#that wasn’t a silly drawing or a template

[myrablurple]

As much as I have been enjoying Art Fight, I’m kinda glad I’ve been taking some small breaks to draw a Zurora piece because I miss them 😭💜

[ruthytwoshakes]

That’s it everybody, 1 full year of tf2 fanart! Wowie its crazy to see it all just compiled into one little image.,, wowwwwww its hurting g my brain.

Thanks everybody for all the memories and the epic community I’ve found myself in!! Tf2 really means a lot to me, this year was really fucking rough, but this silly little game really helped me pull through it all. As well as the fandom! its been so much fun to draw fanart and see everybody’s else’s works, you guys are so creative and encouraging and kind,I couldn’t ask for a better community :]

huge thanks to @stangeranfanficion and @quotidianishfor being so swag and such cool friends :D I really appreciate all the love you guys have given me and hope you both have a wonderful new years!!

My art has improved so much over the past year, it’s crazy to see all this improvement and it’s really encouraging me to start working on projects that I thought I wasn’t skilled enough to do! I’m gonna really try and improve my living conditions and health so hopefully I’ll be able to actually complete what I want to!! No promises, but I think I’ll be able to start and maybe finish some really cool stuff this year.

Blank template below for anybody who wants to make a tf2 themed art summary too! Tag me if you do I’d love to see it :D

[poorlytunedukulele]

Prompt 10 - The Ghost of You

Note: This is actually a little sneak peek of the next chapter of Curses.  Have fun! ;)

-

June 11, 2960; The Last City, Earth

Azra saw them everywhere in the systems.  All of the filenames for Io had been changed- they now read Ayooo_Pat_Map or Scan_Requests_Ayooo_YEAR.  She found Cayde’s extensive list of People To Not Put On Patrol Together (and his even more extensive list of People To Try And Set Up Together).   Tallulah Fairwind’s Ghost had started a Guide to the Feeding and Care of the Hunter Vanguard- each subsequent Vanguard’s Ghost had given updates or funny little anecdotes.  Charin and Sundance’s entries gave Spark a sharp pang of his own grief.

It was too much.  Azra took a snapshot of the database as it was, then reset it to its base template.  She stared at it for a long time- a fresh slate, she thought to herself.  (A petty act of destruction, seeking vengeance against the office.)

Then she got to work.  She updated all of the maps, adding in ones the official Vanguard archive didn’t have- defunct Fallen dens, an incomplete survey of Crota’s Throne World, dozens of baren icy objects in the Kuiper Belt that nobody really cared about.  She revived the old list of People To Not Put On Patrol Together and added a few of her own observations.

Then she sat back and looked at it all again like she was surveying a freshly-built camp.  Spark was rooting through his own personal files, looking for anything else that might be of use.

He found something, something that made him sad.  A second later, he uploaded a plain text document.  It hadn’t been updated in almost a year.  Azra opened it in curiosity.

Of all the inventions Humanity has made, the dry-erase board really is the most remarkable.

Oh.  It was the list of bad jokes she’d kept for Andal.  She’d started it before the Vault.  She always worried Andal would get bored sitting alone all day and resolved to keep a cache of corny humor for the off times.  She still added to it on occasion.

Spark shuffled through the old Vanguard Hunter database and pulled up another file- a list of bad jokes Andal had kept.  There were plenty in there she’d sent him, but he’d made a subsection for new ones to send back to her.

Azra looked back at the old database and saw it- the home Andal had made for himself, away from all of them.  The home Cayde had made.  The silly filenames Andal had made as a secret joke- the ones that Cayde had kept.  The ridiculously overcomplicated patrol scheduling system- clearly a work of Andal’s genius.  The giant ‘MISC’ folder Cayde had thrown all of his documents in- because of course he knew where they were, even if he had to root around for twenty minutes to actually find them, telling him to clean up just made him stubborn.

There was more than just the two of them- Ainsel Leagh had started a tally of Consensus topics (they really liked talking about infrastructure repair, it seemed).  Kauko Swiftriver apparently had a hand for drawing- there were caricatures of almost every Tower figure of his time.  Caliban-8 had left a series of images- first a few snapshots of a ceiling somewhere, then a progression of half-melted knives sprouting out of the center beam until the thing bristled like a porcupine.  There were dozens of edits and compilations of clips pulled straight from the Vanguard Feed.  There were lists of ideas for Dares and plausible excuses to get out of obligations.  There was a trove of reviews for the various eateries in the City. 

It was a dozen voices calling out from the void of the past, saying I was here.  I mattered.  I wasn’t just another cog in the machine.  You aren’t, either. 

Azra reinstated the old database, then went about re-doing her map updates and additions.

She sat and looked at it again.  It was… better.  Not right.  Not even good- there was still too much of them in it, it hurt her heart to look at.  But it was better.

AO3 Linky!

[startanewdream]

For @sweeethinny, inspired by her drawing of Lily's dress for the celebration of her 25th wedding anniversary, because I couldn't think of anything else since I saw her beautiful drawing:

~*~*~*~*~*~

“This one looks nice.”

“Nah, it’s too thick. You have tiny fingers.”

“What about that pair then?”

“Too thin. It looks like a keychain.”

“And I’m guessing that one is too fancy?”

“You know me all too well, Lils.”

She shakes her head, more amused than anything after three days into their shopping spree. For a pair of wedding rings.

Everything else went smoothly on their wedding plans. They agreed on the venue upon first visit and the date they wanted was available. They decided on the wedding cake and the decoration and even the template for the invitations—the designer didn’t understand the stag and doe, but didn’t ask many questions either—, including the type of paper. Lily picked her wedding dress on the first store she visited, to her friends’ dismay. James got his suit approved by Sirius on the second try, which was considered a success.

Until they went shopping for their wedding rings and then they realized that there were multiple options of wedding rings and surprisingly none of them seemed to fit.

“We can just craft one,” she mumbles to him while the kind sellswoman runs to present them another set of wedding rings.

“It could be…” James mumbles, unsure, and Lily can’t blame him. She is also starting to think they won’t ever find the perfect ring. Until— “Hey! Those are cool!”

Lily follows the direction of his gaze. James is looking at another shelf, one that wasn’t presented for them and Lily knows exactly why as soon as she notices the rings there.

“We can’t have those, James,” she tells him patiently. “See the silver band around them?”

“Yeah, that’s what I liked! It reminds me of the rings my parents had.”

“They would have. The silver is to represent their 25th wedding anniversary.”

“How come?”

“Oh, you don’t know? Each anniversary of a wedding is associated with some type of gift. The first year is cotton, I think. The most known are 25th and 50th anniversaries. Silver is for 25th, golden is for 50th.”

“But wedding rings are already made of gold.”

Lily shrugs. “I don’t know, it’s just the way it is. It’s cute to think your parents had a wedding ring with a silver band, some couples add the silver to their wedding ring for celebration.”

“Why can’t we have one of those now anyway? I’m planning to stay married with you all my life, and that includes all wedding anniversaries.”

Warmth spreads through her body. Lily blames the easiness in James’ voice; he is not trying to declare his love for her in his sentence, he is speaking as it is obvious they will be together, as if he can’t fathom his life otherwise.

It’s nice to imagine them 10, 25, 50 years in the future, growing old together.

“Let’s save those rings for our 25th wedding anniversary,” she tells him, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “And hopefully find our perfect wedding rings so we can get married in the first place.”

________

The bells ring at the small church at Godric’s Hollow and Lily feels back to 25 years ago, standing nervously at the doors of the church, holding her father’s arm. It had been silly to feel any fear then, because she had been sure about her decision to marry James, young as they were, and it’s even sillier now, but she can’t help the quick beating of her heart.

“You know, you can still give up,” Sirius tells her, smirking, as he offers her arm to her. “I can lend you my motorbike, it’s parked outside.”

“You are 25 years late in your proposition, Padfoot,” she replies, grinning as well, and he winks at her as the doors of the church open.

It’s a Wednesday night and the church is almost empty save for Lily and James’ closest friends and family. She gets a quick glimpse of Harry waving at her from the first row of seats, but then, just like it happened all those years ago, once Lily meets James’ eyes, she can’t see anyone else.

Twenty-five years ago she didn’t doubt she still wanted to be with him and she still doesn’t.

“You look beautiful,” he tells her, his whisper carrying through the church and making their guests chuckle with the obvious adoration in his voice.

James is oblivious to anything else but her; he raises his hand, running it from her cheeks to her shoulder and down to her bare arms before he intertwines their fingers, and when his gaze falls to the slit that shows her leg, he winks at Lily with an expression that seems better fitted to their upcoming second honeymoon.

And then, just like in the first time, she can’t really focus on the ceremony.

“Your wedding rings?” the priest asks, and James glances at their son. Harry rushes to give him a velvet box that seems strangely worn out and dusty.

When James opens the box, Lily sees a pair of shiny new wedding rings, the gold and the silver intertwined in a delicate pattern. There is something strangely familiar about those rings, but not what she expected.

“Those aren’t our original wedding rings,” she notes, surprised. James grins.

“No, these are the ones we first saw in that jewelry store the day we bought our first wedding rings.”

“You went back there to buy them? I thought that store had closed years ago.”

“Oh, it did. I went back to buy them the same day, right after you got home.”

“You did? Why?”

“I told you we would still be married in 25 years. I kept them all those years waiting for this moment.”

“Oh, James…” She pulls him closer, kissing him even though the ceremony is still not over. There are giggles and sighes, but Lily feels only James’ lips and that happiness she associates with him for more than twenty-five years. “All I want is 25 more years with you.”

“And then 25 more?”

“As long as we can have it. Until the end.”

[auncyen]

001 - Ann & Ren/Akira; 002 - Morgana

this time I will c/p both templates at the start so I remember to do both lol

Ren/Ann

when I started shipping it if I did:

I was interested in it from my first playthrough, though I actually romanced Makoto that playthrough due to timing with confidants (I was...not too great with confidants my first playthrough, though I would like to say I only missed by three in the end).  Romanced Ann my second playthrough and was happy.

my thoughts:

Like Ren/Ryuji, these two make me happy as a sort of “opposites attract”, where Ren appreciates Ann’s bubbly nature so much for helping him get out of his head for a bit and Ann doesn’t mind his reserved nature because of how thoughtful he is (until he’s keeping secrets on Christmas Eve and then it drives her a LITTLE nuts)

What makes me happy about them:

They’re pretty much my two favorite characters in p5 (though the competition for the top spots is fierce XD) and I think their differences make things interesting, so it’s fun to pair them just from that, but also thinking about Ren letting himself be silly with Ann is nice!

What makes me sad about them:

Because the game doesn’t let who your girlfriend is affect too much mechanically (which is a bit understandable in terms of difficulty implementing it...), it’s a little awkward if you romance Ann ASAP and they just...seem to go through the entire game with it apparently being a secret?  I think it is believable for them to keep it quiet for a while (maybe not wanting to make a big deal out of it in case they break up, or Ren worrying that any decision involving Ann will immediately lead to suspicions of favoritism once people know, or just not wanting to upset Mona/Ryuji/Yusuke, depending on what Ren thinks the other guys’ feelings for Ann are), but I would hope that by mid and especially end-game, they’d be comfortable enough with each other and the team to say “hey, yeah, we’re a couple”.

(Of course that would get in the way of harem route.  But harem route is dumb anyway.)

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Sometimes I feel the ditziness for Ann gets...way too overdone?  It’s a hard balance to strike because she canonically isn’t much better as a student than Ryuji and it’s implied she has trouble staying on task on her own, but she definitely can stay on task in a group setting and she’s insightful at times.  I can get her getting down on herself sometimes (there’s little moments in canon that seem to imply she does) but when fic actually makes it seem like Joker has to...babysit her or something it’s like nooooooo.

things I look for in fanfic:

I guess just going with above, the sense that they’re equals and both making decisions to better themselves.

But also fluff.  I love fluff. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Ren: Ryuji, Haru, Yusuke

Ann: ...Ryuji with the caveat of a bit of development?  Like I don’t think I’d hate a different PT romance for her but I haven’t really been interested in any of them.  (Ann/Shiho is kind of so prevalent and usually presented like it’s just some automatic thing that I’m just “meh” on it.  I like them fine as best friends.)

My happily ever after for them:

I really would like Ann to finally figure out what acting is XD and be able to work as an actress.  I’m not sure if it’s something I see her sticking with long term, but I do think her career would be spent in the public spotlight, with her making sure to take lots of downtime in private to be with Ren and keep herself sane.  Ren could go a few ways--became a local politician out of sheer spite over bullshit policies, is a journalist in the politics section because he’s good at stumbling into all sorts of trouble and getting people to open up to him so it’s never been a dull moment....not sure.  They have a nice apartment where Morgana is staying with them (having long gotten over his crush by this point).

