#and if you want more focus on your fave that's fine but like. some characters don't have a story that calls for it.

[utilitycaster]

apropos of the question I got yesterday re: Orym and some of the things I said in response, truly, I advise throwing out the idea that arcs within a Critical Role campaign are contained series of episodes dedicated to one character specifically. I think this might be a lingering hangover of the Briarwoods, but again, even the Briarwoods, while very much about Percy, was considered the point when the show got really good for a huge number of other reasons including the fact that those episodes are standout episodes for the entire party. It's also, to be honest, an arc about Percy, but Percy's character arc essentially begins there rather than is contained to those 8 episodes. The way to have an arc like the Briarwoods is really only to have a backstory and end goal that requires it, and not all cast members tend towards that in their character creation! But also if you can't look at a character like (for example) Vex or Beau, who didn't have as clear a self-contained series of episodes about them, and still see an incredible character arc with no shortage of standout episodes and moments, then I think you're clinging too hard to the idea that arc = Briarwoods and not arc = the journey that specific character takes.

[kindlingkeen]

I need to know if I’m alone in this or maybe missing something.

It always bothers me when people say Tim’s childhood was so much worse than Jason’s, or even says they’re the same kinda thing. Am I the only one in this?? (More specifically when they compare them) Like it feels like they’re minimizing Jason’s story to nothing, when it makes his character up as much as his death does. (I’ve even seen people compare Tim’s childhood to Jason’s death, which is. A choice.)

Granted, I’m not a big Tim fan (he’s a cool character, just not the one I focus on) so maybe I’ve missed some part of his canonical backstory or ive subconsciously got something against his character idk.

But from my understanding, Tim is a rich kid who was taken care of (as in, he always had what he needed), just his parents were neglectful? Or away? (Not to say this isn’t bad, of course wouldn’t wish that on a kid either)

But Jason’s lived surrounded by crime and poverty, hell we see panels where he’s hurt and generally not havin a great time.

And I’m fine with people making angst worse because like, favourite character. I’m sure I’m guilty of doing the same to Jason (fave character bias and whatnot) it’s just something that strikes me as odd. But hey, maybe I just don’t know about some canon panel that shows Tim’s childhood as a tragedy where he almost died countless times (another thing I’ve seen fans use)

So yeah. Generally, what do you think about this? I am not too great with character analysis & whatever else, but I like the stuff you’ve said in regards to characters. I know you’re a Jason fan, unsure about how you feel about Tim/how much you know, but curious about your opinion anyway. Thanks.

You are not alone, anon.

You’re also not missing anything in canon, Tim’s childhood was not a tragedy (his parents traveled a lot and he spent his time in boarding school). Were his parents on the neglectful side? Yes. Does that equate to being parentless and living on the street before the age of 12? No. I answered an Ask about Tim a little while ago explaining why I don’t really care much for Tim in the comics or a lot of fanfics. And I only ranted a little about how projecting Jason’s trauma onto Tim is Not. Cool. So maybe check that out.

As for my opinion on this … *takes a deep breath* Let me start by saying that everyone should like what they like, read what they want, write what they want, etc. No judgement or shame intended at all.

But … my opinion is that the enemy-to-caretaker trope is to blame for the over abundance of this dynamic in the fandom.

It seems like this trope grew out of/is a Gen take on enemies-to-lovers. I have absolutely no problem with this trope in general. In fact, I quite enjoy it in certain settings. But the thing is, lovers can be equals. But a caretaker, that has an inherent power imbalance to the relationship. A caretaker takes care of a person who is in some way weaker or less able than them.

So, to make Jason a caretaker for Tim, you somehow have to make Tim weaker, and with time and repetition that’s gotten amplified to much weaker.

The easiest way to do this is to jack up the angst and trauma of Tim’s origin story and increase his overall vulnerability. Because in reality, the inherent power imbalance between Jason and Tim is not that significant. Jason is only two years older than Tim. They’re both supposed to be badass vigilantes who can fight and solve crimes. Tim’s home life was loads more stable and supportive.

Play a few games of fanfic telephone, and all of a sudden you have a baseline of touch-starved Timmy who was made to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs as a wee little niblet and then Lazarus-mad Jason came along and tried to murder him repeatedly (nope), slit his throat (‘twas but a scratch), and generally traumatized him beyond repair (Tim is Robin, pretty sure he’s been beaten up before). 🤦‍♀️

That’s my opinion, anon! Thanks for the ask! 💙

[pixelatedraindrops]

Hello everyone!! Today I grow a year older :3 (and I hate it lmao) FEEL FREE TO REPLY BIRTHDAY WISHES IF YOU WANT :3

So, over the time I've come back here, I've become pretty confident and proud of my once hidden passion about sick characters, sickfics and sick comfort/whump... 🌡️

And you all have been so supportive and sweet despite my weirdness so I thank you for that. You helped me feel more confident in my otherwise weird fixation <3 So, for my birthday I thought I'd try and make up a little drawing challenge for anyone who wants to give it a try... There are soo many talented artists on this site (and in this fandom)

So... It's your turn to target your faves now. You will see how fun it is and hopefully understand why I love doing it so much. 😈🌡️

(plus it's my birthday and I require some sustenance LMAO JKJK)

But yeah anyone can join in. This is just for fun though! You don't have to if you don't want to! I think its okay to ask for some food on my birthday though...right?? X'D So if you wanna do sth for my birthday...then... 👉👈 💦

CHALLENGE BELOW~

DRAW YOUR FAVE ON A SICK DAY CHALLENGE🌡️😷🥵🤧

~~~~

(Mmmmkay, I am lying to myself when I say this isn't mostly aimed at the RainCode community... X'D Can't help myself. But anyone can join regardless of the fandom!!)

So here's the challenge and the rules!! (featuring my two main lil targets ofc :3)

Regardless of who it is, put your fave through some sickness hell >:3c I'd love to see it! Make em' as miserable as you want!

destroy them 😈 jkjk XD

If you're in the RainCode community you can target anyone, but as you know, my main targets are Yuma and Makoto. If they're also your faves and who you decide to use, that will make me extra happy!

Some tips for anyone new to drawing a sick day scenario art. A few things that make it look convincing are the following:

Pajamas or Loungewear

Messy Bed Hair

Fever flushed face w sweat or at least a red nose

Tired Eye bags

Shivery body

Ice Pack or a Compress on the head

Thermometer sticking from their mouth

LOTS OF BLANKETS

Tissues or medicine surrounding them

Tea or Soup (or both)

Those are just to name some from the top of my head. If you'd like some pointers on how to make a character look ill, check out my Fever Coloring Guide. This is for digital artists but traditional artists can try it too!

You can add injury or angst to the scene but I'd like illness to be the main focus of it.

The scene can be anything you want to, it can be fluffy and wholesome (with a caretaker) it can be angsty, or it can be silly. Its all up to you! Do it for the sake of fluff! Caretaking scenes are the best for any kind of relationship >w<

Either way, have fun with it!! I look forward to see what people make if they decide to give it a try! It doesn't even have to be a full on picture! Doodles and sketches are fine too! Just show me something >w<

(feel free to tag me and say happy b-day and mention my challenge, I am proud to be known for this and would love for many to participate :3) I wanna see you take a go at it :3 Show me your style! :D

~

~~~

(wow look at me misspelling the word writing on text when I did it fine with my own hands lol)

Now, I know not everyone can draw...

Well never fear! I accept writing as well! ✍️✍️✍️

(hi vivia lol sorry for giving you a cold, at least you have an excuse to read and do nothing now haha x3)

Sickfics are one of the biggest things I live for! Any little drabbles or full fics with more than one chapter are welcome! Again target who you want any fandom you want, but I'll def be super happy if you make a RainCode fic. And even happier if you target my faves as well, but again, anything will do! Just make a cute story about your fave being miserable and being tended to! Trust me, it's super fun!

