#I just haven't been in the mindset to write recently

[bluewolfangel01]

How will the brothers react when they found out that MC's not in the HoL and haven't returned for 2 hours but she's actually hiding under lucifer's bed.

0o0

Oh I'm so excited to write this 😈

-Where is Mc?!-

Mammon: *goes into Mc's room*

Mammon: "Hey Mc! You just gotta look at thi-"

Mammon: "huh?"

Mammon: *can't see Mc anywhere in the room so goes to look elsewhere*

Mammon: *enters the common room and only finds Satan, Asmo, and Belphie*

Mammon: "Oi, any of yall know where Mc is? Can't find 'em and they aren't in their room."

Asmo: "Sorry, I haven't seen them."

Satan: "I haven't seen them either."

Belphie: *groans while he naps on one of the couches, signaling that he hasnt seen Mc*

Mammon: *goes to the kitchen to ask Beel*

Beel: "No, I haven't seen them."

Mammon: *goes to Levi's room to ask Levi*

Levi: "No, I've been to busy grinding and getting my dailies!"

Mammon: *goes to the study to ask Lucifer*

Lucifer: "No Mammon, I haven't seen them."

Mammon: *starts to worry but waits until he's searched the whole house to fully panic*

...

*Yeah... he's searched the whole house can't find them and is in full panic mode now*

*In the 7 bros group chat*

Mammon: Mc isn't in the house, and I've checked everywhere! Anyone know where they're at?!

*The rest of the brothers did not know where Mc was and also preceded to go into full panic mode*

*They all immediately started to recheck the house and started calling others in case they were at the Demon Lord's castle or Purgatory hall, they even expanded their search throughout the Devildom*

*After a few hours of extensive searching, the brothers returned to the HoL in defeat, still worried and concerned about where their human could be*

*Lucifer went to his room and sat on his bed, very much all up in his own mind trying to figure out what to do or anywhere else Mc could be*

? : "I can hear your thinking from here."

*A small door opens on the side of Lucifer's bed, by Lucifer's feet, and out crawls an Mc that looks back at him with concern*

Mc: "What's wrong?"

Lucifer: "..."

Lucifer: "How long have you been down there?"

Mc: "Uh, I'm not sure. What time is it?"

Lucifer: "Around midnight..."

Mc: "Oh dang, well then I've been down there for a few hours. I was trying to have some alone time and I thought this would be a good place to-"

*Mc stops themselves while noticing Lucifer look both worried and relieved*

Mc: "Did something happen?"

*Lucifer remains silent and puts his hand out for Mc to take. When they do, he immediately pulls them in for a hug and holds them tight. He then explains what happened and how he and his brothers were just out searching for them because they couldn't find them*

Mc: "... I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I didn't tell any of you where I was."

Lucifer: "It's fine, as long as you're alright. Just try to do better about that next time you decide to hide underneath my bed again. Speaking of which."

Mc: *starts moving towards the door* "WELP, probably should go tell the others I'm okay!"

Lucifer: "Mc."

[drdemonprince]

Your recent sex lib article is great, and it's something I think I've had to do in myself, because of myself. As someone who's only recently been able to experience sexual encounters, your article made me question whether the act of touching foreheads could be considered a sexual act, and if so, where would that line be, if there even is a line? Also do you have a good guide for people wanting to get into that mindset/sphere? Thanks!

My dear homie, may I introduce to you (if you haven't met her yet) a lovely little lady called Sex Neutrality

Sex neutrality is the idea that sex is neither especially bad, nor especially good, and in fact is not a distinct and sacrosanct part of life that needs to be firmly separated from all other modes of existence. There's no need to draw firm walls between what is sexual and what is not, because sex isn't any more powerful, damaging, forbidden, or special a part of life than anything else like shitting, cooking, cuddling, conversing, making art, fighting, or anything else.

As I've written in previous articles about asexuality, any activity imbued with the right intentions and a spirit of desire can be sex. Writing doofenshmirtz x perry roleplays with a buddy can be sex, if that's how both of you see it; getting a foot massage can be sex, or it can just be a foot massage. Wearing a thong, getting tied up, kissing, talking in sultry voices in the darkness together -- it can be sex if you want it to be. Or it can just be a fun thing to do with a cool buddy.

I personally see a lot of erotic hypnotic potential in the good old forehead touch. Touching two foreheads together calls forth the sexual ritual in the Coneheads movie, or even the docking of brain-braid thingies from Avatar. And a single finger to the forehead can send my mind spiralling off and my eyes rolling up into my head in a cloud of submission and self-erasure, if the moment and the person to right. To me, things can hardly get more sexual than that. But to someone else? Well, it might just be a little rub on a vein. Doesn't matter. Sex isn't some special thing. Might as well argue over whether a pop-tart is a sandwich. There's nothing sacred about sandwiches, it's just a cool part of life.

[dollfaceirene]

do better or stay bitter

So i'm finally off my blog posting break and i came up with this idea a few days ago so i decided today to finally write it up as a post today.

Imma cut it short and keep it blunt, some of yall do alot more complaining than changing and its like don't yall find it tiring?

Some of yall will come on apps to complain about "not being able to manifest", someone gives you advice or recommends useful posts and yall read over the post and never actually apply it to your own mindset/state and its like, don't yall find it tiring?

It comes to a point where y'all will be aware that you are re-affirming the same assumptions that simply don't benefit you and keep reinforcing the fact you are in a state of lack rather than actually taking time to reflect and affirm & make assumptions that are actually beneficial to what you want.

☆ lemme give an analogy,

We have Samantha and we have Jessica. Both Jessica and Samantha found out about the law of assumption around the same time and have recently finished their uni degrees.

Both Samantha and Jessica are currently applying to work at their dream jobs. Samantha, working at a bank and Jessica, working as a pharmacist.

Currently, both Samantha and Jessica haven't been having much success with looking for jobs as they either don't get any interviews or just don't get any callbacks.

This put Samantha and Jessica into a spiral of them affirming stuff of lack, e.g. "i will never be able to find a job" and since its their dominant assumptions, they are constantly shown in the 3D that they find it hard to get a job.

One day, Jessica was scrolling through her phone and saw a loa youtube video from a youtuber she subscribed to awhile back. She decides to watch this video and it gives a simplified summary of what the law of assumption is & how to apply it. She decides to keep affirming that she has her desired job no matter what was shown in the 3D. If she saw she didn't get any callbacks, she would keep affirming that she did have her desired job and that she was in control of her reality. Awhile later, she gets an interview to work at a private pharmacy and ends up landing the job there.

Meanwhile Samantha starts to overconsume alot of law of assumption posts, success stories, etc and never wants to apply the information. She always feels insanely jealous of people who have manifested desired things. She one days decides to do a mental diet however, instead of being disciplined with her thoughts & flipping any thoughts that didn't benefit her, only a few hours into the mental diet, she "quits" saying its too hard and that the law of assumption never works for her, even though it is universal & can be used to manifest anything.

the main point i want yall to get is that,

i) anyone is capable of changing their dominant assumptions

ii) only you can change your reality

iii) the law of assumption is neutral

Yall need to stop sitting on the sidelines while reading other success stories wishing it was you, newflash, it can and will be you once you've decided you have that in your reality.

Do better. Start that mental diet, listen to your affirmation tapes, do whatever helps you feel fulfilled or whatever. Stop going back to old story once you see something unfavourable in your 3D. Stop moping around how you "wish the loa will work for you" when it does! it works for everyone, you are no exception.

Be the Jessica of your reality. Be the one who identifies & decides that they have their desire no matter what instead of being the one who allows themselves to be the victim of their reality (which they can easily change) *cough, cough* Samantha.

Words of comfort: i just want to close off this post by saying i know alot of the time, circumstances can be so overwhelming that its so hard to affirm against it and can just be so frustrating at times. I hope you find peacr & comfort in your reality and wishing you all the best <3 rooting for yall, you can do this :)

stay limitless, xoxo irene

[justpeaxchy]

Omg so I’ve been following you for a teensy tiny bit, and while I enjoy everything you write, I’ve got to say that recent headcanons for Hiccup having a younger sister definitely takes the cake,

So, if you’re up to it, maybe some more on that? I don’t know exactly (SORRY), but maybe something angsty???

A/n: Don't worry! I enjoy every request I get, so I don't mind 🫶🏼! I don't do much angsty posts, so let's see how this goes!

Warnings: the aftermath of Stoick's death in Hiccup and reader's life, anger, denial, distancing. Basically, angsty stuff.

Notes: reader is 18 years old for this one, still younger than Hiccup, though!

'I'll Leave You Words'

To say that you both didn't expect for Stoick's death to happen was an understatement; You were unprepared for it. Even that couldn't describe the sudden event.

Hiccup was put in a place of defeating Drago and didn't have the proper amount of time to fully grieve his father, other than having the moment of sending him off in the ship that was used for his funeral.

You knew that, if you still felt the weight of everything that had happened, Hiccup was more than likely to be experiencing the same thing.

