#additionally if we Don’t have a discord server…. and you would like one………..

[homoeroticjunoincident]

it’s not inherently mischaracterization to write hms gore what matters is the way you do it. gore is a tool that can be amazing or horrible just like any other depending on the execution. pun. gore is not necessarily more shallow than anything else. no one is going around saying ‘stop writing fluff that’s shallow and only meant to make you feel good’, so why does this apply to gore? if this sounds either biased or targeted, that’s because it is :)

less briefly:

yes, gore can stem from Nothing, or mischaracterization. it can also stem from traits that the character has.

sure maybe ‘soul STABS MIND 3000 TIMES IN THE CHEST because ???? uh why not’ is a bad usage of gore, but consider ‘soul stabs mind to punish him for doing something minor (because he is desperate for heart and mind to stop their fights at all costs, and feels as if he has no power, and feels as if the only way to gain power is by making them afraid of him)’.

maybe this doesn’t fit with your specific idea of soul, but there is still character depth there.

<SIDE TANGENT>

what mischaracterization even MEANS is dependent on person to person, because, you know, PEOPLE GET DIFFERENT THINGS FROM THIS ALBUM, and they INTERPRET THE CHARACTERS DIFFERENTLY. additionally, what seems like ‘mischaracterization’ can just be what the author thinks they would react like when placed into a situation, which can be incredibly different from how they usually act! for example, both of my aus are based on how i think the characters would react whenever placed into situation x

(with maybe their characters tweaked a little, which is fine sometimes as long as you aren’t going to claim it’s canon. it’s fine to have headcanons. it’s fine to have different versions of hms(w) that aren’t specifically au. and people who are mad about it - which is a group that may include me, sometimes, i am aware - can be mad! and that doesn’t mean you’re wrong and that doesn’t mean you have to get out the ukelele and be like i’m sorry for having fun with the characters (when you Should be having fun with the characters and if you aren’t then maybe. stop?))

and in my aus they are incredibly different from canon hms! which isn’t a bad thing, it is the point!

anyway you aren’t morally bad for talking about the characters without cited sources. (the annoying part is whenever you act like you /are/ being objectively correct, and right about everything, whenever you’re clearly Doing Shit To Them (also sometimes maybe consider making an oc and whether that would be more fun than saying it’s hms. however you aren’t. morally corrupt. for not making an oc. it’s fine))

(again please don’t say people are morally corrupt for being wrong about the characters. they aren’t. it’s annoying but it’s not bad morally, and they don’t need to get hosed down for it. It’s Fine)

</SIDE TANGENT> (yes i can reclaim the html angle brackets because i know html /joke)

again, compare ‘heart and mind snuggle and don’t argue ever because ???? why not’ and ‘heart and mind snuggle and don’t argue ever because they’ve resolved their conflict, and don’t feel like they need to anymore’ (an attempt to keep the level of fluff while adding a reason- though i admit i’m not good at writing pure fluff), or ‘heart and mind snuggle and don’t argue ever because they’re tired of the pain and want just one moment of peace’ (something more similar to what i write that keeps bittersweetness/tension there).

if reasonless gore is bad, why isn’t reasonless fluff bad? if reasonless gore is ‘immature’, then isn’t is reasonless fluff also ‘immature’?

sure, maybe one is less shocking or more to your tastes than the other: it’s fine to have preferences. what i don’t agree with is saying one is horrible and the other isn’t.

my opinion is that we should stop saying anything that one writes is morally bad: and if you want to anyway, just keep the complaining (because that’s what this is) to friends you complain with, or discord servers meant for complaining, or complain on your own blog without maintagging it, rather than trying to set these rules of what one should and should not write upon the entire fanbase.

thank you (i bow and leave the stage) (ALSO STOP ACTING LIKE IT’S NOVEL TO THINK THAT HEART ISN’T AN UWU BABY OR MIND ISN’T A DEMON IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE FANBASE WE’VE BEEN OVER THIS. WE WERE GOING OVER THIS LAST YEAR. I AM SO TIRED OF PEOPLE MAKING THESE POSTS AND EVERYONE CONGRATULATING THEM OVER IT AS IF IT’S DESERVING OF THE NOBEL PRIZE)

[flash-exchange]

The time has come! :)

What is Ikemen Flash Exchange?

Ikemen Flash Exchange is a fandom gift exchange event inspired by the idea of flash fiction. We hope for everybody to enjoy creating just as much as receiving :) Seasoned fandom veterans and new faces -- any person can find something in it for themselves.

You will have a certain amount of freedom in terms of choosing your giftee. Additionally, you will be able to count on the support of your "co-suspects". [More on that here.]

Who can join the event?

Age: 13+

Fandom: IkeSen / IkeVamp / IkePri

Must have a discord account.

You must be a member of at least one of the above fandoms to join. However, we don’t exclude the possibility of other otome fandoms appearing.

What are the work requirements & deadlines?

Writers: 450-650 (+/- 50 words; maximum of 700 words)

Artists: anything that would count as lower effort than your usual work; colour is okay

Visual Creators: 3 x square format moodboards / simple wallpapers that rely on square format = one entry

2 x moodboards with overlapping elements/collage-like works = one entry

All entries must be SFW.

Up to 2 submissions per person.

You will have at least a month to complete your project. All the details will be explained in our discord server. :)

How do I join?

Ask for an invite link to our server. You must be off anon. Once you receive your invite and join in, follow the steps specified in #announcements channel. Do keep in mind the number of participants we can accommodate for is limited!

We’ll be waiting for you! >:3

Got any further questions? Make sure to check out our handy FAQ! If your answer isn’t there, don’t hesitate to shoot us an ask!

Boosting would be appreciated! 🙏

[teaveetamer]

It's okay if butwhatifidothis risks leading people to harass Captain Flash by going over his fic but it's not okay if Raxis does the same to reynaattheend?

Okay I feel like I want to get one thing out of the way before I go into this.

BWIIDT agreed to remove parts of the old reviews that were particularly rude or offensive if they were pointed out to her, something that was literally promised to the MODS of the Edelstan discord server (who claimed to have a direct line of communication to Cap).

So the guy literally had a chance to air his grievances with the posts and have the parts he didn’t like removed within reason, and we never got any examples of things to ask her to remove. So either she’s not as rude as people make her out to be, or they never actually cared about her critiques and haven’t bothered reading them, even when handed the literal opportunity to edit things out they didn’t like.

Additionally BWIIDT has said that she would be willing to remove all the postings completely if the guy would just hear her criticisms and learn from them, so he could better handle the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic. Of which there is a lot.

I don’t know how you could possibly compromise more without just straight up being a door mat and pretending like this white man never had any issues with the way he wrote race and women.