You can add injury or angst to the scene but I'd like illness to be the main focus of it.

Feel free to post your writing here and tag me or mention my AO3!

If you need a start to your fic, look on my blog for illness prompts! Maybe it can help give you a good start or give some inspiration! (thats why I share 'em :3)

I look forward to anything you try to write!

~

That's about all!! I hope you decide to participate! ✨

Good luck, have fun, and godspeed you future whumpers! 😈

(nah jk XD)

AGAIN THIS IS FOR FUN! NO PRRSSURE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

what are some of the most appealing whump tropes for you? i'm new to writing kind of subject matter, but i love making my oc's/fave characters suffer. i would love ideas from someone experienced!

my top 10 favorite whump tropes

tw: force feeding, implied/reference self-harm, nonconsensual drug use

forced surrender — for me, the trope suits defiant whumpee better than whumpee who’s already broken and terrified. it gives me whumperflies when whumpee who is feisty, defiant and prideful is forced to surrender. so while they are obedient, there may be occasional hissing and snarling from them. should they get punished for such an audacity? the choice is yours.

enemies to friends / enemies to lovers — classic one. though I personally like it better if, prior to their becoming enemies, they started out as friends. so it’s ‘friends to enemies to friends (or lovers) again’. but besides whump, if fluff isn’t your thing and you 1.) don’t want to make their relationship wholesome the second they go from enemies to friends/lovers 2.) want to make it hot and sexy, then I did talk about spicy ;) enemies to lovers trope and the dynamic between two characters here and here. so you can check them out too

medical whump — maybe this one’s not as popular, but it’s still my personal favorite. anything that involves hospital setting, or maybe it doesn’t necessary have to take place in a hospital but a medical ward anywhere where the main focus is whumpee being injured while also being taken care of by caretaker. the more graphic, the better. (it doesn’t really have to be medically accurate, just… you know, how graphic the scene is described, the more the better. give me all that blood and gore, describe to me how each character feels, etc.)

hallucinations — self explanatory. love love love it when whumpee hallucinates from blood loss, infection or high fever, etc. they can hallucinate about anything you want!

sickfic — in my opinion, ‘medical whump’ associates with injuries, while sickfic is about illness. I personally like it when whumpee has the flu and is bedridden, though they’re the worst patient, whining and trying to convince caretaker that they’re fine when they aren’t. unlike medical whump and hallucinations, which deal with angst and stress, I like to throw in some fluff while writing a sickfic. guess you could say sickfic is the fluff version of medical whump and hallucinations (at least that’s how I personally view these terms).

force feeding / hand feeding — bonus if, instead of caretaker, whumper is the one feeding whumpee; they can force feed whumpee as a way to keep whumpee alive (maybe they secretly, genetically care about whumpee, deep down? *cough cough* enemies to lovers?), and they can hand feed whumpee as a way to dominate, humiliate, dehumanize whumpee.

shock collar — whumper puts defiant whumpee in their place by using a shock collar on them.

restraint — there’re so many ways to restrain a whumpee, and they’re all so good, but one that is so criminally underrated in my opinion will always be straightjacket. put. the. blorbo. in. a. straightjacket.

“who did this to you?” — this. this right here. whumpee tries to hide their injuries from caretaker, but of course, they can’t fool them. so when caretaker demands in a low voice that whumpee rolls up their sleeve, caretaker is hardly able to contain their anger when they see bruises on whumpee’s arm (because while they’d rather whumpee not try to hide this from them, they’re not angry at whumpee but at whoever did this to whumpee) and when caretaker asks, “who did this to you?” you know someone is about to pay for what they did to whumpee.

locked up by mistake — I’m not talking about jail here. I’m talking about a psych ward, an asylum. whumpee is not actually crazy or suicidal, but either there’s been a misunderstanding (no one believes them when they say these cuts on their arm aren’t self-inflicted) or they’ve been set up by an enemy. but of course, the more they try to make people believe them, the more unwell they look. and from there, there’re so many ways, so many scenarios to explore, maybe whumpee is drugged until they’re so groggy they don’t even remember their own name, maybe they’re restrained to the bed or are forced into a straightjacket. or maybe they have to undergo a shock therapy.

[aspoonofsugar]

you wrote such a beautiful rwby analysis but unfortunately I think you put more thought into the plot than the entire writers room

Hi!

Thank you, I am happy you found my analysis beautiful!

That said, I am sorry, but I disagree with your statement. It is fine if you dislike the series and even if you criticize it, but as for me, I think the writing is rather strong.

Here are some thoughts, which aren't really directed at you, but rather are born by me seeing a tendency going around where it is somehow "cool" to outloud state RWBY is badly written. I even saw people like... "apologizing" because they enjoy the series. Newsflash...RWBY is good.

RWBY is a series with a writing that goes from decent to very good depending on the moment. I would give it from 7 to 8.5 or even 9 in some scenes. More importantly, it is a story the writers are clearly enjoying writing, as for now. This is why I like watching it. It is genuine, upfront in what it wants to say and it takes risks. Ironically, a series with limited resources shows much more freedom in execution than many other stories, which are economically backed up.

I would also add people keep talking about good writing, but never really elaborate on it... And like, trust me, I do think there is good writing and bad writing. The problem is that people just take examples of "well written series" and decide a series written differently must be bad. This isn't really the case.

First of all, let's focus only on a specific type of story, which is the kind most modern movies, books and series are. This type of story is built on 3 (4) factors:

Plot

Characters

Themes

(Worldbuilding)

I would say the first 3 are more important usually, but there are some stories where the worldbuilding is so strong it becomes its own selling point.

Now, a good story is usually strong in all these departments. The perfect story is top notch in all 3 (4). That is because a good plot usually lets you develop the characters better, which in turns helps exploring the theme.

However, here comes the amazing truth... even the most incredible stories. Even the masterpieces loved by everybody... even them... end up choosing only 1 or 2 of these aspects and sacrifice a little bit of the 3rd (and 4th) one.

Naoki Urasawa's Monster? Its focus is themes. He chooses to go all out on this department, which is why the story is so powerful and resonates so much with people. Still, to do so, he chooses to sacrifice some parts of the plot to the point... some mysteries are not really solved. Some people may be annoyed by it, but I would not call it a flaw. It is a choice. Leaving some things open enriches the themes.

Death Note? If the story has to choose between characters, themes and plot, it goes for plot. This is why despite having so many well liked characters, it is difficult to think of outstanding character arcs in it. The same goes for the themes, which are only touched superficially. This is why btw Death Note is not a fave of mine, really.

Now obviously, many examples can be done and we could discuss forever on some because there is always always always a subjective component. What I am trying to say is... there are different ways to write a story. Not all people would like the same. Luckily, we have tons of stories.

Back to RWBY. I would say RWBY shines when it comes to themes. Characters and plot are good and interesting, but what keeps the story together, despite it playing so much with genre is that it has a very strong thematic core. You can't invent it or fake it btw. See, Death Note's author tries to do it in later works (Platinum End cough cough), but fails. At the same time, there is another department RWBY is top notch and that is symbolism. RWBY has a very rich symbolic system. Again... surely there are coincidences, but like this is a little bit too much...imho.

