#I lied the in between is the yaoi

[scaredlittleman]

Micolash artists are either cooking up the silliest shit you’ve ever seen in a fun little goofy art style or some deep symbolic masterpiece that represents madness and the greed of man and there’s really no in between

[heph]

Call me crazy for reading so much into a show like House MD but I think the main theme of House is that despite doing everything perfectly and being a good person, shit happens.

Sickness and pain will be inflicted on you and your loved ones and there's nothing you can do about it, but to persevere, to fight for your life, to keep living despite it all - to love is a part of the human condition; our capability of love is what makes life worth living, despite all the pain that you will inevitably experience.

This show exemplifies the pain of living and the needs and desires of human beings to keep going despite it all

And idk... There's something beautiful about how a show with so many stupid whimsical dumb scenes can impart something so profound in my stupid little brain

[yukyunotabibito]

[ Goddess Tower ] - Who says you have to wait until the end of the night to see whether or not the myths are true? Love (and/or rejection) waits for no one!

He didn’t climb to the top of the tower last year, out of courtesy for the myths that surrounded it. He does so now, at least to enjoy the view before the inevitable couples will climb to its top to speak their sweet words of confession. He would not lie and say he was not hoping for solitude.

Sephiran looks over the monastery, the place he lived in for almost a year, that he abandoned when he flew too close to the sun, craved too much connection. Wrought too much destruction yet again. He hears another set of footsteps approach him- alone, not here for a confession unless they were far too early.

But he recognizes the scent of dragons. Dragons of Tellius, not any of the other dragons he had met nor heard of in his time in Fodlan. He does not need to glance behind to guess at who it was.

“How ironic that we meet atop a tower again, Nasir. Have you something to say to me, or have you come to enjoy the view as well?”

The last person that Nasir would have expected to see all the way up here - how sacrilegious of their dear Sephiran, to climb the stairs of a tower dedicated to a different goddess - was Begnion's former prime minister.

They scoff, letting their hand fall from where it had been clutching the fabric of their skirts to prevent them from tripping over the hem as they climbed, "I didn't expect to see you up here, Lehran. I... I simply wanted some peace and quiet. You know how beorc youth are, sometimes they get far too rowdy for an old man like myself."

They observe the heron carefully, deep blue eyes boring into his soul. There was a far more selfish reason they had come up here as well, but to say it to Sephiran of all people...

The monastery sprawls out below, grand buildings made minuscule by the heights they now reached. It almost made one want to reminisce on the past, of what had once been before being swept away by the sands of time. The rumors surrounding this tower, of love and confessions, Nasir cannot help but to think of love they had once had. To think of a woman who was long gone but had shone brighter than anyone else they had ever known.

"I will spare you from vitriol tonight, Lehran. But allow me to ask a question: do you wish for someone you once loved to be standing here now? I'm sure you can understand, the longing for someone who will never breathe again. Can't you?"

[yandere-daydreams]

Title: Without Parole.

Pairing: Yandere!Neuvillette x Reader x Yandere!Wriothesley (Genshin).

Word Count: 3.8k.

TW: Implied Non/Con, Prolonged Imprisonment, Wrongful Imprisonment, Unhealthy Relationships, Unbalanced Power Dynamics, Blood, Possessive Behavior, and Gratuitous Old Man Yaoi.

“You reek of mortal blood.”

Neuvillette watched through half-lidded eyes as Wriothesley glanced over his shoulder, a careless grin already tugging at the corner of his lips. He paused, letting the shirt he’d only just started to button hang limp over his chest, and turned to face Neuvillette properly – albeit, never removing himself from the edge of the mattress. “I wonder why,” he murmured, keeping his voice low, playful. “It’s not like I’ve been carrying six liters of the stuff around or anything.”

Neuvillette softened, as he always seemed to when gifted with Wriothesley’s full attention, but didn’t relent. “It’s not yours. You’ve never been so—” He couldn’t stop himself, grimacing. “—sweet.”

Such a simple description didn’t do justice to the extent of the wrongness currently laid over Wriothesley’s pointed, metallic scent. It was almost sickeningly saccharine; overripe fruit and overused perfume and sugar boiled to the point of caramelization. It was a haze more than anything, the type of numbing agent used to dull the senses and hide something more vile, more cutting. Neuvillette didn’t care for it, but then again, Neuvillette didn’t care for most things that placed himself between him and Wriothesley.

“…I don’t like it,” he admitted, nearly under his breath. He let his eyes fall shut and, as if in response, felt Wriothesley’s hand cupped his cheek, the calloused pad of his thumb tracing over his jaw. “Someone’s been putting their hands on you. If it’s one of your guards, I’ll have them transferred to—”

“Careful, love.” At least Wriothesley was delicate with his interruption. “You’re starting to sound a little jealous.”

Neuvillette stiffened, more out of reflex than anything. Despite his best attempts at self-restraint, possessiveness was simply in a dragon’s nature. No part of him wanted to treat Wriothesley like a precious object to be locked away without sympathy or softness, and even if he had any desire to be so domineering, it would’ve been impossible; he had his duties to Fontaine, and Wriothesley had his to the fortress that lied under its seas. Taking him away from his station would be irresponsible, if not cruel. Wriothesley was not a man who could live under the heel of another.

And yet, while the humanity within him knew Wriothesley could only ever be a lover (a distant one, at that), his draconic nature howled for something soft and pliable and able to be captured and kept, something he could dig his fangs into and never release. For a mate, as primal and primitive as the idea seemed.

He forced himself to relax, to exhale, to open his eyes and pull himself into a more respectable position. One hand found Wriothesley’s where it was laid over his cheek while the other found a thigh – his pointed nails burrowing into well-scared skin. Kissing Wriothesley came naturally, as unfamiliar as he’d once been with such human gestures of affection, and his lover posed no resistance, even as the defined points of Neuvillette’s teeth dragged across his bottom lip and the iron tinge of fresh blood joined the taste of Wriothesley’s mouth. Neuvillette couldn’t stop himself, letting out a raspy groan, pushing himself against Wriothesley with all the tenderness and all the misery of a wild animal, desperate not to tear apart what it loved most.

And, for the most part, Wriothesley was kind enough to pretend he felt the same.

~

He met you a month later, tucked within the iron walls of Wriothesley’s underworld.

You were already in his office, sitting at an ancient player piano he would’ve sworn hadn’t been there the last time he’d visited the fortress. He’d mistaken it for one of Wriothesley’s records, at first – your playing paced and melodic, hesitant in a way that could be regarded as pleasant if your listener happened to be rather patient. You only paused as he crested the staircase leading to Wriothesley’s loft, snapping towards Neuvillette with an expression only comparable to that of a small, frightened animal. You recognized him quickly enough, relaxing somewhat when you did, but not before he recognized you.

Or, rather, the sweetness you absolutely reeked of.

It was more overpowering than it had been, when he’d only been taking in the residuals of it left on Wriothesley. Rotting fruit abruptly seemed like an inaccurate comparison, too simple, too blatantly vitriolic. If your scent could be linked to anything, it would’ve had to be caramel – sugary and fresh and cloying in its inescapability. It took more self-control than it should’ve not to bare his teeth, not to let his anger rise to the point of visibility. It grew easier to control himself as your eyes fell back to the keys in front of you, as you shrunk into yourself – his presence not so great of a relief as to completely undo your meekness. “Monsieur Ludex,” you muttered, nearly under your breath. He had attempted not to think of Wriothesley’s hypothetical lover, but if he had, he might’ve pictured someone more brazen. “I… I’m not sure where His Grace is, at the moment. I know he’ll be returning eventually, but if you’re in a rush, you might be able to find him in—.”

