#why even include them if they weren't going to do anything with either character for the last three seasons beyond fucking them both over

[freyaphoria]

now im curious what yandere hongjoong does for a living hehe also joong gifted hwa legos for his good behavior right? could you write something like yn being jealous bcs joong gifted hwa present and nothing for you?

Alexa, play Will you be my 벗? (8:09 sec) by Ateez -> Wooyoung: bimil~

I'm kidding, but since I'm thinking of writing the fic in series, I want it to be a surprise loll. But it's a job that suits his yandere character very well, you can guess it, right?

And I would like to express my love and gratitude to my dear @matzrionette for helping me find a title🩷

Jealousy Left Unwrapped

tw: jealousy!, yandere hongjoong, yan!seongjoong x reader

wc: 1540

taglist: @aim-blossom

"Why do you look so sad?" You swear he's doing it on purpose. He does it knowingly to make you jealous and drive you crazy. It doesn't take a genius to understand why you're upset.

"I am not." replied briefly and harshly. Your eyes were also on Seonghwa, who opened the gift package with excitement. "What's that tone of voice? Know your place." Your eye muscles had developed from rolling your eyes at Hongjoong during your stay here. After rolling your eyes at him, you were still hoping that he would give you a gift, too. After all, you were just as good as Hwa, okay you still didn't like Hongjoong but at least you tolerated him. Even this should have been rewarded.

"Joongie! You bought the set I wanted the most! Thank you so much!" Having finished unpacking, Seonghwa jumped on Hongjoong and hugged his neck. Your stomach dropped when Hongjoong said something to him like it was no big deal and kissed his cheek. For a moment, you thought that if Hongjoong was going to expect the same performance from you when he gave you a gift, you'd rather he didn't give a gift at all.

But then you thought again why he bought a gift for him and not for you. Why didn't he buy you anything? You've been behaving really well lately. You didn't try to escape, you were finishing your meals. Sometimes when Hongjoong hugged you, you didn't try to escape from his arms. You even wished him good night yesterday. Why didn't he buy you anything?

Was this jealousy? No way. You weren't crazy enough to be jealous that the man who kidnapped you was buying a gift for his other victim, who was just as crazy as himself, but not buying one for you.

Yes, you agreed. You were jealous. But how can you not be jealous? Hongjoong already had a favorite. His favorite of course, was Hwa, either because they spent more time together, or because he found Hwa and formed a bond with him at the peak of his sick impulses, or because he was a hundred times more loyal to Hongjoong than you. Yes, he loved you obsessively too, but look, he bought the gift for Seonghwa, not you.

Seonghwa looked at you as jealousy flared in your heart, forming a bigger and bigger ball. "Angel look, now we have a set to do together!" He looked very happy. And the fact that he included you in his gift made you feel ashamed of your jealous thoughts. But the problem wasn't Seonghwa, it was Hongjoong.

Of course, Hongjoong knew what he was doing. From time to time, in order to keep your relationship strong, he would give more attention to one of you than the other and ignore the other. This was one of his favorite manipulation tactics. The person who is ignored subconsciously thinks, "I must be as good as them, what can I do to make him love me as much?" he loved injecting this thoughts and seeing the flames of jealousy in both of your eyes. And he would definitely win. When he used this tactic on you, for a few days, without realizing it, you would act closer to Hongjoong, do whatever he said like a puppet, and try to win his love. Of course, you wouldn't do this consciously, but being the favorite person of the person who held power in his hands and the gifts or freedoms he showed you was very tempting.

After fake smiling at Seonghwa, you stood up. "I'm going to my room." As you turned around and went to your room, you heard Seonghwa say 'we were going to start this together, where are you going?' even though you heard his whining, Seonghwa was the last person you wanted to see right now.

You knew what you were doing was childish, but you couldn't help it. While jealousy was flowing through your veins, you were startled by the gentle knock on the room door. You knew it was Hwa, the only kind person here, who knocked your room.

"Did something happen?" You shook your head without looking at his face. Just as he was about to open his mouth again and say something, he closed his mouth when he heard Hongjoong's voice calling him from downstairs. "I'll start preparing dinner, if you want, you can watch TV with Hongjoong while I prepare it. I'll get his permission for you." It was starting to make you sick to your stomach at how nice he was to you. You sometimes wished he could treat you as cruelly and harshly as Hongjoong. This way, there would be nothing binding you here and you wouldn't start getting used to here. But sometimes, you wondered what would happen to Seonghwa if you managed to escape. You wouldn't forgive yourself if you couldn't save him from here and if his Hongjoong-like behavior progressed and he completely turned into Hongjoong.

"No need." You said without looking at him again. Seonghwa thought it would be better to close the door and leave you alone.

Dinner time also passed in silence. Since you didn't look at Seonghwa's face, you didn't see the new star necklace he had around his neck. Did he always have that necklace? No. You noticed it when it swayed as he took your empty plate, catching your eye with its metal reflection. "Since when did you have that necklace?" Hongjoong smiled at you subtly, as if expecting this question. "Ah, Hongjoong got this too. He gave it to me after you left. Beautiful, isn't it?" He told you with a big smile and playing with the star in his hand. He never meant to make you jealous, he was just very excited and wanted to show it off to the world. It was truly a great achievement and honor to receive a gift from Hongjoong.

Hongjoong saw the flaring jealousy in your eyes as you stood up from the table, and grabbed your arm before you could get too far. "What, you don't like it?" He was smiling at you so annoyingly that if he hadn't held your right hand, you would have tried to punch him. Unfortunately, you couldn't give the effect you wanted with your left hand. Maybe he was waiting for you to explode and punish you for it. You didn't know.

But you weren't going to give him what he wanted, he wasn't going to get that reaction from you. You put on a fake smile as you tried to pull your arm away from him. "I like it! It's beautiful! I loved it! It couldn't have been more beautiful!" You hated it when your emotions showed in your tone of voice. If you were stronger, could you stand up to him? "That tone of voice... Is it jealousy?" When he said it with a giggle, you felt yourself blushing from your ears to your cheeks. "Haha! Why are you jealous? After all, you hate this place and me, and it shouldn't matter if I buy him a gift and not you, right?" Ah, he's started again. Even if you denied it, he would continue this psychological torture until you agreed, so you would admit that you were jealous because you wanted it to end as soon as possible without tiring your brain any further. And also, yes, you were jealous.

"Yes, I'm jealous! So what?!" Seonghwa was watching you with wide eyes. Sometimes he was jealous of you too, but it wasn't because of the gifts Hongjoong bought you, it was because of the attention he gave you and didn't give him. "May I know why you're jealous, princess?" He knew why, but he enjoyed humiliating you this way. "Because... Because I've been so g-good lately too! Okay, even though I wasn't as good as Hwa, but I was s-still good! Why didn't you reward me too?" You cursed under your breath at your trembling and stuttering state. When he didn't say anything and looked at you, he looked at you for a long time, you felt uncomfortable and squirmed in your place. "Angel, we can do the lego set together-" "Seonghwa, shut up. Princess, if you were as obedient and loyal as Seonghwa, I would buy it for you too. But you still don't hug and kiss me of your own accord, it hurts my dignity." He looked at you and opened his arms a little, as if he expected you to jump into his lap, hug and kiss him right now. Even though you were jealous of the opportunities he offered Seonghwa, you were never going to give him what he wanted. You didn't move and looked at his arms for a while. Thinking you were hesitating, he said "Come here." to encourage you.

"In your dreams." You pulled your arm away from him harshly and headed back upstairs. "Then I won't buy you anything again!" His voice coming from downstairs got on your nerves. "You're not buying me anything anyway!" You shouted at him with the same tone of voice. Before slamming the door, you heard that Hongjoong mumbled something to Seonghwa about him banning you from watching TV for a week.

a/n: Again me and again yandere matz... Please keep sending me requests about yandere matz. I'm dying for them! Also, my next fic will be yandere yunho and lots of chaos! (I received the request you sent me but please give me some time to write it, dear anon♡♡)

[cy-cyborg]

Disability Tropes: The Miracle Cure

The miracle cure is a trope with a pretty negative reputation in disability circles, especially online. It describes a scenario in which, a disabled character, through either magic, advanced technology, divine intervention or some combination of the three, has their disability cured throughout the course of the story. Sometimes this is literally, as in the disability is completely and entirely cured with no strings attached. Other times, it looks like giving an amputee character a prosthetic so advanced that it's basically the same as "the real thing" and that they never take off or have any issue with, or giving the character with a spinal injury an implant that bypasses the physical spine's break, or connects to an exoskeleton that allows them to walk again. Sometimes, it can even look like giving a character some kind of magic item or power that negates the effects of the disability, like what I talked about in my post about "the super-crip" trope. Either way though, the effect is the same: The disability is functionally cured and is no longer an "issue" the author or character has to worry about.

But why would this be a bad thing? In a world with magic or super-advanced tech, if you can cure a character's disability, why wouldn't you?

[ID: a screenshot of Roy mustang from Full metal alchemist Brotherhood, a white man with short black hair in a hospital gown. In the corner of the screen is the hand of another person holding a small red gemstone. /End ID]

Well there's a few reasons. First, lets talk about the purely writing related ones. If you've been around the writing or even media critique communities for a bit, you've likely heard people voicing their frustrations with tropes like "The fake-out death" where a character is either implied to have died, but comes back later, or is explicitly shown to be dead and then resurrected. Often when this happens in media, it leaves the audience feeling cheated and like a character's actions and choices don't really matter if even the worst mistakes and consequences can be undone. In the case of the latter situation, where they die and are brought back, it can make the stakes of the whole story feel a lot lower, since even something like death is shown to be reversible, so the audience doesn't really have to worry about anything bad happening to their favourite character, and once you've used this trope one time, people will constantly wonder why you wouldn't use it every time it comes up.

The same is true for "fixing" a character's disability. It sets a precedent that even things as big and life-changing as disability aren't permanent in this setting. We don't have to worry about anything major happening to the characters, there's no risks associated with their actions if it can all be undone, and it will lower the stakes of the story for your audience. Personally, I also feel like it's often used as a cop-out. Like writers wanted to include a major injury the leads to something big like disability for shock value, but weren't sure how to actually deal with it afterwards, so they just made it go away. Even in cases where the character start the story with a disability and are cured, this can still cause issues with your story's stakes, because again, once we've seen you do it once, we know its possible, so we won't feel the need to worry about anything being permanent.

Ok, so that's the purely writing related reasons, but what if that situation doesn't apply to the story you're writing? What if they're "fixed" right at the end, or the way they're cured is really rare, so it can't be used multiple times?

I'm glad you asked, because no, this is far from the only reason to avoid the trope! In my opinion, the more important reason to avoid it is because of how the a lot of the disabled community feels about the miracle cure trope, and the ideas about disability it can perpetuate if you're not very, very careful.

You might have noticed that throughout this post, I've put words like "cured" and "fixed" in quotes, and that's because not every disabled person wants a cure or feels like their ideal to strive for is able-bodied and neurotypical. For many of us, we have come to see our disabilities as part of us, as part of our identities and our sense of self, the same way I, as a queer person might see my queerness as a part of my identity. This is an especially common view among people who were born with their disability or who had them from a young age, since this is all they've ever really known, or who's disability impacts the way they think, perceive and process the world around them, how they communicate with people or in communities who have a long history of forced conformity and erasure such as the autism and deaf communities. Many disabilities have such massive impacts on our lives that we literally wouldn't be who we are today if they were taken away. So often though, when non-disabled people write disabled characters, they assume we'd all take a "cure" in a heart-beat. They assumed we all desire to be just like them again, and this simply isn't the case. Some people absolutely would, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not as universal as media representation makes it out to be.

Another reason it's so heavily disliked is because this trope is often used in conjunction with other ableist and harmful tropes or it's used in ways that perpetuate misinformation about living with a disability and it can have ableist implications, even if that's not what the author necessarily intended.

If the miracle cure is used right at the end of the story for example, as a way to give characters a happy ending it can imply that the only way for a disabled character to be happy in the long run, is for them to be "fixed", especially if they were miserable all the way up until that point. If it's used earlier in the story as a way to get said character back into the action, it can also be read as the author thinking that disabled people can't be of use to the plot, and so the only way to keep them around is to "fix" them.

Of course, there's also the fact that some authors and writers will also play up how bad being disabled is in order to show why a cure is justified, playing into the "sad disabled person" trope in the process, which is pretty much what it says on the tin. Don't get me wrong, this isn't to say that being disabled is all easy-breezy, there are never any hard days and you should never show your character struggling, not at all, the "sad disabled person" trope has it's place (even if I personally am not a fan on it), but when both the "sad disabled person" trope and the miracle cure trope are used together, it's not a great look.

