#tldr; not dead and i'll be okay eventually :)

[abracadav-r]

"Okay, makes sense, but also what the fuck is going on with Vhaeraun's lore anyway😭

It still baffles me that it looks almost like they don't know what they want or what they're doing with him. At least that's the impression the current canon gave me the last time my mutual shared random bits of lore with me"

@mmigrainee

I think this is likely to go longer than a reply comment allows, so I'll put it here. Won't be citing as much as usual since I'm on mobile and the app likes throwing tantrums when I go in and out of it but here's the Cliff Notes version:

2e Vhaeraun has an entirely different depiction. His entries in Demihuman Deities and other 2e books by parties like Ed Greenwood depict him as a power that—while lesser to Lolth—is successfully able to convert followers from Lolth and skirt around the margins of Menzoberranzan as a noticeable threat to the Church of Lolth.

Then we get Cunningham's novels, where the Vhaeraunites and their centers of power are depicted in very shallow ways thoughtless to his existing lore (his followers have sex slaves and prowl after women) this also starts the "Evermeet's take on this is now taken is as good as the official timeline rather than a bardic version intended to please the court of an elf nation with its own problematic history".

These depictions continue into 3e onward, leaving most depictions of Vhaeraun and his followers as slavers, sex pests, genociders et al and most notes of egalitarianism are removed from him and either disappear entirely or are reassigned to other parties, especially in the era where we have storylines focusing on the "redemption of drow".

4e comes around and Hasbro wants to streamline and thinks too many gods are annoying and they want everything Lolth all the way down. Lady Penitent comes out and kills everyone but Lolth in stupid ways and 4e pushes that all drow convert or die. Every underdark city that isn't Menzoberranzan might as well no longer exist, assuming they didn't outright eradicate it with whatever reason they spun up to have unopposed rule.

In between, Ed and others are consulting. Their work is cut by editors but more recently they've said there was plans to have the twins return as archfey in a campaign after their deaths, returning to their origins.

That lore never gets published, so we move into 5e with them still dead or just reappearing like a lot of gods did with no justification. Hasbro doesn't want to do the worldbuilding work they did in 2e-3e so they just leave everything with a big hole turn in it. You guys only care about the Sword Coast, right?

Ed eventually gets asked on Candlekeep about it and spins up a narrative that Mystra interfered in Vhaeraun's attempted assassination in Lady and behind the scenes, grabs the twins and pulls them into the weave in torpor essentially. They weren't dead, pretending at it, which is why the Skulkers of Vhaeraun received spells. This may be tied to the Demon Weave content in 4e's Council of Spiders, perhaps Mystra wanted Lolth to feel confident and overextend, which helped knock her down from a Greater Power to a Lesser Power in 5e.

Ed continues on this, saying the twins have reached an "understanding" and now won't be directly opposing each other, though members of each church may.

tldr: Hasbro doesn't really give a shit about a consistent narrative, they just want to republish books every 5-10 years with the same three paragraphs and it really shows in 5e when the original creator has to come out and say "yeah I hear you guys and had plans that I now can't really talk about due to NDA but here's something new to try and fix the gaping hole."

[hils79]

Hils Watches Imitation - Ep 5 (part 1)

Wait, who?

I'm glad someone said it

Wait. Let me check I've got this right. Was Annie dating Eun Jo? And handsome CEO dad was a Shax manager at the time and was the last one to see her before she died? They are dumping a lot of exposition in this first 5 mins

Ah, okay. It definitely was Annie then. Was I supposed to know this and just missed it somehow?

She's literally camping outside his hotel room. Just because she's president of the fanclub that doesn't make this any less creepy and gross

Ryeok's manager is the MVP of this drama. Saying what we're all thinking

Because she liiiiiiiikes him

LMAO sorry your bestie had to watch you kissing another man on a screen at the cinema

I know I shouldn't laugh but Yujin dance practicing out of spite is becoming a common theme. Angry about something? Dance about it. It's just a shame that the only things that seem to motivate him are his feelings for Ma Ha and his jealousy of Ryeok. I'd love to see him do something for himself just because he wants to.

