#unless we can see each other irl often

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorization just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with the least intensely different appearance than other demihumans—they seem to be technically categorized as human to people not from the eastern archipelago?— but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight, and kept as a low ranking servant ever since. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standards? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages which include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with the usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic or arctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru will also influence them it isn’t just tallmen as a whole, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it especially if they have no real community left of their own), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to adorn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a little bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it��s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep fish in completely empty bowls too small for them until they die from it", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not to eat, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationship chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[southangel]

Yandere Craig NSFW and SFW?

Yandere Craig Tucker

Warnings: dark themes, NSFW, MDNi, don’t sugarcoat this irl

Notes: Sorry if this took a while! Gender-Neutral since not specified. Struggled on the NSFW, so it’s a bit shorter.

SFW

When you first start dating Craig, you can barely tell what his true nature really is.

At first you thought that it was just the way he was, but it escalated into a way that you knew wasn’t him.

Craig would always have a hand on you, doesn’t matter where.

If you try taking his hand off of you, he will tighten his grip.

He has more of a silent jealousy. It only shows once it builds up, causing him to tug your body away from whoever you’re talking to.

Craig thinks that you shouldn’t have to talk to anyone else for that long, isn’t he good enough?

He really does love you, he just has a different way of showing it.

Craig even invites you into his friend group, just to make you feel more welcome.

You can see him eyeing his other friends, watching and making sure that they don’t try interacting with you too much.

Craig can be unreadable at times. Nobody can really tell what he’s thinking, not even his own family.

He doesn’t talk to you as much unless you start the conversation.

He isn’t good at talking, so he mainly buys you gifts to show your appreciation.

You always wonder how Craig knows so much about you, even things that you’re sure you haven’t told him.

He assures you that you’ve told him these things before, yet he’s really just been stalking you way before you both got together.

Craig doesn’t love you to the point where he would worship you, yet he doesn’t expect you to worship him either.

Not the type to get really bloody, only when provoked or in cases to protect you.

That’s what he says most of the time. Craig excuses everything by saying that he just wants to “protect you”, we both know this isn’t the case..

If you ever manage to leave him, Craig would go insane.

He’ll search the whole town, even state for you.

If you die, it’ll be worse.

You dying only proves to Craig that he couldn’t protect you well enough.

He still seems emotionless, yet he will cry over you in private.

You can’t leave him though, Craig won’t let you.

The tone of his voice his threatening enough to stay with him, even without listening to the threat he spews out.

“You told me that you liked this show a month ago, don’t you remember?”

NSFW

Craig can be really rough during sex, almost enough to hurt you.

He’s very degrading as well, there isn’t a time where he really apologizes for it; makes him more dominant than you.

If you’ve ever tried escaping in the past, you’ll most likely be tied up with either rope or chains.

Will most definitely mark you. Craig doesn’t care how visible or dark it is, that just makes it better to him.

Is more on the possessive side; he’s always muttering about how you’re his at the same time that he’s busy fucking you. He can’t help it..

Doesn’t fuck you often. Craig sees it as a reward for protecting you this long, really fucked up.

Very serious when intimate, don’t start cracking jokes around him.

There are rare times where Craig can be a bit affectionate. It really just depends on how he’s feeling.

When he is, he’s a lot less rough and degrading.

As much as Craig loves marking you, sometimes he wants to be marked too.

Hickeys, bite marks, scratches; anything like this can really just get him going.

To him, it’s proof that you both belong to each other and that you’re meant to be.

“Oh my God, bite me like that again..”

[strwbmei]

Matchup Event

Matchup for: @dukemira

Matchups: Fu Hua, Firefly, March 7th

Contains: fluff, nsfw, creampie, mentions of bondage, mentions of choking, mentions of temperature play, soft sex, public sex, mentions of nipple play

A/N: Sorry for taking so long! Honestly, with Firefly's section, I have no idea how to bake so I apologize if anything is incorrect!

Ask: Long time no see I guess? Haha, anyway it's been a while and you look good, also congratulations for your 1000 followers! Okay I'll start. I will use Mira as the name, my mbti is INFJ, and my zodiac is Virgo. I'm a listener type person, I'm not speaking that much, unless the topic is interesting (or I like the topic) for me, I'll ramble so much. Many people see me as a stoic person, like I don't really care what happened later, or right now Even if it gets me in trouble. You could say I'm a hardworking person, I'll try everything to achieve what I want. If you don't mind, I would like to choose both. My first date scenario? Maybe we watch stars and aurora while drinking hot coffee and some snack (I like quiet place, irl I always go out at night like pm and go home at 3 in the morning lmao) it's just, so refreshing y'know? I'm indeed a dominant, and more into vanilla sex, soft, gentle. (Sometimes I wanna tie them up, and close their vision) (pls don't match me with male characters) The fandom Im in, honkai impact and honkai star rail.

Fu Hua

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Like you, Fu Hua often takes late-night walks to clear her mind. The day she decided to take a different route for a change of scenery, she had no idea that this choice would end up affecting the rest of her life.

: ̗̀➛ It all starts off as the both of you passing each other on a quiet, isolated street; things like you glancing at the woman the first time you saw her because of how rare it is to see someone else around these hours. The most you'd get were stray animals and the occasional taxis, and you liked it that way.

: ̗̀➛ Your overly carefree attitude towards life and Fu Hua's overly cautious and apprehensive nature perfectly balance each other out like yin and yang. Not one is greater or worse than the other; both are inseparable as are the sorrows and joys of living that you'd gladly experience with each other.

: ̗̀➛ Change is a fearsome thing. All of the insignificant differences come together until eventually, you realize that your surroundings have already changed beyond recognition. Fu Hua firmly believes in this, and yet, it was the same change that brought her to meet you. As such, you're also the one to introduce her to new things. It takes her a bit of coaxing, but she's willing to try anything as long you're with her.

: ̗̀➛ Generally speaking, the two of you have so many similarities and just as many differences. Somehow, though, you make it work. Not because you just happen to be the right person for each other, but because you want to make it right.

"Fu Hua?" Your voice breaks Fu Hua's train of thought. She'd been gazing up at the sky for a while now, reminiscing about the past as she does so. It's not something she particularly chooses to do the first dusk of every new year, but she always ends up doing it nonetheless.

"Ah, you're awake. Did I wake you when I got up from bed?" She turns to you with a somber yet warm smile on her face. Her gaze goes down to the two cups of hot chocolate in your hands and mutters a small "thank you" as she takes one of them. You shake your head in response to her question. "Mm. I just got a bit worried when I woke up and you weren't beside me."

"What are you thinking about?" You ask before taking a quick sip of your drink. The dark and rich taste is perfect for calm, quiet mornings like this. Last night was filled with celebrations and festivities, and now that they're done, the city has fallen asleep. The sun peeks out through the horizon to greet the start of the new year.

