#the perfect older sibling who is limiting her magic because of family & has a song about how they don't want to repress that magic anymore

[onlycleverinmyhead]

"We don't talk about Bruno no no"

oh, cos he gay?

'Isabella is the only one who Bruno gave a good prophecy to'

Right, because she is also gay, I understand now.

[booksandtea]

Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin Genre: Fantasy | Horror | New Adult Length: 336 pages Published on 2nd April 2019 by Titan Books Purchase*: Amazon | Wordery | Blackwells *these are affiliate links Sarah Maria Griffin: Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads Received for free from publisher in exchange for an honest review + bought 2 copies myself

Synopsis: The house at the end of the lane burned down, and Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, were never seen again. The townspeople never learned what happened. Only Mae and her brother Rossa know the truth; they spent two summers with Rita and Bevan, two of the strangest summers of their lives… Because nothing in that house was as it seemed: a cat who was more than a cat, and a dark power called Sweet James that lurked behind the wallpaper, enthralling Bevan with whispers of neon magic and escape. And in the summer heat, Mae became equally as enthralled with Bevan. Desperately in the grips of first love, she’d give the other girl anything. A dangerous offer when all that Sweet James desired was a taste of new flesh…

Screams into the endless void about how this brilliant book with a theme of obsession is my current obsession. I first finished reading it on a Saturday night in March, I started re-reading it again the next morning.

I am not okay.

I love this book. [hi look at me being a mess on twitter 32 times]

I first heard about Other Words for Smoke when I attended an Waterstones Q+A Event of Sarah Maria Griffin and Christina Henry. Hearing these two talk was so much fun and I knew I’d have to read some of Sarah’s work because she had me awe-struck ok.

I reached out that night to Lydia about a review copy of OWFS and the rest is history. I’m history. I’m dead.

It’s like returning home, there’s a comfort I find in this book. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.

OWFS follows twins, Rossa and Mae, as they spend two summers with their Great-Aunt Rita, her teen ward Bevan, and a larger than life cat Bobby. In a house that is strange than meets the eye with a Sweet James, an owl living in the walls demanding his hunger be quenched.

There are two main sections to the book; the first Summer where the twins are 14 and get sent to avoid family disrupt. And the second Summer when the twins are 17 and return to Rita’s to escape their family divorce, older and more prepared to face the different type of horror that Rita’s house holds.

“How strange was this mutual, silent agreement that maybe something was badly wrong in Rita’s house, that they’d seen something awful there that they couldn’t quite name, but  somehow they felt more able to manage that wrong than their parents.”

There are also some inbetween chapters which give us background development and the history of Rita, Audrey, Bobby,  and James. As well as some key scenes from the twins in their years between the two summers.

(Its in this part that there is forced outing which I wasn’t a fan of, but its addressed and I’m happy with how Mae stood up for herself)

Rita is the best authority figure I’ve read about. She’s both motherly and caring but also a power to be fearer. She nurtures Mae’s exploration with magic and tarot reading, she helps shape Rossa into a more confident being.

“…if this thing was evil, then he was good, and he must be able to overcome it. He just had to find the courage – he knew it was in their somewhere, but he couldn’t grasp it.”

Rossa is the character I struggle most to talk about as realistically, I think I’m most like him. Or I would be in that house, faced with that danger and horror. I can’t see me ever being brave, I can see me struggle to keep a float, wanting to keep my sister safe, but not having the courage to face it. And feeling a bit of an outsider to the others in the house who’ve all formed a strong bond.

I think he is at his strongest when he’s not at ends with Mae. The two together have a great dynamic together in the book and I lived for the two supporting each other through the toughest times, and their sibling banter.

“A troupe of sunflowers, standing tall and there – there suddenly like a jewel on the lawn, Bevan sprawled out under the sun on a tartan blanket, her flat stomach to the sky. Her legs a hundred miles of tan.

Oh no.”

Bevan’s blonde hair and “her unfair, impossible legs” help Mae develop the strongest and ever-consuming of crush’s. Mae’s chapters were honestly my favourite to read because SMG has nailed down that First Crush obsession, how it engulfs your every fibre, and you want to do everything to leave a good impression – even allow them to pierce your ears, which terrifies you.

