#or thinking about how i would have told it different or just like brainstorming fun 'what if' scenarioes

[chiiroptereh]

[Please zoom in, there's a lot of detail! And a massive file size...ouch]

Hi guys, long time no post! Been working on Art Fight and life stuff, but I've got something kinda fun for you.

This is a compilation exploring how a mortal Bill may interact with our world if there were still some kinda Euclidean instincts buried in there. Y'know, before the Book of Bill ruins all my headcanons >:P (EDIT: IT HAS BEEN READ. YAHOOOOOO)

Also quite an experimental piece as you can probably tell. Lots of details on both said headcanons and the art stuff under the cut, but I invite you to study the colorful texture yourself beforehand and think about what it might be representative of, just for fun because I got some really cool answers from my friends when asked :]c

TL;DR: the headcanon is that Euclideans have exceptional eyes for geometry. They find things like symmetry, tessellating patterns, graphs and fractals very aesthetically pleasing. If pushed into our 3D world, they feel comforted by the familiarity flat objects/spaces bring, as well as high-contrast patterns. Shadows especially are a familiar dimensional reduction that may bring them much comfort.

Bill would surely not be happy about these inclinations, constant reminders of a past long gone, but I'm not sure he's even aware of them here :P I think his ego gets in the way to the point where he just views these interests as common sense, which, of course, us lame humans just don't understand because we aren't nearly as cool as him. Of course he likes perfectly symmetrical leaves and staring at the kitchen floor, it's called taste, look it up!

And yet, he can't seem to shake the strange sense of melancholy he gets from viewing his own shadow.

~ End of TL;DR, long version below! ~

🔺 Headcanon Development

So, the catalyst of this idea was in relation to my friend and I's AU ( @love-triangles-au ). TL;DR, Bill's brought back mortal, meets another triangle named Y.V. (it's his hand holding the paper in the piece, actually), at some point they fall in yaois together, you know how it is. And, in writing a pair of triangles (or, more broadly, writing from the perspective of a different species), something I've had to consider was that you really can't get much further removed from a human being than sentient geometry.

The anatomical aspect was mostly figured out (see my piece on Bill's eye-mouth), but I wanted to consider what psychological differences might be at play. I wanted them to be weirder, more alien, double-so for Bill. At first I explored these possibilities through the lens of Bill and Y.V.'s relationship, specifically the question "what might a triangle find appealing about another triangle?"

Well, really the only things that came to mind were straight lines and symmetry, anything related to the geometric form of such a creature. That's more-or-less where that ended until the thought struck me that there's no reason this aesthetic appreciation couldn't extend to the rest of the environment, and then further when I realized, "wait, this is a species that is designed to live in a 2D environment. Like, they should seriously be really weird. I need to push this like 200% more."

So...yeah! I did some thinking and brainstorming with others and came up with a pretty long list of things a Euclidean in our world may be inclined to enjoy or find some level of comfort in. It's worth noting again that in this piece specifically this is a mortal/powerless Bill, so he can't really escape this Earthly environment. IF he's aware of these instincts at all (and that's a big "if"; when have you last been cognizant of your own instincts let alone known where they were stemming from?) I think he'd have snuffed them out in immortality and/or purposefully gone against them; he doesn't take kindly to being told what to do.

In order from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, here's an explanation for each!:

Flat objects such as paper are something he may find particularly engaging. It's basically 2D!

Tessellations are especially fascinating, and our world has them everywhere in the form of tile floors. Symmetry and such a predictable pattern...as the infinity of the starry sky might for us, the infinite potential of tessellations might invoke a similar sense of awe in him. Add on the maximum contrast of black on white kitchen tiles and the forms are only even better defined! A sensitivity to contrast would be very helpful for a 2D being navigating their environment.

Fields are flat and open, much like Euclydia itself. Laying flat may make him feel a little more at home.

More tessellation in the honeycomb of hymenopterans (bees, wasps and friends)! It helps that pain is hilarious.

The city is an absolute treasure trove. Rectangular buildings, precise architecture, square sidewalks and straight lines abound...he may as well be looking at a rainbow or an art gallery! I think a Euclidean's brain is very fine-tuned to mathematics, especially in regards to trigonometry. What may appear to be a straight painting might appear obnoxiously crooked to him.

Zebras are high-contrast :]

Another flat surface, another relaxing space <3

I think graphs are about as high as high art gets to most Euclideans.

I've touched on shadows before, and for good reason; truly they must be something borderline magical to the Euclidean and perhaps bitterly nostalgic.

This one kinda speaks for itself. Dweeb.

🎨 The Artsy Stuff

Lately I've been trying to find ways to fit more color into my work, as color is perhaps one of my favorite things in the world. My wardrobe is rather garish; my dad jokes that you could see me from space. My fursona is obnoxiously bright for a reason -- I feel my soul is a very colorful one!

I also realized recently that I don't actually know the exact style that speaks to me. I could talk about the phenomenon of the "style crisis" that many artists have all day, but in my mind the best cure for this feeling is to go against it entirely and begin stealing as much as possible.

So, I've tried to keep an eye out for more sources of inspiration everywhere I go, physical and digital. I've tried to train my mind into making a habit of considering, "can I do anything with this?" everywhere I go, and it recently paid off!

The glittery rainbowy texture you see plastered all over Billiam is this one, a photo-manipulated set of fruit stickers. I must confess I've been obsessed with this image for the past 72 hours, and this seemed like a good excuse to try it out!

I worried throughout the process if it might be so abstract that it loops back around to being horribly deliberate, if that makes sense -- like each sparkle was not a piece of a whole but rather an object in itself -- but it seems like that hasn't been a problem, so I'm grateful for that :Dc

I hope it can dazzle and delight you as it does me, but as long as you find it fascinating at the very least then I consider it a success! I really enjoyed hearing my friends' interpretations while workshopping it, and got tons of amazing answers from opal to kaleidoscope to fossilized bone marrow! I truly believe that the best art has some room for interpretation and it really excites me to be surrounded by that kind of creative energy that follows said pieces. That definitely adds to my pride in this work. It's weird, it's colorful, it's detailed and yet ambiguous. I'm feeling pretty autistic about it

Alright, I think that's about it. Thanks for listening!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

This one is so long I'm putting most of it under a readmore to save your dash

Anonymous asked:

AITA for stabbing a kid?

(this is less Am I The Asshole and more Was I The Asshole, bc it's really just a story from high school that I - as an adult in my mid-20s - was remembering recently and thought could be fun to toss to The People in as objective of a form as I can. anyways, all names are 100% made up to replace actual names, and everybody involved ends the story safe and alive)

I (16ish F then, 20s NB now) was trying to prep for an upcoming speech and debate tournament (yes, I was insufferable as a teen) with a group of other students in our debate coach's classroom. specifically, I was working with a younger student, Tammy (14ish F then), on understanding this specific type of debate (LD for my fellow insufferable teens out there) and brainstorming with her on some of the main components of her own case. as we were trying to work, another student, Tony (15ish M then), kept butting in to pester Tammy, making it impossible for Tammy or me to focus. in hindsight, I'm like 74% sure Tony had a bit of a crush on Tammy in that moment and expressed that feeling by being an annoying little shit towards her (as teens often do). that was at least how I would characterize the general vibe of Tony's actions and how he seemed to really need Tammy to be paying total attention to him. from my perspective and based on my basically decade-long memory at this point, Tammy (maybe?) asked him to leave her alone. she at least seemed frustrated and annoyed with him, or just generally flustered in a way I read uncomfortable. (take all this with a grain of salt here bc, regardless of how Tammy really felt, I was for sure super annoyed and that fact would almost certainly impact my interpretation and memory of the situation.)

idk if any teen girls out there (former, current, or future) have tried to teach or learn while a teen boy is flirt-bugging you or the person you're with, but it got old real fast for me. so, almost immediately, I asked Tony to knock it off so me and Tammy could work. he refused and kept bugging her. I continued to tell him to quit and he continued to ignore me, and this went on for a while. so, as one does, I figured it was time to threaten him with physical violence. I told him that if he didn't back off and let Tammy work, that I would stab him.

now, to give a bit of context for what the fuck I was thinking in that moment, I had learned a particular lesson earlier in my time as a supposed teenage girl dealing with supposed teenage boys in the 2000s-2010s: don't make threats you aren't willing to follow through on. so when I threatened to stab him, I 100% meant it. to provide a tad more context, I did also have a bit of a casually violent streak in high school for this reason (but maybe those stories are for a different AITA submission at another time, but they were all in a similar vein as this one in terms of cause and severity). also, does it help or hurt to add this was in a rural public high school in Texas? either way. to be fair to Tony, that's still undoubtedly a deeply unhinged and disproportionate thing to actually do, but would be a semi-common hyperbolic empty threat to make as a teen to another teen.

as you can assume based on the title here, Tony did not quit despite these threats. so, true to my word, after us arguing back and forth for a bit more, I stabbed him in the arm with the pen I was holding. he was obviously upset (to be clear, it did hurt him but did not injure him to the best of my knowledge beyond leaving a light mark for a bit of time that afternoon*) and he complained about having been stabbed. I said I warned him repeatedly that I would stab him before I actually did, to which he replied that that was an insane thing to actually do (fair enough, ya know?). the teacher was in the room, but if she saw any of this she ignored it. tbh, I don't see how she could have not noticed a kid loudly complaining about having been stabbed by another kid. so, I assume she chose to ignore it, possibly bc I was a bit of a teacher's pet (ie. president of the speech and debate team she was the coach of (I told you I was insufferable)). actually, now that I think about it, that was not the only time I stabbed another kid in her classroom in almost identical circumstances... maybe we are both TA....

anyways, in conclusion:

reasons I think I'm NTA: he was being an annoying dick to the friend I was mentoring at the time, and I did warn him that I'd stab him if he didn't quit being an annoying dick several times before actually following through (and it was only with pen and did no serious harm, but I think it does still count as assault regardless (?) and also I love the classic AITA storytelling technique of Being Dramatic, so feel free to ignore this point and *any other times I brought up that he was ultimately okay when considering how you wanna vote).

reasons I think I'm TA: I mean... I fuckin' stabbed a kid just bc he was being annoying and I fully got away with it bc the teacher liked me, plus I was a repeat offender of doing lowkey violence like this in response to other kids being Kinda Annoying and Shitty™. pestering other people on purpose bc you possibly have a crush on them is a very normal thing for a teen to do. stabbing another teen with a writing utensil just bc they did so though?... perhaps not.

