#on just. his general conduct. his trauma. etc

[darkpetal16]

Oh so gracious Petal, won’t you please feed us some Swap W.D. head canons? 🙏

Open wide, here comes the HCs!

He’s callous and generally unsympathetic. His past experience has left him cynical, pessimistic, and deeply mistrustful. Humans and monsters can and will lie / cheat / manipulate and go to any dirty lengths for their desires. He refuses to accept what they say or do at face value.

The only thing he trusts is their SOUL. The body can lie, but a SOUL? It only knows honesty.

And he knows every way to make it talk.

He enjoys studying biology, anatomy, SOULs, and chemistry. While he might peruse other subjects, those four are his main love. When he is in his lab conducting experiments or pondering a new thesis, he is truly in his element.

Loves his brothers to an arguably unhealthy extent. Their trauma left a deep scar on him and he developed an unhealthy codependent relationship with them. The three can’t be separated for long, so you can expect a package deal for the first few years you’re together.

This dependency also leads to bouts of anxiety and paranoia for their wellbeing. This will extend to you very shortly.

And this will, inevitably, lead to him spying on you as he does his brothers. GPS / trackers / creating obedient dolls using stitched up SOULS to guard you he’s just kidding don’t be mad unless maybe you’re open to the idea— / Asking Undyne to hack into nearby security camera / etc

He won’t forbid or restrict your movement. He just craves the instant reassurance that you’re okay. This will be a bigger issue early on in the relationship, and while he adjusts to being on the surface with so many humans. It’ll ease over time.

Speaking of humans. . . It will take him time to get used to being around them. All of his previous encounters with them ended in violence or death. He’s not sure he could ever trust another besides you, but he’ll. . . Try. In time.

The only form of human content he’ll readily consume is their entertainment and food.

Enjoys watching dramas. The more ridiculous or outlandish the premise / twists, the better. The few times he takes a day off—and not to go on a date with you—he’ll sit on the couch and marathon soap operas. He’ll get into it, too. Expect thrown popcorn and tissues to litter the living room while he watches (don’t worry he will clean up once done!).

Big fan of spicy foods. The spicier the better. If it’s turning his face blue and orange, he’s a happy camper.

Like Stretch collected honey, Thread collects spicy chocolates. He can be bribed for a new kind of spicy chocolate he hasn’t had before.

And if you make him spicy chocolate? He’ll swoon.

Dates with him are meticulously planned out. He’ll have reservations, schedules, and back ups made if anything falls through. This makes them grander, but it also means it takes a while before the next date is ready.

You can expect literal fireworks as part of your dinner show. He’ll get a boating license to take you out for private midnight swims. He’ll work for days to craft an indoor garden complete with a zen waterfall in your basement.

Does not like spontaneity. Especially if it involves going to public, unsecured areas.

Does not get jealous, per se, but does get anxious about your wellbeing. His discomfort with anyone close to you stems from fear they’ll hurt you, rather than him thinking you’ll cheat on him.

That being said, he does feel that it’s disrespectful to knowingly court someone in a relationship. He expects you to express that boundary and if you need help keeping it—like someone ignores your rejection—he will readily step in.

He knows he’s a lot to deal with at first, but please be patient with him. If you stick with him through the rocky start, he’ll stand with you through anything.

PLAY HIS ROUTE IN IF - UNDERSWAP HERE

MASTERLIST

[boonoonoonus]

The Asoiaf fandom doesn't know how religion works, and tbh that's because GRRM doesn't know how religion works especially not socially and culturally. You can see this when comparing the likes of Dune and Asoiaf and seeing how Herbert could pull from Islam and the cultures of North Africa and create something feasible and tangibly human, whilst GRRM struggles with his puesdo-catholicsm that doesn't work like actual Catholicism and so falls short of being useful beyond a plot device. I think the biggest example of this is a lack on GRRM part to show how embedded religion is in the lives of the day to day people without it being a part of political drama. There's a lack of general belief in what everyone's doing that makes it feel flat, like yes people do these actions but why? The embedded idea that we live with our religion and religious culture around us (at that time historically) The religious aspects are plot devices not revelations about how the world views morality and for me it falls short. Religion says so much about a people, what they believe in, how they conduct their lives etc and changes in religion, upheaval and different sects etc is natural. GRRM doesn't give that because probably he can't in a way that feels genuine to him, I do think American religious trauma is partly to blame as Christianity has done a number on the country historically and present and typically the way Christianity is engraved in America is alongside white supremacy and facism. But yeah, its just weird.

It feeds into Hotd too because the reigning monarchs seem not to care for the symbols of legitimacy such as religion, and there's a derision given to religion that makes no sense for the time or setting. Again weird. (This could also be because I'm guessing most people who write in the fandom are white and or atheist or formerly Christian of the evangelical type, and so don't have the relationship to religion the way I did growing up in a multifaith school and family. Stilllll the ease in which people are like yeah its just religion like medieval muslims and Christians wouldn't be appalled by the nonchalance Lol)

[allthebeautifulsouls]

KJC Server Exchange Letter

Hello! Thank you for taking a look at this: this will be my first exchange, and while I’ve listed some starting ideas, I’m really just excited to see what people come up with for my favorite characters. So please have fun, and if you happen to incorporate some of my likes along the way, that’s a bonus!

General: alas I love to watch my favorites suffer—a bit of whump and angst and the subsequent hurt/comfort is my favorite thing. However! Also big on the comfort part of hurt/comfort—I love protective relationships, and characters that take care of each-other. Smart characters, characters with richly developed interior lives, elaborate worldbuilding—all are keys to my heart.

Lighter fare: I love it when two highly competent, emotionally intelligent characters love each-other deeply and continually invest in their relationship—how do two adults show their love through their small daily rituals? Love that vibe. Also love fics that can exist tucked into canon—pre-canon or a missing scene, etc (not as big a fan of alternate pov/rehashing an existing scene). Also: case fic and mission-oriented fic are also some of my favorites! High stakes, a bit of adventure, a bit of danger, the thrill of getting away with success, someone swooping in to save the day when all seems lost, etc etc. Finally, I love some good ol’ fashioned rumination—slice of life and melancholic/meditative introspection are a delight. Sex is fun but not at all necessary, I just want to spend more time with my favorite characters!

Darker/my current fav manner of idfic: one character is in trouble—attacked, assaulted, abducted, etc.—and the other goes near feral rescuing them. Or a twist on the same: a character who has undergone trauma in the past (Dom with his previous alley mistakes, Kim with his everything) runs into a similar encounter in the present, is afraid that the same thing will happen again BUT this time their partner changes the narrative by swooping in, letting loose their rage on the assailant, etc. etc. Or yet another variation: a character who has had bad experiences before voluntarily doing so again in order to save/help/protect someone else (e.g. an undercover honeypot mission with some dodgy characters).

DNW: bi-erasure, modern highschool/college AU, Soulmate AU, A/B/O (I can enjoy it, but not what I’m looking for atm), Sentinel/Guide, etc (most other-universe or ahistorical AUs, with the exception being that I love seeing Silas enmeshed in different radical causes throughout history). Specific kink DNW: scat, vomit, mpreg, incest

Group 1A: Dom/Silas centered smut

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason & Onlookers

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason/Gangbang Participants & Gangbang Onlookers

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason/John Raven

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason/Jonathan Shakespeare(/Will Quex/Others)

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason

Gabriel Ashleigh/Dominic Frey/Silas Mason/Francis Webster

For lighter fare, let these two nerds talk about books! I love how they bonded over their shared love for ideas and literature, and how they deeply respect each-other as intellectual equals

Otherwise: Dom somewhat canonically wants a gangbang, I say give the man what he wants! Canon typical consensual nonconsent, rough sex, dom/sub dynamic, etc etc. Other kinks I particularly like: bondage, praise kink, face slaps, hair-pulling, sub floating in sensation/sub-space, consensual drugged/intoxicated sex, consensual somnophilia, etc. I love the idea of Silas planning something elaborate for Dom out of love, and hand in hand with his harsh words and harsh conduct being fiercely protective and wholly focused on taking care of him throughout the group scene. 

Group 1B: Dom whump, protective Silas

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason

Dominic Frey/Original Male Character(s)

Dom whump pre-canon and pre-Silas—maybe he had an encounter in which he actually felt afraid and trapped. Or a deep dive into what his self destructive head space actually felt like. Or perhaps the ramifications of his pre-Silas days catching up with him: he encounters someone or some group from before, who assumes that the situation is still the same and tries to rough Dom up/take advantage of him, but Silas swoops through and sets them straight, etc.

Group 1C: Silas-centered, protective Silas

Dominic Frey/Silas Mason

Richard Vane & Silas Mason

Solo: Silas Mason

Silas Mason & David Cyprian

Silas is my absolute favorite character. He’s conscientious, intellectual, kind—constantly putting himself in danger to protect others, willing to stand up for what’s right even when everyone’s against him. I’d just like to spend more time with him in his own head (and not just through Dom’s eyes). Silas experiences a lot of loss and adjustment, so while the book gets a HEA, I’d love to see him actually process it, alone and in the context of his relationship. Does he resent Dom at all for this devil’s bargain Cyprian’s struck? I love Dom and I’d still want him to be characterized as good, but I’d love to see how they come to terms with what has happened, process it, and then move forward together.

On another note, Silas’s and David’s friendship is my favorite non-romantic relationship of the series. I love how they respect and tease and support each other as they both acknowledge the peculiar lives they lead (and lovers they have). I’d love to read something about them looking out for and being friends with each other. I do love Silas’s protective nature, and I’d love to read about him being protective of David, who works so hard to be perceived as invulnerable and omnipotent and yet is still human. I think it’d be really lovely to see Silas supporting David in a moment when David struggles to ask for help or Silas protecting David in a way that Richard cannot. Perhaps a moment inspired by the handsy Lord Artlett referenced in “A Confidential Problem”— to tell Richard that someone hurt David would get him so angry that he could jeopardize the web of protection for all the Ricardians, and David isn’t in the right headspace to fix everything, so Silas intervenes and takes care of it. I’d also just love to see Richard coming to terms with the fact that—despite finding Silas and his politics infuriating—he deeply respects Silas and his devotion to his loved ones and his principles, which could follow a moment where Silas is protective of David and/or Dom.

Group 2: Kim/Will centered, protective Will, Kim whump

Kim Secretan/Original Male Character(s)

Kim Secretan/Bad Topping Mistake

Kim Secretan/Lord Waring

Will Darling/Kim Secretan

Solo: Kim Secretan

Archie Curtis/Daniel da Silva & Will Darling/Kim Secretan.

I’m here for the Kim whump and angst! I love exploring Kim’s self-destructive and self-sacrificing tendencies—some introspection during his pre-Will days would be interesting. For protective Will, it’d be fun to see Will actually taking on the much-discussed queue of past lovers who have hurt Kim/made him feel bad about his desires. I also love the angst that comes from a honeypot mission, or Kim putting himself in danger to protect someone else. For double the whump, perhaps both Daniel and Kim are in trouble (perhaps one of them gives themself up in an unsuccessful attempt at self-sacrifice to save the other) and Archie and Will team up and go on the war path to save them.

If you've made it this far, thanks! These are all just ideas, so even if you'd like to hare off in another direction, I'm excited to see what you come up with!

