#been wanting to draw this story idea for a while but I always second guessed myself huhu

[prodigal-san]

Part 1/2

Soulmate/Guardian Angel mashup AU

[rejectedbytheempty]

could you write a story about enemies hero and villain that have to learn to care for each other while stranded somewhere? and the hero gets hurt and doesn’t want to tell the villain cause he doesn’t wanna seem weak in front of him, but the villain figures it out because the hero is in pain?

HELL YEAH that’s what i’m talkin about babey. so anyways, i wrote it, hopefully it isn’t too much like the ramblings of a madwoman. but i saw that you requested other things and i def will be getting to them (or at least probably)

TRAPPED

pt 2

tw: blood

“I guess this is what happens when you work with a villain,” Hero lamented, slumped against the gray brick of the cell wall.

Villain whipped their head to look at Hero, anger flaring in their eyes, “You were the one who screwed everything up, I wanted to do this alone, but no, you couldn’t leave well enough alone.” Villain had heard through the grapevine that Supervillain was planning on building some kind of super weapon that they planned to use to subdue the city and take despotic rule over it. As much as Villain could care less about the city, they did care about Supervillain having their go at dictatorship, they were known for being horribly cruel and Villain didn’t want to be at the other end of the smoking gun, so to speak. So Villain planned to break into Supervillain’s facility and hopefully destroy their plans, or at least get a good notion of how far away they should move to avoid the fallout. It was too bad that Hero had decided to interfere with their plans, for some reason that insufferable goody two shoes always stuck their nose in things that didn’t concern them. Hero tagged along, and because the two of them have never worked too well with each other (i.e. at all), they were captured by a bunch of Supervillain’s goons and stuffed in this dingy cell.

“If you went alone, then you would be in this cell by yourself, so maybe you should be grateful that you have company,” Hero said with a small smile on their face.

Villain sighed, “First of all, not true. Second, I could name a dozen other people I would rather have as company.” Hero laughed, but for a moment, the side of their lip twinged up in a wince. It was quick enough that anyone else wouldn’t have caught it, but Villain narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

Hero’s amused face quickly melted into confusion, “What? What’s wrong?”

Villain rose up from where they were sitting and strode forward towards Hero, “I should be the one asking you that, isn’t that right, Hero?”

Hero swallowed nervously and shifted in their seat uncomfortably, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Villain was quick to snatch Hero’s arm, which had been sitting in a seemingly relaxed position over their stomach. There was a large gash in Hero’s side, with dark, bloody stains spreading to either side of the split fabric of their uniform. Hero tried in vain to pull their arm back from Villain’s grip, but only succeeded in pulling their injury taut, to which they hissed in pain.

“When did this happen?”

With a grimace, Hero explained, “In the fight, when we were discovered, one of the guards managed to get me with their knife. I didn’t really notice how bad it was until we were walking to the cell and I looked down..”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Villain demanded.

Hero shook their head and laughed softly, more in a bitter way than in humor, “I.. I don’t know. I just didn’t want to seem weak, I suppose.”

Villain’s expression softened slightly and they released the hold they had on Hero’s arm, and Hero was quick to draw their arm back to their body.

“Christ, Hero, that was dumb. I’m not- well, I’m not that much of a villain.”

Hero avoided Villain’s pitying gaze, setting their jaw before saying, “It’s bad enough that I dragged you down with me, I didn’t want to be more of a burden.”

Villain reached out, gently grabbing Hero’s jaw and guiding them to look face-to-face with Villain, “You are not, and never will be a burden.” Hero opened their mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud clapping noise that echoed through the cell.

Villain and Hero looked up to see Supervillain standing there, clapping slowly. “Touching stuff, really,” they said with a bone-chilling grin on their face. The moment that Supervillain had made themself known, Villain had stepped away from Hero, hardening their gaze once again. Hero breathed heavily, trying to subdue the obvious fear that was overtaking them.

“You know, I had only planned to catch one but what luck that Hero showed up! And all it took was the rumor that I was building some kind of superweapon, as if I would ever do that, takes out the personal aspect to this job that I so love,” Supervillain said, maintaining a superficially cheery tone.

Villain stumbled back at this, heart sinking to the bottom of their chest, “It was fake?”

Supervillain’s booming laugh bounced off the stone walls, “Thought you would have been smart enough to figure it out by now, but I expect too much, I suppose.”

Villain glanced over at Hero who was staring dissociatively at the ground, chest heaving as they breathed heavily through their nose.

“Oh! Looks like your little friend there is about to pass out. Poor thing, probably scared out of their mind. But, maybe it’s the blood loss that’s finally getting to their head.”

Villain saw red, they slammed against the cell bars, “Let them go. Right. Now. They had nothing to do with this, I’m the one you want.”

Supervillain’s grin didn’t even fall for a moment, “No, I don’t think I will. This is just too much fun, it’s even better than I thought. Sadly, I do have to get back to my scheming, maybe I will actually build a superweapon this time. I’ll be back soon though, so don’t you worry,” Supervillain said, booping Villain’s nose, to which Villain backed away in anger and surprise.

“Toodaloo, Hero!” Supervillain said playfully, waving goodbye before heading towards the door, leaving Villain and Hero back to complete silence.

A/N: okey, lmk what you guys thought and if i should do a part 2 or whateva

[yukkoislost]

i am BACK GODDDAMN sorry no magical girls or md omori to be seen atm 😞 i have ocs tho LMAO

listened to my heart?? and decided to draw ocs before i go absolutely insane. i mean i have three perfectly fine md ocs to work on so i might as well

i never did tell you what i had planned for asta huh

oc dump below cut that no one asked for <3

the three musketeers of my account HDJEHDHS

allow me to introduce them properly, i guess?¿ they each have their own individual posts but those posts were kinda rough around the edges,,

ASTA ✨

asta is my first (disregarding older ocs) md oc i've made. she's ridiculously smart (for the most part) but is also inherently a scaredy cat. she hates change and hates the unknown, sticking to a routine that she's used to for comfort.

like doll, she doesn't have her parents anymore and they're also partly the reason she doesn't have a courage. her parents' death had killed her curious spirit. they had always been more overprotective of her, considering they had both escaped unscathed out of the cabin fever labs situation.. (070 and 072, working on that) if asked, her strongest emotion is Fear. she's allowed it to control her life so much she doesn't know what it's like to live, despite being alive. because of this, even though she had been offered a spot with the cheerleaders, she didn't take it as it would mean a deviation from her comforting routine.

of course, her routine can't last forever. life in the bunker is boring but it was safe, and that's all she needed. (going into how she would be a part of the story? in progress though) she and uzi never knew each other personally. she sat at the back of the class while uzi was towards the front. she preferred not sitting too close to her because of her, uh, personality and actions? either way, she doesn't feel safe with uzi around because of uzi's inventive mind, and her tendency to do and create dangerous things (e.g., her sick as hell railgun. and also the whole braiden thing). asta wasn't necessarily shunned, she just had a small group of friends that she preferred sticking to (until doll killed them in the days going onto the promening)

getting the absolute solver string was NOT on her to-do list, but as mentioned, routine doesn't last forever. she hated the solver string and actively tried to ignore it, but it was difficult because if fucked with her systems and caused her to crave oil (which is a whole other thing and also the point where she finally accepted that she can't keep brushing away what she doesn't want to face). did i also mention she hears the solver's voice in the back of her head, because yeah that happens.

