#originally i was going to write down some thoughts abt how much i want 2 go to the beach HSKFHFKHDG

[sapsolais]

?

[rubra-wav]

Omgg, I need a Rosie x fem!Reader fic, where she introduces you to Alastor like her partner 😭💕

Rosie x introducing reader to Alastor

A/N: Today is Rosie day apparently bc I got 2 reqs I'm gonna be (hopefully at least) getting written abt her today.

I'm really sorry I just realised you said fic on this one, lmk if you'd like me to write it as a proper fic 💀

Cw: Sfw, Fem reader, slightly twisted fluff, cannibalism, kinda messed up relationship origin story haha

- When Rosie had brought out the tea set with a mixture of treats for Alastor and herself, and different sweets for you, you could feel yourself getting anxious about the meeting to come.

- You'd been dating the overlord for a little while now. With the 7th month approaching, Rosie wanted you to meet one of her longest friends.

- Wanted to solidify that you were her girlfriend more permanently.

- The public eye wasn't on you at all luckily due to you living in a town surrounded by ravenous cannibals who would protect you with tooth and nail due to dating their leader.

- However, during the time you'd been together, Rosie continued to receive suitors, which was uncomfortable for both of you.

- So she figured that she would start trying to make an effort to tell people she was in a completely monogamous relationship, one person at a time. Starting with her good friend Al, naturally.

- You truly didn't mind, but it was a little bit nerve-wracking meeting another overlord. Especially one who was long time friends with your lover.

- Rosie noticed you fidgeting nervously with your hands, looking down at the table set out before you.

- She let out a soft sigh and put down the box of tea bags she had been fussing with the choices of, walking to stand behind you and place her hands on your shoulders.

- "You'll be fine, heart! He's gonna love you. Maybe even half as much as I do!" She chuckled as your slightly unsure face peered backwards up at her.

- She leaned down to place a soft kiss on your forehead, prompting you to relax and smile softly.

- As she did so, there was the sound of someone clearing their throat behind the two of you.

- You two turned to see the very recognisable Radio Demon standing there looking somewhat uncomfortable at the display of affection. You didn't even hear him approach the outdoor sitting area.

- "Good afternoon, ladies." Alastor recovered quickly as Rosie moved to properly greet him with a big hug, and you rose from your seat with a somewhat strained smile.

- As the two cannibal overlords embraced, you got a stab of being out of place... inadequate in comparison. I mean, you were just some nobody dating the (essentially) mayor of cannibal town, you were surely out of place in such company.

- You were knocked from your thoughts as you felt your hand taken and shaken, Alastor leaning down to get a closer look at you with an elated grin.

- "And you must be (name)! Brilliant to meet you darling, Rose has told me so much about you, it really is a pleasure!" He exclaimed, shaking your hand so enthusiastically you thought you might fall over if he kept it up.

- "Y-yes! It's very nice to meet you Al-" you startled, before correcting yourself. "Alastor! I mean. Sorry!" You apologised profusely for addressing him so informally.

- The man shook his head with a staticky bark of laughter. "Nonsense! Anyone who's this close to Rosie I see as a friend! Do feel free to call me Al, darling." He let go of your hand, finally ceasing the relentless handshake to go and take a seat at the table, musing to himself the whole way about how fun this was going to be.

- Rosie laughed softly at the surprise on your face, wrapping an arm around your lower back and guiding you toward the loveseat across from your grinning guest.

- Afternoon tea with Alastor went along swimmingly despite your prior stress about it.

- The whole time, your fingers were laced together with Rosie's as the three of you laughed and conversed cordially.

- "So, do tell me, how did you ladies meet one another?" Alastor asked, taking a sip of his tea with his red eyes flicking between the two of you.

- You laughed awkwardly, looking to Rosie with a slightly hesitant expression as to whether you should tell the truth exactly or not.

- Rosie shrugged, somewhat hesitant about it as well.

- You gulped, recollecting it all. "Well, my Rose and I met under.. inopportune circumstances." You said slowly, voice raising an octave at the end.

- Alastor put down his cup of tea with his eyebrows raised expectantly. "Oh~?" He looked all the more curious now.

- You took a deep breath, and Rosie chuckled next to you. "Well," Rosie picked up where you left off. "It's kind of funny now, but wasn't at the time that's for sure. She stumbled into the town's walls with a bleeding knee and the cannibals converged on her, trying to take her as a gift for me. It was my birthday the day afterwards, you see." The cannibal explained, talking with her hands as she told the story.

- Alastor looked at you in surprise. "My, that would have been quite a strange situation for you (name)."

- "it... sure was, yes. They brought me to her gagged and wrapped up in a big pink ribbon." You thought back in some unsureness. "They wanted to cook my heart particularly for her birthday meal, but wanted her to actually approve of me before serving me."

- Alastor laughed loudly at your words, shaking his head as he fought to compose yourself. "And what, she decided you looked like you tasted bad?" He looked at Rosie for more context, to find her shaking her head with a somewhat irritated look on her face.

- "Not at all, she looked far too good to eat. People like my husband belong on a platter, not those like my heart," Rosie looked to the side down at you with a fond smile. "I knew that even before we spoke."

- You blushed and smiled warmly at her, squeezing her hand as you looked lovingly up at her.

- "The second I looked into those big beautiful black eyes of her's, I knew I wanted to be with her. Weird I know to be on someone's literal chopping block and thinking that way." You chuckled, looking back at Alastor with a grin.

- Alastor grinned right back at you, expression softening slightly as he leaned his cheek on his palm. "Yes, however I'm glad to see that Rosie seems to be so happy with you. You two make an excellent pair from what I've seen."

- You and Rosie chuckled, agreeing with him. Definitely.

Helpppp now I kinda wanna write a prequel part 2 for their meeting aaa. I could call it 'Eat Your Heart Out or Give You Mine.'✨️😭

Or sumn like that.

[staraxiaa]

porcelain, the afterword:

author's corner/first thoughts.

first and foremost: upon rereading, a scene in this fic holds a lot of similarities to one from dust, diamonds on ao3 by maokitty. (the jealousy scene w the husband where the wall crumbles) especially with the dialogue. i was definitely taking inspiration from that fic while writing the scene, and wanted to make a note of it here. go read it even if ur not into aot pls bc it’s actually life-changing !! i beat my sunflower record btw this was 25k ish words written in less than 20 total writing hours. spread over 1.5 days total. also i think i fucked up the pacing a lot from what id originally planed buuut at least its over. dobby is finally free!!! anyways. the original intent for this fic was a discussion on body imagery, to anyone who has ever struggled with the unrealistic standards of social media and/or felt lesser than themselves because they were not beautiful in a 'typical' manner. but then it ballooned into a monster of its own bc i was like how can i make this hurt. i took my inspiration from porcelain + kintsugi vases... like how can i break this reader before i put her back together. i think that i'd like to touch upon similar topics again one day. as a natural extension of my style and the way i write that 'fits' the childhood theme of this collection, i don't believe i handled these topics the best i could've: a lot of them are simplified to a point that, looking back, makes me go 'eugh' a bit because there's so much depth there that i had to like, tamp down upon as a result of my own inexperience. parts of it were likely believable, and parts of it likely weren't - whether because of my youth, or because i was afraid of approaching these topics from the 'wrong' angle. either way, i hope to be able to grow as a writer to the point that i can tackle these themes again to a point where i myself can be sufficiently pleased with the depth i've put into it. that is all. if you've read up to here, thank you. i'm not really expecting this one to do nearly as well as sunflowers - the content is heavier, it's not nearly as light, and shouto is just less of a popular character overall. but this is very likely my magnum opus so far in terms of how much thought has been put into the work, so it means a lot to me even if you do not interact, and simply read up til this point. thank you. your support truly means a lot. will also update again as i think of things

unwritten scenes, headcanons, thought process

another angst scene. at the todoroki forgiveness dinner table, katsuki and izuku are probably there. i havent watched this scene i just know it exists. (was gonna go find it just for research). enji hits shouto with the 'you can marry whoever you'd like' thing majig. shouto's like, cool i didnt give a shit anyways i was gonna marry her. with or without your permission. and THEN i hit you with the akshually... she's engaged... to be honest, a lot more scenes where it was just mother and daughter. i really wanted the point to hit home that, the mother is always intending to do good in the only ways she knows how - it's not discussed thoroughly, and she's obviously a negative influence when it matters most, which is why reader cuts her off at the end. i am a firm believer that not all parenting is good parenting, even when it comes from a good place, and to me it's like when you hurt someone - it doesn't matter your intention, because that should always come secondary to the fact that you hurt them in some way. sorry. i'm not sure if cutting completely out of the life like that was necessary, but i think that in real life, sometimes it is. something to think abt / regret abt this piece ig lots more on the brother. he was not seen a lot, and i cba to include more about him cuz tbh he's only really relevant for like... 2 scenes but basically the tl;dr is that. he also feels the same pressure. it's just offscreen. (he's a man, he's his father's heir, but he sees the impact this family has upon you). i honestly think he's pookie and hold him dear to my heart but he was really just there to get the plot moving... so.... sorry guys. i didnt even bother to give him a name. BUT hes definitely a very complex character i just didnt write it..... i just needed to add a little happiness to the dysfunctional family ok the husband. okay. so. i originally wrote him in with the intention of being someone to hate, entirely and utterly, with the whole of my heart. but i absolutely hate writing in characters that don't have at least some depth/some complexity, so here goes: he was definitely in love, i think, though i'm not sure i would call it that. there was a grooming aspect to it, an age gap difference (he attended all your recitals/performances when you were underage, had his eye on you), was twice your age. i think i wrote it in a way where it could definitely be interpreted as a form of love, as twisted and fucked up as it was⏤ in the way you think of ownership, that a pretty woman is nothing more than a flower to give the sun to, to water when you'd like. but you're not. you're more than that, you need more than food and water and a roof over your head, more than pretty jewels. you just couldn't love him, and i think that's the part that fucked with him the most. the husband was always supposed to die. i toyed with different versions of this⏤ if you should be the one to kill him, a final 'hurrah' when you finally find your courage. but i thought this wasn't very in line with the reader characterization, so i didn't include this. it's ok though u guys are always #1 bosses in my heart. i hope its clear though that the reader didnt love him at any point bc i dont like him enough as a character to give him that. sorry. he was also supposed to be a mafia man... did i make that clear... but both him and the father were like. i hate these characters. the father especially (he has 0 characterization he's only plot relevant bc he has to be). wipe them both from ur minds pls xx in terms of the baby: i actually know nothing about motherhood. this is only what i've done from the best of my imagination. if it isn't accurate at all i apologize.

