan seemed oddly satisfied with the new knowledge. He was whistling to the tone of a 2nd gen kpop song under his nose when the ahjumma came to take your orders and both of you were embarrassed because you didn’t bother looking at the menu since you arrived. The ahjumma smiled fondly and mumbled something about young love which turned you crimson but you hoped Leehan didn’t hear and didn’t notice. Luckily (or not), he was still hung up on your previous slip up.

“I thought you were immune to me,” he mumbled and he sounded so serious that you couldn’t even find it in yourself to joke about what kind of virus he would like to be then.

“What?” You blinked at him, not sure what brought this up but while you were confused, Leehan looked like this was something that had been on the tip of his tongue for so long and now that it was finally out he had a lot to explain.

“I mean, it’s not a terrible thing I guess. I like it that you treat me like a normal guy from day one, that you don’t swoon just because I walk past you on the school hallways and you aren’t afraid to call me out on my bullshit when I’m too much but then I kind of want you to be swooned by me. I know it doesn’t make sense but sometimes it bothers me so much that you don’t like me the way I like you.”

“I…” You gaped at him like a fish, speechless, but couldn’t even finish your clumsy excuse of sentence because Leehan was still rambling.

“Like look at me. How can you not?” He finally looked you in the eye and pointed at his face.

His all too lovely face with the warmest shade of brown in his playful eyes, the prettiest hair you would like to ruffle and the smart line of his rosy lips. At that moment he looked so young, so boyish, the teenager blemish barely visible on his face because in your eyes even the flaws made him more handsome.

“Leehan,” you said his name slowly, forming each syllable like it was an answer itself. Suddenly it wasn’t so scary to be honest because you now knew that he was just as unsure around you as you were with him. “I do like you but no offense, it has nothing to do with your looks.”

If you wanted to be honest, his looks were one thing you disliked about him in the beginning. You had known popular boys before who knew they looked good and they had always had the kind of ego that made their handsomeness turn sour in your mouth. But it became clear over time that he wasn’t one to use his good looks to get away with things and take advantage of girls’ feelings.

“Y/N,” Leehan called your name in a similar manner to the way you had done, a confused little frown sitting on his forehead and you wanted nothing more than to smooth it out. “There’s so much to unpack in that sentence.”

“Like?”

“Like when you say you like me, do you mean it in a friendly way?” He asked and he sounded so nervous asking it that you couldn’t help but giggle. He had said it first in his ramble, he wasn’t weirded out by your confession either nor did he brush it off and gosh, he sounded outright hopeful, so the relief made you feel giddy.

“Sure,” you smiled before casting your eyes down. “If wanting to hold hands with you and going on cheesy dates is a friendly thing to do.”

There was a moment of silence that made you so nervous you had to look up again and what you saw was better than seeing any breathtaking sunrise.

“Really?” Leehan whispered, his eyes shining with little stars in them.

“Really,” you nodded shyly before remembering his previous claim about so much to unpack and you cleared your throat. “What else?”

The soft smile melted off the boy’s face and something insecure flashed through his eyes as his fingers fumbled with the napkins on the table.

“And… does it mean that you like me but not the way I look? Like… am I not manly enough or–?”

“Hey, no, that’s not what I meant,” you interrupted quickly but not quickly enough because you never wanted him to feel that way to begin with. You scrambled to find the right words to explain this time. “I like you because you are caring and kind, you listen to my vents and try to help, you make boring stuff fun, you make me feel at home with you in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. It doesn’t matter how you look but to tell you the truth and not just to boost your ego, you are the most beautiful boy I have ever seen.”

“Oh, okay,” Leehan muttered but then giggled and the tips of his ears peeking out from between his wavy locks reddened adorably. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing. Kim Leehan getting flustered in front of you, because of you?

“Hold up… are you blushing?” You teased, softly, playfully and wholeheartedly smitten.

“Shut up,” Leehan mumbled but there was no edge in his tone, just a smile playing on his lips. So cute. “I like you too. A lot. In a friendly way if walking you home and kissing you goodbye is something friends do.”

This time it was your turn to flush, a cherry color appearing on your cheeks. You were pretty sure that that’s why the ahjumma turned on her heels when she walked up to your table again without asking about your orders. The menu cards were still untouched next to you.

You got to hold Leehan’s hand that day when he did good on his promise and walked you home. He also kissed you on the cheek by the gate because you both got shy but it was fine, you had the entire summer and all the time in the world. There was no need to rush anything.

Your first official date was at the aquarium for old time’s sake and it was the second time Leehan called you his girlfriend. You got distracted reading about the ‘Nemo fish’ and you didn’t realize that the boy wandered further away staring at a big tank full of fluorescent jellyfish as if it hadn’t been there before. By the time you caught up with him, there was a girl there, handing him her phone, smiling coyly. Last time you didn’t feel anything if not mild annoyance for being dragged into it but now you could feel your chest swelling with a new emotion. You had thought before that you would be jealous but what you actually felt was pride. That there was this beautiful, amazing boy and he liked you and he seemed proud of it too as he shot an apologetic smile towards the girl then saw you over her shoulder and his forced smile softened, its edges lifting up until his dimple showed.

“Sorry, I have a girlfriend,” he said and this time it was real.

He bowed politely towards the stranger then reached for your hand, lacing his fingers through yours and you hid your smile in his arm as he pulled you farther away.

“Are you good?” You asked quietly, just to make sure that the girl didn’t make him feel uncomfortable because otherwise you might have had to go back and lecture her on basic manners.

“Never better,” Leehan replied, smiling against your temple with a brief kiss before pointing at a tank you passed by. “Did you know that angelfish mate for life?”

“No, I had no idea,” you chuckled and listened to your boyfriend tell you all about this species of fish you had never heard about before. It was perfect. You could have listened to him all day.

[choicesficwriterscreations]

July MC of the Month: Harper Gale

Please welcome our sixth MC of the month! Each month, we will highlight one MC or OC that is currently on our Meet My MC / OC List. The MC / OC is selected randomly on the Wheel of Names, and eligibility requirements can be found here. We accept MC / OC profiles on an ongoing basis. Please feel free to send yours in!

This month's MC of the month is...

@karahalloway's Harper Gale!

To learn more about Harper and her creator, see below.

In your words, tell us what you like most about your MC. 

Probably the fact that she knows what she wants and doesn’t hesitate to go after it.

For instance, Harper has had a dream of going travelling around the world for several years, and at the start of (Un)Common Attraction (my somewhat modified rewrite of TRR1), she jumps at the opportunity to go to Cordonia, figuring that this is her chance to kickstart her around-the-world adventure. And even though things don’t exactly go to plan, Harper still tries to make the most of the opportunity at every turn.

She also realises relatively early on that she is much more interested in and feels like herself with Drake, and even though Drake tries to push her away — out of loyalty to Christian (my version of Liam) and in a bid to avoid a scandal — Harper refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer, knowing that Drake has feelings for her too, and eventually convinces him to come around. Obviously, the press scandal on the night of the Coronation Ball throws a massive wrench in the works, but Harper refuses to throw in the towel, despite a lot of proverbial sh*t hitting the fan.

Other things I like about Harper are that she has a very strong moral compass and will fight for what she thinks is right, even in the face of resistance from those she loves and cares about. And she has a big heart — she is always trying to find ways to surprise Drake, be moral support for Max, Hana and Christian, and is always the first to offer help, even if she doesn’t really like the other person.

Do you feel your MC is like you at all? How are you alike or different?

As is the case for many authors and their OC, Harper and I share some similarities. We’re both curious, pragmatic, and down to earth, love to travel and have new experiences. We’re also both quite outdoorsy, love animals, as well as OTT action movies 😆 

However, Harper is a lot braver and a helluva lot more resilient than I am — I would never have taken Maxwell up on his offer to go to Cordonia for the social season, and I am not sure I would’ve coped with all the things she goes through in Cordonia the same way she did.

Also, while we both tend to say it like it is (and this gets us into awkward moments sometimes), Harper is a lot more outspoken than I am and will call out BS then and there, while I just do the silent eye-brow raise, akin to Drake 😅

What is most important to your MC? What is their motivation in life?

One of the most important things for Harper is being able to be herself. 

This was a big reason why she turned down Christian, because she couldn’t see herself living a ‘fake’ life whereby she had to constantly present an ‘idealised’ image of herself to the public, always having to watch what she said and did, and no longer being able to live a ‘free’ life (in my rewrite, for various reasons, I moved the timeline of this conversation up, so it takes place during the social season, rather than at the end of the engagement tour). 