(also, as an endnote: just to be clear, I do not stab teens at all in any context whatsoever since growing up. out of AITA-writing-character here, I think I was a kid who was just sick of guys around me crossing boundaries and dealt with that in a myriad of very unhealthy ways that were also informed by my general redneck upbringing that - understandably or not - sometimes saw some violence as a valid way to assert personal boundaries if it seemed they weren't being respected. that doesn't make it okay and is not at all a defense against being TA in this story, just trying to assure folks that regardless of whether you think I was TA I am now also a somewhat well adjusted adult who at least channels their overwhelming fury into organizing/activism stuff and mutual aid rather than stabbing annoying teenagers. while this isn't some stressful conflict that I feel torn up about or anything even close to that, I am interested to see what folks think, so thanks for reading if the mod(s) found all this worthy of posting for y'all!)

What are these acronyms?

[sentientgolfball]

Hi! So I was possibly wondering if you could do a lil something where reader is someone who is easily flustered and has a massive and I mean GIANT crush on the newly summoned ghoul, phantom. (Because I am totally normal about phantom) and little does reader know phantom also has this little massive giant crush as well and they are both like dancing around each other, and the other ghouls are like sick of their shit. Just like fluff fluff fluff ya know? I believe phantom deserves the best and I just wanna stare lovingly at him and memorize every little detail like a totally sane person :D

I’m so sorry that was kinda long 😭

I was already brainstorming when you sent the second one and I thought “oh this is PERFECT” >:]] hehehehe

Have some fluffy New Year’s party ghoul stuff

“What’s that?”

“It’s eyeliner.”

“Why’s it in like a bottle? Rory and Rain told me it’s a pencil.”

“I like the liquid more. I think it’s easier to use.”

Phantom makes a little ‘oh’ sound at your explanation. You try not to smile as you bring the tip of the brush to your eye. You can see Phantom staring at you with rapt attention through the mirror. His tail flicks every so often causing his piercings to jingle.

You were in the middle of getting ready for the New Year’s party that the Ministry decided to host, though it was more of an excuse to make sure the Siblings were starting the year right with a night full of sin than to actually celebrate the passage of time. Phantom had slinked into your room when he spied you doing your makeup through the crack of your door. He scared the shit out of you at first, but when they sat down on your little stool with a quiet purr, completely absorbed with everything you were doing, you couldn’t send them away. Well that and the absolutely massive crush you had on them. You thought it was a little silly, stereotypical, to fall head over heels for the new ghoul, but his sweet voice and never ending energy enthralled you. Luckily as a Sibling turned techie you were able to spend time with them without making it obvious.

“Can you give me that?”

They pick up the bottle of setting spray and hand it to you, fingers brushing against yours. You can feel the prickle of heat on your cheeks as you turn away from him. You close your eyes and spritz yourself a few times.

“What do you think?” You ask turning back towards him.

They stare at you with big round eyes for what seems like hours and you feel a gnawing deep in your gut.

“You’re so…it’s really sparkly” they smile so wide you can see every little fang.

“I thought the gold eyeshadow would be a fun touch.”

“I really really like it” his tail wags behind him.

“Want me to do yours?”

Their ears perk up “really!? You’d do that!”

“Of course I would Phant. Since you like it so much.”

He nods his head so it makes you laugh.

“Alright okay. Go get ready and we’ll go from there.”

They jump up so fast they almost fall over. Phantom runs out the door, throwing a little wave over his shoulder. While you wait for him to come back you sort through your supplies trying to come up with a good look for him. You tossed a few ideas around, but all of them fell through when you thought about the tone of his purple gray skin. All except one. You were hesitant to do it, you didn’t want there to be any assumptions, but you knew the same gold you used for yourself would look even better on him.

He came back faster than you thought, though, leaving with no time to think of a different look. He’s in a simple black button down with a gold tie undone around his neck. Now you really couldn’t pick a different color for them.

“Have you ever had your makeup done before?” You ask motioning for him to sit back on the little stool.

“Rory likes to try new things on me” he grins “and Rain’s been showing me how to do it myself!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! I really like it. It makes me feel pretty.”

You’re gorgeous

You bite your tongue and grab a spare headband. You gently brush his hair out of his face before putting it on him. He closes his eyes as you reach for the piles of brushes and pallets.

You stare at them as you work, taking in every detail of their face. You memorize every little branch of his lichtenberg figure scars. The slight sparkle to his skin you’d only ever notice this close up. The way his nose randomly twitches.

You memorize the feel of his face. The soft fuzz that covers his skin. The slight bump of the scars. The little buzz of quintessence just below the surface.

You pull your brush away from his eye and just look at him. He’s gorgeous to you with his eyes closed and a tiny little smile on his face. For just a moment you think about what it would be like to kiss them. You wonder if their lips would be as soft as their face. You wonder if they’d taste like the ozone that follows them. You wonder if they’d even kiss you back.

“Can I open?”

“Not yet” you fluster “I gotta do the other eye. Was just making sure you're symmetrical” You shake your head a little and then get back to work.

“There now I’m finished. Take a look.”

They open their eyes and look at the mirror. They gasp. His tail wags so hard it hits you in the leg.

“We you made us match! It’s so cool!”

“Yeah” you laugh at him “I thought the gold would look best on you and it’s a good thing I went with it” you gesture to the tie hanging loosely around his neck.

“Huh” they look down “oh! I forgot about that. Could uh…help me? I don’t know how, Cirrus does it for me.”

You turn him to face you, helping him tie it. You smooth your hands over his shoulders before turning him back towards the mirror.

“How’s that?”

He pulls you into a hug, rocking you a little.

“I love it so much. Thank you thank you thank you for doing this for me.”

You stare into the reflection as Phantom hugs you tight. The first thing you notice is how red you look. The second is how well your outfit and Phantom’s work together. Add that with your now matching makeup and it was almost like you were going to the party with them. Almost.

“We should go to the party together!”

What…

“What?”

He lets go of you “I think it would be fun!”

“Aren’t you uh aren’t you going with the other ghouls?”

“Well I mean yeah technically but we should still do it!”

Calm down and use your words you fool!

“Yes! Yeah you’re right it would be fun. Let’s do it.”

They trill and hug you again so hard they lift you a little into the air. You think your back cracks.

The party is held in the main chapel. The pews stored who knows where to turn the unholy space into the perfect ballroom. You used to hear stories of the fantastic balls that were thrown in the Ministry in honor of the Dark Lord, now that same place is filled with ghoul and human alike dancing, drinking, grinding with each other.

You and Phantom hang near one of the tables, neither of you wanting to jump right into the crowd. You grab some punch for you both, blissfully unaware that it’s been spiked by a certain Dewdrop and Sunshine ghoul. You sip and chat about whatever comes to mind. You also have to briefly explain to Phantom the concept of New Years from a human perspective.

“You’re forgetting the most important part dear Sibling” Swiss saunters over to where you and Phantom stand.

You raise an eyebrow.

“You forgoooot to tell them you have to kiss someone when it’s midnight” he wiggles his eyebrows at Phantom.

“Kiss someone?”

“Yeah it’s just some silly tradition that people do. Something about setting the tone for the rest of the year.”

“Silly” Swiss clutches his chest like he’s been wounded “What’s silly about wanting to start the year with some loooove.”

You briefly wonder how many drinks Swiss has had already.

“I have to kiss someone?”

“No Phant you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Nobody is gonna make you.”

In an instant Swiss seems to sober up “Sibling, do you mind if I borrow him for a moment?”

“Of course not. I’ll be right here when you’re done with him.”

Swiss grins and grabs Phantom by the arm dragging him along. You crane your neck to see them to the opposite side of the room where Mountain and Cumulus are standing. Suddenly you wish you had ghoul senses or the ability to read lips as you watch the very animated conversation. Cumulus’ eyes flick over accidentally catching yours. Swiss elbows her and laughs, turning back towards the conversation.

You feel yourself go red. They were definitely talking about you. What could they possibly be talking about? Had you done something? Were they upset that Phantom went with you?

You notice Phantom glancing back over at your table and they’re practically glowing. No wait, they were glowing. The lichtenberg scars are lit up with quintessence. They looked nervous.

You decide maybe it would do you good to get some air. The heat from the party and whatever the hell was in your drink was making you feel fuzzy. You leave through one of the back doors of the chapel that thankfully weren’t locked. It spits you out into the courtyard. You sit on one of the stone benches and stare up at the twinkling stars.

“Hi.”

You jump hearing Phantom’s voice.

“Hi.”