Anyway as for why I view these as two completely different situations that are not really comparable IMO:

1) Cap’s fic is/was at the time literally being shoved at people. We were told to read it to “understand canon better”.

This isn’t just me saying this. I remember around the time before/slightly after BWIIDT started giving her criticisms of the fic I was seeing it getting recommended to a bunch of people. There were people on various social media sites complaining about the Edel crowd shoving the fic down their throats. I had it recommended to me on some different platforms, etc.

And that’s not just fans of the fics’ perception. Cap himself has stated that he views the fic as meta commentary on the game/discussion of canon, not just a fun little fic he did. And he’s happy people view it as essential for understanding canon.

As far as I’m aware, Reyna’s fic has never had that sort of culture around it, nor has she wanted it to have that kind of impact on fandom. I’m pretty sure she’s even explicitly stated that she KNOWS it’s not always aligned with canon and she doesn’t care, because it’s just a fun little project for her.

2) As far as I’m aware, BWIIDT never linked to Cap’s fic? I don’t even think she gave the title of it at first, it’s just that most people figured out what fic she was talking about BECAUSE of the aforementioned it getting shoved down everyone’s throats. But I wasn’t really following her in the beginning so I don’t remember, I’m sure she can reblog this posting if she wants and further clarify.

Raxy has literally been linking to Reyna’s fic on every posting and spelling out the full name of the fics and the author. Given his followers’ propensity for harassment (which he claims to not support) he really should have known better. He wasn’t “risking” sending her harassment it was basically a foregone conclusion.

He definitely should have taken all of the links down and stopped linking or naming the author or fic after it became clear people were literally going and harassing her, using his posts and material to throw at her. But as far as I’m aware he hasn’t done ANY of that.

3) I know from talking with BWIIDT since Raxy started harassing everyone here that she wasn’t going to bother with Cap’s fic originally, but then the annoying fans shoving it down people’s throats + she noticed a lot of very problematic handling of race that she wanted to talk about in greater depth = her discussing the fic at length.

I haven’t read through Raxy’s criticisms, but I feel like there’s a BIG difference between a woman of color pointing out the problems regarding race and gender in a fic (written by a white man) that’s being recommended to everyone as ESSENTIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE GAME vs. Some Guy Who Doesn’t Like A Random Fic

Additionally, I don’t really feel like it’s my place to tell her to shut up because, uh, it just feels kind of gross to tell her to just not be mad about the way the white guy is butchering the biracial experience when she’s a biracial woman and I’m not? Which again, very different from telling a 35 year old cishet white guy who is acting like a dick about anime chess to be less of a dick about anime chess.

4) And again, I also know for a fact that BWIIDT is just interested in critiquing/venting about the fic, and would be willing to stop making postings about it if Cap actually bothered to read the critiques and learn from the mistakes he’s made regarding the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic.

But like, he keeps doubling down on it insisting that because he grew up next to a reservation and he has one queer woman doing his beta reading there could never be any problems with his handling of any of these sensitive topics, so he doesn’t need to listen to any of us ever, and people are still touting it as essential for understanding canon, and he’s still okay with that, sooooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s VERY different from what Raxy is doing, which is basically just calling Reyna’s fics “cringe” and “not canon” from the snippets I’ve seen. He’s also blasting them over LITERALLY every social media platform he has for some godforsaken reason. Which like. If your goal was just to critique the fic why are you posting that shut EVERYWHERE?

5) I really don’t think Raxy is that bothered by the criticisms of Cap’s fic. He harasses people regardless of if they’ve talked about Cap or his fic, and after his aborted attempt to drum up harassment against BWIIDT on GameFaqs he came to Tumblr and started begging her to “do his fic next”

Like honestly I don’t even know what goes on in that guy’s head. Weird ass behavior. I really don’t care what he has going on, it’d just be nice if he’d act like the 35 year old he actually is and quit being so petty and childish.

Even if you think what BWIIDT did with Cap’s fic is wrong, why would it EVER be acceptable to drag an uninvolved third party into the mix and bash their fic and send them harassment as “retaliation”? Reina has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even have fucking social media accounts outside of AO3. I know because I literally left her a comment to warn her about this clown and she told me.

What BWIIDT has done with Cap’s fic is admittedly a bit of a grey area, but ultimately I fall on the side of “whatever” with it because of the notoriety and influence on fandom fans of the fic desperately want it to have, and because of just how problematic elements of it are for various communities.

I mean you can’t go reccing a fic as essential for understanding the game and shoving it down the entire fandoms’ collective throat and then expect it to be treated like a 14 year old’s silly self insert fic when the people you told to read it critique it with the gravitas you assigned to it.

If you wanna critique BWIIDT for what she did with Cap’s fic, or critique me or anyone else for interacting with her, or you just think my logic is stupid and you want to critique that, then that’s… fine? I’m an adult, I’m a person, I know there’s places I can grow. But I’m sick of people acting like it’s okay to be a shitty person just because you got your feelings hurt once, so now it’s okay to go making it everyone else’s problem. And I don’t know if it was your intention to defend the guy with this ask anon, but it’s definitely happened too damn much with this guy and the Edelgard fandom as a whole.

That was another thing that really fucked me off in that conversation with the Edelstan server mods. I had one of them acting like I run fucking Reddit and I’m somehow responsible for some trolls calling Edelgard fans Nazis four fucking years ago. You can bet your ass I would get crucified if I tried to shit talk some random ass Edeleth fic and tried to justify it with “but it’s ok cuz some Edelgard fans were mean to me once :(“. There’s a reason why the fic being touted as essential for understanding canon is the one getting critiques and not any of the THOUSANDS of other Edeleth fics in existence. Because no one fucking cares about fanfics when they aren’t getting shoved down your throat and touted as “essential”.

I mean fuck dude, I got called a fake queer and an r-slur and intentionally triggered with genocide bullshit and had people talking about killing me. Am I going around harassing random fic authors over it? No, cuz I’m a grown ass fucking adult and I know how to act like it, and I know that 99% of the people who write/have written Edeleth fics had absolutely nothing to do with that.

So if you’re justifying going after Reyna with “but BWIIDT was mean to Cap!” Then knock it off, Reyna has literally nothing to do with this and you’re being shitty by trying to drag her into it. If you just did this to spork a fic, then you’re currently being a dick over a fanfic for no reason and clearly it’s leading to the author being harassed.

@butwhatifidothis if you wanna add onto this feel free.

[burningdarkfire]

dear critter (wildflowers 2024)

Hi! I’m burningdarkfire on both AO3 and tumblr.

The prompts below are in order of preference, although of course I would be excited about anything listed (which is why I listed them!). If you want reference points, I’ve written 50+ critrole fics on my main AO3 account that you are welcome to peruse. 

