#wild how new canon can change how I read my own stories

[wispscribbles]

In light of MW3, I’d like to do a little self-indulgent self-promo and recommend my old fic Love comes with a Price. I just reread it myself and it hits different now

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Now that 430 is suggesting 25yo Izuku has been the one narrating most of the story, could it be that 25yo Katsuki is the narrator of the "kuso nado" line after all? I bring this up b/c in you said previously the use of "kare" ruled Katsuki out—but could it be that 25yo K does use "kare" now for I? Especially say in a more formal "interview like" setting where he's recounting this story? (If nothing else, perhaps we can use this as a chance to talk about what language 25yo K might use for I.)

WILL THIS IDEA EVER DIE???

Let's do this point-by-point.

1. We have always known some future version of Izuku was narrating. This isn’t new information, it just narrowed down his age, which changes nothing.

2. Katsuki is seen screaming rude language at the press in the final chapter. In what universe is this a man who would change his behavior in an “interview-like setting”?

3. The anime gave us a narrator and it was a perfectly reasonable one. Present Mic is our exposition guy in the anime, and likewise he is the narrator and emcee of the stage musicals. Nobody was mad when he was reciting explanations of people’s Quirks.

4. If you read my posts on this topic, you’d know everything about that narration’s language rules Katsuki out, not just “kare.”

Katsuki has never used formal language towards Izuku or about Izuku, and he never will. This isn’t up for debate. Katsuki does not shift away from informal third-person addresses for Izuku regardless of who he is talking to or what circumstances he is in, and that is completely normal. For him to do so would suggest they have lost their close bond and become completely distant and detached from each other. Everyone was reasonably incensed over the (unfounded) assumption that Katsuki and Izuku drifted apart during the eight year time skip, but now you’re saying you want that?

Izuku and Katsuki already use the most familiar language with each other. Katsuki switching from temee to omae for Izuku is the only change of note, and notice my point about this being a return to how Katsuki referred to Izuku when they were kids, before their relationship fell apart. They are the closest they can be. Even if they were dating, it wouldn't change how they talk.

Do you know how I know that? It is partly based on my own observations of real people, but also, it's because that's how shipping doujinshi portray them.

From confessions and living together as a couple to scenes of them getting married, Katsuki and Izuku retain their canon-typical communication dynamics in Japanese fanworks.

I have never once seen Katsuki use polite Japanese in doujinshi. Fanworks are completely self-indulgent, so they include all kinds of wild, out-of-character behavior that just scratches an itch for the creator and their audience. The utter absence of this for Katsuki tells me not only that it reads as out-of-character, but also that it offers no satisfying emotional benefit in exchange. In Japanese, there's nothing romantic about the idea of Katsuki using formal language for Izuku.

Conversely, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen Katsuki whip out a sudden omae at the height of an emotional moment, driving home the tenderness he feels towards Izuku. Or the times during an established relationship story when Katsuki just casually defaults to omae for Izuku unless he's scolding him and uses temee. This is what reads as romantic, this is what comes across as believable and normal for them.

The narrator is not Katsuki and cannot be Katsuki. Nothing would be gained if it were Katsuki.

Just be charmed that an omniscient narrator went out of their way to say, “damn, that Bakugou kid was right about him” and laugh at the funny fucking joke, buddy.

[crazytiger6]

Sooo.. @pokemon-ash-aus gave the idea of ‘P2’ versions of ourselves so I drew this for fun

But this got me thinking about my lore.. so imma talk about it

The new characters in the picture (Inhibitor and SW-8) don’t really match my actual sonas at the bottom, but I figured that didn’t matter because their ‘true’ form is literally nothingness and they can shapeshift into whatever form they want.

This got me thinking, maybe Catalyst and Inhibitor aren’t 2 different beings but one that are from different timelines. Where Catalyst ran away sad from the wild universe he visited (https://www.tumblr.com/crazytiger6/736338889348972544/the-following-story-may-or-may-not-be-canon-i paragraph 5), Inhibitor realized he could do whatever he wanted and fought back against the bullies becoming a supervillain of sorts. (Don’t ask me how SW-8 fits in I do not know :P)

But this had me thinking, beings that have traveled between universes shouldn’t be able to create new timelines other than the initial entrance to a universe, as that would cause many duplicates of the same being who’ll all likely try to leave at the same time and then you have a mess of almost identical characters all in one place.

The solution, therefore is instead of different choices causing an in-universal timeline split, it causes an extra-universal timeline split, where the entirety of every universe contained in the Void Between Worlds is separated. Most universes remain completely unaffected, especially through small changes.

The new thing now, is that with major differences between hyper-universal timelines, such as the Void Being (that’s what I’m calling pre-name Catalyst now) becoming Inhibitor instead of Catalyst, embracing the nature of the Void instead of taming it. This only directly affects 2 universes, the universe that Inhibitor now rules over, and the universe Catalyst created. On Catalyst’s side the wild universe continues as it always had, and his own universe exists, however on Inhibitor’s side, the wild universe is now ruled by Inhibitor and the universe that would be created by Catalyst, doesn’t come into existence.

There is more than just the direct impacts though, there are a lot of universes that get indirectly affected by this choice. CT-6 doesn’t talk to Anew in the Void (small change https://www.tumblr.com/sendinganew/737143310589804544/ct-6-ah-its-been-a-while-since-ive-been-back) along with any characters who would go to talk to µ-0 and co. not having done that, Zephyr continues to explore the multiverse (potentially big change, depending on Zephyr’s actions), and any universes that would be visited by µ-0 and friends after the machine is finished no longer get visited.

Big difference between Hyper-universal/Void time is that while it still progresses forwards, it takes a lot more energy to travel backwards in time. Time traveling backwards in the Void Between Worlds is one of the few things that Catalyst cannot do on his own. And you have to be VERY careful if you do manage to do it, because causing a paradox could potentially destroy every universe in that branch of the timeline.

I don’t think I have anything else to say, I hope that was understandable, I didn’t read over any of it, feel free to ask questions if you want to know more!

Linked pages:

[pondslime]

38 for mister stinky bo……i am not on my hands and knees don’t even worry abt it

38. if you do what you're told, you'll get a reward.

afab!fem!reader x bo sinclair (kinda lmao) word count: 542 You get the upper hand on Mr. Fake Mechanic. Warnings for: suggestive content, non-consensual bondage (Bo receiving for a change), and canon-typical violence. Left open-ended if you're gonna kill him or fuck him. Maybe both! You decide! LMAO

“You’re screwed.” Bo states plainly. “So fuckin’ screwed.”

“I wouldn’t be threatening me if I were you.” You reply. “Don’t you remember what I said? If you do what you’re told, you’ll get a reward.”

Sweat shines on his skin, plastering his hair to his forehead. If the knot at the back of his head isn’t already pulsing with pain, you’re sure it’s only a matter of time until it does. You’d gotten him pretty damn good. God, you could've killed him.

“Can’t get something for nothing, right?” You murmur.

It’s strange. You feel as if you’re running on some unstoppable internal motor. Bo's keys are on the counter, and he should be dead right now, but he isn’t. He’s very much alive, bloodying his wrists as he tugs on the straps of the chair.

“Lord knows where you’ve been keepin’ all this fire, huh?” Jutting his chin forward defiantly, he levels a cold smile at you. “You been holdin’ out on me, girl?”

You remember reading a news story once about a group of tigers that escaped a roadside zoo. They'd gone running free, darting through traffic, clamoring into suburban yards. They'd died clawing against white picket fences, pumped full of lead. That was the answer, when you got too wild. When you were past rehabilitation.

You only hit him once so you could see him pretty like this. Alive, one last time. You wonder, looking at him, if this was what it felt to look down the barrel of the gun.

“Surprise.” You say dryly, matching his stare with one of your own.

“You think you’re real hot shit, don’tcha?” He grunts. “Won’t be actin’ so fuckin' smug when I get out of this. Trust me."

“That’s if you get out.” You counter briskly. “Don’t really see that happening.”

