#the longer version will probably have more adult scenes

[reccyls]

Beyond the Merging of Then and Now (Gilbert story)

Gilbert's 4th anniversary story sale, where child Gilbert is brought to the future to meet Emma and current Gilbert

---

Today, Prince Gilbert was in an unprecedented foul mood.

Young Gilbert: Miss, play with me.

Emma: Umm...

Gilbert: Absolutely not. Emma is mine, so you should back off.

Young Gilbert: But you're me as an adult, aren't you? So if something is yours, then it's mine too.

Young Gilbert: Ah, sorry. I didn't mean that you were a thing, miss. I'll be more careful with my words.

Young Gilbert: So... we really can't play?

(I have no idea why a child Gilbert appeared...)

(This must be the sweet and innocent version of Gilbert that I kept hearing about.)

(He's so much cuter than I thought, and so polite too!)

Emma: Of course we can. What do you want to play?

Young Gilbert: Really? I want to go for a walk!

Emma: I was just thinking that the weather today was perfect for a picnic.

Young Gilbert: A picnic!

Gilbert: Little rabbit, don't give in so easily.

Emma: I have to. He's just so cute I want to give him everything he asks for.

Gilbert: You don't give me everything I ask for.

Young Gilbert: You're so petty, adult me.

Young Gilbert: I'm feeling fine today. I can do it.

Gilbert: Because you're so useless that it disgusts me, young me.

Gilbert: And yet you still think you can take a single step outside of this room?

Gilbert: You have no idea how badly you're doing.

Young Gilbert: Miss, please believe me.

(That's right. Prince Gilbert had been sickly ever since he was young.)

(In that case, it'd be best for him not to push himself too hard--)

Emma: I... okay.

(Who could say no to those puppy dog eyes!)

Gilbert: ......

Emma: A-as soon as his condition takes a turn for the worse, we'll come back immediately.

Young Gilbert: ...I really turn out like that when I grow up?

Gilbert: ...Do you promise?

Gilbert: I'll sulk if you spend all your time paying attention to that thing instead of me.

Gilbert: You do, you little fool.

Emma: Gil...

Gilbert: You'll understand soon, just how stupid I was as a child.

--scene change, hallway--

Young Gilbert: Hah.... hah.....

Emma: Wha!? Are you okay!?

Young Gilbert: I'm okay...

Gilbert: What did I say? Don't just go along with what he wants.

Gilbert: No matter how healthy he claims to be, a few steps and this is what he's reduced to.

Gilbert: You can see for yourself right now, can't you?

Gilbert: How pathetic.

Emma: Anyway, let's go back inside now!

Young Gilbert: I don't want to.

Emma: But it's going to be really bad if you start getting any worse.

Young Gilbert: Albert says that all the time... He says I shouldn't leave my room...

Young Gilbert: But I want to feel the wind... Real wind, around my whole body. Not just the wind that comes in through the window... *cough*

Young Gilbert: Wait, miss... I'm okay, so just a little bit longer...

Gilbert: Albert told you time and time again why you shouldn't leave your room, and you just don't get it. Honestly, I'm starting to get angry.

Gilbert: Well, it doesn't matter. Time to keep your promise, little rabbit.

Emma: Ah! Right! Gil, is it okay to bring him to your research lab?

(Gil is right, it would probably be better to return inside immediately...)

(But I can't say no to little Gilbert!)

(What to do...)

Gilbert: What?

Emma: It's partially open, you can definitely feel the breeze there.

Young Gilbert: Research lab...?

Gilbert: No way.

Emma: After this I promise to do anything you want.

Gilbert: ...Well, if you put it like that, fine.

Emma: Thank you!

(I feel like I just made a very scary deal, but now's not the time to worry about that.)

Emma: Um, Little Gil? I'll carry you there, come here.

Young Gilbert: Really? Okay then-

Gilbert: You know there's no way I'd actually allow that, right?

Young Gilbert: Waaa!?

Emma: Gil! Don't just yank him up by the collar like that!

Gilbert: It's me, so it's fine.

Emma: Do you want me to break up with you!?

Gilbert: .......

Young Gilbert: Oooh, she got angry at you.

Gilbert: What's that? You want me to drop you?

Young Gilbert: I'm sorry, please don't drop me.

Gilbert: Ugh... Why won't you just disappear?

--scene change, research lab--

(...I thought Gilbert really liked kids.)

(Why does he hate his past self so much?)

Young Gilbert: Wow, this place is amazing! I didn't think the castle could have a room like this!

Young Gilbert: There's so many plants everywhere, and the wind feels really good... I want to stay here forever...

Young Gilbert: I don't feel like I'm really alive when I'm stuck in my room all day...

Young Gilbert: But if I stayed somewhere like this, I really feel alive.

Gilbert: ...You say that, and yet you're running a fever after just a few minutes in the breeze.

(He really, really wanted to go outside.)

(Is that why Prince Gilbert had this room made as an adult?)

Emma: Huh?

Young Gilbert: I-I don't have a fever.

(And that's not a suspicious denial at all... Come to think of it, his face does seem a little flushed.)

Emma: Little Gil?

Young Gilbert: This is normal.

Emma: Let me feel your forehead for a bit.

Emma: Oh no, you really are warm...

Gilbert: Of course I am. I'm not weak like you .

Young Gilbert: Ugh...

Young Gilbert: ...But adult me is okay?

Emma: Are you sure? You're not pushing yourself too hard?

Young Gilbert: That means I get all better when I grow up.

Young Gilbert: So I'm okay.

(...To say that to a young child...)

Young Gilbert: Mmhm. Um... I've always been weak, since I was born.

Young Gilbert: The doctor told me that I probably wouldn't live for very long.

Gilbert: ......

Young Gilbert: But, if this really is the future, then that means I survive.

Young Gilbert: I'm really happy to know that.

Emma: Gil...

Young Gilbert: Hey, if I can go and walk outside, that means I can help with official work too, right?

Young Gilbert: Is Albert doing okay? Do you help Albert with his work?

Young Gilbert: I always wanted to be able to help Albert when I got better.

Young Gilbert: And mother too... I have to take care of her too, because she always worries about me.

Young Gilbert: Where are they right now?

Young Gilbert: Miss? Why are you patting my head?

(........I'm sorry.)

(...I can't say any more than that.)

Emma: ...You're a good kid, Gil.

(He really doesn't know anything.)

(Not about the darkness in Obsidian, because his brother and mother had kept it hidden from him.)

(That must be why Prince Gilbert can't stand his child self.)

(Because his innocence is a result of ignorance.)

Young Gilbert: I am?

Emma: Yes, you are. I'm rooting for you to get better soon.

Young Gilbert: ...Thank you, miss.

Gilbert: Are you just going to pat him, when I'm standing right here?

Emma: ...Is it okay?

Gilbert: Of course it is.

Young Gilbert: But you're a grown up.

Gilbert: That doesn't matter. All that matters is that I like my little rabbit a lot.

Young Gilbert: I like her too!

Gilbert: Oh? Are you asking for a fight?

Emma: Stop right there, no fighting! Please get along with each other.

(.......)

Gilbert: It's impossible.

Gilbert: ...Looking at myself at this age, it's just too much.

With one hand, I ruffled Little Gil's hair, and the other did the same for the adult Prince Gilbert.

The movements were the same, but the underlying emotions behind each gesture was different...

Looking up at the sky, I felt my eyes blurring, just a little.

[princess-charlie-of-hell]

Why does the fandom acts like Charlastor/Radiobelle is the worst ship in existence?

(This post is going to be pro Charlastor and contains anti Radioapple if you have a problem with it please either stop reading or at least stay respectful)

This is something which annoys me for a long time because the hate this ship gets is so over exaggerated in my opinion.

I am not saying that you are not allowed to dislike or hate this ship because i am myself someone who dislikes a ship sometimes for the silliest reason. But every time i see "what is the worst Hazbin Hotel and why is it Charlastor" or anything similar to it, I just can't take it serious anymore

This is why I am making this post to argue against some points which people always make against Radiobelle

"Alastor and Charlie have a Father-Daughter bond"

I already made a post why I dislike this whole trope but i write it here again because some people think this is Canon despite Alastor just acting like her father to annoy Lucifer. Because we only see Alastor acting like this in Dad beats dad and never before or after this again and Vivziepop even said it.

"Shipping Charlie and Alastor is WLW erasure and Charlie is with Vaggie"

This seems to be one of the main reason people are against Radiobelle but i think that something like this shouldn't be a problem because 1. Charlie is canonically Bi and so there shouldn't be a problem shipping her with a man and 2. Just because something is shipped in Fanon doesn't mean that the Canon ship is no longer Canon. Chaggie is Canon and I am happy about it because I love this ship too.

"That ship would be Toxic"

I have bad news to tell people but let's face it almost all Alastor ships are somehow toxic except maybe Radiorose. Alastor is not a good person and he would manipulate probably every person he mainly gets ship it like Lucifer or Vox, so I find it stupid to complain about this with only Charlastor

"The Age gap between the two are too huge, Alastor is too old for her"

This always make me roll my eyes because 1. Both are adults so who cares and 2. Charlie is canonically older than Alastor. For me this is always fandoms confusing naivity with being Childish.

"Alastor is canonically Ace"

Ace people can have romantic relationship too but if you don't feel comfortable with shipping him with others I won't say anything against it, I just dislike it when it gets comments it under fan art of any ship posts

This last part is just my opinion but I can't help thinking that this ship would be much more popular and wouldn't get that much hate if Charlie were a man or Alastor a woman. Image this whole scene

but with a male Charlie or any other male character. The fandom would have gone crazy and say how Alastor tried to seduce Charlie or tag it with "toxic yaoi". I already saw this whole scene redraw with Lucifer instead of Charlie and it was posted as Radioapple. I even think that if Alastor would be a woman she would be called a ace lesbian because Alastor in Canon dislikes men.

(Here starts the main anti Radioapple part so be warned)

Like I said I saw a pair scene redraw with Lucifer instead of Charlie with scenes between Charlie and Alastor and they often got posted under Radioapple and the fans loved it, so I wonder that Maybe people actually see romantic undertones between Charlie and Alastor but they just dislike Radiobelle or maybe just M/F ships so they just take Lucifer and swap him with Charlie so that they can have a M/M version

This post got longer than expected ups.

This was mostly a post for me to vent because I see sometimes people saying Charlastor is as bad as V*angel and it drives me crazy. Radiobelle isn't everyone cups of tea and that is OK but sometimes I see someone write under Charlie/Alastor fanart "I am just going to image it is Radioapple" or that what I hate at most when somebody makes fanchildren of them and shippers of radioapple use them for their ship and it makes my blood boil because for me this so disrespectful to the artist who put time and work in them.