This is also the reason why she gravitated towards Drake very early on — because Drake has always taken her at face value and never expected anything more from her other than exactly what she already was (whereas both the Beaumonts and Christian focus on, and try to use Harper’s status as a lady — and subsequently a duchess — to further their own ends, whether overtly, or covertly).

In terms of where I am with Harper’s story at the moment, her main motivations are clearing her name after the press scandal that broke during the Coronation Ball — in part to set the record straight and restore her reputation, and in part because she doesn’t want to have to keep hiding her relationship with Drake. Because this is kind of an all-consuming thing at the moment, she doesn’t really have mental space to think about more generic motivations 😅

What are their biggest pet peeves/dislikes?

Harper’s biggest pet peeves are being made to feel like an idiot (which is the main reason why she has a hard time getting along with Bertrand, who is a perfectionist taskmaster when it comes to etiquette), and being woken up at stupid-o’clock in the morning for a stupid reason (she very much wants/needs her beauty sleep).

She also takes issue with the two-faced nature of the nobility — outwardly presenting perfection, while inwardly falling prey to infighting, lies, manipulation and entitlement. This is another reason why she gravitated towards Drake almost from the very start because both of them can see the rot of the aristocracy through the superficial glitz and glamour.

If your MC could change one thing - anything - what would it be? 

I’m not sure Harper would want to change anything — she believes that things happen for a reason and every cloud has a silver lining, even if you can’t see it at the time.

So even in the midst of her worst experiences, Harper is able to find some kind of light on the horizon (even if it feels intractably out of reach) and focuses on that to get her through whatever hardship she is facing.

What is your MC’s favorite quote or song? Harper has a lot of songs she likes to listen to, depending on her mood, but one of her favourites is Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts. It very much captures her attitude of freedom, adventure, and curiosity, and the belief that great things are waiting for you if you’re willing to step outside of your comfort zone:

Life's like a road that you travel on

When there's one day here, and the next day gone

Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand

Sometimes you turn your back to the wind

There's a world outside every darkened door

Where blues won't haunt you anymore

Where the brave are free and lovers soar

Come ride with me to the distant shore

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your MC:

I have had a ton of fun getting to know Harper over the 3 or so years that I’ve been exploring her view of the world. But like with any relationship️, you are always learning new things about each other, so I’m sure that as I continue fleshing out Harper and Drake’s story, I’ll learn new things about both of them ❤️ 

Because unlike some other characters I’ve written — who arrived fully formed — Harper actually developed somewhat slowly as an OC. For instance, when I started my TRR1 rewrite, I didn’t even know what she looked like, and it took me about a year to find an FC for her! 😅 

But from the very start, Harper has always had a very clear and distinct voice, which is part of the reason why I ended up writing her story from first-person POV. And the more I write her, the more I love her — almost like a sister — because she feels ‘real’. She has good qualities, yes, but she also has flaws — she can be too trusting, she isn’t always completely honest, she tends to overthink things, she gets heated and emotional and will rip into people (usually legitimately, but that doesn’t make the confrontation any less intense).

And I love her dynamic with Drake 😍 Nine times out of ten, their interactions just write themselves because even though in the big scheme of things, they haven’t known each other for that long, they are very in tune with each other and in many ways they are two sides of the same coin, which means that their interplay is always a perfect storm of snark, sexual tension, and humour.

To learn more about Harper, please see her character bio.

[karla-the-elemental-dreamer]

🪢 KH-OC Week 2024 🪢 - Day 2 Package

Prompt: Design keyblades for Natasha and Erika.

In Day 1, you were introduced to two new teddies:

Miss Natasha Avalenka

Miss Erika Tapalados

Who are special guests for KH-OC Week 2024 under Dinh-Yu.

Here are their keyblades if they were to traverse / reside in the Kingdom Hearts realm.

Natasha: Aura of Enigma

The ? graphics are inspired by how Sora or any other KH player gets confused by an enemy. When she swings, ?s will come off the keyblade. The N in the background does not stand for Neo-Cortex, it stands for Natasha, though she seems to adopt a similar if not identical style/taste, in terms of science slash robotics/mechanics, or even archaeology. Hence some nicely shaped bones for the outer handle, with an 'Alice In Wonderland'/'Dr. Seuss' bush over the top. I believe in Kingdom Hearts, she'd fit in to being a researcher or may teeter on the edge of darkness at times.

The main reason Natasha gets this keyblade is because despite me being her creator (obviously), I don't even know the true facets of her personality. Like she is so hard to flesh out, hence she's an 'Enigma' waiting to be discovered, if anyone can work it out. That's what the E at the end of the keyblade stands for... Unless she had dealings with Ephemer or Eraqus that I know nothing about...?

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Erika: Flower Garden

Erika would be teaming up with the guardians of light, and may even get involved in the company/surroundings of her sister. Erika would get Riku to 'like' her / get used to her quicker than both Selvian and Sierra combined. Consuls (ESFJs) have a knack for that.

With Erika's design, she just screams flowers and pretty petals, and other pretty things as well. In a sense she's like Kairi, but only in tastes. She's not as rambunctious as Kairi. Just for comparison, think of Erika as a Princess Peach type; only not getting kidnapped.

I think of Erika as a 'delicate flower', whereas Kairi is a 'Wild Flower'.

Kairi likes a sharp pink, Erika likes pastel pink and pastel green as a secondary.

---

As Day 2 here is on the topic of more/additional keyblades:

As I was setting up some things for this event, I was psychically gifted a keyblade for my inventory by Dinh-Yu and his crowd!

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Day 2 edit: Dinh-Yu subsequently caught me out for not putting keychains on the back of the handles. I always forget those 🥲

'Aura of Enigma' would have a bright red N OR a ? of some sort.

Not sure about Erika's.

'Warioware Inc.' would have a garlic OR a mini console thing like what they use in Game&Wario.

---

Subsequent Day 2 edit: Am doing the week mostly blind due to Dinh-Yu's challenge, advice and instructions, but when scrolling through ppl's work, I saw a prompt.

I realise I have hilariously coincidentally addressed Natasha's ABSENCE OF past or at least knowledge of it 😁

So here's something else about the past. Where does Selvian come from? IRL, I have had what happened to be my favourite coloured trddy bear for a few years, until it was no longer useable for some reason. The ears were blue, but the fur was rainbow. Since the base colour was green, that's the digital skin colour because I'd spend forever with rainbow. Selvian is the unaltered version of how the teddy looks like IRL, without clothes obvs, and also therefore consequentially bald. The rest are altered to give them hair and different personalities.

The bear may have been tossed in the trash, but the spirit lived on, for that many years, and has transformed into an interdimensional entity/carryable character in the name of Selvian who appears to be the leader of everything but has a specific bridge to Kingdom Hearts. And oop! I was also calling him Selviana as a child, hence I've now taken the last A off.

---

Sierra and Erika being sisters is a fairly new concept after Erika was rolled in for Dinh-Yu. May try to address tidbits of the sisters (or just Sierra because she's KH) in future days IF I can flesh them out more. These teddies sometimes start their jobs before we even get to know them 😅

Sierra was always intended to have a sister, we just didn't know who it was.

[sketch-guardian]

RAD classmates with an S/O who secretly grew up in a lab sounds so fun to me, like the random lore drop they could possibly do, like “oh yeah, they used to inject me all the time!” When one of them complains about having to get a shot.

This ask is heavily inspired by a Gacha lab series I watched everyday when I was like 7 and sobbed when the creator quit 😞

I don't know which series you are referring to exactly🤔having never watched Gacha stuff in general🙈however I'll do my best💜✨also I assumed you meant all OCs, so I hope that's okay🤞🏻sometimes it's better to specify RAD classmates+New exchange students to make sure I'll definitely understand😥(moreover I apologize for not replying to the ask immediately, but I'm trying to draw the New exchange students' true celestial forms and it's a nightmare😭):

"RAD CLASSMATES+NEW EXCHANGE STUDENTS WITH A MC WHO SECRETLY GREW UP IN A LAB"

DEMYA

Although Demya spent part of her childhood in a circus as a freakshow attraction, having nevertheless suffered mistreatment such as being chained up, forced to wear muzzles, restraints and skipping meals, the context in which she lived as a young demon for a few months wouldn't be too different from MC's one, besides some obvious differences. Demya would for once be worryingly quiet, asking MC, if they feel up to it, to confess the details of the laboratory where they were raised and experimented on, listening intently to the horrible things MC was subjected to. Demya would then hug MC tightly, rocking them from side to side and promising that as their mate, she would never let anything like that happen to MC again. When Demya was freed, the first thing she did was going on a rampage, maiming all the circus workers, the ringmaster in particular, leaving no survivors, so she would ask MC if the scientists or the laboratory were still there, because if so, Demya would accompany them to destroy everything, having the right to take revenge

DOMNRA/MOBIM

MC's story would remind Domnra of when he freed Demya from her cage, a stranger at the time, leaving her to sow chaos immediately afterwards, even if it would be different circumstances than MC's. Domnra wouldn't be surprised at learning something that awful actually happened, considering that human beings can be just as cruel as demons and would tell MC that if they wanted to share their past, he, as their partner, would stay at their side to listen. If MC still had scars from the experiments on their body, Domnra would trace their outline with a caring and cautious touch, letting then MC return the gesture, with caresses on the scars on his chest and the one on his now blind eye, wounds suffered during the Celestial War. Mobim, being a little curse and therefore not being born conventionally, would not know how a human being should be raised, however the idea of ​​so many injections would make it nervous and sensing MC's trauma, even if hidden behind humor, Mobim would try to stay next to them as much as possible, in order to comfort and distract them

AZUL

Again, such story would remind Azul of Demya's tormented past, especially the first days in which he welcomed her into his home, the signs of beatings, bruises and other contusions were evident, it was clear that the demon hadn't been treated well, therefore at first Azul was very condescending and not intrusive, leaving Demya her space. Due to old habits, Azul would likely replicate the same behavior with MC, basically he would first observe them in search of scars, while pretending of doing nothing suspicious and then only as some time passed Azul would begin to ask more questions about MC's past in the lab, also curious to know if they had developed some skill or what exactly the scientists were aiming for. Obviously Azul's blood would boil at the thought of MC having such childhood, clear by his color change from light blue to red, however MC would be able to calm him down, especially since they seem to use humor to deflect trauma, a method Azul would be familiar with, as well as using cuddles. Azul would ask if the lab was still standing, just to make sure no one would come looking for MC anymore, even if he doubts they would get to Devildom

ZURI

MC's story would vaguely remind Zuri's about Demya's issue, about which she was among the last to find out, as Domnra and Azul had done their own thing at the time, without even consulting her on whether or not it was a good idea to welcome into their house a potentially cannibal demon, luckily in the end things went better than expected. Zuri would be slightly surprised and even a little disconcerted by the fact that MC would be able to joke about their situation, but she would then reflect that it's probably their way of dealing with trauma and managing the negative feelings inherent to it. Zuri would tactfully ask MC to tell her about their past in the lab and would stroke their hand in the process, squeezing it every now and then to be reassuring. The fact that someone could carry out experiments on a child would disgust Zuri, who would do some research on the laboratory and make sure that every scientist member was either dead or in any case unwilling to repeat such actions, however they wouldn't escape a punishment for the crimes commited against her beloved, after all just killing them would be too merciful

ODON

And to think that Odon thought they were cruel as a young demon, when a mere gaze was enough to end a lot of innocent lives, at least with Odon deaths were mostly quick, they didn't spend their time torturing others despite being an eldritch horror, as some human scientists apparently did instead on MC in a laboratory. Odon, always with a smile, even if fainter, would allow MC to confide in them and they would ask if the experiments had any repercussions on their physical or mental health, thinking of possible ways to remedy that, probably within the limits of their reality bending magic. Odon wouldn't be worried about some scientist looking for MC if they were still alive, because no one would be able to get close enough and stay alive to do so, thanks to their eye-like creatures. Some habits die hard, especially for Odon's familiars, decidedly more aggressive than them, despite being less dangerous

REMIEL

Remiel lived her childhood practically in isolation, for various safety reasons, in the company only of her mother Azrael and occasionally her father Death when he managed to visit, therefore the angel of death wouldn't be sure about what can be defined as growing up normally, however from MC's stories, Remiel would deduce that a child shouldn't undergo experiments, it would be amoral and against balance, a sin in short, not approved by any angel. Remiel, accostumed to listening to souls' stories and comforting them before they say their final goodbye, would be used to dealing with heavy topics, so MC would feel free to confide in the angel of death without fear of judgement, along some soft embraces with wings used as fluffy blankets to cover themselves in a feathery cocoon. Remiel, believing in redemption if genuine, would give the scientists a second chance if they were still alive and repentant, however if they lied, which she would notice, then the Archangel of Hope would have no glimmer of forgiveness to spare and would await their inevitable end, in order to restore balance

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel, as probably Remiel and Uriel as well, wouldn't know what a laboratory or syringes consist of, having nothing similar in the Celestial Realm, however he would be perceptive enough to understand from MC's tone that they aren't good, especially if associated with MC's growth path. Nathaniel would be disappointed by the way some members of humanity act to further progress and would gently scoff, shaking his head and thinking how lucky he's to have MC by his side, despite everything they've been through. Nathaniel would help MC open up about their time in the lab and whether the scientists were still alive or not, he would still leave MC with a blessing from him as a form of protection, accompanied by a soft kiss on their forehead for emphasis. If possible, Nathaniel would try to keep MC away from places that would remind them of the trauma they suffered or in any case to stay near as a figure to cling to or hide behind

URIEL

Uriel would need MC to explain to her in detail about their childhood in the laboratory and how human children normally grow up, to be certain of how to distinguish between normality and abomination, since she had never been that interested in the matter, after all Uriel spent her youth fighting and training and for some humans that might be abnormal, but for her it was routine, as a warrior angel. After MC's explanation, Uriel would be reasonably contradicted, indeed mad that such human behavior wasn't only allowed, but also probably went unpunished, which would be unacceptable for Uriel, who if MC didn't stop her and the scientists were still alive, would immediately remedy the situation, to prevent similar sins from happening again. If MC had scars, Uriel would grit her teeth, but at the time she would tell MC that those are proof that they survived and that they should be proud. With Uriel as a guardian at their side, MC would have nothing to fear anymore

[theredpharaoah]

So how did they kill every member of the immortal clan but Free if they’re immortal? I know Maka’s anti-magic wavelength can possibly harm them so did they have someone using that? Or does Death just have the ability to kill anyone and anything?

How come Lord Death died for Kid to succeed him? I know there’s a difference between a mature grim reaper and a true reaper, but wouldn’t that still mean Asura would’ve been in line before Kid? Unless Lord Death can decide who to give his mantle to. I was kinda sad when I found out Kid and Asura were basically Lord Death’s tulpas. I guess It makes sense cuz he wouldn’t have a lot of options for immortal partners(he killed all the Werewolves, I don’t think Free would be down to bottom, and he hates witches). I still wanted to see his human form though. It’s interesting that there can only be one true reaper at a time because having more is unnecessary. That implies a sort of natural law or maybe some sort of conservation of universal energy.

Where the hell is Shinra? He’s considered the creator god and a true god. I’m assuming that means he’s not dead so is he just lazing around somewhere? Or maybe he is dead cuz he’s like Soul Eater universe’s Jesus. And what happened to Adolla?

The witches. Kid said there’d be no more Death Scythes which kinda sucks. I mean obviously they were marking a race of people as evil from birth and essentially committing a genocide against witches, but from a purely fictional in-series standpoint; what happens now? They just hunt Kishin eggs?

And how the hell did Black Star become stronger than Kid - an actual God - off of pure will in the manga? I’m all for someone being able to do that, but most fictional universes don’t allow for that. Furthermore, him being the only one to reach that and being stronger than Kid is kinda giving OC. And if you can have a God of Hope or Power, why couldn’t Maka become a God of Courage or Perseverance, or Soul a God Of Loyalty? Btw, I’m assuming the whole “Courage” thing didn’t happen in the manga. Where the hell is Maka’s mother? Spirit may be a hoe but at least he’s present.

[buggitino]

some headcanons about sebastian solace from the hit game pressure roblox

to start - this may seem unimportant to you guys but its important to me: that ring on his finger is about as serious as the squirrel stapler room (that is, to say, the whole thing is a bit that the devs have included in their silly project and i will be treating it as such) (for selfish reasons, of course, but idc!! i'm having fun with this stupid game that i love and thats all that matters) (update on this: as i'm typing, i'm finding out that zerum is serious about her and sebastian being married which is honestly kinda...) (like sure fine that's cool and all if he were JUST your OC but sebastian has reached a point of publicity where he is more than that. obviously, i think it's rude and terrible and disrespectful to disregard a creators wishes as to how their character is used in fan-made content (this especially goes for NSFW art cause i think its fucked up if people make that sort of content of a character and POST IT after the creator explicitly said not to). at the same time, there are many people on the internet who do not care and will do what they want regardless. i think it'd be fair for her to ask not to have any of it sent to her specifically or posted in the Pressure server that she co-runs where she will obviously see it but she's saying she doesn't want anyone to make that sort of stuff period which is unreasonable and will only serve to hurt her in the long run. i don't know how old zerum is but this is reminiscent of my own (early) internet phases where i would become EXTREMELY attached to a character and refuse to acknowledge that that character existed differently (or at all) to someone else (i don't want to admit it was a sans AU but i really don't think i have a choice). i really hope she gets past this in a healthy way and comes to understand that a character who's been made public the way sebastian has been made public has a very different dynamic than an OC that you're sharing with your friends)

☆ pretty basic and angsty interpretation and im positive most people in the fandom agree with me on this - he doesn't like getting hit with the bright light not only because of the angler fish DNA making his eyes sensitive but also because it reminds him of surgical lights (which is why he has a Take No Shit policy (since the update) for expendables flashing him) (yeah, he has a pretty short fuse already, but he wouldn't deck an expendable for leaving and coming back in once nor would he shoot them for using the keycard on his wares) (so even though its because of the DNA mixing, i like headcanoning theres more to it for funsies)

☆ can and will let the expendables die in his shop because then he doesn't have to leave to collect all the shit they drop (on that note, wags his tail and chuckles when you buy stuff cause he knows it'll ultimately be useless and he'll just get it back)

☆ collects data so he has records of urbanshades bullshittery (so he can prosecute their asses the second he escapes) AND so he can re-discover his own identity (this plays into my headcanon that he's slowly forgetting what he used to look like as well as what his life used to be outside of urbanshades teensy weensy ginormous fuck up facility)

☆ i know this is (basically) canon but i'm solidifying it for myself by calling it here: he's chilean american (and speaks chilean spanish) and i know like i KNOW if his radio was working he'd be blasting Bio Bio or Futuro or Pudahuel 24/7

☆☆ bonus!! he 100% listens to mid 90s - early 2000s emo music now (have you even seen him) (that mf painted his nails pitch black in middle school) (walked out the door listening to Green Day and One Last Wish on his walkman while his mom kissed him goodbye telling him to have a good day at school TRUST) and his favorite chilean genres are nueva trova chilena, folklore, cueca, and punk melodico! (im not entirely familiar with chilean culture and music so if anyone here is chilean and likes Pressure PLEASE chime in i'd love to hear your thoughts)

☆ on the topic of family, he would help his mom cook and clean sometimes when his older sister was out (his dad helps too!!)

☆ twirls/plays with his hair (mostly because he doesn't have anything else to fidget with) (projecting he's self conscious about it cause thats why i play with my hair whoops)

☆ soft spot for teen/young adult expendables that he doesn't have for the older ones (every time he sees an expendable younger than 30, his disgust and rage towards urbanshade grows)

these are all for fun and just my personal opinions/headcanons!! i'll update these eventually (maybe) and i wanna hear what you guys have to say too :D

[coconut530]

ok I'm rambling again so yeah. Hello veteran worshippers I'm new :)

I mean, like I knew about Sleep Token, heard The Summoning first in one of my Trigun artist’s Tiktoks, then heard Take Me Back To Eden in a video by the creator of Covenant Webtoon. Listened to those songs for fun sometimes, but then TMBTE got ✨stuck✨ in my head. Then I was like “Live video of TMBTE??? Does it exist?”

And like. Why didn’t I get into this band sooner.

First off here’s The Summoning and TMBTE so you can see my pipeline:

And then THIS RITUAL introduced me to the band, which was FREAKING AMAZING IT’S SUCH A GOOD RECORDING!!

I love their aesthetic, secondly. You don’t see many mysterious bands these days, and these guys deliver so well. Every single member has a distinct and interesting look that's all so cool. I love how the Vesselettes/Espera exist, like that's amazing and I love seeing them. Vessel looks so fun to draw I wanna do it at some point. This is the first band I’ve found that just speaks to my OCs more than other fictional characters. Probably gonna see me animate Dark Signs with one of them soon enough.

Third, like… their lyrics are some of the most creative and evocative things I’ve heard in so long. It kinda sucks they don’t do many interviews bc I’m dying to know what goes through their heads when they write this amazing music. Some of my favorite lyrics are in a list below so you don’t read a gigantic paragraph, and will also show you my favorite songs I’ve found:

Chokehold: Still getting into this one, but "So show me that which I cannot see / Even if it hurts me / Even if I can’t sleep / Oh, and though we act out of our holy duty to be constantly awake / You’ve got me in a chokehold" is a build that always gets me so hyped up

Granite: just found this one, it's so BADASS!! "When you sit there acting like you know me... So keep an eye on the road, or we'll both be here forever" is so freaking awesome. I need like an animated music video that just illustrate the lyrics bc that'd be so cool

Like That: "Fall into your eyes like a grave (all that is inside, all your anger) / Bury me to the sound of your name, no (all your disgust, all your resentment) / Fall into your eyes like a grave (all your difference, all your pain) / Bury me to the sound of your name (all your pain)." There's so much resentment in this song and it's dripping off of these lyrics specifically, it's awesome

Missing Limbs: just found this one also but OMG it made me tear up the first time watching it in the Red Rocks Ritual! It's so sweet and tender, by the time you get to the title at the end you just get punched in the feels. "I'd give anything / To balance your conviction with certainty / To fall asleep without you lying next to me / To sever my connection with everything ... And I'll live like I've got missing limbs for you" IS SO GOOD HURTS MEEEEEEEE

The Summoning: -insert the rest of the song after 5:00- Obviously this is the part everyone uses in their social media posts, and I am not immune to its allure. It’s amazing!

Take Me Back To Eden: -insert the entire second chorus- and "And I don't know what's got its teeth in me / but I'm about to bite back in anger / And no amount of self-sought fury / will bring back the glory of innocence." The way Vessel sings this is so desperate and like enhances the lyrics so much more augh

Aqua Regia: honestly like all of it. The rap-ish style with the creative lyrics is so cool and the imagery of it all is so vivid. I love how the second chorus builds with the verse. It has such a steady, pungent rhythm that's so fun to sing

Rain: "I know, I know, I am what I am / The mouth of the wolf, the eyes of the lamb / So darling, will you saturate? / -second chorus-." I love the opposites in this verse, so interesting. The chorus has that yearning (tm) and I'm all here for ittttttt

The Night Does Not Belong To God: "When you live by daylight / With angels at your side." It's literally two lines but after the beautiful build that intros the song and his angelic voice, it does something to you

Dark Signs: I melt into a puddle every time I hear "I might break and bend to my basic need to be loved and close to somebody." The line is evocative enough just hearing it once, but making it a backing vocal that’s always playing just makes it punch you over and over. All the beat drops in this song are amazing

Atlantic: EVERY FREAKING WORD AND NOTE IN THIS SONG

I need y'all to like... hear Atlantic at Red Rocks specifically (cw: flashing):

This is the main reason I made this post bc... LIKE EVERYONE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS HELLO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!! This version is so amazing I barely listen to the studio version. "Sobbing as they turn to statues at the bedside / I'm trying not to crush into sand." I can't tell you what exactly but this makes me feel things. "Call me when they bury bodies underwater / It's blue light over murder for me / Crumble like a temple built from future daughters / To wastelands when the oceans recede" is a phenomenal verse and I've never felt more connected to the ocean when I hear it. The piano, the vocals, the instruments, the venue, II singing at the end, the vesselettes, the lights. Oh my god. The outro. Soothing and angelic omggggg. That beat drop?!?!?! ✨ w h a t ✨ . They've put an addictive substance into every one of their songs but this one is like an overdose. Can't get anything done all I'm thinking about is this -flails hands at video-. Vessel is literally a vessel in this song bc whatever entities the band made a deal with to have music this good are singing through him here.

And like the fourth thing. By now listening to all these songs may have made you realize:

what can’t they do?!?! Their music just goes into so many different genres sometimes and it’s amazing. Never heard a band this versatile.