“Wanna bet on it, girl?” He spits out, his upper lip pulling up into a sneer.

You smooth out the wrinkles in your skirt. It’s one of the prettiest things you’ve managed to amass in your time in Ambrose. That isn’t really saying much—but that's just how it is in this town. It’s the little things that matter here.

You scrape out what you can, and you turn it into something you can use. He’d agree with you on that, you’re sure. Using has always been an important part of this relationship. It’s nice to keep the tradition going, even if you had to mix it up this time. After all, his blood looks better on this dress than yours ever could.

“Sure. Let’s.” Grabbing a roll of duct table off the shelf, you brandish it in front of him. “I bet you’ll make real pretty noises with this over your mouth.”

if u wanna help me shake my EONS-long writer's block........pls feel free to send me a prompt + a character!! it'll probably be p crap bc I'm RUSTY. but I'll write u a lil smthn smthn lol

[voltstone]

i hAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO FIX MY BLOG.

anyway so longer written-form content's gonna be easier to read now. >:) so i will give the links to my stuff, both essays and the fics i've written in this post.

some of the stuff i wrote a while ago. others are pretty new, like a violet essay.

so enjoy if you want (the keep reading will have all the links).

[Fanfiction]

they adopt a cat named floof | Wednesday

wednesday, for her girlfriend, gets a cat. she finds a way to bypass the “no pet” policy in order to do so. :)

Wenclair

stagger | Wednesday

Enid is her one exception, so Wednesday tries. Again, and again, and again. She gets it right, asking Enid to…not a date. Eventually.

Wenclair

just a bear (or some other wild animal) | Wednesday

“I’ve hibernated with some grizzlies. I know the difference." the story of the time when wednesday slept in a bear cave for a week. she was seven and knew what felt just right.

Back Again | Fallout 4

In other words, Piper Wright walked out of Diamond City with the woman written as the “View from the Vault.” Though, well, the city folk were quick to suspect that there was something else going on between them… And they weren’t wrong. So when Piper walked back into Diamond City without the woman, there was something wrong. Especially the longer she waited on the Publick Occurrences rooftop. Alcohol in her breath. Less shouting and interrogating for interviews. It was all just…wrong.

F!SS x Piper Wright

Bottom Bunk | LWA

With another Samhain Festival celebrated and slept off, Atsuko Kagari finds her room empty of Sucy and Lotte. Yet, she feels the warmth of another girl in her bed. And so a conversation is to be had.

Diakko/Dianakko

toxin | LWA

[toxin] - an antigenic poison or venom of plant or animal origin, especially one produced by or derived from microorganisms and causing disease when present at low concentration in the body. A definition, which, Sucy knows well. It’s why she doesn’t have a heart, nor any sense for what compassion can bring. Although, one night changes things, and maybe—just maybe—Akko proves Sucy otherwise.

Suakko

Sphynx | LWA

Sucy didn’t care about an hour of transformative magic, nor that it was supposed to be “fun” and all about “finding your inner animal.” Well, companion animal, which really meant cats and dogs because…magic. Or something stupid.  And Sucy was left cold and huddled underneath a curtain because she was this ugly naked chicken gremlin? …okay, maybe she did care a little bit.

Suakko

Burning a Cauldron | LWA

Chariot is always one to sleep in—which, frankly, irritates Anne to no end (being the early, responsible bird, after all). However…the early, responsible bird notices that this morning is different.

Finnelariot

She's a Peach, an Apricot | LWA

Amanda didn’t expect this. Lotte didn’t either. One burned of passion, a slip of carnality, yet not the words to reach the other so well-spoken. And the other, all the words in the world, from her books, yet not the body that could easily decipher what she wanted.

Amalotte

[Fandom Essays]

…so about that clementine comic: a (very long, sorry) essay | TWDG

Discussion on TWDG & canonicity, pre-comic full release

…about the clementine comic (again): why is she illiterate? | TWDG

Discussion on how weird the comic is about Clementine's knowledge and understanding of her own world (medically/medicinally and linguistically).

ERICSON'S WALLFLOWER: or bpd as a twdg fandom essay, & violet's analysis | TWDG

Exploration and deconstruction of Violet's character in regards to BPD, BPD as a disorder (with experiences pulled from my own), and how stigma gets in the way of understanding both.

Or or I am feral and am still frothing at the mouth over this character plz people appreciate violet 🥺🥺

[alchemistc]

Help, I'm so confused. How can it be, that shippers and antis have such a wildly different perception of the 911 daddy issue szene? I don’t watch the show, just saw some gifs of it, but the discours my dash provides from both sides is astonishing. Wtf is happening? (And for context: even if I'm not in the fandom, I have read Buddie and BuckTommy fics and like both ships.)

Honestly I'm incredibly new to this fandom so I can't really do a deep dive, but from experience in fandom dating back to like, the late nineties, I can tell you there is always, always a section of fandom that wraps themselves in fanon and ties their entire identity into making their own preferences canon.

I have zero problems with the idea of b*ddie. I think it definitely has its merits, and through a certain lens it makes sense. It's not what drew me in and so far there hasn't been a particular fic or take that calls to me, but that's a me thing and there's nothing wrong with having preferences.

What it comes down to is a purposeful misunderstanding of the context given - Buck is into sex, Tommy is clearly into sex, they are into each other and they are exploring that with healthy communication ahead of time by having a flirt about it. That's it. That's all that scene was. It showed us that Buck and Tommy meet each other where they're at and enjoy each other's company and wanna fuck nasty.

But as it ALWAYS goes in the minds of shippers/antis who have wrapped their identities in 'this HAS to be canon or there is something intrinsically wrong with the world and I'm going to make it everyone's problem's (which is NOT ALL SHIPPERS, MIND YOU, THESE GUYS ARE JUST THE LOUD ONES) - they aren't making a genuine connection with either the source material or the character arc. I could tell you twenty different ways off the top of my head that that particular scene could make for EXCELLENT b*ddie content but that's absolutely not the way the antis are coming at it - it's a personal insult to them that they didn't get their way so instead of feeding that into beautiful fanon they've made some bonkers banana wild exclamations about moral superiority.

This is not new. This is exactly how the (small but loud) subsect of shippers/antis has always operated. It's failed media literacy and making it personal when the reality is that this is currently the story the writers want to tell. Antis operate in an echo chamber. It's a bad faith argument (I hesitate to use that word because it's more like proselytizing) based on personal preference.

If bucktommy ends up being a flash in the pan, I will still have enjoyed the dynamic it brought. If Bucks storyline continues on a different trajectory that I don't particularly care for, I can either fade from fandom or dig in with canon divergence and be happy with that.

To answer your actual question though, which is how the two ends of the spectrum have such wildly different readings on the Daddy scene: everyone is looking at this through their own lens of experience/understanding, so of course, of course people who ship Buck and Tommy are delighted, and of course (some) b*ddie shippers don't enjoy it.

There's an element of maturity levels to it that I don't really feel like digging too deep into, as well, but lets be real: the infantalizing of Buck is a big part of the 'ick' we're seeing, the kinning/stanning going too far.

It's the taking it personal bit that's causing all the discourse. It'll fade, it always does, until there's another thing to clutch pearls about. It's just noise. It sucks, but at the end of the day this is a fictional TV show about first responders that is for the most part very Unserious™️ and these are all fictional characters that people from different walks of life are seeing themselves in.

And at the end of the day, there are creative outlets that allow you to change whatever the hell you want about canon if you aren't jiving with it - fanon exists for a reason.

I'll just be over here in my corner enjoying two grown ass men being so down bad for each other they're a little stupid about it.

[coffbeanie]

Decided to post some EJ hcs i’ve been sitting on-not sure how much of these are just me just repeating canon. They’re more like notes I took while relistening to the story and trying to answer my own question

Anyways just remember their hcs and ur welcome to think differently-this is just all in good fun

Enjoy!! <3

-Jack and Chernabog are now forced to inhabit one body

-Jack can keep Chernabog down by eating humans organs-he chooses kidneys because he can take them without killing his victims-he steals the materials he needs and uses his schooling to take them without causing much damage. Since we only need one to live, he takes one and leaves the other.

