#Idk her backstory is complicated. Lol

[shima-draws]

I'm excited for all your new ocs!!

SCREAMS ME TOO I've been brainrotting over them SO hard

Actually yeah yeah here have the concept sketch for mute girl. She has a name now too, her name is Ione <3

I also picked a name for edgy boy, Ezio! I'm honestly really considering having Ione, Ezio and Narun (Nato? Nahu? Still haven't decided on a name for protag boy lol) in a poly relationship. Not sure if I wanna go that route since the sexual tension enemies/rivals to lovers thing Ezio has going on with mechanic boy is also pretty excellent. But at the very least it's canon Ezio has a Thing for Narun (and mechanic boy does too) so they bicker over his attention a lot LOL

[hecksupremechips]

When I think about Mizuki in aini it’s like, I know something is just so off about her but I have trouble articulating it. It’s really frustrating cuz she was like my favorite character in the first game and when I play the first game I feel like I have a really good idea of who she is as a character. Like she acts strong and and hangs out with people much older than her and has to take on a fuck ton of responsibility but she’s also just a kid she cuddles with a rabbit toy she raises fish in the fridge she can be kinda gullible in the way that kids are and she doesn’t always understand more mature jokes. She acts sassy and hostile towards Date but she’s described as kinda and compassionate by Hitomi and she defends the weak and loves her friends deeply and thinks Aiba is cute. She pokes fun at Date for being grumpy at the shrine and then excitedly holds his hand and drags him over to the offering box to pray for his safety and she gets scared when there’s danger and she hugs Date for comfort but then tries to brush it off because she was taught to feel shame whenever she required basic attention and affection. She was hurt badly by her biological family and finds herself at home with Date despite her fears of him not caring for her. Like she’s a really solid well rounded character with strengths and weaknesses and her story makes me feel every possible emotion known to man

Then I play aini and I was soooo excited to see that Mizuki was gonna be a protagonist and that she had Aiba (its what made me buy the game immediately after finishing the first game lol) and then like. I honestly can’t tell you a damn thing about her character in aini. Like she’s the protagonist for half that game and I can’t think of any particular struggles she has as a character or like any moments where she stands out. It’s like, I know this is Mizuki she has the same basic features of that character but she’s not really given much? And anything new you learn about her is just like, retcons of her already established and well written backstory that just. Really didn’t need to be made and honestly they just kinda do a disservice to her character

Like first off there’s the Bibi twist which. Oof. I have some pretty complicated feelings about Bibi in general like okay. When she appears as the masked woman I was totally on board and thought she was really interesting and I was so prepared for her to be a favorite character her somnium is probably my favorite one in the game. And then she was revealed to be Mizuki. And it was revealed that we were playing as her for half of the B side of the story and we didn’t know it. Like, where to even begin. They stopped writing Bibi as her own character and she pretty much just became Mizuki except idk, she has a bigger grudge against Ryuki and has a heart condition I guess. And like I think it really speaks to how flat Mizuki was in this game if we can play as two completely different characters and have them be indistinguishable. Bibi shouldn’t be anything like Mizuki, they’ve lived completely different lives. And I hate the clone twist like good god I really hate the clone twist because IT ADDS NOTHING TO MIZUKIS CHARACTER OR HER CONFLICT. In fact it like, actively goes against her arc from the first game??? Cuz like half the point of Date and Mizuki’s relationship is there to show that family isn’t what you’re born with, it’s what you make. Both Date and Mizuki feel like their little family can’t exist because they’ve been taught, like most of us have, that biological family is the most important and real and valid way to have a family. You’re supposed to love and respect your biological parents because they MADE you, and Date has to live with the anguish that he can’t be Mizuki’s REAL father because they aren’t blood related. So like, to pull the rug away and go "oh yeah btw I guess Mizuki was adopted lol" it just completely erases what made her story so impactful to most people. And the clone reveal adds nothing like Mizuki doesn’t NEED this at all she wasn’t looking to discover the truth of her backstory because. There wasn’t any truths that needed to be discovered, we already know her deal and so does she. And her having a clone doesn’t really fit with the half to whole theme cuz like, she wasn’t looking for a fucking clone or like a secret sister or anything like that. It’s just stupid it’s so stupid

What Mizuki needed was like, a new actual conflict that required her to overcome challenges and grow as a character. A lot of people, myself included, have complained about how her relationship with Date just isn’t talked about hardly at all, how he went missing for 6 years and they didn’t even get a proper reunion and the game kinda mocks you for wanting one. We dont get any context as to how Mizuki coped during that time like she was completely alone for the most major years of her life she was separated from the one person who was her real family and we don’t know what she felt during all that cuz the game refuses to talk about it. And there isn’t much indication that the adults care about this either, Boss maybe has a soft spot for her but that’s kinda the extent of it, she makes a joke that Date is probably off chilling in a hot spring in Atami so clearly no one is giving Date’s disappearance the weight it deserves. So like, we have this potential thing we could work with here like why is Mizuki a detective now and why does she care about this case? Because her dad was taken by tearer and has been gone for 6 years and she’s been all alone and she wants to find him and find out if he’s even alive and she wants to kick tearers ass cuz he tore (hehe) her family apart. And this can also give her an actual connection to Ryuki too like Ryuki is the one who betrayed Date and knew some shit about tearer and saw what happened to Date and he just never told Mizuki the truth and she’s spent all this time looking for Date so this would be like, pretty major conflict when it all gets revealed. And it actually gives what Ryuki did actual consequences that affect him cuz honestly the fact that no one seems to care that much about Date’s disappearance makes Ryuki’s guilt and depression seem completely fucking useless lol. So here we go, that’s some conflict for Mizuki to have and it gives her a personal connection to the case, we can add more to it but really even this alone is way more than what she’s given in the actual game. And I think just the big problem with her in aini is I think the writers were too afraid to do anything that could ruin her character or cause her to change too much so they just like. Didn’t write anything that could allow her to develop and instead just fucked with already established information about her which. I honestly don’t know how that is seen as better??? In what fucking world. It just feels really pointless to have even made Mizuki a protagonist to begin with since they don’t really do anything with her and lol I think the writers realized this so that’s why like. Ryuki gets all the character conflict but makes lowkey no progress in the case and the real investigation doesn’t happen until the Mizuki side cuz they needed to make up for the fact they didn’t write anything for her alskla

So yeah just to wrap things up, Mizuki just didn’t get to be a character in aini and she wasn’t given any interesting conflict despite how easy it would’ve been cuz the writers were too scared of doing anything with this character that could ruin her but dude. Dont fucking make her the protagonist then if you’re too scared of doing anything with her. Don’t piss me off like that

[horatioo]

so like the thing about the limbus descriptions, right. the ones for the promo material, the documents dante has or whatever. where it lists the particulars of each character.

theyre completely fucking inaccurate.

so lets take ishmael for example.

ishmael is described as "carrying out missions without much complaint" and "having sound judgement". one of these is true and its not the one about her not complaining lol.

however, there are times where her judgement isn't sound. like, at all. off the top of my head, i can think of her jumping to the most negative conclusions immediately several times, such as with sang yi, with heathcliff, with several other incidents...

this isnt to say she doesnt have sound judgement...but it is to say that the description isn't that accurate. and she's one of the ones i DO agree with the particular for! (i've seen people say she isn't ocd on here before, but personally relate way too much to her issues to agree.)

there's more examples of these, too!

outis is made to look suspicious from the start - and yeah sure she's fishy but i don't think she's nearly as traitorous as the description implies.

