#also the original is really good too and i tend to view a lot of the remastered tracks as just nice bonuses but this one just goes so hard

[adwox]

this song is so underrated

[thats-my-passion-right-there]

I finally saw the mean girls musical (the movie one) I have so many fucking thoughts oh my god

[yanderes-galore]

platonic yandere deuce spade for a yuu reader? he knows he's caused you more than his fair share of trouble, and he regrets that, but he also knows just how little you have to your name- both in terms of actual possessions and power. you always seem to end up in danger. i'm imagining a sort of tug of war between his old delinquent behavior and his desire to be a better person.

Sure! This could be fun :) Been a bit since I've seen Twisted Wonderland so things may be OOC? Not sure, you be the judge.

Yandere! Platonic! Deuce Spade with Yuu! Darling

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective behavior, Manipulation, Violence, Dubious companionship.

I do have a feeling Deuce ends up having to fight with himself when it comes to his obsession.

He's so used to using violence to solve his problems that he struggles a bit.

I personally feel Deuce and Ace aid each other in their obsessions when it comes to a Darling who replaces Yuu.

However, while Ace may try to ease Deuce's worries in this, even he may get concerned about Deuce snapping at times.

Deuce tries to be his usual self around you, a nice kid who wants to turn things around.

He does indeed know that he, Ace, and Grim tend to drag you into trouble... and he does hate that it keeps happening.

Deuce also pities the fact that you get dragged into everyone's problems in NRC.

You have nothing to your name here due to coming from another dimension.

You also don't have a good grip on magic.

All of which makes Deuce an overprotective friend.

After all... everyone can take advantage of you here.

Even he at times feels he is.

You can imagine he snaps at Ace and Grim when they do, too.

Deuce tries to ease his concerns in a calm way.

He works hard to check in on you and not be a burden.

But when he sees others get too close to you... he finds his eye twitching while he tries to distract himself.

He can be trigger happy at times due to his past.

Despite this, he tries his best to be a good friend to you.

Deuce tries to hide his more aggressive delinquent side around you.

Although he'd probably beat someone up out of your sight just to make sure no one causes you any trouble.

It's like having a secret bodyguard (two if Ace is included).

Deuce may originally fight with himself on if he should give into darker desires or not.

However, with time he just opts for hiding it away from you.

While he smiles towards you with such sweet intentions, he's getting his hands bloody just to look after you.

Deuce isn't cruel, he is caring.

Yet his instincts tell him that sometimes he has to be a bit of a bully to protect you.

You're vulnerable without his help!

You take notice of his change in behavior at times.

He appears annoyed when you're pestered for things and seems to mask how he really feels a lot.

Deuce with a Yuu! Darling is protective and willing to do anything to keep you happy in such an unknown world.

He knows beating others up away from your view isn't the best way to do it...

Yet he knows you need him... so he'll do anything for you and your well-being... it's what friends are for, no?

[3hks]

Choosing the Main Character

When building or choosing a protagonist, there are things that you NEED to take into consideration if you don't exactly have an idea of who should be the head of the story or if there's just too many good characters to choose from!

THE CAST

I'll get something out of the way, really quick. In my opinion, the cast and environment your characters are around should influence your choice more than the plot will. The plot is normally made in SHAPE of your protagonist. The goal of your character should be the leading arc of your story.

If you could substitute ANY character you wish to take the role of the protagonist into the plot with ZERO changes to the character and plot, then your storyline may just be too generic or simple. And in that case, pretty much any characters will do.

COMPLEX V.S CLASSIC (Skippable)

When I'm talking about a simple main character, I mean that they follow a more standard trope.

They usually have qualities such as goodness, ambition, and are special (powerful, unique, etc). They're often fighting for change and have a potent, normally sad, backstory.

But don't get the wrong idea, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of character--I just want to make it clear that they tend to have more standard traits of a protagonist and are used frequently, which is why I'll classify them as "classic."

So with that being said, I consider a complex character to be one with separate attributes that are scarcer.

You know those fun and/or interesting side characters that literally everyone loves? I consider them to be more complex because they have a more original character fueled by an interesting past and personality, which the audience loves. They are amusing to bring to life; however, they are also more difficult to write when they're the main character because of their intricacy.

So when is it appropriate to use a "classic" main character and when is it appropriate to use a "complex" one?

WHEN TO USE WHAT?

Based on my observations, a less populated or simple cast usually has a more complex main character. On the flip side, a more populated or complex cast will tend to have a more classic main character.

My reasoning for this is because the writers want to balance their characters out. If your story has too many intricate characters, it can be too much for your readers to fully grasp and understand them all. Different and unique characters are amazing, don't get me wrong, but it requires a lot more time and effort to form a bunch of complex characters in the same story.

However, there are certain characters that should be naturally detailed. Most often, these are:

The protagonist (Even if they're leaning more towards a "classic" side, as the main character, they should be pretty intricate.)

Love Interest

Best Friend/Rival (Whoever is closest to the protagonist, really.)

Antagonist

Besides these four, if you see that your other side characters are also incredibly complex, it may be smart to choose a protagonist that is simpler.

ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT

The thing is, even if most of your characters don't go through a lot of character development, (which makes some sense because it's hard to make everyone grow) your main character NEEDS it.

If they're too close to perfect or you can't find something about them that they can change or learn from, there's hardly going to be any development for your lead, which is something to avoid.

So basically, what I mean is that your favorite character with your favorite attributes may not always fit the protagonist category if you're reluctant to change them.

However, that doesn't mean that they can't be a solid side character!

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Oftentimes, there are certain things that a protagonist specifically has in which some other characters may not have. With that being said, if you can say yes to these questions about your character, then they'll be a great fit!

Do they have a specific view of the world?

Do they have a specific goal in mind?

Is there a solid reason for the goal?

Do they have some sort of backstory that builds onto their persona?

Will they undergo any sort of change or lesson?

And yes! Because the protagonist and antagonist are usually foils of each other, these questions very well work for the other side too!

CONCLUSION

Alright! So my biggest take on this is that when given a more complex or populated cast, a standard protagonist will usually fit better. And on the other hand, a simpler or sparser cast will call for a more complex protagonist!

Happy writing~

3hks :)

[creature-wizard]

Toxic Individualism In Modern Witchcraft

The modern witchcraft movement is very much a product of the 20th century, and one thing it picked up from that was a pretty individualist way of thinking. This isn't all bad, since it helped normalize people being allowed to do spirituality in a way that truly resonated with them, rather than following whatever an institution prescribed for them.

But as many of us know, western individualism comes with a lot of really toxic shit, encouraging and even enshrining apathy, cruelty, and social Darwinism. This, unfortunately, is very much an attitude you occasionally see within modern witchcraft.

This is sometimes expressed through a "let 'em sink or swim" attitude. For example, you might see people bristle at the idea of warning people about dangers such as toxic plants; "well, they should know to just research this themselves, if they get hurt, that's their own faults." Never mind that most of us live in a socioeconomic environment where "natural" tends to be equated with "safe," and few people were taught any real amount of research skills. (Most people don't know how to research beyond "type a thing into Google and click the first link" or "watch a video on YouTube and follow the algorithm.")

There's this sort of idea that witchcraft and the occult is this kind of Darwinian proving ground. You're either just born having what it takes, or you're not. Supposedly, there's no need to warn people about red flags, fascist rhetoric, pseudohistory, or anything, because supposedly, the "worthy" will just be able to find their own way on their own. Anyone who doesn't make it? Anyone who ends up poisoning themselves or falling down the alt right pipeline or abused by a predator? Couldn't be helped; they were never "meant" for this path anyway. It was simply too much for them. Why, if you really think about it, it was their own faults for daring to reach above the station they were born for, anyway.

This is a completely irrational view, because it's simply not how things work. People aren't born having research skills, critical thinking skills, or knowing the difference between real history and pseudohistory; they're taught these things. And some people are statistically much less likely to receive a good education than others. There are a few people who beat the odds and end up better educated than most people in their socioeconomic status, but this doesn't mean that they were born with inherent greatness; it just means that they were curious and lucked out in finding the right materials.

As many of us also know, Victorian-era eugenicists believed that members of the upper class were just inherently better. They had the genes for intelligence and strength of will. (Yeah, that whole modern occult fixation with willpower has some dodgy origins, too.) They just ignored that whole thing where they lived in a socioeconomic system designed to keep most people in poverty. If they ever saw someone beat the system, they attributed it to that person being born exceptional for some reason. I would highly recommend that anyone who hasn't done so already watch Shaun's video, The Bell Curve, which criticizes the book by the same title that effectively tries to argue for Victorian-age eugenics, to get a better picture of this whole thing.

Toxic individualism also encourages thinking of individuals as main characters on some kind of hero's journey, where every pain they suffer and every mistake they make is a vitally important part of their journey and growth; so much so that any effort to prevent them from making mistakes or suffering harm is hindering their personal growth.

Sure, people do often gain valuable insight from their mistakes and suffering. But it's absurd to claim that this is always the best way for people to learn and grow, especially if there's a risk of serious harm for themselves or others. Certainly it's much better to learn from a friendly Tumblr post that essential oils can give you chemical burns or harm your pets than experience it first-hand. And it's much better to learn what far right rhetoric looks like beforehand so you can recognize it when you first see it, rather than get drawn into some far right belief system and perpetuate harm on vulnerable minorities for any amount of time. (This whole thing of acting like you're life's main character and other people are basically just NPCs on some hero's journey that you imagine yourself to be on is so immensely fucked up.)