-When Jack doesn’t eat, Chernabog takes over. This results in physical changes-he becomes much larger, sharper fangs, a more muzzle like nose, pointier teeth, larger hands with sharper fingers, tar dripping down his eyes, and his legs turn into hind legs reminiscent of a lion (or honestly any other predatory mammal)

-In this state, he follows the scent of blood and will eat anyone who crosses his path, leaving nothing but bones. He will keep eating until he is satisfied, where he once again lets Jack take over

-He’ll take people’s cars and drive to different neighborhoods (townhouses, apartments) to stock up on kidneys and see what's going on in the world-then drive to a woodland area to hide and eat. Sometimes he’ll steal kidneys from any campers that happen to be nearby. He moves frequently and at this point has lived in many different states. He’ll also just sleep in abandoned buildings

Now for some bigger picture thingies :))

-The cult at the college specifically was started by Jenny. She felt that what she read in her books was real, and started to spread this idea to her friends, who spread it to their friends, which led to the creation of the cult. They believed that they had to summon Chernabog, as he would release them from the suffering of life. As they satisfied his hungry spirit, he would, in return, lead them to paradise.

-People in the school weren’t really aware of this. The most people saw was this group of friends going into the woods to hang out, and they would sometimes make a bonfire, but nothing more. Even if people saw it as a cult, they never took it seriously-just some people worshiping some fake demon. They haven’t done anything wrong, so why should they care?

-The cult aspect of this story brought it to a national news level, putting a highlight on secret societies at different universities. However, the story died down, though it was still talked about for months later on a local level as the authorities tried to find out who killed the cult members

-Jack is still the primary suspect, seeing as his roommate could support his going to the meeting, and as his body was not found in the massacre. It’s also assumed that he took the missing cult mask. However, the one detail that lowers Jack’s possibility as a suspect are the claw and bite marks of the victims-the scratch marks are obviously from an animal with claws, and the bites are from a creature with sharper teeth than a human, which leads to the possibility that it could have just been an attack by some wild animals, even though wild animals with those characteristics are not native to the area

-The attack was first reported by Greg, his roommate. He knew Jack was there and was the first to see the massacre. Greg, along with Jack’s parents, still deny he had any part in the Cult Massacre. Greg insists that Jack would never hurt anyone, and he was way too focused on school to get involved in that cult stuff seriously. Jack’s parents were proud of their son and the bright future he seemed to have ahead of him-they’re still waiting for him to come home.

-When Jack first started taking kidneys, many of his early victims died as he did not have access to the proper materials and was not used to performing these at home surgeries. As he continued, the mortality rate of his victims went down, though there was still a chance they would die. It was easy for investigators to link these to one person, due to the trend of taking one kidney.

-In between these were cases of people being brutally mauled to death. It was first assumed that it was a person assisted by some kind of animal, as the state of the bodies afterwards had markings made by some kind of animal (though the specific animal was never pinned down, it was just obvious they weren’t human), but doors were still unlocked, and windows were opened, which suggested that a human had to have been involved

-The connection between these two crimes were made after Mitch’s (the mc from the original EJ story) story was released-it got both attention not just on national media, but also on the internet. Both the stories of people waking up with just one kidney, and people being brutally mauled were now connected and could be attributed to one person, though this only confused investigators more, due to his two methods of killing, the now lack of clear motive, the inclusion of now possibly cannibalistic tendencies, and questions as to how this person could have left claw and bite marks similar to that of an animal

-People later reached out to Mitch afterwards online, thanking him for his bravery in posting his story. The people were either victims of this mysterious killer, or knew someone who was attacked by him. This led to a small support group on the Internet where people talked about their experience with him, and how it affected their life. Most victims have moved to less wooded areas, more in city areas, in fear that he might come back for them.

-There is a small subgroup of people on the internet that connected this animalistic cannibal to the Cult Massacre story. They dubbed the name “Eyeless Jack” as they believe that Jackson Novikov of the Cult Massacre story is the same person in Mitch’s story. The blue mask is similar to the mask of the cultists, it was revealed that Jackson was in med school which explains the in-home surgeries, and the state the cultists were left in is similar to how some of Jack’s victims are left. Few are quick to believe this, seeing it as only a conspiracy theory.

-Investigators have come to predict where their cannibal will strike next, as medical supplies from hospitals will have been reported stolen a few days before someone would report either being a victim of the cannibal, or knowing someone who was attacked by the cannibal. This has led to an increase in stolen materials from hospitals and other medical facilities, and after a few too close for comfort run ins with the police, Jack has learned to move around before making his attack, though this has led to a increase in attacks that resembles ones done by Chernabog

If u read through all that u should share ur ej hcs with me :)))

[sinisterexaggerator]

Headcanon...?

Spoilers for a fic I will write eventually?

Do not read if you do not like made-up, author-indulgent backstories for characters who exist in the GFFA. This one is almost hard to post because it's kind of personal. Like, a story so plot driven that I am nervous people will hate my interpretation and my ships. Oh well, I guess, it's happening.

A discussion in the Duros hoes chat, and then between me and @allsystemsblue, got me thinking about what is Cad Bane's real name? It sure as hell ain't Cad Bane. A lot of the fandom seems to agree on that. "Cad" and "bane" are both words in the dictionary that can be defined.

Cad: a man who behaves dishonorably, especially toward a woman. / scoundrel / rogue / rascal.

Bane: a cause of great distress or annoyance. / scourge / ruin / death.

We shall come back to this.

I have a scene mapped out for Stars Above in which I want Cad to run into his sister. I have a plan for his backstory that does not include this particular fanfic, but another, a series I am working on that will be entitled "Annuals of an Outlaw," and is essentially a collection of works I have outlined that will contain my version of Cad Bane's "story" from his beginnings on Duro in the Descent Ghetto, to after the Clone Wars and beyond.

Yes, it will have smut. And angst. Lots and lots of angst. Many character will appear, including Jango, Hondo, Aurra, Bossk, Embo, Zam, Dengar, Todo 360, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even Boba at some point. Oh, and let us not forget Shriv Suurgav. :)

Yes, Shriv.

You cannot stop me. Don't even try. This is my magnum opus, and by God it will make sense narratively. Just you wait. Or don't. I don't care. I am still going to write this thing if it's the last thing I ever do.

First of all, I enjoy playing around with Star Wars name generators. That is how I came up with the name of my OC, Zulara. I started sifting through them, piecing last names together with other first names, and voilà, a new name appeared to me that caught my attention.

Originally, I was looking for Durese words that maybe meant something in relation to his occupation or personality, but none of them called out. It appears others had that same idea in the past, so it makes sense to go with something new.

Anyway, my name for Cad Bane is Lumoon Troks.

Here are the outpouring of thoughts I had on the matter before I could stop myself. I came up with this over the last hour or two, and I am digging it so far. Who knows, maybe I will change my mind. It's helping me to fill in a lot of gaps, anyway, that I had in the plot, and I am happy about that.

So, I am giving Bane siblings. Two much older sisters, two brothers who are 1-2 years apart, and a younger sister who is four or five at the time Lumoon finally leaves home.

His siblings call him Lu, or Moon for short. When they want to be annoying, they call him Moody Moon, or "Lemon" because of his sour outlook ( lemons are "canon" in SW, I checked).

To sum things up briefly, Bane's mother was a kindhearted woman and his father was a gruff workaholic. They both were employed in the factories and rarely had time to spend with their family, but had too many mouths to feed.

Cad gets into trouble quite often. He runs wild in the streets from a young age. Maybe he hooks up with the wrong crowd. Nothing too menacing; some petty theft, vandalism, etc, etc.

His father's angry about it. He refuses to take on work in the factories with him. He wants more for himself. He's not about that grind day in, day out life. Things get so toxic between them that he leaves to make his own way, stops coming home, worries his mother sick, and his little sister to boot.