heathcliff is described as "simple-minded" and as having violent outbursts for no reason, when neither of these are true (i disagree with the perception that he doesnt have anger issues - you can have those and be self-aware/controlled lol)

yi sang's documentation lacks crucial information, as does everyone else's - and yes i'm aware it's promo material, but even promo material and removed content is important with project moon LMAOOOO never forget when they brought back several removed abnos for ruina

hong lu's is...complicated, because there's a chance that the writer just bought into his "stupid rich kid" act. but also not really accurate. not really sure where bachelor comes in but i assume we'll see that in his canto

sinclair

basically all of the sinners - barring gregor who...doesn't really have much to explain about him to be fair - have inaccurate or missing info. and no, i don't mean "they didnt explain yi sangs backstory in depth", i mean they straight up did not mention his self-isolation when they DID mention similar maladaptive habits in other sinners (don, heathcliff, rodya, etc)

the fact that we are given inaccurate information from the start makes me wonder exactly what the goal here is. idk how this relates to the story. i need to connect dots. but here let me segue into my actual point:

people trust in these descriptions way, way, way too much.

sure, yes, on the surface it seems like they're accurate. but after canto i - even during canto i - it becomes glaringly obvious that they aren't. at all.

and yeah i know it's whatever but i'm really sick of seeing abusive heathcliff and "donqui is so stupid LOLLLL" takes everywhere. this is more aimed at twitter but yeah

idk im just annoyed. no ending here i just rambled

[minnowtank]

so basically in my oc story it’s 2412 and everyone on earth lives on the planet exodus now due to a biological warfare accident which continues to affect people centuries later in the form of Fosse syndrome. the world has like a really weird version of communism where withering of the state doesn’t occur and religions and national differences and therefore the social constructs of race persist i’m sorry this is so bad you need context for this like it involves a hawaiian communist terrorist named kauhane becoming a saint in what later becomes neo-catholicism because a bunch of radicalized christian americans believed he could see into the future (he actually could) and he was like chosen by god and the communist terrorist also believed this and it made the politics all weird as a consequence. and then other stuff like the fosse gas affecting the state of politics. still working on the politics but that’s basically a theme of like oh everyone’s on a different planet are nations arbitrary ?? is anyone really anything anymore? and people like want to know where they “really” come from etc. and stuff and that’s a theme

so the plot is that a neo-catholic novice in the year 2412 named bianca must use her future-seeing abilities to stop a swedish ethnonationalist from creating a new hybrid species of super-swedes and the swedish guy in question is using these immortal worms that go in your brain and give you the ability to regrow limbs and stuff that are actually Adam, Eve, and Cain which would also take a while to explain lol but his name is stefan and he’s like wow sweden sucks now we used to be so great and he had a meltdown about ikea no longer existing once canonically and he becomes obsessed with Old World notions of racism and basically there are barely any ethnic swedes left due to a bunch of reasons involving eugenics in the past (they wanted to get rid of fosse syndrome in ethnic swedes) and so there are like barely any ethnic swedes and he wants to use the worms and yeah the worms can do stuff like “build themselves in the womb” and then it opens questions about like what the ideal human would actually look like if the fetus had the ability to create itself while in utero etc and things like that so whatever. he has a son with fosse syndrome that makes him have schizophrenic that cannot be medicated bc being fosse makes you resistant to a bunch of modern medicine. and the son has the adam worm while stefan has the cain worm and the son who is named alex btw is like i don’t wanna make a super race please let me kill myself instead but he’s being controlled by stefan and the worms. and then there’s that whole thing👍and there are other mutations regarding fosse syndrome and there’s like “epicentre nations” and other stuff and eugenics plot lines and things that will also take a while to explain. and the son and stefan are the remaining descendants of the long defunct swedish royal family.

also if the hybrid species super swede is born it will destroy the reality due to it breaking the law of evolution and i will explain that in the story also the virgin mary exists and like there’s that whole thing too and god exists but he left the universe and there’s the “purpose paradox” going on with god and stuff and yeah

and yeah there are a bunch of characters and there are 5 “main” protags: bianca, jacquie, enji (he has the eve worm and there’s backstory for that), sloane, and yousef and the plot is complicated and i’m not done but i want to keep going with it so idk. oh also settler colonial states don’t exist anymore there’s a country called the union of new world republics and it’s connected to the weird saint terrorist guy but like that guy was involved with their movement while also kind of being weird on the side but he was helpful to them despite being a massive catholic because his future vision constantly saved their asses from assassination and their views like clashed with his

[garthofshayeris]

Is Garth mera’s nephew? (Sorry if this is obvious question I just get conflicting info when I try to google it)

I’m not surprised Google didn’t help, because it is a bit confusing!

(All of this is per the preboot canon, btw. I don’t think Mera and Garth have spoken in rebirth lmao)

This is where Google might mislead you: in the Tiny Titans and similar children’s storybooks, the writers avoid the complicated backstory of Aqualad by simply having him call Arthur and Mera his uncle and aunt. This is the only time he does so and it is not reflected in any other canon. It is also not accurate, as Garth’s biological parents are not related to Arthur or Mera and he is, in fact, an orphan. He also seems to be their foster child in those stories so…idk that feels awkward lol just let him call her mom???

In comics canon:

While Garth was taken in, he was not actually adopted by Arthur. Mera is his mother figure but he had never called her his mom. Arthur doesn’t even call Garth his “son” until Garth is like 25 lol he’s just referred to as a kid Arthur takes care of/works with

Garth is referred to as “Uncle Garth” in regards to Mera’s child, Arthur Jr. However, that does not accurately reflect his relation to Arthur or Mera (they are not siblings) and rather is just demonstrative that Arthur Jr is the child of the king and queen, while Garth is not. This is kinda a major part of Garth’s emotional turmoil if I’m behind honest.

Relationship-wise, she is more like his mother (or like, his dad’s hot GF since their dynamic shifted once she had her own baby lol) but writers usually don’t get into that. Since Silver Age, the two rarely interact one-on-one

[immersilly]

摸門釘 [Ena Sekiro Lore]

Please do NOT heavily reference your own works using mine :)!

Tbhk oc lore made by me, i might alter it again idk. enjoy i guess, i dont know why anyone would want to read this lol

background/ lore information for Ena Sekiro and 'The Mother of Supernaturals' Suzuna

---

Background info-

Birth place: Kokuren village/clan

• Village that follows 'olden ways' and did not modernize with society

• In far mountains

Old folk lore speaks of a demon who had plagued their village for centuries, consuming and devouring its people, people could not leave the town, out of fear. One day an "angel" falls from the heavens to Kokuren village the angel and the demon fight and in the end, both die

• Their fight leads to the growth of black lotus flowers.

• Rumor has it that one day a child of sin would be born and the demon would reincarnate from that child and ruin the village once more

• The angel would be worshiped like a deity

• While the village no longer was isolated/ unable to explore, it was still taboo to leave or explore the world

• Had connections to surrounding clans including Minamoto clan

• Black lotus would be experimented and used for rituals or spiritual/religious things relating to the angel and the demon

Black lotus info:

• They cannot be grown artificially; they only grow in the village, how they keep spreading is unknown

• Only grow naturally around the village, grow in big cluster where it was assumed the demon and angel had died together

• The flowers seem to live forever, or a really long time

• The black lotus is extremely poisonous, simply touching it can cause irritation to the skin. Consuming it could altogether just kill a person. But mainly dulls/ weakens consumer's senses

---

Family background-

-(Ena's Mom)

A married woman and her husband live together in Kokuren village.

        • The wife happens to study the black lotus. Also happened to often assist the uses of black lotus in         rituals etc.

