#who else up rotating they blorbos

[blorboresidue]

also re my previous labru shitpost I think it'd be really funny if kabru was like "well I need to know if I'm sexually compatible with him before I make a move" so he tries jerking off to a variety of monster-based scenarios and well. that's the story of how kabru conditions himself to be into furry porn. bonus points if he also accidentally works through some of his monster-related trauma in the process

[mantisgodsdomain]

Very fun to be an dormant Homestuck in 2023. We saw a post with an aside about the mid-to-highblood bias present in the fandom and we took a moment to think "wait, what?" before remembering how much people posted about Mallek, Lanque, and Marvus. Obviously no one asked our opinion on the matter but we think that a lot of the bias here may just be because fandom people will jump at any vaguely conventionally attractive male character who can say something angsty, and we don't see 99% of this effect because we rapidly get fatigued with any character who is overly present in the fandom and any ship that has overrepresentation in the sample size and start blocking tags.

Very highly effective approach, admittedly, but it leaves us a bit out of the loop. We only really start encountering Issues with that approach in smaller fandoms when blocking any given popular ship will instantly shrink our mutual circle to Just Us and maybe, like, one guy who we dragged in here ourself, so we have to relax blocking standards somewhat and just make it "blocked for a week" or something similar.

[elodieunderglass]

Hi, hello, I'm sending you a weird not quite ask that you can feel free to tuck deep into the recesses of your inbox and never look at if it's too weird.

But I've been thinking about Killie. Again. Which is odd, because I'm not the blorbo rotating type. I'm happy enough to watch other people play in their sandboxes, but I just...don't. Fandom. The way people normally do on this site. So, I was wondering why your horrible horseboy is so beloved and such an infohazard to anyone who comes across him, and I think I hit on it. At least for me.

You don't shy away from two things in your telling of him: that he's kinda awful in some ways, and that he's deeply loved. He's a horrible little gremlin with bad lungs and worse social skills who bites, and he's LOVED.

As kind of an awful person myself (*this isn't self deprecating, gimme a sec), who's not at all okay with the idea of dying alone and unloved, Killie and your depiction of him is soothing.

*I'm not awful because I choose to be, and I know I have a lot of good qualities even if it takes my therapist bullying me into recognizing that I do, but due to both disability and just life in general, I'm sometimes not a pleasant person to be around. I'm irritable quite often, and I'm flaky even when I'm doing my absolute best not to be, and I'm overly sensitive sometimes, and don't know how to talk to people without talking about myself and trying to relate it back to them, and I'm messy...it's hard to imagine anyone loving me.

But even though Killie is a fictional character, there's enough 'loved in spite of and also for his flaws as much as his virtues' that helps me reroute the worst of those thoughts into something a little healthier.

So thank you? I think? Yeah. Thank you for your horrible horseboy and his long-suffering but steadfast partner.

(in reference to killie the horrible horseboy OC)

thank you so much for this. far from not looking at it, I have looked at it a lot. It made me think very hard and (hopefully very well) about what I'd like Throw Your Heart Over to be about, and what I'd like it to achieve for people. You remind me that, while it's all fun, what's most important is to be brave and true.

You are so very brave and true. I admire you very much for being so brave and true. I am humbled by it. It is a big, big thing and I don't quite know what to say. I think it is reductive and unhelpful to say things like there's someone for everyone! everyone deserves to be loved! when we live in a world where that doesn't happen, nor does everyone want to be partnered, nor does everyone want to be given to someone else as a partner. it's an automatic reflex when someone says "I don't feel lovable for these reasons," for other people to be dismissive of the reasons - as if that's helpful - or to instantly say "someone will love you!", as if there has simply been a administrative mistake in the assignation of one's soulmate. But that reflex doesn't do much good. Firstly, it's true that there are reasons that make love less easy for people, and pretending that love isn't work just makes people who don't get enough love feel rubbish. Secondly, there is no mechanism in the universe by which people are assigned their very own partner (and believing that there is can make people crunched-up and hurtful, if they're having trouble finding one.) So yeah! It probably IS hard to imagine finding someone! And that's okay! It means making your imagination stronger! Beefing up your imagination! getting your imagination buff and built! (insert montage of Killie attempting to lift weights with his mind.)

so I made this with you in mind, though I'm not sure it's all that I wanted to say. it was something about your fears might be true, but your hopes might be too; and in the event of someone loving you, you'll know that you will have something tremendously special, because you'll both have to be VERY brave and true with each other. and because of this, you will have a lot of evidence to show yourself how loved you are. You might be hard work, but to someone who loves you, it will be good work. and no weird ghosty worries, with or without antlers, or even your own self-doubts, will be able to take away how real that work will be.

I think you sound tremendously lovable. I think you make a great difference to the world. Thank you for making me more brave and true.

