#(let him protect humans who feel cast out bc of who they are)

[qapsiel]

// you know what, I will make Castiel the guardian angel of all the people on the spectrum because he'd fit right in with them and feel at home among them in a way he'd never around neurotypical humans or angels ❤️

[sukunasweetheart]

This is just a quick rambling i did mostly at like 4am but just a warning for dark content, murder and manipulation 🤞🤞🤞

Heian era sukuna x op reader who isnt equal to his strength, but close enough to it that he pardons your weakness and keeps you at an arm's length distance bc youre not strong enough for him to belong to you, but youre also too precious to kill, or to belong to someone else.

Youre fun. Youre a pretty thing to look at, and to pleasure himself with. Above all that, youre just like him, thinking only of yourself and plainly disregarding everything else... messing around with you comes only second best to dining on human flesh whenever he's in need of some rich entertainment. And he really believed you'd remain the same, strong/unrelenting/selfish, not by his side per se, but around him, forever.

Until he witnesses you showing a strange interest in someone else... a powerless nobody. An insignificant human man.

That's not right. That's not like you. You should be digging your heel into the man's face from above. You should kill him on the spot. Why are you gazing at him like that instead?

He leaves you be. It must be just a temporary infatuation. Everybody needs a new plaything once in a while, right? And he couldn't care less about what you get up to in your spare time, anyway.

Sukuna turns a blind eye to it for a period of time... and he couldn't have made a bigger mistake. Your little boytoy lasts too long for his liking, and he eventually wants to interfere, to question you on it.

He shows up to where you are, and you're sitting next to the man as if he deserves to even meet you eye-to-eye like that, being such a worthless existence.

He doesn't like it. The way you protectively throw a hand over the vermin behind you. He doesn't like it at all. He considers doing the job for you, to kill him without hesitation, but something stops him from doing so. Maybe it's because he doesn't want to see you get emotional over another's death. The slightest sliver of a chance that it could trigger you to fight sukuna in the name of a third party, other than yourself makes him feel disgusted. That's not what he wants.

He'll drag you away from that insect, instead. He'll remind you of your status, of what kind of man suits you better, suits you best. He'll snip off this growing bud before it blooms.

Sukuna will mock you for getting infatuated with such a lowly being. But you seem shameless. And that irks him. As much as he wants to point out that you're changing, he doesn't, because he knows something is changing in him, too. He shouldn't care this much for a woman like you. If you've displeased him, he should've just killed both you and that man on the spot. But here he is, trying to convince you to stray away from your boytoy.

"But i love him. And he belongs wholly to me. I can see that in his eyes, when i speak to him. He wants to belong to me."

Love? A silly thing. Oh, but maybe that's what sukuna himself is doing to you right now. Loving you. This won't do. Now that he's realised, it's only more reason for him to separate you from the lowlife.

He spends months with you, having you attached to his hip at all times. Not letting you get a glimpse of your little plaything for a while. He pulls on your strings, and seduces you, making sure to confuse and muddle up your feelings, on who you should direct your affection towards. There is only one correct answer.

And when he feels like you're ready, just trained enough to act within his predictions, he brings you over to meet that man once again. To make you kill him with your own hands. Press on his windpipe and watch the life drain out his eyes. Cast away whatever interest you had in him prior.

The man is begging you for mercy, your hands wrapped around his throat, sukuna holding his weak, flimsy body up. His other pair of hands are guiding yours, but not applying any extra pressure. He wants you to do it with your own strength, alone. But he sees you hesitating. It pushes sukuna over the edge, and he does something unthinkable, impulsive.

He makes a promise. A binding vow, no less.

"Kill this man, and I'll be yours forever. Suffocate him to death, and I'll belong to you, the way you belong to me."

You want someone to possess-- and have whole to yourself? You want someone to desire it? Desire you? He'll take that spot. He can fulfill that for you. Nobody but him.

And he continues whispering sweet nothings into your ear from behind, leaving a couple of kisses down your neck, every action coaxing you to grip his throat tighter.

Sukuna groans when eventually the man takes his last breath, with tears in his lifeless eyes, regretful of having ever associated with you. Your hands are steady, and you don't show signs of guilt. You've taken countless lives before. But this one has significant meaning. Marking the beginning of something more important between you and sukuna.

The vow is effective immediately. Something in sukuna is stirring up his guts, but in a pleasantly exciting way. Heat gathers in his lower abdomen, and he drops the now useless body to embrace you instead, and take your lips in his.

This feeling is wonderful. To love, and be loved. You strangled someone dear to you for him, because you wanted him more, and sukuna couldn't be happier.

[forffax]

returning the favor with oc asks since i always wanna hear about yours !! if you had to pick like your top 5 favorite characters who would they be and why 👀 bonus if you want to pick your favorite like settings/worlds/universes youve made for ocs too!

OOOUH thank u chase!!!

