#and also because I'm incapable of being chill about it

[vaimetanyx]

Oh how wonderful, how terrifying, to be loved to destruction

The full quote can be found here

[boringkate]

I watched Lena Dunham's Sharp Stick (2022) with a babe last month. Which I absolutely loved!!!

It's never explicitly acknowledged, but the main character is clearly supposed to be (despite the producers claiming otherwise) in some way neurodivergent. Or something. She's meek and impossibly sexually naive (to the point where me and the girl I watched it with had initially assumed the character was intended to be a child). Apparently they had approached an autism sexuality advocate to work as a consultant for the film before backpeddling.

Trans girls tend to be autistic.

The main character also had a hysterectomy (as did Lena Dunham).

Trans girls tend to be infertile.

She's shown taking estrogen.

Trans girls tend to take estrogen.

She becomes obsessed with porn and begins having one night stands with random men from the internet in hopes of finding validation by proving her sexual desirability.

Trans girls tend to do that shit.

It ends with her realizing and leaning into her impregnation fetish (while getting fucked by the one black guy she knows who had just brought over some 40s and called them homies and also while her black step sister's hands unexpectedly drift in from off screen to hold her because even when she managed to push it off to the last second Lena Dunham is incapable of being chill and normal about race).

Trans girls can't go ten seconds without making the same joke about how if you don't think you can get a trans girl pregnant then you just aren't trying hard enough (and the frequent fetishization of black men in trans and especially neighboring sissy communities can't really be denied).

Also the bartender is played by Tommy Dorfman (a trans woman) with it being her first time playing a character with a girl name.

But I'm not trying to suggest it's intentionally a movie about the tgirl excperience. That would be silly. Really the takeaway should be that (no matter how varied women's lives may be) we (trans women and cis women etc) can still always find common ground and shared excperiences. We're all in this together.

But anyways I was looking at Lena Dunham's Instagram yesterday (I've been off and on again rewatching Girls, so she's stayed on my mind).

One post features the music video she directed starring famed trans girl Hari Nef.

Another post shows that she recently read trans boy Elliot Paige's memoir Paige Boy.

Another post shows a conversation she had with Jon Bernthal (on his podcast) where she explains the word cis to him and talks about having also explained it to her husband (this is the only clip from her appearance on the podcast that she chose to post).

BTW did you know that she was an executive producer for the 2021 show Genera+ion (which I recall featuring a trans boy actor playing a cis boy character who gets a girl pregnant).

Fascinating!

Meanwhile. Ten years earlier. In 2013 (a year into my transition and a year before Time declared that we've reached the trans tipping point) an episode of Girls features a doorman telling one of the titular Girls that "a tranny walked in last time and he was just walking around the floors, but it was nothing." (lmao)

UPDATE: s05e02 features a "did you just assume my pronouns" bit. (in a way that felt reactionary and gross because the theyfab saying it was an absurd hipster barista that the audience isn't intended to sympathize with)

UPDATE UPDATE: s06e02 features the leader of a group for women entrepreneurs saying "For those of you asking on our Facebook if the group is open to trans women: The answer is: We don't know. Okay?" (which I thought was fun)

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: s06e03 (the literal next episode) "I even went to a couple of hookers and one of them had a dick."

[a-crochet-spider]

Matthew Patel headcanons but I'm vaguely mean about it

I really do love him you guys I swear the brainrot is real

• Talks in all caps all the time. He does not know what the word chill means and he never intends to learn.

• Very expressive, especially with body language. Has hit people in the face because of his gesturing and doesn’t apologize.

• As he is a very intense person, his feelings towards people are also very intense, so he is either completely enamored with someone or hates their guts, no in between.

• Sure, he’s super over the top most of the time, but privately he’s the most pathetic sopping wet cat of a man you’ll ever have the (dis)pleasure of meeting.

• His music taste is evenly divided between musicals and 2000s emo music (it was not just a phase and he didn’t grow out of it). He also won't listen to anything else no matter how hard you try to make him.

• He likes Mindless Self Indulgence a lot

• He either dresses in suits or like a homeless teenager. Again, no in between.

• He knows how to knit but if you ever walk in on him doing it he will yell at you to leave (and maybe apologize later for yelling if he likes you).

• Feral bisexual, obviously.

• He’s a trophy husband for sure. He hated being a CEO, he hates working, he just wants to either put on his silly little musicals or stay home.

• He puts so much product in his hair to keep it the specific way he likes it. During the day it’s very crunchy.

• On the topic of personal hygiene, he is extremely on top of taking care himself. It takes him an hour to get ready to go anywhere. His eyeliner is put on with unbelievable care. He picks out most of his outfits with a very specific ideal in mind. He probably has a skin care routine.

• He probably smells nice too. He uses a normal cologne, but it’s probably wildly overpriced and smells really good.

• Quality time is his love language.

• He’s obviously extremely confident in himself but specifically when he knows he’s in charge. If there’s any doubt he will trip tf up.

• Probably knows how to cook. He can and will brag about this.

• Has had a Tumblr blog since middle school where he posts all of his theatre kid brainrot. Nobody knows about this except Ramona, who has graciously not told anyone yet.

• The LIGHTEST sleeper ever. The tiniest thing will wake him up. If you slightly nudge him while he’s asleep he wake up instantly.

• Only likes touch from specific people or if he initiates it first. Anything else results in someone getting physically injured.

• He is incapable of sitting like a normal person. He just bends himself in so many weird ways that he’ll end up taking up the whole sofa if he isn’t stopped.

[stirringwinds]

do you think Alfred regrets in some way what he did to María?

if you're referring to the mention of the mexican-american war, i'm going to say "yes, to some degree" but it's the sort of regret and guilt that is a privilege that the powerful can indulge in; musing with some melancholy about what they did to attain power—while not actually being willing to give said power that was attained up. that is one of alfred's flaws imo; he isn't incapable of reflecting or feeling bad, but ambition often takes precedence. alfred and maria might've both begun as young nations in arthur and antonio's imperial shadows—but by the 1840s, alfred is no less an empire than his father (if only perhaps, not quite fully grown into a maritime power yet).

i also want to flip the question, because we often focus on alfred's feelings: what does maría think? at least, my view is that this history is just one reason (of many) explaining why she cannot help being conscious of the asymmetrical power dynamic between herself and alfred. to be sure, not every aspect of their dynamic is bad; there is the very real cultural linkage and exchange between their people because they are neighbours. alfred can speak fluent spanish; sometimes they can casually chill, hang out and talk soccer. i think most nations understand that complexity. but all the same, to her, alfred being "regretful"...simply feels quite meaningless or at least ineffectual—so long as he remains what he is; a superpower, with very few who can approach him as anything like equals, despite the gregariousness and amiability he may project. so, she tends to find this aspect of him frustrating and it's one of the major tensions in their dynamic. maría and alfred aren't the only two neighbouring nations to have an ambivalent relationship, but alfred being america does lend a much steeper scale to that power difference. to be powerful is to be alone—and to a great degree, that's indeed how i see alfred.