And finally, if anybody out here finds themselves thinking, "but nobody should expect help from others; after all, I didn't get any!", I'm gonna tell you: it shouldn't have been that way. You didn't not get help because that's just how the world works; you didn't get help because that's how modern western socioeconomics are created to work. Toxic individualism is a construct, and it's one that we can dismantle and replace with something better.

[cecilysass]

Milagro Fic Recommendations

These are good for any time of year, of course, not just February 14. But here are my favorite fics related to the season 6 episode Milagro, a long time favorite. (And @sisterspooky1013's favorite episode of all time: happy VD, girl!) I’ve been reading and sifting through these for some time, and I have tried to include some from all eras: newer AO3 fics, some written right after the ep aired, etc. But I'm sure I've missed some, so hit me with your own faves, please.

Because of Milagro's ending, this entire genre of fic tends to be heavy on the hurt/comfort and angst (which is fiiiiine by me), but that’s not all that’s here. Many of these are smutty, but not all.

Adagio - Terma99 A meditative, peaceful take on the aftermath of Milagro by a veteran author that includes both agents realizing something they had learned. Lovely.

Alma - 6hoursgirl (@sixhours) A lovely hurt/comfort Milagro piece. This one is Mulder POV, which is a little less common for post-Milagro, I think, and I like this characterization of Mulder as desperately wanting to help Scully, desperately wanting to protect her, but also a tiny bit scared of the intimacy and relationship he feels they’re on the cusp of. He’s so good-hearted and also a little dysfunctional here, and I love it.

Bated Breath - dreamingofscully (@dreamingofscully) This one has an original take on Scully's experience; it leaves Scully with clarity and new direction in her relationship with Mulder. DreamingofScully tends to write a more confident, in-charge Scully in the MSR than some do, and I appreciate it.

Beyond the Strokes of a Typewriter - storybycorey (@storybycorey) When Scully is stricken and ashamed that it’s been so long since anyone has seen her as a woman as Padgett did, Mulder is pushed to revelations. Mulder 3rd person POV. Very good smut build up. And nobody does a gorgeous feelings reveal from Mulder like storeybycorey, man.

I Believe - Diana Battis There are a lot of lovely, heartfelt hurt/comfort fics about the aftermath of Milagro (for obvious reasons), but this one is especially well done. Viewed from Scully’s third person point of view, it focuses on Mulder’s capacity for tenderness and guilt. Plus some smut.

Don’t Look Up - ArtemisX5 After Padgett's hallway revelation, Scully is horrified that she has no secrets left. But you know, Mulder is much slower on the draw than she gives him credit for. There is also such moving hurt/comfort in this.

Intimacies with Strangers -mldrgrl (@mldrgrl) This mid- and post- Milagro piece has Mulder and Scully simmering in tension and then boiling over. Their relationship is complex and painfully entangled, and I love how it plays out. There is also excellent Scully characterization. This one helps me to get more fully why she might have been drawn to Padgett initially, something I struggle with in the episode.

La Madrugada - h0ldthiscat A carefully told tale of RST that takes both characters seriously and is sincerely moving. Excellent.

Lacuna - Aloysia_Virgata (@aloysiavirgata) This is a longer work, not really a classic post ep per se. But I love this moody, angsty casefile set right after Milagro. This Scully has not come to terms with her emotions, is thoroughly freaked by how she reacted to Padgett, and hasn't even entirely worked out how she feels about Mulder. There is Scully/other here, but the ship is steering home. The end of this is so moving, but cw: dark themes in the casefile, extreme violence against children, traumatized agents.

Still Life - Seek_Its_Opposite (@seek-its-opposite) Ah, this is such a thoughtful and exquisitely written Scully character piece — and it contains some truly beautiful insights about Mulder, too. It suggests the heartbreaking idea that Mulder’s way of showing Scully respect (giving her distance) is continually hurting her. So tragic (and consistent with canon, e.g. Never Again.) One memorable line: “Every one of their fights is about how to care for one another, every last one.”

Alma Gemela - matchingfabric (@matchingfabric) After the events of Milagro, Scully (and Mulder) get accustomed to platonically sharing a bed for comfort. This is a slightly different take on post-Milagro. Exceptionally, irresistibly sweet. Oh, and smutty.

What did I miss? Tell me. And yes, I'm working on my own short Milagro fic that will be coming soon-ish.

[mr-laveau]

People don't take audio RP seriously and I have opinions about it

I can't find the original post but the gist is a discussion on how people don't treat Audio RP as a serious medium of media and story-telling which I agree with. People don't. To mark it with a disclaimer tho-I don't inherently disagree with that post, I thought there were some valid points brought but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring as a VA and as a person who consumed a lot of Audio RP content and still does to this day (I just don't got a lot of time to be a fan and a creator whilst working a job) so here it is, my opinions on why people don't take this seriously and bi-products of that.

To start, I wanna say that Audio RP to me specifically is by its nature very collaborative because I as a VA and writer have to make my character appealing whilst also understanding my audience and what their appeal to my characters are*. It's kinda why I think Erik and the Redacted fandom have such different views on characters and the story-Erik does not have much of a connection with his audience (not hate, just a fact) so things tend to feel flat in some areas versus others-my point however is that I genuinely believe that if you want to make Audio RP, you have to actually understand your audience a little bit, which creates a good segway to my first point.

*if someone doesn't like your character, this isn't to say you're not doing a good job, it just means that people have preferences and their preferences do not align with your character.

Firstly, not a lot of VAs understand the RP(Role Play) part of Audio RP, and it shows. I think a lot of people who make content in this sphere don't take into account the person who's listening to their audios and following along. I'm not going to pretend I know about this but I am going to say that it shows sometimes when you don't understand the core of your audience and it causes people to disengage with your audios because you don't take into account who is listening to your audio (which creates problems like audios which are hard to engage with because of a speaker talking too much/too fast to process anything, issues where listeners are treated less like characters and more like ear pieces and problems where the speaker is written more to show them off than to be engaged with a listener). Really and truly the crux of this is in my opinion is that a lot of people who came into Audio RP, seem to have never RPed with another person or are unfamiliar with those spaces (TTRPG, Text-based Roleplay, Fandom Roleplay and the like) and rather saw an audio RP video and just did something like that (not hating, I started because I liked Castle Audios and wanted to be cool like her). That is not only focusing on VAs, that also applies to the audience, some of y'all are new to this and it shows because some of y'all don't know how to act right*

*That being said, some of y'all don't know how to act right and that is because there's no compendium of ettiquette(/j) for how to engage with this media and that is not on y'all. That said, (lovingly) learn to learn to behave like a listener and less like a spectator.

RP is collaborative by nature because you are creating a character with a narrative for another character who engages with said narrative by role-playing together and creating a collaborative story. Half the fun of RP is that it's a process of two people showing off their dolls and having fun. That is not something that can be said a lot about some Audio RP channels because a lot audios do not take into account their listener as a participant in this process (no, this does not mean the audience has explicit rights to the story, let's calm down there(/j). I will add that Audio RP is different given that the listener cannot directly influence the story like traditional roleplays but that does not take away from the fact some VAs and script writers don't think about who is listening and focus too much on who is speaking.

Secondly, a lot of the audience does not know to engage with the medium and that's a hard pill to swallow because it's not their fault but it is also their fault (/lh). Put down the torches and hear me out. I think that a lot of people who interact with Audio RP do not have the best media literacy and I also think this is true for some VAs. Some people who listen to audios don't read enough into audios on more than a surface level view (which makes for people going "teehee, look at that loser listening to people talk") and some people read too much into an audio to the point that it breaks their immersion and they cannot focus on the audio but have to point shit out (this does not mean that you cannot be enthusiastic about lore and info in audios or notice errors in an audio). To solve this, I just have this to say: expand the media you intake and learn to think critically about what you're intaking and how you're intaking it. TLDR; consume media outside of your usual range and think about that media while questioning the media to see how you feel about it rather than have someone tell you about it. This also applies to VAs and Scriptwriters, it makes your work better, this is a fact of life and I need y'all to see that. Love you all so much and the work you put into this community cannot be understated. That said, everyone sometimes shows a lack of media literacy and awareness and it should be known that it's not just the audience.

Finally, Both creators and fans are trying to make the medium something it's not and they need to stop. This isn't to say you cannot advance or experiment with the medium but trying to make it something it is not will mess with the core idea of what it is, you lose people when you try to do X,Y and Z when you ain't even reached A*. A lot of the audience does not understand the limitations of Audio RP and they need to see what can be achieved within the space and what cannot be done. A lot of creators in the space try do too much and while I get the need to push boundaries, there comes a point where you need to reevaluate what you are trying to make and determine how you are going to do that moving forward. That is not to say you can only make a specific brand of audios and anything other than that isn't Audio RP. No cut that shit out, that is being an asshole. You can make whatever Audio RP you want, it just needs to be audio RP. At the end of the day, the goal is to make an audio where the listener feels like they are a part of it. How that looks can differ and that's okay.

*I'm adding onto this by saying that you can experiment with the medium of audio RP, different genres of it are valid (people like what they like) and there is no one way to do Audio RP and anyone who says there is a way is lying to you.

