#you talk about projection but hoo boy

[piracytheorist]

Hey, anon?

The anon feature is NOT for that kind of use :)

Have a nice day!

[delightfullyquirkydoodles]

Okay, buckle up, friends and neighbours, because it's time for:

THE DOOPLISS DISSERTATION

(Obviously, you should take all of this with a HUGE chunk of salt, since I'm not only an internet-poisoned fandom blogger, but also a former English major with a penchant for over-reading.

Still, I spent a long time writing this, so I'd appreciate it if you gave it a read.)

So before we talk about Doopliss himself, I feel like we should talk about Creepy Steeple, since a lot of the topics I'm going to be touching on relate to the actual building.

Neither the original Gamecube version nor the Switch remake really bothers to explain what Creepy Steeple actually is.

None of Goombella's tattles say anything about the building's intended purpose. The name vaguely implies that it's a church of some kind -- in Japanese, it's called Odoron Jiin, or "Astonishing Temple" -- but that's still not very helpful.

Still, for the purposes of this analysis, I'm going to assume that it's meant to be a church.

This brings me to the Steeple's stained glass window, which shows a scary-looking Doopliss standing over some piranha plants.

From a design standpoint, I'm guessing that this detail was added to give the location a spooky vibe, but from an in-universe perspective, the implications are wild.

Like, who designed this? How long ago? And why? What the heck is it supposed to represent?

Unsurprisingly, the game offers no real answers, but I have a couple of theories.

The first is that the people of Twilight Town (or their ancestors, or something) created the window in Doopliss's honor.

Stained glass windows often depict saints or angels, so maybe the Twilighters used to worship him? Like, maybe Creepy Steeple was once dedicated to him and then, for whatever reason, the worshippers decided to leave?

It's not super likely, but I didn't want to rule out any possibilities. This is a weird freaking temple. Literally anything is possible, as far as I'm concerned.

My second theory is that Doopliss designed the window himself. He seems like a guy with a lot of spare time, so it's not too much of a stretch to say that he came up with the idea and then spent weeks building it by hand.

He could have also bullied the Boos into constructing it for him. I dunno. I just have this mental image of him pulling pranks on them and generally being a nuisance until they caved.

The bottom line is someone wanted to Doopliss's face to be front and center. And if that someone is Doopliss himself, then hoo boy, there is a lot to unpack here.

Maybe I'm projecting, but it feels like Doopliss is wrestling with some major self-esteem issues.

Despite being an incredibly powerful shapeshifter who somehow cursed an entire town, he seems very childish. He spends all his time watching TV and coming up with new jokes. He throws tantrums when he loses. He wears a party hat, of all things.

Based on that, I'd say that he's probably starved for attention. He's probably pretty lonely living in Creepy Steeple all by himself (doubly so if my theory about the Twilighters is correct).

I'd even go so far as to say that his scheme to turn the Twilighters into pigs is motivated by this need for attention. I mean, what better way to get people to notice you than to cause a town-wide panic?

I feel like the disguises he uses over the course of the main story also support this theory.

Though Mario, Zip Toad and Professor Frankly are quite different from one another, they all have one important thing in common: they're famous. Mario's a world-renowned adventurer, Zip Toad is a well-known actor and Frankly is a tenured professor whose students love him.

Doopliss even alludes to this after stealing Mario's body, telling him, "You're so popular around here! I just love being you!"

By transforming into beloved figures, Doopliss can get the attention he craves.

I also think that this is why he joined the Shadow Sirens. Sure, Beldam abuses him almost as badly as she abused Vivian, but at least she notices him. That's better than nothing.

The most conclusive piece of textual evidence is found in the epilogue. In her letter to Mario, Goombella explains that Doopliss has joined Flurrie on-stage in her production of "Paper Mario".

Obviously his shapeshifting abilities make the play a lot more realistic, but why would he bother participating in it at all? This guy was a villain for most of the game. Why would he suddenly decide to join up with one of his enemies?

Because, as far as I can tell, he's not a villain. Just a guy who's sick of being ignored.

I dunno. Doopliss's motivations have never been super clear, but I feel like there's more to him than meets the eye.

If you have any thoughts or ideas of your own, feel free to comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

[moody4world]

In my business pt 2

A/N: ik i take ages to post stuff guys but some things in life been kicking my ass and i either dont have time or im just not in the mood to write. I hope yall like this tho. next part will have more jack!!!

summary: AU where reader is an all around artist (writer, singer, model etc) and after being spotted with jack harlow she becomes the talk of the town. What will her baby daddy/ex central cee think???

previous part

moodymagazine

22.381 likes

moodymagazine Uh oh moodies! It seems like #Y/n baby daddy #CentralCee not too happy about the circulating rumors after she was seen getting cozy with the first class rapper #JackHarlow. He posted a photo of himself with the middle finger from a page of his interview in a #DazedKorea magazine, captioning the foto with “Current mood”. So far we have yet to receive any confirmation from Y/n or Jack Harlow about their current situation.

What do you guys think, let us know in the comments below⬇️

#moodymagazine #moodymagz

View all 1.138 comments

ryyannexox 1h

omg here we go again he is so pettyyyy. he nees to move on and leave her alone didnt he cheat on her multiple times???? men always act like trash then get mad when you leave them.

Reply

iammari 1h

@ryyannexox How does it feel to be loud and WRONG! You people just say anything on the internet. Cench and y/n both have said that he never cheated on her and the fact that they still follow each other should be a sign that they're still on good terms so stop projecting lmao

116 likes Reply

yungkelly 3h

Idk why yall bother arguing about these twos relationship. They break up and make up more than me and my man thats not my man

42 likes Reply

nia2pretty 3h

LMAOOO not my man thats not my man bitch im deaaad

7 likes Reply

View 4 more replies

bridget82 2h

They're both alays in a different country i hope theyre kids are well taken care of

2 likes Reply

y/ncloset 1h

@bridget82 yall ALWAYS worried about THEIR kids did you cook dinner for your own kids yet miss BRIDGET?

33 likes Reply

View 11 more replies

amylai 10m

the white boy she raps about in her unreleased song is probably jack!!!! hear me out guys

34 likes Reply

nianiania 6m

@amylai YOURE ONTO SOMETHING FR

2 likes Reply

❤️ 🙌 🔥 👏 😢 😍 😮 😂

add a comment for moodymagazine…

y/n

Liked by icespice and 153.164 others

y/n he be feedin me 🍝 & 🦞 #areacodes out @ MIDNIGHT !!

View all 1.363 comments

icespice 2m

😍😍😍😍

178 likes Reply

View 6 more replies

bbgrlashly 9m

y/n im begging you to give me one chanceee😫

264 likes Reply

_ell.a 3m

@bbgrlashly Get in line bby girl!

102 likes Reply

View 2 more replies

cyabiah13 1h

It's the body for meeee🔥

Reply

amore2.o 1h

maam are you not gonna address the rumors???👀

Reply

missjanay 1h

Stomach said "what kids?!" share the routine sis

Reply

davespi 1h

Jack harlow out of all people? thought you were different

Reply

cassinspace 1h

@davespi boo fucking hoo go cry somewhere else. as if you ever had a chance with your ugly ass

278 likes Reply

y/ncloset 1h

MOTHERRRR❤️

Reply

❤️ 🙌 🔥 👏 😢 😍 😮 😂

add a comment for y/n...

pt3

[itsbeenliketenyearsitsprettywild]

Oh yeah, it's super interesting! Especially how people decide to go about it, and in figuring out what's best for a character, or what kind of vote will do the least damage.

Like, as you may have guessed from my comments, I'm one of those people who is willing to vote Guilty for people. But it's often not coming from the mindset of 'oh this person did a bad, they need to be punished' - though, for all i know, that may be the conclusion that I come to at times in the future! I'm only hopped into the fanbase around the time the second votes were happening for Shidou and Mahiru, after all.

That is to say: For all we've seen a vote to Forgive can validate toxic mindsets and behaviors, we've also seen some people - specifically Kazui and Yuno - feeling isolated and misunderstood because they got what us voters would see as the 'kind' option. We think, in forgiving, we're supporting those prisoners, but all it's done is convince them either that we don't care what they think and are coming from a holier-than-thou perspective (ie; Yuno), or confirm that all their worst fears are true and that no one will ever be able to understand them (ie; Kazui).

Like, if I was around for the second Yuno vote, I likely would have voted her Guilty - not because I think abortion is murder (I don't), but because forcing the mindset of 'abortion isn't murder' on Yuno has been shown to only make her bitter and tank her mental health as she self-isolates. To her, we're not saying she's innocent of an actual crime; we're saying 'oh, what a poor pitiful girl, deluding herself into thinking she's in any way a murderer, she's too misguided to make the right decision for herself.' Even if it comes from a good place, at the end of the day, it's still condescension and ignoring her perspective on the matter.

Obviously, voting to forgive isn't doing her any favors, so perhaps in adjusting the paradigm to the one she's asking for (ie; voting her guilty), we'd make it obvious we're actually listening to her, and she'll be more gentle on herself if she gets an Inno vote in round 3 - because we've made it obvious that we're not ignoring her thoughts we promise.

As for Kazui... well, see, Kazui is tricky, because it feels like his vote is inextricably entwined with Amane's, which I really fucking hate. So, for now, I'll talk about The Kazui Situation without talking about that added tangle.

(If you want, I could go into my Kazui-Amane vote thoughts in a further response/post later; just ask! ...Wiiith both of us having the full understanding that we may end up with different conclusions and differing perspectives, but we aren't coming from a place of mean-spiritedness or cruelty in our conversation, yeah?)

So. Kazui.

As an isolated individual, I would ten thousand percent vote him Guilty. Not because I don't forgive him for his crime - he's barely even told us in plain terms what the crime is, I have nowhere near enough information to judge him for that fact alone. But because he's so used to hiding himself away, he can't consciously let us much further into his thought process even when he wants to. While, yes, he willingly took off his wedding ring of his own volition, which speaks to him opening up about the truth a little, there's obviously so much he's unable to begin addressing in any kind of direct way, which can be felt in both the second VD and the music video itself - it's all indirect allusions and stage magician tricks on his end.

His trauma over telling the truth still has far too much of a grip on his psyche for him to take this active first step himself. Which is why, even as far back as his first VD, he's relieved someone might be able to see past his walls to everything he hides away. Only to find out that this trial that, hey, your walls might be too high for even magic psyche-exposing music videos to make it past all your defenses.

From what I can tell, at this point Kazui is in a really messy psychological state where his brain treats 'someone acting kind/friendly to him' the same as 'the person not understanding him.'

