#you know you fucked up when the beta designs are more interesting than the canon ones

[jeffy-reblogz]

You're extremely correct tbh I HATE Danganronpa's approach to character design so much (which sucks bc I used to be a megafan). Their designs either say nothing about the character, have little to do with their talent, are impractical and/or are literally just the same sexualised uniform but in a different colour it's so BORING. Like yeah they resemble drawn humans but did they have to have the most cluttered yet basic designs ever conceived???

I could go on about the lack of diversity both in outfit and body (Tenko and Maki are confirmed to be sort of muscular yet they're built exactly like the other girls in their game, everyone is so pale you'd think mihoyo was in the studio /lh, the ashiness of literally everything, the way almost everyone is a twig) but we'd be here all day. Sakura being a little pale girl in the past makes no fucking sense tho like what??????

the designs in danganronpa v3 bug me so MUCH why are so many of the girls wearing different color variants of the same goddamn sailor school girl uniform. why does rantaro just have a regular ass t shirt on. why is shuichi, a literal detective, somehow a less visually appealing protagonist than makoto, Just Some Guy. why is kaito. they were literally all given outfits SPECIFICALLY tailored to them and their talents at the start of the game. to make them all more interesting to look at for the viewers. and yet they are all somehow the most bland looking characters out of any of the danganronpa games how does that WORK how did they MANAGE

[anddreadful]

Some self-indulgent barely-coherent OC A/B/O AU thoughts from 1:30am last night, yes sorry I am nominally into this horny garbage, if you don’t know what A/B/O is don’t google it on a work computer:

Storm kings: I got attached to the idea of Theseus as an alpha who for some reason was incapable of going into rut (and lacked “normal” instinctual alpha aggression) long before we found out what his canon deal was, and the way that tracks with him being not a true alpha but an imperfect clone of one fuckin hits. (Theseus is perpetually SUPER relieved he doesn't turn meathead when he's angry or horny like some alphas tend to.) I always loved the idea of Theseus helping Marin (and eventually an extremely peeved Rekhein) through their breakthrough heats not sexually, but just by being a soothing presence— in my A/B/O lore I really like the idea that the scent/ close attention/ nonsexual physical touch of an alpha helps with a heat as much as sex with one. Rekhien would find cuddling with Theseus while miserably horny almost more mortifying than just fucking him, but Marin insists it isn’t weird, and none of them have boundaries with each other anymore anyway, and it DOES help, so whatever. The stormchasers give off huge polycule energy despite none of them sleeping together (canon).

Speaking of Rekhien, he’s an omega who disguises his scent and passes for Beta for most of the campaign, because male omegas sometimes get dunked on/ disrespected for it. It’s Marin who ferrets him out and eventually convinces him not to hide it anymore— and she’s correct that they’re powerful enough by that point for it not to matter. Marin is an omega who magically becomes an alpha when she becomes Voc Rocsha— designations work a little differently for the people of the purple rocks, given that they’re not bound by the same biological rules as most species; I sort of imagine that the current Voc Rocsha is the only alpha of her tribe at any point. (I don’t ascribe to reproductive organs/ designation correlation, FWIW/ this is a non-mpreg-focused set of worldbuilding choices, sorry. But we do have mating/ claiming bites because those are hot.)

She’s worried Kitro (alpha) won’t be as interested in her now that she’s not an omega, but he doesn’t care what she is and doesn’t understand why she thinks he would. Drow, it turns out, tend to be very designation-pairing agnostic compared to some surface cultures that lionize alpha/omega couplings.

And Phyn is a beta. The most beta beta to ever normie alongside his hormone-riddled friends.

COS: if your strahd is an omega, you are so correct and valid, but in our game, strahd is an extremely typical alpha, and as I would write a full AU, Barovia has what could be considered some regressive collective beliefs about designations. (Tatyana as an omega and her choosing beta Sergei over alpha Strahd would have made him sooooooooo mad, it's too juicy not to do.) I have always loved the idea of Ismark (omega! which is obviously one of the reasons people don’t respect him) pulling teddy aside in the manor like, ‘hey, just so you know, I know what we are isn’t a big deal where you come from, but here you need to be careful. It’s good that you’re traveling with two alphas so people won't mess with you.’

Hot take! One of those alphas is Nim. Nim has a strong presence and a huge streak of stoic self-sufficiency that screams alpha to me. more importantly, it makes her abandoning her human family that much more fucked up, and is another layer to the maternal abandonment baggage that Borakov takes SUPER personally, as he buys in hard to the alpha-as-protector cultural messaging (which is probably a Barovian thing much more than an elf thing, to be fair to Nim)

Rahadin is a beta, but has some very weird and yikes ideas about designation and social hierarchy— as far as he’s concerned, part of Strahd’s absolute right to rule is simply that he’s The Strongest Alpha. Rahadin isn’t sexuaally interested in omegas because they “need” alphas, which he’s very matter of fact about not being, and Betas are fine, but what he really gets off on is putting “undeserving” alphas in their place. Hence his initial thing for being mean in a horny way to Nim, world’s least trad alpha. And if he's developing bigger feelings, well, maybe Rahadin can have a little unresolved cognitive dissonance about nim's alpha qualities (better than initially assessed, possibly leadership material) vs how much he likes domming her, as a treat.

Teddy and Borakov are, regrettably, the most obvious m/f alpha/omega trad-gender-shit-on-steroids heterosexual nonsense pairing ever committed to fiction. Just extremely classic territorial scenting protective horny bullshit. Sorry to everyone in Barovia.

Teddy goes into heat halfway through the campaign, in vallaki (she’s about four months out from her last dose of military-grade suppressants and hasn’t had a heat since she presented as a teenager, so it’s not pretty). Ismark kicks Borakov out of the entire building when it becomes obvious what’s happening. Strahd can’t get to her for some contrived reason but is sending her dreams telling her to leave the inn where she’s holed up to come find her alpha— unfortunately for Strahd, as far as her addled little brain is concerned, Borakov is her alpha. She sneaks out and finds Bork at the burgomaster’s manor and moves the Bork/ teddy sexual timeline up significantly. Everyone else is baffled that heat!teddy managed to secretly engineer her way out of the upper floor window of the inn while barely able to stand upright, but getting laid is a powerful motivator. For convoluted emotional reasons, Borakov refuses to claiming-bite her ~for her own good, which teddy takes very personally and becomes one of the reasons she later agrees to marry strahd, who is clear that he DEFINITELY wants to bite her for MULTIPLE reasons (and does).

Denethor is a beta. The consorts are a random assortment of designations. Doru is an omega and Miranda is a beta. Ez is a beta, Ireena an alpha, Kasimir an alpha but In An Elf Way. Van richten is drenched in suppressants and scent blockers, so good luck figuring that one out. The soulless inhabitants of Barovia don’t have designations— not even beta. They have no scents at all, which is unnerving.

Inspired by a Six of Crows ABO fic with really great worldbuilding, I was at one point brainstorming world-specific terms for "alpha" and "omega"-- I had loosely settled on "Volk" and "Ovechka" which translate to wolf and lamb in "old barovian". who doesn't love a hunting/ consumption motif for relationships in vampireland!

World torn: safiya is an alpha. Bo is a beta. Faraday is an omega and on some very strong magical suppressants. I go back and forth on tailor but I think I’d go with beta (but attracts so many omegas to his orbit you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise). Chess is an omega and slutty about it but extremely proficient in designation-fuckery magic— ever wanted to try being an alpha? They have something for that behind the bar at Cerise.

Brin is an omega. Most of the jacks officers are alphas. Nera Thorn was a beta who wore the most ghastly fake alpha scent you can imagine. Designations can affect how you get treated in some planes— fae tend to favor omegas and are more prone to tricking alphas, for example.

Unearthed remnants: Sev is a robot, so he does not have a designation. Clay is a beta (though depending on how his deal shakes out, I might make him an alpha who's disguising himself as a beta to support his 'bland' persona. I am not entirely convinced 'clay' is even his real name in actual canon) Aster is an omega and thinks the whole thing is stupid. Eon is a beta and Trollack is an alpha.

the end, if you read all this, wow, I am really impressed and sorry

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

ok, if i don’t write this im gonna lose my mind -cue dmx ‘party up’-

here is a ridiculously detailed analysis of why i am bordering on near certainty of caryl endgame, and how everything that’s been set up from the start of s9 (yes, even c@rzekiel and d@nnie) has been leading up to this

spoilers and long-winded analysis under the cut

let’s take this step-by-step, okay? starting with:

The Titles:

i have said this about a million times now, but the very first indication of caryl came from the new opening credits, where mmb’s name was very strategically placed above the graphic of daryl’s crossbow, what’s meant to symbolize henry’s pike, and a bunch of cherokee roses. it was foreshadowing, not only of henry’s death, but also how her relationship with daryl was going to unfold, and, bear with me here, the downfall of c@rzekiel. speaking of which, let’s go there

C@rzekiel:

i have also rambled about this, too, but the way that kang designed this relationship between zeke and carol was so brilliant, because it was never supposed to be real, but you weren’t able to fully see how until the whole story was laid out before us. (which goes with my belief that kang tells stories over long, connected archs, and not just “you know what would be fun to toss in here rn for some drama?” 

carol

1. denied zeke’s proposal

2. never once told him she loved him

3. explicitly told those saviors she could have done without her ring (a line that had absolutely no need to be in there)

4. continuously rejected the title of queen

5. regularly visited daryl in the woods

6. said herself that all it was, was a fairytale. something i’ll delve into more when i talk about carol’s ptsd

but let me touch on how daryl plays into this. we know she regularly went out into the woods to be with daryl, and she did it because he was her tether back to reality. she was living a fantasy life, and knew deep down that it wasn’t real, but had to do it, for henry’s sake, and for the sake of her mental health, because at the time of the relationship, she had not remotely begun to deal with any of her grief

the first scene we get with her and zeke is directly after daryl saves zeke’s life, which is telling. and the first time we hear her talk about her feelings about zeke’s proposal she turned down it’s with daryl, and let us not forget that the script notes stated that daryl was experiencing jealousy about it. he never asked her not to, though, because he thought she was happy, and that was more important to him than her being with him. he was willing to give her up if it meant she was happy, like what kind of angst trope suffering is that?? -chefs kiss-

and we can’t forget that zeke canonically views daryl as a threat to his marriage (i mean, rightfully so). he literally tells daryl to back off his wife so that he can fix their marriage, because he knows carol is starting to go back to him

next!

flowers:

flowers have been being used as symbolism between these two across the past two seasons a bunch. flowers are in mmb’s title card. the first scene of carol/daryl in the time jump shows them seeing flowers. daryl brings carol a flower on the dinner tray. one of the upcoming episodes is “look at the flowers”. obviously the cherokee rose scene is iconic between them, and flowers to carol represent this weird dichotomy. on the one hand, they represent daryl comforting her and giving her hope, and on the other hand, they represent her downfall mentally from the grove. interesting that one of the threads throughout this current season is carol grappling between trying to stay grounded with daryl, and her losing herself to her grief

speaking of grief!

Carol’s PTSD:

people have bitched that kang is just telling carol’s same storyline all over again, to which i’m like, tf show are you watching?? here’s what kang has done. gimple dealt with carol by literally just locking her away in a house to mull over how terrible she is a person, while never once actually dealing with her grief, and then handed that over to kang as a boiling slop of diarrhea, and somehow kang managed to take that, perform alchemy, and turn it into delicious loving carol juice.

she had henry killed off to parallel sophia, yes, that’s true, but the /reason/ she did that is because she’s righting the wrongs that were done to carol by essentially rewriting her storyline the way it should have gone. carol has lost So Much. more than most, i think, and kang is like, “that would fuck someone up pretty fucking bad, i think, so let’s see her actually have to grapple with that.” kang stays true to the carol gimple created, in that her instinct is to run away (think boat), but she’s using daryl as a means of forcing her to confront her demons. the two of them, at any given time, are running away from their struggles, but daryl is finally at a place of stability, and so he’s taking carol by the hand and saying, “no. i’m not letting you do this again. you have to stay,” and carol does, because she loves him, but consequently she’s having to actually feel it (something she explicitly stated she “can’t let herself do”), and is now experiencing the consequences of it, and poor daryl is stuck trying to handle it. his entire plotline this season has revolved around trying to help carol heal her wounds so that they can finally be together the way they should have been ten years ago.

they should be together, and daryl shouldn’t be with anyone else? glad you asked, because that brings us to:

D@nnie:

i actually think that kang never meant to make daryl/connie a ship, bc nothing in season 9 really indicated anything more than a mutual respect, and part of me truly believes that she saw the reaction to the two of them, and was like, “you know what? i can work with this.”

carol is pushing daryl towards connie because she wants to take alpha down and knows she might go down with her and she needs to know daryl won’t be alone. that’s it. period. end of sentence.

but okay, let’s extrapolate. she asks him if he’s interested in connie, and daryl very, very bluntly says no. you can’t tell me that his answer was meant to be evasive. he delivered that line like straight up “no.” no room for debate about his feelings. if they wanted to leave room for doubt they would have had norman redo his delivery, because it is too obvious. he is shutting it down completely. and carol is like, “why not?” and /that’s/ when daryl gets evasive. very “don’t worry about it, why are you worrying about it, i’m not in love with you, shut up.” 

fucking kills me, guys.

now the current spoilers about carol telling daryl to get angry at her for (supposedly/probably) killing connie furthers this belief that she wants daryl to pull away from her. because he’s her tether, she loves him, and as long as he still wants her around she can’t leave. she wants him to hate her, and daryl refuses. he’s pissed as all get out about what she did, sure, but he doesn’t hate her. also, the idea that daryl going back to try and save connie and magna means he’s in love with connie is absolutely baffling. have you met daryl? his instinct is to save people at all costs. he wouldn’t leave his friends stuck in a fucking cave, are you serious? just because connie is a woman doesn’t mean daryl wants to fuck her. he’s allowed to care about his friends.

but anyway, the point here is that every “d@nnie” spoiler has been music to my ears, bc not once has it been actually shippy. that first episode with the asl book and them together? it was supposed to juxtapose zeke and carol, and how carol and daryl immediately forgot about connie and zeke in order to be with each other. every other thing with connie has either been very cute and platonic, or has been carol trying to push her on daryl. -chefs kiss- my dudes, you’re worrying about nothing

Misc bc I’m Late for Work:

here are just a handful of other indicators that caryl is on the horizon

-the dream where she dreams she’s MARRIED TO DARYL, and the scenes where she wakes up in bed and looks over and he’s not there. why set that up if the end result isn’t going to be them together in bed?