He was placed in the position of Chief without anymore preparation, and you watched as he took on the responsibilities that Stoick once carried.

----

You hesitated to knock on the door that blocked you from seeing your older brother, hearing paper being constantly shuffled to and fro and the sound of his prosthetic repeatedly moving against the floor. 'Why can't you just knock?' You asked yourself, fighting back the arising apprehensiveness that tugged at the back of your mind.

Taking a deep breath in, you slowly raised your hand against the door, and after a moment, you firmly knocked on it, waiting for it to be opened. That, however, did not happen. Instead, you barely heard his voice from the other end: "..Come in."

------

You could tell he was more distant than normal, a coping mechanism you noticed he used sometimes. It was shown in the way he often left Berk with Toothless, but it was quite obvious he couldn't particularly do that right now.

He wanted to show Berk that he wasn't the same 15 year old 'screw up', as he called it. You wanted to make him see that he was never truly a mistake, even when he made mistakes growing up.

He was on the edge of sinking into that mindset of thinking he was 'less than', and you weren't going to sit back and watch.

-------

He usually was the only to open the door whenever you knocked. You shook off that thought, though. Hesitantly stepping in his room, you briefly looked at the scattered parchment paper across his desk; it wasn't looking too good.

You wanted to help, help with the silent struggles he was going through, but you didn't know if he was open enough to accept that just yet. "Hey, uhm, can we talk, Hiccup..?" You began to lightly fidget with your hands, watching as he kept his back towards you. He did pause in his movements when he heard your question, slightly tilting his head in your direction for you to continue.

"Look... Hiccup, you need to allow yourself to grieve. There's... there's a time and place for it to end, yes, but I think you haven't even given yourself the opportunity to--"

"I have. You said it's what you think, correct?" He sighed, aimlessly moving the paper on his desk, "I'm fine. I already did that when we put him in that ship, remember?"

------

It was evident that there was still parts of him that hadn't fully came to terms that Stoick was gone, and he needed the time to accept that.

But, in his mind, he already "grieved" over the loss of his father. So, he didn't see the reason for him to let out what he thought he already left behind at the ship.

He was focused on repairing Berk and taking care of a whole island of people now. It wasn't providing a great distraction for what he was truly feeling on the inside, though.

----------

"Hiccup. You're not weak or too emotional. We..lost our dad, not just the Chief." You narrowly seen his shoulders hunch at your statement, not ignorant at the sight of his hands clutching onto the desk. "If I'm still feeling this way, you need to let out whatever you're holding in too." You'd be lying if you said you weren't slightly upset that your older brother was keeping these things to himself, slowly making it worse.

It was silent for a moment, the atmosphere tense, before you heard the small noise of a sniffle. You took a step forward, getting a glimpse of Hiccup wipe his eyes, "It's...a bit.. overwhelming..? Sometimes.." He mumbled, still not showing his face, causing you to come closer to him as he lowered his head.

Once you were able to actually see him, he looked exhausted. There were no words exchanged as you reached out for him, pulling him into a long hug while he slowly wrapped his own arms around you in return. "Dad is.. really gone, huh..?"

At his question, you were unable to respond. Instead, you held him tighter, feeling tears swell up in your own eyes. Your silence spoke louder than any words you might have uttered, and it made Hiccup give in.

Soon enough, Toothless watched with a saddened gaze as the brother and sister cried on each other's shoulders, not wanting to disturb them in any way.

---------

It took some time for him to heal from the sudden scar that was placed on him; that is, Stoick's death.

He was there when you felt overwhelmed by it all as well, and he wouldn't leave your side until he saw that you were truly okay.

He would let you cry for however long you needed to, telling you things like: "I'm here, it's okay" and "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Valka, Astrid, Gobber, and the rest of the gang were willing to help and be there for you both, but in Hiccup's eyes, you were the only one who knew what he was feeling. As his sister, you are the closest person he's had in his life, even when he thought of himself to be a failure in the past.

Overall, Hiccup was eventually able to think back on his father without having the same reaction he might've had before you started to confront him about the things he was keeping inside, and you both were able to stand back up - not only for yourselves, but for Berk.

-----------------------------------

[iamthecomet]

-lands in your askbox like a bug on a leaf-

It is day three of my four day weekend/self imposed exile from work, because I spent way, way too much time there recently, and after a bit of tummy troubles on day one, and a small redemption arc for my stomach on day two, I am now in a mindset to discuss the weird shit rattling around my brain.

...Or I would be, if my brain weren't also a rat infested swamp.

After dragging the depths for even a crumb of something, anything salacious, I have come up empty.

Save for one thought.

Rain and Dew tag teaming a nun.

Not a sister of sin, a nun.

Something, something, this poor woman is having a crisis of faith a la Perpetua, and she's lost, looking for answers, is this really what she wants to be doing with her life? Why is she reaching out to a God that gives her no reply?

Just a spiral of emotions and doubt.

Cue Rain dressed like a priest, because while Rain in a habit is cute, I think there's something to be said for that ghoul being in a cassock.

Anyway, not sure how Dew gets involved, but I'm sure it's all very, "I won't tell if you don't tell."

Also floating the idea that the nun is Cumulus, and this is all just very scripted foreplay lmao

"This is the most somber, foreboding porno I have ever watched."

"Good."

-scuttles away-

Lamp. L A M P. When I tell you I have been *thinking* about this ask since it gently drifted into my ask box. Firstly, I hope that your self imposed exile was relaxing, and healing and left you at least a little refreshed. Shit is bullshit right now and we all deserve as much rest/self imposed exile as possible. ♥ Secondly, The chokehold this idea has on me. You don't understand. I read this and immediately went "must write a fic about this" (which I haven't done but now I WANT TO) Look, I just have this image of said nun (Cumulus or otherwise, though I am living for the idea of a real, actual nun, your girl loves corruption), spread out between Rain and Dew. Her torso bracketed by Rain's thighs, his arms around her waist, her back to his chest, while he purs in her ear, hands wandering, dragging up to squeeze at a still clothed nipple, clever fangs teasing at her pulse--never drawing blood but oh so close, his nose in her hair. And Dew? Dew between her legs, her habit rucked up around her thighs, that unbearably hot mouth dragging over her, doing things to her she never dreamed of wanting--needing. Her hands itching closer to his head--his horns, hesitent, while Rain chuckles in her ear at her continued shyness despite all of this. Despite Rain's cock digging into her spine, despite Dew's tongue on her clit. Her head thrown back against Rain's shoulder, gasping out an "Oh god" And Rain chuckling, teeth catching on the shell of her ear as he purrs: "God's not here, sweetheart. Try again." Anyway uhhhh you have given me food and ideas and someday maybe I'll write some ungodly thousands of plot/lore filled words about Rain and Dew tag teaming a nun and turning her to Satan and it will be entirely YOUR FAULT. K LOVE YOU BYE.

[linkspooky]

Does it ever frustrate you (like it bothers me), that the heroes and civilians (and many of the fans) have no concept of "the big picture"?

I mean being optimistic is one thing, but the hero kids are going back to class, hero society is being rebuilt and the same structures are getting back in place with barely a question of what might change, if anything will...

Like shouldn't they know by now??!!

Hawks looked into the league of villain's pasts.

Deku was told directly by shigaraki what was wrong with their society in the last war.

There was a whole (plausibly canon) movie revolving around the threat of the quirk singularity, and still nobody cares.

Judging by the recent chapter, the civilians are the same as they always were, or have become even worse in their mindset.

And at least so far, the heroes haven't shown anything concrete in how they plan on doing things from now on, if their actions or beliefs made any real impact.

At this point it really feels like either:

A. The Lov (Toga, shigaraki and some others) make a miracle resurrection/recovery.

or

B.it's the cycle of violence until inevitable extinction...

Do you feel differently or the same?

Hello, friend.

I definitely share your frustrations.

I think this post by Tumblr User BNHAObservations might be onto the type of societal reform that Horikoshi might be going for in this epilogue.

So there's two approaches that you can approach to MHA, and specifically it's endings. BNHAObservations is using Literary Analysis. That is they're not talking about the work in terms of "thing good, thing bad", but rather assuming that everything Horikoshi put into his work is intentional analyzing the themes which Horikoshi is putting forward. What is the theme of MHA and how does Horikoshi demonstrate that theme with characters and events in story?

That's the question to ask if you're taking a literary analysis angle.

(By the way if BNHAObservations sees this I'm not criticizing your post in any way sorry if I give that intention I'm just using it as an example, and also reccomending people read it because it's a good post. This post isn't a response to this post I promise I'm just linking it to provide an opposite point of view from my own).

The second is Literary Criticism. While I prefer Literary Analysis, I've been taking a Lit Crit approach as to late because. My question is not "What is the theme of MHA?" but rather "Does MHA use the tools of storytelling to communicate it's theme to it's audience well?" So, let's discuss how Hori chooses to convey the themes of the fictional world he created.