        • Considered important woman who is respected by others

        • One day she meets an injured fangxiangshi (chinese excorsist)

        • He is a wanderer who does as he pleases, originally going to Japan to meet with a Japanese excorsist         (assumed to be head of minamoto clan) but gets into a complication with a apparition and ends up         dragged near the village

        • He's a womanizer 💀 very bad.

        • She is cautious if him since he's an outsider, but she helps him none the less.

        • The two end up having an affair and he ends up leaving

-(Ena's Dad)

A fangxiangshi of an honorable family who decided to travel the world for a sense of freedom, leaving all his responsibilities behind.

        •despite his layed back, womanizing behavior, he is still in fact a powerful exorcist

----------

Backstory: 

When Hiromu was born, he looked exactly like his father, the same brown hair and greyish purple eyes, traits neither his mother or his mother's husband had.  With Kokuren's traditional customs, the idea of affairs were frowned upon, especially from someone with her reputation as scientist (studying the black lotus).

To save face, his mother claims that the rumors of the reincarnation of the demon are true and she is a victim of it all. 

Hiromu is promptly caged and isolated from other children and citizens as a whole. His mother take the position of 'studying' him since she studied the black lotus. For the first few years of Hiromu's life his mother would briefly care for him whenever it was necessary and spend the rest of her time with her black lotus study. The whole reincarnation ploy was a ruse of course-

It would not stay that way. There was of course suspicion from other villagers that the baby was actually the result of an affair, but those rumors were originally rare due to Hiromu's mother's position, there was no reason for her to lie. Seeing how she was willing to spare the child and study it instead of immediately killing it made people suspicious. 

Hiromu's mother tried her hardest to refute these rumors the harsher and more popular this rumor of her affair got. She cared deeply for her position and her reputation. If she was shamed and found out what she did she would no longer be allowed her job of studying lotus along with the tarnished reputation. She would become so committed to denying the affair claims she started to genuinely believing she didn't have an affair. 

Eventually a psychic would be hired to examine Hiromu when he turned 5. By then he was locked up in an isolated shed. The Psychic confirms that there is something wrong with his energy. She says there is a dark spiritual energy that emanates from him that would be difficult for low level exorcists to expel or even sense. After her vision, she take her money for the job and leaves. 

With this now confirmed Hiromu's mother, who already begun believing her own delusions full on believed it was not her fault at all. Her son was cursed by the legend of a demon and she was the poor victim. 

Soon after she left, sightings of supernatural creatures and occurrences begun on the rise. Hiromu's 'awakening demon presence' was to blame according to the villagers. 

Little did the village know, the psychic was a fraud/scammer who only spoke what would benefit her. She assumed eventually she would be called back to exorcize the child herself after her claim that weaklings couldn't sense the dark aura and planting a supernatural charm on him to attract supernatural to him, causing more of a stir. Her hopes of being called back for another job for the village failed. 

With the confirmation that Hiromu is in fact the incarnate of the demon who destroyed their village that chief takes matters into his own hands. Hiromu's identity is announced to the whole village (reminder he is still just a child). Instead of immediately killing him, they use his body as a sacrifice/tool for their rituals, giving to the angel who protecting them centuries ago. 

(WARNING FOR THIS PARAGRAPH ONLY: SLIGHTLY GRAPH/GOREY/ HONESTLY JUST TORTURE)

Hiromu had his canines' shaves flat and nails partially removed in order 'to disarm the demon' he was to be locked away and only let out when he was needed in a ceremony, ritual or any event giving to the angel. He was forced to drink a liquid made of the black lotus his mother was in charge of studying daily. While not shown, Hiromu would describe the ceremonies and rituals as painful ripping and tearing apart of his limbs into the bleeding was no more. The Black lotus liquid itself tasting detestable, it pained his organs and every movement, but the pain overtook any other feeling. 

Other than the ceremonies, early on, while he was more able bodied, he would attempt to escape many times. All attempts would fail and end with him being dragged back to where he started. When he was locked up he would spend his time counting, the only thing he really knew how to do. 

Eventually a woman in the village had enough of the treatment of the child and attempted to help him escape. Letting him out of his cell, she ran with him into the forest, hoping to find a way out, somewhere he would be safe from the hell he knew as home-. She would fail and die, being slaughtered by an apparition attracted to the charm tagged to Hiromu himself. Hiromu on the other hand would survive. After watching the woman be eaten, he would be saved by a Minamoto child, Teru Minamoto. 

Taken back home, nothing would come of this interaction. Teru's visits would increase with the number of apparitions. Kokuren would be used as a sort of warming up training ground with the increased amount of apparitions it summoned. The chief would not inform Teru nor his instructor of the 'demon' and the villagers were ordered not to say a word. (Minamoto clan would eventually stop their training visits and offer talisman that would protect the village. without knowledge of the shed, it would not be protected) 

Hiromu's attempts to escape would come to a stop after the woman's death. 

(back to not able bodied Hiromu WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH IS AGAIN, A LITTLE UNSETTLING)

One day after a ceremony left him in severe condition he would be left lying on the ground in his shed. The effect of every ceremony, ritual, event had worsened his body to a nauseating degree. Parts of his skin were left with dark purple coloration from all the black lotus he had drank, he no longer could taste, or feel anything but that concoction and pain, his sight was degrading and overall might as well have been dead and decomposing. 

After news of a strange energy drawing supernaturals in from the area became known. Suzuna would leave the school and investigate on her own. It would not hurt to try, testing her limit as a lone floating voice would not be bad. If she wanted to gain any strength or resilience she had to start from somewhere. Upon making it to the village after a long walk, she would focus her attention on a shed. A very peculiar shed. Upon investigating she would find a boy. A scrawny, injured, out of place, unsettling to look at boy, but a normal boy in the end. What took her attention was not his horrible state or condition, not even the building. It was his face. He looked strikingly similar to a child she once loved and cared for dearly. 

Horimu is offered help from a mysterious voice coming from a woman. She gives him the choice of rotting away like a corpse, or following her as her assistant. In his eyes she is his savior, the one who will be able to save him. He is desperate for the pain and numbness to end. When he accepts, she 'puts him back together' and helps him escape. 

"you will needs me and me alone, no one else with harm you this way again as long as you obey my every orders. No one else will save you, child" 

From that day forward the rise of supernaturals around Kokuren with cease. 

Suzuna renames Horimu, Ena, after the first child she favored. WHile unable to remove the purple marks on his body or his taste, she was able to remove a majority of his fatigue and physical injuries, she cures his eyesight and makes him able bodied once more.   

Ena would stubble his way out of the forest before passing out. unable to carrying him or anything as only a voice, she could only watch over him. 

A girl passing by on her walk home is alarmed, seeing the passed out boy just laying in the dirt. She picks him up and takes him home. From there she nurses him back to full health. Ena, who cannot speak, read or write, learns most of his academics from the girl. She takes care of him out of worry, he doesn't look from around the city in his attire, and he couldn't even speak to her properly to begin with. Ena is untrusting of her and starts off uncomfortable and cold to her (he literally cannot communicate with her). As time goes on, he begins warming up to her, Suzuna on the other hand urges him to leave. Ena is wary of leaving though, finding comfort in the girl who he was under the care of. This would end poorly, with Suzuna luring a supernatural to her home effectively killing her and her family.  Suzuna blames Ena for the girl's death and urges him to follow orders better or more will die. 