i did not know tumblr had a max characters per block. i yap a lot huh. anyways on to cute shouto moments <3 i really considered the idea of like. sex scenes. nothing graphic, but tl;dr with shouto when you cry, he stops immediately. this would be near the end, when you're learning to live again, but it's like, you're so moved because no one has ever done it like this for you before, and he's just worried that he's done something wrong, and it's sad but it's like. you don't know if you can ever handle touch again, but bc you're married, you think it's your duty, and you also love him, so you want to try. you guys love each other so much i could sob. i didnt add this just bc i didnt think this was the fic i wanted to start nsfw with, and bc i dont think i could do the intimacy i wanted justice. also tbh i debated on including more thoughts of shouto during the relationship with the husband but i think, while the mc would definitely think of him, she would try her best to be a good wife. i think this is textbook of abusive relationships (i tried to portray that in the way that the husband speaks and turns the fault onto mc when he hits her) where naturally, they abuse you despite you already doing the best you can, and make you feel lesser for it. i.e. she hasn't thought about shouto the whole while, hasn't done anything, doesn't intend on it, and he still blames her for the way she feels. DID I EMPHASIZE THAT HE PICKS UP EVERY CALL EVEN THO U DONT TEXT HIM ANYMORE JUST IN CASE bc shouto todoroki the man that you are... the man i wrote you as... im never marrying idgaf i write my own standards too high i also jus wanna say guys... the way u pull him out of his shell... and then its his turn to pull him out of urs.... i am a SUCKER for stories that come full circle watch me write it into mermaid au anyways im so excited!!!!! in another world, shouto is the one to catch you. somehow he's in your penthouse apartment. the man's holding a knife to your throat (??) or it's your husband trying to save his own skin. in some variations you walk off the edge yourself, in some variations your husband pushes you, in some variations it's the man. i thought this fit better. either way in all of them he was supposed to dive off the fucking building after u but i also thought: he can't be there himself but he makes sure ur taken care of anyways. sort of fitting the characterization i had for him, i think. i rlly considered a kiss scene too but it'd be sort of natural. like stepping into someone's warmth and feeling entirely comfortable in it, knowing it's what you want and knowing it's also what he wants. at the end. but i didn't add it. wouldve been sweet but unnecessary bc i think this would be further down the line and would require a separate scene. once again i scoot free of my kiss-writing responsibilities ! ! ! more on this, though, i think i really like writing about how simple intimacy can be. i do not believe you need to be physically affectionate with someone to love them, though you certainly can be, and i hope this was reflected in the way i portrayed both shouto and reader. in my dreams we are shouto's sugar babies and just vibe for the rest of our lives. and that is all. the smallest things the reader does make him so happy like. slowly. you guys are already holding hands, so a kiss on the cheek would make him the happiest man on earth. oh here's a bonus scene: at some point he takes you out to see the fireworks. the two of you are sitting, you're tucked snugly into his side, you're watching the fireworks, but when you turn, he's watching you. it's so stupidly romantic. you probably ask him what he's looking at and hes just like 'you'. you flush a little. he kisses the top of your head, grinning like the little shit he is.

i also think it'd take a length of time to get married, so you guys probably do kiss sometime before then. no clue about the scene. but canonically (aka in my head) you guys are just having a normal conversation. like Normal Normal. nothing fancy. and all of a sudden you just lean in and kiss him on the corner of his lips. he touches it, and you can see the shock on his face. dunno if you lie and say 'something there i was just getting it for you' bc im a sucker for that but he only leans a little closer and asks you to do it again. i'd like to think man is patient even tho he desperately wants to (like to the point it's painful to watch) so you have to tell him straight up it's okay to do anything, when you're ready: i.e. initiate kisses and anything else later down the line. once he gets the green light though there's no stopping (he will immediately if u ever tell him) like in my head this man has been basically touch starved all his life and he YEARNS. everyone say thank you to the anon who prompted these scenes btw notes on reader: i think what i wanted to explore with this piece was the way that your parents, the environment you grow up in, the role models you have can shape how you grow a lot. but that does not mean you need to stay that way forever. and that even if you do, you are not necessarily 'weak' or any lesser. reader never actually stood up for herself until the very end, but she was strong in her own way. she tried her best to be a good wife, even when she practically hated her husband. she persevered, she tried her best to love her child. things were bleak, but she pulled through; she kept on living, she kept on breathing. and that was enough. she was enough! <33 i also don't know if this reader was a very believable one. a lot of what i explored here was an extension of some of my own experiences, but like. i simply have not experienced a lot of it personally, unlike with my other pieces, and not at all to the same depth. i hope that there are people out there that can resonate with her and her experiences, but like not in a fucked up way. i simply hope that this story can make someone out there feel seen/heard, even if it's just a little. also putting this here to say, i tried to write reader in a way where it made her thoughts read off as like. ingrained into her? but that the way she thinks is not supposed to be normalized. please love yourselves. just wanted to make that clear djsklsfjd

[sothischickshe]

I was tagged by @bourbon-ontherocks (ty! 💛💛💛) to answer 20 questions for writers:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

278,245

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The only fandom I've ever published fic for is good girls

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Bringing down the neighbourhood

waiting for someone who needs me🧞

What a sight to see🧛🏻

(a) time to kill

yourself and others

I'm not sure the middle 3 would def be there were it not for the anon kudos bombing but w/e it's nice having some single chapter fics in the top 5 🤘

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! 🥺🥺🥺

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

A time to refrain (from embracing) methinks!

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

Both installments of the Are you afraid or is it true series are pretty fluffy. Maybe the second part (Through the park and by the tree) wins out? 🤔

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not generally. There was someone in the gg fandom leaving mean bookmark notes tho 🙄🗑️

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

Yes. What are the kinds? 👀

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

I haven't, and I don't imagine I would?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, not that I'm aware of. It could be interesting to see how it would go!

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

Yes actually, as kids me and a friend co-wrote a tortall 'verse crackfic.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Ooof. Maybe spuffy? That met me at a very formative time of my life, and I didn't expect it to become so canon (as opposed to like under a spell etc) and I think that experience really reshaped my brain 🤯🤯🤯 but fundamentally faves questions are immoral thus this is a very rude question.

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

I hope I'll finish all of them, and do intend to! I'm not sure I'll ever write the hilarious abortion fic tho.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Mm, a love of language/interesting prose. A love of brevity/somewhat chiselled sentences. A love of editing/willingness to improve. Interesting stories. Dialogue, tho brio get little bc theyre annoying. Characterisation!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Well I violently dislike plot. I don't feel super strong on creating original characters. I'm slow! I'd rather let things be confusing than beat readers over the head with info, which I think can be detrimental. I wouldnt say my descriptions are super strong, though I think they've improved a lil. Sometimes there's too much internal monologue at a go which breaks up the pacing of an eg dialogue scene (though again think that's improved somewhat). My love of planning and love of pantsing are at constant war lol, I get grumpiest abt stuff not having been established earlier and thus needing to state things which couldve been well demonstrated. Blocking, sometimes. I love short stories and oneshots but I'm apparently prone to writing long fics & continuing things into series which I consider a real weakness, lol.

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

I'm not against it in principle, I've read a lot of books which contain a lot of eg French or Spanish (often untranslated). We've got access to Google translate or w/e right? I do appreciate it when translations are provided bc lazy (and I think Ao3 does poss let you do hyperlinked superscript?). I feel the same way abt it in fic as in other media I think -- if you're happy for it to be a bonus to those that understand and everyone else needs to work to figure it out, I concur. If you think it needs to be understood, then providing translations (even if just as notes @ the end) makes sense.

But I also think pls don't write it via Google translate... If u don't speak the language/don't have someone who can help u translate it, don't write dodgy shite Spanish or w/e 🙈 not everything needs to be literal dialogue u can just say 'he explained to his grandmother abt the change in plans' or w/e I swear

...o wait I'm guessing the q meant me as a writer not reader 🤦 I don't think I've done much of it? Altho I do always seem to imply that every character speaks French, a language I don't really speak so who the hell knows 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Published for: good girls. Wrote for hmmm I guess tortall books maybe? 🧓🤷🏼‍♀️

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Ooof, immoral question! Let's say upon your ignorance (and the gray despair) of your ugly life tho bc every time I remember I wrote a fic where rio & Dean swap bodies I giggle 😂 there's so much abt this fic which is very funny to specifically me teehee

Tagging🔖🔖🔖🔖🔖: @hereliesbb @nakedmonkey @nottonyharrison @inyoursheets @bensonstablers @blizabrth @delicatelingon & U right in the middle of your forehead if u wanna play 😚🎯

[knizuu]

Talk to me abt uhhh anything- Fang, Petey, OC, idc. ANYTHING U WANT💖💖

PLEASE IM GENUINELY INTERESTED IM NOT DOING THIS JUST CUS U LET ME- /gen

I get so nervous writing asks wtf

DUDE IM SO DUCKING HAPPY +omg same </33

COUGH well imma go in order lets go with the

FANG🫧….

SIGHH I LOVE HIM SM. tbh I see how people react to the recent idw miniseries which left the Hooligan fans really sour </33 to me, though, it wasn’t too bad?? I see how it works and honestly the only sad part to me is WHY DID HOOLIGANS BREAK UP AUH but im so used to “sonic canon ew” so like-I should’ve expected that sigh. So I can reason with how excited people headcannon/draw/make whatever of the guy it’s really cool since we all kinda agree? Like even with such a variety we all take the guy lovingly <33 which is sweet :> like its pretty chill-WHCIH IS FUNNY because Im actually really scared in small communities <- i made a post bout it once i-I EAT UP ANY FAN MADE FANG CONTENT FR i love all fangs really [so far] ^ ^ tbh even my school knows that-I did pottery of him, drawn him, spoke of him, my teacher saw a drawing of Fang I did and HE QUOTE: I was looking for that [SIR I GET IT IM PREDICATABLE/silly]

PETEY💠

Ok as much as heartfelt I feel about Fang-Petey is just some other freak of nature my family knows. I’m NOT EVEN JOKING-MY MOM SANG ABOUT HIM WHILE MAKING LUNCH/GEN GEN GEN-cough. Idk why but ever since my brother [the first dog man fan obviously] inserted dog man into my family [by 1. SHOWING MY FANART/BOOKS TO MUM 2. LETTING ME SING THE MUSICAL ALL DAY LON-/positive fs] its been insane/sILLY because-who expected everyone to say “Papa Petey” [i do NOT know how some typo made mo-ok my mom has a Petey problem/sILY AGAIN] in the car-at home…NOT ME THATS WHO. WHY IS PETEY SUCH A NORMAL THING IN MY HOUSEHOLD/positive sigh

OC🌸

OKK well they are ALMOST a wasteland but I have an original story to bring some ocs to life ^ ^ [including-sigh vague mention-the space dog lady and red haired lady ocs i have :3] ESSENTALLY: I’m calling it Brink of Bryony!! [Bryony is about a flower but in plot idk a city??] it’s just a human loser [red haired lady MAYBE] meeting alien folk [Cordella is there…i showed her ONCE] like my self insert hehe [Norolist] because OH NO beeg mister evil guy wants to take over Earth and this NICE alien people gonna protect it! That’s the entire thing, very unserious lmao. Pyrexavul is my precious <33 I don’t think I shared him?? I’ll share em all sometime hehe im too lazy LMAO. So yes yes I’ve been into making that story recently :> !!

ANYTHING🦐

OK SO my Luxury AU has been MANIFESTING MOI cuz i decided: why yes I WILL make a fic bout it!! Yknow just remaking the lore[cough this means me rewriting the first book of DogMan] and putting some stuff into one work ^ ^’ SO FAR I’m really getting into the vibes but what’s crazy is how I turned what I THOUGHT was oughta be a comedy-to a tragedy. No like I KNOW IM GONNA WRITE CUTE STUFF I WILL I JUST-….also might’ve included grief, addiction, ETC I dont even know how I got there 🙂‍↔️but it’s been fun! Especially since it makes me go down a nice study check with me lmao [I’ve been learning the medical field, laws, how media handles stuff, types of _, etc] hehe rubbing my hands together imma be so happy to write it all hehe and with that I’m learning about my characters a lot better! I thought of it more one noted because its a good start but now im actually learning more bout em :0 !! Love reworking stuff, redesigning, it’s been a huge part of me since idk when ^ ^’

COUGHHHH i think that all works out!! TYSM FOR ASKING I CANNOT EXPRESS THE WHIMSY I FEEL RN <33

[commaclear]

Holy crap???????

