#And the vibes of the posts giving the warning are always RANCID.

[polyamoryprincess]

I truly do understand the fear people have regarding people doing “fanfiction commissions” and making money off fanfics after the Anne Rice debacle, but we don’t have to act like it’s an inherent moral failing and like you’re a Fake Fan tainting fan spaces if you want to be paid for your work the same way fan artists do.

Anne Rice is a dick head for what she did and should be treated as such, treating the fear she’s wrought as some holy thing is fucking weird.

[talenlee]

How To Be: Power (in 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

I suppose, in addition to any of the other standard comments you see from me in a How To Be post, I’m going to be mentioning some details from late in the story of Part 1 of Chainsaw Man. To that end, consider a spoiler warning in effect. You’re going to learn some stuff about how Power’s story goes, in general. No point by point, and I will keep the details broad, and if you’re interested in Chainsaw Man I do recommend you check it out. You know, if you don’t mind an action horror manga where discussing the character requires a mandatory Spoiler Warning I suppose.

I gave that spoiler warning out of an abundance of caution. I don’t think it’s necessary: You don’t need to know exactly what happens to Power to recognise her based on promotional material and know that she’s from a gory action-horror manga. I don’t think you’re under any illusions that Power’s life is a happy one.

Examining Power

Power’s story is not actually that important to properly projecting her vibe. Chainsaw Man is a story that doesn’t necessarily want to delve into her inner life in an intense way – we get to see her have conversations and make choices when dealing with other people, but what happens inside Power’s head, her exact motivation, these are always ambiguated through a layer of Power trying to communicate with someone. You can see Power’s story as having a few different interpretations, but you don’t need to know about whether or not your character flushes to have a toolkit to properly represent Power, as a person, in a party environment.

To put it simpler: It’s about the vibes.

And Power’s vibes are rancid.

Still, there are essentially three layers to consider Power in this. There’s the surface level Power, where someone tells you just what Power is in a broad sense, and you look at the way Power is presented in promotional materials. This is what I’d consider a sort of First Impression Power: the character you can play with just the barest information about her and her visual aesthetic. Then, a layer down there’s the Power that requires a more in-depth awareness of how Power works in her story; stuff like how her powers work, the kinds of things you know she can do or won’t do because of who she is. Finally there’s a layer deeper when you know the whole of her story and have a good handle on all the elements of her that you may want to include. Here’s where things get icky because of course Bad Things happen to Power, and we learn a bit about what she can’t do and what she can’t survive.

Universal across all of them, the things that need to be true for all versions of Power, then are the following:

Power is inhuman. She is a devil, a demon animating a human body.

Power is bloody. Her powers relate to blood and ways to use blood.

Power is neither commanding, nor supportive.

And if we’re not just using promotional art to build the character:

Power is dumb as bricks.

The Essentials Of Power

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

There’s not a strong basis for what Power is in existing 4e heritage options. You might say hey, wait, hang on, Power is a devil girl, clearly there’s probably something to build out of her being a Tiefling, right?

To that I would respond that Tieflings get a bonus to Charisma, and then either Constitution, or Intelligence. Power is not someone with an abundance of intelligence or an abundance of Charisma. Oh sure, she’s cute and she’s charming but her ability to get people to do what she wants is pretty limited as indicated by uh, every appearance she has. She can lie to Denji pretty convincingly but layered counterpoint, Denji’s an idiot.

To find a heritage with what Power’s got going on, I first pulled up the compendium and just searched for all Constitution-based heritages. Of that range, we got the Dwarf (Con/Str), the Goliath (Str/Con), the Half Elf (Con/…Wis? Maybe? Kinda?), Half-Orc (Dex/Con or Dex/Str), Minotaur (and that has problems all its own), Mul (Con/Str or Con/Wis), and Warforged (Con/Str).

Comically, and I know you may think I’m taking the piss but I’m not, I genuinely think of this assortment, the best option for Power is the Warforged. It doesn’t pull her mechanically into a direction that works against her flavour, it’s explicitly inhuman and has a weird relationship to its body – Power being a demon stuck in a meat puppet. Plus, I mean it’s not like the setting has to have Warforged in it at base, right? Like, you only ever play Warforged in sanctioned, official games in the Eberron setting?

Layer 1 — Promo Art Power

What you get when you look at the Promo art of Power is a girl with long hair, in a suit, with horns and weird eyes – so obviously not human – and usually, some variety of huge weapon.