I'm gonna list out my favs then talk abt my main oc universe a bit ^_^

This got ridiculously long so it's going under a readmore <3

1. Tos Family (sorry this is going to be. the whole family bc I cannot possibly choose between them)

i. Lux Tos (he/him)

(realizing now i haven't drawn him in a hot fuckin minute)

MY DAD. guy of all time ever. everyone's favorite half-human time traveling alien war vet. it always feels weird referring 2 him as part alien even if it's technically true sdjfgs. fun lore fact: he was the Dead Older Brother in original iteration Zephyr's Sad Backstory but I liked him too much so I decided he got to live <3

Lux is one of my older ocs that I still actively draw and think abt (late middle school...) and he's changed a LOT over the years but he's so so so dear to me. my guy who has Seen the Horrors and is now happily gay married with a kid :') sdfkjsk most things abt his story is just me being So Incredibly Self Indulgent (cool powers, complicated sibling relationships, gay) but it makes me happy and I love sharing it with ppl! Someday Voided 2 will be real and ready to share with the world...

ii. Ferdinand Tos (he/him)

Dad....2!!!!!! I don't remember when exactly I thought him up but it was probably around when Lux's backstory was getting a major overhaul... He's a man out of time he's training to be a doctor and his will to live is so strong he spent the better part of nearly two decades building himself a new body! Guys who died but got better <3. I think I literally got brain blasted one day and decided he's a non-op trans man and it was the best thing ever for him actually. He's a southern californian stuck in the cold northwest (probably. either that or the northeast im not settled on that aspect yet skdjfs). He's been super fun to write from a worldbuilding perspective too bc his main goal is to pioneer a new branch of medicine using his powers! His relationship with Lux and the rest of the family (and his reconciliation with his sister) is sooooo important 2 me :]

iii. Athanasius Tos (she/her)

THANAAAAA most normal sibling (lie). She was adopted formally right after Lux "died" and had a bit of a complex about just being a "replacement" for a good while, and she THOUGHT she had worked through that when Lux suddenly re-appeared... they're on great terms now but it was Tense. She's a biochemist and probably makes the most out of the household (she shares an apartment with Zeph!) It's very important 2 me that she can let herself be vulnerable with her family and close friends after years of bottling everything up... Epic nerdy autistic butches in your area <3 Fun fact she is the only full human of the main cast!

iv. Zephyr Tos (she/him)

My fuckign auncle. Within the story she only recently realized he was bigender and is much happier for it, even if you couldn't tell by her permanent scowl skjdfgs. Zeph was the original protag (along with Thana) of the short story I wrote in middle school that turned into Voided 2! In-universe he was very clearly supposed to be the protag but missed/ignored the "call to action" phase and just got a shitton of Issues and Traumas instead <3 She's so everything 2 me he's a freelance writer/artist she's kinda cringe and he is trying only as hard as she absolutely needs to in order to get by. While his relationship with Lux is MUCH better than it was when Lux first came back, she's completely inseparable from Thana and would do anything for her (I feel like they spent equal times protecting each other from bullies as kids...) He's changed so much from her original incarnation but developing him has been SO much fun <3 Since Voided 2 runs on real-world time (in that I have specific real-world dates for most major events) she turned 50 fairly recently and that's fucked but also funny. old.

v. Alan Tos (any)

Alan! Love this kiddo. He's Lux and Ferdinand's adoptive kid! Xe doesn't learn about it for a while but she was a government secret experiment test-tube baby (they were trying to artificially fuse souls together, distantly related to the later Child Soldier School ze was placed into) (kid cannot catch a break). He's a good kid, if not a little clueless and naive... someone who would hold no ill-will if you had to cut their leg off (this is not a hypothetical GJSKDS). Somehow, despite all this, she is by far the most Normal out of xer family <3 His fashion sense is some kind of spectrum between 60s businesswoman and scene and tbh? Very fun to draw! Her friends and family are very very dear to them and at the moment xe's just kind of letting life take zem wherever.

2. Vague (it/they)

unauthorized fucking thing kill it with hammers NOW!!!!!

Vague started as I think just a proxy for myself in vent art I drew in like early high school sdhjfgds they have since become. something. my mascot I guess? (I still end up using it for vent art sometimes bc it's functionally unkillable and it's fun 2 get narsty sometimes.)

originally it was just the weird cat-shaped angel thing but a couple years ago I gave them a human design that I really love too <3 vague technically has a place in Niko and my other cat furry ocs' story but their human form exists in the real world and is just Like That i think. vague is just a little guy okay? they're sorry about crying and bleeding all over the place (not bc it sees any issue with this they just noticed you looked upsetskjdfhs)

3. Niko (he/they)

Baby's first fursona! Niko was always mostly his own character but now that I have new This is Just Me sona(s), they've been officially retired from that front <3 Niko's story is mostly planned out, I just desperately need to write it somewhere skjdbfs but the gist is that Niko works a shitty minimum wage call center job and finds meaning and love through forming a band with people he happens to meet... also there's some whistleblowing and betrayal and vague slams down out of the sky at some point <3 Niko's band doesn't have a name but they're the lead vocalist! (Niko 🤝 Blue (is blue and sings in their band)) This is a universe where everyone is cat furries simply bc I wanted to design lots of cat furries but also I haven't drawn like half of his bandmates/friends.... orz

Fun fact I found my original doodles of him in an old math notebook and apparently I seriously considered the name "chandler" for them. Help,

4. Larkspur (they/them)

Laaark my friend lark :] they're my player character for a friend's tabletop campaign! *hands you a bug* *hands you a bug* *hands-

Their design was super fun to come up with and they're fun to play as :] They were raised on a farm and have a deep love for animals (insects in particular), but they have a hard time connecting with others and understanding why people act the way they do.. They wear an eyepatch to cover their multiple other eyes bc it gives them bad sensory overload to see with them! They also spent quite a bit of time as a bounty hunter before they were blacklisted from further work bc they let a target escape on purpose... Lark is a ranger/bard and they play the hurdy-gurdy! They're dear to me and I really need to draw them more sjdfhgs

