#however most of my characters just have random names that I thought fit them

[salubriousbean]

What's In A Name?

Where I, the salubrious bean, talk about why I gave an original character their name.

Episode 1: Star Nubo & the Nebula Company

Well lads, lasses, others, boths, neithers, and everyone else out there, this one's pretty simple. "Nubo" means "cloud" in Esperanto, and Jedi Knight Star Nubo commands Nebula Company. Nebula = basically a Star Cloud.

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EDIT (Jan 21 2025): changed her name to Mayra Nubo :)

[inc0mple]

Alright chat, the flip flop is free now, I CAN SHARE MY THEORY.

This started as a vague crack theory but it spiralled and now I have tangible evidence and a thought process and have spent the last week going INSANE but most of the theory rests on one stupid detail---namely, the brand of this mysterious keyholder's flip-flop---that I couldn't share until now.

This theory is---and hear me out---

Before he was a key, Buddy was actually a fictional storybook character turned real.

WARNING: Long, only vaguely coherent rambling and Inco going insane.

Okay I know you're like "wtf are you on about" so just. just. just hear me out pls

To understand this theory we need a little bit of context, which means talking about:

The Elephant Book

"The Elephant Book" is an unfinished comic that Punko worked on before Cinderella Boy or Stagtown. It is a story about two characters who learn the secrets of a hidden organization, called Artifax... secrets that have to do with beloved fictional characters who become real because of readers' love for them. I don't want to spoil too much of it, but I highly recommend giving it a read if you like theorizing about Cinderella Boy. You can get it on her store here as an eBook. It got cancelled before the plot could be fully realized, but here's the thing---Punko has said that The Elephant Book informs Cinderella Boy.

This in itself is intruiging, but what is most fascinating to me---and here is where the flip-flop comes in, LMAO---is one particular plot point.

Again, I don't want to give away too much of the Elephant Book because it's a fantastic story. However, it does feature one part about one book character in particular---Alice, from Alice in Wonderland.

A book character who attempted to enter the "real world" through a looking glass---through a mirror.

And if you take a look at this mysterious keyholder's flip-flop...

IT SAYS ALIC[E].

here me out im not insane here me out

This looks like just a normal brand to me, nothing that has any plot significance. So it's important to ask, why then was it included? Why would Punko include a fictional brand as detailing on a random item of clothing... unless maybe, it was a reference? A jaded, non-diegetic callback to another "Alice" from a different, dropped story...

This leads me to believe that this mystery keyholder was once a storybook character, and has since been greeted into the real world.

I don't know how, but one theory I have is that maybe, to avoid a hassle, Ex Libris may take book characters and turn them real with magic to use as henchmen.

HEAR ME OUT

These people would be untracable; they would have no documents or papers, and nobody from the real world would miss them.

Their memories could be erased or modified so that they do not realize this is their history. They could be amnesic, or remember a false previous life before working for Ex Libris.

They would be easier to control because of this. Ex Libris could manipulate them because they would have qualities that would stop them from fitting into normal life; Ex Libris would feel like the only place they "belonged".

If the keys and their magic exists---and we've seen Violet and Buddy have a spell page---why couldn't this magic be plausible?

Now hear me out even more: Buddy used to be one of them.

I HAVE REASONS.

1. Words n stuff

Weird that Buddy only has one name, or that it doesn't seem to match the other keys.

That's---an underwhelming first point. Uh. That's all. Food for thought.

OH AND ALSO, "Ex Libris" means "from the library of". Could be referring to people who work with them being LITERALLY from books.

2. Dialogue

Perhaps this statement is more literal than we thought. Perhaps in Buddy's "home book", he was a villainous character.

Almost like all three of those phrases apply to him.

3. THE MIRRORS GUYS THE MIRRORS OH MY GOD

Buddy has been seen with plenty of mirror symbolism. Particularly in Dreams by Night:

Reflections show story characters, we know this.

But also, when Buddy escapes through the mirror (like Alice through the looking glass, in The Elephant Book)...

THE GLASS IS CURVED.

But we saw the mirror, the mirror is flat. We know the dreams are supposed to be extremely symbollic...

So what if the mirror is meant to symbolize more of a portal, from one world---a fictional world---to a real one?

...okay thats all i have for now that was kinda underwhelming.

I PROMISE IM NOT INSANE I PROMISE IM MORE COHERENT WHEN IM NOT EXHAUSTED LIKE I AM RIGHT NOW

[jazzthatonewriterchick]

Who Is In Control? (18+ Fic)

Pairing: Sung Jinwoo x Black!F!Villain!Reader x Hunter!Gojo Satoru

Synopsis: Sung Jinwoo is the highest-ranking hunter and the most powerful human being humanity has ever seen. So is Gojo Satoru. Both cocky, both confident, and both eager for more power, they compete against each other for each gate that seems to get more dangerous the farther and higher they go. They figure your gate won’t be any different and that you will be the usual big baddie that they need to take care of. Another cog in the system. Until they manage to beat you and find out who you truly are behind your facade. Now the hunters are hellbent on keeping you to themselves. So, what’s another friendly competition? Only this time, the prize is you. 

Chapter Warnings: MILD SPOILERS (Nothing too crazy except naming Jinwoo's shadows & talking about his mom if you haven't read the story/watched the show yet!)

Disclaimer:  I own none of the characters mentioned in this fic. However, as this is my writing, I do not give permission for my work to be reposted on any other sites that are not from my own accounts. Thank you!

Writer’s Note: Nothing smutty in this chapter lol. Just setting up for the rest of this random ass fic. Enjoy! -Jazz

CHAPTERS: PREFACE. ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE. SIX.

*************

ONE: A FRIENDLY COMPETITION.

When Jinwoo awakens in the dead of night, when the entire city is sound asleep and not even an owl is hooting, he knows exactly why. 

The screen, transparent and suspended in midair, appears in front of him as he sits up in his bed. He is not tired even when he only slept for thirty minutes after an extensive nighttime training session. He can still feel the burn in his muscles from the dumbbell lifts, the pushups, and curl-ups. And they are about to burn more. 

Words pop up on the screen, bright and neon, almost stinging his eyes as he stares at it in his dark bedroom: 

New S-Rank Gate Open…Transition To Red Gate in 3…

2… 

1… 

The screen suddenly turns red, dousing Jinwoo’s room in the color so he is bathed in it. “A Red Gate, huh?” he murmurs to himself, thoughtfully tapping his chin. No doubt something has gone wrong, and he is going to find out just what it is. 

After getting the location of the gate, Jinwoo plants his big feet on his hardwood floor and zooms over to his drawers. He doesn’t put on much–just his usual blue hoodie, jeans, and sneakers to fit the cool early-summer air. He takes his phone, wallet, and keys before he is out the door, leaving his sister and mother to slumber and not worry at all about their brother and son out fighting fantastical, dangerous creatures for money. 

The gate is not as close as Jinwoo initially thought. He is breaking a sweat by the time he arrives at the park across town. But he would rather it be here than anywhere near his family or his neighborhood. He needs to keep them safe.

Besides, he can tell this one will bring quite the treasures for him. As he jogged to his destination, his body buzzed with every step. His blood boiled, his veins hummed, and his head swam with the energy and power he could feel in the air from the gate. 

Now, standing here and staring at it, he can definitely see that this is a danger zone. Hence the police tape and heavily-armed guards standing with the crowd of civilians that have begun to gather. They all want to catch a glimpse at the Red Gate pulsing with wild electricity, a red glow emanating from its portal-like opening. It pulls anything except humans into its wake–tree branches, rocks, dirt, nearly a dog if its owner didn’t wrap it up in his arms–and swallows it whole.

‘Whatever is in that gate must be a real bitch,’ Jinwoo hypothesizes. 

Despite the throng of scared and astonished people, Jinwoo is hard to miss. Not only is he the face of the Hunters’ Guild, much to his dismay, but he is also about six-foot something, lean, and strikingly hot…not that he realizes it. He must think that the people ogling him are only doing so because they’ve seen his face on TV and YouTube. 

A federal guard closest to him tries his best to ease the crowd, his hat nearly flying off his head due to the rush of wind from the gate. “Everyone stand back, please!” he orders. “It appears the S-Rank Gate has morphed into a Red Gate! We must wait until the Hunters’ Guild arrives to take care of this!” 

Jinwoo rolls his eyes. If they wait for them, the gate will grow bigger and more hazardous. Suddenly, the screen appears in front of his face, signaling that he has found the gate. A Start button appears, ready to be pressed and plunge him into a new world filled with adventure, danger, and, hopefully, answers to his burning questions. “Found you,” he coos before he presses the Start button on the screen. “Let’s go.” 

As the screen begins to count down from ten, Jinwoo vanishes from the naked eye in a blink and suddenly, to the shock of the crowd, appears in front of the yellow tape keeping the crowd out.

The guard turns, grabbing Jinwoo’s shoulder. “Wait, wait, sir!” he shouts. “Where are you going? I just said to…” His angered words die down when he catches a look at Jinwoo’s deadpan expression. Instantly, his eyes fill with recognition and his hand trembles. “H-Hunter Sung,” he stammers. “I’m so…I-I didn’t–” 

“It’s fine,” Jinwoo drawls out in his smooth, panty-dropping voice. “You’re just doin’ your job. Please allow me to take care of this for you and your team.” He gives the guard a reassuring smile and pats his hand before walking towards the gate, ignoring the shouts from the guards. 

“Where is he going?!” one shouts. “He’s as good as dead in there!” 

“Idiot, don’t you know who that is?!” another criticizes. “That’s–!” 

Jinwoo doesn’t hear the rest because once the screen hits zero, he is immediately transported out of the park and into an entirely different world, universe, and realm. When he opens his eyes, he rapidly blinks to refocus his vision and examines his new surroundings that are currently in disarray.  