This is especially bad when the very thing that cures the disability, or perhaps the quest the heroes need to go on to get it, is shown to be harmful to others or the disabled person themselves. Portraying living with a disability as something so bad that it justifies hurting others, putting others at risk, loosing yourself or killing yourself in order to achieve this cure perpetuates the already harmful idea that disability is a fate worse than death, and anything is justified to avoid it.

I've also noticed the reasons the authors and writers give for wanting to cure their characters are very frequently based on stereotypes, a lack of research in to the actual limits of a person's disability and a lack of understanding. One story I recall reading years ago made sure to tell you how miserable it's main character, a former cyclist, was because he'd been in a car accident where he'd lost his arm, and now couldn't ride bikes anymore, seemingly unaware of the fact arm amputees can, in fact, ride bikes. There are several whole sports centred around it, and even entire companies dedicated to making prosthetic hands specifically for riding bikes. but no, the only way for this to resolve and for him to be happy was to give him his arm back as a magical Christmas miracle! It would be one thing if the story had acknowledged that he'd tried cycling again but just had difficulties with it, or something was stopping him from being able to do it like not being able to wear the required prosthetic or something, but it really did seem as though the author was entirely unaware it was even possible, which is an issue when it's the whole point of your story existing. This happens a lot more often than you'd think, and it's very clear when an author hasn't even bothered to google search if their character would be able to do something before deciding the only solution is to take the disability away.

There's also the frustration that comes from being part of an underrepresented minority, finally seeing a character like you on screen or in a book, only for that representation to be taken away. Disabled people make up roughly 16% of the population (though many estimate these numbers are actually much higher), but only about 2.8% of American TV shows and 4.1% of Australian TV shows feature explicitly disabled characters. In 2019, around 2.3% of films featured disabled characters in a speaking roll, and while it's slowly getting better as time goes on, progress on that front is very slow, which is why its so frustrating when we do see characters like ourselves and so much of their stories focus on wishing to be, trying to become or actually being "cured".

An finally, there's the fact this is just a really common trope. Even if we ignore the issues it can cause with your story's tone and stakes, the harm it can do to the community when not handled with care, the negative perceptions it can perpetuate and everything else. It's just a plain-old overdone trope. It shows up so often that I, and a lot of disabled people, are just getting tired of seeing it. Despite everything I've said, there are valid reasons for people to not want to be disabled, and just like how I made sure to emphasise that not everyone wants a cure, it's important to recognise that not everyone would refuse it either. So long as it's not done in a way that implies it's universal, in theory, depicting someone who would want and accept a cure is totally fine. The issue is though that this trope is so common and so overdone that it's starting to feel like it's all we ever see, especially in genres like sci-fi and fantasy (and also Christmas movies for some reason).

[ID: A Gif of a white man in a top hat nodding his head with the caption "Merry Christmas" down the bottom. /end ID]

Personally, because it's so common, I find even the few examples of the trope used well frustrating, and I honestly feel that it's at the point where it should be avoided entirely where possible.

Ok but Cy, you mentioned there are ways to use this trope well, what are they?

So, like I said, I'm of the opinion that this trope is better off not being in your work at all, but if, for whatever reason, you can't avoid it, or it's use is really that important to the story you want to tell, there are less harmful ways to implement it.

Don't have your only disabled character take the cure

If you really must cure your disabled character's disability, don't make them the only disabled person in the story. Show us another character who, when offered the same cure, chooses not to take it. This at least helps push back a little against the assumption of "of course everyone would want this" that these kinds of stories often imply and doesn't contribute (as much) to disability erasure in the media.

Don't make it a total cure

In real life, there are cures for some disabilities, but they rarely leave no trace. For example, an amputee's limb can sometimes be reattached if it was severed and they received medical treatment fast enough, but it usually results in at least a little nerve damage and difficulties with muscle strength, blood flow or co-ordination in that limb. Often times, these "cures" will fix one issue, but create another. You might not be an amputee anymore, but you're still disabled, just in a different way. You can reflect this in your fictional cures to avoid it feeling like you just wanted to avoid doing the work to write good disabled representation.

Do something interesting with it

I got a comment on my old tumblr or possibly Tik Tok account ages ago talking about their planned use for the miracle cure trope, where their character accepts the cure at the cost of the things that made her life enjoyable post-disability. Prior to accepting the cure, she had found other ways to be independent to some extent and her community and friends helped her bridge the gaps, but they were all taken from her when she was "cured" forcing her into isolation. Kind of like a "be careful what you wish for" sort of thing. The story was meant to be a critique on how society ignores alternative ways of getting the same result and how conforming to other people's ideas of "normal" isn't always what you need to bring you happiness. This was a genuinely interesting way to use the trope I think, and it's a perfect example of taking this trope and twisting it to make an interesting point. If you must use a trope like this, at least use it to say something other than "disability makes me sad so I don't want to think about it too much". Alternatively, on a less serious note, I'm also not entirely opposed to the miracle cure being used for comedy if it fits the tone. The Orville has some issues with it's use of the Miracle Cure trope, but I'd be lying if I said Isaac amputating Gordan's leg as a prank, knowing it could be reversed in a few hours did get a chuckle out of me.

If your villain's motivation is finding a cure for themselves, don't use it as justification for hurting people

Disabled villains need a post all their own honestly, but when a villain's motivation for doing all the terrible things they do is so they don't have to be disabled anymore, it's especially frustrating. Doubly so if the writer's are implying that they're justified in their actions, or at least that their actions are understandable because "who would want to live like that?" Honestly, as a general rule of thumb, avoid making your villains disabled if you aren't disabled yourself (especially if they're your only disabled character), but if they are disabled, don't use the disability as a justification for them hurting people while finding a cure.

So are there any examples currently out there to look at where the trope is used, if not well, at least tolerably?

Yeah, I'd say so, but they're few and far between. Two examples come to mind for me though.

The Dragon Prince:

[ID: A Gif of Ava the Wolf from the Dragon Prince, a light brown, fluffy wolf who is missing her front right leg. /End ID]

The Dragon Prince on Netflix uses the miracle cure twice, but I still really enjoyed the show (at least I did, up until my Netflix subscription ran out, so I've only seen up to season 4). The first time the trope is used in the series, it's actually a fake-out. Two of the main characters, while looking for someone to help them heal the dragon egg they're carrying, encounter a young girl named Ellis and her pet wolf Ava. The two explain their egg is not looking good and they need to find someone to help it, but no one they've found had the knowledge or ability to do anything to help. Ellis says she knows a healer who can help them, and tells them that this healer even restored Ava's amputated leg when she was a pup. When we actually reach this "miracle healer" however, she is revealed to be simply an illusionist. She explains that Ava is still missing her leg, she simply made it look as though she had restored it because Ellis's parents were planning to throw the puppy out, believing it would not survive with its disability and would only be a drain on supplies. This was not actually true and Ava adapted to her amputation very well, she simply needed more time, and hiding her disability and making her appear abled gave her the time she needed to fully recover and adjust. When they return to the healer with the main characters, she removes the illusion and explains why she did it, emphasising that the real problem was never with Ava, but with how people made assumptions about her.

While I do feel it was drawn out a bit too long, I do appreciate the use of the trope as the set up to an overall positive twist. Disability does come with down-sides, it's part of the deal and it would have been nice to see a bit more of that, but for disabilities like amputation in particular, the worst of our problems often come from a lack of adequate support and people's pre-conceived ideas about us, and it was nice to see this reflected, even if it is a little overly simplified.

The second time this trope comes up in the series is when one of the antagonists, Soren, is injured during a fight with a dragon, becoming paralysed from the neck down. His sister, Claudia is absolutely beside herself, believing it was her fault this even happened in the first place, but Soren actually takes his new disability very, very well, explaining that he understands there are things he can't do now, but that there's a lot of things he can still try, that his previous job as a soldier just didn't allow time for. It's possible this reaction was him being in denial but it came across to me as genuine acceptance. He is adamant that he doesn't want a cure right from the beginning because he knows that a cure would come at a cost that he doesn't want his sister to pay, and that he is content and happy with this new direction his life will be going in. Claudia, however, is not content. It had been shown that she was already using dark magic, but this event is what starts her down the path of using it in earnest, disregarding the harm it will cause to those around her. She ignores Soren's wishes, kills several animals in order to fuel the healing spell that will "fix" him, and Soren is pretty clearly shown to be horrified by her actions. What I like about this use of the miracle cure trope is that it touches on something I've seen happen a lot to disabled people in real-life, but that rarely shows up in media - the fact that just because we accept ourselves, our disabilities and our new limits, doesn't mean our friends and family will, unfortunately. In my own life, my mum and dad were always accepting of my disability when I was younger, but as I got older and my support needs changed, my body took longer to heal and I stopped being able to do a lot of things I could when I was little, they had a very hard time coming to terms with it and accepting it. I'm not alone in this either, a lot of disabled people end up cutting contact with friends and family members who refuse to accept the reality of our situations and insist "if we just try harder maybe we won't be so disabled" or "Maybe you will get better if you just do [xyz]". Unfortunately however, some disable people's wishes are ignored completely, like Soren's were. You see this a lot in autistic children who's parents are so desperate to find a cure that they hurt their kids through toxic and dangerous "treatments" or by putting them through abusive therapies that do more harm than good. Claudia has good intentions, but her complete disregard for Soren's decision still harm them both in the long run, leading to the deterioration of their relationship and causing her to spiral down a very dark path.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

[ID: A Gif of Ed from full metal alchemist, a white boy with blond hair, staring angrily at a jar of milk on the table. His brother Al, a sentiant suit of armour, is in the background looking directly at the camera. The caption, spoken by Ed, says "So we meet again you little bastard" /end ID.]

The show does begin with Ed and Al looking for a way to cure their disabilities (which they gave themselves when trying to resurrect their mother as children went horribly wrong). However, when the boys discover that the object needed to do that - a philosopher's stone, can only by made through absolutely abhorrent and despicable means, and using one, likewise, comes at the cost of potentially hundreds or thousands of people's souls, they immediately stop, and shift their focus on finding the stones that had already been made so it can't fall into the wrong hands, and preventing the creation of new ones. The core theme of the show is that everything has a cost, and sometimes the cost is simply too great.

However, right at the end of the show, several characters are healed in a variety of ways. Ed gives up his ability to do alchemy to get his brother's body back, as well as his arm so he can save his friends in the final battle, but neither of the boys come away from this completely "healed". Al's body has not been used since he was a child, and so it is shown he has experienced severe muscular atrophy that will take a long time and a lot of work to recover from, acknowledging that he has a pretty tough road ahead of him. When we see him in the epilogue, he is still on crutches despite this being several months after getting his body back. Likewise Ed is not fully healed, and is still missing one of his legs even if he got his arm back.

The more... interesting use of the trope, however, is in the form of Colonel Mustang who was blinded in the final season. Mustang is shown to take to his blindness pretty well given the circumstances, finding a variety of ways to continue doing his job and reaching his goals. When other characters offer to let him use the philosopher's stone to heal himself however, he takes it, acknowledging that this is a horrible thing to do and that Ed and Al would be extremely disappointed in him if they ever found out. He uses it both to cure his own disability, and to cure another character who was injured earlier in the show. While I'll admit, I did not like this ending, I can at least appreciate that the show made sure to emphasis that a) Mustang was doing fine without the cure, and b) that this was not morally justified. The show spent a very long time drilling into the viewer how morally reprehensible using the stone was, and it didn't try to make an exception for Mustang - you weren't supposed to like that he did that.

When I talk about these tropes, I do try to give them a fair chance and discuss the ways it can potentially work, but I really do want to reiterate that this particular trope really is best avoided. There are ways to make it work, but they will still leave a bad taste in many of your viewer's or reader's mouths and you have to be exceptionally careful with your wording and framing, not just in the scenes where this trope is used, but in the lead up. If you really must use it, I highly recommend getting a few disability sensitivity readers and/or consultants (yes, even if you are disabled yourself) to help you avoid some of the often overlooked pitfalls.

[cursedvida]

It's really crazy to me to see the hate Mae gets, like I was reading some reviews and I can understand not liking a character but as soon as they start with the name calling their opinion is invalid to me because they have no reason to be calling her a bitch, among other things, like it just reeks of mysogyny, (it's like they just want an excuse to call women names) and seeing it coming from other girls makes it worse like..