Now, does it mean, the writers came up with all the patterns I and others find? Probably not, but here is the thing... writing has an unconscious component. If you go earnestly at it, you are bound to unconsciously create patterns. A good writer is able to recognize them (either consciously or unconciously) and to capitalize on them. So far, I think CRWBY has capitalized on the patterns they created. I also think it is clear they are very good at researching and at playing with different sources by going deep into them. Again, you can't come up with the Ever After if you have not read and even studied Alice in Wonderland. It is just impossible. You would end up with a shallow and uninteresting copy cat. The Ever After isn't that because it is used to explore themes, characters and lore in an interesting way. Hence... ladies and gentlemen... it is a fruit of... good writing.

But really, since people are not commenting on it... I would like to point out that in 5 episodes of less than 20 minutes, they have managed to introduce a whole world, with its own lore, set of characters and main story (Alyx's) and to tie it to the protagonists' predicament in a way that hits really hard thematically and psychologically... To do that you need exceptionally thight writing... it is not that simple to do...

Anyway, have a nice day anon and consider watching something else. Thanks God the world is full of stories!

[mistressoftherant-blog]

TMNT Crossover Fics and Trauma

Something I find really weird about some writers in the TMNT fandom is the absolute insistence that if a bunch of different iterations met up, they would all be horrified at what happened in Rise, being shocked that they've gone through such terrible things at their age, and then would coddle the living daylights out of the 18 boys after learning about their Krang/Shredder. Warning, spoilers ahead.

Don't get me wrong, the Rise boys do go through a lot of traumatising incidents at a young age, and if you consider the other turtles to be older than them when they meet they probably would try to help out. It's just, every iteration of the turtles goes through a lot of traumatising events at a young age, and most crossover fics just seem to sweep these under the rug to prioritise Rise.

I guess this is fine if Rise is your fave version and that's all you want to look at, but it always comes across as weird to me when you have characters from 12 for instance being like oh no, 'one of you got possessed and forced to fight the others, one of you got melded with a piece of tech, one of you almost got locked in a prison dimension, and your city was invaded by Krang, etc, I can't even imagine the suffering you have been through', when all of these things have happened to the 12 boys before, some even multiple times.

They've all been possessed/mind controlled and used against their brothers, Donnie merged with the Speed Demon, the Krang have invaded their city, their entire world was destroyed! Same with 03, they've been possessed/mind controlled, their city was taken over by the Demon Shredder (and Don saw the SAINW Shredder controlled world), they had to fight at least five Shredders, one of whom was also a demon, etc etc Also, as most of the other series ran for longer than Rise (trust me, I am also annoyed that we didn't get more of the 18 boys as 18 was the first show to properly get me into TMNT and I do love it), they also went through more traumatic events than the 18 boys.

Again, I am not trying to say that what the 18 boys went through isn't traumatic, because they definitely had a lot of bad stuff happen to them. But it does feel so weird to dimish everything that the other turtles went through when they were pretty much the same age as the Rise boys.

Take, Donnie: In 03 he's double mutated at least twice, tortured by an invasive mind probe that also electrocuted him, lost a friend to another dimension, got sent to an alternative future and learns that another of his friend and his father are dead before he watched his brothers get killed in front of him, believed himself to be responsible for the loss of his father and went through his own mini depression arc trying to cope with thlle guikt whilst working to bring him back, and that's all off the top of my head.

Poor 12 Donnie... he has died multiple times one of which was beinh literally torn apart on a molecular level by a possessed version of the girl he loves, has also been double mutated and/or possessed multiple times (not sure whether being turned into a vampire counts more as death or mutation), has immense guilt over a variety of things that aren't actually his fault (Leo's coma, when they thought Splinter died during the first invasion, everything that happened with Pulverizer), has also been tortured via electrocution to the head, spent an episode being beaten up by his mind controlled brothers only for them to be snapped out of it pizza, is constantly pressured to be able to fix/solve everything and is frequently told he isnt good enough etc etc

Again, these are examples for just 03 and 12 Donnie that come from the top of my head. Looking at other iterations and characters would make this post even longer than it already is, but I think the Donnie examples alone are enough to prove my point.

In conclusion, if you are writing a crossover fic with Rise as the central point of focus, that is completely fine! If you want to mainly prioritise looking at their trauma because the others are older than that is valid. I just wanted to point out that it can come across a little weirdly if you have some of the characters being completely horrified by the events of Rise, and acting like they could never even begin to understand what they have been through when they've all had similar trauma in their own pasts. Or when you have a bunch of characters being like, 'Oh you almost died, you are turning my scales grey', when they have all almost or actually died multiple times.

It's just a little funny to me for example to have any of the 12 sibling act like, 'I can't even imagine how much you must have suffered when you thought Leo was lost in the prison dimension' when their Donnie has legitimately been killed in a horrific way in front of them, their dad has been 'killed' in front of them multiple times, their own Leo pulls self sacrificial stunts, their entire world was destroyed in front of them, etc

This may just be me coming across as a little bitter but, if you are doing a crossover, it doesn't make sense to me why you would just ignore all the events of the other shows completely in order to make it sound like Rise had it the absolute worst. It seems like it would make more sense to have the characters relating to one another around shared or similar traumas 🤷‍♀️

[safyresky]

So, Season 2. It's. It's alright ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But like...that's it, lmao.

I did enjoy it! I got WAY MORE genuine laughs out of these first two episodes than I did the entire first season. Magnus is hilarious, I love his whole vibe lmao. Fluffy's character, Kris, he's...man is really out here looking for a father figure and it is deffs biting him in the ASS.

The elves are top tier as per the usual! Betty and Noel are continuing to be THE power couple and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT, I love them to death 🥰🥰🥰

My fave thing about the season so far is just everyone out here like Scott wtf are you doing. Wtf, man. I yelled GET HIS ASS so many times lol. The official Get His Ass Count as of the end of Episode 2: 8. 8 whole GET HIS ASS moments. BLESS.

SO RIGHT. NITTY GRITTY. OKAY.

Episode 1

Scott sucked SO BAD this episode. He breaks the SOS on a worldwide level then gets upset when Cal is like "I love Riley! I wished her here! We're hanging out! Riley!! :D" and is like "Bro you should've dusted her."

OKAY SCOTT. WHAT ABOUT THE WHOLE WORLD, SCOTT, HMM? ARE WE DUSTING THEM??? HMM??? YEESH.

Scott aside (you know, his usual boomer-esque old guy who refuses to change shtick with BUT WHAT ABOUT FAMILY! And whatnot thing), everything else was. Mid, tbh. But fun! Santa being like "Are you gonna kill him?" With Carol being like "I can take care of Gary" was hilarious.

Betty and Noel, of course, SHINNED. I love them, they are SO CUTE. Cardboard face cutouts??? ICONIC. Nobody is doing it like them!

Now. Cal. aka, Buddy. I am very worried for him. Like, 4 episodes ago he was having ANXIETY about being Santa? And now this? Carol being like "what if he doesn't want it don't force him to follow in your footsteps" like. I AGREE. HE SHOULD GO OFF TO COLLEGE AND LIVE HIS LIFE!!!! I have a lot of thoughts there but it is late and I need to FOCUS because I need to yell about Cupid in a second, ANYWAY

Magnus Antas. I love this guy. I fucks with him. He takes a 700 year nap and is like "I'm fine" until his toxic bestie is like "I WANT TO KILL" and a kid sasses him for not being Santa/being OLD and he's like "Nevermind. I want to kill now too. Time to MURDER." He has VIBES and I like them!! He also seems like he's was over it until Olga was like "but what if" and some kid was mean to him and tbh, I can't even blame him for getting pissy at the kid lol. I'd also turna kid into "a Roblox" if I could (here for Gamer Mad Santa btw. I'd watch him stream on Twitch)

This is verging into Episode 2 territory, lol. May as well get there, then!