How do we fit this, with the Warforged as our baseline?

Well, we have a body of parts with a demon driving the engine. She uses weapons, big ones she summons herself out of blood, and doesn’t wear heavy armour but also she can clearly take being hit very hard. She has some ranged stuff, but largely does melee damage. Class-wise, I think that it comes down to where you want to stand in the possibility space. Like, I wouldn’t make Power a defender, but I can imagine starting from ‘Power, but a defender,’ and winding up on Fighter, or Warden.

By default though, to replicate Power as a character, you’re pushed heavily towards melee damage dealers that can be reckless – so, Barbarians, Rogues, and Monks. At an absolute push, I could imagine making an Ardent with her vibes. The Barbarian is the top of my list for the simplest ‘Power-like’ character; big single weapons, less heavily armoured, focused on aggression, all that jazz.

Warforged, Barbarian, Constitution-based, Rageblood Vigor, and a big weapon. There’s the start.

Layer 2 — Everyday Power

When you know Power more, you learn that there’s weird stuff she does with blood – her own and other people’s. It’s not stuff that D&D normally files as ‘in combat’ stuff – it’s things you need some planning ahead, some specific behaviours and safety to do.

Y’know, like rituals.

Yeah, Power: Idiot Barbarian and Ritual Caster. Ritual Caster is an amazing feat, with a huge amount of options for things you can do with it – like, you can use it to produce weapons (forge weapon ritual), create poisons (bloodstinger poison ritual), make traps (blastpatch ritual) and restore the dead (raise dead ritual). These are all things that Power can do or hints at being able to do — which means that as you level to pick up more Powerness, you can pick up Ritual Caster.

Layer 3 — The Depths Of Her Power

Y’know, this isn’t where this stuff normally shows up.

Anyway, Power kinda? is a werewolf? Or a werecat? It’s hard to put a finger on it. You see a bit of it at her first appearances, hints of the shape, but it’s not until right near the end of her story you get to see Power, Power in her true form, without the body of the girl she spends time in. You see the Blood Devil, which is an animalian form with a big fangy maw and – it’s a beast. It’s a beast form.

And if you’re at that level of detail, and if you want to prepare for Paragon or you just want something useful early on, then you want to pick as your theme the Werewolf (and plan on picking up Claw Gloves later). That’s especially funny because uh, like, the Pack Outcast would be better? But it can only be applied to Humans and Shifters, and we know this much: Power ain’t human!

Junk drawer

There are a lot of other directions to take Power. You could focus on the blood theme and make her a thing like a Melee Shaman, with her construct being a pile of blood. I do like the idea of making her as a defender, because I like playing defenders, and I could see a version of her who feeds her allies her blood and powers them up that way, and use the Ardent. These takes would necessarily involve changing her stat split though – and I mean, ‘Power, but smart’ no doubt can run the risk of losing something about how Power feels to you.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[evilbonehag]

Outlast AU: Normal Fucking People! EdVal friendship stupidity lets go-

(Warning for mentions of sexual assault for backstory reasons yk)

(Normal Fucking People is what I’ve lovingly named my slice of life Outlast AU where all the characters are haunt actors who scare people for a living)

• They bonded initially over loving horror and performance- they share details about their characters to each other that no one else knows. Their work at the Mount Massive/Temple Gate haunts originally got them talking and now they each realize how deeply their own lives and traumas affect the characters they play

• the weird kind of friendship where one of them is extremely put together and the other is always a fucking mess so it almost seems unfair (but it switches constantly because Eddie may be a homeowner but despite Val never having any money she is usually on the listening end when he’s got something to vent about and this is Often)

• Give the rancid vibes of a toxic couple (Constant gross pet names from Eddie, constant innuendos from Val, she likes to sit on his lap at parties and it weirds people out, they’re always hanging out and talking shit about people they hate etc etc)

• Really though, they’re each healing in their own way, its just a LOT. Val escaped an abusive Christian upbringing, Eddie has cpstd from childhood sexual abuse and they’ve each lived for 30-40 years and are JUST NOW trying to undo it all

• seriously Eddie didn’t even admit to himself that he was gay until a few months ago. Val suspected the whole time and definitely poked him about it and BOY would he get upset.

• meanwhile Eddie is a terrible great wingman for Val who is currently dealing with her giant gay crush on Marta. he’s just trying to learn how to not be overtly terrifying to be around (Hes WEIRDLY friendly. Marta hates this.)

