#this premise may be familiar...but it doesn't have to be

[astriiformes]

AU Roulette Challenge

What is AU Roulette? A casual fic-writing challenge encouraging authors to play around with different types of alternate universe stories, which will be randomly assigned to each participant regardless of the fandom they sign up with. The goal of the challenge is to encourage creativity and get authors to write fics with premises they might not otherwise have considered, with varying difficulty levels of participation for writers of all experience levels.

How does it work? Writers will be able to sign up with their fandom of choice starting Monday, July 31st. Sign-ups will run for one week, at the end of which each participant will be assigned three AUs from a masterlist using a random number generator. Each author will then have the choice of completing the challenge on easy (writing one of the AUs), medium (writing two of the AUs) or hard mode (writing all three AUs). Any fic exceeding a 500-word minimum will be considered a completion, so long as it employs the AU premise. The fic-writing period of the challenge will run for a month. Fics can be posted at any point during this time, and authors will have the option of having them added to an Ao3 collection for the challenge if they desire. They can also be posted to tumblr using the tag #AUroulette2023.

What kind of AUs will be included in the challenge? The AU Roulette challenge will focus largely on popular, staple AU types with broad applicability to any fandom or relationship type. For example, a possible result might be something like a Time Travel AU (encompassing all the possible subsets, such as fix-it time travel, time loops, or other tropes under the same umbrella), but more restrictive AU types like a Soulmate AU that make assumptions about the author's interpretation of character relationships in canon have been intentionally kept off the AU masterlist. The official list of AUs will be kept under wraps until assignments are given, but will have over 30 different prompts to ensure authors receive a good variety of options, and if you have suggestions or concerns about what AUs are being included, feel free to reach out.

What if I get an AU type that doesn't work for the canon I chose? Limited re-rolls will be allowed on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you signed up to write fic for His Dark Materials and ended up getting a Daemon AU, your result would automatically be re-rolled. Similarly, if you were writing for a different fandom entirely but were unfamiliar with what a Daemon AU entailed and wanted to write something you didn't have to research the premise of, I would likely approve a re-roll (However, you would be free to give it a try! My goal is for this challenge to be accessible to people with all levels of familiarity with fic tropes, so you are also welcome to reach out and ask about your assignment).

You are also encouraged to be as creative as you want with your interpretation of your assigned AUs, which may help with making them fit. The goal of this challenge is to encourage weird, creative fanfic, not to have every author who rolls the same result write cookie-cutter versions of the same types of stories. If you were to get a Coffee Shop AU, for example, there is no requirement that the coffee shop in question be a real-world 21st-century Earth Starbucks. In fact, deviating from the mold is highly encouraged. So long as you can make a case that you filled the loose premise of your AU type, you will get credit for having completed it.

Can I participate if I am not a writer? AU Roulette is a fanfic writing challenge, so official sign-ups are for those interested in writing (regardless of skill level or experience writing AUs). However, if you are interested in the challenge but not in writing fic for it, consider having a look at the #AUroulette2023 tag or the official AU Roulette 2023 collection on Ao3 once authors have begun posting their stories. If one of them really speaks to you, it might be a nice gesture to draw a piece of art, make a playlist, or create some other fanwork inspired by the fic and share it -- in which case you would also be more than welcome to use the official tag!

(Authors are of course also welcome to do this for their or other participants' stories, too.)

How do I sign up? I will be reblogging this same post with a link to a Google form for sign-ups on Monday, July 31st! Watch this space and feel free to send me any questions you have about the challenge!

Looking forward to seeing the AUs everyone creates!

[goddessofwaifus]

Honestly, how shinichiro managed to worm his way into my heart still surprises me...

He deserves love too! Nobody is "normal" by any standard so how does such a cute weirdo like him get rejected 20 times?! Whatever if none of the girls who rejected him want him, I guess that means no competition for being his one and only 😏 This one is for my shinichiro lovers!!! He may be a loser but he can get a w while being a lovable dork. If takemichi can get bitches, then it shouldn't be out of the question that the same can apply for Shin!

Premise- You're walking in the usual crowded halls and there you bump into the boy who every girl gossips about at school. He's weird, he doesn't know how to talk to women, he's been rejected 20 times... Wait what? How does that happen?!

The only real thing I should note for this little fic is that you and Wakasa are familiar with one another. The relationship can be familial or platonic. Might give some background in a follow up part if anyone is interested in exploring that aspect in detail. Reader,as usual,is gender neutral for inclusion of all who read.

Lose to win

Shinichiro Sano x Reader

How many dates would you go on with this guy? Honest answer for the shinichiro simps out there, I know you're out there!

Personally, I'd go on however many dates he wants. If none of those girls want him, I'll take him myself 🙄 their loss

Honestly school is shit. Especially when you're the subject of gossip and your friends have better luck with pulling than you. That was the case for Shinichiro Sano. Poor guy had been rejected 20 times, he was about ready to give up and just fully dedicate himself to the gang life with his love for bikes. Walking down the hall with him were his friends Wakasa Imaushi, Takeomi Akashi, and Keizo Arashi (Benkei).

"Honestly Shin, I'm starting to worry about ya bud. You are just woman repellant, I feel so sorry for you."

"Maybe his charisma just doesn't work on girls? You really need to stop letting your intrusive thoughts win, man... Girls avoid you like the plague and I don't need you scarin' off the bad bitch I snagged this week..."

"You'll find someone eventually. Girls are picky. If it doesn't work out, who knows? Maybe datin' ain't it for you. If not, you got us! We can go out and kick some ass! Cheer up man!"

Shinichiro gave a small smile to Benkei 's attempt to lighten the mood. He gave a frown to Waka and Takeomi, feeling the white-haired boy give him a light punch to his arm with a chuckle. Some friends they are, he joked until he felt an impact with his chest that prompted him to stop with his friends pausing as well. You had bumped into him on your way to class and bowed your head, embarrassed for getting in his way.

"Sorry... I wasn't watching where I was going. I didn't mean to bump into you! I'll get out of your way... Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll-"

"No no you're fine! This hallway is pretty crowded so it was inevitable for this to happen."

Shinichiro laughed, rubbing the back of his neck while his friends looked down at you. You were going to move aside and continue your trip to your classroom when Wakasa spoke to you.

"Yo y/n, before we let you go off to class, I got a question for ya. You got a type?"

The question was completely out of left field so it flustered you a bit. What kind of question was that? Wakasa is prone to asking odd questions, sometimes to perform his own personal social experiments among other students or simply for his own personal reasons. Maybe to try and see what kind of person they are? You'll never know, Waka has always been aloof and a bit mysterious in your time of knowing him. You shrug and figure maybe this was a test of his, so you'll bite.

"In partners? I guess it doesn't really matter as long as they're not an absolute dickhead or douchebag just looking for some ass. I can't stand people like that..."

You trailed off as you had glanced up at Shinichiro who looked like he wanted to be swallowed up by the floor beneath him. You slowly put the pieces together as you remembered overhearing girls giggling and laughing or gagging in over exaggerated disgust about some boy named Shinichiro who had supposedly asked them out, but they either blew him off or he somehow screwed up his chance by saying something weird that creeped them out/ turned them off from pursuing anything with semblance to a date. You then glanced over to Wakasa as you were now curious to see where he was going with the question now answered.

"You've probably heard around the hallways, but this guy has had an unlucky streak with the ladies. Unlike everyone else, you're one of the nice ones here on campus. You can probably see where I'm going with this."

You nodded, looking back at the embarrassed delinquent busying his gaze with the floor to avoid looking at his friend who was smirking slightly at the response. A gentle tilt of the chin upwards was almost enough to put the boy into cardiac arrest as he instinctively swallowed against your hold. His charcoal eyes meet your (e/c) ones in hesitation,you can see the anxiety building behind them. He watched your lips as you spoke your next words, his ears at attention.

"Shinichiro Sano. 20 rejections? What did you do to scare them off?"

"Too honest and open."

"Speaks before he thinks."

"Being himself is apparently the worst advice to give him..."

You weren't expecting the three boys to list every fuck up the guy made for every girl he potentially had interest in. You almost felt bad for his string of bad luck, but you figured Waka chose you for the most obvious reason.

You didn't have the best track record with dating either. Although you don't like to admit it, you can sympathize with the guy. Girls, as a joke or genuinely, have warned/told you not to get involved with Shinichiro. Social suicide they said, you'll never be able to eat with the little friends or acquaintances you have due to associating with the weirdo, he's not worth it, and so many other disheartening things they spewed from their mouths.

Who were they to tell you not to give the guy a chance? Half of the girls spouting that crap are either dating his friends, fucking with them, or haven't gone out with the guy and are simply regurgitating what everyone else is saying so they don't get the side-eyed by the ones who started spreading the information around. Some say he's bad in bed, others say he's not loyal, one girl said she couldn't stand the smell of smoke from his cigarettes, another said he's impulsive, and so on. They all had something to say about him, never positive things. You would decide, not them. You had a mind of your own and you could tell a person's intentions based on their behavior.

So what if he's bad in bed? Sex ain't everything in a relationship after all.

Most of the girls couldn't say anything about being unfaithful to their lovers when the hypocrisy in their words couldn't have been any louder.

You honestly couldn't say anything about the cigarette smell, but he should quit while his lungs are still healthy and taking in oxygen as they should. The smell is an easy fix, just spritz cologne lightly and it should overpower the nicotine. Some girls don't mind the smell or taste.

As for the impulsive part, that comes with being a teenager. Hormones play a part as well as other factors. You were a bit impulsive yourself so maybe every now and then you say something wild or out of turn that would have the class eyeing you like hawks and wishing you could vanish right then and there in the moment. Perfectly natural for both men, women, and those in between. Nothing new, nothing bad.

Half of the things they listed weren't heinous or anything worth slandering his name for. If not to put these stupid rumors to rest, then just to satisfy your buzzing questions and learn more about the boy who supposedly repels girls away instead of attracting. You don't know what the fuss is about, he's a good looking guy and from the times you've passed by him and his friends, he's a pretty chill and easygoing person. He's never caused trouble, his grades are decent, has no problem with making friends, and you wouldn't assume he's the type of guy who goes around beating up other students to assert his dominance and show off his strength. Shinichiro Sano seems like your average guy who might,one day, work as a mechanic.

"You're L/n-san, right? Y/N? Y-you don't have to if you don't want to... I wouldn't want to waste your time or bring down your reputation by asking you out. I'd only cause problems for you and the guilt would eat at me..."

"What are you talking about? What reputation? I'm not losing anything from going out with you. If anything, I think I wanna be the first girl to ask you out for a date~ If that's alright with you."

You stopped his train of thought right then and there, a smile he swore took the breath from his lungs and made his heart thump hard enough to nearly trigger a panic in him. You asking him ,out of all the guys at school, on a date? He swears up and down his face has never been so hot and red like a cherry tomato before. The smugness of his best friends couldn't have been so loud and visible to the raven-haired delinquent.

It's a big deal because, while you aren't picky about who you date and go out with, you still have standards and on top of that, major trust issues as a result of relationships that have crashed and burned for many reasons you don't want to think about or remember right now.

"Is it cool if I join you guys for lunch period? For once, I don't wanna eat by myself like I usually do. Maybe I can also get to know the gossip topic himself better so I have a better read of him. I have a fairly good idea of who he is,but I wanna hear it from his mouth for myself."

"Y-yeah! It's perfectly fine for you to hang with us! T-the more the merrier right?"

He can't get any cuter or be more of a dork, you thought to yourself with a soft smile. The boys walked you to class and you breezed through most of the lectures with ease. Before you can even squeeze in a little nap, it's lunchtime and unlucky for you, you completely forgot to make yourself lunch this morning before you took off towards the school grounds. You sighed in disappointment,trudging to the roof as you also didn't have enough money for even a little snack to suffice. All you brought with you on the way up was your sketchbook for doodling while you ate, but maybe today was looking up for you.

"Hey. You made it...Did you forget to make yourself lunch before you went to bed again last night?"

The look on your face gave Wakasa his answer, he chuckled as Shinichiro had been telling Benkei that he was saving the extra bento he made to hopefully give to someone (preferably someone who was a good cook) as a taste tester for his cooking. Ever since his little brother and sister started teasing him about being a bad cook, he had become determined to improve his culinary skills in the kitchen to get his rotten little siblings off his back and prove he was a good cook. The lunch he made tasted fine to him, however a second opinion was needed due to his taste being an "unreliable source" to his siblings and grandfather. No more takeout, he would learn to cook for them. Plus, it makes good practice.

