#(( need to write up a less awesome version of them

[sunnyknight-original]

What Kind Of Monster Was He?

A @forgettable-au fan (colored) animatic

MINOR BLOOD WARNING!

*Was he the kind to do too much, or not enough?

…OK, SO WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS-

I had planned to finish this into a full fledged animation, but a lot of the parts I did end up finishing just didnt live up to what I imagined…I waited for more motivation to happen, but it just didnt so HERES THE COLORED ANIMATIC CAUSE IM REALLLY HAPPY WITH WHAT I HAVE and ive sat on posting this for like a 2 weeks 😭 which is an eternity in my time

Im gonna post the unfinished “finished” part on my side account @o-sunny-day though! and probably have people yell at me cause it actually isnt that bad AND IT TOTALLY ISNT I just… art. You get it. ENOUGH YAPPING! ITS TIME TO YAP!

except not yet, MORE BACKGROUND INFO HUCDHUC- but its background info on explaining the lore…

The explaining is much less expansive than in Dear My Dear just because I didnt work on it long enough to think every bit of it through. This is just a clean, nicer looking, and colored version of the very first storyboard.

I usually think about and put more effort into the little stuff while making the FINISHED bits since ive had so much more time to think about that in all the preppin n sketching.

BUT I liked the explaining format I did for Dear My Dear so im sticking with it!

The main idea for this was to do a study of Wingdings’ character from what we’ve been given, mainly focusing in on the expectations he puts on himself because holy shit the lyrics for this works so stupidly well it makes me mad LOOK AT THIS???

its ridiculous. i love it. I didnt know Jack Stauber helped write Forgettable AU???? woww!!! ANYWHO thats the gist of it, not much context is needed past that. Onto the sillies!!!! (per usual excuse the shitty quality of the pngs idk why Tumblr does that-)

Did you know love? Will you rest in peace?

Wingdings and Sans holding hands as kids, before turning to a casket like appearance for adult WD. The flowers hes holding are pretty important too, Marigolds to represent grief, Lilys, new life, and Forget Me Nots for this lovely little line I found when looking up good flowers to use-

“a promise to always remember” ….stop that.

That actually also has a double meaning in this case too. 1, ofc the forgetting of Wingdings. But ALSO Wingdings forgetting something himself. Forgetting who he is. Almost like a Zuko ATLA situation.

Did you have a family?

Who knows where theyre parents are, but this is HAPPY TIME and we’re gonna assume they were so awesome and very kind but had to leave or went to a farm in the sky for whatever reason.

The colors here I had a lot of fun with. Their parents had warm colors but the boys have cold, still with warm accents. Its said they more or less raised each other being very independent as shown in the second part with them running out the door by themselves.

How was the view from the shelf? Did you ever believe in yourself?

Before, we started with the beginnings. The good things, the only thing Wingdings cares to even recall. Now we’re seeing his life really start to turn upside down- making first contact with The Player :D

He’s hesitant to reach out, but is intrigued, before getting a rushing revelation of his reality and how it isnt “real”

Rather than feeling crushing existential dread, he more feels pressured to be BETTER, to figure a solution, to do something. Thats what white represents here

WHAT KIND OF MILK WERE YOU?

We then switch to more examples of how Wingdings is taking this pressure (not well) The soft tones of yellow that were shown before, turn to way brighter, intensifying that feeling that he should be fine, he should be happy, drowning in success of being the Royal Scientist.

But he just desperately wants to just go back to a time of nice coldness.

The warm vs cold tones in this I had so much fun with, coldness is supposed to represent hostility usually, while warm is nice and happy. (same with Black and white. Scary, relieving,) But these points often contradict each other, its hard to tell what you’re feeling vs what you’re supposed to be feeling. Just like Wingdings!

WHAT KIND OF LIFE DID YOU LIVE THROUGH?

The white lab coats, the expectations, theyre on all of them. But Wingdings has essentially become his expectations.

He questions what life he wants to live, one being himself and alone (speaking in wingdings) or not himself and with company (speaking in a “normal” font) Still, he frames it in past tense as he believes theres no going back now, based on what he knows.

“One of the last happy moments they had together” stop that. (i cant find a link to when that was said but I know it was once, about them taking a photo together….)

DID YOUR LIFE RUN RICH WITH CALCIUM?

Calcium….bonesss :3 Hehehehdhehfhehehheheheh still dont know why he has holes in his hands so we’re movin on

DID THEY LAUGH AT YOU OR DID YOU LAUGH AT THEM?

Compared to the childhood Wingdings remembered, heres the sadder, bleaker, more realistic version. He always thought they were laughing at him but… maybe they werent.

DAIRY BELOVED. YOUR DAYS ARE GONE,

It doesnt matter now though. Because in the NOW, Wingdings has become consumed by his expectations of himself, seeing this has the “only option” to do the only thing that he feels will give his life meaning and purpose, establishing connection with THE PLAYER

But the grocery list goes on…

And yet life continues on without him, and his room is transformed into a more livable space now that someone is��living in it. Always hurts so much making the differences between Wingdings and Papyrus’ room. It feels like making something out of the man Wingdings COULD HAVE been. Because honestly thats just what Papyrus is,

Thank you to my bestie @fruitytrip for helping me with all of my art in general but especially the storyboarding on this :3 <3

[aimedis]

WORST KIND OF FLIRT (A TEASE) | WIP WEDNESDAY !!

vincent x lovely actors!au | happy new year everybody! i hope 2025 treats you all well. as my gift to you i shall present you with none other than the unedited version of chapter one of this idea that i talked about ages ago. i've had this chapter written for like about a month and a half but don't get your hopes up for the remaining chapters 😭 i'm gonna try but i honestly can't write for shit and i have no motivation. but if you guys like it, i'll try harder ig lmao

cw - actor au obvi, directors!angel and david, love at first sight but it's literally just lovely and vincent flirting immediately (they don't actually fall in love until later), lovely being a bit insecure, mainly lovely's pov (it switches to angel and david for a second), korean!vincent and lovely, mentions of vincent being adopted by william at ten years old for unspecified reasons, we're ignoring the drama going on between them rn okay, darlin shows up for half a second and sam for even less, says 'laughs' way too much, i know nothing about acting and auditions and whatnot okay 😭

wc - 3.6k

hope you enjoy!

“You’re going to be a star.”

Lovely’s been told that close to a billion times in their life. It used to make them really happy when they were a kid. They’d grin up at their mom when she would tell them about all the awesome movies and TV shows they would act in once they were older. They’d practice in front of a mirror for hours at a time, reciting the few lines they were expected to memorise as a little eight-year-old. Even at that age, they wanted more. More lines, more chances to prove themselves worthy of the big screen, more of the spotlight. They only wanted to shine as bright as possible, to make their family proud.

“You’re a star.”

It feels egotistical to them, to say that they’re a star. But it would be completely ignorant of them to pretend they hadn’t made it far. Getting recognized every time they stepped foot outside, having people stand in line for autographs, people using their name and face for school projects, and not to mention, getting thousands of dollars just to say the name of a brand. As much as it warmed their heart, it got to be quite disorienting at times. To think that they went from being a complete nobody outside of their school plays and small commercials to being so… well known.

It was also really privacy-invading. Paparazzi was going to be the death of them.

But that’s the price I pay, Lovely muses to themselves as they try their best to breeze past the flashing lights and cameras being shoved in their face while they try to walk into the studio.

“..they could be a little less obnoxious about it though. Can’t believe this shit’s legal.”

Lovely looks up and squints to regain steady vision from nearly being blinded. Belatedly, they snort when they see Darlin glaring at the door they had just walked through.

“Yeah,” They say breathlessly, slipping their jacket off.

Darlin pats them on the head, “You need anything before they call you in? They said in about half an hour.”

Lovely leans into their hand, “‘M okay. I’ll just play games on my phone. Did Sam go in already for Daniel?”

The (slightly) taller of the two nods and gently leads Lovely over to a few seats in a slightly secluded area, “He should be done a little while though. I already went so do you want us to wait with you before you go in? We can take you home.”

Lovely was tempted to say no, say that they don’t need to look after them. They wanted to say that they weren’t a baby (even though they were significantly younger than both Darlin and Sam) who needed to be coddled.

But when Darlin guides them to sit down, fixing their hair, they only exhale softly. As long as they don’t need to call an Uber.

“Yes please. If it’s not too much trouble.”

Darlin grins, “Never for you, spark.”

Lovely huffs and pouts up at them, “Don’t call me that, weirdo.”

They only laugh and sit next to Lovely, sliding their phone out of their back pocket.

They rest their head on Darlin’s shoulder, going to scroll on their own phone to kill time.

✩★✩★✩

Lovely inhales sharply when their name is called out along with someone else. They clear their throat, and stand up, “Wish me luck, I guess.”

It shouldn’t still make them so nervous to do auditions after doing so many of them in their life. And it usually doesn’t. However, not only was this film one of the bigger ones they were called in to audition for, their agent said this one was right up their alley. And after they read the summary and script, they agreed. This one was perfect for them. The character Kaia was perfect for them. They wanted this role more than they’ve wanted any role in their life.

The male lead Lucas also happened to be their ideal type but that was neither here nor there.

“Good luck,” Sam flashes them a smile, “This is easy work for you.”

Darlin nods, “Don’t stress, you’ve got this in the bag.”

But what if someone better comes around?

Lovely leaves that unsaid, now was not the time to be insecure. They needed to have confidence.

But really they couldn’t help themselves, they read a couple hate comments too. Of course, they tried to tell themselves that the positive outweighs the negative and that the good comments were always so much more detailed and substantial than just “they’re not pretty”.

They take a deep breath and nod once, hardly noticing the other actor who stood up at the same time, walking back into the audition room. They smile back at Sam and Darlin before turning around.

They’re a star.

✩★✩★✩

Lovely walks slowly into the backroom where the auditions were being held, seeing only one other person standing around the door. They were so stuck in their own head about the person they would be acting with that they failed to notice the person they would be acting with.

They’re going over their lines in their head as they step into the hallway, reminding themselves to breathe when a voice knocks them out of their train of thought.

“So, you’re my Kaia.”

Lovely’s face prematurely scrunches in disgust before they even turn to look at whoever this guy was, not registering his tone and utterly annoyed they had to act with one of those guys. Again. They’ve worked with people like him before, revolting middle-aged men who only looked younger and thought it was okay to touch and sleazily flirt with their young co-star because they played love interests. Every other film they’ve acted in since they were 18. They were sick and tired and really wanted to enjoy this one so they turned to face this supposed middle-aged man so they could tell him off and set some boundaries.

However, they were met with the most handsome face they’ve ever seen in their life. He was smiling, not smirking, at them, his eyes shimmered even in the bright fluorescent lights, and his face looked sculpted by the gods. Lovely couldn’t help but let their eyes trail further down, scanning his body that they could somehow tell was just perfect underneath his hoodie and baggy jeans.

He laughs and—holy shit, Lovely thinks they’ve died and gone to heaven, he was so beautiful. Lovely snaps out of their little trance and meets his eyes properly, his beautiful brown eyes, when it clicks.

Oh my god, this is Vincent Solaire.

They also hadn’t known him personally, they acted in very different genres. They hadn’t even been a fan, per say. But he was just as well-known as they were. William Solaire, his father and agent, was a director they had worked under and that was one of their favourites.

Lovely inhales when Vincent brushes his hair out of his face.

“I would say you match Kaia’s description perfectly but.. I think you’re better.”

“Oh yeah?” Lovely laughs breathily, “Do you flatter all of your co-stars like this, or am I special?”

Vincent looks them up and down slightly and Lovely swears he looks at their lips, “You’re definitely.. special, Lovely was it?”

They nod, “Vincent?”

“In the flesh,” He grins.

Lovely smiles back, not having it in them to feel ashamed at the blush spreading across their face, only because he was blushing too.

“You don’t usually act in rom-coms,” Lovely hums, leaning back against the wall, “Why this one?”

Vincent’s grin widens, “You keep tabs on what I act in?”

