#also a large part of why i don't think i would ever change my name for transgender reasons even though i want to sometimes

[ofpd]

there's this tape my grandmother recorded not long before she died and in it she addressed each of her children (who were young children at the time) and i've listened to this tape many times over the years and i remember that there's a lot of meaningful things on it but the one thing that always stands out in my memory is when she says to my dad “you're the smartest little boy i ever knew, but i'd love you even if you were stupid”

[llamagoddessofficial]

Can we get some Horror fae headcannons? I'm twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the big boyo to appear while I lose myself in your fae realms

Goodness, do try not to get lost. Though if you do get lost, he's certainly the one for you.

Quite similar to his non-fae self, really. Quiet, large, wild, bloodthirsty when required but completely unafraid to show his soft side to those he loves.

He does have a bit of a... 'reputation', in both realms. A reputation for being a frightening beast that you do not want to encounter out in the wastes.

Apparently, he did something unspeakable in Summer - banished from that court, he found himself immediately warmly welcomed into Nightmare's fray. He was one of the first of the Winter court.

He and Nightmare aren't exactly "friends", in the way Nightmare and Killer almost seem to be. But there's a certain degree of trust between Horror and Nightmare that just isn't there with anyone else. A level of mutual, unspoken understanding. They rarely talk to one another, but somehow, they seem to know each other very well.

(There seems to be some truth to the Summer rumours, given his absolute visceral hatred of even the word.)

Living in Nightmare's court means Horror has ample food. People are still scared of him, though.

Big fuzzy guy!! His wings are the biggest and softest out of anyone's; cuddling him will be like hiding in the thickest blanket imaginable. If you sit on his lap, you can pull his wings over you and fall asleep snuggled up like that. Rest assured, if you do that, you will never meet a happier skeleton.

Tricking you simply does not cross his mind. He's too slow with words for that kind of nonsense. If he wants to keep you forever, why does he need to steal your name? He'll just bake you the best pie you've ever had, that'll do it.

Or chase you down when you run. That works too.

Not good at telling you he likes you. He can show love just fine - gestures of devotion are part and parcel of who he is. But when it comes to the talking side of romance? An absolute wreck.

Killer helps. "hey, my buddy over there thinks you're cute," [points to the enormous shaking & sweating anxious monster who's unsuccessfully trying to hide behind a candelabra]

He tends to disappear for several days in a row, to go on long treks through the snow. They clear his mind. He probably knows the realm better than anyone alive. He would really like it if you came with, making you the first person to ever be invited along, but he doesn't mind if you don't want to go. He doesn't expect everyone to be interested in multi-day snow hikes.

(You could sit on his shoulders the whole way, though. In case that changes your mind. He'd also show you untouched natural wonders beyond comprehension. And he packs snacks)

His love language is bringing food back for you from his 'trips'. Baked salmon from the ice rivers, steaks of venison from the winter forests, slow-cooked rabbit from the plains, and on rare occasions bear stew from the mountains. If you're vegetarian it'd be good to tell him immediately because this will become a pattern.

He also likes making furs into clothes for you. For someone who struggles with shaking hands, he's surprisingly good with a needle and thread.

You'll never be cold, when he's around. And you'll never sleep alone.

[maopll]

Could I request Neuvillette, Kaeya, Al-Haitham and Wriothesley with an s/o who makes plushies of them to cuddle?

It's not You, but it's still You

#genshin impact !

⌗:, a/n: mini them is gonna be so cute ! you guys are so creative with these asks like what

⌗:, pairings: otter, cryo abyss mage, smarty pants, & ex-convict w/ gn!reader (separately)

⌗:, warning: I changed their names in pairings because why not. + a lil but suggestive in wrio's part cause I've been in the mood to write smth like that 😳

— ୨୧ NEUVILETTE

The hands of the clocks seemed to ceaselessly turn. Pages after pages and files after files were being checked and approved by the Iudex. As soon as the clock struck to 6pm, the papers got closed with a thud and he made a beeline towards the office door. Not forgetting to bid farewell to Sedene, he walks, practically hopping towards your shared abode. Ah, he can't wait! to feel your warmth as you throw yourself at him once he enters the house.

After a short walk since your house is located quite close to the Court of Fontaine, he calls you, "Mon amour, I'm home" but is met with silence. He's not worried, yet not being able to hear your voice makes him rather confused since the house is never this silent. Rather than being inside your bedroom, you were snuggled up in his office chair in his work room. His large jacket covered most of you and it seems that you were cuddling....a plushie him?

You were awaken by the rather abrupt yet ferocious rain against the window sill. "why is it raining so?..." Oh, there he was, your gloomy boyfriend who just stared at the plushie in your hand with eyes that were filled with envy. Unknowingly, he was pouting, with his cheeks all puffed up and creases near his eyebrows. You looked once and twice at Neuvillette and at the mini Neuvillette in your hand. You burst out laughing since you couldn't control the laughter "oh my archons neuvi! what am I going to do with you if you act *wheeze* like this—" "dearest I don't see the reason why you must hold that close to you when you've very much got yourself an even bigger and a better and far more warmer than the one that you have..."

"alright alright fine" you indicated with your open arms that he was much welcome between them since the...former intruder has now been removed from its position. He kneeled down to your chest height and gently wrapped his arms around your waist. He snuggled into your chest all while purring as you scratched the top of his head in just the right positions. With a pleased sigh he whispers, "I'd argue that this is much better"

— ୨୧ KAEYA

Between your arms, by your bedside table and sometimes even between you two while you sleep! What! how long do you plan to torment him, the Calvarly Captain that everyone oh so sought! this is utterly unfair! No, it's not that he hates the plushie that you have made but he believes that access to parts like between your arms and on your lap, should be reserved for him and only him.

"Love, why is that with you?" he stared at the mini kaeya plushie beside you across the tavern table, eyes clearly showing his distate for it being able to be so so close to you. "Gosh Kaeya, don't you think you're being a little hostile so something which is quite harmless? What's gotten into you?". Kaeya would like to refute whatever you said. That has been the very reason why he hasn't been able to smell the scent of you on his cloak since you are always busy holding and travelling with that around.

So be it, he's going to go for the 'tit-for-tat' kind of way! He will also see how much you crave for his love and attention after he momentarily stops giving them to you. And just like that many nights pass by yet your spirit is as undying as ever while Kaeya is now as dry as a twig which desperately thirsts for water, which in his case is love. He barges quite rudely into the courtyard where you busy watering your plants looking dishelved. He strides over to you, picks you up on his arms ignoring your protests, flops you on the bed and cages you between his arms. "W-what's up with this sudd—" "Just stay quiet for a moment...please" with that you zip your mouth shut. His request wasn't rude and it did seem like he had lost all of his energy. You heaved a sigh at his childish behaviour but brushed it off since he really looked as if he was on the verge of breaking. "Don't do things like these again alright? I'll do whatever you want just...don't get jealous over a plushie". "Mhm.." that was the only thing kaeya said before he drifted off to comfortable slumber as he laid in your chest.

— ୨୧ ALHAITHAM

The way he stared daggers through the object supported by the lamp was so intense that it reached you who was rummaging through the book shelves in his office. Never in your time of serving as Alhaitham's secretary did you get to see or feel the way he was so enraged with something or someone. Look, it was alright if he was irritated by someone, but its a different story if he is irritated by an inanimate object.

"...I can feel your eyes seething with rage from this distance albi...". "What is the reason for it being here with us?" Arms crossed and cold, as if he was talking to a colleague regarding a problem in the Akademiya that needed the utmost attention. Well, to him that plushie of 'himself' was also equivalent to those agonizing problems. "Oh come on! it's so cute look at his tiny hands...wait are you actually trying to tell me that's its ugly and doesn't look like you that's why you hate it?" Sure the buttons looked crooked and the hair not quite similar to what he has but in no situation would he undermine your works that you have poured your heart to. "No habibi that's not what I meant..." Bullseye. You hit him right in the spot. He can't really keep his composure when you are sad or gloomy.

"Fine I apologise. I don't hate what you made but...I just wanted to spend some time alone with you...and have your...attention to me" the last sentence was barely above a whisper but it seems that he forgot the face that both you and him were alone in this big space where even the smallest of whispers become the ice-breaking sounds. "Aww was my baby jealous? oh you big child". It's not often that he gets jealous but when he does he looks really adorable. You can't really keep your lips from smooching all over his face and ruffling his hair.

— ୨୧ WRIOTHESLEY

He loves tea. Thus he loves tea parties as well. Whenever he has tea with you he keeps a spare cup, for a very special guest. A mini him in the form of a plushie. He adore this craftwork of yours since you made it with love for him with him in your mind. He loves you to the moon and back so anything that you make automatically gets his utmost love.

"Mhm...what tea is this? Looks like it's a new one" you asked him in a soft voice so as not to disturb the peaceful silence that lingers in his office. "You're correct, it's hibiscus tea. Siegwinne got it from Sedene when she was visiting Neuvillette for his daily checkup". "Ah, no wonder. It still tastes really delicious. Probably because you made it" you smirked attempting to tease him. "Heh I'm sure Wrio here also like it" indeed it is the name of the plushie you made. You were in the mood for being a little naughty today.

"Since he likes it, I'm sure he's busy relishing the taste of the tea so...I can have you all to myself now right?" you inched closer to him in an alluring yet amorous way. "Oh it looks like my dear here is in the mood for something that's a little more hot and steamy than the tea" "You know me well don't you your grace?". You lifted his face with your fingers in a gently hypnotizing way. "You make me weak yknow that? his slurred voice was an open invitation to continue your ministrations.

"Be careful. The tea might grow cold we can't keep this for too long now..."

[caineinthecorner]

Language (The Demon Brothers)

★ Based on my language general hcs. Part 2 is here.

Hi. Today we have the demon brothers language hcs, brought to you by a single dumbass bilingual. :D

I include mentions of bilingual/multilingual MC, but I use the term MC and you interchangeably in the bullet points. It's the same thing who cares (you can also add whatever languages you think fit I am just going off vibes tbh)

★ Lucifer.

Since he was the strongest and highest ranked out of the brothers, his innate abilities were muddled the least.

This is to say that he remembers a lot from his innate knowledge as an angel, and can actually fare incredibly well on his own if you leave him in the human realm.