I very recently started reading (most?) of the stories you have wrote on Ao3 and I'm in love. Marry me?? I'll give you a plastic spider ring I got for 25 cents.

Anyways, I aspire to be an author and was mostly wanting to know, how do you continue??

I have so many little ideas that float in my mind and I don't know how to keep writing after getting through one paragraph.

-Turtle-shell anon.

Oh dear, unfortunately I'm sworn to only marry Danny Devito...

Okay, I've got a lot to say abt this apparently. I was originally just gonna write some quick tips and it somehow turned into a full essay lol

#5 is my top suggestion for anyone who's feeling uninspired or stuck. Stories are driven by their characters, so let them lead the way!

1. Write your ideas down as soon as you have them

I've got about five or six tiny notebooks stowed away in different places (purse, desk, bedside table, etc.), and as soon as I have any kind of story idea, I start writing it down as soon as I can, otherwise I tend to lose it or lose my enthusiasm abt it, and it's harder to keep steam later on. I do this with ideas for future stories, ideas for dialogue five chapters from now, random descriptions of scenes, just literally anything that pops into my head.

Like dream journaling makes your dreams more vivid, the more you write down your ideas, the more ideas you'll start having! It's like unclogging a dam.

Also, physical writing is always better for me than typing when I get stuck because kinetic movement engages the brain more, so I have a few full size journals too to write longer ideas in.

2. Start stories even if you know you won't finish them

Writing is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more stamina you build up. So starting on stories, even if you don't know where you're going or know you won't finish is still productive because you're exercising that muscle and making it stronger. And who knows? Maybe you'll come back years later and finish this story brilliantly!

3. Download WriteorDie2

Write or Die is a horrific torture device for writers, but it is genuinely helpful for me to power through pointless writer's block or procrastination stints. Even when I feel completely uninspired, suddenly I find I'm full of ideas when threatened with screeching violin spiders.

4. Get a hype man

A big reason writers lose steam on projects is you start listening too much to the internal critic, and you end up hating your own project when you've barely even started. The best way to combat this is to get a non-writer friend to read your stuff and tell you everything they like about it. Ask them to say specific things they liked, not just vague "Yeah, it's good!" because specific positive feedback is always more encouraging than generic platitudes.

5. Do free form character PoV word-dumps

Get out a journal. Set a seven-minute timer and start writing in the voice of your main character (or whatever character is most relevant), like they're making a diary entry or giving a soliloquy. Your pencil cannot stop moving until the timer ends. Just keep writing and ignore any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Have your character dump out all their thoughts and feelings and insecurities, have them rant and cry, have them giggle and blush and kick their feet, or maybe they're still masking their feelings and trying to be strong. Just write in their voice, and you'll be surprised by what they have to say.

6. Explain your story to a rubber ducky

If you're stuck in a plot and don't know where to go, explain your whole plot to a rubber ducky. Make sure you go into all the intricacies and details, explain all the side characters and background lore, tell that ducky where you want your story to go next and why you're stuck.

8 times out of 10, simply talking out loud through your plot will get you thinking differently, and you'll unstick yourself. And it doesn't have to be a rubber ducky; it can be literally anything with a face, but trust me, it is important that is has a face, and you need to be talking out loud, even if it's just a whisper.

[riddlerosehearts]

🐍 Thank you so much again for the thorough response! I love how much thought you put into Nico, it’s so easy to tell how much you love him hehe. And yes the snake is because Jamil’s my favourite character! They also have very boopable snouts in real life. Ignihyde is full of introverts who like to stay in their own rooms, but also full of nerds who are super into whatever they’re interested in. I bet there’d be at least one or two people who like Mythomagic there if it were canon in twst (1/4?)

🐍, nobody in PJO canon seemed to share his interest so I’d love for if Nico could discover friendship through his favourite card game and be happy there… but him feeling right at home in Ramshackle with a small number of residents is also just so him. Will also strikes me as someone who’d be in RSA instead, so Nico having some people he’d be willing to stay for in NRC would be so important for him to not feel lonely. Yuu and Grim to the rescue, I hope he likes cats. (2/?) 🐍 I’d give so much to see him feel accepted and brighten up a bit more.I’ll be honest I am super, super bad at making headcanons and writing so I really enjoy reading other people’s stuff far more, I always feel embarrassed about my own ideas or just can’t come up with much. BUT Leo in Ignihyde - I think he’d have a blast with all the technology lying around that he could play with and use for inventions, even if he’s weirded out by getting sorted into somewhere so gloomy-looking at first (3/?) 🐍He might not really get what other students are nerding out about like the latest anime though, he doesn’t strike me as the type to be super into shows and media (chronically offline). He’d have a lot of projects going on in his room all the time lying around that he keeps working on, but he starts more before he finishes them because he just has so many ideas. (4/?) 🐍 not sure how he’d interact with other Ignihyde students but I suuure hope Azul never notices all the cool stuff Leo’s making because he’d want to market them, stat. Leo’s not going to be good at reading those contracts down to the fine print. Also I know the curse is a Shroud family only thing but Leo + canon flame powers makes me so want to see him with fire hair as well haha. PLEASE do share if you have your own ideas about Leo in NRC, I’d love to hear them!! (5/5) 🐍Sorry about the multiple asks, I didn't know I'd write so much either 😭 I'm actually very okay if you want to chat abt it privately like over chat or Discord (so there's no word limit) but I'm ok sticking to asks as well if you prefer!

so before i reply to all of this i will say that there's actually a way to get around the silly 500-character limit in asks! it was removed ages ago in the app, but for some reason it's still in place on the website… unless you go to the dashboard view of someone's blog (so that'd be this link for my blog) and send an ask from there. that lets you send an ask with up to 4,096 characters. don't ask how i discovered that limit LMAO. but that should work so you can stay anonymous if you want!

i love nico a ridiculous amount lol, he was my favorite PJO character ever since i first read the original books. and even though i do have some issues with the sun and the star, i still love his development. it actually reminds me a lot of how idia, even though his anxiety definitely hasn't gone away, has been shown since the end of book 6 to be making more of an effort to put himself out there and try to be friendly with his classmates because he does want to have friends, he's just traumatized and scared.

you have excellent taste for jamil being your fave. i should post some of my thoughts about scarabia on here at some point because i like both jamil and kalim a lot and could talk for ages about how fascinated i am by their dynamic, but some people have the most shockingly bad takes about jamil 😭 do you have any thoughts on what PJO cabin he'd be in?

that's true, i did think about how ignihyde probably has some students who'd be into mythomagic or a twst equivalent of it! but then i thought that since nico is still kind of closed off and most people in ignihyde are so unsociable that even cater has claimed to not have a single friend from there, he might not manage to connect with those people before transferring out. although it also occurred to me that maybe if he and leo were there in ignihyde at the same time, things could be a bit different?

see, i've always thought there were a surprising amount of similarities between leo and nico but the books never called attention to them since the two basically never got to interact. and i wish they had, because i think they could have an interesting friendship if they got to know each other better! so maybe in this AU they could be friends, and leo could be there encouraging nico to stay and helping him understand the tech. i've also gotten myself kind of attached to the idea of him moving into ramshackle though! i guess either idea could work, as long as nico gets to be happy.

i haven't had a chance to ask my friend (who i've referred to as a will solace expert because she has so many headcanons and thoughts about him) where she thinks will would end up yet! i do think that if he somehow ended up at NRC, he'd be one of the few light magic users there.

"i hope he likes cats" reminds me that i always thought it would be funny if nico DID like cats but was allergic to them. and still just insisted on having one anyway. well, hey, grim is constantly telling us that he's NOT a cat, so maybe he gets around this problem lol.

omg i totally get the feeling of being embarassed about your ideas, anon!! for the longest time i used to not really post any of my own thoughts because i feel like i'm not very creative and it made me nervous. i'm also not always the best at just thinking up general headcanons and ideas unless i've got some sort of prompt or theme to go by. even now sometimes i post headcanons about my favorite twst ships and such while thinking, what if everyone who reads this hates it. what if someone thinks my interpretation of riddle is so bad that i don't deserve my url ASKFJGFD.

i like your ideas about leo, though!! i did think a bit about how he might be as an NRC student, and i also thought he'd definitely adjust better than nico would (makes a lot of sense that he'd be weirded out by the gloomy atmosphere initially, though) and would be fascinated and excited by all the magical technology and gadgets. i also figure that since he is someone who's always seeking out quiet and personal space to be alone and work on his projects, he wouldn't mind too much that the students tend to keep to themselves. and canonically he tries to be a lot more of a loud outgoing jokester than he really is in order to cover up his insecurities and try to make people like him, so maybe he could make some friends there without feeling like he has to do that.

i think leo made a few pop culture references in the books (one i remember for sure is star trek, though he says he doesn't like it) so maybe he wouldn't quite be chronically offline but he also wouldn't be obsessive about it, because his engineering projects are his top priority. he's definitely not a gamer, but i could see him liking to have background noise while he works sometimes and putting on whatever anime everyone is talking about! …which makes me imagine one of his dorm mates getting annoyed at him because he wasn't paying enough attention to remember their favorite background character from episode 679 of one piece, lol.

oh him meeting azul would be a disaster for SURE lol, let's hope idia warns him and that he doesn't have any unfortunate encounters with floyd and jade. and i'm not sure what a fitting explanation for leo having fire hair would be but i do agree that it would be extremely cool. and for that matter, i guess we'd also need an explanation for idia and ortho's hair if they were in the PJO universe… my first thought is they could either just have normal hair (boring, but it works) or maybe it's an extremely rare hades kid thing.

[1tsjusty0u]

screw it off anon. want to post turtles.

AAUUGGH im. in love with the little deku baba flowey...AND LYNEL TORIEL? LORIEL?? this au is so cute im dying. UM. UM have you played majoras mask cos...theres some guys in there that remind me a lot of papyrus and sans. AND THERES TURTLE ENEMIES IN A LINK TO THE PAST FOR GERSON!! AAA...AAAA ok. ok im normal now.

turtle.

