#that one is actually annoying I don’t really care about the broken motifs

[cultivating-wildflowers]

?

[songofclarity]

Out of sheer curiosity, what do you think of Wen Xu. Any HC?

Two Wen Xu asks came in back-to-back and I could probably have answered them both at once, but I'll use your daring moment of sheer curiosity to focus on headcanons/theories I have for him, Anon~!

Similar to Su She, who caused problems while lurking in the background, I think Wen Xu, who also caused problems while lurking in the background, is our guy who has been inciting several other rising conflicts between the Qishan Wen and the other sects over the years. He doesn't need explicit orders to do this, mind you, because he is simply doing what any self-respecting son of the Qishan Wen Sect would do. Just like the Twin Prides look to the Jiang motto of Attempt the Impossible and the Twin Jades look to the 3,000 Lan rules, Wen Xu is also guided by Clan tradition:

The Wen Clan used the sun as the motif of their clan, signifying that they could "compete with the sun for radiance, match the sun in longevity." (ch. 17, ERS)

The sun, however, is beautiful and warm and radiant all on its own, which means he doesn't have to play nice with the other sects if he doesn't want to. In fact, it goes against policy to treat the other sects as equals! Therefore, with him being the predominant Wen outside Nightless City, it seems apt to assign these events to him:

1. Monopolizing all the prime Night Hunt locations and excluding the other sects, which made the other sects resent the Qishan Wen even more

Remember Jin Ling setting up those 400 golden nets? That's expensive and entitled! I imagine Wen Xu was our first Jin Ling, except rather than using 400 golden nets it's Wen Xu and his friends and Wen favorites who are staking claims on all the best sites. They're having a fun time and everyone else can cry about it! Remember that guest cultivators love being with the Wen Sect! It likely comes with plenty of favors, and Wen Xu as Wen RuoHan's eldest son had much to offer to gain and keep their support for the Qishan Wen.

2. Pushing the Waterborne Abyss from Qishan into Gusu Lan territory, making it a Lan problem and making the other sects resent the Qishan Wen even more

I headcanon that this event is what eventually prompted Wen Chao to daringly declare that he killed the Tortoise of Slaughter. Did Wen Xu declare that he had killed the Waterborne Abyss (which would sound absurd since the only known way to defeat it is to drain the lake and keep it dried out for years)? Or did he own up to how he simply got rid of the problem? Either way, he made Qishan safe, which is what any cultivation sect is supposed to do for their region.

The Qishan Wen are good to the Qishan Wen and the common folk beneath them. It's really only the other sects that take issue with them and see them as a threat.

*Please remember that the Qishan Wen Sect isn't an empire. They aren't trying to take over the world. They are simply seeking dominance and prominence, with all the power and prestige that comes with it.*

3. It's canon that Wen Xu led the attack on Cloud Recesses, that he accused QingHeng-jun of something to validate this assault, that he ordered Lan WangJi's leg broken when he stood in their way, and that he is responsible for the death of QingHeng-jun (whom I headcanon died due to critical burns from the fire)

The big question here is what, exactly, was Wen Xu/the Wen accusing QingHeng-jun of? It could be something real: neglecting his duties or even something to do with Madam Lan, since we really don't know her backstory. Or something overblown: having two sons who wear clouds on their ribbons, and clouds block out the sun, and those two sons did better than the Wen in the archery competition, so it must be an anti-Wen conspiracy, etc etc. (Wang LingJiao had to learn that logic somewhere!) The latter appeals to me the most, and highlights how Wen Xu was a role model for his little brother. The difference being that Wen Xu had experience handling other sects without getting everyone killed.

Frankly, that Wen Xu destroyed Cloud Recesses and got their Sect Leader killed and made their second Sect Leader go missing and all the other sects let him get away with it just reinforces, to me, that he has indeed been up to no good for a long time and that he is incredibly strong in his own right. Although Wei WuXian comments that the Wen Sect has a higher proportion of weak and incompetent disciples/subordinates, I headcanon that Wen Xu is not one of the weak ones.

But also Wen Xu is not bloodthirsty. He did what he needed to do and the only one left dead was the one that the Wens had a undisclosed problem with: QingHeng-jun. Wen Xu is strong but he has restraint. He never pushed anyone into a corner which could incite a rebellion, which was Wen Chao's mistake.

Until Wen Xu finally did push too hard:

4. It's canon that he went against Wen RuoHan's speech which effectively said to leave the Qinghe Nie alone. By ignoring how Wen RuoHan said that Nie MingJue would not bend, he pushed the Nie into a corner and bit off more than he could chew and got himself beheaded

All the Wens appeared to agree that the Sunshot Campaign was just an act of arrogance on the part of the other sects. The Wens did not take it seriously during those first three months, and therefore neither sought to squash it out or defeat it.

Wen Xu is what proves them wrong when he gets himself killed.

But what was Wen Xu doing in Hejian!? I headcanon/theorize that he was trying to end the Campaign on his own terms. Wen Xu was used to winning and used to the sects capitulating to Wen power and presence. Cloud Recesses was already destroyed and Lan XiChen is no threat, Lotus Pier was conquered and the Yunmeng Jiang were annihilated, and the Wens expected the Lanling Jin to come crawling back to them when things got too rough. This left the Qinghe Nie as the last foe, and thus Wen Xu went on his own prerogative to take Nie MingJue out and claim dominance for the Qishan Wen once more.

RIP Wen Xu

I don't say all of this to somehow make Wen Xu look evil--the Wens aren't evil and I don't understand why some readers want to dumb down the whole story by shoving them into a little evil box--although I guess I headcanon him as having a big head and being something of a bully lol. He's just being the same kind of pompous rich kid like Jin ZiXuan and Jin Ling except he has actual power and authority to back it up. The Qishan Wen are the biggest, richest, most powerful sect. He is the one who will one day inherit it as he is Wen RuoHan's oldest son. So he is both simultaneously protecting the Qishan Wen name as well as reinforcing it's power. He is endearing himself to his father by "fixing problems" and "taking care of unruly sects" before the problem even reaches Wen RuoHan's ears. Considering what we see and hear from Wen RuoHan, and how Wen RuoHan fails to make decisions he's not already being ushered into by a third party, Wen Xu and others are very much pro-actively promoting the Qishan Wen on their own terms.

Wen RuoHan is thus very happy with this loyal and righteous son of his! And it leaves Wen Chao striving to follow in Wen Xu's footsteps.

I headcanon that Wen Xu is much older than Wen Chao, like at least 10 years older if not more. (Who knows how old Wen RuoHan is? However old or young I want him to be at any given time! lol) This puts their relationship in a funny/annoying range of Wen Xu being the big brother but also old enough to pull the adult/parent card. Wen Chao has poor cultivation and he's the baby, which is why he gets Wen ZhuLiu as a bodyguard while Wen Xu, who is arguably quite strong, just gets to run around with his subordinates. Wen Xu is the jock big brother who pushes Wen Chao's buttons and it looks like they hate each other--but I also headcanon that Wen Xu likes seeing Wen Chao succeed in whatever dumb thing Wen Chao decided to do today and Wen Chao wants to grow up to as respected and powerful as Wen Xu (and Wen RuoHan) one day. They are not adversaries although there is competition and conflict between them.

And, as I mentioned before, we get Waterborne Abyss vs Tortoise of Slaughter competition between them. Both of them don't believe it! Father, he is not that competent!

Wen RuoHan laughs it out and disagrees, because he appreciates that both his kids are doing amazing feats. (Are they though? Are they???)

Then there are headcanons of Wen Xu and Wen Qing! Their families were close because they are family and their parents were BFFs! I have yet to decide if I want Wen Xu or Wen Qing to be older. Da-ge or Da-jie? One idea I like for them is that they were close as children, but maybe grew up and went their separate ways a little. That Wen Qing never renounced the Wen Sect makes me hold fast that she did love her family and clan, even if she didn't agree with what they did for their sect. Wen Xu wasn't a bad guy even if he did bad things. (She disliked Wen Chao but maybe she liked Wen Xu a little more lol)

I headcanon Wen Ning's outstanding archery involved Wen Xu giving him some hands-on assistance. (Da-ge? Da-ge...!) Like everyone else in the Wen Sect, I headcanon Wen Ning would have also wanted to impress Wen RuoHan and be noticed by him, too. They didn't keep it a secret from Wen Chao on purpose, it just turned out that way especially since most of the work was done by Wen Ning. (Wen Xu was at the discussion conference but he didn't watch the archery competition, instead teasing it was for babies in order to make Wen Chao cross. Wen Xu likes Wen Chao but he needs to grow up!)

There are also headcanons about his mother, but that's a whole rabbit hole of its own lol My main headcanon is that Wen Xu and Wen Chao have the same mother, but she had difficult pregnancies that resulted in them being born years apart. Madam Wen and Wen RuoHan had wanted a large family and sadly only had two sons. Wen Xu did not grow up short on affection, which resulted in him wanting to protect the Qishan Wen name even more.

I headcanon that Wen RuoHan is a good father and his relationship with Wen Xu was very good, although of course it does not come without it's own difficulties and conflicts at times. (Considering how terrible all the other fathers are, statistically there should be one good one, right?)

There are other random headcanons I could throw in here but I will finish this off by saying I don't have a solid headcanon on who is Wen Yuan's father, although I can see the poetic appeal of it being Wen Xu. Wen Xu burned down Cloud Recesses and said the Wen would help the Lan grow from the ashes. Wen Yuan grows up there as if reborn from the ashes by help of the Lan, given a new name and family, too.

(That Wen Chao is explicitly given a wife in canon makes me headcanon him as Wen Yuan's father though, as I also like Wei WuXian protecting Wen Chao's son for my own dark delight~)

I also tend to think of Wen Xu as someone running around and playing around and not quite ready to settle down. But Wen Xu with a wife and a family of his own? I would love to see it!

[impalementation]

I think your take on Doublemeat Palace is interesting because to me it's emblematic of all the things that make Season 6 (particularly the back half after "Tabula Rasa") not work for me. It's relentlessly grim and unpleasant and I can feel the writers twisting the plot to make sure every character is as miserable as possible. I'm not opposed to seeing protagonists in a low point or even outright failing. Season 3 of Game of Thrones is some of my favorite TV ever. (1/2)

(2/2) But at a certain point the grim and gritty, if it's not well written, and broken up with some moments of lightness (like Buffy was previously known for) the audience gets numb. It also doesn't help that no one has any agency. (Magicrack, the not!wedding, Dawn doing zip) Again, I'm not opposed to dark plotlines. I'm opposed to incompetent writing.I don't think you can call an episode or an arc "objectively" good if it doesn't work for the majority of the audience it's been written for. 

 you know, i’m going to disagree about the “grim and gritty” thing. doublemeat palace actually stands out to me as being really funny. and for having a lowkey positive ending. true, the episode is about the soul-sucking prospect of having to do the same dreary work every day. it’s about how much it sometimes sucks to work, which is why you have willow dealing with the fact that recovery is a difficult thing that you have to decide to commit to every day, xander and anya facing the fact that marriage is also a lifelong daily commitment, and buffy taking an unpleasant and mechanical job in order to put food on the table (and the episode plays up that the managers have been doing it for five or ten years). but like, names like “manny the manager”? the weirdo robotic people? the exaggerated camera angles? the swirling cow and chicken? buffy’s constant attempts at jokes? “hot delicious human flesh”? a little old lady with penis monster on her head? this stuff is totally absurdist. i think of doublemeat palace as almost the opposite of episodes like once more with feeling and tabula rasa, where things superficially seem fun but are actually quite dark. doublemeat palace seems superficially unpleasant but actually has a wicked sense of humor. and i say that the ending is positive because it involves both willow and buffy committing to doing work. they’re faced with the opportunity to “cheat” at life like the trio, who steal money instead of having jobs, but ultimately decide to do the right thing. willow doesn’t accept amy’s magic and buffy doesn’t blackmail the company. 

that goes for a lot of season six, in my opinion. even late season six. people say there was less humor, and i think that’s true to an extent, but honestly i think it’s more that the tone of the humor changed. it got more sardonic and absurd, but was definitely still there. eg people think of seeing red as the episode where the two Very Bad Things happened, but outside of those scenes a lot of the episode is like, fascinatingly (to me) slapstick (the whole jetpack bonanza? “say goodnight bitch” “goodnight, bitch”). and has that really lovely conversation between buffy and xander at the end. in general, i think a lot more season six episodes have positive endings than it gets a reputation for. i already mentioned the ending of doublemeat palace. but the end of gone has buffy saying she doesn’t want to die, the end of older and far away has buffy deciding to stay home with dawn, the end of as you were has buffy deciding to break up with spike, and the end of grave has buffy, willow, and spike all making important changes for the better. as in, season six can be very dark, yes. but i would not call it a hopeless or cynical kind of dark. it’s about the characters clawing their way out of that dark place. not just a statement that “adulthood sucks.” you can argue that the season didn’t pull off its attempts at lightness, but i very much think they’re there. 

