#he can still be introverted why is it only the extroverted characters who get depth

[queer-ragnelle]

idk who needs to hear this but if you're writing an arthurian retelling and neglect gaheris...you are my enemy. either cut him entirely (like gillian bradshaw) or use him fully (like gerald morris) but under no circumstances are you allowed to dump his crimes onto agravaine and split. you're supposed to add depth, not shift the maximum two things he does narratively and leave him with nothing. gaheris did not put his whole pussy into his squire duties to be written off as the tagalong matricidal middle bro with zero personality traits to speak of. he's going on a high shelf until authors grasp this.

[obeythefloof]

Things CBS Ghosts did better than BBC Ghosts

Just some opinions. Both are really good, just with different vibes. They shine in their own ways.

But while the original does things that are better than the remake, there’s some things that the remake improves on.

1 - Establishing the world around us more and Sam and Jay’s lives have more depth.

One way the remake differentiates itself is that when Sam goes out, she meets more ghosts. Alison rarely leaves the house, and we don’t get to see much of hers and Mike’s lives outside of the house. This works to establish them as more introverted, but it also makes me less interested in them, since at least Alison’s entire life seems to revolve around the ghosts. Meanwhile, the remake establishes that Sam likes that she can see ghosts; she’s very extroverted and willing to hang out and even befriend random ghosts outside Woodstone Manor. They also make the fact that she sees ghosts everywhere a big plot point more than once. Not only that, but the presence of more ghosts on the grounds other than the main crew and the cholera pit; this serves not only to establish just how big the property is, but also keeps things interesting.

2 - More even characterization

There’s not denying that BBC Ghosts has more in-depth characterization, but that’s kind of a double-edged sword; with only 6-7 episodes per season, going very in-depth into the characters and their backstory, there’s only so much time. The original may have amazing characterization, but it is horribly uneven; most of the focus even in the writing of the show tends to be on characters like the Captain and Thomas and Pat, meanwhile characters like Kitty and Mary are pushed to the side. And since they’re going on season 4 and know very well which characters are the fan favorites, they’re more likely to keep the focus on them; this wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the fact that by mid-season 2, most fans have already attached themselves to certain characters, and those characters tend to be the ones with the most focus. CBS Ghosts may have less characterization overall (be a it’s their 1st season, give them a break), but it’s spread much more evenly throughout the main cast. They all have generally equal time in the spotlight. This allows fans to connect with all of the characters.

3 - Jay wants to be a part of the ghosts’ family

In the original, Mike has spent 3 seasons avoiding the ghosts and not trying to connect with them at all. This is fine characterization; it establishes him as being freaked out by the ghosts. But it can get boring sometimes, as it’s always the same deal. This also results in Mike being pushed to the side and underused. Meanwhile, Jay wants to be part of the gang; he enjoys getting to know them, and was heartbroken when Sam lied to him in the D&D episode about the ghosts not wanting to play with him. He’s legitimately interested in them and wants to be just as much a part of their afterlives as Sam. Now on the surface, this is just different characterization, but Jay being interested in the ghosts allows him to be more present and be involved in plots rather than just being a side plot. This is why I’m glad that in season 3, Mike got a bit more comfortable with the ghosts.

4 - The ghosts are better established to have lived through the others’ lives

The only bits in BBC Ghosts where the ghosts were there when others were alive boil down to them just watching each other. Granted there wasn’t exactly much they could do, they still never discuss it. The only episodes when they discussed what they saw was in Who Do You Think You Are when they were discussing Fanny’s husband, and the entirety of The Thomas Thorne Affair. Granted talking about that kind of stuff would be a bit awkward, and they’re not much for talking anyway. However, in CBS Ghosts, it’s very heavily established that the ghosts have been there; Isaac possessing the workman in 1883, Thorfinn singing to Hetty as a child, Thorfinn watching Sasappis fuck in life (and Sas’ reaction to that), etc; they’ve been there. Maybe this one’s a bit silly, but I really wish that the BBC Ghosts crew would do that more.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Retrospective): Friendship Hates Magic! (Commission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome, and to some of you welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my fully paid for but gladly done Lena retrospective, covering everyone’s faviorite lesbian emo shadow’s personal jounrey through all three seasons and some brucey bonuses.

So this time we pick up in mid-season 2.. yes MID season 2. Though for once taking so long to adress things had valid reasons. It dosen’t make the 8 month wait for Lena to return and for Violet to show up, her concept art having been shown off shortly before Shadow War aired during San Diego Comic Con, any less aggravating, especially since the episode did air overseas before that but never leaked anywhere properly. So I knew she’d be okay but not HOW. 

As I said though.. they had their reasons. The episode was set for episode 8 in production order, right behind whatever Happened to Della Duck? which answered the other big cliffhanger from season 1, Della’s exile on the moon. So while this episode was back in the queue, along with Della’s, which had to wait till after the christmas episode to air because said episode takes place before it. So waiting on this episode was fair on the crew’s part even knowing it was a hiatus. 

It ended up getting pushed back by a week once the episodes started airing.. but as outlined last time, THIS TIME Disney actually moved it for good reason instead of just doing so because shut up. See the problem with moving episodes around in season 2.. is Della’s return. Several episodes that in theory could’ve easily been pushed back instead of this one, Depths of Cousin Fethry, Treasure of the Found Lamp... couldn’t because they take place BEFORE Della came back and it’d be weird to air them after.  One features Donald, the other dosen’t but still lacks Della and it’d be weird if it did> While this episode takes place before Della comes back or was at least meant to, no one appears in person, and Beakly mentoning “the boys and scrooge” at the bin could simply be her forgetting Della’s a part of things for a second. It’s not entirely in character, but it’s much easier than explaning why Della’s not there and Donald is. 

They also moved one episode ahead of this.. but it’s one I approve of. See from episode 7 onward the episodes were aired in week long duckbombs, woo-ooo. I I don’t fault disney for it or the reason I suspect they had for doing this: while it wasn’t the intended way of airing, they likely did this airing style to get shows on Disney Plus quicker for it’s debut and given they’ve sunk a LOT of money into the streaming service and it’s a key part of their future, I can’t blame them for wanting the entire series thus far on the platform at launch. It’s one of if not their most popular show at the moment. They wanted it front and center. 

So this one took an extra week to air, and an extra day as they aired raiders of the doomsday vault right after Della’s return in “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”.. which is also not a bad move. Fans wanted more of Della and her bonding with the kids, I wanted more of that so while the wait was grumble inducing, it was worth the tradeoff to get more of this character and her bonding with Dewey.. and let’s face it Glomgold.  You know what i’m about at this point. 

So there were delays but not the mind boggling ones that reshuffled the season last time and by next season there’d be zero reshuffling with both holiday episodes designed to go anywhere. So with the history and the agonizing wait out of the way join me under the cut as a snark knight returns, a new fan faviorite debuts and Beakly gets sucked into Launchpad’s awful fandom. 

We open our story at the Duckburg Library. Man I fucking miss the library. I mean you can go by apointment and what not but I also have library card debt and stuff, and it’s just not the same. 

Anyways naturally Webby is going there to research the Shadow Realm in hopes of finding something to bring Lena back. Last week was “Children’s Card Games, Dark Magic and You! by Professor Yugi Moto which while enlightening got her nowhere. Next up is “Shadow Games on Motorcycles!: How a Crimson Dragon defeated a giant Shadow Monster and brought the dead back and I helped by Doctor Yusei Fudo”. 

But that one’s not in yet so she instead goes to the Librarian to get another book.. and it’s Quackfaster! Horay! As for why she’s working two jobs, she’s saving up for a retirement condo in BIRDDDBAAADDOOOSSSSS. I had to type it that way it’s ape law. 

But her next book “I Went there and it Sucked, My Time in the Shadow Realm by Mayor of New Jersey Joey Wheeler” is taken by “another strange little girl”. Quackfaster, you chase people around with a scimitar. Just accept your the weird one and live with it like me. You’ll be happier that way. 

And so we finally meet Violet whose introduced pitch perfectly. Webby gives out her usual “Hi I”m Webby”.. and Violet simply holds a finger up, finishes her page and gives a simple “Yes?” It demonstrates her quite nature, her love of reading and her lack of social skills all in one fell swoop. The ensuing dead language off is also pretty damn adorable reminding me of that scene from “Lisa’s Wedding” where she and Hugh fight over a book and reading it before making out.. minus the making out because these are children, no one wants that, and Webby is taken. .and even then again children. Most we get is an innocent peck and some blushing. 

So Violet, finding out Webby needs it and is researching the arcane too offers to research together tonight, bringing a sleeping bag just in case it goes on long... to Lena’s unheard objections as she’s rattled by the break in her normal routine with Webby, and the possibility of Webby falling for someone else. I mean this i framed as a friendship thing... but you can only say “friend” so many times in a work before you sound like a retired grandma in denial about their granddaughter. 

Later at the Mansion, Beakley is enjoying a nice quiet afternoon to herself. Turns out once a month Scrooge has “Binventory Day” where he and the boys catalogue the bin for hours giving her a night to herself and Webby. Webby loudly interuppts the peace as is Cartoon Law, but Beakley is pleased Webby is getting back on the friendship horse. 

Bentina ends up ruining it a bit though by bringing up her previous slumber party disasters... which even Lena at her most jealous admits were her fault and only agrees to in the hopes Webby’s going to cancel. Instead Webby decides to make this the most normal sleepover ever! The one where her new friend is coming to specifically help her with magic. 

 Bentina tries to back her grandaughter/daughter down from this insane logic, but Webby does, if innocently clap back well to her being the one to give her “Be yourself” advice.  “I’m not like you Granny, I need to have friends”

And while Webby quickly flees after Beakley tries to deny it.. she’s not wrong. She has exactly one friend who she works for and no social life to speak of.. and as far as I can tell she’s fine this way. Beakley is happy with her work and raising Webby and has someone to talk to in Scrooge. She has everything she needs, while Webby is a social butterfly.. a socially inept social butterfly. She needs people and loves meeting new people and needs friends and not just her family. One’s an introvert the other’s an extrovert. I’m both at times, and before you ask why yes it is a living nightmare thank you so much for asking. I get where both are coming from. And Beakley clearly had friends at one point it’s just a long war with FOWL and a sudden granddaughter probably whittled it down to just Scrooge. It’s okay to be yourself. 

So this is where the plotlines split off, so as usual, i’m splitting the up. 

Launchpad and Beakley in Getting To Know You And Getting Sucked INto Your Strange and Lovely Fandom

So Beakley naturally cries out “name one person I don’t get along with.. and in walks Launchpad , Nature’s Perfect Himbo, having destroyed the gate and at least being honest he probably will again. Why he’s here when the boys and Scrooge are all gone? 

But I don’t care as this subplot is just.. a nonstop delight. Starting with Beakly inviting Launchpad to sup with her.. which just confuses him. Look Bentina you have to use small words.. it’s a miracle he gets up in the morning, dreses himself and hasn’t died in a tragic gasoline fight accident. You have to know your audience. Still funny.

And “not knowing your audience” continues as Beakly serves them pea soup but Launchpad is intimidated by the spoons and while she does offer to help instead tries to use all of them then a straw and then falls facedown in his soup. And this is the SECOND TIME Beakly’s left someone living at the mansion to die. I mean that’s not a lot but it’s still weird it happened twice. 

Finally they sit quitely, Beakly reading the Scarlet Pimpernell, and Launchpad doing a coloring book. And besides the odd couple energy what I really like about this subplot.. is that it fleshes Beakly out> This is one of her ONLY plots in the entire goddamn series, yes really. 70 episodes and she only got five spotlight episodes/plots. But it does at least show her off: her upperclass pedigree we really don’t see often, showing that while she applied to the job as maid out of necisity she knows her stuff, her love of classic literature and her being out of touch with the common person. It’s not a ton but it’s more than ninja butler or “stop having fun with your kids della and be a parent”. I mean she wasn’t wrong but she could’ve been nicer about it given the circumstances. 

So Launchpad, given Beakley’s never shown any interest in him as a person before, assumes she’s going to fire him and was just softening him up. I mean Scrooge himself outright said he never would and if he did he’d do it to your face, hard as it’d be. But that aside, he’s fine with getting to know her once he knows that no he’s not being fired she just wanted to hang out, he’s everyone’s friend. But naturally an upperclash british former super spy and a dumb as a bucket with a heart of gold pilot have nothing in common, not even aircraft as “plane go up, plane crash going down’ is about the extent of his actual knowledge on aircraft that isn’t instinct or dumb luck. 

He does manage to break the ice though, mistaking her book for a Darkwing Duck book and deciding to show her the show since it might be something they have in common. At first she’s as unintuhsed as you’d expect a british lady who never watches the telly watching a 90′s kids show would be.. but by the end she’s gotten all the way into it.

 It’s really endearing, showning that two vastly diffrent people with nothing can common can be brought together by something as simple and glorious as liking the same show. I’ve had it happen with me. She naturally is all for filiming his fanscript after the finale provides no answers, being the one to suggest it and the two end the episode shooting it with her in full darkwing duck cosplay. I’ts a cute and entertaining subplot and a nice contrast to the main plot which while not super dark, does have a fog of tension over it. Speaking of which. 

Webby, Lena and Violet: In Two’s Company, Three Accidently Creates Monsters That Nearly Take Your Girlfriend Off Into The Shadowy Abyss So the slumber party gets underway with Webby shooing away Duckworth after clearing out her room to greet Violet herself and violet having brought pie... a great callback to an earlier joke where Webby wondered if pie was normal at a sleepover. No but it should be. So Webby welcomes her in to her totally normal room devoid of anything. Nothing suspicious about that. 

So Violet tries to get her into research, specifically Tulpas, an actual magical concept, a mental construct of some kind created out of desire, imagination or what have you. Gee I wonder if that will come into play this episode. Webby.. wants to play baggle or what have you or do makeovers and drags Violet along to do the second thing after Violet asks about Magica.  Lena then finds something glowing in Violet’s bag...specifically, her old amulet, cracked but still working and flowing with Magica’s power. 