[aliendes]

hi can you do a headcanon reaction for Scoups... he finding out the reader moved on fast and is dating another idol, weeks after their breakup. Thanks<3

Don’t Wanna Cry - S.Coups

a/n: hi nonie~ thanks for the ask! hopefully this is what you were looking for. there's no comfort here, only pain lol

warnings: hurt NO comfort, just angst. post break up, drinking, toxic relationship vibes but nothing in detail.

It’s been two weeks.

Two weeks since you said those four words. Two weeks since he’s seen you. Two weeks since you walked out of his life. 

Seungcheol knows it’s his fault, he’s not dense, and he’s not trying to trick himself into something he knows isn’t real. And he damn sure isn’t letting his friends talk poorly of you for leaving him, not when he knows it’s his own doing. 

He might not have been the best boyfriend in the world, but Seungcheol loved you. Damn it did he love you. He loves you, still. He never stopped and probably never will. You were his first love, fresh out of debut and still a confused young adult.

You’d been together for the better part of five years, despite your short breaks in between to study abroad or to ‘find yourselves’. Five years he’s spent loving you, regardless of how much he showed it. He wishes he showed it more, wishes he told you more. Then maybe he wouldn’t be sitting in this bar, nursing a beer as he watched his friends play a drinking game he had no interest in. Maybe he’d be with you at your apartment, watching a movie on the couch or out on a date, walking along the river hand in hand. 

But that’s no longer Seungcheol’s reality. He’d ruined his chances with you once and for all. It was a blow out fight, one that started because Seungcheol missed a date night. Again. For the third time in a row. You yelled back and forth at each other in the living room of your tiny apartment, he definitely said some things he wishes he could take back, and you told him to get out of your life once and for all. In the heat of the moment, he did. He walked away and naively thought you’d be back to normal the next day, like usual. 

Instead, Seungcheol was met with silence in the form of his number and all SNS being blocked. When he finally worked the courage up to go over to your apartment, he realised you changed your door code and despite standing outside in the hallway knocking on your door for over twenty minutes, you never answered. That was when Seungcheol knew it was really over. 

“Cheol, c’mon, cheer up man,” Soonyoung slurred to his left, starting to get past the point of ‘too drunk’ for a Thursday night, “she’s not worth-”

“Don’t finish that sentence Hosh.” Seungcheol warned, not wanting to hear another one of his friends ‘pep talks’ about how you didn’t deserve him. Because that couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth was he didn’t deserve you. 

Soonyoung heaved a sigh before turning away from his elder and looking at Mingyu instead, opting to continue his drinking game rather than deal with a grumpy leader. Seungcheol silently thanked him and turned his head towards the entryway again.

That’s when he saw it. It being none other than you, the girl of his dreams, the woman he’s loved since he was 19. Except, you weren’t alone. And you definitely weren’t down in the dumps like Seungcheol currently was. No, you were smiling and laughing and you had your arm linked with someone. A man. A tall, handsome man with a sharp nose and cheekbones and thick, dark eyebrows. In a way the man you were with reminded Seungcheol of a more handsome, taller version of himself, and that thought made him want to retch. 

He looked away as quickly as he could, trying to mask his hurt with another sip of his beer which only succeeded in making him feel even more nauseous. It seemed the only one of his friends who noticed was Joshua, ever the perceptive one. 

Joshua gave him a sad, tight-lipped smile as he took in the scene at the entrance of the bar, slinging his arm around Seungcheol’s shoulder to give a slight squeeze of comfort. There wasn’t much anyone could do or say to make him feel better. He knew it was his fault all along, but to see the consequences of his actions right in front of his face…. It felt like a cruel sort of punishment. Of all the bars you could’ve chosen tonight, of all the places in Seoul, it had to be this one? Seungcheol chuckled darkly. Karma really was a bitch, wasn’t she?

“You want to head back to the dorms?” Joshua asked from his right, voice low enough that the rest of the table wouldn’t hear. “I didn’t drink, I can drive us.”

Seungcheol didn’t even need to think about it, immediately nodding at Joshua’s questioning. He knew Joshua wouldn’t question him further, wouldn’t make him talk about his feelings, or whatever. He was the kind of friend who would listen if needed but gave you space otherwise. Seungcheol appreciated that about his friend, more so in this moment when Joshua led them both outside through the back entrance, avoiding seeing you and the mystery man you were with. 

As they made their way out of the bar and into Joshua’s car, Seungcheol did his best to hold back his tears. He couldn’t cry now, wouldn’t cry. He would wait until he was in the comfort of his own room before he let the tears fall and the memories of the last five years replay on repeat.

[beefy-the-stronk]

I FINALLYYY finished this, it took way longer than it should have 😭 (thats on me for adding two more designs after coloring everything ajsndn)

Anyways, here's Jude's au design lineup.

We got the Judith herself, obviously.

Joan the Spoonskeeper, a pastel-loving, caramel drop wrapped in a see-through wrap, is the Sugary Spire counterpart. She is a swap of Jell's Pascal, so she inhibits his shy and soft personality. Much like how Pascal is a barista, Joan is one as well- but being in the Sugary universe, she also does milkshakes and hot choccy. Joan loves small thin silverware, but she doesn't make them, she only collects.

Judas, Jude's genderbent. There's litteral 0 difference between the two other than the goatee, and that he probably sweats slightly more. Just slightly.

Goth Folk!Jude, from @xbeih 's Music Au! She's a very laid back, talented guitarist. Unlike most Judes, she does have a slightly bigger ego- but she is more interested in the indie scene since she prefers that atmosphere more. She can be eccentric like Pop Pepperman, but also loves folk. and rustic aesthedic like Country Vigi.

Jude the Armsdealer, from @bobmirum 's Mafic Au. She is a brooding, more stoic weapons dealer with incredible marksmanship and crafting skill, but sadly, also a LOT of baggage. As a teen, she escaped from Pizzahead's casino and her family, and changed her identity. When she became an adult, she met and befriended Vigert, whom she looks up to as a father figure and helps with clue finding due to her past connections. She is also Pascal's twin sister. There's a lot more in both their stories, but I have to keep this brief for now 😭

And the last two are just what Jude would look like in the form of the vs! artworks of the bosses in the game, and also her as a normal human.

Much like Pepperman in his vs artwork, she's a giant, humanoid Bell Pepper. She also has an outer layer of cheese like usual, except its drawn a bit more grotesque and she's also covered in burns from her smithing. I like to imagine when this version talks, her voice is more distorted and gargly from the cheese.

These are just for funsies, I hope ya'll enjoy VuV

Also I keep mentioning Pascal, he belongs to @jellazticious

[hakugin0]

So that new Levi card, woah boy(positive). I get how setting is slightly dubious but unfortunately my brain stopped at the ‘childish jealousy’ part and yeah childish was the perfect word he actually is throwing a bratty tantrum about MC talking about their time with Minhyeok WHILE THEY'RE NOT EVEN NEXT TO HIM. Levi, babey, you're not beating the Tsundere allegations.

Also the part about the sins was very interesting ‘cause it kinda puts in perspective why he feels like there's no King he's close to. Or at least that's my read on that part, all their sins have some positive parts while his is the only fully negative one so of course he couldn't feel close to them. (Personally I do think that part is his viewpoint on their sins and it would be interesting to see the other Kings’ too, Satan in particular since I feel like his sin and depressive mood swings do go hand in hand)

Now for the read more aka wiiiild speculations because he didn't come home in the reduced ten pull aka see you in 3 months bae when I have 500 pulls and you still refuse to show up(looking at you bath Satan), fair bit of character analysis and slight canon divergence(???) plus personal MC involvement.

GONNA PREFACE THIS BY WAVING NY ‘LEVI SIMP’ FLAG UP HIGH, IF THE CARD STORY WAS OFF PUTTING TO YOU OR YOU DISLIKE HIS CHARACTER IN GENERAL THEN MORE POWER TO YOU BUT PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS POST! IT AIN'T MEANT FOR YOU HOMIE (it's meant for me first and then anyone else who wants to witness my 3am insanity)

Aight? Aight! Here we go gamers

Gonna start this off by saying that when they dropped the first teaser for the card my expectations for the story were jelly Levi wants to replace minhyeok and thus enters MC's memories except surprise surprise it was actually some corn set in a high school (don't pretend those aren't a thing, we're all adults here, and with MC’s track record in that game it would not be surprising) in part because the story had to get spicy at some point.

Personal belief is that what we see in the prologue of Levi is the closest thing to a ‘normal’ him aka a version of him that got to experience a normal childhood and not have all the trauma of… ya know… HIS WHOLE PAST. The way he expected an attack when MC initially trips breaks me in a very particular way, he has never known peace, he expects everything to be some sort of attempt on his or his people’s life. The one time he wasn't as uptight ended up with him heavily injured (Bloodshed card).

There is also him ascertaining that they had different starting points. Now this could refer to a lot of things but to me one thing that does is put a definite line between them. To me it sounds like he's reasoning with himself that because of their very different lives they would be incompatible (combined with that thing about his sin being the only negative one it shows he always separates himself from people he would otherwise form bonds with)

Now he's still not nice, far from it, but he can be accommodating and look out for MC when he is not thinking 24/7 about possibly being attacked. Whether he reasons that it would endear himself more to them or out of pure instinct he looked out for MC, those were not Minhyeok’s actions he mimicked but his own.

So yeah, average Levi is horrendously bad at emotions and frankly probably the one who understands his own emotions towards a potential romantic partner(since tbh that is what MC is) the least. (This is a whole other can of brainworms about how aside from Solomon he probably has not been attached to anyone in that way until MC based on something he says in his H-Scene, but that can of worms shall be opened later) please get some therapists in Hell, clearly everyone would benefit from it.

There is also something impossibly endearing to me about seeing Levi in a high school setting even for a bit because that's not something he ever experienced and I wish his time exploring that part of MC and Minhyeok's past was a bit longer. I want to believe MC gets to ask him later in the story how he felt about it.

---

If you were only here for the character analysis then thanks for reading, have a lovely day/night/evening, we are going into wild speculation territory and some personal things regarding my MC Jin in that particular scenario.

tl;dr: After Jin's parents were killed she pretty much secluded herself in their home doing most of her studying through online courses and only showing up physically at school for a couple of days.

I choose to believe she was aware of stuff from the start but in that way you're aware you're in a dream while you sleep, she can tell things are a bit off but not fully what is wrong. She knows the person with her is not Minhyeok, she also knows who Leviathan is, but there's a certain disconnect when trying to piece it all together, but the further the dream goes the more she ‘realises’ and ‘awakens to the truth' if you will.