"It's nothing important. It always amazes me how quickly time can pass and bring change." Her gaze falls down onto the jewelry shop at the corner of the road. It used to be a small diner run by a nice elderly couple. They had a dog; a small Australian terrier named Winter. Ironically enough, Winter did not like the cold. She wonders where they are now and how they're doing.

The two of you sit in comfortable silence, the sunlight illuminating the unlit city. Fu Hua smiles at the sound of the dogs barking; it's the one thing that has stayed constant throughout all these years. She hopes spending mornings with you like this will become one of those things as well. "Happy New Year, my love."

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Very vanilla and traditional so Fu Hua thinks she should always be submissive, at least at first. She's open to trying out new things in bed. We all know that she'd be submissive regardless of her old fashioned mindset, though.

: ̗̀➛ Fu Hua is open-minded when it comes to kinks, so she's willing to try anything at least once as long as it isn't anything too extreme or unhygienic.

: ̗̀➛ She's really big on safe sex. Fu Hua is actually very educated on sex despite having little to no personal experience with it/things related to it, mostly because she's had to give her disciples "the talk" before.

: ̗̀➛ During sex is when Fu Hua is the most emotionally vulnerable. She accidentally slips out words that she'd be way too prideful to say in any other situation, says "I love you" a lot more than usual, and reaches out to hold your hands subconsciously.

: ̗̀➛ She can go for a lot of rounds, but afterwards, she's immediately falling asleep. She'll try to give you the best aftercare she can (even if you were the one on top,) with the energy she has left, but the most she can probably do is get you a glass of water and a towel.

"My love..." She sighs, desperate and needy. Her legs rest at either of your sides as your hips rut slowly and softly against hers. Slender, calloused hands rest on your back, clawing ever so slightly whenever you hit a certain spot inside of her.

The room is dimly lit with scented candles, your clothes scattered on the floor while sensual music plays in the background. A scene telling of the romance and passion between two lovers.

You adjust yourself to hit deeper inside of her, and Fu Hua sings. She sings your name like an angel gently comforting you with her embrace; soft, and loving.

Feeling yourself nearing climax, you groan her name and bury your face into the side of her pale neck. As if in unspoken understanding, her fingers reach out to intertwine with yours, and her legs wrap around your waist.

Your hips stutter, and you fill her deep with your cum. Her chest rises up and down as she catches her breath, and she looks ethereal. You're set on spending the rest of your life with her.

March 7th

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ You and March 7th are the epitome of the saying "opposites attract." Or so, people say. While that might seem true on the surface, you actually have a lot of similarities like two stars in different galaxies, shining with unique brilliance yet connected by the vastness of the universe.

: ̗̀➛ For example, the two of you like quiet places; only for different reasons. You like quiet places because you like being able to be at peace and be alone with your thoughts. March likes quiet places because she can often find you in them. She loves bustling atmospheres and the blinding city lights, but she loves you more.

: ̗̀➛ Her troubles affect her more than they seem to, and when she can't silence the negative thoughts in her head, it's you that she comes to for respite.

: ̗̀➛ There's something about you that makes March feel so... safe and secure. She feels comfortable telling you about things that she'd normally repress herself. You keep her grounded. You help her get through the bad times and replace them with good ones.

: ̗̀➛ You care for her and try to comfort her the best you can, but you don't really care about things like "who she used to be" and "what she even is." Human, alien, or even as an emanator, you'd love her all the same. What matters to you isn't her past, but the future that you can have together.

"Hehe..." March looks up at the new ring you bought for her. The cold, silver metal shines when the moonlight hits it just the right way. To her, its glint symbolizes your love and the future to come. "Do you really like the ring that much?" You ask since she's been staring at it intently ever since you first got it for her. Of course, you're flattered since you also chose it, but you know March can be a bit overdramatic sometimes.

March turns to you as soon as the question leaves your lips. "Of course! You bought it for me, after all." She smiles with pride. You chuckle at her reaction and pat her head. "I'm glad you like it, but don't dote on it too much. I can always buy you a new one, y'know?" You weren't exactly rich, but that ring wasn't exactly expensive either. It was just something you bought because it seemed to be her style.

"Sure, but every gift from you is special to me. Even if you get me an extravagant wedding ring one day, I'll still treasure all of the handwritten notes you leave me sometimes." You blush at the implications of marriage. Of course it's been on your mind too, but to hear March mention it so casually has you feeling a bit bashful.

"When that time comes, let's get a big house and a whole army of pets! Ah, but that might make it difficult for the express... What about 5? Or if Pompom allows us, 10?" You chuckle at her ambition. You can already imagine Pompom going crazy with cleaning all of the fur. Still, a future like that with her sounds quite nice.

"We'll get as many as you want, March."

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ She's not a stranger to the concept of sex, but there are a lot of things that she doesn't know about it. Despite that, or maybe because of that, she's always wanted to try.

: ̗̀➛ March 7th mostly bottoms--she counts on you to take the lead since you're more knowledgeable. She can definitely be the dominant one if asked, though. Top or bottom, her main goal is for both of you to feel good.

: ̗̀➛ Getting tied up and wearing nice lingerie are her favorite things! The intricate designs make March feel prettier, so she sometimes wears them underneath her clothes just for that confidence boost.

: ̗̀➛ She's up for it anytime anywhere mostly, but she's a bit hesitant to have sex in busier places. She likes it when there's a chance of someone spotting the two of you in the act, but she doesn't want to actually get caught. That would scar her for life.

: ̗̀➛ Loves it when you get more assertive. She loves how gentle and caring you are with her, so seeing a side of you that's so different gives her whiplash in the best ways possible.

: ̗̀➛ Her nipples are the most sensitive part of her body. She could have an orgasm just from you playing with them. A close second is her neck, though. Whether you leave kisses all over it or choke it ever so slightly, you're sure to get her gushing in her panties.

"I swear to Akivili, I'm going to kill you once all this is over!" March whisper shouts, turning to face you with an angry red all over her cheeks. Whether it's from embarrassment or arousal you're not sure.

The Astral Express had been invited to a fancy dinner, and as a result, you're spending the night mingling with the other guests; mostly the bigwigs of the planet you had just arrived on.

Or so, that's how March expected the evening would go. Now she's sat on your lap, legs spread as she gets fingered by you under the table. To others, you'd merely look like a young, naive couple in love, unaware of how her cunt drips slick and clamps down on your fingers.

Everyone turns their heads towards both of you when March whimpers in the middle of her sentence. She's quick to dismiss their concerns, and you chuckle at their cluelessness, saying March is just feeling a bit nervous.

You hold her gently by her chin and press a seemingly chaste kiss on her lips, swallowing her moans as she cums all over your hand. The rest of them are left none the wiser to the filthy acts the two of you are committing behind the scenes.

March hates how good you can make her feel.

Firefly

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Your relationship is one full of secrets, but neither of you really mind. You understand that everyone has things that they wouldn't want anyone else to know, and that being their partner doesn't make you an exception.

: ̗̀➛ She doesn't question you when you come home at ungodly hours of the day. You don't question her when she comes home smelling like smoke and motor oil. You rush into each other's embrace regardless of the day you had beforehand. It gives you comfort and warmth and makes you feel like nothing else matters other than being in your lover's arms and the steady beating of their heart.

