#and with the way i like made the ages etc of the other victors (bc like none of them have definitive ages or games they won)

[lixbf]

...... how did all of this start with me just wanting to quickly write down how old a few thg characters were during the last ten games. why did my brain decide i need to figure out for myself how old various other tributes and victors were when they died/won. why am i now here multiple hours later looking at an ugly monster of an excel sheet with 50ish characters sorted by birthday with their ages/ages at death as they correspond to each year's hunger games, another sheet of all 75 hunger games with known victors and their lifespans inserted into it because i wanted to see just the victors but also how much time is between some of the named victors, yet another sheet where i wanted to see how the victors' ages at winning compare to see how common i made each winning age but then i also used that sheet to figure out how many victors made it to different ages (which like btw is kinda depressing bc so many of them didnt even make it past 40), and then fucking finally an excel sheet of what i originally wanted to look at aka the ages of a few characters in the last few games except i included way more characters than i originally wanted to and also started at the 60th games instead of the 65th like i wanted to

[shalpilot]

Hello! It's been a while since I asked you something

So, i'm not really into ffxiv stuff (like, plot, game itself, etc) but I'm extremely curious about your oc Kiril. Due to this i came up with some questions (they're so basic, because i need to know at least something to ask a proper question)

1. Can we get a lil' bit of Kiril's backstory (other than running away from home). As far as i understood, he ran away with his sister/friend Yesui and something bad happened to her. So, maybe now you can give some extra details on their runaway and her death (if it was death, obviously)?

2. What about Kiril's parents? I didn't get the thing about forehead scales (maybe, it's described in ffxiv wiki or smth, idk) and who were they? Some sort of a ruler? Just soldiers?

3. Not really important but how do you pronounce Kiril and Yesui's names (full, of course)?

So, I'm glad to write again and being eager to wait for your new answers

Probably, if it doesn't bother you, i'd ask more questions in future about Kiril

edit: question one ain’t canon anymore LOLOLOL. yesui still dies in coerthas but it’s related 2 the herectics now. idk how bc I like. just stared heavensward but. we will see.

1) I actually rolled Kiril’s last name and ended up getting one of the tribes with canon lore which is GREAT for me bc it helped me mold his backstory more. I’m not at the part where I actually get to learn about ‘em in-game cuz i only started playing like a month ago but to boil down what I know, the Dotharl tribe believes in reincarnation & as a whole the Xaela- pausing. Kiril is an Au Ra (race), a Xaela Au Ra (black scales; nomadic), and a Dotharl (tribe). hope that makes sense lol. anyways as a whole the Xaela are pretty unwelcoming to outsiders and even Xaela from other tribes. Every year they have a Naadam which is battle where the victor “claims dominion” over the Azim Steppe (homeland) for the year. The Dotharl emphasize not fearing death and not being a fucking pussy

all of that is setup LOL. Anyways, Kiril was born shortly after the death of a notable warrior (also named Kiriltugh) and so he was set on the path of becoming a warrior since essentially day one. thing is, he a.) hated it and b.) was shit at it. he struggled to pick up even the most basic parts of fighting and suffered a lot of berating due to it. at the same time, an older girl in the tribe was making strides and becoming a veritable golden child in the eyes of the adults. that was Yesui! she was incredibly strong for her age and seemed to have a natural gift for battle. but very importantly, she was also understanding of Kiril’s struggles & helped train him even after plenty of other people had declared him a lost cause. eventually though, despite her best efforts (and Kiril’s improvements! turns out a mentor who doesn’t yell at you is a lot more effective) Kiril made up his mind to just. leave. when he told Yesui about his plan, she insisted on coming with him. even with Kiril protesting (you’re doing fine here; don’t ruin your life by coming along!) she wasn’t going to let a 10 year-old leave on his own.

They travel together for an undecided amount of time- left vague so I can update it when i get to later expansions (heehee) until they eventually end up in Coerthas, a snowy region. To my understanding this is pretty fucking far away so I think they must’ve argued their way into an adventuring party or several to make it all that way. they didn’t exactly have a plan; it was just “keep going until we feel like it.”

(a realm reborn spoilers until the next question.)

in Coerthas, things take a pretty sharp nosedive for the two of them and they end up alone and very, very lost. their adventuring party was attacked by a beast tribe and the materials they were carrying were ran off with. They manage to find a cave which offers them a small amount of shelter. Yesui leaves Kiril there while she goes to look for any kind of settlement they might be able to hole up in. she’s gone for ages. and when she comes back, excitedly promising Kiril she’s found someplace safe, she seems… off. she’s holding his hand a little too tight, moving a little too fast. she assures Kiril that where they’re going is safe, warm, and “beautiful”, but the storm raging around them only seems to be getting worse.

…i’m gonna get a little more technical from here because i want to make the rest of this into a comic rather than writing it out.

what’s happened to Yesui is she’s become enthralled by a primal god. Garuda, the resident primal of the region, is in the process of being summoned by the same beast tribe that attacked them, with the items they were transporting (large quantities of crystals). the more followers a primal accrues, the more powerful they become, and something in the region has caught her attention.

Kiril.

so, using Yesui as means to draw him to her, she means to take control of him as well. unbeknownst to either of them, Kiril is under the protection of Hydaelyn, a different (benevolent) goddess who grants Kiril immunity to the thrall of primals. in shielding him, She also ends up shattering the crystals being used in the ritual, causing it to fail. in the ensuing chaos, Kiril escapes with Yesui and manages to find an actual settlement. he begs for help for him and his closest friend- who has remained enthralled even after the disruption of the ritual.

the thing about those who become enthralled is that there is no helping them. what’s more, every follower is another source of strength for a primal.

she cannot be allowed to live.

despite his desperate pleas, despite his promises that she’ll never hurt anyone, Yesui is put to death.

he is far, far from home, and he’s never been more alone in his life.

….then some stuff happens and he becomes an adventurer. i don’t wanna fill in everything just yet, haha.

2.) His mom is a goldsmith and his dad’s a hunter! His mom’s forehead scales are just a trait female Au Ra have. men don’t tend to have as many/any scales there.

3.) Key-rill-too (full name is Kiriltugh) and Yesui is like. yeh-sooey. kinda :?

Kiril doesn’t tend to go by his full name because he feels he hasn’t earned it. this is more so a thing before he saved the entire realm; now it’s more of an affectionate nickname from friends.

[fakeosirian]

Love you hit Fabian with the dead dad stick because me too! (Kind of)

In regards to his family, I've always thought of Fabian's situation kind of similarly, especially in my fics where I've had many unneccessary Thoughts like:

-No dad, not sure whether he's dead or he left when Fabian was really young so he basically has no memories of him

-I had no idea what I wanted his mum's profession to be but I knew I wanted her to travel a lot and not really be around, like she cares about Fabian but she's pretty absent and has been since he was young, so I made her an archaeologist (cop-out answer Ik but I liked how it could link her, Jasper and Fabian's uncle, which I like the idea of his uncle being on the maternal side (it also works for my Plotty brain))

-He's the baby of the family with 2-3 older sisters (give that bitch the youngest child complex)

-There's an age gap between him and his sisters (alluding to the idea he was possibly an accident and the dad dipped) and they basically raised him

-He had a sheepdog that he was inseparable with when he was younger (I have this image in my brain of the dog helping him learn to walk that makes me die) but they had to put her down a couple years into Fabian being at the school and he couldn't be there because it was exam season

-You are so right that he's a scholarship kid it just makes sense that while he's incredibly smart and loves learning I think when it comes to school he doesn't have the 'drive' say, Mara does, and it's more a case of panic helping him succeed

-That said, him and Mara definitely used to study together before they fell into their respective friendship groups and he'd help her with languages and physics, and she'd help him with biology and computer sciences

-His sisters take on a lot of the financial burden of the family so they often can't come to see his school events, but you bet your arse they showed up to watch the play in S1 and were dying laughing at his Victor impression the whole time and ribbed him endlessly afterwards for his obvious heart eyes at Nina

-His sisters have much stronger northern accents than Fabian (because he's been at the school full-time since he was young it's been southern-ed out of him) and they take the piss out of him for it (good-naturedly) but the rest of the house always notice when they come back after Christmas or Summer and Fabian's accent is much thicker

Thats kind of all of my coherent thoughts about his family situation but I just love coming up with unneccessary headcanon's about my blorbos

LOLLLLLLLL not the dead dad stick 💀 what can i say he's got momma's boy vibes so might as well turn that dial all the way up to 11 For Fun!

cont. under cut only for length lol you got me excited

i'm obsessed w all of these. esp the sheepdog (crying at that mental image help..) and youngest child complex i can Very Much see that for him. he's either that or an only imo -- for your particular set of headcanons, the sisters are soooo choice and very much the move (also love how that changes how you'd interpret his relationships with the other girls in the house, patricia in particular lol) -- if you ever make his sisters full ocs i need to know ASAP bc i already love them.

was also half-deciding on archaeologist for his mom's profession/was at the very least envisioning her as some sort of research faculty that relied on grants (and thus would be very busy, lots of pressure to keep the grants resulting in some tunnel vision re: her ability to be present as a parent, etc) and adding heavy travel onto that was something hanging out in the back of my mind -- archaeology, certain fields of anthropology, and similar would all produce that vibe and picking archaeology specifically is the Tried and True Classic + hard agree that it gives her a more solid connection to the shop (always good because i think it can come off as a bit of a red herring for his family's financial situation but that's just me lol) -- i was auto-envisioning ade as being his mom's brother and not his dad's despite the surname at first/only caught that when i was making my post, so i love that you just went for it and made ade his maternal uncle anyway. moms keeping their maiden name and the kids getting her surname is based as hell

and adding to that tbh...you could do some really interesting stuff with his mother's job re: her relationship with his father, ie. him being resentful of her not being around, but making the problem worse by leaving himself once he's had enough (not recognizing he's dooming his kid to the exact same fate he left behind type vibes). very very very tasty possibilities there. also very tasty possibilities for him and eddie to have Why The Hell Is My Dad Like That sessions if his dad isn't dead/truly did just dip and tried to come into his life again later same as mr. sweet did lol

re: scholarship kid YEAH!!! the flavor of Being Smart he has feels so much more anxious and precarious than mara's in a way that isn't justified by his actual school performance (he seems to find making connections pretty easy and has a good memory/attention to detail when he isn't being cursed) and would be better explained by that sense of "if i don't work as hard as i possibly can, i could lose all of this" -- yes, that's part and parcel of the literal life and death stakes of the plot, but idk he was like that waaaay too quick and waaaaay before things got life threatening. bro is just baseline anxious in a way someone smart and explicitly privileged (mara) wouldn't be because her level of security in her situation is simply Too High (and that ooooooozes out of her character, esp as the series goes on and she gets more starkly compared to characters like jerome).

that DOES make them very cute study buddies tho (esp w the dynamic you describe omg) and i'm so excited to play with that a bit later in foyf (because i will admit i lowkey forgot i even came up with that project plotline i sort of threw in there a couple chapters ago where i paired them up but it's okay i remembered now and i've been intending to write in the academic rivalry stuff from TOR all along anyway it's fine..)

also YESSSS HIS ACCENT...love you (head)canonizing that he DOES lose it gradually over the show and it makes me SO SAD!!!!!!!!!!! him gaining it back over holidays is so real and so cute (my own regional accent does the exact same thing whenever my dad's regional accent gets thicker because he talked to someone that made it thicker LOLLL) so ngl i'm fully swiping this one <3

we are truly on the same wavelength about him.. our minds 🤩 ty for sending these they're great!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kipperlillycopperkettle]

thg s&b au !!!

i am a normal and healthy person (lie) and the main thing i have thought about since i was 12 is the hunger games. i literally think about the hunger games no joke at least once a day at LEAST. i am trapped in a hell made by suzanne collins etc etc.

however what this means is i end up making a lot of crossover aus, and i don't mean ‘the hunger games characters and these other characters are bffs now’ i mean like. ‘if i put [insert media here]'s characters into the hunger games universe how would that work. how would they react? what would their games be like?’ and the same thing happened with the grishaverse after i watched the show with peter.

how the grishaverse characters would work in the hunger games is there's such a broad age range and i am so insistent about finding characters to fill all twenty-four slots in the games that i made it a quarter quell with the twist of ‘all the victors are going back into the games’ a la 75 in thg canon. the way this fic was going to work/is going to work if i ever get around the finishing it is is a wild alternating pov set up. so it starts with alina's pov, and then it goes to inej, and then dunyasha (important to note that all of these characters are from different districts) and so on and so forth until we've heard from one of the characters from each district. after that, we hear mal's pov, and then alexei, and then nicolai, and these three character's are alina, inej, and dunyasha's district partners. and so it does this extremely overcomplicated alternating pov thing until a character dies and then their pov is cut from the rotation. i stopped this partially bc i didn't know how to decide who won and partially because i didn't feel confident writing about characters i don't really know like tamar and nicolai (i haven't read shadow and bone and don't really want to bc i've heard it's not great). so i'll probably pick this back up after next season when i'm more familiar with those characters!

this got SO long but anyway here's wonderwall (nina's reaping pov)

per haskell is wearing a deep plum suit, and he holds nina's wrist with a scary kind of intensity that she rarely sees in him, his fingers steady and rough even after all these years out of the arena.

“you can't let him do it,” he growls, his voice low and serious. “you can't.” his eyes bore into nina's own, and she resists the urge to shy away. instead she matches his hard gaze with her own.

“let him do what, exactly?” she asks, voice hard and stubborn as ice, her chin jutting out the way [her mentor] tells her it does whenever she’s being obstinate.

they both know who per is talking about. kaz is the only person per would be begging nina to control. 

“volunteer for me!” he snaps, his eyes wide and almost manic. “i know he'll want to. i just know it. and you can't let him do it.”

nina yanks her wrist out of his grip, and crosses her arms across her chest, suddenly hyper-aware of the amount of cleavage this dress shows. “first of all,” she says, “we don't know that you'll be reaped. and second of all, when has anyone ever stopped kaz from doing something that he wanted to do?”

there's a long beat of silence that nina doesn't know how to interpret, before a slow, almost maddening grin breaks out on per's face. 

“that's why i picked him, hmm?” he asks, and nina can't tell if he's looking for an answer or not. he claps nina on the back suddenly, the grin still painted on his face like a madman. “so i suppose we will just have to hope that neither of us is the lucky one who gets reaped.”

and as he walks away, his footsteps the only sound on the stone reaping stage, nina can't help but chuckle quietly at the idea that the tributes this year are lucky.

lucky ones, indeed — they'd had the luck of making it out and now they were getting thrown back in to be slaughtered. all because some victors couldn't keep their chins up and smile when the president told them to.

well. nina would make them regret not being able to keep their pretty little mouth shut. after all, didn't anyone ever tell them snitches get their fucking throats slit?

