#but partially because of lack of motivation to write

[undertale-fluffcanons]

Hi 👋 I just wanted to say thanks for being one of the few undetale imagines blogs that are still active 😊 you rock! ✨️🎉

Thank you! I’m doing my best ;w;

[writingquestionsanswered]

how do i make my writing more ‘mature’? i always feel like no matter how sophisticated i write and no matter every which way i change it up it always has a sense of being childish or juvenile.

Making Writing Sound More Mature

1 - Better Plot and Story Structure - One of the telltale signs of juvenile writing is a story that meanders, has no obvious plot or structure, has no conflict or has a protagonist with no goal. So, make sure you have a well fleshed out plot, with a conflict, protagonist goal, and which hits the beats specific to your story's genre.

2 - Three-Dimensional Characters - If you're writing plot-driven fiction, make sure your main characters have a fleshed out personality, stakes, motivation, goal, and compelling relationships with other characters. If you're writing fully or partially character-driven fiction, do all of the above, but also make sure your main characters have a relevant internal conflict and a thoughtful character arc.

3 - Well-Developed Setting and World - One common hallmark of juvenile writing is a lack of "sense of place" and under-developed world building. So, make sure you put a lot of thought into where your story takes place... not just the immediate setting of each scene, but the overall world of the story, or at least the parts of it that are relevant.

4 - Incorporate Literary Devices - Juvenile writing tends to be lacking in the use of metaphor, simile, symbolism, irony, themes, and motifs. So, make sure to include those, but also take the time to make them relevant to your story.

5 - Include a Broad Range of Vocabulary - One common element of juvenile writing is a reliance on limited, simple vocabulary. Don't be afraid to use a thesaurus to find more interesting word choices--just be absolutely certain to crosscheck your choices with a dictionary to make sure they are the right choice. Online thesauruses in particular are bad about offering up bad suggestions. Also, make sure to learn and use special vocabulary that is relevant to your story, genre, or setting. For example, if your character is a retired police detective trying to solve a murder on his stalled cruise to Alaska, you need to make sure you know the proper investigative terminology, because he will definitely use it. And, by that same token, you'd want to make sure you know cruise ship lingo as well. And, part of this, too, is getting better at description and the inclusion of emotional and sensory detail.

6 - Use Varied Sentence Structure - This is a big one... juvenile writing tends to use repetitive sentence structure, such as simple sentences (she stood up, she went to the window, she waved at the man), lack of subordinate clauses (Tad Smith, who was a seasoned and retired investigator, had looked forward to this cruise his whole life...), repetitive starts (every sentence begins with a pronoun, for example), uniform length (all short sentences, for example.) So, make sure your sentences are varied. If you read them out loud, you don't want it to sound rhythmic, but more like a complex melody.

7 - Show, Don't Tell... Most of the Time - Telling definitely has its place, but most of the time you want to show rather than tell, meaning that instead of stating things simply and directly (the sun was shining) you want to paint a clear but indirect image (dappled sunlight shone through the trees.)

8 - Avoid Cliche Phrases - Human language is littered with everyday phrases like "to each their own" or "better late than never." Generally-speaking, you want to avoid these phrases in your story, especially in exposition. If you include them anywhere, they're best spoken as dialogue by a character who it makes sense would say something like that. Likewise, be careful of cliche genre or character-type phrases. For example, villains who say things like "we're not so different, you and I..." or "I finally have you right where I want you!" These overused phrases tend to make stories sound juvenile and unpolished.

9 - Avoid Cliche Tropes - Another type of cliche to avoid if you want more mature-sounding writing is cliches of various tropes. Tropes on their own are a good thing, but when tropes are used the same way over and over again in a genre or type of story, they become predictable. For example, the super gorgeous protagonist who everyone is in love with, but they view themselves as plain and not special. Or the broken/hopeless/addict mentor character. It's not that you can't use any cliche tropes at all, just make sure your story isn't riddled with them, and do what you can to put your own spin on the ones you do use.

10 - Read, Read, Read - And I can't stress this enough... the absolute best way to improve your writing style and take your writing from juvenile to polished is to make sure you're reading a lot of fiction, in a lot of genres, by a lot of authors. Audio books, short stories, and poetry count, too. The more you read, the more you begin to: understand plot and story structure, recognize well-developed characters, easily envision complex settings and worlds, learn vocabulary and literary devices, become attuned to varied sentence structure, and learn to recognize cliche phrases and tropes.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[liketwoswansinbalance]

In the modern publishing landscape, these days, I think like we do not have many (if any) point-of-view characters with low social motivation for whatever reason.

Sure, there are lots of characters with social anxiety or other perceived or legitimate foibles to overcome, there are many YA villain origin stories, and there are many unpalatable, traditionally "unlikable" men in classics, but disregarding those, who else do we have?

Can the state of openly being alone (and content) rarely be presented as morally-neutral or as the end result of a narrative? Must it always be that either being alone is the starting point, so there's room for "personal growth," or that being alone is seen as "undesirable" and/or an indication that the person alone has a "problem" or something otherwise wrong with them, like a deficit or moral failing that in some kind of karmic way gives them "what they deserve," which is being alone and discontent with it?

Characters with society anxiety, any differences in communication, or other reasons that interfere with forging connections "don't count" because they may still be motivated. Traits such as these only stand in the way of gaining relationships, as plot obstacles. They aren't intrinsically tied to indifference or to low motivation. So, these characters clearly are not experiencing a lack of interest. And they are not the ones rejecting others. Thus, they "don't count" as far as the archetype that I'm looking for goes.

Characters who undergo villain arcs or otherwise negative arcs may want to maintain their relationships or gain them, so some examples are immediately disqualified (hence not having low social motivation), even if they are the type of character most likely to alienate themselves by a story's end, conflicting with what they wanted.

(Unfortunately, Coriolanus Snow, who is quite close to the type of protagonist I'm searching for "doesn't count" because he has some drive to keep people in his life.

Rafal Mistral partially "counts," and is satisfying as a character, but also doesn't count because he temporarily makes "friends" or allies, depending on how you look at his exploits. Yet, despite all this, not having friends isn't exactly framed as a morally-neutral state either, so he is also disqualified by the end. Basically, he does have low social motivation, but his narrative lacks the conditions that would make the natural consequences of that low motivation play out for themselves. He is always surrounded by people, even if he hates every last one of them.

And, generally speaking, the usual, moody-broody, "misunderstood" YA love-interests very easily "don't count" because they have a desire to get closer to their object of affection.

Even Katniss Everdeen, an overall good person, who usually views herself as "unlikable," befriends others, originally for pragmatic, survival purposes. However, she does start with low social motivation, so that's something in her favor.

And yes, I'm aware that we need other people in this world—I would just like to see someone prove that supposed truth wrong once. And perhaps succeed in their world, if that's not too much to ask for.)

Also, are there any instances of characters who progressively alienate themselves from others, in which that progression is not inherently seen as negative? Like, what about non-corrupt misanthropes? Are there few of those in literature? (Maybe—Eleanor Oliphant from literary fiction counts, but something about that book did not appeal me and I didn't finish it.)

Classics guys sort of "count," but I haven't really seen examples of any comparable protagonists today since many authors and readers write and look for "relatability" in blank slate everyman figures oftentimes.

(I'm not done with Crime and Punishment yet, but Raskolnikov is very tentatively looking like a safe bet for a character who may end up alone and who may not be completely malcontent over such a fate, even if I'm expecting tragedy. I'm that not far along, but I also wouldn't mind it too greatly if he died, I suppose.

And even Sherlock Holmes has Watson as his constant, even if he's notoriously asocial! So he "doesn't count" either.

Carol from Main Street also comes close, but still ultimately desires approval from others.

Maybe no one is truly immune to humanity and I should give up on this notion?)

How many pov characters out there are 1) apathetic toward the masses and 2a) either alienate themselves as the plot progresses or 2b) do not make any friends? (I will allow them making friends and consequently losing them though because that still ends in net zero!)

Indeed, this "gap" in protagonists I've been running into lately, especially with coming-of-age arcs and protagonists whose arc is some form of "getting out of their shell," is: why do we (almost?) never see protagonists who just flat-out don't progress in terms of connecting with fellow humans?

Wouldn't having even a handful of those types be reflective of reality? (We as a society are more disconnected than ever, to be fair, despite constantly having access to one another via technology.)

Or I would completely understand it, if it were narratively impractical to have a plot in which a protagonist makes zero friends. Maybe, it's a near-unwritable form for a story?

So, my question is: does anyone have book recommendations, which present a character whose end goal is not to make friends or forge connections (any other ambitions or motivations are fine) and whose state of being friendless both lasts and is regarded as morally-neutral or as not outright evil? Any genre is fine. High fantasy is preferable. I am stumped.

(I also wouldn't mind recommendations of books in which the protagonist is vilified due to being alone, even if that is not my primary query here.)

[pumpkinsplots]

Writeblr Intro

Hello, writeblr! I finally caved and got tumblr, mostly because I love rambling about my wips and hearing other people ramble about theirs and all of that lovely stuff, so this seemed like a great platform to do that. With that being said, I plan on posting about my wips and ocs, as well as art related to those things, so if that interests you at all, I’d love to see you stick around. Also feel free to call me either Pumpkin or Maria, it’s entirely up to you!

About my writing

I’ve found that I really enjoy writing in a variety of genres, so hopefully at least one of my wips will tickle your fancy. Though I’d say a common thing for me is that I really like to world build, so my wips tend to be sci-fi, fantasy, or magical realism of some variety. Anything where I can put my own spin on the setting is something I’m bound to enjoy writing about.

I write in third person, usually with multiple povs, and I really enjoy character driven stories.

I often like to have a wide variety of ages in the cast, and if I had to pick a favorite trope it would be found family, so that’s usually present to some degree in my stuff.

Tonally, I always include light-hearted moments here and there, even if the wip is very bleak. It provides some levity, and I think it makes the painful stuff hit a lot harder. This is probably partially why I put some thought into each character’s sense of humor.

Most of my wips are geared towards older teens and adults, but I’ll get more into content warnings when I talk about each individually, because it really varies.

