#i think it would be a crazy fun thing to do writing-wise. especially because like. i have no idea how it would go.

[cursedcatchild]

Ok, so I watched TOTTMNT and I am here to rant. Also, SPOILERS ahead!

So First of all, if I had to sum up my thoughts into a single sentence it would be: For the love of God, put those turtles back together, where they belong!!

I didn’t hate the show, but I didn’t come to like it either. And no, I did not have any prejudgment just because it was a new iteration. Honestly I was super hyped for this version, because the movie was a blast. Yea, I ended up being disappointed. But let me just elaborate on that:

First let’s take a look at our turtles from worst to best in my opinion.

Mikey:

Yepp, ladies and gentlemen so far I have never seen a single iteration where I didn’t come to like a Mikey. He’s always among my favs. But this version felt super shallow. He had just as much screen time in the series as his brothers and yet I still have no idea who this guy really is. His jokes were lame not really landing, I couldn’t really point out any particular goal or insecurity that anyone could relate to. Also, the guy is super oblivious. Like he took ten minutes to realize he walked into a robbery when he went for groceries. Heck he was having a casual conversation with the robbers. 

Leo: 

Another kinda shallow guy. Sure we seen a bit of insecurity, he literally quoted Rise Leo saying “ I’m nothing without them!” but it felt irreal. Because Rise Leo had a reason to think that, he wasn’t as much of a functional member of the team and he was always taken for jokes. But right from the beginning of TOTTMNT we see Tales Leo commanding his brothers, they listen to him  and even say it multiple times how planning is Leo’s thing. So at this point this Leo is just fucking blind. ( Also April slaps instant self confidence into the boy.) 

Raph:

Ok, this is also the first time, but I never really took a liking to a Raph before Tales Raph. Boy is filled with anger and sass, yet he’s not coming off as a total jerk like 2012 Raph. And of course he's not a super softie like Rise Raph ( I don’t hate Rise Raph for being a softie, he's my second favorite Raph) either. He had some fun pipe up and overall a personality I got. I think he’s the most perfect Raph I have ever seen. 

Donnie:

The best character of the iteration in my humble opinion. He was relatable, funny, honestly he was stealing Mikey’s job as the comic relief, but at the same time he’s the smart guy. The boy is ranting about not being the IT guy and then goes reprogramming an evil robot. Oh and he saved so many lifes, because he stopped a fucking train crash. He’s epic, I swear.

(My fave screenshot ever 🤣🤣)

Now story wise:

🔥What the fuck was this dumpster fire?! 🔥Who thought splitting up the turtles would be fine?! 😑Especially in a 12 episode season? Look, I don't mind solo or duo time. There were plenty of good ones, for example Rise. I adored the Mikey vs Leo cook off episode or the Gumbus one, but for the sake of my sanity Rise had twice as many episodes and the turtles were not split up for the majority of the story.

Like I'm not joking when I say they were together in 4 episodes intotal.😨😨

Now I heard rumors left and right that the fact that they need to make a show was thrown at the team at the last minute ( IDK how true is that) , but goodness gracious even if I was presented with the task with a “ Due tomorrow label” I could still write a better story. Especially with the goldmine what the writers decided to ignore.

Yes, something that would've made TOTTMNT be really unique….. School people! We were promised that we will explore the turtles from the teenage side. Ummm….Hate to break it to ya all but I think there is no better way to do that than putting them into school.

It would’ve been fire to see them trying to fit in, balancing all the cool hero stuff with school life, maybe wrecking the school, seeing how other teenangers adjust to the fact that now giant talking turtles are their classmates. It wouldn’t be some crazy mind blowing plot, but I swear it would've been amazing.

Now don’t misunderstand me. Despite the story feeling like being all over the place it wasn’t that super bad, but I’m pissed that it could've been better with ease.

Also another thing that bugged me, is the feeling of something missing. IDK if anyone else who watched it felt like this, but I legit felt like if we just grabbed the for example farm arc from 2012 TMNT and aired it as season 1. The fact that the turtles were split and they kept mentioning that they have always been fighting together made me feel like I should’ve seen them do that.

Anyways, If I did not take your will to watch it away, go and check it out. It's not horrible but not great either. I’m disappointed and I'm gonna need Rise back, thank you very much!

[moonshynecybin]

do you have any thoughts on girl marc? and specifically if her being a girl would have made her do certain things differently bc (presumably) she would have faced a lot of shit in the other classes due to being a woman

every thought I have is like that could be true but also the complete opposite, the only thing I'm confident in is that she would be earth shatteringly hot. like I'm talking fuuuucking crazy gorgeous

there's that picture of marc on the podium in aragon in 2019? girl marc would have killed people

see i have a little trouble with getting into the nitty gritty ‘how would x rider fare as a woman’ of it all because. well there are no women in the grid. and i don’t think that’s because generationally talented motogp superstars is a trait defined by being a cis guy. so if we are doing the gender swap i’m gonna have to like. pantomime these guys experiencing sexism which is an interesting cognitive dissonance to inhabit. like i’m not against a good old horny time (and i think a lot of the time it’s women who imagine these scenarios as a mechanism to like. fill a void that exists in the sport in the first place. would we write as many gender swaps like this if there WERE simply women in the premiere class ??) but it is something i think about, so i’m gonna start there. just as a lil food for thought. interesting sociological phenomenon in sports fandom that i have some complex feelings about. not bad not great.

that all being SAID. wheee fun time. um marc as girl. marc. winning above everything but image always at least a consideration. loves to be hot isn’t the MOST concerned with entirely fitting in a gender box about it as he’s gotten older though he’s still pretty conforming. hmm. i think marc starts her career like long hair straightened compulsively smiling at everybody no matter how sexist they get and. the same sort of murderously crazy on the race track.

i ALSO think. marc’s racing behavior has already earned him a significant amount of haters worldwide even BEFORE sepang-gate and he is a handsome white man. uh oh ! like i think this marc learns a lil earlier a lil harder the lesson that you cannot always care what everyone thinks of you even when it rips you up inside and is in fact significantly traumatic. like people were being WILDLY homophobic to marc in 2015 i cannot imagine how bad it would be for him if he was a girl. but uhhhh all this to say i think she gets a sexy undercut post sepang (it was 2015/16. the only option.) and stops straightening her hair. i also think she hardens up a little more. even less friends even more alex. instagram game would be an absolute MINEFIELD bc it’s one thing to post your own slut back and hole out 9000x as a man it is ANOTHERRRR to do it as a public figure who is a WOMAN. especially coupled with that quote from marc when he was younger about how he didn’t like it when people told him to look sexy in pictures (before he realized he could control that himself on his insta shdhgdgs). in that vein. marc’s catastrophic control issues also interesting. perception wise. good lord. controversial queen

it’s also like. what if you’re the chosen one but aren’t. because he wouldn’t be if he were a girl. would her family pin their financial future on teen marc? would they prioritize alex instead? would marc have to take a different route to the premiere class? would she be the first option for casey stoner’s bike? how much worse would the sepang fallout be? what would marc do to keep winning? keep competing? would it be enough ? like there’s a LOT.

[kxvbzs]

Inazuma Eleven Bad Boy Band AU (both OG and AresOri)

So I wanted to make a rock boy band (technically we do have one B4 from OG) BUT I WANTED TO INCLUDE Haizaki, Hiroto and Atsuya into the band so, I was like, ok, what if I mix both B4 and the three of them?

Now that's a lot of members for a band but like, hear me out. It CAN work out okay?

This would be their roles:

Tsunami as their main singer! The reason why I made Tsunami as their main singer is probably due to personality wise, I think he just suits it. Also voice wise, I think he can go absolutely crazy with it.

Next, Fudou as a guitarist and back-up vocals! He's definitely a guitarist, I can't see him play any other instruments but guitar. He likely started out with acoustic guitar then later on switched to electric guitar. He sometimes plays as the rhythm guitarist but other times would be lead depending on the song.

