#beyond that i don't really have anything (i.e. a fic) to post about her

[violetsareblue-selfships]

good morning!! <3

[zukkaoru]

could you tell me more about why you dislike femskk?

okay disclaimer before i begin: this is not meant to be a dig on every person who enjoys femskk. the biggest reason i don't like it is honestly because it's just not my cup of tea and honestly it really makes no difference to me if other people like it. but beyond that my biggest issues with it are

1. the phenomenon of fans "yuri-ifying" the most popular m/m ship and then using that to prove they like female characters and f/f ships. this is not a bsd-exclusive thing; it happens with stsg too and i don't like femstsg for the same reason. but there's a big difference between actually liking female characters and just genderbending (or even making transfem) the big m/m ship. i literally went to the f/f category in bsd on ao3 the other day looking for fics and about half of them are skk fics instead of fics about like. the actual female characters in bsd. who i was looking for fics of. similarly, there have been some redraw trends going around twitter - specifically the i prefer girls cover redraw - and i have seen. i don't even know how many femskk redraws of that (along with a couple femfyolais and a femrimlaine) but only one redraw with actual female characters from bsd. same with the scene 14 redraw that was going around, and while that one wasn't originally two female characters, i have still seen significantly more femskk (and femsigzai, femsigchuu, femfyolai, etc) than i have ships with even one character who is female in the source material.

and imo this phenomenon is made even worse in the bsd fandom bc so many fans just see bsd as the skk show. so of course they're writing off the actual female characters; they literally don't care about anything besides skk. and obviously i can't do anything to force anyone to care about other characters but like.... bsd has so many other wonderful characters and dynamics (both romantic and platonic) that a good half of the fanbase won't even glance at because they're not skk. i do like skk, but bsd is about so much more than just them. they are, objectively, only one small part of it. like if you only care about skk, then just be outright about it and don't pretend you're "proving" you like female characters and sapphic ships bc you like femskk too

2. of the fans who only like skk and nothing else about bsd, most of them. don't even characterize dazai and chuuya correctly? i think the some of the best skk characterizations i've seen have been from people who actually like other characters and ships too, and some of the worst skk characterization i've seen has come from people who literally don't care about any other ships or characters. this isn't a hard and fast rule obviously but even with 30k skk fics on ao3, i have struggled to find ones that actually feel true to their characters. and the characterization seems to only get worse when it's femskk. if you're just going to turn femdazai and femchuuya into two completely different people, what's the point in it even being skk? why not write k.ousano or h.igugin or even a ship with one canonically female character? if you have to change the core characteristics of both dazai and chuuya... do you even really like them?

3. about femdazai: i actually don't mind the transfem dazai headcanon in general but most fans get her wrong. i made a post about it here but basically so many times i see femdazais that are just. completely unrecognizable as dazai. you can't strip away core aspects of dazai like idk the fact that dazai doesn't show any skin from neck to toe just because you made her a girl. i have seen some femdazai that's good! but i have seen so much that is just fundamentally wrong for dazai's character as a whole. mostly on twitter.

4. about femchuuya: i really truly just don't get femchuuya. i THINK the hype here is probably bc lesbians seem to get attached to chuuya (which. valid. i am also a lesbian chuuya fan.) and so they want to draw a chuuya they can be attracted to (i.e. femchuuya) which like. cool whatever i'm not here to judge. but looking at it from a "would this character actually identify as female" perspective, i don't actually think i can picture that for chuuya. maybe it's just because i so strongly hc them as nonbinary? idk. this one is honestly just a neutral "i don't see that but you do you"

tl;dr: from what i've seen, femskk is often mischaracterized, and genderbending the big m/m ships in a fandom is often a way fans "prove" they like the female characters and f/f ships while not actually caring about anything other than their main m/m ship

[genericpuff]

Did you hear about the "do not trace or use my work" update RS has on... I think her Twitter? @hestia-is-ace-pass-it-on knows more about this. I'm just wondering if this is going to affect Lore Rekindled at all since your series is an AU thing?? (I hope not cause I really like Lore Rekindled).

lmao yeah I heard about that, frankly I'm not worried, it's not going to affect Rekindled in the slightest as far as I'm concerned because even the panels that are sourced from S1 LO (like the Persephone looking up at Hades one, the Cerberus one, etc.) are still redrawn by my own hand from the bottom up, I don't directly trace them and I'm not copy + pasting them from LO and just calling it a day. Not to mention (and IDK if Rachel realizes this or not) those kinds of "please don't trace/use my art" warnings are more for people who trace/rip art and pass it off as their own, i.e. deliberate theft. Lore Rekindled is advertised as a fanfic/foe fic/AU project with proper credit given to Smythe and disclaimers that Lore Rekindled is not affiliated with Smythe beyond the original idea and art style that it's aiming to mimic - she can't copyright an art style, the Greek myth inspirations, or the brushes that are used, and there's nothing she can do about people making AU comics.