5. Chungy Fresh (she/he/they)

Chungy my belungy.... she's a mimic who spent most of his life being a chest in the temple of a forgotten goddess until they gained sentience and saw a fursuit from far away and decided yep! I'm gonna look like that Now <3 She didn't get all the details right but he's never been happier! I think Chungy spawned from me drawing a weird fox thing and simultaneously thinking "hey wouldn't it be funny if a character had a verbal text/forum signature and it was also their name" skdjfgjskdfls. Chungy is def up there with "most fun ocs of mine to draw" bc she's so Noodly and Malleable... I started playing as him in a friend group's tabletop oneshot thingy (where multiple ppl write different unrelated oneshots but we use the same characters for each session) and it has been a lot of fun!

OKAY OC UNIVERSE TIME. I call my main oc story "Voided 2" bc it takes place in the same universe as my v personal self insert oc story "Voided" that I have been working on/writing/thinking abt since late middle school... It's kinda vaguely modern fantasy/sci-fi? Main things are that there are beings born at the beginning of the universe made of pure energy called Lunoirs. There are countless universes, and each universe has Lunoirs in some capacity. They mainly exist to "keep the balance," but if you ask any specific Lunoir what that means you'll get a million different answers. Mainly they gravitate towards any life within their universe and integrate with them, observing them and protecting them from Shadows and Vacares. Shadows are the unliving souls that will eventually be reborn and reformed into a living soul inside any given universe-- they exist in the space between universes, called the Void. the Void looks different to any being that crosses into it, and it's hard to say what its "true" nature is. Vacares are Lunoirs that have had their souls corrupted and eaten, usually by other Vacares. While Shadows, being amalgamations of soul energy, are strictly neutral, Vacares seek to cause chaos and eat more Lunoir souls, increasing their numbers in a vain attempt to satisfy their endless hunger.

The Lunoir population on Earth is fairly numerous, and since Lunoirs can take on whatever form they choose, many of them live and love and have children with humans, making partial-lunoir children (physically they are nearly indistinguishable from full humans, save for longer lifespans, odd hair and eye colors, and sharper teeth. also they have semi-physical wings, but these have to be manually brought out and often ppl don't even know they have them (*cough* zephyr *cough*)

Lunoirs aren't fully immortal, but they have a different life cycle to most other forms of life. When a non-lunoir dies, their soul disintegrates and is amalgamated with the souls of others in the Void to become Shadows. When a Lunoir dies (outside of having their soul completely corrupted/destroyed), they instead go into a sort of stasis and are reborn later; they have no memories of their previous life (the ones on Earth don't, at least) and they can take on wildly different appearances.

Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs have powers in the form of energy manipulation, particularly when it comes to the energy of their own souls... They can use their souls to form weapons, mainly to fight against Vacares that tend to be immune to physical weapons. Most people have one weapon that they specialize in, but in a pinch nearly everyone can form a knife. Humans can manipulate their own soul energy in this way too, but this ability must be taught/"unlocked" by a Lunoir or a partial Lunoir first (Zephyr, at some point, did this for Thana without either of them realizing it). Lunoirs can also manipulate the energy of the very universe to create Rifts in time and space, sometimes leading between separate universes... These rifts also open of their own accord from time to time, and there's a good number of people who have been displaced from their time or even their universe by unwittingly falling into one.

Every living being has a "soul" (a collection of their life energy), and through a kind of "reaching out," one can feel/taste/smell/hear/see another's soul... every soul is a bit different, so this is an easy way to identify people even from a distance!

The Earth Lunoirs once had a country where they congregated called Saluria, which was the site of a brutal multi-year war against an army of Vacares that wanted reign over Earth... Many Lunoirs and partial Lunoirs across all of Earth's history felt drawn to Saluria, often willingly or unwillingly being rifted to the time of the war to go fight in it... Some partial Lunoirs especially believed it was their sacred duty, while others believed it was a curse leading them to inevitable death... there's even whispers that Saluria itself is alive, luring in young partial and full Lunoirs out of self-preservation.. who's to say. Ultimately, the Salurian War was a victory, but not an easy one.

Lux and Zephyr are half Lunoirs (their mom being full), and Ferdinand is 3/4ths Lunoir! Alan is a bit of a weird case but functionally he's also half Lunoir :]

This is v much simplifying Years of worldbuilding ssjhdfgjks and I can FEEL I missed a bunch of stuff but it's all very very dear 2 me :]

[cyanichexanthine]

@potetosaradas’s first time hc post here made me lose my mind about the relationship progression (in a very good way, amazing HCs and all my love🥰💖 please go read if you haven’t, it’s perfect) and it re-sparked some thoughts that haunted me so this is gonna be a long? post of misc thoughts, buckle up I guess.

I see the relationship starting as a “perceived friends with benefits” thing like let’s just fuck nasty and hot and never speak of actual feelings bc Ricks. That being its fatal flaw in the end. I also think Prime felt a lot stronger about the actual relationship part than he’d ever admit, and thus got hurt by it way more in the end, like absolutely shattered him when Rick wouldn’t join him and they split. Rick is more oblivious to it initially, like of course he started to feel something but would likely suppress it more because he has more to “lose” per se. (His current life, his wife, his daughter etc) So he’d kinda just dip, dodge and ignore certain things until the first time they actually get intimate. It’s an endurance game he lost mentally because he didn’t really 100% want to win in the first place.