No, dude, literally the opposite of this. Also, does no one in this drama understand what acting it. They keep fixating on the kiss like it was really and they weren't surrounded by cameras and crew. This actually reminds me of something that happened irl when I was about 14

So, story time. When I was at school when I was about 14 the drama club put on a show of Kiss Me Kate. As the title might suggest a kiss between the two leads is a kind of pivotal moment in the show and there was Big Drama because the two leads were exes and the new girlfriend of male lead was Not Happy about the kiss scene. There was talk about toning it down, removing it entirely, all sorts of nonsense. That's literally what this is, execpt these are adults not kids barely into their teens

TLDR Yujin really needs to get over it.

Oh good Ryeok is hallucinating. I'd see a doctor about that, dude.

Oh are we finally going to find out how Ma Ha and Ryeok know each other? This really is the exposition episode.

Hyuk apparently also shares my concern that Ryeok is having some sort of mental breakdown

He is legit one of the best things about this entire drama

Wait who is that in the frame? Is that Eun Jo? Were they...

Okay so he's not dead then. I don't think. I'm pretty sure this was after he left Shax but honestly I'm very confused about the timeline at this point. Actually his handsome CEO dad is working in the cafe it must be after he left Shax because they left at around the same time

I'm glad the other members are getting solo work too (I'm ignoring that this is usually unlikely for a debut group) and not just Ma Ha.

Seriously, does no one in this drama understand what acting is?

I mean she's very blunt I'll give her that

Of course her photoshoot is with Yujin. They are definitely endgame. I'll pretend to be shocked when it eventually happens.

I love that she's wearing floral grandma dress and he's dressed like this. It's like a nice naive girl falls for a bad boy with a heart of gold

Okay I am here for lesbian fashion designer

This is all very heteronormative but I see how things are going. Ma Ha will get together with Ryeok, Hyunji will get together with Yujun and Lia will get together with this other dude from Shax whose name I can't remember. The dude from SF9 whose character lives in the recording studio (Hongjoong is that you?)

I love her! "He asked to work with me but he was clearly just hitting on me, that asshole."

San and Seonghwa have many talents but I'm not sure drama acting is one of them. I say this with the utmost affection for both of them,

I love that every script he's reading is reminding him of her. He's such a loser but in quite a cute way

Wait, this dude is the leader? I thought Ryeok was the leader!

I love that in his imagination that if Hyuk found out he has feelings for Ma Ha he'd immediately run outside with a megaphone and tell everyone. I really hope Jongho had fun making this his character is amazing

I can see why @jonghoswife1012 loves this so much he looks so good

FML I've hit the image limit already and I've still got another 20 mins to go. See you in part 2 I guess

Part 2

[chiscribbs]

Okay so the httyd thing. I've been so excited to share this idea w/ you you have no idea.

So what I've been thinking, is Hiccup seemed to recover wayyyyyyyyy too fast for someone who's been neglected and ostracized from his entire community most of if not all his life. Like when Stoick comes home from looking for the nest in the first movie, and the villagers are saying things like "congratulations" or "out with the old in with the new" and "good riddance if you ask me" and they're "throwing a party to celebrate" Stoick assumes Hiccup is dead and that Berk is celebrating. Berk hated him that much. So what I'm thinking is, Hiccup has made inventions and stuff, he's been trying to do something that will prove he's one of them, a real Viking, trying to make them like him, and none of it worked. The only thing that made them realize he was worth anything was when he started being himself, but what if Hiccup doesn't see it quite that way. What if he thinks that if they can change their minds that quick to like him, then they might change their minds again if he doesn't stay useful. What if no one apologized to him for how they treated him? Because I don't think anyone did. What if his self esteem is still 6 feet lower than the ground and he's walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. In Gift of the Night Fury we see he feels guilty for Toothless needing him to fly, and so he makes him a new tail that doesn't need a rider. Toothless doesn't want it, but that's not the point. What if Hiccup gives people the option to leave him, because he still thinks its possible that they will. It probably wouldn't be super obvious if he did, but what if he makes them all (Astrid, Tuff and Ruffnut, Fishlegs, Snotlout, maybe even Gobber and Stoick) inventions and things that make it so they don't have to rely on him so much? Leaning a little into Race to the Edge, what if he gives Fishlegs some books he's always borrowing, just as an example. What if they all think he's just being nice, and he's actually trying to make sure they don't need to have him around? This is probably a bit of a stretch, but it's all to say that Hiccup deserved better, and I want the gang to see that and help this boy dig his very very low self esteem out of the hole they buried it in. (Also I like to think that hiccup did this with Gobber when he was younger, because Gobber being the only one who didn't hate him is my emotional support headcannon)