So as I said BNHA observations has an answer to your question from a literary analysis perspective. The gist being "Horikoshi seems to be suggesting that the improvement to society will come from the public being more involved with stuff like community outreach to assist the heroes, and maybe with Spinner's comic the villains voices will be heard on top of that." Which is a valid perspective and why I linked it.

However, from my literary criticism angle I don't think that particular theme is communicated well by the story. This is why while I think acknowledging the cultural context of the story is an important perspective, it's just one perspective because MHA is still A STORY and it has to use the tools of storytelling to get those messages across. MHA can exist as a piece of cultural commentary and still be confusing about what exactly kind of commentary it wants to make, because it doesn't function as a story.

So here's the literary critcism angle of: Why is it so gosh darned frustrating that the public at large doesn't seem to have changed at all by the ending of MHA?

When you are a writer you can write anything you want. But if you want to write a story that people want to read you have to follow the rules of good storytelling.

There are reasons why storytelling rules exist. A story is a bond between author and reader, readers to other readers. It is a communication between humans and humans work in a certain way.

I'd also argue that literary criticism is something that exists across cultures, like for example I watch Japanese Horror movies with my friends. Japanese Horror movies are very different from american ones because what that culture considers scary is different. However, if I'm watching the movie that has bad lighting and uncreative camera work, and I criticize it on that grounds, I think the rules of what makes good and bad camera work and shot composition work across cultures.

To quote this post:

Storytelling rules are rules of communication. Rules for handling expectations and saying what you intend to say without it being misheard. Rules for tugging at emotions and pulling heartstrings in a good way rather than a bad way. Storytelling rules are lessons learned by authors of the past that failed to communicate what they needed to. They are not that subjective.

So to address your ask finally friend, I believe a lot of audience comes from Horikoshi's inability to get his theme across in his own story with the tools of storytelling, just what he wants to say about the the society that he's created in his fictional world.

The first is the very obvious discrepancy between setup and payoff. As an example I read the Sam Vimes discworld novels, which you could say is copaganda about a good cop who does his job. However, the story is not trying to be a deep analysis about the crimminal system, it's a fantasy story taking place in a deeply corrupt medieval city where the main character is a parody of Dirty Harry. In other words it doesn't bring up any of those deeper issues so I can just read it for what it is, knowing it's kind of dated.

MHA sets up these deeper issues in a way that calls to be addressed. It's made clear several times in both Shigaraki's walk, and his speech during the first war arc that there's already enough heroes and yet problems in this society persist.

Theme is basically the story asking a question and then providing an answer. The question is: If there are so many heroes then why are there so many people who don't get saved?

It seemed like the answer we are building towards is that heroes need to change the way they deal with villains, hence why everything post War Arc focuses on the main trio trying to save their villains without just putting them down. You have Twice's death at Hawk's hands, and the question of why heroes only save the good victims. You have the parallels between Shigaraki and Eri. You have Deku say "ONE FOR ALL IS NOT A POWER FOR KILLING."

Hori is an author who makes choices and he chose to deliberately bring up these issues and not address them, and that makes the story feel unsatisfying to read because serialized stories hook the audience by promising future development.

Read this story because you want to see how the Todorokis will find a way to unite their family. Read this story because you want to see how Bakugo and Deku will become the greatest heroes, by saving by winning and winning by saving.

Twice's death, Toga's question about if Uraraka is going to kill her, Shigaraki's walk, OFA is not a power for killing these are all things that mattered in the story and then suddenly didn't. If you promise a story is going to address something and then you renege on that promise the audience will find it unsatisfying. If I'm reading a murder mystery and it ends with everyone eating cake and the murder hasn't been solved (and that's not the point of the story) I will feel like the story has wasted it's time.

So it's not just a case of "MHA was never going to be a story of deep societal reform because it's a shonen jump manga" but these themes are brought up, and then never addressed again.

Which is where we get my second layer of criticism, the massive tonal whiplash. My Hero Academia seems like a story of how kids are going to grow up to be better heroes by saving their villains, until it's not.

My Hero Academia is not a tragedy, until it becomes a tragedy in the last five minutes. Every single person thought Shigaraki was going to be saved somehow, until he wasn't. Everyone thought that Twice's death was going to be the last death in the league of villains, because the kids were going to realzie they have to find another way than killing the villains, until it wasn't. The audience isn't stupid for thinking this was going to happen, that's what Horikoshi was foreshadowing in his story until he threw it out.

The worst part is the tragic tone doesn't work, because it's poorly written as a tragedy. Greek Tragedy revolves around the fall of the heroes (this is a japanese work and japanese theatre is different, but Superheroes are inspired by the greeks). If the villains failed to get saved, then it should be a failure on the heroes part, it should be devastating on the heroes.

Hawks failed to save Twice but he's fine, Deku failed to save Shigaraki (OFA is not a power for killing) but he's fine, the only hero who seems personally affected by their loss is Shoto who is losing his brother. If this is a tragedy then heroes should be the ones to fall because tragedies are about the tragic flaws of the heroes.

However, we get this tonal inconsistency instead where no consequences stick to the heroes and every single bad thing that happens to them gets magically done away with by plot convenience.

So Hori has shown that he can just handwave away whatever kind of grievous injury he wants, and yet he still chooses to go out of his way to unnecessarily punish the villains for their actions, in the manga that's supposed to be about saving them.

And even if we go with the "Well, their hearts were saved" approach, the manga fails to demonstrate how their hearts were saved. Naruto, a manga running in the same magazine, does this so much better with characters like Obito.

Look at Obito's sendoff in the manga. A character who also is responsible for directly harming the main characters and who went to war with the entire world.

Obito has a dream sequence where he realizes he could have always gone home and still tried to become Hokage and he wasn't beyond redemption. He lives long enough to assist Naruto in the fight against the final villain. He gets called awesome by Naruto for trying to become Hokage because they shared the same dream.

His last moments in the manga are Rin the girl he loved comforting him in the afterlife, by saying she was watching his suffering all along. His literal last action is to lend his power to Kakashi his best friend in order to fight together once more against the villain.

Shigaraki on the other hand doesn't even get the majority of screentime in his own death chapter, he gets two pages compared to AFO's five.

It's not just the fact they get unsympathetic deaths, the story also bends over to show that they deserved it. Toga doesn't want to accept prison for her actions so it's okay for her to commit suicide even though she's a young girl. Shigaraki didn't want to give up being the hero to the villains, so it's okay that Deku didn't save him.

People are discussing whether or not Spinner should be held accountable for not saving Shigaraki because of his character flaw of deciding to not think about things and go with the flow, but that ignores the fact that once again Spinner is not the main character. Yes, characters should be held accountable for their flaws, but the protagonists are the one who should be held the most accountable because the story is not about them.

Spinner and Deku both failed to save Shigaraki, but let's look at their punishment. Spinner is in prison for the rest of his life probably, almost became a Nomu, and has survivor's guilt for being unable to save Shigaraki in time due to his own actions.

Deku... has to live with the fact he killed Shigarki and will "never forget it."

If we are going for a tragic ending, and Deku is the center of that tragedy, than Deku should be the one suffering for his failures. Deku should be held just as, if not more accountable than Spinner.

Spinner is held accountable and that makes him a good character - but to what end? I know what it's to slide blame away from Deku, which is also why Spinner randomly says something racist at the end of his scene.

So in all it's not frustrating because MHA isn't some deep, thoughtful criticism of Japanese society. It's frustrating because it violates the rules of setup and payoff, and it also is extremely tonally inconsistent.

A common response to this is I've seen is "You should just like MHA for what it is, and not what you want it to be."

However my underlying problem is that MHA as a story seems to be very confused about what kind of story it is. That confusion shows in Horikoshi constantly throwing out his own foreshadowing, and the wild swings in tone from tragedy to a story about optimistic young kids who are going to be the best heroez eva. Hori can tell whatever story he wants, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's telling it well.

As I said Hori's indecisiveness shows by this point in the story. I've already discussed this with Class1aKids but it really seems like Horikoshi is setting up two things with scissors-kun:

He'll either be A) A new villain that Deku and the kids prevent from becoming the next AFO or B) a resurrected Shigaraki who can save the rest of his league and fulfill his role as hero of the villains.

At this point there's equal foreshadowing for both, and this is my personal theory but it truly seems like Hori is gauging audience reaction to see which path he should take. If the japanese audience is satisfied with the villains "hearts" being saved, or if he should bring Shigaraki back to let the villains end on a more hopeful note.

[writing-with-sophia]

How to get into the mind of a character? Honestly this can be for your OWN character or a fictional character. I'm wanting to write for characters- headcanons and fanfictions- and I'm so afraid I'll write them so uncanny to how they actually are.

How to get into the mind of a character?

To get into the mind of a character, you have to understand that character, believe in that character, and even "live" the character's life. But we all know each individual is different, and we cannot live different lives. A normal person who grew up in peacetime cannot fully understand the hardships of a warrior, and a doctor cannot know the thoughts of a mafia boss.

