#they're just peak morally grey

[secriden]

excuse me i just stumbled on this photoshoot (?) on Twitter and

wtf why does peat have that rich 太太 (tai tai) energy?? (ie. a wealthy, spoiled, pampered trophy housewife)

why does fort look like his assigned bodyguard who is officially just there to make sure no one gets to his boss through his 'wife' but he's also totally fucking his boss' wife on the down low

they totally plot to murder peat's rich husband and have him inherit his fortune and afterwards fort stays as his kept man bodyguard and peat rules his financial empire with an iron fist.

why do i need a fic about this like i need to breathe.

Edit: so i wrote a thing (its mahasamut/tongrak and its way more intense then i even anticipated)

[fairyhaos]

what "morally [x]" are seventeen?

notes: like morally ambiguous, morally grey, morally good, etc. this is quite possibly the weirdest brainrot ive had but this was soo fun to write :>

disclaimer: this is just for fun and im not trying to analyse their "real self". this is kinda ab their game personas yk !!

masterlist

seungcheol

morally flexible. for him it's less about following his morals and more about winning. morals are just human conceptions, and anyway, people can and do change their morals all the time!! but on the other hand, success and victory lasts forever

jeonghan

morally curious. he recognises what things are morally correct, understands why it's moral to do something, and then sits there for a moment and thinks about whether he wants to do that or if he wants to ignore morals completely. sometimes it's fun to do the wrong thing.

joshua

morally ambiguous. like a grey sky that looks like it'll rain any second, no one knows which way joshua will turn bc he's just so unpredictable. it's not even a matter of being bored. sometimes he does the wrong thing Just Because He Can

junhui

morally clairvoyant (maybe). no one quite understands why he's sticking so fiercely to this one principle, but as the game progresses, it soon becomes clear that it's actually the right thing to do. it's like he knew what to do all along. or he's just lucky.

hoshi

morally chaotic. he's like if morally grey was more colourful and more vivid. he's neither good, nor bad, nor that secret third thing—he's actually the fourth option. the one with flamingo feathers and sequins that hide a truly crazy mind with the most unhinged morals ever

wonwoo

morally neutral. he's just too tired for this, man. also it's funny to look at the side of the morally ambiguous people and watch the weird things they do, even if he doesn't want to be a part of it. he likes observing the side of the angels and the side of the devils.

woozi

morally grey. woozi is peak morally grey bc he does things which can be seen as good and he also does things which can be seen as immoral. but at the end of the day, he's neither truly good nor truly bad. he's just woozi.

minghao

morally secure. he knows what his morals are, and he sticks to them, no matter what. everyone else can do what they like, just so long as they don't try to make him do anything that goes against his own morals. literally the embodiment of "you can kill someone, it's okay, just don't tell me where you hid the body"

mingyu

morally targeted. it doesn't matter what his morals are bc they always end up getting questioned into oblivion bc his hyungs like (affectionately) bullying him like that. are his morals good? are they bad? it doesn't even matter. they're getting targeted no matter what

dokyeom

morally good. he could not be immoral if he tried. even if yoon jeonghan is turning the world on its head during a game of mafia, there's still a part of him that feels like something isn't quite right. his mind may not know what's happening but his heart is still on the side of the angels

seungkwan

morally vocal. veryy noisy when it comes to voicing his morals and his opinions on how things should be done. purely because he gets theeee most upset when jihan play tricks during games bc there!!!! are!!!! rules!!!!!!! and his hyungs aren't following them >:(((

vernon

morally rigid. vernon is just a Really Good Guy, and i feel like that's often overlooked bc his opinions r sometimes really really crazy. doesn't mean he isn't good, though, and he's sticking to what he believes in literally no matter what happens. the world could tell him he Has to do something else and my man will be like "thanks but no thanks ✌"

chan

morally exhausted. he doesn't know what the most moral thing is anymore and honestly he's too tired to figure out what it is. everything is too noisy and too confusing bc up is down and left is right and what good is now bad, and he's just looking forward to going home and leaving the chaos of his friends behind

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[mister-tom-a-dildo-lover]

Confession Time!

So, over on Twitter, I'm a member of the Community Notes, and I can write Notes on any post as well as rate other Community Notes on those posts. This is done to fact check people. You have to provide a credible link as the source of your note before you're able to post it, right?

A bunch of M@rauders stans are attacking Tomarry writers, as usual, and because they can't handle that they like morally grey characters who did sus things, they make up all this shit to excuse those characters of their wrongdoings. Maybe that's why they're so jealous, cuz we can like a shitty character while NOT downplaying the bad he did.

Currently, there is an idea going around that Harry Potter was not abused in the canon story, and that everybody just swears he was abused when it was apparently, never addressed or shown and was just not treated the best. But when any M@rauder stans claim that Sirius was very clearly abused, it's unfair how no one agrees with them...

As such, they've been inundated with people pointing out all the abuse Harry has been through, from Vernon choking him out, Petunia trying to hit him with frying pans, them making him sleep in a closet instead of any of their extra bedrooms, lying about his parents, letting Dudley bully him constantly, punishing him when he doesn't understand that magic is at fault, starving him and his pet, putting bars on his window, etc... EXPLICIT ABUSE.

Now, one person gave a whole list of things that Sirius 'suffered' at the hands of his mother, and they're mad because it was pointed out that none of this actually happened in the story, not from anyone's mouth, and that that's just fanfiction tropes to make his parents worse and easier to hate. Harry's abuse is both told to us and shown as early as Ch. 2 of PS. We get to experience it through him in many ways throughout the books.

So usually, I don't get involved in these things, I just watch from the sidelines and laugh. But I thought it would be funny to put Community Notes on all of these people's posts because they're posting literal misinformation. And it's just funny to look at the post making all these claims and immediately see Rate Proposed Community Notes right at the bottom!

This person is ranting about how there are 'context clues' about Sirius was being physically abused by his family, while claiming that Harry's neglect was never explicit to try and make it seem as if Sirius choosing to leave home because of his parents' beliefs is proof of his suffering and is the same as Harry's blood relations treating him terribly for how he was born, his whole childhood.

When people have to sugarcoat and lessen Harry's experience because they want to uwu their favs so they can feel less bad about what their favs have done in canon... It's the weirdest thing. I'm not borrowing shame from a fictional character over their wrongdoings despite how all my favs are the villains. I'm here for the character, and to be so emotionally distraught over what your fav has done, that you need to gloss over it and invalidate canon over and over, is truly unhealthy behavior.

And then attacking people with different favs/ships than you, is peak madness. Get a life. Go figure shit out. You clearly cannot handle interacting with real people yet.

[chiefdirector]

Promising | Tim Bradford | The Rookie

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven

Tim had experienced many awful things in his life but none would be considered worse than this. The moment he had found his wife again, she had been snatched from his grasp leaving him helpless to aid her once more. If he had believed in a god he would have thought that he was being punished for some past sin. 

But he wasn’t. 

No matter how much he blamed himself at this moment there was nothing he could do but wait. The paramedic in the back of the ambulance told him that she would most likely be fine, that on first inspection there seemed like there would be minimal damages. Tim had wanted to believe them, but with every hour that (Y/N)’s surgery  dragged on Tim believed them less and less. 