[lovingsakusa]

i know this reiteration and dance bringing nuance onto the jiang cheng / wen survivor discourse has been done time and time again but i will do it anyway bc i want to rant. to be clear, anyone who thinks of themselves as an ‘anti’ pls do not interact <3 i think a lil discourse is fun for many people but i don’t have the energy to dedicate to fighting antis, jc or otherwise. no character bashing is tolerated on this post ! there is also a good chunk under a readmore bc i can’t do Long Posts w/o a readmore

i read a few replies that talked about how wen mainline (and distant lines) were killed for to avenge and honour your ancestors who were killed by them (its more complex than this but i am not the expert so im not going to elaborate) but ! not every wen disciple was a wen mainline member or even a distant member of the line. while the sunshot campaign primarily rallied to kill wrh and his tyranny and with that, end wen hegemony, *not everyone wearing wen sect colours was surnamed wen*

the sunshot campaign did not spare them regardless. it was worse for the people left of dafan wen bc they bore the surname no doubt, and what happened to them was atrocious, but like. are you getting what i’m putting down here? the whole cultivation world was not morally correct. the sunshot campaign in its methodology was not morally correct. war choices are not morally correct and you cannot square this blame solely on jiang cheng’s shoulders.

yeah what jc did and said to wwx about the wens was not an entirely morally correct choice but it was a diplomatically justified choice. y’all immediately point fingers at jc but you forget nie mingjue condemned the wens for being wens by name alone: he had a canonically black and white perspective on justice (which i personally headcanon as something different & more nuanced but lsdkjfs this is not about that & to clarify i love nmj w my whole heart).

in addition, where was the lan sect? arguably if the lan and nie sects together had worked, they *could* have saved the wen survivors. they had enough political power and money to do so and their sects had a presumably long-standing alliance already considering the closeness of lxc and nmj (also drawing on how nhs calls lxc ‘xichen-ge’). qinghe nie in particular was known for the opposition of jin guangshan — would it not be in good faith for jgy to have turned over the wens to his sworn brother, who probably would have treated them more fairly regardless of them being wens, to show that lanling jin honoured nmj’s late father and trusted them in this alliance?

nobody in the cultivation world did anything to help the wens. lmao the person who probably did the most was jiang fucking yanli. there is, so much more here than some individual choices and NOT to discount them but theres just. more nuance. more backstory.

did jiang cheng owe a debt to the wens? yes. contextually, is it different for him than nmj or lxc? yes. does it make him an *inherently bad and irredeemable person*? no.

jc had a sect to look after and major and minor sects on his heels. the lan sect initially helped him rebuild his disciples in numbers but you see how many died when wen chao came. after sunshot, there are so many expenses and yunmeng jiang was in a socially, politically and economically unstable position. i could go into how he probably really needed money but i won’t bc sldkfjs that isn’t the point here.

the point is that jin guangyao and jin guangshan would probably eat him alive if he fucked up and there were inevitably mid-sized sects rising to the top, particularly around lotus pier, that were swallowing up smaller subsidiary sects and eyeing the rest of yunmeng jiang. it was the wens and his brother , or his sect / what was left of it: the people he recruited in sunshot, who he probably promised a home and food to; a sect he had to rebuild from its ashes.

his brother was frankly being extremely unreliable atm (for, valid reasons bc this mans was coping the best he could but jc did not know what was going on) and not telling him very much. i love wwx and think he was simply trying his best and i feel so sad when i think about him during this time but since this man was very unwell, he was not exactly the pinnacle of diplomatic excellence in a unified political jiang front, for a variety of reasons.

then suddenly he had taken war prisoners from the only sect they were formally allied with (and once again, jgs and jgy would swallow lotus pier up if they could) and yeah jc could have stood up for the wens and im not saying he was right in not defending the wens okay im not saying that. he should have. so many others should have too. i AM saying this is not a ‘he was good’/‘he was bad’ thing. this is a nuanced discussion involving morals and people and sociopolitical situations

[the-nysh]

I don’t understand Garou’s personality still even after being obsessed with OPM for years. Why did he say he was sickened by others before smiling genuinely? AHHHH IM SO CONFUSED

So there's a lot of things you can parse or resonate with from Garou's expressions that you just have to feel, that go beyond words. This 'smile' in particular was a knowing one, unsurprised from likely affirming things he already knows deep-down, or has already come to expect - about current heroes, about 'justice'...about what he has to do (next) that's different from the 'behavior' he's already seen - from himself and everyone, etc... But it's not a 'happy' genuine one, compared to what his future self gave to Tareo. :'))

(Note also, compared to the last time he voiced what made him sick about heroes - current Garou had literally been bearing it all in silence, under all their mixed beatdowns, scrutiny & judgement, once again...)

Because get this - none of his lingering grievances (about the state of the world, about 'injustice,' about the current state of heroes) were actually voiced or resolved here - for manga Garou in particular, all those things (his feelings) still live on and weren't 'beaten.' (Has he even been convinced by everyone's words or do his issues - about his identity, his self-worth, even his trauma, remain largely unchanged? Until he fully voices his side, all that's still left hanging.)

Cause from his perspective, basically here he was, already in his huge state of confusion after getting slugged out of nowhere (shenanigans orchestrated by his future self & Saitama), then everyone basically came forth either in a gang-rush, or wanting to execute him, or mentioning things about 'god' where the hell is Blast, or speaking over him judging & deciding what to make of the worth of his life for him (everyone acting as judge, jury & executioner without even letting him speak for himself? damn)...that honestly what in the world is Garou supposed to make of it? (I'm still feeling a little sickened on his behalf too; he's long overdue for a good think to sort his bearings out.) That honestly, beyond Tareo barging in to call Garou a 'true hero' vs everyone else, and then King and such stepping forth to show there's some good (sensible) apples in the bunch, it...unfortunately feels like he'll honestly never want to associate with 'heroes' if this huge hodgepodge of a 'mess' (far from his inner ideal) is how they generally conduct themselves. :'D If anything, it only proves to Garou that there's still many things to fix and change in this world, in his own way. :')) Things he's already long known...

But as to how he approaches addressing these things (and his grievances) differently (as in, more constructively than the self-destructive path throwing his life away, or determined by the rules/labels set by everyone else and not by what he actually wants) well that is still curiously left in the air, cause manga Garou's journey has been left notably open-ended and incomplete, compared to all that was resolved in the wc. :O Cause it seems there's still plenty of his manga story to tell when his 'chapter' isn't over. For how much of his identity he 'keeps' or drops or incorporates into his new future self when he makes his return next time, that remains to be seen.

[ethmaron]

Hi! You said you could talk for hours about Jason's story in your mer AU, and I would love to hear it! (If you want to share it, of course <3)

OH MAN YEAH ok general warning for medical experimentation and things along that line

im literally going to start at the beginning with this SO:

bruce is the one who reached out to the facility to help develop the program, so he's the reason the mer people are as 'in contact' with the humans as they are (humans KNOW about mer people theyre not any sort of secret they just dont interact a whole bunch). its a bit of a mutualistic thing--the mer people can be studied and help develop humans understanding of their biology and culture and stuff--as well as they will help bring things from the ocean sometimes. they also get medical care for things they may not have been able to deal with by themselves (and they get medicine too, but they didnt really know that stuff existed so that was just a plus)

anyway so when they reach out jasons still a kid--so the og mer people who were at the facility are bruce, dick, jason, harley, and tim. damian, cassie and bart all come in later.

so with the biological testing its mainly the joker (his names john in this but i literally cant take it seriously w either name im sorry) running things as hes like the head of the department, and hasnt been outed as a bad person yet. kory works with them too, but she spends more times at the tank doing monitoring rather than hands on examinations. examinations mainly consist of xrays and stuff to see what their bone structures are like, organ placement, etc etc.

^with this, because they are technically people they withhold rights to a degree (i mean they cant vote or anything but like. they have basic human rights in terms of their bodies) so they are NOT allowed to conduct invasive procedures or harmful experiments to them

however after a point joker is basically like yeah ive gathered everything i can from non invasive tests lets cut one open (also note he has absolutely no regards for their customs or culture so that is also a big point of trauma for jason) 

he picks jason because hes like ~12/13 when he decides to take someone, and he wanted someone who wouldve been closer to human puberty bc he wanted to see if mer ppl had it/how it effects them. tim wouldve been too young, and dick too old--and bruce wouldve probably ripped his throat out if he tried on him LOL

so during the time jasons effectively kidnapped (also does need to be noted that jason does have a tendency to wander off--he likes to explore, so for a while no ones really worried, until they very much are) he is kept in something closer to an observation tank that doesnt lead back to the ocean (all the tanks in the facility lead directly back to the ocean--they do not keep them there against their will. an observation tanks true usage would be more for someone waiting to go BACK to the main tanks after say getting and xray or something) so hes trapped in the tank for the duration of him being there.

the joker keeps him for a couple years--and at that point the other mer people assume hes dead. (hes not found bc the joker keeps him in his private lab so hes the only one authorized to go back there--people arent aware of whats happening to jason) joker keeps him drugged up most the time so jasons not really There for most of it. anyway. without going into too much horrible detail about it during the time--hes vivisected (Y chest scar) and joker basically like. rummages around through his organs and stuff and examines everything. hes cut open a couple times because joker cant get through everything in one day so. he also cuts his tail and some other areas open just to see how the mer people differ biologically.

only reason that hes found (by ivy--everyone say thank you ivy) is because she needed something from joker and snagged his keycard to get into his lab (this is pretty common in the facility--people borrow from private labs and they generally just grab the keycard from their desk if they even need it. private labs are often kept open) and went in and found jason in the tank (hes roughly 15/16 at this point) and immediately calls kory to see if she had any idea what was happening and she doesnt--kory shows up and a few mins later joker shows up and is furious about it, but the jigs kinda up now. they forcibly take jason back to korys lab where they can patch him up and stuff. they have to replace all the stitches because theyre not well done at all (joker was only stitching him up to like. hold him back together not really to heal the wounds)

(in more a step towards joker and harleys story hes reported to the board--and he is no longer allowed to work on the biological side of things. everyone else who finds out/knows about what he did are angry because theyre not getting rid of him because he, according to the board, was "too good" to fire. they also gave some sort of excuse as keeping him around meant keeping an eye on him so that he couldnt do it to anyone else--but again thats more towards harleys story rather than jasons)

kory and ivy get jason all fixed up and stick him in korys observation tank until the drugs wear off (they didnt want him to have access to the open ocean when he wasnt all there because he could get hurt Worse and they wouldnt be able to reach him)

unfortunately they DO have to give him more drugs (pain meds) but its different stuff than what the joker was using--again whole deal w that is joker was doing it all to keep him sedated and available for testing whereas kory and ivy are trying to heal him and stuff.

kory is the one who tells dick and everyone that jasons alive, and no one really reacts well because its been a while at this point and theyre all trying to move on.

eventually jason gets brought back to the main tank and he automatically goes to dick (jason blames bruce for everything that happened because hes the one that reached out to the facility and lead to jason being taken and experimented upon--and tims like. still a kid and he was always closer to dick anyway) and everyones kinda staring at him all horrified because hes still seeping blood into the water and hes still not really properly looked at himself but everyones just glad hes at least like. alive.