I read widely and am hard to shock or dismay. In general, I would prefer for you to write something you are comfortable with than tie yourself into knots trying to fulfill my vision. Confident writing is fun to read!

I am not active in discord servers but you can always reach me on tumblr if you have questions. Here is last year's Dear Critter letter if you'd like it for reference.

Details below!

DNWs:

I love reading and writing about trans characters, but I do not want to put the pressure of conforming to my complex preferences onto a gifter. Please avoid any unrequested genderfuckery—there are two exceptions that I will detail in the next section.

I do not want any included or implied character backstory for Essek Thelyss that whumps him to explain or excuse his actions—this includes abuse from his family members, abuse from members of the Cerberus Assembly, etc. Additionally, I strongly prefer that Essek returns to the Dynasty post-campaign and tries to build a home there.

I do not want sprinklings of other languages in the fic—this includes snippets of dialogue, recurring jokes, nicknames, pet names, etc. I know it’s a canon characteristic for some but I prefer not to read it. It’s fine for the narration to indicate that characters are speaking in other languages or if there is a specific purpose to the change in language (e.g., familial titles that don’t translate if they are strictly necessary for the world-building).

Likes:

Explicit fic, including both smut and darkfic

Power dynamics, complicated relationships, codependency, devotion, strong platonic bonds, relationships that defy labels, polyamory, having casual sex or sex between people who are not in a romantic relationship, waking up together, laughing together, descriptions of food and other small aspects of domestic life, found family

Stories that explore the role gender plays in character—the two exceptions to the above "no genderfuckery" are a/b/o and Rule 63

I absolutely adore aromantic Caleb Widogast with my whole heart

Request #1: Campaign 2 Wizard Soups

Astrid/Eadwulf/Essek/Caleb, Astrid/Essek, Astrid/Eadwulf/Essek, Eadwulf/Essek

Definitely my flavour of the year! They're so similar and yet so different—I love to imagine how they might fit (or not fit!) with each other. There's a lot of potential post-canon for complicated feelings—jealousy, nostalgia, missing someone even though they're right there, staking claims on Caleb's past/present/future, budding and re-budding relationships. I don't need Caleb to be present in a fic where he isn't included in the central pairing, but I think his presence or absence is exactly what makes A/E/W contending with each other interesting. I love it when no one knows the answer to "what are we?"  Divergent canons, such as Volstrucker!Bren, are also totally okay and encouraged. I particularly enjoy explorations of the canon where Astrid kills Trent and/or the existence of the Volstrucker continue under her hand. I think there's a lot of opportunity to explore how A/E/W are much closer to the dirty details of running a nation versus an idealistic Caleb—how might they collaborate or antagonize? 

Request #2: Campaign 2 Blumendrei

Astrid/Eadwulf/Caleb, Astrid&Eadwulf&Caleb, Astrid/Eadwulf, Astrid/Caleb, Eadwulf/Caleb

It's my fucking bread and butter and I'll take pretty much anything. Academy days, post-campaign reunion, the most nebulous of timelines or the most obscure of AUs. I'm happy to read about assassination missions, eating lunch together, or an AU with nonsensical white collar office jobs. How did their relationship start—how did it fall apart—how did they reconnect? It can be nostalgic, happy, or toxic. It's fine if not all the characters involved are queer, as long as they're together. The sky's really the limit here!

Request #3: Campaign 2 Wizard Shenanigans

Astrid/Jester, Astrid&Jester, Astrid/Beauregard, Astrid&Beauregard, Astrid/Marion, Eadwulf/Fjord/Jester, Caleb/Lucien, Caleb/Nott, Caleb/Essek/Jester, Caleb/Essek/Fjord, Caleb/Marion

Basically this is the catch-all category for "happy to read more about the wizards"! Again, pretty much anything goes—flirty and fun, serious parallel character studies, "what if" moments in canon that might have turned another way. Non-canonical pairings in the background are okay and even encouraged. If Fjord and/or Jester are involved, I've always held an immense soft spot for Pirate AUs (set in Exandria or elsewhere). My only preference is that Astrid, Wulf, and Caleb remain on good (or just unknown) terms if the fic is focused on them with other partners.

Request #4: Campaign 2 Polynein

M9/M9, Fjord/Beauregard, Caleb/Beauregard

I believe deeply that relationships don't have to all look the same—I would love to explore what Polynein looks like, in the canon world or another! What does it look like with children involved, with marriages, with differing or changing primary partners, when the Nein are scattered across the globe?  Including the Beauregard pairs here as I feel like they're natural fits in this category, but I would also be interested in how you can make them work otherwise!

Request #5: EXU Calamity

Asmodeus the Lord of the Nine Hells/Zerxus Ilerez

I just think there should be more fic about how they're fucked up together and what it looks like for them to be bonded to each other post-game. I'm not particularly caught up on Campaign 3 but would be interested to read what they might be up to in the "current day" of canon (spoilers totally fine) or at any other point in the past or future. Please don't soften the sharp edges of this one.

[utahlive]

im sorry utah nation. I played videos game instead of working on an episode,, orz

on an unrelated note, I wanted to ask: does anyone have any tumblr themes or ways to make posts chronological? We have roughly 150 episodes of UtahLIVE, and although most of them can be read out of order, there is a timeline (plus it would be more convenient for new readers. Ive gotten a lot of asks about topics or scenarios that have already been answered). If there are any tutorials/themes/tips let me know via DMs or ask box!

additionally:

LETS GOOOOO!!! This is insane! 4000 people... thats roughly twice the size of the student body at my school. I dont know how many of you guys are porn bots, but im still going to take this W. I feel like I should do something special? People usually do community events for milestones I think so if you have ideas let me know?? Otherwise I’ll have something fun to post in the next week.

+ some quick q&a below

avoiding potential lawsuits 🙏

I know this one is meant for Wilbur, but alas thats just how I draw eyes. Sorry my art style gave your fave character cataracts. yeah its permanent. no sorry we cant fix it. um. insurance doesnt cover the surgery so hes like that forever. yeah. sorry

(i do like to mess with how I draw eyes, but the white color is a stylistic choice)

its a psycho-competitive relationship that can be construed to be romantic (but it's not explicit). obviously

anon im holding your hand so tenderly and lovingly. it means a lot that people like my art! more than I can say, which is why ive been trying to figure out how to answer this ask for the past like... two+ weeks since you sent it in! Im probably gonna hold off on sharing my other accounts for a few reasons (there might be some people who already know my other blogs which is fine idc welcome to my twisted mind etc im just not going to advertise them here). My main blog is basically a spam blog where I dont tag anything. I dont really post original art and my fandom art is few and far between. 90% of my work just goes in discord DMs or servers 💀 I think the main reason though-and this may or may not make sense to some of you-is that I don’t want your opinion of me to change how you view the story. This is a super specific example, but for all my fic readers out there: have you ever joined an authors server, and then after meeting them you feel a bit odd about the fic since the creator isnt exactly the person you thought them to be (not necessarily in a good or bad way)? That’s exactly what I don’t want happening with this blog. Basically: Nooo what if you find out about me as a person and realize im cringeeee aaaaa [image of the werewolf transformation (you know the one)] That being said, we’ll see how things go, I guess! At the very least, I’ll probably put my socials out when I’m done here (we got a ways to go before that happens though, so dont even start to worry about that) that was a lot of text for one answer. yeesh 😬 sorry about that

[multiplicity-positivity]

✨ Resources for questioning systems! ✨

So we had received an ask a few weeks ago asking for blogs/discord servers that are welcoming to questioning systems. One of us accidentally deleted the ask… (sorry!) so we’re making this post right now with some resources!

