#I might do more of these if I am so compelled to ramble

[theladysherlock]

BYE Story Time

One of my favorite Ethan moments is when he tried to filibuster the end of the world.

You have to understand, I did not expect this campaign to last so long. I made Ethan as an improv bro, frat boy adjacent bard, thinking that the campaign would fizzle out four sessions in. He was a joke character. I made him cringe on purpose. He was a super-senior who was captain of a failing improv comedy group, and he knew he was painfully un-cool. He was a deeply un-cool person in a party of awesome, powerful people and that was part of his charm.

The other important thing to understand is that throughout the entire campaign I rolled like shit. I've never had consistently dogshit rolls with any other character, just Ethan. On top of that, he had an extremely mid build-- even as a level eleven bard, his charisma score was only 16. He failed often. So often that it ended up being a running joke. As the campaign went on, I played a bit with his Insecurity about being the weakest link on the team. He had failed his senior year of college (though he was always quick to say he failed on purpose), he had no future plans or job prospects, and everything he tried to do combat-wise tended to fizzle out. Surely the others saw him as an annoying, stupid, stubborn fuck-up, and they only put up with him because he was good for a cure wounds in a pinch.

Anyway. The world was going to end.

The party had had a week to convince some demigods to vote to save the world, and we failed. 4-3, they voted to create the world anew, going far enough back in time until they had a blank enough slate to remake the world in their image. Everyone in the party was trapped, unable to use their magic or their weapons to stop whatever was about to happen.

And then, as a last-ditch effort, Ethan raised his hand and started asking questions about policy. "How far back in time would the world go? Fifty years? Would fifty years enough time to undo the damage? If not, won't you all just end up here again, voting on whether or not to start over? Shouldn't there be a solid plan in place before wiping away history all willy-nilly? Is this plan in phases? How long is the rebuilding process going to take? What happens to the other planes when you wipe this one out?"

He couldn't get out of his restraints; he's not strong enough (of course he's not, he's the weakest party member, remember?) But maybe, if he distracted the main villain long enough, one of his friends could break free. The kid whose favorite thing to do is "yes, and-" people was going to buy his friends time by coming up with as many stupid questions as possible. And maybe, if he poked enough holes, the other demigods would start to think that the plan was more trouble than it was worth.

Obviously, this didn't work. The DM had a huge, climactic fight we had to get to, and it would spoil the fun if the session devolved into me poking holes in proposed infrastructure for three hours. But the futility of his attempt makes me love it more. The only thing that Ethan can do in this moment is one of the things he's self conscious about: being a fucking nuisance. There's no "oh it turns out I'm not actually annoying" moment where he realizes at the last second that his friends loved him all along. He's weaponizing the flaws that he's insecure about! Yes, he's annoying! Yes, he's stubborn! And he's going to make that the main villain's problem for as long as possible! Fuck you!

[robobarbie]

I'm sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you have any advice on bringing a character concept into a consistent, compelling character. I have so many character concepts, but I always struggle with giving them unique, consistent identities and voices, and you're so great at that. Thank you so much for creating such wonderful stories!

u r too kind to me. i am no expert, but this is generally my strategy when i'm writing/creating characters:

Remember that characters are more than stereotypes. If I'm making an FFXIV player who loves to shill, I'm not going to make shilling all that he is. That's how you get one-note characters that get a little boring. I try to picture a three dimensional personality that fits around that, even if all parts of it aren't used in text. Like, if I picture all the people who have shilled FFXIV to me over the years, what do they have in common? Quieter IRL, a bit tired of bullies, bad eating habits, etc etc.

Find a way to connect it to something you're familiar with. You write what you know best. If your character is an architecture student, but you know nothing about it, do some research about the field while also connecting that love of architecture he has with a love you might have for something else. You'll be able to write about his love for it more believably if you're tying it to something else you yourself adore.

Life hack: base the character on a person you know in real life. When you base characters off of characters that already exist, I think you run the risk of it not feeling authentic (but that's not always the case). The entire cast of BP was based on a server I was in ages ago -- the characters weren't carbon copies of the people I knew, but those people were good reference points for typing style and initial personality quirks for them all.

Find the fine line between similar characters and emphasize that. Felix already gets a lot of comparisons to Onionthief (deservedly so) but we're making them distinct in the following ways: Felix is colder, Onionthief is less mature, Onionthief is bullied more often in chat than Felix is, Felix is quieter, Felix is less judgmental of mistakes, etc. You find those deeper details that really separate characters and create... well, back to point #1. You create three-dimensional people that could exist in real life.

Edit to add: talk a lot to strangers. You will learn a lot about the variety of people in the world, and the way they interact realistically, if you brave the world and meet new people.

ramble over

[aismoker]

Hey, love your stuff! The art and writing are both very well done and compelling. It makes my day whenever I see you post something new. I had a thought though: Do you have archetypes of different types smokers, or do you personify different types of smokes? It seems like your cigar smokers are large, masculine men which matches how the cigars are large and thick. Your cigarette smokers are often drones and nearly identical in appearance which matches how cigarettes come in packs! Although I am probably reading too much into this.

Do you have ways of personifying other ways of smoking, such as pipes or vapes? Or maybe in chewing tobacco.

Thank you so much! I am glad that you like my ramblings!

That's an interesting thought! I never really saw it like that, but you might have a point. I see smoking as something very masculine, sexy and rebellious, whether it is cigarettes or cigars. I associate cigars usually with strong and/or succesful men, but they can also look very sexy on men that are neither.

Cigarettes are, just like in real life (at least wherw I live), more "mainstream", but theybalso have a bit more rebelliousness than cigars. I hope this makes sense. Besides, who doean't love a nice Marlboro Drone? 😉

I don't do pipes and chewing tobacco, because I have no experience with them myself. The same goes for vapes, with the addition that I firmly believe that vapers should be arrested and send to the closest Marlboro Facility for re-education. 😁

[hestzhyen]

Already Waist-Deep

Hi internet void. Please allow me to kagura my bachi all over the place for a little bit. I've got a bad case of the brain worms about these boys that I haven't even had together for 20 chapters yet. Let me ramble a little bit about why they're already so compelling as not only a duo, but a ship.

First off, a caveat. Kagurabachi is a Weekly Shounen Jump (WSJ) action series. That means that if romance is ever addressed in the series itself, the protagonist is going to end up with a girl. Doesn't matter how underdeveloped or lackluster his relationship to her is, or how flat she is as a character. Invest lightly and come along for the ride without any expectations of m/m ships becoming canon. (That said, it might not be the worst thing in the world for our MC to end up with a girl in this case- more on that later.)

Second, I don't really ship that often. Not seriously at least. I need more than two guys being close with each other to start wanting them to be a pair, y'know? So I hope you understand the intensity of the material Hokazono-sensei has been giving us the past few chapters. I am on the brink of going all-in on HakuHiro/ChihiHaku in less than 20 chapters, it's that insane.

Third, I will be talking about current developments without marking potential spoilers. There are only 38 chapters out as of writing this, but there are at least two reveals that would be better appreciated going in blind. Spoilers for the oneshot Farewell! Cherry Boy are also a thing near the end.

Okay? Okay. Let's begin.

Who's Involved? First up is our protagonist Chihiro Rokuhira, an 18 year old boy and the son of a famous swordsmith. He was raised with genuine love and care by his father (no idea what happened to his mom yet), taking care of their day-to-day life while learning his father's trade. And from the very first chapter he is steeped in tragedy as he witnesses his father's murder and life's work being stolen. He then sets out on the long, fraught road of vengeance.

Sounds grim and not exactly compelling, right? Especially when this scene from the first chapter was making the rounds being memed to death:

But there's much more to Chihiro than meets the eye. Flashbacks to his time growing up show him being a natural caretaker to his dad and their fish- cooking meals, keeping his dad on task, and so on. We see glimpses of underlying tenderness when he meets and rescues Char, a sweet little girl with her own tragic past. And we get some insight that he might not be quite as resolute as he's projecting himself to be when he faces off against Sojo, a fan of his father who worships a much different version of the man than Chihiro knew. And now the Rakuzaichi arc has definitively shown us that Chihiro isn't as collected as he seems. One of his father's killers easily cracks the mask and shows us Chihiro is really just a desperate kid with a heaping helping of trauma, while Tenri's pointless sacrifice shakes him to his core. But despite it all he's still doing determinator things in the most badass way possible. Chihiro has layers, man. A lot of them. And the best way to understand our protagonist right now is through his foil: Hakuri Sazanami.

Who is Hakuri? Another 18 year old boy with a special lineage, but he's a loser who needs to be saved from common thugs. A pathetic guy who latches on to Chihiro and doesn't take the hint when Chihiro literally runs away to ditch him. An utter failure to his family. A lost puppy looking for a samurai.

Hakuri Sazanami is one of the best goddamn foils I've seen in shounen manga yet.

Let me tell you all the ways I love the writing around this kid and Chihiro because MAN I can't even contain all these feels.