either way, since gaining the solver's string, she is also made aware that uzi and doll both had it but didn't try to reach out for help, still strongly controlled by her fear. my plan for asta was similar to how nori was the solver's secondary host (since cyn wasn't on copper-9 at the time), she would become puppet to the absolute solver, and in turn the third official host because of how lowkey she was and doll and uzi not knowing she had the solver. naturally, asta hated the idea of becoming a pet for the solver and constantly tries to override the solver's control on her (eventually succeeding. it leads the solver to want her death because it fears that asta will take over)

this is all canon divergence ofc :3

SERIAL DESIGNATION E 🐾

my second md oc, and first and only disassembly drone oc (for now? maybe haven't decided). serial designation E (also known as E or cerberus) is the outcast of his three-drone-squad. he had once tried to fit in better with the rest of his peers but after the first attempt, decided that it was too bothersome and they didn't deserve him anyway. or, that's how he phrased it in his lonesome.

he's the laziest of the bunch and hates any extra movement, preferring to kill prey quickly than to draw it out and have fun. he only hunts when his oil levels go down to 15% and if given the choice, he would've chosen to not need to eat at all. he isolates himself and has a small space set up away from the pod and essentially, his squad.

he didn't always used to be like this though, as mentioned whenever he tried his best to fit in with the rest, he did work hard. it wasn't enough though (nothing ever is). outcasted for his strange feature of having three nanite tails instead of one, he was always made fun of and in the beginning was also nicknamed Dog by his two other squad members since he wanted so bad to feel like he was needed and important to them, to the point he would willingly have done anything for them. but that was in the past. there's no point.

as a butler in the elliot manor, he has occasionally come across J, V, N and cyn. hard not to when they hang around the young mistress so often, especially J as her personal maid.. or something. he doesn't remember too well. much like his currently disassembly drone self, he took whatever shortcut he could find back in the mansion. he isn't a good person. he wasn't good then, and certainly isn't any better now. maybe a little. back in the manor, he hated doing work. he severely lacks motivation and seriously can't find a reason that he should be bothered other than the humans could kill him, or whatever. it didn't matter, or maybe it did? he wants to live (does he?) he doesn't remember.

anyway. that life is far behind him now. his squad was sent to copper 9 by JcJenson in spaaaaaaaaace (i forgot how many A's were in the space) to clear out the worker drones of course. he's got a chunk of missing memory somewhere in his head.. somewhere dark and somewhere fleshy. probablly not important. he remembers his quad but he can't find them, only alerted that a new pod and three new disassembly drones had landed– J, V and N (where was the other one? who was the other one? someone is not missing)

the forest breathes life into the dead landscape.

how long had he been asleep for?

OCTAVIERY 🦉

the oc that y'all would be familiar with. octaviery has more posts than asta and E combined (i think). the accidentally acquired child of N and uzi somewhere within the events of cabin fever

the good, quiet child of nuzi,, if you disregard his love for 'extreme sports' (read climbing into places he doesn't belong, and eventually getting stuck like an idiot). since his parents are both verbally loud and open, he never really had to ask for anything himself because his psuedo-parents dealt with it for him, leaving him to be the only introverted person of their small family.

he grows faster than a normal drone would, and thus reaches the age of a young teenager even while uzi is still in school. (yes, he is, in fact, taller than uzi. not taller than N though)

he doesn't know his true purpose.

AND THEN I GOT LAZY TO TYPE🤞

[danyvhell-writes]

Ais headcanons pt 2 ! (Touchstarved)

GN reader - no warnings | Ais, my beloved. My brain won't stop thinking about him, there's so much to say omg ! I need to draw him this is serious :')

+ Not really a headcanon but when I first saw Ais in the trailer I thought he would be a kinda pirate character :') don't make fun of me lmaouiadubgziu !! I really imagined our first encounter with him on the coast of the city/harbor and that his story would be based on pirate tales and marine legends. I'm still sticking to my idea that it would be fucking awesome to have Ais as a captain or something, traveling the seas and oceans with him and his crew. (let me dream) PIRATE AIS AU WHEN ????!!? (Helloooo sailor !!)

• Has really pretty hands for someone who fights so much ! Likes to be presentable in front of you.

• He's a simp in his own ways. Someone making a remark about how good looking you are, he's gonna brag "Damn right they are ! Look at them."

• If you're mixed or have unusual features for your ethnicity, he would try to guess your origins (and he's strangely good at it ?). And if you have a weird/rare mix it's even more fun to see him struggle a bit.

• Likes to share foods ! Please feed him, he loves it. He'll just watch your dish with insistance until you ask him "You want some ?" and lean opening his mouth. He'll gently make you taste his meal in return. You're his little sparrow after all, so of course he's gonna let you peck in his plate.

• If your gaze meets his, he'll wink casually. It's his way to say "Hi babe."

• Completely forgot to ad this in my last hc post but !! If you use ASL, he will learn just so he can talk with you. Teach him everything you know, he's a good student >:) And if you happen to know how to read lips, this man would be thrilled to learn how to do it ! I just know he'd love to spy on people's conversation and gossip with you hehehe

• When you guys go on a walk and see sparrows he's always saying stuff like "Look, your friends' saying hi !" "This one looks just like you, cute." or "Wonder who's the real little sparrow… Sure you're not an impostor hm ?"

• When he doesn't smoke, he smells like a mix of cloves, iodine, humid air & metal (you know what i mean ?)

• Ties up his hair in a little ponytail sometimes and it's the cutest thing ever !!!

• If you're sensitive to the smell of cigarette (I personally despise that shit), he'd be careful not to smoke near you or puff in your direction. Passive smoking is not an option ! When you tell him it's fine, he responds "I don't want to screw up your healthy lil lungs !" ↑ However if you take cigs too, he'll gladly share a smoke with you. Really likes to have a calm talk with you while you guys enjoy your stuff. (+ shotgun kiss grrr)

• If you trip on your feet or something while walking, no need to feel ashamed. He would simply do the same on purpose to reassure you and act like it's something casual. "Can't watch my feet either apparently :)" You can be clumsy around him, do not worry !

• We know he doesn't like easy fights and he's kinda into brats so… give him challenges. Dumb ones, hard ones whatever you want ! He needs adrenaline and what's better than a little dare. "Bet you can't climb that tree in less than twenty seconds !" "Oh yeah ? Don't be presumptuous, I'll show you." and there he goes, perching himself on a big branch.

• Related to that... You're a snarky little shit ? Good. He likes it. Be cocky with him, that's what he needs. Of course he loves your soft side but no bickering nor teasing would be boring. This man needs a challenge.

• Loves going on walks with you and his babies (soulless). He'd show you around, make you visit nice places you've never been to and you get to play with Princess + the rest of the pack ! Sometimes his destinations are a little perilous but it's worth the risk. Two whole hours walking in the mist to watch the sunset ? Okay let's go, handsome !