later when hes w dick he does have a bit of a massive breakdown when he finally kinda surface level processes whats been done to him--hes angry and scared and hes still a little kid and like. there is absolutely not going back and his organs still havent shifted back to where they should be quite right so he feels weird and theres obviously the incredible amount of pain hes dealing with. his hair does turn white w the shock/trauma of everything too !! thats where that crops up. when he sees it he tries to cut it all off because he hates it but it just grows back white so the white area of his hair is a bit shorter than the rest of his hair :)

he has to continue getting pain medicine/antibiotics/etc but once his head cleared up enough to think hes absolutely rabid around humans he has no trust for them at all anymore and he refuses to let them (or really anyone for that matter) touch him so its a shot in the dark to whether hes gonna be out of his mind enough with pain that they get can the stuff into him or not

he heals over time and hes got nasty scars from it but otherwise is physically alright--he does distance from dick and everyone else a Lot though (and still blames most of it on bruce) and is often out in the ocean doing things--he doesnt often return to the facility except when absolutely needed

he IS eventually forced to go to a therapy thing of sorts with harley but he just sits and refuses to talk the whole time (after he meets roy he will occasionally talk about roy and everyones very curious about this dude that jason apparently Regularly Talks to bc he is the most antisocial person Ever)

hes still a good person tho like he just hates people touching him (roy and VERY rarely kory are an exception. sometimes his brothers but thats a shot in the dark) and interacting with him but hes still wildly curious about the human world and the people that live in it he just wants to learn about it all from very very far away.

so thats all pre kon and clark thats effectively the gist of his backstory--moving onto his actual story during the au -

(jason doesnt show up loads in the main storyline with kon and the rest of them, but me and emmy have a decent amount of stuff in his own offshoot--a lot of which actually includes roy lmao)

jasons a big collector when he travels--hes got this waterproof bag he asked dick to ask kory for and he collects shells and rocks and pearls and stuff like that that he thinks are interesting off the ocean floor and stuff, and he DOES like to show it all off because he thinks what he does is cool and he likes when people get excited over something he found but he hardly ever shows anyone because hes also worried that theyre gonna take it and the stuff is His

the stuff w roy comes mostly from emmy bc shes the one who knows most about him so if hes mischaracterized at all u cant blame me (also this bit is particularly scattered so i will try my best to timeline it as i can)--

roys a volunteer at something or other organization and he picks up trash along the coastline and stuff--jason shows up and sees him one day and roy sees him but doesnt say anything--jasons the one who eventually talks to him first. directly qoute from our chats from emmy:

'Jason giving him a hard time about being a do gooder and being pessimistic about people not ever actually caring about the ocean even though people live in it ,,, I bet roy travels along the beach looking for wrappers and cans and just talks and Jason makes fun of him and Roy's like ,, buddy you've been swimming along with me for like 30 mins you must love hanging out <3 and jason gets all huffy and he's like no I'm just MESSING with you stupid idiot and he kind of swims off and Roy keeps walking and after like 5 mins Jason like throws a beer bottle or something in front of Roy that he found in the sand under the water and Roy's like thanks and Jason's like ,, thanks'

like previously mentioned roys one of the only ppl allowed to touch jason--more because he doesnt know anything about what happened to him (he can obviously see the scars but at that point has no context and jason wants to keep it that way because he treats him normal) first time it happens is actually at some point when roy visits the facility and theyre all just kinda touching and roy touches jasons shoulder as an off hand like pat/whatever and everyone kinda freezes because thats like rule #1 you dont even try to touch him or hell probably bite you and he just sits and lets roy touch him and now EVERYONES got something to think about bc whats so important about THIS guy 

heres two other quotes idk how to naturally work into this:

'i just keep thinking about it jason being an asshole per usual but roy is allowed to grt away w stuff and jason still maintaining that hes prickly and mean so that roy doesnt know that the thing jason lets him do mean anything'

'i think part of the appeal for jason is knowing that like. roy doesnt have to be weird abt it bc he didnt know (about jasons aversion to others touching him) so jason doesnt have to be weird and be like yes ur allowed to touch me he just lets it happen and like they never really say anything about it'

roys the person jason talks to the most but its always about stupid stuff and nothing like important or anything.

‘after like a couple weeks of Roy showing up and Jason's memorized his schedule and meets him at the little area Roy always starts at wait bc now I'm thinking about that like Roy's been doing this alone for months to keep his mind off things and to feels like he's doing something productive and he doesn't have that many friends but all of the sudden he's got this weird mer guy half being a little mean half being a little silly with him but every time they split off when Roy goes home Jason's always like whatever you'll get tired of this like every other die hard litterbug hater that stomps through here--bc I think Jason rly does like having Roy around and likes his company but really does think he will end up leaving and he's kinda sad about it so he always picks on him for it.....and Roy's like and you're fun to hang out with it and Jason first response is to be like ew but he would never ever say anything but in his mind he's like yeah okay he kinda uses Roy as company like that too like every moment he's with Roy is time he's not feeling threatened--and if he's being honest having someone around does make him feel a little safer but Jason can't be outright boo hoo so he's just like wow you you come all the way out here to see me BUT SILLY and Roy makes some face but they both know that yeah they do just hang out with each other’

‘I bet Jason almost throws a bottle at Roy's head actually by accident’ (do NOT remember context for this but i think its funny)

_

Jason and Roy's like man's you know you can hand me things ,, and Jason like this is easier stupid and Roy's like okay but if you kill me you go to human jail and Jason thinks it's funny but after like 20 mins of walking Roy's hears Jason like ",, well here" and sees him holding some of those plastic can holder things and roys like thanks dude and tried to grab them and Jason kinda flinches and he's just kinda waits for Jason to reach back over before he goes the grab them again and he has to step into the water a little to get them from Jason he's wearing those stupid rubber boots bc Jason kept splashing him one day and soaked his sneakers so now he wears boots

no bc i bet jason was being silly he was splashing roy and stuff bc maybe he was having a bad day and jasons trying to do his own method of cheering up it only resulted in roy getting soaked and wearing boots now lol 

I bet roy says it too he shows up and they're annoying and squeaky and Jasons like ,,,, but Roy's like splash me all you want can't ruin these idiot but he's being silly

can they please be like bright pink polka dots (they were indeed chosen to be bright pink polka dots) 

jason sometimes asks roy a bunch of the questions hes had since seeing kon but refuses to actually directly ask kon and roy thinks its funny but he answers anyway 

also i 100% think jason does mer affection things towards roy and he just doesn't understand what they mean so he doesnt realize but like harley sees once and is like 🧍

 also i like to think that jason is like. extremely touch starved. but he doesn't want people touching him but he wants to be able to touch other people and roy will let him do that lets jason like grab his wrist or whatever and he wont try to grab or touch back

I LOOOVE the touching thing tho bc like Roy is such a safe option he has nooo idea what it's like he has no idea who Jason is or what happened and more importantly he doesn't know how like idk the word how isolated and quiet and distant Jason has become bc he doesn't know Jason from before and doesn't know anything about him jason has the opportunity to like start over and not be cold to one singular person he has no baggage nothing to uphold he could be a blank skate to this weird guy I love him

I'm thinking about Jason putting trash directly in Roy's hand and Jason having a code red personal crisis and toy not even realizing how scary the moment is for jason

do you think Roy brings bad snacks (to the facility) and he's like here do you wanna try one and Jason's like blah blah mocking the researchers "it's bad for mermaid to eat human food blah blah" and Roy's like sounds dumb and Roy's like yeah and eventually he's like okay I want one and it's like a idk a fucking chip or something and reaches in the bag and drips water over all the chips and Roy's like uhh you can just finish the little bag bud

most the humans who have mer friends also carry around little towels for them to dry their hands if theres something they wanna touch that cant get wet/the person doesnt want them getting it wet--roy carries around little washcloths in his back pocket 

jason also likes to give roy stuff from his ocean adventures and stuff i think ive mentioned that before possibly but i dont remember where?? i cant find it so: jason likes to give roy pearls and stuff that he finds and other stuff and neither of them really have any idea of how valuable some of the stuff is but roy keeps it because its something from jason and he thinks its cool 

heres one last silly thing: 

jason stealing roys hat and plonking it on his own head and its a bit big and roy says he looks dumb and jasons like im gonna take this to my home and roys like nO GIVE IT BACK JASON and hes splashing into the water and jasons slipping back before roy can catch him except roy just fuckin goes for it and lunges at jason and jason like shrieks and roy is SOAKINF WET BUT HE GOT HIS HAT BACK and hes like kneeling in the water all dripping wet and jasons a few feet away all tucked in on himself and watching roy bc he got too close 

[wutheringmights]

I just read the newest chapter and I loved it! ♥ ♥ ♥ I was wondering if you had some hcs about the engineer that you could share?

Awww I'm glad you like it! I just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out what "HCS" meant before realizing I'm a tired idiot who can't read lol

But yeah! I got some headcanons for the engineer/Spirits I can share!

These headcanons are a mix of things I generally believe for any iteration of the Hero of Spirits and a few things exclusive to CTB. It's pretty obvious which are which.

Technically this is slight spoilers since most of this is not mentioned in-story, but Warriors is a such a self-centered asshole that I'm not sure when I can get him to explicitly ask about Spirit's backstory lol

This got super long and kind of just became me talking about Spirits's entire backstory, so enjoy:

Spirits is sixteen during the course of Spirit Tracks, mostly because that was the vibe I got from him when I first played the game (I made him younger for CTB)

He's not descendant from Wind (who I maintain disappeared instead of settling in New Hyrule); instead, he's Aryll's great grandson

His family name used to be Outset, but when everyone who originally immigrated from Outset island took on that last name, they changed it to Aryll to reflect the family matriarch

So Spirit's full name is Link Aryll, though there is a branch of his family that uses Macaryll instead

The Aryll/Macaryll family is huge; everyone has at least six aunts and uncles on all sides of the family and they can trace back how they are related to Aryll

"I'm Grandma Aryl's third son's second daughter's fifth child." -someone Spirits is related to, probably

He actually never met his great grandmother; she died before he was born.

Spirit's dad was full-blooded Lokomo while his mother was Hylian; his mother passed a few months after he was born after never truly recovering from childbirth while his father died in a fishing accident when he was eight

He went to live with an aunt and uncle who owned a general store; their relationship was polite at best. The aunt and uncle told Spirits upfront that they intended to give the store over to his cousin when he was older so Spirits needed to come up with his own life plan

Spirits didn't necessarily mind since he never wanted to work in a store for the rest of his life, but the ultimatum made it clear that they didn't care for him like a son

To this day, their relationship isn't strained and he doesn't hate them. But whenever they meet, he's overly polite; they're more acquaintances than family

He's cool with his cousin though. They have different interests so they aren't best friends, but they're okay.

Spirits also always had his spirit-sensing abilities. It's really like a sixth sense to him, as normal and automatic as seeing and hearing; he actually didn't realize this wasn't normal until he was a little older

His abilities at this point are limited to sensing vague ideas of a person's spirit (if they're light or dark, etc.), and seeing ghosts (which are really rare. You have to have a lot of power yourself to become one)

(Note: I'm not the only one who headcanons Spirits as having spirit sensing abilities; if you know who can up with the idea, please let me know so that I can tag/credit them!)

The elder of his village told him that select Lokomo had minor spirit sensing abilities, and those who did were traditionally made elders of their villages; being more of a follower than a leader, Spirits adamantly dismissed that idea and refused to be trained on how to hone his spirit senses. He also never learned any of the religion behind it

Which was a little worrisome since his abilities are way stronger than most

Besides, he's always liked trains and it's been his dream to travel around the kingdom as an engineer; being some town's elder would get in the way of that

Anyway, Spirits had to pass a written exam before being accepted as an apprentice engineer, so he's very studious and has a lot of drive (pun unintended?)

He went to live with his Uncle Niko during his apprenticeship in another town; Niko isn't related to him, but he's been a friend of the family for so long that everyone secretly thinks he's actually related to someone and they just forgot who

Niko is his real family, hands down. Those two are as thick as thieves and bring out the wild side in each other

A preteen Spirits used to think Niko was a little lame and kind of embarrassing, but now that he's older, he's all for Niko's weird old man-ness and has even picked up on some of his weird old man-ness himself

That being said, they're both disasters. Neither can clean or cook or do any kind of housekeeping and their shared house is cluttered with Niko's art projects and Spirit's half-finished tinkering

Growing up, Spirits had no idea he was related to the legendary Hero of Wind; Aryll died before he was born, but even in life she was filled with too much grief over her missing brother to discuss it often. Within the family, being related to the Hero of Wind is a rumor at best.