In conclusion, I want to add that a part of the list of reasons people don't take Audio RP seriously (on top of people not respecting VAs, people not being considerate, people treating Audio RP like they do fanfic and people just being people) is because we as a community are all over the place and don't even enage with our own community right and don't know to respect and treat the medium the way it should be. That's all folks!

[sanctus-ingenium]

i answer your asks vol... 6?

This one made me actually consider how they balance the humours beyond just a simply "they scour it out". Because sometimes a holy beast gets 'sick' and it's not necessarily related to any sort of tissue growth, it's more often a mechanical fault and because the beast is considered to be alive, he is then therefore 'sick'. So how do we deal with this? An enginesmith will make the necessary repairs, but sometimes the sickness is related to environmental conditions. The four humours are arranged on a scale like this:

A mechanical fault associated with being too hot and dry could be something like a lack of lubrication on moving machine parts. So this would be considered the reason for a production of yellow bile (excess of yellow bile, btw, was what Pantera was diagnosed with on his last outing). Whether or not the bile is literal or more symbolic depends on the case. Anyway this was the reason Pantera is associated with fire (originally, when I was designing them all) and Leun, diametrically opposite, is associated with phlegm, water, acid, etc.

But anyway, the way to fix these imbalances in hot/cold/wet/dry is to simply reduce whichever one is excessive. In practice, keeping holy beasts maintained even when they're not out on a crusade is a full time job for an army of workers, where the atmospheric conditions need to be as neutral as possible. Too wet and you've got rust, too dry and the metal fatigues, to hot and it might warp and break, too cold and the joints won't fit properly, etc etc. Although the enginesmiths view this through a lens of The Four Humours, it's also just good practice to try to keep things balanced.

Btw while they do cure an excess of blood by bleeding the holy beast, they don't make leeches big enough :'(

-

There are illustrated representations of dragons that are pretty traditionally dragony (typically a winged serpent with many tails representing the stinging tendrils). These are added to drawings and art as a catch-all symbol for a conscious and targeted Evil. The laity, which is very devout, is unlikely to associate dragons with resistance - dragons cause a lot of damage too, and those stinging barbs will kill you just from the trauma of the impalement before the venom even has a chance to (unless you just get grazed, in which case.. the venom will paralyse you. then kill you)

So active rebellions/civil wars/wars of succession have occurred many times. The subjugated Midaean nation/territory (depending on who you ask) rallies around their beloved Saint Lycaon, a wolf. Flags and signs depicting a wolf devouring a crocodile/a lion/whatever holy beast currently tops the hierarchy of the church would be more likely. Rebellion itself is rarely black and white and as neat as picking a symbol the church hates. It is more likely people would pick a symbol that they love. Outside of Midea, the Mezian empire might not be at its peak but it also has not given its own citizens and laity a reason to take up arms against it.

at the start of the story, at least

-

awesome questions thank you @curious-sootball !

So the nerve cords inside the vertebrae are artificial, but they still perform the same physiological function as a real spinal column. They interface with a knight's dialogue. This produces an incredible amount of heat - this is why the spines are often exposed, even though that might be a point of vulnerability. The spinous processes in particular are very effective heat sinks.

But the tail? In most cases we don't need the tail, really. The spinal column ends at the base of the pelvis. The tail is cropped for most beasts on purpose - we don't need this thing dangling around and becoming entangled, and it has no machinery around it to act as replacement muscles so it couldn't move even if they wanted it to. Krokodilos's tail is the exception and it's just extremely heavy for not much pay off. That's a lot of additional engines we gotta maintain.

So the tail tends to be abandoned. The bones are kept of course but not mounted on the chassis where they're not needed. With no nerve cord running through them they don't run hot either so they won't disperse heat all that well.

Now for replacing bones... they don't. The bones that exist in the chassis are the bare minimum needed to perform the required functions - basic movement. They don't have ribs, they often don't have phalanges. A skull is there to complete the nerve cord - but all you need of that skull is the occipital bone. Nothing more.

If they break a leg, it might be repaired using screw and plate fixation. The bone may deign to knit together (enginesmiths swear that they don't allow tissue growth ever.. but sometimes you need some periosteum. Don't tell the bishops). But if it gets crushed? That's the holy beast done, scrap heap time. The majority of all holy beasts that have ever existed have already broken down and been decommissioned at the start of this story - we only have seven left (eight if you count krokodilos). Krokodilos is an unusual case because he is not dead, so they can't just hold a state funeral and add his heart engine block to the big hall of old hearts in the cathedral. He's sleeping.

But he's the exception. Take Saint Guinefort - dead as a doornail. He had a full funeral, his heart was put in the hall and his body was [redacted] like they do with all dead holy beasts. And then he was [redacted] and now our pal "Sir Victory" with the metal arm uses him as Nosewyse. Circle of life.

I think sidecar motorcycle is a pretty apt way of looking at him lmao. You don't wanna know how many people he's cooked.

-

Hey there! So I know I've mentioned they are similar to pterosaurs but they are not related to them at all. In fact they are cetaceans :) Later art I did of them plays up the mammal traits a bit more. Check out these nipples

However it is a fact that they are not closely related to modern cetaceans - as in, they did not evolve from modern whales and dolphins, but belong to a side branch that diverged relatively early, around the same time dragons were leaving the water for the skies. That art is quite old too, from before I kind of nailed it all down, so if I drew them now I would remove the more derived traits (i.e the single blowhole, the tail flukes, etc) and tidy it up a little. They diverged from the lineage that would become modern whales before the pelvic limbs were lost. I originally depict them having the crowbar-like claws on their feet to lever skin parasites off the dragon, but i think they are more likely to not use their feet much at all, and are more likely to use their single huge beak-like tooth to do the job instead. They cannot walk on flat surfaces.

-

Only insects and, specifically, winged insects :) I know it would be really cool to have various other giant arthropods but milennia ago, when they crossed into Thera for the first time, insects were the only fliers. And there is no other way to get over the mountain range quickly enough for it not to kill you. The mountain range in which the endless city sits is completely and 100% devoid of life. A journey on foot for a tiny bug would be next to impossible - they are more likely to starve or simply turn around and go back to where the food is.

The winged insects, otoh, can cross the range in a day or less, if the breeze is flowing right. And they would find plants already there in Thera - also solely wind-dispersed species from the previous time the mountains arrived and linked the world with Earth. The insects didn't really come by choice, sometimes the wind just blows the wrong way, but they definitely got lucky.

There are wingless insects in Thera today but only because they lost that trait over time (like ants or larviform female beetles). They have managed to colonise every reasonable habitat, including the sea (though the sea is not very salty) and have developed into a lot of very strange forms which might be unrecognisable to us. But a lot of them just got bigger and smarter.

This time round, in the period of time the story is set (early 1900s on earth), the mountains appeared and new animals crossed over who were not insects. Birds have become invasive in Thera, happily taking advantage of the smaller insect species who are completely unprepared for this new threat. There are also some wind-dispersed spiders hanging out now.

EDIT: oh i forgor the parasites on the flying insects that first colonised thera... yes they would have mites and horsehair worms and things of that nature

[jcollinswrites]

JC!!!!!!!

I loved the update ommmg. I love how different the route is. Your variations are beautiful. From MCs sister to choosing if we were married before. I adored it.

I died of embarrassment at spilling the wine because bruhhhhh. I also just loved the description of MC telling them everything wrong with the security in the palace. It made me alil smug for my MC 😍

I hate the stupid creepy priest! Death to his dumbass 💀😭

I have a question tho. So seeing as we can choose our sexuality. How are same sex couples viewed in the kingdom? Should i expect some bullshit from people? And also how would that apply to the King especially. It's a two part question.

1. Could they marry someone of the same gender? Especially when it comes to shit like carrying on bloodlines being so important to nobles 😒 or would he have to take on a concubine 🙄 imagine your husband going to go sleep with some random chick while you wait for him to come back. Kill me please 😭😭😭

But i know that's how some things just are.

2. How would they react to an MC on the thief background especially romancing the king. Bet the nobles would loooooovvveeeeee that!

Okay I'm so sorry for this longass message 🫣🫣🫣

Oh you read it! ^^ I was awaiting your comment with bated breath O.O (lol jk..... or am I? o.o)

I put some variations in the code that are unique to every origin :D For example the noble has the widower variable, the thief has the option to have higher dreams in life, the captain will be able to decide if they are a war veteran, and I haven't decided the priest yet (:

Now I'm gonna go on a huge ramble about the marriage/sexuality, so I'll put it under a wrap 😅 You don't have to read it unless you are interested lol cuz it's gonna be looong... (consider yourself warned)

Okay, so according to my knowledge, in Ancient Egypt, married life and sexuality in general was a bit of a taboo in public. You could do whatever you wanted, at home, in private. We have a lot of documents from that time that describe that couples were actually very affectionate towards each other and had a healthy sex life, but they didn't really make it a big deal in public. (unless you were gossiping with your bff maybe)

Marriage wasn't a very official thing either, like it is now. They didn't really have weddings. When the bride moved in with the groom, they signed a contract, and bang, they were considered married. Anyone could get a divorce too. The most popular reason was infertility or cheating, but women could initiate divorce as well based on whatever reason.