[shootingstarrfish]

Hi I wanted to ask one of my fav obey me artists this question: Least favorite to favorite characters? If you wanna say why, that'd be cool. If anything! Please have a nice day!

hii there!!! dearest anon stop being so nice you're going to make me cry AHSHDHD thank you,,, <33333

but what a fun question! for anyone who doesn't want to read my stupid long explanation for each character i will leave this tierlist here! all tiers (except the first tier) are organised by most to least liked within the tier from left to right

no i dont hate lucifer, it's just facebook relationship status (aka complicated <3)

i have plenty of opinions though so i'll go ahead and give some explanations too!! >:D under the cut because there's a lot of rambling here LOL

some of the list is a bit boring because i cant really say i hate or even dislike any characters, and i don't wanna be mean about any characters just cause they're not necessarily my favourites so!

that being said lucifer pisses me off to a comical degree and he absolutely doesn't belong at the bottom but my feelings about him are so ridiculously complicated i don't know where else he belongs? i wish so badly that i could hate him in an uncomplicated way and move on but as an eldest sibling he's such a personal attack on me and i hate it. he's me, i'm him it's horrible. every time i start to think "ahh he's not that bad" he opens his mouth and makes me regret thinking that. i still think about the time i chose to kiss him on the ferris wheel and he held his hand out after and i took it and he said it reminded him of his dead sister, i will never stop holding it against him. he deserves to be loved and taken care of and he also should be thrown off a cliff. im quite certain if i had to assign myself a sin i would pick pride and i hate it >:( (this is all very lighthearted lol)

diavolo used to viscerally annoy me for no good reason when i first started the game, but over time he's grown on me and i'd say now i'm neutral-positive on him!! no idea why i hated him, i was just very salty for no reason hahaha i've recently come to appreciate his character a lot more, im very :( about how lonely he must be and i want him to have more genuine friends please solmare

i think mephisto really is just the kind of character i need to see more of to like, he's very interesting to read character analyses of (and kinda relatable tbh?) but i just need more in game is all! i love his silly lil poses those are real fun, and he is pretty

levi is another i also used to hate out of nowhere? i was neutral on him initially and then i suddenly hated him with a burning passion until one of my friends told me she really loved him and im physically incapable of hating a character my friends love so we're chill again HAHA slowly beginning to like him though! what a pathetic sopping wet cat of a man, it's GREAT

OUUGHH i so badly wanna be able to love beel more, it hurts me to have to put him here but unfortunately this is the way it is... i think it's more accurate to say i love the idea of beel? and ive noticed i really like him everywhere that isnt the game, which again is unfortunate :,)))

LUKE IS MY SON he is babyyyyyyy that's all i have to say <333 my precious lil sonboy he deserves the whole entire world

everyone loves mammon, and i am no exception :D he's not necessarily my type hence why he's neatly placed right in the middle but ugh i love a guy who tries and fails miserably to act tough but is super sweet inside, what a guy <3 ok i flip flopped between putting satan and simeon in the love tier because i am so very fond of both of them, but that's too many characters up there so imagine they're both in a weird tier purgatory between the 2 LOL

i am in fact going to marry simeon and then we will raise luke together it's a fact simeon is everything he's pretty and beautiful and a very complex and interesting character ahhh

SATAN MY LOVE he's a very interesting case to me in that i feel on paper he should be the kind of character who would be on the top of the list! he's smart and kind and unhinged and would kill for you and he likes cats!!! truly husband material i adore him

im going to marry thirteen, thanks for listening to my ted talk <3 my darling beautiful wife who would laugh hysterically if i fell down the stairs i love u thirteen <3333333 we will be wed tomorrow and we will live the dream in her silly lil cave of pranks and curses

i dont know what it is about raphael but i adore him??? is it the wet kitten swag? the done with life expression? his ridiculous outfit? i couldnt tell you but i saw him for the first time and i was immediately obsessed everything i learn about him just makes me more obsessed, i love the fact that he enjoys solomons cooking, the way he's good at sewing and is kind but kinda scary, what a fun character

i could talk endlessly about solomon oh how i love this silly househusband wizard guy i was pretty neutral on him in the og game, and then he swiftly stole my heart in nightbringer and now i would eat his terrible cooking any day of the week just to see him smile <3 if i die seeing him happy that's probably the best way to go out all his calls and messages are sooo cute and they make me melt im in love please just one chance...

barbatos and solomon are typically equal on the list i'd say? but the barbatos brainrot is hitting harder now so he gets to be ever so slightly higher this once hahaha barbs is another that took a while to grow on me, not that i ever disliked him or anything but i definitely overlooked him at first! design wise i absolutely LOVE him, his demon form is definitely one of my absolute favourites. the unique but still put together suit?? the ruffles?? the bone wing horns?? ugh he's just very pretty, and SO interesting as well love a calm collected guy who totally has the potential to destroy you if he so wishes but has a soft spot for you

and of course, real shocker im sure, at the tippy top of the list would be asmo and belphie my beloveds <333 i love them both equally and i could never put one above the other i actually started playing obey me for belphie because one of my favourite character tropes is The Tired One TM, and im absolutely not immune to a cute emo boy either. i've grown to really love his sass and the way he hides his manipulative nature behind his sweet and innocent appearance hehe i also do love how ridiculously forward and blunt he is at times, what a silly guy while belphie was very predictable, asmo was a very out of nowhere character for me! i distinctly remember seeing him initially and thinking "avatar of lust?? i guess he's pretty but he'll probably just be the fuckboy character who makes nonstop innuendos and has no character beyond that, and i'm too asexual for this" so i avoided him a lot at first, but i'm very weak for how kind and gentle and charismatic he is, and the way he puts his all into everything and everyone <333 it didnt take long for me to realise that he's almost exactly the kind of person i aspire to be more like

also miura ayme gives me so much gender envy its not fair send tweet

[thefanciestborrower]

do you have prey link hc's i am BEGGING spare vore

YEAH here you go! These are mostly gonna be B0TW and T0TK Link since that's who I talk about most on here, but if you want any other version I'd be happy to do that too. Okay so it might actually take Link a second to warm up to being eaten in a friendly manner if I'm being honest because there are. SO many monsters that would love to make him into a proper meal so in his mind it's a bad thing. At least...until it's very firmly established as something affectionate and kind of silly a few of his friends can do. Then once he warms up to it he's an absolute menace. Cannot ever sit still in someone's insides and I mean he absolutely CAN'T. It's impossible he's just too fidgety and can't keep his hands to himself to save his life. That I feel like is true of every Link, but especially our lovely B0TW/T0TK gremlin boy because look at him. Even his idle animations show him constantly stretching, bouncing, and shaking his little hands, so staying still in a stomach really isn't an option. Unless he falls asleep of course which is, a very big probability. Especially if he's bored. Something I think might be a little funny is how easy it would be to startle him by just, grabbing him up. For a normally rather stoic hero it seems very easy to catch him off guard in the games, and I feel like that would very much apply to any time a friend decided to grab him for a snack, even if they hadn't meant to scare him. He'll make the silliest shocked little face before he realizes what happened and chills out. The biggest culprits of just snatching him would probably be Si.don and Dar.uk because, well look at them they're huge.