"Oh the girl was such a bitch why did she do that 🙄" ..is it really that hard to think for a moment about the circumstances in which mae was raised?? Do they need it spell it out for them?? Like, c'mon guys do you really think that the people trapped in a bunker for generations have anything nice to teach/say about the apes?? Wes Ball please give us Mae's backstory in the sequel!! Your audience needs it bc they are out there calling Mae the real villain and saying Proximus was right 💀 (when he was literally everything Caesar hated in an ape)

Look, I'm usually a polite person when expressing my opinions, but I'm fed up with the hate towards Mae, basically because the arguments people give seem incredibly basic to me, typical of people with little to no understanding. Sometimes I doubt if these people have watched the same movie as me or maybe they have some sort of cognitive dissonance, but seriously, I find them ridiculous. Either that, or they are basically the typical comments from misogynistic guys or women with internalized misogyny who can't stand morally gray and questionable female characters.

And well, having said that, I'm going to present my doctoral thesis on this topic:

One of the things I've seen the most is people saying that Mae is evil, the true villain, or an ungrateful traitor to Noa. This argument seems quite incomprehensible to me because, even though we don't have much data about her, I believe there's something very important that explains why she acts as she does: the Proximus apes killed the people in her group, including her mother. I mean: her damn mother. If we add to that the UNDERSTANDING (I mean, you have to be very short-minded not to assume something so obvious) that she has been raised in an environment where they've probably told her all her life that the apes are the reason for all the evils of humanity and the main reason why humans live in shitty conditions, I think anyone with half a brain has enough information to understand why she does what she does.

Yes, Noa is a good guy, but he's not helping her. Noa and Mae have a common goal and decide to ally themselves momentarily to achieve that goal, which is to reach Proximus. As much as they've formed a bond throughout the story, it's not yet strong enough for Mae to set aside what she has worked for so hard. Mae not only bears the weight of humanity on her shoulders but also emotionally carries the idea that she, as the sole survivor of her group, must complete the mission at all costs. Are those who criticize her telling me that if they truly thought that with certain actions they could not only save their species but also honor their loved ones who have been killed infront their eyes, they wouldn't do them? And that they wouldn't do them for someone they've just met, no matter how much they like them? That's just not realistic, it makes no sense. We would all do the same as Mae in her situation. I mean, I have no doubts.

Another thing I love is when they say she's the "true villain" as if it weren't clear enough that she feels bad every time since she forms a bond with Raka and Noa when she does something that she knows may harm them. She feels pain for Raka's death and clearly, you can also see the conflict and remorse when she detonates the bomb. It's not something she enjoys doing, but she HAS to do it. In the final scene, even though she's carrying a gun, you can also clearly see her in conflict with herself. Clearly, she doesn't want to kill him. Clearly, she has nothing against Noa, and this is evident when she finally accepts the necklace and they even shake hands. You can't tell me that's the attitude of a villain, narratively it's not presented as such, and seeing it that way is to have understood nothing.

Mae is a complex character whose life is based on survival, she's no different from the characters we're used to loving and idolizing in other post-apocalyptic series, the difference here for me is that she's human and humans have to be bad by default and also that she's a woman. Because female characters always have to be the support, the romantic interest, or the unconditional friends of heroic male characters, and Mae is none of that. Mae is a character with her own story and ambitions that go beyond Noa's plot. Mae has her own plot, and it seems that's something that bothers people a lot.

I'm sorry, but the hate towards Mae seems very similar to the one people had for Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, which basically stemmed from people being misogynistic and hating complex and imperfect female characters, combined with how much they hate seeing protagonist characters with such human and real characteristics that they can't bear the idea of seeing themselves reflected in them.

But hey, for Sansa Stark, I would have killed, and now for Mae too. Mae haters basically DNI

[xalygatorx]

Back into a Pumpkin | Alastor x Shameless!Fiona!Reader

Requested by @skyfuldreamer (Tumblr's not letting me tag in the usual way for some reason, so I hope this works)

Also on AO3

Summary: On the day you're supposed to secure yourself to Alastor in unholy matrimony, an unexpected and unwelcome guest arrives to dredge up the past you've tried to hide from him.

Warnings: Shame (ironic?), language, reader has a past of drugs and prostitution and a heart of gold, parental abuse (verbal, brief physical in the current story but a past of physical while the reader and said parent were alive) and neglect, Alastor feels moderately inconvenienced that you won't let him kill your cruddy mom LOL, AFAB reader, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff

A/N: It might be apparent idk but I've yet to watch Shameless, so this is a quick character research job. :') I do have an ongoing crush on Emmy Rossum though, so that's helped me power through. Hope you enjoy. x

You'd made your peace a long time ago about never telling Alastor the full breadth of the life you led topside. The life you led before you'd died, fallen into Hell, and were actually given license to live for yourself the first time…dead.

You've had a complicated existence at best.

But that's all behind you now. Today, you're getting married.

Let's get one thing clear, you weren't surprised to end up in Hell after dying. You were surprised it existed at all, to be honest, but you weren't surprised that was where you were tossed after being rejected at the pearly gates. You'd done a lot in life to accrue your fair share of sins and, apparently but also not surprisingly, the "why" behind those sins didn't factor in.

You weren't kind to your body, but neither was anyone else. You smoked, you drank, you hit harder drugs to cope for a while, and then got painstakingly clean, remaining so by the skin of your teeth—whatever that saying meant. Your body was riddled with poison by the time you went.

Not only that, but you let other people use you the way you used drugs. For a price. A price that wasn't quite respectable, but it was enough to make sure your little brothers and sisters had lunches to take to school, new backpacks that wouldn't fall apart in the middle of the hall like yours had in fifth grade, and a shot at life you weren't given.

You weren't ashamed for doing what you had to in order to give them that. For the rest, yes—you still carried that shame with you everywhere you went. Including up the hill to the Hazbin Hotel, where you'd checked in as a resident when being out in Hell's general population with every available narcotic imaginable nearly caused you to relapse.

You'd met the Princess of Hell there—Charlie Morningstar. She'd welcomed you with open arms and a glowing smile. You'd also met her partner, the rest of her staff, and the other guests.

One member of management had been late to the scene of your arrival—he'd been mid-broadcast at the time—and had instead scared the afterlife out of you by materializing right outside your door as you were leaving to go downstairs for dinner. He'd apologized (laughingly), but to this day you were sure he'd done it on purpose.

Back then, you would've never guessed that your heartstopping introduction to the Radio Demon would become anything else. Much less an actual, real relationship. Something you'd never really had for any length of time while you were alive. You'd either not had the bandwidth to handle a relationship, your "side hustles," your legal work, and your kids (siblings) or the men you'd tried dating hadn't had the wherewithal to stick around for you after they learned about your past.

After you'd died, that past was something you'd wanted to leave buried with you on Earth. So you started completely over with a fresh slate and you never told anyone about the life you'd led before. Not even Alastor.

And now, on your wedding day, it's all you can think of.

Maybe because, if you'd done this while alive, your family would be here. You were glad the kids weren't here, of course—they'd have to be dead to attend this ceremony. But, if you were alive, you'd get to have your family around you to celebrate. The family you'd pulled from the gutter yourself. The one you wished every day that you had some way to check on.

You just hoped they were okay. That was the only thing you wanted.

Then again, there were perks to this not taking place while you were still alive. Because with every nice family experience comes the not-nice ones. And there was a reason you'd had to go to such lengths to provide for your siblings—you'd called that reason "Mom" up until you were probably fifteen or sixteen.

Up until she left on benders and only came back when there was a check to cash in. Up until your youngest siblings started calling you "Mom" because they'd hardly been around their birthmother as they grew and developed personalities of their own. Up until you stopped wishing that she'd step up so you could have a shot at a life of your own, at picking goals that didn't just pertain to keeping food in the fridge and the electricity on, and instead just wished she'd stay away once and for all.

You shake off the feeling and it disrupts Vaggie's careful lacing of your corset-style dress from Rosie's. "Sorry," you quickly murmur.

"It's fine, I'm almost done," she tells you and, true to her word, she finishes off her work with a neat little bow and steps back. "There!"

You do an experimental wiggle that she laughs at you for and turn to look at yourself in the mirror nearby. She's done a great job—so did Rosie when she designed this dress. You would've worn a potato sack if it meant you could marry Alastor, but he'd insisted that you have something special for the big day.

You also weren't entirely sure that Rosie would've ever forgiven him had he not allowed her to pitch in and had a sneaking suspicion that had been additional motivation to task her with your dress.

The second she'd had an inch, she'd taken a mile—flowers, decorations for the small Cannibal Town "chapel" venue, a sinner-flesh-free cake, she'd ensured you had it all while still remaining open and attentive to what you wanted when you found it in you to voice it. She was just excited for you both. In a lot of ways, she'd shown you these past months what it would've been like to have an actual mom.

Speak of the devil (or the angel, you'd argue), Rosie's quick rapping at the door precedes her entry and she immediately gushes over how you look.

"Oh my stars, honey! Look at ya!" she half-squeals, spinning one clawed finger in the air as she requests, "Do a li'l turn for me, will ya?"

You indulge her and blush as she literally applauds your appearance, showering you with affectionate praise. Vaggie stands by, just watching the scene unfold with a soft look in her eyes. You know she's thinking back to her own wedding with Charlie and it warms your heart more than words can describe.

"Alright, come on, girls!" Rosie crows, gesturing for you both to proceed out of her parlor, where you've been getting ready for the past couple of hours. "Just about everyone should be settled in their seats 'n' I know Al's all done up and ready, too."

"How's he doing?" you ask as you step out of the room with Rosie and Vaggie, following them to the front of the Emporium to make the short walk to the chapel.

"Oh, he's on Cloud Nine, honey, don't even worry 'bout him," Rosie waves you off with a tittering laugh against a gloved hand. Quietly, she adds just to you, "I get the feelin' that he might be a little somber underneath the happiness though since he's finally gettin' hitched and his mama's, obviously, not here to see it."

Your brow crumples and you nod. "Of course," you murmur back. "Thank you, Rosie. For looking out for him and for me."

"It's my favorite sport, honey," Rosie ribs you as the three of you get into place at the chapel entrance.

The doors are open to ventilate the inside, just like a chapel in the overworld may have been for both your and Alastor's southern hometowns. It hits you with unexpected nostalgia. The tiny chapel is almost comically full of both folks from the hotel and other sinners you and Alastor know separately, not to mention almost the entirety of Cannibal Town. Even Susan's present and behaving…so far.

"Wow, is the entire Pentagram in there?" Vaggie wonders offhand. "Maybe it just looks like it because the building's so small."

"Well, Al wanted to do an announcement in the paper, so I guess that brought a few more people in," you muse to her, your eyes landing on the man himself at the other end of the chapel aisle as you speak.

The second your eyes meet, what little anxiety you'd accrued at the sight of the bustling chapel fades into the background. Despite everything, it's just you and him right now. And that sounds just about perfect.

It's the downward twitch of his smile that makes you realize you're so zoned into your daydreamy state, that you've entirely missed a new "guest" approaching. And then it's Vaggie backing into you, shielding you with her smaller form until you finally turn your head and you hone in on someone shoving past the petite fallen angel to get to you.

Who it is only becomes apparent after they start speaking.

"—believe my own daughter wouldn't invite me to her goddamn wedding," the sinner was ranting. Her words make you pale. "Had to see it in the papers of all places!"

Shocked into vulnerability, you mumble for the first time in decades, "M-Mom?" You're positively dumbstruck. You hadn't even known she'd died.

"Well, obviously!" she snaps at you. Rosie's still standing behind you, not sure what to do or how far this might go. But she doesn't know your mother. She doesn't feel the impending disaster like you do. "But no, not an invite in the mail, not a call, nothing! Ungrateful as ever, Hell hasn't changed you a bit."

You're understandably taken aback on multiple levels. That she's called you "ungrateful." That she's acting as though this is your typical behavior. That she's not even upset to discover through this wedding announcement that not only is her daughter getting married, but that her daughter is dead. And that's not what she cares about.

Hell hasn't changed her a bit either.

Your lips twist in a snarl and you snap back, "I'm interested to hear what I have to be grateful to you for."

Her hand cracks across your cheek before you can blink. Like she was waiting for a reason to do it. Knowing her, she probably was.

Stunned, you hold your face and bare your teeth at her, old habits rousing from years of "living." Vaggie tries to get back in between you and your mom, but you wave her off as your mother continues to yell horrible things in your face and you take it with a stalwart sort of internalized rage. It's familiar. It's unwelcome. But it protects you.

Distantly, as if through a long tunnel, you hear Rosie shout back at your mother, something she's said setting Rosie off and making her abandon her attempt to allow you to handle the situation how you see fit.