-the bracelet/the acorns and what they symbolize 

-the use of “we” (”we don’t sleep” “it was like that for us before all of this” “since when have we never been enough?” etc)

-their parallels to alpha/beta (see my other long-winded text post on that one)

-ten years worth of history between them!!! that kang understands and references (carol’s claustrophobic, look at the flowers, etc)

so anyway, i don’t have time to tie this up with a nice bow bc i really have to get to work, but this is all to say that i am very very confident about the caryl endgame. i think it’s being drawn out bc kang needs to right the wrongs done by gimple first, but that caryl is where she’s eventually headed. every spoiler has been 100% caryl positive to me. i am zen af, and i think you should be too.

i’ll add to this if i think of anything i missed, but here you go. caryl is endgame and they gon fuck

the end,

-diz   

[thecleverdame]

Gods of Twilight - 14

Alpha!Werewolf!Sam x Human!Reader

Master List (posting schedule is there as well)

Summary: You marry Sam, The King of Lebanon, as part of an alliance between two lands. You soon discover that nothing is as it appears and that your husband is hiding a secret that may end your relationship before it can begin.

Warnings: smut, dub-con, canon-level violence, domestic discipline, spanking

Beta:  @ilikaicalie​

*This story is complete. All 27 chapters are available on Patreon. To get access to this and many other stories, subscribe for a pledge of 2.50 per month. CLICK HERE

-

Golda told you about the ruins of a Cathedral near the southern border of Lebanon. The immense structure is now little more than the skeleton of a church that was ravaged by fire a lifetime ago. The natural explorer in you hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it.

The past couple of months had brought snow for weeks on end, but there’s a break in the weather. The sun is shining through your window for the first time in forever and you’re interest is renewed. You plead with Sam to allow you to venture out. He was skeptical at first, he’s getting ready to lead a party out to the borderlands and he’s been hesitant for you to venture outside the castle without him.

In the end, he agrees, but with terms. While he can’t go himself he’s entrusted you to the always faithful Philip. But he wasn’t satisfied with just one knight.

That’s how Dean ended up riding beside you, one hand gripping the reins as he looks off into the distance.

Each breath puffs out in a hot little cloud, the air is icy but you’re plenty warm, wrapped in a thick fur cloak.

“Thank you for accompanying me,” you look to Dean who remains stoic.

“I wasn’t given much of a choice,” he grumbles, pursing his lips in indignation.

“Still,” you press, refusing to let him sour your mood. “The fresh air is invigorating, even if it’s a bit nippy.”

“I’ve had enough fresh air for a lifetime.” He shifts in his saddle.

He’s a handsome man, there’s no denying that, but his awful disposition has made him less and less appealing as time goes by.

“And how are you this afternoon, Philip?” You turn the one person you’re always able to depend on for a kind word, even if half of what he tells you is designed to placate you.

“Very well, my queen,” he nods, his eyes darting from Dean to you. “Always a pleasure to be out of the castle.”  

“It’s some solace knowing that not everyone is tortured with my presence.”  

Dean groans, rolling his eyes and giving his horse a kick as he rides ahead.

“We’re close,” Philip explains, remaining at your side. “The ruins are just through that tree line.”

He points off into the distance and through the naked branches of the dead forest, you can see a crumbling spire reaching upward toward the sky.

“It must have been enormous if that’s the leftover.”

Philip nods. “It was. People came from hundreds of miles to worship here. The place still feels sacred, even what’s left of it. Come on, there’s a path just head.”

You follow Philip through the forest and out into the clearing. As the trees open up there are the ruins of the mighty cathedral. Half of it still stands perfectly erect, as if God himself reached down and sliced the stone in two. What still stands is long charred from fire and smoke, still black from the flames all those years ago. The other half of the structure is nothing more than a low stone outline, showing where the outer wall of the far side of the church used to be.

Dean is milling around, gathering kindling to make a fire. He doesn’t even look up as you dismount and hand the reins of your horse off to Philip. The knight throws your saddlebag over his shoulder, following as you make your way around the ruins. It’s easy to imagine what this looked like before, grand and opulent, especially for a cathedral tucked into the countryside.

You find a spot with the best view and then take the bag from Philip, pulling out parchment and coal for drawing. You’re a terrible artist but enjoy it nonetheless. Trying to put the image on paper somehow sears the details into your brain.

For several hours you draw, then read a bit before feeling true cold set in. The afternoon must be fading as foretold by the severe drop in temperature. Dean’s fire is still smoldering and he warms you a cup of pine tea before the journey home. It’s warm in your hands and even warmer down your throat.

“Thank you,” you nod, savoring every bit of heat you can.

Dean shrugs, taking a nip from his flask. “I can’t have you freezing to death. Sam would kill me.”

“I’m still grateful-”

“Don’t do that.” He cuts you off, looking you dead-on for the time first today. “There’s no need for your polite production when it’s just us.”

“It’s not a production,” you respond calmly. “I’d hoped that perhaps some time together would help to foster our relationship, but I can see I was wrong.”

“You can’t help yourself can you?” Dean snickers, holding his hands out to heat them by the fire.

“Help myself from what? I’m simply trying to suss out exactly why it is you hate me so,” you spit back, feeling your hackles rise.

“Everything you do is a dance, carefully choreographed to fit into whatever the situation brings. My brother is blinded by his lust for you but I’m not as easily fooled. I haven’t yet figured out what it is that you want, but I will. I see you for what you are.” He’s agitated, cheeks blooming redder in the fading light.

You’re dumbfounded, staring at him in genuine confusion.

“And what exactly is it that you think I am?”

“I’m not sure. But you set yourself up quite nicely to appear as some sort of saint, defending the poor and unvalued. The way you came here, the way you’ve wormed your way into Sam’s head by getting into his bed. I see it all. And I’m not the only one.”

“Excuse me,” you gasp, taken aback. “I’ll not have the intimate details of my marriage made a topic of conversation.”

“It’s far too late for that. Besides, you don’t think Sam told me straight away the first time he fucked you? Knotted you? You’ve got him spinning, he’s so enamored he can’t see the forest through the trees.”

“You will not speak to me like this.” You sputter, trying to stand but slipping on the hardening snow only to sit back down, anger building inside you. “You are out of line.”

“Please,” Dean’s on a roll now, unable to temper his disdain as he glares at you. “The worst part of all this that you don’t even understand what it is that you’re playing at. After Ruby, I thought he’d learned his lesson. But I should have known he’ll always be deceived by a beautiful face. He’s supposed to be the one with the level head but not with you whispering to him in the night like some kind of siren.”

“Stop!” You cry, clutching your fists. Tears spill over the edge of your eyes, utterly gutted by his unwarranted hostility. He hates you. No, this is more than hate.

Somewhere along the way you’ve become the enemy.

“You’re brave though, I’ll give you that.” He laughs dryly, waving his finger. “Telling him to stay in your bed during his rut-”

“He can’t!” It’s Philip who pipes up, the exclamation leaving his lips before he can stop himself, but Dean doesn’t seem to mind his reaction.

“Aye,” Dean nods, looking from Philip to you. “She’s convinced him that it’s the only way.”

“He’s my husband!” you spit back, leaning forward to counter. “A wife wanting to keep her husband from another woman is certainly not out of the ordinary.”

“And if you survive it, he’ll be even more bewitched, won’t he? Wrapped around your finger out of loyalty and obligation. My God,” Dean hisses, unrestrained disgust seeping from his veins. “It must be worth it, whatever it is that you have planned. And if it doesn’t work out you won’t be around to reap the consequences. He’ll never be able to forgive himself if he hurts you, and if all goes well you’ll give him a child by this time next year. No would be able to touch you after that.”

“You sir, are out of line,” you whisper, vibrating with anger and shock, hardly able to believe what you’re hearing.

“Sam always said I was the one who was out of control but there’s something between your legs that melts his reason-”

“Enough,” Philip is beside you now. Your eyes widen as he stands tall and Dean rises in opposition. He shouldn’t speak, certainly not challenge the brother of the king. “You don’t hear the things I hear. He hurts her, she calls out when he’s-”

Philip realizes his insolence mid sentence, stopping short and looking in horror to Dean.

“I’m so sorry, my lord.” He bows his head, clasping his hands together.

“Watch your tongue,” Dean snorts, turning at you. “You think you have everyone fooled, but not me, little witch. I’m watching.”

He kicks a load of snow onto the fire and heads toward his horse.

“We should go, the sun will be setting soon and you need to back inside the walls before dark.” Philip walks off as well, leaving you by the dying fire in shock and confusion.

-

You’re seated in front of the fire in a self-made nest of blankets, trying to get warm. Your mother always told people you have thin blood, every time there was a breeze you asked for a cloak and in the winter you were never able to stay warm. It’s worse here, Lebanon has brutal winters and once you get cold it’s nearly impossible to warm up.

Watching the flame you replay Dean’s words over and over in your brain. You’ve rarely been on the receiving end of such contempt, even your mother was far more uninterested than spiteful, but Dean hates you with a vengeance, that much is clear.

You’ve just fallen asleep when Sam returns, inching into the room trying to stay quiet. He spots you asleep on the floor and smiles, untying his cloak and toeing off his boots.

Hearing the rustle you sit up, spying him in the shadows.

“Hello,” you mumble, wiping at your cheeks. “You’re late, I was starting to worry.”

“We got caught up…” he cocks his head, reaching into the basin of water on the side table, splashing water on his face and rinsing his hands off. “Have you been crying?”

“No,” you sniffle, rolling your eyes at your inability to remain composed. “Perhaps a bit.”

“Why?” He slinks toward you, illuminated by the firelight. Watching you carefully he sinks down, reaching out to cup your jaw. “Did someone hurt you?”

“Your brother is an absolute ass.” You shake your head. Dean’s awful words come back into memory, spurring more tears. “And I am a child for letting his words bother me so.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Sam rumbles, reaching out and scooting forward in tandem until you're between his legs. Big, strong arms engulf you as you rest your cheek against his shoulder. “You’re shivering, did you just return?”

“No, the midwife thinks I have poor veins.” Feeling the warmth and strength you felt against his chest, happy to have at least one person who wants you in his life. “Please, don’t tell Dean I was like this. I shouldn’t like to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had such an effect on me.”

“What did he say?” Sam strokes your hair softly, his chin resting on top of your head.

“Nothing that I wish I repeat.”

Above all else, you’re stubborn. You always have been. Telling you not to do something only sparks the need for you to prove your aforementioned detractor wrong. And you’re going to prove Dean wrong.

“Let’s go to bed,” Sam presses a kiss into your hair. “Take your nightdress off, it’ll be easier to warm up that way.”

You both disrobe, crawling into the cold bed only to be surrounded by Sam’s raw, animal heat. His body radiates warmth, his skin on yours does the trick as you sink into this safe place.

“Sam, you’ll stay with me when your rut comes, won’t you?” you whisper, wiggling your backside into the softness of his belly. “You promised me you would try. I need to know you won’t go to her.”

“This is what you’re worried about?” His lips are at your shoulder, hot breath curling like smoke that sends a shiver down your spine. “What did my brother say to you?”

“This isn’t about him. I need to hear you say the words, promise me.”

Sam hums at the shell of your ear before nuzzling his nose into your hair. “I promise you.”

[your-turn-to-role]

ayyyyy happy 4/13 have my second list of classpects, vox machina edition! (@lostsometime to add to the homestuck au)

(m9 here)

vex - thief of mind

vax - rogue of blood

percy - witch of light

keyleth - page of breath

scanlan - thief of life

grog - prince of rage

pike - heir of space

tary - witch of mind

first off, there are a couple copies here, and they don’t have a time player, so vox machina on their own could not win the game. but hey, weird plot shit exists, and the alpha kids managed it by combining their session with the beta kids, so who knows how this would go

(explanations under the cut)

1) vex - thief of mind

vex has a lot of ideas about her sense of self. but when you get right down to it, none of them are actually about her sense of self, and rather about how people see her. image is important to mind players, but it’s not really linked with identity. in fact, the canon description of mind players states they have very fluid, shifting concepts of identity, it’s far more important to them that they remain rational and have a logical line of reasoning than sticking to things just because they feel right or wrong. and i think this is very true for vex, she doesn’t often doubt herself, but she doesn’t really know who she is, beyond just what she’s trying to emulate or avoid.

thief bc she’s still one of the stealth twins, it is very her thing, but she’s definitely the louder of the two, the thief demands to be known, the rogue quietly assists. she’s headstrong, stubborn, and the world owes her everything it’s taken from her, which she definitely plans to steal back. and honestly that’s her right and i love her.

2) vax - rogue of blood

god i really love the fact that the twins are a thief/rogue pair, it not only fits who they are as people but vex being the active version of vax’s passive class and vice versa fits so well

(also fun fact, i have something of a personality test/checklist i grade characters on when i’m struggling to figure out their class or feel like i’m being biased towards one particular classpect. there’s 15 possible points per class, most characters will get a highest score of maybe 9 or 10, homestuck characters get something like 12-13. vax, however, does what no one else has ever done, and scored all 15 points in rogue. he is more rogue per rogue than any rogue in homestuck. 100% pure distilled rogue boy.)

personality quizzes aside though, he really is so obviously a rogue. he’s got everything of the thief archetype built into his entire character, but while a homestuck thief steals by their own will and for their own benefit, all of the rogue’s same actions go towards supporting their friends. also, as a passive class, their decisions tend to be less personal drive based and more guided by their aspect, as if the universe was working through them, which is definitely the case for our champion of the raven queen. they’ve been described in canon as the robin hood class, rebellious, but in an altruistic way. true punk. fuck the system, love recklessly

blood players need a family. they draw their strength from the bonds they have with those around them, they’re stubborn as all hell, especially when it seems like there’s no way out of a situation, but it’s in determination to protect their chosen family and keep everyone safe and happy. if they’re leaders, they’re inspirational ones rather than commanding ones. and this is “dramatic speeches about teamwork and morality” vax, “what the fuck do we have in this world except for moments with each other” vax, “how lucky i have been to have had all of you” vax. what else could he be?