[gopeachllama]

My hopes for the VA tv show

So i got into vampire academy when i was in like grade 8/9 i think? So i would have been in my early teens. It's a book series that is very near-perfect to me, and it is very dear to my heart bc it's been with me for so long. That being said, i will be the first one to admit that there is a serious lack of diverse representation. Like i said before, i got into it almost ten years ago, and back then, even as a poc growing up as a minority, i was aware of this however it wasn't much of an issue for me mainly becuase it wasn't a issue for the people (the non-pocs) around me. Now that va is being developed into a tv series, i think this would be the perfect opportunity to change some things up to include more diverse characters. I've seen that there's already qutie a few people on here dicussing the sexualities of the characters, and they're really great. But this conversation is about race-bending. For anyone that wants to contribute to this post, i'm all up for kind and careful dicussions, it's not my intention to offend anyone, and i'm not trashing the series or it's creator.

Also the points about diversity and race in particular shouldn't be dimissed just because it's a fantasy/paranormal genre. Yes it is a fantasy/paranormal series but it is set in the real modern world, where issues like race and prejudice are relavent! You can't just ignore it. Also im sure that a lot of va stan are like me, in that they got into it at a very young age and now are older and also find these issue important to them, whether they are a poc or not.

Just a warning there will be a lot of spoilers (also random spiderman homecoming spoilers) in this post, so for anyone that hasn't read the books proceed with caution.

So firstly, i want to talk about the characters that won't be changed. Dimitri will obviously be russian. I like the idea that the royal families originating from european countries, so alot of the royals in this series lissa, adrian, victor etc. i think should stay white. It reflects a lot of the real world issues about how the people in 'higher class' western societies are mainly white. this is more personal but i have this weird headcannon that christian is like half-southeast asian (i say south-east asian bc i am also, and i would love more representation of my race (s/o to any of my sri lankan book stans if y'all even exist on here!!)) In the later books there is a focus on the prejudice regarding his relationship with lissa. this is due to the fact that his family is shun from the other royal bc of his parents willingly turning. It was a good plot point, but there was somthing about taking the real world prejudice of interracial relationship and using here between two white characters and framing it as something else that just rubs me off the wrong way (again, i never had these feelings as i was reading it for the first time, it was only until i got older that issues like race a representations became more important to me). This way, they can keep still keep the bit about christian's parents and race-bending christian would have any affect on the overall story. Rose (my baby) she could be made fully persian but if they stick with her being biracial, then i hope when it comes to casting that they find someone that has more persian physical features rather than someone with more eurocentric features.

Now for the main characters I think should be race-bent are eddie, jill and sydeny should be black. For eddie, i first thought that mason should be race-bent but then this would be a major problem in the second book because of the harmful sterotype about black people always being the first (major character) to die (i am STILL taumatised over mason's death and its going to destroy me all over again when i see it with my own two eyes).

Sydney, as far as i know, there's nothing in the books that make is pivitol for her to be white. And while is important to be diverse with race, it's important to be diverse with black characters in itself. Sydney has always been such an interesting character to me. she's analytical and methodical, she's book smart, and she's almost the complete opposite of rose, but doesn't make her any less a compelling character. So much in books, movies and tv shows, black females characters are mainly potrayed as strong, hardass, take-no-prisoners (sometimes even hyper-sexualised) type personalities. So rarely do we see them as with characteristic like sydeny's, so i think it would be really great to show this. Also her relationship with adrian has a lot of the same points with i said about christian's relationship with lissa regarding prejudice.

With Jill, i noticed that in the books, Mead sort of goes out for her way to describe her physical appearance, so that when later it is revealed that she is lissa's half sister, the readers are able to think "oh yeah of course they look really similar" and so it doesn't seem like a telenovella style outrageous plot twist. But for this i want to quickly talk about how in spiderman homecoming, peter's love interest who is black, is revealed to be the daughter of the villan who is white. For me, it was amazing reveal and something i was not expecting at all, but at the same time, its wasn't hard for me to believe because of course birracial people exist. I think it would be really cool to do the same thing here with Jill. It a great way to subvert people's expectations and wouldn't make the plot twist any less unreasonable. Aslo from what i can remember there are no black vampires?? for some reason? that was always kinda weird to me. Also with the three of these character's being black, they can still maintain the storyline of them passing off as siblings when they're in hiding, that is if they ever adapt the bloodlines storyline too.

Whether or not these characters, or any of the characters, will be race-bent, it won't change my experince with the book series. Like I said at the start, vampire academy will always be THAT series for me. The world-building is simple and easy to follow but the plot and characters are so compelling. But this upcoming tv adaptions would be a good oppotuny to address the very few things i (and a lot of other diverse readers) have with it.

[awxward]

A3! Boys + My Stuffed Animals

Spring Troupe:

Sakuya

Gabriel

Gabriel is a small elephant with big ears that constantly make him fall over. He has a pink bowtie that says 'I Love You'

Makes Saku feel safe and Gabriel is a reminder to himself that he's loved and appreciated by everyone at Mankai.

Named after a friend from theatre class :)

Masumi

George Washington

George Washington is a tiger. He is small, but his arms are like those slap bracelets so you can wear him on your wrist (or let him hang on the side of shelf like I do).

So I got Georgy-Boy for easter 2020. i asked my friends for name ideas. They sent me stuff like 'Stripes'. I went offline for a few minutes and when I came back online I told my friends his name was George Washington.

//////////

Me: tiger has a name now

Friend: which name did you choose?

Me: his name is George Washington.

Friend: what the fuck. how'd you get George Washington?

//////////

Pretty sure he got the name bc I was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.

Citron

Daniel

Daniel is mostly pink but has other pastel colors that look like watercolors. He's a unicorn. And a ketchain. And he's one of those dream lites, so he lights up. (He's supposed too anyway, but he's never lit up since i got him like 7 years ago at a yard sale).

Named after Daniel Howell (formerly danisnotonfire) [YouTube]

Tsuzuru

Lucifer

Lucifer is a small panda pillow pet. Very easy to travel with bc he fits in most backpacks.

My mom told me she wanted me to have a stuffed animal with a biblical name, i picked him up, looked her in the eye and said "His name is Lucifer." My mom tried to protest. "You said a biblical name, Mom. Lucifer is in the bible."

Itaru

Pao(???)

Pao is a panda. They are also a phone holder thingy. Like it'll hold your phone if you're watching movies or whatever.

Like 5-ish years old. Got them from a friend. They have a tag with their name on it, but I read it once and then just called them "the panda" for some reason instead of their actual name and now the tag is too faded to read the name, but i am 38% sure it says Pao or something close to that.

Chikage

Tsuki

Tsuki is a dinosaur. Tsuki is a sparkly dino. He's green rn, but if you brush your hand over him, the sparkles turn over and he becomes orange. I like green tho bc his tummy and the bottom of his feet are orange and so are his eyes.

Named after Tsukishima Kei (Haikyuu)

Summer Troupe:

Tenma

Hinata

Hinata is a narwhal. A bright orange narwhal. Infact he is the same color as Tenma's hair.

Named after Hinata Shoyo (Haikyuu) [bc its the same color as his hair. there is a theme with this narwhal and the anime boys i associate with them]

Yuki

Steve

Steve is a regular teddy bear, except he has a shirt that has pikachu on it. (the shirt was originally Tsuki's bc i got tsuki at a friends build a bear bday party, but it fits Steve better)

I just think Yuki would try new designs/color schemes/styles by making clothes for Steve to see how they look.

I got Steve from a claw machine (my bf at time won him for me just before we watched Endgame together.)

Named after Steve Rogers (Marvel)

Muku

Eeyore

Muku most definitely loves the Winnie the Pooh movies and I will fite for this hc. He gets my Eeyore. You know how Eeyore's tail is always going missing or falling off??? Eeyore's tail comes off (velcro) but its attached to his actual body with a string so it cant be misplaced.

Eeyore has a patch that says "official disney store" but i got him for $3 at a thrift store.

Misumi

Sherlock

Sherlock is a polar bear. Sherlock is very huggable. He makes Misumi feel safe. He has a hat and scarf (that don't come off. they are sewn on him)

the hat has a pom pom on top and the scarf has a pom pom on each end. the hat and scarf and the bottom of his feet have a blue/white plaid pattern.

Kazunari

Victor

Victor is a puppy and the first big stuffed animal of mine on the list! He's all tan and abt maybe 3-4 ft long. Victor lays pretty flat so he's comfy to lay/sit on. I think Kazu would like sitting or laying on him when drawing. Probably has him on his bed so he's like a giant pillow.

Victor is from Toys R Us. I got him last August-ish from my Aunt and Uncle who found him at a thrift store and thought I'd like him.

Named after Victor Nikiforov (Yuri On Ice)

Kumon

PJ

PJ is a small white tiger. He is also a ball. He can fit in one hand. When Kumon is thinking or stressed or bored (etc) he just lays on his back and tosses PJ up into the air.

When Kumon is laying on the floor tossing PJ, Misumi sits on the bed closest to where PJ is and tries to grab him (but only if Kumon is in a good mood and okay with it) It's a fun little game they made up they like to play.

Pretty sure he was named after KickthePJ (YouTube)

liber pls give us a pic with all of autumn i am begging

Autumn Troupe:

Banri

Sammy

Sammy is another one of my large stuffed animals. He is also a puppy, but unlike Victor he is sitting instead of laying. He's abt 2-3 ft tall. His fur is the same color as Banri's hair. Great to squeeze at anytime, but very therapeutic when you're in a bad mood. Has a heart on his ear.

i got him abt 7 years ago. I had just finished spn season 2 and was upset abt the finale and had no way to start season 3.

Named after Sam Winchester

Juza

Tiggs

Tiggs is a beanie baby tiger. Tiggs is a little larger than PJ (and not a ball). He's a regular orange tiger instead of a white tiger like PJ. He'd buy Kumon PJ so they could have matching stuffed animals. Small and very comforting to just hold/hug.

Omi

Benedict (Ben)

Benedict, also known as Ben, is a small koala. Just a little bigger than Tiggs. He has a heart on one of his feet (i think the right one). very soft. very fluffy.

Named after Benedict Cumberbatch (Actor)

Taichi

Dean

Dean is my largest stuffed animal. He is a dark brown teddy bear that's abt 4-ish ft tall. He can be put in a corner and used as like a bean bag chair, or he can lay down flat and be a good pillow like Victor can.

It's very fun to just wrap around him and squeeze as tight as you can. Especially in when your in a bad mood. Very comforting to cry into.

I got him a couple years ago at a thrift store.

Named after Dean Winchester (Supernatural)

Sakyo

Lev

Lev is a lion abt the size of a regular teddy bear (maybe slightly larger). I got him a thrift store so he's slightly worn out from age. He's mostly a pastel dark yellow-ish tan and his mane is dark brown. very huggable.

He's the stuffed animal I sleep with. Smells nice all the time, like the fabric softener.

Named after Lev Haiba (Haikyuu)

Sakoda

Emotional Support Iron Man

So Iron Man is small and he sparkles. He will hurt you/someone if thrown hard enough. Sakoda likes heroes bc they remind him of Sakyo they look cool. I'd hc that he got Iron Man from Sakyo when he was younger and its one of his most valued possessions and goes everywhere with him (or stays with Azamo or Sakyo at the dorm. Maybe Izumi or a couple others are on the list of who can watch over Iron Man.) Very protective of it.

Got the emotional support part of his name from a friend.

She saw Eddie Redmayne on a movie cover (think it was The Danish Girl) and started freaking out bc she loved him. I handed her the Iron Man and the next day she thanked me and said he was an Emotional Support Iron Man and the name stayed.

Azami

[Emotional Support] Spooder-Mon

Sakoda knew Azami as a kid. He most definitely got him the Spider-Man so they could have matching plushies.

Spider-Man is square and has little blob hands doing the web thingy. The tag said travel pillow, but he probably just chills by Azami's bed. When needed, Iron Man will be placed next to him if Sakoda can't take Iron Man with him.

I brought him to school one day and we had a bio test and all the people sitting around me passed him around and gave him a pat for good luck. We all got good grades and then he was dubbed as Emotional Support Spooder-Mon, but the Emotional Support title isnt part of his name (unlike the Iron Man).

i wanted guy in the pic, but i also wanted tsumu and hiso in the pic so you get 2 pics for winter

Winter Troupe:

Tsumugi

Phil

Phil is a zebra. He is a pillow pet zebra. Like Lucifer, Phil is also easy travel size. The bottom half of Phil is pink, so I refer to him as my pink zebra.

I just think it'd be cute to have Tsumugi with a pillow pet ok. I also thought he'd probably have has Phil for many years (since he was a kid) and Tasuku most definitely brings up things from when they were kids and shit.

//////////

Tasuku: you chose the pink zebra, and for what???

Tsumugi: its a very aesthetically pleasing pastel pink.

Tasuku: THERE WAS A DOG PILLOW PET RIGHT THERE AND IT WAS CUTER

Tsumugi: dont talk bad abt Phil.

the rest of mankai: ????????

//////////

I got phil before I got Lucifer many years ago. He was old when i got him and he is very old now. I love him so much.

Named after Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) [YouTube]

Tasuku

Cap

Cap is a husky. He was won from a claw machine with Steve.

There's just something abt the grey and white that gave me Tasuku vibes. Also, Cap's eyes are abt the same shade of blue as Tsumugi's and Tasuku knows this bc they are in love. Very squishy when hugged and with the way he sits, you could make it look like he's guarding something.

Named after Captain America (Marvel)

Homare

Ushijima (Ushi)

Ushijima, also called Ushi, is the last of my giant stuffed animals. He is abt 2-3 ft tall (like Sammy) and has a tail abt the same length.

Ushi is a raccoon thats mostly hot pink. Ushi's eyes are also pink and just abt the same shade as Homare's hair, although Ushi's fur is brighter by a few shades.

Ushi hurts when thrown/swung hard enough. Very fun to hug bc he's filled with beans (like beanie babies) so unlike all my other giant animals, he doesn't have to be fixed/adjusted after everytime you squeeze him. The tail has cotton tho and makes a good pillow.

Homare would definitely just see a 3 ft tall hot pink raccoon and claim it with no explanation.

Named after Ushijima Wakatoshi (Haikyuu)

Hisoka

Vladmir Dracula the 3rd (Vlad, Drac)

Vladmir Dracula the 3rd, who has many other names but usually goes by Vlad or Drac, is a vampire (surprise).

Vlad is a squishmallow thingy, and their tags say something abt them being able to be used as pillows, and thats why Hisoka gets Vlad.