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Ann initiates more often as the big spoon but every once in a while, Ren decides he needs to snuggle her close and is the big spoon. 

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

...Cuddling.  Though I’m also amused by the idea of them playing team-based games easy for couples to play, like pictionary (ESPECIALLY pictionary--Ren’s drawings look fine, Ann’s look like an imaginative first grader’s...this would go one of two ways--Ren having fun lightly teasing Ann as their team goes down in flames because he can’t make heads or tails of what she’s drawing, or Ren astounding the other team because he can.)

Morgana

How I feel about this character:

So Ann and Ren are my top two characters; Morgana is third.  (Again, the competition for top spots is pretty fierce--Ryuji, Haru and Yusuke are all right below this, and I like Makoto and Futaba pretty well too.)  ...Part of that is probably because he is a cat, but it’s also just--he definitely comes off to me as a younger, caring but bossy sibling to the protagonist, and it’s just cute???

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

...I don’t...really...although actually in one fic where Ren’s hometown was Inaba and Morgana was trying to become human, I h/ced him having a crush on Nanako, who would be pretty close to the age I h/c him being equivalent to.  (I think they were just slightly off by a year or two?  I’d have to figure out her age again.)  ...But like even in that fic idea he didn’t actually get with Nanako.  In fic where he turns human there are a couple ships I’d be willing to read, but personally I feel like all the PT would probably see him as a younger brother.  ...and also be a little hung up on the fact that he’d once been cat-shaped.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Ren & Morgana brotp for life.  Morgana probably gets in trouble with other PT at some point for keeping secrets about Ren’s more dangerous activities, but he and Ren have a code.  (The code is “snitches get stitches”.  They are both a little terrible sometimes.)

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I just think he gets bashed way too much.  I have literally seen posts where Ryuji is excused on certain things for being immature, still a teenager, and then Morgana is bashed, and it’s like ?????? Ryuji has sixteen years of life experience over Morgana!  If Ryuji deserves that sympathy (which I think is fair, he does), Morgana deserves it as well, if not more!  Where in Mementos was Morgana supposed to pick up life lessons on being mature?

(Granted I think it’s perfectly fair to be irked at the writers for making Morgana the character he is, because they certainly could have made him mature if they wanted to with some handwavey reason.  Just, from an in-universe perspective, ...he actually could have been way worse with the background he has.)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Let him be human!  Kind of still on the last point but I also think it’s understandable for Morgana to not always approach issues maturely because there are literally only seven people he can talk to so god help him when he needs to ask advice on an interpersonal conflict because there could easily be no neutral party for him to ask.  I just feel like him being stuck as a cat hamstrings him so much in terms of potential development which like...I guess ATLUS wants a mascot character, but in-universe?  Feels kind of cruel of Igor unless there wasn’t an option on how to make Mona.

...There were ship questions in this meme but I’m taking those out lol

a headcanon fact:

He can’t talk to normal cats, but he does understand them better than most humans do (though he doesn’t understand them perfectly himself--he is still a product of human cognition, not feline) and that’s part of why he gets so upset about the cat abuser.  He people-watches a lot when Ren’s with confidants, but he has once or twice gotten attached to strays in the area and done his best to try to help them, most likely by leading them to friendly humans, or leading the friendly humans to them.

[love-of-fandoms]

Unnamed

They didn’t really get the whole loving summer thing. It was much too hot, there were bugs everywhere, and no matter how many layers they shed, they were always drenched in sweat.

Going swimming was nice, they supposed. But then again there was the whole issue of wearing a swimsuit and constantly feeling like people are judging you. Feeling the eyes on your body judging your figure.

“Should you really be wearing that?”

It wasn’t even that pretty of a season. Not like autumn, when the leaves would change from green to warmer shades and then cascade to the ground. Or winter, when snow shimmered as you looked out at the world, coating the ground evenly to be disturbed by children playing or animals running through. Lakes and ponds froze over, allowing people to skate and slide across them, laughing the whole way.

Their theory as to why there was such a widespread love for the season was well thought out, it had to be if they wished to justify their dislike for it. They attributed it to leftover anticipation of a couple months break from school. Even years after people had seen the last of sitting in a classroom and being subjected to the social nightmare known as waiting around for school to start. When they no longer had summer vacation to look forward to they still held onto the feelings of freedom and giddiness that came with the beginning of summer. And they also stubbornly held onto the stifling misery that accompanied the return to school in the fall.

Sometimes they felt as though they were living in a different world from everyone else. Rationally, they knew this wasn’t true. They could attribute it to a chemical imbalance in their brain, or a particularly horrid experience in their childhood. But still, sometimes, they still found themself baffled by how people couldn’t see what they saw.

Of course, everyone saw the world slightly differently, different lives create different lenses, but they couldn’t just listen to how someone else saw it and try to see in the same way? They couldn’t even try to see how that cloud looked kind of like a witch’s hat?

“It’s just a cloud,” the people would say. “It doesn’t have a shape,” yet this was said only after a glance that lasted maybe half a second. Just look. There’s the brim, and there’s the cone up to the point of the hat. If people couldn’t even try to physically see what they saw, the beauty in winter, the shape of a cloud, how could they empathize on a deeper level? People would either deny the cloud had a shape, or they’d belittle you for seeing that shape. “Clearly it’s a cat,” and you were silly for thinking anything else. 

Of course they did actually understand why people loved summer. The sentiment was so widespread that it was hard not to. But instead of people nodding and saying ‘I can see that’ when they explained their dislike of summer, the people would just scrunch their faces up.

“Really?” this was always accompanied by the same baffled look they would be given. Eyebrows would raise and lips would purse together. “That’s weird,” they’d say as they scrunched their nose up, and after an awkward, silent pause, the conversation would move on, and their face would smooth out.

It wasn’t as if they were a young child who lacked the vocabulary to express what they thought. They were an artist, a musician. They had so many ways to express themself, yet none of them got them any closer to the understanding they yearned for. Their drawings were “eerie” or just “pretty” and her lyrics were “deep” and “edgy”. Yet no one could understand how they were deep. They just recognized some metaphor and assumed the rest of the song was based on that metaphor.

When they were a teenager, they had written a song about how dysfunctional their family was, and their elder sister had thought it was about their love for their family. Back then, they hadn’t yet given up on trying to explain themself. They still held onto the naïvety that allowed them to continue to try, that maybe if they found the right words, or the right ear to listen, someone would understand. So they had told their sister what it was actually about.

“Well that doesn’t make sense,” she had said, wearing the same scrunched up expression that was all too familiar. “Are you sure?” she asked, as if they didn’t know their own song. Their own song that they had just written and performed and explained to someone. It was as if there was a template for people’s responses to their thoughts and their art and their little musings they would occasionally indulge in sharing out loud. A scrunched up face, followed by a statement of disbelief, the occasional question, and then an awkward moment of silence before changing the subject.

“You know, summer isn’t the best season,”

“What?”

“I prefer fall,”

“Why?”

“It’s prettier,”

“Summer is more fun,”

“Fall can be more fun if you make it fun,”

“Oh,” a pause. “Well this last summer I went to Toronto, have you ever been?”

“...no,” a long sigh, a shrug, and a poker face.

[lumilasi]

UPDATE: Bio revamp. Also I should probs draw him an outfit he wears when he goes into more “darker” route, I.E ends up being a “Villain” Jackrabbit.

Maybe there is a Vigilante bio sheet thing somewhere, I was too lazy to search for it hence I’m using the villain template and just editing it where necessary...

The character in the photo on the upper left is @glitchedskull‘s Naosu btw, who’s Saname’s BF

Rest of the bio below;

Age: around 13-14 when he first meets Ryuu and Kain.

Sexuality: pan 

SANAME’S QUIRK EXPLAINED  (Pros in normal, cons in bold)

Quirk name: Acid-palm

He can burn and melt anything he touches at will with ease as if his hands were coated in acid. Saname can also control how slow or fast things corrode, and even what direction the corrosion heads very precisely.

He doesn’t have to keep touching the object to corrode it; after touching the effect will continue as he pre-planned it. He can also change the effect’s speed and direction after removing his hand as long as he has visual to it.

He can do anything from creating a tiny hole to melting away large walls fairly quickly. 

Ironically, Saname is mostly immune to other acidic quirks and substances, just not his own.

If not careful, Saname can end up burning himself as sometimes a highly agitated state can cause his quirk to activate accidentally, and he’s not immune to his own touch. (hence the scars on his neck and over his eye)

Blocking his line of sight from what he’s touched makes him unable to change the way the corrosion happens if needed.

The effect of his acidic touch tends to weaken and move slower in colder weathers

FEW MORE FACTS

- Wasabi is good with melee-weapons like a staff or a pipe, and usually carries around one.

- He loves rabbits more than anything because his only toy as a child was a bunny plushie, one he still carries around and has a strong attachment to

- Ryuu is his favorite and he likes to stalk him around a lot each time Ryuu is around, this has led to problems too where he ends up in danger and the two have to save him. He finds Ryuu’s weird chilly crystal powers cool. (pun not intended)

- he has a slight phobia about collapsing buildings and fires due to what he went through as a child, having a flame hero - while fighting a villain - destroy his original home of sorts.

- Saname’s visible eye (the one with the palmprint scar) is discolored and lighter due to the injury he caused accidentally with his quirk when it first activated; he can still see with it thankfully, but it tends to get irritated easier than the other one. His “normal” eye is pure black and yellow. (I seem to have habit of drawing him in a way where you almost never see his uninjured eye heh.....)

- Saname as an adult mostly minds his own business, but due to the influence from his mothers and Ryuu and Kain) he tends to just act without thinking and doing what he thinks is right, even if its illegal. He never actively chose to be a vigilante like his other mum, its just kind of how he ended up due to his nature.

- His knee-pads in his Vigilante outfit are his lion mama Kei’s old ones from her outfit. His utility belt is also similar to her old one, just dark grey instead of brown.

PERSONALITY

As a child, Wasabi was very curious and easily excitable, getting in trouble a lot as a result. He had difficulty controlling his emotions due to his early childhood however, and was often aggressive, where he could snap from friendly to will-whack-you-with-a-stick in less than a second. 

As a young adult, he’s much more chill and well-mannered, but still has bit of a childish goofiness to him which can lead to silly situations and generally makes people think he’s the “class-clown” or “airhead” type. He’s also learned to be more mindful of people’s boundaries, when as a kid he tended to easily get into people’s faces so to say, making things awkward and uncomfortable.

 He can still get viciously mad in certain situations, but he no longer throws an uncontrollable fit; rather, he channels his anger in doing what he wants to do. During these times people can actually find this normally relaxed and happy-go-lucky (and a bit oblivious) chill dude really scary. 

He can be distracted pretty easily, except when he’s in a fight; thanks to training from both his mum Kei, and an unconventional family friend of sorts Ryuu Katagiri, Saname tends to be laser focused during those, which makes him a dangerous opponent. He tends to shut out everything else then and focus on defeating whoever he is fighting.

BG STORY SUMMARY

Saname grew up in an orphanage initially on a more poor area of the city; he can’t really remember anything about his original parents, perhaps due to trauma of some sort; given his aversion to fire people suspect he might’ve been in a fire that killed his parents.

 He was often bullied by other children and called weird because of his eyes, (he was the only one in that orphanage with “atypical” human eyes) difficult, easily triggered temper, and quirk that he struggled to control as a kid. (resulting in the scarring he has)

The orphanage gave him his name “Saname Wasabi,” because of his green hair and quirk. (and temper)

Then, the orphanage got destroyed accidentally in a fight in-between a hero (Endeavor) and a villain, with some of the staff and kids actually getting hurt in the process. Saname ended up running away amidst the chaos, frightened by the battle as the flames triggered his past unknown trauma.

Wandering around the city lost and scared, he eventually ran into a young woman named Rankure Hanekijo, who due to personal reasons decides to take the boy under her wing. Unfortunately, she had some bad people after her, forcing the two to flee outside the city, eventually ending up in a rural town where a local coffee-shop owner Kei Reidou - who turned out to have once been a vigilante - takes them in out of pity.

He ends up being unofficially adopted by the two women, who home-school him and he was even taught how to fight and better handle his quirk by Reidou. (This later led him to becoming a vigilante) 

Later on, Wasabi meets an old acquaintance of his new mum, a young man named Kain, who has supposedly become a villain and is friends with a known one. Because the pair helps preventing his mothers from getting arrested by some government agents by distracting them and basically making them think the lead about a woman named Akiko Hinoteki (Kei’s original name and identity) was a false alarm, Wasabi deems the pair okay. He ends up developing a big brother - little brother like relationship with Ryuu, who grows fond of the boy despite initial grouchiness, even teaching him some fight moves.

