#there’s the concept of many-in-one but oof VERY different

[age-of-moonknight]

“The Moon Warrior,” Marvel 85th Anniversary Special (Vol. 1/2024), #1.

Writer and artist: Yuji Kaku; Special thanks to Ken Kunito

[laurasimonsdaughter]

One off idea for a werewolf specific disability: Shifters Disfunction

A type of disorder where a werewolf suffers from partial, incomplete transformations. So when they wolf out they may have random human body parts just hanging around. Like human hands instead of paws, their teeth remains as flat molars rather then sharp fangs, only their head and arms transforming leaving the human lower body, etc… . Every werewolf with this condition expresses differently, and due to the mismatched parts can often be uncomfortable to downright painful, making it difficult to function in lupine form.

Oof! That gets a bit too close to body horror for my personal taste. (When it comes to incomplete transformations I usually take the softer route of only making their teeth, eyes, hair and maybe ears more wolfish while they still look human.) But that's a really cool different take, anon, and it's a very interesting concept to play with in general!

I really like using complex transformations when I write werewolves. There's so many interesting variations available, for example:

Werewolves who start out being compelled by the full moon to transform and can learn to resist the moon and transform at will instead, but for some this is a great struggle.

If lycanthropy isn't a curse but something in a bloodline, someone who is "half werewolf" might have particularly volatile transformations.

If lycanthropy is a curse, it might be partially warded off or not take hold completely, leaving a person who is not a werewolf, but who is either permanently or occasionally physically changed in far subtler ways.

Strong emotions being directly linked to the wolf transformation, causing werewolves to (partially) transform whenever they get carried away with by their feelings. (Bonus if this includes strong positive feelings!)

Man I love werewolves

[cuprohastes]

Dave The Human vs. Religion

The question of religion had come up, as it does.

Dave The Human, female Tsin muttered something at a high pitch at her tablet and Dave the human, formerly Dave the Atrix, formerly also Dave the Human performed some epic side-eye.

Gondy was filling in for the Atrix member of the group, still slightly scarred from having her helmet smacked hard enough to split during the recent disintegration of the station due to Von Neumann's Space squid.

Raxy, her Little Guy was stuffing his face in a way that you don't normally see on an Atrix that size. This suggested to the Daves that the Little Guy was shortly going to be upskilling, getting certified and getting referred to as female...

Given Atrix really just looked at the whole gender thing and opted out, and the whole male/female thing was labelling for other people's benefit, the Daves formed an unspoken and instant agreement that helping Raxy bulk up was their new hobby.

For two people from radically different biologies and cultures, the Daves were staggeringly similar as though some cosmic author had created them with the same voice.

Tsin Dave waggled the tablet. "Homeworld want to make sure everyone's complying with off-world best practices. They want to ensure that we're... ugh: 'Maintaining tradition in line with oof-world guidance'" she grumped.

"First I'm a heretic and a sky-demon and now they want to make sure I'm the right sort and not making you lot think less of us with my wicked deviant ways."

Gondy paused, as did Rax.

"graaaaak?" Rax said, around one of the mysterious and never explained purple bread rolls.

Meta-note about the purple bread rolls: They're actually Ube potato bread rolls. They're steamed in the Caffeteria. The food services are very aware that everyone who encounters them assumes they're a food from some other species culture. It's the little things that make the day to day fun.

"You never heard about that?" Dave The human said. "Oh well hum..."

Dave the Human gave his buddy full points on her mastery of colloquialism and settled in.

"So there's this legend that many years ago the People - 's us - had an idyllic land, and the concept of evil was unknown. Then one day, Sky Demons, jealous of our ways and our purity of soul absolutely pounded the knekp out of the place and only those of us in the Great Underground Halls, who were devout enough survived. And since that day, to leave the ground is to attract the attention of the Sky Demons."

Gondy raised a claw.

"Boats are OK. Water is theologically still ground."

Gondy put her claw down.

Dave the human said, "That sounds like..."

Dave The Human answered, "Nope, it was Orbital Bombardment. Nation-on nation. The shelters were built because it was a strong possibility that things would get all... ker-blammy."

"Yeesh!"

"Yeah. And the religious angle kind of got shuffled in as this agreement that when everyone got out, nobody wanted to be dancing around pointing claws at other countries and trying to blame them, while it was everyone's fault. Can't really blame them but for a thousand odd years that was the official line."

Gondy said "Wow! I never knew that!"

Dave The Human nodded. "Yeah yeah, it's been pretty common knowledge for a century or so, but still, when we got back into space after the Wallandernoooks showed up to trade, it was a major, major problem and uh well, leaving the Homeworld means you're a Heretic and in league with the Sky Demons according to the Dogma soooo..."

"Huh. And that means...?"

"Not much. Kind of lightly excommunicated. Not really welcome back home where things are a little more traditional. But y'know. No biggie. We're all colonists out here anyway, and we still get Homeworld support. It's just we also have to get audited that we're not giving Homeworld a bad name." She paused and took a long drink of mekp. "Aaaaand this time they want to know if we have a shrine to show you filthy heathens that we're still the number one proper pious type heretical sky demons. F.M.L."

Gondy, Rax and Dave pondered this.

"Gondy... what do Atrix believe in?" Asked Dave the Human.

"Graaak."

"Yeah, Rax, I guess 'some places are lucky' covers it. You know.... good moss, cool rocks, just got a good vibe. The sort of place you can drop a bunch of... what do you call them? Possums."

Dave the Human choked on his water. "Possums?!"

"Grak." Commented Rax and Gondy pulled her tablet out and poked. "Yeah... human smalls." She said, holding up a picture of a possum mis-labelled as an infant human.

"Huh. You guys are adorable when you're young" cooed Dave The Human, who Dave previously rated as about as maternal as a meat grinder.

Dave let it go for now, suspecting this would yield hilarious dividends at some future time, and turned back to Dave the Tsin.

"Ok, this is shaping up to be another wacky hi-jink. What's the gig?

"Gotta build a shrine."

"Any shrine?"

"Pretty much. It's got to be location appropriate. Y'know. The god of the place. To show we're uh... friendly to the local divinities? On theological good terms?"

"OK but... we're all godless atheists, apart form the ones who aren't. Who are you going to build a shrine to?

"Yeah that's kind of it. I mean I don't want to be the grit under anyone's scales..."

"Ohhhh," said Gondy, "Oh oh! Rax, call Garf! I have an idea..."

Several weeks later, the Tsin named Walks-between-Waves arrived as part of the Tsin welfare and general ambassadorial circuit.

O'Patel and Big Ma performed the proper greetings and paperwork, and Dave presented herself.

Walks-Between-Waves ("Just call me Waves") walked up and declaimed, "Heretic, and blasphemer. You bones will never lie with the ancestors, and your meat will rot. You and the demons you dwell with are denied! Cast out as the foul beasts you are. How are you doing? Well I hope?"

Dave bowed, small hands together, big ones outstretched.

"Oh yeah. They're all very nice here." She said. "Did they change the words of the castigation?"

"Oh, no, but some of it needed translating for human language a little," Waves said and added, "such a fun language! Quite the fad back home. And since you're hmm, officially human, I couldn't resist. Now, I believe you have something to show?"

O'Patel looked bemused and said sotto voce to Big Ma, "I think this is going to go well!"

Dave led Waves to the common area where, true enough, there was a shrine. It was made of old pieces of the station recovered from it's partial disassembly. 3D printed and painted panels along the sides showed Tsin, Atrix and Humans, helping each other climb up the sides, to the top of the shrine where someone had creatively frosted some glass and lit it with shifting lights to suggest something exciting and pleasant waited. The thing dripped with moss and a small water feature played down from the back into a shallow bowl of stones.