If she theoretically wanted to put her foot down on Rekindled, she'd have to go after the entirety of the fanfic/fanart community 😂 She has next to no ground to go after any derivative or fan projects inspired by her work, not unless they directly try to impersonate her and/or make a profit with the Lore Olympus name/branding/etc. (hence why there isn't a Patreon for Rekindled). Even the direct edit accounts themselves don't try to pass themselves off as LO or Smythe, they always show the original panel and make it clear in their bio descriptions that the accounts themselves are for LO which is easily sourced as not belonging to them.

One could argue that it's generally bad taste on the grounds of it being rude to edit other people's work, and yeah, that's valid. It casts the presumption that there's something "wrong" with how an artist wants to express themselves and that the edit makes it "better". But, for starters, we all know why these edits exist because LO has gone down in quality and people are having their own fun time trying to restore that original vibe in tribute to Rachel's original version of LO; second, it would be a lot more heinous IMO if LO were still some small series being made by a nobody, but ... it isn't, it's a massive commercial product within its industry and fanwork/foework is par for the course with commercial products; and third, there still isn't any sort of legal ground for Rachel to stand on because those accounts still aren't pretending to be her or her work, if anything they may as well be advertising it.

Plus, a lot of those edit accounts are more like redraw accounts, so many of them may as well be DTIYS prompts rather than direct edits (that's not a bad thing, just a statement of fact) save for a few accounts that deliberately try to mimic the old LO style as much as possible when editing new panels. Those kinds of stylized redraws are legit just fanart.

For many of these accounts, a lot of it's still work they're doing themselves and they're not trying to pass off their edits as legitimate LO products. No one's ripping these panels and re-posting them and going "look what I drew today!" (ex. Love's Divinity did this and a lot of people rightfully called the creator out on it, thankfully it seems like they've learned and moved on from copying directly from LO and other webtoons) they're going "hey, so this is what the webcomic looks like now, and here's what it looks like in my style" or "hey, this is what the webcomic looks like now, but here's what it would possibly look like if it still looked like S1 LO". None of it's meant to be maliciously stealing or impersonation, the pettiest it can get is just people saying "Rachel, your art sucks" which may as well be the only reason she edited that into her bio in the first place.

Like, if this IS aimed at the edit and redraw accounts, she's basically only upset about the panel edits that call out her obviously declining art IMO. Especially considering she's retweeted edit stuff before, many of them being from the anti/ULO community which I don't think she ever even realized ? 😂 But regardless, she shares edit panels a lot so it makes that bio notice come across less as "don't trace or use my work" and more as "don't do edits that make me look bad!!" when she's already doing plenty of work on her own end to make herself look bad 😂

In my personal opinion beyond the legalese... yeah, her work really does suck nowadays. I get how awful working for Webtoons is, I get that Rachel might not even be into drawing LO anymore, I can empathize with her maybe not being able to put in the same amount of emotional investment or time that she was able to put into it back in S1, but every single edit account is pretty sincere in doing it simply because they want to express how they wish it could look if it hadn't dropped in quality.

Phew, that was a lot of words for a very simple question, but rest assured, I'm not really worried it's going to affect Rekindled. 90% of the panels are completely original compositions save for the few panels that are referencing older moments in S1 LO that I brought back for Rekindled's plot, and even those panels are still redrawn from the ground up and given different outcomes (ex. Persephone punching Hades in the face lmao). Probably won't be doing much of that from here on out but more so just because the plot's going to be shifting even further from original S1 LO; but it's def better safe than sorry on my part to just make that 90% into a 100%, I suppose.

As a last point, I don't blame the edit accounts who ARE stepping away from editing panels out of respect. While it might not be a technically legal issue, I can still respect those who still want to respect Rachel's requests and do better as creatives and individuals. Just because something isn't against the law doesn't mean it isn't a cruddy thing to do, and I say that fully as someone who cut their teeth on edit content. We have tons of other ways of expressing ourselves creatively in this fandom than directly editing old panels.