The reason I get this so well is because I've experienced it before - when you rarely act on your full thoughts and feelings, when you feel like they're too dark or others wouldn't readily accept them, your mind can start to equate kindness and acceptance with successfully hiding the truth of yourself away - that is to say, being misunderstood. So it eventually can get to the point where, every time you see a smiling face, have a friend trying to soothe you, get called 'a good person' - what you hear is 'you've succeeded. you're too distant for me to ever actually connect with on a deeper level. enjoy being alone with your thoughts for all eternity'. And it just makes you feel worse and all the more alone.

That's what Kazui is experiencing right now.

Now, from a frame of mind like this, there's only a couple reliable ways out of it. The first (and generally considered more mentally healthy) option is to actively fight tooth and nail against it - remind yourself that these things aren't true, that kindness isn't the same thing as being alone, that it's okay to be honest, and that you are a good person even though you don't always feel like it. Eventually, you can start to pull yourself out of such a mindset so you can begin connecting with people again.

Sadly, we're talking about Kazui, and MILGRAM's voting system isn't exactly complex enough to make that feasible; we don't have access to the mental health tools and therapy necessary to get him to a state where he can start to do that. Any and all rehabilitation we can do is clumsy and awkward even at it's best.

Which means that, if we want to get Kazui to trust us enough to fully open up about what happened? We have to make him feel seen by being harsh with him. In a brain where 'kindness = not being understood', the only reliable way to feel understood is with a lack of kindness; calling a person out on what they consider their bad traits can be painful, and often isn't the best for them, but is also one of the most validating experiences you could give them; it lets them feel like it's okay to be honest.

And Kazui made it pretty obvious in his second VD that he'll likely interpret 'not being forgiven' as 'us seeing what he's hiding away', so he can more readily open up to us in the first place.

All of this being a WAAAY too long way for me to try to say: when I go vote not to forgive someone, it's rarely from the perspective of condemning them for their behavior (though there might be some exceptions for that - looking at you, Kotoko), but I like to think that's okay. It's almost always a case of 'do i think this person is in the Exact Right Mental State to use a Guilty verdict as a reason to change for the better?'

Quite often, the answer is 'no' - if I was around for Muu's second vote, for example, I likely would have voted her Inno because, from my mindset, all not forgiving her would do is make her likely to play the victim again, which would lead us back to where we started (and, of course, lead Haruka to killing himself). Similar but opposite, Mahiru not being forgiven in the first trial only lead to her being that much closer to a complete psychological breakdown this time around; even though being forgiven isn't going to help her much, it's hopefully going to be the lesser of two evils.

Guilty verdicts aren't something that should be handed out willy-nilly, is what I'm really getting at here! For all that I may vote in a more 'meta' way, and sometimes vote not to forgive, there is still a set of standards i use for figuring out who might actually benefit from this, and REST ASSURED that list of people is pretty fucking short.

I- god- I need to talk about how Milgram as a system makes you assign who the "worst" is out of the cast. Which one doesn't seem guilty for the actions? Which one didn't have a good enough reason? Which one is most dangerous? Which one is the scariest? Which one is the most Deserving of punishment? Which one Deserves Support the Least?

When Milgram asks who deserves to be forgiven and who shouldn't be this is what they mean. This is why Jackalope insists that you can vote for any reason. This system is Built to find the "Worst One" and Punish Them.

ES SAYS THIS IN AMANE'S T1 VOICE DRAMA:

Es: Don’t make me laugh. I’m not your teacher at school; it isn’t my goal to teach you things or guide you on the right path. Milgram’s goal isn’t to turn you back into decent human beings and get you back into normal society. What is needed here is firm, honest judgment and decisions.

Es: Milgram's goal is not to help people, but to judge them "firmly" and "honestly."

It is NOT a coincidence that they are saying this in Amane's T1 VD. Y'know, the same character whose cult punishes them unjustly and unfairly under arbitrary and often unreachable standards.

And look- I get that they committed murder. That is indeed a crime, that is indeed a horrible thing to do.

However, there is an Underlying Theme here that is being explored! If this work was just about what was murder and who actually committed murder this series would be over by Trial 1 and characters like Mikoto, Amane, Haruka, would be guilty and also Dead.

Milgram is actively making us engage with this System of Punishment and find out that No, it actually isn't that easy to prevent the evil from hurting the weak. That people get hurt in this pursuit of justice. That this black and white system of punishment Does Not Actually Help Anyone!

And this is such a cool and interesting part of Milgram that I wish people we're more willing to engage with! I wish we, as an audience, we're more willing to accept that Our Judgement Hurts People. That this is a part of the experience of engaging with the musical murderer series that asks the audience if their willing to forgive or not.

(And I also wish the risk of people attacking me for this is a lot lower but ah well.)

[erisweekofficial]

SURPRISE! 🔥❤️‍🔥

We are SO excited to have chatted with Matthew Bassett, the voice actor for Eris Vanserra in the Graphic Audio Production of the ACOTAR series.

Read below for an Exclusive Q&A with Matt ❤️

How long have you been voice acting? How did you get started in the voice acting industry?

I’ve only really worked with Graphic Audio for voice acting, and I’ve been in their roster of actors since 2012. I’ve been a stage actor (with a tiny bit of film) since 2003, and I’ve taught acting in the Washington, DC, area since 2012. When I moved to the DC area after graduate school and started working around here, a number of actors I liked and admired kept mentioning this company that provided steady work on fun material - westerns, fantasy, sci-fi. The comic book adaptations sold me, I’m a huge comics fan. Since 2012, I’ve played countless varmints, monsters, cads, aliens, superheroes/villains, and the occasional good guy. Along with Eris, my larger roles have included voicing The Homelander in all six volumes of GA’s adaption of The Boys graphic novels and Cullen in the World of Lupi series.

Can you describe the process for being selected for the role of Eris (or any other character)? Were there auditions, callbacks, or specific criteria that led to your casting?

Graphic Audio works like a repertory acting company, in that after your initial audition, they maintain your contact information for project directors to pull from when needed. I’ve done a lot of work with Colleen Delaney, director of the ACOTAR adaptations, including several longer character arcs in multiple series, so she thought I would be a good fit for Eris based on similar characters (rogueish, but with hidden depth that is explored over time) I’ve played elsewhere. I’m glad she did! Eris has been really fun.

How did you prepare for the role of Eris in terms of understanding the character's backstory, motivations, and relationships with other characters?

Graphic Audio does a fantastic job of preparing actors and directing us through performances. Colleen sent each actor a brief but rich character description, often quoting directly from the novels, as well as providing a plot description for each specific novel (necessary since the turnaround from offer to recording is very short). During our sessions, Colleen tells me everything I need to know about where Eris has been since the last scene/book and how his relationships have evolved. GA directors also read in as “scene partners,” which, considering they are all performers themselves, makes it very easy to react as I imagine Eris would.

Eris is a complex and morally ambiguous character. What aspects of his personality did you find most challenging to convey in your performance, and how did you approach tackling those challenges?

His vulnerability is very challenging. Eris has had a hard life, despite growing up with every privilege, which is difficult to convey. He hates everyone to some extent, but it all comes from how much he hates his family and himself. The scenes with Morrigan in particular take a while to record - he has all the feelings when talking to her, but he can’t show any of them.

Did you have any creative input into how Eris's voice would sound, or was it a collaborative effort with the production team and director? Were there any specific discussions about the character's vocal tone or style?

Definitely collaborative! His basic vocal character is very close to mine, with the musicality dialed up a bit so he can taunt everyone so well. Where my director really helps is pushing me to find the different levels to his interactions - when he’s teasing (often), when he’s antagonizing (mostly with Cassian), and when he’s speaking from his heart (VERY rarely, usually to or involving Morrigan).

What actors (voice, stage, film, etc) have inspired you? And did any actors or other characters help inspire your performance for Eris?

Hoo boy. Too many to list! For something like Eris, a lot of inspiration from Tom HIddleston’s Loki, Tom Cruise’s Lestat de Lioncourt, and anything Jeremy Irons has ever done. Characters that you can’t take your eyes off of, even as you want to beat the crap out of them.

Were there any specific challenges or unique aspects to voicing Eris compared to other characters you've portrayed in the past? How did you adapt your voice to capture his essence?

Y’know, for all the dirtbags, murderers, literal monsters, aliens, and villains I’ve voiced, Eris is the one with the biggest heart. The biggest challenge is allowing him to have a deep want, hidden from even himself, for some tenderness, the one thing he has been denied his entire life. A character like Eris is easy to just have fun with and play as a smug prick (which he is), but he has moments of aching loneliness that make him much richer. SPOILER: One of my most recent favorite moments was playing Eris’ surprise and gratitude when receiving a “made” dagger for safekeeping. Eris can’t fathom trusting anyone else with something so powerful and important, because he simply wasn’t shown that level of trust or respect. The moment took him by such surprise. It was great to let myself feel that in the playing.

Do you have any advice for aspiring voice actors who are considering pursuing a career in Voice Acting? Any tips for breaking into the business and honing their craft?

Train your voice! I received excellent vocal training as part of my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Acting at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I learned how to care for my vocal health, how to support with my breath, and how to modulate the dynamics of my voice for character differentiation as well as basic performance beats. You may not have the inclination for that level of training, but a regular voice lesson with a singing coach will give you similar techniques. In terms of breaking in: like anything of this nature, it’s relationships. Build a strong resume, but also build strong relationships with your collaborators and a reputation for reliability. Directors know that I’ll prepare so that I can make strong initial choices, but that I am more than happy to adjust my choices as needed to make the overall production its best.

[polyklok]

What makes them soft 🥰 VS What gets them hard 😈 (Dethklok x Reader)

I thought of that title and it was too good to give up

Fluffy moments vs Turn-Ons headcanons for the Dethklok boys (if that wasn’t obvious enough) TW: Although not explicitly smut, this is definitely a bit spicy and has hints of kinks. Please, Minors DNI.

Nathan explosion

What makes him soft

Being a busy guy, Nathan values a lot of comfortable silence and mutual space. When you two are just sitting together, doing completely different things, not talking, yet enjoying each other’s company nonetheless. Most of the time, he’ll be writing song lyrics, storyboarding a music video, or planning out a concert. His mind is occupied, but he’ll occasionally take the time to look over to you and appreciate just how soothing your presence is.

This guy will go weak in the knees for random little pecks. On his cheeks, nose, shoulders, hands, he’ll go absolutely crazy when you give him just small, passing kisses. He might even stop what both of you are doing just to get more. Don’t get me wrong, he loves a good make out session, but quick and fleeting kisses are definitely up there on the list.

When really focused, Nathan has the tendency to overwork himself, getting completely enamored in his goals and not focusing on much else. Similarly, being an unofficial “Band Dad”, he might be very busy trying to keep his chaotic band mates in check and on schedule. So having a darling S/O who reminds him to take breaks and take care of himself is so precious. Just little, “It’s been a while, let’s have a snack.” or “We should be heading to bed now.” Are just lovely little reminders on just how much you care for him and it seriously makes his heart ache with warmth.