So much so, his little sister ( talking maybe preschool / kindergartener age ) decides she has to "bring Moon home" and takes it upon herself to find him. She loves her big brother and sorely misses him.

This does not end well. At all. The worst possible scenario unfolds. The first of many tragedies in Cad Bane's life. It deeply affects him. He tries to go to his mother; she isn't the same Duros any longer. She coldshoulders him, ignores him, and she suffers from a broken heart.

Cad blames himself. "She went out to find you and never came home." This time, he really does leave and never returns. I am sure there is a final fight between him and his father that maybe seals the deal. He takes up random jobs, anything that pays, from sex work, to being hired muscle, to thieving, to murder, you name it, as long as the pay is good and it keeps his mind off his own problems.

He learns skills along the way, and he also learns from his mistakes. Things start being a little too easy. He's tired of being bossed around. He wants to be his own boss. So, that's exactly what he becomes.

He decides to try his hand at bounty hunting. He begins to make a name for himself, except, he hasn't. He needs a new one, something intimidating, striking, and rememberable. Plus, he doesn't want his birthname floating around; that makes him vulnerable, as well as the rest of his surviving kin.

Bane's mother, in the early days of his youth, used to scold him for misbehaving. She called him the equivalent of a cad in Durese, and it translated that way from basic, something along the lines of "Lumoon! Quit being such a cad, you naughty boy!"

It means something to him. He feels it embodies what he has become. It is also a tribute to his mother as well as a punishment; something he has to live with and that he brought upon himself.

The next thing you know, one of his many enemies makes a snarky comment, saying to him, "you are the bane of my existence," or simply, "you are a bane!" From there, his new name takes shape in his mind. He thinks if you put two and two together, it sounds kind of nice. It sticks. He starts to introduce himself like that, when before he had only referred to himself as Cad.

Another misfortune befalls him, which I mentioned I wanted him to run into his sister. This would happen off-world somewhere, years later, and during the reign of the Galactic Empire. She would say something to the likes of: "Mom died. She never gave up on you. She waited for you to come home, everyday. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had seen your wanted posters."

It tears him apart for awhile. His second great tragedy. Never getting to reconcile with the Duros who raised him and whom he loved. He harbors this for the rest of his life.

Of course, running in the streets, he learns not to trust people. He's jaded. He gets fucked over a time or two, badly, and by people he thinks he can trust. He develops a shell; a way of looking at the world that allows him to keep his guard up for his own protection.

In that same vein, I believe Bane can love and that he can love hard given the right circumstances. One of the many reasons he's kept from saying it, is because every person he has ever cared about has either turned on him or dies. The galaxy is a harsh mistress. He's afraid of a repeat scenario; he doesn't let himself get close. He tells himself he's better off alone, doesn't need anybody; he prefers to run without a pack.

That is, until he meets Jango.

And, that, my friends, is a whole other story, but I want to add that Cad Bane has bad dreams. Nightmares, even. Visions. Terrible things happen, old memories replay, he is haunted by his past. The sister he couldn't save; the mother he thought had stopped loving him; the father he was never good enough to please.

Hondo compares himself to a sun, and Bane is the moon. This would fuck with him psychologically, and cause him to react unexpectantly should the nickname stick - one that is reminiscent of his childhood. It is Hondo Ohnaka in my story that saves Bane from himself after Fett meets his untimely end.

Jango, Hondo, and Shriv may call him moody from time-to-time, or grumpy, but that also does not sit well, either, considering his past.

Once Jango dies, and once he fails at training Boba, Cad is even more a wreck than before. In my story, he also does not get to reconcile with his old partner and mentor after their falling out. He drinks himself stupid in the presence of Boba to the point the boy gets fed-up and they have their duel.

Bane, in my mind, can't accept Boba as Fett's son; he is a clone; he could never accept the clone contract from the get go - it put a rift in their relationship. This adds more fuel to the "look out for yourself" fire that is his quote in the Book of Boba Fett.

Sorry this got so long-winded, but, I had to get that out as it came to me. Now, to actually write the story all these ideas are for!

[davekat-sucks]

The last anon made me think about how long between each project has taken the material further and further away from the source. Yiffany was for sure a late addition that 'looked cool' but ultimately was a joke. The audience has taken a wild turn in lauding the new updates and JR's team even if half of them can't answer a question coherently in an AMA. I don't get it. The writing is just BAD, I've seen better fan comics than this piece of trash.

I thought maybe my sense of humour had changed, but I still find Homestuck OG to be entertaining if not outdated in its language.

I think we're all expecting something different from the other person with HS2, for example myself there's a core story complete and available to read with a wiki full of canon material they could have used. And by used, I mean kept the characters in line with what we expect.

I think this whole story would be better if it wasn't Homestuck, as it is now the story could swap to some alternate earth D and it wouldn't do anything to the story or to what timeline we're in. The kids in Candy were unnecessary, we already had the Beta kids we don't need another 4-kid teen journey. John could have realized the retcon was a glitch they would reverse. Accept some deaths from alternate timelines and take control away from the Cherubs. Make something cathartic and along the way that's worth looking forward to. Make the story about the EXISTING CHARACTERS AS WE LEFT THEM IN THE COMIC.

The epilogues were a mistake, the toblerone wish was a mistake, and this is what happens when you crowd source a project to unhinged mental illness and just say 'yes' to everything like a shit parent.

I wouldn't say the author(s) are bad, I just think this reeks of clout chasing. Like JR is fishing in Hussie's trash for just a lick of a discarded soda. Like he can wrangle the same fanbase and energy instead of taking an adult step back and ask themselves "what could be better. Where should we start. What is our GOAL." So Dirk is the Villain and Calliope too, but what are the true stakes, are they even doing anything?

I'll be charitable and posit this project is too big for the current directors and their talent. Instead we get a mess of fan demands in a disaster of media. Even when Homestuck was falling apart it wasn't this bad.

Adding in with Jane as a villain, that it makes THREE people the story needs to focus on as well. I can't even say Karkat trying to protect his race is meaningful if we BARELY see him interact with other trolls. What is even his role in Earth C besides being Dave's boyfriend? He's not like The Signless since apparently he, the narrative, or Hussie says Karkat GAVE UP on fulfilling his ancestor's role. So he can't be a leader leader in that sense prior to the war. They really could have just left it after the credits and let people decide their own ending. They could have handled the license with Viz Media better when they were publishing the physical books to keep some relevance. But instead, it became an empty shell of its former self.

[sotwk]

Hi, I've been following you for awhile now but I'm very internet-shy (if that's a thing) so I've nerver said anything, hence the anon. I wanted to commend you for your writings and headcanons, which I've been enjoying so so so much.

I've always believed that Thranduil had multiple children but I was always indecisive on the number, you helped me settle on five, and many of your characterisations fit perfectly in my own personal headcanons. Moreover even those that I do not agree with have helped me develop my own, so again thank you.

Now on the question: have you ever had so many ideas that you end up creating multiple version of your own AU or, worse, fanfictions of your fanfiction? I write a lot and I'm always expanding on my writings (but never publish, again internet-shy) and I always get so many new inspirations that I always create AUs of my AU so I never finish anything, how do you solve this problem?

Oh my friend, you being so kind is exactly the reason why I would probably never turn off Anon Asks, even though I'm quite sensitive to hate and dread the thought of eventually getting my first hate Anon. (Fingers crossed my lucky streak holds out!)

Thank you so much for reaching out to tell me all this, even though you're "internet-shy"! 🥰 I am so, so glad you enjoy my headcanons enough to let them inspire your own! That is fantastic, and I hope you are able to create tons of content for you to enjoy (and for other fans, if you ever decide to share them)!

As for your question: Hoo-boy, like most of our fellow writers, I am plagued with "too many ideas, too little brain space and even less time to write them down"! That being said, the kind of brain I have is also quite determined to keep my creative mess (somewhat) organized, so I DO fight to wrestle my SotWK AU ideas down and create structure for my fics to stand on.