The DTIYS stuff though, I don't think that should be off limits. It's fanart and that's completely fair game IMO especially for someone like Rachel who's creating a commercial piece of work. It comes with the territory. Welcome to being a pro.

[the-badger-mole]

What are your thoughts on Azula redemption. Like if it was done properly and she got all the help she needed. Because honestly it's hard to find good Azula redemption takes without them being stans or something

I've talked about this before (here for instance), but I don't really think Azula needs the kind of redemption people seem to want for her. I think a transformative arc would fit her better. Like, yeah, she changes, but she's not necessarily redeemed through it. First of all, I don't think she'd ever be completely sorry about what she did, and I think that's a baseline requirement for a redemption arc.

Second, in my opinion, too many of these "redemption" arcs for Azula focus on her reconciling with everyone, and I just don't think that's realistic. I see her reconciling with Zuko and maybe Iroh, but beyond that, I don't see Ty Lee coming back (I actually like to think that she found her happiness far, far away from Caldera and the messiness of court). I could see Azula not wanting Mai back. Zuko's friends don't owe Azula anything either, so it bothers me a bit when I see stories that start with Azula being best friends with everyone with no explanation or acknowledgement of how odd it is. Especially when the stories are within a year or two after the war ends. The problem here is focusing so much on the trauma Azula went through, there's no focus on the trauma she caused. And she caused a lot.

Like, A LOT.

She contributed to Zuko's years long abuse, she controls Ty Lee through intimidation and forces her into service, she pimps Mai out to get Zuko in line (although, it seemed like Mai was into it, so this might be iffy?). Then there's everything she did to the Gaang. All of this before you dig into what she was like before she joined the hunt for Aang. This is my own personal theory, and not one I necessarily expect to see in fics, but I'm 100% sure Azula did a lot of damage even before she left the Fire Nation. Intentionally or not (and tbh, it probably wasn't intentional), it's pretty heavily implied in the show that Azula has a body count off screen, and those bodies were friendly fire (i.e. Azula has killed and injured people from the Fire Nation). Beyond that, Azula seemed to enjoy what she did. I know she was victim of abuse, but she was also an abuser. Just like a bully being abused at home doesn't automatically absolve them of being a bully, Azula has a lot to answer for. None of the people she harmed are required to welcome her in with open arms.

How I would approach a transformative arc for Azula would be to tell the story over a span of years- well into her adulthood, and probably into middle age. The only one from the original show she would have a firm relationship with is Zuko, and mostly because he insists on seeing her every so often. Katara, who is obviously married to him, would tolerate Azula for Zuko's sake, but things would be cold between them, and Katara would understandably want to keep her children at a distance. Iroh would forgive her, but wouldn't be super inclined to force a connection between him and his niece. He would support Zuko's efforts, though. Azula wouldn't live in Caldera. If she doesn't end up imprisoned after the war, I think she would end up semi-exiled to one of the outer islands of the Fire Nation. There she would build a new life for herself, and rediscover her humanity. She might come to regret more of her actions, but I think ultimately she'd end up absolving herself and not really care about making amends to anyone outside of Zuko (and maybe Iroh. Maybe).

Personally, I'm not super interested in punishing Azula, but I want there to be heavy consequences for her actions. I want the validity of people not wanting her in their lives to be acknowledged. I want to see how she navigates her life post war after losing everyone and everything. I want to see her carving out a place for herself that doesn't have much, if anything, to do with her life in Caldera. If she can make amends to one or two people from her past, that's fine, but it needs to take into consideration that she hurt them, and not just be them accepting her back because she "wasn't herself", because she was herself when she hurt them. I want Azula's redemption arc to be messy and imperfect and incomplete.

Well, either that, or I want to see her go full power trip and try to take power from her brother in an epic and tragic final battle between the siblings, because who doesn't like Shakespearean drama with elemental magic, amirite?

[darkshrimpemotions]

@valleyg0th Like I said, answering this in a separate post because it's too long-winded for a reply and sort of off the topic of the original post. My comments and yours from that post above for reference.

Also, I'd like to preface this by saying that the ethical and moral considerations around RPS/RPF are massively nuanced and complicated, and something that I'm still working through myself. That being said, I do have some pretty hard and fast ideas about what ISN'T okay, which inform a lot of what I'm getting into below.