Lovely shrugs, “I mean you’re not a nobody, I’ve seen you around. And where you are, Sam is. Gotta support my best friend’s man, you know?”

Vincent breathes a laugh, “Ah, that’s right. You’re Darlin’s twin flame.”

“In the flesh,” They repeat with a matching smile.

Vincent scoffs playfully, “Copy cat.”

Lovely snorts.

“Well,” Vincent continues, “I just wanted to try something new, you know? You can only act in thrillers and shit like that for so long before you need to switch it up to something more lighthearted.” He says, still smiling.

Lovely senses that wasn’t the whole truth but they nod, “I see. I’ve only acted in a handful of horror movies but I get it. They’re a little draining.”

“Oh yeah, you were in Locked Down.” He recalls, “I love that movie, you were phenomenal in it. Your acting was so realistic.”

Lovely smiles slightly, they always got a little sheepish whenever they got praised for their acting or any skill at all. You’d think they’d be used to it by now.

“Yeah well,” They clear their throat, “Screaming so much made my head hurt for days so I would hope it was good.”

Vincent laughs a bit hesitantly, “I’d say it paid off.”

Lovely laughs as well, going to say something else but the door in front of them swings open a little. They glance over only to freeze at the familiar face of Angel Shaw themselves standing in front of them.

Not familiar on a personal level, of course not. Lovely had never met them personally, but they and their husband were some of the most famous actors turned directors in North America. Lovely grew up watching Angel on TV and they were part of the reason Lovely even wanted to act in the first place. But even as they rose in popularity, Lovely always admired Angel and David and any film they directed. It was another recent dream of theirs to act under them, and this was their chance.

Angel looks at the two actors standing around the door and they smile, stepping out to show their full body, “Good morning, you two! Good to see you again, Vincent. We’ll be right with you both in a moment.” They turn to look at Lovely specifically, “Hi, there. I know we talked over the phone once and I’ve spoken with your agent but it’s nice to see you in person.”

You wouldn’t believe how happy I am right now, Lovely cried internally, trying to hide the star struck look on their face.

They clear their throat, “I-It’s nice to see you too. I’m a really big fan of your and David’s work.”

Angel laughs softly, “Why, thank you! That means a lot. We also enjoy watching you act, it’s truly beautiful.”

Lovely nearly died on the spot and they prayed to whatever god was listening that it didn’t show on their face. They barely squeak out a ‘thank you’ before Angel settles back into their professionalism.

They look at their clipboard, “So, you’ve both been called in to play the main characters and love interests Kaia and Lucas obviously. This “audition” is mainly just to see how well you two act together. Your chemistry, if you will. You’ll have like five-ish minutes to talk with each other and introduce yourselves and then we’ll start, okay?”

They both nod and Angel looks back up.

“Okay!” They smile and peer back into the room, “David? Are we good to go?”

“Yeah, send ‘em in.”

Angel nods towards the inside of the room, “Come on in then.”

Lovely dazedly steps into the room.

The room was bigger than it looked from the outside. There was a long table with six seats, four of which were occupied, the one to the right of David Shaw was empty, Lovely assumes that’s Angel's seat.

Angel points to the small table, “You guys can sit over there and get to know each other a little better and we’ll call you over, alright?”

Lovely and Vincent both nod and step in sync over to the corner. They both sit down and smile at each other.

“So Vincent, where are you from?” Lovely asks.

Vincent grins, “Well, I think it’s common knowledge that I was adopted by William when I was 10. But my birth parents were Korean and so were most of my foster parents until William adopted me.”

Lovely’s eyes light up, “Oh same!” They pause with a small laugh, “Not that- not that I was adopted but my parents are both Korean immigrants.”

Vincent laughs as well, “Really? Do you speak Korean then?”

Lovely’s nose scrunches, “I’m like- fairly fluent. I’m not as well-spoken as I am in English. My dad dogs on me for it all the time. You?”

“God, I have the speaking ability of a fourth grader.” Vincent scoffs, “Obviously, since I was adopted at 10 by a non-Korean man, my Korean just stopped ageing with me once I stopped putting in effort.”

They nod with a smile, “I get it. Have you tried learning more now that you’re an adult?”

“Not really? I think I tried a couple times when I turned 21 but I got impatient. But hey, maybe you could teach me,” Vincent tilts his head to the side, smiling at them.

Lovely stops breathing as they glance down at his lips.

“Yeah… I could.”

They blink when Vincent laughs, focusing back on his eyes.

“Mesmerized, Lovely?” He hums, beaming from ear to ear.

Lovely scoffs playfully, “You wish, pretty boy.”

“Think I’m pretty, huh?”

“Yeah well,” They smile a little more shyly, “I’m not blind.”

They delight in seeing the slight pink tint that spreads across Vincent’s cheeks.

He grins slightly, returning the small glance down at Lovely’s lips, “Yeah? I think you’re pretty too. Gorgeous, even.”

Lovely breathes a short flustered laugh, “Jeez, is this a part of the script? This is a lot of flattery for getting to know my co-star for an audition.”

Vincent laughs a little louder, “I’m only getting into character, of course. My Kaia.” He reaches over to gently hold Lovely’s hand laying on the table.

And Lovely feels their entire stomach light up brighter than a Fourth of July night. They swallow, forcing themselves to keep their breathing stable. They sigh shakily, “Yeah…”

Neither of them realize how long they’ve been looking into each other’s eyes until David’s voice calls from the other side of the room.

“We’re ready to get started, you two. Are you ready?”

Neither of them flinch. Not at all.

Vincent looks away first and gently drops Lovely’s hand, nodding at the directors. The two stand and walk over to stand in front of the table.

“Alright,” Angel looks up from the papers in front of them and smiles, “You can start whenever you’re ready.”

Vincent and Lovely both nod at the directors and then at each other, settling themselves into their roles. By the light waltz music starts playing softly in the background, they are both fully immersed into another world.

Vincent smiles completely poised in a way that is unlike earlier, holding his hand out towards Lovely, “Kaia. I’ve heard a lot about you from your father.”

Lovely grins back at him hesitantly, taking his hand, “That so? Lucas, is it?”

He hums as he pulls them into a slow dance of swaying back and forth, holding onto their waist loosely with his free hand, “That’s me. Prince of the House of Solaire.”

Lovely rests their right hand on Vincent’s shoulder, “Not the typical name for a royal, hm? I saw a picture of you and assumed James or Alexander.”

Vincent laughs.

✩★✩★✩

David leans over to whisper in Angel’s ear as the other casting directors spoke to the two, “They’re really good at this. I could hardly tell they were reading off a script.”

Angel snorts, tapping their pen against their paper, “Uh huh.”

He furrows his brows, “What, you don’t think they’re good?”

“No, no, not that. They’re wonderful,” Angel shakes their head with a laugh, “They’re just uhh- it feels like a little more than acting, no?”

David shrugs with a small smile, “I don’t know, Angel, maybe they’re just good at their job.”

“Right.” They roll their eyes, “And they were eye-fucking over there without the script for fun.”

“You shouldn’t speak about your actors like that, Angel.” David breathes a laugh, “And you know how insane actors are these days when it comes to getting into character. Remember Milo and the FBI Agent Incident?”

Angel stifles a louder laugh, “Oh god. They weren’t even using real guns for the shoot, he didn’t need to go to a shooting range everyday for a month.”

David bites his tongue with a grin, turning back to the two once Babe had finished speaking. He writes something down on his sheet of paper, “That was great guys, thank you so much. That’ll be it. We’ll get back to you in the next week.”

Angel bids the two goodbye and rests their head on David’s shoulder once they’re out of the room, looking down at his papers and snorting, “Didn’t need any time to think about it, huh?

David shakes his head, “God, no. They’ve had the job since they walked in here.”

✩★✩★✩

Vincent holds the door open for Lovely as they leave, to which they snort.

“Thanks, prince charming.” They pat his shoulder playfully.

He laughs and closes it behind him. Lovely jerks their head to the side to indicate Vincent follow them back to the main part of the building with a confidence they did not feel.

Vincent sticks his hands in his pockets, “Not to sound too proud, but I think we nailed that.”

“Obviously,” Lovely nods with a smile,”You could have looked at my lips a little less though.”

His eyes scrunch up into those little half-moons again to emphasize his amusement, “Well, who could blame me? They’re very nice to look at.”

Lovely raises an eyebrow, stopping once they reach the end-of-hallway door, “Only to look at?”

Vincent, once again, glances down at their lips as they spin around to face him whilst leaning against the door. He breathes a barely there ghost of a laugh, “Maybe more. Who knows?”

Lovely can’t contain the wide smile that overtakes their features, squeezing a fist behind their back to attempt to contain their excitement. Vincent looks back up at their eyes after a moment, shifting back into focus.

His head tilts slightly and he smiles sincerely, “You have beautiful eyes, Lovely.”

How they didn’t collapse right then and there, they’ll never know. Feeling crimson creeping onto their cheeks, Lovely laughs lightly and scratches their nose.

They had never been able to take praise of any kind without feeling like their entire body was on fire. They always laughed the compliment off or redirected it out of pure embarrassment. Recently, that is. Being in the spotlight so often since the age of 17 had indirectly forced them to be better at accepting the praise. Being ‘The Star of the Big Screen’ meant being continuously lauded all over the internet and often to their face during interviews or fan-meetings. They had spent so many hours in their bedroom, in cars, or in hotel rooms practicing their “poker face” and willing themself to never show a single person outside of their close circle how much a little praise flustered them.

The way Vincent spoke to them undid all of that. The tone of his voice, his gaze, his fucking confidence. If their body was on fire when it came to anyone else, he made them feel like they had just been thrown into a volcano.

And they could only thank whoever was listening that their days of tripping over their feet, choking, or sometimes straight up running away were over. The only thing that would be more humiliating than being complimented by the most beautiful person they’ve ever seen would be fumbling themself in front of him.

Shaking off their inner-monologue, they grin at him again, “Thank you. All the compliments today, are you sure this is still ‘getting into character’?”

“Of course, I have to really step into Lucas’ shoes.”

“Uh huh,” Lovely shakes their head with a laugh, “Sure.”

“Really! In fact, I’ll do the most Lucas thing ever and ask for your number!” He grins again, reaching into his back pocket for his phone.

They stare at him with barely concealed mirth, “The most Lucas thing ever? Really?”

“Nah,” He snorts, unlocking his phone, “It’s a Vincent thing for sure.”

Lovely doesn’t think their heart is supposed to skip that many beats but they chuckle and accept the phone offered to them, typing in their number quickly.

“Thank you kindly,” Vincent says, taking his phone back. Lovely hums and leans off the door, swinging it open and stepping in time with Vincent back to the entrance.

They both wave to Sam and Darlin’ still sitting there in the corner. Sam stops talking when he sees the two of them, waving back and the two stand up.

“Hey.” Darlin says, stretching their arms, “How’d it go?”

Lovely and Vincent exchange a short look.

“Good,” They both say at the same time, sharing a smile.

Sam raises an intrigued eyebrow but he smiles back, “That’s good. Do you know when you’ll get the call back?”

“Ah, David said within the next week,” Vincent says.

The two in front of them nod and Sam glances to the door.

“Is William picking you up, Vincent?”

Vincent nods and takes a look at his phone, “And he’s already here.” He looks up with a little smile that was mostly directed at Lovely, “Bye, guys. See you later.”

Lovely waves back at him, letting their gaze linger a little longer than normal until Darlin’ clears their throat.

And whatever confidence Lovely had vanished the second they were alone with Darlin’ and Sam.

────────

so uh, i meant to post this before 12am where i am buttttttt.... it's surely still january 1st somewhere 😄

[stealingyourbones]

What suggestions would you have for cool, lesser known DC characters I could write a crossover fic with.

Preferably not Gotham-based characters because as much as I love them I need a break and I want to try something new. I know you mentioned Animal Man in another post. Does he have a solo run I can look up or is he usually in group comics/a side character in somebody else’s comics?

(I am deliberately baiting you to info-dump to me about any DC characters you want and I will write a fic with them so go nuts.)