And, when you snap back at your mom again and she raises her fist to you this time, you see the red and black-gloved hand of your fiance snatch her wrist in mid-air.

It feels like someone's blessedly (or not) removed the cotton from your ears as sound floods back in and you hear in full all the horrendous things your mother is shouting at you, at Rosie, and now at Alastor, too, for intervening.

"Get your fuckin' hands off me!" she shouts up into his face, either having no idea who she's speaking to right now or simply not caring.

The only reason he hasn't wiped the road with her is because he's put two and two together that she's your mother. That said, he'll first want the go-ahead from you to do so. It's only polite.

"Oh-ho! Au contraire," Alastor tuts down at her as he places himself firmly between you two. You rest your hands against his back to remind him you're there and maybe ground him enough to not cannibalize your disgrace of a mother before the wedding. After is to be determined at this point. "It's you who must learn to keep your hands to yourself, it seems."

"She's my daughter!" your mom fires back, yanking her wrist out of Alastor's grip and only because he allows it.

"And, had you not interrupted proceedings," Alastor counters smoothly, wiping the hand that restrained your mother's wrist against his jacket with no shortage of disdain, "she would be my wife."

"Listen, before I'm anyone's anything, I'm mine, alright?" you butt in, the streams of "my, my, my" making you feel like you've lost your agency all over again, if in small doses.

Your mother, unsurprisingly, ignores you, but you see Alastor's ears flatten a little with chagrin as he flashes you an apologetic look over his shoulder. You offer him a smile that immediately fades into horror as your mom speaks up again. One more damning time.

"Surprised anyone would want her after everything she did," your mom huffs with superiority, sneering at you past Alastor's arm. Don't, is all you can think even as she undoes all your good work to start over in the span of a sentence. "You know you're just the end of the parade of men she's had in her bed, right? You're just the first one she's opened her legs for without a fee."

Horrified, you feel numb as you whisper, "That's… That's not—"

"Unless you're loaded, then I get why she's tricked you into this," your mom continues to muse, sizing Alastor up with a glance before looking at you again. "How long do you think this'll last, kid? We both know what you're like."

"What I'm like?" you repeat, your hollow voice gaining fervor as your demonic form threatens to tear through you. "What I'm like?!"

"You're nothing but a selfish, flea-bitten little whore who spent the best years—the only years—of your life high or with a dick in your mouth," she snarls, trying to get past Alastor to face off with you again. He holds an arm out to stop her, but he's not looked at you since she started in on you again.

You're sure it's over. Just like that. And then the world starts to feel like it's caving in. So what more do you have to lose?

"You know what," you grit out with a harsh laugh. "You're right. I got into drugs and I sold myself on street corners. That's why I'm here. And you know what else?" Your voice becomes throatier as your eyes ignite red and your canines lengthen into fangs, your form barely restrained in your anger. "All of it happened because you were a shit mother with shit priorities who didn't take care of your fucking kids!"

"You shut your wh—"

"No!" you cried, furious as you felt hot tears starting to bead at the corners of your eyes. "I'm not going to! Everything I did at least started because I had to raise myself and then my siblings, too! I went to school, worked, did every side job I could find—every side job—and somehow found ways in the middle of all that to figure out how to be a mom! And you have no idea how much that fucked me up! I didn't even know until I died because that was the first free minute I'd had in years to think about myself!

"I 'whored around' because your kids needed lunch money. They needed new folders for school. A new set of kneepads for volleyball practice," you say, losing steam and wanting to get away from the source of your abuse before she sees you cry. Because you know her still and you know from a tender age that she sees tears as a sign of victory.

To Alastor, you choke out a whispered, "I'm sorry," and hurry past Vaggie and Rosie.

As you pass Rosie, she slips you the Emporium key to let yourself in and catch your breath, fix yourself back up, whatever you need. You flash her a grateful, wobbly smile and head straight there, trusting the others to smooth things over with the attendees. You honestly aren't sure what you'll come back to—maybe some of them will linger and the ceremony will go on as planned.

Or, more likely now that he knows how filthy you are, Alastor will have changed his mind and proceed to send them all home.

That's the thought that finally sends you over the edge and you're able to at least close the Emporium door behind you before you burst into tears.

As you walk back to the parlor you prepped in, you stifle sobs against your hands, eyes wide with something close to panic. As you shoulder open the parlor door and close it behind you, twisting the lock, you wonder at the unbearable weight in your chest—back again after so long without it.

You aren't ashamed of taking care of your brothers and sisters—your kids in the end—however you needed to at the time. Whatever you had to do, you did, and you're glad that—at least when you'd left the world of the living—they'd all been surer-footed and doing okay. You prayed every day to a God you knew at least no longer believed in you that they would continue to lead full, happy lives.

However, hearing those accusations spouted in front of all the folks you've come to know in the Pentagram, who you've come to love and have come to love the you they know down here—in front of the man you've come to adore and who'd adored you in turn—

Well, now you feel shame, pure and thick as shame could be, pooling like slow-acting poison in your belly.

You step over to the vanity Rosie brought in just for you to get ready today and collapse onto the velvet stool.

After a doubtful look at your reflection, you're pretty sure you have all the aesthetic qualities of a raccoon without the inherent "awww" factor. You swallow against a raw sensation in your throat as you locate one of the face wipes Vaggie used on you earlier and start trying to clear away the smudges around your eyes.

There's a quick knock at the door and you're not clear-headed enough to guess who it might be. Rosie, you imagine, as you think back to her pitying expression as you left the chapel entryway with her store key. You try to stomach her pity as something kind and not fall deeper into shame for having seen it, as much as you may want to.

Whoever it is knocks again and you sigh. "Yes?" you ask, grimacing at the rough sound of your voice.

"May I come in?"

Alastor's voice, usually something that inspires warmth from your crown to your toes, makes you curl in on yourself a little. He's surely here to call it off. He could've just left, you know that, but he's a gentleman through and through. He wanted to carry out your relationship properly and that's how he'll likely want to end it as well.

You steel yourself for what you consider the inevitable. Might as well get it over with. You surely can't feel any worse than you do now.

That's a lie though. You can and you're sure you will once it's official.

"Okay," you say, continuing your cleanup before you remember that you locked the door upon entry.

Before you can stand, Alastor's shadow weaves in through the cracks and flips the latch. The man, himself, is soon to follow. Alastor steps through the door he opens just enough to come inside, replacing the door and the lock once he joins you. You find it difficult to look at him, knowing what's coming, so you go back to smearing away teary streaks of cosmetics from your skin.

He's silent as he walks further into the room, stopping behind your perch in front of the vanity. The mirror is angled in such a way that you see most of him, but the top edge cuts off right at his bowtie, so his expression remains—for better or worse—a mystery to you.

Well, you're sure he's smiling certainly. But whatever accompanies that smile or lays beneath it remains unknown for now.

"Are you alright?" he asks, his voice uncharacteristically careful.

You sniffle a little and shrug. "I'm…not really sure yet," you admit, deciding to be honest. "I'm kind of shaken up. I was angry, but that's kind of on the backburner now."

"You've every right to be," he murmurs and you can hear in his quiet storm of a tone that he's angry, too. You're not yet sure at whom though. There's a long pause that hangs between you before he gestures to the armchair nearby. "May I?"

"You need to ask?" you wonder, implying your permission.

He hums and adjusts the chair's position to angle toward the vanity before he seats himself. You sneak a furtive look his way, wary of what expression you'll see on his face, but needing to know at the same time what sort of conversation this will be. You barely handled the whiplash of seeing your mom again. The whiplash of a similar conversation with Alastor might do you in.

As ever, he's difficult to read. His smile is thin and perfunctory. He's settled himself in the armchair with one elbow resting against the arm nearest you as he leans his jaw into his palm. The metal tips of his gloves drum lightly against his cheekbone as he thinks, staring down momentarily at his lap before his carmine gaze casts up to you.

It's reassuring that his features immediately soften upon looking at you, but you keep yourself from getting too hopeful that things can go back to how they were. Maybe he just feels sorry for you.

Alastor clears his throat and your stomach sinks. "I am, admittedly, not the best at issuing comfort," he tells you, an early apology woven into his tone. "However, I would try. For you." He tilts his head slightly. "What can I do?"

"You're not—," you find yourself stuttering, almost numb with shock. "…You're not upset with me?"

His eyes widen and his smile wobbles, nearly wiped clean by bewilderment. "Darling, why on earth would I be upset with you?" he asks, and even in your anxiety-ridden, self-doubting mind, there's no doubt he's genuine.

"Because I—" You pause when your voice cracks to try and gather yourself, your hands falling into your lap and still clutching the mascara-smudged makeup wipe. Alastor shifts uncomfortably in his seat. "I didn't tell you." A deep, long-suffering sigh falls past your lips as your head hangs. "I couldn't. Not because of you, but I…"

You force your shoulders to square up and it's an old habit that comes back with minimal effort even when you feel like falling apart.

"Everything I did, I did for my family. Not her, but my brothers and sisters. They may as well have been my kids, but I started taking care of them when I was still a kid, myself," you mumble as you run a hand over your ruddy cheek. "I don't regret that. But… I know how it seems, even without the reasons behind it. It's taboo in my time, let alone yours, and I just…" You wince and curl in on yourself just a little more. "I just wanted you to see me. I never got to be me while I was alive. There was too much else to worry about.

"But I shouldn't have hidden my past from you," you finally admit. "It's basically lying, isn't it? And no matter what reasons I had, I was being selfish when I decided not to bring it up. So… I'm sorry. And I understand if you've changed your mind about marrying me because of it."

Alastor studies you through your explanation, noting the shame he'd never seen before pinching your features and sorely wanting to go back outside and turn the sinner who'd reduced you to this to a pulp. However, knowing you as he did, he'd abstained and let Rosie and Vaggie handle her while he went to the Emporium after you.

He's still holding out some measure of hope though that you'll let him off her in some way, shape, or form. Call it a wedding present to you both.

Tsking at your closing statements, Alastor declares, "Whacky nonsense. You've nothing to apologize for and, with your permission, of course, I still very much intend to marry you."

Shocked, you meet his eyes again. "But…," you stammer.

"But nothing," Alastor says with an almost boyish tilt to his smile.

You're sure he still doesn't get it though, so you say, "B-But, I'm… I'm filthy!"

Alastor scoffs a little and hooks his fingers along the underside of the armchair to pull it with him as he scoots closer to you. As he plucks a fresh makeup wipe from the box on the vanity, he says, "It's just a few smears of makeup, dear, no need to be dramatic."

"That's not what I mean and you know it," you mumble even as you let him take your chin and angle your head to start cleaning the streaks you missed from your eyelids and cheeks. It's all you can do not to collapse into him and weep, the sheer amazement and relief you feel from the absence of his rejection overtaking you as strongly as your previous grief.

"Well, it's the only bit of 'filth' I see," he murmurs as he sets the wipe aside and tugs your makeup bag closer to him instead, unzipping it and rifling around. "It's not even filth. And neither is your past, my dear."

Alastor pulls out the products he wants from the bag and arranges them in a line on the vanity before dutifully beginning to replace what you cried off. He's personally content either way, makeup or not, but he knows you'll feel better if you return to the chapel looking put back together. So he does it.

You just stare at him in awe and surprise for a moment or two before finally commenting offhand, "I didn't know you knew how to do this," as he carefully lines your eyes.

"What, you think I simply wake up like this?" he teases you.

"Implying you sleep at all," you clap back, but it's with an adoring smile.

"Mm, touché," Alastor murmurs, using one of his claws to ensure he draws you the crispest wings possible before capping the cosmetic and swapping it for mascara. "Now, darling, you always look ravishing, but you look exceptionally so today. But if you wouldn't mind, I'd very much like to marry you before the day is out. Is that agreeable?"

You laugh softly at his theatrics. "I suppose so," you agree with a playful, put-on sigh.

"You suppose so, do you?" he chuckles, tidying up the vanity before holding out his hands to help you up. You let him and he tugs you into an embrace, dropping a kiss to the top of your head. "I suppose I'll take it."

"Thanks, Al," you murmur against his chest, wanting to burrow into his arms but also not wanting to both undo his fine work on your makeup or get any on his suit. You still feel like a hot mess, but you guess if he can look at you and see something to cherish, maybe you can try and see it from his point of view. "I love you."

You can practically feel the warmth radiate down from the smile he gives you. "And I, you, sweetheart," he says softly, keeping you close to his side as he escorts you from the parlor. "I'll love you even more if you let me paint you a heart with that wretched woman's entrails."