Of course, Niko knows but keeps it a secret from Spirits; once he got back from his LU-adventure, Wind told Niko about the curse of the Hero's Spirit. Then he went missing post-New Hyrule's founding, which really drove the terror of the curse home. Niko thought he could keep Wind's family from falling victim to it by not inadvertently encouraging them to follow in Wind's footsteps

So Niko kept it a secret

And obviously, that didn't work

Spirits' quest to save New Hyrule resulted in him realizing that he needed to embrace his Lokomo heritage and get a handle on his spirit powers; Anjean gave him a little training during his quest but afterwards he traveled around the kingdom to find as many people as he could with abilities like his

They were all really excited to teach him what they knew, especially the religious aspects of the abilities; Spirits is still not the most religious person, but he at least understands and embraces the cultural significance of what he is able to do

This is where he learned how to read a person's Spirit to get an idea of their life experiences and the kind of person they're like; he can also detect where a person is without having to put much effort into it

At Zelda's encouragement, he also got more sword training from the Castle Guard. She offered him a place among them, but he turned it down in favor of remaining an engineer. He still helps around as a swordsman when he can and will act as Zelda's body guard

Speaking of which, he and Zelda are 100% in love. Their relationship started out as puppy love but over the years as matured into a deep connection built on mutual respect

When he's working on designing new engines or parts for his trains, he occasionally brings his drafting materials to the castle gardens so that he can work alongside Zelda; sometimes she falls asleep leaning against his arm and he has to be careful not to shake her awake as he works

Whenever she need to go anywhere in the kingdom, she rides in his train and teasingly criticizes his conducting; he takes a lot of pride in his conducting, but he lets her get away with it since her critiques are objectively hilarious

He keeps a tiny pictograph of her taped to his dashboard

But there's a bit of a problem with their relationship, and it's that he doesn't know if he wants to be the prince consort or not. He does love her, but that would mean giving up being an engineer in favor of being stuck at the castle all of the time

Plus, he's doing great as an engineer; he's saving up to open his own garage that produces his own train designs

Eventually, he leaves for the War of Eras

His experiences with Warriors leaves him more sure than ever that he doesn't want to be the prince consort, resulting in him ending his relationship with Zelda shortly after he returns home

It hurts for a long time to be around her since all of his old feelings keep coming back, so he keeps his distance for a long time; it takes a few years for him to go back to hanging out with Zelda as friends

But now she's approaching marriage age, and he spends a lot of time when he's on body guard duty super jealous of these princes and ambassadors from foreign kingdoms who try to court her

But again, he knows he can't be in a relationship with her so he respectfully and silently pines over her (I'm just a sucker for pining, okay?)

Okay, more random headcanons that are a little less sad

Spirits likes super spicy food, but since he can't cook to save his own life, he just eats whatever he can get his hands on

He's super dirty all of the time, just the epitome of scrappy; there's always a smear of oil somewhere on his person

He actually really hates bathing and only keeps his curly hair in check to comply with train safety regulations

He's really polite and a little shy, but once he loosens up, he gets talkative and personable

He's also very contemplative; he likes conducting so much because he gets to spend long stretches of time alone with nothing but his thoughts

His trauma/stress response is to shut down; he goes quiet, loses energy, and sleeps for longer periods of time

He tends to gravitate towards socializing with people who are older than him, which gets him labeled as being no fun by his peers (despite having someone as cooky as Niko for a uncle)

Post-adventure, his best friend is Linebeck III. They're drinking buddies. Neither can really explain why they even like hanging out as much as they do

(I just like the idea of Linebeck accidentally getting attached to one kid and his whole bloodline getting forever tangled with Wind's; they're bros for multiple lifetimes)

Not only is Spirits good at designing and building new machinery, but he's great at tinkering; he can fix almost anything and will buy broken things on purpose just to have something to fix

No one really knows he's a hero; he doesn't like the attention and, at his request, Zelda did her best to keep his involvement with Malladus a secret

Because not many common people know about his adventure and records of New Hyrule are very rare, he's considered in Warrior's time to be a forgotten hero; some scholars believe that a Hero of Spirits may have once existed, but if he did, no one really knows who he was or what he did to serve the bloodline of Hylia

[electriceccentric]

3, 4, 6!

Questions for Canon Muses || Accepting!

3. What is something that was never addressed at all in the canon material that you have independently developed for your muse?

I definitely give Benimaru more personal turmoil and trauma than he has in canon, but no more than I think is realistic for his personality and upbringing. When I found out my headcanons about his relationships with his parents was fairly close to what the KOF-R comic had established, it more or less enabled me to double down and refine my other Ugly Parts of a Charmed Life headcanons for him. I think the biggest one that's never addressed in canon is (my) Benimaru's defensiveness over his heritage, specifically because as both a First Born and Only Son he looks nothing like his father. The damage that can bring to a young boy growing up in a patriarchal society, especially the patriarchal society of said father, is a big chunk of my Beni's rebellious motivation, and part of why he leans into his looks so hard as teenager and adult.

4. Have you made any outright changes to the canon material in order to write your muse the way you wanted (entire scenes you chose to omit, chapters you say never existed, things you assume were never said, etc.)?

His electricity origin story. Generally it's unknown how Beni got his abilities, but there is a comic somewhere I've never been able to find anything but snippets of that basically established (if I recall correctly) that he stepped on a live wire and now he's electrical? That's some lazy 1960's Marvel Hero reasoning, and there's probably a reason that comic hasn't survived, so I reject it. I'm still debating on where my Beni's hyper conductivity comes from, but since the larger theme of KOF is fate and spiritual ties across lifetimes, I'm torn between it being something hereditary and lost to history, and something that was born in him, specifically, in some cosmic anticipation of meeting Kyo and aiding in the war against Orochi and the Hakkeshu. Could be both! Beni wouldn't know, or really care, either way.

5. What is an aspect of your muse’s canon material or canon existence that you never had the opportunity to explore but really want to?

The RP fandom for KOF is really small (there's what,,,four? Five of us with canon muses?), so there's a lot of canon stuff that's difficult to explore, especially with more supportive/minor characters. I'd really like to explore Beni's relationship with Goro, since they're both supporting characters and stories really don't focus on them when things aren't about Kyo. Honestly, any of Beni's relationships when things aren't about Kyo (although I have been lucky enough to do this with many of the muses here!), and his relationship with Kyo when things aren't about KOF. I just really enjoy digging around in the outskirts of a main plot, and just seeing what people are like when they're allowed to just be people.

[hutaoisagirlboss]

Why you should stop calling Zhongli Hu Tao’s paternal figure

This is not an argument to ship them, but rather an argument that calling him her paternal figure specifically is both degrading to Hu Tao, women in general and is overall creepy.

——

Why people view Zhongli as Hu Tao as grand/father and daughter:

1) This headcanon stemmed from an inside joke in China about both Zhongli and Hu Tao sharing Chinese voice actors (Bo peng and Dian Tao respectively) with Siegfried and Kiana, a dad and his adoptive daughter in another Mihoyo game. It should be noted that Bo peng also voices Dvalin, and several other characters share the same voice actors. Qiqi and Raiden Shogun share a Chinese actress as well. Yae Miko also shares a voice with Ningguang.

2) Zhongli calls Hu Tao a child in his voice line. To other adults, have you ever called your friends childish or said they’re a being kid or acting like children? He’s also at least 1,000 years older than every other character.

3) Hu Tao was attached to her grandfather, the 75th Wangsheng director. There’s no information about the 76th and Hu Tao is the 77th. The issue with calling Zhongli a fill in or stand in is that the whole reason that Hu Tao got her vision was because she overcame grief.

“At last she came to the conclusion: her grandfather's absence was due to him having passed over the border as soon as he'd arrived, to the place where he was bound. He had been open and honest in life, leaving behind no regrets, so was it right for his departure to be framed in regretful terms?

With a smile, she set forth on the return journey.

The faraway moon had been casting a thin light on the way over but had now been replaced by the bright light of dawn. As she walked, Hu Tao thought of a saying that her grandfather had often quoted: "Live in life, die in death. Follow your heart, do what you can."”

While she continues to wear his hat in his honor, she has no incentive to replace him. Why should she need to?

She’s an adult woman running her own business: “During her teenage years, Hu Tao was tasked with conducting a funeral ceremony for the first time.”

Via her story: “First thing I took over was funeral affairs. Haha, surprising huh? And just like that, it's already been a few years... Time really does go by so quickly.”

So, as an adult woman, why should she need an older man to come into her business and adopt her as an adult?

Other than the fact that she is, perhaps, seen as incompetent and unable to do so.

4) They look similar. But the same could be said for Beidou (who Hu Tao is in awe of) or Amber (who has a grandfather from Liyue). Keep in mind that Zhongli is a shapeshifter who has appeared as a dragon, a woman, etc. In my opinion they hardly look alike either.

——

Why would people see Hu Tao as needing what is essentially a conservatorship?

All of the reasons have their own massive issues. Keep in mind that Zhongli and Hu Tao most likely met as adults or she would’ve known that he doesn’t age whatsoever. She says that he looks young and she suspects he’s an adeptus, but it can be presumed that he showed up as this identity of Zhongli not too long before faking his death, since people would notice him not aging.

1) Her maturity levels. Keep in mind that Hu Tao has not had a proper childhood. She was reading classical texts at the age of 3 while doing handstands, sleeping in coffins as a kid, being around dead bodies as a kid. If you were around dead bodies all the time since childhood, wouldn’t it be fair to want a childhood? Or to feel safe with the idea that you’re still young and not going to die of old age soon? This is coming from an adult with PTSD who copes with trauma via stuff like collecting dolls, watching cartoons and making silly jokes.

It should also be noted that, like with plenty of comedians or humorous types who suffer from depression or PTSD, her sense of childishness is fake and forced in order to help her cope with trauma. We have plenty of proof of this, and nearly everyone in game recognizes that her personality is basically entirely fake:

“The Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is a reputable institution that acts with integrity. But whenever I see that cheeky smile that says, "It's nothing you exorcists need to worry about," it just makes my blood boil...” - Chongyun

“Warm. Fake smile. Death. I despise Hu Tao.” - Qiqi

“It would be best not underestimate someone as whimsical as her.” - Zhongli

“It is only during funeral ceremonies, when she personally leads her undertakers through lamp-lit alleys, that she shows her dignified and solemn side.” - Her first character story

The way she acts at Lantern Rite is another reason people refer to her as Zhongli’s daughter, but think of other characters who have found time away from work to embrace a childish side such as Ayaka. Hu Tao’s entire life has been death, and she hardly has any friends to boot.

2) Her height means she’s a kid. Hu Tao is 5’1”. I’m 25 and 5’1”. How’s that even matter.

3) She no longer has any parent or grandfather present. This is essentially saying that a woman isn’t capable of owning a business on her own. Having her male subordinate take over as her paternal figure and adopt would be saying she isn’t capable of running a business on her own, which she clearly is capable. We also don’t know if the 76th director is alive or not still. Her parents or the director may have retired elsewhere.

—-

Assuming that Hu Tao is an adult, independent business owner who manages a staff on her own, we can now discuss why Zhongli being a paternal figure to her as an unrelated adult is extremely creepy.

