#props if you read all of this

[chelshiart]

In 2011 I drastically reduced my DWJ book intake to dripfeed levels, so it was only in the 2024 new year that I finally decided to read Deep Secret. My god - out of all her books this seems targeted at me personally? Stressed late-20-somethings, making fools of oneself in vicinity of fav authors, artist alleys?? Also, blatant unmistakable LGBT-rep??? I can't believe I slept on this one for so long!!! Definitely putting it on the upper tiers of my DWJ bookshelf.

Anyway, here's some designs I've whipped up for the characters! As always, might tweak 'em if ever I draw more in the future, but that's what's fun about figuring out character designs. Rob in particular is a joy to me.

btw Zinka plsplspls let me table with you

[averlym]

fairest of the fair

[tragicotps]

Masriel + Tumblr text posts 2/? (part 1)

[covertblizzard]

Maybe I'm being sensitive but this whole scene just frustrates and annoys me because like

comparing Steph and Tim so callously with comments that he's "better" and a "quick learner" after her death

having Cass lowkey victim blame Steph for her own death "But she chose--" and "She messed up." plus trying to convince Tim that it's not Steph's fault

the "Maybe it's time I gave you a lesson" like I don't really have a good reason for this one it might just be a personal thing but the tone of that whole sentence makes me feel frustrated and talked down to

[utdrmv-confession-box]

This blog has grown EXPONENTIALLY over the past few days. Each morning I find myself waking up to more than a hundred notifications from this blog alone!

I am of course extremely grateful for all of your interest and support... However, I am only one person, so there are a few changes in mind that I'll be making to avoid this blog from feeling like a chore.

Change 1: Weekday active hours

While I do not know the exact time I will change my active hours to for the weekdays, I am planning on shortening the time span a by a few hours, to give a bit more time to myself.

Change 2: Ask box habits

Since I have been getting a LOT more confessions in a day, especially receiving them when I'm unavailable at the time, I'm going to be making a habit of closing the ask box when I have a large batch to take care of to prevent myself from getting overwhelmed, and then reopening it once everything is posted.

Change 3: Less #Confession Reply posts

I do love to see other people's opinions on certain confessions, however some replies can either be repetitive (the recent "fuck horror sans" confession situation comes to mind...), or sometimes (with all due respect of course) simply uninteresting. Because of this I will not be reblogging absolutely EVERY text reblog I come across on a post anymore, and will be trying to focus on reblogs that are either funny (and original), or that add to the conversation at hand.

TLDR: Active hours will be changed, ask box will occasionally be closed while posting, less #confession reply spam.

[distant-velleity]

TRANSMIGRATOR'S GUIDE TO: Florian Verwandlung

One morning, when the boy woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on a wet and sticky mass, and if he lifted his head he could see the half-formed wings that had furled around him in the night . . .

A meek, weak-willed boy with a perfect attendance record. He is easily pressured into doing things for the benefit of others. 

Below is more information about him.

PERSONALITY

It is easy to describe Florian as someone who views himself only worthy of doing his meager best for others. As is within the expectations of his family, he is diligent and studious, even if it only brings about average results. Sometimes, he can come to fixate on certain things that give him purpose or direction (such as people, his attendance streak, his family's expectations...)

Although he struggles with interaction, he cares more about the comfort of others than himself, having long internalized such a mindset. Lacking self-confidence, he is unable to assert himself and will go along with what others ask of him.

ABILITIES

Magic: Florian unlocked his magic a few years prior to being accepted into NRC, but was never formally trained. It is, presumably and at first glance, nothing more special than the average NRC student.

Insect Communication: For unknown reasons, Florian can speak to and partially control insects. Not that this usually serves much of a purpose.

Eyesight: Florian has exceptional, almost superhuman eyesight -- however, he rarely makes use of it.

TRIVIA

Florian never takes off his mask or eats in front of others. He also always wears long sleeves. The only exception to these two facts is if a rule dictates he must act otherwise.

Sometimes, phantom butterflies made of magic will follow him around. They will dissipate with a simple wave of the hand through them.

For all of middle school, he either took classes remotely or was totally absent.

