#If I feel like it I might infodump about them a little later

[sunshineslumina]

Been drawing them a lot lately because they have my brain in a choke-hold, ya'lls can expect A LOT of self-indulgent doodles with them for the next few weeks or so.

[leewritestoomuch]

Shino Aburame Relationship HCs

I love bug boy. I’ve had things in my drafts for him for so long.

Warnings: NSFW (marked off clearly if you don’t want to read)

SFW:

If you listened to him when he spoke, instead of interrupting him or speaking over him without noticing, he’d feel appreciated.

However, he is still iffy on things, even then, for a while. Like if you say his name last, he’ll take it to heart even if the order of names wasn’t important.

He’ll take not being the first person on your mind personally.

But overtime, if you treat him like you see him, he’ll notice that.

And eventually, he falls for you. Probably before you really did for him, considering he’s a bit quiet.

If you’re quiet too, that’s okay. Things might just move slower.

But if you’re a bit or way more talkative, he’ll enjoy listening to you. He finds he doesn’t mind constant talking and rambling if it’s from you. He likes to listen to every detail and try to commit things he may need to know later to his memory.

Overtime, you’d find yourself falling for him. After all, once you get to know him you’ll realize he’s committed to protecting his friends and his bugs. And really he’s quite kind hearted.

Now it can be a little hard to be with him if you’re not willing to discuss bugs.

He won’t make you hold them if you don’t like them. In fact, if you’re afraid of them, he figures it may be best if you don’t handle them for their and your safety. Mostly theirs because they’re easy to hurt.

But you at least have to be willing to discuss and learn about bugs. After all, I hc him as autistic (I think he is 100% coded to be autistic. He’s a lot like me so I can totally see it) so that’s his special interest.

And Shino doesn’t easily see a point in engaging in a conversation not about his special interest.

He’ll find he’s willing to listen in about your interests (or special interests or hyperfixations) just because it’s you. And he wants to hear about you, and from you.

I think you’d have to be the one to ask him out.

So you do.

The relationship starts off slow. You’ll slowly get more from him, but he’s slow to open up, or to talk in general.

Most dates will be you talking, and him listening.

But you plan a date purposely centered around him, and at first he doesn’t notice, but soon you’re talking about his bugs and he starts to catch on.

You did a lot for him. And he feels special.

Really, the key to his heart is to see him. Make him feel special. Because he really is ❤️

You two garden together if you’re okay with getting your hands a little dirty.

He remembers your favorite flower from times like those when you tell him, and he’ll plant plenty for you. Even buy you some for the next date and special occasions.

He talks so highly of you.

Quiet dates usually.

Or dates where you both infodump.

He’d be perfectly okay with just existing in the same space quietly if you like that.

Eventually you’ll probably get to see his eyes! Don’t go around telling people what they look like though unless he’s told you that you can. More than likely, that’s more of between you two kind of thing.

If you’re a shinobi, he knows you can protect yourself, but he’d make sure he can cover your back well in anyway you could possibly need so he can protect you.

NSFW:

This takes a long time for him to be ready for.

But when you two are ready, he wants it to be perfect.

It’d have to be when you two are alone together in one of your bedrooms, no possibility of distraction or interruption.

Likely at night.

Your first time with him would be intimate, slow, and careful. A bit awkward too.

I’m willing to bet that he doesn’t often touch himself, so he’s not all that sure how he likes things.

He’ll be discovering a lot about himself with you because it’s not very likely he’s been with anybody before you.

He’s big, and he’s aware of that, though. So he wants to make sure you’re more than ready for him.

He’ll go down on you first if that’s okay with you. Finger you a bit during or after that.

Likely he’ll take his time getting to know exactly how you like things, and eventually it’ll get to the point you’re begging him to just put it in you.

When you see his cock for the first time, you do a double take for sure. He’s huge. And now you’re probably wonder how you’ll be able to handle him.

He’ll go slow, but I totally think this would be the one time he can barely control himself.

He’s so composed and put together most of the time. All serious. But being inside you makes him lose all of that. He’s drunk on you.

He tries to stay quiet, but things totally slip from his throat and out his lips. Quiet, but you notice.

He’s careful not to hurt you, but he’s in euphoria with the way you feel around him so his pace picks up a little bit rather he means to or not.

Now he’s not a minute man, it takes longer for him to cum even if this is 100% the best he’s ever felt in his life.

He cums hard though. And takes a little bit to recover from it, so if you want another round, give him a few minutes to breathe.

I think things with him would be rather vanilla (this might be projection tho, bc I’m a basic boring vanilla bitch)

He insists on using a condom and any means of protection you two can if you aren’t planning on having little kids running around any time soon.

Thank you for reading. I love Shino sm. If you have requests for him, send them in. Please.

[tubbypeddle]

Hi again!! I loved the matchup thank youu!! Now I'm wondering though if you maybe have any headcanons for what the part 5 characters (Bucci Gang and/or La Squadra 🤭) would be like with an autistic s/o 👀?

Hi again!! and how cutteeeeee <33 I'm autistic myself, so honestly i'm just projecting here how i want them to treat me teehee

(author's notes: credits to gif owners, of course <3

Without further ado, hhehehehe

Bruno Bucciarati

He doesn't always understand why you do the things you do, but he always always makes an effort to be patient.

He'll eat the food you can't, he'll listen to you ramble and ramble and show genuine interest. He's basically the perfect partner.

Sometimes, when he's out running errands and finds something related to what you're hyperfixated on, he'll get it for you if he has the cash.

When he's making food for you, he's careful to make only food that you'll enjoy eating. Many chicken nugget and mac and cheese dinners.

He's a little firmer with you than he is with the rest of the team, when it comes to you getting hurt. It's because he worries more for you than he does about everyone else. Not only are you his partner, but he feels responsible for your safety. If something happens to you, it's because of him.

Leone Abbacchio

Honestly, he might make you feel a bit bad at first, but it's not on purpose. He doesn't know what autism is, or how to handle people who have it.

But he learns to. Because he feels bad when Bucciarati tells him that he made you feel awful.

So he goes out of his way to research how autistic people feel, why they act the way they do.

Because of his (kinda outdated) research, interactions with him might feel so so scripted. He means well, though.

When you're feeling overstimulated and like every little touch could set your bones on fire, he's happy to just sit in silence with you. As a silent reassurance that he's still here for you. Or even if you want space alone, he'll let you know that his door is unlocked for you, if you want to come to him later.

You're his favorite person, he wants you to know that he's here for you.

Giorno Giovanna

He's autistic himself, even if he doesn't know it.

So he understands you a lot better than everyone else will.

He lets you talk whenever he's available for you, and he often makes time for you in his schedule too. He does a great job making you feel special to him.

Often times, the two of you will sit in relative silence, just existing in each other's presence. But sometimes, when he feels especially jittery, the two of you will infodump on each other about your special interests. He just rambles on and on about the Mafia and what he plans to do with it, and then he'll listen to you ramble about whatever it is you're interested in.

He has a bad habit of eating foods that he doesn't like the texture of, leading to him shutting down or feeling gross afterwards. Mostly because in his childhood, it's either he ate what his house had or he starved, autism be fucked.

It's something you slowly nudge him out of, with much stubbornness on his end. Internalized ableism is so fun, huh. /s

Pannacotta Fugo

He definitely already knows he's autistic himself, so he often does things for you that he himself would enjoy happening to him.

He gets you gifts for your special interests, or he'll research your special interest so he can talk about them with you.

He's very anxious all the time, scared he might hurt you or do something to hurt your feelings. You might have to reassure him very often that you're not scared of him.

His favorite thing to do with you is read together. Like a little book club with just the two of you. Or even writing little essays about things you like so you can read his thoughts and analyses on them. Or drawing with you, even if he's really bad at it. Art composition was his worst subject when he was in school, after all.

He didn't have any hyperfixations before he met you. Which was a little boring for him, even if he spent most of his time trying to survive the mafia anyway. But after meeting you, you became his favorite person. And then you become his new hyperfixation, and you're all he can think about ever.

It's very infuriating for him sometimes. (in the good way)

Narancia Ghirga

Another case of "doesn't know he's autistic".

He's the loud kind of autistic. Socially unaware, but emotionally available to everyone. It's no surprise that he feels himself drawn to you.

He'll talk if you don't want to, he'll eat everything you don't want to (even if he doesn't like it). He just really wants you to like him.

He absolutely lets you indoctrinate him into your special interests. He likes whatever you like, and more! He might accidentally talk over you, just because he's so excited to finally have someone to talk about his interests with.

He means well, though.

Absolute cuddler, all the time. So if you're not that big on physical touch, he'll find another way to cuddle you. He'll put a big body pillow between the two of you and hug that instead, just so he can still be next to you and still hold onto something like that.

Never say that Narancia doesn't have his moments.

Guido Mista

He's very open-minded most of the time, so he handles you being autistic very well.

He handles all of you little "quirks", as he calls it, very well, too. His mentality is "if you don't like it, you don't like, and if you like it, great."

So if you don't want to eat something because of texture issues, that's fine, he'll take it. You don't want to hear something because it feels like glass on your skin, he'll turn on something else.

It really is that simple to him.

He just wants for you to be happy, and if anyone gives you trouble for something that you can't help, he'll shoot them. Easy as that.

[morporkian-cryptid]

I'm rereading Feet of Clay, and something I love about Pratchett's writing is that you keep discovering new things with every reread. This man is a fucking genius; and I say is because we all know a man is not dead while his name is still spoken, and I am very much speaking his name, very loudly and with an undertone of exasperated delight.