(the language he preferred back in his angel days was Archaic Latin, which is also Simeon's preferred language)

When Diavolo brought up the idea of the human exchange program he was like "(: ok" and binged human language for like two months straight like a total psychopath

He's like one of those fancy 10+ languages fluent polyglots (how)

Despite his fluency, it is rare to ever see him speak them. He has better things to do and prefers demon tongue.

Or if he does, the Loquar Ad Vos that was applied to you once you arrived in Devildom doesn't allow you to hear it.

You try to swear in your native language around him and oh boy it backfires

That is how you learn he's fluent in everything under the sun (exaggeration)

Frustrated, you grumble that you will learn demon tongue just to one up him

He takes it like a challenge. Enjoy reading a million books on the demonic language and having double the homework for your little joke.

(he gives you hard material to learn on purpose to see you fail. Enjoy hell buckoo. Double hell? Hell²)

You kept misspelling good morning in demon tongue as a demonic death threat and that somehow turned into an inside joke between the two of you.

He has to keep himself from chuckling whenever MC screws up words

Your accent is lovely though. Keep it up

★ Mammon.

Spanish and English.

Ok I actually can't justify myself further than "Mams would absolutely fucking go to Vegas" and the fact that USA has a large Latino population but hear me out

You cannot tell me that he would not watch telenovelas. Like. C'mon.

he has the vibes of a Spanish speaker is what I am saying

he was SO frustrated about having to learn human languages you have no idea

In fact he probably still struggles a bit and that makes him really mad

Why is it so complicated all of the sudden?! It wasn't complicated Before!

He unconsciously associates human languages with the trauma of the fall, and the stress and hurt and turbulent emotions it conveys

So learning new languages besides the two he knows is a touchy subject for him

(but like, he will learn MC's native language despite this. Whining to hell about it, but he will. Everything for MC)

You are actually very lucky that you have Loquar Ad Vos with you, bcs he actually switches from demon tongue to either English or Spanish mid sentence sometimes.

Not that you notice with your crusty translator (Loquar also works for human languages it supports), of course.

"Ayo can you [Spanish phrase], oh and give me a [English word], for a [spanglish nonsense]" <- Mammon's dumbass not functioning in trilingual

Also he has an accent but he's trying

The others are used to it so they don't question it anymore, but they deadass could not understand Mammon at some point because trilingual was not computing

It was frustrating to say the least

You two play charades with each other when the other forgets a word in your respective languages

"MC WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE ANIMAL FUCK THAT CHANGES HOME" "... Hermit crab?" "THATS THE BITCH"

★ Leviathan.

Japanese (very decent) and English (bad) are musts.

You cannot tell me for a second this fuck watches anime subbed OR dubbed. He's too weeb for that. He will watch the original dub version for the full emotional impact

He wanted to know what happens in the weeb world of the west (and internet discourse), so he learned English through shitty 2000s anime forums and Duolingo

Probably plays Duolingo competitively and/or cries if he loses his streak

His hearing and speaking English is okay, his writing is literally so so shit

Tried to learn a romantic language to be corny but failed miserably.

(He steered clear of languages his brothers know so he isn't self conscious)

It was probably Portuguese or something since Mammon kept talking about being good at figuring it out as a Spanish speaker (due to it being a romantic language)

The diacritical marks killed him on the spot

Meu português não é bom... (crying)

Victim of the you're* corrections

Runs his several-paragraphs-long rants about weeb stuff through Satan so the grammar is legit

Actually thinking about it would be absolutely fucking hilarious if he knew russian just for funsies. Yeah add Russian to the list

He sends you crusty Russian memes at unholy hours in the morning. Calls that bonding

Would absolutely swear in loud ass Russian while playing Valorant or smt

"ПИЗДЕЦ" "LEVI IT'S 2AM SHUT THE FUCK UP"

Ah + he knows Morse code (obviously). He was really excited when he discovered it and proceeded to obsess over it for like three weeks straight.

Although by the time he learned about it humans had already moved on from its wide-spead use at sea (post-1999), the Devildom Navy adapted Morse code for their own use as per Levi's command.

He teaches MC how to use Morse code (bashfully) and they send lil' messages to each other for fun

★ Satan.

He inherited a good chunk of Lucifer’s angel-knows-all-languages innate talents.

He doesn't have the angel knowledge of every language, of course, but he definitely has a really high count since birth; Unlike his brothers who had to relearn their languages of interest.

However, he can tell™ that the topic of languages is kinda taboo-y, as it signifies the traumatic fall he himself was not there to witness, and kept quiet about it.

The others (mostly) think he just learned languages in his free time.

He is the designated google translate person. When the other brothers need translations, they ask him.

He gets very frustrated when he has to translate something on the spot

Absolutely knows Chinese and Latin just to read fancy old human books and be a menace about it

He has a copy of the Art Of War in Chinese I will fight you on that

Actually he probably owns every important human book in its native language

Culprit of the you're* corrections

If he has to read another thesis-length essay abt weeb shit by leviathan he will actually lose his shit

You know the Voynich manuscript? He's probably trying to decode it for funsies.

If you and him (unfortunately) share a language, he will absolutely correct the living shit out of you when you speak it

Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't "erm ACtuAllY" MC. You can't.

His ass does not understand slang. At all. You tell him See You Later Alligator and he'll be like "tf you smoking ಠಿ⁠_⁠ಠ?"

★ Asmodeus.

French. And Korean. Maybe very mid English.

Ok so french is the language of lOVe and whatever + Korea is known for their heavy beauty-focused culture

I can see Asmo definitely picking up Korean just for makeup and self care brands purposes.

Like it is easier to browse for products he wants if he can actually browse the original places/websites himself

It's just more convenient and he's actually very good at language learning

+ Korean it is a "cutesy" language so it fits his vibe.

Like he absolutely would go "안녕 teehee (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)" to look disarming is what I am saying

He flirts to hell with Solomon in French. It is a language they both know and isn't supported by Loquar for translation so nobody can snoop their conversations

If you have the misfortune of knowing French I am so sorry for you bcs they are NASTY

Solomon is teaching him English. Asmo fakes being bad at it on purpose

★ Beelzebub.

He knows a decent amount of English.

What does he use it for? Order food. Obviously.

In fact everyone kinda assumes he just knows a few food orders and that's it but no he's actually very decent at English (borderline fluent)

He learned through clunky conversation with small restaurant owners

Beel actually makes a great effort to enunciate every word clearly, so he doesn't like speaking long sentences

"Would you like Salsa with that, sweetheart?" "... Yes," <- Beel has no fucking clue wtf salsa is but it tastes good so who is he to defy food gods (a nice Mexican grandma with a killer Pozole) whom have blessed him

I also think he would probably know some kind of sign language

Fingerspelling maybe, solely because it allows him to talk while having his mouth full or bcs his games are loud and he can't hear words very well

That and, like, the Devildom equivalent of sign language. DSL or something.

Look at him. Absolute sweetheart. He would absolutely want to include deaf or hard of hearing ppl.

★ Belphegor.

Ok so

I am going to be very fr with you

I believe Belphie would be the only monolingual (demon tongue "native") of the brothers

at most he would remember a few phrases of a few languages from back when he was an angel, but not any specifics

Like this dude has ZERO interest in human culture I cannot think he would sit down to (re)learn anything

he would fall asleep trying to learn human verbs actually

He only knows how to tell you to fuck off on 4 languages (/hj)

None which you speak. So that's kinda awkward

He doesn't know how to cast Loquar (nor has any interest in learning how)

Beel casts it for him if he needs it

He can and will deadass just remove the translator spell from you if you try to annoy/interact with him (except if Beel is who casts it on you).

(so Beel now also casts Loquar for you)

Begone >:(

[aizawasdumbwhore]

Here Without You - Dabi/Hawks Love Triangle

A/N: This fic is inspired by this ask. I'm not sure what took me so long to write it but here we are!! So shout-out to supernatural-hunter1 for the amazing idea, thank you so much!! Possibly will be a series. Also shout-out to my sister in law, a real one. She helped proof read, gave me some ideas, and helped with the name. I love you bby gurl

Summary: You had been developing a deep crush on Dabi for quite some time. But he was difficult to get through to and know. His distant demeanor made it hard to get close to him. However, when Hawks shows up, things take a turn in a different direction than you could have imagined. Dabi doesn't know your true feelings, you don't know Hawks is a spy, and they don't know you're in love with both of them. This love triangle is about to cause lots of drama and confusion.

Words: 2,241

Warnings: None, really. Except some violence and smut in future chapters. Yet to be written though.

Taglist: @supernatural-hunter1 @desiretdeni

AO3 Link

Dabi was always the smart and cunning guy. An asshole, but let's be honest… was your taste in men ever really that great? No, that's why you were formally a part of the Paranormal Liberation Front. You were here because you weren't really smart, or were you?

If Shigaraki truly meant his promise, and succeeded, that would mean you were smart. The world would be thrown into chaos but at least you wouldn't be on the hero's side, right? Take Hawks for example. He was a new recruit, a hero under disguise. He claimed to be on the villain's side. You hadn't met him yet, but Dabi talked about him. He seemed really distrusting of him.

Sometimes Dabi just needed to let things out. He was never really a vulnerable kind of guy. Most times he just muttered whatever insults, or vented about god only knows what. You were usually that person who paid attention. The others would roll their eyes, especially Twice who talked about Hawks in a completely different perspective. The strong difference in opinions made you really want to meet this guy, just to get a feel for yourself.

Tonight was one of those nights for Dabi. He was sitting outside on a log, a little ways from the base. He had been gone too long, so you came out to look for him. He didn't move or flinch when he heard you.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Heh," he scoffed. "I'm just thinking."

"About?"

No answer. That was expected. Oddly enough, Dabi was like a foggy piece of glass. If you got up really close, you could see something on the inside, except you could never make a clear image of it. He would never tell you what was truly on his mind, but the best you could do was give him some company as support. Dabi didn't really show appreciation to you. However, he didn't yell at you or discourage you from hanging around him.

There was a long period of silence. The night was a little cold and dark. Your arms were wrapped around you as you clung to the little body warmth you had. A chilling breeze came through, rustling the trees and dead leaves throughout the forest.

"Are you cold?" A small blue flame appeared, illuminating the side of his face and hand. You smiled.