: ̗̀➛ Her favorite activity to do with you is baking! Neither of you is particularly skilled at it, but she finds the experience therapeutic and wants to share it with you. Firefly also has fun experimenting with the recipe to see what works the best.

: ̗̀➛ Firefly is a very kind and gentle partner, but only when she's awake. When the two of you are in bed together, (which is very rare considering how different your schedules are,) she becomes a heartless monster who hogs literally all of the blankets and pillows. Yes, blankets with an s. You've tried to solve this problem by getting your own, but to no avail.

: ̗̀➛ Honestly, it'd be pretty easy to take the blankets away from Firefly since she isn't very physically strong, but you can't. She just looks so peaceful asleep like this (despite leaving you vulnerable to the cold) and you know that she's tired. Hell, it's probably been a week or two since she's slept this well. You just don't have the heart.

"See, all you have to do is place the icing into the bag and..." Firefly rambles on about the techniques she uses when decorating pastries, even going as far as to give you a live example on the cake rolls the two of you were currently baking.

You cherish every second of these comfortable, domestic moments with her given how rare it is for the two of you to have the whole day to spend with each other like this.

However, there is one problem.

Earlier, you noticed that she accidentally put salt instead of sugar when making the batter. Should you tell her, or let her taste the consequences of her actions?

As you're faced with this life-threatening dilemma, Firefly looks up at you with a concerned expression and asks, "Are you okay, Mira...? We can always do this another time if you want."

For a moment, you almost take pity on her. Thinking of all the nights she took all the blankets and pillows (albeit unconsciously) and left you without protection against the cold, you make your decision. This blanket hogger must be brought to justice.

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ It's good that you're more into soft sex because that's quite literally all that Firefly can handle. Seriously. Don't go rough on her unless you want her to get sent to the hospital.

: ̗̀➛ She can get a bit insecure about this and think that you deserve someone that you won't have to restrain yourself for during sex, but you reassure her that isn't the case and that intimacy isn't the most important part of your relationship with her.

: ̗̀➛ Due to how frail she is, it takes a lot of trust for her to engage in intimacy with someone. Chances are, you're probably her first time. She trusts you to not only make her feel good, but she also trusts that you'll be gentle and respect her boundaries.

: ̗̀➛ She's more on the vanilla side, but being physically weak doesn't stop her from having a few kinks of her own. For the most part, she'd be into getting blindfolded and temperature play.

: ̗̀➛ Whether Firefly is on top or not, she's way too gentle to ever hurt you, even accidentally. She's definitely the type to ask for consent/ask if you're feeling good every 5 minutes, regardless of how horny and desperate she might be.

When Firefly walked through the door with a sense of restlessness in her footsteps, rushing to take off her coat and straddle your hips as you sat on the couch, you already knew what she wanted.

Every time she's away at work (if you can even call it that) for a long time, she comes back all tense and desperate to please you. It's her favorite way to destress, she says. Still, you can never get used to your sweet and gentle Firefly being so... lustful.

Of course, you don't mind and you'd gladly help her take her mind off work, but the contrast in her behavior never fails to catch you off guard.

She buries her face into your neck, breathing heavily as her hands fumble for the waistband of your pants. "Pants, please?" You snap out of your inner monologue and help her.

Once she looks up at you, you can't help but notice the glint in her eyes. It's... different, and hungry. You can't help but be glad that you don't have to wake up early the next morning.

[mayapapaya33]

Knowledge and Power

I've been thinking about this for a while. They are in Vasselheim now, Is the Horn of Orcus ok? Has it been unsealed? Did someone manage to sneakily steal it when the solstice happened? I NEED TO KNOW MATTHEW!!! I'm mid episode 104. I know we have a lot going on right now, but Matt keeps dropping hints about what's happening elsewhere in the world, like Desirat being released from their prison, all of Vasselheim's dead rising, stuff like that. I need to know about the Horn! Come on Matt, give us a problem for Campaign 4! lol. It's great storytelling, fleshing out the reality that Bells Hells are one group of many fighting the good fight and a lot of shit is currently on fire right now. I've loved every bit of it.

The Horn of Orcus was also the first and most prominent time the concept of dangerous knowledge came up in the game. Not just in a "knowledge is power" way, but in that, by knowing the information you are giving power to something bad and opening yourself up to trouble, literally just by possessing the knowledge in your brain. It's such an interesting concept to explore in a magic setting. How knowledge and worship and power intertwine.

I myself am very anti-censorship Irl, but the very rare times it's justified in my opinion are for things like recipes for horrific biological or chemical weapons, stuff like that. That concept can be broadened in the context of magic, like in C2 when reading that book gave Beau and Caleb magic eye herpes lmfao. Usually I am very much on the freedom of information side of things, so Ludinus threatening to share information was a bit of a meh threat to me personally at first. While it would be very disruptive in the short term, and people may indeed kill each other over it, I do think historical truths should be freely disseminated, not hidden for fear that people are too stupid to handle it. (Even though people ARE often too stupid to handle it, we have a right to our own stupidity I feel).

What I'm wondering is if Ludinus is making a subtler play than they are imagining. Yes divide and conquer is a good tactic, and that information will help him get people disagreeing. But more than that, shaking the faith of mass swathes of people all at once CAN'T be good for a Godly constitution. I don't think it's just about swaying people to his cause, I think he's trying to strategically weaken the God's power base before the big throw down with Predathos. Kind of like what Vecna did/ tried to do in late C1. So stopping Ludinus from sharing this information might end up being VERY important in the grand scheme of things.

Yes people already knew the Gods destroyed Aeor, and I think it was even known that the Primes and Betrayers formed a temporary truce to handle the threat. But knowing that information academically and seeing it firsthand are two VERY different things. Seeing the Primes care about and bicker with the Betrayers like... well...siblings, may come as a slap in the face to the truly devout. Also how many people actually knew that about Aeor or that Aeor even existed? Not everyone is proficient in history nor religious studies. Not to drag this too much into the real world, but how many religious people actually read whatever book they claim faith in cover to cover and know the whole history of it? It's definitely not all of them lol.

I bet there's plenty of religious people in Exandria that don't know shit about Aeor. Most people in Vasselheim probably would, because that place is THE God city on Exandria and survived the Calamity, but everywhere else? Unless they were specifically interested in religious history, why would they know it? So the reveal has the potential to be very impactful still, both for it's visceral feeling in exposing a peak into the God's relationships, and their deeds, and it will still be new info for some.

[fuzzyfoe]

I had some more thoughts about that "capitalism is the reason why being an adult sucks" thing I mentioned in response to that ask.