Bobby is a good soul whilst Mae battles with all these feelings engulfing her. He is larger than life, and more than what he seems. But his secret is something earned when the twins are ready and it takes Rossa a little longer to be welcomed into the coven.

“Love is the realest thing, Mae. The world around you will become realer the more you feel it. Doesn’t music sound better already? Isn’t there more meaning? There’s a reasons you had that song on loop. It’s deepened.”

Bevan is also a storm. Mae knows this, accepts it, and both loves and fears her. Bevan is ready to set the world on fire with her anger, confidence, and naivety. Her misplaced trust in Sweet James for a share of his power and “affection” is the moving force of the plot for OWFS.

You can’t read this book and not pick up on how Sweet James is a representation of toxic relationships. He manipulates and controls Bevan to cause harm to others, and later hopes she can set him free from his chains. He is nothing to be desired.

I found it very therapeutic to be able to reflect on how abusive he is as an outsider, whilst reading about how enticed and dependant Bevan is on him and his power. How broken she is when he’s stolen away. It really is terrifying.

“…and you thought you understood all the way that he could scare you, bargain with you.”

But I wouldn’t have wanted their relationship to have been portrayed any differently as they really hooked you in. To be honest, all the characters do in this book.

The only character I haven’t spoken about yet is the queer and forever young Audrey. Her path is one we are introduced too in the second half of the book mostly. Her role is so very important, not only because it contextualises the story with the Magdalene laundries, but also she’s very interwoven with Rita and the separate paths they are both on to be hopefully be together.

I really could talk about my love for this book all day, in fact in real time I have. But honestly this is the perfect blend of fantasy and horror which I’ve been highly recommending to everyone who will listen.

I’m almost done with my second reread (I had to limit myself) and I will be annotating Beth’s copy later on. I also have my another copy going around my USA friends who’re annotating it for me.

Like I said this is pretty much my life right now.

This review probably isn’t good enough. I don’t do my intense feelings enough justice. I don’t do Sarah’s amazing writing justice.

Please read this book. Also, message me when you do.

“You lonesome?” she asked absently. “Are you? replied the cat.”

5 stars / 5 stars

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Review: Other Words For Smoke by @griffski | #Gifted @lydiagittins @TitanBooks Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin Genre: Fantasy | Horror | New Adult Length: 336 pages…

[wazafam]

As one of the most timeless fairytales in the world, Cinderella has captured viewers for decades. Modern adaptations, primarily by Disney, are now children or teen classics that fans love to rewatch. Even adults enjoy the traditional coming-of-age story of the young woman who is mistreated and neglected but finds her "happily ever after" as she harbors a different kind of strength through her kindness.

RELATED: Cinderella (1997): 10 Best Outfits, Ranked

Alas, the classic romance story is ingrained with several themes that are just too conservative for modern-day viewers. Even longtime fans agree that certain elements in the story do not help 21st-century children grow. While the Disney 1950 film and future renditions stem from the original ancient tale, they're still popular enough to influence generations of young viewers. Gender roles and racial bias are just a few of the older aspects of the whole tale that just didn’t age well into today’s world.

10 “If The Slipper Fits” Theme

Seriously, despite the fact that it’s actually laughable to round up an entire town’s female population and test if one of them can fit into a shoe, there’s something else about this theme that modern viewers don’t appreciate.

The idea of one slipper fitting only one woman out of countless others is supposed to convey Cinderella’s outstanding personality, but it also limits one’s perspective on falling in love. The symbol and entire theme convince some viewers that there is only one person in life for them to find. In today’s age, many beg to differ with this idea because some prefer to experience more than one partner throughout their life, while others prefer to date several partners simultaneously.

9 Evil Stepmother Symbol

The image and sound of the word “stepmother” have become associated with villainy. While Cinderella isn’t the only fairytale to ruin the meaning of what a stepmother really is, it’s one of the issues with the entire story and its adaptations that have given modern audiences a bad taste in their mouths.

