#and not like. weird about fictional characters

[bayetea]

surely there is balance to be found between acknowledgement of harmful amatonormativity and the fact that stories with no romance are worth telling and that not everyone needs to date or have sex or get married and recognition that romance is a historically derided genre specifically because of its association with women and an understanding that romance is as capable of literary merit as any other genre. surely you can have both

[tinytalkingtina]

Tales of Eddierotica Chapter 1: Argh Me Matey

Eddie writes the world's worst erotica about characters who are just poorly disguised versions of himself and Steve. One day, Steve finds out exactly what's been going on inside the mind of his roommate all these years.

Rated E | 4.3k words | Ao3 link [Chapter 1] | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 Overall tags: crack treated seriously/porn with a plot, modern/no-UD AU, friends to lovers, bisexual Eddie AND Steve, steddie as roommates, switch Eddie/Steve, vers Steve/Eddie, Eddie has a crush on Steve (and is horny about it), writer Eddie, the prose is so purple it has passed out from a lack of oxygen, friend fiction/erotica, so many bad puns and word play Chapter-specific tags: pirate AU, pirate Eddie, sailor Steve, pegging, rope bondage, non-con bondage, sexual frustration, orgasm denial, edging, and penis sword fighting (mind the tags but the erotica is at all times silly)

Written for the @switcheddieweek event, fulfilling the "art" prompt!

Find the full chapter on Ao3 to read it in all of its comic sans glory, but enjoy a snippet below the cut (as well as tags). Pink is Eddie's writing below.

“Theodore!” Stevenson growled manfully, as a man might. “You’ve gone too far this tiiiiiiimmmoohhhhh, too far this time! I demand you release me at once. Let us settle our differences as men of honor might.” The raven-haired roguish rascal grinned. “Why Commander, are you asking little old me for a duel? Your weapon is certainly impressive, but I promise, my own morning wood is far more dexterous in the afternoon!” Stevenson craned his neck. From where he was bound, he could just make out the captain’s trouser sword, the red tip shining merrily in the half past two o’clock sun. True to the captain’s word, it bobbed and waved in the breeze with quite agile ease. Still, what choice did Stevenson have? This unceasing torment would surely be his undoing. Even if he managed to reach his peak, la petite mort would be far too great for his tired body and overcum soul. “Yes, I do challenge you to a duel, you dastardly fieeeeend!” Anything to ease the ache in his pale twinned coconuts. The more Steve read, the less convinced he was that this was revenge. It was way too silly. Definitely weird and fucked up. But ‘pale twinned coconuts’ was something guys would say in like, a comedy porno. And now that he thought about it, Eddie had left the notebook where Steve could find it by accident. Maybe this was why the two of them got along so well, his roommate would turn his annoyance at whatever Steve had done into stupid porn to laugh at. Which was in fact very Midwestern of him after all. Mercifully the pirate captain holding him captive decided he’d had his fill of watching the commander writhe and groan. His loyal crew mates pulled Stevenson back onto the deck, giving him a much needed reprieve from the peg he’d been impaled upon. Though blood flowed back into Stevenson’s limbs, his body still spared some to hold his mighty spear aloft. For Stevenson’s johnson was truly a weapon to behold and envy. Even under clothes, its size and girth served as a source of distraction for those who shared the room with it. Steve glanced down at his pants and the super obvious outline of his dick. Okay so maybe these sweats were a little too tight to wear in public, but in his defense, Eddie had walked into a wall or tripped over his own feet every day since the two of them had met. How was he supposed to know some of those accidents were dick-related? Once the commander recovered his strength, he stood to his full height. Standing but one inch over his opponent only due to his stupidly attractive voluminous hairTowering over his opponent, he grasped his Not So Lil’ Stevie[son] and prepared to fight.

Read the rest on Ao3!

Tagging folks who have been scarred by wip weekend snippets:

@hbyrde36 @pearynice @eriquin @queenie-ofthe-void @yesdangerpls

@fkinkindagauche @helpimstuckposting @augustjustice @apomaro-mellow

@onirislanding @sidekick-hero @shares-a-vest @dreamwatch @stellarspecter

@zombiethingy @wynnyfryd @griefabyss69 @stevesjockstrap @runninriot

@sourw0lfs @dame-zoom-a-latte @pentapoctopus @soaringornithopter

[nostalgebraist]

When you finish writing a big story and you became very close the characters, was there a time after where you were like "i kind of want to revisit these characters again, but i should probably just let the story be, they deserve to rest" Im not talking about wanting to write a sequel, is more about still coming up with fun ideas for them, maybe a little scene or something, but choosing not to do anything with it because it'd feel disrespectful to the ending you gave them?

This doesn't happen to me, no.

The reason is that, once I finish the story, my sense of "being close to the characters" suddenly vanishes. And, although there are rare moments where it (briefly) returns, it mostly stays gone.