What gets him hard

Nathan is…stubborn and tends to be hardheaded. He’s pretty good at keeping himself in check, but sometimes that ignorance will still slip out. But, HOO, when he has an S/O that’ll snap back. Goddamn! Get a bit angry, boss him around a little. Nothing mean, just put him in his place. He’ll certainly return the favor to you later.

While I still stand by the fact that he loves some quick affection, he still greatly appreciates lingering touches as well. Specifically, massages. He’s a big guy, a big guy who is constantly hunching down and head banging. Rub up his neck and shoulders, please! He might literally beg you, if he must. He considers a massage to be some great foreplay, aftercare, or just whenever. He just really loves it.

Whispering. I don’t know how to explain this one, I just feel like he’s the kind of fella to just go wild over some whispering in his ear. Doesn’t even have to be flirty or sexual; get real close and whisper to him your grocery list, he’ll probably be bricked up over it.

Pickles The Drummer

What makes him soft

You know how Pickles had a completely supportive home life and a loving family? No? Not at all? Huh. That’s probably why he gets seriously emotional whenever you give him praise. Any kind at all, just a simple “Good job” might make his eyes start to water. Tries really hard to hide it too, cause if you'll notice, you might start to worry about him WHICH WILL MAKE HIM CRY EVEN MORE-

Scratching this isn’t kinky I swear- You know that feeling when someone gently drags their fingernails across your skin? Just barely enough to leave red streaks and cause goosebumps, but not nearly enough for any actual pain? Maybe I’m projecting but something tells me he’s just melt into that sensation. Bonus points if you play connect-the-dots with his freckles or something.

Pickles will regularly drink and drug himself up to oblivion, which makes absolutely brutal hangovers a very common occurrence. But he’s used to dealing with it on his own. Until you decided that wouldn’t do and started taking care of him during these tough moments. Even when he’s painfully groaning into you thighs, he really does love the fact that you’re just willing to be here with him, dealing with his pathetic habits and worse symptoms.

What gets him hard

Nothing gets him in the mood quite like seeing you dance. Seeing you bounce and sway to some music definitely puts his head deep into the gutter, especially if the song is filthy. Even better, one of Dethklok's songs. He’ll be staring at your legs, hips, and chest with a smirk for hours and he’ll definitely ask you to recreate some of those moves for him later, privately.

I think he has a thing for oversized clothes. Most of the women he surrounds himself with wear tight, revealing clothing and while that's all done and good, he really enjoys something that's loose and too big on you. Doesn't matter how big you are; buy a shirt a couple sizes up and it'll probably end up on his floor in a matter of hours. Also I think he wants to be the boyfriend to give you his clothing that's too big for you, but he's so tiny himself, it probably won't work :/

Okay, sure, it's nice to have a partner that's a little bashful or even teasing when it comes to sexytimes, someone who likes making a show out of it. But, he loves having a partner that's very casual about their sexuality. This was totally inspired by that great Momento Mori fanfic btw. When you skip to the chase of getting undressed or talk about kinks openly like it was in the morning news or simply ask for sex from him, no hesitation, he'll be so much more enthusiastic about it.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf

What makes him soft

Skwisgaar is famous, or infamous, for being a Sex God. He has slept with more people in a week than most will in their entire lives; he's probably the biggest whore in history. It's what's expected of him. If you are in a monogamous relationship with him, he's already out of his element and feeling vulnerable. This wasn't supposed to happen to him. But then you start giving him affection. Hugs and cuddles, kisses on his cheek, and little pets that don't lead to sex just make his heart flutter in a way he didn't know was possible. He's had countless women touching every part of his body, but when you do it out of sentiment and tenderness rather than because you're horny...oh gosh, he becomes addicted to that feeling.

He'd be the type of guy to pine after good ol' fashion shyness. Seeing you blush, stutter, and look away at some simple flirting quips makes him melt. He loves getting his ego stroked so he often fosters your nervousness just to make himself feel like a big man. He especially likes it if you start to use him as a crutch for your shyness, like hiding your face in his chest or something.

While he tends to come off as smug, cold and dismissive, he is really such a crybaby and has a healthy dose of anxiety as well. While it will take a while a long while for him to open up and expose his emotional side, he really values someone who can comfort him in his tough moments. He’s gonna be bratty about it the first few times, but it means so much just to have someone there and caring for him.

What gets him hard

Oh boy, double whammy! The shyness not only hits his heart, but that feeling moves down south as well. Not necessarily acting timid in the bedroom, although he does like that, but watching the shyness melt away as you really get into it. Especially if you’re a bit controlling of him. Seeing your reserved attitude give away to dominance just fucking gets to him.

This one’s weird ngl So we all know how particular Skwisgaar is. He’s a bit of a diva. I’d think he’d like to pick your clothing. Nothing super invasive, but he likes to choose what outfit you wear before the two of you go out to do something nice. He gets so much pride that from knowing you’re wearing what he picked from you and he cannot wait to tear it off. Bonus points if you get compliments on it; he’s not gonna brag in front of people, but he’s gonna tease you for it later.

If you couldn’t tell, I imagine him to be semi-possessive. So he would just love to mark you up with hickies and bruises and scratches. He’ll have the cockiest smirk on his face as others stare at the marks covering your neck or thighs. He’ll show off his own marks that you left as well, wearing low-cut shirts after a particularly rough night.

Toki Wartooth

What makes him soft

Ahh, this boy is such a sweetheart! A lot of things you do will turn him into putty. But especially if you play into any traditional lifestyle. Toki bought a ring a month into your relationship, so saying your interested in marriage will make him so happy, he might propose right there! You want kids? So does he! How soon? As traumatizing at it was, he was raised with extremely conventional values, so seeing you cook or clean or act domestic even a little bit will push all the right buttons in his brain.

Toki never uses your name. It’s a given. Pretty much the moment you met, he’s called you by all the cheesiest pet names he can think of, even before you were dating. Some are cute; Sweetie, Darling, Prince/Princess, Kitty. But, just as much as those, he uses all the tacky ones that make everyone cringe as well; Honeybun, Num-Nums, Snookums, Baby Cakes. It gets worse. It doesn’t matter if you hate it, he thinks it’s cute!

Despite him usually waking up the earliest out of the band members, and having a cherry demeanor overall, Toki is not a morning person. He will be so pissed if he is waken up before he wants to, alarm clocks are not allowed in his room. He has very vivid and happy dreams and hates to be torn away from them. But he loves waking up with you, every single morning. Even if you snore or drool or kick in your sleep, he will be so happy to see you as you both wake up. Your tired face and messy hair and mumbling “good morning” just feels so right, really gets him in the feels.

What gets him hard

(This one is specifically for female readers) Remember when I said he definitely wants children? I wasn’t kidding. Man wants to start trying for a baby today. He hates condoms and will try to convince you to get off birth control. Almost every time you mess around, he’s gonna bring up how pretty you’ll be with his kids growing in you. Always wants to finish inside. The breeding kink is strong here.

Ok, so yes, Toki generally likes his S/O to be as sweet and loving as he is. But you know what else he is? Fucking scary. If you have some occasions where you get really pissed off, telling off some asshole or even beating them up, Toki wants you right then and there. He loves seeing the seething anger on your face not directed at him and definitely gets turned on if a little blood gets on you. Brutal.

Nudes are great, right? He definitely likes getting some dirty pictures from you now and then, especially if he’s away on tour and can’t get the real thing. But even more so than that, he loves getting teasing photos from you. Especially if you act dumb. Send him a necklace photo that just so happens to show off your cleavage or collarbone; show him something your holding with your soft thighs in the background; send him a selfie from bed where you ‘accidentally’ leave some sex toys in frame. Oh my god, he’ll go so crazy for it and pays you back double when he finally sees you again.

William Murderface

What makes him soft

It’s so easy to make his heart melt, it’s almost sad. He definitely puts up a tough exterior, but once you’re through, he’s pretty much at his knees for anything you do. But high up on his list (he would be the type to make a list) is receiving compliments from you. He already idolizes you and is weirdly grateful that you show him as much affection as you do, so even tiny compliments are gonna have him twisted around your finger, as if he wasn’t already before. He’ll kill someone for you if you just call him prettyboy beforehand, I swear to god.

The quickest way to a man’s heart is his stomach. This is true for almost anyone, but especially Murderface. He’ll gobble up anything you cook for him so quickly, doesn’t matter what. He’s bashful about it, but eventually, he’ll show his passion for cooking for you and teaching you some recipes definitely makes for some sweet bonding time. His favorite date is cooking something together and then eat it while watching an awful movie.

As you’ve probably guessed by now; Murderface is, what some might call, a total simp for you and is completely tender for anything you do. So, if you happen to flip the script, and start building him up as something desirable and pine after him hard, ohhhh man. This extends from the compliments but- Flirt! Get handsy in public! Show him off! He is literally one of the world’s most popular cultural figure and yet his self confidence is dirt. Be grateful for your famous, angsty, bulldog-faces boyfriend and his stomach will explode in butterflies!

What gets him hard

He seems like the kind of guy to seriously get off on eye contact not me tho. Make eyes at him from across a room and don’t look away. The longer you stare just at him, the more he’ll blush and squirm. Once you do finally get some private time, he insists on maintaining eye contact with you as long as you both can manage. It’s somehow feels both romantic and fucking dirty with him.

William is pretty much addicted to your scent. If you have a signature perfume or lotion, he wants to drown in the stuff. He loves to bury his face in any article of clothing you manage to leave behind in his room. While in his afterglow, he likes to creep up behind you and smell your hair and sweat. Even body odor, he likes it if it’s yours. Yeah, he’s a weirdo, but you already snatched him up. Please let him borrow a few sprays of your perfume to wear for the day.

Seeing you handle weaponry…my god. This poor boy. Could be knives, guns, anything in between. Just you holding it is enough to make his knees wobbly and his vision blurry. If you know how to use it? Good lord, he wants to be at the end of that weapon no matter the consequences. He’d be completely okay dying that way. Seriously though, this man has a thing for weaponry and danger. He puts on the attitude of a violent, hateful man but underneath that is a softie. But under want that softie is man who CRAVES VIOLENCE-

I got more and more sleep deprived as I wrote this man

Will I ever be able to write something comprehensible and exceptional?…probably not.

[potatoqueensays]

May I humbly request you elaboraremos om the Bill = Ford in your reverse falls? I am deeply interested 👀

WOHOHOHOH YES!!!! YOU SHALL!!

Thank you for your interest!!!

This makes me super excited to talk about, tbh he deserves his own post anyway!! Cause hoo boy there's a lot to unpack!! Forgive me for all the words, takes a lot to get to the main stuff.

Also thank you to @danklemckspankle for helping with a lot of the details. It's a collaborative project 💪

Let's get into it, shall we??

