#everyone is different - everyone has different likes and dislikes - different requirements and needs that have to be met

[anxious-anomaly]

[ 18+ blog || minors DNI ]

"I hate what you're doing to your body."

That's because you're comfortable as who you are. I'm not. That's why I'm changing. You can hate it all you like but it's necessary for me.

unless you wanna write my obituary, of course.

being dead sounds just as relieving as transitioning.

[misscammiedawn]

Legitimacy vs Selection Bias in Hypnosis

This has been on our mind a lot recently. It's mostly been sparked by the recent Mindless Banter podcast run by @theleeallure @enscenic and @hypno-sandwich where the three hosts spoke about how they dislike academic models of hypnosis and a recent post by @h-sleepingirl discussing why they herald hypnotic education.

One thing that is always going to be true about the advocates of our kink who have been involved with the community for a long time is that we are going to be experienced and capable hypnotists and/or hypnotees.

Likewise those who join and find themselves brought in to the fold tend to self-select; if a person is not able to find any success or joy in hypnosis because it's not working or they do not gel with the styles taught and practiced then they will not hang around.

This means that we have a functioning ecosystem of people who know the lingo, who are primed to react as they should and tend to have things work for them.

Which is great! It makes it so much easier to work out when everyone is on the same page.

But it also creates an insular community.

I've written before on why the insular nature of our community worries me.

One of the lines I wrote in that post was this

One of the big differences between the online erotic hypnosis community and the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists) who rue our existence is that we do not require legitimacy to function when they themselves exist in a half-truth state where when receiving both of my certifications it was impressed that we needed to perform an uneasy dance of providing services without practicing medicine because hypnotherapy is not licensed psychology in the same was that chiropractors are not performing medicine.

Legitimacy is the idea of taking what we do, what we are, what we believe and what we practice and trying to make it valid to those outside of the community. It's performing studies, it's building a framework of hard rules, it's about pretending that we understand how the brain works beyond the anecdotal evidence that we witness it every day within our corners and communities.

Fact is, hypnosis is a malleable and belief-based practice that rests right in the middle between faith and science. As mentioned in the above linked post, trance can be detected on an EEG:

Source

Our last post on this topic just spoke about accepting that we exist in a soft science where what we believe, how we approach our beliefs and what ideas we allow to take root in our minds will have a firm impact on how the minds of the hypnotists and hypnotees we interact with.

Today I want to talk about why keeping the education and the science involved in the conversation is important.

Because, like the Mindless Banter crew, I have reached the point of my career in hypnoplay where should Dawn wish to induce a trance she need only find a partner, lay out what will happen and perform. The rest of it just happens.

Once you reach a level of confidence and community, it pretty much takes care of itself. The interaction between a hypnotist and a person who has never experienced trance before and the interaction between a hypnotist and an enthusiast will play out differently.

What I mean by this is if Dawn is approached in DM by someone who wants a session she will be able to pick up a number of tells without even noticing it on their confidence and experience. Someone shy, unsure and untrained will not dive straight in. Which makes the encounter less likely and even if it does happen it comes from the power dynamic of a teacher and student rather than two enthusiasts going to town.

This is normal and it's not a bad thing. It just means that the typical educator in the hypnokink community is typically aware of the "weight class" of their hypnotees which paints their expectations of how things will go and allows for a line between the way hypnosis is taught in 101 and how it is practiced in enthusiast circles.

It's why Progressive Muscle Relaxation is something which gets scoffed at a lot in our circles. The typical enthusiast does not need to spend 20 minutes on an induction when their typical partner is someone they can hold the shoulders of, stare at with intent and give permission for the hypnotee to drop.

That isn't to say that experienced hypnotists only play with experienced hypnotees. It just means that the majority of the play from those who educate does not match the material that we teach to beginners. Not a bad thing.

But it does breed this divide I mentioned. Between the experience of those who do this all the time and what is "academic".

So, besides helping new people into the community or playing in pure theoretical space, why must we keep the academic approach involved?

Well, first... the science does inform what we do. Yes, a lot of this is based on belief but there is a large amount of the science which is just fact no matter what we do. The neuroplasticity of traumatized brains is a topic we type about a lot given our dissociative disorder. I mentioned in my Dissociative Disorders and Hypnosis post that there are multiple studies that there's a higher hypnotic suggestibility in those with conditions that include dissociation as a symptom. The fact that this was being taught in a 101 class was why I made that post to begin with.

From my Mind Makes It Real post I mentioned that we need to be aware of the truths to keep ourselves in check. We should always be wondering "am I wrong?" about everything and the moment one lets go of the academic framework and commits to the loose ethos of "it just works" you lose a little bit of that footing and external perspective. We're an insular community and there's an element of "the popular ideas win out", not to stress a point too much but the whole hatred of the progressive muscle relaxation induction is a good example of this. I know a few community leaders who reflexively rant any time they hear it. These people have the ability to control the con schedule. They teach classes and part of their lesson is their personal disdain for that approach. This goes into the minds of those who were taught by that person and becomes part of the internal dogma. Suddenly you have a situation where a minority of people in the community need to defend the PMR.

I do not actually care too much about PMR but it really is one of the most accessible entry level trances and the disdain for it is a little gatekeepy, if I am being honest. I don't think any individual means for it to be something they keep out of the community but enough individuals following a trend creates a community concept, a widely held belief.

And hypnosis is entirely about widely held beliefs. Thus it is now a fact that PMR is boring and ineffective and there's more fun ways to do trance. That is an example, hopefully one that is understandable to an audience who are also into hypnokink (apologies to my non-hypnosis Tumblr followers, I hope if you're reading this you enjoy this peak into a little internet sub-culture).

Which brings me to legitimacy.

Do we really need it?

Hypnosis is both science and fantasy. A person attending a hypnokink convention could treat hypnosis with the technical skill and care that one would approach as ropeplay, learning all of the different terms and all of the safety procedures and treating it as a psychological version of what can be physically observed.

But you may also have someone who treats hypnosis as roleplay and improv with a framework not too dissimilar from a tabletop sourcebook for D/s shenanigans that they can learn and play within much the same as a D&D player can switch to World of Darkness. I guarantee there are a large number of people in the hypnosis community who do this and they're not wrong for doing it.

But as I mentioned above. Hypnosis is a scientifically observable phenomenon and it is dangerous if abused. Heaven knows I know that more than most. One must not believe in the dangers for them to be real. An immature hypnotist is a danger to a hypnotee regardless of if they think they are roleplaying or performing edgeplay. And the same is true for a hypnotee, too. If one believes it's all roleplay then their limits and safety will be at a different level than someone who is aware of the risks.

One need only look to the dark corners of our community where covert hypnosis is practiced eagerly, recruitment is a game and personality erasure is an aesthetic to know that there are uncomfortably large swaths who are practicing hypnosis from the perspective of fantasy. I do not want to pull out the news articles about how Disney Deer brainwashing ruined people's lives again.

The good news is that within the educator/convention going portion of the community we do teach this stuff. We do make everything clear. We're not currently in a community where academic approaches are shrugged off.

But it makes me uncomfortable when experienced educators in the community forget how far their words reach and dismiss the academic for the sake of "what works".

We do not need to seek legitimacy for the eyes of those outside of the community. We do not Demand To Be Taken Seriously. We have a community where people are welcome to join or not join. We do not need external legitimacy.

But we need internal legitimacy.

We need the people who practice within our care to know that they're practicing with dangerous tools that can and will mess a person up if treated without proper care.

Safety and education require we keep room for the academic and seek to legitimize what we do or those who look at hypnosis as pure fantasy will not be able to recognize the risk.

At least, that's my opinion.

-

For more of our ramblings on hypnosis and the hypnosis community, please check out our Hypnokink Writing tag for other bits of education and commentary like this <3

[tiniedemon]

— ♡

dating headcanons

main 4 + butters

— ♡

stan

— definitely the type to bully you but loves you to death

— constantly posting you on social media

— you need him? he’s already there actually he’s been hiding in your walls

— gets super in his head a lot, requires a lot of reassurance & affection

— SUPER FUCKING PROTECTIVE

— some dude’s making you uncomfortable? his hand’s on your shoulder and he’s ready to beat the shit out of him

— the silent but deadly type

— basically no one fucks w his s/o

— but super duper soft

— sticky as fuck

— you thought kenny was a physical touch kinda guy? stan is 10 times worse

— constantly holding your hand or lacing your pinkies together

— prefers quiet nights in over nights out 100%

— movie nights are his absolute fav he loves the cliche holding hands in popcorn thing

— a bit of an alcoholic but never an angry drunk, he’ll be constantly up your ass blubbering about how much he loves you

— “your eyes are so pretty and your face is so pretty and i love your hair like that and how do you smell so good”

kyle

— if he were an anime character he’d be a tsundere for sure

— dislikes pda but in private he has no problem being affectionate

— is super awkward around you, doesn’t really know how to talk to you or how to act

— also prefers quiet nights in but in a totally different way

— would much rather read a book with your legs in his lap than watch a movie

— one phone call away tho don’t get him wrong

— if you need him he’s immediately on his way no questions asked

— very very very very protective

— also the type to hover behind you but the second you give him the go ahead he’s running his mouth

— all bark but also a super gnarly bite

— also super jealous and kind of insecure

— you’re his first real relationship so he’s always scared someone’s gonna steal you away

— the type to give you massages and ask you about your day

— domestic housewife fs, always cooking for you and making sure your house is clean

— always leaves sweet notes for you to wake up to but will never acknowledge them

— overall such a sweetheart, would do anything for you but is a stickler on saying the l word

— thinks it loses its sparkle if it’s said too much

kenny

— sticky horny bastard

— always cuddled up to you or holding your hand or kissing you

— big fan of pda

— if he’s not touching you and he’s in your presence someone’s getting hurt

— loves partying but also loves quality time with you

— would totally go out if you wanted but also would curl up in bed with you if you weren’t feeling it

— always eager to please you

— he’s like a dog, at your beck and call, awaiting your orders

— but don’t touch his s/o or he’ll go nuts

— not really the jealous type but definitely the possessive type

— like he doesn’t get worked up about someone hitting on you, he knows you’re fine as fuck, but the second someone tries to touch you his arms are around you and he’s kissing you

— very much a gentleman

— he makes very misogynistic comments about your body but ultimately you’re a queen and you should never have to lift a finger

— always worshipping the ground you walk on

— definitely a stoner

— giggles at everything you do when he’s high and 100% smokes you out every chance he gets

— he just loves you so much he’d literally combust

eric

— isn’t really one for affection, private or public

— definitely runs his mouth to you

— but the second you get upset he’s crying begging you to stop being mad rubbing your feet

— a messy bitch for sure

— always stirring up drama in the friend group and sitting back watching it all go down with you

— would definitely scheme with you about starting beef

— views you as his queen but treats you as an equal (which is huge for him because everyone is below him)

— hates seeing you cry and would easily tell off whichever son of a bitch did it

— but also wouldn’t hesitate to bully you to the verge of tears

— makes up for it by offering you some of his cheesy poofs

— unspoken acts of affection for sure

— hates going out

— he’d much rather watch a comedy movie and shit on the plot with you

— the type to act like he hates you around his friends but the second you’re in a private setting he’s reminding you that he loves you

— possessive, jealous, protective, the big 3

— kind of like a chihuahua, all bark no bite

— probably also low key an alcoholic but never drunk to the point of being a lovey dovey bitch

butters

— the sweetest boyfriend ever

— panics every time you cry or are upset in any way

— even if he’s grounded he’ll still find a way to talk to you

— if there’s a screen there’s a way

— doesn’t really fall into any category

— kind of just exists, way too happy that you’re dating him to notice anything else

— the type to post you on every social media platform he has

— would shout from the rooftops about how much he loves you

— very acts of service

— would do anything you asked as long as you were happy

— gives you back rubs every night

— sleeps with his head on your chest because he loves to listen to your heartbeat

— physical touch too

— loves holding your hand and caressing your cheeks

— stares at you for hours like “wow i can’t believe my s/o is this perfect”

— makes sure your needs are taken care of before his

— constantly texting you to remind you that he loves you and that you’re perfect in every way

— good morning and goodnight paragraphs even if you live together

— loves you to the moon and back and wants everyone to know it

[krisluxxeeempress]

Astrology Observations

Those with Mercury in Cancer tend to eat, to process their thoughts. For example, if a mercury in cancer individual has a paper to write and are struggling to formulate words, they will stop to get something to eat and while they’re chewing, their thoughts become clearer about the subject matter. Cancerians love food and when placed here, it helps their mental functioning.