• Eddie used to be visibly uncomfortable with being seen with Val in public in her goth-satanist-punk-what-have-you getup but they found the solution was not, in fact, to get Val to tone it down, but to get Eddie into wearing vintage. So now they’re getting into looking weird in public together, slowly but surely, and they’re quite the pair

•Eddie follows Val’s blog but he doesn’t have the attention span to Read All of That (Val writes essay-length blog posts and journals for fun, mostly about horror, sexuality, religion, human beings, etc.)

• Val is really well read and really good at talking. She has been able to get Eddie to listen to her musings very often when they smoke together

• it took Val a surprising amount of effort to get Eddie to be okay with getting high and he was a huge baby about it the first time they tried

• Eddie’s transition from “Can you please leave the spiked dog collar at home” to “Your tights need more holes in them, let me get the scissors-”

• Eddie has an oldies/musical theatre playlist for the car but Val hates upbeat showtunes more than anything. Eddie gives her rides everywhere so he’s been making it a challenge to find her something she’d like (“If I can imagine a kick-line to it, it’s trash, Ed”)

• The amount of crying and screaming these two do around each other. There was a period of their friendship where they were consistently talking each other down from things. Val is still grappling with shame around sexuality despite outwardly being very sex-positive, and Eddie has so much trouble trusting people and releasing control for fear of being assaulted again. They’re okay with being very raw and unfiltered around each other in ways they can’t be with anyone else

• “Did you see Rick at the haunt last night?”

“Fuck Rick.”

“Yeah, fuck Rick.”

[archon-maenad]

hello, welcome to my pinned post! I'm archon-maenad, formerly known as wormpinions, and this is meant to be a guide and warning all at once for my blog. if you're following me with any level of active interest I highly recommend at least skimming this.

below the read-more contains general disclaimers I wish everyone who read my posts could know, a list of takes I have that might be deal-breakers, a summary of each au I created that I post about on here, and an extensive masterlist of my insane tagging system.

and here's my ao3 above the rm, because I'm shameless and desperate for interaction.

honestly, by general disclaimers I mostly mean one thing with a few aspects that I really really really want to make sure people know. specifically the concept of bashing vs criticism.

I do not like the idea of bashing characters. fics tagged with that are a red flag, I always use the "[character] Critical" because it's more accurate to the nuance I want to have. people are not one dimensional. they can have a fuckload of flaws I want to scream about from the rooftops and/or cackle about and still have the opportunity to become better people.

I can admit that I do like bashing settings, but I also use the "[topic] Critical" tag for that because once again: nuance is very important. some worlds are completely fucked but that doesn't mean they don't have redeeming qualities or became that way for a reason.

having to add on to every post that I have thoughts beyond the scathing analysis or (hopefully) amusing dunking would get old real fast, so let me put it here. I do not hate unconditionally. I am capable of exploring generous good-faith interpretations of characters I dislike or settings I criticize. I acknowledge the layers of why people act or places work.

that being said, welcome to the possible deal-breakers part of this post. here are a list of popular characters I will ruthlessly drag for making awful decisions.

itachi uchiha. why does nobody talk about how he literally deadass canonically no-I-am-not-exaggerating tortured his little brother. how can people call him a good sibling What The Actual Fuck????

kakashi hatake. he did team 7 so fucking dirty, mans was really willing to throw a bunch of children out into life as soldier-mercenaries unprepared. I understand why he did (70% of his personality is trauma) but that doesn't mean I condone it.

naruto uzumaki. yes I am very critical of the main boy himself. he's so blind to the privilege he has and expects other people to forgive things as easily as he does, minimizing the very real grievances they might have just because the person being criticized is one he cares about.

sasuke uchiha. do I need to elaborate.

minato namikaze. this one is more me just being really annoyed at how the fandom is so quick to paint him in a saintly light when he killed a thousand people and became a military dictator.

batman. I have a lot of problems with how he handles his rogues and the child heroes trailing at his heels.

all-might. he's a criminally negligent teacher and taught japan that triumph written in blood is peace. dude really singlehandedly fucked up a whole country's culture.

eraserhead. the fact he is a good hero willing to die for his students does not mean he isn't actively sabotaging their ability to trust authority figures, and dadzawa is entirely a fan creation. in canon he seriously gives so many rancid vibes.

izuku midoriya. his self-righteousness and lack of respect for boundaries just makes me nauseous. and instead of getting a mentor who helps him grow as a person, he got one who reinforced all his toxic traits.