Yes, I do occasionally get the urge to deviate from my own headcanons and experiment with other scenarios. I think more writers operate with unlimited AUs in their heads, actually. (From what I've read of others' works, at least.) But my personal goal is to create a single consistent, unified "SotWK AU" that encompasses not just Thranduil/Mirkwood's history, but ties into the untouched/extended stories of other canon realms/races/characters as well (including a lot of "Everyone Lives")! So I do try to stay disciplined and stick to my headcanon "facts" once I've nailed them down.

If that's something you also want to try to accomplish, here are Five Things I personally do that might be helpful:

Keep a Master Timeline. This was the first thing I did when I decided to take the SotWK concept all the way. I copy-pasted the entire Middle-earth timeline from Tolkien Gateway into a document, and started to plug in all the headcanon events from my AU into it. That's why nearly every fic I write has a specified date and year!

Keep a Glossary of Your Originals. This can be as messy a dumping ground as you want! Just try to keep all your notes about every single character, place, object, or term you create in one document/file folder so you can easily track and reference them.

Indulge "rogue AUs" in fic "shorts" or drabbles. I accept requests for Reader inserts and this area is where I allow myself to "go wild" with my "out of bounds" ideas. Here, I will allow myself to write stuff like Modern AUs, or have Thranduil be with someone other than my OC Elvenqueen, or have my Thranduilion princes love whomsoever they want, changing the love interest up each time! It doesn't matter, since these stories are all considered "outside" of the SotWK canon, and don't affect the overall "official" story arc. (Note: I haven't actually posted/completed any of these yet, but I have multiple WIPs of such stories.)

Chop Long Stories Up into Smaller Bits. I have a terrible inability to stay focused on a single story/project (don't we all), and for this reason, I avoid long, multi-chapter fics whenever I can. Instead, I will (or plan to) write individual key events as stand-alone one-shots and later group them into collections. This is how I plan on tackling Thranduil and Maereth's 2,000-year long courtship, for example. It reduces the stress of doing things in a linear fashion, or updating with "new chapters".

Don't Smother Your Creativity. You can try to "rein it in", and keep things under control so you can create a cohesive saga that your readers can follow. But ultimately, run with all and whatever ideas make you happy and inspired! Believe me, I'm the one of the most stressed out (self-inflicted) writers out there, but we gotta remember the primary goal of fanfic is FUN, right? <3 Just write The Thing and don't worry about it, especially if publishing/sharing isn't your main goal anyway.

I hope some of this helps you! I can already tell you are a wonderful writer, and I wish you all the best with your fics!

[homestuckoveranalysis]

Alt+Shift=Sburb redo???

hi. so i had an mspfa thing called Alt+Shift=Sburb! (yes spelled like that)

and it... well it's not the best in terms of visual or story quality- specifically in that the visuals were mostly base edits and hodge-podged school laptop trackpad art and the writing was not that special.

And then I ended it out of nowhere i believe 2 years later after only like what, 50 pages? and started a new one that I intend to still run also called NEW_GAME.sburb (yes spelled like that)

I'm much better skilled I thinks so I've decided to do a thing!

I'm gonna (re)create the panels and fully redo the story. Make it better now that I know how to at least make something sophomoric instead of freshman-y (not a word).

And also I'm redoing concepts for the story that have NOT EVEN been hinted at slightly within either story.

anyway here's some characters. They won't appear again for a while but trust me when I say remaking them is vital to remaking the rest of the whole shebang (i always think of that spider from LotR whenever I say "shebang". Shelob my beloved 🕷️)

(classpects subject to change) Now that I'm able to make things on my own with minimal-to-zilch bases or borrowed assets (besides like. jpegs and stuff for posters. those don't count), I too can be a Cool Kid.

Another tithe to pay in the meantime is this: MUSIC.

I CAN MAKE MUSIC. AND ALSO WITHIN THE PAST FEW DAYS I'VE SPONTANEOUSLY LEARNED HOW TO MAKE PROPER COMPOSITIONS AND SHIT. IT'S WILD SO I'VE BEEN MAKING THEMES FOR THE REWORKED TROLLS BASED ON THEIR CANON COUNTERPARTS' THEMES. Take a fuckin' sip, babe. ⏬

Alright you rowdy-dowdy (also not a word) kids and kidn'ts- Enjoy these while I do my magic (read: struggle but like... in a slay way)

EXTRA: Go read TITLE: <NULL>. NOW. It's made by Tost, the person who wrote the dialogue for the second episode of my demonstuck AU!

She's got stellar writing skills so you better enjoy those, too.

Miki, signing off~

[decepti-thots]

re: meta again. first, thank you for the long answer! you have a lot of interesting points, e.g. how fandom spaces influence how you interact with media: my first fandom space was restricted to teenagers who mostly knew nothing about media analysis (and it was also animanga haha), and then I moved onto tumblr, where - in my memory - most users were slightly older teenagers but still didn't know much about media analysis. there probably was meta somewhere (apparently on LJ?), but I didn't see (or notice?) a lot of it. which possibly also was because I changed fandoms a lot more quickly, and I feel like many others did, too. there's a book fandom where five years ago, the general sentiment about an antagonist was 'well fuck him' and now people write extensive posts on why he did what and what that means for the story and why it mirrors the protagonists arc etc, which maybe means that sometimes fandoms need time to get past the initial excitement of new things to give more attention/time to meta?

I very much agree that tumblr makes interactions/discussions harder. especially re: reblogs - its so easy for someone to disagree with you in a reblog and some of their followers to take that as a hint to hate on you - I've seen this happen mostly related to "shipping the wrong things", but why wouldn't it happen for drawing the "wrong" conclusions in a meta post? I feel like the general tumblr user is older than they were 10 years ago so maybe I should hope that they've grown up as well and are more reasonable about this to be fair

what I also noticed regarding the book fandom and TF is that TF fans - depending on your specific bubble probably - seem to be more aware that writing meta is a thing, because they're more likely to call it that.

re: elitism - it's important to me that the things I was referring to can feel elitist, not that they are, if the distiction makes sense? maybe it also wasn't the best/fairest choice of words, sorry. the sentiment isn't meant towards e.g. the people complaining about headcanons that have become accepted in the fandom but have zero relation to canon. its more frustration that theres seemingly infinite canon material and you can't really join any conversation without interacting with a good chunk of it, while (seemingly) everyone else has already done that already.

and finally, wonder if part of who writes meta and who doesn't is fandom "socialization"; there seem to be a few people for whom it appears easy to express their thoughts online, and then a much larger amount of lurkers who don't, and I've never really figured out the cause.

god tumblr does really let me put as much text as I want here, I'm a bit sorry for the long message. If you have any further thoughts I'd be happy to hear them but no pressure

First of all: no apologies for the long message! I love it, I will put my thoughts under a cut for everyone's dashes but we LOVE an in depth fandom meta-meta discussion in this household. I started this blog to RAMBLE and rambling is WELCOME my friend.

You make an EXCELLENT point about how longevity can influence fandoms here, anon. Especially for fandoms where there isn't a constant drip-feed of NEW canon, I absolutely think fandoms living on and people going back and re-engaging the source material to look for new ways to engage it can gradually make meta a larger part of the fannish space sometimes. (To give my own book fandom example, I was on the periphery of book!Good Omens fandom back in the day, and the amount of time people had spent with just that one single book meant that more and more discussion of the ways you could read and work with that one book meant there was some very in-depth meta going on there.) (…as you can imagine, the last few years have been a hell of a wild time for me with the show fandom becoming the Hot New Major Fandom, LMAOOOO.)

There's definitely also something there about the old "if someone I follow clowns on a person, my (para)social relationship with them means I feel like I'm doing a social faux-pas by not choosing a side" you mention here too. Tumblr really makes visible the idea of social networks in a way I have to admit I overall find uhhh. Kind of not great. "If I follow someone who follows someone my mutual hates, do I need to perform my support of someone here", that kind of thing. (Answer: no, that is some Panopticon shit, bring in the Foucault. I am only half joking.) Even over an objectively inane Transformers headcanon take, it's the social mechanism more than the content that brings in the pressure I think. Again. Web 2.0 wants everything pushed at everyone all the time to encourage More Interaction, and reducing any sense of wider social circles being removed from you personally is a part of that I think. It's all equal on The Endless Timeline, innit.

