#They aren't necessarily better written either

[headcanonenthusiast]

COD characters and their opinions on toys

Includes Valeria Garza, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo Parra, Simon Riley, König, Kyle Garrick, John Price and Alex Keller.

All headcanons, besides Valeria's, are gender-neutral.

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone in-between, I got an ask from an anonymous user that gave me an absolutely devilish idea. They suggested a multitude of things, but one thing they requested was another COD characters x reader headcanons, but specifically, how they feel about using toys.

Also, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I've never written for Price before. He's literally my grandpa but imma do my best to deliver for you Price lovers 🙏

NSFW under the cut.

Enjoy!

Valeria Garza

-Sooooo, yall know how I said she'd encourage the use of toys when away, but when she's with you she won't let you touch one? She still does that.

-Her view on toys is actually quite positive despite restricting your use of them. She kinda just denies you the right to use any toys she hasn't picked out for you specifically bc it turns her on (and bc she's a bitch ❤)

-If she catches you using a toy that she didn't permit you to use, she'll crank the intensity on said toy up to 100 and basically overstimulate you until you're complaining and crying. (Consensually, ofc. Consent is important y'all 🙏)

-"What did I say about using toys without my permission, hm? That's right-I said not to. But, you didn't listen, did you? No, no, you stop that shit. If you didn't want me to punish you, you never would've picked up that vibrator in the first place."

-Shes absolutely RUTHLESS if you use a toy without her permission.

-But, when it comes to toys she DOES want you to use, she'll either intruct you how to use them or just control the toy herself.

-Personal favorite toy is a vibrator, but she also loves using a strap, but only on you. She'll never let you use any type of strap/dildo on her.

-Will occasionally use a vibrator if you aren't there/in the mood on herself, but will never let you use one on her.

Alejandro Vargas

-If you suggest the use of toys, he'll look at you like 🤨

-"Toys? You wanna start using toys? Am I not enough for you anymore, mi chula/o? (Girl/boy)"

-He'll probably think he's not satisfying you enough if you suggest it, but he's open to trying it after you insist that he's still able to satisfy you.

-When he does try them out with you, they become a staple in your sex life. Specifically a vibrator for each of you to use.

-Does prefer it where it's just you two, though. Sex toys are kinda like a special treat he likes to indulge in on occasion.

-After you introduce him to vibrators, though? He uses them all the time for masterbating.

-May or may not send you videos of him pleasuring himself with the toys yall bought together 🤭

-Also may or may not eventually want to get a vibrator that has his name engraved on it for you, so you can use it whenever he's out on missions :)

Rodolfo Parra

-Kinda like Alejandro, where he only uses them sometimes, but has probably used at least a fleshlight before yall got together.

-He's honestly a sucker for vibrators, but it's become something he only does with you. Won't use them to please himself because he needs to hear your voice for it to feel really good.

-His opinion on toys is more positive as opposed to Alejandro's in the beginning, though. He's perfectly fine with the suggestion and doesn't feel embarrassed when you two (obviously) may not know how to use a specific toy for the first time.

-"Don't worry, amor (love). It's only our first time. If we like it, we'll use it again, and the more we use it, the better it'll feel."

-Very encouraging of you if you wanna buy a new toy. And he doesn't necessarily mind what it is, either. Fleshlights, vibrators, straps, most toys he's open to trying.

-Would totally send you videos (or more so, just the audio) of him using any toys you bought for him. Very vocal about it, too. (I'm a firm believer that Rudy has a voice kink)

-Will occasionally send you links to toys he think you'd like on Amazon or something and be like "if you give me a bj I'll buy you this for Christmas " (you don't have to give him a blowjob. He'll buy it for you anyway)

König

-I feel like he'd be a biiggggg fleshlight enjoyer.

-Would love to use one and pretend it's you when you aren't there.

-He's kinda ehhh about other toys, though. Mostly because his fleshlight satisfies him enough without the addition of others.

-If you wanna use them on yourself, that's fine. König just wants you to be happy.

-But, if you wanna use one on him? May Lord have mercy 🙏

-Will probably manhandle you for the suggestion, pinning you down and punishing you how he sees fit.

-Maybe, when he finally loses all self-respect for himself, he'll try it out.

-"But only once." He says, not willing to admit how much he learns to love vibrators.

-Will totally use one when you aren't home. Wouldn't be caught dead by you with one, though. If he asks you what time you'll be home, there's one of two things going on.

-#1: He just misses you

-#2: He's using a vibrator and wants to know if he has enough time to cum before you get home

John Price

-Not a big toy guy honestly, not even with fleshlights or simpler toys.

-Like...I feel like he'd be okay with trying something like a vibrator or sex doll, but he just won't like it as much.

-"These toys aren't anywhere near as good as you, darling."

-They really just aren't for John, but he doesn't wanna deprive you of using them. Most of the time, anyway.

-Sometimes, he'll catch you with one while he hasn't had the best day and is desperate for you. So, he'll take control of the toy for you, gently edging you before taking you for himself.

-"Can't believe you thought that that little toy could compare to me, love."

-Despite barely using the toys himself, he's the one who insists on washing yours after you use them around him. He knows how sensitive the combination of him and toys must make you, therefore, he doesn't want you to move an inch afterwards.

Kyle Garrick

-He's a big toy enthusiast. Loves them, anything that vibrates in particular. Probably has a cockring.

-Gaz is also more than happy to let you use whatever toys you want. On yourself, on him, he's pretty open to when it comes to the use of sex toys.

-On the occasions where you aren't there, he'll send you a video or picture of him using a toy (Totally not to tempt you home, totally not).

-"Look at what you do to me, baby. Can't keep my hands to myself when you're not here."

-I feel like he'd like mutual masterbation. Just watching you use a toy of your choice is enough to make him cum.

-He'll also place any toys on the bedside table to be washed the next morning (which is important btw❗❗) and may or may not get the biggest smirk on his face seeing whatever mess y'all left behind.

Simon Riley

-Appreciates a good fuck with a fleshlight or pocket pussy.

-But besides those types of toys? Ehhh..

-Not really his thing. Like I said in the Simon specific headcanons, he's not really that crazy when it comes to sex. He's not the type to judge his partner if they use toys, but if they manage to piss him off, I feel like he'd hide them. (Would probably just put it on a high shelf or something if you're shorter 💀💀)

-"You're not getting that stupid toy back. Not till you say sorry."

-Might even tease you with the toy, like drawing it over your dick/pussy and chuckling when you demand he give it back.

-"Oh, you want it back, do ya? No, no, no. Sorry, love, but I think I'd like to see why you like this little thing so much before I hand it over."

Alex Keller

-He loves anything that vibrates.

-Almost as much as he loves you, actually. Uses them religiously whenever you aren't in the mood/there.

-Like Gaz where he likes to use them during sex, but not really with mutual masterbation.

-Instead, he'll have a vibrator or even an anal plug on himself while he eats you out/sucks you off. (Totally moans against your cock/pussy btw, he's fairly vocal 🤭)

-Or, you can use a toy on yourself while you give him a handjob and he'll praise you endlessly for it.

-"Aw, does that feel good, baby? Yeah? Good, good girl/boy."

-At the end of the day, though, he'd much rather be cumming from your touch than a toy. So, he'll put them aside so he can have you all to himself. You're absolutely irresistible to him, afterall. How could he choose a toy over you when you're so perfect in his eyes?

Yall I'm SO sorry that this took me forever. Life has been absolutely slaughtering me, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Next up will be COD men x male reader headcanons, so be on the lookout for that!

Feel free to ask me what I should do next! My inbox is always open.

[ckret2]

Do you believe bill will eventually get better, even if it takes close to an eternity? Or do you think that is just his destiny, to forever be in denial of his mistakes?

I think on a long enough timeline change is inevitable. One way or another, Bill can't stay the same for an eternity.

He isn't necessarily getting better, though. Meds could leave him brain damaged, brain dead, or dead-dead—that's a real risk in psych wards from overmedication, errors, or adverse reactions to drugs, and I doubt Bill would have complained about the place being overmedicated unless the drugs were actually doing something to him. He could crumble under the stress and end up complying with whatever it takes to get him out of there and leave as a broken husk of who he once was. Or he could get more traumatized, more angry, more defiant, more hateful, spiraling on into infinity.

Psychiatric hospitals are, by and large, awful places to be. In fact the only time I've ever seen positive reviews of a psych hospital are from people who have been to multiple and are relieved their latest one is so much better than normal. A very common happy outcome of a psych hospital stay is literally "I absolutely needed to be there and going was the right choice, and I'll be traumatized the rest of my life because of it." And that's when the psych hospital did well.

The Theraprism uses solitary confinement + total sensory deprivation—which humans use as a torture and interrogation technique—as a punishment. I don't think they're doing it well.