What's Going On? From the start, Hakuri looks like he's just another person for Chihiro to bail out. He witnesses Chihiro's awesomeness fighting Sojo in the streets and decides to imitate it, standing up for a little girl being kidnapped. Instead of winning out, though, he's captured and kicked around. Once he's coincidentally rescued by Chihiro he's immediately all-in on tagging along and keeping Chihiro in his life. Look at this pitiful guy:

Chihiro decides to hear him out due to his connection to the Sazanamis, the Big Bads of the arc. He's initially put off by Hakuri's intensity but brings him along anyway, as Hakuri's insider information regarding the Sazanami family makes him useful. Then, as Chihiro wavers under Hiyuki's assault, Hakuri is truly useful for the first time:

And it only gets better from here. We see Hakuri hanging off Chihiro's every word trying to be as useful as possible for his samurai, striving to do anything he can, though it ends up with him forcing Chihiro to give up his precious sword Enten in exchange for his life. (Yes, Chihiro "buys" Hakuri from Hakuri's own family.) Later on during the invasion of the auction is where things go into overdrive though. We see their character arcs start to invert and shape each other's as the action unfolds and Hakuri's own tragic past comes to light, eventually awakening him to his special abilities. Chihiro's bravery and strength help him pull this off and finally defeat the older brother that tortured him in the name of "love". Hakuri ascends to being the strongest Sazanami since the progenitor started their line centuries ago. He's the Special Boy!

All this to say that Hakuri Sazanami isn't just a deuteragonist or a foil…

He's the goddamn heroine.

Kagurabachi's Built Different What makes a shounen series heroine? Firstly, they support the main character without getting involved in most of the heavy fighting. A shounen heroine will usually at most have a fight against another girl while the Big Event is happening nearby, making sure the main character has the spotlight. Second, most of the value they bring to the protagonist's story is emotional. They encourage him, validate him, provide a bit of a refuge for him to safely let his guard down. They can get him to express softer emotions that he wouldn't normally show around others. Third… they're the love interest. Ochako, Orihime, Chichi, and now… Hakuri? Really?

We know the third one will not happen for HakuHiro in canon. But what about the first two? Well, let's recap what Hakuri has done for Chihiro so far.

Hakuri can defend himself now, but his most useful ability is access to an interdimensional storehouse. Given the way that his magic works -he needs to prioritize maintaining the storehouse or using Isou- he'll likely be the means of keeping the enchanted blades safe rather than a front-line fighter. Support-centric character that will still get some combat time against lesser opponents: check.

Hakuri's given Chihiro some much-needed direct emotional validation that he hasn't gotten from anyone else yet. ("You saved me." … "That katana suits you.") Hakuri's words fortify his resolve and Chihiro later pays it back by trading Enten, an incalculably precious sword and memento of his father, for Hakuri's life. He even uses the same phrase when asked why he'd do that for someone as worthless as Hakuri ("That guy… saved me."). He later reaffirms that Hakuri's encouragement gave him the courage to let go of Enten in the first place:

We even see Chihiro open up to him for the first time just minutes after they met:

Chihiro's been a stoic good guy with buried trauma up until this point. But somehow Hakuri is the first person he outright admits his fears to- not Shiba, not Hinao, but the freaky kid he just rescued. Emotional support pillar: check.

"Well that's not enough!" you say. "That's just taking some moments and doing that thing you said you didn't do- smushing boys together just because they're close!" OK but look at how Hakuri thinks about Chihiro:

Chihiro has been his inspiration from the first time he saw him. It can be read as admiration and hero worship, but doesn't that feel like selling Hakuri's feelings short when remembering how devoted he's been since they first met?

And just look at Hakuri's face here, he's beaming when Chihiro busts in to save him just like he believed he would:

Mostly, though, Chihiro is the one who gives Hakuri strength in the moment. The Ice Woman broke him free of his family's mentality, and now Chihiro gives Hakuri what he needs most: hope. Something he never had before, which doomed his relationship to the Ice Woman; he couldn't prove to her that there was more to life than despair because that was all he knew… but that completely changed once he met his samurai.

And that's been their thing through this arc. Each one is giving the other the vital thing they needed to grow and keep going. When Hakuri was struggling at the start, Chihiro was his guiding light towards a better future. And when Chihiro struggled in the aftermath of Tenri's cruel death, Hakuri pulled him along so they could finish the job. They're in perfect sync now as they take down the Rakuzaichi. Don't just take my word for it, check out Hokazono-sensei's color page for the most recent chapter (38): https://twitter.com/KaguraShiba/status/1804898273859445181 From Hella (KaguraShiba): >Kagurabachi Ch 38 JP Color Page 「阿吽の呼吸で薙ぎ払え」 "Two people dancing to the same beat, mowing down enemies" >阿吽の呼吸/"Aun no Kokyuu" Synchronized breathing >Or when people are the most in tune with each other >阿吽の呼吸/"Aun no Kokyuu" Is a Buddhist expression in Japanese meaning something close to "harmonizing in sync together" >"Aun" is also used to indicate an "Aun relationship", indicating an inherently harmonious relationship or nonverbal communication Yeesh. But holy shit it's paying off. In chapter 38 these boys are already in harmony- Hakuri registers Chihiro into his storehouse (yes they both "own" each other now) and sends him in to fight his father. During the fight Chihiro trusts Hakuri to interpret his intent and it works. Chihiro wordlessly tags a bunch of grenades with his spirit energy and Hakuri pulls them out into the real world to bomb the shit out of the Rakuzaichi audience. They didn't plan this beforehand- they had no idea Kyoura had fucking grenades laying around in there. But they're close enough to understand each other's thoughts already. Peak soulmate material right there!

What's got me most interested now, though, is how they will pull/push each other after this arc. Chihiro's going to be focused more than ever on tracking down his father's killer and the swords. But Hakuri, well… I think it would be very interesting if he starts to become a despair monster. A reflection of Chihiro's state at the very start of the manga where nothing mattered to him except exacting revenge. We're seeing shades of this in the most recent chapter (38) where he's slumped over and obviously depressed about how all this is turning out. He's going to end his family's cruel trade but at what cost to himself? Will Chihiro see some of himself in Hakuri and be able to help him out, or at least promise to find relief from the pain together? Obviously a Bad End where Hakuri takes himself out is in the cards given Hokazono-sensei's previous works but… on a meta level, I think his storehouse ability will keep him relevant. I mean yeah he could be used to slap Chihiro across the face by showing what a bad end for his revenge story could look like but I think (hope) that won't happen. [Note to future self: I give you permission to go batshit insane if Chihiro stops Hakuri from committing sudoku.]

And this is where my brain worms are coming from. In just under 20 chapters we have an extremely strong set up between them- so much room for them to teach each other; push to grow and pull back from the brink when tragedy strikes again.

But where's the real meat, you ask? The actual literary analysis in this gushing rant about how much I love these boys I barely know? Well, fine. Buckle up because it's time for some…

Daddy Issues The Rakuzaichi arc really digs into comparing Chihiro's affection for his dad to the Sazanami family structure. And I gotta talk about this because it's the key aspect that makes Hakuri such a brilliant foil.

First off, the similarities. Chihiro and the Sazanami kids are all intensely devoted to their fathers. All of them were raised with love while learning the intricacies of their family trade. We see the Sazanami kids getting praised for doing well, just like Chihiro. Hakuri and Tenri were even told they were special. During the arc, the Sazanami kids put their lives on the line to defend their dad and family legacy with zeal matched by Chihiro's intensity to avenge his dad. When he falls, Tenri's final words are apologizing to his father.

It's truly heartbreaking that the Sazanami's dad never loved them back.

You see, the Sazanamis are one of those families that put their lineage and craft over everything else. Every member of the family lives for ensuring the Rakuzaichi auction goes off without a hitch. One of the clan is chosen to inherit the storehouse and the rest are trained to defend it to the death. Kyoura, the current patriarch, has no compunctions about letting his son Tenri die just to delay Chihiro and the gang for a few more minutes. He had his kids put their lives on the line to defend a storehouse door that he had already broken in secret- making it completely useless. And he's equally cold when it comes to children who can't perform to standards like Hakuri. Once Hakuri (apparently) fails to manifest an ability for sorcery, Kyoura turns a willfully blind eye to the abuse his kid starts to suffer. He knowingly lets Hakuri be tortured by his older brother for years and does nothing, then disowns him once some "merchandise" kills herself in front of him. There's no love for children who can't be useful to the family's traditions. And any love that does exist between father and child is manipulated as seen here:

What the fuck man.

So Hakuri is going into this arc firm in his conviction to end his family's evil ways. He's been abused physically and emotionally for at least six years straight; he knows his father doesn't love him. And even now when he's about to bring the whole place down with Chihiro he's still yearning for his dad's praise. Hakuri's family is fucked up bad and he needs a hell of a lot of healing after all is said and done.