at any rate, i agree to an extent that if a work of art isn’t working on most people, that’s probably a sign it’s doing something wrong. but i’d offer the counterpoint that you might also say that if a work of art really works on some people, even if not everyone, it’s probably doing something right. as far as the season as a whole goes, i’d actually take issue, on a basic factual level, with the claim that it didn’t work on the majority of people. not to validate IMDB’s ratings for buffy’s episodes, but it does have an n=~2000 sample size and if you average out the ratings by season, season six doesn’t rank starkly lower than any other season. it’s on the less popular side, but it still hovers around an 8.0 average like most of the other seasons. moreover if you go by the big r/buffy polls (n=~120-310), season six ranks in the top three favorite seasons every year they did one (2011: 3 > 6 > 2, 2012: 6 = 3 > 5, 2013: 6 > 3 > 5, 2014: 3 > 6 > 5, 2017: 5 > 3 > 6). you can see the data for yourself if you scroll down to where it says “surveys”. perfectly possible that there’s data that paints a totally different picture. this is just what i had on hand. that ranking also doesn’t mean the majority of people liked the season, but it does act as evidence that there are a lot of people whom it really worked on. basically, i wouldn’t say that season six is disliked so much as it’s divisive. people seem to either love it or hate it. with a smaller percentage that likes it, but for whom it isn’t a favorite. or who appreciate what it was trying to do but don’t think that it succeeded. 

as far as doublemeat palace goes i notice a similar phenomenon. people either really hate it or they really relate to it. either they think the style is bizarre and annoying or they think it’s delightfully surreal. so it really seems like it’s up to the individual whether they want to lend more credence to one audience reaction or another in order to assess quality. 

which is why i tend to use my own rubric. when i ask myself whether something is good or bad, i pay a lot of attention to (1) is the work trying to do or say something specific? (2) how unusual or challenging or astute is the thing the work is saying? (3) how coherently is it doing that, and on how many different levels? (4) on a formal level—dialogue, cinematography, costuming, acting, pacing—how fluently was it executed, and how well did the formal choices contribute to the ideas in (1)? 

for the record, i don’t think that doublemeat palace is the best episode ever. i just think it’s solid, and fits nicely into what i think the season as a whole was doing. but the reason i say that it’s “objectively” solid according to my personal rubric—which granted, you’re more than welcome to not share—is that (1) it has a pretty clear idea that it’s exploring. the drudgery of work stuff that i mentioned in the first paragraph. moreover i think that idea is really relevant to the season-long topic of “what makes it feel like adulthood sucks”. buffy having to take a menial food job fits into the season’s food motif that i talked about once, which in turn fits character-wise with buffy’s ambivalence about being alive. a somewhat grotesque/humiliating job fits with the mood of material existence being unpleasant. (also, xander impulsively chowing down on food speaks to him probably not being ready for commitment) (2) i think this whole subject was just hella daring for the show to do. having been a poor and suicidally depressed 22 year old in a fucked up sexual relationship while working a menial job, season six and episodes like doublemeat palace just ring true to me as something for a show about growing up to depict. sometimes real life really is a grind, and sometimes it really does feel profane, absurd, surreal, etc. (3) i really like the way that buffy, willow, and xander and anya’s stories all fit the theme of episode but in different ways. i wouldn’t say the episode is a super nuanced take on drudgery, but it does have layers thanks to the three different storylines, and it comes off as clearly conscious and oriented around its theme. there are other parallels like amy, spike, and halfrek each being influences, too. (4) there’s some cool formal execution. not all of it. willow’s story, like a lot of her mid-season-six arc, is kind of tediously on-the-nose. but i enjoy pretty much every second of buffy’s part of the episode, because the direction is so in control of it. and i like the absurdist and genre-conscious playfulness. the soylent green riff, etc. 

i also disagree on your assessment of agency in the season but this post is long enough as it is. regardless, i certainly don’t begrudge you your opinion. it’s an often clumsy season. it also sounds like we enjoy things in different ways--i genuinely don’t care too much about writers contorting things in the interest of theme. i’m mainly trying to push against the implications (1) that the season was obviously just trying to be dark and grim, and just for it’s own sake or something. instead of for deliberate and interconnected artistic reasons that one could analyze and talk about, and (2) that there is some monolithic opinion on and response to it.

[twodrunkencelestials]

Rituals and Rope

So, this is my first piece of actual writing in a while! First fic in a while too. :D

Thanks to @archetypal-archivist for all the chats planning this, the rest of this AU, and the beta reading!

Notes: In this AU Jon is an avatar of the Web, has been since around the time he met Georgie. He and Martin have been dating since early season one basically? I think that's all one needs, besides the fact that this is set late season 3.

I don't want to spoil too much since there will be more of this 'verse coming. I have a LOT of ideas.

********

The Strangers' ritual day was creeping closer and Jon could not shake the feeling that they weren't ready. He was listening to the Archivist and her assistants' plan, feeling foolish and worried when he'd decided to weave. He pulled out one pair of his extra legs and started to weave, half listening. He wasn't sure why exactly, but he knew a tug from the Mother when it came over him, something as familar as breathing, and Jon followed the instinct. 

It took only about twenty minutes of overheard arguments before he realised what he was weaving. Rope. It was rope, to wind further around the Archivist and her people, so that their odds of finding their way out of the Unknowing were just a bit better.

His hands stopped almost on their own, when Martin came over to sit by him. Jon realised he had finished the first rope. It felt...right in his hands, just as it would wrapped around their wrists. It was not long or thick, not really, but it was strong enough, physically and metaphorically to help. 

"Jon?" Martin, his sweet Martin asked cautiously, hand hovering over the rope.

"Ah, try not to touch it, this one is not for you." The words were out before Jon really could grasp what they meant, before his hands set the rope aside to start another.

"It's for them," he clarified, blinking his extra eyes and motioning toward the group, now huddled in tense contemplative silence, "for the Unkowning. A way out, I think."

Right now, he knew he did not look terribly human, with an extra set of arms and eyes out. Jon normally tried to hide these when among the others, for them more then himself. Martin might not be afraid of them, but that didn't mean it wasn't a stark reminder of his inhumanity, of his more monsterous nature.

"You think?" Martin murmured into his shoulder, head leaned and watching the smooth motions of his boyfriend's odd limbs. 

"It just kind of came to me, I think. The Mother must think them idiots if I'm getting this prompt." 

Martin just laughed a little, and half shrugged. "That's not entirely wrong. It's a half-baked plan at best, but what else can we do?" 

Jon glanced up to see that a different argument begin, this time between Tim and Melanie. It was heated and Martin stood to try his hand at calming his bickering coworkers. 

Another rope, completed, before he knew it consciously, this one far longer, and Jon thought "Daisy", before he put it aside as well. 

He was nearly halfway through another, one mentally marked "Tim", that was thicker and softer then the others, before he was interrupted by Melanie. Her eyes were dark and stormy.

"Are you even paying attention to the planning, Mr. Spider?" 

Her question is nearly a compel, snarled as it was. Jon frowned a little at the nickname and decided to answer truthfully even without the tug. "Not since the second argument. You've been bickering too much for me to really think any of you know what you're doing."

That little twitch of teeth and brow and eye that Melanie gave was fun, her near-permanent anger a candle and flame that was too amusing to not poke at most of the time. Not right then though, not with this urge to create and entrap and assist that had him strung along helplessly.

It seemed he'd got everyone else's attention by now too, thanks to the angry Archivist. 

"And just what are you planning on doing with those Jon?" It was Tim, and he was a ball of lightning ready to shock, despite the air of unease Jon also sensed from him. "Going to make us dance like puppets?"

It was tempting, but Jon resisted tugging on the invisible threads he already had around all of them, just to prove Tim's anger correct. He tamped down on it, and remembered Annabell's warning to him to be more subtle with these people.

"Wrap them tighter, but make sure they don't know."

It was a lesson he had forgotten once with them, and would not again. 

"Not exactly, Tim. They're a backup plan to get you idiots out of the Unknowing. A lifeline out of that madness." 

The first rope, he'd decided, was for Basira. She struck him as the type to need less help, but he couldn't place why. Either way, when he finished Tim's rope, he set it down and glanced up at Melanie, actually irritated. 

"Yes Archivist? What are you still glowering at me for?" 

Here he was, helping these people, had offered them another way out, and now they were ungrateful? 

Jon thought, a bit visciously, but he held back the displeasure that had formed.

His hands still had the urge to weave and Jon would be damned if he did not follow it to it's end. 

"What you apparently missed Jon, was the question about why some certain other Powers haven't tried a Ritual yet. Or why they won't. Care to answer?" 

Melanie's gaze was too sharp on his hands, his legs, which had begun to weave again. He had decided to ride his impulse, despite the creeped out gazes of Tim and Daisy.

"Do you really want an answer? Think carefully about your question Archivist. And just how you ask."

Some of his extra eyes crept out again, blinked, then just stared, a warning and an offering both.

"Why haven't you and your ilk tried your ritual yet?"

Jon suddenly felt that, the sweetness of the compel wrapped around his throat and tongue like too many sticky webs. He glanced up into Melanie's eyes, both amused and annoyed at the newly-broken promise she had given not days earlier.

"Are you really, really sure want to Know?" He had to confirm again, before she- before they- got an answer they probably wouldn't like.

She nodded, firm, though Martin looked nervous. His boyfriend already knew the answer, as Jon had been quite plain about it before. 

Too many eyes blinked for another second, again, and Jon saw in sharp clarity the webs that had been woven around the all people here. It filled him with something dark and pleased, had pulled out the most spidery parts of himself that had just recently been fed.

Before that golden Archivist web got too strong, or the truth slipped out too wholly, he  gave a fanged little grin and answered as offhandly as possible. 

"Mother of Puppets has never been attempted, no. Why would we want a world of puppets that when we already have that? The world as it is provides plenty of prey, and it's always much more interesting when it can struggle and fight back, web-trapped as they are." Jon paused, gave a little puppeteer-like twitch of his human hands, as he enjoyed the brief silence, before he added,  "The Hunter over there no doubt understands that instinct."

Okay, so maybe Jon hadn't mentioned so much of the why to Martin, who looked a bit uneasy, but not surprised. Basira too, looked grimly pleased. Jon smiled, and waited for the silence to shatter.

"Jesus fuck. Sometimes I forget you're a monster, and then you say shit like that." 

Melanie twitched and backed away a little, all without looking at Jon. He only tilted his head, amused. 

"You did ask, don't you forget that Archivist. You even used a compel, like you promised you wouldn't." 

The others sprinkled in their own little bits of commentary, to which Jon had only paid half attention. Right now, only the Hunter and the Archivist could truly understand how much joy one could take in trapped prey and their helpless writhing. Sure, it may have manifested differently for both of them, but it did not mean that they did not understand the deep satisfaction. 

No matter how in denial the Archivist was. 

Even sweet Martin was still too human for that right now.

Tim was giving him a look that Jon chose to ignore when he asked, "Was that all you wanted from me? I am trying to finish a project that may save your very lives after all. If that isn't as important to you as useless questions..."

Melanie waved him off, but the crinkle between her brows still there. Good. 

"I'll explain what will be done with them when I finish. Now please, leave." 

Jon put a little bit of a pull meant for everyone except Martin and resumed his weaving. 

The group backed off to one of their desks halfway across the room, and left Martin hovering between Jon and the others, unsure. 

Jon, instead of speaking, pointed to the other half of the room with a free finger and mouthed the words "later" through a grin.

He lost himself to his work again, spinning and weaving the small details into the rope almost mindlessly.

 It was probably only 20 minutes later when Jon finished. He admired the rope for Melanie, feeling more then seeing the subtle eye motif and subtler web one. It was thicker then the rest, and harsher feeling, catching on his little cuts, when he ran his fingers tips over it.

Tim's, he found while admiring it, had a strong Web feel, and that left Jon concerned. He cast a quick look over Tim and remembering the jab about puppets, bit his tongue. No need to rock the boat right now.

He felt Basira's, and found it colder, lighter then the rest, though no less strong. It also seemed like it did not want to be handled, even by him, so he let it go. It landed, the whisper of its silk different then the rest.

The way Daisy's handled, it felt heavy, soft and comforting like normal silk, a bit like flower petels, but far more binding. It worried him, in a way even Tim's did not. There was no sign of Hunt, of Blood, of Search for Prey. Fear stilled Jon's tongue and thoughts, and he left it at that.

Jon picked up his gifts gingerly, tenderly, and concealed his more inhuman parts. No need to unsettle further then he already had. 

"Here," he annouced to the huddle, his most pleased and charming grin on. "I've finished. These will help. Do not get them mixed up, or else. I can be of no help if that happens."

Jon muttered the last part grimly, holding out Basira's first. The less time he had to hold it, the better. She took it more or less without suspicion, and the rest followed suite. Tim muttered an ungrateful thanks, and Daisy took hers without a word. 

"Melanie."

The Archivist was last, the rope more presented then handed, although Melanie did not even seem to notice. Jon hoped the Beholding did, and perhaps looked a little more favorably upon their plan now. The Web most certainly did.

"So, what is my part of this ridiculous plan now?" He asked, teasing and a little more energised now. 

Martin smiled at him, pulling his hand into a clammy, firm grip and began to explain the Plan.

***

(It's later, later, when they're home that Jon weaves something for Martin. Something consciously done, and filled with as much of his affection as he can put into it. It has webs and eyes and hearts weaved into every part of it, and Jon hopes Martin understands all it means to him when the man wears it the day of the Plan, and the days before and the days after.)

[elareine]

In the shallows

Chapter: 2/6 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings for this chapter: Some swearing, mentions of racism (no slurs), guns and addiction Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, NO CAPES, Identity Porn, Romantic Comedy, Drama & Romance, Texting, Online Dating AO3: /18803473

Chapter One

Why is LA traffic so terrible.

