#also i'm not going to make two posts. that's too much work. so unrelated take in the tags:

[arcadequeerz]

Oh mind electric we're really in it now.

[ratgirlcopia]

send me an emoji and i'll tell you why it's conclusive proof that copia is going to transition.

[tyrantisterror]

A Dozen Or So Great Vampire Ladies

Ok, so, on a mostly unrelated post the topic of good vampire ladies came up, and @bisexualdaikaiju suggested/challenged me to do a top 10 vampire women list. As a self-professed lover of vampire women, it felt like a challenge I couldn't back down from. But it is kind of challenging, for two kind of contradictory reasons.

First, while there are MANY female vampires in fiction, most of them feel like afterthoughts, getting far less characterization than their male counterparts, who more often than not are the star villains of the show. When these supporting lady vampires do get something to do, it's generally the same role: make their human lovers sad when they rise from the dead as a monster that has to be killed, an emotional beat that is often undercut by a lot of these vampire women not getting much characterization to endear them to us before they died. Everyone wants to have the Lucy Westerna plot beat from Dracula but they don't want to do the work that Bram did to make Lucy lovable. The lady vamps who get to step out of Lucy's shadow are rare - but that just makes them all the more wonderful.

The second problem is that, since this is an obsession of mine that few seem to share (there are lots of vampire fans, but man do the boy vamps get to hog the spotlight among them), I've done a lot of scattered thinking about it and I just know I'm bound to forget at least one excellent lady vampire character that should be here. And whittling it down to ten, and trying to rank them? That's too hard! My thoughts are too mercurial to do that reliably in a way I don't forget!

So instead here's a list of, like, a dozen or so lady vampires that I think are just fucking stellar, many of which I think break the mold of what pop culture makes us expect lady vampires to be. It is not ranked - I love all these characters more or less equally, and think it's a lot more interesting to see how they take their archetype in different directions than to figure out which one is "best" of the lot.

Carmilla Karnstein

I'm going to start with the most famous literary female vampire, Mircalla Karnstein from Carmilla. I think she might be the first vampire to have an unhealthy obsession with using anagrams of her real name as aliases, though I'm sure now that I've typed that someone will find an earlier example to school me. She's also the one who popularized the idea of lady vampires being extremely sapphic, with an arguably genuine romantic affection for her female victims. She's got well-deserved clout, basically, and like Dracula has been adapted countless times and reinterpreted in some excellent ways. My favorite screen Carmilla is Ingrid Pitt's take, which captures her fierceness, passion, and tragic nature so well.

2. Amy from Fright Night

Ok, we're having one Lucy Westerna knockoff on this list, but as Lucy knockoffs go, Amy is one of the best. It actually helps that she spends 90% of her movie as a human, because we get to know and love her so much before she turns monstrous. And once she does...

It is pants-shittingly terrifying. I will never stop raving about the vampire designs in this movie - they made their "game faces" so fucking monstrous and I feel like in a better world this would be the standard ever since, especially since they still gave the vampires pathos while making them so ghastly when they've got their feeding faces on.

3. Drusilla

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a bunch of vampire characters, and to its credit they did a decent job of making the ladies just as distinct as the gents. Harmony and Darla could both have made this list, but my favorite was always Drusilla, who was so traumatized before she became a vampire that it kind of overwhelms the demon spirit inside her. Like, bare minimum thing to make a lady vampire more interesting than 90% of other female vampires in fiction: give her at least one personality trait, preferably an interesting one, outside of being a vampire. Drusilla's fun, and she survives the entire series after dumping her boyfriend to be a single female vampire. Good for her.

4. Ruby from Scary Godmother

Ok look I am a fake Scary Godmother fan but kudos to the artist of the books for making a lady vampire who's very clearly of the nosferatu mold and is also explicitly benign and sweet. A+ vampire lady character design. I hope it doesn't awaken anything in me.

5. Nadja

What We Do in the Shadows is excellent at finding new takes on vampires in general - it even made me actually like Psychic Vampires as a concept, a feat I thought was impossible - but goddamn do I love Nadja specifically. She's got a distinct personality as vampire ladies go, being very confident and self-assured while also being a complete fucking goober (it is a comedy, after all). She's perfectly capable of being terrifying AND hilarious, often at the same time. A vampire girl failure, in the parlance of our site. I love her.

6. Lady Dimitrescu

I know that she's apparently only in a fourth of the game, but it's still pretty great that Resident Evil 8 decided its mascot villain - its equivalent of the Tyrant, G, Nemesis, etc. - would be the hottest woman I've ever seen a milf an 8 foot tall lady vampire. She's not dainty and willowy like most lady vamps in fiction - not an ambush hunter - but rather HUGE and capable of tossing a human around like a rag doll. She's a physical powerhouse and she looks fine feminine while doing it. Despite being an unabashed blood-sucking monster, she still has enough depth and complexity to have important relationships (like a genuine love for her "giant mass of hive mind flies" daughters), and also she gets to have an awesome transformation into a fungal vampire dragon, which is rad as hell. Also goddamn, her fashion sense is immaculate.

7. Hecate from Hellboy

"Hey, she's not a vampire! She's a goddess! That doesn't count!" Fuck you, my list, my rules. Hecate posits herself as the progenitor and mother of vampires, she drinks blood, and her main form in the comic is as a sicknasty lamia version of the iron maiden used by Elizabeth fucking Bathory, if she doesn't count as a vampire, nothing should. She is the concept of a vampire amped up to maximum capacity, a major mythological figure and an awesome villain.

...also I lowkey shipped her and Hellboy when I was a teenager. They could have made it work!

8 - 12. Carmilla and her girl squad from Castlevania

I suppose I could have counted Castlevania's Carmilla as an adaptation of Miss Karnstein - they're both basted out of Styria, both sapphic, and it's clear she's meant to be an adaptation of the former, just as the Dracula of this show is meant to be a take on Bram's famous vampire. But ultimately they're VERY different characters in the grand scheme of things - Castlevania's Carmilla has none of the tenderness and vulnerability of her literary counterpart, instead being full of barely restrained fury. She is an excellent villain, complex enough to be interesting but thoroughly despicable enough to make it VERY satisfying when she bites it.

I also love her girl posse... in concept, at least. They've all got great designs and the groundwork of interesting characters, but of the the three, only Lenore, the waifish redhead, gets to do much of note. The two on the edges kind of just show up for a few scenes and then bail before the plot catches up to them, doing very little of note - though at least the big hunky one gets one of the coolest fight scenes in the whole show.

Back to Lenore though - she gets a really nice character arc, and manages to become one of the few sympathetic vampires in the series (while still doing a lot of monstrous shit - she is not a defanged vampire by any stretch). I think her death scene is one of the most moving moments in the series finale.

13. Seras Victoria

A good female vampire has at least one non-vampire part of her personality, right? Ok, so, Seras is:

the muscle in almost every scene she is, which is to say, the one absolutely beating the shit out of people while her allies run for cover

the perky henchman/morality pet of one of history's greatest monsters

the sole ray of sunshine in cast of edgy, cigar-chomping grizzled mercnaries and antiheroes she's been pressganged into fighting alongside

the victim of some HIDEOUS trauma even before her vampirization

the protege of a wise master who gets a full hero's journey arc, taking up his mantle at the end of the series

Like, I love her. She's the secret protagonist of Hellsing. She's got layers like an onion. The scene where she killed Zora Blitz reminded me why I love anime.

(yeah it's the TFS version fuck you)

14. Youko Shiragami

My Monster Secret is not a horror manga. It is a romantic comedy about a bunch of idiots trying to keep painfully obvious secrets hidden and succeeding only because almost everyone around them is as dumb as they are, just in very different ways. It is a manga where an entire chapter can be summarized as "all the characters race to get the last McRib, using their various supernatural abilities to try and cheat their way to the front of the pack." It is one of the funniest and most heart-warming stories I have ever read, one of my favorite romances of all time, and an excellent piece of long form story-telling.