3) percy - witch of light

so percy’s an interesting one, because i kinda wanna give him two classpects? like, if you classpect percy before or during the briarwood arc, he’s a prince of light. after that, he becomes way more of a witch. (though, to be fair, light players and witches are both incredibly prone to getting possessed, so, maybe he was a witch all along and just acted really prince-y)

he’s definitely an active class, no doubt about it. percy will fight gods to achieve his own ends. prince, being the most active class, and one designed to cause destruction, definitely suits orthax percy. but then things change, and you realise what he actually is

witches are manipulator classes, like knights, but active manipulator classes. they can’t create things out of nothing like some classes do, but instead bend and twist and transform their aspect (and the world around them, using their aspect) to achieve their goals. percy’s human, and not magic. he doesn’t have any particular special abilities in order to do things, he gets by on ingenuity and reckless bravery. that post that was going around a while ago about how all of vox machina are basically gods and percy’s just a guy with a gun does well to prove the point here, because he keeps up anyway. he’s made mistakes and there are things in the world now that he can’t change, but he does his best to work within those constraints and make as good of a world as he can with what he has

and what he has, usually, is knowledge. which is the main dominion of the light aspect, along with luck (and, you know, taliesin and dice rolling). light players are scholars first and foremost, but very rarely bookish scholars, instead the kind of scholars that think they can make a demon deal and get away with it because they’re clever enough for that, and also they’re extra enough that they’d do it anyway for the aesthetic

4) keyleth - page of breath

this was the easiest of all of these for me to do, it just slots so neatly into place. pages are a slow moving class that have to work their way around all the side quests before they get a lot of their power, but after that they’re powerhouses. they’re easily underestimated, by others and by themselves. keyleth takes a while to come to terms with herself and her power and her effect on the world, most of the plot takes place within her slowly completing her aramente, she often worries she won’t be good enough for anything that’s expected of her, but once she hits level 20 she is a master of the elements, a true leader of her people, and literally unkillable.

breath fits for two reasons. the first is being the aspect of freedom, of acting without being controlled by anyone else’s thoughts or decisions. and keyleth, for all her anxiety and all her bad luck, has never made a choice she didn’t agree with. along with vax she’s the first to speak up when she feels like the group’s moral choices aren’t holding up to her standards, when they’re moving in a direction that isn’t right. the second is that it’s the aspect of air, and the wind, and she’s literally the leader of the air ashari. she can and does in fact do the windy thing

5) scanlan - thief of life

we’ve covered life already in my nott/veth explanation, but it really is so scanlan. look at this excerpt and tell me it’s not written for scanlan shorthalt

[If you're poisoned, chances are the Life-bound have something for what ails ya. This applies to both physical and mental suffering, though it might not be a cure you'll like. They also have the tendency to put other's needs before their own, which never ends well for anyone, because the Life-bound can grow bitter if they feel their own self-care has had to be shunted aside.]

figuring out class was harder? a lot of vox machina classes are pretty difficult to figure out. prince would work to an extent because of scanlan’s self destructive tendencies, bard would work to an extent because he often feels like things are out of his hands, but i think i’m going with thief. scanlan’s more of an active class, despite playing support in dnd, he’s very self motivated and not one to listen much to the guidance of the universe. thief i feel fits with the headstrong attitude, the creative out of the box thinking, and the need for attention in a very specific way (less so having people celebrate you, scanlan enjoys that but can easily shrug it off if it doesn’t happen, it’s more causing things for the sake of knowing and having other people know that you caused them)

6) grog - prince of rage

honestly this is the one i’d be most willing to bend on? it, took me forever to come up with any kind of classpect for grog, he seems to resist being classpected. i know a lot about him as a person, but translating that into either class or aspect was just hard. but i’ve gone with prince because grog’s never stopped for anyone (except maybe pike), because it’s a destruction based class, because it’s the most active on the scale, and grog is definitely one to go do things purely because he wants to do things and wants to do them now.

rage because rage players are about truth at all costs, even if that cost is often destabilizing entire systems and leaving the rubble to pick itself back up. and it makes me think about how grog has never really wanted to disguise himself, and especially about just before the kevdak fight - he knew he would probably get killed if he went back there as himself, but he refused to go in under false pretenses, because that wouldn’t be right

7) pike - heir of space

ashley’s just always drawn to those heirs. i think though with pike it definitely is a consequence of her being in and out a lot, because she’s not just an heir, she’s an heir of space.

heirs tend to stumble into their role rather than creating it or seeking it out. on a meta level, ashley only created pike because the team needed a cleric and she worked it out from there, but as far as pike herself is concerned, she doesn’t really know what she’s supposed to be doing or what her purpose is, but she’s been trying to do her best to follow sarenrae’s teachings, trying to do her best to guide her friends, and hoping that nothing goes wrong along the way.

space, too, is an aspect of patience. it’s about valuing the journey more than the destination, it’s about seeing what the universe has in store for you and trusting that it’s just as likely to turn out good as it is bad - you’ll know when the time comes to step in, at which point space players are pretty fierce fighters. but for now, for pike, it’s trying to help her friends one step at a time

8) tary - witch of mind

tary is like percy but cheating. he has a lot more resources to work with bc he just goes out and buys shit. but the witch reasoning still stands, they are very similar people in that respect, good at working within a set of restraints so well you don’t even notice the restraints are there

mind rather than light because, tary doesn’t quite hunger after knowledge in the same way. instead he’s much more concerned with the application of it, of how to get from point a to point b as efficiently as possible, and how that benefits him. (also because he’s not nearly as extra as light players. have you met light players? like i love them but jesus christ. who let them be Like That)

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2019 Day 1: Alpha/Beta/Omega AU

Failing Is What You're Good At | @camerahead12​ Rating: Explicit Word Count: 14498 Main Tags and Warnings: Heavy angst, physical/emotional absue, minor character death mentioned, true mates, scent bonding, Summary: All Dean ever wished for was to see the ocean. It was an ever present, constant hum inside that beckoned him to the blue waters. He knew, deep down, he would probably never make it to the other side of the states. Life hasn't handed him a lot of passes, but still he was doing alright. Living, surviving, and beating the odds was what he was good at. Everything thrown at him made him that much stronger. And with that strength he felt sure he could take on anything. Maybe one day his reward would be to see that ocean. Maybe one day he'd follow the hum deep inside and find home.

Oddly Shaped Empty | @jemariel​ Rating: Explicit Word Count: 65726 Main Tags and Warnings: Dean/Cas, past Dean/others, beta!Dean, alpha!Cas, roommates, mating cycles/in heat, scent marking, mating bites, gender dysphoria, domestic fluff Summary: Dean grew up thinking -- knowing -- he'd be an alpha. Until he failed to present. As a beta, he has no mating cycle, no noticeable pheromones, none of the physical markers that are so important in a world of alphas and omegas. He's out of place. How is he supposed to navigate his relationships and find love when he doesn't fit into the neatly-defined boxes he's used to? By the time he meets his new roommate, Castiel, he's more or less given up on finding a mate. He wears his secondary gender like a chip on his shoulder. But you never know what the future holds, who will come into your life, and how they might change it forever..... Queer themes, finding identity, reconciling the past, and a whole lot of smut.

The Samhain Trials | @jemariel​ Rating: Explicit Word Count: 8068 Main Tags and Warnings: a/b/o, omega!Dean, alpha!Cas, historical/fantasy setting, soulmates, soulmate-identifying marks, Summary: On Samhain night, the veil is thin, not only between the spirit world and our own, but between humankind and their inner natures. Every year, the hunt is run. Alphas and omegas brave the woods in search of glory and passion. Every year, Dean Winchester comes out alone. The soulbrand on his neck means that he has a True Mate, and what should be a blessing has only been a curse. He hopes, and he waits, and this year his soulbrand has been itching as if it were newly risen. It's nearly sundown.

"What The Fuck Is A/B/O?!" | @spinnerjen​ Rating: Explicit Word Count: 25264 Main Tags and Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Summary: A witch unleashes the A/B/O virus... and it changes everything.

This Alpha's Army | @crowley-loves-usuk Rating: Explicit Word Count: 34800 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamic, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Attempted Sexual Assault, Alpha!Dean, Omega!Cas, Mating, Omega Rights, Strong Omega, Alternate Universe: Military, mpreg, smut, fluff Summary: Lieutenant Castiel Novak is an Omega who has always dreamed of following in his Alpha brother's footsteps by joining a combat unit in the military. Never mind that Omegas aren't allowed into combat. He has worked his entire career for this moment, but it all might come crashing down when he meets his new commanding officer, Captain Dean Winchester. When Cas is sent in for Alpha training as the first Omega in history to do so, he finds himself falling hard for his trainer.

Heaven Scent | @crowley-loves-usuk Rating: Explicit Word Count: 23580 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha!Cas, Omega!Dean, brief Dean/Arthur Ketch (not explicit), Mating Cycles/In Heat, Accidental Mating, Scent Marking, Nesting, John Winchester being an asshole, minor Ketch/Davis (not explicit), minor Sabriel (explicit) Summary: When Dean Winchester presents as an Omega, his parents arrange a marriage to Arthur Ketch. Dean hates Arthur and spends his days dreaming of marrying a mate that he loves. When his mother finally forces him to begin planning his upcoming wedding, Dean never expects that the wedding planner would be the Alpha of his dreams...

The Worst Blind Date | @andromachewritesstuff Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6449 Main Tags and Warnings: From AO3: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Top Castiel, Bottom Dean Winchester, Knotting, Referenced Mpreg, Explicit Sexual Content, Past Lisa Braeden/Dean Winchester Summary: “Dean, please, c’mon!” “I said no, Charlie.” “Please? For me?” “So, what, you’re setting me up with this guy for you? Gee, thanks, Charles. That definitely makes me want to say yes.” When Charlie tries to set up Dean with Castiel Novak, Charlie won't take "no" for an answer. So, Dean decides to make the whole thing the worst blind date in history. Except, maybe this wasn't the worst idea after all? And maybe Dean realizes a little too late?

More than Enough | @andromachewritesstuff Rating: Explicit Word Count: 7463 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Infertility, Fertility Issues, fertility treatments, Mpreg, Past Miscarriages, discussion of miscarriage, Pregnancy, Medical Examinations and Procedures, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, non-graphic childbirth, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Bottom Dean Winchester, Top Castiel, Explicit sexual content, Trying To Conceive, Dean Winchester Has Self-Esteem Issues, Depression, Established Relationship Summary: Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak were happily-mated, successful thirty-somethings. They owned their own home, had good jobs, and a few years ago decided they were ready to start a family. Three years later, they're still struggling. They're also still in love, and still hopeful that this time, maybe, it will work.

Christmas Treats and Angel Heats | @malmuses Rating: Explicit Word Count: 19966 Main Tags and Warnings: A/B/O, Canon Divergent, Alpha Dean, Omega Cas, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Wing Kink Summary: Angels don't have a sex, or gender, nevermind a secondary gender—right? At least, that's what the Winchesters have been led to believe. It's Christmas, and Dean misses his angel friend. He's been AWOL for days, and the Winchesters are worried. When Cas returns to the bunker on Christmas Eve, very clearly in heat, a few of their assumptions are going to have to change. Oh, and Dean is going to have to hide his feelings for Cas in the face of the news that the angel is an unmated omega, who desperately needs their help.

Fresh Horses | @navajolovesdestiel Rating: Explicit Word Count: 11606 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe, Omega Dean, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Mpreg, Miscarriage, Knotting, Light BDSM, Daddy Kink Summary: When Dean gets caught sneaking into the Angels' Den, Castiel Novak's BDSM club, Cas takes a special interest in the kid.

demo day | @reallyelegantsharkfish Rating: Explicit Word Count: 15904 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, trans alpha, Alpha Castiel, Omega Dean, Reality TV ,Contractor Dean Winchester, Designer Castiel, Mutual Pining, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mating Bites, Fixer Upper AU, Nesting, Scent Marking, Mates , HGTV Summary: “Guess what today is?” Dean says, grinning into the camera. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Cas rolling his eyes with a smile touching his mouth. Dean unbuttons the top few buttons of his plaid shirt and pulls it apart, Superman style, to show the words DEMO DAY printed across the t-shirt on his chest. “Demo day!”

Forever's As Far As I'll Go | @roobear68  Rating: Explicit Word Count: 9789 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, true mates, newly human Castiel, Castiel in the bunker, knotting, mating bites Summary: When Cas arrives at the bunker after being thrown from heaven, Charlie was the only one there. The boys are on a vamp-nest hunt in Vermont...28 hours away. Cas had just presented as an omega. And he wants Dean.

Delicious, Delirious | @suckerfordeansfreckles Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1923 Main Tags and Warnings: alpha/beta/omega dynamics, alpha!Cas/omega!Dean, true mates, pure smut Summary: "God, I’ve been waiting for this for weeks,“ Dean murmurs when he breaks away from Cas’ lips to take some deep breaths. "Yeah, me too,“ Cas says against his neck as he peppers kisses to it. "You are so beautiful, you smell so goddamn perfect. Why did I ever think waiting to do this would be a good idea?“ "Shit, I don‘t know.“ (Or: Dean met his true mate Cas three weeks ago, they decided to wait before jumping into bed, they are crazy desperate for each other, and finally give in to the tension)

No Righteous Path | @jupiterjames Rating: Explicit Word Count: 111944 Main Tags and Warnings: alpha Dean, Omega Castiel, Professor!Castiel, Handyman!Dean, late life falling in love, low-angst AU, religious! Castiel, Mating, Bonding, alcohol use Summary: On his 40th birthday, Dean Winchester suddenly begins to worry that he may have lost his chance for a real mate. He's been so focused on his business as a 24-hour roofing and repairman, that he's never taken the time to date properly, or even make any lasting friendships outside of his family. Beginning in their late 30's, alphas and omegas start to lose their mating and bonding hormones, making it more difficult - and often impossible - to mate or bond with anyone past a certain age. But as a modern Alpha, Dean would be content with a companion, at least. Blood bonds aren't the be-all, end-all. However, after a late night emergency roofing repair call from Castiel Novak, Omega, Dean starts to hope. Yearn. The only hangup is that Castiel admits to being as old-fashioned as the books he teaches. Nervous to go against his religious upbringing by being with someone who he can't bond properly, as alphas and omegas are intended to do. But he can't deny his attraction to Dean, and despite his sensibilities, he thinks that, just maybe, he can change for the man he's falling in love with.