His suit is the Nine of Spades.

Inspiration: The Metamorphosis

———

taglist (ask to be added or removed): @thehollowwriter @theleechyskrunkly @elenauaurs @casp1an-sea @nahelenia

@boopshoops @skriblee-ksk @scint1llat3 @nyx-of-night @nemisisnemi

@the-banana-0verlord @beneathsakurashade @kathxrat-01

[northstarscowboyhat]

How did Starlo and Ceroba begin dating in your AU Would there be any conflict because of Cerobas last marriage ending so tragically?

First off, anon thank you for giving me an excuse to gush about Staroba. They have taken a hold of 95% of my brain. This might be a bit of a ramble, but I will gladly share my thoughts on them!

So before Clover arrives in the Underground, I imagine anything romantic between the both of them was kind of out of the question. I HC Starlo is still pining for Ceroba years later, but he's pretty discreet about it. That's his best friend, and she's recently lost her husband and daughter. He's going to be there for her emotionally, but he's not about to complicate things by pursuing his feelings. I imagine even if he hasn't really moved on from her, he's resigned to the fact that it'll only remain as pining from afar.

Meanwhile, on Ceroba's end, she isn't really thinking about romance. She's very much wallowing in her own grief and misery, so to her, Starlo is the only person she has left in her life, but he's just her best friend. There may be some feelings beginning to build, with living with Starlo and spending so much time with him, but nothing she really actively thinks about. She's too consumed by the terrible situation and struggles she's neck deep in.

It isn't until Clover comes around and chooses to stay in the Underground that things change. I HC that Clover chooses to live with Ceroba after the Pacifist ending. Starlo and the gang cleaned up her house anyways, so why not live in it again and make better memories? Because Ceroba's house is close to the Wild East, Starlo visits a lot, not just for Clover but for Ceroba too. Now that they're both working on their own issues and moving on, becoming healthier people, they're able to properly hang out and emotionally support one another and enjoy each other's company in a way they haven't for a few years. This is where Starlo's feelings really kick into high gear, and it's gotten to the point that everyone in their family and friend group notices.

("Dude, you like, totally wanna marry her," Mooch says, hardly bothering to contain her smug smirk. Starlo yanks on the brim of his hat to conceal his reddening face and begs her to keep her voice down, lest Ceroba hear it from across the bar counter.)

Though Ceroba is a lot more subtle about it, this is where her feelings begin to grow too. She realizes that Starlo has always been there for her, even if his actions weren't always the right ones his intentions have always been focused on doing things for her sake, and that she wants him around, maybe more than just a best friend. It gets to the point that the house feels lonely whenever he leaves from a visit. It probably takes a lot of internal strife and struggle to reconcile with her feelings. Letting another partner into her life after she's mourned her first husband is a massive and frightening step to take, after all. She knows Chujin would want her to be happy and live her life to the fullest after he's gone, but it's still a lot to take in.

I imagine once a few months pass, with encouragement from Starlo's friends ("C'mon boss, Clover calls you Pa and Ceroba Ma, you two are practically already raising them together!"), he tries to confess his feelings to Ceroba. He probably fumbles it a few times; not just because he's still shy and awkward under the sheriff persona, but because he really doesn't want to ruin his relationship with her, nor hurt her after everything she's been through. Ceroba, of course, notices this. Probably after the second or third bumbling attempt of him trying to tell her in privacy how he feels, she gently cuts him off and comes out and says it; she reciprocates his feelings, and she would love to start a new chapter of her life with him.

Thus, they begin dating! Everyone's happy for them, especially Clover and the Feisty Four, who has been privy to all of their subtle and not so subtle flirting and obvious pining. Starlo and Ceroba were already raising Clover together, but now it becomes a lot more overt. After they date for a while, Ceroba invites Starlo to move in so he can spend more time with her and Clover and be a proper family. He does so, gladly - though he probably does shed a tear or two moving out from the house he shared with his posse.