EPISODE 2

So, the LORE DROPS. Um. There was a LOT of it? And it seems to contradict itself/not quite equate with itself? If the NP is a utopia for magic, why is it like that? Was Magnus good, or not? Why do ALL the fairy creatures live there, when they come from so many diverse cuktures and backgrounds? That's a lil messed up! What the fuck happened with the gnomes becoming so (what's the phrase) PROMINENT for Santa? Will we get answers for all of these? Based on past season, PROBABLY NOT! BUT I HOPE WE DO! BC IT IS A BIT ALL OVER THE PLACE! AHH!

RIGHTO. SO SANDRA'S MAGIC. Love that for her! Love that they're actually devoting time to showing her interacting with La Befana and learning about herself and the pair of them discussing things!!! MUCH rather watch that than a 5 minute long auto-tuned elf song which is there just for a Santa/Satan joke! I'm excited to see how her whole arc goes--it looks like she's ACTUALLY GETTING ONE.

I wonder why Befana needs her to tell her parents, like, aside from obvious reasons. She was so insistent on Sandra making sure her parents knew she was training with Befana, that I'm wondering if there's something more to it a la "our powers don't work on other legendary figures". Like, was it to keep her mind clear? Is it like a past thing? Bc Witches are "scary" and often "bad" given that Santa calls Befana a "good one"?

That's another thign! Not sure I vibed with THAT whole thing. Both Claus's being like "yeah witches, they are deffs their stereotypes". Like. Idk. It sits. Not gr8 with me. Feels like performative activism, sorta, you know?

Which is also how I feel about the girl power moments, tbh. Like, it's nice to see them--Carol respecting Befana as a self-made woman, sister solidarity, etc. But it feels very performative! It feels very much like they are checking it off a list, you know? They're STILL like "Carol is trying to find a role for Mrs. Claus" and they go for COP? Wildin. Also wildin that the ELFS are COP EQUIVALENTS? Um, since WHEN?! They are funky little guys with jet packs and no regard for authority. Remember when they broke Santa out of jail and bullied the cop at the front desk? Remember that? YEAH.

OKAY SO NOW MY FAVOURITE PART TO TALK ABOUT. CUPID AND THE COUNCIL!

So as a classics major and a lover of the Cupid/Psyche myth (and personal bias from OCs made bc of said myth) I was unimpressed with the Mrs. Cupid convo. FIRST off, her name is PSYCHE so jot that down. SECONDLY. It was ONE ARROW MEANT FOR HER THAT SOMEHOW GOT LODGED INTO CUPID ACCIDENTALLY WHILE SENT ON AN ERRAND BY HIS MOTHER, VENUS, TO TAKE CARE OF (make her fall in love with a horrible monster/something/someone very ugly) PSYCHE BC SHE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL WORSHIP WAS DROPPING FOR VENUS AND GOING TO PSYCHE.

This resulted in Cupid and Psyche having a very strange romance/marriage in which Psyche's shitty sisters convince her to break Cupid's one rule (which was don't look at me) and he gets injured, HELD HOSTAGE by his mother, and Psyche has to go on a QUEST to free him that involves Venus making her do all sorts of shitty shenanigans, setting the personifications of sadness and despair on her, and trapping her in an eternal sleep. Cupid, afflcited by his own arrow, escapes his mother's house when he hears about this, finds her, and draws the sleep out of her, waking her up and reuniting them.

They then proceed to go to Zeus (not Jupiter despite Cupid being the Roman equivalent of Eros, and Venus roman of Aphrodite? It's interesting) like LOOK WHAT VENUS DID and Zeus goes "Wow, that's a little fucked up, actually. Listen, I'll make her a god and sanction your marriage and tell of your Mom IF you do something a little fucked up for me and help me get ANY woman I want" to which Cupid goes "Sure, that sounds reasonable and not fucked up at all" and then he and Psyche get married and have a fucking rager with the gods and have one kid, Pleasure, aka Hedone/Volupta, or in SOME iterations, THREE kids, Pleasure, Joy, and a third one who's name escapes me (Vanity I think) and presumably live happily ever after! READ FOR YOURSELF!

I am very passionate about this bc uh. this is uh. Dite's whole ass backstory? She is Hedone lmao so I've got some personal attachment here thanks to me own OCs lmao, ANYWAY

So YEAH that got me miffed. As did uh, the whole PEEKABOO and cupid making baby noises back at Riley. The ICK.

But you know what I DID love?? Cupid being like "I'm not spying but also, I am spying and also, the whole ass entire council is like BOI...WHAT THE FUCK". GET HIS ASS! CALL HIM OUT!! BC YEAH, WHAT THE FUCK SCOTT?? SEASON 1?? HELLO??? EVERYTHING BEFORE THAT??? VIOLATING THE SOS BY SHARING ALL THOSE SNOW GLOBES??? AHHHHHHH.

Cupid delivering that 3 month deadline and Council threat I was like. HERE for it. I was like. GET HIS ASS (this was one of the GHA counter moments tbh). Like, this dude is out of control! I think it's high time Scott meets the consequences for his actions! AH!

So YEAH. Excited to see Sandy and for New EB! I hope the whole Council comes back, even if they have to recast, that 5 minute scene would add YEARS to my life that Riley and Cal took away.

Because they are. So icky. I feel as though. There is a scale. And Marie is on one end, and Riley is on the other. This isn't just FIRST LOVE this is just DISGUSTING. Like it was cute at first last season but now Riley is honestly?? Sups annoying. You can tell that they're like, checking items off the list instead of actually putting more thought into them, because Riley is v much a stereotype and they have WAY UPPED her teenager levels. I need them to talk to actual teens. Nobody says OMG like that and also, she's bringing home BIKERS?????????? UM??????? It's like. Why are they so bad at writing love interests? You feel? Tho this could just be a me thing 🤔🤔🤔

They really should've socialized those kids, DAMN. Santa being like "And we all know how that [Romeo and Juliet] went" or whatever the line was had me like "FINALLY SCOTTY BOY. SOMETHING WE CAN AGREE ON!"

AND LAST ON MY LIST. THE SCOTT/SANDRA SCENE.

Finally. Finally. FINALLY. Some good parenting from Scott. FINALLY. Being sups understanding to Sandra? I actually loved it. He finally did ONE (1) GOOD THING. MAYBE HE IS? LEARNING? I DUNNO MAN! WE'LL SEE HOW IT GOES! But yeah, I did like that scene a lot. I'm just really here for Sandra getting her moment!

So YEAH. Overall, season 2 is okay. Gave me more laughs which is WELCOME, and I cannot wait to see how this develops. Especially since the lore was like, really thrown our way, you know? It was a lot for two episodes and again, did kind of contradict itself? Hopefully it clears up once Santa inevitably learns the truth about Mad Santa, probably mostly thanks to Carol who is DOING the MOST.

But yeah, I'm hoping to see the lore tidied/explained a bit better. Especially bc the whole elf lore opening, with the icy tunnels and drab vibes, didn't sit well with me? It...I didn't like it. Not my cup of tea. The lore in general isn't my cup of tea though it's fun to see it there finally, lol. Poor Toots, being named after a fart essentially (I went right to toilet humour, I'm sorry, I am so mature I promise i'm not)

Also, they really kinda. Throw around the head elf title, huh? It felt REALLY WEIRD to not see BMan there, and Toots just being thrown in? Weird it's WEIRD. I wouldn't bring B-Man back for it but MAN IS IT WEIRD. Especially since the new elves, as much as I ADORE THEM, don't have the same kind of like. Old feel to them? As the movie elves did? So I was like "they should NOT be there right now. They should NOT."