"Ah!" Said Waves. "Very impressive. Going for extra credit?"

"No..." said Dave. "It's a group effort. Once we started, everyone wanted to help. Especially after we found a small god for the Station that everyone liked... Their name is Arepo."

[sitp-recs]

Fandom creators self rec game! Choose five favourites from your own creations (and tell me why, if you like!), then pass on to at least five other people. I'd love to hear what you're proudest of.

Hello beloved! It’s always a privilege to see you in my inbox, thank you so much for this lovely ask and apologies for taking two centuries to reply lol this was a quite emotional trip down memory lane for me - I couldn’t decide whether to go with rec lists or single recs (oof I haven’t written one in so long 🥲) because they’re both so different and special in their own way. In the end I’m gonna do lists because I think they’re generally more helpful and popular! I’ve been going through a creative / fandom slump for a while now, so this was great encouragement as it made me look back at my own recs with joy and kindness. Thank you babes 💜

1. I actually still love the Drarry for Beginners series! Fun story, I wasn’t very confident about it at first - I was getting many requests for a classics rec list back then but I don’t really vibe with the “MUST read these or you’re not a valid fandom member” mentality so I tried to come up with a different format that felt more like an invitation than a lecture. I think I found a good balance of well known fics and hidden gems, so I’m very proud of that. Also, the banners looked really good! Especially the redemption arc and the Muggle!Draco AU ones if I do say so myself.

2. The Hidden Gems series is also one of my most precious babies - it took me a long time to plan it out, read all fics and prepare the small blurbs for each one and I really love how it came across, the authors I chose to highlight, and the fact that I was able to mix Drarry and rare pairs. I remember getting an ask back in the day that accused me of only reccing my friends (anon really overestimated my network size 🤣), they could have at least checked the hidden gem series before going for public embarrassment lol there’s so much to explore there, and I really wanna come back to it one day to finalize the second edition that I started posting in 2022. Hopefully this year!

3. 35 Romantic Shorts: my heart is so very soft for this one, not only because the ever generous @bluebutter-art has let me use her stunning art for the banner, but I’m also such a passionate champion of short form and I feel like this list really embraced the concept and delivered great recs. I’m not a fluff gal by any standards so this was a nice exercise finding the softest, most romantic and soothing reads that made my heart beat faster. It would be lovely to go back and maybe add a couple more lists with new shorts, or alternatively make new lists for medium-length and long fics. So many ideas, so little time!

4. It feels like a lifetime ago but I’m still very fond of my “smutty recs week” that I made to celebrate one of my first followers milestone. Ahh the nostalgia! All lists can be found here and include a wide variety of themes and kinks like voyeurism, dirty talk, gang bang and others. Those banners are some of my favourites too, they turned out very sassy and clever if I do say so myself. I had so much fun with them! I gotta find the time to sit down and update some of those lists with newer treats!

5. Now highlighting something more recent (from Feb 2023… LOL) I’m super proud of my Rare Pair Romance list for Valentine’s Day. It was a great chance to compile (most of) my favorite rare pair fics in one place and include different ships and tropes. I’m always looking for an excuse to rec het pairings which I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so this was the perfect way to do it.

[mijlen]

Finally finished with my latest custom doll!

It's a glam take on Minty from My Little Pony (G3), specifically A Very Minty Christmas.

Lots of details went into this doll, and it took far and away longer than any doll I've made before. I lost track, but the hours spent easily go above 20.

Details about the construction below the cut!

Face and body

I started with a Vandala Doubloons base for the face mold, which I sliced open 😱 to create my first set of inset eyes. I just love Vandala's face mold, it's very unique and cute compared to others in the MH line (My base stock box dolls have all been super well loved, btw, so no I didn't destroy a mint in box Vandala. I would NEVER!!) The body was a headless stock box Abby, but I only decided to do that after trying and failing to do a peg-leg transplant on Vandala. It didn't matter, in the long run, since I was going to be painting the entire body anyway. Lots of coats of mint green artist's acrylic, cut with lots of flow builder medium, and about three coats of Mr. Super Clear between those coats of paint, and I had my base.

I knew the silhouette and hair I wanted for Minty from my earliest concept sketches, and looking at them I realized: this silhouette won't look "right" on a standard MH slimline. So it was time for some Apoxie sculpt! I gave her some bust and butt implants, as well as some hip and tummy augmentation to round things out in a way that would better serve the design. Then, more paint and Mr. Super Clear to make the body cohesive.

Hair

The hair is entirely acrylic yarn. Not only wefts, but I also achieved the voluminous high pony look by needle-felting a ratted base, around which the rest of the wefts were attached. Then, I had to curl them. This was by far one of the most time consuming parts of the process, but I love the outcome. I used the hot chopstick technique. That is, heating up a metal chopstick with a straightening iron, and twisting individual strands of hair around it. It keeps the hair from scorching, and allows for some truly tiny, glamorous curls.

Clothes

The gown is hand-sewn, but definitely not removable lmao. It's hard to get such a tight fit on such a tiny doll without using stretch material, and I was using costume satin, so I just glued the bodice down once I'd done all I could with darts and alterations.

The skirt went through a few iterations, with different colors being layered in for the trumpet skirt including sheer mint green, sheer white chiffon, and different shades of pink satin. And yes, those were all fully sewn as I made the decision. 😭 Eventually I went with three tiers in the basic hot pink as the rest of the dress, figuring I would add the contrasting color pops with beading.

Oof, the beading. It was a lot of hand beading. Bedazzling? idk what to call it. All I know is that many hours were spent over a pile of rhinestones and beads with a wax pencil and some Liquid Fusion glue, listening to extremely long YouTube video essays as I worked. The more I added, the more I WANTED to add, and I decided not to pull punches.

I added some volume to the skirt with stiff tulle and a half-assed cage skirt made of armature wire. You can't see it, anyway - it's the EFFECT that matters. Speaking of things you can't see, she's just wearing some unembellished hot pink G1 Draculaura boots. 😂

Details

The accessories, including the peppermints and the Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane, were all made with Apoxie sculpt, hand painted/detailed, and varnished. Perhaps my favorite little detail are her "acrylics," which I added using a technique I saw Hextian use in a video - you touch a dab of hot glue to the doll's finger, then pull it back slowly, and trim once dry. This creates a really fun effect of fake nails.

So yeah. This doll was a labor of love, and I'm so glad I didn't take any half-measures along the way. I'm very proud of her. Hope you like her!

One more note: YES I realize the irony of not having any SOCKS involved in an MLP Minty design. I really do regret this, and agonized over it a LOT. I considered making a “pajamas version” of this same doll so I could do a socks-themed outfit, before I realized the dress would need to be glued on. 

[trickstarbrave]

WIP Whenever

hiiiii i got tagged by @boethiahspillowbook

this is what i got so far on the azura and nerevar piece. not much further bc im still trying to figure out shading and how i want it to be. oof. also unsure abt azura's halo fsr it just looks.... off on her. and i think i wanna make some of the blood a brighter red to tie in together with all the rest of the red. lots of things im considering...

also for written wips. uh.

unfortunately i only have the. fucking cursed omegaverse nerevoryn im working on. once again never consider anything as like a joke or ironically that is the devil talking and you will start doing things for real.

in my defense though omegaverse is such a wild concept that trying to go "okay but seriously how would this work in a society and why would it be this way" is actually entertaining. very fun to go "yes, and...." over and over. oh, fated mates exist? what if they weren't just a cheesy soulmates thing but had a logical explanation. how would these dynamics effect various social classes? how would different cultures be effected? i have world builder's disease clearly

ALSO i tag anyone who hasnt been tagged yet and wants to :> i cant keep up with which of my mutuals have been tagged or not.... let me see ur ideas pls

--

“... In all honesty,” The healer began, sounding exacerbated, “I have never seen a case like this in all my years. But there is only one answer I can come to based on everything else.”