[bloominglegumes]

hey!! you’re one of my favorite artists and your stuff has gotten me really interested in transformers but i have no idea where to start watching the series :,) do you have any recommendations mayhaps?

aw thanks <33

every time i'm asked for a recommendation, i say Transformers Animated first just because it was my first experience with transformers as a kid and it holds a special place in my heart ,,heads up tho it really messed around with previously existing transformers canon so moving between this show and others might feel a bit 'woah thats different' but it's lots of fun to spot the references later on :)

if you want something that has a bit of a darker tone, i'd say Transformers Prime is super duper excellent!! strong story, deep characters + relationships, great quality overall, i'm sure many ppl would say its truly top tier transformers show :))

the g1 cartoon (just search transformers g1 itll work) is also a fun place to start if you rlly just want to know where everything else stems from,, its got a massive rotating cast of characters getting into a lot of 80s-cartoon-typical antics, obv sort of gimmicky sometimes and the quality of the show itself is actually pretty dubious fjdhfh but it adds to the charm imo,, its rlly silly and fun and there's an obscure blorbo for everyone :)

these three are all fully available to watch on the official transformers youtube channel !! so theyre like.some of the most accessible transformers things out there rn !! :)

there's also the new movie that came out recently, Transformers One!! its an origin story, so i feel it works totally fine by itself, and the quality of the writing, visuals, score, fjdhd everything is pretty awesome and i have a couple friends who watched with no prior knowledge on transformers and they report enjoying it so :)) i highly recommend checking it out if youre able to!!

[its-no-biggie]

actually im making this its own post. the thing about the hunters gonna lay low is that its exactlyyyyyy what i want out of a fantasy romance. i love high stakes and unrealistic drama - life-threatening situations and monsters and magic and all manner of situations that dont happen in real life. and i love this as a setting for romance because it means you can create a lot of conflict that doesnt have to do with the characters feelings for each other - sure, you can still have arguments and complicated feelings, but throwing the characters into these high stakes situations creates a lot of flavour - high intensity emotions and conflict that arent just from within their relationship, yknow?

the problem with most fantasy ive read that also has romance is exactly that - its fantasy, with a side of romance. theres romance, sure, and a lot of times side romances do have these high-intensity moments im looking for, but usually the author is spending more time on worldbuilding or political drama or yknow. the plot. nothing wrong with that - i like an intense action plot without romance. its why i read a lot of fantasy. but i think ive really been hurting for a story that has this kind of high-stakes drama, but makes the relationship a more central part of the story. and ive had no luck with romance with a side of fantasy, either - most romance stories ive encountered are about very typical romance-style relationship drama, even if they take place in a fantasy setting. jealousy and miscommunication and will-they-wont-they. again, nothing wrong with that, its just not really my style.

and this is why all my ships of choice are Like That. its always an action story with a pairing of major characters who have a deep relationship - they have history, they care for each other a lot, they click with each other in a way they dont with anyone else....... the kind of thing where the growth and development of their relationship is a big part of who they both are. and then putting them in high stakes scenarios where they almost die all the time. you get it. the thing is that ive never really encountered one of these where the relationship was canonically romantic - which isnt necessarily a bad thing, but again, romance can add a lot of unique flavour! its why i read a lot of slash fic lol

[the closest ive gotten to this before would be banana fish, and i love banana fish so much i basically dont have anything to say about it. what is there to say? watch banana fish.] [hmm and maybe alien stage? alien stage is just so short though - not a lot of time to get to know the characters before they die yk.] [and notice how these are both tragedies???? i love tragedy but man. i do want a happy ending sometimes...... although i havent actually finished thgll so i guess this one could be a tragedy too 😩😩 pleeeease i just want them to be happy.......]

but here it is!!! the kind of story about a duo whose lives become intertwined through the high stakes fantasy plot, who care very deeply for each other and have history and keep watching each other almost die, and also they kiss!!!! its honestly a little frightening how well it suits my tastes - i can almost see the way the author is using the fantasy setting to deliberately further the relationship between these two, because its the kind of thing i do to whatever blorbos im rotating in my brain like a binary star system this month. but because the characters were actually created with romance in mind its like. cranked up to 11. like what do you mean cha euijae is the only person who can safely touch lee sayoung????? hello????? and the soul contract???? the alternate timeline?????? the BACKSTORY?????? i dont want to spoil too much but like. it really is just so good. its exactly the kind of thing i didnt know i was looking for.

and like. not only is the fantasy setting perfectly implemented for this more relationship-focused story. its also just really interesting in its own right?? like im hooked. im absolutely invested in these two trying to stop the apocalypse, save the world, and maybe avoid dying and leaving the other behind (again) in the process. im having the time of my fucking life right now

[btw i just finished part 1 of the novel, so no spoilers please!!]

[imshymorph]

Gather around everyone, here’s some soft!Gaz headcanons. Idk if it's a blorbo or me ranting and fangirling but i need to share the brain rot. another post today cause fuck it, i’ve been thinking about it for a while. also this was like a constant stream of thought and not proof read.

I truly don’t understand why this man gets ignored so much and I never will. He literally has everything you could ever want, saying he’s a ten doesn’t cut it. And yet I barely see people talking about him. (Except the gaz nation pookies, I see you).

This man absolutely bags the hottest significant other, doesn’t even know how. Don’t get me wrong, he 100% has rizz but he’s also just naturally attractive and inviting so i feel like by the time he starts to flirt on purpose it’s been two hours of pure smoothness. He’s also absolutely whipped but plays it off really smoothly.

- - - - -

Not only does he bag the hottest and meanest pookie aka you, but he also absolutely knows he did. And he’ll let right about everyone else know. I do think he’s more private about his life than say Soap, so it’s not like he’ll stop a random recruit and tell him about you (which i truly believe Johnny would do). But he has absolutely followed Price around base while he tells him about the two weeks leave he took to be with you.