I can't remember if I've ever talked about this in detail before, but – when I'm in the process of writing a story, especially near the end, the characters feel "real" to me in a very strong and kind of uncanny way.

I don't actually believe that they exist as independent entities from me (much less sentient ones), but it does almost feel like that's true, when I'm in the thick of the writing process.

I have no trouble intellectually distinguishing fiction from reality, even in the state I'm describing. But my emotional and intuitive relationship with my characters, when I'm in that state, is pretty similar to the one I have with real people I know in real life. And there are a bunch of... uh, mental phenomena?... associated with this that I'm slightly afraid to describe because I worry they'll sound like hallucinations or delusions if I don't add a lot of caveats.

For example, when I'm alone in a room writing (especially if I'm writing in the middle of the night), I sometimes feel like it's not just me in the room, that the character I'm writing about is "there with me," in much the same way I'd be aware of someone real person's presence if I knew they were in the room but didn't happen to be looking in their direction. Or: sometimes I feel like the characters' voices are "flowing through me," that I'm merely taking dictation from them – and will sometimes even think to myself: "man, I'm so grateful that the character is helping me write this part, because if I tried to do it all by myself there's no way I would get it right." And it takes a moment before I realize, wait, no, I am writing it by myself – at least in a literal and physical sense.

Basically if you read this post, and then sort of read between the lines of it under the assumption that I'm downplaying how weird the experience actually is because I'm worried an accurate account would make me sound kind of unhinged... then you will have roughly the right impression of what the writing experience is like for me.

Whatever is going on here, it feels like it's probably on some kind of spectrum that also contains stuff like tulpas, multiple systems, and maybe also the way that children can sometimes get really deeply wrapped up in their imaginary play. I don't know how common this stuff is among writers (maybe it is common but rarely talked about?). It's not something I've experienced anywhere else in life; I don't experience it with other people's fictional characters or stories, or with fantasies I have that aren't associated with a work in progress, and I don't remember ever experiencing it before I started writing fiction as an adult.

Anyway, as I said at the top, the moment I finish writing a story, this phenomenon simply turns off, suddenly and completely. The transition is very noticeable when it happens, and makes me feel something akin to grief or loneliness over the brief span between the moment it starts and the moment it is fully completed – like I've just lost a bunch of close friends at once.

With Almost Nowhere, I remember a very specific feeling – on the evening of the day when I finished writing – that the characters were "departing 'into' the finished book," reverting to a lesser existence as "mere words" rather than "real people," as though they had been plastic toys animated by Terra Ignota's Bridger, and were now turning back into toys again. It made me sad, for a little while, but once they'd fully "lost their reality" I no longer cared, because it was that same sense of reality that made me care, and now it was gone.

So, to finish answering your question: I don't feel an urge to return to my old characters, because it feels intuitively obvious that doing this is impossible. That anything else I wrote about them would be inauthentic, somehow, in a way that the original work wasn't. They were "there," before, but they're "gone," now. This difference is very stark, and very hard to ignore.

(As I noted above, they do sometimes "come back" to me – very rarely, and very briefly, but that is enough for a proof of concept. Perhaps, if I were to try, I could find some way to "bring them back" for longer intervals. But I doubt I will ever try that. I feel a bit afraid of the concept for several reasons – for one thing, the "inauthenticity" I just mentioned squicks me out and I'd prefer not to come too close to it, and I also have a baseline wariness of doing stuff that seems too much like messing around with my own mental health. There's also a "catch-22" involved here, where I don't feel motivated about the characters the way I used to, and that means I'm not even motivated to do things that would generate that motivation. The "target" of the effort won't appeal strongly to me until I've already gone to the trouble of obtaining it, which means the effort doesn't feel justified in the first place.)

[dont-touch-the-flower-child]

so, i've been thinking about this. how Susie has grown to care so much about Darkners...

...she calls them by their names even in the Light World, to their Light World forms. she cares for them as real people.

but i'm not here to just talk about that. instead, i want to contrast it with something we see of Noelle on Weird Route.

we have made her accept that you do battles by freezing the enemies. by the time we reach Berdly, Noelle is so far gone that initially, she couldn't recognize her own classmate, a fellow Lightner, as anything other than another enemy to freeze.

it's horrifying, isn't it? and it is certainly treated as so in the game. Berdly dying to snowgrave is given more gravity than all the other Darkners dying to iceshock. it locks you onto the Weird Route for the rest of the chapter, whereas aborting at any point before it just boots you back to normal gameplay, with all your damage seemingly undone. no one comments on it. and you notice how Noelle only agonize over Berdly's condition, but none of the Darkner's.

the reason for it is simple, of course. the Dark World is framed as fiction to the Light World's reality. Noelle recognizes, even on normal route, that her Dark World adventure feels like a game. in a lot of games, killing enemies is just standard fare.

but it's completely different to kill a fellow player. as in, more than killing their in-game avatar, you have made them feel the attack in real life. how terrible is that, you think, and how warped must Noelle's perception have become to see Berdly that way?

