#that shit REQUIRES character introspection

[hello-my-name-is-aves]

What Do These Three Have In Common?

It's pretty obvious. Sanemi Shinazugawa hates each of them terribly.

Now, I can already hear your protests, because...

Obviously, Sanemi doesn't hate Genya. That's his beloved baby brother! The only reason he does anything, the thing that gets him up each day, the last face he sees before he goes to sleep, his precious!

And Obviously, Sanemi doesn't hate Masachika. That's his (dead) best friend! The one who saved him from living the life of a feral vagabond, catching demons and stringing them up by their toes to burn in the sun. The one who introduced him to a trainer, brought him into the Demon Slayer Corps, and eventually died to save his life!

But Giyuu, yeah, he most definitely hates that guy.

Or does he?

I know many people like to pretend that it is that straightforward, but to do so requires ignoring the complexity of Sanemi's character, because here's the thing: Sanemi has got his wires all kinds of crossed when it comes to love, platonic or otherwise.

All you have to do is look at his canon interactions with Genya (right up until his imminent departure from this mortal coil) to see that Love is not straightforward for Sanemi. It goes without question that Sanemi loves Genya (do you see the love in his eyes in this picture?)

And yet he abandoned him for appr. eight years, rejected him when he eventually came looking and found him, disavowed their relationship entirely, told him he would break him beyond recovery if he didn't back off, and tried to literally blind him. He flat out says he would do anything short of MURDER to stop him. (Don't worry, guys. He did it all out of love.)

Now if you're thinking, Aves, that's a special case. He had his reasons. Genya was an exception. He was treating him with so much apparent hatred because he was trying to protect him! Okay...?

Well, fine. So let's look at Masachika then. We all know that Sanemi cares about Masachika, and loves him like a brother. Yet in the Light Novel story, Signs from the Wind, we see a lot of Sanemi's introspection and interactions with Masachika - his best friend. And it doesn't look like love at a glance.

In just a couple of pages, we see ALL this: He tells him to "Shut up"; says: "Seriously, what is with you? You keep babbling on and on."; He feels 'ready to explode' because Masachika is annoying him; he's visibly irritated; he calls him a "Piece of Garbage" and a "Brainless dolt"; asks "What's his problem?"; he's Sick to death of him, and wonders "what, exactly, he had to do to get Masachika to understand precisely how unwelcome he was."

Can you feel the love, friends?

But we know it's there for Genya. We know it's there for Masachika. Sanemi is just absolute shit at showing the people he cares about that he actually cares about them. Why? Because, in Sanemi's own words: "He was determined to walk this bloody path alone."

It's because he cares that he pretends not to. Sanemi directs anger towards those he loves. He intentionally tries to push them away. The more he cares about them, the worse treatment they get. It's pretty clear why, I think. The first (but less important) reason is self-preservation, even subconsciously. He's lost people he loves before, and he knows how bad it hurts. If he "doesn't love them", then losing them won't hurt so much. The second (and far bigger) is to protect them from that same pain.

Sanemi knows that this life of Demon Slaying ends in an early grave. He can't stomach the guilt of hurting the people he cares about by subjecting them to his own death. He figures that if he treats them like shit, then they'll hate him as much as he pretends to hate them. He can go on fighting, protecting them from a distance. And then, when he inevitably dies, they won't have to mourn him the way they would if they had been friends, brothers, (or some secret third thing.)

Which brings us back to Giyuu Tomioka, Sanemi's beloathed.

Sanemi hates Giyuu. He says so himself in his own words. He only agrees to even try to spend time with Giyuu, begrudgingly, at the request of Master Ubuyashiki. He gets pissed about Giyuu's chilly attitude, and annoyed by his stand-off-ish-ness. When they spar, he suggests that they try to kill one another with their bare hands. It all sounds like hatred to me. Except, for Sanemi, when he hates someone, it often canonically means precisely the opposite is true.

Babes, I won't even try to convince you that Sanemi and Giyuu are actually head-over-heels-in-love with each other, okay? (I mean. They are. But I won't try to convince you) I'm just saying that Sanemi canonically treats the people he cares about most with the least amount of love and affection. So maybe, just maybe, the obvious hatred that he has for Giyuu isn't actually hatred at all.

[varpusvaras]

Winnick will come this close to writing a good, rightfullly angry character with BPD/CPTSD and ruin it by making him his conception of "a dangerous psychopath" because dc's understanding of mental illness begins and ends with the joker.

I like that Jason was angry i'm not gonna lie I enjoy the "bad victim who doesn't accept that they were a necessary sacrifice, who doesn't think what happened to them is something they should be expected to tolerate, like fuck your greater good, you weren't there, it isn't worth this." I think even looking at Jason's past before getting adopted he has reason to be angry, like he is poor af and starving and he had to take care of his mom and his dad is in jail because he couldn't see another way to provide and he gets trafficked -he has so many reasons to be angry. And he's not, and I love jaybin, but I think there are so many ways and things he can be angry about without it feeling classist. And I love that he can't emotionally regulate, that he has so clearly BPD/CPTSD because why the fuck would he not, have you seen his life (and that's not even counting the csa hc, which i am because willfully and consistently implying csa and then not addressing it/denying it feels like feeding into a culture of taboo that ruins lives and getting away with covert victim-blaming at the same time). The issue is that they lack finesse or any kind of understanding of anger. The think anger is a personality trait. They think angry = evil. They think being angry means you're violent at and about everything, that you shoot indiscriminately even though you've known better since you were a kid, that you're suddenly treating women like shit (which, wtf seriously) which okay maybe THEY treat women shitty for no reason when they're angry, but that'd be more of a them problem I'd say. Their portrayal of anger is classist because their conception of emotions hasn't evolved since fucking Descartes. Think anger = bad = poor and not only doesn't it occur to them that this is classist, they so instinctively assign moral value to the concepts of poor and angry that they don't realise it and just conceptualise poor=angry and end up with incredibly classist portrayals of anger. You can write characters that are mentally ill and violent without being ableist, you can write characters that are poor and angry without being classist, but that requires a level of respect for people, introspection, humility willingness to learn about the sensitive topics you are exploring that is simply not accessible to Winnick and so many other dc writers.