You don’t look at him. You continue to gaze at the sky. He sits next to you on the bench.

“Whatcha doing?”

“Thinking.”

“About what?”

You

“Life. How lucky I was to join the Ministry and do something I’m passionate about. How excited I am to see what the year has for us.”

“Us?”

You feel that prick on your skin and your mind telling you to backpedal, come up with an excuse, but you don’t. A nice feeling of warmth has spread through your body and you feel relaxed. You feel your nerves melt.

“I mean…you’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so there’ll be plenty of us in the new year. We can hang out more.”

“You wanna hang out with me?”

“Phant of course I do! You’re so sweet! And silly! I just never know what to say.”

It’s silent for a beat.

“You know I can read thoughts, right?”

You don’t say anything. You don’t know what to say.

“When someone touches me I can feel their thoughts.”

Oh. OH.

He reaches his hand out, hesitating for a moment. When you don’t try to shift away they place their hand on yours. You turn and look at them and you see the universe looking back. You don’t know if it’s the drinks, some freaky quintessence magick, or something else but everything feels honey slow. Your eyes trace the features you were so enamored with when they were in your room.

Scars

Fuzz

Nose

Lips

Under the glow of the pale moonlight you can practically see every constellation in those little, discrete sparkles of his skin. Their mouth moves and all you can think about is kissing them. He can feel it. He repeats himself, shifting closer to you.

“I think I like you.”

You kiss him. You can’t think of anything to do. It’s all your mind can focus on. It’s soft and sweet and he tastes like frost covered apples and ozone. You feel that buzz of quintessence rise and pop in the air. It feels warm. It feels like coming home and seeing people you haven’t in years. It feels like cuddling under a new blanket. It feels like the first sip of a warm drink after playing in the snow.

When the kiss breaks you keep your foreheads pressed together. You can feel him smile before laughter fills the courtyard. He kisses you again and again and again. The Ministry bell tower rings out and they pull you in and kiss you long and deep, not letting go until the chimes fall silent.

“I hope I did it right. Is it breaking the rules to do it before midnight?” he whispers.

“Even if it was, I wouldn't care. As long as you promise more for the whole year.”

“Deal” he giggles

“Happy new years Phantom” you kiss him again.

[smolwritingchick]

Smol Brainstorm/drabble: ARMY, I'm OK!

Author's note: For the request of Jennie doing a live to reassure ARMY she's ok after the boys enlist. Brainstorming.

------

'Lisaaaa have you heard from BTS' Jennie?!'

'When was the last time you hung out with BTS Jen?'

'I miss Miss Bangtan and your cute photos with her. Is she ok?'

Blackpink's Lisa read the many comments from ARMY on her Instagram Live regarding Jennie. She smiled and spoke, "Jennie is OK. I hope she posts again soon. I hung out with her a few weeks ago."

----------

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Lisa: ARMY was on our Instagram Live asking about you. Hope you're doing OK! Luv uuuuuu! Call me when you're free!

Seated on the couch of her apartment she shared with Jungkook, Jennie read Lisa's message in surprise. This was the 5th friend that had told her this. It had been well over a month, about to go into 2 months since she was last seen on social media. Since she had said goodbye to Jungkook and Jimin who enlisted together. Since all 7 of the boys were officially away from her. She deleted all social media for a while, only keeping in touch with her friends and family via phone and text and any work-related stuff via email. She just couldn't do it as every post she had seen was about the boys. Especially the adorable JenKook videos she would come across. She missed them dearly. 

Immediately calling Lisa via Facetime, she answered on the third ring with a huge smile.

"There you are! Hi~!" Lisa beamed.

"Hey! How are you?"

"I'm well! I've been attending these fashion events. It's been so fun. But how are YOU? I hope you're ok. I know it's been hard..."

"I'm ok! I promise that I am. And I am so sorry, I hope ARMY didn't spam you. I had planned to come back on social media soon but I just didn't want to see any posts about the guys until I could pull myself together,"

"Not at all! I understand! ARMY loves you and wants to know that you're okay. You should talk to them. Do a live. They want an update from you. I'd be worried too if we haven't been texting,"

That got Jen to think. She should do a live. She missed ARMY and it would mean a lot to them to reach out.

Miss Bangtan nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Okay. Tell Jennie, Jisoo, and Rose I said hi! We gotta hang soon,"

"Absolutely! I'll see you, soon. Love you, Jen!"

"Love you, too, Lisa! Bye!" she hung up and let out a sigh. 

Redownloading all of her social media apps, she went on Instagram and started a live while she sat on her couch. 

"Hi," she smiled softly, watching the comments flow in at a rapid rate while the viewership instantly went to the millions. "How are you guys? I know I've been a little MIA. Sorry,"

'Jennie~!'

'OMG you're OK!'

'WE MISS YOU!'

'How are you holding up!?'

'Im about to cry, you're here!'

"I'm ok! I'm ok! I was going through it but I'm feeling better. My friends told me you guys were in their comments asking about me. I just had to take a break. I hope you understand. I had deleted social media for a bit. It was just...it was a little hard seeing their faces all over social media when they're not physically here with me, y'know? It has been hard to adjust to this but I'm getting by,"

She received a lot of crying emojis and comments about understanding how she felt. Jennie began to feel happy to be with ARMY as their comments were comforting.

"I keep in touch with them of course but it sucks they aren't physically there with me. I miss them all and I miss my husband so much...we've been a part before but this here is different. I sometimes wear Jungkook's shirts and hoodies at home since they still have his smell and make me think that he's hugging me. Like he's right there next to me...I miss you, ARMY. You are helping that loneliness that I feel. I promise to be more active and to keep in touch."

'What are your plans while the boys are enlisted?'

She read the comment. "I'll be back working soon. I'm going to go back to America and see my family and friends. I got stuff cooking with Nike. I'm excited to show y'all the next collection! And yes, JW 3 is coming. I hope you look forward to the album. It's too early but I do have some other plans regarding music. Announcements will be revealed soon. We're going to be OK ARMY. 2025 will be here before we know it. For now, I will remain strong. I will remain strong for us and we will get through this. The boys will be home soon. Let's take it one day at a time, okay?"

[stevesbipanic]

Boy For All Seasons

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ao3

On the final night of 1985, Steve hosted a party. Well, less of a party and more just Steve, Eddie, Robin, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byer,s and Jonathan's strangely chill friend Argyle who had followed him to Hawkins for the holidays. When Steve had told Eddie of the little get-together Eddie was a bit excited, a chance for a Harrington party experience without the fear of getting beat up or having to sell.

He and Nancy had actually gotten along great at the Christmas party and she had insisted that she would help tutor Eddie once school returned so that they could all graduate this year. Steve was supplying the beer and Eddie was going to bring along some joints until Steve had told him Argyle was bringing some good shit from the coast and he wasn't going to pass up free weed.

Eddie had loved 1985, an almost perfect year thanks to the beautiful boy beside him that was now passing him the joint. Maybe next year would be even better if Eddie got up the courage to tell Steve how he was feeling. He was going to go for it, one last holiday tradition to seal the deal, a kiss at midnight.

"What no costume for this technically a holiday, Eds?"

"I did brainstorm one, sweetheart but I decided probably wasn't the best to cover myself in fireworks and then smoke weed."

Steve giggled at this, the beer and weed allowing him to relax for once. Steve had told Eddie a lot about his nightmares, no specifics, something always seemed to stop him, a lot were about the fire or some dogs that tried to attack him and the kids. It didn't happen every night but some nights Eddie would wake up to Steve's side of the bed empty or muffled cries beside him. Eddie hated those nights, and wished he could take all of Steve's hurt away. At least in the daytime, he could give Steve this, a distraction.

"What's your new year's resolution, Stevie?"

Steve laughed, "Does anyone really mean those?"

"No, but they're fun, c'mon I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"Be braver," Steve says gazing softly at Eddie, Eddie wishes he would look that way forever.

"Now Stevie, who's telling you you're not brave, hmm?"

"Robs, says I'm a wuss, don't go for things right in front of me."

"Is that so, well, I'll have to talk to our little birdie, get her to get you some slack, bravest boy I know, baby." Steve blushed and ducked his head away, Eddie took this as a win, maybe he'd be brave tonight too.

"Alright, what's yours Eds?"

"I think being braver sounds like a good one," Eddie said smirking. Steve gasped at this shoving Eddie playfully.

"You can't steal mine that's cheating!"

"Why can't we share! Sharing is caring Stevie!" Eddie yelled shoving Steve back, the two boys tussled playfully ultimately Steve getting the upper hand, hovering over Eddie.

"C'mon Eds, what do you want to do next year?" Steve said softly, eyes sparkling.

The word was on the tip of his tongue, he wanted to say "you", that he wants Steve next year, not just as a best friend or a bed warmer or someone to tease on holidays but someone to love with his whole being, someone to chase the nightmares away. He almost was brave enough to say it before Robin interrupted him.

"Steve! Where are the party poppers? It's gonna be midnight soon!"

For a moment Steve hesitated before climbing off Eddie and heading into the kitchen to help her. Shortly after the radio started calling that it was five minutes til midnight.

"Eddie can I have your lighter for the sparklers and could you go grab those two from the kitchen, don't know what's taking them so long."

"Sure, Nance, here," Eddie replied handing her the lighter before heading inside.

Eddie wished someone else had come to grab them, or that he'd been a bit louder as he came inside, maybe then he wouldn't have heard them.

"What Robs, you think a guy like me and a guy like Eddie would ever work, we're too different?" Eddie thought Steve liked that Eddie was different, that he wasn't like those assholes Steve used to hang around with.