“I can wait.”

It wasn’t a question, but you nodded regardless, never looking away from your instrument. It wasn’t until he fell into the seat slotted against the opposing wall that your hands found the keys and you spared him a quick, almost skittish glance over your shoulder. He caught your gaze and held it, and although he’d never confess it aloud, his more primal aspects relished in the way you seemed to wither under the weight of his gaze. “Please, don’t let my company disturb you.”

You didn’t need much more incentive than that. Admittedly, your playing was far from insufferable; not quite as polished as the musicians of the Opera Epiclese, but far from that of an amateur. It would’ve been impossible to guess how long he listened to you for; one song seeped into another without pause, forming a medley that you’d either memorized long ago or, more fantastically, made up as you went along. You seemed used to your instrument, too. Wriothesley must’ve had you play for him often.

It was also, admittedly, difficult to reconcile the image of you in front of him with that of the conniving, sugar-sweet seductor he had pictured upon first noticing the new tinge to Wriothesley’s scent. The bland, standard-issue clothing of a prisoner hung loose on your form, clearly a size too large by the most generous of measurements, and no aspect of your posture nor your expression communicated that you found any amount of comfort within the walls of Wriothesley’s office. When he thought to look, he could make out discoloration encircling your wrists, painted over your knuckles, but minor injuries were common in the fortress. It would’ve been unwise to make assumptions based only on a handful of bruises.

Your medley only faltered upon Wriothesley’s arrival – unpredictably abrupt and endearingly violent, you and Neuvillette given only a moment to acknowledge that the door to his office had opened before he showed himself. His attention fell to you, first, as did his affection. You bit back a grimace as he pulled you into a crushing embrace, his mouth brushing over your temple, then falling to the corner of your jaw, as if he intended there to be something more intimate than a fleeting kiss. Before he could make contact, though, his gaze darted to Neuvillette. There was an unpolished grin, a teasing glint in his eyes, and then he was drawing back from you, muttering something as he pulled away. Neuvillette forced himself not to want to hear it.

And yet, he watched intently as Wriothesley separated from you and came to him, instead. A single knee was propped against the worn velveteen cushions of the loveseat, two bandaged hands clasped over the bronze gilding of the backrest – Wriothesley once again choosing to put himself in the position of the cager, rather than the caged. Neuvillette allowed himself to be guided into a shallow kiss, but when Wriothesley pulled away, he didn’t chase after him. It was pathetic as far as shows of discontent went, but Wriothesley let out an airy, knowing chuckle regardless. “Do I owe this visit to business or pleasure, monsieur?”

“Business.”

Wriothesley’s grin quirked into a defined pout, but he didn’t protest. Neuvillette feigned disinterest as he collapsed into the chair behind his desk, and you fell back into your song as if you’d never missed a note. The conversation ranged from middlingly polite to stiflingly bureaucratic; Neuvillette careful not to broach any topic more personal than the number of prisoners the fortress should expect in the following six months. It was only as their discussion neared its end that you seemed to shift, your music drifting in and out of audibility as you pushed yourself to your feet and, after gathering the sheet music you hadn’t bothered to touch, started towards the staircase leading—

“(Y/n).”

Whatever Wriothesley might’ve been saying was immediately forgotten with a snap of his fingers, a vague beckoning gesture. You stiffened, but complied, leaving your burden on the corner of his desk as you shambled to your warden’s side. Your routine seemed practiced, albeit still rough around the edges. An arm lashed out as soon as you were close enough, catching you by the waist and dragging you into his lap, keeping you there with a forearm bared over your midriff.

It’s almost impressive, just how blank you manage to keep your impression – the pinnacle of passivity. Wriothesley was not so aloof.

“Monsieur Neuvillette’s been asking about you,” he started, his hand finding your wrist. You tried to pull away – an automatic response, Neuvillette guessed – but Wriothesley’s hold was tight, unyielding. “I’m sure you can find it within yourself to thank him for all the time he’s spent thinking about you, now, can’t you, dear?”

Your eyes flicker to the ground. “…thank you, sir.”

“And for keeping you company while I was away. I know how much you hate being alone.”

Your fist balled around the hem of Wriothesley’s coat. Neither of you seemed to notice. “Thank you, sir.”

“See what I have to deal with? I promise, they’re normally more well-behaved. It just takes them a few minutes to come out of their shell.” Wriothesley’s head bowed low as he guided your hand to his mouth. You didn’t resist, this time, only flinching into yourself as his pointed canines burrowed into the tender apex of your wrist. You held onto that shut-eyed, furrowed expression as the flat of Wriothesley’s tongue ran over the twin pair of puncture wounds and then, with no particular ceremony, held your wrist out for Neuvillette’s careful evaluation. “For your trouble, monsieur.”

Wriothesley’s intention was clear, as was Neuvillette’s refusal – signaled with little more than a quick shake of his head, a steeper arch to his frown.

He had no need to taste you. Not when his senses were so sharp compared to Wriothesley’s, so refined.

Not when he could already feel his twin cocks hardening against his thigh.

“No gratitude is needed.” He stood abruptly, eager to be on his feet. For whatever reason, Wriothesley’s office suddenly seemed several times smaller than it had, before. He could feel saliva pooling underneath his tongue, his vision growing sharp and predatory, and he fled with no further commentary; only nodding curtly to the fortress guards as he escaped from Wriothesley’s office altogether and started for the elevator, the only way back to the surface and all of its wonderous open air. It was an abuse of power, of position. Failing that, he could be tried for inappropriate conduct, or public indecency – something defined and sterile that Neuvillette could put a name to and assign an appropriate sentence. He needed to—

“Monsieur Ludex!”

He felt a smaller hand catch his sleeve and bit back the temptation to claw, to snap, to bite. Instead, he turned slowly, eyes flickering downward to find you standing behind him, glancing from side to side as you held the frill of his sleeve in a pale-knuckled grip. He could see a flush dusted over your cheeks, making out the slight, shallow panting you were attempting in vain to suppress. You must’ve been chasing after him for quite some time.

“It was—” You paused, swallowed, bowed your head. You cupped his hand between both of yours, clenching your eyes shut entirely. “It was an honor to meet you.”

He waited for you to release him, which after a stilted beat, you did hastily. “Likewise.”

You said nothing else, only nodding stiffly as he turned away from you. It wasn’t until he boarded the fortress’ elevator that he noticed the scrap of paper tucked into his glove; clearly torn from the corner of some yellowed sheet of music, if the measured bars and dotted notes were any indication. Two words had been messily scrawled across the yellowed parchment, almost endearing in their predictability. Despite himself, Neuvillette found himself smiling as he read over them.

‘Help me.’

~

It wasn’t difficult to find your file. It wasn’t kept in his office, but a smaller wing of the Palais Mermonia, one meant for trails that never made it to the Opera Epiclese. He opted to retrieve the file in the dead of night, so as not to disturb his dedicated staff, and review its contents in the privacy of his personal chambers.