So! Ford in this au didn't get his science fair project wrecked by Stanley. Now Stan did drop it, but funny enough, to Stan's hopes it did work. Now that might sound like a copout, but it actually is a very damning event for Ford.

Ford gets the scholarship, and goes to West Coast Tech. He thrives, but amongst all these other geniuses he's just another face in the crowd. Now he's busy at school, but he doesn't get the research grant for Gravity Falls because he's just another smart guy.

He returns home after college and his father is expecting him to have millions and already have a job and a bunch of money. But Ford tells him that he's looking into it and doesn't have anything yet. He needs to stay at home until he can get an opportunity, but his father doesn't take too kindly to that. He kicks Ford out. Unknown to Ford, Stan isn't waiting at home due to also being kicked out. So Ford thinks his whole family abandoned him. He thinks Stan is out adventuring the world. So he's all alone without a place to stay.

Ford has already heard of Gravity Falls, even going as far to write a thesis on the weirdness of the town. But it wasn't what the college wanted, and they even went as far as to reject the thesis and the request for a research grant. So now Ford is stuck.

He does odd jobs around the states and winds up in Gravity Falls. One of those jobs landed him a place in the town. Now he hasn't commissioned Boyish (not yet Manly) Dan to make the shack yet, so he couch surfs. He does research on the side for Gravity Falls, eventually finding a cave painting of a weird zodiac and a triangle.

He summons Bill, and they make a deal for Ford to make a portal for him. Ford requests that he has a partner in knowledge and power in return. They shake on it. You need to understand that Bill isn't yet all sad boy in this as he is in the original au, cause it'd be a bit hard to change an integral part of him. Just bear with me for now!

Now Ford isn't well acquainted on the engineering side of things, so he's in a bit of a pickle.

But!! Lucky for Ford, there's a southern hick a couple states away that matches his smarts! A scientist named Fiddleford McGucket made a personal computer that while expensive, Ford managed to get his hands on! This guy seems promising, so Ford reaches out to him with a request and shares his thesis on Gravity Falls to hopefully drag him in.

McGucket loves it! So they agree to work in Gravity Falls together and they build the portal.

On the side however, Ford is talking with Bill. He fills his head with dreams and visions of acknowledgement. It's everything he's needed and more. It kinda goes to his head as he ignores personal needs like eating in return for the dreams. The dapper dorito eats up the seeming gullibility of the scientist. Inflating his ego to the damn heavens at this point.

Ford and McGucket have been arguing on the side as the research gets back seated. After a test with the portal, McGucket falls in and sees what's on the other side. He tells Ford something is wrong with the project and goes radio silent for a couple weeks before returning back in hopes of convincing Ford the dangers and hoping to see it through.

At this point it's important to note the Gremloblin incident didn't happen so the memory gun has not been made. Despite McGucket's hopes the portal is almost finished at this point and it seems like it's all Ford cares about.

Eventually an altercation arises as McGucket realizes Ford is not stopping. He tries to tell Ford of the danger and what he saw. He says he misses time with his family and wants to go home. Nothing is right anymore and he's being plagued daily with nightmares and declining mental health.

Ford is fed up at this point. He comes to a realization, that everyone has only ever told him what he can and can't do. This is his one shot, a chance to make everyone see. Everyone see him.

He pushes McGucket into the portal.

Oopsies. That's a problem!! Welp. He has no assistant now. Now granted, Bill is real happy for interruption being gone, but good ol' Sixer doesn't work with engineering. Someone else has to step in!

So Bill gets on his case now. Even tho McGucket has been dealt with, the portal isn't finished! So he threatens him, simple threats really. Stealing eyes, puncturing holes in a lung, just basic stuff.

Suffice to say Ford isn't happy about this. He's being rushed, and he already had a hell of a reawakening. So he starts to get back at Bill for his harping. Using his power to harness the portal. Experiments to see how he interacts with the world, testing the limits of Bill's body. All under the guise of research. On a...base level of course! All research is important, but Bill has become an obstacle on his own.

Bill was never his muse, just....a means to an end.

So Ford calls Stanley. Of course he doesn't forgive him for not asking about him, but that doesn't matter now. There's more important things to tend to. His brother has actually ended up making money, if the number of commercials he's seen on the television says anything.

He keeps Stanley at arms length, never actually letting him see the portal. Vague explanations of an important project, he just needs Stan's funding and some parts, he can handle the heavy lifting. Lest someone meddle into his work again

He has another side project on his mind, a little bunker somewhere in the woods of the town. In case of a cataclysmic event, or man eating creatures. Do he gets Stanley to help build it for him. Floor planning, parts, doors, tech and all that.

The interactions between them are kept to a minimum, to keep from bothersome questions and meddling. Eventually Stan has enough from the cold treatment and backs out, saying he's got better things to tend to. (In a future post I'll probably elaborate more on Stan :] )

So Stanley leaves. Keep in mind it's the 90s now, and even if technology improves, this isn't a one man job. No matter how much Bill likes to say he's support. You could say Ford is more focused on the portal than Bill, who had the idea in the first place! But whatever, it'll all be worth it once it's done.

He figures maybe he could do this alone, the last two people turned out to be hindrances, so maybe for a year or two he could try his luck.

Of course he gets side tracked with messing with Bill, with his harping on the portal growing less and less. He even....starts to slowly change color? Growing less yellow and more dull. That's something to research more! His research is definitely not humane, but Bill isn't human! He's a triangle! So what does it matter? This won't have repercussions!!

When Bill possesses his body from time to time, he tries to mess with him, but it weirdly doesn't deter Ford, only spurs him forward. Anything to test the limits of Bill. For science!

The couple years of working alone don't prove at all very helpful. Unfortunately, it looks to be like he needs a new assistant and he needs to get back on track. That bunker won't make itself!

So he calls someone new. The last two people proved to only be hindrances, and he actually went easy on Stanley all things considered. But he needs to be more hands on!

So he calls a lady who just moved to Gravity Falls with her husband, someone unaccustomed and unbiased. A one, Mrs. Gleeful.

She is decent enough as an assistant, proving actual decent company. Being that she doesn't question the work or interrupt. She does what is asked, serving coffee if needed, or getting spare parts.

It lasts up until late 2003, where she reveals she's having a child with her husband. She needs maternity leave, but she claims it won't interfere! So long as she swears.

She has her child the next year, but something changes. A couple months after, she makes the same claims of her family needing her. Claiming they're more important than the project.

This doesn't go on well. A spark goes off in Ford's brain. The last time this was brought up it didn't go well. So he digs up old blueprints, something he was working on when McGucket was around.

He erases parts of her memory when he calls her back. Her thoughts of her family are gone, they don't exist in her brain anymore. He tells her they're roommates working on a project, and convinces her to stay.

If she questions him or asks about her family he erases her memories again, and again, and again.

This goes on for a year, and eventually her mind turns to mush. Leaving her a crazed shaky husk of a sensible woman. She is too crazed to work with anymore, so he kind of sets her free like an animal. Throwing her into the woods for whatever creature out there.

Word reaches round of a missing woman relating to a researcher. This naturally reaches Stanley's ears for his penchant for gossip. He tries not to assume the worst and visits Ford.

Ford is so sucked into his work, solidifying his previous belief of doing work on his own. The portal is just one move away from opening, Bill has shut up, and no one is in his way.

Until Stanley. He visits, and sees the man Ford has turned into, and all hope he ever had is gone. He decides to needs to do something about this, stop whatever his twin is up to.

He leads him to the bunker to talk. But when his fears are confirmed true, he punches him. Brass knuckles reluctantly worn. The altercation results in cracked glasses and shards of glass cutting an eye, Ford goes blind in his left eye.

With the man injured, Stanley leaves the bunker and closes it, locking his brother in. No amount of begging or yelling will get Stan to open the door.

During the time he was alone, Ford had a creature in the bunker to study. It was thought to be too dangerous, but that same claim doesn't hold up anymore.

He still has the contract with Bill. So the two are trapped with Ford. The only ones to talk to for 7-8 years. He pushes his anger onto Bill, and talks to the Shapeshifter in spare time. The only beings to talk to for so long does things to your brain. Not good.

So when eventually two young kids open the bunker, he has some plans to set in motion, particularly considering a certain triangle.

So!!! That's the overall idea, ofc to elaborate on more when I talk about the mystery twins and Stan since that could tie more things in. And also weirdmageddon (normageddon? Fordmageddon?) would have to be it's own thing.

But uhhh, art!!

This was a little idea of what Ford would look like post bunker, or after getting out. (Ignore the lack of sideburns this is all I have rn)

Bill changes his name shortly before the mystery twins summon him, cause like. Oof. Separate himself from the guy that outcrazied him!!

Probably a future post about Bill would be better, cause like the physical, emotional, and mental torture he went through is kinda glossed through in this. It's mostly Ford heavy and on his side of things.

But!!! I had fun establishing all this, again my friend is to thank for a lot of this stuff. I recommend following or sending an ask to get his side of this!!

Also apologies for the wall of text, this man is a loaded gun.

Oh also he couldn't have gotten out of the bunker since it remained semi unfinished, since Ford focused more on the portal. So he's trapped until into the bunker 🤷‍♀️

Thank to again for the ask, this was probably a doozy to get through lmao 🫶

[star-pup01]

Skybound Wishes Chapter 19 is up!

Summary: Zelda finally gets out of Kakariko to head to Hateno. Unfortunately, the journey starts to break her down bit by bit. Meanwhile, Revali has decided to be Normal and hide out in the Flight Range and someone is not about to let that happen. Also Wolfie is there say hi Wolfie!

This one was an interesting chapter to make. Hoo boy did it get slightly personal! Also hi doggy!!! YOU CANT STOP ME FROM ACTIVATING THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL TAG!!!

Tags under the cut:

Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category:

Multi

Fandoms:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms

Relationships:

Link/Revali (Legend of Zelda)

Mipha/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)

Saki/Teba (Legend of Zelda)

Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)

Link & Mipha (Legend of Zelda)

Characters:

Link (Legend of Zelda)

Revali (Legend of Zelda)

Zelda (Legend of Zelda)

Mipha (Legend of Zelda)

Daruk (Legend of Zelda)

Urbosa (Legend of Zelda)

Teba (Legend of Zelda)

Saki (Legend of Zelda)

Yunobo (Legend of Zelda)

Riju (Legend of Zelda)

Sidon (Legend of Zelda)

Tulin (Legend of Zelda)

Fi (Legend of Zelda)

Wolf Link (Legend of Zelda) - Character

Additional Tags:

Champions live

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

During Canon

Post-Calamity Ganon

Starts Before Calamity Ganon

Mostly lore accurate except when I think it'll be funny not to

Wolf Link emotional support animal

Amnesia

slowish burn

Slow Burn

Link talks

Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda)

The story ends when I say it ends

Blood and Injury

Link and Zelda are a force of chaos

lots of passing references to other games

Fix-It

Language: English

[kathaynesart]

What advice would you give to someone who really wants to get into writing/drawing comics, but doesn't know how or where to start? What would you recommend? Even if/ especially if they already have a decent history in writing and drawing

SHORT ANSWER: Don’t do what I’m doing with Replica haha! I’m breaking all my own rules with this comic but maybe we can use it as a good example of what not to do in my rant below…

LONG ANSWER: (below the cut)

Hoo boy… there are so many avenues this question could take. I assume you don’t necessarily mean entering the comic industry as a professional (there are far more experienced people you can ask about that). But simply drawing your own comics? I'll try my best to break down some of the basics I've picked up over the years. Note these are just my opinion and there is always room for other methods...