"Steve if you jus-"

"No Robin, it's not happening it'll never happen ok." Eddie felt his heart break in two, he knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up, he knew he shouldn't have let himself fall in love.

Eddie heard Robin sigh, "Ok Steve, we'll talk about this later let's just go outside for the countdown." It was then Eddie made himself known.

"Hey guys, Nance wants us all outside."

"Yeah, yeah we're coming Eddie." Eddie couldn't remember the last time Steve had used his full name, it felt like the end of whatever this year had been building.

The three of them joined the others outside and counted down the last seconds of what was almost the perfect year for Eddie Munson. They gazed at the fireworks and Eddie tried not to think about how beautiful Steve looked under their colours. There was no need to be brave, no kiss at midnight.

Eddie had a new resolution, getting over Steve.

Guess 1985 wasn't his year after all.

Tags: @zerokrox-blog @smallfrogpleasedtomeetyou @eboyawstenn @sharingisntkaren @goodolefashionedloverboi @the-redthread @steddie-there @questionablequeeries @liorereshkigal @mightbeasleep @carlyv @my2amgaythoughts @gregre369 @space-invading-pigeon @bisexualdisastersworld @epiclazershark @sherrylyn628 @raisedbylibrarians @swaghettoni @lololol-1234

[kaurwreck]

regardless of people understanding if it was a joke or not (which it definitely was!) I think the point was no one needed the run down of why it’s a flare gun. but I appreciate your knowledge and understanding of the differences and the commitment to pointing it out 👍 it’s always impressive how much you know

God, this is such an annoying follow-up to what was already an uncharmingly ironic ask and I'm so fucking exhausted that I'm going to shed boundaries and good faith for a moment to express that I'd rather y'all just call me a cunt.

I don't know quite how to explain to you that the issue you have with me isn't because I don't know that it's a joke. I know people are joking. I just don't assume everyone is making the same joke premised on the same assumptions. I spoke to one subset of assumptions (that I had clearly explored myself) without precluding any other.

I didn't reblog the post because of an arbitrary commitment to pointing out differences nor because I thought everyone was mistaken in their handgun taxonomy and needed me to enlighten them. I do think some people were conflating the flare guns with firearms, given (i) I mistook them for a moment and I was under the impression that I counted as a people, and (ii) the alternative requires assuming that over a thousand people in an online, international animanga fandom community share the exact same, arbitrary understanding regarding the mechanics and classification of flare guns.

In idly considering the likelihood that other people were conflating flare guns with firearms, I realized I didn't actually know whether flareguns weren't firearms: I don't know their legal or technical classification, or if they could even be used as firearms in close enough range, or if they could be modified into functional firearms. I don't know anything about flare guns other than what I've picked up in passing from fiction. So I looked it up because I thought it was a compelling question and could make for a really fun speculative fight sequence between Kunikida and Fyodor.

I enjoyed the kernels I found, and while I've been told others may not care for the granular detail, it felt likely that someone else might find the gist interesting or clarifying, or might enjoy extrapolating the implications for Kunikida's position the way I have been given he is uniquely capable of and the most likely to abruptly modify a flare gun into a grenade. I'm also so, so sure that there was sincere ambiguity amid the joking, and I don't know why there wouldn't be, we are not born with a primordial understanding of flare guns' limited capacity for carnage. So, I shared a bite-sized version of my takeaways from what I read, which itself was not a lot.

The details I "run through" are how I keep my thoughts organized, and I sometimes post them to externalize them because I have ADHD and that's a memory tool that works for me. Also, otherwise, I would just be barking conclusions without contextualizing the facts I flagged as relevant and the implicit assumptions therein, which wouldn't leave much room for anyone to chat or disagree or brainstorm with me if they're interested.

All of this to say: I had fun learning about flare guns midmorning on a Thursday, and I liked the dialogue I had with the post's ambiguity. I've had an immensely stressful week, I'm not sleeping well and had then been feeling especially sluggish and anxious. But the process of prodding at the plausible literal and nonliteral implications of the joke brought me a spark of enjoyment and so for closure and out of fondness for the polyphonic, indirect conversation I had with myself and potentially others on the post or who might later see the post, I left something tangible as a happy little loose thread.

So, sure, no one needed the run down of flare guns. But I did! So, politely block me if it's agitating to you.

[nanowrimo]

Four Realistic Ways to Generate Ideas For Your Novel

Coming up with ideas can be pretty hard! With November right around the corner, YWP Participant Sahasra Nistala has some practical advice for writers looking for more material!

A long time ago, I decided I wanted to write a book. So I searched up “how to come up with a novel idea” and was immediately buried under piles of plot generators, mile-long lists of prompts, and creative flow frameworks I didn’t understand. When I went to my fellow writers for help, their advice usually went something like this: sit down and write anything. You’ll start writing something good eventually. But as we Wrimos know, there’s nothing more daunting than staring at a blank page, especially with the clock ticking down to the end of the month. Plus, we’re really busy—we don’t have time to write just anything.

Years later, after three false starts and long periods of “writer’s block,” I finally came up with an idea I couldn’t imagine letting go of. Here are some tried-and-true, realistic ways to come up with ideas for your next novel.

1. Think tropes. Write down a list of your favorite tropes and think of ways you can make them fresh and interesting. What if the Chosen One had overprotective parents and a bunch of jealous siblings? What if the person organizing the gala was actually in on the big heist? When you’re finished with your list, take whichever ones seem interesting and find a way to connect them.   2. Brainstorm elements. In a notebook, doc, or something else you won’t lose, write down a list of random elements and scenes you want in your novel. Want your MC to have an epic battle at sunset with their hair billowing in the wind? Write it down. Want your MC’s hoodie to be green? Write it down! Don’t worry about connecting these things to your decided trope—you can do that later. For now, just write down things you’d love to see in a novel and make sure to include them in yours.

3. Record things your way. When I first started to write for fun, lots of people told me to get a diary and write everything from my feelings to my “observations.” That way, I would have an endless supply of ideas whenever I wanted. Needless to say, I didn’t keep it up for very long. Things got better when I stopped trying to write daily entries and switched to something that was satisfying to create — comics! With two years of my life laid out in a simple narrative, it became easier for me to notice the differences in people’s habits and personalities. This inspired some characters. For the rest of Preptober, try recording your life in different ways, from voice memos to full-on essays analyzing your family members’ choice of breakfast. Trust me, you’ll find something that works for you. 4. Expand as much as possible. Once you begin to get a general idea of where you want to go, expand on that as much as possible. If you’re a pantster, that might mean creating a Pinterest board or playlist to match your novel-to-be’s atmosphere. If you’re a plotter, you might want to think of major plot points that incorporate the scenes you already have in mind. 

Doing these four things really helped me come up with a great idea I’m definitely going to write come November (okay, maybe I’ve already written a little!). There is no cure for writer’s block, but having an idea before you start writing definitely helps. Good luck and have a great rest of Preptober!

Sahasra Nistala is a sophomore in high school. Her interests include writing (isn’t that crazy?), speech and debate, incessantly sampling new books in hopes of finding the perfect one, and making comics. During NaNoWriMo, you can find her fiddling around with title generators, filling entire pages with just dialogue, or doodling in her notebook. Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

[obwjam]

Hey Loved your ghostbusters fics!!! idk if you're still doing the prompts but can you do 20 with Egon?

“I’m not above sticking you in a jar.”

this one is so perfectly egon 😭 the scenario is a continuation of the fic where my oc and venkman get shrunk bc i think it's so perfect and i want to do more with it

from this post

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Egon! Come on! I know you can hear me.”

It had been a few weeks since you and Peter Venkman had been shrunk by some mysterious red slime. Somehow, you had managed to adjust – mostly – to your strange new reality. No longer did you get dizzy every time you looked up at your giant friends, nor did you wake up every morning with a persistent feeling of dread and the urge to vomit everywhere. 

That didn’t mean it had gotten any easier.

A feeling you didn’t anticipate now dominated your days: helplessness. You were too busy being terrified of the possibility of dying that you didn’t stop to think about what everyday life would be like at this diminished height. You decided it was incredibly boring. Watching Egon work tirelessly to find a way to reverse your condition without being able to help was mind-numbingly agonizing.

“Spenglerrrrr… Spengler. Egon Spengler. Egon Spengler, is, ignoring me. He’s pretending I don’t exi-iiiist,” you sang, horribly off-key and with no discernable melody. You might as well have a little fun.  

“Del, please,” he said finally, giving a disgruntled sigh. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Can’t I help? You know I know what I’m doing.”

“I know.” You stared intently as he quickly jotted something down, though from your perspective, his arm seemed to move in slow motion. “But, no.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

A sigh. “I’ve told you a thousand times.”

“Tell me one thousand and one, then.”

“You don’t need me to. Maybe Ray doesn’t care as much, but I do. I don’t want anything happening to you that could be easily preventable.”

“Going over notes or sharing ideas isn’t going to kill me, you know!”

“You say that like it’s a certainty.”

You swallowed down the growing icky feeling. “If that were the case, I would have dropped dead weeks ago.”

Egon seemed to consider that, but he was clearly done having this conversation. He silently went back to work, but you didn’t even give him a few minutes before pushing him again. God, the boredom was consuming.

“Seriously, I could just brainstorm over there while you do the actual work! It’d be fine, I’ve taken plenty of naps today, I –”

Suddenly, he slammed his pen down. Well, it wasn’t really a slam, but to you, he might as well have shot it out of a cannon. “I’m not above sticking you in a jar.”