"Alright, what idea kept you up this time? I'm assumin' ya jotted it down in your handy sketchbook so let me have a look and see."

While Benkei was distracted by whatever you had stayed up late to work on instead of getting your precious sleep, Takeomi saw the extra lunch Shinichiro made as a perfect opening for the two of you. He nudged their leader and nodded his head over to you to signal him into seizing the golden opportunity to learn more about you. The messy haired bundle of nerves that was Shinichiro gave a subtle nod to his friend's encouragement, sighing deeply as Wakasa sat on one side of you and Benkei sat by Takeomi. You and Shinichiro were sat in the middle as the five of you sat against the fence walls along the school rooftop, Waka seeming to get the same idea that Takeomi had when he remembered the extra bento his friend was holding onto.

"Uh hey Y/n? So I've gotten into cooking recently on account of wanting to get better at it for my lil siblings and grandpa. S-since you forgot to make lunch for today, I figured maybe you could try the extra one I made and have that if you like it. If it's cool with you, I wanna see what you were working on last night too in exchange. If you're not cool with that, I'll still give you the lunch either way!"

You nodded, a bit nervous about showing him the doodles and pieces you scribbled away in the confines of your sketchbook, but you figured it wouldn't hurt for him to see. You didn't think you were the best artist and admittedly didn't think you were good at cooking to really be a good judge of taste testing. Wakasa would shut down any and all belittling of your skills, be your number one cheerleader, and encourage you to pursue your hobby. If you didn't think you were the best cook, shut up. How dare you call his friend a bad cook? He should have you cook something for him and he'll judge it for himself.

Shinichiro traded you the lunch for your sketchbook under the single condition that he didn't laugh and make fun of what you worked on until 2 in the morning before finally falling asleep upon satisfaction of your finished product. Let it be known that you rarely show anyone your work on account of being laughed at and/or bullied for the subject matter of your pieces. You were an anime fan, you liked to watch anime at night and often imagined scenarios between you and your favorite characters from the media, if inspiration struck (more often than not as you're getting ready to go to bed) you would draw said idea in your sketchbook, erasing and redrawing line after line until it looked exactly like your daydream or was close enough to it.

Watching with held breath as the charcoal eyes of Shin glided across the page where your latest piece from the night before sat. He admired each line you drew, the expressions, poses, no space on the filled canvas was left untouched by the observant eyesight of the gang leader. You were so worried about what he thought about your artwork that you hadn't touched the lunch he gave to you. What did he think of the doodles you made? Was he gonna laugh at you too? So many questions flow into your mind, filling your stomach with dread and slowly regretting handing over your sketches.

"I recognize this character! I've seen the anime before, but I can't remember the name. God... What's it called? Oh! A/n (Anime/name)! It was really good!"

"You've seen that anime? Y-you watch anime? I didn't think you were the type to be into that."

"Well, I remember reading the manga for it and thinking 'what's the anime like?' so I watched it and I got invested! This art is really cool! I like the way you drew them, is this your character in the anime? They look really nice."

You smiled, nodding as Shinichiro didn't need you to tell him what was what. He did notice you hadn't touched the lunch he made yet, he looked through the other pages before he was satisfied with taking in your work and committing it to his memory.

Eventually, you opened the bento and found delicious food inside,wafting to your nostrils and making you salivate from the aroma. Shinichiro watched you drool over what he cooked this morning,pride blooming in his chest at the sense of accomplishment but he needed to know if you would eat it. He needed you to take a bite and give him your thoughts on how it came out. Now you were the one being observed closely with bated breath by Shinichiro as you thanked him for the food, bringing a portion up to your lips taking a bite of what you grabbed. The flavor made you tear up with a smile, chewing thoughtfully to savor the taste in your mouth.

You won't forget the looks on their faces as Wakasa cackled from the range of emotion in his friends in response to what you said about Shinichiro and his food. Shinichiro was redder than a strawberry and trying to cover his face, Benkei nearly spit out his food from how wild your response to the food was, and Takeomi was just as flabbergasted if not in utter disbelief at what came out of your mouth. Once Wakasa could breathe somewhat and finally wipe the laugh tears from his lavender eyes, all the snow haired boy had to say was:

"I told you you weren't the only one who blurts out weird shit on impulse! I tooold you!!!"

You hadn't even realized what you said until you saw Shin turn into a tomato with his coal eyes wide open in shock and other things in the mix. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't flattered by the comment on his cooking. It meant he was improving and his practice was starting to pay off. Did you really love what he cooked that much? If so, he'd make a personal note to try and cook more for you in the future. Maybe he could even taste your cooking one day if the date was still gonna happen and it went well. The date was still on and you'd make sure it was fun for the both of you. This date would be the best one that you and Shinichiro had ever been on.

"Ready to go?"

You gave Shinichiro a nod, looking forward to how this date would pan out. Even if the date didn't go well, you would give him the opportunity to take you on another one to make up for it. The two of you had fun riding around together, watching the world pass by as you were behind him on the bike. He'd check on you every few minutes to make sure you were okay, slow down if he felt you were nervous about the speed he was going, he was very accommodating and that alone made the afternoon all the more enjoyable for you.

Shinichiro took you to the movie theater, you had tickets but wouldn't tell him what movie you were seeing. You wanted it to be a surprise,and you had good seats in the back with a perfect view of the screen as long as no one blocked it in the middle row. You two had all kinds of snacks and the best part about this theater was the security doing their job to ensure the watchers had a good time which meant they made sure everyone turned off their phones or put them on silent. If they didn't, well they would "mysteriously lose signal" on their phones and would be forced to go outside to get better reception. If they brought noisy kids, quiet them down or leave. If you stepped out of the viewing room for any other reason besides going to the bathroom or getting more snacks for the movie, you weren't allowed back inside to avoid disrupting the movie for everyone else.

If the adults who were disregarding the viewing room rules of turning off their phones brought kids, the children would have to leave with the parents or whomever the adult in attendance was. They were serious about their jobs and they too respect the rules of the viewing rooms. You had gotten mildly annoyed because as the movie was getting good, that's when the wailing of upset babies, ringing phones, and loud talking began.

Unbeknownst to either of you, Wakasa happened to be in the watch room with the two of you, acting as the discreet wing man once he spotted you both on the way in. Waka did his part and helped jam the signals of any moviegoers who were on the phone when they shouldn't have been. Many complaints followed by irritated teens and adults alike exited the theater to get better reception to their dropped calls or messages they couldn't send, falling into the trap of being kicked out via signal jammers. If they came with kids, the kids would be escorted to their families to avoid the risk of leaving them unsupervised. It's not like they would be allowed to come back inside once they were out anyway.

With the amount of noise now back at acceptable levels, you could hear the movie and enjoy your large shared bucket of popcorn that you got for the two of you to share. Although you both weren't focused on the movie, moreso on one another as you both softly conversed in the back row while munching on your snacks and sipping your respective drinks. Really, you two were using the time to get better acquainted with one another by learning about your common interests and what lives you two lived. By the time you two noticed the movie was nearly over, you felt kinda bad for not watching it because you didn't know what the movie was about.

You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding when Shinichiro admitted he wasn't really focused either. He'd already seen the movie several times so it didn't really matter, but he still had a great time with you and that's all that really mattered at the end of the day. The movie could have been absolute garbage and he'd much rather talk with you than watch it because he really liked you. You'll admit that,on some level, part of you is happy that other girls aren't attracted to Shinichiro and think they're out of his league. Because you aren't too sure you'd have been able to compete otherwise if there had been anyone else that was interested. If it were up to you, you'd keep this handsome,dorky sweetheart of a boy all to yourself and Shinichiro wouldn't mind it. If this is what being loved feels like, then he's all yours and how can he refuse someone as sweet as you if you ever suggested being his one and only lover? He can't and he won't.

I hope I did Shinichiro justice 👉👈 Same with Wakasa and the other boys too, they haven't been animated yet but with how they act in the manga, I assume they're a couple of bros that fuck around and tease their leader about his failing love life. They might shit on him for it but hey, they aren't your friends if they don't at least try to help set you up with someone they think you have a shot with or try to cheer you up if you've been rejected back to back. Bros roast each other but they've got each other's backs when they need it.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Hello! Your blog is great, long time follower first time asker. Im about to start outlining my first novel (short, 30k words), and its like, sci fi noir detective? But I wanted to ask what you think the best way to world build for a novel is bc I'm famously not, great at that. Thanks ! yall have a great day !

World-building is not my strength, and as much as I admire the DnD approach of creating an entire world before you even have a plot for it, I cannot do that. My approach, therefore, is to lean on the technique of all world-building should be in service to the story. Getting too attached to a thousand details that will be left on the cutting floor is a hard no for me.

A common complaint about fantasy books is that they don't often lay out how the world works, but that doesn't bother me too much. You could spend twenty pages on trading deals and agricultural practices (and should if they interest you!), but none of that may make it to the final draft. You may be better served by trying the following:

Start With Your Premise

Let's keep it real simple. Magical abilities are sorted by color. Minerals mined from Mars start creating hallucinations that seem to predict the future. Sharks sprout legs and start terrorizing seaside towns, etc. Even if you only have an inkling of how the surrounding world will be, you probably have an idea of what you want the plot to be like.

Where is your character in regards to your concept? If there's magic in your book, what is theirs like or what do they know about it? Could they have some hidden insight on those hallucinations (actually warnings from long-dead Martians!)? Are they are shark scientist who's pretty damn sure land sharks aren't real?

Establish the baseline of your character's everyday life in the world they're in will help you figure out how to expand from there.

Establish Your Rules

Before you get off and running, sit down and figure out what's doable and what isn't. If the magic/phenomena/walking sharks manifest in a particular way, what can't it/they do? Setting your rules down ahead of time will keep yourself from writing yourself into a corner, but it also helps you justify breaking them later, if need be.

Don't, however, stick too rigidly to these rules as you go along. You might figure out a brilliant plot twist that requires going back and realigning your world to make it work! Making them up as you go along, however, may give you a much harder job when editing. Believe me, I've learned that the hard way.

Expand Your World With Your Plot/Character

Again, this is mainly to spare you tossing out pages and pages of scenes and settings you can't justify keeping in the final product. Keeping the narrow focus of your world-building on your character, starting with their normal state of things (their village, their daily life, etc), expanding when the inciting event launches them beyond what they know (holy shit, sharks with legs!), and each new problem or challenge will give you opportunity to expand your world-building in service of your story.

You don't have to do this as you go along - if you know the climax or a critical moment in your book requires establishing something specific about your world, you can weave that into your story long before it becomes important.

For example, your character may have an argument with the lead engineer of the spaceship's engines, who makes a fool of them by pointing out something they don't know. This gives a scene to establish characterization (revealing insecurities and flaws, establish relationships (rivalries, love interests, etc), and gives you a moment to establish key facts about your world by showing off the impressive engine room ahead of time. Later, when your character scrambles through it dodging bad guys to prevent the ship from crashing, the reader will already be familiar with the importance of what the character is trying to accomplish.

Be Open to Change

I recently went back to a project I haven't touched in years and was astonished to find that I ripped out huge chunks of my previous world-building, revamped the premise, changed entire conflicts and characters, and... it works so much better than what I was struggling to accomplish before.

Now don't get me wrong! This process was so emotionally devastating at the time that I put the entire thing away for years, convinced it wasn't savable. In hindsight, it was worth it, but I don't recommend this approach at all. Some concepts may be better for DnD campaigns or personal projects, and not novels. Some may be better in a different medium, like a comic or an indie game. You never have to throw anything out - unused ideas can be reworked into other stories. Maybe even a sequel!

Give yourself space to hit some storytelling walls, change up your ideas that aren't working, and experiment. All work is good work, even if some of it never ends up on the page. You'll get there.

[subway-boss-jericho]

Queuing posts for most of my AUs! Check out this Masterpost! (Disclaimer! - Please don't comment about their iconic knife bangs! I left them off this reference to keep their faces fully visible.)

how could we have possibly fallen this far?

-Premise- When Emmet comes to, he finds he doesn't remember very much. His name is Emmet. He........... Likes combinations of things..? And he likes... Winning. More than anything else. He feels like there may have been something else, too... Something... A man in black, one who looks like him. Yet, he cannot seem to remember his face. Only... You grow stronger by matching yourself against a strong opponent. He said that to Emmet, he is sure.