(MASSIVE spoilers for Feet of Clay, obviously; do not click if you haven't read that book)

Okay, so the poison was in the candles, right? We all know that, and when you reread the book with that knowledge, you notice all the clues that Vimes will later put together. "Une mèche en métal gris" (a wick of grey metal) in the candlemaker's coat of arms. "Art brought forth the candle". Vetinari doing a whole infodump about arsenic and to "put it where no one will look" (the bastard already knew). The emphasis on the candle being the last sentence in the scene where Vetinari's writing, right before his condition gets worse.

A good writer knows how to sprinkle foreshadowing in ways that are just obvious enough to pick up after the fact.

But you know what a great writer does?

Spread false leads.

I honestly don't remember what I deduced the first time I read the book; I was in high-school and tearing through it without stopping to really think about the clues, and also I had little to no knowledge of the cultural stories around arsenic. But on reread, I keep noticing remarks about the wallpapers.

And if you know anything about the Victorian era, the combination of arsenic and wallpapers will immediately make you go "Pass me a towel!!".

THAT BASTARD (affectionate) PTERRY WANTED US TO THINK IT WAS THE WALLPAPER!

And it's not just once, no. There's Vimes' remark about "That seemed to be about it, short of stripping the wallpaper off the wall", which make me chuckle and mutter "oh come on!". But then later on there's "You might as well accuse the wallpaper of driving him mad"... with the added detail that THE WALLPAPER IS GREEN. IT'S FUCKING GREEN. Pterry KNEW what he was doing.

It takes a third mention of the wallpaper (the fact that it's the same in all rooms and Vetinari's condition hasn't been getting better) before Vimes actually consider it; but we the reader would have been yelling "It's the wallpaper!! It's the wallpaper!!" since the first mention of green.

And this is exactly what you expect from a good writer, right? Give you enough clues to figure out the mystery yourself and feel smart.

And if you didn't notice the wallpaper, or dismissed it in the same way Vimes eventually does (it's been there for years and Vetinari has only just started getting sick), then there's the ink on the journal.

(Spoiler for "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco)

If you've read the book or watched the movie "The name of the rose", the second Vetinari is described licking his fingers to turn the pages of his journal, you should have been screaming "THERE'S ARSENIC IN THE INK!!!" (or at least giving very heavy suspicious side-eyes at the journal and at Pterry).

This is Terry Pratchett's genius, to me, in this book. Sprinkling false leads that seem like solutions to the reader because of our culture, of our knowledge of history or other works of literature, to make us feel smart for having figured out the mystery from the contextual clues before the characters do, and enjoy the fun frustration of watching them bumble around and miss details that we picked up on because we have context that they lack...

And then turn around and pat us on the head and say "Well done, but I played you, you picked up exactly the clues I wanted you to, and ignored the real ones", and you can't be mad at him because the real clues were there! In plain sight!!! The goddamn coat of arms were presented literally within the first twenty pages! We get to feel smart for about half the book, before we realize we've been played, just like Vlmes.

I fucking love Terry Pratchett so much.

[hkpika07]

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

Did you know Big Engine Brawl by @spaceboid and the rest of the lovely team makes me just a little insane. It’s probably one of my favorite ttte things anyone has ever done ever.

Everything about it is just so prefect and right. Especially with Gordon my blorbo Gordon. I’ll be doing some autistic analysis. Spoilers under the cut!

OKAY. So this has captured gordon so perfectly in my humble opinion. His first song Indignation (perfect name by the way) is GRAND and very idk how to describe it but it feels fancy. Even his facial expressions here are very indignant and apathetic. He’s not really taking this seriously because he thinks he can EASILY win. And I love how later near the end of the song the chart for Gordon’s part gets so overly complicated and more complex. It’s like how he thinks so highly of himself that he pushes himself past what he can physically do. He’s so determined to win that he does more than he can manage because he’s a big engine, he’s supposed to be able to manage it. And he thinks he’s so much better than this random small thing that he’s showing off. And if you learn anything on Sodor, it’s to not show off. AND THEN RIGHT AS HIS SONG IS SUPPOSED TO END HE FUCKING BREAKS AND HURTS HIMSELF BECAUSE HE PUSHED HIMSELF TOO FAR. HE GOT SMACKED DOWN FOR SHOWING OFF. Just like the hill. Also I love that his buffers fall off it reminded me of the cgi episode where his buffers fell off and he had to get huge diesel buffers.

AND HIM CALLING ON HENRY TO HELP. ITS LIKE HOW WHENEVER HE FUCKS UP OR PUSHES HIMSELF TOO FAR HE HAS TO CALL ON OTHERS TO SUPPORT HIM. LIKE EDWARD AND HENRY AND THOMAS.

God and the big finale sone with all 3 of them. I’m gonna go insane I’m gonna eat concrete. Gordon’s angry flushed face as he’s finally taking BF seriously. He’s so FOCUSED. I LVOE how they all work together. At points where James and Henry take up the lead part of the song and Gordon is providing harmony support. I am running around my room I am stimming so hard I think I might explode actually. JAMES AND HENRY’S JUST TIRED APATHETIC FACES TO IT ALL. THEY ARE SO DONE. NOT ONLY WITH BF AND GF BUT WITH GORDON’S UNNEEDED FRUSTRATION ABOUT IT. ALSO WHEN JAMES AND HENRY FIRST COME FOR BACKUP THEIR MUSICAL STYLE REFLECTS THAT. HENRY’S IS LESS GRAND THEN GORDON BUT ITS FAST AND DANGEROUS IT REMINDS ME OF THE IMPACT OF THE FLYING KIPPER. AND JAMES HAS A SLIGHT SWING IN HIS SECTION A LOT LIKE HIS MUSIC.

In short this captures Gordon’s character absolutely perfectly in ways that will make me autistically infodump about it to anyone who will listen. I may have gotten some music things wrong because I am not a musician at all. But I do know Gordon’s character and this is perfect. 1000000/10 PLEASE GO PLAY AND SUPPORT IT

[mangosundae]

Greetings, Ni No Kuni fandom! I’ve seen a couple people on here post their NNK ocs on here so I thought I’d add my own blorbo to the collection. Now presenting: Penelope Homebrew of the Land of Nod! She’s from WotWW and has a whole DLC post game mission, which ends with Penelope becoming a playable character. I’ll write out how her story goes under the cut, but basically she’s a potion saleswoman who helps the gang close the Nightmare Rifts (name in progress) that have taken over Castaway Cove, Yule, and Perdida.

***GIANT infodump under the cut!!***

The Land of Nod: Where Dreaming is Doing.

- Okay so Nod is a kingdom located on the Spindle, a small island near Autumnia. I’m pretty sure spindle is a reference to mining, but we’ll say it references the spindle from Sleeping Beauty.

- The Land of Nod is all about dreaming. Its inhabitants, called Nodlanders, have the ability to bring whatever they dream of to life. This ability is called Manifesting. Manifesting requires the user to both come up with the item they desire, dream it, AND remember it when they wake up. Nodlanders grow up practicing how to lucid dream, and how to remember their dreams in the waking world. It’s a hard skill to master, which is why so few can actually make a career out of it.

- But since Nodlanders who do master this skill are very powerful, Shadar saw them as a threat, which is why he put all of Nod to sleep with a spell. That’s also why Nod doesn’t show up on the map in the main game, because it’s hidden from sight. And also he made everyone have nightmares, which is important later.

- Since Nod is a postgame area, the items you can buy here are very powerful, but also very pricey. They can only be found in Nod because the Nodlanders literally dreamed them up. Most Nodlanders have a specific kind of item they focus on, like weapons or armor. It’s a HUGE tourist trap.

- Also you might be asking, why isn’t Nod the richest place in the world? Why can’t they just dream up infinite money and food? I thought of that. You can’t really read or write in dreams, so any dreamed currency is obviously fake. And Nodlanders CAN dream up food, but it can’t inwardly be food. So basically dream food can look and taste a certain way, but doesn’t contain substance or calories, so you can’t survive off it. Snack stands and buffets are very popular in Nod for this reason, as you’ll never get stuffed.

Penelope Homebrew: Saleswoman Extraordinaire (?)

- Penelope lives in Nod but has no dream powers. She’s a disappointment to her parents because of this, and spends the whole story trying to prove herself, before eventually realizing she doesn’t have to prove herself to anyone. Also I want her and Swaine to be besties so they bond over being non-magicals from magical families.

- Since she has no dreaming abilities of her own, Penelope runs the Homebrew Apothecary, where she sells potions made from the Dream Energy of other Nodlanders. They look down on her for not having powers of her own, which makes her feel bad. The apothecary got very little business before Shadar, since tourists were more interested in real dream-based products, but Penelope sees traveling with Oliver as a chance to get her brand out there. There are several cutscenes where she’s just advertising to anyone who’ll listen, and she uses the fights to show off her potions.

- Penelope comes with several potions to use in battle and in the overworld. Each of them has a silly little name because you can’t have NNK without some silly little names.

- Nightcap: This potion induces the sleep status on an opponent for 20 seconds.

- Seeing Stars: A potion that induces the confusion status on an opponent.

- A Dream is a Wish: This drinkable potion will, at random, increase the user’s MP or HP, or take away their status condition (the third option only applies if a status condition is present).