...or, isn't that perception just...true?

Berdly is a video game character. to any player doing Weird Route, he is indeed, just another enemy to freeze.

Noelle is just carrying out your will. though the eyes of you, she starts to see her own reality as fiction, her own power as that of a real life player's.

this is her awakening.

"Noelle's player" is one who is detached. its playing style is one of stripping a game down to its bare mechanics: kill enemies to get stronger, in order to take down bigger enemies, until you've grown so big (max LV) and strong that nothing could stand in your way, until you're finally victorious, and you call satisfaction.

on the flip side, we have Susie.

Susie is also a player. she engages with the characters, listens to their stories, empathizes with their troubles. she sees these colorful, idiosyncratic personalities...and she wants to get to know them all!

Susie plays, the way deltarune is (mostly) intended to be played. enjoy the characters. enjoy the ride. learn to ACT. use violence as a last resort, in self-defense rather than thirst for strength.

ironically, despite being deeper in the dark, and therefore further into fiction and away from reality...

Susie's world is much livelier, and so much more real, than Noelle's sterile Heaven could ever be.

remember how Darkness is associated with fiction, and with water?

what's something both fiction and water are good for?

immersion.

[codeword-art]

I don't want this to come off as judgemental or like I'm personally attacking anyone that thinks differently about this specific scene, but I'm not going to lie and say I won't be a bit dramatic/harsh in these statements either. Ultimately I can sort of understand why some may think this is funny or humorous given similar jokes and scenes in other media, but to me personally, I don't. When Henry rescues Hans at Maleshov, and they're discussing the secret passageway and how Hans refuses to take it because of his claustrophobia, I don't think its funny to then physically assault Hans and drag him unconscious through the passageway anyway. Is it easier as a game mechanic, sure. If people are having a hard time getting through this quest the other way, I can understand simply making this option to just move on.

However, to me, that option is not acceptable under any other circumstance when RPing a good or neutral Henry. It'd be one thing if this scene was played humorously, like so many questlines in KCD and KCD2 are, but its not. If Henry presses Hans about not going through the passageway, he damn near has a panic attack, it's actually awful to watch. Hans is dead ass serious about his phobia, says the idea makes him nauseous, and he'd rather take his chances at the front gate. He is damn near close to crying here, while trying to make Henry understand. He is not doing well.

I understand this is frustrating, I'm not saying I wasn't frustrated at first either, from both a players and Henry's POV, but phobias are irrational fears that cannot be controlled, especially in 15th century Bohemia where therapy wasn't even a science yet. Hans has a good reason to be scared, he already was uncomfortable in tight spaces, and his fear was exacerbated during the "Finger of God" quest, and he hasn't really had any time to process what happened. He was immediately kidnapped and thrown into a tiny room with Brabant, of all people.

So to have Hans express this fear, lightly or seriously if pressed further by Henry, and then to think I'd immediately turn around and betray his trust and bodily autonomy to just make my quest objective easier, it's just gross to me. Hans is allowed to make that decision, no matter how annoying it is in the moment.

Also Henry is already weirdly written out of character here anyway, in my opinion. The non-romance options are just weird.

If it was the only choice to make, or if the second option had worse negative outcomes that'd be one thing, but it's just a little more sneaking around a subjectively easy area with light patrol.

Now again, I understand this is just my opinion. I don't think people are monsters for taking this option towards a fictional video game character. I know people like to play evil Henry, or depending on the conversation you have with Hans, some players may not even realize how serious Hans in being here, and surface level it's an objectively easier choice to make. If you're just trying to get through the quest, doing a speedrun, mistakenly misinterpret the scene, or whatever that's fine. We all play differently, I just don't think the choice itself overall is a funny, "Ha-ha, jokes on you Hans."

Also, I think this should lock Henry out of his romance. If I relayed a fear to a dear friend or partner and they actively force me through that fear, especially by choking me out? Yeah, were done. Relationship is over. Hans is far better than I am in that circumstance.

[olderthannetfic]

I watch a video that is "Why Lolita is Impossible to Adapt into Film", she goes over how the movies miss the mark sexualizing underage girls is moral wrong but does it anyway; to how the films depicts the underage actors that played Dolores to how they portray women being seductive on different book covers when the author didn't want that.

I agree on the part where she sated when the Lolita films (and other films) touch on this topic, that sexualize the underage actors is sexual exploitation thus why the video is title that way. Though it IS possible to adapt Lolita in another format that don't harm underage girls playing roles, is animation/drawn art. I find it interesting the youtuber bring up Humbert's sexual fantasy about Lolita and the idea of nymphets are just words on papers, it's literature.