The idea that he had come so close to getting her back almost killed him, and had he not had the chance that she may return to him, he felt like he would've died then and there. He had waited this long, he could wait for her for these last few hours, no matter how torturous they felt. She would return to him soon enough, he had enough hope to believe in that. 

-----

Professionalism was normally one of Sargent Grey’s areas of expertise. The man had decades of experience with the public and felons alike who pushed the lines of crime and morality alike. But as he stood across from Regina Diaz he could not help that every fibre of his being wanted to bring down every article of the law on this woman, and he was determined that she would never breathe a lick of fresh air again. 

He was furious as to what she had done to the department, and to his officers. The damage she had caused was unfixable, and the Bradfords, as well as everyone in the Mid-Wilshire Division would be forever changed because of her. And yet, she sat tall and arrogant despite the cuffs keeping her attached to the table. The maroon scrubs she wore did not seem to deter her confidence at all. Grey clenched his jaw, before taking a seat opposite the woman who had caused so much grief.

“So where should we begin?”  Grey flipped the file he held open and thumbed through the pages, trying to not show any weakness for Diaz to exploit. “The very apparent drug operation that me and my officers caught you in, red-handed may I add? Or how about the contant threatening of my officer’s well being for the last two years? Or how about the assault with a deadly weapon charge for that same officer you have been threatening?”

Regina smiled, “Hmmm… They're all good options, but maybe we should start within your department instead. After all, I couldn’t do all this without a little help.”

-----

It had been a while since Tim had watched his wife sleep. In the early days of their marriage, when work took a mental toll on him, he would stay awake far into the early hours of the morning, watching her chest rise and fall as the room was gently lit from the rising sun peaking through the curtains. It had relieved some of his anxieties, knowing that she was there and she was alive, and now, even after all this time and torment, he found the same comfort yet again. 

He used to spend hours just watching her peaceful face, wondering what she was dreaming of. Could it be hot beaches with white sand, maybe it was a winter’s night at home, or could she be possibly dreaming about him, about the two of them together. 

It felt oddly comforting to watch her sleep again, even if it was from the most uncomfortable hospital chair ever made. If Tim ignored the tube coming out of her arms and the incessant beeping from the machines by her side, he could pretend for a moment that they were back home and she had fallen asleep in their own bed. If he closed his eyes for a moment, he could pretend that none of this ever happened at all.

But Tim didn’t want to ignore all of the hospital equipment, no matter how daunting it was to see, as it meant that his wife had returned to him. And he didn't want to pretend it didn't happen at all, because even though he had lost and grieved her, he had her back now, and he knew just how much she completed him. No matter how much Tim had loved her before, it had only grown tenfold since he saw her again. Despite the blood and the medical equipment attached to her, she was safe, she was almost home, and most importantly she was alive.

-----

“And why would I believe you?”

“Because, Sargent, it doesn’t make sense otherwise, does it now.” Regina said, not letting her smile waver once. She could tell she was getting under Grey’s skin, and she enjoyed it thoroughly. But she couldn’t toy with him forever, as fun as she may find it, she needed to be on the court’s good side, and that includes cooperating with the authorities. “How did two detectives fall off the face of the earth and their case worker didn’t know where they were all day? Riddle me that.”

“I can’t, but I'm sure you already know the answer, don't you Ms. Diaz?”

“I think it’s time we brought in my lawyer, if we are going to negotiate that is.”

-----

(Y/N) shifted slightly in the bed as she tried to shake off the familiar feeling of sleep mixed with some form of medical cocktail. She had woken up in a hospital numerous times during her career with the LAPD, but none ever felt as disorientating as this. Her body felt slow and her chest felt heavy. Gently, as not to cause any more damage to herself, (Y/N) moved her head to assess her injury. From the sharp pains from the movement and the vague memory she had from before she lost consciousness, she could tell that her shoulder was thoroughly messed up. But as she went to look at it, her eyes wandered down to her chest, where the weight was radiating from. The pressure came from her husband’s head resting on top of her. He looked so peaceful asleep, as if nothing could have ever burdened him. She could vaguely remember seeing him at the Diaz house, but now she had the time to take him in fully. He had a new scar on his hairline, it was pale and faded, he must have gained it not long after she had left on her assignment. His shoulders were still hunched over, even in his sleep he carried his stress there. His arms had gained more definition, and so had his hands. All of these changes were to be expected, (Y/N) knew how much this would have hurt him, exercise was always an escape for him. 

What she didn’t expect though was to find his left hand bare of any jewellery. He had taken off his wedding band, and a good while ago too. He bore no tan line or indentation to indicate he had worn the ring recently. She understood why he would have done that, she knew that she couldn’t have expected him to wait for her all this time but it didn’t cause her heart to sting any less.

She wanted to let him rest, but if the roles were reversed, and it was Tim in this bed, she would have wanted to be awakened immediately, even if he had moved on with his life. Slowly, as not to scare him awake, (Y/N) lifted her good arm and positioned herself to run her fingers through Tim’s head. 

He roused quickly, clearly a trait he had never gotten over since (Y/N) had last seen him. Groggily, he looked around the room to find what caused him to awaken, although the realisation came to him quickly as he snapped his eyes to meet (Y/N)’s. “You’re awake,” he stated, as if it wasn’t obvious, but (Y/N) chose not to comment.

“Yeah, I uh… woke up a few minutes ago. I thought that you would… you would want to know I'm awake, so you don't need to worry anymore.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I worry? (Y/N) you mean everything to-”

(Y/N) smiled sadly, “You don’t have to lie to save feelings, Tim. You’re not wearing your ring.”

“Oh.” Tim said, trying, and failing, to suppress a soft laugh, only stopping completely when he saw (Y/N)’s saddened expression. Quickly, he reached down his shirt to pull the chain he wore over his neck and unclasped it, letting the band fall into the palm of his hand. “I wore it on a chain. It… hurt to see it every day but not to see you. But I couldn't live without it, hence the chain. That way, even though I couldn't keep you, I could keep it close to me, close to my heart.”

(Y/N) watched as the gold band slipped back into its rightful place. She didn’t know what to say, there was a thousand and one things that needed to be said, yet not a word spilled from her lips. Tim watched as her eyes darted to one side, he knew it was one of her tells. “Shh, it’s okay baby, you don’t need to say anything right now, we can talk later. I’m here, and I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever.”

“Promise?”

“As long as you promise you won’t leave me again. I don’t think I would survive that, losing you another time.”

“I promise.”

Part Seven | Part Nine

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

Tags: @xceafh @kmc1989 @buba424 @salty0cracker

Tags are open :)

A/N: Have a merry christmas if you celebrate, and if you dont i hope you have a great festive season. Enjoy this extra long chapter, i couldn't help myself lol.

