#i want to give you guys a clue as to her parentage so badly but if i say anything more i fear ill give it away

[gornackeaterofworlds]

💔🎈❗️🥀🍓💋🐞 for my beloved caiji pretty please 🙏

Reblogging ask games when I know I barely developed the characters or plot yet is gonna end me..

💔 (broken heart) - Who has your character hurt most? Physically or emotionally? How did it feel? Do they regret it?

Initially I wanted to say her sister, but I actually think that's untrue depending on your scale of how bad something is. So, my true answer? Her parents. It...well it's hard to place how it felt. Y'know the song from Epic, Monster? Does she regret it? Not in the tiniest little bit. She BRAGS about it. Eventually..

🎈 (balloon) - What does your character do at parties? Are they a wallflower or a party animal? Do they go with friends or alone?

Parties are never to have fun, not for Caiji. They're networking, plotting, scheming events. You find out information and make your next move, you gather things to hang over others. She does drink, though due to her... incredible size a few glasses of wine is the same as water to her. Though she does drag her sister everywhere

❗️(exclamation point) - What was the scariest moment of your character’s life? Does it still affect them?

This is so far in the plot I can't even hint at it. But it's me, ofc I'll hint at it. So I'll take this moment to remind people, for completely unrelated reasons, to glance at the worst content warnings..

🥀 (wilted flower) - How does your character deal with stressful situations? Is their fear response fight, flight, freeze or fawn?

None? Where's the "throw all your values to the wind and strategize the easiest possible way for you to live" response? Taps the Monster from Epic sign

🍓 (strawberry) - Does your oc believe in anything? Are they superstitious? Religious? Atheistic? Has anything in their past made them this way?

Hmm. I actually never thought of this in depth. Yokai understand that magic is its own science, it operates outside of reality and changes it as it pleases. There's no gods, if that's what's implied. But they do worship strong historical figures. Caiji, specifically, has a very complicated relationship with this kind of ideology. She's the daughter of two of the physically strongest and most resourceful and cunning, but has an incredibly strained relationship with the most mystic-inclined individuals. So her views are definitely warped in terms of who she looks up to. And it will be explored, but she also has very little mystic abilities. Her lack of communication with that side of society is part of what got her in this position in the first place.

💋 (kiss) - Is your oc a good kisser? Have they kissed anyone before? Do they even enjoy kissing? What was their first kiss like in comparison to their most recent?

At first, for the longest time, I had the urge to make Caiji very sexually experienced. She's rich, she's hot, she's powerful. But...she's also alone. She doesn't have the time nor vulnerability for that kind of thing, and she's only like 21? She's likely not kissed anyone, no, and her anxiety to do things perfectly and be knowledgeable ahead of time probably makes her a very nervous and awkward kisser. She would enjoy kissing. I won't be showing explicit sex in Butterfly Effect, I'll barely be showing kissing, but multiple characters do smash. And she's one of them

🐞 (ladybug) - What does a perfect day look like for your oc? What do they do? Who do they see?

This is the hardest question. Because it depends on where she's at in her development. Where the comic is now? Being able to sleep and have her family take care of everything for her, as they mostly do now. Having her..rivals dead or obedient. Being given a prophecy of prosperity and peace instead of what's to come

[timeisacephalopod]

Death of a Bachelor

Non-powered coming out IronStrange AU in which Stephen brings Tony home under a few... false pretenses. And, as always when I write him, Stephen is Asian (Nepali). The title for this is literally because Death of a Bachelor is stuck in my head and it sorta fits lol.

Peter sighs, “just you know... be yourself,” he says.

Tony squints, “‘myself’ sucks, what kind of garbage advice is that?” he asks. “I’ve got one shot at this and I know I’m going to botch it.” He’s never been good at ‘meet the parents’. Its happened once and Pepper’s parents still hate him and they aren’t even together anymore.

“That’s what you’d tell me!” Peter says.

“That’s because you’re a sweet, loving young man and anyone would be lucky to have you. I’m an asshole with a long history of warmongering and that’s honestly not even my biggest flaw.” And that’s a fucking feat. 

