#seriously i don't know what the word concise means and I'm so sorry

[transmasc-tabris]

Introduce this mystery OC! I wanna meet them :)

Hey sorry for sitting on this for literal days I have no excuse besides the fear of being cringe. Stupid since I clearly decided to be cringe anyway.

Since the two who've taken over my brain most are two of the potential Rooks I've planned, and I saw a 'meet your rook' tag on a few posts, I'll answer it in that format.

Also putting the rest under a cut because this is really long and disjointed and rambly and includes a shitty drawing

Anyway, since he's the first one I'm going to play since I'm incredibly basic and starting as an elf whenever I play a fantasy RPG is basically tradition at this point

No, I don't know what compelled me to draw him looking like a court from aliexpress but it's all I've got.

Name: Issala Laidir

Nickname/Alias (besides Rook of course): 'Quiet', 'Crooked Fingers'

Pronouns: he/him

Lineage: Elf (born Dalish but doesn't consider himself that)

Faction: Lords of Fortune

Class: Rogue (saboteur)

Potential Romance: Neve is most likely

Potential Friendships: Davrin and Bellara (obviously others are possible too but those are the ones I've spun little scenarios in my head about. I've been trying not to think toooo much about the upcoming companions so I don't develop wildly inaccurate images of them and get disappointed)

Potential Rivalries: Lucanis. (I like him well enough but I keep thinking about an early game choice that was spoiled and this Rooks most likely route in that scenario wouldn't sit well with him)

Also putting Solas down for this since while I think they'd end up on at least alright terms with each other, I really don't think they'd start on good terms, though I obviously don't have a plan for for things would turn out.

Scars/Tattoos: Well, obviously there's the giant burn on half his face (and extending to his ear, hence the little gold thing) (people think it's from a mishap with either explosives or poisons since he uses both and often tries and fails to diy new types. it's not but he lets people think it is), and along with that there are quite a few others on the rest of his body (some of which are from explosions or poisons), including some rather significant ones on his stomach (from other events). I mulled over whether or not he'd use tattoos to cover or at least distract from his scars, but in the end I decided that he wouldn't let anyone close enough for long enough to do that, and as far as his face is concerned, he'd rather just deal with it as it is than possibly be mistaken for Dalish.

(note - that's not out of some intense dislike or dismissal of the Dalish people. More that he barely remembers having been part of a clan (not that he remembers much of his life all that well before like age 13 - totally didn't give him that because something something slapping my own issues onto a made up guy) and by the time he has much agency and ability to consider where he wanted to go in life, he felt that it was too late to try to connect with that part of where he'd come from, that he'd gotten by without it for over twenty years and could just keep on that way. looking forward to figuring out how his feelings on that might change)

Oh and the ones on the opposite side of his face. Bar fight, because of course he'd do that. And of course it would have started with him standing up for a woman he was into. She really didn't need defending but appreciated him trying. Then he got someone close to her killed, they broke up and she took the kids (mutually agreed as the best decision). Good times all around.

Notable appearance details:

Large hat and either long sleeves or some other sort of arm covering, at least whenever he's out during the day.

Two gold teeth - gold because lords of fortune aesthetic. Made as replacements after the woman in the already mentioned bar fight punched him in the face.

I tried my best to draw it but not sure how well it came across, but curly hair.

Blue scarf - a gift from that same woman. He definitely keeps it for practical reasons she didn't change the trajectory of his life or anything.

That jar was supposed to have a beetle or similar bug in it but I am very very much not skilled enough to depict that. He likes bugs. They're just interesting little creatures.

Stupid tall boots.

Unseen - a little pouch of ashes in his pocket

I gave him a trait I generally like giving characters, which is that he, for lack of a better way to say, looks like he doesn't know how to have a face. Like every expression he makes is... not necessarily creepy but always a little stilted awkward and generally just a bit off

Anything else to share: Overall, I know he's not the best or most interesting or original character but I like him and am looking forward to bringing him to life.

I imagine him starting out as pretty jaded and apathetic, like he doesn't see the point of getting involved in anything bigger than himself or in thinking of the future, since he tried that before (when he was younger and a lot more idealistic) and it went absolutely to shit and that was kind of because of him over estimating both his skills and what he could handle mentally. So, it'll be fun to figure out how he handles having to be part of something much bigger than himself.

Oh, forgot to explain his name. It was given to him by a vashoth mage who saved him from Some Absolute Shit when he was young. At the time he was too injured to tell her his name, but she didn't want to just call him 'elf' or something like that, so she just chose the first thing that seemed appropriate, and even when he tried to choose a different name nothing felt quite right, so it stuck.