Lena assumes Violet is Magica and goes to warn Webby only to find her HORRIBLY MUTATED! Naturally it’s a misdirect, as it turns out Violet is just REALLY good at special effects makeup. It’s something I honestly forgot about her... i’m betting one of her dad’s is an effects artist. Just saying that’d be neat. But Webby gives the “i’m normal really even though I live in a giant mansion with my dad I don’t know is my dad and my grandma whose actually my adopted mom” game away by pointing out the demon’s fang is crooked and Violet is curious and heads to Webby’s room finding a picture from said demon. He signed it and everything. Good man that Rakshaka. 

Webby is worried Violet will be freaked out by all the weird but nope, she enjoys it. And it’s not a suprise: violet is actively researching the shadow dimension. Why WOULD she be scared off. The conflict was in Webby’s head all along.. and partly out of PTSD, but we’ll get to that. Webby still tries to get her to baggle but they settle on ancient rune dice baggle and summoning some spirits. Lena scoffs.. until it actually works. It does make sense though: As we’ll see in her last starring role, Lena is kinda like Wanda Maximoff: she has an extreme amount of power but she has no idea how to use it and is simply making up most of her magic as she goes along or took magica’s lead. But the spell means Lena can touch the dice so she spells out don’t trust her.. but forgets she’s dealing with two nerds who love unlocking puzzles and assume the message is on the dice themselves. 

Webby and Violet decide they need more clarity and resume the seance.. which summons mysterious white shadow creatures Lena saw before.. .some now taking Magica’s shape. And Lena’s panicked “Oh not again” says it all. So Lena tries the tried and true bedsheet ghost cliche, grumbling about it but showing up as a ghost without any abillity to speak or talk to webby dosen’t do anything and Violet tackles the sheet before deciding to grab the amulet to dispiate the spirit.. only for Lena to show up for a breif second before she does show making the panicked child look incredibly supscious. 

Webby naturally tackles and interrogates Violet wanting the full story. And it turns out the big secret is.. Violet is entirely normal. Nothing to do with Magica, no possesions or secretly being her or a minon of hers... she was just a logic obsessed 12 year old who thought magic was a myth.. until the Shadow War proved “Nope it’s real everything you know is wrong. Up is down black is white and short is long”. She just happened to be close to the bin and found the amulet when the remains of the staff fell near her and compacted back into it. 

It’s a brilliant reveal. See first watch around your genuinely unsure if Violet is a real person or not.. unless you went in knowing she is, but semantics. Point is most first time viewers didn’t know she’d be a beloved member of the supporting cast and didn’t know what to expect. But looking back... it makes no sense. If Magica had the amulet.. why would she need to infiltrate the mansion. Revenge? Possibly but she’d want Scrooge there too. Even being evil on her own Violet had valid opportunity to pilfer Webby’s magical items, she has an entire box of magic rocks right there and then simply zap her with the amulet. But she didn’t.. because Violet is a person.  When she DOES use it she’s utterly terrified, and we can see her breathing heavy, scared.. something Magica has NEVER been of Lena. To Violet it was just a ghost. Webby hadn’t told her about lena and any information she had about her was second hand from newspapers and the like. 

Webby is sympathetic, as Violet’s feeling of being sheltered from this greater world naturally resonates and while Lena is still supscious, having reincorperated, it’s clear Webby trusts violet and simply dosen’t want to loose another friend to magic. Here trying to hide it now takes another tone.. she knows Lena was behind it.. but is so afraid of it consuming violet the way it did Lena, she forgets almost ALL of the weird magic stuff in sleepovers was magica’s manipulation, and that Lena died because her creator was a monster, not because of magic. Magic is not inherently good or bad, it just is, and that will come back as a theme in a few episodes. It allowed Magica to ravage the town and kill Lena.. but it allowed Lena to exist in the first place and while the terrible events with Magica clearly shook her.. it also shook violet out of her complacency and got her to research a world she never would’ve considered. Good can come from bad. 

And it’s with this in mind that Violet.. does not give up. She’s stayed in her box enough.. and now she knows the spirit is a friendly one.. she figures they can bring Lena BACK using the amulet. After all it was lena’s and the source of her powers.. it might be the key to reiviving her. And while Lena, if invisibly as always, remarks it’s dangerous.. Webby, with no hesitation agrees to get her girlfriend back. It’s risky sure.. but what Lena hasn’t gotten is she’s WORTH the list. She’s so full of self loathing from both her manupations of webby and Magica’s gaslighting and abuse that she can’t see herself being worth anything even as Webby spent MONTHS trying to save her, clearly still loves her, and only didn’t want violet getting hurt because she misses her.  Webby still loves and needs her for who Lena is.. Lena just can’t it and it hurts to think about that. 

So the girls once again try to summon Lena and it starts to work.. but also summons the Tulpa’s back... this time taking Magica’s form and causing a suspcious lena to panic.. and suck both of them into the shadow realm. We get the reunion we’ve been waiting for as Webby tackle hugs her happily.

But it’s soon cut short as Lena still thinks Violet is just manipulating Webby, lying to her and that “she’s mine!”

For the record Joss Whedon sucks, not taking that out on Anthony Stewart Head  or the guys who actually wrote the episode. Moving on. 

I feel Lena’s jealousy comes from the aformentioned self loathing, mixed with a life of having to live just to surivive at the beck and call of a throughly awful person who didn’t consider her a sentient being worthy of anything especially love. She can’t fathom anyone else loving Webby the way she does because she feels once webby has anyone else.. she won’t need her. It’s toxic and wrong.. but it’s easy to see why that’d happen when sh’es only had one healthy relationship. She barely knows the boys, Beakly only grew to tolerate her and she was only friends with Scrooge for like.. a minute. Webby is the only person she knows, loves and trusts and she just can’t risk loosing that and can’t convince herself to share. 

In a realistic scenario Lena would have to simply learn to trust and let her girlfriend have other relationshps and that hogging her all to herself is inhernetly toxic and bad. And while she still does we’re talking about a living pile of shadows smooching a clone, so yeah instead the tulpas come out and drag her off..and take Lena’s form. While Lena tries to blame Violet, Violet has absolutley none of that and makes Lena see the hard truth: Lena is so worried about being forgotten, she created the tulpas by accidnet. As I said her power is raw and unfocused.. so she didn’t do it on purpose nor did she realize how toxic she was being. This finally snaps Lena back to reality, and see Violet geniunely cares about Webby and any ulterior motives were just in her head, so the two agree to work together, using a similar chant to the one from Jaws to destroy the Tulpas and save Webby.

So the shadow realm is disapated and our trio are returned to the human world.. but Lena, not being part of it and no longer having a tether.. starts to disolve, with a really heartbreaking scene of Webby holding her hand, as does violet. But.. then a miracle happens. Since the Bracelet was Lena’s link to Webby, and to her own magic, with it and the amulet close by.. both swirl around Lena, and the power of love.. for a new friend and a first love... revivies her. Mist parts.. and we get one heartwarming sign that after all this time  “I’m back?!” Lena is confused.. but once again part of this plane of reality. She’s free and WEbby triumphanthly hugs her with Violet joining in. By letting go of her hate.. Lena returned to who she loved. They also run into the end of the other subplot and Launchpad’s casual hey lena is just great. 

So our heroes are reunited and doing horror makeup and I really love Webby’s updo here and wish more works fan nd otherwise used it. WE get a final fakeout as Lena seemingly disovles and Violet reveals herself as magica.. only for it to be a prank and Webby to just be glad the love of her life and her new best friend get a long. We get one last hearwarming image and we close out.. with Lena finally having what she always wanted freedom. And while she may not know it yet in accepting violet.. she’s finally found family. More on that in a few weeks. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is excellent. It’s not the best of the Lena arc, that comes next and it does drag once or twice.. but overall it’s a really great character piece, with a nice ballance betwen the tense main plot and the funny and goofy subplot. It adds more to Lena’s character, finally brings her back, while giving us a new and throughly fascenating new character to rave about in Violet, as well as giving Webby her own personal squad. It’s a great episode.. and only leads to a better one. But we’ll get to that in a week or so. First we have a bit of a detour and my plug. 

If you liked this review, follow for more, spread it around, and join my patreon. It’s almost time for new patreons to pay up and if you hit my stretch goal i’ll review a darkwing duck episode next month and every month! We’re just five bucks away people! And if you’d like to just comission a review directly it’s just 5 bucks an episode and avaliable via my dms, ask or discord. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: We take a break from the last two Lena episodes to go to one of her sources as we head back to Ducktales 87 with Magica’s Shadow War! I know almost nothing going in so... Shadow betrayals and stuff? Yay?

Tommorow: It’s Fenton’s birthday! And since i’ve done a LOT of ducktales recently and can’t do super ducktales till I hit my next stretch goal at 25 bucks, we’re going back to ST Canard at long last for Gizmoducks second apperance.. which can’t possibly be worse than the first so i’m excited. Let’s get dangerous tommorow!

[softxsuki]

Omg I can talk about it for a while as well 😭 and now you told me about jae-ha... Hmm... You actually might be right about that! I did see older tumble blogs mostly posting jae-ha or hak fanfics/headcanons! 😱 I just realized they might indeed be the two most popular!

Who would be the least popular of the dragons? Sadly I feel like it's Zeno 🥲 maybe cause they only see the happy go lucky part of him cause they didn't read the manga?? Idk man but I srs feel like Zeno is underrated as hell.

I'm sorry if I type so much btw! I'm just so excited to talk about this with someone 😭♥️ thank you for replying! Are there any characters you dislike?/hate? And if you could describe your personality as one of the akatsuki no yona characters who would it be? (You can choose multiple as a combination with some explanation?) I'm so curious 😊

EEEEEEE I’m excited now 😭😭. Yesss that’s what I noticed too. Even some reactions I’ve seen on YouTube, once they meet Jae-ha, they instantly fall for him. But Shin-ah is also pretty popular compared to the other dragons too so I see why you said that!

Yeah, especially for those who’ve only seen the anime, Zeno would be the most unpopular one, along with Kija I think. I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about him, but he’s so sweet and he’s funny without even trying 😊. But yeah Zeno is definitely underrated; my boy needs more love 🥺

Omg nooo don’t apologize, I love this kind of interaction 💗💗 my dms are open anytime too if you ever want to talk more in depth about anything! Including akayona! Hmm well I do dislike Soo-won bc of what he did, but they do try to justify his actions later on (I won’t spoil) butttttttttt I still can’t forgive him. IDK WHY bc I know some ppl do like him, but I just can’t like him… also there’s someone else too, but I can’t remember her name 😃 I’ll remember once I re-read LOL. Wby?

Hmmm I feel like I’m a mix of Shin-ah and Zeno. I’m Shin-ah on the inside and around people I’m not familiar with, but I’m Zeno on the outside and around my family and friends…if that makes sense? Like I feel like I might be an ambivert (a mix of introverted and extroverted, but more introverted???) because I CAN talk to people if I have to, I just get awkward at times when talking to strangers and I can’t make a phone call to save my life. I’m on my own most of the time and It doesn’t really bother me, but I do love hanging out with my friends! I feel like I’m nice though, but I have a resting b face HDNSJK so I feel like sometimes I look mad even though I’m not! My mom was like “you look angry, what happened?” But nothing happened, I was chilling. I’m also an overthinker to the maxxxxx, I always feel like people are mad at me and I’m the type to just apologize even though I did nothing wrong, bc I don’t want to upset people or have people hate me. Sooo in that sense I’m like Shin-ah I think. However on the other hand, at home I’m extremely loud and my brother always asks why I can’t just sit still and be quiet LOL. And my friends are pretty shy, so I’m the most outgoing out of all of them! I like making people laugh and smile and I’d like to think I radiate positivity and good vibes, which I feel makes me a bit like ZENO! How about you? Any specific or mix of characters you feel you act like?

[indigobackfire]

May I ask you a question: why do you like Diego and Ismelda? I'm not their hater, just neutural on them, but I can't get why some people like them.

Oh that's okay, nice of you to ask (some people would just attack). (Please excuse the length and any misspellings).

For starters, I have a tendency to like unlikable characters, yes as simple as that. No, no characters like Merula who you're supposed to hate or be enemies with, but characters supposed to annoy or make the person interacting/reading roll their eyes. That's how I made some of my best friendships in school.

I won't go in depth why I chose them to ship with my ocs (I encourage you to go through my shipping tags if you'd like) also because it's a whole other topic and I'll end up writing a bible here. I'll try as much as I can not use headcanons cause those will mean nothing to you, but I think is worth to say what I, Bee, think of them is not what my MC thinks of them and I would say she has a rocky start with these two as anyone.

First Ismelda.

I guess my liking if Ismelda gets a bit deeper than just liking a character I find nice, I actually see some of my school experiences on her. I wasn't emo doing grusome comments at all, but I was this outcast who thought of herself as this unappealing, unattractive, and uninteresting person who almost everyday wished she could be homeschooled because I just didn't have the patience to witness other people's bullshit. I wrote sad poetry for people just like her! I took 6 years in the same school to finally find a real friend because the others kept leaving me.

So in some points I can't help but sympathize with what she's going through. Being alone, seeing the only friend you have slip away to someone you can't possibly compete with - I was not an MC in school, I was Ismelda! -, being unattractive in a place where everyone looks at least cute, getting the side-eye for going against the grain. I have no sister, no negligent family, but as human I can empathize with her troubles.

Besides points I can sympathize with, I like some of her attitude of screw everyone and what everyone thinks, which is a perspective I sort of took after years of being laughed at. On the gruesomeness aspect, my last fandom, that I'm still in, is Hannibal, so I'm not unfamiliar to gruesome and cannibal jokes, characters being terrible to each other and we still shipping them and joking about them, and idk stabbing people? In media ofc xD

Also HER BARK IS MUCH HARSHER THAN HER BITE. People often comment negatively about her on the things she says, but it's obviously for shock value, when threat appears she's pissing her pants and it's not fooling anyone. It's hilarious to me like watching a lil baby puppy trying to seem threatening, sometimes we even place a finger on their mouth so they can bite us softly.

The 'haha I wish Voldemort was back' is her being at the same time an idiot, a product of her house (let's not forget at this period in time Slytherin is full of straight up DE kids with DE ideals), and unknowledgeable about what it all means. She hasn't been, as far as I know, directly affected by the 1st Wizarding War like Barnaby or Merula - those two literally had their stupid ass parents taken away.