Haizaki is also a guitarist and back-up vocals! So, both Fudou and Haizaki will take turns who play rhythm and who plays lead. Whoever from the two plays rhythm will be the back-up vocal for Tsunami! (This makes it fair because rhythm is easier than lead.)

Okay, next up, Someoka as the drummer! I think he would go balls on drums, I dunno. He looks like the type to go unhinged with the drums especially if the song goes really hardcore.

Tobitaka as the keyboardist and very occassionally back-up vocals! I have a headcanon that he used to play piano at some point (has a keyboard than a piano at home because pianos are expensive asf) but got bored of playing classical so he learned other songs and were into that instead.

Hiroto as the bassist! Okay, you might think that he's probably a guitarist, yeah, I did too. But look, imagine first year middle school Hiroto wanting to get an electric guitar but saw a video of someone absolutely SHREDDING on the bass with crazy pop and slap, he then changed his mind and decided to learn bass so he can slap and pop to his heart content.

Lastly, Atsuya as the synthesizer player and I forgot to mention, sometimes he does back-up vocals! Okay, Kai, what the heck is the difference between keyboard and synthesizer? For that, it is best to watch a video on the difference because they are in fact, very much different. Okay, so, how is Atsuya the synth player here? Similar to Tobitaka, he probably learned the piano when he was younger but hated it because it's boring. So when he found out what a synthesizer was, he decided to get that and learn it, making his own sounds and songs from it. Also recreating some instrumental he likes. (I hc he likes EDM.)

So, with all these information combined, who's the song/lyric-writer? Okay, crazy shit here but it's Nagumo! He's probably a soundcloud rapper or something but enjoys writing songs and lyrics for fun (and can think of it on spot because you know, freestyle rapping.) He definitely helps the band's instrument arrangements and lyrics to an extent so, sometimes in their songs, you can see they credited Nagumo there. (Nagumo and Suzuno definitely are a duo lol but Suzuno is a vocalist instead.)

Okay last, Nishikage as their band manager! I think he suits it the most? Probably the most responsible deliquent from all of them so, it makes sense for them to have him as their manager.

Would this end up as a Idol/Band AU for the whole cast, MAYBE! Will I write a fanfic about this? ALSO MAYBE.

I brainrotted too hard for this lmfao kms. Also, I don't know what their band name would be this time but maybe something like Øverdxse is cool :P

Also, their songs would definitely mainly be metal or punk rock! But occassionally they might do some alternative rock, pop rock and synth or keyboard heavy rock songs (ballad rock even!)

This whole thing is inspired. I took inspiration from a K-rock band, Xdinary Heroes. Please listen to them, their songs suit this band so bad, you don't understand...

Anyways, THANKS FOR READING MY RAMBLING THIS FAR!!!! YOU'RE CRAZY IF YOU DID BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH ^^

[yellowhollyhock]

raph vs a volcano day 20

The 1987 episode plot:

Donatello's health scanner predicts Raphael has only 24 hours to live. Raphael goes around doing good deeds and taking ridiculous risks because he's gonna die anyway. Meanwhile Donatello figures out his machine didn't work right and means to tell Raphael, but you see he is distracted doing good deeds and taking ridiculous risks. It culminates with Raph inside an active volcano (trying to stop it from erupting? bro??) and his brothers have to come rescue him.

I love this episode. For so many reasons.

1) What an interesting way to give Raph his role while keeping him in character within the new role they gave him for this show. Because Mirage Raph is the guy who always wants to help without pausing to think about whether they can. He's known for sometimes being impulsive and always being protective. And not just of his fellow turtles! He sees someone in trouble he wants to help. But usually in Mirage that's expressed with violence. So for the show they made the "crazy one" express the same traits through sarcasm instead and he became the witty one, and I love how future Raphs are both. And I especially love when 1987 Raphael himself is both

2) This is such a classic plot. It's like... the tribbles spoof/tribute or 'character gets kidnapped but acts so annoying they get released.' You know the kinds of plots I mean right? Our style of storytelling has changed (it's always changing) but tv shows in late 80s early 90s especially had these. You could pretty much guess the plot from the title because you know the characters and you know the story. The exciting reveal is mostly the jokes. There are words for what I'm saying but I haven't had an english class in a few years, so take this ramble and trust me. It's a beautiful example of whatever this is. And!

---2a, It doesn't have the classic resolution that 'character thought they had one day to live due to a misunderstanding' would have on a kids show. There isn't a 'moral' about seizing the moment and using your time wisely. There also isn't a moral about communication, so instead of the miscommunication being annoying like it would in a preachy episode, it's gloriously hilarious to watch

3) Speaking of that, the obligatory 'he tried to ask' scene is Raphael watching Michelangelo cry on Donatello's shoulder because "I'll miss him so much" "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do for him" it's the oven. The oven is broken. Michelangelo is sobbing in Donatello's arms like his world is ending because they're going to have to get a new oven because this one's beyond fixing. And Raphael fully believes that Michelangelo is begging Donatello to fix him, when this version of Donatello is so very none medic. Like I don't even know how to describe why and how much I love this scene. I think I killed english

4) The scene of Raphael in the volcano. I just. He's so funny. This episode really captures what I love about the whole show, which is that I am absolutely buying into it and feeling deeply about it, and simultaneously enjoying it ironically. Does that make sense? When you can put your whole heart into unironic enjoyment but your brain at the same time gets it's 'make fun of this' treat. So both types of fun at once.

---4a it's not trying to fix the plot holes it's enjoying that in this format you don't have to. I feel like this is severely under utilized in modern cinema. make things not make sense on purpose for fun. don't explain about where they are, how they carried that object with them, why there were not other consequences for certain actions. The fun thing about stories is they don't have to be realistic unless you want them to

so for today I had intended to write a Rise version of this episode. I think it would work well for them. Plus, Raph and Donnie bonding. However. That is going in drafts and will be coming. later (march for raph is my opportunity to collect drafts for the rise turtles apparently.) I'm actually still debating if Donnie would make a health-o-meter or if something goes down in witch down, but either way, ❤️💜

[archandshri]

9th feb '24 - [arch] characters, interactions and emotion - making a mini webcomic

Gahhhh Shri this has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks!!!! Hope you are doing well :)) First of all, WOW! You have a lot of goals, and I’m sure you’ll get them done! I’ve worked a lot on my graphic design during the process of making Winter Wellbeing. If you wanna see a blog post dedicated just to that, I can do so! It would be cool to compare notes on the approaches we take for graphic layouts. If you wanna share your knowledge of camera skills when you build that up that would be awesome 😭😭

It’s been a tough few weeks, art wise. I have been reflecting on my process, motivations to create, the ego and all the baggage that’s lumped into the creative process for me. It turns out there’s a lot. I took some space from my illustration practise (literally for a weekend!) and began to realise how dysfunctional it is. I’ve been writing a lot about that so there may be a larger piece of writing coming about that at some point (no promises!!)

But for now, let's talk about little successes!

I’ve been playing with some characters for a while but I’d hit a bit of a block with the plot. I realised the expectation of having a finished project of high quality soon is unrealistic, and an unhealthy expectation to put on myself. I rarely give myself time to play with concepts for a long time and let the characters, plot and interactions evolve naturally. Maybe this in part came from sticking to the short university module turnaround. I noticed that that short turnaround was causing a lot of block, so I have decided to bench it as a comic for now and focus on using it as a playground - falling in love with the characters, creating stories and drawing them for fun. Maybe years down the line I’ll make them into a comic - we shall see! 

I *tried* to do hourly comics day this year and it didn’t quite work for me. I think I made 3 comics? And then got distracted with a bigger project that ended up taking a week or so to complete. Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

[you can find the full version here]

First of all, it’s based on an unfinished fanfiction I started a couple of months ago, which was mostly bad, but there was one nice scene that I liked and wanted to expand on. I started by having a look at the script I wrote and thumbnailing on the iPad. I’m away from home at the mo and usually would prefer to do most of my artwork traditionally, but because I don’t have access to a scanner, the whole process was digital this time. A lot of the pages got scrapped because the dialogue wasn’t necessary, and I’m not drawing pages that aren’t necessary.

some more development screenshots

I thought a lot about posing during the process, acting the scenes out in my mind and sometimes physically, really understanding the emotions of the characters, why they’re saying what they’re saying, their tone and how to convey that though their body language and expression (i find grian really annoying normally [affectionate] but I want this grian to step on me).

Pearl was hard with this because she’s quite erratic and unpredictable in this series, so I wanted her to switch from raw explodey anger to playful jabs at Grian. I’m hoping this comes across as somewhat insane, rather than tonally off and inconsistent. I did super enjoy drawing her and her explosive nature though, especially in comparison to Grian’s coldness.

I played with levels and monotone colour too - I’m not working with multiple colours much at the moment so I’m able to focus on things like values composition, characters and backgrounds. My skills limit the kind of stories I can tell currently, so I’m working to improve those foundations. Maybe when I’m back in the riso studio I can play with colours a little more.

Colours - despite the simple pallete it gets a bit nerdy here.I stuck to specific flat percentages for most of it - Pearl’s hair and Grians jumper are 60%, Grian’s hair and Pearl’s cloak are 20%. Then I added a 14% layer for shadows, using a ahrd blend eraser tool for highlights, making the images quite dark. I fill a layer with texture from Forystr’s riso brush for procreate, and turn it into a 40% opacity colour dodge layer. This gives it some much needed texture and makes the lighting feel low and nighttimecore. It also pushes the values to look really nice - I tend to be too scared to push them by myself.

I tried a few different colour layers to get a *vibe* but settled on a low percentage riso blue in a colour layer. All layers besides the riso blue are in a riso black, colour picked from a riso colour pallete. I learnt these tools - using percentages to get good values - from working with risograph. I really recommend having a look at these techniques and doing some monotone work. It's really improved by character designs, page layouts and compositions.

That's all from me today, though I have had MANY other thoughts over the past two weeks about creating, but perhaps we'll dive into them another time. If you (or anyone else) has any questions, hit me up with a reblog or an ask and I will get right to it. Lovely to hear from you! Hope your art is going great too :)) Arch :)

[wolfsbanesparks]

Bouncing in here like a madman again

Do you think Captain Marvel (seperate from Billy) considers the Wizard SHAZAM as their father as a sort of creator and creation relationship? Giving room for Billy and grandpa wizard relationship kinda?

I've had a lot of sugar today, so I'm not sure how that sounds, but I kept thinking about your fic, "Split", and how if things took a different turn and Captain Marvel revealed he existed because of the Wizard, would the JL come to the assumption that the wizard was his father/Billy's grandfather?

Or if things took an angstier turn, if Captain Marvel let slip accidentally that he didn't believe that the death of Billy's mother (and actual father) was a genuine accident/had suspicions about it, how would they react? Would they suspect the wizard bc of all the suspicions they're having? Also, I'm not sure if I remember, but did the JL get to have a conversation with the wizard?

Kinda factors into that one ask I sent before, where the gods killed the parents of the champions of magic to challenge and prepare them without them knowing, which might include the wizard, too. (Sorry, I re watched the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 recently and it's been doing numbers on my little mind)

In all seriousness you could write an AU for your fics and we'd eat it all up and ask for seconds because your writing creates a universe of wonder for us.

That was a lot, wow :0

Okay first of all you are so sweet! It's driving me crazy (in a good way) that I can discuss AUs of my fics!

I think that the Wizard already plays a sort of wise grandfather figure to Billy (in my preferred version of him) regardless of Captain Marvel's feelings towards the Wizard.

But I think it's totally logical for Captain Marvel to think of the Wizard as a creator figure, especially in his current incarnation since it was just Shazam who made him instead of a full Wizard's Council. There's respect between them, but Marvel also wants to make Shazam proud, wants to prove he's a good Champion. And I think that can translate to a father-son type dynamic even if it's a lot more complicated than that.

If we're talking Split in particular, the JL "met" the Wizard but Shazam didn't bother talking to any of them so their many confusions and suspicions didn't get brought up to him directly.

But if they had reason to believe Shazam was Marvel’s father, Flash in particular would have been having a freak out because the Wizard would have gone from possibly sketchy mentor to controlling and possibly abusive father/grandfather. He might have even had more people on his side if that was the case (especially if we add in the idea that the Batsons were killed as some kind of test of Billy’s pure heart).

There would still be those who insist that they shouldn't get in the middle of their complicated and potentially messy family situation. But there would also be those who wonder if Marvel had a choice in becoming a hero if his father was the one who imbued him with his powers because it was his "destiny". I can definitely picture Marvel bluescreening if someone asked him if he'd had a choice in being a hero (he didn't, and Billy didn't either) or if he'd ever wanted something else for himself (it had never occurred to him that he could be anything else because he was created to fight evil). His answer would definitely send up some red flags to whoever he's talking to.

There are so many cool ways having people think Shazam is Marvel’s father could play out and it would be so fun to explore that.

And since you mentioned it, while I don’t currently have plans to write an AU of my fics, I AM completely open to other people writing AUs of my fics if they are inspired enough to do it! So long as you credit me as the original author/check the Inspired By box when you post, I encourage you to go for it!

[doodle17]

Psychonauts Future Fanfic chapter 1

(I am by no means a professional writer, and this was made entirely for fun. But as a warning, chapters may be heavily edited or even deleted and re-uploaded in the future, as I am very self conscious about my writing.)

Raz looked down at the newspapers set on the table by Sasha. He let out a defeated sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm stumped. I don't know what to do..."

"Of course you don't..." Sasha grumbled. Raz looked back to the papers. He tried to examine them closer, seeing if maybe there was at least a small bit of evidence that could lead them to what their criminal was planning. Of course, he found nothing.

The papers were the same old thing. Research facilities and laboratories destroyed and ruined, robbed of everything valuable. The same old headline was on everyone. "Local Research stolen by mysterious strangers." Of course, the Psychonauts knew who it was. But unfortunately, they didn't know why they were stealing hazardous amounts of chemicals and Psi-lirium. And they didn't know where they were taking it.

Raz sifted through the papers before once again looking to Sasha. He tried to give him a reassuring smile. "Ah, c'mon Sasha, well find out! Eventually." Sasha lowered his glasses and raised an eyebrow. Raz looked around the room awkwardly before clearing his throat.

"Well, Agent Forsythe needs us to meet in her office. She says she has a plan." Sasha said with a doubtful tone. He stood up from his chair and waved his hand, gesturing for Raz to follow him. Raz glanced at the papers one more time. He picked one up, quickly folded it and put it in the pocket of his coat, then quickly caught up with Sasha.

As the two of them walked down the hallway, Raz glanced at Sasha. He remembered when he was a kid he would have to look up in order to make eye contact, but now he was almost as tall as him. Maybe even a few inches taller! He definitely changed in the past 9 years. Everyone had. Especially his family. Queepie was going to start his first week at camp soon.

Wow. How time flies... Raz thought to himself. It only felt like his first day at camp was a few weeks ago. I can't believe I'm already 19 years old. Man, time really flies by...He softly chuckled to himself. I remember when I was younger, I couldn't wait to go on crazy missions like this. Too bad I didn't know there was a LOT more boring investigating than kicking "bad guy" ass.

"Something on your mind, Razputin?" Sasha said, breaking the silence and snapping Raz out of his train of thought. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Just thinking about how much things have changed," He gestured to himself. "Including me." He grinned. Sasha shook his head but smiled slightly. "I don't think you've changed as much as you think. Maybe height wise."

"Oh yeah! I'm almost taller than you!" He hovered his hand above Sashas' head playfully. "Ugh, don't remind me. Every day I see you, it just makes me feel older." Raz laughed. "Hey, do you remember that old helmet?"

"Now Razutin, that's a very rude thing to say about Agent Fullbear-"

"No, no, the one I used to wear. The aviators helmet. With the goggles? Remember when Milla got me these glasses because they looked like my goggles?" He pointed the glasses with red tinted lenses resting on his head. Sasha squinted, thinking for a moment. "Ah! Yes, I remember now." He nodded. "Yes, I do remember that helmet. You used to wear it everywhere. I think I've only seen you without a few times before you stopped wearing it."

"Yeah!" Raz said. I used to wear that thing to bed sometimes. I wonder if it's still lying around somewhere... I wonder if it still fits...

"Agents."

The two of them turned to see an exhausted Norma holding a large mug of coffee and folders. Her eyes looked like it was taking all of her strength to hold them up, with dark bags underneath them. She heavily sighed. "Agent Forsythe is expecting you, and there was something else..." She tried to flip through the folders and papers. "Hey Norma, you doin' alright?" Raz asked. She heavily sighed again.

"Honestly, no. The damned receptionist skipped work again this week, so guess who's covering for her." She said with a forced, miserable smile. She proceeded to walk past the two of them as if she didn't stop to talk to them in the first place. "You'd better hurry, Forsythe is getting anxious. You know how she gets."

"Is that the life of the party, Razputin, I see?" Said Milla happily as the two men walked into Hollis' office. "In the flesh, baby!" Raz said with finger guns. Milla laughed. "Oh, it feels like every time I look at you, I'm expecting to see a small little boy only to be met with a handsome young man. You're turning my hair gray Agent Aquato!" She said with a playful smile. Raz blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "D'aw, well I dunno about handsome -"

"Agents Nein, Vodello, and Aquato..." Hollis looked up from her papers and raised an eyebrow. Raz didn't even notice she was there. He was definitely startled when he heard her voice. She definitely sounded as tired as everyone else working on the current mission. Her desk was full of papers and empty cups of coffee. She lifted her reading classes and rested them her head. "Please, Agents, take a seat. I believe I've got a solution to our situation regarding the recent robberies."

She gestured for the three of them to take one of the seats at the front of her desk. "I believe I've found a way for all of us to figure out what our good friends at the Mandela corporation plan to do with all of the important stuff they've stolen." She said as she reached for a few papers that were resting underneath an empty coffee cup. She tapped them on her desk before sliding them toward the three Agents."There is one for each of you." She said, leaning back in her chair. Raz examined the paper. It had a picture of him, with a fake name and a bunch of other stuff. It looked like a resume of some sort. "Fake personas?" Raz asked, looking from his paper and pushing his glasses into place. Hollis nodded. "Yes, I have a feeling we won't get any farther if all we do is wait for them to attempt another scheme and hope we can get there on time to stop them. But if we can get inside..." She leaned in.

"But, isn't the place guarded by, like, a MILLION guards and security systems?" Raz asked. "Not to worry, Aquato, the two of you will be acting as interns. Milla and Sasha will be acting as your mentors. Otto has made sure that your fake work IDs are fool-proof." Intern, huh? That brings back memories. Raz then remembered being locked in the old closet in nothing but his underwear. He shuddered. Not very good memories.

"This may actually work!" Milla said, admiring her paper. But, who's going to be joining us?" That's right. Raz noticed she was holding a fourth paper. "Yeah, didn't you mention another agent to be the second intern with me?" Raz wondered who it could be.

Maybe Lizzie, or Dogen, maybe Adam! Oh, I hope it's Adam and not Norma. PLEASE, don't let it be Norma... Before Forsythe could answer, someone spoke. "It's mine."

Raz's heart stopped for a moment before it immediately started to beat a million miles a minute. He turned around quickly, almost getting out of his chair. Was it really?

"L-Lili?!" He sputtered.

(And end of chapter! Thanks for reading! Comments or tips are greatly appreciated as I want future chapters to be exceptional.)

[a-strange-inkling]

If it were up to you ( one of the best hellcheer fanfiction writer) what would you fix or change about the fight of Icarus?

Aw shux, that’s high praise! I really don’t think I’m worthy of that, but thank you 🤍

Oh God… what a laundry list 😆 read at your own risk below (I think I’ve finally run out of things to say about this book and will be moving on now 😅)

I’m going to be honest, the best way fo fix it would be to not write a book. Point blank. If I was involved with the show at all I would have NEVER written a book about Eddie in any official capacity. I don’t know if the author was aware of just how unhinged certain parts of his fanbase are (I’m sure she is now) but you’re not going to make anyone happy with this. Eddie’s ridiculously popular yes, I get it, but part of his appeal for people was how untouched his background was.

Flight of Icarus is kind of a mess plot wise with pretty weak/poor characterizations. There’s some good elements and scenes in it. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. It’s pretty mid. I mean books based on tv shows aren’t exactly known for their… luster. It’s obviously going to lack the passion of an unpaid fanfic writer who has spent endless hours watching season 4 and doing in-depth research and analysis for their work… but that’s what we’re all used to. That’s our standard. So it’s kind of already set up for failure.

But, if I was in charge of a book like this, here’s some of the things I would do differently:

I’d have picked ONE main plot to focus on because there is way too much going on in these 280 pages for me to have the time to be invested or care about anything. There’s like three plus storylines going on with Eddie all to push ONE narrative which is basically him choosing between risking everything for a fantasy/dream of fame and money or staying true to himself and what’s real which is the steadfast loyalty of his friends and family. This takes the form of Al vs Wayne, Paige vs Ronnie, LA vs Hawkins, solo career vs band/hellfire, dropping out to try to become a rockstar vs being the first Munson to graduate, who Eddie wants to be vs who he truly is deep down.

It’s just too much.

I’d have taken a little more time making Eddie three dimensional. I know he’s a side character, but a lot of heart and thought went into creating him (at least on Joe’s end). I’d have made more conscious choices for his character, especially if he’s narrating in first person (I would have not used first person). His outer dialog is great (the dialog throughout the whole thing is actually really great, you can tell the author’s a screen writer and it’s one of the stronger elements to the book) but his inner monologue is pretty ooc and at times really off. He lacks a lot of the things that drew people to him in the first place or it’s just not as strongly presented I guess. He doesn’t feel fully formed.

If I was going to give Eddie a love interest (I don’t know why you would do that to yourself at this point, his fanbase is volatile at best and either ships him with Steve, Chrissy, or themselves, no one is going to like it) I’d have given her WAY better writing than an immersive wattpad character with little to no character traits outside of her aesthetic and interests which is an alternative style and liking music. Wow. Groundbreaking. I would have her make decisions based on a fully formed personality verses the convenience of the plot. And if not, if she’s going to be a means to an end, I’d at least go all in and make her wild or evil or a total bitch or conniving or funny or grumpy or goofy or something. She’s not given enough focus or time to be well rounded so I’d just have fun and go batshit crazy with her (don’t worry Paige, you’re mine now and I will give you an actual character and vindication).

Eddie choosing between his dad and Wayne would have probably been the plot I picked to focus on and I would have really dived into that. The good, bad and the ugly of the Munson family. Because Al (that would not be his name btw 🤢) and Wayne reflect the two sides of Eddie’s character. A charming, self serving, cowardly asshole and a good, strong and kind person who protects and looks after others. I like Ronnie a lot and she’s probably the best written character in the book, but Wayne needed to have more spotlight for this.

I’d have definitely made the plot a lot less fantastical and way more of a simple character study. Just Eddie deciding between embracing the infamy of the Munson family or choosing to rise above it. Does he decide to scheme and cheat like his dad to get more out of life or does he do the right thing and stay the course to actually graduate and make something of himself. That’s it. All that’s needed. Eddie getting a shot at being a rockstar at eighteen in Hawkins is already kind of odd, especially when his in is a twenty year old “junior scout”??? Who just happens to be at his dive bar and have the hots for him and fucks him and pretty much offers him a life in LA on a silver platter with no issues other than having to bail on his band and high school club?? It’s… a bit much for our unlucky loser boy we see in the show. Book Eddie is as lucky as they come, but he’s a total dumbass and decides to trust and scheme with his deadbeat father??? Who has always failed him? Why? I get he needs money but his kinda girlfriend’s got a job and he’s pretty much got a record deal. What even is this? That whole storyline would be scrapped to hell. But hey, at least it’s more believable than an actual drug heist and a kingpin and a shoot out. Oh and arson. It’s giving… *shivers* Riverdale and not in a good way.

Lastly, I’d have taken the opportunity to develop characters from the show a little more. Not a ton, but like the author did with Higgins. I really like how he was written in the novel. He had a lot of fire and personality out of nowhere which was kind of hilarious. I probably would have expanded Jason the most actually, I’d have added more to that tense rivalry. And I’d have left Chrissy pretty much out of it. The talent show is best left to the imagination and we already have a delicate narrative between them because of the forest scene. I wouldn’t want to add too much there. But she’d have a cameo for sure. Like brief eye contact or a shared smile or something at the very end of the book. Just a little glimmer of what’s to come. I’m also a Eddie has always had a little bit of a thing for Chrissy truther, so in my bias I might have him quietly admire her from afar or something.

And there you go.

I mean you’re going to get my version of his backstory eventually anyway and bonus he and Chrissy live, get married and have kids. Yay!

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

It’s good to see you again, Blair :D

I am asking you to ramble about absolutely anything you’d like. Whatever it is.

You never disappoint! I won't lie, I had hoped to see your name crop up in my inbox.

So, since I rarely have a chance to ramble about the shows I work, I'm going to take this opportunity to rant about The Little Mermaid. Why? Because I'm trying to get that show added to the roster of productions we put on for my children's theatre.

Tumblr has already talked about the misconception of this show. How Ariel is seen purely as a romantic who literally gave up everything to chase a boy she didn't even know. But in reality, Eric was just an excuse that pushed her into finally doing something she had always wanted to do deep down. Ariel doesn't surrender her voice to get a boyfriend, she does it so she can visit the surface and experience what it means to be human. Something she dreamed of long before she met Eric. (Part of Your World, anyone?)

I actually want to write in some dialogue into our script where Ariel lampshades the absurdity, Frozen style. Where she acknowledges that it was foolish to chase after Eric when he was more or less a stranger. But of course, by the end of the show, he definitely isn't. I want Ariel to reunite with Triton and for them to talk about Eric. "You were right. I didn't know him. But now I do."

Writing Sebastian is so damn fun. He's 100% done with Ariel's nonsense and absolutely does not get paid enough for this, but he will truck on, and try to keep her safe. I want to write a line for him reuniting with Ariel after almost getting killed by the Chef and his cleaver in that number, "You would not believe the day I'm having."

Meanwhile, Ursula. Best role. Best villain. Best song. She realized she could exploit the King's daughter to seize his throne. In general, her motives and her history with the crown are interesting. In some versions, she was the one who murdered Ariel's mother, explaining why Ariel would have been wary of her, but of course, Ursula claims it was all a misunderstanding and that she tried to save her. In other versions, Ariel's mother was killed by sailors. (Not Eric's sailors, but still) explaining why Triton hates them so much. In other versions, Ursula is literally Triton's sister, and Ariel's aunt, which does give her a claim to the throne. But, I'm not crazy about this. As I've talked about before, I'm no fan of the "evil aunt/uncle" trope.

Ursula's end is also much better depicted onstage, in my opinion. In the Disney movie she turns into a giant titan and then gets speared by the ship...and it's like, sure, okay I guess? But in the stage play, they can't do that. Instead, the power of The Trident consumes her. She can't handle it, and it destroys her - and Triton even warns her beforehand that this could happen, that not everyone has what it takes to wield the Trident's power, but of course she doesn't listen. I love that. It's much more interesting and character based.

There are also some great songs in the stage version, in addition to the iconic tunes from the movie, that a lot of people don't know. I invite anyone reading this to search up "Fathoms Below" and "Human Stuff" and especially "She's In Love" which is sung by Ariel's sisters and is a knock out show-stopper. Basically I've been penning a version of Little Mermaid to pitch to my Director so I've been thinking about that show a lot right now, and I think it's fascinating.

The main thing I want us to add song-wise is a finale number, that talks about the Land and Sea coming together. Little Mermaid 2 does have this, but the melody is awful. It's so bad. In general, Little Mermaid doesn't have a final number, and I want to show how the two worlds that were divided by ignorance and fear are now coming together, through Ariel and Eric. That's an important message.

[xenascribbles]

you know what im gonna make up my own questions to ask you about your characters! i don't know much about them but this will help

who holds the most guilt?

who had the most recent fuck-up? (either timeline wise or how far you are into your story-wise)

who is the most like you?

who has your favourite quirk?

who are you hoping will become a fan favourite?

who has the best and worst fashion tastes?

what are the special interests/defining hobbies of your characters?

on a three-person car ride, which characters, when grouped together, would be: having the most fun, be the most likely to kill each other, be the most likely to come out of it as changed people?

answer as little or as many as you want! no pressure xx

i love you for this 🥺 i don’t have a lot of wips out and what i do have is still in its pretty early stages so i won’t have a lot of characters to choose from, but ill do my best! contenders will be from The Noble Prince, The Curse of the Human Condition, or my unnamed lesbian murder wip

i put it all under the cut bc it got a bit long :)

1. Kieran from The Noble Prince, or Cestian from The Curse of the Human Condition! Kieran harbors a lot guilt for his mother’s death — she perished in a house fire. he was also inside and tried to get her out, but he couldn’t save her, and ended being dragged out by his own father but not without suffering some severe burns.

Cestian holds a lot of guilt because…. well, his guilt is complicated, but long story short: he did nothing while the woman he loved was beaten and exiled, and then when he later found her on the brink of death, he saved her, but she had lost her memory. so now she sees him as her savior, but doesn’t remember any of the pain he caused her.

2. the most recent fuck up….. oh… probably King Oliver from The Noble Prince. his fuck ip was blindly trusting Lord David, who recommended Kieran to guard Tzipora. because Kieran is about to uproot the King’s plans for Tzipora.

3. oh oof which of them are most like me? that’s hard to say. all my characters are like me, small parts of me taken and worked into new characters. maybe Kieran. he’s not very outspoken, but he has a lot of opinions, and he’s very curious.

4. Emmett! idk if it counts as a quirk, but he has a vicious southern accent and it’s fun to write! if that doesn’t count, then Tzipora’s tendency to repeat things :)

5. if i could write more for Evie and Scarlett, i just KNOW they’d be adored, especially Scarlett. they’re fun little murderers that worship a goddess of murder, and scarlett is a very bubbly, very sweet, but very violent love bug :) i love her so much

6. Best fashion tastes have to be both Alesya and Cestian from the Curse of the Human Condition. Alesya was a princess in line to be Queen, and Cestian is a King, so they both had to make sure they looked good at all times. worst fashion tastes goes to Silas, from the same story, or Kieran from The Noble Prince. he dresses for comfort and to hide his scars, not to look good.

7. Kieran is the only one that i’ve given a defined hobby/interest, and that’s reading! he reads any and every genre, but his favorite thing to read is old journals. he loves to learn about the world through other peoples’ eyes, to read about their lives

8. most fun would be Evie, Scarlett, and Tzipora. Three women that love bloodshed and don’t care who they hurt. they’ve all seen a lot and would have a lot of crazy stories to tell.

most likely to kill each other would be Alesya, Cestian, and Silas, all from the Curse of the Human Condition. Alesya is in love with Silas and hates Cestian, but she’s being forced into an arranged marriage with Cestian, and Cestian and Silas hate each other because they’re both in love with Alesya 😅 it’d be a mess

and to come out changed…. hmmmm… Evangeline, Tzipora, and Alesya. A murderous creature, a magical God, and a mere human woman that appreciates life. i think they’d end up falling into deep conversations about humanity and show each other different perspectives. they’d all be a little different once its all said and done.

thank you for these! it was really fun !!!!!

[the-lore-and-art-cave-go-brrrrr]

Welcome toooooo

-dramatic drumrolling-

One in the morning ramblings with Z!

Brought to you by the fact that there’s lightning and thunder where I’m at but no rain.

Namely it’s making me think about how my guys would feel about this, including the Pokemon character group.

And especially how [Redacted] feels, given a certain incident during the calamity.

Anyways it’s now time for the rambling segment, here we freakin go

Niko: I feel like when they were younger (canon Niko), they didn’t like it very much, but I think my Niko as they are now actually kind of likes it. They probably can’t look at lightning directly for very long because of the eye sensitivity, and the noise could make their headaches do mean things, but I do think they would like sitting and reading while it’s thundering outside. No coding though because blackouts could mess that up

Rizu: I actually think Rizu would love thunder and lightning. She probably has tried writing a song about it before. I dunno, there’s not much to say.

Asa: I’m leaning towards Asa not really having an opinion on thunderstorms. She’s probably just someone who goes “Oh, it’s thundering.” And then she just continues on with her day. Maybe she dislikes it, but only if she’s at the hospital or in classes doing her cna stuff (I really should ask my two cna friends or my parent about what cna stuff entails…), because if a blackout happens that could be really bad.

Sage: I don’t think Sage would be a fan of lightning or thunder. She can’t see the lightning, so that doesn’t matter to her, but she has more sensitive ears then the others do, so I think the lack of warning due to not seeing the lightning combined with the loud noise of thunder would freak her out a little.

Twm: I honestly don’t know how weather would work in the simulation. I mean I assume it’s a thing but I have no idea for sure. So I think if Twm could encounter lightning in any way at all, they wouldn’t be the biggest fan. The very aggressive just booming sound of the lightning might just bring him a lot of anxiety, which is not fun for her. So I really don’t think it would like thunderstorms

[Redacted]: ah yes… the can of worms is being opened. I’ve said before how Fultein died. Split in half by a lightning strike that turned her to stone and wiped out a ton of chaos corrupt. And while Astris didn’t see it (because it’s busy pulling [Redacted] away), [Redacted] literally watched it happen. Sooooo… when your friend/mother figure dies because she struck herself with lightning, you’re not going to like it. And the loud noise is also not something that he would like, because of the same reason basically.

onto the Pokemon character group (I should really do something with them again….)

Saffron: Saffron I mentioned has Synesthesia, so sounds invoke colors and vice versa (I mean there’s more to it in her case, but this is the biggest detail for his personal feelings here), so the sound of thunder would probably result in some fun color stuff vision wise. I think he’d like thunder, but not so much lightning, because it hurts her eyes.

Rai: I’ve been thinking about this one, and I can say with a decent amount of confidence that Rai doesn’t have any thunder based trauma (just some giant light dragon related trauma, no big dealllll), so I think he would be alright with it. No super strong feelings in one way or the other, it kind of just… is.

Rosa: Thought about this one too, and I don’t think there’s any thunder based trauma she’s going to have (just some darkest day related stuff, don’t worry about it, we’ll get into that later), so I think she’d like it. Not like a crazy amount, but she probably likes to listen to it.

And this concludes the rambling with Z segment-

[azsazz]

genuinely wondering now though, is it worth reading through TOG and CC to understand whats going to happen in the next ACOTAR book? I genuinely have 0 interest in the other series and really only engage in ACOTAR content lmao

i have my qualms about the way sjm writes but idk to me it feels like a fun little book where you just have to turn your mind and brain off when reading? i nearly dropped the whole series after acomaf because i was genuinely confused and conflicted with what happened to tamlin’s character. i really liked him in book 1 and then acomaf and the next books came along and i still really like him and he’s my favorite character just on the basis that i think his character was done an injustice. at this point, idk if i want her to write his redemption arc because im so scared of what she’s going to do to his character but i also don’t want him dead bc i do want to see him again at some point.

regardless, i’m just wondering if i should even get into TOG and CC, but especially CC because yeah.. i haven’t heard the best things about it. I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts !!

i personally read tog earlier this year and i enjoyed it. it was def plot focused and not smut focused, so we got to see some good things happening plot and semi-character-wise

i don't like cc at all so i'm not the best person to ask about that. but i also do feel like sjm is the type of author where if you wanted to know what was going on fully you might have to read all of the books because i dont see her being that person where she'll do a quick short paragraph recap of what things mean/what's happening.

oh yeah i love just reading for the fun of it, cc was too much for my peanut brain to comprehend lol but i dont think even tog was that crazy with world building. sjm is def rushing cc to make all of these things work.

I'LL ALWAYS LOVE BEASTY TAM he was done so fucking wrong

[frothingatthemaw]

Not sure I’ve you’ve been asked these before but…

Sunny’s favorite color? Favorite animal(s)? Favorite stunt? Favorite stunts or bits to do? What was her and Knoxville’s first date? Do they ever marry? Do they ever want any Sunny and Knox jrs or do they not want children together or undecided? If they marry I’d love to hear about that…

What are her biggest pet peeves? Biggest fears? How does she form an opinion on people/what’s the most telling thing about a person that makes her decided if she likes them or not? Did she know about Jackass before she met them? Who did she meet first? Is there anyone she doesn’t get along with cast and crew wise?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING THIS AHHHHH!!!!!!!! you're the best <3

sunny's favorite color: deep red or dark purple, mostly red though since it's the color she wears most often aside from black

favorite animal(s): she loves cats a lot.... but she also likes snakes since she's been bitten by them multiple times!

favorite stunt: i'm gonna answer this as her favorite overall stunt in any jackass movie. and that's anaconda ball pit!

favorite stunts/bits to do: anything pain related really... snake bits, tasers, piercings, tattoos...

her and knoxville's first date: this is actually a fic i'm writing rn! it's at a bar.... and they [redacted] (<- spoilers) maybe!!!!

do they ever marry: YES!!!!!!!!!!! their wedding isn't even a wedding. they're in vegas and they're bored and they are discussing getting married while knox is wasted and sunny is high in their hotel room and they have this crazy idea to just get married at a wed n go! usually sunny isn't a spontaneous person but she knew she doesn't like the ideas of weddings so this would be fun and silly and they would be officially married by doing this anyways. so yeah. they were high and wasted getting married in vegas all alone on a random afternoon

do they ever have kids: yes! they have a couple. but since sunny is on the asexual spectrum and is entirely not okay with being pregnant, they adopt and/or use a surrogate

sunny pet peeves: lots of sensory issues..... so That. she also has little things like she hates watching people do things when they is a Much Simpler way to do them. or when people just aren't listening when it's something very important. does that even count as a pet peeve??

sunny biggest fears: losing her pj... dying alone honestly too.... or like suddenly realizing all the people she loves hates her.

how does sunny tell if she likes someone: honestly through knox lol, if he likes someone then she normally does too! or their opinions on him. she can't like someone who doesn't like her other half. but other than that or before knox, it would be how people treat others! if people are just Assholes, what's the point!

did she know about jackass before she met them: nope! she absolutely did not. the reason she met them was because she made herself go to a bar alone one night as she had formed a fear of going out and especially to places like bars which are loud. she met bam first by him being in on a bet to start fights with the most people (competing with dunn ofc). so bam starts a fight with sunny and she wins obviously... she inspired ehren to say "that's bam margera, he's famous" in terror taxi because he said it to sunny once they all started talking and she didn't know who they were at all

who did she first meet: as from the other question, bam!!!

is there anyone she doesn't get along with in the cast/crew: hmmm... i think her and tremaine have gotten into a few little arguments and that's just because of her worrying about stuff i think? i dunno i haven't thought about this. i feel like dave would have some kind of weird relationship with her because she's definitely a different person from him, like in a way that doesn't allow them to click well

[taegimood]

(edit: pls send me requests omg give me something legit to write about 💀🙏🏼 help)

ok literally no one asked for this but i’ve been asking my moots these questions, so i figured i might as well answer them myself too lol

which member's type do you think you'd be?

which member is closest to your type (bias or not)?

which member do you think you'd be closest with platonically?

which member do you think you'd be the least close with?

1: i think i’d be closest to yeonjun’s type, at least visually.. my primary fashion is grungy street style so i think we have a lot in common style-wise and would vibe hard tbh :3 (but personality-wise..? idk i haven’t thought that far ahead lmao what do you guys think?? would any of them like me o_o)

2: oh man.. this is hard cuz visually i don’t really have one set type, i’m attracted to several different vibes.. but yeonjun cuz of the fashion and fox features, and soobin because ??? look at him ?? kdrama first love coded, periodt. (but they’re all so stunning that if i saw any of them on the street without knowing who they were i’d definitely want their numbers and also their [redacted])

personality-wise… RAHHHH why are these questions so hard i literally suck at making decisions- i’m the one that made these questions too ffs- ok sometimes yeonjun makes me want to shove my hand into his face and PUSH (lovingly. respectfully.) because he’s so Frat Bro Coded sometimes LMAOO 😭 so i think soobin or beomgyu. gyu is INSANE but i think we’d have so much fun together and he can be soft and serious when the time calls for it. i rlly want someone i can be goofy as hell with and gyu def fits the bill. and soobin……. oh, my sweet soobin……. dream man…. he’s so 💖💕💝💘💗 ……. (not me clowning matcha for being biased for gyu in her response while soobin is living rent free in every single one of my answers 🤡) soobin is the Actual Love Of My Life™ and i think we could fit well together in so many ways but 3 things that DEPRESSINGLY make me wonder if we’d work:

i’m also an introvert so i need someone more extroverted than i am to get me out of my shell 😖 biggest one is he said he doesn’t lead in the relationship and lets the girl make all the decisions (i prefer a guy who leads and wants to make decisions together) and he loves physical touch but only when he’s the one giving it 🤨 IM SUCH A TOUCHY CLINGY BITCH SOOBIN PLS LET ME HOLD YOU-

3: this post is so fckn long for no reason why am i such a verbal processor this one is ALSO hard cuz not to sound like a pick-me but i feel like i could be pretty good friends w any of them?? 😭 maybe gyu ??? i’m an introvert so he definitely might get too overwhelming for me at times but i also become a crackhead when i’m with friends i can be myself with who share my humor, so i think when i’m in the right headspace gyu and i could just go crazy together and be goofy asf lol. we could also game together and i could run him into the ground in victory 🫶🏼

but ok yeonjun and i would be such bros together plus he knows what it’s like to live in america so there’s that and fashion to bond over… i could be total gym buddies with taehyun and we’d bounce that dry humor off of each other… just like soobin and kai, i’m a huge anime and video game nerd (could do show and tell w kai and all our plushies too 🫶🏼) so i could game and binge anime for hours and be totally content especially if i’m bonding over it w someone else o_o SOOOOO i feel like i could be friends with all of them but as for besties? not me wanting to pick soobin again i don’t know 😀

minji do you literally know anything

4: honestly i think taehyun :((( i just think i have the least amount of things in common with him, that’s all !!! no other reason i still love him sm although i’m also a singer actually (fun fact) so i think we could do such pretty covers together 🥺

anyway this is LONG AS ALL HELL for literally no reason other than the fact that i talk too much lmao so here are the answers that no one asked for 😍

[01turnkill]

2024 Media Post Time - Master

5. Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC

Side Order! Like everyone else, I'll be comparing this to Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion DLC..

I loved Octo Expansion a lot, I even 100% completed it (every stage with every weapon) and I intend to do that for this DLC too. I've finished it with every palette so far but I haven't maxed all my chips yet.

I'm a big roguelike fan. Love Hades, Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, Darkest Dungeon. They're fun to play and a lot of fun to watch. Before Side Order, I haven't played a proper 3D shooter roguelike before so it was a fun experience. Well... Side Order is a roguelite so a lot of these elements but not completely random, since the levels you play are from a set.

Side Order is a lot of fun for me. It definitely feels closest to Hades of all the roguelikes I mentioned. With the different weapon selection, selecting from 3 upgrades at the end of each level, the same few bosses, Marina's hacking shop is JUST like Nyx's darkness. Some of the upgrades are similar too and the Danger floors are like Chaos' upgrades with a benefit but a sacrifice for a limited amount of time. I played a round of SO with dualies, and damage whenever I dodge rolled and it felt exactly like some of the dash boons in Hades.

This isn't a bad thing and it's still unique being 3D, the different tower and zone modes, limited colour chip palette. Maybe other stuff.

To be honest, Octo Expansion trumps Side Order lorewise.. And gameplay wise too it was more diverse.. though not replayable the same way. I 100 percented it, every level every weapon and it was pretty fun. but I didn't go back. The story is quite simple and not too dark, and for some reason with the trailers I thought the tower would be MASSIVE. Near 60-100 floors, PMD feelings here. Especially since we get told the "danger" levels will be more common if we go a while without playing one.. Maybe true but they're also completely avoidable. I was also really surprised to see that we get Marina with us immediately after the tutorial part of everything and she's just there the whole time like, cool but I thought it would be deeper than that.

The levels definitely get repetitive and I end up mastering them very quickly. My first time on Cruel_Sisyphean_Eight-Shaped.Floor for instance, took me over 12 minutes on a casual run. Now, even without hacks I can do it in a couple minutes (not tryharding). Then theres On-the-Run(Circles)_Eternally-Hunted.Floor. It's a grind but this one I had in the bag easily after probable my second time and those were probably the only levels I had trouble with first time at all. Some levels stayed fresh every time I played them, especially with low hacks, but not those two even though they were challenging and stood out to me at first.

At least the colour chips and palettes can make each run crazy different. My first run with brush was insane, I regained ink fast enough that I never needed to recover in swim form. Just endlessly attacking. I didn't have too much difficulty with any weapon except for the Octoshot of course as it limits the amount of chips and hacks you can have at once... and I'm not sure if it was because of the low hacks but I failed it a TON, especially on the smollusk fight which was annoying. Most of the palettes were a first time win for me and if not it was on my 2nd try and I only added hacks when it came to my last few palettes so I don't know if I was just fumbling or what but I eventually did it with one hack for damage resistance and one for life I think... can't remember. I tried a couple things.

Smollusk is kind of cool once you finish visiting them and I feel like there is more to think about and potential with their circumstances, I'd like to see more. I just crave suffering you know how I am. I'd like to see it more painful and conflicting. There's some reading between the lines to be done also with Acht and the Marina dev logs and the way octolings are as a whole. Might write my thoughts on them later.

[veliseraptor]

2022 Fanfiction Round-Up

Total Year-Long Wordcount: 388,095 words written, though obviously not all of those ended up getting posted, since a lot of them were in WIPs that continue to be WIPs.

This year I wrote and posted: 36 fics, apparently. Which is more than I thought it was going to be! I feel sort of like this was a year where I was more chugging along with things than spinning them out into complete projects but I guess that wasn’t wholly accurate.

Overall Thoughts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? 

Less, I think, but also…I feel like I wrote a pretty good amount, all things considered. More than last year, which is nice, since last year was…real rough, writing-wise. Though also an especially crazy year for me so that does make sense. 

What’s your own favorite story of the year? 

I waffled on this for a bit but ultimately I think the story that I’m proudest of from this year is our love would live a half-life on the surface. It wasn’t the story I expected to write when I started writing it in 2021 as my Big Bang fic for that year (and then ended up going a different direction because I didn’t think I had enough material to make up the length), but it ended up being stronger for the change (namely, the one where I realized that I’d been trying to write a fix-it proper and that wasn’t what I was writing at all).

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Hmm. Unfortunately I feel like I have to say that I don’t think I did. Which kind of troubles me (am I stagnating as a writer?) but I’m going to try not to fret about it.

From my past year of writing, what was….

My most popular story of this year: In terms of kudos, somewhere between the heart and the vein by a fair margin (812); interestingly enough 4 out of 5 of the most popular fics by that metric this year were Kinnporsche fics, though I guess that makes sense given shiny new active fandom.

Most fun story to write: It’s sometimes hard to think back and remember what was fun to write at the time, but I feel like I have to go with the reluctant shishi for this one, because that was a fic that just flowed out of me very quickly and easily and I enjoyed pretty much the entire experience of writing, which is so rare.

Story with the single sexiest moment: I apparently wrote a shockingly minimal amount of smut this year, it turns out! Startling and appalling, what was I thinking. (I’m joking. Mostly.) I’m also in kind of a weird place with respect to my smut right now where I don’t feel like any of it is actually hot, so that’s making answering this sort of difficult. So I’m just going to leave that alone before I get too in my feelings about it.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: It’s not really the one I actually feel this way about but I do still feel kinda funny about The Hand That Feeds, not so much that I wrote it (I’ve definitely written worse) but that I posted it. I didn’t write a whole lot of badwrong fic this year, though, apparently. In some ways I think our love would live a half-life on the surface might be the one that best fits this, though it’s less wrong and more just…more nakedly messed up than a lot of other things I wrote this year.

Huh. I feel like I’m losing my touch.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: I wouldn’t say it shifted my perception, exactly, but writing the rest of this world is gonna break your heart definitely got me thinking more about Jiang Yanli than I have most of my time in this fandom. 

Hardest story to write: But so many of them are hard in different ways, how am I supposed to choose one! I feel like I might have to go with the fair and the brave and the good must die because (a) it’s the first and closest thing to an actual Wangxian fic that I’ve written (or probably will write, ever), so I was working with characters I haven’t spent as much time thinking about and (b) I’ve been writing it for about three years (off and on) so clearly it was giving me many fits.

Biggest Disappointment: I continue to be frustrated with the fact that I can’t make myself be happy with Liability and continue to feel vaguely bad about it as a work. Same with on a narrow road, actually. I don’t know what it is about some works that just leaves me with a weird feeling of “this isn’t what I wanted it to be/this isn’t up to my standards” but…there you go. 

Biggest Surprise: There are always several of these because of my habit of planning absolutely nothing, but I feel like special mention has to go to heel, stay for initially being a fic that was just “put Xue Yang in a muzzle” and ended up being over 20,000 words of relationship negotiation featuring ace Song Lan. Didn’t see that coming!

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: I don’t know that I’d call it unintentionally telling unless I’m making it that by answering this question, but I’m going to say that writing like a trigger (get me ready to shoot) was deeply therapeutic to me. 

Favorite Opening Line(s):

Once he reached a certain age, Xue Yang learned that mostly people didn’t touch you unless they wanted to hurt you. (how bright you glow)

Vegas remembered the first time his dad hit him, but he didn’t remember why. (the edge of thorns)

Within thirty seconds of seeing Xiao Xingchen Xue Yang knew he wanted to fuck him. (spin me right round)

It was six months after the life Vegas had always expected to have was eviscerated like livestock in a slaughterhouse, and things were…fine. That really was the right word. Not good, not awful. Just…fine. (walking shadows)

The sun was starting to poke weakly through the heavy mist by the time Xue Yang stopped working. (our love would live a half-life on the surface)

Favorite Line(s) from Anywhere:

1. "You only want to stick around because I fucked with your head enough to make you think you love me,” Vegas said ruthlessly.

Pete punched him. (walking shadows)

2. He didn’t remember putting a collar on his own neck and handing the leash to Xiao Xingchen but he could feel it there now. Not like he was being pulled anywhere, or anything, just that there was the weight and the pressure and Xiao Xingchen held the leash so, so lightly that it was almost like he wasn’t holding on at all. (it hurts at first (but it ain’t that bad))

3. People looked at Vegas all the time. He wanted them to. He liked that they did. He’d made himself a lure for people like one of those deep sea fish using a light to draw in their prey, dazzling them before devouring them. Pete saw the gaping jaws full of teeth first and chased the light anyway. (like a trigger (get me ready to shoot))

4. He held still, but he didn’t look away, either. Just watched as Xue Yang shattered and shattered in the jaws of an emotion too big for his ruined soul to hold. (nurture the tiger)

5. He was his father’s hands and his father’s knife. Vegas the weapon, Vegas the monster, Vegas the attack dog, turned loose and brought to heel. Hands and a knife, or sparking wires, or pliers, a drill, shards of glass. (Finders Keepers)

6. He wished he didn’t know. He’d been happier not knowing. He’d rather be marked as disposable, he’d realized, than erased as invisible. There was something bitter about realizing that he’d been both. (Once You Are Real)

7. On bad days Vegas wished they’d just gone with a nice, clean execution. It made him feel a little better that Kinn probably felt that way too, so by still being alive Vegas could ruin that for him. (cuddle you in the undertow)

8. He had years of ingrained loyalty and training that dictated that the bodies of the family – main and minor – were sacrosanct, to be protected. And now there were bruises on Vegas’s face and a gunshot graze on his arm and Pete had put them there. (somewhere between the heart and the vein)

9. She dreamed about it that night. Dreamed that she stood at Lotus Pier, looking out at the water, and she could feel her brothers at her sides – a-Xian on the left and a-Cheng on the right. But she didn’t want to turn her head and look. A-Xian took her hand with skeletal fingers, bone worn smooth. Welcome home, shijie, he said, in a voice like a terrible cold wind. But she wasn’t afraid. (this world is gonna break your heart)

10. Xiao Xingchen. Boundless compassion and kindness and generosity, heart full of open doors Xue Yang had snuck through like a robber into an unguarded house. But not for Xue Yang. (our love would live a half-life on the surface)

Top 5 Scenes from Anywhere You Would Choose to Have Illustrated:

The bit from nurture the tiger that’s just a (thoroughly battered, one-armed) Xue Yang sitting with a (fierce corpse) Song Lan outside and having a full-on emotional breakdown.

Ghost Wei Wuxian being really fucking mean to Lan Wangji from the fair and the brave and the good must die, actually. I think that one would be fun to see visually rendered.

Pretty much anything from this world is gonna break your heart with Jiang Yanli and Xue Yang, though maybe especially the scene where he first sneaks up on her while she’s practicing her demonic cultivation skills.

I can think of several from (you give me) fever that would be fun to see but maybe at the top of that list is sick, semi-delirious Vegas in a blanket cape.

Honestly anything from the Vegas/Pete smut I’ve written the latter half of this year. I miss smut art. That’s not the only reason this one’s on here but it is part of it, while I’m fantasizing about imaginary art of my fic.

Fic-writing goals for 2023:

I have a whole collection of fics I really want to finish, but at the top of that list I think are: the concussed Xiao Xingchen fic (been in the works for forever), the Xue-Yang-haunting-Song-Lan fic (also been in the works for almost as long), and making at least a significant amount of progress on both Redux and Walking Far From Home, if not finishing one (or both). 

Finish et ipsi sunt jacula. I’m parsing this one out separately because I think it’s been on this list for at least two years now and I would really like to just fucking. Finish the damn thing.

Last thing on here I wanna say…write something really fucked up. Don’t care what it is or for what fandom. Just make it fucked, Lise. Go for it.