#this was a fun section to do fanart of

[axidentshappen]

"Revalink" comic for @vanali-of-winterfell, from the most recent chapter from her fanfic "The Second Calamity"

Behold, wet beast Revali

Context

[enthusiastic-nimrod]

Cowabunga, Dudes!

[art-from-the-juice-box]

gen loss dump part 2 :]

i have a gen loss playlist so the last two was me hitting randomize and drawing a pic based on the song before it finished. the second one technically isn’t that cause charlie’s inferno isn’t on apple music cause they hate me so it’s way more of the song out of spite because they wouldn’t give it to me.

[renees-bruised-knuckles]

Happy Foxes vs Ravens finals day!

AU where exy goalies can customize their helmets like they do in hockey and Andrew pulls up the final game against the Ravens in this

[tariah23]

sukugo for the ship bingo 🫡

(The artist I mentioned in the tags… I love their stuff, it’s so fun ahh)

[all-yn-oween]

this is a very old drawing, but i’m on my way to vacations and just wanted to post, to show that im still alive XD

Hope you all survived your exams!!! (I didn’t have the chance to reblog everything from mutuals but i will eventually hdjdns) As for me, I’m happy to tell you that I graduated my high school!!! :D

Here have a drawing of Barbara and John to celebrate!! 🥳

[beastly-ghastly-thing]

little sketchy of my harley design headcannon!! i hc she uses she/him, has chemical scarring and discolouration across his skin, and likes to repurpose and reuse old clothing like her arkham uniform being turned into a silly crop top

[brodudemanbroski]

Little rouge doodle.

[cak31ssuperi04]

Also also for the ask game The rest of the hackers + Izuchi n Sagara + Nanase!!

time to run away from ur ask box again just to show up again later

ding dong ditching via askbox real /j

YIPPE! WOO!

Sagara:

favorite thing about them- BEST GIRL???? I'M SO ILL ABOUT HER???? she's so silly......... I think there's something in her casual edginess and how she dresses in frills and likes cake and just how chill she is about it all. Love that she threatens Nanashi 0.3 seconds after meeting him. I like her general demeanor. Or how much she talks herself up in spite of how pathetic she is. She's a fun character and just everything about her appeals to me specifically, I can and will read to deep into her character sheet calling her jaded.

least favorite thing about them- Her saying Sagara was her temp name was the perfect setup for her to eventually reveal a chuuni alias and I'm so bitter that they didn't do that.

favorite line- "Heehee... Then Nanashi, you will have to perform the official pact rite!" (What's the pact rite?) "You must help with this lunchtime cake set that's being sold starting today!" (T-that's the rite?) "I have a quota to meet this month, see..."

brOTP- Nanashi!! Their friendship and interactions are so great to me. I also really like the idea of her befriending Yukinaga. Weirdboy-to-Weirdgirl communication(for both friendships tbh).

OTP- IZUCHI AUGH I M SO OBSESSED WITH THEM. They're very different but hear me out. They have a funny dynamic. Menaces to society and also each other. I do actually think there is potential for them to contrast and complement each other in interesting ways though. I appreciate that their one interaction establishes that she visits him regularly just to mess with him, and how he's probably just used to her atp. I think they could be schemers together.

nOTP- eh.

random headcanon- Her chicken avatar is based on a childhood pet, she starts keeping chickens again sometime in the future. Also timeskip Sagara wears crocs.

unpopular opinion- I've only seen this like twice but I disagree with any portrayal of Izsg that involves her pestering him because she has a crush because I think it's infinitely funnier if she's just Like That(and maybe the local asshole is one of the few peoples she has that's close to an actual friend but it's not a crush. at the moment).

song i associate with them- Egorock

favorite picture of them- From her VA's twitter

Izuchi:

favorite thing about them- Smartass. I love him dearly. Self aggrandizing mad scientist with the brains to back it up, who just does whatever he wants without regard to what other people think and goes about it with a cool and collected(/albeit arrogant) air. How he's not really on either side but just gives the time of day to whatever benefits him/his research, yet is still patient enough to explain things and hear out other perspectives. Who maybe does have a nice side but it's overlayed by 50 layers of conceit.

least favorite thing about them- I want him to face tangible consequence for what he did to the Potetes.

favorite line- "...What is it, whelp? Do you love my greatness? Well, I must apologize... I already adore myself far more than you do.", why is he like this I'm sobbign

brOTP- Nanashi, mad scientist-guinea pig duo ever. I think his relationship with Kirai is interesting too.

OTP- SAGARA. Look I think it's so real of her to be canonically able to knock him on his ass in like 1 minute flat. I have full reason to believe this happens regularly simply because of how easily she does it here, and the only reason it doesn't escalate is because Nanase drags her away. Izuchi is a voice of reason to her out-there way of thinking and general immaturity and Sagara not only doesn't take his shit but is fully capable of smashing through his ego.

nOTP- I can see how Izuchi/Saaya would be interesting but it just isn't for me idk.

random headcanon- Keeps and labels seashell displays. It's some of the only actual decor his room has. Also is a relatively decent cook.

unpopular opinion- The fandom doesn't bully him enough like actually. Look at this guy.

song i associate with them- What The World Needs, this was so hard I have too many.

favorite picture of them-

Kirai:

favorite thing about them- He's such an unapologetic turd but also weirdly competent for a 10 year old. I like how he spends his entire friend event complaining then just gives Nanashi trash as a gift. That's so mean. I feel like he veers more into being just an outright asshole vs Nomare or the twins being kind of clowns about it, but I love that for him honestly.

least favorite thing about them- leave the old man alone bro(who isn't even an old man he's 34 but Kirai's 10 so I see how it'd seem that way to him)

favorite line- "Yeah, yeah. Let's slaughterize 'em all."

brOTP- The hackers but I think Kotora being his babysitter is funny. Sorry for the constant torment dude(it's entertaining.)