It appears to be a kingdom. Medieval. Definitely somewhere in the Regency Era with its destroyed, village-like houses, cobblestone sidewalks, and the villainous castle off in the horizon that looks straight out of a Disney movie.

The gargoyles surrounding the windows growl and hiss, moving their stone heads from side to side, and ominous clouds storm in, swirling around the highest power of the castle pointed to a tip. Jagged rocks surround the outside of the castle, giving Jinwoo the impression that either the owner wants to keep themselves in or keep outsiders out. 

The village is completely in flames and abandoned, meaning that its villagers have either been vacated or they are in hiding. The flames feel hot on Jinwoo’s face and he has to cover his mouth to avoid breathing in the smoke billowing in the air. ‘Not bad,’ he sarcastically thinks. ‘Nice atmosphere. Very inviting.’ 

He begins to look around, squinting through the floating embers and the darkness that the blackened clouds, crackling with lightning, cause. “Now, where is this Boss?” he murmurs to himself. He doesn’t feel anything right now that signals that a Boss is near and the game screen hasn’t appeared to…

He suddenly pauses and strains his neck to look, really look, yards away in the distance. “Da hell?” he cusses to himself. “No fuckin’ way.” He notices the long legs. The tallness and broad shoulders. The lean muscle. The confident stance. But what gets him immediately is the snow-white hair and the blindfold wrapped around his eyes that have been said to make a monster tremble. 

Jinwoo is ready to crash the fuck out when he recognizes his unfortunate colleague and year-long opponent. “This asshole!’ he thinks, rageful and beyond pissed off. Immediately, he activates his teleportation and zips across the village to meet the white-haired man where he stands. He turns around as if sensing Jinwoo already and his shocked expression morphs into a cocky smile. “Well, shit,” he chuckles, putting a hand on his hip. “If it isn’t my favorite S-ranking hunter. To what do I owe the pleasure, Sung?” 

Jinwoo grits his teeth as his name escapes Gojo Satoru’s cocky ass ass. 

Everyone knows Gojo, including Jinwoo. As a fellow S-Rank Hunter who popped onto the scene after being an E-Rank and resurrecting after a bloody rave accident where he was literally sliced in half, Gojo moved from Japan to South Korea and once the Korean Hunters Association caught wind of his story, they took a shine to him immediately. Especially since, like Jinwoo, he continues to level up and gain more astronomical powers with every gate he beats. 

Since his S-Rank, Gojo has beaten over fifteen gates. He shows it in the smattering of healed scars on his skin, the callouses in his hands, and the confidence in his gait. He is someone that has been compared to Jinwoo many times for showing the same cockiness during battle and the same aggression when faced with a Boss. Jinwoo can’t stand that. No one is like him. 

This is why he and Gojo have engaged in a rivalry for months now. ‘Friendly’ battles during training that change into fights that the other Hunters have to break up. Unspoken agreements on who can beat a Boss first. Side-eyes and heated glances shot to each other at press conferences and at meetings that build enough tension for a chainsaw. 

Jinwoo can’t stand the man, but he also cannot deny that Gojo is one powerful Hunter. But that doesn’t mean he can come here to his gate and snatch it away. “What the fuck are you doin’ here?” he spits. 

Gojo puts his hands up like he’s claiming a wild animal, animated and asshole-ish as ever. “Whooooa, you’d better watch yourself, Sung. I don’t take too well to aggression. You kiss your mother with that mouth? How is she, by the way?” A sly smile crosses his lips. “Actually, how’s–” 

“Don’t even say her name,” Jinwoo growls. It’s bad enough that his sister has a crush on Gojo, damn near melting when he came to her school to meet the students after a gate broke out in the hallway. Gojo keeps his hands up in defense. “My bad.” 

Jinwoo impatiently huffs, pinching his sinuses. “Gojo, I thought we had an agreement to not ambush each other’s Red Gate raves.” 

Now the white-haired hottie’s smile fades, replaced with an incredulous frown. “Hold up, I never agreed to shit,” Gojo argues. “I’m not followin’ you or nothin’, as paranoid as you are. I was asked to come here by the Hunters Guild since I live closer to the Gate’s location.” 

Jinwoo scrunches his brows at the mention of the Hunters Association. “Wait…you’re with the Guild now?” This Guild in particular has been asking Jinwoo for his agreement to join for some time now, but each time, he turns them down. He isn’t just in this anymore for the money or to protect others. He needs answers and a Guild isn’t going to understand that. 

“Oh, hell no!” Gojo guffaws, waving a passive hand as fire continues to flame behind him. “Don’t get me wrong: I’m cool with most of the members, but I have no interest in splittin’ my pay after risking my life for humanity with a bunch of subpar S-Ranks.”

He pulls down his blindfold an inch, giving Jinwoo a wink of his blue eye. “They’re not like us,” he whispers, an almost sinister smirk on his face. “Plus, I’m a greedy motherfucker.” 

Jinwoo doesn’t reply. He is too busy resisting the urge to punch the man in his face. Gojo cocks his head to the side, placing his hands on his slim hips. “Y’know, I think you’re just scared that I’m gonna get to the Boss before you and your Walking Dead army do.” 

Now, Jinwoo does speak, but it is not to Gojo. It is rather to his invisible friends that do not reveal themselves until the five-lettered, two-syllable word is uttered in a powerful commanding tone: “Arise.” 

The way Gojo’s smile wavers makes Jinwoo bloom with pride and joy as his shadowy red knight appears beside him. “I’d be very careful about the way you talk to me, Gojo,” Jinwoo warns. “You might piss somebody off.” Ingris steps forward, looming over Gojo with his sword at his hip. “And he doesn’t take too well to someone disrespecting his master,” Jinwoo adds. Ingris keeps his hand on his sword, never moving and never keeping his shadowy eyes off of Gojo. The S-Rank sighs, pressing a hand to his heart. “That’s my bad, alright? Your army of the undead is kinda cool.” 

Jinwoo smirks and lays a hand on Ingris’ shoulder. “Chill out, Ingris.” The red knight immediately lowers his sword and bows, obedient and subservient. Gojo looks a bit perturbed, but not enough to show too much fear. Even the biggest, baddest hunter would be afraid of a shitload of dead Bosses staring dead at you. “Look, I’m not here to steal your gate from you, but you ain’t the only one who wants to level up time after time…and find out why.” 

The smile that Gojo wears now is knowing and sharp. Something darker is hidden beneath it and puts Jinwoo on edge. “What do you mean?” 

Gojo chuckles, shaking his head. “C’mooon, Sung, you seem like a smart guy. You wouldn’t have made it this far if you weren’t.” He claps a hand on Jinwoo’s shoulder and the dark-haired S-Rank pushes it off. Gojo barely acknowledges the brush-off. “You can’t tell me I’m not the only one who knows that it ain’t a coincidence that we’re the only two S-ranking hunters in Japan with abilities like the ones we have.” 

Abilities like we have. Powers that transcend the usual ones of an S-Ranked Hunter. Jinwoo knows exactly what Gojo means and he hates that he does. “We came back for a reason,” Gojo continues, “and I know you don’t just come to these gates day after day for a power-up.” The smirk on his face grows, appearing like he can see right through Jinwoo’s lowkey personality and cool facade. 

Jinwoo’s palms begin to sweat, his body entering into fight or flight as if Gojo is danger. And he is. He is too close to Jinwoo’s truth. “You don’t know anything about what I do,” he hisses. He walks up to Gojo, nearly closing the gap between them. “And if you keep talkin’, I’ll know my shadows would be delighted to have two somethings to battle in this gate.” 

Gojo’s smile grows hard and he cocks his head to the side. He doesn’t step back or flinch as Jinwoo grows closer, nearly brushing his nose against Gojo’s. “Is that a threat?” Jinwoo’s eyes flash an electric blue and he can feel his shadows’ energy shift at the reaction of his power. “That’s a promise.” 

Still no flinching. Still no sign of hesitation or fear. Gojo is as cool as ice, but so is Jinwoo. He fears nothing. Finally, after a tense stand-off that even Ingris grows wary of, Gojo throws in the towel and is the first to take a step back. “Fine, be defiant,” he huffs, overdramatically craning his neck. “But since I’m here and can’t get out till the Gate opens again, why don’t we have another friendly competition?” 

The grin that stretches across his lips is mischievous and wicked. The same grin he gives Jinwoo in the gym or the training room for a fight. The dark-haired hunter sighs, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Fine, I’ll bite: what’s your proposition?” 

Gojo is happy to explain. “Whoever is the first to kill the Boss good and dead wins some good sake and the grand prize of a power-up.” Jinwoo thinks about it for a moment. He knows he can have that advantage with his powers. Besides, some good and free sake doesn’t sound too bad. 

“Deal.” The two hunters jut their hands out and firmly shake on it.

“Now arise,” Jinwoo commands. Gojo furrows his brows at him, perplexed. “Excuse me?” he asks.

Jinwoo points behind Gojo’s back and the white-haired hunter turns, cussing at the sight of the S-Ranked hunter’s shadowy soldiers appearing out of thin air in clouds of smoke. Ice bears, orcs, ants, and every other Boss that Jinwoo has killed so far and resurrected appears behind him, standing behind their master like soldiers. Beru, the talking ant, and Tusk, the King of Orcs, are among them. Ingris goes to stand with them, obedient and only serving the one and only Sung Jinwoo. 

Gojo glares at his colleague, off put by the shadows. “What, you tryna make me a soldier too?” Jinwoo wraps a cape around his shoulders, smirking. “Perhaps in the future,” he sniggers. But just as quickly as his smile came, it fades as he regards his shadows. “Scout the perimeter and take out any threat in your sight. Leave the Boss to me.” 