So, how can writers create believable characters? How can they possibly offer a believable soldier, cop, detective, alcoholic, or any given character type if they themselves haven't lived as them? How can they possibly offer a believable character in a situation that they've never been in?

Here are some tips you can use to get into the minds of characters:

Tip 1: Observe real-life people

To create well-rounded characters, observe real people around you. Pay attention to their behaviors, mannerisms, speech patterns, and thought processes. Take note of how they express emotions, handle conflicts, and make decisions. Drawing from real-life observations can add depth and authenticity to your characters. You can also search for novels and movies with different themes, study how characters with different pasts, biographies, occupations, and personalities act, behave, gesture, and speak. The best way is to prepare a small notebook and a pen so you can carry it with you wherever you go.

Tip 2: Create a detailed character profile

Develop a detailed character profile that includes information such as their age, background, beliefs, values, goals, and fears. Consider their relationships with other characters and how these dynamics influence their thoughts and actions. Delve into the character's past and explore significant events that have shaped them. Consider their upbringing, traumas, successes, and failures. These can provide you with a roadmap for understanding the character's mindset.

Tip 3: Use internal monologues and journaling

Imagine the character's internal thoughts and dialogues with themselves. Consider what they might be thinking in different situations, their hopes, dreams, and fears. (And why do they dream of that? Why are they afraid of that thing? What in the past made them afraid? Always asking questions.) Writing internal monologues or journal entries from the character's perspective can help you delve into their mindset and gain insight into their unique voice.

Tip 4: Consider their external influences

Characters are influenced by their environment, culture, and society. Reflect on how external factors such as family, friends, societal norms, or even the story's setting impact their thoughts and behaviors. This will help you portray their worldview more accurately.

Tip 5: Study the source material

If you're writing about an existing character from a book, TV show, or movie, immerse yourself in the source material. Pay attention to their dialogue, actions, and interactions with other characters. Take note of their personality traits, motivations, and backstory. This will help you develop a strong foundation for understanding the character. For example, recently I suddenly became interested in Nightwing (do you know him? Nightwing from the Batman series!), and I wanted to write a few short stories about him. So I found all the comics and movies that featured Nightwing and watched them one by one. I don't take notes because I have a pretty good memory (especially for characters I like), but I still recommend taking notes on special things to note.

Tip 6: Practice free writing

Set aside time for free writing exercises where you write from the character's point of view. Allow your thoughts to flow without judgment or editing. Just write, write, and write. You can reread and make corrections after you're done. Remember to gather your posts in one place; otherwise, you'll lose or forget them (like me!).

Getting into the mind of a character is an ongoing process that requires continuous exploration and refinement. The more you invest in understanding your character's thoughts, feelings, and motivations, the more compelling and authentic your writing will become.

Additionally, you can read my articles on how to write an effective character here:

How to create a superbad villain

How to make a villain's appearance memorable

Basic questions for your character

Describing a villain's appearance in a natural way

Create an effectively past for character

Common character motivations

How to create a good main character

How to avoid the instance where a secondary character stands out more/ is more lovable?

Character flaws

Writing a good Anti-Hero

Character positive traits

How to write an elderly main character?

Protagonist who is a ballerina

How to write a believeable egotistical character

[mavyunivrse]

| Pile 6

Whew, money seems to be a big thing with this collective. I also feel that you maybe haven't had your big break yet, whether that's not shifting, not getting "symptoms" , not getting dreams about your drs, etc. Nothing seems to be coming in through for you. Also have you just found out or recently got back into shifting?

Your journey so far is very materialistic, and you are protective of those items. Money and abundance could be empowering for you to have. Maybe you've been recklessly spending with the thought in the back of your head that are along the lines of "it's okay, I'll get it back in my desired realities." But this has brought you into a cruel cycle, and you're aware of it. I see this collective as very intelligent and hard to fit into a category.

When you guys want something, you're set in stone and fierce til you get it and most of the time you do get exactly what you want. But shifting hasn't had a high success rate with you and you're not used to this delay. So I'm curious to know how much money have you spent on things that were supposed to help or make you shift? You guys may also love control over situations and having boughts things that were promoted to make you shift, were making you feel like you had control in your shifting journey and when you shift, but instead has fooled you into consumerism. I'm sure you're no stranger to the phrase: "you don't need anything to shift," but have difficulty understanding how to apply that thought.

You could fear never shifting, or even getting close enough to just taste it to keep you motivated. And having no motivation could also be alarming to you, cause when have you never had motivation? I worry that this collective is chokeholding onto the idea of shifting, trying to force an immediate shift now.

Letting it go for a while or taking a break won't mean it'll disappear, or that you'll have to restart your progress, or catch up on research that's being spread around. You guys are really wanting it to be effortless, but constantly buying into things doesn't make that effortless. It should be, but you're not making it that easy for yourself.

Are you a quantity over quality person? I'm not saying cheap, but do you feel more comfort with abundance around?

On a lighter note, you guys exude intelligence, witty, confident and alluring energy. I can't help but want to pick your brains. I also pick up on very strong and resilient energy, which is a firm and powerful trait you have when you're not using it to be deceptive towards yourself. You might not be as good at reading yourself as you are with others, you just feel underlying senses. I think shadow work could be helpful for this collective. Look into self worth + money prompts. Asmr could be good for you aswell, especially DR curated ones. And maybe some excercises that ease the pain on your lower back and open up the hips.

444 as I write this.

Hidden knowledge card: Think more carefully about what you want, you’re likely to be subconsciously looking for more authentic fulfillment so you’re already on the right path. Do your desires feel never ending? You could feel a dissatisfaction in yourself that youve been trying to avoid fully feeling, filling it with materialism to bury it. Surround yourself with people that value quality over quantity, their mindset can help condition yours. Keep in mind you can live through some of your scripted scenarios in your current reality. Treasure the mundane, have gratitude for what you already have. More will come to you from inner work.

Oracle words: decrease, happiness, proud, perfection, imagination, honour, scatter

Channeled songs:

everything i wanted | Billie Eilish

Hand in My Pocket | Alanis Morissette

Snap Out Of It | Arctic Monkeys

Faint | Linkin Park

Emotions | Brenda Lee

Headlock | Imogen Heap

Mother Mother | Tracy Bonham

American Teenager | Ethel Cain

Thanks for reading! <3

My Masterlist.

– ℳ

[seaoftales]

small update on why i haven't been online much recently:

about two weeks ago my grandpa ended up in the hospital, and he passed at the beginning of this week. i was really close with him and his death literally shook me to the core, and it's going to take me while to get back into things again, including the proper mindset to write again. nobody's forgotten, nothing dropped or deleted, i just need... well, time. lots of time to handle things.

[fourtified-au]

June! Pride month! The AU's anniversary month!

In regards to this blog, I apologize for the recent silence with posting here. I haven't been in the best mindset to draw or push forward with any writing admittedly hence my distance. Know that this AU is still very much adored and that I do have some art ideas in mind. Just gotta find that motive to continue onward. For newcomers, hi! I hope my absence isn't too much of a fuss. :']

In the meantime, here's some random GIFs that I made a while back... Tom teaching a klutzy Matt how to play the ukulele in hopes to impress Tord.

[o-wyrmlight]

I haven't worked on A Toast to the Pigs very much.

There's a couple of reasons for that: Writers' block from not knowing how to proceed; the exhaustion and burnout of keeping up with the weekly updates; impostor's syndrome for how I write Kim's perspective; the fact that I haven't really read through what I've published of Toast for a good, long while; the hyperfixation I've had for Disco Elysium kind of fading to a certain extent; the prevalent issues that I've noticed in my writing style that I really, really want to work on improving. And don't even try to tell me that there aren't any. I know there are some rather egregious issues.

All of those combined makes it difficult to make me want to touch Toast in the first place, and there's a certain degree of shame that comes with that knowledge. And when I do want to work on Toast, I have such a hard time getting into the mindset of when I worked on it to such an extreme that it practically monopolized my time, just because it's been so long since I last touched it.

I recently tried re-reading it and I couldn't help how, despite how proud I was, something in my chest just kept periodically cringing, and I do know why: It could have been so much shorter. So much briefer. It's no wonder that it monopolized so much of my time in the weeks and months that I'd been publishing it; it's no wonder that I got so burnt out from it. 144,000 words over 15 chapters is not a normal, sustainable pace to keep, and there's so much excess fat and prose that could've been cut down to trim it up and make it neater. Not to say that I'm going to go back and cut down the already-published chapters, but currently, that's the big issue that I see with my writing: I need to learn to keep it brief, and I need to learn to identify what parts of the story would benefit from extrapolation and which parts won't.