I’m one of those writers that kills off a lot of characters, so this is your warning not to get attached /j

I’m demisexual, so at least one character being on the ace spectrum is like a requirement for me at this point.

I’m a plantser, and pretty bad at staying motivated to actually finish first drafts.

About my wips

Falling Up

Falling Up is a sci-if story set in the future where Earth is a utopia where inhabitants experience little to no hardships throughout their lives. The deceased are replaced with AI created to replicate them, and everything is automated to the point where people no longer need to work to make a living. This lack of struggle results in dull, perfect lives and skewed morals. The people crave entertainment, even if it means making others suffer for it. Quasdom, a miniature man made planet initially intended to be used to separate deviants from the rest of the perfect society, is used as a catalyst for entertainment. The people of Quasdom believe that those on Earth are superior to them, and that Earth is a place where any wish can come true. This leads to the tourney, a death game between groups of ten on Quasdom, being viewed similarly to winning the lottery. The winning team gets to go to Earth, after all. Being chosen for the tourney is the luckiest thing that can happen to you. There’s no hard feelings between participants, death is completely painless, and the afterlife will welcome any participants to a better life than they previously had. There’s nothing to fear, so smile and put on a show.

A large cast and lots of character deaths

An exploration of why we get so attached to fictional characters, and how fiction can have an impact on reality

Probably going to be a trilogy

Content warnings include language, some unsettling themes, depictions of mental health issues, and generally things that are more psychological. Despite it being a death game, there’s no gore, like at all. The people on Earth may be desensitized, but they aren’t accustomed to seeing blood, so the tourney is designed with that in mind

Facade

Facade is set in a world where the living world and the spirit world coexist. Due to some actions by the main antagonist, about 20 years prior to the current story, spirits started getting aggressive and sort of going haywire. They possess any person they can, turning the individual into an uncontrollable killing machine. The best defense to this was the invention of a certain kind of mask that prevents possession, and masks quickly became widespread. Since there’s no known way to reverse spiritual possession, the only solution is to kill those that are unfortunate enough to meet that fate. A group led by an anonymous vigilante known as K9 seek to find a way to reverse possession. Many enemies are made along the way, and there are countless obstacles to face.

Its setting is based on Singapore and set in the 90s, though there are many creative liberties taken

The wip is currently pretty no plot just vibes

Themes about individuality vs equality

Content warnings include language and some sexual content

Facade: After Dark

While Facade is currently no plot just vibes, developing the characters led to me thinking of the plot for a prequel. Is it a self-indulgent novella about two of the characters I love? Yes, absolutely. In summary, it’s a romance novella about the the relationship of Leijing and Iris, and their struggles in navigating the wild world of Facade. They have vastly different upbringings and experiences, but their differences bring them together in more ways than one.

I have so much backstory for this pre-established couple and I couldn’t think of a good way to incorporate it into the main story without cutting a bunch of it, so boom it’s a prequel now

I’ve found that working on a wip that’s more low stakes and simple is really fun—I tend to get stressed about my more ambitious plots, so this wip is a great change of pace

Leijing is demisexual with little interest in anything sex related and Iris is an omnisexual sex worker, and the story explores how a world obsessed with all things sex can effect both more sex-negative and sex-positive people

Content warnings include language, explicit sexual content, and potentially triggering subject matters. This is my only wip where it’s strictly 18+!

Lights Out

Sunlight is the essence of life. Without it, the world would wither away. However, a dangerous new life form of unknown origin festers in the light. With long, elegant glimmering limbs, high intelligence, picturesque precision, and a craving for flesh, these organisms pose a major threat to humanity. But for some odd reason, these creatures refuse to step into any area where the sun doesn’t touch. Much of humanity takes to the shadows, building elaborate underground tunnels for civilizations and doing what humans do best—using their resources and ingenuity to adapt.

Has two protagonists that butt heads but start to develop a father daughter dynamic. A young adult girl who’s from the underground and unknowingly part of a cult, and an older man with one leg who’s so stubborn he’d rather fight and die than flee to the darkness

Lots of creepy cult imagery and themes about religious trauma

So much banter of course

Content warnings include language, disturbing imagery, and gore

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Asks, comments, tag games, and messages are always appreciated, and I’d love to hear about your wips as well!

[hoyotournament]

Quarterfinals: Bronya Zaychik vs Collei

(Propaganda under the cut)

Bronya Zaychik:

revamping this bc i feel like it could be better: i love her so so bad <3. canonically disabled lesbian who has trouble with feeling intense emotions BUT HER ENTIRE CHARACTER REVOLVES AROUND LOVE!! whether it be from her romantic love of seele in the early game/manhua (it being the primary motivation for her to take care of herself and a partial reflection of her initial goal of saving seele from the quantam space no matter what); familial love surrounding her (her inheritance of the legacy of reason from welt yang who lost his own father, her guardians love for her being the only reason shes survived for so long even after their death <- many examples of that but the most obvious one being alexandra trading her own life for bronya via misteln, cocolia's relationship with bronya being emphasized as complex in part because of the real love they do feel for each other alongside all the other resentment from cocolia's betrayal of her), literally just. the core of reason and its 300,000 minds being representative of welt joyce's decision to fight for humanity because he loved humanity from that. and all of this from (again!!!) a canonically disabled lesbian! who's character and marginalized identities have been dehumanized over and over again in real life and in the plot! this isn't even mentioning how her entire arc exemplifies honkai's theme of agency!! which makes me sob my eyes out bc bronya hasn't really been allowed agency since she came to cocolia's orphanage!! she was a child mercenary who's lost her home and guardians over and over and over again and forced to care for herself when she was young. her first true point of domestic stability was in cocolia's orphanage (which even then wasn't perfect!! cocolia, for how much she loved her children, still asked them to participate in dangerous experiments!) and when that was threatened because of her loss of seele and her trust in cocolia, she chose to leave. her agency is also exemplified with cocolia literally taking over her body in the early chapters of the game and ofc the parallels w wendy. AND DO YOU SEE HOW THIS CONNECTS TO WELT JOYCE, HUMANITY'S ADAM, WHO CHOSE TO FIGHT FOR HUMANITY AND EMBRACE HIMSELF AS A HUMAN INSPITE OF HIS ORIGIN AS THE CURRENT ERA'S FIRST HERRSCHER AND HOW THAT ALSO EXTENDS BACK TO ELYSIA'S SACRIFICE? she's so important to me everyone watch cyberangel rn.

Collei:

MY DEADALIVEGIRL!!!!!!!!!! i genuinely don't even know where to start. collei is such a beautiful beautiful character who's entire story revolves around a girl who's been dehumanized and exploited for her entire life, healing through compassion and a recognition of her own humanity. first of all, when we meet collei in the genshin manhua, she is full of vitriolic anger and hate at both the world and herself. she's been dehumanized over and over and over again and because its a repetitive experience, she fully believes that her lack of worth is something innately true. this only changes when someone (amber) shows her unrelenting compassion and trust. amber goes against everything that collei believed about herself. amber tells her that she is not only capable of good, but she is good. amber reinforces this novel idea that collei deserves goodness. and that realization is the moment that collei begins recognizing her own humanity, and thus, recognizing her own potential to grow, heal, and be the good person that amber knows she is. every moment thus forth is a demonstration of her attempts to grow and be kind!!!! she decides to go through with cyno's sealing ritual even with its conditions! she asks lisa to help her write a letter at the end of the manhua! she mends amber's tattered clothes like she promised! she decides to go to sumeru, a land of wisdom! it's so pertinent to her character that she gains her vision (representative of her ambition) during a show of compassion (protecting a child during a dangerous storm)! it's even in her symbolism with the way she's constantly referred to as a sproutling. NOT EVEN MENTIONING HOW THE REBIRTH METAPHOR THATS APPLIED TO HER CHARACTER (re: sprout of rebirth, revived serval, cyno and anubis and their ritual) IS SO DEEPLY CONNECTED TO SUMERU (her being the first sumeru character we know of and having that rebirth metaphor hinted at in the manhua! that rebirth metaphor carrying over to the actual sumeru plot w nahida! the rebirth metaphor tying in with the snake and cat symbolism that she and the archon residue complete!!!!!!) she's just such a loaded character!! AND collei's one of the few genshin characters with canonical cptsd who has identifiable and realistically common triggers. most importantly, the game acknowledges that its there and in spite of that, shows her resilience in still trying and healing!!!! my disabled deadalive mummygirl i love her so bad.

[swordoffrivolousthings]

What if Percy didn't take Annabeth on his first quest?

This is a question I've been playing with for my massive canon-divergence AU, and it has quite the interesting repercussions. I mean, Annabeth is quite the essential member of the TLT quest. She acts somewhere between a wet cat and becoming-friend to Percy, and is helpful in quite a few moments. This quest is the moment when they begin their friendship, and what prompts Percy to take her with him later on. (This kid values friendship and loyalty, let's not forget.)

Please remember while reading that this thought experiment is growing around the specific needs of my plot, and not what would most likely happen!

But before I begin to explain what I think would happen, I think it would be fun to imagine how exactly this AU would come to be. The reasons that Annabeth joins the quest in the first place are 1) she is invisible when Chiron is discussing quest members with Percy, therefore eavesdropping and knowing what she needs to say 2) Chiron doesn't put his hoof down on Annabeth's improper behavior and 3) Percy kind of goes along with it, despite Annabeth clearly not having a practical quest experience.

For this AU, I will say that Percy didn't want her to join his quest. (possible reason: she put him in front of the Ares Cabin as bait so she could win a game, and not warning him beforehand).

I think Annabeth would complain to Chiron, playing her 'I've waited for so long for this opportunity and it's not fair' card, but Chiron can't force Percy to take him with her. So, who would Percy choose?

At that point in the book, beside Grover, only Luke has been kind of a friend to Percy at camp. So I tend to lean towards Percy looking for Luke's support in this case.