With the way employment works for most people right now it really is just "oh, you want to maintain the connections and meaningful relationships you've formed with people earlier in your life? your friends you went to school with or perhaps even your family members or a significant other? you want to continue to talk to them and hang out with them and form new memories with them? the people who were the most important people in your life? well fuck you lol"

When everybody works eight hours a day (or in my brother's case, even more!!) and everybody starts and ends their shifts at different times and has different days off, it becomes inevitable that some people are going to have their work aligned in such a way that they will never get to see each other. And this can happen with someone who's important to you. Sometimes, if you really wanna catch up with someone, you must sacrifice either a full night's sleep or some of the precious limited paid time off that you're allowed. And I don't think it should be this way. I don't think human beings were meant to live this way.

I think it's this particular situation that's playing a huge factor in what people are calling "social media addiction", in which people spend so much of their waking hours online and they overshare with and seek the approval of strangers they've never met in person because they're being denied enough human connection irl. It's not an issue with people needing to use their phones less and telling people to use their phones less isn't gonna help. It's a systemic issue that's leading to people being isolated, and unless anything is done to fix it people will not have any alternatives other than social media and the internet to socialize and connect with people with, which is a human need.

I feel like this is particularly bad for autistic people, as we have a harder time making new friends and forming new connections with people and often can't with just anyone, whereas neurotypicals may have an easier time forming new relationships with their coworkers to replace the connections with people that they have lost. There's also the time autistic people need to recover from burnout or to recover from having to mask while being at work all day, which eats up even more of the time that could've been used to fulfill the need for human connection that already gets eaten up by the time spent at work and the need to sleep.

[infernothechaosgod]

alright i've been foaming at the mouth bc of this, we all know our beloved michael has more apperance in comics like alot ALOT more and we get to know more abt him and his lore and other characters lore and such so i've been scrolling through comic titlecards with him and i found This

According to description its about mickey working on a case with his ex and it raising some brows with ppl

And I. NEED. TO. READ. IT

I looked into it if mickey has an ex of any sort long before and nothing came up ever zero news, I even made a character bc of it (bc I don't like it when characters first love is also the "true love" of theirs like Let em have some experience pls thats one of the reasons ppl take first break ups so so hard bc they think there never getting that "pure true" but thats a topic for another day)

Now since the ex in question isnt on the cover i speculate there might be some joke like "oh no we just call X activity his ex its an expression lmao" BUT with a fat B

Samatha (mickey's wife/ex-wife) is never mentioned anywhere despite teachnicly being one of his love intrests and I had to find out about her by reading the tanslation of a single comic shes in (that btw got banned you can read it at @ mickeymousemysterymagazine)

So there might be a chance theres accualy an ex of mickey in this comic and I wanna see her (and then I wanna compare her to pallea cuz she was oryginaly made with that intent)

Lisen i know its not a very beloved trope but I just really like seeing how diffrently each relationship played out and what could have been and an ex of a character often can tell you alot about the character themselfs also anytime theres an ex of some sort one of 2 things happens

1 drama

2 the ex is accualy chill

I like both okay, I vibe with both both are entertaining for my small chicken brain (unless it takes some weird turn)

I've been trying to get my hands on a pdf file or a online post or a screenshot or even an irl copy to buy but theres just nothing zero news man ABSOLUTE ZERO

So what im trying to ask is...anyone got a link or knows where to get a link from or anyone sells it?...anyone?

[explaininghellaverse]

Starting this off talking about Stella and a little bit of Stolas where needed since they are linked characters story wise!

First and foremost it’s ok to like villain characters without trying to make them innocent. No one in this shows is innocent and that’s a big point of it. I say this because I see a lot of people that like Stella genuinely trying to make her seem like she’s Stolas victim and- no. Please do not put aside that Stella canonically hits and beats up Stolas. Stolas is a victim of abuse and trying to make him seem like the one in the wrong is soooo distasteful.

You do not block someone like this unless you are so used to them hitting you that you know it’s inevitable.

Stella and Stolas are both victims of their own hierarchy forced to marry someone they don’t love. Forced to have a child with someone they don’t love. They where betrothed at a young age and possible married at young age too if look at irl royals in the past indicates anything.

It’s fair to assume that this effected them both heavily in how they interacted with each other. They never wanted each other and began to despise each other probably from the very start.

So yes in that way Stella is a victim and we may in the future learn more about her that gives her more depth, but honestly as currently stands I like the reason she gives for what she does to Stolas “I like tormenting you!”

Some people call it lazy writing, but it’s not there are really people like this. Hell I’ve interacted with people like this.

We can also see from this photo that’s she’s had a violent streak for a long time. One that from the look of her as an adult was never taught out of her. She’s a violent person, she likes causing things pain. Her pets here and later on Stolas we even see her throwing around and man handling one of their imp servants.

This poor little guy just wants his paycheck not to be thrown by demon royalty.

We also know very early on that she likely never cared about Stolas one way or the other. She throws a party about how they aren’t divorced yet and invites him last minute, in his own house. Then during the party she’s mocking him loudly the entire time. Knowing at least in her mind that he won’t leave.

But- an old friend comes back and sparks life back into Stolas. In a pretty embarrassing way for Stella especially with her friends right there, especially after that party. She’s embarrassed, and that leads to her anger reaching a peek enough to higher an assassin. Because she’s angry and thinks Stolas dying would look better for her image.

All in all she’s not a good person.

I see a lot of people being like “they wrote her this way to baby Stolas” and no I don’t think that’s true at all, him cheating is just straight up not as bad as some people like to make it seem. They were never in love, this was a transactional exchange chosen by their parents. Stolas even says himself “I would be sorry if I hurt you, but we both know that didn’t happen” (which is shortly before she goes to hit him)

The only reason she cares at all is because of the status it gives her.

If the roles were reversed. If Stella had cheated to get out of a bad relationship with Stolas, ask yourself would you call it bad writing? Or are you just uncomfortable that he’s the victim and she’s the perpetrator? Stella isn’t badly written in fact she’s written the same as so many other royals bullying their betrothed spouse the only difference is that she’s a woman.

All I can say is let women be villains and that I find it ironic that the same people that say Stolas is being babyied often try and baby and victimize Stella. Try and deny her actions for as horrible as they truly are. She’s got a temper, she hits, she cares not for those under her, she only cares for her title and she enjoys hurting those under her.

I do hope we see more from her in trial episode.

I also wanted to note that I am pretty passionate about this topic in particular. I grew up in a similar situation as Octavia. Just take away the royal titles, so yeah the I enjoy hurting you as a reason rings very true from my experience.

My dad was not a good person, and he’d hurt her constantly. She escaped from that situation through the love of friend she started dating that gave her enough bravery and support to leave.

This victim blaming bullshit of trying to treat Stella as a good person because Stolas cheated is very black and white thinking that does not hold up. Not at all.

[omegaversetheory]

How would you describe the importance of packs in each type of society? For example, I can see packs being useful in modern society for finding work as the name of your pack can hold a lot of importance/make your resume look good. However, in traditional society, pack are essential for survival in the same way as tribes.

Note - everything is based on the traditional pack, the closer to modern we get, the more we see divergence from that standard.