Suzuna guides him back to Kamome Academy, where her real form is able to reside...

currently Ena is Suzuna's asistant; he works to care adn protect the apparitions of Kamome academy in Suzuna's place

----------

Suzuna lore:

"Despite not being an official School Wonder, Suzuna (鈴奈) [known as Lady Suzu or Suzu, or 'The Mother of Supernaturals'] has the respect of most supernatural and other wonders of the school. It's thought that she has been residing here for a long time. She is unofficially titled "Wonder number 0" Suzu sometimes speaks of a time where she once had a body (she's a disembodied voice currently, she is only able to form a false body for herself in a certain small part of the school). No one is sure how it happened, but rumor has it, god had taken away her body as divine punishment."

backstory-

Suzuna was once a well loved priestess of a shrine (that would later be built over and turned into Kamome Academy). She often watched over the children who visited and aided the elderly. Anyone in her care was surely to feel better. She wore a warm smile and she was always covered or had cherry blossom petals on her uniform and in her hair. She remembered everyone who visited and was sure to greet them is she ever saw them. She acted as a caring warming mother to everyone. She seemed to be an untouchable flawless being who blessed any who came into contact with her. Her favorite was a little girl named Ena who frequently visited her, giving her trinkets and gifts whenever she visited. She treated her Ena as if she were her own daughter. She would give the world for her. They would talk for hours about whatever Ena wanted. 

That is until Ena started drifting away from her one day, she begun to visit less frequently and speak with Suzuna much less. Unknown to Suzuna, Ena was Planning a surprise party for Suzuna's birthday. The thought of losing Ena drove Suzuna mad, during one of Ena's visits leading up to Suzuna's birthday, Suzuna would kill Ena in a fit of frustration. This would quickly be found out by the community and Suzuna would be turned against. She would be dragged out of the shrine she spent her whole life in and burned alive by her favorite cherry blossom tree. 

From this day forward she curses god for the cruel punishment he placed on her for her actions. She hopes for a day where she will be able to enact revenge. 

[otakween]

Cyborg 009 BGOOParts Delete (2020) - Volume 4

Zooming to the finish line because frankly I want to be done with this manga so I can move onto something I'm actually invested in! Well actually, I realized that there are a few other Cyborg 009 things I haven't read yet, but they're all short and translated, so I'm not worried about them.

Ch. 22

I had to read this chapter twice because Hera's Japanese was so tricky. She talks in fancy-old-timey talk, no fair!

Essentially the Mythos cyborgs are brought back to life by Hera and Apollon is like "well wait a minute, we're now back to 100% health, but the numbers cyborgs are all beat up, I don't want to fight unless it's fair and square!" and then Hera's like "too bad!" and she uses her amulet to mind control all the Mythos cyborgs

Getting back into the "Mythos cyborgs are tragic characters" theme with Apollon being sick of being used over and over again by everyone.

Ch. 23

Finally stuff is happening other than boring battling/monologuing! In this chapter we learn Hera's backstory (she used to be Dr. Gaia's assistant Renate). I found it kinda hard to sympathize with her because in the flashback Gaia was like "mwahaha I'm going to take over the world with my Mythos cyborgs, sound good?" and she was like "power? Domination? Well...I guess!" Like, she didn't hesitate much.

Since Riko is incapacitated all of the Mythos cyborgs dissolve along with the battlefield where they were fighting. The double page spread where the numbers cyborgs were sent back undersea was well done.

It was kind of awkward how Joe was like "water? Pyunma's time to shine!" but then Pyunma was like "yeah, I can't do shit cuz if I bring Riko up to surface too fast she'll die." I feel like most of the cyborgs weren't exactly built to save people (like how Joe can't touch anyone while using his acceleration switch)

Ch. 24

Oof, this chapter was a bear to get through. At some point I gave up and started using DeepL translation (which worked surprisingly well). Basically the whole chapter was Gaia/Zeus/whatever monologuing about...idk world domination or something? Also, using and abusing the Mythos cyborgs for his own gain.

I lied, there's also a bit at the beginning of the chapter where Artemis and Francoise cry about how they don't wanna fight and Artemis is jealous over Francoise and Joe's relationship.

Ch. 25

Hera regains strength, this time possessing Riko' mom (Hitomi) instead of Riko. They drew Hitomi really goofy looking in the reveal and I couldn't take it seriously. Hera gets a monologue in while the numbers cyborgs regroup. God, this is boring.

Ch. 26

Now that I have DeepL translation on my side, I'm having more fun reading this lol. I can read normal character dialogue (like the butlers and the numbers cyborgs) just fine, but the Mythos folks and Professor Gaia/Zeus speak in an old-timey, pretentious way that's way too advanced for me >_<

In this chapter all the characters prep for the final battle. The Mythos cyborgs begrudgingly agree to fight one last time as they accept that they have no control over their own fates, but they also destroy the Mythos cyborgs copies/clones because they're sick of being resurrected over and over only to be used and abused. Zeus is like "how dare!" and then the orb thingy that they were all in sinks into the Aegean sea.

This chapter had some great, dramatic panels. Mainly the numbers cyborgs group shot at the end and the double page spread of the Dolphin.

Ch. 27

The fight begins between the numbers and mythos cyborgs and the mythos cyborgs debut a new strategy and new powers. The numbers cyborgs ponder the weirdness of their new tactics when they seem to send out one mythos cyborg at a time. They also learn that at least one of the mythos cyborgs now has the power to shape shift which complicates things.

009 picks up 006 to use him as a flamethrower. Was it established that Joe's acceleration doesn't harm other cyborgs? I can't remember, but that sounds right...(or do they all still have acceleration powers thanks to the Dolphin?)

Ch. 28

So it turns out that Zeus was the shape-shifter. He and Joe have a confrontation and Zeus transforms himself into Joe. They then pull that BS we've seen in every movie ever where Joe and Zeus try to convince the numbers cyborgs that THEY'RE the real Joe. Dun dun dunnnn.

002 proves which Joe is fake by flying him up into the sky and recreating the scene from the end of volume 10. He asks Zeus if he remembers the promise they made and Zeus!Joe gets the answer wrong. Jet drops him and all the other cyborgs fill him with bullets. At the last second tho, Hera teleports him away (potentially healing him?)

Onto the next! I thiiink the last volume is the last but I'm not entirely sure. Could be second to last, but 5 seems like a good number to end on. I'm pretty surprised after all this time no one has picked up this series for translation yet!! I'm not really a fan, but I know there a lot of Cyborg 009 superfans out there these days...oh well. I can deal with short series in Japanese. I just get fatigued after awhile with the longer ones.

[literali1110]

Chenford 5x20

Overall, I'm very happy with the storyline from this episode!

We left off with Tim telling Lucy he'll be fine with her being UC but from his face he's clearly not okay. I love that we're left on a kind of open-ended situation that will continue to be explored.

I'm glad Lucy finally brought up this conversation with him and was honest.

Tim wasn't honest with her, or perhaps - with himself. But that's understandable because he doesn't want to be the reason she doesn't choose something she loves and he doesn't want her to grow to regret him.

Lucy needs to decide for herself if she's going to be UC or not. It shouldn't come from outside factors such as Prim or being recognized from TV. And yes, she's heard the warnings from Nyla and now Isabel but they were both still encouraging to her and telling her that she could still do it and not be like them.

So I think she needs to go undercover for a long period of time and decide for herself if it's the right decision for her or not. It does seem to contradict her saying she wants to have kids soon but I guess she still needs to figure stuff out.

And of course Tim and her relationship should figure into her decision but Tim wasn't honest with her about his feelings, so it's complicated and I'm excited that they're going to continue to explore it over the next episode or two.

I loved Lucy's conversation with Isabel and the depth they gave to Isabel and her backstory, and of course I loved that Tim told Isabel Lucy is different.