I do think it started off as Prime just visiting occasionally and helping with things and surprisingly even getting help with things he was working on, something he’d probably never, if only rarely, got before. Rick is smart, like as smart as him, almost, ego says so haha. But there’s a mutual respect there. On the odd chance they’re not on the same wavelength I think they’d give each other creative ideas the other hadn’t even considered. They genuinely enjoy each other’s company, hell they look forward to it.

But also occasionally he’d be showing Rick other universes, tech etc, this is partly because Rick didn’t suffer or even, you know, die immediately when “going alone” as the second version of the backstory would have us believe, he’s likely been out there before/has some knowledge or understanding of the universe/multiverse? Any human with zero experience or idea of what to expect or protection/weapons of some kind is eating dirt in 5 mins tops, especially if going in blind (which does make me wonder what it was like for Prime? But I don’t think he went in entirely unarmed or unprepared. That’s a thing for another day I guess.)

They spent a lot of time together, as much as they could without it being suspicious. But Prime definitely made the first intimate advance, maybe noticed that Rick was kinda frustrated and wanted in on that. Very in the moment. Manages to convince him maybe even similar to the Beth thing like is it really cheating if it’s with yourself etc and it really doesn’t help he’d know *himself* best sexually, Rick doesn’t stand a chance honestly. Again, slowly losing the mental battle with himself on why he shouldn’t.

Death by a thousand cuts but make it interactions.

From that point on the damage is pretty much done to the core, now it just slowly seeps out like a poison between all the casual sex and fun.

Unfortunately, Ricks have been shown time and time again to be heavily emotion/feeling (especially in the moment) driven creatures so of course they get tangled in between working together and the friends with benefits thing and the gears start to come off the tracks. Arguments, frustration, walking out, failing to apologise bc pride/stubborn nature of Ricks etc. Just failing to talk about how they feel in general. Instead, it’s micro-aggressions and cold shoulders. Why doesn’t the sex and touch hit like it used to? Why are the silences longer? There’s longer gaps between the visits etc.

I think they didn’t exactly have smooth sailing relationship wise, at all, when feelings get involved tensions flare more often especially when Rick didn’t seem 100% happy in his relationship with Diane but likely committed for the love of his daughter. Meanwhile, Prime wants in with someone who is already taken and “burdened” by the same things he so easily cast off himself. Likely believing that C137 would eventually if not already end up feeling the same way, longing for something more than this mundane life. So why stay? Why rot away like that? That they could do whatever, whenever, together.

Maybe it’s one of the first interactions/relationships Prime hadn’t got bored of, he can see the potential and it makes it hurt. Especially accentuated by the torment of holding and being so close to someone you can never truly have.

It’s part of why I think the final talk before the split would have been such an ultimatum/volatile one. Where all the hairline fractures they likely ignored and patched over with sex and careless words over time of their relationship/working together kinda just split and the whole thing shatters.

Ugh the tragedy hit this one sorry everyone. Just had to exorcise my brain a little.

[lesbiannancytruther]

love and trust au headcanons bc they’re lowkey slowburn and i do NOT feel like going chronological b4 talking abt them kissing

-it takes nancy a couple of weeks of testing the waters before transforming into her human form and when she does robin is literally floored bc “oh my god she’s so small….” and also like exactly her type😭

-nancy has varying degrees of human form, with the natural form being with the fluffy cat ears and tail and slit pupils, but if she tries she can make the cat features go away

-i didn’t get to go into as far into detail as i wanted regarding robin and her magic. robin’s magic is elemental and chaos based, it’s VERY powerful and in typical robin fashion leaves a mess when she gets out of hand. its destructive as hell, so her specialty IS combat even if that’s not where her interests lie. robin’s method of channeling is actually pretty unique, preferring to use an intricate dagger her mother gave her to cast spells.

-even though nancy eventually trusts and opens up to robin, she has a very clear dislike for other witches, especially those that she’s just met. when robin goes out to buy supplies and nancy accompanies her, many other store patrons are forced to endure her icy glare from her perch on robin’s shoulders

-a few people comment on this, verbally expressing their sympathy to robin for having such a hostile familiar, and robin is surprisingly pretty pissed every time someone brings this up, swiftly coming to nancy’s defense every time

-nancy purrs

-like they’ll be kissing and robin will be like “r u purring🤨” “NO”

-nancy sleeps in robin’s bed only a few weeks after joining her, but as a cat. it’s when things get romantic that she shares robin’s bed as herself

-when they get into petty arguments nancy sleeps in her cat bed as a form of protest and is always scratching at robin’s door an hour later lol

-robin wasn’t really a fan of cats before nancy, mainly because most of them hissed whenever she walked by, but she sees their charm in nancy’s little tendencies

-robin always has cat hair on her clothes, she is never free

-nancy is, naturally, very protective of robin. now whenever people sneer at robin for messing something up or just existing they live in fear of either a little demon with claws or a little woman with a gun

-robin likes to boast that she can pick nancy up in both forms

-steve is still robin’s best friend in this au (he’s a witch and eddie is his familiar) and nancy HATES him like sitcom cat level hatred but she gets along REALLY well with eddie (a massive crow)

-steve: “robin ur familiar is looking at me with murderous intent again”

robin: “her name is nancy”

-robin buys nancy both regular outfits and cat outfits (the latter of which she refuses to wear) (except for on robin’s birthday where she agrees to a cat vest)

-robin and nancy balance each other out really well, with nancy being a careful eye that keeps robin from making small mistakes and robin who lets nancy have more magical freedom than most familiars do (nancy is a big fan of curses)

-after awhile, robin never goes anywhere without nancy. if for any reason she has to she always finds herself turning to see how nancy feels about something before realizing she isn’t there.