I see what you mean about the "feels like" distinction on elitism, anon, now you lay that out- that makes sense. I do think TF fandom is sometimes a bit of a minefield in terms of like, even within certain subdivisions of canon there's so MUCH stuff (and the fandom has, IMO, a bad habit of not bothering to decide what is more or less "useful" in conversations; sometimes tertiary material is… you know. Tertiary. LOOKING AT ALIGNED FANDOM). I think those of us who are sometimes a bit more "canon completionist" do need to approach these things in terms of like- take IDW1 fandom. If someone posts meta about MTMTE based on just material from MTMTE, approaching that in good faith and not going "well it's in continuity with phase one, and THIS phase one comic says [xyz]", but instead seeing it as a perspective that takes that one text as a complete thing in itself? (And maybe considering how that perspective and how it differs from one which looks at the whoooole canon is interesting, rather than deficient, in its differences of opinion.) There are folks who get very snotty about people doing that in a way that is, at the very least, unproductive. (And the folks bringing in their Extensive Lore Knowledge TM by whining stuff from other continuities contradicts a take on a different continuity are just uhhh. Annoying. Those people can just Stop, Please, lmao.) I think understanding that different approaches to what "canon" even is can be interesting rather than something to be "corrected" might go some way to making it feel less… intimidating? Alienating? For folks working with what they like.

As for the confidence in sharing opinions thing… I can only speak for myself but uh. If I have a personal flaw it is unwarranted overconfidence, not insecurity, haha. Let me put it that way. I do think that cultivating a confidence in the idea "I have my own personal tastes, and those tastes are idiosyncratic and do not need to be compared to other peoples' taste, and they are Valid TM" is a skill to be honed and one I think is worth honing, and I think may be a big thing here from my anecdotal observations. I find that many people in fandom don't have a lot of confidence in the idea that you can express not just an argument for "objective" (lol) "quality" but a sense of personal taste? (This is not unique to fandom, at all, but I think fandom has a lot of it, if that makes sense.) Especially because often the things fandom centres around lack cultural prestige. It's why an appeal to being Real Literature TM is the go-to argument for why fanfiction is "acceptable". I think a similar thing can be true of opinions; to let go of the urge to have everyone agree with you 100% of the time and to be "proven" right, you have to feel confident enough to sit in subjectivity and be like. My opinions may be subjective, but that's fine. And you do have to cultivate that! But I think that's where the "I can express an opinion and not feel destroyed if someone flat out rejects it and I can't even disprove their argument" trick kinda lies, maybe. And maybe meta is easier if you've already internalized that, so the possibility people will be like "nope" is less scary?

[t0kidal]

The Alef

“(This is my first fanfic for the series Mairimashita Iruma Kun. The manga and anime are S-tier and everything is super wholesome. About this Fanfic, I hope to make it as a Sullivan’s daughter reader insert/ Iruma’s mom insert, Iruma being adopted in his earlier years, and getting to meet the Teacher trio while they’re in Babyls (Opera, Kalego, and Balam). 

As a first time writer, I thought the concept would be a fun challenge, staying in line with character archetype and canonical lore and plot, whilst putting a new take on headcanons from my favorite fanfics for Iruma-Kun. But, I also understand if (if anyone reads this at all) it’s not to anyone’s taste.

I’m still learning how to write “well” or how to tell stories, so this is very much a work in progress and what I hope will be a lot of fun to try out! TLDR: First fanfic, tips appreciated (including grammatical ones), my heart is soft and squishy pls don’t hurt me.

Inspired By:

“For the Sake of a Smile” by 4ever_Rewritten on Ao3

“Pawprints” and How to be a “Good Person” both by theWunderKind on Ao3)

I do not own Mairimashita / Welcome to Demon High School Iruma-kun. All credit goes to Nishi Osamu. 

Part 2 ; Masterlist)

______________________________________________________________

As many in the demon world know, the strong rule over the weak. Though one of the three crowns sought to change that, starting at the infamous school Babyls, it’d be a little while till it achieved the prestige duly deserved.

Your steps held no sound as you took a long trek through the halls. While such tricks were far below the Purson clan, they served you well. Slip in, leave the assignment, slip out. Babyls, at this time, was far from a suitable place of learning... at least, for you.

Being left behind was unlucky, suspected lack of the clan’s bloodline magic was worse, and the notion that you were left behind for lacking would destroy you.  Then it’s placing just above passing in the practical exam and having everyone and their mom see it when the results were posted. 

How you managed to survive was a miracle or, as you like to call it, your ambition.

Which wouldn’t be so hard if these damn punks would just. move.

You’ve heard word of the “Top Dog” of Babyls, but weren’t sure if you appreciated the figure for trying to clean up the school, or if you resented them for riling everyone up. “YOU FIT THE BALL ALRIGHT! I’M GONNA MAKE SURE YOU REGRET BEATING UP MY LITTLE BRO!”

...

“Silence.”

Strange... th-..!

Rounding the corner, mouth goes dry, eyes blown wide, and a chill runs down your spine at the sight of the Naberious clan’s youngest, wielding such raw and wild power with perfect control, electrifying in and of itself.

His striking hues meet yours.

“Hm? Another one?”

“Huh?” Yes, brilliant, wonderful, such grace, much eloquence.

“Are you deaf? Are you another one of these bastards?!” He gestures to the second year behind him.

“Ah! uh... No. Just...” Deep breaths, you got this. “Y-you’re in the way...”  “Hah?” As you gesture to the hallway behind him, that he happens to be blocking with his big fuck off lightning puppy, an awkward pause follows.

“Oh, apologies then.” He very promptly leaves. Once he’s gone... “phew...”

Finally, rounding the left, opening the door, 

“Sensei, you could’ve asked for a quieter snack, it was so annoying trying to mute all the chips you asked for.” You toss the bags of chips onto the lump on the couch.

“Hah? Maybe I should change up the lesson plan then..” he mutters, and you can vaguely see him itch his scruffy hair.

You can only sigh at your teacher’s antics... “Honestly, I’d tell you to get your nephew to run your errands, but...” You needn’t say anything to get your point across.

“Hah! That boy...”

You feel a little jealous, their family seemed... a little warmer from your own.

“Welp! I won’t hold you, here.” He passes you a bento.

“... sensei, you didn’t poison this did you?”

“What do you mean?! I made it myself!” “That’s the same thi-” 

“Just scram already, and don’t forget to do your homework.”

“Yeah yeah yeah...”

Now for some peace and quiet... let’s see... “it’s pretty cold today so no punks on the roof...”

Is what you thought.

Only to watch aforementioned nephew get gut punched by who you could only assume was the real top dog.

Only to watch him declare himself the “Guard dog” of Babyls.

Only to be held by the neck- wait what?

“Huh?” Yes, brilliant, wonderful, such grace, much eloquence. “DON’T MOVE! YOU HEAR ME?! DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE!” ‘Oh my..’

“Heh! you let your guard down Morons! Try to fight us and I’ll break their ne-!”

Oh, you didn’t know someone so big could scream so shrilly.

“S-sorry! I’m really bad at controlling my strength so...” says the little bird demon ... a gritty crunch follows that statement.

You also didn’t know someone could look so cute breaking bones.

“DAMNIT WE’LL RETREAT FOR NOW! THOSE WHO CAN STILL MOVE REPORT TO THE ETHOS BATRA! WE GOT BEAT BY THE TOP DOG’S GA-!”