"Yeah, a little." In front of you, he sent a large flame at the ground. All the dead leaves and twigs turned into fuel for his flames. The air became dry and hot as the warmth rushed to your face in a large wave, too much for you to handle. You scooted yourself back until the heat became tolerable, but Dabi stayed right where he was. There was an extended period of silence. Only the sounds of the fire cracking, the wind in the trees, and your own breath could be heard in the night.

After some time, Dabi stood up and offered to take you back. Despite not saying much, you could see that it healed Dabi. The look on his face had changed, and his eyes looked calm. You enjoyed your time together and wondered if he did too.

It's not like you cared what Dabi thought of you. You didn't like him… kind of. You didn't really know exactly how you felt about Dabi because having a crush on Dabi was like asking for a knife to the heart. He could never be a normal boyfriend in a healthy relationship. That was asking too much from him. Really, that was too much to ask from any man who was connected to the Paranormal Liberation Front. It was best not to get involved in romance for everyone's sake.

As you laid in bed, it kept you up. What were you and Dabi? Friends? Acquaintances? Strangers? Maybe lovers? It's not like you could ask him, getting an honest answer from Dabi was like pulling teeth. But did you care? Yes, oddly enough, you cared very much. And maybe he didn't feel the same. The rejection would break you.

The next morning was hard to get out of bed. Staying up thinking all night wasn't the best idea, especially when Twice came yelling into the room. The door opened fast, slamming into the wall. You sat up in excitement.

"What? Is it an emergency?"

"No! Yes! Hawks is here and I want you to meet him badly!" He was hopping around with excitement. Finally, you had the opportunity to meet the famous Hawks.

"Okay, okay, fine. Just let me wake up a sec-"

"Sorry, am I intruding? I wasn't sure exactly where Twice was taking me."

Walking through the door was a handsome blonde man. His hair was slicked back in the front and a bit messy in the back. He had thick-winged eyes that would rival any make-up artist. His features were strong and beautiful. Behind him were two large red wings. You felt like you'd seen him before but he looked so different in person.

In your embarrassed state, you jumped up out of bed and quickly tried to fix your appearance. However, wearing your little pajamas didn't help much. This handsome guy was Hawks. A few times you had heard or seen him on television but never paid attention. You wish you did now.

"N-no, it's fine. I'm Y/N."

"Hawks," he smiled as he extended his hand out to shake yours. As you reached out to meet his hand, you could feel butterflies in your stomach. God! Why did Twice have to bring him in at such a bad time? He should have known better as your wingman. Well, literally.

However, it was confusing. As exciting as it was to meet the famous Winged Hero: Hawks that Twice raved about, how would this go when you told Dabi? Would he understand or be upset? No matter how badly you wanted to hide it, you needed his approval deep down. What would you do?

You had liked Dabi for a long time. You could simply deny it no longer, but he was so distant. And here was this handsome man delivered to your bedroom. Sure, he was a hero at one point and still technically is, but he's been truly helping the cause. Twice wouldn't speak so highly of just anyone.

"It's nice to finally meet the guy Twice goes crazy for," you said, with a hint of sarcasm in your voice.

"Likewise, he talks about you a lot too. He's just a friendly guy." His voice was smooth and charming, as well as his looks, but that wasn't entirely enough to trust him. He had a head start because of Twice, but he still needed to prove himself.

Twice gave him a thumbs up as he said, "Oh, I'm so glad you two got along. Would have been much worse if Dabi was here."

Hawks rubbed the back of his neck with a bashful look on his face. "I'm sure he'll come around."

"Pfft, good luck with that…"

"Tough to come around?"

"Yeah, you could say that. He's kind of… nevermind, it doesn't really matter. We'll just see how you hold up here."

With that, the boys left the room so you could get dressed and ready for the day. Toga came in to do your hair as she usually does. She loved doing it in different styles and you let her because it seems she never got to have a good childhood, much less a good adolescence. Sometimes she teased you about Dabi, but you always denied it.

"I'm gonna do something pretty with it so you look pretty for Dabi," she giggled. She laid across the bed and did your hair over the edge as you sat down in front of the mattress. This gave her a good overhead angle.

You held a fashion magazine in your hand, flipping the page as you sighed, "You know I don't care about that." On it was a group of girls in beautiful dresses you wish you could own. If only you didn't pick this life for yourself, maybe you could wear a nice dress like that. Maybe if things were different, Dabi could take you out on a date with those dresses. A normal date where you both went to dinner at a fancy restaurant. But why was a villain daydreaming this about another villain? It would never be that way. Life wasn't that kind.

"Mhm-hmm," she rolled her eyes as she continued. Once she was done, she grabbed a mirror from beside her to show you. You smiled as you took a good look in your reflection. She always took good care of you, making sure you looked nice and beautiful.

"Thank you, Toga." You wrapped your arm around her and gave her a little side hug from the floor. She gave you a sweet smile as you left the room, hopefully to run into Dabi. Would he like your hair? Would he even notice it?

You didn't know much about Dabi. He didn't talk about his past, wouldn't share his real name, and dodged any personal questions. It was scary not knowing anything about him, especially when you liked him so much. It shouldn't matter regardless. Dabi wasn't boyfriend material. You'd end up heartbroken… but it was nice to dream about it.

In a perfect world, wearing that dress from the magazine. You both had money to dine at a fancy restaurant in a beautiful town. It was nighttime. The restaurant was decorated with string lights outside, where the waiter seated you two. The meals were delicious. You laughed and talked together all night. Maybe he wouldn't have his burn scars. You always wondered how he got those…

From behind, you heard a familiar voice call out your name. When you turned around to see who it was, you recognized Hawks. Curious as to why he was calling out to you, you stopped. He quickly walked up to you and smiled.

"I feel like we didn't get a proper introduction with the way Twice did it, so I came to really introduce myself." He took your hand in his and brought it to his lips, planting a soft kiss on the back. "Hawks." You couldn't help the blush from rushing to your face. It must have been noticeable because he chucked.

"Wh… what was wrong with our introduction before?" It was a stupid question, you knew why. But why did he care so much about how you two met?

"I felt bad with the way Twice introduced us. Not that he meant any harm."

"No, no, he's a great guy. He's just a bit oblivious sometimes." There was a short pause of silence. "You're quite flashy and audacious," you said, in reference to his new introduction.

"Eh, it's kind of what I'm known for," he chuckled.

You took this moment to really take in his features. The way he smiled, the color of his eyes, his mannerisms. He didn't seem the type to be a villain. That made you nervous. There had been one occasion, before you joined, that Twice made the mistake of bringing someone in that didn't quite belong. But you wanted to give Twice the benefit of the doubt.

His handsome looks or charm wouldn't work on you. You'd need to know more. There had to be a reason that Dabi didn't like him, and the only way to learn was to ask. Assuming Dabi would tell you, hopefully.

For a moment, you and Hawks made some small talk. He asked for a little tour and general information on everyone. Nothing was too suspicious so you answered what you knew and what would be safe to share. As you two went along, you could see why Twice was so fond of him. But that only made it so confusing why Dabi didn't.

"What made you join?"

"I wanted to be free. I feel too tied down with all the rules and stipulations. Especially the spotlight." He looked out ahead, but seemingly at nothing.

"I get the feeling," you looked down at your feet, reminiscing, "I felt the same way too."

"At least here, you can do as you please. That's what Twice told me Shigaraki says anyway. That's how I want to live."

"That's why I felt connected to Shigaraki too. I bet it's hard for you to always have people watching you, recording you, and whatnot. You're brave for being here, even if it's in the shadows."

He turned to look at you, and smiled. It was a warm smile that melted your heart. Hawks and you seemed so alike. So if Dabi didn't like Hawks, would that mean he secretly disliked you?

Time went by too fast, accidentally spending the whole day together. Hawks was so free and fun to be around, you hadn't noticed how late it had gotten.

"I should turn in now, I enjoyed talking to you."

"Is it that late already? Wow." He pulled his sleeve up to look at his watch. "Okay though, just promise I'll see you around again sometime soon."

You chuckled and blushed as you two went separate ways. You felt different inside. For the first time, you felt seen by a guy. Today went almost like those dreams with Dabi. It was strange. However, you decided to bury those feelings as you went inside your room to rest.

Reblogs are appreciated <3

[miasmaghoul]

Omega. Tell.

Sigh. So large. So stoic. So Omega.

(this gets angsty my bad lmao)

How I feel about this character:

Another one that's grown on me over time. He was Primo's first summon upon being named Papa- the first ghoul summoned in decades, actually. Omega was relied on very heavily when the decision was made to revive the Ghost project, and for a long while was considered Sister Imperator's right hand. After the coup staged by Alpha, he voluntarily abdicated his position in the band to his protégé, Aether. He stayed on the road for the rest of Terzo's time as Papa, though, and let me tell you why.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

(Here's the long part lmao)

Terzo. Always and forever. They met when Terzo was a newly promoted Cardinal, still coming into his own. Learning to put his natural charm to use. One slow look up and down his body, one wink of an unnaturally pale eye, and Omega knew he was doomed. He still had professional relationships with Primo and Secondo, of course, but his connection with Terzo was something he neither planned for nor predicted. His ascension to Papa status put a strain on things, of course, but Omega never minded playing second fiddle to his leadership duties. At first it was fine; they worked well together, Terzo was loved by his ghouls and congregation alike, they won that award - their following grew, and with it grew Terzo's ego. How could it not? Power can be toxic even to those with the purest of intentions, and nothing about Terzo could be called pure. But Omega saw him changing - becoming colder, more callus to those around him, aloof in a way none of them deserved - and for the first time in his existence felt scared. He knew something had to give, before Terzo lost what had made him such a wonderful leader to begin with. It was easy to blame the coup on Alpha - he had always been volatile - despite the fire ghoul's protests, but he'd gone to his execution with his head held high and magma in his eyes. Omega had stared him down until his body crumbled to dust, and no one was ever the wiser. He convinced Imperator to let him stay on the tour though, as Terzo's personal medic. Needed the closeness, after so much had started to drive them apart. By the end of the tour Terzo was like a different person; whether the chaos had scared him straight, or whether he realized his time could be short, it was like having the old Terzo back.