Sadly at this current moment I can’t infodump nearly as much as I’d want to because my carpal tunnel is being a lil bitch but I can give synopses:

Animal Man- Buddy Baker, a typical suburban dad who also happens to be a hero that can use abilities based on any nearby animal (including bacteria?). He is powered by The Red which is the animal version of The Green (Plant Life). The Red is less the concept of all animals but more the concept that all animals are meat. his comics are either a beautifully terrifying body horror gore fest or a 4th wall breaking mind bending creation. No in between. Having Animal Man fight the Lunch Lady and realize she’s fundamentally a different being and not of The Red would be crazy awesome.

Booster Gold or Ted Kord: Booster Gold is a Time Cop who got his job from stealing shit from the Hall of Justice Museum and heading to the Age of Heroes to fund enough money and fame to pay for his mothers cancer treatment. He could be used in Clockwork related fics a lot and he’s also equally as much as a dumbass as Danny.

Blue Beetle also known as Ted Kord, is basically in the same package deal as Booster. Ted Kord, Late owner of Kord Industries, ja a brilliant master of technology and has stuff from a massive beetle ship to a gun. He’s best friends with Booster and their bromance could be fun if you want Danny to have two partially functional adult mentors.

Wally West. The second and fastest flash. A he’s the most go with the flow dude I’ve seen in recent comics, including dealing with an inter dimensional WWE esque fight where he fights alongside Space Hulk Hogan, and has a wonderful Wife, Linda West, and (sometimes) twin kiddos. The Flash’s entire sthick is family. They’re more family centered than the Fast and Furious movies for god sake. Having Danny find a new home in any speedsters home would be incredible.

The Spectre: the embodiment of Gods Wrath. I would go on far too long of a rant remind me to do one later but for now all I’m saying is that it would be sick as fuck for The Spectre to kill Vlad for the horrible things he’s done.

Green Arrow or in general Star City: Oliver Queen, inheritor of Queen Industries is a dude who got trauma after a boat sank and some island thing (tbh I don’t know his backstory off the top of my head), but he’s a very quippy and hilarious guy who’s jokes would mesh pretty nicely with Danny’s humor and in general he’s underutilized in both dpxdc and DC so it’d be nice to see that change :)

Ok hands are getting angry but I hope that’s a fun starting example list for ya!! :D

[assortedvillainvault]

Omg hi! I saw you write for Disney villains, and while i didn't see him on the list, i'm taking my shot and asking anyways hehe hope that's okay, can i perhaps ask for some headcanons or a oneshot with the headless horseman and a female S/O who's a really big horror nerd?? Like collecting books and movies and figurines and so on (cause that's what i do lol haha) Like just imagine his suprise to the S/O collecting different versions/editions of his own story hehe :3

I'll leave the idea of what kinda horror stuff up to you since i love basically anything X3

Hope you have a awesome day/night! :3

Hi there! I’ve decided to add HH to my character list, so huzzah! I’m not the biggest fan of horror so forgive me if this seems a bit sparse.

I’m also taking inspiration from @seaslugfanclub and framing this as HH from the disney parks, because I’m on a huge brainrot for their holo concept right now and I HIGHLY recommend you check out their blog. This is more of an introdcution/meet cute, but I couldn’t get the thought of being stalked across the park by in irate dullahan out of my head.

Headless Horseman x HorrorNerd!Reader

It was the vast collection of pins, stickers and charms featuring him and others clanking around on your bag that caught his attention from afar.

Most of them seemed to feature body horror, blood and murder - a startling change from the plethora of sparkling PG collectors pins he’s used to seeing visitors bedazzled in. A refreshing change.

He freezes when he catches notice of a flaming pumpkin head pin, and his own striking silhouette on a well loved charm dangling from one zip.

His chest swells up heartily. He’s flattered of course! He’s not as well known as some other horror icons, or even the other Disney Villains of the park, so he’s delighted you’ve taken such an interest in him specifically. Why, he can’t even see a single other DV pin on your person – THAT is dedication!

But...Why collect copies when you can witness the almost real thing?

Despite being mounted on Alpatraum, he struggles to reach you. Oh he can spot you a mile off, don’t need a head for that – but the crowds -

Tourists jam in so tightly that making way for the giant demon horse and headless rider is next to impossible to do at any speed faster than a crawl, and how he loathes that he can’t charge through swinging for heads as he goes. By the time he’s halfway to you the crowds have whisked you away.

Again.

Multiple times he has even caught sight of you looking at him, wide eyed and face flushed (the heat? Or something else..?) before getting jostled and losing you to the rush of squealing, sweaty bodies. He’s ready to start stomping children under Alpatraum’s hooves by the time he yanks on the reins and finally calls it quits.

Fuck it. He’ll stalk you on foot.

~ le time skip five hours ~

He’s going to kill someone.

Five hours. FIVE HOURS in torrid, sticky, unrelenting heat and not a fucking sign –

He needs a drink poured down what’s left of his trachea, a gallop and to behead the next person he sees. He schleps back to where he left Alpatraum tied against a fencepost - and freezes.

To your credit, you do too.

Less to your credit - Alpatraum snorts and pushes you for more sugar cubes, which drop from your startled fingers.

Well.

This works, he supposes. As you shyly wave at him and introduce yourself, he graciously decides you can probably keep your pretty head too.

[hestzhyen]

Already Waist-Deep

Hi internet void. Please allow me to kagura my bachi all over the place for a little bit. I've got a bad case of the brain worms about these boys that I haven't even had together for 20 chapters yet, so let me ramble a little bit about why they're already so compelling as not only a duo, but a ship.

First off, a caveat. Kagurabachi is a Weekly Shounen Jump (WSJ) action series. That means that if romance is ever addressed in the series itself, the protagonist is going to end up with a girl. Doesn't matter how underdeveloped or lackluster his relationship to her is, or how flat she is as a character. Invest lightly and come along for the ride without any expectations of m/m ships becoming canon. (That said, it might not be the worst thing in the world for our MC to end up with a girl in this case- more on that later.)

Second, I don't really ship that often. Not seriously at least. I need more than two guys being close with each other to start wanting them to be a pair, y'know? So I hope you understand the intensity of the material Hokazono-sensei has been giving us the past few chapters. I am on the brink of going all-in on HakuHiro/ChihiHaku in less than 20 chapters, it's that insane.

Third, I will be talking about current developments without marking potential spoilers. There are only 38 chapters out as of writing this, but there are at least two reveals that would be better appreciated going in blind. Spoilers for the oneshot Farewell! Cherry Boy are also a thing near the end.

Okay? Okay. Let's begin.

Who's Involved? First up is our protagonist Chihiro Rokuhira, an 18 year old boy and the son of a famous swordsmith. He was raised with genuine love and care by his father (no idea what happened to his mom yet), taking care of their day-to-day life while learning his father's trade. And from the very first chapter he is steeped in tragedy as he witnesses his father's murder and life's work being stolen. He then sets out on the long, fraught road of vengeance.

Sounds grim and not exactly compelling, right? Especially when this scene from the first chapter was making the rounds being memed to death:

But there's much more to Chihiro than meets the eye. Flashbacks to his time growing up show him being a natural caretaker to his dad and their fish- cooking meals, keeping his dad on task, and so on. We see glimpses of underlying tenderness when he meets and rescues Char, a sweet little girl with her own tragic past. And we get some insight that he might not be quite as resolute as he's projecting himself to be when he faces off against Sojo, a fan of his father who worships a much different version of the man than Chihiro knew. And now the Rakuzaichi arc has definitively shown us that Chihiro isn't as collected as he seems. One of his father's killers easily cracks the mask and shows us Chihiro is really just a desperate kid with a heaping helping of trauma, then Tenri's pointless sacrifice shakes him to his core. But despite it all he's still doing determinator things in the most badass way possible. Chihiro has layers, man. A lot of them. And the best way to understand our protagonist right now is through his foil: Hakuri Sazanami.

Who is Hakuri? A 17 year old boy with a special lineage, but he's a loser who needs to be saved from common thugs. A pathetic guy who latches on to Chihiro and doesn't take the hint when Chihiro literally runs away to ditch him. An utter failure to his family. A lost puppy looking for a samurai.

Hakuri Sazanami is one of the best goddamn foils I've seen in shounen manga yet.

Let me tell you all the ways I love the writing around this kid and Chihiro because MAN I can't even contain all these feels.

What's Going On? From the start, Hakuri looks like he's just another person for Chihiro to bail out. He witnesses Chihiro's awesomeness fighting Sojo in the streets and decides to imitate it by standing up for a little girl being kidnapped. Instead of winning out, though, he's captured and kicked around. Once he's coincidentally rescued by Chihiro he's immediately all-in on tagging along and keeping Chihiro in his life. Look at this pitiful guy:

Chihiro decides to hear him out due to his connection to the Sazanamis, the Big Bads of the arc. He's initially put off by Hakuri's intensity but brings him along anyway, as Hakuri's insider information regarding the Sazanami family makes him useful. Then, as Chihiro wavers under Hiyuki's assault, Hakuri is truly useful for the first time:

And it only gets better from here. We see Hakuri hanging off Chihiro's every word trying to be as useful as possible for his samurai, striving to do anything he can, though it ends up with him forcing Chihiro to give up his precious sword Enten in exchange for his life. (Yes, Chihiro "buys" Hakuri from Hakuri's own family.)

Later on during the invasion of the auction is where things go into overdrive though. We see their character arcs start to invert and shape each other's as the action unfolds and Hakuri's own tragic past comes to light, eventually awakening him to his special abilities. Chihiro's bravery and strength help him pull this off and finally defeat the older brother that tortured him in the name of "love". Hakuri ascends to being the strongest Sazanami since the progenitor that started their line centuries ago. He's the Special Boy!

All this to say that Hakuri Sazanami isn't just a deuteragonist or a foil…

He's the goddamn heroine.

Kagurabachi's Built Different What makes a shounen series heroine? Firstly, they support the main character without getting involved in most of the heavy fighting. A shounen heroine will usually at most have a fight against another girl while the Big Event is happening nearby, making sure the main character has the spotlight. Second, most of the value they bring to the protagonist's story is emotional. They encourage him, validate him, provide a bit of a refuge for him to safely let his guard down. They can get him to express softer emotions that he wouldn't normally show around others. Third… they're the love interest. Hinata, Orihime, Chichi, and now… Hakuri? Really?

We know the third one will not happen for HakuHiro in canon. But what about the first two? Well, let's recap what Hakuri has done for Chihiro so far.

Hakuri can defend himself now, but his most useful ability is access to an interdimensional storehouse. Given the way that his magic works -he needs to prioritize maintaining the storehouse or using Isou- he'll likely be the means of keeping the enchanted blades safe rather than a front-line fighter. Support-centric character that will still get some combat time against lesser opponents: check.

Hakuri's given Chihiro some much-needed direct emotional validation that he hasn't gotten from anyone else yet. ("You saved me." … "That katana suits you.") Hakuri's words fortify his resolve and Chihiro later pays it back by trading Enten, an incalculably precious sword and memento of his father, for Hakuri's life. He even uses the same phrase when asked why he'd do that for someone as worthless as Hakuri ("That guy… saved me."). He later reaffirms that Hakuri's encouragement gave him the courage to let go of Enten in the first place:

This is AFTER we see Chihiro open up to him for the first time just minutes after they met:

Chihiro's been a stoic good guy with buried trauma up until this point. But somehow Hakuri is the first person he outright admits his fears to- not Shiba, not Hinao, but the freaky kid he just rescued. Emotional support pillar: check.

"Well that's not enough!" you say. "That's just taking some moments and doing that thing you said you didn't do- smushing boys together just because they're close!" OK but look at how Hakuri thinks about Chihiro:

Chihiro has been his inspiration from the first time he saw him. It can be read as admiration and hero worship, but doesn't that feel like selling Hakuri's feelings short when remembering how devoted he's been since they first met?