Families with step-parents and step-siblings view the evil image as insulting and misleading. What the tale basically conveys is that a new parent in the family is out to hurt the children. While some of the various adaptations added some comedy to the stepmother, like in A Cinderella Story with Jennifer Coolidge, the character’s evil persona is still problematic.

8 Knight In Shining Armor

Yes, it’s been sweet to see the stereotypically perfect man sweep the girl off her feet and rescue her from her terrible life, but this theme just does not work in today’s world.

RELATED: Cinderella (1997): 10 Movies To Watch Next On Disney+

The whole male savior image here ultimately was not received well in today’s day and age as young girls are seeing that they don’t need to rely on a male companion for salvation or success.

7 Class System Position

Does everybody love the “rags to riches” theme? Not anymore because it’s simply outdated, especially through how a female is “saved” from being a poor, abused maid and turned into a wealthy princess.

With the rising awareness about the meaning of the word, “privileged,” some view the class differences in the fairytale as completely obsolete with the wide financial gap between the princess character and everyone else. The characters shown are either completely poverty-stricken or as the wealthy upper class. While the tale is supposed to take place in older times, even the modern adaptations use wealth or just status as a large issue revolving around the titular character, like with Mary acting as the family's housekeeper in Another Cinderella Story. 

6 Household Roles For Women

This is a very obvious issue that was recognized years ago, not just today. The vision of a young female managing an entire household’s chores is insulting for many women. The old custom of a woman cleaning a home has luckily been overthrown, but still concerns many modern viewers.

Aside from Cinderella’s housekeeper image, the role of the stepsisters and mother are also questionable because they paint the picture of how awful it would be for a woman to be the head of a household. Being that the stepmother figure is rich and evil, the idea conveys to men that women shouldn’t rule a home because they would use their newfound authority to harm someone else.

5 A Relationship Is The Goal

Since all the live-action remakes end with marriage, a long-term heterosexual relationship with the prince is the only happy ending Cinderella seems to get. Marriage brings her wealth and power over a kingdom, apparently.

RELATED: 10 Non-Disney Versions Of Cinderella, Ranked According To IMDb

Even in other renditions, for example, the Cinderella character, Sam, in A Cinderella Story is dedicated to attending Princeton University but does so with a new boyfriend. Similarly, in Another Cinderella Story, Mary wants to be a dancer but the celebrity, Joey, is the one who basically helps her get into an elite dance academy. All in all, the basis of the renditions and the actual tale imply that the Cinderella character needs a male counterpart to help her on her journey.

4 All-White Characters

Aside from a few technicalities in the adaptations, and despite the wonderful 1997 adaptation with the first black Cinderella being introduced to the screen, most of the films and images of Cinderella and other characters appear to be white, or at least, light-skinned.

While there is an upcoming rendition of Cinderella starring Camila Cabello and Billy Porter (as a genderless fairy godparent thankfully!), the past renditions still show lighter-skinned main characters. For example, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song stars mainly white characters, and the Drew Barrymore rendition, Ever After, does the same.

3 How Femininity Is Defined

To put it plain and simple, every Cinderella character to date has been presented as “beautiful” because she’s transformed with magic into wearing a big, elegant ballgown. Now, the idea of the tale is that Cinderella is really a beautiful person due to her generous and kind personality.

RELATED: All 10 Live-Action Cinderella Renditions, Ranked By IMDb

However, her dainty demeanor is implied to be the manner in which women should behave if they want to be likable. In contrast to Cinderella’s daintiness and shy behavior, the evil stepfamily is portrayed as boisterous, overly confident, and manipulative. While it’s true that cockiness isn’t the greatest trait, female viewers today see this as an indication that being outspoken and confident aren’t “feminine” traits.

2 All Characters Are Heterosexual

Up until today, pretty much every modern rendition only portrays heterosexual romance. There’s little to no mention of homosexual relationships. While the defense is that the actual tale takes place in medieval times and most obvious relationships were heterosexual, modern adaptations have been criticized for neglecting the entire LGBTQ+ community.

The basis of the story seems like it’s trying to convey only a male-female connection, such as in how the teen adaptations portray Cinderella and her friends only pairing with the opposite gender in a heterosexual way.