This could go two ways:

Luke, being scarred by his previous experience with quests (quite literally), does not take him up on this offer. In this scenario, we ignore Luke's growing loyalty towards Kronos and it would mean that he, in turn, ignores the possibility to get Percy on his side early on. (what I am using for my fic)

Luke takes Percy on his offer, but the trauma is still present. He also tries to make Percy believe in his cause, therefore making him more prone to side with Luke.

I will focus on the first way because of plot reasons. Percy does not end with Luke as a quest-mate. This means that he has to choose another camper. At this point, the question of who is hard to answer. He doesn't really interact with many campers in his first week. The only others that I can remember of the top of my head (with a positive experience attached) are Travis and Connor Stoll (?), but they don't strike me like the kind to go on a potentially deadly quest.

This leads to the question of who would Percy take with him.

In my fic this is an OC with ulterior motives that convinces Percy that they would be a good asset. I will not explore this idea because it's not why I've begun writing this.

So, let me focus on what would not happen/change without Annabeth there:

When Alecto and her sisters attack, Percy would be left vulnerable and exposed with his quest-mates trying to protect him to the best of their abilities. This would most likely result in Percy and the other getting hurt more than in canon.

At Medusa's Lair, Percy would still be unaware of what danger he is in. Maybe he would actually take into consideration Grover's nervousness, or the other quest-mate would catch on. It is not important, only that it would be considerably harder for Percy to kill Medusa because he would lack information that Annabeth provides. On the other hand, the other character could provide the information. -> alternatively, since Medusa is partially aggravated by Annabeth's presence, she could let them go easily, but that is highly unlikely. Would also mess with the final Gabe plot, which I do not quite see the point in changing since it is an important moment for Percy and Sally both.

Percy and co. wouldn't go to the Arch, so the whole Echidna and Chimera debacle would be avoided. This also deprives Percy of the information about the pearls that ultimately take them from the Underworld.

Because they didn't stop at the Arch, they end up in Los Angeles without too much fuss. This avoids both the Ares plot and the Tunnel of Love debacle but also deprives Percy of the lightning bolt. And also they don't get stuck in the Lotus Hotel, which saves them time.*

They still have to face Crusty, but this goes like in canon, mostly.

Once in the Underworld (because they still get past Charon, who would still be bribed by Percy) they come face to face with Cerberus. This complicates things quite a lot. I will take a bit of authorial liberty and say that the nameless quest-mate would think of a game of fetch, like Annabeth.

Now, the questers end up before Hades (the Tartarus pit thing happens the same way). Hades blames Percy for his stolen Helm, but at this point Percy doesn't know what that is. Hades has no basis that Percy stole the lightning bolt, but this doesn't stop him from taking them prisoner.

They would end up in the dungeons. From now on? Well, it's basically a dead end, because we haven't established who would Percy take with him. This ends with the whole plot of the series derailing in such a way that it would hurt me to write down.

I will say that it's a really interesting way in which Riordan has woven Annabeth into the plot of the first book. I'm not saying this to make those of you that want to explore her absence from the quest feel discouraged. I mean, this post started because I want to do the same thing.

It's also a very good way to visualise how to weave side character's decisions and mistakes in the developing plot! Hope this inspires someone to go and do whatever they want to canon.

*me from the future (11/8/2024). I took a closer look at the TLT plot, and I made a mistake. They would probably end up in Denver, where Percy and co. meet with Ares. This is because they haven't eaten since they encountered Medusa.

So this means that they would get the mini quest from Ares. It doesn't mean, however, that they necessarily take it up. Annabeth is the one that pestered Percy into going to retrieve Aphrodite's scarf/shawl or whatever it was.

Percy initially refuses, so maybe they don't go.

This would play out exactly the way I said before.

But it my specific AU, the other character is loyal to Hera, Ares and Hephaistos, so they would convince Percy to go and do the mini-quest.

-> they still get onto the 'Kindness International' van, so they would still end up in Vegas. Them entering the Lotus Casino is up for debate. Maybe they lose some time, maybe they don't.

->this means that at Hades', they have the lightning bolt but not the pearls. This means that they would still get thrown into the a cell. This also leads to war between the gods.

And because I'm feeling generous, lets say that the gods fighting each other leads them to being more vulnerable to Kronos' plans and machinations. They would end up being overthrown and humanity dying!

This oversight on my part kind of reduces Annabeth's importance to the well-being of the plot, but not by much. Her lack of detour to the Arch still leads to war!

[aachria]

I have done it! The fic is ready to go and has left the station! I will let you know that the upload schedule is goanna be lack as I have zero to motivation!

But that leads me to my question! How do you Aachria stay motivated for as long as you do? You have been pumping out chapters left and right and I'm pretty sure all of us want to know the big secret. How do you do it?

I'm putting my money on grit and determination!

Slay! Proud of you!

Grit and determination is a.... very kind way of putting it. I'm gonna level with you, I have no goddamn idea how the actual fucking hell I have managed this. I Do Not Know. This is absolutely the longest I've worked consistently on a project like. ever. Honestly I think the accountability of posting it is what kept me from losing interest in writing it near the start?

Would it surprise you to know I have never written actual like... story outside of school assignments and half-baked ideas when I was like 14? I was like. not a writer before I started writing this. (I have however always held the delusional idea I was a very very good writer, even when I was in grade 6 and absolutely was not. The audacity has always been with me.)

I partially blame the Attention Keeping Crack™ baked into One Piece itself, because it refuses to unsink its claws from my consciousness. Also the Vyvanse. It's also probably the Vyvanse.

So honestly; I have no fucking idea how I'm doing what I'm doing. BUT, using ye olde strategy of focusing your attention on planning and the details of parts of your story that interest you when what you're currently working on starts dragging is pretty great. Tired of the arc you're stuck in right now? No problem! You got a random fascination with bank heists and art theft? Sounds like something you could plan into an arc in the future! Just shifting your interest and attention around your story so you don't get hung up on parts you don't find as fun really pays off in the long run, both for holding your attention significantly longer AND for planning how your story will look in the long run with the bonus of it being much more fleshed out then if you just chugged through linearly while running on fumes. And your attention will always swoop back to what you were working on before with luck and patience willing.

Oh, and that grit and determination usually turns out to be spite and pure hedonistic urges to do whatever the hell makes you most happy at the moment. They look very similar though if you want to put that on your job or college applications ;)

BOOM AACHRIA WISOM OF THE WEEK, BASK IN IT.

[irkendogma]

tak is the main antagonist for this crossover fic im writing and due to the lack of canon content beyond literally that one episode and some of etf, sometimes i worry im not doing her any justice or it’s too ooc. what do you think would be the best way to write tak in your opinion? (if you happen to have any advice on the matter. just wondering! byeeee💃)

i'm genuinely so relieved at the specification of "in your opinion" because i have such a strange long-lasting attachment to tak that i think i would second-guess my thoughts on her in an objective vacuum to the point of just saying "she should be purple". but as it is i now have the freedom to go stupid crazy about it

i think there's a number of crucial elements to tak, but i think the one that people miss most in writing her is that she isn't just meant to be a more competent counterpart to zim - she's a direct parallel in terms of her ego, motivation, and backstory (the latter particularly as a result of treatment by irken society)

like zim, tak has an enormous ego and an audacity that places herself above anyone else, even the empire itself (see: her custom invader insignia. that's like drawing a crucifix but substituting yourself for jesus after being refused by the church), and like zim, in spite of her disregard for the empire's rulings she's striving for recognition both by it and within it (to quote her: "the plan i have in store for this nasty rock will so impress the tallest that they'll have no choice but to make me an invader"). the same way zim "quit being banished", tak "escaped" from the janitorial squad she was placed under as a stopgap job until the next elite test in seventy years

i've seen some people write her as tall, but in my opinion her being only very, very slightly taller than zim is not just a stylistic choice but an essential part of her character that draws her backstory together: technically that janitorial job wasn't even a punishment, it was just deemed the most suitable position for her in the absence of official imperial proof that she was capable of anything "better" or "higher" that would've been afforded to a taller more easily

that she made it so far in the elite course at all in spite of her height gives context and precedent to the competence and sheer refusal to admit defeat she exhibits in her attempt to destroy earth, a planet she initially believes is already undergoing an officially-sanctioned invasion judging from how bitterly she tells zim about what should've been "rightfully hers", down to specifically mentioning the great assigning - loops back to her audacity, in that she has zimlike degrees of ego regardless of how hard the circumstances logistically are aligned to stomp her back down (see again her quote where she confidently states her plan to hijack an official invasion will impress the tallest to the point they won't mind her flagrantly flaunting the rules). she would've spent so much of her life striving to meet her own exceedingly high expectations, not the exceedingly low ones assumed of someone her height, that this likely isn't far from her standard procedure of "show them i can do it better than the rules say"

what sets her apart from zim, i think, is in how much she's allowed herself to let those miserable expectations get to her and leave her pettier, more vindictive, less grandstanding speeches like zim than showing off everything she's capable of as often as possible, no matter how necessary (ALL the stupid parkour she does for no reason) - which i think is admittedly less her fault than partially being the result of her having actually experienced her confidence failing her when the entire future she'd set up for herself was pulled out from underneath her

unlike zim, who experiences failure regularly but never has it truly sink in, tak had the entirety of her progress wiped off the board in a single moment as a result of circumstances entirely beyond her control: i think a large part of the reason she resents zim so deeply and sincerely isn't solely because of the practical consequences of her missing her test (though it is in no way insignificant to it) but because he was the one who broke her streak - he was the one who made her brutally aware that no matter how she built herself up, no matter what proof she offered, she could still fail and be crushed into exactly the nobody she was expected to be

and she just cannot abide that, no matter what, because even if the memory of helplessness and humiliation will never go away (not that she'd acknowledge it wouldn't), if she can make him hurt the same way maybe that will give back to her some of the power and control over her life and her identity that she lost in losing her potential status as a real, sanctioned invader

also, i do think she should be purple. she seems to have a great attachment to aesthetics and individual style, given her custom pseudo-elite uniform (which we see her wearing even in training, on her test day), the fact she designed and programmed her hologram specifically to have the distinguishing marking of a beauty spot in the same place she has one on her actual face, and her penchant for making nearly every damn piece of her tech purple some way (minus mimi, who while being her own bootleg SIR unit still follows the same red color scheme as a functional one) - even the cockpit of the spittle runner she pilots is initially purple before it's ejected as an escape pod, and the magma pump's interior looks like this:

girl likes giving things her own little touches whether that's in terms of her trademark color, her near-blasphemous custom imperial logo, or her doing a tactical slide between bars of a railing instead of just stepping normally onto the floor

[zvezdacito]

Me and my friends were talking about some Glorious Masquerade Plot + Rollo character writing tweaks the other day and I decided to share what we came up with her 💃 So yeah💥

• Instead of wanting to exterminate all magic, Rollo instead wants to control what types of magic exists and that only who he perceives worthy to have it. This is because he sees himself as the only one righteous enough to deem what and how magic should be.

