#i'm sorry you relate to this anon

[blindmagdalena]

We all know that Homelander would give amazing hugs and cuddles he is so warm!But like on the opposite I think when he hugs you he is thinking of your comfort,going through the motions of what he sees other couples do,not really there,but when you do it to him?He crumbles, burts out crying,doesn't know how to react,where to put his hands,how the fuck does this feel good but also like he is choking,what witchcraft!?!!Insipred by being touch starved myself,my parents weren't big on physical touch

oh god he's like a guy who only learned how to have sex from porn, but whatever the physical affection equivalent of that is. he's got the basic mechanics of it in mind, but in practice he's clumsy. it reminds me of how stiff and awkward he was when madelyn first laid him in her lap. imagine all those little moments, like taking his hand and feeling him fumble with where to interlace his fingers with yours. or maybe he doesn't know what to do with his arm when you cuddle; should he put it under you, or under his pillow? it always takes him a bit longer to adjust, to get comfortable. he misreads physical cues sometimes and has accidentally kissed your eye when you were going in for a hug. you'd learn to lead him, and that's where he would flourish. he takes direction so well, craves it. he loves it when you take his hands and place them exactly where you want them. he'd be wracked with a swell of emotions when you lay him down and arrange him just so, snuggling into his arms. you stroke his hair while his shoulders shake, soothe him through this surge of repressed pain all flooding to the surface. years and years and years of affection deprivation have taken a serious toll that must be paid. when you show or tell him how you want to be touched, it takes out the guess work and it gives him the confidence to tell you what he wants in turn. he's a diligent learner. he'd become a pro cuddler in no time at all.

[peacockrulz]

doll x n maybe? their dynamic is sort of fun

Its life or death, you're in my world

and its life or death to be my girl

[requests are still open!]

[bonefall]

How do you feel about "character joins bloodclan" aus? Im curious about ur thoughts since youre really in tune with the themes of the series but personally i just hate them bc its ALWAYS aimed at 'unfortunate' characters and always ALWAYS ignores the fact that bloodclan is a horrible place in-canon and that they're just reflavoring the abuse and trauma the characters qent through to be more emo or goth themed.

Ravenpaw is ALWAYS a prime target for this and its like. Great. You took the character being abused by their mentor figure and is being harmed from the violent culture the clan has generated... and giving them an EMO mentor figure who will inevitably abuse them and harm them as a result of the violent culture the emo clan has generated. Sasha is another one I've noticed- you've put the woman who lost her kit and is struggling to survive with the others while being controlled and abused by someone who sees her as an outsider (aka alone and easy to isolate), and are gonna put her in a faction who specifically separates kin from one another to easily control them and who have canonically tried murdering those who stick with their family. What was gained here.

Like i know bloodclan is revamped in ur au (thank god for it) but in canon bloodclan is HORRIBLE. People ignore that in favor of putting their favs into bloodclan bc bloodclan is cool and killed tigerstar that one time bc of revenge. Ravenpaw becomes Scourge AUS are SO SO SO much worse bc of this too- sure you manage to point out how scourge and raven has roughly similar stories in their youth but you could also do something interesting and make an au where raven and scourge are FOILS and do a firestar/scourge thing, while pointing this comparison out!! Instead you just went "Ravenpaw emo now and is sad about beating up Firestar his friend" and basically kept everything the same.

Sorry im basically venting here but i just dont like how people forget that scourge in canon does NOT look out for the 'little guy', he's a murderer and abuser who wants to keep his subjects afraid and separated so that he alone has power over them. Bloodclan is not the cool strong goth group, its the group where two cats slaughter eachother over a piece of twoleg scraps, only for the survivor to die bc the food was poisonous to cats and no one knew bc theres no cohesive group that can pass that knowledge around. its a fucking horrible place to live. Im not saying that you cant do interesting "character in bloodclan" aus (a Rusty who lives in bloodclan who STILL wants to do good but is shaped by the horrid reality of bloodclan would be fun imo) but its so often used with already traumatized characters as a 'solution' or 'fix-it with some emotional issues involved' that i just foam at the mouth and howl like a rabid animal on principle at this point.

Hmm... I think for me, it doesn't tend to read that way for me when the fandom makes AUs for it. I'm coming at BloodClan from a point of really deep critique and frustration.

BloodClan's not a REAL place, and what that means is, every speck of how horrible it was is a choice the writers made to justify its treatment. It was something they actively decided, because, BloodClan was a tool to suddenly invalidate the previous 5 books of TPB so that the series could comfortably conclude there was no need to upset the status quo.