I found it a little odd that in the beginning they were making it seem like Isabel was more of a threat just because she was his ex-wife and single, and they had Tamara looking into her but then kinda disappear...and she and Tim didn't really have an end scene giving closure. But honestly, I don't think she's a threat other than the fact that she's a reminder of what could happen when you go UC.

The comment about meditation bothered me, not because of how it related to Lucy, but because we know Tim does meditate! Or at least he knows the value of it, which we saw in season 3 with Katie. Maybe he actually does meditate and he's embarrassed to tell Isabel that he's "soft" now? Idk lol.

As for the other storylines, STR is not really my thing, the Bailey storyline was completely not connected to anything else and not needed in my opinion, and the Angela storyline, I wish had been a little more about her solving a case. I'm still not clear if she did all that pregnancy stuff in the interrogation on purpose. Also I wonder if she's not going to be in the next two episodes?

Overall I thought it was a really strong chenford episode and I really like the complexity of where things left off and I'm excited to see what happens next! I may or may not have a UC fic I've been working on that canon has still not completely made irrelevant so maybe I'll finally finish it...

[fictionalmenjusthitdifferent]

Hi bestie!

💋🌹🍷

For the OC asks?

Julia! Bestie!!! First off, my ship is Kistra x Rex (I'm living vicariously through her lol)

💋: what motifs/symbols do you associate with your ship?

Mmm, I'd say either the jaig eyes Rex has on his helmet, or like, the jedi order symbol? Idk I hadn't really thought about it 😂

🌹: is their relationship healthy, or more unhealthy/complicated?

Healthy, well as a healthy as a forbidden relationship in the middle of a war can be😅

🍷: favorite thing about your oc?

Ooo, probably her backstory, I did put a bit of effort into it and it's still a WIP

[modpoppy]

favs from all my fandoms (new and old)

some of my favs from each fandom ive been in like ever

genshin impact: my fav of all time kaeya alberich i love him Very Much So, hes just one of those characters who its like. UGH. where he just wants to be sweet but cant let himself get too comfortable where he is (literally in his case). i also relate to him irt my relationship with my family/sibling. hes just constantly aware of other people both to be cautious and to know the people he cares about more, hes been shown canonically to pay close attention and provide gifts that he knew people wanted

runner up is ZHONGLI i related to him very much but i fogrgt why rn lol

kingdom hearts: xion, not for very long but right around when i was finally actualizing my gender identity (id previously been very agender/masc) i rlly took to xion for like. Gender Inspo. i felt like even tho she got the short end of the stick she did her damndest to forge her own identity (roxas got his whole game and arc about it while xion bascially got fridged but its fine). when i finally let myself consider who i would be as a fem person, i pictured her :D

one piece: sanji!! i already sorta liked him (okay maybe not in fishman island or thriller bark. that was. shit.) before heading into whole cake but. lord almighty. lemme tell ya i dont cry very easily over anime but whole cake took me OUT. sanji just tries so hard to be someone who doesnt cause the problems, hes cringe fail but he tries so hard to just be ALLOWED to exist bc hes fought so hard to believe he SHOULD uugggghhhhhhhhhhh. irt the straw hats i think he has some of the most unique and fleshed out philosophies (not wasting food) that his backstory perfectly contextualizes. also im on board with trans fem sanji

runner up is YAMATO he is so beautiful AND hes a kinnie whats not to love im just mad hes not in the straw hats (yet)

total drama: svetlana this was legit the only gif i could find of her on here. i dont need to explain myself svetlana sweep 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️

jjba: doppio/diavolo its FINE it COUNTS but technically 90% just doppio..... back in 2021(?) i dyed my hair like diavolo (pink with green spots) i feel like thats. all i need to say

ace attorney: to the surprise of absolutely no one THE PHANTOM ive just always attached to the whole. Not Being thing. in the past i struggled rlly hard with depersonalization/derealization/dissociation/basically every manifestation of the phantom, so id connect to them (which i dont think helped lol). nowadays, i focus rlly hard on the idea of the phantoms semi-redemption bc its like... being a person not being a required prerequisite to existing/being in society if that makes sense???? its complicated and probably only makes sense to me :P

runner up is obviously UENDO+ i love them all tell no one but i think kisegawa is my fav i wish she got more lines i actually only watched soj for them bc at the time everyone said the game was literal ass

(dw athena is in close third place shes literally my daughter)

rvb: if you asked me while i was a fan id probably say agent maine but in retrospect grif was clearly my fav, especially later in the show when he was one of the few leads who had a genuine character arc. he feels the most like a real person idk man

silent hill: every fucking gif of henry is him busting his ass thats all that needs be said

danganronpa: i changed favs very often bc i had zero idea what constituted well written characters lmao i have ~eclectic tastes~ but the main character i rlly liked was touko/syo, her arc in despair sisters afairc was decently well done and her relationship with komaru was sweet, even if dr is kinda an inescapable grease fire. in hindsight, i think i also related more to her than i realized bc of her self esteem and the way her trauma/phobias seemingly blocked her from basic self care/socialization but it was really more about her never having the courage to push her own boundaries (idk how well thats shown in the game but that was my experience)

runner up: korekiyo bc i liked him a lot for longer than most othr characters but afairc my perception of him was VERY heavily based on headcanons/fanon so i doubt id like him at all on a replay. best guess is id only maybe like shuichi or something. pretty much everyone in dr is an asshole tbh i cannot emphasize enough how ass my taste used to be my ability to pick characters i like boiled down to someone telling me a character was cool and i immedaitely absorbed them

pjo: okay so this bitch is in a book so ofc theres no gif for him but jason grace is the funniest motherfucker on the earth. half the time id say something out loud while reading and hed immediately say that exact thing. absolutely exquisite. bro had no idea what the fuck anyone was saying half the time

twst: i started playing for ruggie but immediately deuce also proved to be the funniest motherfucker ever i dont think ive ever seen his gimmick in anything else its so fucking funny i live for characters who seem like the straight man but then turn out to be equally as batshit as their peers (i stopped playing bc i had been misinformed and thought this was a college but these are HIGH SCHOOLERS why am i being isekaid into HIGH SCHOOL WTF)

now for some misc favs bc theres not really a fandom for them per se

i love him and he is me

oh my god and i found a gif of my favorite scene i love steven i also want to . attack him sometimes

[cockneydio]

Impossible question: who do you think has the saddest backstory in Vento Aureo?

Ok I've thought about it and I'm gonna rank the backstories by degree of tragedy, with methodology, hold on to your butts:

9. Diavolo - His backstory is fucked up, like it sucks his mom was in jail or whatever, but I have zero pity for Mr. Arson McSmashNDash

8. Trish - She breaks Narancia's arm and demands Chanel and Evian when we meet her. Trish's present may suck but she came up ok.

7. Leone Abbacchio - We've all hit that moment of disillusionment when you grow up and realise the institutions that are designed to support our society are in fact irreparably corrupt, yet managed not to collude with pimps and murderers. Abbacchio's personal pity party is sad but he brought it on himself.

6. Guido Mista - Up until like a year before the part starts he was living an easy breezy life, chasing skirts and picking fights he couldn't win. The failure of the justice system is unfair and unfortunate, but Bucciarati bails him out too soon for me to feel too bad for him.

5. Giorno Giovanna - Not that I want a bunch of Giorno kinnies coming after me (again), but while his early life sucked, Giorno gets a full fledged deus ex machina when he's only 4 or 5 that improves his life practically overnight. That's something that goes completely overlooked when people talk about his story, particularly in comparison to the next ones on this list. It got better for him, in part because of his own gut sense of justice, and he's able to come clear-eyed into the gang, unlike everyone else.