Cus whenever adult/minor relationships is brought in fiction that ARE about 2d characters, regardless if it portrays in a "preschool cartoon, remember viewers, pedophilia is bad and yucky!" energy or "we already know it's bad irl, just like any other taboo that is like in fiction, it's just a fictitious fantasy" energy - fantis and others like them whole stick is they DESPISE the idea that "pedophilia" being portrayed in fiction in general, and it shouldn't exist besides them always shouting "it's fine to have it in fiction along as it isn't sexualizing, romanticizing, normalizing, blah, blah" but other forms of crimes portray in fiction like violence even if when it's done to underage characters is okay cus violence fantasies aren't gross and weird as sex fantasies, especially the badwrong kinds.

So, I find it ironic that youtuber mention how words of literature is no form of sexual exploitation and abuse like what goes down in the entertainment business with underage actors when a lot of online ppl that view ~proshipping~ AS sexual exploitation and abuse that cause ~harm~ to both irl people AND 2d fictional characters. I will even say nsfw/suggestive art and fics of fictional 2d underage teen characters and ESPECIALLY the lolishota types will NEVER have a huge impact of harm towards children and have high impact in social like live action media similar to the Lolita films; a lot of people aren't ready to have that conversation.

--

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Right from the start, Deltarune has established itself as a “Game Where Choices Don’t Matter”. Only having one ending has been core to its narrative and theming since day one. But it’s important to remember that it’s a concept that Deltarune has explored through several different ways, with two broad ‘main’ angles.

First there is the obvious way. That “Your Choices Don’t Matter” feels restrictive, oppressive, foreboding. The railroading that makes everything ‘safe’ in a way that feels just slightly insincere, the idea that making a real change in this world is impossible, the Darkners doomed to their Purpose to 'serve' the Lightners, the Prophecy that cannot be changed.

It's about the feeling of powerlessness, a lack of control. It's kinda creepy even when you're forced into a 'good ending' (like the Card Castle Darkners joining Castle Town even if you've been nothing but an absolute menace to them), but especially so if you're marching towards some inevitable and terrible fate.

But on the other hand of that spectrum, there is the matter of Player Agency versus Character Agency. Sometimes in Deltarune, your Choices Don't Matter not because the Choice was taken away from you by some Great Unseen Force - but because you, the Player, are the Great Unseen Force and the characters are asserting their Agency against you.

The general point here is that the Player's Choice often stands at odds with the narrative agency of the characters. Ralsei is the most accommodating member of the main cast and the one most likely to ask Kris (or rather the Player) what to do, and… he's also unhealthily selfless doormat who literally does not believe he's allowed to have opinions of his own and is the most fatalistic about the Prophecy. The biggest example of actual Player Choice in the game so far is the Weird Route, which requires tearing away the agency of both Noelle and Kris until they are tools for the Player.

Kris themself is also a factor in this. Being Literally Possessed means that they're really the perfect example of lacking in freedom and lacking in choices… And when they are asserting their own Agency, it's usually by taking away a 'Choice' from the Player. They often try and rebel, resist or wise-ass their way out of doing or saying something that they don't truly want to say or do.

And their most important moments are, of course, the ones they do of their own will.

It is all 'railroading' from an out-of-universe perspective because it is just the Game stopping you from doing things that will cause the narrative of the story to diverge too much, but within the fiction that the game created, it is a bold act of free will.

The characters' relationships and arcs are 'set on a path' and unchanging because they are dependent on the characters' personalities and experiences and their choices, and there's very little the Player can do to override that. Like, being discouraging towards Ralsei's character arc in Chapter 4 is a huge dick move on the part of the Player, but I doubt it will actually stop him from his path to growth. Because with Susie's support (and Kris' attempt to also support him despite our Choices)

his development is not in our hands.

Basically the one time the Player can meaningfully affect another character's arc and relationship… is Noelle in the Weird Route. And again, this is portrayed as a very dark act of manipulation that robs her and Kris of their genuine choices and will.

And nowhere is this concept more clear than with Susie. The most rebellious character in the entire cast, the one most likely to chafe against the railroady nature of the world and the inevitability of the Prophecy and also against the Player. A lot of the plot in this game has been the same, regardless of our choices, regardless of the Weird Route… because Susie's will and choices has been such an overwhelming leading force in the narrative, that the Player can do very little to change it.

We know Deltarune only has one ending, but I don't think that means we are doomed to get whatever terrible fate has been promised in the Prophecy. I think maybe there's only one ending because there's hardly any Choice a Player can make that will slow down Susie's unbreakable, unwavering, unchangeable fate-defying spirit, we will not be able to Choose to hinder her sheer Determination to break the Prophecy and give herself and all of her friends a happy ending. Susie herself is the real inevitability in Deltarune.