OTP- N/A

nOTP- N/A

random headcanon- Makes a fuss about how he's eventually going to get a growth spurt and how That'll Show You All but stays short into adulthood. Never hears the end of it.

unpopular opinion- I feel like Izuchi's personality gets conflated with his sometimes which I get but. You know(will not elaborate(this isn't directed at anything you said in your answer btw just to be clear, you're good)).

song i associate with them- Oh No!

favorite picture of them-

Mikado:

favorite thing about them- Great antagonist. Very good parallels to Nanashi(for obvious reasons), with this being how he would've turned out if he stayed the way he was at the start of the game, down to his ultimate goal being a warped version of Nanashi's initial wish of World Peace. His attempt to start a team only to have them all hate and betray him in contrast to people being weirded out by Nanase before eventually warming up to him for him is neat.

least favorite thing about them- How do you just pretend to be a guy's cousin who he's known all his life and have his family accept that and let him stay with you. Where does Nanase go when he disappears. I can and will draw conjectures but I wish that was elaborated on.

favorite line- "Had it not been "me," there was no way I would have offered you hot cocoa in the dead of summer as if it were a reward." On levels of passive aggression incomprehensible to mere mortals.

brOTP- Nanashi and Misane!

OTP- N/A

nOTP- Nanashi ew

random headcanon- Would try to hold hacker Game Nights to build rapport and cooperation, you can imagine how well that went.

unpopular opinion- Not exactly Mikado himself but never forget that Nanashi is canonically capable of becoming a fucked up guy given the right circumstances. As in "can and will commit so many crimes against humanity" fucked up.

song i associate with them- Technocrat, I probably Do have better songs for him but I just want to raise this in the vein of him trying to pitch the master program to the higher ups and doing it in a really backhanded concerning way(although it gets passed anyways so.)

favorite picture of them-

Kotora:

favorite thing about them- Only Sane Man of the hackers but is so spineless that it doesn't even matter. He gets bullied by a 10 year old, guys. Hge's so tired guys give him a break. I enjoy the potential thread of him being so stressed and tired that he turned to crime despite not usually being that type. I like the moment in his friend event where Rocca breaks a plate(?) and he's more concerned about her safety. Nice fellow.

least favorite thing about them- Who runs the cafe while he's running from the law? Because Rocca is definitely still working there.

favorite line- "Ahaha… I wouldn't say "don't judge a book by its cover," more… "you don't know what a really fatigued guy will do.""

brOTP- The hackers but I like to imagine him and Tobari having regular meetups(tea parties? coffee? Whatever) after the group splinters off to do their own thing. I'd say they could bond over the more mature of the four but I wonder how he'd feel, with him being burnt out(albeit I do think all that trouble would give him a new appreciation for his life, but that doesn't change the fact that the feeling was there) and running a struggling business and her being born rich and choosing to gallivant around because she's a thrillseeker? I think there could be something to explore there.

OTP- N/A

nOTP- N/A

random headcanon- Majored in computer science for a minute in college; Went back to coding when he started feeling stuck in his own life and that's how he managed to have any success with hacking.

unpopular opinion- N/A

song i associate with them- Coffee and Syrup

favorite picture of them- He's kindof pathetic but that's how I like my men

Nomiya:

favorite thing about them- Hell yeah, go funny loud man.

least favorite thing about them- We have Sho Minamoto at home.

favorite line- "Ya better show me somethin' giga-fun next time!!! If you yotta-bore me again, you're packed!! Zipped! DELEEETEEEEEED!!!!!"

brOTP- The hackers but I like to think of him and Kirai being disasters who cause problems on purpose. I bet they fight all the time.

OTP- I don't always go there but I do see the Nomihiyu vision

nOTP- N/A

random headcanon- After the master program gets re-made he gets brought onto the team to help with code maintenance. He creates viruses and Hiyu figures out how to protect the master program from them.

unpopular opinion- N/A

song i associate with them- AC/DC

favorite picture of them-

Nanashi:

favorite thing about them- His arc! How he starts the game constantly trashing on himself and through his efforts to befriend the characters, he learns that everyone's a little messed up. He learns to start loving himself and what sets him apart, and that he deserves to be live and love and have friendship through his relationships, because people care for him. How his arc carries into the next game but not in such a way that they just get rid of his peculiarity.

least favorite thing about them- I feel like it does get toned down from Ch.XXX to 1beat but some of his interactions with Misane post-timeskip... yeesh.

favorite line- His whole speech at the end of the first game makes me feel things.

brOTP- Misane big obvi, they're so precious to me. Can a catgirl and a bunnyboy truly solve crimes together.