• He targets the NRC students, seeing them as wicked and unfit to wield magic because of all the times they've overblotted, and thinks Malleus especially should be stripped of his magic before he inevitably goes next to OB due to the pattern of events or does something like Halloween 2 again (Masquerade has no reason to be set on Halloween tbh it could be like summer in the timeline and virutally nothing would change. So Halloween 1 and 2 still happens here because it doesn't happen in Halloween anymore.)

Maybe just NRC specifically is who he targets to depower in this rewrite, but the other invited schools got dragged into it by being there when the flowers sprung, like how Frollo was only after esmeralda and the romani at first but his obsessive wrath ended up dragging all of Paris into it

• This is because he harbors an anger that he was the only one trying to warn his brother to not misuse his magic, and how he was inspired by the misuse of magic by other mages to die in his Overblot accident.

• He partially realizes this was his fault as his controlling 'holier-than-thou' behavior and manipulation (motivated by wanting to make him "see" the right way like Frollo to Jehan in the musical) is what fueled the negative overblot feelings of his brother, but he can't deal with the guilt and the fact that he might've been wrong, so he remains in denial.

• His controlling and manipulative behavior motivated by the belief his way is superior to others continues in the current time, as here he also manipulates Yuu to make them believe what he believes.

• He appeals to them by pointing out how the NRC students have done nothing but endanger them with reckless magic so far, and how they're all too selfish and probably aren't even using it to find them a way home. (More things to fuck up Malle+Yuu and challenge their friendship as well as make them both more paranoid and desperate in time for their drama in Book 7)

Yuu either purposefully helps him betray the others because of this or they were simply tricked into leading them to a trap. Either way it really looks like to the others that Yuu has turned on them because they lacked faith in them, which would sting more because of how excited they were to have Yuu being on this trip with them at the start of the event.

• This would also make Idia's confrontation and parallels with him make more sense, because like Idia he in a way was indirectly responsible for the death of his younger brother, instead of Rollo's brother just happening to perish in front of him.

• Maybe instead of letting him go completely scot free (they said the real punishment was having to live with his guilt but let's be real he felt no remorse by the end of it, he even said he'd try again☠️) Rollo's punishment when he reveals himself is like some kind of house arrest, confining him to not be able to move around without supervision or leave the grounds of NBC to do sneaky stuff again. Kinda ironic, since supervising and policing actions is literally what we wanted to do to the NRC mages and the entire world, but all it resulted in was it being enforced on him.

This penalty could be like a parallel to Esmeralda being confined to sanctuary in Notre Dame and Quasimodo also not being allowed to leave because he is a "monster" (in this case Rollo is a moral monster)

• Also, I think this would really kind of done a better job being a prelude arc taunting the audience and the characters for what's gonna happen to them in Book 7, and challenging how strong their newly formed bonds really are, as well as their resolve to not make these foreshadowed mistakes are. (We know they WILL make these mistakes, so oof lmao. It will make us and them confront whether Rollo was right or not that everything eould be better off if they had been defeated there and then)

Overall, I think this would make Rollo's whole character feel more connected and not just different random aspects the writer thought of at the last minute. His canon plan and reasoning is, for a lack of a better term, so corny and over the top, not in a "this character is meant to be crazy" kind of way but in a "the authors thought this would be more epic than it actually was" kind of way.

-> What was Rollo going to do if he was the only mage left, how was the City fo Flowers meant to deal with the diplomatic implications of harm befalling Malleus, how are in-universe essentials that run on magic supposed to go on if there is no more magic left.

-> The story never tried to point out the practical disastrous consequences of Rollo's plan on the structure of the world if it succeeded, so now it looks like it wasn't meant to be dumb on purpose and the writers themselves just never thought of it.

From what I remember the most they do is give Malleus a line worrying about what would happen to the Briar Valley if this comes to pass, and how Rollo is a misguided hypocrite for his plan. But that's kinda it😭

-> And why did him seeing his brother die from OB lead him to dislike magic in general and give him a superiority complex that he's the only one deserving of it? The reason they give in canon is because he feels weak for failing to save his brother. And through becoming the only mage ever, he will feel powerful enough to compensate for his failure I guess😭

This motive of wanting to be better than everyone can still co-exist with the rewrite motive but it's kind of weak and lame on its own, especially for a character who's meant to be based off one of the greatest Disney villains of all time😭

Plus no matter what the narrative tries to frame it with I feel like getting "I need to become better than everyone" from the experience of your brother dying kinda came out of nowhere, and isn't as connected to each other as it could be😭

So that's why I think giving him:

a) an issue of being manipulative in forcing rigid standards he believes to be "superior" on the people he wanted to "save"

b) wanting to blame the use of magic that these standards of his did not approve of for his brother's death, because he couldn't stomach the fact that the way he enforced these standards was also to blame

c) and his motive being more specific than eradication all magic

makes what they were trying to do more fleshed out and connect to each other better, as well as making more out of having Claude Frollo as his character's inspiration.

I get he's an event-only character so they probably didn't think too hard about it, but if you're gonna go out of your way to include a character based off Claude Frollo in the story at least go crazy and make the most out of it💃

Other than tweaks to Rollo's motivations and the scope of his plans, if I could edit something else about the event it would be the worldbuilding😭 I just put a screenshot from my Instagram story back when the event was ongoing because it pretty much sums up everything I would like to change about it

I still liked the event overall. I was so happy that Malleus finally got an event ssr and more story spotlight, but yeah I think they could've done more with the ideas it proposes

Maybe this post would be more relevant if I made it right after the event ended and not many months later when there's already a new event grabbing everyone's attention, but I'm cursed to never be on time to trends and etc so everyone is only getting this now💔

Ty for reading🫡

[mdhwrites]

The Grimwalker as a concept was so weird. Mainly that Hunter was all 'ohhhh no we cant tell them im a spooky Grimwalker!' But... why would anyone care? The only reason given is that hes a reincarnation of a guy nobody even knows or cares about. Theres not even like, a spooky myth about Grimwalkers because its got such a vague ruleset and premise. He's barely different from a demon.

That COULD have linked to the demon discrimination plotline youve talked about, but there is none so it cant be that. Which i understand was partially because Dana wanted the gays to just exist, so she scrapped discrimination in general. But, a big part of forming cultures and identity is 'Otherness'. People compare themselves to others and define themselves by how theyre different. So scrapping discrimination ends up making the witchs and demons feel like nothing. They have nothing to compare their identity and culture against because theres just no conflict to spark comparison.

This lack of substance also means the fans don't care about Grimwalkers. See the moring comic where the Grimwalker was turned into ANOTHER way to say 'haha Boscha so cringe amirite? point and laugh because she has nobody who loves her.' even though the grimwalker is to reincarnate the dead.

OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED THAT! *SCREAMS BLOODY MURDER* Like I know Mark just writes Boscha how the entire fandom sees her (which hasn't helped me enjoy A Hint of Blue, not that I think it's good regardless) but seriously what the fuck!? Why do that to her except just to be mean!?

*sighs* What were we talking about? OH RIGHT! Grimmwalkers.

So for why Hunter has anxiety, it actually is because TOH is doing a very basic clone/artificial human storyline with Hunter and those arcs are actually a lot more internally motivated than externally motivated. Clone lives a life believing they're their own person, then one day finds out they're not, perceives themselves as less because of this distinction but then in the end decides that regardless of their origin, they are their own person and so throw off their shackles, embrace who they are and become better for it. It has nothing to do with race and while it is baby's first clone story, I also still like it conceptually because, well, there's a reason why it's the default clone story. It especially is good for kid's media because while the clone can struggle with the anxiety of it, their friends never have to actually be bad or discriminatory against them because the point is loving yourself for who you are and not who you were made to be.

But I've talked before about how this basic framework actually has a Catch 22 built into it when it comes to Hunter... Which apparently Tumblr wants to tell me I've never done before. Thanks search function. The short version is that this template requires not only a rejection of what they were made for but for them to become distinctly different, usually opposite, to their purpose/original. For Hunter, he only knows Belos so this takes shape in trying to be the opposite of him. The problem is that the opposite of Belos... Is Caleb. Who Hunter mimics in every action he takes after getting away from Belos. There's literally no way to follow this template without adding complexities like him accepting his true origin and being okay/happy with that, something that was probably unlikely in general but especially wasn't going to happen with the shortening, which I will actually give people for. Because the Grimmwalker twist happens so late, they either had to cut it or had no time to actually do anything with it which like... Why not cut it? You did nothing with it and it actually made sure you didn't have the time to actually have Hunter reject Belos' morality so that his redemption doesn't come across as self serving and for survival more than an actual, you know, change to his beliefs.

As for how interesting Grimmwalkers are... They're just clones. Boilerplate, boring clones. Make a body based on another person, put memories in, BAM! Got yourself a clone. Doesn't get more classic than that. It's hardly even magical honestly besides the components, especially with how it actually doesn't give them magic despite those components, or have weird quirks since they're not actually made of flesh and blood, elements that the fans have had a lot of fun with that the show never does, though admittedly part of that is due to how late it happens. Then again, all magic in TOH is boring so it's not likely they would have anyways. Also, you know, a lot of shows will do a single clone episode and have more fun and magic to it than TOH does with one of their core cast members being one so *shrug*

Now, for the final part, I do want to also touch on the 'other' aspect because while discrimination is one way to do it, you can get this across in other ways. One such way is the core defining trait of the Grimmwalker from a tangible standpoint: He doesn't have magic. In a society that mostly has magic, him not having it is a big deal. It's literally what gives him and Willow their first connection as a couple, as insulting as that scene actually should be to Hunter.