While doing his vigilante things, probably due to Kain and Ryuu’s influence, Saname ended up occasionally going further than what probably would be necessary, in some cases full blown killing the criminal if he deemed them bad enough, or just beating people up worse than needed. This ended up creating a rumor of an evil doppleganger for his vigilante persona, perhaps especially because occasionally when he did this, he wasn’t wearing his vigilante garments. 

Ref sheet base (C) Yourultraarchive

Character (C) Me

[evakuality]

Do you want to talk to me? Communication in Druck s3 (part four)

This is part four of my ongoing discussion of the theme of communication in s3 of Druck.  You can find the other parts here: 

You look good tonight: Communication in Druck s3 (part one)  

Make a clear statement, straight up: Communication in Druck s3 (part two)

He doesn’t talk to me: Communication in Druck s3 (part three)

I’d like here to first reiterate what I said in the first part of this communication study, and which is most relevant in these last few episodes.  I don’t necessarily agree with all the plots etc in this show, I don’t necessarily think it’s been done as well as it could be.  But I’m working with what is there, and because I want to give it the benefit of the doubt I won’t be critiquing anything that may not be my favourite.  Having said that, episode 8 is obviously one that’s important in terms of communication, particularly in the first clip.  So, does that mean I spent an entire post on one episode and most of that post on one clip?  Yes, yes it does.  Because there’s a lot going on in that clip and this episode, and it kind of deserved its own post just for that.

Matteo and David

It opens with Matteo watching over a sleeping David and allowing himself to be as open as he wants about his feelings.  It’s a mirror to the scene with Jonas in episode one, where he’s so quiet and careful with his body language and doesn’t let himself give in to it fully, instead curling in on himself.  Interestingly, in both cases he’s not really communicating with the person he’s with.  Neither of them is awake, so it is the audience who gets this message.  It’s a recognition, I guess, that Matteo (or in this case the person he’s with) isn’t quite ready to be fully open and honest even if he wants to be.  David moving away and curling into himself is nonverbal communication at its finest, and reflects the way Matteo held himself back in that scene with Jonas, but Matteo doesn’t let it deter him.  He curls right around him and connects them; he’s not willing to let David run at this point.  So of course he’s annoyed and irritated when David suggests doing just that later on.  He’s over this; he wants them on the same page.  He wants to know properly what’s going on, no more of this back and forth.  He wants words, even specifically tells David to say it to him when he suggests sending it by message.  David, while visibly scared about all this, acknowledges this.  Even more so than the previous night it’s clear that running now, or not being clear and honest, means losing Matteo for good.  

Usually, Matteo has been the quiet one, the one relying on nonverbal cues to ‘talk’ to David, but here the roles are reversed, at least to begin with.  David stands, closed in and silent, while Matteo does all of the talking and most of the communicating.  He perseveres, too, even in the face of David’s silence.  It’s very much like it was in the pool that first time, where David recognised and responded to Matteo’s body language.  Here, though, it’s not the joyful and the silly, but the quiet and despairing.  Matteo tries to connect but David is very reserved, very unlike the person we have grown to know.  Matteo is soft, gentle.  He understands that something serious is up, and wants to get David to talk to him (he even literally says ‘do you want to talk with me?’).  He’s learned over the last week or two how to do this, and now he wants to share this newly discovered joy of communication with David.  It works for a while.  David does let him in a little.  We learn about the argument with the teacher, we’re allowed into some of his vulnerabilities. But it doesn’t last and David closes in again, turns away.  It’s only when David does act like he’s going to leave again that Matteo gets harsher.  One thing to note, though, is that he’s still not as harsh with David as he was with the boys, neither in tone nor in what he says.  It still has the desired effect.  While Matteo had intended to drive the boys away and was successful, here he’s trying to draw David in, and it works.  He follows him back over to the bed and sits, in a position that mirrors Matteo’s.

What follows is one of the best pieces of communication in the season.  David is allowed to speak, and tell Matteo on his own terms (for the most part, if we let go that Matteo has made the message ‘talk to me about whatever is going on or leave me alone’ pretty clear).  He gets to say what he wants to about his own experience in a way that works for him.  He gets to say, out loud and to the person himself: ‘I’m a boy’ and he gets to say that more than once.  He gets to reiterate it, make it completely clear.  There’s no obfuscation or possibility for it to be misunderstood.  Presumably he’s been rehearsing this, and having written it down has a template for what to say even if he doesn’t use it, so he genuinely is getting to tell his own story.  Matteo then says he doesn’t know what to say.  It’s another clear statement: I don’t know how to communicate with you about this, but I’m still interested.  David gets it, too, recognises the implications.  That it’s not that Matteo is unwilling to talk about this, but more that he doesn’t know how to.  Much as the way this is left for the next few days is difficult, it’s already set here where they’re both at: David has been clear and open having laid everything on the table, and Matteo is still with him, but doesn’t know what to do or say.  

Of course, the best option would be for him to use some of his newly acquired communication skills and actually talk to David about this, but to cut him some slack, this is new to him: both opening up and knowing how to talk, and the idea that David is transgender.  Even the way he was willing to be open and vulnerable with David at the start of the season is only a few weeks ago, and before that he was closed off and alienated from everyone.  It’s not a surprise that when he hears something this new and this unknown that he’s not going to be his ideal communicating self.  I know we talk pacing and timing here, but he still does a lot over the next few days to communicate.  I said I was going to ignore the whatsapp messages, but I’ll break that rule for once to mention that he does use them to reach out to David and he does post the sandwich maker meme.  He is saying, both literally and figuratively, that he’s there with David.  Again, this isn’t ideal because David is still mostly in the dark here and for an audience who is watching this communication it all happens outside the context of the show itself.  But we once again get the shared ‘in-joke’ which only the two of them will get.  There’s still communication happening here, still a connection being drawn around the two of them shutting them into their own world and others out, even if it’s distanced and not perfect.  It means that David isn’t angry or even all that upset that it takes Matteo a while to come to him, because he has the clumsy, inelegant but very clear pieces of communication that Matteo is able to give.  The lines of communication are clearly left open by both.  David on his way out of the room, and Matteo in his choice of meme and the messages.

Another interesting point about communication in this particular clip is the ‘why didn’t you tell me before?’ ‘I didn’t want to tell anyone at school’ exchange.  The emphasis is on talking, communicating.  It is, perhaps, the thing David is having to learn how to do: how to open up and be vulnerable and talk about the things that are important to him.  From the beginning, Matteo has been the one who has been more willing to open up about his issues when talking with David who has been more inclined to hide behind jokes or misdirection.  That’s not to say that David has been lying, of course.  He hasn’t been.  He’s never said anything that wasn’t true, (except ‘I’m not into you’) but he hasn’t wanted to be open, hasn’t wanted to speak clearly about himself.  There are a lot of reasons for this and I won’t try to psychoanalyse him too much right now, but the at the basic heart of this communication story is a boy who hasn’t been able to be honest and for whom that is a terrifying proposition.  As much as Matteo has had to learn how to talk to people, let them in and let himself rely on them, so has David only he’s had actually a lot further to come (despite his seemingly much more open and approachable appearance, he’s actually much more closed and guarded than Matteo).  And to his credit, he’s doing that here.  Luckily for him, these two have always been very good at communicating with each other and so while it’s awkward and clumsy to start, Matteo has a good basis from which to start and David has enough experience with Matteo to know he’s not completely shut away from him.  Matteo even says to Hans that he feels understood when he’s with David and that’s on show through this section.  Whatever happens, and however far it falls short of an ideal, they at least have that to fall back on: they understand each other, always have, and demonstrate that over and over right throughout the season.  That experience serves them well here, because they both know that connection is still there.  It means that at the end of the episode when Matteo reaches out, it’s just natural.  There’s no big deal made of it.  Should I come pick you up after your exam?  Yeah, I’d like that.  It really has just been a matter of time.

Matteo and other people

In terms of other people and Matteo communicating, we get Jonas picking up on his body language and reserved speech for once.  He has in the earlier sections of the season been a little disengaged from Matteo, but it’s clear that after the last week and the strides they have made in talking to each other, that he’s back into an understanding of who Matteo is.  So he knows it’s not ‘chill’ and he knows it’s not like Matteo to be the way he is here, particularly not if his reunion with David went as the boys had expected it to.  He waits til the others are preoccupied and then quietly asks ‘are you really okay?’ - it’s an invitation to speak, and Matteo is willing to take him up on it, though not this publicly.  There’s a recognition, now that no one is fixated on Sara anymore, that he can actually talk to Jonas.  Unlike the previous time he offers, when the things he offers to discuss are irrelevant (Sara and his mother), this time there’s a genuine response from Matteo.  He will ‘tell you later’ because he knows he can.  The connections are back and so communication is working properly between them.

And Hans again, of course, who misunderstood what ‘some of my questions’ meant but instead of retreating as he might have before, Matteo just finds this hilarious and corrects the misconception.  They have another clear and open discussion, questions asked and answered, and again Matteo is able to articulate very clearly how he feels about David.  He has questions and concerns about the situation, but he’s absolutely rock solid on how he feels.  It means that he is able to use the word ‘love’ when he talks to his mother and is, of course, building to a point where he can tell David that himself.  It’s very sweet that Hans has ‘prepared something’ (which includes a bottle of water and some glasses) in order to make this Q and A go well for Matteo.  He’s thought ahead, much like Matteo did with Amira and their second study date, and is showing Matteo how seriously he’s talking this guruing.  It’s really nice to see Matteo reaching these levels of communication, both verbal and nonverbal, with characters who aren’t David.  He’s learned a lot about how to do this, and as a result he’s much more willing to let other characters into his life and they in turn show him they appreciate it.

Another thread that’s running through this episode is, of course, the connection with Matteo’s mother.  This has been there through the entire season of course, but it’s only here that she tries to make genuine contact by calling him.  It’s escalating, the attempts to reach him, and mirrors what Matteo will have to do to reach David later.  But the way Matteo responds through this episode is interesting. He starts by ignoring her call (which comes immediately after he tells Hans he wants to talk to him, recognising the importance of talking in person), then builds through his awkward attempt at telling her over the phone about himself and about David which fails because he loses his nerve.  Of course, he ends up back at a text when he does finally manage to open up.  This seems on the surface to be a backwards step, and we’ve seen in the past that communicating big things via text doesn’t tend to go well.  Both Matteo’s break up with Sara and David’s with him didn’t have the desired effects, and yet this actually gives Matteo the distance he needs in this case to say what he needs to.  That he’s gay (for his mother to infer from the rest of the message) and that he’s in love with a boy (clear and direct).  

The fact that through this season so much bad communication happens via text (eg Sara’s instagram post, the dreaded spreading of Matteo’s sexuality rumours, the break ups, and the video outing David, when it comes, is even surrounded by text when it’s spread), is obviously supposed to make us fear for the outcome of this particular text exchange.  Matteo’s mother’s texts have been shown to be a source of irritation for him, and potentially we could expect that her reaction may not be ideal.  Matteo certainly thinks so, since he’s incapable of telling her in person or on phone, and resorts to the text medium to do so.  He wants that distance, needs it at this point.  While it comes in the next episode, the response from her is a breath of fresh air, a relief, a recognition that written communication doesn’t have to be difficult or filled with pain and misunderstanding.

So this has been another episode of growth, but this time it’s not just for Matteo.  He, in fact, seems to have slid back a little what with the inability to properly communicate with David and the texting his mother.  To be fair, of course, he’s grappling with some big things that he wasn’t used to and hadn’t expected.  But those around him, David, Jonas, Hans, his mother, all take steps up here.  They’re either consolidating on the growth that already happened previously or they’re starting to take firm first steps.  It’s nice to see, and again it leads us into the next episode and the ways communication changes there.

Part five can now be found here: I want to tell you so much: Communication in Druck s3 (part five)

[disregardcanon]

A decade in fanfiction

The meme template was made by me myself and I! Please, if you’re interested go ahead and do it! I would love to see other people reflecting on their writing right along with me :) 

Where can we read your fic? Please give us a link so that we can check these stories out!

my early fics can be read on my ffn The Ficsmith 

on ao3, my pseuds are sunkelles and fullmetal anime

I also have lots of short things here on tumblr. i would try searching a favorite fandom of yours and au on my blog and something might pop up. 

How many words of fanfiction have you written this decade?