OTP- I have a few ships I like with him but nothing I'm entirely committed to.

nOTP- Gosh where do I start. Mikado maybe.

random headcanon- Moves in with the Real Aisakas permanently after the game, mostly I just feel bad about the idea of having him move too far away from his friends.

unpopular opinion- Okay for how much people like to rag on his post-timeskip behavior lbr even some of his comments toward other characters throughout the first game were kind of. weird(derogatory). Also maybe not shipping him with Misane is an unpopular opinion but the fandom seems to have fallen off that boat anyways.

song i associate with them- Saying the 1bit ed might be too obvious so. uh. Be A Friend. Also Self-Inflicted Achromatic for a more angsty(normal end) angle

favorite picture of them-

[kenz0tenmas]

tbh if i had any faith that people would even dl it for free, id make a ~20pg percahlia + de rolo babies sketch zine and put it up on itch.io or something...

[oc-ology]

How to OC post without being an artist (or spending money)!

As much as I yelled about OC-posting, some people said that they struggled to know what exactly they should be posting. Obviously the answer is whatever you feel like but if you’re already aimless, that answer isn’t very helpful. Additionally, not everyone knows how to draw (which I think is an obvious method of OC-posting) so I wanted to give some ideas for what people could post for their OC! This will be split up into different sections.

Creating visual representations of your OC

Disclaimer: I will not suggest nor support the usage of generative AI. OCs are about creating something yourself, not allowing a computer to do it for you.

Outside of commissioning someone else for art, it can be disappointing and frustrating to not have any visual representation for your character. An easy way to get a representation of your character is to use Picrew, Meiker and other similar sites. There’s a large number of art styles, types of fashion, species, that can all be used to make your OC and that amount only grows by the day. Many of these websites can be accessed on PC and mobile and take very little processing power.

However, this can be limiting at times since you might not find exactly what you’re looking for, especially if your OC has a unique combination of features. For something with more customisation, you can use video games with character creation to make a version of your character. I personally would recommend games like The Sims or Skyrim as both have very active modding communities. This way, if a certain type of clothing or facial feature isn’t present in the base game then you can often find someone who has created a mod that adds it in instead. This does require you to have access to a computer that can run not only the game but the mods as well.

Another option would be using a program like Vroid Studio to make your character from a base model. This has both a mobile and PC version, although I will primarily be speaking from a PC perspective. The mobile app, while able to create a character from scratch, is a lot more limited than the PC version. The great thing about Vroid is that there’s a lot of user-made content that you can often get for free through websites like Booth, as well as many tutorials for beginners to follow along with. Again, this requires a computer that is able to run it. I would recommend against using Vroid on a laptop as it will likely be too intensive for it.

My final suggestion for character visuals is to take a character from anime or cartoons and simply edit them. This was actually how I first got into making original characters! You can recolour their hair or outfits with an editing program (with some free examples being FireAlpaca, Krita or GIMP) and even edit different images together to create something more unique. Please only do this with characters from existing media and avoid using fanart for this.

Other OC visuals

Other than just what your OC looks like, there are other ways to visually put together your OC. Moodboards are the most obvious example of this, but you can also edit other things such as putting together outfits for them or finding pictures of items they would keep in their bag.

If you have multiple OCs, you can create fake text conversations between them using a number of websites. These can be as silly or as serious as you like!

Finally, you can always build them a pinterest board. I am a massive pinterest enjoyer and not only can you use pins that others have posted to pinterest, you can add your own from off the site. 

Writing

Beyond writing out your characters’ story, there are numerous other things you can write. Keeping in line with what you’ve already written, you can re-write scenes from alternative perspectives. These can add context to what is seen in the main story, as well as flesh out background or side characters and their relationship to your other OCs.

Another fun thing to write is non-canon scenes. Write a beach episode! Write about a character getting sick and someone else having to take care of them! There are countless ways to draw your OCs interacting with their world or other characters that wouldn’t necessarily ever fit into the “main” story.

Next is genre changes. If you had to categorise the genre of your OCs’ current story, what would it be? Now image what if the genre was something completely different? Romance to mystery… Slice of life to horror… Part of the challenge is figuring out what story beats remain the same and what gets changed, including character dynamics! And of course… Alternate Universes. There are too many types of AUs to list but some of my favourites are superpowers, mafia, zombies, time loops and time-travel-fix-its. These are similar to genre-changes but often include a number of AU specific tropes. If you’re struggling to figure out the staples of a certain AU or what kind of AUs exist, there’s a really good page about alternate universes on Fanlore.org!

Other ideas

These are ideas that didn’t quite fit into the other categories.

First is music playlists! There are two types of these. The first is a playlist of songs that describe a character and their story while the second is a playlist of songs that the character would listen to. Some people like to combine the two as well! There are no rules to this, simply have fun listening to music and picking out songs that remind you of your OCs.

Second is incorrect quotes. I remember these used to be beloved by fandom and now they can be beloved by you and your OCs! The concept of incorrect quotes is that well-known and funny quotes from pop culture (such as memes or movies) get written out and your characters are assigned a line of dialogue. While there’s a website that’ll generate these incorrect quotes for you, I personally find more fun in coming across quotes organically while scrolling social media and realising that they fit my OCs almost perfectly.