TLDR: What if the gang realized that Hiccup has no self worth and thinks that if everyone could suddenly like him then they could still suddenly hate him?

This might be out of character, but I think all of Berk hating his guts and calling him a screw-up probably did some nasty damage to Hiccup's self esteem, and I want to see that realized and dealt with, because being hated and then suddenly loved might have been a dream come true, but it also probably made him scared it was a dream, and that he will eventually have to wake up.

(Finally getting around to responding to this - sorry it took awhile, I've had my mind on other things and I really didn't want to give a half-brained response when you put so much work into this.)

Ahhhhh, "social outcast genius equating his self-worth to his usefulness in the eyes of others" trope, my beloved.

I will say, my perception of his relationship with the people of Berk was always a bit more on the "he's a nuisance, but he's still family" side of things than out-right hatred. Like the equivalent of a small-town's troubled youth, they don't like him, but he grew up there and he's the village leader's son, so they still have some sense of ownership of him prior to his making them change their minds. If that makes any sense? ...they're Vikings, though, so it's hard to tell the difference sometimes, lol. But, in fairness - it's been awhile since I've watched the first movie, so I'll concede to the freshest memory here. Anyway, that's beside the point-

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this! Hiccup was definitely owed a town apology, at the very least. I understand why they didn't go into that in the movie - limited time, plus the the Stoic-Hiccup relationship was really the core of the conflict, so they opted to focus on that instead - but I agree it would have been nice to see some closure regarding the people of Berk's attitude and treatment towards him. Or some recognition for how it might have affected him after the first movie's conclusion. Because you're absolutely right, that kind of emotional whiplash can be damaging - especially on a teenager who already has considerably low self-esteem.

This does feel pretty in-character for Hiccup, in my opinion, considering the doubts he has in himself as a leader. He neither wanted nor felt right for that job, even when everybody else was sure of his qualifications. So it'd be easy to see him projecting his own doubts in himself on others and assuming they might see things the same way as him. That's the kind of thing that eventually fades as it's repeatedly proven untrue, but it takes time for that reassurance to grow, and the doubts would definitely be pretty prominent at the start. And him wanting to do what's best for everyone else, having the sense of love and responsibility for his community that he has, it makes sense he wouldn't try to hold on too tightly and would instead provide ample opportunity for people to leave if/when they wanted to. (Just like he did with Toothless.)

I think if anybody was gonna pull him out of that, or help him pull himself out of that, it would be Astrid. She'd immediately know something's up - she's always the one to ground him when he's too inside his own head to see things clearly. And unlike his confidence in himself, her confidence in him has never once wavered, she knows he's more capable than he thinks. Astrid also has a much healthier relationship with the rest of Berk, so if anybody can provide some reassurance on the public opinion front, it would be her.

...

All that to say - I like this idea! Very well thought-out and well-considered, imo. I'm not quite as well-versed on the HTTYD world as some people - while I adore the movies, I never quite reached fixation levels of interest in the franchise, for whatever reason - so I can't add too much to this. But I like it and I appreciate you sharing your concept with me! Thanks! :>

[deconstructthesoup]

Hi, hello, good day to you. I would like to pick your brain about the aforementioned OCs.

Starting off with something a bit Doylist: What were the inspirations behind these characters? When did they originate? How did they evolve overtime?