-nancy, by extension, never feels stronger than when she’s with robin. robin is her reminder that she’s a person, not a battery or a servant, she feels way more confident pursuing what she wants when she knows robin is at her side.

-nancy initiates the first kiss after robin wins a tense witch duel with her help, its heated and clearly an impulse move. robin doesn’t immediately respond, which makes nancy pull back and run off without letting robin explain anything, a tiny blur of fur disappearing into the trees

-robin is worried out of her mind until nancy comes home much later that night. she seems set on trying to apologize when robin confesses her feelings, explains that she needed to do that first, before kissing her. nancy melts into it and quickly affirms that she feels the same, apologizing for freaking out on robin as well

-nancy’s jewelry that ties her to robin is a fine gold choker that curls close to her throat and sports tiny white crystals throughout. robin, after almost falling over bc she’s so smitten, jokes that its almost like a collar and nancy pounces on her (violence)

lmk if y’all r still interested :)

[300iqprower]

I don't know how to explain it—I'm sure someone else made a longer better post about how I feel but....

I really like Patxi. Five Lostbelts in and I still like Patxi. Maybe its the fact that unlike 2,3,4 and possibly 5—they use Patxi (a grown man) as a device to show how horrific the Lostbelts are (or how they've been conditioned to think its normal) the children in the LBs are used as a device to show how bad it is but it feels like they're pandering?

Liek they're using the kids as a way to gain sympathy (multiple dialogue choices and characters mention them being children) and that's all well and dandy but it gets real repetitive when you come across the third kid—Ajai was there but he wasn't at the forefront I'd definitely relate to a man wanting to protect his daughter from getting wiped from existence by excessive praying than the child not understanding why (probably should've worded that better) mostly bc my parent made a lot of sacrifices to make me happy.

Lostbelt 3 didn't even give the kid a name which is something I think is fucked up despite them being a minor character.

I also like Patxi as a person because he's a pos towards cast but slowly warms up to them when they do for him—which is extremely natural given his situation and the fact that we're basically staying in his house for the time being.

I also like his CE because its basically "f*ck you, I'm a Wolfman with a gun!" And it has some utility compared to the CEs you gain from the other LBs (they stopped giving out servants for some reason)

I swear I'm not a furry.

I'M FINALLY READY TO ANSWER THIS. OBVIOUS SPOILERS ARE OBVIOUS UP THROUGH THE END OF ATLANTIS.

POINT 1.

PATXI IS THE SINGLE BEST WRITTEN CHARACTER IN THE SERIES. PERIOD.

Like I know i say that's Goredolf, but i mean that in the sense of Goredolf is the best in terms of ongoing character development. As far as fully written characters go, who have had their big moment, and we've seen it all play out for them? From Solomon to Gilgamesh to Arash to Opehlia to Meltryllis to Jason to Jalter to Orion to Moriarty to Napoleon to Ivan to Salieri to Avicebron to even my beloved Asterios....none of them are as well written as Patxi.

And to explain why, I need to start with why, as you pointed out, the other lostbelt NPCs don't even compare, even when they're also well written.

Let's start with the nameless LB3 kid because I find myself typically playing devil's advocate with that one; I'd argue he's the second best of the lostbelt npcs after Patxi. People are, understandably, quick to think of the kid as throwaway given they're never even named, but I always say who I will refer to as "Kid" being nameless as a representation of what life was like in LB3. In SIN, all life is deemed valueless compared to Qin Shi Huang. They bear the "burden" of being the only "true human" and in the name of that all other humans are seen as meant to live short, productive, content lives of never wanting for anything but never achieving anything. Kid is nameless, but not faceless. Unlike most nameless NPCs, he still has a face and varying expressions. He has a role in the story, accompanying us throughout a lot of it and forming an explicit connection to us, particularly Spartacus. And at the end of the lostbelt, when Qin Shi Huang wanders his dissolving world, who should he meet but Kid, a nameless boy reciting a poem he learned from the emperor's greatest enemy, standing side by side with the "True human", the two brought down to the same level as they both dissolve into nothing. To sum it up, Kid both gives us exposition about the world like the rest of the lostbelt NPCs, but crucially gives us insight into what life is like there. He never had any ambition towards anything until we came along, until Spartacus taught him what it meant to have hopes and dreams, and by the end of the chapter that "nameless nobody" is just as much a person both in the mind of the audience and the context of the world as the "True human" emperor who believed that he was carrying a burden for his people.

Now contrast this with another one I see get treated as a throwaway nobody but I would argue gives us important insight: Timi. Whose name you probably dont even recognize and I sure as hell had to look up. The kid from Lb5.1 who had an almost comically small role and a DEFINITELY (probably unintentionally) comical demise, if only for the looney tunes style "Heel-turn realization followed by atomization". But regardless it establishes what Kid did in the opposite sense. The crux of LB5's obligatory "world destruction guilt trip moral conundrum" thing is that not only is this world devoid of suffering like LB3, but on top of that seems to have the genuinely fulfilling lives that LB3 lacked; these people still have hopes and dreams...But that ends up thoroughly disproven when we realize what those hopes are. We see these established people, a named character and everything, unquestioningly throw their life away for a cultish desire to be so much as noticed by higher beings. In the same way Kid having no name emphasized they are still their own individual, Timi's fully established identity and motivations show us how hollow their "fully realized" existence truly is.

