#probably my villain origin story

[starry-bi-sky]

yall ever think Shen Yuan went through like, internet withdrawal after being transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu? Like, he's canonically a NEET shut-in who did nothing but spend his time online, you can't tell me that for the first week or first few weeks of being SQQ he wasn't twitchy.

Like, reaching instinctively to his pockets for a phone that wasn't there, having an obsessive itch in the back of his mind that he should check and see if X or Y novel or webcomic has updated -- only to realize he can't anymore and being irritated by it. Wanting to go and see if there's new posts about this or that, but again realizing that he can't.

When he's bored or uncomfortable or just feels like wanting to escape he tries to go for his phone to distract himself, but oops! Not there anymore, and now he has to find a new and different way to distract himself from his feelings. And going through system notifications, quests, etc only does so much.

And there's that Tetris Effect too. SQQ makes a mistake while writing and instinctively goes to backspace on it except hey-ho that's not a keyboard and now he just dipped his pinkie into a bottle of ink or on a still-drying letter.

With him scrambling to fix his reputation and learn how to be a peak lord, I think his abrupt cold-turkey from all things internet would just be another straw on the camel's back that he promptly Ignores until it goes away on its own after he acclimates to his new surroundings.

[protect-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[jjinpang]

※read right to left

Old roughs of the start of a P5 fan comic of “how I thought it was gonna end” I drew well before the royal came out

[transmasc-rose]

RULES: make a poll with 5 of your all-time favorite characters and then tag 5 people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite! (tagged by @seaweedstarshine)

Tagging (don't worry if you don't want to/have done it already!): @transgenderdoctorwhomst @27-27-gruff-triplets @quietwingsinthesky @lost-tardis-room @a-shard-of-quartz-lol

[batsplat]

if more people knew Herstory (aka 2004 season and sete&vale) so many questions wrt 2015 season(mostly “why would vale….”) would immediately be answered addfghjk like guysssss guyssssss

it is kinda funny that there's a simple cheat code out there to understanding most of valentino's career but it's just about long enough ago that most people simply... ignore it. like there's a three year span that more or less tells you what you need to know about him. it's like you say! pretty much every possible "why would vale..." secretly has a straightforward answer, and 9/10 it's something that was established in 2003 to 2005. simple as

if anything it's almost annoying because it's too easy. the 2004/2015 stuff in particular is incredibly funny. oh, so you say you have a controversial last lap at assen where valentino beat a rival in direct combat and said rival reacted surprisingly poorly, making valentino reevaluate his relationship with the rival? might that tell you something about how a seed of suspicion once sown can remain dormant for months until valentino is given cause to revisit it? valentino quite literally says in his biography that he could never have hated biaggi because he wasn't a friend and didn't have the power to hurt him... the sepang pressers thing is genuinely just silly, I know this is mainly a function of when they happen in the calendar but what a bizarre coincidence. 2015 is like a slightly more opaque funhouse mirror version of 2004 - but so many of the major beats are virtually identical. which means you've got a season Out There where a younger less experienced less guarded less cynical valentino basically walks you through his internal processes so you get a really good handle of what his deal is. he's piecing together his identity as a competitor going forwards in real time - and then in 2015 he just reminds you of what exactly that identity involves. it's a reaffirmation and not a departure... he's not that inscrutable after all, in the end

[lunanoc]

when i get done with the zhh drama you best believe there's gonna be a long organized explanation of why i have beef with it because the bastardization of the zhang family lore especially is a crime actually

[byleahgracie]

My two oc's, Freyjr and Kharhad 🥹from one of my original stories that I'm actually running a poll on whether i should write it or another story first go vote now!

The story starts on an island empire, a melting pot inspired by Mediterranean cultures. Kharhad is crown prince of the current royal line, while Freyjr is the daughter of a northern admiral who now serves Kharhad's family. She and her family hail from a northern country heavily inspired by Scandinavian Vikings.

Due to a recent but long history of war between the island empire and this northern country in particular, many who are aware of Kharhad's intense crush on Freyjr are quite disapproving of the potential match, as those of northern descent are often mistrusted or disliked in the island empire.