Okay uh, doubt anyone is still reading at this point but Rook 2. Just using a picrew since I don't have a drawing of her at this point.

Name: Anaan Mercar

Nickname/Alias (besides Rook): Sunny/Sunshine

Pronouns: She/Her

Lineage: Qunari (Vashoth)

Faction: Shadow Dragons

Class: Mage (continually torn between evoker and death caller)

Potential Romance: Davrin

Potential Friendships: Neve, Emmrich (again, obviously others as well. I think Taash might be a good possibility but it's hard to say right now)

Potential Rivalries: Again, Lucanis, for similar reasons.

Also again Solas, but I feel like it would be more intense with her and might take her longer to be at least grudgingly okay with him.

Scars/Tattoos: Snake tattoo over her left collarbone. Not some big story behind it she just thought it might look cool. And since she did do blood magic in her youth (I go back and forth on whether she'd have given it up by now or she'd view it as a tool like anything else - one not a lot of people have the competency to use and that can easily go wrong, but still) and the blood magic cutscenes in da2 stuck with me, there are a fair number of scars on her forearms for blood magic reasons.

Notable Appearance Details:

She is Always. in a dress.

Dramatic red lipstick.

Do I know 100% if curly hair is canonically something qunari can have? No. Is it still oddly important to me that she has curly hair? Yes.

Glasses (in my mind they're square)

Horns cut mostly off, the bits that are left capped with silver.

Always wearing some sort of silver jewelry, usually earrings or a bracelet.

Anything Else to Share:

Sees little distinction between her self and what she considers her purpose in life - can't think of a better way to put that, hoping it makes sense

Very much the sort to put on a happy or at least contented face no matter what she's feeling. In part that's just her putting whatever needs to be done first and just generally putting others before herself, but I also keep thinking about what growing up in a place where people would look at her and see a member of the race their nation is at perpetual war with and just how... she's never been able to blend in (the only way you don't stand out as a seven foot tall woman with very broad shoulders is if most people around you look like that) and I think it would dawn on her rather early that most people (to an extent even including her human family, not going into them much though right now since my brain feels like mud) view her, whether they'll say it or they even realize it, as inherently threatening, so I imagine her being constantly aware of how she comes off to people, very conscious and careful of her appearance and actions, and I keep picturing her as having this air of vague sadness. I already imagine she'd be able to drop that most easily and quickly around Neve, and underneath it she's generally very caring and will talk nonstop for hours if you let her.

Okay I'm sorry I typed all that.

Oh, might as well add that her name is the one her biological parents gave her (damn, way to set your kid up for success I guess), but officially her name is still the one her human family gave her, she just never uses it and would mostly rather forget it

[secretsofthemourning]

1: What is your favorite trope to write?

Enemies to lover, Porn without plot, Porn with plot, Crack treated Seriously, In Vino Veritas

2: What is your least favorite trope to write?

Crossovers of any kind, Hanahaki, Mpreg, Love Triangle

3: What is the main program you use for writing (google docs, the ao3 writing text box, etc.)

Microsoft Word, though I have been known to use Google Docs as well.

4: What is the main site you publish/write on?

I pretty much exclusively publish on AO3. I used to crosspost to AO3 and Fanfic.net, but I have not posted to FF.net in a number of years and don't know if I plan to again.

5: The fic you’re most proud of writing?

Making Love on the Edge of a Knife (Wednesday 2022)

6: The fic you’re least proud of writing?

That Was Then, This Is Dumb (Daria), it was too rushed and unedited. It could have been done better, but I wrote it so long ago, I have no interest in revisiting it.

7: Favorite ship to write?

Wednesday Addams x Xavier Thorpe (Wenvier) and Yuri Plisetsky x Otabek Altin (Otayuri) I have some Otayuri works that have been rotting in my WIPs folders.

8: Least favorite ship to write?

Jimmy Jr. Pesto x Tina Belcher (Tinnimy - I'm sorry!)

9: Biggest pet peeve while writing?

When I feel like my writing isn't concise enough and I struggle with corrections in the editing process or when I think something makes sense as I'm writing it and when I go back over it during editing I find myself wondering what the hell I was thinking.

10: Best/funniest comment you’ve ever gotten on a fic?

Funniest (to me, because I thrive on trolling and chaos) - a commenter once told me my story was perfect until they got to the part where the male character fingered themselves. They told me I should have been more specific with my tags.

11: Do you prefer writing angst, crack, or fluff?