[hauntedorpheum]

love these

[the-woman-upstairs]

Favorite Horror Novels I Read in 2023:

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[everysongineverykey]

i dunno it kinda bothers me sometimes to see characters who are referred to with they/them pronouns in games described as "ambiguously gendered" or "gender left unclear" or "gender unstated" by fans and stuff like. yeah absolutely they are sometimes that. sometimes the creator had a gender in mind for them while creating them and just didn't think to talk about it in the game. but also, like. sometimes characters can just be nonbinary? and it makes me kinda sad that everyone's first reaction to they/them pronouns in games is "oh, they have a binary gender, it's just up to the player/not stated in-game".

[compacflt]

wip wednesday: let’s have some happiness around these parts for once!!

[smilesrobotlover]

It’s not healthy for me to keep all this stuff bottled up inside. I gotta get it out somehow 😩

[spearxwind]

I've been thinking about how you've made Talas' physique even MORE powerful lately. And now I'm just imagining him, one-armed, chucking Graves like the world's angriest javelin at their common enemies.

That's genuinely so in character that I had to draw it. Average hunting tactic... and Graves would be all too excited for it, honestly

[starlooove]

No bc fuck tim but it really really bothers me how people ignore his growth like he used to be an asshole and I’ll give tim Stans one thing: now he’s so so so stale but what I disagree with is that this staleness is bc nobody likes him like it’s in fact the exact opposite where everyone likes him so much they dont want to do anything. Even when it’s him surface level challenging Bruce it’s when everyone else is doing it too; but he’s still the backbone of the fam! Etc. and it’s so irritating bc him gaining more compassion and empathy even for people he doesn’t fw is so fun to watch and that’s why the captain boomerang thing was so out of character! (Not in a from the author way but in a tim wouldn’t do that and he and Bruce both knew it which is why it went down like it did. Same way dick killing joker was ooc; not in fanon sense but in a he would hate himself forever for this sense) and speaking of that it’s such an interesting mirror to Bruce who genuinely believes that everyone can grow vs Tim’s it doesn’t matter if they grow it’s not my decision to make like it’s the same but it’s not AND WITH CASS’ IT DOESNT MATTER IF THEY CHOOSE NOT TO GROW I WONT DO IT! like ugh. And anyways even when people acknowledge it they boil it down to “Janet and Jack taught him that the capitalist pigs that they are” like no. This is who tim was. Tim was the kind of guy who’d blame a dead kid for dying. That’s ok. Also Janet and Jack? Please reread anything involving them that’s not a fic like Jack had anger issues and they were both aloof at worst like relax.

[askbloatedbellyblog]

tbh whenever i see character designs like wrio where they’re associated with some form of carnivorous animal i instantly hc them as top tier belchers based on that alone, especially the wolf boys 😂 but i like that your ideas for him actually have substance

Well I'm glad that things at least sound like they have substance, as that's my real goal. I will say that these ratings are some ideas and I'm not saying that he's not CAPABLE of monster belches ever. I definitely believe that Wriothesley is. And this was for burps only, I do think he definitely can eat a ton as well.

Personally, I think characters can be complex, though not always absolute, with a lot open to interpretation especially in things like this. There is his character design but also what we know of him with his personality and setting. In this case, some of his personality and behavior conflicts with his "carnivorous" design. I do think he's capable but it also depends on who he is with and situation.

There is one more wrinkle to think about here too. Wrio is a plotter. Half the time, he's trying to disarm people to make them relax or intimidate them. He'll do what he needs to get information out of people.

So he can have manners when he needs to, especially when that gets him farther in society, especially when it disarms people in the Fortress who revere him and think he's unapproachable. Or those in the outside that think he's just a ruffian but he's "respectable."

But when he needs to, he can be one of the guys, crude, lewd, whatever else especially if it's a smaller gathering. He can hang out with other fighters during Pankration Ring matches or checking on him them. If that includes burping or eating then he'll do it.

If he knows that someone HATES or LOVES lack of manners and overeating but needs information from them? Well then they come to his office and he proceeds to eat everything and burp and slurp and pat his gut just to get a reaction.

But this is why sometimes thinking of a particular scenario or situation comes with a clearer answer because it's easier to predict behavior or if there's a reason they might act a bit out of character.