And then Hunter is 'fixed' when he gains his magic. His 'other' status removed because he's a real boy now. *SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH*

I have so much more I could say about TOH and 'The Other' (made a blog about a lot of it between writing this draft and publish) but I'll leave it at that so it actually stays on topic instead of the half a dozen tangents I've deleted. None of this makes it good by the way and with how TOH tackles most subjects like this, it's incredibly unlikely that more time would have made it better. After all, being a Grimmwalker is only one of like a half dozen TANTALIZING character/arc concepts for Hunter that are never addressed. The fact that he is trained to kill witches and likely has. His relationship with the Isles because he doesn't have inherent magic. The fact that he is filled with such care for the nation and its government that it blocks out all else in his world. How a sheltered child reacts when they suddenly have freedom and are thrust into the wider world. Etc. etc. that are just footnotes to the writers more than anything to actually build a complete arc around or else they wouldn't have just keep adding to the angst bucket without actually resolving any of it.

So of course Grimmwalkers are bland while being a fine to good concept that's then made terrible by narrative implication or neglect. That's EVERYTHING to do with Hunter.

======+++++=====

Sidenote for this one: It is funny that Dana wanted there to be no bigotry in the Isles when her villains entire scheme is through religious persecution. You know, bigotry. Whole other blog I could go into.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

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[el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle]

Hi! I love reading your take on what-ifs. Here is a what if based on a fan fic idea I have seen! Armando decides he will not go forward with the plan but decides to talk to Betty and ends up confessing what Mario’s idea was and letting her know he’d never do something like that.

Together they decide to pretend he is going forward with it so Mario is not constantly nagging Armando about it and to keep appearances up they actually go on dates. At the beginning they just chat but of course Armando slowly discovers how interesting and wonderful Betty is and of course falls for her….

How do you think a scenario like this would go?

Hiii!

Ohh, I've seen this idea! I like it a lot, but I don't see it actually happening. Unfortunately I think Armando was too paranoid about everything to trust Betty like that. At this point, he's feeling betrayed by Betty, because everything she tells him that isn't happening or wasn't going to happen did happen-- she said she wouldn't tell anyone, turns out she told everything to this unknown dude, Nicolás. She said she feels nothing for Nicolás, turns out everyone knows she's deeply in love with him. She says that she isn't hiding anything, but becomes angry and defensive when someone mentions her private life in front of Armando.

Armando thought they had this special "bond" of trust, but he's just so egocentric that he never stopped to think about her side or the at-least-on-paper professional nature of their relationship lmao so he feels betrayed by Betty slightly, because for the first time he has the feeling that he doesn't know her. That's why he ends up trusting Mario's arguments more than Betty herself, because Mario is a constant in his life and, rn, his only support and the only person he thinks he knows.

Another issue is that seducing her in the show forced him to act in ways, see things, and say things that he probably would have never done/seen/say so clearly had he not been trying to actively pursue a realistic-looking "relationship", which is why he falls so hard and quick.

But in a situation where Armando trusts Betty more, my ideas would be the following! And I apologize in advance for the lack of organization, more than of usual this time I started writing without looking back lmao:

First of all, something would need to happen so Armando once again feels like he knows Betty. Like he can trust her fr and not "have" to do the plan.

This 'something happening" would have to undoubtedly be related to Betty's feelings and/or Nicolás, both of which are a very deep part of Armando's distress. He felt Betty was "his" way before the plan, after all, and thinking another man was in her heart was what truly bothered him!

(Armando, I believe, was partially moved by the paranoia and partially motivated by a genuine animalistic instinct to "claim" what was his. To respond to this threat of another man wanting to take her. Armando in a way basically thought of Betty as his something lmao very deeply and unconsciously, ofc)

Anyway, assuming "the something" happens, Armando would snap out of it and be like "oh, for God's sake, what am I thinking of doing to this girl?"

So if he decided to talk to her, we'd need for them both to put all cards on the table and be extremely honest. Armando wouldn't be calm enough to just blindly trust her unless his real concern (her feelings for Nicolás) was addressed!

Not sure how this convo would go exactly, given that she keeps to herself a lot in this regarddue to him being her real love lmao. But let's say she actually genuinely convinces him thay she's absolutely devoted to him and no one is above him in her mind

He'd have to explain he's desperate, and that Mario keeps nagging about this idea and really drill into her head that he wouldn't do this. That Mario is the one insisting.

It would honestly just fuel Betty's love and illusion of Armando's perfection even more. He would have been consolidated as the best man ever to exist in Betty's mind. She’d think he's a good man who would never betray her, not even for 50 million dollars!

She’d also probably realize that Armando wouldn't be with her willingly ever, not even for a 50 million dollars

But she would also feel incredibly disgusted at Mario for thinking of doing that to her through Armando.

In any case, when Armando asks for her help to create this facade, she'd undoubtedly help

Not only would this increase Armando's trust in her, but she would also be showing how unconditional and helpful she is

Ans in Betty's mind, she could never refuse him, not when he could have used her ans discarded her but instead he chose to respect her and ask for her help. He chose to trust her over trusting his best friend. She also gets to spend more time with this amazing man, so Betty isn't that bothered about actually doing it.

So they agree. Betty says they don't really need to go on dates, that they can just say they did, and that's what they do at first.

Eventually they do go on dates. Maybe at least a few times so that Mario doesn't suspect anything. They go on dates to the places Mario tells him to, and at first it's all awkward and weird.

It's not really frequent, like once a week like how it becomes in their relationship after a while in the show

But of course as they continue going to these dates, they become more organic

Armando is still sexually active with Marcela, ofc.

He's actually in a pretty good mood (in comparison to the show, at least...) because here he doesn't have this weight on his conscience about "harming an angel"

He doesn't really show or give Betty the cards and presents, tho. They go straight to the trash

He's also very vague about how everything in the dates go whenever Mario ask

He's also not drinking to go to them, unless something particularly stressful happens at Ecomoda or with Marcela, but the dates themselves are not causing him to drink

In the novela he drank out of guilt and "needing the courage" to kiss her and touch her and lie to her. To take from her what he belives is her first experienes with love out of what is basically a task for him. Here, there's none of that.

As Betty once tells him, they should think of the "dates" as a work meeting.

That's pretty much how it starts: as extra work hours.

They go to these places and plan for the next day's work. They talk about mainly Ecomoda.

All this leads to Armando taking much longer to actually fall in love, because part of what makes him fall in the show is that he had to "face Betty", and here, he doesn't

The biggest issue for Armando was Betty's appearence in the show. He didn't feel physical or sexual attraction, which are very important for conventional romantic love, especially for a highly sexual man like Armando. He forced himself to kiss her and eventually he moved past those barriers and actually let those dormant feelings rise. Here he isn't forcing himself.

Quiet the contrary, this position only gets him further into his comfort zone. He's now kore secure about his place in Betty's life, how much more important he is compared to Nicolás, and he doesn't have to push his physical boundaries

Armando in canon was never repulsed by Betty. We actually see lots of things that indicate he was (emotionally) attracted to her way before the plan. But the issue with him was to actually put a name on those feelings and act purposefully. He was a very animalistic and impulsive man, and most of the advances he makes come from the unconscious in an "arranque" (ranging from little things like grabbing her chin or leaning way too close all the way to their first night, all seems to come from very natural but nonetheless subconscious urges)

So in truth I couldn't say how long it would take for him to fall for her. Many people believe he would have fallen just as hard regardless of if the sinister plan happened or not, which I agree, but I do think it would have taken a much much much longer time for reasons stated above

Another real issue I see here would be how they would fool Mario. He's a rather smart man and we know he can read Armando like an open book

My best idea is that it would probably be Betty carrying the act lmao. Perhaps they can agree that Armando would tell him that they're "together" so therefore they could show "proof" of their "romance" before him??

Like, okay. We know Mario will undoubtedly ask Armando how that first date went and if he's together with Betty. And he will have to lie and say yes, that they're a couple, and that they agreed to be very secretive about it except for him. Mario will be the only one to know. Armando can say that when he "confessed" to Betty he said that the only person who knew already of "his feelings" was Mario because he's his bestie

Mario would be okay with that.

Now with thay excuse, the only real moment where Betty and Armandk would act "like a couple" would be in front of Mario just to maintain the facade

They would probably sit too close when alone the 3 of them, wink at each other, and ocassionally hold hands

It would be believable because lmao those two actually always had that chemistry and it wouldn't be weird for Mario to see that because, well, he saw the chin grabbing and the "you're the woman I'm needing" and the excited hugs and all that, so it's fully believable😂

The only crack in the facade would be when Armandk and Mario can talk alone. We all know how bad of liar Armando is

Mario would ask and laugh and joke ans Armando would be unable to answer but with anger

It would unfortunately end at that. Anything that should be private about a couple, like kissing or anything more, doesn't happen

Now, because there is no betrayal or romance in general lots of things don't happen

Marcela doesn't become too suspicious because Armando is still having sex with her

Nicolás never buys a Marcedes and "dates" Patricia

Since there's no betrayal there is no Cartagena. Betty is much more devoted to Armando than she ever was before and could never leave him alone at Ecomoda (for her, him trusting her and rather than using her deciding to tell her the truth is a gigantic deal. If in the show she was willing to do anything for him, here she'd take a dozen bullets for him)

She's also much more in love because her idealized version of Armando is only reinforced

Of course, this means there is no physical change in Cartagena since there's no Cartagena

She also doesn't stand up to Marcela

No depressive and suicidal stage for Armando. He'd get a little depressed after the Board, because Daniel would expose the real state of the company and all that, but he wouldn't be suicidal because at least Betty is still there to support him

There's not many ways for Calderón to realize that it's all fake, tbh. They always had the correct chemistry and the little winks and hand holding is enough to convince him

Also, Armando would feel embarrassed and Betty awkwards if they were more obvious, so no pet names or forehead kisses or writing each other love letter or anything of the sorts. Armando simply states to Calderón that they're not romantic like that

The only other thing they do is occasionally mention they'll be seeing each other on X night, that he'll take her to Y place, or maybe even mention a something like "on our last date, we..." ans whatever. Very lowkey.