Second one: Tell me abut the twins. Character pairs are interesting, and the more intertwined they are, the juicier it is. And you can't get any closer familial-wise than twins! Of Anatole and Anastasia, who's Corona and who's Ianthe? You piqued my interest greatly with a TLT mention.

And just one more: Give me the love stories. Any characters. Be the TLDR or the whole shebang, I'd like to see them.

Thank you for your consideration.

Literally every single one of them started off as NPCs and/or antagonists in a D&D campaign that ended prematurely. I got too attached and decided to carry them into their own special story (also, I wrote a song for 3B and for HIRO and Percival, and they were both too good to leave in the dust). Stella and the rest of Reject Radio haven't changed much since their inception, mainly because I, uh... never got to play the rest of Reject Radio. However, their personalities and roles became a lot clearer to me after I got into Leverage, and as soon as I decided that Stella was the mastermind of the group, she went from just being a ball of chaos to actually being pretty crafty and cocky.

With the twins... okay, so, Anatole started out as a villain in the aforementioned D&D campaign, and they were a very creepy changeling warlock who looked like a fucked-up pastel-colored stitch-doll, and Anastasia was simply a character in their backstory---she was the human who Anatole had been switched out for, and she eventually found her way back from the Feywild after her birth parents had thrown "the unnatural impostor" out. Anatole lost themselves in intense feelings of neglect, self-hatred, and fury, and eventually got taken in by a mad scientist who encouraged all of their dark impulses. Long story short, Anatole killed Anastasia, which started a... habit, shall we say. And then later down the line, they fell in love with a stitched devil, made a warlock pact with them, and the two of them became the creepiest power couple known to man.

Turns out, once you take away the codependent warlock pact and make Anatole a human so they actually have a relationship with Anastasia, they're not something that crawled out of your nightmares anymore! They're just a STEM major who's really, really, really into figuring out all the ways you can "improve" on nature (i.e. commit crimes against) and perfect the art of necromancy! And, uh... by that description, I think it's obvious that Anatole is the Ianthe and Anastasia is the Coronabeth of their relationship. Washed-out, dead-body-loving creep vs. sunshiny, seems-like-a-bimbo-yet-could-plot-your-downfall golden child.

As for the love stories... I'll give you the TLDR.

3B/Jax: These two met when Stella recruited Jax for Reject Radio as a drummer and a hitter, and 3B figured out that she was perfectly capable of feeling sexual attraction in a robot body the second she laid eyes on Jax beating the shit out of someone in the ring. She awkwardly flirted for a little while and upped the ante on her skills to get their attention, but Jax didn't start reciprocating feelings until after the two of them actually bonded as friends. They asked her out first.

Ricky/Sinead: They met when Sinead intended to rob Ricky's nightclub and he caught them casing the joint, though surprise of all surprises, they actually succeeded. This instantly kicked off a rivalry where the two of them tried to prove to the other that their method of stealing was better, going for the same targets and getting a little bit reckless in trying to prove themselves to the other. Eventually, the two of them got into some big trouble, Sinead rescued Ricky and chewed him out, and they hit the "begrudging mutual respect" portion of their relationship... respect that turned to friendship, which turned to a very deep and profound love. (There's so much more drama, sexual tension, and "I didn't realize how much I cared about this person until they were in serious danger" moments, but that's for another time.)

HIRO/Percival: A little while after HIRO became the head of the megacorporation Andromeda, Percival got hired as its de facto attorney due to his success in court. Almost immediately, HIRO noticed that there was something off about Percival---he acted like a total people pleaser and suck-up who'd do pretty much anything for respect from his superiors, but HIRO saw through the facade and realized that Percival was much more confident and much more crafty then he seemed. Suspecting him of being a spy of some sort, he fake-flirted and flattered him in order to throw him off his game, and in doing so, found out two things---that Percival wasn't a spy, and that his people-pleaser facade was because he enjoyed being underestimated. Not only that, but Percival had caught onto HIRO's scheme... and he'd managed to pick up on the fact that the flirting had stopped being fake a while ago, which was something that not even HIRO had realized. This resulted in a series of messy hookups, which evolved into dates, which evolved into an actual relationship that was surprisingly healthy, despite the fact that they made it seem drama-filled as possible to the public in order to stay prevalent. It's unfortunately working.