And here comes my very hot take that I'm too cowardly to say off anon: the pit shouldn't have healed Jason's malnutrition. Like, outside of canon I love big jay, I love big men who are emotionally vulnerable and need comfort etc. but in canon? It just comes off as another way to adultify Jason, and make the horrible things that happen to him acceptable. Jason "sleeping with Talia because he is fucked up about Bruce" because they both look like adults until you realise this is actually just rape and you can't put any responsibility of Talia taking advantage of the kid under her care (very ooc of course) on the child himself. Jason fighting Mia looking like a 40 years old beating up a teenage girl when they're the same damn age. Fucking Ethiopia 2.0. And Jason's murders as well, for the matter. Like don't get me wrong the duffle bag of doom is an iconic villain move, but it's just that: a massive shock effect and a "psychopathic" move. We shouldn't need Jason beheading anyone to be horrified, because just one murder, if written correctly, should be enough. A child killing someone is a terrible thing. A child being put in a position where they think killing someone is the only solution to ending suffering (thinking about the Garzonas case) is a terrible thing. A kid trying to kill his murderer (because fuck his death has to matter it has to) and only begging to be allowed it should be horrifying. Jason, with his unhealed malnutrition making him look a couple of years smaller and younger than his physical age, should look his mental age. It should be impossible to look away from the reality of what he is: a traumatized teenager who wasn't allowed to grow up. And he has a gun. This is already a horror story.

Make utrh!Jason a villain if you must, but have the guts to sit with it. Don't shove the fact that he was a hero and a victim under the rug because it's uncomfortable. Sit with the unease that sometimes someone is doing something bad and is suffering a lot, and maybe they're doing the bad thing because they don't know how to survive the suffering, and suddenly it's not easy separating hero from villain from victim. Your imaginary lines in the sand will not protect you from the crude reality of the complicated and shitty situations you have chosen to depict; you open the can of worms now you can't look away and let the worms roam free just because you're squeamish.

How does it feel to be psychic and be in my head and write part of my essay on Jason for me? Fuck, I have so much to say about this but I need a good night of sleep to formulate it correctly. Look for a longer answer tomorrow, but in the meantime, everyone sit down and look at this and look at it hard. Thank you.

[canonizzyhours]

thx for this blog i've been wanting to say this for ages. i know a lot of people interpret izzy as trans & they're really attached to it but that makes no sense for the character. i understand the idea behind it is he's a short guy who's really invested in masculinity but at the same time kind of a failure at performing it up to his standards which is a great metaphor for issues a lot of us transmascs have around masculinity that totally makes sense & if you want to say izzy resonates with transmasc fans for that reason or even that he can be read as a transmasc METAPHOR that's great.

but he doesn't make any sense as a guy who is LITERALLY trans for a simple reason which is that figuring out you're trans requires knowing yourself and one of izzy's main personality traits is being the least self-aware person on the planet. a version of izzy who was capable of enough introspection to realize he was trans never would have done any of the shit he does in the first season at all. if izzy were afab he would have never figured out he wasn't a woman let alone found the courage to do anything about it, he would have just become even more fucked up and bitter and mean than he already is while wearing dresses and hating them. he'd be cersei lannister.

there's one and only one reading of izzy as literally trans that makes any sense which is if he's transFEM and only starts to figure it out during calypso's birthday but fandom's not ready for that conversation

#465.

[cgtg]

looking @ all of this godtier stuff, i wanna say i dont rlly think classpecting is all that. it's a fun analytical tool for exploring a character's themeing and role in a narrative. but it's fundamentally impossible to assign an "arc" 2 a living person, & within sburb itself the godtier system has a very questionable view of what its characters arcs mean/should be. like. you can 100% interpret classpects as bullshit within the text.

that being said, again, they're still a fun narrative tool to bring outside of homestuck itself, & if you remove them from the intelligence/structure of SBURB they are rlly fun for vibes-based introspection. they aren't made up of nothing, they have clear inspiration & meaning to hussie.

i view classes like roles in a play. anyone can pick any of them for any reason, multiple at different times even, but you only know for sure if one fits you by playing it. my perspective on it is rly close to funk mclovin's theory.

i view aspects as a bit more immutable bc i feel like they speak to more core traits rather than the shit u operationalise, which is much more up to personal choice.

i have always felt a distinct calling to the space aspect, for well over a decade. i relate heavily to a lot of the core themes it portrays. i could ramble for ages abt that, legit.

the course of picking "witch" has been a progression to me. "seer" encapsulates how i am/was when trapped in passivity both internally & externally. relegated to a problem solver, advice friend, helper. a role which i perform well but am deeply unfulfilled & drained in.

the "witch" class encapsulates my fundamental need to have my own autonomy, function, control, freedoms in my life for myself & not for others. that is ultimately what i desire to be, & i feel that the "witch" encapsulates it well. i also fuck heavily with the archetypal "lonesome magician who is feared & revered for their wisdome and power" character. kid me would've fuckin *loved* being a wicked witchman.

like, i think it's worthwhile to work backwards from what you think of yourself & *then* put the godtier jammies on. bc fundamentally it is impossible to put humanity in all these little boxes, especially when we don't have enough evidence to prove the true validity of those boxes or their limitations. & they purely operate within the limitations of a piece of fiction made by one person.

this is why, although i don't put much stock in the actual system of classpects, my classpect is deeply personal to me. bc it culminates from extensive introspection. i also find it incredibly interesting 2 see how others classpect themselves, bc it is a fundamental expression of the self to place yourself in these grids, & *requires* personal interpretation of the system by a means that *also* says something about you as a person. like, it's a net gain if you're interested in how people live their lives & define themselves, which i am.

uh... basically have fun & be yourself

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

How do you write comedy? I am lost and confused about how to be funny.