No detail was particularly interesting, but he read over each page with a meticulous sort of care, careful not to let any word or figure go without loving appreciation. You were born to a small farming village north of the city, orphaned at the age of ten and released into your brother’s custody at twelve, after he served a minor stint in the very fortress you were currently resigned to. At eighteen, you enrolled into one of Fontaine’s premier preforming art academies on scholarship and withdrew at twenty due to familial difficulties, resigning from your position among the Opera Epiclese’s in-house orchestra in the same year. Your crime was equally unremarkable; petty theft, only a single count to which you plead guilty. Neuvillette wasn’t surprised. Theft was not an uncommon crime, especially for those unused to the overwhelming splendor of Fontaine’s courts, although it rarely resulted in a criminal change. He would have to look into the details of your case later on.

No, it wasn’t the crime itself that surprised him, but the sentencing information scrawled underneath it – the assigned length of your sentence, followed immediately by time served. The former was four weeks, the recommended length for first-time, non-violent offenses.

The latter, updated as of three days prior, was seventeen months.

Neuvillette rarely found the time for sleep, and when he did rest, he rarely dreamt. That night, he plagues with visions of Wriothesley kissing his neck, honey and caramel dripping from his lips and drowning them both.

~

The next morning, he penned a letter to Wriothesley – not as one lover to another, but the Ludex of Fontaine to the Duke of Meropide. The contents were blunt, polite, consisting of little more than a request as to the documentation behind your extended sentence. The letter he received back, delivered by one of Wriothesley’s couriers, contained no written response, but a tattered scrap of pure ivory silk, stained with scarlet blood and still damp with a transparent, viscous, saccharine substance.

 He spent the remainder of the day with the cloth pressed against the lower half of his mouth, his fist moving over his cocks as he pictured you bound in silver at the bottom of the sea.

~

The arrangements were made as quickly as could be expected. Neuvillette took care to lend your plight his personal attention, muttering your name aloud for the first and only time when he had Wriothesley pinned to his desk, both cocks hilted entirely inside of his lover. His lover and yours, he supposed. He found that the thought no longer revolted him the way it once had.

Wriothesley, for his part, was agreeable. Where his enthusiasm failed, his dedication to maintaining peace within his fortress saw the matter through. Paperwork was drawn up and signed, guards were given their orders, and soon enough, he was standing at the entrance to the Fortress of Meropide, watching on as you blearily stumbled out of the rustic elevator – one of Wriothesley’s more trusted officers to either of your sides. He waved them off quickly. This was a joyous occasion, but a private one. He wanted no more witnesses than there absolutely had to be.

You were a doe-eyed thing; standing in daylight for the first time in more than a year. He’d chosen for an accommodating time of day, opted to schedule your release for the soften hours of a post-sunset twilight, but it seemed any amount of natural light would’ve been enough to render you senseless. It took a long moment for you to find your footing on solid land, another to remember to blink, and yet another for you to notice him. Instantly, he knew any amount of preparation he might’ve done was useless – his scheduling, especially.

Your smile was enough to rival the sun at its brightest.

“Monsieur Ludex!” Still unsteady, you wandered towards him, taking both of his hands into your own. You were tactile, despite your meekness. It wasn’t often Neuvillette was touched so casually. “I—I really can’t thank you enough, and I’m—I’m sorry for the hassle, but the warden, he wouldn’t let me go, and I didn’t know if you had any jurisdiction over the fortress, but Wriothesley wrote to you so often, and—”

“I ought to be the one apologizing.” He kept his tone gentle, even, only a touch warmer than the stunted greetings he’d exchanged with you weeks ago. Despite this, you melted as if addressed by your oldest, closest friend; your shoulders dropping and your eyes glimmering with all the radiance of a rising tide. “The inflation of your sentence was a grave and unforgivable foresight. If you wished to leave Fontaine altogether, I would understand.”

“I… I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” You released his hands, clasping them in front of your waist. Reluctantly, he allowed you to. “Honestly, sir, I’d really just like to go home.”

He couldn’t help but mirror your smile back, albeit not quite as shining. “If that’s so, then the necessary accommodations have already been made.”

With your arm tucked in his, you allowed him to escort you to a waiting carriage (secured as to avoid forcing to travel by sea so quickly after escaping your imprisonment underneath it). The first leg of your journey passed in comfortable silence, your attention rarely leaving the glass-paned window. As you passed through the countryside outside of the Court of Fontaine, you glanced toward him and beamed. “My village isn’t far from here. I don’t suppose you’ve contacted my brother?”

His response was a curt nod, a contemplative hum. “We’ll be arriving shortly.”

As you passed through the city’s gates, your smile dimmed some, taking on a strained undertone. “Is there anything in the city we have to do? I’m afraid I never got the chance to ask the other prisoners about release protocols.”

Once again, his response was brief. “You shouldn’t worry yourself with unnecessary specifics.”

As your carriage came to an ambling stop in front the Palais Mermonia, your smile fell away entirely. “Monsieur Ludex,” you tried once more, your voice now shaking so delectably, it nearly rivaled the sweetness of your scent. “I… I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on.”

This time, he made no attempt to answer you sincerely. “Please, call me Neuvillette.” And then, as he stepped out of the carriage and signaled for you to do the same, “Come with me.”

You shrunk into your seat, but even the most skittish creatures knew when to attempt submission rather than escape. Given another second’s worth of patience, you followed him up the palace’s steps and through its vacant halls, its usual attendants sent home in anticipation of your arrival. No part of him expected you to run, but there was a small, paranoid faction of his mind that had anticipated an attempt to distance yourself from him – a passing glance towards possible exits, a widening gap between you and him as you proceeded. Your eyes remained fixed on the floor in front of you, though, and you were never more than an arm’s length from his side. However Wriothesley had treated you, it had apparently not been with much leniency.

Finally, you reached his personal chambers. You paused for the first time as he ushered you through a pair of tall, wooden doors, but the hint of a scowl had you scurrying inside before he could think to flash his teeth. Still, you only made it a step or so into the room before coming to a halt yet again. Neuvillette didn’t have to imagine why. He was unable to dampen his grin as he followed your gaze to the far wall, or rather, to the four-poster bed slotted against it. He’d done the utmost to ensure your comfort, but rationally, he knew it wasn’t the Liyuan silk sheet or the down-stuffed comforter that had you so transfixed, nor the antique grand piano that stood some paces to the left.

No, as far he could tell, your eyes were solely locked onto the sleek, velvet-lined collar sitting on the center of the mattress, connected to the headboard by a thin, silver chain. He couldn’t be surprised that you were in such a state of shock.

Wriothesley had always preferred bronze.

“I suggest you get on the bed,” he started, a hand already moving towards the stiff collar of his suit. “You may undress if you wish, but I won’t force you to. Your cooperation is appreciated, but unnecessary.”

For a moment, you stayed where you were; motionless and quiet, trembling ever so slightly. For a moment, you didn’t do anything at all.

Then, with a quick nod and a sniffle of a sob, you moved towards the bed, as unhappy as you were obedient. It should’ve broken his heart to see you in such a state of distress, but for now, he could tolerate your misery, your scorn. It was only proper that a lover should be kept happy, but a mate’s discomfort could be tolerated.

And Neuvillette already knew you would make a wonderful mate.