The last time Omega saw him was when he was dragged off stage - until the morning a photo of one Cardinal Copia holding his lover's severed head appears on the unused side of Omega's bed. On top of it laid a simple gold ring, one that matched the one on Omega's own left hand, and no one sees Omega after that.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I really like thinking about his dynamic with Dew. I don't see them being romantically involved, but I think as a new summon Omega provided him with a lot of stability. He also introduced him to Aether, and we all know where that ended up.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I hate when people draw him skinny. That ghoul is LARGE 😤

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Part of me would have loved an in-universe explanation for the swapping of the ghouls during era 3, but at the same time it's way too much fun thinking up Scenarios lmao

[nesiacha]

in your opinion, what was the most significant mistake the jacobins ever made? (i tend to like them much more than other factions in the frev, but i still want to know how Problematic my Faves were)

Good question. I'm not sure which period you want to talk about regarding the Jacobins, so let's discuss the one after the fall of Louis XVI's monarchy. I will mainly encompass the Mountain faction.

Regarding tactical errors, according to some historians, including Antoine Resche, a contemporary historian who has made excellent videos on the French Revolution under the name Histony, which can be found on the Veni Vidi Sensi website, leans towards the lack of left-wing unity as one of the errors. And honestly, he's not wrong. Some might think that the elimination of Danton and the Hébertists was a turning point. But it was salvageable (I've already discussed what I thought in one of my posts). Only the Jacobins made the grave mistake of eliminating Chaumette, among others, even though he had refused to participate in an attempt to overthrow the Convention, which showed he was the most reasonable. Keeping him as the prosecutor of the Commune would have appeased some of the sans-culottes. Instead, the Convention has him arrested and executed. I understand that at that time the Convention could not afford an overthrow and was afraid Chaumette might change his mind, but by doing so, they alienated a large part of the sans-culottes. The wave of executions like Gobel or Chaumette was one of the most disastrous moves.

Another one is the non-application of the Ventôse laws, but it is true that some Montagnards blocked this, and the Marais was against these laws.

Also, being a fervent advocate of freedom of expression, there should never have been decrees holding journalists accountable. I don't particularly like Desmoulins, but executing him for his writings… Moreover, it will not prevent opinions from forming and solidifying.

Regarding moral errors: In addition to the travesties of justice I mentioned concerning the Hébertists and the Dantonists, there were other cases. When Girondin deputies were dismissed, most deputies did not want them dead, let alone imprisoned. They were only supposed to remain under house arrest. The problem is, many of them escaped and incited uprisings in the departments, which further exacerbated the already endangered Republic. Despite all I have to reproach them for, some Girondins were honorable people, notably Manon Roland and Vergniaud (even if Vergniaud had an ambiguous attitude, he still remained under house arrest) who stay in Paris. Yet they were judged, condemned to death, and executed along with other Girondins who incited or attempted uprisings and fled Paris. It wasn't even a tactical error; it was unfair.

Another very minor point concerns the Convention entirely, and this is my opinion. Why separate Marie Antoinette from her son? I understand there were royalists in Paris (the assassination of the remarkable Louis Michel Lepeletier by one of Louis XVI's former guards, among other events, will demonstrate this) who would do anything to get their hands on him as Louis XVII, which would have been dangerous. It would have been better to monitor the child's education closely given this context, but why not have strict supervision while leaving him in his mother's care, even though we know her opinions? I don't want to demonize Antoine Simon, executed in Thermidor; he wasn't a brute; he had compassion for the former queen and liked the child, but it's horrible. Being myself a proponent of reforms for jail to ensure the child remains very close to his parents, I protest against this. And the royalists seized upon it to portray an image of an inhumane Republic.

Women's rights were not respected, as I discussed in my post "Women's rights suppressed."

One of the most serious errors was the Prairial Law. When this bill presented by Couthon and later approved by the Committee of Public Safety and voted on by the Convention passed, many innocents suffered. Following the execution of the "Robespierrists," the Convention lied, saying it had not approved it, which was false.

Paradoxically, there was no internal elimination necessary at that time, notably the case of Carnot, who gave orders behind the backs of others to wage a war of conquest, which would have jeopardized the Battle of Fleurus if Saint-Just had not intervened with the order. I don't understand why he wasn't arrested; generals have been executed for less than that. This man doesn't deserve his title as the organizer of Victory, but having eliminated those who had really done the job like Saint-Just, among others, he could claim that title.

I realize I have done a critical job on the Montagnards even though I admire them, so a few lines to rehabilitate them. Most of them refused the irresponsible war of conquest advocated by the Girondins. Finally, fatigue was fatal to them. They put their best efforts into saving France, but most became ill (Couthon, Robespierre; I don't know if Billaud-Varenne was beginning to develop his dysentery or if his illness came after his deportation). Robespierre made a grave mistake by slamming the door on the Committee of Public Safety following a dispute among its members, then a few weeks later making a speech where he designated culprits without naming names (like Fouché, for example), so some wrongly believed they were the ones being designated when they weren't. Fouché and his gang played on this.

I want to say that Jean Clement Martin explained that if the Girondins are seen as victims, it's because they didn't have time to put the Montagnards on the guillotine. There were quite a few assassinations of Montagnard deputies (some think that Barbaroux manipulated Corday to kill Marat, Joseph Chalier was killed in atrocious conditions by the Girondins of Lyon, Isnard's speech). When the Jacobins acted, there was an internal civil war and an external war against the Revolution, plus a depreciated currency. And they saved it. For a while, they tried to accommodate (at least the majority of them) their adversaries. Then the gloves came off. But they remained in democracy, even in the worst moments. The Jacobins supported the abolition of slavery (not just them), and most of the major Jacobin figures fully supported the uprisings by slaves against the colonists.

Napoleon, although praised today for inheriting a better situation thanks to the efforts of his predecessors, through his dictatorial attitudes, betrayal of the Jacobins, and wars of conquest (all the wrong things), left France in a worse state with the return of the Bourbons. Revolutionaries like Marat predicted from the outset of the French Revolution that if the Girondins persisted in declaring war, even if France were victorious, there would be a military dictatorship and subsequently the return of the Bourbons.

All this leads me to think that it was the revolutionaries of the Mountain who were pragmatic and Napoleon the "idealist" in the wrong sense of the term, given his grandiosity and stupid belief (in my opinion) that he could impose hereditary dictatorship, exploit other countries without them retaliating (but that's another story).

Finally, the Jacobins in power were exhausted; they even lacked sleep hours due to their internal schedules. Before the Prairial Law was passed, there was an assassination attempt on Collot, so it was thought that the royalist danger was present. Plus, this law was disfigured by those who presented it; they thought they would only use it against people like Fouché, Carrier, Barras, Fréron, Tallien—des despicable men who dishonored France and the Revolution. It was they who later presented themselves as victims of the Jacobins when they were the worst during the Terror. Contrary to belief, heads rolled after the Terror; just look at the execution of Romme and the other Montagnards, the execution of Babeuf, the fact that anyone who demanded the constitution of 1793 could be punishable by death.

Finally, I want to say that despite my speeches, I don't believe in providential men; if France could have a sense of greatness during this period, it's thanks to the people. In Algeria, we have the slogan: "One hero only: the people."

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Hello! If it’s okay, I’d like to know your thoughts on the Trikoto theory (3+ alters). I think it’s a cool theory! And pretty likely, honestly. (Here’s a document about it in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. I didn’t make it, and I unfortunately don’t know who did, I just found it in another blog)(I really hope that link works lol)

Hey FF! I was wondering when you might send something in. Not the topic I expected, but I'm here for it!

I've definitely heard of this theory before. I can't say I know for sure where it originated, but I've always been under the impression that a blog called @bertrandcaillet started it as they're the first one I saw talk about that theory and they told me about it a while ago. They've since deactivated, though, so I can't really check with them to see if that's true.

I think the trikoto theory is interesting, and I fully agree with what's said on the document about how it would be nice if Milgram is showing a system with more nuance than just having two alters.

That being said, I personally don't believe this theory for a number of reasons. I'm going to do my best to explain why here. I do want to say going into this that while I do have extremely minimal psychology teaching (as in, undergrad psyc MINOR), I do not claim to be that educated on DID or similar struggles. So, anything that I say will be focusing much more on Milgram as a piece of media from a writing standpoint, because that's what I have much more extensive experience in.

I will say that I am very aware that most systems have more than 2 alters. That being said, I think I also remember from my psyc class that the average number is, like... 16? I'm not at my dorm right now and that's where my notes are, so I can't check, but I remember specifically thinking about it in the context of Mikoto and trikoto theory, so I'm pretty confident it's Above Three. That means that either way, it's not like we're doing The Most Common Number, so I think two versus three is largely irrelevant on that point.

For the sake of clarity, I'll be using the names in the doc (Akakoto, Midokoto, Aokoto), but I only personally believe that two of them (Akakoto, Aokoto) exist. I've taken to calling them Orekoto and Bokuto, but for this post, Akakoto and Aokoto it is.

At its base, my problem with trikoto theory is that I don't see a lot of evidence for it. Most of what I've seen has been talking about the implications of it if you assume it's true, but I've just never really been convinced in the first place. I'll just go through some of the main reasonings real quick:

The RGB Colors

I do acknowledge that I'm very much not a visually oriented person, so the color shifting is something I'm less inclined to notice. However, while the background of the room is blue and the train station and apartment are pretty green, I don't feel like there are ever really any red backgrounds (other than when the headspace becomes red as ooposed to blue). Because of that, I have a hard time believing that the backgrounds themselves contribute to the idea that there are three. I definitely think the red/blue coloration in the eyes and such are indicating different alters, but I don't think that specific fact supports there being three of them.

The Voice Changes

This might be a me issue, but I only really hear two different vocal inflections. I understand the point about there being some harsher (?) sounding vocals that don't have the growl, but personally, I still think the tone matches the one described as Akakoto enough to count. Similarly, the parts towards the end that are picked out for Midokoto ("I'm probably not to blame," etc.) actually sound more like Aokoto to me even if I do try to track the three voices.

I'm hesitant to go too hard in believing the different voices because to me, doing so would severely limit the amount of control Natsuki Hanae would have over the emotions he wants to put into the song. The vocalists in Milgram do a fantastic job at using specific vocal intonations to convey deep layers of emotions in their songs. I feel like it would be very limiting to only be able to use certain vocal effects (ex. growl) in specific places due to the limitations of the characters. If there are two, the two voices are far more separate, which gives more space for customization within the bounds of each voice.