• You're a trans person ? Great. He is too. Now go makeout like the T4T couple you are. (My Ais is trans and I won't come back on this statement 🏃🏽‍♂️💨)

• Always rests his hand on your hip. Number one resting place, comfortable & perfect shape for it. Sometimes the touch feels almost ghosting against you, you wonder if you're imagining things. Please, do the same for him. His waist is literally snatched with that pretty belt of his, perfect place to put your hands on ! He would really appreciate.

• He's good with makeup. Let him put you some red eyeliner so you guys can match ;) Just imagine him holding your face gently while he's concentrated on making a cool pattern with the liner. "Don't move." "I'm trying sorry !" "Am I that distracting to you ?". He won't mind if you try some on him. Dark lipstick omg, he'll rock that shit !

[the-cannibal]

hi!! vincent sinclair, brahms heelshire, and jason voorhees head canons with a gender neutral s/o who likes to wear corsets please? :)

Ooh interesting! I’ve never worn a corset before but they always look so cool!

Vincent Sinclair, Brahms Heelshire, and Jason Vorhees head canons for a s/o that likes to wear corsets

Gender neutral reader - they/them and you is used

Vincent Sinclair

He loves to help you pick out which corset you wear! He’s practically a pro at matching them with any outfit you have, and he’s very proud of it.

He most definitely would make so much art of you in your corsets. Wax figures, drawings, paintings, everything! One day he found an old Polaroid camera from a victims car and that started him getting into photography! He only ever takes pictures of you, and maybe Jonesy. He likes to hang up the art of you all around the house, but he keeps more… personal ones at his desk ;)

If you needed help lacing and/or tightening your corset he is happy to help!

He would love to rest his hands on your waist as you did whatever you were doing (like cooking for example)

Corsets can be kind of pricy depending on which one you want, so he totally would take any money from victims to help you save up for new corsets. This can kind of irritate Bo… “Goddammit, Vincent! I need that cash to buy some parts!” ‘But they saw a corset they really liked the other day. I’m gonna surprise them with it!’

Overall Vincent is very supportive of you wearing corsets and absolutely loves it!

Brahms Heelshire

He finds you very elegant! I think his mom probably has some stashed away in a closet from when she was younger, and if you’d like to wear them he would gladly let you!

This man is a pro at lacing and tightening corsets. Like he can do it in 60 seconds. How? You have no idea, but please call him a good boy and give him lots of praises afterwards.

He would also make sure you aren’t tightening them too tight. “It’s very important that you feel comfortable while wearing them, Y/n. They aren’t supposed to cause back pain.” “I know, Brahms. I’ve been wearing them for a while now, but thank you.” “…Kiss?” Please kiss him.

Brahms would love to put his hands around your waist as you sit in front of him and play the piano with him.

Your making him his sandwich? Hands around your waist. Your reading him his bedtime story? He is in your side hugging your waist. You are literally just standing still in the middle of a room. Guess what! He’s hugging your waist!

This man also somehow knows how to make corsets. You have no idea who taught him or where he learned it but hey you aren’t complaining!

So Brahms adores your corsets!

Jason Vorhees

This man some how saw that one picture where it’s saying wearing corsets will crush your organs and ribs and blah blah blah… yeah he freaked out.

So for a while you had Jason rapidly signing at you to please throw all of your corsets away.

And when you refused you just all of a sudden felt someone loosening your corset… and you turned around to see big Jason trying to untie it and take it off from you.

Alright time to sit down with the big hunk and explain to him that wearing corsets are totally fine. He’s still very concerned, it’s going to take some time to warming up to them.

But once he does, gosh he notices just how nice his partner looks in them. And oh my gosh they have different colored ones?! AND IN HIS FAVORITE COLOR?!

He makes sure you aren’t tying them too tight, and also that you aren’t wearing them for too long. And he won’t let you sleep in them.

He won’t say, but he would really like to pick them out with you. So the day you come up to him and ask for his opinion he is so supportive and signing off all the things that he likes about them! ‘I really love the blue, it compliments your eyes and hair very nicely! Oh but I also love the red one on you too, red is most definitely your color!’ “Jay it’s been twenty minutes.” ‘And I wanna make sure I make the right choice! Now hold the blue one up again please…’

So yeah he was a bit concerned at first but he warmed up to them and became very supportive!

[emeryleewho]

My post about quality critiquing is still going around and it's reached a whole new group of people who seem to think it's a flop, not because it's "too nice" as many of the early critiques said, but because it's "not nice enough".

I don't know how to tell y'all this, but the point of critique is not to be nice nor is it to scathing. It's to be *informative*.

A review that says "this book is trash and the author never deserves to write again" isn't trash because it's mean (though it IS mean, and unwarranted). It's trash because it literally says nothing. I know nothing more about this book than I did an hour ago. I know more about the reviewer (and the general asshole energy they have) than the thing that they're reviewing.

A review that says "This book does nothing more than tie a bunch of corny tropes together with weak prose and poor grammar that couldn't pass a second grade English class through the lens of cardboard cutout characters with the emotional maturity of Teletubbies" is a FAR more scathing review, but at least it TELLS us something. If I'm the type of reader who actively seeks out the tropiest of stories, I can read this review and gauge that this actually might be an okay read for me because it sounds like this person is mostly frustrated with the elements of this story not being super original, and guess what, that's exactly what I'm looking for! On the other hand, if I HATE tropes or weak grammar, I can probably assume this won't be for me. This review is still eviscerating the novel, but it does so in a way that allows other people to draw conclusions from it.

And guess what, it's also written in a way that allows others to disagree with it! "Oh, you think the characters are emotionally immature? Well, in chapter 12, they discuss the complexities of blah blah..." Now, we can have a discussion among fellow readers and critics, which also leaves room for potential readers to see the discussion and say, "Oh, now I get why they felt that way. Sounds like I would agree. Or maybe sounds like I wouldn't."

The idea that every critique needs to be nice OR mean to a work completely misses the point. Sometimes you love something. Sometimes you hate it. Both of these are fine. The point is that if you're going to try your hand at writing professional (or even semi-professional) critique, you need to understand that critique is *also* its own written art that serves an actual purpose. If you just want to go be snarky on the internet because a book pissed you off, than this isn't about you, but too many people throughout publishing & education seem to think that critique is about people's feelings, and while feelings will always be a part of it (we're human after all), it's not *the point*.

And frankly, reviews are meant to be interpreted just the same as books are. There have been *scathing* reviews that actually convinced me to pick up a book because I knew the reviewer and I clearly had opposite tastes based on what they said made the book suck, and that's exactly how reviews are supposed to work. They're not meant to coddle an author's feelings OR lash out at them for writing something you hated. They're meant to give enough info that other readers can draw conclusions.