And just look at Hakuri's face here, he's beaming when Chihiro busts in to save him just like he believed he would:

Mostly, though, Chihiro is the one who gives Hakuri strength in the moment. The Ice Woman broke him free of his family's mentality, and now Chihiro gives Hakuri what he needs most: hope. Something he never had before, which doomed his relationship to the Ice Woman; he couldn't prove to her that there was more to life than despair because that was all he knew… but that completely changed once he met his samurai.

And that's been their thing through this arc. Each one is giving the other the vital thing they needed to grow and keep going. When Hakuri was struggling at the start, Chihiro was his guiding light towards a better future. And when Chihiro struggled in the aftermath of Tenri's cruel death, Hakuri pulled him along so they could finish the job. They're in perfect sync now as they take down the Rakuzaichi. Don't just take my word for it, check out Hokazono-sensei's color page for the most recent chapter (38): https://twitter.com/KaguraShiba/status/1804898273859445181 From Hella (KaguraShiba): >Kagurabachi Ch 38 JP Color Page 「阿吽の呼吸で薙ぎ払え」 "Two people dancing to the same beat, mowing down enemies" >阿吽の呼吸/"Aun no Kokyuu" Synchronized breathing >Or when people are the most in tune with each other >阿吽の呼吸/"Aun no Kokyuu" Is a Buddhist expression in Japanese meaning something close to "harmonizing in sync together" >"Aun" is also used to indicate an "Aun relationship", indicating an inherently harmonious relationship or nonverbal communication Yeesh. But holy shit it's paying off. In chapter 38 these boys are already in harmony- Hakuri registers Chihiro into his storehouse (yes they both "own" each other now) and sends him in to fight his father. During the fight, Chihiro trusts Hakuri to interpret his intent and it works. Chihiro wordlessly tags a bunch of grenades with his spirit energy and Hakuri pulls them out into the real world to bomb the shit out of the Rakuzaichi audience. They didn't plan this beforehand- they had no idea Kyoura had fucking grenades laying around in there. But they're close enough to understand each other's thoughts already. Peak soulmate material right there!

What's got me most interested now, though, is how they will pull/push each other after this arc. Chihiro's going to be focused more than ever on tracking down his father's killer and the swords. But Hakuri, well… I think it would be very interesting if he starts to become a despair monster. A reflection of Chihiro's state at the very start of the manga where nothing mattered to him except exacting revenge. We're seeing shades of this in the most recent chapter (38) where he's slumped over and obviously depressed about how all this is turning out. He's going to end his family's cruel trade but at what cost to himself? Will Chihiro see some of himself in Hakuri and be able to help him out, or at least promise to find relief from the pain together? Obviously a Bad End where Hakuri takes himself out is in the cards given Hokazono-sensei's previous works but… on a meta level, I think his storehouse ability will keep him relevant. I mean yeah he could be used to slap Chihiro across the face by showing what a bad end for his revenge story could look like but I think (hope) that won't happen. [Note to future self: I give you permission to go batshit insane if Chihiro stops Hakuri from committing sudoku.]

And this is where my brain worms are coming from. In just under 20 chapters we have an extremely strong set up between them- so much room for them to teach each other; push to grow and pull back from the brink when tragedy strikes again.

But where's the real meat, you ask? The actual literary analysis in this gushing rant about how much I love these boys I barely know? Well, fine. Buckle up because it's time for some…

Daddy Issues The Rakuzaichi arc really digs into comparing Chihiro's affection for his dad to the Sazanami family structure. And I gotta talk about this because it's the key aspect that makes Hakuri such a brilliant foil.

First off, the similarities. Chihiro and the Sazanami kids are all intensely devoted to their fathers. All of them were raised with love while learning the intricacies of their family trade. We see the Sazanami kids getting praised for doing well, just like Chihiro. Hakuri and Tenri were even told they were special. During the arc, the Sazanami kids put their lives on the line to defend their dad and family legacy with zeal matched by Chihiro's intensity to avenge his dad. When he falls, Tenri's final words are apologizing to his father.

It's truly heartbreaking that Kyora never really loved them back.

You see, the Sazanamis are one of those families that put their lineage and craft over everything else. Every member of the family lives for ensuring the Rakuzaichi auction goes off without a hitch. One of the clan is chosen to inherit the storehouse, and the rest are trained to defend it to the death. Kyoura, the current patriarch, has no compunctions about letting his son Tenri die just to delay Chihiro and the gang for a few more minutes. He had his kids put their lives on the line to defend a storehouse door that he had already broken in secret- making it completely useless. And he's equally cold when it comes to children who can't perform to standards like Hakuri. Once Hakuri (apparently) fails to manifest an ability for sorcery, Kyoura turns a willfully blind eye to the abuse his kid starts to suffer. He knowingly lets Hakuri be tortured by his older brother for years and does nothing, then disowns him once some "merchandise" kills herself in front of him. There's no love for children who can't be useful to the family's traditions. And yet any love that does exist between father and child is manipulated as seen here:

What the fuck man.

So Hakuri is going into this arc firm in his conviction to end his family's evil ways. He's been abused physically and emotionally for at least five years straight; he knows his father doesn't love him. But even now when he's about to bring the whole place down with Chihiro, he's still yearning for his dad's praise. Hakuri's family is fucked up bad and he needs a hell of a lot of healing after all is said and done.

Meanwhile, every flashback with Chihiro shows us that he was truly loved and cared for like every kid deserves. His dad wasn't perfect but he was exactly what a parent should be- kind, understanding, and supportive. His goofy advice helps Chihiro to this day. Chihiro and his dad had a genuine father-son bond that was broken by tragedy and thus Chihiro's desire to do right by his father's memory is driven by grief, first and foremost. So when we see his expression after Tenri's death, we know why he's so badly shaken. They clashed out of love and duty for their fathers, supposedly prepared to pay the ultimate price. The Sazanami version of "love" is a very different, much less wholesome version than the kind Chihiro knows… yet no less effective in terms of motivation.

You can practically hear his heart breaking for Tenri. And his inner thoughts in the next chapter say it all: he was naive to think he could enact revenge while holding fast to the kindness he grew up with. Chihiro's kindness that he learned from his father is a liability to him in this situation. In contrast, Hakuri knew from the start that he had to finally give up the last of his familial affection. He hardened his heart and steeled his resolve to do whatever it took.

Both Chihiro and Hakuri knew what it was like to be loved. Hakuri's version might have been twisted, but it was still painful to have that bond suddenly broken. And now we've seen Edgy Revenge Man's inner softness hold him back while Silly Soft Guy has a heart colder than the arctic. I go absolutely feral comparing and contrasting their situation and how their positions have reversed. Yeah, Chihiro's going to be the action guy who saves the day but Hakuri's the reason he can do it. Hakuri's surprisingly strong core has pushed Chihiro to put his feelings aside to get things done. I can't fucking wait to see how this arc ends and where these boys end up. What will the the most important thing Chihiro takes away from Hakuri here? I hope it leads him to be a bit more openly compassionate and soft around his allies- Hakuri's situation being a lesson in not letting your family's bonds overtake everything else. For Hakuri, well… I think being around Chihiro, Char, and the rest will help him heal. But I hope it's Chihiro that keeps him stable as the person that can relate to him best.

Meta Ramblings Whew. Now then… Yo dumbass writing this, we're not even 40 chapters in yet. Don't you think it's a bit too soon to start getting hyped for a character that could be shelved as soon as the arc is done?

It's interesting to see the themes and characters Hokazono-sensei's reused in Kagurabachi. From the four one-shots available to read, it seems like he's is interested in writing about characters encountering tragedy through various kinds of love. I think it's intriguing that three out of the four end in despair, and the one that doesn't still involves a fair bit of sadness. It's a bit early to say about Hakuri's circumstances since this is only the second proper arc in the series, but given Hokazono-sensei's past works, I think Hakuri is here to stay. For one, Hokazono-sensei seems to love his color-coded foils (Chain, Enten, Roku no Meiyaku). Farewell! Cherry Boy also explores the circumstances of a blindly loyal boy who feels useless being given his first chance to prove himself… I think this is a theme that Hokazono-sensei is revisiting in a more in-depth fashion with Hakuri, so there's a good chance there's more planned.

And just for fun, if we want to look at his romance stories… Madogiwa de Amu is all about one person being the other's greatest hope, their reason to persevere in the face of hardship and seeing that reciprocated in turn. Complete with the weaker person becoming strong enough to protect the person who inspired them first. Hmm. (Hopefully it doesn't end the same way though 'cause man, I can see Hakuri doing something similar right now…) It's also not impossible for Kagurabachi to touch on love given we see Farewell! Cherry Boy incorporating love as the crux of the narrative, despite starting as a gangster story. The true MC is quite like Chihiro as well in terms of motivation and action plan.

I also think it's impossible to overstate how important it is for Chihiro to have a friendly peer to compare to, narratively speaking. Char is a woobie, Shiba's an uncle figure, and Hiyuki is set up to be the aggro rival/frenemy. Hinao could become more than a side character but it seems unlikely at this time. Chihiro needs someone his own age to just be himself with. And that, I am 99% sure, will be Hakuri. A guy who's suffered just as much as he has. Someone who knows what it's like to have a famous last name and lineage to protect. An equal who's unquestionably on his side, who will lift him up when he's down, yet will still need some protection and care. So yes I think Hakuri will be sticking around to be Chihiro's foil. He might take a back seat at times as heroines do, but he'll still be there to support our sad boi through thick and thin.

Anyway that's why I'm ready to jump feet-first into this ship. It's got all the hallmarks of a wonderfully strong bond and I hope we get to see these boys comforting each other for years to come. If you read all this… thank you? Maybe get yourself checked for brain worms? And tell everyone you know to read this amazing action-packed tragedy laced with BL crack cocaine.

[essycogany]

Why Sonic Prime Shouldn’t Be Canon

There will be 0 disrespect to anyone involved in this post.

Introduction

Think whatever you want to think and make your own conclusions after reading this. Prime is an entertaining show. This is only for whoever wonders why I talk about this show a certain way. Yes, the consistency in the franchise is already shattered to pieces, (no pun intended) but the excuse implies the mistakes in the past shouldn’t be improved upon. Making things worst doesn’t fix anything. Also, give the franchise a little credit, there’s more obvious reasons to believe this show isn’t canon then stuff in the games and IDW.

Why Are We Told Prime Is Canon

1. The writer for the games/comics and the director stated Prime was canon. I assume in order to sell the show and make it seem more important than it is. That’s not even an insult because so far, Prime impacts nothing in canon.

Ian Flynn: “It doesn’t matter, b/c Prime wipes itself out. It’s something after Advance 3, but otherwise, it’s moot. I didn’t want to sour anyone’s expectations or investment by spoiling how Prime resolves, that’s all. If you enjoyed it, awesom. Savor it. If you didn’t, then you can safely ignore it. Simple as that.”

2. While I don’t remember who said this, it’s also been stated Prime went through changes. It was originally meant to be written as its own thing and hilariously ended up feeling less canon because of this change. Which you’ll probably notice in a bit. Long story short Sonic Prime, like the movies and shows, is a disposable adaptation you can love or hate.

3. Aside from Sonic and Shadow, you aren’t able to spend enough time with the OG cast or world, so you’d need to know and understand them outside of Prime. Which debatably isn’t enough, but that’s a can of worms I feel plenty have already opened up, so I’ll only simplify it later. In the end, the show never gets time to establish itself in the OG world. Which has a terrible impact on the writing, but let’s move on.

Side Note: No, the shatterverse crew don’t count in my opinion. While they are similar to the OGs they are still their own characters with separate personalities and issues in their own worlds. They are similar, but not the same.

Evidence

Prime feels more like an origin story without the continuity of the games.

Example 1: Green Hill is Sonic and his friend’s home. Despite the games and IDW have them live everywhere that isn’t Green Hill. Classic timeline included. They barely talk about the place. I recommend watching “Where The Heck Does Sonic Live?” on YouTube. If you want the short of it, I’ll explain a few points and add my own as well.

Here’s most of the different homes these characters lived in.