Uh, yeah. That's been my experience with Sleep Token so far, and I am so normal about them, as you can see :D !!!!! Excited to be into them and this community. Any of my followers reading this who don't know who they are, go check them out, they're freaking amazing. They will change you.

[roosterforme]

I just want to say that I support Anna and her choices specifically bc they're ones that I wouldn't make. Like I'm always so worried about hurting other people that I rarely express myself or find myself paralyzed by decisions bc I'm too scared to make the wrong one. It's nice to see someone make mistakes and as the audience know that everything is going to be okay. This is a romance and they're the two leads, don't stress so much and relish in the fact that you don't have to be a perfect human to still deserve or earn the love of an incredible guy.

Also it seems like so much of her life up until now has been completely smothered in another man, so if she's distanced herself to feel safe, good for her, she deserves to make choices for herself! And if she caves to her desires and has sex with a man that offers her true affection and care when she's been so starved of it, good for her! She may be married, but like fleeing across the country is a good starting place for her to try and get a divorce and protections from her ex when she's ready, it seems like right now she's still terrified and also completely financially insecure and therefore unable to go through with all of that. I for one, don't feel like blaming a woman who it seems has been significantly abused and mistreated for not making the perfect and ideal decisions when she's only just barely removed herself from a horrible situation. I don't see how so many people are eager to shame Anna for not prioritizing a man in her decisions when she's finally been able to get (through difficulty and uncertainty and self-exile) a shred of agency for herself, a consequence of being able to make your own choices is making the wrong ones and I'm sure once more is explained to him, sweet Bob isn't going to begrudge her that freedom either.

Bob is a grown and fictional man, he will be okay. Does it suck that having sex with Anna didn't magically erase all of her problems and lead to a fairytale wedding immediately? Kind of, yeah, obviously everyone wants them to be happy and in love, but atp that's not realistic, it wouldn't be healthy for her to give up her reservations on a relationship just bc that's what he wants from her either. Besides, the best you can expect to get from dick is an orgasm or two, irl you have to put in work in order to change and grow, the kinds of things that make for the compelling story that we're getting here (for free)

Anyways the way that Emily is writing this is a different take on the female lead than most, her other responses have brought up the interesting point that people don't criticize male characters for doing similar things with less justification for it. Don't complain about there not being more variety in romances just turn around and complain when the variety isn't actually what you wanted. It feels really similar to the hate that I see other creators get for making an OC or reader that's curvy or POC, like fic is escapism, why are you trying to impose the narrow constraints of femininity from the real world onto someone that has the chance to be free of all that? I hope all of these commenters will be more forgiving of their own mistakes than they are with Anna's

Oops, that was a whole essay, anyways love your work, have a good weekend!

Nonny. Say it a little louder, please: you don't have to be a perfect human to still deserve or earn the love of an incredible guy.

God, this is like the best nonny ask ever.

Anna is finally making choices for herself after many years. The next few chapters will really visit her past and show what happened and why it's ongoing.

But I don't even need to add anything else, because you covered so much of how I feel. Thank you for this. Thank you for taking the time to send this to me. I hope I'm not the only one who got something out of it.

[kaioshin-kai]

I have been very curious, do you have any specific headcanons about shinjin as a whole? If this leads to any tangents about specific characters that's fine too I just like seeing people's takes on these fruitboys 👀

❥ All supreme kais have attendants, shinjins are social beings; they can have as many individuals work for them as they please. They also aren't required to always take their attendants with them, which is why we didn't see much in the ToP.

This actually explains U7's "system" perfectly. Simply because there are no rules/limits on how many attendants a supreme kai can have. They can even just make up random jobs/positions if they like.

❥ I headcanon most shinjins are queer and polyamorous. It kinda annoys me when people act as if all shinjins should be total prudes or ignorant about sex just bc Elder Kai gets called out for being (obviously) very inappropriate. They really should be doing their research on IRL deities as they're literally based of Hindu deities.

Also how canonically shinjins have showed interests in romance/sexual attraction/etc. See also Shin & Chronoa talking about it… & how Dragon Ball fusions confirmed that offworlder hybrids can exist.

❥ Actually, this one isn't an headcanon; it's implied stuff and a thing most people forget: Shinjins can create life however they want. They are CREATOR GODS. They literally grow whole ass planets out of nothing!

❥ Because of my previous statement; shinjins can have children however they like. So people who whine about how some ships, shinjin OC's, hybrid OC's, etc… "don't make sense" need to STFU. Shinjins can do stuff however they like, when when they don't "need" to do it.

❥ (Also implied in canon.) Next to possessing god ki, shinjins possess magic as well; This is a different phenomena than ki.

❥ Because of shinjins being capable of magic, yes: They can alter their gender, appearance, etc… However, it's actually a skill and also a matter of personal taste; not all of them will be good at it persé. Some embrace aging, or embrace the original appearance they are "born" with.

❥ Shinjins need to eat/sleep just like us! Though, just not as frequently for survival.

They eat a more traditional diet based of buddhism but most are pretty liberal with it. (Though I can imagine Zamasu, Gowasu, Khai, Eyre, etc being vegetarian or even vegan.)

❥ There is actually a great gap between regular fruit shinjin and golden fruit shinjin. It's impossible to visually tell them apart, it can only be sensed through their ki signature. Golden fruit shinjin barely need any training and live much longer, meanwhile regular fruit shinjin have to work much harder. (I plan to write more about this.)

❥ My version of Eyre (waayyy post-TOP) modified himself into a cyborg. He is back even more powerful. :3

[panda-puma]

I'm a little baffled by your post about the one piece anime, because while I would also recommend people read the manga instead, it still is a vastly more accurate adaption than the opla? like, opla is lovely for what it is, but oda being involved in it doesn't change the fact that they took huuuge liberties that the anime just... doesn't? which is perfectly fine for an adaption, I'm just mentioning it because it sounded like you were focused on the character dynamics, which are just... vastly, vastly different in the manga AND anime vs the live action. I'm thinking about Nami and Sanji in particular (and Usopp as well to a degree), who all kind of feel like watered-down versions of their actual selves (Nami isn't greedy enough, Usopp not cowardly enough, Sanji... well, I'm not saying Sanji being different is a bad thing asdf). Again, perfectly fine for an adaption that doesn't mean to adapt its source material beat for beat, but it just leaves me really confused over how the opla is possibly a more faithful/a better adaption than the anime? Which, as far as I can recall, has severe pacing issues, annoying fillers and leaves out things like the cover stories, but still sticks waaaay closer to the actual story and dynamics as they are in the manga.

(First of all: you can like the Anime. As I said before, I've watched the entire Anime 3 times this last year. But you can enjoy something and still know it's flawed. Very flawed, even.)

Uf, I will try to make this as short as possible xD If i sound dry or "angy", sorry, English is not my first language ^^

What baffles me is that most people really think the Anime of One Piece is a faithful 1 to 1 adaptation, or that everything on it is canon (except the fillers), or that Oda approves the changes they make. For context: it was very common in the 90s/2000s to just take a manga that was doing good and make an animation that took the characters and story and did whatever they wanted with it. One Piece is not the only victim of this treatment.

I respect the animators and Seiyuus, they do their jobs good and are what makes the Anime enjoyable. But I really can not understand the Directors and the changes they decided to make to the characters (and this applies to the whole series, not only 20 years ago).

The changes you see in OPLA are necessary to translate a drawing (Manga) to a series acted by real people. Also, condensing 95 chapters of Manga in 8 episodes and trying to bring the essence of the characters to the screen, translating Japanese funny gags to an International Audience and also having the input of 25 years of Oda thinking "huh, maybe this could have been explained better" it's obviously going to make things change.

The Anime has none of those excuses. It's also a drawing so no need to tone down, supposed to have the same Audience (even tho they really tried to make it for little kids and it shows), they clearly don't have an issue with the length of the series and they don't ask Oda for nearly any of the changes they make!

Pretending Oda being involved or not doesn't matter is just so weird to me. You know all One Piece characters are Oda's OCs, right? He is the original creator of the characters. He knows them better than anyone else. He knows where the story is going, what is acceptable, what is on character and what is not. Just because they are very famous characters it doesn't mean they are not someones Original Characters. He loves them and cares for them. Not respecting him as the only one that can say something is canon or not is completely disrespectful and dehumanizing.

About watering down characters in OPLA: again, they are real people acting the characters. In the Manga they are exaggerated to a comical effect that wouldn't translate as comical if it's real people who do it, it'd just be weird. That's because it's different mediums and different audience. But the core of the characters is very present, just less cartoony. On the other hand, the Anime reduces the characters to just this comical effect, taking away nearly everything else of the characters, making them just gags.