[mumms-the-word]

THIS.

Okay, so for those who want to trigger this horrible (but oh so compelling) alternative bargain for yourselves, the way I accidentally triggered it was that I attended Gortash’s coronation, talked to Mizora right after, and then hop-skip-skedaddled right on to the Iron Throne.

(Note: I was only doing that because I was speedrunning an old save to get pictures in the Iron Throne for fic reasons lmao but I could see a plot/narrative trajectory that has a Tav/Durge going “This Gortash fellow is weird, let’s spend the day investigating him” and somehow ending up here too. But I digress. You also get this bargain if you kill Gortash at the coronation, or kill Gortash after the coronation without doing the Iron Throne but somehow haven't triggered Mizora's deal yet because you haven't long rested.)

I have...so many thoughts about this but I'll put them under the cut. The TLDR is that OP is so on point, I'm just showing screenshots to help support their point that yeah this is AWFUL.

It’s honestly kind of baffling that the game or Mizora defaults to her frankly weaker bargain (i.e., Wyll gives up his soul in exchange for Mizora telling him where his father is and promising to not let him die, vs. Wyll breaking his pact and Mizora being like “guess your dad’s dead then idk”). Because like OP said, she’s just bargaining with knowledge and a flimsy promise that she’ll shield Ulder Ravengard from harm. If she really wanted Wyll’s soul, and she is capable of plucking Ulder from the jaws of death, then why not just wait?

Ulder’s death is inferred to be at the hands of Gortash, most likely. Wyll himself says this the moment he’s outside of the Iron Throne and lashing out against the injustice of his father dying.

Wyll: My father, gone. I can hardly believe it. I thought the Absolute would have use for him. A general, a figurehead, something. Why infect and imprison him, only to kill him? I—I don’t understand… Tav: I’m sorry. I’m sure this isn’t easy. Wyll: To see my father laying there, lifeless…I will make Gortash pay. I will make Orin pay. And I will make that godsforsaken elder brain pay. Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard will be avenged.

If Mizora knows that’s inevitable, why not just hang back until then? Because this deal is so much more compelling than the default. Like, I get from a gameplay standpoint it’s meant to prompt you to try and pursue finding the Duke, and eventually get the Ansur questline rolling, but still. If Ulder is dead, Mizora’s bargaining position is so much stronger, especially if you’re playing as an Origin!Wyll.

Mizora: Your father is dead, Wyll. The Dead Three have claimed their prize. Wyll: It can’t be. I don’t believe you. Mizora: I’ve no reason to lie. He’s gone—for good, some might say. But not every death is forever. — Wyll: Shit. What did you do, Mizora? Mizora: I had no hand in your father’s death, Wyll. But that doesn’t mean he might not still live.

If you play as Wyll, Mizora reveals that “The Dead Three have claimed their prize.” Wyll’s dad isn’t just in the hells or the Fugue Plane, apparently. He’s officially a sacrifice of Bhaal or Bane, whichever one got to claim him. And since Withers himself generally refuses to mess with the souls in Bhaal or Bane’s domains, because we get locked out of resurrecting companions that Orin sacrifices to Bhaal, we don’t have any options to save him…except Mizora. And if Mizora has that kind of power? To resurrect Ulder from the grips of Bhaal or Bane? Bro, what is one soul—a soul she already has some claim to—compared to a feat like that?

She also tells Origin!Wyll she didn’t have a hand in his father’s death, but come on. She’s proven that she can intervene if she wishes. She just chose not to.

Which is why this bargain to bring back Ulder Ravengard from death is so much more compelling and so much more twisted, especially if she willingly chooses not to intervene on Ulder’s death to set up her bargain better. And like OP said, she times it just right. Wyll isn’t just angry that his father has been killed so arbitrarily (and that dialogue of him swearing to kill Gortash, Orin, and the brain is probably the angriest/darkest I’ve ever heard his dialogue). Wyll is grieving. He literally has a debuff to his ability checks in exchange for better attacks—in other words, he’s lashing out, reckless, not thinking straight because of his grief. What better time to swoop in and suggest a bargain that sounds too good to be true?

