#<- only gonna include the more relevant characters in the tags

[forgetbeam]

and nothing more —

Virgil, at only 8 years old, had resigned himself to never having a real family. To growing up in the orphanage where he was left at two years old, with only his roommate to really talk to.

And then, one rainy day, two kind men show up who want to take him in as their own, and the sun shines just a little brighter from then on.

Or: Virgil gets adopted by vampires. What could go wrong?

[aka a very self indulgent virgil-centric sanders sides au fic with vampires, werewolves, faeries, witches and One (1) selkie. i’m just havin’ fun with it this thing is like my baby.]

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 | chapter 6 | more TBA

[gold-rhine]

Inazuma Rewrite part one

This is bullet points rewrite for Inazuma general plot structure, bc I think it had so much potential, but was horrifically scuffed in game. If I keep something from canon unchanged, I’ll just say so without retelling the entire thing to keep the length down, bc it’s gonna be A LOT already.

Some disclaimers: I’m not trying to fix every single problem, just what I see as major structural failures. I will reference my problems, but you can read my explanations on them more in depth in my “inazuma ranting” tag.

This is also not envisioned as free for all fanfic where I can write whatever I want, but aimed to be actually feasible to see in game, bc it’d be unfair and I want to show that Inazuma could be improved in the same constraints that hoyo writers had. So please don’t ask why I didn’t do wildly inconsistent thing that would be cool, but genshin would never actually do.

I’m aiming to retain all relevant lore and achieve basically same worldstate in the end, including character arcs, for the most part, because I presume them to be integral to the larger strategic plotline of the game. Which means I can’t drastically change characterization and major plot beats like the decrees, rebellion, Raiden has to be a sympathetic ally in the end, etc. I’m also trying to keep genshin’s general tone and modus operandi, bc like, target audience includes 13 yolds and I can’t just “make Inazuma good” by turning it into like, a gruesome and complex power struggle of political factions like Fallout New Vegas.

List of main issues I want to address: pacing in general, rebellion pacing especially, lack of impact and continuity of effects of vision loss on people, lack of setup for the stasis vs transience aka ei vs makoto conflict, character arcs: raiden, ayaka, kazuha, kokomi, yoimiya, kujou sara. And more! 

Initially I wanted to make a single post, but it’s already 3k and I’m only up to Raiden’s first duel and I plan to cover post-archon quest content too, like Raiden and Yoi story quests, so I decided to split it up instead of posting like 20k monstrosity. So remember, this is for now mostly a setup.

EDIT: Part 2

Raiden’s motivations\Reasons for vision hunt

Ok, so one of the biggest principal changes is that vision hunt and sakoku decree are active Raiden’s decisions, instead of Fatui’s plot that she’s just passively allowing to happen. Raiden closed the country, but she’s ok with Fatui starting a civil war and selling delusions, bc it doesn’t “affect eternity”, like??? I honestly think that the current plot of her people dying in a civil war meant nothing to her is much worse than her starting vision hunt decree out of misguided plan to ultimately do better for people.

I mean ok, we have to have closed borders to reference Japan’s history, sure, but like, the whole point of isolationist policies like this is to prevent the outsiders’ influence on the country. So she should not be ok with Fatui schemes at any point.  

I mean, if it was fallout new vegas AU, I’d keep it to show that dictator doesn’t not care about foreign powers exploiting it’s people as long as it profits the empire and helps to keep people subjugated, but like. Then raiden can’t be uwu waifu. So we gonna give her good intentions and integrity, but misunderstanding of humanity due to closing herself off instead.

Now to why would she close the country and institute sakoku decree. I want to tie this in with another plotline that is just. Kinda floating at sidelines at the moment, but I think could work nicely in tandem. The Scaramouche destroying Raiden Gokaden, the five schools of weapon smithing, which were canonically highly valued by Raiden.

I’m not gonna recount Scara’s entire plotline, but basically he went on a misguided crusade against Raiden Gokaden and managed to cause fall of 4 out of 5 weapon-smith schools.

Game says that he like, tampered with the schools and covertly led to their ruin, which like?? They never found anyone guilty, like the most prized weapon art smiths of your country fall apart and you’re like oh well, I guess Yashiro commission is just bad at it’s job?

There is a plot point in this story where Isshin weapon smiths, unable to replicate a faulty design that was Raiden’s commission tampered by Scara, were scared of Raiden’s wrath and decided to flee to Snezhnaya. I want to change it to be that there is an event, where ALL weapon schools receive same commission at the same time, and Scara tampers with it.

Just as in canon, scared smiths, but now from 4 schools, not one, are manipulated by Fatui to flee to Snezhnaya, But we add a new NPC, the most talented blade smith who had a vision. Fatui frame him as the ring leader, as if they were running not to save their lives because of the tampered design, impossible to fulfil, but that this was a betrayal because of his ambitions.

After this, Raiden has legitimate cause to feel like her eternity is threatened. She sees weapon art schools, one of the most prized country’s traditions being ruined in a moment because of what she thinks is ambitious hubris of one vision holder, who colluded with outsiders. So she closes Inazuma and declares a vision hunt, to prevent this from ever happening again.

But ironically, in truth it was the fault of not just Fatui, but specifically a puppet without a vision that she herself created and failed to supervise. This brings the main idea of the plotline from “Fatui evil, Raiden passive” to “Solipsist goddess who doesn’t understand humanity tries to protect her people by locking them in stasis and taking their ambitions, but the real case of tragedy was her negligence and lack of empathy all along, and this is what needs to be changed.”

Interlude and plot setup

We start with similar plotline. Traveler tries to go to Inazuma, learns that it’s closed, talks to Inazuman NPC to learn more. Here we’re introduced to the general idea that Inazuma was closed off due to one traitor blade smith with a vision who sold off Raiden Gokaden to Fatui.

We go to Beidou’s tournament, which goes basically the same, we meet Kazuha and watch a beautiful cutscene about his dead friend who challenged Raiden to a duel, and now Kazuha tries to find someone who can reignite his vision. I will actually add changes to Kazuha’s storyline, but it be will later.

then we arrive to Inazuma, go through the same bureaucracy loops with Thoma on Ritou, to show the barriers to outsiders and also to illustrate how Thoma is the best fixer when he manages to drop a fee from 1 mil to like 10 gold by promising to have a dinner with government official.

But we’re cutting the second part of Ritou, with the boring plot about like merchant from Mond scamming people with the local police and then Traveler delivering love letter or whatever. I mean, we can keep this as an optional side quest, if like hoyo thinks the lore about love letter is essential for the Ayato’s quest or smth, but not as an Archon quest.

Instead, we put a part of Yoimiya’s quest there. I think Yoi’s quest is relevant enough to stay in the Archon quest, unlike Ayaka’s, but it’s slapped into a place where it ruins pacing. So instead, we’re cutting it up in parts and inserting it into main storyline.

On Ritou, while doing bureaucracy bullshit, we meet Yoimiya, and play the part of her quest about her helping a guy with a vision to escape from his former best friend, who is now a guard hunting him. It helps to show the rift that vision hunt brings not only with the outsiders, but with inside of the country as well.

Ghost of Makoto\Transience setup

another key point that I think is integral to fixing Inazuma is planting seeds for Makoto’s reveal from the start. I really like the Stasis vs Transience conflict from raiden’s second story quest, where raiden believed in eternity as lack of change, a perfect state maintained until the rest of time, while her twin Makoto believed in eternity as never-ending change, where people’s dreams constantly evolve, nature of them chasing these dreams never changes.

but it feels like it came out of nowhere and raiden just speedruns character development in like an hour, so a lot of people ended up feeling like it was just about Raiden mourning her sister, instead of raiden coming to understand makoto’s belief system and through that unlocking makoto’s final connection and then being able to let go.

so we need to first of all, introduce makoto’s ideas of transience from the start, and also empathize the conflict of them with raiden’s stasis.

and it doesn’t mean we’ll spoil the reveal about the second raiden shogun! we don’t have to ever use makoto’s name, just her title as a raiden and sprinkle her ideas throughout the land. We know hoyo area designers can do that stuff really well (guizhong’s relics being scattered all over liyue, rukkhadevata’s shadow in the aranara quest).

like, it’s strange that Makoto primarily ruled and shaped country by herself while Ei was just a warrior, yet we do not have Makoto’s influence visible. We need to add ideas of transience into fundamentals of Inazuma,

“Transience is the dream of the nation of thunder. We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish, and enjoy the unexpected silence of the dim lamp-lit nights.” - Guide to Transience talent book.

add these ideas all over the place, esp near sakura. And let’s draw player’s attention a couple of times specifically to the internal contradiction of these ideas of transience being integral to inazuma and raiden’s current hatred of change.

like, we need even 13 yolds and twitch streamers to remember this, so lets make paimon say like

“Huh, this shrine to raiden shogun says that eternity is the pursuit of fleeting dreams, but doesn’t raiden shogun fucking hates dreams?? I wonder, what made her change her mind about them to the total opposite!“

this and more subtle puzzles\locations with focus on transience for people who pay more attention will add the much needed setup for makoto’s reveal

Kamisato siblings

ok, first things first, Ayato being absent without any explanation while his little sister is plotting treason and his malewife Thoma is about to be executed on the streets is unacceptable.

like I know it’s marketing or whatever and he’s not being released but we need his model, hoyo. If we 200% CAN’T have his model, we need to come up with solid excuse why he’s not here. Like idk, he’s helping the war refugees or smth