4. Pannacotta Fugo - I've moved Fugo around on this list a little. I don't feel any particular sadness when I think about Fugo's backstory; it sucks but it's complicated. I am not a manga purist by any stretch of the imagination, but I tend to defer to the original IP for authorial intent. And in this case, Fugo wasn't designed to have as tragic of a backstory as the other guys (presumably to make it easier to accept his eventual departure)...so I kind of disagree with the anime adaptation making it sadder? I think Fugo could have been a unique character among the group, one whose own personality flaws (i.e. murderous temper) rather than systemic injustice were the reason for his social ostracism. But the anime made him a victim, which idk seems too easy. That said, there's no question his anime backstory is fucked up.

3. Narancia Ghirga - His mom dies of a slow and painful disease, his father neglects him, he runs off and lives on the streets, gets screwed by the people he's come to trust and also the justice system, and nearly dies from a similar condition to what he'd seen his mom suffer thru. People who are supposed to care for Narancia let him down at every step of his life, taking advantage of his good and trusting nature. That breaks my heart.

2. Bruno Bucciarati - My thoughts on Bucciarati's past are well known at this point lol. This man's whole life is a tragedy.

1. Jean-Pierre Polnareff I ran out of colors idk - surprise right lol. We know the tragedy Pol suffered before Part 3 that led him onto that devastating journey, which ended with even more pain and regret. I imagine Polnareff and Jotaro just sorta..floating thru their 20s, conscripted by the Speedwagon Foundation to keep revisiting the circumstances around that traumatic stardust crusade without any real aim or hope of closure. Then Diavolo nearly kills him, which effectively forces him into hiding. He just lives for so long plagued by the problem of the stand arrows, it dictates his whole life, and that really fucks me up man.

[yeetlegay]

Heya! Asking this as someone who has watched the movie Pretty Woman but not for a LONG time, so my memory is fuzzy.

If I recall correctly, there were some bits in various spots that I think wouldn't float today. So if the Pretty Woman movie were remade today, with an updated approach and more contemporary viewpoints on sex work, what do you think might change? How might the story go differently?

Partly I'm asking because I'm curious to see what different choices you make from the film in FLH. 🤔 *curious curious curious*

Ohhhh this is fun, although idk if I’m the person to speak in depth about the “right way” to tell a story about sex work. Most of what I know about the industry is based on either a) academic scholarship or b) conversations with friends who currently are or used to be in sex work. Representation of sex work is complicated and there are contradicting opinions even within the sex worker community about what it should look like.

With that disclaimer aside, the original Pretty Woman movie isn’t perfect by any means. I think its big weakness is with Vivian’s character and how they chose to write/depict her journey and backstory. They lean into this very Christian/evangelical/biblical idea that women become prostitutes because they have a low sense of self-worth or they’re tricked/forced into it. (I say women because the movie ignores the existence of male sex workers entirely, and is so heavy with the gender binary that trans and nonbinary sex workers are even further off its radar.) Obviously sex workers can have low self-worth just like anyone else, and it’s a high-risk profession that a lot of people get manipulated or trafficked into. The problem is that they didn’t have any other sex workers in the movie besides Vivian’s friend Kit, who’s in pretty much the same boat as far as character background and motivations.

(Throwing in a cut here, it’s about to get rambly lol)

So what hasn’t aged well for me is that Vivian’s development relies so much on ideas about sex work that minimize women’s agency and moralize their sexuality. Vivian got to be the main character in the movie, the person people rooted for, because a) she was ashamed of how she made a living and b) her arc centered around self-esteem and wanting to be “saved” from poverty and exploitation, both of which made her a kind of Mary Magdalene figure that was the only archetype of a sex worker that would be palatable/sympathetic to a broad audience’s values and norms.

That perception of her was reinforced by a pretty big age gap, even though it’s not really discussed much in the movie. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have a 19-year age gap. She was like 22 to his 41 when this movie was made. To be clear, I don’t give a shit about age gaps (I actually love age gap romances when done well, noona romances are my absolute WEAKNESS) and I’m not saying it makes their relationship unhealthy or anything. It’s just something that helps drive home to both them and the audience that Vivian is the young girl who needs a second chance, and Edward is the older man who can help her. He treats her well, but also he has a pretty condescending, paternalistic attitude toward her that exacerbates the power/class divide and infantilizes her a bit for the audience’s sake. Honestly he’s kind of a dick lol. It’s a miracle I like this movie as much as I do given how much I would hate him if I met him in real life. (Also the way he doesn’t CALL THE FUCKING COPS when his friend Stucky tries to force himself on Vivian??? What the actual fuck my guy)

Okay, now that I’ve rambled about all that, to answer the “what would I change” part of the question, I’d actually say Fake Love and Hennessy is pretty much my answer tbh, in the broadest strokes at least. When I first started outlining and writing, I knew what didn’t work for me in the original Pretty Woman and I had a decent grasp of sex work advocacy, so it was just a matter of figuring out what felt true to Porsche’s character and sort of reverse engineering the plot of Pretty Woman to fit that as much as I could. Which was actually ridiculously easy, not because I was some kind of genius lol, but just because Pretty Woman and Kinnporsche have a surprising amount of plot points and narrative elements in common. The outline basically fell in my lap, I’m not even joking.

Intentional choices I made re: representing sex work and character arcs:

Porsche has self-worth issues, just like Vivian, but they’re explicitly tied up in his role as caregiver for his brother and the class/power divide between him and Kinn. He doesn’t feel good enough for either of them, but that’s not why he got into sex work. It’s just a thing that happened, a choice he made, and he’s not ashamed about it, even if he feels the friction of deviating from social norms. It helps that Kinn is a deviant too (sociologically speaking, not talking about morals just that they’re both breaking society’s rules in different ways) so it would be pretty hypocritical for him to look down his nose at sex work, a major part of the underground economy in his world. (In fact, pretty much everyone in Kinn’s network is sex work positive and Porsche being a sex worker is by itself a total non-issue. If you’re afraid someone is gonna slutshame him or demean sex work at some point in the fic, don’t be. I’m not writing it, point blank. Not even the villains get to pull that shit on my watch.)

I’m playing around a bit with the wiggly consent moments from the movie. Kinn isn’t as pushy as Edward is, which is because a) he’s not as steeped in Western patriarchal influence and b) he just plain digs consent. He doesn’t repeatedly try to kiss Porsche after Porsche shows visible discomfort (like Edward did in the piano scene) and even after a couple of days when it’s obvious Porsche would be pretty down for kissing, he doesn’t make a move because Porsche already set his boundaries.

The D/s stuff honestly just sort of happened lol, I didn’t mean to make it such a big part of their relationship, but when I realized it was going there I went back to my outline to puzzle it out. It was really important to me that Porsche’s submissiveness wasn’t somehow conflated with powerlessness, considering the class divide between him and Kinn. I wanted it to be about him feeling empowered to own his pleasure and desire in a way he’d never let himself before, NOT about him lacking agency in his body as a sex worker. Porsche as a character is just so wrapped up in taking care of everyone around him that he’s not very self-aware in a lot of ways, so Kinn’s style of domming—extremely attentive, confidence-boosting, worshipful—throws him for a complete loop. So while the movie wasn’t very kinky, I thought Kinn and Porsche’s sexual power dynamic in the fic would be an added way to give Porsche agency as he starts exploring this new side of himself.