[crows-of-buckets]

So like. I played inquisiton as my first dragon age game yeah? And when you don't load a world state in, the default Hawke is a male Hawke (mage I think? Or maybe it was warrior sorry I don't remember) who didn't romance anyone.

So like. I was doing (or getting ready to do I guess) here lies the abyss, and there's this scene between Varric and Hawke which I'm assuming only occurs when Hawke is unromanced cause I havent gotten it since. And I cannot for the life of me remember what they were saying, but I very vividly remember seeing the two of them chilling outside the war room and went "oh so they're fucking. They're gay they've gotta be. Do I need to give them space? I feel like I'm intruding in a private moment damn"

Anyways for a good while I was convinced varric and Hawke were gay lovers and that's why Varric was Like That about him. I then left Hawke in the fade to create the true doomed yaoi or whatever. First playthrough was crazy

[garlicdrama]

disappointed again

this is a very biased analysis!

the dynamics of tianshan are getting boring.

guanshan has become a stereotypical bottom from yaoi.

all he does is yell, blush and cry 😫 in real life you get tired of guys like him.

do they have anything in common besides passion? they are so different.

his role is to be the object of he tian's love.

what do we know about his future?

lives in a hole

he works very hard

he very rarely sees his friends

drinks a lot

he started smoking

tianshan dynamics remain the same. the perfect he tian and the problematic guanshan.

the contrast between them is striking.

guanshan is still the one who needs to be saved.

that's how it was with she li. he tian decided everything for him.

what does guanshan want?

guitar.

motorcycle.

sport car.

money 😂

study better.

become stronger.

he wants to protect his family.

be a decent man.

all this was given to him by he tian. his mom and his friends are just extras.

It seems that for the evolution of tianshan mo must constantly suffer.

mo dumped he tian and was beaten up. he learned his lesson lol

i want to see how guanshan achieves his own goals, how he becomes independent, how he takes initiative without shyness.

mo is aggressive and insecure. he must change to be with he tian.

he tian got everything he wants, and it looks like he's finally made peace with his brother.

too much power differential.

[gallierhouse]

asking for opinions about armand on a friday night is crazy because ive been terrorizing the people in my life about him for a month and now?? im being asked to talk about him?? anyway so i couldnt get thru s1 back in 2022 bc it felt like a kind of rehash of hannibal (character dynamics wise) in a different setting and kind of bored me. i really liked louis in the pilot and honestly would just watch a historical drama about a black pimp and his gens de couleur family in 1930s nola and that was cruelly ripped away from me and ill never forgive lestat. BUT THEN s2 arrived and i gave it another go and armand just rose out of this show as a character ive truly never seen before?? his identity-lessness, his role as a bad stage director, that eager black hole growing around 500 years of life, its so fascinating. the Moment for me with him is obviously the donor painting seeing the whitewashed beautiful pleading garish (when compared with the real man) painting just shifted something in my soul. and THEN getting hit with the arun/maitre stuff and them the entirity of ep5 directly after? ive literally memorized the loumand argument from listening to it so many times Television of All Time fr. i love failmarriages that rot and decay and are inescapable and loumands whole thing felt so good and fresh and so so tasty. those bitches do not like each other. they dont even like each other and yet theyve stayed together for 77 yrs in a relationship built on abuse, spite, and 24/7 power exchange bdsm and thats CRAZY ! plus ive never seen toxic yaoi executed so well with two nonwhite, darkskinned characters and as a south asian that lowkey made me happy lol. anyway i love armand so much he sucks so bad but i do feel deeply seen and deeply compelled by his little gremlin ass

I miss Louis’ New Orleans era too. I get why Lestat fell in love with him, though, if I saw this beautiful creature pull a knife on his own brother in the middle of the street I’d stop at nothing to pursue him. It’s alluring. I think that’s the part of Louis Lestat has always loved and loathed most, his fierce independence and survivor’s instinct and capacity for violence. I say loathed because Lestat’s always torn between wanting Louis like that and wanting Louis to be his little housewife. He’s stupid like that.

I thought his stage direction was nice. Were his plays “good”? No. But were his notes well thought out? Yes. His notes for the trial were good. So it’s the playwright’s fault the scripts were bad, actually.

Re: his identity, I really think he’s doing fine. Not everyone needs a laundry list of hobbies and characteristics to “have an identity.” It’s true that Armand molds himself into whatever shape that’s required of him and sometimes he makes erroneous assumptions about it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an identity. I think Armand doesn’t perceive himself as having an identity, and it’s obvious that he structures his life around whatever role he’s occupying, and that it’s all very fragmented and difficult for him to see the continuity in it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an identity. His priorities and thought process are fairly obvious to the viewer, so that’s his identity. You can see the structure of his mind. That’s him. Right there. We don’t have to wait for the “real” Armand, he’s already here.

I don’t remember when I started loving him, but it was before the painting. Maybe the hunt, or when he starts participating in the interview. The painting did change something for me, though, and so did the bench scene. But I liked him from the start of season two, really, from the moment I found out he’d essentially been stalking Louis the whole time in Paris. I like him most when he’s got a little bit of edge, but then again, I love him when he lies. I actually have a shirt with their argument printed on it. It’s so fucking funny.

Well, I think there was love, at least before Armand strangled it to death. I don’t know if Louis ever loved Armand again, not after the trial, but I think Armand loved Louis, although not in a way that would really be comprehensible as love to anyone else. Maybe only the way you love something you own. But I think he at least enjoyed the performance of it. Besides, all the best relationships are 24/7 BDSM built on abuse and spite. You don’t agree? I think it’s very romantic.

Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that too. And it was the greatest thing ever and I’m really glad we got a South Asian lead, even if I’m unsatisfied with AMC’s promotional strategy. One million seasons of Armand and one million posters of his face splashed across all major cities around the world, please. He’s perfect! More people should see him. More people should be subjected to him.

[yourfandomfriend]

Gravitation || IwtV Meta

While doing my bookkeeping, I was pleasantly surprised to find I'd left some shippy meta lying around for these yaoi-ass mother fuckers and didn't post it. Yeah, you know I've got it bad for a series when the analysis spills over into other folders.

** SPOILERS** for Interview with the Vampire, Season 2 & The Vampire Chronicles **SPOILERS**

And Then What?

One of my favorite aspects of this series is the way it takes meta to the next level.

Anne Rice used the "interview" aspect of the novel to sew the tiniest seeds of doubt in her readers' minds, the idea being that the story could be true and Louis was out there somewhere. But then she retconned a lot from the book to justify making its villain, Lestat, the hero of the series. So any adaption of the book with a greater story in mind would basically be saying, "Yes, this story is all true! …Only it's not, this man is a liar. And his rebound is a psycho bitch!"

Meanwhile, with the benefit of decades of hindsight, the series doesn't just say, "The vampire story happened, it was an interview by some Boy." It treats the story with respect by interrogating it as if it can stand the sunlight.

"So if the first one was a pack of lies, as later books insist, then why didn't The Boy notice? And why did Louis lie? Why go to the trouble of telling his story to a reporter if he was just gonna lie about his boyfriend all night? And how come he didn't notice that Armand guy was an unhinged puppet master, hoaxing his ass for years?"

Well! Not only is the interview itself split apart -- between the year of its release and the time of the series -- but Daniel Molloy himself is split and now becomes the way in which the series reconciles the first book with the rest.