For Sid.on it's more of an affectionate Z0ra thing I think. It feels like something they would use to transport very young Z0ra still in their tadpole stage if they had to and a lot of fish use mouth brooding anyways to care for their eggs, so it stands to reason that eating someone might be a fairly understood and acceptable thing. Especially looking at all the stuff that happened with Jabu Ja.bu in previous games. Sooo Sid.on has a tendency to eat Link as a way of catching up with his friend after going a while without seeing him, and honestly Link never really minds it. His insides are soft and make a great bed, and they're warm too, so Link honestly just wishes he was given more of a warning sometimes before getting gulped lmao. Dar.uk tho...he was awful about snatching Link up because he thought it was a bit funny. Gor.on eat pretty much exclusively rocks and minerals, so it's possible they might be completely incapable of processing something like a Hyli.an, especially one that's still alive and kicking. Combine that with how much bigger Dar.uk was than Link and....yeah there was really no reason for him not to eat his tiny friend every once in a while lol. Link was pretty fussy about it because he was NEVER given a warning and always grabbed at an inconvenient time, but he never was genuinely mad about it either. Just playfully annoyed and incredibly wiggly. I feel like Link also gets eaten by various monsters he fights like Hinox, Molduga, and other things like that, but it's waaayyyyyy less friendly or fun for either party

[markantonys]

Show Rand just seems a lot more mature in general. I've just started reading the books, and all of the EF5 seem older than their book counterparts, who feel a little more like teenagers (tbh the show versions seem a lot more in line with the maturity of a 17th century 20-year-old--I say this as a teacher of 19 to 20-year-olds). It kind of makes sense that his relationship with Moiraine is calmer and less fraught

absolutely! haha i often see readers going "ugh why does everyone keep talking about the show aging up the EF5, they're basically the same age in s1 as they are in book 1 🙄" and i'm like my dude, we're OBVIOUSLY referring to them being aged up in terms of maturity and life situations/circumstances, not a literal "they made them x years older" age-up (although they did make egwene a couple years older since she's younger than the boys in the books). and yeah i totally agree, the book versions come across and behave VERY unrealistically immature for the ages they're supposed to be, whereas the show versions come across and behave more like actual 20-year-olds.

across the board the show!EF5 is better than their book counterparts at skills such as communication, emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-awareness/self-understanding. the result is that they are also better at forming healthy and mature relationships. and i think the cause - well obviously the out-of-world cause is just the writers writing them as more mature - but if we're thinking in-world, then the cause is that the two rivers has a much more open, chill, liberal, and equitable culture in the show than it does in the books. no puritanical policing of sexuality and young people's relationships? then rand and egwene are better equipped to navigate their relationship troubles in a mature and empathetic way, because their emotional growth and life experiences have not been stunted by their community insisting they'd better not even THINK of so much as kissing each other until marriage. no insistence that men and women are two different species fundamentally incapable of understanding each other? then rand is better able to connect and communicate with moiraine, and the EF5 are able to be true lifelong best friends, all five of them, rather than egwene/nynaeve often behaving antagonistically to rand/mat/perrin and vice versa simply because they're different genders. and plenty of other similar examples.

[notable-phlyarologist]

ok ok ok Baldur's Gate 3 has made me aware of a certain piece of Faerûn lore which i have been unable to shake so I am screaming it into the tumblr void in the hopes it forever leaves me

In Baldur's Gate 3, explicitly, repeatedly, to the point where it is in fact a plot point, it is stated that illithids do not have souls. A fact which makes me go fucking feral. here we fuuuuckin go

Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 under the cut, and also maybe for Curse of Strahd.

Ok so first off souls exist in Faerûn, provably. They can be trapped, used as fuel, shoved back into mortal shells to bring them back to life, all of it. It is impossible, in fact, to bring someone back to life without having access to their soul, meaning that souls umambiguously comprise a fundamental aspect of the self. Additionally, gods specifically derive their power from individuals with souls.

This creates a strict delineation between those with souls and those without. Souls are that which gives the mortal dynamism and identity, and given the way illithids are exclusively referred to with it/its pronouns even when they take on individual identities, it is thus implied that individuals without souls *cannot truly* lay claim to an identity. This is then extended to create the necessary justification for typical adventuring party justified carnage-- illithids do not have souls and are not people, and you do not need to feel sympathy for the ones you kill.

Beings without souls are simply ontologically evil.

And okay, I get that this is Faerûn we're talking about, where the whole setting is awash with sapients who are 'Always Chaotic Evil' and whom can be killed on sight with no greater thought put into it. I get that if you open up a Monster Manual it will happily tell you about all kinds of beings incapable of positive emotion whom you may simply mow down en masse and which reads like a big ream of genocidal propaganda. I get that. I understand. The whole setting was fundamentally founded with some very fucked up ideas and no amount of after-the-fact polish can fully escape them.

But even by Faerûn standards this drives me bonkers. Like, okay. Illithids don't have souls, and can be killed with impunity. But they are also continually under the control of a giant psionic hivemind and are allowed no individuality. We meet two illithids, one very important to the plot, who are in fact free of the brain's control and who are perfectly capable of existing in polite society, given that polite society unpersons criminals which provides an easy source of brains for them to eat.

So illithids don't seem, once freed from an evil alien supercomputer's control, to be any more ontologically evil than, like, a picky carnivore. Hell, they can eat, like, demon and devil brains and be totally chill. And demons and devils are even more ontologically evil. So already we're seeing friction between what we are told and what happens most often (illithids as evil body snatchers who need to die) and what we see (illithids are weird creatures who need to eat brains and who can simply decide to not be evil same as anyone else).

But now it's time for my second question. What happens to a mortal soul when they are transformed into an illithid? Illithids exclusively reproduce by transforming souled creatures, and they thus become unsouled. So what happens to the soul? Does this count as death of the self, thus letting the soul move on into the messy and complicated D&D afterlife? Does the soul just vanish, obliterated? Can you bring someone back to life if they were turned into an illithid and that illithid is still alive? Does the illithid not have the soul, but traps the soul somehow, meaning that they aren't actually using it but the soul can only be released when the illithid is dead? What the fuck does Faerûnian philosophy even look like because I'm going insane and we're not even to the part that drives me the most crazy yet.

Because, spoilers, you can become an Illithid! Or more specifically, any one of the player characters, be they Origin or Original, can. When they do, shielded from the influence of the Evil Lobe, they still possess all their normal personality traits and are basically the same except that now they think brains are yummy, that being an illithid is super cool, can blow stuff up with their brain, and use it/its pronouns. #transitiongoals

But they still do not have souls! They still possess the fundamental identity that they had as a souled person, yet now they are continuing to have it without the soul that makes it possible to have an identity! What the hell is going on? They have all the memories, the mannerisms, the internal perception of self that they did before they became an illithid. Somehow, the illithid version of them is fundamentally false! Despite being functionally indistinguishable from who they were beforehand! If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then where did its soul go?