I am so flattered, unbelievably so, but also mostly stunned that people would consider me funny enough to be any kind of expert. Thank you, anon.

Though I'm going to say I am not an expert on comedy, and I can only speak for myself here, everyone is more than free to disregard.

That said--

At least for me, it's something I have a hard time putting into words of what's funny and what isn't. I can say "yes" and "no" to something I've written or read, but I can't tell you exactly why. I have no set formula of "if I do this, this, then this, the punchline will be fucking hilarious".

And note a lot of people disagree with me on what is and isn't funny. There's a lot of things people think are hilarious that I'm not too hot on. Friends comes to mind, I have never been able to get into Friends and people I know LOVE IT. I also love It's Always Sunny, which is well-acclaimed--but it's also a show that's not for everyone because it centers around such mean dirtbags of human beings. This isn't a bad thing, to each their own, but it is also something to keep in mind. You're never going to be funny to everyone.

Figure Out What You Like

But I think that's the best advice I can give: figure out what you find funny and try to think of why. What have you watched, and especially what have you read, that's fucking hilarious. The reading bit is important because writing is a completely different medium, and there's no direct translation from different mediums to it. Maintaining the joke with adaptations is difficult and requires a lot of thought about pacing and how it comes across.

But if you first figure out what you've read that's funny, you can then begin to ask yourself why and also how the writer pulled it off.

One thing I'm fond of, which is a reoccurring thing in pretty much everything I've written because I can't help myself, is miscommunication and a lack of introspection.

Character A has some internal goal 1 that for various reasons, mostly due to internalized conflict and stress as well as outside pressures, they must disguise as goal 2. Character B, on the other hand, genuinely has goal 2, and has no idea that Character A thinks any differently.

Therefore, Character A is in an increasingly desperate spiral trying to maintain the illusion that they want goal 2, which turns out to be diametrically opposed to what they really want of goal 1, while Character B either has no fucking idea or is slowly wondering "Does... Character A really want goal 2? They have to. Why would they lie about this? That's ridiculous".

I love that shit.

Some of the funniest stuff in the world to me.

Other things include Character A is in an awkward situation, some terrible polite nonsense, but they can't leave because then everyone would think they're rude, so they have to pretend they're enjoying themselves at this stupid dinner party, oh god.

And then the good old reliables like "Character A is confidently and consistently wrong and--oh--oh no--you want--hm--Character A has to prove it right now? Right here? In front of a national audience? And everyone genuinely believes Character A is the world's best expert because Character A has been bragging about this for months. Well." or even just "Character A says something so, so, stupid".

Never underestimate the comedic power of someone saying something really, really stupid.

But that's me, figure out what makes you laugh and try to figure out what it is about it.

Keep Characters Consistent/The Joke is in Service of the Story

This one's a bit more specific, and obviously people are free to disagree, but comedy works best when you know where you are and who's there.

Even for things that rely on a lot of gags like old Looney Toons, it works because Bug's Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, everyone is consistent.

If someone acts outside the realm of what they'd naturally do just for the sake of a joke, the joke doesn't work, it falls flat. It becomes "he would not fucking do this" and your audience just gets distracted.

Similarly, you can have a great joke going on, and it can even deviate from the plot/not wholly be necessary, but that has to be done very carefully otherwise it comes off feeling pointless and unnecessary. It shouldn't turn the characters into people they're not, and shouldn't take the audience so far out of the story they feel like they were slapped with a wet fish.

Don't Write Too Much but Don't Write Too Little

Timing is everything in comedy. A great joke can fall apart if it isn't delivered correctly.

Of course, "write gud" applies to everything else like prose, dialogue, and narrative, it's not exactly groundbreaking advice--but in terms of comedy for me the thing to watch for is a) if the joke takes too long/is explained in too much detail b) if it's not explained enough and the reader misses it.

In the case of (a), in writing, a joke can easily get bogged down by words. I can't tell you what is and isn't too many words, but it's one of those things you know when you see it, mainly that there's so much on the page that the readers forget the joke even happened. It gets buried which kills the joke.

The joke also dies if you repeat it too much, if in the prose or dialogue it consistently comes up and is reused, not so much as a running gag but a "did you get the joke?!" It's surprisingly easy to do and something to always watch out for.

However, in the case of (b), you have to have enough words on the page to convey the joke to the audience. You don't want to bury it or treat your audience like idiots, but they also do have to have enough to go on to realize a joke happened.

TL;DR

Watch and read stuff, learn by example

[turn-my-hollow-purple]

Assigning AOT Characters Rap Songs From my Rap Playlist

idk this might be too niche... just tryna put out content while fighting for my life in college finals. Anyway, never falling for a man again because FUCK

Eren: "Revenge by XXXTENTACION; everyone... just listen to the lyrics for a second thank yew. I really have little to elaborate on this one idk

Mikasa: "PRIDE." by Kendrick Lamar; I think just the intro line sums it up so well... 'love's gonna get you killed, but pride's gonna be the death of you , and you, and me'. She is the best, and she knows it, but she can't let her love for Eren get in the way of being the best or else everyone's dead

Armin: "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem; chat if I elaborate on this one I might start crying, thanks. Just listen to it... after he kinda took over for Erwin and everything like fuck happiness... 'that was never my object for someone to get killed. why would I wanna destroy something I helped build?' or 'down-talking a man who literally saved my life'. Just gonna leave that there...

