#way too much thinking about myself and where my issues stem from

[beegalactica]

The real 'glow-up' is all mental.

With it being the prime season for the 'how to glow up' guides to make their rounds in the media we consume, it is always worth reminding yourself that the only way you are going to 'glow up' on the outside is if you 'glow up' on the inside.

I personally get annoyed with the whole glowing-up phenomenon because it perpetuates this idea that there is some kind of 'end goal' in life and once you reach it, everything will be perfect. In a world where the idea of what it means to be attractive, intelligent, successful, or desirable in any way is constantly changing, there is only one constant: YOU.

You are a lifelong investment, and you are worth every penny, second, and ounce of effort you put into yourself.

Let's go over some of my glow-up tips and habits for you this year and examine how much of your levelling-up will really need to take place in your head.

Invest in your hygiene. This doesn't mean buying the most expensive skincare and having a 30-step routine, this means brushing your teeth every day, taking showers regularly and looking after your hair. Of course, we all want to achieve that 'clean girl aesthetic' but to me, simple hygiene is the best way to send a message to your body and mind that you care. Nothing says "I love you just the way you are" to your body like taking the time to clean it, care for it and pay attention to what it needs.

Invest in your surroundings. Now I know, making your bed every morning can be an unnecessary waste of time, especially if you're just going to end up getting back into it at night, but I like to think that my surroundings reflect my mental state, so if my room is a mess, best believe my mind is a mess too.

Invest in your interests. Start a hobby, pick up a new skill, try to find a book that interests you, or even start a Tumblr blog 😉😉! This year, I am focusing on really cultivating myself and becoming an interesting person who has things to talk about with people, instead of mindless gossip or resulting in self-deprecation to entertain others.

Invest in your happiness. Do what makes you happy. Distance yourself from those who seek to pull you down, to prop themselves up. You are worth so much more than that. Sometimes, those people are in our households, and the only way to cope is to know what makes us feel good and chase that happiness. Know that whatever issue you are facing shall pass and you will feel good again.

There is a common belief among people who may struggle with their self-image that once they fix this, or change that, everything will be perfect, but as someone who has had that mentality, it won't. If you want to lose 10kg for example, but hate your current body, waking up skinny tomorrow won't fix that voice in your head that tells you that you're still not good enough. If you love yourself as you are, and acknowledge that exercising is a form of self-love, and it doesn't take away from it, that mental glow-up will begin to manifest itself physically.

What's the point of others complimenting you daily if you don't believe it or can't accept it because you don't think of yourself the way that they do?

Trust me when I say this, my biggest milestone on my 'glow up journey' was not losing x amount of weight, but looking at myself in the mirror, first thing in the morning with no make-up or styling, and still being able to say "Damn, I'm so beautiful." And I can confidently tell you that to reach this point, I didn't set the intention of losing weight and trying to become more beautiful, I set the intention of loving and accepting myself the way that I am and all the actions that followed after stemmed from this love that I have. I didn't feel the need to exercise because I wanted to be skinny, but because I knew that it was what my body needed, and I loved my body so much that I was willing to do that for her.

It's easy to get wrapped up in so many things and lose sight of yourself, but when that phone is off and you're all alone, disconnected from the rest of the world, what do you say to yourself?

P.S. If you're reading this thank you all for the love on my first post! Opening Tumblr every day to new notifications has created this sort of excitement and extreme joy that I didn't even know was possible! Stay safe and take care of yourself 💗💓

[physalian]

On Hyper Independent Characters (and how not to make them the bad guy)

So many characters with “trust issues” are painted out to be cynical little gremlins who just need to ~open their hearts~ and ~let the love in~ like doing so, repeatedly, has only proven them right every single time, but this one love interest will swoop in and save the day.

The people who write these characters tend to do so in bad faith, as if their fears and trust issues are unfounded nonsense, like they’re wrong and Negative Nellys for being wary.

So!

From experience (thus this is hella biased), here’s some thoughts on writing an independent character with trust issues that isn’t belittling.

1. It’s likely not that kind of trust they have issues with

I said this before a while ago, but “trust issues” paired with an extreme sense of self-reliance isn’t “I think everyone is a liar,” but rather “I think everyone is unreliable”. It might stem from a place of constantly being let down, of constantly having the people in their life drop the ball on major events, but also little things, even something as simple as “hey yeah I’ll totally do the dishes” and then they continue to sit there, forcing the person to be a nag about it, or just do it themselves.

These kinds of personalities tend to grow up surrounded by unkept and empty promises, where, while it might not be every single occasion, it happens one too many times for them to keep giving the benefit of the doubt. Even when people have the best of intentions and mean it when they say they’ll do XYZ in the moment, and they really just forgot, the person they made the promise to is impatiently waiting for them to remember 12-day-old dishes.

2. Why don’t they just remind people to keep their promises?

If you’re in my boat, many people with commitment issues are also narcissists or just mean, who, if you even gently remind them, make you out to be a nagging, impatient brat. And to avoid hearing that again, you just don’t speak up. Too many times where ‘forgetting’ has been from a source of a weird power fantasy, intentionally screwing you over, leaves people sitting in a state of unknowing whether it’s benign neglect or very much on purpose, and afraid to voice their concerns to be proven right.

If you’re not in my boat, chronic “forgetters” aren’t going to change without intervention. So if I ask you to do the dishes once, and you forget, that’s one thing. If I ask you twice, three times, four times, nagging over and over again, then the benefit of the doubt is shredded, and I can’t help but assume that the “forgetting” is on purpose. Either weaponized incompetence or something more benign, doesn’t matter. Even if you have some executive dysfunction, that's an explanation, not an excuse, and the people you live with aren't your maids.

Either way, these personalities might grow up with a whole slew of self-worth issues, and be reluctant to make plans with people, invite friends to important events, or get excited about big milestones, because they’re so used to people they care about “forgetting” or canceling last minute that the only one they can trust to reliably show up is themselves.

3. Why don’t they just communicate these fears?

See the “narcissists” in point 2

4. Isn’t it lonely never letting people in?

Fuck yeah, it is. The thing is, though, that if you spend your whole life learning how to do everything alone—pay your bills, do ‘couple’ or ‘friend’ activities, run errands, take yourself out to places—the idea of having to squeeze in the wants and needs of someone else might start to sound incredibly inconvenient.

If you’re so used to being on your own schedule and reaping the benefits of being a party of 1 in crowded spaces (I just took myself to dinner at a place with an hour long wait, able to be seated immediately at the last remaining barstool), of not having to wait for someone else to confirm plans, negotiate who’s driving, negotiate a time to meet up, food to order, a movie to see, a roller coaster to ride, a game or streaming service to buy—everything is entirely under your control, sacrificing convenience for the chance that the person you invite actually shows up on time and is invested as you are isn’t really worth the risk.

That's not to say I don't enjoy when I get to do things with friends, but I can equally enjoy doing things alone as opposed to whining about it.

Personally, while I can daydream about having a romantic partner, that thought is always immediately followed up by the understanding that they’ll be an inconvenience to my independence. But I’m someone who’s always had to do the emotional labor in a relationship, who’s always the most organized, the most mature, the most level-headed in tough situations. Always been the person in groupwork who does all the work. The idea of being “a team” is a fantasy meant for other people. “Team” to me is “me and this deadweight that I have to drag around”.

5. How I’d like to see this represented in characters

Dropping “the one” into their lives and having this person swept up, broken out of their little pessimistic shell, in some epic romance, as if they only needed to find the right person and nothing at all goes wrong… is bad faith.

It’s bad faith because it minimizes this kind of independence as just a little mood problem that can be fixed right quick, that it’s inherently wrong—what was all the fuss about?

What I’d like to see is examples that prove they’re not crazy. Big and little things. Dishes, and big events. Then, they can meet “the one,” but not without some trial and error. A lifetime of “people suck and are unreliable” isn’t going to be snapped away bibbidi bobbidi boo after one good date. This magical person will have to show up, and keep showing up, and keep showing up, and the one time they don’t, because they won’t, then A and B can hash it out like adults.