This is also a little bit iffier on evidence, but there's the Es cover of MeMe. I don't know how much Yurina Amami knows about Mikoto's story and the entire video is in grayscale, so take all of this with a grain of salt, but to me, I feel like Es uses two voices here, not three. Notably, they even have a bit of vocal growl on the "switch" and on "split and half, make that heart beat," which are both squarely in the Midokoto tone. They do still have the two voice split, sounding a bit more apathetic and aggressive in the Akakoto parts and cuter in the Aokoto parts. To me, that signifies that there's suppose to be two voices going on, not three, but you could argue that that's just Es' perception of Mikoto, so it's not decisive or anything.

Mikoto Fighting Es

Yes, in his first audio drama, Mikoto is able to beat Es up until Kotoko stops him. Yes, that's inconsistent from what we've seen from Futa and also t2 Amane. I agree that that's because the Milgram rules only apply to one or more alters, and thus any others that may exist can get around the rulings. We saw this between trials, too, with how Mikoto (seemingly Akakoto at the time) was able to avoid being restrained despite his guilty verdict, likely through the same loophole.

(Side note: this implies to me that Milgram's system for restraining guilty prisoners is, like the protective barrier around Es, somewhat magical and isn't a physical thing. Thus, if we were to, say, vote Amane as guilty, I am fairly confident she would be unable to harm any other prisoners, as we've already seen the barriers are able to prevent her from attacking others. I still lean Amane innocent anyways, but I wanted to point this out.)

Anyways, I don't think that this is actually evidence towards trikoto theory because it works perfectly fine with just the two of them. Aokoto is the prisoner in Milgram and Akakoto isn't. This doesn't necessarily mean that Aokoto is the one who was fronting while the murder happened, though; the rules of Milgram just necessitate that the prisoner is involved in/related to a death. It can be indirect.

I think that that's exactly what Milgram is asking us with Mikoto. The question is, how do you fairly hold a system accountable? Can you blame one alter for the other's actions?

Milgram loves to complicate these, and I can see the appeal of a complication being learning about a third alter. Personally, I think it's much more likely that the route Milgram is taking is looking at how much knowledge the alters have about each other and asking how much Aokoto would have to know to make him an accessory to Akakoto's murder plans. It could go either way, though.

Some Bonus Points

I think the strongest piece of evidence brought up is the use of threes in Mikoto's design. Other than "they just liked it aesthetically," there isn't much of a counterargument I can make about it. My best one would be that they might be going for a "switching between black and white" type of thing, which would work better with more stripes, but that's pretty weak. I also had the idea that the first character of his name looks like three stripes, which might be a better or worse explanation! You get to decide, I have no idea.

The cake sells me less, though. It's true that Kazui's is a perfect 50/50 and that Mikoto's isn't, but that's because they're representing different things.

Kazui's is half and half because his song is called half, and it could also be a sign of how he and his wife didn't actually connect more in a marriage sense; they're still two fully separate people rather than being a unit.

Mikoto, if he has two alters, is still physically one guy. Mikoto is mostly sitting on the flower designs. I'd argue that the flowers are meant to show Mikoto as a whole: the connection point of the two alters.

That's pretty much all of what I have to say on the doc (in terms of the trikoto aspect, whether I believe it or not there's some good work done in character/lyric analysis that applies to two or three alter theories), but I'll go over some of my reason for why I actively believe there to be two, because there are some reasons.

Reason 1: The Song Titles

The doc explains what the meaning of MeMe is in trikoto theory, but it definitely still works with two, more obviously so. That's not evidence, though, because the trikoto theory has a viable explanation too.

I have no idea what they'd be doing with the song title Double, though. I guess it would be a play on somebody being someone else's double, meaning they're someone like them, which is no doubt part of the song title either way, but I think it's difficult to ignore the meaning of Double that means, y'know... multiplied by 2, or:

But that could very easily be a diversion and we haven't seen the second video, so I'd let that slide. However, that brings me to the bigger problem:

Reason 2: Upright Versus Reversed

AKA, the tarot cards.

Tarot cards can be read two ways, Upright or Reversed, based on the orientation of the card when it's placed/picked up/whatever. I already went over in my original theory (which is pretty outdated, I could do a way better job but I wrote that one literally first out of my milgram thoeries and I hated not having a good name scheme for the various alters) why I believe Akakoto to be the Hanged Man (Upright) and why I believe Aokoto to be the Hanged Man (Reversed).

I struggle to imagine why the devs would pick tarot, something that clearly has two meanings to it, when there are actually three alters. Maybe it'd just be to throw us off the scent, but it feels a bit too intentional to me.

Plus, if it was meant to throw us off, I'd expect we'd get a different metaphor/symbol for the second MV (as we have been with pretty much everyone). However, the association between Mikoto and "reversible" things has continued into trial 2, even before his MV has come up.

I say this because of his trial 2 cover song: Reversible Campaign. Funnily enough, I actually thought this song would go to Kazui before it was announced as Mikoto's, but then I looked again and understood why they wanted it for Mikoto.

My thoughts get confused and fight with each other

Very Mikoto, works for either two or three alter theories. However:

I just want to waver between black and white

It's turned me upside down

There's more that seems to paint Mikoto's mind as a dichotomy, not a... trichotomy? Is that a word? I don't actually know.

The Song Lyrics of MeMe

This is sort of an extension of the above part, but there are also definitely song lyrics in MeMe that sound like they're heavily implying two. Again, you could argue that that's trying to throw us off the scent, but some of them are, in my opinion, actively difficult to justify for trikoto theory.

Split in half, Make that heart beat

I cannot for the life of me understand why any of the three alters would say "split in half" if there are three. I guess if any of them were aware of one of the other alters, but not the other? I don't think that's what was being argued, though, sorry if I missed that.

I’m already the fake one

Little harder to argue this one because I don't know how definite versus indefinite articles work in Japanese, but saying the fake one really sounds to me like there is one fake and one real. If you were just having a moment of existential crisis, in most situations, I think you'd opt for "I'm already fake."

The Mirror

This is sort of the same argument as the tarot cards, but there's also the use of mirror imagery in Mikoto's MeMe MV. Mirrors have two sides and are a reflection. You could use Haruka logic and say that it depicts self reflection, I guess, but considering the reflection acts differently, I think it's much more likely that this is meant to show the two alters.

Conclusion

Hopefully this all made sense? I respect trikoto theory and I could easily be super wrong about it (see also: my original opinions on gay Kazui theory and police Kazui theory), but I've just never really been sold. It's possible my opinion would change if I saw evidence that I felt worked better for trikoto than... twokoto? theory, but personally, I feel like most evidence I've seen for it is still better explained by there being two alters. Let me know what you think, though :)

[bonesandthebees]

Hi again Bee.

Thank you for lending an ear to listen even if I just kinda showed up. I really appreciate it. I've actually been reading through some of your other stories and they're very good (I adore the fae works!).

When it comes to Wilbur, I'm just. Very disappointed and upset. Of course I support Shubble and am glad she spoke out, it's very important and I'm glad that it's encouraged others to come forward with their own stories of abuse at the hands of large creators. At the same time though part of me wishes she hadn't said anything, so I could have continued as I was, in blissful ignorance, even if I feel really guilty for thinking like that.

It just saddens me that someone I looked up to so much ended up being this horrible person. It makes me worried that I too am bad, that somehow he has imprinted his awfulness unto me. I used to be horrible too. I like to think I've grown as a person, I was only a kid, but have I? Or was being drawn to Wilbur a sign? Like attracting like?

Y'know, I used to say that my hair style goals were how Wilbur's hair is, and recently I got a haircut. When I took a shower earlier it ended up floofing up in a similar way to his. I don't know how to feel about that. Maybe I should style it differently, even though I like the floof. I don't want to be even a little reminiscent of an abuser.

I am reminiscent of him though, in ways I can't change. I used to feel so seen by him, we're both song writers, and hypochondriacs, and I wanted to be him so badly I would cry. I would cry because he was everything I desperately craved to be as an insecure transmasc, an attractive guy with a beautiful voice and an amazing life. And now he's horrible, and probably always has been, and all of my memories of him are tainted.

I hate that I can't listen to Lovejoy anymore. It feels unfair to the other band members. It isn't their fault Wilbur is awful, and yet I'm taking away a source of their income. I know I'm taking away from Wilbur too, but he's only one person out of the group. Maybe that's just me giving an excuse so that I won't have to stop enjoying their music. It doesn't matter, I can't stomach listening to them anymore anyways.

I keep getting songs from YCGMA stuck in my head. It's like now that I can't listen to it anymore my brain has decided to fuck with me by making me listen to it anyways. I can't even justify listening to that album, that's just Wilbur's music. I was going to cover a song from that album for fun. Now I can't.

Is it bad I still find comfort in Wilbur as a character? C!Tommy is my favorite, but C!Wilbur is almost always a huge part of any C!Tommy story and I love C!Wilbur stories too. I know C! ≠ CC! but I just. It's complicated.

Idek why I'm this upset. I haven't been an avid watcher of anyone in the DSMP in at least over a year. If anything this whole thing has brought me back into the fandom more than I have been in ages. I feel bad about that, but also this situation has introduced me to people like Aimsey, whose content I'm seeing more of and I find myself enjoying.

I've also found more great DSMP fics lately in my quest to binge read them before the mass deletions start. Is it bad to find good things in a bad situation?

I'm sorry for the lack of put togetherness and the length of this ask. I promise I'm usually more coherent and to the point.