And we need hints at his presence\influence throughout the story. Like oh, here’s group of refugees who were helped by Yashiro commissioner, they are relocating to new homes, I guess Ayato is really busy. Oh, here is Fatui’s camp where everyone is slaughtered and boba tea cups are littered around, I wonder what is up with that.

and also, Ayaka is organizing resistance behind his back, and we never meet him bc Ayaka actively tries to hide traveler from him.

bc like, Ayaka doesn’t have a development arc in archon quest. She’s just kind of there, being perfect. Like in her story quest that hoyo makes you do at gun point, you like, go on a date, learn that she’s lonely and has trouble connecting with people due to the pressure of having to project an image of perfection and societal distance, do an investigation to uncover her late mother’s fox fursona roleplay diary which she used to cope her with own societal pressure. Which like. Ok, sure, but but this wet socks quest is not an archon quest material. It should be just a normal story quest.

no, Ayaka’s real conflict is wanting to prove herself to her brother, bring real difference to the world. This is her ambition, she literally gained her vision while fighting Ayato in a training, she wanted to show him that she’s strong enough to handle responsibility, he named her Shirasagi Himegimi after she won that fight

but during a civil war, watching people suffer, her role as a cultural figurehead is not enough. She wants to help, but she’s afraid to act, because this will undermine Yashiro Commission and her brother worked so hard to build it back up after Raiden Gokaden fall. so she organizes resistance behind her brother’s back in secret, to help, but without compromising Kamisato name

this basically tracks with what happens in game, but we spell it out and expand on this later.

Getting Traveler to help

next, let’s throw out the weird edging introduction where traveler is not allowed to see Ayaka the first time. like??? bro, we’re friends with 2 archons and heads of their governments, you’re not that important. and it can’t be to protect her identity, bc like. You go to Kamisato estate! You’re told who she is! If you wanted to betray her, that would be enough already.

another awkward thing is that Traveler, who agrees to do every stupid quest they meet, suddenly refuses to help the resistance.

I think we should reframe their convo a little, like Traveler says hey I’d love to help, but my primary goal is to get info about my sibling from an Archon, so I don’t want to go against her.

To which Ayaka says oh, I totally get you, you see, I am myself a culture figurehead and a nominal princess and I can’t speak up against the decree, bc that will hurt Yashiro Commission. But I’m not asking you to fight Raiden Shogun in a duel or smth, I’m just asking you to help people with the resistance, which we do totally in secret. No one will know! Also, how are you going to see Raiden? She’s locked up and doesn’t appear in public. But my big brother is a head of the Commission, if anyone can get you an audience, it’s him. So help me help people and I will ask him to help you see Shogun!

she secretly believes that after traveler sees ppl suffering, they will change their mind and help willingly, same as in canon, but she’s more subtle about it

Rebellion connection

my other problem with vision hunt is that the 3 quests they force you to do about meeting people who lost their visions are like. not good. The concept is interesting, but they are just kinda boring and meandering. They lack dramatic impact. They could do better. So we’re not doing these 3 quests rn, but don’t worry about it, we will get to the effects of vision loss

Instead, ayaka sends us to help Yoimiya and we do the same quest we do in archon quest - help her to free someone from prison dungeon. It goes the same, we get to the dude being mistreated by cops, Kujou Sara steps up and lets us go

But then it’s like, we need to get this dude out of Inazuma city. Cops know he escaped! They will just come for him again! There is only one place that will take him and it’s the watatsumi rebels.

Common complaint about Inazuma is that other countries feel like found families and Inazuma doesn’t, bc characters from resistance and rebellion basically don’t interact, and it’s true. And like, we can get them together! Thoma knows Kazuha, Kazuha knows Gorou, Gorou in canon went to recoinsanse missions to Narukami island.

So, Gorou visits the tea house to pick up the Vision Dude, and the gang has the hotpot meet up. Everyone is there (except Kokomi bc ok hoyo, we’re saving up for dramatic battle reveal, and i think her reveal would fuck up banner schedule). Ayaka, Thoma, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Gorou. and Teppei! Who is here bc he was recruited by Gorou. He’s actually from Narukami island, not Watatsumi, and he had nothing to do with visions, but he’s an idealist, he believes in freedom, so he joined rebellion. fun times are had, Ayaka tries to play srs bsns lady host, but breaks into giggling at The Shenanigans, Gorou is overly polite but adorable and apologizes to Ayaka about The Shenanigans in which everyone but him participates, Yoi is a life of party and the Shenanigans and later has to be bodily stopped by Kazuha from organizing fireworks right here, right now, Thoma and Teppei both get sick from eating Ayaka’s nasty cakes that she threw into soup, bc Thoma is just into oral stuff and Teppei is so earnest and eager to prove himself and impress ppl, haha comic relief, look how sweet and funny this guy is and all characters get along so great with him

bc like, I think Teppei has a problem of a) not having enough screen time b)not having any interesting characterization moments to make him stand out 3)not having other playable and already likeable characters interact with him

so this scene can serve not only to bring that “unlikely bunch of people becoming friends and working together” connection to life, but also to endear Teppei to the players

Vision Loss Effects\ Yoimiya and Thoma

ok, next Ayaka asks Traveler to do that one quest about martial arts master losing their vision. I think it’s the one quest from 3 about vision loss with most drama, but the real reason is that it introduces Yae Miko and we need to do this before leaving for the rebellion. Like, in theory, it could be switched to another, better quest that lets us meet Yae Miko, but honestly, this is not one of Inazuma archon quest problems so I can’t be arsed. Feel free to imagine a cooler intro instead.

when we go back to tea house, we learn that Yoimya’s vision has been taken away. She has been recognized in that last prison raid and the guards came for her later, and she didn’t fight bc there were kids and her old father around.

She’s completely changed. Her innate optimism, her belief in people and their dreams has been drained from her like a sunshine from a dark cellar. But she’s still Yoimiya!! She came here to warn you bc she still cares even if she had her own joy taken from her. She tries to smile and reassure you that it’s ok, she’s fine, but her smile is visibly strained, she’s never had to fake it before so she doesn’t know how. She wears a vision, but it’s a fake one, because her pops said that maybe having it here would help and she agreed, tried to pretend for him that it does help, bu. It very obviously doesn’t.

Ayaka is horrified. She apologizes to Yoimiya, tries to think of ways to help her, but Yoi just laughs humorlessly. “It won’t ever touch you, princess.”

She’s immediately disgusted at herself and apologizes, tries to take it back, this isn’t her, she would never say this, and not to her friend! But also, it’s so hard to care now and she can’t remember why it’s so important to care at all.

Ayaka is shaken. Bc it’s true! She is a privileged noble, vision hunt will not come for her! She is playing at the resistance from the safety of anonymity, while people like Yoimiya actually risk themselves and pay the price!

And this is when the news that Thoma was arrested and about to be 100th vision taken at the feet of the statue comes. Tenryou commission truly strikes back.

Ayaka is in uproar. She’s ready to go herself and fight for Thoma, especially after Yoi’s words. She’s sick and tired of being a perfect princess, she can’t allow any more of her friends, her family come to harm because they don’t have her protection. Clearly Thoma being a theatrical execution is a blow specifically against Yashiro commission and Kamisato family in particular, and if Shogun has beef with her, well, she can settle it with HER instead of going after her friends!

Traveler stops her. This is what they want. If Ayaka openly moves against the Shogun, the entire Yashiro commission falls. Even if Ayaka is in the right! No, it’s the Traveler who will go to save Thoma

But traveler needs raiden’s good will for the info, they can’t confront raiden openly, it was the deal from the start!

But at this point traveler has seen too much, the divide in the country, the change and suffering of their own friends, and they can’t allow all of Yashiro commission take the fall.

This is when the Traveler decides to take a stand.

ACT 2

[genericpuff]

Turns out it's been a while since I've talked about Rachel's medical fetish art so it came as a shock to people when I mentioned it in the last post (I've got quite a few asks about it lmao) So I'm gonna enlighten y'all real quick on what I'm referring to, and yes, it's probably exactly what you're thinking of when you hear the word 'medical fetish'.

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF MEDICAL FETISH ART AND DEPICTIONS OF NEEDLES!!!!

So the name "used_bandaid" is one Rachel started using back in the early to mid 2000's. She went by a LOT of different pennames back then, including but probably not limited to:

Pepper_maid

madame_issue

Usedbandaid/used_bandaid

Rach Alex

Rachel Royale

Raquel

Medical Tophat/Medical_Tophat

Frill_house

Gingerbreadcoffin (? this one's kinda weird because the link itself with this username just goes back to her used bandaid MySpace account , so idk if she ever actually used it or if it was even affiliated with her lol)

Now you're probably about to ask, "Puff, how do you know these are all her?" and that's because Rachel still had all of these accounts interlinked through her projects, primarily The Doctor Pepper Show. She seemed to change up usernames often just for the hell of it.

Anyways. I'm not gonna show much of it here because I do think it's better to leave certain things in the past, but there's a LOT of her old work that implies the stuff that's questionable/problematic in LO has always been a part of her identity as an artist (DDLG, hot pink self-insert MC, etc.)

One such example is "madame issue":

This is such a 3-in-1 smoking gun for everything we see in LO. The reference to bandaids (see: used bandaid, which was part of her URL slug for her old flickr where this drawing comes from), the hot pink color palette, and of course, the fact that this character is almost DEFINITELY a self-insert of Rachel, thanks to that shared name.