Now, a lot of historians in the past (and even today) would look at an ancient document describing f.ex. "two women living together with a child and a cat", and they would go 'aww they must have been such good friends'. Like...... you know....? Friends. Riiiight...

On that note, no, people in the story won't give you crap about it because it always happened, in every age, we just nowadays tend to make it into this huge deal, as if everything other than heterosexuality has just been invented yesterday. A lot of ancient societies were so much more accepting than we are today. (just think of the Greek or Romans)

The carrying on the bloodline thing is an interesting question. There is a funny debate between historians about Ramesses II's children. Because according to original sources, he had around a hundred. They all had the title 'prince' or 'princess', and others like 'Beloved Son of the King', 'Beloved Daughter' and stuff like that. Most historians think that proves that they were all biological children. Others say he might have just adopted a lot of kids and gave them the title. We can't know for certain which one is true. It could be a mix.

In my not-expert opinion, if Egyptians accepted divorce and stuff, they probably accepted full-on adoption as well. Even as an 'official' way to continue a bloodline. Nobles could have one official wife, plus keep concubines if they wished (IF they wished, they didn't necessarily do it), then the couple had the option to 'adopt' any kid from a concubine and raise them as their own. We also know for certain that an heir didn't have to be even related to the king to inherit the throne. This didn't happen often, but it happened. (Ramesses I was just a friend of the previous king f.ex.)

This problem won't come up with Narmer though because he already has an adult child. And the noble MC is a thirdborn, their older siblings all have children, so the bloodline is already secured. Captain MC has two mothers, living together, like "very good friends" *wink wink*. Priest MC is an orphan.

For your second question, most of the story is going to take place on the road, sort of like a quest thing, and by the time MC & Co. come back to Thebes, MC won't be a 'nobody' anymore. I planned lots of different endings based on your previous choices, but rest assured, even if you play a thief origin, you can have a happy ending with Narmer. If you play a woman, he could even make you Queen Consort. For a guy or non-binary MC, he'll give you some bullshit title named 'Beloved Companion' or something and be done with it.

Sorry for the awfully long answer lol this is a subject I'm passionate about 😅 Thanks for reading and please continue to send messages! ^^

[avicebro]

I apologize if I seem like I'm harping on Kiyohime a lot, I just don't tend to see a lot of fans of her. What do you like about the character? I don't remember a lot interesting about her beyond that one short-story Nasu wrote where she didn't recognize the origin Anchin as her Anchin.

I can kinda get that - besides friends in JP, I haven't really met too many people that like her on this side of the fandom, and I did just mention that the fandom made me shy about talking about her.

So! Some things I enjoy about Kiyohime:

I think it'd be rude not to talk about her design. BLACK, in my opinion, excels in designs that appear rather plain but have a bunch of cute details thrown in. I love her horn design, I love the gold accessories, I love the small references to dragons in her clothes. When the colour scheme goes to black/yellow/white too I think that's really good. It's really striking.

I like the cherry blossoms in the background - a subtle nod to the first fate 'yandere' (I don't think Sakura is a yandere, but yk, sometimes fate likes to say she is so it's a solid reference nevertheless). [Also, her outfit harkens back to Kohaku. Again, don't think Kohaku is a yandere but still.]

I understand why people don't really like how often she appears in things, and how she acts. And also the fact that fate presented her as a waifu and then turned around and went, haha, nope! She's actually a pre-teen! But I think like, if you view her from the angle of a young girl first experiencing love with Anchin, it makes a lot of sense. Was what she did a good thing for her do? No, of course not. Is it that odd for a 13-year old girl who has never experienced love before? No, not really. In that sense, I find that she's similar to Medea Lily in their #weirdgirl behaviour.

(it also makes her dynamic with elizabeth make a lot of sense. they're two teens who are fighting on stan twitter.)

In that sense, her age explains her dynamic with Ritsuka. After being remembered as the dragon that killed the first man she fell in love with, who ran from her out of fear and broke their promise, it is only natural for her to fall for Ritsuka. Someone who does not care about her history, who or what she is. And further, Ritsuka's reaction to Kiyohime, as time goes on, makes sense too - like imagine trying to calmly let down someone who's your little sister's age while worrying you'll end up just like the last guy. Ritsuka is a nice person - of course they don't wanna make the pre-teen cry.

I think it's fun to think about her friends, too. Like she has this fun, bickering dynamic with Liz (who, I understand, also did show up a lot in the early game and so people aren't as fond of her).

She's e-mail buddies with Tamamo and Osakabehime. I want to watch her TikTok.

Also, the turas realta making it so that Ritsuka pinky-promises to summon Kiyohime (a reference to Kiyohime being a free servant) is a cute little nod to Kiyohime's previous promise by Anchin being broken. I just think that's really sweet. Finally, a promise to Kiyo that isn't broken.

I will say she does suffer from early writing syndrome, and she was often treated as the butt of a joke just like Liz or Nero. Unfortunately, unlike those two, she didn't have anything else besides some one-off lines by Tamamo in /Extra. And so I do understand why she's disliked, especially since she was so prevalent in early game (story chapters, other people's valentine's day scenes/interludes).

But I think it says something about how much people enjoyed her showing in Shimousa, even if it wasn't 100% her. And unlike the other yanderes we have in fate, despite all the stuff I've mentioned above, I think she definitely has the opportunity for more growth. We haven't really seen her since fate officially confirmed that she's a child. It'd be nice to see if that important element to her character affects her writing in the event. And heck, if it doesn't, that's cool! Compared to other popular servants, 7 years is a pretty long between relevancy all things considered.

One thing to note too is that her voice actress was unable to voice act due to illness - hence why we only just got Marie Alter this year. With Marie Alter and now an outfit for Kiyohime, it feels like a very nice 'welcome back' to one of the first voice actors to really make F/GO it is.

But fuck whatever Riyo does with her like dude your thinly veiled vore fetish is making it so hard to defend Kiyohime omg.

[mayflowers515]

(Wholesome Cartoon AU) Smiling Critters' Families

Wanted to make this to go more into depth with the Critters' families and their thoughts on them. I mentioned some aspects about some families already in my lore headcanons, but here the information relating to them will be more organized and may have some extra details not brought up before.

Note: For the purposes of cartoon logic, real-life lifespans of animals won't apply here when it comes to the parents (since their ages are definitely beyond what ages they typically live by-)

I also have headcanons for all the families, and I will update this if I think up more for them :)

🧡☀️DogDay☀️🧡

Members:

NoonHound - father; 32 years old

Bio: Works as a cartoonist and is very passionate and easygoing.

DandieDawn - mother; 31 years old

Bio: Works as a daycare teacher; she is very caring but a bit of a worrywart.

DogDay - older brother; 11 years old

SunnySpot - younger sister; 6 years old

Bio: Filled with endless curiosity and bubbly charm, but can be a smart allec sometimes.

DogDay loves his parents a lot and respects all of what they do for him and his sister. He only wishes they could all spend more time all together. That doesn't happen too often due to his mother and father working busy jobs. As for DogDay's relationship with Sunny, he cares a lot about her, too. Sometimes, he can get a bit too overprotective of her in cases where it may not be needed. Even then, he likes to play games with her whenever she asks about it. She's very playful after all.

DogDay's parents, Noon and Dawn, work a lot to care for him and Sunny. They used to all live in a more drab town where the job quality wasn't the best. They stayed there to improve their financial situation until finally they could move to a better town to work better jobs. Though they can still be busy at times, the parents now have much more initiative to take a break compared to before. As for Sunny, she really looks up to and admires her brother. Though she gets annoyed whenever he overly coddles her, and she occasionally plays smart with him.

Headcanons:

Sunny has learned how to solve a Rubik's cube at a young age. In general she is good with completing brain puzzles, but solving a Rubik's cube is her favorite one.

Dawn's experiences as a teacher is part of the reason for being a worrywart. Due to the way the kids at daycare act, she tends to have this persona of her slip whenever she tends to DogDay and Sunny. She is often out of work very exhausted and tense, but she still loves her job.

As a kid, Noon drew cartoons as he has always wanted to be a cartoonist. However, he doesn't really like looking back at them since he views them as "cringy". If his kids were to see the comics he created, he would laugh at them as a way of acknowledging how "cringy" his previous work was, even if this may not have been the case.

Dawn and Noon have known each other for a long time, as they were next-door neighbors in their childhood town (not the same as the drab town I described, though). They were childhood friends for a long time, but Noon had harbored feelings for Dawn for a long time even before they got together. By the time their high school's prom came around, he confessed his feelings for her, which she reciprocated (turns out she felt the same way Noon did, but he was oblivious to this thinking she was just being shy originally).

Dawn's hobby whenever she isn't working is landscape work. This ranges from gardening to decorating. She gets really into it, too, often taking a long time to finish her landscaping work to fit a certain occasion (especially the case when holidays roll around). Noon likes to help with decorations sometimes because of his own passions relating to drawing.

DogDay's appreciation of his father's drawings is also what makes him so interested of other people's art, even though he himself isn't as artistic of a person.

🩷🍎PickyPiggy🍎🩷

(I'm changing my mind about the status of Picky's parents. They never disappeared now- I didn't like the original idea I had for them looking back at it; may put what I planned for them previously in another timeline though, but I'm not sure atm)

Members:

PerfectPiggy - father; 36 years old

Bio: The main cook of the family's kitchen; has good leadership skills and charisma.