I’m still not trying to represent sex work “accurately” because that’s sort of impossible to do, and also it’s fiction, where a bit of idealization/rose-colored glasses treatment is pretty much a given. So I’m not saying this fic is even remotely realistic or true to the lived experiences of sex workers. That was never really my goal honestly. What I do want, and what I hope I’ve succeeded at, is to tell a story that respects sex workers across the board and doesn’t stigmatize, dehumanize, or otherwise contribute to their marginalization and oppression.

Okay, that’s a SUPER LONG response lol I get wordy very easily. There’s a lot of stuff in later chapters that departs from the movie, which I would’ve loved to talk about, but it’s all massive spoilers 😔

This made me realize how much I’d love to talk about all kinds of “behind the scenes” stuff about the fic when it’s done, because there’s all these little things (Easter eggs from the movie and show, role reversal moments, scene inspo, etc.) that I’ve had so much fun thinking about and working into the fic. Maybe I could do some sort of Q&A or something at the end if anyone’s interested, or just a list of fun facts/cutting room floor stuff.

But thank you for asking, Nemi, you gave me the perfect excuse to rant about the movie lol. 💖💖

[playstation-lichenthrope]

Hello Hello! I've spotted the Deck of Phoenix tag enough times on my dash now that I HAVE to ask. Whats it about? Care to share the cool oc universe story thing? If you're interested in doing so of course! I would love to hear about it (:

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'VE GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO FRIEND /pos

This is going to be long and barely coherent/word salady but here you go friend Merin :)

Okay so... Deck of Phoenix. Prefacing this with with the fact DoP's message is about finding your own way to deal with trauma of all kinds. All of the characters have their own trauma and deal with it in different ways for better or worse LOL! LMAO! The main 6 we have for the cast are Neptune, Vikki, Teresa, Twilip, Ichigo and Salem. Salem is Ollie's OC that got absorbed into the story and became one of the linchpins in Ichigo's backstory (Childhood friends who were kinda romantic then shit happened and then OUAHGAHFDHGgeF anyways)

The magic system in the story is really complicated to explain because it really only makes sense in my brain at the moment and it's supposed to be universal across many different alien worlds :) Hehe! Did I mention this is a fantasy sci-fi? In the way of a fantasy world in a sci-fi setting!!! HEHEHHE!

Every person/soul is born with an ability that aligns with two sigils (magic types) and it can range from something extremely powerful and useful to something that never even manifests. An example of the latter would be a character we have; she seemed powerless until she died because her power was to revive permanently when brought back by a necromancer. Back to the main characters! Neptune canonically has schizophrenia, he has the ability to see the future of someone when he looks them in the eyes, which is how the story starts and also how he finds out he saves the universe from an evil tyrant called Paradox (Name might be temporary, idk lol) But yeah he has a character arc that might be spoilers so i'll explain on discord but it makes his schizophrenia so so soooo much worse <3 <- Projecting my problems onto him. (Also he is the only human in the group)

Vikki's powers are under construction but! She is basically the glue holding the crew together and is a satyress :3 She likes ballet and is the sweetest person you'll ever meet unless you get on her bad side HFGJEHFVQ Also she's built like a centaur and it's so cool to meee cuz I love drawing non-human characters

Teresa is like if Doc was a Loverboy and also a necromancer >:) I'm thinking about giving her the weird gender swag just to make one of the others the only cis person in the group TKYURLF (Twilip) Xe's an alien from a desert planet and is kinda a cyclops lynx/kangaroo mouse and she kinda looks like a vortigaunt now that I think about it..

Twilip. How do I even explain... He's like if Boomer (bubby x coomer) was a person tbh.. Cranky old man who gives tutorials and worked at a library and he misses his late wife so so much :( BUT he has a swag ass pen that can make drawings come to life and he's about the size of a cat btw if you even care <3 /ref

Ichigo... WHERE DO I START. Ichigo's been our OC since we were a KID! So they technically have the deepest lore due to sheer time scale soooo.. They use any pronouns with a preference for they/them and ze/zir and zir sooo everything to me <3 Imagine Leading Light with cloud's buster blade and soooo many more insecurities... Yea :) I can't even begin to dive into their backstory because I will be here FOREVER but long story short, canon system allegory with being 3 souls meshed into one body by the US government to be a super soldier (A human, an alien, and an inter dimensional being) and the alien part is destined to destroy the universe but that's beside the point! Teehee!

For Salem I suggest asking Ollie because I don't wanna misinterpret anything about him <3

That's all I have for now because my fingers are starting to hurt from typing /g /lh I hope you enjoy!!!!! >:)

[leorai4life]

heeey idk if you're active and you may have seen this but youtube watch?v=apOGUrqIQ_M, the OFFICIAL tmnt channel put out a leo/karai moments video. the name of the video even includes the blue and black hearts. i think the writers were kinda dumb with making karai splinter's daughter but the writers' intentions were not having them be incest. they're just in a weird position where one was biologically related to splinter (karai) but not raised by him, and the other was not biologically related to splinter (leo) but raised by him.

i also think ppl trying to be so insistent on splinter being leo's biological dad is weird bc leo has BLUE eyes and even if mutation took the dna like that, he'd share it with a kids' dna or the shop keepers or some in the sewers. even though splinter and leo don't share genetics, splinter is still just as much leo's dad. it's fine ppl being uncomfy with it but attacking shippers is stupid bc it's not incest.

i think the fact that's the only thing ppl can come up with to talk shit about it shows that leorai has a lot going for it. and at least leo didn't decide to change karai's name to an artwork of a woman painted by a man which is objectifying and creepy cough cough raph/mona cough

Hi, yes still active! I did in fact see the Leorai compilation on the official channel, yeah! I was happy that they were acknowledging Leorai as a semi-canon ship (tho the actual video barely has any Leorai moments; more like Leo vs Karai moments lol).

Yes I agree that Leo and Karai were put in a awkward position by the writers whereby one is Splinter's biological child (Karai) but not raised by him, and one is his child by lifelong bond (Leo) but not by blood. However the intention wasn't incest, the writers just over-complicated Karai's backstory imo because she was introduced as Leo's love interest/rival (and arguably created the most interesting dynamic for Leo AND the best romantic pairing in the show), so revealing her as Miwa makes it harder to explain to those non-shippers, ESPECIALLY if their introduction to Leo and Karai was via Rise where they actively state that the TMNT are related to Splinter AND refer to Karai as 'gran-gran' (Rise Leo and Karai should NOT be shipped). I understand the confusion from a surface level, but it's why you really have to pay attention to Leo and Karai's interactions after she's revealed as Miwa to show that they don't view each other as siblings (peep my pinned post where I go in-depth about this). And yeah, but in all honesty people just love to talk shit about ships that they don't like or throw shade at it constantly - kiiinndaa like what you did with RaMona /lh I know some of the RaMona shippers tend to hate on Leorai cuz some (emphasis on SOME) tend to see RaMona as the superior ship (it's solid but I definitely see some flaws; such as Mona abandoning her mission to save her planet from destruction for some guy she met like THREE TIMES AND THEN NOT APPEAR AGAIN-), but don't stoop to their level - just ignore their trash talk and enjoy Leorai <3

[murdockmeta]

What runs of DD do you recommend? :D

oh gosh okay so that's a complicated question. I want to start by saying that no daredevil run is perfect by any means, especially when it comes to disability representation

but

as far as properly handling Matt's disability goes, Waid does some of the best work in his run which is vol 3 and 4. there's still ableism in that run, particularly internalized ableism from Matt and Matt thinking he's "better" than other disabled people because of his abilities. there's also some pretty serious fatphobia in that run and nasty antisemitism in vol 3 particularly that can't escape mentioning

but Waid does a fantastic job illustrating Matt's radar sense and how it isn't actually a replacement for his vision. he does a fantastic job at touching on Matt's depression. He does a great job at writing Kirsten after he introduces her. He handles Matt's characterization well and calls back to older comics. He reminds you of Matt's personality instead of just throwing Matt into a bunch of horrible situations and even goes so far as to touch on the trauma Matt has acquired from said situations.