Immediately, his soldiers take off, each one scrambling in different directions, some in the air and some on ground. Jinwoo stands with pride as he watches them, knowing that he has this in the bag. “Hey, that’s cheating!” Gojo argues. “You can’t use your army to do your killing for you!” 

Jinwoo glares at the white-haired hottie, tapping his ear. “Clearly, you’re hard of hearing. Aren’t you supposed to be good at everything? I said for them to leave the Boss to me. You should be thankful that I’m minimizing the obstacles for you.” A smirk pulls at his lips. “Or are you just scared that you’ll lose?” 

In the blink of an eye, a portal appears behind Gojo, one that he no doubt made. He gives Jinwoo a confident, cocky grin, flashing his pearly whites. “Nah, I’d win. Every single time.” And after greeting Jinwoo farewell, he disappears. 

“Cocky motherfucker,” Jinwoo mutters before he bends his knees in preparation for a jump. With a grunt, he jumps, suddenly airborne, and lands on top of a crumbling building. Then he’s shooting off from the top of the roof for another, going higher and higher each time, heading towards his target. 

Heading straight for you.

[bogos-bint3d]

random thought bc i was making alphyne sims LOL, do you think undyne would ever want to have children? how do you think she’d be as a parent?

While I personally don't quite have a "definite yes" or "definite no" answer for this I personally think that, yeah, possibly! I think it's a question with a lot of layers to it, "is it something the character would want?" "Is it something the character should do?" "How much thought would the character put into it all beforehand?" "How long would the character wait before making that choice?" And first of all I think I should talk about fandom culture's view on kids in general. Why? Because I'm obsessed with validating my opinions like this

It's been said many times by many people now how there are a lot of times where fans end up writing completely out of character for the purpose of placing characters into positions of stereotypical familial structures- ESPECIALLY forcing women into the roles of motherhood where it doesnt fit or make sense for them to the point where I don't think I can really add anything substantial or important to the topic. The pros have very much said what needs to be said.

HOWEVER. I ALSO LIKE TO HAVE FUN WITH FUCKING CHARACTERS. I LIKE TO EXPLORE DIFFERENT TOPICS AND SITUATIONS WITH THEM. I WANT PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO SHAMELESSLY ENJOY THEIR RIGHT TO INTERPRET CHARACTERS WHERE THEY THINK NESCECARY. WHERE THEY THINK FUCKING FUN!!!

So with that said, while demeaning female characters to singular sad and one dimensionsional traits of "Mother" is very clearly to me Not A Good Thing, people should stop acting like it's a fucking sin to imagine the possibility of a character having a child while still retaining all their accurate attributes, because it is a very possible thing that can be and IS done!!!!!

What are my thoughts on Undyne with all this?

Hehhaahehehaa....... strap in.

Where do I BEGIN. How about the inspirations behind the character of undyne herself.

Ok so see this wonderful lass here. That's a sculpture by Chauncey Ives of the mythical water spirit, Undine. Thinking about it, you all probably know this anyway because I do fairly often reblog Undine themed stuff too. Because I'm just like this. But how about the interesting stuff?

The original myth, created by Paracelsus, an alchemist and philosopher born in the 1400s, I believe comes from his work "A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, And Kindered Spirits". I think that's what it was called. I'm too tired to talk fully about it specifically and we need to get to the point so have a video of some guy reading it here

Yay :]

It's pretty much what it says. Paracelsus essentially believed that elemental beings (whom he had adapted and reimagined from ancient or traditional at the time sources) were simply part of the strangeness of God's natural creation and should be studied, as part of appreciation of the Bible etc. And we know ALL ABOUTTTTT utdr and its biblical links/imagery. But back to undine :]

Paracelsus named his takes on the classic concept of elementals: gnomes for earth (YES HE INVENTED THE WORD GNOME!!!!!), sylphs for air (yeah he also invented the word sylph), salamanders for fire (he didn't invent that :[), and of COURSE! UNDINES FOR WATER! He believed undines to be fairly similar to humans, a significant difference being the lack of a soul. Which surely means nothing when talking about Souls Are Important the Video Game. And anyways according to him they were apparently fairly capable of getting a soul through love. Wikipedia also says that Paracelsus says that a child from this love will too have a soul which is nice

Blablabla Wikipedia says undines are like fucking desperate to get a husband or whatever but dudeeeee she can do whatever she fucking wantssssss. I think she can and should be enjoying her life with alphys rather than it being a thing just for a living soul or whatever. They're just happy, no mythology attached

Onto the most iconic interpretation of the myth, 1811s Undine by Friedrich De La Motte Fouque. When you think of the tale of Undine it's almost always that it's this specific story you pull from. Apart from another one I'll briefly touch on later (please hope it's brief). In it, Undine is a woman adopted by a fisherman, who was taken in by the fisherman after his own child died. Hmmmmm wow hmm sort of like how asgore took in undyne after his children died HM BACK ON TOPIC. Personality-wise, Undine is described by Wikipedia (because I don't have the book) as "erratic", and "capricious", which Google dictionary describes as "given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour", which again sounds quite similar to the Undyne we all know and love.

It mentions that when married to Huldbrand (the main guy in the book he's not important tho) she is "kind and gentle" and yeah imo the writing with this IS kinda shit HOWEVER I think if were simply using this as inspiration for undyne I can definitely imagine her *eventually* becoming a calmer and more thoughtful person with A: the presence of someone like alphys to mutually love and understand her for her and B: the absence of having to worry about a war to fight and always sort of being on edge and just being. Like that. And again this would all be a *progressive experience*, rather than in the book where undine literally switches up over night. I do like to consider character and stuff

There's this line from the Wikipedia summary which jumpscared me

I 0% believe this has any significance to deltarune whatsoever however it was so funny out of context I had to add it

Another completely unrelated thing here but there's a fucking guy called "Kuhleborn" and I just. Can homestuck leave me alone. FOR FIVE MINUTES.

Sorry back to cherry picking the story to fit undyne.

Ok so truthfully I don't find anything else from that specific story that I find particularly helpful to undyne, the rest of it's kinda just useless to my point. Re-establishing the fact here that I skipped over a most of the actual significant parts of the story because I specificly want to talk about how I see it parallel to undyne. But that's it really. I just especially wanted to mention this adaptation of the story as it is pretty much the most iconic interpretation of the myth.

That is, interpretations that specifically refer to its source by name. Because by far the most well known media to draw influence from the myth of undine is the iconic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, "The Little Mermaid". I don't have much to say on how the little mermaid does take much inspiration from undine, other than the way andersen himself interpreted the story. Simply, the fact that Hans Christian Andersen, a man who based this story off of his own feelings at the inability for another man to reciprocate feelings of romance for him, and resonated with the story of undine so much that it was a source of inspiration for the little mermaid itself is so crazy to me. Like. Here is a queer man who read the tale of Undine and understood it so much he wrote his own story inspired by it and made it tie in with his own experiences of homosexuality! Like that's so crazy to me! Because it just makes the undertale character of undyne being sapphic so much better to me! It took the sad story of gay tragedy and took it and made it a story of gay joy!!!!!!! We are all so happys forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok ummmm. I got carried away because we are steering very far away from what this post was originally about. Umm. Point is. Original story was of queer sadness but undertale is now of queer joy + the story of queer joy being based on story where being with this person who you really love and being truly and properly bonded in an undeniable and magical way is enough to give you a soul that will live forever. I think that's somewhere near the point I'm trying to make but at the same time it's not quite the point I was trying to make. And this is absolutely just one interpretation of one relationship and this is by no means in any way supposed to be the end all be all of what ANY relationship should be. I really don't think this is what the definition of love is. However for these characters I feel it can be a huge aspect of it for them

NOW FINALLY MOVING ON TO THE ACTUAL CHARACTER FROM UNDERTALE THANK FUCKING GOODNESS!!!!!

Oh undyne. With some of the implications in game that she lost her family, I very much imagine her being cautious with this sort of situation. Would she be able to handle is for example? Would she know what to do. Given its something she might not even have real first hand experience of, is it something she would even want to risk forcing upon another person? I think she struggles so much with responsibility as it is. She wants nothing more than to protect people and cheesus if she had a kid of her own you know she would be doing every single thing in her power to make sure that kid never has to face what she did. Undyne says at one point in game (if you kill her in neutral i believe) she never told alphys the way she felt because if/when she died in battle, she wouldn't want alphys to deal with that. And again, she really would not want to have a kid if she worries that one day that kid would have to worry about someone they truly care about not being with them anymore

So *would* she want them? I don't really think it would be an overwhelming innate desire or anything like that, but really not against it. Sged need a lot of time beforehand first. Some time to live her life to the fullest, time to make sure it's something she can handle without guilt, time to make sure it's something that does bring her joy. And then yeah, 6 or 7 years minimum I can see it happening. And I think it would be nice

"Now let's talk about susie, can we talk about susie? Please stun (and other readers) I've been dying to talk with you about susie all post, okay?" /ref

I don't really have anything to add I just think alphyne should adopt susie. In every timeline. Undertale deltarune I just think ok. Because she doesn't have a good home life to the point where she's like just Not Safe and hm young couple with no children in her area? Undyne would want to help her soooo bad because she understands just what it feels like to be young and alone not really cared for and she would NEED to fix it. That's defo how it is for undertale at LEAST. Idk entirely with dr if it'd be exactly like that cause we don't know what undynes got going down in dr yet.. but even so that's nothing to stop them

Anways yeah I think you mightve been waiting just a wee bit long for the answer to this ask I uhh.....m.....mmmm. yeah man I... yeah. I really do genuinely hope you enjoyed his tho cause uts currently quarter to 2 in the morning and I'm going on a train & to the aquarium tmrw so my ass CANNOT be waking up at 11 am again. Shits fucked. But when I tell you when I'm locked in on an undyne topic I AM LOCKED IN. IT TOOK A WHILE BUT I FINALLY DID IT. MORE THAN HALF OF THIS WAS WRITTEN WITH NO BREAKS OF CHECKS BUT THATS THE BEAUTY!!!!!! FLY MY SCARAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gaytoesugayru]

Girlbunker Names

since I haven't had the time or energy to draw much lately, I wanted to talk about the names I chose for a girlbunker au I've been working on with a friend for a couple months now!! I've put a lot of thought into some of these and some of them stray pretty far from their original names, so hopefully this'll prevent too much confusion ^-^ if anyone likes them enough they can use them, doesn't matter to me

the name meanings I used came from here: tkdb name meanings

Jin -> Sayuki: the meaning of jin's name confused me a bit, and I couldn't find any 1:1 female equivalent. sayuki can have multiple meanings, "sa" in certain cases meaning clarity/skill and yuki meaning snow, princess, superiority, etc. fitting, no?