And suddenly things are blessedly back to your (favorite) version of normal.

[sexydoffyman]

FRIENDS TO LOVERS P.2

genre: romance/fluff

characters: Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

P.1 P.2 P.3 P.4 P.5

“Now, I know that this might be a bit too rushed, but you are going to be joining forces.” Your captain announced. “Wait. What do you mean by “you” what about you captain?” You said before anyone else could add anything.

You were pretty close to your captain. Leaving his team only for one mission was a pretty big deal for you. He had known you since you joined the army. He led you through unimaginable hardships.

“Don’t worry. Captain Price and I were great friends since before most of you went to school.” You looked worriedly at your captain, but you trusted him to put you in good hands. “We don’t have anything to do at the moment. Unlike us Price and his task force have one hefty task.” You listened quietly, wondering why he couldn’t also go along.

“Reader name, I think that you would be an exceptional addition to their team. You would be doing the same thing as you do now.” You didn’t know what to say, but since they knew each other for such a long time, he had to know exactly who Price needed.

“What would be the “great” support we would get” You looked over your shoulder. You saw the emo guy looking at you almost mockingly. It was like he was telling you that you don’t belong there. “Quite the tone for someone whose calling is “Ghost”.” You muttered under your breath.

You understood that he would make you prove yourself. He would want to drag you through the dirt just to test you.

“Ghost” Price almost barked at him. At this moment you noticed the amount of respect between him and his crew. They had a bond that not many people have. They trust each other with their lives, so if you wanted to be a part of the team, you had to get up and show what you’re worth.

“Reader name is going to be our eyes and ears” You understood why you were here. In combat, although not bad, you weren't so great either. You were smaller than most of the soldiers you met. You weren’t incredibly short, but amongst soldiers, you definitely felt like you were.

Most people would see their size as a disadvantage. And so did you, at first. That was until your captain showed you how to use your weaknesses to your advantage. He taught you how to navigate through vents. He helped you overcome your claustrophobia, and that was all you needed. He learned that you were a naturally great actor. You knew your way with words. Most of the time you were getting intel and getting your team out of sticky situations. That’s what you’re good at.

“You are all going to be transferred to a different base where you will meet up with a lady named Laswell. She will tell you further information.” Your captain announced. The others nodded, meaning that they must’ve known her. “Pack up your things. We are going today evening. You may go now.” Price said.

Everyone, including you, started leaving the room. You walked through a hallway together and then went your separate ways. Before you turned to go to your barracks, you spoke to your captain. “Hey, how long will we be at the base before the mission and how long will the mission be?”

He looked at you with a smile. “Reader name, you don’t have to worry about being away from us. They may be a little rough at first, but you need to grow some guts. I’m not fully aware of the details of the mission but be prepared to spend at least five days before you meet Laswell. She will tell you everything else.” He patted your shoulder and walked away.

“Sure I can last five days of them testing me.” You thought as you began walking.

[genshin-obsessed]

Could I request headcanons of Diluc and Zhongli with an s/o who hates loud noises? Lightning, thunder, shouting, arguments, they scare her into silence.

✧ Hiya! I hope you like this ^w^ also i've finally decided to open requests back up to all characters. I do still have super low count of fics for the newer characters (like kaveh literally only has 1 fic lol), but I'm just not that into them as much. And I really miss the other characters ;w; ✧ Includes: Diluc, Zhongli ✧ Extra: it's been SO long since I've written for these two, I could cry.

✧Diluc✧

He didn't know you were scared of loud noises... at all. It's not exactly something that comes up without the situation

The first time he found out was when you two were at Angel's Share and there were some rowdy individuals in the bar. You flinched and almost immediately fell silent. He tried to keep talking to you, but you weren't really responding, other than nodding and just looking at your drink.

Unfortunately, the individuals weren't really doing anything wrong so he couldn't just kick them out. However, he opted to just remove you from the scene. Since he was with you, a late night walk would've been good. So, that's exactly what you did. He didn't ask, but he figured you'd probably didn't like loud noises.

Then there was a day where you had accidentally run into this one guy. Now, he wasn't... a bad guy, he just wasn't the greatest. He was having an off day, you ran into him, made him spill his drink AND HE WENT OFF.

You felt your entire body freeze up, even tears welling into your eyes. You were terrified and this guy was just screaming.

In came your knight and shining hero. Well... Darknight. Knowing that yelling at the guy would only upset you further, Diluc just opened to glare and point his claymore at the guy.

"Leave her alone." And he did. That guy ran. And fast.

Nowadays, Diluc is SUPER observant of everyone and everything. Looks like its gonna rain? He's already home and preparing some distractions for you. Does it look like someone's gonna fight? He's already leading you away to somewhere quiet. He makes sure all the dates are in more quiet places and he even has a few coping methods prepared for you.

✧Zhongli✧

Zhongli isn't usually in very rowdy places, so it took him longer to find out that you don't like loud noises.

When he first found out that you didn't like loud noises, it was during a firework show. You actually weren't even attending, but you were close by and heard it. You immediately froze up, your hands covering your ears and you just stopped talking. You and Zhongli were having a conversation but you just went silent.

Zhongli picked up on that pretty quickly and actually placed his hands over yours. When there was a silent moment, he made sure to escort you somewhere far away so that it was much quieter. That was the day Zhongli learned you didn't like loud noises.

Due to this, Zhongli makes sure he keeps an eye on your surroundings when you two spend time together. He'll often find excuses to go on walks if he sees some rowdy people showing up. He's not a fan of loud people either, he just doesn't have the same reaction as you.

There was a time when you were stuck in a big crowd of loud people and he had to physically help you out and take you somewhere quiet to just help you through the discomfort.

Zhongli will not stand for anyone raising their voice at you. If someone wants to yell at you, they can yell at him once you leave. And watch them try and stop him.

Zhongli has fought people before because they pushed you too far- effectively pushing him too far. Zhongli's like... extremely protective of you.

Zhongli may not fully understand why loud noises upset you, but they upset you so he takes them all seriously. The second he sees some of those traits come out (like you falling super quiet), he knows it's time to move. Zhongli has NEVER argued with someone for upsetting you, because he knows it'll only upset you further.

[stormikitty]

Vaggie's Past

I've seen tons of fics and tumblr posts with 2 different ideas about Vaggie's past. 1 being that she had a human life before she became an exorcist angel, and the other being that she grew up in heaven and was raised by Adam and Lute and the other exorcists. Idk which 1 I like better, but I have headcanons for both. And I've sort of imagined conversations for how the other characters would find out?

1:Vaggie had a human life:

Charlie: Hey Vaggie? Are you heavenborn, or a human soul?

Vaggie: it's complicated? When a human soul becomes an exorcist, the first part of their training involves magic induced amnesia. They're forced to forget everything about their lives including their own name, and they're given a new 1. I know I was a human at some point, but I don't remember anything. Some things stick, like languages, and some strong feelings about certain things even if there's a lack of context for it, but I don't remember who I was or any of the people I might've known. Every earthborn exorcist has maybe 1 vivid memory from their life, but it never actually tells them anything about who they used to be or who they know. I think that's to make it easier to erase any individuality more quickly and make us forget if any of our morals didn't originally align with what exorcists do. Turns us into perfect soldiers quicker. If I remembered my real name, I probably wouldn't be going by the 1 that Adam gave me. He literally named me after a vagina.

Chalie: *hugging Vaggie*

Anyone else who heard this: ...

2: Heavenborn Vaggie:

Vaggie: I was never a child.

Angel Dust: What did you just come into existence fully grown or something?

Vaggie: No, I still had to grow and develop like anyone else would.

Husk: Then you were a child.

Vaggie: I was raised to be the perfect soldier since the moment I was born. A soldier isn't allowed to be a child.

Everyone: WHAT?!

Charlie: Why didn't your parents protect your from that?

Vaggie: A lot of exorcist angels are born from flowers instead of other angels. I was 1 of them. I was raised by exorcists and grew up with exorcists.

Alastor or Angel Dust: You were born from a flower? Like Thumbilina?

Husk: They took away your childhood?!

Vaggie: Yeah. I had to be a grow up almost as soon as I could start walking and talking.

Nifty: What was it like being raised by exorcists? Other than the fact that you weren't allowed to be a kid?

Vaggie: I was surrounded by high standards and expectations I had to meet and not allowed to have much if any individuality. Exorcists aren't even given names until after their 1st extermination. They have numbers until then. Also, you know how exorcists have those black stipes on their wings? Those don't appear until their 1st extermination either. Also I was taught to value loyalty and strength more than anything else. Loyalty goes above strength, but not by much. And the second I showed even the slightest hesitation to follow an order, I was cast out of heaven in probably 1 of the most brutal and painful ways possible by 1 of the people I trusted the most. So there's that.

Everyone: *ready to throw hands with some exorcists again*

Charlie: *crying*

Nifty: ... Wanna build a pillow fort and watch cartoons?

Edit: I reread the post and realized it said "gown up" instead of "grow up", so I fixed it. I would appreciate if people pointed things like this out to me in the future.

[sonicjustbecause]

The Sonic 3 Trailer lacks of both spoiler and context, and that is about how a trailer should be. We already know what it is about. We only needed to see few scenes to make sure it might look good (or bad, it depends on what we except).

Now, I've seen a couple of crazy theories I've read and I believe both of them won't happen. I'll explain

Tom getting killed

Won't happens anything different to Tom that didn't happen before. he will be at worst knock out/neutralized and go off screen. Like in Sonic 1 (punched by Eggman) and Sonic 2 (encircled by flames)

Such happening would be the complete Shadow's assasination as character. We as fan won't forgive him and also this would push Shadow in the villains realm.

The past characterization.

Original Shadow (Adventure/Heroes/06) was very tame. There is a video on YT that analyze how Shadow behaves toward the world and underline the lack of destruction and violence in SA2, as opposite as we see in Sonic X and ShtH05.

in Sonic-X they changed slightly Shadow's personality, removing his intellectual and contemplative nature and replacing it with a more brash and violent personality. But even there, they prevented Shadow from killing Cosmo, making him acting like a cat who plays with his prey instead of being efficient (slow pace, talking, missing aim despite the short distance and when the thing failed just giving up on that). Shadow could have act smartly simply killing Cosmo in her sleep. As I say, I think they wanted to save his reputation.

In Sonic Force he indeed killed Infinite's squad. His first kill, most likely. Small fries, while leaving the boss alive, evil and stupid considering the aftermath. They saved Shadow's reputation by making Infinite lame and obnoxious and by not showing his gang at all (so we don't get attachted and we still cheer for Shadow). Sort of telling without actually showing anything.

Similar cases and why those characters have been tamed out.

Lupin III had a super rough star. His author got inspired by underground Western comics of the '60s and the original Lupin III was not a thief and a cheerful anti-hero. Lupin was originally a real godfather, a mafia boss, and despite he was mostly accompanied by Jigen and Goemon (who weren't really characterized back then) he had all underdogs, picciottos and so on under his rule. He did steal, but also he killed innocents, he raped women (includin Fujiko) and did several other hideous things.

Evil protagonists don't last long. They either get overhauled or they die like Light Yagami.

For this Lupin had to be tamed. Lupin killed less and less and more and more only with a reason and was more and more gentle with the innocents, including his main foe. And lastly he just virtually stopped to kill.

He's not the only one, many protagonists were born as unremedable villain and then they have been turned into antiheroes... or even heroes. Villanous protagonists never last long.

Shadow is beloved mostly because of his original personality. I noticed in most fan work, he is characterized the way he was in Sonic Adventure 2/Heroes/06 or Prime. Sometimes like in Sonic X and Shadow 05. Rarely like modern Shadow.

Back to Shadow

"What did you do?"

"What I had to!"

Those lines may be related to anything and everything. They might be related to Shadow's attempt to destroy the world like in SA2.

"I had to keep my promise!"

"What I had to do" suggest me something Shadow did not because he wanted to but for an external obiective. It might be world safety, keeping a promise, preventing the Sun going red giant, anything. Maybe even destroying Metal Sonic (if he appears like some rumor suggest) after Sonic convinced him to join the good side. Shadow has a long story dealing with living weapons.

Shadow stealing Stone's bike

Simply impossible. I already said Shadow's size is comparable to the size of a five years old child, about 1m tall. Stone is a 1,78m tall adult.

How Shadow would look on Stone's bike. It would be good material for the memes. And even if he would be able to ride an adult designed bike, he would be unable to do the Akira thing.

[adragonsfriend]

Killing Ahsoka (sorry for this.)

Among my perhaps controversial takes is that it would've served the story better if Ahsoka had been killed during Clone Wars.