She cannot help but pity Levi’s situation even if she knows if she ever said that she'd probably get insta-hanged, so a part of her cannot help but wonder if he wanted to experience some normalcy for once. (She's not the brightest tool in the shed so the fact that he wants to replace Minhyeok would not pass by her singular braincell) (I love her I swear, being mean is my love language)

So I imagine after the whole dream thing is over and she next visits Hades she doesn't raise any questions about that event. She seems annoyingly unbothered and not curious at all. If anything this just makes Leviathan more angry because she can't be that unbothered after everything and pretend nothing happened, he should've been the only thing on her mind and yet she still sometimes mentions that detestable human. Oh how he should hang her for it. And then one day she has a conspicuously familiar candy in her mouth. “Was the experience at least a bit pleasant?” She's soft spoken anyway but she sounds almost apologetic. Why yes the experience was quite pleasant if Levi had to be honest but he'd never praise her openly… and then it hits him. She's not asking about that, she's asking about how he felt in a normal human high school.

When she gets no answer she stammers and starts speaking again, trying to fill the void. “I didn't exactly… go there often…” The pauses are plentiful and her shoulders droop almost in shame. “... so I imagine whatever you saw was rather lacklustre… aside from… my pathetic display-”

“It wasn't bad.”

A short sentence and it was enough to make the human girl perk up instantly. From anyone else that would be considered nigh an insult, but with Levi's temperament that was the highest praise she could hope for. By the time Jin was next to his desk after he'd beckoned her with a wave of his hand her visage had brightened significantly. ‘Stealing’ the lollipop from between her lips was ‘child’s play’ after that, the girl clearly took stunned to speak and becoming redder by the second.

“Yes, not bad at all.”

[cyprith]

The Redahn Situation

When considering whether Redahn was willing or not, I think we also have to consider the sheer timescale at hand here. I really suspect we are looking at probably somewhere between 100 - 1000 years when Miquella's plan started and when it ended. So whether or not he was willing at Point A, I believe a TON of shit happened between it and Point B.

Idk if anyone has covered this or not, so this may be old news, but my personal theory is that we are actually looking at the remnants of a failed first plan and the second plan that salvaged it.

Failed first plan: Miquella builds himself a Big Body with the intent that he and Redahn would rule together with Miquella in his new adult form.

Miquella built the Haligtree with a (or several) purpose(s) in mind. We don't know how long it took. If his cocoon was the battery that grew the tree (as we can reasonably suspect since the tree is sick now, after his removal) then he was growing for quite a long time. So long, in fact, that judging by the size of his arm in Mogh's realm, he was almost done cooking.

I think this is where it became clear, timeline-wise, that Redahn was not cooperative, whether he initially agreed or not.

In order to become a god, the Secret Rite Scroll describes a process:

"A lord will usher in a god's return, and the lord's soul will require a vessel."

I think that Miquella intended to grow himself big and when he was fully formed, Redahn was supposed to come to his cocoon and "usher in [his] return." Redahn clearly refused.

Second Plan Pivot:

We know that St Trina speaks to people in dreams. At this point in events, Miquella and Trina were still the same person.

We are intended to think Mogh is crazy when he is rambling about the dynasty they'll share, but we now know Miquella charms people to get his way. Sir Ansbach even tells us he thought his lord had been bespelled and challenged Miquella to a fight for his freedom.

If Mogh was charmed, then he is the backup plan. Miquella had to abandon the body in the cocoon since he'd never have the right god to usher him in that way. He had to pivot into the land of death/the Shadow Realm, where he could better overwhelm and kidnap Redahn after a lengthy mental weakening by scarlet rot. This couldn't have been his plan from the start, or he'd have offed himself in his kid body rather than attempt to build a grown one.

So was Redahn willing?

Honestly, I doubt he was ever willing. Notice how he doesn't appear in the pact swearing scene. We hear Miquella's side of the promise, with lengthy pauses in between, like someone else is speaking but their dialogue is gone now. Convenient, since its absence supports Miquella's narrative that this was a willing partnership.

But we know Miquella has a habit of getting rid of the inconvenient parts of people. Leda's paranoia, Sir Ansbach's loyalty to Mogh, The Hornsent's rage and quest for revenge. I don't see it beyond the realm of possibility that he would choose to simply ~not remember~ Redhan saying no.

(and how interesting that the vow scene has pauses like a voice was removed when, upon fighting Redahn, we find his voice missing.)

But regardless, no matter what Redahn said, he said it to the child version of Miquella. So, before the cocoon. Before everything. And I think the timescale here is the key. Even if he was willing when the shattering first occurred, he was clearly no longer willing by the time (possibly hundreds of years later) when Malenia came to collect him.

And to be honest, I'm not even convinced Redahn is what got resurrected in the end. That is some Pet Cemetary shit that Miquella pulled. Every other demigod speaks to us when we fight them. Redhan does not. We fight a silent puppet, more or less shaped like Redahn, but clearly made from Mogh's crucible-cursed flesh.

I think Miquella did to Redahn what Preceptor Seluvis wanted to do to Ronnie. The question of "is he willing" doesn't even come into it.

Is he even still in there? How much of what makes Redahn himself even remains?

[altocat]

Analysing Genesis is ok.

Romanticising bullying is not.

It's not cute or fun or adorable at all.

We should consider no longer doing that.

Agreed, but Genesis isn't effectively "bullying" Sephiroth until later on when he's severely warped and manipulated by the degradation process.

Him and Sephiroth being competitive towards each other does not equate to Genesis being a bully. It means that Genesis has ambitions and takes them VERY seriously. It also means that he's probably trying to inflate himself into being a worthy adversary. But as far as I can tell, he's not saying things that are specifically designed to hurt Sephiroth emotionally. Sephiroth doesn't CARE about being a hero. He OFFERS it to Genesis. Also, and this is going to sound very basic, but Genesis being cocky and arrogant while sparring is kind of the norm of how competitive guys often banter with each other. Dumb? Definitely. But it's true. What does Sephiroth do after Genesis challenges him for the role of hero? Basically roll his eyes good naturedly like "lol sure Genesis come fight me then". They're egging each other on as COMPETITIVE BANTER, not bullying. Sephiroth and Genesis are being dumb young adult men teasing each other, until the situation escalates and things take a sudden serious turn. Don't forget that Seph was inches away from legitimately hurting Genesis as well. Hell, in the original storyboard of the scene, he DID.

Now when Genesis starts verbally attacking Sephiroth later on after the degradation takes hold, the line begins to blur. Because Genesis' bitterness is tangible and real there, but the degradation process canonically twists a person's mind and emotions, thus making Genesis the worst version of himself. He intentionally uses methods designed to emotionally hurt Sephiroth, but his motives and emotions are far more questionable here because he also simultaneously sought to integrate Sephiroth (and Angeal) as well.

I don't condone bullying. I've faced bullying almost my entire life. Hell, the experiences I faced have left some pretty irreparable scars, scars that will never heal. But this ain't it, chief. It's just Genesis being.... Genesis.

[vestigialpersonality]

For the fanfic end of year asks, how about 3, 7, 14 and 24?

tyty 💙💙💙

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year That Alfira Scene (Chapter 10 of Aria of Will). It can be really challenging to write your own version of a pivotal scene from the main canon, but I think more than any other key scene I've incorporated that I managed to make this one uniquely horrifying.

7. longest completed fic you wrote this year Troubled Skies, clocking in at 20,298 words.

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write Distillation. There is absolutely no question about it. I'd never written anything even vaguely spicy before this year, and somehow not only have I written four Explicit fics, this one is 6k of monsterfucking.

Though if I'm really being honest...I didn't expect to write ANY fic this year. Or get back into fandom on any level. I've written more fic in 2024 than I have from 2008-2023 combined.

24. favorite fic you read this year This is a loaded question and you know it! According to my magic reading spreadsheet I've read over 600 fics this year and rated 132 of them as Five Star. I picked one from every month, but this was genuinely hard considering how many fics I've loved this year. I should probably start a rec blog or something.

January: Open Me Up by @what-immortal-hand-or-eye. Trigun, Vashwood. I had Feelings. And I can't even pretend that the formatting didn't have a heavy influence on my own writing style.

February: Disco at the End of Time by Sarielle. Disco Elysium, Harry/Kim. Third part in a trilogy that I wholeheartedly recommend to EVERYONE, even fandom blind.

March: Whatever Happened to Jack Zimmermann? by ronandhermy. Check Please, Jack/Kent. Everyone here should already know I'm a sucker for atypical formatting and this one grabbed me.

April: The Hearts and Minds of Evil Men series by DoubleYouTeeEff. BG3, TavTash. Ricco has lived rent free in my brain for 8 months and doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

May: Breathe by @picathartidae BG3, Durgestarion. It's still going and it's always a delight when I get a subscription email for it.

June: Letters by mycolalia. BG3, Durgetash (ish). An epistolary that also uses the endnotes as part of the fic. Its FASCINATING.

July: The Diamond by @bharv BG3, Gortash/Lady Jannath. 6.5k of politics and transactional relationships...all inspired by a single note in BG3.

August: Force Immunity by @allconsumingrot BG3, Durgetash. I've reread it uhm. several times this year.

September: Reunited by @vialae BG3, Durgetash. I'm a sucker for fics about them attempting to reconnect after the brain damage, and the realization that Durge is no longer quite who they used to be, but this one hit me harder than most.

October: Taste of Bhaalspawn by @drones-art. BG3, Durgetash. My weird kinks are showing and I'm not sorry. This one bluescreened my brain.

November: in his voice i heard decay by @baronvontribble Fallout 3&4, Harkness/Sole Survivor. I'm admittedly a few chapters behind current because I've been busy with moving, but I was so excited I practically threw up when I saw that he was writing about Ted again.

Haven't had a chance to read much of anything in December yet because my entire life for the last 2 weeks has been unpacking boxes and building flatpack furniture.

I also did some annual rereads of personal favorites that will never not be recs. Specifically

The Adults in the Room by @strawberry-jan Yakuza, Kashiwagi/Yayoi. Adults having complicated, messy, ugly feelings.

The Way of All Flesh by @supaslim Fallout: New Vegas, Gen. I've reread this series every 12-18 months for the past decade and whenever I'm not reading it, it's always in the back of my mind haunting me like an intrusive thought.

And now that I've taken the time to try to choose a fic for every month, I'm now mad I had to choose. So yeah. I'm gonna make a rec blog. 💀

[devastatinglygreen]

Listen… there is no other interpretation for Jealous being in ep 2 other than the bubbling up of feelings that Colin can’t pinpoint yet. The hand cut scene being the final thing Colin thinks about before going to cause the greatest dance/engagement cockblock of all time is further evidence of that. So user polinsucks2465 can get some media literacy and suck….

ANYWAY! What I love about the Snow on the Beach cover and moment is that Colin is so sure of his feelings but so nervous in fully sharing them and the song feels like hopeful melancholy. Like when I heard the beginning notes and he’s getting out of the carriage and steeling himself towards making this reckless choice I almost cried. The chords feel like his nervous heartstrings are just vibrating at that point.

Honorable mention to Give Me Everything. I will never hear that song the same way again.