A ringing fills their ears, raising a finger to your lips, you lock eyes with the loud mouth in question and a smile splits your face, “Shhhhhh”

And almost without fail... they’re cut off with silence. 

almost immediately filled with, “HEY WAIT, WE’RE NOT A GANG! THE HELL?!”

~~~

[beautyofsorrow]

2, 4, 7, 18, 46

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

evil. evil question. why would you make me think about my multichaps. ok so i tried the intensive outlining thing, i really did, and it flopped so bad because i'm pretty sure i have adhd which, among many other things, means i need novelty in order to stay interested in a thing. but i also need STRUCTURE so i know where i'm GOING or i'll never FINISH so i have started doing this thing where i have the vague outline of what happens and then go from there. for without anesthetic, i had a pretty good idea of what i thought the first four chapters entailed before i ever sat down at the word doc, just so i'd have a measure of security behind this wildly ambitious idea. turns out it was only enough for three chapters and i am spinning my wheels a little on the fourth/fifth/sixth, but it's going so much better than my last multichap did, and i haven't abandoned it like my first. so yay! it's my own version of what i call the ann patchett method of drafting (see "the getaway car" in this is the story of a happy marriage for more details on that, dear mutuals who are not zanna). more adhd, but just rigorous enough to keep me from walking out. this seems to be working, but it's also nerve-wracking because oh no, what if i get ?? chapters deep and i've written myself into a corner? (the answer: girl calm down, it's fanfiction and you're supposed to be having fun)

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

i rifle through the fridge at 10pm looking for a very specific food that does not exist and then get mad at myself when i realize i am gonna have to write it into existence.

see also: my love for the characters (/horny and emotional). a desperate need for non-romantic sexually intimate relationships in media. upsetting plotholes in canon. deranged character dynamics. weird takes on popular tropes. religious trauma. family estrangement. being queer. i also read a lot of books and find plenty of sparks ideas juice inside them, usually in their style and execution. i looooooooove studying form and how it influences a book's plot.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

whatever best serves the story! and/or whatever i feel i can handle best in a given moment. for example, the first time i tried my hand at sex pollen (drown me in glitter, glitter and gold) i had no fucking clue how to write from a sex-pollened person's POV, so the answer was to stay in la'an's head the entire fic. that let me get really comfy with the story so that by the time i had to write her being all high on horny juice, it flowed much more easily than if i had started in una's POV, who's dosed from the start. also, it was a much better, funnier, and stronger fic that way. la'an's mortification really came through and allowed me to hit a lot of comedic beats i wouldn't have been able to hit due to una's temporary plunge into angst.

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

i do all three lol. mostly during and after. sometimes i'll have one from the start and it will stick; other times it will change to something else halfway through. many many times i will come screaming into ur DMs complaining about being done with a fic but not having title tags or summary. i started keeping a file in my notes app of lines of poetry i love, and i'll occasionally plunder them for titles. i'll also yoink song lyrics (just give me trust and watch what'll happen), riff on character quotes or episode titles (without anesthetic, ad astra), or rotate the fic in my head until something appropriately vibe-y presents itself (dress me down and hold me open, aces wild, stitch)

46. How would you describe your style?

contemplative, lyric and/or comedic (depending on the fic), & character-driven

[yumikeki]

How I'd go about reintroducing Mephiles back into Sonic lore(sorta)

So this isn't going to be super structured, its gonna be really rambly but its basically cuz i'm repeating the whole thought process I had while looking stuff up, brainstorming etc so sorry if it gets a bit long, so I'll put design stuff and the whole thing under a keep reading link. Got it? Good. Lets uh, do this.

So to go back to the very beginning, the sonic channel poll. That was a wild time haha. When i first saw it I wasn't initially interested in Mephiles. I would've voted for Vector or Sonicman tbh. But seeing people talking about how cool it would be to reintroduce a character that got wiped out of existence made it a bit more entertaining to me. Which made it suck a little more that he didnt win. But hey, im not complaining about Sonicman, good for him. But that got me thinking about how difficult it would be to reintroduce Mephiles. After all, he came from a very infamous game that still leaves scars in Sonic's history, and having him just come back when his whole story revolved around a game that ppl do not want back is tricky. At least with Silver they rewrote his future a bit, and Blaze already had lore. Elise might still exist but they can mention Soleanna without having to explore too much of its past game story. Mephiles was pivotal to a plot that Sega does not want to bring back. So, i don't think they'd want to bring him back in his initial form. I also think they're trying to stray from the god stuff Sonic 06 brought into the series(besides the End).

But then I thought about IDW's canon. Where its almost sorta filler, it'll acknowledge the games but the game will only reference its characters and story in passing(so far). IDW would probably be the best place to put Mephiles so that he gets an arc without it affecting the mainline games, but still exist. Still I think we need to go further in. Solaris was not only killed in the future, but erased from existence in the beginning. Existence was rewritten to what it is now, how to you bring back a character that was not only killed, but erased? Well for the killed part, what about reincarnation? Weakened to a mortal form with lesser powers(still reminiscent of the past, but not to the time manipulation powers it once was. Essentially, mostly just the shadow powers with some new perks, but no time travel or time god powers). There can be many ways to introduce a reincarnated character, but I have an idea in mind ill elaborate on later. Next, for the erased part. Well, my idea was, why not use Null Space? Maybe what Eggman assumed was a realm created by the Phantom Ruby was actually a pocket dimension where things that didnt make sense in the new reality were put into. It has so little lore and its not very explored, rewriting it a tad wouldn't be a big deal. There was things in Null Space, despite it being described as a place of nothingness. Everything that was from the 06 reality that couldnt fit neatly into the new one was put into this pocket dimension that's essentially the void. Thats where "Mephiles" has been this entire time.

Back to the reincarnation bit, having a character like this means that while this character is in fact Mephiles, it also sorta isn't. I think this grey line where it brings back Mephiles but can be its own character in time would help ppl feel more confident in bringing him back. He wont be 100% the same, but he still has those qualities that made him seem so cool in the first place. Cold, manipulative, and destructive. Trying to always be one step ahead of others.

My idea of bringing Mephiles back would be in the form of a child. Why? Well when I think of being reverted to a weakened state, i sometimes default to children. Children also represent untapped potential, the ability to grow and change, and be easily influenced by their environment. For a character that beckons to the past but also has the ability to grow beyond it, being a child makes sense to me thematically. Also the idea of the edgy, cold merciless personality being in the body of a child is endearing to me. I actually designed a hedgehog form for this character that's supposed to harken back to Mephiles' initial form, but look like his own person. Its not what I think is the ideal form for the character, but hey i tried. My tablet broke tho so its only a doodle.

I like the straightjacket look of it, and it's loosely based on the scepter of darkness because this body is a mortal cage for Mephiles' soul. Its supposed to look like a creepy edgy kid, Mephiles himself is kinda offputting in that way anyways. Might simplify the little thorn spikes from the shoes or waist, or remove em entirely. The coat is also supposed to cover his body markings, in case one would want to keep his identity a bit of a surprise, initially. The claws are summoned, not inherently a part of his body. Looks like Mephiles' hands, just bigger. Also partially inspired by Sig from Puyo Puyo.