Station Square, the Mystic Ruins, Emerald Town, and others use to be homes they stayed in and they’re never mentioned. It’s like they put the modern cast into the classic timeline. Which still had them not live in Green Hill. Heck, Shadow, Rouge, and Big are shown in Green Hill too and they didn’t even exist during the classic era.

This is how Green Hill is seen in IDW.

Sure looks like people use to live in this place. Sarcasm aside, Green Hill either wasn’t special enough for them to keep living in or they never lived there before and this was conjured up because Green Hill is constantly used in the games.

Even people who knows the bare minimum about Sonic lore would understand how baloney this is. Especially since Sonic and the gang has been established to be found in other places. Which is shown in the Origin cutscenes. They don’t clarify in the show who exactly lives in Green Hill and who doesn’t. They treat it like everyone’s home. Shows how much we know about these characters within Sonic Prime, doesn’t it?

Example 2: No other group of Sonic characters, locations, or worlds are ever mentioned/referenced. In Prime the blue blur meeting Chaos!Sonic should’ve reminded him of Metal!Sonic, but he talks as if he’s never seen another version of himself in his life. “Is that a… knock off me?” The lack of robot knowledge in this show is crazy when given more errors.

“Robots without flickies? Now that’s new.” I believe everyone knows how false this line is. Also, Orbot and Cubot doesn’t exist until Colors. (though Orbot is in Unleashed) Which is a problem because Prime is suppose to take place directly after Advanced. Which had several games before Colors. Where they didn’t exist.

Example 3: The OG cast though similar, still have their differences.

Big: He’s treated like a core member of the team when he’s not in anything else. Bro doesn’t even get much to do or say at all. He’s just there for the most part.

Knuckles: He meets Sonic in a completely different setting then in actual canon and doesn’t seem to live on Angel Island for some reason. At least not by what was shown.

Eggman: Still relatively fine, but teaming up with anyone even himself never turns out well. He usually doesn’t care for sharing his spotlight.

Rouge: Same thing as Big besides Dream Team. In the games/comics she usually does her own thing. And is also more sneaky and unpredictable while Prime shows off her more leadership side. She’s kind of half and half in the same to different category.

Tails: Surprisingly more closed off then usual and almost seems to switch sides with Sonic in the personality department. Emotionally that is.

Amy: She’s more of a motherly figure than anything else. Amy’s bird friend is pink instead of blue like in SA1. They also treat it like it’s always been with her but hasn’t. She’s also incredibly calm and collected compared to how she was during the 2000s. The time the Advance games where coming out. She was written pretty differently to say the least.

Not to mention one line in the entire show is the only indication of Amy’s crush on Sonic. It was implied not shown.

Sonic: He’s almost treated as an amalgamation of different variations before him. Except it’s his first time getting into an issue he isn’t ready to handle. Because he caused it. On top of that, this guy also carries most of his friends emotional traits. Amys’ excitement, Tails’ saddens, and Knuckles’ anger. Here’s why.

Prime!Sonic seems to be naturally affectionate then in canon since he hugs almost everyone in it. He’s also more emotionally triggered, childish, and inexperience while Game!Sonic isn’t. And has never been shown to be either. Not even in the IDW comics or games with Classic!Sonic. A younger version of him. Don’t get me started on the differences to the 2000 games like Advanced. Game!Sonic then was more introverted while Prime!Sonic is very extroverted. He also panics a bunch. As if he’s not use to terrible things happening frequently.

He can be very wimpy and whiny when it comes to confrontations. Which was never a thing before in any other media. At least not to the point where he’s begging and pleading to people over and over again. I’ll even admit this Sonic isn’t the smartest either. He’s the Sonic you’d be the most convinced to believe is a teenage boy. Besides Movie!Sonic.

Of course Prime!Sonic is still Sonic, but he’s as much of a Sonic as every other version of him. He’s not the same guy who use to not be a fan of hugs. Who can deal with atrocities without freaking out once. The character who hasn’t even officially cried up to this point. Who is just now starting to open up and is still having trouble with it. The silly hedgehog isn’t too out of character but is enough to not be called the same character. Sure, Sonic’s characterization is inconsistent in the games, but I’d say the 2010s is less out of character and more one noted. He at least carries these traits even if not written well.

- The “sentimental” line in S1 Ep6 is one of the few out of character things he says. Even if the blue blur thought this, he’d never say it out loud.

Shadow: He’s the best written character in the show. Not to mention the most accurate to how he is in canon. Even compared to some of the games and comics. He’s the true MVP of Sonic Prime and has the most common sense. I only hate how he’s literally pushed to the curve in every season. And how Shadow’s backstory is never referenced. Only implied by Sonic screaming his name when he plummets to his doom. But I’d argue that’s more so because Shadow is the last person left who isn’t implied to be dead. Sure, it reminds people of SA2, but that’s all it really is. A reminder not a direct reference.

I will clarify I don’t dislike the show for being different. I dislike the show calling itself canon despite it’s differences.

Conclusion

I know Prime “wipes itself out” but the original world doesn’t have the same continuity of the games either. The established world and lore in Prime is barely connected to the Games due to the writing, so wiping the shatterverse out doesn’t help. These may be small details but if you’re a person who might be interested in getting into the fandom it becomes small details that makes big differences.

I’m not saying if you think the show is canon you’re wrong. Actually you are 100% correct. It’s been confirmed multiple times and the deed was already done. I just don't think it should be. Does it really matter? It depends on what you think. Is Sonic Prime being canon a bad thing? I’d say yes and no. While I don’t think it was the best move, as long as Sonic Prime exists on its own, there’s nothing to worry about. Prime being canon isn’t a crime. It just makes no sense. I’ll leave it at that.

Stay Creative! 💜

[book-of-forbidden-knowledge]

"Is there something wrong with me if I don't have experiences with gods?"

I see a lot of versions of this question crop up in pagan spaces online.

Modern paganism places a disproportionate emphasis on mysticism. I’d say there’s two main reasons for this: One is the considerable overlap between neopaganism and occultism, via Wicca and its offshoots. Occult religions are naturally going to place more of an emphasis on mysticism than non-occult religions. The other reason is the lack of other avenues. We have no temples, no formal priesthood, no public ritual, nothing to even approximate the experience of ancient pagans. Reconstructionism (historically accurate practice of ancient pagan religions) also requires access to, and the ability to interpret, academic articles. Not everyone has the time, skill, or resources for that. With no other options, our only remaining one is the gods themselves. As much as reconstructionists may grumble, mysticism is the spiritual core of modern paganism.

At first, I didn’t see anything wrong with this, because the internet’s idea of “deity work” (as demonstrated on sites like TikTok) matched my own experience. I was “chosen” by a god, and became his devotee because he “reached out” to me. I can “hear” the gods speak, and have direct interactions with them during ritual. I can invoke them, I can casually joke around with them, I can get their opinions and advice about things. I can ask for signs and receive them. I can trust my divinatory readings and my intuition. I can have mystical experiences all but on-demand. So, when I saw people on TikTok saying that you need to wait for a god to choose you, or that you should be able to casually chat with deities, I thought, “oh, that makes sense.” Because that’s my experience.

But as I moved into less witchy, more recon-focused spaces, I realized that I am the exception, not the rule. I saw how much damage this overemphasis on mysticism was doing. I saw kids worrying that they were unworthy or “broken” because they weren’t having these fantastic experiences that I and others were having. I saw people freaking themselves out over mundane things or vague divinatory readings, believing that the gods were mad at them. I saw people put their entire spiritual lives on hold, believing that they had to wait until a god “reached out” to them before doing anything. Seeing all of this, I realized that I took my ease of access to the gods for granted. My own experiences were not common, and certainly shouldn’t be considered the default. If you look at my early posts on deity work, you’ll see that they’re not super helpful, because I assumed that everyone else had it as easy as I did: “Just try some automatic writing! You’ll hear the gods speaking in no time!” I can only imagine the frustration that must have caused. That sets an astronomically high bar for newbies.

It doesn’t help that TikTok’s approach to mysticism is not very sophisticated. It seems to have a way of promoting the worst possible divination methods, like candle flames and the “keyboard method,” which are both unreliable. It encourages people to read into potential “signs” for hidden messages of a god’s displeasure, which causes needless anxiety over minor things. It also encourages literalist interpretations of mythology — for example, saying that certain gods (e.g. Eros and Apollo, or Hera and Dionysus) can’t share an altar because they hate each other. On top of that, many WitchTokers treat gods like fictional characters they’re obsessed with, or like imaginary friends, rather than powerful entities that control reality. That makes me question whether they’ve had mystical experiences at all. I mean, I sometimes speak of my gods in casual terms, or joke about them, but I also have a phenomenal respect for truly awesome beings they really are. I revere them becuase I have personally seen and felt their immensity, their sublimity. I don’t see how someone can come away from a mystical experience without having the true nature of Divinity permanently impressed upon them.

It all reminds me of similar patterns I see within Christianity. Evangelicals in particular use the language of mysticism: they aim to have a “personal relationship with God.” They sometimes draw a hard line between this and “religion,” the latter being going-through-the-motions of ritual to no real end. To them, God is present, immediate, touchable. Some speak of being “inspired by the Holy Spirit,” a form of invocation. Pentecostals are famous for using glossolalia, an ecstatic trance technique that has a long history of mystical use. Some evangelicals make a big deal of being “born again,” which implies a spiritual death and rebirth. Some care a lot about initiation via adult baptism. To many, the difference between the elect and everyone else is not a question of one’s morals or deeds, but purely one of initiated vs. uninitiated: If you are Initiated, you go to heaven, and if not, you go to hell, so everyone should be an Initiate.

Mystics speak a shared language, informed by shared experiences. I have various mystically-inclined friends online, all with very different religious backgrounds. Despite our different beliefs and different religious frameworks, we all have very similar philosophies. We can just kind of nod at each other. If ya know, ya know. In most of my interactions with evangelicals, I come away feeling like they are spiritually illiterate. They simply can’t have died and been born again, because if they’d had that experience, they would have knowledge that they don’t have. It’s like someone claiming to have in-depth knowledge of a particular subject and then failing a test on it. They tend to be Biblical literalists, interpreting the Bible’s stories at face-value instead of paying attention to the abstractions that they are really pointing to. It’s like arguing about the shadows on the wall of the Platonic cave. I also see plenty of reports from ex-vangelicals, some pagans and some atheists, who claim to have faked glossolalia or lied about mystical experiences in order to feel part of the community. As kids, they assumed that everyone else had experiences that they weren’t having, because they were too sinful or too unworthy or just “broken.” As adults, they assume that everyone else must have been faking it, too. Just how many people are faking it?

I’m not trying to hate on evangelicals. My own religious community is in the same boat. TikTok incentivizes people to lie about or exaggerate their mystical experiences to drive up engagement. It encourages a kind of virtue-signaling performance of religiosity, rather than the authentic experience of it. It’s so much easier to post a pic of your aesthetic altar than it is to force yourself to have an experience that you don’t even fully understand. Maybe — and this is quite a horrifying thought — most people don’t know what they’re missing. Maybe, as far as the average person is concerned, mysticism has always been performative.

The reality is that most people cannot perceive God(s) directly. So, I’m left asking the opposite question: What makes me so special? Why am I different? What gives me the ability to have mystical experiences at the drop of a hat, while most other people spend their lives pining for one? It’s not because I’m inherently more deserving than anyone else, or becuase the gods just happen to really like me. I do have some built-in advantages, like hypersensitivity, and years of practice talking to imaginary friends that honed my clairaudience. But that doesn’t explain why the gods engage with me, or why they allow me to engage with them in the way I do. Am I just lucky?

Yes, in part. I think this is just a talent that I have. It’s less like everyone else is “broken,” like a radio without antennae, and more like I have two radio antennae instead of one. I pick up double the amount of feedback, making mundane life feel overstimulating, but making mysticism incredibly easy. I think some people are just built that way. There’s plenty of examples of reluctant mystics, people who had mystical experiences easily despite not wanting to — like H.P Lovecraft, who was terrified of the things he saw in his dreams, or Carl Jung, a man of science who was unsettled by the irrationality of the things he saw in his “active imaginings.” Some of my friends have had similar experiences. Maybe most “natural mystics” are thrown into it unceremoniously, precisely because we don’t have to go through a formal initiatory system to gain our skills. We stand here, vibrating with ethereal frequencies, wondering what everyone else is missing.