Shocked, you crossed your arms and frowned. You knew he was being playful in that deadpan Egon way of his, but a sick feeling entered your stomach when he said that. Oh, yeah, you thought. He could do anything to me without even thinking about it.

You were quiet for a while after that, but his comments made you too scared to even move, so you just sat there, stupidly, watching him continue on like nothing had happened. Thirty minutes or thirty hours could have gone by, you wouldn’t have noticed the difference. All you could think about was how long you'd be able to last with limited oxygen if you were sealed shut inside a clear airtight prison.

Egon had a feeling his joke didn’t go over well, and the ensuing stretch of silence filled him with unease. Venkman joked about it all the time, but that was just his coping mechanism. You didn’t like to do that so much, and sometimes, Egon forgot that.

Resigned, he put his pen down and turned to you, so helpless and small sitting on the table. You were very intentionally trying to ignore him.

“I’m sorry,” he offered. “I won’t actually stick you in a jar.”

“You sure about that?” you snapped, still refusing to look up. “You could do anything, and I couldn’t stop you.”

“Well, maybe you couldn’t, but Ray or Winston certainly could.” No response. “That was a joke.”

You grunted. “Not a very good one.”

Egon pinched the brim of his nose. He had really messed this one up, huh?

“You haven’t talked about it all that much.”

You looked at him out of sheer surprise. “What?”

“The psychological effects. Of your… circumstance.”

“What?” you repeated defensively. “Yes I…” you stopped. You’ve certainly thought about it every day, and you even vented to Venkman about it occasionally, but you thought it didn’t really need explaining.

“I mean, I just… assumed it was obvious.”

“Not necessarily,” Egon countered. “Venkman’s basically been the same.”

“Yeah, well, he’s a shitty example.”

For the first time today, you and Egon locked eyes. Even through the discomfort of staring at a human being that was as tall as a building, you could sense his genuine concern. He just didn’t quite know how to ask.

“Nothing is… wrong, per se. It’s not like the shrinking forced me to think a different way. It’s just been hard to… I can’t, I can’t do anything like this. You won’t even let me help figure out a way to fix myself! I–I’ve just… I’ve been noticing that you’ve…” You took a shaky breath. This was harder to say than you thought. “Well, you’re kind of treating me like a child.”

Egon raised his eyebrows, a little embarrassed by the observation. “A child?”

“Well, yeah. You’re ignoring me, getting frustrated when I try to get your attention, and despite always working by your side when I was normal human height, you suddenly act like I can’t contribute anything meaningful anymore. Like my intelligence is all gone, somehow.”

Egon felt his cheeks flush red. It was so obvious now that Del was pointing it out. He was babying them. Acting like any little movement would kill them. They already had enough on their plate – Egon acting like his mother only served to make matters worse.

“I’m… sorry, Del,” Egon said finally, his voice a little hoarse. “This is all so unprecedented, I didn’t want to do anything wrong, or hurt you without knowing.”

“If you were hurting me, I’d say something!”

“Sure,” Egon said, clearly not believing you. “But, truthfully… I’m getting nowhere, Del. I – I can’t even begin to describe how complex this all is.”

“Egon, I have a PhD and a Master’s. I’m smart too, you know.”

“I know, I know.” He shook his head. “But even after going over your test results and obsessing over this slime, I don’t even have a clue. How am I supposed to get you back to normal?”

You smirked. “Why are you acting like you have to do it alone?”

“Huh.” Egon huffed a laugh. “Checkmate, I suppose.”

“Just… let me help you on this. Please.” You padded over to his hand, which was resting comfortably next to his notebook. You placed your miniscule hand on his knuckle, forcing yourself to find the juxtaposition more endearing than terrifying. “Maybe you wouldn’t think I was so annoying if I actually had something productive to do.”

The giant snickered. “The less squeaking out of you, the better.”

He smiled warmly when you actually laughed at his joke. “Well, I don’t think I’m getting anywhere with this tonight.” He flipped his notes over and pushed the beaker of goo to the side. “How about a movie?”

“Really?” you perked up. “Can we have popcorn?”

“Well, I don’t think that…” he rolled his eyes when he saw the shit-eating grin on your face. “Sure, Del, I’ll make some popcorn.”

You climbed eagerly onto Egon’s hand. “And candy?”

“Let’s not push it.”

“But you don’t even know about Venkman’s secret stash.”

Egon couldn’t pretend he wasn’t curious. “What secret stash?”

“I’ll tell you… if you let me pick the movie.”

“Oh, good,” Egon deadpanned. “Another riveting romantic comedy, then?”

“Well, when you told me you’ve never seen When Harry Met Sally before…”

As the two of you fell back into normal banter, you felt as normal as you had since this whole thing occurred. Even if you were curled up in a small portion of a blanket that was bigger than an airport, and you could only eat three pieces of popcorn before getting full, you were still right where you wanted to be. 

For the first time in weeks, you didn’t feel so small.

[quetzalpapalotl]

Kinda a hot take but I feel like mtmte megatrons arc would have been so much better if he had stayed on cybertron, like if he had to stay and was around Optimus and starscream, people who arguably know him best, so he is always staring who he hurt directly in the face, bc to me while Rodimus is great for giving megatron a mostly impartial view, I think megatron redemption works best when he has to constantly confront his sins and magnus and rodimus feel to distant as characters to really be brutal with how much megatron has hurt people bc he doesn’t know them as well, tho megatrons arc in mtmte is really good I think this would have not made the rest of the story not so bogged down (sorry if this doesn’t make much sense)

You're making perfect sense to me, anon. And you're not the first person to tell me this. I do agree with you on some level, but the thing is that Mtmte Megatron's arc is Mtmte Megatron's arc. It cannot exist in any other story. I feel like this kind of what-if is runs into too much of an hypothetical for me to make any actual meaningful commentary. It's hard to explain but let me try.

I feel like saying what if Megtaron had stayed on Cybertron is not the same as saying something like "what if Drift had returned earlier" or "what if Pharma had stayed on the Lost Light" or even imagining ways in which his character could have been better integrated into Mtmte's narrative in that if Megatron had not gotten in the Lost Light, his character would effectively not exist.

I have told myself fanfiction where Megatron stays on Cybertron many times and there's lots of fun possibilities there., but there's a difference between a fannish idea and what it would have been in an official capacity. The key here is that the Megatron I'm incorporating into the exRID/OP narrative is still JRo's Megatron. He still has character traits and a backstory defined by that comic, even if I try to take as much of all IDW1 as I can in my interpretation of him.

Mtmte/LL, exRID/OP and Windblade/TAAO are all part of the same universe, yes, but they're all different stories, with different genres, tones, ideas and most importantly, different writers. I mean just look at what a different character Starscream is when written by Barber vs Scott. If Megatron stays on Cybertron then either Scott or Barber would have been his main writer and we just don't know what kind of character he would have been then.

Would they have tried to do a "good" Megatron? Well, the idea of Autobot Megatron was thrown at the brainstorming table for Dark Cybertron as a possibility and the JRo said that he wanted to do that. But the idea was there, maybe they would have picked it, maybe not.

I feel like, much like with Mtmte, Megatron just has too much gravity for Windblade/TAOO and the best way for him to be incorparated in it would have been sporadic appareances while he's in jail or something, probably to taunt Starscream, knowing Scott. This is double-edged for me, because I feel like the way the idea of Megatron was incorporated into Starscream's arc needed more buildup so this could have helped. At the same time I already feel like Starscream's character was too much reduced to being a reaction to Megatron's actions, which is no fun to me, and Megatron's inclusion in the narrative feels like it would highlight the aspects of Scott's writing I don't like as opposed to the ones I do. But again, I can't now. Maybe she would have tried to reform him as well, I have no idea how that would have looked like.

As for Barber, well, everything post DC was based around the fact that Optimus is just too big to not change the game completely, so the entire story became about that theme. It doesn't sound like including Megatron in that would be that. In fact, it's kind of a no-brainer, this is a story about the weight of Cybertronian history with is stuck in a cycle of violence riddle with war and colonization. The guy who did war an colonization better than everyone else should be there. It would be very satisfying to see Megatron, who rose up against the legacy of the Primes, be confronted with the fact that all he did was uphold their ideas of Cybertronian superiority. How does he handle the Decepticons? And then there's the mirroring where Megatron is trying to do better while Optimus is on the verge of losing it and everyone is worried he's gonna pull a Megatron. But again, who knows what kind of character Megatron would have been under Barber, maybe he would have played him as a villian until the end like he did before Dark Cybertron. He would have still been a thematic fit.

You know, I like exRID/OP a lot and I feel like Barber is more willing to take certain risks than JRo, so I think I would have liked the hypothetical version of his story that would have included Megatron but really, maybe he would have fumbled the bag, who knows how much the plot would have changed if it had included Megs, maybe he would have gotten a different idea, maybe it would have costed the Optimus and the Arcee I so adore. Also, a lot of people aren't that fond of Barber's writing so the general response to this non-existent story is another matter altogether.

Despite everything, I don't really begrudge Megatron leaving with the Lost Light in itself. Like yes, it removes him from the more direct consequences of his actions and is not fair that he gets to drop the Cons and go on a roadtrip of self-discovery. But Mtmte is a roadtrip story, there just isn't any way around this. Also, I don't care about what is fair because none of these stories are about fairness or people getting what they deserve. And finally, it makes sense in the way I read Megatron. One of his key traits for me is how his experiences led to him disregarding life and only finding worth in fighting, his arc is about peeling off layers of self delusion and it starts with giving him a place to chill so that he can see value in life again and be in a mental state to appreciate how badly he fucked up.