-Tech (just call me Tech like a name, "tech anon" feels weird heh)

hey tech, sorry for a bit of a late reply I've been busy the past few days

(sorry about the 'tech anon' thing, it's just a habit since that's how I refer to most of my anons. I'm going to still tag your ask as tech anon though just for my tagging system if that's okay)

I'm so glad you like the fae stories!! I'm still so proud of both of those looking back on them

anyway, yeah, I get that. I get the guilty wish that none of this had ever come out so you could just continue to go on in blissful ignorance. when someone learns something very upsetting, it's only natural to feel like you wish you never learned that. you don't need to feel guilty for that. you're not a bad person for your emotional reactions to things. your actions are what matters.

also, you are in no way a bad person because you were drawn to wilbur's content. the persona wilbur put on for the internet was not representative of who he actually was. you were drawn to the facade. an illusion of the person wilbur could've been, if he actually practiced the things he preached. you said you used to be a bad person, but you've changed. the fact that you are worried at all that you might still be bad shows a level of self-awareness and concern that wilbur apparently did not have. because wilbur was aware he was a bad person and treated the people around him terribly, but he didn't care to try and be better. as long as you're trying to be better, you're already leagues ahead of him.

also, regarding the hair, the floofy fringe is an incredibly common haircut. that is not exclusive to wilbur soot. you do not look like him if your hair does the floof similarly to his, it just makes you look like thousands of other dudes with fluffy fringe.

the day after shelby first streamed I had an MSR song stuck in my head and I hated it so much. it really sucks. you just have to try and drown it out with other music

it's not hypocritical at all to still find comfort in c!wilbur. I know it's complicated, and there's so much discussion I could get into as to why it's so complicated, but we can all separate the guy and the character in our heads. there's no reason to feel guilty about that. and there's also nothing bad about finding good in this situation. I think it's really sweet that you've found so many great fics in this time and I'm so glad you've been getting comfort from them. you're appreciating the authors hard work and that's a good thing! you don't need to feel bad about that

I hope you're doing okay tech

[dongslinger--420]

Hey guys, can I just say something? Oh I'm sorry, I don't wanna mispronounce your name. It's Diane. You'd probably get sick of me. I don't think that's going to happen. You're not gonna make me look like an asshole, are you? I don't know, are you an asshole? I found this letter back at the bar, I think it's for you. That's the nicest letter he ever sent to me. A Diane thing would be something that shows he really knows you, like giving you an iPod loaded with all your favorite podcasts, or a practical houseplant, or surprising you with a bound album of photos and emails he saved. I think it took a lot of guts to do what you did back there. Why did you have to make things weird, BoJack? I made things weird? Hey stranger. I need you to tell me that I'm a good person, tell me, please, Diane, tell me that I'm good. I don't think I believe in deep down. I kind of think all you are is just the things that you do. I really wanted you to like me, Diane. I know. When have you ever been on my side? I am always on your side! Really? Like when you wrote that book? This is bigger than you and me, and I need you in my corner now because I don't have anyone else. I'm in your corner. Hey, is it cool if I crash here for a couple nights? I don't know where else to go. You SUCK, Goober! Go sit on a sharp DICK you piece of SHIT! I always tell people you're like the not-cool version of me. Sometimes that's great, but it also means we can bring out the worst in each other. I'm embarrassed by the person I was when I was staying with you. I make you unhappy? I don't know if I believe in real lasting happiness. I wanted to make sure you're ok. That's a funny way of saying congratulations. I don't fetishize my own sadness. I don't fetishize my own sadness! Sure. BoJack, there are millions of people who are better off for having known you. Why didn't you tell me this? I guess to preserve some fiction of journalistic objectivity. I wish you didn't get so distant after you moved out, you know me better than anyone and you can't not be a part of my life. Everyone belongs in Los Angeles, there's like, no barrier for entry. Oh god, that's true, they do let in just anybody. I've missed you, BoJack. I've missed you too. I should've called you. Yeah, you should've. I said I was sorry. No you didn't. Ok. BoJack, I can't wait for you to be better, I need you in my life. You're the biggest asshole I know and you're the only thing that makes sense to me. When have you not told me how you really felt. All you do is tell me how you really feel. I'm a sad, sad girl with a terrible, dirty apartment. Come on in! Isn't it weird that this is the first time we're both single at the same time? I just really need a friend right now. You know what I mean? A friend? Yeah. I have this friend, and right around when I first met her, her dad died. Diane, come on, it's me, we're the same! We are not the same! We'll just put that in the large bucket of things we don't talk about. Baby Bjorn Borg. Oh my god, yes! You haven't changed at all. Yes! Congratulations! You are the last person to get that. I need you to write one of your take downs about me. I am done writing about you. I don't understand why you're being so nice to me. After everything you know about me, all the shit I put you through. And now you're here, and I hate you, but you're my best friend, and you need me. I can't leave if I don't know you're gonna be ok. I live in Chicago, I can't save you. So what do I do now? BoJack, it doesn't matter. Well if it doesn't matter, can I stay on the phone with you at least? Ok. How was your day? Good. Yeah? Yeah, my day was good. I wish I could've been the person you thought I was, the person who would save you. That was never your job. Then why did you always make me feel like it was? You don't owe me anything. No, I need to tell you: Thank you. And, it's going to be okay. And, I'm sorry. And thank you. Life's a bitch and then you die, right? Sometimes. Sometimes life's a bitch and then you keep living. Yeah. But it's a nice night, huh? Yeah. This is nice--MR BLUE

[malt-rants-and-stuff]

MALT today I was maladaptively daydreaming (as one does) about kghr fantasy AUs and I was thinking... an assassin AU would be neat. But why would one of them be an assassin and how would they actually meet.

This thought process leads to -> what if hirano became Kagi's body guard but all along he's supposed to assassinate him in the end -> wait a minute.. betrayal... I've seen the name of a similar concept somewhere... -> Knight's betrayal??? -> WAIT A MINUTE WASN'T THERE A MALT AU CALLED KNIGHT'S BETRAYAL AU

WHAT IS THE KNIGHT'S BETRAYAL AU, MALT, I NEED TO KNOW MORE NOW THAT I REMEMBERED I'VE SEEN YOU TAG IT BEFORE

okay first of all, that sounds like such a fun au and the timeline between all of your thoughts is hilarious lol

second of all, don't think I've ever actually fully explained what's up with knights betrayal on here oops. that's on me haha I'm used to just letting people guess what my brainwaves mean. I'll try my best to explain!! continuing under the cut :)

okay so the basic break down of knight's betrayal is that kagiura, a child of a famous and well-respected family of knights, spends his days guarding the third prince of his empire (niibashi) after war has broken out on the eastern half of the continent. he was sent there by his family a year prior to keep him away from the harsh realities of battle and has stayed there until now.

hirano, on the other hand, is a different story. having grown up working for a lesser known noble's household and being drafted at an early age, hirano is a talented swordsman forced to retreat from the front lines after being mortally wounded and losing his left eye. he is given a choice by his captain afterwards: either retire early and be taken back to his old household, or work as an inside man to send information back and forth from the battlefield to the palace. stubborn and not willing to return to his old life, he chooses the latter.

this all leads up to their first ever meeting, when hirano walks into the palace where niibashi lives and delivers a message to his staff while kagiura is standing guard by the prince's side. there isn't much to say about this meeting, since afterwards kagi leaves with niibashi while hirano is taken to the medical wing to receive proper treatment for his eye and other wounds he gained while traveling. then they dont see each other for at least another month and a half ^.^

my main thing with KB is that i want it to be short but feel large, so the story takes place over a large span of time and is only about 20-30ish chapters give-or-take? lots of it is still drafts and things probably will change so i wouldn't get attached to that figure but yeah. it is just generally an excuse to write kagihira as two people who seem to be similar but are from such wildly different backgrounds and hold such different views of the world that it leads to them misunderstanding a lot about their relationships and conversations haha. also gay ass knights.

then, of course, there is the betrayal that comes along with knight's betrayal. Obviously. i will say that the politics are a huge part of the story, but kagiura "unreliable narrator who has been sheltered by his family and never been made to see real battle" akira isn't really focused on all of that. he is aiming for his strangers to lovers mysterious bad-boy with golden heart romance and is not about to let things like "lineage" and "suspicious behaviors" get in the way of that. unfortunately for him, hirano has not gotten the memo and will use every opportunity to sniff out strange faces and rumors that hold a little too much weight.

there's plenty of other things too, like sasamiya bakery romance and shirahama starting a great revolt. there's a side story i wrote ages ago that i have to resist spoiling centered around hanzawa the bookkeeper and tashiro the informant. kuresawa and his girlfriend are acting out romeo and juliet across the continent. poor bodyguard ogasawara is trying and failing to keep archivist eimi from lighting things on fire in the name of her sacred tomes. makimura gets arrested for slandering the emperor. everyone is having a bit of fun :>

the exciting thing about KB's story that has me frothing at the mouth though is that it is in the very end a Tragedy. not in a "everyone is going to die" way necessarily, but everything happens for a reason. everything has consequences. everything.

i'm so excited just getting to talk about it tbh! its been such a silly little thing in my mind for the longest time so its awesome to get to share a bit of it :)))

[7grandmel]

Blog Update - 16/06/2024

TL;DR: My 1-month break is over! The blog is returning but with a slower rate of posts. New forms of posts will start rolling out soon as well - scroll down to the bullet-point list for details.

Hello all! I've been receiving some asks and questions in the request form wondering where I've been this past month. Rest assured, I've been fine. With Athletic Doctor back in May, I reached the one-year anniversary of doing this daily-rip-posting thing, and today, June 16th, marks the one-year anniversary of this blog's existence as a whole with Snowball Park - Super Mario 3D World. Because yeah, for those first 30 posts I didn't do this as part of a blog, but as a daily activity for my own personal Tumblr account on @melblur. If you compare the word counts on those first few posts (the "First 30 Archive") to the posts made later in the blog's run, you'll likely be able to see how my focus in writing evolved, going from mere shoutouts and recommendations to full-on retrospectives and analysis. That was a large part of why I chose the blog's initial name as "Tumblr's SiIvaGunner Historian", there's something about regaling these oft-forgotten events in the channel's history that just invigorates me, a passion that kept me doing this for a year straight. What began as nothing but a laid-back writing exercise to keep my mind sharp became something that, on some days for rips that I was truly passionate about, drew my FULL undivided attention for an entire day's worth.

You saw the TL;DR, and you can probably tell where this is going. By the last few posts, I was noticing myself that this really isn't sustainable to keep doing at a daily rate. I've worn that pace as a badge of honor for so long on here: In my mind, it just made so much sense for a blog celebrating SiIvaGunner, a channel partially defined by its insane rate of uploads, to also do things at such a high pace, with so many references to past posts interconnecting them all just like the many in-jokes on SiIvaGunner itself. But this blog isn't a network of a hundred team members and a thousand contributors - aside from the requests on what to write and footnotes left by a rip's creator, everything made on this blog has done solely by its writer, me, Mel. I loved it - but I do think its about time I slow things down.