- Beauty Sleep: A drinkable potion that completely heals the user’s HP and MP, in return for making them immobile/asleep for thirty seconds. This also almost completely drain’s the user’s MP, so it should be used sparingly.

- Knock Out: A potion that inflicts physical damage on an opponent.

- Shut Eye: An overworld spray potion that gives your party two minutes of invisibility. It works the same as Oliver’s Veil spell.

- Night Light: Ingesting this potion gives the user night vision.

- Basically, all her potions are either thrown, ingested, or sprayed. She starts off with a slingshot, but eventually Swaine makes her the Shooting Star, a steampunk looking bow and arrow that can shoot out any offensive potion Penelope currently has in her roster. The “arrows” are syringes full of potions. This makes her a ranged attacker. I imagine she can replace Swaine in battle, similar to how you can replace Esther with Marcassin.

- Oh also, to make the gang trust her, Penelope pretends she was a famous and successful potioneer before Shadar cast his sleep curse. Swaine suspects her from the start because one con artist recognizes another, but eventually everyone learns she’s been lying and conflict happens. Oooooooo.

The Plot: Nightmare Magic-Induced Therapy

- As I mentioned, Shadar put all the Nodlanders to sleep and gave them nightmares, which they kept having until Cassiopeia woke them up. When they woke up their Dream Energy exploded across the world and caused Nightmare Rifts to appear in Castaway Cove, Yule, and Perdida. Why? It’s like when the printer isn’t working so you keep pressing print, and then it starts working again and shoves out a million papers at once. The Nodlanders had dreamed so much during the sleep curse that when they woke up they couldn’t contain all the energy that had built up.

- Because of this, these three areas are now dungeons with a boss at the end, which are nightmarish manifestations of each town’s Vibe. Each dungeon is also based on a commonly-hated video game mechanic (these being water physics, ice physics, and moving levels). And, also, each dungeon reflects one of the main three’s fears in some way, both literal and metaphorical. In going through these dungeons and defeating the bosses, Oliver, Esther, and Swaine work through their fears with the help of Penelope.

- Also, the reason Penelope starts traveling with them (other than the opportunity to sell more potions) is because the other Nodlanders are too tired from their nightmares to be helpful. Since Penelope doesn’t have dream magic, she feels fine (if a little traumatized after years and years of nightmares).

- Castaway Cove is a water level where the town is completely flooded and sea monsters lurk in the depths. The boss is a sunken ship monster called Ship Wrecker, who has a mouth and teeth made of jagged wooden planks. Its big move is Anchors Away, where it releases a large anchor that damages the whole party. When it’s close to dying it does a new move called Wreckage, where its whole body becomes a mouth to bite the party with. Its normal move is just chasing someone around and biting them. Also there’s a water bubble around the battle arena because it would be a pain in the ass if not.

- This is Oliver’s level, since he almost drowned and is therefore afraid of water. He tries to swim to prove he’s not afraid anymore, but starts having a panic attack. He admits to Penelope (because they split into groups) that he feels guilty that his mom died swimming out to rescue him, and wants to prove that he can take care of himself now like she wants him to. Penelope gives him a pep talk, since she relates to feeling the need to prove herself and doesn’t want him to feel that way. It doesn’t totally fix the problem, but Oliver is able to get through the dungeon without issue.

- Yule is an ice and snow level where the whole place is caved in, and they have to parkour down to the bottom. It kind of sucks because ice physics lol. The little monsters you encounter are scary versions of the Tomte, and the boss is an igloo-abominable snowman fusion called the Bombinable Snowman. It’s a giant spherical igloo with a face and hairy limbs, which it tucks inside itself for certain attacks. Because of the ice blocks, it has really high defense, which only lowers when it does a move called Bumbles Bounce. For this move, it pulls its limbs into itself and throws itself to the ground like a bomb. This does physical damage to anyone not defending. You trigger Bumbles Bounce by attacking it enough, so it’s a very stamina-based fight. It also has an area attack called Avalanche, and a single attack called Stalag-Might, where it slashes with an ice spear.

- This is Esther’s level. She and Penelope get cornered by one of the Tomte monsters, which doesn’t respond to Esther’s attempts to soothe it. Esther gets upset, and says something like “This [monster taming] is what I’m supposed to be good at!” She explains that she’s a sage’s daughter but not a sage herself, so she has to be powerful in her own way so her dad will be proud of her. Penelope’s like “Wow these kids have issues” but assures Esther that if Rashad loves her, he’ll be proud of her no matter what she does. It’s in this moment that Penelope realizes how similar her situation is to Esther’s, and starts feeling less beholden to her parents’ opinions of her.

- Perdida is a moving level where the player has to keep up with the moving camera and dodge constantly changing obstacles. For this one the dungeon is also the boss, as the town’s multi-headed snake statues have come to life and morphed into a giant snake in the sky. It works like the snake boss from Puppeteer, or the Rayquaza balloon from Poke Park. Basically you run across the back of the snake. The heads of the snake attack when you get to the front, but then one of them swallows you and you fight from the inside. Unfortunately I don’t have names for this boss and its moves just yet, but just assume they’re snakey.

- This is Swaine’s level, and also kind of Marcassin’s. Obviously Swaine’s afraid of snakes, but for the whole DLC story he’s also been trying to prove he can be a good brother to Marcassin. Marcassin ends up getting captured by the snake because it was attacking Hamelin, and he wants to prove he can be a good ruler. Basically Swaine wants to be like Marcassin, and Marcassin wants to be like Swaine (in that Swaine is more of a physical attacker and strategist), and they have to work together to stop the snake. In the end both brothers realize they’re good as they are, and Penelope finally comes to the same conclusion.

- With all the rifts taken care of, the group goes back to Nod, where they invite Penelope to travel with them. Penelope thinks about how the Nodlanders and her parents never appreciated her, but how these new people do, so she packs up the apothecary and becomes a traveling saleswoman with the gang. The themes are a little hamfisted, but to be fair the themes of the main game aren’t super subtle.

Conclusion

Holy shit this was way longer than I intended it to be. I don’t expect anyone to read this far but if you did, thanks very much for reading my infodump about a game nobody likes! (Lol.) It’s been super fun coming up with the level designs and stuff, and Penelope is just really fun to draw. Also yeah I know she looks a bit like Moon from FNAF but shhhhh it’s fine.

[zeawesomeness]

Dude, I love your Kendratello Childhood AU comic, I have an au a little similar and I find it a little funny how we were both like, "I'm gonna take a character with no cannon child design, make my own, and make them friends with a young Donatello. They meet in the sewers and think Donnie's an alien. Also they can't get the manhole cover to move without Donnie." lol

Okay after getting this in my inbox, I immediately went over and read your entire comic outta curiosity and I just gotta say (besides absolutely loving it, you did such a good job): It is canon that these two would be besties.

(I might colour this later)

If they ever had a crossover I imagine Timmy would just sit there all doe eyed and politely listen to Kendra infodump about her tech.

And probably get dragged into a lot of trouble because of her since she is an absolutely idiotic genius with no impulse control.

Not totally sure how lil' Casey & Kendra would get along. I feel like they'd get along GREAT until they DON'T. The moment one of them is upset at the other: it's on sight.

[dearinglovebot]

If the Grady family ever met the Nublar Six Five, how would they interact? Who would really vibe with each other, who wouldn’t?.

maisie being the closest to their age means I think she’d get along with them the best. she has a pretty similar personality to brooklyn and yaz so they’d either mesh very well or clash over it. I lean towards get along pretty well. sammy would be a little overwhelming at first but sammy is also the most insistent that she break out of her shell with the group. very much giving “hey she’s just like you were yaz!”. darius and her would have a very chill dynamic where they understand each other and could probably problem solve their way out of any situation. ben? they’re chill. but kenji is who is gonna have to grow on her the most. early seasons kenji is going to drive her crazy but later season kenji might grow on her. she’s going to find him annoying and he’s going to see her as quiet and broody. they’re going to be have to trapped in an escape room together before they become real friends.

the hidden adventure episode probably had the right idea in saying that yeah JWCC darius would love a dude who worked directly with velociraptors. maybe not JWCT darius who is being hunted for sport, but JWCC darius would be begging for velociraptor infodumps. what were their interactions with each other like? did they have biome preferences? what types of calls could they make with each other? he wouldn’t be asking owen about his day he’d be going straight to “did they have different sounding voices?? how many words did they know?? what types of enrichment were they given??”

owen overall is going to be a much easier sell to the kids than claire. yasmina is going to make fun of him the moment he says “alpha”, brings up motorcycles, or does the hand thing. the only way he is winning her over is if he shows his #vulnerable side over the dinosaurs or his family. basically she isn’t going to like him until she’s given a reason to believe he isn’t some weird emotionally repressed redneck. and speaking of rednecks, owen is semi-canonically from the south so that’s winning points with sammy. they probably share stories about cow tipping and everyone else goes “what the fuck does that mean”.

he’d get on with ben and brooklyn fine but kenji has a habit of annoying most people so im inclined to believe he’ll be considered a “little shit” type kid. pre-fk owen and early seasons kenji would require intensive care to get along 1v1 but after that then they have potential. now that owen has experienced #Fatherhood he’ll be more inclined to make an effort to reach out to troubled teen kenji™. it will have the same vibes as a school guidance councilor and class clown where the kid says the councilor is soooo lame but still asks for a hug at graduation.

like I said above, claire is going to be the hardest sell for all of them. she is Miss Jurassic World in the flesh. they’re not going to trust her at all. but she feels really bad about the whole incident so she’s going to do her best to pay off any therapy bills or travel expenses for the families.