People who do not have mystical experiences are not “broken.” They’re the normal ones. It’s common for most people, even devoutly religious people, to not have direct experiences of the Divine. I truly think it’s possible for other people to develop mystical skills. I would like that to be possible, because I want to be able to share my extraordinary experiences with everyone else. I want them to feel happy and fulfilled in their religions, to get the answers to their questions, to have a personal relationship with God. But I’m not really sure how to do that yet.

Most people need the slow process of initiation (or similar) to rewire their brains, give them that extra radio antenna. Going slow also minimizes the (very real) risk of insanity. But formal initiation isn’t always an available option, or the best option. At one extreme, mystery cults that offer this training are rigidly gatekept, and that eventually die because they’re unwilling to write down or share any of their secrets. At the other extreme, you have the overgrown garden that is WitchTok, in which mysticism is so accessible, it becomes diluted to the point of ineffectiveness. There’s got to be a middle ground somewhere.

The best I can do for now is try to provide people with better tools. It’s my personal theory that each person’s psychic skills map to their preferred methods of learning: I learn best through listening and conversation, so I can talk to gods really easily. I’m not very visual, though, so I don’t see visions, and I can’t scry worth a damn. A more visual person might find scrying much easier. A more kinetic person might feel a god “touch” them rather than “hearing” or “seeing” it. It’s worth playing around with these skills, and finding a way to incorporate them into your religious practice, just to see what happens. Every experience counts, even if it doesn’t look or feel the way it’s “supposed” to.

The truth is, we all see God in different ways. Mystics may all have similar conclusions, but the ways we each got there are radically different. What works for me isn’t going to work for you, and vice-versa. When I see God, I do not see the same thing that you do. We have to give ourselves the space to let our experiences be inconsistent, illogical, and weird. If God presents itself to you, it’s never going to be in a way that makes complete sense. During the experience, you will suddenly understand everything — insight pours into your brain like light. But after the experience, you’ll look back at it and go, “what the actual fuck was that?” And that’s okay. That’s how it’s supposed to be. The mystics within any religion are very rarely its most orthodox practitioners.

If you don’t have a mystical experience, there is nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken. Your experience is a common one. But that doesn’t mean that the gods are distant from you, or that they don’t care about you, or that you will never be able to connect with them. It just means you’ll have to be patient and work at it. You can’t climb Mount Everest the day you start mountain-climbing, and you can’t experience the grand theophany the day you begin researching gods. You need to give your brain some time to rewire itself, to get that extra radio antenna. And if you decide that mysticism isn’t something you want, that’s okay, too. We all approach God at our own pace, but I personally believe that we all get there eventually.

We asked earth. We asked Heaven. We asked the sea. We asked the fire. We looked for you with all the peoples. We looked for you with all the kings. We looked at you with all the wise. We looked for you in our own heads and hearts. And we found you in the egg.

— Carl Jung, The Red Book

Hiranyagarbha by Carl Jung

[sharpth1ng]

Hi!!! First of all, I binged all of Debaser + Wave of Mutilation (switching between both the trans and cis versions every now and then) in three days and the writing is phenomenal!! Absolutely OBSESSED with the way you fleshed out Billy and Stu— it’s very refreshing to see when a lot of the fan content I consume of them are very mischaracterized versions of the boys (nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea). I have two questions, and you can answer one or both!

1. Would you be willing to talk more about the dog imagery you used throughout the fic for Stu? I love how he’s both so loyal but can bite so badly when pushed hard enough— and by the end I was like ‘He really is just a kicked hunting dog, isn’t he?’

2. You mentioned before that Billy is autistic in this version, and as an autistic person myself, it was SO easy to pick up for me and I got insanely giddy about it. What made you want to write Billy as an autistic character? And would you say his fascination for gore/harm/horror is a special interest of his, or a product of something more disturbed?

Thank you so much for the awesome content!! Definitely the best fic I’ve read on ao3 in YEARS, and I’m about to go back and read even more. (Also, love love LOVE Tammy. She’s easily my favorite side character).

Hi thank you so so much this is a lovely comment!

To answer your questions:

1. I really took the lapdog line and ran with it huh?

I think both metaphorically and also in terms of a kink dynamic, Dog-Stu works well. I see him as extremely present (like he exists in the moment), loyal, and simultaneously viscious. You nail it saying he's a kicked hunting dog- he does well when he's given his purpose, when he knows his place in the pack.

The movie tells us pretty clearly that his parents are neglectful, I think he feels adrift, pack-less especially when his sister moves out and he's alone a lot. He's a social being, he doesn't do well on his own and he doesn't particularly like having to take charge, it stresses him out.

Untrained dogs often do dominance behaviours out of stress. If someone else isn't clearly in charge, the dog thinks they have to be the boss and they get aggressive, they start barking all the time and pissing on stuff, but they aren't having fun doing it. They're confused about an unclear social structure, they're scared, and they feel unsafe until someone starts taking charge in a consistent way.

That's Billy. Sure, he's bossy, but Stu doesn't just do what he says because of peer pressure, he does it because it makes him feel safe. He likes to be trained, directed, to be useful. To him there's no degradation in following Billy's orders, it's his greatest purpose.

At the same time I think one of Stu's other defining traits is this wild, feral thing. He's capable of extreme violence, he delights in it, and we know he hunts. When he's ghostface (by my interpretation, I maintain there's no way for us to know who was behind the mask in any particular scene) we can see that play out.

It's his playfulness. Like theres something about the combination of playfulness and raw violence that just says canine to me.

Stu's dogness characterizes so much of his relationship with Billy, like he's a support animal. He's better at reading Billy than Billy is, and a lot of the time he's able to prevent him from freaking out, help stabilize him, make him feel secure. He often knows what Billy needs before Billy does.

So it's all of this, he's this creature that's built to be a predator, only partly domesticated and fiercely protective of his owner.

2. I actually didn't intend to write Billy autistic, it just happened.

I put a lot more of myself into Billy than into Stu, to be honest I relate to him a lot for things that are also autistic traits. I wasn't really thinking about it like that when I started writing, like I just didn't put two and two together and realize that the way I understand his character is fundamentally autistic.

I got a lot of people asking if I was writing him autistic early on, and once I thought about it I realized I super was.

After that I just let myself lean into it, gave him some of my stims, my sensory stuff ect. It's kind of so much more than that though, and I think that's what people were reacting too more initially. It's definitely the horror obsession, the way he uses movies to process and interpret the world.

I think a lot of autistic folks have some experience with this, but I very much used movies as a replacement for social interactions I wasn't having. They became a way for me to learn about other people, to learn what to expect from them and how I was supposed to act. This had its pros and cons, it gave me a lot of unrealistic understandings and expectations but also it gave me comfort and a place to start in terms of figuring out how to act like a 'person' (eg to mask, which I think helped me get through some stuff but also masking sucks and burns you out).

This is very much something I see Billy doing. Its in the way he quotes movies, the way he speaks like he's got a transatlantic accent for most of the movie (it disappears a bit when he sort of unmasks at the end of the movie after the reveal). It's also in little things, like the focus on having sex with Sid despite (in my opinion) the fact that he doesn't seem to want to. He knows that virginity protects you in a slasher movie and he wants his plan to work so he needs to get that out of the way.

I think the language of movies and horror in particular are comforting to him. It's why he refers to real life situations as "scenes" and imagines how he would shoot them if he was filming them. It organizes life, turns it into something he can process.

So yeah I would say that horror and gore are a special interest, but where he takes that special interest is something more disturbed. I want to be clear I'm in no way connecting Billy's autism to the murder.

The other big part of this interpretation is the stark difference between his behaviour in the bulk of the movie vs his behaviour after the reveal, when he unmasks. He becomes so much more animated, expressive and physical once he no longer needs to be acting. He's smiling, laughing, loud, his hands are moving, his wrists are limp, and its such a massive change from his extremely controlled expression and the tense way he holds himself for a lot of the movie.

And then when things start to go wrong he has what I see as a meltdown. The plan is failing and suddenly the lights in the kitchen are too much and he can't think anymore. He starts pacing, nonsensically stabbing pillows, he no longer feels in control of himself at all.

So yeah, autistic Billy! Theres probably more I could say about this, it's also a big part of the way I write his sensory experiences and sexuality, but this is already long enough.

Thanks again for the lovely comments!

[thelambliesdown1974]

I posted this is comedy yaoi but actually I need everyone to see it because I’m an educator. In lieu of the mass grief following the recent US election here’s my complete unabridged opinion piece on both the RPF and character-based SCTV yaoi-verse✊

Okay so here’s my introduction paragraph for those now in the know — second city television was a sketch comedy show that ran from ‘76-84 originally in syndication, later on CBC and NBC. It was basically the Canadian ‘underground’ version of SNL except the framing for all the skits was a fictitious dysfunctional television station (SCTV) run by a handful of recurring characters and starring Dave Thomas, John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Andria Martin, Rick Moranis, and Martin Short though in various combinations over the years. Oh and also Harold Ramis but only for the first two seasons so no comment.

I’d say Flaherty was kind of the big brother for everyone else in the operation— he was in the original theatre troupe and part of the show since day one. That’s not to say he was at all authoritarian though, Joe was definitely a soft spoken democratic leader. Maybe like Woodrow Wilson. Or Dumbledore, if that’s more relevant to you personally. I wouldn’t say he has any particularly strong yaoi ties to anyone else in the cast except I guess Eugene Levy since they were kind of each other’s creative muses. HOWEVER…. in terms of SCTV characters their respective newscaster personas Floyd and Earl are undoubtedly boning in a toxic nasty way on station property and probably are also the #1 SCTV couple in a Stefon and Seth sort of way (see below)

I almost forgot they also play classic 70s talk show hosts and there’s a lot of fan-fiction about them getting each other pregnant okay that’s all.

NEXT. John Candy was also one of the original members and while he wasn’t necessarily involved in either type of yaoi, his characters were integral in giving especially season 1 a very homoerotic flair. It was mostly his washed up actor-sona Johnny LaRue constantly and publicly struggling against the gay allegations since his segment in the very first episode. While trying to find that clip I actually instead found this SCTV Reddit image with a poorly overlaid huge Ariel caption that I like better. (See below)

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Catherine O’Hara, I think she was too self respecting both on screen and irl to get involved but I love her. She wrote a lot with Joe and Eugene so they were kind of like a platonic power throuple in my awesome mind. Andria Martin…. I am less sure about. She played the butch lesbian A LOT and I think has confirmed actually had sex with another woman (YURI) but I won’t say anything……. See below. Also interesting photo to use for that particular article.

NEXT….. Okay Dave Thomas, I really am not even sure where to begin with him but he was also one of the chief writers and original troupe members who ended up meeting Rick Moranis and bringing him on in season 3. The whole thing was partly his brainchild and he did author a book on the group’s history however I don’t see Dave as being as serious as Levy or Flaherty writing and production-wise. He’s kind of very theatre guy goofy silly on screen but also has an aura of sociopolitical jadedness that starts coming through in his Bill Needle sketches (a fictional miserable entertainment critic slash commentator I’ll discuss later) but especially once Dave started doing Doug McKenzie after Moranis joined.