[utahlive]

This ask isn't directly for Wilbur or the blog, but rather the person who runs this. A bit of an ooc ask about world building and expanding this universe since I'm invested

Are we as the audience perceived as people in this universe watching this show/documentary about Utah at our homes, sending in questions via telephone. Or are we just random people that show up in the gas station and keep coming back one by one at random times to talk about the "Dabi cosplayer". (I'd like the imagine the second one; just a but of faceless people pressed up against the glass outside asking the weirdest questions. Fits the vibe)

Do you, the owner of this blog, have a part to play in the universe? Are you the director to the show, a main camera man, or something else.

The fanart that's made for this blog, I'd like to imagine it's—again—just faceless people running up and slapping drawings they make on the convince store windows and running off, leaving the producers and Wilbur with it. Stuff like that :]

Im gonna be honest I said I was gonna do author q&a today specifically so I could answer this ask because I feel weird just answering it willy-nilly

I tend to be... pretty bad at storytelling. I always get wayyy too into my own head, and things get so complicated to a degree where only I can understand whats going on, which is something im obviously trying very hard to avoid. However I don't wanna sacrifice the story I want to tell, so I'm just doing my best here.

One of the biggest limitations right now is that I'm just struggling to explain exactly how the world works/the translation between "Utah" and irl/us. The biggest ones are time and what exactly is being aired, because obviously it doesn't take one whole day to answer two questions, but I don't have the energy to answer more than two q's per day. And of course the 'film crew' arent actually filming Wilbur while he's sleeping or anything like that, but it's hard to tell the story I want to tell without having scenes like that. Im hoping that things will get smoother as we go, but for now I've just been making it so that episodes that dont have 'transcript's in them aren't filmed (or have "artist rendition" notes), and lets say that even though its been over a month of answering questions for us, it's only been two or three weeks for wilbur.

As for what you guys are, you're viewers who are calling in from home! Kinda like a radio show. No one is physically showing up to the store or his house (that would be really funny though). I did have some scrapped ideas that I may bring back later about the film crew, but for now "they" dont have any deeper place in the story. I'm the camera man, I guess! I've been imagining it as just some guy with a camera in one hand, a headset to listen to calls, and a little paper pad to write down answers.

There are 886 asks in the inbox right now! Not all of them are asks, some of them are just comments about whats happening (which I love, I <3 hearing what you guys think) but unfortunately I can't answer all of them. I have a general outline so whenever I do pick story/plot asks, its ones that fit that outline, and every other time I just try to be funny.

nor/mal (jk. he/they/xe)

I was typing out the whole story and reasoning behind the pictures I chose but it was getting way too long (because I ended up going down a rabbit hole). Basically I found an old blog from 2010 where a girl had posted a picture of her room, it was a very positive post so I didn't think it would be offensive to use it (also there's a comment from 2016 on the blog post asking if the image can be used as reference, no reply, the author of the blog has not logged in for years). The bathroom was made in the Sims 4/I used pictures of my own dorm bathroom

smoked a blunt in the woods and thought about cwilbur's character arc a little too hard

im shy 👉👈

fucks me up that people continue to think about this blog after liking/reblogging

[fantomette22]

Could we see more of your Rom and Caryll? It has been a while

Of course! Thank you for asking! That inspire me quite a few things!

I don’t have much too say but have this few drawings i did for the occasion!

I guess this^ would be a missing scene in my fic. Between chap 2 & 3 when Rom meet Caryll. During Caryll convalescence, Rom was task by Willem (her father) to pass a bit of time with them. And they did pass a lot of time together! It was the beginning of a beautiful and long friendship!

Ah yeah, so at first i had this 2nd pic coming to me when i imagined a happy ending AU or smt. Basically baby squid hunter give everyone a second chance and either people are super happy or wanna kill each other xD But in the end i feel it would be the typical dynamic of this 4 in many contexts 😂 Rom & Caryll are just happy to see each other after a while and Micolash probably annoyed Damian.

They love the Augurs too like you can imagine ❤️

This 2 share a braincells as well.

Ok the next one now! This is a part of a way bigger story and headcanons where all the squad end up doing an expedition to Loran! (Byrgenwerth’s scholar’s, healing church, old hunters…) And Caryll, Maria, and Rom share a tent.

Yeah cool girl sleepover i know :3

Fishing Hamlet time...

A bad time like you can guess. I imagined some scholars would be quite shocked upon discovering Kos lifeless body... Maybe, just maybe, they had hope to be able to communicate with the goddess, alive. But all hope was fast lost.. and the only thing the scholars like Rom and Caryll were allowed to take back in person were the parasites...

Also you're probably wondering what in Kos name happened to Caryll's arm?! Well... I won't be giving too much context for what happened to them exactly... For now... (it's a sword and fire who did this).

Now, something a bit happier and a few years later. Before everything spiral down... With Caryll being the leader of the Choir and Rom being just under them, they passed lots of time with Ebrietas ❤️

Rom always managed to have quite a strong affinity with the daughter of the cosmos for some reason. And Caryll could understand a lot of what Ebrietas wanted to communicate.

And to finish I always wonder what happened to Caryll. You know...in the end? (I got ideas...) What happened to their soul.. I wonder if this 2 managed to meet one last time via the dream/nightmare...

[roseserpentpress]

Rose Serpent Press: behind the name and design

I've been meaning to talk about the name of my bindery and the design I've chosen for it, but hadn't gotten around to it until today... I had originally meant to talk about it during binderary when it would be thematically appropriate and then proceeded to not do that... Anyhow, here's it now.

Rose- both to call to mind the colour and the flower.

The flower obviously represent the romance genre, which most fanfiction tends to revolve around. In fact the design of a rose has been used as an emblem by some publishing companies to specifically denote on the spine that it's a romance novel, which I partly got the idea from. The flower in the centre of the design is actually a wild rose which, of course, has its own significance with this being a non-professional bindery which is part of Renegade bindery, binding unconventional works. Also, wild roses like these grow in the area that I'm from, so it's also a nod to the geographical location I bind from.

The second part of rose which implies the colour pink, is to actually note the content as queer. Pink has been correlated with queerness since Nazi's forced those who they deemed gay to wear a pink triangle, and the colour and signia has since then been reclaimed by community. In this way I wanted to recognize that the work I'm binding is queer, especially emphasizing the history of oppression and censorship that comes with it, as well as present day issues of oppression and censorship around queer media. This is especially so as part of the books that were sought out and burned in Nazi Germany where queer books, and so I find this allusion quite apt. Part of the reason I bind fics, other than the enjoyment of the process, is recognizing both the incredibleness and the fragility of what we have on ao3; we have a huge sea of queer (erotic and platonic!) work and expression at our fingertips, like never before, but it's also not necessarily permanent, as the recent attack on ao3 reminds us. So to be able to bind these stories made with so much love, and to be able to preserve it, while also giving more love back to these communities with my own creations is a way to fight back against queer censorship and erasement (if I may be so bold and sappy...)

Serpent- yeah actually that's it for poetic stuff. This is more that I love snakes and been obsessed with oroborous' since I watched the Secret of Kells as a kid, and my previous stamp for the first few books included an oroborous on it. However, if you wanted to be poetic, it can be the recognition of the infinite queer persistence; we will and have always been here, even when oppressed. That and rose serpent could be flowery language for... Well I'm sure you can guess hehehe. Thematically appropriate for gay erotica ;D

For the design I heavily based it off of a design from a Latin and french emblem book called Imagination poetique and seeing the elements of the design and recognizing what could be implied, I immediately wanted to use it for my binderary design. I then tweaked the design until I liked it; I can't find the photo of all the original drawings I did playing with the design... I'll find it and add it later. I did the carving of the stone seals myself.