You are an adult who lives on their own find an older mentor/parental figure, maybe a teacher or a role model or something. You live alone and look up to this mentor, then invite them to live with you, become their boss, eat meals with them, go on walks with them frequently, pay their bills and buy them things.

That is incredibly creepy. I’d never invite one of my teachers from college to move in with me so I can pay their bills, eat meals with them, etc. If Zhongli and Hu Tao did have a weird adult adoption situation, it could essentially be considered grooming.

Heavily implied they live together:

“When she was eight, she started living in the parlor and learning the etiquette of funeral ceremonies.” - She’s been living there for some time, most likely with undertakers, potentially the 76th director (or her parents if they were).

If he is simply a consultant who helps out with ceremonies for adepti, it’s super creepy that he seems a little bit lost with what to do when she’s not there. One can also assume that he doesn’t really have any other living situation, so likely he’d be homeless or at the parlor. This isn’t to say that the other undertakers don’t live there, but there is something seriously wrong about a mentor/paternal figure needing his time to be dictated by the person he is apparently authority over. He also relies on her Mora, a commonly known fact. That’s absolutely disturbing and in any teacher/student situation would be frowned upon.

This is sometimes used to show that she sees him as a father, along with the fact that she trusts him most as her story says. But as an adult woman I seriously would find it creepy to be staring at any paternal, mentor or teacher figure like that.

—

In Conclusion

Take this argument as you want to. Whether you think they do have some sort of creepy adult adoption set up, or perhaps she’s mistreating him as a boss, or they’re a couple and the whole divine date thing is in play (keep in mind, Childe is about same age as her and is the youngest of the Fatui Harbringers. Ningguang and Keqing are also way younger than him. So are Venti and Xiao. Her age doesn’t make her automatically his kid).

What I do want people to get out of this is that you should NOT glamorous the infantilization of an adult woman. Her height, the way she copes with trauma and her employee being several thousands of years older than her is no excuse. People hire people older than them all the time. Putting him in a position of power over her negates her entire character arc and trivializes the way that she copes with trauma. It negates her being a female business owner and it isn’t cute.

- From a 5’1” 25 year old diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD who has dealt with the death of both of my paternal figures at a young age.

[crimeronan]

Can you explain the appeal of Julian Blackthorn? This is a genuine question because I read the books and came away utterly bored by him and unconvinced of his moral greyness as opposed to like, Adam Parrish’s. He seemed so one dimensional to me but I want to know if I’m Wrong TM considering I tend to be very very biased toward my favourite characters and bored by the rest, and my favourites were Mark and Kieran. So maybe I just didn’t pay him enough attention??

it’s been a while since i wrote any earnest tsc meta but cringe culture is dead and the chance to infodump about my julian thoughts has me vibrating where i’m sitting so.  yes okay.

technical stuff

(aka: things pertaining to How The Story Is Constructed)

cassandra clare’s characterization has become much stronger just in general since she first began writing the series like twenty years ago

perhaps most importantly: the more recent stuff i’ve read from her has involved characters who actually grow, change, and learn from their past mistakes 

rather than repeating the same stupid decisions over and over again

and over and over and over some more

seriously take a shot every time someone in tmi miscommunicates or self-destructs in ways They Have Learned Not To Do for no real reason. u will die of alcohol poisoning

in tda this shines ESPECIALLY with the evolution of mark, kieran, and cristina’s relationship, but that’s a separate post

clare’s trademark is also the angsty traumatized jerkass love interest with a secret heart of gold

the woman is almost singlehandedly responsible for draco in leather pants and the proliferation of this kind of character type in fandom and teen lit. this isn’t a criticism it’s me marveling at how if you commit hard enough to a single trope you truly can change the world.  follow your dreams

sad jackass with a heart of gold isn’t an Inherently Problematic Character Type

but poorly done it can lead to relationship dynamics in which one partner is constantly being hurt by and then forgiving the other despite them making no real effort to change, because they are narratively absolved due to being sad

(there’s a lot of this with earlier jace content.  in some ways i think will was later created specifically to be a same-archetype protagonist who actually does get called on his shit and grow. that’s also another post)

also if all of your sexy male love interests are tortured jackasses with a heart of gold then people start calling you a one-trick pony

enter julian blackthorn!

from the very start everything about him is designed to be the INVERSE of the heart of gold jackass.  which immediately makes him interesting just from a meta perspective

(mark and kieran are also both alternate angles on this time-honored archetype.  mark gets the heart of gold and kieran gets the jackass and then they’re both much more deeply messy than that.  yet another post)

julian is kind, self-sacrificing, empathetic, artistic, emotionally supportive, responsible, and favored by old grannies everywhere

so a completely nonthreatening milquetoast guy, right

immediately forgettable if you’re only here for the dramatic conflicts and shithead antics of clare’s other protags

except that he is A Mess

and that he has structured his priorities very carefully, and they are as selfless as you expect from The Hero (TM) but they are also Not Heroic (TM) and they do not align with the moral framework The Hero (TM) is supposed to use

moral ambiguity in characters always exists in relation to their narratives imo. you mention adam parrish - trc’s narrative already mucks around in different ethical shades of gray, and adam falls on the canon scale about where julian does on his canon scale.  both more willing than the average pov character to do the ruthless thing or make the fucked-up choice if the ends justify the means; both with an intensely strong sense of internal priorities that they adhere to at all costs, both so unbelievably fucking down for murder; etc

i do think there are ways julian’s choices could have been pushed even further, but considering the number of readers who hate his guts already, i can see why clare opted not to go for the most controversial possible conflicts

so we’re flipping the narrative

instead of seeing this angsty bad boy and peeling back the layers of his trauma to find his heart of gold, we’re seeing the put-together selfless family man and peeling back the layers of his Responsibility Mask to expose the rotting husk underneath

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

THAT IS FUN AS FUCK

then when julian DOES lash out in hurtful, uncontrolled ways, he has significantly more narrative justification for it than most of clare’s protagonists (will elaborate in characterization thoughts)

julian is also interesting as fuck because of how his struggles allow for a more in-depth look at the failings of shadowhunter society, something that’s also sorely lacking in clare’s earlier work

his apparent amorality is simply the result of him making pragmatic and impossible choices because he has been faced with fucked-up ethical dilemmas since age 12 Because Society Has Failed Him

which opens the door for narrative exploration of how and why he’s been failed so badly & what needs to change

i also love that he has such a coldly calculated way of analyzing situations and allowing harm to occur when need be, bc a lot of clare’s early protagonists have such a bad case of Rush In And Get Myself Killed Because I’ve Got Feelings About Impulsive Heroism syndrome that i wanna push them in front of a truck

probably there’s other meta narrative stuff i could say but i’m stopping myself and moving on to character analysis

characterization stuff

(aka: reasons why i’m also attached to him in a vacuum)

i don’t read him as one-dimensional at all tbh

u may feel the narrative pushes “ruthless julian blackthorn” too much without delivering enough actual ruthless julian But i don’t think that’s the same as having only one dimension

from the get-go, the big question centered on julian is always “how far are you willing to go?” and the narrative pushes the stakes slowly higher and higher to continuously test julian’s “the price is always justified” mindset

he has a far more layered and realistic response to trauma than clare’s early protagonists - trauma affects every single aspect of his personality and how he conducts himself, and the effects vary depending on the circumstances

his conviction that he has to be the perfect parent to his siblings because they will fall apart if they see him show weakness??  rooted in how he feels like he’s fallen apart since losing the stable adult support he once relied upon

his willingness to hurt semi-innocent people, commit coldblooded murder, manipulate people using political leverage, allow harm to befall any stranger if it protects his family??  rooted in how he has already had to ask himself how much he’s willing to sacrifice, and how his family is his only source of stability when the world has never done Shit for him

his conviction that he has a darker heart than anyone else because he killed his possessed father, even though intellectually he knows he was saving his brother’s life??  rooted in having no means of processing this trauma and being unable to voice his feelings for fear of backlash from a deeply non-understanding society

the way he represses every single negative emotion he ever has, to the point where emma - his actual literal magic soulmate who can feel his emotions - is startled to find him hurting or angry??  once again all about how he has to be the perfect father or he’s failed completely

the way his anger is so totally disproportionate to different situations and the way his negative emotions can only come out in completely uncontrolled breaks??  all that repression baybey.  this kid has not processed a single bad feeling in five years.  every single real grievance and petty annoyance has been festering indefinitely inside him like a slowly spreading infection

julian’s arc involves him needing to get thru being his worst self to actually start to heal

as in, he has to actually learn to acknowledge his feelings, take care of himself, lean on his family, and let other people take some responsibility

he also has to learn that in his quest to be the perfect emotionally controlled authority figure, he has not actually learned how to control or deal with his emotions. like. At Fucking All. good god

the narrative setup is also about asking “how far are you willing to go?” until the answer is finally “not this far.  not this far”

and once he reaches that point, he has to reevaluate everything about how he weighs his priorities and morals and plans, etc

(i also like that emma has a perpendicular arc in which she’s always the one tempering julian and telling him “no we can’t go that far” until she’s willing to do something horrific that he absolutely won’t and HE has to stop HER. very sexy)

it’s also just really nice to have a character who’s learned to relate so well to literally every single member of his family while still having a very detached ruthless interior consciousness. i have similar feelings about how adam teaches himself to love people, but with julian it’s spelled out more explicitly in canon & it’s a more central character theme

i’m sure i’m also forgetting stuff here but this post is long enough so i’m gonna say good enough

and like i said in the tags on my other post, there are things i’d personally write differently if it were my story - plot points i’d shift, character contrasts i’d up, themes i’d explore differently, pacing i’d adjust, etc.  i have plenty of ways i could be nitpicky and editorial about the effectiveness of julian’s arc.  but i also don’t feel like writing them out at the moment & none of my critiques on effectiveness have an impact on the core appeal of his character 2 me.  he’s so fucking good

[kaypeace21]

So weird crack theory/ thought.

What if Lonnie & victor creel are related (like they're brothers or 1/2 brothers or something)? Like lonnie is Victor's younger brother? Son? Etc?

1 )duffers are fans of the xmen comics and reference it every season. ‘ victor creel’ (from ST) sounds like the the xmen character ‘victor creed’ who had an ab*sive dad- and because of that ab*sed his younger siblings , growing up. victor as a kid had a birthday tradition of ab*sing other relatives-specifically on their b days . His fav target as a kid was his little brother. Sort of like how lonnie  made Jonathan cry on his birthday ...and in s4 Lonnie may return (near Will's bday) . 2)if creed=creel. creed is also the surname of the main family/characters from the stephen king novel pet semetary. The Duffers love stephen king (and have used him as an influence in St’s plot in the past).  Beky ives’ actress-aka El’s aunt- was also in the remake of pet semetary ,and Duffers love referencing shows/films their actors have been in. The young son/boy  in the novel/og film was named William Creed who (in the novel) became a zombie and he had a sis named ELlie. Also, Bob referring to Joyce in highschool as " the Joyce byers" implies Byers is HER last name . Not lonnie's- sooo what's lonnie's last name? He's only ever referred to by his first name? If it was Creel... than technically William byers... could be William Creel (zombie boy) which =William Creed (zombie boy from sk novel)

4) Also the kids made a whole joke in s1 of "family " being at penthurst (where creel is) .Nancy in s3, goes to a hospital and pretends to be related to Mrs Driscoll and even changes her last name to driscoll. She claims to be her granddaughter. Mrs Driscoll was also in the hospital because everyone assumed she had a schizophrenic episode. So... someone in the gang is probably related to creel even if not the byers. So that could be foreshadowing that someone will be related to Creel? Of course, who knows, maybe it's just a ref to brenner /papa working at penthurst?