Jean: "HUMANS AND MONSTERS' by Lil Darkie; alright this might be controversial but he would fucking vibe soooo hard to this song. It's chaotic and loud and slightly conspiracy theory-coded and he likes that... especially the lyric "and if I was you, I would just quit. And if I was me, I am me, I'm glad I'm me"

Connie: "Me and Your Mama" by Childish Gambino (he's my fav rapper y'all); It's funny and chaotic and omg the beat drop. Yeah, Connie would eat this shit up like actually and he knows every single word

Sasha: "PICK IT UP" by Famous Dex and A$AP Rocky; this song is also pure chaos and vulgar lyrics and she loves that about it. It's a lot like Connie's song and the two vibe so hard with one another to these songs. She screams 'A BAD BITCH PUERTO RICAN!' every time she hears this song

Erwin: "Chapter 319" by clipping; I don't think this requires too much of an explanation? it's a very clear government-hate song and that's just so Erwin. He's on that anti-government, anti-police, protesting agenda or whatever. 'This government doesn't respect us'

Levi: "No Church in the Wilde" by Jay-Z/Kanye West; I just think it's such a badass, rebellious concept of a song for someone fighting... specifically the lyric 'what's a god to a non-believer, who don't believe in anything'

Hange: "tv off" by Kendrick Lamar; Hange loves the scream portion of this song where he just goes 'MUSTARDDDDDDDDDD' like that's their favorite part. They're a big fan of the chaos and heart that are Kendrick's lyrics and beat

Annie: "Demons" by Doja Cat; I think Annie is a bigggg Doja stan and she sits here and listens to "Demons" and is like 'yeah how do my demons look, bitch?'... it's a little confidence, bad-ass boost song for her

Reiner: "Goosebumps" by Travis Scott; this fits his kinda depressed, self-loathing nature that (in a way) relies on other people and its laidback. "With my squad I can do no wrong" is a nod to Annie and Bertholdt I fear

Bertholdt: "Lucid Dreams" by Juice WRLD; it's introspective and guilt-ridden which reflection Bertholdt well

Ymir: "Heartless" by Kanye West; this shows her care-free, badass, bitch personality because she really doesn't care about anyone except herself (excluding Historia of course)

Historia: "Sober" by Childish Gambino (I had to have my fav make an appearance again); I like this song for her because it's kind of an upbeat feel with sad lyrics which feels a lot like her as a character. And tbh, I think after everything happened with Ymir she has a hard time forgetting about and coping with everything unless she isn't sober

[skylar-325]

Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Read Through

Ch 93- 110

Beginning: Ch1-10

———

She looked between Yoo Joonghyuk's black coat and my white coat before opening her mouth. "By the way, are you a couple?"

> no it’s just their fated bond transcending time and reality that leads them to become the ultimate black-white character design duo yes they are a couple

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is delighted for an unknown reason.]

> URIEL SAME

[A constellation who likes to change gender has shining eyes.]

Did this constellation appear in Ways of Survival? I thought I should look through the novel soon.

> I…should I keep an eye on this constellation too? Cuz kdj said the same thing about SP and SP is suspicious as hell

what…. does this constellation enable mpreg?

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is controlling the constellation who likes to change gender.]

> well damn maybe they did XD

just imagining uriel in the chat room going “shh don’t say anything you might spoil the angst and misunderstandings arc before they start dating”

"We are eating a salad?" "Of course not. I'll burn it."

> kdj: ofc not what do you think i am, a vegan?

I glanced over at Han Sooyoung, who was still eating. "Hey. You have eaten a lot so get up." "Why?"

> hsy, my girl, i love you but a couple of chapters ago you were a talking head and nearly killed all of kdj’s friends

[Insignificant human.] I wiped the blood flowing from my mouth and grinned.

> kinky mfer

[A trivial human dares to threaten the great stars?]

> are you like…new here? dudes been doing that like it’s his sunday book club fan casting side characters for a live action

[Then I will ask the last question. How did you notice that we were watching?]

"I read a book well."

> talking to kdj in an apocalypse must be so frustrating. anytime someone asks him “holy shit you saved my life with this incredibly specific and circumstantial information” and dude goes “ meh i just read a book” like i’d think he was fucking crazy or the second coming of christ

"The lover who forgot you. Naxos Island. The love affair afterwards… shall I continue?" [S-Stop! I understand so stop!]

> damn not kdj airing out her dirty laundry, dude what happened to girl code?

Parasite Queen Antinus frowned as she looked at her body. The newest body she required was an Imyuntar.

> what the…SHE’S ALIVE?

A familiar aura was felt. It was a power that she felt from the insect kings species found on Chronos in the past.

"You will be the first insect!" The boy, Lee Gilyoung laughed at Antinus.

>wait…WAIT

what the fuck is going on

why my boy giving final boss 😭

"…It means that after some time, I can see it as someone else's writing. Ultimately, every human is their own writer."

> damn hsy is a lot more introspective than i realised

–Han Donghoon: hyung, are you okay?

> AWWWWWW

About to add him to my list of good bois with gilyoung

It was a blanket. She must've grabbed it from the area because she was afraid we were cold.

> MY BBY 😭

[Some constellations dislike the burning of the sweet potatoes.] [The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is getting out some cider to go with the sweet potatoes¹.]

> they’re…they’re talking about killing a child to save seoul and these bitches are having a picnic

"You are probably the worst person in Seoul." "As bad as Joker or Thanos?"

> oh my god my heart

Thus, I would prevent this child's death for Yoo Joonghyuk.

> 🥺

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' encourages you to take care of your incarnation.]

> he has a kid now 😭 take care of your kid dokja 😭

Of course, there was one constellation who was unclear. [The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is watching your strategy with interest.]

> seriously what is up with this dude

"I chose you." Shin Yoosung's eyes shook at my words. "I chose you instead of Seoul. I don't regret it."

> ok so like fuck me right 😭 😭 😭

"What do you think about my looks? Especially when compared to Yoo Joonghyuk."

Han Sooyoung looked at me like bugs had entered her ears.

>LMFAO

[A windy constellation is looking at you like you are pathetic.]

>HEY ! everyone needs reassurance man even dokja XD

Shin Yoosung bowed her head like she was embarrassed. "…I don't have any talent." If she didn't have talent then I should just kill myself.

>ayo you’re starting to sound like your husband

"I believe in you more than the future that hasn't come yet."

