#honestly this is most me spitballing because i don't know which one i like more

[tititilani]

So does Edwin actually remember every time he got torn apart by the baby doll spider?

Or does he just reform each time with the first thing he sees being his last body still being ripped to shreds by the spider but is thankfully spared from actually vividly remembering it tearing into him each time?

When Charles finds the non-bloodied version of him, Edwin actually seems somewhat surprised to see him like he doesn't remember having seen him just moments ago with his last face

Or do you think that he remembers each of the (probably thousands) of times the thing has chased him through the hallway only to catch him and feast on him again and again

[greenqueenhightower]

Anon back again with more rumours/leaks from twitter to make (un)substantiated claims🫡

Okay so one of the people that went to the premiere in NYC was answering some questions also in regards to Alicent. They said it is implied that the first sex scene we see between Alicole is not the first time they have sex, but they made clear that the implication don't seem to be that it was something that happened pre-Viserys death. Which would put their relationship starting after 1x09 and before 2x01. That would make sense to me.

This also lines up with some other leaks I heard where they said Alicent and Criston's first scene of the season was a sex scene, so it is more an established thing that is happening. The same previously mentioned leaker replied in regards to Alicent's character that mainly she seems confused, which we know as she is looking for a sense of self.

Some people theorized that the large number of sex scenes (3 rumoured for first two eps) and the fact that Alicent's story seems to start there in s2 (also Olivia mentioning sexuality as something that is explored) could be written as hypersexuality as a response to her trauma manifesting after Viserys' death. Others theorized that it could be comphet and her figuring out sexuality in a place that is so deeply repressed. It could also simply be that she is having sex because she wants to (good for her) and then because it happens during B&C that the guilt of that is so great she simply represses it all again and the relationship falls apart after that. In any case I can see various routes in which this could be explored in a way that makes sense for Alicent's character.

Now for Criston's character: we saw some leaks and early reviews (watched either ep 1 and 2 or 1 through 4) saying that he gets more "bitter" as the season progresses and would become "the most hated character on tv". Now I take the second one with a grain of salt because people tend to dislike him way more than for example dae/mon who is uhm worse idk. But the common conception seems to be that he gets worse as the season goes on. So seeing as ep 1 starts with Alicole together and then B&C happens at the end of ep 1 start of ep 2, it seems like they skip the getting together stage and instead show the falling apart of this relationship. This would make sense if they are paralleling rhaenicent (as Ryan said) because at the same time dae/myra also seems to be slowly breaking apart.

For now to me it seems this relationship is mainly to show Alicent's headspace she is in of being confused and feeling purposeless. An Alicole rift after B&C as a result of this would make sense and would leave Alicent even more alone (save my girlie). We'll have to wait and see. Also glad you like my thoughts I'm just spitballing here and honestly need the episodes immediately.

Thanks, anon, for keeping me updated! 💚

Okay, actually the idea that Alicent and Criston consummate their relationship some time after Viserys' death and before the Dance of the Dragons sounds good to me. Again, I would have liked to have seen the entire pathway of their relationship that culminated in that, but hey--as long as it is well-written I won't mind.

Your comment about hypersexuality manifesting itself as Alicent's post-traumatic response to her marriage is very interesting! I also see it as a manifestation of agency in the sense that she no longer has to be summoned to perform a sexual act upon request, but she can seek it and want it herself. It most definitely can be comphet too, because she is not as free as per Westerosi patriarchal and heteronormative standards to contemplate and realize any relationship apart from the norm.

When it comes to Criston's character development in S2, your theory that the writers might have Alicole parallel Daemyra to showcase how the Dance has devastated all kinds of relationships: familial, conjugal, erotic, etc., is quite plausible. Watching Alicent and Criston's relationship suffer to the point of breaking would be heart-wrenching but angsty and spellbinding at the same time. I just wish we get to see more of them together before that happens.

And as for Alicent's battle with guilt and her quest for agency and self-worth, I am all for it as long as the show does not victimize and wh!rify Alicent. I assume that Alicloe will break up after B&C, but will at some point get together again (maybe after Aegon is injured at Rook's Rest?). And for all the time they are apart, I hope we see more of just Alicent crying and being miserable and Criston being ruthless in war and battle.

[m0r1bund]

I want to step aside and say I'm grateful for everyone who has shared my adoptables, bought 'em, enjoyed them with your eyeballs, or just hung around in general. I don't like to mix money with art, but these past two months I've been in a tight position where I needed to to make ends meet. I didn't want to lead with this because we're all broke motherfuckers out here, and you know how it is. being poor can be the most shameful and humiliating thing in the world, even when you know in your forebrain that it's not something you can necessarily control.

Thankfully, this is a transition period. I'm lucky to have the support of really cool people who have made it possible for me to secure some work doing what I love. 🤞 with any luck, we will be out of the woods soon.

As much as I hem and haw about making money off of my art, this has been an encouraging experience. I've enjoyed being able to act on design ideas that wouldn't fit into my own stories, but are really fun in someone else's hands. I also learned a lot during this brief return to the adoptable market, which I will share below, in hopes that maybe it can help others who find themselves in the same position.