If you haven't read it before, I recommend this post I made on how Darkest Hour Is A Personal Disappointment, but anyway;

We spend a whole series on how Fireheart challenges a broken society, because he is different. Their xenophobia, how isolationism and glory get people killed, the way that Tigerstar's greatest asset is how respected he is... these are bad things. They're things that Fireheart fights for several books.

But then, in the LAST book, in the 11th inning, they introduce BloodClan. They're just evil. They have no nuance. The narrative bends over backwards to stress that this group of evil foreigners LOVES murder, hates friendship, and doesn't believe in our good god.

Suddenly, the Clan cats have to be EXTRA xenophobic and glorious to kill these filthy, murderous foreign hordes. Clan cat belief in their good god makes them stronger than the bloodthirsty barbarians. Firestar kills Scourge and we can feel happy and triumphant about it, when Tigerstar was killed a few chapters ago and given a tragic sendoff.

So, I encourage you to step back from an emotional response to how Filthy and Murderous this group was portrayed, and look at it as a writing choice.

When Tigerstar, known cat-racist and murderer of mixed-race people, is killed by Scourge in self-defense, he is grieved by Firestar and commended for his "good qualities". (and then they retconned in that it was actually secretly revenge all along, not just self defense, so this killing is extra evil)

When Scourge is killed, Firestar just thinks about how it's cool he's not going to heaven, and how all of the previously ferocious BloodClan warriors look so inferior to the forest Clans.

And so, with all that said,

I'm 100% in favor of how the fandom widely looks at this, says, "fuck that" and just makes them the Cool Goth Group. I'd argue pretty strongly that the least nuanced idea of that is still infinitely better than canon.

There was nothing there. It was literally just Xenophobia-Is-JustifiedClan. They literally hated love and friendship and banned families so that Clan cats would look good in comparison. Banned families. You don't get this level of stupid evil from anything else but an 80s cartoon.

Maybe I just don't see the AUs you tend to see (I curate my Tumblr experience very well and generally hang out in more adult-oriented spaces, I can imagine a place like Amino being mostly kids who tend to be immature. Edgelord Angstpiddle is just a normal part of growing up), but every project I see that gives me a glimpse of BloodClan Ravenpaws and Sashas come with such tweaks already assumed.

Like, these are examples I've seen,

They'll have Raven be involved with the formation of BloodClan

Scourge will actually be a character with some pity and mercy, like how he was in Rise of Scourge when his abusive siblings begged him for food, and he fed them before sending them away.

no ban on love and friendship. Lol. Lmao, even.

More of the social structure will be based around acquiring food for people in a 'harsh' environment, leading to that battle, instead of just Evil Foreign Greed (which canon!scourge only had after being almost killed by tigerstar, because he said "actually, in light of new information that you are a murderer, i need to reconsider our deal.")

BloodClan will be overhauled completely. I've seen this a few ways. Connecting them to SkyClan, or the Oakstar raids on Chelford, or even as a positive entity; a surprise ally. (VERY common with BloodClan Ravenpaw AUs I've seen).

Anyways... (Shrug), I dunno dude, it doesn't bother me that much.

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Hello! If it’s okay, I’d like to know your thoughts on the Trikoto theory (3+ alters). I think it’s a cool theory! And pretty likely, honestly. (Here’s a document about it in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. I didn’t make it, and I unfortunately don’t know who did, I just found it in another blog)(I really hope that link works lol)

Hey FF! I was wondering when you might send something in. Not the topic I expected, but I'm here for it!

I've definitely heard of this theory before. I can't say I know for sure where it originated, but I've always been under the impression that a blog called @bertrandcaillet started it as they're the first one I saw talk about that theory and they told me about it a while ago. They've since deactivated, though, so I can't really check with them to see if that's true.

I think the trikoto theory is interesting, and I fully agree with what's said on the document about how it would be nice if Milgram is showing a system with more nuance than just having two alters.

That being said, I personally don't believe this theory for a number of reasons. I'm going to do my best to explain why here. I do want to say going into this that while I do have extremely minimal psychology teaching (as in, undergrad psyc MINOR), I do not claim to be that educated on DID or similar struggles. So, anything that I say will be focusing much more on Milgram as a piece of media from a writing standpoint, because that's what I have much more extensive experience in.