> Dokja really killing it with these one liners

"Hey, I have a question." "You are ugly."

> HAHAHA

I suddenly had a thought. Perhaps I was a bit lucky that she was here. At least I wasn't alone in knowing that this world was a 'novel'.

> ok seriously stop. i’m writing an angst fic rn and there’s a limit to how much i can take 😭

「 Reading a book doesn't mean you will understand people. 」

> ouch

「 She didn't know if they would be enemies or not the next time they met. 」

> is she…writing a fic on her and dokja? XD

[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' congratulates you on your first contract.]

> awwwww cute

"He knows." Jung Heewon looked at the sky with a slightly disgruntled expression. "Somehow, I think he is watching me right now." 」

>why does dokja have chemistry with EVERYONE

"This mongrel…" "Don't talk to me, you worm bastard."

> whoa whoa KIDS

damn dokja you gotta teach them better 😭

> FIFTY? dokja got fifty offers holy shit. in this economy?

Shin Yoosung stared above my head in a blank manner and muttered, "Ahjussi, you are like a Christmas tree."

> Yoosung you precious precious child

[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is looking at the constellation 'Scribe of Heaven'.]

> oooooh the girls are fighting

>shit run dokja RUN

———

Next: ch101-120

Previous: Ch 73-92

Beginning: Ch1-10

[widogasted]

modern au mollymauk thoughts on this blog? you may be surprised

ok so i am a notorious modern au hater (i just don't find them interesting and i find that often people strip characters down in uninteresting ways to make them fit the new setting) but, ironically, i LOVE thinking about modern au m9. and @skysybil and i were chatting about the time they once spent in the trenches and the ways various people modernize mollymauk/the tealeaves' Whole Shit and i realized.

i, historically, am iffy on "modern au mollymauk is just plural," because i prefer modernizations that still fit the theme of the character. and also i think that a modern au mollymauk frankly would not have access to or interest in the degree of psychiatric testing or introspection required for that realization to set in. HOWEVER.

i did realize. i do, for the same reason, love "undiagnosed and semi-blissfully unaware plural mollymauk tealeaf." that's gorgeous.

lucien's frustrated because molly keeps coming to front and talking about their gender crisis, that lucien is not having. molly comes to front and hates being referred to as lucien, thinks it is part of the gender crisis, and says the only way they'll tolerate it is if their friends use the nickname luci. lucien returns and hates this. kingsley is the only one who knows they're a system and talks about it to a friend and then asks molly or lucien about it another day and they go What. No I Never Said That. lucien keeps forgetting the passwords to his email and his mobile banking app and getting mad at SOMEONE, but can't place who. they are throwing away their wardrobe and stealing it back out of their own trash. they've forgotten to pay rent 3 times this year. all of them know SOMETHING is probably going on, but nobody wants to do any sort of personal introspection. lucien changes his mobile banking app password again.

[bam-monsterhospital]

Verner Vogel thoughts...

verner vogel is such a great villain. like yes, a good character in general, but agh what a fantastic villain.  let me try and parse it into words and coherent sentences hang on.  (obviously, spoilers for the game “Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One” below)

I think what struck me first about him, realizing his danger, is that he is competent.

He’s an art snob that waxes poetic about philosophy-

Wait come back, i see you rolling your eyes and getting up from your chairs, hold on though.

He’s an art snob that waxes poetic about philosophy, and he actually knows his shit.  I’m not talking just art-shit, techniques and people and style and all that, but the sociopolitical movements behind the art; y’know, the world-feelings art reflects and inspires.  He curates art, he paints, he has a vast collection of pieces and network of people he knows in and around the industry.  He fulfills every vapid (no shade, i myself am also a visual artist) norm and requirement for involvement in the art world... but there is substance underneath.  The aesthetics, the surface-level existence of the art world hollows out a person; it cares only for what is shown up front but fails to delve deeper. It does not care about ‘deeper’, has no use for ‘deeper’.  As much as individual creators might want their works to inspire further critical thought and introspection, at the end of the day art is most valued for its ability to entertain.  All flash, no substance.

Of course, Verner knows this, seems to have made that discovery a LONG while ago (the air he carries feels tired and familiar with his world) while passing through the jaded artist phase that tends to result right after, and has taken to this superficial existence like wildfire, embracing the decadence of it all.  And yeah here we get into an actual artistic, literary, and as such technically philosophical movement that happened in the real world with its own critiques that people to this day continue to misinterpret (even the word ‘decadent’ itself is grossly misused. constantly), so go wiki the decadent movement as i’m trying to hold back writing a gaddamn novel, adhd-brain-spiraling out of control about it.

Verner delights in rot and decay.  Verner embodies rot and decay, but specifically the parasitic rot and decay of those who abuse their power: he is (yes i know he’s german) british colonialism and how it has left cordona, he is the waste from kurt manchios’ excessive parties as manchios’ son starves, the culture of (white, cismale, british) entitlement that led to the rape of a refugee woman with no consequences, the apathy towards an animal’s suffering at human hands, and so on and so forth.  Verner is a representative of this rot and also a curator of it, literally AND figuratively.  He is self-aware.  As I’ve said before, Verner is not mindless, he’s not a fool.  He’s competent.  Unlike most willingly and inadvertently partaking in a decadent lifestyle, Verner knows full well what’s left in the wake of such excess.  He’s not horrified by it; it might at first seem like he doesn’t care at all --like most who partake in it-- and just hopes to gain small glints of fulfillment from a shallow wasteful lifestyle.  But as i already said, he does care: the process fascinates him.

And i’m not just talking physical degradation. I’m not even talking just about waste.  Vogel also delights in corruption; in the rot one person can influence in another psychologically.  This what his relationship with Sherlock boils down to: Verner Vogel wants to know how far he can push and nudge and influence a psychological breakdown.  He wants to take the shiny surface of a person that is barely keeping back turbulant waters underneath, and poke some holes, allowing gradual leaking and eventual overflow.  The historic tie between Vogel and Holmes’ families being a poetic bonus.