R_n_R: You get used to it.

It’s like there’s a thousand damned souls on the freeway each morning and we just haven’t noticed we died yet.

R_n_R: Jesus, did you skip your coffee or something?

…Maybe.

Big day today. Wish me luck!

Two weeks into the pre-filming stage, Jason and Dick finally got together to work on the music.

“So. This is when they first become a couple, right?”

Dick frowned. “I don’t know if that’s accurate. They don’t kiss until after that scene, and they don’t talk about it until much, much later.”

Jason honest to God was rolling his eyes at him. “You honestly think they need to kiss to be together? They’ve both made the decision to do this, right?”

Dick barely managed not to yell at him. “I don’t think it was that conscious for Vano, but continue.”

“Thank you.” The sarcasm was grinding. “So I got the bridge and all that, but we need to figure out the chorus part. It’ll be you alone at first and then together. Like this…”

Jason started playing.

Listening to him, Dick felt all his annoyance fade. Say whatever you wanted about Jason - the man knew how to write songs. Hearing him sing live was different from streaming him on Spotify, too. It felt a bit surreal to be in a room with this… this genius.

“For arrangements, I was thinking just the acoustic guitar at first, then later the piano and more strings. Drums for the finale.”

“Yeah, it’s good.” That was admittedly a bit of an understatement.

Jason didn’t look fazed by Dick’s apparent lack of enthusiasm. “Here are the lyrics. Let’s try it together, yeah?”

After a deep breath on Dick’s side, they did. It was fine until they came to the chorus Jason had talked about. It had sounded great when Jason had done it alone, but with Dick…

There were a lot of long notes and Christina-Aguilera-style ’ah-ah-ah’s. It was just a lot. Dick barely got through it.

Jason didn’t look impressed, either. “Okay, again. Just the second part. This time, remember to breathe and get loud. Put some power into it.”

Dick glared. Way to be encouraging, asshat. “Okay, bring it.”

Infuriatingly, Jason just grinned as he started playing again. At least Dick was annoyed enough to forget about worrying. It probably improved his performance.

Still, he felt kind of stupid, singing his heart out as if he was at carpool karaoke.

“Better. Again. Stop feeling self-conscious.”

“Oh, thank you, that helps.”

“You’re an actor, right?” Jason barked. “So act. This isn’t your song, it’s Vano’s.”

Right. Vano, who loved Mateo and wanted to share this moment with him. Who found a voice in this scene.

“I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in // I’ll never meet the ground // Crash through the surface // Where they can’t hurt us // We’re far from the shallow now…”

Dick’s heart beat faster when they finally came to a finish. Yeah, okay. That had been much better.

Jason looked approving, too. Despite every bad thought Dick had about him, that did feel good. “Fucking great.”

Before Dick could, you know, bask in the compliment or anything, he added: “Though you were off-key. This is G major, not minor. Again.”

It was going to be a long day.

Do you sing, too? Or just play the guitar?

R_n_R: Hey, there’s no ‘just’ about it! Guitar is difficult!

R_n_R: I sing too, though, yeah. Why?

I don’t know how people do it.

R_n_R: Talent and work. The usual combination.

No, I don’t mean that.

Don’t you feel exposed?

R_n_R: Pretty sure there is an exhibitionist joke in here somewhere

R_n_R: No, but seriously, aren’t you an actor? What’s different about singing? Just that it’s less your thing?

That too. I’m vain, in case you didn’t notice. I’m not me on stage or in front of the camera though, am I?

R_n_R: Interesting. I never looked at acting that way.

R_n_R: With singing it’s… I mean, I’m a songwriter because I think there has to be truth in the music. Even if it’s just a fun song about sex.

R_n_R: People notice when you’re just putting it on. Might be enough for a hit or two with the right manager, but you’re not going to last.

R_n_R: Look at Adele. Are her songs revolutionary? No. Are they continually evolving masterpieces of songwriting? No. But it’s not just her voice. She’s got that magic. You believe every emotion she sings about. It’s never too much.  

R_n_R: Not saying there isn’t a skill to it. Obviously there is.

That’s what I’m worried about. Lessons can only teach you so much.

R_n_R: This for a recording?

Yeah. Sorry, can’t tell more.

R_n_R: It’s all good, I know how it is.

R_n_R: Who cares if you get it right the first time then? You’re not playing live. Auto-tune and techs will fix what you can’t.  If the songs are good (I’m assuming you didn’t write them) and you’re decent technically, just focus on being honest. Or honest in your role.

R_n_R: I have no idea how that part works, obviously.

Haha, thanks. That’s actually reassuring, tbh.

And no, I don’t write the songs. Wouldn’t even know where to start. How do you do it?

R_n_R: Depends. Sometimes it’s a motif (melody snippet) I can’t get out of my head, sometimes a feeling or a song lyric. Then I just sit down and try it out until I got a solid idea, and then write it down. And then it changes again when I’m playing it with other musicians. How do you approach a performance?

I usually get a script, right? So it’s not making it up in my head so much as trying to understand what the writers and the director envision and then turn that into a fully formed character with mannerisms and a distinct voice and all that. I used to fill out reference sheets with character building questions, but these days, it comes naturally.

But honestly, movies are broken down into small scenes that you repeat over and over and over again, so it’s more important to stay in that moment. You need to be able to fix it on a character timeline, sure, but ideally, you stay in the feeling and give the director something slightly different each time to work with.

Why, got a big acting job lined up?

R_n_R: Luckily, it’s not much of a requirement in music videos, but I’ll take any help I can get ;)

R_n_R: But seriously, enough shop talk. Wanna watch another episode?  

Even as filming started in earnest, relations between Jason and Dick didn’t exactly improve. They didn’t argue all the time, but Dick was always relieved when someone else joined them for lunch. One Tuesday, it was one of the main sound technicians. Dick barely knew him, but Jason seemed to, as they immediately started a good-natured argument over West Coast vs East Coast venues.

Honestly, it was pretty funny. Despite himself, Dick laughed when Jason described New York clubs as “full of wannabe writers and singers”, but still better than “the wannabe-celebrities in LA”.

Kyle looked at him. “You’re both from New York, right?”

Jason snorted. “You say that as if it means we should know each other, Kyle. Are you still on about that East Coast Elite conspiracy shit? ‘Cause let me tell you, we ain’t it.”

Always escalating the situation, that man.

“I was born there, yeah,” Dick acknowledged to diffuse the situation, “but my parents were circus folk, so…”

Kyle looked taken aback. Dick was used to that, so he just added: “We never stayed anywhere long. I consider our circus my home town.”

“Huh. Well, I’m from a small town in South Carolina.

“I’ve seen your so-called ‘town’, Kyle.” Jason actually made the air quotes with his fingers. “It’s about as Guns, Jesus and Country Music as you can get.”

“And yet you played our local theater.”

“Dude, in the beginning I would’ve played a McDonald if they’d paid us in veggie burgers.”

Kyle slapped his back, laughing. “That’s my Jason.”

Jason flinched visibly. Then he tried to laugh it off immediately, but Kyle looked at him with concern. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, just took a tumble a couple of days ago. Just a pulled muscle.” He grinned. “Don’t go thinking your weak-ass slap did that, dude.”

Despite himself, Dick cringed. He’d been injured for most of the filming of ‘Step Up 6 - Heatin’ Up The South’ and it had been a pretty shitty experience. ‘A star is born’ wasn’t nearly as physical, but thinking of all the lifting Jason had had to do over and over again this morning, he offered: “Would you like some painkillers? Pretty sure I got some in my trailer.”

“No.” Jason’s answer was more brusque than the offer demanded. Even Jason himself seemed to realise that because he added: “Thank you. I took something earlier, don’t want to mix.”

Yeah, when exactly? They’d been stuck together for the entire day. Dick would’ve noticed. Still, he mentally shrugged it off. If Jason wanted to be in pain, he could be, for all Dick cared. 

 Tell me about yourself.

 R_n_R: Uh.

 Not, like, identifying information. What do you like, besides music and movies with plenty of explosions?

 R_n_R: This isn’t going to be much of a surprise, but travelling. It’s one of the best things about being on tour.

 Do you have time to really see a place?

 R_n_R: I try to take it these days if scheduling allows.

 R_n_R:  My band’s, I mean. It loses us some money, but I think we all benefit if it’s not just one anonymous stadium after the other.

 God, yes, I hate that about press tours. At least with filming on location, you get to see the area. What’s your favorite place to visit?

 R_n_R: Yeah, with promotions I never know where I am, either. Favorite place…

 R_n_R: Man, that’s difficult.

 R_n_R: What’s yours?

 Just so you know, I can tell you’re stalling. Tokyo blows me away every single time. I got to see a lot of Japan, actually, and it was so beautiful.

 R_n_R: I went on this Japanese game show once, it was fun. Just doing physical games against a boyband that’s super famous there. Not much talking needed, which was good because I always feel terrible I don’t speak more than a few phrases of the language.

 Well, you’re just traveling through, right? At least you tried.

 C’mon, answer my question.

 R_n_R: I kind of fell in love with Berlin.

 R_n_R: Not the prettiest city by any means, but there’s just so much on offer and no one looks at you twice no matter what you do or look like.

 Sounds like New York.

 R_n_R: Kind of, yeah. They have a similar vibe, but obviously, Berlin is more European. Also amazing bookshops. I stumbled upon one that’s sci-fi and fantasy only.

 Wouldn’t the books be in German?

 R_n_R: Nah, there were plenty of English ones (and other languages). It’s a very international city. The seller told me many people like to read books in their original language, if possible, and most of them speak English in some capacity.

 So you like reading then?

 R_n_R: Yeah.

 R_n_R: Confession: I spent most of the day just there. There was a market hall with food stands right next to it and two more bookshops, one specialising in mysteries, and yeah. I got stuck.

 Sounds amazing.

 Though I gotta admit, I prefer audiobooks these days. Just more convenient to listen to while I’m doing something else.

 R_n_R: See, I can’t do that, I need to sink into it.

 I’m just bad at sitting still.

 R_n_R: Not judging! I think it’s cool there are so many ways to get to experience a story these days.

 R_n_R: Listened to anything good lately?

Dick tried to be a giving actor, really. Until today, Jason had been a receptive partner. Today, though, he was going through the motions woodenly, not picking up on any cues, really. It negatively influenced Dick’s own acting, and Dick could feel himself tensing up, knew he was slipping from the character.

Two hours and countless takes into the scene and Dick snapped.

“What the fuck are you doing,” he asked even before Kate called ‘cut’.

Jason glared at him. “My job.”

“No, you’re fucking not!”

“Both of you, shut up.” Kate wasn’t happy. “We’ll take twenty. Get over whatever crawled up your asses and come back ready to work.”

Jason nodded and wordlessly stalked off. Dick forced a smile on to his face: “Sorry, Kate.”

She rolled her eyes and waved him off.

Whatever, this wasn’t his fault, Dick thought as he walked over to his trailer. Jason was just impossible today. Fuming, he took out his phone, ready to complain to Rock_n_Rumble, when he saw that there was a text waiting for him.

 R_n_R: Not feeling so great today.  

Immediately, Dick shoved Jason the back of his mind. That asshole wasn’t that important.

 :( What’s happening?

 R_n_R: Just ran into an asshole racist this morning.

 ?? Are you okay??? What happened??

 R_n_R: Said he was a fan, but, you know, clearly didn’t get the memo that I’m not available for his white supremacy bullshit.

Dick knew that feeling all too well. His blue eyes made it easy for people to forget he was Romani. These days he tried to talk about it as often as he could in interviews and stuff, but… people saw what they wanted to see.

R_n_R: Nothing unusual - you know how it is right now - but he was carrying a gun and I wasn’t. Didn’t pull it, but.

That sounds terrifying R

R_n_R: Kinda was. I dunno, I’m just still feeling slightly off-kilter right now and I can’t concentrate at work.

That’s understandable. Can you take a break?

R_n_R: Am on one right now.  

Me too. Won’t be long tho - anything I can do?  

R_n_R: Tell me not to do what I used to.

Dick’s mind started racing with the possibilities, but all he typed was: Whatever it is, don’t. Those assholes aren’t worth it.

R_n_R: Thank you.

R_n_R: Okay, time to pull myself together. No use taking it out on the wrong people. I can go punch something later.

Look, there’s literally no way you’re being as much of an asshole as my co-worker today, so.

R_n_R: Pretty sure there’s every way, but I’ll do better now.

As if on cue, there was a knock on Dick’s door. “Mr Grayson? Filming will resume in five.”

“Thank you, I’ll be right there!”

Gotta go. Take care, ok? <3

R_n_R: You too. Punch your co-worker for me.

When he returned to set, Dick wasn’t in any mind to deal with Jason’s shit, but the other man seemed to have pulled himself together. He didn’t talk at all beyond the necessary between takes, which usually would have annoyed Dick to no end but honestly worked out better than what happened before.

Turned out they didn’t need many takes after that.

Maybe it had just been Jason being scared of being vulnerable? Dick knew some of these tough guy types were.

Still. He would have expected the guy to be enough of a professional to not let it bleed into their work and fuck it up for everyone else.

When he fell onto his couch that evening with a sigh of relief, Dick’s phone chimed with a new message.

R_n_R: Sorry to have put that on you.

R_n_R: I did mention I was an addict before, right?