Daniel becomes a brave and skeptical interviewer, buying the premise of vampires, yet daring to ask -- if the story was true -- then why This and why That? Many fans of the books react to this as an insult. "Are you calling the first book stupid? The people who loved it stupid?" As if that was the only explanation for treating the material as though it could hold up to scrutiny.

Agency

I really love the idea of the series closing out Louis' story with his revelations. He has the truth now and is finally able to take control of his life. To accept himself completely in a way he never could before and stand on his own.

No longer forced to forget Paul, Claudia, and Lestat. No longer pretending he isn't a monster or a very human creature. No longer trapped in limbo, no longer an object at the mercy of the universe.

And can we all agree that Lestat got the best arc? One that wasn't possible in the books? Learning to respect Louis' autonomy and let him go with love instead of lying, cutting off his escapes, blackmailing, or breaking him? I'm way more impressed with the writing of the show here, for making Lestat learn his lesson instead of pretending, "Oh, no, he was perfect all along!"

Also, his behavior is juxtaposed with Armand's. We'd love to think he's the villain for the part he played in the Trial, but so many characters had done the wrong thing that led to that point --

Claudia for rushing (against all logic and advice) to join a cult created by the guy she "killed," thinking she could BS her way through it forever. Louis for ignoring Claudia when she reported her red flags, telling her to sit in the choice she'd made, choosing a guy he'd just met over her, refusing to join or even be kind to the coven, leaving bodies in the open to piss them off, and playing carelessly with the heart of an ancient demigod vampire he barely knew, who he just happened to have shared a suss ex-boyfriend with --

Lestat for keeping his fledglings weak and ignorant, abusing them and refusing to let them go, destroying the Paris coven and remaking it in his image then abandoning it, crossing the ocean for revenge he didn't deserve, and using his power to save Louis, but only Louis.

No, Armand's pertinent villainous act was The Lie. He didn't just allow Louis to believe the conclusion he'd jumped to, he created an alternate universe where he was Louis' savior and nanny and made him live in it for seventy-five years. And it's not even that he was dishonest, per se -- they all lied to each other -- but that his dishonesty was fueled by a desire to limit Louis' movement.

Like the rocks in that coffin. As if he'd never taken Louis out of it.

He would give his lover all the power in the world, submit to him in any and every way imaginable, and put his life in Louis' hands… but never give him the freedom to leave. That was the power and control Armand exerted behind a mask of innocence and deference.

It's the mask Lestat wore on more than one occasion, not realizing his guilt until the Trial's ludicrous, victim-blaming narrative inadvertently threw his cruelty, tyranny, and vanity in his face.

Which means that, as different as they were, Armand was used in the series as a Shadow Self of Lestat. Not the easy, shapeless alternative he was in Book One, nor the convenient scapegoat he was in Book Two, but a desperate, lonely, unaccountable Brat Prince playing with precious things that don't belong to him and breaking them.

Armand is more underhanded and tightly wound, but his greed and capacity for disaster are at least identical to Lestat's -- because they're godlike. No one can stop them, except themselves.

Gravity

But now, the love triangle has been thrown into daylight and all parties are finally free of one another. Louis can visit Lestat to reconcile and greave and embrace without either being sucked into each other's orbit... For now.

And what of the unmasked Armand? He didn't ask to be set free from either of their orbits or did he? and without the chase of Devil's Minion, he has no one to satellite now. Poor babby, all his friends are dead and everyone else thinks he's a hardcore bitch. Can he ever be happy alone, especially when there's no outside force to shake the shit out of him?

To the ancient texts!

In the books, Armand's relative wickedness was transparently both AR's alibi for Lestat and a way to keep him from undermining her OTP -- once he was no longer a threat to either, he was free to be as happy and lovable as a thing like him could be. So if Show follows Books, Armand is free now, too! Free of the toxic polycule! (And taking most of the toxins with him, but hey.)

The Bachelor Armand

A whole lot of fans who go from Armand in Book Two to Armand in Book Three have their minds blown by how… well? Cute and lovable and domestic he eventually becomes. You know… the further he gets from Louis.

Of course, Armand is never the healthiest, most stable character, but at least he's allowed to move on eventually. To finally grow and change. But must Show!Armand be lonely until that change happens? And if he's alone and won't introspect, what's the catalyst? Doesn't romance/love/the chase change him in the books? Why would anyone love him now that he's outed as horrible?

Well... all the other characters think he's a hardcore bitch... but one of them might think that's more a feature than a bug.

In the books, Daniel, the one remaining threat to loustat, is nerfed by AR throwing him to Armand like a wind-up cat toy. And as it turns out, he's a lot more into the evil nut-jobbery part of dating a vampire than the cute shit. Actually, he seems to find the cute shit annoying.

Before you know it, the spares are paired, Daniel is turned, and Armand is transformed from a severe, obsessive, sadomasochistic ascetic, to a soft, obsessive, sadomasochistic hedonist. He's still a hardcore bitch, but now he's the hardcore bitch Daniel's always dreamed of.

Suspicious? Yes. AR showing her hand? Undoubtably. But they seemed so happy, I don't have the heart to question it. And if that Chuck Tingle book cover come to life is Armand and Daniel's fate in the show, I'll cheer them on so loudly.

[lnkedmyheart]

I don't know, I think its weird that so many people are trying to blame soukoku shippers for imaginary problems and acting like skk shippers have a gun to their head forcing them to do things.

Like I dont understand how Hoshikawa drawing 15 is a bad thing just because the same artist made beast just because YOU made up some headcanon in your head. I dont understand why any exploration of Dazai and Chuuya's dynamic in the past gets written off as Asagiri being forced to pander to the "yaoi loving fetishizing" skk shippers as if those two aren't major parts of each other's past and don't have a complex and deep bond. I get being overwhelmed by too much skk content when you dont like it. But to actively make up lies so it can justify your hateful narrative against a bunch of people just trying to enjoy content through made up non existent scenarios is weird as hell to me.

And it just rubs me really weird that skk shippers get written off as yaoi fangirls like many of us aren't queer people interacting with a queer ship. Or is yaoi fetishizing only limited to skk or other popular ships and not whatever ship the anti fixates on?

The number of times I have seen the mildest interaction between skk be written off as cheap fanservice and pandering to the skk shippers is insane. Chuuya appears and doesn't talk about Dazai? Cheap fanservice. Chuuya shows up for a plot relevant role? Cheap pandering. Dazai has a nice moment with any other character? Character development. Dazai is nice to Chuuya? Cheap fanservice. And the moment we got light novels and side manga adaptations of said novels for skk everyone just started raging at and bashing skk shippers and Chuuya stans like we were personally offending people that Asagiri decided that 1 of his many bsd pet projects happened to be about the past of a character who is a major part of Dazai, one of the main character's past. As if stormbringer, fifteen, dead apple and the dragon head prologue parts didn't add anything to Dazai's established character.

I am so tired of skk haters acting like they are the victims of neglect by Asagiri or acting like Asagiri, Hoshikawa and Harukawa are sobbing in a locked room and only getting slices of dry bread when they pledge allegiance to skk nation or some shit.