Traditional - Your pack is your tribe, your town, your community. Packs have geographical permanence in the same way irl people groups did. Important things to note - Packs can have branches that operate similarly to feudalism. There are many people of all dynamics, but there is one main pack leader with several different pack leaders underneath them. Leadership does not need to be based on bloodline, although that's also possible. This often happens when a big pack absorbs small packs into the system - people close to the main pack alpha will be chosen to go lead and establish these new pack off-shoots. Everyone is in a pack, and if you aren't in a pack you're pack-less which is no good. Your pack is your lifeline, and you probably won't leave your pack area ever unless you are married off to another one or hold one of the few pack jobs that requires travel and communication with other packs. Packs are extremely territorial, and you can't go to certain places if your pack isn't allied with that location's ruling pack.

Contemporary - Your pack is still your community but we start to lose that feudalism element. Not everyone describes themselves as being in a pack, but the idea of being pack-less has less weight. You no longer need to depend specifically on your pack for security, food, etc... In the same way that some Americans often refer to themselves in terms of their long heritage (such as Italian-Americans whose closest Italian ancestor was 5 generations ago), people may have a similar feeling to their hereditary pack. Not many people are starting new packs that operate similarly to traditional packs. New packs are more like found families or communities that often don't have a leader or pack organization. If you do have strong pack ties, that could come in handy when it comes to things like getting a job or meeting people. It's the same as being in a sorority or frat, people feel kinship there and alignment with others. You can travel pretty much anywhere except closed-pack lands (unless you have an in).

Modern - Nobody is using traditional pack language and it's seen as antiquated and old-fashioned/conservative to still be actively in one (traditional). It's common for people who live in extremely rural areas to still be somewhat attached to it but other than that most people wouldn't say they're pack-attached. There are very few closed-pack lands, and those places are pretty much 100% closed off to outsiders, It's not like in the contemporary au where you can come depending on your affiliation. These are truly closed communities. If you list your pack heritage on a resume or official document you are either a super old person, or it's assumed you have some elitist/ultra-conservate viewpoints. More people now use packs to describe their community or group of friends or found family, but this is more anecdotal because packs don't have names, they don't have location permanence, they don't have an internal economy, etc.. Unless you are from a royal bloodline the name of your ancestors means less than nothing.

Post-Modern - There isn't necessarily a post-modern view because a post-modern view acknowledges the simultaneous existence of multiple cultures, religions, and customs within a single world. There is no common way of things "universally" in this world, the norms with be derivative of the culture in which the story takes place. p

[arminsumi]

Hi my angel 😘😘 do you have any writing tips when it comes to plot and description and dialogue?

Becuz I have read so many of your works and each time I’m blown away with how much amazingness your writing has!! You’ve inspired me to write stories so I just figured I would ask you writings tips 🙂‍↕️ hope you have a amazing day lovey

aaa thank u sososo much?? i can't believe i've inspired u to write that's so cool... 💗🙈

i'm really not too good at writing or explaining but here's how i approach these things... i hope it's helpful!! 😗✌️

here is a resource that might help;

helpfulprofessor.com on writing skills and text types and tropes

and here is kerouac's advice to writers which i cling to.

plot ✨

i base a lot of things on real-life 👀 ...of course i turn it into fiction and i'm not writing autobiographical form on tumblr... lol.

i just mean some stories are inspired by real life experiences. personal experiences are very rich and the plot will shape nicely.

this year i've turned lots of experiences into stories, of course i totally romanticized them bc that's kinda what we writer's do ig since real-life is not poetic, it's just kind of a mess lol

also asking second opinions and sometimes even stranger's opinions can help clarify plot points that aren't adding up.

try to outline plots or they can become a messy web. you don't need to plan it out neatly, you just need some sort of guideline for yourself so that you don't go off the rails or forget what your purpose for writing is lol (i still do that sometimes bc i am extremely lazy and don't plan things very often bc... spontaneous writing is more fun)

description ✨

honestly just say it how it is bc descriptions that come from a true place will feel true if that makes sense??

lots of times i find myself deleting descriptions bc i worry that the reader is getting bored bc i can get pretty wordy. using too many adjectives is generally something i try to avoid unless it's working well — literary devices are worth learning about.

but if you feel like your descriptions are boring or too long-winded then i'd suggest employing alliteration or other literary devices (like metaphors) that produce rhythmic effects on readers. imo the beats of alliteration make it fun to read stuff word by word, i just rlly go to town on it bc i love it hehehe 🌷 anything with repetition really

keeping it short can be fun too. ik it's hard to find specific words but try talking to people or reading lots of different types of literature to get the juices flowing. sometimes a good conversation can spark my imagination because someone has used very specific words. i'd say reading classics is really good for helping vocabulary but also be wary of dated words lol.

dialogue ✨

you could read this or watch this

i've gotten into the habit of analyzing the way people speak whenever i'm talking to them, even if it's just brief conversations.

the reason this helps with writing dialogue is because you start to understand how conversations actually flow, how people actually respond — it can help to make dialogue between characters more fluid and realistic and then in turn this makes it more believable for the reader. i like to observe what vocal inflexions people use and try translate it for myself as a speech tag.

idk i just sort of go about life with the attitude of like "how do i describe that with words" kind of like exercising your drawing skills by drawing anything you see day-to-day.

also i just want to say that it's not necessary to be talkative and extroverted bc you can also just like... gather this stuff from tv shows and literature and other forms of media too. i just yap a lot irl so it's my main mode of analyzing speech and stuff.

smth i'm just recently learning to employ more often in dialogue is implying responses from other characters.

so like character A says something, they're currently speaking to character B, and instead of switching to character B and writing a whole new line break for new dialogue, i just kinda wedge in a reaction into character A's dialogue like;

Character A: "nice weather we're having, huh? yeah, i know. i also like penguins."

ok this is like goofy and nonsensical, but it's just an example. so from the above text, you can gather that character B likes penguins without even needing to write their dialogue "i like penguins."

it's kinda neat and adds more diversity.

anyways ✨

i would highly encourage anyone to spend time learning how form, structure and language are used together in a text (literary analysis skills) bc even tho text analysis may seem boring and hard to learn, it will help with your writing and then u can do cool stuff 🍰

[devilagent]

My dear! Would you talk about Angie and Nicky’s relationship and how you see it?

nicky & angie inquiry / always accepting asks !