Righto. I am going to wrap this up bc I am INSANE and this is very very VERY long for a franchise like this 😅😅😅

[lokiinmediasideblog]

It's just me or Loki stans tend not to care about female character's much? One thing I've noticed about Loki-centric blogs is that some of them have side blorbos, but always male blorbos. They only care about female characters when they have some canon connection to Loki so they can talk about him through talking about her, and only when the connection in question is platonic (Verity, Frigga...). When Loki has a canonically romantic/sexual connection with a woman (Amora, Sylvie, Lorelei, etc) they either demonize her or erase the romantic factor to make them into ~mean queer besties~ like he's her gay bff. There's a difference between disliking het (valid) and erasing the canon dynamic of his relationships with women because the thought of their canon bi fave liking icky women makes them uncomfortable. Face it, Loki fandom: your fave likes boobs and coochie, stop pretending otherwise. You don't have to personally ship het to recognize that some women canonically turn him on and/or matter to him romantically.

I don't think it's unique to Loki stans. It's a misogyny problem that is both based on the biases within fandom and those of the writers. The Loki fandom is far from being the only one that targets a woman love interest so viciously (*cough* ST fandom, I've also heard other Marvel ships are like that too). And I definitely do get annoyed when Loki's bisexuality gets erased because they don't deem the female characters worthy. And yea, they'll always try to make it platonic with women characters. The "these two characters with little shared background that kissed are siblings" shit is so fucking annoying. It's fine if it's not your cup of tea,but pretending they have "sibling energy" is weird.

Writing biases:

S2 gave very little exploration to the female characters. And most Marvel female characters have little depth. Like just look at the Thor movies, we don't know much about Sif (personality is the woman warrior), Frigga(personality is mom), and Jane is just there as love interest for Thor. Valkyrie's interesting but her name isn't given in Ragnarok, and I heard she got sidelined in TLAT, the movie I refuse to watch. Sylvie had decent focus in S1 but was sidelined in S2 and relegated to product placement.

Speaking of the source material, I am not joking when I say many of the female character's characterizations in the comics before maybe the 2010s were nothing but "wanting to fuck Thor." Also, BW was a prime example of Whedon's "empowering" brand of sexualized strong female character and took forever to get her movie after getting unceremoniously fridged.

Granted, I have not kept up-to-date with Marvel movies because I am only interested in Loki and I find a lot of characters annoying, in case the shitty writing conventions for female characters have improved.

Fandom biases:

Fandom can't stomach anything other than saccharine sweetness as a personality for women, especially when they interact with a popular male character. It has been shown that in real life, women are more likely to be seen as rude or bitches for more tame behavior than men.

People claiming that Mobius was "compassionate" for blaming Loki for his mother's death and locking him in a time loop where he's beaten repeatedly, while Sylvie calling him a "clown" was "abusive".

This is interesting and one of the many examples against "abusive women are given a pass" because the "victim" in question is the same Tumblr sexyman, but the woman's non-abusive behavior that makes sense in-context is scrutinized ridiculously and Loki was not hurt physically by it, while Mobius "gave him therapy".

No one can even argue it's because Loki is the Tumblr fandom fave rather than pure fucking misogyny because actual harm to Loki gets passed as being for his own good by a rather vocal portion of fans when it's a man doing it. You'd think the fandom would have lost their shit over one of the OG Tumblr Sexymen being mistreated. But nah. (And yes, I forgave Mobius for risking his skin for Loki in S2, lol. He more than made up for it.).

Also, Sylvie RIGHTFULLY called Mobius out for putting his head in the dirt like a fucking ostrich, and the fandom threw a fit and babied him.

[euphoriajeon]

How to shift reality?

Disclaimer: This content maybe a long one because i wanna give a clear cut explaination

☞ Find a peaceful, quiet place

A calm environment helps you concentrate on shifting. Go anywhere that you can have some privacy, like your bedroom. Close the door and put on some music that lifts your mood and promotes creativity.

◍ Eliminate distractions so you can focus just on your own thoughts.

◍ Make a "shifting playlist" or play songs from your favorite movies and shows.

◍ Light a candle that reminds you of a fun place you want to visit, like a forest.

☞ Write down why you want to shift.

Make sure your motivations for shifting are healthy. Take out a journal or open up a word doc. Ask yourself about what you hope to accomplish when you shift , maybe you want comfort, happiness, or excitement. Reflect on your reasons for shifting.

☞ Choose your DR (Desired Reality.)

Use your fave franchise as inspo or create your own world. If you want, you can design your own dimension , it can be fantastical or realistic.

◍ Think about gorgeous settings from movies that took your breath away.

◍ Combine worlds → for example, take elements from a movie and a show.

◍ Dream up an original DR (Desired reality). Reflect on what your ideal reality would be like.

☞ Describe who you want to be in your DR ( desired reality)

Craft a new identity for yourself or stay the same. Think about how you want to look and what abilities you want.For example, maybe you want purple hair and telepathy. Give yourself a name and brainstorm all the qualities you’d like to have in your DR. It’s also totally fine not to tweak a thing and just be yourself,maybe you just want a change in scenery!

◍ Make a character bio, includes details like your backstory and your habits.

◍ Draw your "DR self" or use an easy portrait maker like Artbreeder.

◍ Hold onto traits you love about yourself, like funniness or kindness.

☞ List the relationships you’d like in your DR.

Picture the friends, relatives, or anyone you want. Reflect on the people you want to be around and stay close to.

☞ Decide how long you’d like to stay in your DR.

Get the most out of your trip, maybe you’d like to stay a whole month! Use a "time ratio," a formula that calculates how much time goes by in your current reality(CR) while you’re in your DR. For example, one hour in your CR may amount to a week in your DR.

☞ Fill out your script.

Planning out your adventure makes it easier to enter your DR. A "script" is a plan you create for your DR so you're clear about what you'll experience when you reality shift. Journal about the identity and relationships you already decided on for yourself. Then, map out the rules of the dimension you’re going to. When you vividly picture your DR, you’ll access it more quickly.

☞ Lie down and try grounding exercises.

Relax so you can enter a state of enhanced consciousness. Lie down on your bed and focus on relaxing all your muscles. By the time you’re done, you should feel drowsy and almost ready to sleep. You’re more likely to be in a hypnotic state, which is great for traveling to another dimension.

☞ Repeat affirmations in your head.

Hypnotize yourself with hopeful phrases to access another reality. "Affirmations" are short, powerful messages that train your mind to think in a specific way. To access your DR, make up affirmations about how you’re completely capable of jumping to another dimension.

☞ Focus on signs you’re entering your DR

Pay attention to physical cues, like heaviness or weightlessness. Your experience may be different from another shifter. Here’s a list of some common symptoms you may notice

◍ If you visualize going down a rabbit hole, then you may feel gravity pulling you.

◍ If you picture astral projecting sending your consciousness somewhere else, then you might experience a floating sensation.

◍ You may see a bright light, which is a sign you're close to your DR.

◍ Your heart might race because you're excited about your trip.

☞ Enjoy your visit to your DR.

Savor every detail, from the people you’ll meet to the places you’ll see. Immerse yourself in your DR and use your five senses. For instance, enjoy the beautiful scenery or check out your crush! Focus on creating wonderful memories you won’t forget and forging new friendships. You’ll have so much to reflect on and smile about, even after you’ve left your DR.

☞ Prioritize your CR (Current Reality) when you return

Set a time limit to be in your DR, then work on making your CR amazing. Maintain rituals that bring you joy and brighten up your CR.