1. ASK YOURSELF WHAT KIND OF COMIC AM I DOING?

The first thing to consider is what is your intention with this comic? Do you want to tell a story centered around a preexisting fandom or tell a completely new story you came up with? What genre do you want to focus on? I'd recommend finding something that really sparks your interest, because you're going to be working on it for far longer than a regular art piece. Plus if you like it, someone else is bound to like it as well!

2. ASK YOURSELF DOES IT NEED TO BE A COMIC?

This may sound silly... but often times I find people fail to take into consideration whether or not the story they are telling works best with the medium they are considering. Had I done Replica as a fan fiction, I would be much farther along with it... but with comics there comes a wide range of subtle visual cues, parallels, and symbolism I can use that I wouldn't be able to show through writing. The written word also has many strengths that comics lack... it just comes down to what you want to be able to show in your story.

3. KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

If this is your first time doing a comic, I recommend not overextending yourself with some grand epic that is going to take you forever (like Replica haha.)

Example: Years ago a close friend and I did a webcomic called Perpetual Flux that we were unable to finish. It went for about 2-3 years, was over 110 pages long, and yet we had only managed to get about 3 chapters into what would have probably been a +30 chapter story. We came up with this huge epic we wanted to tell and while it was a story we still wanted to finish, it just became impossible to continue as our lives and availability changed.

So start small! And take that experience you gain into bigger, future projects. Obviously I have not learned my lesson with Replica, but at least with this project it's something I can do on my own time and is supported by a wonderful community who keep me inspired. Speaking of which...

4. FINDING AN AUDIENCE

If it’s a story based off something with an existing fandom then half the work is already done! You just need to start interacting more with people in that fandom, and I mean really interacting. Talk to other artists, join Zines, leave comments, and share other people’s work. It can foster a community and help you be a part of the fandom so that people will be interested in what you have to share.

If it’s a new story you’re going to have to create your own community. Nowadays it’s easier than ever to get your work out there, but the competition for eyes is much steeper. What I find that works is rather than starting the comic cold turkey, draw out some highlights from your future story. Moments that have yet to unfold that might wet a random viewer's appetite for more. Kind of like… a trailer for what’s to come. Keep dropping those little crumbs of interest as you prep your comic to garner some interest and that way when you do start you may already have some followers who might share your work around!

5. CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Get into the habit of drawing and writing regularly. I know it can be a hassle and the last thing you want to do is make it a chore, but like exercising I find that the more I do it, the easier it is and the better I feel about it. Nowadays I feel weird if I'm not at least writing some script or drawing a few sketches towards my comic/projects every day.

Also, if you can make sure to update fairly regularly (something I also fail at with Replica haha, but at least I try to post little things here and there when time allows). It's important to let your followers know that you are still there and you care! It also helps keep you at the front of their minds. My fellow Apocalypse AU creators Cass and Tapakah0 are GREAT at this as they post a ton! It helps garner a strong community and a lot of continuous excitement! I wish I had that same energy and time but you'll have to make do with my old-lady pace of things, bless you all haha.

6. GRAPHIC DESIGN

Obviously as a writer and artist you're used to doing both... but with comics there's another aspect that can come into play. Graphic design! Whether it's your title, your font choices, the word bubbles, or the way you break down the panels, these area all things you should take into consideration. For example, every webcomic has panels, but they can vary tremendously in style. Because of Tumblr and the nature of the scroll method I chose to forgo the typical "comic book style" for more of a... loose storyboard feel where I care more about the angle of the shot within each panel rather than how these separated images link up to one another. Where as with Perpetual Flux, it was laid out on actual comic pages so we had to take serious consideration into how they fit together within each page. IngunnSara is also a great example of this more traditional method of paneling and it's gorgeous and difficult and they have my utmost respect for pulling it off with Hamato Wanderers! So I recommend looking to some of your own favorite comics and see what jives with you.

7. FIND A STYLE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Also failed this with Replica haha, but to be fair I went right into it with the intent on learning the style as I went. But I recommend having some grasp on the style you want to use and whether or not it's a viable to be drawing over and over again for your comic (for example, if you make it too detailed it will take you far longer to draw!)

8. FORGET ABOUT PERFECTION

Perfection is a lie. There is no place for it in art, especially if you're just doing this for your own pleasure. Don't strive for it. Don't worry about it. Don't compare yourself. Just keep doing what you're doing and keep learning from it. You'll get much farther!

Ok... hopefully that helps a bit. I'm sure there's plenty more to talk about but I feel like I've talked enough for now. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk and lemmed know if you manage to get your comic off the ground :)

[thedemiseofdj]

I have way too much to say about Jason Grace as a character so I might as well start here. I will also preface that while I might be critical of things in the Riordanverse, I do like it, I just think Jason in particular was done hella dirty. I’m also not working with a fully fresh memory of the franchise so if I say something stupid feel free to yell at me.

The relationship between Percy Jackson and Jason Grace was underwhelming, but it could’ve been a lot better. I think it boils down to three main areas: their rivalry, their relationship as foils and their eventual friendship

As Rivals

Jason and Percy’s rivalry basically boils down to “They fought because they were possessed,” and I think that they could’ve had plenty of reason to actually not like each other. This is part of my belief that the HoO series could’ve been longer to flesh out a lot of stuff. But I do believe that it’s bizarre that Percy and Jason meet, initially get along, and then come to blows in the same book. I know they were possessed, but that didn’t have to be the case. I think there were some things that Rick could’ve used to give them actual reasons to fight

I think it would boil down to two types of reasons: a systemic one and a “personal” one.

For Jason, I believe it was canon that the gods didn’t pay too much attention to Roman demigods, so it would’ve been interesting to have him go on a Greek quest while his memories are returning, see the amount of involvement from the gods and go: “So y’all can help, but the choose not to help the Romans? Fuck that!” I think the second reason that Jason would have to not like Percy would be to have him see how much the Greeks care about getting Percy back and contrast that to the Romans, who didn’t look for him and went as far as to replace him and you have Jason go: “Fuck That!” This would eventually turn into “Fuck Percy Jackson,” because even though Jason’s not really mad at Percy, he’s the poster boy for what Jason is really mad at

For Percy, you have him see the safety net that the Roman demigods have in New Rome and go: “Why don’t the Greeks have something similar? Fuck that!”. You can also have Percy find out that while he pretty much lost eight months in the blink of an eye, Jason was only asleep for a few days and go: “Fuck that!” This turns into a “Fuck Jason Grace” attitude because Jason is also the poster boy for what Percy is actually mad at

All in all, I don’t believe that they need actual personal gripes with each other, they just need to view each other as the easy target for the actual things they’re mad at.

They would eventually do fight, but not right away. In an ideal world where there is more space in the narrative(more/longer books), there would be at least a whole book where Percy and Jason just don’t get along. However, they wouldn’t come to blows by themselves. This is where the eidolons come in. Instead of it being a full possession like it was in the books, it could’ve been that the eidolons just stoked the tension that was already bubbling under the surface.

Who wins this fight? I would want it to be Jason(probably because I like the character and project on him way too much to have him lose). But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who wins, it just matters that the truth comes to light and they eventually talk it out.

As Foils

Jason and Percy could’ve been interesting foils because they both occupy the same space, both being big three powerhouses and leaders at their respective camps. However, they operate completely differently.

Both of them are opposites when it comes to their personality. Percy is a much more untamed, free-spirited rebel while Jason, even though he chafed under rules, still followed them. They are such opposites to the point where some characters that like one, automatically don’t like the other(Annabeth to Jason and Piper to Percy).

Percy is the type to sacrifice the world to save the people he cares about. And while I personally don’t believe that Jason is the ‘needs of the many’ type, he’s certainly not gonna go that far

They are also interesting in how similar they are.

On a basic level, both of them are good people who want to do the right thing, but it goes far deeper than that

I have a headcannon that Jason Grace’s fatal flaw is ‘Self Sacrifice’(I might get into this more in another post). This gives Jason an equally “job interview-y” flaw to Percy’s ‘Personal Loyalty’(as much as I love that being Percy’s fatal flaw, it is very much like when someone says “I’m too *insert good trait*” for the greatest weakness question in a job interview, at least in my opinion)

As Friends

Like I said before, Percy and Jason occupy the same space, so they both can relate to one another on a much deeper level than most others. In canon, they get along great after their spat and I wouldn’t change much about that.

I feel like their similar positions in life would allow them to trust each other

I do think that it would’ve been cool to see them go apeshit together with their combined strength more often

God I hope this shit made sense. I mainly just wish Jason and Percy’s fight had more meaning.

[aziraphalalala]

My first fic is up on Ao3 THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Okay. I need to calm down. Deep breaths. I've wanted to write for the longest time. I never found the courage, or the focus for it. Then the Ineffable Divorce happened on Good Omens and something shifted in me. I joined this hellsite again. I started talking to my mutuals, and reading fanfic. I found a writing guide in a book shop in Prague, which opened my third eye. Before I knew it, I was writing, and commenting, and finding inspiration.

I have so many people to thank. So, this is kinda like an Oscars acceptance speech, except I didn't win anything, very few people care, and I am not wearing black tie right now (blanket burrito. I'm wearing a blanket burrito.)

So I am sending extra special hugs and thank yous to:

😘 @phoen1xr0se, who encouraged me to join the Ao3 queue and just start writing

😘 @keikokasugawitch-blog, who volunteered to help with editing on Ao3, and stood by ready to jump to my rescue if I fumbled it

😘 @celestialcrowley for our chats about writing, and your encouragement to post so you can read my stuff

😘 @superstitiousteven who just slid into my DMs and told me they'd like to read my fic

😘 @nerdypixel, with whom we've been able to share our love of DnD, and whose work I get to beta (and happily, I might add!)

😘 @fellshish who is an amazing writer and the sweetest person, and made the reckless promise of reading my stuff when it's up

😘 And finally, my dear @crowleyscleaninglady, with whom we just clicked straight out of the gate, immediately took a rocket ship into the next dimension, and never looked back. We're writing fic together (and hoo boy it's a steamy one!), I'm betaing her incredible Good Omens Human Thief AU fic which gets me all kinds of excited, and she's just the best.

