#which is actually pretty close to one of the reasons for the biggest rift in my family

[thebestworstidea]

So once upon a time ago-

I (adult woman who lives with her family, Mother, brother, Sister) was having a conversation. And I was told that I'd never be a real adult untill I moved out and lived on my own and understood things like budgeting and earning my own way.

I would have brushed this off except:

This guy had been surfing couches since he left home. He never had enough money to get his own place because he was always buying games and toys, never contributed to the rent like he said he would, didn't really do his own laundry.

This man considered himself (and was considered by some other people) more of an adult that I was (I've been running household errands, taking responsibility for house maintenance, helping plan and stick to a budget, contributing my limited income to the finances and otherwise stepping up and being a part of the household). And frankly. I've never gotten over it. Every time I think of it, I just... sit there boggling.

Blah blah blah of course you shouldn't live with your birth family if you don't get along with your birth family, I'm not saying this living situation would be good for everyone ;

Just a reminder that people who still live with their parents as adults deserve respect and for you to stop being ableist. There are multiple reasons someone could still live with their parents! From invisible to visible disabilities, finance issues, and more!

Stop using the “well they’re gonna turn into a creep living in their parents basement” punchline! It’s disgusting. STOP. BEING. ABLEIST. STOP. FORGETTING. THE. POOR.

[briebysabs]

Okay I wanna talk about woosan in the ateez canon lore for a minute because they’re actually insane. Like sure, they’re a popular pairing so it’s natural to have them be the classic duo in MVs. But they’ve done it so many times that it has to be more than fanservice at this point.

For instance, the ending to Eternal Sunshine where Woo runs and takes San’s hand as they float mid-air. What was the purpose this has still not been explained. A theory I heard was that Eternal Sunshine is a collective dream Ateez is having but still. I get they were really pushing woosan in 2021 but I squinted my eyes, it’s sus to me.

I’ve heard the theory too that WY from Halateez might be a traitor. I think it stemmed from the Hala Hala video where he’s left standing with blood on his mouth, everyone else fallen. Sick ass shot btw but they did defeat the Z-world government in Crazy Form (though idk if that was Halateez or A-world Ateez). So I feel like if he was it would’ve been revealed by now but it’s still a possibility.

I’ve also heard that canon woosan (before anyone yells I said canon not irl) are an implied couple and that’s the subtle nodding to standing up against an oppressive government and Ateez’s whole themes surrounding freedom. Could be true but that’s also putting a lot of faith into a kpop company being progressive enough to integrate that into their storyline.

There is what woosan said at a fansign about their characters in bouncy:

I understand that they’re the Black Pirates in disguise but if WY was ever a traitor, his lack of caring what happens to San would make sense. What makes the angst is that San wholeheartedly trusts in WY here. But my personal theory that I have is at some point, one version of woosan is going to sacrifice themself for the other. Now, it is a leap to say Ateez would kill off a member in their storyline because it could upset some fans. But they can get away with it regardless if it’s permanent or temporary because they have multiple versions of themselves in their lore. So nobody is 100% gone forever but it’ll still be a loss.

And preferably I want it to be WY if it ever happens. Here’s why: idk about Z-world WY but A-world WY’s biggest obstacle or regret was being too late, lacking confidence, being uncertain and missing his chance. While San wanted stability and was tired of his life constantly changing, thus losing friends. So think about it.

If WY died for San, he overcame his wall. He took a chance, he didn’t miss it and would regret nothing bc he couldn’t lose San. While San now lost his best friend forever, the biggest change of his life. And I do know that their backstories in A-world are somewhat reflective of themselves irl. And WY has been described as really the glue that holds the team together, that they wouldn’t be as close as they are without him. Not that losing any other member wouldn’t be heartbreaking but like….if WY died in canon I feel like even the staff would be crying behind the camera y’know what I mean?

And San can go full “I gotta save him, I can’t lose another friend he means too much to me”. It’ll work bc even if you’ve only watched the MVs without knowing anything else about woosan, you know what San means bc you usually see them paired in the songs. So he may use the Cromer (if they still have it) to time travel somehow which will be bringing us to another dilemma because Yunho’s brother has been dead. And I’m pretty sure in one of the diaries they went back in time for some reason, Yunho saw this opportunity and tried to save him from the accident that killed him but it still happened anyway. So there’s 1. Yunho’s like hey San I love WY too but why should we save him and not my brother? Then 2. Yunho going uh I tried doing this before and it didn’t work and I had to relive my brother dying so San don’t do this. And then San just doesn’t listen so it causes a rift within the group.

I feel like this would also give an excuse to keep the story going because the revolution is over. I think the main thing that caused me some fear about this comeback was Mingi going on a podcast saying how 2024 was really their year and they want to end it with a grand finale. Terrifying words, I think the incoming comeback is gonna be lore and it’s gonna be big. Doesn’t need to be woosan-related, probably isn’t but it just spawned my inner worm thoughts of their place in the lore.

[stars-obsession-pit]

Danny Phantom - Worm fusion

Or well more of a “parahumans AU” of Danny Phantom; pretty much the only thing from Worm is the parahuman power stuff rather than the specific characters/locations being explicitly included. Basically “what if Danny Phantom involved Capes instead of ghosts”

Btw the links throughout this are generally to the wiki pages for things in case anyone is unfamiliar with anything. Or the general wiki links are here (DP) and here (Worm)

Jack and/or Maddie Fenton previously triggered and gained Tinker powers due to their ongoing obsession with trying to prove their scientific theories (which could be about ghosts or be something more Worm-y (e.g. potentially involving alternate earths or trying to find the origin of parahuman powers)).

Those new powers certainly didn’t improve the chaotic nature of their lab, but it did allow them to make far more complex devices.

The biggest of which is in the form of a portal. It’s taken a lot of work to create, but they’re hopeful that it will finally prove them right now that they’ve completed it. Finally make all the hardship they went through (enough to hardship to trigger) worth it.

…Except it fails. They plug it in, and nothing happens.

Well, nothing yet…

Later, their son Danny takes a few steps into the portal frame on a dare, and his hand knocks against a panel on the wall. A huge burst of electricity surges through the structure as a rift tears through the air.

Right on top of his fragile human body.

Energy courses through him as his vision is filled with the impossible sight of countless dimensions, of the near-endless expanse of space, and of gargantuan creatures spiraling through it all.

And then he collapses, the memories of what he saw slipping away from his brain as his new powers settle into his body.

(His parents, if they are nearby, see the visions too. The sight feels familiar, even if they can’t remember why. But any further consideration is shelved when they realize the portal is on.)

More misc thoughts about this idea beyond the cut:

I figure this’d be a setup that leads to getting a Trump power, since the trigger directly relates to another parahuman’s powers. Plus, a Trump power that allows for a bunch of different facets would align with his array of ghost powers from the show.

Specifically, it’d probably fit the “Infinity/Ten” subtype of Trump; those are caused by triggers that involve “a power breaking reality in the vicinity.” I think an unstable portal being opened on top of you should definitely count for that.

…But then idk how one would design a power of that type well. The description of “Power sets nearly limitless in both option and choice” feels hard to design for in a way that isn’t too OP, even with the “but where other large drawbacks often apply” caveat. Mainly from like, the word “limitless” interfering with my ability to tell what restrictions are reasonable.

…although. The subtypes are’t meant to be strict in-universe guidelines; I could just rebalance it based on ideas from other Trump power types that I find easier to conceptualize and it’d be fine even if it’s not “objectively correct” for the Infinity type.

Heck even if I felt that need to strongly justify it, the situation fits pretty close to triggers for the “Four” subtype (power sets that are limited to a few usually weaker/clunkier power options). His parents were obsessive tinkers; powers would have been a factor influencing his life for a while.

Also, outside of Trump power stuff, a Breaker state would make sense to fit closer in line to his ghostly nature from the show. Not 100% sure if that’d fit his trigger, but whatever. Maybe could just argue that the portal mucked with his senses/thoughts enough to justify an intertwined mental aspect of the event, idk.

…oh I just had an idea for what the actual power could be!

What if he has to be in his breaker state to use powers, and he can only select which powers to use at the moment of transformation? Meaning he has to choose his powers before he enters any fights and likely stick with just them for the duration of that fight.

Limits could be imposed based on what he chooses (e.g. if his powers are weaker the more he has active) and how he switches back and forth (he’d have to deactivate all of his powers to swap any out and maybe he has to recharge them before he can access them again, leaving him vulnerable in the meantime).

Might want to limit his power options too (unless just limiting the strength of the powers would be enough), but idk what a good rule for that would be. Like it could just be an arbitrary list of options I guess, but something more distinctive might be interesting. Maybe he has to experience something similar to a power before he can use it? Idk.

Also, outside of his powers, I’m not fully sure how one could best work in an equivalent to the ghost fights from the show. Like they could absolutely just be other capes in Amity Park, but I feel like it’d be cool to connect them to Danny or the portal somehow.

For some possible ideas for that, I guess:

They could have been in a cluster trigger with Danny (as long as the other triggers could be reasonably justified to have coincided with the portal activation)

The portal could have let some Eden material leak through, causing some people in the area to randomly gain powers (and probably mutations too) after consuming anything contaminated

If the portal is a unique phenomenon (e.g. if the straight-up Ghost Zone is included on top of the Worm stuff), the Shards could be incentivized to create more triggers in the area or prod existing hosts towards Amity Park to create more conflict and help them study it

If the portal leads to another world (or periodically connects to multiple other worlds), they could just be “regular” capes but pulled through from there

It wouldn’t be related to that portal incident, but if Vlad Masters was a power-granting Trump (akin to Worm/Ward’s Teacher), the ghost-analogues could be his empowered minions sent after the Fentons

…or they could just still be ghosts I guess, but I’m trying to lean this more on the Worm side of worldbuilding things than DP.

And some even more one-off random thoughts:

The GIW would just be a government-backed group akin to the PRT. Heck they could just be replaced by the literal PRT and Protectorate if it’s meant to be a full-on fusion with Earth Bet

If the portal is causing Eden material to leak through, Amity Park might end up evacuated/made into a quarantine site.

Instead of being given tech by Vlad like in the show, Valerie Gray’s situation could be reworked into a trigger event, with her probably being a vigilante afterwards (like as opposed to joining an actual hero team). Or if you wanted to keep the “given powers” thing in a slightly more directly parahuman-y way, she could get a Cauldron vial (maybe one supplied by Vlad to keep more similarity with the show). (though that would require including Cauldron in the fic too, at least in the background)

Skulker could be a Deviant/Case 53 who is similar to Trainwreck

I guess the implication of Fenton Works existing would be that Jack and Maddie are rogues who are open about their identities

Which could connect to why Danny is hiding his powers from them - unlike the original show, he has no reason to fear them taking the reveal badly, but he could want to keep his cape and civilian identities fully separate and thus not want to tell them lest they reveal it to the public

[sugarywishes]

Hello I'd like to order one serving of headcanons of Evan Afton/Crying Child please.

WOOO LET'S GET IT STARTED WITH MY 6TH FAVORITE AUTISTIC PERSON!!

Evan Afton (Crying Child) Headcanons!

🧸🎂🎉

- Evan enjoys collecting (and keeping) old memorabilia of his family. For example, anytime the Afton family have a garage or yard sale day, he'll check on all the things they plan to sell and he takes some stuff to hide in his room! He has a lot of old toys and baby stuff hidden all over you just gotta look for it 😭😭 (He even found his mom and dad's wedding rings!)

- He doesn't refer to people by name. Or title. At all. He would never call William "Dad" or "Father", just like he won't call his mother "Mum" or his teachers by their title. He avoids using such terminology except on Fredbear and his siblings

- He unironically uses "Hello" or "Hi" to greet people. And only those.

- Whenever his sister would have a temper tantrum and destroy her dolls, he'd sneak into her room (because he is not allowed in!) To collect them. He'd try to fix and pretty them up again, just like his father would fix robots :)

- Evan was William's favorite. For a couple of reasons (I'll list them next time!) eventually the favoritism caused a massive rift between the Afton siblings to the point where by the time it was Evan's last birthday, both Mike and Lizzie loathed him

- (I'm actually taking this headcanon from @/foxyybro on Instagram 😈) I also headcanon that Evan would be a doll/toy enjoyer! Tea parties and all. He'd give each toy their own names (he renamed all of Lizzie's Barbie dolls too 👍)

- Evan was pulled from school around 7 years old because of a certain incident (to summarize it quickly, a bunch of kids started bullying him more severely than usual and Evan ended up attacking one of them, like father like son 🙁) so now he's 'homeschooled', which really means that he just gets to stay home

- Will purposefully isolates Evan away from everyone as much as possible, not only to make sure nothing bad happens to him but also to make sure he can keep him under his thumb. He is Evan's biggest confidant (Besides Fredbear, but they're the same person so it's just him again!) So by the time Evan's birthday came close, he had Evan dependent on him and him only :(

- A lot of Evan's clothes are hand-me-downs from Mike, but Evan's favorite sweater was made by his mom and he treasures it very much

I have a bajillion more headcanons but those can wait for another day! Thanks for asking!

[z-saint-box]

Festival of Fall Episode Review

"Wait, what?! Someone's after me? After us? Neppy, can you track this girl, cat-girl? I'll go find the others. They're in too much danger to be bobbing for apples." - Thyme, after receiving Neppy Cat's report

"Of course I remember! When we were kids, you had fun just being around me! You didn't need us to go spelunking in some stupid volcano full of hot knives just to consider it a fun day! And you were never, never this annoying!" - Sage, releasing her anger at Rosemary

"I'm far from the only enemy you have. We hide well, and they'll keep sending us. The others won't be so nice." - Olive, when she is cornered by Rosemary and Sage

"No, Rose. I... I want to be alone right now." - Sage, refusing Rosemary's offer to join her

[part one] "Festival of Fall" is more than just "the Halloween episodes." With the exception of Parsley, each of the girls are taken to their limits. Thyme has to confront her mother again while a rift forms between Rosemary and Sage. I pretty much have to review both episodes at the same time because the first part is the calm before the storm and the second part is completely action-oriented. Raye Rodriguez has said that this is his favorite episode, and I can understand why. The episode is well animated, and while the Autumn Processional is Halloween, it is visually interesting. There are not only moving crowds in the episode, but every character is wearing a different outfit. It takes much more time, effort, and money for animators to adapt to different characters wearing different clothes. Rosemary's dragon costume is the best because completely suits her character, and because it is the plush she has in her bedroom (in the opening intro of the show), this shows continuity. All of these elements give the two-parter its own unique identity. Additionally, the festival, or holiday, is integral to the conflict. The main antagonist, Olive, is a cat that can transform into a cat-girl; and because cats are a popular costume to wear, she practically blends in with the environment, despite not wearing a disguise or shapeshifting into a human girl. When Thyme realizes this, she is unable to find her. Speaking of, Neppy cat is one of my favorite characters of the show, and he is a main character in this episode. Despite his inability to articulate himself, he is benevolent and altruist. He's also clumsy; so when a group of girls take interest in him, he has an embarrassing accident at the bandstand. This causes him to cross paths with Slimeboy, and this forces him to run away while a crowd of people just stare at him. It's just awkward and cute. As for Rosemary and Sage, the first real conflict emerges between them when they begin disagreeing over what event to attend. Rosemary would like to throw flaming axes while Sage would like to carve gourds. Their argument eventually culminates when Sage confronts Rosemary. Even though she is the character I would be most similar to, I actually agree with Rosemary, especially because Sage approaches the festival like a to-do list. In all honesty, this is a confrontation that was bound to happen, due to how Rose and Sage are almost polar opposites to each other, like I said for the first episode. As for Thyme, she is not so stoic throughout the processional. She can show emotions such as fright, but also horror. These happen when she runs into a man wearing a tree costume and when Olive drops the vial of healing water. In the latter moment, Olive successfully tests her limit, and breaks her character. Although at the same time, Thyme makes the goofiest face of the entire show. Even though it breaks the drama (and because of it), I think it's funny. So, for this reason, I am half critical of this. But my biggest criticism towards the episode, which also applies to the second part, is the credits. Despite closing on a dark ending, and a cliffhanger, no less, the closing credits play and bring sudden happiness on-screen. This isn't the first time I have found an episode abruptly shifting in tone at the every end; this time however, it's baffling how no one at Ellation Studio bothered to change or remove it. Starting from this episode onwards, the credits should have been replaced with a different one. Not only that, but it's not like the credits are meant to cheer the viewer afterwards, because this is only part one.