I’m gonna stop there, because i wanted to go into the thematic counterbalance Verner provides against Sherlock’s worldview and relationship with ‘truth/reality/information’, but things are long enough and this has sat in my drafts for way too long as is.  Maybe I’ll do a part-2 or something later.

[real-total-drama-takes]

i think its really incredible how much fandom seems to love autistic hcs and trans hcs and sexuality hcs until that character is a woman then they dont care at all. unless they hc that female character as transmasc then they care a little bit but only if its a caricature they see 0 problem with.

idk i just see this all the time and people "combat it" by saying um well i hc (male character) as transfem so i care about women duh!!! then they do nothing to actually hint that they genuinely see that character as anything other than male🫣 im tired out here. where are my transbian (insert male character) believers that dont even actually give that much of a shit about them because there are TONS of options for interesting female characters to latch onto with 0 hoops to jump through required.

just like, the way i see it if you feel the need to hc something just for the sake of diversity points "i love women and yuri! i love (male character arbitrarily so called head canoned as transfem) and (most popular f/f ship in the fandom)!!" you should do some self introspection and see if you actually give a shit or just dont want to get people annoyed at you for your shitty opinions.

i guess i just want more transparency. if you dont give a shit about a group of people dont be preformative as hell so i can gauge that and decide youre a weirdo i dont like. obviously this post does not apply to everyone making trans girl hcs, i just raise my eyebrows a little bit if 0 of your content about said character revolves around that aspect of them you catch my drift

[cambrianboyesque]

top 10 changes i would make to mha act 3

shigaraki alive my guy izuku saved him and also would stop rationalizing saving him as saving a child when shigaraki himself also deserves that and also toga alive like what do you mean she died of blood loss when compress lost his whole arm in act 2 and was completely fine be so for real with me and also dabi alive i don’t like it when suicidal characters achieve their goal and its seen as something sad but also good and redeeming and not a complete tragedy as it is

endeavor dies saving shoto like he was originally meant to in the plf arc this is not because i hate endeavor personally i actually think that he is interesting he just takes up too much space in act 3 that could be spent on other characters (in the todoroki family reunionm especially like just make it about dabi and shoto and also the space he leaves behind as a man that didnt finish his redemption journey could have been really interesting esp if later this could be paralleled with bakugo dying and still Getting to finish his own redemption journey)

part 2 really set up the hspc (groomers) the plf (ableists) and afo (groomer again but villain coded💯) as the actual villains while humanizing the league and i think they should have stuck with that dismantling of the whole system or at least an attempt at this because it could have led to some kind of parallel between said league and all of the kids used in wars some of which literally die

ok actually about the child soldier thing. first i would have definitely made aizawa less chill with that because uh looks at oboro and the rest of his character. second in the plf arc there was definitely setup for that to be revealed as fucked up where izuku is like yeah none of the work study students were reported as fighting when a lot of them did actually. i wonder what that means. and there are all of the contrasts between some higher up at the hspc being like hooray another villain is defeated 😁 and it cuts to the kid that had to do that completely beat up and traumatized beyond belief. if the final battle had better pacing then maybe it would have allowed for enough time to have an introspection into that

also i would have changed the vigilante deku arc that could have definitely led to some System Introspection had it been allowed to play out longer. like idk they could have had a plot of izuku slowly starving to death and fighting villains and exploring the underbelly of society while the other ofa users are like yeah this is really similar to how it was when i was alive the era of peace is truly over this is the true origin of heroes theyre only a temporary fix etc etc and then the b plot of class 1a being like Hey maybe we shouldnt have been asked to fight in that war and im kind of traumatized now and where is deku and why aren’t the heroes looking for him??? and its resolution would still be the class 1a fight and it would still be about izuku’s self destructive shit and the bakugo apology would still happen BUT there would also be a solidarity between the whole class that the idea that all of them were supposed to fill the shoes of the symbol of peace instead of idk the adults was fucked up (and it could maybe address the idea that all might was also shoved into all this as a kid hence why he thought he had to take another kid under his wing despite never really growing up but idk)

i think afo’s death could also be a choice. not to take inspiration from kipo and toh but the irredeemable villain could still have a chance to accept the hand reaching out to him, but because of yk. Who He Is and what an awful rancid ancient dusty orphan of a human being he’s become he doesnt accept that hand (which would uhhh circle back to how accepting help requires just as much strength as giving it) and dies because of it. don’t know how or why this would happen logistically but it would be #epic

and beyond that the story could address ofa as something born out of hope but also something flawed. the heroes were born out of hope but ultimately flawed. the idea helped lots of people survive and inspired even more but in the end it was flawed. from heroes spawns villains. and the person that started it was abused and neglected and hurting but it doesnt have to be that way now. none of this is the way it has to be. we have to see the rotten core of the system in order to truly ‘defeat evil’ rather than focus only on its symptoms

tldr horikoshi should have stuck to his themes of don’t groom children+anyone can be a hero+never stop trying to reach out and understand and if he wanted the second part to be more grounded in reality than the first one then he should have continued that in part three and he should have had deku have emotional catharsis finally. closes my eyes forever

[moodybluemood]

truly wild to me that i first got the idea for that fic about six-to-eight years ago

i really do want to finish it one day, even if it might be awhile

unfortunately, getting wrapped up in fandom burned me out pretty bad. vento fandom was wild. i got over-invested in stupid shit and probably was kind of flippant at times. it made me feel like a bug under glass. i don't do well in fandoms. i get burned out really easily. there seemed to be constant drama going on and that really drags things down, man.

more importantly, i'm also just not that into jjba anymore. idk. maybe i need to do a reread. i do reread jojolands when it comes out. i got into jjba during a really weird, very stressful part of my life to have a distraction that didn't require a lot of brain energy, but i'm older now, out of that stressful situation, and don't really have the same motivations to write. i got dogs to pet. i have a partner who i love very much. i'm busy playing little games and talking to my friends.