Finally, ask games. These typically take the form of lists of questions or prompts with emojis or numbers next to them. People can send in the relevant emoji or number and you then answer the corresponding prompt. There used to be a kind of “ask game etiquette” where if you reblogged an ask game from someone, you sent an ask from the list to them as well. This way, it allows the game to continue circulating and you can spread the joy of OC-posting with others! It can also lead you to making friends within the community.

And that’s it for my post! If you have other suggestions for kinds of OC-posting then I would love to see them!

[aggressivelyarospec]

Welcome to #AggressivelyArospecWeek!

If you've been following us for any of the past eight years, you probably know the drill. But if you're new, here is all you need to know about this very exciting time of the year:

#AggressivelyArospecWeek (#AAW) is a week-long event that promotes the creation of arospec fancontent by arospec creators.

By "fancontent", we mean anything from fanfic to fanart, to themed playlists, edits or even just headcanons. We are open to all fandoms!

By "arospec", we mean that creators should identify somewhere on the aromantic spectrum (or currently be questioning their potentially arospec identity). The content they create should also center a character's arospec identity, whether that character is canonically arospec or heacanonned as such.

This event is an opportunity for creators to explore their identities through fanwork within a supportive community. And it's also a perfect way for fans of all kinds (arospec or not) to enjoy art and have fun!

Join us from June 23 to June 29 2024 and enjoy a small explosion of arospec fancontent on your dash!

Please, take a second to share this post so your followers get to join in the fun as well 💚

To submit, please make a new post between June 23 and June 29 and tag it as #AggressivelyArospecWeek. You can also submit your work directly to our blog through the ask and submission boxes. Your post will then be shared on the Aggressively Arospec blog.

We also have an X account, so use the hashtags #AggressivelyArospecWeek and #AAW24 if you tweet about your work on there. You can also mention us in your tweet (@ AArospec) to be sure we don’t miss it and can retweet it. Please, do submit through tumblr if you can though! That is the best way to get your contribution archived with all the others.

Lastly, a collection will be opened on Archive of our Own to round up all the fanfics posted on there. Just search for “Aggressively Arospec Week ‘24″.

We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us this year!

(For more information, check out our About page or our FAQ section. If you need some inspiration, you can also check out the content that was created during out previous events in our #AggressivelyArospecWeek tag.)

[the-east-art]

hello!! I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but do you have any good gf fic recs? I really like your sister’s one so maybe ones with similar vibes to that? :D

heck yeah! *to the tune of Stunkle Bunkle* East gives Gravity Falls Fic Recs!

idk if i can say for sure what does or doesn't have similar vibes to Pines Paradox, but I can tell you fics I like! Although legally if you like a fic I recommended you have to tell me 'I read that one and liked it' so I can feel like I'm getting a good grade in fics recs. One last thing: I'm not really a shipper so these should all if not mostly be gen. (if you want to see my entire list of bookmarks fics you can check out my ao3

Pines Paradox - BrownieFox

Ford's research is interrupted by his estranged brother showing up on his doorstep with a kid who claims to be time traveller. Meanwhile in the present, Stan and Mabel try to figure out how to get Dipper back to the right time. There will be secrets revealed, old wounds readdressed, and above it all a one-eyed demon watches with interest.

East: the primer. the blueprint. The one I do all the fanart for. Obv you have already read it, but in case this list gets around to other circles outside of my own, I want to put this one up first. Dipper gets stuck in the past BEFORE Not What He Seems.

Adrift - Jamesneatojourney

Stanford wakes up on the deck of the Stan O'War, concussed and alone

East: intense and dramatic - I'm kind of a sucker for Stan whump and that's what it is paired with REALLY good Ford POV

Pines! Pines! Pines! - hellmandraws

A collection of my various Gravity Falls fan comics, previously posted on Tumblr. The main focus tends to be on the Stan twins.

East: MUST READ COMICS. Hops all over the timeline, mostly focusing on Stan and Ford. Explores a bunch of aspects of their relationship, of the years they spend alone. It's the beast stuff out there.

putting the dog to sleep - parsnipit

ford can’t stop thinking about old yeller that night, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on their ceiling. he couldn’t do it, he thinks. he couldn’t ever shoot his own dog, no matter what. “well,” stanley says pragmatically the next morning, pretending like he doesn’t care as much as ford knows he does, “since he was sufferin’ and all, it was really better for him to be dead, wasn’t it? not much point in being alive if your whole life is terrible and you’re a danger to everybody you ever loved.” something cold and sharp takes up residence in ford’s stomach. he doesn’t like hearing stanley say stuff like that. he doesn’t like it at all. “i wouldn’t do it,” ford insists. “no matter what, i wouldn’t. there’s always another way.” “heh. yeah, i bet you’d find another way, brainiac,” stanley teases, reaching over to muss ford’s hair. ford swats him away. stanley can make fun all he wants—ford still spends all night thinking about cures for rabies.

East: OUTRHGDSGD the old yeller analogy that runs through this one shot absolutely kills me - I'm such a sucker for these types of metaphors. It uses quotes from the book to set the stage the the different sections and it drives me crazy in the best ways.