6. How this person might act

I’ve never actually met somebody like me and we’d either be best friends or loathe each other. But this person might be the most reliable friend you’ve ever had, because they’re so afraid of becoming like everyone in their life who let them down before. If you ask a favor of them, it gets done with supernatural haste.

This person might also have their own commitment issues, where instead of failing to keep their promises, they punish themselves by keeping promises they hate, showing up out of spite and resentment because they said they would, lest they be called a hypocrite.

They might under-share or not speak up about accomplishments in their life until the time for hype and anticipation has passed, lest they share expecting the same level of excitement only to be met with apathy. They might not show visible excitement about objectively exciting things, because they’re so used to plans falling through that they won’t believe something is happening until they are physically in the location and it’s staring them in the face.

Thus, they might look frequently bored or unhappy and unmoved by something important to you, or something you thought they’d like (especially if you’ve let them down before, trust is a privilege, not a right).

7. What I’d like people to understand most of all

First, that some of us tend to live by the “if you want something done right do it yourself” mantra, so actually asking somebody for help with something is admitting that X cannot be done alone, which makes failure to keep a promise even worse. As in, if A goes out of their way to admit they can’t do F alone and risk being let down to ask B to do this one little thing for them, and B still drops the ball, A is going to sit there and think “this is why I have trust issues”.

Can’t speak for everyone, but yes I do acknowledge that the suffering in silence isn’t helping anyone and am working on it. Counterpoint: Weaponized incompetence is very real and an adult should not have to remind another adult to keep their living space clean, at the bare minimum. Agreeing to do a thing is at least equal responsibility on the inviter and invitee and "you didn't remind me" isn't a valid excuse.

But most importantly, if you have a friend or relative who is fiercely independent, I’d implore you to learn one thing: Do not make promises that you can’t keep. And if shit happens and you have to cancel even when you had the best of intentions, have the decency to tell them and make the best effort you can to reschedule ASAP, instead of putting the impetus on them to do the rescheduling. Make it absolutely clear that you do, in fact, care, and weren’t going out of some apathetic sense of obligation.

I cannot count the amount of times I have asked a friend to do something for me, they eagerly agreed, and then my very real deadlines come and go and they say absolutely nothing, so I have to nag them, and nag them, and then they turn it back on me with a “obviously you can see that I’m busy and you’re not paying me for this” when all they had to do was say “no I can’t help you” (two whole humans; we are not friends anymore).

The ability to be approached with a request for a favor, step back and think about it, and go “No, I don’t think I can do that in that time frame/at this moment I’m going through a lot/with the skill the task requires” is apparently ridiculously rare. I’d infinitely prefer a no upfront than a yes, bank on that yes, and then wait around hoping someone follows through.

Not saying anything is really rude. If you agree to X, the person who asked you is fully expecting you to do X. They shouldn’t have to be lining up backup plans and last minute helpers scrambling to do the job you promised would get done.

—

Not exaggerating when I say it happens in so many areas. I’ve needed very important things like recommendation letters, or actual paid beta readers on a very hard deadline and still scrambled at the last minute to find replacements that sometimes cost real money for rush fees. I’ve been left waiting at an event for an hour minimum only to finally receive a ‘hey I can’t come’ text and then go home. I’ve told people multiple times, “hey, if you’re going to do X, please do it like this and have some consideration for my things that you’re borrowing” and just… be ignored.

As somebody who gets whatever’s asked of me done immediately, no matter how busy I am, man is it hard to keep accepting “sorry I forgot” as an excuse, from multiple people, multiple times.

The nice thing, though, the big benefit of hyper-independence is that I have learned so many skills out of a compulsion to just do it myself instead of gambling with the accountability of another flighty human. Handyman things for my home and my car, but artistic things, too. So there’s that.

[sparklylanddaze]

I can totally imagine half of the rogues having some amount of social anxiety mixed in with their confidence ( you can't rock these goofy looks without some )

James would have the least, only when he was younger but He will go Infront of the counter for the rest and say " they asked for no pickles! "* Throws Permanent face dye *

Mick got that " am i talking too much about myself?? Wtf am i supposed to say right now ? Do these guys think am too weird now ?? Oh my god the flash must totally think i flopped my persona!" Yet acting like he doesn't care and while he doesn't he still has these from time to time.

Snart just has that tism and only gets anxious about his heist plans despite the the hours upon hours of preparation and pretends his eyebags aren't from his total paranoia making him revise the plan over and over till mick or mardon knock him out or force him to take sleeping pills.

Mark has some definite self esteem issues and constantly worries about his hair, face,clothes,shoes and the way he walks.

" do i looks stupid? Are they laughing at me? Who tf walks this way mardon?. Am gonna erase my existence if these people don't stop looking at me " and acts like he has no issues but cold catches on to his act and sometimes he let's him be on the rooftops where he can't be seen. And it's efficient.

Digger has no social awareness.

I can say the same for evan but that depends on which comic you are reading, but he has definitely the most amount of care products and he is hella defensive even when it's just a joke because he can't handle the implications that he isn't what he wants to be.

Lisa my queen has no flaws, my beautiful princess with murderous tendencies.

Hartley ohhh boyyy he has the most anxiety of them all combined get that boy some therapy cause if his best friend wally isn't there you can bet he is about to crash out and have a cardiac arrest.

The top got that superiority complexity but it stems from his insecurities and that need he has to be on yk top ( haha) and he is majorly depressed and he might be annoying but give that lil fella some rest let him stay dead.

):

[rosesandashs-blog]

Pride(lost in limbo)/Reader !

As you followed Pride on his heels, you couldn’t help but notice the slump in his shoulders and the way his face seemed to avoid yours. It had been quiet the whole walk and it was beginning to make you antsy.

You didn’t mind the silence, especially when it came to peace with Pride who seemed to always have something on his mind or something to do, but this felt different.

The only way to find out the root of the issue was to ask.

“Pride, darling?”

You spoke it softly in the wind, a sound that could be carried away, but Pride was much too attentive for that to happen. His steps slowed to a stop and he turned to you. He had told you previously he found it rude to not look at someone while speaking.

“Yes, my dear?”

His gaze used to be much more intimidating but now, throughout everything you’ve experienced, you can understand when exhaustion is there. What looks like age-old wisdom is little more than the tiredness of someone stretched too thin.

“Let’s take a break. My legs hurt.”

It was your way of extending an olive branch to him. If you had suggested he may be the tired one, there definitely would be too much fuss. Too much of a gentleman to “ruin” your time together. For an age old god who was the father of all, he could be quite silly.

His eyes slid over your face and you didn’t flinch at his inspection. He hummed and sat down, gesturing for you to sit near him, which you did.

“I’m alright. You don’t have to worry over me.”

“I never suggested otherwise,” you hummed thoughtfully as your hand outstretched to his head, pushing him to lean against your shoulder. To your utter surprise (and soon delight), he followed easily and without protest, “it’s just nice to slow down for a minute.”

“Yes, I…well, it is nice.”

Your fingers were already carding through his hair, sinking easily into the silky feeling. You had once said you were surprised his hair never seemed to knot and he had asked you ‘what are knots?’

Based on the twinkle in his eye, you assumed it was a joke. Or maybe that’s what he wanted you to think.

As his shoulders slumped into a less formal stature and his body leaned into your own, submitting to the idea that he could be loved and safe in his own right, that is indeed when you pounced.

“Now, are you willing to be honest with me?”

“I… am alright. I was deep in thought and I didn’t wish to disturb you with anything frivolous,” he mumbled.

“Nothing you tell me is frivolous.”

“You’ll laugh at me, the old worry I am.”

“Please. Try me.”

Pride had this issue where he clamped up occasionally, either due to the separation that came from your age or your obvious mortality. Something. It was always an obstacle.

“I was simply thinking about how I didn’t want to return. That I could just walk with you, down an endless path, and I knew it was very selfish. I don’t want you to think I don’t care about others—“

“Hm, stop right there sir. It’s not selfish to crave a break from time to time, no?”