None of that does him much help, trying to find a job with no credentials in 'New York City.' He's sure he has plenty of experience and qualification, but any time he strains too hard, his head begins to hurt quite badly. There was a scar, and he was told something about, blunt force trauma. He manages to get a job working for the local subway station- Which feels verrrry comfortable, and familiar, yet wrong. Even though his luck is looking quite poor, his life is not that bad.

All of that changes when, one day, he overhears something familiar on the subway. Two young folks talking about, 'Pokemon!' Yes! Pokemon! That was verrrry familiar! He quickly rediscovers his love for the games, although something feels... Hollow, in that appreciation.

But he looks forward with great anticipation to the new game slated to release! He's purchased a copy early, to ensure he does not miss the chance to play it himself! This, 'Pokemon: Legends Arceus' sounds verrrry fun!

...Oh, how little he knew.

-Noteworthy Points- This AU is almost always just called 2D AU for short!

Welcome to hell! Welcome to hell! Welcome to hell! This started out as a gag between some friends and then I had to stare them in the eyes and say DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE WORDS YOU'RE SPEAKING RIGHT NOW??

Emmet! Is in real world NYC! There's a very elaborate explanation for Ingo but I don't have the space to explain, but basically- He can 'see' metaphorically through the fourth wall upon encountering Emmet for the first few times and he regains his memory! However! He is bound by the rules of the game! So he cannot easily communicate that he remembers who Emmet is and that he is here and aware! This AU is sooo fucked it's genuinely something else. It's not all angst I swear, but I am not going to lie to you there are so many emotions created by this scenario and most of them are Not positive.

-Links- Currently none! I will update this post with links to comics/art/writing if/when I post any!

[cobragardens]

God Is a Creepy-Ass Meta Mfer:

A Good Omens Essay

This essay features fan theory and speculation. DO NOT TAG NEIL GAIMAN IN ANY POST THAT INCLUDES OR REFERENCES THIS ONE.

The rest of this depends on accepting the premise that God's Plan is not always inscrutable in hindsight, i.e., that parts of that Plan can be discerned or identified as such once they have happened, even if the next moves of the Plan and its ultimate Purpose remain ineffable.

If you are willing to accept that premise, then I suggest we can conclude with reasonable certainty that Thesis Statement 1: Aziraphale's act of giving Adam the First Man the flaming sword is part of God's Plan, and so was Eve and Adam eating the Fruit.

The argument for the latter has been in circulation making even the beardiest of old Christian men scratch their heads for centuries, and in Good Omens, Crowley is the first being ever to make it:

The presence of the Tree in the Garden placed by an omnipotent being with literally infinite orchard space and security technology is a clear indication that God intends humans to interact with the Tree and sets humans up in a divine entrapment operation, giving God the opportunity to curse humanity and evict them from the Garden.

Diversion onto Thesis Statement 2 bc the Essayist Got Distracted: This establishes both the Bible and Good Omens as works of literature in the cosmic horror genre (not that Good Omens doesn't do plenty of its own work in so establishing itself).

In both these stories God is a being beyond humanity's understanding, functionally omniscient and omnipotent, who first creates and then interferes with humanity for unknown reasons and who does not necessarily have humanity's best interests in mind at any point. His/er reasoning and objectives for humanity are opaque, and S/he manipulates circumstances to create excuses to do humanity as a species and sometimes specific humans harm.

If you're not already familiar, go read all the shit God curses humans with when Eve and Adam snack on the Tree's Fruit. It's frighteningly cruel, if not outright psychopathic. So is God's behavior the Book of Job, His demand that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, Mosaic Law, and the sacrifice of His/er Son. Human lives are no more significant to God than the lives of ants are to humans. This whole history of Earth? It may not even be about us. Our entire species' history may just be part of the backdrop to something else, like two angels falling in love and reuniting Heaven and Hell, or like raccoons. It could all be about the raccoons. Who knows! All of this is absolutely 100% pure undiluted cosmic horror.

Right, okay, so back to Thesis 1: In Good Omens, Aziraphale's gift to the first man of the flaming sword is an objective God wants. Here's my chain of reasoning:

The Eating of the Fruit and God's punishment were both objectives of God. See above.

2. Once those objectives had been accomplished, humankind would not have survived outside the Garden of Eden without the sword. They literally would not exist at all.

Adam the First has to kill the lion, either to keep it from killing him and Eve or to keep him and Eve from starving. No flaming sword = no humanity.

3. We know "no humanity" is not God's Plan, because--

--God says her Plan is Armageddon and the Second Coming in 6,000 years. So humanity needs to exist for either of those to occur (or for there to be any reason for adventures about averting them to occur). And God does a whole Crucifixion and Resurrection of His/er Son. So God wants humanity around and is even prepared to welcome them back into His/er grace, providing they meet certain conditions.

4. We know God is not displeased about Aziraphale's gift of the sword to humans because God asks Aziraphale about the sword, and Aziraphale lies and says he's lost it, and God, who is omniscient and therefore knows this to be a lie and knows exactly where the sword is, lets the entire thing pass unremarked. (More on this anon.)

5. It is not a reach too far to suspect this of God. She tells us Herself that she is a trickster and that we can't trust her not to deceive us:

She also tells us

i. The universe is a game she is playing for her own amusement:

🎵cosmic horror alerrrrrrrrrt!🎵🎶

ii. No one, including angels and demons, has been told the real rules of this game:

"FOR EVERYONE ELSE." Not just humans.

That's why Crowley and Aziraphale each have to wonder if they've done the right or the wrong thing: nobody's told them what the rules are. Aziraphale even thinks that Crowley's temptation of Eve is "all part of the Plan," i.e, that Crowley did the right thing by doing the wrong one. They have no way to tell, and it may be both right and wrong at the same time. (Wrestling with impossible moral conundra raised by a brief look into a story happening on a much greater level than your own? You could be suffering from our old pal Thesis 2: Good Omens is cosmic horror!)

So Aziraphale's Promethean gift to humanity was one of God's objectives, just as cursing humans and yeeting them out of the Garden with the knowledge of Good and Evil and maybe a couple apple seeds in hand was His/er objective.

BONUS! Thesis 3: So why does God bring up Aziraphale's misappropriation of the sword at all? To show us, the audience, that Aziraphale lied to Her and that his gifting of the sword to Adam is part of Her Plan.

Remember from her whole deal with the Tree: God likes to set up situations so that She can react to them. Here she lampshades her awareness of what Aziraphale has done, listens to him lie to Her about it, and then very pointedly does nothing in response to that. She wants everyone watching--i.e., Aziraphale and us--to note that she has noticed the transfer of the sword and is not displeased by it and has noticed the lie and is not going to do anything about that either.

Remember as well, God is the one controlling the narrative we see in S1 of Good Omens. She introduces and concludes the story, and she narrates the scenes of the baby-swap. She's in control of which scenes we see and the order in which we see them. Since she is the one who asked Aziraphale the question about the sword, she's also responsible for this scene's existence.

So why do I think this scene is meant for us and not Aziraphale? Two reasons. Firstly, the conversation with God doesn't do Aziraphale any good. He worries about eventually getting in trouble about the sword until 2019, around 6,000 years later.

God is both omniscient and omnipotent, so it's not possible that She failed to communicate to Aziraphale in such a way that would ease his anxiety. Therefore the conversation was not for his benefit. Again, she's omniscient, so it wasn't for Her benefit either. That leaves the only other party to this conversation: us. The audience.

The next obvious question is, Why does God want us to know that Aziraphale's gift of the flaming sword was both of his free will and part of Her Plan?

I don't know. But I think it may become important, and here is where we delve into hypothesis territory: I think Good Omens is going metafictional. I mean this in a Doki Doki Literature Club, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch way: God, the character in Good Omens, is telling us, the audience, a story.

This metafictional aspect has been with us the whole time---more precisely since 01:13 of S1E1, when God switches from third-person to first-person and addresses us the viewers directly:

And there are several more metafictional; notes in S1 and S2 that I've found so far:

Season 1

That giant eyeball up there floating in space with a bunch of arcane shit around it is a reference to the opening credits sequence of The Twilight Zone, a metafictional show in which an omniscient narrator introduces and concludes each story by addressing the audience directly.

S1E1 27:20

Season 2

1. Maggie and Nina are fictional characters, but the characters share their names with actors Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya.

2. The final credits sequence, with the split screen showing Crowley on one side and Aziraphale on the other, references David Tennant and Michael Sheen's previous/simultaneous lockdown tv series project, Staged! which is intensely metafictional and in which Tennant and Sheen play characters based on themselves and with their names.

3. Sloppy plot synopsis or something more sinister?

4. An interviewer points out that Good Omens references Doctor Who as an extant concern in-universe, which obviously stars David Tennant in the past and currently.

If you find more, please drop them in the comments!

We the audience, are meant to understand ourselves and our reality as being indirectly involved in this story. And God wants us to know 1) that Aziraphale lied to Her about giving away the sword, knowing it was futile, and 2) that his gift of the flaming sword was part of Her Plan. The former is a major character note, and probably a foreshadowing one; but I have no guesses about God's purpose in showing us that the gift of the flaming sword was also to Plan except that whatever it is will probably make me dislike Her approach to parenting even more than I already do.

What I do love about this though is that it suggests that Crowley and Aziraphale both did the right thing by doing the wrong one, i.e. achieved a kind of Schroedinger's obedience, which is nice and disturbing and surprise! pretty cosmic horror. More sweetly, though, it suggests that the two foundational gifts to humanity from the divine were motivated by Crowley's low-effort mischief and Aziraphale's kindheartedness, which is lovely to think about.

DO NOT TAG NEIL GAIMAN IN ANY POST THAT INCLUDES OR REFERENCES THIS ESSAY.

[jadedresearcher]

Thoughts on Liminal Horror

So this has been kicking around in my head a while, and I woke up with some actual coherent thoughts on it that I'm trying to capture before I lose them.

There was a tumblr post I saw before that I have long since lost about how liminal horror should NOT have a monster and isn't just "oh you're alone somewhere". And I couldn't agree more! But I haven't been able to articulate exactly why. Liminal, as a word on it's own, means transitional. Liminal spaces are real things that are places where you are on the WAY to somewhere. Liminal doesn't mean infinite spooky mazes, is my first point.

A liminal space could be hallways on the way to an office. Maybe you're trying to get some government bullshit completed. Maybe you're on the way to a doctor you're not entirely familiar with. A liminal space could be the terminals in an airport, as you try to make it to your flight in time. Or a highway you're driving on while looking for a particular exit. Or a carpark as you look for where you had parked among seemingly identical cars. You've been in liminal spaces so so many times. The point is that the spaces themselves aren't what you're really paying attention to. You're thinking of what you'll do when you get there, or going over the things you'll need to keep track of when you arrive. The directions you have to get there, maybe.

So in your MEMORY, and especially your dreams, these spaces take on a peculiar quality. They're SLIPPERY. It's hard to remember any details of them, because you weren't really focused on them. It's just a miasma of "i was in a hallway" or "i was on a road". Maybe a few weird details jump out on you, but it only serves to blend together the rest of the journey. So, when we elevate liminal spaces to HORROR, the first thing we do is lean into that. Impossible spaces because your memory genuinely does not care what any part of them is like save the ending.

Impossible spaces because we tap into that part of you deep down that is unsettled if you try to remember them, and wonders if maybe they really HAD been so weird when you were in them, and you just didn't notice.

This is getting longer than I thought, so may as well put in a cut!

So. I've explained WHAT liminal spatial horror is as well I was going to be able to, I think, but I haven't really articulated why a MONSTER feels like it kneecaps the entire premise.

Have you ever been lost in a liminal space? Keeping in mind that "liminal space" is a thing we all encounter constantly and not shorthand for creepy pastas. Have you ever wandered unfamiliar areas that normally you wouldn't even be paying attention to, increasingly desperate that you won't get to your destination in time? Are you going to miss your flight? What if you can't get your government bullshit taken care of in time? Or your doctor's appointment will skip you and you already waited so long to get it. Did you already miss your exit?

That fear is what I'm focused on here.

It's hard to make you feel that fear in an artificial way.

Even if we give a character in a game all sorts of motives to reach a destination by a certain time, you only feel annoyed at the time pressure, not really *scared*. And although the person lost in a liminal space rarely can just give up and leave, YOU, the player of a game, can.