[lunar1an]

thinking a lot about wildbow's early works (worm, pact) and his more recent moralistic works (ward, pale) and the sheer difference in narrative empathy

in worm and pact you have characters who do fucked up things but it feels like a lot of effort is put into understanding the people behind them and where they're coming from. rachel's dogs maul people but there's a whole Arc of taylor learning to vibe with her and befriend her and of rachel getting what she needs (a place alone with her dogs where she can let other people in at her own pace) and growing as a person. all from the angle of 'this is genuinely good for rachel and helpful'. we want her to succeed because we care about her.

in pact we see how sandra duchamp grew up, how she's just as much a victim of her family as she is someone who perpetuates that harm, and while she's an antagonist the story doesn't spoonfeed it to us--we're allowed to see her human and sympathetic moments and we're allowed to feel bad for her while also wanting her stopped.

it felt. i don't know. like the story in general respected these characters, respected the reader's ability to empathize with those characters while also knowing Murder Bad or whatever.

but then the major worm fandom interpretations shifted. you had reddit and other popular sources going on about how taylor was actually horrible and an unreliable narrator, and how the undersiders were actually ~super fucked up and evil criminals~. pact and twig were spared this for the most part by virtue of being less popular with those crowds.

and i'm not sure if the morality discourse got baked into wildbow's brain by osmosis or if he felt like he wouldn't be appeasing his fandom if he didn't address it or what.

but by ward suddenly that narrative empathy, for the most part, is missing. it becomes conditional -- the protagonist and others do not extend empathy towards others until they Properly Recognize What They've Done Wrong. any improvement, any attempt to do better isn't legitimate unless the Bad Deeds are addressed and atoned for by whatever inconsistent standards the narrative adheres to. what matters isn't riley being in a healthier place and making connections--ward thinks that we should be rooting for riley because she recognizes she messed up and is constantly making up for the atrocities she committed.

i think it's kind of reached its peak in post arc 13 pale though. every time empathy is extended it's near-always accompanied by a patronizing little reminder of "mmmm, well you did Bad Things too".

you aren't allowed to just say "well damn i sympathize with charles", for example, because the narrative constantly reminds you that actually he is Still Doing Bad and therefore you aren't allowed to feel for him. it doesn't help that the story continually one-ups itself on thinking of ways to make charles over the top evil either.

but either way it's just. bleak. in a story purportedly about community building it's shockingly uncaring. you can't just sympathize with a morally grey character or take them As They Are without the story casting judgment and constantly reminding you of their verdict. it's just exhausting and makes any positive message the story tries to send feel hollow

OBLIGATORY NOTE: this essay does not mean "actually all fallen and e88 and etc should be empathized with". what it does mean is that in a moralistic work it becomes telling when ex-nazi rune gets her own interlude and a bunch of pagetime to show how she's 'doing better' while that same courtesy isn't extended to many villains who are traumatized and might have, say, legitimate reasons to not want to be arrested or feel like they have no other option, or legitimate reason to not support the heroes, but oh. they do Crimes so actually none of that matters as long as they're still Doing Crimes.

[bimboficationblues]

Top 5 evil comic book women

going to try and focus on like, legitimately evil women? I mean I love my morally grey cutie pies like Ivy, Harley, Emma Frost, Black Cat, Scarlet Witch, Elektra - all of whom would probably make the list otherwise - but all of them have been trending "heroic" or at least antiheroic, often for longer than they were even villains or actually evil (if ever), and I know that's not what you're here for.

Mystique. I really love how deeply she is embedded in the web of relationships between the X-Men and yet fundamentally at odds with their way of doing things even when that way changes. because Mystique is fundamentally a being of sensual selfishness, an embodiment of mutant adaptability and a dark representation of "fuck you got mine" survivalism. this status as a kind of "deviant" X-Man constantly yo-yos her from "outside" to "inside" their circle even as it expands and contracts, forever escaping whatever conceptualization or box Xavier's disciples try to put her into, in a way I find a lot different from how e.g. Magneto is treated. Also the latest retcon establishing that she and Destiny are both Nightcrawler's biological mothers because she shapeshifted into a form that could cum in Destiny is uhhhhhh good.

Makima. I think Makima has like, one of the most interesting psychologies of an antagonistic character I have ever read. One thing I love is that the whole concept of devils in Chainsaw Man demands metaphorical readings of the characters and their relationships, and Denji's relationship to "control" remains contested even up through the end of the first part of the manga.

Cassandra Nova. Definitely a character with extremely diminishing returns, but at her original peak she's incredibly effective. Xavier's imperial shadow-self.

Lady Shiva. Just raw destructive talent pointed wherever she pleases - not without humanity but you wouldn't call those qualities "good" necessarily. Really excited to see her and her daughter lock horns in the new Batgirl series because they're a great foil pairing: Cassandra, the successor of Bruce who is most wedded to his idealism, and Shiva, the peer of Bruce who is one of the most vocally against it from the lens of reason and interest.

Cheetah. I don't really have a good reason, I think she just slays.

Bonus

Amanda Waller. Yes, Waller is (in my view) unequivocally evil. I think where people like her best is that she's a very grounded form of evil - a highly motivated actor within a bureaucratic and carceral system - who still comes across as larger-than-life amidst the huge personalities that typically surround to her.

Isabella (Promised Neverland). On top of being genuinely dangerous and clever, I have a real fascination with this character and what she represents, a portrayal of motherhood as a kind of socially-reproductive middle-management where you're simultaneously offered power through submission, and enter into sincere emotional relationships that you nevertheless sacrifice on an altar of blood. I put her in bonus because I guess she has a face turn.

[tulipe-rose]

Nakahara Chūya, and Miyazawa Kenji... Quite the unique bunch, aren't they?

The allegedly 'inhumane', gravity manipulating beast, and the temperamental, often starved sunshine child.

They're explored separately throughout the Manga, and are given their moments to express their characters through words and actions. At first sight, they'd be rendered polar opposites. However that may be true to an unknowing outsider, their current knowledge would never allow them to understand, to comprehend what lies within.

One loyal dog, another morally grey sweetheart.

They do meet once during the main plot; multiple times during the spin offs and once during the anthologies. They're portrayed to be an admiring boy with his idol. It's truly an adorable sight to behold.

The feared Mafia executive, and the loved, yet feared agency part timer.

It's a pity that they'll most probably never get the right opportunity to connect with one another. Their past experiences and sorrows are the key factors that would assist them to truly understand each other's emotions, as they both know what it's like to grieve over loved ones. They both know all too well what it's like to be the strongest; to be the pillar of support that everyone depends on in certain situations; their trump card. They both harbor abilities that are mighty, double edged swords, unstoppable when provoked, even harmful to oneself when pushed to their wits end. The weight of responsibility could weigh on them akin to dead weight, but they persevere through it, and they manage to make it through victorious. It's truly fascinating however, that the difference in environment could impact the path taken, and ideals followed by each. The way by which they choose to handle predicaments they're to be put in reflects the duality of humans that are infinitely similar and different concurrently.

Bottling up their issues and emotions isn't foreign to either. One due to his upbringing, and the other solely because of the fact that he has no time to deal with them. Life is moving, and the mafioso cannot afford to be held up by pitiful emotions. He is capable of destressing using quality wine in the safe confines of a bar table. The young blonde on the other hand is a stranger to pitiful anger, sadness and irritation. He has been brought up to never feel the need to be anything but happy. Yes, it might have effectively impacted him, making his perspective and views brighter, much more optimistic and inviting than most. However, a certain perspective would claim that variety in emotions is what makes us human; I'd leave it up to debate, yet I personally believe that with enough care and attention, the young Miyazawa could open up, even if a little to peak of anything that bothers him. That'd be the peak of character development. Another colossal issue that is faced by this superhuman fourteen year old happens to be how he chooses to handle his hunger. He could be half starved to death, yet not a single complaint would leave his lips. He's far too accustomed to it. He doesn't acknowledge it anymore, and that is not healthy.