I do want to finish Toast--very, very badly. I want to have a finished multi-chapter fic under my belt for once instead of leaving it not even half-finished. I'm just having such a difficult time nudging my brain in the direction to actually work on newer chapters. I've lost a lot of threads that I need to pick up and untangle, especially if I want to come out of it with something that's consistent and good. I know it's fanfiction--we do this for fun, we're all having fun here--but I want it to be good and cohesive, because that's just what I enjoy.

I love that people are still able to read it and love it even if they don't think that it'll ever be updated again. I love the comments that I've gotten so far and I love all of the fanart that I've gotten, too. I don't like this shame of leaving things abandoned, even if I can still appreciate the joy that old fandoms gave me for the time that I participated in them. I appreciate the story, I appreciate the fandom, and I appreciate you. I really want Toast to be a story that we can all be proud of.

So I'll keep working on Toast. I have Chapter 16 finished--more or less, in my old writing style, and I'm undecided if there are a couple of characterization changes that I want to make with it. So far, it's the only one that's 'done'. I'm undecided if I should keep it unpublished until I finish Day 2--as I said I wouldn't start updating until Day 2 was completely finished--or if I should dedicate my time to finishing the rest of Day 2 first. I'll probably drop a poll in a few days, see what y'all's opinion of the matter is.

Despite how exhausting it was to keep up with, having a schedule really did help me focus and push me to put my best foot forward to keep up with updates. Whenever I do start updating Toast again, I'll probably extend those deadlines to once every fortnight (every other week). I can't guarantee that regular updates will be anytime soon, but, well. It is what it is.

In the meantime, I'll be working on a Wattpad cover to crosspost A Toast to the Pigs, because that's something I've really been wanting to do for the past couple of months for some reason. I'll see you then.

[alasse-earfalas]

I'm not sure why I'm writing this, or even if I'm going to post it.

I want to speak to anyone who might find themselves in the situation I'm in now. I'm stagnant (really I just feel stagnant) and I hate it. Progress is meaningful but feels excruciatingly slow. Like I'm putting my back into every day but I still feel like I'm not moving.

It's like I've been melted down into goop and thrown in a chrysalis. I can't move, I can't see how I'm changing, and I wanna get out and explore the world, but I can't because I'm currently goop. I can't do the things I used to be able to do and I hate it.

The thing is, I see the progress. The new place is slowing getting more and more set up and arranged how I want. My therapist keeps telling me how much progress I've made. I'm eating healthier (and happier!).

But when the taproot of worthlessness burrows down into the depths of hell, it's really hard to remove.

I want to recommend a couple of vids that really struck me recently. This one is about how to rest, and how it's important, using language that got the point across to me better than any similar message. And this one is about goals, and habits, and mindset changes around both of these things that turn them into avenues of joy.

I want to share these in part because I need the reminder to watch them again. I really struggle with both accepting rest and navigating goals and habits. Keeping my mental illnesses in mind while I watch these, and listening for root concepts rather than a predefined course, really magnifies their impact for me.

I'll give you one example. One of the habits I want to get into is brushing my teeth. I'm terrible at it, and certain traumas compound around what is supposed to be a simple act, to create mental blocks that are nearly impossible to get through. There are also mental illnesses (several) that get in the way, too.

So I haven't held myself to a habit of brushing my teeth. Instead, every time I go to the bathroom, after I wash my hands, I pick up my toothbrush.

That's it.

From there, I am free to either put it back, or continue with the act of brushing my teeth. It's a tiny step in the right direction. I really need that freedom to put the toothbrush back down, in case I'm running late, or start having a flashback, or what have you.

But I'm doing something.

And you know what? There have been a few times when picking up the toothbrush was the reason I ended up brushing my teeth. So that's more times I ended up brushing my teeth because of this tiny habit than I would have otherwise.

See? Little things. I'm making improvements.

But it's so easy to look around my apartment and see the dishes piled up and that one room full of still-packed boxes and my body getting more and more difficult to move and feel like I'm a lazy fat blob who's just a leech on the world. I know better.

Rationally, I know how hard I'm trying. Rationally, I know how important rest is. I've watched videos about autistic burnout and regression. I see how my apartment is slowly changing for the better. I love my husband and I see the blessings being showered down on us all the time. It's a miracle we're not homeless, and an even greater miracle that we have our own place.

I know this taproot of worthlessness will be uprooted in time. I know I'll get out of the chrysalis when my wings have grown in and are ready to fly. And I want to reassure others who feel this way that it will end. I know it will. I believe in the resurrection brought about by Jesus Christ. I know He longs to see all of us come home. I know this life is like a diamond: precious and hard.

Ultimately, we all will find rest. That is what keeps me going. I'll either find rest when I die, or I'll find rest sooner than that. My hope is on sooner, but either way, I know it will come. Everything in the meantime is best left in the hands of Him who sees my worth when I cannot, and who knows perfectly how to succor me and help me grow.

As for me and my house, we will trust in the Lord.

Take care everyone. 💜

[flutishly]

The lull before the storm - revisiting the days before Hero's birthday, a decade later

Note: This post contains spoilers for Nothing Much to Do.

I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up with the NMTDaily in recent weeks. I'll watch the videos a couple weeks late, in chunks. It feels entirely unlike how I watched NMTD when it was originally released (obsessively, as the episodes came out; I never used subscriptions, so I'd check the channels directly pretty much every day), but entirely reflective of where my life is today, a decade later.

I'll be away this weekend, leading into the 10-year anniversary of Hero's 16th birthday and the radio silence that followed. I'll probably write more about the actual videos when the time comes (hey, remember when I spent hours micro-analyzing a tiny video only for the full-length scene to emerge within that same day? I should be embarrassed by that than I am), but for now I find myself thinking about how the tension ramps up and how the story of Much Ado About Nothing and NMTD's interpretation feels different in 2024 than it did in 2014.

There's a lot that at the time I feel I was less forgiving of, interestingly. Maybe it's because I'm older, but I find myself feeling sorrier for the boys this time around. Claudio's anxiety and self-consciousness feels more... forward. Pedro's need to people-please and "lead". Ben's intense need to be liked and appreciated. Ironically, even as their behavior seems even more "inappropriate" today, I can't help but feel that there's something about it that I better understand today.

Hero herself somehow feels more mature. There's something about watching with the retrospect of a decade that makes the coming punch hurt all the more. It's been long enough since my last rewatch that I'd forgotten so many smaller details, like the way the girls have their sleepover or the fact that Hero has her own charming relationship with the camera independently of Beatrice. (I'm not sure why I'd forgotten these moments specifically, but it's interesting! I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I always clicked with Bea more as a character, but in this rewatch I feel like I'm finally seeing the version of Hero that many of my friends from the NMTD era always saw.)

Hero seems more mature and Bea seems more childish. Ten years ago, Bea was just a few years younger than me; she was immature, but not so different from where I was in life. Now, both Bea and Hero feel like teenagers and I'm very much not a young adult anymore. I look at both of them and think how fragile they are, how much they're taking on themselves at such a young age (independence is wonderful, but do they have the love and support of a good adult mentor?). I think of Bea's discomfort talking about Ben and her fear of being hurt. I think of Hero's open love and trust. I think of how both will soon be heartbroken by the same event, in very different ways.

Hero's birthday is one of those plot points in the world of literary webseries. It's iconic for a reason. And I know that as things "unfold" this weekend (and are only revealed next week), I'm watching it from a very different place than a decade ago and with a completely different mindset. But I suspect that the sadness and anger I felt then will not be completely obliterated. I suspect that I'll still have a moment of anguish for Hero, for Bea, for shattered dreams and the end of innocence.

----

One final aside: I truly love the writing on NMTD. Time and again, I'm impressed by just how richly the characters are drawn, by what a beautiful job The Candlewasters did in translating a classic text and making it feel so very real. I feel so lucky to have experienced this show as it was released in 2014 and yet again lucky to watch it now.

[umbral-stigmata-unbound]

Character Headcanon Meme | Open

@sixvisxpacem asked: For the character meme: Vincent, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Cloud~~

Thank you! Here we go! Now of course these are headcanons so, this is what I read and semi want from the characters, while recognizing it's likely not the intentions of the creators.

Vincent

Sexuality Headcanon: It took years of growing up in fandom of course to come to this conclusion, because you grow up with the conditioned straight-by-default assumption, and his only canon subject of his romantic love being Lucrecia, I just labeled him as straight, even as I began roleplaying as him officially on here. But the more I interacted with Roleplayers, and let my more natural state of bi/pan until otherwise confirmed mindset I have with characters now, and honestly more especially thanks to @skadren getting me into Strifentine, I have come to full accept that he is pan. My usually experience when writing him is he knew around his teens about his inclination towards men, but felt the weight of expectations and he just didn't really explore it. At least not on his own. Now when the right man would present himself, it's harder to ignore (*cough cough* Veld *Cough*). But absolutely Pan, for me.

Gender Headcanon: Cismale, personally.