They met at some comedy-based party in Canada (the gayest place you can meet) and really hit it off and immediately preformed as a musical duo that night (the gayest activity you can partake in. It’s like Simon and Garfunkel). Rick was kind of the new kid of the group after he was brought on but since Dave was a senior member they ended up working together a lot. The Great White North AKA the McKenzie brother skits are for sure no question what made SCTV anywhere near as well known as it is today and that was Thomas and Moranis’ comedy child. Okay and you might be thinking ‘how are they the most real life yaoiful couple on the cast but also are famous for playing brothers’ — that’s a good question and the answer is just don’t think about it too hard. I think Bob and Doug are more a testament to Dave and Rick’s day 1 original pure beautiful friendship that then laid the path for more later on. Like in this except from Dave’s book ⬇️

Anyway yes they’re 70 year old best friends now and still talk on the phone all the time and it’s awesome. But they were probably the closest out of anyone and both had to simultaneously deal with their sudden and overwhelming joint fame after Great White North blew up, which was unpleasant for both of them and involved a lot of travel and hotel rooms. (See below: an interview photo, their radio appearance promoting their comedy album, and whatever’s happening in the last one. Also notice how Dave’s face is a perfect circle he’s so cute)

Okay circling back to Bill Needle — he was a character Dave started doing in early on that went on until he left the show and he’s kind of irrelevant except for a few yaoiful details. He’s constantly having marital problems and has a weird friendship with the sleazy semi-creepy SCTV station president Guy Caballero whom Flaherty plays, and would I say they’re OFFICIALLY a yaoi couple not really but it’s there.

But yeah anyway in conclusion Rick and Dave show up in a bunch of each others sketches throughout the series and they write together and talk together and have play dates together and kiss and everyone else on SCTV absorbs their faggotry either by free will or by association and I think that’s what’s really important to remember and also I love them and I love you too. Oh and also Martin Short’s there near the end but he’s irrelevant except for inventing Ed Grimly and being Steve Martin’s de facto wife later in life. THE END

[icycoldninja]

Can you write a femme reader who’s like Legolas from Lord of the Rings

(As an Elf, Legolas had the abilities typical of his race. He could walk silently on grass and snow leaving minimal footprints, allowing him to advance unhindered. His eyes were sharper than that of Men, seeing through great distances and in the dark. He could even sleep while walking, which contributed to allowing him to travel 45 leagues in less than four days with Aragorn and Gimli. He tamed unruly horses with only a few words, without needing reins or saddles.)

Apparently, Legolas also lives deep within the forest with his dad as well so you can write the reader taking her role as a ranger scouting the area for devils to eliminate

Also, it’s seen in The Hobbit that before meeting his friend, Gimli, Legolas had always have a distaste towards Dwarves so similar situation with the reader, except it’s on sight when it comes to devils so the first time meeting before entering the relationship, she’s pretty much hell bent on trying to kill the half devil brothers and maybe even Nero as well

“Better to kill the wrong one than to leave them alive to commit further atrocities”

The reader’s father is also deathly protective of her, so much to the point of almost beheading her future bf to keep her safe until she kind of convince him that they’re devils but they’re not bad

Legolas also have remarkable marksmanship skills and extremely athletic. The fact that he could potentially run full speed while keeping it little to no sound is terrifying as well

Oh yeah I read the Hobbit and saw the movies way back in the day. Had a little bit of a crush on the movie version too. Enjoy.

Sparda boys + V x Legolas!Reader headcannons

¤ Dante ¤

-You've gotta be the most badass scout Dante has ever seen.

-You're stealthy, great with horses, fast, durable, strong, smart, and you're an elf of all things? How freaking awesome is that?

-Seriously though, Dante has never seen an elf before in his life, so your whole existence is a huge shock to him.

-He is very curious about everything, poking your ears and asking you endless questions, comparing you to the elves he's read about in old stories.

-Is kinda scared of your overprotective dad, but after cracking a few dad jokes, they hit it off great, so it's unlikely Dante will be beheaded anytime soon.

-You guys are the definition of "enemies to lovers". You started out a righteous ranger ready to rid the world of filth like him, but then grew fond of him and ended up abandoning the mission to be wit him. Your dad was a little mad, but after meeting the man himself, got over it and accepted you two.

■ Vergil ■

-Vergil always saw you as a weak little elf trying desperately to kill him, all in vain.

-Considering that every attack you tried to land on him was effortlessly deflected, one would think that was true. However, after your "meet cute" when you decided to put aside violent tendencies and explore a healthier relationship, Vergil got to see how strong you really were.

-You were fast, very fast, perhaps faster than anyone he'd ever met in his life; you could disappear with the speed of a pronghorn and grace of a deer.

-You were also unbelievably quiet, sneaking around dry woods or upon layers of crunchy snow without making a sound, a feat not even Vergil could achieve.

-You were also a very beautiful little elf, Vergil had to admit, and just like the fairy tales he and his mother read together when he was little, you were a spry and gifted archer.

-He is well aware of your imposing father, by the way, and does not feel threatened in the least. If he tries to have the half devil killed, his attempts will fail, and then Vergil will come after him, with every intent of ending his life.

□ Nero □

-Nero couldn't understand why you kept trying to kill him. He'd never done anything to hurt humanity and had no intention to, so why were you so sure he would?

-It took a long time, and many months of an exaggerated, violent game of tag, but you finally understood that, and decided that maybe after all this time, you didn't want Nero dead. You just wanted Nero.

-Nero thought it was pretty cool that you were an elf, seeing as he never even knew those existed.

-Finds your stealthiness and amazing archery skills mindblowing, and while it's unlikely he'll ever pick up a bow himself, he still thinks it's cool.

-You make the absolute best scout for devil hunting missions because you can sneak up on the enemy before they're even aware of your existence.

-Is a bit scared of your overprotective dad and his constant death threats, but thankfully, you managed to calm your dad down and explain that Nero is a good 1/4 devil.

-Saw you sleepwalking once and was terrified. You looked like you were awake, except your eyes were closed, and you were largely unresponsive. How? Just...how?

● V ●

-Since V is the sole human in the group, you never tried to act violently towards him....unless you count killing him with kindness an act of violence.

-You babied this man to such a degree, V was starting to feel more like your child than your significant other.

-Your pretty elf ears are a fascination of his; he loves to flick them and kiss them, and wonders if you'll ever put jewelry on them.

-V is the only man you've ever brought home whom your father accepts upon sight. This isn't because he's certain V will take care of you, it's because he knows V's too weak to do much of anything, let alone hurt his lovely yet powerful princess.

-V can't wrap his mind around how you're able to run so quickly over such long distances without making any noise.

-He also adores how good you are with horses. It's an unusual, yet charming skill--almost as if you could speak directly to them.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Put It On the Map

I have a love-hate relationship with maps. Already created maps? Beautiful! Awesome! Incredibly helpful if someone’s done a half-decent job that doesn’t put a desert slam up against a bayou without a very good reason.

Making my own maps? Er. Um. (Insert deer-in-headlights look here.)

Yeah. That’s not how my brain works. Letters and numbers, no problem. Trying to convince hand and brain to scribble even a stick figure? Big problem.

(I honestly suspect my brain hijacks what should be the 3-D processing area for word-type stuff. Try to talk to me while I’m maneuvering something, be it a car or a beading needle, through a tricky spot? Words won’t come. At all.)

Given I write fantastic fiction, and that fantasy and SF often depend on maps to ground readers in an imaginary world, I figured out a long time ago I’d have to cheat- Er, use a totally valid shortcut.

I get real maps, and then modify them a touch. Put the demon-hunter’s mansion in place of an out-of-the-way hotel, add an extra small river, take out an airport - things like that. Give it the bones of a real-life place, but gloss it all with fiction.

Even that much gives me a headache. (Sometimes multiple headaches, depending on how many locations I have to sketch and how many versions of a location. If you’re sketching a fight scene, you may need multiple “X is now here” versions.) So why do it?

For the story. Always for the story. If you have a map of where the story takes place, you’re less likely to pull a bonehead Writer Facepalm of, you had the character leave the house driving away from the dawn (i.e. west), and then had them coming back after a long day while staring into the sunset.

...Unless your character somehow circumnavigated the globe, that’s not happening.

Maybe readers won’t notice. Maybe. But if you don’t respect your characters enough to keep track of how they move through space and time, what other details have you missed? They pile up, and too heavy a load breaks anyone’s suspension of disbelief. That’s a horrible thing to do to your story.

(I know, all kinds of computer mapping programs are out there. I probably need a new computer first.)

One awesome thing about the internet these days is you can often find maps of places all over the globe. Take shameless advantage of this! Find landscape photos that sing to you of your story’s setting. Find out where those bits of landscape are, and you can get the real-world geography, landforms, and waterways that created what you’re looking for. Lift those bits of reality for inspiration - put them on your map - and your story gains a breath of life.

And it’s okay if your own reference sketch is no work of art. Let it be rough. As long as it tells you where things and people are, it’ll work.

Story first. Then worry about if you need an artist!

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

ok while we're on the topic i would like to clarify that while, yes, i confess that i am primarily invested in mark s. and helly because they are the two main characters of the TV show i am watching (for what it's worth when dylan and irving were main characters i was invested in them too and if they ever choose to write them as such again i will happily pick that back up), and also i am kinda into mark/helly even though the show has not done all the work to earn it because it taps into a couple things that really do it for me and the imaginary great version of it is like burning behind my eyelids, my pro-mark/gemma divorce stance should not in any way be construed as anti-gemma. i mean i don't have strong feelings about gemma because she's a plot device with some emotional shorthand lazily grafted on and they forgot to give her what we in the biz call a "personality" (happy to change my tune the second they fix this btw but considering that the trajectory across this season has been to have characters be less like people rather than more [devon girl wtf happened to you] i can't say i'm optimistic.) but like i'm not saying in any way that mark should divorce gemma who sucks to go get with his awesome gf helly. i do care about mark getting divorced for mark development reasons that in my heart of hearts i know 100% the show is NOT going to carry out on but i do also believe this to be fundamentally a pro-gemma stance because when i say "their marriage looks kind of bad, actually the more i think about it the more it looks definitively bad to the extent that it gets harder and harder to understand people being moved by it as a romance [rather than as an ok i guess portrait of a marriage disintegrating]" it's not because of anything gemma did. i mean on some level theoretically it probably is a little bit because of what gemma did because you know it takes two to tango and it's possible for two people to be mutually incompatible in ways that aren't anyone's "fault" and nobody's perfect. but i wouldn't know about all that because of how the show didn't let gemma make any decisions or take any action related to her marriage or to her entire relationship with mark except trying to have a baby and telling him it was ok he bought her a gift she hated. (i mean perhaps we can say she did not adequately advocate for her own needs? it's possible! anything is possible when your personality is Dead Wife. even being alive and continuing to have a personality that consists entirely of Dead Wife.) but i mean clearly most of what i mean is that mark was not a very good husband. or boyfriend (he bought her an ant farm....). and like i wanna watch mark (we 100% will NOT see this) reckoning with how much he idealized his marriage and how much he actually fucked it up and how many emotional problems he actually has not worked on at all, because of how he is, once more, the main character of the TV show i am watching. but i think also that gemma deserves to be freed not only from lumon's clutches but from her shitty unsupportive marriage. free gemma but like in all the ways. let her live her fucking life with someone who's a good enough listener not to buy her a fucking ant farm.

[tinyravenfeathers]

"And some dude named Jeff" Season 4 episode 10

The Jenkins Episode. LOVE IT.

Full disclosure: I am a lifelong DnD nerd. I started with 3.5 back in the 90s. I am this label, this label is me.

It's kind of sad that Dolores gives the cats a sunny upstairs room and Jeff lives in the basement.

...now that I think about it, why does the woman have like 12 cats in one room, that's gotta suck for the cats and everyone involved.

Especially if Desi has pink-eye and Otto needs suppositories. Ew!

I love how the only inaccurate thing about the DnD nerds first scene is that they're rolling the dice rather haphazardly. Jenkins throws a d20 and a d12 (I think) at the same time...different sided dice throws are not a thing. Multiples of the same kind of dice, yes, especially to calculate the damage of a hit.

And Jenkins tosses the dice AT the figures on the map/table. Yeah, no. A dice tower would probably be employed with that small a table, but I get how that would be less visually exciting/take up too much screen time.