ALSO.ALSO AUGH pre-calamity aus are so neat its like there's so little we know about that era so it's really fun to like expand upon the champions' dynamics with each other!! also so so so easy to dive into a worldbuilding abyss with it cos like we know just enough about pre-calamity hyrule to make a few inferences and go buck-wild

HELP. HE RESIGNS. GOD THATS. LITERALLY WHAT I HC HE'D DO IF HE COULD LIKE. YEAH. THATS SUCH A THING. HE'D TOTALLY RESIGN AND JUST RUN OFF INTO THE WOODS AS PER LINK TRADITION. UH. thats such a fun little thing to play around with

anyways ummmmmmmmmmmmmm you should talk about them . throws up I like all of them those are just kind of the ones I have something substantial to say about besides "I want to put them in a jar and shake them violently"

AUGJJT TNAKDYOU….. and ssort of!! so far i completed 2 dungeons (woodfall temple and snowhead temple) but thats about it! its good that you said that though because i was running out of ideas for sans and papyrus and almost just. had them have the same designs s they do in undertale.,..,. AUGRHRHT OUGH . TURETLE…………… i did not know turtle enemies existed (except for the ones in majoras mask i forgor abt!). i am holding him so gently……

YEAHYEAHYEAH EXACTLY!!!!!!! plus like. we can go into what couldve been forgotten over time if that makes sense? like. theres already a theme in botw of amnesia, literally with link and figuratively with the places. some once being important while being avoided or forgotten due to the calamity (temple of time botw), while others are barley mentioned at all but seem pretty important (the eighth heroine state and the other seven, plus the yigas hideout Being a gerudo archeological site originally, also the zonai ruins in botw though. that ones kind of a mess due to. totk and also iirc the majority people only thought it was important when the trailers for totk were coming out but thats off topic). we can basically go insane with what was forgotten, what was half forgotten (stories passed down for things that were Once true but now are no longer true and stories changing accordingly, like the pleiades star cluster being referred to as the 7 sisters when only 6 were visible and in a lot of the myths about them one of the sisters is missing, either dead or abducted or etc. there Are 7 stars though but they drifted so close together over time that they became undistinguishable to the naked eye, but there Was a time that 7 stars were visible separately! 100000 years ago), and stories that still exist! i think its interesting how so much has changed during the calamity to even before it with some ruins, and itd be worth it to explore it!! if i focus on it lmao i uh. yeah it depends on how i write this thing

EXACTLY!!!!!! hes growing up so fast,,,.,,,,

AUGH THHNAK YOU,…. i will talk about them more one day.. mayeb . when the time is right and the prophecy unfolds

[astronautbatman]

human target #1-6 thoughts

okay this is not getting read by anyone and this came out like 2 years ago but i really wanted to get some thoughts down.

first of all! the JLI timeline in this is somewhat confusing. ted and booster seem like theyre in their in the forties/maybe fifties for ted which seems about right, but tora and guy seem like theyre in their twenties/mid thirties at the latest? the age range isnt an issue by itself bc obviously the characters couldnt have all been the same age in JLI. but the way they talk about their days on the team together, it sounds like it happened a good few years ago so is the implication that tora was in her teens when this was happening? so then why does she look pretty much the same in the photos/flashbacks while ted especially looks a lot younger? and also they do mention her and fire being on multiple other superhero teams before they join the JLI like in the original run so how old was she supposed to be then ???

i feel like this issue is mostly because they wanted tora to be like this younger more innocent (or is she) woman to christopher guests middle-aged cynical man which is obviously a staple pairing in noir writing. but like … aside from the kindof weirdness that dynamic always brings, in this case it also confuses the story a bit. and it’s definitely a departure from the orignal JLI where her and bea are probably late twenties at the youngest when they join the JLI.

which brings me to one of the fundamental issues ive seen people have with this: tora’s character. she doesn’t really fit the femme fatale character but tom king keeps trying to force her into that role for the sake of the crime noir genre he’s going for and it just isn't working for me. more than (almost) anyone else she reads like a very different character than the one established in justice league international. instead of being generally quite open and honest, its implied shes trying to manipulate christopher guest with her feminine wiles (?) or something. which just seems like an odd fit for her character.

the only characterisation that i found more egregious was guy gardner (rip). it genuinely does feel like tom king had heard secondhand abt guys character, decided he was a bad guy (no pun intended) and wrote him to be that in this story. calling tora a bitch repeatedly, basically stalking her and christopher guest, overall just acting abusively towards her. i hate it! who let tom king near this man! never in my life have i seen such character assassination before. i never want to see the words ‘my little girl’ written on a page again.

i also did not really care for the way tom king wrote ted. his character in this can be simplified to just eccentric™️ businessman who talks too much. and is also the blue beetle. its not awful but i feel like it really misses what makes ted a fun character to read. like if you’re going to have so much text on each panel covering up greg smallwoods beautiful art then at least have him make a few jokes? i was also gonna talk about booster gold in this but its gotten wayyy too long so i’ll just say he feels like a bit of a caricature and he is saved only by greg smallwood’s ability to draw facial expressions.

saying all this, i actually have been enjoying this story. i dont understand why tom king didnt just make up a new superhero team à la watchmen and have the story been about them instead of using pre-existing characters whose personalities dont fit the genre. as a fan of raymond chandler’s books i actually think tom kings done a good job of blending the more serious noir influences with the superhero setting whilst still maintaining a consistent tone throughout. and the pacing is really good! it somehow manages to feel like a slow burn whilst having a lot happen over a few days. so its annoying that this story feels a little wasted on the justice league characters and vice versa.

anyways

i’m still kind of torn on this story and if i like it or not. i’m probably going to keep reading bc i’m invested now so if i do i might make a second post for issues #7-12. and greg smallwood’s art deserves its own post with examples so i might do that too when i’m finished with this.

[loserchildhotpants]

Get to know your fic writer asks please 18-22, 67, 39, 54

fic writer asks

18] Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Titles are my worst enemies. The answer to your question is that it depends on the fic. A monster of a fic i've been writing for a few months now [42k words today and abt halfway through] is STILL untitled, but my ficlet Lost in the Sauce (a food kink prompt fill) was named as I put the first few sentences down lol. What i CAN say is that i have NEVER named a fic BEFORE writing it. Vibes determine too much and i never know what the vibe is gonna be til i start writing slkdfj so i only ever title during or after, and if im unable to come up w something wholly original myself, i use song lyrics bc im basic. Usually tho i like titling my fics after some important or key piece of narration or dialogue from the fic itself, so that u can have that Dicaprio Meme Moment of pointing at your screen

19] What is your most used tag on your AO3?

It appears to be a tie between Mutual Pining and Love Confessions sdkjfhsd

20] Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

oh my fics definitely have recognizable patterns slkdjhffksjdh i think my writing style is a specific flavor and so if u open one of them up, u basically know what you're getting. not that that's a bad thing!

words/expressions -- idk! there's the obvious overuse of 'sigh' 'says' 'glances' -- stuff like that, but that's just the curse of writing so many interpersonal interactions lol tbh im unsure! if anyone wants to call me out on words or expressions i abuse in my fics pls let me know kjdsf

common settings: i am a canon-divergence lover so sets get reused all the time skdjfhsdlkj

themes: living, working through, or succumbing to grief, dealing w fear, finding forgiveness for past selves, reconciling who we are w who we thought we would be, generalized queer panic/denial and other identity crisis issues... uhh... i mean i also like to think im romantic tho sljkdfhsjkldfh

21] Would you ever collaborate with another writer for a story?

I have! This is a recent development! I don't usually collab bc i am fearful of Judgement sjkdfh like i get scared of what people will think of my writing process or how clunky or bad it sounds when it's just a draft -- i don't usually like anyone seeing what i'm writing until it's finished, but i've recently started collaborating a lot w majorly 2 of my friends : ) growth ✨

22] Are there certain types of writing you won't do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

hmmmmmmmmm. years ago i switched from writing Past Tense to Present Tense and i'll never go back lol i LOVE writing in Present Tense. i feel like it adds an element of tension and the feeling that the future is still v malleable.

i don't know that i could write something good in first person POV :T like, i don't have anything against first person POV, i just don't think that's where my skill set lies and my execution of it would probably be really bad and cringe skldjfhfjk lol so i probably won't do that

there's no genre i can think of that i'd be opposed to trying my hand at and that goes for tropes too. there's loads i haven't tried yet, mostly bc they don't like, independently spark inspiration in me, but if given a prompt for it, i'd probably try! there's lots of dead dove topics that'd probably be really fun to write and i just haven't tried yet bc i am Soft and tend towards pining and love confessions skdljfh lol

39] Share a snippet from a WIP

"“Oh — oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to — oh, I always muck this stuff up, that must have been so out of line, I’m so sorry —”

“Samuel,” she interjects gently, her voice practically a whisper, “I don’t know that I’ve ever met someone with a kinder heart. I don’t know that anyone has ever made such a well wish on my behalf. You’ve just startled me is all… you do that.”

Feeling that Rowena crying is very simply, unnaturally wrong, Sam stops resisting the compulsion to touch her and reaches with his free hand across his chest to swipe at the tear near the apple of her cheek.

The tips of his fingers on that hand come in contact with a lock of her hair and the outer shell of her ear, and he gets chills up his arms and back from that alone; Dean was right, he might spontaneously combust at anything more.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he says, though he thinks she already knows that, “I would never mean for that. I had rather hoped to make you smile.”

“You tread carefully now,” Rowena warns him, her lips twitching, eyes shining, “or I’ll steal you for myself, Samuel, like some terrible witch of the woods, and I won’t return you to whatever world you come from.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Sam confesses softly, smiling back at her.

For a thrilling moment, he sees Rowena’s eyes gentle, sees her consider him seriously, as if she might just be thinking of him the way he hopes beyond hope she might.

She goes to say something, but —"

54] What's your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

i just love looking at a blorbo and being like 'let's put that guy in a situation.' top tier writing experience. i love taking an established character and really thinking hard abt what i know abt them, whether i want them to grow or i wanna study who they are without forcing evolution, thinking abt how they'd navigate some circumstance or conflict, consider what has already been written for that circumstance or conflict in fandom, and what new interpretation, in my own style, i can bring to the table to offer something new and interesting. it's like taking a beloved recipe of something that can't fail, and just seeing what cool new thing ur own perspectives and styles can do w it!

67] Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

Sort of a mix of both? I love prompts, they send me on Brain Trains (destination: Dissociation Station) and the thing is, i usually stray from hard lines. like, i sometimes work off of being INSPIRED by a prompt rather than following the actual prompt? challenges sometimes scare me off bc once i have a Due By Date my brain will shut off creativity and get frightened lol i really love my independent ideas, but i have my best independent ideas while discussing prompts and challenges w other folks and spinning limbs off that original prompt or challenge until what i want to do is outside the guidelines of that prompt or challenge.

that said, i LOVE getting prompts from anons and stuff. there's something really flattering and happy-making abt someone popping into my inbox to be like 'i'd like to see YOUR specific take on this' ; u ;

anon thank u so much for sending me so many asks!! T A T <333

[thegradus2]

Well if you want me to keep going outside of tags ill gladly obige bc boy do i have so many THOUGHTS. These bitches are gonna be stuck on a space ship together for however long theres so much that can happen like for example:

- idk the character from miracle nikki obvs but what youve laid down is already so interesting bc im just imagining these 2 otherworldy beings (even if theyre human theyre still otherworldly ig xD) explaining what the deal is and suddenly the Trash Nobel cale henituse pipes asking actually useful questions like “is the culture different than ours?” And “do they speak the same language as us or do we have to learn a new one?”

- cale is mia for like three days, making the henituse worry frantically, before he shows up with aforementioned documents, books, pie-charts, graphs etc etc on the population, culture, language, etc. cale thinks its the most normal thing in the world and he tries to lock himself in his assigned room to work on it further. He is very surprised to find people not avoiding his existence

- eric is tasked with finding out what the fuck. Cale is like “its very simple really” and then rants for about 2 hours about how to do population analysis and what hes found earth is like “i mean i managed to do it when i was 8, its just that now im doing it based off actual numbers instead of novels and gossip” “what do you mean. Cale henituse, WHAT DO YOU MEAN.”