I made a playlist prior to season 3 that I don’t have the heart to delete bc I think I made some superior choices on songs and the fact that I had Take Me To Church and the show chose not to use it for the wedding dance scene feels like a personal attack on me…personally. It was perfect for the moment and the only thing that allows me to move on (but have I?) is that Pen and Colin leave the wedding with things still unresolved. I can’t have a song about him worshipping like a dog while sleeping outside like one.

media literacy? in this economy? ma'am (gender neutral).

it feels like a random choice when you hear it out of context but once you watch the scene and the first notes hit, it really is perfect for that bubbling feeling of nervousness and what's about to come.

actually idk how they pick the songs but the lyrics to that one are amazingly colin in part one too so, like, good job. i think that the audience being able to sit with penelope's feelings for so much longer than his can tend to give hers more weight but the way colin is absolutely unhinged in such a short amount of time is unreal. penelope without colin will remain functional if miserable. colin is...well. he would probably last 5 minutes before chaos ensued.

truly tho, i will never not hear give me everything and not think about that carriage. honorable mention agreed.

no yeah, the take me to church version of the wedding dance is top tier compared to the one we got. which is cute! but feels like a baby polin song, not an adult polin song but again, they were not on the same page there either (closer but yet—) so fine. i guess.

pls, not colin sleeping outside their bedroom, i can only strive to be as dramatic as he is in my own life. which i do.

[kanmom51]

JK Seven MV making sketch BTB

Yay, the subs are back on. And I got to watch it and even understand what he was saying, lol.

Loved it.

I was just sitting here for the 12 minutes with a huge smile on my face.

Because JK is just so adorable. So genuine. So real.

He had the time of his life, and seeing that just made me happy.

Now let's talk about a few thing I took from the BTB, why don't we?

I think I'll start from the fun and make my way to the more serious.

Not too much went on really. It's mostly him enjoying himself.

Being his own chaotic loveable self.

Trying to keep his eye open with the water pouring down on him, lol.

Can you imagine just how much fun this all was for him, our daredevil?

Funny, just thought about it, but they didn't even talk to Hun Sohee. Not a word. She might as well not have been there. Now I understand that JK is the focus, it's his song, BTBs are about the members, but at the same time, she's a well known and loved Korean actress acting in his MV and not only don't we get to hear from her even once, we also don't really get to see interactions between him and her in the BTB. In a way it feels like they are trying to keep this distance - this is JK, he's singing Seven, he's shooting a MV, but he's disconnected from it. I'm not sure I'm being clear enough here.

Ok, so for example JK explains what the scenes are and says the word girlfriend, god forbid. We know y/ns went into a frenzy over this stupidity. JK explaining the concept of the scene in which he's fighting with his gf, cause that's what the MV is about, and she's his gf in the bloody MV.

But maybe, knowing this fandom, they wanted to keep the delusion to a minimum, not to mention keep Sohee away from the crazy ass fans that are already harassing her by just keeping her off camera as much as possible. Idk, just found it interesting.

JK tells us a little about his acting, lol.

To all those that are still riding the scripted fanservice bandwagon, time to fucking get off it.

Omg, the way he disses Yoongi, he just LOVES to do that with Yoongi. Now I can kind of understand the "even at 60 years old jeon jungkook will be freaking annoying".🤣🤣

JK is wearing THE brand again. I'm telling you folks, JM made a huge online order for the two of them!!

He's just so precious, with this thing he has of checking out his hands, every single time it feels like it's the first time he's seen them, lol. The fascination he had from his water wrinkled fingers. So endearing.

Looks at them in amazement, shows everyone, then back to looking at them again all fascinated.

You'd think the man has never in his lifetime taken a long shower or had a bath or been in the damn swimming pool. Nah, lol. It's just one of those cute loveable oddities of his.

Did we notice the ASSets?

And I thought JM was in charge of that body part in the family.

Well, apparently the competition is on.

Has JK surpASSed JM?

Should we progrASS? Oopsy...progress?

And now I will take a moment to breathe.

I went looking for more pics from the BTB and came across this:

I don't know enough about the movie but do we know of any kind of connection to Jikook? Or this could be the directors tribute to the movie too. In any case it's a fun tribute.

Now for the heavy stuff, or not so heavy just a little more on the serious side.

I wrote a long ass brain fart of a post yesterday. And some of it is very relevant here too.

JK clearly sees the song as a love song. Period.

He did the explicit version for the fun of it (well and also probably because the America market loves a song with profanities in it). But for him it's the fun of not being restricted by the Kpop rules of engagement, the "don't swear because the song will be censored" and "don't swear because it's too adult" or whatever other reasons for it. He's having fun feeling more freedom, and that he's all grown up and can say fucking multiple times out loud.

But when it comes down to it, when asked about it directly, his answer was that he prefers the clean version. Because to him Seven is a love song, not one about the physical act alone. Yes, of course sex is part of it (the song lyrics are kind of loud), but sex is not even half of what loving someone is all about.

We saw JK talking about the love of his life while explaining about the song.

Him in the BTB about the death scene:

And at the end of the BTB explaining more:

And we also have what he said in the interview aired earlier today on Z100 radio.

The more we get of JK talking about the song the clearer and louder it becomes. I just wish people would only be listening to him.

Anyway, the man is beautiful.

Love him.

Not as much as the love of his life does though.

No competition there!!

[cartoon-cass]

Wanted to make a post about how Tessa and J would think that the main 3 were being possessed by Cyn/ Absolute Solver but got side tracked. Now y'all will get my take on what Doll, Tessa and J were up to during episode 4

Doll was around camp 98.7 through episode 4, she most likely saw what happened to Uzi. We can't tell at this point if she teamed up with Tessa and J yet but regardless sometime after this episode she probably tells them what she saw, this is how they knew about Uzi having the key bug, plus the elevator. Even if Doll didn't know what it was Tessa would, she works for JCJenson after all, this might also be why Doll didn't try to take the key in this scene.

More importantly I think Doll was not following the main 3, she was following what I like to call Eldridge Tessa. Every time we see Doll appear we see this thing just a bit before that

The scene with N it's a bit hard to see but in motion it's clearly a human hand, I just don't know how to make gifs. That is an uncensored teen Tessa for sure, the bow is the biggest give away but she also has the 2 back hair tails, also the hair is black or dark brown, which means it can't be Cyn, she had white hair and the hand has 5 fingers while drones only have 4.

My guess is that Doll was tracking Eldridge Tessa and she might have gotten into a fight with it and that's why she has the eye patch in episode 5, we've seen her recover from being shot in the head pretty quickly but maybe what ever that thing is can effect solver drones longer or even forever. She might have been saved by Tessa and that's how they met or Tessa was the one to tell her to track it down in the first place, there's simply to little info at the moment to say for sure.

Also let me say I'm very confused at Eldridge Tessa from all we have seen Absolute Solver is a program that effects drones, so how in the world is it seemingly taking over the teen version of Tessa, a human that we see is alive and an adult. I swear if we find Absolute Solver recreated Tessa from like the arm that most likely got ripped off by Cyn I will scream.

[samuelturn]

Aight so now that I have finished Brothersong I have THOUGHTS on further logistical breakdowns of how Green Creek could be adapted to a GLAAD Award-Winning HBO TV show. Spoilers so here is a cut for anyone who wants to be fresh to the series.

PRE-PRODUCTION

OKAY SO! The filming block for Season 1/Wolfsong would MOST LIKELY be the biggest, especially for scenes involving younger versions of the actors. As these are spread out across, like, all four books, some are just “scene we’ve seen but from a different perspective or with ‘Dream Seauence VFX’ so we just need more blocking/extra takes to make it all seem believeable using B-roll” to “yeah this requires Young Thomas and various child actors so we’re filming this beforehand so that everyone looks the same when these scenes come up later” to “ah hell we gotta shave their heads anyways might as well film the revenge road trip.” Thus, basically everyone but, like, Dominique would have to be cast by Season 1, and probably all of Season 1 and half of season 2 would need to be written and finalized and drafts/outlines of Season 3 and 4 would need to be made before casting would begin. Writer’s room would include TJ and a racially-diverse LGBT staff.

Caswell wouldn’t need to be fully built but enough of a location would be needed to film individual scenes with the younger actors and scenes set in the big house at Caswell (ie arguments between Mark and Thomas, Joe being taken, Thomas in the woods with the kids, Thomas writing the letters)

Title sequence would be based on the lovely new covers for the hardcover editions from Tor. They’d get longer with each season and by the end we see the whole pack in the papercraft style of the covers.

CASTING

Yeah we’d need a big ass cast. With multiple actors to play different characters at different ages.

Babies:

Carter, Kelly, Joe, maybe also Gavin depending on things

Children:

Gordo, Gavin, Mark, Rico, Chris, Tanner, Carter, Kelly, Joe, Robbie

Young Adult (ie Teen to Mid 20s) and Adult (ie by the Rough Present of when Ox first discoveres the secret of the Bennetts)

Basically everyone else

The tricky part will be that, yeah, there will probably need to be different actors for 20s Thomas, Elizabeth, Mark, and Gordo because while a 20-something can play 16 or so, its harder for 30-40 year olds to play 20-something. The upside being that an older actor CAN play Gordo for the scenes after Ox’s dad leaves (also Ox’s dad will need a name lol). You would need to switch to older actors for the Bennett kids and Ox basically once Ox graduates high school. But then you can keep all the same actors for the rest of the “present” set scenes. Osmond, and Robert Livingstone would also need younger actors. Richard Collins would only need one actor he’s barely in the flashbacks as it is.

STRUCTURE/PLOT RAMBLINGS

There are a few things that would need to be done in order to improve the pacing for TV, imo. Mainly, that the handing off of Alpha of All to the Fairbanks pack needs to feel more earned and less semi-random. Like, show them taking in Omegas at the end of Season 2, have them be allies at Caswell in Season 3 and the final battle in Season 4. Flesh them out a bit more. Also some continuity smoothing would be needed (ie clarifying that Gordo refused Mark’s MATE bite not Thomas’s BECOME WOLF bite).

Some more forshadowing of Robert’s failsafe in Season 2 would help. Obviously SHOW Gavin’s timber wolf in the attack on Jessie (and ideally have the actor be the body actor wearing the CGI ball suit moving all wolf-like in the scene) in Season 1.

I’d personally add in more of a wrap-up in Caswell at the end of Season 4. And also an extended aftermath scene or episode after Ox’s resurrection. Joe’s wolf is still bigger than almost everyone else, but not as big as it was when he was Alpha. One thing that I’d ask to be added is, maybe with the death of Robert and the ressurrection of Ox there’s a big ass magic pulse and we get a follow-up with the new Alpha of All from Alaska training Betas who have become Alphas thanks to Mystical Moon Magic as they rebuild packs across the continent. Idk the story needs more of a denumont. Alpha of All making more of an effort to try and bring Omegas back from the brink before just automatically deciding to kill them.