mostly, as mentioned, jjba was something i started getting into because i needed something kind of silly at the time (that's not an insult) but i don't need that anymore. i'm getting into series i like on their own merits. it turns out i don't really like shonen as a whole.

i kind of lost track of what i was doing with some parts of it tbh. my original notes have vanished into the aether. i need to do a big reread but it's a huge commitment, so i haven't done it. there's storylines in there that i wish didn't overcomplicate the plot and pairings that i started setting up that i'm kind of meh on now. too many characters. some story beats that i don't think i executed well and some i don't think i was actually the best qualified to handle. fundamentally it does seem like an inherently silly thing to write an introspective fic series about depression and cycles of abuse under the guise of the funny punchghost anime but also existence is fundamentally silly, so like, whatever man, i don't really regret that part. might not have chosen abbacchio as the protagonist if i was going to write the whole thing today.

maybe i'll release a broadstrokes outline of what i was planning on doing some day idk. the series has been in progress so long that honestly if anyone ever finds this post and wants to know the spoilers, i'll just tell them. parts of it may seem anticlimatic and that's because the whole death fic was originally just a setup for the part that i really wanted to write.

i miss geun and stefano, my not-OCs. they are very dear to me. i want to do something with them but they're ultimately so tied to the canon fates of sorbet and gelato that it's hard to adapt them to other settings. like, they're technically not my ocs but let's be honest, they're OCs in every way but design and name.

i have more thoughts and feelings on my forays into writing here but also then i will ramble for five pages, so let's cut it down now. we're writing this stream of conscious style baby and this brain is t i r e d.

[chewydolls]

QSMP x Ever After High characters that remind me of them

Quackity x Duchess Swann

Bitchy ™

Quackity/ElQ and White Swan/Black Swan parallels

Yearning for romantic love

Resented guys who think they were doomed from the start to be unlovable, cursed to stay at the sideline watching with jealousy as their peers get the happy ending they could never hope to achieve

They actually have the means to take agency over their fate, but this requires some healing and introspection that the respective villains from their worlds are direct or indirectly preventing them from doing

Still, happiness most likely won't come in the way they fantasize bout

Feathers? Birbs??? Idk

Jaiden x Briar Beauty

They're both associated with roses

Their arcs are shaped by grief: in Briar's case the certainty of outliving all her friends makes her mourn the life she knows while they're still alive; and Jaiden was deeply shaken by Bobby's death

That doesn't stop them from aligning themselves with the very oppresive organization that stood by and let the tragedy happen, but:

a) They are hurt and going with what is familiar to them

b) They will be chaotic af about it

Agent of chaos aligning with Order can you picture that

They're bffs with figures that uphold the status quo, to varying degrees of how much power they actually have in the grand scheme of things (Cucurucho and Apple)

Isolation is a big theme in the Sleeping Beauty story, and that resonates a lot with Jaiden's arc and how she got close to Cucurucho at her lowest point vs how Briar tries to stay loyal to the Royals even when it hurts her and her closest friends, because Apple is her bestie and was always there for her

Roier x Briar Beauty (again)

A mimir

The whole Animations family is very Briar-coded, actually

Everything I said about Briar's grief works for him, especially the part of mourning people who are still alive bc the threat of being the last person standing weights over them

Just... the concept of being the last person alive as your kingdom is ruined and the vines break the beautiful stained glass of your castle and your bed is covered in thorns ✨️

"Living in fear is not living" vs "If I'm gonna sleep for a hundred years, I've got to live it up now!"

They're so good at keeping a "silly guy" act that few people can tell when they're actually sad

Outgoing and charismatic personality but still end up feeling isolated

Special little guy shipped with the confrontational, off-putting little freak (Spiderbit, Briar/Faybelle)

Pac x Blondie Lockes

I'll give it to you they're not that similar but:

Chisme? Gossip?? Fofoca???

Pros at breaking and entering

Drawn to scary creatures with sharp teeth

Cellbit x Alistair Wonderland

You thought I was gonna pair him with Raven, right? Wrong!

Men only know how to do 3 things: solve puzzles, play chess and be absolutely smitten for their partners

Came to the island/eah by accident and immediately got in the nerves of the authorities

Both were abandoned in a dangerous land by the people who later became their found family (not his friends fault, in Alistair's case, totally justifiable in Cellbit's)

In the unlikely scenario where I did pair him with Raven, Felps would 100% be his Maddie, k?

Felps x Maddie Hatter

I'm not doing 1:1 crossover but Alistair/Cell being besties with Maddie/Felps works too i guess

Chaotic, unpredictable, barely comprehensible, they will encourage their bffs to be the best version of themselves while also enabling them to do the dumbest shit possible

Part of a weird polycule that by all means shouldn't be there but they decided to make it everyone else's problem

Signature Food (pasta/tea)

Tina x Cerise Hood

Deeply self-conscious about their identity, hiding under a semblance of innocence so no one notices their monstrous/demon heritage

Actively hiding a part of themselves (horns/ears)

Despite that, they still instigate their friends to be unhinged, as long as they can be on their good side

[piratefalls]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Game

i wasn't directly tagged but i have put off the open tag from @ejunkiet long enough and i'm also bored, so since i'm sure a ton of people have already done this i won't tag anyone, but if you do it i want to see it!

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

an even 40.

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

just shy of 170k, which absolutely blows my mind because it doesn't seem like that's possible.

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

previously hawaii five-0 and teen wolf, but i'm currently attempting to write for red, white and royal blue.

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

all are teen wolf except one, but in order: (Waiting) Until the Sky Falls Down on Me; Today and Every Day; I'm Gonna Give All My Secrets Away; Man, Interrupted; and it's my (pants) party and i'll cry if i want to. this gives a pretty comprehensive idea of what i'm about lol.

5 - Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i'm usually very good about it but they used to build up and i get anxious thinking about responding to all of them lol. but i love responding to them when i can!