- alongside with finding a bunch of music, cale finds out abt earth fashion after a week and he tries out a different of clothing style every day: rocker chique, old money, new money, preppy, dark academia etc etc (“cale what… what are you wearing” “on earth they call this fashion aestheric ‘bratzcore’ and its very ‘trendy’. Apparently they show a lot more skin in south korea than in roan.”)

- cale likes carly rae jepsen

- i think the trash cale suddenly mellowing out and actually being friendly with the new people would freak people out. Lily takes it as a chance for her to get closer to cale herself, but basen is initially too shy and hes very jealous of aeon and marina. Cale is still under the impression that people dont like him (his trash act was superb after all) so hes very surprised when suddenly his siblings wanna hang out a bunch

- also idk if people can die on this ship but im sure that at some point people would try to kill eachother (cough, venion, cough). Cue murder mystery, cale solving it way too quickly and alver wanting cale to work for him rlly rlly badly (ive made another post sorr of like this but rehashing plots is my specialty LMAO)

- cale finds out about the earth hobby ‘bedrotting’ and is absolutely delighted. Eric and his family are incredibly worried that hes suddenly staying in bed all day and just looking at the ceiling after being active with his earth research for ~2 months. They think he is depressed. He isnt and has everything under control. (Hes totally depressed 💀)

- cale eventually decides to work with alver bc he thinks alver would be the best person to introduce their worlds’ population to the earth population when they arrive. They work on immigration plans together, like planning out housing matters, making korean language courses (especially for all the kids, no matter what class they were originally from), culture courses, actually maybe they just make a whole curriculum for people to distribute and learn. When alver asks how much korean cale knows, cale can already write whole sentences. Alver doesnt know why hes surprised at this point

- maybe some slowburn ogalbecale after they find they work together so well and them spending time together ;0

- Eric: “cale, this is an intervention. You made a whole personality for yourself, and youve insinuated that your alcoholism and anger issues were from a similarly crafted persona. Talk to us!” Cale: “I dont see the problem?? My friend alver over here has been doing the exact same thing so it cant be *that* concerning” Tasha: “…alver, this is an intervention-“

- concensus: YOU IDIOTS YOU CAN JUST BE YOURSELVES STOP TRYING TO ALTER YOURSELVES SO PEOPLE WILL PERCEIVE YOU A DIFFERENT WAY THATS MENTAL ILLNESS BEHAVIOR. ESPECIALLY YOU CALE GOD SO HELP ME…

- i have no idea if this would be bad worldbuilding but idc i had this thought where maybe even tho obvs their status doesnt mean much anymore (at most its just leftover social customs staying in place somewhat) everyone gets their own credit card with rhe amouny of money they had in their og world digitalized. The henituse go from completely neutral to the most powerful family (bc they have the most money). The crossmans also have a lot of money but alver knows his family is gonna have issues w him so hes extra relieved to have connections with cale

Ngl, the Ark of Miracle Nikki sounds like the perfect way to get characters transmigrate from a world to other.

I mean, imagine most people from TBOAH getting suddenly teleported into a massive (techno? magic? fashion inspiration fueled?) flying ship, which can travel through the space-time, because "your world is doomed because of an asshole. We're so sorry. Please feel free to use the facilities and rest until we arrive to your new home".

Besides, I would really like to have og!Cale befriend Aeon and Marina. They would get along, specially having in count that "new world" means their nobility is nothing. He wouldn't need to hide himself and they aren't from his world, so no precoinceived ideas.

Besides, Marina is a kid. Og!Cale would look at this cheerful lively kid and wouldn't be able to hold back his big brother instincts. "She's a lot like Lily when she was a toddler", he probably would think. (Because, yes, I headcanon that og!Cale spent a lot of time with Lily when no one was around and she was still "too young to remember". Lily isn't sure whether she dreamed it all or not)

And imagine Aeon introducing modern music to og!Cale. Og!Cale, who may had learned music when he was a kid (classic noble kid activity), liking many of these various styles of music, all so different from the elegant ones the noble likes and the vivid ones he heard at the streets and bars. Then Marina telling him that Aeon also writes songs, but warning him not to listen them in a way too serious tone (she's such a gremlin).

And between all that you still have the tboah characters aclimatizing to the idea of a new world, fixing relationships, and planning what to do now that their status mean shit (poor royal family. Ha.)

Just a transmigration story where the characters have time to talk with their family and adjust before being send to other world.

Maybe the world they're going to is the Soo's Earth. One that is on its way to recovery, but has way less population than before.

[northern-passage]

honestly you are so right abt the descriptions of ROs in IF. some of them will LITERALLY go like "omg they look like a supermodel". i cannot express how boring that is. it doesn't tell me anything about the character and their idiosyncrasies. and it's hard to wrap my head around the mental image of a cast who is supposed be so much hotter than everyone else in the world. like, my suspension of disbelief is being spread thin rn.

i agree abt comments on the MC being conventionally attractive as well. some of my MCs are decidedly NOT, and then the game tries to dispute me on it. lol

i also think all of this is harmful on a wider level bc it reinforces that 1) beauty is a scale and 2) everyone has to fit into beauty standards to be worthy. but most ppl arent ready for THAT conversation.

thank you :-) hope you dont mind me using this ask to share some more of my thoughts; i complained a lot about what i dislike without really giving any alternatives or examples of what i do like. obviously this is personal opinion and i am Not a professional, i’m just a hobby writer and i don’t intend for any of this to be word of god or anything like that, and my writing is far from "perfect," but this is kind of the baseline i use for myself and what i strive for, and maybe someone will find it useful.

first, to explain the big issue i really have, it is exactly what you said in your last point, about beauty standards. if i wanted to be generous when reading the "supermodel hot" description, i would say that "supermodel" could mean anything - particularly now, the modeling industry is far more diverse than it was in the 90s/early 00s. i could read "supermodel" and just infer that clearly this person is just meant to be very attractive, and that's all it's telling me. but really what is usually and truly meant by "supermodel hot" is skinny and conventionally attractive (adhering to eurocentric beauty standards and gender roles). "supermodel hot" is just a way of implying that without really saying it, because if you said that out loud it's a bit…. 😬

and it's just really boring. when i hear "supermodel hot" i envision a line of identical barbie/ken dolls, indistinguishable and grossly perfect. where is the pizzazz? where is the personality?

to be fair, this is not me saying you cannot describe someone as "supermodel hot" - like i said, supermodel can technically mean anything. but if you're going to do that, you need to give me something else, too, that tells me exactly what you mean by "supermodel hot."

so how do you do that?

my first bit of advice is both my favorite and most controversial…. show, don't tell. obviously my writing style leans heavily into elaborate descriptions and building atmosphere, but not everyone writes the same. however, when it comes to character descriptions, i still think this advice is solid, even if you have a less flowery style, because it’s not really just about detailed descriptions, it's about character design. the original post already talks about it, but essentially: Show me why this person is attractive, as opposed to just Telling me.

specifically for IF, (though context matters so this varies) but i would actually completely avoid describing someone outright as attractive, handsome, beautiful, etc. especially upon first introductions. the player is going to be the one to decide if this person is attractive - you don't need to tell them that. it's also going to be assumed that the player is aware what kind of game they're playing - they know this is an RO, you don't need to shove it down their throats by emphasizing how hot and amazing they are.

when i write a straightforward physical description, there are only two things i absolutely need to get across in their introduction: hair and skin tone. i actually prefer less detailed introductions, and find it more natural when the player discovers things organically through the text. you're not going to notice every little thing about a person when you first meet them!

what you do notice: hair, skin tone, any distinguishing features.

Lea has the beauty marks beneath their eye, and long, dark hair. Merry has her bandana, red hair, and she also has a tooth gap, and since she's smiling when you meet her, the hunter notices. Clementine has obnoxious clothes and curly hair. Noel has the gold hunter eyes, xir eye makeup, and xir locs.

in tnp, i do actually have a bit more of detailed introduction for everyone, because i can get away with it - their intros are pretty spread out, with Clem's in the prologue, and Merry's and Noel's in ch1. you already know Lea, so their features are peppered in throughout the prologue and ch1 - i try to avoid direct descriptions for any characters that have a pre-established relationship with the mc, because the mc already knows what that character looks like. i like to work it in for the player as they read. i would not do my intros this way if you met everyone at the same time - you want to avoid overwhelming the reader or confusing them with too many people at once.

just give them the distinct features.

Merry is a tall woman, though not as tall as Lea, with long auburn hair and tanned, freckled skin. She has a bandana covering her right eye, and when she smiles, you notice a charming little gap between her two front teeth. Noel, standing at her side, is shorter and larger than her, with dark brown skin and short, locked hair swept back out of his face, the gold in his eyes flashing against his white eyeliner as he glances between you and Lea. Clementine, the little bard, stands behind the both of them, wringing their hands and hiding behind their short brown curls. The ruffles of their dress are a stark white against their olive skin, and you can't help but be assaulted by their loud jacket, both in color and volume, bells sewn haphazardly into the fabric that sound softly with each little movement, giving away their nerves as they shrink back even more behind Noel.

this is a short snappy introduction. it gives a straightforward physical description of everyone, a quick mention of unique features, and with Clementine we also get a bit of their mannerisms right away. as the story progresses, and you get to know them more, you'll also notice more. personally, in real life, i do not notice eye color right away, unless someone has a very distinct eye color - this is something that you could include in first introductions, or mention later, in a one-on-one scene with the character where the mc notices it for the first time. Clementine's freckles, Merry's tattoos and scars, Noel's jewelry - that kind of thing can be slowly fed to the player over time. i also like to save the "curve of their lips" kind of stuff for more flirty/intimate scenes. there's no reason to comment on that when you're first meeting, especially in a tense situation where that would be the last thing on the hunter's mind - like i said, the player knows these are potential ROs, you don't need to force it. i also like having certain distinct, consistent features i bring up in those one-on-one/intimate scenes - i said before i tend to focus on Lea's and Noel's eyes, while i typically mention Clementine's curls or Merry's red hair and freckles. the more you get to know them, the more attractive those distinct features will become.

and the other important thing to remember is that it doesn't all have to be a clinical physical description. there are plenty of games i've played that actually have very little physical description, but each character has a very distinct Vibe. are they broody? are they bubbly? are they excitable? are they mischievous? how do they carry themselves? i describe Merry as commanding when you first meet her. Noel is graceful when xe comes in to heal you.

what are their little quirks? Lea always has a furrowed brow, or they're fidgeting with their thumb ring. Merry likes to smirk and tease and cross her arms. Clementine wrings their hands and pulls on their curls. Noel smiles softly, messes with xir locs, and will duck inside xir hood just like the hunter. you give them mannerisms, you give them charm, and people will find them attractive without you having to call them supermodels and imply some impossible standard. it will also make your characters more genuine and likable, as well as unique - these are not cardboard cutout supermodels, and by giving them unique features and emphasizing/romanticizing those features it will make them attractive in a more memorable way. and if you're lucky, it will force players to challenge beauty standards elsewhere. i want to wax poetic about how sexy i think Noel's stomach looks in tight leather armor, and the player is going to read it - a romantic description like that may challenge preconceived ideas that person may have about fat stomachs. this is also why i like to emphasize Lea's black eyes so much as well.

when it comes to the mc, i try to avoid having any of the ROs directly comment about anything physical, unless it's something that is fully established in game - like their scars, or the fact that they're a bit muscular from combat training/their lifestyle. i already explained that i don't think a character calling someone hot actually implies "conventional attractiveness," since beauty/attraction is subjective, so i think it would be silly to completely avoid those kinds of compliments. i think what's important is how you execute them.