A lost soul, and another wandering one.

I dare say Nakahara sees a fragment of his youth in the blonde countryboy. Nakahara would go to unimaginable lengths just to keep the boy's smile genuine; to keep it cheerful and glad to be in existence as ever. He'd try to reserve the boy's happiness, because he was too familiar with it being stripped away.

They might just be the shoulder that both of them needs to lean on, cry on in case the infamous ginger winds up lost to the alcohol.

If only the mangaka gave it a serious chance.

(TD;LR I firmly believe in and support the Chuenji sibling dynamic.

Petition to allow the Miyazawa family to adopt Chūya, aye in the comments if you agree.

Hope you liked this pointless piece of meta that literally no one asked for. I'm pretty sure most of my points have been repeated over and over by other people, but never hurts really.)

[song-writer-melo-wrath]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite tech-oriented characters? And what do you like about them?

The technology they're good with can be very real-world based or complete fiction; it can be digital or mechanical (a hacker or a machinist), electric or nuclear or solar or petroleum or clockwork or steampunk or magic or use futuristic power sources.

They can be of any race/species from any genre of any media (books, movies, shows, games, etc.), too. What matters is that one of their primary skills, roles in the story, and traits as a character is being good with the story's available level of technology.

entrapdak my beloved

Entrapta truly is in my opinion just…PEAK when it comes to character-writing. She's great autism representation, and I also just love how morally grey she is when you think about it for a bit. Her moment of going “I don't know people, I know tech, so I thought I could help people by knowing tech” is very moving.

And Hordak makes for an interesting spin on a story of discovering your identity. I'll always be down for characters I can look at as a trans metaphor. “I am Hordak, and I defy your will” goes hard as hell.

Combined? Well, I love myself a pastel x goth ship. Hordak doesn't really know how to connect with people, and Entrapta, funnily enough cancels that out. She sees through a lot of his behaviour. Very steadily, they become two people wishing the absolute best for each other, two people who want to see each other rise above all that they have been through.

…

also obligatory Meta Knight and the Meta Knights mention, that guy and his crew BUILT A WARSHIP. Presumably a lot of the things that came with it too! When you think about it, that's insane!

[mrhaitch]

what are your views on booktok?

because in my opinion, it has caused a great deal of overconsumption and oversaturation in the literary industry. it's harder for authors who genuinely have a story to tell publish their books out there just because they don't contain the popular tropes or smut. (just to clarify, i grew up reading fanfics and i absolutely have nothing against smut or tropes, i write them myself. but they are not an indication of well-written literature.)

not to mention the rise in the romanticization of violence against women and toxic relationships. that was always there, but booktok kind of increased it in the name of being morally gray. morally gray characters can literally exist without being literal SAers. and it genuinely confuses me because booktok is a female dominated industry.

ive been reading since i was 6 years old and i was so glad when i found there was a community for readers on tiktok. i used to love booktok back in 2021 when people actually gave book recs based on plots and characters and depth and not how much smut it has. it couldve easily been a safe space for POC authors to publish books filled with representation and diversity and instead it turned into whatever it is now.

im also bitter because the girls who used to bully me for reading percy jackson and harry potter in middle school now claim to be readers while refusing to read anything that has no smut in it and reading books with worse plots than what i used to read on wattpad when i was 13.

(im not an elitist i swear i read and love books that arent just classics)

I believe I've talked about this a bit before, but I share your concerns. In fact I think it's part and parcel of people misusing and misunderstanding what social media is good for and what it's bad for.

Novels are complex media, the discussion of which requires time, space, nuance, and reflection. Tiktok affords users none of those, as it is focused entirely on quick, attention gabbing sips of raw dopamine. As such only the most salacious of story beats can be emphasised, as they're the most attention grabbing, which creates an atmosphere where books with MORE salacious content get more exposure.

The publishing industry, while made up of a lot of very smart and very passionate people, is collectively stupid - more so now that publishing houses are falling under the ownership of venture capitalists looking for a quick buck. Any trend or gimmick that's popular can and will be wrung until it's dry and howling. You'll be able to track this in real-time:

An excellent book becomes a cultural flashpoint, and people talk about it and recommend it to damn near everyone.

People who want to be published and successful and view those things as ends within themselves will try and distill that flashpoint into tropes, which they deploy themselves.

The market floods with more of the thing people like, and everyone's happy. The trend intensifies, each new iteration of those tropes becomes more and more basic - less a story which features those tropes, more a series of tropes with some narrative in between.

Then we hit peak saturation, and the appetite comes to a dead stop. Seemingly overnight readers will collectively nope out of the trend, and then start pushing back at it, complaining they're sick of having the same tired stuff shoved down their necks.

After which it's a case of waiting for the next thing. For examples see: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, Game of Thrones, 50 Shades of Grey, and all of their respective derivatives.

Best advice - completely ignore it. Sidestep the whole fetid quagmire and do your own thing, it'll die out on its own.

[fantasyinvader]

I think the discourse really just comes down to one simple misunderstanding: Fodlan isn't built around grey morality. It's built around the idea that people can do shitty things and simply delude themselves into thinking that they are the good guy. Case in point, look at Hopes!Claude.

Hopes!Claude, in every route, ultimately plans on taking Rhea out. He simply blames the Church for Fodlan being hostile to outsiders and by proxy Almyrans looking down on his heritage making him an outsider. He doesn't question his takes even though in Houses he'd be the one to point out what he thought didn't align with the situation at Garreg Mach though that questioning may be linked to him realizing the Agarthans were feeding him information to suit their purposes. If you unlock the bonus chapter, in every route he's looking to get rid of Rhea, but at the same time his doppelganger calls him out on something.

He gets called out on pretending he's the good guy.

Think about what his means for a second. A representation of the innermost part of Claude's soul is saying that he's NOT the good guy he's presenting himself as. That deep down he knows what he's doing is wrong, but Claude just dismisses that notion. Doesn't matter if this is in Scarlet Blaze, Golden Wildfire, or Azure Gleam, this aspect of his character is still present. Even in Azure Gleam, he's making it clear that while he's working with Rhea and Dimitri, he still plans on killing the former even when Dimitri points out all the suffering that the people will undergo as a result. Hell, it could even link into how Azure Gleam isn't actually a good ending through it's use of lighting.

In Hopes, the sunlight symbolism of Houses is reversed since we're playing from an Agarthan perspective. Sunlight is in this context an indicator of the Agarthan ideology. It spreads and defeats the Nabatean teachings in Scarlet Blaze regardless of whether Byleth was unlocked or not, and in Golden Wildfire we see the sun beginning to peak over the horizon as Rhea lays dead. Azure Gleam is the only one where there isn't sunlight, meaning the Agarthans have lost, yet it's also said that the sun will soon be up, While the Agarthans are defeated, they're soon going to win according to Hopes. While Dimitri is going to begin punishing the Empire in a punitive campaign for the war despite knowing the Empire was manipulated, Claude is going to kill Rhea and try to wipe out the faith.

Claude is effectively giving the Agarthans what they wanted in his ignorance, all while he clings to the delusion that he's doing a good thing. Because nothing says “I want to create a world where people aren't othered and different beliefs are accepted” like “I'm going to blame problems on this one group and either work with the people who attacked me unprovoked to take them out in order to wipe out their beliefs or work with that group and their allies only to betray them later on once I've gained more power.” Sure, doesn't make you look like a massive hypocrite in the slightest, and the fact his Shadow is calling him out on pretending he's the good guy just shows that he knows it as well.