Or total crack theory: maybe el and Will are both related to Creel- aka William &ellie creed. since both were called "schizos" (whenever people talked about their powers in s2 )?And both have maternal aunts who hallucinated things. Also, i think of the did theory,but i do remember in s1 someone remarking El could be "lonnie's kid". So who knows who /how anyone could be related to Creel. XD

5) lonnie's actor said he's a "product of his environment "... what could that mean... hmm 6)maybe lonnie saying trauma makes you "make up things to cope" could be him referring to victor ... and the dialogue isn't just foreshadowing/narrative device for other characters?But he knows from observation of his own family?

7) st s4 movies: trigger warning for s.a which may relate to victor's eye thing

in the s4 movies inspos: they had a guy s*xually ab*se both his kids. 1 of the kids-grows up and ab*ses his other relatives ,repeating what his father did(Lonnie?). And other films also showed the generational cycle of ab*se too. 1 movie also had a "plot twist" of 2 male villains being brothers . And another movie had the ‘plot twist’ of a villain being a 1/2 sibling to another character.  The whole creel allegedly stabbing his eyes out reminds of the oedipus story- which again would make sense in relation to such ab*se elements involving parents. Again , oedipus gouges his eyes out after k*lling his dad/ having inc*st with a parent. The eye gouging was metaphorical for the shame he had in regards to this.And a lot , like 20+ movies, had parents/ older relatives conduct s.a on their younger (kid) relatives.

And another movie ex) creel's actor plays freddie creuger. In one of the s4 movies a woman working for a psych ward revealed she was actually related to freddie . But she kept it a secret initially, because they're related because of a r*pe done.

This plot would also show the cycle of ab*se but show how unlike lonnie- Will and Jonathan break the cycle. For instance the stephen king "shinning" book was said to be inspo for st - in the st book "stranger things: worlds turned upsidedown." And "shinning" is on the st movie list. In the novel and the novel's sequel its about how Jack (ab*sed by his dad) repeated the cycle of ab*se by ab*sing his own son, Danny.Danny breaks the cycle and the story ends with him telling his kid- relative (who is also related to jack-aka Danny's father) to not repeat old familial patterns . (He says this to her , on her bday, and she promises she won't be like those relatives ) . It makes me think of jonathan and Will tbh- since jonathan already said to Will to not mimic Lonnie. If jonathan said such a thing to Will, on Will's bday- it would be a very significant narrative contrast to Lonnie : given the whole possible " familial birthday ab*se tradition" that was inflicted on jonathan, by lonnie. it'd show in a very symbolic yet overt way the boys breaking the cycle of ab*se.

Its also possible creel isn't evil at all- just in a psych ward after everything that happened. To subvert expectations :since the actor usually plays villains/ sadly people often demonize people with mental health issues.

Of course, victor creel may be as important as Mrs Driscoll or something lol...who knows.XD

Or “Creel” is based off a different marvel comic book character maybe? : carl creel , who broke out of pr*son with his newfound powers & closed a portal called a “door” to another dimension? Who knows... but I think if victor creel is substantial to the plot... him being related to the byers in some capacity would be interesting.

[lethargicsunlight]

'Demon': Prologue ♡ BakugouXFem!Reader (Book 1)

Alright I'm doing it.

I'm doing the thing.

It literally keeps me awake at night I gotta write thisss *cough* okay

Originally I was only going to post this unto Wattpad, but getting traction on their website is a little more difficult than good ole' Tumblr, so I'll be posting it on both. Feel free to visit my Wattpad here: LINK if you want to support my writing on that end. (I would so appreciate it)

This post is going to run pretty long, as it will host both the prologue of the story and my author's notes. Just a heads up.

Summery:

A slow-burn action/romance where you begin in the bowels of a Villain base and rise up to join U.A.'s top Hero Class. This life was your choice. In the event of learning then losing the love of a friend, you make a decision that changes your reality at the core--to become an imposter among villains and bring them down from the inside out. The organization that ruined your premature perfect life was known as H.H., after their leader Head-Honcho. His crime of choice: intelligence. Training and conducting espionage agents and assassins across Japan as a means to further the dark underground network. Your training began at thirteen, after managing to impress the multi-faced villain with your stealth and your conviction. Rumors would soon spread through the dark alleys of Naruhata City of a masked assassin known as Demon, whose bare face could steal the souls of her targets. Everything appears to be going to plan; but the Hero Agencies you've been slipping information to are calling for an end to your superior sooner than you had anticipated. Your time as 'Demon' is limited. What will happen when your world comes crashing down? Where will you go, when everything you had known you helped to destroy?

AUTHOR'S NOTES

This is a slow burn fan-fic; and I am not italicizing those words without reason. This is going to be an agonizingly slow action-packed adventure-romance. This is a self-insert story, just like my three-part series 'Some Combat Training' (link) where you as the protagonist will not be described outside of being female, general physique, and a generalization of your uniform(s). Skin, hair, eyes, etc. will not be described at all--besides ambiguous adjectives. That said, I am taking liberties with physique and stature due to the nature of the story. You're abilities rely on stealth as well as close and fast combat, therefore you are described as 'small', 'lithe', 'athletic', and all of those other fancy little ninja woman words. Your personality has been shaped by the events of your life and the people within it; but if I were to describe it I would choose words like: Intelligent, determined, self-sacrificing, quiet, humble, and studious. The story will follow along with the anime for the most part starting at around the time of the USJ event, though at some point the story will branch off and become more my original concoction. (Such as, fast-forwarding the time-line to when the characters are older.) Some information about you as the protagonist will not be written here, as I plan for those to be revelations within the story. There will be angst, blood and gore, adult-humor, trauma, death, bad language and warnings will be listed with each chapter as needed. Feel free to comment on those chapters as soon as you see something that isn't mentioned that might make someone (if not yourself) feel uncomfortable. I will not be offended. This story is meant to get a little dark. Please comment if you can about your opinions! I have never posted an on-going fic before, and anything you have to say I would appreciate! <3 Now, please enjoy this short prologue~ Chapter 1 is being reviewed and edited, to be release very soon! 👹🖤⛓🔪💣 ...four...five...six.. You counted the footsteps behind your left ear, round the corner of the dim abandoned subway. You'd been stationary; still so long that your digits had all but numbed. Turn... one...two...three... The footsteps were distancing from the hall your attention had been set upon. A T-section, where the entity had gone down and away from your destination. You had to cross that 'T' to get to the junction--where you needed to leave a note completely undetected. The slightest mis-step would lead to suspicion. Suspicion would lead to investigation. Investigation lead to the five percent chance they could find that note--and no percentage was too small. It all hinged on absolute perfection. Nine...ten...eleven... This was their fifth round. A patrol. You had to make sure their movement were predictable before this would work--despite having successfully delivered the note fourty-two times and counting--you did not have the luxury of assumption. Only if their stride was even, only if you absolutely knew they were moving at a certain pattern, could you depend on the following information: It took fifteen steps before they would reach the broken light on their route. The haze of the dust and pollutants reflected in the working lights prior to that was your cover. Cross the 'T', leave the note, and cross it again. Out of sight and out of earshot, mission successful. Fourteen... f-- You turn, and it takes three steps to arrive at the drop to the tracks. You bunch and leap, and even the quietest friction of fabric from your uniform creases your brow. You land, just outside of the light's reach on the thin concrete slab beyond. Your eyes track the metals, the jutting wall tiles; that with which the barest touch could emit a sound--and you maneuver around them. Under, creeping low--and over, leaping to land on the balls of your feet and checking your balance before moving forward. Careful to not cast a shadow into the hall. Paced, so as not to move too quickly nor too slowly. Counting, because every second was controlled and calculated. You reach the juncture, and once again

edging the light you propel yourself to land back on the main thoroughfare. The next obstacle--removing the loose brick. Behind a metal bench centered between two closed-in stair cases, where the tile meets what had once been a decorative brick mosaic; eight bricks right and eighteen bricks up, was your note's destination. Just above your head, where you had to bend at an awkward angle to reach. Not practical, less detectable. You're wearing tight fabric gloves with grips on the pads, but thin enough you can feel the texture of the brick as you gently lace your fingers at each of the corners. Lifting, centering, and pulling the brick from its slot. Holding it just right, you can avoid the loud scrapes and grinds--but you have to hold it perfectly centered. Success. In goes the note. As does the brick, back into the wall. But you're only half-way done. Leap. Quiet, maneuver, avoid, measure. Silent. Leap. Hide. You're back is once again at the wall, the footsteps of the lackey you'd been avoiding closing in proximity to the Hall you'd just left. Four... five... six... Your eyes focus on the wall opposite of you as you ground yourself. The next few seconds determined a new reality. Either they followed their pattern, or they didn't. You had to be flexible. No assumptions. If they move towards the junction, you have to follow. If they move towards you, you'd calculate on your feet. Seven... eight... nine.. Turn. ...one...two...three.. You don't relax. Even after you count their steps to fifteen, even as you slip away back through the hall, even as you exit the unattended vent and breathe in fresh air--you don't relax until you're sitting on the floor in your room, calming down, your mask in your hands. After checking to make sure your door had not been opened, and no one had looked for you. No tracks in the dust. Only then do you allow yourself to ruminate on the contents of the note you had written, because you could still see every letter of it in your mind. ------ 55-1, Minami Senju 5-chome, Musutafu Target: Fukui Mitsuo Floor 8 3 AM. 7. Accompanied. Head. ------ For the briefest moment, you feel your hands shake. They always did on these nights. Realistically, you'd left no openings. Tested and re-tested every method. Calculated every movement. Left nothing to chance. But the 'what-if's' still linger, and you let them. The fear is good. It keeps you on your toes, your mind on edge, your tongue to the roof of your mouth. If he found out, you wouldn't know it until it was over. So you pretended he already did. Below you, underground in his base, plotting how to get at you when you were most vulnerable. Tear you to pieces, throw you in a pit or in a cage. No--too risky, he'd just kill you. A dead-end is better than a possibility. You'd learned that from him. You swallow, head turning so the amber morning sky is in your peripheral. All things considered, you would still unfortunately need sleep. You cherished the brief moments of sunlight and let your mind swim in the memories of your childhood spent in the daytime; before retiring to the broken and borrowed mattress. Seven days. You would check the location of your note in two. If there is another note in response, you would create a reactionary plan. The pattern continues. Until he finds out. ...Until he finds out.

[modern-inheritance]

MIC!Arya and the Infamous Tarnag Temple Argument : Modern Inheritance’s Take on Trauma, Religion, and Arya F***ing Apologizing

Everyone gives Canon!Arya shit for the scene in the books where she gives Gannel shit in his own temple for having religion. I agree that it’s a bad moment for her character. I also feel it comes out of left field for Arya’s character up to that point but I’ll get smacked from here to the core mantle boundary for that by some of the fandom. I digress. This is very much not about my feelings on the canon version.

Let’s move on to how it might go for my Modern Inheritance!Arya and my version of events. 

Arya’s coming off from a hell of a time. You don’t exactly process deaths of loved ones very well while being tortured, and while she’s juggling all that plus two near death experiences that occurred probably within a week of each other, Eragon nearly dying and his back spasms, the guy that tortured her and killed her best friend and her mate is dead but she didn’t get to have a swing at him, mentally preparing to face her queen/mother, the ‘a whole clan now wants to murder Saphira and Eragon’ situation, civil unrest in the city they’re in, just Brom being Brom, physical stresses from the whole *waves hands at previous paragraph*, she’s suddenly reminded that hey…the dwarves and humans have something that elves don’t. 

What’s that? Religion. And what usually comes with a religion? 