So liminal spatial horror tends to distill it down to a single fear: where is the exit.

Of course, simply "wanting to leave" is rarely pressure enough to *rush*. And I can see why adding a monster is a quick trick to add that 'going so fast you can't navigate' vibe to the experience.

What I'm saying here is that the time spent is the POINT. That you can slowly build up to that desperate pressure to rush.

You can emphasize that desperation a more subtle way, a way my favorite instances of liminal spatial horror do: bodily needs. You are in a space clearly created by humans, and yet without a single human need met. There are no water fountains. There are no bathrooms. There are no vending machines. Nowhere to comfortably rest. If any of these things do exist they are empty or corrupt in some way.

The temperature, in my favorite experiences, is noted to be wildly incorrect. It's freezing cold. It's burning hot. It's not even remotely the temperature you'd expect an office building full of humans to be.

At first, this leans into this desire to reach a destination, ANY destination. Maybe you can't find the way OUT but maybe you can find out "The Truth"? Maybe if you keep going and going and going you can figure out why this place is LIKE this.

If a human made this space it had to be intentionally to torture people. How fucked up do you have to be to sink this many resources into doing something like this? How long did it take to make? Why did no one notice?

If a non-human intelligence made this space maybe you can find out WHY? Maybe... maybe they were trying their best but didn't realize how uncanny valley and dangerous it would be to a person? If no intelligence was behind it at all, maybe you can find out HOW? Maybe it's a reflection of our collective unconscious, or the planet mimicking the increasing amount of man-made works on itself? But as you continue on and on, as a real living human being in an impossible liminal space horror situation, you realize it doesn't matter how or why or when or any of the questions you dangled in front of yourself like a will-o-wisp driving you ever further in.

Because you realize you're going to die in here. Maybe it'll be the thirst. Humans can only go a few days without water. Maybe hunger will be what finally gets you. Its hard to tell how long you've been in here when any clocks you find in the hallways are all frozen to the same time and the sun hangs over the infinite highway like an immovable, swollen eye. But the hunger is ever present.

There's always exposure. Cold, hot, never anything between. How can you be freezing to death in an office hallway?

That isn't right. That isn't how it should be. Starving and freezing and dying of thirst is something that happens to people OUTSIDE civilization. It would make sense if you were lost in the woods but you can SEE sign after sign of civilization and other people for gods' sake!

How could this be happening? Why isn't anyone coming to help you?

And then we draw back, to you-who-is-consuming-this-fictional scenario. Because the point of horror is to get the person in the chair riled up, not just the character within the fictional premise.

Are you thinking about how often people starve and freeze and die of thirst in our own civilizations? Inches from the trappings of safety? With no help coming?

Are you thinking of how many desperate people navigate government mazes of plaster and brick and paper and online forms, driven forward by the hope of government aid or food stamps or HELP. How many people hunker down in a freezing subway or under a bridge on the highway or other public space knowing that no one SEES them because they're all transitioning from one space to another?

You probably aren't. Not directly. But we all know we're closer to freezing to death under a bridge or denied life-saving medical care in an office than we are to being a billionaire, right?

And there's something about that, deep in our gut, that resonates. That thread of reality in the safely fictional that keeps us coming back. Unable to articulate WHY but also thinking that liminal horror is somehow SCARIER than mere monsters. We all know that deadly predators are unlikely to get us. Adding a monster lets us move our too-real-fear to a safe target. And it's valid to want to do that! To decide spatial horror is too much, to want to thin it out like adding ranch dressing to a too-spicy chicken wing.

But that's why I think that the monsters are an artificial add on. And not a part of spatial horror.

[dreamerinthemoonlight]

Honkai Star Rail Period HCs (Sampo, Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, Luka)

Original Ask: Could you do more period hcs? Dang Heng/Yinyue, Jing Yuan, Sampo, and Luka please.

Herr you go @yunthebishoujo

CW: blood, mentions of castration (Sampo), mentions of period sex

Sampo x afab! reader, Dan Heng x afab!reader, Jing Yuan x afab!reader, Luka x afab!reader

NOTE: Requests are now open

Sampo Koski

Tall, blue, and handsome? After dealing with you on your period or during PMS, he might be tall, blue, and singing soprano for the rest of his life

Good gods, Sampo would be insufferable. Not that he isn't anyway

It's not that I think he would be actively mean, but he's annoying and hormones make girls grouchy

That and I wouldn't put it past him to use your period as an excuse to run a scam

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he's used the female populace's monthly affliction as a scam premise prior to dating you

He's just really likely too be just too annoying and end up with no dick as a result

On the other hand, he's a kinky bastard. He'd be up for period sex

Dan Heng

Dan Heng is #1 most clueless guy when it comes to periods

He's not a bad guy, but really, chicks don't advertise the call of mother nature, so he hasn't really dealt with Himeko and March on an intimate level

I'm not sure that's something he came across in his research and the Vidyadhara can't reproduce, so there's every chance female Vidyadhara don't have periods, so he may not even know periods exist

Needless to say, his first experience with your period is a bit of a surprise.

I feel like it would probably be something like waking up with blood on your sheets or having super bad cramps, or blood on the pants, ya know, shit that happens when you bleed for a week out of every month (total BS if you ask me)

Any way you cut it, Dan Heng is seriously concerned. To the point of potentially losing a little bit of his composure. He wouldn't panic but you're bleeding. is something wrong? Do you need to go to the doctor? Why didn't you tell someone?

"Yo, Dan Heng, calm down. This is normal. I do this every month."

Cue Dan Heng.exe has stopped working

To his credit, he stops, listens, and calms down. He's still unnerved, but he helps try to make you comfortable

But afterwards he goes to ask Welt and Himeko about it

In the future, he's pretty good about being aware of it and trying to be as good as possible about it, but I don't think he truly gets used to that much blood every single month

Jing Yuan

You know what? Jing Yuan is not that bad.

He has the advantage of age and being part of a species that reproduces

I'm not sure he's super familiar with the whole period thing, but it's at least on his radar to some extent

But when he starts dating you, he's like the most gentle person. He's the sort who really likes to take care of you and make sure you have what you need

He won't mother hen, but expect pads/tampons, heating pads, whatever your craving is, and plenty of cuddles and you don't even really have to ask

I mean, this guy is known for his ability to be prepared. 100% applies that to you

And if he's at all weirded out by the whole bleeds for a week straight and is fine (which, i do understand, in any other situation someone would have bed out already), he's not overt about it and doesn't let it affect how he treats you

Luka

Luka, Luka, Luka

Of the four, he's probably the most likely to be a typical guy about it

You're bleeding? And still functional? You do this every month? What sorcery is this?

At the same time, he has mad respect for you because he knows he couldn't do it

He also gives appropriate sympathy for cramps

At the same time, 100% best boyfriend. Ask and you shall receive

Totally down for period cuddles, stomach rubs and just general comfort

10/10 Luka is great

[sonofcoulson]

Dungeons and Dragons: The Witches Road

Yes, my d&d x marvel obsession continues, even though I have never played the game in my life.

Obviously, massive spoilers for Agatha All Along here so if you haven't seen it (why haven't you seen it?), stop reading now...

Incoming premise and character builds.

First off, for a full d&d campaign, we need more. More backstory, more lore, monsters, merchants, taverns etc.

In short, we need the Witches Road to be real.

Agatha's repeated ritual and probably thousands of other Witches learning of the song and attempting to perform the ritual made it real, just like the song became a warding spell for Alice. She is completely unaware because only a true coven can enter, as Agatha set out in her sham ceremonies.

Follow me my friend...

And once you get on the road, you can't leave unless you succeed.

...to glory at the end

So most have either died or got stuck on the road, leading to whole communities and economies within this liminal dimension, especially near the start of the road.

Billy is responsible for opening the door, as the coven is not true, not at the beginning.

They could have several encounters with the Salem Seven, managing to drive them off each time. They would also have encounters with legendary beasts on fetch quests and such, Salem Seven secretly setting up false clues to send them dangerous monsters so it's not just the trials.

It starts the same, Agatha under an illusion, investigating Wanda's death. Rio and Billy pull her out of it. Rio gives her a reprieve, Billy wants to go to the road, they make up the coven, start the ritual, Salem Seven show up and the door opens just in time.

Characters:

There is, unbelievably, no official Witch class in the game. I found a few homebrewed ones and quite liked this one, but there is no guarantee it would be allowed. So I have chosen from official classes and subclasses as much as possible. Also, having never played the game, this may be more about character than game balance.

I used this article about different types of witchcraft as inspiration.

Agatha Harkness -

Class:Warlock

Subclass:Undead

I figured Agatha should mostly use spells to harm people so I wanted her to have access to lots of necromancy spells. I would ask the DM if you could change your title to Spirit Witch or something similar (Death Witch?).

At over 300 years as a practicing Witch, Agatha knows a thing or two about magic (Arcana skill). And she likes to bully people (Intimidation skill).

She has an Eldritch blast which can be upgraded to Agonising Blast with the Warlock's Eldritch Invocations at level 2. The 5th level spell, Enervation, works a a drain spell.

I've made her a Variant Human as she is enhanced with magic even when not casting. She gets Insight as her skill as she understands people pretty well, even though she doesn't seem to like them. And her bonus feat is ritual caster which allows her to cast Find Familiar (they largely ignored familiar by thy side didn't they?). There are other good options like War Caster, so she can cast spells under pressure, but I want Señor Scratchy.

Background:Charlatan

Scam:I insinuate myself into people's lives to prey on their weakness and secure their fortunes

False Identity:Agnes of Westview

Skill:Deception

Personality:I lie about almost everything, even when there's no good reason to

Ideal:Independence. I am a free spirit – no one tells me what to do. (Chaotic)

Bond:I crossed the wrong person and must work to ensure that this individual never crosses paths with me or those I care about

Flaw:Don't expect me to save those who can't save themselves. It is nature's way that the strong thrive and the weak perish (Couldn't find a flaw that fit under Charlatan, so I swiped one from Outlander)

I based this off Agatha's repeating scam/mass murder shtick. Also very good at carrying off different personas. She gets the Deception skill with this background and a disguise kit.

Agatha saw what was happening to Witches in Salem and gave herself the tools to survive. She then survived the incident with her coven and has been surviving ever since. This powerful massacre attracted Rio and they made a partnership. Agatha gets power, Rio gets her bodies.

But Nicky complicated things...

William Kaplan/Billy Maximoff -

Class:Sorcerer

Subclass:Wild Magic

I like wild magic for Billy as it sounds like chaos magic, just like his mum. Ask the DM if you can rename as a Chaos Witch.

He seems to mostly understand his coven, he has Agatha's number and he is charming and polite so I have given him the Insight and Persuasion skills.

He gets suitable cantrips and spells like Chaos Bolt, Mass Suggestion and Wish. The description for Wish says 'you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires'. Very apt.

He is a Variant Human as he was an embodiment of a sliver of the mind stone wished into reality by a mutant witch, with an imaginary android father, who escaped the dispersement of the hex that gave him life and found a dying boy to impart himself into. Very variant.

I gave him Animal Handling as his extra skill as he loves Sparky and Señor Scratchy. And he has Ritual Caster as his feat so he can summon his little dog to his side. Dogs are not official familiars but I can't imagine too many objections from DMs.

Background:Haunted One

Harrowing Event:Your family has a history of practicing the dark arts. You dabbled once and felt something horrible clutch at your soul, whereupon you fled in terror

Personality:I like to read and memorize poetry. It keeps me calm and brings me fleeting moments of happiness

Ideal:I try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost

Bond:I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy

Flaw:I talk to spirits that no one else can see

Horror Trinket:The memory of a sibling who died on the day you were born

His background Skills are Arcana and Religion as I think he is so studious as to have researched and remembered many, many things about magic and witchcraft. He seems like he would journal and read poetry too.

Also he can talk to spirits that no one else can see. That may come in handy after the end of the campaign...

Though he didn't create The Road™, he did unconsciously choose the coven members from moments in his life. The witch trials are drawn from his expectations on what they should look like and he often says things and then they happen (ie "I wish Lilia was here"). This is not Divination, this is reality altering Chaos Magic...

Just like the show he is hoping to get his brother back as his reward.

Jennifer Kale -

Class:5 Artificer, 15 Cleric

Subclass:Alchemist, Life

I'm not that keen on the Artificer class for Jen, but it's the best way I could see to work her potion magic into her build.