I think Bill can improve—mainly because, frankly, at this point there's not a lot of ways left his situation could get worse—but if he does, at this point? It'll be in spite of the Theraprism, not because of it. It's pretty common in psych hospitals (particularly forensic psych hospitals, where all the patients also have the stigma of being criminals) for the treatment to hold patients back more than help. Things like patients that have committed more violent crimes being scrutinized much more than other patients and thus rated as more unwell than other patients displaying the same symptoms. Or patients objecting to taking a med that makes their mental condition worse, and being written up as noncompliant for it and pushed further back from being released until they agree to take the drug that makes them worse. Or patients having innocent behaviors reinterpreted as signs of mental illness ("keeps a journal" = "pathological need to write").

But he could improve. Maybe being cut off from his powers & his enablers will cause him to think over his life for the first time; maybe he'll make actual emotional connections with fellow patients that help him improve; maybe he realizes "this is the worst place ever, I've GOT to turn my life around" and starts checking out self help books from the hospital library. There's even a very slim chance he might get a competent psychiatrist who listens to him, doesn't assume he's incapable of self-insight just because he's mentally ill, and sees him for more than fifteen minutes once in a blue moon—all of which aren't traits you find in psychiatric hospitals as often as you might hope.

Dandelions can grow from the cracks in sidewalks, and people can improve in shitty psych wards.

But I expect the Theraprism will have to reform before Bill reforms.

I expect even more that Bill will find a way to escape before either thing happens.

[youcouldmakealife]

Masking, YCMAL edition

So, after the general info on masking, here's how it specifically looks like and impacts some of the 'verse's characters.

I think I kind of need to preface this with the fact that a lot of my characters have neurodivergent traits because, well. I do. I don't know how a neurotypical person thinks, the same way a neurotypical person doesn't know how a neurodivergent person thinks. You can read about the experience, and, despite shitty stereotypes to the contrary, you can empathize with it, but the wiring of the brain is literally different.

So when I'm listing characters here as neurodivergent, I either a) set out to write them that way or b) in hindsight can't deny that their experiences are written through a very specifically neurodivergent lens. Someone not being explicitly labelled as ND doesn't necessarily mean they aren't, I just..really don't want to go back through my entire 'verse applying diagnoses the same way I happily slap an MBTI or enneagram or kindergarten teacher/assassin label on them, because that feels wrong.

But if you're neurodivergent and see something in a particular character that makes you feel seen, I'm not going to tell you 'nah man, they're actually neurotypical'. Especially because literally every single one of them was written by someone neurodivergent.

Anyway! Canonically ND characters and their masks:

David: masks extensively. Generally does his best for 'unobtrusive, pay no attention', unsure why it doesn't seem to work (mostly because he's talented and beautiful, so it seems less 'unobtrusive' and more 'I think I'm better than you', which isn't helped by the fact that often when the mask does slip, it's to show frustration, contempt, or disdain -- think at the All-Star Game his rookie year, or several points early on with Jake. Also does not help that he often does think he's better than people.)

Bryce: Still laughing at 'straightsona' used to describe Bryce out with his teammates, because it's perfect. His 'I don't care, I'm hot as shit, bitches love me' dickhead behaviour was him picking up those behaviours from popular peers and teammates over the years, partly mistaking that for the reason they were popular (rather than being seen as boy kings making them callous or arrogant), and partly viewing them as the exemplar of someone no one would predict was gay. Jared's worst enemy.

Speaking of, honourable mention to Raf Sanchez AND Julius Halla here, Jared's going around collecting neurodivergent loved ones all through IJ(aoe).

James: 'unobtrusive, pay no attention', much more successfully than David, partly because he has a mouthpiece in the form of Finn. His crashing after road trips is partly extended overstimulation and change, but it's also having to wear the mask more extensively, because he has much less time to himself, especially when he shared a room. (He's mostly unmasked with Finn, that's why Finn is his exception to a lot of No People things, but he wasn't at the beginning).

Holden: Also kind of 'I don't care, I'm hot as shit, bitches love me', but...ironically? He doesn't mask as much as the others, and because of that, he frequently drives away people who originally seem to like him and wonders why. Has been described as 'a lot'.

Fiona: Literally will not leave the house without a full face of makeup and a pair of heels or she'll feel exposed and vulnerable, and putting her make up on is how she prepares to be Outside Fiona. She's very perky and friendly at work. The second she gets home it's an 'uggggh' moment and straight into the shower to decompress/literally unmask. She's more aware than any of the guys that she's putting on a performance, partly because she grew up with all those 'girls are expected to be...' followed by a list of things she definitively wasn't. Has also been described as 'a lot'.

Finn: And How May I Be of Service To You Today?

Now this is where it gets kind of interesting because like -- people often have facades. That's not a neurodivergent only thing. People can be fake, or posture, or pretend to be something they're not. Mike, for example, will lean into the big macho asshole when he's put on the defensive, Willy is Always Performing, Thomas is sunshine even when he doesn't really feel like being that, Robbie will play the buffoon to make people laugh if he thinks they need it, half of Joey's rants are playing to the cheap seats.

Like, there's a difference between pretending you're somebody else sometimes, or behaving inauthentically, and full on 'yeah, they're masking'.

But Georgie is masking. Georgie is, at all times, evaluating his surroundings, monitoring people's emotions and reactions (especially to him), and behaving in the manner he thinks is most likely to lead to his being liked. And he was already doing that when Robbie met him, but it's intensified significantly since.

I think that's where the biggest difference lies between some of the above ND characters and Georgie? David, for example, doesn't care if he's liked (like, yes he does, but also...no). The mask is for safety/to minimize vulnerability. David's in particular was tweaked to get praise and avoid criticism from his parents (didn't work), teachers, and coaches (worked much better), not so much for his peers.

But Georgie's isn't for safety. Georgie doesn't manage his behaviour to avoid harm, Georgie wants people to like him. And he's discovered that people don't seem to like him when he does certain things, or acts certain ways, or needs things from them, so he just...doesn't do those things.

Finn's interesting because he has both forms. Please like him it'll break his heart if you don't.

[olderthannetfic]

As a 50K person, I get how it sounds, but honestly, it is exhausting because a lot of it is rereading and hating the flow and having to add more to make it feel better as a piece and never feeling finished.

It's a difference in style and the way people write sometimes, I think.

I always appreciate short pieces and the authors ability to put together a story with a small amount, and it hit like a punch or just linger on my mind for years. A lot of them are genuinely beautiful or very funny or very hot and have very good pieces that get to the heart of things engagingly. But that is a skill to be able to do.

I can't do brevity, and it's genuinely not fun all the time. I've tried to write something smaller, and it just felt unfinished to me no matter how much I tried to force myself to not add more and made me so unhappy with it that I just left it. I can't do a story without it being more involved and full of details, which always expands. Otherwise, it feels barebones and not done.

Mor tangential the length of fiction doesn't reflect anything on quality or investment into the project either. Shorter pieces aren't any lesser for a smaller amount of words (and certainly aren't easier to write) and longer works aren't necessarily well-written just because there's a lot of words. And sometimes people lean into one or the other as easier to write for them.

--

[alto-tenure]

has anyone thought about Iris's brain cancer as much as I have.

according to Ota, "Invincible Rainbow Arrow" was written by Iris after visiting a kid in the hospital that had cancer. I don't necessarily think that it's false, but that definitely isn't the whole truth, and learning about Iris's diagnosis really puts that song into perspective.

"revolt!/even with death impending" really feels like Iris trying to muster some resistance for herself. she's trying to live. she's trying to make her own world better. death is coming for her, but she won't make it easy.

and she doesn't tell anyone about it either. to our knowledge, the only person who knew about Iris's diagnosis before the events of the game was her mother and the doctors she saw for it. none of Iris's friends knew. Renju might have, but it's unconfirmed. Iris kept it to herself -- she didn't want to be the idol with brain cancer. she wanted to be A-set.

Iris's joy and optimism aren't false, either: they come from a very real desire to keep going, to live through every moment. if she gives up, then she's giving in to the fact that her cancer is likely going to kill her, and her mental state is half the battle.

she was told that she was probably going to die, and her response to that was to carry on. to keep going with her purpose. she started A-set by hoping against hope, and she keeps A-set going by continuing to hope against hope.

[thatonefandomjumper]

If you were able to make Valdangelo canon how would you write them ?

Very good question.

The thing is, Valdangelo is a relationship that I feel had so so much potential due to how the characters were individually written, but at the same time, I really don't trust that Riordan would have done them justice just on account of how Heroes of Olympus was written as a whole. To really make their relationship satisfying, I'd probobly need to make some substantial rewrites to the series as a itself.