I don't like it either (in general or specifically killing another female character for Anakin's sake), but make a couple changes to the arc with Cad Bane and you get this nice little set up where Anakin opens the holocron for him, Bane kills Ahsoka anyway--because he sucks and as a distraction to escape. Then Anakin proceeds to fail at prioritizing the lives of the safety of living children over his anger and grief for Ahsoka, even long enough to help with the investigation. He goes to kill Bane, nearly jeopardizing the mission to rescue the children Bane kidnaps, until Obi-Wan has to step in to get him to back down so they can interrogate Bane properly.

It's a climactic moment, and one of the several times that Obi-Wan very deliberately opens up about his own feelings & struggles specifically to help Anakin (see him talking about his feelings for Satine). He says something along the lines of never having experienced losing a padawan, but that getting to take care of Anakin after losing Qui-Gon helped him process the loss of his master. They have to help these children who mean so much to their families, much like what Ahsoka meant to Anakin. What would Ahsoka want him to do? (same method as how he reasoned with Anakin about Padme on Geonosis in AOTC)

Anakin does back down, but only just.

He's touched the dark again, but he's not lost.

Not yet.

The Jedi understand his awful loss. Too many of them have lost padawans. There is sympathy from Kit Fisto, who only just lost his own recently-knighted padawan. There is patience from Mace Windu, who thinks of Depa (already beyond his reach in a coma, if you include Shatterpoint events). There is Yoda, letting go for the thousandth time of all his padwans who have passed before him. There is attention from Obi-Wan and Rex, there is the 501st gathering to tell stories and remember her well. Anakin goes to Padmé, who also comforts him (she is secretly relieved that he made a different choice than with his mother--it means she doesn't have to worry anymore about her choice to keep his secret). Then he goes to Palpatine, who expresses his sympathy, and his wish that things like this didn't happen (if only he had more power to end the war and crack down on crime. this is the fault of the senate holding him back. Anakin should hold onto his pain forever--it is they only thing that shows he truly cared about Ahsoka).

Anakin shoves it down, along with all of his other pain. He stews in it, unable to process anything, becoming more and more reckless with his and the 501st's lives (why weren't they there to save her? why wasn't he powerful enough to save her?).

When he begins to dream of Padmé's death, he is not just doubly, but triply afraid.

[hearvex]

can i ask for this Juan guy lore :v i saw his tweet when it had like 3k and thought it cant be good but i dont know anything about him. its upsetting to see 12k likes tho like why are people fighting against human fights tho

oh this is a long one, who's Juan Guarnizo, the streamer who has recently tweeted against the french union in regards of the qsmp.

juan guarnizo is a colombian streamer (who now lives in mexico with his wife). he's participated in Tortillaland, a roleplaying minecraft series, as a wizard of sorts. He then decided to create a "spin-off" series (more cinematic/pre-planned) called "El Dios de Todo" (The God of Everything, his character's catchphrase). So he partnered with Euphonia, a popular Minecraft Studio that has created games such as SquidCraft, Dedsafio, SawMinecraftGames, and more.

He announced he was looking for several roleplayers for this project, and people started complaining on twitter because some of the requirements were pretty much insane.

Some include, full availability for 6 hours a day everyday for an entire month, good quality microphone, not being able to livestream the content, just record it to be used after the proyect was released, knowing how to rhyme/rap/sing/imitate voices and animals/general voice acting talent and being able to improv. All of that for the price of 0$. The payment? The enriching experience of being part of this unpayed proyect with your favorite content creator.

Well turns out people still didn't like this idea, justifiably so, and continued to call him out on twitter. His initial response was as follows:

(Hello, I understand that you know little about the project so I'll explain it to you: The God of Everything is a series based on a story that we will tell in the most cinematic way possible, therefore it is only possible to have one pov and not 40. Participants will be able to take advantage of the series on different social media platforms but not live. How much benefit they decide to get out of it is up to each person. The 6 hours a day thing is insurance, because there will most likely be days where your participation is half an hour and that's it. Also making it clear that professionals such as voice actors who will also be in the series will be paid for their work. We are creating an experience never seen before for me, the roleplayers and the audience, whoever wants and can experience it will enjoy it very much. It is something that we are putting all our heart and desire into for those who want to see the story. Communities that are not going to see it at all, at least don't fill it with your toxicity or bad vibes.)

Basically excusing himself by "I'm doing good by allowing you to join, please don't let toxicity ruin this". Which was still off, because professional voice actors would be getting payed but somehow the rest wouldn't, weird overall. Several POVs would be recorded but only one would be able to broadcast it, Juan. "we'll pay you with exposure" ahh deal

I haven't followed him since this happened, some claim he then did pay the actors, but even if that were the case, that would've never happened if it weren't for people calling out his exploitative bs. Which is exactly what's happened with the qsmp, only this time it's not a cancellation on twitter dot com, but a whole entire french union.

What I think their fans don't understand is that this is not a mob campaign against their faves, it's about protecting the working class from the privileged who refuse to pay them correctly or sometimes never at all, granting them rights to defend themselves when cases like these arise. This goes for people who claim Juan learned from his mistake, he clearly didn't if his immediate reaction to the union was:

(It's good that they formed a union, so they all hold hands together and fuck off)

So either he's forgotten his "lesson", or he only payed them (if that even happened) because he got caught and wanted to prevent a future cancelation).

[genericpuff]

What are your thoughts on LO Krokos and LO Ampelus (Psyche) ?

These two male mythological figures, who had a gay relationship with gods, turned into female characters ! If they weren't included (especially since Dionysus is still a baby here), I wouldn't mind. But just using those names like that TWICE is strange, right ?

It's also weird how LO turns two virgin goddesses into lesbians, but don't even implement the canon gay relationships.

Can you find an explanation?

I mean I can't really offer an explanation because obviously I have no way of really seeing into Rachel's head, but it's definitely a choice that she's taken so many gods and characters from Greek myth and turned them into something else entirely, it feels very random and, in the case of the gods who were canonically gay/queer/etc. ... it's hard to ignore and give benefit of the doubt.

Another example is Persephone's therapist, Chiron, who's not just gender bent, but also put into the role of being a therapist ?? Which is like, okay, fine, but like... what is this accomplishing besides vaguely referencing Chiron's affiliation with medicine LOL

(this wound up turning into a bit of an essay so I'm including a jump to make it easier for scrollers lol)

To me, it just feels like it really cements Rachel as not being as well-read in Greek myth as she claims to be, because so much of the actual Greek myth in this comic is either taken directly from first results on Google (see: Zeus' definition of xenia which is taken straight from a Princeton study guide from 2004) and slapped haphazardly into the comic where it's convenient, OR it's just vaguely referenced at even if it's not being properly utilized (like she saw 'Chiron, wise centaur' and went "yeah cool she can be the therapist character!"). I have zero explanation or even assumption as to why she'd turn Crocus, a male lover of Hermes, into Krokos the flower nymph, or why she'd choose to use Ampelus as the name Psyche adopts after being turned into a nymph (which also didn't happen in the original myth). These are "creative choices" that come across as less creative and more just random attempts to make her seem smart.

Like, to a surface level reader or someone who's new to the series, it might seem neat and subversive (it definitely did to me back when I started reading and fell in love with it), but then you actually get further in and peel back the layers and go, "wait, she's just grabbing Greek names that are affiliated with real Greek heroes and gods and characters at random-" and it gets especially ick when it commits queer erasure in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I think having fun with character designs and swapping them or changing them up is perfectly fine, that's the fun of re-interpreting old stories, it's not that on its own that's the issue. It's just that these re-interpreted characters have literally NOTHING to do with the characters that she's basing them on. At least in Punderworld where Charon is a woman, she's still a psychopomp who ferries souls to the Underworld, her being gender-bent doesn't change much because her character and role in the story is still largely the same. Or like in Hadestown how the Underworld is more of a coalmine with Hades running it as a business, instead of the River Styx being a literal river it's a brick wall that protects the Underworld from outsiders ("and they call it freedom"). In both of these examples, they're taking the source material and making it fun and new, while still respecting the source material they're taking it from and keeping it on theme with that source material.

By comparison, Rachel just creates these character references and that's where it ends, they're just references and they don't do anything new or interesting with them, they're not even adjacent to what they're referencing. So we wind up with Chiron being a therapist, Ampelus being the nymph version of Psyche, the Fates looking and acting the exact same as each other even though they had different roles to play between Past, Present, and Future, and Aphrodite's children who... are literally made up from scratch, instead of pulling from the actual real children that Aphrodite had loads of in the original myths.

So many of Rachel's writing choices feel like attempts to be "subversive" when they're not, they're just random. Nothing about the things she changes from the original source material does anything to further explore that source material, it's just yoinking things at random to try and seem more Greek while also further separating her work from legitimate Greek culture. Even when you THINK something is about to be retold in an interesting way, it's very promptly either swept under the rug or veered off in a whole other direction that makes zero sense for what it set up (ex. Echo, what the fuck happened to Echo-)

It's very "ideas first, structure never" writing, she comes up with standalone ideas that sound good in isolation, until she actually tries to execute them and connect them and you realize they have no through line or reason to exist the way they do. It's giving real hard "first draft" vibes, so much of what Rachel chose to do should have been left on the cutting room floor (meanwhile the things that supposedly did get left on the cutting room floor SHOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT IN THE COMIC, ex. Hera's coat prophecy, Hades and Persephone having a date in the Underworld where she decides she might want to go into law, etc.)

Ugh. This got longer than I intended it to. It's just frustrating. I have inspiration to write that essay about queer erasure in LO now, at least. So yeah, hold on tight for that one LMAO

[zarla-s]

Man it's been a long time since I've done an ask cluster! Let's see if I can get some down...

He's an extremely fun character to write for and play with! So in that sense I'm fond of him, haha. He's such a huge disaster of a person, there's always something fun to do with him. Well "fun" in a relative sense.

I don't have anything to forgive him for, he didn't hurt me. |D He hurt the brothers!

I do have an idea for a cute feature inspired by Six-Eared Macaque! I should really sit down and do that already... and finish the one I half started but never finished...

I don't think my opinion on any of them changed! I love them all, haha. Which ones I drew comics about just depends on which ones I get ideas for really. Sometimes I get Alphys ideas and sometimes I get Goatparents ideas! Inspiration is fickle!

I don't have any solid plans or anything. :B Just gonna keep chugging along with silly comics and art! Work on Defrag and such. I'd like to finish a Ladyverse comic I've had lying around forever, and I had vague plans for doing a doujin for them too I could work on... and also seeing if I could format Handplates into a book format... I've always got a bunch of projects, haha.

It works on that level! It wasn't intentional though. |D

I do enjoy speculation! I don't really have much of my own though, I didn't predict anything in chapter 2 so now I'm assuming I can't predict anything in the future chapters either, haha.

Emesis Blue is great! Some really beautiful visuals in there, very striking! Love the mood of it too and a lot of the surreal imagery. I think it helped spur me back into TF2 again, haha. Medic and Scout's relationship was so cute.

I have thought about this! It has its share of challenges though... I outlined them more in this post. A pdf would be more doable though... could even include some extra stuff as well! Hmm...

I can see that! He'd probably spend as much time out in the rain as he could just doing whatever to stay outside.

It was pretty much always going to end like that. I always wanted it to end on a hopeful note! Which might seem weird with how dark it is at the beginning. I DID for a brief period at the very beginning of Handplates think about stopping with the Pacifist run, but that was only because I thought going where I wanted to go would take too long and already the project seemed so dauntingly huge at the time, haha. But it was always going to end in a positive way!

Gaster talks about what he originally intended to create here, and he explains a bit about the physical experiments he runs on the brothers here. They aren't really a solution in and of themselves so much as tools to try and find a way to break the barrier. Really though, Gaster got stuck in the sunk-cost fallacy lol.

I don't really have opinions about what canon Gaster would be like. |D Handplates Gaster is his own thing really. Canon Gaster, who knows! Deltarune Gaster, who knows! I will say I hope Gaster stays a mystery in Deltarune and never actually shows up but I think the odds of that are really low at this point.

I thought about doing a script along those lines! I did a few rough drafts of one, but it never really went anywhere... it'd end up dead-ending or kind of meandering off. I might see if I can get an actual script down for a side-comic or something in the future... it might be better suited for a fic.

I was just thinking about this lately! I was picturing Gaster totally forgetting about that until he sees Papyrus squinting and is like OH GOD YOUR EYES THAT'S RIGHT D: and goes to get him looked at lol.

I couldn't come up with a good idea for Flowey which is a shame, I do like him, haha. If one comes to me though I might make a little side comic about it!