I also like to watch JC try poorly to build her an arc. The placing of Crushed for example is off, happening after many dating SQs, but is there her arc begins - she has a stiff moral compass that gets a lil loose after that -, then we have the Sphinx club where she's way less hostile, the Quibbler SQ where they do all sorts of weird stuff to her but I wanna talk about it another time, and the Great Cook Off where she actually apologizes for overreacting. She's not a fully baked character, she's a caricature of the emo girl and I like to watch her development, and even when there's no visible development, I find humor.

I don't like everything she does or everything she says - but I don't even like Barnaby a 100% of the time - but I know it's fertile ground where a great character can grow.

As for Diego this might be shorter because I've known him for less time in the game.

Diego is extroverted, he's confident, and he's always eager to help. People's problem with him comes mostly from he's flashy, he has a grandiose sense of self, and that he s flirty. And none of those things are aspects I take trouble with.

I've said before, this talking in third person, calling himself 'great', 'the best' is a way of asserting himself to himself and others. And there's nothing wrong with that as there's nothing wrong with being a shy introvert. So far, he has placed himself high without ever placing someone down and he gives praise where praise is due.

As being flirty, which people really seem to hate and I really see no harm. Is not like he tried to kiss MC or said something inappropriate. I find it quite endearing actually. I'm gonna guess JC wanted to make him a Don Juan but landed on Johnny Bravo and I'm here having a laugh about it.

The 'omg he thinks he's the best but but MC never lost a duel to him' argument is so stupid to me, because the duels we do value nothing, if we lose a duel the game makes you pay to do another one as many times as we need. The value is in things known and said, Diego is literally a dueling instructor - probably placed as such by Flitwick. Unfortunately when we duel him is not like the game allows us to lose, is different from Penny's potion making, where she makes it while we sit and watch and even before we see her doing a potion, we're told she's the best at it and she's knows she is.

Diego has shown to be, besides his more prominent characteristics, to be thoughtful, always willing to help, and enthusiastic. He never shies away from the blame, he encourages others, and he's eager to listen to others. But like Ismelda he's really underdeveloped and underused.

One point to make would be his personality vibes with my MC's personality. She's an extrovert, she likes to think she's desired, she takes pride in the abilities she acquired along her curse breaking.

To conclude, do I think you should like them? It'd be nice for me to have someone to talk about them with, but it's not about what I want. You don't have to like them, all I ask from people is respected, specially on other people's content. I have characters I don't like in the game (I didn't max out Tulip on purpose, and Andre who was starting to grow on me had a big reset lately), so I won't try to force them down your throat, but you won't see me dragging them down.

Your ask was why I like them and if all said wasn't enough, the simple answer is they're both ridiculous and the make me laugh and smile. I'd like to have them as friends.

[k-corner]

Ashes of Love: The Problem with the ‘Protagonists’ Actions and Characterization, and an In-Depth Look at their Concerning ‘Romance’ Part 2

This is a continuation from Part One. Feel free to head on over there to take a look.

Part Two: Issues with Characterization –

Some points mentioned here have already been lightly touched on in part one as they deal with the plot, but they’re going to be looked at more in a characterization sort of way and in a ‘how that comes across to the audience’.

Now, since Ashes of Love is a romance story, it’s natural to assume that there’s going to be some sort of meet-cute, some sort of flirting or courting stage and then some sort of getting together stage that might be accompanied by something a little more concrete physically like kissing or sex or what have you depending on the rating of the show and the image it’s trying to get across.

Now in Ashes of Love, the main two love interests are Xu Feng and Jin Mi, whose characterizations should have some sort of weight to them that allows for a long-standing love story to spring up from them. This can be seen in the ideas of ‘introvert meets extrovert’ or ‘opposites attract’ or ‘birds of a feather flock together’ or some other variation of what personality and characteristics that these characters have that draws them in and is supposed to draw in the audience as well.

Here is where I would say the weakest part of the entire story of Ashes of Love stands. Not in the sometimes dragging storylines that make up the 60+ episode season, but in the base understandings of the two main characters that we as the audience are supposed to root for.

Xu Feng – AKA The Sexual Predator:

One of my biggest pet peeves in a ‘romance’ drama is anytime the two main love interests have some sort of accident – trip and fall, stumble into each other, get pushed into the same small space, etc. – and ‘OMG! Somehow despite height differences and just a basic understanding of how gravity and momentum works’ they’ll fall into a sweet, gentle kiss or somehow just press their lips together and I guess we’re supposed to swoon at the audience at something that really doesn’t mean anything. The fact that no one smashed each other’s noses or foreheads or something is the more impressive moment being seen in that scenario.

I digress though, but unfortunately Ashes of Love has moments like this. Unfortunately it also has moments that are so much worse. Xu Feng takes the kissing and courting parts of the storyline and runs with them from eyeroll territory and into concerned side-eye country. There are several moments, especially early in the show, when Xu Feng chooses to press his luck with Jin Mi and come onto her in a sexual/kissing/pawing at her and starting to take off her clothes while she lays there and looks up at him almost uncomprehendingly sort of way. He’s putting it all out there and out on the line, but somehow he’s not able to catch onto the fact that Jin Mi isn’t picking it up or worse, he doesn’t care and continues to press because it’s what he wants/desires.

Xu Feng’s character is a mess of ‘but she didn’t say no’ and ‘I don’t care that she’s chosen someone else I know she loves me so I have to keep pushing’ and my absolute favorite ‘Uncle, be a bro and tie us together using your mortal love fate strings for no reason other than I want to go get it on with my brother’s fiancé while I pretend I’m doing it to protect her and not take advantage of her in a vulnerable situation but it’s okay because I swear we truly love each other even though she’s never said it because she can’t actually say it right now but it’s going to be just fine just you wait’.

This is also the character who – and I would call this scene a full on assault scene regardless of him stopping himself before he goes too far and I’ll explain why – that got drunk and practically threw Jin Mi onto the bed before climbing over her and pulling at her clothes while she just laid there and blinked up at him with a kind of look that seemed innocent, uncomprehending and trusting. She had no clue what was happening in that moment as he pushes his luck. I’ll give – he stops himself though, as he should but not for the reasons he should. Why does he stop? Because at this point he thinks that there’s a possibility that she’s his sister. If he hadn’t thought that, would he have pushed harder? Would he have gone further? Who knows.

On top of creepy entitled behaviors that he shows to Jin Mi, he also takes pleasure in being unnecessarily cruel to her. The little back and forth in the Heaven Realm when he turned her into all of the various items to ‘teach her a lesson’ was not cute to me. It was borderline sadistic and just downright fucked up.

Leaving Jin Mi behind, Xu Feng still falls short when it comes to his characterization. He’s portrayed as a kind of Gary Stu. He’s the best at everything. The most powerful. He’s unchallenged by any other character – look at how the entire demon army flees before him! Look at how undefeatable he is in battle! Look at how easily he talks back to his mother with no repercussions! Look at how easily he ignores any possible feelings his brother might have and just keeps on pushing! Look at how every other side character prefers him! What a stud! (note sarcasm). Honestly Xu Feng is a character with no obstacles. The only one he has is that he is in love with his brother’s fiancé and his brother won’t give her up to him because he loves her too. How dare he! He’s evil incarnate! (note sarcasm again)

Plus, we have the narrative trying to portray Xu Feng as a supposedly moral and upright character in contrast to Run Yu who is a schemer. There’s just one problem. It’s easy to be lighthearted and benevolent and chill when you’ve never faced a day of hardship in your life, when you’ve clearly never been told no before and when the roulette wheel of fate always spins in your favor. What hardships has Xu Feng truly had to overcome? Everyone loves him and he is the Greatest at Everything™. We see his narrow world view though and how only what happens to him matters when he deals with the information about the Heavenly Empress’s tyrannical torture and killing fests. He doesn’t care that Run Yu has just lost his mother and has been tortured for the survivors he wants to talk about him and get Jin Mi. He doesn’t care that his mother murdered thousands of people because the Heavenly Emperor couldn’t keep it in his pants, how dare Run Yu disrespect her. Who cares if Xu Feng is the one who started them all down this path of misery by refusing to stop chasing after a woman who told him to stop and just kept pushing until he eventually won, he’s going to feel like he’s righteous enough to tell his brother to be alone for eternity as a price to be paid for what’s happened while Xu Feng goes to find a way to flounce off with Jin Mi and live happily ever after. Who cares if Xu Feng stripped Sui He of her powers and her sanity and threw her out to be tortured and eaten by demons without a trial or anything like that, everyone cheered him and he got the girl! Clearly he was right!

Jin Mi – AKA Born Sexy Yesterday:

Jin Mi’s whole characters storyline and plot depends and hangs onto the fact that Jin Mi is ‘naïve and sheltered’ and that she doesn’t have the ability to either consent or not consent to a male leads love. It’s because she doesn’t know what that is and can’t recognize these weird things he does! Like kiss her? Like start pulling off her clothes? Why would she say no? It’s all innocent fun!

Oh but wait, now she’s going to fall in love with this person because…because he’s constantly there and pawing at her regardless of what she says or does or how she reacts! Yay! True Love FTW! But it’s all okay because it might be that she was in love with him the whole time but it’s a good thing that he recognized it because she can’t figure out her own feelings and wrapping her mind around complicated things like love is just too hard so all of his attentions are okay somehow even though they were still done without consent but that’s okay because deep down she truly loved him. [flips a table in the distance].

Unfortunately Jin Mi’s whole story is all about her lack of agency or characters taking it away. Her mother gives her the pill. Her father sells her away before he even knows that she’s been born in an engagement to the Heaven Realm. Xu Feng continuously ignores what she says and pushes himself into her sphere and hounds her over and over again. Run Yu restores the pill and later holds her captive in the Heaven Realm. The Moon Immortal and Yan You literally turn her into a puppet to put her in wedding clothes and shove her at Xu Feng without her permission. How is any of this okay? Jin Mi needs to get the fuck out.

Plus, the story never seems to understand the limits of the pill. She can feel love, just not romantic love because she feels sibling/friendship love for her cactus friend and mourns her death. She acknowledges that she likes people like Run Yu and understands the concept of marriage and mothers and fathers despite somehow not understanding that Xu Feng is a boy and has different equipment. At certain points her level of ditzy and uncomprehending everything and anything was baffling for a woman who is thousands of years old. Sure, she lived sheltered in the Flower Realm so that’s why she got confused at a dick and wanted to cut it off…. but wait…there are men in the Flower Realm which means she would have come to understand the differences. A child catches onto them pretty quickly and that’s within two to five years. Why can Jin Mi not figure that out after four or five thousand?

This all adds up to the most irritating moment of characterization for Jin Mi. Wherein she decides based off of information that she has – before it’s verified or investigated into – to kill Xu Feng with her own hands. This is an action that Jin Mi chooses to take. Run Yu does not push her into this. Run Yu does not tell her to do this. He does not force her to kill Xu Feng. Later though, because of her guilt she throws the responsibility for her actions onto him and blames him and tears him down because of her own guilt. This is not okay for the supposedly main female lead. It’s not okay for anyone to demonize someone else and leave them holding the bag for something they had no control over. Learn to take responsibility for your own actions. It sucks, but you did it. He didn’t. Blaming him and saying that he doesn’t feel/understand love crossed a line after everything.

 The extra characterizations of the other main characters I’m not going to go into but I will sum up as this:

Supposedly Smart Characters Doing Stupid/Crazy/Out of Character/WTF Things Because of ‘Plot’:

Sui He – Bechdel Tests Worst Nightmare AKA Female Character Only Exists To Further Male Story And Fawn Over Him.

Run Yu – But By God He’s Pretty When He Suffers AKA Actually a Disney Prince Cast Into Role Of Sea Witch For Reasons Unknown.

Tu Yao – Obvious Over The Top Bad Guy Is Obvious And Will Never Let You Forget It

Tai Wei – Satan’s Butthole.

[numachis-swamp]

Looking For Roleplay Numachi Sewanin

The Basics ––– –

Age: Fifty-two

Race: Raen Au Ra 

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Marital Status: Single

Server: Mateus - Crystal

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Numachi doesn’t appear to do much with his hair. His light brown locks are usually pulled back, held loosely in a knot where they’ll stay out of the way. His hair is one of the biggest indicators of his age, as he doesn’t fuss much over the grays that have started to make themselves known.

Eyes: A pale green, with dark limbal rings for contrast. 

Height: 6′10″

Build: Numachi is a stalwart and vigilant defender of the people, with a physique to match. He has a muscular form but lacks the definition of show muscle, opting instead for muscle of a functional variety. Though he may appear to be on the lean side, the 384 pound Au Ra merely carries his weight well. Then again, a considerable portion of the old swamp dweller’s weight comes from his tail, which rivals even his own height in length, coming in at six feet, eleven and a half inches. It should be no wonder why Numachi has such a solid core, given the weight he lugs around at all times.

Distinguishing Marks: Battle scars litter the seasoned warrior’s body, however none are particularly special. What makes these marks worthy of note is where they do not occur, that being his scales. Numachi’s scales are unmarred, even when one scar on his flesh might appear to lead into his scales.

Common Accessories: Without fail, Numachi’s wrists can be found sporting some flimsy, brightly colored string-bracelets of amateur make. Some are beaded, a couple have the teeth of animals, and more than a few have seen repair via tape or glue. Though they might appear more worthy of the garbage bin to anyone else, to Numachi they are treasures. Reminders of the past.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Numachi, for many years, worked as a mercenary within Ul’dah. He aligned himself with the Immortal Flames as part of the Free Brigade, until his service and notable efforts had him come into a comfortable position within the Bloodsworn, working under the direct order of Raubahn Aldynn.

Hobbies: In his free time, Numachi will fill his days with some few quiet activities such as cooking or fishing. The Raen is quite handy in the kitchen, with most of his experience being in preparing and cooking meat either from slain beasts or caught fish.

Residence: Numachi owns no property of his own. For many years he lived in the remote swamps between Doma and Nagxia, occupying the territory as the sole survivor of his family. He holds no legal claim over the land, but made more than a simple home of the space for himself and his dozens of adopted children. In the current day, Numachi gets back in Eorzea by staying within the Immortal Flame Barracks, or occasionally renting out inn rooms with his earnings when he desires more privacy.

Birthplace: Numachi’s birthplace is unknown to him, but he assumes it to be relative to where he was raised; Southern Doma.