“Go on.” Nerevar tried to keep his voice level rather than annoyed. Azura knows how terrified most people got when he was angry. 

The healer pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“How familiar are you with fated mates?” At her question, Nerevar froze, stunned, before he gave a loud bark of laughter. The healer, however, did not laugh or smile back, and instead only looked more resolute. 

“... Be serious with me.” 

“I am being serious, Lord Nerevar.” 

“Are you--are you seriously trying to say Voryn is my--”

“I understand how strange it sounds at first.” The healer cut him off. “Typically when someone meets their fated mate they determine it quickly. It only takes a few heat or rut cycles before the draw is undeniable.” She sighed once again. “I can only assume because you knew Lord Dagoth before either of you presented, the draw was less noticeable.” 

It kind of made sense, to a degree. When people wrote about fated mates it was usually that they had a scent that was undeniable. Even passing by them on the street, you couldn’t get the scent out of your head for days on end, trying to find it again and again. Even those who tried to deny it couldn’t refuse the pull forever; heats and ruts were unbearable, the longing overwhelming the pair. No one had ever recorded an account of a fated pair who knew each other prior to presenting though; fated mates were absurdly rare, after all. They were more common in fiction than real life, and only the most hopeless of romantics ever went out actually looking for one. Most people just found a mate they liked rather than chase after some destined person, and why fated mates even existed was a mystery. Did everyone have one but distance kept them from finding one? That didn’t seem likely; the most common belief was that some people were born with them--not many members of the population, anyways--and even fewer actually found their ‘other half’. Someone meeting a fated mate before presenting, when you were children not off exploring the wider world yet, was even more unlikely. How would you react if you could constantly smell and see them before either of you presented?

Dumac told him the dwemer scholars believed it had something to do with ‘reproductive compatibility’. Not that it was a mystical, god given connection like some believed, but rather those with a fated partner were less compatible with most of the population, so when they did find someone they could produce children with easily, the desire to mate was enhanced strongly. Nerevar didn’t know if he liked that explanation either though. He found the ideas the gods made destined partners to love each other forever as too romantic of an idea for reality yes, but presuming there must be something wrong with them wasn’t much better. 

It didn’t seem likely that he and Voryn could just ignore the draw for decades though, right? Surely that wouldn’t be possible. The draw was supposed to be strong, impossible to deny past a certain point.

Sure, when he was younger and Voryn was in a rut he always came by to check on him before he was shooed away, but that was just boredom. And when he was in heat Voryn would pass him notes under the door from time to time that he’d bury in the nests he made, but that was just because being in heat made him feel sensitive and sappy. Nothing more. And shouldn’t there be something more if they were a fated pair?

“Your other symptoms make me more certain of it.” The healer continued, pulling him from his thoughts.

“How so?” Nerevar raised an eyebrow. 

“It isn’t healthy for an unmated omega to be around an alpha in rut.” She replied, a fact that always made Nerevar roll his eyes. “It causes excess stress, even if it doesn’t trigger a heat. Unless you are drawn to the alpha in question as a potential partner, usually a rut is off putting, distressing, or nauseating for an unmated omega.”

“They’ve never bothered me to that extent.” Nerevar snarked.

“Precisely.” She locked eyes with him. “You handle it more akin to an omega who’s already been mated, despite not having the scent of one.” Nerevar tensed at that. He hadn’t thought of it like that in the slightest; why would he? He wasn’t mated. Anyone could smell on him that he wasn’t. “Those who have met a fated partner experience mated behaviors before the bond is even set. Rejecting other suitors, unbothered by others in a heat or rut,” She sighed. “Lord Vivec even explained you are giving off the same scent as a bonded omega whose mate is absent.” Nerevar’s cheeks flushed at that. 

“That’s--” Nerevar tensed slightly, “I wouldn’t go that far.” Surely Nerevar wasn’t. He wasn’t fucking bonded, why would he be throwing out the same scent as an omega who went into heat, begging for their mate to come tend to them? 

“You are.” She asserted, though she did have some sympathy in her gaze at least. “Unfortunately, the best I can do is, if you truly don’t want the bond, I can give you suppressants. They won’t actively stop it given you already went into heat, but they should calm some of the worst side effects.” Nerevar already knew what she was going to say next though. “But your next one will be much of the same. The side effects will continue to worsen.” Short of running away to the other side of the continent and burning anything he owned that Voryn had ever so much as touched, he would be able to smell Voryn faintly, after all. In the palace, on his belongings, anywhere Voryn had been might trigger the worst of the symptoms all over again now that he had a heat triggered by his rut no doubt. 

“At the very least, Lord Dagoth is in control of his emotions.” Voryn’s eyebrow twitched at that, his arms tightening. “You can spent ruts and heats together without actually mating, until you come to a decision on how to proceed. It should alleviate both of your struggles.” 

Shit, Nerevar hadn’t even considered what Voryn must be going through. Was his irritation and lack of eating because he subconsciously knew Nerevar was supposed to be his but wasn’t there by his side? When he was younger was that out of character, violent rage because he knew, right there in the stronghold, his mate was being kept from him? No doubt the next rut Voryn would be uncontrollable; before he could hold back because he wasn’t consciously aware of what he wanted, but now that he knew it was Nerevar… 

[zhongxia246]

Instant Reactions to EPIC: The Thunder Saga⚡

I’m excited to delve into everyone’s thoughts and reactions concerning this album! Here are some of my instant thoughts after listening and don't forget to listen to the official concept album versions now so the cast can get their royalties!

Suffering

Ok, so was anyone else thinking of that boat scene from Anastasia when you heard this song lol?

After the last song in The Underworld Saga, this was kind of a whiplash for me because it ends so seriously in the last song then it feels kind of beachy here? 😂

That quickly changes in the next song

I wonder what those clacks in the background are and if they represent anything?

At the end, I definitely imagine Odysseus beckoning the siren pretending to be Penelope onto the ship then turning against her. I can’t wait to see if there are any animations that represent this or whether they had a different visual scene playing out 

Different Beast

It’s interesting how this could be a villain song and sounds like one, especially when the sirens begin begging to be spared and we get a description of what Odysseus does to them

YIKES TO WHAT HE DOES TO THEM

It’s a dark kind of irony that he gives out orders to make sure they drown like they do to sailors

I think the sound mixing for the sirens once they start getting killed is really good because it’s horrifying, but it’s not too much. The sirens also sound very highly-pitched and unearthly 

It’s ironic to me that what allows Odysseus to get out with all his men safely in that situation with Circe is mercy but the trip to the underworld kind of made him forget that? Understandably because there have been so many situations where being merciful was not a great choice (the Polyphemus one I think haunts Odysseus the most because it wasn’t just Polyphemus killing his crew, but also Poseidon later on)

Scylla

This was the song I was most excited for and I love how this also begins as this kind of siren song where Scylla sounds so lovely then she starts killing and reveals her true form