She's also stated in old commission/print posts that Madame Issue was the one print she wouldn't sell.

She doesn't explicitly say why but I think it's pretty safe to assume it's because Madame Issue is her.

We also have Eva, "the queen of medical fetish". And the tags are... pretty self-explanatory.

That said, that's as much as I'm gonna go into with her old art, because a lot of it does get quite personal with her and I don't really think it accomplishes much more to continue digging up old skeletons, at least not unless they can be seen as parallel to LO (which some of them are and I'll likely be sharing more of those ones in a later post).

That said, there ARE still pages that are accessible without the use of the Wayback Machine that advertise her as a medical fetish artist without the need for extensive digging. If you search up The Doctor Pepper Show on Google, you'll actually find a reddit thread asking what happened to Rachel's old work, and there are comments with loads of resources to access her pre-LO content. You'll also find the listing for The Doctor Pepper Show on The Webcomic List, which literally describes it as a medical fetish comic: "This is a comic set in a world where evil doctors rule, girls wear frilly underpants and people use their manners. *May I please blow your f**king head off?* This comic features Gothic dandys, EGL (Gothic lolitas) and medical fetish fashion. (Neo victorian setting)"

I'll let y'all do your own digging from here, there's a LOT to unpack honestly and while I can't keep you from doing your own research, practice due diligence with what you choose to share. Again, I don't think it's a crime in and of itself for Rachel to want to distance herself from her past as a medical fetish artist, so I think it's only really relevant to show the things that are clearly still influencing LO (like her love for the movie Lolita or the very clear sexualization of youthfulness). While we can try to leave the past where it is, she does still write LO with a lot of the most problematic features of her former identity, and it makes it all the more bizarre that if she is trying to distance herself from it all, then why would she stick with one of the pennames that's the most easily tied back to medical fetishism?

TL ; DR: Rachel started off online with medical fetish and gothic lolita art (at least as far back as we can trace it) and elements of that past are still present in LO today. Use that info responsibly lol

[lesbianboyfriend]

tell me about this btvs sexual violence thesis…..

okayyy i’ve been talking around this on my blog forever bc i haven’t had the mental capacity to make a coherent post about it but let me try now!!! i have some older posts that touch on some of these ideas too—i’ve linked a couple of them where relevant but honestly i could not find a bunch of them…but they are somewhere in my btvs lb tag. also note: i’m definitely still workshopping these ideas so id love to hear thoughts/rebuttals/expansions/whatever !!! it’s also all right now mostly working off my own thoughts/observations so i definitely want to do some research….i hope to one day write an actual essay about this

basically the summation of the buffyverse sexual violence thesis is that there is a narrative of sexual violence that is haunting the story. it goes pretty much unaddressed by the narrative at large, but it’s the crux of almost everything that happens.

i think there are two very obvious standout moments in btvs that highlight this sexual violence (the theory at large also encompasses angel but as i’m not entirely done watching it yet im gonna focus on buffy here, though i did touch on it briefly in a recent post about cordy’s death) which are the first slayer story and the spike attempted rape scene. going to talk about the first slayer first cause i think it’s kind of the framework for everything but important to note in terms of info that we get we + the characters aren’t aware of the first slayer story until after the rape scene.

imo the story of the first slayer is deeply deeply coded as a story of sexual violence. it’s about a woman being violated by a group of men who literally chain her down and force something into her. already, we’ve seen how being the slayer has isolated and harmed buffy, kendra, faith….its treated as almost a desirable, enviable position of honor (somewhat similar to how being a victim of sexual assault is sometimes painted as meaning the victim was “desirable”) but particularly once given this context, it’s hard to view being chosen as the slayer as anything but an act of violence against these women.

this is important to note because in a sense, it’s the slayer who upholds the moral binary of the buffyverse where good=soul, human and bad=no soul, demon. now this binary pretty much falls apart upon the slightest examination, because the story would not be as interesting if it was that simple. so there are multiple demon or otherwise characters who straddle this moral boundary—INCLUDING the slayer who not only straddles but enforces it. the outlier characters are presented as just that, outliers to this system, not indicators of its flaws. they are only good insofar as their goodness is directed towards maintaining the system. assimilation, not liberation.

okay, so, the spike rape scene. what’s notable about this scene is that it is, to my knowledge (?), the only moment of sexual violence that is explicitly named as an act of sexual violence. even in angel, which i feel has more overt moments of sexual violence, it’s not actually usually named as such. but what happens in this scene is explicitly named as a rape attempt. it is by far the most significant moment of sexual violence in btvs. so what exactly is going on with this scene?

now, there’s a lot that could be said and discussed about like, spike as a character, his motivations, etc (currently cooking up some thoughts about this myself), but for the purpose of this analysis i want to look strictly at what role spike is playing narratively in season 6. so, looking at this on a doylist level but NOT to be conflated with me excusing his actions on a watsonian level. anyways if we think about it season six is kind of a rejection of the larger moral order previously presented by btvs…i’ve talked about this vis-à-vis the demon/human evil/good binary and how season 6 really troubles those binaries. a lot of the season is about buffy grappling with these notions that perhaps her moral worldview is not correct—which leads to her spike. she’s previously made allowances for spike in this worldview, so she uses him as a sort of vehicle for exploring alternate theories. unlike the other demons we’ve seen allowances made for, spike is not “good” in the sense that btvs posits goodness for demons. he has done “good” things and he can’t hurt humans, but he is pretty explicitly still doing a lot of evil stuff. so spike gets to exist in the greyest area of any btvs character—his chip troubles the binary of who is and is not good/evil, not to mention who is morally killable under this worldview.

through her relationship with spike, buffy joins him there in that grey area. HER humanity (goodness) is questioned, which is not something that’s previously been up for serious debate. i talked before about how the slayer inherently straddles that binary, but as i said, both the characters and the viewers aren’t aware of that at this point. all of a sudden, there’s a total moral upheaval that creates lots of conflict….and this rejection of the prior moral order and exploration of what lies beyond it is what makes season 6 so compelling.

BUT season 6 isn’t the last season. and as we all know, season 7 kind of sucked!!! and went seriously hard on reifying that good/evil binary. so how did we get that wild shift between seasons? the rape scene.

as we know, “real evil” is only done by demons despite the countless terrible things we’ve seen human characters do. when spike tries to rape buffy, it cements him firmly back into the realm of monstrosity. violence, evil, whatever, they’re all signifiers of a monstrosity that removes the character of their humanity. we see this argument time and time again irl when people argue that people who do bad things are no longer human, thus rejecting the idea that they themselves are also capable of those bad things. this is why it’s so important that this moment is named as rape, as sexual violence, unlike the other instances. with the attempted rape, spike is ousted out of his grey area, back into “evilness”. buffy, as his victim this time, necessarily returns to the opposite side of the binary as him. buffy stops fighting against her role as slayer—she stops questioning the veracity of the system. in fact, she goes on to expand it, violating even more women in the name of “good.” spike realizes he has to conform to this moral order in order to “have” buffy (much to be said about that another time lollll) and regains a soul, the necessary signifier of his “goodness” and willingness to support the system he once troubled so severely. thus, the moral order is restored through an act of sexual violence, highlighting exactly how it predicated on the very sexual violence it claims to abhor.

some loose notes on other working parts of the thesis:

-general historical connection of vampire stories to sexuality (carmilla, dracula, etc)

-vampirism as sexual predation (penetration, vampires picking victims by seducing women at clubs)

-mystical pregnancy (in angel especially: cordelia, cordelia again, darla, cordelia…..) as a violation in and of itself and also a vehicle towards death

-angel and buffy in general. him being attracted to her since she was. 14

-sex with buffy returning angel to evil? not sure exactly how this would fit in yet but. there’s something there

-spike’s entire attitude for women

-xander’s whole deal

-as a matter of fact the way that pretty much every male character is misogynist

-episodes ted and billy (angel) -> presenting violence against women as stemming from an inherent monstrosity (billy somewhat contradicting this? but also reifying it. it’s left unclear tbh)

-darla in angel season 2 as a parallel to buffy in season 6…need to think more on this one as well

-dana….

[zombiecicada]

The People Have Spoken.

But don’t worry, I can do a DTIYS for the next milestone, if I reach 100 followers!

But for now, here is the event:

Submit theories, head canons, or guesses you have about the characters or lore shown thus far about the Wolfbell AU.

Rules:

-You can submit as many as you want. There is no limit to how many entries you can submit, your only cap is your own imagination. You have my permission to explode my inbox. Is there a limit to the inbox? I would like to test this theory. Please specify if your submissions into my inbox are asks for the Kirby Oc Tourney or for the 50 Followers Event I am an easily confused creature. Alternatively, you can make an actual post with your submission, but be sure to tag me so I can see it and specify that it’s for the event in the post.

-They do not have to be about Wolfbell (the character) specifically! Feel free to take a stab at some of the other characters within the universe or simply the lore and story itself. As long as it’s relevant to the overall AU, it counts.

-These theories/head canons can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. Fully and completely encourage walls of dialogue and text and in depth analysis. ‘Haha I think character likes *x* or *y*’ and that’s the theory is just as valid. Just know, I’m a sucker for a good long lore dump and it is my weakness.

-Submissions can be serious or silly, it’s both serious but I also want to hear your unhinged hot takes.