And, really, this is the crux of Fodlan's conflict and the discourse. We are dealing with characters who are various levels of disconnected from reality and, as a teacher, we are meant to teach them to see things more clearly. But at the same time, we must also figure out what that truth is and not be led astray. The devs did say they wanted players to immerse themselves in the setting, and that it had been built to support Silver Snow. The game isn't trying to hold our hands here, it wants us to notice that some of the claims characters are making don't add up, even when the rest of the cast smiles and nods vacantly. People aren't going to challenge them on what they are saying, they'll just go along with it no matter how much their backstory should stop them from doing so. As I've said in the past, it's like the characters don't actually live in the world they inhabit and I guess now we know why that is.

This game is annoying by fucking design. JFC.

[reel-fear]

You guys just can’t pick a side can you?

This is one of the most idiotic asks I've been sent and someone once told me if a character is designed to appeal to children that character themselves must be a child. However I will still try to respond to explain why this is not the same situation in a calm manner.

The fnaf novels tied into the games in a way where in my opinion you don't need them to understand the lore, The mimic is a pretty simple concept a robot that copies voices the only thing you miss out on with the books is the backstory which I don't think is super vital but could also be explored in a future game so I don't mind the books being canon. Batim back when DCTL had first come out only revealed a major character's identity in that book. That is bad and I don't agree with it. But I am also against retconning the books entirely since it means said character now has No identity. I am literally not the kind of person this is meant to address...

HOWEVER

The bendy books are beloved, they have great stories, characters and add fun things to Bendy's lore that doesn't exist without them. I personally believe they're not only great by video game novel standards but great by general horror novel standards as well.

Most important though, is that Bendy is a "character-focused" series, but despite this the games lack any kind of interesting characterization, most of the cast don't have established relationships and the ones that do are often relationships that are minor and unimportant. The cast ranges from basically cardboard cut outs who had interesting ideas that were not executed well to basically having nothing interesting about them. See how Henry the main protagonist of the first game BATIM does not have much of a personality nor reacts to much through out the game, thus making it hard to really feel for what he is going through not to mention how he doesn't seem to have been friends with anyone he's encountered.

The books added substance to characters who needed it. They gave Joey a compelling backstory, motivation and a peak into how his mind worked via Illusion Of Living which filled in holes and gaps in Joey's story that the games left wide open despite the fact he's a main villain and very important. His character is vital to BATDR & BATIM, as it is his actions that literally caused all of this besides Henry who could arguably also be said to have started this when he left. The games don't tell us much about either of them. Not to mention unlike Scott who I believe never fully stated whether or not the books were canon, the bendy devs DID say the books were canon until recently which is confusing and frustrating for theorists who kept up with them to be able to know the lore and now feel cheated.

But now without the books Bendy has even more holes in its story, we now don't know who Boris is, why Thomas was suddenly being ominous and evil in BATDR [In The Lost Ones he was shown to be morally grey however since those aren't canon anymore, it seems Thomas just suddenly turned evil bc he felt like it], not to mention Joey now lacks a backstory and everything a lot of fans loved about the way he was written in the books has been thrown away. A lot of relationships, interesting traits and cool ideas about Bendy's narrative and its characters are now suddenly gone leaving us with once again the cardboard cutouts that the games claim are well-written characters. Kress is just a way better writer than the Bendy devs so to see her work tossed aside when she had been told it was canon to this franchise she liked feels offensive and hurtful.

This was only made worse by the fact this news only truly came out in response to multiple instances of whitewashing characters who were previously thought to be people of color in the graphic novel for Dreams Come To Life which itself also was just very poorly drawn, was basically just a worse version of the book it was adapting and had coloring mistakes that made it to the final print.

Meanwhile Fnaf is not a character-focused narrative, at least not to the degree Bendy is. For a while we didn't know who the protagonist of the games was and it also didn't matter. Fnaf's story was fairly simple and more focused on the events that caused the animatronics to attack you as opposed to say how the nightguard was feeling about all this. Thusly Fnaf's books which all told their own stories [most of which were received with pretty mixed reviews might I add] were also kinda wild and strange in the lore they added? Like robot children that also grew up and thought they were human and a lot of stories that didn't feel particularly related to FNAF? More like generic horror stories that sometimes had animatronics instead of any other generic monster.

It was completely natural for people to assume the fnaf books weren't canon, for a while it just didn't seem likely. They also weren't supplying key story information since the games themselves explained their stories well enough for everyone to at least have an idea of what was happening. Fnaf just isn't a character-focused narrative [or at least until Security Breach it really wasn't] the most important thing about its characters was their roles. William Afton as a person isn't super important for you to understand you just need to know that 1. He's the killer 2. He's the father of the main protagonist and 3. He died and is now coming to get you. Run. All of his children are the same, in fact a lot of them don't have names bc their names aren't super important their roles are. The crying child, the dead kids, you don't need to know their whole backstories for the story to work, it's a simple eerie and well written horror story about children dying and becoming vengeful ghosts.

Fnaf then released Security Breach which already made a lot of people frustrated and upset. Not only had it been delayed a lot but the story was confusing and not well written, the game was buggy and nearly unplayable in spots. Etc, etc, the fandom was already rather upset.

Then the dlc came out and while it was WAY better and honestly it's one of my favorite mascot horror games EVER, a lot of people had already long before it came out, placed their bets on whether or not the mimic would show up and therefore make the books canon. A lot of people at that point felt frustrated with how vague and hard to deconstruct the lore already Was so when it turned out the books [or at least the ones with Mimic in them] were canon it was frustrating and I understand why. The books are kinda bloated and have a lot of hit or miss stories so now everyone is wondering which stories are canon and which aren't which is frustrating when you just want to enjoy a story in a game you bought without having to watch an hour long theory video or read the wiki.

Honestly the biggest thing is this ask is very passive aggressive to me for a belief I don't even hold. I'm not super upset the fnaf books are canon, I'm very disinterested in fnaf due to scott cawthon's... Actions but personally I'm of the opinion that as long as a future game explains the mimic's backstory and what it is, then it's fine the books are canon.

Besides fnaf recently made a game literally out of one of the books people liked and it received great reviews [I loved it]. The books are not the problem people had it was the confusing lore. You're literally making up people to get mad at, most of the people who were upset at the fnaf books being canon didn't mind the bendy books not being canon and the opposite was true for others as well. Not to mention you're completely disregarding [in both cases] Why people are mad. It was far more complicated than just books not being canon it was what was In those books.

To imply I'm being hypocritical when you're comparing two game devs who I both dislike and don't support in their actions is very insulting. You just assumed I held this position cause I guess you thought I was stupid? Or you thought that because I don't like the bendy team I must be hypocritical and like fnaf? Either way you literally just assumed something about my beliefs then came to my inbox to mock me for it. I hope you realize how immature and stupid you look right now.

And for the record that goes for all the fnaf fans who mocked or disregarded people being upset about the bendy books not being canon anymore too. If they had simply listened to Why people were upset they would realize it was way more than just people being mad at a retcon.