“Bleed till you’ve run out of years” is probably my favorite line in this song

Scylla singing directly to Odysseus at the end is a haunting acknowledgement between two monsters

Mutiny

Eurylochus dies because of hunger, something he brought concerns about to Odysseus in the very first saga (“We’ve run out of supplies to eat”), but there’s such futility in it because he feels damned if he does by offending Helios and damned if he doesn’t since they’ll starve anyways

The combo of melodies (no idea if this is the right term 😂) from Luck Runs Out and Polyphemus is a fantastic way to bring Eurylochus full circle and also to warn us of the danger ahead (I bet that Polyphemus reminder added to the feeling of dread as the song progresses)

Odysseus screaming, “I can’t” in response to Eurylochus demanding to know if he knew Scylla would kill his men is such a good way to test how fleshed out the characters are and what we think their motivations are. From Odysseus’s perspective, I don’t think he can say anything because there is no justification he could give for paying that toll and from Eurylochus’s perspective, this is another instant of Odysseus turning away from all the loss and not even apologizing for it

That little “I’m just a man” at the end of Eurylochus’s part oof

The callback to Full Speed Ahead is also chef’s kiss

Thunder Bringer

I love the beginning of this song so much. The cheers in particular in the background or whatever that backing vocal track is is my favorite part because of course the god of thunder, Zeus, would have people cheering/backing him up when he sings

I’m super curious to go back to Zeus in The Horse and the Infant to see if there was anything carried over from that (I do remember the sound of thunder being used to introduce Zeus in that song that’s also in Thunder Bringer)

As people were pointing out when clips of Thunder Bringer were first uploaded, the choice to have Zeus use this euphemism of saving a “damsel” and “undressing her” feels accurate to the original stories of his treatment of women

Once again, Odysseus is caught between a rock and a hard place with Zeus and begs the god, “Please don’t make me do this.” Like in The Horse and the Infant, Zeus makes him choose. This whole terrible road trip has been nothing but Odysseus making hard choices and having to live with them, but Odysseus still had his crew and the hope that he would return to his family the same as he was. Now he loses his crew and has also accepted that he’s not coming home as the man that left 

The combo of Suffering and Just a Man is interesting as two songs that sort of demonstrate Odysseus’s (understandable) selfishness. Suffering is Penelope comforting Odysseus, and the line that repeats here is her singing that she can take all of his pain away. That, combined with Odysseus admitting in Just a Man that he would trade the world for his family

[dragons-and-magic]

MORE QUESTION TIME! lol😅

Does Whiff wear glasses like humans or just near sighted without wearing one?

Who’s the fastest flying dragon?

Got anything to share about Nia?

What’s the dynamic between James and Percy?

How long can dragons live?

What’s Gordon’s biggest fear?

How did Henry overcome his illness or did he ever overcome it?

Are all eggs from each types of dragons unique or same colour and shape?

Does Thomas ever travel around the ‘world?’ lol

And lastly, are there any unicorns in this AU?

YAY! Awesome!!!🤩🤩🤩 More Lore Dumping! Here we go!

1: Does Whiff wear glasses like humans or just near sighted without wearing one?: He still wears glasses actually! Here's a very very rough concept for him.

Sorry for the super bright green line art. Lol. Whiff a Swamp Drake! A wingless dragon species, that loves the cool murky swamp waters. He does smell pretty funky because he's in the swamp all the time.🤣

2: Who’s the fastest flying dragon?: Oof. That's a tough one. Out of the main cast, I would say Gordon. But, outside the group, I'd say there's quite a few dragons that could rival his speed. Like The Flying Scotsman.

3: Got anything to share about Nia?

OH MY GOSH Yes yes yes I do!!! Here she is! A beautiful African Painted Wyvern! One of the few wyvern species that's primarily a quadruped!

I've been wanting to share about her for SO long! She lives in the African wilderness, with her clan! Well, she used to. Unfortunately, there's not many of her kind left. Just like any other dragon species, human interference was slowly destroying her kind. Especially with the threat of poaching. And eventually, she was alone. But not for long! She eventually end's up joining Thomas's clan, and moving to Sodor!

Also, I actually have a little something for her and James planned. I always found it interesting that they were implied to be close in BWBA. (Wild, right?🤣) So, I might be doing a little something with that... ;)

4: What’s the dynamic between James and Percy?: I would say that in the first few stories, they definitely pick on each other. Percy is a cheeky, outspoken, and very confident young dragon. And James is well... ✨James.✨ Lol. So their personalities do clash a bit at first. But eventually, they became close. Especially after Tale Of The Brave. Percy is like James and Thomas's baby brother and they will both protect him at all costs.

5: How long can dragons live?: Hmmm. That's a good question. Looking at the original series, and how long the engines can live, I'd say that they can live way past 100, as long as they have a safe place to live. Some can even be thousands of years old! Like Hiro!

6: What’s Gordon’s biggest fear?: Being alone. Definitely. He might not be able to express himself properly. But the man lost almost his entire family/species. If he lost his new one, I think he would just break. :(

7: How did Henry overcome his illness or did he ever overcome it?: Okay! So this is an interesting one! He hasn't actually gotten rid of it. He just learned how to work with it. One being his back left leg, which is uh... Gone?😅 A very bad accident happened...😬 ANYWAYS, he has a prosthetic that he makes with his plant powers out of wood, so he can get around. (Henry's New Shape baby!😆😂) It's made of living material, and connected to the Earth. So it's like he never lost anything! His other thing is he has arthritis. I felt this fit well, because some older animals get this and it just seemed to work best out of all the options. He did learn a few ways of reliving the pain though. Being in water helps. He can relax his joints while cooling off. And some herbal remedies help too. I felt like portraying him as working with his conditions, rather than it just going away, was a bit more realistic. He's not an engine, so they can't just replace a few parts and everything is back to normal. Since he's a flesh and blood creature, things would be a lot different. He's most likely still going to feel the effects, even after the fact.

8: Are all eggs from each types of dragons unique or same colour and shape?: They're unique! Just like real life eggs! So many colors, shapes, and sizes! Here's a few examples I came up with! I numbered them too!

Storm Titan Egg. (Gordon's Species!)

Awdry's Blue Tarragon. (Thomas's species! Fun fact! Tarragon isn't just a name for a herb! It's latin name means "Little Dragon"!)

Opal Wing Wyvern. (This species is kinda related to James through his Wyvern side.)

9: Does Thomas ever travel around the ‘world?: Definitely! I haven't gotten that far in the story yet. But he definitely does a little bit of globe trotting. So do some of the other characters!

10: And lastly, are there any unicorns in this AU?: Yep! I'm not sure what characters they would be though. Or what their place is in the story yet. So, we'll see what happens with them! I might make a few characters like Annie, Clarabel, and Flora unicorns.

And that's all I got for now! Thanks for the questions! I had a blast working on this one!😁🫶

[literallyjusttoa]

its the artemis au anon and YEAHHHH i love mortal!artemis so much. so so much. what would she be called i wonder... leslie? thats what i shall call her from now on

also YES! it is a 'artemis goes down to earth too'!!! im so sad that there arent (m)any fics abt that :((( its Such a prime concept, especially as artemis stole all the braincells in the womb so it's fun to wonder how it'd play out. also artemis would get tired of meeting so many of apollo's exes so so quickly.

(i am however, planning on making her suffer in it. with an orion-related thing. we know artemis is the older one BUT when i say i live for apollo storming into a fiery rage when she gets hurt)

random AA (artemis apollo.. get it... im so funny) headcanon: apollo calls her artie whenever he can get away with it (not very often)

thank u for ur gorgeous art :) glad to see some toa appreciation!