In passing.

Dick was about to add more, to tell him it was okay, that they didn’t need to talk about it today, but R_n_R kept texting as if he hadn’t seen Dick’s ‘typing’ status.

R_n_R: I don’t know what it’s like for actors but honestly, once you’re on tour and even halfway famous, drugs are fucking everywhere. It’s not an excuse - I grew up with that shit, I know better. Got put on some opiates for an injury and never got off.

R_n_R: So I needed pills to push me up.

R_n_R: And alcohol for my nerves, which weren’t doing so great with all the other stuff I was taking. Weird, right?

Dick’s hands were shaking. Now more than ever, he wished he could at least hear R_n_R’s voice on the phone to soothe him; or better yet, be face to face with him. Hold him through what was clearly a painful thing to tell.

R, it’s fine. You don’t need to tell me.

R_n_R: No, you should know what it means. You know, if we ever meet. I’m always going to be an addict, just hopefully a clean one.

R_n_R: My mom died of an overdose. I’m not going to be her.

Promise?

R_n_R: I promise.

R_n_R: And you never need to worry about setting me off, okay? Like. Even if you decide I’m an asshole and not worth it tomorrow, my stuff isn’t on you.

Dick hadn’t even realised he had tears in his eyes until one dropped down on the screen. Still, he was smiling, too.

Thank you. For that promise and for telling me.

I don’t think you’re an asshole at all. Kind of the opposite tbh.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #479

Top Ten Captain America Costumes in the MCU

Argh, it’s Sunday morning and I haven’t written anything! That doesn’t usually happen! Right, it’s time to just bang something out without any degree of care or attention just so I can get something up as soon as possible.

In truth, I’ve got quite a few ideas for the next few weeks, but they all require a bit more finessing and long-winded waffling than I have time for right now, so I’m going to scratch an itch that I’ve had for a week or two. I read a list online (yes, I read other lists) on the exact same topic that I’m covering today. Now, I normally don’t like doing that; if I see a list of, say, favourite Pop Tart flavours, I might start compiling my own mental list, but I don’t want to be seen as derivative or plagiarising (not that anyone would really care unless I lifted the list wholesale, of course, but I’m me and I’m weird), so I tend not actually write that list. I think it’s happened once or twice, because the topic has piqued my interest; but very often in those cases I sort of shelve the idea and work on it and make sure that my list is different. Anyway, long story short, that’s what’s happened today too, except that the process has been accelerated. Basically, I read a list online about the Top Ten Captain America costumes, and I disagreed with it so much I wanted to do my own, and so that’s what you’re getting this week. And they’re all illustrated via the medium of toys!

Hopefully next week I’ll actually get round to doing one of my other, more interesting, more time-consuming lists. We shall see!

Anyway, suit up, Avengers Assemble, on your left, etc, etc, etc.

Avengers: Endgame (2019): pretty much ticks all the boxes: suitably comics-accurate; good-looking helmet that shows off Chris Evans’ face to a flattering degree; cool fingerless gloves; straps and padding give it a utilitarian look without making it look super-armoured; maintains the stars-and-stripes motif without it looking like a fancy-dress outfit. Also, crucially, it has a really cool mesh-style effect across the breastplate, which echoes the mail/scales on his comic outfit.

Captain America: Civil War (2016): superficially close to the Endgame outfit, but there’s a bit too much going on in the chest department. They’re very close at this point, but some elements still come across as a bit too busy.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): very, very similar to what came later – it’s clear that they’d settled on a style at this point that worked well. But I’m not fond of the coloured segments coming out of the star emblem, and actually I feel the white stripes on the arms are a bit distracting. The simpler, more utilitarian look of the later costumes is better.  

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): I guess the first three are all variations on a theme, and this is where the differences come in. here we have a suit that’s supposed to look like it was developed eighty years ago, so it’s a bulkier thing, with more overt padding and strapping. As a result, I think it looks a bit weighty and top-heavy, but the design is great, and as a “1940s Cap” outfit, it’s excellent. No wonder they pulled it out of storage for Winter Soldier.

Captain America: The First Avenger – modified USO outfit (2011): this is what Cap wears when he goes AWOL to rescue the POWs during the movie. He’s wearing his gaudy USO outfit, but pulls on some combat pants and a bitching leather jacket, and heads off into battle. There’s a really cool Indiana Jones/The Rocketeer vibe to this outfit, and it’s excellent. The only reason I don’t prefer it to the standard First Avenger duds is because it’s not really a Captain America costume, is it? It’s like when he’s fighting in his civvies in Winter Soldier. But it’s still cool.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018): basically the costume from Civil War but modified; he loses the helmet and the star from the chest, significantly darkening the whole uniform. He also roles up his sleeves and – in a crucial addition that really makes the whole thing sing – grows a sexy beard. Feels a bit too dark and moody to be proper Cap; and I guess you could make the argument that he isn’t Cap at all at this point. But still, solid look.

Sam Wilson, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021): this year saw the debut of a new Captain America in the form of Sam Wilson. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a very good show that occasionally skirted genuine greatness, and spent most of its runtime teasing the inevitable debut of Sam as Cap. His suit, when it finally debuted, was cool enough, although there are various areas that annoy or detract; it’s fair to say its reception was a mixed as the show itself. On the plus side, well, it’s very comics-accurate, it definitely looks like Cap, he’s got cool wings, and the colours and design are mostly good. But for me it’s a bit too bulky, and there’s too much white on the top half. It’s more pronounced when seen in motion in the show itself, but it does detract from the overall look. I think Cap’s suits on film tend to work better without the segmented colours on the arms, and like I say I’m not keen on how white the top half is, so if they add a bit of blue to those areas next time round I think it’ll be genuinely excellent.

The Avengers (2012): when this suit first debuted, I thought it was excellent, but time has not been kind. I think the feeling was probably that Cap needed a “superhero suit”, something fairly sleek and modern to contrast with the bulky forties design. But it ends up making him smaller, and the form-fitting mask does him no favours. The colours are probably a bit too bright, we’re segmenting the arms again, and the thigh zips and those weird panels on the shoulders are very distracting. At least his arse looks good in it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014): mixed bag this one. On the one hand, lots of design decisions made that there way into later, more refined, versions of the costume. The sleek-but-reinforced, padded look, that marks it as a modern interpretation of the First Avenger costume, is established here; as is the more practical helmet, and fingerless gloves. But it’s such a serious, sombre uniform; all dark blue, with no red and white tummy stripes. The pronounced silver stripes beside the star are doing a lot of lifting to make this seem like a bold, interesting outfit, but it’s not quite enough. The basic ideas were there, but it needed brightening up a bit. However, it did fit the film and tone perfectly.

John Walker, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021): I was torn here. There are, by my reckoning, eleven different Cap suits across the MCU (not counting when he was wearing the time travel suit in Endgame). So here I had to choose between John Walker or the gaudy costume Steve wears in his USO shows in First Avenger. Reluctantly, I chose Walker, as the USO suit really isn’t a good look for fighting crime (or Nazis) in; too skin-tight, not armoured, and the fit of the mask is terrible. Also I’ve sorta-kinda-half covered it when he straps on Indy’s jacket and rescues Bucky and co. Even so, Walker’s Cap outfit isn’t great; far too dark, with horizontal red stripes across the chest, a segmented “A” emblem on the breast that appears to be some sort of button or clasp, and the whole “A-within-a-star” on his helmet is a bit daft. However, it definitely works, because it’s just a little bit wrong; the colours too dark (even the red is more blood-red), the broken-up patterns of the clashing horizontal and vertical lines… even the fact that his helmet doesn’t seem to fit right, making his face pudgier and his ears stick out more. I think this is all deliberate, to discombobulate us, to make us know that this Cap isn’t right. In all these respects, I guess it’s a success. Unlike Walker himself.

Now let’s finish on a song.

[daughter-of-the-prophet]

Morrigan (Tv Tropes “Origins”)

Absolute Cleavage: Combined nicely with Sideboob.

Abusive Parents: Being raised by Flemeth definitely qualifies. Particularly heartbreaking is the story of how as a young girl she stole a golden mirror, as she had never been given beautiful gifts, only practical ones. She ran back to the Wilds with it held tightly in her hands for fear she would drop it, only for Flemeth to find out and smash it against a wall.

Ambiguous Disorder: Likely due to her upbringing, she displays several signs consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Animal Motifs: Being a Shapeshifter, this is to be expected.

Shale comments that Morrigan resembles a bird, particularly the way she gazes at people.

And, as noted below, she does have a rather magpie-ish interest in jewelry.

Some have compared her attitude to that of a cat.

Sten knows a viper when he sees one.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: She passes through an Eluvian to a place that is neither Thedas nor the Fade. It is impossible to know at this time if this is simply another dimension or another Plane of Existence.

Bad Powers, Bad People: The most ruthless and unpleasant of the companions, she starts off with spells tilted toward destroying things and screwing with people’s minds.

Because You Were Nice to Me: Ilona is the first friend Morrigan has ever had in her entire life.

Berserk Button: Morrigan greatly values freedom and hates it when people are imprisoned, such as Sten. Those who willingly submit to imprisonment - such as the Circle of Magi - earn even more of her contempt. Also, as a Vain Sorceress, she has another fear:

        Morrigan: "You… do not truly think I look as my mother does, do you?“ 

        Alistair: "Have you really been thinking about that all this time?”           Morrigan: "I am simply curious.“           Alistair: "And not insecure in the slightest, I’m sure.”

        Morrigan: "I think I look nothing like her.“           Alistair: "I don’t know. Give it a few hundred years and it’ll be a spot-on match.”

        Morrigan: "I said that I look nothing like her!“

        Alistair: “All right. Got it. Totally different. I see that now”

Black Widow/Death by Sex: She tends to respond to men hitting on her with threats of this sort. Like mother, like daughter.

Broken Bird: Has the detached, cynical personality, the troubled backstory, and the dark Gothic look. This is further reinforced by the mirror story, as well as some of her other dialogue, which suggests that Morrigan is secretly desperate for a connection with the outside world, but she doesn’t know how to go about it after years of Flemeth’s abusive upbringing.

Dark Action Girl: Combined with a Lady of Black Magic.

Dark is Not Evil: Subverted. When Ilona first encounters her, Morrigan muses about whether she’ll immediately assume she’s evil because she’s one of the (legendarily evil) Witches of the Wilds. Once she’s spent a little time on the team, though, she turns out to have a very nasty Darwinist streak and in the end, it turns out that she’s been assigned to help the Wardens solely to perform a dark ritual and capture the soul of the Archdemon for purposes unknown. She gets a little closer to playing this trope straight in the ending of Witch Hunt, given that she’s apparently had enough time to defrost a little further.

Interestingly enough, Morrigan is one of the more innocent and naive characters, having only ventured out of the wilds a few times and never truly interacting with anyone other than Flemeth. Moreover, her beliefs are a result of Flemeth conditioning her to think and act in this way as it is strongly hinted that this would make it easier for Flemeth to take Morrigan’s body.

Deadpan Snarker: She doesn’t get along Alistair really well. Thus their banter is highly snarky.

Defrosting Ice Queen: Throughout the story, Morrigan starts to consider Ilona as a friend to the point where she sees her as the sister she’s never had.

Depending on the Artist: Her facial structure tends to vary between official depictions. Compare this in-game screenshot with these two illustrations. She looks like an older version of her Origins self in Inquisition, which makes perfect sense since ten years have passed.

Deus Sex Machina: Though not used to titillate the audience, for once.

Disappeared Dad: Her biological father is unknown but is heavily implied to have been of Chasind origin, reinforced by the fact that more than one character has pointed out that she resembles a Chasind. Given Flemeth's penchant for killing her lovers, it's unlikely he survived the encounter.

Druid: A bit of a Deconstruction of the type. While not fond of cities, she doesn't go on about it. Though she's clearly a Social Darwinist, she doesn't go out of her way to try to get anyone killed but Flemeth, and that only after she realizes that Flemeth's working on killing her. She's clearly modeled after the D&D druids but doesn't care for such notions as balance.

Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The first half of which is odd, considering she has spent most of her life outdoors.

Even Evil Has Standards: Morrigan immediately expresses disgust that Sten has been caged like an animal in Lothering to serve as darkspawn chow by the "mercy" of the Chantry. Though he did kill innocent people, the story makes it clear that being captured by the darkspawn is one of the most horrible fates imaginable that nobody deserves.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Morrigan is not exactly one of the good guys, but while she and Flemeth argue and snipe at each other, it's clear she cares for her mother very much.

Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The very idea of acting altruistically seems to be both alien and offensive to her for most of her time in the group, presumably due to Flemeth's teachings.

Evil Counterpart: Could be considered this to Wynne.

Femme Fatale:

She has a two-part dialogue with Sten in which they speak about the Qunari act.

Multiple instances where she talks about women only needing to bat their eyelashes to get men to do what they want.

The Friend Nobody Likes: And vice versa. The only people who get along with her to any degree are Zevran, Brutus, and Ilona.

Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She's a Lady of Black Magic who mostly wears purple and black. Violet is often emphasized with her in official artist's depictions, as well as occasionally being the color of her magic.

Hates Being Touched: Well, at least when it comes to simple greetings. Morrigan's just not a handshake person; she doesn't in the least understand the need for it.

Hollywood Atheist: Not so much in the reasons for her non-belief, which are fairly realistic, but in that her atheism goes along with being selfish, misanthropic, and actively contemptuous of religious people.