Vlad is triangular in shape, with triangle ears, and triangle fangs, so I thought abt Misumi, but i figured Hisoka bc it's a pillow.

He's like the perfect travel size and he has a cape and a bowtie.

Named after Vlad the Impaler, the real life inspiration behind Dracula (my brother thought he was named after Vladmir Putin and I wanted to punch him for that but I was too busy laughing.)

Also named after Dracula, who was a vampire.

Idk where 'the 3rd' came from, but it's part of his name for forever.

Azuma

Sebastian

Sebastian is a dinosaur thats blue with a white tummy.

He's also a squishmallow, but he's bigger than Vlad by abt 2× as wide, so he'd be harder to carry around, which is why Hisoka got Vlad instead. Being a squishmallow means he looks more blob than dinosaur and i love it.

His tag said his name was Dominic or something, but I named him Sebastian before I actually checked the tag, so he's Sebastian.

Named after Sebastian (Black Butler) and Sebastian Stan (Actor)

Guy

Moriarty

Moriarty is my other polar bear. I got him with Sherlock and named him Moriarty bc Moriarty is Sherlock's nemesis.

He's just a plain white bear thats very huggable and adorable. I usually have a bowtie on him bc it makes him look fancy.

Guy would like him bc he's plain white and very fluffy.

[laryna6]

Thinking about the title of Magician in Xanth - 

Magicians are supposed to go to war for the crown, so you’d think you’d get Goku power level stuff.

In actuality, only one Magician with a talent that was ‘cast on the battlefield’ ever managed to become king, and when Trent went to war for the crown he got his ass handed to him because having an OP talent meant he hadn’t learned the concept of ‘when people are trying to kill you set a watch’ which should have been a basic ‘how to not die’ strategy for someone growing up in a death world. He was later granted the crown because the previous king had died of old age, he’d spared the life of the son of the head of the council, and the other options were extremely annoying. (Like, there was a speech re ‘you’ve earned this’ but like, the council didn’t know about any of the stuff Trent had done that made him actually qualified, all they saw was that at least he wasn’t stupid enough to underestimate someone w/o magic anymore. I’m betting that before Trent showed up Roland’s Plan A was to ask Iris to illusion herself a beard bc Xanth would not have survived a second Humphrey reign - now I want that AU. Bonus if there is Queen Totally-Not-Evil-Magician-Trent). 

Every single other person who won the crown up until series start had a talent good on the strategic/logistical/troop-generating/medical level, not direct combat. Trent with his six foot instant death radius couldn’t win the throne but a woman whose talent was ‘longevity’ took it and held it for almost seventy years. Her successor was an actual ghost who died before her reign began, so she may have stepped down on deciding he’d make for an even more stable-longlasting reign, since the dude wasn’t the type to have challenged her for the throne.

A magician who is next to unbeatable in direct combat didn’t challenge Trent for the crown bc by that point Trent had the powers of ‘understanding demographics,’ ablity to organize supplies and logistics for a small army, etc. Stuff actually useful in being king of Xanth.

The ways someone can qualify as a magician, and therefore be eligible to become king, and the tradition of competition for the throne, make sense given the context of the founding of the line of kings and what the kings are actually for.

Every human born in Xanth has a magic talent - originally it’s thought that if someone is a magical being, they can’t have a talent in addition to that but that’s found to be incorrect.

Being a magician and what qualifies someone as one is a Big Deal that becomes important and gets dug into in the sixth book, because they’re getting invaded and someone’s taking out their kings - anyone who can take out magicians is qualified as a magician and that means that if the defenders can’t keep the throne filled, they’ll have to cede the crown to the invaders’ assassin. 

The strength/amount of magic tied up in someone’s talent can be assessed and is a way to qualify for magicianhood - Magician Trent knows that Bink has to either be a magical being like Chameleon or have a magician-level talent when it’s revealed Bink contains more magic than Trent does. (It can’t be that Bink has a spell on him and that’s what’s being detected bc they just got back from the mundane world and spells go poof without magic to draw on.)

Meta-magic also qualifies someone as a magician - not all magicians have meta-magic, a talent that lets them control magic other than that of their own talent, but anyone who has meta-magic is a Magician - this is discussed explicitly when a centaur is labeled a magician for his talent which lets him create an area around him with a higher magic level than that outside the area - he’s moving around/controlling magic. 

‘Versatility’ is a means of qualifying - Irene originally fails to qualify as a Sorceress because her talent of rapid plant growth isn’t versatile enough, but over time she’s able to gather an arsenal of plants with specific effects. It’s not meta-magic since she can’t control the magic of the plants, just use her own talent to make them grow, but she use the talent-grown plants for a wide enough variety of different effects she qualifies on versatility - she doesn’t have raw power or metamagic, but she can get the same level of shit done as someone who does. In fact one of the things noted as the Main Achievement of one of the Kings is something that Irene could make happen. 

To answer the question of ‘why do those things qualify you’ you have to look at ‘what magicians are for’ and the job of Magicians is to go to war with each other for the crown. In the modern era, most people consider Magicians like Murphey and Trent who incited wars to try to take the crown villains, which makes sense because Xanth is a death world as it is, the cause of human survival does not need that shit, but the Council of North Village (largest human settlement) and King Roogna (the king Murphey was going after) consider that complete bullshit and approve of Trent and Murphey’s actions. 

If the purpose of a Magician is to become king or die trying, proving the victor is the one most qualified for the job, what makes that a role vital enough it’s worth killing off members of a small population? What makes the kings so important?

Well, what was going on in the 6th book that made having a king so important they were desperate for Magicians? 

A Wave.

Xanth was periodically discovered and invaded by armies from our world. Like in the Irish Book of Invasions, most of those invaders have committed genocides of the people already living in Xanth 

The Third Wave left the women already living in Xanth alive. The first Magician King was instrumental in helping those women organize to kill their ‘husbands,’ free themselves, and find and bring in men who could be trusted to not pull that shit - his talent was recorded as knowledge, which, yeah. He ended up moving to our world and entering folklore for helping an island nation resist invasion...

King Roogna was the child-by-rape of one of those women. Murphey, if not a child by rape, would also have been born to a mother who went through that. This may explain why both of them were so determined to become the one in charge of Xanth’s defense that neither would concede to the other, but they both liked the other and respected their drive to be king (to protect their families...). 

So what ‘are you a magician’ really means is, ‘can your talent fight off an invading army/help the citizens fight off an invading army,’ and yeah, a small civil war would be the best way to put that to the test. 

Interestingly, while having a talent that’s good in a fight/on a battlefield can qualify you as a magician, that type of power is discussed as ‘really fucking useless’ for winning the crown, much less being king, in Book 1. 

[mountain-ash-and-rusted-iron]

this is an oc masterpost of all my haf-formed ocs languishing on pinterest with their messy aesthetics and unedited blurbs, in roughly chronological order of their creation, plus sorted by fandom. this post is only asoiaf, harry potter, hunger games, and riverdale, cos i have tooooooo many original characters otherwise and the post was getting incredibly long. (note that i love my ocs but these one’s are not polished or even the final versions of their characters, i just wanted to post them lol)

under a read more, if you’re on mobile start scrolling i guess, sorry,,,

Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire:

Laeya Targeryen: (child of Rhaella and Aerys Targaryen, born 280 AC - three years older than Danaerys) 

Fearful of her impending marriage, Laeya is eleven when she takes her younger sister and flees across the sea to Dorne, hiding herself and Dany with dyed hair and badly controlled magic. As Leia and Dani Sand they learn to live normally. At 15 Leia joins the Royal Guard and secures Dany work as a tailor's apprentice. When she is 17, an assassin tries to kill her in front of the Dornish court and everything changes...

- so laeya straight up has magic, which im considering an extension of the dragon thing dany has - she can control flame and for the disguise uses her ‘inner fire’ to make her eyes white-blue like super hot flames, cos the purple eyes are super distinctive. and then she’s discovered and suddenly politics are happening. honestly she’s entirely a way for me to remove the child marriage bits of the targaryen storyline (stop marrying off your twelve-year-old baby sister viserys u asshole) - in terms of meta/basics, laeya doesn’t have a fc cos most of my early ocs don’t, and bcs i picture her as emilia clarke with faked dark hair and blue eyes lol

and a quick aesthetic below:

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Kyrra Snow: (child of Robert Baratheon and Maery Snow, birthdate ???)

Kyrra Snow is the eldest natural-born child of Robert Baratheon, current King of Westeros, and daughter of Maery Snow, a Southron (but Northern-born) merchant woman. After her mother realises Kyrra was growing up a little too much like her father in looks and needed to leave the far South before she caught the wrong sort of attention, Kyrra was sent off to travel with her aunt and cousins. She is 17 and heading further north, to Winter Town, when Jon Arryn dies.

- kyrra’s another child of everyone’s favourite asshole king, and she’s got a lot of people after her head, but she just wants to travel and continue her work as a simple peddler. (riiip poor girl) honestly she’s not that developed but yolo -

aes:

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Brynn Stark: (child of Catelyn and Eddard Stark, Robb’s twin sister)  

Brynn believes in honour and family, and she is loyal to Winterfell and the North above all else. Likes - archery, embroidery and weaving. Betrothed to [some young Northern lord] to keep the bonds between the Norther families strong.

-i basically made brynn as a contrast to sansa’s pro-southnness and excessive femininity and arya’s anger and desire for swords (relatable mood tho lmao). so brynn is here to mediate, extoll the virtues of both needlework and weapons, make a decent marriage to someone she likes, if not loves, and hold down the fort in the North while shit gets increasingly messier in the South. and a possible faceclaim is Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey - 

aes:

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Rosienne Lannister: (child of Joanna and Tywin Lannister, born 273 AC)

Rose is looked at by the realm with dismissal, a consolation prize for her father, a spare daughter only useful for matchmaking, but at least able-bodied and pretty, unlike her brother. After a long betrothal, Rose is married to Willas Tyrell at the age of eighteen, cementing her role as the next Lady of High Garden...

- Rosie/Rose is a bonus Lannister, bcs why not. likes cyvasse and the harp, soft and kind and maternal, powerful in her own way. originally she was from a minor divergence where joanna survives tyrion’s birth and goes on to have another kid, but not sure if i’ll keep that aspect, so for now she’s tyrion’s twin -

and her aes (yes that quote is cropped, no i don’t care rn):

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honourable mentions to my other got underdeveloped got/asoiaf ocs who need more effort before i post properly about them:

Tamlen Storm, a rookery apprentice (working for the Maester of House Tully, managing the ravens) who may or may not be a reincarnated si-oc trying to save westeros, 

and an unnamed northern huntress who stumbled into the plot somehow and wants her normal life back (entirely inspired by Keira Knightley as Gwyn in Princess of Thieves, when she’s doing archery stuff and looking v butch).

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Harry Potter:

Taurus ‘Ara’ Lestrange:  (child of Bellatrix and Roldolphous Lestrange, born 1978) 

Raised by the Goblins after a legal mix-up following her parents' imprisonment in Azkaban, Taurus is good with a sword and aiming to be the next Minister of Magic. She attends Hogwarts with the other magical kids her age, under the fake identity Ara Burke, unknown cousin of a minor half-blood family. When the Potter brat’s drama starts destroying her change at an education just as her fourth year, her OWL prep year, begins, Ara intervenes.

- im tangentially aware that as bellatrix’s kid she’s almost occupying the place of whats-her-name from the cursed child, but considering that i know nothing about the cursed child and don’t care about it anyway, i have elected to ignore this. her actual parent might turn out to be some smitten half-blood from a minor branch of the Greengrass family, or it might actually be Rodolphous, who knows. slightly inspired by the fic ‘Harry Crow’ (by robst on ff.net) where harry is raised by the goblins -

messy aes:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerian Potter: (child of Lily and James Potter, born 1980)

After the Potter twins’ parents are murdered by Voldemort, they’re dumped on the doorstep of Number 4, Privet Drive. Dealing with two traumatised magical orphans, Petunia and Vernon Dursley turn to violence and neglect to stay in control, acting far more harshly than expected. With the arrival of two Hogwarts letters, life gets complicated incredibly quickly. (Self-sufficient and scarred from abuse, Val and Harry are immediately Sorted into Slytherin). 

- val’s fic is basically an angst fest, okay,,, -

aes:

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and shout-outs to: holly addison potter, a half-baked reincarnation si-oc (i love that concept a lot, can u tell) and my fav girl thea dursley, who already has her own fic and so isn’t getting a proper spot in this post 

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The Hunger Games:

Asher: (District Two, age 18) 

[rip no blurb for asher]

-asher is a career from two, who wins the 70th games. mostly im focusing on her recovery and how the games function in two, with training volunteers and mentoring and collecting sponsors, plus eventually the rebellion. lots of the D2 headcanon i have is inspired by @/lorata but i defintely made a distinct effort to have my own stuff, cos where’s the fun in plagiarism -

aes for Asher’s Games:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Rowan Everdeen: (District Twelve, age 19)

Rowan will do anything to protect her family. This extends to going to Head Peacekeeper Cray on a cold winters night, charging the most she can get for her virginity.  It extends to Reaping Day, when she steps out in front of the crowd and says “I volunteer as tribute” in the steadiest voice she can muster.  It extends to clawing her way out of the Arena, bloody and exhausted, with blades in her hands and violence kept tucked behind her teeth. It extends further, to a simple ‘Yes, President Snow’ when he coldly, carefully implies her family might meet with an accident if she doesn’t play the good little Victor (and fuck the people who pay the Capitol for her company). It extends to joining the Rebellion, to looking President Coin directly in the eye and agreeing to be a Mockingjay, a symbol for the people to rally around.

- another everdeen kiddo! as the big sister, rowan volunteers for prim, and goes through the Games - she’s a healer and a hunter, and a decent enough actor that she can manage interviews and a camera presence, unlike katniss. rowan also pairs well with a minor au i have, where the reapings are spaced out over a week and official training is a longer, giving the capitol a nice, long buildup to get excited and place bets, etc., and giving the poor, underfed tributes from the outer districts a better chance, which makes for more interesting television and better Games -

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Adrasteia Crane: (The Capitol, age 28) Unlike her big brother, Adrasteia doesn’t want to be a Gamemaker. Instead, she wants to create clothes, artwork, to enrapture the Capitol. She wants to be a Games stylist. After years of design school, of working her way up the ranks, first a PA’s assistant, and then fetching and carrying for Twelve’s prep team, and then eventually on a prep team for the dull tributes from Six, Adrasteia Crane finally has what she wants - the position of stylist for District Three’s male tribute in 74th Hunger Games. 