Ok, I actually really love Leslie, but I want to propose my own idea bc I love names. I know Artemis having an L name is popular bc then they match, but I actually think it would be funnier if they didn't match, since that's just another thing that's different now that they're mortal. ALSO, even though she's getting punished, Artemis is Zeus' favored kid out of her and Apollo, so he'll probably be nicer when giving her a name. I have decided on the name Reagan. It's of similar origin to Lester (Lester is English, Reagan is Irish) and it literally means King's child, bc if Zeus had full reign of naming his kids I'm sure he'd name them all "child of the king" "child of the ruler of Olympus" "child of the supreme ruler of the universe".

ANYWAYS NAME RAMBLE ASIDE. I agree Artemis going to earth is such a great concept with a whole bunch of potential. Bc like, I feel like they both have so much growing they need to do but in entirely different directions oof. And absolutely protective sibling rage is so fun to write. Also oooooh??? New mortal Artemis fic????? Yes pls??????

ToA appreciation is my bread and butter, I am glad you enjoy it lol!

[marithlizard]

Helluva Boss s1e8: first impressions

The visual style for this episode looks really different from usual, based on the teaser images.  I don't mind it, but I do wonder why. 

-  Loona's phone image for Blitzo makes him look like a squashed frog.  :) - Loona's so nervous, I feel for her.  (Did she have anyone to help her pick out that very nice dress? Probably not.) - Oh, I think I get it.  The look is so different because it's the Envy ring. Yellow sky tinting everything, on top of the architecture and whole general vibe.    Greed, Lust, Wrath and Sloth had their own styles too but none of them made me instantly go "oh wow we are NOT in Pride" the way this does. - (Will this make the people who complain about "too much red" any happier? Don't be silly.) - Loona's tension is shown so well. Her posture, the way she's clutching her arm and clenching her fist, the way her smile doesn't just drop as soon as Tex is out of sight but turns to active unhappiness.  She doesn't even sound glad at the prospect of a drink, when we know she drinks frequently on the job. - Oof. How many times has she tried to fit in to hound social groups before, that the Mean Girl finds her so memorable? - Ooh, yeah, living with Blitzo does not exactly give one a reliable sense of acceptable language, does it.  - Oh I SEE,  "Bitch" in hound circles is one of those weaponized “selectively problematic” terms.  Can’t imagine why the writers would have that concept in mind.

- Is that a major demon sigil? Sure looks like it. So we may get to see the ruler of this Ring.

- Right, it's Gluttony, thus the food theme. - Loona’s totally unreceptive to the song and actually looks betrayed to see Tex so into it. She’s hunching into herself defensively as though she expects to be attacked.  Does she know this singer? - I thought the singer was a hellhound at first, but she has to be a sinner. Hounds don’t have extra arms.  (Do I even want to know what she means by "making honey"?)

 - Can anyone make out what Loona is mouthing at 4:41?  She is REALLY not happy with this song, and I have to agree the force-feeding is a bit disturbing, and has me wondering if the treats are drugged.

- Okay, Loona, I'm on your side in general here, but you don’t have moral high ground to be disgusted by crude remarks. Your moral ground is practically underwater. - Bee does seem friendly, and not intentionally patronizing. In fact she seems like everything I would have thought Loona wants to be - confident, glamorous, popular, decadent.  But instead of fangirling, Loona’s defensive and borderline hostile. - Bee sure does like to name-drop.  She must be a pop star like Verosika if she’s able to hobnob with Belphegor and Satan.  - SHE’S Tex’s girlfriend?   Ooooh.  Dating one pop star and bodyguarding another. Maybe I'm beginning to guess how some of these people know Blitzo. - Does Loona maybe realize that she has a problem with alcohol, and that’s part of why she’s so unhappy and convinced she can’t stay despite the welcoming vibe from Tex and Bee?

- Ah, Blitzo. Finished his cry, changed his shirt, got himself some ice cream and settling in to sulk all night on the couch. A very relatable post-date strategy.

- He doesn’t hesitate an instant when he sees Loona needs him. Nothing but concern when he greets her either, not even a hint of annoyance or guilt-tripping at the inconvenience.   Good dad.

- Interesting, this guy seems to like and admire Blitzo.  We're so used to thinking of him as a fuckup.  

- That was a lightning-fast 180 from "oh god please get me out of here" to "canwestaycanwestay", Loona. The power of hormones. Also she clearly feels much safer at the party with her dad’s support. - Blitzo does not look at all impressed or intimidated by Bee.  And he's so obviously happy to be in his element, doing something he knows he's good at, even if it's a gross something like binge drinking. - AWWWWW Loona being publicly proud of her dad!  He looks so happy! So dorky! So drunk.  Oh, Stolas, if you had only realized what he needed in that critical moment, flipped Asmodeus off and announced to the club that you love this imp and Verosika dear he’s clearly just not that into you because with ME he’s an insatiable stallion... if you’d done that, you could’ve had your beloved looking at you like this:

The face of romance, truly. - Bee and Tex suddenly look worried. I wonder why.  Are they actually concerned for his health,  or that he's upstaging her in her own club, or ? - Aww, they are concerned. They're both pretty decent people in their way.

- Whoa, she's got power. Is Bee something like an Overlord? - And Loona's ready to throw down with her - it's the sight of Tex looking unhappy that makes her reconsider. 

- pfft.  Okay, favorite line of the episode.  "I'm not fucking a Dennis tonight. I need a Monica or Alejandro in here, stat!"

- Loona being protective and caring. And really quite patient, considering. But she’s not going to sit around and listen to his woes and he doesn’t expect her to. -”Fizz was right, I’m gonna die alone..”  AUGH.  Blitzo’s mumbling confession of loneliness and despair. :(  It’s not just that he includes Stolas in his list. It’s that  M&M, Loona and Stolas are the only names in his list.   He doesn’t have anyone else left in his life, after the mess he’s made of his previous relationships. That was satisfying, with all the wholesome father-daughter moments I could’ve hoped for.  Good stuff. Catchy credits song, too...But no Hazbin cameo, so what was the reason for the delay?

.... Wait.  “Queen Bee”.  As in BEELZEBUB? Tex is dating a SIN?  Voiced by KESHA??? I literally did not figure any of this out until the end credits, and am sitting here flabbergasted.  If Stolas needs moral and social support for dating an imp,  he’s now got two high-profile examples of loving relationships across an even bigger class gap. This isn’t just thematic, I have a feeling it might be part of the plot before all is said and done.   The Goetia may be rigid snobs, but the Sins clearly aren’t.

[twistmusings]

Still a bit exhausted from my move (we're only JUST to the moving part of the move, oof) but I wanted to write some more merfolk headcanons.

Merfolk Headcanons

CW: Discussion of non-monogamy, some dark themes regarding mentioned egg and child death, non-human anatomy.

The Coral Sea has a vastly different culture than the cultures you would find on land, in part due to the nature of being created under the sea and in part simply due to the wide biodiversity among merfolk. Here is what trends to be the most noteworthy or shocking to the merfolk who attend school on land (or the exceedingly rare cases of humans who wish to venture under the sea).

First of all, what usually immediately captures the interest of merfolk on land is the cultural view of romance and marriage. It saturates a lot of media on land, particularly ones intended for children that are easy to grasp while transitioning to speaking a surface language. (Fairytales, movies, etc).