Blogs:

“Culture Is” blogs are spaces where people can submit personal or shared experiences that may help others on their journeys of self-discovery! Some system specific blogs are:

@plural-culture-is

@plural-egg-culture-is

@traumagenic-culture-is

@endogenic-culture-is

@introject-culture-is

Additionally, we’d recommend these blogs geared specifically towards system information, positivity, and advice:

@dear-systems

@systemexploration

@system-society

@systempositive

As far as we understand, all of these blogs are welcoming to questioning systems and singlets!

We are not active on discord due to anxiety around the sheer amount of times systems get posted on the subreddit /r/systemscringe, so we don’t really have any suggestions to offer for discord servers. However, if any of our followers are a part of servers they would like to promote, they are more than welcome to share!

And finally, a few other resources:

DID/OSDD specific:

https://did-research.org/resources/

https://www.dissociadid.com/resources

Plurality/multiplicity in general:

https://pluralityresource.org

https://morethanone.info

It’s okay to question whether or not you’re plural. Self-discovery and exploration is never a bad thing, and questioning systems will always be welcome on our blog! We wish y’all the very best as you learn about yourselves and strive to live your authentic lives!

(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID)

[theofficersacademy]

We’re into June already - how time flies! This year, we’ve elected to bump the Arena events a month earlier (June instead of July, November instead of December) so that they do not directly precede our Lore Events. Stay cool and stay hydrated, TOA!

Housekeeping

Current Month in TOA: Guardian Moon (January)

We hope you enjoyed the Ethereal Ball! A quick reminder: as stated in the closing details, please keep your ball claims separate from your regular claims. These are due no later than 11:59pm EST on June 7th.

New month, new mission board time. This set of missions will feature our unaffiliated faculty, Knights of Seiros, and Ashen Wolves representatives. Check it out here!

Look forward to the arena coming up later this month, slated to start on the 16th. Signups will open the 9th.

Tumblr has not yet officially forced all blogs to adhere to using the Beta editor, but we recommend creating new threads with this editor from now on. Trimming beta threads requires downloading the XKit Rewritten extension. To create permanent titles for new threads, post an empty thread with just the title, save it to your drafts, and then delete the original. You can then write a new post from your reblog, and the title will be treated as a separate post when you’re trimming. A full guide will be added to our Newcomer’s Guide once this feature becomes permanent, in case new changes are implemented between now and then.

Please don’t forget to leave feedback on our feedback poll for this month! In particular, we would like to know what you thought of the Ethereal Ball, whether it’s your first time participating or you’ve had other years to compare it to. Of course, as always, if there’s something else on your mind, please let us know.

Important Reminders

We’ve had some complaints of late concerning art being used without express permission. Please be sure to consider TOA’s rule (stated on our rules page) concerning our stance on sourcing art:

“ Additionally, reposting or reusing someone else’s art without permission is strictly against our rules. Reblog or share from the source. If you can’t find the source, then don’t post the work, or ask a mod to help you find it. This includes fanart used in icons and blog layouts. ”

Please be sure to adjust accordingly with the rules, otherwise the mods may have to reach out and issue a warning.

- -

Second, we’ve received complaints lately about shipping jokes involving muses who are already in relationships and otherwise have no relation to the muse the joke is about. While the context that this takes place in might be fictional, muns often have strong feelings about who they ship their muses with and making these sorts of jokes can be offensive. Likewise, inviting or pressuring muses to enter polygamous relationships, even for AUs (including AUs where the relationship is monogamous but is not with the muse’s chosen partner), should receive express consent from all involved parties beforehand. This consent should be extended to jokes as well, especially ones about a character (or characters) collecting partners, even if the partners are currently single.

- -

Lastly, setting blogs to being unsearchable has come with the unintended side effect of removing open starters and event posts from searches as well. The mod team will not require you to make your blog searchable, but please be sure to post your open starters in the #wanted-plots channel of our Discord server so it doesn’t get lost! Additionally, the tag for open starters is #toa open, with a space.

Other

June Mun Birthdays: Eleven (19th), Vio (22nd)

June Muse Birthdays: Hortensia (3rd), Shigure (6th), Colm (9th), Lene (12th), Soren (13th), Katarina (13th), Sephiran (14th), Stahl (16th), Edelgard (22nd), Seliph (23rd), Leanne (25th), Chad (26th), Leo (30th)

First-year mun anniversaries this month: Susanne (22nd)

Second-year mun anniversaries this month: Eleven (5th)

First-year muse anniversaries this month: Azama (10th), Kent (12th), Odin (13th), Elise (15th), Alm (22nd)

Muses who have been in the group for a solid year will also be granted an Academy Brooch to put in their inventory. It doesn’t do anything. It just lets others know your character has been around the block. These characters are also granted a new opportunity to change houses if they wish to do so.

- The House Leaders

[star-of-zeus]

Misconceptions of Zeus

@adri-le-chat​ has very kindly passed on an ask to me for an informative post talking about some misconceptions of Zeus and some epithets that counter them. I’m very excited for this opportunity to talk/rant about how great Zeus is and how he doesn’t deserve the bad rep he gets, so here goes! I’ll just be listing the misconceptions and explaining the epithets/general things that counter them below.

      1. He’s an absolute jerk. I would like to first point out Zeus's epithet Panellenios (of all the Greeks) to counteract the jerk part in a way - he's a very "accessible" god, contrary to popular belief. He’s not elitist, you don’t need to have specific qualifications/traits or anything to worship or work with him - you just need dedication! He is also called Zeus Pater (father), god of fatherhood/parenthood as well. How could I counteract this misconception without also talking about Zeus Xenios (of hospitality) and Zeus Phyxios (of refuge). How could a god of hospitality and of refuge be a jerk? He was the one that punished the jerks for being jerks and being mean to guests/refugees and such. 