This fandom is amazing. You're all amazing. And, if you were to read, kudo & comment on my first fic ever, I would instantly die. But I would die happy.

[erosjournal]

‧₊˚໒꒱ stay cool it's just a kiss, oh why you gotta be so talkative... pt.2

────────────────────────────────────────────

~ characters : leo valdez x jason grace

~ synopsis : jason, who was at that time helping out at camp jupiter, invited leo to catch up at a coffee shop. but after a while, jason got tired of leo chatting away. so he shut him up. with a kiss. he avoided him for a while, as long as he could. he wasn't ready to come to terms with his feelings. but leo couldn't shut up about it.

~ tw(s): gays? cursing!! (please note i am slowly reading through hoo! also, please read part one first, which you can find here!)

────────────────────────────────────────────

jason was now off in the woods. yes, he wasn't supposed to be here, but he thought it was safe. away from leo. now, he didn't want to exactly be away from leo, but he didn't want to talk about what had happened either. it was all too much. his talk with piper helped a little, but it still made him mostly confused.

he walked around the woods, rethinking everything. he made a list.

what he knew:

he liked girls, at least in the past he did

he hadn't liked the thought of leo being with calypso

he thought leo looked nice

he liked kissing leo

he thought leo had soft lips.

he-

he shook his head, trying to stop lingering on the idea of liking what had happened.

ok so, that was established. he wanted to kiss leo again. but... why? he's not gay, or bi, right? at least he didn't think so. gods, why was he struggling so much?

"ugh, fuck you" jason grumbled, as if leo was there in front of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"leo, where were you?" nyssa asked, working away at some project the cabin had started. it was hot in the bunker, the smell of metal and sparks fluttered in the air. leo walked in, laughing sheepishly. it was now darker out. And he didn't know if he should tell her. if he could tell her. she frowned, crossing her arms.

"come on, spit it out." she said. she could tell something was up, and wanted to hear it.

"well..." leo started, blushing slightly as he spoke. "jason sorta... kissed me? and i was talking with piper about it-" he answered, before all of the hephaestus cabin gasped. they had all paused, looking at him.

"what?" "when?" "why?" questions filled the air. they weren't gossipers, like the aphrodite cabin, but were always interested in what was going on in the lives of their fellow siblings. leo leaned up against a table, surprised. he hadn't wanted this many people to know. well, it was out of the bag. what could he do now?

"hmm, it started this morning..." leo explained, his siblings listening as they continued to work through out the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"WHAT?" jason yelled over the phone. piper winced.

"yeah... um... most of the kids over here have heard about your guys's... incident." she explained, feeling bad about being the deliverer of bad news.

jason was in new rome, and was out for a walk around the college campus. heck, he wasn't even in college yet, but he wanted to be away from his friends at camp. he didn't want them to know about his... kiss. it wasn't even a big deal. but...

"wait, wait, wait.." he stuttered, his hand shaking slightly. "so.. how many is 'most'?" he pleaded. he hadn't wanted others to know. of course, leo couldn't just keep his mouth shut.

"um... well, the hephaestus cabin first found out.. then they told others, spreading it to the aphrodite cabin, then..." piper lingered. they both knew what that meant. everyone knew. jason tried to steady his breathing, biting his lip.

"ok, um, thanks for the update pipes." he glumly said, and shut off the call without another word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

piper was fed up with these two boys who were mad at each other but obviously in love. she decided to take matters into her own hands.

with the power of aphrodite and charmspeaking, a little push couldn't hurt, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"hey pipes, you wanted to talk?" leo's head popped in through the door, smiling that devilish grin. piper looked up and smiled. she breathed deeply, hoping her plan would work.

"yeah, come on in." she said, scooting to make space on her bed. leo walked in and plopped next to her.

"what's up?" he asked, cocking his head to the side. she knew she had to stall, so leo wouldn't leave before she got a chance to fix things.

"um, i just, wanted your help with repairing something!" piper said, adding a little charm into her words. she felt bad, but knew this was the only way to get this to work. leo nodded, listening intently.

"what do you need fixing?" he asked, looking around the room. piper got up and walked over to a part of the room, littered with brushes and hair supplies. in the center of it all, there was a tall, oval mirror. piper glanced behind it, looking at the loose screw that had been there for a week. she quietly undid the of it, and slipped it in her pocket.

"there's something wrong with this mirror. it usually can flip," she said, showing how it was supposed to work. then it slid sideways and crashed on the ground, startling both of them.

"oh... um, pipes? do you really-" leo started, looking unsure at her.

"yes! it's a very important emergency!" she argued. he shrugged and walked over, settling down to look at the mirror.

"it's missing a screw..." he said, glancing at the hole. he looked around on the ground. "do you think it fell?" he asked. piper shrugged, walking back over to her bed.

"i dunno... maybe." she said, watching leo search through the mess.

as piper watched, she bit her lip, glancing at a clock to count the seconds. he's supposed to be here. she thought. right on time, there was a gentle knock at the door. piper got up, trying not to seem suspicious or too eager. leo was still mumbling to himself about the stupid screw.

piper opened the door, only a crack. she looked through it, and saw the tall blonde standing there.

yup. jason grace stood at her cabin, standing awkwardly. she smiled internally, but couldn't show.

"hey pipes." he said, his voice heavy with anxiety and concern. she tried to put on a neutral smile.

"come in, come in!" she muttered. she stuck her arm through the crack and yanked jason through it, him yelping and stumbling. once she got him inside, he stood facing her and the door, scratching his head.

"what the heck?" he asked, watching as piper shut the door, and locked it. she sighed angrily, standing to block the door.

"you two need to talk. i won't let you leave till you figure things out! this is so stupid!" she exclaimed. she spread her arms to block all access to the door, and stood there, watching them.

jason furrowed his eyebrows, confused. he turned, scanning the room to see who else was there. leo looked up from his searching to see who was with piper. jason and leo locked eyes.

oh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ an:

yay! finally got another part out! there's just one more, wrapping everything up. i hope yall enjoyed, even though it was sorta short. i'm going back to school soon, so i won't be able to work much, but i'm going to set up fics to come out at a scheduled time. next part should be the last, and i'm almost done with hoo. toa soon!! i wanted to most focus on the "spreading it around" part, but i swear the next part will be better :p

love you all!!! (lmao i just realized that all these parts end in pipers cabin.)

[oceandirtcountry]

I’ve grown slightly impatient so here’s a silly little short meetup (at least before I’m writing it) for @destiny-in-the-universe’s project Zero

“Wait, play that back. Let me see that again.”

[Date: 20/12/20XX]

[Location: District Nine. Uncharacteristic alleyway.]

{Begin Replay}

“Girls, girls, girls…don’t be so crass, now. I mean, it’s your old pal Mercury! Surely you can excuse him from a little petty theft, right?” A silver-haired boy takes a few cautious steps back in the alleyway.

There was a way out the other way, but he’d never make it so far—Ruby would snag him if he even attempted any form of escape. His only options were fight or talk, and both are unlikely considering the four.

After Salem’s death, all of her minions got put out of a job. Of course they did. And with no prior experience with most fields and a massive criminal record, save for Arthur Watts, who found himself a stable tech support job. At least, stable enough. The minions ended up resorting back into lives of crime, this time far less extravagant and privileged.

Yang snorts. “Petty theft? Yeah, if it was, maybe we’d let you off with a slap on the wrist. But you just robbed a bank—and that’s far from petty.”

“Like me,” Weiss smiles a self-indulgent smirk.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Yang snorts. “Anyway, I’m actually glad it’s you, Merc. I’ve been waiting to sink my fist into your butt-ugly face ever since Beacon, and hoo boy, it’s been a long time.”

Mercury gulps, but retains his swagger. He’s not going out begging for mercy. That’s demeaning.

He watches as the blonde brawler’s hair surges to life, the golden locks glowing with the power of her Aura. The temperature around them rises, causing Mercury to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead away.

Yang bends down, points her Ember Cecilia towards the ground, and rockets herself towards him, arm raised over her head, ready to smash him into the ground like a cockroach.

Mercury knows he can’t escape, even with a boost from his prosthetics. This blondie has been known to level buildings with just a punch—the shockwave would get him anyway.

He winces, closing his eyes and praying.

Lo and behold, maybe there is a god. A high-pressurised deluge of water hits Yang’s stomach, sending her gurgling across the alleyway. She hits one building, then another, then falls to the ground.

Team RWB looks on, flabbergasted, while Yang regains her composure.

A six foot tall, crustacean-reminiscent humanoid steps protectively in front of Mercury. Behind him, a Spanish young man with a massive blade slung over his shoulder, seeming to appear from his arm.

Just as Ruby thought things couldn’t get any worse, behind them is a fucking dragon. About nine whole feet, excluding its tail, of nothing but pure, rippling reptilian muscle, and a massive wingspan blotting the remaining sunlight from the alleyway.

“Do you know what you guys are doing?!” Ruby yells. “We’re Huntsmen!”

“Oh, we know that,” the dragon growls. “That’s why we’re here.”

Flames crackle on the edges of the drake’s mouth. The Spanish boy brandishes his massive blade, grabbing the handle by his arm. The top of the blade disconnects into two sections and begins to spin, like a buzzsaw.

“The name’s Rex,” he introduces himself as the crustacean fiddles with the badge on his chest. “Now, thrill me.”

Rex swings his blade haphazardly, arms flailing about wildly as the buzzsaw cleaves through fire escape ladders and a few trash cans. Blake drops a shadow clone, ducking out of the way as Rex’s buzzsaw cuts through the clone like a hot knife through butter. Pieces of it go splattering everywhere.

Yang catches Rex’s blade as he swings it again, while Ruby grabs Weiss and moves her out of harm’s way with her Semblance.

Yang groans as Rex drives his blade down lower, her hands pressing onto the fuller. The buzzsaw section grazes her shoulder, causing her Aura cover to screech in protest. She can feel it begin to shatter.

Blake drives her Gambol Shroud into the ground, kicking off the walls and sending her foot into Rex’s face. It sends him stumbling a few feet as the blade seems to re-absorb itself into his body.

“Hey, Mercury, right? Help a guy out, will ya?” Rex calls out.

Mercury nods, dashing over to Rex’s position and sucker-punching Yang in the ribs. “I got you, robot man.”

Ruby’s Crescent Rose unfolds, revealing its massive blade, which she brings down onto the dragon-crab duo. With a beat of its wings, the dragon leaps away effortlessly, but the scythe connects with the crustacean. Ruby feels the blade embed itself into its armor, then suddenly, a green flash.