Anyways of course you're a h*lluva boss fan, that makes perfect sense with how rude you are and the fact you use "antis" unironically. The way you fought so hard to pretend like the poppy playtime devs are the worst people in the world before I had to correct you on all of your info having no evidence, meanwhile you support someone who has been well known for being an abuser, hurting their workers and even transphobic says everything. So long as someone made something you like they can do no wrong right? Well heres some stuff abt Vivzieshit you might wanna look at.

I'm gonna go enjoy thanksgiving with my family now. I hope you learned something about sending weird passive aggressive stuff to strangers about shit they don't think or have ever said. Lmao

[chaifootsteps]

The catcalling comic is specially awful considering the woman that gets upset by it is Daphne, a character that Viv made that's defined by her man hating tendencies. Funny how she created a "feminazi" character but men being misogynistic is treated as a joke in HB.

Women who hate catcalling don't do so cause they're prudes that don't know how to have fun. It feels dehumanizing. And you could make an argument that it depends on what the catcaller is saying to you specifically or that "it's just a compliment" but the comic won't even attempt to do that. This is peak Vivziepop trying to make a nuanced take on a common issue. Instead of Camills asking Daphne why she hates catcalling and Daphne explaining her reasons the comic makes her slutshame Camilla so that the reader inmediately knows which character is in the wrong (also this probably reflects Viv's own world views too because God knows that woman has never had a second of introspection in her life). It's preachy. Daphne could've mentioned that Camilla's job as a stripper may have desensitized her to catcalling and that she personally finds it extremely uncomfortable. That she would like to go outside without having to hear the unwanted opinions of men on her appearance. But no. Civil exchange of ideas denied! One is good and the other is a vicious nasty prudish man hater. Such nuance. Very understsnding of both sides of the argument. Morally grey complex discussion achieved.

Characters with extremely different points of view talking to each other and this exchange being presented with nuance? Women understanding other women? Not in Vivzie's house!

[deusexlachina]

Wannabe Warden Part 16: Become the Ultimate Darkspawn Slayer

In which I do everything possible to become the deadliest possible enemy of darkspawn. Short of becoming a Grey Warden.

(And, to do it, I use the ultimate weapon of the Grey Wardens: Math.)

It is now Act 3. This is the peak of Aveline's journey. This is when her story comes to a close, when her companions finish their arcs, and, most importantly, when her build is finished. Is she a deadly striker? A flexible battlefield controller? But there is only one true path for Aveline.

I build her to kill darkspawn as efficiently as possible.

Nothing says "as efficiently as possible" as the Primeval Lyrium Rune, so this is the first step in my darkspawn-slaying aspiration. I get this as a reward for doing a quest dealing with the fallout of the deadly red lyrium, which induced Bartrand to betray his brother, broke his mind, and now a mere fragment of it is making a haunted house, with floating pottery and everything, which is a feat because there's not even a ghost story here, just a really nasty rock.

As we venture deeper into the house, Varric becomes increasingly desperate to find the red lyrium shard, being uncharacteristically rough with a survivor. His mind is already beginning to be distorted by the unholy thing, but he insists on keeping the shard - he needs it to find a way to save his brother! But that's more the shard talking, so I take it from him, which he later thanks me for. I dispose of the exceedingly dangerous shard in the safest way possible: by giving the shard, which can make dwarves evil, to Sandal, who lives in my house and can make explosives.

He then makes it into a rune. That's the Primeval Lyrium Rune. I've taken it away for Varric just to use it for myself as a weapon. This is exactly what Knight-Commander Meredith does, an act that leads to her becoming increasingly evil and then a rock. But Bartrand, Varric and Knight-Commander Meredith don't have the strength of a Grey Warden. Neither do I, but that's a technicality. I just decide not to be corrupted. I'm Merrilling the red lyrium.

But I can only use the Primeval Lyrium Rune once, so the next step is to find the perfect anti-darkspawn weapon. Darkspawn have two weaknesses - spirit, because they're unholy creatures, and nature, because uh poison fucks them up I guess. My only Nature option is Desdemona's Blade, which is largely obsolete. I don't feel bad for it. It's had more than enough glory for one blade. That leaves the best spirit weapons - the Celebrant and the Edge of Night.

Most would say the Celebrant is the better of these. (Many would say Bloom, the ice axe, is better than either of these, or anything else, but they're wrong because cold damage is not the most efficient way to kill darkspawn, my true enemy). But after the Arishok fight, I'm feeling especially skeptical - not to mention spiteful - of conventional wisdom. I tanked the Arishok that you supposedly can't tank, and melted him with a one-hander, which supposedly might as well be safety scissors. So I do a few tests of my own.

I do some math and the Edge of Night is better than the Celebrant. With each equipped with the red lyrium, the Edge is just over 15% faster, which is fantastic if you're a Berserker and do lots of damage per hit. Wait! I am that thing! The Celebrant deals slightly more damage per hit...but the difference is miniscule compared to my overall damage, whereas the attack speed difference is much larger and scales better.

I need to test it in practice, and I find the perfect unwilling research participant: a High Dragon has killed everyone working at the mine, which it always does regardless of what you do, whether you save the miners from three other threats or don't even induce them to come back to the mine in the first place. I feel like there must be some kind of moral here, but the best I can think of is the dangers of unaccompanied miners.

But this is just me being scientific. Of course the Edge is better. I just mathed it out. So I confidently stride out to slay the High Dragon and die horribly to hordes and hordes of its shitty babies. I try again, in case that time was a fluke, and die horribly again and again. I'm...just not killing them fast enough. But...but the math! Did the math let me down, just like Other Aveline? The High Dragon is laughing at me so hard that its jaw dislocates.

I try with the Celebrant, and said babies aren't even a problem. I start to wonder if the consensus is a consensus for a reason. But I'm stubborn. I'm determined to prove that a one-hander can be the ultimate darkspawn slayer. I practice more, and find that - while the AOE is much smaller than for a 2-hander, with some fancy footwork, I can manipulate enemies into my small arc, hitting more of them at the same time than it looks like I should be able to with my tiny swings - swings noticeably faster than a 2-hander. I also try a different set of talents, this time taking Perception so enemies get no advantage from being behind me. They're hitting my exposed back but, uh, they aren't. Skill issue. This does a lot to help with survivability.

I also try out Adrenaline, which trades stamina for damage. This is the same thing as Berserk but even more. The tactical depth here is stunning, though not as stunning as the fact that some Berserkers don't use it. Including me, until now. Even the Mach-5 Massacre guide, probably the best build that has survived the purge of the Bioware forums, says jury's out on Adrenaline. I don't know who bribed this jury, because as soon as I fully upgrade it and start spamming it, in conjunction with my usual Vanguard, Berserker and Reaver tricks, I'm killing dragon babies so fast that I risk long-term ecological devastation. Guys I'm starting to think adding 8% to all your damage per cast with no cooldown over 8 seconds might be a little broken.

This is representative damage without any Adrenaline. I would show you damage with Adrenaline, but it's a little tricky to get a screenshot of that, because the enemies die too quickly. The High Dragon can take it, but he's so big that my damage doesn't always display, which is not a big deal at all unless you're doing some kind of damage experiment.

Seething with bloodlust, adrenaline and, most intoxicating of all, the sensation of proving other people wrong, I hack my way through dragon after dragon until the High Dragon runs out of babies to throw at me. I slay it without caring how I got up on its head, why I didn't lead with that, or what my shield is doing floating several inches from my body.