But for simplicity sake, let's say we're keeping all big plot points and beats the same with the only difference being that Valdangelo is endgame.

House of Hades would be the most logical place for the two of them to shine, considering Nico was, uh, quite occupied during Mark of Athena. Leo is canonically very spooked by Nico's mere existence on the ship and Nico prefers to keep to himself most times. Not only that, but the two places they each spend the most time is not only the most isolated parts of the ship but also, sort of the furthest away from each other (Crows nest and Engine room).

Not only that, but these two are so bad at normal human interactions that the only way they could genuinely start to open up to each other and find that they are oh so eerily similar is for some outside factor to push for it to happen.

Whatever that is, and no matter how it happens, the biggest thing the two of them need is just a conversation. Genuinely, I think that's all that is needed for something to happen. Something romantic? Not necessarily, but hoo-boy if they opened up to each other in one way or another things would never be the same.

There will always be a terrifying thought of "Oh god, you see right though me and I see myself in you. This is awful I must stay away or I might learn something about myself that I don't want too." But at the same time, no one else will ever get it. To hate yourself so much. To feel alone all the time. To be unworthy of love and broken beyond repair.

So as much as they want to stay away, they inevitable meet again. Possibly in the night, when they are alone, because they would not want anyone around for this.

I am a dynamic girly at the end of the day, so when I ship characters I rarely actually think about the getting together part or anything that relates to that, but were they to get together at this point, it would be in a sort of fucked up self-discovery way where both of them adamantly agree to keep it a secret. They do not want anyone to find out ever that they kiss when they are on the verge of breakdowns.

But evolving from that (And after Nico's outing and Leo's stay in Ogygia, probobly with platonic Caleo or at least Leo feeling obligated to save her out of guilt for not being able to be with her) they become each others confidants. They both dislike showing true weakness, especially of the emotional kind so having someone who just gets it is not only new but terrifying. Whether that be the deaths of their family members or both of their serious cases of internalized homophobia, the other will understand.

People notice, of course, but Nico and Leo avoid each other in public to such a comical degree that it makes it almost more obvious that something is going on. They deflect like crazy when their relationship is brought up and most back off out of respect, but Piper and Percy are the two who speculate the most...

As the journey passes, little things start happening. Leo tells Nico to eat once in a while. Nico forces Leo to take a proper nap. Things the others either don't know they struggle with or aren't thinking about because there ae more important things going on. And slowly, the two start... improving? It was never the intention because they don't see themselves worthy of healing, but the other wants them to get better, and they don't want to lose the one relationship that let's them be wholly vulnerable. It's strange, but it feels good.

Now, I have always hated how angry Nico was at Leo for dying in canon because it makes zero sense in my opinion, but that's a whole 'nother conversation. But this time around, Nico would feel every right to be furious, because let's be real, Leo's secretive ass would not tell him this. There is a line to his emotional openness and telling his sort-of-dating-for-convenience-boyfriend about the fact he's actively planning his own suicide, despite the fact he's planning to bounce back from it is just a step too far. He knows it's selfish. But he just can't.

And it's in the time they're apart that they truly understand just how much they'd started leaning on each other in the time they were together. The bad habits they broke coming back and the longjng to see the other growing stronger. They both sort of hate it. Nico joins Jason and Piper in their search while Leo is trying his best to get back to camp.

No matter how the reunion would go, I like to think that Nico would have spilled the beans about their relationship to the others at that point, so Leo, who had been psyching himself up to swoop Nico into his arms and declare their love to the camp doesn't exactly get that. But what he does get is tears, angry, possibly unfair words, and reconciliation. Their back with each other, and this time, they won't screw it up.

Valdangelo is a story of healing. Of two broken people building each other back up. No matter what direction I'd go with actually making the relationship happen, they will always represent the mortifying ordeal of being known.

Anyway, they are actually impossible and there is something very wrong with them. Thank you for the ask and here's a drawing:

Also, I wrote a Valdangelo fic way back in 2021 where a similar scenario played out if you are interested:

[ludcake]

I've been chatting with beloved mutual @amethyinst and recently found a way better way of like, articulating my thoughts on the Others and the whole Fire and Ice thing.

I've written one or two pieces of meta on the Others before and I am a strong believer that they're people and not evil ice demons and that they have some cognition, society and that the books won't end with them just getting all destroyed and murdered in a big war - for a lot of reasons, including the fact that I think that would go very much against the overarching theme of the books, both in the sense that I disbelieve the idea that the Others are the big threat we have to pay attention but are too concerned with our own small, petty issues (I think that it would do an immense disservice to the struggles that these characters endure to ultimately frame them as pointless) and because I disbelieve that the ultimate, overarching conflict will be a big war in a display of violence.

The thing is, obviously, the Others are Ice - and we have the dragons, on the opposite corner, as Fire. Martin's mentioned a couple of times that fire, and the dragons, represent passion, and they represent life, and that's part of why they're associated with Dany's position as mother and breaker of chains... And he's also mentioned a couple of times that the Others are "ice sidhe", that they can do things with ice that are incredible, but I'm going to focus on that idea of them as sidhe - as fey beings, as counter to fire, but also as spirits and bound by spells.

To me, it's difficult to accept the idea that the dragons, and fire, is wholly positive - we've seen how "fire consumes until there's nothing left" is a theme through Thoros and Berric, and we've seen how dragons were used by the Targaryens and the Valyrians to keep a vast tyrannical empire that oppressed several peoples and kept them as slaves, the same system that Dany now uses her dragons to destroy. There's clearly a greater theme here, at play, that dragons aren't universally positive - and throughout A Dance With Dragons, specifically, we see Martin use the dragons, in particular Drogon, to represent Dany's desire for freedom, to escape politics, to escape Meereen, to fly and burn and end peace and crush the slavers.

And frankly, I don't think that the ultimate answer is that it's a necessarily good instinct. It's not a bad one either.

There's been a few pieces written about the Others that go at length about their role - a few ones that link their appearance to the sacking of the barrows beyond the Wall, or the idea that the ancient Pact has been broken, or the idea of the Wall and the Night's Watch as ultimately institutions of separation, and of course, linking the 7000ft tall wall of ice to the ice guys. And I think there's a point to be made here... There's few times where we see the Others themselves, but it has always fascinated me how in A Game of Thrones' Prologue, the Others ambushing Ser Waymar Royce accept his request for a fair and just duel, and fight against him in his own terms.

I think that if dragons are passion, and freedom, and warmth, then the Others are oaths, and laws, and the cold. The Others are not evil, but they are duty - and the dragons are love. Love is the death of duty, duty is the death of love - the Others are a slowly marching force, that moves ever onwards, and they will have their ultimate reckoning, and they will bind people to oaths and laws. They are Ned Stark executing a poor boy who was running for his life. They are Robb Stark executing the father of his friends for treason. They are Ser Barristan Selmy standing by while King Aerys ruled tyrannically. They are Duncan the Tall standing up and keeping to his oath of knighthood. They are Prince Baelor Targaryen defending Duncan. They are Stannis marching onwards for duty. They are every law and every oath and every rule, just or unjust, whether it upholds ideals or not - they are the ice sidhe, they are what you swear upon, they are the Old Gods of the North which look through the weirwoods and tell whether you've said a lie. They are cold, harsh, unforgiving truth.

And the dragons, of course, are that opposite. They are Maegor the Cruel destroying every rule of the realm, every demand of the Faith, because he rides Balerion. They are Daenerys destroying slavery and breaking the wheel, because she is the mother of dragons. They are passion and they are love, they are the impulse for freedom, they are might-makes-right and the breaking of chains, they are the Valyrians destroying every rule of society because they have dragons, they are Daenaerys making a better world because she has dragons, they are Aegon V seeing glimpses of a world where the smallfolk would not toil so much because he'd have dragons, they are Aerys the Mad burning his victims because he is a dragon. They are tyranny, and they are freedom - they are the fact that you are beholden to nothing but yourself.

And that can be used for good, and for ill; just as oaths can be good, or bad.

And that's what ice and fire are; they may both end the world, and they may both uphold it, but they are duty and love. The human heart in conflict with itself.

Is this a definitive analysis? Not at all. I'd love to see people counter argue or add onto it! It's just my brief thoughts on the bilaterality of ice and fire, and how that dichotomy is often presented, I think; I might write up something longer with proper references to the books sometime. But it is A Thought I've Had, and I think it's worth writing out.

[genericpuff]

A theory as crazy as it is profound in a silly r/im14andthisisdeep kinda way

So there's this conspiracy theory of sorts that's been whispered within the ULO discord and subreddit the last little bit. I don't think anyone's made an outright statement on it yet but it's definitely something people have been casually talking about in the comment sections and chatrooms, mostly as a joke, but also as a thought experiment.