Poor Price on his desk, dealing with the paperwork that comes as a necessity after Ghost and Soap blew something up during a drill that didn’t involve explosives at all. Not only is he having to fill out like fifteen different forms and reports, but he has Gaz sitting across from him, scrolling through his gallery and showing pictures of the place he took you out to on your Friday dinner date. Not only that but if Price just pretends to look but doesn’t actually pay attention Kyle will know and insist until the captain actually looks at the slideshow.

He doesn’t hammer your dates' knowledge onto Soap and Ghost as much, but he’ll definitely do subtle flexes. He chest the time on his phone instead of his watch so they’ll see the picture of you he has as a background. If someone brings up a weekend plan he’ll say how he can’t because he’s already going out with his darling. Subtly will tell anyone that will listen how you got him his new shirt, pants, cap, whatever it is tbh.

He also knows every single product that you prefer, doesn’t matter what kind it is. Makeup, skincare, cologne, fabric softener, snacks, beverages, food places, clothing brands. He doesn’t care, he knows all of them by heart. It’s like he has a six sense too, every time you’re close to running out of them he’ll randomly stop in the store on his way back to you from base and get them.

While i headcanon that Johnny gets into skin care after his darling introduces him to it (which you can read here, if you want). I believe Kyle absolutely has his own routine and that he is the one who first brings up the idea of having a spa night once a week. He’s the one to get the products, he even goes all out and does them themed, like by scent or colour or something.

Has a bunch of hoodies in rotation (or any other clothing piece you might steal from him) always making sure to wear at least one of them for a few days before “forgetting” it at yours or “forgetting” to take it to base once you’ve moved in together. He knows how much you love wearing them and how important it is that it smells like him. So he dutifully makes sure you always have a fresh Kyle™ piece of clothing available. Also it absolutely works for him too because he takes back the one you’ve had with you meanwhile. The mix of your cologne, body wash and fabric softener his favourite scent for sure.

And last but not least of my Gaz is the perfect boyfriend agenda (for today) is the fact that i know he just gives the best back massages. You don’t even have to ask for it, he’ll just come to the living room, lightly pat your shoulder so you move forward. He fits himself between the couch and your back and just gives you the massage of your life. He just laughs it off when you tell him he could be a masseuse if he ever retires from the military.

It takes less than 5 minutes to have you absolutely melting, and when he’s pleased with how comfortable and relaxed you look he just pulls you back against his chest. His arms wrap around your waist and his chin rests on your shoulder as you sit between his legs, the both of you watching a random show he saw good ratings of.

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

i'm just like. i'm rotating thoughts about these new blorbos from my games. because my player character is a human bard who's got a pretty solid moral compass (although he's willing to make some questionable decisions if he thinks it's necessary) but like here's the thing. he's always gonna do the right thing if he can, but he's a little too sure of himself. he's a little too sure that he actually knows what's best, and he can be a little paternalistic about thinking he knows what's best for the people he cares about, too. which is fine when it comes to most of the companions, i mean shit, that's probably part of why they find this guy and his 17 charisma stat so reassuring. but when you're dealing with astarion? when you're sleeping with astarion? the guy who's been tortured and enslaved for the last 200 years and now holds onto his independence so tight he's digging claw marks into it? the guy who firmly believes the only proper way to exist is to build up an iron clad put-together facade and look out for yourself and no one else? the guy whose biggest in-game companion approval boost comes from telling that araj woman "he's his own person, he can make his own decisions"? the guy whose most common soundbite in the game is "trust no one"? that astarion? ughhhhh the conflict is so so delicious and i'm chomping at the bit to get through this damn game and see where these idiots go and then write fanfiction about it

[endoyamato]

can't stop thinking about yamato endo he's my biggest blorbo rn so have some thoughts i told friends under the cut. manga spoilers below

HES SO INTERESTING bc hes fully aware takiishi is abusive to him but seems to really love it , and to me they're equals because takiishi is a blazing uncontrollable forest fire. and without endo directing things for him and setting things up and scheming, he'd run out of stuff to do/people to beat up super fast, but doesn't in any way acknowledge it or probably even consider it 😭?!

and endo needs him too! like silent king who needs an adviser to control him & jester clown who needs the king to ground him otherwise he wold spiral into nothing. endo needs direction/reason to live, and he fully loves takiishi as he is (for better or worse).

he also admits that takiishi is abusive and "a mess". he recognizes he has issues but because he loves the takiishi he first met - blazing fire, violent monster - he enables him over and over and over. anyone else would not put up with this but endo LOVES it, it FEEDS him. he doesn't like getting in his way and he acknowledges that things sometimes aren't HIS fault (like, he says takiishi often hits him even when it's over something endo can't control at all) but he enables him because he likes takiishi the inferno monster. he likes the forest fire, but he likes controlling it just as much. it's not JUST the fighting he likes - it was obvious that he also liked doing or proposing mundane activities to takiishi too: fishing, buying him (or stealing?lol) clothes, manicures, new foods, etc. if takiishi is there, endo is happy.

and i just! need to know! why! i need to know what happened to endo to make this his bright light. is he a foil to sakura? is this what sakura could have become had umemiya been like takiishi?

i love endo so much i need to put him in a jar and rotate him in my brain for eternity i need to know why he's like this, what makes him tick, why takiishi had such an impression on him at the time, why he loves getting burned... if he bought takiishi all those expensive clothes that means endo is LOADED. maybe there's something there?

i need to know.more . and would he accept a takiishi that doesn't fight? how will their arc end? will takiishi give up fighting and endo will spiral out of control, or will endo ask to stop and takiishi try to kill him? will they part ways in the end? AHJGHHGH

[fiyaerrigan]

Re: this post

"Reply with an emoji and I'll dedicate a post to the corresponding fic! [...] Don't feel like typing in an emoji? Just type in what the emoji represents and I'll count that as the emoji! Searching for emojis can be a pain in the ass, so no worries if you'd rather not! <3"

❓️(Mystery/Surprise Fic! probably rated M) (more specifics to be revealed)

@dreaming-marchling

Have a little bit of Buck Having a Time™ in the hospital. It's not nearly whumpy enough to meet my "put blorbo in a jar and shake vigorously" sensibilities, but here you go!