- Euphoria ♡

[viola-ophelia]

I'd like Russingon so much more if people weren't annoying about it. Like, it's genuinely interesting as an epic friendship chivalric bond type relationship, and I like both characters, the dynamic between them and how it affects the text, but, to me that's so much more interesting than 'oh, of course we were secretly married the whole time, undeniable canon ship', like, it's so irritating and it lacks depth and also? They're not canon. I completely understand people who do want a major queer relationship, but. It's not canon. If anything, the relationship Tolkein maybe consciously wrote as intentionally homoerotic is Turin and Beleg. And at this point I'd genuinely be more interested in something that approaches Maedhros as Fingon as having a platonic relationship based around the chivalric narratives I'm pretty sure Tolkein was inspired by. And I hate the take that if you don't ship russingon you're automatically homophobic.

Also I'm so agreed on the Eol thing, like, yeah, that story has some pretty hideous racist subtext and I get people wanting to change it but idk why they always do it by a) making Aredhel 100% in love and happy with a man who refused to let her leave his house and who later killed her by trying to kill their son OR b) slutshames and villanises Aredhel, usually by portraying her as an abuser (sometimes having the gall to call it feminist and empowering like. If you think a woman being a rapist us empowering you need serious help) And I'm also not sure why she gets called the slutty cousin when one of the first things we know about her is 'she gave her hearts love to none', and when she did get married she was at least partially coerced into it? Like, aside from how horrible slut shaming random female characters is, Aredhel seems like the least likely candidate? She and Celegorm are always so mischaracterised, one thing I really hate about fandom is how it seems to have this set of archetypes it shoves characters into even if that's not how they are in text, to make them more palleatable and understandable I guess? Like, Celegorm was probably a bit on the wild side, but we know he's a linguist and an orator and a skilled commander who actually seems to have taken the initiative in the Nargothrond coup, like? He's always made into a dumb jock and Curufin's always so bitter and bitchy and neither of those seem particularly accurate to how they are in canon? (Also have to agree on the Celegorm/Curufin side, I've read some good fic)

I think one of the biggest problems in the Silm fandom is a) people whitewashing their faves and picking sides in a way that seems really unconscious of how the text emphasises that this is about complex people with incompatible goals and b) people always wanting their ships to be canon to the extent that they end up putting them as the focus of the story, and twisting the text to try and validate them which like? I like a fun ship as much as the next person, but something's aren't canon and that's literally fine? Like, I'm really into Melkor and Sauron as characters, and I do really enjoy Angbang as a ship, but the amount of people who claim they were 'literally married' when we don't have any textual indication for their relationship other than one-sided fanatical devotion on Sauron's part and a level of trust and respect on Morgoth's, is seriously annoying.

Sorry I've been ranting please feel free to ignore this

sorry for taking so long to respond, work was crazy today! but i completely agree with a lot of this, thanks for sharing!!

i think the question of whether or not there’s a “canon queer ship” in the silm is dubious for a bunch of reasons, but i totally agree, if anything it’s turleg! it just doesn’t make sense for tolkien to have explicitly condemned cousin marriages between elves but also to have intended russingon to be read romantically. of course, you don’t have to stick to tolkien’s intent in your hcs LOL- that’s why fanon exists- but his intent does shape what is canon and what isn’t, and he was writing and living in a different time. which is why the argument that anyone who doesn’t ship russingon is homophobic annoys me lol. and even if russingon WAS canon, it wouldn’t be homophobic not to ship it, that’s not how that works lol.

AGREED re: aredhel and eol! i am really not a fan of any analysis of them that somehow tries to spin it around so aredhel was the abusive one. of course, to each their own, but i don’t personally see anything progressive about that and also don’t feel it’s a compelling read of canon. the thing that i think some people don’t get about aredhel is that she can be the victim in an abusive relationship AND a strong woman and an important character beyond that abuse. those things can coexist, and they do. aredhel was groundbreaking! she (and galadriel, i think?) were the only women who survived the helcaraxe! aredhel was the only woman involved at alqualonde! she’s the only female hunter in tolkien’s works! she’s so much more than just some vessel for birthing maeglin and then dying, ugh. even though she didn’t survive the horrible situation she was put in with eol, doesn’t mean she was weak or irrelevant and also doesn’t mean that the only “progressive” interpretation of her needs to be that she was in the wrong somehow.

re: the idea that celegorm is dumb… YES! people forget that he’s canonically a great public speaker, and i think he might’ve had the best “people skills” out of his brothers- remember, he singlehandedly stirred everyone up for the second kinslaying (for better or for worse lol). and he knew more about the forest and about animals and nature than pretty much anyone else due to his training with orome, and the fact that he could understand/maybe speak to animals shows he had linguistic skills that went WAY beyond most other elves.

and curufin… one curufin moment that the fandom seems to collectively ignore, but that i LOVE and that seems really at odds with his characterization as a cunning scheming bitch, is the moment where he runs into eol in pursuit of aredhel and confronts him, telling him off for having forced her into marriage and basically telling him to get the heck out of himlad. he clearly cared a lot about his cousin! he clearly does have morals LOL!

[orionsangel86]

recent follower here saying hi (not white, was aware of the recent conversation re: racism in the sandman fandom and followed closely but felt I didn't have anything to add). I remember reading your metas a while ago and I enjoyed your analysis a lot! and now I'm glad to learn you and many others have been focusing on encouraging people in the sandman fandom to branch out and appreciate characters other than dream and hob. I do think that unlearning the racist 'only shipping the two white dudes' pattern across English-speaking fandoms can actually free us up for more creation and more joy!! I certainly feel tempted...

Hiiii! Welcome!! ❤️

Thank you so much for your message! I'm glad that we are having these conversations but I would really like to encourage fans of colour to speak out and get involved as well. I am trying to focus on finding a solution to the problem that doesnt resort to petty ship wars and I think one of the best ways is to just encourage more engagement in fan works focused on the characters of colour, and just broadening the space to include everyone and making people aware that these conversations are totally fine to have. I want to hear from poc and I really hope that my blog feels welcoming for you.

Definitely get involved and if you have creations to share please tag me.

Im looking forward to the Sandman femslash week in October and I'm also thinking about some other events we could hold but as I'm just one blog and certainly not one of the bigger blogs I'd love to hear any ideas or other upcoming events planned by other members of the Sandman fandom.

I was wondering for example if anyone in Sandman fandom is thinking of running a Sandman themed inktober event? I'll tag a few of my fave Sandman artists here just in case there are some discussions already in progress:

@teejaystumbles @fishfingersandscarves @designtheendless @endlessdoodles @alexzpaintings

[tellmewhatyouc]

fic writer year in review

i compiled this list of prompts to reflect on a year of fic writing/reading, and here's my own answers!

✨ the first fic you wrote/posted this year

beneath the stars, my first blade/huey fic! this was from when i had little jars of nu:c characters on paper and word prompts for brainstorming

✨ your most written fandom, character, and/or ship

fandom: nu: carnival character: quincy ship: blade & quincy

✨ the fic you had the most fun writing this year

not TECHNICALLY a fic but i have a nukani modern AU going in rp threads, we have a cast-wide polycule with a focus on quincy, kuya, blade, rei, and it's been SO FUN

✨ your most used tags

fluff, pre-canon, modern AU, friendship, angst (are we surprised)

✨ a time you tried something new (character ship, fandom, style, trope, etc)

i wrote for a handful of new fandoms: coffee talk, qsmp, genloss, and ordem paranormal! with genloss i tried a new genre in horror, which i never expected to enjoy TBH. also just juggling multiple fandoms at a time was never My Thing but i love it now i understand i've changed

✨ the fic you're most proud of this year

ummM i'm very proud of finishing not quite anointed but i did write most of it in 2022 so. maybe be not afraid bc it was waaay out of my comfort zone (hero/villain AU) and i did a lot of worldbuilding for it (that i wanna write more about later)

✨ if you track your writing in any way (words written, time spent writing, days you wrote something), share your stats!