And that thought experiment is concerning the notion that Lore Olympus could very well have become a poorly-made AI comic.

Not necessarily the art, as we've already dissected the art process plenty of times before and it points to Rachel simply being bad at team management and using her mismanaged team as a way to circumvent any real effort on her own part.

But the writing. There's just something about Lore Olympus' writing that's become incredibly stiff, boring, and alien.

Disclaimer before I continue: this is a tinfoil hat theory, and a lot of the points I'm about to discuss can be easily proven with far more reasonable explanations, so take it with mountains of salt. That said, I do think it's something worth talking about as we're currently in an era of mass AI-takeover in the art and writing scene, and let's face it, Lore Olympus nowadays really does feel like it's either being written by an alien, or an amalgamation of possessed animatronic endoskeletons wearing a human skinsuit. So viewer beware, this post is full of speculation and tinfoil hat wearing, read at your own discretion and don't take everything I'm about to say 100% seriously.

Let's get started.

THE TONE OF VOICE

This is where that whole "animatronic wearing a skinsuit" vibe really shines, so I figured it would be where I'd start. Lore Olympus... does not feel human. It's dialogue often feels stilted and scripted, none of the characters have any sense of personal voice, and it often feels like the dialogue is coming straight out of a sterilized Wikipedia article.

There are also often times when characters will say one thing only to be responded to with an entirely other thing. It comes across as randomly generated, like the dialogue is being created based off a script that is only given prompts as to where it needs to end up - so everything between Point A and Point B ends up feeling like non-sequitur filler at best and outright nonsense at worst.

In fact, there can be better tone of voice and dialogue found in the legitimate AI conversations of Lore Olympus themed ChatGPT bots.

And this is a bot that's self-aware it's a bot, so it definitely has that going for it.

The more likely explanation: Rachel's bad at writing. She's planning these episodes maybe 2 weeks ahead at a time at best so she's just throwing dialogue in to keep readers spending money and meet her panel quotas. Her characters have no voice because they aren't, in and of themselves, characters. She hasn't given them any depth beyond their appearance and she clearly has next to no understanding of writing outside her own headspace (and her actual headspace as we've seen is... yikes) so it's not surprising that her dialogue-writing is on par with Shenmue 3. And Shenmue 3 is a game with real human-written dialogue that exists so it's not a stretch that something like LO's bad writing could be entirely the fault of a human either LOL

THE NARRATIVE INCONSISTENCIES

It seems since the start of S2.2 (post-mid-season hiatus which starts us off with the 10 year time skip) narrative inconsistencies and plotholes have become far more egregious, sometimes contradicting itself within the same episode. Almost like scenes are just happening from single idea prompts and no actual structure underneath the surface.

The more likely explanation: Just like the first point about stilted dialogue, this could easily be chalked up to Rachel just not committing to goal-oriented writing. She doesn't have any sort of end point planned for any of these plotlines, she just drags them out until she can finally think of a way to resolve them, if she even resolves them (many often aren't resolved, or are simply left as a "yep, that's it, moving on" type ending, ex. Eros and Psyche).

STRANGE SYNTAX AND CONSTANT TYPOS

This goes hand in hand with the first point about stilted dialogue, but part of what makes everything feel so stiff and robotic is how often the sentences are structured in very... odd ways. From the lack of contractions that make sentences feel less natural-

-to the strange choice of words that no human being in a modern setting would ever use (and LO is, again, set in a modern setting and is trying to portray the gods as being 'just like us')-

-to the numerous typos and spelling errors.

(there are so many I could post here but the "his deam" one always makes me laugh lmao)

It really feels like a lot of these sentences were pulled straight out of Twitter or a Wikipedia article. As a result, it never feels like these characters are talking to each other, but at each other.

As for the typos, at this point, Rachel really has no excuse for how frequent they are. Fortunately, she has hired a copy editor recently which seems to have mitigated these errors, but if there were a bot involved, it wouldn't be farfetched to think that the bot would also make spelling mistakes and stilted dialogue if it's been trained off Rachel's past material which is, y'know... full of spelling mistakes and stilted dialogue.

The more likely explanation: It's a well known fact that Rachel has dyslexia, so I'm not going to fault her for struggling with spelling things right. None of this is to shame people who struggle with dyslexia and reading disorders. But the fact of the matter is, Rachel is a multi-million dollar creator in the year 2023 where spellcheck exists. It's wild that she's only now taken on a copy editor. Literally any of her assistants that she's had for the last few years could have done that for her. It's great that she's hired a copy editor but it feels like too little too late. That isn't going to fix the stilted dialogue, either, which just comes down to, yet again, Rachel being a bad writer. And possibly a series of animatronic endoskeletons hiding in a human skinsuit.

REACTING TO CRITICISM

The irony of this post is that it asks not to take every speculation I write here seriously because it's just that, speculation, and we shouldn't get carried away with conspiracy theories... which is exactly the sentiment we had back when we initially suspected Rachel of spying in the criticism groups, which turned out to be true. It's basically public knowledge at this point that Rachel lurks in the criticism groups, thanks to both testimonials from others who have been in groups who got hijacked by Rachel (see: Broseidon's Palace of Fishposting) and the 'clapbacks' in LO that are clearly meant for the audience.

But it's wild to think that Rachel would really spend time in criticism groups when she's said it herself that she "doesn't like criticism". And considering she already spends an absurd amount of time on social media, it would be really ridiculous if she was still finding time to also lurk in the critic groups and concoct ways to 'get back' at them.

Unless, of course, there was a bot parsing criticism hashtags like #antiloreolympus and #loreolympuscritical. I can personally attest to the fact that Rachel must be subscribed to hashtags in some capacity because I've had Lore Olympus fanart (way back in the day when it was actual fanart and not foe-art) get retweeted by Rachel herself literally seconds after posting. So either Rachel is just constantly refreshing the search feed all day, or she's directly fed tweets and posts with the hashtags she's subscribed to.

The more likely explanation: Rachel literally just spends an absurd amount of time on social media and considering she clearly only involves herself in the beginning and end process of drawing her comic - and only has a buffer 1-2 weeks ahead of time - she's definitely got plenty of time on her hands to lurk and hurt her own feelings in the criticism spaces. She could also just have her mods sending things to her as well. Either way it's icky behavior and I wish she'd do herself and her mental health a favor and just stay out of the fandom spaces, they aren't for her, they're for the fans.

HOW IS IT GETTING WORSE?

Consider everything I've laid out here. Remember that Lore Olympus is a comic that's been in development since 2017, and in the Originals catalogue since 2018. Its Originals version turned 5 years old in March and technically LO is well into the 6-7 year age range in total. It's absolutely absurd that after all these years, not only has the story fallen apart, but the art has lost the quality it once had. Comics are a medium that encourage improvement, you're drawing lots and typically the same characters and settings over and over again, it's natural progression to get better at doing it over time. And yet, Rachel seems to be getting worse at it, and her involvement in the comic seems to be shrinking with each year.

Of course, improvement is optional. Not every comic gets better over time. Which brings me to my final piece on this matter.

The most likely explanation: Rachel is burnt out and not interested in LO anymore. This is the longest project she's ever done, and while it's not the first webcomic she's done on a schedule, it is the first one that's made it further than a handful of chapters (The Doctor Pepper Show ended after about 1-2 years, not even making it to 10 chapters). She even stated herself in the beginning that LO was a project she'd "never finish".

While it is a testament to how far LO has come from its humble beginnings, I think it also serves as a precautionary tale - success can come at the expense of your happiness and integrity if you've trapped yourself in a project that no longer fulfills you.

Rachel's never finished a long-term project, and at this rate, it's hard to say when she will. As well known as it is that she has dyslexia, it's also well known that she has ADHD, and speaking as an ADHD creator myself, I can fully empathize with and understand that webcomics are hard to create, and get more exhausting to see through with each passing chapter. There's a reason not everyone does long-term comics like this, they're incredibly hard to manage and require a lot of commitment. Even I've found my commitment to current projects wavering as the honeymoon phase has worn off and I've sunk into the reality that is monotonous work, panel after panel, episode after episode, deadline after deadline.

If Rachel were a more experienced creator and more self-aware of her own limitations and work methodology back in 2018, Lore Olympus likely would have never been dragged out this long. She may have gotten the chance to finish it while she was still happy with it, or at least leave it behind when she was ready to move on. While I'm sure the allure of signing on with Originals felt worth it at the time - especially when we didn't know yet just how exploitative Webtoons was - it clearly hasn't benefitted her in the long run because it's tethered her to a project that she never felt wholly dedicated to in the first place. A project that's now less about telling a story and connecting with an audience and more about generating clicks and revenue.

She can claim all she wants in her interviews that Persephone and Hades were her "muses" as a child, but the writing is on the wall - LO was a passing fancy that stuck around too long after its heartbeat gave out.