1 No Gender Fluidity Representation

In all the released Cinderella movies and in the original storyline for centuries, gender is solely presented through cisgendered characters. Not many have brought gender to light for a while up until today’s day and age, where many non-binary people are reacting to this tale questioning why they aren’t represented at all.

Fortunately, audiences have the 2021 musical adaptation to look forward to, as Billy Porter will be playing a gender-fluid role, replacing the “fairy godmother” character as a simple “fairy godparent” role with neither the male nor female gender being the character’s depiction.

NEXT: Disney+: A Cinderella Story Or Freaky Friday: Which Is Chad Michael Murray's Best 2000s Movie?

Cinderella: 10 Things That Didn’t Age Well | ScreenRant from https://ift.tt/3skJEEi

[fmdartemisia]

aesthetic + headcanon: instruments and things that sia uses for production

the little things over the years that sia has used over time, as well as learned over time. challenges from her high school teachers in seoul arts high school for constant musical stimulation, and her love for learning and putting herself entirely in music and its production setting for the base and cementing her supposed “thought” of becoming a music producer in the near future. 

 word count: 1,446 words

piano:

the first thing that she uses, the earliest instrument that she uses for herself is a keyboard. not even a piano—they can’t afford a proper one, and the old one that her brother used to have at home long ran out of tune from the countless number of times she and her brothers used and tinkered on its old keys, until it finally exhausted every last bit of its life, and died on them. she gets a keyboard for a birthday present from her second brother, ko jongtae, who’s all but exhilarated by the fact that there was another one in the family that had an amazing musical talent.

she named the keyboard keyboard 1 (she doesn’t exactly have a good naming sense of her things..unfortunately), and it was a name that was given out of affection. she was about 3 when she started learning piano from her older brother, and 6 when she received her first, second handed keyboard that she named keyboard 1. it spoiled within a few months due to the constant usage she submitted it to, and she was incredibly upset at its demise. probably one of the first times she ever cried to her older brothers, because she loved the sound of the music, and the magic of composition in pulling out tunes out of practically nowhere.

 she’s nine when she first composes her first song, and it was out of anger, because it had been her birthday, and her three brothers—out of genuine need to prank her, had hidden a ferocious cat in a present box, and gave it to her to rip open. she’d open the box, and gotten scratched right in the face, giving rise to her existent fear of animals that remains till this very day. it was ultimately an angry, childish song, but it marked her first ventures, forays into the art of production and composition, because despite of its childish nature and a few strange tunes here and there, it was well received by family, and her older brother’s friends.

midi:

she first gets her midi equipment when she makes her first, part time job at a young age of 13/14 years old. it takes a little more than a year to be able to earn just enough for a proper set, not to mention with some financial help with her older siblings. the next year she spends her time poring over the instructions and trying to understand how the machine worked exactly.

she proves herself truly gifted in music when she quickly identifies how to use it in tandem , and quickly succeeds in making her first song with midi studio, and both her brothers are pretty surprised at what she’s done. it’s a small studio, just barely able to fit upon her desk, and sia tends to use the money that she earned from her second brother with selfies back then to fund herself to expand this particular home studio. she gets herself a studio recording mike of a pretty good quality when she’s fifteen. it’s the first thing she buys for herself, and her music evolves from just simply being composition tracks to tracks that actually do start having her voice, even if she doesn’t like it.

serum synthesizer:

she gets a serum synthesizer on top of it all when she’s 18, and the first thing she does is produce one of the laziest songs she thinks she’s produced in her lifetime. idle song is born on a hot, lazy day, with her dozing in her seat in her home studio, hair a chopped mess, and a guitar on her lap, fingers lazily plucking against the strings in an uncoordinated but repetitive fashion. she sends it to bc just out of fun because she wanted to see their reaction, knowing clearly to herself that she doesn’t really like the song—and it comes and bites her right in the ass when bc finally tells her she’s ready for a solo thing, and they dump idle song right on her for her debut song.

she loves the serum synthesizer a lot, experimentation with her various songs that she likes to do is able due to this particular instrument in her home studio, just like the various audio interfaces that she has.