On ao3, I have posted  1,031,824 words. I would bet that I posted 40k on ffn before i started posting concurrently to my ao3, and that i’ve posted maybe 80k of stuff just to tumblr? If I estimate that way and don’t think about unfinished works and wips, I’d say 1,151,824 words thereabouts. 

How many stories have you written?

I’ve posted 338 stories to ao3. I am not going to go do the math to add on my stories from ffn as well. 

Have you written on multiple websites? If so, which website is your favorite and why?

ao3 is my favorite website for fic because it’s just so EASY to search through, post to, and get your stats from. plus it’s very visually appealing. 

Have you used multiple pen names? If so, list them and tell us the story behind the name

on ffn, i used a lot of pen names over the years, but i only remember 3 of them 

1. thee sun. this was my first pen name on the internet and it was because back then, my friends and i had series of nicknames going where we were each a part of the solar system. one of my friends suggested that i should be the sun because i was happy and bouncy and the friend group “orbited” around me. it wasn’t really accurate then or now, but sun ended up sticking. 

2. sunless skies was my emo change to that pseud 

3. the ficsmith is my current name there as i thought the word “wordsmith” was badass and decided that ficsmith sounded very, very cool 

on ao3, my primary pseud has always been “sunkelles”. half of it’s the old nickname and half of it’s another nickname i won’t get into. it’s a very personal handle for me that i love dearly 

my second pseud is fullmetal anime, my anime pseud. fullmetal alchemist was one of my first anime when my old roommate got me onto my weeb phase in my twenties, and i thought that sounded too badass to pass up. 

What is the first story you posted this decade?

I Will Never Leave You Alone: this is a percy jackson fic set after the lost hero. It was my imaging of how the meeting in son of neptune might go if percy didn’t get his memories back. it’s bad, but it was my first attempt at fanfiction. i think that it could have been a lot worse. 

What is the last story that you posted this decade?

Not Willing to Wait for it: this is a tangled the series fic about cassandra. it’s not really my favorite thing i’ve ever written, but it’s not a terrible thing to end the decade on either. 

What is the longest story that you have wrote this decade?  

The Poetry of Time and Space: this is a pipabeth fic with annabeth as the doctor and piper mclean as rose tyler fic that i wrote back in 2013 at the urging of my first internet friend. coming in at 27,842 words, it’s the longest fic i have ever written. 

while i wouldn’t call it some of my best work, i’m still fairly proud of the thing. writing it helped me make a friend (even if we don’t keep in touch anymore), it helped me find some cool poetry, and i did a lot of fun historical research for it! 

i learned a loooottt about the history of spain for this fic and it was really cool. 

What is the shortest?

A Good Listener coming in at 192 words, this pipabeth fic is at the polar opposite end of the spectrum. 2013 was a wild year, my dudes. 

What’s your favorite?

I think that choosing a “favorite” would probably be too hard, but the one that I come back to the most is Over the Shadowy Hills. This fic could have been just good, but my friend was like. girl. you need to sort your shit out. and then i deleted it, worked on it with her help, and fixed it into something that i can still be really proud of. I’m glad that I decided to stick with it and give this fic the time and attention that it needed. 

What story do you feel was your biggest challenge?

I don’t have a fic in particular I would say is my biggest challenge, but one challenge has been the growing pains of becoming a better writer. I’ve moved into a point where I need to tell more thorough, longer stories, but I also don’t have the time needed to do that at the moment and my desire for instant validation is fighting against my desires to not do work and be a better writer. 

I know that right now I’m growing as a writer, but I’m not exactly sure what direction I’m growing in and how to deal with it. 

Which story was your most creative?

All Katz Go to Heaven is certainly an idea that no one but me would have come up with XD the premise is “all of hannibal’s victims from the show hannibal die and are reincarnated in brooklyn 99″ 

Which story do you think demonstrates the greatest growth?

I think that Paint a New Horizon demonstrates a lot of my progress as a writer. 

1. coming in at 23k, it’s one of my longest fics ever 

2. it has some of my best visual descriptions ever, as i decided to write sansa as a painter and it make visual descriptions a FAR bigger part of the story than they normally are when i write 

3. it handles dark subject matter, but i feel like i go into well. i’ve found myself dwelling in this universe a LOT, and i think that i might actually go back and write more of it over this next semester or summer because i just. like being in it. even though it was dark, it was also homey and lively and interesting, you know? 

4. it’s the best romance i’ve written this year, hands down. 

Here, have a snippet 

She dared a glance forward and met Margaery’s eyes- a deep, chocolate brown. They were warm and inviting and Margaery’s little curly bangs framed her face like a heart. Margaery’s head went over the back of the booth and it seemed to almost be floating against the flowery wallpaper. It looked like Margaery was lying out in a field of flowers- the Maiden gazing up at the clouds and trying to make shapes of them.

She could imagine Margaery telling her that this one is a flower, like Tyrell, and this one’s a deer, like Baratheon, and this one’s a dick, like Joffrey. She giggled nervously again and felt her cheeks flush. She’d never felt this giddy and unsteady in her whole life.

“Are you alright, Sansa?” Margaery asked cautiously. She reached across the table and laid a hand over Sansa’s own. The touch was warm and tender, and Sansa felt the blush from her toes to the tip of her head.

“I’m perfect!” Sansa nearly screeched. Margaery laughed at that, but her look was kind.

“Yes, darling,” she said with a smile that was wide and fond, “I think that you are.”

Lesbian. The word wasn’t supposed to fill her with such a warm, hopeful feeling, was it? She wiggled awkwardly in her chair, trying to get situated and stop feeling so silly and excited and vulnerable, but it didn’t fix anything. She felt Margaery’s leg brush against hers under the table. It sent a jolt through her.

Lesbian.

Sansa took a shaky breath. She thought to herself that there might be something to that.

Tell us about your writing process.

my writing process is quite frankly all over the board. sometimes, i’ll sit down and just hammer out a fic start to finish in one sitting, but when i don’t do that i’ll make the thing come together in patchwork. i’ll normally start with some vivid pieces of dialogue that i want to write and then i’ll figure out where i’m going and how. often, since i write in a nonlinear fashion i might end up having to change what i’ve written for the middle or the end, but when i get there and it doesn’t feel right for what i ended up writing, i always decide that i’m better off with what feels more natural. 

Tell us about how you come up with fic titles.

I have 3 different systems for determining fic tiles 

1. come up with a cool title to write a fic around. i wrote Chasing Annabeth solely because i thought that would be badass title 

2. try to find something external to the story, like a saying, a lyric or quote, that works with the message or mood of the story. for If You Believe in Me (I’ll Still Believe), I realized that both Memoria by Nirvana and Holland Road by Mumford and Sons shared a distinct feel with what I was doing with the fic, so I went through the lines of both and identified some possible titles. 

Then, I decided that the line “if you believe in me I’ll still believe” felt the most right. I thought that it best conveyed how much Jeyne believing that Theon could become better again contributed to him actually going through with it, whereas some of the other options didn’t have either the external influence or faint hope that I felt the fic deserved. 

3. find something from the fic itself or the source material! often times, i’ll end up with a motif in the fic that makes a perfect title, or i’ll have something to draw on from the source material. this feels different from the 2nd option because whereas that first one is going outside the world of the fic, this 3rd one is going inside the world of the fic. 

Have you ever used an epigraph? Tell us about your reasoning.

I use epigraphs for the same reason that I use outside sources for fic titles. While sometimes I have that lyric or quote in mind while I am writing the fic, like Washing Machine Heart, sometimes you get to the end of writing and realize that you’ve created something that would be enhanced if you were to have your readers mulling over the theme brought up in a song while they’re reading, like Unfinished Business. 

I don’t know, these are probably the reasons that ANYONE uses epigraphs, but it’s cool to see other people’s thought process. 

What are some of your favorite lines that you’ve ever written?

Here’s a few of my favorite exchanges from my older or more underrated fics!

She swallows the spit that has started to pool in her mouth and continues, "We'll all end up dying and meeting the void face to face and blah blah fucking blah, but the thing is that's tomorrow. This is today. You remember Thalia, so she matters. And you matter because you're alive. Your heart's still beating. You can still do shit. See shit. Be the shit. Annabeth Chase, you can still do anything."

Chasing Annabeth (2013)

Annabeth tsks as she laughs, “You’ve always got to steal the attention for yourself, don’t you?”

Piper laughs and then pretends to glare, “Borrow. I borrow things.”

“Borrowing BMWs is still frowned upon, my friend,” Annabeth says and then everything is back to normal. The future is forgotten, if only for a moment in the company of a friend.

The Fates Smiled (2014) 

“I guess,” Arya mutters, and she walks straight over to the trash. She pops the lid, and dumps the enormous plastic cock unceremoniously into it. Then she lets the lid close. She and Shireen look to the trash can in horror.

“Do you think that we should burn it?” Shireen asks.

She pauses a moment before she adds, “I’m afraid it’s going to attack us in our sleep.” Arya bursts out into laughter.

“I can hear the news anchors already,” Arya says, “women murdered in sleep by haunted dildo.” The Kids Are Alright (2015) 

"I think huckleberry just came out too," Maya stage-whispers back, "two gays for the price of one."

"Bi one get one free," Riley says with a shit-eating grin 

A Guide to Coming Out (2015) 

"Do I look like a man with a plan to you?" He tries to look as crazy as he can. Rachel isn't buying it. "You impersonated a member of the mayor's honor guard, you predetermined and informed us of every victim before you killed them. You're a planner, Joker. You're even a good one." The Joker shrugs. "I'm not a schemer, though. Don't hang my hat on whether or not things work out." In that moment, Rachel understands this man. Rachel understands why he does the things that he does, even though she thinks that he's the scum of the earth. "You wanted to let us know all our plans would fall apart. You wanted chaos." "You're a smart woman, Ms. Dawes," The Joker says, cracking a smile, "you know what I did to you and your boy toy was nothing personal. It was just to turn the schemer's plans on their toes.

The City of Bats and Clowns (2016) 

Zatanna crosses her arms over her chest as she leans against Bruce’s black SUV. The “parking lot” at this camp is a glorified field of grass. It rained last night, and there are muddy ruts left all throughout the field and little muddy puddles scattered everywhere. It’s disgusting and rundown and everywhere that Zatanna doesn’t want to spend three weeks of her summer.

“I don’t want to go to this stupid camp.” Endless Summer (2017) 

Rose feels a twist in her gut. This might be worse than finding out he wanted to desert. This is knowing the reasons behind it, having to see him as human in his mistakes and understand why he made them.

Oh how heroes fall and then stumble back up again.

The Spark That Will Light the Fire (2017)

Sloth is all the memories you have and never asked for, all the feelings you don't know what to do with.

Sloth is your feelings towards two boys who aren't your sons- can't be- because you never wanted them in the first place.

You never asked for this, to be born half-formed and hungry. To be born somewhere between not caring and caring too much, to just go along with what you were told because you don't care enough not to.

You never asked for those two boys to look at you the way they do, like you're something hideous and beautiful all at once. Like you're their sin to bury, their damsel to save. All you've ever wanted is for it all to stop.

The Seven Deadly Almost People (2018) 

What are you favorite characters to write. 

I don’t really have “favorite” characters to write because I bounce around so often. I’ll have a new favorite next year, but my favorite me character that I wrote THIS year was Dabi. 

Which story was the most fun to write.

Out of all the stories I’ve written, Dicks in the Wind comes to mind as being the most fun. The soulmate au where whatever your soulmate draws on their skin appearing on yours might not be my all time favorite, but the idea of spitefully drawing dicks on your own face to spite the soulmate who hurt you while also hurting yourself is both really fun but also really interesting? I really liked getting to explore the implications of that idea, the humor, Sabine’s relationship with Kanan, and the possibility of a reconciliation between her and Ketsu. 

If you use ao3, tell us about your fics with the most

Kudos: The Matter of Soulmates 1,049

Comments: Her Heart’s Duet 63 comment threads

Hits: Golden Cages, Silver Linings 15,272 hits

Subscriptions: The Matter of Soulmates 105 subscriptions

If you could have written one story this decade that you didn’t get around to, what would this have been?

There’s lot of fics that I wish I would have gotten written this decade. I think that if I could have written ONE fic that I didn’t get around to this decade, though, I would have turned my tucker turns ed into a chimera instead of nina tumblr post into a real fic. 

Do you write original fiction as well?

Sometimes! I don’t write it as much as I’d like, but I’ve written some short stories and I have some longer wips. 

Did you ever do nanowrimo this decade? If so, tell us about your projects.