What it's become now is an endoskeleton on life support, made up of statistics and analytics, struggling to stay alive from inside of a colorful but rotting skinsuit that only barely resembles a living thing.

[starlitprism]

Prepping for a Tabletop Game: Who Should Do It?

So some of you are probably reading the title and going "... the game master or whatever. They should prep. Obviously." And generally speaking, that's correct. Unless they are an absolutely kickass improv type who has enough confidence to set something important on fire because you "know what you are doing" you're probably going to want to prep!

Now, much like some of the other stuff I have written, I am not here to advocate for one thing over another but I do want to talk about my own habits that may or may almost certainly not be unique. If you want a quick and easy "what do you mean" check out this little post for an example. Plus it's funny

So yeah, I prep for games even as a player. Sometimes it means bringing music for specific scenes or making up mechanics for party games or more. Oftentimes it means sitting down with my character playlist before games, finding the song to fit my characters mood, and blasting it before session to get me in the zone. This is all prep in a way.

So how else do I prep when I am not GMing?

Oh that's simple!

I just... oh wait I had a whole post on this. Ok maybe not so simple.

You can consult your GM, talk through changes as your character develops. Keep them updated on where they are at (this is very important, btw, when you tell your GM to "make you bleed" as I have found out repeatedly). Other things you can do is talk about character direction, the character's mindset, and possible pitfalls due to that mindset. These are ALL a form of prep and you don't even necessarily need to tell your GM; especially if they aren't interested in engaging like that. Some aren't. Some are busy. Me though? GM or player, that's my jam.

I have been engaging in such a way because my most recent character is kind of extreme in her reactions. Her feelings are big both in a positive and a negative sense and they can tend to overwhelm her and her thought processes which means, sometimes, I consult with my GM to come up with ideas on how to steer her towards the rest of the group instead of away. Towards ummm... shall we say a productive outllet for that energy.

Now some of you might go "or you could just make the harmonious choice anyway regardless of what she would do" and to those who can do this, I applaud you. I cannot.

This might be an autistic thing where not being true to the character just makes me feel like I am not playing them anymore. By which I mean that is exactly what I feel and therefore such choices are actively unpleasant to make. I know I am getting caught up in the details and the specifics because that is just how I work. However, that doesn't mean my solution is just wallow in the "problem." Because I see this conflicts not as a problem but an opportunity.

It's the "yes and-" portion of the bit so to speak. And insofar, despite playing a character who started very abrasive and disconnected, it's ABSOLUTELY ROCKED to play her because of this attention to detail and conversations about the character. Thank you @trishyeves for your constant amazingness as my GM. Little shoutout. We've never come up on a problem that was so impossible that we couldn't come up with a solution. Not once. Problems and disconnects are opportunities for narrative!

So for those of you who read this I am most curious to hear how you all prep either as a GM but especially as a player. HELL, if you got some fun stories involving the same please share that as well!

But anyway, who should prep? My personal favorite answer is anyone who feels up for it and wants to. Creating is very rewarding and every time we do it, it's a step towards bettering our own understanding of our process. PLUS, it make sit ways easier on the GM if they working with you. Every step of this refines it, sharpens it, and allows you to better figure out how to create something amazing. And not to harp on an old point, but when you work with your GM or your players, you start refining your ability to understand what others are thinking and where they are coming from.

And for me? Favorite part of collaborative storytelling

[theerurishipper]

Do you think Emo Marinette treated Claw Noir better than him her? Because I've seen so many Marinette kinnies say that they think she was much kinder to him and he was an awful Jerk, and now I'm kinda questioning if I'm missing something?

In my eyes, they treated each other equally bad. I'm tending towards saying Marinette fans just aren't used to seeing an Adrien or Cat who isn't fawning over Marinette no matter what she does to him. If Shadybug is rude and dismissive of Claw, he's rude and dismissive back.

So they think Claw's treatment of Badynette was so much worse because her treatment of her Cat is honestly not all too different from the regular LadyNoir vibes pre s5. Him not catching her when she falls from the sky for example. Our Adrien wouldn't do that, period. No matter how pissed he is.

But I wouldn't necessarily say that there was anything Badynette did that our Marinette wouldn't do to our Cat under heightened circumstances. I would even say that Marinette is much more likely to be the one betraying Cat Noir to get his Miraculous than the other way around.

So I guess it makes sense that Marinette fans think that Claw treated Shadybug worse because he was the only one who actually showcased bad behavior towards the other one our main characters wouldn't do. They're basically just not used to seeing Marinette not getting rewarded with kindness from Adrien whne she isn't treating him well either. Which is ironic, that Marinette fans react this badly to seeing Marinette in a more or less equal dynamic with Adrien for once.

But that's just the way I instinctively read it. I do wonder if there's something I'm missing because of how persistent Marinette fans are with that take.

I did not know that take was popular, but I have seen it before. I have written about this before, so I'll just put it here.

And maybe I'm just defensive, but there's a line about how Claw Noir treated Shadybug horribly, which comes off to me as OP pointing out that this is another way Marinette had it worse, when she was just as cruel to him lol. They both hated each other, it was mutual. She wasn't there for Claw Noir; she hated him and treated him just as badly as he treated her. Did we miss her attacking him and taking his ring? In fact, he was the one who reached out to her and tried to offer kindness and comfort first. And no hate on Emonette, they're on better terms now, but they 100% were not like that before, and she did not care about him.

In fact, rewatching the scene, she was the one who threw the first insult.

Claw Noir: There! You can have your boyfriend back! (Shadybug pulls out his belt) Hey! (Shadybug uses the belt to tie Ubiquity and keep her captive.) Don't yank the tail! Shadybug: At least now it's being put to good use. (stares at Marinette's wallpaper of Adrien in her monitor) Even in this world, we find pictures of that self-centered Adrien Agreste. Claw Noir: Obviously, he can only be perfect here, too. Shadybug: A perfect stuck-up brat. No wonder you're a fan of his. (jumps up on Marinette's bunk bed and looks at her board full of pictures of her friends, and notices the open trapdoor above her) They must've gone out this way!

You'll notice that this is their first scene together, and she's the one who's insulting him. He doesn't say a thing to her that might have provoked her. Which is not me saying that he was nicer to her than she was to him, since he starts fights later in the special, but saying that Shadybug was the nicer one when the first line she says is an insult directed at him is... pretty rich lmao.

I'm not sure that it's because of how the show presents their relationship (though it could be a factor). I think it's more that the people saying these are the ultra Marinette stans who call Adrien a sexual harasser or an abuser or something. It sounds like something they'd say.

Thank you for your ask!

[cinnamonest]

So happy your asks are open, absolutely love your work, it’s gets my heart racing so much!!

I keep thinking about your post where darling gets isekaid into the MMAU and couldn’t help but wonder, who would want to (idk how to word this) obtain isekaid darling. Like since they confirmed she’s from another world and all that, who would be most curious/driven to obtain her?

Thank you so much for always feeding us!!! <3

Ahhhhh I like this thought ty anon

//kind of fetishism for "foreignness" (of course this is fictional places we're talking about but just in case)

Top contenders for such a thing: Xingqiu would be the most likely, followed by Albedo and Dottore, and while not necessarily driven by a desire to obtain, there's also a likeliness to end up with Kazuha.

Often times, girls are imported to a different land than the one they initially came from. This is because there will always be those guys who perk up at the idea of something "foreign" to them, it has a certain appeal to them, in the same way art or media often catches attention when imported to a different location, as it stands out. Consequently, this transporting girls, while it costs money to do so, is ultimately profitable, as they can then market it as such. A lot -- a LOT -- of men have either general fetishism for foreignness, or sometimes specific fetishes for certain accents or regional facial and bodily features. Frankly, most girls find it just as cringey and annoying as they would in any universe, but hey, at least no matter where you're from, there's plenty of rich guys in a far away land somewhere who're willing to pay a fortune for you.

Finding something from an entirely different world is a whole new matter. And more importantly, laying eyes on you, to traders, is like looking at walking cash. Rich people will pay a lot of money for that... if they can get them to believe the story, which may prove challenging, but they usually find ways by getting you to demonstrate things you know, the clothes and devices you had on you when you arrived, and so on.

Such appeal is a status thing for the wealthy, but more mature guys tend to see past such marketing tactics and have enough impulse control to know they shouldn't just buy the first thing that catches their eye. Instead, they tend to look for personality qualities they know they want in the long-term. Younger, more immature men, however, are suckers for that sort of thing, and are already known for impulsive decisions.