-Please keep it fairly SFW. That being said as the Wolfbell AU is more on the NSFW side covering darker themes, I will allow such, within reason. If you’re uncertain feel free to ask me.

-If you submit entries in my ask box you need to not be an anon because I can’t declare you the winner if I don’t know who you are.

-Feel free to include little doodles and illustrations for your submissions, however this is not required! You can also include your own ocs interacting with mine or interacting in some way to make it more fun.

-If two people submit the same exact ‘correct answer’, I will go with the one I feel best explained or conveyed the theory and or head canon. Again, I’m personally biased for blocks of text.

-While there are multiple ways to win, you cannot ‘win twice’, if you submit more than one ‘correct answer’ and make it to the top three you’ll still only win once and two other people will still be other winners. The ‘winning answer’ will simply be the one I liked most and any additional ‘correct answers’ will simply earn you bonus doodles. In the total there’s gonna be six winners, three ‘most correct answers’ and three ‘most incorrect answers’, along with several little bonus winners where I was amused and entertained.

-If you submit an answer and it’s spot on and you crack the lore, obviously for spoiler purposes the submission will be handled differently. But there will be bonus ducks.

What will happen:

Gonna let this contest go on for a week! By the end of the week, I will go through all of the submissions and I will slap them all on a ‘iceberg’, with the most unhinged and non canon answers in the void and the closest to canon answers on the surface!

The top three at the tip top of the iceberg and the bottom most three will get a prize! A full body coloured render of their Kirby oc (or if you don’t have a Kirby oc/don’t want it to be a Kirby oc we can discuss that but yeah, prizes!) if you ‘win more than once’ by submitting multiple ‘correct answers’ you’ll simply get funny little bonus sketches of your characters.

Any questions or concerns, please DM me here on tumblr or on my discord.

Event will end at midnight Pacific Time on Sunday June 23rd.

[thescholarlystrumpet]

Tagged by @tawnyontumblr Thank you, luv! This is fun!

How many works do you have on ao3?

166 formatting is being weird without a sentence here

What's your total ao3 word count?

910,348 - ahhh approaching 1M!!

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens and (to a lesser extent) Hazbin Hotel right now. Past fandoms included Rumbelle, Whouffaldi, Buffy, and Avenue 5

Top five fics by kudos:

To Tell the Truth (Doctor Who) Whouffaldi moments woven between episodes. Mostly canon-compliant.

Lending a Hand (Good Omens) In his heavenly form he wouldn’t have had this dilemma at all because there was no corporeality with which to struggle. And on the other, much less ephemeral and much more literal hand, he currently had a very noticeable (and increasingly painful) erection.

Personal Assistance (The Thick of It/Doctor Who) Clara Oswald leaves behind teaching to enter the world of British politics. What better way to make a splash than by working for the infamous Malcolm Tucker? And if discovering a (mutual) attraction happens to catch them both off-guard.... well, that's just life, right?

The Babysitter (Once Upon a Time) Tumblr prompt: Mr. Gold forgets something at his house & goes back to go get it. When he arrives he hears his son's babysitter moaning and thinks she has a boy over. When he goes into his bedroom he finds her touching herself on his bed alone moaning his name.

None of Your Business (Once Upon a Time) “Well, it’s very nice to meet you at last, Angus.” She rolled his name around in her mouth as though she hadn’t been screaming it the night before. Mr. Gold tries to balance lust and trust with less finesse than he'd like to admit. Luckily, Belle can give as good as she gets.

Do you respond to comments?

I've made it a goal to try and reply to almost every comment. I'm grateful someone took the time!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh undoubtedly Silence is Golden. I made my self tear up writing that one...

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

Almost all of them? But I will take this chance to pimp my Canon-based Buffy Season Six Fix-it! (Everyone lives!): Making the Pieces Fit

Only totally non-shippy fic in my repertoire and one of my proudest achievements.

Do you get hate on fics?

rarely if ever?

Do you write smut?

Bwahahahahahaha. Oh. Yes.

Craziest crossover:

Not Just Watching Anymore - Buffy/Good Omens excuse to write an M/M/M threesome between Aziraphale, Crowley, and Giles :D

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, back in the rumbelle days, someone linked me to a site trying to sell my fic as theirs and we reported it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

If they did, no one ever linked back to me :(

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Working on one with @hakunahistata tho we've both been sidetracked by Bang fics, hehe. It's gonna be great to get back!

All time favorite ship?

Oof. I love all my OTPs but I'm definitely *deep* in Aziracrow right now and hope not to emerge any time soon.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

SO. MANY.

What are your writing strengths?

I get good feedback on my dialogue and characterization. I think I write pretty kickass smut most the time.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Background. What color are the walls? Where is the furniture? I have no fucking clue unless its relevant to the story. That table only existed when I needed the character to lean against it. It wasn't raining until that helped set the mood. Some people write exquisite scene setting and I am envious but writing it bores me to tears.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

One of my IRL besties can read a bunch of ancient languages and WILL side eye improper grammatical structure in fiction so I picture them giving me that look unless I do the really proper research (or ask them directly).

First fandom you wrote in?

unofficially HP but per my AO3, Once Upon a Time

Favorite fic you've written?

Ask me to cut my baby in half while you're at it, geez! But right now, I am proudest of For Loving One 

No pressure tagging: @voluptatiscausa, @naromoreau, @fishey-me @ineffabildaddy @she-makes-things @hakunahistata @nosferatini @zin-lynn-c and anyone from the @goodomensafterdark crew!

[darkfeanix]

Thedas Tuesday

Since I am a coward who doesn't want to create any more character information that could be contradicted by the game (at least, not until I've played the game), I've decided that for the foreseeable future I'm gonna use Thedas Tuesday to develop the worldstate for my first playthrough with Hissera. Most of it will probably end up headcanon, as I doubt the character creator will be as thorough as the Keep, which itself only factored in decisions potentially relevant to Inquisition (?). Even so, it's "established" headcanon, as all of it will be based on what was possible in the games.

Today we'll be going very broad, looking at some of the biggest choices in each of the three games. Since all of my PCs will be women, I'm gonna tag it as the "Girls Get It Done" worldstate. IYKYK.

Heroes

Petronella Aeducan (Reaver)

Ariel Hawke (Duelist)

Rhona Lavellan (Knight-Enchanter)

Worldstate information below the cut.

Dragon Age: Origins

Petronella Aeducan

My very first Warden, long lost to the annals of time and cyberspace, was a dwarf noble who used the default name Sereda, so it feels fitting that this worldstate be inspired by the default dwarf noble-focused worldstate that players can choose at the beginning of Dragon Age II: "No Compromise". In this worldstate, her name is Petronella, and she was very much forced into the role of leadership against her will. She didn't want the throne, even as Bhelan tried to unsubtly nudge her toward making a powerplay against Trian, and she certainly didn't want to be in charge of the Wardens' entire campaign against the Blight in Ferelden, but Alistair deferred to her pretty much from the start.

First, the most important decision: Petronella cured the Mabari, of course. She named him Wolf, inspired by the blighted surface wolves she had encountered during the expedition to Aeducan Thaig; they had been the first surface creatures she had ever seen up close.

Petronella did not romance anybody.

In The Arl of Redcliffe, she stayed and fought alongside the villagers, then in the castle she was persuaded to spare Connor and go to the Circle of Magi for help. Connor's life was ultimately saved by Wynne being sent into the Fade to fight the desire demon.

In Broken Circle, she saved the mages, including First Enchanter Irving.

In the Urn of Sacred Ashes, she desecrated the ashes in exchange for the knowledge of how to become a reaver. Leliana died trying to kill her, and Wynne abandoned the party when she learned what had happened.

In Nature of the Beast, she brokered peace between the elves and the werewolves.

In A Paragon of Her Kind, she destroyed the Anvil of the Void and crowned Bhelan (after supporting Harrowmont early on).

In The Landsmeet, she allied with Anora and recruited Loghain, which cost her Alistair as an ally. She convinced Anora to not execute him.

When she was told about the Dark Ritual, she rejected Morrigan's offer, and Morrigan left as well.

In The Battle of Denerim, Loghain sacrificed himself and killed Archdemon.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening

In the Depths of Depravity, the Architect was killed.

In The Assault on Amaranthine, the city of Amaranthine burned while Petronella returned to Vigil's Keep to repel the darkspawn attack.

Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt

In the Search of Morrigan, an incredibly embittered Petronella stabbed Morrigan.

Dragon Age II

Ariel Hawke

My first Hawke was a man. I don't remember his name, but I'm pretty sure he was a Diplomatic/Blue Hawke, and I do remember that he romanced Isabela. Since this is the Girls Get It Done worldstate, some changes will obviously need to be made. Ariel Hawke is a devout Andrastian, though like her friend Varric, she doesn't have a very high opinion of the Chantry as an institution. She believes strongly in the need for Circle reforms, in greater freedoms for mages, though not the outright eradication of the Circles.

Ariel ended up in a rivalry romance with Sebastian Vael.

At the end of the Prologue, Ariel joined the smugglers because she thought they could get more work for Bethany.

When the time came for The Deep Roads Expedition, Ariel was convinced by their mother to leave Bethany behind, leading to Bethany being taken to the Circle of Magi.

In Following the Qun, Ariel did not side with Mother Petrice.

In Legacy, Ariel ultimately sided with Janeka after learning that Larius threatened her father.

In Demands of the Qun, Isabela returned with the Tome of Koslun, and Ariel fought and killed the Arishok to protect her.