kenji is the only she feels the most guilt towards because she actually knows him from his dad. on the island, he annoyed her (he was objectively very annoying) but now that she’s reformed she just feels bad because he was probably just acting out because his family dgaf. kenji initially doesn’t trust her even more because she ran in the same circles as his dad. but he also recognizes how much she’s changed since then and it makes him kind of upset because his dad wouldn’t do half the things she did for maisie. they have a very complex dynamic where claire feels indebted to him for everything that’s happened (with both the island and his neglectful dad) and he has to work through a lot of daddy issues whenever they interact. they get each other in a nuanced way but it’ll keep the relationship strained for a long time.

sammy is the most willing to give her a chance because she wants to believe that someone like claire can change. and claire is going to try her hardest with that chance to prove she wants to mend things however she can. for a while, sammy is going to be the only one really holding conversation with her but the others are kind of using that to gage if they want to take a chance on her too.

darius will be the next person to take that leap of faith cause she does seem like she’s putting in an effort. she’s a full blown activist and mother now after all. claire appreciates them both immensely and has probably cried at least once over winning them over. they have a lot of similar moral stances post-fk so there’d be a very easy dynamic. she values everything about her park a lot more and he’s happy to talk with her about it. she’s got a collection of anecdotes about the dinosaurs and their handlers and he appreciates what she shares.

yas may always be a little weary of her but her knack for terrorism is going to appeal to ben the arsonist and brooklyn the true crime detective. she’s got so many leads about lockwood manor for brooklyn to chase down. she may not totally love claire but she does respect her. as for ben, i think if anyone was going to commit burglary it would be them. she would refuse to “encourage” his behavior (because she wants to at least pretend she’s a responsible adult) but if it happens then it happens okay! they’re as bad as each other and shouldn’t be left alone

weeew that was a lot. loved getting this ask

[corbits-comet]

writing tools tips and tricks I personally use

I write historical fiction and am very detail oriented and also highly forgetful so this is the stuff I use to plan my story and so I don’t forget stuff

STUFF U NEED

-notebook or google doc (I use a combination of both) 

-internet access or a public library and the ability to read 

-your big beutiful brain you’ve got swirling around up there 

You really don’t need any fancy shit

  PRECURSORS. 

You’ll need to come up with a concept or a character dynamic you like. For me it came with: two detectives who have a bitter rivalry, and then the setting, extra characters and plot line fell into place. 

Day dreaming— this is a vital step, as soon as you get a concept, or even just a character dynamic in your head, put on some of your favorite music that you feel like might match the vibe and get imagining, just play around see what happens

Write that shit down. It seems stupid but trust me write down ever little idea you have, nothing has to go in order, you can write the ending and then the beginning and then the middle for all anyone cares. If you get ideas for scenes or side characters halfway through developing your main characters WRITE IT DOWN. Even if it’s shit and dosnt get used. 

Start stitching stuff together, start weaving in your favorite troupes, plot lines and ideas, for me it went from the rivalry to then the idea of a stalker, then the additional idea of adding political rivalry, murder, aristocracy and eventually a fully fleshed out story. Just keep adding stuff until it feels round, you can always add and subtract 

Now character work. For me at least I don’t need to know everything about the story before I start writing but I do need to know everything about the characters. I start with just doing a big infodump on each characters personality traits and their function in the story. And that’s it for now, that’s the first step. The second one is I go through the dynamics between the main characters, for example I have two main characters so I write about how they feel about eachother respectively, and then how each of them feel about the villan, the stalker, and a few other main characters etc. this will help you with scenes and character development. The third and final one I like to do is actually a character work excercises off tumblr (I found it on Pinterest here’s the link, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1038501995319442405/ no clue who wrote it so if anyone knows I’ll gladly credit them <3) and after that I usually have a pretty good grasp on what my main characters think and feel about most things in the story. You can go farther by I typically don’t

Alright by now you probably have at least an idea of what kind of setting you want to have your story in so now it’s time to start worldbuilding. Like I said I mostly write historical fiction so this step will look a little different if you’re making your own world and stuff but the basics are pretty much the same. RESEARCH. Find and read anything you can on anything relevant to your story, for me that’s geographical locations, town layouts, early zoning, social hiarchies, medicine, law and religion, as well as the functions of certian poisons used for the murders in my story. But this can look like anything. Writing FNAF fanfiction? Get prints on the layout, and if you’re making your own look up layouts of old 80’s pizzareas and accounts from people that worked there. Get the links and keep them all on a document, for later…

Lists. While all this is happening I have two lists going, one of things that I know I want to happen in the story. You don’t have to have a coherent plot line, just a general idea and then as you start working on it you’ll accrew some ideas, write these down. Even if they’re shit. You want forced proximity with the main rivals? Do it. You want a certian character to get hurt? Do it. They don’t have to have a sensical order, this is so you don’t lose track of all the cool stuff you think of. The second list is one of side characters. They don’t have to have names yet, a few of mine are ‘old richy rich mcmoneybags’ and ‘crazy old bag McGee’ and then a brief character description about what they do in the story. These characters can be even more important than the main ones, and ones your readers will remeber forever.  

And the last is one of the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten. Write your first draft like total shit. It’s a map for your story, for you to go back in and fill in later, if you think of something for the future midway, put it in and fix it later. And most importantly; you don’t have to write in order. Write what you know, what you’re excited for. Just tiny scene by tiny scene. And then start stringing them together and fill in the gaps

Now go my minions. Write your story’s. also! Tumblr writing advice can be worth its weight in gold.

[mayordeas-clone]

some thoughts on partitio and agnea's traveler stories and their ultimate contribution to the connecting plot of octopath traveler 2

i recently finished my second playthrough of octopath 2, and it was really fun because it reminded me on why this game is very special to me in spite of its flaws, as well as give me new reasons to appreciate it and its efforts to better connect all eight traveler stories to a grander plot than the first octopath game.

when i first played octopath 2, i thought agnea's story was pretty disappointing since it was the one that connected the least to the big bads behind the game's final chapter and was very low-stakes and lighthearted. however, after reading some folks' opinions on the game + reexperiencing the whole package for myself, i've softened up to her a bit and really appreciate the role she plays in the story, even if it might not be to the same level as the other travelers. (i'm also lumping partitio into this even though his connections are a little tighter + he's not as talked about regarding this issue since i feel like he and agnea's stories have similar ideas and tone)

this was originally apart of a grand infodump on the game i made after finishing the epilogue that i wanted to isolate into its own post!

some spoilers abound, up to the very end of octopath traveler 2 (with some mentions of stuff revealed in octopath traveler 1's endgame)

so the final chapter of octopath traveler 2 pretty much ties key characters and events together through the moonshade order, whose members were involved in all eight characters' stories in order to enact their plan to bring about eternal night. a common criticism of agnea's story is that her connections to this overarching scheme are pretty loose.

each traveler has a major member of the moonshade order involved in some way or another. temenos was acquainted with mindt, who turned out to be arcanette, the current leader and mastermind behind it all. castti's colleague trousseau was involved in the cult's activities as well, utilizing the shadow to spread pestilence after being corrupted by their teachings.

in agnea's case, her connection to this order is tanzy, who is a very minor character all things considered in her story. she was a member of giselle's traveling troupe, and she often mentions a "goddess" in most of her dialogue (who we later find out was referring to arcanette, who manipulated her into the order's cause). what gets to a lot of people is that agnea, upon finding out about tanzy's fate during the final chapter (that she was used and sacrificed by arcanette in order to further the moonshade order's ambitions), has zero reaction or comment about it. not even giselle, coda, and rico, the only other people that have actually met and interacted with tanzy, have anything to say about tanzy's noticable absence during the reunion during the epilogue, making tanzy as agnea's link to the moonshade order feel strange, especially compared to other members who had a slightly more active role in the other travelers' stories.

since i'm also talking about partitio, i might as well explain his connection as well: his story's moonshade order member is ori, a scrivener that always seems to appear out of nowhere. we learn in the final chapter that she was actually keeping tabs on a bunch of the other travelers (even appearing at osvald's trial at the beginning of his story) to gather information for the moonshade order. ori was a pretty important character, but her involvement with partitio's story is that she was Always There (that's the best i can put it), and partitio was sort of doing his own thing.

he and agnea's stories are the only ones to make no mention of The Shadow or any of d'arquest's shenanigans, and they're also a lot more lighthearted in tone, so they might feel a bit out of place when trying to connect them to the other travelers' stories and how they connect to the overarching plot. does that mean they served no purpose? not so! i think they’re relevant in their own way.