Answering to the specific points you make about OPLA:

Nami not being greedy enough: Nami's greed before Arlong Park Arc is just her trying to save enough to free her people. We don't really see her greed until after she is free. We haven't reached this point yet in OPLA, apart of her wanting to dress nice and enjoy a bath.

Usopp not being cowardly enough: they can not spend 5 minutes of an 50 minute episode showing him screaming around or running away. But they did show him running as first reaction in Kaya's Mansion, twice. They showed him wanting to go back home after encountering Garp. He does say cowardly things all the time, like wanting to leave, stay on the Merry, not fight the Fish Men, running away the second Chu payed attention to him… It's just less cartoony. They are also not showing inner dialogue of the characters, it's just shown by their acting.

Sanji not being a pervert: Not only is Sanji's perversion waaaay exaggerated in the Anime, to an unpalatable degree, it's also a very Japanese Funny Gag that wouldn't translate good to an International Audience. Sanji in the Manga has, on top of everything else, a friendly relationship with Nami. He can talk to her like a human being. They are friends that can agree or disagree without drama, that join forces to fix things very often and act very calm around each other unless something "special" happens and Sanji is lovestruck, but even so, he usually comes back to being normal pretty fast. Of course he likes her and he is attracted to her, but he also sees her as a person... unlike the Anime. This translated to into the Live Action to a man that tries to flirt and has no success, but that can take a no as an answer without being offended. Also, Oda probably wanted to show on the Live Action that the real reason Sanji is on the crew is no other than him following Luffy (that is also a thing that the Anime waters down: Sanji's dedication to Luffy)

The main point is: yes, OPLA is an Alternative Universe where things are shown a bit differently, but the core of the characters is the same. You see them and you see real people, just like in the Manga.

And let's see about the faithfulness of the Anime... just because the Arcs are called the same and things kind of happen the same, it doesn't mean it's a faithful adaptation. The most important thing in a story is the characters and how they interact and react to the world. These are just some differences between the Anime and the Manga that I can think of off the top of my head, just from the East Blue Saga. (without any particular order)

-- Zoro's real backstory (Manga) is that he had been in the Shimotsuki Dojo probably since birth, practicing his 2 Sword Style and only starting the 3 Sword Style to carry Kuina's Soul with him. [((spoilers from Wano: now we know Zoro is also a Shimotsuki, so he was training in his family's Dojo. It also explains why Koushirou gave Kuina's sword to Zoro so easily: they are family, and Zoro would carry the Shimotsuki name to the top of Swordmanship))].

Zoro's backstory in the Anime is completely changed to make it look like he is a random funny kid that came out of nowhere and one day appeared in the Dojo. His signature 3 sword style is also made like he just "wanted to use as many swords as possible".

I don't think it's very necessary to explain why this changes are just... terrible for the character and continuity.

[Edit: the following is not correct! Check the reblog for the correction :D] The Anime also makes Zoro's departure from Shimotsuki Village like something he planned to do, saying goodbye to Kuina's Grave and Koushiro… when in the Manga he literally tells Luffy he was kicking pirates out of his village and he got lost and didn't know how to get back. [/end of incorrect part]

Changing Zoro's character at every turn is something they love to do in the Anime.

--

Usopp in the Manga wants Luffy&co. to meet Kaya, because he cares about her well being. He wants her to make new friends, to be able help them and feel useful doing it. Usopp knows what Kaya needs is contact with the world and tries to bring it to her.

Usopp in the Anime is jealous and secretive of her. He doesn't want the others to go meet her, even knowing they are good people. He'd rather have her to himself.

This is a fatal change to the character of Usopp. He is a kind hearted lovely man that wants what's best for his friend... but the Anime just shows a jealous asshole.

--

In the battle against Cabaji, Zoro cuts his own wound, so his opponent can't use it as an advantage anymore.

In the Anime, he lowers his defense on purpose and lets Cabaji cut his wound.

The first one shows how far he can go to prove himself, also shows he is not at all worried because he doesn't consider Cabaji up to his level. I'm not sure what the second one is supposed to show apart from "children can not see self-harm".

--

Also in Orange Town in Manga, Luffy is fighting as much as possible against the cage he is trapped in, biting the bars. And afterwards he is very worried asking Zoro to leave him and not carry him or he will get worse from his wounds. In the Anime he is just surprised that Zoro can carry him like that. He doesn't really fight his predicament.

The Anime usually shows Luffy as an uncaring friend, which is sad when he is a character that cares so much and has so much empathy.

--

In the Manga, Zeff cuts his own leg and eats it to survive after giving all the food they have to Sanji.

In the Anime, Zeff lost his leg because it got caught in the ships broken pieces, and he had to cut it to survive. (i guess he survived 80 days thanks to the Holy Spirit or something) (again with being palatable to children)

--

In the Manga, the first encounter between Tashigi and Zoro is brief, Zoro gives her back the glasses and carries on (even tho tilted by her looking so similar to Kuina).

In the Anime, Zoro breaks Tashigi's glasses with the shock and she proceeds to be the meanest person ever insulting him in many ways (isn't she supposed to be a good person?) and forcing him to work for her to pay her glasses back, even tho she has no need for the money.

The Anime shows Zoro as a pushover, when in reality he is not. He was "pushed over" by Luffy out of the blue because it is Luffy, not because Zoro would let someone random do that to him. This type of "Zoro gets messed up easily by anyone" is very repeated through the Anime, taking away the importance of his relationship with Luffy and the other few he pays really attention to.

--

In the Manga, Sanji wants to be famous and have his face seen in the Newspaper. That's why he gets mad when Usopp is in Luffy's Wanted Poster and he isn't.

In the Anime, he is already a famous cook. We can see it in one of the many filler in Loguetown, where another cook has been wanting to surpass him for a long time.

[((spoiler of Whole Cake Island: This collides directly with how his Wanted Poster makes his bio Family looks for him to use him, after knowing he is still alive.))]

--

Also in Loguetown, in the Manga Luffy goes directly to the place Roger was executed.

In the Anime they make him get lost a hundred times for comical effect. He also meets Smoker, Buggy and others on the way… taking away all the surprise.

--

In the Manga, Zoro and Luffy are pretty confused with Sanji's romantic reaction to Nami. They don't get why she's getting special treatment. Zoro even wonders if she bewitched him somehow.

In the Anime, as soon as Sanji starts flirting with Nami, Zoro gets irritated and Luffy gets uncomfortable.

In the Anime they try hard to make Zoro have a romance with any girl that shows up, adding reactions that are never present in the Manga.

--

And well, a huge one that needs more elaboration, because it is the core of the Manga: Luffy is shown observing and judging situations and people constantly. Every time something is happening that shows the true nature of people, he is specifically shown paying attention.

In the Anime this is translated as him being an empty headed kid that barely thinks or cares about anyone. He is a shell of a man, who only repeats that he wants to be King of the Pirates...

--

This is a very tiny list of examples that explain themselves without going into extensive detail…

I can go on and on about more changes that make no sense or change characters personalities, but if I do, I will dedicate its own blog to it to not clutter this one. I need bigger posts to explain the changes I see in dynamics between the characters xD

And as I said: if all of these changes were approved by Oda, I would be happy to accept them. But sadly they are not.

So to me, the One Piece Anime is just a fan-made adaptation that takes too many liberties. Or, as Animes are really considered in Japan: just advertisement for the Mangas.

On the other hand, OPLA changes were approved after negotiations and struggles and years of back and forth. Oda was very invested in it, trying to really show his vision and his world as good as possible. That's why i consider the Live Action as a faithful adaptation of the story.

Of course you may not consider these things important, but they are for me. In the end, you are free to enjoy One Piece as you wish! ^^

Anyways, thanks for reading so much! xD This ended up not being short at all, but i controlled myself as much as possible, i swear uvuU

[leviosatothestars]

We’re going to ignore the fact that I absolutely forgot today is Remus’ birthday and instead I’m going to post something in honor of him :).

The concept of my fanfiction is how Tom Riddle/Voldemort’s reign had an affect on four different generations of women and the people they all loved. I’m white and grew up in a primarily white suburban town so I don’t feel like I’d be able to give women of color the justice they deserve, which is why the main characters are all white (Irish and Italian heritage).