I tried nanowrimo in both 2017 and 2018. My 2017 was a story idea about magic pirates. My 2018 was a story based on a fic idea I had where ed HAD created al like al thought he did in fma 03 for a while. it would feature prominent relationships with characters inspired by winry, wrath, and lust. both of these have about 15k to their name. 

What have you learned writing in the past decade?

I’ve learned a lot about myself as a person. For better or for worse, the easiest way to get to know me would be to go through my ao3 and just start reading. 

I also feel like I’ve learned that I CAN be a writer. While I have a long way to go if I ever want to become any good at original fiction and develop a thick enough skin to get it worked up to publishing shape, I know that I have the skills to at least give it a try.  If I don’t, I’ll always have these stories that I hold closely to my heart and this hobby that’s brought me a lot of joy. 

What are your writing goals going forward?

At the moment, I’m not entirely sure. I feel a little bit like I’ve stagnated and I need to figure out a way forward, but I’m not entirely sure what that way forward IS. I think that the way forward is longer projects (maybe even more original fiction) but I’m going to need to figure out a way to not devote all my mental energy to these projects at a time and also not let them wither and die. 

In the past, I’ve only been able to do proper, well written long fics when I had a LONG time to dedicate to getting the thing done. Like, days and days off that I could devote multiple hours to the writing project. In the future, I don’t think I’ll have that. I just need to find a way to not get SO into it that I can’t do anything else, but also maintain the energy and drive to keep coming back to it. 

Tell us about what aspect of your writing makes you the most proud.

I feel like I excel at word choice. People frequently comment on my fics that there’s something about the wording that just FLOWS, and I would have to agree. I feel like I’m good at choosing words that both sound good and hit emotionally. 

Tell us anything else that you’d like! This is your reflection post, so end on whatever bang you would like!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over these past nine years! I haven’t been on tumblr for this whole time (i’ve only been here since 2012), but i grown a lot, both as a person and a writer, over this decade.

if you had told me when i wrote my first fanfiction that by the end of the decade i would write the order of the phoenix more than 5 times over in fanfiction, i would never have believed you. 

not every fic that i wrote was fantastic, but every fic that i wrote was MINE, and it’s a memory that i get to come back to when i’m feeling sad or lonely or like i can’t do something. so, thank you fanfiction, for always being there for me. even if you might be there for me a little too much XD

[kittykichi]

The decade is coming to a close, and I’ve done a lot of reflecting about my relationship with drawing. I’ve compiled drawings I’ve done each month for a couple of years now and...it’s only every made me anxious. 

I’d compare myself to previous years and would feel that I’ve only stagnated. Which wasn’t fair to myself -- I have a lot less free time than I had back in college. But that didn’t stop me from feeling like I didn’t create anything wonderful. So I went and counted up all the drawings and sketches throughout the years and decided to pace myself that way.

At the beginning of this year, I started a Patreon to keep me organized and to force myself to create a minimum amount of drawings each month. At first it was great -- I produced a lot of art work. But life is never consistent, and I felt more and more fatigued as the months went on. I was losing steam and wasn’t the powerhouse artist churning great piece after great piece like I had envisioned.

I know it’s silly to feel so strongly about something which is essentially a drawing meme/template. But still, it made me feel badly. Truthfully, I’ve accomplished a lot of things that this template doesn’t represent. I sculpted several figures, made merchandise, and progressed even farther in French lessons. 

I don’t know if I’ll do this particular template anymore. It doesn’t make me happy. I do enjoy looking back on my progress, but bio-rhythms change and what I can do in a particular month compared to another isn’t reflective of my overall year growth. Perhaps I’ll try some other way to display my accomplishments. I’ll be revisiting my Patreon to revise my goals and continue working on the relationship I have with Art.

[littlecrookedheart]

Fluffy Alphabet

Pairing : Tom x Clove

Word Count :

Rating : Fluff! A teensy bit of suggestion, nothing more.

Template courtesy of @pixelburied

♡

A – Anger (What was their first fight about? Any big or recurring arguments?)

Their first big fight, the one that really matters, stemmed from miscommunication. Clove was feeling insecure, which snowballed into an exchange of cruel words on both of their parts. Thankfully, they worked through and made up. You can read the whole thing here.

B – Best (What would they say is the other’s best trait?)

Tom's absolute favorite thing about Clove is that, despite her back story, she is soft. This just so happens to be her favorite thing about him, too.

They are able to fight anything that stands in their way and do so almost fearlessly, but when it comes to their moments - the moments in between and after, they have one another. Whether that's tickles on the couch or stuffing their faces full of cookies and pizza, whispering sweet nothings or their closest form of intimacy, they cherish their ability to get rid of walls when they're together.

C – Camera (How do they document their relationships? Who likes to take pictures? Or videos?)

They both have a tendency to reach for their phones and document things. Tom loves taking selfies with her and requires multiple each time, and Clove likes taking pictures of him to scroll through later. He was pleasantly surprised when finding that she has an entire album dedicated to random candid moments of his, and sometimes does things she'd think to be cute while she's holding her phone, just to give her a little something extra.

D – Dates (What are their dates like?)

They've never really been a couple who plan anything even kind of elaborate, though Tom does try. He knows she prefers nights in, so he likes to surprise her with her favorite foods and snacks and either a pile of blankets or a cute pillow fort. They both consider these nights, “date nights,” and it's kind of an inside joke.

E – Early (What was the first month of dating like?)

Awkward. Much of the first month consisted of Clove flirting, Tom missing her advances, and fighting the supernatural. Not the grandest of times.

F – Friends (How is their relationship with each other’s group of friends?)

Amazing. Andy and Clove get along super well, which makes Tom over the moon. He loves when Andy visits and they all play Mario Kart or go on walks together and thinks their sassy personalities go hand in hand. He doesn't even mind when he becomes the butt end of their joke.

Tom and Clove's bestie, Ricky, didn't meet in person for a few months, but they quickly became buddies and they even have their own group chat with Elliot for when Tom has some...plans... about doing something special for her. 😉

G – Gifts (Do they like giving each other gifts? What kind?)

Tom always wants to pay for things because he thinks it's chivalrous, but Clove couldn't care less. Truth is, it's always kind of a battle with these two. They love to spoil one another and do so very often, no matter if it's a new item or something hand made.

Clove spun and sculpted an entire collection of MCU mugs for Tom’s first birthday when they were together, which inspired him to start sketching again as he did in middle school (inspired by one of his heroes, Ben Park.) He draws her cute little doodles on the mirror in dry erase marker and she swoons every single time.

H – Hugs (All things involving hugs)

Clove is a laying down hugger. So in other words, she likes to face Tom, wrap her arms around him, and simultaneously hold each other. Tom doesn't hug people too often apart from his family and close friends on occasion, but he absolutely adores her hugs. He often comments on her scent and softness, and she melts in his warmth.

I – Inside Jokes (Do they have any?)

Too many. Like, actually too many. Sometimes it's hard to keep track.

J – Jealousy (Who gets jealous easier? How do they show their jealousy?)

Tom surprises himself at his lack of jealousy now that they're together. At first, he second guessed himself more than he should have, but now he knows how solid they are. Clove, however, tends to harbor a bit of jealousy when others check him out. She never says anything and she doesn't make a show of it, but he notices the look in her eyes when she catches someone admiring his looks. He'll jokingly elbow her and wiggle his eyebrows, mouthing, “Love you,” and she holds his hand a little tighter as if to thank him for that gentle reassurance.

K – Kiss (How do they kiss? Who usually initiates?)

They both initiate in their own ways, very distinctly. Tom starts slow, usually gently swiping his fingers across her waist as he pulls her in, sweetly rubbing his nose with hers before he kisses her. He prefers pecks in public, but when they're in a safe place, he drinks her kisses like fine wine. Slow, steady, loving, almost as if he's afraid he'll run out of her. Kissing Tom is an experience, one that fills her entire heart with butterflies no matter how many times she's done it.

Clove's kisses are just as gentle, but mix in a heap of sensuality. She doesn't care who sees, but respects Tom's aversion to too much PDA. She kisses him with fire, whether slow burning or fierce flickers, leaving lingering love marks on that special place just behind where his hair falls on his neck. Not too dark, but enough for him to hold onto in moments of her absence. He is a big fan of this.

L – Love (How do they first say those three words?)

You already know the canon version, but in my fic universe...the night they finally become intimate. He's so nervous for her to say it, and it's almost a fight to fit it in, but it's a tender and beautiful moment.

M – Movies (What kinds of movies do they watch together? Is it a regular Netflix ritual?)

Clove is a horror girl at heart, even after the wild experiences they have in Pine Springs. Tom is okay with this, and he happily binges films with her, but he really loves anything related to the MCU and anything funny or action packed. When they can't decide what to watch, they put Bob's Burgers on and snuggle, which genuinely is their routine nowadays. They love it.

N – Nicknames (Things they call each other)

Tom's nicknames for Clove, in order of his most to least fave : Love, Angel, Babe, Baby

Clove's nicknames for Tom, in order of her most to least fave : Tommy, Baby, Babe, Honey, Sweetie, Dear

O – One (Tell us about the moment they realized they were with the one.)

Clove will argue that she's always known, and stands by that. In truth, it was one moment soon after meeting him, after their first kiss in Westchester, when he was falling asleep while they'd gone out for pizza. He jolted up to pretend he wasn't asleep, hair falling in his face. He said, “I'm awake! You're pretty.” She knew.

Tom knew she was the one very early on but doesn't have one moment pinpointed. She reminds him each morning that she kisses his cheeks and every time she calls him, “Tommy.”

P – Pizza (What is their favorite food to eat together?)

Pizza, specifically pizza from the good bread place down by the spice market. They have the best cheese pulls and Tom is a huge sucker for their jalapeño breadsticks on the side.

Q – Quit (Do they break up? Almost break up? What happened?)

No. Even during their biggest fight, neither of them could fathom leaving the other. This would have been catastrophic for them, as both of them have their hearts and minds set on only loving one another.

R – Rainy Days (How do they comfort each other on dark days?)

Tom is very nurturing, as taught by his grandparents at a young age. She loves when he sings, and though he doesn't do it often, he will always delight her ears when she's down. He likes to light her favorite candles, prepare her bath water, he warms her towel and makes her snacks. He's even sat on the bathroom floor and held her hand during one of said baths, which has quietly become one of her most treasured memories of their relationship.

Clove knows exactly what Tom needs in all of his moods, especially the down ones. He thrives on positive affirmations, so much of the time, she will spoon him and brush his hair with her fingers while telling him how wonderful he is and how much she loves him. He gets tingles when she plays with his hair and sometimes he'll give her puppy dog eyes and sit on the floor in front of her, leaning his head back into her lap. She loves it too and doesn't mind the extra practice for if they ever have a long haired baby one day.

S – Soft (Something one of them did that turned the other into absolute mush)

These two are the epitome of soft for one another. Just this morning, Tom was pouring a bowl of cereal after Clove had gone to her studio. He noticed her lipstick stain on the mug she'd left on the counter, and it almost made him tear up. He just really loves her, okay? On her way to the studio, he sent her a good morning selfie and she felt her insides go melty. She pulled into the parking lot and held her phone to her chest, smiling, before sending one back. She just really loves him, okay?

T – Texting (Do they text each other a lot? What do they usually talk about over the phone?)

They text each other random things all day long, which usually consists of memes and bad jokes, but Tom loves her studio selfies. She'll even use clay scraps to spell out silly messages and send them to him, while he sends her scrunch faced pictures in return. They're ridiculously sappy and even more cute.

As for phone calls, they don't have those very often, and the ones they do...well, this is meant to be SFW...so let's skip it.

U – Unique (Tell us about some of their odd habits that surprised one another.)

Clove was shocked when Tom revealed himself to be very, very clean. He doesn't leave things around, he does his dishes as he uses them, and his apartment always smells as clean as it looks. Sometimes he misses laundry, but for the most part, he's a clean guy. She differs from him a little, meaning she will leave things in the living room (like books, magazines, makeup) creating a little clutter. Tom secretly likes this, because it makes him feel like his place is becoming a home. Their home.

V – Vanity (Something they’re proud of in themselves and their partner)

Clove's art skill is way more than she'd ever let on, so much so that her only job is her art - and it's enough. She is mad talented and very self sustaining, and this is her point of pride. She loves what she does and she knows she's among the best.

Tom’s great at anything technical and can figure things out very quickly. This enables him to essentially breeze through college and also maintain his new job position at a tech firm. He's an excellent learner and a fast one at that, and he is very proud of where he's headed.

They are proud of one another for these things, sure, but more so, they are proud of one another for the strength and fire they each hold.

W – Wedding (Tell us about your wedding head canon if they’ve gotten that far. Or if not, have they talked about it?)