partitio and agnea’s story are about hope and forging a future that’s worth fighting and living for. partitio is all about bringing about prosperity to all and seeks to overcome the gigantic task of buying the rights to the steam engine so he can freely distribute it for the better. his resolve to help others is precisely what gets ori to doubt her nihilistic worldview instilled in her by the moonshade order, and it's what keeps her alive when she attempts to sacrifice herself at the fellsun ruins. ori states in her journal that she believes people, businessmen like partitio, are all destined to fall into the pitfall of greed that makes people suffer, much like how roque brilliante turned out, yet partitio’s compassion changes her mind. it’s really cool, even if it’s a detail buried among a sea of other stuff you have to read to piece everything together. (love the final chapter and its plot revelations, but yeah it's sort of disappointing that a lot of information is obtained through reading ori's journal rather than any kind of interaction between all of the members, but alas)

agnea on the surface has a really lighthearted story that doesn’t really have a natural place to mention the death cult lurking in the shadows of everyone’s story or the supernatural magic that will be used to bring about eternal night (see again, tanzy’s very minor presence compared to other moonshade order members). i thought the same at first after my first playthrough. HOWEVER! her story, more than anyone else’s, IS about hope, the main theme of the game. her final battle theme + the thing she works on her whole story is uniquely called the ‘song of hope’. she’s the only traveler to not have a version of the final battle theme; rather than being an epic clash between her greatest foe, it's a triumphant, uplifting song that she debuts in her "battle" with dolcinea ('song of hope' is such an amazing song too, perhaps my favorite in the ost). her journey involves inspiring others to keep moving forward in the face of adversity, such as motivating gill to pursue his ambitions as a musician or giselle to overcome her doubts or giving laila a reason to keep living and dancing despite her circumstances. it only makes sense then that she is the one to give the final speech that properly ends the story of the game, as it’s her journey that fully encapsulates that theme of hope for the future. it was the very thing the main villains thought there was none left in the world, that nihilism that made them want to put the world out of its misery by bringing about an endless night since the dawn was not worth fighting for.

agnea feels like the true protagonist of the game in my opinion, even if her story feels the least related to The Big Bads.

she’s not here to fight, she’s here to inspire, ya know!!! AAAAA

(if i ever play octopath 2 for the third time, ill definitely be picking her as my starter~)

(the reason why i’m kinda up on my soapbox defending my girl is bc i saw a gamefaqs thread of someone explaining this significance agnea’s story has to the main plot and themes and everyone dismissing it as a dumb, stretchy non-answer. YOU GAMERS KNOW NOTHING!!! /lh)

anyway, as far as lighthearted stories w a sort of vague goal go in octopath traveler, agnea’s heavily tying back to the main theme of the game makes it stronger than someone’s like tressa or alfyn’s since they kind of had their own plots that didn’t really relate back to anyone else’s. their only connection to everyone else’s stories were through their connections with graham crossford, which is PRETTY COOL!! but he was long dead/transformed into redeye before the events of the game and tressa and alfyn sorta do their own thing after he indirectly inspired them to go traveling. it just feels more vague i guess?

~

apologies this is really rambly. again, i lifted this from an infodump i wrote on the fly, so i was not really essay-brained, but i hope my point comes across adequately?

all the same, i just have a big appreciation and love for this game. i'm proud to call it my favorite video game, and though it has its problems, it's very special to me and i like talking about it. hopefully i got that across to any reader on this here post, and maybe it inspires a new appreciation for agnea's story and its place in octopath traveler 2 :)

[x-neurodivergent-reader]

Headcanons: Dhawan!Master x Autistic!Reader with a special interest in urban exploration

A/N: I’ve been dipping a little bit into my old special interest in abandoned places recently, so I decided to compliment my headcanons of Thirteen with an urbex-loving reader by making some for the Master!

The reader here is gender-neutral.

Content warnings: Trespassing, and running away from security.

Being the morbid Time Lord that he is, he’s particularly intrigued by the places with more horrific histories, such as mansions where murders occurred, or amusement parks that closed down because of a fatal accident.

Will make sure you infodump everything you know about whichever abandoned place you're in to him, mostly to fill in the thick, eerie quietness that would otherwise make the drums in his mind feel more prominent.

If he’s holding your camera for you for any reason, you may catch him taking random photos and pretending to be an annoying tourist while you tell him the history, just to make you laugh.

You know he’s still listening to you while doing so, because you notice him bringing up specific details you told him if they become relevant again later, or during the next time you reminisce on the trip. The fact that he genuinely pays attention to you, no matter what he's doing, says a lot.

One of the fun parts of going to places like this with the Master is that he has zero regard for trespassing laws, nor what he has to do to help you get away with breaking them.

You’re both well accustomed to evading any security guards who try to catch you, yet he’ll still find a way to make it more thrilling - all while keeping you safe.

He lets you keep any books you have about abandoned places in the library in his TARDIS. Not only are they under their own category for you to find easily, but despite his disregard for most things involving Earth, you might occasionally catch him having a quick look for places to take you.

If there’s a particular place where very little is known about why it was neglected and fell into ruin, chances are that he would suggest going to its last couple of days to see what happened, if you’re up to it. He'll always take a chance to watch any potential chaos unfold, after all.

Of course, because disaster follows the Master wherever he goes, this often leads to it turning out to be all you two’s fault.

He respects your desire to capture abandoned places nicely in your photos, but won’t resist the chance to photobomb every so often. Usually in a way that makes him look like a ghost or cryptid haunting the area. You have an album dedicated solely to these particular shots.

[threecheersforinking]

Review: Boys Over Flowers

*this review will contain spoilers!*

Hi everyone! This is going to be an extremely long, unsolicited recap of all my thoughts about Boys Over Flowers. I don't know a single person in my real life who has watched this, so I'm using this blog as my space to infodump because this show has become my new hyperfixation. If anyone at all ends up reading this, I really appreciate it! But this is mostly entirely for myself lol.

As someone who is pretty deep into the shoujo anime world and just recently getting into kdramas, I have heard of this show in passing many times. Kkotboda Namja is referenced in Korean media a lot and Hana Yori Dango is lauded as a classic shoujo in the manga sphere, so I figured it might be good to watch the show just to be able to get all the references and consume a piece of shoujo history. Originally, I thought it would be a mindless watch that I might have to force myself to finish; I started off concerned about getting through 25 episodes, but in the end, I ended up wishing there were more lol.

I'm gonna be honest, when I first started watching it, I was like uhhh this is... kinda bad. especially in the beginning. But I became endeared to the quirks I originally criticized. The slow motion dramatic replay shots, the shaky camera, the questionable acting skills all are an essential part of the show itself.

In general, the story was more compelling than I was expecting. But the characters were undoubtedly the best part of the show for me. I always find myself getting attached to media where characters are the focus, and I believe that's why I enjoyed this so much. So I am going to go into each character a bit more in depth.

Thoughts on Jandi

As far as shoujo protagonists go, Jandi is pretty quintessential and standard. She is poor, she is hardworking, she is kind. We've all seen this before. But I always liked her, and she grew on me even more as the series went on. She has the ever-present shoujo 'hard working poor girl' trait, but the show took that to a more serious level than I was expecting. The arc where she had to essentially raise her little bother by herself forced her to mature so quickly, which felt very realistic to me.

I also really loved how much of a 'girl's girl' she was; as far as earlier episodes go, the episode that focused on Minji was one of my favorites. I loved how she called out those popular girls on their hypocrisy for criticizing Minji's plastic surgery when they've all had surgery themselves. She also was such a good friend to both Minji and Gaeul and a very strong, assertive person.

As far as her indecisiveness goes, that is kind of a requirement for being a shoujo protagonist in a love triangle, but it did still get on my nerves even though I was fully anticipating it.

Thoughts on F4 (ranked in order of how much I liked them)

Yijung

Yijung was my favorite F4 boy by far. I just thought he had the most interesting and complex backstory. His struggle with his parents was very humanizing and the way he handled it so poorly felt like a realistic response to that kind of trauma. Ultimately, he made bad choices, but in an understanding and forgivable way that made him complex, not unlikeable (unlike someone else... but more on that later).

Jihoo

Jihoo was another character I grew to be very fond of. I was interested in his backstory a lot too, and although we knew from the beginning that he experienced a tragic loss as a child, learning that he carried the guilt of thinking he killed his family for 15 years really gave extra context to his stoicness and sadness. His reunion arc with his grandfather brought me to tears several times, and it really gave his character a lot more depth. My biggest issue with Jihoo is that I felt like he was almost too perfect sometimes; it's why I liked the grandfather reunion arc so much, I thought it gave him some much needed flaws.

Junpyo

Speaking of flaws, look who it is! Obviously, I have a lot of conflicted feelings on Junpyo. As someone who is actually very open minded about redemption arcs, I didn't have too much of an issue with him being a bully at the beginning, but his, truthfully, abusive tendencies were such a turn off and felt completely unnecessary. Unlike Yijung, Junpyo's trauma/bad choices made him extremely unlikable and nearly unforgivable. The constant physical violence against completely innocent people and his unwillingness to listen to Jandi explain herself were hard to watch, knowing that he's one of the romantic leads that we're supposed to be rooting for. I also felt like until the final arc, any character development he had gotten just kept undoing itself every time he found a new thing to get angry about. Despite all this, I enjoyed what his character became towards the end of the story. I just wish it wasn't such a painful and unnecessary journey for him to finally become that way.

Woobin

Woobin was kind of a disappointing character in general; I can only assume that he was a bigger character in the manga and they just didn't have time to really develop him in the show, because that's pretty much the only valid explanation for his lack of substance. At the beginning of the show, Yijung and Woobin got less screentime than Junpyo/Jihoo did, but as Yijung started to get more development, Woobin became even more noticeably lacking. They threw in that one scene where he was stressing over being the son of a mafia boss or something (which felt completely out of left field by the way) but because it was the only scene where he was given any backstory it might as well not have existed at all. Overall, he was nice to Jandi and a good friend and I enjoyed him in all the F4 group scenes, I just wish he was a bit more of a fully developed character.