One of the two main characters is Youko Shiragami, a vampire girl who can't let anyone know she's a vampire or else her dad will pull her out of school. She desperately wants to have a normal life with friends and, like, school shenanigans, but her fear of people uncovering her secret and hating her is so immense that she's been isolating herself from everyone, accidentally torturing herself by being close to what she wants but unable to actually have it.

At least, until Kuromine, the other main character of the story, discovers her secret while trying to ask her out on a date. He ends up promising to keep her secret, and the two of them form a real friendship that blossoms into a very sweet romance, where Youko gets to display all her incongruous personality traits that go against what you'd expect of vampires - namely, that she's kind of a ditz, with an unrefined style of speech and a complete inability to be suave and seductive. She's a sweet, flaky goofball with a big heart, who just happens to drink blood and tan really quickly in the sunlight. There is no other vampire like her, and the world is richer for her being in it.

15. Marceline, the Vampire Queen

This list isn't ranked, but if it was, I'd put Marceline at the top. I think she is not only the most unique and deeply characterized lady vampire in fiction, but ranks right up there with Dracula in how she redefines the idea of what a vampire can be. Like, look at the forms she takes!

There are DOZENS of different monstrous shapes Marceline takes during Adventure Time's 9+ seasons of television, and any one of them would be a superb and memorable vampire on its own. And she's ALL of them. Just on a design standpoint, she is a standout. I think only Dracula himself could compete.

But she also explores what the concept of what a vampire is in ways no other vampire in fiction can, in part because of the unique nature of Adventure Time's setting. In a world where humans are an extreme minority and most people are weird monsters, a vampire isn't that odd, so we get to explore what being a vampire means divorced from the comparison to "normal" human beings. There's the expected tragedy to Marceline, of course - she's a 16 year old who has been stuck in that adolescent state for hundreds of years, and much of her character arc over the show (including the magnificent vampire-centric storyline, "Stakes") focuses on the horror of being stuck in that transitional state, not quite a child but not quite an adult. Marceline struggles to mature, to understand herself and others, and her vampirism both keeps her distant from reaching those goals but also gives her a lot of time to figure out how to approach them when the opportunity arirves. Marceline goes from one of the most immature and selfish characters in the show to perhaps the most emotionally intelligent, blossoming into a sensitive and thoughtful person she could never have been without first becoming a creature that seems so inherently opposed to ever having those traits.

And she did it all in a children's show where she was rarely if ever allowed to actually drink blood - a problem the writers got around by having her suck the red color out of things, which is right up there with the Joker Venom from BTAS in terms of genius ideas spawned by children's show censorship.

Marceline is the GOAT.

[kivino]

MORE ROOMMATE!SOAP PRETTY PLEASEEE!!!!!

ROOMMATE!SOAP HEADCANONS

my masterlist

Word counter - ~900 words

Tags/Warnings - pure fluff!

A/n - ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE ANON <33 i can't really post a complete fic rn because i'm working on another midterm essay so here y'all go! I also have another fic with Roommate!Soap planned out, so stay tuned sdkflskdfjs

You two met through his sister, you, being her college friend, visited her and her family during breaks many times, and that’s where you met Soap. You two were on pretty good terms, and he would sometimes call you when he or his family were not able to get ahold of his sister when she would go out to parties (usually accompanied by you). However, the two of you became roommates only later in the future, when he decided that he didn’t want to live with his family anymore, but leaving an apartment all empty for months on end would just be foolish. So that’s when he decided he needed someone to co-exist with, and you casually made your way into his life.

Whole Task Force 141 plus Laswell know about you, because of how homesick he gets sometimes! And you don't always respond to messages, you have your own life after all (plus, Soap knows you're not good with texting back, so he tries not to pressure you). However, unintentionally he starts to remember or mention you in unrelated conversations. And that's how everyone around him knows that it's time for him to go on his leave.

Not a lot of people are allowed to call him Johnny. He still gives his older sisters shit for calling him that sometimes. You and Ghost, however, are both allowed to do it. Not like his discontent would’ve stopped you though.

More often than not talks about you in a way that makes it appear like the two of you are together, with how he’s all smiles during these conversations. Describes you like he’s an infatuated teenager and then gets confused when someone assumes Soap is talking about his significant other. It's not that he is oblivious to his feelings, or a dumbass, of course not, it's that his feelings lasted for so long that it's very much normal to him and he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary with it.

The love language that you both share is bullying and insulting each other relentlessly. Soap is less harsh with his words, but you’re just merciless. Sometimes it also grows into play fights and roughhousing between you. Soap tries to be careful, because he knows that he’s stronger (he’s in the military, duh), but he still won’t go down without a fight. So he goes easy on you.

We know that Soap has a whole sketchbook, filled to the brim with many drawings of various quality, his thoughts, and different garbage he picks up when he has the opportunity. A pretty leaf? Snatch. A random receipt from when you got groceries with him together? Snatch. A note you scribbled for him to finally wash his damn dishes? Sad snatch. When he's on leave he takes the opportunity to sketch you as much as possible, so he remembers every single detail of your face, the expressions you make, or the way you position your body. Soap does it to be able to replicate it when you’re not around him. He has millions of sketches where you’re napping on the couch.

When he’s absentmindedly doodling something during the briefings and meetings he draws small figures that resemble Task Force and you. One time he bought some colored pens so he’s not bored out of his mind on base, and the assigned color to draw you was blue, while he drew himself with a red pen. Gaz got green and Ghost he draws using a black pen, both Laswell and Price share the fact that Johnny draws them with a pencil.

One of the small traditions that you have when he’s on leave, is cooking something for each other while some show you’re not paying attention to plays in the background. The kitchen in the apartment is pretty modest, so two people cooking and moving around at the same time is a bit too much for such a small amount of space. When you get too into the process of mixing or cutting something and Soap needs to squeeze past you, he gently puts a hand on your lower back and you instantly know what he wants, because of how much he does it. It’s never arrogant or invasive, instead, it’s gentle and a bit playful.

Johnny’s very sociable and likes going out to drink frequently. You, however, prefer to not get involved in his escapades as often, so you stay home, instead telling him to call whenever he needs you to pick him up. On multiple separate occasions, when he came back home a bit tipsy, he would stumble into your room and fall on your bed, getting knocked out almost in a second. Soap’s snoring is pretty loud when he’s drunk or has a stuffy nose. Plus, he’s as heavy as a damn rock and you can’t move him because of it, so instead you sleep on the couch, sacrificing the health of your back for Soap’s sweet dreams.

Johnny is pretty good with his hands. If anything broken needs fixing, or anything heavy needs lifting he’s always happy to help. He’s also a decent cook, so if you’re not feeling like cooking dinner after you’re back home from work he’s ready to throw something together for you no problem. Partially because he knows that you’d do the same for him if he asked. And, well, he just cares about you. He’s ready to cook dinner for you for the next decade if it means you’ll feel better.

Your texts with him are filled to the brim with stupid videos and photos you send each other. If Johnny sees something that reminds him of you, what you like, or some random inside joke – you best believe he’s already snapping a photo and sending it to you.

check out my masterlist for more fics or send me a request/comment!

[commander-rahrah]

I'm excited to read it too! I'm glad you find it interesting! Don't worry about your post because long! Your thoughts are so interesting!

I agree that Astarion would have to come to terms with Reader/Tav's boundaries too since it works both ways! I definitely feel that Astarion would be too lost in drinking from the blood of a sentient creature to notice the signs.

He would feel ashamed when he's aware of their fear yet they still chose to offer despite that might made him feel like he manipulated them like Cazador did to him 😭

What his excuses are if they try to offer in the early days makes sense! He would be too ashamed & terrified to have such a vulnerable conversation with them yet 😞

He would feel safe enough to bring up their fear after he confessed about everything. He would make it clear to them he doesn't want them to suffer by making them do something they don't want to like he did especially after how much they have helped him & how important they are to him 😭

He would respect their decision if they said it's too much for them. He would support everyone's personal choices & autonomies even though the concept is still new to him 😤

He would need an explanation if they insist on feeding him regardless of their fear. They would explain that not only do they trust him, they love him more than they fear it 🥹

He would only accept if they establish some ground rules 👍 like he did when it comes to physical intimacy & sex which is healthy for both of them!