Hot Witch: Lampshaded, not that it's all that unusual for the setting.

Impossibly Cool Clothes: The blouse of her 'robes' are loose and draping from the shoulders and down the front, yet has a laced cinch at the back. It's possible but difficult to make and impractical to wear. Especially implausible as most of what she knew about humans came from observation, but there are no role models shown for her design.

The Robes of Possession (which presumably belong to Flemeth) share the same design.

Ineffectual Loner: Morrigan’s not a “people” person. In camp, her tent is placed away from all the others, and she has her own private campfire where only Ilona bothers to visit her.

Insufferable Genius: According to Alistair, who tries to use a Chantry-related question to mock her for it.

Jerkass: Almost all the time. As noted above, the only people who seem to get along with her are Zevran, Brutus, and Ilona.

Lady of Black Magic: Well-spoken, cunning, and evil, she has a look of wild elegance and favors very destructive spells.

Licked by the Dog: By Brutus, of course. In Witch Hunt, she’s actually rather pleased at how happy he is to see her.

Love Redeems: Morrigan’s personality during her appearance in Dragon Age: Inquisition was likely the result of Ilona befriending her. She behaves with much more warmth and compassion.

Magic Pants: Whenever Morrigan strips down to her underwear for any reason, she's always wearing a white bra and panties, even though she clearly doesn't wear a bra with her standard outfit.

Her original concept art, on the other hand, depicts her wearing a bra underneath her robes.

Meaningful Name: The Morrigan was a shapeshifting Celtic deity of war and death, but she averts the trope since the lead writer said that Morrigan is named after a character of a friend of his and all similarities with the Celtic goddess are coincidental, as they are with Morgan le Fay.

.Seems the outfit designers didn't get that memo. The crow feathers on her shoulder are symbolic of the other Morrigan.

In-universe, she seems to be named after a legendary Avvar warlord famed for her powers of seduction as well as her skills as a fighter. Given what Flemeth sent her to do, this was probably an intentional reference on her part.

Nature Hero: An unconventional Evil Counterpart of the standard version. Instead of a kindly Friend to All Living Things, she lacks compassion for anything barring a scant few exceptions, embraces social Darwinism, and doesn't hesitate to resort to murder if someone gets in her way. She's Nature Is Not Nice personified.

No Social Skills: She is largely tactless and ignorant of/annoyed by social mores; she considers shaking hands an offensive breach of her personal space, for example. This is because she was raised in the wilds, largely forbidden to interact with outside world.

No Sympathy: A big part of her character. Morrigan just doesn’t do empathy. She may surprise the audience every now and then, however - once befriended, she genuinely cares about Ilona and her feelings, expressing sympathy over the death of Ilona’s mother and having girl talks with her.

No, You: Notably in one of her conversations with Alistair:

     Alistair: "So let's talk about your mother, for a moment..."

     Morrigan: "I'd rather talk about your mother."  

     Alistair: "But there's nothing to talk ab— And besides, isn't your mother a scary witch who lives in the middle of a forest? Much more interesting."  

     Morrigan: "To you, perhaps. You would find the moss growing upon a stone interesting."

Not Good with People: She freely admits that due to her time in the Korcari Wilds, she's better at understanding animals than people.

Not So Different: To Flemeth.

Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Ilona unknowingly invokes this in Morrigan after befriending her. It doesn't stop Morrigan from following through with her true objectives, but it's clear that she feels guilty about it.  However, when she finally reveals her true intentions to Ilona, instead of getting angry at her, Ilona understands and holds no hard feelings towards her. 

Odd Friendship: Any friendship she forms, given her complete lack of social skills. It's especially notable with Ilona.

Only Friend: Morrigan admits that Ilona is the first friend she's ever had and that she views her almost as a sister.

Pet the Dog: She apologizes to Ilona for her jerkass tendencies and admits that she appreciates her friendship.

In Witch Hunt, she practically does this literally. When Ilona finally catches up to her, both Morrigan and Brutus are quite happy to see each other and she even cracks a rare smile.

At the Lothering Chantry, when Ilona asks the revered mother for her blessing, Morrigan respectfully kneel along with the rest of the party. Contrast this with her usual dismissive attitude towards the Chantry and religious belief in general.

When Ilona admits that her mother was killed during an attack on her family’s castle, Morrigan responds with genuine sympathy for her loss.

Pre-Climax Climax: With Alistair in order to conceive a child to complete a dark ritual that would prevent either him or Ilona from dying after slaying the Archdemon.

Raised as a Host: After finding Flemeth’s grimoire she becomes convinced this was her mother’s intent for her and asks Ilona to kill Flemeth for her.

Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: She has pale skin and black hair, and a few characters often comment that she’s very beautiful.

Sequel Hook: You just know the child she conceives with Alistair at the end is going to show up again. And of course, he does — in Inquisition.

Sideboob

The Smart Guy

Social Darwinist: Flemeth raised her to be a pretty severe example of this. As a result, Morrigan believes that people who can’t solve their own problems without help are worth less than nothing. It actually explains many of Morrigan’s more Stupid Evil tendencies. Perhaps the best example is in the “Broken Circle” quest, where she insists Ilona should leave the Mages to their fate, claiming that their current plight is their own fault, for a) agreeing to be caged in the Tower in the first place and b) not being strong enough to stop Uldred before things got out of hand.

Stalker with a Test Tube: Her real reason for joining the party is that she needs to become pregnant by a Grey Warden in order to complete a dark ritual.

The Starscream:  To Flemeth, albeit out of self-defense rather than ambition.

Stupid Evil: Often falls into this. She seems to take the position that helping others is universally wrong, even if such aid is explicitly rendered solely on the condition of later repayment (and even if the person being helped is absolutely critical to stopping the Blight).

The Tease: Towards Sten and even occasionally Alistair.

Token Evil Teammate: Morrigan actively disapproves of acting selflessly and helping others.

Too Many Belts: Her outfit features a skirt that appears to be made out of rags and strips of cloth stitched together with belts.

Took a Level in Kindness: Takes one over the course of the story after Ilona befriends her. Similarly, despite her constant irritation at Brutus, she broadly smiles upon seeing him again at the end of Witch Hunt.

This follows her into Inquisition, where Morrigan comes across as warmer and more compassionate most likely because of Ilona befriending her.

Troll: A large portion of her conversations with other companions is this, particularly with Sten.

      Sten: "Paarshara! Why do you pester me?“ 

     Morrigan: "Because ‘tis amusing, that is why”

Tsundere: Oh yes. Type A, mostly tsuntsun, but Ilona’s kindness brings out the deredere (as much as she is capable of, anyway).

She eventually apologizes for her behavior in a very roundabout Tsundere-ish manner.

Tykebomb: One of many raised by Flemeth. Unusually, she ends up defusing herself to a certain extent, planning Flemeth’s death the moment she realizes her end use; it’s not until Witch Hunt that she finally slips her leash altogether, though. Temporarily, anyway.

Vain Sorceress: She’s a magpie when it comes to jewelry.

Verbal Tic: Almost all of her dialogue is spoken in a sing-song rhythmic style, which is not that noticeable at first but becomes far more apparent the more characters talks to her. She also has a noticeable fondness for the word “'tis,” and she uses the “over” instead of “too,” as in “overlong and "overmuch”.

Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her specialization.

[crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer]

Some ways I relate to the Beppu twins and believe they deserve their chance at redemption

Disclaimer: This is a bit of analysis based on what we know and how I've interpreted these characters. In no way is it meant to be a persuasive piece - just some personal reflection - but anyone is welcome to read and/or reblog if they want to. I will do a proper multi-part in-depth analysis on these characters later, but for now this is just some personal ramblings because I needed to put my thoughts into words.

Also, I was debating whether or not to include screenshots with this to help demonstrate certain points, but I decided against it, since this is more of a personal thing that I felt like sharing (and I plan to elaborate more properly in a less personal way later anyway). Otherwise, this is still kind of long, so it's going below a cut to save everyone the trouble of reading it if they're not interested.

Warning: Some light mentions of abuse, though not very detailed. I tiptoed around it because I didn’t feel like sharing the specifics where it wasn’t needed.

~.~

1) Aki and Haru were forced to grow up too fast - be independent, be idols, toughen up, protect themselves/each other - and as a result they got the idea in their heads that they were mature and somehow better than everyone else despite having a stunted growth in maturity.

They're still largely acting like young kids, making faces at people they don't like and calling people silly names as insults all while holding themselves higher than everyone around them. They seated themselves on a pedestal even though their maturity level is arguably lower than other characters their age. They clearly don't notice this discrepancy either or acknowledge that they're overcompensating and so they make fun of other people for not being on their self-proclaimed elevated level.

I'm sure it doesn't help that they've been held up and praised by their fanbase from such a young age either. Plus, with Dadacha (a presumably trusted authority figure in their lives, whether or not that "trust" was earned or demanded) telling them how great they are all the time and feeding into that desire to be "the best", they surely must have come to believe all the hype, clutching it close with white-knuckled fists in order to keep themselves strong so they could carry on and achieve their goal.

It took me years (and, by that, I mean once I hit my 20's) to realize I didn't have a proper concept of age because of what I went through. I was almost exactly like that.

People would tell me I was "so mature" for my age and praise me for what I now realize were rather shallow things. But it went to my head because that was literally all I had to be proud of about myself, regardless of whether or not it was true. I had to force myself to grow up too quickly in order to prove myself so that I "wouldn't be like everyone else" because I was told that was bad and why should I aspire to be less than the best.

I had to take care of my brothers because no one else was going to. We all tried to take care of each other, but - as the next point will explain - we didn't have the healthiest relationship with each other either. We were much more forgiving of it back then because we gave as good as we got. Mostly, the older siblings (my older brother and I) had to take care of the younger siblings to make up for the lack of parenting in certain areas because we didn't want to see them fall behind or suffer for not knowing something even though we had nowhere near the skills to do a proper job either. But our parents would always say "do you want to be the parents and do our jobs for us?" and try to punish us because they interpreted us looking out for our younger siblings as trying to usurp their power in the household or something. So, instead, they tried to instill a competitive nature in us.

Our parents would compare our accomplishments and failures to each other's all the time and threaten us (usually by putting our safety and well-being on the line) in order to scare us into being motivated to do better than what we were personally capable of. If one of us managed to do better than the others, we got praised and treated for it and told that we were the only one who was going to be successful. Those "compliments" came so infrequently that we latched onto them and fought for approval when it turned out that approval was only a manipulation tactic that wasn't real. It kind of stung (but was also a relief) when I found out they had admitted out loud that they would never be proud of us because "why should we be proud of our kids?"

Because of my warped perception of myself and my aspirations, I thought too highly of myself... and yet my maturity level was far below what it should have been for my age. It also took me way too long to realize that certain things that were "appropriate" for people my age weren't necessarily appropriate for people my younger brothers' ages (I was actually more at their maturity level than what I should have been because of how stunted I was and it never occurred to me that there was a pretty decent age gap of 3-4 years between us)... or that things people said were appropriate for people my age... weren't actually appropriate for people my age and in fact wouldn't be appropriate for me at all until I was much older.

2) Aki and Haru were victims who became bullies as a defense mechanism to defend themselves against getting hurt/broken again and as a reaction to the threat of their most important thing (aka: their hero) being taken away from them. It's a dog eat dog world out there and they knew it was kill or be killed, especially in their industry, so they had to always have the upper hand because they only had each other to depend on.

Goura had told them to grow up strong even if it meant causing mischief. Even though he meant it more like "as long as you stay alive, that's what matters", they took him literally. I mean, it's still impressive that they had it in them and could do it, but you see where that landed them.

It was extremely unhealthy for them to develop such a fixation on Goura like they did, but when that was their only dependable connection to other humans (considering their father was hardly around and became someone who never kept his promises to them)... he became their hope for carrying on in a world that was so foreign to and unaccepting of them for long enough to leave a prolonged impact on them (like my next point states). After experiencing "losing" him time and time again despite trying so hard to reach him, they became desperate to obtain the ideal they had of him in the form of his acknowledgement... and eventually the security of his presence in their lives.

Growing up in my household, it was very much "kill or be killed" and my brothers were all very aware, so we acted accordingly. Naturally, that bled into our behavior around other people as well. And despite how I am now, I did a lot of terrible, abusive, and despicable things to other people (especially my brothers) in defense of myself or to protect what I thought was mine (I had a hard time letting things go) all the way up until I was in high school and was forced to really take a look at myself as a person. That was when I realized I didn't like who I had become and made a conscious effort to change, do my best to make it up to the people I had wronged, and ensure that I wouldn't hurt anyone like that again.

Of course, I was still in denial about a lot of my issues/behavior until I got to college...

3) Trust issues. Aki and Haru don't believe anyone but their hero is genuine because everyone has proven to want something from them, let them down, annoy them, or just not understand/get them. Because of this, they see their hero as something flawless... which would surely hurt their trust issues further if such an illusion of perfection was ever shattered (*ahem* the glass coffin motif in the s2 finale).

...let's just say this hit a strong personal note with me.

I remember when that illusion shattered and I felt like my entire world had crumbled beneath me. I had struggled in hardcore denial every step of the way, aggressively trying to convince myself that I was right, everything was fine just the way it was, I didn't need anyone, the rest of the world just didn't get it, if I just kept going down the brutal self-assured path I was on I'd come out on top, etc.