Other Characters

Before I get into the friend characters, I wanted to say that something I really loved about this show was how genuinely kind all the older female characters were to Jandi. For some reason I was expecting most of them to secretly be evil or mean but they were all extremely kindhearted and helpful people, which just made the viewing experience better. Even Minji, who was literally the only one who actually did turn out mean, was able to reconcile with Jandi and end their friendship on a neutral/positive note.

Gaeul

I loved Gaeul from the start, I thought she was so adorable and the perfect best friend character for a shoujo. I honestly wasn't even expecting her to be a fully fleshed-out secondary character in the show, I thought she would just be Jandi's coworker who she gossiped with on occasion. But the fact that she became such a major player in the story made me very happy. I also really loved her with Yijung and was practically screaming at the screen for them to get together, but more on that later.

Jaekyung

Jaekyung was interesting. She was a little ditzy and out of touch, but extremely kindhearted despite her wealthy background. I think her introduction into the show, which subsequently threw a curveball into the relationship of Jandi x Junpyo, came at a good time. I found it refreshing that she was always nice and friendly to Jandi, but also didn't want to give up on Junpyo just because Jandi liked him. My biggest issue with Jaekyung was that her concession at the end of the wedding felt a little out of left field, considering how adamant she had been previously about her pursuit of Junpyo. But based on the nature of her personality, I can see that being believable. I also wish she made another appearance after the wedding arc was over, but we didn't see her again after that :(

Junhee

Junhee was yet another character that I expected to be kind of bitchy/mean but who turned out to be extremely cool and nice. The literal only thing that bothered me about her was that I couldn't fathom how she and Junpyo were supposedly raised in the same home but turned out so different, lol. I guess it's a testament to how girls vs. boys were treated in their patriarchal household, but still jarring.

The Romance

I want to start off by saying that I'm someone who is ok with love triangles. I think there's a lot of people who are tired of them and don't like them, but I am okay with it so long as it's interesting.

That being said, when it comes to love triangles I think a lot of people conflate the character they like better with the character the protagonist very clearly wants more. To me (and to most people I'd assume) Jihoo was just overwhelmingly the better choice. I'd go as far as to say he's the objectively better choice. He was always a million times more kind and thoughtful than Junpyo and truly loved Jandi for almost the entire show. However, I could never fully see him being endgame because Jandi was simply more focused on Junpyo and had more history with him.

I know this is a hot take, but I actually really enjoy the 'bickering couple' trope. I think a little back and forth roasting of each other is fun and entertaining! But bickering is not the same thing as genuine cruelty and one sided bullying. Which is pretty much what was happening at the beginning of the story. However, by the time Junpyo finally mellowed out, I really grew to love his dynamic with Jandi. The teasing was just that; teasing, and not bullying anymore. I just wish there was about 200% more of that dynamic and 100% less of whatever the hell they were doing in the first 2/3rds of the show.

As for couples outside of the main trio, I was the BIGGEST Gaeul/Yijung shipper from the minute they first interacted. I cared way more about them than the main love triangle and was on the edge of my seat whenever they showed up. My biggest criticism of them though is that it took WAY too long. And believe me, I can handle a slow burn, but at a certain point it felt so dragged out that I almost stopped caring (it wasn't confirmed canon until the literal last 10 minutes of the whole show lol). Of course, I was still pleased, but man! Give me a break.

The Show In General

I think it became obvious to me early on that this is like, the mother of all shoujos. Most of the common shoujo tropes I mentioned in this review probably either originated or were popularized by both this show and the original manga. It really set a standard and became iconic, despite its many flaws.

(Side note, I hope I'm not in the wrong for still calling this kdrama a shoujo, I think it being based on a shoujo manga makes it a fair enough label but correct me if I'm wrong)

I also just started reading the manga and wow, they uh... toned some stuff down for the show didn't they? I do like it though, it's different. But I can definitely see why some changes were made from the manga to the show. So far out of all the characters, Jihoo and Junpyo's manga versions feel the most different from their kdrama equivalents, which is a bit surprising as they are the main characters. But we'll have to see if that changes as I get further in.

I also am aware of the several other adaptations of Hana Yori Dango such as the Japanese drama and Meteor Garden (although I am put off by the fact that it's 50+ episodes?? are they an hour long too? if so... I'm not sure about that one) but I knew Boys Over Flowers/Kkotboda Namja was the one I wanted to start with due to its popularity, and I think that was a good choice.

This is a 15 year old show but I know there is still somewhat of an active fanbase for it on here so if you're a hardcore Hana Yori Dango stan please go easy on me! These are just my opinions so take them with a grain of salt.

Anyway, if anyone ended up reading this to the end thank you for reading. I'm going to be posting more kdrama reviews on this blog that I promise will be way shorter. Bye!

-threecheersforinking

[spineless-lobster]

Alright so I was reading the wikipedia article for the limpet mine because I am Very Normal™ about the antics my favourite characters get up to, and I went down a rabbit hole about this guy who I believe to have somewhat inspired the character of the Captain. (long post warning, TL;DR at the end)

I present to you, Cecil Vandepeer Clarke, the man who helped develop the limpet mine. (the last name Clarke might ring a bell to those who have read There’s A War Going On by Glowinggreeneyes)

Born in 1897, (which could’ve been the Captain’s birth year) he first served in WWI as a second lieutenant. He did quite a few things but the main thing that I want to focus on was his achievements. He was rewarded the Military Cross medal for his part in the battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy in 1918. If you’ve seen my other infodump post you know that in the Captain’s pilot design, he had the Military Cross (underlined in red) and the Italy Star (underlined in blue) as medals (which later changed). Now, the Italy Star was specifically for WWII but I feel like we can excuse that because of creative licensing and all that. I just think the link between Italy is interesting. The France and Germany Star and the War Medal are part of his canon design, so which ever part of his story that relates to that must’ve made it through the cut which is 👀

Clarke married Dorothy Aileen Kendrick and had three children, which isn’t that important but my brain won’t let go of “a friend of Dorothy” so there’s that.

Clarke developed the limpet mine during WWII with his friend Stuart Macrae. They had to think of a detonation technique (remember, they had to attach the mine to the hull of the ship. You can’t have your frogmen blowing up) they found that an aniseed ball (a type of candy that resembles a gobstopper, only smaller) left by Clarke’s children in his office disintegrated at the perfect rate in water in order to detonate the mine.

While they were testing the limpet mine, they had to make sure it didn’t get damp in any way lest the aniseed ball starts dissolving. So naturally they wrapped it in a condom while not in use.

I initially made this post because the thought of the Captain being all flustered next to Havers while handling a detonator wrapped in a condom was sending me into hysterics but uhhh I got a bit carried away.

The Captain mentions that the limpet mine used suckers to attach to the side of the hull. But in reality they used magnets to attach them to the ship, which was the idea from the start. So tbh I have no idea what he’s going on about.

Now here’s something interesting; Clarke worked on improvements with the limpet mine in a country house called Aston House, which was acquired by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939. The mine was being manufactured by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the house was handed over to them by the SIS where it was known as Station XII (hm, oddly close to Button House XI don’t you think?) Clarke also developed many other weapons at the house. Aston House is in Stevenage, Hertfordshire which means literally nothing to me but it might mean something to someone else.

While developing the limpet mine Clarke had come up with the idea of an underground tank (which sounds cool as hell) and proposed his idea twice, the first time to the Ministry of Supply (which was rejected) and the second time directly to Churchill himself (who essentially said “that’s great, but we’re making one of those already”). Although he was put in charge of the “trenching machine” as he was made assistant director in the Naval Land Section, he grew to hate his job and was called for military service shortly after he left. (Hm, who else absolutely despises the navy? Perhaps our favourite little army man?)

Clarke was later promoted to captain (but acted as a major) and was stationed at Brickendonbury Manor (Station XVII) where he trained SOE agents. There he suffered a bone fracture due to a rough landing during parachute training. The wiki article doesn’t mention where the fracture was but if it was in his knees I might punch a wall.

Clarke was released from the army in November of 1945. He returned to Bedford where he joined the Territorial Army as a captain and served there for six years before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps. Later he ran as like a counsellor or something and was part of the Labour/Liberal Party, but I don’t think that’s very relevant. He retired as a major at the age of 60 and died in 1961. The wiki article doesn’t mention a cause of death (which is just poetic irony at this point) but it does mention that he had a non fatal heart attack. But non fatal means he didn’t die from it so ?????

TL;DR:

- Possibly same birth year?

- Similar(ish) medals

- Developed the limpet mine with a close friend

- Stationed at a country house (twice in the case of Clarke) during WWII

- Hate the navy (though that seems to be common amongst soldiers)

- Fucked up bones

- Worked in intelligence and weapons development

- Prominently known as a captain

- Died under mysterious circumstances apparently

I am leaving out A LOT of other information so there might be more connections that I’m missing. If you wanna learn more about Clarke and the limpet mine I found this article which delves further into the development and it was a very fun read.

I… I need to lie down

[saline-coelacanth]

I'm in the mood to ramble about my ocs so get ready for the infodump. And don't worry, I won't be going into any spoilers for s2p2, this is mainly just gonna be random thoughts and ideas that I want to throw out into the void. Also I might end up repeating some things that's I've mentioned in the past so I apologize if that happens.

Leo has a lot of self worth issues when he first joins the team, mainly because he thinks his powers are useless in the grand scheme of things. Before he unlocks his True Potential, Leo can only control paint instead of being able to manipulate the color out of objects like he can do later on. This also causes some of the ninja to theorize that maybe he's the elemental master of paint, but they later realize his powers include more than just paint.