Merry is always trying to look into the hunter's hood, and if you go and see her in the evening, she'll say she "likes seeing your face." it doesn't imply anything about how that face looks, if that makes sense. Noel does call the hunter attractive, but it's about their scars, something that is typically "unconventional" and again doesn't really imply anything about how the hunter looks - just that Noel thinks their scars make them attractive.

we already talked about the "you're so hot when you're mad" type of comment, but an example of that kind of compliment done Well that always comes to mind for me is Alistair in dragon age: origins, when he suddenly calls the warden beautiful in a quiet moment with just the two of them - he really means it, and it clearly doesn't really have anything to do with how the warden actually looks, but how he's feeling in that moment. it's always felt really authentic to me, like he just couldn't contain himself and has to blurt it out - as opposed to a forced, quippy one liner, or a sudden, obscenely sexual remark that just makes me cringe. (not that some of those scenes in origins don't also make me cringe. but we can't all be perfect all of the time….)

and i'm not trying to say all flirty/suggestive compliments are off the table - Merry and Clementine are the two characters that make more overtly sexual comments, and if that's fitting for the character, then go for it - there are plenty of moments where a playful, spicy comment does hit right, but don't overdo it. Merry is clearly the "no strings attached" love interest, but she isn't constantly talking about how she wants to fuck the hunter in all of their interactions. honestly.... it's weird, and can verge on sexual harassment if you do it too often and at inappropriate moments. but there's nothing wrong with showing sexual interest, and again, attraction is subjective - people do not have to be "conventionally attractive" to be desirable, no matter what society tries to tell you. it's not that people are "ugly", it's that society's beauty standards for what is "beautiful" are too narrow, limiting and unrealistic. (read this article from the original post)

so just in general, with the mc, my advice is to be mindful. you don't want to "default" them (typically as thin and white) when the mc can be anyone - you want to avoid implying anything that could alienate potential players (blushing, hair, etc). though there are games with more pre-set mcs, including personality as well as potentially physical appearance, like with tnp the hunter is always going to have scars and have at least a little visible muscle, so that's something to also keep in mind while making your character as a reader.

all of that to say, character design is important, the little things are important. don't just settle for "supermodel hot." give them something to work with! you want to actually make a character, not a boring, pretty doll.

sorry for the long post, i hope this is helpful to somebody, or at least interesting to read about, if you can decipher the rambling. i tend to jump on the chance to talk about this kind of thing, so thanks for the ask, even though you didn't ask for this at all. lol ❤

and of course, context matters, so this may not all be applicable to every game/story ever, and i don't intend to imply that any of this is the only Correct way. if you're writing a fast pace, spicey romance, it will be different! different styles, different settings, different tones, different vibes, it will all be different, and that's fine. variety is the spice of life :-) this is just how i approach character design, and it's what i like to see as a reader, and what i try to achieve as a writer.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

I LOVE your meta on how essek was the perfect asset and want to ask the follow-up question in your tags: how do you think it went down? The agreement between Essek and the Assembly? And I think the fandom was convinced Essek would be disposed of after the peace talks — how do you see his future if there was no intervention by the Mighty Nein in 97?

ruvi-muffin asked:

What are your specific thoughts abt how ludinus recruited essek??👀👀 oh Person who knows a surprising amount of spy stuff 🙏🙏🙏👀👀👀

Anonymous asked:

PLEASE share your specific thoughts about how Essek was recruited, I'm so intrigued!

Anonymous asked:

Hello yes i am very interested in these very specific thoughts about how Essek got recruited? All these things about how actual intelligence works/uses their assets/how that ties to Essek and the M9 is really interesting :D

Thank you all so much for asking me the specific question I wanted someone to ask. I had to write and rewrite this post a half-dozen times because I kept going off on tangents about other Cold War spy stories so trust me there’s plenty more where this came from.

For reference, my original post on what made Essek an ideal recruitment target and why the M9 were the ideal counter to it.

First off, this is all based on real-world intelligence ops and is only as relevant to the campaign as Matt Mercer cares to make it. Having said that *slams notebook on table* BUCKLE UP, KIDDOS.

There are two ways Essek may have been recruited: he approached the Assembly or the Assembly approached him. I think the Assembly approached him. Not to be too hard on the guy, but Essek said it himself: he’s kind of a coward. I can’t see him mustering up the nerve to take that first step. Plus his espionage seems to have focused specifically on the beacons rather than dunamancy as a whole; that sounds like the Assembly to me. The beacons specifically offer the prospect of immortality and the Cerberus mages are arrogant enough to assume they can figure out dunamancy themselves if they have a beacon in hand. There’s no way the Assembly haven’t been trying to beg, borrow, or steal those beacons for centuries. Essek may not have even been their first try - just the first that worked. 

Chronologically, Essek would have popped up on either the Assembly or the Augen Trust’s radar quite early as I assume they keep tabs on all powerful Dynasty mages. As they followed his career, the Assembly would have ID’d Essek as a perfect target for recruitment as a spy, and then further for ego-based recruitment. Recruitment for espionage is a slow process - even slower in a fantasy world where some races reasonably expect to live 500+ years. Many intelligence agencies will do a sort of light meet-and-greet just to start a file on various people who might years later be of interest. The Assembly would have cultivated Essek as an intelligence asset with the same degree of time and care - and using some of the same methods - that Trent used to turn the Blumenthal trio into assassins. 

If they followed a modern playbook, they would have made contact with Essek anywhere from 2 to 10 years before the theft - nothing underhanded. A Cerberus mage approaches him at a negotiation or conference and strikes up a conversation. Then it’s increasing “chance” encounters to get Essek familiar with the handler, play the “we’re both mages, really we’re on the same side” angle to earn enough sympathy & trust to start talking regularly. Once the channel’s open, the handler and asset meet and/or talk routinely while the handler assesses the target’s motives, weaknesses, and the possibility that they’re a double agent. 

Espionage proper then starts with small favors, acts Essek can rationalize as victimless or even helpful to the Dynasty. In this stage the handler is getting the asset comfortable with engaging in espionage. They reward the asset for what feels like minimal moral trespass. For Essek that would have been praising his research, encouraging avenues of investigation they knew the Dynasty had shut down. Having meetings with Ludinus plays right into the ego trip - the Head of the Assembly himself is taking the time to meet with him! The Assembly gets how important this work is! That keeps Essek isolated from Dynasty members who might convince him to take a step back and builds loyalty to the Assembly over the Dynasty.

Once an asset settles in, espionage becomes easier. Routines get established. Moral hurdles have been overcome. Now the asks get bigger and the rewards get sparser. The handler will suggest larger acts just to get the asset thinking about them, since the more they consider “just hypothetically” how to pull it off, the more likely it is they’ll do it. This is where the idea of stealing the beacons would get introduced (though of course it’s been the goal all along.) I’ll bet the Assembly hinted at all the study that could be done if they could just get to the beacons in person, constantly bemoaning the lack of access. By now Essek sees the Assembly as colleagues in arcane pursuits, kindred minds, unlike the boring, stuffy old mages of the Dynasty. Of course he could outwit the Dynasty’s security and get the beacons to the Assembly - he’s a prodigy, a genius, everyone says so. And it’s not like he was stealing all of them. The consecuted would be fine. Everyone would be fine.

None of this is intended to absolve Essek of personal responsibility. But it provides a context for his actions, and for why he might regret them so much even though he apparently did them willingly. Asset handlers are very, very good at drawing someone willing to commit minor transgressions into far greater crimes. Look at how Trent shaped Caleb, Astrid, and Eadwulf. He didn’t order them to execute their own parents on day one. He spent years coaxing, tempting, and coercing them into darker and darker crimes, letting them rationalize their own actions at each step, preying on the same vulnerabilities as Essek: isolation (separating the three from other students, telling them their work was secret), ambition (the promise of great arcane power, of shaping the Empire’s destiny), and ego (”we were going to keep the empire safe,” telling them they were gifted, they were chosen).

So how do IRL spies rationalize their actions? Those who spy for reasons of conscience or ideology have done the rationalizing ahead of time, but everyone else has to get there somehow. Some who spy for revenge tell themselves it’s what their superiors deserve, while others tell themselves everyone’s doing it. Some just need a lie to get started (most commonly about who they’re spying for), while others have to keep up the charade all along. Let’s look at a few cases similar to Essek’s that demonstrate just how slippery the slope can be.

Aldrich Ames, a long-term CIA officer slash double agent for the KGB, got suckered in by thinking he could control the situation and wasn’t really hurting anyone. Ames had chronic financial trouble related to excessive drinking & his wife’s lavish lifestyle and in 1985 came up with a plan: he would essentially con the KGB by selling them a minor amount of classified info that he deemed “virtually worthless.” In April he set up the exchange and the KGB paid him $50,000, enough to satisfy his immediate debts. But after actually doing it Ames said he felt he’d now crossed a line he couldn’t step back from, and continued to sell information to the Soviets. By the time he was caught he had, by his own admission, compromised “virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA.”

While some assets just need a lie to get started, others require a delicate dance of self-delusion. Col. George Trofimoff was an Army officer who ran the center where would-be Soviet defectors were assessed & questioned. Trofimoff, a Russian émigré at a young age, was chronically in debt. In 1969 he renewed his acquaintance with his stepbrother back in Russia, now a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church, and began to pass secrets in return for money - but he and his stepbrother never framed the transactions as such. Trofimoff described their meetings as, “very informal. ... First, it was just a conversation between the two of us. He would ask my opinion on this and that--then, he would maybe ask me, 'Well, what does your unit think about it?' Or, 'What does the American government think about it?’” His compensation was similarly informal: “I said I needed money. ... And he says, 'I tell you what, I'll loan it to you.' So he gave me, I think, 5,000 marks and then, it wasn't enough, because I needed more. ... Then he says, 'Well, you know, I'll tell you what. You don't owe me any money. And if you need some more, I can give you some more. Don't worry about it. You're going to have to have a few things, this and that.' And this is how it started.” Trofimoff could pretend to himself that he wasn’t really spying - just having a chat with his stepbrother - and wasn’t really getting paid for it - just borrowing a little money.

This got longer than I intended it to be and there’s still plenty to talk about, so I’ll save the rest for a second post. Next time: what happens long-term to espionage assets? And what happens if an asset regrets their actions and/or attempts to cut off contact with their handlers?

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

[handsmotif]

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors. 

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out. 

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis. 