So, when everything I thought I had known turned out to be a lie and I was forced to really look at it for the first time without a filter, I had to rebuild my view of the world and other people from the ground up. It took a lot of people repeatedly telling me "this is not okay" for me to finally accept it. I had fallen so far (in ways I don't want to mention in detail right now) all because of this glass world that had been built up around me. I needed it to shatter hard, and for someone to acknowledge what I had been purposely blinding myself to and tell me that they believed in me because they wanted me to become someone I could be truly proud of instead of what I thought someone else should be proud of.

I cried a lot and for a long time when it happened. It was a lot to process and it’s still overwhelming to me all these years later now that I’m dealing with the repercussions of it.

~.~

There are more things I could point out, but these details in particular stuck out at me first as I was preparing a series of analyses about the twins and started thinking these issues sounded VERY familiar to me. This is extremely important to me and maybe this realization is why it hurts me so much when someone says the twins aren't worthy of a redemption.

Because, if Aki and Haru aren't worthy of redemption, then I most certainly am not worthy of it either.

I was a horrible person not too long ago, but once I was slapped in the face with reality and was able to make a conscious effort to fix myself, I became someone that most people tend to say is a decent person. If I could crawl out of that nightmarish hell pit, I think the twins can as well. I had to do it on my own, for the most part, but the twins have other people to help them point out what needs to be changed and encourage their developing self-awareness (like I do now and, trust me, it helps).

They are still in the process of realizing and processing all of these things about themselves throughout season 2. Sure, we didn't get to see them actually go through the nasty cleanup process that I've personally had to experience. But we're told to believe that it is happening and the season 2 finale does show they're making some headway with it. I would love to see it for myself because they still have a long way to go like I still do and they're only at the beginning of their journey, but I'm happy just knowing that the writers gave them this chance one way or another.

Once again, this is all my personal interpretation of the characters based on what we've seen of them so far in the show. I'm not as familiar with the other supplementary material that involves them, unfortunately, so I didn't include it in my personal pondering here. I just took a closer look at Haru and Aki in season 2 and saw a lot of myself in them. And this is what I came away with after thinking about it for a while. I am in no way implying that this is 100% canon.

[thelittlemelancholyrose-blog]

About the Muse (super edited)

(It’s long but it’s just so you guys know as much as you guys can about her. Sidenote anything edited has a *.)

Name: *Aspen Rose

Age: Late 20s - Early 30s ish

Gender: Female(She/Her)

Profession: *Smuggler

Shipping: Open to anyone over 18 (Mun and Muse wise. Read the rules for more depth.) OC or canon.

Semblance: Aura Absorption, though it has limitations:

-Can not take away aura with more than 50% of her own aura is present.

+Can drain aura from victim as long as at least 1% is present in the victim.

-Can only take Aura from someone by skin to skin contact, no other way.

+She can control this if she is has more than 10% aura. So skin to skin contact is not harmful when she’s peaceful.

-If she has less than 10% she will voluntarily take aura from anyone who touches her as a defence mechanism.(This is subject to change if your character/the mun has issues with this or wants to add to it. I’m not that picky about this part.)

-No powers are absorbed through the Aura, but a faint connection can be formed with the victim and herself. This means they can sense each other for a few hours afterwards(Emotions or just a general awareness). This could either be good or bad. (This is subject to change if your character/the mun has issues with this or wants to add to it. I’m not that picky about this part.)

+/- If the victim has no aura left she can not kill them or take their ‘life’ away. It only extends to aura. She could harm them afterward but her semblance alone cannot kill anyone.

+She can take aura from any living thing with a semblance but the amount gained from different things varies. For example a tree or small animal will only give her around 3-5% of aura.  (This is subject to change if your character/the mun has issues with this or wants to add to it. I’m not that picky about this part.)

+She can pass either stolen aura or her own on to others, as long as they are less than 100 %, but it will, even if stolen, cost her some of her own aura in return. If only to act as a catalyst.

-If her aura is at zero she cannot take aura or pass it on at all. Her aura is gone, therefore so is her semblance. *However she does regenerate just a bit faster than most.*

Weapon: Vitam et Mortem, a staff that can fire dust, be extended into a double edged staff which can then be broken into two swords. (This is really just reference I can’t draw haha)

Personality*****

Aspen tries to be optimistic and outwardly does act cheery and hopeful however has a hard time truly believing that things will be okay. But she is willing to help and tries to keep a positive mindset even if it is only for the benefit of the people around her.

Despite caring for her crew Aspen is not a hero like Ruby or an ‘anti-hero’ like Qrow. She really there to help the greater good or strangers. She focuses on the few she cares for and does not believe in Ozpin’s cause or fear for Salem’s plan. She does her own thing and doesn’t belong to a team or a cause other than helping those she cares about.

Aspen is someone who tries very hard to be positive but is constantly fighting her own doubt and trying to get over her own demons from the past. Because of this she isn’t a very trusting character when it comes to her own emotions and is prone to avoid certain topics that will agitate her. This sometimes causes her to shut down and avoid others for a bit. She is the embodiment of the ‘this is fine’ meme, basically.

Her humor is based more off sarcasm and teasing. But will laugh at the occasional pun. Self deprecating jokes are also the norm.

Her view on life can be described as ‘I know we are all going to die and I can’t wait for death but I will try to make the most of my life till then.’

Backstory**:

(Note: This is the default backstory if you want to change it for rp purposes let me know. But for asks this is what I’m following unless stated otherwise)

Being the younger sister of Summer Rose she certainly had a good mentor to look up to. Her sister was pretty much her rock growing up and a constant source of safety. For a while Aspen was aiming to follow in her sister’s footsteps of being a huntress. But after times get tough and the world starts becoming chaotic her views began to change. Especially when she learned about the ‘Silver Eyed Warriors’ story. The idea of her sister eventually having to choose the good of others over her own didn’t sit well with Aspen and she soon began to reject the idea of becoming a hero. When Summer went to a Combat School the rift between them grew. While Summer went there Aspen abandoned the idea of being a huntsmen and focused on finding a more suitable  career instead, training with other fighters, retired huntsmen or hitmen-resulting in a different fighting style and view of the world. Eventually she would fall into more shadier professions and become a smuggler. Neither approved of each other’s lifestyle and eventually they reached a breaking point. After that the two had split up and never talked to each other until much later.

The last time Aspen ever saw Summer was a few weeks after Ruby was born. Despite their fighting Summer had sent her a letter and told her about Ruby. The meeting was brief and a bit awkward but Summer had asked Aspen that, if anything ever happened to her, for her to be there for Ruby and her teammates. Not taking it that seriously, she gave Summer her word without much thought. However when she died a few years later Aspen ended up breaking down now that her only support was gone. She ended up avoiding them and her promise out of grief. But, now that things were getting serious, she decides to step in. Even if they fought she loves her sister a lot and acknowledges that the fight had caused them to waste time apart. So she won’t break her word and now she is shadowing her niece and friends while they make their way to Mistral.

The rest picks up around Season 4.

Character Relations:

(BIG NOTE: This is based off MY default AU/Headcanons. Depending on who’s asking I CAN adjust (like characters that are off-canon characters, OCs, AUs, etc.) if asked. Especially if I’m responding first or rping(especially during rping). But for Asks, especially anon, I will stick to my default unless specified.)

-Summer: Has a deep love and respect for Summer in present time. In the past though she is very bitter and condescending of her, though she will thaw out a bit if given reason and time to settle. During childhood she loved Summer and would often tag along or cling to her.

-Taiyang: Actually likes him. Sees him as someone who is responsible and caring since he is taking care of his children despite being left alone by both his wives. Also likes how he isn’t really on anyone’s side and is just focusing on his family. She won’t be mean to him and will be more civil. Though she doesn’t believe he really loved Summer. It’s just something she doesn’t think is true. But she admires how he is managing his emotions and wishes she could do the same.

-Raven: Is torn. On one hand, she knows Raven left out of a sense of duty. But on the other her bandit team is annoying and she sees them as a bunch of mindless criminals who are mostly just flexing power. So she is cautious around Raven but will certainly be quick to anger.

-Qrow: Aspen doesn’t like him. She doesn’t blame him for Summer. But she hates how he is so loyal to Ozpin. She thinks he’s a fool for following a cause that got her sister killed. Therefore she isn’t really nice to him but she can be civil enough to talk for a bit. However she does relate with his struggle.

-Ruby: This kid is going down the same path as Summer and she hates it. She hates it with all her heart. If she could she would try and convince Ruby how not worth it is to become a hero. BUT she promised Summer she’d watch over her and, therefore, she won’t argue unless given a reason to. She does find it a bit funny how much she and Summer are alike.

-Yang: Doesn’t have much of an opinion but she thinks she’s a strong individual. When she lost her arm she was impressed that she managed to pull herself out of the depression she was in. She’s curious to see how she turns out.

-Ruby’s friends(like everyone): Again, all trying to be a hero. But they’re kids and she is only there to watch them so she doesn’t care much.

-Ozpin: Hates him. Hates how he rallies people for his cause and she thinks he doesn’t do much. Most of this hate, though, comes from Summer’s death and her own regret for not being able to spend more time with Summer or for never saying sorry. She could mellow out around him but it would take a lot of effort. Otherwise she’ll be salty and cold.

-Oscar: Feels bad he is roped into this and will actually be nice to him. Wouldn’t mind helping him either. Though she’ll still hate Ozpin. Probably even more.

-Salem & Squad: Hates them but only because of the trouble they’re causing. Also, if she wasn’t being such a villain, Summer might still be alive and she wouldn’t have to watch Ruby because Ruby would have a mom.

-Ironwood: Feh, he could be worse. Atlas people never sit well with her. Besides she is usually smuggling things in and out of Mantle so she doesn’t like the army.

-Jacque: Asshole, coward and a gold digger. She liked the old CEO better. This guy is nothing but a loser and she can’t be bothered. Knows because she’s been hired by him before.

-If I forgot someone it’s either because  a) I forgot. b) There hasn’t been an interaction between them/wouldn’t be and c)don’t really know.

General Relation Notes (For OCs or characters that haven’t had enough to develop a solid personality yet (like Ren’s parents.):

That should be all for now? I’ll add on depending on how she grows but this should be it for a general idea of how she is. Again, I apologize for this being long but I want to be thorough since this is an OC. Any questions or if I forgot anything, let me know!

Check out these pages as well!

Rules

About the Mun

[takerfoxx]

“Fires of the Sun, Part 4″ Thoughts

I really need to go back and re-edit IM one of these days. Just rereading Fires of the Sun is making me cringe by how many mistakes there are. No, it's not a Deep Within scene! Why does it begin with a Deep Within?

Anyway, if I recall, that opening bit with Rumia was intended as a touch-base sort of thing. I had noticed that once Rin had let her go, she had started to fade into the background, and given her importance before that, I didn't want her to just slip off completely. I think her bit with getting threatened by Sakuya was partially created to at least give her something to do, even if it was more as a prop than anything. But it's been months so I don't really remember. At least it helped remind everyone of those bugs Wriggle sent out for help, so it's not like it was completely filler.

Funny thing about writing crises though: you kinda need them to keep going until you've hit that climatic finish. Which means any solution that would solve the crisis for the characters prematurely needs to be denied in some manner. That's honestly what that conversation between Sakuya and her allies was at least in part about: them reviewing any possible path that would cause the readers to go, "Wait, why don't they just do such-and-such?" and come up with a reason why they can't. Or have them try one workable idea only to slam the door in their face. Characters are annoyingly tenacious at times, and on occasion you do have to go the extra mile to herd them. Though if I recall, Kurumi did present some issues in that her vampiric needs had to be addressed frequently. Can't go into sunlight? Okay, that makes for a good reason for them not to flee through a window. But she's probably blood starved and I do not want her jumping onto one of the other kids and sucking them dry. Well, Sakuya probably came with some blood prepared, and she's likely to be empathetic toward vampire children, so that solves that. But yeah, part of writing these big scenes with lots of moving parts is foreseeing issues that'll get in the way and counter them ahead of time.

If I recall, I was constantly annoyed by the Dragon battles, and only went back to find some new way to keep them at bay. And I'll admit, it did get a little sloppy at times. I don't know what it says about me that I found writing a gigantic battle between Dragons and plant monsters to be tedious. I guess I just like my violence up close and personal.

Fortunately, Rin and Yuuka provided plenty of that. Rin's thoughts in that first clash mirrored my own, in that it felt so gratifying to pound Yuuka's face into pulp. I swear to God, the problems I've had with that character. To use a pro wrestling metaphor, she's that big star that's a huge draw and will guarantee sell-outs for your venue, but is just a whiny, spotlight stealing diva behind the scenes that you almost hate yourself for giving into them all the time, and yet you keep bringing them back because they sell tickets and try to make them look great. But then you finally get some leverage and don't need them anymore, trick them into a match that makes them look like a chump, and smirk from behind the curtain when your new top guy roughs them up. That's what that whole bit felt like. Yuuka really did help put this story on the map. She was by far the easiest character to write for, and any scene with her in it just felt…bigger. But oh my God, it drove me nuts the degree in which she would take on a life of her own and dominate the whole damn story. That kerfuffle with the robots was definitely the most egregious example, but there were others. I do feel I was able to get her character under control in the latter half of the Retaliation arc. Her breakdown after Marisa's death definitely helped. But even so, and even though I'm not yet done with her, this felt good.