Grieving: Condition This creature has Advantage on Attack Rolls but Disadvantage on all Ability Checks while processing the loss of something dear to it.

And so Mizora swoops in. Wyll’s already given up his soul at 17 to save Baldur’s Gate, to save his father’s city, and by extension save his father, too. He wants nothing more than to make sure that his father is safe. It’s been his motivation for years. He’s been chasing down Ulder for weeks at this point, from Waukeen’s Rest to the mind flayer colony to the coronation, always three steps behind, and now he’s seen his father’s broken, abandoned body stuffed behind a cell in Gortash’s underwater prison. He didn’t even get a chance to try and save him. Not once.

What is one soul’s eternal torment in exchange for bringing back a hero of Baldur’s Gate, a leader of the city, a general who is in charge of the Flaming Fist and can lead armies into battle? Even Mizora says as much if you let Wyll sacrifice his soul.

Mizora: Such a touching reunion. It’s enough to bring a tear to my eye. Tav: I’m glad to see Ravengard’s safe. A shame Wyll had to sacrifice his eternal soul for him. Mizora: Is it a shame, though? Is a single soul not worth the return of Baldur’s Gate’s most beloved duke? Imagine the battles he’s still to lead once you’ve flattened the Absolute. Goodness me. For all that, a lone soul is a bargain.

Maybe it sounds unfeeling of me, but it really is a shame this isn’t Mizora’s default bargain. Not because I want to see Wyll suffer, but because it’s just so awful, so compelling, and it adds so much nuance and depth to Wyll’s storyline. This bargain is his last possible chance to save his father and give Baldur’s Gate the leadership it needs to recover after the Absolute is gone.

And all he has to do is agree to serve Zariel for an eternity.

hey so uh

this is definitely a spoiler (at least for an alternative outcome), but apparently, if you go to the Iron Throne first things first, before Mizora would offer to reveal Ulder's location and help you, he's, um.

He's already dead by the time you arrive. And if that happens, what Mizora offers Wyll in the subsequent deal is not knowledge, or a flimsy guarantee of a chance to save Ravengard, but rather, it's...

It's a resurrection. True resurrection.

She offers to essentially... pluck Ulder Ravengard's soul from the Hells, and bring him to camp, no frills, no questions asked. She offers to bring his father, safe and unharmed, back to life and back to him, in exchange for Wyll's soul- which she kind of already had to begin with, making it kind of a fucking bargain at that point.

And Jesus Fucking Christ, this setup... it's just so much worse than the "normal" deal, specifically because it's that much more tempting.

To get this outcome requires Wyll to have seen his father's body, bound and lifeless on the floor of a prison cell. It requires him to be actively mourning, with no chance at closure or redemption, as Mizora shows up, and what she offers him then is the ability to unmake this strand of reality.

Considering that under regular circumstances he is willing to sacrifice his soul for a mere improvement to the chance we already had to save the Duke, I can't even fathom how, in a realistic scenario, we could talk him out of taking this deal.

This is so much more fucked up than the default deal.

[spynorth]

just here to remind you that I love u bruv. whenever I watch bake off now, I think of you. Then I think that I'd like to make you something from bake off----then I remember that Karen of an ocean between us. 🙄 Still love you tho, innit?

random love

^^ that's me getting ready to take out that Karen of an ocean that dares stand between us. anyways, i read this message last night and i cracked the fuck up because a) this joke will never get old. i will beat it with a dead stick until the day that i die and b) I just sat there like ... fuck?? we've know each other so long?? For real, if you ever wanna freak yourself out just go to milla's old cersei blog and search for our urls, its terrifying. We've been mutuals and friends for literal fucking years and we've never written despite short flashes of activity (okay lets be real. its on my end) in the same fandom besides crack asks i send loras form oberyn. Good times. Also never gets old. I have a deep, deep appreciation for the ride or dies who just follow one another wherever the other goes and you're one of those people for me. Eventually I'll find the limit where you and everyone else are like 'no, lucas. you've finally gone too far.' A teletubby or something?? but those things scare the heck out of me.