Just Here For A Good Night | @saltnhalo Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6646 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha Cas, Omega Cas, frat boy Cas, PWP, Dom/sub undertones Summary: In which Dean is looking to get laid at an Alpha Phi Alpha party, and sets his sights on Castiel, who's just trying to make sure that nothing bad happens on his watch.

What The Rain Brings | @saltnhalo

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6043 Main Tags and Warnings: Omega Dean, alpha Cas, college AU, true mates Summary: In which Castiel's new roommate—supposed to be an alpha, under the guidelines of the college dorms—turns out to be a) late, and b) a beautiful, sarcastic, drenched omega.

What Are the Odds? (WIP) | @imbiowaresbitch

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 68616  Main Tags and Warnings:mpreg, homophobia, violence, referenced rape, underage pregnancy (not Cas or Dean) Summary: Alpha Cas picks up Omega Dean at a bar, and they quickly realize they're True Mates. Life quickly gets interesting.

In This Life | @lemonsorbae Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1250 Main Tags and Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Mpreg, Fluff and Angst Summary: Dean and Cas are anxious about becoming new parents.

The Scent | @angelneedshunter Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 1120 Main Tags and Warnings: Kidnapping Summary: Dean has been searching for Cas for months when he finally catches a scent.

Omega sense and Alpha sensibility | @msarahv Rating: Mature Word Count: 27483 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe - Regency, Omega Castiel, Alpha Dean Winchester, Alpha Sam Winchester, Omega Gabriel, Angst with a Happy Ending Summary: After his father's passing, Castiel is destitute. He meets Dean Winchester, a delicate, sensitive Alpha and falls for him. But what can he do when he has no money or beauty to offer?

For Every Alpha an Omega | @thursdays-fallen-angel Rating: Explicit Word Count: 123674 Main Tags and Warnings: Canon Divergent, alpha!Cas, omega!Dean Summary: Things never go according to plan. Not when Castiel visits a strip club and finds his other half in Dean, who is definitely not the omega mate an alpha would typically expect to have. Not when Dean launches a search for his missing father, which starts with a paradigm-shifting trip to Palo Alto. And most definitely not when they face off against a demon army with a leader they are powerless against.

In My Heart's Territory | @cas-lost-grace Rating: Explicit Word Count: 14476 Main Tags and Warnings: Pack Dynamics, Mating Cycles/In Heat, True Mates, Enemies to Lovers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Porn with Feelings, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean, Mating Bond, Mating Bites, Top Castiel, Bottom Dean Summary: There’s a packless individual in Cas’ territory. When he sets out to find them he expects a fight. What he doesn't expect is to find an omega who will change his life.

[dokidokiliteraturegirls]

 Hello everyone! Yui here, with today’s special feature, DDLitG Behind the Scenes: What’s the deal with Ako?

In this special update we’ll talk about her character in general, design, her place in the story, and more! So get comfortable in your seat, get yourself some good snacks, and let’s delve into the background of DDLitG’s 1st-ish original character~

Who is Ako?

Ako, formerly known as “female student”, was originally one of the many NPCs used by the game’s engine to fill its world with nondescript background characters, so as to make it feel less empty. However, Sayori took a special interest in her, and decided to befriend her, following the steps of a young MC who befriended Sayori in a similar situation and ended up saving her life. This would in turn allow Ako to grow as a character beyond her 1 line of coding and get her own sprites, as well as being able to interact with the world. She would later go on to fall in love with Sayori and shenanigans ensue.

Ako was created with the purpose of telling the story of the Friendship arc.

Designing Ako.

Let me make one thing clear: I’m not a character designer. I don’t know jack about it besides the very basics. But I did try to make someone who looked mildly original and, most importantly, different from the other girls.

Originally, she was going to be the image of a shy, fragile girl who Sayori befriended out of pity, more than anything. Based on this initial idea, I made this beta Ako design on one of my copybooks when I should’ve been working:

As you can see, her very first sprite was the one where she’s shyly looking away to avoid eye contact (and to seem annoying, but more on that later). I was happy with the pose but not with her face, as it looked super unoriginal. She resembled Ochako Uraraka from My Hero Academia a bit too much, so I tried to change her hair to make her stand out more. Here is her second iteration:

This time, I felt like I cranked it up too much to the other side. Now she stood out TOO much. Her hair felt like it came more from a protagonist than someone who’s supposed to be a background character. I adopted a new philosophy after seeing this result: she had to look as bland as possible. She had to be the kind of character you see all the time in the background of an anime - those simple, unassuming designs you’d never look twice at because you’re too focused on the protagonists with candy-coloured hair. In DDLitG’s canon she’s a filler NPC brought to the forefront, and her design had to reflect that more than my desire to make her look “cool”.

With this in mind, we come to Ako v0.3

As you can see, this is much closer to her current design. But this was still a sketch (even the drawing above is very much unfinished). As you can see, I got closer to her 0.1 version with the hair, but changed the eyes to make them look more unique, giving her that more neutral, “nothing” expression. Having finally found some ground I was comfortable with, I redefined her design a little further, gave her some more details around the hair and clothes, adjusted the proportions of her body (because apparently I draw heads huge), and made her finalized design.

I was happy.

What’s with this sassy... monochrome child?

If there’s one constant to be found in the pictures above, is that she was always meant to be black and white. There are plenty of reasons, which I’ll list because, honestly, there are a lot.

1. I didn’t want to look her like the rest of the cast at fucking all. She is an OC introduced in a story with already established characters made by a much more talented writer. She’s an outsider, someone who doesn’t belong with this cast of colorful characters, and I wanted readers to be able to tell that at first glance. No, she’s not like the other girls. They don’t belong in the same place. She is not a member of the original DDLC cast, and it shows.

2. I know I can’t draw as well as Satchely, so trying to copy DDLC’s art style would just end up looking awkward and wrong. I had no choice but to do my own thing. And if I’m doing my own thing, why not take it all the way? I already gave myself artistic freedom, I might as well go crazy with it~

3. I just adore characters in a fictional universe that look different from the rest of the cast or have some strange design choice for literally no reason. Like Krillin from Dragonball, with his eyes that make him look like he belongs in an entirely different manga...

...or even Jotaro Kujo, whose hat merges with his hair because why not!

I live for dumb crap like that.

4. A huuuuuge inspiration for me while writing (besides my own uninteresting life) is music. Many times I listen to a specific track or imagine situations with specific background music to make them seem more real, and be able to better portray the feelings of a scene when writing [For example, I listened to My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parade a lot while writing Monika’s Death].

Ako’s creation was no exception. Her appearance was partially based on the cover for not only one of my favorite Vocaloid albums of all time, but one of my favorite albums period: Wowaka’s glorious Unhappy Refrain.

I’ve been writing stuff based on this album alone for years because it’s just so damn striking to me. The picture of the faceless schoolgirl falling into the unseen abyss, the background uninterested characters that imply they are used to seeing fellow girls suffer, the distorted world they live in, the album’s way to explore teenage depression, the freaking name of the album, EVERYTHING! IT’S SUCH A GOOD EXPLORATION OF THE DIFFICULT LIFE TEENS FACE THAT OFTEN GOES UNNOTICED!! AAAAAAHHHH IT’S SO GOOD.

5. Ako was also based on a previous design I made for another character meant for an original visual novel I was writing and I’m probably never going to finish, who was also going to be monochromatic to reference this album (in that context it made more sense though cuz every character was a musical reference).

This character, in turn, was based on Monoko from Yume Nikki, which is more obvious because of her crying eye and extra arm.

So basically at this point it would’ve been weird if I hadn’t made her monochromatic.

Naming Ako

This was one of the most difficult parts, ngl.

As I mentioned, Ako was originally going to be a fragile, shy girl. Based on this, her original name during the design face was Moromi, which is one more letter than “Moroi”, which Google translate promises me means “Brittle” or “Fragile” in Japanese.

However, after the philosophy change that happened during her conceptual stage, “Fragility” was no longer at the core of her character, as it was now “Nothingness/Blandness”. Because of this, I changed her name to “Ako”.

Many people have submitted their interpretations of the name, ranging from its meaning “To teach/to learn”, and “To yearn for”, which all fit better than the original tbh.

The intended meaning is for “Ako” to be read as “A-Ko”, which is a way by which Japenese media often refers to filler characters, as it translates to “Girl A”.

Examples of this can be seen in Super Danganronpa 2, where a character in a videogame is called “A-Ko” to hide their identity...

...and in a movie called “Project A-ko”, which was a parody of the anime tropes from the time, so they gave the protagonist the most generic name ever. The antagonist and side character, by the way, are called “B-Ko” and “C-Ko” respectively. This movie is fucking awesome.

This name also made sense in the context of the story, because we already had a character named “Student A”, so this goes to show that the game just gave Ako the default name it had stored for female NPCs.

Blinded Ako, or How I Learned to Convey Emotion Through Ahegao

When I came up with Ako, she was meant to have most of her character revolving around her infatuation with Sayori. She was, after all, written in the story with the purpose of falling in love with her, and nothing else. Her character, personality, likes/dislikes, and hobbies came afterwards. As the story progressed, however, I decided that she should have a personality separate from just being in love with another character. So to separate the actions she committed under the influence of her passion, I did a little design change in the middle of the arc: Blinded Ako.

In this version, Ako has been literally blinded by love and stops being rational. This is represented by the hearts covering her eyes, and clouding her judgement. This was done not only with the purpose of representing she was past her breaking point, but also to differentiate the Ako that makes mistakes with the Ako that was introduced in the beginning of the arc. Almost so as to make them two different characters, so when she is reintroduced as a regular character after Friendship, readers could think “oh, she’s not going to do dumb stuff again, she’s not blinded by love anymore.”

Many people compared the above panel with “ahegao”, a trope in hentai manga where a character does a silly face to represent them breaking from enjoying themselves so much. This was done partially on purpose. The main idea was to represent Ako being blinded by her infatuation for Sayori, not to equate her sate of being with anything sexual. It DID end up looking more hentai-esque than I expected though, as, well, Ako is in black and white, and the heart eyes are also a trope in ahegao. And she’s sweating. And she’s saying that she’s about to break....

.....

....well at least I drove my point home.

Ako’s musical influences

Above I mentioned how music was a big part of my inspiration, and how I listened to Welcome to the Black Parade while writing Monika’s Death, so the question in no one’s mind is: what music did Yui use as inspiration for Ako’s character and the arc? 🤔

Well, hypothetical reader, the answer is that since Ako was meant to be bland and flavour-free, her original depiction is not based on a song or anything. Her desperation towards Sayori and Blinded Ako, though, are based on TRONICBOX’s 80′s style remix of Ariana Grande’s Into You. And yes, this 80′s remix in specific. Not the original song. I highly encourage you to give it a listen and pay attention to the lyrics if you want an insight into how Ako was feeling during her breaking point.

Also, as a side note, no one has asked me this, but I imagine Ako’s voice to sound like the vocals of Panty and Stocking’s ending, Fallen Angel. It’s a truly beautiful song, and once again, I highly encourage you to give it a listen and pay attention tot he lyrics if you want an insight in Ako’s current feelings towards Sayori.

Ako’s reception

This is more something personal than an explanation of the character, but it’s something I want to share nonetheless.

Remember when I said Ako was meant to be annoying? Yeah... xD

When I decided to add a new character I did so under the idea that everyone was going to hate her, because it’s a purposefully boring OC made by some insane person with the sole purpose of being added to an already interesting and loved cast of characters just to fuck everything up.

The first scene I ever wrote for Ako was the part where Monika asked if she had hurt Sayori, and she said “Not intentionally...” while looking away, which is why her first sprite ever was in that position. She was meant to make people feel frustrated over this girl just looking away from her problems and avoiding responsibility, while also telling Monika to her face that she had done something bad to Sayori. Readers were expected to hate her. That’s why in the beginning she says she doesn’t like literature, to assure you that she’s not joining the literature club. That’s why there’s a scene where she gets punched in the face. That’s why she looks so extremely out of place.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DISLIKE HER!! omg I’m still surprised at how warm the reception was, you guys are just too nice for me~ ❤️

Because of the unexpected reception I had to change some parts of the arc, which were originally going to be much crueler towards her [I even questioned adding the punch at all, but it was an important part of Monika’s development so I felt it]. I also established her as a recurring character in spite of her dislike of literature, and did my best to make her less hate-able than she was originally going to be, even cutting some planned lines of dialogue that made her pretty irredeemable. Looking back, I am glad I did those changes, we ended up with a well-liked and pretty nice girl because of it~

Final thoughts

The introduction of Ako and writing Friendship in general was a very intense experience for me. It was very difficult to balance Ako as being both relevant to the story and moving the plot forward, but not make her the sole focus of everything and have her obscure everyone else, because OCs in established pieces of media tend to do that.

This arc also got a LOT of mixed reviews, some people liking it, some hating everything I did. This made me really question what I was doing and at many points even regret I was writing Friendship at all. At a certain point I lost almost 50 followers in a single update.

I also had trouble writing some parts because they were too sad. And that’s not my style! I like writing happy people being good friends, damn it, not everyone crying and hating each other.

But when all is said and done, I’m happy I wrote both Friendship and Ako into the story. I’ve received many wonderful, supportive messages telling me how much readers enjoyed it. Even some people saying they had been in a similar situation to the one depicted in the story, and were glad to see a story that showed a positive outcome.

Will I write more OCs into DDLitG?