[gunophilia]

Hello, before I get too far into it, I'm just going to give my main point right away:

I get it.

Writing is hard. Art in general is hard, but in my experience, finding the motivation to continue a story is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. Trying to find the words to explain it is difficult, ironically, how do you really explain the overwhelming want to do only to loss all motivation the second you actually try? It's not that I don't want to write, I absolutely do, and I have all these stories and plots and ideas inside my head but the second I try and put pen to paper it feels impossible.

I guess I'll compare it to something else, albeit in a similar field. When I was younger, I loved to dry. Every moment of freetime I got in elementary school was dedicated to doodling all over my worksheets and notebook paper. And I was terrible at it, absolutely horrendous, but the best part was that I didn't care. I liked drawing, it never mattered to me how good it was. Until someday it did, and I realized that my skill level didn't match my standards, so I stopped. And every time afterward, when I would draw, no matter if it was a doodle in the corner or I tried to sit down and focus, I always gave up because it felt pointless. I'd lost my motivation, and so I gave up for years and I felt disappointed in myself. The same sort of thing happened with writing, one day I realized I wasn't happy with what I was doing because it felt armature.

At some point, about almost a year ago, I decided completely out of the blue that I wanted to try drawing again, so I bought a tablet to make sure I had to commit and couldn't give up like all the other times, I had a sit down with myself, and I asked this question:

What do I want out of my art?

And the answer was simple, to just enjoy doing it. So that was my goal, not to get better, but to just rediscover the joy thay drawing brought me. It definitely took a while, until I was able to look at other pieces of artwork and see things I liked and wanted to do myself rather than to compare myself to them. After a while I was drawing for myself, just to have fun, and I didn't care if it was good or skillful, all that was important was that I liked it and that was enough.

I still struggle with writing, I have a storyline that I want to follow but it's still just so hard to find the motivation, and I've decided that yes, one day it is going to happen, but it doesn't need to be today, so even just writing a silly little side story or even just a couple sentences of notes is enough for now, because it's still something.

Anyways this got away from me and I think the message for lost, so I guess I'll just put it plainly here, art is hard, and even if you love doing it that sometimes actually doing it seems impossible, especially if you feel like it's something you have to do over wanting to do it.

Sorry for the essay, but I'm feeling sappy tonight and a post of yours reminded me of my own journey.

I hope this was helpful, and if not, then I'm so sorry and please feel absolutely free to ignore this.

Have a good one, and I hope writing is something you can enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it. <3

are you me from an alternate universe? (jk) your story is very similar to what I've been going through. sometimes I get a spark of inspiration, but that by itself is not enough to get me to actually sit down and do the work. I sit down, realize how much time/effort will need to be put in, and give up before I start. it really sucks. i feel like i cant/shouldn't work on anything unless it can be finished in one sitting.

[paleparearchive]

That Guy I'm Curious About

Bazille's 1st initial 3★ story (2/2) ( 1 - 2 )

Location: dormitory hallway (morning) ; atelier 2 (morning) | Characters: Bazille, Munch, Giotto

Bazille: Munch speaks to nobody and says he has friends. On the other hand, I'm also concerned about him saying he has no friends and immediately moving on to other topics.

Giotto: I did have the impression that his conversation pace's peculiar, or that it jumps here and there.

Bazille: There's something else that concerns me. It's the pictures Munch is painting. They're dark and spooky pictures, but he insists they're pictures of happiness. It's as if…

(It's as if he maintains his emotional stability by painting dark pictures…)

Giotto: What's wrong?

Bazille: … No, I'll leave the paintings aside. There are some things that artists are not supposed to touch.

Giotto: True. So what do ya wanna do 'bout it?

Bazille: I would like to have a proper discussion with Munch. However, I can't seem to keep the conversation going. If it were you, what would you do?

Giotto: Hmm, let's see… When they're in denial, everyone wants to rebel, right? I think it's important to get close to him.

Bazille: Close to him, you say…

Giotto: Maybe what you're tryin' to tell Munch's 'about the very core of his bein'?

Bazille: Yeah, I guess…

Giotto: If that's the case, even better. No one wants to talk to someone they don't know well 'bout somethin' important to 'em. First, get to know Munch. Then ya can talk to him!

Bazille: I see. You've got a point… Thank you very much. I'll go to Munch right away.

Giotto: Okay, I'll be rootin' for ya. Good luck!

—

Munch: Mh-mmmh, mh-mh-mhhhh~♪ You're looking good today, Brush-chan! Did something good happen? I seee, you played with Palette-chan. You two have always been good frieeends~ Hey, come play with me too~ Yeah, thanks! It's a promise♪

Bazille: (Now he's talking to a brush and a palette. But still…)

Munch: Huh? You think red is good here? Palette-chan thinks so too! I also thought red would give a brighter look here.

Bazille: (He's painting another spooky picture. Just looking at it is enough to destabilize one's mind.)

(... No, I can't get scared now.)

Munch, can I talk to you for a second?

Munch: Ah, Bazibazi! What's up?

Bazille: I… I thought that was a nice painting. Are you painting another picture of happiness?

Munch: Yeah! Painting this bright picture makes me happy. My friend says they like this picture toooo~ They agree with you, Bazibazi!

Bazille: Right. What do your friend say they like about your paintings?

Munch: It's not my friend, it's Palette-chan! We all consult with each other while painting.

Bazille: (Normally, I would have just poked around, but... It's important to get close, wasn't it?)

You were discussing this with "Palette" earlier. Do you always do that?

Munch: Yup, both Pallette-chan and Brush-chan give me advice. Let me know if you want to draw a happy picture too, Bazibazi! If you paint following Palette-chan's advice, you'll get a very happy painting!

Bazille: Alright, I will ask them then.

Munch: Huh? … Oh, I seee~ I think so too.

Bazibazi! My friends want to play with you. Palette-chan, Brush-chan, let's aaaaall play together!

Bazille: Alright. Let me know when you plan to do that.

Munch: Hooraaaay!~ It's a promise, Bazibazi!

Bazille: (It seems like he got a little closer to me. This is also thanks to Giotto-san. However… It wouldn't be a good idea to get to the heart of the matter now. I guess we can talk about it in the future when we get to know each other a little better.)

[abysscronica]

Hi! I noticed that many people compare Luffy and Kid about personality and actions and many say that Kid is like an angry unlucky version of Luffy. Luffy had his struggles during his young life too but he was never mean towards others so I thought that Kid must have passed through some heavy stuff (with Killer and the others too since they act all in the same way basically) to became a bloodthirsty and cruel pirate, even without reason.

I wanted to ask you if you ever wondered about his past and if you have personal theories, not just the part related to Victoria's story, but also the one that maybe made him so suspicious and angry towards the world.

Thank you if you'll answer!