6 - What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i don't really do angsty endings? i just went back and checked every ending and if it's not entirely happy it's at least hopeful lmao. i don't think it's in me to do angsty endings.

7 -What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i've got a lot of happy endings but i'm gonna have to go with The Comedy (Is That It's Serious) because that fic was really just me dealing with my mom having and then beating cancer and that kind of feels like the happiest ending.

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

i never gotten hate, but i did get someone telling me to make changes now that we knew what happened in canon (i speculated about sibling names) and it was just a weird thing to suggest.

9 - Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i have, but it's not my most favorite thing to do? i have to be in a very specific mood and it has to be necessary. i don't think i can write pwp lol. i don't think i've written smut that wasn't some form of connection/expression of love.

10 - Do you write crossovers?

i don't. i do enjoy a good crossover though!

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

one was posted to goodreads during that whole fiasco and i had it taken down, but man did the comments on that hurt lol. i don't write because i think i'm particularly good at it, i do it for fun. so yeah that kind of sucked but occasionally i was like "yeah that's fair lol"

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

not to my knowledge, but i'd love it!

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

i haven't! i'd love to someday. i think i do my best when i can collaborate/bounce ideas off someone.

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

i mean in terms of bookmarks, 1000% sterek. firstprince is very much up there. kastle is my all time favorite het ship and i'll never forgive the fact that we didn't get them outright confessing their feelings. never. mcdanno is there too. (i made a lot of friends from the mcdanno fandom.) once upon a time i'd have said destiel but that fandom really tainted that for me.

15 - What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

hahahahahaha i talk about this one on a semi-regular basis, but i have like 13k of a post-series Person of Interest fic that i'm probably never gonna finish but it's got some really good shit in it. i've thought about reworking it to make it an au for another fandom but it's so deeply reese and finch that i'd have to rewrite every piece of dialogue. and it would require people having seen the show because it won't make any damn sense without it. (i'd consider sharing it though.)

16 - What are your writing strengths?

introspection and character analysis, for sure. i love just kind of flaying a character open and digging into their thoughts and feelings and what motivates them. the most fun. also writing really off the wall shit. it hasn't failed me yet lol.

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

any kind of worldbuilding. i also don't think i'm particularly good at smut but i'm also not using cringe euphemisms (the worst one i've ever read was "chocolate star" and i'll let you imagine what that was describing, if i have to know it so do you) so i'll say my smut is at least passable lol.

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i mean, it's fine? i don't really think about it much except when i have to go all the way down to the notes section to figure out what's being said and then jump back to where i left off. whatever happened to doing that thing where you hover over the phrase and the translation pops up above it?

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

first fandom i ever published for was teen wolf. first attempt at anything was criminal minds. it didn't go well.

20 - Favorite fic you've written?

so going back to 16, the things i had the most fun writing were, for introspection, definitely Written in the Scars on Our Hearts (about all the ways a person can be touched either physically or emotionally), and for off the wall, Got Your Body On My Mind (I Want It Bad) because that venn diagram joke is some of my best work. the comments section was so great lol.

[twinkboimler]

hii 💫💞💌 i love your fics youre a very cool writer

Aw thank you!

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

I love hearing what specific lines or scenes made readers lose their entire shit. like, a comment saying "this sentence made me throw my phone" is one of the biggest compliments in the world to me

💞what’s the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

The characters for sure. I think if you were to compare all of my fics, you would find that there's a lot of focus on the characters. My fics tend to have a lot of introspection and even the fics that aren't character studies still tend to have that vibe. That being said, I'm trying to shift my focus to plot and writing fics that are plot-heavy. The character stuff is still important, but I'm interested in trying something new with my writing.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

I finished my first draft to my mcspirk undiscovered country fic! I'd planned for it to be 8k and it finished at 15k. whoops. Hoping to have that edited and posted by the end of the month! It's the sequel to shore leave at yosemite, take two. I'm considering writing a 3rd or 4th part and making this a proper series, but that requires me finally watching Generations :/

Thanks anon!

fic writer emoji asks

[rpctattler]

and then it's somehow not good enough because you'd rather have the narrative that poc just aren't liked and we're all just bigots who don't find black people attractive. // you using poc as a placeholder and then immediately singling out black people as the faces of color you don’t find attractive tells me everything i need to know.

// actually, it didn't tell you shit. because that's directly lifted from an earlier part of the conversation. july 15th, post tag /789157259997478912. i'll save you the trouble of looking it up since you're probably more eager to dissect this whole post for one line for a gotcha moment:

"I'm a white person. I roleplay white characters, because I can't relate to or imagine POC struggles and don't feel comfortable risking doing it a disservice. What the hell is so wrong with that? // literally no one is wtiting about struggles related to race in roleplaying their meet cute tomance rps so this is not a valid excuse and you are just bullshitting. write more people of color in your 1x1s and one liner comms. request more people of color to write against. take or make opens with faces of color. it is not hard. you just don’t want to do it because you don’t find people of color attractive."

it was used because that's literally what someone else said and because so much of the discourse has focused on lack of black representation. it's like i was putting all of the earlier topics together, what an idea to loop 900 threads together. but go ahead and ignore the content of the post and any culpability in the larger issue and just complain it's because we don't like you because we're bigots and lazy and coddled toddlers. (: you can keep telling yourself we're just stomping our feet and you're being villainized for calling out bad behavior, if it makes you feel better and doesn't break your carefully crafted victimhood that doesn't require any introspection of yourself, but that's literally not what any of us are talking about when we're saying we don't want to be ripped to shreds and cancelled for writing a poc while white.

we aren't whining about it. we are literally giving you the answer to the question asked about why so many white people are hesitant to play poc. the environment for it is fucking hostile, that's why; just look at the fucking quoted post up there. they were being respectful and that was the energy it was met with? it's not that we don't like you.

you don't like us.

poc communities have told us to stay out of their various spaces for years -- physical, virtual, cultural, etc. what do you expect?

.