See if the DM will let you have a Herbalism kit and proficiency (as an 11th generation rootworker) instead of thieves tools so she can make things straight away, she can also get Cook's Utensils too. Then when the Alchemist Subclass kicks in at level 3 she gets an easy way to make potions (Experimental Elixirs) which levels up with her. You could, theoretically stay on that path till the end. You could even pretend that all the Magical Tinkering objects and Artificer Infusions all use magical potions to make them work. You may have to just pretend that in your head though as the DM might ask you where all these potions are coming from...

But I like the idea that she was born into a Hearth Witch family, and then joined a Wiccan coven, covered here by multiclassing into Life Cleric (Hathor might be a good fit as a Patron). When she was bound she lost her Wiccan magic and went back to hearth magic; she used it to build her beauty business from scratch. She has lotions, potions, creams, soaps etc. But as she identifes as more than 'just a witch' she wants to go back to being a High Priestess too, hence The Road™.

She will need to discover earlier that Agatha was actually the one that bound her and make her set her free, so she can begin to regain her power and explain the switch into Cleric/Wiccan Priestess. Again, check with the DM if they mind the renaming to Hearth Witch (Alchemist Artificer) and Wiccan Priestess (Life Cleric).

I chose the Medicine and Nature skills as these complement gathering ingredients and administering healing elixirs.

Her race is Variant Human as she is a magic user and 100+ years old.

I chose Ritual Caster, again, as her feat and a Poisonous snake as her Familiar. The Rod of Asclepius is closely associated with medicine and features a snake entwined round a staff. Also, she could probably milk it for anti venom potions.

I chose Survival as the bonus skill because it complements her knowing so much about nature, herbs, cooking and medicine. She knows where to find ingredients, what's safe to eat and how to cook it.

I chose Sage as a background and Alchemist as her Specialty within that. She studied hard in both her disciplines and is very proud and knowledgeable about both.

Personality:I'm used to helping out those who aren't as smart as I am, and I patiently explain anything and everything to others

Ideal:Beauty. What is beautiful points us beyond itself toward what is true

Bond:I've been searching my whole life for the answer to a certain question

(eg Who bound me? Or, How do I get my power back?)

Flaw:I'm quick to assume that someone is trying to cheat me (from Guild Artisan background, couldn't find one in Sage that really fit)

I figured after the experience of being bound, seemingly by a muggle, and consequently leaving her coven, I thought she might be slow to trust. And actually, that attitude will serve her well against Agatha.

The man that bound her was a doctor, a man of science, a student of 'modern medicine'. He couldn’t stand that a woman practicing witchcraft was more popular and successful then he was. The TV show obviously cast Sasheer Zamata in the role which adds another, significant, layer. This binding was religiously intolerant, misogynistic and racist. Agatha is complicit in this, despite her excuses. There is an interesting take on this, and other themes in the show in this article. I love her unbinding herself as well ("You hold nothing!"), very powerful moment.

Jen stays with the party after releasing her bond as every living coven member must complete their trial first.

Lilia Calderu -

Class:Wizard

Subclass:School of Divination

Lilia is clearly a Divination Witch so this Class/Subclass is a great fit. The rename to Divination Witch is also not too big of a change.

Like Agatha, Lilia has lived a long life in the craft and would therefore know a great deal about magic (Arcana) and gets a sense of people and places from her passive Divination skills (Insight).

She gets an object as an Arcane Focus. There is an Orb on the official list which could work as a crystal ball, but you could also ask the DM if she is allowed a pack of Tarot Cards as her focus instead.

I would give her the Scholar's Pack as it seems more useful for Divination than an Explorer's Pack.

She gets features like Portent, Third Eye, and Expert Divination as part of her Subclass. She also has access to spells like True Seeing and Foresight.

Variant Human again (magic user, long life etc). Perception skill as her bonus, as in extra sensory. She can have Lucky as her bonus feat because it apparently goes well with Divination. She gets Find Familiar from 1st level Wizard spells and I have gone for cat as that seems appropriate.

She has Hermit for her Background as it can refer to a group and I thought that her original coven had isolated themselves, nun style, to prevent personal attachments affecting their visions (a little Star Warsy, I know). The Hermit gets a herbalism kit; I thought Lilia could make teas to read the leaves with. Also if Jen isn't allowed one then Lilia can assist her sister in the craft with her potion ingredients.

Life of Seclusion:I was partaking of communal living in accordance with the dictates of a religious order

Personality:I often get lost in my own thoughts and contemplation, becoming oblivious to my surroundings

Ideal:Greater Good. My gifts are meant to be shared with all, not used for my own benefit. (Good)

Bond:Nothing is more important than the other members of my coven

Flaw:I have trouble staying in the present, which confuses others (custom)

I think Lilia might need a custom Flaw as the options available don't really seem to suit. Neither the Hermit Flaws nor anything from the other Backgrounds.

Lilia has not lost her magic, she has lost her joy, her community, her focus. That's what she wants back. She couldn’t save her first coven, her mother from death and it has gnawed away at her for centuries.

She could potentially survive the confrontation with the Salem Seven and the reversed Tower if someone casts Feather Fall on her and then they patch her up before moving to the last trial.

Alice Wu Gulliver-

Class:Paladin

Subclass:Heroism

Alice is a Protection Witch (or something similar, check with DM), and as a police officer and security guard she's probably had a few tangles. So a Paladin with a Sacred Oath of Heroism seemed to be the way to go. I went for the Athletics and Insight skills, would have been handy for her previous jobs. Her Fighting Style is obviously Protection.

Tenets of Heroism:Embrace Destiny You didn't choose this road, but it's yours to walk. And it will carry you into legend.

She gets the Peerless Athlete feature, which gives her advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics rolls. That's dice rolls by the way, she isn't doing roly polys down The Road™. She gets Guiding Bolt (we'll say it's orange) from Oath Spells on lvl 3 and has a range of combat skills and protection spells.

She could be a Human as she's not been alive for that long compared to the others, but she is a born magic user. If you do go for Variant Human the the skill could be Stealth? Survival? idk

The feat would be Ritual Caster and her Familiar would be a Hawk.

She obviously has the Investigator background with Investigation (obvs) and Perception skills. She gets Thieves tools (handy for traps) and a disguise kit.

Case:You survived the destructive use of a curse that killed your mother. Then, the coven found you. You now travel with them, hoping to somehow lift your curse upon the Witches Road

Horror Characteristics:-

Personality:Nothing is more important than life, and I never leave anyone in danger

Ideal:Obsession. I've lived this way for so long that I can't imagine another way

Bond:I lost someone I care about, but I still see them in guilty visions, recurring dreams, or as a spirit

Flaw:I'm especially superstitious and live life seeking to avoid bad luck, wicked spirits, or the Mists

Horror Trinket:An urn with the ashes of a dead relative

Alice wanted to know if the curse was real, if The Road™ was real, even if magic was real. Always wondering when she lost a job or had a break up, was it the curse?

But despite her grief and anger, which drove her to denial, deep down she knew the truth and longed for a way to break the curse.

Alice is definitely weakened by Agatha's attack, but this being Dungeons and Dragons a saving roll or a team mate's spell could save her!

Sharon Davis -

Class:Druid

Subclass:Land Circle

According to the TV show, Sharon never makes it past level 1, but would have been a Land Druid/Green Witch (Though the starting Herbalism Kit does lend itself well to her gardening interest).

I'm imagining that she keeps animals at home (Animal Handling) and, as mentioned above, she likes gardening (Nature)

In her handbag she is carrying a dreamcatcher that she bought for her niece but hasn't passed to her yet. That will serve as her Druidic focus.

She would not be able to speak Druidic, only common. This would make it difficult for her as she would have to learn as she goes.

She does not have weapons, armour or a shield. She only has what she carried in her handbag. And the Herbalism Kit. And some cook's utensils from her background...it's a big handbag okay?

She would know Create Bonfire and Druidcraft Cantrips if she was a real druid, but we'll get on to that in a minute. She does not have a familiar as she doesn't have access to the spell. If she survives, she may be able to transform into an animal herself, but more on that later.

Her race is Human and I chose Guild Artisan for her Background. I thought she would probablybein the Women's Guild. They are chiefly Cooks and Bakers for which she gets Chef's Utensils. There are many other skills within the Guild, such as Sharon's gardening.

If they happen to come across any members of the Women's Guild on the Witches Road then they're laughing, as they may have multiple skills as well as being able to give them shelter or a good meal. There is a possibility for a crossover between Witches and the Women's Guild as many will meet the criteria for joining. This increases the chance of some Women's Guild members being on The Road™.

Personality:I'm full of witty aphorisms and have a proverb for every occasion

Ideal:Community. It is the duty of all civilized people to strengthen the bonds of community and the security of civilization. (Lawful)

Bond:I owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person I am today

Flaw:I like a glass of wine. Or two. Oh just give me the damn bottle! (I wanted to reference the moment from the potions trial so I made a custom one. Don't judge me)

There are different ways of playing Sharon. One is she has no magical ability at all and is destined to die during the potions trial. Perhaps then the person role playing her can switch to Rio or the DM could have her as an npc.

Equally, you could decide that Agatha chose her because she saw some potential in her and, in the event of her survival, she can develop into a full Druid.

Again, a saving roll or a spell/potion from an ally could mean Sharon's story has many more chapters.

Rio Vidal-

Class:Sorcerer 1/Wizard 2/Cleric 17 (Witch)

Subclass:Shadow Magic 1/School of Necromancy 2/Death Domain 17 (Green)

Rio is a special one 🖤

After reading this thread and doing some research I found a lot of features I wanted to incorporate into her build. Not sure how picking skills works with multiclassing. History would be a good one for such a long lived creature but that doesn't come up until you get to Cleric. Arcana may be the best choice as she is the longest practicing green witch in the world...or universe? Also, she mentions the sacred balance a few times which has a quasi-religious tone to it so Religion could be an option too.

She gets to pick a Quirk from Shadow Sorcerer which plays up her otherworldly, deathly persona.

Shadow Sorcerer Quirk:You have trouble remembering that living creatures and corpses should be treated differently.

From Shadow Sorcerer she gets Eyes of the Dark which is essentially Darkvision (although she will get Darkvision with her race). If you stay in that class she gets to learn and cast the Darkness spell, but retains her ability to see through it.

She also gets Strength of the Grave which makes Rio harder to kill.

1 lvl of Necromancy Wizard gives you Necromancy Savant, which reduced the cost of Necromancy spells and GRIM Harvest, which gives you HP back (or "reap life energy") and has an even greater benefit when a Necromancy spell was used.

Death Cleric gives bonus proficiency in martial weapons. This could possibly give you a glaive reskinned as scythe (ask your DM). This Subclass also gets you the REAPER feature allowing you to learn a Necromancy Cantrip from any spell list.

She can have a raven as her Familiar.

I chose Shadar-Kai as her race. The description is pretty close, just needing a few tweaks, which should be fine. It would be nice if you could rename it to something more apt like Shadow Being, ask your DM about this.

It is an Elf Race, which I liked for the not needing to sleep feature. Though you don't have to refer to her as such. Elves do die though...

Blessing of the Raven Queen allows her to teleport and appear where others aren't expecting.

Background:Faceless

This background gives the Deception and Intimidation skills. Intimidation is certainly a good skill for Death.

It also allows her to have Rio Vidal as a Persona that she takes when walking amongst the living but isn't actually her true form.

Personality:I'm earnest and uncommonly direct

Ideal:Anonymity. It's my deeds that should be remembered, not their instrument. (Any)

Bond:What I do, I do for the world. The people don't realize how much they need me

Flaw:I am callous about death. It comes to us all eventually

As mentioned above, Rio could be played by the person who is being Sharon, if she is dying at the Potion Witch trial. Otherwise she will need to wait until she is accidentally summoned to The Road™ and then joins for the ride.

Rio is hurt that Agatha never wanted to see her again and angry that she stopped their little arrangement. She was furious that Agatha used the Darkhold to hide from her for decades. She knew it was because of Nicky but never fully understood why. Never fully understood grief until (I saw this on a post on Tumblr somewhere but I can't find it now...) Agatha died. That's where her story is leading.

In conclusion:

I have spent way too much time on this.

Also, this can be as close or as far away from the TV show as you want it to be. They can all survive, they can all die (save for Rio), or somewhere in between. You can have lots of battles and encounters or just the trials.

Such great characters and such a great jumping off point for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

This has been my TED talk. Thank you for listening.