daemon targaryen. he ordered the deaths of children and SEDUCED HIS FOURTEEN YEAR OLD NIECE. FOURTEEN. and then fucked her later right after her husband's funeral like that genuinely makes me want to throw up it's so disrespectful and disgusting.

rhaenyra targaryen. yes the double standards for women cheating are definitely real, but passing off her bastards as trueborn and then getting mad when people don't want a woman who believes she has a right to break vows on the throne is just. wowza. hubris should have been her middle name.

padme amidala. if you aren't going with an interpretation where anakin (probably out of unconscious negligence but that doesn't excuse it) manipulated her emotions, then you gotta face the fact that your precious girlboss married a mass murderer and is willing to put all the bills she pushes concerning the jedi at stake by doing that.

on the flipside, here are some characters I shamelessly love that are divisive figures in fandom.

sakura haruno. her harassment of sasuke is disgusting but she was a twelve year old girl who was taught such behavior was acceptable and also that doesn't mean she should be sent off to die with no training. why y'all hating on her she's a queen.

ron weasley. I probably won't make any actual posts about hp because contributing to the discussion of jk rowling's works makes me feel slimy, but appreciation of ron is a very important personality trait of mine y'all need to know.

the whole jedi order. they handled anakin's situation horribly but it was out of ignorance and not malice, and we are jedi culture positive in this household. jedi knights and masters not marrying has a lot of valid reasons actually and if that's a dealbreaker you should transfer to the corps or leave! it's not a lifestyle for everyone and it doesn't need to be.

sansa stark. I'm getting pretty tired of writing all these up so I'm not even going to elaborate. I love sansa and I'm not sorry about it.

and finally, yes I am the bitch who got dragged for liking kill orders. please go here for my explanation for those thoughts in detail that the (in hindsight really badly written because I was too enthusiastic to give enough context and oh my god it really does paint me in a bad light) original post didn't cover.

now the fun stuff. my aus!

riley midoriya au: a reformed but still pretty wild bonesaw is reborn as izuku's twin sister, quickly replacing bakugou's canon role model status. cue a protagonist who grew up around scathing commentary concerning japan's cape scene bc homegirl is Not Impressed by her new life.

bonesaw at camp half blood au: riley is reborn as annabeth chase. her unique worldview and curiosity shake things up quite a bit, because everyone around here is too damn quick to accept the status quo and not question the facts being told.

taylor uzumaki au: taylor hebert is reborn as naruto. she hates her new world, especially the normalized child soldiers and thoughtless way they take chakra for granted, and unknowingly makes ninja double take by being her usual unhinged self.

forbidden histories au: two codependent eldritch gods from cultist simulator get stuck in the body of sakura haruno and proceed to wreak havoc trying to get back to their home reality.

genesis generation au: my own personal post-canon fix-it. aka hokage sakura, ambassador naruto, under house arrest with chakra binding seals and rethinking all his life choices sasuke, and economies not based on child soldiers.

the rest of my tags will have to be sorted by category because there are just... so many. why am I like this.

first are the general fandom tags. they're what they say on the tin, and are for any mention or reference to anything in one of these pieces of media.

parahumans

naruto

pjo (aka the percy jackson books/world)

my hero academia

dc universe

svsss (aka scum villain system)

danny phantom

asoiaf (aka a song of ice and fire, or game of thrones)

star wars

danganronpa

disco elysium

the promised neverland

cultist simulator

animorphs

also the individual characters from those pieces of media but I'm not gonna list em all I ain't insane

next are the opinions tags, used for when something of actual substance is said on a topic. I had to prune these down they were getting crazy so here's the new list.

taylorpinions: taylor hebert opinions

rileypinions: riley grace davis opinions

ninepinions: slaughterhouse nine opinions (for the concept and non-riley members)

betpinions: earth bet opinions (culture, other unique aspects, and also now covers the aftereffects of endbringers)

bcfpinions: brockton's celestial forge by lord_roustabout opinions

wormpinions: worm opinions (everything else parahumans)

shinobipinions: shinobi opinions (covers everything naruto related so far)

dcpinions: dc universe opinions

umeipinions: all fics by umei no mai opinions

starpinions: star wars opinions

mansuspinions: mansus opinions (cultist simulator and book of hours)

miscpinions: miscellaneous opinions (fandoms I don't cover with regularity)

and finally, the uncategorized tags.

mae just talks: what it says on the tin, me talking (usually not fandom related)

fic rec: also what it says on the tin, posts with links to recommended fics

worm liveblogging: what it says on the tin, my live reactions to reading worm.