At least, that's the best we can hope for.

[astarions-world]

I have been getting so emotional thinking about this scene. I haven’t even reached it in my own play through yet (hopefully soon, I’m just leaving Act 1) but I’ve seen many videos about it and it just makes me emotional every time.

Astarion and Hugs

Larian did such a good job portraying what trauma would be like for someone like Astarion (and with other characters too as well). They had to have consulted a psychologist right? I’m not a psychologist but I just wanted to look at all the little details of this scene that really show you just how hurt Astarion really is.

This is the first scene in which he truly opens up with romanced Tav. He takes off his mask, he gets rid of his “seduction” act and he decides to be vulnerable with you, which is probably scary for him. It’s interesting to me because when he asks to talk to you and you reject him, he’ll break things off with you, which tells you this is very important to him.

He genuinely expresses remorse and guilt for what he did to Tav. He starts it off by saying he “feels awful”. Obviously he’s realizing what he’s been doing is not cool and he feels bad about it and wants to be honest with Tav, because he’s starting to genuinely care about them.

He opens up about how he wants them to be something real but he doesn’t know what real looks like after he spent 200 years faking it. One of the options is to hug him. I love this option.

I mean look at the trauma behind those eyes during the hug. This is a man who has been used and abused for 200 years. He’s so unsure at first. This is a man who has never seen a lick of kindness or love shown to him for 200 years. Who’s to say he even knows what a hug is? When Tav begins to hug him, he’s unsure, confused, and doesn’t know what’s going on.

When he realizes it’s a hug, and that it’s being shown as an act of love and care towards him, and it’s not a gesture meant to hurt him, he returns the hug, still unsure of what to do but feeling reassured that he is loved.

I mean, how sad is that? This man has never had anyone hug him or even express love and care like that for 200 years. It takes a huge toll on a person and it’s very in character for a traumatized person (especially if violence was involved in the trauma, which seems like it was the case for Cazador) to be unsure at first of gestures like hugs. I believe later in the game (correct me if I’m wrong cuz I haven’t gotten that far yet) there are certain scenes where he hugs you and it’s plain to see that he appreciates them more now.

I just wanna jump through the screen and give this man a hug irl during this scene. It’s weird that I’m getting so emotional over pixels on a screen but Neil did such a good job bringing Astarion to life and portraying a man who has been through a lot of “pure shit” in his unlife.

The story of Astarion becoming loved and cared for for the first time in his unlife is so beautiful to me. And he slowly learns to care about someone else too. A lot of people criticize him for being selfish in the beginning of the game and cruel but it makes sense to me. Cruelty is all that was ever shown to him for 200 years, but once he starts to see that people can be kind, he starts being kind to others as well, in the best way he knows how.

Now, excuse me while I go cry over a fictional man.

[chara-cat5]

Lads isekai Au Ch 2

reader is gender neutral, warning: swearing, mdni

chapters 1, 2

you woke to bright sunlight in your eyes. a soft groan escaped your lips as you turned in your bed, tugging your stuffed bear closer to your chest...

wait, bear?

your eyes fluttered open and you were met with the soft faded fur of your lovely snuggle buddy, rupert. but your relief was short lived, your surroundings still very much unfamiliar... looking around the room, it was definitely the guest room mia had sent you to the night before but now it was filled with your stuff. what the hell? a knock at the door startled you from your stupor, mia's voice muffled through the door.

"come onnnnnnn, we're gonna be late for work, sleepyhead!"

you scrambled out of bed, opening the door to find her in her hunter's uniform.

"oh, great, you're up quicker then usual. get dressed and then we can head out, 'kay?"

you blinked at her stupidly as she turned away toward the kitchen. maybe she meant she was gonna check for info on you at work... yeah thats it... you ignored the friendly way she spoke to you compared to last night, stumbling to the bathroom. you ignored the traces of you that had suddenly manifested in the apartment, the way the world had seemed to change over night just so you fit in it's puzzle. it's only after you get to the hunter's hq you finally give into the idea that something was wrong. maybe denial wasn't the best copping mechanism...

you looked at your desk with blank eyes. why did you have a desk? why did you work here? just last night you were a stranger who popped out of a tree and now you were roomies with the mc and also her coworker?? what the fuck?? playing pretend was easy enough for the work. it was just self explanatory paper work. the hard part was keeping up with people who acted like you were long time friends. tara and mia chatted with you like you were an unbeatable trio and you didn't have the will or confidence to argue. something weird was going on and you just rolled with it. don't draw attention to yourself. play the part. at least until you can figure out something to make sense.

you finally got a moment to breath after work. Mia mentioned something about meeting up with someone you couldn't be bothered to listen to. probably one of the men in her harem. you walked yourself back 'home', following the path you took to work. your thoughts were allowed to wander, to take in this crazy scenario. love and deepspace... a game you, for obvious reasons, had considered fiction was now reality. your reality. what did all this even mean? where did you fit in all this? a side character? another tara? you knew waaaaay too much about the love interests for that...

you let out a gasp, nearly dodging a door as it swung open into your path. so much for just mindlessly walking. you scowled as you tilted your head to glare at the person who almost gave you a broken nose, a head full of curly purple hair filling your vision.