      2. He will get angry at you easily. I saw someone on one of the discord servers I’m in talk about someone that said Zeus will sic demons on you if you misbehave and... what? Zeus Melikhios can translate to "merciful" and not just "mild" - his wrath could be appeased even if you incurred it. He isn’t an unnecessarily rage-y god, he is fair and just and if you got the punishment he doled out.... honestly you might have deserved it! He's divine justice, you're not gonna be stuck down by Zeus for making a small mistake. He's called Zeus Palamnios (punisher of m-rderers) not Zeus "punisher of you who forgot to give offerings that one time".

      3. Zeus is always a bearded old man This one is a more harmless misconception of course, but the thing that disproves it is quite interesting so I’m going to talk about it anyways. Zeus was worshipped as a giant snake and a child. Yes, you heard me correctly, a giant snake and a child.

Even if in one perspective Zeus Meilichios was simply one aspect of Zeus, in another he had to be treated as an independent figure. He was often portrayed differently too, as a gigantic snake. - p.91 of On Greek Religion by Robert Parker

Meilichios/Melikhios is a Chthonic epithet of Zeus, and it can also counteract the notion that Zeus is only an Ouranic god. In actuality, quite a few Ouranic gods had Chthonic aspects! Hermes, Demeter, and Persephone are “mixed” gods as well in that they have both Chthonic and Ouranic aspects.

There are at Aegium (in Achaia) other images made of bronze, Zeus as a boy and Heracles as a beardless youth, the work of Ageladas of Argos. Priests are elected for them every year, and each of the two images remains at the house of the priest. (Descriptions 7.24.4) - p. 38 of Priesthood by Leopold Sabourin

So, not only was Zeus worshipped as a boy, he had a whole priest for his worship as a child!

      4. He sleeps around a lot.

This is probably the most common misconception that people have about him, so let’s get down to it! As Zeus is a very powerful god and the king of all, kings and warriors alike would claim him as their father. Alexander the Great claimed that he was the son of Zeus-Ammon. As Ken Dowden puts it in “Zeus”:

If someone wishes proudly to claim that some hero or tribe is descended from Zeus, another adultery will usually be added to his list. This is how family trees (‘genealogies’) work.

Quite a few of his supposed adulteries simply stem from men who didn’t know their fathers and wanted to lay claim to importance through their heritage. People who also wanted explanations of how a place or thing came to be would do the same. Additionally, even when looking at the myths, Zeus doesn’t have a sh-t-ton of children at once, they take place over time, here’s an explaination that I found on labrandeus’s blog:

I’m not stating anything new when I say that in popular culture people like to portray Zeus as this horny guy who just can’t keep it in his pants. But what is new I think is when I say that the myths actually don’t support this. Yes, you heard me right. If you look at the myths carefully, it turns out that Zeus isn’t the hopeless womanizer many people think it is. The key factor here is time. When we think of the Greek myths, we often don’t have a clear time frame so we imagine them all taking place at the same time. But that’s not the case. The myths take place over a long period of time. I’ll give you an example to make it more clear: The Iliad names two living mortal children of Zeus: Sarpedon and Helen. Heracles lived one generation before them, he is already dead at the time the Iliad is taking place but one of his sons is fighting in the Trojan war. So, Alcmene, Heracles’ mother, is said to be the granddaughter of Perseus, son of Zeus and Danaë. Danaë again is a descendant of Epaphus, son of Zeus and Io. Epaphus and Sarpedon lived about 480 years apart (the Wikipedia page of Epaphus also has a nice illustration). That’s a long ass time.

So, even in the adultery that Zeus does commit (also keep in mind, of course, that the myths are a product of their time and do not reflect the gods in their full capacity) it isn’t a series of children in quick succession, it’s some children over time. His children in myth also had importance and a role: a lot of them moved on to defeat monsters that were plaguing humanity. As Adrian and I like to say, Zeus plays 5-D chess.  I hope that this post helped clear up some misconceptions that people had. Zeus is a wonderful and multi-faceted god who I am honored to serve and call my patron. He doesn’t deserve the bad rep he gets in pop culture and modern media, and I hope a few of you understand that better now then you did before. :)

[zeta-in-de-walls]

Just reflecting on Tommy's character getting exiled again.

I don't know if it's still a popular sentiment but I wanted to clarify that L'Manburg and Tubbo were never the reason Tommy got exiled. All of L'Manburg was against the idea and only agreed because Dream was threatening them. It wasn't that they were corrupt - just the opposite - they weren't powerful enough to resist.

Nor did Tommy's actions make him responsible or deserving of it. While he did grief George's house, it was easily fixed and was not particularly worse than most griefs on the server that happen almost daily without consequences. 

Dream was the one who exiled Tommy. He's the one who suggested it, demanded it and then enforced it. When Tommy did return to the SMP with Drista, we saw that Punz was the one who would have killed Tommy for breaking the rules - Punz was Dream's guy, not L'Manburg's. 

Dream may sounds like a reasonable guy on the surface, dressing up the whole thing as how he would have recognised L'Manburg's autonomy if not for Tommy acting out. How he was compromising with a probation, how he pretended to be Tubbos friend after Tubbo did what he wanted. 

This was all false. A week before Tommy griefed George, Dream and Puffy griefed multiple people far worse than Tommy did and blamed Tommy for it all. If Tommy hadn't actually committed any crime, its likely Dream would have pinned something on him either way. A big deal was made out of Tommy being the Vice President but Dream would have been just as demanding if Tommy had been only a citizen. He blamed L'Manburg for stuff Tommy 'did' while in exile, having threatened to build the obsidian walls again! (And we saw how much less Dream cared when Quackity was committing war crimes as Vice President.) 

Do you think probation was a viable option? It wasn't. The rules were that if Tommy broke the rules again he'd have gotten exiled. And we know Dream was happy to blow up the Community house and blame Tommy for it. If they hadn't exiled Tommy then, they would have woken up to it, or something like it, destroyed. 

Think giving up the discs would work? No, it wouldn't have. The second Tubbo gave Dream mellohi, Dream decided to blow up L'Manburg with Technoblade. 

Dream was indeed pretending to be Tubbo's friend and never respected L'Manburg. It was all a rouse to get Tubbo to trust him so he could convince him to give up Tommy's music disc. He was actively trying to sow discord between the two friends. The second he had it, Dream went off and insulted Tubbo and everything he did and stood for. 

In the end there were practically no options for L'Manburg. There was Tommy's idea of fighting back, going around the server to ask people like Technoblade and the Badlands to support them and take on Dream. If they could defeat him then they'd be free. Even if it didn't work, at least they'd be defying Dream and not allowing him to divide them. Dream was going way too far so garnering support could have worked. This was dangerous though, L'Manburg was still weak from the War and getting support was a long-shot - they'd be putting their lives at risk.