Dominique could have human bite marks on her to show thar Jessie tried to “Mate Bite” too even as a human. Bambi and Rico too.

He/They Gavin? Maybe? Gavin feels very he/they. Also Elizabeth showing affection to Maggie (hey if we’re gonna imply that Thomas and Richard had a kind of romantic love for each other in Brothersong before he went Omega Lizzie can make side-eye at Maggie).

Show more of the three year gap between Ravensong and Heartsong (not a lot but more than just one bit when Robbie is kidnapped). And the new story in the deluxe hardcover books too. The myth or whatever. That can be animated in a sketchy style (think Princess Kaguya or Wolfwalkers) with VO from Elizabeth.

Anyway rambling over I love these books so much. TJ I woudn’t say no to a LIGHT DRAMA/mostly fluff 5th book or short story. Maybe from Chris or Tanner’s perspective? Or Jessie’s?

[encrucijada]

PÍA RAMBLES #8

you might have seen this post or this wip intro. i'm here to talk about this book because i think it's really cool @teddywriting and i wrote almost 40k words by simply playing dolls with our ocs.

(yes i will be using screencaps of before sunrise, 1995 for any and all subsequent updates regarding this project thank you very much)

what's weird about this book in particular is that, despite maripaz and theo taking up way too much space in my brain, it's also incredibly hard to talk about them?? i know every single detail about them down to what they might order to eat at a mcdonald's, and yet i feel no one outside from teddy and i really knows these characters. their lore is weird and a bit convoluted and explaining it feels like i'm trying to explain the plot of a television show with like 18 seasons of character development you just had to be there to witness to understand even a fraction of it.

but first some basics about the actual book

title: babylon boy (book 1 of the home habitat duology)

genre: literary fiction

category: i say adult because there will be no censoring of topics but in this first installment our protagonists are around eighteen years old. you might consider that ya but i wouldn't

a small summary: having independently run away from home for their own reasons, theo and maripaz meet while homeless on the streets and form an alliance of convenience to survive. while theo vehemently denies the drug addiction he’s nursing, maripaz tries to deal with the way both want and revulsion seem to exist in her at the same time. falling in love is probably the easiest thing they do.

teddy and i are co-authoring, as in we both write the words. they will be primarily working on theo's chapters and i will be primarily working on maripaz's chapters but we'll both be involved in fully crafting this story.

talking about your book is hard when all that happens in it is character work so even whether someone gets sick at one point feels like a spoiler you want people to be surprised by.

we created mari and theo in 2020 on a whim. i can't even remember what prompted it exactly. we wanted a new pair of characters to play with and we decided to make two assholes to bicker and be mean to each other. this iteration saw three reincarnations before we put the characters on the shelf and almost resigned ourselves to them being a miss... if not for one important detail... i really, really believed they should have kissed. this first version of them would eventually be known as the homeless au.

looking back it's Wild thinking about how different mari and theo used to be. we moved onto new aus to play around with, landing on a superhero-type beat that became their new canon for a while. we had fantasy and sci-fi and musicians and hadestown and the raven cycle (that last one did so much for us it's insane). every new thing we tried shaped them more and more until they were unrecognisable from their original versions. one day i really want to go through their threads from start to finish and look at that change in real time.

there was a new thesis to their characters and it was no longer "what if two awful guys with issues were forced together and tried to bite each other's heads off". instead we were looking at two characters that through every new incarnation became more sincere and gentle. they had meta-narrative character development.

(every new au also gave us more characters to populate the world including but not limited to theo's twin sister, maripaz's seven siblings, alex, philip, a whole lot of parental figures, a quirky cast of friends... but i'll talk about them some other time)

then i did it again. in the 2.0 version of the homeless au there was one scene i loved beyond words where an argument between our two protagonists resulted in maripaz punching theo right on the mouth. when she tried to swing a second time he stopped her hand and warned her that if she wanted to hit him he would hit back. they fought and the scene ended. i said to teddy: they should have kissed. we laughed and imagined how homeless au would go now that their characters had changed so much. we started thinking about it more and more until we were moving the pieces of their cinematic universe around to fit this new idea... and suddenly we had plot for a book that would revamp that original homeless au... and a sequel too! (but more on that second one another time)

teddy started a rp thread of what came right after the opening scene of babylon boy, where theo and maripaz would shoplift and he would steal the angel necklace she wore (<- this is important)... and we just kept going... and going. we'd already had a few keys scenes to work towards, one those being that punching scene that started it all, as well as the ending. teddy added two new scenes we began calling the halo scene and the church scene, and we moved something we called the pool scene into this book from another au. we just had to fill in the blanks... fill in the blanks we did.

these right here are the names i gave each individual thread of the roleplay-ification of babylon boy. their purpose is not so much to be chapter titles but to make specific scenes easy to find for future reference. though obviously i had to be a bit artistic about it.

i don't know if babylon boy will have chapter titles, and if they will have some sort of theme going on (usually i like just putting two words together to create some imagery). "angel face" is probably what i would title chapter 1, but i also hesitate on that decision because i think i would like to save angel for later.

these threads are less of a draft and more the skeleton of a draft, that's why i called it a draft 0. its purpose is to give teddy and i direction and reading through them i already know how i want to shift the timeline and how i'd rewrite some of the scenes to make them a lot better, but it did give us a great cause and effect look of things. the way teddy and i approach our roleplay threads is more loose than what i do with @on-the-river-lethe (with whom i'm currently roleplaying draft 1 of our book lupine trail and also a giant hunger games au). fluffy and i write responses between 1k-4k words, they are basically chapters. teddy and i instead do a quick call and response, mostly focused on dialogue, we build on top of each other and neither of us really knows where a thread will go when we start.

there are no actual non-roleplay words written for babylon boy thus far. teddy is in charge of chapter 1 as we open with theo's pov but we are both busy or focused on other things. right now we're enjoying the playing around stage of the process (which i don't see going away even once we start seriously writing, i know for a fact we'll probably do various roleplay-type passes to babylon boy).

you've probably noticed the christian imagery is rampant here. it happened kind of by accident and the already mentioned halo scene is entirely to blame for it. like i said, teddy and i have this very "yes, and," approach to storytelling together where we kinda build on top of what the other puts down. teddy gave me the description of one (1) scene where theo sees a halo of light around maripaz's head and i decided "well, this is now i thing that is here to stay". church scene really brought it all together and there is a scene in book 2 adeptly nicknamed the angel scene that is kind of the culmination of this.

the imagery is almost exclusive to theo's pov as mari is more the subject of the imagery than the one pushing it forward. teddy and i will be doing our most to fill this book with visuals: characters lined with stained glass windows, lights shaped like hearts, signs and graffiti that say meaningful stuff.

babylon boy, as the title suggests, is more theo's book. both he and maripaz have meaningful arcs but theo's is really at the core of it, mari takes centre stage in book 2 (titled gossamer girl). i think i talked about this somewhere before but the titles just kind of... happened. gossamer was relevant for that superhero au and it's just a word i really adore so i wanted to use it on the title. you can't go wrong with alliteration so gossamer girl it is. and because i love when books in a series match i had to do something with boy. like gossamer i adore babylon for some reason, and so we got babylon boy. i wasn't sure about that one because while gossamer girl made sense with the theme, what did "babylon boy" even mean, exactly? teddy came in clutch and analysed the title for me. they connected it to theo's drug addiction and now i can't think of any two titles that are more perfect for this series.

like i said, there are no actual words written for this book so sadly i cannot share any excerpts. but i will share

Festival was very much the result of teddy and i having just watched before sunrise, 1995

we watched before sunrise, 1995 because the mannerisms of the two leads reek of maripaz and theo

"until a miracle happens" became a recurring thing said in the draft and it wrecked me

Our Fears is probably my favourite thread both thematically and visually. followed closely by Church Angels, though that one is mostly visually

The Pool is the longest thread with about 90 responses and all of it is beautiful. i would probably consider it the companion to Our Fears

"mutual pining they're both just idiots"

the closing image is probably my favourite one of the book

the core themes are very much trust, love, and communal help. we've got such an array of npcs who simply... help. i love the human race.

i'll probably do another update before we start properly writing talking about maripaz and theo as characters specifically. a bit of a crash course on who they are, really.

anyway. i'm giving you a golden star if you read all of that ⭐ do ask me or teddy about this story!! we'd be happy to talk about it. or even just about the characters.

cheers, pía

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Observations on the Hollow Mind Portraits

Rebecca Rose has answered my wishes today by releasing HD versions of the portraits used in Hollow Mind. Here are some things I noticed:

They're churning butter <3 This is one of the pictures we saw more clearly, so there's not much to say here. Liddol bois <3

Another picture we've seen pretty clearly in the episode. Someone's already noticed that the rope trap Phillip sets to catch Caleb looks kind of like the one he set in Hollow Mind to catch the palisman monster. Parallels, I guess.

Here the boys are getting ready for a witch hunt. Again, we've seen this. The expression on Caleb's face seems more aggressive than Phillip. Guess he's older and therefore understands what the witch hunts mean better.

These boys only have one shirt and one set of overalls. Judging by the rip on Phillip's overalls, and the fact that they each only have one strap, I guess it's an indication of how poor they are. How did they even manage to get a house on their own? I doubt little boy Caleb could have built it himself. Must be an already vacant house or the townsfolk did chip in because they can excuse hanging innocent women but god forbid these two boys be homeless.

The brothers are older in here. They still have similar hairstyles, but their proportions definitely look less "baby." Phillip still has the same overalls, but Caleb either got new ones or got a new strap for it at least. They also got new boots. While in the previous picture of a witch hunt, the brothers were playing with sticks while the adults did all the work, here the brothers have a torch and a pitchfork and are going with the adults.

We can't see Phillip's face, but it's notable that Caleb looks both excited and malicious here. It's not either of the brother's faults that they were indoctrinated into a puritan society where witch hunts are okay. But this does indicate that Caleb wasn't as horrified by the witch hunts as fanon makes him out to be. I like that. I like the idea that the brothers both started out as bigots, a byproduct of their upbringing. The difference between Phillip and Caleb is that Caleb decided to change when given the chance. Phillip didn't.

We also saw this one pretty clearly but here's some more detail. They look even older here. Phillip no longer has the buttoned shirt, I think? And if this takes place right before the next picture, then Phillip has tied his hair into a ponytail as well in this scene. Plus, Caleb was holding a torch in the last witch hunt, but now he's holding a pitchfork. So this is probably a different hunt. Moreover, Evelyn's fire looks like it has a purple-pink hue? Maybe that's just the color palette.

And here it proves that Caleb entered the Boiling Isles through the gate in the graveyard. From what I can see, part of it was also a lake back in the 1600s, though it was definitely more flooded in Thanks To Them. While Caleb is rushing in, (which is definitely reminiscent of the scene where Luz entered the portal door) Phillip seems to be lagging behind.