the serum synthesizer is what she uses for the various funky and different sounds that she likes to put in her songs at times, depending on her mood and the type of genre that she actually wants to go for.

guitar:

she picks up guitar a few years after she picks up piano, at around the age of 10, because she had expressed that she wanted to learn the guitar if she could—piano having gotten a little boring and limited for her musical space. her third brother buys her first guitar with the extra pay that he gets from being an idol. she doesn’t know that its out of his own pocket and savings, but with her third brother on the path of being an idol and doing music himself, he understands more than she thinks and knows about her own personal desires.

he gets her an electro-acoustic guitar so that she could eventually plug it into her studio if she has one and would like to produce music herself

he gets her a carol robelli f550 thinline for her 10th birthday without telling her, and it’s the model of the guitar that she uses till this very day for her music productions, a slight edge of her being sentimental since she refuses to throw the guitar away for a better one, as suggested to her by others.

learning the guitar itself is incredibly easy for her, owing to her perfect pitch and background knowledge of music. its just memory work from then on, and the persistence to play the guitar despite the ache in her fingers and the tremble in them after hours and hours of practice.

electric guitar & electric bass:

she picks up the electric guitar when she’s 15, and studying in seoul arts high school in the music department. she’s deeply committed to her art in music, and its during this particular period that her deeply anal characteristics for music start to show to others. her inability to tolerate even the slightest mistake or wrong pitching makes her difficult to get along with her peers, and her gifted edge in music and its production sets her a little apart from everyone else. luckily enough she has good teachers who are more than patient with her, and rub down that arrogant little edge that she sometimes shows.

learning the electric guitar was not a challenge, but a part of the challenge her teachers gave her in order to keep her constantly stimulated. for someone like her who learned music so quickly and so efficiently, they challenged her to learn all of the various guitar types and be at least—able to play them fluently and slightly proficiently.

 so sia picked up the electric guitar and gets exposed to rock, punk and metal music not for the first time, but more intimately. her production music gets slowly influenced by the instruments that she’s learning as well, and eventually some punk, metal or rock elements are added into the songs that she produces. she even learns a bit of the vocal style of rock, and finds out that while she growls magnificently, the screaming/yelling singing style that is typical of rock does not suit her voice unfortunately.

she picks up both and learns them completely by the end of the year, and continues playing them throughout her various years. it also helps her a little with her social interactions with others—sia joins briefly a few gigs and bands in the school that needed someone with electric guitar / electric bass skills.

drums & bass pedals & drum machine:

she learns drums only recently, her time after her studies in high school filled with trainee life and then subsequently lipstick life. it proves a little more difficult for sia to learn the drums, the bass pedals and the drum machine, more likely due to the fact that she’s been so reliant on her own personal perfect pitch to help her coordinate with her learning. unfortunately, percussions, do not have a pitch—and for a while it’s a general dissonance for sia to learn drums, because she is unable to tell which  beat to which particular colour in her chromesthesia (which was the original way she used to learn her piano, guitar skills)

in fact she’s learned to prefer and like drums much better than the drum machine. the drum machine is the only thing that she prefers for production, and the old school drums for when she wants to just simply play a drum set.

[bettysnooze]

9, 13, 16, 8, 10 !

10. which muse is the most fun to write for?

already answered here !!

16. which muse is most willing to fight another muse?

depends on what they do tbh but like if this is ‘fighting for no reason’ than definitely makaria, and if it’s bc they’re an isle kid or like half-animal then it’s otto

and ofc makaria and otto would just 100% fight each other

~*~*~*~*~*~ okay so somehow i got all the long ones kjhbfevkhe so READMORE for otps/notps and How I Met My Muse (also since this got so long i’ll answer 13 on another ask!!