I have no idea if anyone will actually read this monster of a post, but it's important to me that it exists. so if you made it here to the end, thank you. I hope you enjoy my -pinions!

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

People reacted positively to it on discord so I may as well post about my Haurchefant Lives/Conjurer!Haurchefant AU here

So! Everything stays the same for the Light Party up to a specific point: Ayulsa actually realizes why she is getting Rancid Vibes from her pals standing in a specific spot before it's too late, and shouts a warning/starts casting Flare. Haurchefant still blocks the spear of Light, but its weakened slightly by having a Black Mage dumping all her MP into it to try to knock it off-course, which gives Shayun time to drag his fiancé out of the direct line of fire when the shield breaks.

Haurche is still majorly fucked up by this, and the scene mostly resolves as normal save for the fact that he's stabilized—but very much in a coma, with a mangled arm and a torso full of metal shards. The Light Party leaves him to be treated and they all still behave like in the timeline where he dies, save for Shayun spending every spare second he has in Ishgard by his bedside, because the man is in a coma and the actual medical professionals have no idea if he's ever going to wake up even if his condition doesn't suddenly degrade, though once he's more stable they do amputate the arm and remove the most dangerous-to-leave-in bits of shield. He wakes up shortly after Nidhoggstinien is taken out, thankfully during one of Shayun's vigils so he wasn't alone, and is in immense pain and severely disoriented and weakened by being in a coma for literal weeks. It's quickly apparent that Haurchefant is never going to be a frontline fighter again—even if he had a working shield arm, the shrapnel injuries (aggravated by the fact that a few of those metal bits had been infused with Light) cause him constant pain that gets much worse when he exerts himself (which is always, at first, due to the physical atrophy being in a coma causes even at the best of times).

This is emotionally devastating to a man who has spent his entire life making himself as close to Ishgard's knightly ideal as he could, which takes a bit of thinking among the Light Party (because while only one of them is engaged to Haurchefant, they all are very fond of him) before A'pple comes up with an idea: once Haurchefant is able to stand for long periods again, they will teach him conjury (they would have started with books, but they are only fully literate in their specific dialect of Rava script and Garlean—they're still learning written Eorzean at this point).

By the time Haurchefant is well enough to travel, Emman has been in charge of Camp Dragonhead for a while (and him learning this was Not Pleasant for either Haurche or his father when Haurche confronted him about it—it was less about the replacement (he is well aware they can't leave it without someone in charge for the time it would take him to be able to even do desk work) and more that he had to find out about it way after the replacement happened rather than being consulted/informed right after he woke up) and it hasn't exploded, and he asks to join the Light Party when they next visit. They are more than happy to have him along, so the rest of the game has Haurche as a companion.

Stormblood is when things get fuzzy and is a major part of why I haven't started writing—I know things go mostly the same, with more Haurche giving input on military affairs because he didn't lose any of his knowledge there, and that while during Zenos duel 1 Haurchefant does stay standing with Shayun when everyone else (including Ayulsa and A'pple) is knocked off their feet, his attempt to block a direct hit fails due to not having all his strength back.

I have some vague ideas for Zenos Duel 2, but there's massive gaps between that and even then the end result is more "Haurchefant also impresses Zenos, and Shayun is actually willing to tell Haurche about his Echo flashback about Zenos's childhood, which massively recontextualizes Zenos's everything to him", which is not really enough to, yknow, write a story about. (Yes this has a Haurche/WoL/Zenos endgame of course it does who do you take me for)

Incidentally, while Haurchefant is not a natural at conjury (or any kind of magic), he's very determined and willing to practice and A'pple is a good teacher, so he ends up being very good at it. The only reason A'pple doesn't teach him white magic by the end of StB is because they're not totally certain his body could handle it since it takes him a lot of effort to do magic. ...Also, they're a little afraid of the Padjal WHMs. Just a bit. (Save them from the very old preteens, Haurchefant.)

[tiger-moran]

(warning for mentions of anti-Semitism ahead)

It's always kind of weird when someone gives you vague Bad Vibes on one topic and one that's not usually even that important in the grand scheme of things and then you look at their blog to find out if you're right about the Bad Vibes and find that they are in fact an awful person but that they're posting the most rancid shit about something else entirely. Usually it's someone giving you the vague Bad Vibes about one thing, often something fandom related, and you look at their blog and they're a raging transphobe or something but in this case it was someone giving me vague Bad Vibes about their attitude to indoor cats and then I looked at their blog and most of their top posts are really vile anti-Semitic shit

[wallflowerimagines]

Hi! I looove your posts! Thank you so much for sharing your writing!