Kharhad is a beefy nerd who drinks his "respect women" juice daily--and is quite the catch, if only he could stop acting completely awkward and shy and like a bumbling buffoon around Freyjr, maybe she'd notice that he's totally in love with her😭 (she does actually kinda know haha he's not exactly subtle with his feelings 😉). I'd say he has the energy of a himbo but he is probably too academic to qualify as one technically speaking 🤔

They're two of the main POV characters in the novel. The other two are Phasmus, Kharhad's best friend, and Princess Mhessa, Kharhad's younger sister who covets everything her brother has and wishes were hers: His status as heir to the islands, how well liked and respected he is among their peers, and of course, even the affection a certain northern lass has for her older brother 😏

Anyway, if you want to see this story come to life sooner than later pls go vote for it here! (Story idea #2 btw!)

[tonhalszendvics]

Usually I'm not very big on sickfic reading, but. Human babies and children get sick very easily, a flu goes through a kindergarten like a warm knife slices butter. As there are very few dragons in Alagaesia right now, it's no wonder that none of them had any problems. But just. Imagine. New dragon dad!Eragon trying to help Saphira parenting all those hatchlings, and boom.

[thevoidstaredback]

Hi i don't know if you take writing requests but if you do could you write a villain with mind reading powers?

I most definitely will take writing requests! Though, I won't write anything that makes me uncomfortable. Villains, though, I can do.

I will warn that this is gonna have some heavy topics, so here's your Content Warning: Affair outside wedlock, intense invasions of privacy, briefly implied transphobia, threats/execution of threats against a school/students

You wanted a villain, so here's a tragic villain with a backstory. Lemme know what you think🖤

(Like all my stories, this is not beta read/peer reviewed)

The Outlier

Max had known since he was a kid that he was special; stranger than other kids. For as long as he could remember, he was different; the outlier.

The first give away was the way his parents looked at him. Side eyes when they thought he wasn't looking. Whispers when they thought he couldn't hear. Smiles that didn't seem genuine, and only got faker as he got older.

The second tell was the looks he got from other kids. Girls weren't supposed to like the colour blue. Girls weren't supposed to like action figures and bugs. Good thing he's not a girl, then.

The third, and biggest thing, was that he could hear voices. They didn't usually talk to him directly, and were mostly whispers in the wind. When he told his parents, they told him it was cute to have imaginary friends. His parents were his parents, so they must've been right when they said he'd grown out of them.

But the voices didn't go away. They only got louder.

By the time he was ten years old, he could match the voices in his head to those of his classmates. The one always thinking about how cute Joshua is was Cindy's voice. The one constantly thinking about lunch and recess was Ethan.

All of the voices were so mundane and never really strayed from their normal thoughts. The bigger voices, though, the voices of adults, were interesting to listen to.

His teacher, Mrs. Kingston, only ever had three topics on her mind: Anticipation to get away from her students, her next lesson, or how cute Mr. Spring - who is not her husband - was.

Shame. Max liked this teacher. Oh, well.

As Max got older, the voices got louder, but he could still ignore them as though they were white noise. He'd even managed to figure out how to focus on one voice, making it louder while the rest faded out.

That's how he found out, in middle school, that the eighth grade chemistry teacher, Ms. Adam, was planning to blow the joint. Literally.

Her class had been working with some chemicals that, while mixed in small, were harmless, but were deadly in large amounts.

She, apparently, was on a downward spiral and no one knew anything. Well, almost no one. Max had known Ms. Adam was going through some stuff, but he'd always filtered her out. Not his circus, not his monkey.

Regardless, he needed to tell someone. If he didn't, then the whole school would be blown up by the end of tomorrow! As much as he hated school, he had grown attached to some of the people here. Besides, he quite liked living in spite of everyone he didn't think he deserved to. It was funny to watch them turn red.

Maybe that should've been the first red flag.

The second the bell rang, he was in the halls and quickly moving to the principal's office. He'd know what to do! He's an adult! He's the adult in charge of the rest of the adults, so they had to listen to him!

But adults don't believe children. Children don't know any better. Children don't know anything.

But Max did. Max knee everyone. Max knew people and their thoughts better than anyone else. And Max knew, for a fact, that the adults had failed him.

He managed to get thirty-two students out and to the far side of the field before the building went up in flames.

It was that event that ultimately brought him to where he now was.

He'd always been a smart kid, using other people's inner dialogues on top of his own knowledge to get things done. In a year, he amassed a following of other kids. Kids that had been failed by adults. Kids that shouldn't have had to grow up before their time. Kids who had only ever wanted to be kids.

Together, they grew. Together, they quietly took over the crime ring in the city. Together, the planned for expansion into the world. Now, together, they would take over the city. Then, together, they would work to take over the country.