I was as torn on this choice as you likely are seeing it - after all, it's called "TODAYS siivagunner" for a reason, right? I was toying around with how to resolve this as far back as in March of this year, tossing around ideas and concepts as to rework the blog to be more feasible whilst still preserving its spirit. The April Fools prank, the legendary Raftmageddon of Raft Ride ~ The Story So Far, was sort of an offshoot of this, a day where posts were more rapid-fire than ever yet were all contained to just five or six sentences each: Short, snappy, concise, and even pretty casual and silly a lot of the time. And that was really fun for the sake of the bit, it again fit with the nature of Raft Ride the same way that my main posts sort of fit with the nature of standard SiIvaGunner uploads, but I realized even then that it wouldn't be a good fit for the blog's main posts - the things that make both you and I most happy as readers and writers respectively are when I get to truly get down to the meat of a rip and explore its contents and history to the fullest.

A month went by quicker than I thought it would, but alas, here we are. A lot can change in not so much time - I'm currently employed, for one, which is yet another reason why daily posts feel far less feasible, but I'm also spending my time expanding my interests, listening to albums, reading books, watching shows, talking to new people...I want this blog to keep going, but I also don't want to use it as an excuse for my own lack of growth as a person. And so, I've landed on a compromise that I hope will satiate all of us. Here's the current plan for the blog going forward:

Rip coverage will be going from daily to weekly, posted every Monday starting tomorrow, June 17th. In return, the goal is to make these posts as well-written and interesting to read as possible.

Requests for these posts will still be taken as normal. I'll of course try to prioritize requests from people who haven't had theirs featured on the blog yet, but keep in mind that it's still up to my judgement if I'll be able to have enough to say on a rip (or know enough about a rip's topic) to warrant writing a post on it!

New, more laid-back kinds of posts for the blog will be featured in the days between rip coverage posts - these will be a lot simpler in nature and made ~2-4 times a week depending on my schedule. Here are some examples of posts I have in mind!

GIFs and image sets from the channel's various visual rips and/or lore videos! Think the Christmas Comeback Crisis, the KFAD Tournaments, the Festival events of Season 4, 5 and 6, legacy content posted on the SiIvaGunner Twitter account, and more!

Character appreciation posts featuring all sorts of characters from the SiIvaGunner lore! Celebrate the figments you love with all twelve other SiIvaGunner fans on Tumblr!

Trivia about the channel, which I'd otherwise sneak into main posts, may get small little posts in of themselves! This can be anything from Did-You-Knows about how in-jokes have been carried on during the channel's life, to easter eggs and references, to fun tidbits about rippers themselves.

Shitposts! Goofs! Stuff I'd otherwise reblog under the #epic flintstones tag, basically.

Miscellaneous text posts related to the channel, such as Guides, summaries, or just whatever various thoughts I have!

All of these will have their own tags dedicated to them, just like #todays siivagunner - what tags they end up being is still up in the air and may change even as the posts are rolling out. Either way, the blog's pinned post will be continually updated with all the relevant tags and info about the blog - keep an eye out on it during next week.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff covered. I hope you're as excited for the second year of this blog as I am! Hopefully the greater variety of posts will help with the longer wait between "main" posts. The goal is, as you can imagine, to keep the blog a fun read for you all and just as much of a fun passtime for me, whilst also easing my own workload enough to make it manageable. I love running this blog more than anything, and I'm hoping this new schedule will give me more energy to make better posts - Maybe I'll even get a chance to interact with all of you even more by discussing more than just per-rip analysis.

Thanks for reading everyone - That SiIvaGunner Tumblr Blog will officially be back tomorrow!

[onboardsorasora]

❄️Enchanted AU: Christmas Part 20❄️

We're still figuring out the name guys! Enchanted Mondays? idk idk idk

Part 1 | Christmas Part 1 | Last Chapter

Part 20

“Hey Mama.” Daniel comfortably laid on his tummy and smiled fondly at his phone while he watched his mother cook. She was baking today, the house probably stunk of vanilla and sugar or the smell of warm bread. He sighed into the crook of his elbow. He was in his bed, Max was off collecting his family from the airport, so Daniel was alone with Sassy and Jimmy for a little while. He’d wanted to use the time to call home.

“Hello my baby, how are you?” Grace’s eyes squinted at him while she smiled. Her identical honey gaze swept over what she could of his face.

“I miss you.” Daniel mumbled, he knew it might be silly. But he missed her terribly. He missed home. He’d never been away like this.

“I miss you too, my love. Has everything been ok?” She eyed him with concern for a moment.

“I just miss home, I think. Max has been great.” He smiled a bit when he thought of Max and Grace raised a brow, catching the miniscule change with laser focus. She hummed a question and Daniel flushed with embarrassment. 

“I– stop looking at me like that.” He ducked his head from his mother’s view again, pulling a pillow to rest his chin on. Grace tutted at him before proceeding to flour her countertop and drop a large blob of risen dough on it.

He continued to watch her work, kneading the dough and spreading it with her fingers. He bit his lip and then nibbled his cuticle whole watching her methodically work on her bread. He felt calmed by the purposeful movements.

“I think I like him.” Daniel mumbled, eyes focused on his mother's fingers as she worked olive oil into the flat pan of stretched dough. “But I can't– because like he's helping me. And he doesn't see me like that anyway. And it's fine. It's not going to like affect anything. And I…” he continued to ramble while his mother placed herbs onto her focaccia to look like a small garden. 

Grace hummed periodically and let him work through his thoughts, exactly like how it would be if he were at home. He would sit by the breakfast bench and watch her cook while they gossiped or while he told her his problems.

“Are you sure you can't? Does he maybe feel the same?” Grace cut in, she wiped her hands on a tea towel and waited.

Daniel sputtered and eased up into a sitting position, he brought the phone close to his face. “Mama–” he glanced to his closed bedroom door to make sure it was closed and then to Jimmy who was lounging on his other pillow to make sure he wasn't listening to their private conversation. He totally was, Sassy too, but it wasn’t like they could tell anybody.

“Mama no. It-it's not like that.” Daniel stressed and Grace giggled. “I'm already like enough of a burde–”

“Daniel Joseph don't you ever call yourself that again!” Grace's face turned to stone, her eyes narrowed behind her fashionable glasses.

Daniel's mouth snapped closed at her tone and he whined a little. He hated when she was angry with him.

“You are not a burden and I don't want you to think that. Max doesn't think you are a burden either, honey.” She soothed, Daniel bit his lip sullenly. “Besides, if you truly think your presence is such a problem, why haven't you asked for an update on your passport? Hmm?” She grinned cheekily when Daniel sputtered in reply.

“I-I mean I was– I was trusting the process?” His excuse sounded poor even to him, so he said nothing when his mother tutted at him and rolled her eyes.

He watched as she placed her tray in the oven and started to wash up. She hummed to herself and Daniel listened silently, swaying to the song.

Before he knew it, there was noise coming from the living room, which meant that Max was back with everyone. Daniel felt torn, wanting to go outside and see them all but also to stay on the phone with his mother watching her putter around and finish up dinner.

“Mama I have to go.” He said finally, frowning sadly. She smiled and told him she loved him before sending him off.

Daniel opened the bedroom door and watched as the cats darted out excitedly. The noise grew in volume now that the door was open and he heard Luka and Lio cheer in happiness to see Sassy and Jimmy. Daniel made his way into the den of Dutchies and smiled widely, hugging everyone in greeting.

Max watched Daniel carefully, he seemed a bit tired, drawn maybe. “Daniel, is everything alright?” Max asked when Daniel settled back into the kitchen between himself and Sophie. He ignored the quick (and pointed) look Vic gave him.

“Oh! Yeah! Uhm I was on the phone with Mama. I miss her, is all.” Daniel smiled with a shrug and tucked into Sophie's side when she put her arm around his shoulder.

“Max said you decorated for us, it's all so beautiful. Thank you “ Sophie gushed, she understood that sometimes a distraction was the best medicine.

Daniel blushed thinking of all the effort he put in. He was still super proud of himself for the level of magic he was able to produce to clean everything. He'd never cast an enchantment so powerful without a conductor before. But it was all for good, because the aura of the flat was pure, only positive vibrancy remained. 

“Thank you.” Daniel bit his lip and smiled. “Are you guys tired? The guest rooms are also all ready.” He offered and Sophie fanned off his concern, she instead went into full mother mode. 

Max and Victoria watched from their vantage, Vic leaning over to brush their shoulders. “He'll be ok.” She mumbled and Max nodded.

“So what do you have planned for our first Monaco Christmas?” She teased, snorting a laugh when Max shushed her quickly and quickly checked to see if Daniel had heard. He had already told them in the car not to bring the topic up, but he should have known that Vic would tease him dangerously.

“Daniel wanted to go to the Christmas night market and I was looking up Australian Christmas stuff and we can go to the beach maybe. Oh shoot I forgot to order the pavlova.”

“What's a pavlova?” Vic's brow furrowed. Daniel leaned back from whatever he and Sophie were focused on.

“It's– uhm, like a cake made of meringue. With like fruits and stuff on top” Daniel explained with wide eyes. “We don't– we don't have to. It's fine– really.”

“No, it's your first Christmas away from home. We should incorporate some of your traditions from home too.” Sophie shushed and Daniel blinked watery brown eyes and nodded. He didn't offer up any further opposition.

Max went to go sit with the boys, while they played with their toys under Sassy’s supervision. Luka was colouring quietly and Lio was driving a toy car around a track shaped like the outline of Jimmy flopped on his side, complete with engine noises.

“Are you guys ready for Christmas?” Max asked, stroking Jimmy who swiped his tail to change the ‘track’ that Lio’s car drove on.

“Yeah we already got our first gift!” Luka said, not looking up from his coloring. Max knew he was talking about the early present that Sinterklaas left them at the start of the month. 

“Oh yeah? What was it?” Max looked between the two boys.

“A sister! She's in Mommy's belly.” Lio piped up and Max's eyes widened comically before his head whipped to his sister and brother in law who sat talking quietly by the kitchen.

“Vic?! You're pregnant?” Max scrambled up, calling out in Dutch. Sophie looked up with a smile and Vic nodded happily. Max scooped her up in a tight hug. Daniel watched with wide eyes, he looked to Sophie while Max and Victoria babbled excitedly to each other. Max was almost crying with happiness, his face scrunched so achingly tender and adoring. And Daniel staunchly ignored any little feeling in his chest that this all created. 