I was wondering… could you maybe write about the Four Lords with a shy S/O that gets bold and defensive when someone insults the lords? or calls them names? And the Lord’s reaction to the S/O acting different? Dk if im explaining myself >.<

Again! Love your work! Have a great day!

We stan protective partners on this blog!!

Warnings: uh...insults? They're pretty over the top😅 Also swearing.

Alcina Dimitrescu

Honestly, Alcina is more than able to defend herself.

She's got a tongue like a viper, and the thickest skin imaginable. If you really want to hurt her feelings, you have to be someone whom she already respects to a certain degree, or she won't even be phased.

Still, when she leaves a room, there's always some idiot that thinks it's a smart idea to talk shit.

Maybe it's a maid, maybe it's a guest in the Castle, but either way you're not having it.

"God, you're annoying." There was a pause before they opened their mouth again, and you rolled your eyes. "No please, by all means, continue to share your lack of taste with the rest of us."

You disassemble this dumbass, starting small with comments about their personality (trying to keep it classy), but escalating the more they choose to double down on the comments.

Alcina comes back into the room to find you practically screaming at this asshole.

"Look, all you have accomplished here today is revealing that you are a fundamental disappointment on every possible level. My life is worse now that I've heard you open your mouth, you disrespectful, shit licking worm fucker."

Alcina is stunned. You do not give off "aggressive guard dog" vibes at all, yet here you are defending her tooth and nail. While she had seen brief moments of your inner strength and protective streak (mostly towards her daughters) she just...never thought you would do the same for her.

It's not because she doesn't trust you or love you! But nobody has ever done something like this for her before? Ever? She's never had anyone try to protect her--not physically, and not even verbally. She's been so independent for so long that it's... Strange to see you support her so openly.

She doesn't need you to do this for her, she doesn't even expect it, but you do it anyway for no other reason than the fact that you love her. You want people to give her the respect she deserves.

I'm going to be real here: Alcina has never been closer to swooning before in her life. You're overcoming your shyness because you believe in her so much-- it's not a gesture meant to be romantic, but Alcina can't help but see this as a massive statement of your commitment to her.

Seriously. This is such a massive thing for her that if proposals weren't already on her mind, she is mentally picking out a ring for you the minute this happens.

Then, of course, she glides into the room, kisses you until you're breathless and babbling, and smirks at the unfortunate peon who thought they could get away with insulting House Dimitrescu.

She's in such a good mood that she's considering going easy on the idiot. Maybe removing their tongue would be enough of a warning?

Donna Dimitrescu

You don't really know how it's possible but apparently some people don't like Donna Beneviento? Some people think she's scary and unpleasant????

Wild. Can't imagine what that's like.

The two of you are honestly the sweetest, most toothrottingly adorable couple-- blushing when you hold each other's hands, sneaking glances at each other across rooms, giving each other kisses and forgetting whatever was on your mind...

Honestly, anybody who's critical of your relationship with your girlfriend is just a hater. Fuckers can pound sand😤

Still, you are pretty shy, so it takes a lot for you to defend yourself if someone comments about you. It can take a lot of courage to stand up against rude remarks, and sometimes it's easier to walk away.

Defending Donna, on the other hand?

The minute someone even thinks about dismissing her, you are ready to throw hands.

"My lovely girlfriend already said no, meaning you're either deaf or too stupid to pick up on simple social cues," you purse your lips and give the rude and pushy Villager a patronizing once over. "You and your opinion are equally useless. Get the fuck away from us."

Donna blinks.

She... Was not expecting this??? At all?? You're so nice! You always tell her about your attempts to avoid confrontation! What's going on??? How did you get the guts to say what she's always wanted to say?

Meanwhile, Angie is LIVING.

The little doll chimes in to assist you with the verbal homicide, working as a tag team to absolutely murder this moron. She's half partner, half hype man, and is so excited to do this with you. Normally, she has to protect Donna all by herself, but she's relieved and reassured that you stepped in first.

'USELESS IS TOO NICE, THOUGH! THAT IMPLIES THEY AREN'T A POINTLESS, RANCID, LONELY FREAK. THEY LOOK LIKE THEY CRY WHEN THEY MASTURBATE.'