In Best Served Cold, Ariel handed the conspirators over to Orsino.

In The Last Straw, Ariel executed Anders, and sided with the mages.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Rhona Lavellan

My first Inquisitor was Lavellan, pretty sure with the default name Ellana. Of my three heroes, Inquisitor Rhona Lavellan is closest to her actually played equivalent. She is the Second of Keeper Deshanna Istimaethoriel, and in the course of her time serving as Inquisitor, she learned the way of the Knight-Enchanter due to the similarities to the arcane warriors of her clan's histories.

With the help of all three of her advisors, Clan Lavellan survived the machinations of the Elder One, and Keeper Deshanna was installed as an elven representative on the new Wycome City Council.

Rhona romanced Sera, though their relationship ultimately fell apart due to differences in opinion over the existence of the elven gods.

In The Wrath of Heaven, and in fact throughout her time as the Inquisitor, Rhona resolutely denied being the Herald of Andraste.

During the events of In Hushed Whispers, Rhona allied with the mages.

In Here Lies the Abyss, Warden Stroud made a noble sacrifice in the Fade to distract Nightmare, and Rhona encouraged the Grey Wardens to rebuild.

In Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, Empress Celene was assassinated, Grand Duchess Florianne was killed, and Gaspard was installed as a puppet for Briala to rule through

In What Pride Had Wrought, Rhona respected the templar traditions, allied with the sentinels, and was ultimately the one who drank from the Well of Sorrows.

After averting Doom Upon All the World, Rhona's influence led to Leliana being elected as Divine Victoria.

Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Descent

In The Descent, Rhona travelled into the Deep Roads to uncover the source of earthquakes, and discovered the Titan.

Dragon Age: Inquisition – Jaws of Haakon

In Ameridan's End, Rhona met the last Inquisitor, and revealed the truth about his elven heritage to the world.

Dragon Age: Inquisition – Trespasser

In Trespasser, Rhona told Solas she would find a way to change his mind, and disbanded the Inquisition.

[tormentum-ab-intra]

Hey, I'm Tormie!

You can also call me Tor. Whichever. It's only Tormentum if we're being formal ;) I'm an artist! I also write. I've been putting off making this info post for a hot minute, but here we are, finally!

Here there be whump. You can expect to see general oc content, gore, whump, nsfw (or as nsfw as tumblr will let me get away with, at least,) nsfwhump, and a fuckton of monster ocs. I'm Tall Giant Longlegged Monster OCs McGee, baybey. (I have a fandom blog, mainly for One Piece stuff, @tormie-tormie-chopper if that's more your speed! I post there once in a blue moon.)

I don't have any masterlists yet, but hopefully I'll get around to making those soon!

Here there be freaks, and here freaks are welcome. Let's be weird and fucked up and into weird and fucked up things together <3 (This should go without saying but I'm gonna say it anyway: Me writing about, talking about, or drawing something does not mean I endorse it in real life. Cool? Cool 😂) My blog is not intended for minors.

My pronouns are it/its. However, both gender neutral and masculine gendered terms are welcome! Feminine gendered terms are also fine but better saved for silly or joking contexts.

Bigotry, hate speech, and so on are NOT welcome. TERFS are not welcome. I'm not interested in starting or engaging in discourse, so racists, homophobes, transphobes, bigots, zionists, and the like will be blocked expeditiously. Like just be chill and I'll be chill back.

Commissions: open! Take a look at my info post for those here, or visit my Ko-fi page here!

Look below the cut for askbox info and info on my tagging system.

Some common general tags I'll be using: -#tor draws for anything with my own artwork in it -#tor animates for anything with my own animations in it -#tor thinks for posts containing thoughts or rambles. -#tor's corner is basically the #tor thinks tag but like. for really brief and/or asinine stuff that doesn't have anything insightful or interesting in it. me sitting in a corner talking to myself basically -#tor answers for answered asks. -#tor speaks for announcements. -#tor writes for posts of my own writing, e.g. drabbles and such. -#torque for queued posts. (get it? because tor...queue? torqueue? torque? ahaha....hahaha........ah. I'll see myself out.) -oc: [character name] to indicate which ocs are in a post -I will usually tag tropes where applicable, characters in the post, ships in the post, and any other relevant aspects.

Some common CW tags to look out for or block according to need: -#nsft for explicitly nsfw posts and artwork, or for posts with links to explicitly nsfw fics or artwork (because I know tumblr won't let me post certain things and I may have to share links to those things instead.) This doesn't include nonsexual nudity though. -#suggestive for posts and artwork that are risque or mildly nsfw in nature but don't describe or depict anything explicit. somewhat hit or miss whether i actually use this one ngl -#nsfwhump for posts and artwork that are nsfw and depict noncon -#gore for all posts and artwork with excessive amounts of blood or graphic depictions of severe injuries -#body horror for posts and artwork with body horror, particularly when depicted in intense or grotesque ways. -#blood for posts and artwork with excessive amounts of blood in them. I probably won't use this tag for posts that only have small amounts of blood in them unless the blood is somehow the focus or part of the focus. -#eyestrain for posts and artwork with intensely bright and saturated colors, flashing effects, and so on. -Additional tags for relevant triggering subjects will be added when applicable. I will always try to tag my posts and artwork accurately, especially when it comes to potentially triggering subjects, but if I've missed something, feel free to let me know!

[lurking-latinist]

reviving a meme I previously got from @swinging-stars-from-satellites

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

158 (one currently unrevealed).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

103,185. I cracked 100k recently!

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

All the Doctors Who + Gallifrey + Iris Wildthyme + The Time Travellers + GoR etc.; Ancient Greek Religion & Lore; WtOVPIC; Blake’s 7; Dracula; Discworld; Windrose Chronicles & Sun-Cross series also by Barbara Hambly (one crossover); All Creatures Great and Small; Lost at Christmas, heaven help me. That makes nine as I count it. Most only for one small thing or crossover.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Skipping kudos bot victims:

Ms Smith (13 and Sarah, fun with fake names)

don’t worry, he’s with me (Ten and Donna five-times-fic)

Vicarious (Six & Martha drabble)

Time Flies Like an Arrow (witches fly on a broomstick) (Discworld, Lancre Witches, having a philosophical conversation about time) (I have come to detest this title but I’m glad people enjoyed the fic)

to all our nights and days to come (Seven/Romana Time War AU)

It’s helpful to include extremely popular, well-known characters in your fics. Or, apparently, to write a slightly darker twist on your rarepair OTP and happen to plug it one day on a relevant popular post.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do, because I love getting comments and I am always genuinely grateful to hear that someone has enjoyed my work!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow, last time I did this meme I said it was That Which We Call. That’s changed. It might actually be to all our nights and days to come, or else one of the Six-post-Trial ones.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Apparently! But not much, and not well.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, touch wood.

9, Do you write smut?

Not my thing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! @sci-firenegade translated Making History into Portuguese! It is so cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Sort of, with Moki! We more tend to write sequels to each other’s stuff, but we also have listed ourselves as co-authors on a couple of things.

13. All time fav ship?

Seven/Romana.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Never say die! Probably the Eight/Charley babyfic AU, though. If I go back to it it’ll be as a very different writer and I’ll probably want to rework what exists and it’ll be technically a different fic.

15. Writing strengths?

Character voices & dialogue. Also, focalization. I always know what A thinks of B and what B notices about A, which is hilarious as I absolutely do not know any of this in real life.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Used to be length; I’m still very brief but I feel like I have more control over the length of a fic now. Like it comes out more or less the length I expect it to; I can tell what size something’s gonna be. Probably now I would just say plot. I’m not great at Things Occurring. And like everybody else I get hung up on how to describe basic actions like walking across a room.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Don’t do it if you can’t get the other language right (as well as how code-switching actually tends to work). Also, translation convention exists for a reason. Probably don’t pull an ‘opening lines of War and Peace’ unless you are in fact Tolstoy, in which case you don’t need my writing advice. Nothing inherently wrong with it though.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, DW. Unofficially, probably something as a kid before I knew fandom existed. Redwall or something.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

to all our nights and days to come, probably.

Not tagging anyone, but memes are for stealing!

[your-old-sins-tournament]

OH WAIT EVEN MORE MARLA PROPAGANDA: i used to be friends with someone who wrote a lot on Wattpad who was in the DogMan fandom, and they wrote a fanfiction about her and Big Jim that was never finished, but included a lot of our DogMan ocs.

the main plot was that (i think?) Big Jim moves in with Petey and DogMan (who are a couple in this) after serving his time in Cat Jail. While he's on his way to their place, he literally finds Marla out next to a forest and?? decides to chat with this weird cat thing alien??? (he's canonically REALLY dumb so it fits him perfectly but even then i don't think even he would trust a random ass cat with two tails that are on fire)

so they hit it off immediately. i think i should mention other OCs that are relevant to Marla because they really make a big impact on the story, but i'm only gonna actually describe Max (another alien), whose ""earth"" form is a white anthro wolf with a red eye and a blue eye. totally unique. there's also Kanga, a blue robo-kangaroo who's just there to be funny and swoon over 80-HD, so they don't have much importance.