I know it's unrelated but thank you for adding this because you described me pretty well 🤣 I would definitely react to even the smallest of cuts so Astarion quickly but gently sucking it & giving a small kiss on it would be a fantastic distraction 😳

You're welcome! Thank YOU for entertaining me & sharing your thoughts! I'm glad you enjoy putting Astarion and Tav/Reader in all these different scenarios too 🤍

Here's my idea that I would love to hear your opinion! Just to let you know this is quite self-indulgent XD How would Astarion react to GN! Reader/Tav actually had suspicions that he's using them but still chose to believe that he's not. So when he confessed he manipulated them, they're even not angry at him.

They're sad for how much & how long he has suffered to be the way he is now, but they're also genuinely hurt that he did take advantage of their trust in him. They don't blame him but they admit it still hurts and wants some time alone to process it.

After leaving them be, they would go to him when they're ready to talk to him. They would tell him how grateful they are that he chose to come clean with them despite knowing how it would be easier for him to keep quiet for it, and thanked him for trusting them enough to be honest with them.

What do you think of it? I'm curious :3

Hi Anon! Sorry for the super late response, I let this one stew for a little while in my brain and the other night I had this dialogue idea and couldn’t resist writing a little scene about it tonight! I hope you enjoy ❤️

I envisioned this scene happens half way through his confession, and then imagined the rest of the conversation about intimacy and boundaries would happen afterwards! It’s about 1100 words, and canonical Astarion backstory warnings apply — trauma, dark thoughts, etc.

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨

“I just — I feel awful." Astarion’s throat worked silently, his eyes glancing down to his boots. "Look, I had a plan. A nice, simple plan — seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feelings so you’d never turn on me. It was easy — instinctive. Habits from two hundred years of charming people kicked in." He finally looked up at your face, studying intensely for your reaction. 

“I—oh,” You pulled your hand away from him as uncertainty flooded your features. He saw your eyes dart back and forth, but they weren’t studying him. No, you were lost in thought. “Oh.”

Astarion licked his lips, his hands ringing together in front of him nervously. “You have every right to be angry.”

“I’m not angry. I thought we… I don’t know what I thought.”

The rest of what he had planned to say vanished out of his mind. Instead it started to betray him, a cruel voice whispering about how he knew you would react like this. Did he really think it would go well?

His pink mouth hung open as he scrambled for what to say, trying to think of how to make this better. But he’d done enough already, hadn’t he?

You crossed your arms over your body, your cheeks flushing deeply. “I feel a bit like a fool. None of it was real, the whole time?”

“Not the whole time,” He confessed as soft, vulnerable moments with you flashed in his mind. The very moments that made him start to drop the act. “It hasn’t been as of late, but before… in the beginning, up until recently, yes.”

His red eyes followed your throat as it bobbed up and down before flicking back up to your face. Your eyebrows were furrowed, your mouth a sad pout.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.” Astarion whispered, not daring to move forward.

“I’m thinking… I need a moment.” You admitted, already looking behind you and away from him.

His heart sank, but he nodded. “I— okay. Of course.”

And then you were off, your head down as you stalked away from the edge of the beach and back to the warm glow of camp.

He stood there stunned for a moment, before turning around to stare at the dark, choppy waters in front of him. Hundreds of scenarios began to dance in his mind — what if you went back to the camp to tell the others? Would he be met by pointed blades and blazing spells? He imagined being kicked out, staked, cursed, roasted alive with fireballs. Hand delivered to Cazador as extra punishment for his sins. Anything his twisted broken mind could come up with played like a messed up vision.

Astarion didn’t even try to stop the repetitive dark thoughts. It was what he deserved.

Eventually, the vampire slinked back into the camp some time later — once the sky was inky black and the moon was the only light to illuminate the way back to his tent.

“Hi.”

The sound caused his ears and shoulders to perk up instantly. You were sat in the grass and dirt outside of his tent, your arms wrapped around your knees and pulled to your chest.

“Hi.” Gods, he sounded breathless. But he couldn’t see any weapons or angry barbarians or wizards nearby. That was a good sign, right?

“I wasn’t sure when you’d come back.”

He cocked a brow, “I figured you wouldn’t want to see me again.”

A sigh escaped your lips, “Astarion, don’t be dramatic. I asked for time to think — not for you to leave.”

He blinked at your sharp tone, but nodded his head in slight defeat. “You’re right. And you waited for me because—?”

You brushed off your clothes as you stood up to his height, “I would like to finish that conversation, if you’re ready.”

Well, there was no denying the inevitable.

He nodded his head solemnly, stepping forward to open the flap of his tent and inviting you in with a wave of his hand.

The privacy his tent offered was slight, but this late in the night he knew most of his companions would be fast asleep. Quickly lighting a lantern, he joined you on the fabric floor.

His half-dead heart was thundering, the thrumming sound echoing in his pointed ears that he almost missed your quiet voice.

“I understand.”

“What?” His brows furrowed, looking at you with confusion.

“The stories you’ve told me… your scars… I understand why you did it, why you felt the need to do it.” You explained, your voice and eyes tender as you looked at him in the low light. “But you manipulated me, Astarion. You took advantage of me, toyed with me and my emotions to get what you needed. That hurts.”

Astarion’s stomach twisted into a hard knot, “I know.”

“But you also didn’t need to tell me any of this. You could have kept pretending, kept up the charade until we faced Cazador… But you didn’t. Why?”

Now it felt like his stomach was crawling up his torso and into his throat. Gods, what was this feeling? Why did you do this to him. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before. I failed with my plan. It felt apart the moment I realized… that I had fallen for you.” He admitted, but his fluttering heart made more words stumble out of his mouth. “And I know you probably don’t believe me, why would you after everything I just told you. Trust me, nobody feels more stupid about it than I do.”

You cut off his rambling, “I don’t think it’s stupid. I think that’s probably the most honest you’ve been with me since I’ve met you,” You said earnestly. “It would have been a lot easier for you to keep on pretending, wouldn’t it? Pretend I’m just another mark, another means to an end to get through the day.”

“I don’t want easy… I don’t want to just get through the day. Not anymore.” Astarion whispered across the small tent, staring intently at you.

You cocked your head slightly in question, “And what do you want?”

“I want this, I want us — to be real. You deserve something real.”

“So do you, Astarion. You deserve something real.”

Your name escaped his lips as a choked sob as overwhelming wave of emotion settled over him. “I don’t even know what real looks like. How do I give that to you if I—?”

“Do you trust me?”

The vampire nodded through his tears, “Yes.”

“I trust you,” You said softly.

“After everything I’ve done?” He croaked, waving his hands dramatically, “You’d trust a monster—“

You grabbed onto his extended fingers gently, squeezing them. “Yes, even then.”

He looked down at your hands touching, before intertwining his pale fingers with yours carefully. “Maybe you are a fool.”

You let out a breathless laugh, the sound waking up something in him he’d long thought dead. “Maybe, I am. But you fell for me, so what does that make you?”

Astarion’s mouth twitched up until it matched your smile, “The luckiest vampire alive.”

[ranticore]

We know the werewolves were one guys specific indentured servants. Are there any other monsters that were just one specific guy’s? Actually. Is that wizard still around and how does he (it?) feel about it? Did Revelation’s specific underlings also get hit especially hard or just it?

Anyway your Kosa setting is cool as hell and I love everyone and also Revelation. And its wife guy (guy who is a wife guy to it).

hiii i'm going to answer all your asks in this one post to make things easier, thank you so much for giving me a lot of stuff to think about

Anyway, werewolves! It's accepted that pretty much every wizard had a lot of servants, this guy (Onozar The Transcendent, the green wyrm with red markings) just happened to have a lot in the general region i do most of my worldbuilding in (the two of Kosa is here, the Ama plains, other areas etc). That means werewolves are pretty common here, and have spread elsewhere from here, but other areas and regions have their own different population densities of werewolves and other 'beastified servant' type monsters.