A ship I have with said character: STRIFENTINE, STRIFENTINE, STRIFENTINE. Sorry, ahem. But yeah, that is the TOP ship for Vincent for me. Though I haven't been able to explore it in my own writing, VinVeld is right up there. As is Vinesis. Those are probably my top ships for Vincent. I have other ships, too, but they're lesser or more random due to RP. Honorable mention, VincentxReeve, because Dirge era.

A BROTP I have with said character: Reeve and Vincent are a fun brotp, and I'm extremely fond of their dynamic due to Dirge, and just the layers given their past with the company. Other than that, I don't see him vibing close with many apart from Cloud, but I always see them with ship lens lmao. But they work as really good friends, too, as they can generally be perfect support. I like the idea of him having a dynamic with Tifa, too. It wouldn't be as deep as the others, but perhaps they could relate on unique levels, he could give sort of mentor vibes, and she could be a gentleness (they totally gossip about Cloud). Maybe I could see a unique buddy thing that'd be funny, with Cid? But for me it's not strong enough to be BROTP worthy.

A NOTP I have with said character: Cid/Valenwind. No offense to shippers! I understand the appeal! But it's just not for me, for OG Cid reasons, and just because it's not my vibe. Beyond that, I guess Lucrecia x Vincent, for the reasons stated above. It's fun to explore in it's toxicity, but I'd never actively ship it.

A random headcanon: I don't have many that aren't shared by most heavy Vincent fans, so I'll just throw my recent one. Connected to the Rebirth encouraged headcanon, thanks to the decoration of Vincent's coffin, that the cerberus emblem from Dirge is a Valentine family crest, I sort of had another idea one day. Just watching clips with him using Cerberus and wondering when he got it, because he never got that gun in OG to my memory, but he has it by the time Advent events happen, and still has it going into Dirge (and which the game is named after), where did he find it? He doesn't have all the emblem shit in AC, save for the keychain, until dirge. So when did he get Cerberus? with the crest idea, it feels like it had to be intentional so would Vincent have taken time to commission and purchase a gun? Or what if Grimoire commissioned it before he passed, and after he and Vincent had been estranged for some time. Vincent's thriving as a Turk, and surely Grimoire kept enough tabs to know his specialty. Perhaps he was looking for the day he could make amends, and Cerberus was going to be a part of that. A gift with the weight and legacy of the Valentine name, a reminder of the legacy but the love there, but fitted to the life Vincent had chosen? Of course, he never got around to giving it. Perhaps Vincent found it, realized it for what it was, and lowly started implementing the crest more for various reasons (like bitch got it on his phone. him and Cloud both, wearing their canine symbolism and the weight that comes with it).

General Opinion over said character: Good god, that headcanon took up too much space so I don't wanna overload you guys but FUCK I LOVE HIM. I loved him when I was younger for the simplest, vibiest and superficial reasons and every year I got older, I came to appreciate him for more and more layers. I love his tragedy, I love his layers. The trauma, the otherness he is stuck with, the spook vibes, his relationships with others, his humor, his attitude, his wit. I just adore him. He is such a full character. There's too much to say about him honestly.

Sephiroth

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay/Demi/Ace spectrum, I've never really settled. There is not a lady lover layer in Sephiroth, except loving his mother. But yeah, it's homosexual in his inclination, but I don't see him feeling sexual desire or attraction without depth of relationship and either deep trust, or something just as intense but more twisted.

Gender Headcanon: Eh? Is that a gender? He is what the company told him he was, that's really where his mind is on that matter. It doesn't matter to him. He presents male, he accepts such pronouns, isn't generally inclined to they or she/her pronouns, but he doesn't feel like he's JUST Cismale. He's beyond that, is all I can say?

A ship I have with said character: Sefikura and Sephesis are constantly sitting upon the same pedestal XD for a few years Sefikura had the spot alone, but Sephesis has been claiming more room, but it's awkward sharing at this point XD I explore random or crackships through roleplaying sometimes, but these are the ships I'm most passionate about for Sephiroth, and the ships I think have the most depth. I did ship SephxAerith off and on for a while, and I flip flop between adoring the doomed lab sibling dynamic and the romantic layered version of that, but it's not high up there, and it's the only acception RARELY and not much anymore to the 'not a lady lover' rule. OH! And Seph and Zack, some delicious tragedy.

A BROTP I have with said character: Aerith and Sephiroth, k. Lab siblings, and what if they were able to remember and reflect on their past while being two sides to the same tragic coin? Zack and Seph are great, too, even if very sad because it feels like most of their friendship is just a stand in for what they both lost. I won't list Genesis and Angeal because though they are his friends, his dynamic with them is so complicated and beyond bros. I've also always wondered (before the Glenn layers) what his dynamic would've been with Rufus, if they ever interacted? I wouldn't call them bros XD but like, ShinRa's twisted and locked away heir, and their shining weapon acting as their puppet? Would've been interesting. So I enjoy the interactions in Rebirth.

A NOTP I have with said character: Sephgeal. Sorry? ^^; I mean, I see it. I could have shipped it a little before, but due to just the real layered character Angeal is and how actual story telling tells one story and fan content depicts something else, active shipping doesn't interest me. Same with SAG, or the addition of Zack and Cloud in there alongside the other two. Maybe that dynamic can be done well, and i found it fascinating when I started getting into the rp and fic community of this fandom but not much anymore. Beyond that, not sure I have any others. at least none I've heard of lol

A random headcanon: The man needs a trustworthy dom in his life. This is sort of silly, and yes it applies sexually, but can also apply in other situations. Like, someone that could fulfill that position in a healthy fashion, encourage him to take initiative where he needs to and where ShinRa trained him not to, but to give him an outlet to just...give up his power and be taken care of, for him. To be told what to do, but for his own comfort, and satisfaction. Not for the greed of others. Not for pain or power or anything like that. It would likely be a process, to even admit that it would do him good and tha the could enjoy it, much less him getting used to given in like that. He's used to being under orders, and he's used to the power he's allowed. Post-The Crisis shit, he's also going to extremes to BE the ABSOLUTE power, to be beyond the control of ShinRa and their lies among other things. So yeah, it wouldn't be easy. But I think it'd be beneficial.

General Opinion over said character: I adore him, almost as much as Vincent. My understanding and love has grown over the last decade, and he has become such a treasured muse and character. I love his humanity, his flaws, I love his cruelty, his unhinged fate, I love the tragedy of him just...wanting to hold tight to his friends and to survive what they were going through, only to be left behind. He's so fucking complicated, and yes he's absolutely the villain, but he's also the villain as a result of others. ShinRa, Hojo, Jenova and her influence, and the little mistakes of others that pushed him. He is absolutely wrong for the devastation he caused and continues to be willing to cause, and yet also he has never did anything wrong and even if he did, he deserves to, so there.

Just gotta say, a disclaimer with these next two, I may not have fully developed ideas, nor confidence and experience like the two characters previous answers, given my lack of writing them, but still, here we go!

Genesis

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay gay gay. Maybe Demi a bit too? But definitely not a layer of lady loving there.

Gender Headcanon: Male, generally. I do see and sometimes adopt the transmasc/transmale headcanon, but only when it applies in a healthy, proper fashion--as others have said, it's fucked up when it's only applied in a sense of trying to say he's feminine for racist or other screwed up reasons. He at the very least, for me, is never bound to stupid societal expectations of male expression.

A ship I have with said character: SEPHESIS. Absolutely. I have so many tears over these two, man. I hurt. I love. I also enjoy the idea of him with Vincent. I enjoy the idea of him with Cloud. I deeply enjoy the idea of him with both. Beyond that, I don't know that I've shipped him with many others? For some reason Reno is popping up, at least for crack shit lmao. it wouldn't last

A BROTP I have with said character: Vincent. The vibes, the drama, the scholarly vibes. Their likely shared immortality and ties to the planet. I'd love to see him vibe with a Turk, I'm just not sure who would be most fitting XD Zack would be interesting, too, ya know, after main events if they could've both survived.

A NOTP I have with said character: Angeal and Genesis, and the poly ship mentioned with Seph. Just not my vibe for him.

A random headcanon: This borders on Sephesis-shippy and I've expressed it before, and it's nothing Genesis would be aware of, but in my lil brain, Sephiroth is just about as in awe of Genesis as Gen was/is of him coming into ShinRa. Seph's awe develops over time, but I also imagine it being more and more rapid. Just...Genesis is so fucking skilled, and I imagined fairly self-trained before joining. Sure, he's got a lot to learn going into the SOLDIER program, and yes I'm aware his origins amplify his potential to some degree, but Genesis is very self made. I imagine he taught himself to sword fight a little bit before joining. I imagine he taught himself magic and continued to do so outside of how ShinRa trained it, because he's one of the few to seem to weild materia elements more expressively than simple attacks. He's an absolute mage. His brilliant, his well read, he has so much potential and I just....see Sephiroth looking at him, and himself, and recognizing, he himself was FORGED into the weapon he is by ShinRa, meeting their standards and mostly staying in their set boxes. He is amazing, because he has to be, and he just did as he was told. But Genesis...? He CHOSE to became what he is, he chose his skill, he chose how to mold himself and he did so. And he stands out from all others. Sephiroth would likely keep it to himself, except when it would seem beneficial to offer commentary, but I really do believe Sephiroth would be absolutely amazed by Genesis (and smitten before he realizes it, and never gets around to doing anything about before the training incident).