[that-rackin-frackin-varmint]

A apt distinction between Dafpork and Baffy (followed by a long ramble)

Since the looney tunes show era, it's not uncommon for looney tunes fans and even modern looney tunes to define Daffy and Porky's dynamic to be of the bully and doormat variant. Doesn't help when the latter half of the classic looney tunes shorts assert Daffy to be dull but domineering, and Porky to be competent but meek.

I don't reject these portrayals, but I do find it reductive to reduce Porky's aptitude for hubris, or Daffy's capacity for emotional intelligence... sometimes intelligence, period. Especially when people write them in comparison to how they write Baffy's dynamic.

So, here's a comic strip that encapsulates both Dafpork and Baffy's dynamics in a way that helps me summarise my points. The premise is the same for both: Daffy tells the latter a joke.

Here, Daffy tells a harmless (albeit flirtatious) joke. And Porky responds by crushing his trash can over Daffy's head and remarking on the quality of his humor.

As best friends, this is their normal -- usually Daffy initiates by tormenting Porky, and Porky will retaliate (sometimes dishing out more than Daffy may have earned). Other times Porky initiates and Daffy responds accordingly. This is how they banter.

Now let's move onto Baffy.

Here, Daffy tells a joke, and Bugs seems all too familiarised to his antics. Then Daffy pushes for a compromise, Bugs gives in. And then Daffy makes him regret the decision.

As best friends, this is their normal -- Daffy initiates by tormenting Bugs, Bugs anticipates this and usually shuts him down. Daffy pleads with Bugs to humor him, Bugs allows it, and then immediately regrets it (to varying degrees of legitimacy).

This is to say:

Porky can fall into the trap of being a doormat, but when it comes to Daffy, is a lot more emotionally volatile to the point of explosive anger. They're also very good at playing to their roles in relation to each other, making their interactions in shorts snappy, varied, unpredictable and hilarious.

Bugs is more attuned to psychological warfare and mind games, but has a track record of giving into Daffy's whims against his better judgment. He also has shown/admitted many times that he has a soft spot for Daffy, which makes their shorts carry this level of unspoken familiarity that is rarely found in classic looney tunes.

In the shorts, Dafpork operate like the duo that click the moment they clock each other, while Baffy operate like the duo with undisclosed history. Which I find super interesting when in terms of chronology, it should technically be the other way around since Dafpork shorts are greater in bulk and came way earlier before Baffy.

All this goes to show that truly, in my heart of hearts, Porky is NOT as soft-hearted as modern looney tunes media may have you believe. And Bugs has an understated weakness to pitiable pleas from sensitive birds.

[daydreamsinrosie]

Whispers in the corridor: Harry Potter x Reader

Chapter 1: No Further Questions.

Pairing: Professor! Harry Potter x Professor! Reader

Genres:Slice of Life, Mystery, Romance, Eventual Smut

Synopsis: Four years after leaving Hogwarts and you found yourself back as a potions teaching assistant, leading research on innovative healing techniques. Settling in felt like a fresh start, until your unrequited love returns after leaving the Ministry of Magic in disgrace. How long until you find yourself tending to his wounds, in sickness and in health?

Authors note: if you’ve seen this premise from me but as a Sebastian Sallow x reader then please know that fic has died as I disappeared and couldn’t find the motivation to continue 😂, but I’m hoping recycling this plot into a Harry fic may allow for more creativity and this can get further than two chapters LOL.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The ambience of faint footsteps from the dungeon corridors emanate as I settle amongst the rolls of parchment in the empty potions classroom, ready to start marking the student assignments on the uses of Shrivelfig in elemental potions.

Taking a nursing placement at St. Mungo's with the promising of healing ailments of wizarding society's most vulnerable felt like my calling after the trauma of the Second Wizarding War, but immersing myself amongst the worst maladies left me ruminating on the pain internally that had yet to heal and sometimes during restless nights I could still hear the endless screams of grieving families.

And now I'm back in Professor Slughorn's classroom, having returned with curious looks from the faculty. I'm now a teaching assistant for potions class, leading on research into new and novel healing techniques enhanced by alchemy whilst being an open book for any curious student.

The faint glow of floating candles informs me it's now late evening and I decompress with a long stretch to ease my regular problem of poor posture whilst grading homework when I'm distracted by a familiar voice.

"Dobby would like to ask if Miss Dotty wants to request anything from the kitchens."

The house-elf, still maintaining his aura of effervescence with a multi-coloured bobby hat and mismatched boots looks up at me with eagerness.

"Of course Dobby, an Earl-Grey tea and any leftover Treacle Tart from tonight's feast please."

"And some beef-stew dear Donnie boy!"

Slughorn marks his return to the classroom with his esteemed ability to misidentify most of us.

"Donnie will return momentarily!" Quickly disapparating to appease our growing appetites.

"Dotty my dear, shouldn't you have returned to the Faculty wing by now?"

I let out a small sigh from the nickname from my school years that seems to stick.

"I didn't realise that my nickname has followed me into my adult years Professor."

The nickname Dotty, whilst adorable sounding at first, has an embarrassing backstory I still can't manage to escape.

***

It's sixth-year and the first lesson of N.E.W.T potions, and Professor Slughorn is finishing his explanation regarding the allure of Amortentia.

"Now, Amortentia doesn't create actual love, that would be impossible. But it does cause powerful infatuation or obsession and for that reason... it is probably the most dangerous potion in this room."

"Now who would like to volunteer their thoughts, ah! Y/N, care to explain what you smell?"

I'm ashamed to admit that the butterflies fluttering in my stomach led to a lapse in judgement as I happily nodded and made my way to the bubbling cauldron.

"Well sir, I smell Broom polish, Butterbeer and warm vanilla...".

The embarrassment didn't reach my cheeks until the classroom door swung open to showcase a dishevelled Harry and Ron entering the classroom, clearly showcasing their confusion if they should have even been there or not.

But that wasn't enough to stop the slight giggles of a few Gryffindors, namely Hermione and Seamus Finnigan who clearly knew who I was referring to. Hermioned commented on my aloof nature in the moment and called me dotty, and it's stuck ever since.

***

"Well there is much to take from the moments we enjoy wandering in our imagination. Now where did I leave those blasted leaping toadstools..."

I return back to grading homework, trying to ignore the warmth I feel on my cheeks.

Slughorn is still trawling through the store room when Dobby reappears with our dinner for the evening, alongside a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Miss Dotty! Dobby thinks Miss Dotty will be interested in this news!"

The house-elf quickly yet gently holds his arm out to hand me the newspaper whilst I hear a faint "ah!", from the store room.

"Of course Dobby, thank you. Now why don't you head back and persuade Winky to take a short break from her evening shift for me."

"Yes Miss Dotty, Dobby loves to encourage a work-life balance!", followed by a poof of air.

The steaming mug of tea feels inviting as I reach for it and take a sip, looking towards the crumpled newspaper to reach today's headline:

"Fallen Angels? Elite Auror Wing at the Ministry fall foul of Dark Magic use."

Knowing the history of the Ministry of Magic, even in a post-war world many of its employees would prefer to swallow a spider fang than admit to any shortcomings. You would presume a desire for greater transparency if it weren't for the bags of galleons still making their way to prominent columnists.

"It can be confirmed by an inside source that a group of 5 elite aurors referred to under the codename 'Fallen Angels' have found themselves at the centre of a dispute regarding the use of unregulated dark magic.

Witnesses across the southern coast of the Scottish Highlands acknowledged lingering effects of an unforgivable curse amongst an innocent bystander alongside a dazed Troll who wreaked havoc and ultimately was stunned and handed a heft dose of a potion for dreamless sleep by trained ministry professionals. 

The Ministry of Magic have confirmed a 'regrettable' breach of the code of Magical conduct amongst the accused, led by none other than the former 'Chosen One' Harry Potter, who was once labelled an auror prodigy given his story and eventual triumph against the Dark Lord. While the extent of their behaviour remains under seal, all five have been fired with immediate effect."

A small bout of butterflies fill my stomach as I read over the brief statement again. We all expected to hear about Harry's rapid ascent through the Ministry, but it wasn't supposed to be this.

***

Three years ago.

"I can't think of what the world is going to look like after this. Me, going through the ministry ladder like a regular wizard and simply not being known as the Chosen One?"

I can't tell whether it's contempt or sadness affecting him at the moment, as we sit amongst the winding staircase of Ravenclaw Tower the day before we were due home at the end of our sixth year. It was the last time I got to see him before the battle.

"Normality is something I'm looking forward to honestly, maybe I can be relieved of my parents' expectations and being a pureblood doesn't control my future decisions anymore."

It was always the sticking point in my friendship with Harry. Not necessarily being an incredibly shy Gryffindor who regularly competed with Hermione for top grades, and not competing as a chaser in the same team that ignited a professional and personal friendship. And not even a close connection with Harry that was independent of the Golden Trio and their inner circle that straddled the lines between friendship and something more. 

But my status as a pureblood, and having parents sympathetic to Voldemort's ideology. Granted they were too cowardly to join the ranks of Death Eaters, but the pressure of controlling my ability to experience the world lead to a strain that I was too exhausted to repair once Voldemort was defeated.

"A husband, kids and a home to call yours, Dotty?"

I didn't know what to say knowing he knew of my nickname, but I couldn't help but giggle at it despite pleading inside that he wasn't aware of the context behind it.

"Maybe. I'd want something to call mine, be it a career, a home or someone. Just something beyond this."

It was a small moment of vulnerability and I couldn't help but feel meek as I grasped onto the piece of silver jewellery in the palm of my hand with the knowledge that I couldn't do more to support him in the moment, and that his future plans likely wouldn't include me.

"One day after everything, we'll have something to hold on to. It's a feeling Dumbledore clearly never let go of, and it's something he wanted me to continue in a way."

I could tell he was exasperated saying that given the pressure in having to find a sliver of light in dark times, but there was a glimmer of peace in his green eyes as he looked directly at me.

A moment passed by in silence, and before the clock struck midnight and I had to return to the common room I had to do one last thing.

"Harry."

I force myself to look at him as I whisper his name, not knowing how my emotions were going to control me in the moment.

"I, uhm, I have something for you."

"Oh?" His expression softened a little as I relaxed the strain in my right hand, opening to showcase a pendant with a golden snitch charm crafted in Sterling Silver. My nerves lessened slightly as I glanced at his questioning look, knowing that if it's from me then it must have a practical use.

"It's charmed. If you find yourself taking on any more cursed professors or you're stuck in battle, you can press down on the Snitch to release a small dose of dittany leaves to help heal any pain or minor injuries.

If anything, I hope it's a reminder of me and a reminder that our friendship wasn't in vain. You'll always have a piece of me regardless of where you go."

I took a breath to let out the rest of my nerves as I waited for a response. Did it mean anything to be so vulnerable at that point?

I could feel tears welling in my eyes and felt like I needed the last say, so I stood up and let Harry know:

"Goodbye Harry. You'll always have a supporter in me."

***

The Next Day.

There is a certain buzz within the staff corridor as I wait by the main staircase for an urgent announcement. A typically quiet morning has now been replaced with owls flying in every direction and questioning looks from myself and others who only know of an affair of the 'utmost importance'. 

"If I'm honest, I think I would be relaxed sitting amongst the new patch of Mandrake seedlings I've laid in the Greenhouse."

The character development of Neville, now Professor Longbottom brings a small laugh out of me. Normally we aim to be an example for students by maintaining a sense of calm but this is one of the rare times where the uncertainty of the outside world could be felt within the castle's walls.

There's a little more idle chatter before Headmistress McGonnagall makes her stance known at the top of the staircase, a look of rigid determination on her face. A couple of clearly overwhelmed house-elves follow behind, hidden by leaning towers of parchment that almost shield the looks of distress on their faces whilst they almost try to address queries of the large audience as McGonnagall walks a few steps forward and announces:

"Good morning everyone. I'm sure you all have heard of the recent news regarding the one of the Ministry's most esteemed auror divisions being dismantled due to unlawful conduct. Whilst this school has an established and courteous relationship with the Ministry, I am also of the belief there are moments where we need to stand up for our own students, especially those who guided us through momentous periods of upheaval.

And there it was. Four years after attempting to let go of an underlying heartache and it's already back.

Invoking the chivalry and rebellious nature of Godric Gryffindor specifically, this decision has been made in the context of this transitionary period our society is currently in."