Patron Deity: Numachi is not an expressly religious man, and holds no deity with any reverence. However, he stills respects what they are and what they represent.

Fears: Wasted time. Numachi is a very patient man, but nothing ignites his anxieties quite like realizing that the time he spent waiting for someone or something was for not. This fear gnaws at him quietly, often testing just how patient he can really be. For such reasons, he can become quite irritable with people who do not respect his time.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None

Children: Numachi has no children of his own, but he is the adopted father to some several dozen children. Most of these children were refugees from Nagixa after the Garlean occupation, orphans escaping the region in search of solace who stumbled upon the kind Raen’s swamp. He took them in and offered them protection, raising many of them into their adulthood.

Parents: Both of Numachi’s parents are unfortunately deceased.

Siblings: Numachi had three siblings, and he was the eldest amongst them. They suffered the same fate as their parents.

Other Relatives: None that he is aware of.

Pets: Numachi has a pet crocodile back in the Far East, affectionately known as Chomps. Chomps is currently being cared for by those sons and daughters of his that yet remain in his swamp.

Traits ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted Disorganized / In Between / Organized Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded Calm / In Between / Anxious Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable Cautious / In Between / Reckless Patient / In Between / Impatient Outspoken / In Between / Reserved Leader / In Between / Follower Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic Traditional / In Between / Modern Hard-working / In Between / Lazy Cultured / In Between / Uncultured Loyal / In Between / Disloyal Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Themes and More: It is important to me to make sure that everyone involved in any RP I’m a part of is comfortable and having fun. To that end, allow me to be transparent about the themes that I explore/am willing to explore, and what I would like to avoid. Given Numachi’s role as a military personnel, I am well prepared to handle RP involving combat and all that entails; blood, broken bones, wounds, death, etc. - I am, admittedly, not fluent in fantasy law, nor will I ever pretend to be, so I will likely miss the mark sometimes on what is/is not within Numachi’s jurisdiction as a Bloodsworn, if and when that kinda thing comes into play in whatever scenario we find ourselves in. I see the typical D/M/E RP specifications in most people’s search info, and I am open to all such themes with proper communication. However, I reserve the right to change my mind. Additionally there are lines that I will not, under any circumstances, dare to cross. These would be situations dealing with not previously discussed sexual violence, or sexually suggestive comments or insinuations regarding his adopted children.

What I’m Looking For: I’m hoping to broaden my horizons as a roleplayer by roleplaying with many different people and experiencing new and interesting situations! I am always open to making friends and discussing potential plot ideas. I appreciate many different themes, but I would lying if I said I didn’t have a preference. While I can enjoy comedic and lighthearted stories, I find I am only ever truly invested in those with emotional weight, nuance, and depth. I prefer dark and/or romantic themes, but not so much in that I crave constant edge and agony or only erotic entanglements. Balance, y’know? Most of all, I have a story for Numachi that I wish to see unfold, and I want to welcome others to join me in telling that story - and yours too!

RP Hooks ––– –

The Gator in the Swamp: Numachi’s time spent in the swamp was not one spent in solitude. He welcomed travelers and traders regularly, offering them a place to eat and sleep where they may hide from the Garleans or the many beasts that lurked in the mire. If your character had reason to pass through the area, perhaps they would have run into each other all those years ago! Gladiator, Bulwark, Bloodsworn: In the current day, Numachi is known for his duties as a Bloodsworn, as well as a gladiator frequenting Ul’dah’s famous arena. It would not be too much of a stretch to suggest that your character may know of Numachi, either seeing them on the field or in the arena proper. Perhaps they were even combatants at one point! Or fought together against a common foe! I am open to discussing any and all possibilities.

Contact Information/About the player ––– –

Hello, and thank you for reading this far! My name is Blake, 23, nonbinary they/them, and you can usually find/contact me here or on Numachi on Mateus. I keep a bit of an odd, migrating schedule, but I am always happy to make room for some RP whenever we can make it work!

[its-jijii]

chuuya’s masculinity

i was talking to hannah and thinking about the whole chuuya feminine/masculine debate and decided its time to write an essay on this. i have been waiting for the opportunity. and now my thoughts are gathered, so prepare for a mildly frustrated tangent abt the portrayal of chuuya in canon and in fan-made things.

i think that there are a lot of factors in play that influence how people see chuuya, the main one being canon content of course. in the manga, i do not get the vibe that he is feminine or weak in any way; in fact, he’s very aggressive and his stance indicates that he does not intend to be viewed as less. i will agree that the anime portrays him as more feminine: he has a higher pitched voice, and he is short. 

my problem with this is both the people who take that as being feminine, and the people who try to say chuuya is not feminine or weak. i don’t enjoy seeing chuuya in dresses not because i view it as feminine and therefore weak- rather, the circumstances of the source that makes me dislike it. for instance, primarily when he is drawn in dresses, he is clearly annoyed and doesn’t like it. i believe that to be because despite his “feminine” body type, his personality is very masculine. the way he acts and speaks does not imply that he is weak or feminine in any way.

my thought process isn’t dress = feminine = weak, so chuuya in a dress = weak, but in contrast, he is doing nothing about it. he is out of his comfort zone and obviously doesn’t enjoy it, yet he always seems compliant in wearing a dress. all of that is also usually for dazai’s entertainment, in some way. same thing when i see scenarios of them on an undercover mission together. one always dresses up like a girl, and that is usually chuuya. that is still because people equate his height and body type with girls, which makes sense to a certain degree, but one i still disagree with.

chuuya’s body type has almost nothing to do with being feminine, in my opinion. subconsciously people equate his height with femininity, which is not really the case. i don’t think they are necessarily equating his body with that of a girls and determining its weak. rather, they likely look at his height and body build and think “that’s weak.” that has no direct relation to being feminine, nor is it true. i think everyone knows he is far from weak, he is just never portrayed in the way he should be: masculine and dominant. 

his body type being feminine does not change the fact that he is strong and fit; his outfit doesn’t exactly show that off, so his features can be dumbed-down to long hair, cute face, and curves. this is completely disregarding his personality and actions, which annoys me considerably. in people there are often traits that are tied together- outgoing and dominant, quiet and submissive- and there are actions that tie into those categories, too. people on the quiet and introverted side tend to curl up and take up as little space as possible. extroverts assume a position that takes up more space (called power posing) 

“power posing” is a stance that indicates that the person is comfortable and confident. many times i have noted that despite chuuya being small, he does tend to stand in ways that take up more space. just from his body language, you can tell that he feels strong and in control. the art and scenarios of him unhappily sitting in a dress for someone else’s entertainment, but doing nothing to get out of the dress? that shows he is yielding to someone else, which is incredibly unlike him.

more chuuya in high power pose positions here lol

the reason i believe a lot of people think of chuuya as feminine ties into how he was introduced and how dazai treats him. upon his introduction in the dungeon, he is shown as a powerful and confident character. to me it seems that the first impression he made, which was asserting dominance and strength over dazai, was erased somewhere along the way. well, dazai happened to plot things out in advance, and later felt like he had the upper hand on chuuya. so despite chuuya’s strength and intentions, in the end he was rendered powerless by dazai. and to finish that off, he ended up pretending like he was a very feminine girl for dazai’s amusement.

his initially strong introduction was overwritten by the funny scene where chuuya acted like a girl. chuuya continues being masculine and dominant throughout the series, but oh so often is ending up following what dazai wants, or used as the object of dazai’s jokes. in the end, that rubs off on people so they think of him as less than dazai. his voice actor and the way he is animated likely ties in the thoughts of him being feminine, and when combined, people tend to think of him as either feminine, weak, or both.

it seems that no matter how this argument is presented, i find fault with it. even when people state that femininity =/= weakness, i feel that they are not presenting it right at all. i understand where they are coming from, but from my standpoint it isn’t as in depth as it should be (which i guess is why i’m writing this lol). maybe im overthinking things i accidentally analyze stuff and feel disappointed when people post unpopular opinions with nothing to back it up 😭

lastly, slight nsfw warning? (discussing top bottom stuff nothing explicit)

the entire top/bottom debate regarding soukoku also exhausts me. i believe chuuya to be a top, but again not because i equate being a bottom with being weak or submissive. power bottoms are a thing. however, i do acknowledge that there is a power difference between tops and bottoms- tops have considerably more control over the situation than bottoms do. and that is where i believe people have misconceived notions of whether he is a top or a bottom. on some level they do associate him with being a bottom, likely due to his size and believed inferiority to dazai. as dazai always seems to be ahead of chuuya, isn’t it only natural that dazai would be in control and would top?

w r o n g you can’t convince me dazai isn’t a lazy bottom, at best a switch. he does not seem like he would enjoy putting forth the required effort for topping. additionally, dazai himself isn’t exactly dominant or controlling. often he is relied on and respected, yes, but he only really tries to dominate and control chuuya as a way to harass him. chuuya on the other hand is outwardly dominant and likes being in control of a situation- and above all, hates doing what dazai wants. so even if chuuya was ever to bottom, no way in hell would i believe that he’d do it with dazai. he would not want to surrender control to him unless absolutely necessary.

additionally, i guess i just see chuuya as an active person. bottoms don’t seem to really do much,, they are on the receiving end of it all, so they often aren’t controlling the situation or moving around. it is hard for me to imagine chuuya to be the type to sit around and take something like that. it is much more reasonable to me to believe that he would rather be the one in control, and the one actually moving and doing things. if talking in the terms of soukoku, that seems doubled in my eyes. chuuya is far more physically capable than dazai, and likely has better stamina too. dazai would be one lousy top lol

thank u for reading! ive always thought about this, as there was a lot of art and fanfics that were the opposite of the impression i got from chuuya. to me, chuuya has always radiated big dick energy, top/dominant vibes, etc. i love chuuya and its not really a big surprise to me that my first post/analysis regarding him is talking about his masculinity haha. it’s always been a hot topic for me to think about and talk to my friends about.

i apologize for the lack of posting & original content rn ;; still con crunching for ota this weekend, and then i will be at the beach for a week. so i’ll probably just be reblogging art nd stuff when i can. hopefully ill get back to writing and posting normally after im not ultra mega busy. edit: forgot to say earlier but thank u for 200 followers! didn’t really expect anyone to care for my content but it means a lot to me

[captain-black-water]

I’chi “Black Water” Tia

The Basics ––– –

Age: Thirty-seven

Race: Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te/Highlander Hyur

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Marital Status: Single

Server: Mateus - Crystal

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Thick black hair with a constant shine. He doesn’t care for it as often as he should, usually letting it get slick with grease and sea salt until someone negs him enough to do something about it. When down his hair reaches down to about his midsection but, more often than not, he will usually put his hair up in some thickly bound braids that he then bundles in a knot.

Eyes: A keen feline yellow, with the trademark Seeker pupils. However, his right eye is marred by a cloudy texture. A birth defect that labels him as blind at a glance. Though his left eye is without this distinctive feature, it’s certainly no more capable of focusing on any one detail.

Height: 6′3″

Build: Broad chested, with well-defined muscle. I’chi keeps himself well in shape, focusing mostly on his naturally strong Miqo’te legs and his chest.

Distinguishing Marks: One of the first things anyone might notice about I’chi are the tattoos that decorate his face. They resemble the stripes of a tiger, turning his already intimidating features all the more grim and fearsome. But those aren’t his only tattoos. On his back, I’chi sports the image of a white tiger immerging from the depths of a black sea, surrounded by brilliantly marbled koi and vibrant orange petals. The colors are vivid and distinct with strong black lines, perhaps so that I’chi himself might be able to see them in a mirror’s reflection.

Common Accessories: I’chi finds himself in many different outfits but one accessory that he maintains throughout all of them is the gold earring near the tip of his right ear. It is sometimes, but not always, accompanied by some other rings that don’t shine quite as brightly.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Self-employed. I’chi runs the show that provides the downtrodden and poor with what they need to survive and get back on their feet, employing the street rats of Eorzea’s major cities to keep their eyes and ears open. He learns and deals with secrets, often using what intelligence he gathers to blackmail and bring down corrupt nobles and politicians in Ul’dah. Meanwhile, in Limsa Lominsa, he anonymously provides the Maelstrom with tips and information on criminals within their jurisdiction. Any gil I’chi earns through his efforts - often taken from those who stole it to begin with - is redistributed to those in need. None of these dealings, however, are public knowledge and he does not speak of these dealings openly.

Hobbies: In his free time, I’chi occupies his time by drinking or getting himself into someone else’s bed. Often both at once. There’s no better way for him to forget about the past than to be too busy finding pleasure in the present. 

Residence: Owns a home in Shirogane known as “Tiger Lily Cottage” where he often frequents and stays during his visits to the Far East. He as well owns a rundown and abandoned mansion somewhere within Thanalan, given the deed to the place after the owner passed away. He’s done little to nothing with the places, aside from paying it the occasional visit.

Birthplace: Details of where I’chi was born are unknown to him, but his best guess is wherever the I tribe of Miqo’te make their home. He never bothered to learn where that may be.

Patron Deity: Llymlaen.

Fears: True vulnerability. Getting too close to someone. His past. Being submerged underwater. Losing what very little sight he still has. 

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: Negative

Children: N/A

Parents: Miqo’te Mother, Deceased. Highlander Hyur Father, MIA.

Siblings: Yes, though he doesn’t know of where they are or if they’re still alive. None share his mixed heritage.

Other Relatives: Yes but, similar to the above, he doesn’t know them. Nor does he wish to.

Pets: Some fish back home in Shirogane.

Traits ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Themes and more: For the comfort and well being of all involved, it is very important that I make clear some potentially triggering subjects. I’chi’s past deals with themes of sexual violence, other non-violent sexual situations, parental death, murder, and strong language. Additionally, I’chi himself deals with depression and copes poorly through alcoholism and non-violent sexual acts. All that being said, I roleplay I’chi lightheartedly and save the darker themes for when I am sure that those participating in the roleplay are comfortable exploring those heavier themes. Just as people in the real world are flawed and multidimensional, so too is I’chi (or at least that’s how I hope to depict him), which means there are some things to his character that are rightfully considered to be bad. I will not fault anyone for only wishing to see the lighthearted side of I’chi’s character.