- tbh adrasteia is only seneca crane’s sister because i couldn’t think of a suitable last name for her lmao. i think i’d actually prefer her to be unattached to any major canon players. however, his death is a good motivation for her to join the rebellion, so we’ll see. she’s got a bit of the capitol fashion thing going too, with soft pink hair and diamond-effect skin on her face and shoulders -

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also bonus hunger games content: another oc, Sarsaparilla Verran, from District Eleven, fifteen and alone when she goes into the Games. An orphan, her siblings lost to the Community Home system years ago, her relatives dead or uncaring. So, Rilla is a wee lonely bab tbh. she did not want this, unlike most of my other hg ocs, and she’s not excited for weeks of murder. she just wants her family back, but since that isn’t possible, she’ll build a new family instead. and uuhhhhh,  spoiler alert, she dies before she can have this ://///

and my hunger games aus - a canon divergence where katniss joins the careers instead of peeta, her desire to go home to her family outweighing her reactive hate for the concept of training/volunteering to kill other teens, and a fem!Haymitch au where she’s a little wiser to the dark side of the capitol before she commits acts of rebellion (she still rebels anyway tho, just smarter).

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Riverdale:

Cat Cooper: (middle child of Alice and Hal Cooper) Cat Cooper (17) is the black sheep of the Cooper family. Her piercings, brightly dyed hair and connections to the Southside Serpents make her the odd one out among her sisters and constantly at odds with Alice Cooper. Cat’s life is occupied with her Serpent friends, work at a local coffee shop, and training - martial arts, supplemented with cross country, gymnastics and swimming. Until her older sister is shipped off to places unknown and her baby sister starts getting caught up in murder investigation with the absent Serpent heir... 

- haven’t decided between Catelyn or Catherine for Cat’s full name lmao. she used to be Kit, actually, but I changed it cos i prefer Kit to solely be my divergent oc (kit serafim). Cat is an ADHD disaster who loves her sisters and her friends and wants to get the hell out of Riverdale on a sports scholarship (she does either boxing or karate mainly, need to figure that bit out) -

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Georgie Andrews: (child of Mary and Fred Andrews)

Georgie likes soft drinks, cheerleading, and hanging out with the Blossom twins and Polly Cooper, their closest friends and a welcome distraction from their own problems. After Polly and Jason vanish, Georgie’s support system is almost gone, and they has to deal with everything they’ve been bottling up, just in time for Fred Andrews to get shot.

- also just angst ngl.  so georgie’s gender is basically ???, they enjoy cheerleading and not much else. they spend half their time dealing with depression, by trying to ignore stressful/hard topics and focus on the good side of everything. this isn’t a great long-term coping mechanism and has the fun side effect of pissing of the people around him when she seems unable to be serious or empathetic to someone else's pain (bcs she’s too busy deflecting for the sake of her own fragile mental health), so it gets fun when fred is shot and archie starts getting in too deep with the lodges -

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Sera Thornstone: (parents ???) Southside Serpent. Going to the Riverdale Community College and running errands for FP Jones. And secretly meeting up with her Ghoulie lover down by the Sweetwater where nobody goes. 

- everything about sera is vague and undecided lmao. but she has a ghoulie gf/bf/nbf? and they’re hiding that they were down by the river on the 4th of july, cos a serpent is an immediate suspect. going to community college to work on getting general credits before saving up for fancy school for law or journalism. the aes isn’t entirely accurate cos sera’s built from the remains of another serpent oc who i scrapped (she does have a baseball bat tho) -

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and honourable mentions to jen johnson and octavia blossom-murphy, my other riverdale ocs who actually have content, plus an in-development unnamed oc who gets adopted from the soqm by the Muggs family and growsup with Ethel. and my riverdale role reversal au, which i will never write but have some nice aesthetics for under the tag wip: bughead role reversal au.

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all my mini-aesthetics here are unsourced images/from pinterest. any similarities to other people or characters, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. 

alrighty that’s it. now i have to tag this behemoth argh

[taleslations]

ToX2 behind-the-scenes info

People have been wondering about the decisions behind Xillia 2’s creation, so I have compiled information found in guides and interviews. No straight-up translation because that’s too tedious, just an info dump.

X1&2 Spoilers below.

From the Complete Guide interviews

Producer & Director – Baba & Anabuki

[Note: Anabuki worked on S, A and V’s development. He was the main planner for V 360 and did some directing for the PS3 ver. He was part of the battle system team in X1, and became the director for X2.]

Reasons for making a sequel

·         Fans had often said they wanted sequels in past questionnaires

·         Xillia was the 15th anniversary and they’d created a very detailed setting they wanted to re-explore

·         Wanted to expand on Elympios with an Elympion main character

·         Felt it was a waste to use the characters in only one game

·         Feels it kind of started when people said it would be fun to play as Gaius and Muzét

On what changed and what didn’t

·         They wanted to keep the old characters

·         Since the setting was more or less the same (tho with more focus on Elympios), they decided to build the game’s identity on its mechanics (see below)

·         Game mechanics changed a lot, with the introduction of the debt system, fixed parties, chromatus ability and choices

·         Setting is more modern

How the debt system came to be

·         Because ppl Ludger’s age worry about money

·         They wanted to have Ludger burdened by something

·         20,000,000 gald bc that’s the kind of sum that modern day salarymen could borrow. It’s a huge sum but not impossible to pay back if you work hard

The choice system

·         Because part of being an adult is making choices

·         Sometimes there are choices you don’t want to make but you have to (exemplified by having to destroy fractured dimensions)

Okumura as main character designer

·         Because since this wasn’t a game with two protagonists, they couldn’t ask both Fujishima and Inomata like last time

·         Since Ludger’s kind of a player self-insert, his design would be tricky, so it’d be easier with someone from within the studio

·         Okumura’s been working on Tales designs since Eternia (mainly for minor character) and his talent shone when he designed the Chimeriad, so they weren’t worried

Why the heroine is 8

·         They wanted her to be someone you’d strongly want to protect (working toward the last choice)

·         It wouldn’t work if it was a strong heroine who fought alongside you like in past titles

·         Yamamoto wanted her to be a girl because “I’d want to protect a little girl more than a little boy”

·         If she can’t participate in battles, it’s easier to remove her from the party for plot reasons (can’t have a fighting heroine kidnapped by the last boss for gameplay reasons)

·         (When she’s out of the party) Wanted to make players feel her absence in anticipation to the last choice

On Ludger’s various fighting styles

·         Baba wanted a sort of style shift like in Graces

·         Since he was a new protagonist, they wanted to introduce something that wasn’t in the original Xillia

·         Chromatus was Anabuki’s idea, because he likes transformations

·         People who played the first game probably have attachment to the old characters, but since Ludger’s the protag here, they wanted to make him stand out more

·         Staff got angry at Baba because that meant they basically had to program three characters in one XD

On Ludger’s silence

·         They wanted him to be a self-insert to the player

·         Plus it makes the one scene where he speaks more meaningful

·         They added the voiced lines option as NG+ bonus for those who like voices

·         Reason they didn’t make that option available on first playthrough was they wanted to get their message across/wanted players to see what they were aiming for, which wouldn’t be possible if players could skip the voiceless aspect from the start

About Gaius and Muzét

·         It was hard to include Gaius because he’s supposed to be super strong

·         Also because he’s the type to handle things himself before the protag has a chance to. But since this was Ludger’s story, they had to sideline him

·         They wanted to give him an ability like Vesperia’s fatal strikes, but that would make him too strong, so they had to tone it down

·         Muzét’s a good middle-range character. She’s weak if you get past her guard, so she has the ability to move out of range quickly

About the endings

·         The first scenario they came up with was the one where Ludger disappears, but since they implemented the choice system they wanted the game to have an important choice at the end, hence the creation of other endings

Discarded ideas

·         Fractured Milla with short hair (discarded because they didn’t want ppl to realize immediately from promotion images that she was a different Milla, and also bc they didn’t think Milla was the type to cut her hair short since she doesn’t care much about her appearance)

·         Otoh, something they hadn’t planned on: character models. They were originally just a way for the motion team to test things, but since it was fun they decided to include it in the game

Any chance for another sequel or anime adaptation?

·         Nope on sequel, as they think that world’s story is over

·         They’d like an anime or other media adaptations, but there’s no plans for it

 Battle team – Fukuie, Yamase & Takizawa

[Fukuie was responsible for battle planning, various mechanics and linked artes; Yamase was the battle programmer (worked on Ludger’s artes and on mystic artes in particular); and Takizawa was battle program support (enemy artes and mystic artes, effects etc)]

What was kept from the original and what’s new

·         Linked artes were an essential part of the original so it was kept. They thought of modifying it but since it was popular they decided not to and simply make it easier to use

·         They gave spellcasters some more melee artes

Anabuki’s influence

·         Anabuki wanted more event battles so they added a lot

·         He’s also responsible for having them end the final fight with a mystic arte & cut-in

Ludger

·         They made bosses stronger because Ludger is really powerful

·         Elite monsters weak spots were inspired by Vesperia’s secret missions system

·         Implementing Ludger’s three fighting styles was apparently tricky with the tight schedule they had, so they asked for something else, but they went back to the first idea eventually

·         Example of other idea: giving him the fighting styles of the old characters. But that would cause problems if they simply copied the motions (they cited Elize’s posture, which would look weird on Ludger)

·         The scenario team asked that Ludger use both hands for each weapon style

Chromatus

·         The transformation part came mainly from the scenario team – someone said they wanted the image of a dark hero and someone else replied “then they should have a transformation.” The battle team was like “but he already has three fighting styles!”

·         At first the transformed state was less useful than fighting normally, so they removed staggering when transformed but added a time limit

Other characters

·         Anabuki wanted Gaius to be strong since he was the previous game’s last boss, but simply making him stronger than the rest would break the balance

·         There was a lot of arguing about his special ability

·         They also had a lot of ideas about Muzét but settled for emergency wrap because she can fly around freely

·         They increased the speed at which Rowen threw knives to make him less defenseless

Trivia

They picked Cless and Stahn as cameo because they were cameo costumes in the first game; then they added Mint and Rutee

They like the cameo ending, they feel it’s like a 4koma

At the beginning, the animation team made an animation of Ludger prostrating himself, but it wasn’t used. There’s always a number of gestures that don’t make it into the final product

Takizawa cleared everything on Unknown

 Scenario team – Yamamoto, Hasegawa & Hori

[Note: Yamamoto was the main scenario writer of X2 (as well as H, Z and B); in X1 he worked on sub events]

Settings

·         They picked the story of Maxwell and Kresnik from the first game and developed it further as a base for X2

·         They were careful not to make it look like the previous game’s story wasn’t complete or to make it sound like the previous game’s conflict was lighter than the sequel’s

·         There was a request from the planning team to make up a different system, so that’s how they came up with the choice system and having the protag be a player self-insert

·         However, leaving him without expression or personality would be too un-Tales-like, so that’s how he ended up like he is in the game

·         It was decided from the start to change the protag because Jude and Milla’s story was over

·         Since the first game was heavily focused on Rieze Maxia, they made this game from the pov of Elympios

On separating main story and character episodes

·         Part of the new system idea

·         You get to know the characters more in their chara eps and that can influence the main story a bit

·         They’d planned on adding bonus scenes from the start; they added more than expected

Fractured dimensions

·         Represent the power of choice (as they show how history would be if different choices had been made)

·         Also as a way to catch X1 players’ interest

·         Yamamoto’s favorite FD is Victor’s dimension because it’s full of suspense; in chara eps it’s the one with Nachtigal. Hori’s were the ones with the Chimeriad because he had wanted them to survive so that was a way to see them again. Hasegawa’s were the ones in Leia’s and Alvin’s chara eps.

·         They redid Leia’s episode entirely, giving a bigger role to her boss as a result

·         The target audience for X2 is a bit older than X1, so that’s why they show stuff like relationships between boss and employee, it adds a touch of realism and can make adult players empathize

Ludger and Elle

·         Elle is at the center of the story. She is both a trouble bringer and a source of strength for the main character

·         They wanted the last choice to be heavy, choosing between Elle and Ludger/the player themselves

·         No choice is more correct than the other. While Jude etc were heroes who saved the worlds in the first game, they didn’t need for Ludger to be a hero at all cost – that’s for the player to decide with the choices

·         The Julius ending was Hori’s idea. He wanted people to feel that it was a valid choice

·         Choosing means eliminating the other possibility. Nothing changes if you don’t choose, you can’t go forward. That’s why they didn’t include the option to save both

·         If it had been a shonen manga, everyone would be happy at the end, but they wanted an older target audience for this game, which meant burdening Ludger with difficult choices

·         The two joke endings were added for more Tales-like fun. The cameo ending was requested by the planning team

·         It’s just for fun though so they don’t consider the cameo “happy end” valid because it glosses over the main story’s drama

New characters

·         It was hard to find balance on Gaius because he tends to solve things himself if you let him, but here he needed to have a support role

·         They liked showing a more casual side to him, as well as his relationship with the Chimeriad

·         Muzét didn’t really have evil intent (in the first game), it was more that she went out of control. Bc she had a hard time in X1 and since X2 had a heavy story, they decided to focus on light-hearted scenes with her

·         Fractured Milla was created to show the player what fractured dimensions were in a straightforward manner

·         They also wanted to surprise the players by giving her a completely different personality

·         At first, she was just created as a step to bring prime Milla back, but they decided to give her a bigger role because they grew attached to her

·         At first, they came up with half a dozen personalities for her before settling on one (tsundere)

·         They picked a cat for a mascot because there were cat lovers among the staff

·         It’s hard to have an animal move around during events, to they made him a fat cat so he wouldn’t move too much

·         Ludger’s hair is silver like his father’s, and the black part is dyed

·         Nova’s meche is because she saw Auj Oule women (it’s a cultural thing there) and she wanted to imitate Rieze Maxia’s fashion

Discarded ideas

·         Julius’ was supposed to be Ludger’s mother at first, but they thought an older brother character would be more popular. His overprotectiveness is remnants of his motherly role

·         Yamamoto wanted Bisley to use a gun and have a scene where Ludger transformed and avoided the bullets, so Bisley would go “that slow thing is useless” and discard the gun before transforming himself and punch faster than the gun fired bullets

·         He also wanted a scene where Bisley showed up to the last dungeon in a car saying “Sorry for the wait”

·         Anyway Bisley is really Yamamoto’s favorite XD

·         Nova and Vera had a very small role originally but Nova grew as a character who cheers Ludger up when he worries about his debt

·         She was originally just there to provide information; in the original idea, she was also originally in love with Ludger, not Julius, and would be irritated at Julius for causing Ludger trouble

·         They didn’t expect her to even show up at the hot spring

From staff comments in the World Guidance book

·         At first the debt was supposed to come from Ludger having to take responsibility for the Oscore incident

·         Anabuki drew the wanted posters

·         They call Kanbalar Edo lmao

·         They’d originally planned to have an ending where Ludger gives up in ch.14

·         The imagery of butterflies is associated to the Key of Kresnik (Elle’s hat design, Bisley’s wings in his chromatus form…)

·         Jude was introduced early to cover for Ludger’s lack of lines

·         They considered having him oppose Ludger at first (abt destroying the dimensions) and eventually join the party

·         They decided to keep the old cast’s personalities as they were in the first game’s epilogue, but made an exception for Elize, who matured a bit in between

·         They originally wanted to show Muzét regret her actions of the first game, but her chara eps took another direction

·         Fractured Milla was originally simply a gimmick to show the cruelty of fractured dimensions, but her role got bigger

·         They had templates for her

·         A hidden thema of the extra episode is to restore Ivar’s honor

·         Ideas for Rollo: Julius’ disguise, Chronos’ true form. But he ended up as a regular cat in the end

·         The dungeon in ch.10 was meant as a homage to past titles

·         Since the game is aimed at adults, “immorality” and “irrationality” were key themes of the first ideas

·         Some character design rough sketches are dated as far back as March 2011 (the first game came out in September 2011)

Past translations:

Unused ideas for plot, fractured dimensions, Ludger & Julius episode, and fractured Milla personalities.