Meh, who knows. I love writing more original stuff and expanding the world of DDLitG, but I also feel like if I introduce yet another OC, people will crucify me and hate me for flooding the story with too much stuff that’s irrelevant to the DDLC they’re used to. That being said, writing this blog is my first, and very possibly last chance to expose my stories to such a large audience. And seeing people like what you do not only because you’re riding the coattails of a recognizable brand, but because they like what you do with it, makes me pretty darn happy. Being completely honest, I’d like to add another character. But just one. And only if it’s something that will push both the story and the girls’ character arcs forward. Not just adding OCs for the sake of it.

Thanks for sticking until the end of this BTS, and I hope you found it an enjoyable read, or at the very least I made you a little bit less bored~ ❤️

Next time, in DDLitG Behind the scenes: What’s the deal with The Perfect Yuri?

[camilliar]

fic post

portrait of a julio-claudian man. (1/4)

pairings. jack/parse, past jack/bitty.

rating. r-nc17.

warnings. angst, abortion, weird family dynamics, no one in this fic is especially happy (...maybe Bitty), too many OCs, unreliable narrator.

summary. When everything is taken together—the abortion, the proposal, Thanksgiving dinner, his mother—Kent Parson has a very long November. 

thanks. to @querulousgawks for being an awesome beta and @tomatowrites for being an awesome salty co-conspirator.

a song rec to go with this. here you go.

really obnoxious author’s notes. I think it’s pretty obvious that I have two fannish moods: the ironic and the over-serious. When I got into OMGCP fandom I was working full-ironic, but the longer I’ve hung out here the more over-serious I’ve gotten, culminating in my posting the first chapter of a four-part clusterfuck that’s really GETTING AT SOME SHIT okay, there are some notes under the cut in which I attempt to explain what even??? Not that I think there is any possible explanation for this.

I get way too into meta, right, and this fic is nothing if not a series of exercises designed to engage with OMGCP fandom on two levels. On one I’m contributing to a very long history of stories where Kent Parson’s family unit consists of a single mother and younger sister; on another, it’s an attempt to seriously think out what would happen in a canon-compliant endgame Jack/Parse fic.

This fanon backstory for Kent, where he’s got a mom and sister, would probably be jossed pretty fast, were Ngozi to actually devote time to explaining Kent Parson beyond his basic function in the comic. Part of the appeal, I think, is that there aren’t that many lady characters in the comic, and although there are some good ones hanging out, conjuring up some female relatives for Kent Parson allows you to really go to town, and that’s fun. (What’s more fun than being in town?) Also, Kent represents the hockey establishment, and these ladies he gets to hang out with in fic temper his shittiness, if we want him to be likeable and balanced. Everything we know about him is tied up in hockey, so giving him relationships with women is anchoring him to something that’s, well, kind of the opposite of hockey.

That said, I had only read fics where this mom and sister duo were awesome and Kent had a great relationship with them. Please note, I have no problem with characters getting along with their parents, it’s just ... you know, if I’ve already read that, it’s more interesting for me to write an inversion, where maybe the mom isn’t so supportive, or maybe the sister is herself a flawed person, a Kent Parson of some other discipline. That said, the flavor of complicated family situation you’re most likely to run into around fandom is something that’s heavy on homophobia, and like, it’s not that I think there’s any end point to the homophobia we’re all gonna encounter, like, you know, it’s systemic and so on. But sometimes family dynamics go beyond caricatures of the impolitic, and I really did want to show something that’s difficult to unravel.

This gets at my other objective, because I think a major question hanging over the comic is why the fuck Kent wants to be with Jack anyway, like, other than a lack of closure, what was Kent getting there that he wants so badly to get back? I think Kent is going to reappear sooner rather than later, but I hardly believe we’re going to get real answers about his motivations. So I’m aimlessly theorizing in this story about what makes Jack a compelling object of Kent’s affections? This isn’t to say that people with whole and/or healthy families don’t experience unrequited love or spoiled entitlement, but I tried to think up the kind of family that would make Kent want something that has less to do with what Jack is able to give and more to do with what Kent is missing.

Kent is obviously a deeply flawed person, but like many people in this fandom I’m drawn to him because he seems to be functioning in a slightly realer world than the other characters. (Well, that’s one reason I’m drawn to him, and ironically I’m writing this at the same restaurant where I was sitting when I wrote this nearly a year ago, ha ha I need to stop having working lunches that devolve into meta deep-dives. I quote: ”Some of us have Kent Parson Disease, which is a hard thing to live with because it’s like a manageable fanfic condition until it’s not. Um. Anyway.”) He appears to be existing within the parameters of homophobia and playing in an NHL where maybe you don’t want to take your boyfriend to family skate. I guess some of what I did here, though I didn’t start out by framing it this way, is drag the rest of the comic into the world Kent seems to inhabit, whereas many fics that deal with Kent seem to be going in the opposite direction. I would guess that he gets folded into the comic in such a way that his ultimate role is in less discord than it has been on his appearances up to this point.

But since this fic is a continuation or a development of this one, it follows a storyline where Jack and Bitty’s relationship was subject to pressures it couldn’t ultimately withstand. But Kent wouldn’t have been present for that, and I don’t think Jack would give him an excellent or illuminating, even if flawed, impression of what had gone awry. Maybe Jack doesn’t know, or maybe Jack can’t stand thinking about his own mistakes, or maybe he just doesn’t want to give Kent the satisfaction of doing what looks, from the outside, like shitting on Bitty. There could eventually be a fic that bridges this one and the earlier one, will I finish writing it? Listen, I don’t know what I’m going to eat for dinner tonight, or if I’m gonna do my laundry today. But, I might, you know, certainly I wouldn’t have guessed I would finish this fic but here we fucking are.

Finally I will note that Kent is an unreliable narrator, but of the “he’s lying to himself” variety. A lot of what he thinks or assumes or interprets is ... not how you or I would think or assume or interpret, and sometimes he’s just wrong about things, so there’s that.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

I’m updating on Sundays, so like, expect more on December 3, 10, and 17. ... Ugh, fuck, I’m gonna be a on a train on Dec. 17. Well, we’ll figure it out.

[casualarsonist]

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story review

When Rogue One was released around this time last year, I wasn’t going to be caught dead watching it at a midnight premiere as I had for The Force Awakens. A deep disdain for TFA had settled in during the previous year, and news of reshoots and studio meddling during Rogue One’s production sent the message loud and clear that Disney had finally collated their data following Episode VII’s release and were now using its formula as a template for all further releases; aiming for what I believe to be a lowest common denominator approach had been a massive financial success, so why, as a business, would they want to change that approach? I know that in releasing a stand-alone film, Disney were indeed doing something out-of-the-box, so I can’t reasonably shit on them for EVERY decision they made, but it seemed that even then, my greatest fear was coming to bear - not that they would make shitty Star Wars films, but that they would make middling Star Wars films. And sure enough, the reviews largely bore out my premonitions, describing Rogue One positively but calling it disjointed, unnecessary, and lacking in significance in the same way that Episode VII did (although I would argue that the only thing of significance in TFA’s plot was when it disposed of a pivotal character).

But remember in the last review when I mentioned that hope? That terrible hope drew me back in. For no matter how simpering or weak a live-action Star Wars may be and no matter how hard I resist the pull, my curiosity always gets the better of me in the end. I wasn’t excited for Rogue One - Disney had managed to kill that for me - but I decided to see it none-the-less. And as I walked into the cinema I had this weird sinking feeling in my stomach (Christ I really am a fanboy, aren’t I?) as visions of half-finished plotlines, inconsequential Macguffin superweapons, and so. many. fucking. gags swam in my head. I mean really, the idea for Rogue One is about as safe as one could get given the supposed new ground that was being tread - it’s essentially a recreation/retconning of a backstory that has already been long established, and of which the entirety of the audience knows the end result (my treatise on why prequels are a universally garbage idea is for another article). And as I said, I wasn’t afraid that it would be shit, only that it would be boring and predictable, for again I find myself playing a role I never thought I would play in siding with the George Lucas prequels by asking the question ‘who could have known what any of them were going to be like before they were actually released?’ No-one. 

Who could possibly have seen this coming?

So I sucked it up and went to see Rogue One in a cheap cinema that only charged me six pounds for the pleasure. And after all the build-up and the let down and stupid melodrama regarding an intellectual property that hadn’t released a good film in forty years...I was surprised. A bit. 

I was a bit surprised. 

I was surprised by Riz Ahmed’s genuinely affecting character arc. I was surprised by Darth Vader’s really actually terrifying display of power in a penultimate scene. I was surprised by the narrative stakes established in the latter half of the film. I was surprised by the risk the filmmakers took in deciding the fates of the central characters. And of course it had a lot of problems, and some of the things I liked may be just as easily disliked by others, but when I left the cinema having actually felt real feelings because of the things I’d seen on screen - more than once - I was surprised that Rogue One had actually managed to exceed my expectations. I’ll expand more on this in a second, but first, a snarky plot synopsis:

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (ugh) is the immediate prequel to A New Hope. It opens on an isolated planet on which engineer Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) lives with his wife, and daughter Jyn. Galen is a reknowned polymath and committed pacifist, although you will learn almost nothing of this unless you read the wiki: Rogue One is a Disney Star Wars film, so of course large chunks of important character-building are omitted (because who needs to understand the people in the movie when there’s a blind guy hitting stormtroopers with a stick). Ben Mendelsohn phones in the beta-villain character of Orson Krennic, and kills Jyn’s mother in order to coerce Galen into working on what will be the Empire’s greatest weapon - the Death Star (ugh). Cut to a decade later and Jyn (Felicity Jones) is a stroppy young woman with all the charisma of moist denim. She is reluctantly required to care about the fate of the galaxy, but apparently this is a big problem for her because IGN says she ‘put up walls’. She’s freed from an Imperial labour camp by the dashing and committed rebel Cassian Andor, and brought to Saw Gerrera - a veteran of the clone wars, a close friend of her father’s, and the man who raised her after her Galen was taken. Saw is a character from the Clone Wars animated television series, which every person the audience of this film will definitely have seen, so therefore his backstory is all but omitted as well. Saw is holding captive an Imperial defector who brings word that Galen has left a weakness in the design of the Death Star. The rapidly expanding group of misfits are then tasked with venturing deep into the better half of the film to procure the plans to this superweapon. 

Now to be clear, Rogue One is not at all consistent - certainly less consistent than The Force Awakens. But it does quite a few things that TFA failed to do: be a complete film that managed to successfully close its own story whilst remaining a worthy stepping stone to a larger narrative, for example, or have tangible stakes and a final battle that feels like a genuine struggle against insurmountable odds. It also succeeds in taking a different approach to its tone than Episode VII, not in terms of 'darkness’, but in terms of emotional realism. The characters still have their one-liners and moments of charm, but Diego Luna’s Cassian is a life-long member of the rebel alliance and has a wonderful scene in which he attacks Erso’s flippant attitude towards the work they’re doing, and it feels real. He isn’t gurning like a cartoon character, or trying to be another cooler-than-cool Han Solo - he understands the weight of their mission and that its importance stands above their own individual concerns, and when he convinces Jyn of its importance, he convinces us as well. So too does Riz Ahmed’s defecting Imperial cargo pilot exhibit the characteristic signs of being a real human, and while his background is passed by faster than it ought to be, over the course of the film he undergoes a clear transformation from someone doubting his choice to turn against the Empire out of fear for his own life, to someone who comes to embrace his convictions and find strength in the act of doing what he knows is right. 

Bruh.

Not every character is as well-realised, though. As mentioned, the film’s focal point - Jyn Erso - is as likeable as a cracked plastic toilet seat. Her endless cynical brooding is exhausting, and Jones fails to encapsulate the complex emotional broth that is supposed to be feeding her sanguine emotional state. She is joined in this limbo by Saw Gerrera whose motivations are hidden almost entirely in the animated series. I still can’t figure out why the hell Disney would waste time in reshoots fiddling with the tone of the film instead of fleshing out the characters upon which the entire first half hinges on? In any case, his words and choices carry little weight because we don’t know who the fuck he is or why he makes the decisions he makes.

‘Save the Rebellion! Save yourself!’

The rest of the motley crew also lack the collective core strength of The Force Awakens’ central characters, but that isn’t to say that they are entirely redundant. The second half is widely recognised to be superior, and I believe that’s because it successfully manages to establish a set of compelling stakes, and makes us care about at least some of the characters that are putting themselves at risk. Either that, or it’s because there’s more shooty-bang-bang.

<sexual moaning>

I found I could forgive a lot of this though, because, despite the odd bump in the road, the film ends on a high, and you can’t forget what Rogue One is required to do in its run-time either:

Introduce an ensemble cast and make the audience care about their individual and collective fates,

Simultaneously re-establish certain older characters for a new generation of viewers,

Introduce and acclimate both older and newer audiences to the backstory of this film,

Introduce and acclimate newer audiences to the backstory of the older films,

Provide a self-contained and entertaining narrative that is cohesive with the established canon and appeals to people who wish to enjoy the film on its own merits,

...all in the space of two hours. 

Now let’s look at what The Force Awakens had to achieve:

Don’t be shit. 

Have mass appeal. 

Be a self-contained story that can be enjoyed on its own merits. 

Be a meaningful continuation of the classic character’s stories. 

I’m sure there are many that would disagree with me, but I’d argue that while Rogue One is probably a less cohesive film overall, it achieves more complex goals with greater success than The Force Awakens.

But look, let’s be honest - obviously it’s not Citizen Kane - Rogue One is a film with many faults: the first half, for instance. And while I’d say that even the first half isn’t without merit, it needs to be understood just what you’re getting with this new breed of movies. At the end of the day, no matter how interesting a concept they may have, they’re always going to be tampered with by the studio; no matter the talent of the writer and/or director, they’re always going to fit a certain mandated mould. But the light in the darkness is that we will occasionally get big-budget, live-action films that fall outside the central narrative canon just like this one - films that Disney won’t obsess over quite as much because they don’t ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO MAKE A BILLION DOLLARS IN THE FIRST EIGHT SECONDS OF THE OPENING WEEKEND - and maybe, just maybe, they’ll be alright. And Rogue One is alright. At certain points it’s really good. And it ends whilst riding a wave of energy and emotion that makes you feel like you just watched a decent fucking film, as opposed to The Force Awakens, which feels like a tv serial and you’re supposed to tune in next week to get to the good part of the story. And I think that’s something worth commending. You might disagree, but I think that makes it a good film. 