What I’m Looking For: I’m hoping to broaden my horizons as a roleplayer by roleplaying with many different people and experiencing new and interesting situations! I am always open to making friends and discussing potential plot ideas. I appreciate many different themes, but I would lying if I said I didn’t have a preference. While I can enjoy comedic and lighthearted stories, I find I am only ever truly invested in those with emotional weight, nuance, and depth. I prefer dark and/or romantic themes, but not so much in that I crave constant edge and agony or only erotic entanglements. Balance, y’know? Most of all, I have a story for I’chi that I wish to see unfold, and I want to welcome others to join me in telling that story - and yours too!

RP Hooks ––– –

Black Water: I’chi was raised amongst the Bloodtides crew under the careful watch of their captain, a man who held the title of “Black Water”. Under Black Water’s command, I’chi and the rest of the Bloodtides laid siege to many innocents, earning their name by turning the tide’s red with blood. Around the time I’chi entered his adulthood he began to plot to overthrow the reigning Black Water and usurper his title, successfully convincing enough of the crew to join him in his bloody revolution. His actions left the Bloodtides fewer in numbers, yet I’chi’s reign as the new Black Water led the crew to riches untold. However, as fate would have it, I’chi’s time as captain was cut short as he was done in by the same fate as the Black Water before him. Although he survived being tossed overboard with weights strapped to his arms and legs, his reputation did not. I’chi was declared dead and, though he later showed his face again to the Maelstrom that sought his head, the people were content to let that be the end of his story. Perhaps your character was affected by the Bloodtides at some point in their life, either before, during, or after I’chi’s reign as Black Water. Perhaps your character was one of the Bloodtides on his crew. Or perhaps you simply knew the legends as they were so often told around Limsa’s docks. Either way, there are plenty of different avenues to explore with this legacy!

White Tiger: One might think that I’chi being as large and distinctive as he is might be why the eyes of Kugane’s citizens can’t seem to look away, but the name they whisper under their breath tells a different story. The tale of the ‘White Tiger of Kugane’ they mutter to those not in the know. A tale regaling the exploits of one beastly figure, more animal than man, whose loyalties they cannot disconcern. They speak of how he once worked as the muscle for a gang of criminals who terrorized Kugane’s merchants, taking a cut from their profits in exchange for the kindness of leaving them and their wares be. But suddenly, one day, the White Tiger turned his blade on the very master that held their leash. He severed their head from their shoulders on the city streets, turning his white coat red and stirring panic and awe in the people. As the authorities gave chase, he led them back to where the criminals made their home, vanishing from sight and leaving the others to take the fall. His actions freed the people from a threat they could not oppose on their own, and for that they are grateful. But were his actions truly selfless? Your character may have had a run-in with I’chi during this time in his life, or maybe they were witness to his infamous deed. Perhaps they only know the legend. I am open to discussing any connections, just let me know!

Contact Information/About the player ––– –

Hello, and thank you for reading this far! My name is Blake, and you can usually find/contact me here or on I’chi Tia on Mateus. Btw I 100% stole this format from my friend Speedie, who you can find here. I keep a bit of an odd, migrating schedule, but I am always happy to make room for some RP whenever we can make it work! 

[in-flagrante]

ALL CHANGE With Michelle Dockery

Best known as Downton Abbey’s indelible Lady Mary, MICHELLE DOCKERY effortlessly transitions from haughty aristocrat to corrupt cockney in Guy Ritchie’s new gangster movie, The Gentlemen. LAURA CRAIK talks to the British star about her working-class roots, embracing a golden age of opportunities for female actors and why working with Ritchie, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and her idol Jeremy Strong was a dream come true

Michelle Dockery is about as different from Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary as is imaginable. Dressed in Totême boyfriend jeans, white Adidas trainers and a black cashmere turtleneck, she is warm, effusive and quick to laugh where Lady Mary is frosty and composed, and she has an accent not dissimilar to Victoria Beckham’s. “It may come as a bit of a shock to everyone when I open my mouth in the film,” she smiles.

“The film” is The Gentlemen, a classic gangster caper written and directed by Guy Ritchie in a return to the genre that first made him famous. “Charlie [Hunnan, one of Dockery’s co-stars] is calling The Gentlemen ‘vintage Ritchie’, and I think that’s right,” she says of the British director behind Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. “I play Rosalind, who is the wife of Matthew McConaughey’s character, Mickey,” Dockery explains. “He has these marijuana farms that are growing underneath stately homes, hence the title The Gentlemen.”

Marijuana farms? What would Carson say? Dockery laughs. After six years playing Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey– first in the well-loved TV series (which has won 15 Emmys and been watched by an estimated 270m people worldwide) and latterly in the movie – her role in The Gentlemen was a great departure for the 38-year-old British actress. “Rosalind runs a car dealership, which she’s inherited through her family. She’s a real, tough, east-London girl. I grew up in Essex, and my family has a sort of east-London background, so it was great to step into that world.”

To say the cast of The Gentlemen is “stellar” is an understatement: in addition to Dockery, McConaughey and Hunnam, the movie stars Hugh Grant (who plays equally against type and appears as a corrupt and predatory reporter), Colin Farrell, Henry Golding, and Jeremy Strong, most recently seen as the troubled Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession – of which Dockery is a huge fan. “I mean, this whole interview could be about Succession,” she laughs. “It’s absolutely brilliant, the best thing on TV. Every single character is Shakespearean. I loved working with Jeremy. We only had one scene together, a dinner-party scene, and I would never have seen his character the way he played it. He was a joy to watch, and worlds away from Kendall.”

Working with Ritchie – and the laugh-a-minute, largely male cast – was, Dockery says, a dream. “There’s one scene where I arrive at my garage, and Guy wanted to add a bit of dialogue, just off the cuff. I had to be on my toes, and I really enjoyed that. So often, when I’m working, the process is very much word for word, and on this film it was malleable. It was liberating.” She also relished collaborating with Ritchie on Rosalind’s look. “Even though Rosalind works in a garage, I get to wear the most beautiful Balmain jumpsuit, and the first scene is me walking into the garage in a pair of Louboutins, which is hilarious. Rosalind has clearly worked her way up to where she is, really enjoys the lifestyle and having money, but still wants to work. I love that about her character, that she still gets her hands dirty.”

Dockery says she is happy with the quality of roles she has been offered in her career (she graduated from London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2004), while being aware that, in the past, female actors have lamented the paucity of fully rounded female characters. “I do feel I stepped into this industry at a time when things were really beginning to change, especially for women. It’s the golden age of television, where creators have the luxury of writing 10 hours as opposed to just two, so there’s room to explore a character in greater depth. It’s now becoming much more normal to start a job or to read a part and for me to have a dialogue with the creators – if there are moments where it’s felt the female character is not involved, for example – whereas I guess in the past, it would have felt like more of a fight.”

Does she have any aspirations to write or direct herself? She laughs. “I do think about, you know, doing other things. Right now, I’m not sure exactly what, but…” she tails off, laughing. The glint in her eye suggests she has something in the pipeline

After a six-month stint in Boston, where she was filming Defending Jacob, a harrowing miniseries about a family whose lives are torn apart after the death of a boy at their son’s school (“it’s not a comedy,” she notes wryly), she is very much enjoying being home in north London, where she lives close to her two sisters (Dockery is the youngest of three). “It’s a cozy time of year to be home,” she smiles, nursing a cup of tea. “It’s great catching up with friends and family – and, because I travel a lot for work, every time I come back to London, I appreciate it much more. Recently a friend came over from LA and we went to the Antony Gormley exhibition. It took my breath away.”

Can she walk around London fairly anonymously? “Yes, more so here than in America. But that’s the thing with our culture. Brits are too cool to approach you, but in America people have more confidence to come over and say something. It still takes me very much by surprise, but it goes in waves. When the Downton film came out, it peaked again.”

She laughs as she explains that she can never tell who’s going to be a Downton fan. “I got into a cab a little while ago, and the driver was this big, burly Guy Ritchie type. ‘Where you going, love?’ he said. And then it went a bit quiet. And then he was like, ‘You alright?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ and told him about my day. And he suddenly went, ‘Shame about your sister in season 3.’ And I just laughed out loud. People really surprise me sometimes.”

Would she say she’s an introvert or an extrovert? “I’m an introvert.” Although not the stay-at-home type. “I do like to go out and dance. For me, it’s not a night out unless I’m on the dance floor. Every couple of months, I just need to dance; have one of those… dance-y nights.”

Her interest in fashion is modest rather than craven. “I love clothes but can be ignorant of certain designers. I like supporting young ones coming up.” She’s also what she calls “a coat girl”, with more coats than shoes. But her most cherished possession is a St Christopher necklace her mom gave her. “It comes everywhere with me. I’ve had it for 15 or 20 years.” She recently started donating her old clothes to Smart Works, a British charity of which the Duchess of Sussex is a patron, which helps unemployed women get back to work. “They’ve got all my skinny jeans.”

Our time being almost over, I finish with the question few subjects want to answer. Is she in love at the moment? She laughs and draws an imaginary zip across her mouth. The line of enquiry is especially sensitive as Dockery’s fiancé, Irishman John Dineen, passed away in 2015. She is now rumored to be dating Jasper Waller-Bridge, brother of the feted Phoebe, creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve. If this is true, perhaps we’ll see her in a comedy soon? “There are things on the back burner, but I can’t say,” she says. Then, in a quick flash of Lady Mary, she concludes with a polite, “Thank you so much. It’s been really lovely.”

The Gentlemen is released on January 1, 2020

[jharvas]

Character Questionnaire: Jharvas Suvorsath

BASICS -

1. Height?

5′10″. One of the tallest boys back home.

2. Eye colour?

Dark blue, I think? (He’s correct.)

3. Do they need glasses?

Nope. I can see just fine. It’s the communicating thing that I need help with.

4. Scars and birthmark?

None. I’ve been in a few...fights, but I’ve never gotten a scar. Maybe this year? 

5. Tattoos and piercings?

I have a lot. Should I take off my shirt? (He has a lot of tribal tattoos over his shoulders and back and torso. He doesn’t have piercings, though.)

6. Right or left handed?

Right-handed. 

7. Any disabilities? Physical or mental.

I can’t ...communicate without the aid of my familiar, my companion, Kiora. (Kiora’s the black mare that’s always with him. Back in the depths, she took on the form of a giant gray seahorse. On land, she’s a giant landhorse. Get it? Ugh. They were magically bonded by his own tribe when he was still a child after they realized he was never going to develop his voice.)

8. Do they have any allergies?

Nope. I’m allergy-free.

9. Favourite colour?

Blue. Any shade of blue related to the seas or oceans or water. It’s my whole thing.

10. Typical outfits?

Anything comfortable, anything I can run and swim in, really. If it’s easy to take off, I’ll wear it. I do a lot of things on the surface now, but I still end up wanting to be in the oceans, which is probably just a triton thing, so I lean towards clothes I can quickly take off or won’t be a hassle to me underwater. Of course, protection is still paramount, so I have few armor lying around for the exact same use.

11. Do they wear any makeup?

Nope. I don’t need to. (He also doesn’t know how.)

12. What weapon do they use, if any?

I like my spear, though I also have daggers on me as well as a light crossbow I rarely get to use. I mean, why waste crossbow bolts when I can just blast monsters from far away?

PERSONALITY -

13. Are they more optimistic or pessimistic?

Optimistic, definitely. I’ve been through a lot as a kid, before and after my tribe magically bonded me with Kiora, and kids can be cruel at times, so because of all my bad experiences, I’ve pretty much learned to look at the brighter side of things, especially these days.

14. Are they introverted or extroverted?

What’s the difference? Oh. Yeah, I’m an extrovert. Definitely an extrovert.

15. What are their pet peeves?

Hmm. That’s a tough question. I guess...if I have to name one...I’d go with...lines? I hate lines. 

16. What bad habits do they have?

I guess I can be graceless at times? I was never taught how to dance, so, yeah...

17. Do they have any phobias?

I don’t have one, I think? Though I can’t be too sure. Maybe I just haven’t found that out yet.

18. How do they display affection?

Passionately. I am a passionate lover. I like to tell someone I love them, show them how much, and celebrate with them and stuff.

19. How competitive are they?

I can be very competitive. I’m a triton, so I was brought up to believe we’re far superior to other races just because we spent all our time protecting the rest of them from the horrors of our plane, but I’ve seen some stuff and other races can surprise you...which is why I have to prove I’m still better than them. I’m just kidding. I just love the feeling of winning but if I lose, then I lose. No harm, no foul. It won’t be the end of my world. I’m not perfect.

20. If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

Hmm. I honestly can’t think of a single thing to change about me. Maybe my weapon of choice? Spears are nice but three pointed ends would be nicer than one.

21. Do they have any obscure hobbies or routines?

Nope. I’m just a simple guy who likes simple things like beautiful women, protecting them, swimming, maybe a bit of fighting, and...oysters. I do love my oysters. 

BACKSTORY -

22. What are the names and ages of their close family members? Parents, siblings, etc.

My dad’s name is Jenres, and my mother’s name is Loryn. I have a brother and a sister, Jolos and Dhorimyn.

23. Is their family alive and are they still in contact with them?

Still alive, yeah. They’re still back home. Jolos and Dhorimyn have even stepped up to protect our tribe. They’re much better warriors than me, that’s for sure.

24. Where are they from? City, nation?

Our tribe’s settlement is east of Hegaehend, far east, deep within the oceans there. I doubt you’ve heard of it, but it’s called the City of Sh'lafijn. Some call it Marai.  

25. Did they have a childhood best friend?

Yeah, I had childhood friends but I don’t think I actually had a best friend. Wait, no, Kiora... Kiora is definitely my childhood best friend. She was always there for me. She’s the bestest friend.

26. Have they had any pets?

Nope. Kiora’s more of a friend than a pet.

27. Did they grow up rich or poor? What were their living conditions like?

We were smack dab in the middle. My dad was a great fisherman and warrior, and my mom was a witty merchant, so we got by really well. Growing up with two siblings and Kiora was pretty fun, though there were bad times. Still, the good outweighed the bad, so I can’t complain.

28. What is their educational background?

I was trained by the best, taught by the best. I wasn’t the best student but my mentors didn’t have a hard time with me. I learned fast and learned better through experience over books.

29. As a child, what did they want to be when they grew up?

A warrior. A guardian of the depths. A protector. Much like our people of old. I like to think I’m on my way.