Crack (treated seriously), though I feel I usually write angst without meaning to.

12: First ever fic written?

Here's to Belcher Growing Up (Bob's Burgers)

13: Latest fic written/latest WIP?

I'm working on an Otayuri fanfic for the Yuri On Ice fandom.

14: First fandom you ever wrote fanfiction for?

Bob's Burgers

15: Fandom you wrote the most fanfiction for?

It's currently an even split between the Wednesday (2022) fandom and Bob's Burgers fandom.

16: Do you prefer co-writing something or just working on it by yourself?

I'd love the opportunity to co-write with more fic writers, but I work on my own stuff. I have had a few collaborations in the Wednesday fandom that I've enjoyed.

17: Favorite AU to write?

I steer clear of AUs, but I did a Wednesday stalker AU writer project with a group of other writers and I loved how it turned out. My favorite fanfic I've ever written came to fruition as a result.

18: Most words/chapters ever written for one fic or oneshot?

Oneshot: 17,412 words - Making Love on the Edge of a Knife; Wednesday

Multichapter: 86,720 word, 15 Chapters - Here's to Belcher Growing Up; Bob's Burgers

19: Have you ever created an OC for a fic?

No. I try my hardest to use characters that already exist.

20: Hardest character to write/get the characterization correct for?

I have a very hard time writing Tina Belcher and feeling like I've captured the essence of her character. I also have a hard time writing Viktor Nikiforov from Yuri on Ice!!! and feeling like I've done him justice. There are a handful of others, but those two are my main ones.

This was fun and I've always wanted to do one of these so thank you to @small-tragedies for tagging me!

I want to tag a few others because I would like to see their responses:

@keepyourhornson-spyro @ozmathegreatand @halloweentowntwokalabarsrevenge @donutcats

1: What is your favorite trope to write?

2: What is your least favorite trope to write?

3: What is the main program you use for writing (google docs, the ao3 writing text box, etc.)

4: What is the main site you publish/write on?

5: The fic you’re most proud of writing?

6: The fic you’re least proud of writing?

7: Favorite ship to write?

8: Least favorite ship to write?

9: Biggest pet peeve while writing?

10: Best/funniest comment you’ve ever gotten on a fic?

11: Do you prefer writing angst, crack, or fluff?

12: First ever fic written?

13: Latest fic written/latest WIP?

14: First fandom you ever wrote fanfiction for?

15: Fandom you wrote the most fanfiction for?

16: Do you prefer co-writing something or just working on it by yourself?

17: Favorite AU to write?

18: Most words/chapters ever written for one fic or oneshot?

19: Have you ever created an OC for a fic?

20: Hardest character to write/get the characterization correct for?

I thought it would be fun to do this with others, and I’m very curious to see what everyone says, especially @twisting-echo 😏.

@babsvibes @twisting-echo @secretsofthemourning @waytoomanyhobbies @jimmypesto @sailoreuterpe @luckierbutjinxedmore

[ottiliere]

Ok so, 2 things

1. Oh? System Dirks are coming in here to show their appreciation? Because ours also DEVOURS this AU. It is genuinely so relatable and cathartic. When people don't think sharing vent art is good, I point at this AU and how it shows the ugly side of recovery so perfectly.

2. I was idly scrolling through the JTHM tag as I do frequently and got such intense whiplash seeing your recent post about asks in it. Like. Complete opposite side of our dash radar. What is this I hear about a JTHM ask?? I am fascinated already I font care if it's related to Dirk or not I just genuinely would love to hear your thoughts on it.

1) pulling all the dirks who follow me in for a hug through the walls of my plastic isolation bubble. it really makes me so happy to hear this. I can't give an extended answer to this point because I spent so much time talking about the next one but I hope you feel the mind waves of love I am bombarding you with.

2) The ask I got was in fact about Dirk, but as I'm drafting it it is...drifting...very much...into being about JTHM. "hear my thoughts on it" … this would be nothing shorter than a dissertation. I think about JTHM very often. I don't think it's possible for me to be concise about this in any sense of the word.

JTHM, to me, is one of the formative experiences that made me who I am. It is one of my favorite pieces of fiction ever made, that I have ever engaged with, and I know for a fact I will struggle to find something that is told in such a captivating way from an author with such an open soul. I discovered fanart of it by chance on DeviantArt, and, being naturally drawn towards edgier themes, searched everywhere on the internet until I found it uploaded onto some woman's livejournal account. I was obsessed with JTHM for a very, very long time. I reread it periodically, once or twice a year, and I have been doing this since I was 12. It has heavily influecned the way I go about making art and telling stories and engaging with everything I watch or read or what have you.