I will admit to one bit of lazy writing though. According to my own rules, you can't send messages through magic when the Sirens are around. So…how did Rin control her duplicates? I did acknowledge this problem, but couldn't come up with a good reason and sort of brushed it off. Nobody really cared, but if I'm going to do a full look back, I might as well nitpick.

That gloriously pompous fly (I think I copied his speech patterns from the Helmacrons from Animorphs) though, that was another investment paying off. That whole thing with Wriggle's bug buddies came about because I had preplanned that tense scene with Elly trying to cut Wriggle's hair a way's back, didn't get a chance to use it, and wanted to stick it in before it was too late. The bugs crawling out her hair happened because I thought it was funny, then later, when Yuuka had captured them, I remembered them and figured I could do something with them. So, the bugs were out there, and I kept that (along with about a hundred other loose ends), and when the time came to spice up that garden battle, I remembered them and decided to pull the trigger. Downside? Dragons are fucking useless, okay!

After that was when I really cut loose with Yuuka lovecraftian roots. Like I mentioned in that chapter, I was playing a lot of the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim around that time, and loved the eldritch scenes with Apocrypha, and decided to have Yuuka take some direct inspiration. So, slime, eyes, and tentacles. I swear to God, I don't know why eyes are such a recurring motif for me. I mean, I chose my avatar because I like Elfen Lied and it looks cool! I swear I'm not actually thinking about people's eyeballs day and night, they just keep popping up!

Illuminati confirm…

Righty then.

Anyhoo, Jun being a dog became unexpectedly handy. I got curious and looked up wolf behavior to see if they practice infanticide the same way lions do. Turns out, nope! Alphas protect the pack, the cubs, and the only infighting issues are usually with upstart young males! So, whenever Sakuya cracked a little more and wanted to get rid of the kids, it made sense for him to be uncharacteristically unselfish and step in. Having a big, hulking mass of angry muscle is useful for deterring murderous maids with slowly deteriorating mental states.

I…can't really remember if this was the point I had decided to have Sakuya threaten Rumia's life, if I had already decided that, or just have her take notice of Rumia as a way of making another investment, but regardless, that was where that scene started taking shape. I'm pretty sure it was something I had already committed to at that point thought, and was then planning on ways to relieve them of the kids and get rid of the rest of her team, allowing her to go completely rogue.

I did want the battle to end with Rin using Flandre's power to blow Yuuka to bits from the beginning though. So, what better way to pull that off than for Flandre to suggest it, thus planting it as a possibility, Rin to try and find it not working, only to bring it back when it was time? Because it's one thing to blow shit up. It's another to chuck bombs at shit, have them not go off, only to explode them later at a more suitably dramatic time.

For the four Yuuka scene though, I think the initial plan was actually for Rin to fight ten of them, grievously wound one for Elly to find later, and then just kyuu the rest to end the thing. It was cut down to four to simplify things a bit. Besides, it's been established that Yuuka gets weaker with each division, and Rin would probably have torn through ten with little difficulty. Besides, it lent itself to some symmetry, given that Rin was already using Four of a Kind, which I got a tremendous kick out of by having it time out like Touhou spellcards do. After all that distinctly non-Touhou-esque violence, it just tickled me to reintroduce the classic rules in the middle of a fight and have them be an inconvenience.

What? It made me laugh. Sue me.

Bringing back Kaguya and Mokou was a hoot as well. I really do miss those guys and all their bickering. And in my grand tradition in breaking up something horrifying with something silly, we have Rin's constant use of Phoenix Fire giving Mokou an itch. Though I think I brought them up here mainly because their later cameo in the next chapter was preplanned from way back and I didn't want their appearance then to be too out of left field.

And then I got to make up for my previous sacrilege by having all of those religious icons turn on Yuuka and burn her crispy. Like I've mentioned a few times before, my personal relationship with religion is a little complicated at this point. Regardless, I've never much cared for militant anti-religious attitudes, so this scene was sort of to make up for having those symbols perverted and destroyed earlier, as well as Yukari's previous trash talking of the Judeo-Christian faith in general. Having Remilia's spear (or Odin's. Whatever) be the first made for a nice bit of symbolism as well. Though it might have been stronger without Sariel directly commenting on it and offer an explanation as to why all those gods were suddenly taking notice just now. A little mystery goes a long way, after all.

Though I think at one point I was going to have Rin skewer the burnt Yuuka with Remilia's spear before dropping her into that hole. And maybe also sticking her into that broken crystal out of revenge. Can't remember why I didn't go through with it though. Hell, whatever happened to that spear anyway?

[todokori-kun]

(OH NO I’m gonna miss you Queen ;-; hope you’ll have a good week, though! And looking forward to talking again when you get your laptop back <3)

I’m totally over my Hamilton obsession. It’s a fandom of the past for me now. I’m not going to finish those lyrics. You can’t tempt me with something as simple as that. I’ve actually forgotten the next lines-

I WROTE SOME NOTES AT THE BEGINNING OF A SONG SOMEONE WILL SING FOR ME

AMERICA, YOU GREAT, UNFINISHED SYMPHONY, YOU SENT FOR ME!

YOU LET ME MAKE A DIFFERENCE, A PLACE WHERE EVEN ORPHAN IMMIGRANTS CAN LEAVE THEIR FINGERPRINTS AND RISE UP

(so in case you couldn’t tell, me having left the Hamilton fandom was a blatant lie and my tongue is now turning black)

The Queen couldn’t possibly have been a brat. I bet you were the sweetest kid ever :D

See, the thing is, when my sister gets whiny she can be really irritating.

Like, insisting that she’s only played a ‘tiny bit’ when she’s been at the playground for at least three hours now and it’s time to go home and have a late dinner, then continuing to complain about it the whole car ride home (“Evans is mean. Mom is mean. Daddy is mean…”) then refuses to get out of the car when there are other cars behind us (then she whines about how everybody was ‘dragging’ her out of the car when she was trying to put her shoes on), drags her feet as we go into the apartment, says she’s not going to eat dinner…like, not anything too big (most of the time, at least) but really annoying stuff.

And then sometimes it’s like the whole 'I’m not touching you *finger hovers centimeters away from other person’s skin*’ thing. When she’s really mad at me she’ll make motions like she’s going to punch/slap/pinch me and then when I ask her to stop (“hitting people isn’t nice!”) she’s like “I didn’t hit you though! Evans is being mean” and sometimes she starts to cry…OTL )

Evans + smol children:

Kid 1: “PLAY WITH US EVANS” *clings to my hand*

Evans: “-um-”

Kid 2: “Please?” *grabs my leg*

Evans: “I really need to-”

Kid 3: “Pretty please? You’re the best at tag and Monster games!” *hugs and refuses to let go* *puppy dog face*

Evans: “…how can I say no to this…”

*five minutes later*

Evans: “I know I shouldn’t back out of this but please hear me out I’m DESPERATE*

oh dear XD people don’t really bother to close their mouths over here, I think, since if you don’t think it’s rude then it IS more comfortable. It is considered more polite to cover your mouth with your hand when there’s too much food in there, though.

My parents really want to know why I love manga so much, but they don’t usually have time to watch/read anything with me (and besides, my dad doen't like violent stories so…).

Well, she doesn’t like the Rising Sun Flag at all (like I said, over here it’s a really bad symbol. Many people who were hurt by Japan during WW2 are still alive today, like the old ladies who were once sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, and for everyone involved that pain is never going to fade) but she’s still going to try it out just for the story :) she’d probably really have a problem with it if the flag was used in more serious situations, but since it usually appears in comedic moments in the manga I think she’s accepting it as ignorance(?) from the creator.

Yeah, I don’t really like Kissanime ^^;; I’ll try to find Re:Zero on the Korean site where I usually watch things. Or maybe a manga/light novel version, if there’s anything like that? Since the Manhwa Cafe might have a light novel or a manga.

LOL Fairytail is too intimidating. And you know me, I’m too angsty for that series XD True though, HxH is super long…

Killua isn’t QUITE a cinnamon roll (he was still raised by the Zoldycks and trained by Illumi) but he comes close. I mean, even after going through a hellish Zoldyck childhood he STILL doesn’t want to be an assassin and is capable of kindness and emotion towards people who aren’t members of his family. The MC Gon is probably the ultimate cinnamon roll though.

Illumi has issues. The fact that he willingly hangs out with Hisoka should prove that.

The Zoldycks are a BRUTAL family, ok, I feel sorry for all their children. Like, come on. The emotional abuse is just as bad, if not worse, than the physical abuse.

Idk if this was ever addressed in canon, though, but I wonder if Illumi also resents Killua in a way? Since Illumi is the oldest child and was trained since birth to become a perfect Zoldyck assassin, but when Killua was born it quickly became obvious that he was a prodigy and then he was chosen as the heir. Kilua doesn’t even WANT to be the heir, he stabbed his mother and one of his other brothers just to run away from home, and yet he’s still being chosen over Illumi, who was trained for a similar role since birth and just had to silently, obediently step side the moment this tiny baby brother was born.

True, I guess it’s like me shipping Queen Luna with so many characters LOL. Evans/Kimblee is still one of the weirder ships though, like what do we even have in common (answer: ruining lives. And we both….appreciate….art?). At least Scar/Evans had the potential to be awkwardly cute XD

(TYSM though Queen, you’re too kind to me <3)

What have we done now I’m imagining that fight between Kimblee and Ed, where Ed thought he won but Kimblee revealed he had another Philosopher’s Stone- but instead of the stone, it’s

Kimblee: *pulls ball out of pocket* PRIDE! I CHOOSE YOU!

(Imagine Pride making the Pokemon noises though)

I relate to that too. Probably going to relate to it even more when college starts in September(?)…;-;

BUT WHAT IF WE END UP TRIPLE-JINXING IT (idk what I’m even saying now)

I guess it’s just me and my fondness for mix-and-matching colors XD I get bored looking at something with too much of just one color so I like throwing in other colors too…I might get carried away with it sometimes though lol.

TYSM AGAIN. QUEEN LUNA IS TOO NICE FOR ME TOO HANDLE GAH

I’m really glad you liked the Olivier one though ^^

…wow. That was an amazing dream XD Weirdly enough I’ve never had a dream about a celebrity even with all of my fandoms (I did once have a dream involving a few K-pop idols but I can’t clearly remember if they were actually real idols or just characters created in my mind lol).

Don’t worry, Loki will distract you from the lack of long blonde hair with his fabulousness (once again, idek what I’m saying)

Hope you had a good time watching it :D (I’m personally not into Sherlock anymore, though ^^;; the sexist/homophobic stuff was just too much so I dropped it)

Also:

TG’S NEW CHAPTER WE FINALLY KNOW WHO CREATED THE CLOWNS OMG

CLOWN BOSS, CREATOR OF TRAGEDY

HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS COMING

ALSO SHIKORAE=RIO 100% CONFIRMED NOW

SMOL BANDAGED ETO AND TATARA IN A FLASHBACK

ROMA I HATE YOU (SHE’S AMAZING)

MENTION OF THE ORIGINAL ONE-EYED KING

KUROIWA’S GONNA DIE

IF YOMO DIES- I CAN’T EVEN. He’ll be dying at the hands of the chacter I just don’t care about anymore (Mutsuki) for one of my not-so-favorite characters (Touka). NO.

And I watched S1 of One Punch Man on a react channel. I’m obsessed and now I’ve got to read the manga HELP ME

And I finally found real watercolor paper, I can’t wait to paint on it :D

Also, sorry for not sending any asks ;-; i got discouraged because asks get eaten so easily (plus I had so much to say lol)

FINALLY PLAYING CP! I didn’t get Steam though (after reading about it and thinking it through I just don’t think it’s for me ^^;;) so I ended up downloading it. I’ve played all the routes except for Waltz’s, but I’ve only gotten the Good Endings so far. (There’s actually a reason for this: Firstly, I was actively trying to get a good ending because I get weirdly obsessed when playing dating games…since it’s a romance, it feels like a major fail if I don’t get a good ending XD (I know, I’m really weird). And as for the second reason…you usually have to act like a jerk to other characters to get the bad endings and I didn’t want to do that ;-; (seriously, I know they’re just fictional characters and that it’s silly, but I HATE it every time I choose to do something mean and they look at me like they’re so disappointed ugh OTL)).

My thoughts so far:

-Art is amazing! It does look a little off at some points during the game but it’s not very noticeable and other than that, it’s great. The intro looks the best, I think, and the sketchy, simple style used during flashbacks really adds to the ‘fairy tale’ feel. It actually reminds me a bit of Kuro’s art.

-Idk about music, my family’s always around and having my earbuds in for so long hurts my ears so I just turned off the sound while playing ^^;; I did hear a bit of the intro though and it sounded nice.

-I like the history with the Great War and the crystals :)

-The whole concept of Fairytale Curses is really interesting! It was fun to try and guess how the curses worked for certain characters and how they could be broken.

-Rod’s route was probably the most boring because it was too predictable. I guessed that Alcaster(? is that his name? I’m talking about Fritz’s father) wasn’t the real villain, that Mythros was the witch, that MC’s mom was probably a witch, that Rod was in love with Viorica and that Viorica had something to do with his curse, that falling in love with MC would break his curse…yeah. The only thing I didn’t see coming was that MC’s mom was not just a normal witch but the Tenebrarum bearer. However, it was still interesting enough to make me want to play the rest of the game, the romance was cute, and I liked how they handled the whole ‘step-siblings’ thing.