30. What advice would they give to their younger self?

It gets better. It always does. Trust in your tribe, in your friends. They’ll keep you swimming.

31. Growing up, were they ever bullied or were they the bully?

I was bullied. On account of needing Kiora to communicate with others. Before her, I was bullied for not being able to communicate. It’s a bad situation either way. But I had my fair share of friends, protectors, people I can trust who helped me out. I’d do anything for them. Everything I’ve done is for them, because of them.

32. Who do they look up to/who is their role model?

My dad, definitely. He’s a great warrior and provider. My mom, too. She’s worked hard all her life. That perseverance is admirable.

PRESENT -

33. Do they currently have a place of residence?

I go where the current takes me. I rent rooms wherever, though I like taverns close by the sea. Arx is a good place for me. I go there a lot, even for just a swim.

34. What is their most treasured possession?

Oh, man. I don’t think I have one, really. My memories?

35. What is their drink of choice?

Bilgewater. Hands down. Best drink ever. (Bilgewater is the bluish-brown, sometimes jet black, concoction that's made by soaking the inner organs of various sea creatures soaking in a fermented brine and then running them through a sieve to remove the bones and viscera. It's on most tavern's menu for around 5 copper pieces a glass. Your friendly neighborhood fisher can also brew it for you for the same price. The only side effect of this drink is that the lingering taste of rotten, brackish seafood remains on the palette for a few hours.)

36. Which king/queen are they loyal to, if any?

I’m still checking the waters. So far, I haven’t really gotten the incentive to choose a side. Maybe when it comes to it, I’ll finally get to decide. But for now? Wherever the current takes me.

37. Have they ever killed anyone?

Yep. Part of the job. Protecting our tribe, people I like... I try my best not to kill but if I don’t have a choice, then I don’t have a choice.

38. What was their last promise and did they keep it?

To never stop growing. I think I’m keeping it.

LOVE -

39. What was their first kiss like, if they’ve had one?

Oh, wow, well, uhh, if I remember correctly, it was...fine, I guess. She was better than me, I think, though it was very straight to the point, just lips smacking and that was it. I don’t recall any hint of passion there, but it was fair for a first kiss.

40. Are they in a relationship/have a love interest?

Nope. Not really looking for one, but if push comes to shove, then I’ll happily shove back.

41. Have they ever been in love?

Once or twice. I was in love with a librarian before but she was too focused on her work. I don’t think she even knew I existed.

42. Have they ever had their heart broken?

Sure. It’s a normal thing, just life. That librarian thing, I guess. Losing a friend in a battle. Stuff happens in life. That’s how you know you’re alive.

SPIRITUALITY -

43. Do they follow a god, if so who?

For a time, I followed Melora. Just because everyone else back home was doing it. But then, Kiora happened, and I never really heard from Melora, so over time, that gradually slowed down. Also, I left for the surface, so it was like forgetting how to talk to tuna, their slang and lingo.

44. What do they think happens to them after death?

Uhh, I guess my body just...decays? Maybe I turn into seafoam or something. I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’d be dead by then, so there’s no use thinking on that.

45. What is their spirit animal?

Kraken. 100% kraken. Absolutely.

[anjibooks]

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Book Review)

I'm not usually an audiobook kind of girl. See, I'm a fast reader, and can absorb novels far, far faster than can be comfortably listened to. But here's the thing, as I am a seventeen year old girl with the heart of a grandmother, I recently got obsessed with knitting and crocheting, and I can't very well read while doing such hobbies. So I decided to try the audiobook for the Diviners, since it's a book that been waiting on my shelf for a very long time. At first I found the voices and the pace a bit annoying, but as I got into it more, I found myself constantly listening to the audiobook, and getting through the absurdly long audiobook in a couple days. Not only did I listen to the book when I was crocheting, I would also listen to it while brushing my teeth, getting ready for school in the morning, while driving to the store to buy more yarn, and even while reading other school books (I'm surprisingly good at multitasking.) This was both due to the combination of an excellent novel and also because after getting used to being read to instead of reading, I really got into the whole audiobook format. I would set the sleep timer and go to sleep listening to the book. Really, there was never a quiet moment. If you're too busy to read, I would highly recommend trying the audiobook (or any audiobook)! It's actually quite useful and enjoyable. Now on to the actual novel. The Diviners was nothing like I was expecting. The story mainly follows Evie O'Neill, a girl who goes to live with her uncle in New York City in the 1920s after causing a little too much trouble at home. I thought this would be a very serious story with a serious investigation into murder and an Avengers-like come together moment,  it was nothing like that. I don't even know how to describe this book, it's so unique. There's a definite element of horror, like sometimes I deeply regretted listening to this as I was falling asleep. The murder scenes are creepy as what, made creepier by the audiobook since the narrator actual whistles and sings the songs as the murderer approaches. There's also just teen drama going on. Evie's a party girl, she's a flapper after all, and doesn't like to take things too seriously. It's such a strange combination, and yet... somehow it all works. If you're tired of the same old tropes and whatnot, definitely check this book out, because there's nothing like it. Evie is truly her own person, I can't think of any other protagonists to compare her to. She's extroverted, stubborn and possesses an overabundance of confidence. She has the special ability to read any object she puts her hands on, which, while some other protagonists might keep their talent a secret, she literally uses it as a party trick. Yeah, Evie is definitely different from any protagonist you might read, but she's not one you'll be likely to forget anytime soon. At first she may come off as frivolous and a bit annoying, but as you get deeper in the novel, you can't help but fall in love with her. This is one of those novels that has a whole giant cast of characters with a plethora of POVs. I found that Evie's POV and those around Evie were the most interesting. Meaning that every single time we got to a Memphis chapter, I got a little bored. Sorry everyone who likes Memphis, he's just not all that interesting to me. Here's a brief overview of all the characters you'll be meeting Mabel Rose-- she's Evie's best friend, and her polar opposite. She's meek, quiet and introverted, quite happy to just follow Evie around and live under the shelter of her helicopter parents and silently pine after Jericho Jones. I'll be honest, Mabel is not my favorite character, never has been. In the first book she's okay, but as the series progressed, she became my least favorite and at times I was ready to throw some punches at her. Sam Lloyd-- Let's just introduce this beautiful boy as my one true love. Sam is by far my favorite character in the entire series, with Evie coming in as a close second. He's a thief and skilled liar, yet he is also extremely charismatic and his banter with Evie is something I live for. He gets on her last nerve and will poke at her to get a rise just for fun. If that isn't #perfect, I don't know what is. Oh, and he may have a mission and goal of his own along with some surprising secrets... ​ Will Fitzgerald-- Evie's uncle who she comes to live with. He runs The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult-- more commonly known as The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies, which isn't doing so hot lately. Like almost all the characters in this story, he's basically filled past the brim with secrets and backstory, many of which have yet to be revealed. Will is friends with a detective, which is why, when a ton of strange murders occur, Will is brought in to consult. (And then Evie tags along, much to her uncle's annoyance. ) Jericho Jones-- this is Will's sort of adopted son / employee. He's a stoic young man of giant stature yet quiet nature who is hiding (shocker) a big secret. Jericho is not my favorite character. He's sweet but when the book is filled with some much more colorful characters, Jericho falls behind in the race for my love. (also I will mention things later in other reviews of the later books). Theta Knight-- She's a strong minded woman who doesn't mind causing a bit of scandal-- not nearly as much as Evie does, though. At first when she was introduced, I expected Theta to be your typical mean girl, but instead she and Evie become fast friends. I loved that element of the novel. And yes, she's also hiding a deep dark secret. Theta lives with her best friend, Henry, and I have to say I adore their relationship and wish it was explored to greater depths. Henry DuBois-- Not much is revealed about Henry in book 1, other than he plays piano and is gay. He's funny for the tiny bits of time that you see him, and well, he's hiding something too. Shocker. You get to find out a whole bunch more about Henry in book two. I love this guy, can't t really say much more than that, sorry! Memphis Campbell-- yup. This is the guy whose chapters I found to be boring. He used to have power, but he lost it after a tragic event in his past. Perhaps one of the reasons I was so bored by his storyline was because it was so detached from the others who I already loved and whose fates were quite intertwined (and I'd argue their storyline was more intriguing as well.) He lives in Harlem with his little brother and their highly religious aunt. He's black, which adds an interesting and sometimes sad dynamic as you see how racist many people were back in the 20s. Remember how I mentioned earlier about that dash of horror? More like a heaping of horror. The story starts with some sort of spirit named Naughty John being released, and oh boy, do I wish those dumb kids had left that Ouija Board alone, because Naughty John created some creepyass scenes that will probably haunt my dreams for a long time. The creep factor of this story... Wow. If you get the opportunity, I would seriously suggest audiobooking this one because it elevates the spookiness by so much. Here's something to think about, cheerful singing whilst committing brutal murder... Overall, I just highly recommend this book. It's nothing like you're expecting, with a unique and interesting cast of characters and an even more unique story. Still, there were some things that just felt like they were missing. Like there were a ton of satisfying moments and scenes I would've liked to have seen, but they happened without actually being written, like they're mentioned, but we never actually get to be in the scene. The relationships are just assumed, too. Like pivotal moments between characters and just the characters getting to know each other and whatnot is more mentioned than what we actually see. I think the story's strong points are its setting and plot, while its characters' relationships and developing them is a bit of a weakness. (This becomes more prominent in later books.) See, I'm the type of person who wants to be IN the action, not hearing mention of it later! And I also love watching relationships build and seeing dynamic between characters instead of just assuming something happened "off-screen," and that a lot of what these books want you to do. 7/10 stars. The first book is nothing AMAZING, but it's a really fun read. I was left wanting to see more moments from the "side characters" aka everyone other than Evie, as some of them (Memphis) seemed pointless to the story arc. The novel definitely had a slow side, but it also created an enchanting world. Synopsis: ​Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

[the-little-prophet]

BDRP Questionnaire 2019

Posting this on Charlie since I actually talked about him quite a bit! Let’s gooooo

Characters: Berlioz, Hades, Kiara, Nala, Andrina, Merida, Charlie, Apollo, John, Su, Ashleigh, Nemo, Jun

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you!) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

This one goes out to Charlie. I pitched Charlie very deceptively-- claiming he was a prophet, aligning him, at first, with Calliope, making it look like Charlie’s magic was of the classical, Cassandra-inspired kind. But all along, I knew that what I wanted Charlie to be was more of this sci-fi/fantasy blend as an homage to his movie’s sci-fi bend too. This year, I got to actually reveal that Charlie is a time traveler after two years!! This is very exciting for me! I’ve enjoyed being able to lean into Charlie’s new image systems with this reveal, even though I’m out of my depth and breaking like 67 different time travel rules, probably lol. Still, it’s been great to take him to that place, and to invent Future-Charlie as both a deux ex machina and an expression of identity/choice/free will etc etc. I did not have Future-Charlie in mind when I created Charlie, so that was something I was proud of coming up with!

Pick another character and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year?

I’m going to talk about Nemo if only because everyone else feels like a spoiler lol. Nemo, as a relatively new character though, is still full-speed-ahead on his initial goals that I outlined for him in his application. Now that Nemo’s been established in the school and he has this little group of buddies, I want:

To focus on his wing. I want Nemo to push himself, get himself in a spot of trouble, potentially injure himself.

Reveal his wings to at least one mundus friend

Continuing to infuse his posts with body image issues. This is a slow build kind of plot that really is like...the broth of Nemo’s plot-soup, lol, while training for his placement is the chicken and belonging at school is the noodles….it needs to be this throughline more than like, para a, para b, para c. at least for now.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it.

I could pick a lot of threads here lol it’s honestly so HARD. But I think I want to shout-out to the Charlie/Jim first kiss thread because it surprised even me and Hannah. We initially planned for the first kiss to be just that-- one kiss, then we done, Jim and Charlie go on to be friends. But like in the best of cases, Jim and Charlie’s palpable chemistry actually informed more of Charlie’s arc and opened up avenues previously closed to me/Charlie since Charlie had been so SHUT to the idea of love. So! I really loved that thread. Also because like, I literally made Charlie experience the big bang after his first kiss. And THAT’S the BEST way to use magic in my opinion. Like when you can infuse magic with an emotional catharsis-- I think the other time I did that super well was similar actually, when Herc kissed Kiki’s cheek and she grew a tree in his room lol. So yeah! Some of my best writing in that thread, amazing chemistry, big surprises. It was an absolute pleasure.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

-Image systems. I dragged myself for this, but I think it’s something that really helps me find a character’s voice and make myself excited to RP them! Also, I think it’s what people like about my writing sometimes. Maybe. IDK, lol. -Complex Emotion: I’m stealing this from my mentor who said I’m good at creating complex emotion and so you know its true. My most introverted characters get the bulk of this naturally--they are introspective and feely and give themselves the space to think and feel. But I really want to try to inject more into my extroverted characters. I think I’m doing well for Nemo, who had undiagnosed anxiety and so that informs a lot of his personality in very interesting-- very OPPOSITE-- ways as Berlioz; Nemo struggles with being alone because ‘alone’ means he gets too in his head. That’s been really fun for me and why he’s quickly become one of my fave voices to write (I know, u all thought it was because I am in love with Jimin (true), but no its bc Nemo is an anxious, big feeling baby and he’s always so Alive to me, plus i was made to write a fairy it was always my destiny.)

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

-Dialogue: PERSONALLY I feel like I’m not great at dialogue. Some posts are better than others and I think I’m good at like…..texting dialogue? IDK. I feel like I struggle in paras though to craft good dialogue. It’s just, rn, average dialogue. Of course not every post needs to have hilarious, punchy, great dialogue. But do my characters sound different? Am I doing all I can to create rhythm and speech patterns? -Filtering: Im being very picky rn, because actually I don’t do this too much, but I do it enough where I’m like, I gotta go read some really stellar writers adn ban myself from using “Feel” and “think” for like a whole month. What I’m talkinga bout is like: Ber realized/ Ber thought / Ber knew. That kind of writing is totally fine, but that’s about it. I need to come up with more creative ways to talk about feelings and abstract concepts!!!