Onozar isn't open about it, his faces are now very different to how he looked back in the day (aka the face on the werewolf masks) and he has very purposefully put his past behind him. Yes he did terrible stuff and was essentially a magical dictator once upon a time. But that was so long ago and he was punished for it so as far as he's concerned he's done with it and the werewolves are unrelated to him (and if somebody else brings it up omg you're all so obsessed with the past, don't you know people grow and change?? it was NORMAL to have slaves back then okay it was just part of the culture and it's honestly really suspicious and hurtful that you would bring this up to attack him at a time like this, and-)

Revelation was not a big shot among wizards. It had servants yes but not so many that they became their own species of monster (many of the monsterifications were chosen as a form of dramatic irony based on the individual person's personality). I still have to design a bunch of other monster types but I'll say yes they were probably hit harder than they should have been, everybody in and around Revelation's tower were made An Example.

It's a little easier to scapegoat the guy who has no real influence and no real friends in this social circle ain't it

He's only good at killing crawling beasts lol, that's partially why king harpies evolved after all - to fight and kill the crawlers, which are very strong but not very fast. His type eat mainly rabbits and hares, and he tends to be not quite fast enough to consistently catch them himself, the much swifter and smaller cobs and pens take care of that (he still runs far faster than a human tho, he's had some luck catching antelopes if he gets close enough before the chase). He is part of a flock, he just kinda... drifted away from living with the others, splitting his attention between Revelation and his other duties. Like many kings he's fighty and opinionated, with the added assurance of a creature that knows it's too big and strong to fall prey to... pretty much everything else. He enjoys art and beautiful things and has happily worked in alliance with the local wolfmen packs in the past in return for some of their dye products.

So his flock is a multi-type coalition between a collection of eyries (or whatever word I'll use for the small harpy settlements that form under the banner of a single flock). He's not the all-king of the flock, but he is the king of the terror bird types. The other types within the flock are all ground-nesting but not necessarily flightless harpies. His eyrie has about thirty individuals living there and he had three tiercels (not including Revelation). Revelation didn't kill all his flockmates but it did quietly disappear his other tiercels at some point. I need to do a little more work on them but yea

These different characters actually represent different time periods in the setting (the guy, Ambrose, is from the 1600s, while Mikalai and Cuinn come from the 1800s!). I think the whole thing with Revelation is much earlier, going for a more medieval look with those guys. It means that Revelation's march is technically just a part of history for Cuinn and the rest of them :) The world didn't end. But it DID change (.... not many wyrms around these days, anymore, i wonder what happened to them...)

[mikkeneko]

Tagged for the 'fic writer interview' by @veliseraptor!

I feel like I may have seen this meme going around before? Some of these questions strike me as familiar, particularly the 'thoughts on foreign language dialogue?' one, since I'm puzzled as to what this question is asking and I remember being stymied by it before. I think that I want to fill this one out with any answers that have changed since last time and any questions I like to talk about, and skip the questions that don't have interesting answers.

Fic Writer Interview

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

207 as of current!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

2,939,672. Getting close to the 3million mark there -- possibly, as with Lise's case, this year's MDZS big bang may put me over the top. (If not, that + other current project probably will.)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Without even looking I'm pretty sure that the top two spaces will be Loki fics and the third will be Ceru's fic, lmao. *checks*

Close! Loki fics take up first, third, and fifth place, and Ceru's fic is in second. However *yakety sax arrangement for guqin and xiao* has crept into the top five, at place 4, making it the first of my Untamed fics to do so. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, usually. There are some factors that may lead me to not respond including 1) too short or had no content for me to reply to (i.e. a string of emojis), 2) it's on a fic from a fandom I don't really consider myself part of any more, or 3) too negative, such as when people for some reason have chosen to use the comment box as a space to rant about how much they hate a character, oftentimes with little to no connection to what I actually wrote.

On the other hand, I will almost always reply to a comment that poses a direct question, also incl. requests for permission to translate or podfic. I love when people ask questions. It used to be an ongoing source of angst to me when people would leave comments with questions on Fanfic.net, but without any way for me to reply. ╯︿╰

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Probably Rise From Ash, a downer ending Loki fic where Loki got caught in a timeloop trying to prevent Ragnarok from happening. More recently, probably nostrum. In both cases though the Bad Ending is simply a reversion to canon mean, so it probably could have been worse.

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I do love happy endings! There's usually at least some element of melancholy or bittersweetness, but the ones I'd say are most happiness-loaded with that regard would probably be either One Elegant Solution (which was literally written for the purposes of giving the characters the happiest possible ending) or the coda ending of the refrain series (where I literally spell out at the end what I think the ideal ending for each character would look like.)

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not in the old-school understanding of the term crossovers, where the characters and settings of series A and series B literally meet and interact, but I write a lot of fusions, where characters of series A are placed in setting of series B or are otherwise remixed together. Modern fandom seems to have largely elided the distinction.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times. I'd put these into three buckets: 1) people who didn't like what I was doing with the character/story and told me so, but were civil about it and merely stated they were not going to continue reading; 2) people who write unprompted character hate in my comments, usually unrelated to whatever's going on in the text, which I don't enjoy but don't really take personally; and 3) people actually writing callouts or otherwise putting me 'on blast' for a specific fic. That last one has only happened once (that I know of) and while it wasn't particularly upsetting to me either then or now, it sure was A Trip. This is already a long post, so I won't elaborate here unless someone asks.

9. Do you write smut?

Occasionally. It's one of my less favorite things to write, but I'll do it if the story seems to call for it.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

This rings a very very faint bell, possibly sometime in the aughts I have a vague recollection of encountering one of my own stories on some geocities site under someone else's name, but I don't recall who it was or which fic. Not since then that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Enough times that I have lost track of all the specific instances, but I think maybe once or twice a year I'll get a request by someone to do a translation or podfic. I do not recall any instance where I said no, but I do prefer to be asked first.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! With @faux-fires, a Tsubasa Chronicle sci-fi AU, many years ago. Alas the currents of life took us in different directions before we could write the next part.

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Don't have an interesting answer for this.

14. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I do have lingering regrets over my abandoned WIPs from Critical Role fandom, Molly's Moving Castle and Fjord Mustang's YEEHAW! Fun and Pony Ranch, both of which fell victim to the march of canon and my eventual departure from the fandom. The latter fic in particular was going to go some wild places.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think my pacing is excellent, my character voices are usually solid, I can do humor very well and action competently. I can spin a coherent plot and an exciting adventure. I both enjoy and am good at AU worldbuilding and can convey exposition without infodumping, and can do melodrama and angst that packs a solid punch.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Mostly those of career fanfic authors everywhere: I'm weak at developing original characters and largely unmotivated to write plots that don't shadow or mirror the original text in some way. I've also noticed a recurring and growing difficulty with romance; I like romance, but when trying to write a romantic story, often fail to move the romance arc convincingly forward. (See also above answer re: smut.)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Don't have an interesting answer for this.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Gundam Wing, baby! I feel like there was a bit of a GW revival on tumblr recently? Man, now there was a fandom whose fanon vastly overshadowed its canon.

19. What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Fandom - I have a half-written draft for an Encanto fanfic lying around somewhere, if you can believe it; I'd also like to do some ZhanChengXian work, but haven't figured out an approach for it yet. If a romance with two principals is hard for me, imagine how much harder adding a third participant must be!

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Not gonna pick one! I like some fics more than others, for various different reasons, but none of them stand out as an All Time Favorite.

And that's it! For tagging people... @cerusee, @faux-fires, perhaps @tavina-writes or @nyoomerr?