Tohma -> Kaori: I picked this one so long ago that I honestly don't remember why I picked it. the meaning doesn't match up with tohma, so i'd say I was likely going for a theme of elegance?

Lucas -> Lucia: lucas means "bringer of light", so sticking with that I chose lucia, which simply means "light". lucia can also be shortened to luci, so she can still have a nickname.

Kaito -> Ichika: I originally picked kouto because it was similar, but came to hate the way that sounded. kaito means forerunner, and ichi can mean both run and the number one.

Alan -> Ranna: alan's name is actually romanized as aran, and the "ran" character makes up most of the meaning. ranna has that same character, so this one was pretty easy.

Shohei -> Shoko: means almost the exact same thing as shohei, and can still be shortened down to sho.

Leo -> Kei: leo's name is romanized as reo, which can mean both "clever" and "twinkling jade". luckily, kei can mean both "clever" and "gemstone", and its just as short as the original.

Haru -> Himari: haru can mean sunshine, and himari means sunflower. I was very proud of this one bc I thought it was adorable.

Towa -> N/A: couldn't for the LIFE of me find a fem equivalent of towa's name. I asked my friend that likes towa and they said "towa is just towa", so I merely left it as is.

Ren -> N/A: ren is gender neutral, didn't need to do much there.

Taiga -> Hasumi: this one gave me the most trouble and I'm not too satisfied with it. taiga is a buddhist name meaning "enlightened one", and though I scoured many japanese name sites I couldn't find anything remotely close. there are next to no buddhist japanese girl names, either. so I went and found a random buddhist girl name, which meant lotus, and looked for jp girl's names meaning lotus. my main choices were hasumi and renji, but renji is too close to ren for me.

Romeo -> Juliette: self explanatory I fear. feeding into the many famous lit references in the game. plus I just thought it was pretty. I don't think this is the authentic italian spelling of it, but I've been using this too long to care.

Ritsu -> Noriko: ritsu means law. noriko also means law. hooray!

Subaru -> N/A: subaru can be a girl's name, though I'm not sure how common that is. I also hc her as a closeted tgirl so... maybe it'll get changed someday.

Haku -> Haruka: I also don't remember why I picked this one. probably just sounded similar. haruka can mean both "distant" and "permanence", however, and I think that fits rather well.

Zenji -> ?: since zenji is a pen name, I decided to keep that. however, his real name, taro, means "first son", so I decided on hatsue, which means "first daughter".

Edward -> Edina: just sounds similar (and it's pretty). I don't think they mean the same thing at all.

Rui -> N/A: gender neutral name

Lyca -> N/A: I don't think this is a real name, so there's not much I could do here. its an obvious reference to the word lycanthrope, which literally means werewolf. so I decided if you squint hard enough, lyca can be a girl's name too.

Yuri -> N/A: can be a girl's name. I also find the idea of a lesbian named yuri amusing

Jiro -> Jinko: I don't like what I picked here. but they dont seem to number their daughters the way they do sons, so I couldn't find anything for second daughter. it looks similar enough, and "ko" means child, so I called it a day.

[jjscheetos]

I have a bone to pick with whoever is in charge of CM: Evolution. You suck. Any time I’m watching the show I feel like I’m re-reading that one instagram comment that said he should be hired cause he has many great ideas while the idea is that one of JJ’s and Will’s kids turns out to be Spencer’s (jennifer would NEVER cheat. that is the most ooc thing I have ever seen).

The finale spoilers below ;)

What I liked in the finale:

Ochoa and Voit. I like their dynamic and relationship and I would love to see more of them.

JJ’s whole look ate.

JJ and Voit scene where he’s begging her to shoot him and she says no and says he won’t pull the trigger, for no specific reason I liked this scene.

I genuinely cannot think of anything else sorry?

What I DIDN’T like in the finale:

The whole disciple story line could’ve been much cooler if it had better build up, more on the line and if the disciple have been a character we know like Tyler or smth. Instead we get… Tessa? We don’t know anything about Tessa, her character and the flashbacks we get feel more like an after thought. It’s like when you’re writing a fanfiction and have to re-write canon material to fit your OC somewhere. That is how that all felt. I do not care for Tessa, her sob story is sad, but I don’t care for the character at all. Why would I? I literally heard her name for the first time in 18x09 and then I meet her and I get a speed run of her whole story during 18x10.

Random lore being dropped. This also ties into my n1, but if you caught it, we are told or Voit is told by Tessa that his parents were really his aunt and uncle and that Cyrus (however you spell his name), is actually is father. It is dropped, Voit denies it and.. That’s it. There is no actual build up or mystery around it, we don’t know if Tessa lied or more so if Cyrus lied to her. It was so random, it made no sense and was not explained or expanded on in any way. Hated that.

Voit’s arc still not being done. Don’t get me wrong the actor who plays him is doing an amazing job. But give it a rest. In the whole CM show there has never been a „big bad” that lasts for this long. Why? Because it doesn’t work! Whenever we have an UnSub like Foyet, Scratch, Doyle even, there are filler episodes. There is never a whole season dedicated to that UnSub only, however with CME it feels like that’s all that matters. They try to push some filler episodes down your throat, which all in the end lead to Voit. There are no sub-plots in the show outside od Voit. The only ones we got this season was Will’s death — which was going well until they forgot about it and brought it back onto to move the Voit arc. And Tarbecca wedding, which we didn’t get??? I honestly thought the finale would end with it, like usually we get a cute family moment and it would be perfect, them getting married maybe in Rossi’s backyard. But no. We get a short scene where they just talk about going for drinks and cut to… guess what… FUCKING VOIT. Voit suddenly has thoughts about killing and it will be probably the plot in the next season. I feel like leaving him at jail when he’s finally changed could’ve ended his arc perfectly. Overall his arc should’ve ended a long time ago — whenever the team has to do anything it has to do with Voit, 99% of side plots have to do with Voit, it’s all about Voit and Sicarius and the plot was cool, modern, like a network of killers? fun! but oh my god… how long can you drag the plot and me with it. im bored. Also Voit’s plot is like a couple episode long plots that already happened in CM put together.

Everything is predictable. I could tell the plot instantly. From the moment Voit was supposedly back to his old self. I knew he didn’t kill Ochoa instantly and that’s why her body fell behind an object. It was so bland, boring and rushed. There were no stakes. It was a hard watch, just like the first couple episodes were.

Overall the show is shit imo. I feel like the writers or whoever is in charge should step up. The characters are not taken care of, the only arc that I feel like should he talked more about is Will’s death. JJ should be affected by it the whole season, we should let it consume the season, alongside Tara almost dying and seeing her dead mom arc. That should be the focus. I feel like while the actors are doing their best the writing is ass. They’re including unnecessary amounts of slang, no one except Garcia would know it. They’re ruining my babies and I hate it.

Emily should get an arc too, she needs happiness, kids, she needs something outside of this goddam job because it will kill her inside, if it hasn’t already.

JJ needs a more detailed grief arc, because if I’m being honest that was the only plot I found interesting this season and it abruptly came to an end.

Tara and Rebecca should get more screen time when I feel like they’re getting less and less…

Rossi needs to fucking retire lmao.

And let’s kick out that guy whose name i genuinely have to look up any time because I never remember it. Tyler.

Give me Garvez.

The show needs a redo next seasons if they continue it. There is little to no profiling and the thing is, it feels like the show is revolving around Voit. Tye BAU is not the BAU anymore. Like I said anything that happens in the show is to serve the plot and push it further and that’s just boring. Give me UnSub for an episode that doesnt push the network or Voit’s story further. Give me team moment, give me them struggling in personal live. Instead of their whole life being about their job.

[fridgemissionmaster]

this is less of a request and more of a "what are your thoughts" but I was wondering if, since the undateable trio will never be added to the OG/NB intimacy system, what you think their surprise guest preferences would have been? (like where you think they'd like to be tapped, what physical touch they would react best too, etc)

it's been something that has been on my mind since forever (specifically for Mephisto because of course lol) and i would love to hear your reasoning/thoughts if you have any! it's a bit of an odd/random request probably so if you dont feel any inclinations about it then no worries about passing on my ask. love your writing 🫶

THAT… is a complicated question! What interactions (taps, gift giving, pets, ignoring, shaking the phone) and more importantly in what order to do those interactions in is determined by the dialogue the characters says before the interaction and OM and NB have different dialogues although they mirror one another leading to the same interactions they like best. Such as, whether in the OG or NB to get the best interactions with Beel post battle Head tap, then chest pet, and chest pet again, for the high five do the high five, arm tap, then arm rub.