Betty ofc doesn't push at all any boundaries, and she's pretty much like she was in the novela before the lover's phase: pretty reserved, lets Armando take the lead, and occasionally even breaks "those moments". She doesn't want to take advantage of the situation or make don Armando uncomfortable. She knows he doesn't like her like that so she doesn't get near unless he asks or initiate (all of this to put up the show whenver Mario is there)

Ofc Mario jokes about seeing them kiss (when she’s not around) but Armando always shuts him up lmao

Also, that hand holding provokes a million butterflies in Betty's stomach. She knows it's dangerous, but she starts looking forward to Calderón's visits to the Presidency so that she can hold his hand just a little longer. So that she can stand a little too close to don Armando.

She feels bad about how much she enjoys that. She feels that she takes advantage of the situation which is why she doesn't take any leads and just lets Armando initiate.

Eventhly during the dates there's no more work related things to talk about, or simply other things get in the way. For example, once Marcela calls him and then they start a conversation about his relationship with her. Other times there's office gossip and they discuss it and the conversatjon organically shifts towards other topics. This is how Armando and Betty truly start knowing each other

I think the relationship could become more real after the board, when Armando loses it all

Well, almost all: Marcela doesn't break off the engagement

In the novela, it's knowing what he did with Betty what makes her break off the wedding, but here she has no way of knowing anything

That doesn't mean she isn't torturing Armando with what happened with Ecomoda, ofc. Bunch of passive aggressive recrimination (well earned ofc)

Also, Betty is fired and Armando has no way to put her back in the business because he has no power either

I don't know if Armando would have the courage to break off the engagement either. I think he would go forward with the wedding because he's disappointed his parents too much. Additionally, he hasn't stopped having sex with Marcela, and he isn't aware of his feelings for Betty since the relationship never went beyond the little show they put up for Calderón.

They're much closer by the time the Board meeting happens, and they're more touchy too (somtimes it even happens without Calderón around, like Armando standing too close or unnecessarily touching her arm or shoulder or whatever. All natural and unconscious ofc), but it's not enough as for him to break off the engagement.

I think he'd get married knowing full well it's a mistake. There's a palpable tension between the couple the whole (civil) ceremony.

Roberto straight up says that the only reason he's there is Marcela.

Betty, who ofc didn't go to the wedding (even though Armando probably wanted her there for emotional support but also he didn't want her there because he doesn't want her to see him marrying someone else for some reason he can't quiet understand-- so he just doesn'tinvite her). She is just hearbroken about it all

There wouldn't be a honeymoon. Ecomoda is in too much of a crisis for that, and also, this Marcela isn't desperate to get him away from all because here she doesn't think there's a risk of the other woman "stealing him"

Also this is probably where their sexual relationship starts to fracture. Neither of them are really up to it on the wedding night. Armando is overwhelmed by the mistake he made and Marcela is slightly repulsed because of what happened with Ecomoda

Ofc, it's after all this that the real relationship between Armando/Betty starts, lmao

Armando finds emotional comfort in Bettyr. Betty is the only one who listens and supports him and doesn't minimize what happens or jokes about it or accuses him.

Unfortunately, she's unemployed, and after what happened, it's very hard to find her a job. Armando might try to move his influences to find her something, tho, but because of her appearance not many of his friends want to hire her. We all knwo the kind of people on Armando's circle.

Ofc this angers Armando lmao I can practically hear him yelling on the phone somethin like "COMO QUE NO? PERO POR QUE NO??? ELLA TE PODRIA REEMPLAZAR A TI Y A TODA TU PLANTA EJECUTIVA ELLA SOLA! ES UNA EXCELENTE PROFESIONAL, LO MEJOR QUE HAY EN EL MERCADO!!🤬😡"

Betty and her fam are in real economic trouble, too. Remember they still have debt.

Ofc Betty never has the need to send Nicolás to Ecomoda, nor don Hermes needs to go. She goes and faces it all from the start.

Additionally, doña Julia doesn't learn about the embargo, Terramoda's real role, or Betty's inappropriate relationship with Armando, since she never read Betty's diary and Armando never went to her house to yell or anything of the sorts

Don Hermes doesn't learn about Terramoda's real role

Nicolás doesn't learn about the sinister plan because Armando never executed it. Betty also doesn't tell him about how they were fake dating

Everythin is written down on Betty's diary ofc but no one reads it

Armando probably goes often to talk to Betty behind everyone's backs. Much like they did during the novela's lovers' phase, here Armando goes to her house to talk to her and they talk in the car. She becomes Armando's greatest confidant about everything related to the business, and when he drinks a bit too much, he goes looking for her and likely rambles a bit much about his failed marriage, doomed from the start

The thing here that neither of them talk about is how the closeness and slight touches continue, even though they shouldn't be pretending anymore. They're alone and yet Armando still grabs her hand sometimes

Ofc this doesn't last long. Soon the Board realizes theh need Betty and Armando is far too quickly to go pick her up and bring her, ready to defend her when necessary

So here in this version, the Betty that returns to Ecomoda surprises no one. She's pretty much the same, if not even more shy because she's been exposed as a liar and all her bad business practices

Armando is there to defend her, ofc, ans when the attorneys suggest to make her President, he's the first and only one supporting her

You can imagine the drama. If people thought she was too ugly to be the secretary of a fashion business, imsgine what they think about making her the president of a fashion business

They really don't want her being the face of Ecomoda

Also there wouldn't be big changes in Ecomoda

Idk if they would at least try to dress her better. They would definitely think it a humiliation to have her be the one negotiating and representing Ecomoda, so I wouldn't doubt that they want to change her

I wouldn't be surprised that the Board amde it a condition for Betty to have the Presidency for her to at least wear some of Ecomoda's clothes, and because this Betty is still feeling less and powerless she may agree.

This makeover wouldn't be drastic, tho. Still the same hair, bangs, braces, glasses, facial hair, no makeup. She literally would only change clothes, and she wouldn't even do it for herself, but rather for Armando so that she doesn't embarrass him

They wouldn't shift their focus to the regular woman, as Betty herself has not yet reached that mentality, even though she now looks a bit better now that she wears better clothes. To her, she just looks like she's wearing a custome because Ecomoda's clothes aren't for people "like her"

The Cuartel wouldn't have a makeover and participate in the collection launch

I don't think she'd feel comfortable enough to actually ask for her dad and Nicolas to join her

Her second lead would be Armando

She probably still feels so self concious and so below Armando that she'd ask him to continue working at the President's office ans she can keep her desk in the closet

Armando would say that they can't do that, no preisdent can get visitors and receive them at a closet!

As time goes on their relationship-not-relationship continues. At some point they still act like that even without Calderón's presence

Armando is miserable in his marriage and Marcela is noticing that Armando spends too much time with Betty even though she is no loner his assistance

I think that by the collection launch, Betty would be once again forced to chage her appearence. Everyone tells her she can't be looking like that while onstage

She probably just changes her glasses and get makeup done, but her hair is untouchable

This Betty hasn't grown like she is supposed to in the show

Now, Betty doesn't have any job offer in Cartagena. There's no french man

Armando is also not going, and Marcela has nothing to confess to Betty

I think that by the time the economic crisis passes, the business would go to Daniel. Ecomoda is not broke anymore so he doesn't have incentive to sell it

Betty did very good as president but nothing extraordinary because she never implemented the "regular woman" strategy. Her appearence also damages the brand which is why they don't offer the presidency permanently to her

Armando would try to keep her working there with him in the franchises businesses, but I doubt they'll allow her

So Betty is once again fired. At least she now has a "Former President of Ecomoda" to add to her resume, and has Armando, also former president and now a mere executive more but in charfe of his own Frnchise department, as his reference

I think Armandk and Betty's frienship would continue for a long time before it goes beyond little touches and occasional hand holding. The sexual unappeal is still a strong barrier, and eventually him and Marcela may go back to their sexual relationship

It would probably take him another year and a bunch of alcohol for that innocent hand holding to turn to something more

And yes! Those are my overall thoughts! Hope you like it, and thank you for the ask🥰

[toastandjamie]

So like, since I’m doing my re-read, I’ve reached The Great Hunt and it’s got me thinking about that of the three Ta’veren boys, Mat is the only one who doesn’t get a pov in the first two books. His first pov is book three and while he definitely makes up for lost time I’ve been thinking about it.

So, when I first read Eye of The World and The Great Hunt and joked with my dad about how Mat was virtually a ‘damsel in distress’ for Rand in the first two books. And while it’s Funny I think the actual reasons I got that vibe is the lack of agency.

So Mat gets daggered very early on in the first book and throughout the Camlyn Road-trip Mat’s main purpose is to be something Rand can worry over or be frustrated by. In writing a character Pov is a major way of establishing agency since it turns the character into an active participant in the story and while it’s not the only way to do this as seen by characters like Morraine and Lan who don’t have povs in the first book either but are still active characters. This becomes especially apparent in book 2 where the major motivation for the boys to even go on the hunt for the horn was to get the dagger back for Mat, so much so that it’s readily established that Rand wouldn’t have gone on the hunt point blank if it wasn’t for Mat and the dagger; yet Mat still has no pov in this book despite being the one primarily affected by losing the dagger. Mat is more or less used as a plot hook in the first two books to force Rand into situations he otherwise would not be in. Such as what happened at Four Kings where Rand repeatedly wants to leave and suggests doing so but Mat insists on staying so they don’t have to sleep in the rain or in the case of the hunt, causes Rand to participate in the hunt with a life or death ticking clock. We don’t get any incite beyond Perrin and Rand noting Mat’s physically declining health, growing paler, losing weight and looking sickly as the book goes on. Mat of course doesn’t ever acknowledge it in dialogue because it’s Mat so we as an audience never get any incite into how Mat feels about the fact that he’s quite literally dying since we don’t have the benefit of his internal monologue.