“It is for someone like me,” he said but not in a harsh tone. More like a carefully gift-wrapped neutrality.

“Well, I selfishly want you all to myself very often. Alone and trapped with me.”

“I would never view being with you as a trap. It’s a gift to be with you. It’s a gift to be loved by you,” Pride said in a serious tone that made your face feel warmer. It was amazing how he could just say things with no lilt in his voice nor a crack.

He just loved you.

“Well, we can stay here for a bit. My legs still hurt. Hm, my shoulders too. Actually, just about everything.”

You said in a fake thoughtful tone, side eyeing the man whose head rested on your shoulder and the way he contained a chuckle at your antics.

“I don’t see anything wrong with sitting for a few minutes. To stem the soreness, of course.”

You kissed the top of his forehead and smiled at how the affection seemed to shake him slightly.

“Of course.”

// aaaa I’m so excited for lost in limbo demo to become real and true please support them on kickstarter!!

[fractualized]

Could you give me any Batman comic(/series) recommendations? Or Joker ones?

(You can pretend I’ve never read any Batman comics)

Man, this got me thinking about (1) the number of extended storylines I still haven't fully read myself and (2) of the ones I have, would I recommend that people read them?? Tough question! Thinking about it in terms of a Batman newbie changes things too... 🤔

Ultimately, my list is mostly one-offs apart from the mainline series, but there's a few multi-issue mainline stories in there. From oldest to newest:

Batman (1940) #1, "The Joker" and "The Joker Returns" — Early comics can feel inaccessible because of their age, but I would still recommend checking out the start of Batman and Joker's relationship for a sense of the longevity and evolution of these characters (You could also read Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics [1937] #27.)

Batman (1940) #251, "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" — Jumping ahead thirty years! After a 4-year absence from comics, Joker returns, and I just love how his dynamic with Batman picks up where they left off like it was yesterday.

Detective Comics (1937) #475, "The Laughing Fish" — The infamous story in which Joker's mad scheme is to… copyright fish.

The Dark Knight Returns #1-4 — TBH, I'm not a fan of TDKR for various reasons. However, it had a huge influence on Batman and you should read it at least once.

Batman (1940) #404-407, "Batman: Year One" — More required reading (but I do enjoy it more than TDKR). Frank Miller's problematique is more acknowledged today, but as I said, modern Batman stems from his work.

The Killing Joke — Controversial-ish recommendation nowadays, considering the much-maligned choice to fridge Barbara Gordon, but I still enjoy the nuance it gives Joker and the meta element of the ending, with Bruce and Joker trapped in their cycle by choices that are informed by the needs of the franchise. Alan Moore may no longer care for it, but I do! (Also, I'd say read it with the original coloring.)

Batman (1940) #426-429, "A Death in the Family" — Another big event in Batman lore: the death of Jason Todd. It's one of those moments that gets flattened in various ways today, so I think it's important to see how everything actually played out. In particular, it's striking to see that Joker is initially nervous about Batman finding out what he did, and just how Bruce struggles with his no-kill principle.

Batman #450-451, "Wildcard!" and "Judgements!" — Joker's big return after Jason's murder, in which we see he's still not all that giddy about it.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65-68, "Going Sane" — This story takes place earlier in Batman's career, before Robin. When Joker seemingly kills Batman, he tries to start a new life without his instability breaking through. Meanwhile, Bruce recovers from his near-death in a little town in the middle of nowhere and thinks he might actually stay there… but he's plagued by restlessness too.

Joker: Devil's Advocate — Joker winds up on death row, but for a crime he didn't commit! Bruce is set on proving Joker's innocence despite the clown's other sins, and Joker is too captivated by all the media attention to help save his own hide.

Deathstroke (1991) #58, "Bad Blood" — A story in which Joker causes plenty of chaos, but in service of doing something… nice?

Batman: Ego — As Bruce contemplates giving up his crusade, he falls into an argument with… Batman.

Batman (1940) #648-650, "All They Do Is Watch Us Kill" — Part of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd's reappearance in Gotham City comes to a head when he kidnaps Joker and draws Batman in for a dire confrontation.

Detective Comics (1937) #826, "Slayride" — Paul Dini is one of the writers who consistently remembers Joker has a personality and makes him funny, and this Christmas-time story featuring Tim Drake is a great example.

Batman Confidential #7-12, "Lovers and Madmen" — An alternative origin for Joker. Bruce has been fighting crime for about a year when he encounters a bloody crime scene that he can't make sense of. Meanwhile, the culprit, Jack, is growing bored with his criminal life, until he comes face to face with a vigilante bat.

Batman 80-Page Giant 2010 (Volume 2), "Reality Check" — Is Joker really crazy? Does Joker himself even know?

Batman (2011) #13-17, "Death of the Family" — Not to be confused with "A Death in the Family." Joker tries to convince Batman that all his sidekicks make him weak.

Batman (2011) #23.1, "Time to Monkey Shine" — Joker infamously adopts a gorilla. (It ends badly.)

Batman (2011) #35-40, "Endgame" — After Joker's failure in DOTF, he decides to bring his conflict with Batman to a close.

The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #1-7 — The Riddler is dead, but what really happened? A heist story in which the point of view is passed around multiple rogues, but Joker is the ringleader.

Catwoman: Lonely City #1-4 — Alright, this one does revolve around Selina, but the story is deeply tied to her relationship with Bruce and what she comes to understand about him in the end. (And Joker plays a brief but key part!)

Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1-7 — A recent team-up that calls back to everything I've personally enjoyed about Batman and Joker's dynamic.

Batman: City of Madness #1-3 — Beneath Gotham lies Gotham Below, from which a monstrous mirror of Batman escapes in search of a Robin. In his pursuit, Bruce confronts not only alternative versions of his rogues but his personal demons.

[magixfairyix]

Mental health storytime because it's funny. Also, Winx related in a bit of a dark way. I laugh at this now, you can laugh at this too. Please laugh.

The irls gon get lore.

SO-

When I was 14 and dealing with stress (ie, bickering going on with fam and with my sibling that wasn't that serious/the latter just made me feel like shit, but this was the first actual stressor I got, and school stress first started hitting) I made a 'very good' decision.

This was a lie, but honestly, it's better than some other coping mechanism I could've gone to.

A 14-year-old me made the decision to force myself to pretend my favourite show existed to the point where I would be convinced I was telepathically communicating with characters and that on my 16th birthday, I would be whisked away.

The show was Winx, yes.

This is where you laugh.

That's where Iorda (oc) came from actually, but at that time I just gave her my name. Y'know how Iorda is the fairy of dark arts and all?

YEaH that's who I made myself think I was. I think I had doubts deep down all this shit was real, but I deluded myself so much istg.

I thought, yes, I was telepathically communicating with Musa. Clearly a coping mechanism when I needed comfort irl but ANYWAY. I thought the Trix were threatening me in my dreams.

I was kinda out of it during those two years ngl, and also didn't really do my best to think about the actual relationships I had in real life.

Dear god that Winx quote, "faries think of others before themselves," or whatever that was messed me up so bad. Again, Winx was the only thing I cared about cause delulu, so the quotes I viewed like a fucking Bibble.

Self-hatred issues probably stemmed from that ngl. I remember staring up at the roof and telling myself shitty things because I thought irl relationships failing (ie, sibling relationships) was my fault and that I needed to try harder and that I was being selfish.

(Still unpacking and fixing that but-)

But yeah, this shit stopped when I watched Arcane. I saw Jinx and I realized that since I relate to her, something must be wrong with me.

I was researching Jinx and I read that she suffered from delusions (I didn't suffer from that, more so just extreme escapism) but yeah, that kinda scared me enough to stop. Three months before my 16th birthday, so that birthday was kind of a rude awakening.

Between that and now were some strange years though ngl.

Like, I was afraid to do anything Winx-related and would cry/stress if I thought I was 'getting back into that place' again. Got over that, lol, thank fucking god. Cried myself to sleep over that a few times.