"huh?"

he turned his head at the sound, blinking as he met your gaze with those blue-pink eyes of his. shit-

you reacted too slow, forcing your eyes down and moving past him, trying to seem uninterested. you were NOT ready to interact with one of them. you still had thoughts to sort out. feelings to stuff away.

"hey, you're miss bodyguard's roommate."

fuck.

you froze and turned back, meeting his gaze as he stepped closer. it was startling, almost unnerving seeing what had always been on phone right in front of you, his head doing that little tilt down thing. his lips were tilted up in a friendly smile, but it very clearly didn't reach his eyes. eyes that felt like they could see through your skin.

"m-miss bodyguard? am i supposed to know who that is, mister..."

he let out a huff, a pout falling to his lips. ever the expressive one, mr. fishy.

"rafayel. surely she talks about me. amazing, artist friend? she talks about you, roommate."

that gave you pause, a silent debate in your head. maybe talking to him for a little bit wouldn't hurt... it's not like he cared for anyone outside mc. you could understand your position a little better.

"she does? what does she say?"

he smirked at that, a cat like, shit eating grin taking over his lips. crap, that gave away so much!

"well, what does she say about me, Mx roomie?"

you couldn't help the groan that escaped your lips. this man-

"i asked first."

he hummed, stepping up next to you. you fell into step next to him, eyebrows furrowed as you gazed at the side of his stupidly handsome face.

"you asked first but you were also rude first so i think i should get to go first."

"you almost smacked me in the face with a door! how is that not rude?"

he let out a huffed laugh, standing up straight.

"you don't hold back, do you cutie. are you this sassy with everyone?"

"you do NOT get to talk to me about sassiness, mister."

rafayel was actually easy to talk to. you'd think you'd be nervous talking to him. rich artist, human hating lumarian, super handsome guy, but also really funny fishy boy. the two of you fell in to casual banter and before you knew it you reached mia's apartment building... you blinked at it before glancing to him, already spotting the pout on his lips.

"leaving me already? you still haven't shared any secrets about mia."

"guess you'll just have to ask again later."

you spoke before you thought, hands fidgeting with themselves. he raised his eyebrows, tilting his head before nodding. that unreadable look in his eye making your hands sweat.

"sure. i'll get miss bodyguard to bring you to my next art exhibition or something. see ya, cutie."

you watched him go in a daze before making your way inside. welp, guess you're buddies (???) with rafayel now. was that in character for him? he didn't act like you had met before which was a relief. means you don't have to remember an interaction you never participated in. but for someone who is just his precious mc's roommate, he was rather friendly. an act maybe. get on your good side since you're friends with mia. he was after her secrets, he said so himself. thats it.

you sighed as you entered what you were assuming was just now your room, flopping down onto mattress, face down. you rolled over after a moment, the blank ceiling filling your vision.

"okay... what's the plan?"

if you were gonna live here, survive in this world, how were you gonna do it? from mia and tara's conversation earlier, you were up to date on the story, mia having just returned from 'off time'. so you couldn't leverage any of your knowledge of the story to your advantage. but beyond that, what did you want? to survive, yes, but to thrive? and then theres your evol. that was something you would have to figure out too.

you let another sigh, your eyes falling closed as you rolled back over.

your life before too... friends, family. what about them? were they worried? were you dead there? in coma and this is just some crazy dream?

this was giving you a headache. and making you hungry. the kitchen was fancy and high tech. it was rather daunting even thinking about cooking, so you just grabbed a bowl of leftover fried rice from the fridge and hoped mia wouldn't mind. halfway through your meal, mia came home, tossing her bag next to you.

"is that my leftovers?"

you let out a laugh, her silly pout maying you roll your eyes.

"maybe. but i was hungry. you wouldn't want me to starve, would you?"

she sighed dramatically, walking over to you as she shrugged off her belts, tossing them haphazardly on the counter. she hooked her arm over you shoulders, resting her cheek against the side of your head. your shoulders went stiff for a second before you forced them to relax and if she noticed, she didn't say.

"can i at least get a bite? i'm hungry too, ya know..."

you let out a sigh, raising the spoon to her lips. she happily ate it, giving you a squeeze before walking off toward her room.

"i'm gonna go change, then we can watch tv, yeah?"

"sounds good, mia. i'll it set up."

you smiled as she went before moving to the living room. messing around with the remote for the tv, trying to figure out how it worked and then what to watch. once mia came back, in her loungewear, she plopped herself next to you, laying her legs over your lap.