[halogalopaghost]

The other thing I didn't expect and didn't realize for a while is that even things I like doing take spoons. It's not like I have ten spoons to do the dishes, go to work, and take a shower, I have ten spoons to do that OR check my tumblr, talk to my gramma on the phone, and write a few hundred words. And since I also have pretty severe executive dysfunction issues, I very quickly end up using my spoons only for the things that give me dopamine and showering once a week. Which is less than ideal trust me I fuckin know, but I'm stuck.

There are things I HAVE to give spoons to: working, driving to and from work which yes does take energy!! Grocery shopping to take lunch because eating out isn't really an option, just eating by itself takes SO MUCH energy, getting dressed, doing laundry. When it gets down to the things that I don't have to do in order to live, like folding the laundry, putting my clothes away at the end of the day, mating my socks, washing my lunch dishes, vacuuming my rug, sweeping the doggy dust bunnies off the stairs, wiping down the bathroom counter, I can't make myself do it. I don't HAVE to, even if it might make some other tasks a little easier (like getting dressed in the morning ffs), so I just don't, because otherwise I'll miss my friends and never get to play my viddy game or write down those ideas I had. I'm so TIRED. Physically and mentally and emotionally I'm just exhausted. Not in a "omg I need help right now!!" Kind of way, but like. I'm treading water just fine, not gonna drown, but fuck am I ready to get out of the pool and take a nap.

Y'know what else? Unrelated to anything above but I'm so fucking cold all the time man, I'm sick of that too. That's taking precious energy away from me because I'll literally start shivering at work and I actually cannot wear enough clothing to prevent it. I've been wearing sweatpants underneath my slacks the last few days and i still get cold. How am I supposed to fix that? I can't wear a fuckin parka to sell jewelry.

And btw, yes I did write this post from underneath a mountain of blankets on my bed with two baskets of unfolded laundry nearby, my grandmother uncalled, my jewelry bench untouched, etc etc etc etc. yeah I did this instead of any of the hundreds of other things I should do because I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open and I'm tired of being tired

[incorrectshantaequotes]

Blast was the star of the show clearly, and that put me in a Blast drawing mood. So have some Blasts (featuring everyone else)

--

REALLY GOOD FANART THANK YOU. everyone thank @volcanolotus for the fanart

also. unrelated but since I don't know where else I'm going to put this - I will say that while I didn't expect to do so much with Blast in Mermaid Falls, writing him there was a lot of fun! going into this under a read more because this ramble was longer than anticipated

my mindset regarding Blast when coming up with the transcript was "okay I want Blast to be funny because that's just how he is but I also don't want to do him dirty like the HGH writers did with Bolo. so how do I do that" and then it hit me that he was in a very unique position in regards to the personal conflict Risky's going through

I'll get more into it with the post about how HGH would play out in the Reversal AU (because I really DO need to get into that at some point) but unlike the canon version, there's a lot more discussion about the implications of the Dynamo and what it means for Risky - because unlike Shantae, who's worked through her self-image and self-confidence issues by the time HGH rolls around since a lot of that was tied to how much she was bothered by only being a half-genie, and is therefore mostly unbothered by the whole Dynamo thing, R!Risky has NOT worked through those issues, because her self-image and self-confidence issues are completely UNRELATED to the issues she has with her heritage, which have been resolved by the time the Reversal AU equivalent of HGH rolls around, so the Dynamo is very much weighing on her mind

and it occurred to me that Blast is like. probably the only one who'd actually say something? at least at first, and definitely the only one who'd say something about the whole situation so openly and brazenly. Risky may be bothered about the whole Dynamo thing immensely but it's objectively good for the town so she staunchly refuses to admit how much it bothers her at all, Rattle realizes that she's bothered by the idea of being replaced but is too conflicted between his concern for Risky as a friend and his connection to Mimic as a mentor figure to initially say anything, and when he does it'd be a more private conversation, 'Pod would definitely notice Risky's conflict but wouldn't initially connect it to the Dynamo with how insistent she is on helping Mimic build it, and even when he does make the connection he drops the topic pretty quickly when Risky makes it clear she doesn't want to talk about it

Blast, meanwhile, may not be the brightest fuse in the box but he knows Risky well enough that when he thinks about the Dynamo situation for more than two seconds it's enough for him to go "wait this sucks for you actually. why the fuck are you going along with this" and then immediately voices that loudly and right in front of Risky's face. After all, he's concerned for her as his heroic rival! He's used to Risky being more bold and blunt with her opinions thanks to their sort-of frenemy dynamic, so he doesn't really see why she just doesn't tell Mimic outright that she can do better than the Dynamo and kick that hunk of junk into the stratosphere. Blast wasn't expecting Risky to go nuclear on him for bringing that up, and it kinda freaked him out at first, but her little rant of visceral rage DOES explain why she isn't saying anything, so ultimately he really doesn't mind and is completely unbothered by the whole thing

Blast DOES still hold the opinion of "just tell him to scrap the damn thing you're already doing a good enough job on your own," and will still tell Risky that if she asks, but ultimately decides to let her take the lead since he knows she can be as stubborn as he is and won't be talked down out of it

[mistytpednaem]

wow!!! that was a year

as I begin to write this post I'm not even sure if I'm going to post it, lmao. I guess it depends on how much of a bummer it turns into. and if it helps me sort out some thoughts, then it won't have been a complete waste of time.

waste, huh...

on one hand, I don't... reaaaally?? want to talk about what's been going on in my life? but on the other hand, there's a part of me that's like "wow, Naem, that makes it sound like you've been struggling with some serious shit, which is straight up not true, do you just want people to feel sorry for you?" and then on the third mutant hand (I have a lot of those, it turns out) there is a different part of me that does acknowledge the way this other section of my brain jumps straight to accusatory self-flagellation is something many people do not, in fact, struggle with

I've been doing remote therapy this year! it's alright. my therapist has some wild ass takes from time to time, and it is perhaps one of my most substantial monthly expenses (note: yes I still live with my parents so, you know, I don't pay rent), but she IS insightful and a good professional so like. I feel, on the whole, it's working out well for me. a-aside from the part where I still can't seem to love myself consistently but unfortunately I don't think anybody else can fix that for me. I just... have to keep working on it.

speaking of therapy, maybe I should tell her in the next session "hey, cool new year, uhhh I keep finding myself thinking it isn't worth getting excited or feeling hopeful for anything because as time goes on there will only be more and more things to be sad about, because everything is finite and loss is a constant, and it's kind of bumming me out?" maybe I should. honestly, that was the thought this post was going to center around initially, but I've found other things to talk about, thankfully.

ah man. heck. I JUST narrowed down the exact thing motivating this post. "the dread I feel when i see everyone on social media post about their Year In Review." so much of this is about the unrelenting passage of time.

not everything is a huge bummer. experienced some good-ass media this year. Hi-FI Rush was really cool, Midnight Mass was so good it got me to watch it three times in spite of how bad I am with horror, Across the Spiderverse was as good as everyone said - speaking of Spider-Man, I think I've come to terms with adopting Curt Connors as a blorbo, which has nothing to do with Spiderverse but is, perhaps, a baby step in the direction of Accepting The Trash I Like. excited for more Jojolands. Jujutsu Kaisen S2 was really fucking good, so much so that I'm afraid no future arcs will grip me the same way. oh yeah, I got really into Will Wood this year, which is a bit embarrassing because his fanbase seems to be composed primarily of teenagers, but hey. sort of circling back around to me needing to accept what I like, I guess.

I've been taking other baby steps, namely towards Drawing More Often. I... have, right?? I know I haven't posted everything I drew, but it was definitely more than, say, two years ago. which is nice. hope I can keep that up or, even better, Do It Harder.

I don't have a habit of making New Year's Resolutions. I do have a couple of wishes, but I'm frankly not sure if they're anything I can control. Financial stability? Well, there are certainly efforts I can make in that direction, as much as I hate even looking at LinkedIn. To stop finding myself trapped in the middle of interpersonal conflict that I care about too much even when it doesn't directly concern me, resulting in weeks of heightened anxiety at a minimum? I think if it were within my power to stop that, I would have already done it, but uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ah man. I should have found a nicer note to end this on. ummm.