If this is the first time Phillip entered the Boiling Isles, then there was definitely a timeskip between this picture and the last. His hair is longer, he looks older, he has a bag and a journal, and he's wearing a whole new outfit. This looks like part of the outfit Phillip wore in Elsewhere and Elsewhen. He isn't wearing his brother's jacket, though, but he may be holding it with the arm that isn't shown well in the picture. I guess after Caleb ran through the portal, it closed and Phillip was trapped on the human side? And somehow, he managed to go through the portal again after a timeskip. He still looks young here. But more like in his late teens than early teens like in the last few pictures.

Not sure what order these pictures should have come in, but this happened a lot later than the last pictures. Phillip's hair is already fading from brown to blond. Perhaps a side effect of palisman magic? Or maybe he's just graying weirdly.

I've seen people point out this picture as Phillip misremembering "Luzura and Dirtrude" but now that we have more detail, they...really don't look like them. They're wearing nothing remotely similar to what Luz and Lilith wore in that episode. Plus, they both have their palismen. The only similarity is that one is tall with black hair and the other is short and has brown-ish skin. But they're both obviously demons. I assume these are just some followers he's trying to brainwash.

(Also, it's funny that they had black garbage bags even in the 1600s in the Boilins Isles lol)

Phillip is going Sonic the Werehog on Caleb and his wife! I guess this means Evelyn did have brown hair. Unfortunate, because I kind of wanted the Clawthorne sisters to have inherited their red hair from Evelyn. Also, it looks like both Caleb and Evelyn were in possession of The Hair Skrungly. I wish Eda and Lilith also had it.

This one's also really commonly talked about. Nothing much to add here just Phillip being outraged that his bro is slutting it up with a hot witch I guess.

This one's also commonly talked about. What I'm unsure on is when all this happened. Phillip's beard is around the same length in the last few pictures so I assume at around the same time. But then, what? Did he see his brother with Evelyn and get mad, making the curse flare up, and after Caleb hugged it all out of him he left, only to come back later to kill Evelyn? Or did his curse flare up during the fight? I love those angsty fanarts where Caleb's trying to hug Phillip only to get stabbed. Also, why is Evelyn facing her husband, not Phillip? This is commonly thought to be Caleb trying to introduce his wife to his brother, so it would be weird for her to stand like that if that's the case.

:((((((((( But also, where are they? Are they in Caleb and Evelyn's house? Why are they in a forest later, then? Maybe I just read too many comics of this scene where Caleb died in his house. They've probably been in a forest the whole time. But now that we have more detail, Phillip is very clearly not looking at Caleb, but to the side, where Evelyn would have been standing previously. Guess it's pretty much confirmed that Phillip wasn't trying to kill Caleb, but Evelyn. Also other people have mentioned this but Caleb fighting his brother to save his wife, using the knife he used to carve his brother's mask???? :'''''''')

Again, when did this happen? Looking at it again, I feel like Phillip isn't even cursed at this point. At least, the curse isn't flaring up here. He's not goopified at all like in the show. You can even still see his sleeve. I think here, and the other picture where he looked like this, are just him looking extra demonic bc of how much he wanted to kill Evelyn. The picture where he's charging at Caleb and Evelyn looks like the background is on fire. And the couple is even positioned the same as the picture where Caleb is trying to "introduce" Evelyn to Phillip. Phillip wasn't out of control due to the curse in here, I don't think. It's lighting, plus dramatic effect that he looks like this. He found out where Caleb has been, flew into a rage and tried to kill Evelyn, and Caleb tried to hug him and calm him down, because his brother loved him anyway...

...and in return, Phillip kills him. Caleb is posed the same way as the Boiling Isles is. Looking at the reflection in the knife, Phillip also hasn't been punched in the nose by Lilith yet, either. Guess those bones we see in Phillip's lab in Elsewhere and Elsewhen really were Caleb's. And also Phillip has already long since started his descent to madness by the time he met Luz and Lilith. Kind of weird to think that they may have run into one of Caleb and Evelyn's kids running around in that episode, if they happened to travel a bit beyond Bonesborough.

We've seen this picture too but goddamn, they really did this over Caleb's dead body. Before I didn't agree with the idea that Evelyn gave Phillip his curse, because of the pictures we saw of him in black and having glowing eyes while Caleb was still around. But if All That was indeed for dramatic effect, then yeah, I believe the theory now! Evelyn Clawthorne still fucking up Phillip 350 years after the fact.

So with Flora Desplora's appearance in Elsewhere and Elsewhen, her appearance here, and her name on the book Bill the titan trapper was reading in Edge of the World, I'm certain she was meant to be more important. Again, while I'm pretty sure The Shortening was announced after Eda's Requiem was finished, with how cartoons are produced, I wouldn't be surprised if they already had work done for episodes up to Reaching Out. It would explain the Azura B-plot in Any Sport in a Storm, the Edric B-plot in Reaching out when they couldn't give Emira a B-plot elsewhere to balance it out, the implication that Warden Wrath and other EC members were suspicious about the Day of Unity, and of course, Flora Desplora's existence. They probably established all of this expecting to have more episodes to explore it. But they got shortened and had to cut some follow up episodes. But they weren't given more resources to rewrite the old episodes to not include any plot threads they couldn't follow up on.

Flora Desplora didn't need a whole backstory and relationship with Lilith, as well as a whole character design, to serve her purpose in the plot. She just needed to be someone Lilith knew in the EC, who was doing better than Lilith was, and rile her up enough to do the whole time travel thing. Lilith already has a track record of mentoring multiple EC members-to-be. They could have had a character say they're her old student and accidentally rile her up. They could have done that with Steve. But originally, I guess they wanted to set up Flora Desplora to use her later.

We already saw this picture too, of Belos mutilating his ear to look more pointed. But now that it's clearer uh...that's...that's his ear floating in the sink right there! He's a lot more blond than some other pictures, so I guess this is later into his conquest. But the green streak across his face isn't as big so I guess it isn't THAT late? Also, the mirror and sink look pretty fancy, so did he already have a castle by then?

Here he is, carving some glyph combos onto his arm. He's bleeding green here, which I guess would be from Evelyn's curse? Either that, or the color palette, or the knife is rusty and Belos got tetanus after this. We never found out if the curse or these glyphs were responsible for his goopy appearance.

He's snorting a palisman! This is still pretty early on in his journey, since his hair is still brown and his beard is shorter. In fact, it's only slightly longer than it was when Evelyn cursed him. Maybe this is when he discovers that palisman magic can help his curse?

Ah, the Golden Guard graveyard. This was the guard in Belos's first flashback in Hollow Mind, where he blew up that town. Look at that collar. This Golden Guard's staff has been shattered, and he's probably being killed by Belos's own staff, red magic and all. Funnily enough, this Guard didn't have a staff in the flashback. Guess Belos made one for him at some point.

Here's Belos's lab to make grimwalkers. Notice the ribcage in the background, probably Caleb's. I guess it's confirmed that you can use fragments of bone instead of just one whole bone, since some of the ribs are snapped. Guess Belos really did do the Biblical thing like some people said, where he used Caleb's rib to make a grimwalker. In fact, based on his outfit, this may have been one of the first grimwalkers he made. He probably ran out of rib bones by the time Hunter came around.

People speculated that this Golden Guard was Darius's predecessor, who was likely petrified in the public ceremony that Kikimora mentioned happened 30 years ago in Young Blood, Old Souls. However, this Guard's outfit is the same as the one who was with Belos in the mountains. Phillip seems to have ditched his journal by this point, so Belos definitely knew the petrification glyph. This Guard also got a staff at some point when he didn't have on in the Hollow Mind flashback.

Yo it's the guy with the really wild hair! You know, the one we saw as a hallucination in For the Future! Not much to say about him. He looks polite. Maybe HE was Darius's predecessor. He definitely has the Clawthorne genes with how his hair looks.

Portal door! I don't think I actually saw this picture when I watched Hollow Mind? Guess I just missed it. Me and most of the fandom lol.

And lastly, another golden guard. He looks like he's from Gurren Lagann lol. Maybe HE is Darius's predecessor. He's also being killed by Belos's red magic, it seems.

I think that's all the pictures? Feel free to chime in with anything that I didn't notice. These portraits kind of recontextualizes some of the fanon around the Wittebanes, I think.

[presidenthades]

I am doing very minor revisions of Daemon’s Handbook (mostly formatting and continuity errors), and I wanted to do some behind-the-scenes commentary before too much time passes and I forget my original thoughts. Here’s Chapter 7!

(Note that these commentaries aren’t canon to the verse until/unless the author writes them into the series. I might change my mind on a few points later, but these are the thoughts I had while writing.)

If I had to pick a favorite chapter to write, it’s this one. It’s the first post-time skip chapter, so we get to behold all the children (now young adults) in full horny mood.

Also, Alyssa develops a personality, and BOY is it a personality. I originally planned to make her a female version of Aegon III, who is very quiet, but it occurred to me that a hellion would be more fun (and torturous for Daemon, which is the real goal in this fic).

Aegon and Aemond are supposed to return directly to King’s Landing and wait with their family to receive the Dragonstone party, but Aegon decided he couldn’t wait to see Jace again and Aemond only required mild convincing to go along. And yes, the boys took a bath first in some river so they look nice and groomed~

One of Jace’s biggest character quirks is anxiety. She has ALL the anxiety. Comes with being an eldest sibling and second in line for the throne. I don’t consider her shallow, but she perceives her appearance as an important part of her political and social toolkit because the society they live in puts a lot of stock in appearances, especially women’s. So she’s finicky about looking the right part for every occasion. (Also she wants to look nice for her husband whom she hasn’t seen in three years, nothing wrong with that.)

I made Luce a knitter, partly because I’m a knitter and I like incorporating my interests, and partly because I wanted to give her a textile craft that wasn’t embroidery. I hope I’m not being too biased when I say that in this era, knitted products (like socks) are more useful than embroidered products (like fancy handkerchiefs). The practical value of knitting, and it being an acceptable craft for ladies even if it’s not as popular as embroidery, seemed fitting for Luce, who isn’t super conventional but also not a complete rebel. I also really like the imagery of her sending flowery socks to the Stepstones for Aegon and Aemond and Grandpa Corlys to wear.

Daemon is fit for his age, but he’s in his 40s and he’s got a lot of old battle wounds, so chasing around toddlers is fairly strenuous. Also, toddlers are FAST. Alyssa is closer to three than two, and she’s spent her entire life trying to keep up with her older sisters, so she’s got a fairly good sense of balance and isn’t stumbling around as much.

“Pretty girl” is 100% Aegon’s pet name for Jace, and I’m using it gratuitously in one of the sequel fics, which is Jace and Aegon-centric. (I’ll have an update soon on what I’m writing next, but I’ve decided to break down the epic longfic idea into multiple, more manageable mid-length fics.)