-Rod himself was a bit boring. I don’t think he was badly written, but his personality was a mix of the typical 'stoic’ and 'tsundere’ types so yeah. I do have to give the writers kudos for not turning him into an annoying tsundere, though. I mean, Rod can be a jerk but he didn’t irritate me and I didn’t dislike him.

-Karma/Klaude’s route threw me off because of the whole rose motif. I thought that by 'Beauty’ he meant 'Sleeping Beauty Curse’ XD it didn’t help that he kept talking about being tired and not having had enough sleep.

-I liked his habit of calling people 'darling’; idk why but it’s cute. I also like that he’s the only character so far to actually address MC’s relationship with her mother and what it must have done to her (even if it was just a brief moment). Karma’s personality in general was charming ^^

-I also really, really liked his character design! Even though my favorite color is blue I think characters with a 'Red’ theme (like Grell from Kuro) always look good. It makes them pop and stand out from the rest of the cast.

-But I’m sad we didn’t get to meet his father. The glorious man who calls his children 'Karma’ and 'Llama’.

-I was also a little bit disappointed with Karma at first. From the art I saw before the game I thought he was this cool, powerful swordsman who liked to wear dresses and didn’t care what people had to say about that…turns out he just had to do it because of the curse ;-;

-(Karma’s curse was also a bit confusing to me. Idk, I just think they could have explained a little better why dressing as a woman helps…)

-Rumpel (or rather, Chevalier…but I’m never going to get used to that name. It reminds me of 'Chivalry’ or 'Chandelier’). People don’t seem to like him a lot but I was looking forward to playing his route…he just seemed like a fun guy.

-He turned out to be a very interesting character that I wanted to see fleshed out more. I mean, he started as a 'Shallow, Childish Flirt’ type character, then we found out he’s actually a nice guy, then we found out he’s a DOCTOR (I got spoiled for that before I played his route but still), then there’s the thing with him being too selfless for his own good…I like that they didn’t just turn him into a 'Playboy’ character.

-Tbh I thought he was sweet? *prepares for the hate*

-Also think the whole thing with Bria was handled well. I’m glad that neither she nor Rumpel was made out to be the only victim.

-I wish we got to see more of how Mythros’ death affected Rumpel, though.

-Fritz is a cinnamon roll :) a total sweetheart.

-His route might have been a bit boring, though, because MC spent so much time locked up in the castle..but it got a lot better towards the end, after MC got back to the Marchen.

-I also found Varg really interesting and felt a bit sorry for him. Wish we got to see more of him- especially since it was mentioned that he was created from some part of Fritz’s personality. We never really got to see the 'Varg’ side of Fritz :(

-(wonder if there’s more Varg in the Bad Ending?)

-Also I’m sorry but Fritz’s curse reminds me more of Jekyll and Hyde than Little Red Riding Hood XD

-DELORA YOU ABSOLUTE QUEEN. HOW DARE YOU GO AND DIE ON ME DURING FRITZ’S ROUTE. I THOUGHT I WAS AIMING FOR THE HAPPY ENDING asdlfk;lkc

-(didn’t really care for the mother-daughter relationship with Delora and MC, though, because their interactions didn’t feel that way?)

-MC. I haaaated her at first and I hated her even more because I sensed she was going to get an angsty backstory that would justify her behavior. But she was actually really well written and I ended up liking her a lot!

-Emelaigne and Parfait are sweethearts. (also I like that detail with the shadows around Parfait’s eyes)

-wish there was some more diversity in the cast

-Also female love interests! With a little tweaking we could have Delora! Parfait! Jurien! And if we can date Rod, THEN THERE’S NO HECKING REASON WHY WE CAN’T DATE EMELAIGNE TOO

-It would have been nice if the love interests called MC out on her behavior at some point. I mean, we know why she acts that way but they don’t.

-And if they’d talked about her childhood with her…Hildyr was a terrible mother.

-Speaking of Hildyr, wow. Just, wow. I like that she’s not a flat, 100% evil character and that she does genuinely love her daughter (in her own twisted way), but…yeah.

-Mythros is a slimy rat who was probably aiming for Magnificent Bastard status and failed. (I do feel sorry for him, though. And his design looks good. It sorta reminds me of Vincent Phantomhive)

-Also, random: I renamed MC ever time I played the game. I love naming characters so in any game, if you can rename the MC, I always have to change the original name ^^;; I ended up naming her Theodosia once (sorry Burr, I’m sure your daughter’s nicer than the MC), and then Eliza just for how funny it was (because now I associate the name Eliza with Cinnamon Roll Queens and the MC is anything but).

-Delora, MC and Emelaigne are probably my favs. However…

-The Ultimate Fav is the one and only Mr. Broom. Such development. Much complexity. 10/10. Best character ever.

-And now, the characters I ship Queen Luna with (yes, I absolutely HAVE to do this with every one of our shared fandoms): Fritz and Karma :D it would be so cuuute

-I’ll add my opinions on Waltz once I get the time to play his route :)

-TYSM for introducing me to this game, Queen Luna! I had a lot of fun playing it <3

I AM BACK!!  And I’m emotionally drained again XD Too much human interaction for 1 week. I had some friends over, so I was supposed to be the polite host (even though it was actually my mom’s idea to invite them, so I can ‘be more outgoing’.) 

Right, right, and I totally didn’t force my friends to listen to the whole Hamilton soundtrack and then totally didn’t get this close to singing along to everything. Both of us are over it

I’M RUNNING OUT OF TIME. I’M RUNNING, AND MY TIME’S UP WISE UP. EYES UP I CATCH A GLIMPSE OF THE OTHER SIDE.

Same, same. I just have to think a thought that is also a lyric in the musical and I’m back in hell.

Nope, trust me, I was a little shit. Whenever someone tells me stories of baby Luna, I wanna curl up into a ball and die from embarrassment. I’m not even joking when my parents wanted to take me to get tested for ADHD. And then, suddenly, I found the magic of books and you will not get me to move my ass unless my life’s on the line (and even then I’ll reconsider XD)

Ouch… well, most little kids are like that? I mean, I don’t interact with them a lot (we have a mutual dislike for each other :P), but there’s a reason why I don’t like them. They can be adorable and all, but I just don’t have the patience ^^;;;

I think I’d cry of cuteness if I ever saw Evans with little kids, because that sounds absolutely adorable!!! 

Tbh, the thing I have most problems with is the sound of it, because it gets on my nerves so much ;-; 

Still, it’s really nice they make an effort to understand you ^^ I finally told my mom about my idol obsession today,  and I was so happy when she wasn’t weirded out T^T The thing is, I’m so used to people giving me weird look when i so much as mention anime, and idols are a whole new level of that, that I just don’t wanna tell anyone about it. Hell, it took me 2 months to offhandedly mention it to my parents. 

I think Re:Zero has a light novel? I’m not sure, honestly ^^;;;

Dude, you would not like fairy tail AT ALL. It is 98% tasteless fan service, and I was able to tolerate it for the sake of plot, but in the recent chapters, the plot itself has also become really stupid. Like, if a character dies, no one is worried any more, cause we know they’ll be revived 3 pages later. It became really stupid near the end. But, hey, it’s over now.

In summary: HxH is messed up XD I’m still debating watching it… maybe a bit later, or maybe I’ll pick the manga up ^^ 

Art is a very wide term, so I guess you could say both you and Kimblee do have it in common? It’s just up for discussion which form of art XD I must say, I do like you and Scar better though, because I don’t really think Scar would potentially blow you up if you did anything wrong…

Pride, pride! Pika pride!

All enemies would be terrified of him.

IDK LETS JINX IT AS MUCH AS WE CAN SO HOPEFULLY WE END UP IN A JINX THAT KEEPS HIM ALIVE! And omg I honestly don’t remember anymore if it was a fan comic or an actual manga panel, but it makes me wanna cry every time I think of it (I think it was a comic…) But then again, I don’t wanna spoil anything for you (again ;-;). So, have you read what happened to Bertl last?

Seriously, it was so weird ;-; I usually remember all my dreams, so but I usually dream of anime and other fictional characters (help) and things I thought about a lot during the day. Most of my dreams are crazily bizarre. 

Well, I mean, Loki finally had the decency to wash his hair (I’ve waited 3 movies for that), so I’m more than happy about his part XD

Tbh, I’m not into it too much either, but I do enjoy detective/mystery shows, so why not.

WOW. WOW. W O W. I READ THE NEW CHAPTER. JUST ROMA??? SHE’S 51??? WHAT??? ALSO URIE WHAT THE FUCK?? I THOUGHT YOU WERENT GONNA DIE AND YOURE DAMN NEAR THAT. NOT TO MENTION, Y O M O WHYYY IM NOT LETTING MUTSUKI KILL YOMO, HE SHOULD HAVE MORE SKILL THAN THEM AND SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE THEM DOWN EASILY. Also, was that a death flag for Touka that I saw?

I have one thing to say.

ONE PUUUUUUUUUNCH

Seriously, I brought the series with me on an USB to rewatch it during the summer XD

Oh, I hope you have fun with it! And don’t worry about not sending asks ^^

GUESS WHO ALMOST CRIED WHEN SHE HEARD YOU WERE PLAYING CP??? ((If you need more than one guess, I’ll be disappointed XD))

I can’t wait for you to play Watlz’s route. That guy is still my favorite, and I still wanna cry when I think of him XD Trust me, there are FEEELS. HE’s also one of my favorite tropes T^T

Don’t worry, I also always get good endings first and then the bad ones (tbh I do the bad ones for the CGs and achievements. I wouldn’t do them otherwise XD)

The art is honestly one of my favorite parts, especially the character designs! Some of the CG is a bit inconsistent, but it’s still admirable, especially for a free game! 

Trust me, the music is absolutely amazing! If you ever want to hear it, there’s a small sound room or something in the settings and you can always listen to it there ^^

I know the history of the whole world s so creative! I honestly never expected MC’s mom to be the witch crystal (forgot the name lol) bearer, but it was a nice twist!

Yep, Rod is a bit predictable, but it’s still a fun route ^^ He’s my 4th favorite, tho…  Or 5th, I honestly can’t decide…

Karma, my darling ;-; Tbh, I’ve always doubted that he was Beauty and the Beast (because it’s my favorite fairytale If i’m gonna be honest :P), but the whole ‘not now’ and ‘running out of time’ (haaaaamilton) thing gave it away.  The ‘Character calls MC a pet name (darling, love, LITTLE STAR (T^T)) is definitely one of my favorite things ever ^^ But I knew Karma was, well, Karma (aka Beautiful Lady) the second he appeared in the alleyway in the prologue. the hair gave it away tbh I think we should meet Llama in the fan disk coming out soon? I really wanna buy that disk XD

Rump is so much more than he seems. I mean, from what I saw in the prologue, he was my lest favourite, but I think he might be 4th? Still not sure if it’s him or Rod… ((also, don’t get me wrong, just because they’re last doesn’t mean I dislike them! It’s just that I like them the least (sounds equally horrible)))

I love Fritz, but I love Varg more, which is why Fritz’s bad end is the worst for me, personally (vaaaaaaaarg). And I was so sad when he erased himself ;-; Why you do that my dear wolf. 

I KNOW I ALMOST SCREAMED WHEN DELORA DIED WHYYYYYYYYY. Idk, in some routes it does feel like mom-daughter somewhat, but then again, i some routes, Delora is more of that sassy friend.

Yep, i mentioned it before, i really like MC’s growth ^^ It’s nice to see her go from total bitch to just slightly bitch XD 

A whole bunch of extra routes were considered, from what I heard, but they simply didn’t have the time or funds to include them…

Mythros is that guy i wanted to feel sorry for, but simply couldn’t. Especially not after waLTZ’S ROUTE. Fuck you, Mythros.

Oh, wow! Poor Eliza and Theodosia hahah Tbh, I always use Luna in otogames because it’s not my real name (so no embarrassment from the characters calling me by my actual name), but since i always, always use Luna on the net, I’ve kinda adopted it as a second name XD

Mr. Broom best boy 1000/10. I want a route for him.

Awe, thanks a lot!  My faves list looks like this: 1. Waltz (still crying) 2. Karma/Varg 3. Fritz (that’s right, Varg is above Fritz, despite being Fritz) 4. Rumpel, actually 5. Rod.

So I am very very happy to be shipped with (technically) both 2nd best hahah

Honestly, I see you with Fritz, bc cinnamon roll and cinnamon roll! He’d always be the one to makee sure you’re not uncomfortable with something and would melt when he saw you with little kids (despite the fact that you were pleading for someone to help you at the moment XD). Also, you can bet this guy will dedicate so much of his free time to watching you pain. HE’d also try to learn how to paint himself, so he could feel closer to you! Also, time to drown Evans in pastries, it doesn’t matter if she likes them or not, Fritz will buy more or less the whole shop so you can try it. He messes up so badly if you come watch his practice. He is dead. He can’t handle the pressure of you watching (even tho I doubt you’d give a flying fuck if he messed up a step or something) and will just turn red, turn around and call for a break.  Also, you can bet this guy is all about head pats. You learn to have a comb with you at all times XD

Enjoy Waltz’s route and the feels! 

Oh, and I also made Aesthetics for some characters, I’ll post them separately, cause they’re on my phone ^^))