Mars Square Pluto Aspect will force a MF to face and fight their battles, fears and WIN. Mars is the God of War ruling over soldiers, warriors, fighters, champions and heroes. You have the spirit of a champion but with every champion, you must TRAIN as such. Whatever sign or house Pluto resides in, will reveal the type of training you undergo during your “training camp. (ex. boxers do not train the same as soldiers but they both have an opponent they need to take out/ down)  The Individuals  who stick the course and endure- usually come out of mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually stronger. They come out on top! If you have Mars or Pluto (retrograded) , this aspect is fought within. You are fighting yourself, you vs. you. You are your enemy, and you will have to fight the version of yourself that is weakening, sabotaging, discouraging and ultimately holding you back. The battles fought could be fear, denial, self-doubt, insecurity, inferiority, addiction, abuse etc. Anything or anyone that makes you feel powerless, you will be forced to overpower it/them or die trying.

The quotes “only the strong survive” and or “ death before dishonor” can be used to explain this aspect.

Pluto in Capricorn 6th House ( especially retrograded) Makes individuals obsessed with achieving greatness and success on a grand scale. If this isn’t accomplished Pluto can also make one begin to self-destruct in such a way that it’s hard to bounce back from. This placement promises a slow grind and slow demise. Considering Pluto is farthest from the sun, that is seen by all, no one will notice the trials and tribulations one must overcome until they either overcome or succumb. This placement can certainly be discouraging if one is unable to handle the pressure that is placement gives.  We all want to be successful until it’s time to put in the consistent time, effort and energy required. It’s a heavy weight to carry. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown”.

Saturn in Aquarius 8th house ( especially retrograded) Individuals with this placement do like people at all. They are forced to experience and witness all the negativity humans are capable of. Because of this, these people are not only rebellious towards societal norms but also resentful towards all who uphold and live by these societal constructs. These individuals categorize everyone. If they experience rudeness from one person, they will conclude everyone is rude etc. This placement gives these individuals a solid reason to dislike everyone. The sign of Aquarius is naturally rebellious and different in comparison to most. They do not have to try; however, Saturn in Aquarius 8th house gives them a REASON to be rebellious. There’s a major difference. They are constantly in situations where they are forced to see what others attempt to hide about themselves including the corrupt in governments, business and other countries. They observe everything that is wrong and experience injustices to confirm what is wrong with everything and everyone. These individuals really would prefer not to be bothered by anyone and wouldn’t be if it was possible. They are pessimistic because they are realist. This placement will make these people extremely indifferent to the suffering of humanity because they “feel” it’s deserved. High levels of intelligence are granted to those with this placement making it difficult to tolerate many people who are simple/ narrow minded and impressionable. This placement is unbearable especially in their younger years because with Saturn’s influence, they must learn to control their anger, resentment and hatred towards humanity. These are our misanthrope’s, sociopaths, psychopaths and murderers. If this energy is retrograded in one’s chart- they have more control over their disdain towards others. They are more aware of the consequences that would follow if they acted on these violent urges deriving from hatred. When the government is lying, they know and can’t stand when others can’t see or worse- accept they’re being lied to. When workplaces pull some bullsh*, they see if before it occurs and can’t stand when others “fall victim” or willingly conform. When people get caught up, confused and taken advantage of in relationships- these individuals can’t understand how others can’t see it or won’t leave it. Everything that most find so complex and difficult is the complete opposite for them. Lastly, These individuals may enjoy reading psychological thriller books that involve crime, death, detective work and anything considered DARK.

[breakandbuildfiction]

My rant about Danny Phantom and DPxDC tropes

This is just going to be a listing and rant about some of the Danny Phantom and DPxDC story and prompt trends I tend to see around Tumblr. I want to make it clear that I don’t care if you like the things I don’t like or dislike the things I do. Everyone is entitled to their own tastes so long as they don’t harm others and that includes headcannons and fanfics. So don’t be a dick.

______________

______________

Danny is the Ghost King: I admit I really like this one, but I also admit it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

I like OP Danny, I think it’s fun and it fits how several of his enemies can easily be called gods or have global-level powers— Vortex with his storms and Ember with her mind control/power siphoning being key examples— and having him basically be the leader of an entire infinite dimension filled with several godlike beings makes him come off as super badass.

On the other hand, this headcanon typically leans into Danny getting the job via Right Of Conquest against Pariah Dark. The thing is, Pariah wasn’t a recognized ruler. He was a tyrant and conqueror that few if any actually wanted to follow. He didn’t have ‘divine right’ or the willing submission of his subjects. He was the Ghost King because he had the power and desire to force his will against the rest of the Realms. Hell, he was so hated that a cabal of super-powerful/ancient spirits deposed him and locked him away for hundreds/thousands/millions of years and NO ONE other than Vlad tried to free him! So Danny beating him shouldn’t suddenly make him a legitimate ruler.

That all said if you go with the less used reasoning that the Ghost Zone NEEDS to have a single ruler for whatever reason and Danny beating the previous singular ruler/being one of the few ghosts/spirits who have the power and fame required for the position I have no problem with the idea.

Danny is Dani’s dad: Another thing I like, but also another thing that gets messy when you think about it.

Cloning as I understand it basically gives you a genetic twin, not a genetic child. So even with Dani’s genes being modified somehow she’d read more like Danny’s sister than his daughter. So unless you want to throw in that Vlad used some third party’s genes to help stabilize her, Dani is not genetically Danny’s kid.

Ignoring genetics and sticking to emotions and such, emotionally and mentally Danny is a teenager and Dani is somewhere between 8 and 12, way too close of an age difference for Danny to really take on a paternal role for Dani. And even if you say that Dani is mentally younger due to her being force grown it would still leave Danny as a very young teenage parent of a preteen and Dani in a very weird state as her physical and mental development would be at gross odds with how she can filter information.

If you deage Dani to a toddler however and have Danny be AT LEAST 16, things could make more sense as far as them seeing each other as parent and child go.

Danny gives off Uncanny Valley vibes: This has no basis in canon, be it for full ghosts or Halfas or anything else. That said, I love this idea and have no further notes.

Danny is an engineering genius: This is one that comes up pretty sporadically, and I guess it MIGHT have some basis in canon if you stretch some things, but it’s not something that was ever explicitly stated or even heavily implied. I still like it though and think it’s really fun when used for things other than just saying Danny is smart.

Tucker is a master hacker: I get where this is coming from and I understand the vibes, plus it has more of a basis than Danny being an engineering genius, but this also doesn’t really have any real basis in canon. The only ‘hacking’ that he really does is against Skulker and that involves the ghost first assimilating Tucker’s PDA, giving him a back door into Skulker’s systems to do one specific thing. So while fun in some cases, I don’t like it when it gets blown out of proportion and having Tucker being on par with the likes of Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, or Cyborg as a computer genius. He is smart and he is a programmer, but he’s not a super genius.

Everyone is Liminal: I don’t know who popularized this idea, but I don’t like it. The idea that just being around ectoplasm makes someone liminal sounds like something that the Fenton parents would have been at least vaguely aware of if they were already smart enough to wear hazmat suits for protection when working with ectoplasm, so if they knew it would make people basically proto ghosts/ensure they would become ghosts, they sure as hell wouldn’t have set up shop in a city.

Not only that but we already know that the GIW is willing to use heavy artillery and lethal force on people they think MIGHT be under the influence of a ghost or could be ghostly themselves. So if a whole town was showing up as being so ‘ecto-contaminated’ that they are not even registering as fully human anymore you KNOW they’d start coming in to commit genocide.

The GIW isn’t a legal government body/their actions have violated their purview: Admittedly this one isn’t very common, but I HAVE seen it used a few times, so I’m going to talk about it.

First, I really like this because it avoids the trap of just saying ‘Oh the government is inherently evil and wants nothing more than to commit war crimes and genocide’, so big points there. Beyond that though I also just think it makes sense. I mean the US Government has a LOT of departments and I can see them having a small agency dedicated to keeping track of ‘supposedly’ paranormal shit for one reason or another, but I can’t see them getting a lot of funding— like the amount of discretionary funds needed to buy out all of Fentonworks— without them having to bring up the evidence before Congress and the Senate. From there there would definitely be ethical concerns regarding their actions, legislation would be introduced en-mass, and it would cause a national if not international uproar.

So for the GIW to work they’d either need to be a whole sale corrupt and rouge agency taking money from third parties— like Vlad— and going way beyond whatever authority they might have been legitimately granted to do most of the shit they end up doing, or they were never a government body to begin with but a special interest group funded and staffed by fanatics from around the world and are committing several additional crimes in addition to war crimes by impersinating a government agency.

The Anti-Ecto Acts: I honestly can’t remember if these are canon in some form or not, but I see them brought up a lot so I’m talking about them either way.

These make NO SENSE.

Getting something like this through Congress and the Senate would be INSANELY difficult even if you had evidence of an immediate threat. You can say ‘they hid it in another bill’ all you like but that kind of thing is way harder than you think. Even minor bills about laws and regulations that are just being put through for renewal get read over to make sure things aren’t slipped into them. And bigger, more complex laws take months if not YEARS to get passed and end up getting combed over with a fine comb. There would be no way these Acts could be passed without it being a major event that would be dragged out and debated for ages seeing as it’s literally about declaring a complex species non-sentient and opening them for no-holds-barred scientific experimentation and termination. Religious concerns would be brought up, ethical bodies would be formed and disbanded every day, calls would be made for third-party research, and more than a few people would demand that diplomacy be tried.

And if you tie this into DPxDC it makes even LESS sense as it would be against several laws, acts, and clauses that are meant to protect metahumans– please note that metahuman does not just mean having the metagene in DC, it means having extra-human abilities and powers including magic or alien blood.

Sam and Tucker have powers: I mean, there were entire episodes dedicated to Tucker being jealous about Danny having power and Sam pushing Danny to use his powers for social and/or political causes, but I can get behind the idea of the trio all having powers. So long as Sam and Tucker’s powers aren’t based around ghosts at least.

A big point of Danny Phantom’s story is that ghosts were super rare and believed to not exist before the start of the show and that Danny and Vlad’s powers are unheard-of anomalies caused by the Doctors Fentons’ experiments and creations so having other people get ghost powers in more ‘natural’ ways really undermines that and isn’t supported by canon at all. Yes Tucker was being used to resurrect a Pharaoh or something and Sam was the favored puppet of Undergrowth, but that doesn’t mean they would KEEP their powers after the ghosts giving them to them were removed from play. We see this in the episode where a bunch of Casper students get infected by ghost bugs, they got powers while infected and they lost them when the ghosts were removed. Beyond that we also have the time Jazz was almost sacrificed by Johnny to get Kitty back into the living world, she never got any powers from that despite being infused with Kitty’s power and essence and when said essence was removed she returned to a fully mortal human teenager with no powers.