“Okay you know what, is Stephen even the type to care if his parents like you? Because you’ve been for dating for over a year and I think he’s mentioned them once and that was in direct reference to his dead sister so I don’t really think it matters too much,” he says.

Probably not, Stephen isn’t the type to care what others think period. But Tony wants at least one set of parents to like him and he loves Stephen so this is probably his last chance. If all goes well he wants to propose, was going to anyways, but Stephen brought up his parents so he thought he’d deal with that first. So he really, really only has one shot at this. “It would be nice if a set of parents didn’t hate me for once. Not that I’d blame them really- if you brought home someone who’s a fan of me I’d tell you to dump them immediately. My fans are worse than Fight Club fans.”

Peter laughs, “its true. But I think that’s mostly because they think that time you were a womanizing warmongering alcoholic is like peak you and glorify it, not because you’re actually crappy,” he says.

Across the apartment the elevator door dings and Pepper steps out, “what?” she asks when they swivel to face her.

“We’re talking about dad’s crappy fans,” Peter says. “And also him meeting Stephen’s parents tomorrow.”

Pepper rolls her eyes, “ your fans are awful. They take who they want you to be and tout that image around no matter how little it actually resembles you as a person. As for Stephen’s parents, I have no advice. You’re horrible at these things,” she says.

“See?” Tony says to Peter. “Even Pepper thinks I’m hopeless.”

*

Stephen considers not telling Tony but if he doesn’t he’ll be in for a rather nasty surprise and he can see how nervous he is already. “They’re going to hate you,” he says bluntly and Tony glares at him.

“Is that really supposed to make me feel better?” he asks.

No, but that isn’t why he’s telling Tony anyways. “It won’t be your fault, they’re raging homophobes so they’re going to hate you on account of not being a woman. And I sort of told them you were Christine because I didn’t want to come out over the phone so they’re also going to be a bit surprised. Not that I care, its my grandmother I’d like to like you anyways but if she doesn’t she’s old, its entirely possible that she’s gone senile.” She’d have to be to not like Tony.

Frankly the only reason he’s doing this is because he’s going to propose and his parents Google him once and awhile to figure out what he’s up to. He can’t not tell them and if he tells his gran she’s got a big mouth, she’ll tell them accidentally or maybe on purpose- its hard to tell with her- and then he’ll have to explain himself. So to bypass all that drama he figures he’ll bring Tony home, deal with his parents’ crap, and then propose and get married in peace. Assuming Tony says yes and its a very real possibility he won’t. He’s only been stated that he’s not a marriage person his entire life.

God, he loathes risks he can’t determine the outcome of with at least some educated success.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Tony mumbles and Stephen pities him, really. At least his parents are dead so Stephen doesn’t need to worry about impressing the dust in their graves.

*

To say meeting Stephen’s parents goes badly is an understatement. The first thing they did was look confused, which Tony can’t blame them for considering he very much does not look like a ‘Christine’ let alone Stephen’s Christine. First of all she’s taller. Then Stephen had issued a rather formal ‘I’m bisexual’ and pretended like he hadn’t just said that and then his parents launched into transphobia with their relief that Stephen wasn’t dating some kind of freak. Because apparently he can totally pass as a Christine. Stephen had winced almost harder at that than Tony considering he obviously forgot Peter is trans and Tony doesn’t have the patience for people insulting that.

As it was he only kept his mouth shut because he didn’t want to make anything worse but Stephen’s parents insist of doing that themselves with their weird and invasive questions. Eventually Stephen’s old as shit grandmother told them to shut up, which had resulted in the best part of the night. It had been pretty clear that Stephen’s relationship with his grandmother was stronger than the one with his parents so he’d look pleased when she stood up for Tony, who was very close to his wits end and he thinks he has a dash of patience these days.

When she tells him to stop putting up with Stephen’s parent’s shit Stephen stuffs his face into his glass of wine, obviously anticipating disaster. Tony considers not saying anything but he’s had a bad night and frankly it can’t get worse. 