I've been strict with pricing my work hourly, rather than just slapping on a price that "feels right" for the perceived complexity/finish/originality of the design. It's like pulling teeth, because I'm always slower than I think I am. I try to hold onto a piece of advice that I heard somewhere, which I will paraphrase poorly. Basically, even though your instinct might be to make a lot of small, affordable things, so you're not putting all your eggs in one basket or setting yourself up for disappointment if there's no bites, it's sometimes more "efficient" to do expensive jobs that are few and far in-between. there is... obvious... tension between this and my feelings about accessibility. one thing wins over the other when you're in survival mode, for better or worse. but i feel fortunate to be able to eat today so that i can pay it forward tomorrow.

i've tried to be conscientious of overhead, platform fees, and invisible labor. I probably would have made more money if I had conducted sales as auctions and exchanged money through direct invoices, but I chose to use ko-fi and fixed prices because that meant there was less friction between sharing my work, conducting a sale, exchanging money, and distributing the files. This might seem like a deranged tradeoff (surely it would be more worthwhile to just exchange a few emails) but it reflects the state of mind I was in before I received the news about my new job. If I wanted to keep doing this for what seemed like an indefinite amount of time, I needed to make it as simple as possible.

in line with the above, I chose to make adoptables rather than open commissions because the risk of losing time without any financial return was acceptable to me. time and technical effort was not my limiting resource, haha... I really respect commission work, but it's challenging for me to do. maybe you can guess from my desire to use ko-fi that it takes more effort for me to translate a client's vision into visual art than it takes for me to spitball an idea and hope someone will like it enough to take it home. I already prioritize this more "intensive" work as part of my (current) dayjob, so it's better for me to pick the path of least resistance in this case.

all of this rides on having a following. honestly, i wasn't sure things would work out here on tumblr. i have traditionally sold adoptables over on deviantart, where I have a larger following. dA recently enshittified (again) so this blog became an impromptu experiment in critter sales. I'm happy that I haven't had to touch dA, in the end, and I really owe that to you guys. thank you! (again!!)

[meyerlansky]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @redbelles AND @inkpot-demigod 🖤💙🖤💙 took me eighteen years but i figured i ought to get it done before the emoji asks >_>

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

133,253

3. what fandoms do you write for?

right now it's just masters of the air, because i really only focus on one fandom at a time but i also don't really LEAVE fandoms so much as they go dormant for a bit. in the last year i've at least TOUCHED wips for boardwalk empire and the witcher, and once bachelor route drops i will probably go back to some of my pathologic 2 fics and maybe come up with new stuff. same with HotD s2, although i don't know how much new stuff will come out of that vs finishing up things in metamorphoses.

4. top five fics by kudos

keep safe broad shoulders, warm hands keds and tube socks vestis virum facit denuo

so mostly burakhovsky smut, except for keep safe which is outsider pov nearly-gen lambden (from the witcher and specifically witcher 3) fic, and i have NO idea how it's my most-kudosed fic; and keds and tube socks, which is a long-ass (for me) steddie fic that i WILL finish at some point i am so sorry to everyone who's subbed to that fic /o\

5. do you respond to comments?

I TRY MY BEST ;___; i really like talking to people about fic, mine and others', so every comment i've left unresponded-to haunts me, but sometimes i can't get over my own anxiety enough. the only time it's deliberate is if the only content in the comment is "you have to write more of this" or anything similar and phrased EXCLUSIVELY like a demand, because It's Rude and also i have no idea how to respond to that.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

explicitly angsty is probably with my ash-stained palms or broad shoulders, warm hands because neither ryuzo or daniil get what they want in those ones, though i think bswh!daniil would get what he wants eventually. ryuzo, maybe not >_> dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek) is also probably up there, but that's more interesting because it's not angsty on the page! and i WAS planning on leaving it as is, originally! that's why it has the canon compliant tag! but now i'm 8k deep in a canon-divergent sequel so idk if it counts anymore. genuinely i was planning on answering this with "i don't write a lot of unresolved angst" but. hm.

...wait, also hot blood, deep roots. which is the dark mirror nightmare counterpart of bswh and is... definitely worse. and i have something even worse in my wips okay i guess i write more angst than i thought

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably vestis virum facit, since the final section is implied to be far-enough post-plague that they're Gonna Be Okay. but like the angst question, i don't really think of too many of my fics as the And They Lived Happily Ever After, The End type so much as like... they're happy In That Moment and that's what matters

8. do you get hate on fics?

i got put on the patho fandom blacklist for associating with Freaks And Criminals, and then i wrote hot blood, deep roots to cement my spot on it, so if that counts that's the extent of it afaik. i do worry about catching flak for stuff down the line, but honestly haters tend to be cowards, sooo

9. do you write smut?

LOVE WRITING SMUT. LOVE IT WHEN MY GUYS NAIL EACH OTHER. IT'S MY FAVORITE. i had like a year-long stint before stranger things s4 where i only posted genfic and i was SO disappointed with myself, even though the stuff i posted was GOOD genfic

10. craziest crossover:

don't really do crossovers! but entertaining daemon au thoughts is how i know i'm in a fandom deep enough that it's gonna stick for a bit, even though i've only posted daemon au fic for bwe thus far

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

also not to my knowledge!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i'm not opposed to spitballing with people, and some of my best bwe work has come out of very long headcanon exchanges with @goatsandgangsters and @therestisdetail in particular, but i am not a consistent enough writer to saddle anyone else with my habits, so that's the closest i've gotten to cowriting anything.

14. all time favorite ship?