Staff comments about the fractured dimensions featuring the Chimeriad.

Interview with Daigo Okumura.

Interview with Takashi Kondo.

[lesceriises]

[ 🍒 ]  — gracing the tags with my presence before i go work on replies. hi. i’m elle. i’m mostly here for mxf shipping tbh, but i love platonic/family plots too. i have adhd which means i like jumping into things and figuring out what works and doesn’t without beating around the bush. send me memes!! send me ideas!! i love brainstorming. i have a bunch of muses right here & you can check out my open starters here. 

if you’re curious about what fcs i like + what types of plots i’m interested in, click the read more.

come write with me!!!

🍒  FCS I WANT TO WRITE AGAINST 🍒 

alfonso herrera, alvaro rico, chris pine, dacre montgomery, david giuntoli, edgar ramírez, jake gyllenhaal, kit harington, luke pasqualino, michiel huisman, oliver jackson-cohen, oscar isaac, ryan guzman, santiago cabrera, sean tealea, simon baker, tom ellis, tommy martinez, tyler hoechlin, zane holt, alicia vikander, alycia debnam carey, eleanor tomlinson, gugu mbatha-raw, imogen poots, johanna braddy, lupita nyong'o, margot robbie, oona chaplin, poppy drayton, ruth negga, saoirse ronan, shelley hennig, shannon purser, zendaya, zoey deutch.

🍒 PLOTS I’M INTERESTED IN: GENERAL VIEW 🍒

drama, over-the-top drama, cheesy drama, angst, romance, manipulation, lying, cheating, pregnancies, horror, supernatural, ghosts, historical, crime, royals, modern royals, fake relationships, unrequited feelings, bad timing. you can check a few plots i’d like to do here.

🍒 PLOTS I’M INTERESTED IN: SPECIFIC 🍒

if fandom isn’t your thing, i’m also v interested in rl / historical plots. you can find a list of those here.

CHOICES GAME APP & STORYSCAPE: plots based on: titanic, the perfect match, rules of engagement, desire & decorum, the royal romance, and the elementalists. we don’t have to play the “main” characters or follow the original storylines tho.

TITANIC/1900s: legit just... any and all dynamics lmao the list is infinite there’s so much potential. if you’re familiar with the game i’m looking for something taken from storyscape like matteo x adele dynamic (long-story short, matteo is a valet for a wealthy man and adele is someone who is being blackmailed by said wealthy man) or charlie x adele (charlie is a steward who befriends adele, helps her navigate her situation, and the two become very close - esp interested in a dynamic post-titanic too where he's trying very hard not to hold things against her but is struggling tremendously with guilt, ptsd, and his idealism) or a dynamic based on zetta x adele (zetta is famous and adele's employer, and adele is being blackmailed into ruining her engagement - but it'd have to be an mxf one because that's the only kind of romantic pairings i write).

THE HUNGER GAMES: capitol citizen x capitol citizen, mentor x mentor, victor x dead tribute’s sibling/dead tribute’s best friend, literally any other combO!! smth with spies would be great too like spy rebel working a the capitol x capitol staff.

VIDEO GAMES: plots based on until dawn!!!!!!!!! which is one of my favs tbh (there’s SO MUCH POTENTIAl but i’m particularly weak for “we had a ‘opposites attract, will they don’t they’ thing going on and smth was about to happen between us at the cabin but then my sibling/best friend vanished and everything went to shit and we haven’t spoken in a year even though we miss each other dearly”.

HARRY POTTER:  

workaholic diplomats with a fuckton of baggage and personal struggles who are really good at their jobs and always butting heads… falling in love (bonus: maybe one of them is a squib)

pureblood order member is essentially kidnapped by their own elitist family and has their memory tampered with, meaning they now believe they’ve always just been a spy for the death eaters. they’re engaged and their significant other starts to notice little things that feel odd and unusual. 

i muggleborn who started lying about her blood status and is passing as elitist pureblood who ends up getting engaged to a pureblood.  

before the first wizarding war, two purebloods get married. it wasn’t an arranged marriage and for all their differences they brought out the best in each other. their families were iffy about each other but they made it work. she remained mostly a housewife, enjoying the work and taking care of the children. things were good until the war rolled around and slowly, gradually. it became clear that his family (and he himself) were prejudiced against muggles and muggleborn. in the end they end up on opposite sides of the war, and it gets ugly.

arranged marriage between two people. he’s a widower and a grump, no one really finds him good company and on top of that his wife died in questionable circumstances (everyone thinks he did it, but it was actually his parents). his parents picked her because she seems easy to manipulate and air-headed. they never thought they would end up gradually growing very fond of each other to the point of love - they have the same humor, he helps her try not to please everyone and she helps him allowing himself to be himself - and that he’d start standing up to his family.

ANGELS / DEMONS / NOT FANDOM SPECIFIC: angel x fallen angel (please. think of all the pain and angst) or demon x redeemed demon or smth of the sort (the betrayal!!!)

X-MEN: literally too many possible combos to list and i want them all!!! the angstier/messier the better.

THE MUMMY: doesn’t have to be based on the movie, i’m going for the ~vibes~ here. we can do: explorer/archaeologist x non-explorer, explorer/archaeologist x journalist, explorer/archaeologist x doctor, explorer/archaeologist x explorer/archaeologist…. they can be any age too! even exs with children, the options are endless.

PACIFIC RIM: trainee x trainee, pilot x scientist, pilot x pilot, doctor x pilot

OUTLANDER/TIME-TRAVELLING IN GENERAL: could be intentional, accidental, to the future or the past, etc so many options!! we can mix time-travelling with other fandoms too!!

TOMB RAIDER: feel free to make suggestions but here are some ideas: (a) and (b) have a long history (platonic, romantic, siblings, idc). they’re both explorers who for the most part have been on the same side. two peas in a pod. two sides of the same coin. etc etc. while trying to put together a mystery, and trying to beat the “bad guys” to it, they realise the object they are looking for can change the past or bring the dead back to life…. this is where (b) turns against (a), who, unlike them, wants to take the object and keep it safe inside a vault.

STAR WARS: literally too many options to list but i’ll try: “jyn” x “cassian”, spy x traitor, pilot x spy doctor, former stormtrooper x spy, former stormtrooper x regular person, spy x regular person, diplomat x pilot, diplomat x former stormtrooper, idk there’s so many possible dynamics i couldn’t list them all legit anything in this universe im begging lmao!

STRANGER THINGS: so many possibilities?? could be set at any point in time too… and/or make our characters older and have them revisit things that happened to them in the past.

MARVEL/MCU: superhero x human , superhero x superhero, hero x law enforcement, a verse where heroes are “banned” (think incredibles 2)… all of these could go in so many ways?? the sky’s the limit. reminder that i don’t write canons but i don’t mind writing against them!! 

ANASTASIA: lost princess/prince x kitchen boy/girl turned con-person who is at first using them for money but ends up falling in love with them and oops turns out they are the real deal.

THE LITTLE MERMAID: mermaid x prince, mermaid x human, mermaid x pirate, “ursula” x “eric”

ALADDIN: “i pretended to be a rich prince/princess to impress the their/heiress to the throne bc i’m poor as hell and i just want to stop being poor lmao … but oh boy i’ve fallen in love…….”

FROZEN:   “hans” x “anna” or “hans” x “elsa” (i just think “hans” is a great character and there’s a lot we could do with him tbh) oc guard or commoner x “elsa” “anna” and “kristoff” but their relationship isn’t working out the dynamic between “anna” and “elsa” bc i’m a sucker for sibling dynamics we could also explore the relationship of anna and elsa’s parents!!!  

[xxhanachanxx]

When it comes to shipping, am I the only person that’s like a die-hard fan for a ship yet my mind is not screaming that it needs to be canon? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people wanting to see their two favorite fictional characters together as a couple; but then again I’m down with whether or not a creator/developer of a film, show, video game, book, etc. can confirm that a couple is canon. Though even if I can find that adorable, let me stick with any other aspects that I want to see in various outlets aside from romance. Or what I find better, for a fictional character I still want to think about portraying them as the way they’re originally portrayed. Sure that I understand that there are AU’s or any form of alternative just so we can make up anything about our precious OTP. Even though I’m all for anyone doing AU’s, sometimes I can’t help but to think that it would corrupt my head; but I’d like to do an AU one day! I’m usually a shipper that doesn’t think that my favorite pairings are the “oh-so perfect OTP and they need to be together forever”, because even for having a ship I do have other shippings that would involve the same character! So, this would probably be the longest text post I’ve ever wrote but at the same time a lot needs to be put down. And with some of the pairings that I will mention, maybe you would be familiar, maybe I’ll not mention your favorite OTP, but do take my conception in consideration!

So my first ship that I’m going to begin with talking about will be Moana x Ariel (or MoAriel). Do I ship them a lot? Well, I’m more in between with they could be great gfs or just best friends, but the way I see it is that they make great ocean buddies! So I cannot deny they’re cute! Do I want them to be canon? No, and here’s where I say that even if MoAriel is cute I still want my mind to be on the right path where I want to portray Moana and Ariel as the way they were originally portrayed in Moana and The Little Mermaid. For Ariel, I still need to keep in mind that she has Eric and Melody (idfc if I’m mentioning the shit sequel, it was one of my favorite direct-to sequels growing up k bye). I also like seeing Ariel and Eric together! Now with Moana, I just think she’s too good for a man and I’m not even headcanoning that she’s lesbian either. While we’re in the topic with the Disney Princesses as all of the news is spilling for Ralph Breaks The Internet, and as an avid LGBT supporter myself, it’s times that I couldn’t take a few people seriously to where they say that Merida, Elsa, Mulan, and many others are lesbian or bi. NOW DON’T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY! I’m all for seeing anything LGBT-related in animation, but sometimes I get a bit iffy on that issue with what will kids think of when they see it. I mean I understand that some people would say that it would mess the kids’ minds up. All I can think for now is that if I were to have kids, I would probably teach them about gay marriage not at a young age but maybe when they get older. I guess I’m that one LGBT supporter who can’t stand some of the SJWs… but hey, if people want to headcanon that they’re gay, well they can do them. I won’t stop them for that. Like for Merida, I’d still think she’s better off without a man but I won’t headcanon about her sexuality. For Elsa, like I get that people want her to be lesbian for the Frozen sequel, but I’d prefer wanting to know about the premise of the sequel more. And with Mulan, okay I get it that her outfit is dope and I’m all for her modern outfit. But I can’t have the mindset screaming “OMFG MULAN’S BI!” I believe that she’s a strong female warrior, and even I can’t help to think that she and Shang are great together! Okay now to get back and wrap up with MoAriel, I will say huge kudos for the shippers for making that happen. Like I can’t deny that it’s an amazing crossover between the land and the sea.

Alright, so another ship I’d like to talk about, and another same-sex ship, will be TwiDash (Twilight Sparkle x Rainbow Dash from MLP:FiM). Oh hey look, Imma throwback to one of my all-time favorite OTPs especially I happen to watch some of the old episodes again! Now let’s get to those 2 questions again: do I ship them a lot? I pretty much do, especially the fact that they happen to be my favorite ponies out of the Mane 6! Do I want them to be canon? No, and it’s not because that I think they should end up with stallions instead (and apparently, I don’t want to have those pairings be canon either!). Obviously RD is one of Twilight’s best friends, so I’d rather stick with whatever chemistry they have for each other! So because I have to bring up the fact that I also have pairings of Twilight and Rainbow with stallions, here’s what I need to say about that: Of course having TwiDash as one of my MLP OTPs, I happen to like SoarinDash and FlashLight (that’s Flash Sentry x Twilight Sparkle just to clarify in case if anyone gets mistaken for literally a flashlight; and yes, I like Flash try me bitch). And as a same-sex shipper, I’m not one for giving another character shit for getting in the way of the same-sex couples that I like. So as a TwiDash fan, I really don’t give flak on Flash if he were to get in the way (and Soarin’ too, I guess). Not even to mention that not only that I’ve had it with the Flash hate, it frustrates me to see some bronies/pegasisters making attack/kill art of him (I do have a vivid memory of seeing an art piece of Flash getting attacked by Trixie just bc the artist likes Twixie.). I mean I get that Flash doesn’t have that much character development (human or pony; in fact I’m more of a pony Flash x pony Twi shipper) aside from appearing near Twilight or Sunset Shimmer to where a lot of people scream “gary-stu” or “waifu stealer”, but I will say that I think Flash deserves better. Now I know saying this as a FlashLight shipper in where they don’t really interact with each other that much, I really couldn’t help myself thinking how cute they are together though. But then again, there’s more to MLP:FiM than just shippings! So to get back and wrap up with TwiDash, sure there’s nothing wrong with having other shippings with one of the same characters! Though at the same time, and just like I mentioned from my previous statement with MoAriel, I’m not headcanoning Twilight or Rainbow’s sexualities at all. So I’ll just let my imagination flow to wherever the hell it wants!