Make Sam a witch or give Tucker nanite implants or something and I have no problem with this idea.

Danny becomes the Ancient of Space: I’ve already said that I like OP Danny, but I don’t think this title makes sense.

Yes I like giving Danny space powers and/or an eldritch space form, but I don’t like calling Danny the Ancient of Space because we don’t know how a ghost gets that title. Giving him this title seems to stem heavily from Space being the equal of Time which is Clockwork’s domain, but the thing is Clockwork isn’t called the Ancient of Time, he’s called the Master of Time. So I just generally feel like calling Danny the Master of Space fits better even if Ancient of Space sounds cooler.

Now onto more DPxDC exclusive stuff–

Jason is a Halfa/a developing Halfa: This is another one of those things where I just think goes too hard against the lore of Danny Phantom to make sense. Just dying and coming back to life does not make someone a Halfa, even if they don’t come back as fully alive. Not only that but it takes a LOT of ectoplasm and power to make a Halfa with Vlad and Danny being blasted with an opening portal and Dani being specifically grown from the DNA and ectoplasm of an existing Halfa. It just feels like its cheapening the existence of Hafas if they could have been created at any point in history using natural resources or general necromancy magic.

The Lazarus Pits are just rancid Ectoplasm: This just doesn’t work in my mind. Yes they are both green and are connected to death, but they don’t function or act anything like each other. Ectoplasm has shown no indication that it can be used to heal wounds or that it can be used to resurrect the dead outside of the creation of Hafas. The Lazarus pits have showcased no ability to be used as an energy source or for the waters to be in any state other than liquid, though it is a highly flammable substance in some interpretations while Ectoplasm can apparently be volatile enough to explode if not properly treated and filtered.

This idea also just cheapens both the Pits and Ectoplasm in different ways, with the Pits making it so Ectoplasm isn’t nearly as rare or tied to ghostly phenomena in the mortal world as we were lead to believe and Ectoplasm being readily available post-Fenton Portal activation making the constant search and hoarding of the Pits kind of useless. That and the Fentons apparently have Ectoplasm filters that I’m guessing could at least partially purify the Pits.

Backtracking a bit to the Jason is a Hafa/developing Halfa thing, a common way for that to be implemented is by saying the Pits are rancid Ectoplasm and he’s got a stunted Core. Well if that was the case than Ra’s Al Ghul would be just as far along as a Halfa as Jason if not being a fully fledged one himself at this point because while he might not have stayed dead as long as Jason in a single stretch– depending on how you look at the timeline of Jason’s revival– he did definitely spend more communicative time being dead over the centuries he’s been alive.

And finally, we know what rancid/corrupted Ectoplasm does to a person. It gives them Ecto-Acne. Which at best puts you in the hospital for years before giving you superpowers and usually would just slowly and painfully kill you.

Danny goes to Gotham: This one really just depends on WHY he goes to Gotham. Like, there’s nothing wrong with having a character go to a new city as the basis for a crossover, but I feel like it should make sense at least you know? And to be fair, most of the posts I’ve seen that talk about Danny going to Gotham do in fact make sense. So yeah, solid trope.

Danny and Damien are Twins: I have no problem with this in a vacuum, but I think people take it too far and ignore things like basic logic. Namely, the fact that for them to be secret twins then you have to acknowledge their looks. If they are fraternal twins then there is no real issue here, but if they are supposed to look super alike or even be capable of being mistaken for each other then there is the minor issue of their ethnicities.

No one ever suspects that Danny isn’t Jack Fenton’s son, and since both Jack and Maddie Fenton are caucasian, that means that Danny looks fully caucasian. Meanwhile, Damien is at very least one-quarter Arabic through his mother– I can’t recall if Talia is one hundred percent Arabic or not but I know Ra’s is– and is often depicted as having at least a dusky skin tone. So if you want them to be identical twins you’d have to say that both Damien and Danny appear to be completely white ethnically.

Maddie Fenton is a former member of the League of Assassins: Two issues with this: One, the League isn’t exactly big on letting people walk away from it, and Maddie isn’t exactly trying to hide from them. And two, we have seen Maddie’s canonical biological sister so unless both of them got away– which is even less likely than one person being allowed to leave– and only Alicia is smart enough to stay low-key, this one doesn’t make much sense.

Danny is dating Jason Todd: I get it, Jason is the second hottest Batfam member and he has some surface level similarities with their temporary white streaks and dead guy themes. But outside of that this one just doesn’t make sense. At least not to me.

For hobbies/civilian life, Jason is semi-canonically and very heavily fan-canonly a literature nerd. Danny hates his English class. Danny is often depicted as liking rock music and video games in his downtime, Jason… I don’t know his music taste is, but he is a neat and tidy book nerd.

For vigilante/hero life, Jason is extremely violent and open to using lethal options to the point where he has attempted to kill at least one of his brothers in nearly every timeline and is a mass murderer/serial killer with a higher body count than some of Batman’s rogues. Danny won’t even keep his worst enemies like Skulker trapped in the Fenton Thermos long-term and never even tries to injure potentially dangerous humans like the Guys In White.

These two personalities aren’t a case of being mix and matched, they are very strongly opposed to each other on a philosophical level and a moral level.

Danny is dating Tim Drake: Again, I get where this comes from, and to be fair it makes a bit more sense than Danny X Jason in so far as Tim not being a violent bipolar and him actually seeming to share some hobbies with Danny, but it still doesn’t work in my mind. That stuff that Vlad did to cause Danny to call him a fruitloop? Tim has done almost all of it. He’s a stalker, he clones people when he can’t have the real version, he has used his resources to fuck with people– though Tim’s actions in that sense aren’t nearly as bad as Vlad’s–, he has gone batshit crazy in grief before… need I go on?

So yeah, as much as I like the idea of neurotic sleep-deprived heroes falling into each other’s arms, this doesn’t work. Tim is too fucked up for Danny to want to get involved with. It would be too much like Maddie deciding to give Vlad a shot.

Danny is dating Cassandra Cain: Not as popular as Danny X Jason or Danny X Tim, but I’ve seen a couple of these.

This has some of the same problems as Danny X Jason in that they don’t seem to have any real hobbies in common, but it has the advantage in that their temperaments and personalities are at least somewhat more in line with each other. They both really like and really don’t like fighting, they both have issues with their parents who want them to follow in their footsteps while also being open to killing them, they latch onto friend groups as family, are both anti-killing despite being super lethal living weapons, they tend to be pretty chill out of combat situations to the point where they can even be blase about pretty crazy shit, et cetera. But they don’t have many if any overlapping interests… then again, most people tend to say that Cass and Stephanie are pretty close friends, and I think that is canon in some timelines, and as I will be talking about soon Danny and Steph have a fair bit in common so… yeah.

This one has some really good fanfics running for it though, such as ‘lex luthor's ascent from supervillainy to fatherhood’ by Halfgone over on AO3. A fic that I highly recommend.

Danny is dating Stephanie Brown: Even rarer than Danny X Cass as far as I have been able to see, but it’s also the one that makes the most sense in my eyes. The same snarky attitude, love of puns and messing with the people they are fight, they both have issues with their parents, they fight for things that their fathers’ are completely opposed to, and depending on the DC timeline and your stance on Danny being Dani’s father both are teenaged parents.

They also don’t, as far as I can tell, have anything that makes them opposed to each other. So while this one doesn’t have a ton of civilian weight behind it, it also doesn’t have anything against it. A solid choice despite not being very popular.

I still prefer Danny X Cass or Danny X Raven though.

Danny is gay/bi: I have no problem with this. Let me say that again, I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS. I think that as a fictional character being used in fanfiction things like sexuality can be altered in whatever way the writer desires– it’s different when it’s a canon continuation of an existing work, but fanfiction is anything goes– but dear gods people PLEASE pick better dating options for Danny. I know that people think Jason Todd and Tim Drake are hot and fun characters, and they are, but as I already ranted about they are NOT good dating options for Danny.

Personally, I think Cyborg works better, or some incarnations of Conner Kent.

Danny has been to Krypton: For most timelines used this requires some time travel along with the intergalactic travel, but I find this one to be very fun. Be it just Danny having visited Krypton and having some stories about the place, maybe some souvenirs, or Danny accidentally/on purpose being revered as a god of the planet. It’s a fun addition or starting point to a story.

Kryptonite is Ecto-Candy: This makes no sense and I don’t like it enough to ignore that. Krypton blew up in the mortal universe within the last fifty years according to most canon timelines and even if the ENTIRE planet became Kryptonite– which it might have to be honest, I’m not sure about that– and 50% of it fell into the Infinite Realms– which makes no sense statistically even with natural portals being a thing– that still isn’t a lot of mass for an INFINITE dimension, plus the timeline would make it a relatively very recent thing to ghosts. And that’s ignoring the fact that Kryptonite is not in any way, shape, or form the same thing as Ectoplasm no matter how you split it outside of that one issue that says Kryptonite is the crystalized screams of horror and pain of everyone who died on Krypton.

Danny is a Martian Manhunter Fanboy: No real notes here. It fits, makes sense, and is often used in a fun way. 

Danny hates rich people: This one is funny sure, but it doesn’t make sense. Sam is rich. Danny was rich for a bit. Ghost King Danny is beyond rich. Danny is often written in fanfics to be friends with the likes of Pandora and Dorthea who are both rich. Really he just doesn’t like Vlad because of who he is, it has nothing to do with him being rich.

The Justice League abandoned Amity Park: I don’t like this one. It just doesn’t seem like something the Justice League would do. They have too many heroes that specialize in the paranormal and Batman sure as hell wouldn’t let something like an interdimensional portal remain open without being super on top of it and studying it in case of a worst-case scenario like what happened in Reign Storm.

I’ve seen variants of this where the reasoning is that John Constantine labeled it a no go zone to avoid the possibility of a superhero getting possessed and used as a meat suit to cause mass destruction and chaos, which does make more sense, but if that were the case then the JLD would be aware of the situation and would at the very least check in on some of the bigger events like when Undergrowth attacked, Vortex’s whole deal– particularly when his storm covered the entire world except for Amity park– Pariah Dark’s invasion/abduction, when Fright Knight attacked, and when Clockwork showed up and Dark Danny followed suit.

So really this idea just seems like a way to include shallow drama where Danny hates the Justice League or other heroes in general and feels upset that he, as an untrained teenager, was left to defend his town all by himself… just like Static Shock tends to do.

The Justice League thinks Danny is Immortal and hundreds/thousands of years old: No real notes here either. Danny has time traveled in canon, there are a lot of fanon things involving him doing it even more, and I can definitely see him playing into the bit to avoid being treated like a kid who needs to listen to his elders ala Billy Batson as Shazam.

Clockwork is Chronos: This requires a LOT of hoops being jumped through and a lot of ignoring of the mythology of Chronos himself, but they are both super powerful time deities so… I see where it comes from at least. And it allows for stuff like saying Danny and Wonder Woman are family.