Meanwhile, every flashback with Chihiro shows us that he was truly loved and cared for like every kid deserves. His dad wasn't perfect but he was exactly what a parent should be- kind, understanding, and supportive. His goofy advice helps Chihiro to this day. Chihiro and his dad had a genuine father-son bond that was broken by tragedy and thus Chihiro's desire to do right by his father's memory is driven by grief, first and foremost. So when we see his expression after Tenri's death, we know why he's so badly shaken. They clashed out of love and duty for their fathers, supposedly prepared to pay the ultimate price. But the Sazanami version of "love" is a very different, much less wholesome version than the kind Chihiro knows… yet no less effective in terms of motivation.

You can practically hear his heart breaking for Tenri. And his inner thoughts in the next chapter say it all: he was naive to think he could enact revenge while holding fast to the kindness he grew up with. Chihiro's kindness that he learned from his father is a liability to him in this situation. Meanwhile, Hakuri knew from the start that he had to finally give up the last of his familial affection. He hardened his heart and steeled his resolve to do whatever it took.

Both Chihiro and Hakuri knew what it was like to be loved. Hakuri's version might have been twisted, but it was still painful to have that bond suddenly broken. And now we've seen Edgy Revenge Man's inner softness hold him back while Silly Soft Guy has a heart colder than the arctic. I go absolutely feral comparing and contrasting their situation and how their positions have reversed. Yeah, Chihiro's going to be the action guy who saves the day but Hakuri's the reason he can do it. Hakuri's surprisingly strong core has pushed Chihiro to put his feelings aside to get things done. I can't fucking wait to see how this arc ends and where these boys end up. What will the the most important thing Chihiro takes away from Hakuri here? I hope it leads him to be a bit more openly compassionate and soft around his allies- Hakuri's situation being a lesson in not letting your family's bonds overtake everything else. For Hakuri, well… I think being around Chihiro, Char, and the rest will help him heal. But I hope it's Chihiro that keeps him stable as the person that can relate to him best.

Meta Ramblings Whew. Now then… Yo dumbass writing this, we're not even 40 chapters in yet. Don't you think it's a bit too soon to start getting hyped for a character that could be shelved as soon as the arc is done?

It's interesting to see the themes and characters Hokazono-sensei's reused in Kagurabachi. From the four one-shots available to read, it seems like he's is interested in writing about characters encountering tragedy through various kinds of love. I think it's intriguing that three out of the four end in despair, and the one that doesn't still involves a fair bit of sadness. It's a bit early to say about Hakuri's circumstances since this is only the second proper arc in the series, but given Hokazono-sensei's past works, I think Hakuri is here to stay. For one, Hokazono-sensei seems to love his color-coded foils (Chain, Enten, Roku no Meiyaku). Farewell! Cherry Boy also explores the circumstances of a blindly loyal boy who feels useless being given his first chance to prove himself… I think this is a theme that Hokazono-sensei is revisiting in a more in-depth fashion with Hakuri, so there's a good chance there's more planned.

And just for fun, if we want to look at his romance stories… Madogiwa de Amu is all about one person being the other's greatest hope, their reason to persevere in the face of hardship and seeing that reciprocated in turn. Complete with the weaker person becoming strong enough to protect the person who inspired them first. Hmm. (Hopefully it doesn't end the same way though 'cause man, I can see Hakuri doing something similar right now…) It's also not impossible for Kagurabachi to touch on love given we see Farewell! Cherry Boy incorporating love as the crux of the narrative, despite starting as a gangster story. The true MC is quite like Chihiro as well in terms of motivation and action plan.

I also think it's impossible to overstate how important it is for Chihiro to have a friendly peer to compare to, narratively speaking. Char is a woobie, Shiba's an uncle figure, and Hiyuki is set up to be the aggro rival/frenemy. Hinao could become more than a side character but it seems unlikely at this time. Chihiro needs someone his own age to just be himself with. And that, I am 99% sure, will be Hakuri. A guy who's suffered just as much as he has. Someone who knows what it's like to have a famous last name and lineage to protect. An equal who's unquestionably on his side, who will lift him up when he's down, will need some protection and care. So yes I think Hakuri will be sticking around to be Chihiro's foil. He might take a back seat at times as heroines do, but he'll still be there to support our sad boi through thick and thin.

Anyway that's why I'm ready to jump feet-first into this ship. It's got all the hallmarks of a wonderfully strong bond and I hope we get to see these boys comforting each other for years to come. If you read all this… thank you? Maybe get yourself checked for brain worms? And tell everyone you know to read this amazing action-packed tragedy laced with BL crack cocaine.

[damnation-if]

I just want to say, as a certified monster fucker, I'm already in love with your story hahaaa <3 I'm glad we're getting more adult stories and the themes in this one are so intriguing, can't wait for the rest ! Alsooo, I really liked the way you describe things? I do not know how to explain it haha but I could easily visualize what was happening and the general atmosphere you're going for and I thought that was neat :^)

thank you so much for your kind words!! i truly appreciate them and i'm so glad the descriptions were to your liking! i have at least some level of aphantasia, so i'm always worried that i'm not describing things enough haha... glad that doesn't seem to be the case!

i was actually talking to my friends just yesterday about how there's relatively few Creacher-y ROs around... so for whatever reason, i guess because it's on my mind, i thought i'd take a bit of time/space here to mention all of the Monsterfucker Approved (TM) ROs that i could come up with, in case anyone else might be interested. this list isn't meant to be exhaustive (in case i miss anyone) as sadly i am yet to become all-seeing and all-knowing 😔

Creacher (Alien)

Rhaxa and Imxa from Project Hadea by my beloved @nyehilismwriting. spikey, scaley, bitey, etc. 👌i also love and appreciate the attention to detail put into worldbuilding for the different ways their species communicates and thinks and so on, showing the culture gaps between them and humans. quality buggies!

Creacher (Eldritch)

Roach from The Passenger... the mc is also an eldritch creacher in this one, which may add or subtract to the enjoyment for various different people lol

Sysba from Attollo; i also think this game in general is pretty monster friendly, with a bunch of monstrous side characters and so forth. the cool kind of neo-gothic vibes give it a feeling a bit akin to a cyberpunk Penny Dreadful... it's about as Monsterfucker as cyberpunk gets i think!

Beacon from Stygian: The Abyssal Lighthouse by my good friend @salty-stories. this one is probably the most Lovecraftian of the eldritch creachers i think, heavy Call of Cthulhu vibes. it's still in progress but i'm personally willing to wait haha

Creacher (Parahuman)

Lorelei and The Other from The Golden Harp; pirates and sirens and mermaids, oh my!

Danny and Isla from When It Hungers by the wonderful @roast-ifs ... the game is still on hiatus but it still lives rent-free in my head always... the monster mcs are So *chef's kiss*

Oisein from The Nameless; due to the sheevra mc there's a Lot of really cool exploration of the boundaries of humanity and stuff like that... we love a "nonhumans shouldn't be able to feel/do this" story... we love it a Normal amount for sure.

Creacher (Indefinable)

Trace from Greenwarden by @fiddles-ifs; an iconique creacher... the game itself also has excellent kind of Appalachian gothic/supernatural vibes and a dark undercurrent of Lurking Monster Foreboding.

Games with Applicably Creacher-esque Vibes

Virtue's End by my beloved friend dani... the ROs might be human, but the mc most certainly is not<3 dark fantasy and sumptuous Monster vibes, what more can you ask?

anything by the extremely talented @thirtybythirty (links to their games in their pinned post). everything they write has a compelling undercurrent of... eldritch existentialism. perhaps the creacher is in fact the Narrative... or maybe the humans were the creachers all along...

the fabulous OFNA: Birds of a Feather - it has the perfect combination of things Not Quite Human and Not Quite Right to create a rich and ominous atmosphere, well-worth playing even though everyone is Technically human lmfao

anyway sorry for rambling on and i'm sure there's a bunch i have missed but. i do feel like it's worth giving praise where it's due for games and writers that we appreciate! thank you again for your kind message (and for giving me a chance to talk about this a bit lol)

[anxiousosaurus]

Day Six of the jwct countdown! We're so close to the release date!!!

The prompt is favorite season/episode, but since I am very much incapable of doing anything but screaming about my favorite episodes, I'm just posting some gifs and rambling :p

My favorite season is of course season three, the suspense of seeing bits of the Scorpius until Sammy and Brooklynn find out the truth is so good, and all the character and relationship dynamics were amazing 😭

And my favorite episodes are 6 and 7 because not only am I a sucker for the drama of Sammy being poisoned, Yaz hurting her ankle AGAIN, running around trying to avoid hybrids, and Ben wanting to stay, the ships were really cemented in these two episodes for me. I'd already been hoping Yasammy was gonna happen, but other than that, I hadn't paid attention to ships, was much more concerned with the story, but when it was just Brooklynn and Kenji taking care of Sammy, I could tell something was up with them 👀

and gahhh the Yasammy hereee was so good I thought they might go ahead and happen this early 😭 Yaz was so scared it hurt😭

and omg the flashbacks 😭 Yaz struggling the last little bit when she sees camp and thinks she's too late kills me every time 😭

And this. I still don't know what the reason for this was, but not complaining 💀

and then episode 7 ahh! Yaz acting so off because she wants to support Sammy was precious 😭

This is the episode that made me ship Benrius, I genuinely thought they would eventually happen. (Still holding out hope, despite what was said about Ben being in love with some rando?)