Aemond thinks Alyssa is spooked by his eyepatch and scar at first, but she’s actually falling in love at first sight. 😂 She’s got heterochromia so she probably *likes* that his eyes aren’t symmetrical either.

Aegon and Aemond are no longer afraid of Daemon! They’ve seen a lot of shit in the Stepstones, so their middle-aged uncle seems like less of a big deal now. Poor Daemon.

Aegon and Aemond are currently 18 and 16, so I made their stomachs black holes like most teenaged boys. They also have been eating a lot of rations at the Stepstones, even as royal princes, so a “plain” meal at Dragonstone seems awesome.

I have nothing to say about the melons, except that I’m very sorry for Lucera 🥲

Idk why but there’s something about Jace being very dutiful and proper that attracts messy rebels like Aegon and Baela. Opposites attracting, maybe? Kinda like how Luce is on the wilder side but Aemond is super put-together. I’ve thought about a crackish scenario where Viserys messes things up (as usual) and betroths Jace/Aemond and Luce/Aegon. I think Jace and Aemond would get bored with each other while Luce and Aegon might accidentally kill each other.

Jace and Aegon know their siblings are being stupid about their feelings for each other. Jace tries not to meddle (she doesn’t like it when Daemon meddles so she resists the urge), and Aegon makes fun of Aemond in the half-hearted hope it’ll goad Aemond into doing something.

I like to imagine that Luce eventually invents double-entry accounting in this universe. I also think she’s a big fan of the abacus, which is a more visual way of keeping track of numbers. She also likes charts and graphs in general.

The three dragonglass daggers that Luce orders from the blacksmith are for her, Jace, and Joff. (Luce loves all her sisters, but she has a special place in her heart for the three of them who are full-blooded sisters.) Purple for Jace (royal color for the future queen), green for Luce (like the sea and Velaryon colors), red for Joff (Targaryen color, nice and bloody). She isn’t expecting her sisters to use them as weapons; she wanted to make a gesture before Jace’s official wedding, since it marks a huge change in their lives.

I keep describing Luce and Aemond’s relationship in this fic as Pride and Prejudice-esque, and I stand by it. Miscommunication, ego issues, awkward flirting, a failed first proposal. One commenter described Daemon as the anti-Mrs Bennet, trying his best NOT to let the girls marry. 😂 And if we keep the analogy going, Clement Celtigar is Mr Collins while Otto is the closest thing we have to Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

I established in the beginning that Daemon is very bad with feelings. This scene where he tries to comfort Baela is part of his character arc and emotional growth, but he stumbles a few times more before the end of the fic.

I am very pleased that so many readers pinpointed Joff/Daeron as black cat and golden retriever energy, because I was definitely going for that. Daeron spews a lot of word vomit in his one line of dialogue, but you might notice he mentions “I got that thing you really wanted.” See the final scene in Chapter 11 for “that thing.” 👀

Jace is making PR a priority in her reign (and before her reign). She’s observed how loyal the Dragonstone smallfolk are to the Targaryens and wants to spread that loyalty to the realm’s smallfolk in general. This is why she and Aegon do the flight into the city, and why she has her Princess Diana moment on the way to the wedding.

Chapter 8 commentary here

[a-beneficial-union]

Weirdly Specific But Helpful Character Building Questions by Judaspc

Character: “Mildren Aria”, [Found Vessel], <<Fou’sse>> Ren Tennyson

What’s the lie your character says the most often?

“This is normal” or “I can handle this.”

How loosely or strictly do they use the word “Friend”?

Ren is actually incredibly seclusive with this word, as with “love”. They can and will lie about it if pressed, such as if someone asks if Rook or Kevin is their friend, but in truth Ren views them as associates or colleagues more than anything else; relationships of convenience or obligation. Ren feels attachments very intensely and has long given up framing things as personal or intimate (“friend” is intimate to them) unless they have consciously decided it would last.

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

It’s almost exclusively for the audience. Ren has spent nearly the entirety of their life playing roles rather than acting as the individual. Their sincere, unfettered self is inappropriate and borderline socially incompatible. As a child, they were an overly sensitive and ‘wrongly’ aligned defective human (read: ableism); as a teen and young adult, they are a genetically edited demihuman whose neurology and physiology are drastically different from anyone around them, and the know better than to act without filter.

The only people who see Ren’s mostly genuine self are the few very close people they consider their cell (Vulp version of family), and they only ever see them as entirely themself when not fully conscious (like when half asleep) or in moments of intense passion (general overexcitement).

What’s a Hobby They Used to Have That They Miss

Ren used to enjoy video games, card collecting, skateboarding, and soccer. To explain one, these days they are too physically uncomfortable sitting still for long enough to play a game for longer than an hour (it’s understimulating and the stillness makes them restless or triggers their fatigue).

Can they cry in command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

They can barely cry when they actually need to, but are fairly good at forcing it to stop on command or talking wholly normally while doing it. So long as you don’t see their face and they get a moment to collect themself, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong at all.

What’s their favourite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?

Ren quite likes horror movies, particularly psychological ones! They don’t recommend them to others because (1) aliens don’t understand human media; (2) humans try and nitpick Ren all the time; and (3) while Ren just skips past or ignores the sex scenes, they aren’t comfortable recommending these movies to anyone else because the idea makes them squeamish.

What would someone yell in the middle of a crowd to find them?

Danny would flare an ectoblast in his hand because he knows Ren can smell active ecto and it always gets their attention; Zak would yell Ren’s standard nicknames (“Ren”), Rook might say Ren’s nickname as well but in a much quieter volume, Danni flares some ecto then signs Ren’s name, Leo (ROTTMNT) would call for the formal version of Ren’s work title (“Mizz Ten”), Raven (TT) would probably flare some of her magic, and Robin would call Ren’s work title (“Tenspeed”).

How loose is their phrase “I love you”?

If the subject is another person, the usage is very tight. See also question #2.

Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive?

Ren uses tough love all the way. If they’re comfortable with you enough to ask you to use their intimate nickname (Vulps are weird) (“Aria”) then they will also be blunt as a pillow with you. Ren has been taught a philosophy of “If someone stops trying with you, then they see you as a lost cause”. Because of this, Ren functionally demands the people in their life to be explicit and communicative with their failings (and also a bit because they have trouble licking up on the subtle things sometimes, meaning it has to be explicit when there is criticism or else they assume there is always criticism going unsaid).

Ren simultaneously is in a work environment where everyone treats them as a moronic buffoon out to cause trouble and has to constantly prove that they are even potentially knowledgeable, which means they don’t really take people’s criticism seriously.. The systemised shotgun approach to feedback has shot their ability to listen to people unless they’ve proved themselves to be good sources of commentary.

Bit of a loose-loose, honestly.

What fact do they excitedly teel people about at every opportunity?

Ren is an infodumper. They also have a hundred and one NDAs and social awareness enough to keep them from talking about most of the things in their life they’re relatively sure the other person will be okay with hearing what they have to say. But when they can talk about it, they love blabbing about the L.E. practices (umbrella term for “magic”) and the sources of their warped physiology (they can talk for hours about chupacabras and how Vulps differ from Vulpimancers).

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference?

Whose definition of family/friends are we using here?

Rook would ask a question he doesn’t think Ren should know the answer to (probably about mechanics or rocket science); Max would ask something about vague responsibility; Gwen would ask something about Julie or Kai (because the show made her basically just a romance character and I funnel that into her using romance as her crutch in a hectic life just as Ren uses workaholism); Argit would ask about one of Ren’s alien forms; and Zak would also ask something about Ren’s alien forms, likely to ask them to transform.

Danny would ask something seemingly innocuous, such as to drink from a cup (Ren is very specific with what kinds of cups they drink from, what beverages they consume, how, etcetera— they would probably make a face if Danny asked them to drink out of a Mystery Cup, holding it with as little skin contact as possible). (Yes, Ren has ADHD and ASD, moving on!)

Danni would probably just flare ecto without telling Ren first because Ren reacts like a cat seeing a bird to it half the time.

Robin would ask Ren to count to five on their fingers (Ren counts via knuckles rather than the whole finger).

Leo would ask Ren to explain their pronouns because Vulp-ens have a convoluted system about it (they default to “they” or “he” when in public, but that’s the easy version. It’s based off of degree of emotional intimacy to professionalism and plurality versus the individual).

Mikey would ask Ren to “Do the fang thing”, because Ren has retractable hypodermic incisors above the human set. (Ren would absolutely refuse because, Mikey is unaware of this, but it is considered highly offensive to ‘flash fangs’ at someone.

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time?

Rook likes trying to do English word play, but never learned the language instead speaks his native tongue while using a universal translator. Their two languages don’t mix well, leading to some odd mistranslations or overly literal expressions. There are a few bits of word play Rook has learned, however unsuccessfully, which the punster Ren can’t help but squawk at. Rook tries to memorize the ones that work.

Danny likes sending memes to Ren, as they are a mostly long-distance friendship, and has found a few that make Ren squeal (one particular baby animal gif) or cackle (probably a non-sequitur about textiles or somethin’).

When do they fake a smile?

Better question: when don’t they?

How do they put out a candle?

Via the lid, so as to not have to deal woth the smoke.

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

Oh boy.

When alone, Ren is never without headphones and paces near constantly— unless they’re pacing out, because chronic fatigue does that when your not constantly fighting it.

When at their dayjob with the Plumbers, they are all bravado and charm, the most Human to have ever Humaned Humanly. Heroic and boastful. (Mostly sits still when with others, begins fiddling with things in their hands when they forget themself. Has a lost of subtle stims like tensing their abdominal muscles or digging their nails into their palm).

When doing their part time job for the System (interdimensional thing), Ren code switches into full Vulp-en mode, using more <Borrowed Pulse Sign> than spoken word and taking on the mannerisms and gestures more in line with a shapeshifter among shapeshifters. (Wings are very meaningful here and an inherent flex, for instance. Forming feathers on exposed skin is a milder comment.)

With friends, to say Ren is clingy is to say that water is a dense gas. Board? Hug the human. Need to recharge the social battery? Squeeze the friend. Just needy? Burrow yourself into their very soul. Also, some sporadic pacing. Also, might fall asleep if not moving around.

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?

Mostly Max, Azmuth, their parents, Gwen, and Rook, for catharsis. There are a lot of things Ren has to play along with in order to keep their life civil, but they still need a pressure valve.

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what other people notice about them?

If actively looking, Ren immediately checks to see how appropriate their form is; how human. If it’s a passive glance, Ren admires their own beauty, as they find themselves positively stunning (Ren loves themself quite a fair bit).