______________

______________

There are a lot more tropes and such that I’ve seen here and on dedicated fanfic sites in the Danny Phantom and DPxDC fandoms, but this is already an incredibly long post so I’m going to end things here. If anyone has anything they want to add or comments they want to give, feel free to leave them! Just don’t be a dick and don’t PM me anonymously with insults and threats. I’ll just report and block you.

[ckret2]

What does bill usually eat and drink? And how often? Does he eat when the rest of the humans do?

First choice:

When there's a meal being served—such as Abuelita cooking dinner or Stan grilling burgers—Bill eats whatever everyone else eats. (Provided he got to see Abuelita cook—to ensure cyanide wasn't an ingredient in his serving.) This accounts for maybe 15% of his meals.

Second choice:

If he happens to be in the kitchen at the same time as someone else, he'll ask them to open the fridge/cabinets to let him get food for himself or, more rarely, ask them to prepare something he isn't allowed to prepare for himself. This means he'll often eat at the same time as them, because swooping into the kitchen while THEY'RE eating means he can get food too.

When he does have full kitchen access, he creates the most disgusting concoctions known to mankind.

Human brains are wired from infancy to find almost all tastes disgusting until they've had them enough to learn to appreciate them (i.e., accept they aren't poisonous)—why kids are generally pickier eaters than adults. The Axolotl trusts that Bill knows enough about human diets to know what is and isn't food—he does—so Bill didn't get given a baby palate. Instead, he's the opposite: he finds almost all tastes okay. Nothing really tastes bad to him.

So his measure for food that "tastes good" isn't QUALITY of taste, but QUANTITY of taste. Bland food is disgusting. The more and stronger flavors a food has, and the more different they are from each other, the more he likes it.

When making his own food he wants maximum flavor for minimum effort. This is why he has a tendency to take as many condiments as he can, no matter how poorly they go together—in fact, ESPECIALLY if they go poorly together—mix them into a slurry, and then drop in enough solid food to cover his body's minimum nutritional needs. (He would do the same thing with spices, but the spices are kept in a cabinet and it's just not worth the trouble to him to specifically ask for access.)

As of chapter 39, he's no longer willing to ask someone else to help prepare something for him, and won't ask Ford to so much as open the fridge for him. Full kitchen access used to account for about 35% of his meals, now it's more like 25%.

Third choice:

If no one's in the kitchen, he won't go looking for someone; he'd rather starve than plea for food from the people who took his food access away. Instead, he'll just eat whatever he can scrounge off the open shelving. That means no food that requires refrigeration, cooking, or microwaving; and no food that's canned, in glass jars, or needs scissors to open. In practice, this means a whole lot of junk food—chips, cookies, candy, jerky, cereal, soda. The most nutritious thing he has regular and easy access to is peanut butter. He has a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. He dislikes peanut butter sandwiches, but he understands nutrition better than most humans and knows chips and jerky can only carry him so far. Scrounging accounts for 60% of his meals.

Beyond all that:

He likes triangle-shaped foods because he is, in fact, that much of an egotistical dork. He will legitimately get angry about nachos with circular or rectangular tortilla chips.

And (with Mabel's encouragement) he's become a fan of dumping sprinkles on as many things as possible. You know how grocery stores sell a bunch of different mixes of sprinkles? Different styles & colors & textures & shapes? Mabel has brought a WIDE variety of sprinkles into the house, and is teaching Bill the fine art of mixing sprinkles artistically for maximum aesthetic value. He likes the fancy-looking gold/silver/white varieties.

He drinks too much—usually, but not exclusively, to get to sleep. This is a bad thing. If called on this, he gets defensive, suggests he needs it like a "medication" to numb the discomfort of fitting a triangular soul in a human body—like taking medicine to prevent a body from rejecting a donor organ—and that the humans wouldn't understand it so they have no room to criticize. This is a VERY bad thing. I'd say he's speedrunning alcoholism, except he's continuing a pattern of substance abuse he had as a triangle, so tbh he was already there.

[pauking5]

Under the Mistletoe 🍒🌿

Pairing: Roronoa Zoro x reader

Genre: tooth-rotting fluff, mutual pining,

Word Count: 5.3k+

A/N: I did promise you more Zoro so here it is! This one has been sitting in my drafts for a while and I didn't really feel like posting it but something told me to do it now. Merry belated Christmas everyone and happy holidays! Hope you like it :)

ps: Thank you to @jiyaxedits for these really pretty dividers! They put me out of my misery a little 🫶

Zoro wasn't big on celebrations. Birthdays or holidays didn't really exist in his vocabulary for the sole reason that he was happy to drink on any occasion. He didn't need a date in the calendar to tell him when to open a bottle of alcohol.

That was until you joined the straw hats.

You were the total opposite of his detached nature to almost everything that required an extra emotional effort. Even with that, it wasn't long until you piqued his curiosity.

Observing you, he came to the conclusion that you were emotion in pure form. You showed your caring nature for people in any way you could. Whether it was by helping out one of your fellow crew mates with something or just trying to ease their own load, you were always there. He didn't think much of it until he felt self-conscious enough to get involved and help out like you did. He wouldn't admit it but you had an influence on him.

The more time you spent together the more he was drawn to you, seeing things in a different light. Before he knew it, all those random dates in the calendar held some kind of meaning to him because they held a special meaning to you.

Although, he still didn't fully understand why you got so excited whenever one of those dates would approach. You would spend days planning the activities for the day, often going out for your way.

You would go over a special menu with Sanji, making sure all meals of the day and the dessert were covered. Then you would take Nami shopping for decorations wherever you happened to be docked, picking things that encapsulated the occasion. Usopp would also pitch in with helping you put the decorations up and add a tad bit more cheer to the atmosphere.

He noticed you and Luffy made a great team when it came to picking out small attentions for the crew. You both knew the crew better than anyone and it showed not just on those days, but the ordinary ones too.

In short, everyone became an extension of your excitement for the day. Well, everyone except Zoro.

You knew he wasn't used to the whole we are a family thing and you planned on changing that.

When you joined the crew he was really reserved. But after spending some time together, you managed to crack him open. You learned more about him, what he liked and what he disliked.

You tried pulling him out of his stoic bubble and it seemed to work because little by little, he started helping out too. It was small things like helping you fix the table before the food was served or picking the drinks out by preference of each straw hat. That's where you noticed that his love language was acts of service.

As small as they were, those acts were sincere and full of kindness. Whenever someone thanked him for his help, you would catch a glimpse of his face lighting up, the rarest smile pulling at the corner of his lips.

He cared and protected people in that way. It spoke volumes of his love he had for his crew and you admired that. Even if he didn't realise the impact he had, especially on you.

The winter holidays were approaching fast, but it seemed like the cheer was absent on the Going Merry. The latest adventure left the crew exhausted and without a trace of enthusiasm. So much, that it was Christmas Eve and you didn't have a tree up, festive decorations hung around the ship or any food ready to munch on.

Out of all yearly celebrations, Christmas held a special place in your heart. It was a time to get together with your loved ones and celebrate the bond you have.

This would be your first Christmas with the crew and you have been looking forward to it for a while. They made you feel so appreciated and welcomed into their own little family and you wanted to return the appreciation.

So, bracing for your proposal to be rejected and a small hope that it would be accepted, you marched around the ship like an elf and pulled everyone out of their rooms and onto the deck.

Most of them didn't look too happy to be disturbed. Nami was in the middle of working on a map and she almost put her foot through your face for pulling her away from it. Sanji was putting some clean dishes away when you dragged him out, wet towel hastily tossed on his shoulder in the process. Luffy and Usopp were already on deck messing around. They seemed to be the only ones a little ecstatic for what you wanted to tell them.

But before you could start your speech, you noticed a certain straw hat was still missing.

Zoro was the hardest one to find, especially when he didn't want to be found. You searched his room, both the upper and lower decks, including the storage room filled with alcohol barrels and bottles. There was no sign of his presence anywhere on the ship.

You were ready to give up until you remembered there was one place you didn't search in, the crow's nest. And that's exactly where you found him, napping the day away.

Too engrossed in rushing to get everyone on deck, you were about to shake his shoulder. But as your eyes registered the sight in front of you, you halted all movement.

You saw him napping before, but none of those times did he look so deep in restful sleep like he did now.

He laid on his back, one of his hands propping up his head like a pillow, His legs were placed against the wooden mast. His body was angled in a way that the mast cast a shadow big enough to shelter his eyes from the early afternoon sun. His chest rose up slowly in sync with his soft snores, mouth slightly open. The light made his green hair look so soft that it took everything in you not to rake your hands through it.

There was something about him that put you at peace. Maybe it was the way his earrings jingled against each other and you knew he was nearby. Or the way his deep brown eyes changed to a warmer shade of chocolate while watching the sunset with you. You fell for those eyes of his a while ago and you didn't want to stop the bottomless drop at all.

Everything about him was peace to you. Even during battle, when he sliced through enemies and his blades were drenched in dirt. Or when he teased his crew members about something, with anything but good intentions in his head. Despite his hellish reputation, to you it felt like the heavens sent him down to earth. To fight and protect what he believed in with his all, laying down his own heart on the blade of his swords.

Your thoughts were cut short as the man before you stirred awake.

He sensed your presence for a while and contemplated whether he should make you aware that he knew you were staring at him. He wondered what you were sighing so softly at and couldn't hold in his curiosity anymore.

He opened his eyes to find you sitting down next to him. Your eyes locked with his and you just gazed at each other for a while. Adjusting the hand behind his head, he tilted it to get a better look at you.

You had that smile on your face, the one that grew on him the past months you've spent together. One look at it and it made every single one of his worries disappear into thin air.

That's the impact your whole presence had on him. Besides pure emotion you were also tranquility and harmony, while he was chaos and destruction. You neutralised his worst fears when he needed it the most with just that one smile and he couldn't get enough of it.

Your eyes suddenly went wide with realisation. You were supposed to get back to the other straw hats with him in tow a while ago. Wrapping your hand around his free one you tugged him up with you.

"Whoa, slow down. What's the rush?"

"You. Me. Downstairs. Now. Will explain in a bit."

He let you pull him downstairs on the deck where everyone else waited expectantly.

"Sleeping beauty decided to finally join us," joked Sanji.

"Is that a compliment, sandwich maker?"

"We thought you ditched us for a second," added Usopp, wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive way.

You and Zoro were both confused. But then it hit you that something warm surrounded your palm. You looked down to see his hand securely intertwined with yours. Your hand was definitely on his forearm when you left the crow's nest. He probably caught your hand in the rush of pulling him down the stairs to avoid breaking his neck.

His eyes followed your widened ones to see your hands together.

He held your hand before, when he would hand you a plate with food or to help you down from the ship onto land. But not once did he hold it fully like this. His palm was entirely enclosed around yours. Your hand looked so small in his. Like it fit just right with his larger one.

You let go first and he hesitated a little. He wanted to hold it a bit longer. To study all the ridges on your knuckles as his fingers would thread between yours. To just hold them.

But he was conscious of the four pairs of eyes darting between the two of you and he let go of your hand, going back to his serious self beside you.

Shaking the awkwardness away, you turned back to the crew, remembering the task at hand.

"So, I gathered you all here today because it's Christmas Eve!" you said, waving your hands around enthusiastically, though your joy wasn't that well received on the other end.

"Okay and?" asked Nami, rather devoid of the holiday spirit.

"What do you mean okay and?! It's Christmas Eve! We don't have a tree up, decorations or any food to properly celebrate."

"I don't get why we need to celebrate a white bearded old man breaking into people's houses every year," deadpanned Nami.

"Yeah, I kinda have to agree with her on that," said Zoro, scratching the back of his neck.