Problem is how much he bogs down the rest of the story as you said, and other minor things I can more easily ignore.

Side note, but you know that part in Combiner Wars where Windblade and Optimus are like "We cannot allow Starscream to have his way, but we can't just pull a coup?" I think it would have been really fun to have Megatron for that. No, Megatron you cannot beat the shit out of Starscream to solve the issue, you have to respect him as the president. Hilarous. I need to pay someone to do a short fic of this.

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Good evening,

Just popping in to say hi and check in on how you are doing? I’m really enjoying the pieces you have put forth for your febuwhump! There are all so good and leaving me wanting more and imagining what would happen next. I’m also loving how each piece features a different character I.e Dean, Jensen , or Beau. And especially Beau since we got to see so little of him so I’m enjoying all fics that expand on his character.

Couple of questions.

When ideas spark for a new fic with no specific character in mind. You know you want your reader to be this and dealing with that and have X Y Z happen but it doesn’t matter who is the character, my question is how do you pick. As in how do you decided to make it a Dean, AU Dean, Sam, Soilder boy etc? Do you just choose your favorite or brainstorm the world you want it happen in and then think the idea would fit if better if it was in a world with powers or spn-verse? (I hope that made sense)

Also who is your favorite non Jensen character to write for?

Lastly do you ever go back and just read your own fics for fun or simply to dive back in the world or are you the type of person who doesn’t like to read your own stuff? I find myself personally doing it a lot lately and it makes sense cause I wrote it bc I wanted it and was curious if others did the same.

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for everything!

Hi there! Things have been a little hectic lately! Overall things are good but work's been a wee bit nuts to put it mildly. I've been working late most nights this year (and last) but my boss told me to leave early today which was a win!

The febuwhump drabbles have been fun to work on! They're definitely snapshots in time that could easily keep going. There's one in particular that's not out yet that I think could draw a lot of interest for more 👀 I'm glad I'm able to jump around with the characters! It makes things a little harder which is a good thing to me since it makes me think.

For your first question of how I pick characters for stories, I try to let the plot drive the decision. If it's set in the SPN world, in cannon where the boys are hunters, I generally go with Dean because he's my favorite but also because I feel like I can write him better than say Sam. Now say it was a story about a superhero. Well let's say I've got AU Dean, AU Jensen and Soldier Boy as my options. Do I want the hero to be dark? Vulgar? Sensitive? Rich? Poor? How do I want the relationship with the reader to develop? Short answer is I ask myself a lot of questions in a short amount of time and branch down whatever path I think makes most sense. Sometimes where it really could be anyone, if I'm leaning towards someone in particular I'll pick them, or if I haven't written for them lately it'll go to them. It's a complicated answer but it really does change depending on the story!

Favorite non-Jensen character in the fanfic world to write for is Benny and Michael (I'm going to consider him separate even though he's Michael!Dean). Benny's one of my favorite side characters to throw into AU's you might notice. He's easily a good fit for a best friend character but has a certain...roughness to him that compliments Dean if that makes sense. If they do more SPN, I demand more Benny lol. As for Michael, I think he's a truly complicated character that is capable of both good and evil. When I wrote Wicked Game that was a big risk since it's a story focused so much on Michael. A reader is absent for a significant part of it even. But I just find the concept of the villain having a soft side so much fun (and writing that dark side too).

I do read my own stuff! Generally I do this with series more than one shots or imagines but I have my favorites I revisit with those too. I think all writers should re-read their stuff for fun. There's so much that's freeing when you're not being critical of the work but just enjoying it and it really helps you understand why readers might love something you think is awful. One of my favorite things is to see someone like or reblog a fic in my activity feed and then I get reacquainted with a story I completely forgot about! You're definitely not alone in re-reading!

I hope you're doing good and have a great day!

[ven10]

hello, it's the anon from before again! i love the headcanons that you gave (they're all so fitting! the halloween one is my favorite), and i would love to hear your headcanons on injuries the quags got from the eagles!

Hiya! It’s great hearing from you again! (+I like how you told me you are the same anon from before!) :) Glad you liked the hcs!! :)

Headcanons for injuries the Quagmire triplets got from the eagle attack:

Isadora loses an eye to the eagles. As it’s a gothic trope to present eyes as “a window to the soul” she likes using the fact she lost an eye in her poetry a lot; either to suggest the past ripped part of her with it or that she isn’t as transparent as most people. (Or, in her most private poems, she links it to the VFD eye and how the organisation has obscured her view of the world permanently. As though their insignia is there in replacement of the missing eye.)

At the start she was sort of self-conscious about it [taking this from how it was Duncan who had the confidence to stand up against Carmelita -when she was chanting-in front of the entire cafeteria rather than Isadora. Also, in Netflix TAA when “Coach Genghis” asks for all the orphans to stand, Isadora glances around her self-consciously whereas Duncan just stares straight ahead.] and she tried covering that side of her face with her fringe/bangs.

However, after some time, she entered a mindset that was more so “if people are going to stare anyway then I may as well give them something to stare at” and decided to have a bit of fun with it by using more abstract prosthetic eyes; like one that is entirely black without any iris or pupil. That one is useful for when she wants to seem intimidating to strangers. Her brothers think it’s emo. Quigley encourages her to play pranks with it a lot and the results are often hilarious.

When strangers ask her how she lost it [scars around the prosthetic eye make it noticeable] she gives a different answer every time ranging from “using a pencil sharpened at both ends” to “What do you mean my eye is missing??!”

She’d occasionally wear an eyepatch since it fits with her aesthetic however she’d usually stick to prosthetic eyes since they’re more comfortable (bc the socket stays in shape). Other than the beloved demonic looking all-black eye she’d have a few natural coloured ones, one is the same colour as her other eye but she has others which are different natural colours to make it look like she has heterochromia (When your eyes are different colours: can be central, sectoral or-in this case-complete.)

When she’s somewhere with only her triplets/friends she prefers them to stay on the side with her real eye so she can see them however when she’s out somewhere where there’s lots of people she likes at least one person she knows to be on the side with the prosthetic eye so that nobody will (accidentally) sneak up on her.

In book-canon Quigley flew a helicopter to his siblings to try and save them from the eagles so I imagine this would mean he went higher than the balloon to try fight off the birds once he realised his siblings weren’t going to be able to make it onto the helicopter (bc they were too busy fighting off eagles) Meaning when he fell it was from a greater distance than his siblings and he hit the water with a greater impact. He ends up injuring both of his legs; the right worse than the left.

His injuries have the biggest initial negative hit on him compared to his siblings bc he’s an explorer and at the start he only sees the drawbacks of how it’ll impact his ability to explore. After time he slowly sees the more positive aspects of it, especially once he and Violet brainstorm ideas for custom forearm crutches. [sort of an abstract take on the “look at the map” vs “look at the waterfall” Vi showing Quigley opportunities+alternative ways of achieving things]

The crutches would have handles that double as a torch on one side and as a grappling hook on the other once secret buttons are pressed. The grappling hook would work in a similar way to Violet’s pasta machine invention in that it’d pull Quigley up to wherever he needs to be in a more efficient+quiet way than physically climbing would have anyway. The bottom of the crutches are loaded with (sleeping) darts that can be fired if Quigley swings them like a gun and pulls a hidden trigger on the handle. He can load them with whatever he wants though, sometimes he’ll fill them with pens so that when one of his siblings inevitably asks for one he can fire it at them unexpectedly. 🖊️

Sometimes when he’s in public in a place like the supermarket he’ll use one of these features like the grappling hook to pull himself to the other end of the room in a matter of seconds where it would take someone walking minutes just for fun+efficiency. It’s always extra fun when he hears a kid trying to explain what they saw to their parent who assumes they’re lying.

He has a couple of rice bags to heat up that help with pain; they all have maps sewn on them or drawn on with fabric paint. 🗺️

Duncan has the least serious injuries of the three; which he sometimes feels guilty about even though it’s not his fault and Quigs+Isa are glad he got away mostly okay.

He has 3 jagged scars across one side of his face from an eagle’s talons alongside a few similar scars on his arms from where he tried fighting them off. On the plus side, the scars cause him to be taken more seriously when he becomes an investigative journalist as many assume he earned the injuries on an important job.