And that's not even touching whatever the fuck being a half-illithid does to your soul.

Which is where Curse of Strahd enters the field, because my outside experience of Ravenloft further complicates this. See, Ravenloft is a plane of existence magically sequestered from the rest of reality, and souls cannot pass through the barrier between Ravenloft and the rest of the D&D multiverse. No souls out, and no souls in (except for the ones brought in by the stereotype brigade). This means that the whole plane is just recycling the same set of souls, forever, resulting in a perpetual cycle of reincarnation. But the actual population of Ravenloft can grow and shrink, even if the number of souls doesn't change. Meaning, sometimes in Ravenloft, a baby is born *without a soul*.

These soulless people have some common traits. They are quiet, uncreative, boring. They don't seem to have desires or hopes or dreams. They just kind of Exist until eventually they stop doing that. In short, they are the purest form of a video game NPC imaginable.

This implies a whole suite of entirely different things about the presence or absence of souls in Faerûn which makes me froth at the mouth. What the fuck do souls even *mean* in this setting? They definitely exist, and they definitely do Something, but the nature of that something varies wildly. And don't even get me started on at what point souls stop happening with regard to animals, because from what a cursory search tells me 'plants and vermin are typically not sentient enough to have souls' which basically just makes smoke that smells like burning plastic begin leaking from my ears.

I have no answers and I must scream.

[the-monkey-ruler]

starting to think novel fans should chill out about inaccuracies in lmk like it’s doing its own thing like china, japan, and others have. it gets weirder when they use a shield like ‘protecting chinese culture’ like i understand with smth like the disney adaption, but not with a show that’s popular with chinese kids.

I mean… I think it is less with how inaccurate it is and more than it kinda getting the message of the novel is being spread as something that it is not. There are a lot of Westerners for whom this is their first introduction to Xiyouji and, yes, there is a lot of misinformation going around because of the creative liberties but I don't think it's coming from a place of "Oh it's different and it's bad," but more "People that are watching this cartoon should understand that this is a reimagining of the world and shouldn't take it so seriously when they try to critic Xiyouji despite never reading it."

Let me start that taking a new twist on Xiyouji media is nothing new. Like I get doing new things is fun and interesting and draws in a new audience and Xiyouji fans are NOT unused to having different Xiyouji re-tellings that range from horribly inaccurate but something being the most beloved things to be very accurate and being mid.

But that is because of how the characters are driven and what I think is the biggest issue that LMK has had with its storytelling. They have been making a lot of character choices that I think really undermine what Xiyouji is about and how it kinda is disrespectful to use something so deeply ingrained with Chinese culture and almost sweep away any reference it has to Daoism or Buddism and make it very… one-sided in that regard.

Like for what LMK is… it's fine. REALLY. It's a cute cartoon. A lot of Chinese people enjoy it and no one is trying to say that isn't true.

But what is true is that a lot of Westerns are being introduced into Chinese culture and folklore and there have been many cases of… insensitivity to say the least to blatant racism to say the most.

But I think a lot of fans of Xiyouji understand that there have been centuries of misrepresentation of Chinese, and other Eastern cultures, in Western societies and the response to wanting to correct inaccuracies comes from simply wanting to be represented in a good light. I would think that if Flying Bark was to take a new spin on other media without so much cultural significance they can do amazing but I can see where a lot of misinterpretation of the source material in Western fans is leading to high tensions.

The issue I've seen is how Western fans have really taken things like LMK or Overly Sarcastic Production, both Western adaptions of the novel, and taken that as pure fact. Again I'm not trying to say they are bad, I am saying they are interpretations all on their own and shouldn't be considered 'canon.'

I think fans trying to correct these inaccuracies in the fandoms as a way to try to say "Hey this culturally important piece of literature actually has a lot more meaning and ingrained messages that cannot be separated from the source material and shouldn't be interpreted as such by Western standards." and most cases being blown off for trying to correct these takes in Western fan bases.

Personally, I think that there has been lack of Wukong or his journeymates' perspectives has caused more confusion than anything else. Also with the depictions of heaven as well. And trust me this would not be the first time that Heaven was seen as 'the bad guy' in Xiyouji media but…. they just make it so clear that Wukong in this series has nothing working for him and it's because this creates a lot of discourse.

I do genuinely do enjoy LMK Sun Wukong, he isn't a fav but he is a delight, but I think the narrative that he is incompetent, incapable, illiterate, and a one-noted character has been taken too far at this point. I know this is not his story but, it's Xiaotian's, but it really feels like the studio is so insecure that Xiaotian can be a good hero on his own that they need to make Wukong seem more incompetent to make Xiaotian the one to fix his mistakes.

It is a very unbalanced dichotomy that I feel Flying Bark is not handling well personally, always pushing aside Wukong's point of view in favor of villains for the sake of "drama" and suspense and while that can be interesting… the balance just makes it feel too one-sided.

I also feel the crew of LMK has gotten too involved with Fandom culture. Reminds me a bit too much of Legends of Voltron fandom and how that kind of fan to Creator communication can be… dangerous to say the least.

I can't say I can agree with you anon with the amount of disrespect I've seen from some fans in the LMK fandom with its treatment of Eastern regions, customs, and even the language itself. I think that LMK fans trying to dissuade these attitudes are trying to stop the wave of disrespect by using the book but really reducing such a culturally important piece of media to just 'silly little legos' does reflect in reducing Chinese culture that is ingrained and cannot be separated from the original source material into something like an aesthetic really does damage.

Chinese films that play around with the idea of Sun Wukong can do so successfully because the established idles of Xiyouji are never changed while I feel that so many LMK fans taking the show too seriously in their interpretation of the novel and even Buddism, Daoist, and Chinese folks lore can be damaging.

Lego Monkie Kid as a show is fine. It's not the most groundbreaking or even the biggest Xiyouji media I've seen here but it's a fine show.

But I think some fans are trying to dissuade Western fans from reducing Chinese culture to something 'otherly worldly’ just being of the colonialism connections that the West has had with taking Eastern media and reducing it to products.

[missveryvery]

what are your most recent fengqing headcanons 🥺

actually insane that this is a question i can answer instead of going "most recent, why do you think I've made more".

I think of these as more like "theories" or "this would be so cute ;0;" rather than "headcanons" because I like many different types of interpretations of them!! Like some of my thoughts are like "if you read it like this, you can get to here"and some of it is like "i think this is literally what mxtx means here". And some is "HEAR ME OUT, WHAT IF X? WOULDN'T THAT BE SO CUTE?!"

I don't mention it much, but Iike them being sworn brothers, too, and loving each other in a familial way. Which I think is the canon way they feel about one another. Because the big reveal is "they are friends and go on little adventures together all the time!" and there are a couple examples that refers to the three of them obliquely as brothers. I think that's just as sweet and satisfying as them making out and getting married forever

-I do think if one of them dated someone, the other would go insane, like be extremely protective and climbing in through the window in the middle of the date.