Merfolk's relationships to each other, their sexuality, and gender are extremely fluid. Largely, the concept of gender and sexuality only truly reached them once Merfolk established contact with land dwellers, due to the widely varied anatomy of merfolk subspecies as well as how common being intersex or being capable of changing sex through biological means are to many sub species of merfolk. For this reason, Aquan doesn't really have gendered pronouns, and it's not common for merfolk to outright identify with a gender at all unless they choose to visit the surface.

Since Merfolk mate externally around 95% of the time, it's not uncommon at all for your "parents" not to be your biological parents for Merfolk. It is also pretty common for Merfolk couples to be in 'open' relationships. Formal marriage is very uncommon, even for the most committed of couples. For example, despite Azul having a step-father, his mother and step-father never married... Nor were his mother and his father, though.

Also, for aforementioned reason, it's very common for Merfolk to step up and take care of a child who isn't their own. This can mean a step parent taking over care of a child or even just a merfolk rescuing and stepping in to care for an abandoned fry.

Returning for a moment to the topic of language, while Merfolk have many different languages and dialects that they speak, the common agreed upon name for the language/family of languages is Aquan. Azul, Jade, and Floyd speak what is commonly referred to as Bathypelagic Aquan. Dialect tends to change depending on how deep you go into the ocean and how the anatomy of the species there impact their pronunciation. They can all three understand most dialects of Aquan until you begin speaking abyssopelagic or hadalpelagic.

Azul and the twins also have slightly different pronunciation from each other, due to the twin's pharyngeal jaws. Their second set of jaws give them a distinct rattle-y or clicky tone to their speech, in particular when using wide vowel sounds like "o".

Content warning: talk of death (not explicit, skip to dashes to skip)

Another striking thing about the coral sea in comparison to land is it's striking acceptance of death as a fact of matter in life. In large part, this is simply due to the fact that the sea is a dangerous, dangerous place.

More often than not, entire clutches of eggs or swarms of fry can be wiped out by a single hungry predatory animal. This can be incredibly hard on the parents, of course, but no matter how diligent and dedicated they are, the chances of more than one or two fry living to see childhood and adulthood is nearly unheard of. Floyd and Jade are something of an anomaly in that regard: identical twins are a once in a lifetime event to occur under the sea so they have always been a spectacle.

That being said, neither Jade and Floyd nor Azul were the only members of their clutches to hatch, they were simply the ones who were able to survive.

That being said, death is still very prevalent even then. While being older and faster certainly reduces their risk, even adult merfolk can still rarely fall victim to hungry predatory fish. The three of them being magic users certainly helps in this regard, but for most merfolk it's a risk that is always looming.

Tack on top of that the amount of shipwrecks and ghosts that haunt the bottom of the sea, and it's pretty clear why merfolk don't bat an eye at death.

-------------------------------------------------

The lower the ocean level, the less common it is to see merfolk from there. Merfolk from the twins and Azul's level are in the low 10s of thousands spread across the entire coral sea. (It numbers to about 1 bathypelagic Merfolk per 12 merfolk from the higher depth levels.

At abyssopelagic levels its 1 in 36 and then hadalpelagic levels that number reaches 1 in 130.

Most merfolk from the bathypelagic level and below have some capability of seeing the uv light spectrum. Both the twins and Azul have some form of uv reactivity in their skin: the twins have bioluminescent stripes on their bodies, whereas Azul has chromatophores which appear black to most creatures incapable of seeing into the uv spectrum, but actually pulse with very pleasant if subtle colors that give his skin the appearance of an oil slick.

If you think Jade and Floyd are big, merfolk from the abyssopelagic and hadalpelagic levels can be nearly twice their size as their bodies evolved to be sturdier and denser to combat the pressures of the deep ocean.

[twilightarc-gm]

For the recent writing ask game, I'd love to know your thoughts about 10, 12, 13, 23, 30, 49! Or if that's too many feel free to just pick a couple, I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a limit per ask!

Hello my dear mutual and fellow Jiang Cheng enjoyer! 💜💜💜

Okay but seriously how funny would that be to get an ask and they're like "1-50 pls" on a lark? 😂

Thank you so much for playing, btw, very exciting! 🤗

10. How do you decide what to write?

As in, how do I decide what's going to be a WIP and what just stays a daydream: The more niche it is the more likely I will end up writing it because I write stories for me. So, Top Priority of getting me fed is to write the stories I want to see. I check the relevant tags on Ao3, see there's like... nothing for my idea, despair, then open LibreOffice.

As in how do I decide which WIP to work on? Literally I use the carl-bot /choose function on any Discord server that has it. 😂😂 As long as I am writing something, that's good enough.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

🤔 Hmm based on the fanlore.org site I think a trope I once was meh about that I have come to like is Genderbend. But then I tried writing a bit of it and decided I liked some things about it after all. 😅

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

😓 Oof yeah, you know, I used to be cool with hatesex/enemyslash tropes but somewhere along the line I got real boring, and decided I have way more fun if the characters actually like each other on an emotional level, even if they're hard pressed to admit it. Now it just squicks me out to see it, or any pairing where I can't conceive of a canon-verse way for it to happen that wouldn't just be hatesex/enemyslash.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

One day I will write a casefic! I don't even have a WIP for it but ONE DAY it will happen and it will be SHORT and FUN and I WILL NOT spend 40k+ on it. 😤😤😤

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

🙃 Haaaaa... well... my comfort zone is long format fic heavy in description, action, plot, world building. Outside of that is... snappy dialogue, humor, short fic. I think the closest I came to outside my comfort zone is my chengxuan fic at 9.2k words but the dialogue isn't that interesting. I also have my recently scrapped WIP "Cringe Fic" (referenced in question 12) that was me working through writing a bunch of tags/tropes I otherwise can't read, to see if I can write it in a way I would like to read.

Writing the chengxuan one-shot didn't really do anything for me besides get me started publishing for the MDZS fandom. It was a fluke, in my opinion.

Cringe Fic had the bonus of expanding the base of ideas I am willing to try and write for, e.g. genderbend.

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

🙄 Okay so don't laugh (you can laugh), but as it turns out, I am writing a genderbend that I actually intend to publish when it's done. I noticed that there are only 24 works for Female Mò Xuányǔ tag, 19 of which are wang/xian. None of which are chengxian. I always wanted to explore canon Wei Wuxian actually experiencing dysphoria in his new body and making Mo Xuanyu female I feel will heighten that further. I'm thinking I want him to ping-pong between feeling everything is too different but also finding joy in what he has now and settle somewhere in the genderfluid realm of dealing with his 2nd life.

And of course I want it to be chengxian because 🤤 oh wow the drama there...

It's still in the very rough draft stages but here's a part that's interesting to me.

Wèi Wúxiàn traces the trail of brighter crimson to his arms. One sleeve is a clean bright vermilion, the other is soaked nearly black. “Not good,” he croaks with a voice that isn’t his. It’s a higher pitch, even for how ragged and torn it sounds. “Fuck.” Immediately, his good hand comes up to his throat that’s not his throat, where his questing fingertips fail to catch the presence of a knot that should bob as he swallows air. The same hand he trails down slowly, dreadfully, between his collarbones to his sternum, where a narrow, soft, valley goes undisguised by the vermilion robes wrapped around him. He looks down to his chest. Not his chest. His foggy mind catches up and grades the new look. Modest but present. Then his thoughts race ahead and the pins and needles of sensation wash away in the heat of panic. Wèi Wúxiàn spreads his knees and his hand drops down, but he knows.