Max apparently knows DogMan and Petey, and has a really unhealthy crush on DogMan to the point he's planning to kill Petey, but not without help. and you know who tags along? Marla. goddamn Marla. shes willing to kill Petey just to be loved by Big Jim of all characters, who isn't even okay with the idea of hurting Petey in this fic. and also a tuatara named Duke but he's only relevant because he is helping get Petey out of the way.

from what i remember, Max and Duke have already killed some people (and a poodle) until Marla realizes "uh holy cow i don't respect anyone here" and tells Kanga and Big Jim. Big Jim of course, like any ordinary cat, freaks out.

annddddd that's where my memory fuzzes out. i do recall that Lil Petey DOES get harmed by Max but survives, and also there's a Petey x DogMan shipchild named Detey.

also, in an alternate universe(?) Marla leaves Big Jim after possibly decades and takes the fanchild (named Lam) with her and ends up with a trans doggirl OC of the fic writer's. love wins. and also Marla does get a redesign after the fic but it's just her but edgy (red hoodie, spikey hair, longer fur, AND GODDAMN FISHNETS)

so uh yeah vote for my old alien cat oc made for a book series by Dav Pilkey shes horrible

THE DOG MAN OC AGAIN HELL YEAH !!!

[your-secondborn-child]

ashswag propaganda

(as always this is a) about the character and b) in good fun)

(the rest of the slides and the IDs for the slides will be under a cut for those that want to read the whole thing, because it’s very long and i want to be respectful of the other people in the tag)

Image IDs: A series of fifteen Google Slides. They are on a dark grey background and the text is in white Comic Sans MS. Unless specified otherwise, all text is not capitalized. The first slide says “ashswag propaganda” in all caps, and below it is “ashswag propaganda” in smaller grey text. It is not capitalized.

The second slide’s title is “not enough people nominated ash so i had to make these”. The text is “what is this: i thought ash should at least win one round. he’s 90th seed so i figured i needed propaganda for this. method: i just went through the sexyman wiki and screenshotted anything i thought would be even slightly relevant.” “more tropes = better” is written at the bottom in very large text. The third slide’s title is “trope 1”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “4th Wall Blurring: "Teasing" the 4th wall so to speak, sexymen who are implied to have some amount of insight into/control over the workings of their reality even if not full awareness of their own fictional nature. It is extremely rare for a sexyman to fully, directly, and intentionally with full awareness break the 4th wall outright, but it is very common for them to do things that blur the lines and make it unclear how connected the story world is with reality. This also applies to sexymen who blur the lines unintentionally due to something about their inherent nature or what they represent on a meta level, such as Gaster being a meta deconstruction of the concept of a dummied out beta character.” The text on the slide below the screenshot is “i feel like this is just inherent to mcyt so i am using it. you can’t sue me i’m not a lawyer. lifesteal videos especially are commonly characterized by narrating to the viewer, versus things like empires or hermitcraft which are mostly just showing what happened. ash very much does this”. The fourth slide’s title is “trope 2”. The text says “ok the only accent-related trope was european/british and he’s indian (source: money smp video) but i’m gonna say he has a distinctive enough accent compared to anyone he interacts with that it still counts for something.” The fifth slide’s title is “tropes 3 and 4”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining two tropes, which says “Capitalist: Characters who are businessmen, CEOs, or have other ties to capitalism. Typically amoral and willing to disregard others for the sake of their own profit. Chaoslord: Characters who are strongly associated with themes of chaos, are nearly always trolls, and almost certainly rely heavily on random/quirky style humor (hey, nothing wrong with that!). Usually supernatural in nature. A very common trope to find in Dominating and Knifemurder characters. Prime example: Discord from MLP.” The text of the slide below the screenshot says “he’s a businessman i don’t know what to tell you. Like that is one of his things (ignore the communism for a second). he is also very commonly known as a guy who breaks stuff and trolls people (see “why i became god” and “how i ruined mrbeast’s charity minecraft smp”), including surprise zombies (why are there surprise zombies? because he felt like it)”. The sixth slide’s title is “trope 5”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “Criminal: For when a character breaks the law in some way. Different from being just a villain.” The text of the slide below the screenshot says, in a bulleted list, “illegal items on lifesteal (original god video, sharp 250 sticks) getting him temporarily banned and placed under house arrest, earth smp guns and claiming the end spawn (someone who is more familiar with earth smp could elaborate better than i can), he literally got tried for war crimes, when he lost a lawsuit he just started shooting the plaintiff, deciding to make more trash on mrbeast’s charity server instead of removing it like they were supposed to (algebra moment)” The seventh slide’s title is “trope 6”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “Divorced: Characters who are canonically or headcannoned as being divorced, so all their fans have a chance of marrying them!“. The text below the screenshot says “ignore the second bit i don’t like men. anyways source mark bormethius”. There are two images, one of an MS Paint drawing of ash’s minecraft skin and Reddoons’s minecraft skin. They are linked by a black line with a red line drawn through it. The second image is a key, indicating that a black line with no arrows means marriage, and a red line through it means “divcore”, assumed to be a misspelling of divorce. Text in the slide below the second image says “he’s technically ‘divcored’ but whatever”. The eighth slide’s title is “trope 7 and 8”. There is a screenshot of a box that reads “PING ms” and has the number 17,454 below it. Next to it on the slide is text that says “and here we see tactics” with an arrow pointing to the screenshot. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining two tropes and a subtrope, which says “Egotistical: Characters who think they are hot shit, basically. Expect them to brag about their accomplishments and act like they are the next coming. Might have a real "would date their clone" energy, which... might explain some things. Eldritch: Sexymen with strong eldritch elements to some facet of their character, whether it's a visible part of their physical bodies or just a general vibe their lore gives off. Since the typical sexyman is a tall mostly human looking pale twink, in a vast majority of the cases the eldritch is a heavy implication lying just under the surface given off by the way they're presented in-story rather than something immediately visible on the character themselves if you taken them out of the context of how they were presented in action. Pairing this in some way or another with Monster Features is so popular that it's practically a requirement. Glitching: A distinct subset of eldritch where the character is associated specifically with corruption of digital media and electronic devices. glitchy screen aesthetics, pixelated flickering, corrupted audio files, games behaving in strange unprogrammed ways, frequent references to hacking and terms like "virtual reality" and "in the game" and "artificial intelligence", ect. originally common in bendrowned style creepypastas but slowly seeped out to become a widely used trope across all forms of fiction.” The text on the slide says “he absolutely thinks he’s hot shit he literally named himself swag. do i have to elaborate.” and “he literally has an entire thing about lagging and glitching, along with hacking occasionally. it’s most of his aesthetic at this point, people (and me) will draw the purple parts of his skin as glitches despite them being crying obsidian.” The ninth slide’s title is “trope 9”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “Flanderization: Borrowed from TvTropes, when the fandom takes a single trait in the source material and exaggerates it wildly, at least in certain fanworks (mostly memes, comedic works and such). For example in the source material the character may mention liking spicy things once, and fanon runs wild with that depicting them being obsessed with all things spicy to the point of literally thinking about nothing else and their whole character revolving exclusively around utter worship for spiciness with their only trait being trying to find spicy things to eat and talking about eating spicy things constantly while all of the fanart shows them in close proximity to at least one hot pepper. This can also result in the canon version of the character being flanderized in future material by the creators in response to the fan's flanderization.” The text on the slide says “communism. he did the one thing and then went back to normal capitalism mode. however everyone still decides that He’s The Funny Communism Guy.” and in smaller text “(this is not meant to be mean i do love the fandom. but he’s mentioned it himself at this point)”. The tenth slide’s title is “trope 10”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “Nonhuman: Where Monster Features describes sexymen with some non-human features, this is primarily for sexymen who are not even humanoid. These sexymen are often humanized by fans, sometimes as a White Twink Humanization”. The text on the slide says “i mean look at him”. There is an image of ash’s minecraft skin, which has a black base with seemingly random purple patches and pixels around it, mimicking crying obsidian. There are also a few grey pixels. The eleventh slide’s title is “tropes 11 and 12”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining two tropes, which says “Questionable Neurodivergent Rep: Characters who fall under harmful stereotypes of neurodivergence. This accounts for all kinds of neurodiversity, but more often than not is specifically for stereotypes of autism, anxiety disorders, and/or OCD. Think of it like the cousin of Twisted Freaking Cycle Path. Religious Imagery: Said character is tied with religious themes, I.e. God or angels, a LOT, either in canon or fan-art. Usually means Christian imagery but can count if said character is tied to other religions/mythologies.” The text on the slide says “he has adhd (said it in a video once) and is evil i’m counting it. and like. okay it can be exaggerated in fanon but he has tried to become god on multiple different occasions. it’s a massive thing.” The twelfth slide’s title is “trope 13”. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining two subtropes of the trope “Villain”. It says “Morally Grey: Characters who aren't necessarily evil, but aren't exactly good either.” and “Technically Antagonist: Characters who aren't necessarily evil, or who are only the antagonist under specific conditions (think Sans in the no mercy run).” The text on the slide reads “he’s not really either of the bullet points but he has on multiple occasions gotten worse just because someone called him nice. i don’t honestly think he would be interested in being a good guy and i respect that”. The thirteenth slide’s title is “trope 14″. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a trope, which says “Tall: Self explanatory. Characters that are really tall even abnormally so.” The text on the slide says “he’s 6’3 it counts”. There is a screenshot of an exchange on Twitter. In the first tweet, user @/ashswagin, with the display name “ashswag” (will be referred to as ash) writes “just found out i MAY be 6′3 and not 6′5 since i’ve been measuring my hair my whole life. day ruined.” A reply by user @/Historixal_Artz, with the display name “The TRUE Poop Shitter {Historix}” says “ARE YOU AT LEAST TALLER THAN REDDOONS. PLEASE I CAN’T BE DRAWING YOU TALLER THAN RED AND REALISE OH SHIT HE’S SHORTER THAN HIM”. The final reply from ash says “yep. red is still like 6′1 or something it’s over” followed without a space by the emoji guy with sunglasses. The fourteenth slide’s title is “trope 15″. There is a screenshot of the sexyman wiki defining a subtrope of the trope “Well-Dressed”. It says “Suitguy: Characters who typically wear formalwear, specifically suits. Often includes waistcoats, top hats, bowties, and pinstripes. Other neckwear may also be worn.” The text on the slide reads “suit guy”. A screenshot of ash’s minecraft skin is attached. It’s the same as above, except in a suit with a purple jacket, black tie, and set of 4 red pixels over the heart, presumably approximating a flower. The fifteenth slide’s title is “in conclusion” written in all caps. The text is “ vote ashswag for round one. he’ll probably lose to cubfan but i want him to win one (1) round because he only got 90th for nominations/seed placement and i think he deserves it. the sexyman wiki needs 13 tropes for an obscure character to be considered a sexyman and i got 15. even if no one had heard of him he would be a sexyman i rest my case. i didn’t even mention the folder of shirtless fanart.” Source for tropes: https://sexypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Tropes