General Opinion over said character: I adore him. I did not appreciate him the way he deserves until recent years, but thank goodness I've surrounded myself with brilliant fans that have broadened my awareness. Because fuck, I love him. His chaos, his revenge (that was far more deserved than what Sephiroth ended up doing, even if it still went too far in ways). His mind, his skill, his style, his beautiful fucking visage, like fucking hell. He is just amazing, and misunderstood, and wrongfully hated, even by some fans that say they're fans of him. God I lost braincells against some real haters in a facebook comment section on some Sephiroth art that had the banora white in the pic. people villainizing and mischaracterizing him...fuck, I think really made me realize how in love i'd fallen with the character, was in having to defend him from such rampant stupidity.

Cloud

Sexuality Headcanon: Bi/Pan, but also Demi. Has to really develop bonds before much can develop, though there can be occasional attraction without connections. I do believe he is attracted to and can love female characters, and in another ask, I detailed my complicated opinions about my headcanon version of his dynamic with his main two female love interests (i say headcanon because despite it seeming obvious to me, the canon intentions say otherwise). but i also see him being attracted to and falling for men feel like he has a longer potential list for man-crushes than he does women.

Gender Headcanon: Eh. This is one of those situations, like Gen, I'm not as versed in him beyond fanfic portrayal to be feel super experienced but. Through my perception of him and suggestions I've percieved from RP partners, I see him as male for the most part. He's not in the don't give a fuck, i exist beyond gender mindset of Seph. But I feel like he's somewhere between male and agender? Can express himself, or might have desire to express himself, beyond societal norms of male expression but also hasn't been in a state of his own mind to feel himself enough to have chance to express it.

A ship I have with said character: STRIFENTINE STRIFENTINE STRIFENTINE. Obviously. Sefikura was the first, and the big one, and I still ship it pretty hard but....Strifentine just sort of wins out lmao. Also ship him with Gen. Ship him with Zack on occasions. I don't actively ship him with females, beyond usually crossing paths with content or seeing stuff play out in canon, but it's not very active. The most active I get with Cloti is on my shippy mothers' behalf.

A BROTP I have with said character: Vincent, if not shippy. I kind of like the change of dynamic and the deepening of his bond with Barret. Zack, obviously. Also like the idea of him having a dynamic with Reeve, too. Aerith is his personal gremlin. Tifa is the original friend but that's all so very complicated that it's hard for me to define it as bro level friendship? Also, in a world where he survived and lived a new unusual life, Kadaj. I just feel like there's a lot they could talk about, when Kadaj isn't causing mayhem not to mention his height, some of the way he fights recklessly, his percieved age being 15/16 like the same age as the trooper that ended Sephiroth, just makes him feel like if a shred of sephiroth became a hater and idolized Cloud.

A NOTP I have with said character: Um, not sure I really have a notp for Cloud, other than the SOLDIER poly thing? Because Aerith and Tifa aren't exactly NOTPs, I'm just not inclined to them.

A random headcanon: Cloud helped Vincent get his phone, and may or may not have been influential in convincing him to accessorize his stuff. Cloud needed to purchase a new one to replace the one laid to rest with Aerith (aaaaa, the symbolism I never considered there), so might as well help No-Phone Vincent. And of course, they would then be the first numbers entered in to one anothers new phones.

General Opinion over said character: The only limit to my love for Cloud, is that it has not crossed the precipice into 'I must become what I love' as it has for other characters. But I adore him. I adore him. I adore him. He's so flawed, he's so real, he's so relatable. The hero that wasn't meant to be, but is anyways. The one to always stand against Sephiroth. The delivery guy. Claudia's boy. The ex-SOLDIER. The lone wolf. The family man. The man who became too many, when he lost track of himself. I love his strong moments, I love his fucking snarky attitude. I love his soft moments, his awkwardness. The tragedy of his struggle with identity, his toxic tie with Sephiroth. I love seeing him fall apart, I love seeing him put himself back together. Cloud is just an amazing character, and ya know roleplaying multiple muses that have strong feelings towards him just layers that XD

Thank you again for the ask, sorry this was so long!!

[finalgirlminamurray]

by the way...finished bones and all (the book) recently

i think it was interesting but ultimately i do have to admit i think the movie did a better job of executing the concept. maybe i'd feel differently if i read the book first but i think it's an actually successful example of a film adaptation taking the broad strokes of the source material to build more of its own story. the basic plot remains the same but there are some significant differences in tone and what they choose to emphasize as well as some more minor details that add up to a very different experience

the author said she wrote this book shortly after going vegan and in the author's notes/acknowledgements at the end that a lot of people were surprised that she'd written a book about cannibals - then clarifying "well, ghouls, really, but cannibals is more recognizable a term" (something like that). thought this was interesting because the word "ghoul" never comes up in the book to describe what are usually just called "eaters". anyway i don't know why people were surprised that a vegetarian/vegan was writing about cannibalism because that seems to be a common thing among people who write about that.

the book wasn't shelved as ya in my library system but i heard it described as a young adult novel before reading it and i think in many ways it does really feel like one. granted i haven't read any young adult books since i was a young adult (i.e., a teenager) myself so i don't know that much about what the ya publishing landscape is really like but i wonder why libraries would be reluctant to classify this as such. is it because of the explicit horror elements? i think it's perfectly appropriate for teens and it feels like it's written from the mindset of one, in a good way

anyway, major differences between book and film are:

in the book maren is raised by her mother before being abandoned by her and going to search for her father; in the film it's the reverse. i think there's some significance here in how being an eater is tied to gender - it's not a gender-specific thing in either version but i feel like in the book most of the eaters maren meets are male. there's only one woman she remembers meeting once who she thinks might have been like her. she also notes that other girls really don't seem to like her and most of the people drawn towards her throughout her childhood were boys.

(there's also the fact that maren in the movie is mixed-race, and it's strongly implied her mother's family didn't approve of her marrying maren's father because he's black; as you might expect none of the characters' races are mentioned in the book and you can probably assume they're meant to be white. this definitely adds a whole lot more to the film's dynamics but it's mostly left to subtext. in the book maren keeps a scrapbook of various historical and literary incidents of cannibalism, and she and sully talk about polynesian people who eat their dead - none of this comes up in the film as far as i remember, though.)

in the book maren has been aware of her cannibalistic tendencies for most of her life and recalls several specific incidents throughout the book of her eating someone she got close to, after which her mom had to pack up and move again. in the film the first of these (her babysitter) is mentioned but if there were others she doesn't seem to remember them. (i'll probably have to watch the film again to refresh my own memory, but i'll take any excuse to.)

the way eaters feed is portrayed somewhat differently; the book seems to lean into the magical realist elements more and implies they can devour a whole person in a matter of minutes, leaving behind only what they can't digest. they also seem to go into a sort of fugue state where they aren't fully aware of what they're doing until it's over, and have a harder time controlling their urges. the film plays it a little more "realistically" and shows them eating like scavenger animals - this is one reason i liked the movie's portrayal of it better, i think. if you want the audience to think about the reality of consuming flesh you kind of have to show it in its full visceral glory

maren's relationship with lee is a little more ambiguous in the book; other characters assume they're dating, she wants to be his girlfriend, but he doesn't quite make it official until they near the end. the film fully makes it a romance between them and has this relationship be a core part of the story - they're also together for more of the plot in the movie, while in the book they separate and find each other again a few times.

maren is a lot less immediately distrustful of sully when she meets him in the book and is actually happy to see him whenever they meet up again. he still comes off as shady but not enough for her to be too creeped out; she's just glad to meet someone like her who seems to have some reasonable principles about how he feeds.

the big twist is that sully is maren's grandfather, being her own father's biological dad, who he never met after being abandoned as a young child. he tried and failed to kill and eat his son and sets his sights on maren instead. there's no familial connection stated in the film but since her mother there has the same backstory as her father in the book (found abandoned as a child and raised by adoptive parents) it's possible

towards the end, lee and maren hitch a ride with a college student who's moving back into her dorm; she offers to let them stay the night but won't let maren sleep in her room. lee ends up eating her and maren essentially takes over her identity so she can live and study at the school, which she enjoys until sully tracks her down. lee finds him attacking her in the dorm room and manages to kill him offscreen (most violence happens "offscreen" in the novel). then he and maren, finally feeling safe, have some drinks and finally sleep together, only for maren to wake up the next morning having eaten him. this is a very different ending than the film, in which lee asks maren to eat him after sustaining injuries in the struggle (and also they're working legitimately by the college), and highlights the book's emphasis on eaters' inability to control their hunger.