Okay, let's talk about this a little bit.

Considerations on Eustass Kid's character

Blaming Kid's cruelty on his traumatic past without taking into account One Piece logic or how Oda does things makes no sense. You can draw from the real world when analyzing these characters, but it doesn't work if you don't put everything in their own world's context. I've seen this done a lot here on tumblr, especially for Kid and Doflamingo, but let's focus on Kid for the sake of this ask.

Kid, together with Killer, Heat and Wire, had a horrible childhood that surely shaped them, but the truth is we have very little information about it. All we know comes from three SBS answers: Oda's drawing of them as kids, the one that first introduced Victoria as Kid and Killer's childhood crush, and the more recent one about their past. ALL the rest was inferred from it. Let's take this shot for example:

While Kid's appearance and ragged clothes are canon, the background is not. It's an interpretation by the anime staff. Did Kid live in a terrible place? Yes. We know that. Did it look like that? Possibly. No idea.

From the info we have, it looks like Kid had a worse past than Luffy. He lived in a place overrun by gangs, in poverty, where kids had no choice aside joining into the violence and try to survive. And Eustass Kid... fit well into such environment; he adapted to the point of becoming a baby-gang leader, just as Killer, Heat and Wire, and later on he even challenged the most powerful lords of the underworld and won. This doesn't diminish the hardships and suffering he went through, but it gives you an idea of his character.

Oda has played with the "nature vs. nurture" concept several times and, to be completely honest, while he absolutely doesn't discard the importance of trauma, he often leans toward the "nature" answer. The clearest example is found in Doflamingo and Rocinante. They faced the same hardships and still remained true to their original (opposite) nature. Yes, Kid has been through hell but he's hardly the only character. Nami, Sanji, Robin, Rocinante are just a few other examples - many of these arguably had it worse than Kid, and they aren't cruel nor rabid.

Even so, I don't mean to completely demolish the idea that Kid is a product of his past (although, on a personal note, I do believe that it diminishes his character). In fact, not everyone in One Piece could maintain their true nature in the face of hardship. For Oda, trauma is a trial to overcome, in a way, and there's not always a clear-cut direct answer as we see with the Strawhats, for example. One example over all is Law: he represents a case where trauma did break his nature for a while, until he had a chance to restore it (through Corazon).

I guess you could say that Kid was never offered such chance, buuuut do you honestly believe it? See, being offered a chance is not enough, you gotta be willing to take it and change. If I had to sum up Oda's baseline on this, I would say his process is based upon two main concepts: 1) your pain does not justify your actions; 2) everyone deserves a second chance as long as they're willing to change.

Think about Orochi and Mjosgard. I've talked about them in this post.

Hey, maybe Kid missed his chance. Maybe he didn't get one at the right time. Maybe he will. If you ask me, looking at the drawing of child Kid, I think it's pretty clear what route Oda was going for him. Look at that evil little gremling at tell me I'm wrong.

Another element I have for this is that, differently from other villains, Oda never took a moral stand against Kid. Despite his big talk, Kid is an ally in both the arcs he plays a decent role in (Sabaody and Wano). Sure, he's not good, but he's not that bad either. Kid was indeed meant to be a dark parallel of Luffy, a rival even. Too bad Oda just toyed with this interesting idea but never fully engaged with it. We know that the supernova were something he came up with overnight, they weren't planned until the last second, therefore there was no major role for them to play in the grand scheme of OP. Oda went with his whims for these characters (and I suspect the editors' *suggestions*, which are very much based on fan opinions), until he tried to jam as many of them as possible in Wano, with poor results. Kid, Drake, Apoo, Hawkins, heck, even Law... all their storylines in the arc are terrible. Incredibly, Killer is the one that got away with the best one, in my opinion. Especially in Kid's case, reading Wano felt like Oda was desperately trying to give him a role, and failed at it over and over. Eventually he just gave up and wrote his backstory down in the SBS, here, no point in trying further. I wonder whether he'll ever go back to this character and finally delve into him a little more, maybe give some closure to his arc. I certainly hope so, but who knows?

(I'm also not a fan of what Oda did with Kid after the timeskip, he was dumbed down a lot and part of his charm was forgotten, but oh well)

As for my personal theories on Kid's past, I do like to think that his family was caught up in the South Blue sweep for Ace's mother. It would click in so well with his character and the speech he gave at the slave auction in Sabaody.

That said, none of this takes away from my love for the character. Eustass Kid is and always will be my number one man.

[outeremissary]

14, 25, 26?

Thanks for the ask!! I'm sorry if these aren't going to be super thrilling answers, but some stuff I just don't hear much or don't remember well. ^^;;

[prompt]

14. Any favorite motifs

Haha. Have you noticed. That I like angels. And birds. And wings. And radiant light. And feathers. Do you think that's noticeable in what I draw. Kingmaker has really spoiled me for these- there are so many legitimate reasons to draw them, and I still feel like I'm not doing enough here. At the least, I feel like there's a lot more that I could be doing thematically that I'm not. But I think it's telling that as soon as I started regularly drawing Not Kingmaker stuff I just kept going with the wings- sometimes for Real Reasons, and sometimes... not really. It's my natural state. And I will draw More Wings in the future. This is a promise. I will continue to think about them and hopefully do more interesting and thoughtful things with them, haha.

And I also of course love flowers... I'm not a flower language knower, but I looooove drawing flowers and floral motifs.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

Last summer while recovering from surgery I took an actual real figure drawing class, like in a real studio downtown with real people and real models. I had a lot of trouble adapting to the materials, the scale of the drawings (big...), and the idea of shading as one of the earliest parts of a sketch. I remember speaking to the instructor after class once about having trouble, and he was pretty nice about stuff even if it didn't help me all that much except to reduce the stress a little. But in that conversation I remember him saying my art (of which he had only seen the model drawings) had a comic book quality. That really surprised me, especially considering the context! I was trying very hard to do realism the best I could there, and besides that I have just never spent a lot of time with American comic books. Even the artists in that sphere who have styles I find really compelling and want to learn from are just not in my mind when I draw almost ever, and they certainly weren't when I was trying to sketch the model! It was interesting to hear though- one way or another, the graphic background I do have comes through that strongly both in how I interpret things into work that's not meant to be stylized and in how I work. I guess it stood out for better or worse that I leaned so heavily on lines ^^;;

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

I remember back in 2021 I did this sketch of Nyrissa and Tristian (I swear it is in fact from 2021 despite the post date. my art was slightly better and definitely more accurate to the game in 2022.) where Nyrissa had a hand under Tristian's chin, forcing Tristian to look her in the eyes. I don't really remember what was on my mind drawing that. I think consciously I was just looking for a typical domineering villain pose that seemed fun to draw- I like the idea of the power dynamic between them and I was interested in how that relationship had shaped the Tristian we see in game. Just doing a little thing to put that master/servant dynamic on paper was satisfying for me. Of course, the second I showed it to other people all the responses were like "this is so horny. you can't show me an image this horny." or "this is so horny, I don't know who I want to be." And at the start I think I was always like "noooooo it's super normal!! it's not horny at all!!!" But I think deep down it probably was a horny drawing, whether I did that consciously or not... And I've definitely leaned into that Vibe since then when I draw them together, haha.