FIRSTLY - TYSM FOR SENDING ME A QUESTION!!! i love getting inquires about nicholas blair and i really appreciate it a lot!!! sorry for the delay in replying since so much happened irl to me :'3 it's okay we stay silly, we stay playing warlock hijinks 💜

as for how i view nicky & angies dynamic - i am sure i'm in the small percentage of people ( if any really! ) that view their dynamic more like disastrous siblings.

i touched a bit on that topic in a different ask preluding to this one, i know some fans may ship them together! i'm not really big on shipping those two romantically because as i said, i mainly have seen abusive takes and written fics about them - specifically on nicholas behalf toward angelique!

i mean i CAN see the appeal some fans may have about Nicholas/Angelique in that sense, don't get me wrong! enemies to lovers, enemies that stay enemies, enemies with benefits, etc. i Understand and acknowledge that! in my personal view it would be very hard to spin either of them having any kind of healthy romantic relationship. there may be fans out there who might prefer it that way but i'm not one of them. shrugs!

for my own interpretation of their dynamic - they bicker, never see eye to eye with each other and they are competitive… they taunt each other too lol they both try to one-up each other on the regular, trying to gain diabolos favor.

thing is, THEY don't see each other as siblings but that is how i would consider them to be - i love interpreting them this way because it is fun and entertaining. i jokingly refer to them as brother and sister often ^_^

an amusing example i have is the clip where nicholas adamantly wants to be the one to kill jeb. it radiates petty sibling energy so much its hilarious

i believe that in a general sense, diabolos favors angelique over nicholas, which drives him up a wall and makes his teeth grind in irritation. i would say this is backed up by canon, because diabolos is generous with giving angelique chances and solemnly gives nicholas the same treatment unless nicholas comes up with a scheme. the favoritism is real and nicholas got bitchy older brother syndrome

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Author Interview

Thank you for the tag @galadrieljones!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

111 (I wrote a lot of one shots back in the day)

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

1,226,141

3. what fandoms do you write for?

I have written for Dragon Age, Resident Evil, Red Dead Redemption 2, ASOIAF/GOT, and recently Baldur's Gate. Also, the The Mirror Visitor book series, and another certain video game fandom that we now don't talk about, heheh.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

-Love Song on Sapphire Isle, Jaime x Brienne, GOT/ASOIAF

-In Waking Dreams, Cullen x Quiz, DAI

-The Sweetest Sorrow, RDR2, Arthur x Charlotte,

-Voila, Leon x Ada, Resident Evil

-Our Immortal Longings, Connor x OFC, DBH

5. do you respond to comments?

As much as I can! If someone leaves me a string of comments in succession I'll usually reply to the most recent.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

There was a one-shot where I explored the Inquisitor losing Cullen, and nothing will top that. However, in my small series Leon and Ada fics there tends to be a note of sadness in each one, even if the main fic has a happy ending.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my longfics have happy endings, but I find it doesn't ring true to life if everything is happyhappyjoyjoy. It probably also depends on what your definition of happiness is. Probably Love Song on Sapphire Isle because Jaime and Brienne get married and literally have a pack of children and travel the world--the ending written solely to say Fuck you to the GOT writers for doing that to Jaime and brienne, and at this point I can't count on GRRM for a happy ending for them.

I mean that's what I want, so I would say this ending. (I'd prefer 2/3 kids however, LOL.)

8. do you get hate on fics?

I've been fortunate but I've had a few frankly very stupid comments over the years. One person claimed I was a fetishist because I noted Cullen and Lydia gain weight when they retire but they still think each other is hot. It's more accurate to say I've received unsolicited concrit, which I'm sorry, is and forever will be annoying when you don't ask for it. concrit is helpful, but don't give it when the author doesn't ask. Trust me, we will ask when we want it from people we trust.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I used to write a lot...and I used to enjoy it a lot, but frankly at this point in my life I find I don't enjoy writing it as much unless there's a character exploration to it or something else beneath the surface. I joked a while ago that falling for an IRL man killed my smut writing career, but I think it's more accurate that as I started writing original fiction again I learned to be more purposeful with sex.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

No, but there is a scene in In Waking Dreams that is an homage, if not outright rip off of my favorite scene in one of my favorite movies, That Hamilton Woman. It's the scene before he gives her the coin when they're staying at in inn

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Also not that I know of. I'd honestly love it!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

No

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

Cullen x Inquisitor for getting me into writing again, but it honestly fluctuates.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I am quite proud of myself for finishing most of the fics I've begun. The one fic though I'd love to finish would be my Morrigan x warden fic simply because it's not a ship I see often. At this point however I'm not going to say I am done with fanfic, but my priorities have shifted.

16. what are your writing strengths?

I have been told it's lyrical, poetic writing and characterization.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

I like to rely on dialogue and my descriptions tend to me minimal. There is a fine line of course, too much description will bog a story down.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Should be used sensibly and sparingly and you should know what you're doing. Read a book fairly recently where the characters were bilingual, Spanish and English, and as someone who grew up with a lot of Spanish speakers it rang hollow to me.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age

20. favourite fic you've written?

Why is this so hard? I like them all to a certain degree. There's just something about my one shot Leon and Ada fic Barcelona though. I hadn't even been in the city yet and I still think I got it down so well. The utter helplessness, the slight angst, the longing, the pinning. It reminds me of a version of me that I can't go back to, a version of me so etched in that certain point in time, and yet you wouldn't know it unless you were me. You'd just read it and say "yes."

tagging @myreia @verai-marcel @fiannans @wintersongstress and anyone else!

[hollyisanonymous]

How about uhhhhhhhhhh how about a Warrior Cats Opinion? I haven't read since like vol. 3 of DotC but every time I see someone my age who's read it I'm like *points* MY BRETHEREN

inhales loudly - it took me like 12 hours to get to this solely bc i have SO many opinions on these stupid cat books. like ough i think abt these books more than anyone reasonable should be

anyway here's some culture/biology thoughts on warcats;

i like the idea that the Clans have specific accents between each of them. it's very subtle, and you wouldn't hear it unless you were also from the Clans, but like. there are little differences to their dialects. there's a universal "Clan" accent, of course, but cats born and raised will be able to pick out subtle quirks between each specific Clan.

also it's a pet peeve how the books dont really utilize cat body language or behavior like. at all. adult cats dont meow at each other often irl, allogrooming gets basically forgotten about after arc 1, nobody is nocturnal, like. hm makes me sad. i don't like people who are like "🤓eerm realistically the toms would kill kittens-" because that just seems unnecessary, but i would like the books to take more advantage of the fact that they're CATS!!!!

hey also crazy how they use the term "tom" but not molly???? like female intact cats are called mollies i dont understand why they picked one but not the other. ig tom is a more well known term, but. seems weird and inconsistent to me and i dont like it!!

also like. yes 6 month old cats are roughly adult sized but their proportions are all off so i do still like to see apprentices being referred to as smaller. they're gangly teenagers still!!! same thing with "🤓erm actually 6 mo old cats are sexually mature-" technically yes, but any AFAB child who has gotten their period can get pregnant, too. that does not mean they SHOULD. the amount of people who don't know how animals mature is buckwild to me sjdkdj. like apprentices are VERY easily analogous to human teens. cats aren't technically full adults until 1-1.5 years old. kinda like how humans aren't technically full adults until their mid 20s. hm. crazy.

also i want to know when exactly Clan names switched from the DOTC style of Two Words to the modern version of Prefixsuffix. we have seemingly anachronistic examples - leader names, Windstar's dead kid Emberkit, etc - but for the most part we don't know when the change-over happened and i am SO curious about that. Every other group does not use the naming system that the Clans do and i'm absolutely fascinated with the potential history of it.

ok that's all i got rn ajsksksns ty for enabling my ramblingz :]

[toournextadventure]

I just want to say that your fics make me want to create big families in my fics! 🖤 Any tips for someone wanting to write that but doesn’t have a big family irl?