The CGI Moff Tarkin is a fucking joke, tho.

7/10

Good

[wakraya]

Hiveswap Theory

So, with Hiveswap on the horizon and a couple of asks I’ve gotten lately, I have been thinking more and more about the story of the game, and wondered if what we’ve seen already may be enough to find some interesting things out about the overall story! I decided to give it a shot and go through all we know about Hiveswap and see if I can predict some stuff.

Thanks to @revolutionaryduelist for inspiring me to make this post! You should totally check him out, he’s got some amazing stuff.

First, let’s start by the things we do know about Hiveswap.

At its basis, Hiveswap is a story set in the past of the Beta Universe Earth of Homestuck, following the adventures of Joey Claire, and her brother Jude Harley. We know this happens on Beta Earth because Joey and Jude are Grandpa’s biological children, with a woman named A. Claire, full name unknown. It is possible, too, given Joey is called Claire and not Joey Harley, that A. Claire had a child with them before marrying Jake and having Jude with him, or perhaps there’s something else, it’s too early to say for sure.

Joey and Jude live apparently alone in the Harley Manor in Hauntswitch. While the name of the location has been told, the look of the previews doesn’t make it look like Hauntswitch is a town, and rather just the area of land they are in. Furthermore, Hauntswitch is a play on words, Haunts Witch, but also Haunt-Switch, as it has been confirmed the sequel to Hiveswap, following Joey’s brother rather than her own adventures, will be named like this.

Jude’s apparently very paranoid about their neighbours, of which we know very little about, and one day, these strange dark beasts with greenish mouths and no eyes start appearing all over the manor!

With no other option but running, Jude ends up trapping himself in the Tree House, and Joey rushes into the manor, where she eventually stumbles upon a strange machine in the attic. The key to the machine attaches to her and forces her to activate it, suddenly starting a countdown of eleven days until the end of the world, and transporting her to Alternia. Once there, the only way to fix the end of the world scenario, is to go back, however, Alternia is quite the hostile environment, with a new Heiress to the throne having started culling an insane amount of young Trolls, aided by a mysterious white man.

That’s about as much as we know for certain. Anything from this point is complete speculation, so let’s start shall we?

First of all let us address the elephant in the room. The catalyst for this entire adventure is the weird black monsters that appear and force Jude and Joey to escape. This is Earth, after all, and it doesn’t matter that there’s going to be an apocalypse coming in a few years or that there’s infinite inventory systems in the world, things like that just aren’t normal. Monsters don’t pop out of nowhere with no reason. Given the monster issue will never be resolved in Hiveswap, since Joey is warped to Alternia early on, we must assume it will be a focus of the next game, Hauntswitch, and if that is the case, there’s only one possible culprit for what’s going on:

The Creepy Neighbours.

Given the story of Homestuck and what we know about Grandpa Harley and Skaianet, I am going to bet one of two things are happening here.

1) They are Skaianet Employees. They are actually harmless and totally nice people, but Jude is just paranoid. During some experiment, they created those monstrosities and accidentally wrecked havoc on the nearby manor. This, while plausible, doesn’t leave much open in the way of story for a second game, sadly, so I feel the second option is more likely.

2) They are rivals or competitors of some sort against Grandpa Harley or Skaianet as a whole. This is a harder one to predict, because we know literally nothing about these people, but it would allow for a much more interesting story. If another company got their hands on SBURB-like technology, like how Skaianet did, they might start tampering with ectobiology.

As a third option, we have to remember that Condy exists in this Universe. The Condesce is on Earth at this point, as Betty Crocker, and we know Nanna said that the Baroness merely vanished one day. We know that Condy left to Alpha Earth eventually, but we know nothing of this shift. Perhaps there will be some shed light on the issue finally? Perhaps Condy is the final boss on both games, one when she comes back to Alternia to snuff out the Heiress, and another one on Earth as Betty Crocker. Wouldn’t that be an interesting twist?

There’s also the form of these monsters.

All of them are inky black, deformed, have no eyes, and possess large maws that open to show lime green insides. A green tone that looks suspiciously like that of Ectobiology slime. Although it also reminds me of another kind of green...

First Guardian Green. Could they be trying to clone First Guardians? And if so, why? Are these monsters escaped, failed experiments to manufacture more First Guardians? While it’s a very, very long shot, I do think there’s some validity to this theory, but I’ll get to that later.

Now that the monsters are covered, let’s go to another very important point. The Cherub Portal.

Obviously the portal has changed in design quite a lot since the first 3D previews. But in the 3D version, we can see the countdown thing starting to roll down. What we cannot see on the 3D version is the green energy going through the machinery. Even on the red-themed Caliborn side of the teleporter, there’s green glows and green sparks, implying there’s either radiation powering this thing up, or First Guardian Energy, and I bet it’s the latter, because of one simple thing.

This thing is not an ordinary device. It was not built by Grandpa Harley, or by anyone for that matter. This right here is a Juju.

Jujus have always been weird and fascinating things that are hard to explain, so why would this thing... Be a Juju? Well there’s three factors here:

1) The Key. As we’ve seen from the last trailer? The key Joey shoves in is alive. It has its own will and forces her to put it in. Similarly, the Lollipop Juju forced Jane to lick it even when she was trying to resist it.

2) The Other Portal. This is not a singular portal we’re talking about, after all.

This right here is the only image of the other side of the portal. We can see this is in a basement rather than in the attic, and given how Dammek goes through to Earth, it’s safe to assume this is in Dammek’s home. Why or how it got there, we still don’t know. But isn’t that the case with most Jujus? The only technology we know can connect two Universes is post-game SBURB technology. The bases for the exiles, and even then, they connected the Universe with the Game Session rather than the Universe directly. One single of these devices existing is strange, but two exactly equal versions that act as an entry point and an exit? I doubt Trolls and Humans had contact prior to this and tried to build a way to meet, let alone making it so the process begins a Countdown to the end of the world.

3) The Pattern. Through all the previews, we have seen the red/green pattern from the Cherubs we know. Calliope and Caliborn, or perhaps their parents. We do not know much about Cherub Culture, and just a little bit about anatomy- And even then it’s mostly reproductive habits. I don’t believe it was ever mentioned anywhere further into the comic, but Calliope states herself to be a Lime Blood and for that to be a rare color. We know this was in reference to the Troll’s Lime Blood, but it is true she has a different blood color than Caliborn. We have not seen any other unrelated Cherubs to know if they have more than Red/Green blood colours, but it wouldn’t be that weird to imagine. Even if ALL Cherubs were red/green coloured, though? Adding a third, unknown duo of Cherubs that are the same colours would be a bit strange.

Even if it was a third duo of Cherubs, however? It still couldn’t be technology manufactured by them. Cherubs don’t seem to have a home planet or any sort of technology. They are forces of nature, able to fly through space with no difficulty, and to annihilate entire planets and civilisations. I don’t know if it was in-canon or in another theory, but I recall having them be described akin to the immune system of the Universe, or a ‘Clean-up method’, a cycle of destruction and rebirth. Cherubs have no reason to build this kind of technology, so the only reason why it would be patterned like this is that it’s a Juju. And given it’s patterned to be akin to Cherubs?

I bet the Portal is going to collapse into a massive Black Hole that will swallow both Planets if the countdown reaches 0.

It would only be fitting wouldn’t it? Still, as much speculation on the portal’s origin, saying it’s a Juju solves nothing for the story. Not why it’s there, not it’s actual functionality.. But next to the portal, we see something.

Something.

Weird.

I mentioned this in my latest post about the trailer analysis, but why the FUCK is that clock there exactly? That’s a God Tier clock. The serpents coiled on the sides, the shape, it’s very obviously a God Tier clock. It HAS to be because the only other alternative to it being a God Tier clock is it being Lord English’ Clock, and I think that would make even less sense.

This raises two main questions. Whose clock is it, and Why is it there?

Well, it also raises the question if this is a joke. Because it could be just a reference and not ACTUALLY the clock, but it doesn’t seem like a silly filler thing they would put in there. Mainly because...

It’s hard to see, and it might actually not be. But the shape seems suspiciously familiar. Early concept art of the game ALREADY featured the clock there.

So it’s not a joke. Great. So why is it there? We only see the Clock physically appear in two occasions. One is after defeating Yaldabaoth, as a boon, Caliborn is granted the clock and allowed to destroy it with his Juju Breaker and absorb the essence of the God Tier resurrection magic, making him fully immortal. I heavily doubt Yolobroth is involved in ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM with Hiveswap, so we’ll dismiss this.

The other possibility? First Guardians. Bec, for example, never seemed as powerful as Doc Scratch, maybe because Doc Scratch was so cocky about his omniscience and omnipotence, maybe because him being Human and part Lord English made him even more powerful. But, we do know Doc Scratch had the clock there in his apartment, on Alternia’s Green Moon. He physically had two of them in fact, or a shifting clock that showed John’s and Vriska’s death status.

I should state it again, there’s no other place outside of a Boon by the most powerful Denizen, or decoration in an Omnipotent and Omniscient First Guardian’s room where these clocks have been physically seen. So unless there’s a third way to acquire these through SBURB Machinery or Alchemy, in which case Immortality would become kind of trivial in a Session, the only way it could be there is for Becquerel to summon it somehow. Or perhaps for it to arrive with the portal?

After all, the clocks have Cherub Snakes coiled along them. It could be plausible that, whatever the origin of the portal is, it’s the same for the clock. I am convinced it may have something to do with First Guardians, however.

At this point, some might have caught up about my obsession with First Guardians. The black beast, failed First Guardian experiments? The portal, powered by Green Sun energy? Now the clock, I have mentioned them a lot haven’t I? It’s for a good reason, however. This little buddy right here. Someone who was forgotten by many, and that has not appeared in a single concept art or preview of Hiveswap ever since.

Mr. Motherfucking First Guardian Axolotl.

This is a huge deal. A huge deal that a lot of people have forgotten about or haven’t even seen. This was one of the first pieces of concept art from the game, and one that never made any fucking sense. After all, this takes place on Alternia and Earth! We have Doc Scratch and Bec as the First Guardians! And look at the lower-right corner of that picture. Those are Trolls being vaporized, which means this is from Alternia specifically.

And yet, for it to have been one of the FIRST things to come out of the concept art, one’d think this buddy would be very, very important. Was he scrapped after Hussie remembered it made no sense? Well. Not exactly.

In one of the previews, there was something interesting. Prongle.

Prongle is the silly in-game Social Media the Trolls have in the game. And there’s someone specifically that caught my eye immediately. After so long without any news about the weird new First Guardian, we have a Troll.

A Troll with the Axolotl from Animal Crossing as their avatar.

With a lime blood frame around it.

It was confirmed that Lime Bloods would have a part in this game. Which means this is prior to the event that led to the prosecution and culling of all Lime Bloods or- The Catalyst for said caste-culling.

Fiamet having that avatar is no coincidence. That’s a hint. A very obvious hint. This Troll is closely related to the mystery of the First Guardian. I’d even dare to say maybe The First Guardian is their Lusus.

And then, things would start to make some sense. Why was an entire caste culled? How could they be removed entirely from the gene pool when the Mother Grub lays so many eggs, mutations happen, and every other blood color in between still happens?

Well, it is implied that, given his rare mutation, the Signless wouldn’t survive, and that later on the red-blooded lusii like Crabdad were genetically engineered or manufactured in some capacity to raise mutants in the future. So, a Troll without a Lusus won’t make it out of the Caverns.

Am I making sense yet?

Lime Bloods weren’t erased as a caste.

Their Lusii were.

There is some sort of correlation between Lime Bloods and First Guardian powers. First Guardians are rare, but Karkat implies they’re protectors of planets, not just SBURB constructs you make once. For them to occur naturally could be possible. And there is something in the game we know for sure, and that is that there’s a revolution afoot.

There she is. Ms. Second best at memes. Trizza Tethis, the Heiress to the Alternian Throne. Before Feferi, there were more Heiresses after all. And once they grow powerful enough to challenge Condy? She comes back to Alternia and culls them. Again, and again, and again. It’s hard to say if this is the Heiress DIRECTLY before Feferi, or if there’s a few Fuchsiabloods still in the way. Whichever the case, she’s the most powerful figure currently on Alternia, given how adults have to leave for war, leaving no other important figure on the planet.

And everyone hates her. Trizza is a bad memer. She makes horrible jokes, she steals other people’s memes, and then broadcasts them to the entire Alternian Population. Those who don’t laugh and accept her as their ruler? They’re collected by elite Drones and culled. Furthermore, they say that she ascended to the throne of Alternia aided by a mysterious White Man, obviously Doc Scratch.

Remember, Doc Scratch was using all sorts of strategies to make Alternia a vile, corrupted world, full of violence and hatred. Making someone like her have so much power is perfect for his plans. You know what isn’t perfect for Chaos and Dictatorship, however?

Rebellion. On the Tealblood’s tag we can see “Rebel Marshall”, implying that people are so tired of Trizza that they are preparing to overthrow her. And if the lower bloods band together enough to overcome the Drones and take the Heiress for the Throne away? They may just be able to gain enough momentum to spread the movement into an empire-wide rebellion, and turn the Hemospectrum around once and for all.

This doesn’t happen, however. We know this because Alternia is exactly the same when Homestuck starts. Hemospectrum differences, same authoritarian regime. So obviously this rebellion is not going to be successful, much like the Summoner’s wasn’t.

But something HAS to happen. It can’t not start, or happen off-screen, right? What if the Rebellion comes extremely close to being successful?

If Fiamet is in the Prongle list along with Cridea, Xefros and Dammek, we can assume they are on the good guys team. And their Lusus, arguably, is an incredibly powerful First Guardian.

My thought is that the Rebellion will reach the very gates of the Royal Palace, and at the very last second, Doc Scratch will intervene. Trying to keep the status cuequo (8^y) he’ll fight the other First Guardian, or perhaps personally banish the Lime Blood Lusii, thus making it impossible for any future Lime Blood to survive outside of the Brooding Caverns. With the Rebellion stomped, however, Condy will come back to Alternia, perhaps knowing of the Rebellion, perhaps just knowing about the new Heiress causing a mess, and will kill her off. If Doc Scratch doesn’t kill the Lime Blood Lusii himself, Condy will order mass prosecution to avoid First Guardian powers to be used against the Empire in the future.