I will say that I am very aware that most systems have more than 2 alters. That being said, I think I also remember from my psyc class that the average number is, like... 16? I'm not at my dorm right now and that's where my notes are, so I can't check, but I remember specifically thinking about it in the context of Mikoto and trikoto theory, so I'm pretty confident it's Above Three. That means that either way, it's not like we're doing The Most Common Number, so I think two versus three is largely irrelevant on that point.

For the sake of clarity, I'll be using the names in the doc (Akakoto, Midokoto, Aokoto), but I only personally believe that two of them (Akakoto, Aokoto) exist. I've taken to calling them Orekoto and Bokuto, but for this post, Akakoto and Aokoto it is.

At its base, my problem with trikoto theory is that I don't see a lot of evidence for it. Most of what I've seen has been talking about the implications of it if you assume it's true, but I've just never really been convinced in the first place. I'll just go through some of the main reasonings real quick:

The RGB Colors

I do acknowledge that I'm very much not a visually oriented person, so the color shifting is something I'm less inclined to notice. However, while the background of the room is blue and the train station and apartment are pretty green, I don't feel like there are ever really any red backgrounds (other than when the headspace becomes red as ooposed to blue). Because of that, I have a hard time believing that the backgrounds themselves contribute to the idea that there are three. I definitely think the red/blue coloration in the eyes and such are indicating different alters, but I don't think that specific fact supports there being three of them.

The Voice Changes

This might be a me issue, but I only really hear two different vocal inflections. I understand the point about there being some harsher (?) sounding vocals that don't have the growl, but personally, I still think the tone matches the one described as Akakoto enough to count. Similarly, the parts towards the end that are picked out for Midokoto ("I'm probably not to blame," etc.) actually sound more like Aokoto to me even if I do try to track the three voices.

I'm hesitant to go too hard in believing the different voices because to me, doing so would severely limit the amount of control Natsuki Hanae would have over the emotions he wants to put into the song. The vocalists in Milgram do a fantastic job at using specific vocal intonations to convey deep layers of emotions in their songs. I feel like it would be very limiting to only be able to use certain vocal effects (ex. growl) in specific places due to the limitations of the characters. If there are two, the two voices are far more separate, which gives more space for customization within the bounds of each voice.

This is also a little bit iffier on evidence, but there's the Es cover of MeMe. I don't know how much Yurina Amami knows about Mikoto's story and the entire video is in grayscale, so take all of this with a grain of salt, but to me, I feel like Es uses two voices here, not three. Notably, they even have a bit of vocal growl on the "switch" and on "split and half, make that heart beat," which are both squarely in the Midokoto tone. They do still have the two voice split, sounding a bit more apathetic and aggressive in the Akakoto parts and cuter in the Aokoto parts. To me, that signifies that there's suppose to be two voices going on, not three, but you could argue that that's just Es' perception of Mikoto, so it's not decisive or anything.

Mikoto Fighting Es

Yes, in his first audio drama, Mikoto is able to beat Es up until Kotoko stops him. Yes, that's inconsistent from what we've seen from Futa and also t2 Amane. I agree that that's because the Milgram rules only apply to one or more alters, and thus any others that may exist can get around the rulings. We saw this between trials, too, with how Mikoto (seemingly Akakoto at the time) was able to avoid being restrained despite his guilty verdict, likely through the same loophole.

(Side note: this implies to me that Milgram's system for restraining guilty prisoners is, like the protective barrier around Es, somewhat magical and isn't a physical thing. Thus, if we were to, say, vote Amane as guilty, I am fairly confident she would be unable to harm any other prisoners, as we've already seen the barriers are able to prevent her from attacking others. I still lean Amane innocent anyways, but I wanted to point this out.)

Anyways, I don't think that this is actually evidence towards trikoto theory because it works perfectly fine with just the two of them. Aokoto is the prisoner in Milgram and Akakoto isn't. This doesn't necessarily mean that Aokoto is the one who was fronting while the murder happened, though; the rules of Milgram just necessitate that the prisoner is involved in/related to a death. It can be indirect.

I think that that's exactly what Milgram is asking us with Mikoto. The question is, how do you fairly hold a system accountable? Can you blame one alter for the other's actions?

Milgram loves to complicate these, and I can see the appeal of a complication being learning about a third alter. Personally, I think it's much more likely that the route Milgram is taking is looking at how much knowledge the alters have about each other and asking how much Aokoto would have to know to make him an accessory to Akakoto's murder plans. It could go either way, though.