"what is this?"

she gestured to the tv and you just shrugged, looking back to the remote.

"i don't know. i'm trying to figure it-er figure out what to watch still."

she hummed, running her hands through her long, straight hair.

"just go with our usual. they sent out a new episode a few days ago."

you chewed your lip, handing her the remote as you stood up.

"you get it. i'll fix up some popcorn."

you heard her let out a sound of agreement as you walked back to the kitchen, clicking through to what looked like Netflix. making the popcorn was easy enough, a button on a microwave like appliance. you also cut up a pair of apples for the two of you, placing both bowls on the coffee table. mia blinked at the apples, grabbing a slice.

"something healthy too. you can't just eat junk."

he rolled her eyes, putting her legs back in your lap when you sat down.

"okay, caleb."

you snapped your gaze to her at the name, but she didn't notice, busy eating and watching the screen. defiantly up to date. mia wouldn't joke about a dead caleb. but are you supposed to know he's alive?

"i'm just watching out for you. an apple a day keeps the doctor away and all that."

"now you defiantly sound like caleb. trying to keep away dr. zayne? he was always trying to keep him away when we we're kids. speaking of which, let me tell you the shit caleb pulled the other day."

you hummed in response but you were carefully watching her reactions. when she began to openly ramble about him, it became clear you were supposed to know. maybe you two were so close she'd tell you about her boys? it was clear she was comfortable with you, both with her speech and then the skin to skin contact. she also at off your spoon earlier. as you watched her animated expressions and listened to her rant about caleb, it was easy to be drawn in. you knew her story and now, you could know her too. be privy to her kindness, her friendship. being her friend, her supporting character didn't seem so bad. especially if it meant you could help her. lessen her pain for this dark story.

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entity [user] encounter entity [rafayel]

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affinity level [1]

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tagliat: @sleepisfortheweakpooh @plzdonutpercieveme @young-adult-summer @mentaltrouble2201

first time doing a taglist (open to any who ask :D) so i do not know if i did it right?? i hope i did

thank you for reading!!

-chara <3

[intothepast9]

ummmm marauders hot takes bc I can't think of anything else rn

I don't think I'm doing this as you would have asked but thanks <3

hot takes about characters/ships

jegulus and pandalily present opportunities for us to explore similar relationships to drarry and linny except without having to deal with JKR's characterization by instead having characters with whatever parts of those ones we want and

wolfstar cannot be true to canon in any real sense and be healthy. that's fine. fuck canon

pandora doesn't have to be into astrology, a stoner, or a seer unless she's with xenophilius

Lily and James in canon are basically just these archetypes of masculinity and femininity and jkr is misogynist and made james complicated (if contradictory) and so Lily is not given that type of depth. She's basically a blank slate for us to fill in, so far as her character goes

continuation: Lily probably felt lonely and like an outsider in the Order and married to James. Mary is mentioned as her friend in canon, but we don’t know if Mary joined the Order. We know Lily had to cut herself off from Snape as a friend due to his bigotry and joining a fascist militant group. Yes, Lily was friends with Sirius, their first choice to be their Secret Keeper; we can tell this through their correspondence. But he was primarily James’ friend. They were inseparable at Hogwarts, and when he broke out of Azkaban, he mostly talked to Harry about James and saw James in Harry. Likewise, we know she was friends with Peter enough to trust him as Secret Keeper, but again he was primarily James’ friend. Lily wasn’t an animagus; she wasn’t in the Marauders’ Map, and if she was separated from her other friends and spent her time in the Order with James’ friends, she probably felt left out. She probably felt like she was viewed partially as an extension of James’ life.

hot takes about the fandom

1 . we are a majority women (though gender diverse) group mostly interested in reading mlm fic even though most of us are queer. This is OK but it is an interesting dynamic--why TF do I, a lesbian, sometimes read m/m smut? Make it make sense. I really appreciated Strange Aeon's analysis--(https://youtu.be/kYPOAoVO7Xw?si=0VIO3UVN7bBOQcXe) mlm fanfic can present a chance for us to view sexual relationships in a way that are fundamentally different and unaffected by the same gendered power dynamics we're used to seeing in traditional media relationships. Like reading about some fictional twink, I can understand them being attracted to fictional men in some greater sense than I'm able to understand real people of any gender who are attracted to real men (which is a feeling of like, you do you, bestie <3). They're a way for us to explore relationships without the bodied issues we're used to. A lot of them probably are not true at all to how most gay relationships play out. But that's ok. Apologies to any gay men who are weirded out and feel fetishized.

