#brilliant concept op

[kaurwreck]

oh, i figured out aya's skill.

[missmonstermel]

Hand sculpted in @monsterclayusa , cast in urethane , painted with acrylic, felt feathers with glow in the dark eyes on the fabric strips.

Vision is through the reflective visor eyes. This finished version of my Gryphon mask has been themed with a tribute to the @compulsiongames South Of Midnight concept artwork by @rael.lyra ( @dariendhester made this brilliant suggestion 😄) The reveal for this character in the story was such a surprise and delight for me! What a game! This original piece will be available this Friday at 2pm PST at the sh op link in my profile.

[billowingangel]

I really really really love Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Ojisan/From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated. I am a sucker for all things villainess but this is just the cherry on top! I love the twists its done to the villainess and isekai genre.

I LOVE that he’s not dead and in a coma, he’s still connected to his first/original life. I like that he mentions and thinks of his first life. That there’s a chance he can go back to living his life as Kenzaburo Tondabayashi.

So often it feels like they just kill off the person and have them completely move on detached from the life and experience they lived as an excuse to make them op. Sometimes I wonder why not just have them be born in the fantasy world and just make them op?

I LOVE that it shows the perspective of his family! And that they can see what he’s doing AND CAN HELP HIM! I love that! I think that's such a unique and brilliant concept for this genre!

Usually with villainess manga the one reincarnated is a business woman/salary woman in her 20s or 30s so the fact he’s a middle age man is a fun twist. He acts like it too.

Also the elegance cheat is absolute gold!!

I really love this manga and the anime is doing a fantastic job recreating it! I was so excited for this week’s episode and I can barely contain myself for next week’s!

I hope to buy this manga soon (hopefully for my bday). I can easily say its one of my top favorite manga! I'm gonna reread the chapters available to tide me over until next week.

Also the opening and outro are peak

[bubblewhale]

I'm just now finding out that people did not like my villain academia arc.

I truly watched bnha for the LOV (besides bkdk).

The main cast is nice and all but if i put on my critical lenses i honestly don't see the hero society as a viable option. Economically and structurally i just don't get it - it's a cult that creates celebrities/heroes who are obviously used as both propaganda and tools of war, under the guise of fighting crime. At this point, heroes serve as either military special op forces or double-agents, or even as nuke level power holders. Either way, they are totally dehumanised soldiers. On the other end, the hero cult itself triggers people becoming villains. It does so by blaming individuals for becoming villains, even when it's obvious that they are direct results of wider structural societal problems. It's shown many times how hate can manifest in families as perfectionism, abuse, obsession, suppression, phobia (Shoto, Dabi, Shigaraki, Toga), poverty and human trafficking (Hawks) and xenophobia and racial (?) discrimination with mutants (Spiner).

The only moment i was hopeful they're gonna address the structural problems was the liberation army attack on the hospital in the war arc. But what was crazy to me is that the hero society held a war prisoner in the basement of a public hospital - using a civilian shield tactic, which is considered a war crime. Spiner's character arc is also extremely sad and unhelpful. Even the school itself becomes a military stronghold.

For the question of family dynamics we get Endeavor atonement arc. But we also get a scene which implies that he sa'd his wife (as if the fact that she was sold to him wasn't enough). The one scene that wasn't believable to me at all was Rei coming to visit Endeavor in the hospital. God bless Shoto, that kid is so strong, understanding perfectly Endeavor is to blame for all that. But it shows that in case of powerful men, sa and child abuse are not treated as crimes, as they should be.

Hawks is another great example of literally being sold and used, similar to Lady Nagant - and nothing is gained from their arcs in the sense of revealing the hidden corruption. Both of them side with the "hero" side in the end, the side that made them do their dirty work for them. He even becomes a murderer because of this but still manages to keep in the public’s good graces by acting as if killing is something he had to do for the greater good, same reason he sided with Endeavor.

Toga is a brilliant representation of discrimination towards a sexual minority but then she dies to save a hero she loves. It's tragic, honestly.

Deku is the only one trying to do something and helping (Shoto, Bakugo, All Might and Shigaraki are some examples) people change their mind and views on heroism/what it means to live righteously. I haven't read the manga so i don't yet understand what Deku losing his quirk could mean but honestly this AFO-OFA tug of war is the most boring part to me.

The show still mostly puts everything down to individual level and blames the villain or makes it somehow personal responsibility of heroes to deal with it.

Thus the league of villains becomes the focal point of the show - their double bind with AFO on one end and heroes on the other.

It just bugs me that the whole show could be read as cop/military propaganda and that our protagonists are basically glorified cops. This is why vigilante Deku arc was so exciting, finally! And this is why the whole concept of the show would be very different if it was made from LOV's pov from the start.

As it is, there's lots of bright and shiny feathers but not much substance in the show. The biggest stars of the show are personal tragedies, sometimes out-shining the main plot and gloriously failing to tie into the bigger picture.

[velvetwyrme]

i beg (bug) of thee . .. more borrower au pleaze.

now you might be wanting more of the existing dynamic/s ive mentioned but @dubia-015 asked me about the other character concepts i hd in mind yesterday and then i sat down and went AHHHHHH into the void and it rewarded me with even more thoughts

yapping under the cut

please consider Ratchet thinking that the tiny person he helped out when he was still in medical school was a fever dream (too much coffee, not enough sleep). Only to get blindsided when a different tiny person shows up one day, loud and obnoxious but clearly worried about his friend who is injured, begging for Ratchet's help. And well, Ratchet doesn't know what to with the fact that Drift is REAL, but he DOES know what to do if someones bleeding out.

Or the flipside of that, Drift returning to his old house that he nearly died in, and finding out that the tiny man who helped him during that time is REAL and not a drug induced hallucination. If you want to get extra tasty with it, Drift almost stabs Ratchet, the blade THUNKING down in front of the borrower as Drift glares down at him. He wasn't even been looking, he just knew Ratchet was there. But as soon as Drift sees him his eyes widen and soften, as recognition finds him and he whispers... "Ratch?"

(I imagine he IMMEDIATELY panics and pulls the blade out because OH GOD HE NEARLY KILLED RATCHET) and can you tell i really want to draw this but also i really dont want to draw People.

And some other concepts!!

Borrower Brainstorm trying to one up human Perceptor while also trying to not be caught. He wants to be NOTICED and RECOGNIZED but he's meant to keep hidden but Perceptor is so brilliant he NEEDS to prove himself.

Human Whirl and his two tiny partners who he tries to scare off,,, or alternatively, Tailgate and Cyclonus and the borrower that they're luring into their home like a stray cat.

Borrower Skids pining fruitlessly over human Nautica!! Roommateless Swerve having a little borrower buddy in his walls who listens to him ramble. I can't decide who but my silly rarepair brain immediately went ULTRA MAGNUS because i have a soft spot for Swagnus hdjdhdjfbjd

And of course you can't forget tired veteran OP who has been passing messages with a mysterious stranger in the library who writes the most beautiful poetry and has a fresh new perspective on life, albeit one that is jaded, hardened by a life of being underfoot, downtrodden and struggling to survive day to do,,,,, like. Ghhhrghg.

im gonna fucking explode so you also get more thoughts abt the various versions ft the Constructicons, J/P and SW

Also if you go borrower!Soundwave and Prowl (Human Constructicons+Jazz) then you get the two of them working together somewhat begrudgingly at first- they have a working respect for each other that gives way to mutual appreciation for each other's logical prowess and intelligence, things that are required when trying to navigate a house filled w/ 5 rowdy guys. In that same version you have Rumble, Frenzy and their like. 8 dads. Since they're human, it's easier for the other humans to wrangle them but Soundwave and Prowl are the real powerhouses there who keep everyone in line.

In the one where the Constructicons are menacing J/P, they all slowly befriend Jazz first, who stays well out of the way of Prowl's investigations- he could tell him, but... this is the most fun he's seen Prowl have in a long time and it looks good on him. Also getting doted on by the pack of borrowers is a nice perk.

i literally cannot create fast enough to keep up w this. Also logically if I did anything I'd. probably cut down the amt of characters so I don't have to deak w/ as many interconnecting pieces but IN MY HEART OF HEARTS THIS IS THE DREAM

[mariacallous]

There’s always something going on with men. They can’t make friends; they’re very lonely; they’re “losing” to women; they listen to Andrew Tate. And, we are told, they do not read. Over the past few years, multiple articles have observed the so-called decline of the male reader, whose tastes once made best sellers of swaggering authors including Philip Roth, John Updike, and David Foster Wallace, and whose disappearance from the contemporary literary scene is troubling. “If you care about the health of our society—especially in the age of Donald Trump and the distorted conceptions of masculinity he helps to foster—the decline and fall of literary men should worry you,” David J. Morris wrote in The New York Times.

The argument that society’s problems can be traced to the fading prominence of Infinite Jest on dorm-room bookcases feels like a stretch; so does the underlying evidence. The source of such laments seems to be a widely circulated (but poorly sourced) factoid showing that men account for only 20 percent of the North American fiction market—an alarming number that invites all sorts of unchecked speculation. (For example: Does this mean that men who do read mostly stick to nonfiction—history books, self-help guides, manuals on improving one’s business? Is the modern male reader statistically likely to be a walking LinkedIn post?)

The 80/20 split is probably overblown, as Vox’s Constance Grady found in a recent investigation of the oft-cited statistic. But there is some proof that women consume fiction at a higher rate than men. (Grady cites a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts survey finding that 50 percent of American women had read a novel or short story in the past year, compared with 33 percent of men—still a divide, though not as extreme.) All sorts of explanations for this have been floated: Publishing is overwhelmingly staffed by women, who might be more likely to acquire and market books that appeal to women; the attention economy has drawn men to other forms of entertainment, such as podcasts and video games; nobodyreads much right now—the median American consumes just five books a year—and men are just canaries in this coal mine.

The last point, in particular, prompts fiction defenders to explain why this is a bad thing. Arguments about why one should read tend to emphasize some positive outcome, as though a book is a public good and you are its beneficiary. “Reading fiction is also an excellent way to improve one’s emotional I.Q.,” Morris noted in his Times op-ed, implying that reading will change men for the better. Perhaps they could appear more sexually desirable to certain prospective romantic partners (according to the filmmaker John Waters), or consider spiritual mysteries that can’t be neatly captured by numbers and facts alone, or strengthen their empathy muscles and become less polarized citizens.

But as someone who belongs strongly in that fifth (or perhaps much more) of the male population that reads fiction, I can say that I’m usually not thinking about what I stand to learn. Rather, I’m aware of what is happening to me right now—and that affirmative thrill is the reason I can’t seem to stop accumulating new books to read, even though I could use the space in my apartment for something else.

The concept of reading as an empathy machine—to borrow a phrase that originated with the late movie critic Roger Ebert—is appealingly idealistic. Stories that burrow into characters’ trains of thought can capture true interiority in a way that film or nonfiction cannot. For a similar reason, personal essays are more likely to go viral than an academic paper about the same subject, because reality is more engaging as a described experience than as a series of logically arranged details. When I read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, I tunnel through space and time into 1950s working-class Naples. When I read Don DeLillo’s Libra, I can feel the particulars of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life. I believe this makes me more empathetic, and I enjoy believing that it does; it’s flattering to think I am becoming a better person by reading a book, even if it’s obviously not always true (I know some veteran readers who are truly awful people).

But empathy is a bit too touchy-feely as a consistent motivation—at least for me. Sometimes I’m in a standoffish mood and don’t particularly want to feel; men don’t have a monopoly on misanthropy, but I’d argue that we’re the more churlish gender—and the one more expected, and therefore allowed, to shake a stick and bark “Stay away from me.” So many books (thrillers about burly ex-military cops, literary novels with creepy narrators) are more interesting precisely because their protagonists are nearly impossible to identify with. For example, the Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor’s novel Paradais is partly about a teenage gardener in a gated community who befriends an off-putting loner with a monstrous plan to sexually assault his wealthy neighbor—gripping characters, but not exactly sympathetic ones.

Instead, it’s how Melchor tells her story—in a dense, logorrheic style that piles on sensory details and intrusive thoughts—that makes Paradais so effective. In one representative passage, Polo, the gardener, attempts to blend in at a children’s birthday party as his attention wanders from the women in attendance (“their hair straight and inert, as neat and lifeless as wigs”) to their bland husbands (“just as ridiculous in their pink polos and pastel shirts”) and unruly offspring (who “screeched and launched themselves at the juddering bouncy castle like raving lunatics”). As Polo thinks and thinks and thinks, Melchor refuses to separate his observations with periods; the misanthropic remarks accumulate at the speed of thought, communicating the depth of his distaste with dizzying urgency. The intensity of this style feels more compelling than it would if Melchor had written, “He looked around and realized he hated these rich people.”

I do not need to feel the exact feelings of a doltish, unfulfilled Mexican teenager who will eventually play a role in a heinous crime. But I can recognize the singularity of his experience, and the specific way in which Melchor renders this experience. I am not attempting to understand Polo, but I am following along at the pace of his perception, and my awareness of how Melchor has manipulated reality into something feverish and all-consuming makes me think of moments when I’ve also experienced events at the same pitch. This is not empathy, per se, but an escape from my own consciousness and surroundings—something I need, from time to time.

Conversations by men about men are self-selecting by nature; surely millions of men live their life every day without caring about what other people are saying about them. But a real demographic of men is besieged, every day, by a corner of the media universe—the so-called manosphere—that dictates where they should be spending their attention. You have possibly encountered a video of one of these manosphere men, sitting in front of a microphone, stridently theorizing about how a dude should be. Men should strive to stand out, they often say. They should broadcast their opinions, judge other people, stand up for their gender—as though investing a single man with enough authority could fix everything.

Many of these outspoken personalities advocate for men to throw off society’s flattening influence, but they tend to make starkly similar points in starkly similar ways. Beyond the intellectual reservations they raise, I find them deeply boring. Contrary to their rebellious posturing, there is nothing more conformist than adhering to a stranger’s standards of how you should behave.

Literature, meanwhile, allows me to occupy a place that is totally for myself, and unaccountable to other people’s expectations. The author Percival Everett is fond of noting that he considers reading to be a subversive act. “No one can control what minds do when reading; it is entirely private,” he once said. This, to me, is the best argument for why a man should read, and why he should seek new mental frontiers beyond the accumulation of information. Reality is linear, but reading skips backwards and forward, allowing me to consider the world from a removed vantage point. Instead of feeling squeezed by my earthly existence and my own bodily limits, I leap into other minds and perspectives—not just those of men, but also those of women and nonhumans—and consider those expectations. I am reminded that everyone is unexceptional and everyone is exceptional. Facts can sometimes tell us this about humanity, but fiction does this best of all.

It is seductive, too, to keep things to yourself. To incubate your own thoughts and ideas without having to express and justify them in real time as you might when talking with other people. Too much isolation can lead someone askew—ask the Unabomber—but this kind of solitary contemplation offers a retreat from social pressures. I have often felt powerless, or lonely; these are, in the end, just conditions of being alive. (They are certainly not gendered or tied to any particular demographic trend.) But fiction can remind you that you exist along a continuum of human experiences, and that your own everyday ennui is less of a dead end and more of a data point. Yes, men could use more empathy; they would also benefit from a heightened sense of perspective.

Too often, “man time” is described as putting on a football game or picking up a fishing rod—retreating into some kind of brainless entertainment that is occasionally punctuated by moments of joy. Freedom can certainly be found in the physical world; Everett is also an avid fisherman. But if you can’t go outside at the moment, or if you can’t stand staring at another screen? Well, pick up a novel. It may shock you, the worlds you end up exploring—and the feelings you will stir up from nothing at all. You will find it easier to walk through life, ready for what comes next.

[fictionalcreator]

okay saw ur tags (brilliant btw <3) tell me more about tcf and where i should read it? 👀

YES, GLADY

Okay okay, so, first things first, you can find it over at the good folks of EatApplePies, who also host The Third Wheel Strikes back if you want yet another surprising deeply developed fantasy novel with a self-sacrificing protagonist in a multiple transmigrator scenario, only this one has a gentler protagonist (who can’t stop getting targeted for assassination) and also comes with thinly-veiled canon gay marriage. Huzzah!

Not that tcf isn’t ripe with shipping potential, but as of chapter 400 no one has proposed that protag marry the Crown Prince, which is a thing that does happen around chapter 200 or so of TWSB! What can I say? Stepmom goes hard to bat for her kid.

Anyway I’ve gotten off track.

Honestly, if you’ve read ORV and/or S Classes That I’ve Raised then you’ll enjoy going in mostly blind.

I know that I was initially turned off my first attempt at reading because I couldn’t quite get into Cale as a protagonist and felt that his team was getting too powerful too easily. The first arc or so can feel like things are simply happening too smoothly? And Cale adapting to his new role so quickly doesn’t help. But I can assure you all that does not last lmao

Cale slowly reveals his layers as a person (sometimes very slowly)(but the things he reveals. Oh man. I am chewing on him. Shaking him like a ragdoll. “Emotional alienation” is a fucking UNDERSTATEMENT jfc), and before you get disappointed at how easily the team acquires op abilities, ask yourself: “what could they possibly be facing in the future that requires they have all of this strength?”

As for the actual elevator pitch…uh, i’ll put it under this cut, this is already kinda long lmao

So, imagine, you’re Kim Rok Soo. You’re taking your first day off in, what, 10, maybe 15 years? (First day off from what? Don’t worry about it)

You decide to spend that time binge-reading a novel an old co-worker recommended. You get to volume 5 before you pass out, but when you wake up, you find that you are now in possession of the body of Cale Hentinuse, eldest son of Count Deruth Hentinuse, and minor villain of that novel, who insulted the protagonist, got beaten up for it, and wasn’t really seen nor heard from again.

Cale Hentinuse is generally known as the trash of the count’s family (hence the title). He spends his time drinking and getting into fights. He hasn’t been the family representative to the capital in years. But Kim Rok Soo takes only one lesson away from the label of “trash:” trash is someone who does whatever they want.

And if what he wants is to avoid getting beaten up by the protagonist, transmigrator Choi Han, instead dragging him home to get fed and washed up like a dog, then so be it. Hope this doesn’t inspire a life-or-death loyalty that will prove completely unshakable! ‘Cause Cale is totally thinking of sending the protagonist on his way so that he can hang back and live the slacker’s life in the background. Yeah that’ll totally work out no problem guaranteed 👍

So what if he acts a bit willfully here in there? Doing things like saving the young dragon and helping a man fated to die dodge that fate? He’s still going to take those powers he read about for himself. He needs those to be strong enough to live in a land where turning over a stone can reveal a dozen deadly hidden experts. And doing something so self-interested…that’s enough to make him the bad guy here, right?

Right. That’s how these things work (don’t question his logic or why he thinks of the concept of selfishness in such terms shhhh)

But even if it’s selfish, it’s not like he’s gonna stop. After all, they have a war to prepare for. One that will rock the whole Roan Kingdom. Possibly the whole continent. Cale needs every chip he can get in the game if he wants to keep his home safe.

After all, how can you lead the proper slacker life if you’re worried about global political instability dragging your friends (and family!) into conflict?

PS Children aren’t meant to fight wars. The weak should be protected. Just because it’s unpleasant doesn’t mean it will not be done.

PPS if you want to see me yell about this book in real time i’ve been tagging my posts abt it with “tcf novel” and “fict’s ramblings” but of course spoilers up to chapter 400/776 for the most recent posts

[theroundbartable]

Concept:

BBC Merlin, everything's the same, except Merlin has a gun.

[yourstrulylightstar283]

Letting It Out (My Wander Over Yonder AU One Shot)

The following one contain subject matters, discretion is advised.

If you and/or your loved ones are struggling, I'm here for you all and you're not alone.

For disclaimer, I don't own Wander Over Yonder and its characters.

Letting It Out (A Wander Over Yonder AU One Shot), its concept and Wander's parents (My OCs, mentioned only) (c) @yourstrulylightstar283 (Me)

P.S. I originally considered to do Big City Greens fanfic 'Road to Healing' but I decided to write Wander Over Yonder AU fanfic 'Letting It Out' instead. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

P.S. #2 - @auradaparanormal, thank you for your help and support & I appreciate it.

P.S. #3 - In this AU, Wander is not an immortal and Star Nomads are not immortal either. He is 28 years old in this. When Wander was a child, he was a good-natured, friendly, helpful, outgoing, energetic and optimistic boy (Though he was at times, overly-optimistic and naive.) who lived with his parents and nana(grandmother) peacefully and happily, traveling with them along with his fellow Star Nomads across the galaxy and helping others with them. But at the age of 9, his life was broken when nearly all of Star Nomads including his nana and parents were killed by Lord Dominator, making him the last of his kind(He managed to escape, thanks to his family's sacrifice - After Wander's parents were killed, his nana managed to shoot and fatally injure Lord Dominator and with her dying last breath, Lord Dominator killed Wander's nana.). The trauma of those terrifying, depressing, horrible events made Wander guilt-ridden, grieving, somber and quiet, though he still remains kind-hearted, friendly, good-natured and helpful. He also has been fighting to survive, help, protect and take care of others including his best friend Sylvia(They met when Wander helped Sylvia with rescuing the little kids safely from their kidnappers when he was 19 and they've been traveling together as best friends to each other and taking care of each other since.). Wander tends to bottle up his emotions until he's ready to break. Also, Sylvia is more kinder, calmer, patient and mellow in this AU, though she still has a fiesty side.

Summary: Wander (Who is physically (But mended physically, though still covered in bruises and cuts) and emotionally hurt) finally lets his emotions out and Sylvia comforts him.

Wander was covered in some bandages because Sylvia had to take care of his wounds after a rough fight, though his face and body were still covered in bruises and cuts.

The next dawn, when Sylvia woke up from sleep, she quickly saw and noticed that Wander was sitting quietly with staring up at the starry night sky to try to distract himself from his trauma desperately. So Sylvia's deep violet-blue eyes were filled with compassionate empathy for him and she told him with a gentle tone, "Wander, I'm here if you wanna talk, but if you just want to keep stargazing and not talk about it, we can do that too."

Wander turned around to look at Sylvia with his brilliant azure eyes filled with tears. He managed to say with a silent but tearful, shaky tone. "W-When I was 9, my nana and parents died saving me from Lord Dominator when she killed almost all of my kind... Lord Dominator died too... I'm the last of my kind. I-I miss my kind including my family and... and... it's my fault that they're gone for good..."

"I understand that's difficult and I appreciate your openess, Wander. It's not your fault and your kind including your family wouldn't want you to be harsh on yourself. It's okay to let your emotions out. I'm here for you and you're not alone," said Sylvia with her voice full of empathy and compassion.

Finally, Wander let himself to break and he sobbed with tears dripping down his cheeks freely as Sylvia gently embraced him.

The End.

[aventurineswife]

I have an intriguing concept for a reader. A reader who is so normal that it’s op. If they say, point something out that doesn’t work the way Vaseline reality works, the thing they are talking about either just dies, ceases to be or “corrects” itself. Reader, realizing this doesn’t talk much, or at all really since they quite like the whimsical nature of the universe, (and saying something like “that’s not how space travel works” and ruining every supply line is also kinda bad.)

But hey, works wonderfully as an anti-everything defense! I can also see everyone either wanting this reader badly, or attempting to kill them. Perhaps the Luofu wants them to take a look at Mara and have them go “…this makes absolutely no sense.” And boom. Mara gone. Or perhaps Acheron wants them to finally end IX in a “Nothingness doesn’t exist” and IX truly ceases to be.

Though I can see a lot more people trying to kill them than use them. The potential is incredibly high. I can see the Genius Society in particular not liking them since it would be kinda funny if nothing they came up with actually made any amount of sense. Or perhaps they even become dumbed down since “it’s not even possible to be that smart” or something, and instead of dying they just become normal.

Though I know for a fact the Aeons would probably loathe them. That fact that any of them at any moment could just die or dissapear? Big no no. Readers mere existence is just one big ol middle finger to them. A mere mortal can decide whether they or their followers live or die, simply by going “Huh…don’t think reality works like that…”

This concept is honestly brilliant. The reader’s power is the epitome of understated absolute authority—so ordinary that it disrupts every rule of existence. I love the idea that they’re so aware of the whimsy of the universe that they just don’t engage with it much, like, “Why bother when everything works in such weird ways anyway?”

I can definitely see the Aeons absolutely hating them. Their whole existence is built on control and the notion that they’re beyond the comprehension of mortals. But a reader who could obliterate them with a simple observation? That’s terrifying. Like, even their divine systems could collapse in a second, just by the reader noticing the cracks in the fabric of reality.

And as for the Genius Society? They’d be scrambling to figure out why none of their perfect theories or inventions hold up against this one person. They’d probably even try to “fix” the reader by forcing them into some kind of loop, only to discover their own reality warping to accommodate whatever absurdity the reader’s power demands.

I think it would also make for some really intense, philosophical moments. Like the reader walking into a high-stakes negotiation or situation where others think they have all the power—only for the reader to casually comment, "That doesn't seem like a valid strategy." And the entire situation falls apart. It’s almost like the reader could embody the notion that power is only as real as its limits—and they hold the power to define those limits.

[fanaticsnail]

The three One Piece OCs that started out as SW ones are Nora, Cassandra and Rhann.

Nora and Cassandra went through some change, most notably that I switched their powers and changed Nora's name. She used to be Antoniya, was as Slav-coded as it gets (Nora still has some of those features), and was a Jedi during the Clone Wars, Padawan of Obi-Wan and part of a force dyad with Anakin (we love overpowered Mary Sues in this house because in the end I kill them all anyway) with abilities inspired by old Slavic myths, especially the one about the Polidnitsa (the Midday demon, or the Noonwrath, a corpse-like woman that appears in the cropfields at noon during harvest when the weather is the hottest. Technically she is a personification of the sun stroke, but there is also a positive side of the story – if the Polidnitsa encounters a girl sleeping in the fields she challenges her to a dance and if the girl outdances the demon, the Polidnitsa gifts her a rich dowry.) Those powers in the end went to Cassandra and they kinda lost their connection to the myth, and instead of being born with them she received them as the result of an experiment gone wrong (Casanji failed experiment duo 🤧🤧). Since the Polidnitsa is associated with harvest, her weapon is a sickle which was transferred to Antoniya and later Nora and stayed there.

Cassandra Vau is practically copy-pasted from one universe to the other. She is my SW Republic Commando OC, younger sister of Walon Vau (I didn't even change her last name 😭), and the island she is from in the One Piece world is heavily inspired by the lands Walon Vau comes from. I literally plucked the dysfunctional, power-hungry counts of Gisl and plopped them in the One Piece world. They are big fans of the Celestial Dragons. Or of the oppressive government of their own planet. It's the same, really. Cassandra originally had premonition abilities through dreams and her powers were very DC Sandman-inspired (dream control, dream induction, partial reality manipulation), but in the end in the OP universe I gave those to Nora. Except for the premonitions because can you imagine a character named Cassandra that is not a prophet? Yeah.

Rhann is my dear Tomislav reimagined. Tommy is the son of a corrupted Senator who is stuck between wanting to make his father proud and his need to do the right thing. Rhann is secretly a Revolutionary agent in the Marines, while Tomislav becomes close to Palpatine while working to help the clones and the Jedi win the war and looking for a way to expose the Chancellor for what he is. Rhann is perhaps the one most different from his prototype, because Rhann is bold, straightforward, a little aggressive, a brilliant orator; while Tomislav is much more shy and reserved. In a way Rhann is everything Tomislav wants to be.

Thank you SO MUCH for enabling my rants 😭😭. I'm so happy you enjoy my chaotic thoughts that are barely making sense 💚💚💚

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

I love Nora, Cassandra, and Rhann! Nora in a force dyad with Anakin? HELL YES. I LOVE IT! No, but I legit love overpowered OCs. I think they're great, especially if all of the plots are thought out and planned really well. It all comes down to how they're presented, and I think she's great!

And you've got a commando OC too? And a senator son? AAAAAAAAAAAA. I love this. I am also digging the premonition dreaming. That was one of my favourite parts of Star Wars: the dreams becoming reality. And the ghosts. And the concept of the battle between light and dark. I adore it.

Thank you for sharing them with me. With the three you brought over to OP, do you have a canon ship for any of them? Cassanji does sound like such a vibe 👀

[petruchio]

I'm not really good with explaining myself (also English isn't my first language) but I saw someone else's post about it this week and their take when they first read the book was that Peeta used the "star crossed lovers" purely as a strategy in the beginning (the op of that post recognizes that they were wrong in that regard but it's such a good post! I could link it for you if you're interested?)

Anyways, they made the point that it started feeling real in the cave when Katniss is trying to get them food and she goes and says that Haymitch didn't want her to talk about certain topics. And then they kiss and Katniss feels something stirring inside

And I thought it was such!! An interesting view!!

Because like the op of that post and you just said: it would make sense for Peeta to feel a little betrayed at the end of the first book. Because even though it started as a strategy on his/their part, he fell and thought she was falling, too.

Which makes sense if we look at Katniss wording on that scene and the general opinion that she can't act out of the two of them. Of course he would think she was falling, after all he did.

I don’t know if I'm making any sense

I'll try to find the post I'm referencing tho!! They were way better at explaining than I could ever be lol

posting your follow up too!!

Found the post, if you're interested! https://www.tumblr.com/devildogdemon/750318145002192896/bracing-myself-for-committing-potential-everlark?source=share

yes i'm inclined to agree that it's the post-feast kiss!! i think it's the feast scene too -- @mollywog left an AWESOME reblog on my original post with some highlights for that exact same scene pointing to it as the moment when things become "real" for peeta. and i think, no matter how much we think peeta's crush is real or played up or whatever else, i agree that scene is significant as the moment where it becomes "real" for peeta. because she's willing to do something irrational for his sake.

and it's interesting too that that's ALSO the scene where it becomes "real" for katniss!! "it's him" she says -- she doesn't want to lose HIM. and then of course that famous "stirring" kiss

and interestingly we can also draw a connection to their beach kiss in catching fire -- another moment where the "reality" of losing peeta hits katniss in full force and she realizes she can't really deal with that. "i do, i need you" is kind of the grown up version of that "it's him" line -- they're both moments when she recognizes for herself that she isn't just doing this to survive, or because he happens to be there with her, but because she genuinely cares about HIM, as a PERSON, as an INDIVIDUAL.

@mollywog also pointed out that one of peeta's biggest pet peeves (seems like a weak word to describe it but go with it) is being called stupid or having it be implied that he doesn't "get" something. and yes it's a brilliant connection that it is the one line we get from his mother: where she calls him stupid. and whenever he gets mad at katniss and/or haymitch in the books, it's usually for implying that he's dumb or for keeping secrets from him. like when katniss says he doesn't "get" the concept of owing someone something and he's like um wtf. (that scene always makes me laugh bc she's like no peeta you don't get it, i owe you for saving my life, and he's like ok right... so the thing that you... also just did for me. but back to the topic at hand) and that moment at the end of the first book ties both those things together: not only does she imply that he misread her actions as genuine when she was faking them, she also says that haymitch kept the danger of their situation a secret from him -- and i think that hurts him too!

so i guess the answer is kind of what i was pointing to in my original post. that is, like, peeta is right! katniss IS genuinely falling for him, and he, correctly, picks up on that! it's not peeta's misreading of the situation, it's katniss' defense mechanisms that are the root of the issue. peeta knew when things became real; he's hurt that katniss is still denying it.

i guess it's just interesting because i feel like on a first read, it seems like peeta is just sad that katniss was faking their romance the whole time. but the more you dive into it, i think what he's actually sad about is that he thinks he misread the moment when things changed for her as just being part of the act. but the beauty of that is that like, he didn't! he was actually totally correct.

and katniss knows it too -- she talks about that kiss regularly. it also kind of ties into that quote from catching fire where she's talking about the fake pregnancy and she says "it could be true" but her logic isn't like "if this wasn't fake," her logic is "if i hadn't spent years building up my walls." so she kind of admits it as well -- that it's more so that SHE'S too scared to let it be real, and that SHE'S the one deluding herself -- not him! (i wonder on what level he recognizes that too! like, i definitely think he's hurt by her implication that he misread their whole dynamic. but i also wonder if there's a side of him that's also hurt that she won't let go of her defense mechanisms for his sake. because a part of him must still be thinking there's no way i misread ALL of that. why won't she just admit it too?)

ugh. so interesting to think about. he's so complex! it's easy to reduce peeta to just like -- king of my heart best boy ever the blueprint book boyfriend -- but he's actually a really interesting and nuanced character and his traits all make sense when you put them together in context of his background and his relationships. so good!!

[sundae-meringue]

Sundae's SOTD #2 | Waltz in E-Major, Op. 15 "Moon Waltz" by Cojum Dip

Waltz in E-Major by Cojum Dip was released in 2014 on their self-titled album. Cojum Dip was started in Michigan by Bora Karaca. He is most well known for being the honorary sixth member of Tally Hall. Cojum Dip's music and lyrics greatly resemble that of Tally Hall and Miracle Musical, with its whimsical lyrics and genre-bending style. 

The music altenates between powerful electric guitar during the chorus, and a waltzy jazz band for the verses and bridge. The guitar backing the chorus sounds like math rock, a genre that is defined by strange time signatures and complex rhythms.

The lyrics to the song border on nonsensical, telling of a dance on the moon. It's one of those songs that I feel is best to enjoy based on vibes and not by overanalyzing the lyrics. Cojum Dip is part band, part avant garde performance troupe, and it's lyrics reflect this, focusing on abstract concepts and stories rather than the personal lives of the artists.

All in all this is one of the most brilliant songs I've ever heard. I need to go listen to the full album right this minute. +

//this is a personal writing exercise and not meant to be a legit music review. Pls lmk if any info is incorrect//

[overleftdown]

i dont wanna make your post too long by rbing back and forth, but that tiktok sent me into the stratosphere too like if it wasnt felix himself who swept the entire discussion under the rug 😭 you know the quote thats like "hell is full of other people"? my personal hell is filled with those who refuse to recognize felix's flaws and insist hes an angel good guy who's done nothing wrong EVER lmao. im not an expert on farleigh but calling him a villain is insane especially in context of his relationship with felix and ollie respectively

i will talk about this always and forever. and this fandom makes it easy to. every time i say my piece and post it, i'm dragged back to the same discussion over and over cuz people are just... so wrong. i'm pretentious and my ego is a flaming torch. HAHAH.

the tiktok you're referencing (for context; tiktok OP was saying that the "race/class discussion" of saltburn was... bad?? i don't even know. they implied that it was bad because it wasn't overt) is so insane and i'm just gunna go on a brief rampage about why.

this concept that white people have, that discussions of race and racism need to be dramatic, and they need to blow up in your face... it pisses me off. it's living proof that people making this commentary how no idea how racism has evolved and changed into what it is now. saltburn and farleigh, in my opinion, is such a perfect race commentary. because it's not overt. archie once said that his otherness was just present in the room. archie as an actor and farleigh as a character; their otherness was THERE. if anything, i would've made the same inferences if farleigh and felix never had the on-screen conversation (although that conversation is a great foundational piece of evidence). i would see the ways in which farleigh has to compensate, mirror, mask, hide, exceed, etc. the viewers woud've noticed, almost like second nature, that farleigh is black in a white-dominated upper-class environment. whether they choose to recognize that, whether they choose to understand what that means... well, you can already see how that's turning out. race commentary doesn't always have to be dramatic and loud, because modern racism is often so quiet. this is amplified in a family dynamic. the racism in my family is despicably, horrifyingly quiet to everyone but me. it's loud as fuck to me. i'm sure it's loud to farleigh.

it's this sort of idea that real racism is overt, that it can only be validated and discussed through boldness and rudeness. when, in fact, modern racism lingers in the air. to quote the historian thomas holt, “What enables racism to reproduce itself after the historical conditions that initially gave it life have disappeared?” saltburn and the cattons is a brilliant representation of this. the viewer is (or should be) fully aware that aristocratic english wealth has been built by the suffering of others. there was a period in time when english wealth was feeding off of enslavement. but overt racism is no longer normative, it's no longer acceptable. the historical conditions of anti-blackness (slavery, legalized racism and segregation) have disappeared, so how does anti-blackness reproduce itself? the answer is, you can see it within the movie.

[average-mako-enjoyer]

9, 10, 12 for the choose violence asks 🤔

from the choose violence ask game

9. worst part of canon Rant mode activated, oh my god. Collectors. It's collectors. ME1 introduced us to one of the best antagonists in sci-fi history, both story-wise and design-wise. The reapers are a Lu Cixin, a Peter Watts level of awesomeness. A race of ancient sapien machines, the galactic apex predators, driven by reasons you can't possibly comprehend. And they have this vast, vast history going back 50 million years or more. And you can do so much with that, you can make them feel like a real, tangible threat, or you can make them more sympathetic. But what did the ME writers do with this idea instead? They introduced second-tier antagonists who for some reason are very obsessed with our main hero, have no personality whatsoever, have no connection to the established lore, and, oh my God, the whole "Assuming direct control" thing is embarrassing and lame. The idea of the Reapers creating genetic databases of every species in the current cycle is brilliant, but the execution is terribly uninspired. Collectors feel like a concept hastily scribbled on a whiteboard by an intern in the very early stages of this game's development, something that should have been completely changed later into something with actual meaning, but somehow no one bothered to do that. 10. worst part of fanon 1. Definitely the sPacE rAcisT thing. 2. Complete blorbofication of characters who don't deserve to be blorbofied. 3. Turning the Normandy team into one big nuclear family with daddy, mommy, meemaw and kids. And oh god, "No Shepard without Vakarian" did some damage to people's ability to reason, I'm afraid.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them TIM Jack Harper is a top tier villain. He has such an interesting backstory and personality and dynamic with Shepard.

Also, the fact that Cerberus was an Alliance black ops group deserves its own place in fandom discourse, and people should talk more about TIM instead of writing him off as "Mass Effect Elon Musk".

[misswoozi]

High chatty sub vernon getting his mouth fucked by jeonghan is exactly what i meant. BUT THERES MORE. Vernon has a slight oral fixation so he happily gets his mouth fucked by Jeonghan. (this next part im not sure if you're okay with it feel free to ignore) Since I also see Jeonghan as someone who loves being in control, he definitely keep smoking while Vernon goes down on him to pretend he's not affected. Which plays into vernon's slight degradation kink -🎀

WOOOOAH, OP, AS ALWAYS, YOUR BRAIN IS GINMORMOUS.

I love love love this concept. Who do I have to bribe (and I will bribe someone) to get a full one-shot of this concept??? What do I need to do??? GENUINELY ASKING BC I NEED MORE, BOW ANON. THIS IS BRILLIANT, THIS IS SO THEM, THIS IS SO 4/20, THIS IS SO PERFECT