You'll just have to wait and see.

X – X (Something they hate about the other)

Hate is a strong word, but Clove really does wish he'd remember to put the seat down. He usually laughs and calls her, “little wet booty,” but she really, really doesn't think it's funny. On the other end, Tom wishes she'd stop leaving bobby pins and matches everywhere. The girl loves candles and the sound a match makes when it strikes, but he's sick of picking them up all the time.

Y – Youtube (What are they like online? Do they post about their relationship constantly?)

They post about their relationship on special occasions and extra sappy days, but they do frequently post updated photos together.

Z – Zoo (Are they into animals? Do they want pets? What kind?)

They're both dog people and they'd love one or two, but they're waiting to get a house instead of Tom's little apartment and her studio. Clove also wouldn't mind some kind of rodent, but when she held a mouse up to him at the pet store, he may have shrieked a little. No rodents for Tom.

[roseisread]

My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 3)

In case you missed it, check out part 1 and part 2! Now picking up where we left off...

28. My Cousin Vinny (1992, directed by Jonathan Lynn, country of origin: US)

I know, I know. I can’t believe it either. But I really hadn’t seen this one til just a few short months ago. Marisa Tomei is, of course, a megababe in it; and Joe Pesci wears the hell out of some ridiculous outfits as he portrays a very unconventional defense attorney trying to help his cousin and a friend beat a murder charge. I laughed and laughed and cheered and laughed some more. Best courtroom scenes I watched all year, (and I watched A Few Good Men this year so that’s saying something). If this is still a blind spot for you, or you just want to revisit it, you can rent it on Amazon for 99 cents right now. 

27. After Hours (1985, directed by Martin Scorsese, country of origin: US)

Talk about things that escalate quickly: In this movie, Griffin Dunne’s character Paul meets a fellow book lover/manic pixie dream girl type (Rosanna Arquette). However, when he accepts her invitation for a late night rendezvous at her place, she quickly turns into a manic pixie nightmare girl. By morning, Paul finds himself a fugitive on suspicion of burglary, sex crimes, and murder in a neighborhood it’s safe to say he will never visit again. It’s a more heightened, comedic take on the classic “wrongfully accused” genre, and Dunne plays every note of desperation perfectly. You can watch this for free on Vudu, or rent on other streaming platforms. 

26. The Big Clock (1948, directed by John Farrow, country of origin: US)

The Big Clock actually has a few things in common with the aforementioned After Hours--hardworking New York City guy agrees to drinks with possibly sketchy woman and winds up the prime suspect in a murder. The whole thing takes place over a 36-hour period, and as you might guess the Clock of the title is ticking. The cast is great--Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan--and the film balances humor and suspense with ease. Fun fact, the movie is directed by John Farrow, father of Mia. The movie is available for online rental through Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes.

25. The Doll (1919, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, country of origin: Germany)

I adore Ernst Lubitsch, who directed The Shop Around The Corner, To Be or Not To Be, Trouble in Paradise, and Design for Living. Before his English-language talkies, however, he got his start in Germany with silent films like Die Puppe (The Doll). Starring the effervescent Ossi Oswalda (basically the silent era’s Greta Gerwig), this comic fantasy skewers romantic conventions. 

Lancelot is a young prince who must marry in order to receive his inheritance; but he’s afraid of women (or possibly gay... it’s easy to read it that way). He buys what he think is a life-like doll to deceive his family and avoid marriage to a real girl; but little does he know Ossi is actually a real girl pretending to be a doll. It’s all very silly and over the top and winking, and also one of the most hilarious and charming rom-coms this side of the Hallmark channel. The physical comedy is outstanding, the social commentary is scathing, and Ossi is the hero we didn’t know we needed. There are a few versions floating around on YouTube or you can rent it for a few bucks on Amazon. I caught it on Filmstruck during a Lubitsch spotlight, and my life has never been the same.

24. Talk To Her (2002, directed by Pedro Almodovar, country of origin: Spain)

Pedro Almodovar can take the most seemingly absurd situation or plot contrivance and draw out something truly human and moving. He excels at shining a light on damaged but compelling characters, and doing everything with such style and panache that you let your guard down completely and before you know it you’re rooting for someone you ordinarily would scoff at from a distance. This movie’s story focuses on two comatose women and their caretakers, and delves into the limits of love and consent in fascinating, disturbing ways. I had no idea where this film was going but I was with it every second. Available for rent on most online platforms.

23. Crash (1996, directed by David Cronenberg, country of origin: Canada)

From the king of body horror, David Cronenberg, comes a movie about people who find eroticism where most people would find repulsion. Based on the controversial book by J.G. Ballard, this film follows a group of people who are aroused by car accidents and the injuries that result from metal and flesh colliding. It sounds macabre and at times it is, but under the surface are deeper themes that question what is considered “normal” versus “fetish” and why bodies that are whole and untarnished are worshiped while those that have distinguishing marks are tossed aside. There’s also certainly a critique of consumerism and cars as status symbols, and probably a lot more I missed on first viewing. Who better to portray a sexual deviant than James Spader? He’s joined by Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas (you’ll never think of Casey Jones the same way again), Deborah Kara Unger, and Rosanna Arquette. This is a tough one to track down--nowhere online right now, and it’s out of print on physical media; but if you see it at a thrift store or your local library, check it out. 

22. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, directed by Robert Wiene, country of origin: Germany)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of those movies that gets referenced a lot but I still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this silent German Expressionist film. Sometimes watching such a revered classic can be a little daunting--will I like as much as I’m “supposed to”? Thankfully, I did. Basically all of goth culture could probably trace its lineage back to this weird, creepy, twisty film. The elaborate, off-kilter set design and mind-bending story got under my skin in the best way. I won’t say much about the plot--just watch it (on YouTube unofficially or rentable on various streaming services).

21. Duck Soup (1933, directed by Leo McCarey, country of origin: US)

My introduction to the Marx Brothers was A Night at the Opera, and I went gaga for their rapid-fire verbal gymnastics and their gonzo physical comedy. This film takes it to the next level and throws in some political satire for good measure. So many incredible, iconic routines; song and dance sequences; and dialogue that you have to watch at least 4 times to catch all the jokes. I’m officially a fan of the Marx Brothers after this. You can rent it on most streaming sources, but I’m guessing if you have a male relative over the age of 50 you could probably borrow it from their collection. It’s very popular with Dad/Uncle demographic, and I can see why.

20. They Live by Night (1948, directed by Nicholas Ray, country of origin: US)

Nicholas Ray is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite directors. Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, The Racket, and now They Live By Night--just stunning movies about troubled souls who don’t quite fit in with the rest of the world. This film lays the template for so many that would come after it: Young couple, good girl falls for bad boy, they go on the run from the law, love is not all you need.

When things are good, they’re really good and lead characters Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell) and Bowie (Farley Grainger) are rapturously crazy in love. But they also bicker believably when the past begins to bleed into the present, leading to one of my favorite exchanges in the film. Bowie confronts Keechie about her whereabouts, and when she informs him she’s been to the doctor “about the baby we’re gonna have,” he bursts out, “That’s all I need!” She fires back, “You don’t see me knittin’ anything, do ya?”

This is a Criterion film, so you may have to get it from the library or catch it on TCM until the Criterion streaming service launches later this spring. Either way, it’s a must-watch, especially if you love movies like Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde.

19. Paprika (2006, directed by Satoshi Kon, country of origin: Japan)

Look, I love Inception as much as the next person, but now that I’ve seen Paprika I must admit Christopher Nolan owes a major debt to Satoshi Kon for the way he portrays dreams and reality intersecting in uncanny ways. The difference is Satoshi Kon did it with much more weirdness and color and unsettling body horror. Don’t ask me to explain this movie, I’m not even 100% sure it can be unraveled all the way into a linear structure; but it is zany and wonderful in the best way. There’s no Tom Hardy but there is a girl who turns into a butterfly and a band of frogs and a creepy clown and a really fat guy who’s in love with the smart scientist lady... I’m telling you, you gotta see this thing. You can stream it for free on Crackle; otherwise it’s a $2.99 rental from Amazon and Vudu.

18. Good Time (2017, directed by the Safdie Brothers, country of origin: US)

If you missed this in 2017, PLEASE watch it now. Robert Pattinson gives his career best performance as a fast talking petty criminal trying to get his mentally handicapped brother out of jail after making him an accomplice to his own crimes. The soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never combined with the Safdie Brothers mesmerizing cinematography make for a hypnotic, propulsive viewing experience. Newcomer Taliah Webster delivers an excellent supporting performance as an unwitting sidekick partway through the film. Watch for free on Amazon Prime or rent on Vudu or YouTube.

17. Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962, directed by Agnes Varda, country of origin: France)

My first foray into the filmography of Agnes Varda, and I loved it. Cleo, a French pop singer, spends a couple hours trying to distract herself from anxiety and dread as she awaits the results of a biopsy. She buys a hat, plays with her kittens, and argues with her male collaborators over song choices. 

Eventually she meets a stranger and they walk around Paris in a vignette that almost certainly influenced Richard Linklater’s entire milieu. Cleo mulls her possible fate and concludes “as long as I’m beautiful, I’m alive”--a notion Blondie would later reference in their tongue in cheek tune “Die Young, Stay Pretty.” But as much as she is fixated on her appearance, she finds herself struggling to be taken seriously by men who dismiss her because of her beauty. 

Special shout out to Michel Legrand, who we learned today has left the mortal plane: He composed the lovely score for this film and also appears in it as Cleo’s pianist.

I watched this on the now-defunct Filmstruck, but it’s part of the Criterion Collection so your best bet is probably getting it from the library or waiting for it to show up when Criterion’s streaming service launches later this spring.

16. Happy Together (1997, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, country of origin: Hong Kong)

Wong Kar-Wai captures unfulfilled romantic longing on film better than just about anyone. If you’ve seen In the Mood for Love or Chungking Express you already know this. Happy Together turns the director’s eye once again toward people on a collision course of love, lust, and disfunction. Leslie Cheung (RIP) and Tony Leung portray a couple hoping their toxic relationship will hit the reset button with a change of scenery when they relocate from Hong Kong to Argentina. At times their passion manifests as tenderness, as in a moving dance sequence; other times, volatility erupts into violence. When one of them meets someone new, the possibility of a simpler, sweeter kind of love  offers an alternative to the cycle of codependency and betrayal. This one is out of print right now on DVD, but check your local library or used movie store and you may get lucky.

15. La Dolce Vita (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, country of origin: Italy)

You’ve got sumptuous Italian vistas, Marcello Mastroianni being gorgeous, Anita Ekberg dancing in the fountain, and a bunch of hedonism that leads down a path of inevitable emptiness and/or destruction. Personally, I prefer this one to Fellini’s 8 1/2--it’s filled with  so many scenes that could work as stand alone short films; and there’s more humor and exuberance here than in his better known, meta film experience. The 174 minute runtime may seem intimidating but for me it flew by. Available with Filmbox on Amazon right now, also part of the Criterion Collection.

14. Cooley High (1975, directed by Michael Schultz, country of origin: US)

If you’ve enjoyed movies like Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, Boyz N the Hood, or even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you should really watch Cooley High. Filmed in Chicago, it follows a group of friends in high school as they skip class in favor of visiting the Lincoln Park zoo, recite poetry, go to parties, make out with girls, get into fights, and navigate the tenuous border between youth and adulthood. Full of laughs, heart, and clear-eyed realism in place of the occasional sentimentality that seeps into movies about “young folks,” this must-see of Black cinema influenced independent filmmakers like Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. You can rent it on Vudu, or pick up a physical copy on Blu-ray or DVD.

13. Poltergeist (1982, directed by Tobe Hooper, country of origin: US)

Out of all the major blindspots I caught up with in 2018, this is the one that both impressed me the most and made me wonder why it took me this long to see it. I think I just assumed that it would be super cheesy or super scary or somehow both? Needless to say, I was wrong. It’s a blast! Funny, scary (but in a way I loved), original, and one of the best portrayals of family I’ve seen on screen. I now plan to watch this at least once a year to celebrate Halloween the same way that I watch Independence Day on July 4th, Elf/Jingle All the Way/Christmas Vacation at Christmas, and Nightmare Before Christmas/Donnie Darko for Halloween. I’m sure that everyone else in the world has seen it, but if you by some chance have not, go watch it right now! It’s available for rent on YouTube, Amazon, and GooglePlay.