You high five Angie, still glaring daggers at the unfortunate villager.

The two of you continue to ream into the villager, while Donna hovers nearby.

As surprised as she is, she's also grateful. She's only really ever had Angie to help shield her from insults and disrespect (and occasionally inducing horrifying hallucinations that make people claw off their own skin), but having you in her corner makes her feel safe.

Not to get totally sappy, but you're like her knight in shining armor in a lot of ways. And the fact you two are so similar is really motivating-- She wants to one day be confident enough to return the favor. Until then, she's happy to watch her two favorite people have fun insulting some stranger ❤️

Salvatore Moreau

With you being so shy, Salvatore is surprised how often he takes the lead in your relationship.

He's not normally all that outgoing, but you seem to bring out a side of him that's very protective. Whenever you have a bad day he wants to bundle you up and keep you safe from the world.

If he so much as holds your hand you start stuttering and avert your gaze. It creates a feedback loop where you both get flustered, but Moreau has never felt steadier. Despite your shyness, you make sure he knows how much you love him.

You're sweet as pie and twice as kind--Salvatore is the luckiest man in the world, nobody can convince him otherwise 💕💕

So it comes as a total shock that when a passing fisherman spits in your path and calls him a freak, your entire demeanor does a 180.

Your posture straightens and you look the villager dead in the eye, "I don't believe anyone asked your opinion."

Salvatore: 😳

This is not the time, and he totally knows it, but, uh, something about your tone??? Really does it for him???

While he's attempting to process why exactly he's starting to short circuit, you proceed to verbally shred this person to bits with clinical efficiency-- nothing is off limits.

They might try to defend themselves, but it's useless. You do not let up.

"Ugly? Monster? Bitch your teeth are throwing gang signs, don't throw stones from your shining glass house."

You insult their appearance, what they're holding, their smell-- you get so fucking mean that you might even make them cry.

Moreau is just lost right now, trying hard to figure out how exactly you were able to gain all of this confidence so quickly.

He's not upset! In fact he's very flattered! But, he also doesn't want you to get into a fight with some unimportant stranger. (After all, if they so much as throw a punch, they're straight up dead. Moreau is a patient man, but he's not that patient. You do not hurt his partner and live to tell the tale.)

He may a healer but...

Eventually he steps between you and the fisherman in an attempt to deescalate the situation, but you just kiss him on the cheek and step around him, determined to make your point.

Blushing hard, Moreau lets you do what you want. What can he say? Fish man likes himself a protective partner 💞

Karl Heisenberg

Magnet Man is not the most social guy to begin with, so any opportunities you have to stick up for him are already pretty slim.

He mostly knows you as the shy, sweet, easily flustered partner that lets out a cute squeak every time he sneaks up to hug you from behind.

Karl's honestly happy just to spend time with you all alone in the Factory. It's not the best or healthiest mindset, but he'd be perfectly content to only ever see you for the rest of his life. Spending time with anybody else feels like a boring waste in comparison.

But occasionally, you do head out into town with him. Heisenberg wants you to be safe so he doesn't do it often, but running errands with you is a weakness of his. It's domestic in a way that he's never experienced before.

He likes it ❤️

What he does not like is the shopkeeper starting to give their opinions on the quality of your relationship with him.

Most insults Karl will let slide because he doesn't particularly care. However if anyone makes a comment on how scared (shy) you look around him, how you must be being threatened into being with him, how poorly Lord Heisenberg is treating you...he won't stand for it.

But before his fingers can even twitch towards his hammer, you snap.

"You're clearly the blindest cocksucker I've ever met--so wipe the cum out of eyes and mind your own fucking business."

Karl does a double take.

He's heard you curse before, but quietly. The words coming out of your mouth are WILD right now, he has NEVER seen you so angry. You're defending him with the aggression of a wild animal, and it's simultaneously HILARIOUS, but for some reason he's also getting a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest?

He doesn't need you to protect him like this, but seeing you blatantly argue how much you love and cherish him in public reassures him in a way he didn't know he needed.

Still, hearing you call the shopkeeper "shit for brains" is the funniest thing that's happened in years.

Heisenberg starts laughing, and the more you shout at the idiot, the harder he laughs. Is it weird how hard he wants to kiss you right now?

Eventually, he just has to drag you away, cackling as you continue to shout insults at the unfortunate shopkeep. There's got to be an alley around here for some good old fashioned privacy 💕

[alexyquest]

WIP ask!!!