That's not a very good story, but honestly I think I just have not seen a lot of interpretations of what I draw that were so different from what was on my mind that they were memorable. ^^;; I don't have a super great memory for this kind of thing though

[burinazar]

(Note: this is a twitter crosspost with a little bit of editing and extra links, so if you saw this as a thread on my twt, then there isn’t really anything new in this post, unless you never saw my Freshly Tatted Baby Waz art since the main thing I added was a link to it.)

One of my drafts, “Scars and Ink”, is about Irumyuui comparing her marked skin to Vueko and Belaf’s scars. The parallel that all three of them bear physical evidence of violence/abuse has always struck me as incredibly poignant and folding well into the parallel we were already invited to draw between Vueko and Belaf’s scars and how the two might regard these reminders of what they’ve lived through. Anyway, I wondered if it would belabor the story to add a smol moment with Wazukyan; they aren’t close, of course, and the focus of the story will remain on Irumyuui’s relationship with her parents, but it feels like a great opportunity to incorporate that Waz has tattoos, which i headcanon as rooted in trauma like Iru’s own tattoos.

Corollary: I struggle to pin down a precise estimate on how upset or resentful Vueko, Belaf, and Irumyuui as individuals ever actually were with *him* and the agency he had in the situation, but to me, canon hints strongly B and V far more blamed themselves. As for Iru….hmmm. Well. I wonder.

The entirety of Irumyuui’s character/feelings and how it’s handled by the narrative is very interesting. Some folks have said they found Irumyuui undercharacterized; while I respect where they’re coming from I disagree. Instead a lot of her characterization is presented indirectly, blanks we must fill in reading between the lines, versus her actual scenes and dialogue.

Wishes and desires made manifest is, of course, of central importance of the Ganja/village arc. And it was irumyuui’s wishes and feelings and their manifestations that were the most important of all — yet there is explicit textual mystery to the shape and extent of those wishes.

Vueko, Belaf, and Faputa all have their own necessarily partial and biased guesses on how she really felt, what she really wanted, and how that shaped the events that came to pass. Besides input from these characters, we can also glean information from the village’s function. Why did Irumyuui give what she gave to Belaf and then all the other Ganja (except Vueko)? What does that say about how she felt towards them? We are invited to answer for ourselves.

imho a crucial element of Faputa’s growth during the climactic events is that she reassesses her self conception in light of receiving new information on Irumyuui, because she reevaluated what Iru “really wanted” as well as accepting the incompleteness of her prior knowledge. To me this part is also the text itself engaging with the viewer and inviting us to draw conclusions on how Irumyuui really felt, what she wanted, whether she ever really wanted revenge or simply the end of her own suffering, whether she ever assigned blame at all.

I think of this sort of thing as characterizing through the use of negative space. Afaik this is not a real storytelling term, I made it up lol, but I’m getting at something a bit more specific than just “the story leaves something ambiguous” (also something different from “this isn’t even in the story so we can decide it ourselves”, which I’ve also been known to describe using the concept of negative space as a metaphor for...oops sorry!) That is, although it seems at first that some element is not clear or specified, upon a second look we find that the outlines which are around that white patch of canvas contain the shapes and clues that give you a pretty good idea of what is in it.

[cuddly-asexual]

Okay @buffintruder and @allpurposepanda convinced me to do this fic writer asks post, even though I didn't write too much this year. So here goes!

1.What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

I wasn’t consciously thinking about trying something new, but I did write a fic from the point of view of a child which was pretty fun. I think it turned out pretty well. I think most media tends to miss what kids are likely to notice and think about (at least based off the kids I work with), so I did try to make sure I included those things. For example a tall bookcase might seem towering to a small child, or how a relatively short amount of time can seem extremely long to them when they’re simply waiting. I would definitely do it again, it’s fun practice for getting into the minds of characters you like even when you never see what they were like as children.

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

I definitely didn’t finish much this year, but I chipped away at quite a few wips. I posted 3 fics. I have another unposted, but finished. I wrote a few paragraphs for one of my wildermyth characters. I rewrote a decent chunk of a school nurse files fic. Other than those it was mostly just a few words here and there on my various unfinished works. Surprisingly most of my creative energy this year went to drawing.

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

I don’t think I learned anything new about myself as a writer. I’ve known for sometime that writing is a bit spontaneous for me. I guess I’m coming to realize that I’m pretty good at writing dialogue, which is always nice.

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

Well if we were talking about drawing that would be one thing monkie kid, but for writing probably Wildermyth. Even though I didn’t finish any of the pieces I’m writing for it, the writing in the game itself was so lovely to read. It felt like someone was reading a storybook to me, kind of like a bedtime story, with a soft voice.

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

I wrote more original stuff this year, but I wrote for A3! and Kamen Rider OOO. School Nurse Files as well sorta.

6. What ship(s) captured your heart?

Haha the made up ship in my brain of one of my Wildermyth characters, Ystral, and the star in the Minuet event, good LORD they didn’t leave my brain for weeks. In-Pyo and Eun-Young from School Nurse Files also dominated my mind for a while there too. I rewatched the series again this year and man those two are so AAA. They were on my mind more last year, but since I posted a fic about them this year I’ll mention that Goda Eiji and Ankh make me go insane. Also I haven’t started any fics for them yet, but I had lots of ideas for Alear and Pandreo from fire emblem engage.

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Again, mostly oc’s. I worked a lot on one world in particular so my baby, Aurelius (full grown woman in her 50’s), took over my mind for a while there. I’m also constantly thinking about Juza and I had been missing him. I had lots of thoughts, for both writing and drawing, about Clayton and Al from The Deep.

8. Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?

Wildermyth was probably the only new one this year. The only new things I was into this year were channeled into drawing more than writing.

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

Ooh this is a tough one, but probably my Juban fic for Juza’s birthday. First, because I really wanted to write it for his birthday. Second, because I wanted to explore a specific aspect of his character, his thoughts on touch. Juza grew up pretending to be someone he wasn’t because of the way others treated him, but when he came to mankai he’s able to be more himself now that he’s surrounded by people that support him. One of these things being that he actually quite enjoys physical affection and it was nice to write about him rediscovering that part of himself.

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Working on my Wildermyth fic made me feel giddy like a school girl, you have no idea. My heart fucked SWELLED for these 2D bitches. And it’s not even done yet.

11. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

My OOO fic for sure. I had been sitting on the idea for a long time and I finally kicked my ass into gear to finish it and boy that was a fun writing session. I just really wanted to show how evil I was for that idea hehehe.

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

My School Nurse Files fic eludes me constantly. I definitely like parts of it, but I’ve rewritten the beginning at least 3 times, I just don’t like how any of them came out. I have yet to finish it, but I haven’t given up on it yet!

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

Probably my Juban fic. I’ve written Juza and Banri enough that they come to me pretty easily. As long as I have a concept ready I can write anything for those two.

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Just going with the finished ones of course. My shortest was the first part of Ocean Memory, my original work about some oc's, at 734 words and my longest was my OOO fic at 1431 words. Pretty standard for me I think, a little on the short side this year.