Because Leo only knows how to control paint at first, he always carries tubes of paint with him in his little pouch that he has. However getting the paint back in the tubes afterwards is hard so the inside of the pouch is kind of a mess with paint stains all over.

Leo is actually pretty messy in general. When he was younger he always got paint stains all over his clothes and that hasn't really changed much over time.

Leo's name is actually a nickname. His full name is Leonard, but he hates it and prefers to be called Leo. He also very rarely tells people his full name.

Leo isn't very strong physically, but he can be surprisingly sneaky and clever. He can adapt to situations pretty quickly which is definitely a good quality to have when your powers lack brute strength.

Leo is also the master at downplaying his own achievements. He could single-handedly save the world and still say that he didn't actually do that much. Luckily the ninja are slowly trying to help him build up his confidence.

Leo also didn't have many close friends before joining the ninja since he preferred being alone when he was younger. He's always been a bit socially awkward so socializing is something he doesn't like doing that much.

Ok enough about Leo, time to ramble a bit about Vivey

Vivey himself doesn't know where his elemental powers came from. Like most of the kids who got their elemental powers in DR, Vivey's powers manifested after the merge.

Vivey may not know where his powers came from, but the idea that I have is simply that Bolobo decided that it was time for a new elemental master of nature. He didn't have anyone to pass his powers to but also trusted that his powers would simply fall into the right hands, so he just kinda... gave up his powers and eventually they ended up finding Vivey and he became the new master of nature. Hopefully that makes sense.

Vivey is a bit of a loner, but not because he doesn't like people. It's mainly just that he's never found anyone who can keep up with him when he's out exploring nature. I like to think that a few of his friends tried to go exploring with him but Vivey accidentally left them behind.

Vivey has always been an explorer. When he was little, he often wandered off a lot and would worry his mom a lot because of this.

Vivey also doesn't like staying in one place for too long. He doesn't really have a home, he just kinda moves around from place to place, usually sleeping out in the wilderness. Pretty much as soon as he was old enough to leave home on his own, Vivey started living like that.

Being the master of nature, it makes sense that Vivey has a lot of knowledge on nature. He's really good at identifying plants and creatures and is also great at navigating. He would definitely do that thing where he tastes dirt to try and track something down.

I also feel like Vivey would just occasionally eat dirt just because. Dirt tastes good sometimes.

I may have briefly mentioned this before, but Vivey and technology don't mix very well. Vivey is not tech literate at all, he barely knows how to use a phone. This often leads to him and Sora butting heads, but they're still good friends. It almost never turns into an actual serious argument between them.

Honestly I should ramble more about Vivey's dynamics with the DR kids, but I feel like that could be a post on it's own.

Ok I think that's enough oc rambling for now. I just love these guys a lot and I will find any excuse I can to talk about them (and also I wouldn't mind answering any asks people have about my little guys because then I could ramble about them more)

But yeah, I mainly need to work on Vivey's background some more since he's newer and doesn't have as much detail as Leo does. Might make another post about him that doesn't include Leo ramblings.

[puricodraws]

Here's a long post no one asked for, but I gotta get off my chest. Lots of infodumping about Kingdom Hearts and in particular the casting of it's voice talent, so strap in y'all. So something I find very interesting is the way Square/Disney has treated the character of Kairi throughout the years. She started out as a damsel character, and was hated by very vocal group in the fanbase. I myself didn't really care about Kairi any which way, I didn't find her particularly interesting and I could understand the hate for the character like... a little bit? But what's funny to me is how that perception has changed over the years. Maybe there is still a very vocal group of people hating on Kairi on some forum I'm not aware of but I feel like the general consensus on her these days is: That's our girl. We can recognize that she is a victim of bad writing and the damsel trope. She's become a bit of un underdog in my mind. Like, treat her better Square! Come on!

The issue with Kairi is that she's just a... nothing sandwich. Kairi is a sweet girl, she likes Sora, she likes to write and makes good luck charms. She's also secretly a princess and therefore has a pure heart and can do nothing wrong. She is a little bit sassy sometimes, but not too much, she cares about her friends and will jump into danger to protect them, but most of the times she is the one who needs to be protected. She's strong, but not too strong, she's sweet and easygoing, and she's boring as hell. In the games at least... She rules in the manga.

In the game she softly lowers a bottled letter to Sora in the ocean, while in the manga she tosses it in there with all her might.

In the game she sort of runs away when Axel tries to kidnap her but in the manga she THROWS HANDS at one of the nobodies who tries to capture her.

Also later in the story when she is kidnapped by Organization XIII, she actually manages to escape for a bit by wiggling through the bars of her prison cell, and then throws hands at Demyx, who is actually trying to help her out. (the manga takes some liberties with the story, it's great you should really read it if you get the chance)

Shiro Amano actually lets her put up a fight and let her actually try to escape by herself when she's captured. Watching this girl be strong and throw hands without hesitation is so so great. Shiro Amano said: Girls should be allowed to go feral once in a while, as a treat. Also I would be amiss if I didn't mention this moment with Olette:

(In the game, Olette awkwardly and weakly puts up a hand to protect Kairi when Axel shows up in Twilight Town to kidnap her, but is just ignored in the most disrespectful way.)

Anyways, back to Kairi. It's sad to say, but her original characterization is just boring. She doesn't really want anything for herself and she doesn't really have a function in the story except to wait around for the boys to pay attention to her or get kidnapped and need to be rescued. And while in recent years the writers are finally exploring her being a keyblade weilder and having her actively participate in the story, they still just can't resist damseling the poor girl, fridging her, and putting her on the sidelines while Sora and Riku take center stage. It's great to see how the fandom's perception of her has changed over the years, people are seeing how Square has been dropping the ball and are actively rooting for Kairi to get more stuff to do. Fans are creating mods of the games to make Kairi playable, are writing fanfiction exploring role reversals where Kairi is the hero and there are several notible fan comics comics that explore her character in a really interesting way.

Anyways, now to get to the actual thing I wanted to talk about: How she's casted in the English version of the games, and how the inconsistent approach to the casting feels... a little disrespectful. Having a consistent voice for a character is something I, and many others really appreciate. It shows a level of care from the creators to bring a consistent group of actors together to bring life to the world. Now, VA's being replaced in the Kingdom Hearts series is not uncommon. The series is known for casting well known actors, and actor availability and budget are problems for which recasting is the solution. For example: Billy Zane got recast as Ansem by Richard Epcar, Brittany Snow by Meaghan Martin as Namine. And then of course there are Christopher Lee, Wayne Allwine, Leonard Nimoy and Rutger Hauer, who had to be recast because they sadly passed away. (RIP, Kings)

Like, all of that makes sense. So here's the confusing situation with Kairi:

Xion and Kairi share a VA in the JP version. This is an intentional creative decision that ties into the lore of Kingdom Hearts. Risa Uchida has consistently voiced these characters in Japanese for years and does a fabulous job.

Sadly this was not the case in the English version. Hayden Panettiere originated the role of Kairi in English, but they got Alyson Stoner to voice Xion when the character debuted in 358/2 days in 2009, which was originally a DS title. Before this they also got Alyson to voice Kairi in the re:Chain of Memories dub in 2008.

These titles were likely smaller budget, which becomes pretty obvious when you look at the overall quality and presentation of the cutscenes. In Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 the dialogue was recorded in English and the japanese lipsynch animation were redone to match the English dialogue. This was not the case in 358/2 days. The dialogue was recorded to match the japanese lip flaps, and the animation was not altered at all to marry the two together. So availability and budget could have been an issue in getting Hayden Panettiere to record for these games. At the time I also considered the possibility that Hayden simply didn't want to do it anymore. It wouldn't have suprised me, because these things happen. Take Brittany Snow for example, after KH2 she got her big break in the Pitch Perfect films, and probably became too busy to come back as Namine. From 2006-2010 Hayden starred in the popular TV series Heroes, which could have impacted her availability and desire to do KH. And with the lower budget for these projects, and where Hayden was at in her carreer at the time, it could stand to reason that she was simply not interested. I should also mention that in this time period Kairi barely got anything to do. When she did show up it would be for a couple of lines of dialogue. As for Xion, 358/2 days on the DS had around 10 or so voiced cutscenes. So the amount of voice work needed for the character was notably smaller compared to one of the numbered games. So the amount of voice work needed, budget, and availability could all have been factors to why Alyson took over for Hayden during this time.

Now don't get me wrong: Alyson is amazing and is, as far as I'm concerned, the definitive voice for Xion. She originated the role and brought so much to the table. She has a wonderful voice, is a talented actress and we have no choice but to stan.

Before long it became apparent that Alyson replacing Hayden permanently was not on the table. In 2010 Hayden reprised her role as Kairi and took over the role of Xion in the secret ending of Birth By Sleep!

So at this point it seemed that the original creative intention for these characters would be honored. Kairi and Xion should have the same voice actress, for lore reasons, and that actress should be Hayden Panetiere, who originated the role.

And wouldn't you know it, in 2012 Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance comes out for the 3DS. It's another hand held title, but the budget is lit. There is lipsynch animation for voiced cutscenes, and the amount of voiced cutscenes is comparable to KH1, KH2 and BBS. Kairi has a few appearances, but has only one line of dialogue. Same goes for Xion, while she does get a line of dialogue near the end of the game. Hayden came in to record for Kairi and Xion and it really seemed like she would be taking over the roles from Alyson.