- 🎸

You're darn right I've got tips! Just remember this is all from my own personal experiences with my big family, and we're honestly a pretty odd bunch, but I feel like it's fairly universal for some things! Also, none of these are requirements for big families, you could probably write anything and it would be accurate for a big family. (I'll put some tips/info under the cut so I don't clog y'all's feed)

Picture the most chaotic situation you've been in. Now multiply it by 10. Every get together is chaos, whether good or bad. Everyone is talking over each other, people are getting lovingly bullied, siblings are going to threaten each other with the most heinous things you can possibly imagine. This is normal, this is a love language, let it happen

Someone is always going to have their feelings hurt for one reason or another. They got talked over at dinner. They roasted their sibling and then said sibling roasted them back. Everyone is ganging up on them to roast them. They're the one who has to sit in the middle of the couch instead of on either side. Very rarely is it for a "genuine" reason, and they get over it after guilt tripping everyone about whatever they're upset about

If they have any sort of good relationship with each other, they are Ride. Or. Die. Even if they don't talk or see each other all that often. They would literally go to jail for their sibling(s) if it truly came down to it. Obviously if it was something ridiculous they would go "no officer, I've never seen them before in my life," but in a genuine emergency? They would be there, no hesitation, hands down

Let. Them. Be. Assholes. Full stop

Parents have favourites! Not in a "I'm going to neglect the others" kind of way (unless that's the writing route you're going, of course), but in a "no I don't have favourites, yes I would only bail this one child out of jail" kind of way. And they don't always have the same favourite kid. More often than not, the kid is painfully aware that they're the favourite. The siblings will bully them for it until they cry

If we're talking extended family, there will be so much gossip. (My family for example), my two uncles were in jail for half of their lives. One of my uncles is a certified Whore™️. My aunt has been divorced twice, each time to literally the same man. We discovered only 5 years ago that we have secret family members somewhere because back in the 40s and 50s they were born out of wedlock and put up for adoption. If you think of something that would be juicy and think "hmm, that seems too out there" it's not. It's literally not. Write it, because I guarantee it has happened to some big family somewhere

Learning Secret History™️ is a rite of passage as the kids/grandkids/etc. get older. This does not happen all at once, it happens in stages. When they turn 18, when they're settled adults, when they finally have kids/get married. This Secret History™️ will reveal itself suddenly, and no one will even know how to react to it, and everything will go on as normal as if nothing had even happened

Depending on the family, family game nights are a thing! My family plays CoD zombies or Jackbox Games (usually). Let them have a game night on the instances where they're all finally together. And during that game night? They will be just shy of shedding blood. There's screaming, accusations of cheating, paranoia that everyone is ganging up against you (they are). Family does not exist during game night, only victory

End of the day? Let them love each other. They might not always verbalise an "I love you," but they will show it. We make each other lunch if we're already cooking. We share our snacks. We exist in the same room. We literally go into each others' room, mess something up, and leave without saying a word. But when it really matters, they say "I love you" because they do love each other

[sophieinwonderland]

We have so many thoughts on the "imitative DID" bs

We agree with everything you said. We have DID, we're pretty sure we're diagnosed.

Seeing it is filled with ableism about cluster B disorders is fucking awful. And this whole idea that having headmates alleviates the blame magically just demonstrates how unaware people are. System accountability is a massive thing!

And like different systems may have different levels of amnesia or amnesia for different things. Yeah sometimes we don't remember doing X bad thing! Genuineally. Based on who's fronting. Because usually those "bad things" are done in joint with a reaction to a trigger and us blowing up + going overboard. Who knew that alters with severe reactions because of not being well adjusted and understanding they're no longer in a trauma environment might have more barriers than others.

People also love for some reason to use documented symptoms of having trauma or even documented symptoms of DID as somehow being symptoms of... not having it.

And gods the way they treated that poor woman...

---------------- Now onto the "hysterical group" as they called it which I know they'd lump us under

We have a shit ton of amnesia. We are usually ambivalent to it. Often we both find it amusing and will sob and cry and get angry and feel nothing and laugh. Because with our multiple issues comes no emotional regulation. Shocker we have autism as well which makes us in our case collectively not be capable of comprehending emotions. We feel them but we literally with our form of the disability and how it affects us- are incapable of understanding emotions.

We also have excessive and extreme amnesia- we're one of the very extreme cases. And because we're an extreme case- these people would've shut us down. Somehow being so amnesic you have score "too high" is a red flag for these people?

And yeah we're happy with each other. Which our therapist AGREES with being a good thing. Some alters hate each other too but like eh it happens sometimes. (We're a massive system). And yeah we do actually state who's fronting if asked. Our therapist asks every session. And though we do have a mostly covert form of switching she can pick them out because she's a therapist who has seen this many times before. We when somewhat masking as we tend to irl even in her office have similar voices and unless it's a jump from one alter archetype to another- similar posture. But she can pick up on us dropping off and re-adjustng and asking to go over what was said or the lies of "zoning out" and "oh sorry I got distracted" that we're used to having to do.

We also tend to have our autism cause us to use very big words. And this is in all contexts as well. So I can definitely back that one up.

And then of course the addition sexism, sexualization, mockery, claiming of lying about trauma (because people love to ignore reality- we literally sobbed when our therapist first told us she believed us because that is the first time anyone irl has said that to our face- it is the only time we have felt safe in almost 2 decades).

And not even touching on the false memories topic. Literally earlier today (or yesterday its around midnight as I write this) we told our therapist about how people have claimed this to be real and she got genuineally mad. Incredibly upset and was very helpful in making sure we weren't slipping back into denial and going to spiral because of it again. It's something that is not and never has been a real scientific theory and all "evidence" of it does not meet the criteria to be considered viable.

A lot of people with trauma struggle to accept they have it. And especially in this case where the example they used was a MCSA (mother csa)- it really plays into sexism again. Part of sexism is also the idea women can't be abusers. This is something that has plauged trauma spaces for a while and driven out a lot of survivors. People think it's weird when a survivor is just as scared of women as men. Or is only scared of women and not men. people assume men are seen as scary and women are safe and docile as default. And that just is genuine sexism.

(sorry this was so long lol)

☝️👏

Agreed on all points. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences, and for this incredibly detailed and well-written addition! 💖

[haemosexuality]

I SPENT LIKE AN HOUR THINKING ABOUT A LN NIGHTMARES X MAGNUS ARCHIVES CROSSOVER  🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 AND THEN ANOTHER HOUR WRITING IT DOWN 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

specifically like, what entities would each character be part of

first off: in my brain this is like, a world in which the powers succeeded at coming into reality, and the different places we see are kind of like.... different domains? but overall less separate than they are in the tma canon, its all sort of a mess. also obv since its a crossover au its quite different from my interpretation of how the ln world works.