-Character: I know everyone is probably like………….how dare lauryl put this here. But listen. I don’t think I struggle with character on RP. But outside of RP? Oh boy! The THING about RP is you MUST create a character, that’s your vessel for writing here, and so you do all that development plus u got the four years of worldbuilding informing that character, and literally EVERYTHING CHARACTER DRIVEN ITS...THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.  Outside of RP though I think I have struggled because my natural affinity is worldbuilding and shit like that. I’m type 5 baby, I am attracted to characters who let me poke at things I don’t know anything about, like even Jun, part of it really is like, petitions and grocery store management lmfadsofij. SOOOo idk I just need to be able to focus on crafting characters that are compelling vessels for the cool shit I like to do outside of RP.

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts. JOHN DARLING BREAKS INTO FAERYLAND 1. Call Down the Hawk/Raven Cycle: It’s no coincidence that my reread of Raven Cycle last winter played a pretty big part in inspiring this new version of John. The descriptions of the magical forest Cabeswater and the hunt for Glendower have the same kind of contemporary fantasy vibe that I really like for John. And of course, Ronan’s dream magic is very much intertwined with the faery realm feeling like a dream (and Ashleigh, obviously, as a dark faery who can manipulate them). More than that though, the attention paid to the psyches of each character and how they drive the plot forward is just… /chefs kiss. 2. The Mabinogian: I want to draw from these classic Welsh/British stories and incorporate them in creative ways! Or just as, like, motifs are something. :) I have tried to do this but would like to be a lot more intentional, instead of just being like lmao let me look up some random shit for this one reply~ 3. The Hazel Wood: This book deals with characters coming into the real world from a book world! This kind of goes along with the Mabinogian as I kind of ish want to do something similar, only treating the Mabinogian as a historical, cultural text as opposed to a fiction. This book also focuses a lot on fairy tale tropes (like numbers) which I really want to incorporate in John’s stuff. I want to ideally write some of my own fairy tales-- I have one in mind actually through Ashleigh but it’s related to John too since he’d the scholar of said stories.  

And now, a wishlist!

-Exploring Nemo’s disability. This is slightly challenging for me since we don’t have many fairies, but I’m brainstorming some ideas and hope to really kick it off in January, leading up to his Talent Placement Test.   -I really want to have a lot of town-centric plots for Jun. Would love to rp with the police officers! I want to have Jun try to get some ppl arrested tbh ahah, like, Fflew for loitering, or maybe reporting Mitte. I would love some arch nemeses tbh-- Mitte does seem like a good one. AND I want to submit at least three petitions next semester!! Maybe i should make that two!! Still!! -Do some Bonfamille plots. I already have something I’m really excited about and have already planned here so this is a teaser… -Keep writing essays. The fairies have been great, getting me really inspired to do these.What’s been an amazing mental exercise, and why I cannot stop writing these, is thinking about how the political philosophy of Pixie Hollow informs how it functions: technically, socioculturally etc. It’s really fun for me to basically build a communist thought project and then enact it for real. I feel like I’m learning a lot about...well, societies, lol, and how the material factors endlessly bleed into, and shape, ideas and beliefs (and vice versa). Also, I literally have to do these because when Nemo is IN the Hollow and I want to write him getting a glass of water, I’m faced with a lot of technical questions: do fairies have running water? Does he have to get it from a stream? How do they keep things cool? Etc etc. And that’s why I go off on these, and I’m excited to keep doing them, as many as I can, with feedback from my fellow fairies. Also, do want to do ones that are NOT fairy related, so we’ll see about that. -Write John backstory. He’s gone on a few other adventures and I’d like to actually one-shot those maybe lol. -Alternate Charlie Timeline: This is something that’s bopping around in my head and I haven’t found the perfect way to make it happen, but I want Charlie to travel to an alternate version of his life and get stuck. When I figure out the right way to do this, my partners will also get to rp alternate versions of their characters lol. That’s fun right!! Of course it is, we do it all the time with AUs, but this one obvi be more personal and more closely tied to canon.

OPTIONAL: Why do you RP? First and foremost, I RP because it’s writing for the sake of writing-- joy for joy. I think this is even more important this year as I’ve had to focus on mentorship writing outside of RP. RP became the place where I didn’t have to think so hard about making everything make sense, lol. It gave my brain a break so I could be less judgmental of myself and just have fun and do the most ridiculous stuff...and some of my fave stuff iS ridiculous because of that...like Nemo and Sindri making flower crowns or the ASC nonsense. It’s this kind of light, fluffy, low-stake (but still High Stake) stuff that provided me endless joy when I needed it the most. Second of all, I RP because I really want to invest in people’s creative energy. I think doing so gives back to myself. Building canon, helping people brainstorm, seeing people grow-- I feel like a proud mom when I get to have this kind of mentorship role myself. I talked to MK about this, but even though Sam left to go off and do greater things, that’s like-- to me, it was a lot like he was graduating from this weird BDRP school I’ve helped create. I felt nothing but pride and happiness for him and really felt like, if BDRP was to explode tomorrow, I ACHIEVED the thing I set out to do when, four years ago, I sat on my computer and drafted BDRP’s mission and vision and committed myself to this admin role. And THAT’S what I want ideally-- for BDRP to be this collaborative place that doesn’t focus too much on what makes sense, on sitewide plots that force people into roles. I have always wanted plots like ASC and John’s search for Excalibur to be able to exist side by side, and I think we’ve done that. Now we just have to tend this garden, don’t we, haha? May BDRP bear many delicious fruit.

[infpsupport]

Why INTJs are great

We can read a lot of good and bad things about INTJs. We can read that they are smart, ambitious, driven bla bla, we can also see some people saying they are just damn arrogant, completely uncaring, zero empathy, superiority complex etc. I understand that people are different within one type and we cannot classify them as everyone is different and yes sure, I agree, but INTJs, still share certain traits and I am going to talk about them in this post, so bear with me and I will try to explain why I think they are great.

So I am first going to break it down with functions, so as you maybe already now, INTJs have Ni, Te, Fi, Se and then Ne, Ti, Fe, Si.

Let’s start from extroverted functions, because this is how INTJs give first impression. So yeah, not sure how to start really, damn, but. Se. Their inferior Se makes them very careful with what experience they are giving to you because they want you to be loyal for them. Sometimes they think their effort is not appreciated and that really makes them feel bad, like they let someone down? I had that colleague, he would be telling me ‘sorry for that experience’ whereas for me it was all cool and at first I couldn’t get why he is even sorry. I mean, I see when people are trying to do something nice, even if something isn’t super perfect because for example we missed a bus or something. I mean, that doesn’t even matter. If someone doesn’t appreciate your effort then that someone is not right fr you. INTJs, I think, they very much don’t want to draw attention to themselves in some social event or situation with people they don’t know well, my colleague would let me do stuff in public with people, but I don’t mind even, just that it seems INTJs are afraid about how they are perceived. But they can give you so thoughtful gifts, out of nothing really. They will bring you food and something sweet, if they like you, they will invite you to places, will do things that you want to do. And once I realized that it is their insecurity, what experience they are giving, I was so amazed that they still are able to make them be better and better at this, and that all is for others actually. For me that was always very special. I am using past tense, because I actually refer mostly (but not only) to a particular INTJ in my life who is no longer my friend. So yeah, Se. I think being insecure makes them be less affectionate and let’s say assertive daily on how they feel and what they need, but that may be in general about everyone, we have to learn assertiveness. For me that inferior Se is beautiful, I don’t know. It is like willing to give but at the same time being scared, not sure about how that will be received so they don’t want to do that much, or want to, but not to everyone, yeah, that is better. Of course, Se is also appearance bla bla, but I don’t care that much, let’s say, but yeah INTJs are usually pretty hot I must say. Okay I am done with Se.

Now Te. So Te is I think what is just most easily visible in INTJ. This is a parent function. They want to parent others with their logic and objectiveness. At first I found myself drawn to that, I like decisive people, that can be also annoying though, it is like, stop treating me like a child, gosh. But then you realize that INTJ has actually some point, but that doesn’t make me follow it necessarily, but sometimes I kind of need it, because I myself have troubles seeing things objectively maybe... And Te actually gets stuff done, and Te is driven. You know you can rely that Te user will not only talk with you but also will be able to give you an objective advice and take some necessary action for you. It can sound harsh for some, but actually sometimes harsh is good, if it is constructive. My Te is lower in function stuck so I kind of don’t handle well when others give me orders and just cold logic, so at work it is sometimes quite annoying, but in private life I really appreciate it. My brother is ISTJ and I love his Te too. 

Yeah let’s go now to Ni. So Ni is a hero, first function for INTJ. Yeah.. something mysterious, screaming: nobody understand me, bla bla. For me I would just describe it as something very deep, but deep in this personal way. And oh I know, it is like bullshit detector. For INTJ it is with objectivity, for INFJ it is with people, detecting lies etc. INTJ are often very spiritual people, trying to be at peace with themselves, liking deep and meaningful conversations.. And again bla bla because I think that more than that they just want to be understood and that they have someone to whom they can say their things. I use Ne so I kind of search for different ideas and they are many but not well thought out and so with other Ne users it is sometimes like just jumping from one to another and it is not that in depth and less with subjective insights. INTJ will give you his insights. I think this is why Ne likes Ni and vice versa. Ne wants to share and talk about it, Ni wants to digest and give his insight. Ni is rather skeptical in INTJ (like Ti in INTP with logic, here Ni with ideas) so Ni wants to know whether the new concept is really good to be included to their framework. Ne users just enjoy ideas, they can talk about them for the sake of talking and that makes them energized. All right, maybe not for the sake of talking, they love ideas, but they treat them more superficially than Ni users. Ni will always win with Ne. Like any introverted function with extroverted one. 

Fi as a tertiary function is my favorite one. They are so protective of their feelings and often just want to appear cold (their Te) but in reality they are super sensitive, loving and caring. They are just not good with expressing it verbally (Fe blind spot) which causes them I think lots of trouble, which eh which is so bad because people often confuse their exterior ‘coldness’ for being heartless which definitely isn’t true. With their Ni they can have so profound actually understanding of the human nature and be empathetic, I see it with my INTJs. They will feel what the character in the movie feels if they can somehow relate and they have strong opinions on what is right and wrong. That Fi is so cute, as this is a child function, it is very innocent. That my INTJ ex friend would be caring to not cross the street at the right traffic light not because he doesn’t want to break the rule, but because at that particular time some kid was on the other side and by crossing the street, he would teach the kid the wrong thing. That is, well, just Fi child, wow. Generally that Fi with Ni makes INTJ look for me like a cute, black cat. My brother with child Fi is similar. He is so innocent, really, for example, my brother has a friend who got his girlfriend pregnant and they got married because of that. They were kids, like 22 years old or something. They aren’t happy now, he is very rude to her and in general treats her badly, doesn’t want to work, doesn’t care about that baby (it is like 2 - 3 years after marriage). My brother saw them arguing, tried to talk to his friend, but nothing. And then my brother confesses to me, in text of course, that he feels so bad because he saw him not being totally fair towards her before marriage, like flirting with girls and well, he called that cheating, but I am not sure what that meant. And he felt bad because he didn’t say anything and now that girl is with him and is unhappy. Eh. That my INTJ friend would feel bad for example if he made joke about someone that could be actually in some way offensive which hah I don’t really think so... It is funny how Fe tricks them. They don’t realize when they hurt, but when they don’t, they actually feel bad about that thing. 

They are super into self development and really want someone to grow with and just be together and feel safe with and spoil maybe sometimes together a bit. They like to help you. They are thoughtful. They are sensitive. They care about this world. They are yet very misunderstood and I can imagine it can be lonely for them due to Fe trickster and Se inferior. 

Now if you are still here I want to say what you can work on, yeah I did that on purpose, dragged you here :D. 

Well, I would really like if INTJ worked a bit with their Fe, I mean, to be more open to suggestions that others may be giving to them. It seems to me that they are very reluctant but sometimes people just want to help you. I found that if I rationalize why it is good about Fe more and what INTJ can do, with reasons, then INTJ can actually take it. People need people, really. INTJ would say: fuck people and society and then wonder why they are lonely. They would complain about how people are dumb, how narrow minded, how spoiled and whatever else but some knowledge about people is unfortunately necessary in life, and some feeler can help you with that, like you help with many other things. So it is to say to be just open more to suggestions about that and not feel offended. You will see the law of attraction will bring you benefits in the sphere of relationships with people, what you give, you will receive. Give kindness, and you will receive kindness. Give understanding and you will receive understanding, even if not from the same person you offered it to. 

I really love INTJs and wish them best, you will be understood and appreciated if you are not yet, I am sure, I mean, because you are awesome, right?

[solidburnreturned]

by popular demand, here is my oc chatter regarding stuff like relationships n random character traits. its rly long oops but i divided it by character at least lmao,, these are all things that i think id also wanna use if i ever use these characters as humans (which i def will at some point honestly)

- i thinkkkk i want toad and pike to date. toad would come across pike in their lagoon one day while hes wandering around on another wonked exploration and pike is like hey lol :B with their pointy teeth and long ass hair and toad is like :0 he just sits and talks with pike for hours and comes by a few times a week to hang out with them. they fall in LOVE

- fred and lani are def gonna date too. two butches who use he/him pronouns fuck yeah? they have a powerful relationship. mega BDE. power couple. not a lot of pda but alone together theyre both very loving and tender, its a vulnerability thing for both of them. like lani is very cool and can be either stoic or borderline obnoxious while fred is punkish. fred is very head over heels for lani tho 

- mardi n berg.....complicated....i gotta figure out how they actually end up together. berg is a jogger and mardi is a piercer/tattoo artist so that doesnt....make them line up very much in that department. ill think about it more and figure something out. itll probably have something to do with berg’s nose stripes and eye rings

- also side note on mardi......i want his backstory to include a grey period set off by his brother being eaten when they were both young at the troll tree. like he becomes angry and depressed, sorta like branch, his tattoos that he gives himself the only color on his body, until he learns to let go and his colors come back (high key this was inspired by 21 savage, mardi’s voice claim, and the line in his new song A Lot “my brother lost his life and it turned me to a beast”). ill develop this idea further but i just wanted to get it written down

- bismuth.......unsure. they had a crush on pepper and kept trying to ask her out until she came out to them as a lesbian, then they were like :’) but theyre ride or die theyre not gonna be an ass to her because they cant date her. they just care a lot about her. its like icarly

- gazpacho and jupiter CUTE two small trans trolls in That Love. i need to develop them more but. theyre just cute 

- talia is still a little too new for me to develop her......but im thinkin about it...