The DnD nerds were DEFINITELY in on Jeff's switcheroo plan. We hear them talking about it when Jenkins comes down the stairs. They were totally expecting a different person inside Jeff. The way they set Jenkins up to reveal himself shows some LARPing skill in my opinion. I've LARPed, it's just costumed improve with stricter rules lol.

I'm less sure Dolores/Jeff's mother knew about the switcheroo. (I called her Gloria in one of my stories, I need to fix that.)

The Jeff buttslapping Jacob scene. And the awkward aftermath. *Chef Kiss*

Oh look, they've all got costumes. Shocked, I'm shocked. Definitely LARPers. But...why would they wear that stuff to break into the Library? How did Jenkins present this to them? "Think of it as a live dungeon crawl"? Okay, then I'mma gonna concentrate on supplies and some kind of knife, a first aid kit, a shield, maybe some rope...not a cape, a head dress, and fishnet stockings.

I would have loved to see a version of this with the actors switched--John Larroquette acting like Jeff-inside-Jenkins ("how about we...make some magic..."), Andrew Caldwell playing Jenkins-inside-Jeff ("would you please stop setting off booby traps!")

It's really sad how few lines Ezekiel has.

Personal head canon: Ezekiel did some of the stuff Jeff is doing. Only, you know, he hid it better and was a bit cooler about it. We've seen Ezekiel use Munchausen's Top, the Spinning Wheel of Clothos, and have the attitude that 'rubbing up against anything magicky' can be a solution to rescuing Eve and Flynn in that one movie episode so yes. This carefree attitude towards power is why Jenkins worries about him.

The "gimme that boom" scene. C'mon Jenkins get more into it lol.

The Library teaching Jenkins about the best aspects of himself through the analogs of the new librarians. Cleverness from Schmidt/Ezekiel, Joy from Aurora/Cassandra, Persistence from Dennis/Jacob.

The knighting. Beautiful. Also getting the innocents out of the way before something truly dangerous?

"You think that was bad?! Wait 'til I get hold of you!!"

The little speech Jenkins gives to Jeff "what's the point of having a life if one does not live it fully," was so incredibly pertinent and needed when I was in a low place that I named my long-form fic after it. I should get back to writing that.

Jenkins' potion needs a jolt of magic to make it work. Noted!

"Bye Mom!"

What the heck were Dolores and Asmodeus doing while Jenkins and Jeff were scuttling down the stairs and making their way to the basement? Damn, I hope she locked herself in a bathroom or something.

The lightsaber in Jenkins' hands wasn't cut to shreds right away. More Galahad magic?

Ringpop FTW

How did they not see each other had changed? so weird.

Back at the Library--the carnage of Jeff is hilarious.

Eve's kiss (instead of Cassie) on Jenkins came out of left field but okay.

Awesome ending. If Jenkins cares for you, he spends time with you.

Beauty.

So many ideas for my fic came out of this episode.

[papercranesong]

Mythbusting Generative AI: The Ethical ChatGPT Is Out There

I've been hyperfixating learning a lot about Generative AI recently and here's what I've found - genAI doesn’t just apply to chatGPT or other large language models.

Small Language Models (specialised and more efficient versions of the large models)

are also generative

can perform in a similar way to large models for many writing and reasoning tasks

are community-trained on ethical data

and can run on your laptop.

"But isn't analytical AI good and generative AI bad?"

Fact: Generative AI creates stuff and is also used for analysis

In the past, before recent generative AI developments, most analytical AI relied on traditional machine learning models. But now the two are becoming more intertwined. Gen AI is being used to perform analytical tasks – they are no longer two distinct, separate categories. The models are being used synergistically.

For example, Oxford University in the UK is partnering with open.ai to use generative AI (ChatGPT-Edu) to support analytical work in areas like health research and climate change.

"But Generative AI stole fanfic. That makes any use of it inherently wrong."

Fact: there are Generative AI models developed on ethical data sets

Yes, many large language models scraped sites like AO3 without consent, incorporating these into their datasets to train on. That’s not okay.

But there are Small Language Models (compact, less powerful versions of LLMs) being developed which are built on transparent, opt-in, community-curated data sets – and that can still perform generative AI functions in the same way that the LLMS do (just not as powerfully). You can even build one yourself.

No it's actually really cool! Some real-life examples:

Dolly (Databricks): Trained on open, crowd-sourced instructions

RedPajama (Together.ai): Focused on creative-commons licensed and public domain data

There's a ton more examples here.

(A word of warning: there are some SLMs like Microsoft’s Phi-3 that have likely been trained on some of the datasets hosted on the platform huggingface (which include scraped web content like from AO3), and these big companies are being deliberately sketchy about where their datasets came from - so the key is to check the data set. All SLMs should be transparent about what datasets they’re using).

"But AI harms the environment, so any use is unethical."

Fact: There are small language models that don't use massive centralised data centres.

SLMs run on less energy, don’t require cloud servers or data centres, and can be used on laptops, phones, Raspberry Pi’s (basically running AI locally on your own device instead of relying on remote data centres)

If you're interested -

You can build your own SLM and even train it on your own data.

Let's recap

Generative AI doesn't just include the big tools like chatGPT - it includes the Small Language Models that you can run ethically and locally

Some LLMs are trained on fanfic scraped from AO3 without consent. That's not okay

But ethical SLMs exist, which are developed on open, community-curated data that aims to avoid bias and misinformation - and you can even train your own models

These models can run on laptops and phones, using less energy

AI is a tool, it's up to humans to wield it responsibly

It means everything – and nothing

Everything – in the sense that it might remove some of the barriers and concerns people have which makes them reluctant to use AI. This may lead to more people using it - which will raise more questions on how to use it well.

It also means that nothing's changed – because even these ethical Small Language Models should be used in the same way as the other AI tools - ethically, transparently and responsibly.

So now what? Now, more than ever, we need to be having an open, respectful and curious discussion on how to use AI well in writing.

In the area of creative writing, it has the potential to be an awesome and insightful tool - a psychological mirror to analyse yourself through your stories, a narrative experimentation device (e.g. in the form of RPGs), to identify themes or emotional patterns in your fics and brainstorming when you get stuck -

but it also has capacity for great darkness too. It can steal your voice (and the voice of others), damage fandom community spirit, foster tech dependency and shortcut the whole creative process.

Just to add my two pence at the end - I don't think it has to be so all-or-nothing. AI shouldn't replace elements we love about fandom community; rather it can help fill the gaps and pick up the slack when people aren't available, or to help writers who, for whatever reason, struggle or don't have access to fan communities.

People who use AI as a tool are also part of fandom community. Let's keep talking about how to use AI well.

Feel free to push back on this, DM me or leave me an ask (the anon function is on for people who need it to be). You can also read more on my FAQ for an AI-using fanfic writer Master Post in which I reflect on AI transparency, ethics and something I call 'McWriting'.

[seireiteifics]

Hi, hi! I hope everyone is doing well. 😊

I want to go over some housekeeping stuff. I'm extremely long winded sadly when I don't need to be so I put the more detailed version below the cut. This post will go over the results of two of the polls I did recently and what they mean for this blog.

TLDR: The light novel content AND Burn the Witch will be added into the mix of stuff I will write for.

To begin with, as I've stated in my introduction post and even written in my bio and pinned post, this is a Bleach fanfic blog. When I was making this blog and the pseud on AO3 I did so with the anime and manga only in mind. The intention has always been to write Bleach fics to

Keep this fandom from dying. When I originally made this blog back in December/January-ish there were only a small handful of writers actively writing for this series. (Luckily, it seems things are changing with more and more people coming in and posting their works. Thank you so much to everyone who writes for Bleach and also those who read it!! It's been awesome to see change happening.)

To possibly/attempt to add diversity into the pre-existing fic pool. I am one of those—what feels like—rare people who doesn't like reading and writing NSFW works all the time. Not to say those are bad. I too love to indulge in those here and there. I just like to read more plot heavy stuff or just straight up no plot, all fluff and those feel harder to find for Bleach. Maybe I'm blind. I don't know. Throw your plot heavy fics at me. I'll eat them up right now. Additionally, I want to write for those who don't get a lot of love from the fandom. I'm doing a terrible job so far but the Kenpachi and Shunsui brainrot is so bad rn.

And that is still the case!

Really, I got to thinking when I started playing Brave Souls again and pulled Soya Azashiro. He's such a beautiful character and I knew he was from the light novels. I did some searching online and found ways to read them. While I haven't read them yet, I do know a bit about Azashiro and know of some other characters that are only in the light novels. They looked interesting enough and thus this poll was born.

With my brain already thinking about other possibilities for this blog, I started thinking about Burn the Witch since it's set in the same universe as Bleach. And did a poll for it as well. Which leads us to the point of this post.

What do the results of these polls mean?

Regarding the Light Novel: Hardly anyone said no to the light novel characters being written so they will will be added into the rotation of characters I will regularly write for AFTER I read the novels. Which will be soon.

Regarding Burn the Witch: Burn the Witch will also be added into the rotation too BUT with the condition that it won't be a regular occurrence. There was less interest in BTW comparatively. It will have it's own masterlist and probably will have a fic posted once every few months. Enough to where fics are being posted for those who are interested but not enough to flood anyone's feed who is disinterested in it and follows for Bleach posts.

When will these additions go into effect? Probably sometime after the summer. I have a huge backlog of fics I need to finish so it will be a little while before I start writing anything related to these.

If you have any ideas or characters you would like to see let me know! I am not taking requests, but if you want to share anything you'd like to see I'm down to hear you out at least. 😊 I'm easily influenced so if you're excited about a certain idea, you'll probably get me excited about it too.

That is all! Thank you for reading! ❤️

[sweetfirebird]

unorganized thoughts I was working out the other night with vashti-lives about why so much of published romance does not spark in my brain the way that original fic, generally written by fanfic authors, does. and it's not an insult to romance authors. it's a genre with conventions, and people love those conventions, and authors following them are doing what they should be doing to please their audience and find success in the genre. (whatever value of success they are going for).

and there are obviously several differences between the two groups but the one that i think fails to ignite anything in my brain is that fanfiction is about *very specific characters* and the emphasis on characterization is the priority. and when original fic comes from authors used to doing that, they generally feel the need to build an entire world around their original characters to provide the subtext and backstory that normally fanfiction would provide for them. like, if you are writing like... what's a popular fandom? star wars? (i almost typed a star war like lucille bluth lol) you don't need to set up the space stuff and the rebellion and the background, the audience knows it. so it remains present even when unspoken, and it provides weight and history and meaning to interactions. And when authors are used to that and want to do something original, then tend to end up wanting that same level of subtext and history and involvement. even if the backstory does not show up in the story itself, it affects interactions between the characters. the very specific characters created for this world/this world has been created around.

i am not sure i am expressing this well. because it isn't that i don't think published romance writers don't also create worlds for their characters... it's that that is not the point of most romance novels. romance novels are vehicles for fantasies and are intended for more general audiences. you know what i mean? many of them are meant to have fun/nice/relatable characters going through it for the sake of a wider audience. one of the characters, usually the main viewpoint character, is often meant to be someone the reader can easily slip into the head of, so they can live out a dark romance fantasy or the fun escapism, or the hot smut, etc. which is awesome. but to appeal to a wider audience, these characters have to necessarily less specific. (i think this is also a part of why "fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off" is obvious to readers a lot of the time. the specificness has not gone away.-- i could say specificity but what is this, Inception?)

ostensibly, it's the same thing from the authors of 'original works' or published m/m: creating characters and then building a world around those characters to put them in situations. and yet it feels different? i can't quite articulate why i feel more from original works than from most published romances.

all this of course inspired by me reading an original work that is, when broken down to its essentials, a historical fantasy romance with a mystery that needs to be solved by a pair that are going to end up in love. which is an existing and very popular m/m romance subgenre! and yet, i forget a lot of the published m/m versions the instant i am done reading them. this story i am mildly obsessed with and annoyed it's not finished yet. and i remember the characters' names, which... quite frankly, i don't when reading romances a lot of the time.

(i could also get into it regarding m/m romance and fanfic and things that feel more queer to me personally, but that is like a whole other mess of thoughts.)