People of color are prevalent in the story, including one of my other OCs and canonically POC in the Wizarding World. I don’t think anyone’s identities should be stripped from them, even if it’s a popular headcanon amongst the fandom and not canon.

Almost all of my OCs, even the ones that are not main characters, either are neurodivergent or have a disability and it plays a major role in their life because mental & chronic illnesses truly are that way. I myself am neurodivergent and chronically ill and I wanted more representation for people in these communities. It also doesn’t help that so many of the characters in the actual books/movies are obviously mentally ill and the “creator” (I will not say her name unless I’m ranting about how much I don’t like her) did not shine light onto how to help people with depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or any other mental illness.

I am also very anti Dumbledore and Snape and that’s prevalent in the fanfic as well. In my opinion, neither are good people, they are both very morally grey in a way that I cannot support (I say this because Mattheo Riddle is morally grey and I love him). I am a Percy Weasley supporter though and I hope people can understand why in my interpretation of him (he’s still very much like his canon self).

Oh, and most of the characters in my fanfic are LGBTQ+, including almost all of my OCs. In the Golden Trio era of the story there’s actually a friend group one of the main characters of that gen that’s only queer characters, from all four houses. That friend group holds a very special place in my heart because I’m sort of inspired by my hometown friend group.

I wanted my fanfic to have a heavier focus on characters that either didn’t not get enough attention in the movies or books or haven’t really in the fandom, such as: Oliver Wood, Emmeline Vance, Xenophilius Lovegood, Edgar Bones, Emma Vanity, Lucinda Talkalot, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Charlie Weasley, and Adrian Pucey. Fan favorites such as the Marauders, Fred & George Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Cedric Diggory, Theodore Nott, Lorenzo Berkshire, Regulus Black, and the Valkyries make an appearance or are central to this story.

I began writing this fanfiction in 2020, which was when I first watched the movies (I am not a Draco girly though and missed out on most of Dracotok), so my interpretation on some of these characters may be different than most of the Marauders fandom. Over time, I have tried to include different pieces of the fandom’s headcanons on the Marauders era characters (and Theo), but it’s still not the same because it’s my interpretation.

Some point soon I plan on posting a list of every character that appears in the fanfiction, which is nowhere near finished because my mind hops between the four gens whenever I write 😂, and I will be categorizing them by their Hogwarts houses.

I am very excited to introduce you all to the family of women in this story, their friends, and their love interests as well as explaining the lore of this Pureblood house that is not part of the Sacred 28.

[liminevator]

⚠️ ~ WATCH YOUR STEP - MIND THE GAP ~ ⚠️

[You are now entering the Liminevator, we hope you enjoy your stay]

(Info under the read more)

Hello hello and welcome! This is a blog for a little side project I ( @nnugatoryextravagance ) have been working on that's tangentially connected to my primary oc project.

The Liminevator is a machine that was built by a man named Professor Katzehund Schrödinger, that was originally intended to be for having a safe way to find out the truth about the strange reported phenomena of people slipping from this reality into another with no way to return, not only was this found to be absolutely real but of course something also went horrifically wrong in line with it's creator's declining mental faculties, as a result The Liminevator we now know was born, a dubiously self aware machine that has become its own little divot in the unstable framework of the Crafengoverse and has made getting lost outside of reality easier than ever before, once you enter the doors to the lobby, weather on purpose or by mistake, you'll only be left with two directions left to go: up, or down. Watch your step and mind the gap as you head inside, we hope you'll enjoy your stay, you have an eternity to settle into after all.

-- -- --

This intro post will also serve as a sorta guide for how this blog works

First, there's the levels system for how the floors are categorized

Second, there's a list of basic terminology thats used a lot

Third, there's what the tags are for (don't worry, there aren't too many):

"💔 - Characters" - This tag is for posts about the different denizens located within the bounds of The Liminevator

"🛗 - Floors" - This tag is, well, for posts that're about the floors of The Liminevator

"⚠️ - Anomalies" - This is a blanket tag is for the various animals(?) and things and such found around most floors, whether or not they're just harmless critters or violent beasts is further distinguished by:

"🐾 - Friends" - For anomalies that are safe for denizens or are helpful in some way

"🦴 - Foes" - For violent anomalies that cause active harm to denizens

"🧀 - Fiends" - For anomalies that don't neatly fall into the Friends or Foes categories

"🪄 - Objects" - A tag usually paired with the above three to specify anomalies that don't show enough signs of vitality to be a sort of animal or are very blatantly just an anomalous object of sorts

"💊 - Other Phenomena" - File entries that don't quite fit other categories, wether it be things like illnesses, denizen biology, elevator events, metaphysical phenomena, anything really

--- [Media tags] ---

"📖 - Stories" - a tag for short stories about the elevator denizens (that isn't part of a database entry) either by me or others

"🍿 - Etc" - Miscellaneous posts

"🎨 - Art" - and a tag for any art (that isnt part of a database entry) either by me or others

And thats all of them for now, I may add more tags as I need them but :]

(For the sake of filtering, tags for certain common triggers of things will be formatted like [bad thing] tw)

-- -- --

OOC: (One more important note and a bit more of a personal anecdote about this project, while most of it is primarily my usual worldbuilding shenanigans given a silly twist, many aspects of The Liminevator exist as a way for me to come to terms with the multitudes trauma I've experienced (most obviously with the elevator denizens themselves of course, even sometimes through how I got the characters to begin with), hell this whole thing was born not long after an event with a now ex partner that left me deeply re-traumatized and I have been using it to help me recover from that and distract from ongoing issues, like my health and etc.)

(There will be heavy themes of unreality, occasional unsettling imagery or descriptions, characters with mentions of disturbing events in their past, characters doing awful things to eachother thanks to the perceived idea of zero consequences, and whathaveyou. Everything I ever mention will be tagged accordingly however so don't worry, but if I do mess up please let me know and I will rectify it asap. All I can hope for is maybe this project might be able to help someone like me out there too <:] or at least inspire someone to do something cool)

[A little addendum, yes the project was obviously inspired by the game Regretevator, but it's not based on it, this idea was rattling in my head for a long time and was inspired by a buncha other things too- I just wanted to make that a bit clearer just in case because I've already been asked about it]

[apersonthatexistsonthisplanet]

I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at Yanqing hcs, scrolling through tumblr intros, and I’m proud to say i don’t know how to start an account

I did a little sketch of one of two of my children, so I’m going to introduce them ( I’m stupidly obsessed with creating ocs ) Either way, meet Ageha :) He has a whole document, linked below, but I need to ramble about him.

Ageha, if you’re a TLDR person, is a funny little guy that’s a sword but then becomes a human because well, the blacksmith that made him felt silly and then decided to infuse him with some spirit. But his creator is also in debt! With the IPC! Big surprise there, and then his creator decided to use him as payment for his debt because well, he decided to go see the holy gates.

If you’ve made it this far, congrats :D. I’ll start to talk about all the details and stuff now. Ageha is specifically a “蝴蝶双刀“，or you can say “蝴蝶之剑” if you want to be fancy. In English, it means dual butterfly knives, small knives for close combat. Concept seems familiar? No, I didn’t get inspired by soul eater, it’s the fanfic soul steel on ao3. Go check it out, it’s one of my favourites as a yanqing fan :). Although he is usually meant for close combat, he has a special design, a small little orb in the middle of the hilt. It’s meant for storing blood, and his sword form can take on different shapes and sizes based on the amount of blood stored.

I found this picture on Pinterest, but I’d love if if anyone could tell me where this came from. Basically, this is his entire weapon concept. Like any metal, he rusts if he goes without combat for too long, he kind of just becomes slower and less reactive in general XD. So then, being sealed away is kind of a punishment to him bc he becomes laggy.

Ageha was found by Pearl, and then kind of just fell in love at first sight, but not the romantic love, its more like mesmerised. Think of him as Argenti but instead of Idrila it’s Pearl. Or anything beautiful in general. He loves beauty, but of course he’s not as expressive as Argenti. As a part of the Strategic investment Department, he’s more used as a negotiation item than actual work. So he gets passed around, attacks people, carries out stuff that can help in investment. He doesn’t really mind it, but he gets really curious and tries to understand the deals that Jade or Aventurine carries out even if he’s uneducated and can’t understand anything. The only thing he knows how to do is barter and argue.