I deeply appreciate all of my friends, not only for being generally rad people but also for seeing nice things in me when I can't. This goes quadruple for my girlfriend, who manages to do all that while also struggling with brains that are very mean and unfair to her.

I feel like I said this last year, but I hope I can learn to depend on you all a little less going forward. Not in a "get out of my life you LOSERS" kind of way, but in a "thanks for the support, here, I can stand on my own two feet, so don't worry about lending me another one" kind of way.

[nerice]

Had the weirdest dream about your universe/OCs/idek!!!!!

Somehow me n my partner found a giant egg in the woods. And in this dream I knew all about ur OCs and in my mind I was instantly like „THAT‘S NOAH IN THIS EGG OMG!“. But I could not talk about my knowledge since I was under some kind of spell. Yeah. We took that egg home.

That’s when it got rlly weird lol.

You (in the sense of you running this blog) appeared and knocked on our apartment door. You were dressed like an old druid and were like „I live here now“. And me n my partner were like „weird but okay“. Once again I knew everything and was like „!!!! That‘s Elia!!!! They want to make sure we take care of the egg and protect it!!!!“ but I still couldn’t say something due to the spell. And you made sure to be rlly vage with what you said to us since you also couldn’t drop the entire lore on us due to a spell you were under. And I tried to be like „!!!! My guy!!!! I know everything!!!!“ but it didn’t work.

Then there was this evil cooperation(TM) that somehow found out we found the egg. And they wanted the egg too to turn Noah into a weapon to use against the current ruler of the planet. So you gave us the mission to break into the cooperation‘s HQ and destroy it so that they would stay away and not hurt the egg. My partner n I made it into HQ and found the control room. And right before we pressed the „destruction button“ I woke up.

Hope this silly dream made you smile and you have a speedy recovery <3

noah is EGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fucking wild that you're dreaming abt my ocs i need some of whatever juice you're having <33

also you will be delighted to learn that i do have this au!!!!! kind of. amorphous immortality research setting nickname code:metallia which is so ancient it doesn't even have a tag (it was huge in 2010-14 me's brain from before i oc dumped on here lol) can't overshare bc rsi typing restrictions but the basic setup is. alternate reality where true rulers don't exist and the nerice research team tm is trying to make their own gods. the original plot of it was very tide family centric (jumie gets fridged at the start for once lol) and most of the other immortal-adjacent ocs are in some way being used or created in the process of this research. i haven't actively worked on it since 2014 though and that was pre-moon lore overhaul so i can't say much more abt it here & now :x

// nd smol recovery update before i void again >>

it's going (slow) but it's Going. wld be faster if i didnt aggravate my body all the time w/ ill-advised writing or the shittiest sketches known to man but if i don't [ocs] i die u_u im leaving two unrelated fun facts on this post which is a) the secret eliada lore corner finally has a tag >:3 and b) i am working on an improved oc site (read: 3 sentences a day. agony) but maybe i can share it eventually even if i'm not actively here! i'm only ~ca 7% done though so this is a "hopefully before 2025" type eta gmfkmg. if nothing else i will be here in late june 2 document my elden ring sote madness o7

[blinkaftermidnight]

i would love to hear more about some of the unfinished The Wilds fics

Buckle up. There's a lot of stuff dying in my hard drive. Maybe, when I get the time, I should try to finish some of it up/patch it up/post random snippets (if anyone would be interested?).

So here's the thing, I have my drive separated into two types of fics for The Wilds: there are fics I consider potentially still in play and fics I've scrapped altogether. Two different folders. I'll make you a list under the cut and tell you what I consider each to be. And I'll probably give too much commentary about each.

If you want to know more or get a snippet of any of them, please send follow up asks. I would love to share. Or I'd love to hear what, if I were to pick back up with writing, you'd want to read the most. No guarantees, but I'll think about it.

I posted the snippet for i'll be waiting on you forever from Fatin's POV in another ask. Not very far into that, but I also haven't moved it to the scrapped folder. I think my problem with that kind of fic is it doesn't feel fresh enough - it's hard to make it feel new when we already know where it's headed. I've done it before, but it's hard.

I started a second Star Wars AU that's unrelated to the first where Leah's a Jedi Padawan and Fatin is a senator - literally Anakin and Padme in Attack of the Clones. Didn't get very far but didn't scrap it.

I have one that I'm still hoping to finish that's placeholder titled "Leah loses her mind" rightfully or wrongfully, I don't know. It explores her season two on island hallucinations and how that affects her and the group. It's 6.5k and unfinished, but I'm planning to take a look at it and see what can be done.

There are so many post island fics that are just snippets and doing nothing on my drive. I kept trying to experiment with writing all of the season two POVs post island and that shit is hard. Probably a sign not to expand too far away from Leatin because apparently I can only care so much lmao. But I haven't bothered to scrap them.

There's one where I attempted to write Leachel but that shit was also hard apparently. Really I was trying to write all different pairings and didn't get very far. Not scrapped and I have considered trying again more than once.

I started a no experiment AU where it was just an actual plane crash. I have 5k of that and no memory of writing it. Not scrapped. Not sure if I'd ever finish that.

The season 3 fic outline I mentioned in another ask but didn't link because I was on mobile, so that's here if you missed it. Not scrapped, but unfortunately I think outlining it made me feel like I told the entire story even though I never wrote more than 2-3 chapters. That's the problem with outlining, but only sometimes, because I outlined the exes fic/we're falling apart still we hold together, and that was fine.

I started a road trip AU back in 2021. Wrote 7k. Outlined the entire thing and same problem as above. Got stuck. I think I was trying to force word counts on myself for each chapter and it wasn't working. Not scrapped but very unlikely I'll touch it.

I have one just called "waterfall 5" that has five moments spent at the waterfall, and I almost finished it. I think I still have some hope of finishing it, since it's a quick thing.

I've talked about it before, probably two/three years ago at this point jfc, but I don't remember what I've disclosed about this fic. It's the one I mentioned in another ask about it not feeling right, so I didn't put it out, and it's something like 50k words and had a massive plot hole that I had to try to fix, and I was going to do a whole rewrite and maybe put it out. This one haunts me. There's a chance I'll throw the entire draft out one day without editing or fixing any issues. Or maybe I'll take another stab at it, since it's all there. Truly, this one haunts me. For once, I had a perfect title and nothing to show for it. There's probably snippets of it in asks on my blog somewhere from back when The Wilds wasn't cancelled and I was insane about it.

I scrapped the Grey's Anatomy AU. Just gave up on it.

I wrote 239 words of something vaguely Dotin and scrapped that too.

I have a first draft of the fake dating AU i don't belong to you (but you're wrong) that I scrapped. I took it in an entirely different direction and scrapped 10k of this other thing. I think I salvaged some of it for the posted fic, but it started going the wrong way.

Also have a scrapped draft of the last chapter of the soulmate AU i said i wouldn't let you in. That first draft of that chapter was BAD.

I scrapped 14k of everyone else's perception of what was happening with Leatin on the island. Like Leatin through every other character's eyes, and I don't remember why it didn't work or what I didn't like about it.

I'm not gonna lie, some of this stuff I'm looking at...even I don't know what it is anymore.

I scrapped a document called "untitled" and this is literally all that's in it:

"She sees her on the first day of school, sitting with the kid that supposedly led the FBI to Gretchen. Leah smiles slightly as Fatin crosses the lawn, and the kid – Ian – turns to look where Leah’s looking, and Fatin just tilts her head in acknowledgment and keeps walking. There’s nothing more for her to do."

I don't know what that is.

There's STILL a lot more documents I haven't touched on because I haven't bothered to open them and find out what they are (and my placeholder titles don't tell me much all the time). But I feel like this is a good start lmao.

Sorry for writing a novel, but you did ask. If you want more, let me know and I will make time over the weekend to post some stuff.