8. what is each of your muses otps? notps?

so this is gonna be like ‘i once shipped them’ and ‘so many crushes’ (I’LL USE THE SLASH)and it could have been for like five minutes or five weeks so pls welcome to my mind

betty otps: betty/ranon, betty/happiness, betty/feeling-protected, betty/melissabetty notps: like romantically every other guardian kid bc she is literally their mother/sister

veronika otps: VERONIKA/NOELLE, also veronika/a-good-loving-familyveronika notps: veronika/not-good-loving-families

makaria otps: MAK/BAIN, mak/talon JHBCVKDJHFEBJ A MESSmak notps: mak/stress

hershey otps: hershey/ophelia, hershey/self-care, hershey/self-confidence omfghershey notps: hershey/self-destructive tendencies

cestrum otps: cestrum/misty, cestrum/relaxationcestrum notps: cestrum/lola (i stg this was a crackship idea once and lord almighty)

aiwei otps: aiwei/juniper, aiwei/happiness, aiwei/finding-out-more-about-his-family, aiwei/BECOMING-A-REAL-BOY-BC-HE-WAS-ONLY-A-BABY-WHEN-HE-DIEDaiwei notps: aiwei/confrontation :(

otto otps: otto/common-sense, otto/open-mindednessotto notps: otto/any-of-his-dreams-coming-true, otto/winning

illyria otps: ROLLY POLLY OLLY (illyria/ronan), illyria/the-sea, illyria/comfortillyria notp: illyria/not-being-near-the-sea (this is happening rn jfc), illyria/discomfort

kirsa otps: uM KIRSA/SHEN (SHIRSA???? SHIH TZU???), kirsa/talking-about-her-emotions-instead-of-passive-aggresively-making-them-into-playskirsa notps: kirsa/not-being-honest its an issue

dignan otps: dignan/being-himself, dignan/darcy CAN I LET THE POOR BOY LIVE ? NO ?, dignan/FUTURE BOYFRIEND WHERE ART THOU, dignan/baseball the real otp thodignan notps: dignan/closeted

helen otps: helen/swords, helen/coranza, helen/angel, helen/shae, I GOT SO MANY, helen/being-herself, helen/no-responsibilitieshelen notps: helen/keeping-things-to-herself :(

penelope otps: penelope/money, penelope/being-soft, penelope/coming-to-terms-with-her-horrible-upbringingpenelope notps: penelope/being-selfish jcvnfklrfjvbwr

9. why were you drawn to each one of your characters?

( BETTY ): i knew tasha and rhi from a previous rp we were all in, and they’d played guardian characters too and i aLWAYS wanted to play a guardian character but i didn’t have any ideas back then, but then they were like “hey you should join us” and i was like “BOY OH BOY”. sandy was always my favourite guardian, and i had just finished rping a daughter-of-morpheus character so dream powers were like my thing and boom, betty mansnoozie was born aka the sweetest, most good character i’ve ever written. ALSO i’ve always had sibling-ish relationships with rhi so like the betty/jake relationship goes back a LOOONG way

( VERONIKA ): after betty i knew i wanted a darker character, and i was like “okay so who is like completely unforgivable” and i immediately thought of rasputin. there was also another rasputin child around at the time, and they had gotten rasputin’s powers so i was like!! what if i made a kid that wanted those powers, who wanted to be a villain and to be like their parent?? veronika’s gone a long way since then and really like i’m so proud of her and i love her so much, she’s just gone through a lot i lOVE HER

( MAKARIA ): SO OKAY LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT ME AND HADES BECAUSE HONESTLY, THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS. i first played a character based on panic (hades’ sidekick) like aaaaages ago, and then i played actual disney hades in another rp. needless to say i really fucking love hades as a character. and betty was too nice, and veronika was too cynical and kept to herself, and i really wanted another mean-spirited CHATTERBOX (because i myself am such a chatterbox i mean look at this). i lowkey had a child of hades in a closed rp sort of situation, his name was macario (because i’d wanted a son) but the original is makaria, and i love my girls sO makaria was born. i also love zendaya, and previously hades had always been white but so much art on tumblr depicts persephone as this beautiful black woman so !! BOOM. i also wanted to try a different villain-kid-parent dynamic, because veronika ends up hating her dad but mak like 100% defends hades still like even to this day