None of the characters have a specific touch they like best technically?????? Kinda????? but it dose seem at least SOME have preferences like Mammon, any 3 star battle interaction just pet his face, nothing else and you’ll get the best results. Most of Satan’s, Diavolo’s and Barbatos’ interactions that net you the most points always involve a lot of chest taps, sometimes nothing but chest taps. A good chunk of Levi’s and Belphies best are head rubs and taps. For Simeon it’s not a certain location but most of his best interactions involve pets whether they be on the head, face, or chest.

HOWEVER, that dose not mean I have nothing to add. For the longest time every character has had a corresponding favorite food, but when you look at the list of foods, there are three extra, and oh would you look at that, it seems each of these are rather fitting to our undatable three. Each of their descriptions even state “???’s favorite.” IT’S SOMEONE’S FAVORITE! I swear either those three were meant to be datables earlier on but got delayed or something. ESPECIALLY because these foods UNLIKE the previous undatables of Diavolo, Barbatos, Luke, Simeon, and Solomon, have flavor text.

(I have a pet conspiracy theory that Mephisto, Raph, and Thirteen were meant to be introduced in season three, possibly even be dateable instead of making the side characters datable, but those guys got so popular it was a business decision to make them datable and leave the new three for later. Like, in season two the reaper’s cave was super important and they were HINTING SO HARD, PRATICALLY OUT RIGHT CALLING OUT THIRTEEN they just hadn’t said her name! And quote unquote the new three’s food all has flavor text, just like the datable brothers, and not the side guys, like their stuff was made last minuet. Hell you could even go so far as to theorize that the reason people generally agree that the story starts going down hill season three onward is because that was not how it was meant to be but the side characters had to be forced in to be datable because of money! Do you hear me!? DO YOU HEAR ME!?)

Anyway.

I’d say the Comfort Candy for Thirteen “Eating this candy will change your mood.” I believe she’d have fun with that one, or maybe it wouldn’t even effect her at all considering she is death and not the average… alive creature to get effected by things.

Black Coffee of Melancholy for Mephisto, I recall there being the string of chats in the OG where there was a rumored hole that would suck out all your joy, Satan goes to message Mephisto about it and it seemed he was unaffected, Satan assuming he was too late and Mephisto lost all joy. Given Mephisto has been described as always busy I could see him drinking the stuff to keep up with all his work. This also leads to interesting implications either A. Mephisto throws out all joy so he can concentrate on the task at hand, B. it doesn’t matter since he’s only happy either in Diavolo and his little brother’s presents anyway, or C. it’s stated that he’s just about as powerful as Lucifer so it is entirely possible neither the hole nor the coffee can effect him at all in their more magical aspects at least.

Then that leaves the Backstabbing Sandwich for Raphael… okay not gonna lie the descriptor doesn’t quite fit him, but we could also say that because this game has been in development for a while and things change such as the history and personality of the character who was intended to get this food. But… c’mon, a stabby food dose fit the man considering all the spears now littering the Devildom due to him. UNLESS… it’s an irony thing, the volatile angel not actually not being the bad guy in a narrative where you’re expected to side with the demon brothers always.

Considering your love of Mephistopheles, I can come up with a few ideas of how his interactions would go.

I say he’d like chest taps the “true/born as demons” aka Diavolo, Barbatos, and Satan all heavily favor chest taps so I’d say it’d be the same for our noble here as well as being ignored (more on that here jump to Demons and Courting: Showing Interest the paragraph before the related tangent), and as I said before the coffee as his favorite food.

As for other gifts, generally you need to do a specific action order for the character to like the whip of love, I say there be more opportunities than average to use it and him liking it, considering he’s a strong demon and demons society can be a bit… violent I say this man embraces that aspect of his home and CAN find it charming you’re trying to leave a mark, on HIM, how bold of you. I would find it funny if the “bad” interactions are him asking if you even know what you’re doing, he wasn’t hurt or annoyed by the action itself but your lack of skill in wielding the whip that I feel is fitting for him.

Other things from the… medicine category, idk what it’s called, the section with the whip, and bandages. He likes both the medicine and poison. The others are neutral.

As for the presents, loves flowers, likes the movie ticket, perfume, and message card.

and finally… a smidge of dialogue.

3 Star: “Hah, as if you could expect anything less!”

High Five: “Just this once, I’m in a good mood.”

Gift: “Take it. I know you’ll make good use of it.”

Gift Medicine: “Oh, thank you. I was just getting a headache.”

Gift Poison: “Perfect, I was just starting to run low on this.”

Leaving after perfect interaction: “It’s time to go already!? … I… can keep you company a while longer.”

Leaving after worst interaction: “Honestly, do you enjoy wasting other’s time. I shouldn’t have expected more of you.”

Whip perfect: “I’ll admit, you attempts can be rather charming.”

Whip Bad: “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

Perfect touch 1: Heh heh- You heard nothing!”

Good touch 1: “Hmm? Is this a human custom?”

Bad touch 1: “Don’t do that again.”

Terrible touch 1: “Do. Not. lay a finger on me.”

[moonpie016]

I'm not going to bust into your house today, crawl through the window, or speed walk. Just chilling.

Don't really have much today, I was going to make something (a fully made drawing or a little silly thing.) But no. No I just doodled again.

---

---

Extremely high swings outta the way.

But we have.... Ok they still don't have names. Odd but nothing significant comes to mind (pun not intended), can't think of anything. Maybe I'll ask for suggestions (idk when, or from who.) But whenever they (the Heart and Mind) get names, I'll show em.

Yeah the three little dudes just having a great time at the park, Seeds ("Soul") is in the back drawing, and the two are enjoying the swings. Well, Heart is. Mind not so much. Which fits.

Guess depicting Mind as anxious and with more miniscule surface looking fears is nice. Might be a silly, unimportant thing to most, but not to him. So he avoids them to not look like his other half. Afraid of taking risks. Heart shows his fear by his actions, Mind however, is internal.

Seeds is what I'd do in any situation, Mind too. But Heart? Enjoying the moment even with the growing "what if I fall and hurt myself?" is wanting to be an afterthought.

Guess making these drawings are the only way I can write them. I can't just already know what a character does, I need a visual to understand them and then know what they are. Or do. Sometimes.

Annddd sooooo ART. :]

That and songs of course.

---

This became somewhat of a ramble. I just wanted to explain the picture annnnd then it became a thing to say. But that's what this place is meant for. To show my ideas and thoughts. And lots of random thoughts I have, whether on topic or constantly shifting to something unrelated.

But anyways, I hope you enjoy this doodle.

(Idk when I'll get anything I was working on done. I guess a bunch of drawings will do until that happens. Plus motivation. :] )

---

[heegyukeluv]

what if i just asked 1-30..

DKAJDJW just kidding, I wouldn't do that to you (not yet)

I'd love to know 17, 18, 19, 25, 30 <3

YVE I'M GONNA BE SO HONEST WITH YOU i thought about just answering everything LMAO Anyways!

adding a "read more" because damnn i ANSWERED

17. talk about your writing and editing process

oh boy here we go uhhh so after i became close to ari, it begins with a brainrot with her; like, we send videos from tiktok, ig reels, twt... about something random or hee/jake and i be like "who in enha" LMAO and i tease her with some dialogues.. or sometimes i just wake up thinking about a topic and decide to write!

then i throw it on the doc: the raw ideas, the dialogues i created in my head (often i'm laying down or like showering and i start to think about the idea and a dialogue pops up- AJSDASDHASD), and the ones i sent to ari.

once i have everything i had in my mind already written down, i start to create a proper plot around it until i reach the part that triggered the whole story. in the meantime i try to add the backstory and character details, as well as the metaphors i often use to describe sensations and emotions..

and i think it's a bless (or a curse?) that my brain just... make it all make sense in the end. i can add a simple detail on the very beginning and forget it throughout the plot, then it randomly clicks and i be like oh i'll reference that one part bla bla bla. and that happens with the title as well... it✨ appears ✨(and there are moments where i have the title before the rest of the story, so i try to match both)

since im a psychologist 🤓 i have this urge to create an acceptable background reason for some choices sometimes, or simply how the environment and parents/family "shaped" the character's personality, so this happens as well.

i'm constantly searching for synonyms (and i keep forgetting them) and i use google translate a lot lmaooo. and when i'm reading a fic, i try to gather random words i never heard of and fit into something i'm writing (not being eng fluent struggles)

uhhh i don't re-read much, i only re-read to make sure i'm consistent. that's why none of my plots are proofreaded (and cuz i know nothing about gramatics to correct myself! hah)

lowkey me

i didn't understand the "editing process" part.. it's about the fic itself? if so i think i already answered 😭😭 but if it's the editing as in the images/header: i just select pictures of the member that matches his description and throw them on photoshop with the name i came up with, gather a few random details and textures and hope that i'll be able to make a decent header for the story 😭

I HOPE I ANSWERED THIS ONE RIGHT OH MY GOD I WROTE SO MUCH I M SO SORRY

18. if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

i don't keep them :( (i really went through each doc from fics i posted to search for it)

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

answered on another one so i'll copy and paste from there!

"for complementary i had to study a bit of physics so i could make all the flirty lines work. HOWEVER during your eyes only i went deep into the musical theater topic, especially Anastasia since it was mentioned in the request, and i had so much fun!!!"

25. besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

i'm not much of a hobby girlie ig... but i like playing valorant, watching random videos.. OH and taking pictures of the sky (especially the night skyyyy) or just the nature

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

ok i answered complementary for the other one but i'll give a honorable mention to i offer you my everything

[ijichi-nijika]

Warm - by Butterfly-Latte/Krispy Cat.