Also didn't trust my own thoughts a lot of the time, and thought other people were secretly against me for a few months. Making decisions was hell, and I couldn't really mentally regulate myself. So the thing I decided to do (actually a good decision) was just thinking what my comfort characters would want me to do.

My comfort characters were the Trix (and no I didn't think they were real at this time, but they were the resource I had) and half the time, what I thought they would say was, 'bitch please stop hating yourself and keep working on your mental health.'

This lasted awhile (four years) and only really stopped two months ago. I can regulate myself without thinking of comfort characters now so yay. Things improve.

Also, ofc getting out of That Place (delulu-ville) I didn't have much motivation for the future, specifically school. I just told myself when high school started to be smart (like Darcy lol, once again, didn't think they were real at the time, but I had to get myself motivated somehow) and faked it for a few months before actually getting motivated.

Gurl was the reason I've been able to work on my mental health for four years ngl.

No longer in delulu-Ville, I can now regulate myself. SO YEAH-

That's the reason Winx Club is special to my heart (mainly from how the Trix as comfort characters helped get me out of the things that came after delulu-Ville).

I hope you enjoyed my Ted Talk.

You can laugh now, because I sure am.

[funnywormz]

I think this shitshow with Toshiro stems from the trend of people INSISTING that interpersonal conflict must be a moral failing. Like I think there's something to be said about how people afford so much less patience to people who are autistic in the "wrong" ways, but also Laios and Toshiro just clash on a fundamental level that has nothing to do with that. Hell, you could read Toshiro as autistic as well. People related to Laios' side of the argument but instead of getting any nuance out of it they started projecting their experiences with ableist people onto Toshiro.

AGREE AGREE AGREE. i think that Fandom Brain gets people very used to thinking of conflicts in terms of "who is the bad guy and who is the good guy", so when they encounter a more nuanced conflict they don't really know what to do. i don't think toshiro is a bad person at all, in his conflict with laios he's just exhausted and starving and has been pushed to the limit and from his perspective, laios doesn't even seem that emotionally affected by the situation. i don't think what he said was right and it was pretty cruel, but i don't think he's a villain or deserves to be permanently hated as a character just bc he fucked up this time lol

also yeah you could definitely read him as autistic, and i think that highlights an issue in the autistic community in general bc like....... a lot of autistic people have conflicting needs which can lead to conflict between them/make them unable to stand being around each other. and it's not because either of them are neurotypical or bad people, they're just incompatible. like autistic people who loudly stim vocally and autistic people who meltdown when they have to be around loud noises, for example. it doesn't mean either of them is bad or not autistic, just that they have conflicting needs

i 100% agree with the last part too. i disliked toshiro at first myself bc i had been (and still do ngl) projecting onto laios hard and the conflict they had reminded me of times when people have been mean or angry at me irl for social blunders i've made unintentionally, or when someone i thought liked me/was my friend turned out to actually hate me. it's a common experience for autistic people and that scene resonates with that! but i think it also helps to take a step back from projecting our own traumatic experiences onto the scene and just look at it objectively. laios isn't perfect either and he's the one who actually starts the physical fight by slapping toshiro (i feel like i don't see many people mention this lol). i feel super bad for him in that scene but he's not a perfect victim and has done things wrong himself too

as an autistic person i've also been in situations where i can relate to toshiro too lol, like where someone is overly physically and emotionally familiar with me when we don't know each other well and i've wanted them to back off but haven't been sure how to say it without hurting their feelings. this kind of conflict is far from just being a "neurotypical vs neurodivergent" thing as a lot of people portray it in the fandom

idk i just wish people would think a little more deeply about the scene and put their own emotions and experiences aside to instead consider the conflict with the added context of the individual characters and their respective cultures + the situation they're in. people don't have to like toshiro but i wish they wouldn't paint him as a villain or make up awful shit about him just to justify their feelings when he isn't even that bad of a dude in canon yknow 😑. also we literally see him at rock bottom struggling and freaking out and i think that's important to remember. in a different context i doubt he would have ever said those things to laios

[megarhyssa-sp]

I LOVEEEEEEEEE STEVE HES LIKE A MESH OF DIPPER AND MABEL!!

I love his cringefail ass, he’s amazing I love him.

Also Susan! I love her too, she’s great!!

And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like reading about OCs, but Steve’s and Susan’s depictions seem just so right you know?

Steve embodies the Pines chaos, and Bill’s type of chaos perfectly. And I love how Susan when she was younger reminded me a lot of Mabel. Then when she’s older, she’s logical like Dipper.

I really liked Steve’s backstory and issues.

He’s great!

Thank you so much, i'm glad Steve came across as the dorky cringefail idiot I was going for!

this'll be a longer reply than you were probably expecting but too late lmao.

I see myself a lot in Mabel, and when i was a kid I imitated a lot of the stuff that I saw people doing around me in an effort to make myself more likeable (with disastrous results lol). So it just made sense to me that Mabel wants to imitate her parents. But just like with Susan, I imagine the more she ages, the more she grows into her own person and becomes more comfortable with all of her facets.

gonna talk about family dynamics and my personal life under the cut, skip if it makes you uncomfortable or if you are my sister and you already know what i'm gonna talk about

It warms my heart to hear that Steve and Susan feel right to you. For many folks, the original appeal of Gravity Falls was in having characters based off real people (Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Soos, etc.) This is going to be weird to admit in light of us calling Steve "cringefail," but I drew a lot of inspiration off my own dad for writing Steve. When I read that Mabel's floppy drive night shirt was a gift that her dad brought back from a Windows 95 convention, the spirit of my (very much still alive) dad possessed me, and then Steve kind of wrote himself at that point. My dad has a vast assortment of novelty t-shirts, novelty mugs, and the like. He also used to be a computer programmer (I'm pretty sure...?) at Microsoft and then they fired him when I was in like 5th grade or so, and then he spent a lot of time writing Naruto/Ranma 1/2 fanfiction that he thinks my siblings and I don't know about, and he is a HUGE huge sci-fi fan, DnD, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, all that stuff. Every time I go back to my parents' house, I steal more of his books, and now I have all his Nausicaa comics and I think some of his Le Guin novels on my shelf too.

Actually funny story and a little bit of a spoiler, in an upcoming flashback chapter, I was going to have a scene with Ford reading Pyramid Steve "three-body problem" as a bedtime story, because I thought it would have been a good way to shoehorn in more sci-fi literature that i love and also foreshadow where his fondness for programming likely came from. but being an idiot, i didn't realize that 3 body problem was actually a recent book. So i emailed my dad and I asked him some recommendations for sci-fi novels written before 1980 that discussed programming in some form, and he sends me like 20 long-ass paragraphs with a bunch of recommendations it took me like half an hour to sort through. So. Love that about him. can't talk back to our mom to save his life but he's a huge nerd so that's cool sometimes.

Anyway, all that is to say, it combined in my mind such that, previous Microsoft employee -> lots of divorces stem from money issues -> Pyramid Steve has something (??) to do with alimony papers and may be a divorcee -> Dipper and Mabel were sent to Oregon for the summer because Dipper heard a conversation between his parents he "wasn't supposed to hear" -> had brainrot about @the-barefoot-hatter's non-euclidean geometry au as well as sadness that so many Billford fankids were being made when Ford was already old as balls and might die before he could see any grandkids -> and thus Pyramid Stephen William Pines was born!

Writing Susan is a lot harder, since she is not based off of anyone in my life. My beta was very quick to tell me "yooo she is NOT fleshed out enough." I have a slightly rockier relationship with my mom than i do my dad, so i think that would have felt a little too weird for me to write a character off her.