PetitePiggy - mother; 34 years old

Bio: The co-cook and gardener of the family's kitchen; not afraid to get messy and is hard-working.

PickyPiggy - older sister; 10 years old

PerkyPiggy - younger twin sister; middle; 7 years old

Bio: Takes a lot after her mother and loves outdoor activity. She and her twin brother commonly bicker.

PowerPiggy - younger twin brother; middle; 7 years old

Bio: Though very reserved, he is stubborn and goal-oriented. He and his twin sister commonly bicker.

PlayPiggy - baby brother; youngest; 6 months old

Bio: A very happy infant who loves to play games.

Picky has a lot of respect for her parents. They were the reason she has such a passion in gardening and especially cooking. As a result, Picky is a bit closer with Perfect than Petite, but she is always enthusiastic at both learning new recipes and growing new crops. She has learned a lot about responsibility and discipline from them that reflects in the piggy she is. Picky has a motherly attitude towards her siblings. Whenever her parents can't take care of them due to being busy, Picky usually volunteers to help. She is a peacemaker to her siblings if Perky and Power get into fights or whenever Play starts to get upset. She also caters a lot to their basic needs. She doesn't deny any of them for any reason, though she can sometimes act slightly mean and sarcastic towards them depending on her mood. She usually apologizes when she goes too far with this attitude, however.

Picky's parents love all of their children equally. In the case of Picky, they are especially happy that she takes interest in their work. They secretly want Picky to help run the business with them when she's older, and potentially even inherit it if and when they retire. As for Picky's siblings, they have a lot of respect for their older sister. Especially because of what she does to make sure they get taken care of whenever their parents can't help for whatever reason. Perky and Power usually have Picky play with them when she can because she can also let loose and play with them just like any sister can. Though not much is known with how Play feels about Picky due to being so young, he appreciates her company just as much as everyone else's. He especially loves the games she plays with him.

Headcanons:

Before their start as a local restaurant business, the Piggies took their food service slow. They helped out in any food drives and potlucks they came across. Their favorite place to help out is in homeless shelters and orphanages. Picky especially likes to help out in the orphanage (I imagine this is how she and Bobby met all that time ago).

Both Perfect and Petite were into cooking, and they naturally took interest in each other when realizing during high school that they both planned to go to culinary school. During their time in culinary school, they fell in love and eventually became a couple.

Perky and Power aren't into cooking as much as their older sister or their parents, but they still occasionally help out in the kitchen, especially if it involves their favorite food. They can't help out in the same room, however, since they bicker even in the kitchen.

Perky is VERY messy whenever she helps out in the kitchen. She often has flour and ingredients all over her clothes after helping out. This would annoy Power, who is much less messy in the kitchen.

Whenever Power is in the kitchen, he is very by the book. He does a good job keeping track with the details explained in the cookbooks, but he will question whenever something goes against what he expects would happen.

Perfect sometimes cooks the food he makes for the restaurant business as a surprise for the family. To save money, they usually eat store bought food whenever those surprise days don't happen.

Petite probably has a lot of injuries due to what she has to work with in her garden. She especially hates wasps since they sting her a lot whenever she tends to the garden.

🩵🌈CraftyCorn🌈🩵

Members:

King SpeQuine - father; 41 years old

Bio: A very demanding presence in the kingdom and always strives to receive the best in everything.

Queen PrisMare - mother; 38 years old

Bio: Known to be emotionally distant and no-nonsense. She cares a lot about keeping the kingdom afloat.

(Princess) CraftyCorn - daughter; 11 years old

Crafty's relationship with her parents is... complicated to say the least. While she doesn't hate either of them, she doesn't exactly respect them either. They always talked down to her for interests that didn't relate to royalty and they also talked badly about anybody that didn't share their status, and Crafty disliked that. Despite this, Crafty always tried to please her parents so she could feel accepted by them. She was often talked down to for not fulfilling their expectations. Eventually, Crafty had enough of this and ran away in the middle of the night. She was accompanied by a knight who took pity in her situation. She doesn't like talking about her parents ever since she ran away from them. This is also the reason why she's so sensitive on the topic of her upbringing.

Crafty's parents didn't really love their daughter as a daughter. Rather as someone that could help them with the kingdom's reputation. They always nitpicked her for not fulfilling the visions they wanted for her to be. SpeQuine would especially be more nitpicky with his daughter. PrisMare is the same, but she has a sense of coldness whenever she does the same thing. Mainly because she doesn't know how to show love in the traditional sense, since she was always so focused on her kingdom and her kingdom only. These attitudes caused Crafty to run away. Not much is known about the parents' reaction to Crafty besides the fact they are desperately trying to search for her, unaware of her current location.

Headcanons:

Queen PrisMare actually used to be a big artist as a young girl, but she was bashed for these interests in a similar manner that Crafty was. PrisMare herself doesn't realize her own hypocrisy because there was a point in her life where her family would convince her that art was nothing but a waste of time. She commonly uses those experiences to convince Crafty to do what she and SpeQuine want her to do. Even so, I feel deep down, she would've secretly been proud of Crafty and her artwork, but doesn't show it so she can be a "good example" of "proper royalty".

King SpeQuine grew up in a rich family that spoiled him rotten before getting married to PrisMare. He was always taught that he always deserved the best of the best at all times, even if that realistically couldn't always happen. Due to the way he was raised, if he wasn't getting into a relationship with PrisMare, he would've stayed with his parents and never got a chance to work. His parents didn't care about the severity of running a kingdom at the time. They only cared that their son got with a royal because of the reputation it gives them.

Though they aren't seen or heard of much in the events of the cartoon, there are implications that the finding of their daughter is getting more widespread. These implications would grow more and more as the cartoon goes on (probably during a point where Crafty is going through an arc).

The natures of both PrisMare and SpeQuine also caused them to clash and not have as healthy of a relationship with each other either. They hid this from Crafty as much as they could to set a good example for her.

The only reason the parents got together at all is because PrisMare was pressured by her family to find someone to marry for their kingdom and SpeQuine's parents wanted him to marry a rich lady to upgrade their own status. Both PrisMare and SpeQuine seldom treat each other like married couples typically do. They may have a slight hint of care for each other, but this never extends to true love.

💛⭐KickinChicken⭐💛

Members:

CooperRooster - father; 40 years old

Bio: A social butterfly who likes to live in the moment. Can get too over his head at times, though.

WendyHen - mother; 39 years old

Bio: A sweet but self-conscious hen who wants the best for her family.

StrikinChicken - older brother; 17 years old

Bio: He is generally chill and agreeable. He likes to tease Kickin a lot, but he also likes helping him.

KickinChicken - younger brother; 10 years old

Kickin doesn't show it around others, but he is very clingy to his parents. He is especially clingy towards Cooper since he often spoiled him and his brother ever since they were young. Despite not being as close with Wendy, he still appreciates her a lot and usually tries to help her when she has her episodes of self-doubt. As much as Kickin looks up to both of his parents, however, it doesn't compare to the amount of admiration he has for his brother, Strikin. They have always been really close, and Kickin wants to be as cool as his brother. He worries whenever he feels he can't reach Strikin's level of cool, but Strikin usually reassures him whenever he feels this way.

Kickin's parents care a lot about their son, but they deep down worry a lot about him. He was picked on a lot at a previous school he was at, and they feel Kickin gets a lot of his own hidden self-consciousness from those experiences. As a result, they reassure Kickin that he will always be a star to them. Strikin also feels this way, but he is very close to Kickin. He checks up on him a lot, and he feels bad whenever he feels he couldn't do much to help him with his doubts, even when Kickin is just happy Strikin was there for him at all. Deep down, Strikin worries about how Kickin will feel once he leaves for college...

Headcanons:

Strikin plans to major in engineering once he graduates high school and goes to college.

Cooper used to be in a garage band when he was younger. He still has a rock guitar reminding him of those times. He hopes one of his sons pick up on his skills sometime.

Wendy likes to scrapbook in her free time. She may also have some embarrassing photos of her sons when they were really young. Strikin doesn't really mind, but Kickin would absolutely get embarrassed if his mom ever showed anyone those photos-

Wendy and Cooper had BIG crushes on each other during high school, but neither one of them knew about it.

When they did get together, I imagine it happened in a really funny, coincidental fashion. Like, when they were teens, they took part in a spin-the-bottle game, and Cooper just so happened to land on Wendy, which she was TERRIFIED about at first because she thought she would be way out of Cooper's league yet he still pursued her. They hit it off ever since that night-

Though I wouldn't be able to straight out say it in the AU (since I hc the cartoon was created in the early 90s where rep wasn't exactly normalized yet), it is very much implied that Strikin is gay. Probably what made Kickin himself feel more comfortable about realizing he was bisexual (this would also be implied).

Strikin has a BIG comic book collection with comics he doesn't even read anymore. He plans to give those comics to Kickin once he moves out to college (he doesn't give it to him sooner because he wants to surprise him).

💙💡Bubba Bubbaphant����💙

Members:

(Ben) Benvolio Bubbaphant - father; 42 years old

Bio: An outgoing, fun-loving elephant who likes seeing the bright side of things.

Bridget Bubbaphant - mother; 43 years old

Bio: A kind, calm elephant who usually likes to reminisce on the past.