So this might be a bit strange, seeing a random game review from random tumblr user ijichi-nijika. I have wanted to have a list of games I play in general and to write down my thoughts, immediately upon finishing them. I apologize if this is strange, but I will put my thoughts below a drop down so you can simply skip past these if this isn't anything you wish to read.

However I will link to the game above my review with my own score, so people can read it for themselves proper without any spoilers, and an except from my review so you can get a general feel.

"As a person who has felt numb for a large portion of her life, I really connected to Warm. I really think its worth a read. Short and sweet, with tense moments. I really loved the characterization of Megumi a lot."

Score: 9/10.

When I randomly went through my downloads folder tonight looking for a few files before I went to bed, I didn't expect to stay up to read a visual novel. Let alone one that I think is genuinely good. I had gotten Warm from a bundle years ago, but never touched it since I had no idea what to play from said bundle at all. So, flash forward 4 years and now I have.

To describe Warm in one word, it would be - Healing. Warm takes place in a small town in what I assume is Japan, from context clues alone, and is centered around a 11 year old girl named Megumi. Megumi has gone through most of her life so far feeling, what I can only describe as numb. Unfeeling, lonely, depressed. This continues, until one day a transfer student named Hinata, moves in only a few blocks away from her. They, with some predictability, become friends, much to Megumi's confusion. And she outwardly expresses said confusion, on why anyone would even want to be around her. To which Hinata simply says "Because you're nice."

I won't go to further into too much detail, but the slow friendship that the two grow into warmed my heart a lot. Megumi, not easily understanding social cues, to Hinata's simple and quick solutions such as when she starts doing a hand gesture to show that she is joking. And the feelings beginning to grow into liking one another on both sides, made my heart feel extremely full. While the plot gets a tiny bit predictable, I do think for such a short visual novel, the detail and events that take place are still extremely well written, and felt real for the most part. Even the final act of the VN, while I could tell it was coming from a mile away, still felt impactful, at least to me. As a person who has been hurt before by people who simply were not in control of their emotions, I felt for what happens to Hinata in the final hour of the game.

The way that the game treats another character, Inoue, on the other hand, I don't like as much. In the first few acts I felt for the character. There was simple characterization to imply that she had some sort of social or learning disability. The game, doesn't make fun of this, and attempts to sympathize with her at least, a tiny bit. But I don't personally agree with her being the crux of why the final act happens as it does. Conflict is fine, I am all for it to make a better story, and mistakes also happen. But it didn't feel very good to hear that this character, after severely burning another character, is simply expelled from school and we never hear from her again. In fact, any plot point after the final argument of the game that involves discussing Inoue, just didn't feel good to me. I could tell, at least from my reading of the novel, that the character had a lot of jealousy, and needed help but couldn't vocalize it in a way or attempt to get the help in anyway that would possibly lower how people saw her, even if the other way was pushing every character to hate her. But once again, I am reading the feelings of children characters from my adult perspective, so perhaps I am reading too much into it.

The music, fits the game exceptionally well. The best way I could describe it is melancholic and at times, tense. There is at least one happy track in the game though, for the many scenes that warrant that. I think the score of the game really helped me get into how Megumi feels.

As a person who has felt numb for a large portion of her life, I really connected to Warm. Megumi's depression and general anxiety, to even her disconnect from how she can even perceive herself being so vastly different from reality? That's how I used to feel a lot. And sometimes I still do. I think while simple, the lens of numbness that the novel shows us from her lens is realistic, and not blown to proportion. And it made me think of how I've felt with others for most of my life, and how it could have possibly played out. Food for thought.

Warm is a really good yuri vn, with a heavy focus on relationships from the perspective of a young numb girl. And I think reading it, was probably extremely beneficial to myself. And not too many games nowadays really make me feel like that.

[aqualblue]

What are you art inspirations? Your style is so pretty and unique. Also could you tell me more about your OC's? Like what they do and their personalities?

tyyy hahahaehe!!

my main art inspiration is ennuigrl. I had almost quit drawing entirely until I spotted their acc on twitter and found my love for drawing all over again through simply viewing their art. I also Take a lot inspiration from Street Fighter, winx club, my little pony fim, dmc, guilty gear, mortal kombat, and Dragon Ball in style/character design !

Unique to my other characters, my winx club oc Lovera, and her two goons, Gaia and clover, are seperate entities in their own stories, as well as being the main part of my personal winx club x castlevania au

As for ocs, my main cast, (Tsuaki Family, Downtown trio: Brecken, Anna, Kaminari Nami) were first made in wizard101 when I used to play a lot, through drawing them they became their own ocs, and now I rotate them through fandom aus of fandoms im into. Anba's friend group/circle also consists of the extra Kotori (Cori, ditzy, clumsey, abscent minded), Karol (kind of a perv, tall, protects her friends), Caren(Sweet, some may think she's a mean girl but she's very kind), and Eris and Rhea(Reincarnations that come back easily any time they die, both untrustworthy shapeshifters) Currently my main focus and au for them, it's street fighter!! (and sometimes dmc/guilty gear)

I'll breakdown some of my main ocs below their personalities under the cut!!

Lovera: Lovera is one of my many completely inhuman ocs that appear human. Like an animal she wears bright colors and naturally has bright colors in her human/non human forms to indicate she's toxic. She's an ex fairy/fae, having had her wings permanently torn from her shoulder blades right at the root for aiding her father in destroying a large portion of the fairy realm and stealing dark magic for their own gain. She's gone on to become a dark sorceress, sort of self absorbed anti hero who doesn't meddle in the affiars of others. In the castlevania au, her personal isolation is due to her love not being reciprocated by Juste Belmont when he learns of her past. She eventually goes on to open up to Alucard however. As a fairy, she was "the fairy of the pale dragon heart", which just means the fairy of love

Anba: Anba is the one you see me draw the most, the stoic little critter with the headband/glasses. She's completely random, unpredictable, but can be quick to temper or resorting to violence when things go south. Despite her muscled body, she's very flexible, and able to fit herself inside small spaces which she enjoys. Her powers are paradoxial, meaning she can use two opposites at once (fire, ice, shadow, light, etc). Anba also has an obxnoious british twin cousin named Nokoribi who raised her when her elder three siblings and parents vanished for some time.

Paru: Paru is the only Tsukai sibbling born completely without the capeability to show that she's being malicious, even if she wanted to. She trusts everyone, ever, think how fluttershy is when thinking the best of everyone !. Paru often has no trouble making friends, or being nice, and like her name suggests, she has a pearl in her forehead, which is the only time such a neutral gem has been placed in a Tsukai family member. Paru and Anba were very close when Paru was alive.

Kessho [Tsukai]: Kessho almost NEVER emotes, Apart from sometimes smiling at her partner or her siblings. Kessho, Ame and armondo are all 55, so Kessho is very mature, cool headed, and well thought out. She's the most like Kage visually and fighting wise, having spider flexibility and powers, and able to shapeshift very well

Amejisuto & Armondo-Hisui: These two are practically the same person, like with Morrigan and Lilith. Both having nighttime related powers, Ame' is a sweet, motherly type who comes off airheaded but is actually very smart and cunning, whilst Armondo doesn't hide that he's a sly, sassy, kind of rude liar.

Turmeric: Turmeric is the eldest out of the paru, anba and himself tripletts. He's blank faced, rarely showing emotion outside of blank, and being annoyed or weirded out. He was originally anba's genderbend, but became his own character to me. His powers are light related, and he's Kessho's opposite.

Kage: Kage is an evil, disney step mother (except she's the bio mom) type of character, who is simply wearing the skin of a human she was born into the vessel as. She has a twin sister, who often stays out of the continent of Asia to avoid Kage. She's also in past of history, been known as the witch "Morgin Le Fay", and in the era of Japan when samurai's still fought dragons and evil yokai, "The ShiKage". She has an obsession with bugs, specifically arachnids and hates avians.

Anna(Sanari Gojo): Anna is very timid, shy, sweet. She doesn't go out of her way to be noticed but either due to Brecken and Nami, her friends, or her mentor, Anba, she ends up in trouble. Anna comes off as weak willed, but actually has very strong principle and is only shy and cowardly around people she cares about impressing. When it comes to evil people, albeit, in her terms, "bullies", she has a zero tolerance, and will beat the shit out of them. Her fighting style mixes karate and Gymnastics, and she has icy powers

Kaminari Nami: Nami is just a very unhinged girl and mistunderstood for it. She's very outgoing, sweet, and attentive to those around her. She enjoys girly things, not always clothes, but she owns lots of makeup and dolls. She's one of my only hatian ocs, the others being her mother, Mirlande, and her twin sister Masayoshi. Nami in general just really has lots of love to give and so comes off as intense when she tries to give it out. She learned to fight by wrestling Aligators in Jamaica where she was raised by an adopted big brother after her parents vanished ! Nami and her twin sister have storm/raging storms at sea powers, relating to their names

Brecekn: Brecken's your classic gangster and swindler. She's got a mysterious ability to talk anyone into any kind of deal or scam she's selling ha. In the street fighter au she has a bunch of fighters/boxers under her wing in her management company and takes a HUGE cut. She's cocky, but for good reason, as despite her size, she's a boxer/bear wrestler that packs a punch harder than being hit by a car. She has illusion based powers

[k2ntwo]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

A bunch of writers that I follow have already been tagged and responded @helloliriels @khorazir @7-percent @discordantwords @totallysilvergirl to name just a few. Now I have a few new things to read that I somehow missed the first time around as well as a bunch of old favorites to go and re-read. So much good fic is out there by so many talented writers!

In the spirit of adding to folk’s ever growing MFL list I’ll just pile onto the bandwagon with my answers as well.

 1.  How many works to you have on AO3?

56 although there are several collections of snippets that technically could be counted separately. On AO3 I'm KtwoNtwo.