Okay let’s get into another of my favorite ship, and this time it’s a hetero ship, ShadAmy! Yay, time for another throwback to one of my favorite Sonic ships! Though I will get into a later topic that’s kinda like the topic with me as a TwiDash fan and not giving Flash a lot of shit for being in the way. So onto the same two questions: do I ship them a lot? I think shipping Shadow and Amy together was sudden, bc I was a huge SonAmy fan back then (and I still do ship SonAmy don’t worry) and wasn’t really fond with Shadow until to this day. I guess after seeing fan art of ShadAmy, it led me to start shipping them. Do I want them to be canon? Probably not, and it’s not that I think that Amy should be with Sonic (and as an SonAmy fan, I could care less whether or not it’s canon, and if anyone screams at me that it is canon and I can’t change anything about it, leave.); and I don’t think that Shadow and Amy have a huge chemistry with each other (even if they only interacted with each other twice in Sonic Adventure 2). Now here’s the part in where I say that as a ShadAmy fan, I’m not one for giving shit on Sonic or have to make him the bad guy just bc he keeps running away from Amy. And even if I’m more into Shadow than Sonic (I promise y’all I’m not like one of those Shadow fangirls…), that doesn’t mean I won’t stop loving Sonic! And playing the games of that blue blur will always hold a special place in my heart! So what conclusion do I have for ShadAmy? Nothing probably. But no matter what I’m okay with whoever I want to ship with Amy. ShadAmy? SonAmy? I really don’t care!

Now since the pairings that I’ve mentioned so far happen to be my favorite OTPs, let’s take this next topic with talking about a NOTP. And who will I be talking about next? Enter Victor x Emily from Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. As much as I enjoyed this masterpiece of a Tim Burton film, apparently having to think about this does grind my gears. So onto the questions again: do I ship them a lot? I’ve already stated that they’re not my cup of tea. Do I want them to be canon- okay um yeah let’s get right into that! I guess ever since I first saw the film back then, when I saw the ending scene with Emily turning into butterflies and then Victor and Victoria embraced my mind screamed, “welp, at least Victor and Victoria have each other now”. But at the same time it did sadden me to see Emily go away like that, yet then again Victor has freed her from the memories of pain and shit she’d been through with Barkis. So where am I going with this? Oh yes y’all, I actually like Victor x Victoria. And no, it’s not that I think Victor x Emily is necrophiliac. Pretty much, I’ve had it with everyone talking shit about Victoria all bc she was in the way between Victor and Emily. Tbh I could go on and on talking about defending Victoria, but to keep it a bit short it wasn’t her fault for interrupting the wedding; in fact, that can be saved for a later time. Now before I wrap up, and as I mentioned since the beginning, I’m all for alternatives or “what-ifs” made by Victor x Emily fans but at the same time we gotta accept the fact that the ending of Corpse Bride is just the way it is. Get used to it. Emily had her own happy ending.

Alrighty then, I’ll be taking this last topic discussing about WildeHopps just before I wrap this whole post up! Ah yes, our favorite fox-bunny duo; yet I do have some tweaks with what I think about them for the near future.. But anyway, let’s get into the questions one last time: do I ship them a lot? Now for anyone that have followed me for my Zootopia shenanigans, I do need to say that it seemed sudden of me shipping them out of nowhere. Like sure I can’t deny that Nick and Judy have a great chemistry, but there’s more to the film than just the shipping (or any romance outlet for that matter). I guess I should say that after seeing the film and looking at the fan art of the two, it led me to start shipping them! Do I want them to be canon? Okay see, this is where I get iffy about it bc even if Disney confirmed that they’re canon (or at least that’s what I heard) I still think that Nick and Judy need to start off as best friends first and then we shall see what will happen in the future if there were to be a sequel. So yeah, I think I’m that one person who had to cool off from seeing the ending bc yeah it’s cute but I don’t think I’ll be falling for it sorry! Friends? Couple? Again, these two have chemistry and that’s all that matters to me! So for now, I’m in both platonic and romantic sides of their relationship. And even though having this thought never occurring in my head, I don’t want to think about giving in for them to have their own mate by the same species. But hey, if y’all want to ship Nick with a vixen and Judy with another rabbit I ain’t stopping ya! Which would somewhat lead me to talking about how Judy would be shipped with Jack Savage (quick fyi for those who don’t know him, he’s a deleted character that was the main protagonist of the early version of the film); while I may not be into SavageHopps that much (and this is pretty much the same thing with my TwiDash and ShadAmy topics..), but damn some of y’all are salty on him for trying to “steal” Judy from Nick. If people want to like Jack, let them. If people want to ship SavageHopps, let them! I mean hey, he’s got Skye (who’s another deleted character during the early process) and I’m all for SavageSkye y’all! Okay, yeah I know I brought them out of nowhere as this topic is supposed to be about Nick and Judy but at the same time I kinda had to bring that out there haha. Like I said we shall see where will their future will take them, and we can have our imaginations flow wherever the hell they go!

So that wraps up with what I have to say with shippings! Thank you guys for taking your time reading this~ ❤️

[wineanddinosaur]

We Asked 24 Bartenders: What Are You Drinking in Dry January?

Whether it’s an all-out Dry January, or just a desire to step away from daily drinking for a week, a slew of non-alcoholic and low-ABV products have made forgoing the daily glass (or three) of wine easier and more fun than ever.

To discover what’s currently inspiring drinks experts, VinePair asked bartenders for the teetotaling beverages that keep them satisfied while abstaining. Many see Dry January as a chance for renewed focus on the myriad flavors found in tea and coffee, while others are turning to creative and intricately balanced low-proof cocktails and mocktails. Keep reading for a list that will help make the remaining booze-free weeks in January a breeze.

The Best Dry January Beverages Recommended by Bartenders

221 BC Berry Hibiscus Kombucha

Nuun Sports Hydration Tablets

Aplós Non-Alcoholic Spirits

Twice-Brewed Oolong Tea

Seedlip Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Sobrii 0-Gin

Avec Grapefruit & Pomelo

Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth

Dolin Blanc Vermouth

Corpse Reviver’s Chai Spice & Banana Kit

Conniption Barrel-Aged Gin

Suntory ALL-FREE Beer

Kin Euphorics

Q’s Grapefruit Mixer

Wayan’s Tumeric Tonic

Rare Tea Cellar’s Freak of Nature Oolong

Artet Cannabis Apertif

Bammy’s Non-Alcoholic Painkiller

Zoe’s Mocktail at Zoe’s Steak and Seafood Restaurant

Lyre’s Spirit Co.’s Non-Alcoholic Spirits

Fresh Victor Cucumber & Lime

Keep reading for details about all the recommended beverages!

“Dry January for me means lots of coffee, tea, and kombucha! Hot chai lattes get me going: I love the ginger and black pepper notes. I wasn’t always the biggest fan of kombucha, but I’ve recently been enjoying a berry hibiscus blend that we have on tap at work. It’s also important to stay hydrated, so I have Nuun sport hydration tablets at the house. Drop one of those in 16 ounces of water, and I don’t worry about cramping up on my 5K runs.” —David Roth, Beverage Director, KOJO, Sarasota, Fla.

“I’ve been making different shrubs to use in non-alcoholic drinks at home. They’re really easy to make and customize. My current beverage of choice has been an apple shrub with bitters and soda water. Having something fun and flavorful at the end of the day is key!” —Rachel Ramirez, Head Mixologist, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, Nashville, Tenn.

“Since bars were closed down in Texas, and because I am a social drinker, I decided to take a long break from drinking alcoholic beverages. I’m currently 10 months alcohol-free, and I plan on staying the course for at least a year. But for anyone who is doing Dry January, I highly recommend Aplós, a hemp-infused, non-alcoholic spirit that is plant-based and uplift[ing]. My beautiful and talented friend, Lynnette Marrero, is the flavor consultant for this product. [It’s] so unique that I found it incredibly tempting during these times.” —Alba Huerta, Owner, Julep, Houston

“I’m always drinking coffee and soda water regardless of what month it is, but I’ve been adding in oolong and other kinds of tea. If I’m drinking it at night, I brew it once to remove the caffeine, and then brew it a second time to drink. Mostly, I’m thinking about when I get to drink tequila again.” —Nick Pratt, Assistant General Manager/Bar Manager, Hojoko, Boston

“For Dry January, I’ve been enjoying Highballs made with non-alcoholic bases (Seedlip etc). At Queen’s Park, we have a cocktail on our menu called Here’s the Thing, with Seedlip Grove, honey, pineapple, lime, and soda that I usually grab to-go on my way home from working on the new bar.” —Laura Newman, Owner, Queen’s Park, Birmingham, Ala.

“This month, I’ve been drinking Sobrii 0-Gin with Avec Grapefruit and Pomelo. Avec is a new line of better-for-you mixers, and this flavor has beautiful vanilla and peppery notes. The fresh grapefruit sings together with the gin without the need for any sugar. I’ve been enjoying this combo strained over fresh ice. The beauty of this low-sugar, non-alcoholic drink is that there’s no need to stop at just one!” —Matija Whitenton, Head Bartender, Palihouse Miami Beach, Miami Beach, Fla.

“For Dry January, I’ve been doing a lot of alcohol-free Mojito-style and ginger beer cocktails. They’re simple but tasty and not too sweet, so you feel like you’re still sipping on a great cocktail.” —Al Hofeling, Bartender, Strange Bird, Indianapolis

“Topo Chico [with a] twist of grapefruit [and] a squeeze of lime juice. The high carbonation, along with natural grapefruit flavor and fresh lime juice, makes for a bright, bubbly, and refreshing non-alcoholic beverage option. Vermouth is often thought of as just a modifier for cocktails like the Manhattan or Martini, but it is also great on it’s own for a low-ABV option. I love a good sweet vermouth like Carpano Antica Formula, or a blanc or bianco style such as Dolin Blanc, either on the rocks or as a vermouth and tonic.” —Nick Touch, Brand Ambassador, The Family Jones, Denver

“My go-to Dry January drink is a basil, mint, [and] lemon slushy mocktail. It’s been an at-home staple during the pandemic, as adults and children alike love it, and it’s super easy to make with simple and accessible ingredients. I blend basil leaves, mint leaves, lemon juice, agave nectar or honey, and then add some ice and continue to blend to get that slushy-like consistency.” —Joe Palminteri, Beverage Director, Hamilton Hotel, Washington, D.C.

“I think it is always important to take care of yourself. I often take breaks from drinking to reset both my body and mind. Whenever I’m taking a break, the first thing I turn to is tea. The complexity of flavors you find in various teas are as interesting as wine and spirits. For me, it is a lot of fun to take the flavors I love and share them with others through what we do at Corpse Reviver. This year, I am especially excited about a new house-made chai spice blend and banana kit we created. Add hot water, and you have a beautiful handcrafted chai tea that is a great alternative to a Hot Toddy. For those who want to add booze, I recommend a gin like Conniption Barrel-Aged Gin.” —Megan Corbally, Bartender, Corpse Reviver Bar & Lounge, Durham, N.C.

“I’ve been sippin’ on a session cocktail (no liquor, super-low ABV) that I call the Pretty in Pink: sage simple syrup, lemon, Aperol, ginger beer, soda water, and some lavender bitters in a Collins glass with ice. I drink mine with a half rim of pink sea salt and a shaved lemon.” —Eric Vanderveen, Bar Manager, The Empire Lounge & Restaurant, Louisville, Colo.

“A product I’ve been enjoying quite a bit recently, and will continue to do so for Dry January, is the beer-like beverage [called] Suntory ALL-FREE. It’s zero percent alcohol and sugar, with no artificial flavorings and zero calories. It also fits really well in my lifestyle, whether I’m fresh off a workout or doing a midday conference call. I’ve also been experimenting with it in non-alcoholic cocktails, like a Blackberry ALL-FREE Shandy. It’s really versatile, and I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for non-alcoholic options to keep on hand at home.” —Elliott Clark, Founder, Apartment Bartender, Denver

“We have a huge bag of dried Jamaica at the bar right now left over from some R&D, so we almost always have a batch of Agua de Jamaica on hand. I love soft drinks — probably a consequence of growing up in the Midwest — and having something sweet and tart to enjoy helps to quench one’s thirst for a cocktail.” —Matthew Belanger, Head Bartender, Death & Co, Los Angeles

“Honey is currently experimenting with Kin Euphoric’s Adaptogenic concentrates as a staple ingredient in our Non-Alcoholic Potion program. We love healthy ingredients that still physically alter the body and mind!” —Jocasta Hanson, Owner/Bartender, Honey Elixir Bar, Denver

“Recently, I’ve learned the value of not putting too much pressure on myself, and I’ve certainly carried that into what I’m calling a ‘dry-ish’ January. Moderation and intention are the name of the game for me this month, so low-ABV cocktails have been my saving grace. My favorite ingredients when making low-proof cocktails are sherry, fun sparkling seltzer flavors, and freshly squeezed winter citrus, like grapefruit or orange. I definitely prefer to keep it really simple and often opt for a Highball. A fun one to try is oloroso sherry, grapefruit soda (Fever Tree and Q Mixers make great ones), and a splash of pomegranate juice. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.” —Veronica Correa, Bartender, San Diego

“Our Turmeric Tonic is one of my favorite non-alcoholic alternatives. Turmeric is anti-inflammatory, slightly bitter, and refreshing, making it a great healthy option for a Dry January detox. It can be enjoyed hot — perfect for the chilly winter months — or served cold over ice; both delicious. This recipe is super easy for everyone to make at home.” —Eileen Chiang, Beverage Director, Wayan, NYC

“While I’m not fully participating in Dry January, my consumption, in general, has been quite moderate since quarantine began. I’ve always been a big fan of intentional, thoughtful, non-alcoholic cocktails. I’m pretty fanatical about tea — the Freak of Nature Oolong from Rare Tea Cellar is a regular in my rotation. Their smoky lapsang souchong tea is fantastic too — great to plug it into non-alcoholic cocktails to play the role of the whiskey. I was also making some cocktails recently with juice blends from Natalie’s. They have some really interesting profiles that are easy to twist into a fully composed non-alc cocktail. The ‘Purify’ from them (blood orange, grapefruit, dandelion, and ginger) is a favorite.” —Charles Joly, World-Champion Mixologist & Co-Founder, Crafthouse Cocktails, Chicago

“I’m currently loving shrubs and amaro for no- and low-ABV options. As part of our zero waste program, we make both in house — utilizing what would be waste, such as fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grinds, chocolate scraps, etc. We serve each with seltzer water or ‘caldo’ with hot water, and right now, we’re featuring an apple fennel shrub with fresh lemon juice and soda. I’m also big on vermouth — Dolin Blanc, specifically. I’ve been making sours with it for myself that are super-low ABV, since the vermouth is the only alcohol in it.” —Melissa Brooke, Bartender, The Musket Room, NYC

“When I’m in the mood for a cocktail but also want the chill vibe, my route is always an aperitif. I recently discovered Artet, a non-alcoholic cannabis aperitivo that hits those bitter notes I’m looking for, along with a modest dose of THC. It’s perfect for the early evening on the rocks with soda water, and versatile enough to lend itself to a fun cocktail creation.” —Karl Steuck, Owner, Spirit & Spoon, Los Angeles

“Without a doubt, I’ll be drinking the crowd favorite, the non-alcoholic Painkiller — pineapple juice, orange juice, and creamy coconut goodness, finished with a generous dusting of freshly grated nutmeg. It’s been a rough year in this world. True to its namesake, the non-alcoholic Painkiller cocktail served at Bammy’s surely numbs the pain and eases the mind. Honestly, I barely miss the rum.” —Chad Henry, Bar Manager, Bammy’s, Washington, D.C.