Some Bonus Points

I think the strongest piece of evidence brought up is the use of threes in Mikoto's design. Other than "they just liked it aesthetically," there isn't much of a counterargument I can make about it. My best one would be that they might be going for a "switching between black and white" type of thing, which would work better with more stripes, but that's pretty weak. I also had the idea that the first character of his name looks like three stripes, which might be a better or worse explanation! You get to decide, I have no idea.

The cake sells me less, though. It's true that Kazui's is a perfect 50/50 and that Mikoto's isn't, but that's because they're representing different things.

Kazui's is half and half because his song is called half, and it could also be a sign of how he and his wife didn't actually connect more in a marriage sense; they're still two fully separate people rather than being a unit.

Mikoto, if he has two alters, is still physically one guy. Mikoto is mostly sitting on the flower designs. I'd argue that the flowers are meant to show Mikoto as a whole: the connection point of the two alters.

That's pretty much all of what I have to say on the doc (in terms of the trikoto aspect, whether I believe it or not there's some good work done in character/lyric analysis that applies to two or three alter theories), but I'll go over some of my reason for why I actively believe there to be two, because there are some reasons.

Reason 1: The Song Titles

The doc explains what the meaning of MeMe is in trikoto theory, but it definitely still works with two, more obviously so. That's not evidence, though, because the trikoto theory has a viable explanation too.

I have no idea what they'd be doing with the song title Double, though. I guess it would be a play on somebody being someone else's double, meaning they're someone like them, which is no doubt part of the song title either way, but I think it's difficult to ignore the meaning of Double that means, y'know... multiplied by 2, or:

But that could very easily be a diversion and we haven't seen the second video, so I'd let that slide. However, that brings me to the bigger problem:

Reason 2: Upright Versus Reversed

AKA, the tarot cards.

Tarot cards can be read two ways, Upright or Reversed, based on the orientation of the card when it's placed/picked up/whatever. I already went over in my original theory (which is pretty outdated, I could do a way better job but I wrote that one literally first out of my milgram thoeries and I hated not having a good name scheme for the various alters) why I believe Akakoto to be the Hanged Man (Upright) and why I believe Aokoto to be the Hanged Man (Reversed).

I struggle to imagine why the devs would pick tarot, something that clearly has two meanings to it, when there are actually three alters. Maybe it'd just be to throw us off the scent, but it feels a bit too intentional to me.

Plus, if it was meant to throw us off, I'd expect we'd get a different metaphor/symbol for the second MV (as we have been with pretty much everyone). However, the association between Mikoto and "reversible" things has continued into trial 2, even before his MV has come up.

I say this because of his trial 2 cover song: Reversible Campaign. Funnily enough, I actually thought this song would go to Kazui before it was announced as Mikoto's, but then I looked again and understood why they wanted it for Mikoto.

My thoughts get confused and fight with each other

Very Mikoto, works for either two or three alter theories. However:

I just want to waver between black and white

It's turned me upside down

There's more that seems to paint Mikoto's mind as a dichotomy, not a... trichotomy? Is that a word? I don't actually know.

The Song Lyrics of MeMe

This is sort of an extension of the above part, but there are also definitely song lyrics in MeMe that sound like they're heavily implying two. Again, you could argue that that's trying to throw us off the scent, but some of them are, in my opinion, actively difficult to justify for trikoto theory.

Split in half, Make that heart beat

I cannot for the life of me understand why any of the three alters would say "split in half" if there are three. I guess if any of them were aware of one of the other alters, but not the other? I don't think that's what was being argued, though, sorry if I missed that.

I’m already the fake one

Little harder to argue this one because I don't know how definite versus indefinite articles work in Japanese, but saying the fake one really sounds to me like there is one fake and one real. If you were just having a moment of existential crisis, in most situations, I think you'd opt for "I'm already fake."

The Mirror

This is sort of the same argument as the tarot cards, but there's also the use of mirror imagery in Mikoto's MeMe MV. Mirrors have two sides and are a reflection. You could use Haruka logic and say that it depicts self reflection, I guess, but considering the reflection acts differently, I think it's much more likely that this is meant to show the two alters.

Conclusion

Hopefully this all made sense? I respect trikoto theory and I could easily be super wrong about it (see also: my original opinions on gay Kazui theory and police Kazui theory), but I've just never really been sold. It's possible my opinion would change if I saw evidence that I felt worked better for trikoto than... twokoto? theory, but personally, I feel like most evidence I've seen for it is still better explained by there being two alters. Let me know what you think, though :)

[phantom-fleetways]

Thoughts or tidbits about spite perhaps?

Only what you can share though! Don't feel too pressured to spoil styff

I just think he's pretty neat so I'd like to learn what I can about him ^w^

Sure!!