2.  What’s your total AO3 word count?

496,860

3.  What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily Sherlock Holmes (most all iterations from ACD to Sherlock) and James Bond.  However, I dabble in a good number of other fandoms upon occasion.

4.  What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Metamorphosis

Conversations from Q-Branch

50 Reasons (The Q-Branch Edition)

A Rare Breed

Brothers Three

5.  Do you respond to comments?

Yes, even if its just a “I’m glad you liked it.”  The only ones I don’t respond to are the generic solicitations to join some random contest or fic publishing website.  Those get blocked and reported.

6.  What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Well, I don’t really write major angst but The Four Riders has got a bit as does the poem Gun in the Drawer though they both end on a hopeful note.

7.  What’s the Fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have happy endings but probably A Toast to the Science of Deduction resolves the happiest of the lot.

8.  Do you get hate on fics.

Nope.  Only got one anonymous troll alleging trademark infringement due to a title.  I fired back a factual rebuttal: basically "there is no book by that name by that author, there is no lawyer by that name, you didn’t provide contact information and btw trademark doesn’t work the way you allege" then added a set of quotation marks to the title.  Never heard anything more about it.

9.  Do you write smut?

I have but I’m not terribly good at it.  Most of the time the characters look at me then politely, or not so politely, shut the bedroom door in my face.

10.  Do you write crossovers?

Oh God Yes!  Technically I think I write fusions, where both fandoms end up in the same universe, as opposed to crossovers but I’m rather unclear on the difference between same so I tend to just call 'em crossovers and leave it at that. 

11.  Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I could find or prove.  I did have a couple of strange search results pop up with my use name and some fic titles attached but the websites all seem to be defunct now.

12.  Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

13.  Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No.

14.  What’s your favorite ship?

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson

15.  What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There’s a fic based on a song by Abney Park that I’ve got an outline for but it never seems to go anywhere.

16.  What are your writing strengths?

I can merge and/or crossover all sorts of different fandoms. 

17.  What are your writing weaknesses?

Typos and punctuation.  Being slightly dyslexic I can’t spot the former and I never know if I’m using commas correctly or not.

18.  Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I actively avoid doing so because I’d butcher it badly.

19.  First fandom you wrote for?

Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker.  I will admit that I wrote in my head, but never got around to put on paper, a number of Star Trek stories when I was significantly younger.

20.  Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I like all of them for different reasons.  The one I’m most proud of however is The Emerald Falls my Study in Emerald inspired ACD Fic.

I'd love to have some of the artists/podcasters respond to this with whatever modifications are necessary to fit the medium involved. Hours of podcast or number of artworks as opposed to number of words for example. @podfixx @bluebellofbakerstreet if you haven't responded to this thing already and I just missed it.

[onelastchorus]

things i love about the amphoreus story in 3.3

the random option to make the trailblazer read Cerces/Mnestia yuri. true self-insert moment for me

Phainon investing all his savings into "antique appraisals"?? lmao?? i love how this keeps coming up?? i know people love making white boy jokes about him but he makes it too easy

we're pushing the line on darkness here!! i mean, threats to kill a baby, our protagonist threatening to cut off tongues, suicide, entire civilizations being drowned in boiling gold, several on-screen deaths?? i was skeptical when trianne's body turned into a doll, but they meant business this patch. i respect it.

it's funny, last patch was probably the weakest one for me, partly because i didn't really connect to the council of elders plotline, but they kind of turned that around here. downsizing that enemy to mostly just Caenis and it being more of a pressure that shapes the narrative, rather than a plotline you have to slow the story to fit in worked much better for me.

i love Aglaea and Ciphers weird ass relationship!! they're really compelling as a duo and i could name so many moments where i was completely drawn into their dynamic which is especially impressive seeing how most of their interactions came through flashbacks. Cipher having to leave Okhema because she knew Aglaea would see through her lie and ruin the illusion keeping the world alive. Cipher taking the 'Zagreus boots' from Aglaea. the fact that both of them thought of each other right before they died. i'm obsessed with them.

one of my biggest worries coming into this patch was that the story was going to get trapped in the structure it established, with telling each banner character's story within the main plotline. i worried it would end up bogging down the flow of the narrative and that this patch would feel stilted in its attempt to tell Hyacine and Cipher's backstory, but i was proved wrong, especially with Cipher. while she felt a little cliché at times, overall i really loved her, how deep down she feels rather naive and earnest. the reveal that she had been holding Amphoreus is one of my favorite reveals this game has ever accomplished, it's so satisfying.

more Cipher, i'm realizing i loved her a lot more than i thought, but her and Bartholos' relationship!! the fact that Bartholos is literally Zagreus in disguise but Cipher talks to them like they're her stupid little brother or something is so amusing. also their singing was adorable

the whole Zagreus/Bartholos deal in general. that VA kicked ass whatever they got paid wasn't enough.

the way this game is teasing Hysilens to me is killing me. i don't care if she's dead I Need Her. i love how the new Styxia readable found in the quest makes her come across as some mysterious siren being. such a contrast to the depiction of Phagousa.

okay, i've already seen some people complain about Aglaea not getting a proper death cutscene like other characters, but i really like the way her death was handled. i mean, first of all i love when a story does what it says, and Aglaea saying she wishes for her body to not be exposed to the public, and that's exactly what they did. i appreciate that. plus, it's not like her death wasn't a plot point. it was a huge part of the entire patch and you clearly saw how it affected everyone involved, which we only really saw for the first death of Amphoreus, Trianne. Aglaea is one of my favorite Amphoreus characters i was pleased with her place in this patch. HOWEVER... can we expand on her mommy issues? i'd like to do that please.

Phainon successfully getting a crowd to chant about becoming better people is incredibly amusing to me

i always love the CGs in this game and this patch is no different. it's such a smart way to mix up the visuals, especially in long quests like these and the art is always stunning

PHAINON IMAGINING HIS FAREWELLS TO ALL HIS FRIENDS!! (i love how this is kind of a theme, with Mydei returning to Castrum Kremnos to visions of his comrades and Cipher having visions of Aglaea before her death as well.)

Castorice giggling in Hyacine's classroom flashback.. what a sweetie. i love her

Hyacine and Dan Heng clearly having formed a friendship somewhat off-screen... so sweet.

the bigger emphasis on Dan Heng's connection to water.. that's my moses dragon egg lizard baby!

Cipher being jealous(?) of Tribbie and Aglaea's treatment of Phainon, jokingly or not. tfw you're ten years old and your parents are deciding to have a new baby. also i wish i recorded it but Cipher's VA's delivery on being "past the age" for someone to look after her caught me so off guard i cackled. i appreciate how her VA isn't scared to get a little weird and silly with it

if Georios' successor really is/was a mountain dweller i am dreading how they make that a playable character

i love the small scene between Hyacine and her grandmother.. so sweet and such a good way to immediately get me a little attached

every time there's a March 7th mention i clap. that's my baby. honkai star rail's golden child. as she should be.

seriously though i love how we keep emphasising how much of a unit Dan Heng, March 7th and the Trailblazer are and how much they talk about her/miss her when they're away. trio of all time.

there's a complaint to be made about the Aquila ploy focusing more on Seliose than Hyacine, but i don't know if i want to be the one to make it. i think there's something to be said about emphasizing that there is a long history to this flame-chase journey and more people than just the current chrysos heirs contributed to it, so i liked getting a close up of a chunk of history

"the more she despised Aquila, the more some began to worship her in the same way the previous generations had worshipped Aquila - except for the wording of their mottoes, nothing really differed." i love this plotline. was not expecting going into this quest that it was gonna have a randomly banger allegory for human nature but okay. thanks. also this entire arc is just so well-executed imo. its horrific, but also sympathetic, but also beautiful i love it. i think the misdirect of what seems like a typical narrative, the destined demigod of sky believed to be the descendant of both clans of skyfolk, when really her entire family survived on the whim of a woman worshipped as a god.

why tf is there a painting in skyloft that looks like Tayzzyronth. fuck this game.

also why the hell do Solabis and Lunabis say they recognize phainon's sword??? in what situation did they meet the flame reaver??

also the whole concept of a Seliose's story being a false myth.. they're enigmata baiting me.

AQUILA FIGHT WAS SO FUCKING SICK... lowkey best boss design in the game i think. all the music and cutscenes ohhhh so peak

the fakeout with Aglaea's death prophecy!! so good!!!!!

Phainon's VA did so great this patch. ngl, i had my doubts in the first couple patches but they were incredible here. truly kephale's successor the way he was carrying some of these scenes on his back.

Aquila's final death cutscene where their body makes the infinity shape of Amphoreus.. cinema.

more Cipher appreciation, her death scene is fantastic. her visions of Aglaea broke my fucking heart i was tearing up.

i miss march 7th so bad. i miss her. where is she.

the vases that Cipher leaves behind with her tricks looking like Greek Amphora.. i love a visual pun.

the way everything so rapidly falls to shit in this last act is just incredible. the tension is so real

i think one of my favorite things about this patch is how it ties up NPC arcs. the the reveal that Hyacine saved Krateros even though he was the one who killed her grandmother, his presence in this patch was so good.