“Alright- I know I’m more than famous enough for both of you to know who I am and that I’m a recovering alcoholic. Stop trying to offer my wine, its ignorant. Neither Stephen nor I are the woman in our relationship, that’s the fucking point. Neither of us even fit traditional gender roles anyways and if this is some weird, coded way to ask about our sex life neither of us fit the ‘top’ or ‘bottom’ stereotypes either and its fucking boring to stick to one or the other. Also what the hell would it have mattered if I really was Christine? The fuck does my junk or gender have to do with you? You have a lovely home, but its too bad such shit people live in it. Except you, you seem like you’d be fun a a bachelor party,” he says to Stephen’s grandmother.

She grins at Stephen while his parents sit dumbfounded, “I like him, he’s spunky!” she says. Yeah, because apparently the woman who’s two days older than the damn earth itself is more openminded than people half her age.

*

By the time Tony gets home Stephen is howling with laughter. “I can’t believe you started quoting studies at them,” he says, shaking his head.

“Its not my fault they’re idiots, someone had to tell them they’re wrong and also I have an eidetic memory. Figured I’d put it to good use,” he says.

Stephen shakes his head, “well, at least you made that marginally less painful and gran likes you so there’s that. And she’s not easy to impress- she didn’t like actual Christine.”

Tony smiles, “she knew you weren’t going to last or at least that’s what she told me. And also she’s still convinced Christine is a lesbian even though I’m pretty sure she’s bisexual. But she seems to think we’re good together and she’s also completely convinced your father isn’t actually your father. She’s certain your mother cheated on him at some point but given the fact that she’s Asian and the guy she thinks is your actual father is white it’d be basically impossible to tell. Which is how she explains how fucking tall you are.” Turns out the woman, despite her age, is quite spry and has a lot of opinions that she’d been happy to share with Tony. But her conspiracies on Stephen’s parentage were his favorite and, to humor the woman, he agreed to run a DNA test to confirm or deny who Stephen’s father is.

Stephen lets out a long, drawn out sigh that indicates he’s heard this before. “I’ve told her a million times there is no way more than one person would be willing to sleep with my mother. I’m shocked one person was willing to sleep with my mother and if it weren’t for the pictures I’d assume I’d been kidnapped as a child.”

“Yeah, but apparently your actual father is a very tall Scandinavian man and I think your grandmother is on to something. I looked up the average height in Nepal and you’re a literal foot taller than that. You’d be a giant there,” he says.

“And if we’re going by the average height in Italy, you’d be a woman,” Stephen says, giving Tony an irritated look.

“Rude,” Tony mumbles.

*

Stephen settles an arm around Tony’s waist, “I think maybe we should have waited until she died to get married,” he says, eyeing his grandmother talking to Peter.

“I’ve always wanted a grandson that isn’t a massive prick, you seem like a lovely young man,” she says, grinning happily.

Tony looks up at Stephen, who is indeed his father’s child, “your grandma gives off chaotic trickster vibes, I’m half convinced she’s immortal.” 

Stephen sighs, “you probably aren’t aren’t wrong,” he says.

“I don’t think Stephen is that bad,” Peter says in Stephen’s defense not that it works out in his favor given his grandma’s reaction.

“Honey I’m old, but my senses are still working just fine. He’s an arrogant little shit,” she says. Tony doesn’t think he’s ever seen a grandmother swear that much but when he met all her spunky granny friends last week he’d been subjected to a bunch of sex jokes and talk of dildos so he’s not really surprised anymore. Even if he genuinely had no clue that grandmothers made sex jokes.

“I think I’ve earned my arrogance,” Stephen mumbles, coming to his own defense.

“That doesn’t explain why you’ve been like this your whole life. Take some lessons from Peter, he’s humble,” she tells him and Tony snorts and starts laughing. 

“Our wedding is gunna be awesome,” he says.

[science-fiction-is-real]

“The Search”, it’s problems, and how to fix it.   PART 2, OZAI

Some of us really liked “The Search,” which tell the story of Zuko’s mom and her fate.  Other’s of us.... didn’t.

My writer’s instinct tells me to fix any story I don’t like.  So here it is.