will update this after new year's for my own reference but currently i'm at 124 hrs of writing time 💪 and 88k posted on ao3 apparently

✨ any challenges/events/etc you participated in this year (or your favorites if you don't want to list them all)

fandom rhythm volume 2 🌈

our first coffee talk fanweek, i didn't end up making anything for it but i did organize it

running the nu: carnival flash fic challenges has been fun even tho it's on a bit of a break rn

various exchanges/gift boxes on dreamwidth, those are lovely

multifandom match was crazy, i had so much fun and i'm so excited to do it again next time

i also reopened sweet & spicy bingo which has been a good time

there's probably more but those are the HIGHLIGHTS that come to mind

✨ the last fic you wrote/posted this year

it's gonna be my nukani secret santa fic i think! unless i get a burst of inspo after the 24th

✨ your writing goals(s) for next year

MAYBE finish i feel fine and make some progress on soft focus edits. otherwise the usual "write whatever i want"

✨ your favorite fandom/character/ship to read about

been Hella enjoying dsmp AU fics despite having watched like 15 mins of actual dsmp content and not knowing any of the lore, most of the stuff i've read is SBI-centric but i also love a good pumpkin duo moment

✨ your most searched tag(s)

probably just the general "medical" tag tbh

✨ the shortest fic you read this year

i like narsus's nukani drabbles, one of my faves is Momentum

✨ the longest fic you read this year

most definitely tommyinnit's clinic for supervillains at 188k, it had me at the Medical Themes and jumpstarted my love for hero/villain AUs

✨ a finished fic you enjoyed reading this year

pins and needles, would you believe that it's. a dsmp hospital AU. what's funny is i had no idea who quackity was when i first read this and now i'm a qsmp ho

✨ a wip you enjoyed reading this year

i have 2 in mind!

providence: another dsmp AU fic, but apocalyptic this time

til death do us in: it's so cool to see a fic inspired by my own and i've had a lovely time reading acelaw again

[solomons-poison]

Hello honestly I hope not to bother you with my question but I liked your writing style especially on smut fics and was wondering of you had by any chance any good advice you feel to give refarding writing steamy fics ? Thank you I wish you a wonderful day 🙏🙏

Hi hi! You're not a bother at all!

Firstly, thank you so much! I'm so happy you enjoy my writing! 🥺

Secondly, I think it will really depend on the kind of smut/steamy stuff you'd like to write! There's a lot of different fics out there, some of which are 1000 words and focus only on the smut. Meanwhile there's fics that are 20,000 words long that involve a plot (or a lot of smut haha). Both are valid options and will depend on what you'd like to focus on in your fic.

Sorry if I ramble, and this is by no means saying you HAVE to do these when writing smut. This is just what I personally like to do and what I like to read in fics too. Minors do not interact!

When I write steamy fics, I focus a lot on the feelings of the characters, both about their emotions as well as how they're physically feeling. Pleasure is usually a given in smut, but sometimes there's pain (physical and mental), or fear, or doubts, and I think those are important to consider describing. When I write something, I want the reader to be able to feel what the character is feeling, get the reader invested in what's happening, and emotions are usually the best way to do that. Even when I want to write a shorter piece, my characters end up sappy and sweet haha

But like I mentioned, that's just one of the ways you can write it. Some people want to focus on the smut alone, which is perfectly fine too!

I hope this all makes sense and is at least a little useful haha

The only other thing I'd recommend and will be true for any smut writing is making sure the scene that you set is clear and understandable. It can be really hard to enjoy a smut piece when you're constantly confused about what position the characters are in or what they're doing. You don't have to be explicit on every single piece of anatomy. In fact, some people like making their erotica on the poetic side, sensual more than directly sexual, and barely use any anatomical terms or slang at all. But scene description is important in order to make the imagery clear and the story or actions flow smoothly.

EDIT: should have added this in to begin with, but really the most important thing is: have fun with it!! When you're enjoying your story and writing out what your fictional faves are doing, people can feel that energy. Not to mention, you shouldn't force yourself to write anyway, because it can hurt in the long run. If a fic isn't working out, it's okay to stop and return later, or even never return at all. But don't be afraid to be silly with your fic and put that enthusiasm in there!

[caffeine-clouds]

Bit of an oddball, but how about SilvAmy

3 & 7

Would also be remiss if I didn’t do my personal fave Sonknux!

1 & 10

Oooooo, interesting - let's start with Silvamy I like this ship! - In your eyes, are they a "We make each other better" relationship or a "We make each other worse" relationship? I'm not a massive shipper of these two, let me be clear - but I do see it as totally plausible and very, very potentially adorable. I think I'd class them as "We make each other better type of couple" - purely because I consider both of these characters to be the most open about their feelings and emotions. They're both optimists, both expressive, and can be naive and tend to romanticize things. I personally think Amy would appreciate a partner who actually spoke about feelings - any feelings, hers or his - and frankly, that's not the type of dish Sonic is serving - you get me? Silvamy can be very open and as sappy as they want to be with each other - so it's one of those ships where they satisfy each other's needs so I think they could be really good together! It's just a happy sunshine couple, who doesn't love that? I like this ship! - What are some unique/unpopular takes you have surrounding this ship? Again, with this ship specfically? I can't say my opinions are strong on it. However, I guess I'll say (And this goes for ANY ship involving Amy) - I really fucking love and appreciate when first and foremost - writers can achknowledge the fact that Amy has feelings for Sonic. Those feelings have been such a big part of her character over the years so I appreciate when writers don't just cop out and act like those feelings never existed so it's more convenient for their ship to happen. By all means that's *fine*, there's nothing wrong with that - but I have a huge respect for fan writers who can at first achknowledge the elephant in the room and deal with it respectfully. If you're going to achknowledge Sonic and Amy's feelings for each other - I have no time for you demonizing Amy or Sonic. But those that can incorporate a little juicy character beat of Amy learning to let go of her feelings for Sonic before having her focus on the next love interest - in this case Silver - I fucking love that. Huge respect - I want to read that. Now, onto Sonknux - MY BOYSSSS I like this ship! - What made you first begin to ship it? Gotta give credit where credit is due - the fandom, the fanart and the fanfics! The more I looked at this ship, the more it felt Knuxouge with a different colour pallette. Like - a lot of the same dynamics are present in both of the ships - but they are different enough in their own ways. Sonknux is a wholesome fucking bromance ship, and I stan a good bromance. The release of the second movie and Frontiers have only helped to solidify my love of the ship further. They're just- ugh, so GOOD. I like this ship! - Would you be happy to see them actually become canon? Or do you prefer them as a fanon thing? Well - personally I don't actually really want to see any ship become canon in the franchise (aside from Whispangle, I do root for those two) purely because I just don't think it fits the vibe of the series as a whole. However, if SEGA turns around and makes Sonic and Knuckles gay icons in a future game - I'd honestly fucking live for it. I'd be so down for a romance between those two - it's funny, cute, and ALSO has angst potential? Sign me tf up. And the inevitable uproar on Twitter that'll start as a result of video game icon/mascot Sonic the Hedgehog being confirmed gay for his homie Knux? Can't fucking wait, I'll be there with my popcorn. I'd- I'd surprisingly be pretty happy if they became canon lmao.