[mellowwhumps]

oc introductions!

heyo! now that i’m finally done with june of doom (which was meant to serve as a basic version of this) here’s all my oc introductions! i cannot for the life of me make it sound interesting but hopefully my future content compensates for that…roles are listed from least to most, but may deviate at times since i love role swap!

i’ll make picrews or coloured references like literally any normal creator. someday. soon. (lies)

side note: their personalities do change a lot between AUs since yknow. choices influence actions so yeah!! same yet different love that…as another side not everything i tag as simply “AU'' is just the main one i usually use since that’s the most developed

i really recommend checking their toyhouses since it goes into a lot more detail :3

haley !! 

toyhouse (both original and AU)

quotelist + more in elowen’s quotelist

roles: whumpee-whumper (ex), caretaker

my scrunkly scrimblo…in a way i’d describe him as half living weapon. why half you may ask? because for the first half of his life he was treated as a human and then abruptly in the second half it just. changed. no more nice words. conflict between his ‘home’ and a neighbouring kingdom peaks, war comes, everything ends, though i mostly don’t focus on the war part haha. this guy knows he’s meant to be wielded and used, but just how much of a weapon is he? 

personality wise, he’s not a talker. despite his generally serious demeanour, he’s a much nicer person to be with than the one who raised him, caring about others because he thinks the world should just be kinder, and maybe if he cares enough he can repent for it all.

for the most part he shifts personalities quite widely between aus…

——————

halcyon !!

toyhouse (unfinished)

roles: whumpee (ex), caretaker

from the aforementioned neighbouring kingdom! she serves the queen as the captain of the royal knights, yknow the drill, there’s war and they started it. she’s the type of person who believes in what’s right but also won’t hesitate to rethink if her beliefs are wrong. her story is mostly about dealing with all the hard stuff like Feelings and the Aftermath because nobody likes doing that ew.

she’s trying her best. i respect this behaviour

——————

elowen !!

toyhouse (AU)

quotelist

roles: caretaker turned (reluctant) whumper mostly but no fixed role

the guy that took haley in yeah. he cares. a lot. but sometimes his job matters more. he’s mostly there to drive the plot and then he literally just. dies. but that’s not the end is it? he lives on in haley’s memories, forever an enigma. their relationship is so complicated i wouldn’t do it justice in a short introduction…he’s alive and well in the AU and very relevant though

yes his intentions are good. yes he’s coping with it in the only way he knows how. he does genuinely care. he unwavers in his belief that he wants to give everyone a better life, wants to help more people than he possibly ever could. unfortunately, every decision has its downsides.

——————

ria !!

toyhouse

roles: whumpee (mostly emotionally i swear)

look. okay. i get to use at least one child for my found family agenda. once again i focus on the aftermath rather than anything else so it's mostly emotional whump

rogue. gremlin. she bites (sometimes) (affectionately) but she’s just dealing with how she simply is. she’s like the glue holding it all together as best as she possibly can, because she can’t even come close to understanding how bad it all was and sometimes that’s just better. can and will go through the five stages of grief before admitting that she cares and actually isn’t as independent as she thinks she is.

——————

ida !!

toyhouse (AU)

tiny quotelist (w. yuuto)

roles: whumpee, caretaker, whumper (rarely written)

right now i only have the AU version of him! his story’s about identity and somewhat also breaking free. oh and also semi-doomed yaoi but that’s not the problem here. he has a prosthetic arm and heart but that is 100% not his entire personality and just a few of the burdens he carries!! personality-wise he Does Not Care about restrictions but is also the furthest thing from impulsive when it’s most needed

i’m on a roll so this guy definitely gets more development in my writing than whatever i say here so!! check him out

——————

ibys !!

toyhouse (AU)

roles: whumpee, caretaker

right now i also only have the AU version of them although that and their current design might change someday…his themes are similar to haley (fate + past vs present) but they could not be more different in story and personality despite both being living weapons!! wanted to try a seperate route with them so this happened. they’re so serious but they’re working on it. so yes, since their story is directly intertwined with ida’s, their themes are similarly also about identity!!

the things i have planned for them are definitely more serious and whumpy than my other ocs (yknow. living weapon typical story) but sometimes that’s required for a good ending!! so bear with me and my little scrunkly scrimblo over here i swear they get nice things too

——————

twelve !!

toyhouse (both original and AU)

quotelist

roles: whumpee

verrill and them are from a completely different universe than above^^ (some of my ocs were previously from their home city though)

honestly their story is just based off one of my favourite dystopian literatures but i change it up a little! sorry their quotelist paints them as such a romantic because i sourced most of them when i was obsessed with their crackship…anyway!! damn this guy (gender neutral) can hold so much trauma with photographic memory that’s literally out for war with them

i think the best way to describe them would be dull exterior colourful interior! they hold so much hope in them…no 1 hurt/comfort extraordinaire

——————

verrill !!

toyhouse

quotelist

roles: whumpee/caretaker, pretty balanced

he's an adult he just has chronic babyface from my artstyle rip

the catalyst and the end of it all…this guy has Problems and refuses to deal with them. first attempt at a morally grey character, i suppose? extremely loyal, extremely caring, but only if it’s in his preference. loves playing hero but hates playing hero. walking contradiction. he cannot be described in a few words. he simply cannot.

——————

roles of other characters that might be mentioned (once again, least to most):

mc/emmei: caretaker

naeri: whumpee (90% emotionally) but really just there to drive the story. may/may not use her

cerilux (previously unnamed character no 2): (whumpee), caretaker

unnamed character: “caretaker”, whumper

more by @/lemlem21 | @/qiuthewhumps, a whole load of other characters in a whole load of roles: yuuto, saora, chelo + more

——————

misc. 

oc asks

BECAUSE I WAS TOO SHY TO ASK PEOPLE TO. ASK. SO I JUST DID NEARLY EVERYTHING (please look at this to find out more i spent so much time on this it’s kinda insane) (still unfinished with spontaneous updates because i do whatever i want)

and of course, promoting my other completely unrelated oc introduction post here

——————

anddd that’s it!! thank you for scrolling!! may or may not be extra ocs or content added later on but for now this is my final cast; feel free to send in whatever, whenever! inbox always open to prompts questions musings anything really 💥 please i get so happy if it wasn’t obvious enough by me maxxing out reblog tag limits for things i love pleasepleasepl

——————

update: you can find my masterpost in the read more under my pinned post^^^

[tigsbitties]

norm for the character opinion ask meme? :>

Sexuality Headcanon: I think Norm is technically bisexual. I say technically bc i one: do think he’s mostly into women and two: don’t think he’s really the type to use labels. Just not something that appeals to him personally.

Gender Headcanon: Uncomplicated cis guy. Or at the very least if there’s anything else going on there I don’t think that’s a journey he’s going on anytime soon.

A ship I have with said character: NORMGINGI FOR SURE easily one of my top dialtown ships. I will say I think they’re “dating” per say. I think they have an emotional bond that sort of transcends that? out of all of the datebles Norm and Gingi have the most emotionally intense relationship but also the one that’s least well defined. Also because I think Gingi calling Norm their “boyfriend” would make him die of embarrassment. he’s too old for all of that he had a wife and kids damnit .