In my last analytical post, I talked about Ursa, and how she’s a total badass in the show, but is completely mishandled in the comics.  I also talked about some changes I would make if I were handed the reigns to rewrite “the search.”

Villains are SUPER important to stories so I have a lot to say about this here in part two.

While “The Search” is Ursa’s story, stories are driven by conflict, and so the villain is often just as important as the main character. When it came to Ozai, Gene and Bryke had an amazing opportunity to create something interesting, dynamic, and intimidating, and boy did they drop the ball.

So here is Ozai in terms of “The Search,” what his problems are, and how I would fix them.

Villains, as the main source of conflict, are the power house of any story, and so they need to be done well.  Watching Avatar and Legend of Korra, Bryke prove themselves to be kings when it comes to their villains. Every single one of the bastards struck a balance between being terrifying and being believably human.  (Except for Unalaq.  Fuck you Unalaq)  Ozai was not necessarily a complex character in the show. This was because he was supposed to be more of a symbol of evil than a character in his own right.  But Even Ozai's humanity is shoved down our throats toward the end.  He sure was cute in that baby picture.

But Ozai can’t be the same thing in the comics than he was in the show.  In “The Search” we see him in a more intimate setting, as Ursa’s husband and Zuko and Azula’s father.  He doesn’t get to be a mere symbolic evil anymore.  Now he has to be a walking breathing human being with an interesting personality.  Can he make the switch?

Spoiler alert, he doesn’t make the switch very well.

I don’t think Bryke and Gene recognized how cool an opportunity they had when dealing with person Ozai as opposed to just symbolic Ozai.  

Think about some of the best villains in fiction/literature:   Satan was once Lucifer, Darth was once Anakin, Frankenstein and Monster both were never predestined for their villainous rivalry.  These characters are interesting and timeless because they are PEOPLE first and villains second.  They became evil not because it was fun but because of decisions they actively made, based on complex emotions, beliefs, and desires.  

Presenting villains as humans doesn’t take away their scariness.  The opposite is true.  Seeing humanity in villains disturbs us because it reminds us 1) anyone is capable of evil, and 2) people we hate are human beings too.  Also.  When villains have complex thoughts, feelings, and emotions, this gives them strong motivations, and shows us they are actually DRIVEN to commit evil deeds.

The writers could have done this with Ozai.  But they took that opportunity presented to them by “The Search” and they flushed it down the toilet.

Ozai in the comics certainly LOOKS like a human character.  He does human-ish things, like working out, eating dinner with his family, sharing sexual tension with his wife.  But the writers forget something pretty basic about humans when they delt with Ozai.  Humans have behaviors that are driven by thoughts, desires, and emotions.  Ozai has behaviors, and those behaviors, uhm... sort of.. kind of... add to the plot, But the thoughts, desires, and emotions behind them are self contradictory, poorly explained, or just missing all together.

 Ozai’s actions are so confusing I had to go back to read the comic again just to figure out what the writers were trying to do with him.  I am thoroughly convinced the writers hadn’t the slightest clue what was going on in that evil little noggin, nor did they give the slightest fuck. They spent maybe five minutes on the dude and his dialogue.  The result is neither interesting nor intimidating.

In order to be as unsympathetic as possible, Comics Ozai basically follows the behavior pattern of “handle every situation as badly as I possibly can" regardless if it fits any type of concrete motivation.  In fact Ozai isn’t really allowed to have any thoughts, feelings, or motivations at all.  He is not allowed to show any emotion that doesn’t fall between grumpy and hateful. No other emotions allowed!  Otherwise he might run the risk of being relatable, and God forbid a villain show any of that humanity the show worked so hard to convince us villains have. As a result, his behavior has no consistency.  If this were a Criminal Minds episode, they would profile Ozai as being multiple UnSubs who are not actually working together. 