(⚠CONTENT WARNING⚠ for medical setting, implied shitty behavior and referenced trauma)

Buck had gotten used to hospitals—both from time on the job and personal experience. He was accustomed to their weird sterile smells and rotating menageries of staff: from doctors who showed up once in a blue moon, to nurses who were way too comfortable in his personal space, to doctors and nurses and the occasional lab tech who were somehow relatable because they too were running on two hours’ sleep and fifteen hours’ wakefulness; Buck had seen everything E.R. chaos had to offer. Or at least he thought he had, until Doctor Fitzsimmons returned with somebody else. The sight of yet another lab coat piqued Buck’s interest—what could be going on that they needed to bring a whole new doctor in the mix? To someone else, the sight of two doctors striding in the room with absolutely no preamble might have been cause for concern. For Buck, though, it was different. He was practically a seasoned vet when it came to medical settings and scary experiences. He’d learned long ago—maybe somewhere between the first broken arm and the sixth hour spent waiting for his parents—to replace any fear he felt with curiosity, just for the sake of making it through his visit. So Buck was curious, then, that a new doctor had tagged along. He was curious when Fitzsimmons shared a glance with said doctor and scurried past her like he swallowed something bad and the computer was a trashcan from heaven. He was curious when he began clicking around at various windows and continued to look constipated, all without looking Buck’s way for even a second. Eddie coughed loudly. “You know, I wasn’t expecting company,” Buck said, trying for nonchalance. He shot his most winning grin in Fitzsimmons’ direction. “Lemme guess: you saw I brought my friend and got jealous. No worries, Doc.” Here, he laughed, hoping to come off easygoing as he leaned back on the hospital bed— “I totally understand.”

Anywho *throws confetti* ...tada?

If you aren't @dreaming-marchling that means I haven't relentlessly harassed messaged you about this fic and you only know the stuff I've mentioned in descriptions, but *puts on Oliver Stark hat* here's some more vagueness I can throw your way: this fic features one of BT fandom's post-8x06 fixations! (see tags)

I can't control what people choose to read on the internet, but it *WILL* also focus on several heavy topics that aren't suited for young readers, so 🤷 if that applies to you, please for the love of god don't read?

With that in mind, if that doesn't apply to you and you want to be put on a tag list for this fic, let me know by dropping a like! Always happy to hear any thoughts people might have, including constructive criticism! If you want to say anything at all, use the reply box to your heart's content <3

[oc-poll-tournament]

OC Poll Tournament Round 1 Poll 6

Propaganda below the cut:

Eddie Alfaro (she/her) @calicohyde: Eddie Alfaro, she/her. Eddie is the third person narrator of my horror WIP Curse The Messenger, about her and her sibling Fred using their clairvoyant abilities to solve a paranormal murder. Eddie has premonitions in her sleep, where she dreams from the point of view of someone else as they die. She has severe PTSD and Survivor's Guilt from this! Because of that, and because of her grief for her missing parents, she struggles with alcohol dependence.

Normally, Eddie and Fred only solve the typical kinds of Private Investigator cases - theft, infidelity, etc. They are mistrusted in their community because of their gifts, as other witches tend to think clairvoyants are mentally unstable and dangerous. In the novel, they get their first - and only - murder case when Jessica Hase, a secular (non-magical) femme fatale, brings them the very weird case of her girlfriend's death. Throughout the novel, Eddie falls in love with Jessica, starts attending an alcoholics' support group, learns to use her gift to see the positive aspects of death, and tentatively starts to repair her strained relationship with Fred. And solves the murder, of course.

Eddie is Latina, 24 years old, and a butch lesbian. She likes sporty punk fashion, cuts her own hair, and doesn't shave or wear makeup. Her favorite color is red and her favorite flavor is cinnamon.

Chess (she/her) @concealeddarkness13 (the picture for her is made by the wonderful @drabbleitout, and she is the person on the left with the prosthetics in the picture): Chess is a special character, and I hope to show how special and awesome she is! She’s extremely distrustful, but she’ll trust people who even treat her with an ounce of decency, and she’ll protect the people she cares about with her life. She’s flirty and confident, but underneath, she has an abysmal amount of self esteem and thinks she’s a monster that will never have love or friendships. She is my blorbo who has been rotating in my mind for the past two years, and I hope you can love her as well! Someone described her in one of the AUs I’ve done as oscillating “between being a poor, wet little meow meow and a fierce feral protective lioness being held back by the scruff of her neck because she is still little”. (credits to @ratracechronicler)

She did start out with a loving family, but like all good protagonists, her parents were murdered when she was 10, and she was left alone. Especially because the society she lives in ignores violent crimes and the victims of those crimes, erasing them all from society as if they never existed. So, she technically didn’t exist in society’s eyes, so she couldn’t get a job or own property or anything. The people around her helped her for a few years until she was old enough to take care of herself, and then she learned to steal.