Sophie laughed happily and repeated the good news for Daniel's benefit. His mouth dropped open in surprise and he hugged Sophie before going to hug and congratulate Tom and Vic. Max was watching his sister with awe in his eyes and he clung to her happily.

Part 21

[utilitycaster]

I feel like every time there’s an episode that highlights the ways in which Laudna’s character is hollow, we get the opposite moment from Ashton.

Like, Laudna has explicit reason to be pro-god, she was resurrected by one, her rant disregards a large chunk of what’s happened in-game and tries to make a point that fully eludes her.

On the other hand, Ashton’s anti-god/ pro-faith rant makes sense for the character. It’s also wonderful ironic, with the meta-knowledge of the Luxon being a sliver of divinity.

And then there’s the other moment, where Laudna has a conversation with Imogen in which they circle the same topics as always and end undecided about what they want for themselves.

Whereas Ashton has a conversation with FCG that highlights how far both have come as characters and how much their relationship has changed and exactly what each of them is fighting for.

I don’t know. Over and over again, I look at Laudna and Ashton and see two high-concept, aesthetic characters, and one found a way to be rooted in the world, and the other just… didn’t.

How many new NPCs does Ashton’s backstory bring to the game? A dozen? More? And Laudna has… Pate? She just feels so ungrounded and disconnected from the reality of the world.

Yeah...for what it's worth: I don't mind that Laudna doesn't have a pro-god stance. While I do think it's fair to say the gods have in fact done something for her, she spent very little time with Pike and it might not be on her mind. It's just...why would Laudna feel strongly about this at all. Why is she talking. Like, part of what was interesting about her in Hearthdell is that it's easy to see an argument for her fully siding with the villagers (after all, she also had an external force come into town and start fucking things up, was also overthrown by a mostly external group and returned to those who originally led it) but her attitude was "why are we dealing with this stupid bullshit when there's far greater things to worry about." Which was fascinating! And then she was betrayed by a member of the Vanguard! And then she comes back and she's furious and angry and upset...and then it just vanishes and she starts taking the opposite position for no apparent reason, and like, I know this is improv but she kept talking after like 2 or 3 glaringly obvious buttons on the conversation.

It would make perfect sense for Laudna to have the same position as Ashton, is the thing. "People have done harm in the name of the gods (Hearthdell) and I don't know if they've ever listened to me or intervened in my suffering, but Ludinus is doing incalculable harm on a much grander scale right, and we need to be against that, and I am open to the gods making their position more clear to me." Literally that's it.

As for the two...honestly I think the fact that Laudna...isn't high concept is the problem. Like, you can build a character on an aesthetic as a starting point. That's fine! But Ashton is not just punk in looks, but also punk in attitude. Taliesin asked the question "what would punk look like in Exandria" from a philosophical standpoint, worked with Matt to create a chaotic barbarian class, thought pretty extensively through the backstory that led them to the point where we see them at the start, has played a consistent throughline, and so when Ashton takes a stand it feels earned. With Laudna...the things that finally started to build during the Issylra arc (actually expressing unhappiness and anger, being upset with people on both sides of this argument) just vanished, and again, it increasingly seems true that almost all the work done was to support the aesthetic without then going back and weaving it into the story.

I will also add: I don't think having a ton of NPCs is important or a good metric - in fact there was a really good D&D court in which someone had a ton of NPCs in their backstory that their DM had asked them to tone down. I can think of plenty of characters who don't have a ton of NPCs in their backstory, either created by them or by Matt, who are great. Like, actually, part of the issue is again that Laudna is supposed to have this incredibly lonely, empty backstory, and we don't actually feel it. It's been so much tell and very little show.

[deadbeatbirdmom]

What do you think of winter

The season? It's more difficult for my tribe. Resources can be harder to come by, especially if merchants don't travel. If there's snow on the ground, my tribe have to be careful to avoid leaving tracks back to the camp. That goes for other seasons too, but it's most obvious in snow.

If you mean the Winter Maiden who seems to have been named for her 'destiny' then I suppose she could be worse. She still has a stick up her ass, but Qrow tells me it used to be much longer.

She's a skilled fighter, I'll give her that much. I could take her if I had to, but I'm aware that Salem would love it if Spring and Winter fought. For the time being I need to work with Winter.

Theoretically we could make short work of Cinder together. The problem is actually spending enough time together to learn how to fight as a team without friendly fire. We're both very busy, and we get on each other's nerves. It's a fact of life that Schnees and Branwens can't get along.

I wonder if she knows I intended to ransom her sister. It might explain why there's some hostility on her side, but it might just be her general disapproval of the Branwen tribe and my leadership of it.

That and/or she doesn't like that I'm taller than her. No, I don't include her heels in her height, and I'd still be a little taller even if I did.

Someone should tell her white is a terrible choice for clothing, and she could do with dyeing her hair too. White shows blood and dirt like nothing else. Not that Summer ever listened to me either when it came to her cloak, and Winter's about as likely to take my advice.

Winter the Winter Maiden...

Why wasn't Summer the Summer Maiden? Was I supposed to change one of my names to fit with being Spring Maiden? That's what Cinder did, and it's pretentious. I wonder if Winter always had that first name...

What does the human behind this sideblog think of Winter?

I think Winter is an interesting character, and I like her a lot. She's a reminder of what Weiss could have turned out like if she'd been forced to turn to the Atlesian military to escape Jacques, but Winter has also come a long way from the blindly loyal perfect weapon Ironwood tried to forge her into, thanks in large part to Penny's friendship, but also to Winter's attachment to Weiss as well.

I have a very bad feeling that Penny's last gift to Winter might end up dooming her. Passing on the Winter Maiden mantle to Winter saved her life when Ironwood was about to kill her, but I fear Winter is living on borrowed time. Maidens in general don't have the best record in terms of life expectancy. Fria was an outlier and shouldn't be counted, she's Maidens Georg.

I guess Raven's been Spring Maiden for a fair few years by now, as she presumably acquired those powers before she hit 30, and she's uhhh 40 something now? How old is Raven? Anyway this question is about Winter, not Raven. Shoo, deadbeat birdmom. Although Raven is likely on borrowed time just like Winter. If they both survive the completion of RWBY I'll be amazed, and relieved.

[bobwess]

only human ama :D

What has been the hardest bit to write?

what has been the easiest bit to write?

any plot bits that snuck up on you either in the plotting or writing?

if you were to start it all from the beginning, what's one thing you'd change? or are you actually pretty damn satisfied with your glorious creation?

what's the silliest line that you've written for it?

did you have the current arc planned out from day 1 or is each season only planned out once you get there?

do you think season 11 is going to be the longest of the three?

in that same vein, do you know where you want the next season to go?

if only human dean (human dean that is) and cas went on a date WITHOUT ANYTHING HORRIBLY GOING WRONG...what would that date look like?

Warning: There be spoilers here, for all “seasons” of Only Human. What has been the hardest bit to write?

Not a lot of the story is as it is on screen, but figuring out what bits I do want to happen the same is difficult for me. Though the longer the story goes, the further from the show we get, and the less I have to debate. I am always struggling with how much to show for things that happen in-show. Like, I didn’t feel the need to show Dean having his interactions with Cain because it happened like it does on screen. But what parts do I skip over? I don’t want it to ever feel like we’re missing out on context or skipping too far ahead, but I also don’t want to get bogged down.  That and picking/adapting emotional beats. I thought Dean snapping and turning on Cas with the mark of Cain was a key part of his character arc, a really important reminder of what it meant, but obviously I both didn't want to copy the original, and the Stynes don't even exist in story, so we just went through a similar violent emotional turning point in the cabin.

what has been the easiest bit to write?

Late Season 10. A lot of the stuff in the cabin, but especially chapters 23-29. I dunno why, I just felt like I had them down and I was having an easier time envisioning it. 

Any plot bits that snuck up on you either in the plotting or writing?

Chapter 4 and beyond. Turning Dean back into a demon for a second time with the mark. I wanted to expand on his time being a demon and coming back, but deciding to go for a second pass at it sort of just popped into my brain and derailed where we had been heading. And it led naturally into not turning him back human quite yet. Though the irony of a fic named Only Human where neither of the two main characters are presently human is not lost on me. 

if you were to start it all from the beginning, what's one thing you'd change? or are you actually pretty damn satisfied with your glorious creation?

Honestly? I think I’m pretty happy. If I were starting from the beginning I think it’d be more fleshed out. I just write much longer and more detailed chapters now, so I think I’d have gotten a lot more packed into each chapter even if I just kept the structure of each chapter largely unchanged. 

what's the silliest line that you've written for it?

"You know, it's not very sportsmanlike to cold-cock a man after sex."

did you have the current arc planned out from day 1 or is each season only planned out once you get there?

On Day 1 I was pretty sure I was writing a sweet and short 3 chapter story about Dean not kicking Cas out of the bunker in season 9.

Once I really got into the middle of it, I started a bit more planning. So I’ll enter a season with vague highlights I want to do, and then slowly start to structure around that. I went into season 10 with the idea that I wanted to explore Dean being a demon a bit longer and I wanted him to do some real damage instead of the boring gentle shit they do in the show. After I started I thought about how I wanted it to go when he stopped being a demon. Then I did that and thought about where I wanted it to go from there. This season I know the highlights of where Dean’s journey as a demon is going, and I know what I want the endgame to be, mostly because I know where I want season 12 to start for me. It’s sort of just the big notes. I know the very vaguest macros of season 11, 12, and 13. 

do you think season 11 is going to be the longest of the three?

I do. My chapter length averaged about 2100 words in season 9, 2900 in season 10, and so far 3300 in season 11. Some of the chapters I’ve written for ricochet topped 6k. I’m getting long winded. 

in that same vein, do you know where you want the next season to go?

I have a couple strong ideas. I know what parts of canon I want to incorporate into it, and what parts I really really don’t. Only Human has been very tangentially following some of the main plot beats from the original show, Metatron, Mark of Cain, The Darkness, but there is upcoming a point at which it hard-splits, and the fic really ends up on a different path that is unlikely to resemble the main plots of the show from then on. 

if only human dean (human dean that is) and cas went on a date WITHOUT ANYTHING HORRIBLY GOING WRONG...what would that date look like?

Dive bar takeaway and a drive-in movie double feature.