FX would lose his mind if MQ was seeing someone! Very loudly give his opinion, fucking FORBID it if it's someone he doesn't approve of (mq: wtf do you mean you "forbid it"?!!), freaking out like "mq has never been in a relationship, he'll get his heart broken" and very like "ARE YOU SURE??!! MQ YOUR CULTIVATION?! ;0;". 50000% mom mode.

MQ would also lose his shit if FX was seeing someone. Also "No. I forbid it." (fq: what do you mean you "forbid it"?!) and threatening the person like "if you break his heart I'll kill you. If you want to break up with him, you come to me and we'll do it in the least painful way possible. sign this contract in blood." mad dogging the person like:

Both very "WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS?!!" and doing background checks. Ready to throw down at a moments notice, both so in the other's business.

(i think xl would be very involved, too. he seems like he'd be chill but he has this zone of like 'actually, i care a lot and will not be chill about this' that I think this situation would fall into. like when he freaks out if QR says something mean to HC? I think he'd choke someone out for those two.)

-mu qing designed fu yao to be elegant and refined. but once he gets in the shell, he's incapable of not making the :3c face and looking like "fufufufu"

i've never seen a more bitchass expression on a chibi before. he looks so smarmy, such a little shit. He thinks he looks aloof and refined and doesn't realize Fu Yao looks like a gremlin and supremely punchable.

-all that bullshit i said on that post about how they act when scared. I'm thinking about them hugging onto each other tightly when startled/scared a lot. I feel like in the donghua, we MIGHT see that happen during the chase scene...!!! pray for me.

[feverdreamjohnny]

My Melting World

Hey there. This is going to be a bit of a personal post. I'm going to talk about a game I made in 2020 that I kept returning to well after I should've left it alone.

Demon's Island was... Well, it wasn't a game, I guess. Probably something closer to a virtual post card, maybe even a hangout zone by proxy. Regardless, Demon's Island was an effort to collapse a lot of my feelings and memories down into a single bite-sized sandwich. That's probably why the game feels distinctly childish and silly; it's as earnest as I was capable of at that time, purely translating how I felt in the form of messy, unfiltered in-jokes and spaces built for people that no longer exist.

I think that last part is probably one of the more haunting prospects whenever I revisit the game. 2020 was a different time. There are rooms and textures left over from people who've since faded away, and revisiting it in recent times feels like walking into the bedroom of a deceased relative. It's just a room, but the little imprints of them are still left there. It's a chilling sensation, sometimes unpleasant, but I still feel like it's something we all need once in a while.

Tallying all of the time up, I probably spent nearly a year building this time capsule. I went through a lot of growth as a game developer over these past few years, and I really think Demon's Island was core to it. It wasn't just the technical skill required to make a multiplayer exploration game, but because it was also the last place I got to store a lot of the unbridled joy I felt with my friends before I had to suit up and try to become a "real" game developer. Excitedly promising my friends a trip to a mall that we could all walk around in before I moved away to some proverbial college town.

Demon's Island wasn't the first game to serve as a time capsule for me. Years ago I had this friend who I was close with and it was actually his body of work I used as a touch-stone to come back to a time I was quickly forgetting. His work always fascinated me because while I was struggling to try and make my games evolve (to disastrous results), he went with the flow and just did whatever he felt like. I think that's probably why his games managed to capture a lot of raw emotion that I was completely incapable of in my own work. It's tragic that I failed to understand the value of what he was doing because I was too distracted with trying to "become something."

I pushed him a lot, trying to encourage him to leave his comfort zone and make something more "tangible." He always responded that his work was just for his friends. He ALWAYS responded that his work was just for his friends.

We ended up separating around late 2019 after a serious personal rift outside of game development. I disappeared and moved on to another friend group, trying to pretend that nothing ever happened. He just moved at his own pace and continued onward like always. It was a hard time.

One day I was curious about what happened to him, and I eventually came to discover that he moved to 3D art. From what I could tell it seemed like he had found an audience for himself. I was happy for him. Despite the rift, I still wanted to see him succeed in the end. Even though I pushed him in the wrong direction, that was always what I wanted to see. Maybe it was for the best that he stopped being around me.

About a month or so ago I was reflecting over the games he and I used to make to a different friend of mine (who also knew him), and this friend condescendingly described my nostalgia as "immature." I never really confronted the way he phrased it, but I fumed internally. It's funny how a single, stupid word affected me so much. It frustrated me that one of the few things I had left that connected me with a happier time was now re-framed as something to be shoved under the rug. I think it's important that you occasionally take time to reminisce so you don't forget the events that are shaping the moment you're in. Sometimes you need to look back to figure out how everything got to this point.

I think the reason I've fixated on this concept of "games as time-capsules" is because I have an incredibly hard time remembering things. Not so much that my memories are being completely erased, but recollecting things becomes more and more difficult if I leave them alone for long enough. Now, it's not uncommon to have a hard time remembering things, but I definitely lose my grip on memories faster than the average person. I'm not sure if this is something I inherited from my mother (who's also had memory recollection issues her whole life) or if it's something else, but it's definitely made it difficult for me to retain most of the things that have made me who I am today.

The reminiscing isn't just to relive happier moments, it's also one of the only things I have that's keeping me tethered to my roots. The less and less I reflect, the deeper those memories sink into murky waters, to the point that it becomes nearly impossible to bring them back up. I've already lost so much of my past self this way that I can't help but be frustrated that I never took an effort to archive stuff from when I was younger.

The reason Demon's Island still matters to me is because it was the first time I had managed to make a game (without my old friend) capable of tethering me to a time that's been slipping away so fast. It's possibly the single most ridiculous, mind numbing game I've ever made, but it might have one of the most important roles in keeping my fading memories alive.

Somehow a bunch of silly dancing rat gifs have convergently evolved into this. I don't know if it's the funniest shit in the world or just tragically pathetic. Maybe it's both?

I think the most important part of this entire blog post is what follows. This is the only reason I found the motivation to re-examine my feelings about Demon's Island and make a retrospective.

About half a year ago, a woman contacted me on Patreon to tell me a story about her husband.

I was floored by this, not only because I was offered to be a part of something so meaningful, but for the first time this... Stupid little thing I built to scaffold my failing memory actually connected with someone. I immediately offered to do more than just a personal message or a secret image: I wanted to make them a special room to celebrate their anniversary. She decided to send me some images and videos from their relationship, and I stitched them together to make a little flowers n' fruits themed space. This was eventually packaged in a private version of the game, and after giving her the files I went to sleep.

I didn't hear anything for about a month or so, but the silence was broken when she sent me a video of her husband reacting to his gift. Despite all of the memories fading and twisting out of my mind like shopping bags in the wind, I don't think I'll ever forget seeing the genuine joy on his face.

For first time in my life, I felt like I had finally done something that mattered.