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

My OOO’s fic please, I had way too much fun writing it. I love when a loved one gets body snatched by something that pretends to still be that person.

16. What were you go-to writing songs?

I usually just play my big instrumental music playlist that has everything from video game music to movie soundtracks to experimental ambient electronica, but this year was probably a lot of the Grindstone soundtrack.

17. What were your go-to writing snacks?

Don’t have anything specific, but I usually always have a coke on hand.

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

THAT FUCKING OOO FIC. This title eluded me that’s why I just said fuck it and picked something stupid. “A Wish Is a Dream Your Heart Makes”??? bro WHAT.

19. Share your favorite opening line

Opening lines are not really my forte, I’m not really sure I have a favorite, but I like the imagery in my Wildermyth fic.

He sees stars behind his eyelids now. Countless, warm and flickering like soft flames.

20. Share your favorite ending line

That he was happy and healthy and loving life brought endless joy to her heart. Pallas was truly a precious child.

Technically there’s a line of dialogue after this, but anyway, I love writing Aurelius being happy about baby Pallas expressing his feelings.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

“Hey, Settsu. Do you wanna cuddle?” It’s an odd sentence, something he’s never asked someone before, but Banri’s name feels like it belongs there. He doesn't miss how the other perks up, then tries to disguise it as a stretch. Banri pulls out of his hold to face him. “Never thought I’d hear that from your mouth,” Banri smirks playfully. Juza lets out a chuckle.  “Never thought I’d hear it from my own mouth either,” his gaze finds Banri’s. “It feels…natural though. Saying it to you.” He can’t read Banri’s thoughts, but he sees the other make an expression that’s something between fondness and annoyance. “Ugh, you really just said that,” Banri falls onto his back, face in his hands, with a groan. Juza raises an eyebrow in response. “You gonna join me down here or am I supposed to cuddle myself?”

I really liked this exchange between Juza and Banri. The way Banri jokes to make everything a little less intense (also he’s absolutely flustered), and how Juza responds with genuine honesty. I think I captured the vibe I wanted super well.

22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

He sees stars behind his eyelids now. Countless, warm and flickering like soft flames. They bring him comfort. One of the many reminders of that night almost a year ago. Ystral's leg glows with a soft blue-white light. The tips of his fingers begin to show signs of it as well. A small smile finds its way to his mouth as he admires the way they sparkle. You wear it well. A familiar whisper circles around him. His smile fades. A pang of guilt makes him want to deny the statement, but the thoughts are gently guided away, replaced with wordless reassurances. The unpleasant thoughts could never win. Not when the very stars opposed them.

I had a lot of fun with this opening scene to my Wildermyth fic. Writing anything with stars gets my creative juices flowing and boom we get crazy poetic shit like this.

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

Gonna be real, I have no idea.

24. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

Every time I write Banri I somehow make him even more mushy and soft, so it’s a surprise every time.

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

Just Google Docs really.

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Finishing that OOO fic after watching it stare at me for like almost a year.

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

Not really. They were all pretty short, not super life-changing pieces.

28. How did you recharge between fics?

Play games, draw, rewatch stuff to get back in the mood.

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

My friends who listen to me rant about my crazy ideas all the time. Juza for being an unending font of inspiration.

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

SO MANY THINGS. My Wildermyth fic for sure. I have some ideas for The Deep that I also really wanna write. I really want to write something longer for once. I think my goal this year is to write a 5k word fic. I have so many ideas I’m sitting and still so many more wips to finish. Good luck to 2024!

[ladye-zelda]

I saw your tags from the post a while ago about how the small details in totk Make up for the main story, and while I agree, I gotta say that the things some people say about the story being bare bones or whatever (and BOTW’s story to that extent) just…doesn’t make sense to me. Because I think the problem is with the execution rather than the writing. Like, BOTW was even more bare bones,because it was just a bunch of exposition. Not to say the story wasn’t good because it absolutely is, but it was minimal, imo. Anyway I said all that to say that I personally do think that totk has the better story, but the execution is worse and I think the open world format hurts it. And I think if people could look past that they could see how good it is. But of course that’s all just me. Neither game’s story is particularly great but I love them both. Anyway I did not intend for this to get so long but what do you think about that? I’m just curious 🙂

Sorry this took me a while to respond anon, I was trying to think of a way to respond XD

Yeah, I can definitely agree that the open world aspect hurts the story of Tears. I was thinking about this earlier, and I think Breath of the Wild's story worked because it is so barebones. The developers were able to develop the story around the gameplay, which has always been Nintendo's adjective for both of these games (and probably all of their games, though I am not too much on an expert on that in all honesty) first and foremost. And it worked, for the most part.

I do believe there can be no "perfect" Zelda game, and especially not one that can appease all Zelda fans (even the games that everyone praises to be perfect has their haters, though I guess hate is too strong of a word). I think the main downfall of Tears of the Kingdom was that it couldn't live up to fan's expectations and wants for the Zelda franchise. Tears of the Kingdom was always meant to be BotW+, since the developers had so many ideas for Breath of the Wild they had to make a second game in order to fit all of those ideas, which led to them repeating the same gameplay mechanics as Breath of the Wild.

Don't get me wrong, TotK's gameplay is good since it what made Breath of the Wild good as well, but because it's exactly like Breath of the Wild is what made it sour in the minds of players. I guess for the players who played other kinds of games in between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom allowing them time to do something else, it isn't so bad. But for the players who play nothing but Zelda games or who were late into getting into the Zelda franchise (such as myself) it can be a little... repetitive (and I'm mainly talking about the quests, shrines, and the same mechanic of unlocking a terminal in a dungeon found in both botw and totk). Hence why I was so drawn all to the other world discoveries not unlocked by doing a side quest, which I think is the greatest improvement TotK brought imo.

In terms of TotK's story... I don't hate it exactly, but I will say I will prefer BotW's better. I still kind of need to analyze the story of TotK fully for myself to draw any real conclusions for me; my biggest problem is how it completely erases BotW's story from it's story. Sure, half a dozen years has passed in between games (both in-game and irl) but surely the impact of defeating the Calamity would've left something... bigger. Like, wouldn't word have gone around that Link was the one to have defeated the darkness looming the castle? They could've at least acknowledged him directly instead of pulling a Tony Hawk and saying "oh you have the same name as that guy who defeated that evil some time ago". I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but then again everyone knows Zelda and he has never her side so, ???. Sorry, didn't mean to rant there. It was kind of a frustration I felt along with many others while playing the game. Main story-wise I don't have any real issues other than you're seriously telling me that there was another ancient civilization before the previous civilization that had even more ancient technology? It kind of pushes my suspension of disbelief (and once again repeating things from BotW).

Anyways, thank you for sharing your opinion anon! Once again I am immensely sorry it took me this long to come to it; tldr in my opinion I prefer Breath of the Wild's story over TotK's. You do make a lot of good points that I agree with, but I think it boils down to personal preference over which game is better due to how similar the games are, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on opinion.

Thank you so much for reaching out and discussing this with me!