Of course now is the one that's....divisive, to say the least. Or at least that's the case from everything I've seen on Asha. I'm kinda in both camps. On the one hand, they're overly reliant on her being an "innocent child" type character, on the other hand though she's genuinely the most emotionally impactful lostbelt NPC after Patxi IMO, and a fantastic reminder of why no matter how much it may feel like cruelty to kill these worlds, leaving them to continue with their fundamentally warped existence would be an even greater cruelty. That said, her Ajay was underutilized in the name of that "feel bad for the child" schtick and so Asha's writing flip flops between heartfelt/impactful and saccharine/pandering, but that's more a core issue of the scenario's two lead writers than a character-specific issue (just another example of how Lostbelt 4 has everyone's strengths AND everyone's weaknesses from how basically everyone pitched in). At the very least though, she fulfills her role of informing us and getting us attached to the world she inhabits, and providing a new and meaningful perspective when its end comes that reflects why we must keep pushing forward. Yes there's the annoying pitiful child thing, but it's far from just taking the easy way out or skipping on the role that's meant to be filled by the character.

...That'd be Gerda. I really don't think I need to go over why Gerda does not work but I will. Gerda's entire character is "look how cute and innocent I am UwU don't you feel bad about me???" and she tells us nothing intrinsic about the world in which she lives. She's EXACTLY the kind of character I would expect from Sakurai not having any pre-existing material to work off of. Her dialogue is entirely redundant at best, with all her exposition dumps being repeated or told in more detail by Ophelia, NotSkadi, or NotSitonai. In the case of that first one they are flat out told in a far more meaningful way because we actually see Ophelia's traumatized perspective on the whole "Sunday" thing. Then, at the end of it all, Gerda doesn't even really give us insight to what the world fading is like, instead giving the only example thus far of the post-tree scene telling us nothing new and not showing us any consequence to our action, instead simply having it all vanish like a dream with no direct relevance to Gerda herself. Her role is supposed to be showing the naïve and transient life the stragglers of humanity live out under NotSkadi, but the contrast between that perspective and the reality in which they live in is never explored; it's simply stated to be bad as if the reason is self-demonstrating in a way that would not even required Gerda to exist to be conveyed. All of this isn't even getting into her sheer lack of characterization beyond "child." From start to finish Gerda tells us nothing unique about the world in which she lives, and there is no role she has that another character does not fill more effectively.

And it's for all those reasons that Gerda is the exact opposite of Patxi.

Patxi is unique from the rest of the major lostbelt NPCs in multiple ways. He's the only non-human. He's the only non-child. Most importantly, [of the first 5 lostbelts] he's the only one who opposes us at any point. Like you said, whereas the other ones are all children and that makes it feel pandering, Patxi being just some guy eliminates that and makes him feel a lot more real, and that's amplified by once again like you said him being the only one who ever acts antagonistic towards us. A big part of all this ties into why Lostbelt 1 is the perfect execution of a "first lostbelt", how it perfectly sets up the premise and moral dilemma as well as set an incredible standard for what a Lostbelt should even be, and I don't wanna be here for eternity going over all of that so I'm going to hone in on the stuff specific to Patxi. Unlike all of the other Lostbelt NPCs, Patxi is set up and treated as his own character. He's named, has unique portraits, we see his POV frequently, he's fully characterized with his own goals, he plays a major role in the lostbelt's events, and he's given even more focus than most of the mainstays who joined in the same chapter (Goredolf, Chihuahua, etc). None of the other lostbelt NPCs fulfill all those things, heck even if we axe that last and most notable qualifier, Patxi is still unique in that list. Kid has no name and was not present for the latter part of the chapter. Asha had no unique role in the story and existed only to give us a perspective rather than to do something specific. Timi's entire purpose is to be killed off frighteningly quick with no actual role. This isn't to say I think they're all bad - I've outlined why I think all three of them are effective enough characters...but they still very much pale in comparison to Patxi, because Patxi was treated as his own individual who was important to the story. Who is important to the story, because he's the one Ritsuka made a promise to that they still need to keep.

The restate the point of the lostbelt NPCs, they are there to give us insight into the world we're destroying, and conveying that in order for our world to survive, other worlds with people just like us must die. They're there to make the worlds feel alive; Rituska is constantly cautioned against forming attachments because of these reasons, but by their nature Ritsuka inevitably finds people they want to help even if only in the moment. Where this diverges is how most of the lostbelts try to make you care. I say most because one of the many failings of Lostbelt 2 is its inability to make up its mind on this. Lostbelt 3 shows you a stagnant world where people live meaningless but happy lives. Lostbelt 4 emphasizes that it's a world where (supposedly) suffering is systematically erased. Lostbelt 5 is presented as a utopia. Lostbelt 1 is different. There's no unravelling why "this is bad actually." It's shown from the word Go to be a cruel and uncaring world with nothing to live for but another day of survival. There's no attempt to make you care on the grounds on "People seem happy here" and instead a wholehearted commitment to showing you something far more direct: These are people too. The reason you care that people might seem happy in the other lostbelts is that same reason, because they're people too. Rather than just imply that though, or focus on one specific thing wrong with the world, through Patxi we're shown all of it. We're shown what a miserable existence that world is, we're shown why they want to continue living regardless, we're shown how the yaga are people just like us, and we're shown how they came to believe that their life which seems so unbearable to us is still one worth living to them.