 And there was Tubbo's approach. There was some misunderstandings between Tommy and Tubbo as Tommy read his unwillingness to fight as his not really caring for Tommy and wanting to appease Dream. In fact, Tubbo did care, he was trying to keep Tommy alive. Instead he planned to bide their time and appease Dream for the moment but secretly plan to get stronger and then challenge their enemies. They specifically planned to kill Dream at the festival. 

Don't get me wrong - there were definitely issues in L'Manburg. Tubbo ended up listening to Quackity and prioritising Techno over Dream because he had thought they'd satisfied Dream now that he'd agreed to recognise L'Manburg. Tommy thought Tubbo didn't care and was siding against him when he never stopped caring and was attempting a less hasty approach. He was taking things personally and wasn’t seeing the bigger picture. Additionally, Tubbo was expecting Dream to be more reasonable than he actually was, and perhaps didn't grasp just how much of a threat he posed to them.

But yeah, overall, L’Manburg was just trying to survive and everyone in it was trying to do their best for each other. Nothing about it was corrupt. It should have been a good place but for Dream’s plan to destroy it. Dream was never after justice or fairness, he wanted Tommy, and L’Manburg to suffer. He was the one who caused its fall. 

[strqyr]

So I.... encountered someone on a Discord server I’m on who felt sorry for Adam because he was abused and enslaved as a kid, and that got me thinking about Cinder, and the somewhat horrifying thought that maybe Cinder fans and Adam fans aren’t so different after all. But honestly, I don’t know what to think....

Do you think there’s a meaningful difference between Cinder and Adam in that respect, in a narrative sense? Or are their stories and arcs similar enough to warrant that kind of comparison? Basically I just sorta want to know your thoughts on this matter in general. Feel free to ramble.

i think, in general, in a show like this where you end up with plenty of villains, there are bound to be similarities. however, those similarities don't necessarily mean that they're treated as parallels or as ways to connect those characters.

for example; with cinder, emerald and mercury trio, those similarities are important and main reason why cinder recruited and kept emerald and mercury around as her disciples. when cinder recruits adam, that connection has only become clear to the audience now; there was nothing to imply that it mattered to cinder, or that she would have even had a way to know they were similar in some way (being enslaved in atlas, etc.)

so, in narrative, i don't think any similarities they share are really meaningful as a way to predict how cinder's arc is going to go, because they haven't been meaningful in the past.

there's also huge difference in the amount of focus cinder and adam have gotten. cinder's basically a main character of her own right; she doesn't really play support to anyone else's story, and when we learned about her backstory, it was all about her.

in comparison, adam was... kind of just there? he appeared when the plot demanded, he didn't particularly get much focus that was only for his sake, and most of what we knew about him in the first 5 volumes was told by others.

and honestly, that's the main reason why i think most of the comparisons between cinder and adam fall flat; because when it comes to character's importance to the plot, there's no competition. to put it bluntly; cinder's the epitome of "show, don't tell" and the writers have clearly taken their time with her. adam was basically the opposite of "show, don't tell" until his very last moments.

additionally — and this is something i've mentioned before — adam had his place in the world with white fang, place where he belonged and could feel safe and accepted in. cinder hasn't had that, so already, their arcs have a one major difference that should not be overlooked.

that's about all i can think of now, and i hope it makes somewhat sense, because i was trying to stay as concise as possible and sometimes that ends up backfiring lol

[dear-yandere]

Hey, sorry but it's not appropriate to check people's IDs for a discord server. I understand that you want to create boundaries and a safer 18+ space, which is good! But you just straight up can't be asking people to share their IDs. That is incredibly personal & sensitive information and no one should be asking to see it online. It would be better to have another kind of vetting process, or just ask people to confirm they're 18 and hope for the best.

it can’t be as inappropriate as you’re making it seem considering discord has confirmed that “servers are allowed to request identification of any kind (gov. issued, passport, etc) for verification of age, such as to access nsfw content. however, you are not required to provide it if you don't want to, which obviously results in you not being able to access that content (or being banned).additionally, if you do provide identification, you should censor content that includes stuff like your address, dl number, and others” (source). and, mind you, we do exactly that. all we ask is for your DOB to be visible and for your username to be written next to the ID. how exactly is that personal and sensitive?

this ask is well-meaning, but it’s horribly misguided and frankly, very rude. what other vetting process did you have in mind? it would’ve been nice if you gave me some reliable and non-invasive alternatives instead of telling us to “ask people to confirm they're 18 and hope for the best”, but you didn’t, so please tell me! i’d love to hear some examples where “hoping for the best” turned out just fine, especially in a server dedicated to dark content. ♡

[multiplicity-positivity]

Haii

Do u have any tips for getting better at communicating and switching (we haven't fully switched for longer than a few minutes that I know of)

We're still living at home sorta want/need to mask a bit but I'd like to be able to switch out for at least a little bit and explore our headspace more

The only thing I'd be worried about would be if we can't control who fronts and when coz that would cause problems so if u have any tips for that then that would also be great (although I know it's probably not something that can really be controlled too much)

Really any tips on communication and switching would be great heh

Thank uu :33

Hello,

As far as controlling who switches and when, I don’t have much advice. Our system cannot control switches, and only our gatekeeper has any sort of access to controlling that aspect of us. Perhaps, if your system also has a gatekeeper, you may ask them about letting other members front more?

As far as building communication, we do have some advice.

We advocate for therapy a lot here, but for good reason. A therapist can help guide your system towards more regular, healthy communication. Seeing someone outside the body regularly who knows about the system, is educated in psychology, and can provide an outside perspective on your system and how it functions can be incredibly beneficial and a great boon for internal communication. If you aren’t already seeing a therapist, perhaps try seeking one out.

Additionally, there are other things you can do to boost inner-system communication, like:

- attempting to communicate externally. Writing notes, setting up a PluralKit and a system discord server, keeping a journal, and leaving voice memos are all excellent ways to begin communicating with each other. With this, keep in mind that patience is key. You may not hear from other system members immediately, but if you keep that line of communication open and functioning, you may start to hear from each other often

- attempting to communicate internally. When you have time to spend by yourself in a calm, quiet environment, try reaching out to your system members. Don’t be too discouraged if you don’t hear back initially, and don’t assume that not hearing anything back means they aren’t hearing your message. Practicing internal communication regularly can help build connections and make communication easier in the future.

- reducing internal self-hate. This was a massive obstacle for our system, one that we’re still struggling with. But our host’s self-hatred was often deflected or aimed towards other members of the system. If you are the host and deal with this, your headmates may be wary or hesitant to interact with you. Try working on some self-compassion, and it may help your headmates feel more comfortable interacting. If you are in this situation, you may have to work on rebuilding trust before you can hope to have better communication with your system.