L A N S K I A N O. they are my forever boys. nothing will topple them. ever.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

NONE OF MY WIPS ARE ABANDONED THEY ARE ALL GOING TO GET DONE EVENTUALLY DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT

16. what are your writing strengths?

snappy dialogue and the internal character work involved in a tight third person pov, which is good since a tight third is the only way i like to write

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

speed. if i don't finish something inside of a week of starting it, it will drag out for an infinity and a half and i'll have to chip away at it and hate myself for being slow the whoooooooooole time. i also... i have no idea how to explain this, but i don't consider myself an especially creative person, so i have trouble if i don't have a jumping off point to start with? most of my fics have pretty solid touchpoints in the canon and tend to be one-shots, if not single-scene. coming up with new shit for my dudes to do can be a struggle. which, tbh, adds to the speed thing, especially for stuff that tilts off into canon-divergent territory

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

alright, listen, i might have an entire buryat dictionary database downloaded onto my hard drive to spice up patho fic, but i'm in agreement with previous answers on this one: it can get dicey to write in a language you don't know, and if your readers don't know it it will interrupt the flow in a way that's not usually what i'm looking to do in a fic. that said, most of my fandoms have at LEAST one non-english language involved, if not multiple, so i do end up doing a lot of research into those languages, and i'm absolutely not opposed to pulling out single-words or phrases after either a. checking with someone who speaks those languages, if it's a real one, or b. pulling them from their usage in the canon itself and/or sometimes extrapolating out a bit, like the high valyrian i peppered into chrysalis

19. first fandom you wrote in?

boardwalk empire my beloved 🖤🖤🖤 i played around with some stuff prior to that—i think i'd noodled with what would technically be alice in wonderland fic in high school, although i don't remember what happened in it—but nothing substantial enough to count as Actual Fic, and definitely not anything i have access to anymore

20. favorite fic you've written?

MAN. HOW TO CHOOSE. it's maybe a little bit of recency bias to say dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek), but i think it's a tie between that and junkyard dogs, and both for the same reason, which is that i am really proud of the character work they do with curt and eddie, respectively. i'm not SURPRISED jd is as low on the hits/kudos/etc scale as it is since it's genfic and billy is...... divisive........... but i really think i nailed eddie in it. with dctc(tc) it was fun to get to play with curt, who's... look, i'm just gonna say it, i think he gets mischaracterized in a lot of the other fandom stuff i've seen involving him, so it was fun to get how i read him down on the page. it's also interesting to not only develop curt internally but to look at the buckies from an outsider POV, because they are UNDENIABLY the love story at the center of MotA's narrative, but they're both IN IT so they can't SEE IT. i also don't usually do scene breaks? like most of my fics are single-scene but i dragged dctc(tc) out and shockingly it WORKED? so yeah idk i'm just really proud of it.

OKAY. WHOOF. TIME FOR TAGS. let's seeeeeeeeee i will tag @goatsandgangsters @hosseinis @chirpybirdy @sweaterkittensahoy @reiverreturns

@samuelroukin @stoportotouch @notgrungybitchin @adriennefrombrooklyn and anyone else who wants to, but no pressure as always!

[literaticat]

If a close friend or family member came to you and said they wanted to start writing an MG book and get published.. would you tell them to maybe try another category?

I know MG is hard right now.. but how do I give up on my dream? It seems like even MG writers are taking a break to try other categories. I get that it's realistic, but it's also kinda heartbreaking. 

Is that the best thing to do? MG is not a waste of time to me! But I'm honestly feeling some peer pressure here. :(

If a close friend or family member came to you and said they wanted to start writing an MG book and get published.. would you tell them to maybe try another category?

No? If they want to write a MG, and they are great at writing MG, I see no reason they shouldn't write the book that is calling to them.

If they came to me with SEVERAL ideas for different types of books, all equally strong, that they are all equally passionate about, one of which was MG, I might candidly explain the realities of the market right this second -- and maybe they would decide to try something different first. But if they want to do a MG the most, who am I to tell them otherwise?

I know MG is hard right now.. but how do I give up on my dream?

... don't? Just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it if you want to. Let's be real: PUBLISHING ANYTHING IS HARD. So what? As I've said a hundred times on here: Hard doesn't mean literally impossible. I've sold MG books this year. New MG books come out EVERY WEEK from publishers. They ARE buying new ones to publish in the future, and SOMEBODY IS WRITING THEM. Why shouldn't it be you?

It seems like even MG writers are taking a break to try other categories. I get that it's realistic, but it's also kinda heartbreaking. 

Those writers probably realize that it's helpful not to put ALL your eggs in one basket. But "taking a break to try other categories" is not a heartbreaking thing -- it's fine. Why not mix it up? Careers are long, there's no reason you have to write the same kind of book over and over. Exploring lots of things you might be interested in, being flexible, trying other styles or genres or categories on for size -- ALL those things may potentially make you a stronger writer and open doors to more opportunities for you. (Nothing heartbreaking about that!) -- Or, perhaps they will realize, oh, actually, I miss writing MG books, I'm better at that, I like that more -- and then they can go ahead and do that again.

Is that the best thing to do? MG is not a waste of time to me! But I'm honestly feeling some peer pressure here. :(

If you want to write MG, please do. Will it be "easy to sell"? Probably not. And that would also be true for any book, so... if you consider it a "waste of time" to write a book that might or might not sell, I have bad news for you about publishing. (Most authors don't sell every book they write! Does that make all those efforts a waste of time? Really? Might they not be learning and growth opportunities? IDK, just spitballing!)

If somebody is PEER PRESSURING YOU into writing a kind of book you don't want to write, they sound like a real tool. Time to get better friends.

[yakool-foolio]

i see your Death Knight Yakou, and i have two things to say:

one: i don't like that Shinigami takes all their memories cause in canon it felt like a cheap way to make Yuma a blank player fill in, so i personally would change it so she only takes memories of their motivations. which i think wold honestly add flavor cause Yakou wouldn't remember why he did it but knows himself well enough to know it had to be insanely important to him.