Compare this to a the time where they subverted the ‘damsel in distress’ trope. with Egwene, there are three major plot lines in which she’s captured and we have povs for all three and in each of those events she still has agency. Even in the damane arc where she is quite literally stripped of her agency she still feels like an active character because we see her trying to defy the Seanchen, she’s not simply a plot device needing to be rescued she’s a character experiencing trauma. Even when Rand was put in the box he continues to evolve as a character and so did Faile during her time with the Shaido. All three had povs, all three were still actively participating in their situation, we knew exactly how they felt about the horrible things happening to them and see them deal with them in ways that show their characterization and growth.

Mat receives none of that. Not until the third book at least when he’s finally freed from the dagger.

So what’s up with that? Well, it’s possibly intentional. Okay so, the dagger of Shader Logoth and it’s Evil overwrites or at least tries to overwrite the person it’s possessing, that’s it’s curse, you become one with the dagger and one with Shadar Logoth. So up until the point Mat is fully healed from the dagger he is not really himself. Even after Morraine partially heals him, calming him down and keeping it from getting worse he’s still not fully Himself, as evidence by his memory loss. Partly it’s repression, but it was also the dagger overwriting his pre-exiting memories, his personality, everything that made him him. In the simplest of terms, Mat quite literally Wasn’t really his own character until book three, in many ways he WAS the dagger. An object with no personal agency but a catalyst for other characters.

[ohdeerradiodemon]

(Inspired by this post, I 100% had to add my own thoughts as I adopt this headcanon as well, because it's such an incredible idea! You're a genius @shootinwebs!)

Alastor has (undiagnosed) temporal lobe epilepsy that developed when he was alive (and still has now in his afterlife)

details about the disease and comorbidities that are likely under the cut

Temporal lobe epilepsy developed in Alastor’s early 20s

Was a result of a traumatic brain injury at some point in his late teens

Somewhere between a medial and lateral origin site within the brain, resulting in combined side effects

During a temporal lobe seizure, a person may experience a seizure aura; an aura is an autonomic, cognitive, emotional or sensory experience that commonly occurs during the beginning part of a seizure.

Alastor’s auras may include:

rising epigastric feeling

abdominal discomfort

gustatory and olfactory hallucinations

tingling (somatosensory)

déjà vu and jamais vu

flushing

vertigo

humming/ringing/buzzing sounds in ears

hearing song(s) (particularly ones he tended to play on his show)

A person may then stare blankly, appear motionless (behavioral arrest) and lose awareness. Repeated stereotyped motor behaviors (automatisms) may occur. Alastor’s automatisms include: repeated swallowing, picking, and/or vocalizations. Visual hallucinations can also occur. Loss of awareness may occur (he might not realize he even had a seizure until he comes out of it.) Although, he’s never had convulsive seizures.

Temporal lobe migraines have resulted over time as well

It was never properly diagnosed, as it was something he heavily ignored and didn’t draw attention to at all (therefore it was left untreated)

Psychiatric co-morbidities:

Psychosis/Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

AIWS – episodic, which means it’s not a consistent thing. It can happen randomly, and the instances are few and far between

Type C – including symptoms from both Type A and B (visual/perceptual distortions)

Partial or total macrosomatognosia/paraschematia (a disorder of the body image in which the patient perceives a part of or the entire body as disproportionately larger than it actually is)

Micropsia (viewing objects and the environment around them as much smaller than they actually are) and/or tele- and pelopsia (viewing things as much farther or closer than they actually are)

Lilliputianism (people appearing smaller)

Depersonalization/derealization (a feeling of disconnection from one's own body, feelings, thoughts, and environment. Depersonalization is a term specifically used to express a true detachment from their personal self's and identity)                                                                 

Hearing and time distortions (sound perception - amplification of soft sounds or the misinterpretation of common sounds. Other auditory changes include distortion in pitch and tone and hearing indistinguishable and strange voices, noises, or music. A person affected by AIWS may also lose a sense of time, a problem similar to the lack of spatial perspective brought on by visual distortion. This condition is known as tachysensia. For those with tachysensia, time may seem to pass very slowly)

Personality co-morbidities:

Geschwind syndrome

Hypergraphia is the tendency for extensive and compulsive writing or drawing. Those with hypergraphia display extreme attention to detail in their writing. Some such patients keep diaries recording meticulous details about their everyday lives. In certain cases, these writings demonstrate extreme interest in religious topics. These individuals also tend to have poor penmanship.

Hyperreligiosity - characterized by increased, usually intense, religious feelings and philosophical interests. Some auras include ecstatic experiences. These religious feelings can motivate beliefs within any religion, including voodoun

Atypical or altered sexuality - in approximately half of affected individuals hyposexuality is reported.

Circumstantiality - tend to continue conversations for a long time and talk repetitively.

Intensified mental life - including deepened cognitive and emotional responses. This tendency may pair with hypergraphia, leading to prolific creative output and a tendency toward intense, solitary pursuits

Many of these symptoms manifested in his demon form in his afterlife

He never complained about hearing music during an episode and now everyone gets to hear it too

The other auditory hallucinations manifested as Alastor being something of a living radio in his afterlife, using radio static and music as a way to express himself

He still suffers from seizures in the afterlife and still continues to never draw attention to it unless someone actually catches him having one in which case he plays it off as not being a big deal and being unbothered by it (this is a bold-faced lie)

[contentloadingandstuff]

Hi! I asked if you could do a smut prompt with a character you don't like writing for (I didn't realize until after) and I apologize. You can change the character, I believe it was Beidou.

NSFW Headcanons - Kuki Shinobu

A/N: Hello, anon! No worries. I've noticed a serious lack of best girl on the blog, so here she is. I hope you like it!

CW: Anal, toys, toy jobs, prostate play, edging. Male!Reader, Top!Shinobu. Quite vanilla, actually.

NSFW under the cut.

Accepting her as your girlfriend means giving her your body and your mind, and vice versa. She wants to use both to their full extent. 

Aside from casual, comfort sex (some vanilla missionary or gentle oral), Shinobu likes to experiment. In fact, the few following months after crossing the threshold of sexual intimacy will be spent on learning about each other's bodies, as well as exploring kinks. 

This girl knows the value of delayed gratification, so setting aside her own thirst for your sake is completely fine by her. She takes her time getting a grip on what you like and don't like. She will spend practically hours weekly pleasing and teasing every part of you, head to Toe. She paid attention to biology lessons, so expect her to know all the spots that make you whine and beg for more. 

Every time she blows you, her tongue is working diligently on your frenulum, while her hand gently cups your nuts. Despite being a virgin when she first gave herself to you, Shinobu has things well thought-out and planned. Knowing that just a little pressure is the difference between her ball grab being pleasant and being painful, she pays a lot of attention to it. Your prostate will also be her target, whether it be full-blown milking or just a toy in your ass to mix it with standard sex. 

Your nipples will also be tended to - with her tongue, some wooden pegs or just her fingers. She hopes to make you cum hands-free only by stimulating them one day. 

Shinobu has amassed a large collection of toys to use on herself and you alike. She owns a wide variety of dildos, strap ons and grinders, that are used mainly on you or by you when training her. Buttplugs, cock rings, nipple clamps, a ball crusher, humbler, cock sleeves, cuffs and collars… it would be quite hard to find a toy she doesn’t have yet. Oh, and she has vibes. Lots of vibes. 

She wants you to get the most you can out of your body, so expect her to be quite persistent in making you care for yourself - only partially because it makes you hotter and better in bed. Shinobu will gladly help you train endurance, edging you with utmost skill for hours on end. It’s challenging, but she’s there to support and motivate you all the way.

Speaking of, Shinobu grew to like toy jobs quite a lot. Using a rubber pussy on you means less distractions from having her insides rearranged, allowing her to focus more on milking you as best she can. It’s easier to control your orgasms as well, but what takes the cake are both the sounds the lubed toy makes and the expressions and noises you make. She gets to fully appreciate the groans and soft pleading for orgasm without any distraction. 

Jerking you off also has another meaning for her - it allows Shinobu to fully satisfy you. See, exploring your body and training it is all cool, but the problem is her body. No matter how much she tries, it just won’t cooperate. 

You have a large cock, no doubt about that. As most girls would be, Shinobu is very happy about that, but it also creates a serious problem. You’re just too big for her. She is a smaller woman, and her insides reflect that. Shinobu isn’t sure if she’s just shallow, or if she’s too tight, but penetrating her deeper or going at a faster pace can turn overwhelming pleasure into pain and discomfort. But undoubtedly your size alone can make her cream around you. Suffering from success. 

That wouldn’t be a problem if she could actually cum multiple times like other women. Her slit gets far too over sensitive to continue fucking after just one or two orgasms. It’s absolutely fine by her, but the thought of not making you cum scares her. Shinobu is just worried about underperforming, or not being able to keep up with you. 

Even though she prefers bottoming, Shinobu will top you most of the time. Being able to control the pace and depth of your fucking is really helpful for her, and lets your girlfriend enjoy sex to the fullest. 

To combat that, she will ask you to help train her. Lots of soft, intimate cockwarming will happen to let her womanhood adjust to your mouth-watering size. Even that can make her cum. Her body just hates anal, but she won’t have that. You’ll find yourself slowly stretching her asshole with various dildos and toys over the course of an hour or so, just to make her cum from actual anal in 5 minutes. Worth it for her, no doubt. 

Training her endurance will also be a big thing. You’ll grab a pair of cuffs, a spreader bar and a bullet vibe and tease her clitoris until she cries and begs for an orgasm. Too bad for her - she’s agreed to this training, and teasing her well-developed outer lips is just too fun. Her moans are on a scale of full sighs to high pitches - music for your ears.

