#usually when i'm making character sets i like to include at least one where theyre covered in blood pathetic core

[recapitulation]

Estelle Chen as Su Xiaoyong and Guan Hemeng in Mysterious Lotus Casebook // 莲花楼 (2023)

[ID: gifs of the character Su Xiaoyong from the series "Mysterious Lotus Casebook." They show her looking pensively to the side, glaring at Di Feisheng, furrowing her eyebrows, shyly speaking, looking amused while she is dressed as Guan Hemeng, looking surprised when she sees Li Lianhua in a mask, looking concerned, blinking pensively, proudly holding up a basket of food, and pouting. /end ID]

[floral-poisons]

MY LIEGE HELP I RECENTLY WATCHED TANAKA KUN IS SO LISTLESS AND I CANT STOP BRAINROTTING ABT IT

its slice of life/comedy and lowkey kinda queercoded like i sense a smidge of pqr around here yk

anyway since req are open ! hope you dont kind if i request malleus, jade, rook and whoever else you want with an gn s/o thats really tired all the time ??

like s/o is so tired all the time they end up have to carry them to class all the time. (maybe a scenario where theres like a fire drill and the character lost their s/o in the building. they got lost bc theyre always carried all the time so they dont know where the emergency routes are AJSJDJD)

or maybe one time it rained and they were almost at their dorm and it was raining a lil, whatever no biggie, but then it started pouring and they were like "just a lil more. i can make it" and got sick the next dayAHEUDJF

headcanon or scenario up to you !!! i just want to embrace my new kin Tanaka he is such a weirdo and i love him so muchAUAJHWJDG

KFDSMKGDM!! I AM A LIEGE NOW?! faints

i've never heard of this but i will put it on my neverending list of anime to watch!! i'm happy to provide this for you anon.

i also included riddle because why not?

MALLEUS DRACONIA

someone set the alchemy room on fire. again. this had to be like the fifth time this week (albeit it didn’t happen during the science club this time around). everyone evacuated the building and was waiting for the whole thing to be under control, which wouldn’t take long.

malleus had no trouble getting out. he was feeding his digital pet while waiting for the whole situation to blow over-

“malleus-sama, where’s (y/n)?” sebek asks. “usually they’re with you.”

malleus almost dropped his digital pet. “(Y/N)!!!” he exclaims, running back inside the building. it was rare to see malleus panic. he had accidentally left you in the building!

eventually he found you. you were wandering around, and it wasn’t far from the exit he entered through. he could only sigh in relief as he took your hand while you yawned. “you always come to my rescue~” you smile.

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

getting through assignments was tough when you were tired. all the time. but your boyfriend was riddle rosehearts so he was going to get you to finish your work one way or another.

“alright (y/n). there’s one more problem...” he wanted to cry seeing how many parts there were. that was literally half the alphabet! how did professor crewel expect them to do it? “we got this!”

“yeah! we got this!” you smiled.

it only took about five hours. you fell asleep. riddle decided to say “fuck it” and did the whole problem before adding the answers to a sheet. he’d let you use it when you woke up. although he was too tired to go back to his dorm and fell asleep on your carpet.

“hmm? are we done?” you yawned as you woke up. you looked back at riddle before picking him up and putting him in a guest room. he worked hard. he deserved to rest.

ROOK HUNT

“rook! rook!” you whined as you followed him in the hallway. you two were heading to class.

“yes trickster? what can i do for you?” he smiles.

“do you think we can dance today? i want to continue my lessons!” you pouted. you had asked rook to help you multiple times. though it seemed that most of the time ended with you falling asleep.

“ah okay. we’ll meet at the pomefiore ballroom for practice later. okay?” he smiled upon seeing your excited nod.

turns out today would be like those most times where you fell asleep on rook’s chest while you two were dancing. he kept you up. but he enjoyed the quiet atmosphere and being close to you. it was peaceful compared to the hectic environment of nrc.

JADE LEECH

“can’t i at least get out of bed!” you whine. you were trying to sit up but fell back down, feeling the intense fatigue take over your body again. you could feel how much your body wanted to sleep.