But first, I'd like to clarify my statement as it seems from your reply that it did not come across the way I intended. When I say "something Taylor has made it clear she doesn't want to be super public about" I'm not talking about her sexuality. I'm talking about her relationships in general.

She has made it very clear, repeatedly, over the years that she does not appreciate uninvited intrusions into her personal life. That's not really debatable at this point. She wants to be the one to choose what and when and how her personal life is shared with the world. If she has ever asked for anything, anything at all, it's that.

That's part one of why I find the constant spreading and debate and speculation over these still-unconfirmed break-up rumors so distasteful, particularly from people who claim to love Taylor.

Part two of why I find it so distasteful is the way so many people are celebrating this breakup rumor because it validates their theories about Taylor's sexuality, rejoicing that she's "gotten rid of her beard" and such. That's gross regardless of what you think her sexuality is. If people were on here going "oh yay she broke up with Joe this is how Haylor can still win" I would find that despicable, too.

I'm not particularly invested in any of Taylor's relationships beyond being happy that she's happy, but I do participate and get invested heavily in RPS/RPF in other fandoms, and the keys to respectful RPS/RPF are pretty clear, whether the ship in question is het or queer.

1. You do not demonize, villainize, or harass the real life significant others of the people your ship concerns. (It's also generally considered distasteful to float or perpetuate rumors or conspiracy theories about the relationship being fake or forced, but the bare minimum is you don't make whatever you think about the relationship that SO's problem.)

2. You do not involve or bother the children of the people your ship concerns in any way, ever.

3. You do not ever, ever, EVER put your shipping or associated material (i.e. fics, fanart, theorizing, tinhatting) where the real people it concerns are likely to see it.

And that third one is where Swifties, Gaylors in particular, are really fucking failing right now. Now, if a famous person goes onto AO3 and searches for their name, that's one thing. Or they come into any fandom space where they aren't a known presence and start poking around...they went looking for it. But bringing it up at live events or putting it on social media platforms that said celebrity openly frequents in a way they're likely to see it (i.e. by @ing them or putting it under their name's hashtag) is crossing a line.

And yet what is the Taylor Swift tag FULL OF, on tumblr where we all know Taylor has had an account for years and lurks occasionally? People calling Joe an ex-beard, celebrating the end of their relationship, and analyzing her every move and facial expression and song choice in the context of these unconfirmed break-up rumors.

This shit is gross, full stop. And on top of everything else, far too many of the fans in the Gaylor camp are quick to call anyone who has a problem with their behavior in this regard a homophobe, trivializing the very real dangers and struggles faced by queer people to win their stupid little fandom arguments. That's disgusting. It disgusts me as a queer person.

Part three of why I find all the breakup rumor speculation so distasteful is that once again, Taylor is doing the absolute most and completely killing it at her career, but many of her so-called fans only want to focus on her relationship status with some guy. It's all "she's doing so great on tour in spite of the Joe breakup!" or "she's doing so great on tour because of the Joe breakup!" How about we stop attributing anything in this woman's career to the men she's involved with? Are we capable of that? Have we fucking evolved past 2015 yet?

As for Taylor's habit of leaving clues in her albums, I find it wild that people assume because she has left fairly obvious little puzzles and easter eggs for us throughout her career ABOUT her career, i.e. background info about the music on an album or foreshadowing around what's coming next, that means that she's constantly sending us secret coded messages about her private life.

Like...capitalized letters in liner notes that spell out a detail about that song or album that you wouldn't otherwise know, or a numerical code on her instagram that reveals the vault tracks on her next TV re-recording, or even easter eggs in a music video related to very public knowledge that inspired the song and album...are all a pretty far cry from "Taylor has been sending secret, unconfirmed signals that only we can see for over a decade to tell us that she's actually queer and being forced to stay in the closet and have PR relationships with men she doesn't care about."

And finally, I actually don't have a problem with interpreting Ivy or any of Taylor's music as queer. Interpreting art is not the same thing as speculating on the artist's sexuality, and it sure as hell isn't the same thing as celebrating a breakup rumor because it validates that speculation. I myself interpret a LOT of Taylor's music as queer. But I also understand that how I interpret art is just as much about me as it is about the art.