And thus, the big bad, Trizza, will be shoved off the scene, making cullings go down, but keeping Alternia miserable enough for Homestuck’s events to follow as we know. A satisfying finale to the section of the story is given for the game, but we know how it will continue in the webcomic.

This is my guess to what will happen on Alternia. And yet, something evades me.

The Countdown. We know the Countdown is bad, we can make an idea of what will happen in the game with the characters we’ve seen so far, but there’s one thing we really don’t have enough information to understand. It has to be such wild speculation it would be impossible to give it a sound basis.

How do Joey and Dammek switch places again and stop the End of the World(s)?

We see in the picture of Dammek’s basement, after going through, there’s a barrier surrounding the portal. She can’t go back. Perhaps Doc Scratch will remove the barrier? A ‘boon’ for Joey to go away and leave Alternia alone, as he doesn’t want the order of things to be messed with anymore. Maybe it’s a Dragon-Ball sort of deal, where parts the key to unlocking the barrier is scattered through the entirety of Alternia, making Joey have to go adventure and find them? If Trizza came across one of these pieces, it’d also make sense why she’d see herself involved with the rebellion in the first place.

But if that’s the case, does Dammek also have to find a key on Earth? If it’s scattered enough to need an adventure of such proportions for Joey, than what are her brother and his new Troll friend going to experience on Earth?

Up until now I have thought the majority of Hauntswitch will take place in the enormous nearly-village-sized manor the Neighbours have but...

If their adventure has to be as big as Joey’s?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Crockercorp really does come into play.

But that’s just wild speculation. While I can say about the previous parts of this theory, about the nature of the portal and what will happen on Alternia, with a certain degree of confidence, there’s still nothing we can know for sure about what the endgame will entail regarding returning home.

All we can do for now.

Is wait until it’s out.

[deltaengineering]

summer anime 2017 part 1: we can rebuild it

This season isn’t very hot so far, but since I have a bunch of stuff carrying over, I’m not exactly complaining. Let’s go. We have three shows that share a curious theme, two that curiously do not, and one that’s actually good. Somehow that adds up to ten.

See also:

• part 2: bunch of fools

Battle Girl High School

We start the season with the possibly blandest title for an anime in quite a while. And the show itself easily manages to match the expectations the title raises: It's a high school with a bunch of girls that do battle. And by "a bunch" I mean more than I can offhandedly recall; the spiritual predecessor to this all-you-can-eat buffet of archetypes is clearly Girl Friend Beta (and it's also based on some waifu-collectathon mobile game) - only now with more magical girl henshins and hitting things with stupidly elaborate sticks. Oh and some of them are idols, because of course they are. Honestly there's nothing too objectionable in here, but it's just still an anonymous 24 minutes of mass manufactured anime-shaped packing peanuts.

Enmusubi no Youko-chan

...or "Fox Spirit Matchmaker". I've heard some positive rumblings about the quality of the source material in the run-up to this season, but that just goes to show that you can't trust people who read Chinese webcomics. Fox Spirit Matchmaker is a "romantic action comedy" (i.e., idiotic glutton/lecher guy and naive foxblob get matchmade by happenstance, hilarity and wuxia skirmishes ensue) of the kind that Japan thankfully got tired of a decade ago. The jokes are bad, the execution is so clumsy that they wouldn't land even if they were, and the action is pretty laughable too. There’s a whole bizarre universe that nobody could possibly give a fuck about around it as well, and boy does it want to tell you about it. If that sounds familiar: Why yes, Haoliners is indeed at it again and this is by no means their finest hour either.

Fate/Apocrypha

With the massive amounts of Fate spinoffs around, it can be quite hard to keep track. Apocrypha is an "alternative retelling" of a grail war in a world where Fate/Zero and subsequently Fate/stay night did not happen and everyone decides to have a team deathmatch in Romania instead. Among TRUE FATE MURDERHEADS Apocrypha is mostly known as "the really stupid one", or, if that is ambiguous (which it may well be, given that the competition includes gems such as “Fate, but on the moon”), "the one where one of the Casters is Shakespeare". It's Fate adapted to the sensibilities of a mid-2010 light novel, and while this gives it a certain... exuberance, I don't know if I really care for more slightly different Fate with no less than two Saberclones. The first episode certainly does not help because it spends half the time explaining what a grail war is (and everyone who knows Fate has heard that a hundred times), and the other half on how it's different from the main canon (and everyone who doesn't know Fate would not care about that in the slightest). I still feel tempted to find out how truly dumb this can get, but realistically it would have to be much, much better than it is for me to get over my severe Fate burnout.

Hina Logi - From Luck & Logic

Speaking of established (well, kinda) things getting retooled to other tastes, remember Luck & Logic? It was a pretty pedestrian battle harem that I only remember because it was made by Doga Kobo and looked pretty distinctly cool as a result. Well, now it has a sequel, even though you couldn't tell. Hina Logi goes out of its way to be as different as possible from L&L, and just to start with it's no longer a battle harem, but a Kirara imitator. Of course, the concept of superpowers injected into a cute girls doing fuck all anime would turn out to be mahou shoujo-ish, and the writing even points out how much an universe can change in just a few years - I see what you did there. Doga Kobo excels at exactly this type of show, so this just aligns the franchise more to their strengths, but even in this aspect there's a twist: it looks entirely different, more or less like the sort of glossy but unmemorable show JC Staff would churn out. In any case, I'm talking so much about this franchise mutation because it's really the only interesting thing about it; it's a basic Kiraralike, and you've seen these before. If you watched Hinako Note last season, you might also like Hina Logi. It has fights now.

Isekai Shokudou

The term "isekai" has turned into a very dirty word in the last few years. But one should not forget that it's still a perfectly normal word, and doesn't necessarily refer to the light novel subgenre that has grown around it like a tumor. Just because it's in the title, that doesn't mean Isekai Shokudou is also a light no- Well, okay, it is one. But! It's not in fact about an otaku shitter that gets hit by a car and is reborn in a world where nerds stuff the jocks into lockers with the power of nerd knowledge. Instead it's about a magic restaurant that sometimes connects to a fantasy world, and then the cook serves the fantasy creatures delicious Terran meals. He picks up a demon girl that has fallen on hard times as a waitress. By the way, said cook is voiced by Junichi Suwabe, and Suwabe + cute girl is a classic winning combination that almost managed to save Demi-chan on its own. So Isekai Shokudou is pretty damn cute, and it has a leisurely pace that makes it quite relaxing too. On top of that, it's also funny just because of the absurdity of its concept, without this being played for ha-ha comedy. You can still tell that there's a light novel underneath it by the characteristic over-reliance on flat exposition, but based on episode 1 alone, it's a charming little show and my first real pick of the season.

Kakegurui

Hey guys, do you like Kaiji? Do you like Prison School? Do you like crazy faces? Oh boy have I got the show for you. Kakegurui is about a high school where the entire student body is way into high-stakes gambling, and when the money runs out, there's always femdom to be had instead. Kakegurui is unabashedly sleazy and extremely over the top, and MAPPA bring a lot of skill in direction, animation, editing, music, etc. to the table as well. The thing is just... as ostentatious everything about it is, the core of the show isn't very convincing on a writing level. The gambling mindgames are actually far less complicated than the show would lead you to believe, and the characters are not very profound either when they're just tripping balls and going 150% crazy all the time. The show would need at least one of these to hold up in the long run, and it's not out of the question that it might acquire it; As it is, it's a cool wacky short movie but I have my doubts whether this can carry a whole TV show. But the production values are good enough to give it at least a chance.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu

And here we have the third radical reinterpretation of a source material: Touken Ranbu, the sword boyfriend simulator, already had an adaptation by Doga Kobo - and of course that was just Cute Swords Doing Cute Things. Now ufotable is doing their take on it, so it's, believe it or not, a lot like Fate UBW all of a sudden, character design, heavyhanded color correction, 3D CG effects and all - It's a real anime now, with things like plot and characters, and very competently made action show at that, and for some that may be enough. But not only that, it also has the tone and word vomit writing of Fate now, and that's where it gets sketchier. Without affinity for the source material, I find it hard to care about the exploits of big sword man and his small swordsexual life partner, and I care even less about their convoluted, nonsensical time travel scheme that gets explained way past the breaking point. And the action being great doesn't really matter if all they do is effortlessly style all over mass produced smoke monsters with a blade sticking out of them. I also can't shake the feeling that Doga Kobo's version was just a bit closer to the true fujo meaning of Touken Ranbu, if you know what I mean. K/tr seems watchable, but behind the premium production there just doesn't seem to be anything interesting.

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

"Keppeki" means "neat freak", and congratulations, you have discovered The Joke. What if a neurotic germophobe was also an extremely talented soccer player? So many opportunities to make the same joke over and over again! It's really quite a shame that this one is so one-note, because the sports show holding it together is actually one of the better soccer anime I've seen - it has good direction and a good pace once the game is on. I also like that the character design looks a lot like ACCA’s. But overall there's not much of that and a lot of The Joke, and even the better bits (like the character design) are marred by egregious overuse of SD comedy that doesn't fit stylistically at all. If I wanted this kind of comedy, I'd rather watch Sakamoto desu ga, and not a less stylish Sakamoto desu ga with frustrating glimpses of a good soccer anime in between.

Knight's & Magic

So, about that isekai. What if I told you that Knight's (the apostrophe is important) & Magic is in fact about an otaku shitter that gets hit by a car and is reborn in a world where nerds stuff the jocks into lockers with the power of nerd knowledge? It's true! Knight's & Magic is probably not the worst of this ilk I've seen, but that's a largely academic distinction. In fact it's quite bizarre that it even is an isekai story; Yeah, a gunpla nerd gets reborn into a world where mechas are real (and it's a fantasy world, which doesn't really make much sense but hey, robots), but there's really no reason he couldn't have come from this world in the first place, especially since he literally gets reborn and we have to watch a boring series of timeskips throughout his whole childhood anyway. Maybe him being a programmer with pop culture hobbies just like you and me will become relevant eventually, but I really don't care to find out.

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou

And finally, here's a show that reminds us that Haoliners are not the only ones that can create an uncanny valley of competence that is eerily similar to "real" anime but not quite there. And this is a special case - usually this sort of production is attached to very bad ideas, but there's really nothing wrong with the story of a guy who moves into a house that turns out to be co-inhabited by ghosts and other assorted spiritual critters. Nothing, apart from everything: The directing is sluggish, the animation is conspicuously cheap, the writing takes forever just to get to the point that there's g-g-g-ghosts, and the characters are devoid of any personality apart from being scared/not being scared of the youkai menagerie. Do yourself a favor and watch Spirited Away again instead, because this bargain basement TV version with a high school loser up front has nothing to add and a lot to subtract.

[therealalex12]

Character Analysis: Thoughts On & Identifying With Nepeta

A/N: I wrote this the night before finals and was very sleep deprived, so excuse any mistakes I make.  I hope you enjoy it either way!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I very much identify with Nepeta.  Not to the point of kin  (or at least to what I understand what kin is), but I identify with her a lot.  Her personality, her likes, her quadrants (to a degree), and even my headcanons on her, much of her I find in myself.

Let’s start off with one of the main connections: her disability.  Many characters in homestuck have a disability (Tavros’ paraplegism, Terezi’s blindness, Sollux’s bipolar disorder, the list goes on), but Nepeta’s stands out to me, in that IN CANON, it’s very much implied that she has autism.  Yes, Karkat does use it as a slur and insult to her (a bit more on him later), but many symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (further referred to as ASD) show up in her personality.  Her likes for shipping and roleplaying can be seen as types of special interests, and her living in a cave can be seen as seclusion and introvertedness, though she’s upbeat and perky around the ones she loves (especially Karkat and Equius), which is a trait that I share with her.  She also is shown chewing on her hat, which can be seen as a way of stimming.  This has moved onto a personal headcanon of mine and many others if it’s not yet set in stone in canon.  I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (now lumped in with regular ASD in the DSM-5) at age 9, which isn’t too far off from Nepeta’s 13 years/6 sweeps.  This is the first thing that connects me to her, as not many people with ASD are portrayed in a more relatable way in media, and especially fandom, so seeing someone with the same diagnosis as me can be very inspiring.

Time for her personality.  First of all, her cat motif.  I’m very much a cat person, so when I saw her design and read her introduction, I was immediately infatuated with her.  She also gave me that stereotypical weaboo “KAWAII XD” feel, which brought back memories of my early days in anime fandoms.  Her love for shipping and rping also brought me back, and connected to my likes of today.  Overall, she’s adorable (the coat is too big for her, that’s so cute!), but she’s still badass.  She can easily scratch you to death with her claws and willingly went to whoop Gamzee’s ass when he killed Equius, but sadly Hussie’s hand was not in her favor (and I’m still bitter as fuck about it).  I love strong female characters, and though I no longer identify as one, it still gives me someone to look up to and aspire to be.

Now, onto her quadrants.  This is a bit more difficult to relate to.  I currently have a moirail, but it’s not exactly like Nepeta and Equius’ moirallegiance.  We both rely on each other for help (mostly with our depression), while Nepeta is the one who keeps Equius under control, and Equius is more of a caretaker for Nepeta.  However, Meowrails, the common name for Nepeta<>Equis and what I like to call them, is one of the more (if not only) stable and healthy moirallegiances in canon, and the way it’s going for me, it seems like it’s going to stay that way.  Meowrails is also said to be a universal constant, which means if there’s a Nepeta and an Equius, they WILL be moirails* .  I don’t know much about alternate universes, but I have a gut feeling that it’d be the same way for me and my moirail since we have a deep connection.   I don’t have an unrequited love like Nepeta’s for Karkat though.  I do have a crush, though it wouldn’t work since she lives halfway across the world and she doesn’t know me very well.