I also love the Xianzhou, so obviously he’s been to it before. He’s mainly there in Penacony tho. In Xianzhou, he’s more of running around trying to listen to rumours and look at sword designs than actually carrying out his work. The negotiations didn’t go well on his side, but based on the other people’s reactions, it didn’t seem that bad when Jade stepped in. ( Yanqing was baffled. The officials were confused. Jing Yuan was struggling to understand his words. All he did was shout at them while swinging around his arms. He wasn’t even speaking a language. )

Surprisingly, he doesn’t have any trauma, it’s just abandonment issues. The boy doesn’t want to be abandoned like a weapon, he wants to be of use to the IPC ( as if he wasn’t brought in to pay off a debt ) and he was offered a choice to leave some years ago, he just decided to stay because Pearl was there. Not like Pearl actually treats him well, he’s just weird and attached. He’s the type to start crying if you leave him alone for too long at the side of the road.

Yea but evidently if he doesn’t have trauma someone else must have taken over his trauma. That poor unlucky soul’s my other oc, he’s called Esperanza. He used to be Lucian but then I decided to split him off from the original oc he was based off of. I’ll link his document below, but keep in mind it’s not updated. I love foxians, I like the idea of Mara-struck yanqing, boom Mara-struck foxian that’s actually drunk squirrels in disguise.

I’m aware foxians don’t usually live long enough to be affected by Mara, they die around 300(?) years, while like long life species can live up to thousands of years. But I like to think that his family has something akin to progressive ageing. Basically, from a certain age onwards, they start ageing much faster. Instead of one year, they age something like ten years, so they become much more prone to Mara. This guy went and got sad about it, then decided to end the entire bloodline so no one would have to suffer anymore whilst he was affected by Mara. He basically went, “This sucks, I can’t believe the whole’s family’s crazy, we should all die together.” But then thier family doctor came by and saw him and stopped him ( really should’ve let him die )

He stepped onto the path of nihility, became an emo self-annihilator, went to a doctor of chaos, ruined the poor guy’s whole office and wrecked it, then ran out crying. Esperanza returned to the Xianzhou, where his entire family has been running away from for years cause it makes their condition that much worse. He doesn’t really get why they’ve been running away from these silly little ships for so long and now he kinds of just wanders the streets homeless and sleeping on the streets half drunk on soulglad and confused on what’s he’s doing half the day. In case you’re curious on how he survives, he snatches food from people. He’s still healthy enough to commit minor crimes.

Anyways, that’s the end of my ramble for now. If you’re curious about my head cannons, if you want to see me write something, if you have questions about my ocs, feel free to ask away (?) If its related to Yanqing, I’ll actually come sprinting over at a speed you think impossible. I don’t know how tumblr works, so I’d appreciate it if someone summarised the important things i need to know or what i should be careful about here :Kneel: Please, I’m very lost. Is apersonthatexistsonthisplanet supposed to be my username? Sorry for any errors, I don’t know what I’m writing.

Documents: Ageha: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1izlrKAsflk0s8GEzoMvzgVXKYHrXkVX5e9tEqZKEc3M/edit

Esperanza: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ipNYMKhMi27Pork38Ecu_74OhcKbwS4CwPb1-UGytM/edit

[shinxeysartgallery]

bruv people really be thinking that having a lot of ocs makes you a hoarder? 💀

damn bro I guess comic book companies and shit like that are just hoarders too then!

That one anon apparently did, though with the way it was worded, I'm thinking it was more being used as an excuse to try to guilt me into giving up some OCs rather than them actually thinking I'm being a "hoarder". (It didn't work.)

But yeah, like I said in the last post, I'd define a "character hoarder" as someone who owns a lot of OCs that they don't ever do anything with. But even if you do that, who really cares? They're YOUR characters at the end of the day, so you have the right to do whatever you want with them. Stuff that you purchased/traded for can be iffy, depending on the creator's TOS, but in most cases, they don't seem to care if you actively use them in a story/RP/whatever or just let them collect dust in your funky character box. (Obviously, that's gonna be different in individual situations because some creators may want you to actually use the characters they sell/trade/give you.) In a general sense though, you paid your own money or traded some other type of your own work (art, another character, designs/bases, etc.) so that character now belongs to you, so again, do whatever you want with them (within the creator's TOS).

I've got around 200 characters in total, but I've seen a few people with over a thousand of them from browsing around on places like Toyhouse. If I'm gonna get called a "hoarder" at 200 OCs, you gotta wonder how many DMs/comments/etc those people get calling them "hoarders". But again, a lot of characters =/= hoarding. I saw someone on TH that had something like 2k characters, but they also had like a dozen different original stories they were working on plus a bunch of fandom OCs. They might have a lot of OCs, but there's definitely no question on them being used. lmao

It's kinda funny how people forget that all their favorite properties (literally ANY series you can think of) started off as someone's OCs. Batman was someone's OC. Luke Skywalker was someone's OC. Mario was someone's OC. The argument would be like going to Marvel's CEO and calling them a "character hoarder" because there's a TON of Marvel characters. 💀

[artcommunityvent]

heres my rant for today: (sorry in advance for long post)

i hate how modern art communities have to “fandom-ify” every single new trendy thing literally DAYS (and sometimes even hours) after it drops. i know this is a lot of the same sentiment as those people that just go “popular thing bad” but honestly it really puts me off some medias because i dont want to associate with anyone else who likes it

do we really need a million different fan ocs and aus for EVERYTHING? and like, i know its nothing new, obviously we have the onceler and undertale aus to look back on, but its exhausting at this point because while those communities were presumably genuine, in the present day it just feels like the fandom equivalent to an industry plant. and most people dont even stick with the thing they decide to make their entire personality!!

remember when spiderverse came out and everyone made spidersonas? who can you name thats actually drawn their spidersona more than once? it feels like everyone just trend hops, and yes i know thats how the internet is but its just exhausting especially when it brings down otherwise creative and inspired works

fnaf security breach: everyone makes fnaf aus and glamrock animatronics, then spiderverse as previously mentioned, then welcome home dropped and thats becoming a shitshow with how yall are fandomizing what is essentially a small creator telling their ocs lore in a creative way, and now its happening with digital circus. im so tired of seeing projects that are cool and visually appealing becoming a cesspit of bland, unoriginal aus and piles of fanart only to get dropped when the new shiny comes out

and i wanna elaborate on welcome home for a second because i know damn well if one of these people who makes “daddy dom priest wally is actually the devil” aus had an oc they loved, and someone came along and made their own aus of it in the same way, that person would bitch and cry oc theft. some people dont even change up the characters design, like how entitled do you have to be to essentially just steal someones oc and call it your own? it disgusts me how people are treating clown and honestly i wish they would put the series on indefinite hiatus or complete their story privately to teach these people a lesson

another thing that puts me off is how every piece of media has to have the “fandom daddy” for lack of a better term. glamrock freddy, hobie brown, wally darling, or jax, its all the same thing repackaged; someones gotta be the tumblr sexyman. its so tiring—ESPECIALLY as a lesbian who doesnt really wanna center men in my life at all—to wanna see fanart of the media you like and its only: “heres the one character everyones horny for drawn in a totally different and more sexualized body type” with everyone in the comments salivating over them. i really like digital circus! but all i see are people who would walk across a mile of broken glass just to suck a fart out of jax’ ass. what about the other interesting characters? why does EVERY conversation with popular media have to be about “which guy is the most fuckable” (guy specifically because come on, when has a female character been the highlight of attention; using the previous example have you seen ONE person talking about digital circus that even remembers zooble exists)

it feels like nobody can appreciate work anymore without having to claim some form of ownership over it, to say “hey this thing is so popular and important that it is now a part of my identity!! look at my millions of ocs that i will draw one time and never again!” im just tired of people being unable to passively interact with media they enjoy and everyone seeming to fight over and prove some connection to the things they like

tldr: im tired of everyone in the art community making heaps of fanart, aus, and fan ocs for stuff the second it gets popular and then totally forgetting about it the next time something else gets popular

(and before yall bring up hyperfixations: i am autistic; i understand having so much love for a piece of media for a short while and then dropping it for no reason and its heart shattering; BUT AT THE SAME TIME this pattern is on oxford to me and its on such a large scale that it infects the greater art community as a whole)

That is indeed the nature of media consumer at its finest. I do feel like it is more appearent now due to the way most social media algorithm works. They only show what is trending at the moment, so naturally, we are exposed only to this specific thing until another trend eventually takes over.

Even artists who never create fan content can be influenced to do so by looking at the other artists, be it to dive in along the hype for the popularity of it, for the geniune fun, for the sense of community, and many more reasons.

- ☁️