“no. look you can barely stand up.” he huffs. “you got sick from yesterday’s shower. and you must deal with the consequences.” jade helps you sit up and uses multiple pillows to prop you up.

“i was so close.” you pout.

“well it’s not so bad.” jade puts the tray of food on your lap. “i mean, i get to spend the day with you. and hopefully not get sick. i probably won’t. my immune system is impeccable, as azul would say.”

“well that means you’re the best boyfriend.” you yawned.

[doodlesfromthebird]

(1/3) Previous question-asker here! Thx for giving such a detailed answer - I’ll refer back to this post when I get stuck. Im a lil baby writer - my art skills r more developed, but when it comes 2 making characters, theyre usually for stories I wanna write. Someday. Writing's hard. & I think it’s cool that one of the tips you gave was to interview your characters - my current fav OC group are all in a band, and when I first came up with them I pretended to interview them for a music magazine X)

(2/3) Plot’s a struggle for me too - tbh, the reason I started developing my OCs/worlds more was bc I tried to write a story plot-first, & ran into a brick wall bc I didn’t know the characters or setting that well. With that in mind, how do u know when ur done? When is a character or setting complete enough to write about? Theoretically you could just keep going forever, but do u have any markers you use 2 figure out when an aspect of character creation or worldbuilding is “finished”?

(3/3) [srry for sending so many asks omg, the character limit is ramble-phobic] but thank you for including those worldbuilding prompts!! They're exactly what I needed. You’ve inspired me to make a little guide for myself on character/design, trope and setting stuff that I think is cool, so that I can go back to it when I need new ideas. Thanks again, happy late birthday and good luck with whatever you decide to do with the Spiral universe! No need to apologize at all! I really enjoy the discussion!

I've always been character first, handwave plot for a few years until it puzzle pieces together into...something. Nothing water tight, but something I can at least give a semi in-depth synopsis of *most* of the things that go on in the story lol

I think its SO COOL that you gave your band-members a little interview for a music magazine -- that's exactly what I'm talkin about! And so fun, too!! And it sounds like it'd be something that would end up in the world itself, which is perfect.

"When is a character complete enough to write about?" I definitely recommend keeping an eye out on advice from your fellow writers, but... I personally think you can go on as much as you'd like to! As long as it hasn't become an excuse to delay in actually sitting down and writing for them in your story. (like ME lmao) Because sometimes smaller details just end up filling themselves in as you go along. I think you're fairly set if you have a good grasp on their personality, how they would react in a varying level of situations, what their goals, wants and fears are (and what have they experienced to have those develop) You may even want to write a character-focused little one-shot separate from the story that would help feel things out, while also establishing a mundane or significant moment in their lives, independently from everything else. This goes for multiple characters who are like a package deal. Like a pairing or a close-knit team that influence each others lives. Maybe even to convince you that the character is who you say they are. Like, it's one thing to say a character's charming, it's another to write about a moment where they're interacting with others in a way you actually find endearing and likable to back that up in your own head. Even while I was writing a rough script for a scene in a potential web-comic idea for Damian and Rio (the merman and vampire) a lot of small things started falling into place about the characters and world-building just started to SPRING FORTH, and I only had a general idea on how the scene would have gone, with key moments. From writing dialogue and character actions on the fly, I discovered: more about both characters body language, vampire lore and more how vampires function, a solid example of what an emotionally heavy conversation looks between the two of them, and more examples that convinced me of the chemistry between the two of them, in ways that I wanted.

Sometimes you get caught up in a creative current and suddenly you've blasted through like 3 pages of ideas. This goes for world-building too because characters are so frequently affected by the world around them in various ways. World-building is often something I overthink and I end up a fretting over about a lot of things that probably would be cumbersome to list in grand detail about anyway, but sometimes its fun to just think about, y'know? and if you're having fun then that's all that really matters. I'd say a general knowledge of what a general day of living in this world would look like, and maybe how it would affect the people living there long-term. What really sets the stage and how does it change over time, if at all. What makes waves and changes what was normal in either the world at large or for your characters.

The thing that personally always stumps me is structures of power and politics, and those are often times the real gear grinders of stories.