I just- the parallels😭

They're a little family 🥺

And then this whole deal. The angst, the drama, the unresolved issues coming to a head, it was all just very compelling to me, and then when Ben dropped a whole ily, I was like whoa whoa whoa, is this gonna be a thing now?!

So uh, yeah. Idk, I'm just rambling because I love these episodes and I can talk about them for hours 😅

[a-girl-in-neverland]

Hii TSH fandom

I just finished the book (literally an hour ago) and i have many feelings and questions and a insatiable need to ramble, so buckle up if you want to

Maybe upon reading this post, you might think that some things are a bit dumb or that i could have worked out on my own. So let ME be the first to admit, that i AM a bit slow and that sometimes i become so invested in a story/book that i do not take a step back and analyse the characters, symbols, metaphors, reading in between the lines etc.

So without further ado:

Warning for The Secret History SPOILERS!!!!!

• Somewhere in the first half, its mentioned that Bunny takes medicine for asthma and that could be the reason for him putting in weight and being irritable, but Richard says that he later found that was for another reason. What was it? By the time this is mentioned i dont know if the farmer has already been killed or not

• What happened between Francis and Bunny? I read a theory that Francis may have tried something but i dont think that Bunny would still want to be friends after

• Why did Francis, Henry, Charles and Camilla put up with Bunny? He doesn't seem like a good friend, uses them for their money, doesn't seem interested that much in greek or classics (actually i got the feeling only henry and richard were more interested)

• In the beggining, Richard sees Henry and Julian talking. And Henry kisses him. And the stuff they were talking. What was that about? Was Henry just Julian's favorite or was something else there?

• In the second half, it has this whole drama and tension between Charles and Henry. I get why Charles is pissed. I don't get why Henry is tho. That scene which Camilla tells about this meeting with a lawyer, Henry is furious with Charles but I dont get his reasons. Was it just because Charles wasn't accepting his manipulation anymore?

• Kinda off topic but has anyone suggested Luther Ford as a fancast for Francis? He's the only one i could picture in my head

Kinda off topic part 2, i read the book in brazilian portuguese and the translation was... well, it could be better. Has anyone else thought so too?

Also, this is the second Donna Tartt book ive read (first was the goldfinch) and i still cant put into words how these books made me feel. The characters are insane but so compelling. The book is lengthy but every single part is important. I cant just say it was a good book, it doesn't feel right or does justice to how i felt

Anyway, if anyone has made it this far, thanks for the patience and for letting me ramble. Hope you have a great week and dont do cocaine in the burger king parking lot <3

[silverskye13]

Hi, I just came from reading the last chapter of RnS, and I am once again shaking by how strong it made me feel, which is also finally giving me the strength to ask this, finally.

How do you write compelling, logical emotions? Like, you are writing as you go, and yet I go back and everything reads with such a sound conclusion, like the characters are feeling what they're meant to be feeling, like their emotions are deeply complex and it's just, how? Are there any tips you can give?

Have you studied any writing theory, or have you got any advice on dissecting pieces of writing for improvement? Because I feel like there's oh so much I can get from "improving from writing more"

Thank you for the kind words. Gosh I'm glad the emotions all make sense. I feel like that's one of the harder things to juggle -- especially when posting chapter by chapter, where sometimes weeks go by between scenes. It gets easy to lose things.

Answers to questions [as best I can] under the cut, because I can see this getting long and rambly.

How do I write compelling, logical emotions?

Uhm! This is a bit hard for me to articulate, because writing emotions is very intuitive to me. I'm a very emotionally aware person -- generally speaking I can recognize how I'm feeling and why very quickly within myself. That, I think, helps being able to write them. But some tips that are hopefully helpful:

Study yourself Emotional intelligence aside, the best way to write feelings is to figure out what they feel like. It doesn't have to be in-depth. You don't have to psychoanalyze yourself. It is enough to be able to go "I'm nervous. My stomach feels tied in knots, my throat is dry." or "I'm happy. I feel like I could dance, there's energy I need to get rid of. I feel full to bursting." Any time you've read something and gone "Oh god, that's exactly what that feels like!" It's because someone sat down and studied it for a few minutes. Sit with the uncomfortable feelings, or bask in the good ones. Root yourself in the moment and really stew. It doesn't have to be for big life events. If a movie makes you feel excited, just take a second to describe how it feels. If a book makes you cry, give a thought to what the tears are like. The next time you sit down to write a feeling, you might not be able to remember exactly what it felt like, but you will probably remember the words you attached to it.

Emotions in real life aren't logical, but stories are If you've ever gotten really angry, or really sad, or just any Big emotion, you know they're often overwhelming and paralyzing in their own special little ways. It is so easy to get swept up in the feeling of a thing that your brain turns off, and your body does crazy irrational things, and then its hours later and you've calmed down and it feels like you'll never get that emotion back again, because it was just so... much. That is allowed to exist in a story, but writing incomprehensible feelings takes your reader out of it after awhile. We need something to stay rooted in, if only so we have a reason the character is feeling as they are. Story emotions have a beginning, middle and end that you can chart. We see what causes them, we feel them, they come down from the high, and then they get a resolution. All of that doesn't have to happen at the same time. The character can feel anger over something and it drives their progression for the rest of the book. But, if at the end of the story, we don't see a resolution, it gets harder to believe -- even if in real life, emotions aren't always nearly so neatly tied. [Depending on the type of story you're writing, sometimes you might choose to intentionally leave emotions unresolved by the end, but generally they're still addressed in a "X was still angry, and would always be, but life moves on" sort of way. As long as it was an intentional choice that thought was put into, and that's evident in the character, people will believe it on a writing/empathy level.]

Emotions keep your character relatable, so keep them reasonable Emotions are how your readers connect with your character. Its the little moments where you get into their head and empathize where your attachments grow. Being able to see not only that a character is feeling something, but also see why they feel that way, does a lot of heavy lifting for making you like a character. Even if their feelings are inherently irrational [ie. thinking your friend hates you because they don't want to hang out one day], if you know why the character would feel that way [main character has social anxiety, which has been a problem through the whole book] you can sympathize with them, and care about their struggles.

Think about body language There is so much more to emotion than just "his stomach tied itself in knots" and "his anger was a lightning strike." Emotions are movements and mannerisms. Even something as simple as pacing can convey a thousand different things: quick steps, talking with your hands, in fast circles, leaning forward, beaming [Excited, sharing ideas]. Slow, ponderous steps back and forth in a line down the hall, hands clasped behind your back, brow drawn, gaze low [Contemplative, troubled, turning an idea over and over]. Stomping, storming, glowering, fists clenched, stopping sometimes in front of the door you're pacing in front of, scowling and turning back to your solitude [angry, bracing yourself for an unpleasant confrontation, could be calming down or could be building yourself up to something]. Body language can sometimes convey more of an emotion to the reader than writing how the feeling feels can, especially in a limited POV where you're only inside one character's head.

Physical pacing to show emotion, through word choice Make. Your readers feel things. With punctuation. This is where reading poetry will really help your writing, tbh. Poetry is where punctuation gets really contemplative, really intentional, and you can use that to your advantage in prose too. My thoughts are running. You can tell they're running because I'm in a rush and the words are longer and this sentence is running just like I am. It's one step over and over and over, and ignoring periods for commas because commas feel a little more like a step and less like a hard rest -- and sometimes you do breaks because it feels like a tumble what does this make you feel? It's breathless your readers are waiting for you to stop so they can stop reading and it feels distressing like maybe it's panic or thinking too quick and -- There's something. Creeping. Up on you. A hesitant feeling, like a predator in the grass. There is something disjointed here. In the sentences. The hard stops make you pause. The longer sentences lull you into something. It feels off-balance. Unsafe. Are you scared? Hesitating? What is it, exactly, creeping? You can also get really crazy with it. A character isn't thinking clearly so y o u s ss t art b r e a k i n g up t he wo r d s. You have to be careful. It has to be legible still. But it can be bold, and it can mean something and it can be eye catching and it can be a thought without acknowledgement. Play in the space! Words are toys.

Emotions are your stakes, just as much as bodily harm is If your readers care about how your characters feel, you have a compelling tool to drive their care for the rest of the plot. It's not just bad enough that they could be physically hurt by a situation, putting them in emotional distress makes your readers distressed. This does, however, need balance. In the same way you wouldn't keep your foot on the gas in a car at all times from point A to point Z, lingering too long on one emotion when your readers are invested emotionally drains your readers. There needs to be periods of rest and happiness, to balance the periods of emotional turmoil, guilt, and apathy. If you've ever read a book and thought "Man this character is a crybaby, they never stop whining" or "this book is making me depressed. Everything keeps going wrong all the time!" the balance is skewed too far towards the sad/depressive emotions, and you are emotionally distancing yourself as a result. Something similar happens the other way, if you ever read something and feel like the characters are never in danger, or the plot isn't taking itself seriously. Everyone's tolerance for this is different, but generally speaking, adding small moments of comedy and levity to temper hardship can go a long way to keeping your characters emotionally relatable -- so many people cope with humor anyway.