Since this is Mephiles-but-sorta-not, he needed a new name. I wanted to keep it close to the original Mephiles while still having its own identity, so I did research. And uh, it was probably very obvious for most but he's supposed to symbolize both God and the devil? So Mephiles is short for Mephistopheles from Faust, which also became another name for Satan. Iblis was a demon in the Islamic tradition that is also another name for Satan somewhat. And Solaris, which is a name that harkens to the sun(being a sun and time god), also harkens to Satan's original name Lucificer(meaning light-bringer/bearer, keep that in mind). Plus with the 6's of different features in the first phase and then turning into an angel of light in the final, its kinda obvious who Mephiles is supposed to represent. Well, besides also being a fusion of the concept of God, for relating to light and time. On a side note, looking into a game ive played but had no interest in, Sonic 06 really was supposed to be such an ambitious game. It had all these plot intricacies, metaphors, and the weight of fighting a god was supposed to be really heavy. It was supposed to be the biggest fight in Sonic history. The biggest bad who ever bad-ded. It was meant to be so important. It was probably obvious to most, but it was only by looking into it that I got an appreciation for 06. Its just a shame that it ended up how it did. But anyways, back to names. So I wanted to follow the same theme as Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris, being that they are all names for the Devil. Lucifer was considered the original name for the Devil, but I dont want to be that obvious. Well, i looked into the name, and Lucifer actually had greek origins with i believe the God of Venus. Well, another name for the god of Venus was Phosphorus(which guess what, also means light-bringer!). So i shortened it, and behold, the new name is Phos. So we have a design and a name! Whats the story?

Well, I don't have everything planned out, but I did have a few bullet points I'll post here:

Reincarnation of Mephiles, stripped of divine power but has his shadow manipulation still 

Lives in the Null Void from Forces(the Null Void is actually a pocket of space created when the original reality deleted itself.)

When Sonic enters and escapes Null Void, Phos leaves as well. 

Has no memories, bumps into sonic and co 

Wants to learn who he is, gets attached to sonic due to familiarity

Hates shadow, like original counterpart

Shadow does not trust him at all, and Sonic is suspicious but hey, they dont know who Mephiles is anyways. The kid looks sketchy but hes also abandoned and amnesiac, it would feel pretty bad to beat up a child. Maybe not for Shadow lol.

Has extreme empathy, but no sympathy: Is able to read people to an inhuman degree and reflect their emotions like a mirror due to lacking individuality(initially)

Starts off as cold and emotionless, incredibly manipulative due to the ability to detect the feelings of his target. 

Ends up living with Vanilla and Cream as compromise(its really funny that Cream befriends a demon baby)

He does good things and makes friends not cuz he wants to, but because he figures making allies and doing what he can so they dont kick him out will help out more in the long run. When he messes up and his morality is questioned, hes able to barely stay by putting things in his favor and talking it out.

Maybe initially tries to manipulate Sonic, but later learns of the strength of his character.

Gradually not only understands the emotions of others, but begins to absorb them as well, gaining his own feelings based on the ideals of the people in his life, primarily Sonic, Shadow, and Silver(the three who killed him in the first place)

Eventually learns about the truth, plots to regain his other half and reach his deity status somehow

Maybe ties into targeting Blaze for her fire powers? Could be related to what happened to Iblis after the reset.

????

When he realizes he wants to be his own person and choose his life, its too late and he's becoming Mephiles. 

Sonic and co go to save him, fight ensues, Phos helps from inside his own shattered mind, and is eventually able to revert back to normal, keeping his weakened powers but is not inherently evil or empty anymore. Still kinda cold and crafty but he's doing it for good(or what he believes in good, kinda stubborn like Shadow).

Joins the cast as a regular character. 

So for his powers, I kinda simplified them into a few things:

Shadow manipulation powers. Absorbs shadows, can merge into shadows to hide or teleport between them. Maybe the shadow balls come back, not sure. Can make shadow-y clones too.

Crystalline powers. Harkens back to his past body. Is able to make claws out of a crystal like substance and slash at things. Maybe can shoot them like projectiles too.

Idk if he'd keep his ability to morph into other peoples appearances though. IDW already has that one guy and its not like Mephiles made exact copies. Plus he already has his own body. Considering that Phos is meant to be somewhat empty inside and reflects the emotions of his peers, it could be fitting. Maybe when he becomes more introspective he shifts into the appearances of other characters when he thinks about them. idk.

But uh yea that was everything i had written down(i made notes based on the late night brainworms I was getting that lasted a couple of hours. This was the fruit of that labor haha.) I'm not saying this is the perfect way of bringing him back, its possible people will be upset with this version or not prefer it, but hey i like it so its gotta mean something. Technically by writing this down it kinda guarantees SEGA would not use it anyways, so its not important anyways. I might keep this as my own oc and doodle more concepts of this schemer demon baby in the future though, I think it's really neat. The idea of having a powerful small child with emotionless whims that you pray stays on your side is very cool to me, and this whole thing was fun practice anyways. I hope you guys have a good one, if you have any critiques or ideas you'd like to share id love to hear it. Just uh, be nice to me please lol. I'm trying my best. But yea that's it, thanks for entering my brainstorming personal hell.

[txxfiles]

give me all the fics where the boys kiss

Hi! It looks like I'm week 3!

I honestly have no idea idea what im doing really but i guess you'll just have to listen to me ramble about something i enjoy. Seems to fit the theme we've accidentally settled on and well! if theres one thing im good at rambling about its bl fanfiction. i read ALOT of fanfiction. like 13million words worth of it in 2023 alone (an estimate but i did the ugly math for jan and feb last year and id already read 2.7 million words so i dont think its too high an estimate).

ive read fics from too many fandoms to count and also have way more hyperfixations then any one person has a right too but the one that has owned my ass consistently for the last 4 years is The Untamed otherwise know as Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS).

The lovely Eucalyptus from week 2 was watching the untamed during covid (and holy shit what a wild ride that was) and the next thing I know im neck deep drowning in fan art and tiktok edits of beautiful chinese men that have no business being as talented as they are (Im looking at u Wang Yibo) This. shit. fucked. up. my. life.

then i turned to my good friend AO3 (love of my life i could not exist without you) and 4 years later ive read my tags dry. if its complete, ive read it. im getting desperate and ive started reading works in progress, yikes. its so risky i honestly cannot tell you how much anxiety it gives me. ive been burnt too many times.

HOWEVER

this does mean if you need a fic recommendation then your girl has got you covered, so i figured i would share with you my TOP SIX fic recommendations. im sorry i tried to make it 5 but i just couldnt do it.

I will be chasing a starlight by feyburner & sundiscus 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 71,479 words - Complete

Omg. Wangxian Startrek AU. The pining, the miscommunication. I felt every range of emotion on this roller-coaster. I literally printed this out so that I could keep it forever. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again. This Fic hit AO3 like a comet. It even has it’s own Tumblr thread! Also comes with stunning fanart.

Paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 53,808 words - Complete

Modern Day AU, Musician/Single dad Lan Wangji falls in love with his son’s Art Teacher Wei Wuxian. I swear it's one of the cutest stories ever written, makes me feel all the good things. A-yuan is adorable and wangxian are hot and charming. The Ultimate wangxian comfort fic. 

Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller 

Jin Rulan & Wei Wuxian - 63,907 words - Complete

Jin Ling fishes his Da-Ju out of the gutter post canon (Literally dying alone in a dirty inn, Wei Wuxian it's been 5 minutes pls) and decides if no one else is gonna keep him then he damn well will. 

It is perfect.  

Junior Quartet goodness, Yunmeng bro reconciliation and Jin Ling being a boss bitch little shit that has no time for anyone's bullshit. I cried as much as Jin Ling did in this story – which is alot. (Also another story ive made myself a solid copy of that i can love forever)

Joy In The Mindst of These Things by Glitterbombshell 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 52,901 words - 5 Works

TEACHER WEI WUXIAN! I love this trope with my whole soul. Lots of adorable baby Lans, I would kill for them. Beautifully written. Lan Qiren gets a much needed wakeup call. Last story is incomplete but can be read without the 5th installment. SO WORTH IT, ive read it like 10 times

The One-Body Problem by mitisket 

Lan Jingyi & Wei Wuxian - 28,689 words - Complete

Well shit. How many times have a reread this story? I honestly couldn't tell you. Jingyi gets possessed by Wei Wuxian’s very tired soul pre canon and it changes nothing and yet everything. Their friendship gives me life and Jingyi fixes a lot of problems for his new bestie/mentor/uncle with his big mouth. Mom I love him 

The Edge of Night by Hobbsy3 

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - 277,225 words - Complete

The best Zombie Apocalypse au on the MDZS tag honestly. There are so many good zombie film references in this one, i see you Train to Busan. Baby junior quartet, a perfect Wei Wuxian modern day depiction and so much love, angst and stress. It's delicious and I've never recovered.  

All of these fics are actually part of a mother document i made last week of all my favourite fics organised by tag because apparently thats what i do with my free time. hit me up if you need a rec!

Now that ive gotten that off my chest i'll let you be lol. maybe I'll do a rec for a different fandom next time. I definitely have enough to choose from!

Lots of Love,

Iris