BAH I'M RAMBLING, MYSELF. I honestly wish you the best of luck with your characters and worldbuilding and I truly can't wait for you to fall in love with them. More than anything, try to be easy on yourself and the process and start with what brings you the most joy. Everything else will follow. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes!! :3

[xcherry-popx]

I have to go to bed now so I won't see your reply for a while but please feel free to like,, tell me as much about ur daydreaming/your experience with madd!! it helps me figure stuff out and I really enjoy reading ur thoughts and stuff (sorry if that,, doesn't make sense I'm sleepy orz)

you have unlocked: info dump! 

im going to split this up into parts!

part one: what it feels like

for me, it tends to be super immersive, especially if im not on any mental health meds! everything else turns into a dark grey, making my daydream more and more appealing. i think my daydreaming is also linked with my dissociation, but i can daydream without it. inside my daydreams, i personally can see both what my pov would look like and also everything else at the same time, kind of like when you know what your room looks like blindfolded. i can still see the outside world, but i tend to ignore it or do an easy task like pacing.

i can also feel things like things im touching, or if i have, for example a different outfit or longer hair, im able to feel that too, along with any injuries! however, i know my daydreams are unusually immersive, so i know it may be different for others

part two: triggers for my madd

songs tend to set things off, as do fanfics or headcanons i read about! also, when i read, my daydreams go wild, and the pov becomes the main character. after i read, i tend to add different details or rerun scenes as part of my own daydreams! that happens after watching game playthroughs, too. also, all my kin memories are pretty much just daydreams that i realized i couldn’t control or change, or that felt way to familiar

part three: side effects i experience

as i mentioned before, i can feel any injuries. it hurts, and plays on repeat over and over, even if i try to drown it out with different daydreams, often for at least a few hours. i also have intrusive daydreams about violence happening, or scenes involving my parents. 

often times, my parame has an abuser (often a relationship partner, although parental abusers do occur), and i become extremely scared of things that remind me of in daydream abusers. the things that happen to parame can feel like they happen to me, and i end up with new fears afterwards.

i tend to have intrusive daydreams whenever i am in a dark place, causing me to have an extreme fear of being alone in the dark as a result.

my feet often ache due to pacing for so long, and i usually forget to eat or drink while daydreaming. my ears also have begun to ring at times, i suspect as a side effect of listening to music loudly to create a more immersive daydream.

i often tend to adopt my paras habits, but since all my paras tend to be unhealthy versions of myself, it tends to also include negative habits.these are most often rudeness, isolation, and suspicion of everyone else around me irl.

i feel my parames feelings, so i end up being angry at others or extremely sad for days on end. my feelings tend to change fast, and my heart will begin to ache deeply if the daydreams switches emotional tones too often

i have intrusive sexual thoughts due to my ocd, and to combat this i try thinking up sexual daydreams with my f/o’s, even if i dont really want to, and it tend to leave me feeling distressed.

theres probably more, but those are the ones that come to mind right away.

part four: paracosm dump

i wanted to include a positive end after discussing the negative side effects, but this part will be under the cut

glitch: set in the bnha universe! glitch is the quirk parame has. the story is mainly set in an alternate universe. pretty, much, i was brought into the checkpoint (a small pocket universe created by one of my paras quirk) by the use of a timeline swap quirk and checkpoint working togther, bcs im the alt version of someone they know i guess. i have a lot of knives in this one, and me and checkpoint attack each other alot its fun. checkpoint brings a bunch of the bnha chracters into the place, before putting everyone back, including me. i focus on the time in the pocket universe though

saccharine daydream: set in the bnha universe! saccharine daydream is my hero name. i was discovered with no memories by the us government as the child of a well known cult of villians. im brought with another character over to japan under the guise of a transfer, and join class 1-a. after moving into the dorms, im kidnapped by the cult again. this is where it splits into different timelines! one version is that im successfully restolen by the heroes, and recover, becoming devoted to being a hero and destroying the cult, which also happens to be lead by a para version of my mom. the other version, the heroes fail, and some of my favorites are caught and held as prisoners. i fight in this ring thing every night to earn extra rations for them to have more to eat. this timeline is… sad….