anyways, you're one of me favorite bruvs. One of the best blokes I've ever met, mind. I would start dropping punctuation in an attempt to write out an accent but that legitimately makes my eyes twitch so i don't think i can take it that far. I'm just chuffed to bits over you still being in my life and I hope one day I can like fly over the ocean or swim it or something and if i do actually manage it ... fancy a cuppa? Thanks for being one of my favorite fucking people on this site...A creative as hell, brilliantly talented writer and I will never tire of knowing you and having you on my dash.

tldr ; I love u too my bruv.

[sasoriapologist]

I'll bite. Tell me about your s/i!

OKAY SO THIS TOOK ME A FEW DAYS TO ANSWER SORRY FJGKGMF it’s bc i started writing a full entire story right here but it was just too much to unpack all at once so the general tldr rundown is her name is Mae and she was from a little craftsman/merchant village outside of Sunagakure and her family moved there when she was somewhere between 6-8 (havent decided for sure yet) bc they were never shinobi but wanted her to have the opportunity to be one if she wanted.

She’s always been an art kid with an artsy family but her interests in it are so varied and her home life was kinda chaotic that it was hard for her to sit down and just master one thing. She didn’t function very well in a school environment and i’m on the fence about whether or not I want her to not actually be a registered ninja but sent on missions anyways bc they need as many young vital bodies who have useful skills as possible or having passed but barely and at a very average age. I’m also not positive about her jutsu? I fucking suck at coming up with jutsu. I’m thinking a ninjutsu and having something to do either with some sort of cat familiar thing (kinda like w Kiba and Akamaru, I want her to have a little pet cat bc i have a little kitty who i love so dearly) or something kinda tarot card themed. I’ve also been stuck on the idea of a seamstress theme and she adds to some sort of something w that by learning some chakra thread technique from Sasori.

Speaking of him! Since I don’t think she’s graduating the academy at 8 or something like him, they meet through something regarding their families being into Art Stuff. Mae’s mom is very social and I can picture her striking up a conversation with Chiyo and offering to maybe have her and Mae make garments for their puppets if needed. And Chiyo being like “sure” and seeing that Mae is abt the same age as Sasori and being like “thank god finally i can get my grandson socialized”- Mae even as a child has always been pretty mellow and quiet and kind, if not a little bit sensitive sometimes and also not very good at socializing w other kids AT ALL kinda like he is. I could see them probably sitting in silence together a lot as kids while her mom and Chiyo talk and like, drawing or something and eventually getting comfortable enough to talk about common ground without being too intimidated by the other. As they get older they still hang out a lot when they can because it’s comfortable and they’re coming more into their own and it’s just nice. their relationship builds very slowly over time but it’s stronger than uhh. guys give me something strong to compare it to i’m brain dead rn. anyways

She’s got some traumas and issues and an ongoing struggling relationship with her mother specifically (her dad is actually really nice just emotionally unavailable, they have a much better and less turbulent relationship than Mae and her mother). She also has a little sister and a lot of extended family! I’m also again, still on the fence about her exact role in the village. I’ve also HEAVILY considered her being more someone who handles a lot of work behind the scenes and sometimes going on missions when absolutely needed. Her family struggles financially so she does what she can prolly? And I’m probably not going to make this her actual story but the idea of her, Sasori and Komushi being on a team together is very cute to me and is in my AU box for her. idk there’s a lot fjgjfkf that’s long and it’s not even getting into her struggle to find her art and why her relationship w her mom is Bad and her personality and inner conflicts and MAN I AM . JUST PIECING IT ALL TOGETHER HERE. personality tldr is mellow but passionate, kind, patient, creative, thoughtful, quiet but Knows Things, intuitive, kinda sensitive and sometimes moody and over time builds an ongoing rage bc of village corruption and how ppl treat her and the roles she’s been forced to be in and 😺 yeah. she headbutts her kitty ears on sasori sometimes :)