AND DAN HENG TOO!! he gets a little arc moment too. i love him, i'm really looking forward to how his personal story continues to play out in Amphoreus.

the Phainon conversation at the end having a callback to "when you have a chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret." i was just clapping and cheering at this point.

lygus mysteriousness. at first he seemed pretty cut and dry but atp i feel like there's multiple arguments that can be made for his origin/path. he's referred to as an intellitron and said he has 'basked in erudtion', but his design has total equilibrium vibes, he randomly says hes "voraciously consuming" the deeds of Amphoreus, ect. i feel this also applies to the entirety of Amphoreus. i've been a Mythus truther and i still can't let go of the idea of a fourth path in Amphoreus being the Enigmata, but you can really make that argument for so many paths. so much room for theory crafting.

tbh i have a hard time giving credit to the things that i love and am interested and especially w hsr being a gacha game its easy to tell yourself its trash and its just a guilty pleasure but like. this was good. it's not perfect, but it was good and i loved it. yipee

[snowiwyvern]

hey chat. its me. trigun splatposting again. this post is more about the weapons hehehehehe :3 (and a bit about inkfish religion)

time to smash together the ridiculous weapons from trigun and the also ridiculous but in a different way splatoon weapons

ok so. splatoon weapons usually take inspo from everyday objects, for ex. the splatana wiper being inspired by windshield wipers. trigun weapons have a completely different aesthetic and could plausibly be actual guns. also the weapons handles and triggers would have to be chunkier, because of big inkfish hands. if this aesthetic difference is kept intact, it can lead to a contrast between weapons in inkadia and the weapons in no mans land. the weapons in trigun also actually have bullets, unlike splatoon weapons that spray ink. bullets are a pretty big part of trigun, like being used to pose with, the fact that theyre limited being apart of the story at points, and vashs revolver being so iconic. so instead of just ink, they have ink bullets instead! woo! theyd just look like the typical fictional bullets with a liquid in them, like the ink showing through a little clear window on the bullet lol. oh yeah. and they like burst into ink on impact too btw

as a lore explanation, ink bullets developed because weapons that spray ink everywhere were deemed as being inefficient in no mans land. sand absorbs water, and would do similarly to ink. it would just stain the sand, then the winds would hide that color pretty quickly (random thought, because of that, some inhabitants use colored sand for decor). so its just a bit of a waste, and cant be used to hold territory and travel faster like in game. this would also make it so the weapon types that tend to spray ink everywhere or dont use bullets arent common in no mans land, like rollers, sloshers, splatanas and stringers

so time to talk about the two easiest weapons to convert into splatoon logic. millys stun gun and meryls derringers. im not turning them into the closest equivalent splatoon has, more just applying splatoon rules to them. however i am adding sub weapons that i think would fit them :3 they might get changed a little to fit more into no mans land and what the characters need them to do

millys stun gun firmly falls into being splatling, however it has a much slower rate of fire than most splatlings. her bullets are unique to be more like the ones in canon and dont really carry that much ink in them, just enough to catch the person she shot at off guard. taking inspo from when milly was given the tracker, her sub weapon is point sensor

next meryl, whos derringers are a bit harder to place. while they could work as shooters, i think them being dualies fits better. them being dualies also makes it so she can dodge and zoom around. she gets two dodge rolls, and with each of them having a single shot, her dodge rolls are mostly used to switch to new loaded derringers. her sub weapon is toxic mist; my logic for this is that milly and meryl would use them to get out of sticky situations

and now, its vash's turn! his gun is definitely a shooter, however, its also a revolver. with the revolver part of the gun, it makes me think of the snipewriter. i dont think it impacts the gun at all except for maybe having a similar reticle a snipewriter would have, just a random thought. for his sub weapon nothing jumps out to me immediately, but it is definitely not one thats main purpose is causing harm. im thinking of a splash wall, which he can use to break up fights and block shots.

next. the angel arm. in splatoon, it would be considered a special weapon, and one that he would immediately have on hand instead of being found through a can or packet like during campaigns and salmon run. now, since these two are zapfish instead of plants, they dont get the angel arm being themed after angels. while im hesitant to change the name, the angel arm would be more themed after catfish, have fins instead of angel wings, maybe catfish framing it. it would also have more mechanical bits, due to not being an organic weapon like the canon angel arm. the zapfish cant generate things and instead power generating machines with electricity, if yall dont remember me saying that in my last post. yk now that im thinking about, it would be kind of funny to call it the fish arm, or maybe the zap arm. fish arm is funny, but zap arm is cooler

and, finally, wolfwood. ive been putting him off till the end, because of a reason i think is a bit obvious. his character, and by extension the punisher, is influenced a lot by catholicism. according to this post, there is some christian influence in splatoon, but it appears to come more from inkfish finding it neat if anything. the book of madai, which very obviously takes inspo from christianity and is based on the bible, is just much more popular in no mans land than in other parts of the world. since the book of madai isnt a major part of splatoon, it doesnt have that much in depth lore with it as it was just used for prophecising big run occurring. that means that i can go wild with it, and keep the catholic influence from trigun intact. squid catholicism real lets go

okay, now onto wolfwood fr. punisher would also be a splatling like millys stun gun, however it would have a rapid fire rate. his sub weapon is a bit more complicated. the laser on the other side is similar to a sting ray, but it doesnt quite meet the same criteria to be its own unique special like vashs angel arm. so, im going to say that he doesnt have a sub weapon, and it was sacrificed for him to have a not quite up to special standard sting ray integrated into the punisher. the sting ray also has to be charged like in turf war instead of being a canned special, so he tends to use it sparingly so its charged when needed

anyways. im eepy, and thinking hard about trigun inkfish ig

[respectthepetty]

i just wanted to thank you for your color theory stuff because it's really helped me with my character design and my understanding of visual language. it's helped me deepen the way my characters interact, for example one of my characters is a purple pal (person?) but the gang he's in is red, showing that though there are parts of him that fit with the gang most of him doesn't. and i wouldn't have been able to come up with that if you hadn't opened my eyes to the possibilities.

i do have a question though have you ever encountered a blue boy/beauty and a green guy/gal before? (i've been calling it a turquoise twosome lmao) what do you think that dynamic would look like?

Anon, I'm so happy my random posts were helpful to you! The story you are designing sounds beautiful, and I'm not just writing that because you are using colors to support your narrative. I love when people create art of any kind, and purple is a luxurious color that I feel is underused even for characters who are wealthy, so I'm glad you are using it for one of your characters.

Also, you can call color-coded people whatever you want. I just like alliteration (the same sound at the beginning of words), so Purple Person is my pick, but all that really matters is that you see the colors because that means I'm doing my job as a color demon.

Now, to your ask -

As a resident of the Southwest, I LOVE that you labeled a Green Guy x Blue Boy pair as a Turquoise Twosome. I hadn't thought of a name for them, but now I'm using yours. THANKS! I'm kissing your forehead with my squash blossom necklace on as a token of my appreciation. Hope it doesn't hit you in the face. These things are heavy!

And another reward for you - Turquoise Twosomes exist . . . mainly in Korea, and a bit in Japan.

Thailand finally entered into this specific color-coded fight this year after years of the Blue x Red dynamic, but normally, all countries regularly color code the female best friend as a Green Gal because they are jolly, laid-back, and non-threatening, which is perfect for a girl in a BL.

However, Korea tends to like Turquoise Twosomes because the Blue Boy is introverted, stand-offish, and smart while the Green Guy is extroverted, charismatic, and persistent. It's the perfect cat x dog energy.

I believe that this stems from Korea's het-romances where the two leading men are each coded blue and green while the female lead is a Red Rascal who must pick between the two. Korea just cut out the middle (wo)man and let the men finally kiss in its BLs.

I greatly enjoy this pairing. Even when the pair aren't truly those colors, if they pop up in them at the same time, my heart flutters a bit.

So, yeah, the green and the blue ARE dating, and one of them is really excited about it, and the other one is slightly concerned.

[clemmenthyme]

This is so random, but as I just got out of English class, I really just can’t keep it in.

English classes are failures.

More specifically, English essays are failures.

To this day, in every English class I’ve taken, I’ve read Shakespeare. (So, already, we’re off to a bad start. Nobody will ever convince me he is not the most boring author in the world.) And in every single class, when the time came to write an essay, I’d be presented with a list of potential topics to write about.

Usually, there’s about six of them. Two or three would be on some short stories we read over a certain time period, and the others would all be potential topics on the one Shakespeare.

Wonderful.

There is something horribly upsetting about the fact I’m being asked to write my opinion, with proof, when my “opinion” is just me lying to fit within the topics my teacher cares to read about.

“Discuss how Othello is so sad” no. I want to discuss how Othello is a little bitch who, even in the end, didn’t hold himself accountable for his own stupidity. How all it took was two to three days to have him completely lose faith in his wife, and murder her, and how none of the characters seemed important outside of their eight second roles. And then they call it a tragedy. Yeah, it’s tragic that I had to actually spend time reading it.

Regardless of that, however, I think it’s just stupid how an English class is about learning to coherently and intelligently present your thoughts through an essay… without really ever letting me represent anything I actually had an opinion on. And teachers will say “it’s not a criticism piece”. Like, hon, I’m not criticising it. It’s just… my opinion is that the story sucked. I read it, analysed it, and found it deeply lacking.

“Write about how The Road was a masterpiece and perfectly illustrated a lawless world through its grammatical errors” no. I thought the book was boring, and I ended up with many headaches reading it due to the lack of commas. Like, how about you let me write about what I want? Maybe I want to discuss how the imagery affects the way a person feels about the book, and how not naming your characters creates a genuine inability to empathise with the characters. And how that’s a really good tool for the novel.

How am I supposed to be a good writer if the only skill I’m developing… is how to bullshit well enough to appease your fragile little brain? I’m sorry I thought Of Mice and Men was better than your fav’s novel. I genuinely don’t understand what’s so horrible about letting students write what they think about what they read. I’m supposed to express my genuine ideas, how I analysed the text… but I’m not. I’m limited to the six things you thought up for me.

So yeah. Fuck Shakespeare. And the English curriculum (at least where I’m from).

(Sorry to any Shakespeare stans out there, but it really is what it is. I just.. am incapable of liking what he writes. Props to you for sticking with it though.)