Thanks for the ask! :)) Feel free to send more! :) [I swear I am capable of answering in small amounts-]

[comradeboyhalo]

I feel like the issue with comparing the QSMP to DnD is that the islanders would all be different levels, but the writers have to handle everything as if they are the same level. BBH was able to take on 3 eye works and even kill one solo, meanwhile the morning crew got their behinds handed to them by a group of lesser ratio. How do you balance combat for BBH the level 10 Warlock alongside Fit the level 3 Paladin?

yess youre definitely right! ive been thinking about this too, cause i think the dnd approach is necessary for the storytelling (i.e the idea of a loose plot map that the players stitch together), but combat is a different matter. also now im just going to start thinking out loud so please dont take any of what i say below seriously LOL you gave me an excuse to ramble!

overall i also dont really think its the actual combat that needs tweaking. its really more that the players need ground rules of what commands/godmodding the admins can do, or whether or not egg admins are teleporting themselves back ooc. there just needs to be communication about whether or not these fights are winnable, cause players need to have some agency and not feel demotivated, especially seeing some of the reactions from fit/bagi/tubbo. i want players to feel regret, i dont want them to chalk it all up to "oh the admins are just op". there shouldnt be a meta explanation like that, yknow? but ill also talk about fight balancing cause now im curious and want to brainstorm :D

to be fair, bad was only able to take down the eye workers because he started throwing mines, and thats something he's only able to do solo. if mines are out, then it just comes down to him tanking all the hits, because no weapon of his can do enough damage to kill them. qsmp already is doing some type of balancing with the enchanted stick: in that case, the worker who deals the most could focus on bad and burn through his totems while the rest deal with weaker islanders. i also think confusion is a really useful tool, which is why the mobs during code attacks were so scary with the blindness/weakness effects. the best "choreographed" code fights happened when there were waves of mobs, and the code attacked intermittently. this gives weaker players something killable to focus on and giving stronger players a bigger enemy (the npc) if need be, while also automatically hindering their fighting because of crossfire and effects. bad is a lot more cautious with his hits in group battles too.

i think the bigger issue is that armor is so strong on the server that you need crazy good weapons to make a dent. but no one has crazy good weapons except for the admins and etoiles. to get anywhere, the islanders need really creative ways to deal damage while not contributing to crossfire. and this stacks up the odds against all the islanders, whether theyre strong fighters or not. if its doable, the players need to know that its doable, cause rn even bad's idea with reinforced cobwebs was shot down when bagi told him they could just break it in creative mode. which brings me back to my first point. COMMUNICATE SOME GROUND RULES!

but anyways everything im saying is pointless cause i dont know what the lore reasons are 😭. i dont know what the story goals are rn so i cant offer up any good ideas. i really hope that the goal isn't to kill eggs, because i honestly think the qsmp has proven pre-purgatory that we don't need egg-centric storylines to keep the plot rolling. i think a lot of fun fights (and even deaths) can still happen without it feeling forced on the player and viewer end.

[wehaveimagineshere]

I'm here to give you you're first Leon request, but with a twist. Can you write a scenario of Leon and his sibling (who's also an agent) hanging out at a bar and just having a nice time together? If you don't do platonic stuff, you can just ignore this.

This sounds super fun! I've been brainstorming things these two would talk about for days now! I hope you like what I've come up with! And thank you so much for my very first Leon request! <3

~*~*~

You're already half way through your second drink by the time your brother shows up. Even having told him to arrive an hour early, he still manages to keep you waiting. Raising your glass high and giving it a small wave, you watch him weave his way around the tables to the seat beside you at the bar.

"I was wondering if you were just gonna leave me to drink alone," you say in greeting, clinking the ice in your glass for emphasis.

"And have you showing up at my door at 3 in the morning drunk off your ass? Yeah, I don't think so." Placing his order with the barkeep, he swings to face you fully as you grin. "How have you been?"

"Alive," you say with intended casualness, gesturing to your body. "In one piece."

"I hear that."

Taking another sip of your drink, you set it down and tap the rim of the glass with your finger. "Ever wonder if they'll send us on a mission together?"

His face scrunches, and you can't help but roll your eyes. "I work better alone."

You snort. "Y'okay." The barkeep hands off Leon's drink and you study him as he takes a sip. "You used to be all about group projects and people."

"Yeah, well." He shrugs, keeping his gaze trained on his glass. "Life isn't always what we want."

"Yeah," you murmur quietly, letting another few quiet seconds pass before switching gears. "Did you hear mom's finally going to Disney again?"

There's a moment of surprise before his face morphs into disbelief. "No."

"Yeah." Smiling wide, you continue, "Got a call from dad the other week. Looks like our aunts managed to talk her into it."

The smile that creeps its way onto his face makes your own widen. "She's breaking her vow? I never thought I'd see the day. You know what has to happen now?"

"Dad wouldn't tell me when she's going."

"I'm sure there are other ways to find out."

"I've tried our aunts too. They've been sworn to secrecy with threat of bodily harm."

Taking a thoughtful sip of his drink, you can see the thoughts whirring behind his eyes. "Maybe we can hack into her phone."

"You can hack into phones now?" you ask, eyebrows raised.

"Not really, but I'm sure I can ask for some favors."

"You said you work better alone."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

Sighing, you rest your chin on your hand. "We could just...let her have a good time."

The look you two level at each other speaks volumes. There was no way either of you were going to casually let your mother forget the time you two caused such havoc at Disney that she swore she'd never show her face to Mickey Mouse ever again. A broken ride, slippery syrup floors, a crying Goofy. You barely remember any of it, but there were pictures. And recounting. Each family member always had something different to add to the Disney Incident.

Honestly, you should never give two already hyperactive children pounds of sugar and not expect chaos, but what did you know? Your mother definitely didn't.

"So? Any love life?" you ask, frowning when he snorts. "Okay, damn. And same."

There's a comfortable silence as you sip your drinks before Leon says, "I've been thinking of getting fish."

"Fish?" you ask with a laugh. "Okay?"

"I can't have a dog or a cat. Not home enough. But you can get automatic feeders for fish, and they don't really need attention."

"True." You sigh. "Do you ever miss Brownie?"

He leans back with a sigh of his own. "She was a good dog."

"Dad never let us have any pets, did he? Said we were too much like them ourselves." You smirk. "Rude, but true. How did our parents survive us?"

"I try not to think about it."

"Smart." Especially because they could have handed you right back to the orphanage. "Did grandma ever get another dog?"

"No."

"Brownie was too good to replace."

"No pets for you either?"

You snort. "No."

Flicking his wrist and checking the time, Leon sets down his drink. "The shelters should be open for another hour or two."

"What?"

"If we leave now we could get maybe half an hour with them."

Pressing your lips together, you give yourself all of two seconds before you down the rest of your drink like a shot and stand up. "Let's do it."

Following suit, Leon sets his empty glass next to yours, tosses some cash on the bar, and leads the way out.

Time to pet some dogs.

[euphorial-docx]

👀 I would love to hear about your thoughts regarding an age gap Jegulus and how their dynamic would work. No pressure though, you definitely don’t have to share if you don’t want to

ooh i haven’t thought about it too heavily but i’ll brainstorm here. i’m about to ramble a lot, so be prepared!

i just generally think the morality of age gaps makes really compelling stories, and the way the characters go about it and react to reactions is very interesting to me.

anyways, i consider a big age gap to be around 7+ years. like a 5 year age gap is where i start to think potential generational differences start to take place, but 7+ years is more than half of a decade and that seems like a pretty big disparity to me (but if others feel differently, lmk!)

so for age gap jegulus i would think it needs to be a 7 year gap or larger to really be an age different, but i don’t think it should be more than 15 years. even a 15 year gap is really pushing it for me in terms of like how well those people would get along, understand each other, and what stages of life they respectively are in. (Again, i would love to hear more opinions about this. these conversations fascinate me.)

and great stories can be told about age gap relationships happening in inappropriate manners with inappropriate ages (the biggest example is lolita, which is a very misconstrued story. lolita starts a good conversation about those kind of completely inappropriate and predatory relationships), but i personally wouldn’t write jegulus in an age gap relationship where regulus is any younger than mid twenties. early twenties is also pushing it for me, especially if the age gap is even larger than 7 years.

like. i feel for an age gap relationship to work, the younger of the two should have separate life experiences. like a freshly 18 regulus dating a 30 y/o james would really not be healthy. a 30 y/o is at a completely different stage of life and is ready for different things than a teenager or someone in their early 20s. i’m sure there are real life cases where it works, but that’s just how i feel as someone in my early 20s 🤷🏻‍♀️

so we’ve established: in my age gap jegulus thought, regulus would be at least 23-25 and james 7+ years older.

i feel like the idea of james already having harry could be fun and add a bit more Drama to james dating a younger person. like questioning if regulus would be ready for such a big commitment, maybe james doubting the relationship… sounds very intriguing to me.

BUT. i also love regulus as a single dad as well, so if james and regulus were both single dads and then date… maybe the age difference would go a bit smoother considering regulus is already taking on a big responsibility and is used to the Parenthood Lifestyle. could be cute.

and the question of sirius is one of my favorite parts about this. because i feel like sirius would 100% leave for college (he and reg would have at least an 8 year gap between them) and only come back sparsely for holidays, until he’s actually forced out or eventually leaves the family on his own volition.

i feel regulus and sirius wouldn’t be too close growing up because sirius is so much older and then also leaves. in my mind palace, the brothers would be in the process of reconnecting when james comes into the picture and adds more Drama.

what i’m learning here is that i really just love the drama of age gap jegulus. as much as drama and arguments stress me out, i sure love reading and writing it.

[queseraone]

8, 9, 14, 17, 32, 33!

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)? Literally every song makes me think of Chenford in some way or another. But like I told you in a message you'll see when you wake up, Enchanted (love how I linked that, as if you don't know what song I'm talking about hahahahahahaha) always makes me want to write some kind of meet-cute fic!

9. How do you find new fic to read? Well I subscribe to a lot of my faves, but I also just scroll AO3 all the time. I usually go by the summary and the tags to see what piques my interest (ironic since those are my most hated things to do when I'm posting my own fics haha). I also trust recommendations from friends, mutuals, fabulous pages such as @chenfordfanficquotes 😉(had to!)

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer? Already answered, but again I'll say that I think I'd read just about anything by a trusted friend or writer, because I know they'll give whatever it is the care it deserves!

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it? So I have this friend... and she teases me with all sorts of fun ideas... and we brainstorm... and I get really, really excited about them... and then I annoy her with them... and won't stop until they happen (remember Professor Jay??? hehehehe). So currently I'm very interested in reading a fic with Tim as a billionaire in need of date to a party...