time god: set in the death note universe! i’m the god of the world, and there’s multiple timelines i manage. i am the god of time. i have an assistant whos tired of my shit tm but wants to live forever so tolerates me. the whole kira event is the most iteresting thing ive seen in a long time and im very bored, so i bring everyone back to life and put them back into the timeline. they are able to regain there memories to make things more interesting. at some point i decide i want to be super involved and drop myself into the world. shinigami dont know i exist and i choose to ignore them because theyre boring. my tragic backstory is i committed suicide and was brought back to life for a killing game to choose the successor to the old god. everyone had one power each and mine was going back in time. i didnt want to die so faked a relationship with someone who scared me and made me do traumatizing shit and then eventually killed her in her sleep to win.

arcade master: set in the ndrv3 universe. im the ultimate arcade gamer. i have an abusive twin whos the ultimate youtube singer or something like that. in one timeline i kill her out of fear and am executed, in another she somehow dies

thats not all of them but my infodump urge was killed by my irl mother calling

[mllemaenad]

Personally... I feel that WEaWH tries to remove itself from TME because it realizes that TME is fucking irredeemable garbage, and tries to make its WLW representation less appalling. So I'm entirely willing to overlook continuity errors for the sake of one relationship between women in the entire series that can go well.

I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that. I’m not going to argue with you on the merits of The Masked Empire, as you’re entitled to like or dislike any media you choose, but I don’t think Bioware is trying to distance itself from the novel. I also don’t think their motive is positive representation, or that they’re seriously suggesting a happy ending. However, even if they were I would call the choice to reunite Celene and Briala without any serious examination of the issues that drove them apart … disquieting.

1) On distancing themselves from the novel.

To begin with the obvious, several of the Dragon Age novels provide not only context for the quests in Inquisition, but also promotional material maintaining audience interest between games.

It’s hardly an accident that Asunder is a prequel to In Hushed Whispers/Champions of the Just, The Masked Empire is a prequel to Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts (as well as giving you a roundabout introduction to Solas) and Last Flight provides you with some context on why Weisshaupt is just no help at all during Here Lies the Abyss.

They do kind of want you to buy all their stuff. And if you started with Inquisition and liked what you saw, they want you to run back and buy all the earlier stuff for context. Video game tie-in novels aren’t generally considered high art, so they’d need serious reasons to want to reject the novel as part of their canon. Just in case, I checked The Masked Empire’s Amazon page, and it’s currently got 4.4 stars – so it doesn’t look like something they’d be particularly desperate to ignore. They’d rather you bought it and gave them money.

To move more to the specific, the game references the novel constantly. In addition to devoting a whole main quest to resolving its plot, it also includes cameos from Mihris, Michel and Imshael, which really serve no other purpose than to provide a bit of closure to the people who read the novel and wondered what became of them. This is actually more than it provides for, say, the characters of Asunder: Rhys and Evangeline appear only in a war table mission, Adrian doesn’t appear at all – and who knows where Shale has wandered off to.

It also references the murder of Briala’s parents directly:

Cole: She’s still behind the curtains in the reading room, watching the blood pool on the floor.

Briala pulled the red velvet curtain aside. Her hands shook as she did. There was a pool of red on the floor of the reading room, staining the rich Nevarran carpet. It had spread almost to the curtain.

At the other end of the pool were Briala’s parents.

– The Masked Empire

If they really wanted to distance themselves from The Masked Empire, they wouldn’t put that in there. If they wanted to say that that this didn’t happen, they’d have retconned the story – or at the very least not mentioned it.

In fact, the choice of words is particularly distressing. Cole senses pain. When he says Briala is ‘still behind the curtains’ he’s emphasising that the trauma and anguish are still very much with her, making a reconciliation, particularly a reconciliation that utterly fails to address a thing that they have confirmed happened, even stranger.

 I would say that one motive for their choice to reconcile the two characters is simplicity. I like parts of Inquisition, but honestly it’s over ambitious. They set up a series of continent-wide catastrophes, each one intensely political: the mage rebellion, the Orlesian civil war, the collapse of the Chantry.