Bubba Bubbaphant - son; 11 years old

Bubba cares deeply about his parents, but he hasn't always been so trusting of them. For some time (prior to the series), he thought the relationship he had with his parents was "off", as if they couldn't be his real parents due to how different they are from him (size, color, etc). Eventually he realized the reason why, and he has become much closer to them ever since. He always appreciates how much they support his academic interests, and they always strive for him to achieve the best he can. Bubba likes Benvolio's energy, but he sometimes gets annoyed when he doesn't take certain things seriously. As for Bridget, Bubba admires how calm and wise she is. They also like to reminisce on old memories together.

Bubba's parents care a lot about their son. They originally were concerned for him because he would barely open up to them at a certain point in time. Once they realized why, they took extra time in making sure they valued their son for being himself and that they would always care for him. Benvolio has always made sure to do what he could to cheer up his son whenever he felt hard on himself. Meanwhile, Bridget usually helps Bubba whenever he wants insight on certain decisions he's about to make (he wants to make sure he's doing the right thing).

Headcanons:

The reason Bubba distrusted his parents so much in the past was because of how different their genetics seemed to be. He accidentally slips up on this distrust one time when he had an argument with them. Benvolio and Bridget open up about why this is the case. It turns out they are still his real parents despite how different they seemed. Just their genetics made him turn out to not be as similar to them. This discovery was part of the reason as to why Bubba has become much more inclined to learning new things nowadays. Afterwards, he starts to trust his parents more.

This misunderstanding led to Bubba's own fear of his lack of knowledge on certain things. Benvolio and Bridget are aware of this, and always let him know that there's still a lot for him to learn and that it's normal to not know EVERYTHING. Though this doesn't personally help Bubba very much, he would appreciate the support anyway.

Benvolio was NOT good at school back in the day. However, he would barely ever get any help due to the discrimination on him being so small for an elephant. This is eventually how he met Bridget, who was the only one who would help tutor him (she also had similar problems being rejected for her differences). Though they did clash sometimes, they eventually became high school sweethearts.

Bridget had a lot of achievements for her work in school back in the day, but this wasn't capitalized on as much during the time due to the discrimination following her. They have been given much more recognition as she grew older whenever anyone found out due to their world becoming more accepting of these differences.

The Bubbaphants loved to play board games together. They don't get TOO chaotic, as to them it's all just harmless fun to them. Sometimes, Benvolio likes to be silly about the way he plays and is usually the most dramatic whenever they play.

❤️❤️Bobby BearHug❤️❤️

Members:

Beckett BearHug - adoptive father; 34 years old

Bio: A tough-looking bear who has a bleeding heart on the inside. He has fighting experience.

Barbara BearHug - adoptive mother; 33 years old

Bio: Looks snobby, but she is actually very empathetic and gentle. She is known to have a rbf.

Bobby BearHug - daughter/adopted daughter; 9 years old

Bobby loves her parents a lot. She doesn't see them for their outward flaws, but rather as the parents she wished she was born with a long time ago. The truth is, these aren't her real parents. They adopted her after she was dropped by her real parents who neglected her. Due to her previous experience with those parents, Bobby gets really scared and apologetic if she feels she is being too much with Barbara and Beckett or if she isn't good enough for them. They always give her reassurance that they love her no matter what. Bobby sees them as her real parents because of the love they've given her that she needed all along.

Barbara and Beckett care a lot about their daughter. They always wanted to have a child of their own, but they were unable to for some time. They were glad to have the opportunity to raise Bobby after realizing her situation. As a result of realizing what she went through previously, they take extra care in being as kind and reassuring to her as possible. This is so she can know that they won't leave her or neglect her like her previous parents did. They love Bobby unconditionally as if she was their biological daughter.

Headcanons:

Bobby's biological parents are Homer HoneyComb and Cara HoneyComb. They had Bobby at a young age and at the time, they weren't at all ready to have a child. They kept her anyway due to pressure from both sides of the family, but they seldom gave her any attention outside of the bare minimum. This left Bobby starved for love at a young age, and as a result, she was more clingy to them. Homer and Cara took this clinginess as an opportunity to make her a scapegoat whenever they fought and brush her off as a "nuisance". They also used it as a reason to eventually abandon her. This all happened when Bobby was at the age of 5, and she was placed in an orphanage for some time after this. When she was 7-8 years old, she finally found loving parents in Beckett and Barbara.

Beckett is heavily trained in martial arts. He someday wants to teach this skill to his daughter, but he knows she may not want to do that at this point (she doesn't like to get her hands dirty). Beckett is patient about this aspect of Bobby.

Beckett's side of the family runs a honey farm that is far from the Smiling Critters' hometown. Whenever Beckett visits his parents, he makes sure to bring back honey to share among him, Barbara, and Bobby.

Barbara and Beckett met sometime when Barbara visited Beckett's family's honey farm. They related to each other a lot due to being misunderstood by others, and they eventually fell in love as a result.

Barbara actually works as a teacher at the school the Smiling Critters go to. To avoid bias, however, she agreed to not have Bobby in the same classroom as her. She occasionally checks in on her daughter whenever she is on break to make sure she's okay during the day.

Barbara and Beckett allows Bobby to visit the orphanage sometimes due to her positive experience with the fellow orphans there before getting adopted.

💚⚡Hoppy Hopscotch⚡💚

Members:

Scott Hopscotch - father; 36 years old

Bio: Passionate and a little aggressive. He can have a bad temper at times.

Rebecca Hopscotch - mother; 36 years old

Bio: Excitable and optimistic. She can be pretty reckless outside of parenting decisions.

Harley Hopscotch - older sister; 16 years old

Bio: Reserved and a bit shy, but very protective when it comes to her family's safety.

Hoppy Hopscotch - younger sister; middle; 10 years old

Holly Hopscotch - younger sister; youngest; 4 years old

Bio: She is carefree and imaginative, and her innocence is still very present.

Hoppy respects her parents a lot. They usually encourage her to follow her dreams of being a sports star. In fact, she was inspired to do it because of her mom's role in sports during high school and winning many medals. Hoppy also cares a lot about her sisters, though she wishes they would be more willing to play the kind of games she wants to play. That doesn't happen often since their interests are inclined in different directions. Hoppy would get protective of them if something happened to them.

Hoppy's parents are very happy with their daughters. Specifically for Hoppy, they appreciate the amount of energy she brings to the dynamic. Also happened because of their influence and their own energy. Hoppy's sisters also look up to her in their own right. Though Harley can act very cautious with Hoppy due to how reckless she can be, she appreciates what she does whenever she doesn't feel up to doing things. Holly really looks up to Hoppy despite not being into sports like she is. Holly usually likes piggy backs from her or Harley.

Headcanons:

This family seems to have a habit of cursing. Scott and Rebecca curse often whenever they're mad (mostly for Scott) or feeling intense about something (mostly for Rebecca). Holly and Hoppy usually have to be taken out of the room so they don't pick up on their cursing habits (Harley is the only one allowed to listen). Hoppy listens in anyway, so now she has a habit of occasionally cursing just like her parents. Obviously since the Smiling Critters is intended to be a kids cartoon, the swear words aren't actually heard by the viewers. They're coincidentally and comedically blocked out by something or someone every time. Ironically, Hoppy's parents would get mad if they heard their daughter cursing (secretly a bit proud at the same time, though). She usually tries not to curse in front of them anyway, but she occasionally slips up.

Family game nights are likely very, VERY chaotic with this family... Think like that Odd1sOut Monopoly scene-

Speaking of game nights, imagining this is how Scott and Rebecca met. One time they just had a game night with their high school friends. They basically had a game respects game attitude towards each other and grew very close ever since.

Harley wants to major in English once she makes it to college.

The sweater Hoppy has wrapped around her waist was given to her by Harley as a hand-me-down. Hoppy loved it so much that she has worn it ever since it was given to her. If she were to wear it, it would likely look a bit oversized on her-

Despite Hoppy getting in on the chaos of her parents, she will usually partake in making sure Holly keeps her innocence since she's so young. Basically like a "No! Not the baby!" situation like in Amphibia whenever something that would ruin Holly's innocence is about to happen.

💜🌙CatNap🌙💜

Members:

MewZizz - father; 34 years old

Bio: A calm, quiet guy who likes to play music for anyone willing to listen.

FeLune - mother; 33 years old

Bio: The resident "crazy lady"; She has a mysterious aura, but is she really what she seems?

CatNap - son; 11 years old

CatNap isn't by his parents often, but he still shows appreciation for what they do. Sometimes he can be a little embarrassed by the antics of his mom, but he will help her with any errands she needs done. As for his dad, CatNap appreciates the music he comes up with. He occasionally stops by to see his dad perform whenever he's awake.

CatNap's parents care deeply about their son. MewZizz is worried about his son's mental state sometimes, suspicious of the fact that he sleeps so often throughout the day. Though he knows why, he sometimes tries to convince him of better ways to go about the stress. This doesn't usually work since CatNap is so convinced that he just has to stay as calm as possible through proper sleep. Meanwhile, FeLune nags CatNap out of her own worry. Also because of a lot of the many traits they share with each other... She worries about CatNap going through the same judgement she went through, but she attempts to help him whenever he feels stressed about this.