Before I received that message, Demon's Island wasn't special to anyone but me. For my friends, it was just a fun scrapbook from a time that we were all rapidly moving on from. For strangers the game was even more useless: it was just an unrelatable stream of conscious chattering from inside my head. Who was Tim? What's with the weird HPS1 rooms? Why is there a guy with cream all over his mouth on this Thanksgiving poster? Just a bundle of connectomes signaling to nothing in particular.

For me, it was one of the last things I had connecting me to one of the most important years in my life. After receiving that message, I understood that someone else connected with the game the way I did. It was the first time I felt like I was actually being seen. Of all the little funny moments that have happened in my time as a developer, this is the one I'm fondest of.

If you're a game developer and you happen to be reading this, I have a single recommendation for you. I think you should consider making a little world of your own. It doesn't have to be a "game." It doesn't need any core mechanics or structure. Just make a little world filled with memorabilia, and make a little character to let you walk through it.

Stupid in-jokes with your friends, images and gifs you like, weird drawings, photos you took, whatever you want. Just build a world for yourself (and maybe even your friends too if it interests them). Even if you don't release it, I think you'll be grateful in the end.

There might come a day where your world starts to melt into a blurred puddle, where every day feels the same and the endless grinding makes you want to scream. There might be a day where you forget that you were alive once, and maybe having that little bucket of memories will be the thing that keeps you moving on to tomorrow.

Anyhow, we're nearly done here. I wanted to end on this room. It's actually my favorite area in the game.

See, during the latter part of 2020 my grandmother died, and my world sort of got thrown into insane disarray. It resulted in us moving out of our old home to take care of hers, and during that move I decided to build a room out of textures from my backyard.

This little room is one of the few personal remnants I have from that old house. The house I spent my entire childhood in. The house where I started making games. Guess I'm glad I kept something to remember it by.

[belovedblabber]

I’m so glad to have found other Jod enjoyers on this site. Top John Gaius “makes you want to chew on the furniture” moments?

Okay I can FINALLY take some time to answer this now, huzzah!

I have some other John related asks I'm VERY excited to answer but I have gotten far too sleepy now so I once again have to wait on those because I have a LOT to say and I am incapable of not treating everything like I'm writing an essay and bringing in citations.

But anyway, if I gave all of my top John moments this post would be a thousand miles long so I'm just going to give some of my faves. And this is in no particular order, I'm just putting them down as they come into my head

"Is that the truth, or the truth you tell yourself?" asked Augustine. "What is the difference?" said God. This exchange makes me go INSANE. I can't even be coherent about it right now, I just love how chilling John's response is, and also Muir using God here. I love her very clever choices in terms of what she calls John and when. Calling him God (or by another one of his fancy titles) can either be used for comedy (aka "Thanks," said God) but it can also be used for an absolute wham line like this one and it's just very good. I love it. It's chilling. He's so scary

When Harrow explodes G1deon and everything is going insane and then John just says "Stop" and just freezes everybody. It's such a cool moment. He just STOPS it all, I LOVE it. Also: The Emperor of the Nine houses—the Resurrection—the First Reborn—sat at the end of the table, his plain face splattered with gore, and his eyes were the death of light. Oh my GOD is that such a good line, I am deeply not coherent here but god I love this entire moment, it's such a good reminder of how powerful John is (and then him being like "I did't really want to eat human again Harrow" sdfghj)

The entire section where he reconfigures himself after Mercy exploded him. And then his killing Mercy so casually. But what I really love about it is how stone-cold he is after it all ("I never liked cleaning house all at once") I love how this scene really shows how right Augustine was earlier in the book when he told Mercy "John is never as sentimental as you think." John is so matter-of-fact and it is SO good when we see him turn on a dime like this and start cleaning house (I also love "You acted afraid—" "Acted is operative. But this is not am FAQ.") I am not explaining myself well here but I just love the way that John, who we have seen as this very affable, mellow, often very funny character throughout, turns on a dime and is suddenly so ruthless, right after killing someone who he was begging to forgive him moments before. The absolute callous tone he has ("I didn't offer it to Mercy because Mercy really pissed me off, I'm sorry to say.") is so jarring and it's GREAT. And I've seen people point to this as proof that like, 'oh John doesn't actually love them like he says he does, John is a liar he was faking his affection.' And that is SUCH a boring read. What's much more interesting, and terrifying, is the idea that John can be fully in earnest with his affection, but then just so brutally flip a switch when he's pushed. Idk, it's just a great moment. I am explaining myself poorly here I know asdfghj

"Harrowhark, nobody has the right to know," he said fiercely. "Nobody has the right to blame you. Nobody can judge. What has happened, has happened, and there's no putting it back in the box. They wouldn't understand. They don't have to. I officially relieve you from living in fear. Nobody has to know." I love this line because it's like, John are you talking about Harrow, or yourself? And with the context of NtN this becomes even more clearly John bringing his own baggage to the table. It's so good. I have a whole post brewing in my head on this subject that I am sure I'll inflict on my poor innocent followers at some point

Uhhh, every single John interlude in NtN. I know that's cheating but literally every single one had me going off my rocker.

But even more specifically, John 1:20. That entire section may be my favorite part of the book. I actually had to stop reading for a moment after I finished it (and no joke I did whisper "damn, Tamsyn" out loud and I was, in fact, crying a bit. it was also like, 6am and I had been up all night aserfghj). But seriously I wanted to pick a single part or so from this to highlight but I can't. It's all so good. And heartbreaking. John crying at C— and N— 's wedding, and eating for the first time in ages, the building desperation at the state of the world and how helpless they all feel and that bit of humanity and joy with the wedding, immediately followed by...everything else. "John, your problem is that you care less about being a saviour than you do about meting out punishment." John and Cristabel's final conversation. The absolute heart wrenching stuff with John seeing everyone die and his blurry recollection of it because holy shit it was horrendous. Literally everything else. Also THE MOMENT HE LETS GO, the entire sequence of him trying to take the earth into himself, and then the terrifying description he gives of him eating the solar system and pursuing the departing ships. Also I just really love "All those frightened people. All those run-away rats." I think I just have a very clear uh, 'line read' of that bit in my head, and I love the way he calls them frightened and then the absolute rage in the way he calls them rats. Idk, it's really clear in my head I can't really explain myself better here. But anyway yeah, the ENTIRETY of this interlude makes me go absolutely wild to the point that I cannot be coherent about it.

John 5:4, and everything John says about forgiveness, and what he'll do next, and taking his friend's memories. Again I can't really be coherent about this entire section, but I will give my fave bit from it. "There can be no forgiveness for those who walked away," he said. "Just as there can be no forgiveness for me—even though I rip the very fingers from my hands...throw them into the jaws of the monsters who hunt me...as I run from them across the universe, end to end. Something will satisfy them eventually, but nothing satisfies me. Nothing." I put that last bit in italics because it is maybe my fave line from John. There's just something about it. It's just so tragic and chilling and terrifying and I LOVE it and I love how it is sort of this like, succinct and perfect sum of the tragedy of him. Idk it's just, chef's kiss.