A BROTP I have with said character: I think his interactions with Randy are super cute, especially in the dtf segments. His relatively likeable sea urchin with the heart of a champion<3 I really like Mich’s headcanon about Norm building a house near the woodsy outskirts of the funfair and Randy occasional leaving her post to go bother him. I’m so sorry Mr. Allen sir I had the chimp dream again and I don’t think I can be alone right now knowing there are around 2,000 known chimps in the US.

A NOTP I have with said character: I don’t really care for when people ship him with Mr. Dickens but it’s not something I have any kind of active distaste for either. To me it just feels like one of those ships that exists to fill a quota? like back when a lot of people thought norm was super old for some reasons but still wanted to yaoi him with someone they had to go with the old man™️. I could definitely be misinterpreting things though. I’m sure someone could do something interesting with it (i know dogman has mentioned wanting to write a short thing about a hypothetical dynamic between the two of them, which i unironically think would be super interesting to read) I do think the two of them could have a lot to talk about— i just haven’t seen anything shipping wise that’s caught my eye just yet. maybe some day.

A random headcanon: less a random headcanon that spawned from the ether and more of an observation but i love that he lies about not believing in evolution. Makes perfect sense to do that in the 1960s i’m sure but now it makes him look genuinely fucking insane. Oh Norm you make me giggle

General Opinion over said character: I love him sooo muches you don’t understand it’s kinda of embarrassing. I see him and immediately transform into a teenage girl in a movie writing her crushes name a million times in her diary and encircling it all in hearts. Dialtown Chapter 3 and Norm by extension are super important to me I get really sentimental thinking about it. Visual Novels are good you guys.

[nasuversekinkmeme]

Prompt Spotlight: pages 6-10

Prompts from the first five pages of this blog which, to my knowledge*, have not been filled.

*I’m doing this from memory, I might have missed a fill or two. If there’s a prompt here that has already been filled, well, give it another fill.

TSUKIHIME

Satsuki/Shiki yaoi (Satsuki is trans (ideally sfw))

smut, Akiha and Arcueid drinking each other blood and them having extremely wild and primal sex

The cast of Tsukihime but they're a 80/90s comedy sitcom

FATE/STAY NIGHT

saber and rider should make out and fight to break the other's composure

smut, some kirei/claudia sexytimes as well, mayhaps? 👉👈 maybe in a chaldea/fgo au?

Rin/Saber/Shirou, Saber as middle spoon/shared goods?

FATE/ZERO

Kirei/Kariya humiliation please 🙏

I ask for Iskandar x Waver content as I’ve read like every fic of them on ao3. Waver could be in his fate zero appearance or his case files one I do not care. Don’t care wether it’s smut or fluff both are fine.

FATE/HOLLOW ATARAXIA

Caren and human Angra fluff, they're extremely weird but also somehow cute

EL-MELLOI CASE FILES

age gap, I wanna see Gray having a crush on Waver! Bonus points if it's completely unrequited, and Waver doesn't even register her flirting attempts as anything other than her being painfully awkward.

FATE/APOCRYPHA

Transmasc or enbie Mordred(and if you are goin the smut route give him the dick that he deserves.)

FATE/EXTRA

I think Nero should get her own Harem, as a treat

FATE/GRAND ORDER

Mash and Guda (Whichever gender) double teaming Barghest. Big dog deserves some love.

Maou Nobu divides herself between her three personalities and goes full offensive against Okita, both romantically and sexually

smut, Femdom + bdsm with Scáthach and Lancer Li? I think Li Shuwen needs to be tied up

Could we get some vore going? Perhaps Barghest swallowing down Gudako and or Mash after some passionate lovemaking?

Hello! I have a request for my rarest of pairs, Cu Chulainn and Robin Hood. Can be sexy can be fluffy, I just desperately need ship content for them.

not gonna anon cuz everyone knows me lol ... anything with big!andersen x dantes please!! something fluffy, smut optional. maybe they have a modern grand tour or they learn new things about each other ?!?!

smut, Gudao getting his ass tailfucked by Ibuki Douji.

Something with Gawain and Barghest? It doesn't matter if it's platonic or romantic. I just like seeing them together.

Medea x Nyalter, Hurt/Comfort for the soul? "Friendly" kisses perhaps? Sprinkled all over maybe?

smut, Some Beast hatesex between Kiara and Kama, perhaps

smut, Caenis accidentally being the sexiest and most charming being in all of Chaldea and accidentally creating a following of extremely thirsty woman (futa + smut)

ANY/MANY

Can i ask for a little bit of selfcest? Just someone lusting after an alternate version of themself, perhaps?

smut, Just. Any glory hole content. Please.

Either one of the married couples getting absolutely destroyed by their wives but mostly either Ryoma and Oryou or Rama and (someday) Sita

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

hey i noticed an anon mentioned submitting a lot of arcana characters and i wanted to pop in to say that that game is a racist, fetishizing mess. not only do they have a brown character who is kept literally in chains and is a vessel for one of the writers’ thinly veiled bucky barnes slavery kink, one of the bad endings features their fantasy-jewish-coded character turning into a literal bird, not to mention his numerous bird motifs.

between asra, nadia, and julian, asra and nadia are clearly more sexualized throughout the course of the game, even when fans have asked them to tone it down and stop fetishizing their “exotic” brown characters.

the fandom is and has been historically overwhelmingly hostile to fans/people of color who try to mention these problems. fans of color trying to dissuade people from writing nadia as a step on me dommy mommy queen have been shut down by elle trying to spin it into a “women can be dommes too!” issue, when the problem is that nobody would be treating nadia like this if she was white. asra gets his paid scenes hijacked by the white LI and then is painted as the toxic one in his and julian’s relationship (of which is only there due to elle’s mlm abuse fetishization) because god forbid their favorite white boy isn’t a perpetual victim.

outside of the game itself, dana rune has run a fanzine about an incestuous fire emblem fates ship (corrin/ryoma/xander) and further information can be found at the relations_zine handle on twitter. she may have scrubbed her name from it but it’s clearly her art style lmfao, and iirc she’s still in the followers/following list on that account. elle has a long history of fetishizing mlm abuse/slavery/“yaoi” on their tumblr that they’ve since deleted, but like. i googled “elle thalassiq fetishizing mlm” and immediately found posts with thorough screenshots so it existed lmfao. and even if it didn’t, it’s very evident with how they treat asra/julian/muriel.

this is heated and not thorough, but i’d like to end this by saying that this is coming from a former fan who eventually had to leave the game and fandom altogether because of the compounded issues that were never addressed, brushed under the rug, or actively encouraged time and time again. do not play the arcana. there are better games out there. and the last i was in it, the fandom was a toxic cesspool that would attack anyone, especially fans of color, who ever voiced a dissenting opinion about anything in the game. i hold my queer media to better standards and you should too. this game does not treat dark, heavy topics with respect, it treats them as fetish fodder.

Okay, I figured something like this would hit this blog eventually. The point of this blog is not for me take a stance and say what media is good and what media is bad. I am not brushing off your concerns - that’s a whole lot of awful information, and from me posting your ask, people can make their own choice about wether they want to engage with the game or the fandom. But I am just one person, and I don’t know anything about 90% of the media that is submitted here. If I excluded every piece of media that someone said was below a standard, I wouldn’t have any media left. This blog is simply a recognition game, I’m not trying to promote these pieces of media. I’m not saying that because they have queer characters that they’re fantastic or anything like that. I’m not taking any stance on any of it, actually.