12. Arthur (1981, directed by Steve Gordon, country of origin: US)

This one really surprised me. I became vaguely aware of its existence around the release of the terribly reviewed Russell Brand version; but no idea what to expect when I impulsively clicked the “watch now” button on Filmstruck. At first, Dudley Moore came across as an obnoxious drunken boor, but as I kept watching I realized the levels to his character went much deeper than it seemed at first. John Gielgud immediately won me over as Arthur’s butler Hobson, who loves Arthur like a son despite his many shenanigans. Then Liza Minnelli shows up on screen and isn’t she cute as a button! If you only know her as Lucille II from Arrested Development, you really owe it to yourself to see her in her heyday. You might not think Buster is so crazy for embracing “our nausea.” 

This movie became one of my favorite romantic comedies, in some ways a Cinderella story and in some ways a coming of age story and in most ways something wholly original. It’s a very special film, and deserves a wider audience among today’s movie fans. It’s a $1.99 rental on most platforms right now, so you have no excuse.

11. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, directed by Robert Altman, country of origin: US)

I knocked out a few Altman films last year, and they were all good but this one was my favorite. I’m not always a fan of Westerns, but this one, which finds Julie Christie’s Madam teaming up with Warren Beatty’s Gambler to open a brothel, well, it’s different. I have a feeling Altman (and maybe his cast) watched Johnny Guitar, an earlier entry on my list, because this is another case in which a powerful woman with a mind for business upends the natural order of things (aka men being in charge). 

The writing here is wonderful, especially the dialogue, which includes such gems as “You know how to square a circle? Shove a four by four up a mule’s ass!” but also some more gentle, sweet exchanges and voiceover. There are also some gorgeous shots in this film, unsurprising with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond on board (who also shot Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deliverance, and Blow Out just to name a few). 

Watch it via rental on Amazon, GooglePlay, or iTunes.

Next up: The Top 10! Stay tuned! 

[boldlywritingtrek]

Acceptable Tradition

This is my @startreksecretsanta gift for @empiricallly! I received the prompt "Spock/Uhura fluff", and had to give it a little Christmas spin! Hope you enjoy, Elle!

Word Count: 1004

Warnings: None

Summary:  Uhura introduces Spock to the wholly illogical concept of Christmas gift-giving. Pure fluff. 

Spock stepped into Nyota's quarters and was immediately greeted with unexpected warmth. She had turned the temperature up to a familiar, dry heat, and logic dictated that she had done so for his comfort. Peering around the corner, he saw her standing in front of the replicator, stirring a steaming cup. Her hair was loose down her back, falling forward around her face in a smooth, dark curtain. Her uniform tunic had been discarded in favor of a crimson sweater bearing white snowflakes and the silhouettes of what he could only assume were incredibly inaccurate depictions of Earth deer. 

She turned to him, and her warm brown eyes caught his as her face crinkled up into a bright smile. His critique of her attire faded away, and as she set the cup aside to meet him in the middle of the room. Spock gave himself a moment to appreciate the grace with which she moved; she stepped softly across the room, extending two fingers to him in a Vulcan kiss before standing on her toes to place a soft human kiss on his cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Spock," she said as she pulled away. "I know it's not actually Christmas yet, but I'm not sure when we'll both be off duty next so I thought we could celebrate." She let her fingertips glide softly and purposefully across his palm and wrist. He had to suppress a shudder. 

"Nyota, I have a question."

She pressed her lips together, and nodded for him to continue. 

"You, and a large portion of the human crew, are not practicing Christians; why do you celebrate this particular religious holiday?" He angled his head just slightly, peering down at her. "I understand its varied roots in human pagan traditions, but it is technically considered a Christian holiday according to earth calendars."

Her face crinkled just above her nose, her dark brows drawing closer together. "I suppose it's just a human thing. Melding of cultures, and all that. Most of us use it as an opportunity to spend time with our families, and exchange tokens of affection." Her brow quirked slightly, a gesture she'd picked up from him. "Spock, you know this. You've been on Earth and human ships for Christmas before."

He clasped his hands behind his back, hiding the way he intertwined his fingers. He wasn't nervous of course, that would be illogical of him. "I must admit, the crew of the Enterprise is the first group of humans I've been close enough with to closely observe their customs. My mother, of course, told me of Christmas, but my father insisted it was illogical to have a day of exchanging frivolous possessions."

"Well, in that case, he'd disapprove of my illogical human tendencies. I'm about to give you one of those frivolous possessions." Her warm eyes were unusually softened by emotion, and she gently set one hand over his heart before turning away and heading for her bedside table. She pulled a small rectangle wrapped in glossy red paper from the drawer, and took a seat on the edge of her bed, patting the space beside her to suggest he join her. She wordlessly passed the gift to him, and he paused as he set it into his lap.

"I apologize, I was unprepared to give you a gift in return, I didn't realize we'd be celebrating--"

"Oh don't be silly," she smiled, laughter bubbling up from her chest. "It's an illogical human tradition, after all." She lowered her gaze to the package he held, and Spock saw her gently biting the corner of her lip. She was apparently apprehensive for him to proceed. He slid his finger gently beneath the tape, carefully picking apart her beautiful wrapping job.

When the paper at last fell away, he felt his breath catch in his throat for a brief moment. He traced his forefinger softly over the old-fashioned picture he held, admiring the beautiful visage of his mother, as he remembered her from his early childhood. She was wearing the very vokaya pendant that now hung around Nyota's neck, and he had to stop his hand from reaching up to touch it. She was smiling, her face lined only by the mirth lighting her up. She was beaming beside his stern-faced father, and the only contact the pair had was her pinky intertwined with his between their bodies. The frame of the photograph was a sun-bleached wood, inscribed along the left side with what he instantly recognized as his mother's own attempt at Vulcan writing. He instantly recognized it from a letter she'd sent him off to Starfleet Academy with; the one he kept tucked away in a box beneath his bed, and it read: I will always be proud of you.

"Nyota, I..."

"I got the picture from Sarek. He said it was the best likeness he had of her. I saw you reading the letter once, and I transcribed her handwriting as best I could to give Scotty a template to laser cut for you. The frame is wood I had shipped from New Vulcan." The words tumbled past her lips before she could stop them. She was nervous that he wouldn't like it, that it would be too sentimental. 

"Thank you." He couldn't tear his eyes away from his mother's face. "I find this gift makes me... It gives me pleasant memories of my mother."

"You like it?" She was still chewing her lip.

"Yes. Thank you, Nyota. This was a thoughtful gift. I shall endeavor to preserve it well, and display it in my quarters." The grin that broke out across her face caused his chest to swell. She truly defied his logic and personal code. Spock held up his first two fingers, seeking a kiss from her. 

"You romantic," she teased, placing the fingers of one hand over his, and the other on his jaw to pull him into a deep kiss.

Perhaps this one illogical human tradition was an acceptable experience, after all. 

[mysticsparklewings]

MakeUp By Artists: Mystic Space Palette

At long last, I have gotten off my lazy bum and participated in my own tag/challenge/whatever   If you'd like to try this #MakeUpByArtists thing to make your own makeup collection, you can download the Premium template that I used with shading and textures and all that here, OR you can download the completely Blank template here. So this is, essentially, what it would look like if I was approached by a brand or suddenly given the funds and means to make my own makeup collection based solely on myself.   I'll be honest, I spent waaaayyyyy too long deciding on some of the color names, but for the most part, the colors themselves were relatively easy to come up with. The lipsticks I just based off of my favorite colors to wear in real life, and the eyeshadows were a mixture of colors I use a lot, colors I wish I had in eyeshadow, and just my favorite colors in general. Even the name of the collection was a little tricky for me since I didn't want it to just be point-blank my name. (But that's definitely an option, I just wasn't feeling it myself.) I started with "Stars and Sparklers," but then as I was trying to name the colors in the collection I felt minorly obligated to make them line up with that as a theme. But that's not what I wanted; I wanted a "theme" that was just me if someone threw my personality in a machine and turned it into a makeup collection. (I can always play with different themes and stuff in other palettes later; this one was just supposed to be about myself.) So I went back and ended up going with "Mystic Space" because it sounds kinda snappy like a typical makeup palette/collection name, but it's also accurate: use these makeup products and you're stepping into my (Mystic) Space. The overall look, likewise, I went with some galaxy stuff for the logo/item theming. I had decided pretty quickly that given the choice, I'd have all the metal portions as that opalescent/holographic-white color that shifts to a kind of pale green or lavender in the light. So I did my best to capture that and going also with that the brush bristles would also be white, both to match and because that way I could more easily see how much color I've actually picked up on it. The lace edging on everything was actually a later addition. My general disposition in terms of style volleys between Pastel and Punk (and often combines the two), and so after some thought I came upon the idea of having white lace accents (IRL, I imagine this would be actual lace somehow tied or otherwise attached to all the different things) against all the stark black. It's pretty nice visual contrast and reflects me pretty well. (I'll also picturing a white bow over the spot where the palette would open/close, and maybe in the store, there were be white bows wrapped around the boxes?) And now I'm going to very quickly run down where each of the color names come from and what they would look like as makeup products, starting with the eyeshadows (order is left-right, top-bottom). I came up with all the colors first, then went back and did names as they came to me: • Sugar Water - A bright white, shimmery shade. Originally the name was going to have something to do with dandelions or Baby's Breath, since I really love those flowers, but more integral to me as a person is definitely that pretty much all I ever drink is soda, and I will often actually put sweetener in plain water when we go out to restaurants. 

• Enchanting - A buildable matte, light seafoam shade. It is a little more cyan than I originally intended, but this still works. Mint/seafoam/robin's egg kind of colors really draw my eye, and I imagine as an eyeshadow with few layers and lots of blending this would work as a lighter mint shade, or the more intense cyan with more layers and less blending, so it hits both of those. The name I derived from "Enchantix," my favorite Winx Club transformation, as this color reminds me a lot of Bloom, the main character from the show, and her Enchantix outfit.

• Mew Know It - A very shimmery/glittery baby pink/rose gold. I use this kind of color a lot when actually doing my makeup, and it happens to remind me of a cat's nose or paw pads, and thus a pun for the name encompassing my love of cats was born. 

• Mummy's Tome - High-Impact, metallic-glitter gold. Also a color I use a lot of IRL. The name here is a 2-in-1. Mummy because I have an inexplicable fascination with Ancient Egypt, and Tome because not only does that make a nice pun on "Mummy's Tomb, but it also references my avid readership. (I was really happy went I came up with this name; I thought it was so clever! ) Cheshire - Another pink, this one more on the matte side and much more intense. I don't use this color a lot, but it is one of my favorites to use in art making (which may or may not be obvious if you know me) and I wish I could use a color like this on my eyes more. Named after the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, naturally.  Specifically from the 1951 version, as it is my favorite Disney movie. 

• Apple of my Iris - A mostly (very subtle shimmer) matte neon purple. I'd use this color if I had it, but I don't! Also one I like to play with in art, though. Originally I was going to call this one "Joker Country" after one arc of my favorite manga, Alice in the Country of, but the next one was also going to have an AiW kind of name originally, and I really didn't want to have three with the same name theme right in a row. I also thought I could do with more puns, so I thought this one up and went with it.

• Faulted Star - An opalescent/holographic electric sapphire blue. My personal favorite out of the palette! I'd find every excuse I could to use this if it was a real thing! Based off of my absolute favorite color in the entire world. The name derives from The Fault in Our Stars, my second favorite John Green book. (It was my #1 before Turtles All the Way Down came out.) And it is also an accurate statement of myself.

• Parade - A highly shimmery/glittery black shade. I do use black eyeshadow a lot, but mostly for intense eyeliner and in small doses to bring out other colors. But I've yet to obtain a really nice, super sparkly black to use. This one probably has my favorite name though; Originally I was trying to force a Winx Club Wizards of the Black Circle reference in, but I just couldn't do it. And then the thought appeared to me: It's Black. And what is the most popular song by my favorite band (My Chemical Romance)? Welcome to the Black Parade. From there, the reference/pun was entirely too good to pass up. And I still love it. Comparatively, the lipsticks didn't have quite as much thought put into their names: • Freak du Chic - An opalescent hot pink, satin finish. I actually have a lipstick this color, but I don't wear it much because A. It's a lot, and B. over the years the actual lipstick has gotten kind of beat-up, so I have to be extra careful when I do use it that it goes where I want it to. Originally I had just named it "Blue Rose," but that was so plain and I had entirely too many things with B names. So I went with a Monster High reference instead, since I strongly associate hot pink with the brand. 

• What in Carnation - A highly shimmery baby pink. This is probably the kind of lipstick I wear the most often since it looks pretty inoffensive on my face but still looks like I am indeed wearing lipstick. The name was also the very first pun I came up with for the names and once I thought of it I couldn't bear to let go of it.  I also really love the look of carnation flowers, so that works out.