🧡🙌 This has been fun! See you on my Dash!🙏🧡

...Or even... in my DMs 😉

[nightfury-2001]

Hi there! So I finally decided that I want to write a fic set after THW, because I see issues with dragons living in mushroom hell.

I'm also going to base off of the TV series, so it may be a little inconsistent? Idk xc like, firstly the issues because of course there's so many questions of how does these dragons live there?

So, firstly, it would be the food. Not every dragon eats fish only. Like, bolder class dragons eat rocks, there's the eruptodon who eats lava and if it DOESN'T have lava, it will eat through a in active vulcan UNTIL it erupts (who's to say that won't happen? Very probable). Then there's Buffalord (sorry if I misspelled, I always forget this name written oof) who eats some sort of grass, and who gets extremely violent if you take it off said island with that specific grass and there's typhoomerangs, who eat eels because they like them and because it gives them a quick 'recharge' for firepower. Let's not forget that Deathsongs eat other dragons...

Secondly, natural enemies. The Skrill is the natural enemy of Singetails as the Scauldrons is of seashockers. There's probably more that I miss though.

Thirdly, environment. We see dragons like snow wraith, living in a specific environment, being able to live with the cold. Presumably, in thw, it could be cold. We don't know that for sure, do we? Also, his sensors could be all EFFed up since there's a lot of heat radiated by the other dragons, it would barely be able to tell what's and what's not food. What about seashockers? Where are they going to dive down deep into the water? Arguably, there might be a inner crack in the cave that is filled with water that goes deeper, but still. What about timberjacks? We see them in the second movie flying in the sky, and they are absolutely HUGE, where are they going to fly now?!

4, it would be other dragon species, like the whispering deaths or screaming death. How do we know for sure they aren't going to fight down there? How are we sure the screaming death, who can literally sink islands of dragons and who didn't recognize hiccup in rtte, NOT destroy the entire cave and have it crash down over all other dragons? For all we know, only his mother recognized Hiccup and remembered HIM helping them, not Toothless. So... Who's to say she will stop the screaming death just because toothless is there? And overall, what about Titan wings? The teritorial fights? What about dragonroot? Does it grow there? I mean, there is light coming from crystals and whatnot.. Mushrooms. Or what about changewings, when they lay their eggs? Those are prone to drawing predators, like the cave crasher, who EATS eggs.. And Speed stringers, they can paralyze other dragons, and probably kill them.

They are literally doomed to fight to death in there. Literally. There's just so much room for disaster it's not even funny. Toothless, while he had won the right to be a alpha, doesn't have the mind controlling power that the bewilderbeast does. How can he stop all these fights, how can he give everyone a space in that cramped mushroom hell to live like they used to in the wild, in the outside world?

So I'm having this wild idea that there starts to be fights between dragons and the furries tries to stop them and the light fury gets attacked by the screaming death and voila, one of the tailfins gone. Now toothless has to find a way to help her and so starts redemption arcs for both furries for different reasons which I guess you can tell what I'm hinting at here >- > it's not the best idea, but it's something I suppose. I mean I do have the plot and everything, but still.

Hi! Sorry for the late response - if you've written some of this fanfic by now I'd love to check it out! You have some interesting ideas.

But yeah the whole concept of the Hidden World being this perfect place where every dragon species is happy and fulfilled and "where they belong" falls apart the second you start to actually think about it. While HTTYD was never meant to be truly realistic, it originally was relatively grounded and I personally really liked that.....sadly as the series progressed it got more and more "magical" and now we're at the point where underground caverns apparently have a blue sky and/or a fucking sun. (Seriously, look at some of the screencaps for TNR. I'm not joking.)

[tanetime]

Can we know more about Winslow? :0

Sure! I was actually supposed to be working on a reference sheet for him for Art Fight, but I’ve been being lazy about it!!! I don’t have many illustrations so I’ll have to just subject you to WORDS WORDS WORDS.

You can have his final concept art though!

Winslow (his first name is Tony, but he won’t tell you that) is a police detective-turned-private investigator. He is a prodigy with a particular eye for detail and reading people that is supernaturally accurate, with the caveat being that he is completely unhinged. He has a knack for taking information, conjuring theories that make no sense, and managing to glean the truth from it somehow.

Despite being good at analysing people, he is atrocious socially and very few people can stand him. He’s intrusive and arrogant and just kind of smugly acts like he’s the smartest person in the room. 90% of the time he has the same stupid grin on his face. Nobody is sure whether or not he is secretly pretending to be stupid so that people let their guard down around him.

He is haunted by the guilt of a mistake he made during his career. Perhaps more literally than he’s aware of.

I have a lot more to say about his backstory and gameplay, but it is A LOT, so I’ll put it behind a readmore!

TW for some mild cartoony eye/body-horror.

Backstory infodumping

Prior to coming to the Constant, he worked alongside his identical twin brother, Tobin Winslow (first name basis encouraged), who was both 1. less intelligent 2. more normal than Winslow, and thus cursed with the Sisyphean punishment of dealing with his eccentricities whilst also being overshadowed by him. The two worked for the police, until Winslow became fascinated with a string of mysterious fires and disappearances that were happening. He decided to investigate them, and began by looking into the affairs of some people who really didn’t like that.

Tobin told him to stop, got ignored, and shortly afterwards went missing one night and was never seen again. In a rare display of wisdom, Winslow declared “well, fuck. big oof” and fled the state before whoever tried to kidnap him realised they got the wrong guy.

In the years since he has developed an irrational fear of the dark and a healthy paranoia that someone wants him dead. Due to reasons that could be summed up with ‘ACAB’ he started working alone as a PI dealing with missing person cases. The guilt surrounding his inability/failure to even attempt to figure out what happened to Tobin ate him up for a very long time until he attracted the attention of A Certain Someone.

That certain someone offered to help him find out who was responsible for Tobin’s disappearance, but, perhaps a little rashly, Winslow declared that he’d rather never know who was to blame – so long as the person responsible was haunted forever by what they had done.

Unfortunately, Tobin had a different idea as to who was ‘responsible’ for his death.

Aaaand here is Tobin! Or rather "what became of Tobin" or "what is left of Tobin after The Incident".

This art is pretty scruffy and unrefined since I wasn't used to drawing him - sorry!

The gist of what happened is that Maxwell atempted to weasel-word his way into taking both brothers into the Constant via the wording of Winslow's deal, except Winslow failed to mention the estranged brother he longed to reunite with was probably dead. So, Tobin ended up getting turned into a ghost and clumsily stapled to Winslow's body as a second, living shadow.

He is decidedly not happy about this, but this ain't about him.

Gameplay infodumping

‘Winslow’ as a playable character is actually both brothers together as a unit, and you swap between them.

Winslow himself is a very basic character with few perks. In a perfect world he’d have weird abilities like seeing enemy hp or not triggering traps.

Being haunted by his brother increases the damage he takes from shadow-sources and makes his sanity drain very quickly in the dark.

He starts with three items:

the Lamping Light, a torch that doubles as a weak weapon that does electric damage, so long as it has fuel.

the Thinking Cap, which reverses negative sanity auras for Winslow, but only keeps other survivors warm.

the Sleuthhound’s Slicker, a coat which protects you from wetness and allows you to move much faster if it is raining.

Winslow can swap to Tobin (and vice versa) via an ability similar to Wortox's Soul Hop, which makes you vanish as one character and reappear as the other.

Tobin is much frailer, but can do some weird things due to being a ghost. He is stronger in the dark and weakened by the light.