[part two] For whatever reason, part two of the festival, or episode, starts off very slowly. In some fairness, it could be every character recovering from the shockwave, or aftermath of Olive's spell. Still, there is an unusual delay when the girls should be confronting each other. Olive does nothing while the girls recover., and then the girls do nothing while Olive is finished recovering. But eventually, they do fight, and Olive easily incapacitates Sage and Thyme; but as for Rosemary, she hesitates due to Rosemary carrying her sword with her. She retreats before Rosemary chases after her. The majority of the episode after is action, inbetween Rosemary and Olive fighting, and Sage and Thyme searching for them, with Amaryllis and Snapdragon even joining the fray. But, the fight between Rosemary and Olive is tense; and it is also one time on the show where the blood looks good. Rosemary puts up a good fight with Olive and beats her. What I don't think receives enough respect is Rosemary's character. Despite her current feuding with Sage, she goes after Olive anyways and risks death, again. Her character shines with courage, selflessness, and heroism in this episode. Not only that, but the overall atmosphere of the episode is eerie, something that Halloween, or the Autumn Processional is not. The environment is spooky, as the girls and Snapdragon navigate themselves through a city that, despite its population, is not alive, the result of Olive turning everyone into stone and making dead silence. Any move can literally knock someone down and shatter them, hereby killing them. But as a minor criticism, it should not be hard for the group to find them. If no one is making noise, it should be easy to hear someone, or two people running through town square. In fact, it would be even easier to hear two people fighting. Additionally, Olive could have also transformed back into a cat so that it is easier to flee. Despite having nowhere to run when Rosemary and Sage confront her, Olive still manages to escape when Sage blasts her terrasphere. Afterwards, Sage reverses the spark spell by destroying the terrasphere and de-stones everyone in Lyngarth. Interestingly, Rosemary is the one that fights Olive, but Sage is the one who reverses her spell. The warrior does her job, and then the mage finishes it. As for the outro to the episode, I initially thought it is long and drawn-out, but the reason is, Rosemary is exhausted from fighting; more importantly, her walking alone emphasizes the schism between herself and Sage. Despite being a genki girl with energy and morale, the events of the episode break her and she is left tearful, if not completely devastated at the end. The conclusion is absolutely effective at showing this. Despite the ongoing revelry of the festival, Rosemary leaves town square in order to cry. Unfortunately, despite the dark ending, the credits play seconds after. As an interesting fact, even critics of High Guardian Spice like this episode; or at least see some of its merits. This proves that the show's studio is (or was) capable of making a good (or even passable) episode. And it seems the creators really put a decent chunk of their effort into these two episodes. Because of this, I thoroughly enjoyed them for the reasons above. Like an actual festival, there are moments that will be remembered for a long time.

previous episode review: Past Present

next episode review: Rainy Day Memories

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

What I would’ve done w/ Lotor’s character

It’s not exactly a secret to anyone who’s been following me for a while that I’m not the biggest fan of canon Lotor. I had high hopes for the character from his 80s counterpart and intro in season 3 but I was really let down by the direction the writers went with him in canon.

When he was introduced, I was so hoping for him to be this cocky manipulative asshole that’s only out for himself. I love that character archetype so goddamn much.

But in canon he was just kinda boring to me. His personality was bland and his motivations never really made sense. He’s introduced using empty promises of peace and comradery to manipulate people, then its revealed that he actually does want peace and comradery and wants to lead a peaceful empire, then that turns into draining Alteans and wanting to kill all Galra...

I also didn’t like how the writers decide to tack on this whole child abuse plot to explain why he was the way he was. As if that’s the only way to make a villain sympathetic. Yeah other versions of Voltron have touched on Lotor’s childhood before and it was never pleasant, but VLD really leaned into that shit, to the point where it felt like the writers were just shoving angst down our throats thinking that equals good writing.

It takes more than a tragic backstory to make a character compelling. It takes an interesting personally and motivations that make sense. And you can make a character tragic/sympathetic in more subtle ways.

For me personally, I wanted Lotor to be a sorta fusion of Loki and Littlefinger in space.

Loki is a sly trickster who grew up feeling like an outcast, unaware of his true heritage. He grew up believing he could be king but when his shity father handed it to his perfect brother he felt he had been robbed and decided to take the throne by force.

Littlefinger is a small man from a small house with no power, and after getting the shit beat out of him trying to win the hand of the girl he loved, he decided he would use his intelligence and skills in manipulation to screw over all these noble lords and weasel his way into the throne. And when he did he would finally get vengeance on all those who had looked down on him.

I feel like this fits Lotor well. Lotor is a prince, so he isn’t small in that regard, but he is not respected in the way a prince should be.

He is a lot smaller than the average Galra. And even though Lotor is still quite strong, developing a fighting style that suits his small form and uses his opponents size against them, in a society so heavily based on physical strength that’s still a big blow to your rep.

He employs half breeds, which we know are looked down on in the empire. And there are definitely rumors about Lotor himself being a half breed. I think after 10,000 years Zarkon would’ve done a pretty good job at hiding Lotor’s heritage from the public but just looking at him compared to the average Galra there’s going to be some suspicion there. On that note Lotor is probably considered butt ugly by the Galra.

And Lotor works in the shadows and achieves his goals through lies and trickery, which Lotor himself says are things the empire looks down on.

So yeah, the people in the empire hate Lotor. Even Sendak who’s all ‘Gung ho empire’ has no respect for Lotor. And because of this it would probably be up in the air whether or not Lotor would even be allowed to take the throne if his father were to pass, even though it’s his birthright.

And in the face of all this rampant disrespect, Lotor decides that he is going to overthrow his father and take the throne. And when he does he will take vengeance on everyone who had ever undermined him and expand the empire beyond anything his father could’ve dreamed of.

And don’t try telling me, “oh that’s so out of character! Lotor would never take pleasure in the pain of others!” Because he does.

Remember Throk? Remember how Lotor sent him away to the worst station in the empire and joked about letting him, “rot with the ice worms?” Remember how Lotor later invaded his station then watched with a grin as he was tortured by Haggar?

Lotor 100% takes pleasure in hurting those who would hurt him, because it makes him feel powerful.

Now let’s talk about Lotor’s planet. The one given to him and destroyed by Zarkon. I always felt weird about this plot. Obviously it’s a very sad thing to have happen, but I always liked the idea of Lotor’s promises of peace to be empty, a means of manipulating people. So this whole situation being genuine feels weird to me.

In my version, Lotor didn’t get banished for being too kind. He got banished because Zarkon caught him in a plot to betray him.

When Lotor was put in charge of the planet, he seduced and married the princess Ventar. He filled her head with promises that her people would be free and they would rule the universe together and convinced her to secretly round up her armies and send word to her ally planets to do the same, so they could start planning a way to overthrow Zarkon.

It’s left ambiguous whether or not he was being genuine and whether he really loved Ventar and intended to keep his promises to her or if she was just a tool to get the throne. But either way, it ends the same. Zarkon finds out, destroys the planet, kills Ventar, and exiles Lotor.

Still sad/humiliating thing for Lotor, and definitely a story that could gain sympathy from Allura.

Speaking of Allura and Ventar, let’s talk about Lotor’s relationship with the women in his life.

(Trigger Warning: Brief mention of of a rape scene in GoLion)

In the 80s Lotor was incredibly misogynistic. He walked around with a harem of half naked women, tried repeatedly to kidnap and marry Allura against her will, and in GoLion it’s heavily implied that he raped Romelle because she looked like Allura.

It’s a common joke in the fandom that he went from this to drinking respect women juice in VLD but I don’t know if I’d go that far.

He’s definitely better in VLD than he was in the 80s, but even in VLD he manipulates, uses, and hurts most of the women in his life.

Allura is the obvious example, but you also have his generals. Acxa talks to the paladins, Allura in particular, about how persuasive Lotor could be. Implying that she and the other general were manipulated the same way Allura was.

Well not EXACTLY the same way Allura was, romantically I mean. Though there are people who believe that Acxa was also in love with Lotor and he used that to his advantage, which I can see.

But I feel like it was more about giving them a place in an empire that didn’t care about or accept them.

I hate The Last Jedi but I really feel like the line, “you’re nothing, but not to me,” fits really well. They were outsiders with no place to go until Lotor swooped in and gave them a purpose.

Do I think that there was a part of Lotor that genuinely wanted to help them because he saw a kindred spirit in them? Yeah. But I also think that at the end of the day, they were more tools than real friends. And he had no qualms about killing them if they betrayed him.

The situation with Narti proves that. As well as the fact that Ezor and Zethrid seemed very scared of the prospect of Lotor being alive and coming for them.

And then you have Allura. Lotor’s lust for Allura has always been a very important part of his character. In the 80s the reason behind his obsession with her was that he had a lot of baggage about his mother and had a thing for women that looked like her. Also the fact that he just didn’t like not getting something he wanted.

There was never any love. He didn’t want to be with her, he wanted to own her.

In VLD, his want for Allura seems to stem more from the fact that she’s Altean than an Oedipus complex. As well as the fact that she’s powerful and skilled in Altean alchemy, which makes her rather useful.

I don’t personally believe that Lotor ever really Loved Allura. I think he liked the idea of her and what she could do for him, but the end of the day she was more a means to an end than anything else.

Allura’s been trough a lot. Zarkon betrayed her family and destroyed her entire planet only about a year ago from her point of view, and she appears to have a pretty bad case of survivors guilt and PTSD. And to make matters worse, while Lotor was on the ship she was fighting with Shiro, someone she clearly cared about. The idea of loosing him after already losing so much must’ve been really painful.

She was hurting, conflicted, and lonely. Which made her all the more vulnerable to Lotor’s manipulation.

He took advantage of her loneliness and insecurities, making her believe she had found someone who understood her and could help her avenge her family and planet. She trusted him, let herself be vulnerable around him, which made it hurt even more when it was revealed to all be a ruse.

And then you have his relationship with his mother Honerva/Haggar.

I talked a lot about this in my whole rewrite/rant about Honerva, but I’m not a fan of how they made their relationship 100% negative. I feel like it robs the show of a lot of interesting character interaction.

It’s sad. The whole relationship is really tragic. Shit like this is literally my worst nightmare. The thought of looking my mom in the face and have her not recognize me as her daughter keeps me up at night.

But the thing is, in canon the relationship kinda falls flat because Lotor and Haggar/Honerva have no connection. Haggar was awful to Lotor and Lotor hates Haggar. What reason do I have to be invested in their relationship?

So If you haven’t read my Honerva rant, here’s how I would’ve done the Honerva Lotor relationship.

10,000 years ago, when Alfor came to Dibazzal to convince Zarkon to close the rift, Honerva went into labor. Alfor and many Galran doctors tried there best to save her and the baby, but the quintessence had damaged her body so much that she couldn’t be saved and died in childbirth.

Zarkon went ballistic and Alfor had the doctors take baby Lotor somewhere safe, fearing Zarkon would take his grief and anger out on the child.

After Honerva was resurrected as Haggar and throughout Lotor’s childhood, they had a strange sort of relationship. Lotor was an inquisitive child and was always curious about Haggar and her work, making a habit of following her around like a little shadow and watching as she worked. And there was also the fact that, while his father was never friendly, he was calmer when she was around.

Haggar had no idea what to make of this weird child following her around all the time. All these big strong Galra were terrified of her but this tiny child showed no fear as he tugged on her robes and excitedly asked questions about her work. And she never minded. She didn’t know why or how to explain it, but she cared for the child. As much as a soulless undead witch could care for something anyway.

But as time went on there relationship became more and more strained. Lotor was a smart kid he was gonna find out about his mother and deduce what happened to her.

He resented Haggar. Resented her for not remembering him. Resented her for the fact that he had to go through life without a mother while she was right there. And he resented her for being loyal to Zarkon, who had been making his life hell for thousands of years.

Every time she showed him something resembling kindness he’s conflicted. He knows he should feel happy that she cares, but at the same time, why does she care? It’s not like she sees him as her son.

He turned to denial, insisting that Haggar couldn’t possibly be his mother, even though he new the truth deep down, and a part of him always secretly longed for her to remember who she was, who he was, and embrace him as her son. He hates that part of himself.

And when he does meet Honerva for the first time, it’s... tense... to say the least. Having his mother reach out to him and acknowledge him as her son is something he thought would bring him joy, but in that moment all the pain he went through rises back to the surface and he lashes out. He draws his sword and is about to cut her down but he hesitates. He’s trembling with tears in his eyes. He can’t forgive her, but he also can’t bring himself to kill her.

Then you have his relationship with his father.

It’s no secret that Zarkon is an awful man and a shity father, always has been.

The explanation as to why is kinda shaky. All we get is Zarkon saying Lotor is his greatest shame because he’s Altean but I don’t know about that. Zarkon may hate Alteans but he loved Honerva and I don’t think he would be ashamed of his relationship with her.

He definitely did his best Lotor’s heritage from the public. But I don’t think that’s the reason he hates him.

In my version of the story, Zarkon hates Lotor because Honerva died giving birth to him and Zarkon blames him for her death. He lost his beloved wife and was forced to watch the son that killed her waltz around wearing her face.

It didn’t help that Lotor was a snarky rebellious kid that liked to show off. He did things his own way, didn’t care much for rules, and had a real knack for finding loopholes. All things that made his strict father very angry. He was an embarrassment. Small and rebellious. That’s why Zarkon began training Sendak.

I personally believe the reason Zarkon was so trusting of Sendak and had so much faith in him was because Zarkon had been grooming him to be his “true heir.” Sendak is the epitome of what a Galra should be. Strong, loyal, and brave. He would be the son Zarkon wished he had. The favorite child.

Lotor obviously hates Zarkon, and rightfully so. Zarkon hates him for something he had no control over and constantly disrespects him.

Lotor may not follow the rules, but he passes every trial. He excels at everything he does but Zarkon refuses to see that all because he blames him for Honerva’s death.

Lotor sees Zarkon as an old fool. He knows that he could do a far better job at running the empire.

Lotor dedicated thousands of years of his life to overthrowing Zarkon. His hatred for his father was his motivation, what got him out of bed every morning, so when the deed is done and Zarkon was finally defeated, in the moments after he felt empty.

But he didn’t have time to dwell on that feeling for long. He still had to deal with his father’s men and take the throne that was rightfully his.

Then you have his plan.