If you are the host, and if you have never fully switched out before, perhaps learn more about specutien, frontstuck, and median systems. It may be that you will never be able to fully switch out and enter the headspace. In our system, our host can switch out occasionally, but not of his own volition, and he does not enter our headspace. Rather, he goes into a sleep or stasis and has no memory of his time not fronting when he fronts again. That is just the way our system works. Trying to force your system to work in a way that it doesn’t may be detrimental to your system as a whole, so please exercise caution and be careful. Remember that all systems are unique, and your system might function differently from other systems you know.

With regards to masking, I’m linking this post made by a couple members of my system in which they discuss masking a bit. For me, I can mask easily enough by adopting a few mannerisms of the host and trying to speak with a “host filter” (if that makes sense). So far I’ve been able to slip by undetected around people with whom it is not safe for us to be open about our system.

I do apologize that this post got a bit long and out of hand. Good luck with everything.

🖋 Cecil

[galacticshq]

hello everyone !  please read this post.  it contains an update pertaining to our rules, as well as some general reminders / suggestions to help keep a smooth sailing ship !

as you all know, from time to time, we do update our rules to better fit the group & what it needs.  starting today, we will be implementing a minor rule change for activity.  as you already know, we require two posts per muse per week.  going forward, we will require these two posts to be for different muns.  this is to help better promote inclusivity among our players.  for most of you, this changes nothing.  which is awesome !  furthermore, we will be keeping a better eye on week to week, making sure that people are not only replying to the same person / thread.  what this will look like is, if the admins notice you consistently ( so 3+ weeks ) only replying to the same muse / mun for activity, we will reach out to see what we can do to help you engage with more players, build plots, etc.  of course, if you’re just replying to all of your threads that frequently, we won’t bug you.  we’re not looking to get anyone into trouble with this, all we’re trying to do is promote diverse interactions among everyone in the group.

additionally, we want to put a reminder out there about timeliness & patience !  in general, we don’t want anyone to feel ignored with posting new things for people, especially knowing that with our current event ending soon, new things will be starting !  as a courtesy to your partners, we want to encourage people to try and reply to closed starters within two weeks of them being posted, & if not, reaching out to the partner to let them know that you do intend on replying. to be clear, we are not trying to directly force people to post at a certain pace: we want to increase ooc communication so that no one feels ignored or forgotten about. obviously, if you are on hiatus, this doesn’t apply to you !  also on the ooc side of things, since most of us utilize discord for plotting, please try to reply to dms about plotting or other rp things within a week.  at that point, it’s totally appropriate to send others a nudge / reminder to reply when they have the chance, just remember to be polite about their time & spoons for things.  on the side of patience, please also remember that just be cause someone is active in the group chat & not replying to dms, does not mean that they are intentionally ignoring you. people have different attention spans and capacities at any time, which is very important for us to respect.

finally, we ask that all communication with admins ( any questions, plot requests, character ideas, concerns, or hiatus requests ) be sent either to the mains askbox / dms or in the groups server in our #feedback-and-questions channel.  if members would like to discuss things more in depth in discord dms, we ask that members request this in the feedback channel as well. this is to help admins keep track and answer questions on time, as well as make us more available to answering dms about plotting !

please like this post to let us know you’ve read it.  if you have any questions or concerns, message us here or put them in the discord so everyone can benefit from the answer !  also... keep an eye out for something new & fun that we’ll be implementing in the next few days ( and no, no muses will die in the process... this time ). 

[theofficersacademy]

               “May the light of Seiros guide your steps.                             We would enjoy nothing more.”

Signups for our January lore event are now live! This will run until 11:59PM EST on December 31st. After the event begins, signups will reopen for new and late-joining muses.

Event Signup Instructions:

After Unlocked, we received overwhelming support to implement restrictions for how many muses a mun can sign up per event.

For new muns who have never participated in a lore event before, you will be allowed to sign up with one muse. This is to ensure that our new folks are not overwhelmed by the intensity and commitment that our lore events require.

For older muns, the mod team has already determined limits based on past event activity. We will not be making this list public and will allow you to sign up with the number of muses you think you can handle; however, the mod team will contact you if this number exceeds the limit we have decided. Of course, you’re more than welcome to ask one of the mods to tell you how many muses you will be allowed to sign up beforehand.

When you sign up your muse(s), you will also be selecting their inventory. We have decided to try something new this time and will be implementing classes. Your muse’s class will determine how many inventory slots they have, and may also give them advantages (and disadvantages) in combat and exploration. Class will not limit the type of weapon they can use though (for example, a Bow Knight can bring a Reason spell or an axe if they wish).

Your muse has to have mastered the class in order to sign up with it. If your muse has not mastered any classes, they can sign up as Noble/Commoner and will be treated as a basic infantry unit.

No mastery = 2 item slots

Beginner mastery = 3 item slots

Intermediate mastery = 4 item slots

Advanced+ mastery = 5 item slots

Additionally, the class that you choose to sign your muse up with will automatically come with its mastery abilities and will not take up inventory slots. Mastery abilities from other classes can still be added to your inventory.

This time around, personal skills are not innate and will take up an inventory slot if taken along.

Our combat manual has been fully updated and includes crests and personal weapons now. Crests will be innate to the character and will not take up an inventory slot. We have also updated some rules so please reread the information in it carefully.

After you have read the above information, please use this form to sign up! Be sure to fill out a separate form for each muse. Inventory changes will be allowed until the SOLVE THE MYSTERY section of the event begins on January 4th. If you sign up after this date, what you bring is what you bring!

Frequently Asked Questions:

We’d like to give you the fullest picture of the event that we can without giving away the surprise, so that you know what you’re signing up for. Here are some questions we have anticipated.

What will the schedule look like for the month of January?

At the moment, our tentative schedule is as follows:

January 1st - 3rd : ORIENTATION (a brief prologue to the event as teams are sorted) January 4th - 18th : SOLVE THE MYSTERY January 19th - February 2nd : CATCH THE CULPRIT

If I sign up and decide that I can’t commit, can I drop? Likewise, if I don’t sign up now but decide that I have time in January, can I join?

Yes and yes. We will try to make your muse’s exclusion/inclusion as smooth as possible in the story. Rolling admissions will be open until January 10th.

If I sign up my muse as a commoner/noble because they haven’t mastered any classes yet, do they have access to HP+5?

Yes.

Do I have to be in the Discord server for the event?

We highly recommend that you join the server for the duration of the event so that you can coordinate with your teammates in your team channel. We will also be requiring all rolls to be made with Dice Maiden.

If I don’t sign up, what will my muse(s) do?