This isn’t about the quality of a media, the quality of a fandom, or the quality of the representation that a character represents. It’s just a recognition game.

I am not going to get into any of these debates myself, since I know almost nothing about most fandoms here, but if you have serious concerns with a particular media posted here, send in an ask like this detailing the problems and I will post it, so that people looking at this blog can see valid criticisms before diving into a new piece of media.

As a further note, racist and antisemetic comments or tags on any post will be blocked on sight.

I will tag all asks like this with “media critical”.

[yukyunotabibito]

[ groom ]  your muse adjusting mine’s appearance , such as straightening a tie , fixing their hair(what hair) , or buttoning their shirt for them , etc . 

"My king... I..." Nasir falters in his words, staring at Goldoa's former king clothed in regalia. He quickly averts his eyes towards the ground, staring absentmindly at a pair of unfamiliar boots. He doesn't dare to meet his lord's eyes, "... I... you look nice."

The younger dragon reaches out a tenative hand before quickly retracting it once again. He doesn't dare to touch him, slender fingers trembling at even the thought.

He does dare to pluck a stray thread away, presumptous enough that he does not even say anything.

"There. Now you're..." His breath catches in his throat, hands still trembling slightly as he reaches up to smooth out a wrinkle in the older dragon's shirt. (If his heart starts to beat a little faster as he touches his king's chest, then that is something that he will keep to himself until his dying day.)

"It's perfect, my lord. Suits you."

[kaibutsushidousha]

What are your thoughts on TM takes of Taigong, Nezha and Huang Feihu?

Taigong is always a delight to watch. He wears his crippling fear of disappointing on his sleeve, making him very proactive as a tactician and having him deliver the most transparent lies about his status and confidence. When he succeeds, we cheer because he's generally awesome and we know he was trying really hard to impress. When he fails, we cheer because his reactions are great. There's no losing with Taigong. His relationship with Daji has the standard levels of sexual tension and bitter aftertaste we'd expect, and TM chooses to have him act outwardly mature toward the event he'll never forget. Again, nothing new, but Taigong Wang is a hard figure to screw up for me. The only way to feel unsatisfied about him is by comparing him to his Houshin Engi counterpart, but it honestly feels almost bad faith to raise the bar that high (this applies to every Investiture character in FGO).

Nezha is another of my favorites, but she's harder to talk about because she's been in many main story chapters through hands that write her very differently. The general common ground is that Nezha's demeanor draws a lot from his portrayal in Houshin Engi, which is a directing my biased ass likes a lot for all Investiture characters.

As for Nezha's individual portrayals, she was initially a Higashide profile with the worst genderbend background this series produced to this day. Next, Meteo picked her up for Salem, fitting her as the party member who defaulted to violence at every choice where violence wasn't an option. It's the same brand of humor they use for Nightingale and you probably know how much I love this. Salem also puts a sweet amount of emphasis on Nezha's status as a hero for the children, making her the Servant that bonds the closest with Abby. Later Urobochi has Nezha in SIN as a plot device that didn't need to be present outside Shi Huang's backstory. Then, the transition between SIN and Yuga Kshetra has a Nasu scene of Nezha commenting on the similarities between the natural limitations of hers and da Vinci's artificial lives, which is somehow still the second-best character interaction da Vinci's ever got (the first being Mike).

Lastly, Nezha passed through Minase's hands in Yuga Kshetra, where she was written to her best capacity yet. I imagine she was a miss for most people because Yuga Kshetra is expecting a lot of familiarity with Nezha's character from the player. Nezha's background has still never been given in the game. Materials barely touch her relationship with her father. The best we got is an interlude with Nezha saying she chose to be a benevolent god who treats children because cherishing children is what it means to be the opposite of his father (note: this goes so hard). But when you come to the story with preestablished feelings about Nezha's and Li Jing's relationship, Nezha's visceral reactions to being fused with her father hit like a truck.

And Feihu is tragically boring. They failed to make his moral conundrum feel like a real question. They wasted Tianhua as Saint Graph piece. They debuted him in an event that puts him in the background in favor of Higashide's worst joke character yet. Considering the trend of Investiture Servants drawing a lot from their Houshin Engi characterization, we really need to put Wen Zhong in the game to salvage Feihu's character with the power of peak old man yaoi.

[bl-bracket]

4, 8, 16, 24 for ask game

4. Favorite Side Character

Okay this is so hard cause I love side characters so much. I think in terms of who has given me the most brain rot, I gotta go with my son Sound from My School President. Like angsty lonely gay teenager being adopted against his will by a group of weirdos (affectionate)? It's like they made a character specifically for me to project onto. I'm constantly torn between wanting to shake him around in my teeth and wanting to give him every good thing in the world. He's just so!!!!

8. First BL

So way back when (like 2017), I somehow discovered 2 Moons (the original one). Now I had never seen or heard of bls before beyond like yaoi manga, so like a full length live action tv show was so revolutionary to me and I could watch the whole thing on youtube? wow! I was obsessed (especially the ming/kit story line). Now, I wouldn't rec the drama nowadays but like little old me was shook and told all of my friends at school about it. BUT somehow I never watched another bl or show from Thailand until 2022 when I saw people posting about Not Me on the dash/trending tab and decided to watch and then from there I got into the BL fandom proper. Anyways when I saw people posting about Triage I was like so shook because I knew those guys!!!! I, for the record, have not seen 2 Moons 2 nor rewatched the original in so many years.

16. Favorite Trope

Ok so there are many tropes that I love a lot, but nothing gets me more excited then some good ol classic identity porn (side note: I really wish that it was called something else because telling my irl friends that I'm into identity porn is the worst). But yes I love it when characters have a secret identity and then when they interact with the same person in both identities? ooo that's the stuff. Guardian is my favorite example of this. Like all the work Shen Wei put into keeping Yunlan from realizing he was the Black Cloak Envoy? The quick identity switches? Zhao Yunlan putting the pieces together slowly? Ugh it's just so good, especially in romance stuff where like the character is falling for both identities and doesn't know what to do. I also love a good character reveal, particularly when they're revealing that the character who seemed very ordinary and normal is actually very powerful and cool. (another reason why I love it in Guardian). It can definitely be dragged out too long (I have not watched Miraculous Ladybug other than a couple episodes in my French class when I was younger but I have heard much about the infamous love square that is two people), but like it's definitely something that needs to last for a considerable amount of time in order to really scratch that itch in me. 23.5 kinda did this with the Earth/Ongsa thing, but while I did love that, I wouldn't label it was being the same as Shen Wei/Black Cloak Envoy. Like with Ongsa it was more of a mistaken identity/miscommunication thing while I like it when the character already has an established alter ego thing that they don't intend the LI to get close to, if that makes sense? Anyways this is a quite long of saying I like when characters are revealed to be more than they seem.

24. Dream Actor Pairing

Look I'm not breaking new ground here when I say that I want Jeff and Bible to do a drama together. It's so evil that Kim and Vegas didn't have any interactions. I think they would kill it (no pun intended) playing a couple in a drama. Other than that, I'm not too sure? There's a lot of actors I really like and want to see more of or think could act well with another, but I don't have many other I need these two to play lovers that haven't already? Like I would absolutely love to get Gawin/First again (Danyok was not enough for me) or for Tor and Gun to actually get to play lovers some time.