[yusiyomogi]

with each chapter, it becomes more and more apparent to me that our (the player's) relationship with kris is incredibly important to the story. i never liked "we control them and we're evil" approach to it, because it's reductive and ofc kris is a fictional character and just because the game makes you think about this (as a good meta-commentary should), the point isn't to make someone feel guilty.

but i don't even wanna talk about meta-narrative, i'm thinking about it in the terms of the story. i think as much as kris hates being possessed, or rather finds themself really bitter about it, we are connected to them for a reason. kris needs us to progress through the story just as much as we need their physical presence in the game world to experience it. you know, the cage with human soul and parts. and i think someone made a good point when they said that we're mutually being cages for each other.

i honestly believe that in the end we'll learn that kris wouldn't be able to progress without us. and ofc it doesn't make our weird connection good for them, but we'll leave them alone after a few days and hopefully things turns out well for them.

remember the lyrics for raise up your bat?

because i'm with you in the dark with your heart as my mark which shall guide you the way, through the waves.

heart guides the way for kris. we control the heart. i believe that we're truly there to help them.

[iqirius]

RANDOM FOLLOW UP RANT BC THIS IS SO REAL🥀🥀

I don't know if it's just me but I don't really 'see' myself in self-insert characters 🤔🤔. The same goes for any type of self-insert fiction (stories, games, audios, etc.)

I know the whole point of self-insert fiction is to ...well self-insert but I just really can't / don't want to imagine myself in the self-insert character. Cuz some of self insert characters themselves have unique personalities even if they are similar to mine, I just create ocs instead 🥹🥹

Example : When I listen to characters interact with the mc I don't think "omg we're bonding we should kiss!" instead I think "omg they're bonding they should kiss!" (Random phrases I KNOW🥀)

Pls tell me im not the only one who thinks like this my friend said im lowk weird when I ranted about this to them 🥀🙏🥀🙏🥀🙏‼️🙏🙏🙏🥀😰😰

Y'all ever listening to an audio and like, it's supposed to be a listener experience, like see yourself in the story.

But does the listener ever "say" (the characters repeating what you said) or do smth that's just like, not you ig??? Like they act nothing like you

Obviously I'm not saying I expect every audio creator to fucking study our personalities and make individual shit for all of us

But like sometimes you just see how a listener is acting and you're just like oh hell nah that ain't me what is you doing 🤨

LIKE I JUST listened to this series by obsidian lantern and dawg the listener was such a fucking GOONER 🙏 like chat that ain't me I didn't do or say that (loved the series tho, obsidian has such a fun voice)

[kanerallels]

I have GOT to be more unapologetically weird on here

[comfort-character-central]

"But canon says they wouldn't like--" LALALALALAAAAA I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT, CANON SAYS I'M ACTUALLY PERFECT FOR MY F/O. THEY LOVE ME AND CARE ABOUT ME CAUSE I SAID SO. SO THERE. IT'S LITERALLY CANON! SO THERE.

[qiu-yan]

imagine the following scenario: one day, the MXTX protagonists + love interests find out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are fictional characters; that they were created to star in a romance-genre web serialization centered around their relationship.

in this kind of situation, i feel like all of the MXTX protagonists would experience some level of existential crisis.....except for luo binghe.

fo luo binghe, the reveal would be twofold. first, there would be the PIDW reveal: that luo binghe was originally to be the protagonist of the webnovel PIDW, and that his fate changed when one of the novel's anti-fans, peerless cucumber, transmigrated into the body of shen qingqiu and derailed the entire plot.

second, there would be the SVSSS reveal: that, in reality, all of the above was actually the plot of another novel - the scum villain's self-saving system - and that said novel is not concerned with any of luo binghe's feats or conquests or the like, but rather is about the romance between shen qingqiu (shen yuan) and luo binghe. and that, rather than being the protagonist, luo binghe is instead the male lead to shen qingqiu's protagonist.

except literally both of these reveals are massive Ws for luo binghe?? first, for the PIDW reveal, luo binghe finds out why shen qingqiu pushed him into the abyss - not because shen qingqiu hated him, but rather because the system literally forced shen qingqiu to do so upon threat of death. furthermore, luo binghe learns shen qingqiu's real identity: someone who read about luo binghe from an alternate universe and came to love him, someone who loved luo binghe across dimensions so much that, upon seeing that luo binghe's story was to end with zero true emotional fulfillment, rejected this ending so vociferously that he ended up changing luo binghe's entire fate.

and then, the SVSSS reveal: this entire universe only exists because MXTX wanted to tell the story of the romance between shen qingqiu and luo binghe. from the beginning, shen qingqiu and luo binghe were fated to end up together. and, if shen qingqiu is the protagonist, that means luo binghe was literally created to love him.

absolute ego boost. massive W. every other MXTX character would be experiencing the existential crisis to end all existential crises, but not our luo binghe. nothing but victories for him.

[kittehscribbles34]

Is it fun, Kris? Playing around like this...