The atmosphere was beginning to feel tense, and as I briefly look around I have a feeling some of the other faculty members have immediately caught on to what the Headmistress is alluding to. I can feel my heart beat start to pick up and just need McGonnagall to say it out loud.

"With the current vacancy of a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, I'm pleased to announce that one of our recent graduates, Harry Potter will be taking the position and is due to start within the coming week. I will take no questions regarding this, and I expect you all to provide a courteous welcome.

I will be taking no further questions on this matter. Meeting dismissed."

[swallowerofdharma]

Hello🙂 I tried to message you but Tumblr blocked it so I hope u don't mind this ask. I read your reblog, thank u for writing it regarding Yashiro's consent.

Genuinely, I went back and re-read those chapters and can't see anywhere where Yashiro says he doesn't want to have sex with Doumeki. If anything even prior Yashiro asks to blow Doumeki and says, "let's have sex" now that Doumeki can get hard.

Am I missing something here?

Please explain it to me if I am. I am open to being corrected and would like to understand better 🙂

Hello, and thank you for being open to dialogue further. Frankly speaking, I don’t fully trust my own ability to persuade others as sometimes I struggle to explain these concepts in a language that is not my native tongue. But I have tried to.

One post (1) I made analyzed Yashiro’s emotional state, another one (2) further explained how he repeatedly tried to make Doumeki aware of his distress. And he never consented when Doumeki straightforward asked and decided to continue anyway. You can see Doumeki himself doubting his own decision during and after. I don’t know what more could I say, except taking panel after panel and analyzing the whole sequence. Please read the full posts I have linked and then I could try to answer specific doubts you may have. Here are some excerpts.

(1) Yashiro didn’t want to have sex with Doumeki and said so repeatedly. Doumeki has grown on him, behind liking his physical appearance or using him as a substitute for Kageyama: Yashiro truly liked this person and he liked that Doumeki was impotent. Thanks to that, Yashiro grew comfortable around Doumeki and with comfort and safety comes familiarity. When Yashiro discovered that the impotence was gone, he was angry and terrified. They had become too close and now the premise has changed and Yashiro couldn’t trust Doumeki or himself anymore. (…) And Yashiro was trapped in a situation he had tried to escape from his all life: with a person who felt familiar, a person he loved and relied on, in the safety of a home, who wanted sex and was going to do what he wanted regardless of what Yashiro had to say. (…) Doumeki broke him indeed because he broke through the lies/rules upon which Yashiro had intentionally built his entire personality/safety. And he wasn’t ready for it, he specifically said he didn’t want it, he had known all along, he already knew when men before Doumeki tried to make love to him and when he built a strategy to specifically avoid being confronted with those lies/rules. He didn’t love those men. He did love Doumeki though. But once again Yashiro didn’t have a choice. And he was physically hurt and recovering after being shot and knowing his life was in danger outside of that room. He had just discovered that Doumeki lied about being impotent the previous time he touched him in the car and before that. It was probably the worst timing possible for making love. At some point Yashiro grew resigned and even reciprocated a little, reaching for Doumeki, caressing his face, and he even reassured him before he fell asleep. There were words that Doumeki said that Yoneda didn’t disclose fully, choosing instead to immediately took us in the flashback with Yashiro.

(2) The difference between giving consent and reciprocating vs submitting in silence because there wasn’t really a choice is huge for me. And again, I am considering the mental state of both people and I know Doumeki isn’t being cruel on purpose, but you must see how Doumeki himself understands that Yashiro hasn’t really consented, because he turns him around, looking at his expression and he apologizes. (…) Doumeki expresses his wish out loud, and to this Yashiro explicitly answers, asking him in no ambiguous terms to stop. Doumeki keeps pushing, undressing and kissing Yashiro, who asks him to stop again. Doumeki asks for Yashiro’s consent again. It is significant that he pauses here again, this time there will be penetration with male genitalia: an act that is broadly and unequivocally recognized, and can’t be written off as foreplay. To Doumeki’s request for verbal consent, Yashiro responds by pushing down his face and raising his hips: not consent but submission. This is double painful because he gives up protesting or resisting his own desires, but his physical desires have never been something Yashiro knew to trust. This isn’t by any means what Yashiro wanted.

Take into consideration also that some of us have been educated and are living inside an insidious rape culture that aims to grant less power to selected individuals: women, lgtbqa+ people, including asexual people in the umbrella terms, people with supposed diagnoses of various mental illness, history will tell how legitimate that will be, people of color and disabled individuals.

“Rape was redefined as a violent crime rather than a sex crime, and its motive redefined from desire for sexual pleasure to male domination, intimidation and control. Rape also began to be reexamined through the eyes of the victims rather than the perpetrators”. [From the Wikipedia entry on rape culture with further notes and references available for verification].

See also:

“Corrective rape is the use of rape against people who do not conform to perceived social norms regarding human sexuality or gender roles. The goal is to punish perceived abnormal behavior and reinforce societal norms”. [From the Wikipedia entry on corrective rape with further notes and references available for verification].

As for the post I wrote earlier today about modern romanticism and romance as ideology, you can try for example In The Name of Love: Romantic ideology and its victims 

This chapter discusses the basic tenets of romantic ideology — love is all you need; true love is forever and conquers all; true lovers are united; love is irreplaceable and exclusive; and love is pure and can do no evil. Ascribing to this ideology, the chapter suggests that love is comprehensive, uncompromising, and unconditional. Furthermore, eternal love and self-sacrifice are used to legitimize whatever is done ‘in the name of love’.

I formed my own ideas of the subject and I have not read this book myself, I just briefly searched the web for a starting point in English language. I have several years of experience of observing people of various generations, not all women, taken by the romantic interpretation of love, reading what they were reading and reflecting critically on this topic, but really I don’t intend to write my own essay about this subject. For people who followed me recently, please check the pinned post: my analyses are mostly from a cultural studies perspective that aims to understand authors and their works in the context of their time and place and not based on literary genres, tropes or readers’ expectations.

Hope I am being useful and transparent in what I do. I don’t have any investment in bashing characters or people, nor in ruining your enjoyment of the story. My goal has always been broader understanding, respect for the cultural dignity of manga and the promotion of empathy.

[konigbabe]

'plagiarism' issue

Not one for drama, yet I want to bring attention to this. I won’t elaborate on this issue more.

So it happened.

A while ago but it remains slowly nipping at my brain. For that case, I have decided to write it all down and collect my thoughts using this post.

My work like real people do (and the whole thought/idea behind it) has been taken, rewritten, tweaked and published as someone else's idea (that they apparently had since spring). I asked them to take it down privately. They did add my @ and for some time, I was content until they started creating the whole "universe" around it and taking praise for it even tho it's not their original idea.

The dark side of fanfiction is that there is not much I can do but at least I can make awareness about the issue.

Starting this with some definitions and clearance:

plagiarism: "Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own...by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgment.[1]"

I love this by Wattpad themself:

What if they give credit?

"It is still plagiarism even if you give credit. Even when someone uses an artist's base or picture they are expected to change it up to become something new, rather than just running it through a filter, or tweaking it with a few minor edits. There is a major difference between copying another person's storyline and making edits and actually writing a story.[2]"

Now to the point:

For LRPD, I have created a very specific premise that I haven't read/seen before:

Leon is a single dad of a young girl (didn't specify age but definitely a preteen, around fourth grade).

He is absent from his daughter's life, especially from her school activities. He becomes this "enigma" for the teachers.

The daughter doesn't have a mother. 

Teacher!reader is concerned for the daughter's wellbeing so one day, when Leon picks her up, she requires to have a talk with him.

During the talk, he offers her a dinner instead of having to participate in school activities.

Teacher!reader and Leon sleep together during the first off-school meeting. 

Teacher!reader wakes up before Leon and looks at his exposed [muscular] back.

Teacher!reader searches for the bathroom, notices Leon’s poorly decorated apartment except for his daughter’s stuff. 

Teacher!reader is reffered to as "Miss teacher" in this universe.

They copied almost THE WHOLE premise. It'd be okay to write your own version of single dad Leon and his kid's teacher - I don't own the trope - but following the SAME ORIGINAL STORYLINE is not okay [with me]...

The parts after "Keep reading" consists of photo 'evidence' of the similarities (some are less obvious but I'll mention them regardless). It is LONG because I have a lot to say.

LRPD was published May 2, 2023, their story was published August 14, 2023.

Fun fact: Few days ago, I created a separate masterlist for the series and few days later, they did the same thing.

: ̗̀➛ Example 1 - Leon sits on the chair

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 2 - Could've been a...

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 3 - Leon's absent from his daughter's life, especially from her school activities, and teacher!reader saying that he should be more present...

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 4 - Leon snaps because the kid's mother is mentioned (also mention of him having his arms folded during the meeting which the other person mentioned earlier in their work)...

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 5 - Leon invites you to dinner instead of attenting the school event…

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 6 - Aunt Claire makes an appereance (mentioned only)

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 7 (NSFW) - Teacher!reader worried where is Leon's kid during heavy make-out session that leads to s*x (they did wrote a full original smut scene, which I skipped so idk if there are any familiarities; I have decided that a full smut scene doesn't do it for me in this story)

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 8 - Morning after

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 9 - Leon's apartment description (they basically just simplified my abstact, "show, don't tell" description)

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 10 - Aunt Claire calls to tell Leon to pick his daughter in the morning after

My story (LRPD):

Theirs:

: ̗̀➛ Example 11 - AND Miss Teacher's significant petname has an alternative but also makes an appereance (in the same formating on top of that)

My story (LRPD):

Theirs - NSFW (alternative + miss teacher):

They were smart by rewritting it in their own words but it still lays heavy on my chest that a story I have crafted for WEEKS has been taken from me like that. It's more glaring if you read both stories instead of me splitting it into excerpts (and I didn't insert all of them as there is a limit to pictures per post).

Taking inspiration or straight-up rewritting someone's detailed idea is a difference.

Sources:

[1] https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism

[2] https://www.wattpad.com/128409012-how-to-write-fanfiction-plagiarism-vs-inspiration

[possamble]

⭐️!!

OKAY SO a lot of people really love the last section in a little creature chapter 4:

She’s spent her entire life making herself smaller, quieter, less consequential, just to ensure no one else would hurt because of her. But she won’t do it to anyone else. She won’t do it to her little dragon, this small creature forced to be at her mercy through no fault of its own. It has done nothing but lend her strength, make her honest and brave where she has been a coward all her life — it’s only fair that she shares her voice, shares her life with it.  But Marcille, it cries. Marcille. If I'm quiet, you could have Marcille.  She could. But she won't. Because, if this is all it takes to render her unlovable — some feathers, fangs, and a resolution to be more outspoken — then so be it. If it’s a choice between letting her dragon have its fair share of their life or getting to be with Marcille, then so be it. Let there be no going back, may the dragon tear her apart if she should ever succumb to the temptation of familiarity — life changes, and she will change with it.  We’re in this together now, she tells the dragon, curling around herself. And I’ll always choose you, I promise. 

And I'm super happy bc it was honestly the emotional centrepiece of the entire chapter/the thing I was building up towards!!

While I did fully intend it to be a moment of triumph for Falin's character, I mentioned her inability to care for herself in the absence of an externalized inner child-like entity because I wanted the explore the idea of... I guess, things that are good for you in one moment not always being a sustainable coping method in the long run?

Which isn't to say that you shouldn't engage in these methods to begin with! For Falin, being able to semi-externalize another creature to take care of is a good thing at that moment, because it gives her the bravery to choose her own wellbeing. She needs that, because she's not ready to choose herself in earnest just yet--but no one is able to go from self-erasure to self-confidence without any awkward inbetweens.

But I did want to set up the foundation for exploring that, if she isn't able to further evolve from this mindset, she won't be able to grow. The little dragon inside her is, unfortunately, a bit of a schroedinger's inner child situation--it's real and it isn't. Yes, there may be impulses that feel fully foreign that Falin can identify as coming from the dragon--but for the most part, it's just a part of her the way that any other aspect of her personality is. It being a separate entity inside her is entirely dependent on how she wants to think about it.

Ultimately, she needs to be able to choose herself for the sake of choosing herself and nothing else, or this newfound confidence will crumble. She needs to be able to take care of herself even if it doesn't benefit anyone other than herself--she can't keep using a helpless creature as a crutch forever.

I can't say too much more because it's all stuff that I'm planning in future chapters, but the dragon will be popping in and out somewhat inconsistently to reflect Falin's flimsy conceptualization of it as her companion.