[koolades-world]

hi, super unrelated to obey me BUTTTT i was wondering how you handle your request inbox? is that what it’s called? is it ask inbox? nvm you get my point… i think? idk i just imagine it’s very stressful, like do you chose a prompt that interests you first or do you go by the oldest first.

i like to think about how fun it would be to write stuff and posts about my interests — i even think it’d be fun to get requests. however, i also recognize that i don’t think i could handle it. as much as i’d want to write as a hobby, some part of me knows the moment i start getting requests, i will start viewing it more as a job. i bet there are asks that also bring motivation or inspiration but i’m not 100% sure.

i was just curious if you would be willing to give some insight or your personal experience. totally fine if you don’t want to or don’t know how to respond to this. thank you!

hello!! this is different from the stuff i usually get but I'm super happy to answer your questions and try to help out :)

not really sure what it's called either now that i think about it. i think i just call it my inbox?? idk haha. i rarely talk about my tumblr with anyone and actually don't even mention i write just to have to avoid explaining what exactly i write is to someone who doesn't know. the only two people who know are two of my best friends <333 love you guys since i know you might see this <3 although i will say mentioning that youre a tumblr writer always seems to kill the convo haha

usually, i work in the order i get them! right now, i've just made it into the beginning of feburary since i just have so many and i don't want people to feel like picking favorite because ultimately, anons are people who enjoyed my content enough to make a requests and i want to see that through, to let them feel that excitement that someone whos work they liked actually wrote their idea! some requests can be kinda hard to do sometimes, so i usually need more time to do those so i have time to dwell on the idea. but sometimes they just click and i have it done in less than twenty minutes! sometimes i do occasionally fast track a request if i'm very inspired or if it really speaks to me!

the amount of requests can get a little overwhelming at times, but it's so heartwarming to know that many people like the content i make. right now i have 77 unwritten i think? one day i'll make it through all of them but i don't think ill ever get back to 0 /pos

in order to continue writing it has to be fun for you!! it for sure should not feel like a job. i used to write back in 2020 because of all the extra time i had on my hands, and i lost the time to keep up, so in 2023, i migrated here to try and pick it up again. i'm a stem major (bio my beloved <3) and it's my passion but it leaves little room to be creative, so this is my outlet! i feel like it's a good way to express yourself if you couldn't otherwise. i was so excited when i got my first request! i still remember it clearly just because of how excited i was. it's fulfilling to make people happy with something as simple as words that came from my silly little brain

honestly i blew up much faster than i ever thought i would so i still feel like im all too new at this tumblr blog thing. i still learn new things about tumblr all the time, such as custom themes on desktop haha. i've had this account and have been writing since march of last year but i didn't really start to pick up steam until january of this year because i started posting daily to try and get through all my waiting requests just to like, explode probably because of the consistent posting, so if you are still interested in writing, for sure take it slow! if it's just for fun, don't worry and actually try not to be too consistent. if you want to grow quickly, consistency is key no matter what schedule you decide on.

if i get rude requests, which has only happened a few times now, i just don't do them because i don't want to reward that kind of behavior, even if the idea is magnificent. for sure lay out rules if you do plan to go ahead with writing. be firm with them! im not great at that lol. also remember that you aren't obligated to at all! you are the one choosing to be here and you only have to do the ones you want, or none if you choose not to take requests. i like them because it gives me ideas i wouldnt have before because it can be kinda hard to come up with original ideas at the pace i would need them for my daily post. but, the pace i move at is very fast and it even scares me sometimes, so that wouldn't be too much of a problem for you if you chose to write

hope this was helpful and let me know if you need anything else. always happy to help <3

[a-la-campanella]

Dreaming of Garbage

AKA misc. Tatalov lore dump lol

It's a little late now to be making an analysis post on the Sweet Dreams "Penacony "The Great Tatalov" video, but who cares? I'm still working an Interstellar Journey post and that video has been out for even longer.

The video, for the most part, alternates between two speakers: Shatana and Himeko. Shatana, of course, is Natasha (they share voice actors, and Shatana is an outright anagram of Natasha). Of the two, Shatana is the only one who actually mentions Tatalov outright. Himeko's voicelines can be read as entirely unrelated to the whole Tatalov plotline going on, so for the purposes of this post, I'm ignoring what she has to say.

Most players won't remember this, but the first mention of Tatalov actually occurred as far back as 1.0 through interacting with a trash can in Boulder Town. (Thanks to u/merofsilence for pointing it out, I didn't catch that!) The dialogue is about the defeat of Garbage King Tatalov, by the hands of a younger trash can.

I... highly doubt these roles are fulfilled by Sampo and the Trailblazer, mostly because even in dreams we'd be able to sus out that Sampo wouldn't talk like that, but I digress; it's a dream at the end of the day. (I also have my doubts about the big trash can that Sampo fights being Tatalov, but that's more likely.) Though I do think this will be the same end we see for Tatalov when we arrive in Penacony, though.

The scenes with garbage or those taking place in Belabog are from the Tatalov dream; everything else is from Penacony, or a dream-like version of the planet. One of the inspirations for Penacony seems to have been Inception, a movie about dreams within dreams; so there are layers to these dreams, right? Reality is Penacony as it truly is/the hotel, and the first level of the dream is where all the fun parts of Penacony are. This makes Tatalov's story in a later level.

I imagine that part of the Penacony story (minus the details of interactions with other characters and actual larger-scale conflict) will go something like this:

The Astral Express crew checks into the hotel on the planet and then gets escorted to their respective rooms to enter the dreaming state. After arriving at their rooms, everyone starts to sleep.

We encounter Firefly in the first level of the dream. The photos with Firefly? She's just showing us around. Seems to have been some kind of conflict we're protecting her from and a secret she's hiding from us, too.

Enter the next dream? Or we enter that dream later.

The Trailblazer's dream brings them back to a Belabog populated by Trash Cans (hence the setting being Belabog), where we reunite with our beloved trash and the Big Bad Sampo.

We meet Shatana, played by Natasha, and she begs us for our help to rise up against Tatalov, who regardless of if he is or isn't represented by Sampo, is the Great Evil we must defeat to save the trash.

She tells us, "since that thing from beyond the sky arrived here along with the Eternal Freeze, Tatalov's eyes have been blinded." The thing from beyond the sky is, perhaps, meant to be the Stellaron, and it turned Tatalov into a poor ruler (maybe a reference to Cocolia?). "We must force the Garbage King to mend his ways under the banner of Skyfire" is just fighting back against Tatalov. Skyfire is a curse we can apply on enemies from Foxian Tales of the Haunted to make them explode, dealing Fire DMG... so probably a reference to that, and a nod towards Preservation Trailblazer. If Skyfire here is meant to mean anything else, then my guess is as good as yours.

Firefly might be sharing this dream with us? We do seem to share the dream with her when exploring Penacony (re: speculation that she exists only in a dream), and there was a trash can next to us when we got bombed, followed by Firefly's comment of "what kind of nonsense is this?" Our dream is too much for her, whoops.

I have no fucking clue who Sampo is talking about when he says "Follow me, you two." Like, one of the two people is probably the Trailblazer, but I'm skeptical to assume the second person could be Shatana... so who knows. Maybe Firefly? Anyways, he appears at some point to get in our way and terrorize the trash cans. What a cruel, evil man...

Success(?) and defeat of Tatlov to follow. The dream might end there, or we might enter a new dream, who knows.

As all this is happening, everyone else is down to business and battle and whatever is going down apparently involves whales. Based off the rough timeline from White Night, this would be during the dreaming time.

It's an absurd story we've dreamt up, but given how fleshed out some of the details are and the full on movie poster at the end of the video, it's likely a story we've been thinking about for a while. Trailblazer's Main Character arc to save the Trash Cans!

Parts I wasn't sure where to fit in timeline-wise:

So a massive Sampo throwing us into to Penacony? That happened, I guess. It could be a dream or it could some Alice In Wonderland mushrooms shit, since there was a massive March at some point too, though that was in a dream, I think...