Things You Can't Take Back - thesnadger

It's Nineteen Seventy-Something. Stan is running from his mistakes, when he suddenly encounters the last person he ever thought he'd run into out here. What is he doing in Columbia, so far from Glass Shard Beach?

East: dare I spoil the twist? I won't. Read it. One of my all time faves.

Persist and Dwell - fencesit

Wendy pauses with her hand on the door and then says, "Hey, Soos—you ever notice Stan doesn't really...touch things?" He probably should have seen this coming, but the problem with deliberately not looking at things is that they have lots of chances to blindside you. In hopes of avoiding this conversation, Soos says, "I haven't noticed that." "Okay," Wendy says. "So. I'm going crazy, right?" "Dude, you're too smart to be crazy," Soos says, "but he totally touches things. He handed you money like five minutes ago."

East: What if Stan was lowkey-highkey haunting the shack?! THIS IS SUCH A GREAT IDEA. I really wish that there was more for this au or this idea

Deja Vu - interlude

Stan and Ford get stuck in a time loop on the day of the portal incident and are forced to work through some things.

East: Through the lense of a timeloop, watch the brothers have their struggles, and find that with infinite time on their hands there is nothing else for them to do but to eventually work things out (and maybe deal with how to get out of the loop). ITS GOOD SHIT

The Sacrifice of Stanford Pines - Jugare

Instead of sending Stan a postcard, Ford leaves Gravity Falls to find his brother. But to his shock, Stan is not nearly as willing to help as Ford thought. Everything goes south quickly.

East: I love this fic. The act of Ford going and finding Stan rather than having him send a letter gives these characters more time to interact before they arrive at the Shack, changing the course of fate. A top tier fic.

Under The Ice - castielrisingabove

What if that phone call the Bill-possessed Ford made to Stan actually went through?

East: short but to the point. A fun thought experiment and I think does a good job portraying both Stanley and Ford.

Sleight of Hand - impish_nature

Stan the magician!

East: Stan, post weirdmageddon, shows off his sleight of hand and his magic tricks. Ford POV. If you like the idea of the things lost in the cracks of memory after the series finale, or at least while Stan recuperates, you'll like this.

Unexpected but not Unwanted - impish_nature

Ford struggles as Stan remembers.

East: the tentative movements towards being a family, being brothers again, post weirdmageddon. shamelessly soft.

I Am A Selkie On The Sea - scribefindegil

The twins may be able to use the same sealskin, but only the one born with it is the true selkie. At least, that's what Ford's been telling himself for the past 40-odd years.

East: This series in general is really good. I like how the selkie skin is used to unit and to tear apart. My one gripe is I wish we never found out whether the skin belonged to Mabel or Dipper, and it was left for the reader to decide (and to decide if that even matters)

Too Late, Too Soon, Not Enough - IncomingAlbatross

(Another take on the missing scene in the Fearamid, featuring protectiveness, promises, and some long-overdue emotional progress. Also Stan being annoying on purpose.)

East: one of my favorite depictions of this scene. Does a good job with Fords POV and writing Stanley

why can't we just teach kids swears? - untrustworthyglitch

“Anyway, what’s in my kitchen that needs kid proofed? I keep the liquor in the high cabinets, where the kids won’t be able to reach,” Stan says. “Plus, the gun in the breadbox isn’t even loaded. Probably. I think.” Soos sighs. “I have my work cut out for me.” Or, in which Stan's niece and nephew are coming, and it's up to Wendy and Soos to fix Stan's life and habits.

East: A good fic, but more than that I really love this idea of how Soos and Wendy helped Stan get the shack ready for the kids.

Protective Instincts - ShyEye

Stanford decides to do some out of house research one late full moon night. He returns home only to almost instantly be attacked by an unfamiliar monster that maybe isn't as unfamiliar as initially thought.

East: I just love werewolf Stan au okay?

The Other Portal - Haberdasher

AU where, when items are lost in the Bottomless Pit, they come to Ford… regardless of his current location in the multiverse.

East: A good fic, but more than that it's a really fun idea! I wish they had pushed the implications of this even more (especially with the bottomless pit episode)

Off-Season - anistarrose

Winters running the Mystery Shack are difficult, but two unexpected guests improve Stan’s day.

East: cute oneshot. I'm a big fan of timetravel oneshots that are from the pov of the person who ISNT the timetraveler. Dramatic (or in this case tbh just very cute) irony.

In the Shadow of Death - A_Zap

It all started with the grim. Now it seems like every time he turns around, Ford finds yet another death omen hanging around his brother. Seriously, what exactly is going on with his brother that death constantly seems to follow his footsteps? A 5+1 fic of the death omens that adopted Stan and he adopted back.

East: It all comes together in the final chapter, trust me.

Changing Tides - Ariasune

When their dæmons settle, they'll be grown up. At least, that's the general idea.

and

Post-script - Ariasune

Poindexter, your deed is in the safe -- Wendy can open it for you -- don't worry about the mortgage, that's been paid off. Sorry about messing your life up again. Bye. PS - the milk is about to go bad, so you should use that up.