At twenty years old, she was kidnapped and forced into prosthetics experiments that gave her fire magic that hurts her, from her prosthetic right arm and left leg now. She has a magic fire in her lungs that flares up during physical or mental stress and burns her throat and makes her cough up smoke. Aeflin, the person running the experiments, believed her to be very strong (because she snarked at Aeflin so much and didn’t let her see her pain as much as possible), so she decided to make Chess into her weapon.

She changed her name (since Chess’s original name was Ezra) to Chess, and she put her through even worse torture. Finally, Naivi, the other person running the experiments, got Chess her own team and sent her out into the world to do what the experiments were for and to get her away from Aeflin.

Chess tried to escape that, but a random person found her and took away her memories and brought her back into the enclosure, where most humans are trapped. And she realized right away that the humans inside the enclosure found she was from the experiments and hated her and hurt her and called her a monster because God forbid women do anything (just trying to survive). She learned that the only way that she could get a warm place to sleep (not an alley) was to make herself attractive to people and flirt. She liked sleeping with people, but she mostly did it to have a warm and somewhat safer place to sleep. And even then, she’d have to stay alert because her partner could wake up and try to hurt her.

That’s where she is at the start of her story! She will get a found family and someone or someones to love! She’s pansexual and polyamorous and flirty, and she loves physical touch! She just wants people to treat her decently, and if she has to, she’ll fight to protect her boundaries. And she loves punching jerks in the face with her prosthetic! And we love a woman who loves to fight, right? Thanks for reading!

[antimony-medusa]

honestly yeah u make a really good point in ur mcyt rpf post. i was Also the person bemoaning how mcyt defaults into vbrpf tags and that there isn't a separate set, but then i realized like. i spent Years writing fic about the roosterteeth crew, which all fell in a very similar gray area like mcyt. like looking at shit like fake ah crew fic, the characters written about there are very obviously separate from the real life people, but also they are intrinsically linked. the characters don't exist without the people. and even though we were all in fandom talking and writing about them like playing with dolls, it was still like... yeah okay this fits under the rpf umbrella still. i never questioned it then, or was bothered about it not being a separate tag set, because it didn't feel necessary. which is really the same situation with mcyt!! its just that for any number of reasons, mcyt fandom in particular tends to have a very loud and very vehement group that think rpf as a whole is abhorrent and doesn't even want to be clocked anywhere close to it. which like honestly thats a personal issue at that point, thats not on everyone else to deal with, and certainly not on ao3 to sort out.

Yeah like I think RPF has a bad reputation because of some very obvious bad actors who've behaved badly in the past that the whole internet knows about, and especially because MCYT was kind of the butt of the joke and hatred for a lot of social media sites, a lot of people were eager to emphasize that they weren't behaving like that, it was fine, they were being totally normal (and they had the creator's permission, hence the boundaries discourse and the twitter cancellations for anything "weird"), and nobody should hate them cause they totally weren't like those weirdos.

And that's a really understandable reaction to try and do, I also have gone into the comments of bracket polls and seen hate, but that also ignores that the vast majority of RPF is a) not actually hurting anyone b) is not any more egregious in its content than any other fandom c) Is not inherently weirder to the creators than anyone who avidly follows their social media and shows up at their meet and greet and like— tts them stuff. We've all seen people TTS stuff that should NOT have been said in view of the creators, but the vast majority of it is perfectly fine. I very much think we shouldn't be showing RPF to the creators, and because the boundary is thin for MCYT I extend that to thinking that there's a WHOLE bunch of stuff that we shouldn't be showing to the creators— from gore to shipping to nsfw to aging down family dynamics to stuff about people they've lost— but I don't think that reacting with a horrified gasp to anyone saying "oh yeah rpf" is actually necessary. Or heck, if you were watching twitchcon vids and you want to straight up write tagged-as-RPF, go with god, I don't think that's inherently any weirder than people who go to twitchcon to meet streamers. You like them a lot and you want to rotate them mentally and get a picture with them, that's like, fine. As long as we keep it in fandom spaces and don't make the streamers feel weird cause we're showing them it, you're just doing what people who got really into polygon videos over the pandemic did, or historians who write historical RPF about their ancient blorbos, or whatever. it's fine.

Particularly cause what I write is mostly aus, I've had to wrestle with the question of if what I'm writing is RPF, and I think it's (usually) not, I can tell in my head when I'm thinking streamers or when I'm thinking characters, but like, we're talking *really* fine distinctions at points. If someone thinks that it's RPF it's not an insult to me, I can tell how they get there, and me reacting like it IS an insult is kind of rude to my fandom neighbours who are writing Gamechanger RPF where they design their own challenges cause they just have so much fun with the show, you know?

Some of this is just that I'm in my 30s and I'm tired of fandom policing, I can coexist with a lot of shit if you just tag it appropriately so I can filter it if I need to. For the holiday exchange last year we had no RPF as a rule not because I had an issue with it, but because the form to get the information for it would have been literally two hundred checkboxes long and I didn't want to do that to my spreadsheets.

I kind of drifted from your point there, but yeah, I think MCYT is legitimately in a blurry spot when it comes to if it's RPF or not, but that's not something I think we need to get all up in arms about, and we certainly don't need to, as I saw someone recommend we all do, file a ticket with Ao3 to remove MCYT tags from Video Blogging RPF.