We may have crashed in front of Robin and Sunday after we were tossed down. The ground from the crater looks similar to the ground in the photos.

There's also a normal-sized "Sampo" (he seems to be manipulated by Sparkle, what with the koi fish flying out of the way to reveal him with glowing eyes) who puts us to sleep at some point outside of the Tatalov dream, perhaps to force us back into that dream.

The part with green framing? I guess that's Sam's POV since the green is similar to his wings. And Acheron teams up with Black Swan and the Trailblazer to fight Sam... why is Black Swan fighting. Does she have something personal against the Stellaron Hunters? She's literally a meme, what the fuck. This is before Acheron has drawn her sword, so this is a different point in time than the one shown in White Night.

There's a quick sequence that doesn't really mean a lot yet; some bubbles, the... watch thingy or whatever floating in Penacony (I didn't pay attention during the livestream, no clue what its called), and some ID cards or some shit. I can't make out the letters well enough to translate them to English but it's at 1:04 for anyone interested.

[mtdthoughts]

Parentification Pt. 1 (Migi & Dali Analysis)

Migi & Dali is a great psychological thriller highlighting family/sibling/twin relations, and it is very interesting to analyze the twins' psychology as well as their relationship and its evolution. I'd go so far as to say that the reader/viewer should focus on these aspects instead of the mystery surrounding the twins' mother's death.

Expect *spoilers* up to Episode 9 to mentioned, so keep in mind before you continue reading.

Part 2 of this discussion

Part 3 of this discussion

At the start of the story, the twins’ relationship is very unlike that of a typical brother or twin relationship. Not only were they not equals, but Dali was always in control, issuing commands that Migi (usually) obeys without question and occasionally to his own displeasure. Furthermore, there was a clear emotional imbalance, as Dali almost always held back his emotions and acted tough, while Migi was far more expressive and explicitly dependent on Dali (clearer in the earlier chapters of the manga). One could say that this relationship was codependent or parasitic.

Sure, Dali was able to be more mature, but this came at the cost of Dali bottling his negative emotions, as well as having no one to support him since he wanted to be strong in front of Migi.

But why did this relationship exist in the first place?

I think there's a rational explanation, and I claim that Dali, the older, smarter, and "stronger" twin, was parentified after his mother’s death, and (subconsciously) treated Migi as his child. The twins were only 5 when they lost their mother and only had each other until they came to Origon Village, so it would make sense if Dali took it upon himself to replace their mother in order for the two to survive in a harsh world. This does not mean that Migi sees Dali as his mother; instead, as a result of his curse of intelligence, Dali takes on his mother’s responsibilities without acknowledgement.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am not an expert in psychology, so do take my words with a grain of salt.

To give some context, sibling parentification can be summarized as a situation when a child becomes a caregiver to their sibling(s) by providing emotional and/or practical support, because of their own parent(s) being unable to provide care. As a result, parentified children are forced to assume adult responsibilities and lose their own childhood, often not receiving acknowledgement or support for taking on these responsibilities. Although a parentified child may become “stronger” and more mature, there can be long-term negative effects on the child’s mental and physical health.

Here is an article that I used that gives some basic information about parentification:

As a side note, I also read the following article, which made me think: Wow, this relationship sounds exactly like Migi and Dali’s! If you have time, I really recommend reading through it, and it's pretty short too.

To conclude this post and this part of the analysis, I'll list some symptoms that a parentified child may face (listed in the first article), and see if Dali matches these descriptions.

Anxiety regarding caring for others: Yes, Dali has demonstrated this on many occasions towards Migi.

Depression: Yes, Dali seemed to have fallen into depression after Migi ran away from him.

Suicidal thoughts: Likely yes, since he did say that if he lost Migi, he wouldn’t be able to live on, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying.

Compulsively overworking to fulfill responsibilities: Yes, as no one works harder than Dali.

Feelings of guilt and shame: Most likely yes, as he seemed to feel guilt over betraying Migi and almost killing him.

Unrelenting worry: Yes.

Social isolation: Yes, as Dali initially didn’t trust the Sonoyamas and Akiyama, and didn’t open up to them until the end of the story.

Physical symptoms of anxiety and depression: Yes, Dali's bedwetting (see Ch. 10 of manga) is the biggest indicator.

Dali definitely shares the same symptoms as those of a parentified child, so it is very likely that he was in fact parentified. In the next part, I'll go over some more evidence that hint at the parentified dynamic that the twins had.

[penelopeminded]

everything i've noticed about the promo pics + my theories

this is truly just me talking about everything we've already noticed, but if you're here for garvez that's at the bottom. i don't expect anyone to read this, i just had to write it down

i think this case is gonna be DARK. in the other picture of just rossi you can see the board better but it is bloody. even here, it looks like something bad is in that room (bloody mess or bloody body) i'm so excited

this is all case stuff, obviously. i think maybe the costume department made a mistake with rossi but these are all the same day. rossi's shirt, jj's jacket, and luke's shirt are all the same in most of the released pictures.

it looks like jj still has her wedding ring on!

the picture of jj and luke is strictly case related, but i think maybe the luke and rossi one will be a little personal. it's still at a crime scene but what they're talking about might not be related. like "you could've gotten me one" "you've got a wedding coming up" personal.

i think the case definitely involves children somehow (look at the sippy cup in the picture of luke, jj, and rossi. also the car seat in the one of luke and jj. ALSO joe posted a behind the scenes pic and it looks like kids are on the screen).

i'm going to guess one of these pictures of tara is from the same day as the last ones, but the other two pictures with her in them are different days. i still don't know what specific episodes but i don't think it matters.

i think i really do have mommy issues because i find gray-haired emily SO much hotter than not. she's always been hot but i might actually have a crush on her now 😐

i know it's a government office, but the biden and kamala pictures make me laugh

if i had to pick one person that was shocked by garcia showing up it would be luke, but jj might also be a bit surprised, or maybe just excited. also garcia's face is definitely "ha ha surprise, luke!" my active theory is that most of these are episode 1, the round table is episode two, and the third tara pic is yet another day, maybe not episode though.

i ORIGINALLY thought this would be a saturday sort of deal where what they're doing is unrelated and just takes place over the whole episode (she's stressed about something and but every time we see them in the episode it's comedic relief ft stress baking). that theory was shattered though because luke is wearing the same shirt as the ones before, meaning he does in fact go to work. he entered his slut era and undid some shirt button while working, but it's the same shirt nonetheless. maybe zoom call is first, then cookies in the middle of the episode because he comes home for lunch? and we don't see pics for the end of the episode because that scene contains their first kiss!

top left: penelope is SAD. stressed maybe, but you can see it in her eyes.

bottom left: if this is from episode one, i don't think whatever is on her computer has to do with the bau. stalker maybe? i'd also like to point out that while the sugar cookies are unicorns and i think butterflies, luke was given one tray and one tray only. he can frost those ones and nothing else (and for good reason they look messier and definitely not as good as the unicorns!)

top right: ugh i can not figure out the zoom call pics. i don't really think she's working with the bau yet, and it's HER computer so it's not like she's saying hi while he's working. only thought is russian stalker man is watching her but i find it unlikely.

bottom right: shut up they are so cute. nothing else.

OH. in support of the aforementioned "pictures take place throughout the episode" theory, see how the light in the window changes? and the lamp gets turned on for the zoom call? the windows get opened too. also the mantle gets cleared off and the purses on the coat rack are moved. i wouldn't put it past props to have just messed up but it's still interesting.

as for the pictures on the mantle, i cannot figure out what those are, but they look like pictures of just one person, probably blonde. i also LOVE the yellow walls and decorations. penelope obviously lives there but i don't think luke does (despite what looks like a dog ball on the mantle). this is a penelope house, not a garvez house

i had a headcanon before this that penelope is relatively low-tech outside of work, so i love that she has a mirror instead of a tv in the background

final notes, i don't think garvez is married or anything (and i hope not because i would obviously want to see that happening) but i do feel like they are purposely not showing us left hands and i hate it