The concept of an afterlife. The general idea that when someone dies they have not really left. The comfort that if you pray, meditate, visit a grave, do something special to you/your faith then you can make a connection to your lost loved ones and friends. The promise that even though they’ve left this world, they’re still looking out for you. And one day you’ll see them again. The separation is only brief. 

And damn. Right then, that hurts for Arya. It’s like being kicked while you’re down. 

Deep down, Arya sees what the dwarves have. This comfort in thinking that the dead aren’t all gone, and that all it takes is reaching out to them to share thoughts and feelings, and that you’ll see them again. 

And she wants that too. She wants it so badly. She envies their ability to think that way, to simply have faith in what they cannot see. She wants to talk to Fäolin and Glenwing (who is still alive in MIC but at this point she doesn’t know that) again, she wants to tell them that she misses them and that Eragon and Saphira exist and their deaths weren’t for nothing and tell them all the things unsaid…but no matter how much she wants to, she can’t get past everything that’s happened in the past 6+ months and her own cultural beliefs. 

It hurts. She can’t think of anything else to say past the hurt and so she lashes out. She doesn’t understand why really, but knows that religion and afterlives and all of it just make her…angry. Because what else could that cold rock in her chest be?

In MIC, Arya is not as stubborn when it comes to atheism or other cultures. Before the ambush, she frequently asked questions about the dwarvish religion, not exactly realizing that her questions could be considered more of ‘you dare question the faith’ than ‘so wait what if this happens? Do you still get to go to the afterlife? But what about when you feel a mind die? Where does it go?’ innocent type questions that come from curiosity. She still has the feeling that the money donated to religions could go to better places, but also realizes that sometimes the religions actually send said donations TO those places/the needy, and that structures/art/etc that were built long ago do kinda need upkeep. So instead of being a dick about it, when the dwarves at the temple bluntly tell her ‘would you shut up and leave already we don’t want to answer your questions’ she adds a cheeky ‘sure I’ll go as long as you donate to the Varden’s current fundraiser’ and goes on her way when they agree to donate.

But Arya still blatantly crosses a line by confronting Gannel rather sharply about her newfound feelings on religion while Eragon is there. She’s been following them as Eragon’s bodyguard (why the HELL did canon!Arya leave Eragon alone, even in a temple full of warrior monks, wheN A WHOLE CLAN WAS TRYING TO KILL HIM?!)  and she doesn’t even realize that she’s said anything until Eragon looks back at her like ‘Ooooh nooooooOO ARYA WHAT THE HELL?! WAS THAT?!’ and she sees that the back of Gannel’s head is turning purple with rage. 

Eragon manages to extricate himself from it all and meet up with Saphira, and after a rather…heated…uh…”discussion,” Gannel finally flames that while Arya’s questions before pushed the limit, this was beyond unacceptable and asks what the fuck is wrong with her. Arya just storms out.

Arya comes back to the temple later that night, asks for Gannel, and pretty much kneels down and puts her forehead on the floor in front of him (MIC elves do this only when they realize they REALLY fucked up and use this stance as an open way of saying that they fucked up, apologize, and will accept the consequences) with a sincere apology for her earlier conduct. Honestly, her ear is still red from where Brom had twisted it when he caught wind of what she had done, but she’s not apologizing just because of that. 

She wants to learn how to pray. 

Not to a god or spirit, but how to talk to the ones she’s lost. The idea of religion giving a false sense of hope still hurts and angers her…but she’s realized that maybe there’s a reason why it can bring comfort. 

Gannel awkwardly explains that a way to get started is to simply speak aloud, as if talking to someone that isn’t there. When he realizes Arya isn’t pulling his leg or going to go off on him again, he decides to give her the ‘how to talk to dead people’ primer course over some mead and does his best to keep the more hard religion stuff out of it. As a priest/monk, he’s used to consoling people who have lost family and loved ones. He can pick up the signs easily enough…when the person isn’t ready to punch a hole in his fancy history wall. 

As she leaves, Arya apologizes again. 

And prods Gannel to donate to the Varden’s current fundraiser. 

[mamusiq]

Conductor Breaks Down Orchestra Scenes From Movies & TV | WIRED

Marin is the chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Conductor Marin Alsop examines some band and orchestra scenes from popular movies and television shows and determines how accurate they really are.

Does the conductor from the movie "Whiplash" have an effective teaching style?

How historically accurate is "Amadeus"?

Was Richard Dreyfuss convincing as a high school orchestra conductor?

Marin answers all these questions and much more!

👇📺👇

Comments

Gui Porto - Marin studied under Leonard Bernstein. She was the director of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (where I live) and I got to see her conduct a few times. She’s just brilliant.

TheHunterGracchus - Interesting. In Seiji Ozawa's memoirs, he said that Bernstein was, in his opinion, overly egalitarian in his approach. Unlike European conductors who would just assert their authority, Bernstein would waste a lot of rehearsal time asking the musicians what they thought. Still, as I get older and listen to more and more of Bernstein's recordings, the results speak for themselves.

Isaiah Baggett Holy crap...folks, this is one of the TOP conductors in the WORLD!!! she's amazing!!!

NotlobParrot RIGHT?? I couldn't believe they got someone of her caliber to do this!

Katy Liljeholm I love that the fact that the conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra really likes School of Rock is a fact that I now know!

Xplayer007 When Mr. Bean actually does a better job conducting than a character who was supposed to be doing it his entire life (Mr. Holland).

Diamonddogusa Never, ever berate, humiliate or intimidate a young musician. I have met too many who were turned off of music forever because of the trauma of enduring a bully.

Carter Johnson I came here with the hopeful expectation that she would roast everybody, but I left here even more delighted by her balanced, insightful, and generous commentary.

Triskan As someone with no musical training or experience, it's just a fascinating universe to try and understand ! Thanks for that !

Katie Procell Salieri: I don't understand! Marin: I don't believe that. Me a young professional: THANK YOU I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT

Jabberwockyface F Murray Abraham exclaimed "I don't understand!" and "You go too fast!" because Tom Hulce was deliberately skipping lines in order to get a true reaction of confusion and bewilderment out of him. It was not a mistake of the script.

Archange Camilien 4:19 you know, I always thought "I don't understand" meant "I don't think that sounds good, what are you thinking?", haha...whether because it sounded too simple, not good enough, etc, he doesn't understand why a genius would want to do whatever Mozart asked him to do...and then when he ponders it internally he suddenly "gets it", he sees why Mozart wanted it the way he wanted...I never thought of it as a matter of Salieri not understanding what musical instructions Mozart was giving him...

Rachel E - This was wonderful! I loved the diversity of films and shows she analyzed. That Mr. Bean bit will always be a delight to watch.

https://youtu.be/c2z9zFBcZKU

[travoltacustom]

HYPNOSIS MICROPHONE 4TH INTERNATIONAL POLL (DECEMBER 2020) Part 6: Fandom and the Future of HypMic

Thank you for your participation! These are the final results for the 4th Hypnosis Microphone International Poll. After months of work on this, we have estimates for general fandom opinions. Do you agree or disagree with the general opinions? Please let us know!

The results were held back from original posting as we were waiting to post for a month before the 2nd DRB finals (which is on Doppo’s Birthday this year.) My deepest apologies for how long this took to get out. We will be releasing these results with a section per day, with the end of these results showing the Japanese side.

Click the READ MORE to view the results.

PREFACE

The data collection for this poll received 902 votes to give us an indication of the demographic of those who consume Hypnosis Mic. This poll was open to English speakers, and thus, results may be considerably Euro/American-centric. The word ‘international’ has been used to refer to how fans are from many places around the world, but the poll may also refer to this group as ‘English-speaking’ etc. The Japanese poll had a smaller respondent pool with 400.

This poll received the most activity through Twitter, given that the series is most active on that platform. The poll was also posted on Tumblr, Facebook and the HypMic wiki. Commentary has been given on sections of the poll. These results will be available in full on from this account. The Japanese poll results shall follow about a week with comparison to this poll.

The poll was conducted from December 2020 to January 2021. This poll is UNOFFICIAL and none of the composers of this poll have any relation to King Records whatsoever.

This has been split into MULTIPLE posts due to the amount of data and limitations of tumblr.

PART 6: Miscellaneous Questions

Respondents were allowed to select up to 3 characters.

As we were processing these results, all characters have received some part of character development.

Did MTR deserve the 1st DRB win?

YES, Matenro did deserve the 1st DRB win: 73.1%

NO, Matenro did not deserve the 1st DRB win: 26.9%

Did FP deserve the Rule the Stage DRB win?

YES, Fling Posse did deserve the Rule the Stage DRB win: 83.9%

NO, Fling Posse did not deserve the Rule the Stage DRB win: 16.1%

Who do you believe will win the 2nd DRB? This was not a ‘who do you WANT to win’ question.

CANNOT DECIDE: 23.9%

Fling Posse:��21.7%

MAD TRIGGER CREW: 17%

Dotsuitare Honpo: 14.6%

Matenro: 9.6%

Bad Ass Temple: 8.4%

Buster Bros!!!: 4.7%

Who do you think will win BB vs DH, MTC vs FP, MTR vs BAT?

Dotsuitare Honpo VS Buster Bros!!!

Dotsuitare Honpo: 56.3%

Buster Bros!!!: 31.1%

Can’t Decide: 12.6%

Bad Ass Temple VS Matenro

Bad Ass Temple: 33.4%

Matenro: 50.8%

Can’t Decide: 15.9%

Fling Posse VS MAD TRIGGER CREW

Fling Posse: 44.8%

MAD TRIGGER CREW: 41.5%

Can’t Decide: 13.7%

WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO SEE IN THE MAIN PLOT OF HYPMIC?

With 902 responses, we decided not to do a table of these as we’ve already showed which characters respondents wanted to be explored more. However, we will show ‘interesting’ points that we’ve found.

INTERESTING RESPONSES

Exploration of the pre H-era Japan, what caused the war and what the war was like.

Exploration of post WW3 / H-era Japan with politics, society etc.

More female characters as either part of Chuohku, rebellion etc. Possible mixed gender crews

Revolution/rebellion against Chuohku. Referred to as “a SUMMIT OF DIVISIONS moment in canon” and later governmental reform.

Why was the Hypnosis Mic created and more on its development.

In depth explanation as to what happens after being mindhacked.

General insight into more than backstories but their daily lives and possibly romantic lives.

Introduction of more divisions / return of old characters to form new divisions

Another anime season; a proper adaptation of the manga

Why were the Yamadas ‘orphaned/abandoned/separated’ from Rei? Why did Ichiro hide what happened?

BB’s Mother/Rei’s partner - did something bad happen to her?

Jyuto’s past - how he used to be when his parents and partner were still alive.

Why did Jyuto interrogate Doppo?

Does Samatoki feel guilty for blaming Ichiro? Does he feel resentment towards Ramuda even though he figures that he was ordered to do this?

Jakurai’s history as an assassin

More on Yotsutsuji and Jakurai’s relationship

Jakurai and Hitoya’s friendship and how it ‘fell apart’

Who is the original Ramuda and why were the clones created?

Others finding out about the Ramuda clones.

Hifumi and Doppo’s childhood/highschool years.

How did Doppo’s depression get so bad?

The Dirty Dawg’s reconciliation

MAD COMIC DIALOGUE / Ichiro & Kuko / Samatoki & Sasara talking things out and addressing what happened

OTHER RESPONSES

Many responses of just “yes”, “):” “I’m” and “...”, but most importantly “I’m just kind of here for the ride”

There are many that are begging for angst, character death and “chaos”. Some have wished suffering upon certain characters but these will not be disclosed.