Read and analyze what you like in other works For the same reason people trace a drawing when they're trying to figure out how the original artist drew it, for the same reason you first knit a pattern instead of knitting a sweater from scratch, pick up a book you love, that gets you emotionally invested in the characters, and really pick apart why you like it. Write down words or descriptions you thought hammered an idea home. Reread a scene once or twice and feel your heart squirm over it and ask yourself why? Just, sink your teeth in and analyze. It helps a lot.

And on the subject of analysis...

Have I studied any writing theory, or have I got any advice on dissecting pieces of writing for improvement?

Also kind of hard to answer! Specifically because I haven't studied much writing theory, outside of reading comprehension classes in high school that I'm 10 years removed from now. If I had to give advice, I think it would have to be from my experience which is: Read a lot and take notes.

You're correct, "practice writing" can only get you so far, in the sense that anything in a vacuum is hard to learn from. If I've only ever eaten a PB&J, it's gonna be real hard to learn how to make spaghetti. Chances are I don't even know tomatoes exist. So, read a lot, and read critically, and take notes.

When I say read critically: I mean read with your eyes open. Ask yourself "why?" as often as you can. A book makes you cry, why? Is it specific to the character? Is it because you want them to be happy or because they're going through something you've been through? A book makes you frustrated, why? Was an important plot point forgotten? Are the characters hard to understand? If so, why are they hard for you to understand? Does the author not explain their motives correctly, does it feel like you skipped a chapter? Or is it because their motives are understandable but you still think what they're doing is stupid? I recommend going back and reading your favorite book with that lens. "This is the best fight scene I've ever read!" Why? Was it important to the characters and therefore important to you? Did it wrap up a plot point well? Was it just fun watching the bad guy get beat up?

I learned how to do this first with descriptions. A few years ago I was reading Kings of the Wyld, and about halfway through the book I realized I thought Nicholas Eames was the best writer I'd ever read. That's objectively untrue, I'm sure there's some better, but it's how I felt and I wanted to know why. So I read the book again. I figured out it was because his descriptions were great. It wasn't just that I could see what was going on in my head, the descriptions told me things about the world.

"The wheat was as gold as the Summer Lord's beard." It's autumn, the wheat is ready to harvest and they have a god named the Summer Lord who is cloaked in gold. That's a lot of information packed into one sentence.

"He had learned long ago that harboring regrets was akin to stashing embers in your pockets: hopeless and bound to hurt." That says so much about the character. He has regrets, ones he's worried over so much he's learned how futile it is. And the image of someone holding onto embers because maybe they deserve that pain is poignant and relatable. We have all done something we regret.

I started writing down all the descriptions of his that I liked, picking them apart to see how they work. I like descriptors that inform you about the world, that are unique to the character, and that are rooted in the physical. I think that's successful writing, so I emulate it.

If you want to get better at writing, really study the stuff you like and ask yourself why you like it. If you can't do it in your head, if you can't just read a book and figure out what went well, write it down! It doesn't have to be a 10 page paper. Just writing "I loved X character and I think xyz reason is why" is enough to get you started. The more you practice figuring out what you like, the better you'll get at identifying and describing it. The more you know about those things, the better you can transfer it into your own work. Study can be really fun when you really dig your elbows into it.

I also think it's equally useful to do this to media you don't like. Pick a book you hate and do the same thing. Why don't you like it? Is it because you don't like the themes, or because the characters were too frustrating to relate to? Was it because the plot seemed forced? Were there plot points and ideas that seemed awesome that the author just ignored? Figure out what you don't like, what you think doesn't work, so you can figure out how to avoid it.

The thing about studying anything is: everything has rules. Learn the rules. Learn why the work [or why they don't]. That's studying.

Learning when its appropriate to follow or break them, that's writing.

This turned into a very, very long rant! Hopefully it helps :'D if not, my apologies.

[misc-obeyme]

i am constantly brainrotting about Mammon, he is on my mind 24/7 😭 i will def encourage it. i will yap about him if left to my own devices!!

HE'S SO AJSJDJF. please i want to go on a long drive with him at night with the windows down, and the streetlights flashing over us. I just know I'd be safe with him. I wouldn't have to worry, full passenger princess mode.

like wtff he stole my heart when i tried really hard to not have a fave character, and brothers under a pact group (+ solomon + thirteen later on) are my everything, but it always always came back to him. He is my fave and my number one and 🥹 when he bandages the players wrist after they get hurt, that's when i was like "oh. oh no."

i want to steal his jacket !! and play with his rings !! lemme steal his sunglasses off his head, even if I can't see without my own glasses. i would want matching keychains, I don't work at a craft store for nothing !! all the beads, we're making friendship bracelets too!

i know he'll always be there if called. I'd do anything for him, i could never say no to him, but I know he'd do the same. aaAAAAA AKDKWKD

*head in hands* sorry, I'm so hopelessly in love with this silly guy !! He makes my day !! and thinking about him cheers me up after having the worst shifts. Even if my wallet suffers trying to get his cards and merch

a character has not had this big of a chokehold on me ever 😭 I'll be old one day and still yapping about him, i swear, SORRY FOR RAMBLING AAA

- ✨ anon

Never apologize for rambling!! I love to hear all about your love for Mammon!!

It took me a little more time to fall for him, but once I did I was OBSESSED. This was far before Barbatos and Solomon were even on my radar. I was thinking about Mammon all the time for a little while there... people who've been following my blog from the beginning might even remember when he was my pfp lol!

I think for me it was that his personality is like the exact opposite of mine. So I found that compelling!

Ahh I love his car too I think it'd be really nice to go on a drive with him! Inevitably, all the stories I wrote about him and my MC involved a car scene like that!

You just know that he'd be so in love with you, too. He'd want you to be his passenger princess, he'd love it whenever you stole his sunglasses, he would be SO INTO friendship bracelets! He might pretend that he isn't, but you would know the truth. Especially because once you gave him one, he'd never take it off.

Anyway, you're always free to tell me about how much you love Mammon, I love to see it!!

[soleilnomoon]

3/20!!!

AYO!!!

red velvet cupcake, lollipop, cake pop with whipped cream! for trafalgar law!! ayyyyyy 👉👉

just some cute domestic vibes with Wano!Law, Law stressing out over Luffy not being back yet and reader looking after him! then kinemon, mononosuke, penguin, shachi, and bepo (or whoever ✨) appearing like "AYYY BATHTIME" only to realise reader is there and freak out, causing Law to shambles them mid-scream 🤣

your prompts are so funny ily 💓 anyway, ty for being patient, as u know i am a slow writer, but i had fun (ofc i did, it's law) and i got second-hand embarrassment for everyone involved.

636 words (gasp, who am i), gn reader, sfw but suggestive, 18+ mdni, fluff (how could u); feat. law being a brat, reader having the patience of a saint, shower/bath time, would this count as voyeurism? maybe? idk, anyway law needs to just admit he's head over heels and get over himself, but will he?? no! brief cameo from bepo n frenz 💗

in hindsight, law realizes that it was foolish of him to think that the energetic straw hat captain would heed his words and follow his plan like the others. still, he really can’t believe the slight betrayal he feels when luffy deviates and does not arrive on time. he runs through several scenarios in his head over the hows and whys that might be the driving force behind luffy’s delay. all in all, he's stressed himself out beyond reason.

you tell him more than once that he needs to relax — despite his young age, you’re sure this level of stress isn’t good for the body. still, he barely hears or acknowledges your words until you gently place your hands on his face until you playfully squeeze his cheeks. that snaps him out of that bothersome daze, and he blinks several times before looking down at you, curiosity piqued now.

“do you trust me?” you ask on a whim, a teasing smile slipping onto your face, which only makes law narrow his eyes at you.

“not really,” he says rather quickly, although you know that he’s not being truthful. if anything, law trusts you entirely too much, which is a problem that he’s yet to rectify. his words don’t deter you, and your smile is much warmer when you tug on his hand and lead him to the bath house. questions swirl around inside of him, threatening to spill out, but he decides to keep them to himself for a moment, instead opting to trust you without hesitation.

it's surprisingly empty, which is great in your opinion — because it means you can help him relax without interruption. law manages to piece together what you have planned, and he can admit that he already feels the tension slowly leaving his body. the heat from the water helps relax his muscles, and you rub along his shoulders, kneading his skin firmly.

he grabs your wrist and turns to kiss you, lips moving against yours — the kiss is slow and sensual, igniting something deep within you. he pulls away to trail kisses along your jaw and neck, his palms are rough when they roam along your skin, but you’re so into it you don’t care.

“i’m supposed to be helping you relax,” you say with a sigh, the sound sweet, compelling him to pull you closer to him.