"Gerda" could be a thousand other people in fiction There’s only one "Patxi"

[werewolf-w1tch]

i’ve been sitting on this shit for like two weeks since starting rottmnt and watching the movie before realizing there was a whole other season i accidentally skipped so it’s time to combine the hyperfixations

this is probably gonna have to be at least a couple more posts cause i a.) haven’t finished rottmnt (so hush hush please and thank) and b.) i haven’t reached a solid conclusion for all the characters. these are just my opinions and i’m just another loser on the internet but you’re getting my opinion anyway

on that note...

what TMA entity i think each member of the rottmnt cast would serve/vibe with!

(spoilers for ROTTMNT and TMA obv)

just for those unaware, there are 15 TMA fear entities. they are the embodiment of the fears of humanity and were created as humanity learned to fear shit, as one does. they aren’t really physical things, more ideas that influence the “real” world.

starting off with a banger

ms. o’neil!

ngl, april was one i really wanted to hit hard but wasn’t sure where to start. while i do love her as a character, she isn’t quite my favorite, so initially i didn’t give her much thought. entities like the dark, corruption, flesh, buried, vast, end, desolation, extinction, web, lonely, spiral, and stranger were out the door pretty much immediately; none of them really fit her character (corruption maybe just a tiny bit cause of her interactions with mutants but like. that’s pretty much it). 

personally, i was leaning towards an eye-marked/avatar april with a hint of slaughter and a dash of the hunt. april is someone who very obviously LOVES learning given how often her schooling/assignments come up in the show and how often she geeks out over science stuff with donnie. the hunt mostly comes from her determination to get to the bottom of things regardless of the outcome. i threw the slaughter in there too bc i feel like april really wants to get into a fight with someone(s) at all times. 

raph!

(tiny boy. tiny. sobs loudly over him)

raph is one i didn’t want to go the obvious route for, but he kinda speaks for himself imo. he is very family-driven and cares deeply about his brothers; he serves as the leader (until leo takes his place anyway) and the powerhouse of the team and is very set on using his size and strength to protect his family. 

raph is a corruption avatar with a pretty sizable helping of slaughter (most of if not all of the mutants are gonna be corruption avatars or corruption aligned but it probably won’t be the only thing for all of them). savage raph was honestly a big influence on the slaughter, but i also headcanon that baby raph had issues with his temper and had to learn to reign himself in cause he was built bigger and tougher than his brothers. he doesn’t let himself rage out often, but it’s fucking terrifying when he does. 

mikey!

(holds gently)

gotta love mikey!! he is so web aligned. i wasn’t sure about him for a while but then it hit me like a freight train. web. web 1000%. MAYBE a lil spiral if you wanna get a bit spicy. oh and he’s eye-touched.

in all seriousness, i fucking adore mikey (he’s not my fave either but still). his creativity and positive energy bring a whole kind of lively to the team and his family. he’s fun and upbeat and holy shit who was gonna tell me he’s 13 in the show. on top of all that, mikey is defo smarter than he seems, which fuels my web opinion. he has DEFINITELY used his youngest sibling status and his adorable face to manipulate anyone and everyone he has ever met to get what he wants. maybe not intentionally, but he’s done it. the spiral is honestly the closest thing i could think of that could relate to his ties to his mystic power. his eye ties come from the fact that he probably hears everything and everyone cause they assume he either doesn’t understand or he doesn’t really care. he does. he can and will use anything you say in a court of law. be scared. 

splints!

splinter was an interesting one to think about. i wanted to take his history into account while also keeping in mind the kind of person he is in the show and how he interacts with the people around him. 

splinter is also a very family-oriented man after he picks up the tots, but i feel like he goes through major personality changes after his time in the battle nexus and his transformation. we can see hints of lou jitsu in splints every now and then, but it is painfully obvious that lou jitsu is gone and he’s not coming back. with that being said, i wanted to split splinter into two different avatars: lou jitsu and splinter (mostly cause i’m interested in exploring both of them). 

lou jitsu is a slaughter avatar that is eye marked with sprinkled in lonely (cause what actor as popular as he was has many real connections. esp when he’s trapped with big mama). i feel like despite being blinded by stardom, lou jitsu was still a very smart tactician who could handle himself very well in a fight (hc that leo gets his quick battle analyses from splints/lou). 

splinter is a lonely avatar with a healthy helping of corruption. splinter is less lonely in that he doesn’t have people around him and more that the toll that having his life falling apart in the span of like 10 minutes and being harshly cut off from everyone and everything he’s ever known is SO apparent. that kind of extreme isolation leaves its scars. i think that despite having his family around him, splinter still misses the people he used to know, even if he wasn’t as close with them as he thought. he misses the normalcy sometimes, even if he would never go back and lose his sons. 

fuck it im splitting this into multiple posts. expect more bullshit in the future!