“For all of them to get therapy tbh”

“LGBTQ”

“A more complex plot”

“fun and crazy things”

Mentions of ships becoming canon: Hifumi x Doppo, Sasara x Rosho

There were accusations of HPMI being “sexist/misogynistic/not feminist enough” that went on to describe things that have already been addressed.

“I just wanna see Ichiro yelling “fuck you” to his dad”

Otome being Buster Bros!!! mom as well, or that she had some relationship with Rei.

“more test tube babies”

“More Doppo screams”

“(...) Whether or not Rei is worth saving or if I should just rip his tits off (...)”

“An explanation for (why) Rei is Like That”

“Rei vs the rest of the cast just because Mastermind boss battle”

“rei boobs”

“man I just hope they have a nice day. I would like to know about Kuko more :) hes funky and i think that's neat hope hes having a nice day :)))“

“More Kuko feet”

ADDRESSED REPONSES: Responses that have been answered/addressed during the 2nd DRB dramatracks to some degree.

Buster Bros!!! fighting with Rei

Jiro and Saburo no longer being dependent on Ichiro

Jiro and Saburo’s relationship being repaired / seeing eye to eye.

Jyuto’s backstory with the drug problem

How is Ramuda able to participate in the DRB if he’s being hunted down

Gentaro’s identity and brother/family.

Dice confronting Otome

Jakurai coming to Chuohku’s side

Hifumi’s trauma and who Honobono is. (Note: I hope you guys are okay after this one)

Sasara’s time as a gangster with Samatoki

Sasara/Rosho dependency

Nemu being freed from her mindhack/will she be freed.

Is Yotsutsuji still alive/comatose?

WHY DID YOU GET INTO HYPMIC?

Of 902 responses, 166 responses mentioned a character by name or song. Not all characters were mentioned but of the ones mentioned, each was mentioned:

Of 902 responses, 47 mentioned a division by name or song. Each were mentioned:

Fling Posse: 11 times

Bad Ass Temple: 9 times

Buster Bros!!! 7 times

Chuohku: 6 times

Dotsuitare Honpo: 4 times

Matenro: 3 times

Of 902 responses, 43 mentioned a seiyuu. Each were mentioned:

Here are some ‘notable’ reasons people got into HypMic:

“That's a loaded question buddy, assuming I went into this willingly. (...)”

“(...) I love how hypmic combined Male Idols, (Jojo) Stands, and a whole lot of angst in a project (with some fluff here and there).”

“Riou’s tits”

“Because I hated seeing it everywhere so I decided to learn about it before I hate it more. I've fallen deep into this hell.”

“ensemble stars made me v upset”

“I saw bald Ramuda plushie and wanted to know more about him”

“I saw Jakurai and went OOGA BOOGA.

“honestly i saw some fanart of doppo with the fattest and most juiciest ass ever and i was immediately interested, but unfortunately doppo cannonically has a concave ass and jakurai doing a brazillian butt lift on doppo’s ass cannot save it </3 i still love him though”

“Haha pretty rapper bois go brr”

“I'm gay”

“someone was hating on it on twitter and i decided to download arb”

“friend of mine told me to install enstars game, so i installed hypmic”

“I downloaded one of the songs without knowing what it was from for a two week trip into the buttfuck middle of nowhere Wyoming for a school trip in 11th grade and it’s one of the only things that kept me sane”

“Because Jakurai was a hot milf “

“Ice cream spoons”

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To see the next part with comparison to the JP fandom, please follow us to the next post. To view ideas on the series’ production, go back to the previous post.

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[scripttorture]

Hey! My character is made into an experiment by the government due to him having a supernatural ability. The one who handed him over was his partner, who has been a part of that organization all along. He is usually a very confident person, powerful and extroverted. I'm not sure how his mental state is supposed to change? I don't feel like the whole loosing their will to live and becoming incredibly depressed thing would fit him as a person. How could I still show that the torture effects him?

There isn’t a sure fire answer to how any one person will change when they’re tortured. We know the possible symptoms, but most people won’t experience every possible symptom and we don’t have a way to predict who gets what.

 There’s a post that talks about the possible symptoms over here.

 Here’s the thing though: there is a lot of variety in survivors, in the symptoms they get and the way they personally express those symptoms. Some people do become suicidal. Some people do become depressed. And some people do lose their faith in humanity.

 But there is not one universal survivor experience.

 This means that there’s a big range in realistic responses. It also means that as a writer you actually have a lot of options. You should be picking 3-5 symptoms from the list of possible options, but the list has 14 things on it and some of those things can manifest in multiple ways.

 I think that, since we can’t predict symptoms, the best thing you can do as a writer is pick symptoms based on what you feel fits your character and story best.

 Depression and suicidal thoughts don’t do that, so let’s have a look at some of the others.

 Memory problems are incredibly common in real survivors and are almost never portrayed accurately in fiction. You can read about the four basic types here.

 I’d really encourage you to use one of these if you feel it fits your story. They create a lot of interesting narrative challenges for the character and they can make for really good emotional/introspective moments. If for instance you want to explore self-doubt giving the character memories he later finds out are inaccurate could feed into that, leading to him questioning whether he ‘really’ was betrayed.

 General forgetfulness (ie low level difficulty forming memories) can give the character a lasting disadvantage in everyday life, creating a much more traditional injury-recovery arc as he tries to find adaptions to this new normal.

 Intrusive memories, when handled well, can help create a deeper connection between the reader and the character. Because it lets you create situations where the character’s mood flips in an instant, the other characters don’t understand why but the readers do.

 Memory loss can be trickier, mostly because it’s rarely handled well in fiction. It doesn’t effect older memories, such as childhood memories, the person’s name etc. It almost never effects memories of torture itself. But it does effect other aspects of the time they’re held, the period prior to capture and sometimes a few weeks after release. It’s a distressing and disorientating experience and it’s a good pick if there’s any sort of investigation or prosecution.

 Because memory problems (especially memory loss and inaccurate memories) are a big part of why torture trials are really hard to conduct. Having the character find that he doesn’t actually remember the crucial details and watching the process of people trying and failing to help him, that can be a really powerful addition. It’s also a good way to form a rift between him and his friends without depression or having him lose faith in others. It gives a reason for any distance between them, even if it’s an emotional rather then logical reason.

 Read through the masterpost and really think about whether any of these memory problems could fit your story.

 Narratively speaking memory problems don’t link the character’s personality but they do have a strong impact on plots and sub-plots. Memory loss, inaccurate memories and intrusive memories will all effect the character’s emotional arc and sense of self. They can also throw up barriers for the character.

 He might be missing a couple of crucial details about his life before he was snatched. He might have some key details about how and where he was snatched wrong. Think about how those sorts of problems could feed into your plot, because they can add interesting conflicts and challenges.

 Chronic pain is also incredibly common in torture survivors and it often doesn’t have a single cause. Back, muscular and joint pain are particularly common.

 It can lead to a character seeming angry, unapproachable, anti-social or like they have a hair-trigger temper. It can also make it seem as though they have really bad mood swings or a short temper.

 This can lead to interesting character moments as non-survivors struggle to empathise with an ‘asshole’ while the survivor is struggling to express the fact they’re in physical pain. It can also lead in to discussions of disability and the way we treat invisible disabilities in society.

 It can also often be improved by, again, life style adjustments and sometime medication.

 If you wanted to use addiction as a symptom then chronic pain is a common reason behind addiction in survivors. Essentially they start taking more and more powerful pain medications in order to try and feel ‘normal’.

 Chronic pain doesn’t always lead to addiction though. Making good, consistent life style adjustments (using a mobility aid, being able to sit instead of having to stand for long periods and so on) can help keep pain at manageable levels allowing a healthy relationship with pain medication.

 Insomnia is another really common symptom in survivors. This basically means the character is always at least slightly sleep deprived. Which has knock on effects on absolutely every part of a person’s life.

 You can read about the effects of sleep deprivation here.

 I’d suggest thinking carefully about what you need the character to do before using this one. It might sound counter intuitive but a character with disabling chronic pain is probably more capable of the occasional bout of superheroics then a chronically sleep deprived character is.

 Insomnia caused by mental illness is also notoriously difficult to treat. Medication for the mental health problems survivors tend to have makes it harder to sleep and reduces the quality of sleep. Medication to ‘make’ people sleep often decreases the quality of sleep, when it works. It does not work for everyone.

 Essentially don’t treat insomnia as an ‘easy’ option with less impact on the character. It impacts every part of a person’s life, making them more likely to get sick, slower to react, more emotionally volatile and less able to learn/remember everything.

 There are so many things that insomnia effects that- well I find it easiest to think of it as a permanent lowering of ability across all categories. This does not mean that a character automatically becomes incapable of things; it means they are worse at them then they were before.

 If they were already really good at something then other people might not notice the difference. But the character himself will. Which can have a knock on effect on self esteem.

 Any of the things I’ve mentioned can result in social isolation. Because survivors can come across as aggressive, volatile and inconsiderate which can lead to people… avoiding them. Especially when other characters don’t have a good understanding of mental illness or experience dealing with trauma survivors. (Having said that, remember that a pretty significant proportion of the population experiences mental health problems at some point in their life. Think about how likely experience vs ignorance is, rather then assuming one or the other.)

 Isolation exacerbates pre-existing mental health problems.

 And any combination of the above symptoms make up the frame work of any long term personality change. For instance you describe this character as confident and capable: if he gets multiple forms of memory problems does that impact his confidence in certain areas? And if it does how does he cope with that? It could be by expressing his self-doubt but it could also be by taking a more passive role within a group, letting others take the lead instead of stepping in.

 I have an old ask over here that goes through how I pick symptoms for a character and how I vary them depending on the sort of plot I have in mind.

 Wrapping up, I think that we make these symptoms individual when we consider how the symptoms interact and what that means for the character.

 Depression does not have to mean someone looks overtly miserable. It can look like nausea, like struggling to eat and sleep, like being quieter in social situations. It can feel like going through life disconnected from the world, not so much the presence of misery as the absence of joy.

 You’ve listed these characteristics; confidence, power, extroverted and survivors can hold on to all those things. As always the central point is nuance. Because that confidence probably won’t be completely unshaken anymore, that extroversion might not be effortless anymore, his relationship with that power could change.

 The character might have developed a lot of self doubt and, though it’s a struggle, continue to make firm ‘confident’ decisions because he feels that’s important either to himself or to everyone else. It could be a way of him showing that he’s still ‘strong’, that he survived, that he can still support the other characters.

 The character could still be extroverted and depending on the symptoms you pick socialising might be harder, it could take up more energy. He might be hiding the cost from his friends. Or, another common way it plays out, is that he could just come across as… a lot more inappropriate: making dark ‘jokes’ that non-survivors don’t find funny, having obvious mood swings that make others uncomfortable. You get the idea.

 Torture does change people. But those changes are unpredictable and they often don’t look like we expect.

 Our fiction often tries to use depression and suicidal ideation as an excuse to turn survivors into passive objects. They are not.

 One of the things that stood out to me the more I looked at prominent survivors was anger. Because yes, despair is possible, common even. But so is spite and vitriol and rage. So is determination.

 There is more then one way to be powerful. Confidence does not need to be unshakable to be real.

 In essence: you are aiming for an understandable change in what is already there, not an excision of the characteristics you’ve already established.

 As a final note you might want to take a look at the masterposts I have on medical experiments (which you can find here and also here.) It’s worth deciding whether you want to show unethical but genuine experiments, or torture. You can have a look through the tags on unethical experimentation and pseudo-scientific torture for more information.

 I hope that helps. :)

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