“you are,” he insists, and before he can say more, a cacophonous sound drifts inside, accompanied by the sounds of several pairs of heavy footsteps. it takes you a minute, but you soon realize that penguin, shachi, and bepo are there. you’re not sure who screams first but the noise is loud enough for law’s patience to come to and end. he casts a sharp glance their way, which only prompts them to ramble off excuses and flimsy apologies while you hide behind law to cover yourself up. your heart sits at the base of your throat, making it hard to breathe, the embarrassment powerful enough to make you want to melt into the water immediately as your cheeks flush deeply.

and while law doesn’t like using his devil fruit power for frivolous things, he deems this situation necessary and teleports his idiotic friends out of there. a faint flush finds its way onto his ears and neck, as he considers what would’ve happened if —

no, he wouldn’t go there, because if he did then he might actually strangle them later.

after calming yourself down, all you can do is laugh; it would be your luck that you’d get interrupted like that. law isn’t as forgiving as you are, already plotting a punishment for the trio, although you try your best to calm him down by pulling him in for another kiss.

maybe this time, you’ll really have the place to yourselves.

[bleed-more]

Hi!

I found your blog because of your ask blog and have been keeping up to date with Tim's asker antics. I just felt the need to get out some opinions in a place I know someone will hear it, and my brain is telling me I can't do shit about Marble Hornets on my own blog until I post my own art about it, so I hope you're fine with me rambling about it here. (If I'm somehow crossing a line of sorts, please let me know.) Also, fair warning. This is long. Very long. I put a TL;DR at the bottom.

I feel like this fandom should appreciate Seth as a character more. Most people kinda just use him as the secondary butt to "brought the dog" jokes, and while that is an amusing line, I feel like Seth has a lot of untapped potential as a character that isn't really thought about because of that joke being spun into his only personality trait. From what I've seen, people seem to entirely forget or ignore a little something about him being the founding member of ToTheArk. He and Brian are the only two characters throughout the entire story to work together successfully. Tim and Brian? They fell out. Jay and Alex? They fell out. Tim and Jay? You guessed it, they fell out. Seth and Brian are the only ones who could actually work together in a functional partnership until the end, but because people only really bring up Seth as the guy Alex yelled at for bringing his dog, that leaves a lot of untapped potential with their dynamic. What kind of person was Seth to be the only person able to collaborate with someone successfully while under the Operator's influence? Were him and Brian already close before it all happened? Was he just the only one with decent communication skills?? Plus, he's the one who started guiding Jay on the path towards answers, which implies that he knows quite a lot about what's going on. I personally imagine Seth to be a similar person to Jeff from EMH. He's calm and collected, good with tech, and quite good with solving and creating puzzles. Intelligent and very caring, wanting to see all the people he cares about make it out alive, so he's doing his best to help get this stuff sorted out for good while trying to maintain a level of anonymity so nobody else he loves gets caught in the cross fire.

TL;DR: People should really start thinking about Seth's dynamics and him as a character more beyond him bringing his dog.

YES YES YES YOU NAILED IT I 100% AGREEE

I have an entire novel's worth of headcanons I've collected about Seth because listen listen hear me out...

90% of the loose ends and plot holes left in Marble Hornets, when filled by Seth, make for an EXTREMELY compelling story that opens up an entire second off-screen plot line with Seth and Brian going parallel with Jay and Tim.

I feel like Night Mind said it best on his "Marble Hornets Explained series":

"When you finally stop to think about everything we've revealed, you begin to realize Marble Hornets was never actually a horror story."

"It was a revenge story."

I actually plan on digging into this fully through Act 3 of @ohgreat-moretapes 👀👀👀 and until then if you guys send headcanon asks here I will answer them!!!! (Just keep in mind some theories I propose about Seth might technically be "spoilers" if you wanna wait for the reveals over at the ask blog. I'll don't think ask blog spoilers will happen too often but just in case I'll put a spoiler warning above posts like that).

@sunnytheopossum is also working on a comic detailing the off-screen rise and fall of ToTheArk which I am SO HYPE for, so go send him lots of love and support too!!!

We need more Seth advocates out there!!! We shall canonize him the way he deserves!!!!

[oreo102]

Please I'm so so curious to hear your thoughts on 10/14

Ok so my thoughts on 10 are less than 14 so let’s start with him lol. I have not watched 10, so my hatred of him is more hatred by proxy of how the fandom treats him and proxy of 14, but I still do have a few specific thoughts and this will be long and definitely rambly

A) when talking about him I usually refer to him as Fandom’s Favorite White Boy or Pathetic Wet Cat/Twink mostly because it’s funny but for now I’ll use 10. The most I know about 10 is that he is angsty and in love with rose and besties with Donna… also that he’s pathetic but that’s more vibes

So- my hate of 10 is less tangible than 14 but i still have a few points, the main one being the way i see ppl talk about how he treated Martha and how obsessed with rose he was. I don’t think it’s ever compelling to have someone’s main personality trait be loving someone a whole lot which also honestly is my problem with rose (don’t hate her but don’t care about her)

From what I have seen and heard of 10 it’s rather… boring, honestly? Like it’s mostly clips out of context but for 13 and 15 I saw clips out of context and was like “ok wth is happening? /pos” with 10 it’s more like “wtf?” Also pretty sure his episodes were some of the ones I saw when my parents had the show on that played a part in me swearing the show off so

Ok onto the more tangible hatred of 14. A lot of this, admittedly, is more about the writing and showrunner decisions than 14 but those things by proxy makes me hate him

So- I have a lot of feelings on him quite literally starting from his first appearance in power of the doctor. I am SO PETTY that he doesn’t wear 13’s silly little outfit. Like I have gone on full rants about that fact to my friends and family

I’ve seen something claim that rtd didn’t want 14 to wear her outfit because people might be transphobic and derogatory towards him (even tho Dhawan!master wore it, and it’s pretty gender neutral) but then did nothing about the shit ppl said about ruby’s actor or about ppl who would be a bitch about rose the second being nonbinary(also i remember seeing a post about their deadname being mentioned in an episode? Not totally sure that’s true tho)

The 60th anniversary specials themselves don’t really celebrate Dr who as a whole as much as 10’s run with a few old villains but that’s not really my main issue with that. My main issue with the specials is that the Doctor gets their happy ending. With Donna. And her family. When fucking 3-4 episodes prior, their happy ending would’ve been yaz. It would’ve been staying with yaz. But nope! Donna! Because that’s what 10 would’ve wanted.

And I don’t want 14 to be with yaz, btw, I mean I want them to meet and for yaz to hit him, but I don’t want them to be a thing or like be together because I believe yaz is a lesbian but that’s not the point of this so moving on

I also have very much big issues with the scene where 15 and 14 are (presumably, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the full scene) talking about women they love and mention who I assume to be River and rose but not yaz, who again, they wanted to spend forever with 3-4 episodes prior. It makes the doctor seem like a douchebag even if it’s a writing issue and not a character issue

Also 14 being David tenant overshadows 13’s departure and 15’s arrival and since he is most likely going to show up at least a little bit in s14 he’ll overshadow 15 in his own series. It’s icky at the very least.

There’s something inherently bad about having the fandoms Favorite White Boy be with a contentious casting decision (because I have no faith in the Dr who fandom not to be bigoted) and even if no one has an issue with 15 being black and maybe gay (is he gay? He gives gay vibes) it’s still setting him up for failure by pairing him with 14

Also bigeneration is so fucking dumb and I hate it

Also also stop giving the Dr 19 year old companions it’s getting kinda weird now

[catofoldstones]

hi i'm still here :) those things about fandom denying theorizing about jonsa just bothered me heavily since fans accepted almost every theory under the sun but hypothetical j0nsa is where they draw the line they accepted curtain of light theory and 3 heads of the dragons saving the world for years before a hypothetical cousin marriage/bethrodal that ties a lot of plot threads and themes together and resolves so much of the missing plot pieces from the show, i might not personally like it cause of the incest implications but im also consistent with hating all jon's incest ships and still keeping an open mind about j0nerys and j0nsa on a storytelling basis but j0nsa is a theory that intrigued me so much because it did make sense from the drafts,the fact that sansa will end up at winterfell with the vale army by the time jon wakes up and changes into who knows what (again fans straight up ignoring which stark is actually the closest to winterfell will never not make me laugh) to the many gothic literature and historical references george takes to especially the ashford theory thats so unavoidable i call fans extremely blind for being this in denial that it might happen as a plot point and since aegon is most likely going to be busy with dorne/cersei/dany or euron and most likely die in the south (rip son) i highly doubt sansa will tie into his plot unless thats the last targ suitor she's supposed to be betrothed with and again its kinda a big nothing theory to me cause sansa going south would be repetitive and its already been debunked with the AFFC draft leaks unless aegon wants a claim to the north which again im pretty sure he'll be engaged to arianne for martell points and allyship (also her being engaged to a secret fake bastard heir was already done with joffrey and it being completely reversed with j0n feels more complete as an end point to that theory/arc there's no way george would pass that up).

i also don't think this is all jon and sansa have to offer as characters,its what bothers me with other ship fans as well i like them as separate characters and i also feel like looking at the story, if it were to happen i don't believe it would be a fairytale romance or ending or be anytype of normal relationship, i might even be completely wrong and j0nsa might never come up (also feel like george would be wary of doing this now when media literacy is at an all time low but fandom toxicity is high as the heavens), both sansa and jon fandom theories have been through a rollercoster over the years im just happy that fans finally have theories that actually makes sense storytelling wise and not something for wish fulfillment but bias still runs amok in the fandom unfortunately and it still clouds a lot of convo about the characters and plot theories

sorry for rambling in your inbox again

Hello :3 nice to see you again

anon can I call you soulmate anon because every sentiment you’ve portrayed here is exactly what I believe too! I like jonsa too because it’s v compelling and it has good evidence to back it up, but I’m really iffed up because of the incest too. Well not because I’m a pearl-clutching puritan but because it’s not fair to Sansa tbh, as a teenaged girl in a deeply patriarchal society. If she’s the girl in grey who runs away to Jon for protection, it’ll not be as a friend who’s seeing another friend after a long time, it’ll be because she wants protection from her brother. Then comes in the question of her claim to Winterfell. If she marries Jon to smooth out the inheritance crisis, the North would still belong to Jon & not Sansa. They will not be equal in that marriage or as the lord and lady of Winterfell. However, there are far, far too many indications of a jonsa match, textually and subtextually, which I am right there with you anon, are so compelling! It would only be a blind man to not see them. And the fandom collectively vehemently denying jonsa is v funny to me because it sounds so much like

“Do you believe women are humans?”