“While options are plentiful for observing Dry January, I created the Zoe’s Mocktail. This deliciously refreshing drink is one part Goya Jamaican-style ginger beer, four parts San Pellegrino, with a splash of lime juice and Pom pomegranate juice, [and] garnished with a lime rind spiral. It’s flavorful with a nice little zing, and pairs well with rich dishes.” —Marc Sauter, Bartender/Sommelier/Owner, Zoe’s Steak and Seafood Restaurant, Virginia Beach, Va.

“I love a Negroni, and I love trying variations on them as well. And a Negroni is a cocktail that before you could not get non-alcoholic because its components are basically all alcohol-based. But now, there are amazing non-alcoholic spirits like Lyre’s Spirit Co. that offer an homage to classic spirits we know and love, like a Dry London spirit, Vermouth Rosso, and Italian Orange, which is their version of an Aperol, just [without] alcohol. Of course, then I take my style of blending tropical island flavors with classics. With Sweet Hibiscus from the Perfect Purée of Napa Valley, it delivers just that harmonious blend.” —Tim Rita, Brand Ambassador/Bartender, Lyre’s/ T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

“I’ve defaulted to making Martinis at home using inverse proportions: 2 ounces of vermouth and .75 ounces of gin. It’s every bit as satisfying as a regular Martini, but significantly lower in proof!” —Shannon Tebay, Head Bartender, Death & Co, NYC

“I’ve been intrigued by the multitude of new tonic expressions on the market and have been playing with them in combination with different Fresh Victor flavors. I find that 1 to 2 ounces of Fresh Victor with 4 to 6 ounces of tonic is a great formula. Fresh Victor Cucumber & Lime plus classic tonic water is a go-to for me on a regular basis; I like Q’s new Light Tonic in particular. —H. Joseph Ehrmann, Owner/Chief Mixology Officer, Elixir/Fresh Victor, San Francisco 

The article We Asked 24 Bartenders: What Are You Drinking in Dry January? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/24-best-dry-january-beverages-bartenders/

[omgkatsudonplease]

I agree with u that ppl are allowed to portraying characters however they want, and that the pearl clutching and self righteousness in fandom is terrible and annoying, but the op of that Victor post wasn't doing that. They were merely expressing personal dissatisfaction with a popular fandom trope, which is something that ppl are allowed to do - a healthy fandom environment should also allow ppl to express certain negative feelings and criticism without being accused of censorship

(same anon) i sent that message to you bc i love your take on fandom discourse and i think u have a very balanced view of It, by the way (don't want you to think that i'm accusing you of being unfair to that Op). Just wanted to give my two cents bc the lack of nuance in these arguments brothers me. Ppl are either weird antis who call anyone portraying dark stuff an abuser or they're oversensitive fans who call anyone who says anything remotely critical a prude who wants to censor the internet

this is true! you’re definitely allowed to make vent posts on the internet and it sucks that this hellsite we call tumblr doesn’t have specific filtering/locking mechanisms like livejournal/dreamwidth where you can limit the people who see specific posts, so things like vents can only be seen by people who are not gonna jump down your throat about it. 

at the time of my response to that post i saw that op was posing a question -- why is dark viktor so popular -- and my response was that he’s not popular, he really isn’t, and the only way he seems popular is because people in fandom throw a fit whenever they see dark content about him and blow it up way past the reception it deserves. perhaps op only wanted to vent with rhetorical questions, in which case i apologise for derailing, but if op really wanted an answer, that would be my answer. 

i also agree that the fandom environment has wildly polarised to the point where words like “abuse”, “fetishisation”, “pedophilia”, “incest”, “fujoshi”, etc have all become distorted beyond their original meanings, and sometimes even serve as dogwhistles for things like “shipping ships i don’t agree with”, “being in fandom past a certain age”, “liking conflict in stories”, etc. so in this sense a lot of the “oversensitive” fandom folks like myself who jump on these posts are, well. over-sensitised to those buzzwords. do i think that fandom has inherited some really shady, dangerous tropes from mainstream media? hell yes i do. do i think a great deal of people in fandom don’t characterise viktor or yuuri very well? oh, probably (especially given that i don’t read fic without a friend reccing it to me these days). but the thing is, in this current fandom environment, i can’t just go ahead and say that without being branded as an anti, so i’ve decided to take the voltaire route and say that i may not agree with what people write, but i will defend to the death their right to write it. 

(unless they’re actively using hate speech in their fic and telling other people to die. i, uh, have seen some of that going around. it’s not cute.)

i’ve acknowledged that in the polarised camps that this fandom has become, that makes me quote-unquote “problematic” and probably an “apologist” for things i actually don’t condone irl. and i hate that that’s something i have to accept, but here we are. 

anyway, tl;dr: op was asking a question which probably was rhetorical but i decided to answer it anyway. i apologise for potentially derailing the post, but the contents of my response i still stand by. perhaps i should’ve made my own post then, but as is the nature of this hellsite i’d be bound to get answers to that that i don’t agree with. glad we had this talk, nons.

[flockofdoves]

was trying to think of a way to divide up ocs on toyhouse so i don’t get too embarrassed about them yesterday but then it turned into just trying to list like every character i’ve ever made the vast majority of them i’d never put on toyhouse lol. but this was fun for myself even though i definitely forgot chracters and even whole stories from when i was younger

kinda old (definitely need updating they’re from when i was 17/18 and haven’t done much in recent years but nonetheless are my most recent ocs and i would probably like to do something with them someday still):

all the alienated characters - raul and michael primarily, also side characters like their relatives (lennie, joaquin, marcell, maybe also shinsuke, natalia, nina, naomi, hana, leela, etc) and friends (still need to name them lol) etc

justicia (less set on doing her story any time soon compared to alienated, but still theres something to it i might want to work with someday)

pretty old (like i was 16-17)

gf debate characters (this is actually older than a lot of the ones i list as even older in this list but i kept working on them til i was like 17 so they hold up better even if i don’t want to finish making their story anymore) - isaac, micah (micah is literally kinda from when i was 12 lol but i brought her to like 3 different stories and she was a boy in the first one too so shes basically not that character anymore), and then side characters like mirabel (originated in same story at 12 as micah), ayçin, anna, micahs mom and her wife, micahs cousin (another one from that old story) etc

those ocs that literally none of them have names or barely personalities i only ever did character sketches and basic concepts but its like a ghost story thing i was gonna do - 12 y/o baby butch protag, the ghost girl, baby butch’s trans girl cousin, cousins trans guy friend

really old (characters from when i was like 14-15 that did not really develop much from there. most of these are characters i have had fun with and maybe drawn since but are goofy and don’t hold up in a lot of aspects and most of them i’ll probably never pick up for stories again)

football lesbians - monica, wanda, and rania

pigeon magical girls (technically maybe i actually finished a very abbreviated version of their origin story for a school art project when i was 15 lol but i planned to do more back then and now i dont want to) - zehra, ronni, the pigeon, probably not amy and zoë that was just a cameo for myself of ocs from when i was like 11 lol

naomi’s story (this one i might actually want to do something with someday, i wrote a short story about it plus a bit more, but i have to make some serious changes i don’t really think i thought of some of the implications of some stuff in it before) - just naomi and the ghost basically. not to be confused with naomi in alienated who is michael’s sister they are not at all the same person

assorted characters that never really had a story - mels and cvijeta, charlotte (thought about putting her in football lesbians. she does basketball but. jock wlw you know)

really really old (characters from late middle school, like 13-14)

uhhh that wizards story. it never had a name idk. i still kinda like them though tbh even if i’ll never do anything with them anymore - tess, ali, nataline, brandy, mo, remora, cnidarian

really really really old (characters from the middle of middle school, like 12-13. at this point my recollection of what came before what might be kinda off tho)

that fae folk in pennsylvania and ohio story - emilia, ilana, micah (first version! lol), mirabel, that boy that i just hate and don’t remember the name of and resent making a character that had a crush on micah, micahs cousin, darling/angel (a faerie that just went by terms of endearment as if they were names), uhhh the second group of characters in a different more rural town i tried to write that i dont remember the names of

haunted victorian house story - benji, aisha, elizabeth

updated onex arget (fantasy world i wrote about a lot when i was in elementary school) story - nai, rieae

idk this story never had a name and barely a plot beyond ivy and victor becoming friends and venting to each other - victor, ivy, miles, maitê

forks and spoons (story i improvised with my little cousin who was like 8 at the time lol) - florimundi(?), i’m forgetting literally all 3 of the other characters names lol (maybe reese and victor for two of them??? but maybe not bc those are also other very old characters that idk if i reused the names of)

theo and ted - theoni and theodore (aka theo and ted!), oh also that guy they meet who wears like. a trench coat iirc

super old (characters from the later half of the 6th grade and early 7th, like 12ish)

really dumb story about a closeted trans person with did getting transformation powers - i actually dont remember the main character and their main other alters names anymore, i remember the other character they had a crush on stephan though

all those characters in bands that i never actually could settle on a story for beyond a variety of interpersonal drama. very inspired by the webcomic jenny hanniver tbh - avery, mark, etti, adrian, xavier, pepper, uhhh theres literally So Many more of them and also so many i dont remember the names of anymore but just for some that come to mind. that periwinkle colored hair in a bowl cut character that always wore a beanie who was in avery’s band whos names on the tip of my tongue (maybe that was etti and the character i’m calling etti was called something else?? maybe victoria? maybe andy? maybe andy was an entirely different 3rd character?? idk. actually yeah i’m positive bowlcut character was etti rereading this), xaviers ex-boyfriend who was obsessed with homestuck (lmao), that guy with red hair i accidentally directly ripped off the design of some jenny hanniver character, that goth guy with braces and glasses (maybe he wasnt in this?), that screamo band with 2 lead singers, that guy with brown hair that said he was straight with an exception (msfdkjghhsfd god), that person with the emo haircut in flame colors, this literally is not even all the characters lol

extremely old (largely from 6th grade, like age 11ish. weird period of time where i suddenly wanted to write about romance but thought it had to be straight but then very quickly was like ‘wait actually nvm i have a laptop now and think i’m bicurious i’m only gonna write about gay people)

gsa story (this might have been the summer before 7th actually but it feels distinctly before the other stuff in the last category so idk maybe just my whole impression of when i made things for middle school is off) - emmy(?), allie(?), noah(???), some other kid, i think noah(?) or the other kid got reused to be the guy i regretted making a part of that faerie story who liked old micah lol, maybe more kids, their teacher

idk that kid with blue hair and black eyes with white irises and his sister

middle school lesbians - leah and cass

lesbian who works in food service and there were weird references to comic books but filtered through me referencing an obscure emo humor youtube channel that made jokes about comics i’d never read - amy, zoë, amy’s straight best friend i dont remember the name of??

tosca (this wasnt straight romance but it was like the last thing pre me always having lgbt main characters) - idk. there were two characters i drew like once. theres nothing to note about this except wanting to make it is what made me learn about webcomics

that story i posted the first chapter of on quibblo about a hippie girl (somehow in 2010?? dont ask me) and an emo boy liking each other before abandoning to never write about cishet romance again. didnt even get to the romance part lol - i forget her name. maybe it was april? maybe it was florimundi and i reused it later for another character, nix, reese (her goth lesbian best friend. thank god for reese)

first attempt at straight romance. also about like. idk. fantastical powers in clouds in providence rhode island - selia, shay, cassandra, selias other friend i forget the name of??

ancient (literally elementary school ocs. obviously theres a lot of grades covered here but its just my memory and ability to reference this is so loose idk if i could even try to accurately divide it further)

shadow magic - mezzaluna, her aunt tabby(?), alexa

a, j, & j (barely counts i didnt do anything with them. those are the only characters also)

arine (some of these characters might not be arine characters and just from other onex arget (fantasy world i wrote a bunch of stories in and made a shitty conlang for and stuff) stories but i just dont really remember) - lia, lias sister, dibujurm, that other fantastical creature who was friends with dibujurm i forget the name of that kinda looked like calcifer from howls moving castle but fuzzy not an actual fire (maybe isigo??), emiaelaesa, that obnoxious prince (i think the story was called arine bc that was his name?), the prince’s servant, there absolutely were more

the musical adventures of shiri and don - shiri, don, some evil villain and his henchmen

rosington (there were like no characters besides her. weird junie b jones rip off with nonsensical humor to everyone but me)

that tree prophecy story (maybe set in onex arget?) - nico, emi (?? maybe not her name), their uncle (i forget his name, maybe lester?), their uncles shipmates, that fortune teller

idk some kid that goes on a scavenger hunt to solve a mystery on vacation in like bermuda or something where he meets some quirky girl character who helps him. thats all

i had some characters that started out as me trying to draw characters from the book hoot by carl hiaasen but for some reason then turned into my own ocs and looked nothing like those characters were described and also basically had nothing to do with them in personality and action beyond name after a while. - beatrice and napoleon. this was in a phase where i got a ‘how to draw anime’ book and napoleon straight up looked like a yugioh character his hair was ridiculous

those fake siblings i made up and lied to a substitute teacher in kindergarten about me having 6 siblings because of for absolutely no reason even though i only have one sibling irl

imaginary friends i shared with my brother and then made stories about - theres so many of these, the most important though was chick-chick-chick. who was a very small chick who wore a top hat. and then he had a family(?) of infinitely smaller chicks (chick-chick-chick-chick, for example) the more “chicks” you added to the name

[lwbluedice]

Masterpost for my Stories and Ocs!!!

A spoilerfree list of most of my Ocs and stories (reuploaded here on my main blog)

Includes:

- Name of the story and state it’s in

- short summary/facts

- Character names

If you want more information abt any of them(like a description or a pic) or abt the stories, just message me/ ask me!  Also feel free to ask me to draw them ( for example in the color scheme thing or sth)!

Note: The stories are all written in german so if you don’t speak that language i can’t send you the original documents but i can try summing them up for you!

I bet this is not everything and i will add stuff but yeah!!!!

Hotaru (first draft is finished)

- Abt two men that are linked through a surgery called “synchronisation”, which basically connects their minds and bodies, so they are forced to work as a team. Ea is an ex-soldier and Cain was a hacker, but due to the fact that they can’t stand each other, they also didn’t share their pasts with each other. To pay someone to unlink them, they become bounty hunters and kidnap the girl Ai and her robot Subaru, which is one of the old military robots, called Hotarus (high technologised, operating, transforming, artificial intelligence, ranger units). They are connected to a human ranger and can transform into what the ranger wants them to transform into.