Me finding something in Taylor's music that I resonate with as a queer person doesn't necessarily mean Taylor herself is queer. And even if she is, she hasn't chosen to share that with us, so it's simply none of my goddamn business. "A lot of Taylor Swift's music resonates with me and my queer experiences" and "Taylor Swift's sexuality is none of my business" are ideas that can and should coexist.

As are "I think she might be" and "but that's none of my business" for that matter! Hell, I can even admit that based on my own experiences of being closeted and coming out, I wouldn't be surprised at all if one day Taylor comes out as bi. But that doesn't mean she OWES me or anyone else that disclosure, or that it's okay to be on the internet endlessly speculating on unsubstantiated rumors concerning something we know she specifically likes to be private about in a place we KNOW she's likely to see it! Especially when that speculation gives way to actively celebrating the end of her relationship without knowing a) if it has actually ended, and b) how she feels about it if it has.

[bestworstcase]

So, I just read your giant 15k monster of a post on Penny. First, I want to say that I throughly enjoyed it.

Second, the detail you went into on “The breaking of Jaune’s Aura” got me wondering, what are your thoughts on Jaune, and what what could happen to him in the coming volumes?

*finger guns* thank

i will say the level of detail vis a vis things like the mechanics of jaune's aura and semblance etc is. less anything to do with Jaune Specifically and more just, i'm a writer and worldbuilding is my vice, i love picking apart magic systems in particular, aaand i'm knee deep in the rough draft of a very long for want of a nail rwby au fic so my brain is just, crammed to the gills with thoughts about this stuff in general and jaune happened to be the one with the most relevance to the subject at hand gjksdfh

tha-a-at said,

i really like him, and while his special-mediocre-everyman schtick in the first couple volumes is a little bit obnoxious the obnoxiousness is very much Worth It for 1. the fantastic character development he gets as he grows out of it and 2. the things rwby does to unpack the trope (i.e. the reason jaune gets shoved into this special/esteemed position as a beacon student and team leader despite being utterly ordinary and unprepared is he committed fraud to get there, and his cheating becomes a millstone around his neck and is something that still weighs on him long after he's risen to the expectations and responsibilities placed on his shoulders).

also i LOVE that the person who cheated his way into the prestigious hunter academy because he so desperately wanted to prove that he could be a hero took a hairpin turn and became the team support tank/healer who just quietly does what's needed when it's needed without thinking about his own ego. ✨growth✨

and im so glad they finally cut his hair

its in no way new or groundbreaking to say i expect there to be some tension between him and ruby in vol9 re: penny's death, but regardless i'm really looking forward to seeing how that unfolds. they're one of the few pairs of mains who hasn't had a serious disagreement yet and while i don't think jaune realistically could've done anything but what he did in 8.14 that doesn't mean jaune is going to feel the same way; guilt is going to tear him up inside and... god who even knows how ruby is going to react when she hears the news, given she just spent basically all of 8 riding on the knife's edge of a complete mental breakdown.

i'm also kind of wondering whether we'll see a return of jaune's passively-suicidal streak a la hurling himself at cinder during the battle for haven in order to draw her fire away from his friends. aaand i think it'll be pretty interesting to see how well he copes with not having ren and nora there to support him, because the three of them have stuck together so hard from day one and especially since they lost pyrrha.

beyond those emotional reactions to...everything in 8, it's hard to say where anything will go for rwby+j on void island or after they escape given the gigantic unknown quantity of what's up with void island so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the one thing i'm positive on is that the kids are not going to be alright any time soon

[etlunainmorte]

Devil May Cry playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons Headcanons

I'm back once more with another DMC playing ACNH headcanons based on my chat fic, 💙 Chat Buddies 💙!

This is, once again, dedicated to the one who started this trend of headcanons. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have thought of ever writing this. So, thank you so much to my friend, @beyond-the-mirror . And also, belated happy birthday, dearie! I hope you like this.💙💙💙

Also tagging the lovely @evilwvergil . I hope you like the little Vergil screenshots and I hope these make you smile. Also, @dreaming-gamer may find this funny and entertaining, hehe.💙💙💙

Part 2: Vergil

*How he found out about the game: Vergil could never understand kids these days. And his son, Nero, is not an exception. One day, just like Dante, he saw his son playing ACNH on his Switch, and at first he didn't mind it. But, then, when he got back home and saw (Y/N) playing the same game on her Switch and having so much fun with it, he came up with a small idea. Vergil is not very vocal about this but, he really wanted to be close to his son after being separated from him for so long. He wanted to understand him. He wanted to bond with him and be accepted as his family. And he is willing to play this foolish game with him so he could have a bridge towards Nero's heart. He'll do whatever it takes to win his son's heart and trust. He told (Y/N) about his little plan, and she agreed to help him.