“Yes”

“Do you believe women should have the same rights as men?”

“Yes, absolutely!”

“So you are a feminist.”

“Eww, no.”

Like, the text is glaringly pointing at something with air raid sirens and neon red lights, but what could it mean, hmm 🤔 Like c’mon guys my cat could figure out what’s going on at this point.

Though, I do believe that the Ashford Targaryen suitor could be Aegon VI for Sansa. While a lot of people believe that Aegon will marry/betrothe Arianne for that Dorne support but that doesn’t make sense to me because

1. It’s like Sansa would marry into the Tully family for support to take back the North

2. The Dornish are already burning to avenge Elia

3. Arianne is the heir to Dorne in her own right (and has had major plot around that), marrying the next King of the 7 kingdoms hardly makes sense for her.

BUT Aegon & Arianne’s plots are barreling towards each other and they very well might just get married to secure another plot point that I cannot think of right now. And I know that Aegon is doomed and Arianne survives (George, pls or else 🔪🔪) so that’s another reason why Aegon & Sansa can’t happen. And Jon being the Targeryen suitor holds so much more literary weight than a rando who has never had an impact on her or her emotions or her plot (apart from your brilliant points). Also, no I am not debating the “Dunk disturbed the Ashford Tourney so Sxn/dxr is the one for Sansa” because we’ve debated to death that even being granted the title of Maid does not mean anything like a betrothal in Westerosi society or has negative consequences (r + l & that whole war it started). Also, just because Dunk got in the middle of the Tourney does not mean that he got the girl in the end. Hope that helps. Moreover, Dunk’s asoiaf corollary is Brienne not sxn/dxr, so by their logic, briensa ftw!!!!!!!!!!

Anon, the way everyone ignored the affc outline just because it showed something the Sansa fandom had been (rightly) theorising for years now has me rolling on the floor 😂 the denial, the denial is so strong with these people, even the “neutrals”. Don’t even get me started on the BNFs. If something like this were leaked about xrya or dxny, it would have been front page news that breaks the asoiaf fandom containment lol.

Stark closest to Winterfell and takes north! C’mon now anon, don’t give these people a heart attack.

Yes well, there have been one too many people in this fandom (as is common in any other fandom *cough* jxnxryas *cough*) to reduce the characters to the ship but the block button is my lord and saviour. Shipping is so that we can bring out the best (or the worst) character traits in the people we’re shipping, not to water down the said character traits.

There’s a chance that jonsa doesn’t happen in the books or happens just in the subtext or whatever, and I’ll be fine with that as long as the stories for both Jon and Sansa have satisfying and empathetic progression. Though I would terribly like for it to happen just to dunk on the haters and the BNFs and the “skeptics” lol. I am trying to be a better person these days, but pettiness is my second daughter 🤪 and to add to this point, if jonsa doesn’t happen, that still won’t erase the heavy foreshadowing we’ve been seeing in the text till now. If some other ship had the Ashford theory, the Byronic connection, JONnel Stark marrying a girl named xrya or an ancestor Sansa Stark marrying a -whoever- in their lineage, the plot satisfaction, the narrative parallels, the textual connection, it would be considered canon by now. But no, since it’s Jon x Sansa and that is still somehow a pretty strong contender for breaking all your ships, they will close their eyes and call it a crack ship. Baby a crack ship is me and Oscar Isaac or Sasuke and Taylor Swift. But if Sasuke and Taylor had all of this evidence, it would, once again, be considered canon. Sigh, just take your Sansa hatred elsewhere man, we’re not in 2006 anymore.

Dude, I found older forums/metas a while back and there is nowhere that Sansa was mentioned w/o sxn/dxr. Sxn/sxn was just a given. It was canon, it was always going to happen and that’s just so reductive tbh. I’m v v grateful that the meta and fandom spaces (maybe just a small corner but that is enough for me) have evolved so much through the years otherwise I would get beaten here every day. It’s still toxic as hell though, with the level of trash metas that will give early asoiaf fandom a run for its money and at one point you just want to scream- you all realise that these are books, right? and we’re the readers! you’re not dxny or jon or tyrion or even fleabottom ragpickers! none of this is real 😭 i should not be coming here, armoured and with a sword, to defend my fav characters, i should be having fun here and exchanging stupid ideas 😭 but asoiaf fandom remains asoiaf fandom however well the ways of hating may have changed.

But please, always ramble in my ask box anon. I love reading your thoughts and it gives me a chance to ramble as well :)

[pavus]

rambling about rook concepts before bed. i've been having a foggy few days, so pardon my disjointed thoughts, lmao.

considering making jehanne half-dwarf, but i'm unsure as to whether or not i'm making her half-dwarf / half-elf or half-dwarf / half-human. prooobably half-elf, since half-elf dwarves just look like dwarves, rather than the other way around with humans.

hawthorn needs to remain a human because her being mourn watch + a mage is important to her story.

so that means.

kehda - rogue / shadow dragon - dwarf - varric. jehanne - warrior / warden - half-dwarf / half-elf - emmrich? maybe. but i am having ideas for perhaps a different character for him. jehanne would also be very cute with taash. hawthorn - mage / mourn watch - human - davrin.

thinking thoughts about a lord of fortune dwarf for emmrich with a big personality - big smiles, big laughs, the occasional nuclear explosion of anger. but genuinely, someone like that would be so cute with lucanis, as well?

i very badly want a bruiser for neve. someone a little stony (hehe) and difficult to reach who just ends up melting around her.

BIG ISSUE is that i had a really compelling idea for a dalish veil jumper or lord of fortune with a clan connection that absolutely broke my heart when i came up with it. i'm just sat here with all my scattered ideas, like. what am i meant to do with all this.

i'm so salty that dwarves don't get to be mages. it cuts such a huge swath of opportunity away from people who play them. like, that's three whole specializations! having only six options when everyone else has got nine kinda blows.

wait...

wait, i could absolutely make hawthorn a dwarf. her being a MAGE doesn't matter (and might actually lend itself to an even more distressing relationship with her father); her being mourn watch matters, and rooks who aren't mages can still be mourn watch!

[lost-in-fandoms]

What’s your take on the two big Max ships, Maxiel and Lestappen?

I pretty happily ship both, but I admire anyone who can keep Lestappen as their primary or endgame Max ship in the face of Max’s obvious, shameless, and ever-lasting devotion to and adoration of Daniel.

anon you want me dead do you 💀

no I'm kidding, I am like you, I do happily ship both (I'll happily ship anything ngl) I just personally find maxiel more appealing.

I like lestappen shared history and their "red string of fate" coincidences and they have quite a few moments of 👀🏳️‍🌈 i know what you are that compel me (the fact that max never asks him to move when they are on the podium together will never fail to endear me). I think they enjoy racing together and I think they respect each other as drivers and people and max for sure enjoys wrapping his big hand around charles' waist (who wouldn't?), but at the end of the day I just find the vibes off track a bit. lacking? They have their moments, but overall I think their relationship is a bit more on the professional side (especially for charles but I'm not gonna go there) and I just find myself going back to maxiel more, even just when I daydream listening to music or think about fics.

As they say though, you don't choose your ship, your ship chooses you, and I firmly believe that.

Maxiel was the ship I first started reading for in this fandom and most of my favorite authors are maxiel writers so I think that plays a part in my preference (even if I have read A LOT of lestappen fics).

And I might have a little bit of a personal grudge against Charles which doesn't help with the shipping (sorry babe but you did choose to be behated ferrari second coming of christ!)

Having said all that, I have some gripes with how lestappies push it a bit too hard (which can be real for any ship) and how they twist some moments (also can be real for any ship) and how max is written in lestappen fics.

So yeah, big ramble, but at the end of the day I think everyone is here to have fun and if lestappen brings them the most joy then I'm happy for them. Max is clearly panting after Daniel's dick though sorry!