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

[lgbtqlegends]

ava has to flirt with someone for a mission and at first sara’s like ‘please i’m total chill’ but turns out she isn’t chill AT ALL and really bothers her in a 🔪🔪 way

ooo nice!! thanks for the ask n hope you enjoy!! okay so we're actually gonna do 2 different versions of headcanons for this ask, bc we both had the exact same thoughts regarding the scenario, so we just decided that i'd write them both :)

VERSION 1

-so,,, ava has to flirt with someone for a mission, and sara's like "pssh yeah it's totally fine, i'm chill. in fact chill is my middle name"

-but then sara's watching them flirt, and maybe the other person's being overly touchy-feely, and sara's insecurities about being enough/being what ava needs kinda flare up

-she gets a bit like restless and antsy, and even though she knows the flirting is fake, she just can't stop the little voice in her head from telling her that maybe ava would be better off with someone else

-part of her wants to go over n like kiss ava right in front of the other person, just to make sure they know that they don't have a chance, but she knows she can't do that without breaking their cover and ruining the mission

-the more she watches the more restless she gets, until she bolts out of the bar or w/e they are because she just needs to like get some fresh air and cool down before she has the chance to do something she knows she'll regret

-ava sees her leave and she wants to go after her so bad but she can't yet, so the minute her part in the mission is over, she goes to find sara to make sure she's alright

-sara's still outside getting fresh air, and they have a brief conversation (which they continue later once they're alone in their room on the waverider) and they try to like,, sort everything out as much as they can for the time being until they have more time alone

-sara's still a little restless even after they talk, so before they have to focus on the mission again, ava takes a minute to pull sara into a hug and like rub her arms up and down to try to help her relax a bit

-(later once they're alone, ava quells sara's insecurities with actions rather than words, and she shows sara just how much she loves and wants Her)

VERSION 2

-okay so both mod choco and i really liked the original request idea, but we also both love poly!legends/poly!sara headcanons, so we were like "but wait sara probably Would actually be chill about it" so,, here's where this version comes in (she's still Not Chill abt something, it's just not the actual flirting part)

-so ava has to flirt with someone on a mission, and sara's completely chill abt that part and it doesn't bother her or anything

-but the person ava has to flirt with turns out to be a total super big douche, and that's the part that sara is very much Not Chill about

-she tenses up and gets restless, waiting for the person to make one wrong move so that she can get up and fight

-as soon as the asshole grabs ava's arm, sara is seeing red and she's already up out of her seat and across the bar ready to throw hands within a matter of seconds

-everyone in their general vicinity can see the fury in sara's eyes and can tell that she's a force to be reckoned with, so they all kinda steer clear and step back out of the way (except for the asshole who doesn't know who they're up against and ava, who knows that she's safe and that sara's not gonna hurt her)

-sara May Have gone off and went a little overboard with the beatdown she gives, so when it gets a bit too much, ava gently pulls her away and out of the bar to get some fresh air

-sara's like shaking with rage and she's still seeing red, so ava gently pushes her to lean back against the cool bricks and then places a hand over sara's chest n rubs her shoulder to try to get her to take deep breaths

-once sara stops seeing red, she lets out a shaky breath and then steps closer to ava, and ava just pulls her into a hug and rubs her back to try to help her calm down more

-once the mission is over and they're alone in their room, sara is still feeling a little restless, so ava helps her get rid of the extra energy, first with a short workout and then with sex, bc those are 2 tried n true methods of helping sara release energy

[seerofmike]

The Writing In Apex Kinda Sucks And Also They Use Ship Bait As A Plot Device I Hate It Here

a stupid essay/rant encouraged by @zombiegloss that originally started as a youtube video script so if its like. weird at points. this was intended to be a verbal rant SNZISKSIA

basically i'm gonna talk abt the caustic-wattson-crypto relationship drama and how i think it was mishandled and how much the writers kind of Suck because i Can

you are free to disagree with me on any of my points and think that this aspect of the story was handled well, this is just my opinion, and i'd love to hear your thoughts and counterpoints !

first, addressing some things:

i know this is a battle royale and not necessarily a story-based game, so i can’t expect it to have masterful witcher-style writing.

but with the direction the game seems to be going; putting quests, evolving interactions, and comics in the game, plus coming out with a lore book and hinting at something bigger in the future, i think it’s fair to criticize it for lackluster writing, especially since what i’m criticizing has been something present since Apex’s story technically began.

secondly, i am not a professional writer. i’m a high schooler who writes as a hobby. i don’t have the decades of experience that some of the apex writers do, and i can’t claim to be a better writer than they are--but i also don’t have to be a five-star chef to realize that something tastes bad. when i critique something and give suggestions, i am not saying i could’ve done it better. i’m just bringing up what i think could have worked.

third, before i upset anyone , when i say a relationship is badly written, i’m not telling you that you can’t ship it or that your ship sucks. i’ll briefly touch on the shipping aspect of this and how it’s a detriment to the story but Ye

okay, so with that out of the way, let us Begin

relationships are often the emotional core of a story, and how strong your reaction is to conflict in these relationships depends on how the story sets them up. if you want the audience to care about these characters and what they go through, you need to develop them and establish the type of relationship they have well. it’s why so many people cried in the last episode of telltale’s the walking dead. you’ve spent roughly 12 hours bonding with clementine and protecting her, and your relationship with her is part of several story beats as well as character beats for lee. 

when these two characters’ relationship reaches its peak at the end of the game, it’s powerful, and it’s emotional. you care. you feel something, and the fact that you have to choose what to do to lee only makes it more gut-wrenching. 

now, the walking dead is entirely story-based and especially character-driven, so it may be unfair to compare it to apex, but i just wanted to lay the groundwork down for what i think is a strong relationship that makes you feel something when conflict arrives, in this case the conflict being lee getting bit and clementine having to decide his fate.

the broken ghost in general is kind of not-good sometimes, tom casiello previously wrote for soap operas and you can really, REALLY tell sometimes.

this story feels like it should’ve taken place a little later, and that we should’ve had a season to actually set up the characters and their relationships, but that’s a story for another day.

to put it bluntly, the set-up for the crypto, wattson, and caustic conflict is done poorly. for caustic and wattson's relationship it’s a little better, but not by much. 

wattson and caustic having a relationship was hinted at in season 2, when her lore indicated that caustic was among one of the Legends who comforted her after her father died. In season four lore materials posted on Twitter, an email from Jacob Young states that Caustic is acting paternal towards Wattson. In season five, interactions get added to the Game, and this is the first time we actually see their relationship in action, as they have unique revive voice lines for each other. in the quests, when wattson is injured, caustic lashes out at loba and attacks her out of what seems to be anger at wattson’s current state.

Side Note this plot point was really stupid and done for cheap drama because she literally wakes up like two chapters later and they don’t even give her anything to say it’s just suddenly oh yeah crypto and wattson are working together. the same exact injury thing happens to octane later but nobody gIVES A SHIT because again, it’s just cheap soap opera drama.

their relationship might seem a little bit sudden for anyone who wasn’t on top of twitter lore drops, but like, it’s okay, i guess. i’ll give it the slightest credit for at least establishing something between the two in terms of voice lines and stuff, even if for some it might seem like it came out of nowhere.

what did come out of nowhere, though, was crypto and wattson’s friendship. in the quests, crypto and wattson are tasked with rebuilding the broken ghost because of their respective skills, and they’re seen talking in chapter six while they work on it. we’re not really given a clear timeline on how long the story in the broken ghost is, but i think it takes about a week, maybe.

unlike wattson and caustic, their relationship has been given absolutely zero material to work with before now, not even a passing glance in the trailers--which is a little weird considering crypto took down the repulsor tower and destroyed wattson’s home, but. Whatever.

tl dr of the chapter: crypto and wattson talk to each other while doing nerd shit, crypto laughs at wattson’s bad pun, and then suddenly they’re BESTIEEEES, until a couple dozen lines later in the same chapter. then they’re Not.

crypto’s drone gets hacked by revenant while everyone was kind of on edge after the reveal of a spy in their midst, he gets framed as the spy by caustic, anddddd wattson gets upset.

before i get into how dumb this storyline is, i’m gonna talk about the set-up to this conflict.

we have been given no reason to believe that these characters have ever talked to each other, and quite frankly, their friendship doesn’t really make sense.

ignoring the fact that crypto destroyed wattson’s home--which she probably doesn’t know about, so that’s forgiven for now--crypto is a paranoid guy. in the lore book he makes people stand on fucking footprints in his house so he can scan them for weapons and listening devices, and he apparently doesn’t stick around much after the games and nobody knows anything about him because he doesn’t talk to them.

a key part of crypto’s story is the fact that he is undercover and afraid of anyone finding out anything about him ever. him becoming friends with wattson kind of comes out of the blue, and we’re not even given a reason as to why they supposedly became close in the first place. i would kind of understand if like, maybe he draws parallels with her and mila in his mind and it makes him open up a little more, but that doesn’t happen. he just laughs at her joke and suddenly they’re friends.

maybe they’re trying to go for this ‘wattson can become friends with anybody’ angle, kind of hinted at with caustic but not really we’ll get into that, but that also? kind of doesn’t make sense since so many of her voice lines straight-up say she doesn’t understand people and electricity is more her thing, but honestly, she also does have those really friendly elements in her voice lines too, so its not as egregious as what they did with crypto.

their sudden out-of-the-blue friendship would’ve been fine if they spent a little more time fleshing it out, and giving us something to work with, but instead, the story immediately tries to rip it apart and frame it as this grand conflict where crypto is framed as the mole, crypto then accuses caustic, and wattson feels betrayed.

except it doesn’t really work, because we don’t give a shit. for several reasons. 

one: crypto and wattson became friends and then ended their friendship in the same exact chapter. they did not speak to each other onscreen until this chapter began, you can read the entire quest on the wiki and see for yourself that their interactions up until that point were nonexistent aside from mentions in the narration that they were building something together.

the reason wattson feels betrayed is kind of stupid too. why does she really care that much if one of them betrayed loba? nobody else really cared about the fact that one of them was a spy, in fact, nobody even seems to like loba that much, and they just found out that loba’s been lying to them this whole time, and wattson was conscious for that conversation and had a speaking line, so she’s fully aware of the situation. 

maybe it’s just like, the idea that one of them lied, but that’s still kind of a weak reason. 

this entire betrayal thing is just dumb, and it gets even worse when you realize that there could have been an actual legitimate reason for wattson to feel betrayed by crypto--even if it still would’ve come across as weak conflict because of their newly established friendship, it would’ve made more sense than this. 

Crypto destroyed Wattson’s home. He took down the tower and then all the flyers and stuff invaded Kings Canyon and made it their bitch. Not only that, but Wattson considers the Syndicate her family. The Syndicate are the very people who framed Crypto for murder and he’s trying to take them down. 

They could’ve set up actual conflict with these things, and it almost seemed like they would, because Caustic briefly brings up that Crypto could be working with Revenant because he has something against the Syndicate but then that doesn’t really go anywhere and we’re just back to Wattson feeling betrayed because either Crypto or Caustic was a spy and she doesn’t know who.

Weak conflict could’ve been made better by a strong relationship and a weak relationship could’ve still been interesting with strong conflict, but both the relationship between Crypto and Wattson and the conflict that drives them splitting up as friends were really weak and didn’t make much sense. 