The month of January will be a free period. There will be no new mission board, so you will be left more or less to your own devices. It’s a good time to catch up on old drafts, reblog ask memes, or create your own prompts. We hope that by limiting muses entering the event, there will be more muses to write with outside of the event as well.

We hope to see many of you there!

- The House Leaders

[tuamermay]

Welcome to...

The Umbrella Academy MerMay Challenge 2021!

This is a TUA fandom challenge celebrating all things merpeople AU! This is our first year running MerMay and we are excited to get started.

Do you have a merperson AU swimming about in your head that’s itching to get out? Now is the time to create that fanwork and share with other merperson enthusiasts in our lovely fandom.

Whether you ship any pairing/grouping or are a gen enthusiast; a fic writer, artist or graphic maker; we are welcoming all types of TUA Merperson fanworks for this event. Keep reading below to find out how to participate!

Who is running this thing?

This fest is being run by @electric016 and @goldieknocks! We appreciate everyone’s patience and support with this and would welcome any reblogs and promotion you guys can offer so we can get as many people participating as possible <3

Hosted by: Elliott’s House Discord Server. If you’re 18+ and down to ship and let ship, come join us!

What exactly is the #TUA MerMay 2021 challenge?

The TUA MerMay Challenge is a challenge for works in The Umbrella Academy fandom. The challenge happens in May, where artists, graphics makers and writers from all around the TUA fandom contribute Merpeople themed fanworks in response to the MerMay prompts. The name MerMay is a combination of two words – Mermaid, and May.

It starts at the beginning of May and lasts till the end of the month – for those wishing to challenge themselves, they can create a fanwork for every day during May (there are 31 prompts!).

Of course, not everyone has time to prepare something for each day in May, so you can join the challenge by creating at least one fanwork in response to a prompt!

Where Can I Find the TUA MerMay Prompts?

The prompt list will be published on 1 April 2021. Stay tuned!

How to submit your work:

This challenge will accept all types of fanworks that meet the criteria of both an Umbrella Academy fanwork AND Mer theme (we don’t mind if you take some creative license though!).

To ensure that your work is added to our collection for 2021, please do the following:

Add your fanwork to the TUA MerMay Challenge 2021 on AO3:

Fully utilise the AO3 tagging system and accurately tag your work

Tag the prompt that you have filled

Post your fanwork to Tumblr

Tag @tuamermay

Use the hashtag #tua mermay 2021

Tag the prompt you have filled

On the TUA MerMay blog you can find a list of prompts for each day. It’s not mandatory to stick to the list, you can use them just as inspiration.

Rule for Participants

1. Everyone is allowed to enter.

Yes, Elliott’s House is an adult-only server, but this an open event for any TUA fans that want to participate, including minors as well if they would like to join in. You do not have to be a member of EH to enter.

2. Any ships, or TUA characters are pre-approved for this event.

Whether you choose to do your work based off your favourite ship, or decide to take a more ship-free route, you’re completely valid and welcome to enter! We will not restrict you based on these parameters.

3. All entries are to be submitted via the methods outlined above.

The Ao3 collection for the event can be found HERE

If for whatever reason you encounter any trouble, please send a private/direct message to the official tumblr. Your media *can* be uploaded to an alternative vehicle such as deviant-art, pillowfort, etc, but it must not be revealed until May!

Please do not publish your entry elsewhere until after 1 May 2021.

4. Fanfics may be any rating but Fanart/GIFs must be rated M or below

I know explicit fanart isn’t very common in this fandom, but to cover our bases, we have to make this small restriction. The only reasons for this is that a) it will be a fandom-wide event that includes any given group of fans of any age, and it’s important we’re being respectful of that and b) additionally, having to rely on Tumblr with the new rules potentially purging or deleting our account is no bueno. It sucks, but it’s what we’ve got.

There are no restrictions on fanfic rating, but as always, enter at your own risk & read the tags!

[sunnydwrites]

Introducing Your Characters

Hey everyone, Sunny D here with another writing post! This one is a request from Nony again, talking about how to introduce characters. Character introductions are one of my favorite scenes to write, so I could ramble on about this one for like... forever.

How important is your character?

Knowing the importance of your character as soon as possible is going to help determine how much detail you should put into their introduction. The more important the character is, the clearer we want their image to be in our readers’ heads. Side characters who only have a few lines would call for a more basic description.

Additionally, you’ll want to think about any markers that distinguish this character. Not every character will have some weird, mystical scar, but details like that can serve as indicators that tell us about how important the character is. Especially for our main characters, we want them to be as memorable as possible.

Is this character what they seem?

Or are they the big villain disguised as the sidekick? Do your best to understand every character’s identity as fully as possible. Should you choose to, you can use this knowledge to hint at a reveal later on, or you can keep it more undercover. Ultimately it’s whatever you choose regarding an identity reveal, but having this knowledge makes your writing more effective.

For example, check out the two passages below. I am introducing a disguised villain in both, but I’m giving the reader different amounts of knowledge.

Standing to the side of the group is a boy not too much younger than me with shaggy hair in his eyes. His shoulders are hunched and he’s scowling at the rest of the group. From what I can see, the others are glancing at him with a fair amount of concern, but he doesn’t seem to be making much of an effort to reciprocate any gestures of affection.

In the center of the group, telling a story, is a boy just a bit younger than me with bright hair that falls into his eyes. As he tells his story, he glances at each person individually - as a good storyteller should. He crafts his words with elegance. At the story’s end, as the rest of his group chuckles at the punchline, I see just the slightest hint of a mischievous glint in his eyes.

In both stories, I am introducing the same character, but in different moments we create a different first impression.

The moment of introduction.

What is the first impression you want your readers to have of this character? How do you want them to be viewed? As you define an answer to this question, you start to get a better idea of the moment you want to introduce them in.

If you want your readers to think of character A as affectionate or caring right off the bat, you wouldn’t show them yelling at a baby. You’d do something that reflects this core value of theirs. It’s important that you define your goals for your reader’s first impression, and then you can work to meet those goals. Without a clear direction or goal, it can be easy to write something that gives a first impression you don’t want.

Note: The moment of introduction can also be used to create a starting point for a character arc. Define those goals!

When do they become relevant?

And last (but not least), it’s important that the introduction for this character matches the moment when they become important. If you introduce someone who’s in the room now but doesn’t speak until later, you lose the chance to create a genuine first impression. In the moment when your character does something of real importance, then you want to introduce them.

For example, if we’re writing a boy-next-door romance, we don’t want to go out of our way to describe this love interest before we’ve even met him. We lose the context and the actual importance of the character because he’s introduced solely as an image in the narrator’s mind. Let your characters try to speak for themselves.

Tl;dr - When introducing characters, first impressions matter. Think about their importance, their role, and their first moment of relevance before you start to write that introduction.

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