She stumbles backward, readjusting her grip on the Crescent Rose. Blinking, she spins the scythe around her hand. Mental note: crab man can use light…wait.

The crustacean is gone. In its place, a muscular, plantlike humanoid. Its neck and head are reminiscent of a blooming flower. The cut Ruby left on its shoulder simply sews itself back together with plant fibres.

“Tch.” Weiss notices the dragon approach once more and their new adversary. She pulls the Myrtlenaster out from its sheath, pointing it at the drake.

A white glyph appears from where she’s pointing it.

The dragon laughs. “Is that seriously the best you can do—”

The Arma Gigas’ massive fist appears from the glyph, decking the dragon across the face, sending it reeling backwards.

Ruby re-folds her Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle form, unloading a round of fire dust bullets into the plant creature. The flames crackle around its body, but are quickly extinguished with a puff of gas.

“Y’know, sometimes I really appreciate adaptations and evolution,” the creature jokes. “I’d be Swamp-fired if it wasn’t for that.”

Ruby’s features crinkle. Oh lord, it makes puns.

Team RWBY quickly regroups, standing with their backs to each other. It’s pretty clear to see how much coordination and trust in each other that they have.

“So, what’s the dealio, o great leader?” Blake sizes up the dragon, eyes tracing its massive form. It seems to still walk like a normal human.

“Uh, whoop ass, no duh.” Ruby dons a shit-eating grin. “Let’s show these guys what the greatest Huntresses in the world can do.”

(koff koff…lost motivation to keep going. I’ll probably continue it another time, or when the au eventually becomes more fleshed out cause I’m a procrastinator.)

{P.S. unnamed crab-plant creature is Ben, Water Hazard and Swampfire specifically, and unnamed big dragon is Jake. Jake Long.}

[altraviolet]

Have you read any articles/books or watched any videos/lectures on writing that you found helpful/enjoyed?

There are some recs in this post here. Scroll down to RESOURCES. Since writing that post, I've found more videos and channels. I didn't bookmark them, so I'd have to go hunt and find them. There are also various video recs in my main list of Writing Advice, my pinned post.

I have a mental list of "writing advice posts to make" and an updated resources post is definitely on there :)

The most interesting and entertaining channel I've found in the interim is a script writer, LocalScriptMan. His ideas are really fascinating. He has a bare-bones approach, which makes sense because he doesn't write novels. But you can learn a lot from his craft videos. (YMMV on the enneagram stuff. I find it very interesting but I can't align my brain to those specific characterization divisions) For starters check out "What if character sheets weren't awful." I really enjoy his stuff.

TheCozyCreative is also a really nice channel, highly rec. Trad and self published author talks about all aspects of publishing, the realities of being self employed as a writer (emphasis on frugal living to make that happen), and assorted cozy stuff.

This post got long so gonna put a lil jump here

Most of the videos I've watched recently have been about the publishing industry and editing. I donnnnnnn't know if those would be particularly helpful for fic writing. I mean, editing absolutely should be done, but we're talking Developmental Editing type things, which most fic writers probably don't do... hmm

Know what, let's just go with it xD Please forgive me, I'm too tired to get all the links, but here are some videos I've taken notes on. I have a notebook I take notes in, divided by subject. I'mma just give you the info in my notebook. these are youtube videos, format is:

"video title" channel name

BACKSTORY

"How to write character backstory" Abbie Emmons

BACKSTORY/FLASHBACK

"On Writing: Flashbacks and Backstory" Hello Future Me

CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS

"Oops no soul: the biggest Paradox" LocalScriptMan

CONSISTENCY

"how to be consistent with your creative projects" Megan Brush

EDITING (DEVELOPMENTAL)

"Everything you need to know about developmental editing" Alyssa Matesic

"How to self edit like a developmental editor" Writehive

EDITING (STYLESHEET)

"Stylesheet | Why you need a stylesheet | editing tips" Autumn Bardot

EDITING

"40 words to cut from your novel" Natalia Leigh

REDEMPTION ARCS

"On Writing: Redemption Arcs!" Hello Future Me

SELF PUBLISHING

"My 7 biggest self publishing mistakes: what I learned" The Cozy Creative

SLOW BURN

"How to write slow burn romance... that will make your readers fall in love" Abbie Emmons

STORYTELLING

"The key to great storytelling" Quotidian Writer. I mention Quotidian Writer in the older post I linked above, and I hiiiiighly rec her vidoes. They're really good.

SUBTEXT

"Writing subtext in dialogue" Quotidian Writer. hoo boy do I rec this video. did you like the dialogue in TEG? watch this video :D

--

Alrighty hopefully that's a good start :) Though it's totally possible most of these aren't helpful to you. Do you have specific questions about writing? If so, I can try to find videos for you.

If you're looking for broad advice, def check out the channels in the post above, as well as LocalScriptMan, TheCozyCreative, and def check out Quotidian Writer.

[swarmishstrangers]

hello fellow mspa reader fan :> what do you think mallek's and mspar's first kiss was like <33

HI HIII!!!

This one admittedly took me a bit to think about. So! Just walk with me while I ramble before answering.

The thing I like that factors in a lot to the relationship Mallek and Mspar have with each other is the fact that both of them tend to have a different way of looking at love because of the differences between Earth and Alternia's ways of romance and such. Alternia with the quadrants and stuff. I mention that cause them being aliens to each other make both of them fucking DORKS when it comes to romancing each other.

Like?? Y'all saw that guy call mspar cute and fucking STUMBLED AND FLUSHED LIKE!! GRGH!! I don't think Mallek was shy in trying to show attraction to them, at least in the ways that didn't involve words cause his mouth is faster than his brain and he gets tripped up and embaressed over potentionally saying something wack and stupid to them. But what may be obvious for him to show that he's attracted and has a bit of crush on them they either don't understand the significance/it flies over their head and they don't catch that. Which Mallek keeps in mind and doesn't blame the, ya know, alien for not taking what he's putting down. And vice versa on Mspar’s part.

One of my favorite headcanons is that things seen as little acts on Earth are considered to be deeply intimate to trolls. Scratching someone's back when they're having a hard time getting it themselves? Being genuinely invested in the person? Sleeping when the other person's around leaving yourself vulnerable? Any kind of scenario that leaves you both vulnerable to each other? Heart eyes motherfucker. Heart. Eyes.

Okay, so!! While I've established that, let me actually get to your question. (Under a read more cause hoo boy this is gonna get long)

I like to think there was this period in Mspar and Mallek's friendship that ended up turning into this very ambiguous situation of friends??? Or ♡??? Cause neither of them confessed yet, but both are becoming aware that there's clearly signs of attraction that's mutual on both ends, but again, both are kinda like "woah. they're like, actually into me? in a red way? oh, but what if I'm reading it wrong."

So it was within time where I think their first kiss happened.

I imagine it a night where they were staying over and hanging out with Mallek at his hive. He wasn't coding at the moment. His eyes were actively stinging, and he needed a break, so he was just hanging out with mspar. Specifically, he was lying back on his lounge plank with Mspar joining him, and the two were being cuddly and whatnot. Friends can cuddle! It's not something that Mallek found to be a huge deal as 1. The dude's touch starved. He doesn't mind at all. 2. He likes to leech off their heat as much as they like how cool he tends to run. 3. It wasn't their first time cuddling. It was just nice. They both liked it.

He had his eyes closed the whole time they were talking to each other, not hitting the hay, of course. You know this guy's sleep schedule is wrecked beyond repair. They were recounting their past few nights, and the stuff they were up to with their many other friends, he gave them updates about his coding and other projects he had going on. They devolved into more idle chatter, talking about video games, poking fun at one another, and laughing. It was a good time, and it was certainly helping Mallek destress.

After coming down from their laughter, it got quiet for a moment, pleasantly so. They had one of their arms pushed under where the hood would be and the other on his chest, playing with his hoodie strings while they rested their head on his shoulder. Mallek was still just laying there, grin on his face wide enough for his longer tooth to poke out just a little bit. He had one arm around their waist and his other one resting in his hoodie pocket. His eyes still closed. He could feel them looking at him for a while, almost tempted to crack an eye open to tease them and ask what they were staring at, but before he even could, he felt lips pressing against his cheek and it made his mind go blank. Did they..was he registering this right?

Their face was red, they didn't know what came over them, they weren't thinking! He was being so quiet, his cheeks and the tips of his ears were turning blue. The quiet was making them nervous! They had sputters of apologies on the tip of their tongue and were about to unleash them. Mallek, with a sudden boldness, shifted under them, bringing his hand from his pocket to grab at their hoodie strings. With a yank, he abruptly brings them down, and now they were registering that they were kissing.

They don't move for a couple of seconds, having to grapple with the fact that this is real and they were living in the now. Before their eyelids relaxed, they scooted up a little so their head wasn't tilted so awkwardly, adjusted their arm against his chest, and deepened the kiss.

Mallek was. Thrilled. Over the moons even. He kissed them, and they were reciprocating! Which. Oh, thank God. He got really nervous when they didn't move.

It lasted for just a few seconds before they separated. Mallek's head fell back against the arm of the couch, and Mspar lied their head back down against his chest. Both of their faces flushed, both of their hearts going crazy (and they could hear his.)

They go back to cuddling. No words are exchanged. But there's a new air to the room that neither mention, but both are happy to be in right now.

[freevoidman]

The Pros and Cons of Silent Hill: Ascension

Hey there! Are you planning on sitting through Silent Hill Ascension, either because you're excited, want to build up hype/support for further Silent Hill projects, or maybe you're curious about what new shit show Konami's cooked up? Well, I've sat through the first two days, and let this post be a quick run-through on the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly about Silent Hill: Ascension!

Pros:

There's honestly very little, but I'll run through them nonetheless.

Voice Acting is, right now, okay. Some actors are clearly better than others. I have to give special shout-outs to Rachel Hernandez and Xavier Candless. They're both doing really well with their characters so far and I'm excited to hear how they'll act in more emotive scenes. Of course, we're only two days in so we'll see how that changes.

Silent Hill Ascension features minigames which average around "okay." I'll talk about it more in the 'Bad' section, but the good ones are fun little brain teasers that I find satisfying enough to solve. This is not across the board, but it's enough of a positive that I felt it okay to list.

The site is functional enough that the catch-up videos seemed to work without any hiccups (edit: so long as there isn't a livestream occurring at the same time. If you want to play catch-up 30 minutes before the new stuff is released, odds are the livestream will cut in and mess up your video). Plus, the grace period for decision making is very generous so far, ranging from a full 24 hours to multiple days, so they do give you enough time if you can't watch live.

Credit where credit is due: the monster/creature designs are genuinely well-made. You can clearly see where the budget went, and it was towards making these things look cool and be animated well enough to translate that creepy factor. While nothing is abundantly original right now (we've yet to see the flaming box head guy) I won't short-change the monster designers and animators here, they put effort into this.