East: DAEMON AU DAEMON AU I'm such a sucker for these kinds of aus. Changing Tides focuses on canon, flipping between when the Stans were kids and the time of the show. Post Script naturally happens after the show. They're both good and dramatic.

Raising Stakes - Mary P Sue

East: heck, my copy and paste stopped working for some reason, so no summary for you. This is a vampire au and it's good! Create characterization, pretty clearly written either while Mystery Trio was a big thing or inspired by it. Carla fans get your juice.

[centrally-unplanned]

Follow-up to my Fanroad Magazine archival scan post - let's look at some cute 90's anime art! Just random ones that caught my eye:

"Hey, what happened to me!?" As mentioned, this came out before End of Eva did - as such, Asuka & crew really didn't get much of an ending in the TV show. 100% how she would react to watching episode 26, props to our artist (春原てるも/Kasuhara Terumo)

There are just so many "Rei running with toast" pieces, it was clearly a combination of a meme amoung the fans and the theme for the magazine. Love how this one brought marmalade too - never compromise on taste, no matter how late you are.

(The artist's name is "actually, I'm a Shinji fan" btw lol)

I love finds like these - these toast-lugging Rei's are by people who are professional mangaka today! The first is by いちば仔牛/Ichiba Kousei, or "Marketplace Cow" - it ain't their birth name I am sure - and they are a founding member of the doujin circle UGO - which is still going strong! And our second is by (I am 80% sure on this one) うおなてれぴん/Uona Terepin, a quite-accomplished artist who adorably published their first professional work in 1997, a year after this. Their twitter feed is 50% big titty girls and 50% model tanks, absolutely based.

Hot👏Shinji👏Fucks👏, this piece is amazing. What else do I have to say? (緋月れん/Hizuki Ren - maybe, translating Japanese names with no context is hard guys -_-)

This is one of my favourite trends - so Evangelion has a lot of technobabble? And it is very frequently in English. So fans really liked recreating that aesthetic in their art. But in 1996 they didn't have access to like screengrabs from the show or scanned splatbooks on hand? Which meant they just used ~whatever English text they could find - generally newspapers at their university or library. Which means we get Toast Rei splashed on reports of stock indices in the global financial markets, and this beautiful moe-Rei/Asuka looking solemnly out over, uh, some report about housing prices and cholesterol levels? Technobabble indeed! (嶋屋みえ/Shimaya Mei, まなせ貴也/Manase Takaya)

Rei clone army! Adorable. (藤桜智美/Fujisakura Tomomi)

Okay, moving away from Eva, there is in fact a bunch of other properties in here with fanart, but these types stood out to me:

That seinen "Kids on the Street" energy that was peaking in the 90's; fully ~aesthetic. (Keiko Kuyuki)

And to end on a weird note:

One section of the magazine is just a free-for-all of thoughts, and one Yayoi Hirone decided to give us a girl caught in the middle of undressing...alongside a recipe for cooking shrimp. Which, if I am being honest, is a huge improvement over the bullshit they throw on recipes online these days. This is the future we could have had -_-

Anyway, I hope that was fun - if anyone is struck or amused by some of the art in the magazine, I would be happy to see what stood out to you!

[justabrick]

A place where I can be without remorse...

You know, I've read many a discussion about MGR and occasionally polls pop up that aim to rank the bosses from least evil to most evil. And somehow Mistral frequently ends up in some kind of "misunderstood" or "lied to" category.

I have a couple strong opinions on that view.

I'll start this off with a weird thing – the dwarf Gekko.

Little recon focused UGs that follow Mistral everywhere. Here are some fun facts about them: - they vocalize in high-pitched tone that can be interpreted as childish and cute - when the player gets hit by Mistral, the Dwarf Gekko will either applaud Mistral or laugh at Raiden - in the section where you get to play as one you can applaud the other dwarf Gekko and they'll dance with you - chopping off the upper arm of a Dwarf Gekko in blade mode will result in it briefly pausing in confusion as it searches for its missing limb - Courtney thinks they're cute and compares them to little mice

- there are cute figurines of them made as merch - a lot of fanart features them in adorable chibi forms - they react to pain by wailing and screaming

So, they're little critters, right? They're cute, make cute noises, they display surprising degree of emotion through both sounds and gestures for a military UG. Like little monkeys, or mice, as Courtney put it.

Now how does Mistral treat them? Her pre-bossfight cutscene: Comforts the tripod that Raiden hurt, even holds it's hand tenderly.

To only moments later tear off it's arms and crush it as it wiggles around and squeks in pain.

Comforts something -> hurts it, keep this dynamic in mind for later.

And throughout the fight she tosses them around, obviously killing them in the process. Courtney comments on that too:

You could say that it's all intimidation tactics to get under Raiden's skin, except we get to see Mistral in her downtime in Bladewolf DLC. Boy do I have a lot of details to highlight there.

The very first thing Bladewolf sees as he comes out of VR training

Yeah, that's a freshly killed tripod just laying there, fresh enough to be smoking and throwing sparks still. Remember that "NPC gekkos will dance with you" detail? Yeah, those things are seemingly programmed to be social, and she killed and displays the remains of one of their kin to her "chair". The gekkos composing her chair are constantly whining and moaning as they try to hold up her evidently immense weight. And I mean constantly, all the time she sits in that thing, they shake and make noises. That thing is NOT comfortable or practical on account of said noises, so the reason she does this instead of opting for just a chair is because she loves hurting things. I'll dare to say that she displays more moments of pointless cruelty on screen than Sundowner does, and it's an achievement.