So obviously, at this point in time it's all but confirmed that Hayden wants to work on KH, and the creative team were making an effort to consistently bring her back as Kairi and Xion. That would be a tough deal for Alyson though, was she gonna get replaced permanently as Xion? Well wait a second and I'll tell you!

So in 2013 Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix was released. It was the first in a series of HD remasters of the Kingdom Hearts series, and the collection included KH1, KH re:Chain of Memories and around 3 hours of newly made cutscenes retelling the story of the DS game 358/2 days. Days originally featured mostly textbox cutscenes. These scenes were remade from scratch and would feature newly recorded voice acting in Japanese and English. Now I don't need to get into it but... The 358/2 days cutscene "movie" is.. not very good. It's boring to watch through, which I think is to blame entirely for the way they approached it. They remade all the cutscenes true to their original appearance, but forgot that there's no action gameplay to break up hours of dialogue scenes. The pacing is bad, the action is non existent, and what's worse is that it doesn't have adjusted lipsynch animation at all. This means the English voice acting was done to match the japanese lip flaps, resulting in awkward pauses and weird deliveries of lines.

The saving grace was that Alyson Stoner was reprising her role as Xion, recording new dialogue for the cutscenes. They also reused her previously recorded dialogue for the DS cutscenes as well. So... I guess Hayden isn't taking over Xion after all? Or perhaps it was easier to get Alyson to come back, so that they could reuse some of the original voice lines from the DS version? I can't imagine that THAT would've been the deciding factor though, because there weren't that many cutscenes from the DS version that would have to be redubbed should they get Hayden back on board. It's hard to say what the reason for this was.

But I was happy to hear Alyson as Xion in the "definitive" version of the 358/2 days story. She has a pleasant voice, and she portrays Xion beautifully in my opinion.

So then KH HD 2.5 Remix comes out in 2014 and features no new Kairi/Xion content. It does feature the Final Mix version of KH2, originally released exclusively in Japan in 2007. This version had new cutscenes, which were now finally dubbed in English for the HD remaster. What's more is they they also reanimated the lip animation to match the new English voice acting! An interesting thing to mention is that at this time, Meaghan Martin had completely taken over the role of Namine, fully replacing Brittany Snow. They luckily didn't choose to redub Brittany's original lines with Meaghan. But it does result in this funny moment where following Roxas' prologue Namine's voice is suddenly different for a single scene.

Anyways, flash forward to 2017, and the release of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Remix, which included a brand new title by the name of, and hold on to your wigs for this one....

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-

This was the first look at what a next gen Kingdom Hearts title would be like. You got to play as Aqua and it was wonderful and heartbreaking and cool as hell. At the end of this game a cutscene plays where after a decade Kairi finally gets to be involved in the plot again. She is summoned by Master Yen Sid to begin her training as a keyblade weilder. And she is voiced by.... Alyson Stoner??

A few years later KH3 came out, and Alyson Stoner voices both Kairi and Xion in it. She does a great job. But it's all so confusing.

It seemed so clear that the studio's intent was to get Hayden back as Kairi, and potentially Xion as well. And KH3 was the next big budget numbered title in the franchise. The casting for this game was insane, they got the full cast of Frozen to reprise their roles. Idina Mcfreaking Menzel showed up for Kingdom Hearts! What happened to getting Hayden back? I don't get it at all. This is not to shit on Alyson at all, her Kairi is adorable, and I honestly can't imagine anybody but Alyson Stoner playing Xion. Whenever Hayden picked up the role of Xion I was excited to hear her, but it never felt quite right.

But yeah, this whole situation unfolded in the weirdest of ways. For years it seemed they were absulutely set on getting Hayden to voice these characters. Was she not available to come in for KH3? Well, to answer that question:

Apparently, Hayden wasn't even ASKED to reprise Kairi.

This could of course be a situation of her representatives getting the offer from Square/Disney and choosing not to give it to her. Which happens in Hollywood, and sucks. But there's also a very real chance that Square/Disney didn't even bother reaching out and offering it to her.

Seeing how they decided to recast Hayner, Pence and Olette in KH3, even though their actors are still working as VA's and would have likely loved reprise the roles, I'm leaning to the possibility that they simply didn't bother to reach out to Hayden.

Hell, that's what she said herself.

All in all it's an interesting series of events. It's confusing, and a bit saddening as well. I can speculate why it all happened, but who can really be sure what their reason for replacing Hayden were. Perhaps they decided to do it because they found Alyson to be a better fit for the character? I may be reading into things but there's this interview Hayden did for the release of KH2 were she talks about the recording process and how the voice directors would keep telling her to "raise her voice an octave higher and make it sound more princess like." I gotta say the way she said that irks me..... I love the way Kairi's voice sounds in KH2! Hayden has a beautiful voice, it's a bit lower and more mature sounding than your average cutie girl voice. I would have loved to hear that quality in the character moving forward. Alyson ended up doing a lighter, cuter version of Kairi in KH3. And I do enjoy how Kairi sounds in KH3. Like, it's fine, she sounds very adorable, and it's fine.

But idk man... it feels... weird. I can't help but feel as though they replaced her voice with a younger sounding one, taking away the strength and maturity of the voice that I loved so much. Effectively infantelizing her. And then of course they proceed to damsel her, fridge her, bring her back to life and put her on the sidelines for the foreseeable future.

I feel like it all ties together with how the writers see her. She's not really a main character after all, she's not a priority. After years of showing a dedication to keep her voice consistent, it was all just thrown out of the window in the end. It makes me feel like they just didn't care in the end, people would be more upset if Sora or Riku got recast, but they just assumed no one would really care about Kairi. I can't help but care though.

I just wish for a future where Kairi can become a main player in the story, and where she is allowed to grow and mature. Where she isn't used as a carrot to dangle in front of the male lead. Where she isn't kidnapped or killed off as motivation for someone else. Where she can be a girl who is not just pretty and adorable and easy going and sweet, but a girl who is strong, silly, determined and is willing to fight like hell for the things she cares about.

Where she is allowed to interact with the world around her, and discover what her place in it is. Where she can discover what she wants for herself, instead of constantly having to be something for someone else!

IDK, maybe that's too much to ask from a Kingdom Hearts game though, haha.

[transgymbro]

Hey! Sorry if you've answered this question before, feel free to ignore this or link the ask/post answering it but did you have any trouble starting going to the gym? I really want to start but I'm self conscious about not knowing anything about the machines and etiquette (and a little bit about which locker room I should use). Do you have any advice on any of these?

PS I fucking love trans gymbros

Honestly this is the first question I've had about the gym at all, so no worries! And thank you!

Okay so, cultures tend to vary from gym to gym, but these things will remain consistent:

ALWAYS RERACK YOUR WEIGHTS. If you are using dumbbells, PUT THEM BACK IN THE PROPER PLACE WHEN YOU'RE DONE. It's especially important to put them back in the proper place because if you put 45 lb dumbbells where the 20 lb ones should go, the person using the 20s might not be able to move them out of the way to their proper place.

Clean the machines you were using. This is how you prevent ringworm, COVID, etc. from spreading. There are usually spray bottles/paper towels/wipes around the gym for you to grab and clean your machine with

Don't spend longer than necessary on a machine. Generally people don't mind you being on a machine as long as you're working out. It's one thing to log your exercise/meals but don't be sitting on the machine texting a friend for like 10 minutes.

If a water bottle or other gear is on or near a machine, it's being used. Come back later. This is normally how people say "I'm not done here, but I had to get up to use the bathroom/get water".

If you don't know how to use a machine, ask a staff member or another gym goer. Seriously, gym rats are much friendlier than people assume and they WILL infodump to you, especially when they hear that you're a beginner. Staff members are there to help and they can show you how to use the machines. Also, in some cases the machines will have the instructions written on them. I'm going to put my tips for machines below somewhere.

Here are some things that are more nuanced:

Noise level - Some gyms (looking at Planet Fitness) require you to keep the noise level to a minimum (don't go to these gyms. Screaming/grunting has been scientifically proven to help you grind out that last rep). Others allow you to scream as loud as you want. You can ask, or you observe how much noise other people are making and go based on that.

Locker rooms - My gym allows you to use the bathroom of your preferred gender and despite not binding my large chest I've never gotten shit in the men's locker room. That being said, given how transphobic some laws are, this will depend entirely on your area. My advice here is ask the staff, and if they respond in a transphobic manner, then this isn't the gym for you.

How much to talk to other people - This depends on not only the gym culture but the individual also. Some people don't mind being approached, others want to be left to do their workout. In the very least, if you want to compliment someone on how much weight they're lifting ("damn bro you strong af" "that's anabolic as fuck") you can absolutely do that though. Also, if you are just asking if someone is using a machine, don't be afraid to do so, in my experience this is an interaction no one really minds.

More tips about machines:

Start light - Learn how much weight you can handle before trying to push yourself. Generally, if you can do 15 reps on a weight, you're ready to move to the next heaviest one.

Form - You don't have to worry about this so much on the machines, as you tend to be less likely to injure yourself due to their design. However, this will depend on the machine. Therefore, it's good to keep good form anyway. You can check by reading the machine's instructions carefully, asking a staff member, or knowing what it's supposed to be working and making sure you feel the right kind of pain in the right spots (i.e. you should be feeling strain in the muscles you intend to work and nowhere else, in general). Listen to your body most of all, and if you have any sharp pains, stop.

Feel free to message me if you have any more questions, and if anyone else has good pointers or if anything I said was wrong, please say something in the reblogs/comments!