[secretgamergirl]

American Politics and Vampires

It's 2024, a capital-E Election Year in the U.S. and I am already starting to see the slow creep in my feed here of posts stressing the importance of voting, and the accompanying utterly infuriating mix of comments beneath them of sad little efforts from neo-nazis to counter that messaging and hot takes from clueless children that are pretty hard to distinguish from the former.

I was a little tempted after seeing a few of these today, but I didn't feel like being a big nag, and so instead I'm going to ramble about how a while back I saw someone ask a question that resulted in a really uncomfortable silence- "Why are there so many stories about vampires where they fought on the wrong side of the civil war?" (And yeah, these are actually very related topics.)

Let's picture for a moment your standard vampire. We've got someone who looks more or less like a normal human being, but is secretly a monster who is compelled to suck the blood out of normal humans, leaving them either dead, or as these sort of out of it, sickly, very suggestible types just barely going through the motions of life, and getting drained again before they can start to recover and escape. A given story might try to give you a more sympathetic vampire as an exception, because we don't generally enjoy reading stories about this sort of monster, but the typical standard vampire also totally loves their inherently predatory nature. They'll refer to the people they're draining as cattle or vermin or whatever, consider them to be lesser beings, and live in some big fancy castle or mansion or whatever, maybe getting all prideful about their ancestral lines or whatever.

Vampires aren't going to actively describe themselves as slave owners. They're going to talk about their familiars or servants or whatever, but let's be honest here. If you're a vampire in the U.S. in the lead-up to the civil war, there is zero chance you don't have a bunch of slaves and the federal government is formally abolishing that, you're not gonna like it and you're probably not going to have a problem killing people to be able to maintain your lifestyle.

Meanwhile, here's the quote people love tossing around about the group of people we refer to with a term that really doesn't fit anything about them: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." - Frank Wilhoit

So... special people who consider themselves above normal humans, insist on being able to do things without facing consequences for them, and in particular being very keen on harming normal people who just have to deal. That kinda lines up perfectly with our description of vampires, doesn't it! And a hell of a lot of things, through the whole history of this country, make a hell of a lot of sense when you realize that roughly half of all politicians from the ones we have now all the way back to the founding of the country have been straight up vampires. Metaphorically speaking.

That's not to say that half the population of this country is comprised of vampires. It's more that vampires, by their nature, feel like they have to be in positions of leadership where they can control as much human cattle as they can, so they're going to claw their way to political power and hold onto it with an absolute death grip, any way they possibly can.

Like, knowing how bad this country has gotten about education on Certain Things, and other countries not having a particular incentive to learn these things, are we all aware of the three-fifths compromise? See, when this country was first founded it was really kinda 13 countries in this weird military alliance, and there was a lot of squabbling about who was paying for what and how to divide up this extra land everyone was collectively starting to acquire further and further to the west and everyone had to sit down and hash out the foundations of what's now the federal government. Part of that was establishing the whole congress deal, where rather than just putting some number of people in the seats from each state, there would be general elections of reps to fill seats based on total population. All well and good, except then a bunch of vampires stood up and went "hey so those population totals count our slaves, right? Because we've got a whole bunch of slaves, and obviously we're not going to actually let any of them vote because they're not really people but like they're mouths that need feeding within our borders so that counts right? We can send more vampires to serve in congress proportionate to all these slaves we have?"

Now you would HOPE the response to that would be "what? NO! Screw you! Quit having slaves!" or at least "what? NO! If you don't let slaves vote you can't count them as citizens for how many people you get to send in to represent your state you monsters!" What actually happened though, because there were already so many vampires in the room deciding this that just telling them all to screw off apparently wasn't an option was people went "OK we are not going to let you have 100 times the voting power of a normal human being because you're a vampire with 100 slaves... how about we just give you 60 times the voting power?" Which is completely absurd! But, yeah, half-vampire-run country. You'd also figure this particular awful disproportionate power grab issue would have died when we abolished slavery, but uh... we didn't actually do a super great job at that. The actual wording of our slavery ban has a heck of a loophole in it.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." So you know, you're a vampire. You failed to overthrow the government and they made you release all your slaves, AND they're technically allowed to vote now. That's bad for you because not only can you not boss them around or get extra federal votes out of them, they're probably going to vote against your evil interests. Fortunately you argued for these loopholes about people in prisons, and hey, you can exploit the hell out of that! Build a ton of prisons! Pass laws that let you arrest huge amounts of people for... being former slaves essentially. Make huge huge numbers of arrests. Offer to house other states' prisoners too! All these people are totally living in your state, AND they're full citizens with voting rights, so, yeah draw those district maps up to count them all, but oh whoops, none of them can actually cast those votes, because they're in prison and all. Still, their bodies count for population proportion, so the one vampire with a residence next to the prison effectly just gets to vote for all of them. Oh and the way the 13th amendment is written you can totally have them all do any sort of slave labor you need done while they're in there. Dangerous firefighting, horrible no-shade road construction, whatever you like really.

There's all kinds of awful crap like this baked into our laws, and it's imperative that we get rid of it all, both because, you know, basic human rights, and because it's all in there explicitly to give disproportionate power to vampires and make it particularly hard to get rid of them. Meanwhile, yeah, the vampires are also very much aware of that, and doing everything they can to keep us from doing that, so they can continue to, you know, rule forever, kill us for a combination of the enjoyment they get and a means of population control to thwart all this pesky democracy stuff, etc.

Now, a big part of how all of this has shaken out is that America has profoundly bad system for handling elections. A lot of other countries do stuff where you rank a bunch of candidates and when the votes get tabulated there's this whole multistep process weeding out the ones with no chance and then counting based on people's second choices and all that, but no, we go with "this guy got 21% of the vote and the next highest only got 20.95% so first guy wins who cares about the rest of this" (at least for general popular vote stuff, there's special rules and exceptions for lots of stuff like... amending weird crap that keeps vampires in power where you need various wide majorities, naturally). Anyway all the vampires get this so they pool their resources and pick just one vampire to run for any given thing and throw all the votes they have (bloated by various messed up means of getting extra votes and not counting big piles that disagree with them) without any other vampires splitting the vampire vote. This kinda necessitates the counterplay of having just the one non-vampire run for any given office. So, how do we work out who this one non-vampire is? Well, in the vast majority of cases, people are so disinterested in politics that only one person is going to even bother to fill out the paperwork to run (or nobody will, just letting some vampire run unopposed!) but for higher profile stuff, presidency especially, there's usually enough people interested that we have (technically unofficial) votes to agree on who we're all going to vote for later. Which isn't the worst system? Think of it like a tournament bracket (and really it'd be better if we branched those more, or used one of those better systems other countries have).

Oh and this is also only covering the various government offices where people are voted for directly. There's a ton of others like, you know, the entire judicial branch, which is arguably the most important, because it ultimately doesn't matter what the law says about anything when a dispute, even one in incredibly bad faith, can be brought before a vampire judge who's just going to rule in favor of vampire interests. Nothing for it beyond keeping vampires out of office so they can't appoint other vampires as judges and such.

So... yeah. The most important thing in all this is hey, do absolutely everything you can to thwart the efforts of vampires. They're super well-organized and weirdly open about wanting to enslave or kill the rest of us, along with doing everything they can to get away from this whole voting thing and just kinda rule forever as feudal lords, free to claim the blood of all within their domain and all. Past that, you want people in power who are like... competent? Willing to thwart and dismantle vampire rule, while also actually doing whatever job they're in the running to go and do.

So basically, when it comes to matters of voting, the really important thing to do is not freaking blow everything off until the big vampire vs. non-vampire vote. If the non-vampire sucks at that point, that's on you for not pushing for and voting for someone who doesn't suck when the primary happened. And if all those people suck, it's on you for not opting to run yourself or pestering someone you like to do so. But yeah, if you spaced that long and now it's just a vampire or some jerk you don't like, deal with it, vote for the jerk. We need to protect the weak and vulnerable among us from the vampires first and foremost and keep them from outlawing stakes and garlic, people!

Oh and the other thing with American voting is that yeah sometimes in smaller local elections things get weird and there isn't a vampire in the running or there is but you know from polls that everyone has kind of agreed nobody's voting for the vampire and then cool you can maybe vote for some cool weirdo who didn't get party backing over someone who did. That's never going to happen in a big election though. There's too much infrastructure involved in getting viable candidates propped up, the vampire vote is going to be in play in a serious way, and any sort of third party/write-in candidate is just kinda going to be some weirdo who has no chance at all of winning and is just here on an ego trip, so, yeah just focus on disempowering vampires.

But again, I'm writing about vampires not voting strategy so uh... hey white supremacy kinda works as wannabe vampires with this metaphor. The vampires aren't going to turn anyone new into vampires most likely but they tempt weird pasty creeps with promises that they might get to be vampires later if they help the vampires with their agenda and bring them pre-battered victims and such. Oh and a lot of people would prefer to stake them than deprive them of political power and like, OK, put your money where your mouth is then. Talking about that sort of thing in public is just going to make them post more guards around their coffins. Vampire Hunters gotta work solo or in small well-vetted groups.