On a slightly unrelated note, I was a little self-conscious about this section because it's far from the first time I've done something along those lines--it's essentially a rehash of a character moment I had in a Code Vein fic from a few years ago:

(the premise being that superhuman vampires are created by implanting special parasites into corpses, and the main character is a neurotic little girltwink who never gives herself enough credit for anything)

And for the first time since she was revived, Mia feels… kind of bad for her parasite. It’s so easy to think that all the consequences of being a revenant are simply a part of her as a singular identity— she needs blood to survive, she has superhuman strength and durability, and so on and so forth. But in reality, it’s… it’s all thanks to the living thing wrapped around her heart right now. Inside her chest is another creature that’s just doing its best to stay alive; in a way, they’re in this together, her and her little heart bug.  Poor thing. She’s put it through a lot. 

[...]

She scoffs quietly at the theatricality of it all. It’s a new day, and she’s greeting it all by herself in her room but she doesn’t feel quite so alone anymore— she never has been, in the end, even when all else failed.  Good morning, she thinks to the creature keeping her heart together. I’ll take better care of you today, I promise. 

(Please excuse the clumsy writing it was years ago and also I do hope to go back and finish this one someday I swear)

But then I thought about it and realized that... this pseudo-externalized inner child thing is something I've done in nearly every major chaptered fic I've written. In my Tales of Berseria postcanon, I have this entire theme about the main character's insecurity about still grieving her incredibly abusive adoptive father, then have it culminate in a segment where she's flirting with her love interest by facetiously gossiping about her own alter ego:

“Might I suggest you not take it too seriously?” Magilou sighs, letting her shoulders fall slack. “It’s a light enough subject without the weight of the context— and this sweetheart of yours does like to spin her stories, no?” she laughs, shaking her head. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was taken in by a great wizard who raised her as his own. To this day, she still loves him very much,” she admits, and it’s only her own facetious tone that keeps her from stumbling. “And there has never been a reason why this would ever indicate a lack of self-respect." In some unspoken way, Aneirin is a lie that she tells for herself: to indulge the fond memories without having to explain herself to anyone. To let those sad parts of her exist, that little girl who loved her father so very much— Because, in the end, how could she not? He was a shitty parent and worse caretaker besides; but in a world full of people who called her an abomination— fellow exorcist or no— he was her only bastion.  And maybe that child who still loves her father doesn't deserve to be reviled for the very fact. 

(okay tbh i AM super proud of having finished this massive postcanon thing so if you like the ToB girls at all, pls give the series a look)

So that's 2 for 2 on self-sacrificing blonde girltwinks learning to take care of themselves more by embracing an alternate self--it's kind of funny that I'm doing it again, but with the girltwink's love interest instead. Not to mention that it's not supposed to be a one-and-done character breakthrough that remains positive, so we'll see how this one goes!!

[cantsayidont]

January to April 2004. Fans of MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN would likely enjoy this poignant 2004 miniseries by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen, about a young man named Clark Kent in a world very much like ours, where Superman is a familiar — and fictional — pop culture icon. Clark grows up the butt of many jokes, but when he's in high school, he discovers that he really does have powers like Superman's, something that has no precedent in his world outside of comic books.

If this premise sounds familiar, it's because it's a lot like the origin of the Earth-Prime Superboy, before he became a way for Geoff Johns to mock comics fans (and for DC to play out its institutional hostility toward Siegel and Shuster). In the pre-Crisis era, Earth-Prime, one of editor Julius Schwartz's little jokes, was supposed to be our world, where comics artists, writers, and editors transcribed the adventures of the real heroes of the other Earths. In the afterword to the trade paperback compilation of SECRET IDENTITY, Busiek admits that the similarities were wholly intentional, and that while he didn't mention it in his proposal (and DC didn't advertise it as such), this was essentially his extrapolation of that 1985 concept by Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan, and Al Williamson.

After moving to New York City in his '20s, this Clark becomes a reporter — though not for the Daily Planet — and meets a young woman named Lois Chaudhari. To my knowledge, this was the first time a counterpart of Lois Lane was presented as an Asian woman (although of course she's not precisely Lois Lane).

Throughout most of the story, Clark uses his powers only in secret, but he does make himself a Superman costume. Eventually, he feels compelled to come clean with Lois:

Like Busiek's ASTRO CITY, SECRET IDENTITY is a very introspective story, less interested in action (of which there's relatively little) than in emotion and small observations of life with superhuman abilities. If you're expecting bigger dramatic stakes, you may find the series underwhelming — there are no supervillains or alien invasions, just Clark's reflections on his life and family, from childhood to old age — and the fact that the story never reveals why Clark has powers may frustrate. However, its autumnal wistfulness is appealing if you're in the right frame of mind for it. Immonen's art is gorgeous, and I can't think of a better artist for this story, which straddles the line between a real-world environment and the "heroic realism" of the modern superhero genre.

Fourteen years later, Busiek tried to do a similar story with Batman, BATMAN: CREATURE OF THE NIGHT, with John Paul Leon, which doesn't work nearly as well, wallowing in some uncomfortable attitudes about mental illness and an inappropriate though deliberately ambiguous supernatural element. Leon's art is interesting, but the story leaves a sour taste, and it does not succeed (at all) in doing for Batman what SECRET IDENTITY does for Superman, which is disappointing.

[rash0mon]

reason of living: akutagawa ryūnosuke

debatably, bungou stray dogs is easily the most existentialist anime out there, as the main premise of existentialism (in a rough sense) - that reason of living is something individual to man, is an underlying compartment of the series, making it as awe-inspiring as it is. each character is seen to either have, or be striving towards finding their distinct reason for living. now, i wanted to retrospect a bit into akutagawa's character and how his reason affected him, his actions, morals - as well as how it possibly shifted (especially in recent chapters of the manga and anime episodes). keep in mind that at i am just laying down my opinion and observations of akutagawa`s character - some things may be fairly obvious, some uncertain or not matching your opinion, which is why i leave space for conclusion, theory, discussion.

pre-mafia

generally, we know little about akutagawa`s life before the mafia, other than small snippets shown throughout the main manga as well as in beast (although beast is an AU, it can still effectively aid in understanding his character in the canon universe). as akutagawa's companions were annihilated, it seemed that he had no reason to live. where, as we all probably know, this soon happened afterwards. from then on, everything changed.

mafia

after that night in the forest, akutagawa's life completely shifted - or moreso, he got a new life. his whole new reason of living being - pleasing dazai, getting validation from the person who gave his life a new meaning. exploring the relationship and dynamic between these two is a whole another post, which is why i shall keep it short. now, i would like to note that even if akutagawa has an unhealthy attachment to dazai, and is being emotionally manipulated by him - he is very much sensible of it. in fact, akutagawa is remarkably self-aware and perceptive, especially of the people around him, just more subtly, through his cold layer of stoicism. he is not the cold-blooded murderer with no sense of morality that many like to paint him as. yes, he is intently focused on achieving dazai's approval, pursuing that ideal in a way familiar to himself. he knows that it is not what is considered "right" by general moral rules, but he does not do much about it, as his reason of living would then diminish. dazai leaves him with a looming sense of inferiority, as he feels he is worthless no matter what he does, unless he is to achieve dazai's attention and approval. this sense of inferiority haunts him, and guides his recklesness and death-or-glory actions.

he sees the ethical issues in his own actions, and he knows there is a better life for him. he just doesn't pursue it. this is also portrayed well in his relationship with kyouka, which could have been yet another repetition of the abuse cycle started by mori and continued by dazai - but it was not, as kyouka found the world of light. he is even happy for her, as we can see. this is one of the few snippets where we can see his sensibility when it comes to others. when he stated "i knew a man with the same eyes as yours", referring to himself, in a way, he sees that he also could`ve found the world of light. but at that point, it seemed to be too late... or at least that is what he thought.

akutagawa doesn't hate atsushi. he sees him as a reflection of himself, himself if he had a different reason of living, if he met dazai a bit later, if he pursued the world of light. he is jealous of him in a sense, yes, but he does not blame him for the fact that he didn't get dazai's approval as many like to speculate. atsushi is the first person who challenges akutagawa's "way", philosophy of living. as he sees himself in him, he fulfills their promise of not killing anyone for 6 months... perhaps because of a faint hope for the world of light? he holds onto this even as a vampire, which shows his pure determination. and it makes me think, that he did not go and protect atsushi only because of dazai, as often speculated, due to the points stated beforehand. as dazai stated: “Akutagawa—he’s like a sword without a sheath.” Dazai grinned from ear to ear. “He’ll surely become the Mafia’s strongest skill user in the not-so-distant future, but for now he needs someone who can teach him how to put that sword away.”

perhaps, atsushi is that person for him rather than dazai.

chapter 88 and vampirism

as stated beforehand, akutagawa obviously does not go to save atsushi only due to his wish to be approved by dazai. there is something deeper underlying, and we have seen numerous times before that akutagawa genuinely cares about, and admires atsushi in the same way he admires and is happy for kyouka - although he would not admit it explicitly, of course. akutagawa fights fukuchi alongside atsushi, leaving himself in a completely vulnerable state, in a simple wish as to redeem, or prove himself in a way. to fulfill his meaning. he is in a special rush to do so even so because of his lung disease, which has a severe impact on the intensity and ruthlesness of his actions throughout entirety of the series. he lays his life down, but he does not go down without a fight. he stays true to his purpose...until his last moments.

at his last moment, in the given panel, however, something changes. we see a different vision of akutagawa. as he lets go of his coat, and is able to manifest his ability without it, i would say that his reason shifted. he states "i don't need words, but only actions", which is the most important sentence in understanding his character and development if you ask me. words being dazai`s words of approval, which he lets go of, like the coat he gave him. a new reason emerges, "actions". he does not need dazai anymore. he only needs himself, raw. this is further emphasized as his coat is lost in the sea by atsushi, who he gave it to. there is no reason to hold on to the past anymore... as a new era emerges.

a new era where akutagawa is not alive, apparently. he is a vampire. however, we can still see that he holds on to some of principles that caused him to change in the first place, such as not killing aya, and keeping the promise he and atsushi made. even when not concious of his actions and controlled by fukuchi, he still holds on to it. which leads me to believe, that there is truly hope for him. atsushi shares the same line of thought... as his perception of akutagawa gradually shifts to a positive one, which is why he wants him to snap out of his vampirism. atsushi understands akutagawa to the core, as they are two sides of the same coin. which is why he hopes for him. if possible, i wish for him to let go of the vampire curse and continue on developing his new reason of living... his new life. we can only long for that at this moment.

we have seen the gradual evolution of akutagawa's character throughout the series in terms of seeking his reason of living - something that is central to each character in bungou stray dogs. which leads me to end this post with what dazai stated to kyouka, which quite well describes his, and all of the other characters ordeals in striving to find a reason to live:

Your anguish isn’t yours alone. What should one do, when what they want to be isn’t what they’re best at? Everyone fights, searching for the correct way to live their lives. What do they seek by fighting? How ought they live? No one can say. All we have is the right to waver. Like stray dogs that have hit rock bottom.

[artehago]

pt. 1

it has come to light to me

that i...we have been duped

that artehago

may not be real

like real reel real

or even a big fish

like he's a rip off

somebody

familiar face from a place

pushed off a cliff

who's the white boned stiff ?

a nobody

and not artehago

maybe baby

its me

shiny brightly at the sun

a train depotting

with hashtag sign

a languishing calm

the lite-bright up ahead

is medusa misguiding

her flashlight a beckoning

and false premise

to engage me in a faul

and turn me to stone

what have i done

all the years misfortunes

youths

now old

bold and beguiling

feats in fists ready a

flight

steel wheels & coarse grounds

whoafully spilling

this white plight but am

most assuredly brown

but not

the dead guy on that ground

still it was in the books

the jeopardy and shallow water

the skies looking over nothing

laying about

what disease sees and doesn't seize

that this pretender presents

yes that's me and then

then a guy in a time machine

falls like a coin into a

push game

onto crunchy terrain

and fails to reach the west

a personal best

the low grumble of a truck

outside queazes my intuition into

paranoia

and i sip through obligations

think i'll quit my job today

slip on an artehago suit

and climb a ladder above

an empty pool to the diving plank

resting there with stars

above clouds

cajole with the sun

engaging tiny

intergalactic

mushroomed thoughts

instead of designing closets

-////-//*/•*////******///