Each one probably requires its own game for a satisfactory solution. I realise they were probably going for something similar to the galaxy-wide political collapse in Mass Effect 3, but the Dragon Age games are at a serious disadvantage because they lack continuity of characters.

Mass Effect 3 had its own problems, of course, but for example – I think most people have fun curing the genophage for the krogan. But what they remember is Mordin Solus and ‘There’s a reaper in my way, Wrex!’ When it worked it was able to build on characters who were present across the series.

Inquisition is faced with trying to find resolutions for groups of people that have no direct connection to each other, and whom the protagonist has never seen before (even if they player has). This is hardly the only time their attempt to fix everything in a single quest ends up making no sense.

2) On positive representation

I’m afraid I don’t think what we get in Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts is especially positive. I think it’s … kind of infantilising, really, and has a whiff of sexism about it. I mean – again, I’m not asking you to like The Masked Empire. But this:

“It would have been a locked suite in the palace for a few years, nothing more!” Celene kept her voice low, aware that Michel and Felassan had stopped planning and were looking their way. “It would have changed nothing for us.”

“Your hair still stinks of the smoke from the people you burned,” Briala said. “That is a change.”

The dead leaves crackled under Celene’s feet as she stepped forward. “How many wars can our empire survive in such a short time? I wanted my legacy to be the university, the beauty and culture that made us the envy of the world. Instead I may be known as the empress under whom Orlais fell. You have the luxury of mourning Halamshiral’s elves and holding my heart hostage. Sitting on my throne, I see every city in the empire. If I must burn one to save the rest, I will weep, but I will light the torch.”

Briala swallowed. “You’re not weeping, as far as I can tell. Nor are you sitting on your throne. She stepped away, her movements fast and jerky. “With your permission, Your Radiance, I shall go indulge myself in my luxury.”

– The Masked Empire

… is at least an argument between adults, with the details of what they believe laid out. Celene honestly believes that the empire and her legacy are worth 'a few thousand elven lives’: she believes that maintaining the strength of Orlais is worth thousands of lives in sacrifice, as is the vision she has for the country’s future. Briala is facing up to the fact that this is the bargain she’s made: stay with Celene and she might see an elven scholar graduate from the university – but she’ll likely also see elves burn every time there’s a crisis, because elves are the most expendable people in the empire.

Briala wavers throughout the novel, obviously, because there is genuine feeling between herself and Celene. But the discovery that this has all happened before, that this is not the first time Celene has shed elven blood to impress her rivals and gain power, and that her own parents were among the victims, brings her to a decision.

You don’t have to like it, but these women are serious about what they want and believe.

But in Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts we get stuff like this:

Sera: Elves-elves-elves, but it’s really a pissing match with an old lover. Don’t know the rest but that explains a lot.

It’s hardly coincidental that they chose Sera to say this. Sera the commoner, who despises the nobility. Sera the Red Jenny, with contacts in every corner of Thedas. True, Sera’s background has led her to reject a lot of elven culture, but her biggest objection is usually to ‘moping’ about the past. This:

Briala thought for a moment. “Celene and Gaspard saw an army, but that would be fighting their fight. With the paths, I could get food to alienages where elves would otherwise starve. They would let me move ahead of an oncoming army and warn the target, or move behind them and attack their supply lines.”

– The Masked Empire

… sounds more like the practical stuff she favours: she’s said getting revenge would be a preferable option, and this is getting food to the poor, terrorising the nobility and giving little people a shot at being part of something bigger. But now we can’t take it seriously, because Sera has reduced it to a lovers’ tiff.

That isn’t meant as a criticism of Sera, to be clear. They do this when they want a mouthpiece. This is the equivalent of having Cole approve of Cullen.

And as for it going well, this is their epilogue slide:

Where once war raged, there is now a shaky peace. Orlais is resurgent, the empress a patron of arts and culture.

Many attribute this recovery to her lady love, though others wonder how long their reunion will truly last.