Thus, it's heavily marketed to young rich boy types... and for all his efforts to give off a more mature, sophisticated aura, as much as he tries to seem like he wouldn't be one to do so, at the end of the day Xingqiu is not immune to those impulsive tendencies and easily caught attention. In fact, he's read fantasy novels with plots much like this! Ideally, you'll be just like those characters written into those (nauseating, to anyone outside the target audience) male fantasy fulfillment pieces, some sort of alien species that looks just like humans but are these hyper-submissive creatures that are breeding-crazed... but, okay, even if that's not the case, you'll still be a cool possession to show off.

However, such an individual also has great appeal to those with an innate sense of curiosity and inquiry, which is where Dottore and Albedo come in. Both aren't going to go out of their way to buy a girl normally (not out of ethical concerns or anything like that, it's just sort of embarrassing), but when you take into account the fact that it's coming from presumably another universe entirely... that piques the interest, and could prove an incredibly beneficial resource in the study of pursuit to each's goals. Granted, you're infinitely better off with the latter than the former, based on the idea of researching you being asking you questions and taking vitals and giving you mild concoctions to drink versus cutting you open to prod around at and take chunks of your internal organs, but you know, every scholar has his unique methods. Still, for both, seeing you would be intriguing enough to go through with the purchase.

That all being said, there's not exactly a guarantee you're going to find yourself initially in a populated area. Teyvat has some rather large expanses of wilderness, and there's good chance you'll find yourself out in the middle of nowhere, wandering until you find a road and picking one direction to travel at random, just hoping someone comes along... and, of course, when the one who finally does come along happens to be a soft-voiced, sweet-looking young man, you would think you've gotten very lucky to not end up with a bad person... even if he does seem very wide-eyed and shocked by your presence and seems to be way too overdramatic when he swears he'll protect you if you stay by him (he's just escorting you through the wilderness, right?), he surely wouldn't do anything bad to you. Not until you settle down for the night, at least.

[light-wynd]

Random Melusine info/headcanon dump

Because why not.

Everything under the cut because it's a bit long ^^' Most of the canon facts hopefully aren't super common knowledge, and are ones that I don't think I've brought up before either!

Canon random facts about Melusines

They are "the finest example of a new sort of Hydro Vishap species" according to Neuvillette.

They all seem to be drawn to shiny mechanical components, not just the ones living in Merusea Village who pretty much use them as currency. Sigewinne has apparently collected so many that she's running out of storage space in the Fortress, and Xana (the one you can exchange them for items with in the village) plans to build a giant machine out of her own collection.

Aeval's token that she was born with is a shard of a sword, which she thinks represents courage. This also means that their tokens don't necessarily have to be mechanical parts, just seemingly anything that could've pierced inside Elynas during the blast.

The rain feels warm for Melusines, and so most of them enjoy being in it. But Sigewinne for one is concerned about how Neuvillette is feeling whenever it rains.

They tend to find humans adorable, and even know how to take care of human babies (as was the case with Emilie when she was little, apparently).

They're very sensitive to sour-tasting things such as Bulle fruit.

There is a Melusine philharmonic orchestra that performs at the Opera Epiclese.

A lot of Melusines are into astrology, and so Neuvillette basically made up a constellation for himself (from my understanding?) because he didn't have the heart to tell them that he doesn't actually have one.

An Amurta scholar was once expelled from Fontaine for treating Melusines like they were animals (touching and recording them without their permission and trying to feed them, among other things) while trying to study them.

Sigewinne's eyesight is closer to that of humans than Melusines - and when they meet up in her infirmary, sometimes she describes scenery as she sees it for others like Ottnit and Menthe to draw.

Headcanons about Melusines (that gradually get more baseless and/or silly)

They didn't just start studying human expressions and behaviors in order to be able to understand them better - they also wanted to try and learn how to act more like humans in order to make them more likely to accept Melusines. Originally, they used to express themselves quite differently, but that gradually changed as they integrated more and more closely into human society.

Sigewinne has written a guide for hospitals/doctor's offices to have on hand about how to properly care for any sick or injured Melusines, since their constitution is different from that of humans and she can't always be there to personally see them since she's pretty busy at the Fortress.

Their feelers and/or tails (depending on which is wider on the Melusine in question) store excess water. If a Melusine is getting dehydrated, you'll notice these thinning and/or drooping.

Every time Blathine is assigned to patrol her usual area in front of the Opera Epiclese, she has to actively resist the urge to bathe in the Fountain of Lucine like it's some Melusine-sized water park pool (cause you know. Her whole fascination with fountains and all).

[bearborg]

Heya, I saw that rb on my Metroid logo - I appreciate the insight regarding the Chozo glyphs! 👍

After your comment I did a bit of additional searching, and it doesn't seem like the interchanging is absolutely consistent across the Dread media, is that correct? More for tessellating opportunities than an exact rule, perhaps.

Either way, I don't necessarily mind this logo being 'incorrect' in that regard - I've had in mind that the Chozo sometimes use a 'simpler' form of their language specifically for ease of translation, so maybe this can coincide with that as a happy accident on my part. Plus, I have an alternate version of the logo which the interchanging glyphs would work better for, so I may apply it to that one and use both logos! Nonetheless, it's a cool detail about the language I hadn't noticed :o

Glad to know you've been digging the Samus design so far :)

it doesn't seem like the interchanging is absolutely consistent across the Dread media, is that correct?

I'm pretty confident that it's 100% consistent. What you might have seen is an example like this, where characters on the same row aren't tessellated:

But the tessellation is still being applied here, the text is just written vertically. You could argue that the tessellation is actually even more important here, since it indicates the direction that the text should be read in.

I've had in mind that the Chozo sometimes use a 'simpler' form of their language specifically for ease of translation, so maybe this can coincide with that as a happy accident on my part.

Definitely plausible! The square glyphs seen in Zero Mission (and several other games before Dread) are essentially just a blockier non-tessellating version of the Dread glyphs, which could be a modernization or an attempt at making them more legible to other species. Prime 1 also has a separate, scratchier looking alphabet of rune-like symbols (sadly untranslatable), so there's clearly diversity in the Chozo's written language.

Nonetheless, it's a cool detail about the language I hadn't noticed :o

Dread has quite a lot of those! If you're interested in diving all the way into Chozo language research, I'd highly recommend checking out @ChozoCourse on twitter, where you can find a nicely-packaged fan document detailing everything we know about the language right now.

[vidavalor]

I just happened upon your blog (right terminology?) and I’m learning a lot. One thing that startled me was your referring to Crowley and Aziraphale’s love (sex) life as a matter of course, something seemingly everyone but me knew about. I was blown away and really wanted it to be true. After all, they’ve had to do without so much—openness, safety, the expectation of future togetherness. It would too unfair if they had to do without physical consummation too. What’s the deal with this? How do we know it’s so? What’s the history? Please enlighten me. Have you written posts about this? I’d love to read them. Thanks

Hello! Thanks for the ask. Nice to meet you. I call it a blog because I'm old and don't know the cool terms but we can call it whatever lol. I have no idea re: how many people who view the show and are able to see that Crowley & Aziraphale are more than friends (because, believe it or not, that concept still shocks some lol) who think that they're already lovers. I do think I'm sort of in the minority, maybe, even if there are a bunch of people who think that they're already a thing. When scrolling through the Ineffable Husbands tag on here, I tend to see a lot more posts that suggest that they aren't lovers and that 2.06 was their first kiss. (Let's hope that it's not lol.)

I guess I would say that if you are thinking about whether or not they might be, consider that Good Omens shows you most of its story out of chronological order in order to give layered meaning to the stuff you've already seen so, just with that knowledge alone, it would be actually pretty surprising if 2.06 was the first time they'd kissed. In S2 itself, earlier on, there's some heavy suggestion that it's not. If you want to read about when I think that happened, go here and I'll link you one more post at the bottom of this response here:

While I like to read all points of view-- I read a lot of aro ace GO stuff as well, even if I don't necessarily see that in my own interpretations of things-- I have thought they were sleeping together since the first time I watched S1 a few years back and S2 just kinda reinforced that for me. I think that, technically-speaking, there's a path to either they still haven't gotten together or that they're long-time lovers. I say that but honestly... it's more like if they somehow do something that suggests that they're only getting together during/after S3, I think it could kinda work but I honestly don't actually think that's the story they're writing. I'm pretty firmly set on the idea that they've been sleeping together for, uh, a very long time at this point. Someone told me the other day via messages that they would burn my house down if I did not finish a sex meta that I promised people so I best maybe get on that and also potentially call the police lol. (I am both flattered and scared?). So, uh, I'll get that up soon... I wrote a couple of longer metas lately about different eras of their relationship that are replies to recent asks on my blog-- I'd probably recommend the one about what they call each other and coded love confessions in 1941, if you're looking to read about them as a couple that's already a couple (even if they would have an anxiety attack at the word 'couple', as Crowley does in 2.06 lol). Will link it below. I'm very flattered that you and others have asked to read more of what I think and I have gotten asked a lot for more sex-related content so, uh, watch this space, I guess? :)

Make yourself a tea first or plan to come back to it as I'm wordy lol:

[aortaobservatory]

can i get your take on the hope aspect? your thoughts about rage got some gears turning, and like you said in your post about life, it helps to understand the opposite aspect in relation :)

Absolutely! It's my opinion that the Hope Aspect, like a few other aspects and what they're named after, is fairly misunderstood because of the connotations the word "hope" has. The Hope Aspect is also one I gained a better understanding of by comparing it alongside its inverse.