*How he got the game: Acquiring money for a new gaming console is not a hard task for Vergil. After a few Devil Hunting commissions, he and (Y/N) were able to buy a Switch for Vergil, and the first game he installed? ACNH, of course ( although that sounds hilarious coming from the man of motivation, himself ). (Y/N) helped him plant fruit trees and flowers by visiting his humble island he simply named, Infinity ( based on one of William Blake's poems ).

*He never time travelled ( insert coughing Dante noises here ) despite knowing it would make things easier for him, and strived with hours and hours of gameplay, in between his Devil Hunting missions, to reach the glorious 5 - star rating. And, as expected of the eldest son of Sparda, he was able to reach it ( insert crying Dante noises here ).

*The reason for all that hard work? He wanted his island to be perfect and in top shape when he finally ask his son to visit. And he didn't disappoint. At first, Nero found it strange for Vergil to be indulging in such an activity but, then, he realized the ulterior motive of this. Like his father, Nero wasn't very vocal about his affections but, he truly appreciated the gesture and effort that Vergil has done. He felt so happy to bond with his father in his own little way. And so, father and son have found another way to spend time together, even if they're miles apart most of the time. They joined Bug Offs and Fishing Tourneys together, shared furniture and diys, Nero even helped Vergil set his own secret place in the island just to surprise (Y/N). (Y/N) appreciated the little gesture and found it cute and endearing, although the very obvious engagement ring that Vergil placed on the setup went way past her head, much to his and Nero's confusion of her utter denseness.

*Now, when it comes to Bug Offs and Fishing Tourneys, Vergil is very, very competitive. He worked and concentrated so hard to earn points just to get those three trophies. And his Happy Home Academy rating is no exception. He likes to flaunt all his trophies and event achievements. He even placed them in the library he spent so many days to set up to let others know that the eldest son of Sparda could never be defeated, even in a game such as ACNH. Not that Dante could best him at this, not at all ( for the record, Dante did quite good during the Bug Off and the Fishing Tourney. He was just too lazy to accumulate those points and only redeemed whatever prize he could get. Not to mention he's having a hard time getting his HHA points past the 100k mark, so, no. Dante is no match for Vergil this time ).

*Vergil is also very organized. His house is the epitome of perfection. His island is so neat and tidy and well - coordinated, using rustic items and little to no custom pathing. He also loves terraforming. There is something in terraforming that makes Vergil very excited. The thought of shaping his own island all by himself gets him going every time, and seeing his work at the end of the day gives him a feeling of satisfaction and achievement. This is good, yes, but barely anyone could disturb him when he's in what Nero calls his, God State.

*Vergil considers it as an act of benevolence when, one day, out of the blue, he insisted on visiting Dante's island and simply dropped, without a word, a complete set of furniture for his brother's pizzeria, all wrapped nicely. This included stalls with custom pizza signs ( because he knew Dante is too lazy to do one ), a neon sign post ( because he knew Dante loves these so much ), a set of diner chairs and tables, some condiments, a menu chalkboard, a hand mixer, an ice shaver ( for the strawberry sundae ), a soft serve lamp, and a hearth for the pizza. When Dante bugged Vergil and asked him why, he simply answered, "For you, scum", to which, Dante replied with, "Aww, Love ya, bro! Ur the best<3<3<3". Vergil didn't say anything else and just left.

*Vergil has no favorite villager. In fact, he can't seem to remember their names and only refer to them as, "Chicken", "Wolf", "Rat", or "Cub". He does seem to remember the name of only one villager, and that is Kyle ( only because Dante begged Vergil again and again to let go of Kyle because he's his dreamie. Vergil, of course, refused, and only said, "If you want it, then you'll have to take it." Pff,... ). Vergil doesn't even call the npcs by their real names! I.e.: Tom Nook = The Capitalist Raccoon, Isabelle = The Dog With The Missing Sock, Timmy = The Small Raccoon, Tommy = The Other Small Racoon, Mabel = Female Sonic ( don't ask ), Sable = Snob Hedgehog, Label = Fashionable Hedgehog, Blathers = Griffon, Celeste = Griffon's Sister, Flick = The Goth Chameleon, CJ = Justin Beaver ( again, don't ask ), Saharah = The Camel, Lief = The Land Hippie, Pascal = The Sea Hippie, Harvey = The Loner Hippie, Gulliver / Gullivarrr = Another Griffon, and Kicks = The Skunk.