Gaster's LV is complicated... his stats in-game are ludicrous if I recall correctly. Did he carry the damage from his murders into the void, even if those murders weren't his in the new timeline? Deep thoughts.

He fed them anything he could find, haha. Which is why sometimes they just ended up with chocolate bars (which he intended as dinner for himself). He probably fed them more often than he fed himself lol. He did feed them fairly regularly though.

Not about skeletons, probably. |D

Man I know I had an explanation for this but it was so long ago... it's hard for me to remember. It could be that the Riverperson is just weird and has weird insight into elements of things, had a prophetic dream... I don't know! It bugs me now that I can't remember this, haha.

[just-a-little-moth]

I can't stop trying to read into the fact that 621's AC always explodes when you hit zero AP. You fall over and explode. Raven dies. She doesn't get out. She's gone.

Compare this to the fact that a bunch of AC pilots keep showing up to challenge you again and again, despite going down in the fight. G5 Iguazu being the biggest offender. Iguazu fights you 2-3 times depending on your playthrough. Chartreuse and King talk about the other ejecting when you take them out. So who does die (Lists are NOT complete/exhaustive)?

Die For Sure G4 Volta (Killed by The Wall) "Cinder" Carla (Killed by 621) G1 Michigan (Killed by 621/V.IV Rusty) Chatty Stick (Killed by 621 or V.I Freud) Walter (Killed by 621 after siding with Ayre, though Arquebus "Brain Fried" him first) V.IV Rusty (Killed by 621 after betraying Ayre) V.VI Maeterlinck (Killed by 621) G3 Wu Huahai (Killed by 621) V.VII Swinburne (Killed by 621, and is the VA of Lelouch Lamperouge, unless spared) V.V Hawkins (Killed by 621 and Middle Flatwell) V.VIII Pater (Killed by 621 and Middle Flatwell, or killed by 621 at AllMind's behest) Sula *ASSUMED* Every MT pilot, helicopter pilot, tank/artillery crew, tetrapod pilot, PCA pilot, PCA warship crew, the Strider crew, crew piloting The Wall, Every Doser encountered, multiple RaD pilots, Others? Confirmed Survivors Every pilot aside from 621 in the mission to fight the Ice Worm G5 Iguazu Chartruese King Ambiguous Raven Everyone else, including the Assumed KIA "Mob" NPCs above. So what does this tell us? Well, it tells us that the destruction of your AC/MT/ETC isn't a death sentence. Yet, 621, Our Raven, dies when her AP hits 0. Her AC falls over and explodes. Every other AC falls over, kneels down, or hunches over and bursts into flames. The wreck is still on the map. It's still loaded in. You can analyze them if you want to and have time to do so. In the Arena the enemy does the same.

Since the Arena and the ACs in missions are, essentially, every possible AC combination on display, there's no reason that 621's AC couldn't follow the same pattern. Which raises a question.

Can 621 leave her AC?

In the briefing cutscene after being captured by Arquebus we are essentially chest high in the water as it flows past us/we trudge forward. Ayre is telling us we need to escape. After some time we find the run down AC Walter, or the Overseers, left us.

This briefing cutscene can mean two things. Either 621 can leave her AC and move around on her own, or, she's being carried out by Overseer operatives in Arquebus (Which I've seen posited online).

We know from one of the introductory cutscenes that 621 is essentially a mummy with a "crown/halo" driving spikes into her brain. We know that her brain is "fried" which makes her a good hound candidate. There's no way to know how much mobility she's capable of, all we know is she's a brain-fried mummy who does everything she's asked to, only sometimes deciding who she obeys.

So we can't know conclusively whether 621 can leave her AC voluntarily or not.

What we can know, is that 621 and her exploding AC isn't special. EVERYTHING aside from enemy/Ally ACs explode when they hit AP 0. MTs explode. Helicopters explode. Artillery emplacements explode. The "Anti-AC" artillery/tanks explode. The PCA explodes. The Dosers explode. The BAWS Tetrapods explode. Everything that isn't a named character or main boss explodes and disappears.

(I admit the PCA warships are a bit funky in this lens, acting more like a "dead" AC than anything else.)

There aren't even lines from our Handler when we die. Ayre doesn't say anything. The only people who "talk to us" when we die, are our enemies, telling us we weren't the hot shit everyone said we were. Why do we hear them instead of our closest allies? The two people who dictate our life as a mercenary?

Instead we just explode like any ol' MT pilot.

In a way, the fact that 621 just explodes. The fact that she dies when she fails at a mission instead of being able to eject is tied to who she sees herself as and what she is.

Raven, 621, is an AC pilot. She gets the job done despite the odds. That's all she is. So if she can't get the job done, then she may as well be dead. Her only reason to exist is to follow the orders of Handler Walter or Ayre. She's a hound, a brain-fried dog, loyal to her masters over anything else, even taking her failure to the grave. What good is a dog who can't fetch?

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

If people could hate on Lane and Lou, they could do the same to Devi too. I wonder why if the MC weren't like Vicky/Agatha/Laia personality-wise, why some fans would hate them? Saying Lou is too masculine and Lane is b-word. I'm replaying PSI and HSR back-to-back just to make sure I didn't miss anything because I thought they have feelings?? They just don't tend to show it?

You're right anon! Everyone has the equal potential to hate on any of the MCs, which makes it clearer when certain MCs are hated more than the others because it implies there's a collective underlying aspect of their character that fans view as unlikable. Of course, the answer is just plain misogyny but here is my guess as to what's going on internally.

Two main things (that definitely go hand in hand) I've noticed people want from a female MC is for them to be nice (very vague I know but just an overarching word including selflessness, caring for others, vulnerable with their emotions, etc.) and feminine. They can't be too much of either of those things or they're deemed too weak (that's a whole other discussion). The MCs have to be layered and complicated but to them, if they do not include the two aforementioned traits somewhere than they are "unlikable" or "too masculine."

Vicky, Agatha, and Laia can be described as feminine MCs (based on their wardrobe and how they're described in their books) who are known for being kind and putting others before themselves (Agatha can be more morally gray from what I've heard but y'know). Lane can be described as feminine (serving cunt in Siberia like a queen 💅🏽) but the reader doesn't have access to her emotions like they do with other female MCs even though that's an intentional part of how she's written??! My guess is that because society expects women to act a certain way, when women or female characters in this case deviate from the norm, it's seen as ~unsettling~ or unpredictable. And some fans don't like that.

Lou unfortunately has the more obvious answer. I will be honest and say I know less about PSI than I wish but based on those other confessions I read, people think she's "masculine" because she's more of a tomboy and because she has traits most people associate as masculine (assertive, ambitious, not depending on another man, less emotional/more rational). On the surface, she doesn't fit into the traits I mentioned earlier and ig fans don't like that and ignore the rest of her character 😭😭 Maybe they're the reason why one of the endings makes Lou have a kid, like a last-ditch effort to "compensate" for how drastically different she already was in comparison to other female MCs idk.

Going back to the first thing you mentioned. Devi is both feminine and is clearly written as someone with noble intentions who cares about the fate of other people. Sure, she might have been somewhat reckless when younger, but we can see where she's coming from given her backstory (something we don't have with Lane and something people ignore for Lou because wawawa she's not talking about her feelings all the time as if there aren't bigger things happening in the plot).

I do want to conclude by saying you're not sexist just because you don't like a certain female character and you're not exempted from being sexist just because you like a female character. That's surface level talk and gets us nowhere. I'm just saying that if you notice you inexplicably dislike a female character(s), I implore you to dig deeper to find out the why.

TDLR: you didn't miss anything when rereading those books (I can speak for HSR more than for PSI) people just don't like female characters they can't fit into a box. Also, if you made it this far, ilysm <33

[ramzawrites]

I can see you staring - Rise!Donatello x Reader

GEN

Pairings: Donatello x Reader

Characters included: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael

Warnings: swearing

Series: A request!

Summary: When Donnie cooped himself up in his lab for ages, his brothers use their last weapon to get him out. Y/N. Y/N is one of the only ones that is able to keep up with his witty remarks which means when they get Donnie out of the lab, Leo and Mikey become wittnesses to a very interesting argument between the two that reveals a bit too much.

Word count: 2918

Authors Note: I hope you guys enjoy this one!

Request: Ohhh I've got a great idea. Rise Donnie with a reader who is sarcastic and snarky just like him. They are not as mean but dang do those two seem like a match made in heavenIf you need more of a prompt, they get into friendly banter  and reader slips up and says something like "well maybe I wouldn't stare so much if you weren't that god damn handsome!" . Donnie teases the heck out of them and it ends up in a frustrated "I like you, okay?!? Now shut up >////<" and it's as sappy an ending as you can get with Don 

“Why do you guys need my help? You are his brothers. How can I do anything about this?” Y/N crossed their arms in front of their chest, one eyebrow raised at three desperate looking turtle mutants.

Leo slung his arm around Y/N’s shoulders, pulling them closer, almost as if he tried to silently exchange secrets “Listen. We tried, we really did but frankly Donnie has way too much blackmail material on all of us and this time he didn’t even hesitate to threaten us with it.”

Y/N let out an amused snort “Then don’t do things that let you get blackmailed, easy as that.”

Mikey stepped to their other side, his mouth turned down into a frown “Please? He hasn’t eaten properly in days, and I think he only has slept maybe like an hour here and there. Someone has to pull him out of his lab, and we tried!”

When Raph also asked them in his most sincere tone “Please?” Y/N caved in.

“Alright. I’ll try since you guys think he could be listening to me. But you owe me. He can be nasty when he is so deep in his projects.”

Leo immediately let go of Y/N and lightly pushed them into the direction of Donnie’s lab “Good luck!”

Somehow, they felt like a lamb sent to the slaughterhouse. Sucks to be Donnie then because this lamb knew how to fight back.

Y/N walked up to Donnie’s lab and loudly drummed against the door, already knowing that he must have locked it. When he didn’t react Y/N tried even louder and more obnoxiously, drumming some sort of melody on the door.

“Donatello Hamato open the damn door!”

The magic words had been spoken. The door opening to their demand.

“Ah, open sesame.” Y/N spoke happily after the fact.

Donnie was sitting on his chair that he rolled over next to the door. His finger still on the button that opened it. He looked absolutely exhausted and annoyed. Even beneath his tired half lidded eyes Y/N could spot a murderous glint but Y/N was more concentrating on the bags beneath his eyes that they swore held almost the same color as his purple stripes. Open to the world for everyone to see since he didn’t wear his bandana.

“Oh, yikes.”

His arm fell down next to his side “Lovely to see you too, Y/N.”

He immediately turned around and begun rolling over to his workbench, but Y/N reacted faster, grabbing on the back of his chair to stop him.

“Nope. You are either getting a bite to eat and then you are going to bed, or you are going to bed and then grabbing a bite to eat.”

Judging by the way he groaned in annoyance he must have finally clocked why Y/N was really there. This was not a social visit as it seemed.

“How about a secret third option: Work.”

He tried to move along again but Y/N made sure to hold on to his chair with an iron grip. Normally Donnie would have no problem fighting against Y/N’s grip since he, as a ninja mutant turtle, was pretty strong but in his exhausted state he was struggling.

“Donnie, I am this close to just straight up roll you down to your room. If you go yourself, you can save some of your dignity.”

He hated how this struck a chord within him.

“I bet I could find embarrassing school pictures of you in just a few clicks, I promise I won’t do it if you leave me alone. I’m so close to finishing this project!”

He was at this point looking over his shoulder for Y/N’s reaction. Expecting them to finally back off but Y/N just smirked.

“Oh, go ahead. I was cute as a kid. I don’t mind people seeing it.”

“I still have that video of you falling into trash.”

He referenced a day where both they and Donnie hung out on the fire escape of Y/N’s apartment building. Y/N was sitting on the railing even though Donnie warned them that this was dangerous and yet they didn’t care and after a huge laughing fit Y/N fell down right into a huge trash bin and of course the lid of the bin had to also crash down on their head.

Donnie being Donnie who recorded almost everything, of course made sure to have a cut version on his phone of this moment from that day forward.

“Oh please, you’ve shown this video to everybody like twenty times. It lost its effect. Now come on Bootyyyshaker9000, do your name proud and move your butt into the kitchen.”

He grumbled something but did indeed finally get off his chair.

“Language, Donnie!” Y/N tried to mimic Raph best they could with voice and posture.

“You… heard that?” He asked, genuinely surprised.

Y/N let out a chuckle “Oh, no. I just know you better than you think I do.”