If you know nothing about Matt's character, then there will be a few confusing moments but nothing major. And I also think vol 3 and 4 can be a fun place to start because it gets you interested in Matt's actual character but, after reading earlier volumes, it can be a joy to come back to because there are new things you get to pick up on (if that makes sense?) like Waid genuinely tries to put in a lot of easter eggs for seasoned readers while still making it beginner friendly to an extent.

if you need a good solid introduction to Matt's character, I'd suggest reading Daredevil: The Man Without Fear by frank miller. Miller, if you don't know, is one of the most (if not the most) notable daredevil writers. idk if you'd call tmwf a run, it's more of a short series (five issues). But it gives you a thorough rundown of Matt's backstory and explains why Matt is the way he is. it also feels like rinsing your mouth out with mouthwash after consuming the shit zdarskys been writing.

I will say, as far as elektra goes, tmwf isn't great. miller loves turning elektra into a sex demon that's only there to be hot and murderous. but everything else is, frankly (pun not intended), fantastic. also, miller doesn't handle matt's disability very well. but a lot of his work is valuable to matt's characters as a whole.

anyway, that's about it! i will tack on the disclaimer that I haven't read all of daredevil! not even close. I've read a few short series, vol 3, 4, 5, and part of 6 and 1. but not nearly everything, not even all of the more revered stuff lol, so do with that what you will

thanks for the ask!!

[renegade-skywalker]

just felt like posting some pics and head canons for my OC bard, Merit 🥰

~~~

(this is mostly backstory but I'll probably add to this later and pin it somewhere idk)

Merit has seven sisters. She’s technically the second-oldest but has undoubted Eldest Daughter energy. The actual eldest sister is Fable. Her younger sisters are Morning Glory, Daffodil, Dahlia, Harmony, Festival, and Jovial (Jo for short). 

Part of the sisterly dynamic is inspired by the Bennet family of Pride and Prejudice though it’s definitely not a one-to-one comparison. Like Jane and Elizabeth, Fable and Merit are the eldest and are very close, having shared a room for most if not all of their lives. Like Jane, Fable is unendingly kind and soft spoken. Unlike Jane though, Fable isn’t interested in romance or a partner at all and is instead intent on opening her own business or taking over the family bakery. Like Elizabeth, Merit is known to be brash but eloquent about it (Vicious Mockery lol) but unlike Elizabeth, she’s the hopeless romantic. Also like Elizabeth, Merit loves to complain but does so in a jovial manner. Like Mary, Morning Glory is a bit off-putting but nice and straight-laced. Like Kitty and Lydia, Daffodil and Dahlia are vapid and boy crazy but are also hilarious and tons of fun to be around. The youngest sisters are a bit like the triplets from Brave in that they are simply a menace.

Her father is a wood elf of indeterminate age (I headcanon that he rarely speaks about himself and only very occasionally drops mind-blowing lore about his past in passing before leaving the room without any further elaboration lol) and is a (no longer practicing) druid though he still pays homage to Silvanus and will occasionally take his troupe of daughters out of the city and into nature to pay his respects. He left his old life behind to wander for a while before stumbling upon the wonders of simply baking bread when in Baldur’s Gate working an odd job and he’s been there ever since. He finds kneading dough to be meditative and soothing, and now runs a bakery with his human wife Alys, who is Way Too Hot For Him. Not that he’s an awful or hideous person, he’s just very, very old and very, very quiet where Alys is quite gregarious and social. No one understands their relationship but it’s something Merit has always admired growing up even if it’s often confused her.

Not sure why but they were somewhat inspired by Holling and Shelly from Northern Exposure which I’ve been watching all winter. Idk just I think they’re hilarious. Also running a store/restaurant together is a fun dynamic idk. 

Merit is closest to her oldest sister, Fable, who she is also the closest in age with. Fable was born sick and her mother had a difficult time with the pregnancy to the point that she thought neither she nor the baby would make it. Fable is named Fable because the idea of her making it into the world was like a dream. After her birth, their parents feared another child wasn’t in the cards and might spell death for Alys, so when Merit was born she was actually named Marvel. She hated that name so when she was six she dubbed herself Merit, because anything ‘worthy of merit’ that she did had to feel earned, whereas Marvel just made her feel like a fraud. Her parents and Fable still affectionately call her “Marv” though.

Merit picked up a love of storytelling from working the bakery with her parents, hearing the customers talk about their various backgrounds, their day-to-day routines, their travels, etc. 

She fell in love with music at 12 when a famous bard came to the city and performed for a while, a half-high elf named Laurel, who took a shine to her interest and taught her how to play. They remained pen pals for years even after he left Baldur’s Gate exchanging verse and ideas for songs, however their relationship was… complicated, and quite frankly inappropriate. Merit did not see it for what it was until she was much older.

Merit has a bit too many interests and has dabbled in fencing, languages, history, the arcane, and even what little druidic magic her father has taught her (she’s mostly familiar with animal speaking and plant growth) though her main love is poetry, song, the written, sung and spoken word. Her greatest ambition is to write an epic poem that can be performed in parts, essentially acting as a dramatic tome as well as what essentially is a concept album in our reality

Part of the reason Merit cannot see any of her ambitions through is a mix of her changing attentions which change with the wind’s direction but also her family… she’s often had to return to Baldur’s Gate to help the bakery, and her younger sisters are known for getting in trouble...

Merit has worked her way into the merchant’s guild on her parent’s behalf and has also done some work for the Guild in order to keep her family safe and unbothered, which is a secret she’s kept from them but had done for their safety

Her work pays for the family property’s “protection” so to speak. This would also mean she’s already acquainted with Nine-Fingers Keene before the events of the game.

She’s actually sacrificed a lot for the family business and is happy to do so but it is also to her own detriment. Fable has been able to man the kitchens but not much beyond that due to chronic pain and flare ups. The next eldest sister, Morning Glory, has a head for numbers and will work the books and run the orders but is such a downer that it makes working with her a chore and a nightmare, she’s incredibly controlling and neurotic. The next sisters capable of doing anything, Stella and Selene, are in their early 20’s and would prefer to socialize, party, and snog their way through Baldur’s Gate rather than do anything else. The very youngest sisters, Verity, Amity and Jo, are all too young to do much other than clean maybe but Merit would prefer they have a childhood than work the family business. Plus they are known for playing tricks on people so it’s best they stay out of the way.

Merit feels like she’s already raised a village of children given how much she’s helped raise her sisters practically since she was able to walk so she had zero interest in bearing children of her own. Not to mention how much she’s sacrificed to help the family business, she hopes to one day be able to see all of her dreams and artistic ambitions to fruition.

Merit has a few songs that have gained some popularity but only within Baldur’s Gate seeing as she can never seem to leave for very long. She is most known, however, for her serial called Sea and Shield. It’s a crime serial about a disgraced Flaming Fist who enlists the help of the last person he’s imprisoned, a notorious pirate, who he sets free on the terms that she help him discover who committed the murder he was framed for. It’s relatively popular but the series is unfinished, plus due to being kidnapped and tadpoled she is very very behind her usual publishing schedule. She has no idea how to continue (or possibly even end) the story though so she was already in a pickle before the game events occurred.