I am victorious, not only against the High Dragon, but against everyone who said one-handers were bad. With its blood, I make a rune of valiance for my gloves and a rune of devastation to make the Edge of Night even deadlier.

I am now ready to slay darkspawn so quickly that the Wardens can no longer deny my prowess. I will reunite with Bethany and avenge Carver. All I need now is the perfect chance to show off my might...

[more-than-a-princess]

SHIPPING INFO. answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

what’s your OTP for your muse(s)?

For canon muses, it's definitely Sonia/Gundham and if you've played/watched Danganronpa, it's probably obvious. Their chemistry is incredible.

That aside, some of the other canon Danganronpa character ships with Sonia I enjoy (though these are also portrayal-dependent!):

SDR2:

Sonia/Akane - Probably my next favorite ship for Sonia from her specific game. I'd love to explore a ship with these two!

Sonia/Peko - I think their dynamic could be an interesting one. They have very different personalities and yet have a sense of duty and obligation to their families. In very different contexts of course, but I feel they'd be able to understand each other a bit.

DR1:

Sonia/Byakuya - I know some of you on my dash despise him, whether in general or as a DR antagonist (but he's my favorite of the DR antags and it's absolutely no contest), but this is the canon DR character rivals to lovers ship in my book. Two generally competitive rich kids who don't think too terribly highly of each other? He thinks she has weird and unrefined hobbies and she thinks he's a snob preoccupied with money and status only. Imagine the bickering, then the bonding, then the feels.

Sonia/Kyoko - This one I can't really explain but...the vibes are there.

Sonia/Celestia - I'm imagining Celestia having copious amounts of jealousy towards Sonia before realizing she actually does enjoy her company. Meanwhile, Sonia likes having someone around who enjoys a good cup of tea and conversation: she finds Celeste darkly charming.

DRV3:

This one's a tricky one as I just don't see Sonia being romantically interested in Class 79 students while they're all attending Hope's Peak: they're just starting their journey at school while she's thinking about graduation, university, and the next steps in her life.

However, in a post-school verse, I think she'd get along well with Maki. I'm a little more torn as to if she's more platonic or romantic with the likes of Kirumi, Rantaro, and Gonta. I think it would be very portrayal-dependent here.

Otherwise, I quite like crossover and OC ships for Sonia. Considering two of my longest running and developed ships are with OCs, we're very OC-friendly over here.

My canon NOTPs for Sonia are Sonia/Chiaki (they're best friends to me, not lovers), Sonia/Sayaka (also platonic friends), and pretty much all instances of Kazuichi/Sonia. And as said above, DRV3 muses that are still in high school.

what are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

Plotted slow-burns with plenty of humor, drama, affection, and character growth, both as individuals and as a couple. For one, Sonia's an idiot when it comes to someone showing genuine affection and romantic interest in her (which is why she can tell easily when Kazuichi is fawning over/infatuated with her: it's for generally superficial reasons!). It will take time for her to figure out someone is truly in love with her. And two, I have no interest in writing a quickly developed ship.

This blog is no Amazon Prime next day shipping, y'all. Ships take threads, interactions, and development. Additionally, I prefer writing smut in the context of larger plot development and interactions, which is why you'll never see me share a smut meme. I've been burned too many times in the past by writers who, once I wrote random sex scenes, would only write with me for that.

But for Sonia specifically:

She's never going to truly love someone who, at their heart, is not a good person. They can absolutely be a bit morally grey at times (and quite often, she's attracted to that!), but at their core, they are good people: they care, they are generous, they want to make the world a better place and will stand with Sonia to do that. They wouldn't want to squash her kindness, her empathy, her generosity towards her country and the world itself. Sonia is also pretty good at detecting this in others, even when they can't see it themselves. Your muse doesn't have to be a hero in shining armor (in fact, that might make Sonia hesitate at first!) but they can't be an irredeemable villain. And I completely understand if muns prefer not to tone down their villains, that's fine! But Sonia just cannot love someone who has no good in them.

No mental/emotional manipulation/possession/forcing her against her will. I do like arranged marriage plots but it has to be with a character Sonia would actually fall for in the end, not someone forcing her hand.

Sonia will not tolerate infidelity, open relationships, and/or polygamy/amory. She's a monogamous person and due to the messiness in her family, she does not abide by anything but. The more your muse comes to know her and understand her, they'll likely understand why. It's also a liability for her future: she has to marry a royal consort one day and while the Royal Council would likely look the other way for her to conduct discreet affairs, she just can't do it. She's not poly and she never will be poly.

how large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

Adult/minor is a no, but also as mentioned above, Sonia will not see the DRV3/Class 79 students as romantic prospects if they are all attending Hope's Peak Academy together. They are her adorable kouhais only until they've all graduated and are adults.

are you selective when shipping?

Yes. I won't apologize for it, but I'm mostly selective with ships as I want ship partners whom I get along well with in terms of writing style and are approachable OOC when needed for plotting, bare minimum.

I'm generally pretty open to different characters to ship with as long as the chemistry and mun interest are there (and for me, those characters fit the bill of what Sonia would be attracted to in the first place. See two questions above!). But my selectiveness is more to do with consistent, developed threads over time. Many muns I've encountered just don't want to do that, prefer instant love or shipping after just meeting my muse, etc. And I just don't have any interest in instant romantic love or immediate shipping. The muses have to earn the right for smooches, you know?

how far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?

When the clothes start coming off. Nudity at all = NSFW.

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?

I covered the DR muses specifically above but most other ships are based on chemistry. I'm familiar with a few otome games that I have preferential ships for but otherwise my ship bias comes from muses Sonia has encountered over time and/or shipping with already: @dcviated's Wylan, @quickdeaths' Shinobu, @burnxngslash's Lupin are the ones that have been solidly plotted and/or happening. I hope Sonia figures it out with @electricea's Ryuji eventually, too!

These are no by a complete list and I'm eager to explore ships with other muses, but these are the ones that have been plotted that aren't DR muses, and are actively writing long-term threads/interactions with Sonia right now.

does one have to ask to ship with you?

Yes, you do, if you are interested in that content. One, so I know that you'd like our interactions to go that route and two, we can see if there's mutual chemistry and interest there. But please, let our muses interact platonically for a little while first? :)

how often do you like to ship?

When I've got consistent threads and writing partners and we are building towards a romantic ship. When that happens please give me ship threads.

are you multiship?

Probably obvious from the above, but yes.

are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

In general? Not really. With specific ships I'm writing? Yes. I just like writing, but I tend to focus more on ships when they're unfolding versus being ship obsessed overall.

what is your favorite ship in your current fandom?

For Sonia in Danganronpa it's Sonia/Gundham, obvs. But as Shinobu counts as a DR OC I think, Sonia/Shinobu will share that spot with Sonia/Gundham.

Do not point out Sonia's affinity for goths

finally, how does one ship with you?

Be an active writer and enjoy writing longer threads (I'm not a one liner or 1-2 short paragraph writer. I prefer ship partners who aren't, either). Reply to threads and, if possible, wrap up threads before starting new ones. Be enthusiastic and engaged in interactions. And then ask, especially if you've enjoyed how our muses are getting along (or perhaps not, at first! See Sonia/Byakuya) and you'd like to see if we could explore an eventual romance between them.