Before Donnie could make any kind of response to this, Y/N moved to his back and began pushing against his Battleshell.

At this point the purple clad ninja had given up and just began walking towards the kitchen. The way Y/N continued to push against his shell and would sometimes pull on his shoulders, they were kind of puppeteering him towards the room. As if he would try to flee and get back into the lab. Which he would have done if he wasn’t so exhausted.

Okay so maybe he was tired but that was a small price to pay when it meant that he could finish a new prototype in a timely manner.

Mikey and Leo were both in the kitchen when the two arrived. The two turtles gave Y/N a quick appreciative nod before turning their attention on Donnie.

“He lives!” Leo exclaimed loudly and quite theatrically. Almost acting like he was the mad scientist of the family.

Y/N steered Donnie to a chair at the kitchen island and finally let him go. Annoyed with this whole situation Donnie just slumped over on the table. The cool surface was actually quite welcoming on his skin.

“Here you go!” Mikey said cheerily as a plate got placed in front of his face.

Groggily getting back up, Donnie stared at the plate of pancakes “Pancakes? It’s like-“ he looked at the screen on his wrist only to wince “Uh… early.”

“One: You can eat pancakes at all hours of the day. It’s not just breakfast, man.” Mikey chided his brother “Two: Yes, it is breakfast time. Three: I’m glad Y/N managed to get you out when you clearly, at this point, lost any sense of time.”

“But why are you over here if it’s so early?” Donnie ignored his brother’s scolding, grabbing the fork next to the plate.

Y/N sputtered out a laugh “Man, I slept over here the last like four nights.”

“What?! How did I not notice?!”

“I’m joking, Don. It’s been only one night.”

“Yeah. I knew that. I would have noticed it because of my security system.” Donnie tried to cover up, finally digging into the food. Mikey had a proud grin on his face as he saw how Donnie cracked a smile at the taste.

Y/N made a point to sit across to him at the table, their elbows on the surface while they rested their chin on their hands “Mhm, that is why you knew that I slept over here in the first place.”

Once again Donnie looked at the screen on his wrist, tapping around on it until he seemed to find what he was looking for. What he was looking for was proof that they did indeed get into the lair yesterday and not this morning.

“Well, I did catch it!” He didn’t catch it, his system did though. So, good enough.

Y/N rolled their eyes as if they were able to read his mind and knew exactly what was going on “Just eat your pancakes, Donnie. You can’t fumble around when your mouth is stuffed. Less fumbling means the less dignity you’ll lose.”

“Don’t talk to me about dignity. You wouldn’t know the first thing about it. Also, you don’t need to stay here and stare. I’m eating right now and I’m promising I’ll be sleeping a bit. So, move along.” He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, but Y/N shook their head.

“Nuh-uh. This might have worked the first time but now it’s been years. Your fault for not taking care of yourself, means you clearly need someone to babysit you.”

Donnie would have looked towards his brothers for help, but they wouldn’t do anything of the sorts. For starters he was sure that they set Y/N on this task in the first place and judging by the amused looks on their faces, they were happy to let this play out. That reminded him, where was Raph? He would have maybe intervened.

When Donnie just continued to scowl towards Y/N, said human began pouting “Come on, Don. Go eat your pancakes and I promise you I will read you a bedtime story.” They made sure to sound as patronizing as possible.

This made Leo finally snicker. Frankly the brothers loved watching Y/N and Donnie go at it. Just throwing one sarcastic comment after another against each other’s head. At first, they all were just excited to see that their new friend had no problem keeping up with the sarcastic turtle in the first place but over time it kind of turned into more of entertainment for them.

One time the two were just going at it while they were in a middle of a movie marathon, they didn’t even notice when Raph paused the movie. It was all mostly lighthearted though even if they liked to really get into it.

Donnie ate another piece of pancake, this time noticing how Y/N’s eyes followed his movements.

He raised his eyebrow “You are acting like you have never seen a mutant before.”

“No, just trying to count how many bags beneath your eyes you have and trying to figure out how old you are. You know like rings on a tree stump.”

This finally made Leo belt out a small laugh and Donnie couldn’t help but get annoyed with how proud Y/N seemed of that.

“That’s not-“ he sighed, biting back his urge to correct them when they clearly made a joke. “Man, you must be old then.”

“Oh, now I know you are lying because other than you I’m taking my beauty sleep. It’s obvious you skipped yours for a while. You are delusional, turtle.”

He grimaced “Wait, you’ve been taking beauty sleep already? Then what is this?” Donnie used his fork to gesture towards Y/N’s general direction.

“What would you know about beauty, Mister Turtle Mutant.”

Donnie laid his hand over his heart, putting his best shocked expression on “Gasp! I cannot believe! Not only are you just plain wrong but you are also a xenophobe!”

Y/N immediately shook their head “Only when it comes to you. I would lay waste to the earth for your brothers but you? No. Kinda stuck with you when I want to hang out with the cooler turtles.” They laid dramatically the back of their hand on their forehead “I can barely look at you.”

He smirked self-assuredly “And yet I keep seeing you stare at me when you think I’m not looking.” Perks of being a trained ninja.

“Psh. I am not. You are imagining things. Go finish your damn food so you can sleep your delusions off.”

“Ah-ah-ah. I know you are. I could probably even bring some footage up as proof. Besides do you really think you can steal glances at a trained ninja without him knowing?”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you are! I have literal proof!”

“You do not! And even if, is it weird to look at their friend now and again?”

At this point both Mikey and Leo just kept looking from Donnie over to Y/N and back to Donnie. Following the argument along. It wasn’t much of an argument really. It was clear both were just trying to tease each other but it was interesting, nonetheless.

Mikey leaned over to Leo “I can’t tell if the two are good for each other or if they are just bringing out the worst out of each other.”

Leo shrugged “Eh, they are still smiling. I don’t know what exactly it is, but I think the same exact thing is wrong with them, otherwise they wouldn’t enjoy this, and I guess that’s… good?”

“Why are you squirming so much then, Y/N? I can even count off a ton of times I remember you watching me. The last movie marathon! Last week when you did some work in my lab and I worked on my project! When we all went into the hidden city in that clothing store! Technically even right now! When we hung out in your apartment last, and we all helped you cook!” Donnie put the ankle of his foot on his knee, leaning back a bit as he stared Y/N smugly down.

Y/N jumped up, slamming their hands on the table “Alright! Alright! Maybe I wouldn’t be staring if you weren’t that god damn handsome!”

Their cheeks were ablaze.

The room was dead quiet.

Somehow as Donnie counted the times off something must have snapped in them for this outburst.

Y/N looked to the ground “… Is that what you wanted to hear? Happy now?” A weak attempt to save this situation on their part.

Mikey’s and Leo’s eyes were wide open as they just stared at the two. Waiting for any kind of reaction. Suddenly they felt like they understood the appeal of Splinter’s obsession with romcoms and soap operas.

But their expression couldn’t even get close to Donnie’s shocked expression. Eyes wide with shock. His open-mouthed expression slowly turning into a huge smile. He just looked like he won a Nobel prize.

“I didn’t quite hear that. Can you repeat that?” He sounded giddy.

“That little shit.” Y/N just thought as they clenched their eyes shut. Not willing to look at Donnie right now. Honestly at this point they totally forgot that Mikey and Leo were in the room to begin with.

Donnie leaned over the edge of the table, his hand next to where his ear would be if he were human “Please, Y/N, may you repeat yourself? I didn’t quite catch that. I just want to make sure I’m not delusional, like you said.”

“I said nothing. Nothing important.”

“Nothing, huh? You are blushing because of nothing?”

Y/N crossed their arms, gripping their arms “Donnie. Don’t do this.”

At this point Donnie was slicking back his non-existent hair “Ah but you forget! I record everything and I am pretty sure you said that I am handsome, and I have to agree. I am handsome. First correct thing I have heard out of your mouth in ages!”

Finally, Y/N opened their eyes, pouting playfully, trying to act as nonchalant as possible “Just please shut up and eat the rest of the pancakes so you can go to bed and leave me alone. I was just saying things to make you shut up, okay?”

“Ah but I can tell that this isn’t correct. You are blushing. You are embarrassed because we both know you meant it, but your ego is too big to admit that.”

It was then that it seemed like someone flipped a switch in his brain.

“Wait, you actually mean that?”

Y/N’s eyes met his as he seemed to properly realize what they just said. Getting through the euphoria of having won this argument only to understand the implications of this.

Sure, Donnie always relied on his bad boy persona and his ego when it came to all of this, but Y/N knew there was a part in him that was not as confident as he tried to act.

They sighed, gulping down the last of their ego along with a part of their embarrassment “Yeah, I meant it.” Their voice quiet and shaky as they forced these words out. “I like you, okay, Donnie?”

“Oh.” There was an actual blush on Donnie’s face as well.

“Now can we move on because this is awkward as hell.”

Donnie coughed as he tried to find his composure “Sure. Yeah. Well. I think I’m heading to bed.”

“Do that.”

“What!” This was Leo, reminding the two that they were in fact not alone. “You guys can’t just leave it at that!”

Donnie’s eyes traveled from Leo’s disappointed expression to Mikey’s happy one. His gaze returned back on Y/N whose eyes never left him. Old habits die hard after all.

“Wanna hang out in my room and play games until we pass out?”

“Thank god, yes.” Y/N sighed out, scrambling after Donnie towards his room.

Leo had his arms outstretched. Completely shocked with how this turned out. This was perfect and then they both just moved on like… that?

Mikey put his hand on Leo’s shoulder in a supportive manner “For Donnie this was probably the extent of how romantic he can get and lucky for him Y/N can work with that. Just concentrate on the fact we definitely saw the eighth world wonder.”

This didn’t calm Leo down in the slightest, gesturing wildly towards the space were Y/N and Donnie used to be “But… That?!”

“Come on. We have to tell Raph about this. He will want to hear this.”

[chaos-has-theories]

Character concepts for the Mad Scientist/Girl Genius AU I'm working on for AU Roulette 2024

More description and story concept under cut.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng: GIRL GENIUS

a Spark from the city of Paris. While she doesn't have a particularly impressive lineage, her talents are impressive.

Her focus is on textile based inventions, with her breakthrough project having included a small viscose spinning device.

She also builds little clockwork ladybugs.

After she managed to piss off every single noble family in Paris, she essentially went into exile. Since then she's been travelling and doing assorted heroics all over Europa.

She's got her shirt and waistcoat because everybody in GG wears them. No skirt, because it would impractical in her field of work; long jacket tails because a) I like them and b) Ladybug wings :D

She's also supposed to have a Ladybug locket and her little silk gun, but. Forgor

Before she leaves Paris, her outfits are more like Circus Era and Classic Agatha.

Nino Lahiffe: A normal guy with a normal life

No, really.

Well, he used to be, okay?

Former classmate and childhood friend of Marinette's

Marinette, Adrien and him were essentially inseperable after Marinette's breakthrough.

Except no, they weren't, because Adrien is still in Paris while Nino followed Marinette into exile.

People tend to assume that he's either Marinette's minion or her construct or both. She doesn't consider him a minion; and while he's taken his share of damage, he has never died once.

(He is very proud of that.)

The reason why he doesn't break his neck once a week is that Marinette is very good at her job. His outer shirt with the hood works as like, exoskeleton, hardhat and airbag in one.

His outfit and general style are inspired by Lars, specifically here.

Alya, Last Princess of the Lost City of Cesaire

what it says on the tin.

Descended from one of the last God-Queens

in the face of all that, only a rather minor spark.

Also, her science kind of... looks like magic to most europeans.

and anyway she doesn't want to be a scientist!!! she wants to be a warrior

her mother agreed that she could go on a trip and just come home and learn princessing once she's seen everything she wanted to see

THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO SEE

joined the Miracle Squad about a year ago, because a) they're fun and b) Nino is very cute even if he can't flirt to save his life (and it has come up)

Based on both Zeetha (who gave her the bare biceps) and Violetta (who gave her the boots), but the outfit really is mostly Rena Rouge

Adrien Agreste, son of the famous Spark and heir to the House de Vanily

???

went to school with Marinette and Nino for a while

in recent years, has only been seen in public during Important Events

perfect dutiful son

like, he does everything his father tells him to!

definitely human though.

100% perfectly completely human

Marinette definitely never had to resurrect him either

Never seen in anything less than a fully buttoned shirt, long sleeves, and full slacks.

I have a design for him based on Classic Gil, but this is fully grieving madboy Gil (+ skirt + happiness + catboy :3)

All of these pictures are sketched over the basic character images for ML and I didn't really feel like shading but... maybe one day