• Bloody Berry - Deep, almost pinkish matte red. Surprisingly, I will usually go for red lipstick if I'm not wearing the previously mentioned shimmery pink. I'm not really sure what it is, but I like a nice matte, red shade. (My mother doesn't care for the matte look, but they're my lips, right? ) The name is sort of my poking fun at traditional "berry" names and also sort of a distant reference to the interest I've had in vampires that I've had since I was like ten. Also, I like most berries. 

• Beachy Keen - Satin finish, peachy/apricot/pinky-fleshy/nude shade. I'd wear this more often if I could find exactly the right color, but most are usually not quite what I'm looking for in one way or another. Still, I do like the subtle look sometimes. The name is really purely a pun, but it also works since I like the beach but I don't really like eating peaches. ... I think that's everything! Clearly, I had a lot of fun with and put a lot of thought into this, but that was the point from the very beginning, waaaaaayyyy back when I first started toying with the #MakeUpByArtists idea. So I think I've properly come full circle with it. I just really hope I'm not the only one that ever does this, or this is going to look kind of silly.  Oh well, I had fun and did what I originally set out to do, so no harm was done, I suppose. ____ Artwork & Template (c) me, MysticSparkleWings   ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram 

[afireads-blog]

BURN

Member: Calum Hood

Theme : friends to lovers au, angst/fluff 

________________________________________________________________

“So your “great plan” is to sit on a bumpy hill with wet grass on a cold Friday night?” Calum asked, his voice laced with sarcasm, and a tiny little bit breathy after walking up what seemed like the steepest piece of land in this entire city.                                                                                                  

“Don’t be silly,” she said, as she laid down what looked like to be an old piece of cloth, the ends were frayed and it was faded blue. “I have this so the grass won’t even bother us.” She plopped herself down and patted the space next to her. “Come on, I assure you it’s not that bad.”

He looked back towards the car where it was warm and comfortable, and then at her sitting on the worst makeshift picnic blanket ever, and promptly sat down next to her. He could still feel the bumps of the ground and the rain seeped through the material but then she smiled that little smile where the mole on her cheek was more prominent and really, he could have sat there the whole night. He liked spending time with her, and he didn’t get to do it often. She was always so busy. If she wasn’t helping with her brother’s science project, she was having tea with the little old lady that lived in the flat above her, or probably trying to think of ways to light up the entire world for free. God, she was such a fucking good person. She just oozed “nice.”

He liked that about her. So did everyone else. There wasn’t anyone that didn’t like her. All she needed to do was be her genuine self and she had them wrapped around her soft tiny pinkie. Even her old-as-dinosaurs neighbour smiled at her when she walked by with a cheery “Hi” and a “How’s your day?” And to be honest, he wasn’t too fond of it. He wanted her all to himself, for him to be the only one she told her annoying knock-knock jokes to.  

It’d been like this since the day they met; him fighting for her attention. He really hadn’t wanted to start school, he wanted to stay back a year, just like his cousin had. His mum had promised him to have a fresh tray of baked goodies waiting for him as soon as the school day was over but he wanted to be at home making the cookies. On top of that his teal blue regulated jumper was making his skin feel weird and he was trying his extra best efforts to not just grab the scratchy material off himself and throw it in the bin. And so Calum sat in the corner by himself, aggressively colouring in the picture in front of him, not bothering to be careful about the lines. His house was a mixture of reds and blues and he didn’t care that it didn’t match, in this world houses looked this way.                                          

“Do you want a yellow?” He looked up to find the owner of the voice that was merely a shy little whisper. Whilst her voice was tiny, her hair was anything but. Her curls were tight, mimicking an explosion which framed her face, reminding him of fireworks and those popping candy sweets he enjoyed that he insisted on opening his mouth to show everyone what kinds of noise they were making. He merely looked at her whilst she sat herself down next to him and out poured a plethora of crayons from her tiny chubby hands. She quickly scanned her little collection and selected the brightest yellow. “This one’s the best for the sun.”                                                                                                                                                   He gave her a little “thanks”, and quickly coloured in the circle that resided in the top right-hand corner of his paper. “My name’s Calum, “he introduced himself, passing her crayon back, “but you can call me Cal if you like.”  

She gave him a smile and her name. He repeated it, liking how it made his tongue go all the way to the top of his mouth. “Pretty.” She giggled at that and then continued on colouring. He noticed she took her time with her picture. She liked to look at her colours first, making sure that it was the perfect one, and once she found the right one, she made little strokes keeping in within the lines of the template. He wondered what kind of flavour cookie she liked, and whether she’d like to maybe come over and try some of his mother’s.

His train of thought was interrupted when someone else sauntered over and sat in front of him, with the intention of also sharing the crayons on the table. He wanted to say tell them to go away, couldn’t they see this was his and Y/N’s table? She just smiled and included the newcomer in to the conversation, asking her whether red or pink was better choice for the flowers in her picture? He scowled, colouring in his windows with a green. He sneaked a look at the person in front of him. She was just mindlessly drawing flowers unbeknownst to the fact that she had just ruined Calum’s first attempt at making a friend. He scowled. Again.

He felt a light tap on his arm and looked to his right. Y/N lifted up her masterpiece. “Is it good Cal?” She asked, her voice a little more confident than the first question she asked him.

“It’s really good,” he answered, with a couple of quick nods. He turned back to his own work and let out a little smile. She had asked him whether her picture was good. He was definitely going to ask her to come over and eat his mother’s cookies with him now.

As their friendship grew, Calum realised that Y/N was a charismatic person, and it was very rare to find a person she didn’t win over with her friendliness. He wasn’t six years old anymore; he knew how to share his crayons, or at least more age appropriate items.  He had a bunch of close knit friends himself but the relationship he had with them could never compare to the way he felt about her. It wasn’t that they didn’t have a strong relationship; they were best friends. Sure she told him her deepest fears (swimming in open waters), and her most embarrassing secret (vomiting before her first dance recital), and she always made time for him when she’d been with her other friends.

But ultimately they were just that; friends. And he was jealous of anyone she gave attention to. God, he was even jealous of the damn wind that brushed past her and made those little bumps form on her arm. He wanted to be close to her. He hoped whatever combination of stardust and dust formed from a nuclear fireplace that was in her blood was in his too.                                                          Selfishly, he prayed to the Gods thanking them for the death of all those stars. How could destruction be evil when it brought about the purest celestial being that could ever come into existence?                                                                                                                                      

 “So.”  Her voice was so faint, merely a whisper, but he heard it. He always paid attention to the words that came out of her mouth. Even if she was rambling about the fact that the oceans were about to be empty or something like that.                                                                                              

“Is that a question or are you about to tell me something utterly mindblowing?” he quipped. She laughed and he chastised his heart for beating a little louder.                                                                                

“I much prefer starting off a conversation with a question but a good fact does set the mood somewhat quicker than..” His hand pressed over her mouth, she was in mid sentence so her lips fit awkward against his skin, which he hoped she wouldn’t notice were sweaty, but he could feel hot air flowing from her lips and it made his own mouth dry and if she hadn’t noticed the sweat before she must have done now.                                                                                             “If you dragged me out to speak about conversation techniques I’m going and you can call Ashton over.” She turned her head and he removed his hand, and discreetly wiped it on the blanket. It was suddenly too quiet and he hoped he hadn’t hurt her feelings. “Whilst I do love catching pneumonia on the weekend before summer break, it’s not on my top five ways to spend a Friday night with..”                            

“I’m leaving!” she blurted out. “My dad’s office is moving down south, we’ve checked out the local schools and everything. It’s all been finalised.” He wasn’t listening much after her first outburst, which was odd because he was so tuned to the frequency she was on. It wasn’t the best thing that came out of her mouth and normally she was good with words. She had a way of churning them out, they flowed off her tongue, so effortlessly. Hers just managed to work, every single time. Except this once.

“What about us?” is what he wanted to say. He wanted to demand her to stay or even beg to take him with her. But really he had no right to even think of that. He was merely a boy who was in love with his best friend and as he looked at the stars blinking away in the distance he knew he wasn’t worthy of her reciprocating those feelings.

“How long are you here for? “is what he actually said, his voice a little shaky, anticipating the answer to his question because this was the closest thing he could get to a confession, being too much of a coward to instead ask, “how long do I have you for?”  He wanted her to realise what, or who, she was leaving behind. He knew it was unreasonable of him to want that but he couldn’t help it, there it was again. The selfishness.

“My university program starts in six weeks but we’re going a week earlier so we can all get settled in.” Her head was still turned away, and he knew she was worried that he was going to be mad. He was mad. Not at her. Never at her. Mad at the whatever entity was out there that was writing out their destiny, whatever entity that was out there that made the fucked-up decision to let his and Y/N’s paths touch but not intertwine. Mad at himself because ultimately there was nothing out there but planets and debris; he had no one to blame but himself.

Wrapping an arm around her, he leaned his head on her shoulder. “You know we live in this great age where even when two people are at two very different places they are still able to connect.”

“I’ve seen you practically every single day since we were six. I don’t know if seeing a pixelated version of you on a screen is going to compare.”

“I was talking about tinder. “

A giggle escaped her lips and he sighed. He was going to miss that. She was right; a pixelated version wouldn’t compare. He knew her though, he knew she’d be right off the bat making friends by taking her own version of his mother’s cookie recipe around the dorms (she had even personally said Y/N’s version was much better), making sure they all knew they had someone to talk to. He just wondered until how long he would remain in that group too. 

I take requests !

[blueshipstealstars]

SDR2 Profile

Name: Dakota Blue Ultimate Talent: Ultimate Sequentialist

Age: 18

Likes: comics, apple pie, dogs

Dislikes: being tired, spicy food

Personality: Dedicated, Open hearted, Awkward, Tries to be open to new ideas

Section Under development/editing

Survives, Victim or Killer: Killer OR Victim (I say this cause I’ve considered both but more likely she’d possibly kill someone if given the right motive)

If you choose not to interact with Dakota before Chapter 3:

Killer Version

If a killer, who did they kill and why: TBA

If you choose to interact with Dakota before Chapter 3:

Victim Version

If a victim, who killed them and why: TBA

Childhood [What their home-life was like etc]: Dakota grew up as a very introverted and quiet child. Keeping to herself and drawing, she struggled somewhat to make friends. This concerned her parents more than her for the longest time since she was busy lost in her own little world as she just kept creating more and more as she grew. Dakota luckily grew more involved with those around her when she begun befriending other art focused classmates. It led to her developing a much more apparent and strong personality during second half of high school. Growing up with rather dependent parents allowed her to both become very independent person as well as a capable care taker for others.

What they were like before the killing game: Rather outgoing and silly, often making social mistakes by being too blunt or crass only to try to laugh it off and dwell on it later. She’s very passionate about her work but still gets embarrassed to show it to most people even if they ask. So compliments are strange and embarrassing to her to say the least even if she’s fine with giving them to people she feel deserve it. Can be very opinionated and unintentionally makes it apparent if she doesn’t like you. But is considered a reliable person by others and can be mature if needed.

What they are like during the killing game: Tried her best to not be bothered by the situation but it did weigh on her mentally and she’s often make needless complaints about being stuck here. She did enjoy how they have plenty of places to explore though “Better than being trapped in a dinky little school or something, ya know?” During trials she would often throw out sudden comments against or for the argument currently happening. Though at times would be hesitant to address things directly and could try to back down if asked about something. The stress of being on the spot is too much for her when lives are on the line. Disturbingly, she wasn’t as bothered by dead bodies as she should be. Especially with earlier deaths or executions. And more unnerving is she thinks Monokuma is cute and will mention as such at times which was a put off for most. So it wouldn’t be shocking if people suspected her at times due to these two unusual elements. But all in all she was still a pretty open and kind person if you were nice to her.

Regardless if she becomes a victim or a killer, during the final trial it is revealed that the Dakota who had been fighting alongside them in this killing game was nothing more than a program created to try and support balance and motivate healing for the class during their time in the program. The real Dakota Blue was their upperclassman who was grief stricken to the point she begged to help in some way to revive the class from their despair. Thus she helped create her own avatar to try and guide and help but was also removed of her memories just as the other students due to Izuru’s interference with the Neo World Program.

Extra info: 

Often seen picking ink out of her nails

Cares a lot about her outfit/what she looks like due to disliking the assumption of what a shut in or introvert would wear who works at home

 Loves her some comfort food

Surprisingly good at sports and likes soccer the most

Animals are a weakness

Gives most people nicknames or simply shortens their names for her own convince

Loved Presents: Dip Pen, Ubiquitous Handbook, Viva Ice

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