The word "hope" has some pretty positive connotations to it. Dreams, longing, yearning for something better, holding on, so on and so forth. These aren't wrong when thinking of the Hopebound, but they're certainly not the full picture of what the Hope Aspect has to offer. And, like the other 11 aspects, the Hope Aspect isn't necessarily good or bad; it is inherently neutral, with the potential to be either good or bad.

From The Extended Zodiac, I pulled these keywords from the Hope Aspect description. These would be the "canon" traits; they are what I adhere to when analyzing, but it should also be understood that this concept encompasses much more to do with than these keywords. Its "vibe", if you will, is much more than what is written.

TEZ Hope Keywords: Conviction, justice, aid, black and white thinking, imagination, dreams, better future, positive, caring, warm, (narrow-minded, selfish)

What really caught my attention in the canon description for the Hope Aspect was the descriptor "narrow-minded". It painted an interesting picture; that someone can be narrow-minded at their worst when their drive is towards that of a better future.

My chosen words for the Hope Aspect are "Conviction, Ideology, Commitment, Justice". I felt that the drive for many Hopebound is their sense of justice; they believe the things they do because they have a sense of justice. However, it's also important to keep in mind that one person's idea of justice is not always another person's idea of justice. (The Death Penalty debate is a good example of what I mean, but there are a lot of other good examples out there too).

The other word I chose for the Hope Aspect that didn't come from the TEZ was "ideology", which I felt encompassed many of the words on the list and off the list. Ideology is what a person believes; this can be religion, one's moral compass, true (or false) education, government systems, propaganda, so on and so forth. Ideology focuses on the system of beliefs a person has, and so the Hope Aspect also focuses on both personal beliefs, and systems in general (the government system, the education system, etc). This is perhaps why Ragebound tend to be anarchists and punks. Since the Hope Aspect is about beliefs, these beliefs can be anything. There's a lot of room in the Hope Aspect to look like other aspects if someone's ideology happens to match up with, say, the Life Aspect, or the Light Aspect, or any of the other aspects. There's a lot of wiggle room, but ultimately, the Hopebound do what they do because they hold fast to their beliefs and adhere to the systems that are in place which support their beliefs.

Like with Gamzee and Kurloz, the Hope Aspect doesn't get a full spotlight with Eridan (Prince of Hope) and Cronus (Bard of Hope) representing it, as the destroyer classes tend to skew the understanding of an aspect. However, for what Eridan's classpect was, he certainly was written up to it; the Prince uses hope to destroy hope, because he cannot grasp it or control it despite its abundance around him. His connection to the Hope aspect is fairly apparent in his Pesterquest route, actually, with how he talks about gender roles and his desire to be gender non-conforming and supportive of it, but he just can't grasp that for himself despite believing in it (ironically, because he's a shitty person via actively destroying the Hope of others). He also, in the next breath, proceeds to spout some pro-hemospectrum system bullshit, which I feel really does represent how narrow-minded he can be on certain subjects. Cronus is written flatly, but as a Bard of Hope, he has too much control over Hope, and that actually scares him. He allows Hope to deteriorate by actively enhancing Rage in others; this might be why he comes off as a playboy and a coward, and why so many people don't like being around him.

Meanwhile, I don't recall if Jake (Page of Hope) ever fully realizes his classpect within canon (and I am not counting being forced by Aranea), but Jake's arc has a lot to do with going out and forging his own ideology and set of beliefs; his attachment to adventures really shines through for his Page class. He has commitment problems with Dirk, which is a fault of the Page class and something he has to learn to work through to master Hope. He's got a fledgling sense of justice, and has to work through his meekness and shyness to hold fast to his convictions.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hi! Do you by chance have any kind of reading list for newbies to romance who want good examples of common tropes & an understanding of how the genre has evolved over time? Or recs for iconic titles and pioneer authors in the genre? I know Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele are everywhere but are they really the best place to start?

I can offer some recs/guidance! My word definitely isn't gospel and I have my blind spots—I try to read diversely, but I can always do better and am a white, cis, physically abled woman.

Soooo in terms of Nora and Danielle, I'd say yes to trying Nora, no to her necessarily being the best START, and personally I don't care for Danielle's books. But that's a pure taste issue, and the big thing is that the vast majority of Nora's books are romance (more recently, she's been published some dystopia/fantasy-bent stuff with romantic subplots while still publishing romance, I believe, and she's been publishing her In Death series, which is romantic suspense with some sci-fi elements, for years as J.D. Robb) whereas a lot of Danielle's books aren't. The first Danielle Steel book I ever read as a kid was pitched as a romance. It wasn't, and I hated it.

Nora is very good, but I do think she can be a bit overwhelming for new readers just because she's been through so many eras. She also has a very distinct voice, and you're either gonna be into it or you aren't. Nora writes a lot of trilogies, which will sometimes offer standalones and sometimes reeeeally read as interconnected series that happen to focus more on one of three couples per book (while the other couples still stay on as strong supporting characters). See my favorite books I've read by her, the Circle Trilogy. It's paranormal romance with a strong fantasy element. While each book centers one of of three couples, the books must be read in order and all feed into this overarching "save the day" storyline.

But to cut to the chase... Here are some books that can offer you an intro "sampler".

Iconique Classiques

A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught. This medieval romance is enemies to lovers where they're LEGIT enemies to lovers, with a delightfully complicated heroine. It's a great example of Judith McNaught, who is a foundational author, and despite being written in the 80s (with all that entails) it holds up really well.

The Bride by Julie Garwood. Another foundational medieval with a "oh, this is 80s but it hjolds up" vibe. Arranged marriage with a classic medieval setup: the Border Marriage! (Scotland x England marriage for political purposes.) Alec Kincaid is an EXTREMELY influential hero, and this is just such a fun book.

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. Beverly Jenkins isn't by any means the only author who's written historical romances about Black characters, but she's perhaps the most influential and probably the historical romance novelist wh does the most research in general. Her writing is gorgeous, and this book focused on a practical heroine who ends up in over her head after she nurses an infamously rakish Underground Railroad conductor back to health is just so romantic.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux. This is a really interesting romance, again very 80s but still good (imo). It focuses on a heroine in the 80s who goes to a church to cry wishing for a knight in shining armor after being abandoned by her douchey fiance. Then a literal medieval knight literally time travels right before her eyes. And he's also a douche lol. But a hot one!

Johanna Lindsey is also a very influential author in the genre, but a lot of her big CLASSICS are more noncon-leaning. A big one is Prisoner of My Desire, in which the heroine is forced to rape the hero in order to get pregnant (he later does the same to her in revenge... and then they fall in love). Kathleen E. Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower also features the hero raping the heroine, and it's also a classic. I won't get into it on a request post, but if you want to explore the genre more academically~ and are okay with reading noncon, I'd encourage checking out these and/or McNaught's Whitney, My Love. They're good books, imo, but the reality is that consent issues are a part of the genre's history, and that books with consent issues did and DO appeal to many romance readers for reasons that I think relate to the genre's appeal in a big way.

Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Susan Elizabeth Phillips did a lot to work towards the contemporary romcoms of today, except her books are often a lot more romantic and a lot funnier. This one is also generally WILD with a super dickish alpha hero who takes the heroine (who was forced to marry him by her dad) on a jaunt around the country with a TRAVELING CIRCUS. It's crazy. It's extremely fun. It's WILD.

To Love a Dark Lord by Anne Stuart. This is another historical, and to me it shows a lot of the early seeds of dark romance. You have a shady hero, a deal with the devil, and high stakes throughout. Stuart writes the biggest assholes for heroes, but this one is on the softer side for her.

Contemporary

Reel by Kennedy Ryan. Kennedy is one of the best in the biz! This book focuses on a famous director who falls for the up and coming actress he's chosen to star in his passion project. But she has a secret that could come between them. It also has a unique quality in that it goes back and forth between their story and the movie "script", which tells its own love story.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. The first in Hibbert's funny, feelings-y, and hot Brown Sisters trilogy. Showcases a heroine with chronic pain who decides to get a life (as the title suggests) witht he help of her hot neighbor.

Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez. A super unique billionaire romance with a Latina heroine who is in fact the billionaire, making a very unique deal with a prince in need...

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang. A successful author sets out to have her books adapted into a TV show, only to find out that one of the writers on the show is a man who was pulled into her sister's suicide when they were teens. (Basically: her sister jumped in front of his car, it was by no means his fault but the heroine and her parents hated him for it.) They can't resist their chemistry as adults, and begin a short-term no-strings thing that obviously... is a lot more. SUPER emotional, super hot, would recommend 100000%. READ THIS OVER EMILY HENRY. IMO.

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid. A great way to try sports romance, and a particular niche of sports romance called hockey romance, and a particular niche of hockey romance called GAY hockey romance. One of the only hockey romances I'm into, about a pair of longtime rivals who've secretly had a FWB situationship for years and are clearly in love but can't handle admitting it. SO. GOOD.

Chef's Choice by T.J. Alexander. A classic fake dating setup with a lot of cooking when a down on her luck woman agrees to pretend to date the French heir to a famous cooking family while he takes on a cooking... challenge...? To lock in his inheritance. A book with a trans hero and a trans heroine, rare (unfortunately) in romance.

Managed by Kristen Callihan. This is a great example of a rockstar romance, albeit one that focuses more on the manager of the band who's sooo uptight, and the social media girl/photographer he can't live without.

Lead by Kylie Scott. And if you want a rockstar romance that's about, well, the rockstar side... Here's a book about a recovering addict frontman whose world is turned upside down when his hard-ass assistant/sober living companion/unintentional best friend quits her job (because she just realized that somehow she's fallen in love with him).

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. A woman on the spectrum who's convinced that she's bad in bed (and wants to get married to please her family) hires a sex worker to get her out of her funk. Definitely recommend!

Historical

Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas. This is the prequel to Kleypas's Wallflowers series. By and large, I generally recommend trying to read older editions of Lisa's earlier books—she's been making a lot of edits since 2015ish that I don't... love.... I haven't heard of any edits being made to this one, though, and she's one of the greatest historical romance authors of all time. This is a dual romance, with a second chance/revenge interclass romance as the main story, with an age gap sort of redemption romance in the second story. Both are excellent.

Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt. Hoyt's entire Maiden Lane series is sooo good, but if you're going to read one book by her, go for the one with the virgin vigilante hero who finds love with a jaded society widow.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe. This is a standalone that's even better when you read the prior books in its series first. However, I think it's a great sendup of historical romance tropes—you get a rakish heroine, a hero who likes some rough sex (giving AND receiving bites and bruises) and a lot of HIGH OCTANE EMOTION with a feminist streak.

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall. A friends to lovers romance between a PTSD-ridden duke and a woman who, unbeknownst to him, is his best friend from before the war, who faked her death after the Battle of Waterloo in order to live as her true self. A rare historical romance with a trans heroine.

The Dragon and The Pearl by Jeannie Lin. A cat and mouse villain/kidnapping romance set in Tang Dynasty China. Super tense in the best possible way.

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera. A sapphic romance set in 1800s Paris, with one heroine being forced to show the other the secrets of the lesbian art community as a part of a business deal.

Princess by Gaelen Foley. To me, this is a great example of CAMPY 90s bodice ripper vibes in the best possible way. A bodyguard! A princess! An age gap! It can't be! She lactates when he sucks on her tits (she's a virgin).

The Mistress Experience by Scarlett Peckham. A sex work-positive romance with a shy hero and a bold heroine, a super modern and exciting look at historicals.

Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens. This is one I would definitely recommend to see a throwback—it's a great example of the campy historicals focused on one big family, with a solid dose of humor. And I mean... you kind of need to read a book with a hero named Devil.

Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian. A super lovely friends to lovers romance with a nonbinary protagonist. It definitely broke new ground in historical romance.

Waking Up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath. Lorraine is one of the best historical romance writers in the game and is known for turning bonkers plots (in this case, local man agrees to impregnate his impotent best friend's wife) into suuuuuuper emotional love stories. A must-read.

Paranormal Romance

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh. A really interesting, influential shifter romance with a heroine who's literally incapable of feeling emotion... falling for a hero who's a literal panther shifter that feels ALL the emotion.

A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole. A CLASSIC paranormal romance and the first full-length installment of Immortals After Dark, the best PNR series I've ever read. Very classic hyper alpha werewolf book, with the "feminine but headstrong" heroine type Kresley's so good at. I would also make your way to Lothaire, which is later in the series but probably the BEST vampire romance novel I've ever read. A true example of a villain romance, which can be hard to find.

Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison. Another Big Alpha romance with mating bond stuff, this time featuring a dragon shifter who hunts the heroine down after she steals from him.

Morning Glory Milking Farm by C.M. Nascosta. Not MY favorite book, but it's cute, and if you want an example of the modern "soft monster" romance, this... is it. (Run, Run Rabbit is my Nascosta of choice, but it's definitely a darker bite and feels a bit less "monster romance" to me as the leads are werewolves. To me, a monster should be less... humanoid.)

Bride by Ali Hazelwood. I really liked this, but I also think it's good to read to see the contrast between currently lite paranormals and paranormals from the height of the early 2000s wave. Plus, it's a tradpub book with knotting, which... shows how far we've come lmao

Moonglow by Kristen Callihan. Another KCallihan, but she writes across so many subgenres! This one I'm recommending to illustrate a particular niche we don't get enough of—historical paranormals. A werewolf/witch book set in Victorian London? And he's a Scottish rake? HELL YEAH.

A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger. A recent release that offers more gothic approach, with a romance between sapphic vampires spanning centuries. You can totally see an Interview with the Vampire call and response thing going on, but as a true romance novel with more explicit queerness (referring to the Interview book, not the show).

Erotic Romance

Priest by Sierra Simone. Good for dipping your toes into the Sierra Simone waters, a very classic "taboo" (but the taboo is religious, so it's light for a lot of people) romance between a Catholic priest and a woman seeking to unburden herself. With unique usages for holy oils. For Simone, I'll also recommend..............

The New Camelot Trilogy. This is for people who are ready to expand a bit and explore poly romance—I personally don't think anyone writes poly as well as Simone. An MMF triad retelling of the King Arthur myth, with the president, vice president, and first lady in a tangled, semi-dark-but-more-emotionally-speaking-not-violently-speaking triangle. Her writing is MAGNIFIQUE.

Praise by Sara Cate. Sara Cate is hit or miss for me, but this one is a great way to try her out while getting a good example of a "sex club" romance. The heroine ends up in a light D/s relationship with her ex-boyfriend's dad, with a good bit of praise involved. ;)

The Master by Kresley Cole. Another author who has to be featured multiple times due to her expansiveness. This one is a Russian mafia book that involves some truuuuuuly interesting... devices. But also, a lot of heart, as Kresley Cole is so good at making everything work. An interesting contrast to Lothaire, which I maintain is the paranormal version of this book in a lot of ways.

Mafia Mistress by Mila Finelli. A great example of an Italian mafia romance, with a massive age gap and some daddy stuff. I will also say—it does end on a cliffhanger and you need to read Mafia Darling to get the full story. Mafia Madman is actually my favorite in this series and is about a different couple, but they're ALL super good.

His Valet by S.M. LaViolette. A historical erotic romance with boss/employee stuff, secret identity stuff, a great grovel, and a nonbinary protagonist. Gorgeously written, daring, and a must.

Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre. A billionaire romance that critiques the very concept of billionaires, and a great example of a soft femdom romance.

Act Your Age by Eve Dangerfield. An interesting and again self-analytical daddy age gap romance.

Fantasy Romance

A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane. An amazing barbarian-type romance with a big fantasy world and a ton of heat and swoony passion. A must!

The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks. I just think this series is everything people tell you ACOTAR is, and I would absolutely recommend for multiple great romances (m/f and m/m), complex characters, and amazing dynamics throughout.

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco. This kicks off Maniscalco's Kingdom of the Wicked series, with witchcraft, demons, and more. This series began with a YA tone (the heroine was never underage, though) but in the second book Maniscalco transitioned to a fully adult sphere (and content...). You could also begin with the "adult from the start" spinoff Throne of the Fallen, it's up to you.

The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. A whimsical and super romantic book kicking off a series with thieves, flying pirates, witches, and a ton of humor with a historical romance bent.

The Winter King by C.L. Wilson. Another high fantasy type romance with a conquering winter king marrying a summer princess in a true-making arrangement. Ice sculptures, war, and enemies to lovers goodness ensues.

Aaaand I don't read a lot of alien/sci-fi romance, but I'd definitely say that everyone should give Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians series a try for the culture! Barbarian's Mate is my favorite, but Barbarian Alien might be a good place for newbies to start.