The Hotaru headquarters exploded 10 years ago and since then the Hotarus are super rare on the black market.

The two men plan on selling both the girl and her robot and let’s just say it all doesn’t work out that well.

Ai Hoshino

Ea

Cain Bishop

Subaru

Dr. Chandra Natarajan

10 A

10 B

and other synced pairs

George Watton

Asha Watton

Elaine Bishop

Christopher Bishop

Haruto Hoshino

Shiori Hoshino

The Pleiades. A Hotaru Unit.

Atlas/ Emmett Hunter

Maia/ Ilya Neverwinter

Elektra/ Hailey Gray

Taygete/ Daiyu Ghou

Alcyone/ Charlotte Gryffith)

Caelano/ Sora Aurora River

Merope/ Imogen Harrington

Sterope/ Elizabeth Bresley

Additional Characters for the (maybe Sequel) in which the grown up Ai will try to find out who attacked the Hotaru Headquarters

- Skya

The day the world turned white ( first draft is finished, working on it)

To stop global warming some scientists basically caused a new ice age. On the long run this might be very effective but the former countries, now sectors, are hit by strong ice storms, called snow white. To stay safe huge bunkers, the Safe Cities, were built and the local fauna and flora were stored in Arks, to preserve them.

Usually an alarm sounds before all citizens are brought into the SCs, but this time Reese and her best friend Yuki dont manage to get to the vehicles on time and are left behind. They seek shelter in a private bunker outside of town that Yuki found out about recently. Suddenly a group of boys their age knocks on the door, because they were also left behind and followed the girls.

Al, the brothers Eli and Isaac, Gil and Henry become the new bunker-mates and the group has to survive one year in the bunker, until the storm is over.

( I have a blog for this story, just search for The day the world turned white! There are pics and some posts for example abt which patronus/spirit animal the charas have!)

Reese/ Therese Wells

Al/ Alexander Glover

Yuki Sarah Brooke

Eli Green

Isaac Green

Gil de Santos

Henry Summers

The Sun will always rise (The sequel, probably forever unfinished)

About a group of rebels, the Sun Children, that are sworn enemies to the government and its ways to cope with Snow White.

Takes place abt one/two years after Tdtwtw.

Lucy and Aidan are kicked out of an underground organisation that stays in the cities underground system during the storm phases and the two wander around in the snow until Michael and Rin pick them up and bring them to the Sun Children. From looking into the snow directly to maneuver, Lucy has turned snowblind.

Yeah the plot is… not 100% existent.

Characters:

Lucy

Aidan

Michael

Kate

Gil

Bo

Finya

Rin

The XII Games ( First book is finished, i started the second one, unfinished)

A story abt spaceships that let slaves fight in games, if they win a certain number they are “free”. Cassidy makes it and is sold to a women, Trisha, that takes her home onto her home planet, where Cassidy lives a nice life and learns abt her heritage. One year later she meets Tobias again and she and Trisha are brought to a planet that is basically the universes capital. Cassidy has to take a more important role in the uproar of a war, than she ever imagined.( The cast members are mostly human looking but are other, non human, races)

Cass (Cassidy ) E’ Alandril

Tobias

On the slave ship:

Neala

Sam ( Samuel)

On Anterra:

Trisha  Willowrish

Max ( Maxwell)  E’ Alyndral

Lukas

Tori

Khorr

Keri

Wil

Quinna

On the Space sparrow:

Zach ( Zacharyas) Gryaan

Benj ( Benjamin) Bottledom

Rashka Hyrelian

Oreadh Urunna'ur

Butcher

Kagrim

Kyluur

Irian Ashcott

On Capital Estellar:

Galea ( Galeandrih Fiyur’ Ihal)

Iyal

Wren Fawell

Luasia  

Luminor the Shining

Fallen Angels ( A trilogy, one and a half books were finished, reconcepted)

We don’t talk abt this but it was one of my first stories i truly wrote.

Abt fallen angels saving the world or sth. It’s super clichee and just ugh.

The newer version would cancel some charas and make it abt rebalancing Darkness and Light in the worlds. With a more diverse cast and also different magical races. And a way less creepy Adam.

Eve/Evelyn White

Adam

Peregrine/Perry

Ray/Raven

Sera

Colin

Robin

Raphael

Ky/ Kyron

Gabe/Gabriel Frost

Bree/ Gabriella Frost

Indigo ( haven’t written it yet and i don’t know if i ever will, but have drawn stuff. I lowkey wanna see this as a comic)

A story abt a clan of shapeshifters, called Indigos. They are basically human that can shift into dolphins and their clan lives on an island near Australia. Its a modern story and the gang consisting of our local gay dolphin girl Keerie, her cousins Akash and Arjuun (younger brother, older sis), and Ky ( adopted as a child, japanese heritage, a different breed of dolphin idk) lives their “normal lives” with lots of shenenigans and drama.

Some day Keerie falls in love with Navy, the daughter of the owner of the local Aquapark (that the clan suspect also does illegal stuff like snatching wild animals).

Keerie

Arjuun

Akash

Ky

Navy

“Neo Alcatraz” ( reworks of a very old story)

To put it simply, there is a pack of scientists that bionically enhance children and send them off to different countries to basically be local superheroes. Our gang was kinda left behind bc the countries rather took the newer, better versions and here they are now, a bunch of supernatural teens facing the (not so) everyday struggles of life.

Atalanta

Chi

Callie

Lee

Victor/Konrad

Gemsona (just art)

Larimar

- has water powers and her backstory bases on my private/old Squads life story and a lot of me thinking of drawing music videos for her but never doing it

Anthea (art and headcanons)

- my Dnd Oc

The Bender Girls ( art and headcanons)

- basically some Avatar the last Airbender Ocs i made once

Daiyu

Hotaru

Yura

Sündenfall / Sinfall (short story)

A short story i wrote for a competition which is basically every crime series but magic.

Harvey is immortal, he dies and is revived, and solves crimes through it. Paige is basically his assistant and the case they are on is abt a person that kills magical beings and “arranges” the victims fitting to the seven sins.

Ilya Winter

Harvey

Paige

Delphi

Sphinx

The concept charas, that had a different storyline ( they were basically a team of magical beings that would solve cases… rather unconventional.) I considered reworking them into the new Fallen Angels concept:

Ilya

Harvey

Timothy

Worth mentioning:

Project Alpha (script, some art):

The script for a shortfilm i once made with my friends. A school class has a plane crash and only a few students survive, they all embody a different character archetype (the sunshine, the soziopath, the smart one etc.) They try to survive and are put through weird psychological mind experiments like the trolley problem.

To be honest, the concept had and still has a lot of potential and we just hadn’t the opportunities to rly set it the way we anticipated. The shooting day was super fun, though! Still laughing about the outtakes

Astral Chronicles (some art and a few chapters, unfinished)

A story Idea i still like but probably wont write like this because of copyright problems. Its basically a giant Crossover.

Its abt people who have an Astral( mostly a literature figure) they embody when they are dreaming. Their body stays in bed and is vulnerable but the Astral can basivally run around and has special powers. If the Astral dies, the person wakes up but i think when the body dies the person dies too? idk.

The Protagonist embodies Alice and there are also the White Rabbit, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell usw.

There was also some kind of conflict? I dont remember.

If i would ever rewrite it the Astrals would be embodiments of the Zodiac signs.

(does this even fit?)

The Fanfiction thing i wrote abt Peter Pan/ Jack Frost

- like i have tons of short drabbles and the start of a fanfiction and honestly i liked the ideas i had a lot

The ones we better not talk abt:

Part Hunter

Basically there was a being named eternity/aeterna that was shattered into oarts (like in TRC)

and chosen ones have to reclaim them.

The ones that basically die are turned into guardians, like Time and Space ( they had animal companions they were fused with i guess)

Melody is the current part hunter and has a tragic love story, her animal is a tiny horse thing??????

Idk

basically a long story in which i used my dreams as base for the episodes

The nameless story

Actually super interesting but too many charas and a too tiny will to draw action scenes or write them.

Like its based around a super popular game in huge spheres/buildings and the teams wear some anti gravity outfits and shoes and can walk on the walls and shit and can basically attack using elements/illusion/ conjure monsters idk.

And the main team had an opponent team that basically specialized in the 25272 other elements and some day they just fused teams idk.

There also was some prophecy shit abt the anchors, ppl that can control all elements the same???? Idk

Element guardians

- basically four teens that control the elements and do shit together

- at some point i gave all of them dragons

- still thinking abt this sometimes

- The originals:

Luna: the shameless self insert , earth, pony girl, bland blonde i think

Katy: Air, best friend, bubbly

Dan: The jock. Fire

Nick: The emo. Water

At some point Katy became Skye and Dan and Nick got other names but yeah-

Talent Academy

The story thats basically a ripoff of Alice academy. Like a school with hierachie between the students and ranks and shit and different houses and the students have powers IDK

If you read through all of this, bless you for showing interest in my stories ;) And hey, if you want me to rant about any of them, just send me an ask or a message!!!

[cutegirlmayra]

On one hand I get it but on the other hand it's so bizarre to me that to understand exactly how the sonic franchise works you need knowledge of the way the company functions?? case and point: how it kinda seemed Shad/Amy could've been a thing in earlier games (Knux/Rouge as well) but then never came up again being explained by a replacement in the higher-ups at sega??like that's absolutely bizarre. if you leave a fan to just figure it out from the games-good luck bc the writing doesnt address it

(Our friends at IGN have some research done for you: x Take it with a grain of salt.)

“As SEGA’s star has faded, some are quick to whitewash their history; to act as if their success was the fluke and their failure inevitable. It’s natural – the victors always write the history books – but that isn’t the way it happened. This is the story of SEGA; the good, the bad, and the possibilities of what could have been.” -IGN

Ah, I see you’ve done your research, my friend! indubitably so, our friends at SEGA have been making ideas and scrapping them mid-way for some time now. If you study any companies ‘fundamental personality’ with running a certain franchise you will see how that affects production.

Always remember!

 History is affected by how the Pre-Production is handled.

This can be for any number of medias, but I think it mostly affects the film industry. Games are different, mind you, but they also have a cinematic field/feel to them that shouldn’t be overlooked. Scripts, animators, directors, etc. Just to name the familiar ones.

Marketing, managing, and running the ‘behind the scenes’ for a lack of a better word- productions is incredibly complex and extremely psychological but crucial for the creation of practically anything marketable.

SEGA’s learned a lot through the years and has kept afloat by more than loyal fans. They don’t shut things down, they keep going and count their losses with a sense of “We’ll excel to the future” instead of just falling down and sprawling out because they feel they’ve run out of their luck.

For this, I admire some of their staff and officials. But for other reasons, I wish I could just say- “Hey, this is a good idea. Develop this further.” Or “Don’t do that. I promise you, that’s a waste of time.” There’s a lot of things that they haven’t considered or haven’t recognized ‘silent successes’ that I believe is the key to moving them forward.

Sonic characters are highly influenced by choices. Inexperienced writers or fans that haven’t worked in the particular genre of Sonic will find it difficult though fun to try and mess with it. However, this isn’t meant to be a fun project to fiddle with. They’re being PAID to write a SUCCESS GAME. Most writer’s today write to hit deadlines and sip their drinks. They have passion, but it’s for particular things, and when those things aren’t there they run wild for the jokes to keep themselves and possibly their friends entertained.

I know this sounds harsh, lol. But reality never was sugar-coated in the grand scheme of things.

If SEGA allowed fans to view their history. A documentary or even an insightful look at how characters were created, plots for stories were formed, games were designed, and problems they faced… I think the fandom would be more emphatic to their circumstances today. (They’re not in extreme peril or anything- or the abyss of debt like they used to be, but do have their struggles. Much like the Japanese, they keep this on the downlow, as most companies do.)

If you look into the history of many companies, not just games, you can see how their franchises shift with the ‘Company Personality’ changes that occur too. Either to new staff changes, tragedy, loss, paranoia, lack of experience, etc.

SEGA overall has been a survivor with gritted teeth, yanking his competition down and climbing to where he’s made it today. At first brutal, he is now a silent admirer, hands in his pockets, only pulling them out to make and show new things he’s quietly content with. Recently, he’s been extremely excited about Sonic Mania, and confident in showing that off to people.

I could literally personify SEGA for you. A hard worker with a loud mouth that has slowly grown quieter over the years, more refined with age. He’s never stopped learning nor given up, and the once restless teen has become a contender to grab at long-lasting fame and this time- hang onto it like a football.

SEGA is trying to re-identify many things about himself, and this process is long and tiresome for most of those working for him, wanting the benefits fast and him delivering it as soon as he can. But he’s slowed a bit and tried to refine himself in his old age. I have high hopes that with good people patting his back and whispering, kindly, great ideas that he’ll excel with a running start up that cliff to success and fame again- where he silently now longs to return. (The fall was rough, lol he hurt his shoulder. He rotates it ever now and then to remind him that he was once tall, and he’ll be okay as long as he keeps pushing through.)

This is just the trends I’ve seen. So when I see things like- “Sonic Boom” I think, “SEGA is having an identity crisis in America again.” Or when “Sonic Mania” came back- “He’s not only reminiscing, but inventing again. He’s got his spark of passion/enthusiasm again. Looking at things in a new light and in new times.” When I see the news about “Sonic Forces” I see SEGA taking a stride in the new time, trying. Always desperately trying without showing too much of his struggle in doing so.

A once punkish kid who picked his nose and flicked it to other companies is now wearing a more casual business attire and making a Rocky Movie change. This has been happening for years now.

I’m excited for this little guy’s progress but hope his speedy intents slow down further to think things through and really put everything he has into finding pride at the end of his creations again. and with that-!

DO YOUR RESEARCH MY FANS!

“Not all stories have a happy ending. SEGA is not dead, but they may be in shackles. Since the Sammy takeover, the flow of internally-developed SEGA games has slowed to a small fraction of what it once was. Arcade operations have been pared down sharply, and Western developers have been handed the keys to SEGA's franchises, even when the original creators are still on staff. Many industry legends still work there, but too few are being allowed to do what they do so well. Occasionally we are allowed glimpses of SEGA's potential greatness in games like Yakuza, but more often we simply wonder what they could possibly be working on for so long.

Either way, we know it will never be the same. Whatever we have to look forward to, it will be different than what it was. The important thing is that we don't let the present color the past. It's a tendency of writers, and perhaps just human nature, to focus on the victors and their glorious paths to conquest, but it often doesn't reflect the complexities of history. SEGA was one of the most active, creative, and productive developers the industry has ever known, and nothing that can happen to their name since will change that.“ -IGN

that is all~