Headcanons:

FeLune had a love-at-first-sight experience with MewZizz. She was always a part of the audience watching his performances. Eventually, she mustered the courage to talk to him, and they shortly got into a relationship afterward. For MewZizz, he loved FeLune's support and the quirks she had, so he quickly fell in love with her in a similar way.

The poppy gas CatNap has as his second scent came from FeLune's side of the family. FeLune herself had to deal with poppy gas, but she managed to control it to a healthy level. However, before she did, she would often get flak for having this ability, being deemed a monster by many for having it. As a result, this affects the way she feels about her son's poppy gas. She worries a lot about if people found out about this. Little did she know, her excessive worry about it is also what drove CatNap's own fear of the others finding out about his ability.

MewZizz often played lullabies for CatNap when he was younger. CatNap has fond memories of these lullabies, and he even hums them himself whenever he helps put others to sleep.

MewZizz and FeLune are very openly romantic in public. They do a lot of PDA, and sometimes this gets on CatNap's nerves because of how openly they do it.

FeLune was able to have their home installed with their own observatory. Besides his own bedroom, CatNap finds the observatory to be his favorite place to unwind.

(Phew... This took so long to make with the designs and descriptions =v=' I'm sorry for not posting about the AU in a while. I hope this makes up for it- Also tried to not be exactly the same as the existing family dynamics other people came up with for their own interpretations of the Smiling Critters- It's their original OCs after all- I did still get inspired by some things. If anyone has an issue with this, let me know and I'll work something out with my own characters since I don't want to copy off of anyone T^T)

Hope you guys enjoyed this (long) post!

🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

[aurora-daily]

How Aurora awed Billie Eilish, met Leonard Cohen’s lover and sang her way out of the Norwegian woods

The secret star of Frozen II on why she chose music over molecular science – and the reason ‘art without politics is a bit boring’

AURORA for The Telegraph, interviewed by Neil McCormick (May 26th, 2024)

“I’ve always known how to sing,” says Aurora Aksnes, in her soft, clear Norwegian accent. “I never really get tired. I can sing for 12 hours. And have a pint of Guinness. And still sing!”

There is something very special about the 27-year-old singer, songwriter and producer known simply as Aurora. Her music is extraordinary, but in person she is enchanting too: warm, witty, intense and slightly unearthly. She dresses with colourfully eccentric flair, and her wide eyes lock on to yours as if she is trying to peer into your soul, or let you see into hers.

The youngest of three sisters, she was raised by her mother, a midwife, and father, a salesman, in remote western Norway as a “person of the forest”, as she puts it, playing piano, writing songs and dancing from an early age. Her intimate and original compositions soon found an audience online and, at 18, she was given a record deal by Decca. Her breakthrough 2015 single, Runaway, has had more than 870 million streams on Spotify (where she has more than 12 million monthly listeners) and in excess of 640 million views on YouTube. Among her early fans was a young Billie Eilish, who has since said “When I saw Aurora, something inside me clicked, like, that is what I want to do.” 

While Aurora tends not to trouble the weekly singles charts, her atmospheric music has appeared on the soundtracks to countless video games, TV series and films – and that’s her you can hear singing Into the Unknown, the most irresistible earworm in Frozen II, alongside Idina Menzel. Or you might know her from the 2015 John Lewis Christmas ad, for which she invested an interpretation of Oasis’s Half the World Away with her signature gentle intensity.

Yet her true talent is most evident in her own poetic songs that range from the intimate to the epic and provide a showcase for a clear, high, expressive voice that seems able to go anywhere she wants it to, in productions that blend folk, classical, techno and pop. Enya, Björk and Kate Bush are clear influences, but you could throw into that mix the world-funk blend of Peter Gabriel, the shiny electronic dance spirit of Robyn and the synth psychedelia of The Chemical Brothers. “It’s very hard when people ask what kind of music I do,” she says. “I just like to say I make good music. It’s something I bring from within, like a human organ. I’m an organ donor!”

Released next month, Aurora’s fourth album What Happened to the Heart? is her strongest yet – a vividly emotional set grappling with loss, grief and recovery that somehow shines with a spirit of positivity. “It is not a breakup album,” she insists. “Well, not in the traditional sense of breaking up with a lover. But it has a lot of the same sentiments: saying goodbye, accepting change. It’s about the healing process, and how we deal with pain.” Although she has previously claimed that she doesn’t write from autobiographical experience, she acknowledges that, on this occasion, personal upset (about which she doesn’t wish to go into detail) was involved.

“Usually, I don’t write when I’m sad,” she says. “I don’t want to write in a way that worships the pain; I feel I should heal first, and then I can put light and wisdom in there. But this time it was very urgent. I really felt the need to pour out a lot.”

Yet if the new album draws on individual sadness, it also taps into Aurora’s sense that “something is seriously wrong in the world. While I was writing and recording, wars were breaking out. I could not contain this anger and rage on behalf of the underdog. The music got quite wild and dark.” 

As her audience grows, Aurora considers it her responsibility to speak out about the issues that matter to her, whether the state of the environment or LGBTQ+ rights. “It’s not the 1940s any more, a modern star should be in touch with the world,” she says, adding, “Art without politics is a bit boring.”

When Aurora was young, she wanted to be a scientist, perhaps in the field of “molecular technology”, she says – “I still might; life is long!” – but then music took over. “I listened to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, because that’s all the music we had in my childhood home, in the forest countryside in Norway. So when I started writing, I thought that music should say something big.”

She notes that during the 1980s when Cohen’s career was failing in the rest of the world, he was sustained by his popularity in Norway. “He had something otherworldly, that felt like an ancient reminder of kindness and grace in a world that can be very ungraceful and unkind.” Aurora tells me with delight that she knew Marianne Ihlen – Cohen’s lover and the subject of his classic 1967 song, So Long Marianne – who died in 2016, aged 81. “She was from the same village as my grandparents. She was so beautiful.”

There is something discernibly Norwegian about Aurora’s own music, full of allusions to long, dark winter days and the return of the light brought by spring. “It’s funny how deeply the sadness is rooted in the darkness,” she says. “You hear it from way back in our history, in every children’s song; they are all super sad, with heavy melodies, a dead mother, a dead child, a troll in the mountains that’s lonely. When the darkness comes, we hibernate. I read and sleep and cook and light candles, I ask of myself nothing. When everything blossoms, I write a lot; from February to October is [when I’m at] my most creative. Even though the winter months are hard, it’s worth it, because spring is just bliss.”

She believes that music is the ideal medium not only to express that bliss, but to inspire it, too. “I think it reminds people that they have power and hope and potential,” she says. “There’s so much fear in the media, and it makes us very easy to control, because any animal or human in fear makes bad decisions. Music can speak about the same things, but it’s fuelled by love.”

When I point out that images of death and mortality haunt the new album, Aurora laughs – “Well, I am Norwegian!” – before insisting that, ultimately, she won’t allow the gloomy state of the planet to crush her positive spirit. “I’m not pessimistic, but I can sound like it,” she says. “It’s an odd world, that’s all I really want to say. I find it very strange, but also very beautiful.”

[savoytrufflephd]

Let's talk about the title...

Having created this Tumblr for no other purpose than send HIUH (Hand in Unlovable Hand) asks to @thickenmyblood, I figured why not dedicate winter break to fic analysis posts?

So let's start with the title!

How could you possibly be here if you're worried about spoilers, but...

Hand in Unlovable Hand.

At first I was oriented toward the Mountain Goats song (“No Children”), you know how it goes :

I am drowning there is no sign of land you are coming down with me hand in unlovable hand

And throughout the fic's posting, lots of readers have been alternately finding Damen and then Laurent very hard to like (which was an awesome reading experience in and of itself because fanfic doesn’t always tend toward deeply complex characters). So the sort-of-toxic relationship view felt plausible (except I was always going for “appears-toxic-but-is-actually-true-love-and-totally-fixable” because this is make-believe anyway and it’s based on CP, so).

But now I’m thinking, what if the “unlovable” is actually about people who think they are unlovable? And what if that’s not just both Damen and Laurent, but also Nicaise?

So, like, what if what this little family actually has in common – even if Damen appears to have a very different history and Laurent has said they are too different – is their individual fears that no one will ever really love them?

Like Nicaise obviously doesn’t think Damen can actually love the real him and tries to be on his best behavior (even while pushing Damen’s boundaries). And Nicaise seems like he’s doing his level best to drive Laurent away, so that when Laurent eventually abandons him – as he fears - he can pretend that’s what he wanted anyway. 

And Damen has panic attacks about Maxime not because he gives a shit about Maxime but because he’s let Maxime represent the idea that Laurent never really loved Damen, but was just using Damen and moved on quickly and painlessly. And Damen had no mother and had a distant father and a resentful half-brother and he’s only just beginning to believe that chosen family can be real family.

And Laurent completely doesn’t get that Damen has this insecurity because he sees Damen’s life as so normal and charmed.

And, finally, even though our unreliable narrator thinks Laurent has always been in control of everything, including their relationship and entrance into the family formed by Laurent and Nicaise, Laurent’s insecurities (on nearly full display in Chapter 19) have been sprinkled throughout this fic like breadcrumbs.

In the original breakup:

“We’re different. We want different things.” Damen said nothing. The coffee was ashy in his mouth. Dry. “I’ve got Nicaise,” Laurent said, “and I can’t—this is not working. It was never going to work.”