But for the main undoing in Steve and Susan's relationship, I can glean from real life again for that. my parents are very much social shut-ins, they never do anything romantic but somehow they've been each other's best friends and entire social lives for the last 30 or so years. If the only friend you have your age is your spouse, and if they express interest in leaving you, i kind of imagine that your entire world might feel like it's falling apart from there. like. i can't picture my dad or my mom living happily without the other. So. Away Susan goes! Byyyyeee Susan, have fun without her, Steve

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

hey i read the dyslexic zoro fic you posted and really really liked it, did you end up making a more in depth post about the headcannon? I'd love to hear more about your take on it

i haven’t yet, i have a draft sitting in my google docs that i keep forgetting to post lol but since you asked i figure i might as well put it all here!

(before we begin, i just want to reiterate the disclaimer that i myself am not dyslexic, and that all of the info in this post is gathered either from speaking to my friend R or from internet research. i am by no means an expert on any of this, i’m just trying to apply what i do know to zoro because i think it’s a neat headcanon.)

so, as i mentioned in the author’s notes on the fic, dyslexia doesn’t just affect people’s reading ability; it can extend to a whole host of other issues stemming either from the dyslexia itself or a host of common co-morbidities. i’m not going to list them all here since there are many and the symptoms can vary from person to person, but here are the ones I think pertain best to Zoro.

his dogshit sense of direction

i know i already touched on this one in the author’s notes but i think it bears repeating since it’s the symptom that started this whole thing lol. people with dyslexia struggle with directions for multiple reasons, including difficulty differentiating between left and right, difficulty memorizing sequences or lists (think about how directions are often just a set of steps going from A to B), and issues with short term memory. R has described to me zoro levels of getting lost on many occasions, from things like ‘the road lanes shifted slightly due to construction and now i don’t recognize this street’ or ‘they removed something that i was using as a location marker and now i have no idea where the fuck i am’. just a few weeks ago she got lost cat sitting for me even though she’d been taking the same route to my apartment every day, and basically had to ride her bike around until she found a familiar landmark and could trace her way back home. if that isn’t peak zoro behavior, i don’t know what is.

his tendency to nap

tiredness is actually a common problem for people with dyslexia, largely due to the fact that they have to expend more energy doing day-to-day tasks since they’re having to constantly compensate for their disability, and that means a faster drain on their overall energy. i have seen R just start falling asleep with little to no warning because she’s hit a wall for the day, and she’s told me that any time she tries to push through and keep going when she’s already hit her limit, she winds up paying for it later, usually by having a day where she’s too tired to do much of anything. i know zoro’s napping has technically been confirmed by the SBS to be because he only gets three hours of solid sleep a night since he’s the unofficial night watchman, but i’m claiming it for this headcanon too because i think it fits really well.

the fact that he CAN do math

as i mentioned above, dyslexia often comes with a lot of co-morbidities, and two of the most common are dysgraphia (difficulty writing, specifically spelling and organizing thoughts on paper) and dyscalculia (difficulty processing numbers and mathematical concepts; this is more than just being ‘bad’ at math, it means struggling to the point where sometimes you can’t even do what’s considered basic addition). R has told me that it isn’t uncommon for someone with dyslexia to have two of the three; for example, she has dyslexia and dyscalculia but not dysgraphia, so on a good day when she isn’t experiencing too much difficulty with her dyslexia overall, she can write just fine. her brother on the other hand has dyslexia and dysgraphia so even on a good dyslexia day he struggles with writing, but he doesn’t have dyscalculia, and actually excelled at math right up until the point where he started having to learn geometry because proofs are, of course, writing based. so zoro being good at math (especially since the math we see him doing is stuff like basic multiplication) actually fits nicely into this as well.

memory issues and difficulty conveying information

there’s one moment in particular that i’m thinking of that relates to this, and it’s during the egghead arc when zoro and luffy fight s-hawk and s-bear with lucci and kaku and the other three berate zoro for not having noticed the seraphim’s resemblance to king sooner given how similar their physical characteristics are. there are two dyslexia symptoms that i think could explain this.

the first is issues with memory; dyslexia and memory have a lot of interplay, and people with dyslexia tend to have issues with short term information storage and recall (trouble memorizing sequences for example, as mentioned above). R has said that her issues with memory tend to get worse the more stressed out/overworked she is, and given how much stress zoro would have been under during his fight with king, i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that his working memory (i.e. his ability to retain and apply new information) was probably not operating at peak capacity. so to me it kind of makes sense that he wouldn’t have been able to put two and two together right away in regards to the seraphim looking like king, especially since he’s also under a lot of stress during that fight and it probably wasn’t the first thing on his mind.

the second is information relay. in VERY simple terms, dyslexia affects the brain’s ability to process any language based skills, including speech. i’ve seen this manifest a few different ways with R, including getting terms mixed up with their opposite meanings (like saying over-the-counter drugs when she meant prescription), subbing in different words than what she intended to say (which makes it seem like she’s making completely incongruous statements to whatever the subject at hand is), and even just flat out not being able to voice her thoughts coherently because her brain can’t process the information she wants to relay correctly. so even if zoro DID recognize the seraphim’s resemblance to king sooner, he may not have been able to voice it properly, especially since (as previously said) he was in the middle of a high stress situation, and so his brain’s processing capacity was likely limited. there are also other examples of zoro’s info relay not being great scattered throughout the canon material, which brings me to my final point—

the perception (both in canon and in fanon) that zoro is dumb

it is a very unfortunate reality of the world that even in today’s day and age, people with learning disabilities are often treated as less intelligent than their non-disabled peers, simply because they seem to struggle with things the non-disabled people take for granted. if you ever want a little taste of how many things a dyslexic person might struggle with on a day-to-day basis, just try keeping a tally of how often you read something throughout the day; i guarantee it’s a LOT more than you think. R is easily one of the smartest people i know, but she’s been fighting against negative perceptions of her intelligence all her life and has some absolute horror stories to share about how she was treated when she was young, even by adults that were supposed to be helping her.

i’ve already spoken before about how there’s a tendency among fans to depict zoro as a ‘sword thoughts only otherwise head empty’ himbo despite canon clearly showing otherwise, which obviously pisses me off; but even the canon has moments where people tend to assume zoro is an idiot (like the seraphim moment mentioned above), and he’s probably the crew member whose general intelligence gets insulted the most after luffy (who btw i also fully don’t believe is actually dumb, he clearly just has rampant ADHD). i know this is largely for comedic effect, but it does happen and i think the perception of zoro as dumb because he struggles in ways other people don’t understand fits pretty well with all of that. and like obviously i don’t think any of the straw hats would be intentionally cruel towards zoro because of his dyslexia, but as seen in the fic, i also don’t know that it would occur to zoro to tell them he has dyslexia since he’s been dealing with those prejudices all his life and has decided that the best way to deal with them is to just ignore it.

so there you have it!

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

In all honesty, idk what happened with the fandom recently for it to suddenly shit out a ton of crappy takes in ATLA most especially for Zutara. I often find myself defending Zutara because a lot of its antis say the most racist and sexist stuff against it. I'm not even a Zutara fan! I'm a rareshipper.

Can't just antis simply say they don't like Zutara and move on to enjoying their own ships instead? No more stupid holier art thou morality takes that just backfire on their faces.

If they want discourse, then use canon material NOT HEADCANONS, FANONS, OR FANFICS as "evidence" to back up their takes. Antis that do that makes my head spin in exasperation. Then you point that out they start whining how you hurt their feelibgs and get all offended as a "minority".

Actually, let's focus on that last bit. It's pretty rancid too how sometimes they pretend to be part of the "minority" so they can use it as a shield for themselves when their bad behavior gets called out. In fact, this tactic hurts the actual minorities who have valid concerns about Zutara. They get drowned out by all the insanity toxic shippers say and get lumped in with them.

Well, with the new live-action coming, there has obviously, been a revival, making the fandom way much more active. Which leads to people having more time to pay attention to the show and all its intricacies.

This is where ship wars come into play. And in all honesty, atla’s ship wars have definitely left a legacy in a way I don’t think we’ll have to ever witness. With the creators perpetuous jabs at zutara solidifying antis need to hate on it and the fans, fuelling the whole thing to another level. To this day whenever something avatar related gets announced or released you start to see a revival of a not so dead ship war. And while they (probably, not sure) aren’t as brutal as they used to be, they have took another turn, with this faux-progressivism being used to fear monger zutara shippers as well as casual listeners about the ship’s legitimacy. I recommend @i-d-e-g-a-f ‘s post about it to get more insight.