Two: the Viviakou tension that would arise in that au has me frothing at the mouth. Vivia could see Shinigami hanging around him and god that'd do a number on their dynamic. i'm Sure Vivia scaring Shinigami would also raise some flags in Yakou's mind.

Thank you for the feedback, it's greatly appreciated! I welcome the criticism cause I'm just spitballing to see what sticks, so having second opinions is something I'm grateful for.

For your first point, I highly agree with only taking the motivations away instead of all his memories. Taking everything away worked with Yuma because he's the stand-in and he learns along with the player. Since this isn't being treated like a game and there isn't the restriction of player experience, having Yakou keep most of his memories makes this AU flow a lot smoother. No need for overly long explanations, we readers already know these characters! There's a lot more tension involved if Yakou gave up the anonymous letter, a symbol of his main motivation, in order to obtain Shinigami. He still remembers everyone around him, but he's lost a sense of purpose. Solving the mystery of the city, and in turn his own identity, will help him find a reason to keep on going and reach a conclusion he'll be satisfied with.

Onto the second point, oh-ho-ho yes! Vivia and Yakou's dynamic will have a pretty dramatic shift with Shinigami hanging around. With Vivia researching the Book Of Death and learning how dangerous it can be, a conflict lingers. Does he let Yakou continue on with his escapades resulting in the many unnatural deaths of culprits, or does he try to put a stop to it in hopes they can put the mysteries behind them? Meanwhile, Yakou tries not to panic knowing Vivia shows interest in him, but not solely in the way he thinks he is. Shinigami has to slap a little sense into him sometimes and remind him she exists.

Yakou, thinking as he glances at Vivia: He's staring at me again. What does he see in me?

Shinigami: I'm pretty sure he's actually looking at me, Sir.

Yakou, thinking: Oh right, you exist.

Shinigami: WE'VE BEEN PARTNERS FOR HOW LONG NOW?!

[vylad243]

Honestly with the way the Goethals act in general it could be safe to say most of them go down the line of “Anyone I perceive as lower than me I treat like shit” with a few accepting members like Stolas

But speaking of Stolas, if you feel more comfortable going off of what is canon, then maybe the idea could spin off of him? We know him to be respectful and to have enough pull to get meetings with a Sin so it wouldn’t be too far off to say Ozzy asked Stolas to check out the hotel to sponsor it. Maybe during introductions he only bows to Lucifer, the Sins, and Vox and everyone is confused?

Just spitballing with the other anons idea! Whatever you go with will be amazing regardless!

Also just a small question cause I’m curious of what you have planned but how many prompts are you planning on writing/is in your Que? I have like a shit ton of prompts in my inbox and need filtering advice if you’re willing 😭

I am the goddess of fucking around and finding out

I don't mind canon or going off canon. My Alastor and Vox are very ooc after all, but I know the fandom tends to hold Helluva Boss in a higher standard. I never really liked it that much. I've watched it- but I'm Striker. Why does everything gotta be a sex thing? The two season finales were my favourite of Helluva Boss, which ironically included little to no Stolas

I could definitely see Stella and her brother treating the sinners and overlords are faith on their shoes while Stolas and Octavia hold the sins and Vox in higher regard

Ozzie would definitely be pulling the strings to get Stolas to visit the Hazbin Hotel if I go that route.

I like working off of your guy's ideas. It's very fun and helps me world build 🙏

~~~~~~

Ahahaha my ask box is also full of different prompts. I have omega-verse, the Vee's joining the battle, and injured Alastor are three I can name off the top of my head (because I'm writing them right now) but I think I have like 10 or 11 in there. One is also a beauty and the beast ay which I'm mulling over

As for how I filter them out- prompts are things I want to be able to enjoy writing. Some of my prompts have been quite large- and while I don't mind the large ones, it gives me a lot less freedom with them because I feel like I have to rewrite a whole story that was just in the my box. I never deleted any, though. I just put them in their in tag just in case I feel like writing them later- but ones I am writing right now/want to write sit in my box so I can shuffle through them. It keeps it organized

I haven't encountered any rude people yet- so I haven't had to reject anyone for demanding things from me (which like I'm always ready for a debate on the internet, I find them funny) and with how nice everyone is, I usually feel bad for denying them. It's way I take so long to deny people. I want to make sure this is actually something I don't plan on writing in the near future

My way to filter out prompts is

- I need creative freedom to write so I don't feel miserable writing. This is one of the main ones. My brain is very hectic and I find myself tapping out if I can't bring my own ideas to the table. It's also why none of my works are exactly like the prompts im given

- I have enough context to write a fic on it

- I would actually enjoy writing it

- it's a world/au I'm aware of or contributed to. Nothing is worse than being handed a fully built universe and being asked to write for it with little to no explanation on how the universe works

- the people are nice to me.

- I know I make a few jokes here and there, but I like to keep in mind that I'm making free work for people. I'm not being paid to do this, and people aren't paying me to write out the prompts. I love writing fanfiction and it's a great hobby, but if you're genuinely just not interested in doing something- you don't have too. Writing it meant to be fun and inspiration is a fickle thing. You don't want to push it too hard or it's going to shove back. I've learnt that the hard way

- bonus way to do it- sometimes people leave comments, and I find them funny, and I get creative with them. I censored a whole chapter of month in rut because someone told me to let the characters swear. I'm also a very petty person

This is just personal, but I keep my prompts 1k-3.5k words just so it's decently sized, but not overly large

Hope this helps!

[kdinjenzen]

would you sell prints of the characters you voice and sign them? i'd buy one like crazy! or maybe a print of a picture of you in the zero suit i dont know just spitballing here. but seriously i'd buy your autograph. you can do it here or on streamily

The only time I did this was for one (digital) con and because I was pushed into doing it, only about 6 ended up getting purchased. Which meant a lot to me, but also most of the money went to the company I worked for at the time and not me.

So I've been a bit shy to do it since then.

I honestly don't think I'm that well known enough, nor have I done anything major enough to really warrant it.

I miss conventions, I miss a lot of that stuff, and trust me I'd love to do more voice work and to voice more characters but it's up to the whims of the universe if I get cast in anything or not.

So I'm... not sure.

I'd also like... need to get prints made for characters and that's also a whole process too.

[webbedphantom]

Ship Bias

Send me Ship Bias and I will do the thing

This is already more than I thought I'd get, so this'll be fun.

6: Ann Takamaki

Getting the obvious ones out of the way first, though I typically prefer them as friends (I adore the Shujin Trio being besties, and I like the idea of him going to Ann for romantic advice, since he's absolutely clueless). That being said, the dorky nerd and the model who is WAY out of his league is a dynamic I really like (It's literally Peter & MJ in most continuities), and I think they'd play off each other really well. Especially when he's in costume. Out of all the female Phantom Thieves, Ann would probably enjoying webswinging with him the most, and just thinking about it does make me smile.

7: Sumi Yoshizawa

This one would definitely be a cute pairing, but it has the potential to be just as angsty, and I find that incredibly interesting. I mean, think about it; You have a girl who has trained her whole life to win a gold medal in gymnastics, and yet doesn't feel like she's ever going to be good enough. And then a guy comes along who she quickly starts crushing on, her number one supporter, who has absolutely no training whatsoever... and he's better than her. All because of a random bug bite. He tries to hide it at first, but the second she finds out... I mean, I can't even imagine how I'd feel in her shoes. There are so many directions that could go, and I am dying to explore them at some point, provided I could find a good partner for it.

8: Starfire

This is another one I have some experience with. Specifically when they were both adults, so she had been on Earth for a while. They had some really good chemistry, and it was kinda funny whenever he had to introduce her to anyone else. (Because this was Modern Starfire who has a much harder time passing for human, what with her fully green eyes, bright orange skin, and... Oh yeah, being a famous superhero who's saved the world a dozen times)

9: Ironheart

Honestly, I had already run out of ideas, and was just wracking my brain trying to think of something to put here but... Wow, this would work SO well. I haven't read a lot of her comics outside of her original run (which was a total rollercoaster btw), but I've read a ton of Champions (basically Marvel's answer to the Teen Titans) and I ADORE her there. She's not much of a people person, so it'd definitely take a lot of build up to get to the ship, but they're both brilliant engineers, so they could easily bond over that, and either try to one-up the other with their latest inventions, or lose track of time working together on a project or even just talking about a project. There's definitely something there.

10: Aigis, maybe?

Again, kinda just spitballing. I don't know too much about her, as I haven't gotten to her introduction in Reload, and it's been like... 2 years since I watched the anime, but from what I can recall, I think it could be interesting. And not just because she's an android and he's a mechanic, though that is part of it (He would be constantly be trying to figure out how she works, without being weird about it, and he would be incredibly fascinated by just talking with her and learning more about how she views the world), but also because her usual antics would mesh well with his own... eventually. It'd take a bit of getting used to, on both sides I think. They'd definitely make for good friends if nothing else.

[worldsentwined]

I set aside the Edgy OC ask meme you reblogged a bit ago knowing I'd definitely want to ask you about your Dual Citizenship OCs :3 Can I get 1 and 14 for Hel? (I'm *so* curious about this asshole (affectionate)'s backstory). Alternatively, tell us about 7. with Zephyr!

Oooooh yes amazing please always ask me about these characters! (Also hi I set this ask aside because I couldn't make my brain think about the answers but I just finished reading a book that had a diabetic character with a number of inaccuracies and it lit the spark of "annoyed by every piece of diabetes media" that got me writing this story in the first place).