They can’t get the guy pinned down.  At first they play him off as a jealous and possessive husband.  Of course, Ozai doesn’t show any of the emotions that tend to go along with jealousy and possessiveness.  He shows no sexual or romantic attraction to Ursa.  He suffers no fear of abandonment.  Those are no-no emotions for Ozai.  But he’s jealous anyway.  He reads her mail, he forbids her to contact or talk about her family, he puts a hit out on her old boyfriend.   But then, after spending several pages being jealous and possessive, Ozai suddenly decides to ask Ursa for a quick and amicable divorce right after the plot to kill Azulon is established.  Jealous possessive types usually panic at the thought of separation with their partner, but Ozai actually seems to take glee in the thought of Ursa leaving. Which is it Ozai?  Do you want to control and possess the woman or do you hate her and want her gone?  Make up your fucking mind.

Just as confusing is how he treats Zuko. Abuse by a parent toward a child is always confusing and tragic.  But real dick parents either have no motivation at all for their abuse (other then whatever behavior the victim did to trigger it), or they believe their abuse to be a natural part of parenting.  Ozai actually gives us a more creative reason for his cruelty.  He does it to punish Ursa for her lie about Zuko’s parentage.  We’re supposed to interpret this as Ozai being a sadistic prick.  But if Ozai were really just a sadistic prick, he wouldn’t wait for Ursa to give him an excuse to pick on Zuko.  And if Ursa really was the cause of his abuse, the abuse would stop after Ursa left.  Also why does Ozai take so much glee in Azulon’s order to kill Zuko?  YOU’RE BEING PUNISHED OZAI!  Azulon is telling you to kill Zuko as a PUNISHMENT.  Either its a punishment or it was something you were going to do all along.  It can’t be both. What the hell is going on?

Ozai’s confused motivation means that he isn’t really that intimidating throughout the story.  He’s actually kind of something to laugh at.  A lot of the supposedly scary and evil things he does also fall flat under closer inspection.  When he’s jealous about Ursa’s former boyfriend he doesn’t go after him herself, but instead hires a hit man, who fails.  He tells Ursa not to contact her home town, but he seems to care little about the letters she writes her boyfriend, even though he has been intercepting them for years (until the lie about Zuko’s parentage).  He’s supposed to be seen as conniving and ambitions, but he indicates no interest or plans to seize political power until his wife dictates letter by letter how he can do it.  We don’t even get to see him fight, except against some training dummies.  For such a supposedly dastardly villain he isn’t very ballsy or active in the narrative.  Some of you may disagree with me on that, but I thought he could have done more.

One reason this one-dimensional Ozai bothers me so much is because of how The Search makes a half-hearted effort to have a discussion on abuse and abusive family dynamics.  Ozai is an abuser, but real life abusers aren't dangerous because they happen to be evil for evil's sake, they are dangerous because their cruelty is mixed in with the more human, positive aspects of family life as well.  Abusers use affection and charm to gain control just as much as they use cruelty.  Some times abusers and victims actually have strong, loving feelings for each other, which only further entangles their victims in the cycle.  If “The Search” wants to have a conversation on such a real and pressing topic, it isn't very responsible of them to portray the issue in such a one dimensional and unrealistic way.

Long story short, Bryke had an opportunity to flesh out their best villains they had, and they blew it.  Villains are the source of conflict, and thus driving engines of a story.  Villains are extremely important and need to be done with care.  Bryke blew it.  It makes me want to scream into a pillow.  

SO.... HOW DO WE FIX THIS....?

A good version of the Search could go in one of two different directions.  

One)  They could stick with the story mostly as it is, where Ozai is evil from the beginning and is the unchallenged antagonist throughout the story.  This is more time efficient.

Two) They could really take advantage of the chance to show Ozai as a human being, and give us some backstory on him and the origins of his evil nature.  They could show him as Anakin turning into Darth if you will.

But either of these routes will have some things in common that will need to be fixed.

The Current Search shows an Ozai half-heartedly attempting “schemes” and “plots,” but never in a way that truely convinces us he’s a truely effective antagonist.  The first thing Search 2.0 should do is to show Ozai taking a much more active, if not violent role in the story events.  Ozai’s main character trait it seems is his ambition.  So lets let him be ambitious.  Lets let him grab the royal court by its balls and man handle it to his liking.  Also, its a damn shame we had an action-centered comic where Ozai (one of the best fire benders in the ATLA universe) was the main bad guy, and we didn’t get to see him in a single fight.  Let’s put him in a fight.  Most importantly, in order to convince the reader that Ozai should truely frighten them, his actions need to have very clear and explicit motivations, AND must be successful at least a large part of the time--with consequences to those around him.