Finally, we reach headcanons.  Of course, most of these are personal headcanons, so a lot of stuff was inspired by myself.  I already mentioned the autism before, so I won’t go into it again, but I will go into gender and sexuality headcanons.  I know it can be tricky, placing Earth societal norms onto aliens, but it’s been done before, so I can do it too.  I’ve made a post about my LGBT headcanons for the kids and beta trolls, and I listed Nepeta as a pansexual demigirl.  Since then, my opinions have changed, and I now consider her agender instead of a demigirl (I use she/her to refer to in-canon scenarios, they/them outside of canon).  If you haven’t seen my bio, I identify as a bisexual agender person, but I’ve been recently questioning if I’m pan, but that’s besides the point.  Most people have gone with what’s essentially canon with all trolls being bisexual or pansexual, with a few exceptions like Kanaya, who’s a canonically lesbian**.  I thought Nepeta being pansexual would fit her very well, and it went with the established somewhat-canon.  For identifying as agender, this was mainly based off of my own identity, but her style choices do give off a more androgynous feel in my opinion.  If you have a different headcanon than me, that’s fine, whatever floats your boat.

This pretty much wraps up my character analysis on Nepeta and how I connect to her.  I plan on making more of these in the future, so give me a follow if you haven’t already to know when they’re posted!

*:The quote starts at 41:12

**: Under “Personality And Traits”

[xellandria]

Chainmail Memes

@hellokibby tagged me and I’m in the mood so LESGO

Directions: Answer 11 questions, tag 11 people, and then come up with 11 questions for your people to answer. 

1. What is your ultimate pizza, you know topping, crust, sauce, and anything else that describes it. I grew up on Long Island and while I suspect the 22 years (jesus) since I moved to the west coast has both changed my tastes somewhat and also added some rose-flavoured glasses to my recollection, meatball pizza (with red/tomato sauce and the typical NY crust) was suuuuuper good.  There’s a place here in Bend that’s pretty good too, with a white/alfredo sauce, chicken, and pineapple and it makes me very happy every time I taste it, so I’m not sure at this point which I’d prefer.  Combination of both, probably—not a huge fan of tomato sauce these days, but meatball and white seems as awkward to me as pineapple and red, so idk.  Then again, 10 Barrel’s white with chicken, pineapple, and ground beef was pretty good and the only reason I don’t do that combo with Raganelli’s is bc they don’t have the ground beef (iirc), so SHRUG

2. What if your favorite board game, and why? I... am not entirely sure I have one?  Monopoly is the board game I’ve played most, but I don’t often have opportunities for board games, especially less “classic” ones, haha.

3. Is there any fictional character you particularly related to growing up? Um.  After moving to California but just before my weeb stage, I was really into Sailor Moon.  Like, really into it.  Sailor Jupiter in particular was like, my thing—she was taller than everyone else and that was occasionally a problem for her, and she had to switch schools and she was dealing with people being not-nice to her and she had brown hair like I did, and so on.  There was a couple years there where I convinced myself (and to some extent, everybody else) that “Lita” was one of my middle names; looking back I’m pretty sure I bought into that more than anybody else did, but that lasted a long-ass time so y’know :x

4. What is your first Halloween costume that you can remember wearing? What is your most recent and most importantly what is your favorite? Remember wearing?  Tails from the Sonic franchise, age 6-7ish.  First one I know I wore was Elmo, but I was like three at the time so I don’t personally remember it, but I definitely remember my mother “helping” me make a Tails costume a few years before we moved; it was made out of that kind of generic plain linen/cotton cloth that’s a little bit itchy until you run it through like twelve gallons of fabric softener, and the tails were very heavy and bogged the whole thing down.  My most recent is harder, because I think the most recent was seventh or eighth grade (which would have been like, 98-99) when I went to school dressed up as Vegeta from DBZ.  I got a lot of shit from my classmates for that one, but whatever I got a lot of shit from them constantly so fuck ‘em in retrospect.

Somewhere between Tails and Vegeta was a Sailor Jupiter costume, which I also got a lot of crap about (large fat girl in a short skirt walkin’ around your neighborhood, ooooh lock the doors she’ll jiggle you to death >:\) but at the time I’m pretty sure that one was my favourite; I remember wearing the skirt itself around the house afterwards and enjoying the way the pleats moved.  It wasn’t very comfortable (Halloween was cold out that year, and also it was made of that same type of fabric as Tails) but y’know.

5. If you could live in any film genre which one would you choose? What would be your role in this reality? Romanticized/utopian high fantasy, definitely.  Gotta be the romanticized kind tho, cos “realistic/gritty” high fantasy is like, woo I’m in exactly the same boat as now but without toilets and even less access to healthcare.  Granted, I’m super unimaginative so I suspect that would be my role regardless of genre, background serf doing exactly what I do now but with a wardrobe change.  Fantasy’s got the best wardrobes though so that’s fine.

6. Do you collect anything? if so what is your favorite thing in that collection? I don’t collect much IRL anymore except art and craft supplies, which get hoarded forever and rarely used.  It’s not a case of “they’re too expensive to use” or anything either, it’s just I never really see a good opportunity to whip out, for example, the giant matte acetate sheets I inherited from my mother when she stopped doing old school freelance graphic design stuff or the remnant of neon animal-print quilting cotton that would make a fantastic T-shirt if it was of an appropriate stretchiness and not, you know, quilting cotton.

In World of Warcraft I collect all the things you can collect in the collections nowadays—pets, mounts, toys, transmog appearances.  Even prior to any of the collections though, I collected shirts, and I own every shirt and shirt appearance available to players in the game (there’s one that Wowhead lists as having been in the game that I don’t own, but I’m reasonably certain that was a TBC beta-only shirt that never made it to live servers and have never seen any evidence to the contrary—it certainly wasn’t equipped on freshly-created blood elves who were supposed to have it, anyway).  My favourite shirt that I never get to use in transmog is the Trapper’s Shirt, previously called the Thug Shirt, which was the shirt that troll rogues were created wearing prior to... I think it was Cataclysm that all those shirts turned into chest pieces instead.  It’s not the most useful of the shirts available atm (that would probably be the Floot-Tooter’s Tunic, which is as close as we can currently get to a black turtleneck), but it’s aesthetically pleasing and I like it a lot.

7. What is your DnD alignment? Do you have any evidence to support this claim? Oof I’m bad at alignments.  I’d say probably Neutral Good-ish, leaning towards Lawful?  Breaking the rules mostly makes me anxious as hell, unless I’m really angry or the particular rule in question is exceptionally stupid.

8. When you were 10 what career did you think you would pursue? I dunno about when I was ten (I was still recovering from moving cross-country and losing all my friends and not having made any new ones yet), but I really only remember ever wanting to be an animator and artist.  Got on the path to do that at some point too, though it ended up not working out for a variety of reasons. Ten may have been the year I wanted to go into theater instead, but I have this very vivid memory of my mother watching a movie about auditions (I’m hesitant to say it was A Chorus Line but it may have been) and the lady I was rooting for got like, completely fucked over in some way that I can’t recall.  Whatever it was, it scared me away from anything bigger than community, lol :x

9. Do you have any fictional ship you really wish would happen even if it doesn’t make sense in canon? What is it, I wanna know. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm see one of my things about ships is that they have to make sense, unless we’re talking total crackships like Loken/Mal’Ganis.  I had an elaborate theory for how Chin Isou and Dokugakuji (from Gensomaden Saiyuki) could know each other and I sort-of shipped it, but I don’t remember exactly what all my reasoning was, and I’m no longer in a place in my life where I feel like I have to ship things.

10. Which Ninja Turtle or Power Ranger were you? Unless you were a person on a different team, then what team? Donatello was my turtle, and the Yellow Ranger was my jam (until she was replaced, then I think my affections went more pinkish).

11. If you could pick any Muppet to be roommates with who would you choose? Bonus points again why? Rowlf, probably.  I dunno, Kermit seems like the logical roommate but I think he and I would drive each other crazy (we both make that scrunched-up hand-face all the time, y’know? :P).  Rowlf just seems like he’d get along without fuss, and also he’s a chill talking piano-playing dog-thing so?

Optional tagging for @damantru​, @dundee998​, @angryfuturerobot​, @baronberserker​, @unlimitedgoats​, @amongthegentlymad​, @delphina2k​, @astrakiseki​, @bellamop​, @celestialmayhem​, and @grimmhooke​—I know y’all’ve got more important and/or interesting things you could be doing with your time so let’s try and give you more procrastination tools eh? :P  good plan xella A+ can’t go wrong

Anyway feel free to answer or not at your own discretion and/or whim!

1. Do you speak more than one language semi-fluently?  Are you interested in (or working on) learning more languages than you currently know?

2. When you’re having a down/blah day, what’s something that’s likely to make you feel slightly less shitty?

3. Are you an egg drop, hot & sour, or won ton soup kinda person?

4. If you wanted to order mixed vegetables, some sort of optional meat, and soft noodles at a chinese restaurant, what would that be called in your region? (this:)

5. What are your top five most-used spices/condiments?

6. If you’re cooking just for yourself, are you more likely to eat something quick or prepare a “full” meal?

7. What did “Exit Only” mean when seen on a road sign in the area you grew up?  Is it different where you live now?

8. Is there a word that, no matter how many times you try, you can never spell correctly on the first attempt?

9. How would you characterize your online “voice”?  Do you have different ways of typing for different situations, or do you “talk” the same way on Tumblr that you do on Twitter or Skype/Discord?

10. What was your least favourite fashion trend of the last few* years?  What do you want to come back in style? (*few = probably from like 2000 to now bc I have no sense of time lol)

11. If you had to choose only one, who would be your favourite character of yours (original or fan, idc)?  What are they like?  Describe them, I want them, give them to me!

[daxieoclock]

Is there anything about the last conversation scene between Ren and Haru you would like to share?

Tell me a scene from one of my fics and I’ll give some behind-the-scenes or trivia about that scene, and some of my favorite lines from it

thank you for the ask!!!

spoilers under the cut for chapter 64 of deja vu

so to start off, it's not the conversation proper but morgana's fish crackers was inspired by some cute fanart i cannot find for the fucking life of me because tumblr's search function is Horseshit. but also i think i appreciate how much mona's role has shifted as he's let go of his need to prove himself to the thieves, and just lets himself be ren's cat and everyone's younger brother and i love it so fucking much djgfbhjh he's just!!!! a little creature!!!! a little baby healer boy!!!! i cannot change this!!!!

so fun fact this scene was originally going to be later in the arc, inspired by a fanart comic i saw when i was first getting into persona and genuinely kinda hated; ren and haru at a cafe, running into sugimura, there's an altercation and haru talks her abuser down. which was great in theory but i didn't like the comic's execution, and i've been intending to riff on the concept in deja vu at some point for a while now. aside from the general catharsis of haru getting a chance to threaten her abuser into leaving her and her friend alone, i was hoping to make the scene a chance for haru to express some vulnerability and trust, showing how strongly her abuse affected her as well as how willing she was to tank her own reputation if sugimura so much as blinked.

two issues with that plan. first off, i felt more and more like I wasn't a fan of that idea, it felt like sledgehammer storytelling where it wasn't needed. secondly, after getting my wonderful co-author and beta reader jane's opinion, it felt as though that scene would be far too much emotional whiplash for where i was planning to include it. so, instead, it became this scene! serving the previous purposes: to show how intensely haru's abuse has affected her, and how much she's grown to trust ren with her vulnerability.

“I don’t wish to take advantage of the mental shutdowns for selfish reasons, even when that reason is my own protection. I feel as though doing so would be mocking the suffering of those affected, of their families.” Ren couldn’t help but wince, but if Noir noticed then she did not react.

I don't think I did a good job highlighting this at the time, but ren's reaction here was because. Hey. His sister was one of the people affected. Haru is unintentionally calling him out for leveling mental shutdown despite being so close to someone who was traumatized by one of those shutdowns. this little bit of their conversation also adds to a theme of "consequence" that i've been trying to include throughout this overall section deja vu, the thieves coming to realize WHAT changing a heart actually means, as well as the literal ramifications of the mental shutdowns. from kobayakawa's death to futaba's mother to ren's offer to haru to Black Mask becoming a very real concern, the shutdowns are directly contributing to a sense of unease and grey-morality within the thieves. which conveniently lines up very well with the introduction of a new thief very soon with quite a personal stake in those shutdowns.

“Ninety-nine percent conviction rate,” she said. “I know.”

Another nod to the fact that we're moving closer to the Niijima Arc, which is definitely going to lean heavily on the corruption within the justice and political system; something that is established entirely as the fault of Shido and within P5 canon, but brings up a whole monkey-barrel of real actual systemic issues.

“You’re kind,” she said, and her voice was oddly soft. “You’re very, very kind. I think that’ll probably get you in a lot of trouble, one day.”

“It already has,” he replied.

Probably just my favorite exchange from this scene I think djfbgjh also ties back to Ren's backstory, the incident that got him convicted. that sort of kindness and trust has hurt him BADLY in the past, and the fact that he still chooses kindness despite that is a testament to the strength of his character. it's one of the reasons i liked him so much in canon p5, despite the fact that he's designed as a blank slate. but it ALSO ties to Haru's issues with trust and vulnerability, to the cold veneer she puts up in order to prevent herself from being hurt.

"If you say one more lie to me, I'll kill you. I swear, I'll burn your heart out."

This is a line from chapter 55, during Ren's rush of memories, said from Ann to Anachronism at the moment she left the Thieves during that timeline.

“Well,” Ren refused to make eye contact, finding his fingers tapping an anxious rhythm against the ground, “I only met you a couple weeks ago, and I already trust you a whole fucking lot. There’s still a lot I think I want to tell you, that I can’t yet, but I feel like...I could.”

“Hm.” And Noir looked away as well, both Thieves now facing the far side of the tunnel. “I suppose it’s rather interesting: I feel the same way. I have a million thoughts I haven’t trusted anyone with, as of yet, but I have the strangest feeling that I could trust you with any of them. In time, or at the right time.” She laughed. “I suppose we’re both fools. Maybe that’s why.”

I also just really love this exchange djhbfgj it's very cheeky, and sweet. also reflects some very real feelings i've had towards the close people in my life, the sort of silent trust you can get with someone special, where you are willing to tell them so much if pressed, but you don't need to tell them anything. the knowledge that one day, they'll know everything. less a threat than a promise. i think relationships like that, bonds like that, mean a whole fucking lot to me.