[reikunrei]

the more i think about it, the less i think i want Will to have any powers at all...

like, just thinking about it in relation to his character, and also to El's, and to Vecna/Henward and the story as a whole... i find it harder and harder to place Will having powers into it?

like... he is an extremely non-violent character, and while his powers don't necessarily have to be like that of El or Henry which involve violence sometimes, i just... have trouble imagining what else they could take the form of. (which is just on me more than anything, but still.) the only thing i can really think of that would make everything come full circle is "casting" a protection "spell" like he almost did in season 1 in their campaign. but imo that wouldn't even require him to have any real "powers."

i'm just a total sucker for "he uses his sense of love, kindness, and understanding to save the day." like he doesn't use any sort of magical/psychic powers, but his steadfast love protects him and his friends from harm; they create an "armor" that Vecna can't break through. (kind of like It, how the Losers weaken It by basically laughing in its face and not letting the fear take over. i'm in the middle of reading It rn so i don't remember exactly how it all works lmao sorry)

and again to go back to his non-violent nature, he's a smart kid. he doesn't need brawn to fight back. he can run, he can hide, he can outsmart the bad guy.

and that leads me into how this relates to El and Vecna: i feel like it would be fitting for both of them to learn they're not "superior" just because they have their abilities. like, for the sake of El, she doesn't need to have powers to be powerful, to be a "superhero" if she wants to be one from time to time, she can just be herself, and that alone makes her worthy of love and praise. and Vecna doesn't belong on his high horse just because he has these powers; they don't make him better than anyone else. and he needs to understand that he is just like everyone else, and someone simply holding out a helping hand is all he needs. and i feel like Will should be that person. Vecna's true opponent isn't someone who's on his level, like El, imo. his true opponent and the one who will really change him is someone who is simply kind to him.

and isn't that what the whole story is about? about being kind to each other and accepting each other, no matter the differences or the grievances? people do bad things sometimes, but it's always better to try and understand them rather than simply condemning them to death. life is messy, we're all human, we make mistakes, and we simply have to learn to grow from them.

now, I’ve seen plenty of "Will with powers" theories and the ideas of what they might be, and I’m not opposed to it at all, bc I trust they’ll be handled in a way that’s good both for him and for the story. earlier i even mentioned the "outsmarting the bad guy" discussion that he and Joyce have in season 1, and he says there that he needs the fireballs because sometimes the bad guys are smart, too. cool! maybe Will has some sort of power involving light and fire, which would work thematically with the interactions with the lights (maybe Will was the the one who made that happen and it isn't something default to the UD) and the constant connections between Will and sunlight.

but again... does that mean he has to have actual powers? or is Will, himself, the "light"? is Will and his kind nature all that they need to break through to Henry and Edward? we've already been shown that physical violence will not work against Vecna. he was turned into a flaming slice of swiss cheese and he still got up and walked away. we’ve even been shown that he can’t be defeated by psychic abilities, since the main timeline(s) we see don’t result in his actual death in HNL, so why would Will need psychic abilities to defeat him?

idk i just... think it's interesting and i'm curious to see where it goes. because while it could and would make sense for him to have powers of some kind, i feel like it would also be extremely satisfying if his "power" was simply being himself: a kind, sensitive, and simple boy who just wants to find love and happiness. like, if his arc is about learning he's allowed to want love, and he's deserving of love, then why not have him extend that to Vecna?

in short, i think a lot of my thoughts and questions about it boils down to: what does it bring to the story as a whole? what makes it necessary that he have powers like El and Henry? what kind of message does it send to the audience? what is the purpose?

[sungbeam]

Need to know about bones and a study in monsters 🤌

ahhh HELLO !! ask and u shall receive ✨ i actually answered this in one of my other anon's asks but that one was a little lengthy and full of other things so i will extract that info 😃😎

OKOK so i have two versions of bones and bc u didn't specify, i will be giving u the spiel for BOTH 😃 the original idea for bones was (actually not this 💀 but we don't talk abt that) more of a dark academia vibe, wherein reader and all the cast r at this like isolated elitist academy/boarding school thing, and someone gets brutally murdered. it's supposed to take place sometime in the past, but it's def not historically correct 💀 there r just no phones, they use typewriters, and i get an excuse to talk abt vests, petticoats, and corsets 🤩🤩 and so reader and changmin have to team up to figure out who the murderer is in order to save their own asses from being killed or accused ksnfoekfk i would provide a written snippet but what i have so far kind of sucks 😭😭 it's all bg info

the second more recent ver is set in almost like ripper era london TT idk if you've ever read the book series stalking jack the ripper, but that's what it's inspired by !! as well as six of crows and kind of daredevil, but it's 🤡🤡 complicated 🤡🤡 ANYWAYS LMAO changmin is kind of this like dark and mysterious doctor dude who reader and her friends thinks is the murderer?? but it's also not REAALLY like jack the ripper cuz they aren't targeting prostitites... idrk how to explain this now that i think abt it 😭 but i have a favorite snippet of mine so far that i thought was just funny 😔

ONTO A STUDY IN MONSTERS 🤩🤸‍♀️

this one is inspired by beauty and the beast but uhhh the main cast r all "beasts" or "monsters" as deemed by the humans 😭 the reader actually has like medusa-esque powers and a ROCKIN eye patch (but it's from a traumatic childhood experience 😔), and chanhee has a demon living inside him :')) but it's mainly just kind of like them learning to let their guards down around each other and wanting to protect the other skfnoenfkr i had this one scene in particular i BUILT this fic around, and just the idea of like,,, , reader helping chanhee thru his demon's outbreaks and aches, and feeling his scars on his back it's,,, i have a soft spot for that stuff (´Д⊂ヽ OKAY HERES THE THING: