#i have an entire google doc full of notes for all of these characters. All Of Them

[bluecubeblues]

-throws metal pipe at za orb-

How dare you insult da helicopter.

★ PREV | FIRST | NEXT ★

[21pearls]

Sims 4 Tarot Legacy Challenge

Tarot Legacy Challenge

Google Doc Here

Hello everybody, and welcome to this absolutely massive 22 generation legacy challenge I came up with and figured I would share. This took so much time and heart to complete, so I hope you all enjoy it.

In real life, I love to collect tarot cards, so I thought that a tarot-based sims 4 challenge would be really cool. So off I went searching to see if it had been done before. I managed to find only a few instances of a similar challenge being done before, but I felt I wanted to give my own spin of it a go, and so I started writing my own. A full tarot deck has 78 cards, which is entirely too many generations, but following the 22-card journey through the Major Arcana seemed much more reasonable. Each card has such personality that building a unique gen for each was much more straightforward than I anticipated.

The order I followed was that of the traditional Rider Waite deck in the upright positions; the meanings and characterization I give for each card are based off interpretations from a few different tarot websites and from referencing my own collection and their guidebooks. Some cards have somewhat similar themes, so whilst some traits and skills may appear more than once because of this, I did my best to make every gen unique from one another in their own ways. I highly encourage you to research each card as you get to each gen to gain a better feel for their character and better understanding of the vibe each card presents. And hey, if you don’t feel my character interpretation is accurate to the card, feel free to change up the generation to a characterization that fits better for you! At the end of the day, tarot is all about personal interpretations and reflection, I see no reason a challenge based upon it can’t be the same.

(Please note that I designed most of this before Lovestruck was released, so it was not included in this challenge.)

Anyways, without further ado, I hope you enjoy my Tarot Legacy Challenge!

Ground Rules

-aging must be on, lifespan is up to you though

-cheats allowed to enhance the story if desired, but are not encouraged

-your heir may be whichever child best fits the next gen unless specified

-aspirations, skills, and career tracks should be completed before moving on unless specified

-I wrote each gen as the gender they appear on the traditional tarot cards, but you do not have to follow the genders that the tarot cards imply (ex. the Empress may be male or nonbinary, they do not have to be a female sim)

- I only designed certain generations to feature supernatural sims; these gens must be that supernatural type, but you are free to make any other gen supernatural. If you think being a supernatural makes sense for a specific gen, feel free to do so

The Major Arcana

The Major Arcana is the core of the tarot deck; it represents the major themes the soul goes through in the journey to enlightenment. The Major Arcana follows the journey of the Fool as they set out into the world. We follow them through all the ups and downs they experience across the Major Arcana until they finally reach the completion of their journey with the World.

0. The Fool

Beginnings, freedom, spontaneity, adventure, idealism, innocence

The Fool often represents the start of a new journey. He steps confidently into a wide-open world that he is ready to embrace. He is often optimistic, and almost childish in his idealism about life. The Fool may also represent the beginnings of a literal journey. Love with the Fool is passionate and exciting, but he sometimes lacks commitment in his eagerness to begin new adventures.

For as long as you can remember, you have always wanted to see what the world has to offer. Now that you have grown up, you are ready to set off on your adventure! Your family may see you as naïve, and people may judge you for never seeming to commit to anything for too long, but you love the thrill that trying new things and seeing new places gives you.

-have the childish, noncommittal, and adventurous traits

-complete at 2 levels each of the City Native, Beach Life, and Mt. Komorebi Sightseer aspiration.

-achieve maximum level 5 in at least 6 different skills, focusing on one at a time. You can achieve less than level 5 but should not go over level 5. These 6 skills should all be full skills, meaning they require a level 10 to max.

-do not commit to one career; every time you reach level 4 in a career, you must quit it and start a new one. If you take a part-time job, you must quit it after you have been in it for 3 in-game weeks. You may quit your jobs before these benchmarks are reached if you wish.

-you must visit each world (including vacation worlds) at least once over your lifetime. You do no have to commit much time to each world, visiting a lot once for a few hours in enough. You must also live in at least 4 different worlds.

-have multiple whirlwind romances, but never truly settle down long-term

-no limit on children, but your heir must be a spellcaster

I. The Magician

Resourcefulness, logic, influence, commitment, willpower, manifestation, skill

The Magician is a representation of willpower. He already possesses all the skills necessary to succeed and he knows it. He has the power to manifest the outcome that he desires. He is often a person of great ability and wisdom, and he does not hesitate to use his full potential. In love, the Magician is deeply committed and serious in his intentions.

Unlike your parent before you, you are committed to finishing what you start. As you grew older, you developed powers that none of your siblings seem to possess; as with all you do, you will not rest until you understand them. You commit yourself fully to understanding the mechanics of the world, and find great aptitude in designing the very things you long to understand.

-have the ambitious, genius, and overachiever traits

-master the logic, robotics, and charisma skills

-complete the nerd brain aspiration

-Reach the top of the mechanical engineering career

-You were born a spellcaster, and you commit fully to your magical studies as well as your human ones. Reach Virtuoso rank spellcasting and learn every spell and potion. You may also complete both spellcaster aspirations if desired.

-have one strongly committed relationship with a sim that shares at least one trait with you

-have one non-spellcaster child

II. The High Priestess

Mystery, spirituality, intuition, the unconscious

The High Priestess speaks of our inner voice. She listens well to her intuition and seems to hold knowledge of things mysterious to the average person. She may seem mysterious and sometimes otherworldly due to her calm exterior and innate knowledge of all things spiritual. The High Priestess may appear highly attractive to those around her; she values honesty in her relationships and is very passionate once you get past her calm surface.

You grew up surrounded by magic, and whilst you may not have any of your own, this made you a deeply spiritual person. You believe that there is magic everywhere and in everyone, it’s just not always so obvious. You understand the powers of the world so well that you turn readily to meditation and the soul world. You find peace in yourself, and you plan to help lost souls around you find theirs.

-loves outdoors, vegetarian, and good traits

-master the wellness, medium, and piano skills

-complete the Zen Guru aspiration

-earn your money through teaching yoga classes and guided meditations

-You find peace in the world around you, so you grow and maintain a flower garden throughout your lifetime with sections dedicated to each season. Befriend at least 3 ghosts.

-find and marry a sim with all “good” traits

-have at least 2 children

III. The Empress

Fertility, beauty, sensuality, nurturing, divine feminine, abundance, creativity

The Empress represents all things feminine. She carries beauty and joy with her wherever she goes and is often a highly creative person. She tends to be very caring and nurturing and is often a mother figure to those around her, if not an actual mother. She values her family highly and will do as much as she can to ensure their happiness. In love she is highly caring and leans towards stable and serious relationships.

Your parent before you found happiness in the spiritual, but for as long as you can remember the thing you wanted more than anything was a big and lively family of your own. You commit fully to your children and spouse, and they are the centre of your whole world. Aside from your family, you have a strong creative side, and a soft spot for all things pretty and girly. Your home finds itself overflowing with pretty things and the art you have created.

-romantic, creative, and family oriented

-complete the Super Parent aspiration, and then start the Big Happy Family aspiration

-max the parenting, cooking, and painting skills

-Sell your paintings to earn your money. Before you start having kids, you may also work in the barista career

-You love your family more than anything; have a strong relationship with your spouse and all your children. Have a dedicated family day at least once per week. Your family day does not have to be the same every week. Some examples can be a movie night, a day at the park or pool, a family activity, etc.

- you must stay in a happy and committed relationship with whoever you choose to marry for the rest of your life

-have a large family with at least 4 children

IV. The Emperor

Authority, practicality, stability, fatherhood, structure, discipline, leadership

The Emperor represents organization and control. He represents masculine energy and stands as a father figure to those around him. He values family highly but believes in a more disciplined approach of raising his children. He is decisive and clear in his goals, and often resides in a position of authority. The Emperor approaches his relationships logically, and he often looks for a traditional relationship. He is often well established and may be older when he fully commits.

You grew up in a big and loving family, and because of this you would love to have a big family of your own. You see yourself as a natural leader and feel you would easily be able to raise your children to follow in your footsteps. Your children sometimes say you are too strict, but everybody you’ve met respects and looks up to you as the great person you know you can be.

-perfectionist, neat, and loyal traits

-have the successful lineage aspiration

-master parenting, logic, and research and debate skills

-Master the politician career

-You are a loving but strict parent; all your children should have at least 2 positive character value traits upon age up

-Have a simple elopement with a YA sim whilst you are an adult. You should be the main breadwinner of your household

-Have a large family with at least 4 children

V. The Hierophant

Tradition, conformity, education, conventionality

The Hierophant represents embracing tradition. They like to stay within the bounds of what is known and prefer to conform rather than branch out. They are often extremely set in their ways and traditions. They also often fill a mentorship position to many people. The Hierophant often has a very traditional relationship, often choosing a partner who they view as safe and respectable to those around them.

Your parents raised you well, some may say a little too well. You live a very modest life, and you are happy for it. You pursue a respectable teaching career, marry an acceptable person, attend weekly services, practice a safe hobby, own a picture-perfect picket-fence home, and have the ideal 2.5 children. You may never do anything “exciting” in your life, but you are content.

-proper, bookworm, and squeamish traits

-complete Lord/Lady of the Knits aspiration

-master the education career professor branch

-master knitting and 1 other “traditional” hobby (cross stitch, cooking, fishing, etc.)

-You are a religious person. Dress up in your best clothing and attend religious ceremonies with your family on the same day every week, as well as on every holiday. Have a nice, sit-down family dinner on this day too (add a weekly holiday for this, and edit existing holidays to have this tradition)

- Marry your high school sweetheart. They must be someone socially acceptable that your parents approve of. Don’t woohoo or move in together until marriage. Stay together until death.

- have 3 children

VI. The Lovers

Love, unity, relationships, soulmates, romance, partnership, balance

The Lovers represents the ideal relationship. They have a deep trust and unity with one another, and therefore have a very deep and intense bond. The Lovers are true to themselves and each other; they do not allow society to decide for them what it is they should believe. In love they are deeply committed and are the perfect representation of soulmates; they may also have to make sacrifices if they wish to commit to the relationship.

Your parents always called you too fantastical when you didn’t grow out of it, but all you ever dreamed of was finding your own one true love. You spend your days designing flower arrangements and bouquets for weddings and anniversaries so other people can celebrate their love, until one day you meet a new coworker who fits into your life like a missing piece. Your parents don’t approve of them, but you have finally found your soulmate and you couldn’t be happier.

-romantic, generous, loyal

-complete the soulmate aspiration

-max charisma and singing skills

-master the floral designer career

-Love and romance are a big deal for you; have a weekly date night with your spouse

-you find your soulmate in one of your coworkers; you work well together in every aspect of life. Your parents should not approve of this relationship as your partner does not fit their conventional ideals, but you love them anyway.

-no limit on children

VII. The Chariot

Victory, ambition, willpower, strength, hard work, success, control

The Chariot represents victory due to determination and self-control. He is usually strong in body and will, and almost always emerges victorious in what he pursues. He is confident, focused, and bold, and this may sometimes come across as aggressive due to this. In love, he may be split; he needs to have a clear understanding of what he wants in life before he can choose the right path for himself.

Your parent always told you to chase your dreams no matter what anybody says, and you fully intend to. You want to be the strongest you can be, and nobody will stop you. Other than your occasional temper, you have very good self control which lends itself well to your military career. One day you decide to rescue a dog, and you quickly find great joy in training your pet up to peak performance alongside you so you can be an unstoppable team.

-ambitious, hot-headed, and active traits

-complete the Bodybuilder aspiration

-master the military officer career

-master the fitness, rock climbing, and pet training skills

-Once the gen starts, always have at least one large dog; You must dedicate time to fully training your dog, and even after completing their training you should still have them practice what they know each week. All dogs you have must be fully trained before you can adopt any more.

-be caught in a love triangle. Both options are very different people, and you are uncertain who to choose. Once you complete your aspiration, you know what it is you truly want out of life, and you may choose which sim to commit to.

-have 2 children

VIII. Strength

Courage, inner strength, compassion, self confidence, perseverance, bravery

Strength is representative of inner strength and mastering your emotions. She is compassionate and calm and shows great inner strength rather than external strength. She always has time for those she cares for and she is extremely patient, and often appears quite fearless. In love Strength is compassionate and empathetic; she may attract a partner with a wild side that she balances out.

Your parent was always a little hot-headed and valued strength above all else, but you don’t see it that way. You always thought true strength came from within. You intend to find your own inner power and find great joys in the little things in life. You give yourself freely to those around you and offer a level head to them when needed. You find yourself smitten with a person who turns out to be a little more “wild” than you thought, but you find your calm ways perfectly balance out their more aggressive tendencies.

-self assured, good, and cheerful traits

-complete the Inner Peace aspiration

-max the wellness, dancing, and violin skills

-write freelance books for money

-You always make time for those you care for; every time somebody calls to go out or come over, you should accept it. Complete the feather collection.

-marry a werewolf. Your partner should have the jealous trait. If they are a part of a pack, it should be the Wildfangs.

-no limit on children, but the heir must be a werewolf

IX. The Hermit

Introspection, withdrawal, solitude, self reflection, inner wisdom

The Hermit represents the search for the inner self. He spends much of his time in solitude in order to better look within himself and search for his inner voice. He works hard to discover who he truly is on the inside, and often appears wise and as a guiding figure to those around him. The Hermit needs time to decide what he truly wants from his relationships. Once he has taken the time to reflect upon himself and those he loves, the bonds he forms are very strong.

You never felt that you truly knew yourself, no matter how hard you tried. Your parent tried to help you as best they could, but they never could fully understand you. You never really connected with the wolf side of yourself, so you do everything in your power to find out what it is you really want to be. You join a local werewolf pack to better learn your wolf side, but as much as they respect you, you don’t feel you fit in and you prefer to spend your time alone with your insects and candles.

-loner, bookworm, genius

-complete the Werewolf Initiate, Emissary of the Collective (except for becoming alpha), and then the Cure Seeker aspirations

-as a teen, have your parent help you master wellness. Max cross stitch and fabrication skills

-you keep bees and craft candles with their wax. You earn your money by selling honey and candles at a weekly market.

-In an attempt to understand yourself and your condition better, you join the Moonwood Collective werewolf pack. You prefer your alone time but commit to them when needed. Your pack should respect and look up to you. Gain the rank of Beta in your pack before you cure yourself, but never take over as alpha. Complete and display the insect and Moonwood relics collections.

-Find your fated mate. They are fully ready to start a relationship with you, but you need time to find yourself. Once you have cured yourself, you finally commit to a relationship with them. They should also take the cure before you have your child.

-have one non-werewolf child

X. The Wheel of Fortune

Fate, change, luck, cycles, destiny

The Wheel of Fortune represents the ever-moving cycle of life, fate, and destiny. Life comes with both good days and bad days; both are necessary and cannot be avoided. The Wheel of Fortune is always turning, and life is always changing. Fate will come to pass whether you fight it or embrace it.

Your parent may have felt the need to change who they are, but you embrace what fate has in store for you. Every aspect of this gen is randomized.

-Randomize all your traits, your aspiration, 2-3 skills to max, and your career.  If your aspiration requires a specific career, you may choose to either reroll your aspiration to get one that does not require a specific career, or you may commit to the career your aspiration requires.

-roll from 1-8 to see how many children you should have. If you never get a solid partner, you may adopt or have science babies. Ensure whichever child you choose as heir is human.

-if you wish, use an online Sims 4 random events generator at least once per week for an extra layer to this gen

-every in-game week, roll 1-6 to see how your love life pans out

              1. If you are in a relationship, break it up

              2,4, or 6. No change in relationship this week

3. Start a new romantic relationship. If you are currently in a relationship, this means cheating on your partner (unless you have the loyal or good trait, in which case you break any current relationship before starting the new one).

5. Take your existing relationship to the next level. (boyfriend/girlfriend > engaged > married)

XI. Justice

Justice, karma, law, truth, honesty, integrity

Justice represents fair and equal judgement. She is someone who always carefully weighs her decisions and recognizes that the choices she makes will have long term consequences. She seeks out the truth above all things and pays no attention to any unfounded opinions others may hold. She is often a mediator, and whilst not everybody will love the stances that she takes, she is highly respected. Justice recognizes that relationships take work; she puts in effort and treats her partner fairly and expects fair treatment in return. She values honesty highly and will work find out the truths of her partner; she will always find out if she has been disrespected or betrayed.

You always felt much more grounded than your parent. They believed in the power of fate, but you believe in facts. You believe in facts and truth so much that you build a career out of judging what is true or not. You value those around you highly, and strongly believe that everyone deserves a chance at fairness and respect. Whilst not everyone agrees with your stances, you make yourself open to all and become a pillar of your community.

-proper, perfectionist, and loyal traits. as an elder gain the wise trait.

-complete the Neighbourhood Confidante aspiration

-max charisma, logic, and research and debate skills

-master the judge career

-be active in your community; always vote on NAPs, attempt to fix bad relationships your friends and neighbours may have, donate to charity, volunteer, and host neighbourhood get togethers regularly.

-find out everything you can about your partner before marrying them. You should know their traits, preferences, job, and you should have a decent relationship with all their immediate family members before you propose. (i.e. their parents, siblings, and any children). If your partner ever cheats on you, you will find out and must leave them.

-have two children (preferably twins); one has a more “proper” approach to life, and the other (the heir) is a bit more wild

XII. The Hanged Man

Waiting, sacrifice, uncertainty, lack of direction, confinement, perspective

The Hanged Man represents one who makes sacrifices for the good of progress. He is stuck in a place in life that he does not enjoy and even feels trapped in, but he sees this as a necessary sacrifice for his goals to be achieved. He puts his life on hold with no issues and waits patiently to pick it back up again, sometimes for a very long time, until he is certain the best results are inbound. The Hanged Man is patient when it comes to love. He recognizes that either he or his partner may not be ready for commitment and knows that sacrifice may be needed in order for his relationship to survive.

Your plan for life was never very traditional. You have a passion for the slopes and spending your nights having fun, and that’s enough for you. That is until a surprise pregnancy wrecks your life plans. You may not be anything like your parent, but they did raise you to always do the right thing, so you get married and quit your dream to support your new baby. You aren’t necessarily happy in your new life, but you love your child fiercely and will do anything for them.  If that means giving up your dreams until they can support themselves, then that is what you’ll do.

-Start out life with the cheerful, active, and bro traits. Every second promotion after you get married, change a trait until you have the gloomy, lazy, and squeamish traits. After you reach level 8 in your career and your child is a teen, you may change these all back.

-have the extreme sports enthusiast aspiration; complete max 2 levels of it before you stop pursuing it. Only finish your aspiration after you rekindle your passion.

-as a teen/YA master either skiing or snowboarding and dancing skills; once you get married stop practicing these skills; start practicing again once your child becomes a teen, and you have reached level 8 in your career.  You can try out multiple new hobbies over your lifetime, but only reach level 3 max in each before you decide its not for you.

-early YA make money through snowboarding videos or teaching ski classes (available at level 10 of each skill), and through completing odd jobs. After marriage, join the salaryperson career to support your family. You may quit your job and re-chase your passion after you find yourself again

-You have a wild youth; sneak out as a teen, slack off in school, etc.; as an adult throw parties or go to bars or clubs every night, have a lot of no-strings woohoo with many different sims, and generally have a good time. After marriage, fully commit your time to your job and raising your child; go all out for holidays and birthdays for your child but spare no time for anybody else in your life. After you find yourself again, you may rebuild a social life and throw weekly house parties again (albeit more mature ones now).

-whilst a YA, get pregnant/get another sim pregnant after a one-night stand. Marry them before the baby is born because you believe it is the right thing to do. You can be friends with them, but do not max your romance bar with your spouse (cheat this back down after marriage if needed). You do not realize how much you love your spouse until adulthood after your child becomes a teen and you reach level 8 in your career, wherein you can finally max your romance with them.

-Your first child is your heir. You may choose to have more children in late adulthood once you realize you truly love your spouse.

XIII. Death

Endings, change, transformation, letting go, transition

Death is representative of change, most often positive ones. Death tells us that the past must be left behind in order to embrace the future – no matter how hard letting go may be. Death tells us that sometimes our old self must die so our new, more true self, can be born.

You watched your parent wither away your whole childhood until they finally found their joy for life again, and you decided quickly that that would never be you. You intend to squeeze everything out of life for yourself that you possibly can with no care for how it hurts those around you. That is until you experience a brush with death, and completely change your views on what life means. Now you live your life (or what’s left of it) with a full focus on making both yourself and the world into the best that they possibly can be because life is too short, and the future should be cherished.

-Start your life with the mean, self-absorbed, and snob traits. Change to the green fiend, recycle disciple, and loves the outdoors traits after your “death.”

-as a teen/early YA have the party animal aspiration; after “death” complete Good Vampire aspiration

-max the gardening, vampire lore, and charisma skills

-master the Conservationist, Environmental Manager career

-as a teen/early YA, you are “attacked” by a vampire and turned. This “death” compels you to become the best person you can be for yourself and spurs a desire to help the world. Fully clean up Sulani. Make sure the neighbourhood you live in has a green eco-footprint. Support green-initiative NAPs. Become self-sufficient.

-as a teen/YA, have a “troublemaker” boyfriend/girlfriend. After your “death,” you must breakup as they no longer fit the life you want for yourself. You may choose to stay single, or find a partner who also has eco-centric values

-have one non-vampire child

XIV. Temperance

Balance, peace, inner calm, harmony, tranquility

Temperance represents balance and patience. They are a calm individual who does not let anything get to them, and one who avoids extremes in their day-to-day. They are a person who has found their own peace; they work well with their community and find great purpose in their life choices. In love, Temperance is patient and understanding; their partner may require these qualities in order to find true harmony in the relationship.

Your parent gave their all to fixing the world around them and trying to make it a better place. You’ll leave the fighting side to them, but you did inherit their love for all things green and living. You grow and provide food for your community and find a great purpose in doing so. It may be a simple life, but it’s yours and you find peace and happiness in it.

-loves the outdoors, animal enthusiast, and cheerful traits

-complete the Country Caretaker aspiration

-master gardening, handiness, and fishing skills

-live on a farm and sell the goods you’ve grown/produced at a local market for income

-Live in harmony with your land and community. Have a strong relationship with all your animals, and any wild ones that come into your land. Have a farm cat and farm dog. Have the simple living lot trait. Regularly participate in your community by running errands for people and competing in the Finchwick fair.

-marry your soulmate, who should have the hot-headed trait. They may be fiery, but you have great patience and always work things out with them in the end.

-have 3-4 children

XV. The Devil

Addiction, obsession, excess, dependency, powerlessness, temptation, vice, self-destruction

The Devil represents addiction. He is a being of indulgence, giving in to his urges for luxury and materialism. He finds himself addicted to all things pleasureful, including substances, material things, and lust fueled actions. He may feel powerless to fight these urges, and often has no control over his impulses. The Devil gives into lust and doesn’t always commit, which can harm his relationships if he does not learn to openly communicate with his partners.

Growing up your life was pretty plain. You never could find anything that really brought you happiness the way your parents found theirs. You start indulging your darker urges in an attempt to find some joy in life. These simple indulgences soon grow into a lifestyle. Eventually you start brewing you own drinks, and soon you find yourself mixed up in a bootlegging business. Turns out, you’re pretty good at it. You still aren’t passionate about anything in particular, but you find plenty of ways to make yourself happy, if only temporarily.

-materialistic, glutton, and kleptomaniac

-complete the Serial Romantic aspiration

-master the mixology, nectar making, and juice fizzing skills

-Master the criminal career, boss branch

-you have a drinking addiction and struggle to control your impulses. After you get into making drinks, your sim should drink a lot; drink at least 3 drinks per in-game day and get dazed from drinking at least once per week. Try to complete whims rather than decide for your sim what to do.

-Have multiple ongoing partners; you may get married and divorced as much as you’d like, but always have multiple partners even if you say you are monogamous

-no real limit on kids

XVI. The Tower

Chaos, upheaval, trauma, disaster, destruction, sudden change, catastrophe

The Tower represents sudden and major changes. The change the Tower brings is not always a bad thing, but it is often chaotic and scary as it happens. The Tower shakes who you are to the very core and completely breaks apart who you are. It sometimes heralds deeply traumatic events on the horizon.

You grew up and got immediately recruited into your parent’s bootlegging business, which was never really your speed. You wanted to cause mayhem, but apparently this was the best you could get. That is until one day on the job when you get caught. The people that caught you offer you a deal, work for them as a spy inside the family business and you won’t get thrown in jail. You do this grudgingly until one day, a chance to be the bringer of chaos you always wanted to be presents itself.

-erratic, non-committal, and paranoid. Take trait changes whenever they come up, but always keep the erratic trait.

-complete the Chief of Mischief aspiration, then randomly swap your aspiration very few days

-master mischief and programming skills

-Start out in the family crime business. Get recruited into the secret agent career. Master the secret agent, villain branch.

-you are the embodiment of chaos, and your life is therefore chaotic. Move homes multiple times; decide if you will be friendly or mean to everyone in your life with a daily coin flip; break into people’s homes to prank their appliances and make messes; hack into things; cause general mayhem.

-Every relationship you start must result in marriage; every marriage must end in divorce. Have at least 3 marriages.

-Have one pregnancy per marriage. Your heir must be human

XVII. The Star

Inspiration, rejuvenation, hope, positivity, healing, renewal, positivity

The Star represents renewal and hope. The Star has the courage to step away from the chaos of the Tower and is therefore able to heal from the damage it has caused. The Star holds great inner strength and is resilient and hopeful. She is very positive and calm, and she knows that everything will turn out okay. The Star has an optimism that draws people to them. When it comes to love, the Star may sometimes find that a person from her past will re-enter her life in a new, deeper way.

Your parent lived a life of mayhem and pain, and the relationship you had with your family was always toxic because of it. As soon as you are able, you completely cut off your family and start fresh. You build your own little family of friends and start healing yourself and find a passion for healing those around you too. You find ways to share your joy with those you care for and make your own happiness. That is until a face from your past comes back into your life, and completely changes your plans all over again.

-good, ambitious, and cheerful traits

-complete the Musical Genius aspiration

-master the guitar and baking skills

-master the doctor career

-completely cut off your family and any early life relationships when you become a YA. Take no money from your family and move into a cheap apartment to start out with. Join or start a club after you move out and have at least 3 strong friendships with the people in it. Regularly attend club gatherings. Play music for and share your baked goods with your friends and neighbours. Host holiday parties that you invite all your friends to.

-Have a childhood friend that you lose contact with when you cut off your family. Meet them again later in life but develop romantic feelings this time around. Get married to this sim.

-have 2-4 children

XVIII. The Moon

Illusion, intuition, secrets, complexity, the unconscious, anxiety

The Moon represents an illusion. The Moon calls you to trust your intuition to navigate the illusions that surround you. Secrets are being kept from you. Either it is your mind playing tricks on you, or the truth is being concealed from you, but the front you see is not real. You must put in the work to truly see the realities that surround you. Past experiences may cloud your judgement; try to fully understand those around you so as not to put your relationships in jeopardy.

You grew up happy and always thought the best of people, until someone that you loved deeply and trusted implicitly completely ripped out your heart and broke all faith you had in others. You became convinced that the world was out to get you; that those around you are hiding things from you that you have a right to know. All you want to do is discover the truth of what’s around you. You fell in love again, but you can’t bring yourself to have faith in them like you’d like to. They keep disappearing for “beach trips” which must be a cover for them cheating on you, right?

-paranoid, nosy, and socially awkward

-complete Strangerville Mystery or Seeker of Secrets aspiration

-master programming and photography skills

-master the detective career

-complete the space prints and seashell collections

-when young, have a partner who constantly cheats on you; find out and leave them. After this, marry a mermaid, but you are not aware of this, and they do not tell you; you are convinced they are cheating on you (all those visits to the ocean are suspicious), but you can never prove it. Find out the truth when one of your children grows a tail in front of you.

-have 2 children from your mermaid spouse. The heir must be a mermaid

XIX. The Sun

Happiness, optimism, vitality, joy, confidence, success, abundance

The Sun represents joy, success, and vitality. The Sun is strongly optimistic and happy, and this rubs off on those around them. People are drawn to the Sun, who is often able to share their success with the people around them. In all their relationships the Sun is happy and fulfilled, and this makes them a very attractive individual.

Your parent always hated it when people were keeping secrets, so you grew up always showing off your true self. As it turns out, people love you for this. You have a passion for acting, and your infectious attitude helps find fame in it quickly. The world seems to love your bright and open nature, and if letting people speak with you is all it takes to make their day, then you’ll speak to as many people as possible. Bringing the world joy is your pleasure.

-cheerful, outgoing, and self assured

-complete the Friend of the World aspiration

-master acting, singing, charisma, and comedy skills

-master the actor/actress career

-Reach 5-star celebrity status and have a pristine reputation. Be a source of light in the world; donate to charity, volunteer, host events, and always make time for fans. Earn a lot of money that you have no problem sharing. Do not hide your scales; you fully embrace your mermaid heritage and let the world know who you are.

-marry a sim with the cheerful trait

-have 3-4 kids. Your heir should be human

XX. Judgement

Awakening, renewal, self-evaluation, purpose, reflection, choice

Judgement represents the moment when we step back and evaluate our past and our actions. Judgement calls us to reflect upon the past to form an understanding of who we are and who we want to be. It is also about choices; what we do has a profound effect on our lives. Judgement tells us our choices have consequences, and what we have done will either pan out, or come back to haunt us.

Your parent always had plenty of friends and people skills that never really rubbed off on you. You found peace more in books and history than you ever did other people. You fall in love, get married and have a kid, but your spouse seems to have an issue with how you live your life and leaves you. For all your knowledge on the past, you just can’t seem to look properly at your own and see where you went wrong. Once you finally achieve your dreams, you are finally able to take a step back and see for yourself just where it is that you went wrong and decide to try to fix what you have broken.

-genius, book worm, and clumsy

-complete the Archeology Scholar aspiration

-max the archeology, writing, and parenting skills

-earn money through selling artifacts and archeology books

-you are always willing to learn. You should regularly sign up for skill classes at the university, and you should work to having a full library at home with at least one copy of every book available. Read books to raise your fun level. Collect all Omiscan artifacts and treasures.

-get married and have a child; you and your spouse must gain a negative relationship with one another due to you always being away for your job and divorce. After you have completed your aspiration and your child has become a teen, restart your relationship and get married again.

-have one child

XXI. The World

Completion, achievement, harmony, wholeness, fulfillment, celebration

The world represents completion and wholeness. The world recognizes it has travelled far; that the self is connected to all other things and plays an important role in the movements of life. The efforts you have put in have paid off and you can withstand any challenges. You have achieved all your goals, and this is worthy of celebration. You have completed the journey that the Fool once started, and the world is at your fingertips.

Your parent was a scholar, and they raised you on stories of the past and of the wide world around you. The places they took you growing up fascinated you, and you always wanted to see more. You long to explore what the world has to offer, so you set out as soon as you can on your own adventure. You take your time to experience all that life has to offer, finding fulfillment and joy in all that you do. You are the heir to a great legacy, and you are content in who you are and the choices you have made to get where you are today.

-Have the adventurous trait, and 2 other traits of your choice. Whatever feels most fulfilling to you

-Finally complete the Beach Life, City Native, and Mt. Komorebi Sightseer aspirations that the Fool started so long ago.

-Max the same 6 skills that the Fool never completed

-Choose whichever career you as a player most enjoy and find fulfillment from.

-you enjoy travelling and experiencing what the world has to offer, but you take your time in doing so. Visit each world at least once, but this time make an effort to spend time with the locals and spend at least a full day in each. Collect a souvenir from each world/an object that represents it as you visit and display it in your home.

-Your life will be fulfilling to you no matter what you decide. If you choose to stay single, get into a relationship, have kids or not, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do in life will bring you joy.

Congratulations! You have journeyed far and have experienced the ups and downs of what the Major Arcana has to offer. Thank you so much for reading.

 I hope you enjoyed my Tarot Legacy Challenge! <3

[klainelynch]

Hey friend! So I’ve been listening to a bunch of your Royai podfics lately and I just love them. Its the best way to get my fic fix while also being a productive adult lol. I’m blown away with how professional and polished your stuff is! You definitely could be recording full blown audiobooks, if you aren’t already! (And if you are, I’d love to know where to find those!)

I’m intrigued by your whole process: how you pick stories, record, edit, etc. Choosing when and where to use tone inflection, pacing, all that. You can fully nerd out if you feel like it! I’m so curious. ☺️❤️

Ahhhh what a wonderful message to find in my inbox!! 🥰🥰🥰 I'm so happy that my podfics have become something that you listen to in your daily routine! I don't record audiobooks or do this in any kind of a professional sense, but I do try to emulate what I love of different audiobooks/professional productions and other peoples' podfics, so your compliment means the world to me!

I started with a very stream-of-consciousness response and have tried to cohere it into something readable. You said I could fully nerd out, so here's over 2k of me taking you up on that xD

Choosing a fic:

I tend to gravitate towards fics that have more narration as opposed to dialogue. I love being in a character's head and fully living in their world and the way they experience it. When I am reading dialogue, I don't try to sound exactly like the voice actor (if it's from a tv show or movie) or adopt their accent, but I do try to embody the character in my voice, if that makes sense. If there are too many characters with dialogue, this gets difficult for me, which is why many of my solo podfics have two or fewer characters who speak, or why I create multivoice podfics with fellow podficcers.

In my podfic spreadsheet, there are several pages dedicated to fics that I'd like to record someday. Most of them are under 1k, though I do have a few that are around 3k (which would be on the longer side for me). I jot notes to remember what each fic is/what I would like to do with it—some examples of what those sound like with fics I haven't recorded yet: Zuko asks how Iroh survived when Lu Ten died because of Izumi feels; Al reflecting on Royai rebuilding Isvhal, no dialogue; Roy takes Riza out on a date (cover art would be a theatre program); good angsty Edwin moment after the boys come home (could have thunder in background); Ghost!Roy as Riza carried on, will need to build to this level of angst; Abbott Elementary book fair *chef's kiss*; Roy announces he’s engaged to some mystery woman but PSYCHE HE’S ALREADY MARRIED TO RIZA.

I used to have a pretty even split of recording fics with blanket permission versus asking authors for permission, but these days, I tend to be too lazy to ask lol. Not saying that I won't do it, but when the mood strikes me to record, I need to know pretty quickly if I can complete the project, and a bp statement really helps with that!

Prep work:

When I first began podficcing, I would put the entire fic into a google doc. This let me annotate the script for every little thing (highlighting dialogue, typing out phonetic pronunciations of difficult names/words, and putting spaces in between sections of text to help with breath control being the most common). The more I podficced, the less I had to annotate, until all I would do with my scripts was put in the spaces. I want my breath to be consistent/unnoticeable, so I read with that in mind. Often you can use the punctuation as your guide, but sometimes there are long stretches with no punctuation, and I have to figure out how a sentence should be cut up to make its meaning clear.

I didn't make these scripts for any of my solo podfics during Voiceteam this past May, and I still felt comfortable recording, so I think I may be past needing this tool for the most part. I just need to read through the fic a few times and look up any potential pronunciation issues right before I record.

Recording the podfic:

My early podfics were recorded with the microphone attached to my earbuds, and you can definitely hear it in the quality 🙈🙉 I did at least use a makeshift pop filter, so that helped with my plosives from the beginning.

After a few months, I got a blue snowball mic, which makes the quality so much clearer, and even more so once I got a computer that can run Audacity (more on why I love this program later).

I currently record in my closet, which is a long wide shape, so the doors don't close all the way when I'm inside of it. I shut them as best as I can to prevent outside noises, and I stand as I record. I used to sit at my desk with a soundproofing box around my mic, but I found it hard to get good breaths for long periods of time, so now I stand. The tradeoff is that I have to be wearing good shoes if I'm recording more than thirty-ish minutes (which could happen if the podfic is ultimately longer than twelve or so minutes because…)

My raw audio is usually at least twice as long as the final product. I often record several takes for lines, sometimes if I mess up, but usually if I don't think I captured the emotional quality that I can hear in my head when I read the line with my eyes. Sometimes it takes up to ten times for a line to feel right; other times, an early take ends up being the best one.

The previous point touches on how I handle putting inflection into my voice. The other part of it is thinking through how the speaker would say a particular word/phrase. If it's narration, I've emotionally been with that speaker for the entire fic, so I lean into that; if it's dialogue, it might be someone new, so I have to switch my brain. Either way, I have to (consciously or unconsciously) think through: 1. how would I personally say this? 2. how would the character say this? 3. how would the audience want to hear this? 4. how would the meaning be most effectively heard? Often there is overlap in these questions, but not always. If there's a conflict between these, I try to remember that my audience is probably just listening with their ears, not simultaneously reading with their eyes, so I need to prioritize their being able to understand what is happening and why. That's why I try to affect my voice in different ways and not literally mumble or shout, even if the fic has the character doing that.

Since you mentioned my Royai podfics, I will mention one way I distinguish their voices depending on who the narrator is. When Roy is the narrator, any of his dialogue is in my normal voice, and Riza's dialogue becomes slightly higher and slower; when Riza is the narrator, her dialogue is in my normal voice, and Roy's dialogue becomes slightly lower and faster.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to nail the first and especially the last line of a fic, so I will record a good number of takes for those. It's only happened once that I loved the first take I did of a final line. Sometimes I annoy myself at how many takes I record, but I'm thankful for the choices when I'm editing, so this is simply how I do things!

The hardest part of recording for me is keeping my voice quality consistent. I drink a lot of water throughout the day, but even so, I get dry mouth as I record, and once you're at that point, drinking more water doesn't really help. Tricks like chewing gum or brushing my teeth right before recording help me out.

Editing the podfic:

This has actually become my favorite part of the process! It feels like a puzzle and a treasure hunt, trying to find the best ways to pick out the best parts of my performance and turn it into a final product.

When I started podficcing, I had a chromebook, so the only audio editing software available was free online websites. I don't even remember the ones I used, but they did most of the things I wanted, and they let me get my foot in the door. The problem was that they were limited in tools, such as…

Noise reduction is my favorite feature of Audacity, which is the software I currently use. If you go back and listen to my podfics chronologically, you can clearly tell when I started using it because the general crackle in the background disappears. I have no plans to delete old pods, but it is as painful for me to listen to them for this reason as it is to reread fics I wrote in high school lol

The first round of edits is picking out the best takes for each line. Sometimes that means listening to several takes over and over before I choose my favorite; occasionally, I splice together the first half of one take and the second half of another. I'm very proud when I can do this with a single word and you can't tell the difference at all. I laugh when it sounds like I've done this with a word, but actually I just read it weird and I have no other take to substitute it with xD

Something else I do in the first edits is take out excessive space between sentences and paragraphs. I basically reset my breath/voice after every segment (could be a sentence or part of a sentence) so there's always extra space. I tend to edit down to one to two seconds between sentences, two to three seconds between paragraphs, and four to five seconds between entire sections of a fic. Of course, there are always exceptions (a character feeling very emotional, especially angry or excited, will have faster sentences; dialogue is formatted in paragraphs but it is inflection rather than time that indicates to the audience that a new paragraph/speaker has begun; an emotional line might require more space to let the audience process it).

Once I have all of the words edited together, I will do a second round of edits for tightening up the pacing. I listen to the edit without looking at the text, keeping my hands busy with a video game or coloring. As I'm listening, if something feels too fast or too slow, I'll make edits in real time, back it up, and listen again. The reason I can't read and listen during this pass is because my eyes are expecting too much and I can't properly hear what the audience will hear. When I began podficcing, I thought I had enough space in between words and sentences, but when I would listen back, I realized that I had cut too much out and the podfic's speed was faster than I liked. Now I leave more space in during the first edit and do this pacing pass.

Once I'm happy with the narration, I save it as a narration only file. I love adding in music and effects when I can, but I'm sure there are some who would rather only listen to the narration, so I make this available for accessibility and preference reasons.

I will usually make a final version with music and/or sound effects. This is one area where I'm specifically trying to emulate professional audiobooks and how they use music under the opening credits before fading out as the story begins.

Finding music is its own kind of scavenger hunt. I prefer to use public domain or creative commons music because it feels more true to the collaborative/transformative spirit that podfics have for me, and the idea of a podfic being taken down for copyright reasons does make me nervous. ccmixter and Purple Planet have a lot of songs that I've used in the past. The former has literally thousands of songs, which can overwhelm me if I'm working on a deadline, so I will sometimes just listen to random tracks and download anything that might be helpful in the future. That being said, if a fic uses a song lyric as a title or the author mentions a song as inspiration, I will try to use that song as the music if possible. I'm especially proud of how I used "Wait for It" at the end of An Endless Uphill Climb.

I use sound effects far less frequently than music, but they are fun when there is a natural place for them. I love the Star Wars audiobooks, and they often use sound effects and music in a way that heightens the emotions in the listener. That is always my guiding star, though I will admit to sometimes using effects just because they make me happy!

Cover art:

Like music/sound effects, this part is totally optional, but I usually do it because I have a lot of fun with it! I make everything in Canva, and again, I try to use public domain or creative commons images. Openverse is my go-to search engine because they make it really easy to tell which images I'm allowed to use in what ways. Sometimes I have a vision and try to find images to match; other times I have no idea and just see what I can find, or I can't find what I had in mind and have to switch gears.

Random facts that I couldn't find a spot for:

I learned how to read for an audience by being a lector at mass (reading either something from the Old Testament or something from the New Testament, other than the Gospels) in a church with lots of marble, which explains why I read on the slow side. Had to leave room for the echo before I started speaking the next line!

I've actually found that my own fic writing became easier to read aloud once I started podficcing. That doesn't make it better or worse—there are beautiful passages in literature/fic that are easier to read with the eyes than with the ears. But it is definitely a thing.

.

Thank you again for sending this ask! I hope this peek behind the curtain was interesting to you, even if it was probably far more than you were asking for xD And another thank you for listening to my podfics—it really does mean so much to me that something I've made can brighten up your day 💖

[positivelybeastly]

Do you think you can explain in explicit detail why Percy's version of beast doesn't work?

All right, so, hopefully you can forgive me for taking a bit of time to come to this ask, because it's quite the subject matter, and it's one I take very seriously. I want you to have a good answer or no answer at all.

In order to explain why Percy's Beast doesn't work, we first need to establish a continuity for Beast, and why and how he works.

Which is why it's a good thing I have a 14 page Google Doc that goes into detail about all of this, which I'm going to drag and drop here:

Beast in the Krakoan era is a fascist mutant supremacist, who believes that the ends justify the means; he's cold-hearted, cruel, endlessly self-justifying, unfunny, shortsighted, and overall, a bastard. He is without nuance - and it's not just me saying that, that's both the writer and the characters saying that. He has, apparently, always been evil, and all it took was power for his true self to come out.

This does not jive with any of his characterisation prior to this point. Don't believe me? Let's deep dive.

Hank McCoy was born in Dunfee, Illinois to two very normal human parents. His mutation was apparent from the moment he was born, due to his father taking an enormous dose of radiation after an accident at the nuclear power plant he worked at, and while it would occasionally raise an eyebrow, he was able to hide what he was for the first 15-17 years of his life (Marvel ages are vague, but Hank is usually portrayed as the oldest of the O5, so we'll just say he was 17). He was recruited for the X-Men by Charles Xavier after his parents were taken hostage by a Z-list supervillain called the Conquistador, who wanted Hank to steal components from his father's place of work.

I should note that already, pre-X-Men, Hank did not believe in giving obvious supervillains nuclear power plant components, and gave the Conquistador a box full of flashbangs that disoriented him and his goons before defeating them in a fight. He did the right thing, at potential great personal cost to him and his parents, whom he loves very much.

Xavier then proceeded to step in, and, depending on the continuity, wiped the minds of everyone Hank had ever loved of the memory of him, so as to keep him 'safe,' or wiped the mind of Hank's first love, a girl called Jennifer Nyles, who is consistently depicted as being the woman who encouraged Hank to step out of his shell and do something with his obvious natural physical and intellectual gifts. Either way, this quite irritated Hank, and mere hours after he had put on his X-Men uniform, he was already about to fight the Professor over an egregious breach of mental privacy and security. But because he believed in what the Professor espoused, he let it slide.

It's worth noting that this mindwipe was seemingly undone later, because there are comics released both before and after Mike Carey's Origins issue that depict Hank having a deeply loving relationship with his parents. This will be important for later.

Now, a lot of people love to point to Uncanny X-Men #8 as the first evidence that Hank has always been a supervillain in disguise, and while I think it's a little egregious to point to any issue of any 60s comic book and say that anyone acts in a way that is sensible, moral, or decent, it's worth noting that the act in question, dialling up Unus the Untouchable's powers to a point where he can't control them, is in direct response to Unus attempting to defeat/kill the rest of the X-Men, or at the very least, hand them over to Magneto (who, let's not forget, in the 60s was a homicidal maniac happy to nuke entire countries). Is the response of threatening Unus with a slow death by starvation disproportionate? Yeah, it is.

Scott and the rest of the X-Men seem completely fine with it.

So, now you have to ask yourself - do we accept the morality of the time, and assume that Hank was basically justified to do what he did, to save his team and stop a dangerous mutant, or do we judge him for acting like a supervillain would, and thus everyone else on the team is fine with it? Iunno. That's a personal judgement. It's 60s X-Men, it's shit. I basically hardly regard it as canon, and given that any time anyone comes on to the Reddit board looking to start X-Men gets waved away from starting there, it clearly isn't regarded as very well written, is it? Maybe we regard it as a point for him to grow past? After all the very next issue, Cyclops starts a fight with the Avengers over jack fuck nothing, just because Professor Xavier told him to, and he clearly outgrew that.

All right, so let's speed forward a little bit. Hank's been an X-Man for around 3 years when he gets a job with the Brand Corporation, a scientific research company in Long Island. People love to bring up the fact that it's a subsidiary of Roxxon, who are notoriously evil, or that it has its own nefarious plans going on, but we don't judge people who work at Cat Chow for the fact that Nestle is fucking evil, do we? Hank didn't know. He was a 20 year old scientist with budding aspirations of helping the world in ways he couldn't with the X-Men. So, what was he researching?

Now, this is where we get into a bit of a sticky wicket, because this has been retconned to hell, but in the original version of events, set in the early 1970s, Hank is working as a scientist at Brand when he finds out that the Secret Empire want to steal his research into genetic mutation. Understandable thing for him to want to research, given his father's accident and his own obvious mutation, and an understandable thing for the Empire to want to steal, especially given what his research had resulted in.

In the process of Hank's research, he manages to isolate the chemical/hormonal extract that causes mutation - naturally occurring, it's also the basis for MGH, or Mutant Growth Hormone, which later becomes used by humans all around the world to obtain temporary mutant powers. But this can't be attributed to Hank, especially since he goes to great efforts to destroy all of his research, rather than let it fall into the hands of spies.

Now, this is the point that everyone likes to point to as the moment that Hank reveals his true colours, as a true mad scientist, a Jekyll hiding a Hyde - except that even just hours after his mutation, even in the midst of a rage at his own stupidity, Hank attacks Professor Maddicks, one of the Empire spies, and tries to kill him. He has him dead to rights, he's strangling him, it would be easy.

He stops. He can't bring himself to do it.

It's worth noting that Hank already starts to show signs of a marked personality change here. Gone is the long winded, stuffy, Superman curled Beast of the 60s - now we have the grey furred Beast of the 70s, soon to turn blue due to the limitations of comic book printing. He cuts himself off from the X-Men, starts to fall into depressive slumps and fits of mania, which is a personality pattern he falls into regularly, leading to a lot of people, including myself and Grant Morrison, to consider Hank bipolar. Obviously, here, it's exacerbated by his mutation and his extreme circumstances, but it's something he comes back to, again and again. It also explains why he decides to attack Iron Man, also investigating Brand, and nearly kills him.

It's also worth noting that this is the first appearance of the Beast - not just Hank's codename, his mutation has now given him an animal bloodlust that he struggles to keep control of, not unlike Wolverine. This is something to keep in mind because it helps frame Hank's self-hatred, which is often brought up but not really examined as a character trait, and especially later on, it becomes clear that Hank hates himself for a good number of reasons.

For one, he makes dumb, impulsive decisions, usually with the best of intentions, and he chews himself out for one he made already, turning himself into a furry monster. For another, he hates the part of himself that wants to hurt people. To call forward many, many years into the future, Hank doesn't believe in the law of the jungle. He believes in art, and literature, and music. He believes in humanity. He desperately wants to maintain his own, and he hates his mutation because it literally makes him less human every time, it makes his impulses harder to control, it makes him dangerous - and oh, it does make him dangerous.

And here's the thing. Beast nearly kills Iron Man (or at least, he thinks he has, Mastermind is in play), and the moment he realises what he's done, he screams in anguish and runs away, hating himself. "Humans can't catch me there." He believes himself to be less than human - not because he's a mutant, but because he regressed to animal behaviour and thinks he's killed someone. What a monster, right? What a villain!

"During that fight, I saw his face up close - and got a hint of what's behind it. I saw a soul in torment - and I can't play God with that."

All right, so now we have to take a sideways trip, and go to X-Men Unlimited vol 2 #10, which depicts Hank going home to his parents right after he turned grey. It's honestly a kind of hard read, because if the Beast's rampage was his mania ramped up to eleven, this is his depression ramped up to twelve. He staggers through the streets like a ghost, unwilling to let anyone see what he looks like. "I could have been someone, Jennifer. A lonely high school kid with big, big fears and big, big dreams, I could have done something really wonderful. I could have become anyone, done almost anything. But now, Jennifer, now just look at me."

The story is called Ghost in the Graveyard, and it's aptly named because this is the moment Hank grows into who he's truly meant to be. His ego, which drove him to consume his research and nearly kill, is dead. He believes he is worthless, he believes he's fit only to flit between the waking moments of the living when they aren't looking. "What would you think of me if I was to tell you how terrified I am of everything right now, Jennifer?"

He saves his hometown, incidentally. Even while sleeping for days, depressed, barely eating, he still has enough curious spirit and intelligence to work out that the radiation coming from the bodies of people who worked in the same plant as his father has contaminated the water table, the soil, even the townsfolk. Jennifer tells him they should go to the newspapers, and he tells her he can't. He can't bear to. He can't bear to be seen. He reveals his appearance to her, and she tries to kiss him softly on the forehead, but he still can't bear it. He runs.

"Perhaps, then, a ghost is nothing more than a memory. A memory of who we once were, before we become what we must."

And this is the moment that Hank McCoy decides to run back to New York and join the Avengers.

Out of a moment of sheer despair, out of a moment of shame and guilt, out of a moment of self-hatred so deep he can barely get out of bed, he grasps onto hope, and the desire to do good, and he does it. He goes to New York, and he decides he's going to be a good man. And he is. He's a very good man.

He saves the Avengers from the Stranger at his team tryout. He becomes a master of disguise so adept he passes himself off as the President of the United States and gives a speech that makes the Squadron Supreme question their own spurious morality. He saves Henry Pym's life from a super-microbe. He's almost singlehandedly the reason that Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat, a storied superhero in her own right. He's the one who reaches out to Simon Williams, Wonder Man, former villain, and becomes his best friend in the whole world. He becomes the third mutant Avenger (technically first, depending on Wanda and Pietro's current genetic status), and the first X-Man to cross over. He becomes one of the most popular, celebrated, and beloved mutants on the planet.

Yet, he still cares enough for his friends that the moment the X-Men need him, even though they don't think to call him, he puts it all at risk. He catches the Hellfire Club's police call during the middle of the Dark Phoenix Saga, wipes the tapes, and abandons his post as a prestigious Avenger, a position Cyclops says he loves . . . to be with his original team. He's integral to them standing a chance against her, fashioning the diadem that immobilises Jean and gives Cyclops and Xavier the chance to shut away the Dark Phoenix for a short time - enough that Jean, or the Phoenix, or whatever is walking around in that story, can put together a plan to deal with herself.

He gets zapped to an alien spaceship, and the first damn thing he does is make a Wizard of Oz joke, then he calls Lilandra out for lack of due process.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Hank becomes one of the most popular heroes in-universe, instantly recognisable and on first name terms with almost every hero. He goes through his hardships. His own mother struggles with his mutation, calling him a freak in a moment of despair, only to realise that no matter what he looks like, he's still her boy - still the man who throws himself in the direct path of Professor Power's attack to save a child.

One of my favourites is Avengers 209. Hank's girlfriend is poisoned by a Skrull, and he's forced to go back in time and fetch the two halves of the Resurrection Stone back to save her. One of the pieces is in the hands of a concentration camp prisoner in 1945, who keeps using it to try and hold on to his dead family, and Hank breaks down into sobbing tears as he begs in Yiddish for the man to please let go and be at peace. His heart breaks for a man he's never met because his pain is so mighty and so vast and it's so damned unfair.

But even when he has the Resurrection Stone in his hands, and he can use it to save Vera, he destroys it instead, rather than give it to the Skrull and risk the power being in any one man's hand. He puts his own wants and desires to the side, and hopes that another man smarter than him can save Vera, who's put in suspended animation and later saved by Daimon Hellstrom. Hank joins the Defenders at around this point, and goes through quite a bit, including quite the humbling as he realizes that he may be cock of the walk, but he's not yet a leader - or maybe never a leader.

One of the accusations I've seen aimed at Hank is that he resents Cyclops for being made leader of the X-Men, and I honestly don't see where this comes from, but it's not something I think has any truth to it. Hank almost actively avoids leadership where he can, because he knows he can't make hard decisions like who to leave behind, who to let die, who to hurt. Indeed, the one time we see him lead the X-Men, it's in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, where the strain of it causes him to break down and turn to Kick just to keep going. X-Club, a team of his creation, is barely in its infancy before he leaves, and it's pretty clear that Beast just . . . doesn't, care, about being a leader. He knows he's not good at it. He knows he can't inspire like Captain America. He knows he can't strategise like Cyclops. He knows that.

It's also at this point that Hank is called out in public for not doing enough for mutants, coasting on his celebrity and acting the clown - and he takes on the criticism. He becomes more politically active, forming an advocacy group. As we learn later on in Secret Avengers, he also becomes fast friends with a secret mutant politician by the name of Leonard Gary, and he's present at multiple meetings of Congress where Lenny blocks Senator Kelly's anti-mutant legislation. Way later on, he helps Lenny push through workers rights laws during Fear Itself, and makes sure that he can give a speech inspiring the nation at a time when they needed it most.

Now we move on to X-Factor, where Hank has his ups and downs, but it's significant that it starts with him being publicly discriminated against by no less than 15 universities for his visible mutation. His response? To call them a bunch of racists, strip off his clothes, and tell them to go hang. He doesn't descend into self-pity, he gets angry and embarrasses them the only way he knows how. But it's interesting, because Hank starts the series wanting to teach, and in a way, he gets to do precisely that. Enter young mutants Fire Fist, Boom Boom, Skids, Wiz Kid, Artie Maddicks, Leech, and Rictor.

Rictor is the kid that Hank becomes closest to. He teaches him to read, encourages him in learning how to use his powers, plays with him - when his intelligence is reduced by a quirk of mutation, he's still aware and good enough that he attacks someone scaring Julio. He fucks up a ton in this series, especially with Boom Boom, with him and Iceman being downright dicks to her, and there's no real excuse for it - but it's kind of important that Hank wants to learn to teach, and he has to learn. He's not immediately good at it. He softens. He gets better. In fact, in an alternate universe not dissimilar to 616, Forge remarks that no-one was quite as patient and as good a teacher as Hank.

Then we come to the 90s, where Hank is faced with his biggest challenge yet - the Legacy Virus - and his biggest moral failing yet - Threnody. Now, this is where I kinda have to call out the Cerebrocast, because there's this narrative that Hank is an Avenger narc who will sell mutants down the river at the drop of a hat, and I'm fairly certain it stems from the moment when Hank surrenders Threnody over to Sinister.

It's not a great look, tbh. I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't touch Sinister with a thirty foot barge pole. I certainly wouldn't leave a vulnerable woman with him. But Sinister is an excellent manipulator, and he plays Hank like a fiddle here. He points out that Hank won't cross certain moral and ethical boundaries. "Admitting it, and despising the choice are the first steps toward changing the indecision that has ruled Xavier's roost of late." Sinister is very canny about playing Hank's fear of inferiority, of not being good enough to save everyone, of not living up to his potential, against him. It's also worth noting that Rogue and Iceman don't seem to disagree with Hank's decision, and while I believe he's acting as field leader here, these are not people who would let something like an 'order' stop them from doing what they feel is right.

It kills Hank to do this. He feels dirty, unwashed, like a piece of shit on humanity's shoe, for doing this. He risks Infectia's - or rather, Josephine's - powers infecting all of them with the Legacy Virus she's dying of, because he needs to do something human, something good, something compassionate, or else all he's left with is the bad. "Henry McCoy holds her, tears flowing freely, not just for the loss of another life, but for what Infectia's death has meant to him. For in granting her last wish, Hank contradicted the scientist in himself for the sake of the man."

What a villain, right?

It's also worth noting that we see Threnody again, in X-Men #34. She's lucid, in control of her powers, vibrant. "Threnody, dear lass! I am both pleased, relieved, and - I must confess - a bit surprised to see you so lucid? No offence meant, of course." "And none taken, Dr. McCoy. When we first met, I was rather a headcase, wasn't it? I want you to know, Doctor, that going with Sinister was the best thing that could have happened to me."

Hmmmmm.

"I've thought about you and worried quite a bit over the decision we made to allow Sinister to take you with him. Seeing you here and doing so well, rather uplifts my spirits - but it beggars the question, why do you stay?" "Dr. McCoy. You're sweet. But isn't this a better life than the one I had?"

HMMMMMMMM.

"Thren, I'm concerned about you. You seem to be playing a very dangerous game here. I cannot in good conscience allow you to stay here and play in this danger zone any longer." "You have no choice, Hank. There's knowledge and glory [here] . . . and I want that, too."

HMMMMM???

All right, whatever, let's keep it moving, on to the point where Hank undergoes his most drastic change yet.

It's the year 2001. Hank is on the X-Treme X-Men team, and they're searching for Destiny's diaries foretelling the future. Putting himself in harm's way to try and save Psylocke's life, telling her to go on and leave him, he's forced to watch as Vargas kills her - and poses her on top of his own fatally wounded body for the rest of the team to find. Barely hanging on to life, he sits in a Spanish hospital room, until Sage decides to take matters into her own hands.

"But despite your appearance and the name they call you I will assume you are a man and not a beast . . . and that you have a soul - !"

"He has a soul, padre. Bright and shining as the stars."

She jumpstarts the next evolution of Hank McCoy, and he becomes feline. He loses a finger on each hand. His animal instincts explode into the forefront of his brain. His hormones are blazing. His brain is on fire. He's doing the best he can to cope, but it's - hard. Yet he still finds it within himself to be there for others first of all. He mentors Beak, serving as an example of a physical mutant who's made something of himself. He tries to counsel Scott and Jean through their ailing marriage. He reaches out to Emma, and they become fast friends. Meanwhile, Genosha burns, students are killed, and Cassandra Nova rips him to pieces and picks on those fears of devolution that have been skirting in the back of his mind for decades, bringing them right back to the front of his mind.

"Remember when you looked almost human in the mirror? Then it started. The fall from man to ape, from ape to feline. Poor ugly Henry McCoy. There's no place for you in ANY mutant future. You're a devolver! Zoo animal. Stumbling backwards down the tree of life."

This, coupled with Trish Tilby's decision to break up with him over allegations of bestiality from her coworkers, shatters his psyche, and he arguably never recovers until his body changes again in All-New X-Men. He covers up his body almost all of the time, he overdresses in human clothes and uniforms that are a stark contrast to his old X-shorts, he becomes more verbose, more mature, more bipolar, more depressed, more lonely. And yet, even through all of this, with the help of his friends, especially Jean Grey, he starts to recover. He starts to become more like his old self.

In Astonishing X-Men, he even starts to show a bit more skin and fur as time goes on and he gets further away from Cassandra Nova's attack. And then it gets worse. The mutant cure. "I used to have fingers, a mouth you could kiss." Cassandra Nova, living on in his friend Emma Frost's guilt, attacks him again, and pushes him further, causing him to feast on human flesh and nearly kill students. Pushing him further down the tree of life. And not only that, but he has to come face to face with the ghost of one of his greatest failures, that should have been his greatest success.

Roll it back to 2001. Just before the whole X-Treme X-Men thing, Hank manages to piece together a Legacy Virus cure, using fragments of his own research and Moira MacTaggert's - but he immediately regards it as a failure, not because it doesn't work, but because it would require a mutant to metabolise it and kill themselves in order for it to be released into the atmosphere. Hank regards the cost of one life to be too high, and locks the cure away - but not securely enough that Colossus can't get at it and use it anyway.

Colossus dies because of Hank, and it kills him inside. When he matches the mutant cure sample to Piotr's DNA sample, it mortifies him. It shames him. It deadens him. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Even while Scott and Emma are faffing around with relationship problems, Hank is quietly wallowing because this is his fault. He killed Piotr.

Well, he didn't. But he might as well have, right? He put the 'gun' in his hand.

But then we get to Abigail Brand, and man is this dynamic just Hank as hell. She's a government fist in green haired body suited form that doesn't care about your feelings, he's a blue furred idealist who constantly blames himself for everything and can do nothing but feel. They connect. Not because they're both awful people . . . but because they see in each other something that they like. For Hank, it's something base - she finds him sexually attractive, not in spite of but because of his mutation, and honestly, at this point? Being fetishised sounds kind of nice to Hank. For her?

She wants someone to keep her honest. Someone who will question her decisions. Someone who does nothing but question her decisions, in fact, because she fucked up, and she needs someone to call her out on her bullshit. Hm. Almost sounds like there's a human being behind those green shades.

More on this later.

Because we've started to reach the point where I'm told Hank's descent into villainy has started, and quite frankly, I'm not seeing it. He got sadder? He got more lonely (yes, the cat story happened, it's tragic and embarrassing, move on)? But villainous? "I always saw him as vulnerable," said Grant Morrison. "The thing about Hank McCoy is that he was always presented as the loquacious, happy-go-lucky character and then he became a little darker when [he turned into] the furry Beast, but then he became happy again in Avengers. Basically, I'm looking at this bipolar kid. It's not so much that he's a villain; he just falls into bad situations and that makes him more human."

If people mean Here Comes Tomorrow, then I invite you to read that story again and remember that Hank is only really present in maybe eight panels of that story. The rest of the time it's Sublime piloting his body, and Hank has nothing to do with it. You might as well blame anyone ever possessed by Malice for what they did while under her influence.

But anyway.

The Decimation.

What a time for mutant kind. 198 mutants left, and falling. And everyone is looking to Hank McCoy for answers. He'll do almost anything to get them . . . right? In comes Endangered Species by Mike Carey, wherein Hank scours the corners of the Earth and gets his hands dirty trying to find a way to kickstart the mutant race again. He consorts with villains, he exhumed corpses, he nearly kills a drug dealer who wants fresh MGH from him and Bishop's bodies. He's on very thin ice, and in danger of cracking. He is, quite literally, facing his darkest impulses.

Enter Dark Beast.

Now, Dark Beast has been a thing since the mid-90s, and honestly, I kind of love the guy because he's so incredibly and over the top evil - but I also kind of hate him because his very existence seems to make people think that Hank always had evil inside of him, that he was just born that way. How very Graydon Creed, to believe that evil is something people are born to be rather than something that people do or become. The truth is that Dark Beast was born into a world completely different from Hank's, and while we don't know the exact divergence point for him, X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #10 provides us with some clues - namely, that he never knew his parents.

Hank's incredibly loving, incredibly guilty, incredibly proud parents.

The parents that Dark Beast, violent psychopath, mutant supremacist, literal killer of children and Age of Apocalypse's own Dr. Mengele . . . couldn't bring himself to kill, because they loved Hank McCoy so much, and on some level, Dark Beast recognised that. Felt afraid of it. Felt weakened by it. Felt infuriated by it. Had to kill a random passerby just to feel more like himself. Because they were just so damned good, and maybe if he'd had parents like that, maybe?

It's also worth noting that Dark Beast, both here in the 90s, and later in Endangered Species (2008), points out that Hank isn't him. "I told you when we started on this that we'd have to think the unthinkable, Henry. I knew you'd let me down. But I didn't think you'd reach your limits this quickly. [...] You're fighting for the future of your species. Did that slip your mind? It's the only fight that matters, Henry. It's the war in which nature enlists every last one of us. And you're a deserter."

Hmmm.

Where have I heard that before.

So, Hank gives up. He stops searching for a cure, because one doesn't exist - or if it does, it requires a moral sacrifice that he isn't capable of. He disappoints mutant kind, and it won't be the last time. He fails to find answers in 1906 San Francisco, he fails to keep the faith at Utopia, he fails to stop things from escalating at a demonstration and ends up captured by Osborn - and Dark Beast. What a pathetic sack of crap, right? How dare he fail. He should be more like Cyclops.

"We make the choice for ourselves. And we have to live with the consequences afterwards."

"I'll live with it."

"I said we. I need to live with it."

Hmm.

"Sometimes in war you have to do things that you hate. Things you can't even bear to think about. This is one of those times. [...] I'm not making that choice for any of you. If you have any doubts about what we're about to do, stand out of the line. No one will blame you or question you. Ever."

Hmmmmm.

"All's well that ends well, Scott?"

"Looks that way from here. Why? Something on your mind?"

"Something, yes. The fact that you decided to use the Legacy Virus before you asked me if I had a working antidote."

"Your conscience is one of the things I value about you, Hank. Really. Never stop challenging me on that."

HMMMMMMMM.

#CyclopsWasRight?

But whatever, let's keep moving on. Utopia's X-Force happens. It's bloody. It's messy. It's grim. Hank doesn't approve. Scott tries to keep him on side, but it's not easy. Eventually, it reaches a boiling point. Hank decides he can't stay anymore, because he's not effective in his current capacity. Scott doesn't need him anymore, he needs more guns and soldiers and mutants, and Hank can't make those anymore. He deserts. What a piece of shit, caring about morals at a time like this. What a traitor. Oh, it's also worth noting that before he died, Kurt found out about X-Force, and was on the verge of quitting the X-Men, just like Hank. Just a sidenote, by the way.

Now, I believe in fairness, and I don't believe in whitewashing Hank's actions, especially when he wouldn't want me to, so it's only fair to bring up the Ghost Box laser strike and the Secret Avenger nuclear bomb that Hank constructs. Clear examples of the slow erosion of his moral fibre on his way to becoming a villain.

Or he feels massively guilty, sickened, and disgusted about what he had to do, while both times, the leader that he tries his best to believe in and follow tells him not to lose sleep over it. Except, Hank does. Because that is the kind of character Hank is.

Hank McCoy is a "superheroic overcompensating altruist [...] perfectly nice people who think the universe is full of perfectly nice people." Hank McCoy is Scott Summers' "biggest brain and [his] oldest friend. Moment comes you have to take action, I'll never question it." Hank McCoy is "the most hard working, brilliant and heroic [person] I know." Hank McCoy is "a name well known in the great game of worlds. Others yous have done this before [...] simply evacuate this world, and then destroy it completely," rather than risk the destruction of two. Hank McCoy is "no killer [...] and no force, however great, could make you kill."

Hank is the man who reaches out to villains, and tries to help them. He did it with Wonder Man. He did it with Emma Frost. He did it with Infectia. Hank is the bleeding, dying heart of the X-Men. He believes in second chances. He believes in art, and literature, and music.

He doesn't believe in the law of the jungle.

I'd also like to point out, that even though he was called a traitor, and met with a frosty reception by the other X-Men when he asked for their help, he still came when they called for medical aid. He still held out hope that he and Scott would reconcile. He was one of the few people to look at the Phoenix Five and remember who they were before they got power, and believe that they could possibly control it. Even after Scott kills the Professor, even though Hank is furious with Scott, even though Scott literally says, "I've done abominable things. I don't ask for forgiveness. I don't deserve it. [...] But I'd do it all again"?

I guess you could read this a few different ways. Is Hank just pushing Scott out forcefully? Is he gentle? Is he squeezing his shoulder in a moment of what could almost be comfort? I don't know. I kinda think it's the latter. I think the best of Hank where I can.

"Thank god, Hank. You're alive. I was lost. I thought I killed y - "

Hank is still a man that Scott Summers wants to be alive, because Hank is good. Yeah, he can be FUCKING ANNOYING, and he can be hypocritical, and he can be an asshole, and he can be flawed, and he can be a nuisance, and he can be insufferable, but he is good.

Enter Brian Michael Bendis.

This is the point where Hank's character wrecks and arguably never recovers, to be honest. It's not just the small details. It's not just stupid things, like 17 year old Hank apparently being a medical doctor, or modern day super genius ultra mechanic Hank being incapable of putting a motorcycle back together for the sake of a joke. It's not even the egregious things, like Uncanny X-Men #600 and All-New X-Men #25 being a double header of literally everyone in the universe kicking Beast in the shins because Bendis wanted to write teenage Jean Grey as just the worst. It's just a fundamental misunderstanding of the character.

"Somewhere along the way you convinced yourself that your brilliance allows you the right to do whatever you want whenever you want to do it."

I'm sorry, fucking what?

If you're this far deep in this thesis - and it is a thesis, and I don't apologize for that - do you think this is the same character? This man who is obsessed with consequences, obsessed with guilt, obsessed with being perfect, obsessed with controlling himself, obsessed with morality . . . is convinced that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it? He learned this lesson 40 years ago! Beast is not like this!

Now, Bendis' Beast might be like this. But I have to ask you, reader, who presumably frequents comic book boards, or Reddit, or Tumblr tags, or Twitter . . . is Bendis the guy you go to for thoughtful, evocative, well considered characterisation? Is he on the level of Mark Waid, or Al Ewing, or Jonathan Hickman, or Grant Morrison, or Louise Simonson, or Marjorie Liu, or Rainbow Rowell, or Kelly Sue DeConnick? Is he known for respecting what came before and creating a throughline of character and continuity?

No, he fuckin' aint.

He's known for Bendis-speak. He's known for ignoring continuity. He's known for big shake-ups of established status quos that often leave characters in the doghouse for decades. Yeah, he can write some good comics, but I just - why is this man's characterisation of Beast considered the definitive one? Is the voice that shouts the loudest really the most articulate? Go ask a fan of the Scarlet Witch, or X-23, or Jon Kent, or GOTG fans about his entire run on that comic.

Beast wrecks here, and he never recovers. He loses his entire character development track about his mutation because it got changed. He loses his entire dynamic with Abigail. Everything good about 00s Beast is just gone, and there's nothing left to replace it but failure. Not really. Every now and then, someone tried to steer him back on the right path, get back to a more thoughtful, less dipshit Hank McCoy. A+X #12 by Christos Gage, and Uncanny Avengers by Jim Zub, both try the same trick, 4 years apart, having Hank reunite with his best friend Simon Williams and drink, and reflect on what's happened.

Each time, there's another crossover event that Hank has to answer for, because now Beast is the designated load. It happened in All-New X-Men, it happened in Black Vortex, it happened in IvX. It was just easy. He was never a guy with a massive fanbase, and all the casual fans filtered away as domino after domino falls. Every time, HOW DID I BECOME THIS?

Iunno. No-one seems to give enough of a fuck to answer the question. The real answer is that the writers need plot to happen, and, well.

Who cares if Beast is ruined? Well, I think Matthew Rosenberg cared a fair bit. I think Max Bemis cared quite a lot. I care, probably too much.

There are tons of little fun appearances here and there, mostly scattered across other books, that are more reminiscent of the Hank that used to be. Mariko Tamaki, in her last X-23 run, used him really nicely, having him take pictures of Laura and Gabby bonding, helping Laura run down immoral scientists (HA!), being a big man with a bigger bow tie. Being "the nerd I trust, so I like having him around," says Laura.

Hmm.

Well.

I have two points left to make. One? It is a stone cold, actual fact that we go from warm, intelligent, thoughtful, loved Beast, to Percy's narcissistic, cold, and genocidal war criminal in the space of maybe ten issues. The change was not gradual, it was abrupt. Read almost any comic prior to Krakoa featuring Beast in it, and he does not sound or act the same. Read the dialogue for X-Force #1 through 9, and tell me you can really tell that that's Beast.

Tell me that's the Hank McCoy that loves his human parents.

There's a reason everyone was speculating for the longest time that it was Dark Beast, or something else was afoot, because he sounds wrong. There's no jokes, no warmth, no charm, no energy. He's a slow, lifeless cadaver of a character, plodding along his course to become a Bond villain.

Two? There was a story to be told here. Hank has definitely toed the line a good few times before. Crossed it less times, but he did. Each time, it cost him. Each time, it hurt him. Each time, it left a scar upon his soul. Each time, maybe it got a little easier, but I don't genuinely think that's the case. I think that Hank McCoy is the kind of guy for whom it never gets easier to hurt people. The building blocks were there for a story where that man has to keep doing it, again and again, cutting away pieces of himself, because it's what Krakoa needs.

But that story would require sympathy, and I don't think that Ben Percy, "People who think that Beast is loveable have only read a small selection of comics," really has any sympathy for Beast. I think he finds him annoying. I think he finds him contemptible, and up himself. I think that Ben Percy believes that Beast is cold-hearted, cruel, endlessly self-justifying, unfunny, shortsighted, and overall, a bastard. I don't believe that was ever the case.

It makes me sad that the fandom believes that was ever the case.

His character was assassinated. It was assassinated back in 2013, and it's been being assassinated every month since 2019. The version of Beast that existed from 1981 to 2012 will be gone, dead - literally killed - when the classic version of him comes back at the end of X-Force. I liked the 1981-2012 version a lot. The version from 2012 to 2018, I liked a lot less. The version from 2019 onwards?

Don't go off vibes. Read the panels. Tell me what you think. Is that the same character?

Now we come to the end of my thesis. I feel like I've covered most of the main points here, but TL;DR?

Ben Percy's Beast doesn't work as a continuation of Hank's character, because his version of the character is an idiot. He is cruel, unfunny, lacking in any humanity, inherently evil, moustache twirling, disrespectful. He is without nuance. He is Mister Sinister in a blue fur coat without any of the camp.

The fact that people will go on Twitter or Reddit and say that they prefer this Beast over the old one makes me want to fucking spit because fuck you. Fuck you that you think that this travesty, this half-formed mish mash of Bond villain tropes and fat shaming stereotypes, is in any way better than what we had. Grow up. Read better comics. I hope to god you mature, because fuck, man.

Ben Percy's Beast doesn't work as a villain, either, because he's simultaneously incompetent, and yet constantly given karma houdinis that have no basis in his ability, only in the plot. Any semblance of grounding in the idea of 'necessary evils' is so fucking amateurish and put to paper with no real belief in it. Percy just thinks Beast is an asshole, it's as simple as that.

And you know what makes me feel vindicated? You know what makes me laugh?

Marvel really don't give a fuck about this version of Beast. They really just do not care and I get the distinct impression people can't wait for it to roll back. Don't believe me?

How come Nightcrawler is apparently gossiping with Hank in issues of She-Hulk that take place in the Krakoan era?

How come Hank is still appearing in Avengers and X-Men variant covers as his traditional, heroic self?

How come Marvel Age #1000, a self-styled "CELEBRATION OF THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS," had an X-Men story that was about the O5 - and yet, really, it was about Jean and Scott falling in love, with Hank on the sidelines, gently nudging Jean in the right direction?

How come no-one appears to give a fuck that Beast, one of the pillars of the superhero community, killed a small country?

In-universe, there is no explanation. This is 'Blade begging Captain America and the Avengers to help kill all the vampires' level of disconnect. It makes everyone involved look like a goddamn psychopath.

Out of universe, it's because no-one is interested in this story. If writers other than Ben Percy wanted a villainous Hank McCoy, they would just use Dark Beast, because he's substantially more entertaining and charismatic and enjoyable as a villain than Percy's edgelord Beast.

Ben Percy is 44 years old, allegedly. I wouldn't know that, judging by the level of maturity with which he handles his villains. If he intended to write a mutant Henry Kissinger, then he failed, because Kissinger was pure evil, but he also, you know, made sense.

Percy's Beast is trash.

I write him on this blog with substantially more care and thought put into his character than Ben Percy ever could. Because even though I'm not the one getting paid to do so, I'm the one putting in the work to make it make emotional sense. There's a story there. There's a compelling character there. If only Ben would have put the fucking work in.

Thank you for your question. :)

[zeezu-ix]

HII so im starting my own au pretty soon and i want to make a side blog myself but i have NO idea where to start :[ i wanted to ask how did you get started on your au??

i absolutely love the triple stars au and how you have it organized n stuff so I HOPE THIS ISNT A BOTHER JUST A QUESTION SO I HAVE AN IDEA ON WHAT TO DO 😭😭

NOT A BOTHER AT ALL DW!! im gonna be so real im insanely bad at explaining things but fuck it we ball

putting this under a read more because i ramble on for a bit,,

honestly the entire reason i made a side blog for triple stars was because i was too nervous to share more about it on this blog LMAO!! i think this was the right call though, i know for a fact i wouldn't have posted this much if it was on my main. took me like 3 months to even start posting about it wough!!

but as for how i started triple stars, GOOGLE DOCS HELLO!

at first i didn't have a super clear idea for the story so i stuck to establishing characters n their roles in the au and only then moved to thinking about plot and how i want to connect the key characters.

I HAD SOME. THINGS I KNEW FOR SURE, like Eggman being their band manager and a huge dick to them but i wasn't certain on other details like whether Triple S knew eachother before working with Eggman or not and stuff like that

Since i was still figuring things out i quite literally wrote down everything that came to mind. MAJORITY OF MY NOTES LOOK LIKE THIS ABSJHFD. essentially just arguing with myself until something clicks.

Since this doc was solely for me to brainstorm i did not make it organised at ALL LMAO. this thing is a 20 page mess just full of notes but it helped a TON.

anyways!! I had a rough plot line eventually and god. DESIGNS.

took me forever to get round to drawing them (for some reason everytime i tried to draw triple s it just looked. so bad. the universe was against this au for a while).

my thought process for designs in triple stars really just boils down to what clothes i think they'd wear and thats about it IM SO SORRY ABDJFH. still dont know why i gave Silver a tie but it worked out. OH BUT making pinterest boards for inspiration was a HUGE help!! really do reccomend just scouring for a bunch of refs and playing dress up with them.

honestly not sure what else to write here but if you have any more questions im up to answering em!!!

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

a brief timeline of fucking events regarding myself and the studio album "kill the whale" by daniel emond because I'm losing my mind

>get recommended this album by an anon on tumblr

>listen to said album and have an Extremely goodbad time (fedallah and gay people i LOVE YOU, quishmael and the erasure of indigeneity and the Lots of other racist things happening in there i hate you i hate you i hate you

>begin a project to transcribe the album because dear god what are they saying

>find that daniel emond himself has posted the lyrics to reddit

>make a 30k google doc comparing the lyrics of the studio album, the reddit lyrics, and the recorded live performance lyrics (because they are all very different!) with commentary (WHICH I FORGOT TO POST AND WILL BE SHARING IMMEDIATELY)

>get mad, decide to leave a comment on emond's reddit lyrics noting some of my critiques, most notably, why queequeg has been raceswapped and also had much of his story/relationships/plot entirely removed

>get a FIVE PAGE RESPONSE from emond arguing that he did not in fact erase anyone's indigenous/pasifika identity and that he was 'casting for talent, not accuracy bc the characters are "more" than their cultural backgrounds and ethnicities' which is a load of horseshit in my opinion

>notably also in that comment he reveals that the studio album is in progress to be adapted into a full broadway musical performance

>respond again, admittedly meaner this time

>get ANOTHER response from emond, that starts like this

[ID: A screenshot of a reddit notifications email of a comment from u/Danielhenriemond that reads: "Very busy these days, so much to respond to here. Thanks again for critical insight and questions which have continued to live with me as I develop the project, in particular your inquiry into my vers..." End ID.]

>open the comment to find that it has been completely deleted 🧍so I guess I'll never fucking know

>weeks later emond SHOWS UP ON MY INSTAGRAM (which has no ties to my reddit, he def doesn't know I'm the same person) and comments on my art of his musical

>go to his instagram page to see that the musical is currently in a week-long workshop

>scream

>something has tied me to this musical and i have no knife to cut the line (threat)

[abbottrewatch]

Abbott Elementary Rewatch Guide

Here is all the basic information that you need to know about the rewatch! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! I. About II. Schedule III. Discord Link Gif by @gatalentan.

ABOUT:

This an organized rewatch of Abbott Elementary seasons 1 and 2 that spans from August 2023 to April 2024. Participants can engage however they choose—joining the Discord, making content, blogging on their Tumblr, or simply just following along! Head Mod: Maggie (@cdyssey) Discord Server Mods: Maggie, Michael (@harrietdyker), Nia (@fat-fem-and-asian), and Scottie (@gatalentan)

The official rewatch starts on Sunday, August 6!

Sundays are our encouraged date for watching the given episode of the week! There’s no specific time to account for different time zones. Then, the entire week following that Sunday is for folks to share relevant fanworks if they’d like!

If you make content related to the rewatch, be sure to either tag the Tumblr blog (@abbotrewatch) or use the hashtag #abbottrw, which we’ll be tracking. We’ll try to reblog everything, but if we accidentally miss something, don’t hesitate to reach out via DMs!

Every week, there’s a general prompt to create content (fics, gifs, edits, art, etc.) for whatever episode is on the docket; however, on some weeks there may be an extra prompt, such as an appreciation week for one of the actors/characters or questions that you can answer in a multitude of mediums (i.e. through gifs, fic, etc.). If you make content for the extra prompt, tag us on those as well!! Additionally, if you want to promote older creations that are related to the prompts of the week, you’re more than welcome to do that as well.

And finally, there is no obligation to create anything at all for the rewatch! It’s more than enough if you just kick back and enjoy! There’s no wrong way to participate. Watch every episode! Skip a ton of ‘em! Blog your thoughts on Tumblr. Chat on Discord! Make stuff! Reblog stuff! It’s up to you. Having fun is the most important thing.

Schedule:

The full schedule for the rewatch can be found in the Google doc below! There will be weekly updates on the blog and Discord as well.

Additionally, here's a schedule outline that was made by Scottie!

Discord Link:

Link here! If it ever breaks, let us know!

[kinnbig]

hi, big fan, begging for enlightenment: how do i finish a fanfiction, asking for the kinnporsche modeling agency au i have three pages of basic outlines and notes and snippets for but never seem to be able to actually get anywhere with.

hi lovely!! thank you so much for the ask - honestly unfortunately my genuine answer is I wish I knew!!

the number of unfinished WIPs in my drafts vastly outnumbers the number of fics I’ve published. I find finishing fics incredibly difficult, no matter how well outlined and planned and bullet-point-noted the entire fic is. I have several WIPs that I absolutely adore but are gathering dust in my google docs because I just haven’t managed to find the motivation to finish them.

but for the fics I have managed to publish, my best advice is:

write badly first, edit later. set yourself a 15 minute timer and just write write write for that entire time without letting yourself think too hard about what you’re putting on the page. then do it again. and again. push through this way for as long as you can, and only then go back and edit it and make it sound beautiful. a first draft doesn’t have to be great. it just has to be done.

ride out any bursts of inspiration that you have for as long as you can. write in your notes app if sentences come to you while you’re out. scribble on post-it notes beside your bed if you wake up with ideas.

try writing in different locations. I find if I take my laptop to a library or a coffee shop with the intention of writing, it’s much more likely to get done than just sitting on the sofa at home.

talk through your fic with friends! nothing is more motivating to me than explaining my ideas to people and sharing snippets and getting excited together.

if you can stick to them, deadlines help. I struggle with setting myself deadlines because I know in my heart that they’re arbitrary, and there’s no consequences for missing them (other than feeling guilty or unproductive). however, if you can set yourself deadlines that you’re excited to meet - eg. “I really want to gift this fic to my friend on their birthday” or “it’d be cool to publish this fic as part of this event that’s running” or “it’d be funny to publish this fic on valentine’s day” (me with chart topper lol) - then that can really help motivate you.

bUt there’s nothing less conducive to writing or any creative process than guilt. feeling bad about not writing only makes writing seem less appealing. motivation only comes when you’re not beating yourself up for not being motivated enough. (this is the point that I’m struggling with lol)

on that note - remember why you’re doing this. it’s meant to be fun!! you don’t owe the fic to anyone - not even yourself. if you’ve had fun coming up with a concept and playing with the characters in your head, then you’ve succeeded!! the time you’ve spent making these notes and writing these snippets isn’t wasted if you don’t end up writing a full length fic, because you’ve already achieved the entire point of fandom - having a fun time with the guys from your shows. it’s an achievement all on its own. if you’re not enjoying writing, you don’t have to do it. this is all supposed to be fun.

the truth is, if you do want to finish a fic then you just have to do it. you just have to sit down and write a first draft and then sit down again and edit that draft and keep editing it until you like it. there’s no way around that. and it’s hard!! but you can do it. I believe in you!!

[thedrotter]

Fun Re:Kinder fact of the day ... DID YOU KNOW??? While in the Re:Kinder most characters you don't know the full names of (or even the full kanji of, only Yuuichi gets his entire name written in kanji when he introduced himself and I have an entire theory on why the names of these kids are written in hiragana most of the time but the one of Mami—the only character with a name that isn't a little kid— is consistently written in kanji entirely but I'll get to that another day ...), in Kinder, the original version of the game, you do!!! And here's where the real fun fact time begins

I've found that for some reason in sites I found the full names of the characters listed, Rei's surname is said to be Nimura. I've found it to actually be Suzumura! (⁠@⁠_⁠@⁠)

I believe this might have happened as a product of Kinder being sort of lost media for years, and that the footage we had of the game in Nico Nico Douga wasn't in very good quality and thus made the small pixels already trying to express a not so simple character into. almost completely unreadable. (⁠@⁠_⁠@⁠) with the "Mura" kanji being the most readable part of it.

I managed to find this out by actually downloading the game and seeing it in better quality. Here's the comparison between the text in the game and the name written in my notes so you can see how it matches (both say Suzumura "鈴村")

So yeah that's your fun fact of the day(⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)( ◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ). As to why I took the time to fact check this I felt silly and said "what do the kanji in the names of these kids mean do you think it's intentional". I'm thinking when I'm satisfied with my over analyzing of this game and done an essay on it on my Google Docs I will post all the silly things I've found on it, but I'm not ready to do that yet. so for now have this fun fact to impress people at parties....

[lost-decade]

✍☕🗑 for the writer asks!

Hey, thanks for asking!

✍️ What's your writing process?

I don't entirely have one lol 😂

Generally when I have an idea, I spend ages just thinking about it, running over conversations between the characters in my head, the general vibe and style of his I want scenes to be. In my head I tend to picture stories and plots (not that my fics ever have much plot though lol) in quite a filmic way. I also often write little bits of dialogue in the notes app on my phone, with completely no context.

Eventually, I actually start writing it down in google docs (often from the midpoint of a scene). I'm constantly editing too, going back over things and changing them - which is why I'm bad with posting chaptered fics, because once part of it is out there then I can't go back and tweak things, which drives me insane and more often than not leads me to abandoning the story altogether.

When I think I've finished and I'm satisfied, I'll leave the document for a couple of days and then go back and read it again with fresh eyes, and usually end up fixing a few bits.

☕️ What's your go-to drink while writing?

Generally I write bits and pieces at all times of the day (often when I'm meant to be working lol) so I never really give specific writing conditions too much thought because I rarely actually have any dedicated focussed writing time. In the daytime I'm usually drinking strong black coffee (although since I quit instant coffee for exclusively fresh ground I've cut back from 5-6 cups a day to 2-3). Occasionally if I have the house to myself of an evening and want to spend the time writing I'll put some music on and pour myself a glass of wine or a campari & soda.

🗑 How hard is it for you to delete writing that gets cut?

This is a problem, because I'm not good at deleting things, in a similar way to how I apportion sentimental value to most of the objects in my home and thus it's a wrench to get rid of stuff. This is why my google docs is such a mess and is full of untitled documents that sometimes turn out to be half a fic or a version of a fic that I ended up doing something different with and has since been posted in a different form, but then I'll be like 'oh I liked that sentence'

Then there's the stories that are well and truly abandoned but that I liked too much to delete. Actually came across my brocedes 'escape from new york' vaguely inspired fic from 2015 the other day (Lewis is a bounty hunter with amnesia, working for evil Ron Dennis. Nico is the leader of the resistance. Monaco is a prison that has been reclaimed by Nico and his band of leather wearing queer disciples) and I still like the idea too much to delete the file, even though I haven't touched it in years

[wifeglor]

14, 21 for maemag, 22 for gap pussy

hi hi!!! (From this list)

14. What are your favorite smut tropes?

I feel like you know them already :D But hmmmm more seriously... I think in general, I have "will think about something I initially found off-putting too hard and decide actually it is hot/fun/wtv" disease, so this would be a long and very inclusive list. I love a good power dynamic in smutfic (good in the sense of a fine vintage, not moral good), whether it's like a fun thing a sweet couple is playacting, an underlying reality for a ship, or outright dubcon/noncon. Obviously "power dynamic" can fit a billion tropes, but I love very many of those tropes for that underlying reason lmao. Also, I love when there's a lot of emotion, be it DRAMA, or angst, or hurt/comfort, or anything else. Obviously those strike different notes and it depends on the story, but like while I think it can be less "sexy" than pure porn I LOVE SO MUCH reading a good like "magical healing dick" conclusion to an arc of longing and woes. It's an orgasm of the SOUL. Or "magical healing baby spawned from magical healing dick," I am Not Immune to this (it's about the Cherishing). Also, I love those ppl on AO3 who are out there writing the most fucked up (affectionate) monsterfucking oneshots ft. worldbuilding with their original characters and original universes--doing Eru's work. ALSO I remember once upon a time being judgy about omegaverse and laugh because wow that really didn't last long on my part as soon as I opened those fics and realized there was longing inside.

21. Share a smutty headcanon about [character(s)]. (Maedhros/Maglor)

Wow who are these characters I've never heard of them before...

I feel like I need a whole essay to try to get out all my thoughts about them and it wouldn't entirely make any sense, but I think the one-headcanon version is like. Maglor longs to be claimed by Maedhros and please Maedhros and be absolved and loved and worthy & this translates well in his brain to being penetrated. Maedhros longs to feel like he can effectively take care of Maglor/make Maglor happy (something I think he has real despair and doubt about, but the resigned despair and bitterness that he can't correlates to how much he WISHES to) and also that his control issues/endless responsibility-taking are Working Actually And Perfectly Good & this translates well in his brain to penetrating Maglor (which is on unspoken offer from Maglor whenever Maglor is in the same continent and Maedhros is still breathing). Much love. I think that dynamic remains in play between them regardless of the sex act but this sure is my preference for them.

22. Share a DVD commentary on [one of your smut fic/smutty scene from a longer work]. (Mapmaking, known in my google docs folder as "gap pussy")

YEAHH okay. So this one has been lurking almost a full year (I think) as a handful of incoherent notes in my notes app, which sort of sketched out a lot of the dirty talk and action. This was very convenient for finally sitting down and writing it!! Which I had a lot of fun doing; every fic of mine for smut week has been pure self-indulgence. This fic owes a spiritual debt to Death and Taxes, an amazing russingon fic by TheLionInMyBed that was formative in my Maedhros thinking like... very early in my entry to Silm fandom stuff. I just loved Maedhros combining his politics and strategy (never turned off!) with sex and romance in such a blatant, funny, affectionate-but-instrumental way. Also, I've been making "Maglor's Gap " jokes since like. Forever, so it was bound to happen sometime.

The actual "strategy" on Maedhros' part here (aka the policies he wants Maglor to enact) is purely styrofoam porn setup and maybe doesn't really make sense, but I figured that's not what we're here for so I didn't pay it too much mind. What I did want to come through in that aspect of the story was Maedhros' affection for Maglor (kinda understated I think in this fic, but he doesn't want Maglor to die in like, say, dragonfire, and he will do all he can to prevent that. He wants Maglor to be as secure as he can, even though maintaining the siege/leaguer & his own trust & strategy mean Maglor is at great personal risk in this critical position) and Maedhros' tendency to taking leaderly responsibility (he's aware of the risk and that he's asked this of Maglor, & Himring will help out the Gap).

Also, in my head this is a spiritual sequel to my magnum opus Thine Ever, Makalaurë, despite the fact that in between these 2 Gap-era moments, Maglor by miracle of Yavanna's touch gained a pussy. This is a period I associate with a lot of hope for them and a sort of renewing of ties, testing and forging of Maglor's devotion and Maedhros' reliance on it, and Himring!Maedhros=sexiest Maedhros. I'm finding it really fun lately to write humor and dirty talk, both of which are kinda new terrain for me, so that's been delightful on my end. New terrain... ha

[sunnyisinsane]

HI IGNORE THIS GOOGLE DOCS KEEPS CRASHING ON ME SO IM USING THIS TO TAKE NOTES OF A THING I HAVE A THOUGHT ABOUT THIS WONT MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE BUT ME

ALSO KINDA SPOILERS FOR MY SPIRIT FIC . NOT REALLY THIS CHAPTER IS FOR A LOOOTTTT LATER

Being here after what happened feels wrong, what happened was wrong. I should've left after that but I had the bright idea of sticking around.

"Oh Spirit, here." I look up at Stein, he's walking around the couch I'm sitting on and sets down a stack of books on the coffee table.

"Hey wait, are those?" I mumble out and lean over the table.

"yep, it's only a few of them, the rest are in some boxes. I figured these will keep you from going bored. You forgot to grab them after you left me, I didn't have the gaul to return them." The man awkwardly sits next to me from a distance he breaths out heavily and continues on.

"i even tried reading them, I missed you that much. I couldn't finish even one though, not my kind of genre." I feel my face flush with embarrassment when Stein says that.

I pick up the first book. It's the first twilight book. I had the entire fucking series of books.

"promise me you didn't read this one." I look up at him and he looks uncomfortable.

"not my genre,"

Looking back at the book I start remember old moments here sitting on this couch reading books. Oh my god I remember putting myself in the place of the main character is genuinely getting giddy when anything romantic happened.

"I'm going to grade some papers, you sit here, I can't concentrate with you near me."

Stein goes to stand up but I grab his arm.

"spirit,"

"stein, I'm still worried about you, could we....just so I can feel that you're breathing, you're safe."

I can't say what I want to say, I'm just hoping he understands what I'm asking.

"...fine, I don't mind. It'll be nice...yeah?" Nodding, I let go of his arm, happy with his answer.

I feel his soul and mine spark it doesn't take much concentration for us to balance and get on the same wavelength. He leaves to the next room, I can still feel it, the beating of his soul, his heart and his mind. It's nice.

Picking up the book I cringe a small bit. This is probably going to still hold up with how much I liked this book or make me hate myself more for ever reading it.

-

We didn't talk much while resonating, just the occasional "what chapter now?" And "did maka get a good grade?" But when I finished the book I immediately ran into the room Stein was in and cut him out of his focus.

"spirit?"

"stein it was BAD."

He raises an eyebrow, then looks down at the book I was holding.

I raise the book up, distraught and embarrassed. "Why didn't I just look at porn magazines like normal teenagers?!"

"you did." He interrupts and I wave him off.

"not my point,"

"It couldn't have been that bad, you still enjoyed it as a kid." He swivels around in his chair, attention fully on me.

"Well kid me was stupid! He didn't have good opinions like he does now!" All Stein does is smirk at my complaints. He stands up and takes the book from my hand.

"I remember opening this and reading some of it, I didn't see the appeal but it was so *you*"

I suddenly feel offended.

"What the hell does that mean?!" His smile is still there and he looks down at me.

"I can't explain it, you're full of surprises. It just, felt like you. You'd read books, you'd get excited about it and I'd just watch you not understanding why you like something so abnormal!" I feel hot again and Stein looks up from the book, his glasses tilting down from his nose.

"you have problems."

He then waves the book to make a point, "we both have problems."

[brzatto]

! i love it! mikey feels like he's in rallying or nascar and carmy is in his fancy pants f1 world and richie as an engineer,, he really is the guy to banter with carmy mid on track fight and be surprised carm nearly strangles him when it distracts him slightly. also gives into like the costs of their family bc getting to motorsports especially f1 (rich man's playground) that shit is so expensive but he'll get those sponsors with so much guilt as an adult. i've only recently been limiting what i write but i make notes on every idea no matter how small or mundane (these are basically minifics). it's mainly because i have so much to write already and im also cycling through like 70 google docs that if i give in and start something else again i will never finish anything. i'm a sucker for playing in other aus with every ship i come into contact like someone has to write the asoiaf au for them or a succession au or a mandatory soulmates au because if not for the 5 carmrich fans on earth then for me. i like how their personalities and character makes everything so much more emotionally charged, the smallest of things impact them, nothing can be simple with them. like don't get me started on carmy wanting to spend more time but he's stunted on how to ask so openly bc being seen and known is too much. he asks for help cleaning the kitchen after that's the best he can ask without being so obvious and he checks over cleaning supplies five times more during the day and doesn't know what to expect besides cleaning. but he finds an empty kitchen at the end of the day. it's one of the worst rejections he faces. he cleans with a spare rag in the bucket.

i was thinking of the cost factor too which is why in my head i think mikey does racing veeery unprofessionally like tbh i think he just fixes janky old cars up with his friends and drifts/races them out on the street LMFAO not entirely sure how plausible that’d be in a city like chicago but either way carmy grows up surrounded by cars and he idolizes mikey for it just because it’s mikey and his passion for it is so real and alive and full of conviction.

this is making me giggle because i feel like our aus are very different but i support you. what ik about succession i only know from cultural osmosis but there’s a very distinct overlap in the audience for both so yeah i support you writing them homoerotically duking it out over stocks or company shares or whatever happens in succession. also you’re right! carmy and richie are both so emotionally repressed and avoidant in terms of dealing with their grief i think even if they WERE to hypothetically be aware of … whatever it is their relationship and feelings towards one another gradually morph into they just still wouldn’t act on it. ever. aside from the obvious reasons why carmy because he lacks the experience to know how to even try even if he wanted to + richie because he DOES have the experience and he also knows how irreparably fucked up things can get if they were to act on it and he isn’t willing to risk whatever tentative bond he has with carmy for it when he knows they really are all that the other has left (<- literally just writing out bcm plot lines now) their self images in relation to other people (carmy always craving mikey’s validation and never getting it, richie finding out the mother of his child only thinks of him as bad news) are so damaged and they’re both sooo emotionally wounded and they’d be so scared of acknowledging what they feel for one another for fear of fucking things up before they can even begin so they just both suck it up and pretend it isn’t there and share smoke breaks together in silence. crazy

“he cleans with a spare rag in the bucket” you’re literally sick for this btw if you know how i feel why would you say that to me

[transfemlogan]

plz teach me how to start writing smth /silly

i want to write a fic but idk how to start lol

-rauberrauber

I WILL TELL U MY WRITING PROCESS (BADLY EXPLAINED) @rauberrauber

STEP ONE: THE IDEA PHASE !!!

Come up w/ an idea & then write it down like. Halfassedly. Like my current fic was written down as "Logan transforms in2 a wolf on a full moon & virgil stays w/ him & makes a potion or whatever 2 keep the pain away & then he just turns in2 a dogy" (exact quote) & then was added onto 2 make my outline

This is my current outline (censored just so you guys dont. Get spoiled 4 everything that happens in the fic HEHDKDN) its just a lot of like rambling, trying 2 get everything in ordsr

REVYS TIP: MAKE SURE YOU ARE DAY DREAMING ABOUT YOUR IDEA NONSTOP. /silly whenever I try to write something when I haven't thought about how it'll go while I'm doing a chore or listening to music or falling asleep, the idea will never ever come out bcuz I have no idea what I'm even trying to do.

STEP TWO: THE PLANNING PHASE !!

Start planning ! I use Notion 2 organise everything, but i used 2 use my notes app 4 the longest time (& sometimes still do if I am too lazy to open my computer).

I write down a basic summary of my plot, how many chapters there are if its a chaptered fic, the characters & relationships, a timeline if its needed, a to-do list (ex. Research [insert thing], give the characters last names, create the timeline, etc), a list of what I need 2 research (& then keeping track of everything I research), title ideas, world building, etc etc

My planning phase is like... A Lot of work bcuz i really like to plan! It is my favourite part of any creative work i do, bcuz there is something wrong w/ me /j /silly.

This is sort of what my notion page looks like for "To The Tune Of Your Death". I also have a page for character info, like pronouns & ages & genders & races & relationships w/ each other, & two separate timelines with exact years and days (bcuz it is very much needed 4 this entire au). One for the main fic timeline (like when Janus dies and when Logan and Virgil start dating) AND one for background information (like their parents divorces, bcuz it unforrunately relates to the fic)

REVYS TIP: DO NOT GET SCARED BY HOW MUCH PLANNING I DO. it is entirely a me thing. I have yet to meet anyone who plans as much as I do & enjoys it like I do.

STEP THREE: THE WRITING PHASE !!

Note: the writing & planning phase overlay each other A Lot. You are going to start writing & then pause 2 keep planning or u will be planning & realise you need to start writing to Continue to plan. This is very normal, esp if ur researching for a disability or a race— you will not do research One Time & know everything immediately.

START WRITING!!! I always have like 7-10 drafts & I'm usually rewriting as I write. I use CalmyWriter to write on my computer and then I transfer it to discord so I can have it on my phone. I also use my notes apps a lot of the time! Bcuz its easy to just write on my phone anywhere than wait 2 use my laptop. I avoid google docs, simply bcuz i absolutely hate google docs (& it usually lags real bad 4 me)

(I do however transfer everything to google docs once I am done, bcuz i like 2 share my fics w/ ppl who want 2 beta!)

When I start my first draft (which u will always have a first draft) I am not at all focused on grammar, spelling, or "good writing", I'm focused on getting the idea down & the basic flow of events & following my outline (unless it needs to be revised). Literally my first drafts are so awful & thats the point.

Its usually very like (example): Virgil walked to the store and he bought this. [Insert what he bought as it relates to what he will be doing later] logan said hi to him he is blushing & gay. They arw talking. [Skip kissing scene] janus dies yayyy yippee

Thats what my 1st drafts r like. & then either once I am done, or while I am writing, I'll start revising. I will go back and rewrite scenes or add scenes in or move stuff around. Sometimes I have my 1st draft side by side with my revision & sometimes I go off memory

& once I am done w/ my revision... I do it all over again. & then again. & then I keep doing that until its finished.

I always keep my sketchbook & a pen/pencil by me while I am writing, incase I need to make a quick note of something for later or if I need to sketch out a layout of somehing (for example, I stopped to layout Virgil's witchcraft/office room while writing tge analogical fic)

STEP FOUR: UM. THE REST... OF IT ALL PHASE !!

I title my fic (if it hasnt been titled already), I create a summary for AO3, I send it out for my friends who want to beta, I reread it like 50 times & go "wow I am so good at writing", I create drafts on tumblr & ao3 and make sure its tagged correctly & the correct ppl r @ ed if i had a taglist of some sort etc etc

Any of my fics (or art) that you see get posted, were 100% in my drafts for like 3 hrs b4 they were posted bcuz i kept going through it and making sure everything is good (esp bcuz i cross post on tumblr & ao3)

& that is... pretty much my entire writing process broken down.

I think one of the scariest parts of starting to write for me personally was the first draft part. I always felt like it needed to be good IMMEDIATELY or else i wasnt being a "good writer". But most, if not all, writers dont start off "writing good", they start off with a shitty rough draft. & then keep revising & rewriting.

The best advice i have ever seen was "just start it", bcuz if ur so caught up on writing well, nothing will ever get done. Just GO START IT RIGHT NOW GO QUICKLY RUN!!!!!! RUN !!!!!!!!!!!!! WRITE !!!!!!!!

[fxralheart]

Looking for KinnPorsche Roleplayers on Discord

Hello - piggy backing off my old post 

Just to re-iterate the original ad:   I am 25+ F, and I prefer playing in the 3rd person, past tense, with multi-paragraph responses (I usually aim for 2-3 minimum). In other words, I’m SEMI-LIT/LIT, and I would like my partner to be comfortable writing in the same style. My preferred platform is discord because it’s easy to keep things organized, but I’ve also played on google docs before and would be okay with that as well.  

Expanding upon the old post, I’m really looking for partners that will geek out with me, that want an expansive storyline and want to build the characters up from the series, that will poke me with headcanons and plot ideas throughout the day, build pinterest boards, etc.  I like going all in and coming out with new friends.  With the nature of the series, I would like my partner to be okay with smut, dark plots and scenes.  I will totally respect limits and triggers, but with this being a show that touches on a lot of dark topics and is very smutty, it’s likely these themes will come up.

Also, to expand even further, I am really open to most plot ideas and couples.  I’m a huuuuuuuge fan of crack-ships.  I do ask that if it is a stranger/far-out one, that you come with plot ideas.  The only pairing I am super selective about is Vegas/Pete.  I have been playing as Pete for close to 6 months now and have really developed him.  If you want to play Vegas/Pete, I would prefer to play as Pete.  I’m not entirely against playing Vegas.  I can and have played Vegas for other pairings, but I’m extremely selective with playing him against other Petes and we would need to have a very in-depth conversation to see if how we play our characters would click.

If you would like to RP with me, please send me a DM or throw a thing in the ask box.  I don’t come on here super often - usually once or twice a month to see if my ads got any hits, and the easiest way to see that they have is when someone drops me a line.  Please also note that I’m an adult with a full-time job. I’m also a fitness instructor on the side and sometimes just don’t have the mental capacity to deal with people.  My responses can be slow sometimes.  Would appreciate a partner that is respectful of that.  I promise I will give that same respect back and will probably send send memes, head canons, and things that remind us of our babies in the meantime until life settles down.  

Anyway, sorry for the lengthy ad (at least this will give you an idea of what to expect from me :P )  Hit me up if interested

[defountaine]

DEFOUNTAINE.

independent + private roleplay blog for FURINA DE FONTAINE, of mhy's GENSHIN IMPACT as judged by SINCLAIR ( 21 ). crossover + oc friendly. low activity due to college ( junior yr ) + old laptop.

INTEREST CHECKER. / GOOGLE DOC.

rules under cut.

NOTES. ( THIS MAY BE UPDATED AS TIME GOES ON. )

not spoiler or leak free

i tag triggers as “ trigger // “ 

for the main verse ( gi ), i'm almost entirely caught up on the main story.

hc heavy.

i use she/he/they for furina. she looks like both a woman and a twink and it's giving me gender envy, okay. genderfluid furina is so real to me.

generally novella because i love writing a lot!!

scarce activity bc my laptop is fucked up ( most of the keys are stiff lol ) + full time college student. i am literally doing a research proposal this semester.

aforementioned keyboard thing may lead to typos

i tag a lot of my ooc posts ( since a majority of the time they’re useless ) as “ irrelevant // ” as to not clog up peoples dash 

sometimes tumblr doesn’t send my asks so if you’ve liked for an inbox call and you don’t receive it, thats why 

mutuals can ask for discord<3 i encourage it actually since im active there more often but im very anxious and tend not to initiate conversation unless i feel like we’re very close 

if i ever bother you lmk<3 i’ve been told i can get a little spammy at times and i’ll admit i do get easily excited so if i need to tone it down just let me know!

if i’m following you i’ve read your rules !! i’ll assume you’ve done the same if you decide to follow back!

i only have access to the beta editor, sadly. i can try and pull some bullshit but i don't know if it'll work. my apologies.

NSFW.

those who are of age and have characters of age can smut with me. that said, furina is probably not gonna be very easy to fuck. trauma and all that. unless we have pre-established stuff. that's always fun. that said, don't follow just to fuck him, please. gore is also welcomed.

SHIPPING.

i love shipping, so lets do it! platonic, romantic, rivals, familial etc.. love ‘em all! planned or entirely natural, either is fine! if you wanna ship with me just ask! i have no preferences, not really, and i can say the same about furina. both she and i are down to clown with just about anyone. it doesn't even have to be healthy! ( to the tune of tmnt ) codependent toxic yuri/yaoi !

PLEASE DON’T RUSH ME.

full time college student with very limited time to do rp nowadays. i really enjoy writing and all but being rushed to reply makes me lose motivation. however, if i do miss a starter/don’t reply to a thread for a while you can tell me about that!

SELECTIVE + MUTUALS ONLY.

despite me saying this, all in all i probably follow almost everyone back as long as they have a rules + abt page i can find! i don’t follow personals but if you’re a hub or your rp blog is a sideblog, lmk so i can follow you there!  if you have a rules + abt page and i don’t follow back LET ME KNOW. sometimes tumblr doesn’t give me notifications and i don’t pay attention to follower count for the most part. i’m really not picky and im not trying to be mean or ignore you ! 

HATE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

any sort of hate will not be tolerated. if i see you picking on anyone or you pick on me , i will block you. that’s not the way i roll.

NO GODMODDING OR ANYTHING OF THE LIKE.

this is pretty standard , but please don’t control my muse or anything of the sort. 

I PRACTICE REBLOG KARMA. KINDA.

 i am not a meme archive blog , so if you do rt them please consider sending them!!

I’M FINE WITH ASKS BEING TURNED INTO THREADS!!

just please turn them into separate text posts, please!!

BE FUCKING NORMAL.

y'know. no racism, homophobia, transphobia or pedophilia, incest, and all that gross stuff. instant block. literally just be normal.