Lotor’s plan in VLD is really weird and over complicated. There was no real reason for the whole draining Alteans thing. Just a lazy way of making him 100% evil.

The plot could’ve been a lot simpler. He gains the paladins trust, gets them to help him build his ships and overthrow Zarkon, and then once he has the throne he pulls an Uno reverse card and is like, “yeah, nothing personal but this was all a trick and imma lock you and your lions up now.”

Obviously more complicated than that but that’s the basic idea.

One of my main problems with VLD is that they had a bad habit of over complicating the plot. People don’t care about VLD because of the plot, they care about the characters and their relationships, the actual plot doesn’t have to be anything spectacular.

It’s strange to say but I feel like the writes tried too hard with Lotor. He had the potential to be an amazing villain but the writers were too focused on tricking the audience and making him angsty that they forgot to make him compelling.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Homestuck 2 has updated! Christmas is ruined!

Previously, on Homestuck 2: Literally nothing happened, and a non-trivial portion of the patreon supporters gave up and quit. Can this update pull a Christmas miracle and right the sinking ship of Homestuck 2? Probably not, but let’s find out! 

We’re back in Candyland, having completely skipped over Karkat and John talking about Dave’s apparent death, because this comic is only interested in long conversations when they’re boring and not about anything at all. That’s alright, I got the gist of it.

When Karkat is finally gone, John still doesn’t move. It isn’t as though he has nowhere else to go, since there are quite a few places he might attempt to make himself useful, for better or for worse.

So, it appears to be morning now, meaning that John’s son has been missing in a war zone for almost 24 hours and I guess John literally forgot Harry existed?

Prediction: This conversation is going to end in some variant of “Where is our son?” “Oh shit!”

ROXY: hey john can u do me a quick solid

ROXY: actly idk how quick itll be but its definitely solid

ROXY: harry anderson says i just missed u being here but could u skip back on over?

What.

So, I went back and checked, and apparently nowhere is it explicitly said that Harry Anderson was also looking for the Vriskas, so I guess he....stayed home? Which makes sense, I suppose, but maybe a “Stay here I’ll go look for them” would’ve helped. I wasn’t the only one who thought Harry was out looking for Vriska too. 

ROXY: sup

ROXY: follow me

ROXY: well were just going to my room so i guess technically u know the way

JOHN: haha ok.

John follows, trying to shake the ominous feeling he got from what she’d just said. He’d been in and out of this house a lot in the past few days. Why should this be any different?

Is Roxy....horny? Is the solid she’s looking for John’s dick? I mean, that’d make her saying Harry wasn’t available kind of weird, but I think this framing is a fake-out.

...

What the fuck is that lamp, Jesus Christ it’s awful. Just a cat’s asshole, facing the door.

ROXY: r u kiddin me rn egbert

JOHN: i’m not? unless you were, in which case yeah lets say i was also kidding.

JOHN: oh my god, i’m sorry, i don’t know why this making me freak out.

ROXY: i remember our past boot knockin with fondness but that is a situation im not interested in revisiting

Oh hey, it was a fakeout. Good job, Homestuck 2. You successfully implied something just through the art. Art which, by the way, looks a lot better than the last chapter. There are backgrounds and everything. I wonder if Chapter 15 was rushed out due to Hiveswap and that’s why it was so weak?

He’s almost embarrassed by how relieved he feels. So what if his ex wife wanted to hook up? Shouldn’t that be a situation he could navigate? Don’t people like to find solace in human physical connection during dire times? Why did the idea of it make his mind white out in panic more than, say, any number of the traumas he just experienced?

I’m not the biggest fan of the way the narration is going JOHN IS AFRAID OF SEX WITH ROXY LIKE HE’S A TEENAGE VIRGIN AGAIN (LIKE IN HS1!) AND IT DOESN’T REALLY MAKE SENSE PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IT’LL BE IMPORTANT LATER, but okay, noted.

ROXY: u said ur house is gone??

JOHN: yep.

JOHN: completely.

ROXY: jeez

Heh. I like Roxy, still. 

JOHN: so i just sat there, watching, trying to figure out why watching my house burn down felt like i was being released from prison.

If this comic actually uses the phrase “home” and “stuck” in the same sentence I’m turning this blog around and we’ll go right back to Winnipeg.

ROXY: aight then no wind bending just use your mangrit

Roxy flexes, the corner of her mouth pulled up into a familiar grin. John feels his guts, so recently calmed, twist up into knots again. Her eyebrows shoot up and the smile loosens. He must have shown something on his face.

ROXY: ok or just like push when i push

ROXY: we both got sick muscles

ROXY: no other adjectives necessary

I feel unqualified to talk about how hard Roxy is pushing the June Egbert thing.

....Is that the fucking portal from Hiveswap under a tarp? Also hi Candy Callie, appearing in HS2 for the first time. One of the Calliope’s is nonbinary, I think, but I honestly can’t remember and I think it’s Meat Calliope? 

JOHN: do i get to know what that big thing under the sheet is?

ROXY: hmmmmmm no

JOHN: oh ok.

JOHN: are you sure? i mean, it seems like a pretty prominent feature of the room.

JOHN: space.

JOHN: wherever we are.

ROXY: and a totally mysterious n COMPLETELY inconspicuous feature it will have to remain for now

ROXY: we r kinda in a hurry here fyi

ROXY: and by that i mean

ROXY: we are in precisely the amount of hurry that means im excused from having to a that specific q rn

JOHN: right, sorry.

JOHN: i will pay no attention to the object behind the curtain.

ROXY: u catch on fast egbert

Oh thing HS2 has not been great at is that it has a lot of plot mysteries that are supposed to keep us enticed but they don’t really get implanted into the audience’s head (Remember Vrissy mysteriously collapsing that one time? Probably not, she did it off screen and the boys kind of laughed it off). This one’s hard to miss.

JOHN: so... this is all downstairs?

JOHN: it seems like you had a lot of work done.

ROXY: well no not x actly

ROXY: were in the old meteor

It’s kind of weird how this meteor keeps popping up like this. 

CALLIOPE: besides, hUman divorces are even more fascinating than i had ever imagined, and being able to witness yoUrs in motion was an honoUr.

This is an unexpected but not unwelcome direction for Callie to have gone.

CALLIOPE: ah right, right. yoU're probably a little cUrioUs as to where the dickens we are.

CALLIOPE: how much do yoU know aboUt black holes?

Oh, wow, we’re going right there, then. This does seem like a bit of a reaction to complaints HS2 wasn’t shmoovin’ enough, but maybe I’m reading too much into it.

CALLIOPE: no, i mean, what if oUr whole WORLD was inside a black hole.

JOHN: ok.

A’ight, that got a laugh out of me

JOHN: ugh, i fucking KNEW it!

JOHN: i'm so sorry.

JOHN: i'm so sorry that i put the earth inside a black hole everyone. ):

I like this conversation a lot. 

ROXY: iirc at least part of y u got so weepy was the fact that u couldnt believe a version of earth existed where ppl got 2 watch more mcconaughey films than you

JOHN: listen.

JOHN: i simply don't think you all appreciated the gift you were given.

Quite a bit, in fact.

ROXY: ur not gonna enter a weird time vortex and change the trajectory of a little girls life with the power of love

JOHN: aw.

Roxy and John have a good dynamic. 

CALLIOPE: bUt Upon her departUre, the rift closed for good. as far as i can see, there's simply no way for Us to commUnicate with the world oUtside the black hole.

CALLIOPE: i woUld certainly be very sUrprised to find oUt that anyone had managed sUch a thing!

JOHN: ...right.

John’s phone has very good coverage, since he was able to talk to Terezi in the epilogues, as we’re being subtly reminded of here with that ... before the “right”. I wonder if it still works after alt-Calliope left.

CALLIOPE: oUr exclUsion from the overarching coUrse of events which governs all reality means that oUr existence here is liable to dramatic and violent Upheaval.

CALLIOPE: to pUt it another way, becaUse nothing in here "matters", we are likely to be sUbjected to things which are a bit bats in the belfry, for no reason other than it's totally insignificant to the wider canon of reality.

CALLIOPE: and mUch thoUgh i am personally titillated by some of the conseqUences of this predicament, it is a degrading way for Us to live. u_u

Okay, so we are now being explicitly told that living in the black hole is fucking with the characters and is part of the reason they make such baffling decisions, like Rose not telling Kanaya about Yiffy, or naming her daughter “Yiffy” in the first place.

CALLIOPE: we need yoU to free vriska from the clUtches of oUr misgUided friend jane, and bring her here, to the singUlarity.

ROXY: weve been calling it the plot point

CALLIOPE: yes, the plot point is a key part of oUr plan

CALLIOPE: as far as we have been able to sUrmise, the only remaining method for escaping oUr grim confinement depends on leveraging the UniqUe properties of this location to create an event of sUch catalcysmic proportions that it simply cannot be contained within the black hole any more.

CALLIOPE: something SO dramatic, so hyper-relevant, that it becomes ontologically impossible for anyone to ignore it.

CALLIOPE: for that, we need an individUal of sUfficient narrative cloUt, so to speak.

CALLIOPE: and to liberate her, who better than the embodiment of the aspect of freedom itself?

So, the plan is literally for Vriska to be such a Huge 8itch that the black hole itself gets sick of her and yeets Earth C out of its own event horizon to freedom.

This is actually a great plan. 

And that’s Hamsteak. This definitely feels like a bit of a reaction to complaints about HS2, but hey, I dig it, I guess? Definite improvement over the last chapter.

[serphena]

early days of Cass & Theo (& Kiara)

forgive me the long text that turned out to be pretty much a stream of consciousness type of writing that wasn’t planned out I just sat and tried to get out what I had in mind bc @lethendralis-paints was curious how Cassandra saw Theo at the beginning and how it changed between them as the time went by (thank you btw). I’ve put it under a read more because it’s really long with some tiny illustrations in-between blocks of text.

The thing is, he never intended to even get into the Chantry in the first place. 

He wasn't even in Haven because of his clan (because he left them sometime after Kiara was born, to travel around with a group of friends). It was during one of his travels with his daughter (they were travelling alone for quite some time now, almost 4 years) that he encountered the people from the village and went with them further into the mountains in search of some basic supplies (mostly medicine and food), because Kiara got sick after few weeks of a really cold winter. But, the curiosity got the better of Theo and he went to check out what's the deal with the Chantry and all of the people going there (it's a pilgrimage, they said; lots of important people will be here soon, with the most holy leading the talks at the Conclave). What he got from it is that there could be something valuable in there, something that could be useful for later, for when they leave the place. 

So he went there to check it out. And came out through the rift, suddenly the "herald" of a god he doesn't care about. So, it wasn't ideal, wasn't what he had planned at all, and now he was stuck with all those people going on about the Maker and his duty and responsibility and that he is there to help them all now, to save them from this whatever it is. And his hand is glowing. And it hurts. Great.  

What he wanted was to just get his daughter to feel better and get the hell out, so he was bitter and angry during the first few days. He didn’t feel safe, and couldn’t be 100% his kid is safe, because like hell he will let others know that’s his child. So he hid her the best he could, visiting as rarely as he could as not to raise any suspicions (Leliana’s agents found out later on but he cornered them and begged to keep it a secret, because come on that a child don’t do that to her when I’m the one with the biggest target on my back in this whole place). The older ladies from the village agreed to watch over and nurse her back to health her while he is out doing the Inquisition’s business. Bear in mind, he is trying to get by on his own with only occasional help from others when it’s really the only way to survive and on top of that he has a little girl to take care of. So this all was making him really, really anxious and restless.

That's what started the pretty much hostile attitude towards the advisors and Cassandra - at first his logic was that ‘if they hate me enough, they will surely find another way to heal that thing in the sky (yeah sure that Solas guy explained the glowing hand that belongs to ME is the only way they know of) and finally get rid of me. So he was purposefuly extra annoying. And not much up for cooperation. Disappearing a lot (again, to get to the village, to escape, to feel normal again, to help out people how he wants to do it, to see his daughter because now he is always away and he hates it). 

For Cassandra it was a clear sign he is not to be trusted, he doesn't care for others, is rude and annoying and they are stuck with him only because of his mark. She tried to reason with him more than once, but after hitting a wall with each attempt she switched to demands and orders. Somehow shit had to be done, and if she has to drag him by the ear, she will do so. 

After some time together (and with the help of other companions also being there, to step in between if there was a need for it) they talked some things out (or, lashed out at each other, more or less, because they still weren't seeing eye to eye much) it was agreed that he will help close the Breach at the temple and then they will decide what comes next. He starts to realise that it's not just someone's whim that he is to stay and basically lead the andrastian club of world saviors, he is their only hope, only way to do anything about this mess. It means that if he were to stick to his original plan, he wouldn't really get what he wanted - to ensure that his daughter is safe. Now all of them were in danger, so if he had to stay with the Inquisition in order to get things back to normal again, that's what he will do. With some reluctance still, but that's when things started to slowly shift. He actually talked to Cassandra. Asked questions. Answered some of hers. Both refusing to speak of anything related to close family (like her brother and his clan’s people in detail, or anyone else he considered family).

During one of particularly long mission and quite a bad phrasing of the reason of Theo's absence (old lady taking care of Kiara mentioned he went to the woods for something, which is not a good thing in Kiara's mind, she got really scared that he will get lost and never come back), Kiara wanders off from the village on her own, in the cold and scared because her papa is gone and she needs to find him before he gets lots. And she herself of course gets lost. That's how she encounters Cassandra, and when they get her to Theo some more things click for both of them. After Kiara goes on about how that lady with short hair (and dark like hers!) was really nice and helped her find him, he melts his walls down just a little. 

So now, for Cass he is not a fussy man-child who was really good at getting on her nerves anymore. He still annoys her sometimes, but now he is not so malicious about it. And he smiles more. Hell, he smiles at all, now it’s all genuine. He tried explaining his reasons for being a total asshole, and she tries to understand. So he was doing it for the little one. However his inner circle and advisors would interpret it, he tried to get a fresh start with people he works with now apparently. So, thank you Kiara, the real mvp. It was a key moment, because his world is Kiara, and if she is ok with Cassandra, maybe he could be a little less awful to her. The jokes are now just that, and not jabs at something so it could hurt. The teasing is more for fun.

Not having to deal with hiding the fact that he has a daughter was a big relief, because he didn't have to (but still felt like he should) put such walls between him and others. He is still afraid now she is also a possible target, but thankfully Inquisition didn’t kick him out so he has people he could count on and ask for help. He could sleep more, was less anxious and gave it a go to build actual friendships with his inner circle and advisors (apologizing to Cullen was a big thing, but he had to do it because it wasn't okay to take it all out on the guy). 

It was slow, and it was not so obvious, but through his constant tries to get Cass to practically hate him, he learned a lot - what gets her angry, what makes her shut off, what gets her sad, what you shouldn't mention around her (her brother, apparently), what she holds important - and later he uses it to his advantage, because now he knows what he shouldn't do. It was also easier to try and help when he saw her being particularly cranky and he pretty much would always guess right the reason for her moods, which was a surprise to her. Turns out he is really good at reading and consoling people.

Big, big moment of 'I trust you' was when Corypheus attacked Haven and Theo pleaded, demanded, screamed at her to get to safety with the rest and make sure his daughter is alright. (He also wanted her out of the harms way, but he wouldn’t ever admit it out loud). Trusting her with his kid was not easy, but after what they got through together (rifts, time travels, a freaking dragon attack and all the rest of demons) he felt if there is one person he would trust with Kiara, with his everything, it would be her.

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 62 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 73 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

--

RATE THE EPISODE 68 Responses

Again, the response to last week’s episode was notably positive, with 98.5% of responses giving it a score of 3 or higher. Marley and Me is still going strong! 

Gave a 3 because while I don't give a rats ass about the Warriors or their "tragic" sob story, the animation and voice acting was on par

It was way better than the first two of the season I liked it a lot!!

I think it was one of the best episodes not only in this season, but in the entire show. It shows deepness of the characters in Attack on Titan and shows as the other side in such an amazing way. It was brilliant. 

I think the episode was pretty good

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 68 Responses

Eren’s formal reveal as the amputee soldier took the biggest piece of the pie, with 45.6% of respondents enjoying that scene the most. Trailing behind that is Reiner’s tragic suicide attempt with 10.3% of the vote, followed closely behind by RBA’s side of Shiganshina at 8.8%.

Flashbacks were important. And eren intro was epic

Reiner standing up looking like an undead zombie after getting clobbered by Annie and then stating "Reiner is dead...I will be Marcel" was just...Wow. Just loved seeing the wall breach from RBA's perspective. Reiner gains more dimensions and complexity with each episode and I'm here for it! Bless MAPPA :-)

WE GOT THE FULL ED LAST WEEK. AFTER SEEING IT IN ITS ENTIRETY, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT NOW? 66 Responses

Although just over 59% of responses gave the ED a decidedly positive grade (with praise going towards both imagery and the song), almost 20% of responses simply thought it was “okay”. A relatively equal amount of responses alternated between liking the animation and disliking the song and vice versa. Only a few seemed to dislike both. 

Didn't watch/care

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THE SEQUENCE INTRODUCING ALL OF MARLEY’S TITANS? 67 Responses

The sequence introducing all of Marley’s Titans has gotten rave reviews, with 97% of responses rating it positively. Truth be told, I’d given it a 5 myself, if I could… But I can’t, I’m just a mysterious voice, detailing the results of this poll.

OUT OF ALL THE TITANS THE MARLEY MILITARY HAD 9 YEARS AGO, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE? 67 Responses

For the question regarding possible inheritance of the Titans, we’ve gotten a rather colorful pie chart! Annie’s Female Titan is clearly leading with just under a third of those who took the poll picking it out as their favorite option. Reiner’s Armored is taking second place with almost 21%, followed by Zeke’s Beast at almost 18%. Bertholdt’s Colossal and the Series Mascot is, surprisingly, at just under 12%, with Pieck, unsurprisingly, bringing up the rear.

WHICH OG WARRIOR CANDIDATE WOULD YOU WANT TO ADOPT? 64 Responses

When it comes to possibly adopting a warrior candidate, we’ve gotten even more pie flavors! Reiner is at number one with just over 20%, with Pieck and Annie going into second place, both with just under 19%. Bertholdt’s in third place, with a little over 14%. Marcel and Zeke bring up the rear and it seems like no one wants to adopt poor little Porco. Just over 20% seem to not want to participate in this little scheme for various reasons.

A LOT OF THE SHIGANSHINA BREACH HAS REUSED QIT ANIMATION FROM PAST EPISODE - THOUGHTS? 67 Responses

When it came to the fact that a lot of the Shiganshina Breach Animation was reused for the episode, most seemed to respond either positively or indifferently. Just over 58% thought just that the old animation flowed decently with MAPPA’s new style, while 16.4% didn’t really care. Almost 12% expressed nostalgia for WIT’s style of animation and 9% noted that while they weren’t fans of this move, they understood the reason for it. Whoever was left noted that they either really preferred MAPPA’s new style or really didn’t like this move from MAPPA, as a whole.

KAJI YUKI HAS LOWERED HIS VOICE A BIT TO DEPICT AN OLDER EREN. THOUGHTS? 67 Responses

A bit of a lopsided result for this one. 71.6% of all responses noted that they enjoyed Yuki Kaji’s move of lowering his voice to depict an older Eren. 16.4% states that they didn’t care and the rest either expressed further “enthusiasm” for this move with one person noting that they preferred younger Eren’s voice range. 

:c

I didn’t even notice

WE’VE LOST COUNT ON HOW MANY TIMES WE’VE SEEN MARCEL GET EATEN. BUT OF THE OPTIONS BELOW, WHO DID IT BEST? 67 Responses

When it came to seeing Marcel biting the dust numerous times, it turned out that we have plenty of options and styles to choose from. 37.3% said that they preferred MAPPA’s depiction of the event, with just under a third preferring Isayama’s newer depiction. Bringing up the rear with 22.4% were those who preferred WIT’s depiction and 7.5% who like Isayama’s older depiction the best.

DO YOU THINK THAT REINER WAS CORRECT, THAT MARLEY WOULD HAVE HAD ALL OF RBA EATEN IF THEY HAD FOUND YMIR AND RETURNED HOME IMMEDIATELY? 65 Responses

In what is perhaps the most divisive question of the poll, it would seem like those who thought Marley wouldn’t have had all of RBA eaten if they had found Ymir and returned home immediately came out on top, with almost 57% arguing they would have either threatened the kids before keeping them around or became understanding from the get-go. 43.1% dissented and thought Marley would have, in fact, done so. 

Don't think so because we only saw 1 other warrior candidate and when the warriors failed in the Shinganshina arc they didn't pass on Reiner or Zeke's powers.

Marley = maybe. Zeke = would have been understanding

Maybe just eat Ymir

WHAT’S THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT? 66 Responses

For the question about tonight’s (or rather, the night when the fanbase took the poll) weather, we’ve received a multitude of responses. From the most popular to the least, we’ve had people predicting a cloudy night, a snowy night, clear skies, a rainy night and finally, a stormy night. On the other hand, just over 18% didn’t seem to care. 

Call if hail at you’ll be late for muster

freckled Jesus getting crucified, RIP Marco

Fuckkkkk Berttttt

Hangman

it's gonna rain titans

Meh, don't care about Bertolt

REINER GRADUATED 2ND FROM THE TOP IN THE 104TH, BUT DID YOU EXPECT HIM TO BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SELECTED WARRIOR CANDIDATES? 65 Responses

Reiner’s surprisingly poor performance during his years as a Warrior candidate surprised most of those who took our poll, with 40% expressing just that. Almost 37% thought this development made him more relatable as a character, with the rest either noting that they either didn’t care or that this portrayed the 104th in a somewhat poorer light (lol). 

I feel like his traumatic experience of watching someone he grew up with die and his resolve to become more reliable and strong pushed him to reach the point that he did considering he also outranked both Annie and Bertolt.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT REINER IS HALF-MARLEYAN? 66 Responses

When it came to the fact that Reiner turned out to be half-Marleyan, almost 38% thought the said fact gave more depth to Reiner’s character. Just over 24% thought it made him even more tragic and 18.2% hope that said detail will have more significance in the future. The rest stated that they didn’t care. 

I think it's sad for Reiner, but a nice twist. I was wondering what happens to half Eldian/Marleyans so it was nice to see the result from a more cultural and political standpoint.

GALLIARD’S FIRST NAME IS ACTUALLY “PORCO.” THOUGHTS? 66 Responses

For the reveal of Galliard’s first name actually being “Porco”, we’ve had 45.5% of responses understanding why the big man himself decided to go by his last name instead. 13.6% asked what Isayama was thinking when giving him that name. The rest either expressed further sympathy for the boy or thought it was a decent name for character. 

I can't stop thinking of him as Porky Pig now. He had such a cool surname too xD

DO YOU THINK THAT THE RIFT BETWEEN REINER AND PORCO CAN BE RESOLVED? 66 Responses

When it came to deciphering the rift between Reiner and Porco, a bit over 40% thought that the rift would never be able to “go away”, with Porco disliking Reiner for various reasons. Almost a third dissented and thought that it would be possible, provided Porco either learned of Marcel’s actions or kept working with Reiner for longer periods of time. The rest weren’t sure exactly. 

It seemed like the rift wasn't really prominent in episode 2, so maybe it's already resolved.

IN THAT SAME VEIN, DO YOU BELIEVE PORCO’S COLD FEELINGS TOWARD REINER ARE UNDERSTANDABLE AND/OR JUSTIFIED? REMEMBER: HE DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT MARCEL’S ACTIONS. 65 Responses

When it came to a similar question, most (67.7%) thought Porco’s cold feelings towards Reiner were understandable, but not justified. 20% thought they were, in fact, both understandable and justifiable. 10.8% thought they were neither and there was one sole person who stated that they didn’t care.

REINER AND ANNIE WERE REALLY ROUGH ON EACH OTHER. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT? 66 Responses

Reiner seems to have even poorer relations with Annie and this episode surely confirms it. Almost 50% were surprised to find out just how poor said relations were. A third stated that they believed the two still cared about each other, just well, “deep down”. A little over 15% predicted this hatred, on the other hand. 

Annie went full "Levi on Eren" on Reiner. I knew they had a tense relationship, this just confirmed my suspicions. I don't think they hate each other.

HOW DID YOU FEEL GETTING TO SEE MORE BERTOLT AFTER HIS UNTIMELY DEATH LAST SEASON? 66 Responses

Seeing Bertolt again in the story was generally treated positively by most, with almost 44% stating that they enjoyed his extra screen time. A bit over 20% stated that they really missed him and were sad to see him, knowing what happens in the future. On the other hand, a little over 21% openly expressed their dislike for the character. Just over 12% simply stated that they didn’t care. 

Dude had it rough, at least the suffering is over now.

i barely care about him... he's just there. he adds nothing to the show compared to other warriors. his personality is way too boring and bland. 

This doesn't make me sympathize with him in any way shape or form

I'm so glad to see Bertholdt... Mappa did him cute as a kid and hot all grown up.

ANNIE AND KENNY: WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS UNLIKELY ENCOUNTER? 66 Responses

When it came to seeing Kenny and Annie’s unlikely encounter, the responses were rather distinctive. A little under a third thought it was random, but enjoyable. Others stated that they were just happy to see more Kenny or Annie. Some noted that Annie’s survival rate when taking on the Ackermans is impressive. Finally, just under 11% noted that they didn’t care for it. 

I thought they did it as fan-service bc Kenny = popular

It was a bit too short to be impactful in my opinion.

I wish we saw more Kenny

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AFTER LEARNING THAT REINER IS THE ONE WHO PUSHED FOR THE ASSAULT ON WALL ROSE AFTER TRAINING WITH THE 104TH FOR 3 YEARS? 66 Responses

Upon learning about Reiner’s push for attacking Wall Rose after 3 years of living with the 104th, the fanbase came out to be rather divided. Whereas a bit over a half expressed at least some sympathy for him, the rest were sharp in their critique. A few stated that they didn’t care, however.

HOW DID YOU FEEL SEEING REINER ON THE EDGE OF SUICIDE? 66 Responses

Seeing Reiner on the verge of suicide brought out a lot of sympathy for the man himself, with people expressing degrees of sympathy for him. A little under a third simply noted that this is a dark story. However, a few also stated that they didn’t feel much sympathy for him due to his previous actions. 

besides the fact that this whole episode was dark, this particular scene made the episode more and more uncomfortable and depressing :( can someone please hug him and tell him that everything is gonna be fine?

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE REVEAL THAT EREN WAS THE AMPUTEE SOLDIER FROM THE LAST EPISODE? 66 Responses

The reveal that Eren was the amputee soldier from the previous episode is another one of this series’ twists and turns. Sadly, a third of the responses had already been spoiled about it. On the other hand, another third or so seemed to have an inkling and were happy to see a confirmation in this one. Just over 21% were simply in shock. 

I knew from his voice 

He's learnt to control his regeneration o.0 I wonder what else he has learnt. Also guessed last episode.

EREN OBSERVES THAT FALCO MAY BE TRYING TO PROTECT “A GIRL” FROM INHERITING THE ARMOR - IMPLYING FALCO MAY HAVE FEELINGS FOR GABI. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT? 66 Responses

When it came to Love Doctor Eren Yeager, more than 50% thought that this development showed his maturation over the course of the story (and 4 years, specifically). Some thought that it didn’t really mean anything, while others looked to a bit more romantic answer. Finally, some thought he was being influenced by the memories of his father or his father’s Attack Titan predecessor.

Don't know if Eren was implying that or if he was trying to gain intel.

BE HONEST - DOES EREN WORK THE HOBO LOOK? 66 Responses

When it came down to seeing Eren’s new design, the majority actually seemed to be more interested in seeing his “manbun” one, as seen in the trailer. Almost 20% thought it was his coolest design to date! The rest either seemed to prefer one of his earlier designs or thought that he looked kinda gross. And some people were just thirsty. 

Cool change. Doesn't look "better", but does make him look more serious/battle-scarred.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

i was super confused at first, but after a lot more research im completely caught up w the story and very excited for whats to come!

Would've enjoyed even more REINER

Definitely ready for more. I always assumed our old team has been lurking on this side of the wall ever since ep 1 (call me crazy, but was that my mans Jean who bought the newspaper??) anywaY, I can’t wait for the reveal/ambush WhatevEr it is they got planned. You know Armin’s behind this shit. Let’s get ittttt

I need to see Levi already!! I feel like I’m going through withdrawal

The artwork was really nice, same with the animation. I thought the bit with Annie and Reiner was too intense though I felt kinda sick watching it. Also, they showed the scene in the trailer where Reiner is talking to Eren when they were in training and also when he was trying to commit suicide but the audio was different from the visual so I'm curious now if Reiner like tries to have Eren kill him but Eren and co want to interrogate him??? So he's like "why won't you let me die?". Also, I like Falco even more now, seems like a great and important character.

Seeing the Titans normally animated makes the cgi hurt more :(

it gave a lot of clarity cant lie

Reiner's backstory with his dad broke my heart. I thought he took it well. For Marcel to die afterwards and the warriors to be pushed down that path was terrible. I also love how Annie was really against attacking the Eldians, and voiced her disgust, and it felt organic. It didn't feel like it was forced in to show viewer thoughts. The episode made me appreciate Annie's maturity from a young age and emotional depth, and the fact that this was achieved with Reiner as the main focus makes it amore impressive.

mappa > wit. no doubt. the cinematography was a m a z i n g. it was very aesthetically pleasing to watch. 

Why did the smiling titan ignore Bertholt?

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 65 Responses

Thank you again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again after next episode. 

[seafleece]

veth, the mother (figure)

you know, maybe i should have known better than to think i could do anything but fully flesh out my veth meta for everyone before going to bed, because i meant to address how fast people are to defend veth and that’s, like, exactly what happened.

i think veth is incredibly interesting. i think she’s a character for whom you have to do a lot of digging to get at what she thinks and feels, and how that’s really different from what she actually expresses. i want to look at veth critically, and i’m not willing to sit and let people tell me that it means that i hate her or want to misrepresent her, because i don’t.

here’s the interesting thing about veth and showing maternal love: she does show maternal love. maternal love is shown towards the people she has decided are her children, and that’s the mighty nein and luc. but maternal love isn’t suddenly perfect because it’s maternal (and, not to mention, veth hasn’t spent all of luc’s life with him. not even half.) other than caleb, veth tends to act, especially with fjord and beau, the exact way that mothers are with older/adult kids: they don’t know how to show they care (this is compounded especially by the fact that she didn’t know them as young kids, and that she has to balance feeling maternal with being an equal to them in the group at times), and can end up hurting their kids a lot. veth admitting that she really does care about fjord stands out not just because of the scene they were in, but because it was the first time she did that. (it’s really interesting to me that a) she didn’t apologize, and b) she used strength as an excuse to call fjord weak. yes, it’s interesting rhetorically, but if veth is the established mother figure of the group, why would fjord absorb the idea that he’s strong if veth has continuously called him weak? how could he possibly be expected to extrapolate that from what veth’s said to him, and how can we expect that her re-framing every time she’s insulted him should be enough to make him feel better?) 

veth has been and continues, if a little less now, to be openly rude and hurtful to beau, and the instance where jester defended beau to her sticks out to me a lot for so many reasons. jester loves beau almost in the exact opposite way that veth loves beau, and i think it’s one of the biggest rifts in their relationship, especially because veth does the least to acknowledge how beau actually acts. veth calls beau abrasive-- she says beau is awful to talk to or look at--- but, you know, motherly love, right? and beau doesn’t argue. she just gets sad and angry, and lets jester defend her instead. that doesn’t really gel with what veth just called her, does it? and veth didn’t apologize to beau before the ritual, no, she specifically pointed to the fact that she appreciates beau protecting caleb. no apology for believing in beau the least. i think veth does care about beau a lot, i think they have an interesting mother-daughter dynamic in addition to their new dynamic as 2/3 of the chaos crew, and that veth really has the chance to explicitly care for beau the way beau’s parents didn’t, but boy howdy, she doesn’t take it too much, huh? how much have veth’s words, about beau not being pretty, about beau being rude, echoed what beau’s parents have said to her? that, i think, is why she feels the least comfortable pushing back against it. (more depressingly, it’s impossible to separate the way people in fanon just accept that the worst about beau must be true from the fact that she is a butch lesbian of color, and i wish there was any recognition for it. it’s really not cute. in character it sucks in an interesting and resolvable way if there’s acknowledgement that veth doesn’t understand beau and isn’t trying very hard and has the potential to do otherwise, but ooc it scares me. a lot.) things are easier between them now that she understands beau as incredibly important to jester, who she cares for in a different way, but they would not be close were it not for jester, and it doesn’t mean she’s apologized.

now, caleb. the line veth rides between seeing caleb as her son and being attracted to him is really fascinating (and, uh. really weird), and i think has to do with how veth views herself as either allowed or not allowed to experience attraction based on whether she’s nott or veth, but more on that in another post. as a mother figure, veth very notably doesn’t treat caleb as an older kid she doesn’t know how to connect to properly. she treats caleb as someone she needs to protect. caleb’s squishy, so it’s okay if she steals from other people to give him things that will help him, because he needs to be safe. it’s okay if other people get hurt if it means she’s keeping him safe. veth’s protectiveness of and love for caleb doesn’t provide an example of how loving she is to everyone. it’s an example of how much she can love a person, and what she’ll do when she does love someone to that extent. she loves jester in the same way, and what’s especially interesting is that this is what changes her perception of the people that jester or caleb are close to. essek’s nice and wonderful when he and caleb are getting along, but essek needs punishment now that he’s hurt caleb. (i already addressed this, but veth’s motivations for punishing essek aren’t, at least not primarily, because he committed war crimes, but because he put her and her kids in danger, because he obviously hurt caleb. she literally offered to keep the war going to isharnai, she offered to commit war crimes herself-- we cannot kid ourselves that her vitriol towards essek is somehow altruistic when this is the case). if caleb is veth’s kid, essek is the friend who came over for a playdate that now needs to go home because he pushed caleb over. beau, on the other hand, is a good example of what happens when veth does change her mind about someone because the person she feels protective of cares about them. chaos crew wouldn’t exist if jester wasn’t the glue connecting beau to nott, and nott’s eased off a lot in talking badly about beau because she knows jester loves beau, and it’s a combination of “beau can stay because jester wants her to” and “maybe jester can see something in beau that i haven’t, and maybe i should try to see it”. it gives me a lot of hope in how veth will come to view essek, but it’s not quite the same. moreover, veth has the potential to hurt caleb and jester the most by protecting them and pushing other people away or making certain decisions in order to do so-- she sees her drinking as something she needs to do to be on her guard, to be able to fight with the rest of them, and her long dialogue with jester about this and her eventual decision to try to break her habits is really indicative, to me, of how much she can change for the people she loves, but also how hard it will be for her. as for caleb, i think veth hurt caleb a lot by explicitly talking about how essek should be punished, because she loves caleb, and gets that caleb likes essek, but doesn’t realize the degree to which caleb sees himself as essek, and how her condemnation of essek can read like condemnation of caleb. i’m anticipating a conversation where caleb asks veth or otherwise mentions that if essek is a criminal who should be punished, why shouldn’t he, and i think he’ll get support in that from yasha, who clearly feels similar.

i don’t want to talk about veth as a character who can’t change-- i want to talk about veth as a character who hasn’t changed much because her goal this campaign until now hasn’t been to move forward, but to return, and some things she could let herself ascribe to the way she felt as nott but seem to have stubbornly persisted because they’re not things created in her by becoming nott, they’re things she actually thinks and feels. i think she’s a mother figure in the way that real people are mother figures: they mess up, they do wrong by their children in their attempts to do right, and it’s easy to devalue anyone who isn’t one of their children because their children need protecting first. veth’s maternal love isn’t an argument against her as a flawed character and as one whose view of punishment doesn’t quite fit with how she views her children. i’m of the opinion that it’s an argument for it.

[nerdpiggy]

Tell us about your ocs!! I'm genuinely curios bc of the tags

[ID: Meme of Hatsune Miku smiling. Top text reads "Thanks for sending me a message". Bottom text reads "You're very cute and I will be replying to you".]

Robin "Robbie" Fuller: The character i play in a DND campaign.

they/them pronouns. they're nonbinary and asexual and don't care to label their romantic attraction.

They're 22 years old and 5'9" (175cm)

Their birthday is November 12th. they're a scorpio

They started off as a Mundane MOTW character and they're now a level 7 warlock in DND. They're a human

They live in a small coastal town in massachusetts called Holyoak and they go to the local college to learn culinary. They live in a single dorm and they have a cute widdle black cat named Chickadee

One day (for various reasons) their life was flip-turned upside down with discovering the existence of monsters, portals, different dimensions, and rifts in spacetime

One of the reasons for them discovering all of this was them meeting a man named Thomas who's a human from a different dimension called the Palisades. He's a well-known Judge over there. (Thomas is @bevtastic 's character)

Robbie gets an offer to join the Interdimensional Defence Agency (IDA), says fuck it and accepts, and Robbie and Thomas stay friends by virtue of their similar jobs.

Robbie is tasked to go to a different dimension (A half-medieval half-wild west desert town called Argyle) to stop a threat that was growing there. Threat turned out to be a massive mind-controlling dragon who wanted revenge for the rest of her dragon species that were killed off by medieval "heroes". Robbie was not cut out for this as their first job. They (with help) subdue the dragon eventually but not before she burned down multiple towns including Argyle to a crisp. Robbie feels very bad about this.

Robbie, Thomas, and the rest of the party receive a mysterious letter leading them to an old abandoned mansion in Holyoak and get roped into a rescue mission to save Thomas's old friend Percy who has apparently been bodysnatched by a bad guy and trapped somewhere for what felt like thousands of years. This is the arc where we switched from Monster of the Week to DND, and Robbie gets connected to a nature deity Adelaide through a purple necklace. They also get a familiar, who is an owl with pitch-black feathers and glowing yellow pupilless eyes that Robbie named Mr. Muffins.

Robbie and Thomas become very good friends :)

Thomas dies.

Robbie goes to the Palisades to find out what happened to him. Turns out he wanted to reveal the secret of interdimensional travel to the public and work to make it open, free, and safe. The people in charge did not allow him to do this by legal means so he aimed to do it illegally, which was when he was murdered by a group of bandits.

On top of that, one of the main reasons why he wanted to reveal the different dimensions is because there is a HUGE interdimensional threat coming our way, and we need to act on it if we want to live.

Percy finds Robbie and asks them to help with this threat, who apparently is a singular person named Siris that has been locked in a prison for thousands of years and somehow got out. Robbie doesn't have much of a choice and accepts.

In the Palisades, there are monsters called Behemoths. they emerge from people who get bitten by a behemoth or who touch the black tar-like substance that runs like rivers in certain areas of the Palisades. During a battle, Robbie gets bitten by a Behemoth, and now they're a candidate for Behemism (aka turning into big giant monster syndrome).

Because Robbie has Behemism and Siris is part of the reason for Behemism existing, they're mind roommates now. Robbie and Siris do not get along very well.

There's more to Robbie but this is their main backstory!!!

[ID: a drawing of Robbie holding a chrysanthemum. They have short pink curly hair, and they're wearing a yellow floral button-up and a purple necklace. They have bandages on their freckled face and they're looking down at the chrysanthemum with a neutral expression.]

Emile Azarel: A character i play in a different campaign that does MOTW.

He/him pronouns, he's trans, demisexual, and demiromantic.

He's 19 and he's 5'3

He doesn't know his actual birthday but the day he celebrates is January 23rd

His MOTW class is The Expert. He's a fire genasi

He was born in central Russia but he doesn't know his parents well because when he was ~8 months old there was a big monster attack that unfortunately killed his parents. A monster hunter named Avery Azarel found Emile, took him in and raised him.

Emile learned to hunt monsters with Avery and the two traveled around together as monster hunters.

Eventually Emile wished to have a solid place to live rather than constantly traveling, because he wanted friends. He found a town in the pacific northwest called Salmon Peak that had everything he wanted: Russian culture, a fairly small easy-to-get-around layout, and some very weird mysteries going on. (Just because Emile wanted to settle didnt mean he wanted to stop monster hunting!)

He moved to Salmon Peak and has met a bunch of new friends! He's also learning more and more about the town, which is turning out to be somehow even weirder than he expected.

Emile is a very sweet, polite boy, but considering the fact that he's only ever been around one person mainly for his entire life, he has a bit of a ways to go when it comes to interacting with people. The monster hunting life means that when there's a monster, you kill it and that usually solves all your problems. Emile has transferred this logic to people as well (if they're a monster, kill em!) and he's learning through friend influence that maybe human lives are a bit more sacred than that.

His favorite color is blue because he loves the sky!

A lot of people underestimate his skills because he's little and looks very young, but he is a very good monster hunter. Because of Avery (the best monster hunter in the biz), his last name has a bit of a reputation.

Emile is blind, autistic, and has vitiligo!

I have much more planned for Emile but I can't say it here because it is MAJOR spoilers!

[ID: a drawing of Emile walking forward. He is wearing a blue shirt with stars on it, blue jeans, a fluffy white jacket, a belt with a star on it, star earrings, a moon necklace, and black shoes. His blue hair is swaying behind him and he's holding a white cane with a red tip. He's smiling slightly.]

Avery Azarel: Emile's parent! I've not played them as a character yet but I've made a character sheet for them.

they/them pronouns. They're agender, aromantic, and pansexual

their age is (???) and their height is 5'7

they have a birthday but nobody knows when it is

Their MOTW class is The Chosen. they appear human

They're widely considered the best monster hunter in the biz. Their name is well-known and they're requested for help all around the world

Because of this, they're constantly traveling and having a house would not make sense. They just pack their things, stay at motels/hotels/etc., camp in the woods and move around to wherever people need them.

Since they've been pretty much everywhere, they always seem to know at least one person from each town. They never seem to get too close to anyone, though

They are fluent in many different languages!

In the past they were paired up with another monster hunter and they made a great duo. That was a couple decades ago; they go solo now.

Years ago, an unexpected and incredibly destructive monster rampaged a small town in Central Russia. Avery came as fast as they could (they were nearby in the area) but they still couldn't finish off the beast before it tore the whole town to shreds. Dozens of homes were crushed, but surprisingly most people survived, with the exception of a couple of people who died under the rubble. Avery felt awful (this was their biggest failure in a while), and as they were searching through the rubble for any more casualties they found little baby Emile, miraculously unscathed. They took him in and raised him from then on.

Nobody, not even Emile, knows very many details about Avery's childhood, their family, their age, or really any information about them. (Emile has been trying to figure out Avery's birthday for AGES so they can celebrate, but Avery has refused to budge)

Their main weapon is 2 pairs of bolas! those are those chains with 2 balls on either end, usually made to be thrown at people's legs to restrain and trip them. they use the bolas both as restraining tools and as their main weapon, because i think weapons where you spin them really fast in front of you are cool

There's a scar over their left eye; whenever someone asks how they got it they always spin a different elaborate tale of an epic monster battle. Nobody knows which (if any) is the true story

there is a WHOLE LOT that I am leaving out if you couldn't tell. There's a huge chunk of their past that I'm leaving out because it's all a big bundle of spoilers. Someday I will be able to elaborate more on Avery!

[ID: a picrew made by djarn of Avery. They're smiling, their head is tilted slightly, and there's a scar over their left eye. Their hair is tied half-up half-down. They're wearing a black shirt with "òwó" on it and a blue jacket with an aromantic flag pin and a pansexual flag pin. the background is an agender flag.]

These are my main OC's! I have more (Orion, Nottwyrm, "Noodlearms", etc.) but these 3 are the main ones that I post about. :3 thank u for asking!!!

If you have any questions about any of my characters I always welcome asks!!! 💖

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Behind Bars”

WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Guys This is the beginning of an interesting new mini series that may deal with some pretty heavy stuff since it takes place in a human prison. If you think there is ANY chance you could be bothered or offended by the topics I might cover, than now is a good time not to read this. I am not going to go through and make a list of all the potential things you may not like, so I deffer to your own judgement of yourself to determine what is good for you.

Also another little side note, the way I portray law enforcement in this is in no way how I feel about them. I have close family member in law enforcement and respect the hell out of them, but the way I did it was done to serve the story, so just keep that in mind. 

For those of you who choose to read it, I hope it’s interesting :) 

“Gah, this place is a dump.” 

“Yeah, just be glad you can’t smell it.”

“Why is that?”

“Urine, lots and lots of urine.”

“Ah, lovely.” Krill muttered making his next movements very tender against the dark clattering metal as if he could avoid stepping in anything unsavory. Beside him, a rather scruffy human appeared from the shadows, “scruffy” with an overgrown haircut, five o-clock shadow, eyepatch and an army jacket that had seen better days.

Commander Vir blended in surprisingly well with the grungy understreets of noctropolis. The city was Less of a city, and more like a series of tunnels bridges and rickety buildings built on and into the side of a cavernous rift in the ground. Once upon a time, the Tesraki had begun serious mining operations on the border moon’s surface causing some serious scars in the landscape which was then filled with the teaming underground life that the most unsavory humans bring with them. 

Noctopolis was located on the furthest edge of the Milky Way galaxy, and seeing as the GA was based out of Andromeda, it was a very difficult moon to police. The UNSC had attempted to take over operations on the moon but had found only limited success considering their military had only been operating in space for the past few years. They didn’t have enough manpower to undergo such an operation, so the moon itself was left mostly unpoliced. Since then it had become home to the most unsavory of the Tesraki, the Drev, and the humans having enough economically or emotionally in common that they at least tolerated each other. 

What understanding they had of the border moon had begun with the banning of interspecies relationships almost a year past. Since Noctopolis wasn’t particularly well policed, may counter culture groups had made their home here. While many of them were decent people attempting a little privacy away from the eyes of the law, other less savory groups had taken an opportunity to stake their claim.

The streets about them were littered with trash and abandoned cardboard and metal scraps. Their greatest source of light leaked down from the lively redlight district above, not only called that because of what it offered, but because it actually did bost a series of bright neon lights that could be seen across the city.

“Wanna tell me why I’m here again. This is kind of a Sunny and Vir thing.”

Commander Vir propped himself casually up against a wall slouching inside his jacket collar turned up against the sour wind blowing up from the cavern vanishing into darkness below, “Sunny had to finish requisitioning our new weapons system, besides, i thought it was about time you and I hung out. We haven't done anything together as friends in a while.” 

“Ah yes, just how I prefer social bonding, Loitering through piss covered streets with an eyeless legless hobo.”

“Rude.” The human muttered glancing quickly around a corner.

Krill let the question drop instead moving onto the next topic of conversation, “Wanna tell me why we aren’t working with local law enforcement?”

The human dodged past a leaking pipe and the resulting black puddle, “Well there are a few reasons. If I plan on getting close to this drug ring, or even the suppliers, I can't have the smell of the feds one me, second is that the policing system here is only partially overseen by the UN, mostly they supply their own officers and their own laws. There are serious rumors about law enforcement corruption, but that can be expected considering the kind of people that hang out here. And then there is the issue of ease of access to fingerprinting and DNA systems. Mine have been temporarily removed from the system for this operation because the dealers tend to check before the sell, but if i was working with local law enforcement my identity might be leaked.”

Together they stepped onto one of the rickety bridges spanning the cavern. Krill tried not to look down into the gaping bottomless chasm spanning downwards into darkness tinted with the red haze cast from the neon reflection of the city.

“Why is this such a big deal anyway. Why waste you on a project like this.”

Commander Vir stepped off the edge of the bridge holding it steady for Krill as he followed.

“Because this guys are linked to the human hormone market.” Krill was a bit surprised. He had heard about the issue months ago. Certain species, the Tesraki and the Drev especially had neurotransmitter systems similar to that of a human, though somewhat dampened and were affected by the use of injected dopamine and adrenaline. On the street they had taken names like Dopie, Daddy, Addie, Joy Juice, and some other strange names. The biggest issue with the use of human chemicals as drugs is that even a single dose of the stuff could fry the circuits for any nonhuman taken in any sort of significant dose. In humans it occasionally meant sickness or even mental illness, but in aliens it could mean permanent flat affect or the inability to feel fear. The other issue was how the dealers got it, usually it involved kidnapping and harvesting the chemicals from humans, since many times the analogue drugs humans made for themselves didn't have an effect on aliens.

Krill shivered at the thought, and stepped through a tight alleyway just ahead of the Commander, who had to turn sideways to fit through the narrow space. He didn’t like fieldwork, at all, but having a human with you was one way to make you feel safe. The only creature that a human might not be able to fight off was a Drev, but even then there was still a possibility.

Together they cut across another street and towards their destination. They had managed to squeeze some information from the only informant still alive on the street, and that had been an address. At the back of the property they found a door padlocked shut though it had recently been cut.

Commander Vir held open the door and shoved inwards leading them into a long, dark hallway lined with debris. Krill stayed behind him as they made their way into the darkness jumping at every sound.

Ahead of him, the commander had removed an energy pistol from the band of his pants. Krill didn’t bother to point out to him, that it was difficult to believe he wasn’t law enforcement when he handled a weapon like that.

He held Krill back and then nudged one of the doors inward clearing the room with a quick sweep from corner to corner even stepping out to check behind the door. Krill peered in as the Commander grunted, “Just what we were looking for.”

Krill peered around his legs and then paused, “Uh….” The room was filled from floor to ceiling with strange glowing tanks of liquid a pale greenish in color. The ambient light gave the room a rather eerie glow. A glow that highlighted the strange instruments and free floating tubes with sinister intent. Nothing was currently in the tanks, but Krill shivered knowing what they would have held if they had been filled.

Human bodies.

The tanks cast much of the room into shadow, and Commander Vir took cover crouching behind one of the tank consoles. Krill followed him taking cover behind the human’s back. He didn't see what the man was so worried about there was one here. The human tilted his head listening intently scanning around the room. Krill was just beginning to speak when the man pushed him back hissing, “RUN!”

But before he could even take a step in another direction, he saw a flicker at the side of the room, and commander vir was lit up with at least ten points of green light all trained on his chest.

“GET ON THE GROUND.”

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP.”

“DROP THE GUN.”

“DON’T MOVE.”

Commander Vir reacted while Krill was still on the floor standing from behind his cover and stepping into the room. The Energy pistol clattered to the floor as he held his hands out to his sides.

“GET ON THE GROUND!”

Lights flashed all around them, and the room was illuminated by a painful burst of light and an eruption of movement. Men appeared from nowhere dressed in black tactical gear, faces and eyes completely obscured. Commander Vir was thrown face first onto the floor with at least three kneeling on his back.

Two came after Krill who squealed, to high pitched to be heard by the humans.

“GIVE US YOUR HAND!”

“GAH! Yes, yes just stop pulling and I will!. Shit…. I’m lying on it, let me up for a- OUCH!” From where he was being pinned to a wall, krill heard the ratcheting of handcuffs momentarily surprised not to hear the initiation of energy restraints.

“Shit, that's really tight…. Ahh… I can’t feel my hands.”

“STOP RESISTING.”

“I'M NOT RESISTING, I HAVE A PROSTHETIC AND YOUR STEPPING ON IT!”  That didn’t do him much good as Krill heard the sharp thud, crack of someone being hit over the head. Krill understood what the captain meant about NOT being policed by the UN. Krill had meat peace officers on earth before, and while they could act the same, they generally had reason be reasonable to them and they would probably be polite to you.

Commander Vir was dragged to his feet hands wrenched painfully behind his back and pinned against the wall as they searched him, “Anything on you gonna poke me or stick me.”

“No, no.”

“You got ID?”

Commander Vir paused, “I…. well no.” One of the other officers ran a scanning device over his body, but it beeped negative.

“No implants.” Krill cursed internally…. They should have thought about that when they temporarily cancelled his ID….

“No ID, you know that’s illegal, don’t you.” The one officer said, sticking his hand into another pocket.

“I can explain. I work WITH you guys I-”

“No badge, no ID ... and ah, what is this.” Krill felt his heart sink as he watched the man pull the Adrenaline and dopamine sample from the Commander’s pocket. He held it up in front of the Commander's face, “And what is this.”

“That…. Isn’t mine.” He said lamely

The man pulled down the front of his mask one eyebrow raised, “Ah not yours eh…. Let me guess these are your friends pants, and you’re just borrowing them. You had no idea they were there. Oh oh, I know, you were just delivering them for a friend you don’t know what they actually are.” He reached into another pocket, “Oh and what is this.” Commander Vir groaned and leaned his head against the wall.

The small baggie of white powder was held up before him, “What is this gonna be, Cocaine, Meth, Heroine. You been trading a little Addie for a fix.”

In fact they actually HAD traded the drugs for information, along with a tracking device. Humans can’t use dopamine and adrenaline like other species can, so they traded it for the classic stuff.

“You can test me, I’m not high, I’m not a drug addict, I am also not who you think I am.”

“And who are you?” 

“My name is Commander Adam Vir with the UNSC. I was sent here to HELP.”

They did not seem in any way convinced, “You have proof of that “Commander”. Look I saw the guy once, and he wasn’t half as fugly as you, also he was taller.”

Commander Vir yelped in indignation as they began patting him down for the second time, “Who you calling fugly you-” He bit his tongue, “I’m sorry OFFICER but I had my implants discontinued for this operation. Just look at me I’m missing an eye and a leg and im 6,2 just like the man you say I’m not, and I also let my hair grow out. GIve me five minutes on the phone and I’ll call my superiors for you.” 

“Uh huh, because they’d have the fleet commander down here crawling through the dirt after narcos and tweakers. This is the army officers sit behind their nice shiny desks and let other men die for them.” Commander Vir was pulled away from the wall, “What are you his junki cousin, a brother?”

“I told you who I am.”

“Someone check the bug, see if he has ID.”

Krill stiffened as a wand was run over him, “Nothing sir. That’s strange, usually don’t see their kind around here.”

“I get my phone call, don’t I.”

“What do you think this is the 2000s. The hormone crisis is a level 5 threat, and we are not obligated to provide you with anything.”

“I'm pretty sure I still get a lawyer.” 

Commander Vir was hauled to his feet and marched bodily towards the door, “Yeah but you'll have to get one flown in unless you want a Tesraki, and I wouldn't trust one of those bastards as far as I can throw them…. Uh disgusting little bats.”  Commander Vir seemed almost irked at the use of the slur. Humans had a habit of that, they had a slur for each of other species weather it be bug, beetle, bat, dino, or just the general use of the word freak.

They were dragged outside, and around to where the vehicles had been hidden. Commander tripped more than once over the cheap prosthetic he had used to augment his look, and every time he was dragged painfully back to his feet. Krill wasn’t treated much better though he only received one of the human officers. Krill were thrown in the back of a cruiser with bars and energy shields over the windows. Commander Vir was thrown against the front of the vehicle, “As of now, you'll be charged with the possession of illegal substance, intent to sell, failure to identify, unlawful possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest.”

“What! I didn’t resist, and I DID identify myself. It’s not my fault you won’t believe me.”

“Someone get a spit shield on him.”

“What, I.” He was pinned even more forcibly against the hood as a female officer secured, a GA issued muzzle over his face. They had developed those after realizing what human spit could do to certain species, and what the human voice could do to others. Once on, The officer flipped the dial, cutting off the Commander mid protest. 

Once done, he was thrown into the back with Krill gagged and restrained. Kril felt as if he was going to pass out, or just go right ahead and die. They had been captured by human authorities that even Commander Vir couldn’t talk down, and the ones that weren’t nearly as understanding as they were on earth. 

Things could only get worse.

[quilloftheclouds]

Quill’s STS Catchup

I’m playing catchup with STS asks! Some of these are... from well over a year ago. Oops. ^^’

Thank you folks for all sending such marvelous asks, and I’m sorry it took me so long to get to answering them!!

@ettawritesnstudies asked:

Hello there! For STS: what is your favorite type of sea creature that you wanted to put in OSS but weren't able to? If this doesn't apply, what are your top 5 favorite sea creatures that did make it into OSS?

I have an absolute ton of cephalopods that I wanted to put in but wasn’t able to! Like the mimic octopus, or dumbo octopus, or cuttlefish? I love them all so much but I just couldn’t find a place for them. ALSO SEA OTTERS. I really wanted sea otters. :c That said, a few of my favourite sea creatures I was able to base sirens off of! Like the firefly squid, a speckled flying fish, a leafy sea dragon, several betta fish, and a sailfish!

@musicofglassandwords asked:

storyteller saturday!! who's your most secretive OC and why is this? Do you have any OP characters and if you do, how are they OP? Favorite snack/dessert of your favorite OC?

I think Dione fits both the first and second question! She definitely keeps a whole lotta secrets, and mostly because one: she’s scared of what will happen if the truth gets out, and two: she’s protecting others from the truth! The reason she’s OP? She’s just. A heckin’ powerful three centuries old sea witch.

And Xuân’s favourite snack is munching on dried nori! I personally love this salty snack so much and if I can get my hands on it, it’ll disappear in less than a minute.

@ccwritesstuff asked:

happy STS! If your characters had to choose, what would be their favorite games to play, be it board, card or video games! ive been playing a lot of three houses recently so... yah. kinda inspired or stm like that

I don’t really know many board games that existed during the time of OSS! I’ll tell you that Emery, from my new wip CIRCUIT, absolutely loves UNO. He wins every time.

@maxgraybooks asked:

Happy sts! Who are your most eccentric characters?

Oh my good stars. Pretty much EVERY one of my characters is super eccentric! That’s just the way I am. XD I think Captain Xuân would be my most eccentric, though? Based on the way they act, plus the way they dress... they love to act especially weird, since they love being the center of attention!

@geth-consensus asked:

Storyteller Saturday! What's the most ridiculous scene you've ever written? As in what's actually occurring in the scene itself.

Probably when my two characters who are over three centuries old stick their tongues out at each other.

@livvywrites asked:

STS!! Do you have strong associations with any of your characters? If so, what are they? | What are your mains favorite weather conditions? | What originally inspired you to write One Siren’s Soul?? | Do you have any other large projects planned for the future??

Ohh!! I have a bunch of strong associations but a lot of them are spoilers, because I LOVE foreshadowing through symbolism! Let’s just say... storms play an important role for Celestine~

Favourite weather conditions! Celestine: Dry as a desert - Dione: Gentle snow - Caelin: Light rain that he can run around in - Phoenix: Clear night, somewhat cool, perfect for a bonfire

And original inspiration? I mean... I was obsessed with pirate and adventure stories for a while there... PoTC, Our Bloody Pearl, Treasure Planet? Plus then there was all the ocean stuff I was doing in biology at the time. ^^

And I have CIRCUIT and The Mirror’s Rifts that I’m also working on!

@ditzysworld asked:

Storyteller saturdayyy!!!! what colours do you associate with your main OCs and why?-ditzysworld

OH STARS. I love colours so much!!! I won’t explain why because that tends to be spoilerish, or really obvious!

Celestine: Dark blue, celestine blue, maroon.

Dione: Inky black, deep brown, pale green, vivid leaf green.

Caelin: Browns, beiges, dark blue.

Phoenix: RED. BRILLIANT RED.

@evelyns-spilled-tea asked:

Oh shoot it's that time already; Happy Storyteller Saturday! What're the differences between your characters and the idealized versions of themselves they wish they could be?

Celestine wishes she could get rid of her stupid fear.

Dione wishes she could be less of a coward, and could make up for the mistakes she did in the past. Also, she wishes she could control her temper.

Caelin wishes he would be less useless and oblivious.

Phoenix wishes she could be less scary.

@lordkingsmith asked:

story teller saturday trying again lol: what symbolism shows up in your works and what's your favorite to write about?

SYMBOLISM IS A MAJOR THING IN OSS. Some main things to look out for: Storms, ice, colours, and flowers! My favourite thing to write about? Uhhh... I really heckin’ love writing about geology and gemstones. I’m a Rock Nerd~

@lottieiswriting asked:

Storyteller Saturday but a day late (is storyteller Sunday a thing?) What would you say is the biggest flaw of your main character, and who would you say out of all of your characters has the worst / biggest flaw that causes the most problems? Hope you don’t mind my late ask!

I’M PROLLY A NUMBER OF MONTHS LATE SO NO SWEAT, MATE.

Celestine’s major flaw is her inability to trust people! And Dione’s flaws, her selfishness, is the one that causes the most problems throughout the story!

@timefirewrites asked:

Happy Storyteller Saturday! I'm sure you know at least one scene where there's suddenly a clone/doppelgänger/etc. of a character and they have to convince their friends that they're the original. How would your ocs do that? Would they succeed? What's a dish related to your ocs? (Be it inspired by them, or relating to their story in some way or simply by being their favorite food)

alfkjsldgkjsdg I love this trope. I don’t think it pops up in OSS? But it does in CIRCUIT! But if Celestine had a doppelgänger: she would likely convince everyone it’s her by insulting people with the unique insult-nicknames she has for everyone. XD For example: she only ever calls Phoenix “idiot”! Poor Nixi. And Celestine’s favourite dish of all time is PANCAKES.

@ditzysworld asked:

happy storyteller saturday! do you have any WIP ideas that you never really ended up pursuing, and why didn't you? -ditzysworld

My first attempt at a major novel that actually got anywhere was Soul Tied! It was about shapeshifters and dragons and the chosen one trope, but with twins! Mainly, I never really had an idea of where the story was going to go, and my outlining skills sucked at that stage.

@aslanwrites asked:

STS!! Would you ever write a self insert? Which OC do you relate to the most?

I actually make a small cameo in OSS! The lighthouse keeper that tries to stop Phoenix from destroying their lighthouse is based almost completely on me~

And as for who I relate to the most: Caelin! Originally, Caelin’s character was a persona of mine!

@tragedyshow asked:

sts!! what would your MCs animgi forms be? Their patronus and boggarts?

I know next to nothing about Harry Potter, but let’s see! (I actually see their patronus and animgi forms being the same creature, so I’ll just be answering with two!)

Celestine: Magpie, a giant heckin’ tidal wave.

Dione: Stag, a giant fire creature.

Caelin: Puppy!! Pup!! He literally turns into a border collie in canon!! AND FREAKIN’ MANNEQUINS I HATE THEM.

Phoenix: Can I make it a phoenix? Is that allowed? And a zombie or other clearly undead thing!

@fair-folk-nonsense asked:

Happy STS! What are your character’s worst fears and how do they deal with them? ~fair-folk-nonsense

Celestine’s worst fear is water! Or getting close to someone only to lose them again. And they usually deal with it either by running away as fast as they can, or denying everything. :/

That’s 15 asks answered! Phew~ Tune in next time for even more. XD

[snarkwrites]

06 | gangsta ; sweetpea

Notes:

So.. the sexual tension. The longing. The lingering touches and all that awkward but cute shit.. That’s starting here. Can we say sloooow burn? Because considering I’m now six chapters deep and they really haven’t... Done too much as far as touching / flirting / interacting, yeah.. That’s what this is. If you weren’t looking for a slow burn, I’m honestly not sure what to tell you? Other than oops? Oh.. Also.. this chapter and the next one I’m posting will have a few days lapse between them as far as timing. So... just so you know. It’s alluded that Sweet Pea and Alyssa have kind of bumped into each other between this chapter and the next one, if that makes sense.

Also.. I’ve pretty much planned out what stuff I am using / changing a little now, so that’s good. I have a general idea. I might even add my own events / plots to this. I’m kind of.. tempted.

Warnings:

non canon compliant - this is the biggest warning, so if you’re into things that follow exact canon plot you are... definitely not going to like this. angst & slow burn, heavy sexual tension starting now, actually - this is just so everyone who started reading this thinking the smut would transpire in a hurry knows that apparently, it is not. violence / swearing & fighting, possible underage drinking and other shenanigans - look.. it’s high school. shit happens. also apparently, my ofc Alyssa uses the word fuck like all the time?... eventual sexual content / a virgin original character - this one is self explanatory. yes, i plan to write a smutty chapter in this at some point. when? i don’t rightly know. it’s got a while before we get there.

Pairing:

Andrews!Sibling OFC, Alyssa x Sweet Pea

Other Parts:

[ one - two - three - four - five - soundtrack ]

Other Stuff:

[ faq - tag list doc ]

Tagging:

@brithedemonspawn​ is the only person on my Riverdale tag list. If you’d like to be tagged for this story by all means.. Please let me know. Please, I beg. It’d make me super duper happy!!!

                                                     SIX.

“You could come up to the lake house with us. It beats sitting around here moping.” Veronica spoke up as she stepped in front of the television set in my father’s living room. I tried to peer around her, grumbling because naturally, she’d pick the one scene in the entire episode I’d been dying to see since I started to re-watch the show and she’d block it.

“You realize I am trying to see Charlie Hunnam’s bare ass right now, right?” I asked calmly. Reaching for the half melted pint of butter pecan ice cream on the table in front of me and my spoon. Nodding to the empty spot on the couch that wasn’t taken up by my legs. Veronica sat down and for a few minutes, neither of us really said anything.

“What’s your attraction to this show?”

“Jax Teller, Opie Winston... Motorcycles.. But mostly Jax Teller.”

“Which one is he?”

“The blond with the very nice backside.” I nodded towards the shot I’d been waiting an entire season for, Jax Teller getting out of the shower and walking across the room.

“You definitely don’t have a type, no, not at all.” Veronica gave a soft laugh as she muttered the words. With the scene out of the way, I turned to the side to look at her.

“I’m not even going to ask what you meant by that.” I muttered.

Things were always awkward and tense between us. We were polite. But that was about the extent of it. And I felt bad about it. Obviously not bad enough to actually make an effort, even though she seemed like a really nice girl and she made my brother really happy. Happier than he’s been in a long time if I’m being honest.

I just couldn’t get past the rift her family caused in mine.

Then there was her mother, trying to hook up with my father while her actual husband was locked up in prison… But mostly, the tension her father caused between my father and my brother.

“Listen.. I heard everything that happened between you and Reggie. And if you want to come to the lake house..”

I shook my head. “ I am not crashing on the whole double date getaway you guys have going on. Besides, I doubt I’d be good company right now.”

“You wouldn’t be crashing!” Veronica was quick to speak up. “I know you don’t like me. But your brother loves you and I really.. I want to try to get to know you.”

I nodded. Taking a deep breath as I admitted quietly, “It’s not you, okay? Look. I have zero problem with you. It’s all the crap that’s going on with my brother and your dad. I’m… I’m worried about him and how far he’ll go.”

Veronica sighed. We went quiet again and she admitted after a few minutes, “I am too. If you want the truth, I don’t really like how close my dad is to him either. I don’t trust it.”

I eyed her, a brow raised.

“That’s like a dream situation though. If your father likes him, you don’t have to worry about him resorting to any of his typical clownery to end things with you two.” I curled the ends of my hair around my fingertip as I tried to understand why she wouldn’t like her father and my brother bonding a little.

Then it hit me. It had to feel awkward. Your father popping in to borrow your boyfriend. But the look on her face told me that wasn’t the only reason.

“I know what my father’s capable of. And the more I try to stop it, the more he manages to get by with. I hate everything he’s done, okay? I just.. Wanted you to know that.”

I let her words sink in.

Eyeing her as I weighed mine. Managing a smile.

“You make my brother happy. I like him happy. So if you really want to try and get to know each other, we can. But I’m not going to intrude on you guys weekend get away, because one, awkward as hell and two, I can imagine that already happens enough with your dad butting in to get him to do something or another.”

Veronica nodded, smiling. “I understand. What are you going to do this weekend?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m probably going to rewind that one scene five million times and burn it in my mind… I thought about going down to the theater and catching that horror marathon but I dunno.” I shrugged.

“A horror movie by yourself?”

“Mhm.”

After my brother came downstairs, the two of them left for the weekend and I locked the door behind them, leaning against it. Wandering over to my dad’s stereo, turning it on a hard rock station I listened to when I was home by myself just to drive out the lack of noise in the house.

I wandered into the kitchen, gathering up dirty dishes and moving them to the sink. Taking chicken out of our freezer to thaw because I thought about making chicken parmesan for me and dad when dad got off work tonight.

Vegas wandered into the kitchen and dropped his leash at my feet with a soft thud. I stopped what I was doing to lean down and pet him, nodding to the door. “In a few minutes, buddy. I’ll go find pants.”

I finished piling dishes into the sink and I wandered into the laundry room, digging around in the dryer for the jeans I’d taken off earlier, tugging them up. The door bell was literally being leaned on and I froze.

Took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that all the Black Hood nonsense was behind Riverdale because the guy was dead. Thinking it was Archie and he forgot something and was in a hurry, I made my way over to the door, unlocking it. “Hold on, Archie, damn.”

It wasn’t Archie.

Reggie stood there.

“What do you want?” I scowled.

“I miss you, okay? This is driving me crazy. Can we at least just talk about what you heard?”

“What exactly is there left to say? You were basically gambling on my virginity.” I frowned and shook my head. Shivering as the wind picked up a little.

“We can go inside and talk, Alyssa.”

“I just told you. I have absolutely nothing to say to you. Look… what you did hurt, okay? Because  I thought… nevermind.” I muttered, going quiet. Blowing at bangs I’d just gotten cut earlier in the week. He reached out to attempt pushing my hair out of my eyes and I leaned away. Vegas yelped impatiently from the doorway, his leash in his mouth now.

Seeing Reggie, he started to make his way over. Reggie bent to pet the dog and I cleared my throat. “You need to go.”

“Just let me say what I came to say.”

I tapped a bare foot against white painted wood slats and tilted my head, gazing up at him. Waiting.

“The only reason I made the stupid bet to begin with is because you’re literally the one girl I couldn’t work up the nerve to flirt with. And when I did, my charm didn’t work on you. Kinda when I started to fall. You gave me a hard time, princess.”

“ I kind of wish I’d stuck to that, actually.” I muttered. “All you had to do, Reggie, was just talk to me? Ask me on a date, I don’t know…”

“I was stupid, okay?” Reggie went quiet. Stepped a little closer. “ I love you. When I made the bet, I didn’t know how I felt about you at all. Then I started to fall and I tried to get out of the bet, Alyssa, you have to believe me. I tried to tell you but every time I’d think about it, I’d freak out because you’re the first actual good thing I’ve had in my life in a while, okay?”

I scoffed. “Yeah, I doubt that.”

“I mean it. And I’m not going to stop trying to prove it.”

I shrugged. “Do whatever you want but I’m not guaranteeing it will work. I already went against my gut instinct and gave you a chance to begin with.”

I shivered a little, hugging myself. Reggie placed his hands on my upper arms, rubbing them. Gazing down at me.

“Reggie, you need to go. I just need to think.”

“Thinking is better than you saying you hate me now… I just.. You were my best friend when we were kids.. Then I kinda fell for you and now stuff just sucks.. I don’t have my best friend or the girl I love. Anything is better than nothing.”

Reggie left and I walked back inside, flinging myself at the couch. Pulling myself together for a few seconds. Really letting what he said sink in. Trying to figure out if I felt the same thing. Or if I felt anything at all.

I finally gave up trying to force myself into a decision and after leashing Vegas, I wandered out into the chilly night air. Down to Pickens Park because Vegas likes to wander around the big grassy area between the ballfields and the playground.

After playing  fetch with a stick Vegas bought over to me, I flopped onto the grass. Vegas settled beside me and I found myself just kind of lounging there lazily, watching the clouds roll over the darkening sky lazily. Pointing at constellations when I spotted one. Vegas seemed content to just lounge there, his head resting on my stomach with me lazily giving him behind the ear skritches.

A throat cleared from nearby.

Sweet Pea stepped out, hands in his pockets. Wandering over to where I’d lazily flopped onto the grass. Sitting down nearby with his back against the tree. Close but keeping a healthy distance between us.

“Do you always lay in the park at night and talk to your dog?”

“What if I do?” I answered, rolling onto my stomach, propping on my elbow to gaze at him, my hair promptly cascading in front of my face like a messy red curtain.

“Damn it. I should’ve just chopped it all off.” I grumbled, pushing my hair out of my eyes to look at him.

“You’d look hideous bald.” Sweet Pea flashed me a teasing smirk.

“Hmphf.” I grumbled in response to his comment. “What brings you to the boring side of town?”

Sweet Pea shrugged. “Wyrm was crowded. Full of shouting kids and shit. I wanted to take a walk.”

“Toni and Cheryl went to see that movie tonight.” I laughed softly. “They asked me if I wanted to go but I said I wanted to stay home. Kind of just not feeling it. Then my brother’s girlfriend asked if I wanted to go on that weekend trip they all took.”

“You could be soaking in a hot tub right now.” Sweet Pea teased, a lesser seen teasing smile tugging at his mouth as he glanced at me.

“Honestly? I’d rather eat glass than indulge in anything Hiram Lodge is a part of. I’ll be nice to Veronica and try to get to know her, but that’s pretty much it. You know he brought my brother a car, right?”

“Yeah. I heard.” Sweet Pea answered, glancing over at me.

“Dad wasn’t thrilled with it either. That’s fine. Absolutely fine. I want Dad’s truck anyway. I’ll just spend weekends helping dad work on it. It’ll be more time I can spend with the grumpy old man.” I smiled to myself. One good thing about moving to Riverdale was that I was finally getting to spend more time with my father and my brother.

“You couldn’t even see over the wheel though. Can you even drive to begin with?” Sweet Pea shot me a teasing glance. Quick to step away from me just a little further, raising his hands. “I’m not trying to invoke the wrath of the midget.”

“It’s called a booster seat, asshole. And actually yeah. I do okay at driving. I mean aside from a go kart incident back in Chicago...” I teased right back, the two of us sharing a laugh that fell silent.

Sweet Pea stood, holding out a hand.

I eyed his hand and sat up, grabbing hold. Letting him pull me off the grass. Vegas rose to sit on his hind legs, then made his way over, sitting down right between Sweet Pea and I.. the little space that remained, there is. When he’d pulled me up, he’d pulled me with enough force that I wound up barely pressed against him. Close enough that my breath caught in my throat for a few seconds.

We sprang apart. Sweet Pea’s hand settled on top of Vegas’ head lazily and he chuckled when Vegas licked his hand, wiping his hand on the thigh of his jeans.

“It’s late. And colder.” Sweet Pea pointed out, nodding in the direction of my house. I glanced up at the sky and unable to resist, I retorted, “You don’t say, captain obvious.”

I jumped back out of his way a little and he stepped up. Towering over me.

“C’mon. I’ll walk you back.”

“But sir. I have a perfectly capable guard dog? What would the upstanding hypocritical assholes on this street think.. A  big bad Serpent walking defenseless little me home?” I pretended to pout up at him, laughing softly. “I was joking.” I muttered a few seconds later.

He shook his head, muttered something I couldn’t quite make out and we started to walk down the sidewalk, towards my father’s house.

The streetlight flickered on above us, bathing us in soft and almost hazy lighting thanks to the fog that was starting to kind of set in.

The leaves crunched beneath my feet. Shattering this heavy air of silence that seemed to settle over us.

“I’m gonna.. Go. Back to the Wyrm.” Sweet Pea muttered abruptly a few seconds later. Lingering, even though he said he’d leave. Gazing down at me as if he were in a daze. Or caught up in his own thoughts. A million miles away.

“I need to get Vegas in the house.” I muttered, nipping at my lip as I held eye contact. Trying not to think about what I’d revealed to Cheryl and Toni a few days ago about maybe being attracted to him… But it was all I could think about at the moment. His eyes darted down, settling on my bottom lip. Then he shook his head, turning swiftly and disappearing around the corner up the street.

I walked inside, making the comment to Vegas, “That wasn’t weird at all, huh buddy?” Vegas just tilted his head, gazing up at me. I bent to take off his leash, hanging it up. Fluffing his fur before hurrying into the kitchen to grab myself a soda.

Settling in on the couch. Turning the television back on.

And promptly falling asleep in the middle of a rewatch of the first season of Punisher. And as I slept, I found myself dreaming about Reggie. And then, oddly enough, Sweet Pea.

When I woke up the next morning, it was to a few seconds of confusion because the dream I’d woken up from had been so vivid that I honestly thought it actually happened. I pouted as soon as the realization sunk in that it had been a dream.

And I grumbled in annoyance with myself because I wanted it to be real. Because lately, spending all this time around Sweet Pea, I was starting to feel like maybe I didn’t just think he was hot.

Maybe I actually did feel something.

Before that thought could take root, I was shoving it back out of my head again. Refusing to acknowledge it. Because the hot guys are always the ones that somehow manage to do the most damage. And I was still pretty hurt over the way things played out with Reggie. Afraid to open myself up. Afraid to trust. Afraid to try, if I’m being honest because I was at least 95 percent sure that Sweet Pea would probably laugh his ass off at me if I were dumb enough to do so.

[phantasmagoriaoriginals]

1,2 and 4 for Ivory, Lilith, Heaven and Luna please!

I... read the 4 as a 3.... and didn’t notice until I’d written it all.... >.> Oops... Too late now, I guess, so please resend this with the 4 if you’d like!

. . . 

Ivory

1. A trait they have too much of

Ivory definitely has too much anxiety. She’s a very nervous person who struggles to contain her fears around others. Her anxiety most stands out in social situations. Even though she’s capable of being very chatty and friendly, she tends to stifle herself when around people she doesn’t know just because she’s too anxious to try. Ivory wants friends and connections, but she doesn’t know how to get them. She’s extremely sweet when people break through her shell, but most will only see the parts of her that are hidden by the fearful shroud she keeps up to protect herself. It’s hard for her to open up and allow herself to get close to others. 

2. A trait they don’t have enough of

Tact. Ivory definitely doesn’t have enough tact. When it comes to interacting with others, she can be far too blunt and insensitive. Despite her massive intelligence, Ivory struggles with knowing what to say and when. Social situations are definitely her weak point, and it shows. She frequently winds up saying things with the worst timing, striking nerves that she shouldn’t, or making people angry with unintentional mistakes. This is part of the reason why Ivory is so nervous about social interaction; she never knows when she’s going to slip up and say something that’s wrong. She doesn’t really work on this trait either, instead telling herself that it’s just the way she is and that she’ll never be able to make it better. 

3. A trait they express in the wrong way

When it comes to things coming out the wrong way, her care for others is one of the biggest issues. When she likes someone, Ivory cares a lot, but she still has a hard time behaving properly and maintaining solid relationships. She always winds up being too hyperactive, saying something that she shouldn’t, or pushing too far when she wants to interact with someone. She can be too excitable and hyperactive, get too worked up over little things, and forget that other people don’t have as wide of comfort zones as she does. Even though she wants friends dearly, she has a hard time behaving in ways that make people want to stick around. She’s much too socially ignorant for her own good. 

Lilith 

1. A trait they have too much of

Lilith has far too much negativity and resentment. She’s the kind of massively-pessimistic person who hates the world around her a lot more than she should. She can be very very vengeful, something which has led to violent or harmful actions in the past. Overall, she sees the world in a very twisted, negative light-- rarely finding good in anything. Aside from her flowers and the moon, Lilith has trouble seeing worth or good traits in anything around her. People frustrate her and make her angry. She hates most of those who she has to interact with, and her bitterness only continues to grow as she lives in a world where she’s mistreated by others and learns to hate the world around her even more. 

2. A trait they don’t have enough of

Lilith doesn’t have enough spine to stand up for herself. As in, because she doesn’t care much for her own wellbeing, she’ll allow others to abuse her. At the same time that she’s terrified of being someone’s pawn forever, she can’t work up the courage or willpower to fight back when people try to use her. She’ll heal. Her feelings don’t matter. People are bound to hurt her no matter what she does. It’s thoughts like those that drag Lilith down and tear apart her view of the world even further. She’s been abused by so many that she struggles to see there being any point in fighting back. Her childhood bullies did enough damage to her and her self-confidence that she’s given up on ever being able to stand up to anyone in a way that matters. She’s a pathetic person who’s no good at anything but tending to her plants, and it makes sense that those around her only want to use her for their own benefit. 

3. A trait they express in the wrong way

Her self-control is both a blessing and a curse. Aside from when strong emotions get the better of her, Lilith is the kind of person who has perfect control over her actions. She rarely says or does anything without thinking it over first, and while this is good for keeping her out of trouble, it also means that she has a major tendency to overthink things. It’s hard for her not to consider possible conclusions to her actions until she’s panicking over what a single sentence could do to her in the long run. It’s good for her to think things through, of course, but Lilith really does take it too far. Overthinking just gives her anxiety, and being too reserved doesn’t do her friend situation any good. She’s polite and respectful, yes, but it means that on the inside... her head is always full of how things could go wrong. 

Heaven

1. A trait they have too much of

Heaven has too much intelligence for her own good. Because of how smart she is, she’s isolated from the people around her just because they don’t operate on her wavelength. It’s her brilliant mind that contributes in part to her strangeness... although plenty of it is just nature as well. Heaven tends to see the world around her in a very unusual light; one where things don’t make the same kind of sense that they do to others. She’s remarkably bright, but that also means that she’s thinking in completely different ways than those around her, and that those different thoughts can make her oblivious to things that are obvious to “normal” people. Her mind is always in a very different place than other people’s which is a lot of what makes her seem so spacey, unapproachable, and strange. Her morbid nature also partly comes from the fact that she knows so much about the hard facts and reality of the world, which twists her way of seeing things. 

2. A trait they don’t have enough of

A trait that Heaven distinctly lacks is a basic concept of social skills and personal space. She rarely gets close to people, but when she does, it comes with a clinginess and level of attachment that can be suffocating and disturbing. Heaven can and will get so far into other people’s personal bubbles that they’ll be filled with the urge to shove her away. Her social skills when it comes to what she says are just as bad. Morbid and inappropriate things constantly fall from her mouth, and she doesn’t seem to care too much whether or not she upsets others. Heaven is always in a world of her own-- one where saying disturbing things that make people uncomfortable is perfectly normal and acceptable, and one where getting far too close to the people she likes is a valid way of showing affection. She completely lacks a concept of behaving normally. 

3. A trait they express in the wrong way

Heaven’s ability to analyze both people and the things around her tends to come out wrong. She’s extremely perceptive and analytical, and despite her utter lack of social skills, she tends to be way too good at judging people’s intentions and feelings. In a way, this trait makes her jaded. She’s so good at seeing people’s motives that she’s come to see human emotion in an almost robotic way. People often operate in the same ways, and with Heaven’s tendency to pick up on patterns, it’s caused a rift where she can see other people as merely following the patterns that she’s observed. She’s much too logical when it comes to interacting with others, and also has a sort of distance that means she struggles to interact with other people as if they’re beings that can think and operate on their own. Between her own strange mind and what she’s seen of humanity, there’s a disconnect between people being people, and humans just being made from the same mold. 

Luna

1. A trait they have too much of

Luna definitely has too much jealousy. Her envy for others is one of the major things that defines her personality, and that’s not a good thing. She’s capable of being extremely shallow and petty, and she tends to lash out at others over stupid things just because she gets envious of them having more “special” lives than she does. When others have had easy or interesting lives, Luna gets jealous quickly. She hates seeing people who are better off than she is, which leads to another less-than-ideal trait of hers; her mean streak. Luna can be quite the bully when she’s irritated enough, and although she rarely dares to show it outright, she’s prone to doing things to hurt people purely out of spite and dislike for her own situation. She gets frustrated easily and takes it out on those around her. 

2. A trait they don’t have enough of

When it comes to things that are lacking, the thing that stands out with Luna is her ability to be genuine. She always puts on the perfect, “girl next door” face when around others, concealing her real feelings in place of being the cheerful, friendly girl that everyone loves. Luna wants people to like her, so she behaves in ways that will get that-- regardless of it’s true to her actual personality or not. She wants to be loved and “special”, so she makes herself act like the heroines in her storybooks who always have people by their side. She has trouble ever showing her real self to people, keeps her actual feelings deeply buried and hidden from those around her, and always has a deep-seated sense of dissatisfaction because she can’t open up. For all she wants to be loved, Luna can’t bring herself to be genuine enough to be liked for who she truly is. 

3. A trait they express in the wrong way

Something that Luna tends to struggle with expressing is her protectiveness with others. It rarely comes out, but she can actually be very kind and caring when a situation calls for it. It’s always a reluctant kind of thing where Luna resents doing it at first, but when she starts looking after those who are younger and weaker than her, she gets invested pretty quickly. Despite her tendency to lash out at and be jealous of those she thinks are better than her, Luna can do a lot of flickering between kindness and generally being a jerk. However, she struggles to hold a steady personality with a single person. Even when she opens up and cares about and for someone, she has a hard time maintaining her kindness when she gets frustrated. Equally, she can have trouble maintaining a grudge when someone she hates is truly suffering. Her inconsistency is something that always comes out wrong. 

[charlessmithhasmyheart]

How They React to Reader On Their Period (F) - Pt. 3

A/N: Heyo! I think it’s been months since I actually posted any ‘original’ content on my blog. Things have been pretty crazy, but I’m going to try to focus a bit more on writing in order to recharge my mental health. Anyways...I finally got around to making the female gang members version of this. Enjoy!

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Tilly:

Tilly was, unfortunately, cursed with the raging type of period, which meant a sour stomach, vomiting episodes, and, much to Grimshaw’s chagrin, extreme fatigue. When the two of you first started courting it was something you really had to get used to, and when it came to your own period side effects, you had opted to keep them to yourself; why complain to Tilly when her problems far surpassed your own? Lucky for you, Tilly did not carry the same mindset.

It wasn’t until a few months into your relationship that you couldn’t hide your own reoccurring symptoms any longer. You had excused yourself to empty the contents of your stomach, choosing a patch of bushes far enough away from camp, when you finally noticed the crunching of grass and leaves that alerted you to the fact that you had been followed. Spinning around and wiping the spit off your lips, you had tried to exude a calm demeanor, but one eyebrow raise from Tilly quickly quelled your faux confidence. You spilled immediately. Lucky for you, Tilly had many quick and easy remedies to share with you, and to this day she still teases you about the ‘bush incident’.

Sadie:

If there was one thing to know about Sadie Adler it’s that she had no tolerance for weakness. Having made that mistake at the cost of the life she had known before the gang, she had vowed to never be weak again, and sometimes that anger and pain transferred to how women handled their menstrual cycle. Because of this, a lot of the gang members kept their distance, but you were different. You had wanted to get to know her, and despite your own weaknesses, she had allowed you into her life, albeit very slowly. Sadie still had a lot of trauma to work through.

One of the more rockier aspects to your relationship revolves around your period. She had been one of those women that never really had it, which was something that wouldn’t be discussed medically until the next century, so it really became a hurdle. Sadie was less than patient, berating you with harsh words for you weak nature. She didn’t agree with how you had to abstain from the more difficult daily duties or how you couldn’t engage in a lot of the more intimate aspects of your relationship. Feelings were just a tough subject for her. This only added to your frustrations, which caused you to withdraw and speak to her with the same tone she had used on you.

Eventually you couldn’t take the rift, so you humbled yourself and asked to have a private talk. When she agreed, you pulled Sadie aside and explained how her words and actions made you feel, imploring her to understand. While it took a few more private conversations, Sadie eventually began to think that maybe dealing with a period every month wasn’t such a weak thing, but instead, something that took a lot of strength.

Karen:

It has been said many times that Karen could be a wild card, and that had been proven many many many times. Her reactions are far from predictable, so when you come up to her with your raging cramps and your favorite dress, now bloodstained, clutched in your fingers, you couldn’t guess how she would react. Would she be angry at yet another thing to wash? Would she scoff and tell you to scrub it yourself? Or would she tease you over something you really didn’t have any control over? You weren’t really sure, but for some reason you trusted her, so she was the first person you had thought to approach.

She took one look at the dress and flashed you a reassuring grin.

“Oh darlin’” She spoke sweetly, which was unusual for her. “It ain’t nothin’ to fuss about. We can fix this in no time.”

You went with her to the stream near camp and the two of you chatted as she showed you how to remove the stain from the dress, as it was not your expertise. Once she was finished, she returned the dress practically good as new and carried on her way. But not without teasing you that you’d be nowhere if it wasn’t for her fantastic skills.

MaryBeth:

MaryBeth is probably the biggest mix of innocent yet experienced, making her out to be a different individual. She was educated on many things, but a woman’s period was something that was nearly foreign to her. Since she was young, it had been a sparse event; occurring perhaps every six months, and since a woman’s body was still something of a mystery to most doctors, there had never been a reason to think anything of it.

You, on the other hand, seemed to get your period nearly every other week, which was something to be considered a curse. It left you living only for the days where you were cramp free and blood free, but even then the blood-free tended to be hard to come by considering the people you lived with. 

MaryBeth, sensing your constant discomfort, approached you during one of your ‘off’ days with a thick book. You were confused at first, but only when she sat down close to you and began to read aloud did you understand. She was reading to you in the hopes that it could distract you from your pains. At first you were skeptical, but when you started delving into the imaginary world and stopped focusing on your misery, you noticed you were enjoying life a bit more. And, the fact that you had grown closer to MaryBeth, was just an added bonus.

Susan:

Everyone knows that Susan Grimshaw is the embodiment of ferocity and loyalty, and that is something she commands in nearly every person that she considers family. Along with that, comes the rumors and gossip about her personality. If you’re going to be a force to be reckoned with, you’re bound to find people who are upset with your life motto. A lot of the other girls have told you that you can always tell when Grimshaw is menstruating because she rages for about a week, before returning to her regular grouchy self. You were always uncomfortable with their jests, considering you suffered from PMS, though not on the same scale.

After those conversations, you began to withdraw from the younger girls in the camp and spend more time observing Grimshaw. She was ferocious yes, but she had other qualities that rose to the surface just as much as the bad ones during her monthly. Love, familial bonding, and a need to clean were just a few. You couldn’t help but feel jealous. Whenever you started to show signs of bleeding, you were short-tempered and angry, which made others pull back for a few days, but no matter what you did you couldn’t command the same respect.

One day, you decided to approach Grimshaw with you inquiries. At first, she brushed you off, assuming you were up-to-no-good as most often were, but after you tailed her for a few days, she came to the conclusion that maybe you were serious after all. Grimshaw promised that she would teach you how to gain the gangs respect and to curb your tendencies that pushed them away. Maybe being under her mentor-ship would prove to be useful. Only time will tell.

Abigail:

You had never really had a close relationship with Abigail, preferring to not get yourself in the middle of her squabbles with John Marston. Their arguing was a constant in your life. Nearly everywhere you went, you were bothered by the screams and shouts that filtered through camp. You felt even worse for little Jack. If you were upset, you couldn’t even imagine how the young boy felt about everything.

It was during one of your more disagreeable periods that their shouting finally made you snap. You had marched across camp and pushed in between them, brandishing a finger and giving them a tongue-lashing that Hosea or even Grimshaw would be proud of. The two of them had been rendered speechless, but it was Abigail who had followed up.

She found you a few hours later in your tent, curled up on your sleeping mat attempting to quell the cramps, but failing miserably. You couldn’t even focus on her apologies, gronaing in response. Abigail immediately let her mother instincts take over and she was at your side in seconds, placing a hand on your forehead. You had wanted to shrug her off, but it felt nice to be taken care of for once. You allowed her to spend the day with you, bringing you food, making sure you had enough water, and encouraging you to move around whenever you felt strong enough. As the day passed you couldn’t help but think that maybe Abigail wasn’t so bad after all.