If the adults were going to fail the children, then there was no need for them. The system was broken by adults who intended for their children to fix it, so the children were going to fix it. Adults had no place in the new system.

Max became The Outlier. The children he'd taken on as his own, despite being younger than a lot of them, became The Mavericks. Adults all over had become The Unwanted.

The Outlier would not allow The Mavericks to kill. He would rather have the blood haunting his nightmares for all eternity than to let even a drop stain the hands of a child. A group of older kids, however, disagreed. They named themselves Bohemians and they became his generals. They became the kill order. And The Mavericks never knew execution.

There were some who opposed the ordered death of The Unwanted, but they were few and far between. If they spoke too loudly, they became a part of the Court. They spoke in favor of adults, acting as their jury when brought before The Outlier and Bohemians. They never won a case.

Max had made it known, when he had taken over the city, that it was adults that had failed him - them - so it was adults that would pay.

Children were innocent, unable to do any wrong. They were to be protected from the people that would only continue to fail them.

But, quietly, in the privacy and secrecy of his room, Max dreaded the day he'd grow up. It's inevitable, he know, but he still fears that he'd become like them. He didn't want to be an adult because he didn't want to fail anyone.

Storyboard

[voidthing]

confession: over the course of the last year, i kept seeing random manga panels floating around on here that piqued my interest, and each time i checked the source, it was from dungeon meshi. when it happened yet another time in june, it was the design of a particular character, young thistle, that caught my attention and i just had to know the context of the panel.

so i went and read chapter 68: "thistle" and was hooked. i really liked the worldbuilding and everything, but most of all thistle's character, backstory and design. i had to stop myself from reading on and put the manga on my to-read list to start from the beginning some time, and didn't actually look into it further, like at all, to avoid spoilers.

imagine my surprise, then, when the anime started airing and people started posting screenshots. i didn't recognize any of the characters. and my beloved thistle was nowhere to be seen.

[rubylarkspur22]

Ah, yes. That moment when my character design reminds me that I am, in fact, not straight.

Mostly playing around with styling and accessorizing Lillias' hair. If she's giving Mel from Arcane, I did take some inspiration from her. For she is beautiful, and I love her design.

[malikson]

society if the full version of talk by harry styles was leaked

[heartplaces]

been watching supernatural again lately and felt like drawing my spn oc, magpie martin!! everyone’s favorite psychic and my personal victim of the narrative. sorry for all that trauma baby but I appreciate your hope and unyielding optimism in the face of it anyways

[syrips]

have i told anyone that i committed a crime by stealing chicken

ok so story time.

cw: illegal crimes worthy of execution

so i was at this restaurant. i love chicken. i got the buffet, which includes the chicken wings

my anxiety kicked in, as well as not wanting to be too close to others cuz covid. so i hoarded my plate with a bunch of chicken so i didnt have to go back to buffet area. this place has a 'no taking food home from buffet' rule. so cue some of the staff 👀ing me and im like mentally like yeayea i know but a gorlie knows how to eat

anyways. i was eating them all very well and good.

and then. my relative decided he wanted us to leave. like now. (he had to go potty and didnt wanna go in the restaurant. valid.) cue me eating like 10 chicken wings and forcing myself to eat it fast. then also cue me like wait. why am i forcing myself to eat when i could just take it home. be cringe be free, you know.

so few mins later my other relative was like 'oh yea while u brbed they gave me this container for you to take the chicken home'

and i was all like heck yea idk why theyd do that with the buffet rule but sure!! so i start packing up my chicken. and then a minute later the waiter comes by out of nowhere and is like 'sorry you cant do that. you cant take that home.'

cue me like 'oh..'

cue awkward staring and silence.

then he left.

then a minute passes.

and i..

i took the container of chicken with me.. and took the chicken home.

[dangoulains-devotion]

grips you by the shoulders

give FFXIII a chance

as much as I adore the game I will accept the gameplay isn't for everyone

but the story is so worth it

[emiwuaidmslomc]

I BEAT HIM

I BEAT THEM ALL

MWHAHAHAHAHA

I AM THE BEST GEOGRAPHY

FINALLY AFTER SO MANY YEARS OF NEVER GETTING THE GEOGRAPHY AWARDS

AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF A VERY REAL RIVALRY WITH SOME DUDE IN MY CLASS WHICH WAS DEFINITELY NOT ONE SIDED

I HAVE ASSERTED AND SECURED MY DOMINANCE

MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA