#but it's gonna be similar thru any specific

[lakesbian]

💝 for Rachel (for the ask meme)

💝 A headcanon about their love language

yeah these are def just shaping up to be analysis of canon vs. headcanons for most of 'em because we already have interesting canon answers for a lot of these questions but that's ok because that's fun too. this is gonna be a bit messy bc i'm real tired but anyway:

the long and short of it is that she's a dog. she loves like a dog. and i love how that behavior interacts w/ the specific way taylor is fucked up. it is So meaningful and compelling. taylor is for the most part absolutely incapable of admitting or even noticing when something has hurt her, let alone reaching out for support. she's very similar to brian in the sense that people verbally acknowledging that she's upset (generally synonymous with 'weak' in her mind) is intolerable to her, because ignoring and repressing that emotion is critical to her ability to force herself to stay standing & push herself thru the agony to achieve what she wants to achieve. there's this moment during the echidna fight where she sees wards verbally checking in w/ each other and she thinks that she's glad that her team would never ask if she's okay because she wouldn't be able to stop from breaking down if they did.

and the thing abt rachel's love language is that she's Direct About Everything All Of The Time Forever because she doesn't know how not to be. but it's not in a "asking if someone is okay" way, because even that is a level of indirectness, of giving someone the option to say "yes" and reject comfort! she instead directly notices when taylor isn't okay, and moves straight to offering comfort without forcing taylor to experience the weakness of admitting that she needs it. she's not great with words--she frequently feels frustrated by not knowing how to communicate what she wants to communicate--so instead she shows love through simple, blatant acts of physical affection, devotion, and trust. she's the equivalent of a big ole dog that just silently huffs and climbs into your lap when you're sad, and you can't do a damn thing about it because you're getting cuddled now and that's just how it is. she doesn't force taylor to acknowledge the situation to her, she simply notices when taylor needs a hand to hold and very firmly grabs taylor's hand. she's silently, unobtrusively understanding. she sees things as they are, and responds not with social niceties, but with firm and direct kindness. if you start crying while she's sitting next to you, she won't make a big deal out of it, she'll just keep sitting next to you. and that's exactly what taylor needs--affection and comfort sans expectations for her to have any sort of coherent explanation or conduct.

the devotion & trust is also Sooo. auugh. ough. when taylor turns herself into the PRT and she's unquestionably faithful that taylor has a plan, regards everyone else like they're idiots for having even the slightest sliver of doubt in her. during gold morning, when she willingly steps into taylor's field of control, saying that taylor is smart & to let her do what she needs to do. there's this moment during the behemoth fight that i think a lot about where rachel says "you have a plan" in response to taylor, y'know, having a plan, and taylor sort of confusedly reads it as smug & then satisfied without really grasping why. and the reason why is that rachel has put up with so much social bullshit she doesn't understand--the way the undersiders interact w/ her, coil, the prt--and taylor, without fail, has made things make sense. she's the only undersider to successfully speak to rachel on terms she fully understands, the one to kill coil, the one who soundly trounces the heroes every time. whenever things are confusing or scary or nonsensical, taylor, smart and strong taylor, fixes them with her plans. the earth is cracking and coming apart around them, because There's A Fucking Kaiju, but it's okay, because taylor is there, and rachel knows taylor will always make sure things turn out alright. genuinely doglike levels of unquestionable devotion, where there are ways she understands taylor more intimately than anyone else on the planet, and there are ways she can never understand taylor, but she still unquestionably trusts her enough to place her life in her hands. taylor even remarks that rachel trusts her too much when she steps into her radius during gold morning--and the reason that rachel trusts her too much is because she trusts like a dog trusts their person. i've seen ppl say that taylor is rachel's dog, but no, rachel is 100% taylor's dog. she loves that girl like a dog would. it rocks. autism forever.

[dirtbagcore]

HELLO im thinking about your saiki k / spyxfamily au...... im so fascinated by this family dynamic. does kuriko still have all her powers, or just telepathy? in your comic it looks like she still does the telepathic communication which i LOVE. pairs well with anyas constant yapping...... also, if kuriko does have all her powers, how powerful is she? id imagine she'd be about at the level of 16-year-old saiki with limiters, since in the time travel episode he was a bit older and a bit stronger (but he also didnt have glasses so i guess he didnt have the power to turn people to stone yet? i wonder if there are other powers he unlocks later. its probably in the manga but im only halfway through 😭). man, just imagine the shenanigans those kids would get up to..... even just putting kuriko in anyas place would be hilarious, but then also throwing anya AND kuusuke into the mix???? these kids are gonna accidentally destroy the world lmfao

but im also fascinated by the dynamic of. anya and kuriko being siblings and knowing about each others powers, but no one else knows about them (except probably kuusuke?). cause like. kusuo originally can use his powers at home, so now he can use them less freely, but anya originally had NO ONE who knew about them and now she has 2 siblings who do, so she can use them more freely. which would probably result in an even more reserved kuriko and an even more outgoing anya. plus kuusukes inferiority complex would be doubled..... loid has no idea what he just got himself into lmao. just absolutely insane family dynamics all around im obsessed

ANYWAY sorry for yapping in your inbox but i would love to hear any other thoughts you have about this au..... if you wanna share.....

^((TLDR; [in my S×F / Saiki K crossover AU where kuriko & anya are twins] what are kurikos powers? what's the new family dynamic?))

HIII! ( ≧∀≦)ノ THANKS 4 THE ASK!!! v happy to answer, i was thinking kuriko would:

1. still have all her powers, and

2. they would be weaker than in canon since she got her limiters early⬇️

this obv includes the fact that she can remember all her time as an infant, so thinking of that (considering the vague experiments anya went thru in canon) i deffo think ur right about her being even more reserved ( ´,_ゝ`) </3 tho tbf anya being kuriko's voice and seeming (from an outside perspective) to always just KNOW what she wants, no matter how specific, sounds really freaking cute ( T∀T)

i imagine her other powers coming up in little scenes (+ prob main plot stuff but im not writing allat for a thought experiment lol)⬇️⬇️

overall, i think the family dynamic would be like this⬇️⬇️⬇️

kusuke wouldnt be threatened by anya cause all she can do is read minds, shes no genius on top of that. his relationship with kuriko tho, i feel like would be similar to how it was in canon, except that since kuriko is more fragile here, id imagine that she'd be less willing to indulge kusuke's games- leading him to harbour more genuine resentment, in turn leading her to kinda fear him. it'd make their dynamic more angsty than the og, but tbh i feel that that lends well to the new setting/kusukes new role.

i dont think kuriko would mind loid or yor, but since she can remember their bio parents (kuniharu & kurumi) better than anya, i dont think she'd be able to accept them as her parents right away, especially yor.

the only other thing i wanted to mention was:

how did kusuke get into eden without parents, you ask? (you didnt but--) YOU ASK?? well obvi its cause he's a super genius and probably achieved something so crazy that the schoolboard REALLY wanted him as an alum, so he completely skipped over the regular admission process. he would live in the dorms and probably avoided talking abt his parents entirely (cause who would share their personal trauma with ants??), leaving a very convenient spot for loid to slip into lol

anyway! thats basically it!! thanks again for the ask, hope at least some ppl appreciate our wall of text!! (me n you are like this 🤞 btw. YAPPING 🔛🔝🔥) ☆(゜∇^d)!!

[sergeifyodorov]

please disregard if this isn't for you, and my apologies if that's the case, but if not. hello! i would like your opinion on what would be in the leafs' (or other hockey players if you wish!) scent profiles in the omegaverse

first couple lines of that scared me WHEW ok ok. im not like. an a/b/o Guy as in. like. it's not entirely my thing but ive been known to dabble occasionally if the going's good. that to say i'm taking "scent profile" to mean like. a) what "designation" they have (a/b/o) and b) what like their Smells are. if that's not the commonly accepted meaning of the terms that's ok but it Is the question i am answering

am34: to me in my beautiful world am34 is an omega BUT not in a standard way... he's transgender but re: a/b/o designation not gender. like a/b/o is essentially just a second sex class (there exist in the a/b/o universe 6 "sexes" (not accounting for intersex people in the normal way/intersex people in the a/b/o way): alpha male, alpha female, beta male, beta female, omega male, omega female) and auston is transitioning/has transitioned from alpha to omega. in my mind this works basically the exact same way transitioning does irl, but with different hormones, because obviously a/b/o hormones are diff from m/f hormones!) anyway he would smell similar but different pre- and post-transition: sharp, hot and chemical, like jet fuel and citric acid. eating grapefruit at the airport. it gets sweeter as his transition goes on. lemon slushy by a construction site. they're putting tar on the sidewalk.

mitch marner: mitchy's alpha thru and thru... the leafs uncles do Nawt enjoy this because why isn't he using his ALPHA VIBES to intimidate the other goaltender into sucking... ah well. anywhay... mitch smells animal. sticking your face into a cat. wet dog. wool. locker room, but how you imagine the locker room in gay porn fantasy smells. a little bit of light petrichor when things are getting Really weird.

william nilliam: ALSO alpha. when the leafs drafted am34 ppl were suddenly Weird about this realization there were 3 alphas on the team... were they gonna fight? for a while there was really only the one alpha (phil kessel) and now all of a sudden the big three prospects were all alphas. there was concern! they should trade the little swedish brat! and then auston transitioned and the core was balanced (2 alphas, 2 omegas, and morgan <3) and everyone was like. ok. okay. mitchy and willy (and auston pretransition) were all fun and cool with it they WERE. it's harder now that am34's an omega and they have to regularly resist challenging each other over him but it's all fun and good! they're friends! anyways william nilliam smells like open sky. the wind off the water. wild grasses and night air. ozone.

john tavares: jt has been bonded to his alpha wife since his isles days and understandably as a result he smells Super bonded, but also like leather and rubber and polyester. blue jeans. ironic for mr kombucha man but what can you do

matthew knies: OMEGA !!! two arizona omegas wrow! sidenote for the readers in this a/b/o world a's and o's aren't like. A huge section of the population but they also don't entirely tend to get filtered out of or into the nhl... alphas exist in the nhl at similar or higher rates to the genpop, and omegas at similar or slightly lower rates. if alphas and omegas are each 10-15% of the population (combined 20-30%) that means that there's usually ~4-6 alphas + omegas combined on any given nhl team, give or take a few because percentages don't usually work that way. leafs have 5 alphas (mitch, willy, max, benny, dewar) and 3 omegas (am34, jt, kniesy). kniesy is one of those handful of people who is randomly like super educated about a/b/o biology etc etc. like dude paid attention in sex ed class??? i guess??? he smells a little bit like cheap tequila and a Lot bit like breakfast food, scrambled eggs and that very specific diner toast smell and those maple breakfast sausages. don't forget your orange juice!!

max domi: max is an alpha, like his father. and he smells alpha like his father, salted caramel and bitter coffee and sour apple.

connor dewar: pine tar and unscented soap and smoke and a bloody steak. a lot of people don't always clock him as alpha because he doesn't have the often like. strong or dominant scents of a typical alpha, but he's just a Nervous Guy. get the right omega around him and you WILL be able to tell he's an alpha lol

simon benoit: also coffee like max, but much less of a cheap cup made by someone trying to stay awake and much more of a seven-dollar latte made by someone with a nose ring. a bowl of ramen noodles with the highest spice level they'd let you pick. spring onion. farmer's market in a big city with food you've never seen before.

[ruegarding]

hi its tumblr user aroaceleovaldez (sideblog so cant send an ask from it) just wanted to say. love the tags you left on my post. thank you for the statistics about adhd/dyslexia mentions in HoO because i was also curious about that and complain about it frequently and. holy fuck! holy fuck. i am enthusiastically shaking your hand while also staring at HoO in horror. I've been meaning to go comb through TOA with a similar goal cause i know the lack of disability in that is Even Worse but seeing the actual stats from HoO now makes me afraid. also 100% agree about the rest of the tags. anyways always lovely to see your commentary in my notifs thank u for your excellent takes as per usual. i am gonna go stare at a wall for a bit or something now while i think about those stats.

hi! thank you!!!

the statistics for hoo shocked me to my core honestly i'll have to clean up the post (edit: here) (there's a lot of me going WTF which is why it's still in my drafts lol) bc i have a lot to say abt it.

i was so flabbergasted by the dyslexia specifically that i legitimately control f'ed "read" and "write" to see if there were any hidden (but still obvious) references to dyslexia in the series and. nope! the only bright spot there was jason needing glasses.

godspeed if u ever go thru toa. i remember i did a quick sweep thru (just searching "adhd" and "dyslexia") when compiling my post for hoo and um. well, let's just say it did not hit the double digits.

[basslinegrave]

i was being a completely sane person today (/s) and was creating a timeline tree for snm would anyone even be interested in that. and collecting my shipping thoughts (or specifics about them being a couple etc). know that i still consider my knowledge of the franchise as poor. its just tidying it up in my head so when i talk about something i can pinpoint a specific thing (i was too deep in fnaf theorizing so now i have to suffer thru a franchise that doesnt even have a canon)

in short/tldr the comics are the base that happened in every possible timeline and everything else is derived from that, happening after, except the cartoon, which shows some events the same way so that would be more intertwined; not everything is connected/within one timeline. and the cartoon is my most fav and where i see them as a true couple.

long rant ahead

on one hand i really like the time travel theory where its like comics -> ttg -> cartoon etc by them travelling back in time for that, however there are many holes especially thinking about their families and stuff so

i like the idea of things branching off. one branch is comics - htr - cartoon, as something more intertwined

second is comics -> ttg -> poker night 2 (since it references ttg events) (idk bout 1 i havent played/seen that)

third would be comics -> ttiv (or comics -> htr -> ttiv, i have no idea atm if bosco's is mentioned in the comics but it is in htr and mentioned in ttiv. ttiv is also set in the year it came out, so theres a huge gap inbetween ttiv and htr but i wouldnt say its where the ttg games happened!)

and i dont mean this in like a multiverse way, since the creator seems to dislike that, its simply just a very loose canon that differs with each installment (simply due to different people working on these imo. nothing too deep imo)

but the juicy part!! i even made brackets that im too lazy to remake digitally so i will just write it out for each bigger installment. im excluding poker night 1 as i havent played it nor watched much gameplay

M = married, BF = best friends (in all technically)

comics: M - unlikely; BF - yes absolutely

htr: M - possible; BF - yes

cartoons: M - i take it as canon here. BF - yes million percent

ttg all seasons: M - no; BF - yes.

poker night 2: M - not sure, implied dating, i take that as good enough; BF - yes

ttiv: M - absolutely not. not a couple at all. BF - they seem too tense, yes, but from my experience playing, their interactions were imo the worst in all of their media, so i wasnt buying it at some points

note - ttiv has to be like the straightest they ever were and i also see it in S.P.'s more recent work. im looking too deep into that, perhaps, but im just thinking were never gonna get anything similar to what we got from back in the 90s again, if theres any future projects

people are also saying they got married like 4 times and its making me a bit confused here. do people mean cartoon, htr dress up card, cake topper and tdph ring scene or am i missing something big?? because to me that is married once, other ones being just for jokes (first one as well but its less vague), and in the ttg games its so extremely vague i cant count that (being realistic here) that said its still fun to joke about them getting married several times, but in this case wouldnt it be more of a marriage per timeline?

and to end this, a personal tierlist

my most fave obviously is the cartoon. not only is it the easiest to work with for me, with the fast pacing and short watch time (but ofc i wish it was longer) i absolutely love how their relationship is depicted there, even if a lot of stuff there is just jokes, but if everything is a joke then its also fine to take everything as canon within this media, to me! like when haters say that people only take the wedding scene out of the intro and ignore the rest - as if the other stuff couldnt happen (isnt one of the shots them fighting a giant octopus, which they end up having an episode about too. like cmon. anything goes here) even if it was contained within this specific part of the franchise, im ok with calling them a couple here. and its S tier overall

another S tier is the comics. nothing else to say

HTR is like A tier to me, only taking off points because its soooo sloooowwww and playing it after watching the series took 3 years off my life immediately. otherwise gud game.

ttg is like A to B tier for me, because of some specifics and preferences but thats just me being nitpicky so, the games overall are good. A- it is. thats all

poker night 2 is fun, i watch the gameplay a lot lately when im too tired at midnight to do anything else, A tier

ttiv. oh how mixed i am about you. gameplay by itself and my first experience with the game - S tier. it made me so giddy more than one time and i kept wanting to come back until i finished the game fully. i dont mind the bugs, its just what i expect in VR games and even tho it made me a bit frustrated at times it wasnt all that bad. its also the only vr game i played for over an hour once and didnt get motion sick - the exception was the level at the store which seemed too bright and actually made me nauseous. which is a feeling that somehow comes back whenever i think about this game. what i dislike was the dialogue, while most of it was fun and fine, i had moments where i just burst out laughing, they (or max especially) were way too mean towards the player. i know its a joke and you could chalk it up to max being unhappy with us/jealous, but it got like, generally unpleasant very quickly. with stuff like good throw - "nice!" bad throw - *neverending insults* and the second was how painfully straight it was and like. the vibes i got from them two was like, oh theyre fed up with each other and my shipping self was just left quite disappointed. i did not get all lines during my gameplay which made it great but upon going thru every line manually after, i was just more and more uncomfortable with what they said in their banter. this drops the game to like C for me? maybe B if i squint. being generous. i also got sick of their talking animations over time... the models are fine just got to be too much. bonus points for max ragdoll physics tho. coming up with a conclusion that this is a completely separate timeline and has nothing to do with anything other than the comics and perhaps HTR. i talked so long about this one cause its the one thing that prompted all of this lol.

but its not that serious! i just knew this franchise for ages as "oh its the two animal guys that are married and its funny" and now that i got into it fully, i see a lot of the shippers are obviously daydreaming and taking things out of context - which is fun, i agree!! i also do that. but it just painted a completely different picture for me. so no. theyre not married, theyre not a couple, except for the cartoon, where its implied, which stays on top for me. but in ttg at least, they love each other, its not as romantic, but i can ship them there (so i ship them in the context of the cartoon and ttg basically)

anyway. nothing is canon for them, everything is canon for them, and everything they say or do is a joke so. its not that deep at all. they gay tho

[irrealisms]

hi! i just saw an old post of yours regarding a very indepth s4 youtube playlist and i'm intrigued! i know the basic stuff since i watched some streams around that time but i've been meaning to finally sit and watch s4 from beginning to end. would you be so kind as to drop a link? thank you :]

gonna assume you mean lifesteal (i also have a dsmp s4 playlist haha. i love Making Playlists. love to Curate) and i've actually got a few lifesteal playlists! well. sort of. i have like One in-depth playlist and then i've got Other People's Playlists

so the first thing i recommend which has every* lifesteal s4 edited video (no** VODs) is this playlist by @aroaceacacia -- it's how i got into lifesteal to begin with and i cannot recommend it highly enough. when you finish, keep an eye on zam's youtube channel, i believe he is the only one still editing his s4 & his finale should be coming out soon (a year late) lmaoooo * it is actually missing one video, but it's near the end + it DOES the behind the scenes for that video so it's easy to add in ** technically it's got one (1) 2-hour cut from a Subz VOD which is more VOD-like and less of a Highly Edited Short Video but p much all the rest of the 285 videos are more highly-edited official-yt-channel VideosTM, and even the Subz VOD is a cut from a 24-hour stream rather than the full thing.

unfortunately i don't know of any curated VOD playlists or overviews that cover the beginning of the season, by me or by anyone else--I might work on this at some point but rn unfortunately i haven't actually watched much early s4 :( although if you want, send me a follow-up ask and i'll do my best at a "major events" playlist, mixing edited videos (esp early-season where i havent Watched the VODs) with particularly important VODs for the stuff i Have seen? this would b p easy for me to make i just havent bc i didn't know if there would b interest. ive also been working on a timeline google doc covering all of s4 that includes both VODs and edited videos so, again, lmk if you're interested in that!

the second thing i recommend is this google doc by @myrmica , which starts covering things in detail in december 2022 and has super detailed notes for a BUNCH of VODs. absolutely invaluable resource. my primary recommendation if you want to watch vods from mid to late s4 is to just read this doc and add all the vods that look interesting to your personal playlist.

in terms of in-depth playlists i have, the main one i have is an eclipse federation playlist! it's got a couple vods or cut-down videos of pre-eclipse-fed for some context but mostly it covers eclipse federation's journeys from their formation to the end of the server. i skipped some streams that were just grinding or destroying end portals or similar but if you want those also you can go through the myrmica google doc. NOTE: this ONLY covers eclipse federation!!! and it covers them in pretty close detail!!!! things that get left out of this include stuff like most of the preparations for pangi & zam's god-off, 3ht's trap war, a lot of poopies shenanigans, the team awesome breakup, and of course everything that happened in the Several Months before eclipse federation formed.... basically anything that wasn't relevant to eclipse federation's journey. meanwhile there are multiple 4-hour VODs that are just zam thinking about his relationship problems and nothing rly happens. i honestly would not recommend this unless you are specifically looking for more detail on eclipse federation specifically lol. also i wasn't sure how to handle "there are 2-3 streams of the same events with different povs that have some nonoverlap and some overlap" so...sometimes i include both povs and sometimes i dont. it's a judgement call & i highly recommend going thru the myrmica google doc and making your own playlist--all the vods in this playlist are also on there, eclipse federation didn't Form until mid season 4 so all eclipse-federation-relevant streams are covered

also i've linked this before but ive got a more medium-length eclipse fed playlist that mixes VODs & edited videos so check that out if you want

and of course where would any of us be without the archivist VOD spreadsheet. not super useful if youre looking for Curated Playlists but i need to shout out archivists forever & ever

i've also got much less in-depth playlists of Just Edited Videos for stuff like s4 highlights, covering specific teams/storylines, etc but since you said you were interested in in-depth playlists im not going to link all those unless you ask, this post is already long enough as it is haha. im also maintaining a s5 edited videos playlist if youre interested in that, and ive got links to playlists of s1-3! so just ask if you want any of those

huge apologies if this was overwhelming! u activated my Autism Trap Card (i love playlist curation). & pls pls feel free to send another ask/message/whatever if you have any questions or are curious abt anything else or if you want anything else (i love playlist curation)

[picckl]

hi!! i just wanted to say i've been following your art for a while now and gosh... ur style is so gorgeous (i spend hours scrolling thru ur work), i love ur ocs sm, you are such a huge inspiration to me! i hope you don't mind me asking cause i'm genuinely so curious – would you mind diving in a bit on your character design process? your designs are always so eye-catching and detailed, so i'm just interested how you make choices on design! :0

Aaa tysm, that’s very kind of you!! My character design process differs every time, but I can go thru the basics!

Every character I design as a living creature in an existing habitat. Sure, they’re fantasy, but everything has to have something realistic about it. Lets say I’m designing a character who lives far up in the mountains- in that case, I’m usually going to look up some mountain animals, or animals that live in cold environments. Most animals in cold weather have big fur coats, so I’ll keep that in mind. What kind of terrain do they live on? Lets say we’re designing a firbolg- if they’re constantly walking around on steep slopes I might base them off a mountain goat, or a sheep if they’re on level terrain.

Next I’m gonna do some research on human cultures from those regions. What kind of clothes do they wear? Are there similarities between the different cultures? What kinds of modifications have they made to their clothing to help them live comfortably in the environment? You can’t stick a character up in the mountains wearing a crop-top and shorts, you’re going to have to go through and figure out what kind of outfits, accessories and so on that they’ll need, along with things that reflect the specific culture you think they’re from. Lets say for this character I want to make their cultural apparel similar to Swiss and Norwegian traditional outfits, along with some Viking influences. I’m going to look up historical recreations, websites that focus on traditional clothing to these regions and just generally looking around for accurate depictions of the dress. DO NOT USE COSTUME SITES OR PLACES LIKE AMAZON TO TRY TO FIND INSPIRATION DRAWN FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES. Also, you are USING THESE CULTURES AS INSPIRATION TO SEE WHAT THEY USE TO LIVE IN THIS KIND OF ENVIRONMENT. YOU ARE NOT COPYING THEM, unless of course the story the character is from takes place in this world.

Next I’ll look at who they are as a person, and what their job is. For my character Saffron, who worked as a royal concubine for the Summer Court, I made sure to choose more fancy or detailed clothing to use as inspiration. Whereas if your character is more likely to be working out in the farmland for a living they wouldn’t want to ruin those kinds of clothes and might choose to dress more simply. What kind of accessories do they have? A character with ties to research or education might carry a bag for books or a practically-stashed feather pen, a farmer might carry a trowel or their gloves where they’re easy to reach, or a metalworker might have a welding mask. Lets say our character is a stonemason, we’d be giving them some stonemason tools around their belt, some goggles to keep the stone chips out of their eyes and maybe even an apron! Adding details like these, which represent the character’s jobs and hobbies, give them a lot more personality!

There isn’t any right way to do character design, you don’t have to follow any of this for it to come out as a good character. This is just my personal course of action whenever I’m designing something or someone to add as either an npc or a pc to my campaigns. If you had to take one thing out of this tedious course, it’s that EVERYTHING COMES FROM NATURE, and so using nature as inspiration will help keep your characters realistic and believable!!

[chekhovs-nailgun]

i have some thoughts on coping thru fiction and using fic/writing as a general tool that i wanna put out there. warning: i will be discussing grooming below the cut.

so to get it out of the way, i was groomed when i was 11. i don’t think this is the time nor place for me to go into a whole ramble about the specifics of that, so i won’t. all that’s necessary right now is that it happened and within a year i started adding similar dynamics to a project i was working on.

it was a sideplot during my first nanowrimo attempt centered around a post-apocalyptic scenario. the jist of it was a kid in his mid-teens, think 16 or so, was romantically obsessed with a mid-20s, closer to 30 woman. the age difference was about the same. i would ask for advice on the story in general from my mom (phd in psychology, literally never had a problem with it lmfao, funny how that works).

was it ass? absolutely, it was. a 12 year old wrote it. it’s never seeing the light of day lmao. but it was really important in the process of me not fucking hating myself for years for thinking/internalizing that it was a moral failing on my part.

the thing about it is that at the time, it didn’t feel like coping. i felt like i was just writing about something that happens. fleshing it out in that sterile environment helped me get a grip of how fucking gross what happened to me was, while putting myself in a position where i had control over what happened, something i didn’t have irl. i didn’t even realize that’s what happened until i thought “ah yes, i started writing dark fic when i was 12, the same calendar year i was groomed.”

“…”

now i look at people arguing over the semantics of it, with fic of that type being morally reprehensible with exceptions like “only if you never share it” or “only if you use it to cope” or “using it to cope is morally reprehensible for this-or-that reason, don’t interact with it in any way other than seething rage or some other specific way”. while seething rage and pure fucking anger can be a totally fine way to deal with it, people who think in these kinds of ways need to remember: not everybody is you. making broad assumptions, nitpicking, and believing that your way is the only correct way does nothing but harm other victims by taking away an opportunity for them to work out their trauma, at best. at worst? it allows more predators to hide and commit tangible harm due to widespread assumptions that the people hurting others are the people posting fic, and not the “safe” adults playing into kids’ interests and making them feel important and special. (source: that’s what mine did; yucky bad fanfiction was never a part of the equation.)

i know what the response to this is. “ackshully posting it is doing harm because it normalizes it and gives predators the confidence to act on the thoughts they already have; the human psyche is more sensitive to porn and if you get tired of fiction you’re bound to turn to nonfiction”. this is where the age old disagreement comes into play, and while i don’t see much of a point in rehashing it for people who already have their minds made up on it, i would like to note a couple of things, firstly that humans aren’t mirrors. most people see things like this and recognize it’s wrong, just like they recognize that other subjects criminalized irl are wrong, such as murder, theft, etc. if somebody sees something problematic and decides it’s a good way to act, there was something already wrong, be it undiagnosed mental illness or being too young/impressionable to participate safely in such circles. i also find this viewpoint really cruel in that it takes responsibility away from the actual predators, essentially painting them as wild animals who “couldn’t help it, they became desensitized and just had to have more of that vile content you people make” when grooming is, at its core, a desire for power over another. im gonna come out and say it: predators are smart. they are called predators for a reason. thinking of them as lawless beasts who operate out of instinct is entirely disrespectful to victims.

the cold hard truth of the matter is that darkfic, no matter how disgusting people find it on a case by case basis, is morally neutral. it cannot damage anybody by simply existing unless warnings are ignored or it is actively weaponized, sometimes meaning that the content itself is removed from the protective warnings and wantonly put on display for large audiences of underage people to see.

i personally don’t like a whole lot of darkfic, im really picky about what i read. and i think that no matter my thoughts on it, it has a right to exist. idc, consider me a “bad victim” lmao. if you do that’s your cross to bear, not mine.

tldr: sometimes you need to express shit and fuck you if you try to enforce your own feelings on others trying to do so

[uriekukistan]

hello rinnnnn i wld love to hear more about your thoughts on tg!itfs + maybe nobara , specifically in terms of kagune !! full transparency since u sent me that ask the concept has been marinating in my brain and even if it'll probably b a while before i get around 2 designing anything i welcome th opportunity 2 hear any outside ideas !!!!

hii hina :D hope ur doing well !!! dkjgh i love this ask thank u for sending it

tbh i kept going back and forth between drawing my ideas out or not but i think im gonna explain them w words bc im better at that and i trust my ability to convey ideas that way....compared to art where i Do Not

also disclaimer this is within the context of the mini au i have created in my brain (and google docs. but i need to redo it. no longer satisfied)

anyway! tbh i had imagined yuuji as just a human, mostly bc he reminds me a lot of hide at times :') and he takes a similar role in the story i had planned, so i dont rlly have a kagune design in mind for him unforch, but if i could imagine one i'd kinda take inspo from true form sukuna and give him smth like this (saiko's kagune that she used against urie when he framed out pt 2. it's a rinkaku, i never understood the ghoul biology stuff tbsh)

megumi is the one i had the clearest idea for, he's an artificial one-eye, and again i dont understand ghoul biology, but i took design inspo from nue bc hello nue is so cool. my fav shikigami in terms of design. i havent determined how, but he does end up w a half-kakuja (probably gonna put him thru the horrors so he'll cannibalize) mostly bc i wanted to give him a beak-like mask. and then his kagune is kinda like. ayato mixed w yomo if i had to give it a good comparison. wing shaped + electricity (theyre both ukakus so ig that makes him an ukaku, im just picking things based of their techniques in jjk)

for nobara, i'm leaning towards a koukaku bc its pretty dense and durable like....a hammer :D most of the users in tg have it as a blade, but urie has used it as a blade and a shield (tsukiyama too maybe? i have urie tunnel vision hence the username) anyway im not picturing it as being exactly hammer shaped but more vague. hammer inspired if you will (rlly leaning on the technique -> kagune crutch, character design is not my forte and i cannot visualize things to save my life). i also had her as either an artificial half ghoul (quinx?) or as a full ghoul waitress at anteiku

my plot needs some serious reworking, but i have yuuji and megumi as childhood besties à la hidekane, and megumi is the one who gets kanekied (sort of). secret long term pining megumi who doesnt think yuuji would be interested bc hes focused on getting a girlfriend. he doesn't have qualms abt eating ppl, but he does worry abt killing people (at least at first, there will be spiral of doom). it rlly needs to be redone overall,,,but external circumstances prompted me to push it to the side and take up another project instead

this feels super disorganized sorry omg TT_TT i think bc i decided to nuclear bomb my previous idea recently, and now i have nothing bc i never started rebuilding the plot or anything

[apotelesmaa]

HELLO .WAIT. do you have more thoughts on wxs soul eater au i never considered combining the two even thiugh i am off the walls crazy about the,m

Oh I have. So many thoughts. You asking abt it even made me get up off my ass and draw again. Putting everything under the cut to avoid having a mile long post.

When I first had the idea I really struggled on who was a weapon/meister but after deciding on wanting to pair ruikasa/emunene up I was like tsukasa and emu need to be the meisters bc 1) it fits with them being the founding duo of wxs 2) I really wanted nene to be a gun 3) fitting tsukasa’s goals into the SE universe worked better if he was a meister. I elected to make rui a whip first and then I realized I could fit a bloodborne reference in there and reference becoming potatoes with the cane. I’m not entirely satisfied w the first pass at designs for the universe (not super close to the SE aesthetic, I cannot draw guns, I’m not very good at character design, etc) but i kind of tried to pull inspiration from:

- tsukasa and emu’s happy Phoenix costumes (split colors on tsukasa’s coat, tsukasa’s boots, the corset/bell sleeves/little cape thingie for emu)

- for tsukasa specifically: piano (b&w colors and stupid long coat tails), his second wxs costume

- emu: bc I drew her last and it was getting late I did less searching and more winging it but I did try to combine the style of her wxs costumes (shoes, dress, striped socks) & general darker Lolita (for lack of a better word) fashion.

- nene: her gaming event card (weird energy ball device thing? Which I would imagine functions similar to dtk’s shooting soul wave lengths thru the thompsons)

- rui: his ugly ass coat (fond) he wears as his first wxs costume. Also becoming potatoes cane handle thing. Him being a trick weapon (bloodborne term, essentially a weapon that can switch between two forms) also kind of lines up w him being a tech genius.

Ok done talking abt the designs onto the in universe stuff

- not basing any au story off the soul eater plot bc it didn’t work out very well (too many pjsk characters) (going with the main story wxs plot w a soul eater spin. Kinda. Gonna have to think abt that a bit.) but if I did mafuyu > crona, miku & the kagamines > dtk and the thompsons. Would that make cfm lord death. Emu would fill a similar role to maka with mafuyu in that situation but in general (besides the surface level similarities btwn tsukasa and black star) nene is too different from soul, emu is way too different from maka, and rui is literally NOTHING like tsubaki so I can’t justify just swapping out emunene/tsukasa with soul&maka/black star&tsubaki. No equivalent to that fucking cat in this universe. & the pjsk characters get to wear clothes when they’re in the weird place weapons’s bodies go when they’re transformed.

- idk maybe the regular soul eater plot is happening/will happen/has happened but this is the Japan branch (oceania branch in canon?).

- vocaloids are professors (not the kagamines. Forever babies.) but if there needs to be a lord death equivalent making that miku would be so funny. Also the normal vocaloid personalities and not the WXS ones for conveniences sake. Uhhh first thoughts for M/W would be meister miku, weapon meiko, meister kaito, luka can go either way tbh, kagamines are both weapons but are each other’s meister.

- similar to how rui did shows on his own for a really long time I think he was his own meister for a while (like Justin Law was). He doesn’t have many souls bc dwma in this universe at least pretends to give a fuck abt student safety so they don’t want to send him out alone on anything dangerous (despite his talent) and he can’t resonate soul wave lengths with most ppl bc they don’t get him. He ended up giving up on finding a meister when he was younger bc of this & just worked really hard on his own. He experiences a similar isolation from his peers that dtk did (ppl find him intimidating/envy at his skill/etc).

- equivalent of him transferring in to kamikou (? Spelling) second year is the kamishiros spending ~10 years in America. He’s still childhood friends w nene he just moved away after they drifted apart and then came back. Mizuki probably did something similar just 2 keep the mizuki & rui connection still there.

- tsukasa’s SE universe goal is to be the best meister - he wants to protect & help people (inspired by saki. I’ll get to that) but the equivalent of tsukasa forgetting he wanted to make ppl smile & believing he just wanted fame would be tsukasa believing he wants to be the best meister for fame/power.

- saki’s chronic illness is a result of black blood due to an incident w a kishin egg monster when she was younger. I think she would be a weapon but along with the canon typical chronic illness symptoms (not erasing those) she struggles for a long time w controlling her ability to change in and out of weapon form. Tsukasa & her *could* have been a m/w pair & have compatible soul wave lengths but 1) he’s overprotective and I think he realized he would not be able to fight without being too scared of getting her hurt 2) saki’s illness means she can’t really enroll in the dwma (yet. She gets there eventually.)

- nene was in the not classes before the plot picks up bc she didn’t think she had what it took to be a weapon. In universe equivalent to her forgetting her lines would maybe be freezing when she was supposed to transform during an important test when she was younger? Not baby age like in canon (bc I know the DWMA likes child soldiers but 7ish is a bit much even for them) but old enough to be taking classes & old enough to be put into not classes as a result. Im not reading SE NOT! to understand how those classes work though so thank god she gets out of those classes

- nene *is* a really powerful weapon she just lacks the confidence and struggles to resonate with people (& unlike rui she can’t wield herself)

- on that note emu can resonate with just about anyone but she hasn’t found anyone that felt right yet, and Tsukasa needs someone who can keep up w the intensity of his soul wave length and hasn’t found anyone who can do that yet.

- ^ similar to tsukasa being a piano prodigy or whatever in canon tsukasa *is* a really good meister, he just needs a really good weapon. Bc his peers would need more training to get to that level

- I toyed with making emu dtk adjacent (daughter of death) (bc PXL -> DWMA) but that would be too complicated with her brothers/dad/grandpa so I disregarded it. Maybe I’ll come back to it. I think it would make more sense for emu to come from a long line of really talented meisters so she grew up training for the job and running around the dwma.

- emu approaches tsukasa and is like we should work together!!! We’ll do better on missions and be able to take down harder kishin & maybe witches!! & he’s like sure why not every star needs a sidekick (obnoxious laugh) even though emu could kick his ass without breaking a sweat (in line with canon). & like the angel she is emu is like (ignores his pre main story dickheadedness) wonderhoy!! (Deathhoy?) okie dokie we need to find weapon partners then!! (bodily drags him to class)

- tsukasa sees rui training on his own and is like wow he’s really talented! Fitting for a future star like me! & approaches him to ask if they can pair up. Rui is like on the condition that you can find my friend a partner in your class (wants nene out of the not classes bc he thinks she’s far beyond that skill level). Emu jumps on the idea and is introduced to nene who is placed in the higher level courses to accommodate this partnership. Idc if that can’t happen in SE canon I think the Otoris have a lot of sway and any potential issues w nene being less powerful (not the case but it’s the assumption made abt not students) can be made up by emu’s skill.

- emu is instantly very taken with nene and they resonate well. I know what u are dot jpg. Rui & tsukasa can resonate but struggle to unlock their full potential (similar to soul and maka struggling with using the witch hunter form) bc tsukasa needs to realize what his real motivations are.

- tsukasa assumes nene has a low skill level at first (similar to his issues w nenerobo. God I wish I could think of a way to fit nenerobo in this au. sorry nenerobo) but is proven wrong when emu wields her.

- equivalent to the climax of the wxs main story in this is nene freezing again during an important mission and the group losing an important target -> tsukasa gets mad and yells at her -> rui fights w tsukasa over this and tells him that he’ll never be a good meister if he cares more about fame and power than people.

- tsukasa chats w the death scythe kaito & realizes the Error Of His Ways -> emu is considering dropping out bc she feels that she fucked up all of their futures as weapons/meisters by putting this into motion but tsukasa has the heart to heart with emu and they agree to continue being a team -> emu and nene partner back up -> they approach rui who has gone back to working solo and he refuses to partner back up w tsukasa

- idk what a good equivalent to the lonely alchemist show would be. Tsukasa and rui need to resonate & work together to help emunene because they’re in peril or something? & rui through the resonance realizes that tsukasa is genuine? Some sort of hand wavey plot device is used to resolve everything.

- I think that emu & rui and nene & tsukasa are also able to resonate and they do occasionally switch it up just for funsies. Emu and rui bc they just get along very well and nene & tsukasa argue with each other but can still function as a team.

- I don’t think that rui & nene can resonate because. Put down the pitchforks please. *Because* similar to their dynamic in pjsk despite their bond and their care for each other there’s a lot of baggage that needs to be worked through. Too many things left unsaid. Etc. they could probably achieve resonance later on but there’s not really a need to given that they’re both weapons and both have meisters.

- Rui thinks it’s a great training exercise to fight tsukasa “how do you expect to get better if you don’t try fighting against a weapon without a weapon… I’m just trying to help you… (fake crying)” “I’m already good at fighting without a weapon!! This is never going to be relevant knowledge anyways!!! You just want to fight me because you think it’s fun!!!!!!” “(switching manipulation tactics) Someone who wants to be a star would want to be prepared for any situation no matter how small the chance is of it happening” “hm…that’s true… ok let’s do it!!”

- cut to them in the nurses office. This is a weekly occurrence.

- emu also thinks it’s good practice to use tsukasa as moving target practice but this is less dangerous and more just continuing tsukasa’s never ending torment (he is a willing participant in said torment mind you)

- like in canon emu pulls nene out of her shell and hypes her up constantly which is huge in getting nene to have more confidence in herself and her abilities. It’s also incredibly helpful to have a meister who will never judge her for freezing and will always meet her halfway.

- also like in canon nene is very helpful with reeling emu in. She’s a very helpful voice of reason/impulse control but one that understands that even if emu’s ideas are unconventional they still have merit (even if they need to be refined a little)

- similar to the soul eater main cast having the self preservation skills of very small stupid suicidal animals hell bent on getting themselves injured or killed (Liz excluded), emu and Tsukasa are very prone to charging in to a situation w/out thinking. Tsukasa is more reasonable but unfortunately his weapon parter is not and rui usually cajoles tsukasa into doing stupid shit. Nene is suffering.

- maybe someday I’ll design rui & nene if I ever go back and refine these designs but I’m really lazy.

- not really sure how I would go around incorporating the wxs arcs into the soul eater universe with regards to PXL selling out and stuff. Making peace with the witches maybe? Something will probably come to me eventually.

- unlike atsushi ohkubo I’m not a terminally horny freak so there’s zero weird shit in this au.

- initial thoughts on the other units: minori(w)/haruka(weapon that chooses to be a meister) + airi(m)/shizuku(w), kohane(m)/an(w) + toya(weapon who was trained as a meister before deciding to be a weapon)/akito(m), mafuyu(m)/kanade(weapon… don’t make her exercise) + mizuki(w)/ena(m), leoneed swaps pairs frequently but shiho & izuka are meisters + saki and honami are weapons. Open to debate for most of these I haven’t given them much thought.

[rollercoasterwords]

same anon who is fretting left and right abt r and s and everyone else ;_; i love having ur insight and thank u kindly for the long answer…. exactly what i wanted *evil laughter* but i have a follow up!

this might be too far into spoiler territory tho…. another Painful element of this beautiful fic is the lack of love between s and j it’s KILLING MEEEE (as always in the best way) not seeing them as they usually are… will we ever get any s+j friendship crumbs? or is this just not possible within the world you’ve created? i trust ur Vision either way i’m just gnawing at the bars of my prison cell thinking about the possibilities…..

hmmm yeah i feel like i can’t really talk abt like. what’s going 2 happen w them without getting too spoilery (although my usual like…wip policy applies here lol if you absolutely want them 2 be friends stop reading if u absolutely don’t want them 2 be friends stop reading be ready 4 it 2 go either way etc) but! i can talk a bit abt like. how james currently feels where we’re at in the fic & how his feelings have changed

what i've been trying 2 do w j + s in this fic is like. well clearly they hated each other at the beginning bc s sees this arrogant pigheaded order soldier whereas j sees this entitled foolish d.e. & that starting animosity is pretty intense, although it's a bit more personal 4 s--j is like. one of the first order members he's knowingly met + becomes kind of his warden in a way so he pretty specifically hates j whereas for j s is just one of many d.e. he's encountered before so he doesn't really hold a grudge in the same way once they start working together, although he also isn't quick 2 trust s bc unlike his brother s didn't join the order of his own accord (obv. reg didn't exactly join of his own accord, either, but that's pretty much how j sees it).

so when they do actually start working together j is like. well this guy's gotta prove himself if he wants me 2 trust him but once s does start proving himself he's pretty willing 2 put the old animosity aside, and he views s as part of their team--hence him risking his life 2 go back & save s, etc. s, on the other hand, is holding a personal grudge & specifically does not like j so even when j starts acting a bit friendlier towards him he's still like. hmph. bc while j is like "oh holding u prisoner was nothing personal obviously it was just what we had 2 do 4 the order" for s it was very much personal! lol

anyway despite the grudge etc. they do both mutually begin 2 realize that they have certain key similarities--specifically, the fact that they both feel responsible for the people they care about & would do pretty much anything 2 protect them, even if it's something those people wouldn't want them to do. so when we reach this point where they need 2 break into the dept. of mysteries, they both end up reaching the same conclusion abt how they're going 2 have 2 do that, and realizing that they've both reached that same conclusion kind of bolsters that mutual respect they're developing 4 each other. so there's sort of this truce struck while they're planning s's obliviation, where they still aren't friends exactly & probably wouldn't go so far as 2 say they like each other, but they're also like...the only people who can kind of understand what the other one is going thru + sacrificing (as in the convo in the james pov where s says 'they're all gonna hate us,' etc), and in a way it's nice 2 have someone who understands u in a way the others can't...also s going thru w this whole plan has made j respect him a lot more & view them as much more similar in terms of both being practical (and ruthless) enough 2 place larger goals above their own well-being + being willing 2 do things that will make their loved ones hate them as long as it keeps those loved ones safe. so j's feelings towards s have obviously changed quite a bit! of course now s has no idea who j is so. suppose maybe he'll have a chance 2 make a better first impression next time around lol

[djservo]

not only did you beat me but i am horrifically late.. how embarrassing for me! however(!), i have finally made it to ask you the oh so important question: how much chocolate did you eat over the easter weekend? do you get a long weekend in the us? oh and i guess how did your march reading go? any spring time specific reads or other things you’re looking forward to?

FEELS GOOD TO WIN ONE!!!! 😪👏 tbh I'm not that big on sweets + easter treats especially seem like overload to me BUT I've been rationing a bag of cadbury mini eggs for the past week and it's been a delight in my day!!! pep in my step!! my work gave us friday off + IIRC they do the same in schools too? but I also took off thursday bc I was going to a wedding with friends so extra long weekend praise be 🏝️ oh yes and the reading part!!

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

I think I was halfway thru this during our last round-up and I already knew it was gonna be my fav Morrison thus far but Wowwwwwowow an already gripping story and then the final third just smacks ya outta nowhere and floors you!!! which is wild because I was already completely into it when things were unraveling in the way of slice of life / reckoning with family history and curses - such a fleshed out setting and cast of characters - but then it twists into this epic adventure at the very last second and it's just crazy how something already so layered can get even dizzier, and how complete it still feels! not overdone or rushed at all, just complete magic!!

Of Death. Minimal Odes by Hilda Hilst

there's just somethin about Hilda!!! perfect balance between bare bones simplicity + profundity to me - maybe it's striking because of how simple it is, or conversely reads as straightforward (a minimal ode if U will) because it's as if she's speaking truths that could only be articulated in a surreal way. WHO KNOWS !!! similar to my experience with With My Dog Eyes I was left with this certain ennui where it seemed like something didnt click immediately but then ofc I thought about specific lines for days and weeks after + craving more of her writing. a slow burn of affection! and the translation is so beautiful!! got me thinking about how a translator isn't ever Just translating, but also has to wear the hat of the author they're translating which is so beautifully layered to me + I have so much respect for it as an art itself

Girls to the Front by Sara Marcus

I was excited for this bc riot grrrl is interwoven in so many things/people I admire but it fell pretty flat. didn't care for Marcus's uneven prose throughout which felt peppered in as an afterthought + it was clear which topics/bands/figures Marcus favored in how much more attention + depth she gave them, which maybe is inevitable when you're personally connected to a subculture but I feel like if you're describing a book as "an epic, definitive history" of a movement, you shouldn't be so blatantly biased? it's also kinda funny in an ironic way how she condenses the experience of queer women and WOC feeling left out in a matter of like. 4 pages total. then goes back to essentially a Kathleen Hanna love fest (whomst I also love!!! but that's not what this book should've been!!) then again, I don't expect a white woman to sufficiently examine and/or encapsulate the intricacies of intersectionality so whatevz . flopperoni

Assata by Assata Shakur

I've had a copy of this for yearssss but I'm kinda glad I waited til now because it made me think so much of Leila Khaled's memoir at parts in their undying loyalty to the cause and unashamed criticism of the radical groups they longed to be apart of - in this case, the BPP and its gendered hierarchy - and it's just nice to be able to have this bridge between revolutionaries + revolutions, the embodiment of fighting the same struggle / no one being free until everyone's free. powerful and unflinching yet completely grounded and lucid in reflection - no detail felt out of place and no indictment felt gratuitous. completely demoralizing at parts (as if the american justice system could seem any more like a joke) and particularly bleak to see how relevant so much of this feels decades later (but also unsurprising when you think about america's enactment + sustaining of brutality as a well-oiled machine, the very core of its existence). just all around special and profound

for april I planned to read some short story collections but already I feel myself straying + craving something juicier so I may just let this be another wildcard month as far as ~theme goes like sorry but the heart wants what it wants and in this case it's bret easton ellis seediness!! happy spring!!!

[flutteringfable]

giving neopronouns to my favs because i want to spite that person i saw on pinterest who was bitching about when people do that. idc if any of this is ooc. the point is to spite the fun police not to be in-character >:3c (i mean obvs the neos i choose are gonna be reflective of the chars and their theming/personalities but yk what i mean i think)

venti - im gonna be honest he would use literally any pronouns ever (even ancient ones no one has heard of) but to get into specifics: hymn/hymns, breeze/breezeself, and the classic xey/xem.

scara - maybe also uses some form of ancient pronouns considering he's been around a while too! storm/storms very briefly, but then afterwards it's softer stuff perhaps with wind theming as well. gale/gales is the most common one shared.

nagito - briefly considered giving him hope/hopeself but then realized maybe he wouldn't use those? for some sort of self deprecating reasons? like "i'm not the embodiment of hope i couldn't possibly use the word as my own" type stuff. maybe more luck based stuff? chance/chances seems like a neat one, hopefully not too on the nose lolz. xe/xim also seems plausible. and while they aren't neos, i'll throw in it/its too because like. look at this dude. tell me he wouldnt use it/its

tamaki - perhaps also an it/its user? again not a neo but i wanna bring it up anyway. i can't think of any specific themed ones she'd use, aside from maybe something butterfly themed? like flutter/flutters. i think they would lean more into the more nonthemed neos like nim/nimse or vae/vaer.

bakugou - didn't particularly strike me as a neo user at first but tbh? if he found out they existed he would totally pick the "awesome sounding" ones for himself because he's Like That. king/kingself, blast/blasts, and strike/strikes are all neos i could see him using. unrelated but i like the idea of trans/nb bakugou going thru the "naming urself arson" phase because he would 100% do that

kiri - funnily enough the least likely to be a neo user (at least imo) out of the list. if he did use them, i think he would use bro as a neo (similar to how people use it in regular speech. like "bro went to the store." oh god i just remembered the meme associated with phrases like this gjnskdnfjsndn). probably also something like red/reds :D

mizuki - they already canonically use she/they which absolutely rocks, but if they used neos i think she'd use something like frill/frills or meow/meows! also. as a bonus. catkin mizuki.

[these-detestable-hands]

Hi Pie! I saw your post on the progress pride flag and liked hearing your points, it made me think about it from a different perspective. I wrote a response to it that I wanted to put under the post itself but it got a little long, so I'm gonna drop it in here instead if that's ok. Which ik is silly to be like "Hope that's ok" as I put it into your askbox anyway lol. I'm just super interested in queer history and so I like talking about things that relate to it!

I agree with you that lumping ppl into two boxes of "oppressed" and "not oppressed" is not only ignorant of intersectionality, nuances, and different ways oppression can present itself to different marginalized identities, but in the process can be actively harmful to these conversations! And I can also see why it can look like the progress pride flag is encouraging just that kind of mindset

From my personal understanding of the creation of the progress pride flag, tho, that's not why it was created. It's not trying to become the flag of all oppressed ppl, it's still very specific to the queer community, but it's not the queer community co-opting the EM community for themselves either. And it's not even specifically bcus of how EM ppl contributed to the movement early on and into the present, even tho that is an important part of it. The reason the black and brown stripes were added is a similar reason to why the trans flag (and in some versions, the intersex flag) was added: To show that queer EM, trans, and intersex ppl are not only part of the community, but valuable to it, and that any attempts to exclude them will NOT be tolerated

Since there's a ton of racism in the white queer community, EMs and NEMs supporting them added the brown and black stripes to represent them to say "Queer EM ppl exist and to exclude them is to exclude the very ppl we claim to fight for, you cannot support queer rights if you do not include EM queer ppl too"

Similar to how one cannot be fully honest when they claim to support queer rights if they do not include trans and intersex ppl in the fight

So in other words it's not the flag for queer ppl *and* EMs, it's the flag for queer ppl and that group will always include queer EM ppl no matter what any exclusionist says. At least, that's the intent from my understanding and knowledge. Does that make more sense?

Not trying to argue against your points btw, mostly just explaining my understanding of why it was added. If you still disagree feel free to elaborate, there may be a piece I'm missing!

Also only tangentially related but ty for teaching me the term EM instead of POC thru that post, I knew POC was a bit of a contentious term for some but wasn't sure what would work better, so this totally works!

I don't even know what I'm trying to argue for anymore cause I started typing out my argument and just got confused aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I think I have internalized queerphobia to deal with

[transsexualhamlet]

I’ve never been part of an ask game before and cannot currently remember what any I’ve seen looked like — probably because that information would be useful rn, do I just type the emojis out like this? Can I do multiple? Idk, but uh — thank you for this, I like your questions they’re really nice, and also here

💔👁️🏛️👋

Thank you again, sorry if I’m doing it wrong, or if this was for a specific group of people and I missed that (I’m just gonna stop typing now, bye ^^ thanks again)

No worries at all! Ask games are for anyone who wants to participate. If you want to receive asks about these as well as asking them, all you have to do is reblog the post so people know you're interested.

tma ask game !!

💔- I have already answered this one, but my answer as to which fear would create the most datable avatars I would say either the vast or the buried, depending on if you prefer heights or small spaces. They don't have any traits that would immediately make them immediately unbearable and I sort of see the romance in both. Maybe I am a little bonkers but yk...

👋- What characters that don't meet in canon would you like to see interact?

Obviously Jon and Gerry did technically meet, but not while Gerry was alive. I've seen people say this before of course but it's such a shame, I think they could have been a really good really supportive duo for each other.

In seriousness though, Alice and Tim. This is the answer for me, because the problem is neither Tim nor Alice have anyone in the office that can match their freak to the slightest. My god they would have gotten on so well. They would have been insufferably catty besties, why do they have to live in different universes...

🏛️- How do you think you would fare as the Archivist?

I honestly think I'm more qualified for the position than Jon, at least I have job, volunteer, and college experience with libraries and archival. However the problem is that it has very little bearing on the actual job because your actual job is trying not to die hardcore all the time.

I think I would make... similar decisions to Jon for the most part, other than not being as much of an asshole to Martin. Jon's not much less of a wimp than me, so at least I wouldn't do *worse* physically. However because of the fact that I am largely tiny and powerless, I would... hesitate a lot less to take on avatarhood, because to me the moral quandry just goes out the window when the other option is "people are trying to kill me and everyone else painfully". So what if I get a little nosy. Admittedly I would also think it's cool as fuck.

👁️- Do you have any experiences you'd like to make a statement about?

I've had several low-key encounters that have baffled me over time, and if I had to place them into TMA categories most of them would have been spiral aligned, but the one that comes to mind first is... weird?

This was back last year, either during Thanksgiving or Winter break, I was out on a walk in the woods with my brother on a vacation up north and we kept hearing these extremely faint repeating strings of circus like music. I know, I know, however this occured before I had listened to TMA or had any associations with circus music. Looking back on it, though, if I had to correlate it, it felt almost more in tune with music related to the slaughter than the stranger. But so at first, only I could hear it and my brother was like... you're crazy, and then it sort of trickled away after a little bit and I was like yeah I must have just imagined it because we were in the MIDDLE of the WOODS. But then it came back again and it was the exact same like, four measure sequence but slightly different? That time my brother did hear it, but it disappeared again. We continued to walk quite a ways thru the woods on the path we had already planned on going, and we forgot about it for a while, but eventually it came back, no easier or harder to hear despite the fact that we were quite far away from where we had originally heard it. It came back a couple more times, always just slightly fucking Wrong in a really weird way, never exactly the same but never part of any like, real conceivable song, just a string of notes that most definitely came from instruments and not natural phenomena, and as soon as we left the woods we didn't hear it again. The only thing we could think it might have been was like, the college band practicing, since we were like... kind of closeish to a state school campus, but it was during a holiday when college was most definitely not in session, and the only part of campus we were even remotely close to was the science and medical sector which would obviously not have a band practicing, not to mention outside and loud enough to be heard a mile away. Even if for some reason there was a band practicing there, there were unreasonably long periods of silence in between the repeating music (I know how band practices go, they don't sound like that) and neither does it explain why the music couldn't be tracked to any location and sounded the same nearly a mile apart.

Not terribly *frightening*, really, especially since I was not alone and it was like, 4 PM, so it wouldn't make very good Archivist food, but certainly something that I keep thinking about.

Thank you for asking again!!

[mdpikachu]

yes this is the dante theory list for those who liked this post but im also making it my pinned

First; Hi, I'm Md (they/it/she) and welcome to my autism hole. Boops you. HERE is my art blog, HERE is my eldritch sideblog, HERE is my berserkerlot sideblog, and HERE is my photoblog, HERE is my AO3, HERE is my Flight Rising, HERE is my BlueSky. Okay, now back to the actual post. Limbus FC is C092709920.

Md's hot hot list of Dante limbus theories that I've been sitting on since I started playing

ONE OF THESE WILL BE RIGHT. MAYBE. cut for length. discuss in the comments. contains ruina and lobocorp spoilers. maybe even leviathan spoilers. assume spoilers for the newest content. pinning so i can keep adding to it in the future. (edited 7/7) (up to TKT)

Theory 58, pushed up bc it has potential, 7/7- Dante's name is Da'at or something similar. it's a hidden sephirot. iIT'S NUMBER 10. WAIT THIS FUCKS TO THE TOP OF THE LIST THIS GOES.

Theory 1, from early march 2023- Dante has the option to get their head back, takes it. Human Dante is shown. except clearly hiding unfamiliarity with the sinners. The clock head is still alive. A clock doesnt need a body to live. Human evil dante uses the golden whatever to cause Problems and has the sinners chained to them. vergil is free tho so he can beat down evil dante. (this now works with a canto 5 tidbit where vergil said he'd only step in if "all sinners dead, dante is beaten, and the hands of the clock are about to be torn off".)

T2, 3/12- 9 circles of hell, Dante, and a few subsections. Dante is sinner 10. Charon is also in the divine comedy so she'll get a section. Dante are u lucifer. who is the lucifer of the setting?? i'm saying pre-dante Dante until otherwise noted. (not personally fond of this one)

T3, 3/15- iori saw limbus going a certain way and guaranteed it by making sure Dante got factory reset by force. villain to cause heroism. (dont know enough about Iori for this one)

**T4- Backwards clock relation possible. (possibly canon validated) (even more possible connection as of 6.3)

T5- Saying Dante had a significant other named Beatrice is way too low bar but It's a necessary one. ech

T6- Dante IS Beatrice and given the name of someone else. (too ez)

T7, 3/17- future Dante guaranteeing the future changes by getting past Dante's head removed. issue solved. This one is based on the opening and reading the lyrics real goodly.

T8, 3/20- Dante's head has a lil bit of angelas ai in there. or ayin data. benjamin. any of them. carmen even. fuck whatever. maybe hokma bc ticking in ruina theme. (this one lead to some Better Ideas. see later) (4/7) POSSIBLY SUPPORTED BY 6.2. WHY DID THEY SEE THAT.

T9, 3/23- The three censored letters. B E A, S I N, E G O, A L I, who knows. v e r. could be anything this one is nothing

T10, 3/26- Faust VERY SPECIFICALLY says that brains cant be replaced-- so even if Dante gets their head back, it's incompatible now. (!! this is a Top Theory)

T11, 3/28- Beatrice or someone else died around Christmas, which makes Dante sad even without their memories. The pain exists but the context is missing. (They also seem to know Christmas music without any issue, able to sing along with Charon in their head. This is not addressed in canon.)

T12, 3/30- Beatrice was one of the orphans that died in Leviathan :) the time period matches up. It was around Christmas.

T13, 3/31- HARD LOBOCORP SPOILER. Thinking about In Hell We Live (Lament). "Each loop we live/die thru"? How many times? How many times has Dante done this? Or Pre-Dante, anyway. Faust is probably in on it. The new L corp took one look at what Ayin was doing and went "we can do that too lmao". Losing their memory was a base requirement to prevent madness. I rewrote this theory on 9/19 but added "to prevent a paradox"

T14, 4/18- Less a HC and more a suggestion, just use F Corp's shit to Unlock Dante's memory. If we ever visit District F, you KNOW Faust is gonna keep them on one hell of a tight leash.

T15- Is the Star a Singularity? Did Dante STEAL it? Are THEY the singularity? The clock? This one's too easy too though.

T16, 5/8- WAT IF THE STAR IS LUCIFER. MORNING STAR. CAN MANIPULATE SOULS IN HELL. (weak but proj moon loves their Christian imagery. this will come back repeatedly) not this one. maybe

T17, 5/10- Dante is either connected to whitenight OR a jesus figure (12 apostles, sin, not dying when killed, revives people, etc. the christianity again. it will continue. i already drew plague doc dante.) (4/7, possible but carmen is the lucifer adjacent if 6-34 is anything to go by. jesus is still open.)

**T18. 5/16- Dante's clock hands are made from a Golden Bough. ez. LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO canto 5.2

T19. 6/16- This has 0 canon basis but what if Dante was a Bloodfiend, would that be cool or what? They already don't need to eat, but is that from the clock or something else? Do they get IVs with nutrients? How does this work? Idk. I just want Dante to cut their hand open, make giant claws and rip a man apart before eating dirt. Dante can chew on a Sinner as a treat. c: I just want this one.

T20- Wouldn't it be fucked up if Dante found their head and it had either Distorted or was an Abnormality??

T21, 9/29- Religious Bastard Dieci Dante Aligheri.

T22- Dante has gotten Very Attached to the Sinners as their only form of contact while they've gotten themselves together. They recently realized many Sinners are doing this for the end goals, not to be a team. This seemed to upset them. UPSET THEM MORE. DISTORT THEM. DANTE REALIZES THEY'LL ALL LEAVE WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD. Carmen! Come get this bitch.

T23- Actually, Dante should distort for any reason. I Absolutely Understand the Mechanics (lying). Got too depressed, hit -45 SAN and decided they're just a useless tool instead of a person? Absolutely. You're now a piece of equipment. (when Heath asks if they're okay in canto 5 bc they got injured, dante responds "the clocks fine so who cares?") (I now understand the mechanics but want it anyway) They won't.

T24- Building off the previous, they're really starting to believe they're just a tool like how Gregor thinks he's a bug. That Is Not Good For Your Mental Health (garry ib icon.png)

T25- Putting this here just before my fav one, their skin. We never see it, so a list of potential possibilities excluding Being White bc that's BORING: Any POC, ashy skin (like vergil), dark ashy (charon), pure black or close to (a lot of people do this, me included), dark and covered in stars, very tattooed, very mechanical, just outright a robot, bloodfiend again, scarred, frankensteiny, bough roots, fucked up censored, ETC. Based on the few images we have that show anything, it's just pitch black under there unless it's a skinsuit. the rest of them may be any of the above but for now most of these are defunct.

T26- My Current Top Theory of All Time- Dante is an AI. They have never been human, just machine. At least one of their creators cared enough to do better than Ayin ever fucking did, fostering curiosity and a desire to live in the little AI. Thing is, after Angela, AI became Very Illegal. There's no way their creators survived. L Corp New got them. Old AI Dante was, at their core, still an unfeeling machine that made decisions based purely on cold logic. New Dante is a person that is learning and growing, refusing to follow the colder path at times.

Is the clock part of them? Unsure. That can work either way.

But they're definitely becoming a person who doesn't want every encounter to end in bloodshed and death. Good for them. (this part is correct)

T27- Dante is not Ruina Dante. they didn't get booked. I think they'd throw hands on sight.

T28- Verg/Dante that's all glory to yxxiville

**T29- Dante navigator skills IM SO FUCKING HAPPY I WIN FOREVER MOM HOLY FUCK

T30- I missed one! Their eyes with a human head. This has a few that rotate. Red eyes, Gold eyes, Gold with the star, heterochromia with only one gold/star and red, pitch black (pre-d), or night sky/star. mix and match. who cares?

T31- I personally like the idea of Dante being a redhead (real red not ginger like ish) but realize it doesn't make much sense. Black hair works too, esp smoky, but they need more color. maybe fire streaks? if POC, maybe dreads?

T32- I am now also accepting heathcliff/dante post canto 5.1 he care so much.... actually just sinner polycule is valid. so is sinner family. both work. the only part I dont like is dante/faust. doesn't feel right. Charon excluded. that is our child. sinner x any other sinner. dante x anyone. including vergil. not charon.

T33- Forgot an old one where I figured Dante was a hacker that got into a Lot of trouble and being sinner #10 was meant to be a suicide mission.

T34- Dante being an ai part 2, having been planted in a body. maybe even a body they knew.

T35- [added to 25]

T36- Memory loss being fully intentional to kill their previous self and only carry over the necessary. A new start.

T37- Yknow how we never SAW Dante being an upper torso and arm in canto 3? Why? What is being hidden that's so important? robot parts? are you a robot? are you a -

T38- Dante being an artist of any kind. musician, poet, painter, etc. even post amnesia. give em a hobby

T39- Somewhere else I discussed forms that'd be fun for a Dante Distortion but i cant find it so ill reiterate: coffin spider, all around helper clock, useless fucking thing. all of which have gold chains suffocating them and it doesnt fight back. give it morphine

T40- this one's insane but dante's og self being the Player/self-insert. thats why they were "Me" and not "Dante" we're not them. but we also are. (in tkt theres an npc names Mai so like. its close)

T41- This ones a joke but og dantes name actually just being "Me". (but not pronounced that way) (alternatively it was a nickname)

T42- Dante being an interviewer or reporter- A big name one. No wonder they keep secrets like K corps singularity. They can release that publicly later... if they choose to.

T43- RECREATE CARMEN. DO IT PUSSY. That 5.5 Blade scene is Damning as all hell. That or the bough + the monolith had an Interaction.

T44- Dante's internal programming knows the City Lore but Dante isn't allowed to know. The fact so much of that scene was censored...

T45- Dante is Bongbong

T46- I haven't beaten Ruina so I don't know a lot about Constructs or Librarians but like. Maybe they were one of those.

T47- Dante is going to eventually explode (figuratively). Even they can only take so much abuse and bullshit. Self-esteem can only go so low.

T48- Dante being a disaster chimera of stuff. AI made of someone else's brain, in someone else's body, with other stuff installed, etc, etc, etc.

T49- The Star reminds me too much of Blue Star, talking about Sin and such. Maybe it's an abno relating to that. who knows.

T50- Dante is an ID and there's a mirror in their head keeping them active. I hope they do a Charon/Lapis and totally overwrite the og bc the og's an asshole.

T51- Dante's the first successful "new human"

T52- Dante IS fucked up but something in their head hides the fuckedupness from everyone else.

T53- Dante is connected to that "ancient river".

T54- Dante was part of the 13th association.

T55- Dante stops keeping info to themselves so damn often. This is basically a bingo free space.

**T56- The Sinners are using Dante's time CONFIRMED jfc i JUST added this one too. and then tkt just confirms it like a minute later.

T57- Dante is a star. just straight up.