Source for bormethius screenshot: https://www.tumblr.com/deliciousobservationbird/705556005772230656/the-official-family-tree-of-most-everyone everything else is from namemc or ash’s twitter and youtube channel.

[flightfoot]

I posted 18,156 times in 2022

That's 5,206 more posts than 2021!

2,695 posts created (15%)

15,461 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@galahadwilder

@gentil-minou

@chronicallylatetotheparty

@trainsinanime

@lovingadrienhours

I tagged 13,225 of my posts in 2022

Only 27% of my posts had no tags

#ml fanart - 3,373 posts

#adrien agreste - 3,260 posts

#ml spoilers - 3,182 posts

#miraculous ladybug - 2,171 posts

#marinette dupain cheng - 1,962 posts

#ask - 1,718 posts

#ladynoir - 797 posts

#alya cesaire - 676 posts

#adrienette - 614 posts

#toh spoilers - 540 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i don't trust these kinds of prediction posts unless someone reblogged it way back at the time so you can see that the post wasn't changed.

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

To make you feel better: please rant about your FAVORITE au and what it is you like about it. Bonus points if you can make the author keysmash in the comments/tags.

Right now? Hard competition between @buggachat's Bakery Enemies AU and @wackus-bonkus-maximus one does not love breathing. Which should not surprise anyone, if you've been on my blog these past few weeks. Though right now I think I'm gonna go with the Bakery Enemies AU, because wackus's AU is still very painful and angsty and it's got a great set-up but I NEED a happy ending to soothe the pain. Sentis go through so much psychological horror in that fic, and I suspect that more's coming up...

Anyway, I absolutely adore the Bakery Enemies AU! I've written five fics for it so far.

Perspective From Another Timeline, because I really wanted to cross over BEAU with canon in some way, and Alya and Nino make everything better.

Swallowing Rings is Bad For Your Health, because I found the concept of what might happen if Marinette HAD actually swallowed the ring to be really funny, and it took only a minor tweak to explore that possibility. Most awkward identity reveal ever!

Greeting the New Dawn, because I wanted to explore some of the remaining angst even after Marinette and Adrien know each other's identities and are reunited properly. I think it's especially relevant now, with its focus on Marinette having nightmares about what could have happened to Adrien, if things had gone a little bit differently. I'm betting that Marinette will have more nightmares in BEAU soon, with feeling guilty about being so convinced, yet again, that Adrien is evil.

Hungover Realizations, because after the sleepover arc, I wanted a funny and adorable reveal to tide me over.

And finally, Forgetting Enemies, Rediscovering Friends, because I've wanted to write an Oblivio-inspired fic for ages.

I just really love BEAU, it's got that dramatic irony that helped attract me to Miraculous in the first place, and I love how clearly you can see Adrien's and Marinette's emotions throughout it.

1,015 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

#4

WE HAVE A MARICHAT KISS PEOPLE. FULLY, WILLINGLY, ON THE LIPS, MARICHAT KISS!

1,253 notes - Posted November 3, 2022

#3

Oh yeah, it was interesting seeing Luz’s past in Thanks to Them, including her interactions with other kids. It doesn’t look like kids went out of their way to be mean to her or to hurt her, so much as they rejected her when she displayed some of her interests in things that other people found gross or dangerous. The adults were actually a lot more outright hurtful and mean than the kids were.

 Kind of reminded me of Eda’s school experience actually, especially with her being so famous as a troublemaker. 

Oh yeah, and there were these two guys, who seemed pretty friendly.

Like they genuinely seemed thrilled to meet someone who was also passionate and into weird, somewhat scary things. I think that, assuming she splits her time between the Human and Demon realms, Luz will actually have some school friends in the Human realm this time, with these two. Bet they’d love the Demon Realm.

1,394 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

#2

I love how Marinette sees the bell and IMMEDIATELY thinks that Kuro Neko’s Chat Noir. That bell is one of the signature features of his outfit... which is why it’s kinda sad that as Catwalker, he doesn’t have it.

1,778 notes - Posted January 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I love how Nino just snatches Adrien when Lila sees them and runs off with him XD

See the full post

2,236 notes - Posted October 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[morepopcornplease]

✨️ 10 characthers, 10 fandoms, 10 tags

tagged by @omghost thanks hon!! 😘 sorry its an emBARRASSINGLY late response, I could only think of 5 and put it off cuz I couldn’t name 10, so honestly I’m just gonna do 5…

1. Heather Chandler: owns me atm. Have never once been a fan of just downright mean and nasty characters—never got why people really liked Catra or even Regina George—then this bitch strutted and sang her way into my life and I have not been the same since. She steals every scene. There are 2 beasts inside me, one that wants her to become a better person, and one who wants to keep her in character. Kicked me in the asshole to start writing fanfic again. I am in love with her ghost. May she haunt me (and Veronica) forever. 

2. Gideon Nav: just barely wins out over my beloved hideous bone witch, because I don’t think I would’ve gotten into The Locked Tomb at ALL if we hadn’t started from Gideon’s POV. Butch. Goofy. My personal gym motivation. Smarter than she’s given credit for. Unexpectedly noble. I love her choice at the ending of the first book, and get hideously upset at folks who say it was a nice gesture and certainly meant a lot in relation to #griddlehark, but was ultimately pointless in the face of [x]’s setup and lies. I refuse to believe it doesn’t matter, or that every either/or is a false dichotomy that can be turned into a both/and, as is popular in recent narratives. No. Gideon’s choice mattered, and not just as thematic or romantic relevance. I fckn WILL BE VINDICATED in Alecto.

3. Edalyn Clawthorne: owl mama. Aspirational. Love her voice and her snaggletooth and her penchant for adopting weird kiddos. Great disability metaphor. The type of old surprisingly foxy hag I hope to become. 

4. Kara Danvers: pretty sure the last time i answered one of these, I chose Lena Luthor, whom I still love! But I think Kara won out today because of her duality. I have always, always loved characters who use their sunny optimism to hide and avoid their trauma and pain, and Kara has that in SPADES. On a personal level, she inspired me to try getting back into working in news again, after a bad internship that included covering a school shooting that left me horrified. I think now that the show’s over, I really appreciate Benoist’s acting more and more, especially in the earlier seasons when everything felt so fresh and new and delightful. She is pretty, she is handsome, she is traumatized, she is hopeful, she is grieving, she is joy personified. 

5. Glimmer: the real complex character of SPOP, and the majority of fandom didn’t even give her a chance. The greatest fusion of the Feminine Aesthetique and Pure Raw Badassery. She is both confident AND anxious, combative AND kind, reckless AND fearful, selfish AND selfless, the prettiest magical princess AND an absolutely brawler, and all of these traits play off each other seamlessly to continually raise the tension. I will literally never understand why the fandom shoved her to the side. Her season 4 arc is a juicy highlight of the show as she deals with grieving her mother, taking on the role of queen far too young, and her tension with her strongest soldier, her right hand, her friend, Adora. Plus her character re-design in s4 onwards? 😘👌. She is my Queen.

tagging @monstrousgourmandizingcats @autijacen @consoleyourself @itsallwearecalledtodo @feenyxblue @summerfly-blues @cheshirecatslovetoo @mongrelmutt @just-a-lost-princess @imluvnit​ @soldier--poet--queen​ and anyone else!!

[exhaustedstorm]

Just rewatched a bunch of Frankie Drake episodes & I'm so frustrated. I'm gonna be ranting about the show for a bit so if you want to skip i will tag the posts with 'f d rant'. I will also put most of it below the read more.

I really like almost every character except the titular frankie and her wardrobe/costumes makes me increasingly angry.

Trudy is a gem and I wish she was the focus. She is cunning, adventurous and could honestly run the agency by herself. She does most of the groundwork anyway & has almost all of the important contacts. Also she is gorgeous in anything.

I want more of Flo's backstory and would have really liked an episode focused on her. The other girls had at least one each so I can only assume one was planned for Flo before the show was cancelled. I just like her general vibe and the scenes she is in are always good. A woman studying on her own while holding a job she is passionate about is easy for me to relate to and Flo is a great character with strong loyal ties.