"It's not just about Santa. We also celebrate the appreciation and love we share together as a crew," you stated. You took to walking around the deck, as their eyes followed you trying to make sense of your behaviour.

"Christmas is about making new memories by spending time together. It's putting up decorations and dressing up silly. We could set up our Christmas tree here," you pointed to the tall mast in the middle. "String a few sets of lights up from the jolly roger all the way down the veils to the decks, like a multi-coloured umbrella," you said excitedly, turning back around to them.

"Christmas is also a time to reflect back on the past year and talk about our best moments over a hearty dinner. It's a moment where we all get to be honest with each other. To share the hope, the joy and the love we hold for each other," you concluded.

You looked at them with hopeful eyes, earnestly wishing they will understand why you were so hellbent on doing something for the day.

But all you got in response to your speech was unsure neck rubs and a sense that you were the only one who wanted to celebrate today.

You felt like your excitement was maybe a little too much this time. Maybe they really just wanted a peaceful night in, doing whatever they had planned by themselves.

None of them were saying anything and it only made your uncertainty grow inside.

Maybe forgetting any of this even happened was better than making them feel like they should be doing something they weren't comfortable with.

Defeated, you took a step back and decided to retaliate.

"Actually, we don't need to do anything extra today. We can just chill out and all," you laughed nervously. "Sorry for bringing you guys out here for nothing."

You mumbled the last part and turned on your heels to make your way back to your room. Maybe not saying anything would have been better than whatever that was.

The crew remained on deck after you left. If anyone felt defeated it certainly wasn't you, but them. Especially the green-haired swordsman.

His mind was stuck on you. On the way your eyes twinkled with joy the more you gestured around you how you pictured everything. On the smile that never left your lips as you spoke of what the holiday means to you. And the fact that you wanted to spend this with them, your current family.

For him, the concept of family was a hard one to grasp. He didn't think he would ever feel as welcomed as he felt with the family he had back at the dojo. With Kuina.

He thought he would never be able to find a place he belonged. Until he came across the straw hats. They annoyed him, pestered him, drove him crazy most of the time. But they cared. They fully supported his dream to become the greatest swordsman in the world, without doubting his ambition or his skills in the slightest. And that meant a lot to him.

They grew on him and they felt like family. That included you too. It was you who showed him how to give back to the people that support you relentlessly. It was you who taught him that opening up to people wasn't selfish. That he should be open to not just giving but receiving too. The straw hats had a lot of love for him and they would stop at nothing to show it.

That's what you did a few moments ago. You put yourself out there, doing everything to convince them that celebrating shouldn't be a chore. That you wanted to celebrate your new found family.

He felt his heart break when he watched you back away like that. He knew you were beating yourself up for it, for thinking you were too much. But that wasn't true. He wanted to tell you that he wanted to celebrate with you. But it took him a while to register everything you said and that was one of the things he was working on.

By the looks on their faces, everyone was questioning themselves now. Searching for some kind of meaning that Christmas could have for them. Somewhere, deep down inside their hearts, they wanted to celebrate this too, just as much as you did.

Something seemed to click in their heads after a while, their eyes connecting in a knowing look. You could consider them convinced because they took the initiative themselves. It just took a while for your words to process.

"You know what, she's right," started Sanji. "I haven't cooked a hearty Christmas meal for ages. I could do with a roast, some eggnog and a cake."

"I can clean up around here a little. Get the table out here and some chairs," chimed Usopp.

"We could go into town and see what decorations we can find," added Luffy, linking his arm with Nami's in excitement.

"All we need is someone to go and get a Christmas tree," said Nami.

All eyes moved to the green-haired man leaning on the stair railing. He was the only one who hasn't pitched in with anything yet and they all looked at him expectantly.

He, on the other hand, did not seem to get the idea, looking back at everyone slightly confused.

"What?"

"You really are an idiot," face palmed Nami.

"Hey! Why are you calling me an idiot?"

"She was suggesting you would go and get a tree that we could put up over here," said Usopp, motioning to the mast. He realised that it was the spot you said you wanted it to be in.

"Why me?"

"You're forgetting you're the more muscular one out of all of us," uttered Nami, pinching his bicep. She thought that if she spoke to his ego he would realise what he needed to do sooner. "You don't expect me to carry it back to the ship now do you?"

"Fair point."

Finally, with tasks assigned and a plan for battle in place the straw hats took to their duties. They decided Christmas would happen this year, though it would take some work. And possibly a miracle.

It's been a while since you retreated back to your room. You stared at the Christmas plan you had written down on several sheets of paper on your nightstand, tracing the colour coded activities as you sighed. Maybe next year.

A knock on your door pulled you from zoning out. The light from outside dimmed down and the sun was just about to set, telling you it's been hours since your Christmas show on deck.

You walked to the door, wondering who it could be. It was probably Luffy, coming to check on you. But you were surprised to open it and find a rather distressed Nami. She had a weird smile on her face that was unlike her. What was even weirder was the silver tinsel hanging around her neck and the red and white santa hat on her head.

"We need some help out on the deck," she smiled wider, holding out a bag filled with different colored tinsel to you.

Your frown was instantly replaced by a smile matching hers as you took the bag from her hand.

"What made you change your mind?"

"You did," she said, pulling you into a hug that you returned. "We were too deep inside of our heads to see the bigger picture. We gave it some thought and realised you were right, so we got down to business."

You separated and walked down the halls. The walls inside the ship were decorated with lights all the way to the doors leading on deck. Nami's smile only got brighter the closer you got to the kitchen because you opened the doors and got hit with the most Christmas-like smell: Sanji's special roast. He just pulled it out of the oven, steam rising in the air spreading a divine aroma. But that wasn't the only thing cooking.

The oven was still working, baking a few batches of cookies in all kinds of shapes. A warm scent of cinnamon embraced you, followed by zesty citrus touches.

"It smelles like heaven in here, Sanji!"

"I'm glad angel," he smiled at you warmly.

Nami beckoned you outside. Luffy and Usopp were up in the crow's nest, struggling to untangle what looked like five rows of lights to hang from the jolly roger down to the veils. Just like you told them you wanted them.

You quickly climbed up to them with Nami in tow to help them before they could get hurt.

"Guys, you didn't have to do all this."

"Of course we did!" jumped Luffy. "You do so much for us and it was about time we paid you back."

"Well, at least let me help with the rest."

"Please do!" cried Usopp. He was tangled in one of the light sets from top to bottom.

"We could use you as a Christmas tree instead," joked Nami. "We just have to plug you in."

Everyone laughed at that. This was the atmosphere you desperately wanted, with the people you loved the most. It was where you belonged.

The only one you haven't seen around was Zoro. No one mentioned his whereabouts. All you heard was Nami complain that he's been gone for hours and that he ahd one of the easiest tasks to do. Maybe Christmas was a little too celebratory for him.

You just finished hanging up the last set of lights from the crow's nest when you heard grunts and enraged thudding of boots on the main deck. You made your way down only to be met with a sight for the history books.

There he was, hidden by a sturdy tree that was a shade of green darker than his hair. He carried it on his shoulders like it weighed nothing. But then again, he was Zoro. It must be something normal for him.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at him. The look on his face told you he was a bit annoyed. Well, by the way his jaw ticked, probably very annoyed at the fact that no one rushed to help him with the huge wood angled on his back.

Luffy and Usopp got the idea and rushed to take it off his shoulders. They lifted it up on its trunk and that's when you all noticed the tree was actually massive.

Zoro rolled his shoulders to get rid of the ache in them and proceeded to dust his clothes off the tree's fallen pine needles that were scattered across his body.

"We thought you got lost," said Nami.

"Well, I did get lost," he deadpanned.

A lot of pine needles got stuck in his hair. He shook his head around to get rid of them but there were still some sticking out between his green strands. He raked his hand through them but he still couldn't get them out. He huffed frustrated in defeat and you decided to put him out of his misery.

Walking in front of him, you got on your tip toes, reaching out with your hand to whip the rest of the needles out. He froze in place, hands mid-way to his scalp to do it himself. He let them back down to his sides and watched as you took them out of his hair one by one and threw them away on the ground.

You had your bottom lip between your teeth, focused on getting the little fuckers out. He bent his knees so it would be easier for you to work on finding them without having to stay on your tip toes for too long. Once you were done and your heels were flat on the ground, you clapped your hands to get rid of any leftover pine needles. When your eyes lifted back up you realised just how close you were standing as you were eye to eye with him. You sucked in a breath as his eyes studied your face.

He was happy to see that you had a smile on your face this time, which was a hundred times better than that frown you had when you went to your room a few hours ago. In return for that bright smile of yours you always gave him, he gave you one of his own.

This smile was new, more rare than the smile he usually wore around you. You could literally see his pearly teeth. The muscles in his cheeks pulled the edge of his lips to curve up and his eyes crinkled into crescents. It was like a half smile, half smirk kind of smile. And it drove you absolutely crazy.

Who was he and what did he do with Roronoa Zoro?

"Uh, Zoro? Why does the tree have pine cones on it?" asked a confused Usopp.

His smile fell, eyes narrowing on the straw hat behind you.

"Is that not how it's supposed to be?"

"Where did you get it from?" asked Nami. "It's been hours since you went out."

"The woods," he said proudly, hands on his hips.

Everyone burst out laughing at his words, including you. This was too good to be true.

By the looks of it, he used his swords to chop it down. The few tears in his shirt told you the tree fought him a little for cutting it down.

"What are you all laughing for now?"

"There were trees for sale, already cut up in town," wheezed Nami through her giggles.

"I knew that," he said, hands coming to sit around his chest. You narrowed your eyes at him this time and he scoffed, averting his eyes from you.

"Fine! I didn't. I just wanted to get you the real thing."

"That is the real thing too," said Luffy.

"You know what, next time you can all take goldi-locks over there tree shopping. I doubt he'll do a better job at it."

"I heard you, peahead. And I will take you up on the challenge," shouted Sanji from the kitchen.

Zoro helped you to fix the table and lay down the new silver cloth Luffy and Nami bought. It was so long, but so nicely decorated with white snowflakes falling off the edges and different winter patterns drawn along it. You both lifted it up and spread it across the table, smoothing out the ridges from the middle to the edges. One of the longer corners got caught under the leg of the wooden table and you struggled to pull it out.

Zoro rushed over to you. He dove under the table and saw the material was caught in a piece of wood that was sticking out. He unwrapped it and moved to hand it to you just as your hands reached out for it. Your fingers touched again for the second time today and it caught you both in a daze. He gazed at you and you stared at him, feeling like you were transported to a different world.

He leaned in closer to you and you did too. The way his eyes focused on your lips told you that he wanted to seal yours with his. Your lips almost touched, if it wasn't for the unwanted interruption.

"Is the table done, lovebirds?"

You were snapped out of zoning out into each other's eyes. You both looked to your right to see the rest of the straw hats looking at you. You let go of each others hands and went back to getting the table ready.

Zoro brought over cutlery and plates from the kitchen and you arranged them around the table. He also got some glasses and drinks, placing them by preference to everyone's assigned seats.

Finally, Sanji brought the food over and everyone dove in before the steam evaporated completely from the roast. A tray with six eggnog glasses was then served and you all clinked your glasses together, toasting to the crew. You looked around at everyone sat around the table and it finally felt like the holidays.

Zoro was sat next to you nursing a glass of red wine. He couldn't tell if it was the alcohol, the festive cheer or you that had a strange sense of peace wash over him. Like he did not have a worry in the world.