*Vergil considers his Sushi Bar as the second best attraction of his island ( the first one being his secret date spot with (Y/N) ). Other than that, he has a café, an outdoor library, and some places that are still works in progress ( he's diligently waiting for all the latest updates like Nero ).

***

Part 3: Nero and Kyrie coming soon!

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💙💙💙

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[notesofarichlycolorednight]

Hi,pal! I'm loving "It's the perfect story"! However, the subject I'm talking about doesn't directly to the fic. By what I know, people don't hate Silena because she was the spy,it's more like they think her being seduced/manipulated into doing it is detracting to her character. Many posts say that's very insulting to teen girls, or her cause should be something like "her cabin was being disrespected"(out of character IMO, but I'll talk about it later)...

Continuation. Or “the demigods were being mistreated by the gods”(not a bad one,but Silena didn’t really feel the worst of the gods IMO. Not like Luke, Chris or Tori in the fic). People are entitled to their opinions, but I disagree. About the “disrespected cabin stuff”,Silena is defensive in a blunt, straightforward way when it happens. Examples: how she wanted to fight the Huntresses when they said love was worthless;or when people were surprised by her magic knowledge,and she looked offended.

Cont. Besides, those behaviors show that Silena can be quite passionate and proud, what probably made her vulnerable to manipulation(her romantic nature didn’t help). Besides, Silena herself thought she was saving lives. I believe Luke’s words would sound truer to her if she cared about him than from a dispassionate perspective. Besides, if Luke managed to lure Percy to near death with a friendly smile and soda,despite Percy’s instincts saying no,I believe he could do it to Silena…

Cont. By what I read, your only issue was the age. However, I think that was something like “death of the author” in canon,as she didn’t get one. In fact, I rather like the idea of Silena being an older camper,including than Charles(if 18 years old girls date boys in their 20’s…),both in canon and in your fic. In your fic,it could make her Tori ’ s peer. In canon,it’d fit the whole “role model” stuff we had going on HoO.

what’s up dude! thanks, i’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it!

that’s how i interpreted it when i read the books (or how i remember interpreting it, at least, i haven’t read the series in a while) like, being the spy meant she was a traitor, which is also a comment abt her character (i.e., may she’s not the greatest person–for the lack of a better word–bc she was a traitor). when clarisses declares she’s a hero, i assumed it was supposed to be juxtaposed to her being a traitor. which is a roundabout way to say that the ultimate end is the same, whereas the perspective is different? but i can see where others are coming from–that the campers would be more mad bc of the fact that she was easily manipulated by luke, rather than her being the spy

i guess i can see where ppl are coming from regarding it being an insult to teen girls (i’d really like to see those posts tho, bc i actually haven’t seen anyone talk abt that–i somehow manage to avoid discourse like we’re two opposing magnets, my d-list x-men power), bc it plays off the stereotype that teen girls are so boy crazy, they’re easily manipulated by any good-looking guy that smiles in their direction. it doesn’t help that she’s a child of aphrodite. and what i mean by that is, i think, ppl often water down what aphrodite is the goddess of. when ppl say, “she’s the goddess of love and beauty” ppl often think she’s the goddess of, “being vain and romantic/sexual love” (not true btw, fite me, i will gladly jump into that discourse)

but anyway, back to my main point, i can see how it may play off a teen girl stereotype (rick is good at doing that sometimes, which isn’t entirely his fault, bc like i said abt toxic masculinity, it’s so ingrained in our society, it’s hard to unlearn and we often fall into those stereotypes if we’re not fully aware of them and consciously thinking about them), but i also don’t entirely agree with that argument, either

now i could be wrong, esp since i haven’t read any of this discourse, so i haven’t read ppl’s reasoning or arguments, but it sounds very surface-level White Feminism™ and what i mean by that is that there are more grey areas to this argument, okay, so put away your pitchforks and put out your torches and, i mean, also that this argument is coming from ppl who want to seem like they’re woke, but then turn around and continue to do or say things that are insidiously bigoted

like i said, i can see how it plays into a stereotype, but if we’re going by rick’s canon (which we totally don’t have to, but for this argument’s sake we are) she’s young and impressionable, luke is handsome and charming–if another young person were in her position, we’d probably see the same thing. young ppl are easy to manipulate, they just are. they’re still learning abt the world, and how it works, and that maybe not everyone has good intentions. not to mention they’re still trying to find themselves, and they look to peers, mentors, and ppl who are respected (for whatever reason) for cues to how they should act and think. it’s like trying on clothes or taste-testing foods–they’re trying out opinions. if they don’t like the “taste” of an opinion, then they learn, grow, and change. some ppl instantly connect with an opinion (which could be bigoted or not) and not explore further, or could be sheltered and just not have the opportunity to experience anything else.

the opinion here: the gods are bad. the person she’s looking to for guidance: luke. plain and simple

and, as you say anon, percy even fell for luke’s charms (despite the warning signs!! and percy is most def Not Straight, so luke was also using that fact against percy as well, whether rick luke knew it or not). so, ya know, there ya go

now, i think rick chose a child of aphrodite, and a girl, bc he thought he was turning a trope on its head–you’d never expect (from the stereotype of what aphrodite stands for) silena to be a spy, to work for kronos of all ppl titans. do you see what i mean? i think he was going for an elle woods effect–except in the polar opposite direction. the ends is the same, where this girl who is often underestimated (like elle) turns out to do something no one expected of her (in silena’s case, being the spy, which takes a lot of guts, nerve, and smarts–the opposite of what ppl expect from aphrodite, based on a reductive stereotype)

and that’s where the real issue lies, not that she was a teen girl, but rather some of the decisions the author made under wrong assumptions

i agree that the alternatives aren’t as sincere or make as much sense. silena didn’t experience a whole lot of strife regarding her mom or the gods in general, so she’d have no reason to hate them as luke does–she’d have no reason to be the spy for luke if he were to simply use that argument to get her to kronos’s side. and maybe she would’ve joined kronos under “her cabin was being disrespected,” however, it was’t being disrespected by the gods themselves, right? not like the minor gods, not like nemesis or hecate. the disrespect comes more from the ppl around her–the ppl who assume the wrong things abt aphrodite when they hear the words “love” and “beauty.” so that alternative reason doesn’t hold a lot of water if you really think abt it

i also agree with you: that her passion and pride made her more easily manipulated, and also that luke’s words would mean more coming from a more passionate and personal perspective. luke fed her lines that played into her character (like how kronos fed luke lines that played into his hatred for the gods). if she felt passionate abt helping save ppl (and it’s coming from someone she likes, someone she looks up to), then she’d  be the spy for sure. if she had a crush on luke, more for him to use against her, right? that’s just how it goes sometimes, ya know? her crush are her rose-colored glasses, add that on top of “you’d be saving lives” and, well, luke’s got her wrapped around kronos’s finger

yeah, the age thing is a big sticking point for me, just bc based on the timeline of things, she’s several years younger than luke (which make his kiss, in my story, really gross). if beckendorf was going to college during tlo, he was probably at the least 18, and silena was probably around the same age. by this time, luke is 23, so that means that she’s abt 5 years younger? is five years a huge deal between older ppl (like mid- to late-twenties and beyond)? not at all. but with younger ppl (teens and early twenties), it’s a HUGE gap in age, and a HUGE deal.

but like you say, i think rick is hitting that point of “death of the author” (esp with more recent events…btw, jason is totally alive and well, and if you think or try to tell me differently, then you can meet me in a denny’s parking lot at 3am), so we can totes not follow canon and age both silena and beckendorf up. not to mention, there’s no specific age that ppl go to college (just in general most ppl starting college are from 17-20) so it’s completely fine for beckendorf to be going to college at 22, 23. and a 2 yr age difference (regarding beckendorf at 20, dating silena at 18) is totes better than a 5 yr difference for sure

i really like tori and silena being peers, and i if i had been more comfortable breaking canon (and knew what i know now, then), it would’ve been fun to write (but eeeyyy, it’s fun to think abt, so there may be headcanons in your future regarding this). finally, you’re right, i think it would make “silena as a role model” so much more powerful if she had been/was older in canon

thanks for sending these in! i had a lot of fun talking and thinking abt all the points you brought up/made, and i hope to continue this discussion, if you want!