[monstrouslyobsessed]

just answering some asks real quick, no writing today but i am working on some n'sfw art of my fave lesbian beastfolk characters. hoping to finish and share that one (but sadly censored) tonight!

cw: mentions of a certain horror hentai, beastfolks

thank you for the quick reply! I am super psyched about the possibility of a book of beast au, like holy moly I'd read it/buy it! And no worries on me selling the fan idea or claiming your idea, its more like me doing fanfiction of my fav author work as fan love ;3 —anonymous

dawwwwwww thank you!! <3 you're a sweetheart!!! do whatever you want! i'm super down to see your (and literally anyone else's) takes on my au~ we need more furry beastman x human tbh.

still a slim possibility tho! it'd be more of a compilation book more than anything as it'd be easier for me to do than to do chapter by chapter thing (and honestly, i wouldn't know who to focus on! i accidentally made the au too vast, rip). the only thing that would kinda suck is having to come up with the identity of mc's in each story, since it's super nice not having to think too much about who the mc is when i write reader x monster. i don't think reader x stories would sell well, though, and especially not the dead dove kind.

but that's alright, it just means i can write the mc's being in the minority if and when i wanted to c: disabled mc's are not something you'd see represented often being one myself and i'd so much love to contribute somehow.

Have you seen puss in boots? —anonymous

i dont...watch many movies lmao but im guessing this is about death the wolf? my friends were all over him! even the ones who aren't into yandere/dd stuffs.

i'll have to see if i can find that film on netflix or prime then and make some time for it

Omg, I didn’t listen to you and I read that hentai fully out of curiosity and wow that’s fucked (and scary) —anonymous

oh nonnie NOOOOOOO-

you poor soul D: it IS a horror hentai though, i should've specified in the initial post (sorry!), but fuck some of them are...

yeah, half of it is extremely fucked indeed. ymmv, but outside the ones involving...minors (shudders), the cow head and the monkey on train are just...no, with the former especially being the worst one and probably the most fucked up of them all. the tall lady and the scarecrows/women in the field would've been...passable to good if they hadn't involved minors, simply because i liked the initial premises. :\ the snake-god would've been a 10/10 for me if the mc is older and less...bratty, but as it is, 8/10 and all of the points i gave were because of the monster's gorgeous unique take on lamia/naga design (that monster lady is a chef's kiss and makes my gay ass heart happy) and her tragic backstory.

idk about the 6-armed snake-god one specifically, but i've heard/read that all the others were based on the Japanese lores. the cow one was supposedly already super gross in the first place though the artist could've just...not do that one and the rest, yeah.

i was able to deal with the statue ones and the worm god fine because...at least they all looked like adults who fell into bad situations they couldn't get out of. the monster on the road is...well, it'd be better if it didn't look like an old man :\ rest i just straight up skimmed through with my eyes half shut and completely skipping the cow head one first few pages in.

…sufficient to say, i only read monster / horror hentai's based on friends' recs than looking for them myself these days. way too many involving minors, which is…unfortunate. yucks.

i'm very, very sorry i led you down there and endured all of that, nonnie dear. D:> i'll go back and edit that post to warn others.

[fountainpenguin]

Blog Stuff

^ Like, "FYI if you want to block tags" stuff

Little announcement here: Factor It In is on hiatus for now, probably for the rest of 2023. I know where the story is going overall and I know where the next chapter's going, but I struggled more than expected with the "Torus" voice (took like 6 weeks longer than the other chapters and all of it painful :'D)

I don't want to face a timecrunch struggle with TJ and Rose POVs (two characters who will be new to me), so I'm taking the bi-weekly update stress away and putting the 'fic on hiatus for now. But I wrote 77k before a hiatus was needed so I'm proud of that <3

We've got some 130 Prompts coming up as well as "Unicorn Years" for Origin in September (and hopefully a special Friday the 13th piece in October). In other words, FOP stuff is still bi-weekly as usual.

-> As a reminder, the 130 Prompts are posted in the order they are for a reason. You don't have to read them all if you don't want to, but extra context is always nice. If you've been dragging your feet on "Looking Back" by any chance... I might recommend that before the next update, which is "Sentry" ;)

On the "off" Friday I'm planning one-shots for various fandoms, especially shorter character studies. Really want to practice capturing a variety of voices, some quicker one-shots, and maybe I'll try some characters I don't use a lot. Or I'll be self-indulgent and focus on my faves... who knows.

Hoping to post more Come What May as well since you guys were excited to see it back <3... and it would be nice to actually finish a non-one-shot 'fic for the first time in. 7 years.

It's probably been obvious, but I also took a long hiatus from digital art. Traditional art is more comfy for me and I've been trying new digital programs, but haven't fallen in love with anything (i.e. I've been a vector artist for 10 years and moving from my safe space to different programs and styles is... painful).

I think I'm ready to start pushing my comfort zone, but be forgiving of my digital style because I'm playing around with new tools and this is a big jump for me, ha ha. I think I'm going to do some silly, low-stress fanfic doodles with very little attempt to make them look good, just testing stuff out.

I miiiiiight have a few PMV / animatic ideas, so we'll see

By nature of me posting art for my own 'fics, spoilers be upon ye if you're not up to date with my writing. Relatively recent stuff and/or stuff I consider "big" will get the #ridspoilers tag, but stuff I wrote 6+ months ago is less likely to get the tag, so that's how that goes.

-> #Dog's Life spoilers will get a unique tag because the weekly updates and drama make me say "Yeah, a special tag makes sense," so if that's a 'fic you think you want to read someday without spoilers, consider blocking that sooner rather than later :)

-> I'm also adding a #Pixels Imperfect tag to stuff from that universe (and I'll go back and add it to the chapters I already posted). "Pixels Imperfect" is the series name on AO3 for my digital gremlin Traffic SMP content (Everyone can freely wander around New Star Station outside the game and just puts on their roleplay hats when they go in, everything under this series fits under one umbrella of universe canon, etc.)

-> #Neighborhood Watch is the series name for "we take the roleplay lore seriously, this is their life, no digital world and no roleplay hat to take off" Traffic SMP content. I haven't posted anything for it yet, but I've got stuff in the works (I'm playing with a couple "making every season as canon as possible in one storyline" pieces and </3 it's big divorce speedrun hours for Clocker fam rn)

As for the other 'fics, I've been posting stuff like Origin, the 130, and Knots for 7 years and I feel okay about how that's going- I don't normally get spoiler Asks, but my general rule is to wait 1-2 weeks before I say anything spoilery on my blog. I think that's been working fine and we've got a good system, so I'm not changing anything there.

Lastly - and this is also part of the reason Factor is going on hiatus - it sounds like Traffic SMP Season 5 is just around the corner. For my followers who don't know much about this Minecraft deathmatch series, the creators only play for a few weeks - I think the shortest season was 6 weeks and the longest was 8 - and each creator puts out one episode a week (usually Friday).

So, it's a pretty short chunk of time and I don't want to be juggling too many things while it's coming out. I think this year I want to jump in and create some nice content while it's ongoing instead of just doodling off to the side and keeping it to myself... I need to dig up my old liveblog doodles I never shared, hm.

-> The traffic story canon gets reset every season (i.e. it's unscripted play, there's no continuous plot, and each season starts relationships from scratch), so if you've been enjoying any of my Traffic SMP reblogs, consider looking into it and riding that wave while episodes come out for a couple weeks and we can be hype together <3

-> Stuff for that season will be tagged #traffic spoilers, which is the tag I use across all the seasons, and I'll make a new post with my Season 5 spoiler tag once we get the name reveal.

-> As is traditional when I liveblog, I'll also use the tag #Riddle watches Traffic so you can block that too if you like. Just wanted to let people know in case I have any Traffic SMP followers who want to go in blind and don't want to risk seeing my posts before they have time to block my spoilers tag. #traffic spoilers still covers everything, including new season.

-> I also need to look into maybe switching from Traffic Life SMP as my blog tag to Traffic SMP because I think that's. the right name and it would probably be smart to tag properly... hm.

I think that covers everything I wanted to say. I'll add a list or link to my pinned post as well so people can figure out what to block for spoilers and stuff.

Thanks for enjoying my blog!