He looked at you from time to time absolutely enthralled by the way your laugh bounced in his ears. You were laughing at one of Usopp's stories that was most likely glazed with little reality and over the top sarcasm. The origins of the story didn't matter, because you seemed to love it by the way the corners of your mouth curled in a knowing smirk. Your eyes crinkled in delight every time he would reach a point in the tale that was too funny not to laugh at and you would let that laugh out and he would laugh with you. It was slowly becoming his favorite sound.

In the midst of it all he found himself smiling at you and the crew that was now his home. Maybe celebrating things wasn't that bad. Especially if they were things that mattered to him.

After dinner, the crew dispersed to each their own. You wandered to the tree and sat in front of it, staring at it in awe. Multi-coloured baubles decorated it so joyfully, together with random kitschy ones. The tinsel waved around every corner, acting like an twinkling extension of the tree itself. More lights were wrapped around it, carefully placed around the pine cones. You chuckled remembering how badly Nami wanted to take them all off and you argued with her to just leave it be. Despite looking as wild as you could get it, it was the perfect Christmas tree.

Zoro was looking for you and found you in front of the tree. You looked so at peace as the lights twinkled, just like your eyes did as you looked at it. He thought that maybe having pine needles even in his boxers was worth it to see you smile that bright at the fully decorated tree.

"I hope it's to your liking," he said, walking beside you.

"It is," you smiled at him. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I've got one more thing for you."

You eyebrows raised in curiosity as you wondered what it could be. You already opened gifts at the dinner table so it couldn't be that.

"Close your eyes," he instructed.

You did as he told you and waited. He told you to open them and you saw him looking up, smirking at something. You followed his eyes to see a small twig with green leaves and red berries toed to a tree branch above you with a piece of ribbon. You instantly recognised it to be mistletoe.

"Did you just tie that up there?" you chuckled.

"Well, that diminishes the surprise effect."

You wondered if he knew what the plant's meaning was, especially on Christmas. Or if he just got it because it looked pretty in the woods. That was a possibility that kept your heartbeat from rising dangerously.

The confusion on your face told him you weren't sure of his intentions and he decided to make them somewhat clearer for you.

You were busy gauging the meaning of this by staring at the mistletoe. He took a step towards you closer to you, stopping as the tip of your boots touched. You lowered your eyes from the mistletoe only to find him almost nose to nose with you. He grabbed a hold of your hand with his free one, lacing your fingers together and pulled you even closer.

"So, does the man who doesn't celebrate holidays know anything about the mistletoe tradition?" you asked, getting a little closer to him.

"I might be an idiot sometimes, but I do know this much," he scoffed, signature smirk on his face.

"Hmm. You don't look so sure of that," you teased, playing with the hem of his shirt absentmindedly.

"How about I show you then?"

Your breath hitched in your throat as he dipped his head closer to yours. His eyes hungrily darted between yours and your lips waiting for your approval to finally kiss you.

"Want to do the honours?" you asked biting your lower lip in expectation.

"Gladly," he breathed out, closing the distance between you.

It turned out your palms weren't the only ones that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Your lips did too, moving in sync with desire. Your free hand fisted his shirt to pull him closer as his free one came to sit at the back of your head pulling you impossibly closer. You felt him smile against your lips and you couldn't help but do it too, smilling against his.

You broke apart for air, foreheads pressed flush against each other. Your hands were still laced together, his thumb tracing the outline of your palm.

"This is the best Christmas ever," you breathed out.

He chuckled at that. His hand moved from the back of your head to cup your cheek and your hand came to rest on his wrist. You leaned into his touch, laying a kiss of appreciation on his palm. He smiled at you and that's where you knew that you wanted to spend all your holidays with him. Just like this.

It seemed like you spoke your mind out loud because he grinned widely at you. You buried your head in his chest in embarrasment as he laughed at your adorableness.

"I wouldn't want anyone else to spend them with either," said Zoro, laying your heart at ease.

Thank you for reading! As always, comments, likes and reblogs are welcome!

[h-didanart]

Bloodmoon in dresses collection, round 2!

You thought I was done? So did I, but! Inspiration came back! And so I will now kick off the second round of this blog’s Bloodmoon in dresses collection.

One thing to note is that there are new participants, Bloodmoons from other aus that I hadn’t thought of for a while until someone (*coughs* @achickennamedcheese) asked me how many Bloodmoons I have. They are all here though, and they look rather dashing.

Starting us off, Magical Bloodmoon; Harvest Moon and Sturgeon Moon.

They didn’t need to look too far to find their dress, they already had one! Sure it was a skirt and some cool clothes but it’d still work. On top of that they could flaunt their cool shape shifting powers and they cool shape shifting weapon, so why wouldn’t they go for it? Might as well upstage everyone else in this whole damn place

They are having a lot of fun with this.

Next up, someone who you guys might not recognize on account of me not drawing or talking about them in so long. God of Doom Bloodmoon; Adaptation.

Adaptation himself has absolutely zero control over how Morpho decides to present them, so they didn’t particularly care when the butterfly put them in a dress. He did care when the winged death bringer pushed him to the front and basically let them run around and do whatever. He might be a bit self conscious now, but who is he to deny some time to hangout with their twin and the many other versions of themselves that are in that place?

There’s not enough red in his opinion

Last newcomer! I present to you, the amnesiac twins; Ruby and Vermillion.

Unlike around 99.8% of Bloodmoons, Ruby and Vermillion aren’t very close. Waking up so suddenly with no knowledge of anything or anyone and then learning that there’s someone else in their head was a very bad first impression for one another about each other. They both differ on tastes and likes greatly and don’t have much to bond over besides their dislike for the old them. It comes as no surprise then that they’d have trouble choosing something to wear for this event. On one hand Ruby just grabbed whatever he could and called it a day, making Vermillion feel very bad at the asymmetry of it all; on the other Vermillion chose stuff that makes sense and forms a cohesive color palette on top of being comfy, but Ruby absolutely hates the textures.

We can only hope those two come to an understanding at some point.

And finally, to wrap up this post we have the second design for one of the swap Bloodmoons; Fang.

Fang didn’t know what to do for the second round. Fang could steal from the Sun-man again, but didn’t want to, Fang wanted to stay with the other Others. So Fang had to think about what to do that wouldn’t require to go outside. Fang remembered that together with Scythe they usually had a combination of clothes that had a skirt, so Fang decided to wear the clothes the twins would wear together.

Sadly Fang cannot put the hood on

And that’s all for today! Dunno when I’ll be back, but thanks for dropping by, bye!

[moonblastbitch]

Yellow card update

Hi ya'll! So I barely use tumblr nowadays, but considering some stuff going on I thought it would be good to do a quick little come back.

So hi! I'm Kit, I write the griddlehark fic Yellow Card with my friend Starr. It's a very silly fanfiction about age difference Harrow and Gideon having an affair and raising a child together. It's pretty well known in TLT fan spaces which I'm super grateful for! It's not an understatement to call this little fic my pride and joy. I've spent the last two years working on it as my little labor of love and it's kinda grown a cult of followers! Really, it's a fun excuse for me and my friend to work on something we care about together. But lately I haven't felt inclined to work on it and I want to talk about why.

Over the last several months I've had some health stuff going on that's resulted in needing two surgeries. Along with that, I moved into a new place and my gf and I are managing some new financial stress. Plus, you know, the general state of democracy in decay all around the world. It doesn't leave me a lot of time or energy to write silly smut fic. Everyone has been very supportive of me taking the time I need to recover and I'm really grateful.

But... this is where I have to address some not great stuff. Today my friend approached me with a fanfiction making fun of my writing. And several posts from someone making fun of the tropes I use in the writing. Now, I want to make this abundantly clear. Absolutely no one is required to like my writing style or fics. I don't write for praise or wealth, just for my own personal happiness. I think everyone is within their right to complain to their friends if they dislike something they read. What I really can't tolerate however is this intense hostility toward myself or my fellow writers. Nor do I appreciate having an entire fic written mocking me or my stylistic choices.

Back when I first joined the TLT fandom in 2020 it was teeny tiny. Now it's a lot less so. It's been so satisfying to see everyone grow and change over the years, and I think I've grown a lot as a writer. Sadly though, I've seen a lot of stupid bullshit. I've seen personal friends of mine targeted in harassment campaigns because they ship the wrong ship. I've been added to public bookmarks complaining about my writing, I've been subtweeted, I've been made fun of. And I think I'm done.

I write for my own pleasure. I write to bond with my friends. I am not writing for homophobic assholes who use my work to mock me, nor make me or my co-writer the target of harassment. So, as a result, Yellow Card and all my other TLT fics are on an immidate hiatus, with the exception of one upcoming commission for the TLT for Palestine charity.

I spent a long time tonight debating if I should even write this post. It seems like by writing this I'd be giving the people making fun of me more ammo. But honestly? I don't care. My feelings are hurt. I am upset. I shouldn't have to hide that because some bullies will take bits of this statement to use in their next bitchy text post.

I want to reiterate something important. I am open to critque on my work. Anyone who has an issue with my writing style is more than welcome to come into my comments and let me know if something isn't flowing right, if there are unfortunate implications of a line I may not have considered, if there is something they personally find a bit distasteful. Sadly, the people doing this skipped right to mockery and ridicule, and that is unacceptable.

What drew me to this fandom in the first place was Muir's openness to her background in fanworks. She clearly takes such pride knowing her book series has spawned into a wild, happy fandom writing crack silliness and serious character study alike. Because that is what fandom is for. Having fun in a big beautiful sandbox, creating art with friends. And I treasure that deeply, even as I am forced to walk away from a space I love.

TLDR: TLT fandom is full of dicks. And not the kind I write about.

Thank you to everyone whose offered me kindness and support over the years! I truly appreciate you all. If you wanna stay in contact, it's easiest to find me over on twitter @moonblastbitch or discord (same name)

[dduane]

I always see advice about first drafts being okay to have rough sequences and character decisions, but one thing that keeps sticking me is it always feels like I need to have character voice figured out when I start writing. Do you have any advice to offer in developing character voice? Or at least, how not to worry so much about that when writing the first draft?

Hmm.

First of all (for those who may not be sure what this is about), let me add a link here to the Masterclass page on character voice, which is a useful basic resource.

Actually developing characters' voices is such an idiosyncratic process! So describing my approach to this may or may not be useful to you. But I'll give it a shot.

(Adding a cut here, because this runs long.)

When a character's about to first come on stage I spend some time just thinking about who they are: their upbringing, their life situation (pre-action and during-), their general emotional makeup... their pre-existing internal stresses, and how those are likely to interact with the ones I'm about to inflict on them. I take a look at where their particular position in their culture would normally place their speech and the way they're expected to think and act. Then I'll examine whether or not those expectations are ones they'd normally fall in with, or adopt unquestioningly... or secretly (or openly) dislike. As usual, drama is about conflict. A character who likes or loathes something about a situation, or about somebody else (or themselves), is going to find ways to routinely express that—not just in dialogue, but in affect, attitude, and reaction: all the aspects of voice.

I may make notes on these issues along the way if the choices I'm making for the character(s) are complex enough that I'm afraid I'll lose track of detail. But after that I've found it's usually best to just get on with it and start writing, as it's in producing the first draft that it seems to me the characters' voices develop best. It's like the difference between thinking about what you'd do if someone pulled a gun on you, and actually finding out in realtime what you'll do. The two situations are likely to differ profoundly; and not only other characters, but you, may be surprised by what you "see" and "hear".