There was a bit of misinformation spread around that you'd have to pay to participate. Thankfully, that's not true, you can "play" Ascension without paying a cent and I, personally, wouldn't call this a "pay-to-win" type of game with its set-up. In other words: DO NOT PAY, it's absolutely not worth it here.

Bad:

Animation quality shifts from middling to horrible. The main criticism I have for this "experimental idea" is that everything Ascension tries, the 2000s nailed long before. If you've ever seen one of those 3D straight-to-TV movies that airs on cartoon networks during the holidays, congrats, their animation is likely better and has more charm than Ascension. Characters in Ascension move stiffly, either emote too much or not enough, and lip syncing seems off no matter which language you pick. Animation in SH1 is easily better than this, so don't expect a visual spectacle.

As an addendum to this: Ascension is dark--no, not the content, it is literally hard to see. Going into a Silent Hill-adjacent media, you expect visibility to be impacted by fog. Ascension, on the other hand, skips the fog entirely and just makes everything dark. It is incredibly difficult to see anything that's happening (this includes QTEs which, hoo boy! look at the next segment for that). I don't want to be cynical, but I truly do believe that part of the reason why is to cover up the stiff animation. Until Dawn and other Dark Anthology games had some moments of animation weirdness, but Silent Hill Ascension is easily worse than that on a pure technical level.

App and website responsivity is baaad. Minigames are designed for both platforms with zero differences, but this means some minigames are better on desktop than on mobile and vice versa. Two minigames stand out as particularly mixed/bad: a find-the-object game and a guitar minigame. The find-the-object game was better on desktop because your hovering cursor could find clickable areas more easily than on mobile. The guitar minigame was just bad--it wasn't a rhythm game, it was a game where you had to click finger positions for chords on the guitar strings and, my god, it played horribly no matter which platform I picked (though mobile was noticeably worse) and actually hurt my ears.

As an addendum to that, the live QTE events (yes that's a thing) ALSO suffer from this lack of responsivity, with more destructive results. Live participants were abruptly thrust into QTEs with no warning, no tutorials, and no preparation. There were 4 types of QTEs: a quick button press, a hold-release button, a rapid-tap, and a quick swipe. Of these, only the hold-release and rapid-tap worked regularly. The quick press barely responded, and the swipe indicator is practically hidden due to it being borderline invisible.* While you can try the minigames over and over as much as you want, the QTEs are limited to the live showings and cannot be "replayed." In addition, they have been heavily implied to be a major determining factor as to whether or not characters survive, so if every character's fate is based on successful QTEs, every character is going to die in this show, no matter what you do. This is why I said it's not pay-to-win, you can't pay your way through live QTEs, and this set-up feeds into the unsatisfactory system the entire "game" perpetuates. Even if YOU do well, decisions are based on the community, so if they fail, tough nugs.

The story isn't shaping up to be anything remarkable. There's no major hook in the opening scene and even less of a hook for the three scenes that followed. I'm not intrigued by the "horror" being shown, the way this is being shot and told is more confusing than anything else and, while there are some 'good' actors in this, a majority of them are bad and lack any hutzpah to sell the continued experience. I'm going to hold out for the end of the week, when the first "episode" is done airing, but if nothing hooks me I'm not going to continue.

Ugly:

The "Battlepass." Oh dear god the Battlepass. By paying $20, you can get more "influence points," which you can use to determine actions in this game. You also get exclusive little emote stickers for the live chat (oof) that are, at best, a cringey nightmare and, at worst, absolutely stupid and useless. You also get accessories for your avatar (did I mention there's an avatar? it's so pointless I don't even know WHERE to put that tidbit). Why is this even here? You already have freemium options where you can buy influence points, what does a battlepass add?

The "live chat" just shouldn't be there. I'm sorry, it shouldn't. You can already see the community casting votes and helping with QTEs, having a live chat that is barely moderated with hundreds of thousands of people signing on at 9 to watch the stupidity unfold is a bad idea. It also contributes to the stupidity of the Battlepass system--I don't want emotes, I don't want a 3D avatar that can appear in the show if I give enough points--so nix the whole thing. EDIT 11/1/2023: I kinda got my wish! After the amazing lack of moderation on launch, they've either temporarily OR permanently disabled the live chat! Unfortunately, the video's dimensions to compensate FOR live chat have not been altered, so there's a big gap of black negative space where it should be. People can only reply with the dumb stickers the devs have shoved into this, BUT if you have the battlepass, you can apparently type messages! Ironically, this retroactively gives the battle pass an actual fucking purpose since it gives you a privilege, and the stickers serve a purpose since they're the only way for non-battlepassers to communicate in live chat. Fucking brilliant, they've stumbled backwards into an unintentional solution. EDIT 11/4/2023: Genvid's CEO, Jacob Navok, has made various claims on twitter that of course they tested they tested their AI moderation for basic slurs, it's just that the system got overwhelmed by day 1 traffic. Well, I absolutely DON'T believe that (the testing, not the overwhelmed thing, connection and stability were terrible day 1) seeing as people are getting around not being able to TYPE swearing and horrific racial slurs into chat by simply making their usernames swears and slurs without any letter substitution (a la leetspeak). Here is a link to a video of someone who was streaming Ascension and had the chat open, only to see have someone with the user name "Fuck_[n-word]s" in chat (I'm not typing the actual slur fuck that). When he goes to try and flag the user, he is given no ability to report the username. So, yeah, even if you see some incredibly racist/bigoted shit, you can't flag the user and report them to, y'know, assist with the absolutely real robot-powered moderation that totally exists! If there was the most BASIC moderation in the world to catch english swears and slurs, that username would not have been permitted under any circumstances, so I fully do not believe this fucker.

The decisions themselves shouldn't have labels. What I mean by that is that, so far, every option has three possible options. These options are labelled under three categories: redemption, suffering, and damnation. In other words, the watcher can literally see the paths leading towards the "good, neutral, and bad" endings for Ascension. This shouldn't be a thing, period, because it immediately introduces biases into your choices. Every option so far has been massively skewed towards the "redemption" path because people aren't blind, they can see the "good" ending on the horizon, and they want to go for it. The worst part is, the options on their on aren't explicitly good or bad, so if they got rid of that labeling it'd still work. idk, it just feels stupid. (NOTE: day 2 introduced ONE choice that doesn't have this same labeling system. No clue if that's a bug or if there are going to be decisions that don't have a label. Even then, it seems like a small decision in the overall scheme of things, so... :shrug:)

Yes, the decisions are permanent, thus denying you the ability to see 2/3s of whatever Genvids has worked on. I just think that's dumb and, though many in the community have criticized this already, it feels even dumber when watching the show play out live. There's no way that the money Ascension could possibly make would subsidize the effort put into this if you're effectively nixing 2/3s of anything you can see (and it does seem like major alterations to the characters and their routes so far, nothing minor, so... yeah, you're missing out on a LOT). This also means that because of the audience effectively being enticed to pick the clearly labelled "good path," if you put any effort into a different choice, odds are you wasted your time with minigames for the day. This means Ascension is set up to be as unsatisfying as possible for individuals, and only satiates half of the community engaging with it. There is no way this is going to last the entire scheduled 6 months this is intended to run for if this is the system they're operating under.

In conclusion: give this one a pass. If you're really curious, you can watch now and get a good idea of its future quality. This isn't remarkable at all and looks more like a time sink than anything "fun."

I still don't understand why this isn't a video game, other than Konami hoping some suckers will pay for the influence packs and get them more money than a $60 one-time-purchase. Quantic Dreams and Supermassive "Dark Anthology" games are really fun and well-liked because of the CYA angle they take. This could've made a decent amount of money if it were just, y'know, a normal game.

*MINOR EDIT: tested the QTEs on desktop instead of mobile and they were better overall: prompts respond easily to mouse clicks and aren't nearly as invisible on my phone screen compared to my desktop. If you are REALLY interested in trying it live and getting a feel of the "authentic, live experience", I'd recommend accessing the site on desktop over downloading a mobile app.

EDIT 11/2/2023

Yeah I know I keep editing this honestly BUT I do have a big-ass critique I just noticed relating, again, to the minigames.

Here is a screenshot of the rewards you can receive for your performance with the minigames. You are rated on a scale of 1-3 stars, with a failure being 0 stars. In return for your performance, you gain "Interactive Points" and EXP. Tell me, after looking at this screenshot, what the problem with these rewards might be:

Do you see it? Well, if you don't, let me point it out to you.

THE AMOUNT OF INTERACTIVE POINTS YOU RECEIVE, THE CURRENCY YOU USE TO ACTUALLY MAKE DECISIONS AND PROPERLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE STORY, GOES DOWN IF YOU DO WELL AT THE MINIGAMES. THE GAME ACTIVELY PUNISHES YOU FOR PLAYING WELL.***

100 interactive points, by the way, is not enough to vote on a decision! You need 200 minimum. You also cannot repeatedly play the minigames to farm IP or EXP so, once you get two stars, you can't get the rewards for three or vice versa. And remember, if you're not a battlepasser, you only get two of these minigames per day.

Why on earth is it scaled this way? The difference between two stars and three stars is the exact same, why does it not increase when you do the minigames well? 100 for one star, 200 for two, 300 for three, it's so god damn easy AND you can still keep the scummy interactive point packages they sell!

But, I here you asking, what does the EXP do? Well, ignoring that a 10 EXP difference is exceeding minimal, EXP gives you... nothing!

Yeah, not even kidding with this one. There does seem to be a leveling system attached to your profile, but I cannot see a single thing connecting it to rewards (which are across the board useless), giving you a power boost with your voting, or just giving you perks. As far as I'm aware, EXP doesn't grant you a god damn thing, and that's the only increased reward from doing well.

***CORRECTION (because nothing in my life can ever be simple): the minigames DO reward you better than the screenshot above. Just did today's minigames and I got 330 IP from a 2 star ranking. However, if that's the case, I GENUINELY do not understand why this is labelled incorrectly? This doesn't even add up correctly (the 1 star + 2 star ranking should equal 300, NOT 330).

So, at best, the site is poor at labelling things (which wouldn't surprise me, the UI is a mess most days on this) OR my view of the site/rewards are bugged! Who fuckin' knows at this point. Sorry for the long rant y'all but honestly? Considering I only noticed the labelling earlier today and couldn't test this until the reset happened, I could only go off the labelled point system above.

I WILL say that tonight was the first night the community succeeded at the endurance scenes! I'd be happier about that if the game itself gave a shit, because apparently, what we do does not matter (as this game seems rapt with telling us)

Yes folks, despite the community succeeding two (2!) of these long ass, repetitive QTE events, for some fucking reason, Karl's hope went down further! This is, again, despite the fact that the community AT LARGE succeeded for the first time since the premiere date, but we still lost! Fucking how.