PALE CITY

mono/the thin man: obviously my first thought was immediately "EYE" but if you think about it he's WAY more spiral than eye. he can mess with reality, with perception. quite literally he distorts things. he is glitches and time fuckery. 100% spiral

the signal tower is a SpiralxEye mix, with the physical location of the tower itself being a manifestation of the Spiral, while the weird eye flesh thing is an obvious mix of Beholding with a touch of Flesh.

the tower fucks up reality, time and space, its full of impossible geometry and distorted things and time not working right. it wants to confuse and trap you, and unless you know what youre looking for (mono following the music box), ur gonna be running in circles in there forever (like how michael and helen managed to overcome the distortion bc they had maps).

the flesh walls does surveillance, it can watch the whole city through the televisions, it gets people by Knowing what they want most and showing it to them, and eventually pulling them through the TVs and into itself (the Flesh part). it watches the entire city and no one is safe from it.

the city is then mixed Spiral-Beholding domain,  the signal tower spread fear through the city with the transmission, distorting it, and then the flesh wall came in and hijacked it a bit, starting the surveillance.

the doctor: 100% stranger. its mannequins come to life cmon. the people that went to him tho were mostly affected by the flesh, unhappy w their bodies and wanting the doctor to "fix" them (the part of the flesh that deals with body dysmorphia).

hunter: the hunt. obviously

the teacher/school: this one im not sure, but i think Eye? not so much for six and mono who just kind of passed through there, but for the porcelain kids living there. like think about it, theyre all terrified of the teacher bc they know shes watching them and could get them doing something wrong. irl too, the fear of school comes from the paranoia that youre gonna be judged by other students, or Found Out by the teachers. so i like that as my final answer

the viewers: i have no clue tbh. they could be so much. they have both the eye and the spiral hypnotizing them, they fit the stranger cuz well theyre fucking weird, the whole hive mind thing they appear to have going on and the lack of free will reminds me of the web, and the mindless violence is very slaughter? i actually rlly liked the slaughter answer bc the tvs, the things hypnotizing them, are often playing music which is a common way the slaughter manifests? but that would mean tvs are slaughter ON TOP of everything else so idk

THE MAW

obviously its the flesh. theres not much going on in here besides cannibalism. Six, the chefs and the guests are also flesh.

shadow six could be a manifestation of the spiral, it Was created in the signal tower after all. its there to make six question her sanity. six's hunger exists for the same reason as it does in game (surviving the tower when people Definitely are not supposed to made her lose part of herself, like her spirit or soul or whatever, and so her physical body not being able to process something metaphysical like that, seeks to fill that empty space somehow. hm losing a part of your Self after surviving an encounter with an avatar is a thing that happens in the podcast actually, georgie and her fear. its kind of like that)

the lady tho, initially id say shes flesh too since she runs the place, but idk how much she actually... does? the maw seems to have its own force going on, shes just kind of there. strolled in one day and said Hey I Rule This Now and everyone just went Sure. and she herself doesnt seem to have much interest in the whole cannibalism thing going on? she doesnt Partake she just oversees it. I think the lady fits the dark very well, she can disappears into shadows or even kind manipulate them. she also fits the end since she literally has the power so suck life force out of ppl. which is probably how she survives, like that one statement giver who kept dying and stealing ppl lives. WAIT I JUST READ HER WIKI PAGE AGAIN AND SHES DESCRIBED AS "CASTING A HYPNOTIC SPELL THAT KEEPS [THE MAW] RUNNING" THATS SO WEB. theres so many possibilities aaaaaa. wait i have an idea.

"The Lady has been in The Maw for a long time. She’s learned all sorts of unpleasant things during her residence. It’s best that we don’t scratch the surface.". what if she's like mary or leitner? she has a huge fuck off library, which might be where she learned so many things from. she could be someone (maybe an avatar of the web) that learned how to use abilities of all the fears without falling into them. which is why she can sap out people's life like The End, manipulate shadows like The Dark, rule a domain of the Flesh, watch over people with the Eye (the cameras and overall eye imagery) etc. i really like that actually.

the janitor: idk stranger? he works at the maw but he also doesnt seem part of the whole cannibalism thing. hes mostly portrayed as a creepy guy (not in a great way bc the game is just like. wow look how weird blind people are with the way they. are blind. but it does end up being all he does in the game). plus he has dolls

runaway kid wasnt part any fears; he was just a victim.

more random stuff:in general, the way the game makes the kids really small and everything else really really huge to show just how powerless they are is like, capital v Vast. the nest is a domain of the stranger but idk enough about the lore of that place to ascribe fears to indiviual characters. also i havent read the comics in a while but i might do that at some point and then ill give fears for those characters too. thats all i thought of i think

[gingerylangylang1979]

The Personal Lives of Celebrities

It is easy to get sucked into the personal lives of celebrities. Just like spoilers, it’s hard to ignore “news” if you engage with social media at all and it’s hard to resist wanting to know more about people you crush on and who’s work you admire. But really, what can you ever truly know besides what’s presented to you? And what’s present to you, is just that, a presentation. 

I would like to think people I am fans of are great drama-free people but even when I see evidence of such I always take it with a grain of salt. It could be true, it could be all a front, or it could be a mix of both. For any number of accounts praising someone like a saint there could be something mentioned down the road to discredit it. Someone can be “good” or “bad” depending on the moment. And with celebrities all we get are snapshots that are open to interpretation. 

Recently there has been a phenomenon of wanting to cancel people based on bad behavior. Each person has a level of tolerance for someone’s behavior. I can not care about some things and other things are deal breakers. That’s natural. But what I see often is a lack of giving grace and thinking someone cannot be redeemed. We right off people and want to strip them of dignity and a way forward because they stumbled. This happens IRL, this happens online and I think it’s sad. We may evolve or we may keep fighting the same demons forever. We all deserve dignity either way. 

These thoughts were sparked by the recent news of Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin divorcing. I’m a huge fan of his and it has been hard to stay away from gossip. I’m not perfect and have fallen into the temptation to be in the know but ever since the first rumblings, I was like eh. I know in my heart it’s none of my business and that anything posted is only speculation unless confirmed. I mean confirmed by the parties involved. Any piece of a rumor could be true, it could all be false, or the whole thing could be true. We don’t know unless there is actual proof and acknowledgment. All we have to go on is a separation filing, a divorce filing, two blind items, one person’s Instagram post, and another person’s silence. 

I have opinions about these things, of course, but in no way do I have any conclusions. I can’t condemn anyone’s character. How am I supposed to know? Both parties could be messy, one could be innocent, both could be innocent but all we know is there is a family that has been broken by broken people. I say broken people not to vilify but to humanize. Some of the issues could be very Hollywood but broken families and drama happen with anyone, no matter their status or environment. 

I will continue to be a fan of Jeremy because of his work. That could change but it won’t be based on gossip. I can’t be worried if he is the victim, villain, or both in whatever the true story is. Everyone involved just needs prayer and support regardless of what happened.