32. What’s your ideal fic length to read? Already answered :)

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read? Hahhahahaaha you know me and my track record with chaptered fics 😬

Thank you!!!!!! 😊🥰

[randomkposts]

You can take your time with this, but how would a wholly genderbent deathnote be?

You can take your time with this, but how would a wholly genderbent deathnote be?

A wholly genderbent death note?

I must admit ,anon -I took my time with this, because the scope of that is a little intimidating. Also Eclipse has been busy with work and Baldur's Gate 3, and hasn't had much energy to brainstorm. Thank you for your patience. 

To start with, the gender politics of this world are very different, as a lot of people in important positions have become female.

 Higuchi, is head of the technological development of the Yotsuba group at age 32, in 2004. He's canonically obsessed with gaining social status, power, and wealth, and is implied to not be as competent as his colleague's. If it were just him swapping genders that would carry unfortunate implications, but the rest of the group heads were male,  are also gender swapped, so now she's power climbing ambitious hate-sink, I guess. Just like before. 

Would Demegawa still be a sensationalist media director of a TV station in a gender swap? Maybe not if it was just him being swapped. That story would probably her being a lacky who made it higher (quite possibly to Kira Deaths in the industry) who is running the station in part two, someone who reached too high and fell to Kira like all others. 

The director of the FBI Stev(i)e Mason, is female, and so is most of the American FBI, with Misora standing out. Actually, in this AU would Penber have still told her fiance to stay in the kitchen and quit his job in order to marry her? Is she still reluctant to marry him? If so, that certainly carries implications about gender roles in this world.

But let's say things are different and Penber is less of a sexist jerk, and Misora had to tie up some loose ends on a previous job, before Rae dies. Misora is still one of the bigger threats to Light in series, and had to be taken down quickly for the story to work. It would certainly up the stakes if that coincidence was taken out, but keeping them there and playing multi person chess would be a lot harder.

The SPK of America, and the police of Japan are now full of ladies. It turns Lady Lights' desire from controversial to expected again.

On the flipside, crime is also made up of ladies, such as Mello's Mafia, Misa's stalker, and independents such as Otoharada.

It's starting to feel kind of like Barbieland, as there is a noticeably higher number of named male characters then Female in the universe of Death Note. Like really, off the top of my head I can think of 13 named female characters in death note, and I'm including characters like Misa's friend Yoshi.

In this gender swapped Death Note, by 2009, there is something that hasn't happened in reality in the states. There is a Madame President, and Vice president. Mrs Roger is so done with Watari, she never wanted to spend this much time around children and here she is running an orphanage filled with them. I'm going to assume Linda is still into art.

In a world where Watari was the only one gender swapped,  I would wonder if Watari's past as an inventor was a bit like L being the world famous detective that no one sees. I also wonder about her backstory having her well trained in espionage, and marksmanship. Watari was born in 1933 (anime), which is in the range of world war 2, but would make her a young child when it started and ended. Does this mean that in the Death Note universe World War 2 lasted longer, or did England get up to orphan spy training programs, that later inspired Watari to create orphan detective programs. Wait, is this becoming a kind of crossover with Gallagher girls? After all, just because Watari founded a school in England, didn't mean she was from there. Also transfers were a thing. Or could have been. That's fun. 

I'd say Watari would have to be a lot louder to get such a rep as L's handler. After all, stupid people still exist even when you have a rep. I wonder if she used disguise to help? Of course, thats in a solo, and this is about everyone.

Aiber and Wedy

Wedy is L's profesional cat burglar and survalance expert. In story she mostly looks cool, installs some bugs to evesdrop, and rides a motorcycle. 

Aiber gets more to characterize himself and stand out. Aiber is L's professional con-man, and social infiltrator, said to be able to blend in with varied types of social groups. L has enough evidence to land Aiber in lifetime prison, and has saved Aiber's life a couple of times. Its also said (in how to read) that he is multilingual, often assumes fake identidies, and gets his biggest thrills from swindling and living on the edge. Basically. He sounds a bit like a male Black Widow, with less combat training, and tramatic backstory… presumably. Hmmm, also less brainwashing

L trusts Aiber enough to use one of the other detective names he stole, and play the roll of Eraldo Coil. I can't say if Aiber is playing the roll of L playing Coil, or original coil. He also, has a family, and heavily dislikes guns.

For the most part, they are pretty typecast by their character designs  if it were a story about any of them individually, there's more space for extrapolation, but in large groups it becomes a norm. Female Aiber could be interesting to explore as an individual. Actually, so could male. Same with Watari, or any of them really, by any writer who decides to get really invested in it.

Still, in fanwork, you have to consider the conservation of the ship of Theseus. At what point in replacing the parts do you have a new ship? Is it when the first nail is replaced? The fifth? The planks? The entire boat? Is it still the same boat after all that change? Likewise, you can never be the same person you were at eleven, or even two years ago. You have grown, your body has changed old cells out for new ones, and most importantly you have had experiences that filter your thoughts into directions that filter your perceptions.

At what point in changing a character do they become an OC committing identity fraud? What core traits are important to keeping a character”in character”, even when you change the experiences that filter their perception of the world? What changes with gender, and what stays the same? 

Gender is a big factor in the face we present to the world. It has expectations with it. And the expectations of gender in Japanese culture are different then the ones in the west. Japanese culture is collectivist, and group cohesion is placed higher than the west's individual needs. There is also a shame culture in the east, in contrast to the west's guilt culture. Confucius vs Christian values. There are benefits and pitfalls to both worldviews. 

It's not something anyone would know their first time watching eastern media, but with learning more about these cultural aspects, one can look back to characters they didn't previously understand the motives of in a new light.

Time is also a factor. The culture and expectations adults today grew up with, are different from the ones they would have experienced 20 years ago, for all that there have been things that stayed the same? 

I should also get into Honne and Tatemae. Tatemae is whats expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances. The Honne is one's true feelings and desires, which may be contrary to society's expectations and is often kept hidden except with one's closest friends. 

It ties in with Japanese Confucianism Beliefs, of human centered virtues for harmonious and peaceful society. Essentially, in Japanese culture Public failure and disapproval of others are seen as a source of shame and reduced social standing, so direct confrontation is something they wish to avoid. The traditional social norm then is to minimize discord, not doing so might be seen as insulting or aggressive.

I feel a good example can be seen in this quote from this article.

“A Belgian friend of mine once kindly told a Japanese librarian that the English travel guides had been misplaced in the “History” section. The woman immediately started apologizing almost hysterically, bowing, hiding her face in her hands and looking so distressed that my Belgium friend started apologizing frantically as well, and left as fast as she could after putting the books back where they belonged. A Japanese student, had he or she noticed the mistake, would probably have took it upon himself or herself to silently put the books back into the right place, and nobody but a foreigner would have casually and publicly proclaimed something was wrong, thus unintentionally shaming the librarian and embarrassing themselves in the process.”

Not to say that we don't have social masks as well in the west. We do. But because its not talked about to keep social cohesion, you often don't realize you have been angering someone to the point hurt and resentment and grudges towards you has built up until things escalate.

Politeness is something that keeps society together. We have scripts for interacting with others to keep things even keel. We have rules that we all follow to more or less get along with other people. This is true of any lasting society. 

We all expect other people to follow the rules, and make exceptions for those we consider close to us.

Perhaps that paints Light's killing of criminals with more context. These people did not follow the rules for harmonious society.  Light told Rem to find someone selfish and cruel enough to be willing to use the Death Note, while being dumb enough to not spread out his corporate killings. She found Higuchi. Nobody likes him. His collages instantly pin him as Kira. He's a victim no one would have any qualms about dying if it were not for the Kira case.

Lights dream for the Millennium Kingdom-I mean- new world, consist of kind hearted people he deems fit to live in it. He claims that once the world as a whole changes people will become kinder as a whole. He starts with criminals, then plans to move to immoral people, and harassers, and has later plans to kill people who refuse to contribute to the good of society, or lazy people as he put them. I have to wonder whether Light living through “The Lost Decade” had any influence on his thoughts here?

He's basing who should live in the world he wishes to build on those who can follow the rules (both said and unsaid) of society he knows. And he is using the rules of Japanese Justice to enforce them.

The Phoenix Wright games are not a bad place to start understanding Japanese Justice. Japan has a 99.8% conviction rate in cases that go to trial. For all we make jokes about the confetti that comes down when Pheonix wins a case, with those numbers, winning a case as a Defense Attorney is rare, and worthy of celebration. 

While no real trial that I am aware of has needed to cross examine a parrot, Japan's “hostage justice” means a long uphill battle for an acquittal. 

On Japanese Justice

Japan also practices Capitol Punishment and the death penalty.

To Light, narcissist, son of a police officer, and good Japanese student, this is probably what everyone is secretly wanting but could never do. But he can. And will do it for them. And if not, well they will come around when they see how much better it is, his way. He just needs time to change the world.

But back to a point, of sorts, Eclipse and I try to keep a balance of sorts between what we know of Japanese culture, and fun headcanons. We certainly go into cracky territory (no regrets about Cat Misa here), but I also don't see a lot of reasons that most of the character traits with the other characters need to change with Gender, when gender is not the only factor that make up their persona. What we see of most of the other characters are what are culturally or socially expected of them. We don't see their Honne, just their Tatemae. 

I'm going to end this with another Lady Virgilia video about Persona 5, this one about Socialcultural context. P5 is very on the nose apt with its gameplay mechanic about removing their mask to send their will of rebellion out to fight.