Stolen from: @lostusagis (I hope that's ok!) Tagging: You, if you'd like to fill this out.

[tewwor]

——— BASICS ! ♡

NICKNAME : ro, kc, etc.

PRONOUNS : she/they

ZODIAC SIGN : taurus

TAKEN OR SINGLE : taken

——— THREE FACTS ! ♡

i developed a good amount of scar tissue in my ankles back in high school because i kept twisting them so often :) yes, i was a part of cross country / track the entire 4 years :) yes, i did twist both my ankles during running camp :) :)

i have stupid good hearing, and it drives me up a wall to hear things that most of my friends cannot hear. who, coincidentally, are mostly hard of hearing to some degree so it's just over stimulated hell & ear plug city over here ( i am suffering )

i... do have a bachelors in fine arts....... the thought of paint thinner, any paint types, specific smells of cleaning solutions and orange scented oils give me immediate flashbacks to art classes in the most feral way possible. have i put my degree to use professionally? absolutely not. im in accounting, go figure.

——— EXPERIENCE ! ♡

y'all... i have no clue and i'd like to keep it that way. i started rping probably way too early online. was my starting point when spn was at it's peak? yes, please don't bring it up ( cries ). have i met at least 1 lifelong friend that i have, and continue to be, friends with for 10+ years? yes. his parents love me and they're so sweet and he bullies me in game because we both suck at them. anyways, tunglr's a shitshow but writing silly things on here makes it worth it

——— MUSE PREFERENCE ! ♡

for muses i prefer to write? THE silent and wrath filled type ( each one lacks more and more restraint ), Pathetic Man™, that one cartoonish annoying but posh / socialite-esque personality & impeccably dressed figure, himbo and heavy on the dumb aspect, 'i'm so totally normal and not a weird fucked up obscure creature', wet creaturesTM, the 'oh no, i can help! but i will then immediately need help right after!', the 'i just wanna have fun and get random people into the weirdest shit possible' thrill seekers, That One Man That Shall Not Be Named Lest He Appear Like A Dream Paralysis Demon, that one idiotic dog that keeps biting people, sweetest... most uncertain and self-conscious man ever..., and of course - eldritch horror creature dating simTM

for muses i write again? Morally Grey, feral characters with so much backstory it really does wind me, silly......, creatures, just a human in a very supernatural situation, rays of sunshine, mean mfers.., well intentioned but comically comes in at the worst time possible, complex like it's the ny times crossword ( i am very bad at these ), came back Wrong, MisunderstoodTM but for good reason, etc.

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT ! ♡

FLUFF : goes so well with silliness, excellent balm for the soul, love it!

ANGST : bread and butter........ brick and mortar... required for me and my characters to strive... hurts so good, 100/10, always need more

SMUT : just dipping my pinky toe in it! still rather low on the types of threads i get the most consistent muse for, but it's there.... lingering.. waiting.......

PLOT / MEMES : always down for both, but i do tend to hop from one side to another. sometimes my brain favors plots. other times it's all about memes.

tagged by: i stolt it from someone

tagging: EVERYONE. idc if we just became mutuals, or we've been mutuals, i wanna know so tag me.

[bloodycyrano]

DATV releases today, and while I've been trying to avoid spoilers like the plague in order to raw dog the game, here's my entire concept for my Rook because I just couldn't help it! Plus, it'll tide me over because I can't play today.

A Grey Warden! Mentored and trained by my very own Hero Of fereldon.

They were born in an alianage, into a broken home, with the biggest facination with the tales of the grey wardens. They idolized the wardens to a point of becoming somewhat of a fan-creature (They're nonbinary, and i feel like Fancreature is a great androgynous term for fangirl/fanboy) about them.

They were still a child when the fifth blight was ended, but the stories of the Hero Of Fereldon circulated far and wide, and Rook was quick to build Her up to be this ultimate hero and unstoppable force.

By 14, They had enough of the Alianage. Poverty, listening to their parents fight violently every day.. They ran away, hitching a ride across Ferelden from various travelling carts and eventually finding Bodahn Feddic, and his Son, Sandal; who were more than happy to tell them all about the fantastical hero Rook had idolized for years- Good and bad.

When Rook showed up at Soldiers peak, in search of their beloved hero, the HOF was quick to try and send them home. Several times. Rook kept coming back.

Eventually, HOF took them in, realizing they truly didn't have a home to go back to at this point, considering HOFs own disdain for the Alianage. However, HOF's intentions were far from entirely selfless.

My hero of fereldon was always a very manipulative and two faced anti-hero, constantly at war with the demons (figurative) in her own head. She was made an honest woman in her time as a warden, but her power complex and narcissism remained. She, more than anything, desired a mind to mold into the perfect warden in her stead. After all, she never wanted children of her own. But a student, to carry on her legacy as being what she thought was the most legendary warden of the dragon age? Say less.

Starting out, they had a complex relationship of teacher and student. HOF was fiercely protective over Rook, but also took measures to mentally and physically harden the child including harsh words, bitter truths, and physical labor. She took training to extremes, telling Rook that if they could not spar like the other recruits, they might as well stop wasting the HOFs time. That being a child wasn't an excuse, and if they wanted to be her student, they had to prove themselves- often resulting in a very battered and bruised child.

While she was never truly abusive, she was harsh and cruel at times, while also managing to Validate and fill the void of a mother figure in Rooks life.. Giving them gifts, comparing Rook to herself, teaching her about dalish culture as if Rook was her own child, eventually even sending Rook to learn from her very own clan Sabrae for at least a month out of every season. And when the time came, HOF was proud to personally give Rook their very own Vallaslin.

They fought empty handed until Rook was 16, because even in HOFs cruelty, she did not actually wish to harm them, and by 19, she finally decided that Rook could undergo the joining ritual as she had around that age.

Rook always had their fair amount of macabre interest, and varying morality, but HOF pushed it even further, instilling her own bad habits in the mind of the child. The obsession with blood magic and the blight, the power of blind rage, and the 'anything to win' mentality, even at the expense of other people.

The only thing HOF could not beat into them was the idea that manipulating people to get what you want was okay. Extortion? Sure. Threats? Sure. Violence? If the situation calls for it. But Rook was honest, and they always had been. Lying was something so far off the table that it became the one thing that began to crack the perfect image of their idol that they had in their head.

Long after the HOF made like my dad and went to get the milk, Rook continued trying to contact their lost mentor.. They had stopped receiving letters back soon after they began, but somehow, they just knew she was getting them anyway.

Rook does not believe the HOF will fall victim to the calling.. Perhaps it's delusion, or putting their idol on a pedestal, but they believe that if there is a single warden who could overcome it, it would be the hero of Ferelden.

Rook does have an inflated ego simply from the idea that they, themself, were the only person the HOF ever took under her wing. In their eyes, Rook is the perfect warden, trained by their very own hero and the hero of Ferelden itself. Therefore, they feel superior to all other wardens, largely because the HOF treated it this way.

Bonus!

Rook got Barkspawn hooked on eating raspberries. Barkspawn never would've gone into the gardens for sweet treats if not for Rook showing Barkspawn that they were yummy.- It became a near constant problem when HOF had to pull Barkspawn out of the thorny bushes.

Imagine having to pull a dog that's taller than you when it stands on its hind legs *out* of a viney bush full of thorns and fruit.