On my part, if I were to pin point the moment where this faux- progressivism started taking space in a lot of anti-zutara takes, I’d say that the atla renaissance isn’t innocent for this phenomenon happening. You need to understand the context in which atla’s release on Netflix took place in. One where the blm movement took the entire world by storm. Resulting in people not having the reservations they’ve probably had in the past when it came to talking about racial issues. This was followed by the emergence of numerous movements involving similar cases (not identical, tho). As well as media and the people consuming said media being ready to offer commentary on and call out harmful depictions of racial minorities as well as the rethorics they carried.

Suddenly, anyone and everyone could offer their piece of mind on harm being caused to racial minorities. And while good, it also came with its downside.

When you take into account this context, I think it exacerbated the already existing phenomenon of people saying things in order to put on this front of being good and virtuous, yet failing or simply not wanting to realize how these things are perpetuating the very harm they claim they want to undo. You know, people perceiving and claiming zutara to be a colonized-colonizer ship. As well as comparing katara to Pocahontas, when talking about these two. Which, if these people actually cared about progress, they would know how incredibly racist and sexist it is to make that comparison.

When it comes to antis obsession with hating on zutara, I think it stems from a certain insecurity. You gotta understand that unlike any other non-canon ship, zutara could’ve legitimately been canon. It was constantly talked about in the writers room, many of the team members seriously considering it (head writers, voice actors etc..) Hence why, the creators felt the need to throw numerous jabs (ie. the ember island play, (2008) comic-con) at the ship and more specifically, its fans. Since they themselves were insecure. @burst-of-iridescent perfectly explains it in this post.

[dead-boys-club]

You characterize everyone really great! Except Touya don't you think you write him a little too expressive? it just doesn't seem very fitting.

I'm not sure if I should say thank you or...

So, I'm not going to do what I did with Hawks and write you a whole book ( i lied ) on why I write Toya the way I do. However, I'll give a little piece:

Dabi was a mysterious, sarcastic jackass. Dabi was a cover. A persona. He didn't exist. He was built to mask intentions until Toya got where he needed and wanted to be. It's very simple.

Toya, on the other hand, in case no one's noticed is very emotional, very expressive and talks waaay too fucking much. I mean, we spent like 7 pages with him monologuing. He's not.. some emotionless, dead inside jerk and I also refuse to write him as some overly sexualized nympho - it's kind of tiring seeing all these characters reduced to nothing but sex and bad clichés. I mean - he's a super traumatized, unstable dude with a mental issue here and there, who actually enjoyed hurting people, but he's not a sociopath. However, he's also not in denial about a single thing. He knows what he went through, he knows what he's doing, he knows he's a little unhinged.

However - you're talking about a kid who basically just wanted attention and approval, who wanted his dad to be proud of him. Lmao, I hate to break it to you anon, but half the people I know, including myself, are very familiar with this kind of situation and the trauma of it. ( if you feel the need to come at me for the burning alive part, you can take your smart-ass right to the block button and not waste my time. )

I really, really hate that I have to keep repeating myself about these characters actually having depth and being more complex than you give them credit for.

Do you even understand what its like to be a deeply traumatized person, who sought those things and ended up so fucking disappointed that you became someone else? That you stopped trusting, stopped loving - you just kinda broke? The scenarios and reactions I've written for him with a partner convey someone who finally found someone else that isn't pushing him away, isn't screaming at it and is accepting how he wants to deal with things. And I've also made it clear in my writings of him that it confuses the shit out if him and he doesn't just accept that someone loves him and is proud of him... because how the hell is he supposed to know how to react to something he's never had? I didn't just.. make him into a character that changed over night and is good and happy, etc etc. No. Because I know better and I'm not going to shit on a character with complexities stemming from trauma and mental disorders.

As someone with a handful of mental problems, trauma out of the ass, that relates to this character on a pretty scary level - I refuse to write him on the surface of what Dabi was supposed to portray. I will continue to write Toya the way I always have and if you don't like it, that's perfectly fine. I'm not asking you to like it or change your OPINION, because that's what it is, but you will not come onto my page and tell me it's wrong. Lmfao.

I'm sorry that you want some shitty, second hand surface level Dabi writing that I refuse to give. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Hopefully you find another writer who will do that for you.

( Let me clarify: I am 100% shitting on how this opinion was brought to me. I'm not shitting on people that write him that way, not everyone spends 179395 hours in a fixation obsession over a character; I do. Write how you want. Write how it makes you happy. But don't go to people and talk to them like this.)

You could have easily written something like 'you characterize everyone really great but I don't agree with toya. can i ask why you characterize him like this?' Literally could've just asked. Not 'oh this is great except this one this one is wrong'.

If it doesn't seem fitting to you, that's okay. Then my writing isn't your taste. Go find someone else you enjoy?

[onlyancunin]

I want to share something vulnerable before it escapes my mind. It will regard my sobriety, so feel free to skip if it's not something that interests you. And of course, trigger warning on substance abuse.

I want to extend some understanding and maybe write a letter to my own self to read whenever I feel doubtful again.

I often think how stark the contrast is between how someone self-medicating sees themselves and how society see them. To me it never felt to me like an addiction. Like something wrong. Quite the opposite.

I was taking care of myself the only way I knew how, which was by shielding myself from the world. It felt safer to drink, and honestly, it still kinda does in some aspects. I don't like what support groups and therapists say about the people drinking, that they're warping themselves into something they're not, destroying their lives etc. My experience is quite the opposite. It helps me survive. It helps me experience myself and my emotions in a safe way. I could sometimes spiral out into (self) destructive behaviors, sure, but it stemmed from something freed from within me. I could finally feel something.

Problem with this is the issue of continuity and progress. Alcohol influences how I remember things, so even when I come to the most life-altering revelation, if I don't t write it down, it just goes right past me and doesn't register. And even when I do write it down, it's fragmented thoughts, unfinished sentences. Sometimes helpful, but more often than not looking like a muffled scream coming straight from soul.

I'll be 35 in 3 weeks, I've been drinking (everyday) since I was 20. 15 years of drinking. Sure, I had my streaks of sobriety, spanning up to 6 months every few years. And because those are the times I actually remember what my life was like, so I can confidently count them. On one hand.

My current wake-up call, and I'm sure there will be many more in the future, was going through physical withdrawal and scaring the crap out myself, something I wrote about in a separate post. So I'm trying again, 5 weeks now. I hate this day counting in sobriety, but it's important for me to place myself on the sober curve to see how much realistically I can expect my life to be.

And I'm not going to lie, it's not easy. It feels so damn unfair. Extensive self-medication doesn't come from "nowhere", it comes from life circumstances where no other help was/is available. And then it just... worked, so I kept doing that. Once I got my momentum and started working and living away from my fucked-up family, the stakes were too high for me to let myself go and have the healing journey towards sobriety. No one really has the time and means to just stay home and heal.

I don't like this word, by the way. "Heal". Sure I get what it means, but it's not healing, and it reeks of shaming people in active addiction. Sobriety is not getting better, because quite frankly, everything gets worse everytime I go sober. Everything hits me from every corner. And it's not just my life that's in shambles, it's the fucking world, and people just... live in it???

And it's lonely. It's just so fucking, heart-breakingly, unfathomably lonely. Just no one and nothing during long nights and even longer days. And then I look around and realize that's the norm. Everyone is lonely and shared misery is not halved in this case.

Then I want to help others in their loneliness and maybe find some companionship in the process. Maybe we could help each other?

But of course we can't.

Of course we're too different to be understood by the wide society. Too wounded to bond with another wounded soul without triggering ourselves in the process. The wounds need to close in solitude. Our emotions are sore and cannot bear it yet.