Other people normally notice how normal and humany Ren is, how tiny and weak-looking. Ren wears a hologram which makes them look healthy (they have chronic anemia and are always a bit sickly) and which removes any incongruities (such as the spines in their back or gills on their neck). It also makes them appear more masc in that it narrows their pelvis/hips and flattens their chest, which is a feature Ren opted in for because people (especially fellow humans) treat them differently as a girl/woman then a man. (They prefer how they actually look but don’t mind the different too much.)

Who do they love truly, 100% u conditionally?

Not their parents, cousins, or grandparents, I can say that off the bat. They feel abandoned by their cousins and used by their grandpa (Max), which is something that someone else first made them think as a way to isolate and more easily manipulate them (Eon stuff). The thing is.. it was a manipulation, but one with a fair bit of truth. Max does treat Ren more as a utility than as a person, and only a grandchild as far as his own authority goes (“respect your elders” and “don’t you want to help your family”, that sort of thing).

With Vlad, there was attachment and respect, the closest thing to ‘love’ Ren had at the time. In the present day, Ren genuinely loves Danni, Danny, Cujo, Fo’va (a Ben from a few decibels over who crashes at Ren’s apartment sometimes), and Crisp-Clover (the Ren-9 who’s taken this Ren on as a full time project because xe’s a medical professional for other Vulp-ens, and who also knew Rem beforehand— so it is a smidge conditional.

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

They get along with the people who have actively tried to kill or mutilate them (in canon), so they’d be perfectly chummy during the interaction. They’d be either internally homicidal or depersonalizing the whole time, though.

I don’t understand the question.

What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

Ren disagrees with most standard central U.S. etiquette and finds it performative, but complies with nearly all of it. They especially hate the social contract that says one ought to demonstrate their skills/abilities if asked, namely the “Can you transform for me” question. They find it rude, intrusive, and presumptuous— and it is why they think so poorly of Zak from the get go. (Zak would have accepted a “No” with little pushback, but Ren views that sort of resistance against allies as potentially dangerous, since they are, in canon, commonly punished for not being subservient.)

What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character?

Sitting. Ren has undiagnosed and unmedicated idiopathic hypersomnia, and experiences sleep attacks that can be triggered by inactivity or comfort.

They are also wary of concerts due to their volume, traveling via vehicles as they prefer their own wings, and are repulsed by most foodstuffs people enjoy (particularly pickles and mustard).

What do they feel guilty about that the other person/people don’t remember?

During their first interaction, Ren tried to bite out Danny’s throat. Ren is functionally an exotic creature who was being accidentally starved and chronically malnourished with the only alleviation being an external moderation of the sensation of hunger (an enchantment that was given to them by Vlad), which promoted a pattern of very occasional crises. Ren needs to eat magic; Danny is a halfa. Danny is only alive because Anodites can consume via physical contact, meaning that physically hurting Danny was unnecessary. Ren pinned him and nearly depleted his ecto, and that was it.

Ren doesn’t remember it, for obvious reasons, but feels guilty in the present day. Danny doesn’t blame them (as Ren was very obviously in an altered state and acting in desperation).

Ren also feels a bit guilty about Rook bearing the brunt of their spite after being abandoned by Gwen, as Ren began to internally spiral which seemed externally as though they simply didn’t like Rook or thought he was beneath them. Rook did recognize that Ren was avoiding him and (canonically) asked if Ren was angry with him, but otherwise doesn’t remember this.

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?

Ren loves, loves, loves sneaking, and also free food. The kind of cookie doesn’t matter too much, so long as it doesn’t have recreational drugs in it. Ren sometimes orchestrates scenarios in which they can openly sneak, even if they already have permission to take that cookie. If they get caught, they burst into giggles or squeals. Ren can and will be incredibly dramatic about it, crouching to the ground and looking around corners (even though they can see through objects… it’s for the funsies).

What subject/topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the main plot?

Textiles, herbal dyes, rock hardiness, crop rotation, and music theory. These are past hyperfixations.

How would they respond to be fired from a good boss?

N//A

What’s the worst gift they ever received and how did they respond?

Their parents kept trying to ‘gift’ them laser hair removal and hormone therapy. They wanted her to be either a girl or a boy, but he likes herself as they are. They politely but consistently refused, growing more and more disheartened by the persistence of their parents.

What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?

Ren tells people they ‘want’ to be a hero; Ren ‘wants’ to be allowed to live their life without winding up discontinued or prosecuted and firmly believes that their existence is dependent on their usefulness as a tool and weapon. They used to save the day out of genuine morality; now they do it out of professional obligation and sinple practicality.

How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them?

Ehh, there are a lot more questions than I realized. Depends on context. Ren can and will gaslight someone unless they’re a cellmate. They also have a tendency to construct half-truths or inflate the other person’s importance in a flattering way as a distraction tactic. Ren doesn’t often outright lie, valuing their trustworthiness, but isn’t above saying a misleading truth.

If what they originally said was a sincere truth, then they will probably respond to disbelief by just caving. They’re too used to people assuming they don’t know what they’re talking about to care anymore, and now just doesn’t often bother being frank with most people.

Guilt via mistakes! How does professional versus personal differ?

Ren’s job involves armadas, bombs, assassinations, war, and conquest. People get hurt. A lot of people can get hurt very quickly if Ren misjudges or even if they do everything right. Ren has empathy burnout and has been raised under the medical profession’s mentality of “People get hurt either way, at least we tried”, which is to say that they don’t especially care unless the consequences affect them personally.

(Zak’s role in Work’s in Progress was functionally to check on Ren’s functionality, which is a lot more warranted than the narrative treats it.)

With personal matters, Ren takes mistakes very seriously, especially per having RSD and fearing rejection. Ren does a lot to try and make it up to the other person, coming clean immediately and having a personal rule to tell the truth whenever possible.

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How do they greet someone they dislike/hate?

Tell (tail tip) pointed downwards, gills pressed shut, and grin as wide as their face.

How do they greet someone they like/love?

Wings raised and outspread (if present), tail raised at basal and bent with the Tell horizontal, gills gaping, spines raised, eyes wide and crinkled at the corners, smile either small or mouth open (most of their smiles are only in their eyes), and generally they will look for an invitation for physical contact (huggggssss).

They also love pressing their forehead or nose tip to the other’s, which is a human practice they were taught when very young. Danny uses this to nuzzle, because it’s fun; Danni treats it like how cartoon teens treat being told “I love you” by their parents; and Cujo tries to lick their face.

(With other Vulp-ens this has extra steps. A common intimate greeting includes tail twining at the sweep, but Ren’s is docked and is now only reaches their knees when at rest and the ground if stretched (sweeps stretch like rubber). Fo’va compromises for an adjusted twine; Crisp-Clover is a Chains Vulp, who don’t twine anyway (and so instead it’s the forehead touch and an arm twine).

What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they ever made?

There is an L.E. application that can reverse injuries to a person that occurred within three day’s time, which extends to emotional injury. Ren once offered to heal Danny after ‘taking care’ of Dan for him, which had the effect of negating Danny’s moral qualms of participating in murder (technically self defense, but Danny doesn’t see it that way). He is now more accepting of Ren’s occasional mercenary work than he’d be otherwise.

Who do they keep in their life for professional gain?

Basically everyone who isn’t a cellmate.

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How do they respond to a loose handshake?

Mild confusion.

What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone?

Ren’s main transfer is of the Midland Vulps, and they acquire the nutrition needed to support the given physiological systems from one of the main trade centers near the west coast of the Peaks geographical region. That is to say, Ren’s Vulp mannerisms are one part neurology (the reflexes and instincts) and five parts trade culture (commerce, safe harbor, etcetera— more species are met at these junctions than Ren would have ever met further down south).

When around the human public, Ren holds their tail in a manner reminiscent of earth mammals (downwards and sloped; very bad Vulp posture).

They sometimes move as if to pull the Prototool from their shoulder, mirroring Rook’s preparedness. Ren has never used the prototool.

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What do they commonly misinterpret and why? Example, biases, upbringing, environment.

Ren’s natural inclination to physical intimacy and lack of sexuality (acespec) means they often come across as flirtatious, and flirtation in others is often mistaken as friendliness unless it is more explicit.

What language would be easiest for them to learn and why?

ASL; <BPS> is a close derivative, sharing the alphabet and most common words (deviating from there), meaning Ren would probably have an easy time learning the standard version.

They try learning Spanish and French but have trouble learning other spoken languages.

What’s something frivolous/unimportant that they hate passionately?

Coffee. Ren can’t have it, hates its omnipresence, and hates the expectation that they should be alert at all times because of the tired/wired culture around them.

Are they a listener or a talker?

A natural talker who listens out of discipline, respect, and practicality.

Who have they forgotten about that remembers them quite well?

They’re a celebrity and exotic creature; nearly everyone remembers them but they scarcely remember anyone else.

Who would they say “yes” to if invited to do something they abhorred?

To flip this question around, Ren is uncomfortable with most things and is more likely to say “No” to someone they care about because they trust the other person to not punish them over it. They wouldn’t be comfortable with them in the first place if trust wasn’t there, after all.

Would they eat something they find gross to be polite?

Yep. They find most food gross, with what food they can enjoy changing on a weekly if not hourly basis. Rook will bring Ren a snack, having seen Ren enjoy it in the past, and Ren accepts it out of politeness.

Ren is more likely to decline if offered by a trusted person.

What belief/moral/personality trait do they have that you, the writer, don’t agree with?

What’s a phrase that they say a lot?

They start most sentences with “So” and “Well”.

Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?

Their immediate emotions aren’t trustworthy and neither are their perceptions, which is the result of sensory, processing, and emotional regulation issues. In the present day, they are often slightly delusional (in the literal sense as a result of chronic, severe sleep deprivation brought by unmedicated IDHS), thus they try their best to wait until they are reasonably certain of something.

Who would/do they believe without question?

Crisp-Clover and Cyborg.

What’s their stress response? Fight/flight/fawn?

Naturally fight, fawn by discipline, and freeze by force.

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based off of their hobbies/profession but which they hate?

Large social gatherings. Ren once volunteered to be the person dunked in water at a carnival game as a way to stay out of the crowds (partially canon).

If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? How does this response change based off of the kind of fear?

If it’s an emotional matter? Danny.

If it’s a medical issue (human health)? Cyborg/Robin.

If it’s a medical issue (Vulp or Omni health)? Crisp-Clover.

If it’s a medical issue (Anodite health)? Pen 10 (check the tag).

If it’s from C-PTSD, they’d likely self-isolate. Danny might sick Cujo on them if he clues into this, or spams them with cutesy memes and images.

What’s a simple daily activity/motion that they mess up regularly?

Swallowing beverages. Ren very frequently chokes on liquids and uses straws whenever possible.

How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a theme?

Most of their hobbies are about hiking, visual arts, music, or textiles— but all of these takes time and care which their life does not allow. Plus art and academics were Gwen’s thing; Ren is supposed to be the brute— meaning those in their life tend to react to these hobbies with bafflement every time they come up or are noticed.