Look at the poor thing on the left hugging itself and rolling around looking traumatized. It jumps up in fear the moment Mistral turns around, too.

She's also not just hurting them, she frequently displays mock "affection" towards them. She does it at two different points to the chair gekkos alone:

Here and here. Let's not forget holding the hand of the Gekko in the pre-fight cutscene.

It can be argued that she does it to Bladewolf in a similar manner, calling him endearing pet names while constantly mixing them with mockery, insults and threats. The whole "shake" scene follows it to an extent as well, Wolf is being tortured while being forced to engage in what should be a friendly and affectionate gesture.

Also note all the gekkos cheering her on and acting like they adore her as it transpires.

So, what we get from all these scenes is that Mistral enjoys hurting cute things she has under her control while constantly flip-flopping between giving them affection and torturing them. Besides that she's casually abusive to every single UG we see her interact with, whether physically or verbally.

Give affection to something that trusts you and depends on you and then hurt it, rinse repeat.

If you know what exactly this resembles, I'm really sorry, if you don't – I'd rather not shatter your hope in humanity. That'd be very dark. Instead I'll just go for slightly less dark.

Look, I'm not implying that this is the pattern of behavior that indicates somebody who enjoys torturing small animals...

I'm telling you in plain text that it's exactly what Mistral displays in overwhelming majority of her cutscenes. She's an unrepentant sadist, one that will take advantage of even allies, and she won't be quick about it either.

And it's not like she's lashing out due to some kind of trigger relating to her past, this crap is done just because she's enjoying it.

Desperado really is the one place she can be without remorse, surrounded by two equally cruel partners whose ideologies only encourage her to indulge in her horrible desires shamelessly and openly. One could even say that all three of them are broken to the point that they're all eternally strangers to any kind of normalcy.

It's not like she's fighting for Armstrong's ideals of mega freedom anyway. Out of the horse's mouth:

Belonging, purpose. That's all she wants, really. Armstrong gave her a fucked up little family she can relate to and some goal to share with them. What that goal is about isn't really all that important.

[venelona]

Write My Report author notes

Today is one year since I first posted my Dazatsu fic 'Write My Report' (PM Dazai x PM Atsushi, Atsushi works as Dazai's secretary), so as I edit through all 100k+ words of it, I bring you author notes - include my favourite things about the chapters, thoughts behind some moments and fun (?) facts.

!SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE FANFIC!

(fanfic quotes will be in italics, bold italics are just the words that were italics in the quote- it makes sense- i promise-)

Starting with, of course,

Chapter 1:

I think the whole premise of the fanfic was born by that one time Dazai asks Atsushi to write his report for him after Dazai returns from his mafia kidnapping. Second half of the plot with him helping Atsushi conceal his tiger ability was an excuse for them to hold hands every full moon. I thought it would be a shortcut to my beloved 'one bed' trope. And then it didn't shortcut shit because I slow burned the hell out of it

'Great - now he was alive and uncomfortably wet.'

"I… I- I can't believe I'm going to get fired because of a guy who wanted to drown himself over paperwork." - Sweet sweet irony 😌 You want Dazai to live, Atsushi? Get to paperwork then

I think the whole premise of the fanfic was born by that one time Dazai asks Atsushi to write his report for him after Dazai returns from his mafia kidnapping. Second half of the plot with him helping Atsushi conceal his tiger ability was an excuse for them to hold hands every full moon. I thought it would be a shortcut to my beloved 'one bed' trope. And then it didn't shortcut shit because I slow burned the hell out of it

'Great - now he was alive and uncomfortably wet.'

"I… I- I can't believe I'm going to get fired because of a guy who wanted to drown himself over paperwork." - Sweet sweet irony 😌 You want Dazai to live, Atsushi? Get to paperwork then

I never described Atsushi's waiter uniform but this is kind of how I imagined it looking. No I don't have explanations. Literally just 'the vision.'

I guess I never described Atsushi's secretary clothes, tho it's been referenced that he has a jacket. Its also drawn on the cover lol

'He briefly contemplated drowning himself, but he didn't want his last day to be so full of Chuuya, so he decided on another kind of drink tonight.'

Dazai mercelessly shooting the guy in the bar who saw Atsushi transform was one of the things that were supposed to back up that 'Dark Dazai' tag. And then I kinda forgot to make him do more evil things later on lol He kills more people but more off screen and I kinda fumbled that tag ngl

COOL FANART COOL FANART LOOK AT THE COOL FANART something made me hate that scene but then zinder came in and made me love it 😭💖💖💖

'"Ah, you're awake." A vaguely familiar voice called from the doorway.' They caught Atsushi trying to cross the boarder-

The section where Dazai explains Atsushi about how he's the tiger and offers the deal is the only section where one POV breaks and you can see the other, but I decided to keep it. It was written this way because I didn't plan on keeping their POVs very separate, but then they never broke again lol

"Close your mouth, Atsushi, I already saw plenty of your fangs today."