In the overheard conversation with Ancel:

Ancel’s back is all Damen can see. His hair shakes from roots to ends when he tilts his head in Laurent’s direction. “I thought,” he says, slowly, “that you wanted different.” “I did.” “Ugh, Laurent, you’re giving me a headache. What even is the pro—” “I’m not,” Laurent says, louder than before. The shock of sound works like a slap, and Damen wants to move back into the hallway, to scurry to the other bathroom, to leave them alone, but his legs simply won’t take him there. “ I’m not. I’m still—you heard what Nicaise—”

In Laurent's interpretation of the breakup:

“You wanted out,” Laurent says, “so I gave you out.”

But Damen finds Laurent so loveable – and he didn’t ever really talk to Laurent about the effects his abuse – that he can’t understand how unloveable Laurent feels.

So I feel like they three are all so much alike (and so lost in insecurity) that now they’re all talking past each other.

But I also feel like when they come back together in the right way, the family will be so good for each other, damn it!

[tired-old-men]

Your jobs seem stressful, what do you guys do to de-stress?

Thunderhawk 

Our jobs can be really stressful especially since we are constantly on duty to keep Angel Island safe, however we do get some free time to rest and unwind. Everyone needs to rest and refresh to be on their A game including us Guardians. 

For me, I destress by spending quality time with the family when I can. As expected of people that constantly work and live together we tend to spend most of our free time independently, which is all fine and good.. but we are a family after all, and getting to share some genuine time together, watch a movie, maybe play a board game or two, sharing a big meal, just gives me a nice warm feeling and reminds us of the simple moments in life together. Slowing down and enjoying the little things. 

Sometimes when work gets really overwhelming I stop for a moment, I focus on my breath and pay subtle attention at whats around me, how things look, sound, feel, maybe taste, I notice my feelings in the moment and remind myself of those little happy moments in life. It’s helped me destress over the years and has even come in handy when my anxiety would try to get the best of me. -smiles- 

Sojourner

What do I do to de-stress? Besides beautiful women -smirks then clears throat-, I enjoy the occasional cigar as opposed to my usual cigarettes, I don’t drink too often but I’ll even enjoy a glass of whiskey on the rocks with my smoke. Just find a good spot to sit outside and enjoy the view and maybe some tunes, although the sounds of the Island’s wilderness is the perfect music to my ears. 

At times the best way for me to de-stress is to go out hiking and especially camping. Sometimes I’ll take my son or another one of the boys along for the trip but other times I’ll go by myself, just exploring and experiencing Angel Island’s raw beauty brings me a lot of peace and provides the space for personal reflection too. Can’t beat a walk in nature I’ll tell you that!

Sabre

To say that this job is stressful would be an understatement in my opinion… I’ve tried a few things to destress but I really enjoy some quiet time along with a nice cup of tea, perhaps even a book or a good album to listen too. I’ve also found working on my garden to be quite therapeutic for me in a way. Gives me something to focus on besides work, and as much as it reminds me to take care of my plants it reminds me to take care of myself too. Originally my wife started this garden so I’d say it also holds some fond memories to reminisce about.

Locke

De-stress? Hmm.. I’d probably say meditation is my biggest guide when I feel burdened. I’ve read some of my ancestors would meditate so much they would even reach new levels of consciousness and even find greater insight into their chaos abilities. For me it keeps me focused on the present and helps organize my thoughts. I um- sometimes go out maybe into Echidnaopolis or another town on Island, just socialize a bit… Although my favorite places I go to are some of the old ruins or caves found around the Island, lots of history to uncover, it fills me with such an exciting energy I tend to forget about whatever might have been stressing me at the moment. -smiles sheepishly- 

Spectre

Hm…I meditate. I read. I tend to write about my thoughts, feelings, and observations as it helps gather all my introspections and provide greater insight into them… … I’ll also swim or dive from time to time…water is rather soothing…

[ihateedwardnygma]

please elaborate (ignore how i voted i thought about it for 2 miliseconds only)

info dump time yay!!

i’d like to preface this by saying what i believe abt ed is likely a personal thing and up to interpretation… for starters he’s a fictional character + also. as with the majority of characters i enjoy, a lot of the things i love / find interesting about him tend to be things i headcanon. i don’t think my perception is necessarily the correct one and i also think the original poll has a lot of right answers… like you said lust and even if you put no thought into that vote i actually think it makes sense… at least in my opinion it ties into his pride, which is what i voted.

anyway! i believe that ultimately his biggest sin- and his fatal flaw overall- was his pride. his downfall is caused nearly exclusively by his own sense of pride and inability to let go of his ego. whether directly or indirectly, pride was at the centre of the majority of poor decisions he made: most of the time he acted out of a need to keep up his ego and save face, desperate to earn the respect of others around him.

i think ed had a very fragile self image- throughout the show, we see him sort of project things onto other people- denying them their own personhood or autonomy and acting as if this can both save him and perhaps save them too, if he gets it in his head that they need saving. he might view himself as smarter and superior to others on the surface, but this disguises a HEAVYYY case of low self esteem… the guy literally can’t function without his ego being stroked. he doesn’t particularly know who he is, and tends to define himself by arbitrary traits such as power and intelligence. when his inflated and distorted view of himself is challenged, he becomes angry and prone to lashing out. this can and does lead to him inadvertently torpedoing the rare few good things that actually do happen to him, which is, even if he is kind of an asshole, really sad to watch.

with this being said, i believe the fandom do tend to characterise him in black and white- either this pride and innate selfishness is a flaw set in stone that cannot be fixed, and this therefore makes him 100% evil and irredeemable- alternatively, people will go the opposite route and suggest he’s some kind of innocent little guy absolved of all responsibility for his actions because of his evident issues. and i believe it should be looked at with more nuance than that- yes, he’s not a good person, and yes, he’s done some downright evil things. but at the same time, ignoring that he was a deeply unwell and mentally ill individual with zero support system or help- i mean he got thrown in fucking ARKHAM when he was caught- does a disservice to the character. i doubt he could ever have been normal- i view him as CEN-coded (childhood emotional neglect) and also having multiple mental illnesses- majority of these are my own so it’s not like. Stereotyping lol- that may make it harder for him to navigate life. but i do think characterising him as purely evil or purely good are both takes that lack comprehension skills.

i went off on a tangent there and i’m really sorry!! but i wanted to clarify what i mean when i talk about ed + pride- in no way am i villainising the character nor am i saying everything’s okay bc he’s got like. 12 gazillions disorders or whatever- i just think he’s a very fun and interesting character to analyse… ^_^

[alpaca-clouds]

Western Cyberpunk and Techno-Orientalism

Okay, let me speak about something that apparently was not well known to a lot of people, given I got some comments on it on my "History of Cyberpunk" story.

There is a reason for Western Cyberpunk being so heavily clad in the aesthetic of Japan. I chose the Blade Runner graphic above, because it shows it so very well. With a Japanese Geisha aesthetic in the ads we see in the world. But even in those early books that came to influence the genre so much, we can see it. With people working for Japanese companies. With Japanese companies as the antagonists. And of course our individualistic punky protagonists might get called "Street Samurai" and "Code Ninja". And no, the reason was in fact not: "Japan is so hecking cool and they got all the technology." Because, as you might notice: The antagonists tend to be connected to Japanese Megacons.

The background to this is the economic boom of post-war Japan. Originally as the second world war ended, the US saw an opportunity to use Japan as a country that would produce all sorts of parts, that then could be used for American productions. And, compared to Germany, the US was also a lot more "hands off" with Japan for several reasons. But, yeah. Japan was supposed to be a supplier mostly of electronic parts for the US.

But from the US' point of view it worked a bit too well. Because Japan became really, really good with the electronics stuff. So good in fact that instead of producting part for the US, they soon started to produce their own electronic products that got sold internationally then. Leading to a boom of the Japanese economy.

And this economic boom was so big, that Japan soon enough began investing into the ecnomy outside of Japan. Aka: Japan bought shares in Western companies - at times even the majority share.

One of the to me most speaking details is, that at a time the Rockefeller center was owned by a Japanese company. And with the US economy at times struggling at the time (after the initial post-war boom was over9, while Japan's economy was constantly rising, it seemed.

And Japan was obviously "other". It was not Western culture. This idea of collectivism that very much defined Japanese economy of the time was in direct opposition to the hyper-individualistic ideal of the USA.

And hence there was a constant anxiety that Japan would just... take over the USA/the west. Which then for Cyberpunk translated into this idea that there were Japanese companies everywhere and Japanese company structures being mirrored as well. With people talking to each other with honorifics and what not.

But of course there is also the fact that this is not just the fear of being taken over by the "evil" collectivist Japanese, but also a very superficial understanding of Japanese culture as a vaguely defined "other". Which is what makes this entire thing kinda iffy. Because it just turns this thing into a very iffy trope.

Ironically, of course, people just kept it also unquestioning in the genre, even though that the fear - after the 90s brought the economic collaps in Japan - does no longer seem realistic.

But, yeah... I know that a lot of fans of the genre, who were predisposed to anime and the (still orientalist) idea of how cool Japan is and never saw all the Japanese stuff in Cyberpunk and were like "Wow, this is awesome!" But... when the genre was created, it was actually part of the dystopia.