( HERSHEY ): I WANTED A BOY LMAO and i was really into bts at the time so i’m like okay hmm where would yoongi fit in?? i re-watched wreck-it-ralph randomly and i remembered that i always wanted to try a sugar rush child so i was like heeeeeeeeeyyyy :)))). and it kinda just all fell into place because i’d also been interested in making a character that loved cars and racing (fast and the furious got me so bad). and i liked the idea of having another character with some sort of ability, and it was so interesting figuring out how hershey was going to fit into the auradon world bc he was originally virtual sO YEAH. and also the name came like in a second. FUN FACT, hershey von schweetz’s fc (in a different time before BTS took over my life) was going to be hailee steinfeld and now look at wHO USES HAILEE STEINFELD

( CESTRUM ): so after the craziness and Extra-ness of makaria and hershey i know i wanted someone more chill. i had always loved alice in wonderland i knew i wanted a son of the caterpillar because 1) alan rickman’s voice is God and 2) i always wanted to rp the caterpillar in like so many disney rps but i never got the chance lmao. so the idea for cestrum actually came even before i found the perfect fc (kibum), and it took me ages to find the perfect fc. i knew he was going to be weird and quiet but also talkative but also nOT? and just a different moral compass and way of thinking from everyone else. i was so sure about applying for cestrum and it was only after that i was like “ok but am i going to be smart enough to play this like 5000 IQ person wtf did i get into” and yEAH. also i always like making new characters with types that (during that time of the rp) aren’t so common yet, so having this stoic character was like yEAAAAAHHHH

( AIWEI ): so hershey and cestrum are my first boys and this is basically the start of my “one boy after another” streak and then i got AIWEI. the real babe. everyone’s been pretty mature so far, or like dealing with a lot of responsibility etc. and now i wanted someone who would be like a real teenager (more or less) and just have that childlike wonder and be rly innocent tbh. so aiwei is all of this, and he’s young and inexperienced but the twist was that he’s actually this boy who died in a fire when he was a baby and his father, in the underworld, resurrected him and performed some magic frankenstein stuff to make him grow older. and he’s the oldest out of all the kids but he’s been a baby 60% of this life until elder gutknecht finally got all the tools necessary to make him old and i jUST !! also i really loved that tin-man song from the wizard of oz. my actual baby, aiwei gutknecht i love him and will die for him

( OTTO ): AND AFTER ALL THE NICE, SEMI-NICE PEOPLE i was like “so what’s happening with the isle thing right now do ppl not like them like is there active resentment or what” and then i was like “what if i had a character that did the active resentment!!” and otto white was born. i knew he was going to be a jackass. i knew he was going to be anti-isle. and i knew he had to be a prince and a kid of one of the ‘original’ disney princesses. and i ended up choosing snow white because she’s technically the ‘oldest’ and there was evie and vera and i was like aayyyyy conflict. but yeah so otto was going to be the personification of fear and bias against isle kids, and i thought it’d be fun to play with that politics and society thing that i’ve never really done before. otto’s my first character that is actually irredeemably an asshole. i wanted to see how far i could go and where i could go with a character that was actively trying to not change. i was super nervous about applying for him tho bc like i knew he was going to insult a lot of people and i didn’t want to be like hated rip bUT it turned out well so YEH

( ILLYRIA ): i’ll be honest i watched pirates of the carribean and like calypso/davy jones is still the otp of otps for me. and i once had my fortune-telling phase and i saw valentine was there anD ALSO AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE A FILIPINO FC !! HECK YEAH !! and at this point i wanted to like branch out from my usual characters and try something different, to add new things about characters so i thought about illyria’s aversion to touch. and i knew she was going to be stoic and weird like cestrum, but she was also going to be charming and i wanted to see how that would go and it’s hard getting into illyria’s head sometimes but she’s like a Fave

( KIRSA ): so i watched this movie called “the darjeeling limited” and it’s basically about this dysfunctional set of siblings – one of them feels super responsible for the other two but is a big mess, the other sort is more put together but has problems he actively avoids, and then the last is this playwright who’s been in love with the same girl for like 10 years and falls in love easily. and i was like “who does that remind me of???” SO TBH the idea for kirsa first started out as a brother for the stahlbaums but then i realised there were no more spaces and i was like “tHE SUGAR PLUM FAIRY!!” and the rest is history. so kirsa is the dramatic playwright who falls in love too easily but also doesn’t know how to love properly, and she drinks and smokes and has all these vices and she’s still 17 so like what a hot mess. she’s as talkative as mak and as flirty as hershey but kirsa is less put-together and although she thinks she knows herself, she really doesn’t. she needs guidance pls