Everything about this comic blew my mind as a child, artistically absolutely, thematically especially. The narrative style that is glib with occasional moments of morose clarity that never lasts too long... we will never see anything like the suicide scene in anything else ever written again, of that I'm sure. It is unique in its existence. once you read that it unlocks something in your brain and you just can't go back. Multiplied by a million if you read it at a formative age you weren't really supposed to be reading it. Like homestuck.

Nny... he is the base of the character trope I always return to in fiction, usually unconsciously. I didn't realize that what I was doing to dirk mirrored nny until some friends pointed it out... it is a fascinating phenomenon. He is the first of his kind I have ever encountered in anything, ever. Blatantly unwell, the focus of a story that isn't necessarily slotting him into an antagonistic role. Like, he's the protagonist who I guess is also the antagonist but he's also a human. He's this guy with severe mental illness who is lead around like a puppet on strings first by the society that torments him for existing and then by the creature living in his walls that steals his memory and cognitive ability and manipulates him into doing his bidding. I had never seen that before? Usually I am not one for "made mentally ill by inorganic sources" trope, but the fact that it's stated in the comic that he was already seriously unwell before he became a flusher... it's just sad. He is not a good person, but his life is inherently tragic and the outcome of a society that does not care for him, or people like him, at all. forgive me for the comparison, but he is like the joker 2019. I mean this in a way that I love joker 2019. if you didn't like joker, well. sorry. but it's true.

This ties in, obviously, with the way that Jhonen goes about fiction: he does whatever he wants, to an extent. I have recently very closely befriended some individuals and while pondering how we were meshing so well on the creative side of htings, it eventually came to light that the singlemost defining moment in our lives was how we all read JTHM at a very young age. And it is insane, stepping back and looking at all of our narrative and art styles and seeing that the similarities we've all evolved independently stemmed from JTHM, in addition to our view of what it's like to be an artist. we are but jhonen's warriors in a world that is currently characterized by a very homogenized mixture of “art”. I mean, just look at the current box office trend. look at the “genre” that is marvel movies. not that I don’t enjoy marvel movies, I DO like them, my loki phase was strong and hard, but objectively... these things are what they are: mass-produced consumables. there is a reason people got excited when it was announced that Cronenberg was making a new film (which was awesome btw); art is dying. milquetoast narratives, stories afraid to push boundaries and be "weird", authors not trusting the audience to pick up on their intended message so instead of leaving it just a little ambiguous, they must instead spoonfeed it to every reader... There is some equation of what it means to make art and how it equates with your moral standing; my stance has always aligned with dear Jhonen's.

in a way my view of the world is the direct inverse of nny's; I truly believe in the best of people, I love humanity, I love the world and I am fundamentally incapable of being outwardly cruel towards others. my natural setting is to logically empathize, to put myself in the shoes of other people and look at their life the way they're living it. there is nothing more important to me than showing unconditional positive regard towards others. I have not always been this way. I used to foster great amounts of animosity in my heart for the things that have been done to me. I used to be an abjectly miserable person, I used to be violently suicidal every day for years and years and years etc. now though... I don't know how to describe it. something alights upon you after vast quantities of self-reflection, detached from the scrying eyes of swathes of people, of strangers, fandom most relevantly but I do also mean society as a whole. at this point in my life there is nothing more important to me than being a nice person, and helping others in what ways I can. if that's through posting raw depictions of mental illness, I will happily do so. I didn't realize that people didn't KNOW they can do this, and it is heartwarming that I can touch people in such a way even parasocially. I have worked on myself, I love people and I love when people are weird and their true creative selves because that is what the world needs in this day and age. art is dying. If you let bitterness into your heart it will consume you. it will cloud your judgment and prevent you from making a true connection to the medium, it will block you from making what you REALLY want to make. It will poison how you interact with other humans on a fundamental level, if you are constantly walking into interactions suspecting the worst intentions.