the book has more of a bleak ending, honestly, where it's implied that maren will forever be living this nomadic existence she wanted to avoid, unable to get close to anyone without killing them - but at the same time i think you could read it as more positive as she fully embraces what she is. still the nature of eaters in the book makes this a fundamentally different kind of story

the scene in the film where maren and lee meet two men who are both cannibals, but one of them is a born eater and the other just does it because he wants to - not in the book. the closest analogue is when maren goes to visit her father at the mental hospital (which goes mostly similarly to her visit with her mom in the movie, except he doesn't try to attack her at the end) and the nurse who's been taking care of her dad offers to let her have dinner and spend the night at his house. she gladly accepts, but later that night he starts talking about how alone he is and how fascinated he was by her father's nature as an eater, and asks her to do something for him - she doesn't let him finish and it's never revealed exactly what he was going to say but she's really freaked out and tries to leave immediately. he says before that "i don't even like women in that way" so i guess it wasn't something sexual? sources seem to think he wanted her to eat him. weird scene, but right after that she runs into sully again who reveals his true intentions and eats that guy, so we don't have time to dwell on it

speaking of which - the book both downplays maren's romance with lee and is a lot more heterosexual. in the film lee goes off with a male fairground worker and has sex with him before eating him, in the book that character is female (although he also doesn't seem to have done anything with her before eating her). at the same time, there's definitely something there about maren being a girl who other girls seem to inherently dislike for some reason and who has boys interested in her but always finds herself wanting something else from them...at the end she seems to be hitting it off with another guy but the very last lines imply that she's finally embraced her nature and is willingly eating him instead of fucking him. am i reaching for a queer interpretation? maybe! i'm just glad the movie made lee and maren bi (well, maybe it's more subtextual with her, but the first person we see her bite is a girl she's getting intimately close with)

in the film lee has a big confessional monologue about killing his own father; in the book he killed one of his mom's many boyfriends, and while his sister kayla didn't witness it, his girlfriend at the time did and ended up being sent to a mental hospital. this is maybe part of the reason for his and maren's argument before she goes to see her dad

other notes: the book takes place in 1997, the film takes place in 1988. in the movie maren is 18 when her dad leaves her, in the book she's only 16 when her mom leaves. (she's also a lot more resentful towards her mom for leaving her in the book, while in the film she doesn't seem to think about her dad much at all after he leaves; throughout the book she clings to an image of her dad as the perfect idealized parent she never got to have, which makes it especially hard for her when she finds out where he is.) lee's age is not stated in the film but in the book he's 19, which is interesting considering his seeming hesitance to enter into a relationship with maren. the film implies that sully killed kayla when they find what looks like her hair in his rope, but the book makes no mention of this.

overall: still love the movie, the book is something i'll have to sit with for a while i think. i would like to watch the movie again (which would be for a third time by now) with the added context i have of the book. i remain intrigued by the world it takes place in and i think it's a very beautiful movie. i think this was one of those cases where the author herself said the film was better than her book, and i don't always agree with those writers' own assessments, but in this case i'm glad she felt it conveyed the story well, even if some of the themes do feel significantly changed.

[andhaveapleasanttomorrow]

if you could scientifically engineer a new boy band what do you think theyd be like. what traits would they have

you've successfully baited me into writing over a thousand words on a topic I don't know very much about

as far as scientific engineering goes I don't need much aside from a willingness to let me puppet them around and make them dance. it's better if they're not engineered, I think, for the concept I've been tossing around in my head. I've been thinking about a few different things in tandem, one of them being some recent attempts to create a "western kpop[1] group," which haven't really been crazy successful, and wondering what it would take for something like that to work. for one thing, the only western kpop groups I know of have been girl groups, and at the risk of overgeneralizing I don't think the idea would work as well for a boy group, mainly because there are less male kpop fans and therefore less guys who would be eager to undergo that kind of training/lifestyle or have dreams of becoming that kind of "idol." I've also seen people say that a north american "mindset" isn't conducive to the idol lifestyle as it exists in korea because of cultural differences but I don't know how much I'd agree with that. I do think that rather than trying to get them to be precision-built silicon dolls like modern kpop idols it would make more sense to counter that and have them be more "real" and perhaps a little "rebellious," but like, not in any actually potentially subversive or offensive way. so I guess it would help if they had that feeling.[2] I think that would also make them more appealing to the general public, which is where kpop falls short. the language barrier doesn't help.[3]

another thing I've been thinking about is how important the accessibility (or perceived accessibility) of a star's personal life is now, in american pop. this is a big part of why taylor swift is so huge and I think another snagging point for kpop. people feel that it is very important that stars have "authenticity" and things like this, and like to do things like compare their lyrics to things that happened to the star, and so on. so for my perfect boy band there would have to be a sense that they were heavily involved in the creation of their songs somehow. (to be fair, I don't think this is unheard of in kpop.)[4] a third thing I've been thinking about is this idea of the "fictional real boy band" (the monkees, the jonas brothers, big time rush.[7]) I've been thinking about it because I don't really understand it. the first two at least were genuine stars, and big time rush wasn't like, globally renowned, but, you know, they did okay. where I get stuck is in understanding why people liked them, it doesn't seem like it should work; the contract between the pop star and the audience already has a fiction/reality dissonance that both parties just sort of have to accept, but starring in a television show with fictionalized versions of yourselves seems to be turning that upside down and violating it somehow. but people liked them.[8] the jonas brothers managed to make something of a real comeback, at least for a little bit, although I'm sure that was 90% fueled by nostalgia.[9]

anyway the fact that there's a precedent makes it odd to me that no one has attempted to modernize it with social media. I mean, obviously pop stars use social media, kpop idols do livestreams and tiktoks and things like that, there is a connection to the fans in that way, one direction even had their video diaries when they were teens, I'm more thinking of like an "influencer house" type of situation. this is where I think it becomes a bit unethical. I think as it is there's another little contract, where the audience understands that celebrities make certain kinds of posts online as promotional work and most of what they're saying isn't actually "coming from the heart," and celebrities know the audience knows. there's probably two ways to curveball this; lean way into it and turn it into an "I-know-you-know-I-know" thing, or obfuscate it entirely and pretend it doesn't exist.[10] the latter is really hard to accomplish and I'd really like to see it done successfully. the drive to call people nepo babies or industry plants is really strong these days, but so is the drive to feel like you know a celebrity on a personal level, so there's a bit of a tightrope situation here. basically my idea is to put the monkees on tiktok. but I don't want the audience to know they're watching the monkees, I want them to think it's real. also yaoibaiting is mandatory (also not unusual in kpop). imagine you follow a group of roommates online because they make funny posts about each other, but they're also incredibly famous, and they make music together, the lyrics of which can easily be interpreted to be about each other, like fleetwood mac. I want to create parasocial bonds that could topple empires. not for money I just want to see it happen

there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge because I don't know anything about the music industry and I'm also not entirely sure why kpop (or anything) "works," in a societal sense, or why exactly american pop has been so heavy with soloists for so many years when that wasn't the case before. I also don't even really listen to pop music, I mostly read what other people say about it because I find the social aspect of it more interesting. I like thinking about it so I'm going to continue thinking about it

[1] here used to refer to the specific management/training/production model of the idol industry in korea rather than a catchall for "korean pop" [2] I don't know how exactly that would be executed, I'm bad at predicting what people will clock as "cool" or "phony" because I have my own axis of how I perceive that kind of thing. [3] I do have a theory that part of the reason western kpop hasn't been panning out so well is that kpop fans are largely koreaboos and even if the idols are managed by korean companies they won't go as hard for them if they're not korean because they lose that sheen of the "culture," and because they don't get to call them unnie. if you don't create a group that's mainly geared towards kpop fans (because, I think, the american general public doesn't have an appetite for that kind of group anymore), you don't have that problem [4] I've also been thinking about 5 seconds of summer, and how they were, I think, the last really big actual band boy band, who like played their instruments and shit. don't talk to me about waterparks and twenty one pilots and fall out boy [5] and whatnot because that's not what I'm talking about and besides waterparks is overrated. I've never listened to their music but I can tell they're overrated. my point is my boys wouldn't need to play instruments, and anyway if they did then how could they do their little dance moves?[6] [5] they're all too old to be boy bands. [6] granted… I do think the general public would be more responsive to a real band-type-band than a pop group right now, but I don't have any real reasoning behind this [7] hannah montana's not a boy band but I suppose she also did this, the difference being that the actual star is "miley cyrus," not "hannah montana." [8] obviously there's something to be said that the target audience for most of these were like, 8 year olds, who don't have a very good grasp on the reality/fiction thing anyway, which is probably why I can't understand it [9] nostalgia is, of course, the only thing running the cultural engine these days, which is why I'm even thinking about this in the first place- it's weird to me that with the "y2k" thing being very popular there are no really big mainstream american pop groups like there were then [10] you could also just violate it and not filter the pop star at all, but that's less of a curveball and more of a foundational destruction, and would fall apart very quickly