Okay finally, not a direct John moment per se, but this: John loved her. She was John's cavalier. She loved John. For she so loved the world that she had given them John. For the world so loved John that she had been given. For John had so loved her that he had made her she. For John had loved the world. I have so many thoughts and feelings on this that I cannot articulate but oh my goddddd. It's so good. First of all the whole playing off of John 3:16 thing. And just...the wording, the way it all flows. I cannot be coherent about this I just go insane. That ending For John had loved the world hit me like a brick the first time I read it, and continues to do so every time I reread it. There's something so simple and final and heartbreaking about it. I think it sums of the tragedy of the character and his story in one simple line. If that makes any sense whatsoever.

ANYWAY, this is an absolute ramble of an answer I know, but the prompt here was 'makes you want to chew on furniture moments' and I feel like with that vibe in mind the level of not hinged I am here is at least thematically appropriate. Also thank youuuuu for sending me this ask, it has made me very happy

[tunashei]

First Impression of Animorphs!

I'm listening to the Animorphs series while I work, through Animorphs Aloud - a fan made reading of the series. Here are my first impressions/random thoughts about them! Spoilers below if you haven't read them.

Book 8: The Alien

OOOOOOH AX POV! Ax Pov! This is not a drill! I am so hype

Oh the mental imagery of Ax watching the space battle above him while sitting alone in this artificial dome is so...so emotional. The strange disconnect of watching helplessly in a veritable garden of eden as your brother and others fight above you in the cold vacuum of space. I'd like to draw it

And then the absolute terror of being ejected from your ship and falling into the ocean of the nearby planet. Stuck beneath miles of water pressing down on you. Chills

Also now I'm really curious what the surface of the sea looks like if you're looking up at from below many miles

Ooooh we got little diary entries! Very amusing! This book is starting off so strong

Loving the amount of planning for taking Ax to a movie, they've learnt from previous times!

One of the reasons I was so excited for Ax pov is stuff like learning all these Andalite words, and bits of biology, the different ways of observing things. Alien perspective is so interesting

Confession time, I listened to this book before Megamorphs 1 which is before this book in the timeline. So I had no idea was a Veleek was and was rather confused they'd beaten one

I love the regular forays into Ax's Adventures with Food. Please don't eat cigarettes baby

I was cracking up at work for this whole sequence. Got some funny looks.

Going to make a prediction. Seerow's Kindness is referring to Andalites helping out the Yeerks somehow. Also Seerow is Visser Three's Andalite Host.

My man eat with he feet

I'm so here for Ax and Tobias best buds friendship

Ax confirmed canonically hetero this is a sad day for us all :(

Ok why after the semi-disaster of the movies would you take Ax to school, that is one of the most stressful confusing environments for anyone. Also schools have registers they're not going to just let you bring in a new kid

Unless maybe the teacher won't care because they've got a bloody Yeerk dying in their head! The book has predicted this predicament!

However, very unrealistic that the kids fled the room instead of crowding around the freaking-out teacher. You'd spend 20 minutes chasing them out the room and they'd still crowd around the door peeping in.

Oh this is...a bad thing to have hidden Ax. Poor Jake. This whole conversation is very tense. Ax bringing up his brother as if to remind Jake he's already lost HIS brother to this war

Ax is always described as blue-and-tan, implying he's more blue than tan. I have a hard time believing people would think he's a deer from a distance considering his colours

Huh...wouldn't it be weird to never have moonless nights? The stars are always brightest on those days, great for stargazing. I wonder how bright the night would be if you had multiple moons. Or would it not be additive?

Fascinating evolutionary implications from a species having a biological clock that makes them war every 62 years. Some kind of mass population cull? Ensuring only the strongest breed?

Ok this is pretty funny but actually made me reconsider how we appreciate stuff?? Actually kind of mindblowing. We really don't appreciate food as an art form. After I'd listened to this bit at work, my boss gave us all a tin of chocolates. Ate them on the way home and took some time to really savour the flavour. My life is being enriched by these books.

'He was a male-as all human fathers are' Implication Andalites can have female fathers??? Maybe. Would be cool.

Ax totally winning at social interaction

Aw Ax, you are being very brave :(

Huh so this Yeerk controller loved another Yeerk? I could have sworn in a previous book it said they were incapable of love, I think the one where Jake gets infested

Poor Ax. You really feel his struggle in being compared to his brother, now having to take the blame

The yeerk just fuckin bailed out the andalite?! I was not expecting this. You beat Visser Three?!

Aight so the Visser's andalite was not Seerow. He's just...some guy. Ngl was hoping for a bit more info on that, I've been very curious how Visser Three got an andalite which no other Yeerk has acomplished

Although...they're on the home world? Maybe there are other andalite controllers. Ruh roh

You guys are absolutely going to regret not putting this andalite out of his misery. He's literally begging for death and you know the horrors of being infested, and will be an incredibly powerful enemy again if you leave him. I mean, you couldn't even try to lug him out of there? How many people are going to end up killed in the future because Visser Three remains an andalite?

Called it on Seerow's Gift being helping the Yeerks. I kind of get it though I'd feel sorry for any sapient species that had to life it's entire life as a slug in a pool

Winced when Ax confessed his fears of giving humans help that would lead them to be conquerors, and Marco brushing it off. Humans would absolutely become conquerors, it's in our history

Wow. This is definitely my favourite book so far. I expected it would be, I'm very into xenofiction (when a book is written from a non-human perspective) but I think the emotional journey was also great in this. The ending was a bit quick and weak. But overall great.

[lifemod17]

so sorry you made a critical error in expressing interest in the bear bc that show is actually my entire heart and soul and i love it so much. but re: your tags on this

THE STRESSFUL ATMOSPHERE IS ALSO SO IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTANDING CARMY'S MENTAL HEALTH!!!! like we see the nature of his home life growing up, then we see how he went into a profession that is. EXACTLY the same. (esp. when you're watching the fishes episode in s2) part of what i hope they start to explore in season 3 is how he can heal his relationship with cooking (and while the work will always be stressful for the love of god i hope carmy's stress levels come down at least a little. but he's got so much healing he needs to do first)

oh geez i'm so sorry to dump all this in your inbox i'm just. incapable of being Chill™ about that show. i hope you are doing well my lovely 🥰

never be sorry bb!!! this was a beautiful surprise!! NEVER BE CHILL, I ACCEPT THE UN-CHILLNESS

yeah having a dad who was a chef and following in his footsteps and going in the cooking industry myself, i almost wept when i first watched this series. i was FLOORED with how accurate it is. like all of what Carmy is going through- mental health wise is completely fair and valid (chefs and cooks alike have never known a day of peace, speaking from experience 🙃) but the thing of, yes this makes him have insane depression/hallucinations/stress WHATEVER. BUT ALSO cooking is what makes him the most happy, he feels in control of his surroundings and his feelings, and that he would rather have that little moment of being in control rather than be in love and have everything else he worked so hard for, fall apart which. again. SO FUCKING RELATABLE. the love life/kitchen life balance is actually non-existent!! and if it does, it sucks!!!