That said— Sometimes as the first draft progresses, or when it's done, I'll go over a character's interactions with the plot and other characters and get a sense of something ringing just slightly hollow—of the character feeling less than fully present in their scenes: or of them (and their reactions) somehow just not being enough for the situations into which you've thrown them. Normally a realization like this suggests to me that there's something missing in my conception of them... and hence, something missing for them too: something that's not coming through properly in their voice, or not coming through at all.

If this happens, it can be a sign that either I got lazy in the character's design, or missed something larger that was going on, due to being too close to the situation they're in. So what I normally do at such a time is find a quiet few minutes to interview them.

...And let's be clear here that I'm not one of those writers who honestly believes (in the psychological, psychiatric, or developmental senses) that their character has some kind of existence outside their head.* My position is absolutely that every part of this process is make-believe, sourced in my own brain. And, yes, it's important to treat the whole creative process, and everyone/everything inhabiting it, with the dignity one normally accords to everyday reality in a physical universe. But sometimes—even to engage correctly with what we laughably call Real Life—some distance is required: space in which to stand back and see the forest in which the "tree" you're examining stands.

The interviewing state is one way you can get a little distance. You find an empty chair (in the room, in your head, doesn't matter) and sit your character down in it, and ask them what's going on. And you keep asking about it—sometimes in multiple sessions—until you get answers that ring true enough for you to grasp and solve their problem, and yours.

Nor do the questions have to be particularly event- or other-character-focused. Generalities may be more useful. I've had good results with two questions in particular: "What do you know about yourself that I don't know?", and "What do you not know about yourself that you need to?" Sometimes this will seriously open the floodgates... so, like good interviewers everywhere, it's smart to have a notepad handy. :)

I had this situation crop up with one of my oldest characters, who'd begun the series in which he appears as...well, frankly, kind of a dick. And yes, I knew this was going to shift as his character arc went where it was going (poor guy!). But at the same time, his voice in the second book of the series—then in its first draft—wasn't correctly reflecting either who he was, or why it was eventually going to be right for him to be going where he was going. He was too flip sometimes, too facile other times, too flat and matter-of-fact at other times still; and his rawness-around-the-edges was offputting. And I liked him! ...so the thought of what other people were likely to make of him, made me nervous.

This problem plainly had to be sorted out, pronto. So I paused work on that book for a day or three, and sat him down in the chair, and eventually got around to asking question two. And wow.... did that ever yield results! All I'd needed was the distance afforded by this technique to allow him to tell me what the problem was—and what I plainly already knew without being conscious of it—and what to do about it as I went forward (and backward, in revision). And I'm still mining the results.

...So you may like to try out that approach, if you run into problems, and see how it serves you. Hope you find it useful!

Meanwhile, as for how to worry less about where voice issues are going as you draft? ...It's been long enough since I had any similar concern that I'm not sure how to advise you. But it seems possible that, if you can cozy up enough to the concept that draft is where at least some people think the development of character voice belongs, over time you can overwrite the concern.

Anyway: hope all of this helps!

*After a book's out, of course, this situation shifts. Once other people get hold of your characters and start making them real, all bets are off. :)

ETA: if you found this useful, maybe you'd like to stop by Ebooks.Direct and take a look around to see if there's something you'd like to pick up? Please & thank you! :)

[avidabsurdist]

Every time a new Brandon Sanderson book is released everyone updates their suggested reading order but all you need is the patience to be uninformed and enjoy the book!

But depending on your preference the best story to start with will be different.

If you want a crash course on the basics of The Cosmere's magic physics (Aka Investiture) so you can hypothesize on how other magic works I suggest the short story "The Emperor's Soul" as a starting point, it gives a solid overview of Realmic theory and covers Identity (a rather difficult idea to communicate) very effectively. (this is the start of the PhD route)

If you want something that's more like a traditional fairy tale as an intro I suggest Tress Of the Emerald Sea, which doesn't require a PhD in the shattering to understand. (though if you're going the PhD route I suggest reading this one later because if you're questioning the magic it's a far more confusing one)

Warbreaker is a good middle ground, if you're going the PhD route I suggest this second (it covers Intention which "The Emperor's Soul" doesn't), It's not a bad starting place either, it was my first book in The Cosmere and it's up for free on The Sand-Man's website. It's also all-around an excellent book.

I'm going to be (a tad) controversial and say I enjoy Elantris, it's certainly not Brando-Sando's best work but it was his first, and it's not a bad book to start with! just keep in mind that many of the issues in the book are things he improves on in later books.

Mistborn is two (soon to be 3) series, we distinguish them by 'Era' and they should be read in order if you want to make sense of what's going on.

Mistborn Era 1 (3 books) is also an excellent place to start, it's a YA-style series so you follow a teenager in a Post-(more like perpetual)-Apocalypse, but it's also an Epic high fantasy so if you like those and don't mind romance It's a good one.

"Mistborn Secret History": read this after Mistborn Era 1 if you're going the PHD route read anytime before The Lost Metal (Era 2 Book 4) for everyone else. (PhD track: if you want the most out of it I suggest also reading White Sand first)

Mistborn Era 2 (4 books) is a high fantasy Western set in the same world much later in time, 10/10 no notes, it's excellent.

The Stormlight Archive, TheBigOne™ It is planned to be a 10-book series with accompanying Novellas. I suggest reading in chronological order including the short stories, published so far that would be:

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

"Edgedancer" (novella)

Oathbringer

"Dawnshard" (novella)

Rhythm of War

Start with this series if you thirst for sprawling high-fantasy novels with page counts that would make grown men weep (the Audiobook for RoW was like 48 hours long)

The entirety of Arcanum Unbounded is not required reading, (unless you're on the PhD track) but it contains both "The Emperor's Soul" and "Edgedancer", you should probably read Elantris, Mistborn Era 1, Alloy Of Law (MB Era 2 Book 1), and Stormlight (up to Words of Radiance). If you enjoy Graphic Novels and dislike spoilers/rereading stuff when you haven't finished it yet I suggest skipping the White Sand excerpt.

White Sand is also not a terrible intro, it covers a theme in B-Sandy's work that isn't directly related to the cosmere but will give you a good insight into whether you'll like his work or not: the idea that skill is developed, not just inherent. if you're like me and dislike graphic novels GraphicAudio™ (actually a company not a joke) Has an Audio rendition that has some narrative differences from the Graphic novels (iirc at least one character is a different gender) But the Graphic novels also have a random boombox on a planet with no electricity so either should be fine.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is in a similar situation to Tress of The Emerald Sea except instead of a classic European Folktale Vibe it's got a Western Interpretation of Anime Vibe, ofc it's high fantasy like all Sandon Branderson's work so it's world is inspired by Japanese culture rather than just being Japanese.

The Sunlit Man read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (Arcanum Unbounded), and at least Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive 3) before this one, unless you like being thrown into the deep end, Mistborn Era 1 & 2 would also help.

There are other routes than Ph.D., there's also the Galactic Politics route, The Secret Society route, The Worldhopper Watcher route, The Ancient History route (Aka The Shattering route) ect

if you want specific reading route recs just tell me what you're looking for I can help!

[nagamas]

Nagamas Is Gone; Long Live Nagamas

tl;dr Nagamas is getting an overhaul; the exchange is moving to AO3; there's a feedback form if you want to share your thoughts!

After running the Nagamas exchange for the past decade (!!!), with hundreds and hundreds of fanworks produced during those years, the original mod team is stepping down to move on to other ventures.  We'd like to thank them for their hard work during that time!  So many excellent fanworks and friendships were made possible because of you.

A new mod team will be taking the reins from here forward, and we'll be making some changes to the exchange, in order to make it easier and more sustainable to run and, hopefully, more enjoyable for the participants as well.

Below the cut: what's changing, what's staying the same, and what we'd like your feedback on.

WHAT'S CHANGING:

Nagamas 2024-2025 will be run on Archive of Our Own.

This means fic and art produced for the exchange must be posted to AO3, and you will need an AO3 account to participate.

Nagamas will endeavor to get AO3 invite codes to everyone who needs one; however, if you do not have an AO3 account and think you may like to participate come wintertime, now's a great time to sign up for the AO3 waitlist.

We’ll still be reblogging/retweeting/etc gifts that are additionally posted to social media, but AO3 will be the *primary* location for all gifts.

We will no longer do all matches by hand.

While striving to find the perfect match for every participant, based on their myriad likes and dislikes, was a fun challenge for the mod team, with often-excellent results, it's also proved time-consuming and error-prone as the exchange has grown over time (more than 150 participants last year!).

Instead, we'll be using AO3's matching tool to assign matches.  (You will, of course, still be guaranteed to receive a gift that features at least one of your chosen characters/pairings, and any Do Not Wants you describe in your sign-up will be honored.)

In addition to this new system being easier for the mods, this means participants will receive assignments very soon after signups end, instead of needing to wait for a lengthy matching process.

Gifts will be revealed simultaneously.

Previously, we've allowed participants to post their gift to the platform of their choice as soon as their gift is complete.  However, this leads to confusion over "wait, where is my gift?", and disappointment when some gifts arrive much sooner than others.

Instead, this year, the AO3 collection will be hidden until every participant has a gift.

Pinch hits will be posted publicly.

In previous years, if creators dropped out of the exchange, the Nagamas mods would attempt to "rematch" by individually contacting a pinch hitter with interest in that particular prompt, in an effort to maintain secrecy as to which gifts were pinch hits and which were not.  However, this did take extra time and cause delays.

So, starting this year, if a creator drops out of the exchange, their assigned prompt will be posted publicly, and anyone can then volunteer themselves to fill the prompt.

WHAT'S STAYING THE SAME:

We will still be a pan-Fire Emblem exchange.

You'll be able to request characters and ships from across the whole series.

We will still include both art and fic.

AO3 supports both; fanartists, we haven't forgotten about you!

WHAT WE'D LIKE YOUR FEEDBACK ON:

We're still deciding what other changes may be necessary to keep running the exchange sustainably.  (Some things we're considering: we may require that participants' prompts include at least two different Fire Emblem games; we may not be able to honor "don't match me with this person"-type requests.)

If you have any feedback you think the new mod team should take into account when redesigning the exchange, please feel free to submit a quick note via this Google Form.

The form is completely anonymous, and we won’t post any of the feedback publicly, but we do promise to read and take into consideration each comment we receive.

Thanks & looking forward to another Nagamas!

[vegasandhishedgehog]

Just a non-comprehensive list of all the things P'Jojo touched on throughout the entirety of The Warp Effect:

The harm of forcing teens to promise absolute abstinence from sex while not providing space for safe and open discussions about it

Some people have a strong sense of their sexuality/gender identity. Others don't

Even guys who seem like good ones can do horrible things and be unaware. They are not required to be forgiven no matter how guilty they feel

Being single by choice is not shameful

Fwb is not shameful either

No one has any right to expect more out of a relationship when you have communicated what you are up for up front

Female friendship is a beautiful, wonderful thing, why would we pit so many bad bitches against each other when they're cooler as friends?

Nonsexual kinks are valid and with the right person can make for a beautiful relationship

There are several methods for pregnancy and it's important to discuss things with your donor (if you've chosen one personally)

Listen to your partner! It is actually possible to be together for a decade and still be unaware of something they like/dislike!