[blueberry-ink-93]

all my working titles are floral lol

hey besties how yall doin hope everyone is doing great guess who just discovered nerves are frickin hard as hell and is a micron away from breaking down in tears? i have no idea why do u ask

anyway without more further ado lol i want to talk about what it is im currently microwaving in my head (what arent i microwaving would be a better question). incoherence ahead so be warned lol:

the tldr is neoptolemus gets decked in the face by everyone. im breaking every vertebra he has and watching him writhe in agony as i sip my strawberry milk. its a great time

in all seriousness tho ive been rotating the concept of a darkfic in my mind for who knows how long atp and i saw neo and decided who better a blorbo to torture? like in my own words "i cant fix neo in a million years but i want to study him under a microscope and dissect his fucked up little head & bake him cookies".

the fic is essentially a character study of neo among other characters (the mc is an oc bc its her character study just as much as it is neos. they ae two sides of the smae ptsd coin and i want to explore that. like in heavy deeply disturbing detail lol) with sprinkles of fuckall lol

now as u may know i get distracted and sidetracked by just about everything so not even a quarter way through i was like okay spinoff fic. let me finish lmao;

andromache gets her revenge. thats all im going to say hehe just know its going to be great (if i can translate thoughts and ideas to words accurately and dont die miserably in the process. but other than that its going to be great) bc fuck neo i hate him i hope he dies a most painful death <3

AND THEN. while on a tangent of a tangent (i can no longer deny the allegations lmao) i was like okay crackfic concept apollo and his wrath are back on the menu. its hysterical idk waht to tell you if im going insane so is everyone else. also i love apollo legit my most faveourite in the pantheon (right next to hades lol) microwaving him got me back into writing and putting in a lil time & effort for ocs and what have you. anyway he will either feature in a seperate continuation or as part of the main storyline idk but it will be glorious.

you know what they say if u dont have homemade serotonin store bought is fine (blorbo torture was on sale who am i to resist?) lol yeah thats the gist of it. self indulgent angst & hurt/ next to nothing comfort

i think further down when i actullay start writing and things start to fall into place ill come back and write more individually about how i chose to characterise everyone and how i visualise their individual arcs, backstories & headcanons, alterations and calculations i made (consistent timeline who), and most probably a walkthrough of what i plan to do bc idk how much my writing delivers what i have in mind in terms of like everyhting lol so i think a guide would do everyone a favour bc im all over the place XD

tis still my first time writing im figuring out my style and such so bear with me pls, i hardly know what im doing i just start yapping and hope for the best. God give editing me the strength fr lol

anyhows yeah :] ty for coming to my blorbo talk

[elodieunderglass]

Elodie could I please get some Killie (or Charlie) lore to rotate in my head, my dad just set off the fire alarm at 3 in the goddamn morning by starting the oven cleaning cycle on the wrong oven and burning an entire batch of merengue cookies that were cooling in the oven and now I can’t sleep and would like to rotate a blorbo to pass the time

(In reference to Killie the jockey OC, who is both portable and eminently rotatable)

Here’s a little sketchy sketch I did a while ago of Killie putting a stock/hunt tie on his younger brother Colm. He takes this very seriously.

There is a lot of simmering internal tension in the Horse Kids - they’re made of nothing else - but here is a specific small part. Helena, their wretched mother, is a tiny posh right-wing English wench of marvellous malevolence. She is very into foxhunting. She is not above killing the fox (you’re actually not supposed to kill the fox.) when well-intentioned left-wing hippies attempt to sabotage the hunt (these are called hunt “sabs” or saboteurs - I have friends who do this!) she makes a spirited attempt to run them down with her horse.

Helena had zero interest in the kids as babies. It’s possible there was a touch of the ol’ postnatal there, and the twins being super-premature and kept in hospital for months probably didn’t help, but it’s still a shame. She did think that she might be more attached to Ciara (not a horrible tiny alien preemie, not a twin, a girl, etc) but it turned out that wasn’t; and she regarded the arrival of Colm with tremendous dismay. However, after Bill and his siblings had chivvied them all through the larval stage, Helena took more of an interest. By their teens, she was genuinely quite interested in Charlie, who could be a very presentable and creditable escort to nasty little horse-adjacent Tory formal events - Hunt Balls and galas - and could be dispatched on various social missions on her behalf. Charles, be a dear and go wind up that baroness - YES, in front of her friends - get her to lose her temper a bit, there’s a lamb.

The twins looked a lot more similar at that age, and paired nicely if you dressed them in matching or complementary suits, so she also liked Killie a bit - what a piquant little pair they were - and Killie was undefinably sharper and handsomer in a way that was very hard to articulate when they were still identical. but Charlie had charm, and Killie had - well - well. Killie.

Anyway, Helena was big into foxhunting! so as the kids got bigger it became a whole thing. Dragging them out to the hunt, the Hunt Ball. stirrup cups and first blooding, cubbing and ratcatching, tying a perfect linen tie with a stickpin.

Killie REALLY does not like killing the fox. None of them do. but Killie - well, Killie doesn’t like dogs much. And Killie always feels secretly quite aware of how bad he is at being human. Charlie helps fill in the gaps, and is a fabulous distraction, but Killie knows exactly how little he fools anyone. If Charlie’s the dog then Killie’s the fox, and the minute they realise that, these people will turn on him so gleefully…

Maybe not. Maybe they won’t.

Maybe if he ties a perfect cravat.

[theshepherdshound]

This is so fun i am staring at your lamb so hard, rotating them in my mind. bonus question can you answer 35 for the lamb game!