It would’ve been ten times more interesting if Wattson found out Crypto ruined her home, the arena she grew up in, and was now participating in the Games to take out the people she regards as her family. That’s where her distrust could’ve manifested and conflict could’ve began, but instead it was the stupid betraying loba thing. why do you care. you just started talking to this guy like 2 hours ago.

also caustic’s whole reason for framing crypto feels stupid as fuck. he didn’t just frame crypto randomly, he framed him specifically because he doesn't want him to influence wattsob because he likes her Big Brain, but this is the FIRST time we have seen those two interact. 

what influence is he talking about? wraith and wattson have been shown to be friendly with each other in the trailers, according to tom’s tweets, and in the story too so why doesn’t he frame her? at this point the audience had slightly more build-up for those two’s relationship than crypto and wattson and a betrayal storyline would’ve felt a little more deserved if still weak.

this is the point where i briefly want to touch upon shipping, and the fact that part of this conflict feels driven by shipbait. 

aside from their relationship coming out of nowhere and the writers trying to make the stakes seem high and deeply emotional to the characters involved (despite this essentially being the first time they’ve ever interacted) tom casiello literally addresses shippers in a tweet regarding chapter seven, and as the story between these characters progresses, it becomes clear to me, at least that the crypto-wattson thing is just bait for shippers, and it’s lazy. 

it’s easy to get away with giving your characters little to no relationship development if you’re just counting on shippers to do the heavy mental lifting for you

why should i put any effort into making this relationship seem believable? people are going to see a young guy and a young girl having bare minimum interaction and assume there’s romantic interest! then i don’t have to do any work, see look, it’s a ready-made relationship wrapped in a bow for me! all that’s left for me to do is give them conflict so i can keep teasing shippers with lines like ‘you never deserved her’!

i think it’s reasonable for me to suspect shipbait, since tom casiello likes doing darksparks shipbait on twitter, and i’m like, eighty percent sure mirage and bloodhound suddenly being childhood friends in the book is shipbait too, because these characters were the number one ship in apex for a long time despite little to no interaction, and then all of a sudden in the lore book they’re childhood friends despite this literally never being mentioned before?

like bloodhound is set up to be mysterious and nobody knows what they look like, or where they’re from, or who their family is--except for mirage Apparently, who played with them when he was a kid on their home planet, and has seen them with their mask off, because bloodhound did not wear a mask when their parents were still alive.

its weird.

i’m pretty sure they’ve said somewhere they were working on this book before apex even came out, so i could just be completely wrong and they always planned for mirage and bloodhound to know each other, but if that’s the case, why did they never mention it like they did octane and lifeline?

i refuse to believe MIRAGE never brought it up either like ‘heeeeyy bloodhound remember when we used to throw eggs at our parents lab haha wanna go do to that to bangalore’s room’ 

[silence]

‘good talk buddy’

ANYWAYS I GOT OFF TOPIC. POINT IS, shipping is a detriment to the story because the writers don’t feel like they actually have to put any work into establishing or developing the relationship between characters when they know the community’s just going to do it for them anyways, and that they can put in shipbait and it’s fine and it makes sense when it really doesn’t.

imagine watching captain america civil war after not seeing a single other marvel movie.

why would you care about the avengers splitting up or tony and steve butting heads or steve’s commitment to bucky? you wouldn’t care, at least not as much as someone who’s seen all the movies and knows the relationship between the characters and why the sokovia accords exist in the first place. you don’t have context and you don’t have any reason to be emotionally invested in these characters’ relationship.

 this feels like that. the writers tried to squeeze this relationship and stuff into a single chapter and we don’t fucking care unless we were already invested in the idea of their relationship (shippers) because we barely spent any time with it.

so to summarize this little section, the set-up of this storyline Kinda Sucks! crypto and wattson barely seem to know each other, because we the audience barely saw them together and the writers are relying on shipbait in place of a relationship.

wattson and caustic are a little better but not great, but the conflict is stupid and it only gets stupider.

moving onto summarizing the rest of the broken ghost, gibraltar and caustic talk, caustic LITERALLY confesses to being the mole and says he framed crypto so he couldn’t corrupt wattson and to appear innocent because his identity was suspected, then that wraps up the season storyline.

season six begins with new voice lines, where wattson has had enough of crypto and caustic’s shit and is all passive-aggressive and going ‘this doesn’t change anything’. she has to decide who to trust, and how to figure out The Truth for herself because she’s not a little girl anymore. crypto and caustic are both trying to convince her they’re innocent and it creates some interesting conflict.

just kidding. it’s terrible conflict. you want to know why?

BECAUSE GIBRALTAR TRIED TO TELL HER THE TRUTH, RIGHT AFTER THE SEASON 5 QUEST HAPPENED, AND SHE LITERALLY REFUSED TO HEAR IT.

LIKE THERE’S A SEASON 6 LOADING SCREEN WHERE HE’S TELLING EVERYONE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED, AND WHEN HE GETS TO WATTSON AND IS LIKE HEY I KNOW WHO THE MOLE WAS AND WHY THEY DID IT, SHE JUST GOES i dont wanna hear it. i need to think

IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH WHY ARE YOU REFUSING TO HEAR IT

SHE SPENDS ALMOST TWO ENTIRE SEASONS MAD AT CRYPTO FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO BECAUSE SHE TOLD GIBRALTAR TO FUCK OFF WHEN HE TRIED TO TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED

ITS SO DUMB

i think it was towards the end of season 6 or the beginning of season 7 where apex posted this picture of wattson asleep at her desk where she has a letter from gibraltar on it that looks like it tells her the truth, so she knows now, she knows what happened, but NOW her issue is the fact that she doesn’t know anything about crypto.

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT IS YOUR GODDAMN DAMAGE. YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT BLOODHOUND EITHER ARE YOU THIS UPSET WITH BLOODHOUND TOO?? HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO PATHFINDER. DO YOU HATE PATHFINDER TOO

oh but she was friends with crypto and now she’s mad that he lied to her EXCEPT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WASN’T BUILT UP WELL SO IT JUST FEELS STUPID. THEY SPENT LONGER BEING NOT-FRIENDS THAN THEY SPENT BEING FRIENDS. THEY BECAME FRIENDS IN ONE CHAPTER AND THEN IMMEDIATELY AT THE END OF THAT CHAPTER THEIR FRIENDSHIP ENDED AND THEN WATTSON SPENT LIKE 2 SEASONS MAD AT HIM FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO . 

AND THE WRITERS TRIED TO RECTIFY THIS BY SAYING OH SHE’S NOT MAD ABOUT THE TRAITOR THING SHE’S MAD BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM AND IT’S LIKE WHY THE FUCK DID YOU NOT MAKE THAT CLEAR WHY DOES SHE SAY ‘IT DOESN’T CHANGE WHAT YOU DID’ IN HER VOICE LINES WHY DOES SHE CALL HIM A TRAITOR IF HER CONFLICT WAS HER NOT KNOWING MUCH ABOUT HIM . WHAT DID HE DO. 

HE JUST STOOD THERE AND LAUGHED AT HER JOKE AND THEN HE GOT FRAMED AND THEN THAT WAS THE END OF THE CHAPTER AND NOW SHES SUDDENLY LIKE IM ACTUALLY MAD BECAUSE YOURE A LIAR AND I CANT TRUST YOU EVEN THOUGH I NOW KNOW YOU WERE FRAMED I STILL DO NOT LIKE YOU AND HES LIKE YEAH THATS MY FAULT

The Caustic voicelines are stupid too, again his reason for framing Crypto was stupid and a lot of his voicelines just seem to be that shipbait thing again but like from the angle of overprotective dad who doesn’t like the new boyfriend. it’s stupid but not as egeregious as this next part which is

crypto telling wattson his identity.

CRYPTO was framed for MURDER and is paranoid and can’t trust anyone and doesn’t talk to anyone and the last time he did talk to someone he got framed for Another thing and the person he was talking to turned her back on him and actively refused to know the truth for like 2 seasons and then he went This Is Fine I Can Tell Her My Identity

the stupidest update to this storyline was crypto telling wattson the truth

why did they do it on the dropship where there are presumably syndicate members and other legends around.

why didn’t he scan wattson for listening devices like he did for pathfinder in the book.

why is he telling her his identity when he knows she has very close ties to the people that FRAMED HIM for MURDER. Does he trust her that much? WHY? They spoke to each other in a chapter and then spent two seasons not talking to each other beyond passive-aggressive BS. why are you so fucking stupid taejoon

their relationship was so poorly set-up that even if the writers maybe intended for them to come across as close friends who had spent weeks bonding, it really feels like they became friends in a single conversation, had a falling out, and now crypto suddenly trusts her with his identity after an undetermined amount of time because he wants to be friends again. 

that does not make SENSE this conflict feels contrived AS FUCK and the resolution feels even worse and unearned UGGGHHHH

it honestly comes across as crypto feeling desperate for friendship, and maybe this would’ve worked better if that’s the angle they played it as.

he’s been alone for roughly two years, and just wants a friend, and he’s honestly so lonely he just breaks down to the first person who’s really talked to him. it could’ve been an interesting little part of his character, and they could've gone into depth about how much this situation has affected him, but that’s not what they’re doing. he’s still paranoid and anxious and doesn’t trust anyone, except for wattson, because the plot needs him to or else there won’t be any stupid soap opera drama.

and to rub salt in the wound, wattson’s new voice lines with caustic have him telling her that she forgave crypto.

WHAT ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR. ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR BEING FRAMED? WHY DID HE HAVE TO APOLOGIZE TO YOU WHEN YOU WERE THE ONE WHO REFUSED TO HEAR THE TRUTH?

 did the conversation just go hey my real name is taejoon park and something bad happened to me and she went aight i forgive you WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

Caustic’s new voice lines to Crypto where he’s like ‘what did you tell her’--YOU TOLD GIBRALTAR STRAIGHT-UP YOUR EVIL MASTER PLAN LIKE A SUPERVILLAIN AND NOW YOU’RE SURPRISED WATTSON AND CRYPTO ARE ON GOOD TERMS NOW?!

THAT’S LIKE TELLING SOMEONE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND THEN BEING SURPRISED WHEN YOU BECOME THE VICTIM OF IDENTITY FRAUD. YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR THIS WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE CRYPTO DID SOMETHING SINISTER OR LIED OR WHATEVER. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY DO YOU HAVE LIKE 3 BRAINCELLS

this is at like ten pages already so i’m going to just try and wrap this up quickly. 

it’s frustrating seeing this storyline play out when there are actually good relationships and storylines written into apex. i’m kind of getting tired of the loba and revenant conflict, but we at least had set-up to it in the form of a few animated shorts and it doesn’t play out as stupidly as this story does. bangalore and loba’s friendship is actually developed well, even if the point between the end of season 5 and season 6 where they suddenly talk like each other feels like it could’ve used a little more. 

where crypto and wattson having an established friendship in the broken ghost failed, lifeline and octane’s established friendship works because we’ve been told since octane’s release they were childhood friends and given lore materials that indicate they’ve known each other for a very long time.

apex wants this storyline between crypto and wattson and caustic to feel dramatic and tense and ultimately rewarding when crypto and wattson did become friends for real and stuff, but instead it just comes across as hollow and empty. 

there’s nothing there. it’s a case of tell, don’t show, and it looks like this stupid conflict is gonna keep going for another couple of seasons at this rate. 

side note: this entire script was written before the new twitter comics

please tell me ur thoughts and feel free to respond with ur own lil essay

also believe it or not this is not the "shipping is a detriment to apex's story" essay i was gonna write this is a completely different essay that has some overlap SKXISOSOW