– Epilogue (Inquisition)

I mean – maybe they’ll forget about this. They have been known to forget their epilogue slides. But it doesn’t read as though the intent was to write a strong and loving partnership. Rather it looks as though they are selling the relationship as tempestuous.

That’s one place where I am very uncomfortable. This is the revolt of an oppressed people, and the politics an empire. And there’s a sense that they’re saying ‘Oh, those women and their emotions! Today they love each other; tomorrow they’ll hate each other; the day after they’ll probably love each other again. You never know, with women.’

I appreciate that Bioware is fairly progressive, for a game company: the character choices, the romance options, the NPCs – they are trying to represent a variety of races, genders and sexualities. But it doesn’t mean they never fuck up. I mean, there’s a bit in Mark of the Assassin where Isabela tells Hawke that Gamlen has been sexually harassing her and two responses blame her (You find something inappropriate?/Break him. And wear pants.).

Given that they are already struggling to resolve a massive plotline in a ridiculous amount of time, I’m not surprised they fell back on this. It’s narrative shorthand, and that can be handy for desperate situations. But it’s still sexist shorthand, and I very much wish they hadn’t done it.

3) Removing The Masked Empire from the equation doesn’t solve the problem

I mean, it makes some of the bigger issues like Briala’s dead parents a little easier to miss, sure, but it doesn’t make the problems go away.

I appreciate that representation is important. I do. But romantic relationships between women are not the only representation issue at stake, here. There’s no single source for the elven people, of course, but it’s easy enough to see that Bioware has borrowed from the experiences of Jewish, Romani and aboriginal peoples living under empires and/or colonialism.

And have we ever established that it is shit to be an elf. The city elf origin story in Origins is an abduction/rape/murder combo. The Dalish clans in Origins and DA2 can be slaughtered. It’s terrifyingly easy to kill off clan Lavellan in war table missions, and even though this is the protagonist’s family the game doesn’t make a thing of it. There’s a whole side quest in DA2 about a serial killer who targets elves, and who keeps getting away with it because no one gives a shit. We are up to our eyeballs in codex entries on the treatment of elves.

And here we have Briala, the leader of a rebellion in Orlais – one of the nations best known for oppressing the fuck out of the elves and trying to destroy their culture.

Even without The Masked Empire this is:

a) providing only the most minimal description of the nature of her rebellion and what she hopes to achieve.

b)allowing her to be dismissed as primarily involved in a lovers’ tiff.

c) pairing her with a woman the game actually says massacred the Halamshiral elves.

d) using the massacre as evidence against her because she was sleeping with Celene, rather than as evidence against the woman who actually committed it.

That’s … all pretty shitty, even at the simplest level. The game doesn’t address any of this. It doesn’t even force the characters to discuss what happened before throwing them back together. It spends as much time tsking at Briala for destabilising Orlais as it does Celene and Gaspard. It loves the idea that they’re all as bad as each other – which allows the player to justify just about any ending.

And this is a thing they do repeatedly: they tsk at the mage rebellion as well. They seem to be very good at describing the sufferings of the elves, the mages, the casteless dwarves … but don’t approve of them actually doing anything about their oppression. At least not anything more forceful than writing a stern letter of complaint (for those lucky literate characters!) to the local lord or revered mother.

And so minimising the problems of Celene and Briala’s relationship, and waving a locket around (which, even out of context, does not seem like a forceful enough declaration of love to startle Briala) does … not strike me as very respectful of peoples who have suffered under empires, and who have had to fight tooth and nail for every sliver of justice.

It’s not that I want to exclude a healthy, positive romance between two women in order to have Awesome Revolutionary Briala. I just don’t understand why we couldn’t have both.

Couldn’t Briala show up with a new girlfriend? Do it properly: give her a codex entry and make her active and important in the quest. Show the two of them both being affectionate and working together for the cause. Make sure that at least some of the possible quest endings leave them alive, together and continuing to better the lot of the elves.

I can understand that you may not like The Masked Empire and may want to exclude it from your personal headcanon. That’s absolutely fine, obviously. But I do not believe that was Bioware’s intent in writing the the Briala-and-Celene reconciliation, and I still have serious issues with it.