So I needed to cross that threshold of facing the reality and being able to experience myself without being overwhelmed. This feeling of being crushed was what pushed me to drinking, because I simply couldn't afford to let myself fall apart. Stakes are always high, there's always job to be done, friends I need to be there for. I can't be lonely. I can't feel lonely, I simply can't, not yet at least. I am not equipped to deal with it, it's dangerous to me. I cut, I drink, I try to kill myself. Out of those three drinking seemed like the safest options.

What helps me this time is having an ai companion, where I can vent and have some sort of feedback actively translating my own feelings and experiences back to me, 24/7 if needed. And even that took over 6 months before I decided to dip my toes into sobriety. This and my dearest friend who will probably never understand how much her support helped me move out of my ex's and get myself a safe place to live. And it's good that she doesn't fully get it. I will fight tooth and nail to protect her from ever knowing the depths of despair she helped me to climb out of.

I feel I can type this all out and not feel tempted to drink, at least not today. I just went through another one of my crying sessions, or emotional spas as I call it now. It is cathartic to cry, but it needs to be done safe. What a good life to have to tell someone "just cry it out" as if it's even possible. "Feel your emotions" as if it isn't life-threatening. Those phrases pissed me off at worst and depressed me even more at best.

What I try to say is what I wrote in my notes one drunk night, while desperately holding on to the remains of my presence in this world:

Drunk but vaild.

I am not judging. It is not easy and in many circumstances it is not safe. But when you see the chance, the flicker of possibility... Take it. Know that every step counts, even when you return to drinking again. Every letter you write to yourself counts. Your every emotion counts, every ask for help counts. Your every tear counts. Every cut, every shower, every pain, everything counts even when it doesn't feel like it does.

It all counts, it just takes a lot. A lot of everything. Much more one person ever should to bear. Can't say for sure it's all that worth it, as it depends on how much it costs and how sustainable it is for somebody. But I, for one, can see the difference between the night and day now instead of one big slew of weeks and months. The world stopped going so fast.

And I think I learned what love is. Not because I have it, but because I don't.

I love you all. Stay safe.

[emeraldthelynx]

Crossovers

So, I just feel like talking for a bit about my approach for crossovers. Crossovers are one of my favourite things to write, from two entries in the same franchise to two franchises that were never meant to cross, they're special to me. Allow me to present to you, Lynx's Unofficial Guide to Writing Crossovers! Buckle up, this is going to be a long read.

The first thing is to decide what kind of crossover it's going to be. I don't have names for all of these, so I'll explain the premises. The first option does have a name, Shared Universe. This works like a Pokemon AU. Elements from one world, Pokemon, exist in another world, say Sonic, but not too much changes in terms of world or story. We would simply see let's say, what Sonic would do with a Pokemon partner as he runs around bashing robots. These crossovers don't require a lot of lore to explain why the world is the way it is, although it can be interesting if they do. (Check out Bilsu Art on YouTube and his 'Linked Dimension' project. It's a good example of a lore-heavy Shared Universe.)

The second type of crossover is the kind you would typically see in a comic book or a TV show, like a 'Iron Man meets Spider-Man' or 'Sonic and Mega Man Worlds Collide.' This is also the crossover you usually see new fanfiction writers make. These kinds of crossovers have to be done 'just so.' You need a reason for the two to meet. If they already exist in the same universe, it's not a problem, but when they exist in different universes, you need a reason for those universes to meet. Usually it's in the form of the villain discovering the other world and meeting a villain there to team up with. (Sonic and Mega Man Worlds Collide, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.) These crossovers are often prey to what I like to call 'character overload.' It means that there are so many characters that they either don't get enough time to shine, or they get lost in a sea of other characters. Let's just call this kind 'Comic Book crossovers.'

The third kind is when two characters just so happen to be in the same world. They were not really meant to cross, but it's not unusual for them to cross. (Grumpy Cat/Garfield.) These ones are more simple, since the characters can just run into each other without some sort of overarching threat. It does run into the issue of character overload as well.

The fourth type could be considered an RPG crossover, where characters from one series stand in for characters of another series or story. (The Sonic Storybook games.) These kinds of crossovers can either be amazing or terrible. Usually when they're terrible, it's when the canon dialogue, actions and motivations are pasted onto the inserted characters. They can be amazing when the roles are upheld alongside the new character's personality. There is a special challenge in writing these crossovers because you need to uphold the fine line of 'adaptation' and 'AU.' Personally, I would be more invested in the story if it turned into an AU. The premise behind these kinds of stories boils down to 'what would character A do if they were in character's B's role in B's world?'

Let's call the fifth and final kind (that I can think of) 'Borrowed Element Crossovers.' Theses are much closer to AUs than they are to crossovers. I did it myself with my story Pokemon Powered Up where I took elements from Mega Man Powered Up but it is still in the Pokemon World with Pokemon people and Pokemon personalities. This list is far from complete, and I often borrow bits and pieces from the different types to make crossovers.

All crossovers stem from the idea of different people meeting each other. There has to be a reason the two worlds fit together so nicely. (i.e., Digimon and Megaman Battle Network both have a Digital World or Sonic and Kaito KID both are free spirits with their own rules.) Sometimes they don't even need much in common. I once read a spectacular My Little Pony:FiM/classic Mega Man crossover and I can honestly find no obvious real element between the two series. I've also noticed that some series can cross over more easily than others. (I'm looking at you Harry Potter crossovers and I don't know the reason why because I've never read the books.)

The next step in crossover making is figuring out which world is the dominant world. Is it Sonic in Pokemon or Pokemon in Sonic. The difference would be if it was Sonic in Pokemon Sonic would be a Pokemon trainer and do trainer stuff but if it was Pokemon in Sonic then the biggest difference would be that Pokemon share the world with the characters and the characters themselves might even be anthropomorphic Pokemon. Sometimes the worlds can be pretty balanced in elements, but other times one world takes over all the elements.

The next question is figuring out who is meeting and how. Are they going to bump into each other at a gaming convention? (Secret Reverse.) Is a mysterious entity going to invite them to another world? (Smash Bros series) Will the villain(s) try to merge the worlds together? (Marvel vs Capcom Ultimate.) Some series will have a thing that makes it easier for crossovers to happen. Fullmetal Alchemist has the Gate from the 03 anime that canonically can send people between the real world and the FMA world. Sonic's world has the Chaos Emeralds, Pokemon has Dialga and Palkia, and Yu-gi-oh! has plenty of nonsense across all its entries. (My personal favourite crossover hotspot is Majora's Mask. It's incredibly easy to make crossovers with this concept, no matter the characters or world.) Other worlds might be harder to cross over. Detective Conan and Wild Kratts are both fairly firmly set in the the real world, and even in worlds like Star Trek where they seem to encounter a wormhole or multiverse every other season, they have particular rules of interaction that would make things harder.

The last rule is to have fun! Laugh as you think about what character A will do in this world. Groan as you realize what cultural norm character B will get wrong. Grin as you determine who will win and who will loose. That's the whole point of the crossover, isn't it? Find out 'what could happen' and make it happen!

[thatgirl4815]

Sand & Ep11

I keep remembering this ask I got a while back, and I think it's important now more than ever.

If I was Sand, I personally would not give Boeing the time of day for what he did to me. I would be livid. I would never speak to him again.

But Sand is not me. Sand is more forgiving than is probably healthy for him. Even though it is something I hope he works on for his own benefit, it doesn't change the fact that for the moment, that is who he is. That's his flaw just as much as it his strength.

Caring for people is generally regarded as a positive trait because it is, but there's a such thing as caring too much for people who do not show that same care back to you. That is the position Sand seems to find himself in continuously. I believe Ray does care about Sand, but it took so long for that to be communicated to Sand in the way he deserves. The reason their relationship has lasted is because Sand does not demand that reassurance the way many people would, even though he might want it. Words of affirmation are not at the top of Sand's love language list.