- kinda same with ernie and olive. they kinda mostly just exist as cute babby characters right now? if anything olive is a trouble maker and ernie is a chatterbox

- clem and thursday also fuckin cute as hell......clem was a nervous wreck asking thursday out but theyve been together like ever since, which is more than a few years. they have a rly cute gentle lovey dovey relationship. thursday is usually hanging around up on her gf’s shoulder giving her kisses on the cheek

- bea and crystal.......adorabl relationship......crystal is another character thats kinda nervous but bea is so chill n confident is helps calm her down. theyre both trans and love the hell out of each other. rly slow n steady relationship, bea is very patient

- pj and marcus!!!! dumb mlm rep relationship. pj is so so gay for marcus he can barely comprehend it. its a dumb ego boost for marcus but hes also very in love with pj, he just expresses it in a weird cocky way idk marcus is a nerd. i need to make more content for them i think about these two way more than it seems

- dwight!! he has a boat. he lives on the boat.....ive thought about maybe pairing him with toad and pike. deciding on his voice claim has been the most difficult thing ever

- kass and current HELL yeah buff gf and tol gf......they spar with swords and wrestle for fun and hang out at the beach a lot. kass fuckin loves the gem on current’s back. i gotta make more content for them 

- celia......i wanna do more with celia. friends with berg probs theyre both sporty. shes just a sweet giant troll who loves mushrooms. i gotta pair her with someone whose palette goes nicely with her pastels 

- carrot and harriet are literally cricket and tilly from big city greens just older. yeehaw siblings. havent thought about relationship stuff with harriet yet.....i think she also needs ANOTHER redesign her colors are just too heavy still. maybe if i can make her colors compliment celia’s that could work as a pairing? hm hm.....carrot tho is dating ford’s oc rye theyre gentle country gays

- rainer. hm. i dont think theyre rly the dating type......theyre just chill with being them. they just wanna swim and be funny

- hammond and andromeda are probs two of my least developed characters.....hammond still needs a redesign. he might be cute to pair with walter, theyre around the same age. andromeda tho i have no idea. she might be a nice pairing with eve? if i ever feel like pairing her with someone...who knows. eve is very carefree and might find andromeda’s energy too intense

- radish i wanna make more content for!! i rly like her a lot....i think shes another troll who isnt interested in dating. shes very focused on being a chef instead. loves her friends a lot!

- mack and pepper 2gether 4ever obvs......they have a relationship that gets richer with age for sure

- im just gonna ramble about mack. i thinkkkkkkk i wanna make her half latina? columbian specifically. she doesnt quite read as white and i didnt make her with the intention of making her white. anyway i love mack a whole lot and should really develop her backstory more. its not rly as like...””tragic”” or whatever as pepper’s i know that but she def has layers. i wanna give her whole family more depth. she has a very complicated relationship with her own feelings and motivations that i need to think about more fully. my powerful femme tho i lov her

- mack’s parents, robin and champagne, i need to like....think about them more. they have kinda a comedic relationship thats sorta inspired by roger rabbit and jessica rabbit. robin is a very caring, gentle troll who’s very smart and cares a lot about his nursing responsibilities in the village. champagne is very relaxed and the “voice of reason” character of the family. she loves a good party and has her party planning down to a science. both are very successful power parents. kickass family

- i already talked about topaz and marney in a separate post but i still love them both so much. big wesbiabs

- pepper....pebber. im gonna talk about her the most obviously gfhjdkrs i wanna talk about her mental health i feel like i think about it a lot but i never write about it explicitly? this is gonna be long oops hgjfksd she has depression and ptsd stemming from the trauma of her crash...im thinking she also has adhd and thats just something shes always had. her depression rly got heavy during her recovery and right after like...she hated being bed/housebound and felt rly powerless to her situation and just let it eat at her until her personality had actually changed considerably. like extroverted wild child rebel to introverted, soft-spoken sulker. this got better with time but she still is pretty introverted, just turned her moodiness into chill energy. 

- she has bad depression habits like letting dishes, old food, laundry, or just stuff pile up in her room until it gets overwhelming and she spends like two days just manically cleaning; or staying in bed for way longer than she should and messing with her hygiene; or eating way more or way less than she should eat in a day. just stuff thats hard to completely break out of when youre recovering. her color is pretty consistently the dark red but if shes having a particularly rough day she might look a little paler, or like a muddy brick color at her worst. thats kinda rare tho

- her ptsd is the thing she hates the most. for a while it made her feel very weak and she’d beat herself up over being traumatized by the crash which was obviously not helpful to her mental state but she was really all over the place during her bodily recovery. its part of the reason why she started working out, she wanted to reclaim some sort of feeling of strength and power that she felt she’d lost completely. she still gets really frustrated with this feeling of loss but she gets a lot of support from loved ones which has helped her not self-blame so much. her ptsd manifests mostly as nightmares/insomnia, chronic headaches/stomachaches, intrusive thoughts and sometimes flashbacks. the nightmares are what rly get to her, she really doesnt get a lot of good sleep and it can get to the point where she just doesnt want to sleep sometimes and she’ll stay awake until she crashes hard

- her scars used to be a big trigger for her ptsd, which is why she has her bangs covering the one on her face and wears long pants (her knee braces are too bulky for pants and would force her to wear shorts which would force her to expose her scars). she just. really really hates them. this is something she struggles with for a majority of her life

- once she and mack start going steady with their dating and start consistently sleeping in the same bed, pepper starts to sleep better. she still has nightmares that wake her up at least weekly, but having mack there to comfort her (whether she wakes mack up accidentally or if mack is already awake) helps a TON with getting her back to sleep soundly. it also just helps her sleep in general to have that comforting, loving presence in her bed snuggled up to her ;w; mack is a big help in general with pepper’s mental health, pushing pepper to make better, healthier choices and get out in the village more and have fun. mack for sure does not “”cure”” pepper of anything but shes a very positive light in pepper’s life that helps her pull thru tough times!

- i love all my goofy trolls so much. its so fun to just chill and blab about them to relax between working on big projects ;o; ty if u cared enough to read this whole thing ur so rad

[vanaera]

Aera, hi! first of all let me tell you that looking forward to My time. and like, How are you? i read that uni is giving u a hard time, is everything good? i hope so. You asked me about what i think of HHA MBTI and let me tell you what happened hehe. I already had an idea and usually i take a guess based on the vibe lol. But, i really wanted to give a legit answer. So I spent the past few days restudying the theory intensely and rereading HHA which is funny because at the end what happened..1

was that i complicated things cuz I wanted to get the most accurate answer, until i convinced myself to just say what i think of lol. So, I haven't done this before and i hope to improve my analysis skills in the future but i wish my analysis will at least entertain you :D lets start with y/n since she came "clearer" to me. Initially, I thought that she gives a ESTJ/ENTJ vibes. What I'm so sure of is that she definitely has the (Te) function either as a dominant or auxiliary function...2 

Which gave me 4 choices, ESTJ, ISTJ, ENTJ, INTJ. In short, what made me think y/n have Te function aka extroverted thinking, is that it's about conveying thoughts using reason and logic while being unmoved by emotional appeals. Te loves to organize and structure and achieving goals oriented. Extroverted thinkers are assertive, direct, objective, have well researched arguments and would like to convince others of their thoughts. we can see all of that in y/n right? I would've loved to explain..3 

Let me tell you first that i decided that y/n is probably an ENTJ. I would've love to tell (in details, why) but knowing myself it's gonna be so long and messy. So, I'm just gonna explain (Why) lol. let me tell u one of the reasons why I eliminated ESTJ. This type generally when making decisions, they'll make it considering what's important at the moment while ENTJ will consider what's important in the long run. I don't know but y/n strikes me as a big picture person...4 

ESTJs have (Si introverted sensing) as their second function which is a one that's concerned with long term memory, organizing, duty, traditions, routine and learning through past experiences (not experimental). Honestly, this one caused me a lot of confusion of weather y/n is estj or entj. because, for entj, because of the absent of Si in their function set they tend to forget who they were in the past and because they're so focused on the future. while i view y/n as the big picture person...5 

I don't view her as the one to be disconnected from her past self. BUT, i don't know if she is Si user, she doesn't strike me as person that values traditions and routine so much. (I'd like to ask you more about this) what made me also think she's ENTJ is because of the other functions in the set (Te, Ni, Se, Fi) we talked about Te, Ni users (introverted intuition) often described as people with vision of what they want to bring to life. Se-extroverted sensing-is about learning through senses..6 

Se function is about learning through senses so people with this function in their dominant will be eager to experience all kind of stuff in life. In ENTJ case however, this function comes third indicating it's underdeveloped, but it's there, so it'll appear more later in life while entj is still growing up and experiencing more. my clue to find this function in y/n was the Bar scene:D. I think i'm gonna stop here with y/n cuz we still have Yoongi. but i wanna say that i spent one more day.. 

Thinking weather y/n is an ENTJ or INTJ.. I had clues in the story for both and since I'm not skilled/knowledgeable enough my head got messed up lol. So i decided to go with my gut feeling and the first choice that occurred to me which is ENTJ =) So, yeah. That's it -kinda- for our dear y/n. and now, for our yoongi, honestly i was a bit lost lol. He has a vibe, correct, but to several types based on my understanding of them lol So here's how it went....I forgot the number i stopped on*face palm*

perceiving functions (Sensing, intuition) tells you how do you perceive reality, while Judging functions (Feeling/ thinking) is how do you interact with the world and take action based on what you learned. So, if you're a judging type with J in the last it means that the "first extroverted" function in your set is either F/T 

Thinking or feeling. it is "the first extroverted function" because that either can be the dominant function or the second one and it's "extroverted" because that's what the others see from you. Okay I'm getting sidetracked here. what i want to say is that if someone is a P type, it means that his/her first extroverted function that orients them in the world is either Ne/Se which aren't about taking action, but gathering information. That's why P people appear as laid back while J people as.. more of an action takers. Okay, yoongi strikes me as a p type. So, the 8 types that ends with J are eliminated. what remains are ENFP, INFP, ESTP, ISTP, ENTP, INTP, ESFP, ISFP. right off the bat esfp, estp, entp, enfp are eliminated. I have a decent understanding of these types and i can tell yoongi isn't one of them. at least based on what i know. also, when i look at the functions, he's neither intp nor istp, so what remains are ISFP & INFP and i believe he's an ISFP... Also, i'd like to say that my elimination of the previous types was also based on what i read in HHT. Anyway, ISFP have (Fi, Se, Ni, Te) while INFP (Fi, Ne, Si, Te) quite close right?.. what made me decide immediately he's an isfp in the beginning is because of the "Se". the scene in particular that led me to it is when he was describing the prom. he seemed to take things through his senses. and somewhere in the story he said "I like learning the actual stuff in real time" which seems to me Se. Fi, introverted feeling is concerned with values, individualism, seeks inner harmony and strong sense of self, it is "what's important". yoongi appears to me to be all that. Also, for hi, being an isfp, in the general description of ISFP type, it quite describes yoongi. They're quite mysterious, can be difficult to get to know on the deep level. listeners, emotional individuals, sensitive, warm. What sets infp from isfp for me, is that infp appears to be more concerned with world problems.. may be more developed especially yoongi since i view him as pretty much matured and more in tune with himself. and yeah i studied the persona theory. psychology is pretty much an interesting field, and i love the way i see its impact in your stories. one of the reason why your stories are special to me. and of course i would notice what i noticed. there's more and i feel like i could talk to you about it all day lol. This ask box is too small :p.. anyway, stay safe and healthy! and good luck! 3>

Oh my god, Aseel, you did a very in-depth MBTI analysis of The Heart Holiday!Yoongi and OC! This freaking shook me up 🤯😲. I don't know much about doing MBTI analysis. I just effing answer quizzes bc I love answering personality quizzes asdfghjkl. So thank you for this quick crash course about this! I love it and omygod I learned so much from you!! 😆😍😚 I had to google more about the MBTI functions bc of this! (sorry I'm not that much of a smart bean yet)

First off, your analysis of THH!OC and Yoongi are so good! You hit Yoongi on point being an ISFP! He's laidback, a good listener, and has a strong sense of his self! He can be mistaken as an extrovert bc of how well he does with people, too. You're also right about THH!OC having NTJ as her dominant functions! However, I think she's more of an introvert than an extrovert! Hinted by the fact her only friend in the office before the whole arrangement with Yoongz was Mina and that OC is very awkward in dealing with other people (the scene with Yoona, Jeff, and Seojoon while she waits for Yoongi to finish work and the lunch scene with the 3 goofballs). And to answer your q, THH!OC values traditions! With the way she's appalled by Yoongi's "makeup" date with her at a streetfood stand, to the fact Y/N is a hell of a conformist (she's The valedictorian of their HS and A cum laude in uni **me lowkey be like "Y/N, teach me your ways"**). But anyway, you still manage to get INTJ for this baby and omg you're so good!!!

I've never really put much thought in my character's MBTI types bc I just practically sprinkle a bit of my characteristics, desires, fears, and insecurities among them. I'm an INFJ, myself, and I couldn't believe some parts of myself could make ISFP and INTJ characters! What I only do know as when I was writing THH, I was inspired to make a story of two fumbling introverts. I usually come across romance stories with characters who are polar opposites of each other. Although there's nothing wrong with that (and omg I have a vERY weak, WEAK spot for this dynamic), I wondered what would it be like if I wrote about two introverts with so much similarities yet also a lot of differences with each other? So boom trulala, The Heart Holiday was born. Jk, there's actually more factors that led me into writing THH than just that, I think I'll go over them next time bc that is gonna be another massive text post.

Anyway, to have my stories be special to you...is an HONOR, ma'am 🥺. When I started writing here, I didn't expect anyone will actually read the things I write, much less let them occupy some place in their hearts. So having you impressed, much less touched, by my stories is a dream come true, hon 🥺. You're right, this ask box is too small bc I want to give you a massive thank you message much grander than this and I don't think tumblr's ask box can hold it (and also bc I wanna hug you, but bc we're kinda timezones apart, here's a virtual hug instead 🤗💗). Thank you for all the love and support, Aseel. Even if I don't think I deserve them, your words help me believe that I can 💕💞