Mary is hilarious and the only thing I wish was different was that Frankie & Trudy included her more or actually gave her information back intead of just taking it from her, often without a thank you until the general 'good-job-everyone' at the episodes end. Sure she is naive and is made fun of by that by the narrative and a lot of the other characters, but she states outright that she's not living in a bubble and tries to make the best choices she has with what she's allowed to know. Considering few people (even her friends!) actually bothers to tell her relevant information in time it's no wonder her actions are sometimes misguided. I have a hard time relating to her cop-behaviour, but it's a strong motivator for her character.

I really love Wendy and she could not show up enough times! Same with Nora. She is a dynamic character that really brings excitement to any scene.

[wildcatofgreen]

🌻🌻🌻

new ask game send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want

((1. after using the new post editor vs the old post editor and switching back and forth between them on my blogs, i gotta say! old post editor fucks

((though the new post editor has a TON of QoL changes that elevator to more of an equal status ((like, being able to tell when a special thing like italics starts and stops is a fucking amazing feature and i wish it was on the old post editor ((or being able to edit tags, or being able to make text BIG or BIGGER, or things like that

((but running with the old post editor for a while on the qkd blog has brought about some really funny/interesting bits!

((this gimmick is really fun. it feels like ive been running the blog for months but its only been less than one. i love that blog

((2. speaking of--if things havent been obvious so far, then lemme say it outright right now ((i am going through the entirety of poppy's story on that blog, pre-poppy to... an ending, of sorts ((which means events will just sort of happen over there, in slight congruence to when they happened in poppy. such aaaaaaaaas

((this whole thing! in fact, it's happening in a thread right now~.

((at the end of arcs/events i plan on tagging all of the previous posts that took place in that event as like... a relevant tag, so that i might chrono them and maybe my things can be read as a sort of story. this is... going to be a pain. but! i am incredibly committed to all of this now. i am excited. things are going to fucking happen.

((uh, sorry for all the kit-blog talk. i am just kind of. really excited for that blog! i have this base guideline already set for me to follow and i get to explore how this MF goes through the entirety of what-we-know in poppy. including somee other things that are at play because of the nature of just. knowing more than my characters know

((having characters like lila and chicadino just making funni appearances this early into the story is just so much fun you dont even know.

((sidenote bonus thing but i really want chicadino to interact with @/fallen-symphony crew because like. he's a villain, with an outrageous lucky star at that. it'd be REALLY FUCKING FUN. i wanna do arthur interactions IN GENERAL, REALLY

((but alas. there is literally no conceivable way i could approach first about this without majorly breaking things and his knowledge on the world rn. his little birdy would not know about multiverse theory (yet).

((3. im thinking of like, making some slight changes on this blog? to save myself the sanity? but i dont know how. ((i aint stoppin' playing carol--i love this dumbass just as much as i love kit ((but man oh man i look at the amount of threads i have on here versus the amount i have on kit and its like

((well of course im over there more--i can actually count the things i have to do over there. and one of them finished! and another one has a finish line i can conceivably get to! cant say much for the other threads but im sure a finish line can be gotten.

((i do feel bad that activity has waned over here. again, carol has a lot of shit still happening and a lot of things i still havent properly addressed. the ideas are in my head, its just ((pen has to touch paper, y'know? that's it, that's all it is. i dont wanna take on new threads here because i get this anxiety that its just gonna stall me from actually doing things. i already have important threads that do need to get finished that i simply havent touched in like, weeks.

((maybe i just need to find these threads and hyper focus on them and then like, one or two more things. have something that can keep my sanity, well, sane. because otherwise it is going to be very hard for me to keep up things over here.

((i pray that this same issue doesnt occur on qkd. ive been thinking about implementing a thread cap of sorts, just so the overwhelming thing doesnt happen.

((still need to think about things tho. my mind is being RACKED as of current.))

[smzeszikorova]

Find the Word

Word of warning: this is long.

I was tagged by @dogmomwrites to find the words flame, stelliferous, chain, steed, and demand, and . . . I tried. This is probably in part because I only have one WIP at the moment, but literally the only word I could find was demand, and it wasn't even in my actual draft. I found it in my side document "Theodore Diaries" which details some of the things that end up happening in book three from Theo's perspective.

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy. I'll give you a bit of a longer excerpt on top of all my fun facts, that way it's not too dull.

Tagging @thetruearchmagos, @daisywords, @pinespittinink, @starlightscribe, and @antihell if any of you are interested / haven't already been tagged. Your words are unsettle, clumsy, fury, soup, and scatter. If you can't find one, include a fun fact about your WIP, writing process, or characters instead. (Courtesy of @marinesocks).

Ok, here it is:

Demand, taken from June 17 Entry of Theodore Diaries:

The combat segment was always divided into two categories: individual and team. But evidently, the overseers had decided to ignore the team combat segment entirely and to evaluate only the other three dependents in individual combat. I could tell that Lennox found this annoying, but by now I was so tired of his complaining that I pretended not to notice. Playground-style is just a tool for evaluating our combat abilities, and really, to me it comes off as more of an extension to the physical aptitude segment than anything else. Playground-style is about technique above all; it’s about swordsmanship. It’s about your ability to watch what your opponent does, quickly form a defensive or counteroffensive strategy, and then act. It’s about stability and balance. Your thought and action must work as one: a machine within a machine. Unity within unity.

In other words, it’s not all that different from grappling, except that it’s an art that demands the use of instruments designed for killing, and you have to be able to see to be any good at it.

So instead of doing that, I sat on my box and listened to the overseers’ commentary, thinking that if I committed to memory whatever information they had to offer about my teammates’ strengths and weaknesses and strategic tendencies, I might be able to apply that information later on when it became relevant to the formulation and execution of our attack plans.

Ok, now for the second part:

P&K didn't become a serious project of mine until I showed it to my coauthor. Before that, it was just a silly little story about a pirate named Sera Selney and her semi-willing partner in crime, Lyn, trying to save Sera's bratty, aristocratic cousin from a mob boss named Levi Niacera. I was in middle school and didn't know how to write interesting plotlines and character arcs. I even gave a secondary antagonist my baby brother's nickname. Since the story's changed so much since then, some of our early plot points and characters are practically unrecognizable to me.

So for the fun facts segment, I'm gonna talk about some of the ways my story's changed over the years.

Fun Fact 1: There was originally a heist scene in one of the first few chapters where Sera, at her cousin's request, goes to steal a pair of crystals from Mr. Secondary Antagonist Nonakinze. These crystals have the power to make their carrier immortal. But since I had no idea how to write suspense, I tried to raise the stakes of the heist by placing a fat fucking war zone right outside Nonakinze's house.

Fun Fact 2: I went through a phase where all my characters used flowery, archaic language. This phase co-occurred with my "I am determined to open this book with a pretentious prologue about my protagonists' parents killing each other on the battlefield" phase and my "I refuse to not let Levi murder all the good guys in the end" phase. Why all these phases, you ask? Because I was a pretentious asshole. I didn't want my book falling into the YA category, and I thought making it excessively dark, depressing, and full of pointlessly elaborate synonyms to the point of near unreadability was the way to do that.

Fun Fact 3: While I was wasting my time writing pretentious prologues, all the real progress in the story's development came through me and @adrielcastlyre acting out scenes.

Fun Fact 4: There were a few characters who ended up slowly morphing into our current characters without us knowing. Some of these were

The "Land-Ho" Guy. Originally characterized as a bumbling fool who would only remember to say his catchphrase after somebody else had already spotted land. He eventually became the ship's medic, Noah Barrow. Interesting by virtue of his overprotective but well-meaning relationship with his daughter. We cut him out of the story after our focus drifted away from Sera's ship and toward the war between Pemoki and Kenacia, but eventually his character resurfaced in the form of General Adrona.

Canary. Originally the "Land-Ho" guy's pet bird, with whom he could converse telepathically. She eventually became his daughter, Sophia Barrow. Again, she was cut from the story, but came back later on as Rolyn Czeres.

Tonaro Vercaneri and his older brother. Tonaro was a captive on Sera's ship. He was also a musician, which gave him some common ground with Lyn. We never went too deep into his backstory, but the couple-few times we did review it, it was usually to explore his complicated relationship with his older brother, who we never named. The conflicting resentment and admiration Tonaro felt toward his brother ended up making a reappearance in Adriel's relationship with his older brother, Hugh Oliver Castlyre.

Princess Rolova. Rolova was @adrielcastlyre's first character. She was a bit of a hothead, and extremely impulsive. She actually still exists in the story, but that was a recent readdition. Now she's Queen Rolova of Aleon, and most of her personality's been completely revamped.

Kira. Kira never had a last name. She was simply an impoverished Kenacian citizen with a grudge against Levi (who by then was no longer a mob boss).

Kira's personality and Rolova's were combined to create Lylon, an exiled woman struggling to support her family of 12 younger sisters in northern Pemoki. Lylon eventually became Catherine, and now she has 3 sisters instead of 12.

Ernest Wolbert. Originally the terrible, incompetent ship's cook. He eventually became one of Catherine's family friends, and is now an excellent pastry chef.

Alrik Ljoren. His only purpose was to be shot to death in one of my pretentious prologues. Now he's Adriel Castlyre, one of our main characters.

I'm sorry this is so fucking long. Hope you enjoyed. If you've gotten this far, I applaud you.