!!! they're such a silly little sad blorbo, i am imagining them like a little cube rotating now. i had to go and find this list again lololol SO

35. If your lamb could pick a cult job other than leader what would it be?

this feels more complicated to answer because if they are being honest, they like being a leader. in a behind the cut way i'll ramble about it, but it is kind of like a central point to their character development so ???

there's some of it in the last posted chapter but they were taking on a leadership role in their community. since sheep society centred on fiber work and they were training as a weaver, they were learning to become a cultural knowledge keeper which involves a lot of stuff. one of those is leadership and running things and is something they chose to return to community to train in- becoming a leader was the purpose of what they were learning and doing, and had been for a few years

they're relationship between what they thought was a good way to change how they related to the wider outside faiths, how they engaged with community and culture, and what ended up happening to them gives them a lot of complex feelings

the bishops all came to Godhood as children- that the way they learned about being in relationship with the wider public was always to be venerated, or to be above others, that those who weren't Gods did not deserve to be looked at, allows them to take on roles that the lamb fundamentally cannot be comfortable with. they know what it is like to be equal to those they share community with and the ways in which interpersonal relationships work. the fact that they are now seen as not only separate and different but that the very factually are is what fuels their horror and their desire to withhold culture to a degree that wouldn't have been true when they were mortal

that they like listening, and solving problems, and taking on a leadership role yet unwilling control and subjugate those around them is a huge character flaw because they as the leader of a death cult attract certain types of followers. sheep culture as one in which sacrifice and deathwas so normalised that they struggle to comprehend outsider mentality around it. they have built an intentional wall around themselves trying to escape that abnormality, that control, and it is actively hurting their flock members. if narinder was a different character it would be incredibly easy for him to take over

they deny themselves building any real relationships with others because they can never know if they're real, never know if they're simply being used for power struggles, that they can never fundamentally know if they aren't unknowingly controlling those they might care about without knowing it

so they're caught in a space between doing something they love yet doing it being something that is hurting them psychologically. honestly if narinder were to outright ask they likely would give up being leader though not revoke the crown simply because they're so tired and burnt out

for many reasons he never would; from both his pride and shame, his fear that he is only useful to someone if he's being abused, and that he too is tired- that he needs to process everything and figure out who he is in basically all regards when not constantly being rewritten through the expectations of others of who and what he is

their original deal to allow narinder to escape is built on their mutual inability to escape their circumstance. that neither has another option, so neither gets to make a true choice about what happens next

the lamb can't separate the thing they want to do, be a weaver and contribute to their community, from the concept of leadership is what now kind of binds them to it even though their original deal ended

they have nothing else but the hope that they can figure out having only one other person they can maybe trust to help them figure out what their life beyond servitude might be

[nczaversnick]

Writerly Questionnaire

Thanks to @willtheweaver for the tag!

How long have you had you’re writing tumblr/writblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine!

I’ve been here only, like, two months I think? Which is kinda crazy honestly.

What led you to create it?

I find it’s so much easier to get excited about my writing when other people are excited too. Besides I’m the face of this operation for Project Gemini and after years of failure on Instagram I gave up for several years until my roommate pointed out that I might actually like being on tumblr and I figured it deserved a fair try.

What’s your favorite thing about the community?

I love how excited everyone is about everyone else’s projects. It kinda blows my mind

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

I will answer literally any question to the best of my ability.

Also, to those of you who are big fans of specific characters (I’m talking about you @honeybewrites and @the-letterbox-archives ), I fucking love that you have a favorite. Mine and Rachelle’s favorite is Adrian, her second favorite is Iris and my second favorite is the guards talking about chili cheese fries in the middle of the big climax of Book 1. They don’t have names but they’re in every draft

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

Nothing comes to mind

WIP

Which WIP are you noodling about lately?

Well, I’ve only got the one, Project Gemini. We’re working on detailing the outline to break down what happens in each chapter. But while that’s been happening, while I’m at work I’ve been pondering what Adrian would be like in the Arc of a Scythe universe

How long have you been working on them?

I had the initial idea roughly.. 15 years ago I think? The first draft was written 10 years ago. I’m currently on draft 5 or, really, draft 1 of version 3

Do you remember what inspired them/ what got you started?

When I was 8 years old a friend of mine on the playground offhandedly made a comment some kind of magical being that was half ice and half fire. And it just stuck.

When someone asks “what do you write about?” What do you say?

Queer people overthrowing the government what else would I write about?

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?

I think I was pretty clear the first time lol

Let’s rotate Blorbos

Name any character you’ve created, and I mean any:

Listen I’ve been writing for over a decade. There’s no way I’ll get everyone. So here’s several:

Caspian, Adrian, Aurelia, Iris, Mason, Quinn, Athena, Lucia, Resin, Filick, Nic, Weston, Atlas, Flynn, Jacob, Lily, Audrey, Micah, Ikaris, Faldris, Helvar, Mara, Flynn, Atlas’s, Dimitri, Cyrus, Jaron, Abraxis

Who’s the most unhinged:

Good lord who even knows?

Who comes most naturally to write:

Definitely Nic or Adrian, as they’re both the oldest

Do you ever cringe at them:

Sometimes, especially those early versions of Adrian

How much control do you feel you have over them? Aka do they ever “write themselves” or refuse to cooperate or do thing you don’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

Oh I don’t have any. Rachelle doesn’t understand when I say things like “I won’t know the answer to that until the little Iris in my brain bother to tell me”

Some are more cooperative than others, I feel like Aurelia is always around sometimes. Mason is impossible. He’s uncooperative both in my head and in the story, which unfortunately is very on brand for him. But it also means I know basically nothing about him right now.