( DIGNAN ): so this really just began as a “i wanna get in on this waters family drama” business LMAO. and i love sarah’s misty so i wanted to see how it would go if she had a little brother. it also made a bit of a change because most of my characters are like the ‘older’ siblings or friends and i wanted more young people so i thought of dignan!! i also wanted a character that would be more pro-authority than other characters i’ve had before (dig’s always going to think highly of the auradon royalty bc he understands them and knows they don’t rly have much choice sometimes and that they try their best). and i chose joe keery (aka steve harrington, love of my life) as an fc bc i JUST FINISHED WATCHING STRANGER THINGS and charlie heaton was darcy, and natalia dyer was being used too and i was like hEYYY FC CONNECTIONS. 

               FUN FACT: dignan’s two defining things right now (baseball and being gay) weren’t even in the cards at the start, he was literally supposed to be more john watson, i’m-gonna-be-a-serious-doctor and like be fun but a guy who loved to study. but now he’s sporty and he’s figuring out this new part of himself and he’s literally my actual favourite character right now i love dig so much. also i needed a character that would 100% share my love for the 80s (hershey loves 80s music but only sings to annoy ppl so its not the sAME). and now dig has the hair and the fashion sense and he loves 80s music too man.

( HELEN ): the idea for helen really began with like this ‘bodyguard’ idea. i wanted a character that was like 100% protective. they were going to be this warrior, trained-as-a-child kind of person, and they were gonna be connected to royalty. i first tried this with kirsa but that didn’t work out, and then i tried it with dignan but he was too soft and easily persuaded tbh he can never be mad at his royals. and then i thought of tangled (and the mess the hoods and the greenes were in at the time LMAO). 

helen was first gonna be max’s child (for the full guard effect) but then i saw a space opening for rapunzel and eugene’s child and !! and then she became princess warrior, who wanted to protect her people rather than rule them and LIKE WHO DOES THAT REMIND ME OF??? PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA THAT’S WHO so seriously fun fact, a lot of the inspriation for helen is leia. and i chose the name ‘helen’ because of helen of sparta, a beautiful woman who started the longest war, and together with the fact that helen is very much a fighter of wars rather than the starter (and she has low self-esteem rip) its so fun i love helen, my sword princess child

( PENELOPE ): so i have an asshole auradonian, and mak is like simmering down, i knew i wanted an asshole isle person. and mak/blythe have such an awesome friendship and i loved blythe’s character and all the people in the cinderella family and world and i knew i wanted to get some of that action ;)))) so i rewatched the 2015 movie (I LOVE CATE BLANCHETT SO MUCH) and then i rewatched ‘ever after’ which is this 90s cinderella movie with drew barrymore. after watching ever after, i knew exactly how i wanted this daughter of drizella to be like. she’s going to be the worst parts of mak and kirsa (they’re bitches but like nice ones) and just be this snooty sugar baby gold-digger. she knows exactly what she wants, she knows she’s going to get it. she’s part daisy buchanan, jordan baker, very much this hedonistic character who understands life as being good if you have money and status. such an old idea but it’s what she learned from her fAMILY. 

a lot of penelope’s character came from me wanting to explore what i’d found with otto, the unapologetic asshole, but now she had reasons to be. otto’s rich and gets ltierally everything he wants so he sucks even more because he’s still mean-spirited – but now we have penny, who grew up with nothing but wanted everything, and her grandmother and mother put all their hopes and dreams on her, told her not to associate with her nicer aunt and cousin and even her little sister – and she’s an asshole. literally guys penelope is going to change and become better i just dunno how yet but shE WILL

13. what’s a weird headcanon you have for each of your muses?

THIS ASK GOT WAY TOO LONG ALREADY, BUT I GOT THIS NUMBER IN ANOTHER QUESTION SO I’LL ANSWER IT THEEEEERE