2, 7, 12, 13?

OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THIS BRINGS ME SO MUCH JOY!!! i mean getting asks always brings me joy but getting one from you in particular (and about writing!) brings me LOTS of joy. i have like a ton WIPs but i’ll do my novel, The Monkey Gang.

2: Post a line from your WIP with no context.

okay this is more than a line but this is the part a random number generator landed me on:

“Please stop talking to me.”

“Okay I’ll wait until you’re done peeing.”

“Are you going to watch?”

“Do you want me to look away?”

“Yes please.”

7: What are you most proud of?

Probably the characterization of Harlow. Of all the characters I’ve ever written, they’re probably the one that I feel like I’ve grown to understand the best, and to have the most affection for. I’m very happy with how their story and the traits sprang organically from the world I was creating, and it’s very satisfying to have a character that I care so deeply about. I have so much affection for Harlow I sometimes forget that they only live in my head and are not in fact a real person. In fact, whenever I feel down about my writing, I just remind myself that Harlow is counting on my to tell their story! So that has become my writing motto: “Do it for Harlow.” 

12: Which character do you have the least in common with?

Ummmm probably Wilden? I mean when I first started writing it I was like “these are all totally different characters!” and now I’m like “oh these are all just different parts of me.” But Wilden’s whole struggle is about unlearning violent tendencies, which is...well I mean that’s not a problem for me. His whole thing is that he entered the military at a young age so he learned that the best way to survive was to be threatening, so his whole arc is about learning how to not be an asshole. Also he’s super horny and that causes some issues which, again, not a problem I really have. Also he’s really stupid. In fact one of the critiques I got on the most recent draft was that Wilden was “too stupid to be believable.” 

13: Your characters are stranded on a deserted island. What happens?

CHAOS. 

Desmond decides that Kira still needs to have a proper education despite the fact that they’re stuck on an island but Harlow wants to be her teacher so they get into a big fight about it and Kira has to break it up and say can’t they just BOTH teach her whatever they want? And they begrudgingly agree but they both spend their “class” time warning Kira not to spend too much time with the other one so Kira spends most of her time hanging out with Ira, who spends all her time exploring the island looking for cool rocks. 

Bel thinks she’s “the only goddamn sane person left on this goddamn island” because she’s the only one actually making a plan to actually get off the island, but all of her attempts thus far have failed. 

“Hm,” Harlow raises an eyebrow at Bel’s latest attempt at a raft as they sip some purified sea water from a cupped leaf.

“Shut up!” she snaps, crossing her arms.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking it.” She kicks the remains of the raft in frustration.

“Now don’t fret, Bel. I’m sure you’ll get it next time.”

Wilden insists that they have an island talent show because “you guys are being total bummers and the vibes of Party Island have been rancid lately.”

“This is not,” Harlow pushes their glasses up their nose, “Party Island, as you insist on calling it.”

“But it could be Party Island,” Ira points out helpfully, “if we had a party. And I think we could have a very nice party! I already collected all those cool rocks, which I think are very important to a party atmosphere. I’ve never been to a party, but whenever I imagine a party, I think of rocks.” 

Wilden claps her on the back. “Ira you’re a freak and I love it!”

“If this island were to have a name,” Desmond chimes in, “it would be Calypso, because--”

Harlow holds up a hand. “Desmond. No one asked your opinion, as no one cares.” 

Okay I got really caught up in the dialogue but basically Harlow would become de facto ruler of the island because it’s not like anyone is going to dare challenge them (probably they even fashion themself a little crown to signify their rule) but they come up with a rationing system for the food that Desmond thinks is unfair, so he starts stealing food and giving it to Kira (who doesn’t realize that her food was stolen.) Harlow catches him and a fight ensues. Harlow accidentally kills him. When Ira discovers this she launches into a blind rage, but Harlow expected this and catches her in a pit trap (Ira’s biggest weakness is big holes.) Bel and Kira, upon discovering Desmond’s body and assuming Ira is dead, see no option but to launch a coup and dethrone Harlow the tyrant. Harlow and Bel both go down in battle, but Kira survives.

This whole thing takes place in less than an hour.

Wilden shows up.

“Hey guys I found some mushrooms! Tried one, definitely that one was poisonous but the others? We’ll see. Maybe we could-- HOLY FUCK!”

He falls in the pit trap with Ira. 

Kira is the only one to make it off the island alive. 

Well that was more than you wanted I imagine but there you have it.