To get around this I tend to write snippets that sort of circle around the actual question I want answered until I manage to get it

Do you enjoy people asking about your characters? And do you have a preferred method of receiving said questions?

Do I enjoy what is probably my favorite kind of interaction of all time?

And no I don’t have a preference.

On Writblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another writeblr account?

Good vibes. I usually check out anyone who follows me anyway

What makes you decide against following?

Besides the obvious answer of discrimination and bigotry, the answer is also vibes. If you fail the vibe check, I won’t follow.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Oh yeah all the time. I keep forgetting that some people are mutuals and some aren’t lol

Tagsss:

@honeybewrites @wyked-ao3 @kittrrrr @zackprincebooks @fractured-shield @theverumproject @the-letterbox-archives @the-golden-comet @poppycat-writes @davycoquette @moltenwrites @finickyfelix @kuebiko-writing @illarian-rambling @yourpenpaldee

[deramin2]

Bell's Hells are so stupidly reckless and refuse to communicate even though they're breaking down from the stress and have all decided their lives aren't worth living so they'll fatally gamble for the cause. But also they love each other very much from the trauma bonding of the last 81 days and if any of them died the others worried destroy the world in their grief. They are walking disasters who should not be relied on to make cookies for a pot luck but have just been tasked with one of the riskiest and most critical scouting missions in history that could be the only thing that stops or mitigates a second Calamity. They might end up fighting each other to the death.

I love them so much. They are each my blorbos that I endlessly rotate around my brain. I'm having fun with seeing where this goes precisely because it feels unpredictable. Or like Uncut Gems where the whole appeal is that the main character is digging himself into a deeper and more dangerous hole with every decision and you're just curious how far he's going to get. And because it feels so real.

Love my representation for people that are mentally ill in very realistic ways where you really do just continually sabotage yourself and suffer through it but that always feels like what you deserve in the moment. The desperate need to prove your worth while feeling like you've lied to anyone who deems you worthy and they're going to figure it out any second now and everything's going to come crashing down. It NEEDS to come crashing down. But like, it doesn't and all that does is dump all your baggage all over the floor and some of it breaks and is sticky.

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity was fun because three explicit premise was the heroes were going to fail and the world would be destroyed because of it.

Campaign 3 is between Calamity and Vox Machina. Vox Machina were chaotic but it was a deeply heroic fantasy story where good is supposed to triumph over evil. There was always the risk they could fail, but that wasn't the favored option. Calamity they were doomed to failure and couldn't win.

But Bell's Hells feels like there is 50/50 odds on whether they win. It's far more challenging and urgent to stop Ludinus. And crucially the CHARACTERS are meant to be more challenging to have win. They are getting in their own way as real people do. They're all teetering on three edge of a corruption arc.

Corruption is what doomed The Ring of Brass. Covering up experiments. Trusting the wrong god because of incredible hubris. Manipulating the truth. Enabling others to do the same. They were so focused on their own ambition that they ignored or minimized the risks in their calculations.

Bell's Hells' greatest weakness is they're all self-sacrificing and willing to embrace dangerous powers to make themselves stronger at whatever cost to themselves or each other. They don't think they're good enough but they desperately need to be because there is no one else. Chetney voiced what they all believe: that their biggest asset right now is they're expendable.

And that's not really something you talk about with your friends because it sucks when you verbalize it like that. Your friends (of they are friends) are going to try to talk you out of that line of thinking even if they're deeply empathetic about why you're feeling that way. Just voicing their fears was a lot. Imogen feeling disappointed with Fearne because she didn't take the shard was really that Fearne was more afraid of sacrificing herself (and giving into corruption) than everyone else.

What if the heroes weren't heroic? What if they were in touch with their feelings on the surface but struggled to ever talk about it or change? (This is a theme in a lot of queer media.) What if they aren't good enough? What if they could be but there's no guarantee. Everyone agrees in advance that failure is just as interesting and pleasurable and fun here as succeeding. Just to watch the world change as a result of your actions. It's a very different tone.

Three Mighty Nein were nobodies who largely stayed nobodies even though they had a profound impact on the world. Bell's Hells are nobodies getting a crash course in becoming somebodies caught up in a nightmarish struggle, and they're crumbling under the weight of it. That's the story that rarely gets told even though it's far truer than heroism.

This is in line with the kinds of stories being told in Candela Obscura where mortality and heroism are more troubled in the face of unending nightmares. D&D's Epic fantasy is just a rarer setting to tell that story than horror. Personally I find that more mature and nuanced storytelling. Equally enjoyable but here there's more room to say something less often said and progressively more exploded than power fantasies.

This is like an evil campaign where every one of them is a mostly good person that has the capability to do great harm that others will curse their name for. They're desperately trying to pull out of that nose dive while the winds of change push down on them.

Tybee point isn't to make optimal decisions, it's to make interesting decisions. Press the big red button just to see what happens. Be brave enough to fail and see what happens when your character falls down. As Travis said her plays by following intrusive thoughts.

I'm having a lot of fun with this one because I get to follow why the characters made a decision and by what twisted logic that felt like a good idea even though it's very likely to blow up in their face. It's juicy. It's dramatic. It reflects a mindset I struggle with. It's different.