His ghost basically takes the form of his shoddily reanimated corpse, which was hacked up and dumped in some lake or river somewhere. As a result of this he’s a sopping wet beast and is always passively gaining wetness.

Winslow’s Thinking Cap and Sleuthhound Slicker actually change appearance and name when Tobin is holding them, and do different things, like stopping the wetness gain or allowing Tobin to function at full strength in the daytime.

I hate characters with items that render their penalties moot, but I like the idea of a character sacrificing armour in a fight to reach their full potential.

Infodumping Infodumping Infodumping

They are kind of the antithesis of Wendy and Abigail hahaha, although that wasn’t intentional.

Winslow being the more headstrong and confident twin, while Tobin was more reserved and cautious.

Tobin is now essentially soul-bound to Winslow the same way Abigail is bound to her flower, so he manifests through him and can’t leave. Due to the wording of the deal that brought Tobin back, Winslow’s incapable of realising Tobin is even there, so he kind of walks around with a second disjointed shadow leering at him ominously that he can’t see. (He gets asked about it pretty much every time he meets a new person, and thus has concluded that everyone in the Constant must be insane.)

Tobin has something of a vendetta against Winslow, but is a surprisingly normal and reasonable guy who doesn’t want to bother the other Survivors. He doesn’t cause much trouble - Winslow himself regularly gets up to worse! Most people do avoid him though, due to him being a weird dripping dribbly ghost with a weeping hole in his head.

He's still pretty cute though.

It’s different in their mod, but in-universe, Winslow tends to inadvertently swap places with Tobin whenever he is startled or faced with danger. So Tobin tends to take a bullet for him more often than not. It’s fine; he’s taken a bullet for him before!

I'm sorry this turned into more about Winslow and his brother and not just Winslow, but it's hard to talk about one without the other!

By the by, if it wasn't already opressively obvious by the gigantic wall of text: I love talking about my characters, so feel free to poke me about them - even if it's something minor.

[danggirlronpa]

Oh! Well I can solve the mystery for you. My first mom and my second mom were married before my second mom came out as a transwoman! They are both my biological parents. They got divorced before she came out, not because she came out or anything. They were very much already divorced when my second mom came out. I call her "second mom" because she's younger than my first mom.

Also, yeah, I totally agree that the fandom at large only headcanoning the Murder characters as nd is. Really bad, actually! I do forgive it more for Danganronpa specifically since. Most of the cast are murderers, lol, but when in fandoms with a ton of morally upright characters in it, only the villains are headcanoned as nd is just. Oof. I would love to see more characters like Izuku Midoriya being headcanoned to have bipolar, because (imo) I can definitely See it for him. Another character I headcanon as bipolar from Danganronpa is actually Kaede Akamatsu! She's great. I didn't mention her though since I tend to see V3 as taking place in a different universe unless it's a AU, tbh. But you're definitely right that it's an issue in fandom spaces. Funnily enough, my therapist specifically told me to headcanon more characters and/or create ocs with bipolar, so that's what I've been doing. She said it was good to see myself in characters.

But yeah!!! Sato & Mikan murder4murder nd couple who messily makes out!!! Tbh I think a lot of people forget that Sato and Mikan were Friends!!! I want to see more content out there exploring their dynamic. They are both So Normal about love (read: they both get extremely attached to people who show them even An Ounce Of Kindness. relatable tbh)

A FOURTH second mom option!! We Love To See It. (& you absolutely should headcanon characters as bipolar!! The reason I was specifically like "this isn't directed at you" was because it's important & wonderful to see people looking at characters like themelves - I just wanted a General Disclaimer, since DR is so. Gestures To DR. I'd LOVE to hear more about bipolar Kaede, what a great concept!!)

One of my (many) (sorry DR3 fans) gripes with DR3's choice to make Chiaki a Real Girl TM and setting Sato into the Reserve Course instead of making Sato the 16th student in Chiaki's place is that there's no indication of the group friendship we see in Twilight Murder Syndrome in the anime. (Especially when the game specifically hinted at Sato's ultimate talent! She mentions archery club! For no reason!! Except to establish the "ultimate sportsperson as class' first blackened" parallel to Leon!!) And there's a lot of other reasons that happened, too, including the anime relegating what was an ensemble cast into a couple mains and a series of background characters, and the overarching story choices that restricted their timeline.

But it's always SUCH a bummer to me to watch "Ibuki, Mikan, Hiyoko, Mahiru, and Sato had a complex group dynamic, the breaking of which ultimately led to the ruination of all their lives and the lives of several others" into "Mahiru had a girlfriend and it made her sad for a few minutes, and then everyone moved on." Like. There wasn't ANY other way to establish Hajime's character arc?? I have to stop or I'm just going to work myself up about DR3. But it bums me out. And I LOVE seeing representations of the dynamics that could've been. Sato and Mikan is a top tier of them for SURE.

[phtalogreenpoison]

riddle of ages gay update (reading through the queer lens)

Hello, my brain is cooperating so I am reading riddle of ages for the first time since the agust d concert. And I am flipping through a little bit, getting back up to speed, when I reread this paragraph:

"Reynie heard Sticky's familiar footstep in the doorway. Reynie started to turn, but something checked him, and he remained as he was, thumbs hooked in the straps of his backpack, regarding the empty room. After a moment he heard Sticky walking quietly up beside him. He hadn't needed to turn. Sticky knew that Reynie knew he was there. And he knew that if Reynie had wanted to be left alone, he would have done something different. They had been friends a long time. Still, Reynie found that he wished he had turned, had gestured for Sticky to join him." (page 210)

And maybe I'm just projecting being queer and insecure onto these two, or maybe I've read too many Merlin fics with this premise (of friendship that never blooms into something more), but oof. Especially because literally on the page before, when Reynie is reminiscing, Mr. Benedict had said you can lose something before it's lost if you don't reach out and work for it. The more obvious context is obviously the possibility all of their friendships being strained by possibly moving away, especially since they're at the age where they either start moving out (to a dorm or apartment), and instead focusing on the loss instead of how that friendship can grow to be different. Which is beautiful in and of itself, and something that I have experience both ways (that being changed, stronger friendships or ones that collect dust and fade away). BUT. If you think about who feels like they are making the furthest leap, it seems to be Sticky and Reynie. Sticky to direct a chemistry institute, Reynie to a (probably) grad program at a university.

And then if you remember Constance's inner monologue about the older three all having crushes on each other, she notes that they were most afraid to change things in fear that it would ruin their friendship. And this seems to me to be a very Sticky or Reynie line of thought, and it also would make sense in this theory as they seem to be the ones with the most frustration between them for wanting to leave the Benedicts' house. In my perspective, it reads like they may be aware on some level of this romantic tension, but do not want to address if they're just going to move out anyways.

Now where is Kate in all of this? I always viewed her to be more practical, and though sometimes that can be a front for her vulnerability, I headcanon that though she can be reticent on emotions, she would eventually act if she wanted to. So in my headcanon, I think her crush on one or both simply faded or she thought about it and felt they were better as friends.

Regardless of how you feel about this (I just think it's fun! also looking back at this point in my life this interpretation would be very relatable to my dumb gay ass), I love both of their characters so much (I still need to make an analysis post on Reynie!), and I hope they resolve the frustrations in their tried and true friendship. I could also see this as a very qpr type deal, but I just want all my blorbos to be happy.

Anyways, however you picture this friendship, I read many MBS characters as queer simply because they are delightfully, sometimes painfully, not normal. And much of the series is about found family, which is familiar as a queer concept, and learning to love yourself for who you are and others as they are.