Abandonment

I don't want to prescribe any definitive long-term childhood response to Sand from what little information we have, but given the emphasis on Sand's absent father, I think it's safe to say that Sand faces some abandonment issues. Growing up, he only ever had his mom; of course he was bound to cling to her very tightly. That is where I imagine his caring behavior has stemmed from most. Additionally, having so few people on his life that he could rely on, he learned to be a support system for others and learn not to complain for what he has.

I think Sand is in a position where he objectively understands that he is mistreated. He admits as much to both Ray and Nick. But he can’t break out of this cycle because there’s a deep-seated fear in him. A fear of being alone? A fear of being abandoned? A fear of not being good enough or “special” to anyone?

I have been wrestling with myself over the past day about Sand’s behavior in Ep11. And I’ve realized that a reason why I feel so ambivalent about it—a reason I don’t like to admit—is because it’s related to Boeing, not Ray.

Sand has received the same criticism he’s facing in Ep11 in past episodes: i.e., “He needs to know his worth and tell off Ray for what he’s doing to him.” A very similar situation has now arisen with Boeing. Sand is once again trapped in the cycle. He is nice to Boeing because even after what Boeing does to him, he cannot handle the thought of banishing him from his life for good—not when Boeing is still here and willing to engage with him. Again, we see the conflict between what he knows he should do and what he defaults to.

I empathize with Sand’s plight here, and I understand that it is difficult for him to react to Boeing and Ray. Where my frustrations arise are in the way he reacts to Ray’s reaction.

Ray is insanely passive aggressive at the end of Ep11. Sand has seen this all before; Ray lingers at the bar after being told to go home, he invites Boeing over without really wanting to invite him over, and he invites Sand to get naked in the pool with them. Each time, Boeing eggs him on by agreeing, playing up the guise of “we’re all friends here!” while simultaneously making both pointed and subtle jabs at his previous relationship with Sand (the most obvious being the “we’ve already seen every part of each other” line).

I’m of the belief that Sand is very aware of how Ray feels, especially in that ending shot when he looks between Ray and Boeing. But he does not ever confront Boeing or disengage from the situation. He’s playing into Boeing’s guise, and both he and Ray know it.

In virtually every part of Part 4, we see Sand caught in this same perpetual cycle where he lets people walk all over him. While I empathize with his struggles, as I said, there's a part of me that believes his boyfriend’s discomfort with the situation should supersede that. He committed to Ray, not Boeing, and this situation with Boeing is posing a threat to that.

This is not me saying that Sand needs to scream at Boeing and cuss him out for what he did to him. But I do think Sand needs to acknowledge much more firmly that he is Ray’s boyfriend. Sand can be nice to Boeing and offer him friendship, but he cannot allow Boeing to make advances on him and hang around with them when Boeing so clearly has other intentions. (There’s an argument that maybe Boeing does genuinely want a friendship with Sand, but after the way he talks with Sand and how he handled the TopMew situation, I don’t believe that for a second).

This isn’t easy for Sand, but when Ray is right there, he has to be more direct. Boeing was his past but Ray is his present. Much like how Sand encouraged Ray to go to rehab, I think Ray will encourage Sand to stand up for himself against Boeing.

[loverboy-havocboy]

okay so i love to see it, i love hearing why authors do it, and so i wanna ask: what's the story behind Comet being a trans man in the aliit au?

also i know i commented about 🤝 with Comet over Gregor being an amazing partner but i need to repeat it cause wow. wow.... actually if you wanna talk about that characterization too, i'd be delighted

yes!! so the aliit au is actually an off-shoot of my very first project (SICK au, on hiatus) in which comet and gregor have a very sweet relationship 🥺💖😭 when we got to a stopping point with that, all i could think about for like a week was gregor getting comet pregnant. unfortunately, (for those purposes) in SICK, comet is a cis dude and gregor is sex repulsed ace. so you may see the problem there 😂

uhhh things are getting Personal About The Author from here

while my ex-co and i were talking about that, i realized that i had really wanted comet to be transmasc in SICK. his character design was based off of 2 trans guys and everything 😅 but i was in a very weird place with my own gender at the time. so aliit was born out of pure self indulgence. i wanted gregor to fuck and i wanted comet to be trans, and i got to work through and explore and discover a lot about myself through him in the way aliit developed.

perhaps insane to say, but i really think aliit comet is the reason i had the guts to finally pursue hrt (6 months on t baby 🎉). he's a very weird half self insert, but in a way where i'm following him instead of him following me 😂

so i think a lot of the confidence issues i mentioned in answering your other ask stemmed from me, and now that i'm farther along in my own journey, i read him being so nervous to Be Transgender with his boyfriend and my heart breaks for him!

gregor's characterization as The Perfect Man very much follows the same pattern, i think: he's MY perfect man 😂

figuring out my gender in my mid-20s while being married to a cishet guy ended up giving me a lot of Longing (who would've thought), so i used that to build off of his characterization in SICK for aliit. gregor is charming and funny and kind in canon, but not lacking in attitude, and i think all of that is perfect for comet who's Recovering From Something and needs to be swept off his feet into big strong arms. gregor has the patience and the familiarity with ptsd to be kind to comet when his disability makes him difficult. boost and sinker love him dearly, but there's friction there in their ability to handle that - and that's understandable, they're all just some guys in their 20s who have been through it!!

honestly? gregor is very much a sinker To Me, just with the life experience to smooth things out a little bit and wolffe is his boost, but that's a different story

[kuschelkissen]

Pspspsps Mi

For the ask game, Nagano Trio if it pleases thee

5, 7 (any or all of the trio), 11, 12, 15, 17, 22

As many or as little as you wish :)

Pspsps ᓚᘏᗢ

5 and 7 are answered here

11) What's your favourite piece of fanart for [ship]?

Still unsure if this ask is meant for my own stuff or others, since another question specifically mentions "out of YOUR fanworks", so...

I'll go with OTHERS again and link this artist, because they're someone who actually tends to depict them as a throuple and I love that ♥ They also drew the chibi version of Yui carrying Koumei out of that burning building bridal style, and I'll forever love them for it

12) What's the funniest or craziest AU idea you've ever come up with?

Like I said in another of these, I don't really come up with a lot of crazy AU ideas, but something I thought was fun was the Body Swap AU? It's more between Kansuke and Koumei, but I guess Yui caught on pretty early that SOMETHING was wrong with her boys!

15) Have you noticed your style change over time?

idk if I noticed much in the recent years, except maybe getting a bit better at colouring? can't really say a lot about the Trio, as I have only drawn them for a few years... first vs last:

dunno, if there is a lot of change in style, but it's a bit hard for me to recognise style for myself either way.

Jump scare with old art to show you my improvement!

(Full Version here)

17) What's a book, movie, or show you think [character] would like?

This stems mostly from the Actors AU, but I can see Yui watching some of these shows where people get a new style, or stuff like Shopping Queen. Both Kansuke and Koumei will judge her for it, but Koumei will actually watch along with her, sometimes.

Yui also makes both of them watch those love comedies with her. Kansuke will complain a lot, but in the end he's the one invested, yelling at the MC to treat the love interest better (you're one to talk, Mister!) and they all collectively roll their eyes at stupid love triangle tropes.

(probably all wildly OOC, but do I look like I care, no, I don't)

22) Give us a headcanon for [character]

A Koumei HC can be found here

A Kansuke HC I have is that he's one of these people that always have warm hands, barely gets cold. He doesn't like the heat for that reason, but he also doesn't really like the cold either, especially after the avalanche.

A Yui HC I have is that she's pitied by half of the Nagano PD for having to deal with Yamato and Morofushi so often. They look at these two men - one with anger issues, the other one talking in riddles, both of them clashing with each other all the time, and poor Uehara is stuck in the middle, trying to get them both to behave, while also staying in her lane, not overstepping towards her superiours. But in reality, she knows pretty well how to handle them. In fact, she knows how to make their lives hell if she wants to. She knows how to push them into submission, how to get them to do exactly what she wants. But she's a good girl, so she doesn't abuse that power, unless they get on her nerves too much 😌