You can be forgiven for being shitty in high school but that is not up to you, it's only up to the person you have wronged

Always know the age of whoever you're talking to so you don't accidentally sleep with a minor

Fatphobia and transphobia have never been cool

Trauma hurts and the journey to work through it is difficult. It's not wrong to want to reconcile with someone and find that you can't. It's not wrong to try to push past it numerous times. It is not your fault someone ruined what should be a good experience for you

Nonsexual intimacy is valid and the right partner will work with you to understand your needs

The choice to have children is a really big one and no it should not be an excuse to keep the relationship together. The choice not to doesn't always have to break it up either

Abortion is a personal matter and should be done safely and legally

STDs have all sorts of origins and are an important matter to address in terms of being polyamorous or even going from one partner to the next. They are also not a reason to feel shame and are simply a matter of getting proper treatment and abstaining from sex while healing. Straight couples can get them, it isn't just a gay stereotype

Anyone can have a romantic relationship and not have sex

Parenting from afar isn't being responsible, but it is still possible to create a relationship with your estranged child

Dick size is nothing to be concerned about - you can find someone who enjoys a sexual relationship with you no matter what

It is so important to see your doctor. If that doctor makes you uncomfortable, though, you should be fine to leave and go somewhere else

Gay does not mean pedophile and it's important for you and your children to know the difference because there are gay teachers and coaches who have enough on their shoulders

Cheating doesn't have to include anything physical if you're seeking pleasure from someone who is not your partner and have not discussed such things with your partner or the person you cheat with

Sex work should not be criminalized and more of us need to standing up for the rights of sex workers

Masturbation is normal and doesn't have to be treated as sad or pathetic

Cishet people can be amazing allies. You can have your group of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people with a bunch of them included and it can be a fabulous group

Casting agents that don't allow for body and gender diversity don't deserve their job

The show gave us a whole PSA on pelvic exams????? HELP??????

ALWAYS PRACTICE SAFE SEX NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE, ORIENTATION, OR IDENTITY IS - ALWAYS HAVE A PROPER DISCUSSION AND STICK TO WHAT EVERYONE CONSENTS TO. ALWAYS

I swear I'm still missing stuff but everything that The Warp Effect said is so special to me

[cilil]

Miscellaneous Manwë headcanons...

...because I feel like talking about him right now idk

Manwë actually didn't want to be Elder King - which makes him a good choice at least in terms of avoiding tyranny - but accepted Eru's choice and tries to do it to the best of his ability. He would give up his crown in a heartbeat if Eru said so and has been tempted by Melkor multiple times, as it would be a great relief for him

To this day Manwë doesn't know the full story about what happened between Melkor and Varda. Melkor didn't tell him out of shame and Varda didn't tell him to avoid him worrying about hurting his brother's feelings. Whenever rumors go around Valinor, Manwë assumes it was a pretty standard sort of dispute

He's still sad about Melkor's betrayal and believes in his redemption. However, he knows that he and Nienna are pretty alone with this belief and therefore stopped talking about it. Manwë has since taken to grieving and hoping in secret, not even sharing these thoughts with Varda sometimes

The reason why he doesn't speak to mortals is not any sort of elitism or dislike, he has merely learned that, much like with Melkor, he has trouble understanding them and his presence would likely cause more harm than good

Manwë's title as Lord of the Breath of Arda and the way he uses his element to defend himself against Melkor in Lost Tales imply that he creates air and wind by breathing. This in turn may result in him always providing fresh air, maybe actually breathing regularly like incarnates do (simply for convenience) and being unable to suffocate, even if he decided to wear a fána that requires air

Due to his nature as a being of air and wind, Manwë is very light. Despite the size difference, even a Hobbit could lift and throw him

This is also why he hates any sort of restrictive clothing and will pretty much always wear robes and nothing else

Manwë is pretty much always floating, it's just not visible due to his robes. He even performs walking motions and thinks he's walking like everyone else as long as his feet touch the ground occasionally, but he isn't quite there. Nobody has had the courage/bothered to correct him yet

Manwë switches back and forth between humanoid and bird feet frequently and often forgets which set of feet he currently has. This leads to him grasping and holding on to things using humanoid feet with surprising dexterity. He also prefers to use stress balls with his feet

Due to bird feet having talons Manwë has ruined various pairs of shoes and socks over the years and has since stopped wearing them entirely because he feels bad whenever he ends up breaking things by accident

Manwë has blue eyes (that part is actually canon). He defaults to having blue eyes in other fánar as well and is only seen with different eye colors if he's actively choosing to change it

His wings are always there, but not always corporeal or visible. Manwë summons and dismisses them as he sees fit. He is of course able to fly with them, but doesn't need them

Will add more later maybe, we'll see

[itsclydebitches]

Does everyone know that one found family post going around that's something like, "What do you MEAN they all go their separate ways after the journey??"

That's how I feel about Ted going back to Kansas.

To be clear, I'm not arguing that it's an unlikely ending to the series. I think it's very likely, especially when I consider a lot of the cool meta people have been writing lately, but that likeliness leaves a sour taste in my mouth because what's waiting for Ted in Kansas? "Henry!" the fandom cries and yes, obviously, but that doesn't feel like enough to me (which I realize sounds like a callous statement regarding a father and son, but hear me out). The only other things Kansas has are an ex-wife, a horrifically unprofessional step-dad in the making, and a long line of comforts that Ted has outgrown. I've noticed that this season in particular Ted has been moving away from his American roots: he misses his BBQ sauce but manages to find a perfect replacement in Amsterdam, he's finding solace in paintings for temporary homesickness, he's using "football" and "maths" naturally in conversation, many of his speeches lately have been about how he once WAS this American so-and-so but has changed significantly since then. From a canonical perspective, Henry is the only thing in Kansas that's good for Ted anymore and even if we put that aside for a moment (which I don't think we should) it seems quite significant to me that Ted has spent three successful years parenting from across the pond.

Is that ideal? No, but Ted Lasso hasn't gone out of its way to paint this separation as a failure, or a crippling blow to Ted or Henry, despite them obviously missing each other a great deal at times. I'll admit that this aspect is absolutely colored by my own bias. As someone who doesn't want kids herself, I dislike the implicit message that a parent must give up everything they want/need in order to be 100% available to their child. I'm of the belief that there's a big difference between loving/raising your child and lacking a life outside of them because Every Aspect of Your Existence Must Serve Their Direct Needs Until the Magical Age of 18, so I've never jived with the "Ted is a horrible father who abandoned Henry!" takes. Not just because I think the show has made it clear that Henry doesn't feel abandoned, but because it tells viewers that parents can't have anything for themselves once they've brought a life into this world... which feels pretty shitty to me. Thus, that whole Henry-based argument rings as unpersuasive both from my biased perspective and a canonical perspective: "In order to be labeled a good father Ted MUST go back to Henry in Kansas, leaving behind every bond he's formed here, despite the fact that he's spent a significant amount of time making this long-distance relationship work really, really well."

Putting Henry aside and going back to my original point above, sending Ted to Kansas requires the audience to imagine up a life for him that has never existed on screen. Sure, we can assume that Ted will form new bonds and rekindle old ones there, but that would exist entirely off screen. Like the story that asks you to ignore the family that's been built right in front of you in favor of the headcanoned one that the characters are separating for, a Kansas ending would ask us to toss aside three seasons worth of family, community, and still developing relationships for... whatever it is we'd personally imagine up post-series. Audiences (by and large) don't WANT their protagonist to end up with [insert OCs here], they want them to stay with the developed cast, whether that's a romance, a friendship, or a family. To me, there's nothing satisfying about imagining Ted in a location the series has never explored with people who don't exist yet except for, as said, an ex, a man who justifiably makes him incredibly uncomfortable, and his child whom he already has a fantastic relationship with in the community where Ted is happy.

There are a lot of other reasons why this ending would be a big disappointment to me, most notably the rejection of untraditional forms of parenting + the message that Ted was always destined to "reset," returning to precisely where he started out, like he's just a hope dispenser who isn't allowed to significantly grow himself. Sure, you can divorce and get better about managing your anxiety... but making a permanent, positive life change? Nah, let's act like this is an episodic show and toss you back to the beginning. I've seen a couple of people compare Ted to Mary Poppins and while a part of my does like that connection, another part cringes at the idea of him playing the role of magical benefactor, his own future happiness deemed insignificant compared to the lives he's already changed. Thanks for the help, Ted! Hope you manage to find some more happiness for yourself back among everything you've spent the series leaving behind. Open your umbrella and let the wind take you; wherever you land and how hard the fall is doesn't matter because the show is over.

So there's a lot going on for me, however, the found family bit is where I'm truly stuck. You're really going to build up this community and Ted's place in it for three seasons, moving him from "wanker" all the way to beloved coach, only to pack him back to Kansas after he's finally carved out a place for himself? Kansas, the place the show has consistently argued has nothing to offer Ted except for the child he hasn't actually lost? Yeah no, sorry, I'm not a fan.

Which doesn't mean I think Ted Lasso is going to become a terrible show if they choose this - again, very likely - ending... but I will personally be pulling a Nick Fury about it.

[slugpupencyclopedia]

Thoughts on the pups+ mod?

Generally its a good mod, I really do enjoy pups+ I have like, minor issues? but thats really it. I'll put a read more and a more in depth look.

Pups+ is a mod that adds new versions of pups to your game based on some of the playable campaigns, this includes abilities, personalities, and food needs. Yes I like it, it has its issues but I do like it. It's a great mod. /gen

Tundrapup -Saint variant. -Gives the player saint tongue. -Unable to throw spears. -Can't store food. Aquaticpup -Rivulet variant. -Increased speed and agility. -Fast in water. -Gives a boost underwater. Hunterpup -Hunter variant. -Able to throw spears at Survivor strength. -Carnivorous, eats large corpses. -Taller then an average pup.

Rotundpup -Gourmand variant. -Highest food requirement, eats basically anything. -Throws spears at Hunter strength, exhausts very easily. -Large, slams on creatures, carrying one will let you do the same. -Spits up items when given a disliked food. The basic spawn chance for these pups is 18% for a Aquaticpup 11% for a Tundrapup 25% for a Hunterpup 16% for a Rotundpup 30% for a regular pup

You can adjust these in the remix menu settings. PROS: -This mod allows for pups to be waaaaay more fun and useful. -The variety breaks up gameplay, its nice, each pup has its own look and food requirements.

-The mod is compatible with multiple different mods, Slugpup Safari, Rainbow pups (eeeeeh), Dress My Slugcat, and Dev Console. -Also allows for slugpups to store items! -Also works with Genetic Slugpups! (for everyone but survivor and monk, lol) CONS: -Because of the way the color generation works, and how its linked to personalities, a lot of variants will be the same color scheme, so yes it works with Rainbow Pups, but, variants tend to look the same.

As you can see, a lot of the colors match up. even if you do adjust the percentage typically they'll still group up into colors- why is there a routund pup in the tundra pup cage wait. -Hunter pup is almost indistinguishable from a regular pup, technically they are meant to be "taller" but, typically the only way to tell is 1. the color (see con above) or two, throwing a corpse at them to see if they eat it. /lh

The left pup is the regular pup, the right is the hunter pup. -This would be fine if you could see the food pip bar, before hibernating, but what ends up happening es a lot of time my hunter pups starve for a cycle, because they will still eat plants. -Hunter pups I find typically very useless to me, and more frustrating, if you're good at combat, they tend to just get in the way. -Rotund pups can be INCREDIBLY frustrating, but that's just because of the exhaustion mechanic when they're on your back. I think if it was a little less often it'd be better.

All in all I DO enjoy this mod, and do use them in my own playthrus, I do recommend it, but highly suggest adjusting the ratios on spawns.