What memory would your OC rather just forget? Hel probably has a LOT of these from its time as a HelperBot, honestly. I've shied away from thinking about specifics because like. The kind of things that happen to someone to leave it so bitter about everyone and everything? Probably not great. And the whole idea of HelperBots - beings created for the specific purpose of serving people rich enough to afford them - also points to a strong possibility of Very Bad Things Happened Here. I think some of those bad things happened to Hel specifically, but others happened to other bots it spent time around, and Hel wasn't able to help them. (Which leads to all kinds of interesting questions about how the robot revolution may have happened in the first place because the bots, designed to help but powerless to help each other, had to dismantle the whole system instead).

That said, as much as Hel's past is littered with memories that should come with a nuclear waste site warning, I don't think it would allow itself to forget the worst things. Hel emerged from its traumatic past with a strong sense of justice, and it wants to make sure its fellow bots won't be exploited again. Allowing itself to forget would make it complicit if history were to repeat itself.

How does your OC want to be seen by other characters? I think this varies a LOT depending on who is doing the perceiving. We see Hel through Tevin's eyes, and Tevin has more or less a human perspective despite being (technically speaking) a cyborg. Hel presents itself to Tevin and the other human roommates the way it wants humans to perceive it: enigmatic, angry, anything but helpful. It doesn't want anything to do with them, but since it has to, its goal is to make them uncomfortable. I think this bit from its introduction scene is a good example:

“Oh yes. That’s why we all exist, isn’t it? So we can be nice and helpful. Thank you for your feedback, Tevin!” Hel’s normal voice is a low, mechanical growl that it adopted specifically to make people uncomfortable, but the last sentence comes out in a perfect customer service cadence.

In the same way that Hel won't allow itself to forget the harsh history of humans and bots, it won't allow anyone around it to forget, either.

Other bots are a whole different story, and this is part of what I'm still trying to resolve with Hel's character arc. I don't think it's any less abrasive with them (assuming they even converse through means where tone is relevant) but it goes to greater lengths to make itself understood, because it actually cares about their opinions. It takes care to only do this in ways that the humans around it can't perceive, though - I imagine there have been many conversations between it and Lexie on private channels, even when they're also talking to each other out loud.

And because I love them, I'll also answer the Zephyr question:

What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

What a perfect question for Zephyr! They've probably changed the most since I first started spitballing characters onto the page for this. Originally they were meant to be like, a tech bro who was all about the scientific advances, someone who had never known actual hardship and is living their best life. But as the story developed it became clear that a person like that wouldn't still be on earth in this story - they'd have sided with the rest of the humans and gone to space. So they gradually turned into someone more nuanced - idealistic to the point of naivete, more hopeful than Tevin but not without their own baggage. I started thinking about what it would mean for someone privileged enough that they could have gone to space to just...decide to stay behind. What (or who) they might have given up, what they might feel about their personal losses even as the societal changes they supported are coming to pass. What happens if the dream they've worked so hard for isn't all they thought it would be? What if it takes more work than they expected? I also wanted to tap into the "just graduated college and gradually realized it's harder to find companionship than it used to be" thing. Zephyr's desire for connection stands in contrast to Tevin's reluctance to let anyone get close, which is part of what makes the two of them so fun to write together.

Anyway, thank you for asking and continuing to care about my blorbos even though I haven't worked on their story in a while!

[mdhwrites]

i saw u said reaching out would be one of toh's worst episodes, i think it would be epic if you subjectively ranked all the episodes w your explanations! although it might be way too long a post come to think of it..... just spitballing, i'd be interested to see your top and bottom ranked ones, at the very least

You know what? Let's actually do this. May 9th, Noon, https://www.twitch.tv/mdhwrites. I'll do a tierlist stream of me ranking all the episodes, talking about them, possibly sharing personal anecdotes about certain episodes, especially the ones that really started making me fall away from the show, and I'll doing with anyone who wants to join me in a voice call on my Discord. That way I'm not just talking to myself as much which can cause problems for me mentally. Afterwards, I'll upload the vod (I suspect it might be at least 3+ hours long, if not more, just because TOH has 43 episodes. Even 3 minutes an episode would be over two hours) to Youtube and share it here alongside a picture of the tierlist and minor thoughts. I will say that the vod will also probably be majority S2 because there's just more to talk about in S2. Not even just because of the quality dip that happens post S1, and to be fair I think S2B actually does have one of the best episodes of TOH period from an entertainment standpoint, but because S1 is... Honestly kind of boring at times. You could cut like a third of S1's runtime and lose NOTHING because of how many of the B plots are redundant, repetitive, monotonous, go on too long and just get grating like this sentence. But that also kind of highlights an issue with the show. I don't think the show is very interesting to talk about with singular episodes with very few exceptions, those being its best or worse, because the show has great moments but otherwise is very much so running at a tempo of "it's fine" most of the time. I'm not surprised my nephew has commonly just been bored by it while he enjoys Amphibia. This honestly makes it even WORSE for broadcast television because when asked "Okay, what episodes ARE able to be shown without the grander context of the rest?" You're left with mostly the worst/most boring episodes, even by the fandom's consideration and damn near NOTHING in S2. It honestly makes me think of that streaming phenomenon where they don't want to give satisfying payoffs or resolve anything because then the watcher will hit the next episode because they're not quite satisfied but there's enough of a hook to keep them there. There are ABSOLUTELY times where TOH does this, like Hooty eating the letter. Just kick the plot down another couple episodes because it's not time yet to actually do anything with it even as the clock ticks and closer. Or it's an adding an element that will go nowhere but is interesting in theory. I'M LOOKING AT YOU DELL!

*sigh* Anyways, again, I'll try to do that tierlist in two days and hopefully this time I'll actually make it. Twitch if you want to follow to get the notification, Discord if you want to make that more guaranteed/if you might want to join on voice. See you all then!

[numbknee]

Thoughts on buttman?

(or any cartman related ship)

honestly I haven't really considered buttman that much just because I'm a kyman truther 😅 but I think it could be interesting given their dynamic in the show. I'm gonna spitball a bit about it so bear with me.

butters most of the time goes along with cartman's plans but he also isn't afraid to stand up to him when the situation calls for it, like in the ep 'super fun time'. I think butters genuinely considers cartman his friend and it's interesting how he is one of the only main boys that consistently calls him by his first name, which indicates a level of familiarity despite cartman treating him like shit so much.

I'm not really sure how cartman would consider butters, though. is he his friend? lackey? hapless sidekick? I don't think cartman knows exactly how he feels about butters (much like all his other relationships). butters definitely has a better track record with romantic relationships than cartman does so I think given how well he knows cartman, he'd be able to handle him if they started dating and stand up to him sometimes when he's being an asshole, but I also think cartman would still be able to take advantage of him if he manipulated the situation enough. butters just isn't as cunning as cartman is.

in terms of canon ship fuel for buttman the thing I can think of off the top of my head is of course the bj pic, which may indicate some subconscious level of attraction to butters on cartman's part, but I'm not sure if butters would reciprocate those feelings given how he's been treated in the past. butters forgives people relatively easily though so idk.

maybe buttman would work, but cuz of my kyman brainrot I can't help thinking that kyle is a much better candidate to be able to put cartman in his place than butters is. we've seen that cartman is at his healthiest when he had someone to curb his egotistic and harmful behavior in 'tsst' so I think he would need that in a romantic partner if it were ever to be a truly equal relationship. would he WANT to have more power and be able to manipulate his partner to feed/protect his ego? yes. is that what he NEEDS? hell no.

all this being said I wouldn't be surprised if when puberty hits cartman and butters explore each other's bodies just because they're both curious or bored lol. I still can't see them in a long-term relationship, though.

[aparticularbandit]

What do you think would differ in the climax to CACW if everyone on Team Cap made it to Siberia with Steve and Bucky? As in, what if Sam, Clint, Scott and Wanda were in Siberia with Steve and Bucky instead of locked up in the Raft?

*It has been a while since I've seen this movie, so I did check plot summaries to make sure what I thought was correct. I don't tend to see MCU stuff more than once because, for me, at least, I just. don't like them that much. (Sometimes I go back to fact check stuff for fanfic, but like. probably not as often as I should, tbh.)

Well.

For the rest of Team Cap to be there, that assumes one of two things: 1) that they so completely defeated Team Iron Man that they all got to Siberia unimpeded or 2) Team Iron Man didn't make it to the airport in time to stop them (for any variety of reasons, which I don't want to get into because not necessary).

In either case, it assumes the rest of Team Iron Man chases after them, unless they got so beaten they couldn't follow for whatever reason, so like. let's be real, Disney doesn't want to pay that much money to do TWO mega battles, but we're having fun thinking things through here, etc. etc.

The first case means Team Cap doesn't get there quickly enough to save the Super Soldiers. The second supposes maybe they do. It also supposes that Tony doesn't end up finding out that Zemo framed Bucky (which he did post-airport fight. according to my plot summaries. because why would he have fought them in the first place if he'd known that. so).

We could go a really unfun route and assume that Tony and Team Iron Man see Steve and Bucky releasing the other Super Soldiers for rehabilitation purposes and battle over it, but I don't think Vis would go with that - and I honestly don't think Tony would go for that at this point either, which would really just lead to whether or not they listen to Steve and Bucky about Zemo - which. T'Challa is the one most likely to not listen at this point because revenge is his bag in this movie, but Vis could do some searching - or maybe did on the flight over - to figure things out. At which point, Wakanda would probably take Zemo and the Super Soldiers maybe, but you lose the whole punch Zemo wanted of Bucky killing Tony's parents and the betrayal of Steve knowing, which is really the crux of that last battle.

So I guess they wouldn't have much of a battle here, but it doesn't feel like a climax the way it should and would be not great story telling, if I'm honest. Also means this option - option two - would have no big battle between the two sides at all, unless we suppose the Super Soldiers activate immediately for whatever reason - maybe Zemo barks out the codes while the others are arguing - and then they fight them, but like. then you can get the shot from Tony in about this is why you wait and get all the info first with a quip back from Steve about how they hadn't been doing that in the first place - and it still doesn't feel like what the audience is paying for, which is the big fight between the two sides.

BUT if we're going more far-reaching consequences, they're all still together when Infinity War comes around, instead of scattered because half of them are fugitives, which would probably have helped with the whole Thanos thing. (Because Vis wouldn't have been offline! But then you don't have Vis clearly wanting to choose Wanda, the fugitive, over what he's supposed to be doing - and you also lose that he's still aiding and abetting a fugitive - like, you lose some of the weight of his decisions in their relationship because there would be no reason to be keeping their relationship secret, etc. etc. BUT also if they were all together, maybe he would have made it to Wakanda earlier and gotten the Mind Stone removed from him, so maybe he would have survived that, even though he likely wouldn't have survived the Snap. But that's me spitballing.)

Option One assumes that things progress more similarly to the movie, only Tony can't find out about Siberia from Sam because Sam's, you know, gone, so Vis would maybe have to try to track them, which means Vis at least would be with him (maybe), and like. at that point, even with the reveal about Bucky killing Tony's parents, there are too many people who could restrain him from that.

But you'd also have four people who have lived through their family being killed for no reason as a result of someone else in the room - Wanda, Zemo, T'Challa, and now Tony - so there's a possibility when it gets personal like that that Wanda, understanding where Tony is, might understand his desire for revenge and immediate want to kill Bucky, but like.

Again, you lose a lot of the weight of the moment. It's possible that Tony splits from the Avengers as a result of everything but that the rest of them continue as they had been, so you still have some semblance of a split while Tony mentally goes through some stuff, but that's different than the scattering we see at the end of canon. I still see his arc playing out roughly the same in Infinity Game, but you might get the added benefit of maybe Vis still gets to Wakanda early enough to not die - a lot of the Vis/Wanda differences you see as a long effect of Option Two would likely still play out here.

[sleepy-moron]

Literally just me spitballing ideas about the monologue ™:

- The article where the monologue gets mentioned said it was filmed near the end of shooting, so based on that we might be able to predict wether the monologue happens in Hawkins or it's with the Cali gang