Included in this, I want to see Ozai do a much more convincing job playing the abuser.  I want to see him charm and manipulate as well as throw his weight around.  I want to see him actually make the audience feel trapped and claustrophobic as they relate to the family trapped under his thumb.  You may say that is too dark, but must I remind you Show Ozai burned a kid’s face off in the very first season.  We have wiggle room when it comes to darkness.

Next

Ozai needs emotional range.  Every character but him is allowed to show range.  Villains need as much range as the protagonists, including moments of emotional vulnerability and non-threatening emotions.  Emotional vulnerability doesn’t make villains less scary.  It actually does the opposite. Villains are scary when we know their evil deeds have a strong motivation behind them.  And that strong motivation can only come when characters have emotions that drive their actions.   Frankenstein’s monster is a good example of a villain who demonstrates strong, if not over dramatic emotional range.  It’s not the monsters anger or grumpiness that makes him scary, it’s his loneliness, sense of loss, and longing to be loved that do, because we know that THOSE are the emotions that will drive him to fuck a bitch up.

You may also worry that showing an emotionally vulnerable, and dare I say relatable, Ozai would make the reader feel morrally confused.  Good.  Good stories ARE morally confusing.  Tell me you weren’t morally confused when you saw Darth Vader as a ten year old child, or when someone told you FRANKENSTEIN and not the monster might be the bad guy, or when someone told you the devil himself used to work for God, OR WHEN BRYKE SHOWED YOU OZAI’S BABY PICTURE RIGHT BEFORE AANG WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM.  We were morally confused when those things happened, but it made us smarter and wiser because it challenged our perceptions.  If we take the second story option this will be an absolute necessity.

What kind of emotions might those be?  Well, it depends on what type of story line we would decide to go with for Search 2.0. There are some things to work with here.  Ozai is shown having a toxic relationship with his own father.  I could imagine a story line where he attempts to take the pain and hurt from that rejection, and channel it into rising above his station, into unbridled ambition that drives him to destroy his own family while securing his own power.  It is a well established fact that Ozai is ambitious.  We could explore how Ozai feels when asked by his father to kill his own son, in the sense that Ozai takes it as a punishment--torn between protecting his own bloodline vs his compulsive need to please his father.  We could explore what sort of feelings, if any, he has toward Ursa, which is especially important considering this is Ursa’s story.

 If we want to stick as much to canon as possible, let’s recall that Show Ozai reads as a classic narcissist, by the technical definition of the word. His treatment of Zuko and Azula follows typical patterns of Narcissistic abusers, and he also does shit like usurp the throne from his grieving brother and crown himself Phoenix King.  Of course, being a Narcissist does NOT exclude him from being emotionally complex and even in some ways relatable.  Narcisist don’t experience empathy or true love, but they do experience pretty much every other emotion on the table.

Some more plot specific things.. I would get rid of the jealous husband angle.  It seems a little Cliche to me.  I think Ozai would be much too concerned with cementing his own power in the court to worry about who Ursa is writing letters too.

Lets PLEASE get rid of the plot point where Ozai decides to abuse Zuko because he’s trying to get back at Ursa.  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  We can explore why he hates his son if we want.  I have my own theories.  Maybe Azulon hates Zuko, and because Ozai wants to suck up to his dad, he hates Zuko too.  Or maybe Ozai blames Zuko for Azulon’s death and Ursa’s leaving.  Afteral if it hadn’t been to protect Zuko’s life, Ursa would not have killed Azulon and left.  Or maybe Zuko takes after Ozai in many different ways, and Ozai hates himself, and therefore hates Zuko.  Or maybe he’s just a big fat dick who needs a punching bag and learned abusive behavior patterns from his own dad.

Sorry that was so long, pepes, you are treasures for hearing me out.

Please comment if you have any thoughts