god i love that show so much thank you so much for bring this up because i only have 1 friend who is as insane about this show as i am but she is rarely on tumblr AND THIS IS WHERE I NEED TO BE YELLING ABOUT THIS SHOW WITHOUT FEELING JUDGED

[birlwrites]

As I want to know everything about your version of the black family, I'm going to ask you about the personalities of Pollux, Arcturus, Irma, Melania, Alphard, Cygnus and Druella. And if you have headcanons of the black family. I really liked Orion in the last chapter, they usually make him very invisible in ff.

okAY SO!

re personalities i'm just going to do all of them in the order you listed them for simplicity's sake, here goes:

pollux: kinda struggles to find a sense of purpose in his life (WOW starting off uplifting ajfskhgkjdf) - he's spent so much of his life just having... nothing important to do? he's a spare in a cadet branch. both he and alphard are older than arcturus and yet arcturus is the heir and pollux and alphard handle that differently. dude needs some hobbies. he did a lot of teaching bellatrix dark arts and he is fiercely proud of her, he also just needs to like. take up gardening or something afjslgkhjskdf

arcturus: i think of him as being intensely charismatic and very stubborn - voldemort doesn't know how lucky he was that orion didn't grow up into a carbon copy of his father because tom riddle's efforts to take charge of slytherin would NOT have gone well if he were up against a mini-arcturus afjslkghjksdf (orion is a) abt 2 years younger and b) didn't feel the urge to jump into the ring). he's not competitive because he's confident that there's nobody who could possibly compete with him, but that doesn't mean he's going to hesitate to quash what he sees as disrespect. heavy user of the family magic, and we know how that goes for him, but on a lighter note, was very serious about being the head of the *family,* not just lord black - he was the driving force behind getting the extended family to spend summers at black manor and he'd be absolutely fucking pissed to see the state of house black now

irma: irma's just vibing, she is also purposeless (woooooooooo), living vicariously through bellatrix's stories of death eater life, pollux and irma are very happy people who definitely aren't bored at all, irma's never fantasized about stabbing someone with a fork

melania: very warm and also very intense. the sort of person who you meet for the first time and then an hour later you're making plans to start a business together selling enchanted furniture and putting all the profits into funding a culinary school. you don't even know how you got onto this topic. you've never cared about culinary school in your life. you also can't tell if she's joking. this particular scenario is more an example than anything that has actually happened but like - she has a way of making people feel very close to her. intense but not severe. like ginger beer

alphard: sometimes feels like the only sane person in the family. everyone else seems to be absolutely incapable of chilling the fuck out for one (1) single second, and without arcturus and melania around to enforce order things have just gone to shit and two of the kids are disowned and BELLATRIX IS A DEATH EATER and just in general what the fuck is happening??? on a lighter note, alphard spends a lot of his obscene amounts of leisure time (and money) on commissioning art and music. he's an especially good person to know if you're trying to make it as a painter or sculptor because he might let you use his house as a venue for a showing and invite his wealthy friends with huge houses that need decor and with the alphard black stamp of approval you'll probably sell basically everything

cygnus: i've talked about cygnus in some other posts but i don't feel like hunting for them rn ajflkhsgljdf. cygnus likes chess and the socratic method and books that take two people to lift. he's levelheaded, occasionally to the point of aloofness, and he had to deal with twins andromeda and bellatrix age 2 (and teenage andromeda, bellatrix, AND narcissa) so he's pretty unflappable. once he had to talk bellatrix out of murdering andromeda's ex-boyfriend ok he can handle anything. has been talking to regulus about books ever since regulus learned to read. he and orion are both at fault for baby regulus learning how to create an inferius because regulus really REALLY wanted to read a book with a very shiny cover (on a high shelf) and cygnus and orion looked at each other and went 'yeah ok sure why not' and that is how elementary necromancy, volume 4 ended up in regulus's hands

druella: grew up a rosier in a cadet branch, which was basically a free license to do whatever she wanted as long as it didn't look serious. she got very bored, married a guy who was The Opposite of that, and now spends a lot of time gleefully exchanging acerbic bits of gossip with cassiopeia and walburga. and bellatrix! she used to pride herself on being an attentive mother who actually spent time with her children, then andromeda straight up ran away 😬 oops. also i'm deciding rn that she played quidditch - seeker for slytherin! (she wasn't enlisted in 'talk bellatrix out of murdering andromeda's ex-boyfriend' because she would have been like bella that would be very irresponsible and dangerous. here's how we're going to humiliate him publicly--)

i have lots of headcanons but this post is already very long and idk how to like, mentally sort through my headcanons to pick out the ones to state here ajkghsjlgksdf

[lunar-wandering]

various lil Ao Lie and Wukong sibling hc's/thoughts

can Ao Lie take Wukong down in a rough-housing fight and keep him down? yes. is it cause he's stronger than Wukong? no, but Wukong refuses to fight back against him seriously both because that's his Sibling and because Ao Lie has so much blackmail material

Ao Lie's flawless strategy of "If I remain a horse for a long enough period of time, even those who know who I am will kinda-forget I'm not a normal horse and I'll become privy to information" ruined by him laughing so hard at something Wukong does that he turns back into a human form

Wukong proceeds to tackle him down a hill and into a river. By the time they get back to the rest of the JTTW crew they're both drenched and covered in mud

I think Ao Lie would've been the one Wukong groomed the most- mainly due to the long hair but also just cause of the Good Vibes Ao Lie gives off.

You all remember that lil rolling on the ground thing Wukong does in Amnesia Rules? Ao Lie would roll with him.

Ao Lie just... watching Wukong slowly start masking himself more and more into being this serious and proper guy and being like "No I'm not gonna let you do that to yourself" and constantly dragging him into making jokes and bringing him to random empty fields were no-one can judge him for being "weird"

They had like, the equivalent of spa days, were they just went out and had fun

Ao Lie is taller than Wukong. Despite this, Wukong is usually the one carrying Ao Lie around because Ao Lie Deserves A Break

The two of them see something- and Ao Lie decides to do the "overdramatic passing out" joke with the thought that Wukong would catch him- except Wukong decides to do the exact same joke and they both end up falling to the ground on top of each other in a little pile

Wukong would offer to give Ao Lie oats and Ao Lie would kick him in the stomach hard enough to knock him over but they're both laughing about it

The mental image of Ao Lie and Wukong out picking fruit for the others and Ao Lie using a sunhat to catch the fruit Wukong tosses down from the tree

Ao Lie has a habit of affectionately calling people "sugarcube" (platonically)

Wukong: ...why are we laying on the ground. Ao Lie: because you're incapable of taking a compliment, due to going so long without any positive affection, so as soon as I called you Sugarcube you passed out, so I layed down beside you so Master and the others would think we're just chilling

Ao Lie really went like "is nobody else going to tell my brother he's amazing?? Very well, I shall do it myself" and Wukong did not know a day of peace since