- Most of Mike's big emotional moments involve him just sort of blowing up and yelling out some feelings, so the monologue is either going to heavily lean into this type of scene, or they're going to go in the complete opposite direction and we're going to get something a bit more similar in tone to the "It was the best thing I've ever done" scene

- This is completely unsubstantiated, but I just like....feel deep in my bones that this monologue is going to be in volume 2 (I'm calling ep 8 out now because parallel to it was the best thing I've ever done scene from season 2)

- If I'm right about it not being in volume one that makes me feel fairly confident in ruling out this being the m*leven breakup scene because if we do get a breakup scene it's gonna be before El goes away

- I know the apology for the Mike and Will fight from s3 is another popular guess but I really can't see them waiting until the season is over halfway finished to address the fight.... maybe they do a short apology scene early on and then readdress it later but I feel like this is unlikely....or they do this apology monologue in volume one and I'm just completely off base lol

- If (and it's a big if because I don't think we'll get this scene this season) Mike gets a coming out scene this is what the monologue is going to be....no doubt in my mind that if this scene exists it will be the most visibly emotional we have ever seen Mike. Also if this is the case then this is definitely a volume 2 scene....I think that if byler is endgame we'll get a lot of hinting at Mike being in love with Will, or confirmation of his feelings via show don't tell, but I don't think Mike gets a proper coming out scene this season (though if he did I'd guess it would be in the penultimate or last episode of the season)

- Some sort of eulogy or a speech about a main character dying....Which is definitely possible but I feel like this would be more of a group emotional scene rather than Mike having his own monologue about it, but I could be wrong

- A love confession of some sort....which would make sense but I just have a pretty baseless feeling this isn't going to be the case.....I could very much be wrong here though, this is just a gut feeling

(if it's to El I just don't care honestly, they already did that last season and it wasn't super super emotional and Mike literally either takes it back or straight up can't remember it, this would just sort of be disappointing for me if it's all "oh but he actually goes through with the confession this time")

(if it's a confession to Will, I can definitely get behind this making Mike so emotional, but I just don't think they'll be made aware of each others feelings this season....He could confess his feelings for Will to somebody else which would work but I still personally don't think Mike is going to actually verbalize his feelings this season, even if we are made aware of them)

- Some sort of rallying hope speech....I think this is definitely one of the more likely possibilities, even more so if this happens right after a big defeat or a major character death, but I also think this is probably one of the possibilities I like the least because I would prefer Mike dealing with his emotional issues in a scene like this

- And now for what I'm putting forward as my #1 prediction, even if it might be an anticlimactic answer since it could overlap with a bunch of the previous options: Mike addressing how he's been trying to grow up too fast and how he needs to keep believing he can make is dreams come true or he will wind up jaded and despondent and full of regrets (like his parents lmao). He definitely brings up the party and calls himself a paladin during this speech, you cannot change my mind

[clotpolesonly]

I feel you re: fandom exhaustion. Have you tried unfollowing/blocking people with takes you don’t like? I’ve found that fandom a much more relaxing place once I started not letting the stressful stuff cross my dash in the first place. Sometimes it meant unfollowing someone who posted a bunch of other stuff I actually liked, but if it meant not going into a comment-reading spiral every time they shared stuff I disagreed with, I thought it was totally worth it.

(even if they were only sharing something so they could rebut or disagree with it; like yeah I like that they’re on my side but if they’re going to keep dragging untagged takes I dislike or discourse onto my dash, I would still give them the block/unfollow because intentionally or not they were still causing me stress)

oh i've unfollowed LOTS of people. i've unfollowed enough people that i'm starting to run out of the content i want on my dash, cuz it's hard to find the good stuff without the bad and even blogs that i thought were innocuous occasionally end up slipping shit onto my dash. i've only actually blocked a handful of people (the ones that are Like That™ enough not to leave well enough alone), and i've also blacklisted those names so posts that have additions from them or even reference to them are no longer shown on my dash (though i do see "hidden for X", which often lets me know the person who reblogged it follows them, which is a red flag all on its own a lot of the time🙃)

and discord is its own mess. i get 95% of my social interaction from my discord fandom servers, and i love them to death, honestly i do, i've lived in those for YEARS and been happy to do so. but, again.......it all felt a lot less stressful in years past. it's the hazard of large servers that you're guaranteed to have conflicting opinions in there, and in most regards that's one of the things that i absolutely love about it. discussing things from various angles, getting different viewpoints, having actual conversations about the show(s) that i love are what make fandom worth it. but conflicting over the same things over and over again, seeing the same cold takes that i would usually just unfollow someone for on tumblr and not really being able to do anything about it or escape it (can't blacklist words/terms on discord like on tumblr, you just have to wholesale block individuals, which i can't really do because i moderate several servers and mods can't just ignore things 😅 in their servers), is turning out to be very grating nowadays in ways that it didn't used to be, even if it's only a fraction of the actual activity. even just the passive aggressive mention of some of these topics is enough to make me feel like shit for the rest of the day.

same with fic. i've hardly read any fanfiction at all in MONTHS, not because i don't love the characters anymore, but because there's no way to tell what take the author is gonna have or what fanon characterization they're gonna lean into, and getting halfway through a fic before being hit with That Stuff™ kinda makes me wanna cry by now. the subtle stuff never gets tagged for, but it sure as fuck can still ruin my week. it's safer to just not bother. and that SUCKS.

my anxiety has been SKY HIGH lately, and i can't tell if it's because i'm already super anxious for outside reasons and that's making the fandom stuff worse, or if the fandom reasons are making me super anxious on their own and making the outside stuff worse. it all feeds into each other and everything is just bad.

and there's not a whole lot that can be done about it besides, like. leaving. which i'm not gonna do. because i do love the show and i do love interacting with other fans of it and sharing ideas and jokes and spitballing story ideas. without all of that, what would i even do with myself??? as previously mentioned, this stuff is 95% of my social circle 😅 and i have nothing else to replace it with. unfortunately, TW still takes up the majority of my brain, and trying to cut that out would just make me isolated and even more miserable.

it just really really sucks that the fandom that used to feel like home.....doesn't anymore.