Atsushi never, for even one second, regretting helping Dazai and saying so to him every time 😭🙏

I love writing canon moments altered by whatever the premise of the fic is - in this case, PM Dazai and Atsushi. Canon parallels - Dazai blackmailing Atsushi into the job.

Never really described but Dazai's office is on the first floor in part of it where not a lot of people pass by. All executives have more proper offices but Dazai really just took a room he didn't need a lot of time to get to. That makes Atsushi's work a bit annoying because most mafia clerks work on other floors together and he alone gotta run back and forth

It probably shows but I know nothing of the ways of office paperworks

"Eh, you're doing fiiine." His employer waved from the couch. "You're doing a way better job than I ever did, Atsushi." "How?.." "You're looking at the papers." Dazai smirked. "That's more than I usually do."

Initially one big point of conflict was supposed to be that Dazai holds a very high position in the mafia, so the papers he handles is full of very valuable information. And the fact that he let Atsushi into all of that information gives Atsushi some degree of power in the mafia, but also makes him a target for others... and then this never really came up lol

I don't think this was ever outright stated but Dazai's apartment is on a very high floor - not last one, but still high up. Like, twenty or something. The whole building inhabited by mafia workers, but he's really the only big fish in it

"I can't just make something up! Besides, from the amount of complaining notes-" Atsushi pointed at the hefty pile of papers Dazai was sitting right next to. "People do read your reports." "Oh, you actually read these?" Dazai picked up a few papers from that stack. "I usually just throw them away." "It's not even all of them?!" "Oh, it's probably just from the last three days."

Dazai saying 'Chuuya probably wrote half of the complaints and that's why I am not reading them' is just an excuse. He's just too lazy to read them

Something about Chuuya being described as 'The hat man' is sending me

[Dazai and Chuuya] '"When was the last time I made a wrong decision, hm?" "I don't know, yesterday? In the morning? Five minutes ago?"'

'"Atsushi, you should visit more places." Dazai shook his head. "Do you even go anywhere on your days off?" "I don't have days off." Atsushi blinked at him. Dazai blinked back. "Really?" "You never told me I have any."' - Atsushi never even asking if he has off days for like two weeks 😭 He'd work without them too, that poor man. Dazai gave him Thursday off because that was the only day Dazai himself actually occupied his office before he hired Atsushi. Dazai was fine without an office (he'd find a place to laze around), but people were complaining that he's hard to find when someone wanted to talk to him, and so he told everyone he can be found on Thursdays. After he hired Atsushi he started spending like 50% more of his time in the office because when he wanted to laze around he was like 'might as well do it in the office, I can occupy the couch, I am not alone and people will shout at me less and even praise me for being at work)

'Atsushi shook his head again. He needed to distract himself. "So… that was Akutagawa, huh?" That was probably the worst topic he could've picked for a distraction, but anxiety hasn't let him think of any other at the moment.'

Never elaborated on but in this story other executives have a lot of people that are under their command specifically. Dazai still orders people around and gives them work and stuff, but the only person he hired himself before Atsushi was Akutagawa. So that's why Atsushi is kind of treated like a big deal by other mafia members. Also half the reason why Akutagawa was angry at his existence

Dazai telling Atsushi 'I think you and Akutagawa would work great together' was a nod to New Double Black. He was still envisioning it in his mind even though Atsushi was working as his secretary and didn't use his ability at all, but later on when he started caring for Atsushi he kind of waved that idea off because he didn't want Atsushi using his ability at all

'"Atsushi, I didn't give you a day off today so you could spend it calling me at eight in the morning."'

If you're wandering why I always juggle how I call Dazai (the brunet/the mafioso/the bandaged man) and others is because in school during language lessons one lesson that stuck to me was that you can't use the same word in two sentences in a row, or it'll sound bad. So half my writing comes from me trying to juggle the same words back and forth. h e l p

Never described but I like to imagine that Dazai got panorama windows in his living room. I never stated this because I don't think he would - something like that would up the chances of his enemies finding where he lives and Dazai wouldn't bother risking that. But... that's what my cinematic imagination wants

'"If you planned on holding hands all night, I regret to inform you that I have no habits of flirting with men."' - canon parallel + THAT WAS THE PREMISE OF THE FIC AND I BARELY DID IT 😭😭😭

'"Or you wanted to watch me sleep the whole night? I didn't think you were such a pervert, Atsushi."' - a set up for a joke in chapter 6. Yes. I thought of that stupid joke this far back.

'And, he supposed, watching Atsushi struggle with the paperwork made it a teensy bit more enjoyable to do. By which he meant it was still a nightmare and he'd rather throw himself off this very building than work on it, but still. A little bit more enjoyable.'

I got SO many comments on SO many chapters about 'when Atsushi will tell Dazai about his tragic past'. Either they missed the 'Probably had to do with that orphanage he talked about earlier, but Dazai didn't care for sob stories about the past.' line, or wanted something more- Dazai KNEW, he connected the dots, he just didn't care back then

Dazai was supposed not to care for Atsushi in these earlier stages but I kind of fumbled it and made him too caring a bit too quickly but. Whatever can you do.