it almost seems like critical thinking is a dying skill...or, at least, it is when it comes to interacting with art and not relying on other people to tell you what to think. but even still I still do not hold ire towards those who seek me harm for what I make. I do not answer many of the asks I get on purpose, the death threats, etc... because these people are hurting in a multitude of ways, and they have not yet learned how to cope with their own pain. You could call being an optimist a character flaw, maybe it is. I don't know. That is, for better or worse, the epitome of what I am: an unrelenting pollyanna who believes in the best of people and the potential they have to heal. The one anon hate I got about the AU months ago that I actually deigned with an answer; they eventually came off anon and admitted they were just frustrated they didn't know how to properly use tumblr's UI to filter me off their dashboard and displaced their emotions onto me. They apologized. Such is life. We are all humans inhabiting this great big earth and I love to love people. contrary to what I depict in my art, I am a very happy person. I love my friends and I'm currently in a very good life situation with occasional downfalls and eventual upturns. Jhonen, I know, as stated in the second interview image, was often like this as well. nny was a speakerphone for little observations about life and pessimism; he was a character, a means to tell a story.

so ya I guess those are some of my thoughts about JTHM. not all of them though. here’s some nny

[softdragon]

I'm seeing salt and criticism in the fandom about the plot of the Christmas short already... wtf ppl we don't know anything! HAHAHAHA I love this fandom (I tell you because i need to rant a little and you look like one of the few with sense here in the fandom)

oh sorry i saw this a while back and kept forgetting to answer it, and now that i am answering it i’ve already seen the christmas short!!! oops

edit: this got so long i am so annoying

but yes, i saw a lot of criticism and salt and negativity regarding it and honestly, when i first heard the rumour (months and months and months ago, long before there were any announcements or posters or anything) i was very skeptical and didn’t want to think about it because i didn’t want it to be true, because i was convinced if it was real it was gonna be basically an RTTE episode and just have awful writing and animation and blagh. i just hoped it wasn’t real because the concept of an actual good quality, well written, genuinely really good christmas short seemed way too good to be true and so i thought it would never ever happen

but then!!! as soon as it was officially announced and it was made clear that it’s nothing to do with the netflix/rtte side of things and it was actually gonna be produced properly with lots of care, and the promo pics looked so good, that’s when i let myself be excited! and i’m glad i wasn’t negative about it because honestly, its a 20 minute fluffy christmas short, it wasn’t gonna be a masterpiece but it was DEFINITELY better than i had at first expected!! i loved it so much. it’s adorable.

seriously, i came across some blogs earlier today that i really did not want to come across, basically the very heavily anti-httyd3 and anti-hiccstrid blogs who think their opinions are the correct ones and all of their posts are about how awful and annoying httyd fans are.... anyway, i would rather not come across those blogs but for some reason i stumbled into a bunch of them. and there was so much stupid whining over homecoming. like, i saw a whole essay about how homecoming doesn’t make sense and doesn’t fit with canon and they were calling us all stupid for even enjoying the short because blah blah it doesn’t make any sense.... and like, that attitude is exhausting. its so tiring. can these people log out of tumblr, please.

like ok homecoming doesn’t exactly make sense when you try to fit it into httyd3, in fact i bet if i watch homecoming and then httyd3 afterwards i will immediately notice all the ways in which it doesn’t make sense. but the thing is. who cares??? i don’t care. it’s just a cute, fluffy, funny, very VERY cheesy christmas short that’s only 20 minutes long. of course it’s not gonna be very complex or deep or fit exactly into the film narrative, that’s impossible because the film’s already been done. you can’t really get bogged down with specifics because it’s just.... pointless, like, it’s so pointless and tiring. just watch homecoming and enjoy it for the cute pile of cheese that it is!! they tried their absolute best to make it fit with canon and i applaud them because honestly, i was expecting it to be impossible. (spoiler here!// for example i love how toothless saw hiccup but only when hiccup was covered in a suit so toothless didn’t see his face, he only recognised him by his voice and scent! pretty much explains why toothless didn’t recognise him in the epilogue. and he didn’t get to see astrid in homecoming, so of course he didn’t recognise her in the epilogue either. its not perfect but at least they did address that, like, hiding hiccup in that suit did make sense and was a good trick to stay in canon. the only problem is that toothless didn’t recognise zephyr on the boat in the epilogue, which yeah, makes no sense, but if we chalk it up to him just not noticing her because he’s too preoccupied with the bearded stranger in front of him then we can sort of let it make sense, ya know? obviously not perfect. but they did a very very good job)

oh my god i’m sorry this got so long. maybe one day i’ll find a way to answer asks in much more concise words without going on a tangent (also, thank you so much for saying i’m ‘one of the few with sense in this fandom’, seriously that was r real good for my ego, thank you, and i know what you mean because there are a LOT of people in this little httyd fandom who are just....... well. a bit much😬)

TDLR: i agree there’s a lot of salt and criticism surrounding homecoming and i think it’s dumb and everyone should just relax and enjoy the dumb, cheesy, festive short for what it is:)