Despite being given a wonderful personality and a beautiful face, fate had not gifted her a great body. Her boobs are relatively small, her ass is mediocre (booty shorts and lots of squats make up for that), but she does have a nice pair of meaty thighs - perfect for both resting your head on and fucking. Her slit is too tight for a comfortable fit with you, however her lower lips are well developed and her clitoris is easily accessible. She works on those without pause, just for you. 

Pleasing you is probably her biggest kink of all. She’s that perfect type of lover who gains pleasure from others' pleasure. She could eagerly suck you off for hours, only wanting to hear your voice and taste your seed in return. A fair price by all means. 

Her favorite position is cowgirl, both the standard version and the reversed way. Easy to make it comfortable, one allows for a full viewing of your muscular chest and handsome face, and the other for showing off her perfect, hard earned ass. 

“Hold it… hold it… oh. Shoot. Well, don’t worry about it - you lasted an entire minute longer! I’m so proud of you! Wait. W-what do you mean it’s my turn?”

Thanks for reading!

[writing-for-soup]

✍ writer interview

tagged by @luvwich, read her interview for insight into how an evil genius works, and for insight into how an evil moron works, check out my answers below the cut 💕

When did you start writing?

I've written basically my entire life, like when I first learned to write I used to just copy fairytales word-for-word in my own notebooks. Then I always liked English the most at school, did my undergrad in English Literature and Creative Writing, and then did an MA in Creative Writing right after because I Wasn't Ready to be in the real world yet.

I used to write fanfic as a teen, then more or less forgot all about it until I played Cyberpunk 2077 in late 2023, had a mental breakdown (only partially related), and then couldn't get River fucking Ward out of my mind. Since then, it's kind of blossomed into it's own thing and this year I've written 138k+ words and it feels great.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I love a classic murder-mystery thriller, but I'm currently writing one of those and I have almost a full outline for another, and I think both will stand as original stories I might even seek to publish, so does that count?

I love a good sci-fi or fantasy series and I've never written anything like that, the level of world-building involved is so intimidating but when you read it done well it's sooooo good (see Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy or Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness).

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I feel like my style is distinguished, but I do always think about writers who hugely influence me when I'm writing. Margaret Atwood is the first to come to mind because I feel like her writing is so unique and compelling for me.

I'd be lying if I said I don't also regularly think: would @luvwich do this? Especially in the early days of my longfic. Reading her fic, Arpeggio, was so influential to me. My own fic has very much grown into its own creature now, but at the start, it was Arpeggio's voice I was listening to when writing.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

It's called my living room sofa, sometimes with a dog included. Usually in my pjs, with a cup of chai, and ideally some chocolate. If it's raining outside, I am completely in The Zone.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Seeing a handsome brown man. I'm not kidding, that's usually how it starts for me. If he's a secondary character who's kind of out of the way and also has a rock solid moral compass? It's already over for me.

If I'm ever lacking, talking to my friends @lily-alphonse and @totallyhumanexe is the easiest way to clear the block and get creative juices flowing. It's good to have such juicy, juicy friends ❤

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Is rampant horniness a theme? Is pure desperation a theme? I like writing couples who are so in love and crazy for each other because I think overwhelmingly eager consent is very sexy. This doesn't surprise me at all.

If sometimes my characters are bossy power bottoms or whimpering messes or incredibly blunt and mean...that also does not surprise me.

What is your reason for writing?

Ideas grow and bloom in my brain and if I don't get them out they'll take up all the space and leave no room for things like my PIN number and my partner's birthday etc.

Plus writing fuels so much joy in my life. It's good for my soul.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Like anyone, I post my writing partially because I want the gratification of a comment from someone. I'm always grateful to readers for their comments, no matter what they are.

The best comments though, the ones that are the most impactful for me, usually reference specific lines in my work and elaborate on what it was about that part that they loved or that moved them.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

World's most brilliant, evil, stupid, amazing, lovable and intensely attractive person. A Woman For The People. A Girl's Girl. Soup.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I feel confident overall about my writing abilities. I think my dialogue is strong, and I think I'm good at getting into the psyche of my characters. I hope my greatest strength is making my writing consistently interesting.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I like it, I read it. I can feel how much it's improved in this last year alone and I can't wait to reflect again in another year and hopefully see greater strength and distinction 💪

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

To be totally honest, I mostly just think about me. Often, when I write, I'm filling the void of what I wanted to read that simply didn't exist yet.

I do sometimes include moments that I've noticed are popular in fics that have influenced mine, but even that is largely because I enjoyed those moments just as much as other readers, and so I wanted to see them in my own work as well.

[schrodingers-water-wet]

This is how I’d write Dreamtale and does not reflect cannon. Dream and Nightmare belong to Joku.

One thing that's always bugged me about Dreamtale is the black and white morals of it. ‘Negative’ emotions are evil and ‘positive’ ones are good with very little room for complexity. Another is the themes of the story. It's muddy at best. Forgiveness could be a theme if you turn your head and squint but I'm hesitant to say forgiveness is a real theme because it hardly effects the story. It could be said that the theme is that, “hurt people hurt people” but that theme doesn't work in the cannon that when Nightmare finally starts hurting people he's not himself but instead is possessed. With the concept of possession it could be that the theme is identity but neither Dream nor Nightmare is ever shown to have any struggles within theirselves so that's not it either. I'm sure Dreamtale does have a clear theme I just can't find it.

So in my au of it I would like to give it one. It has so much potential in the context of the greater multiverse as it has two major players who intervene in other aus. I think an attempt to make this theme has already been made with Dreams motivations but as Dreams trauma rarely comes up in the story I'm hesitant to name it as such but: the theme should be the breaking of cycles. I'd also throw in a hint of guilt as an secondary theme. A lot of other aus are concerned with the idea of a cycle of trauma, a literal loop of death, or a character constantly suffering. So what if the point of Dream and Nightmare was the end of suffering?

Backstory: Dream and Nightmares backstory serves it's purpose but it doesn't serve mine. I would keep a lot of elements of it but I think it's important to change the meaning of it to make this theme of breaking cycles make sense. I'd also like to give the characters internal struggles that I feel they sorely lack in the original.

Dream: he shouldn't always be in the right. I do like the idea that he's absolutely sure of his moral soputitory but that should be a flaw not a fact. The main things I would change about Dream in the backstory is I'd make it so his naivity stems from the villagers. I think the villagers keeping him naive and moldable could be him having been groomed. I think in a cycle of trauma Dream needs some. Him being lied to, babied, and manipulated his whole early life would be a good start to giving him that trauma. His complete trust in the villagers will make it much more heartbreaking when they end up dead.

An interesting idea would be that the villagers completely shielded Dream from ‘bad’ things as if he was a child. Not inviting him to funerals, not telling him when people died, not letting him witness violence. Nightmare being the only one who treated Dream like an adult but also having to always be the bearer of bad news would already establish the starts of an emotional rift between the two of them. With Nightmare tired of having to baby Dream and Dream being tired of Nightmare telling him all about this awful stuff.

Dream being that naive would be partially willful on his part. He'd be a bit stubborn and turn a blind eye to Nightmares treatment. He wouldn't be fully aware of how awful Nightmare has it but he knows his friends are awful to his brother. He just ignores it for his own happiness, and for his friends. He's not evil or even bad but he's not perfect. It's also not fully his fault, he's only doing what he had been taught. After more time in the greater multiverse having learned more Dream would feel awfully guilty.

Nightmare: Nightmare could go in so many directions. He's brimming with potential that the possession arc squashed. So I'd throw that completely out. He'd still snap and kill all the villagers, but it would be him doing it. Everything after that would also still be him.

In Undertale Aus, especially the ‘Bad Sanses’ there's a underlying common aspect, that being that everyone who's hurting others is doing so as an necessary evil. It's a lot of ‘everyone I love is going to die anyway so I should be the one to do it' or ‘I literally have no choice but to either do this or die’. I think Nightmares snap should be like that. He put up with hundreds of years of abuse and never thinks he could escape (as in he physically couldn't escape) so when he snaps it's an abuse victim killing abusers. He's not doing it because he's a villain but because it's his only course of action. Or at least in his eyes it was. Dream ought to feel betrayed by that. Everyone he loves and had known has been killed by someone else who he loved. Who he thought cared about him enough not to literally murder everyone else.

If Nightmare feels guilty about what happened to the villagers it would only be because he feels guilty about doing that to Dream.

Nightmare probably isn't good with people and he lacks a lot of knowledge that may be considered common knowledge. His only source of information in the village would have been Dream who was being fed lies but at least Dream had an opportunity to develop people skills from constant interactions with the villagers. Nightmare would not have that luxury. So he's ill-informed and awkward. He also would massively struggle with self-worth. He's been told his whole life that his very existence is inherently immoral. I imagine that would mess him up mentally.

Nightmare terrorizing Aus isn't really something he would do if he wasn't possessed so he wouldn't. I do think there's room for him to get to help the ‘undesirables’ escape from their aus like he does in fannon. He could fill in the gaps that Core couldn’t fill. Taking in violent people who couldn't go to the Omega Timeline for the sake of others. He knows what it's like to be an undesirable in a bad situation and what that can do to you. He probably has more sympathy for those who's mental illness presents itself in uncomfortable ways than Dream does.

Also, Dream turning to stone should be much shorter. 500 years is too long for Nightmare to be out there alone, if he's left alone for 500 years he's gonna resolve all his issues before Dream even starts to resolve his own. Dream should only be stone for a decade or two, enough to make Nightmare more established in the Multiverse but not so much we run into the too much time issue. When Dream is freed he'd also be incredibly hurt, still like he lost everyone yesterday. Everything that was familiar for him had been destroyed, he should feel something about that. I think Dream helping people definitely works. I think him trying to help other people before helping himself is such a cool thing. I do think both Dream and Nightmare have to learn that ‘postive emotions’ aren't always good (joy from hurting others, excitement from awful events, peace at the cost of your brothers well-being) but more importantly they both need to learn that ‘negitive emotions’ aren't always bad (grieving someone who you loved, sadness as sympathy, righteous anger). Dream would learn that from trying to help people who didn't need to be helped, who were sad and needed to be sad.

Nightmare would have to learn it to find value in himself but idk how.