Nothing said here is gonna be canon, and that's mostly cuz this is all scrapped stuff.

Working on Invidia is... Hard. Genuinely speaking. So I have a lot of scrapped content for it that was used to build up bits about his character!

Some reference notes about THIS design!

During this time while I was working on Spite, I had basically polished out a concept for Invidia. Mostly that Invidia was the name of what is basically Moebius during this period of development. I was reusing what little I understood or Moebius from Archie to craft this early version of the AU. At this point, only 6 main characters had been established.

Originally, in these early concepts Spite was more outwardly jealous and scheming.

Another important thing is that in these early concepts, Spite made Scourge. And Scourge made Spite. I frankly feel like I will revisit these concepts, but not in the way I originally planned.

Spite, as it stands now, hasn't changed all that much from my first crack at characterization. But he's not nearly as outwardly prone to acts of Jealousy as he used to be. He's a bit more secure in his relationship with Scourge. Mostly cuz he is the ONLY person Scourge truly gives a fuck about on a genuine level.

Hopefully, when more of Invidia is finished and I actually get their part of the story properly hammered out I can share even more and even start working on more shitposts for them. For now though, I'll stick to sharing small things.

[littlespoonevan]

Now I’m thinking about Buck making something for Eddie for his birthday, like learning and perfecting a new recipe, maybe something Pepa or abuela could teach him to make and then starting a recipe book with all the special ones as a sort of scrapbook style thing with pictures and everything that they could add from then on birthdays and anniversaries and such.

My first thought of what Eddie would give to Buck was a St Christopher medal but I could also see him doing that shortly after they get together and not necessarily waiting for Buck’s birthday to roll around but sadly I can’t think of anything else right now.

buck making a scrapbook-style recipe book of all their important meals are you jOKING that's literally so sweet and romantic i'm 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 and omg omg what if

what if he pROPOSED by putting in a recipe for a wedding cake?!?!?!?!?!? and then eddie finds it (bc buck left i open on the kitchen counter) and calls out for buck being like 'what's this' and when he comes into the living room buck is down on one knee??????????

sakdfjaskj anon, you have actually just unlocked something in me here omg i'll never recover from this idea 😍😭🥰🥹❤️💞🩷💖

[willowser]

Random question but how many asks do u get on average? I’m asking a bunch of other blogs too

so—i'm not going to answer this question !! quite simply bc i think that, in the era we're in within our fandom and in our community and in our niche, i think that numbers have the potential to cause more grief than good, and on the off-chance that someone sees a number in our little corner here and ever uses it as a comparison to their little space—i would be devastated.

but !! i do want to take the time to say that i try to answer every ask i get with similar levels of enthusiasm, and if i haven't answered your question and you know that it sent—i am coming !!! i am on the way !!! i want to chat with you about your ideas !! but it just takes me a lil more time bc i want to make sure i'm returning the effort that you gave me 🩷 and a lot of times, i like to keep some of the sweet things yall take the time to say to me—to myself ! before i share them with everyone 🩷 so if i haven't responded yet, i'm holding your hand in mine !! and thinking of what to say 😌

[johnslittlespoon]

i’m dead at ur pet play disclaimer cause i meant metaphorical leashes 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I'M SCREAMINGGG the way i even read it three times and i was like... i think... they mean actual leashes DUDE I'M SO SORRY LMFAO

tbf i've already mentioned leash–related stuff with buckbucky so it wasn't too far of a stretch for me LOL i more so put the disclaimer because i was a little bit worried i'd get asks trying to delve further into pet play because of the usage of collars/leashes so i was trying to nip it in the bud before anyone got a chance HSDJGHS

[stabbyfoxandrew]

for you wip Wednesday posts, do you just post as you write? like are the parts all continuous or is there parts between that you don’t post? (sorry if this is dumb, I’m just curious how you do yours:))

okay so (get ready for a long winded explanation of how my writing works sorry in advance)

for wipw, i have sort of a basic outline for plot points and stuff. i know roughly how each of the stories go and how they end. that being said, i have two docs (or more) per au. one with the outline and the other is the draft i'm posting for you guys. like here's the actual docs in my bookmarks (ignore my joke titles okay)

(ID: a screenshot of my Firefox, with a folder of bookmarks showing.)

cutting here because sweet lord this got long

as you can see i've got all my wipw docs in a bookmark folder so i can find them easily. DIH, BB, OG, 🦊, and 🦊WIPW are all writing folders. DIH is a long fic for another fandom. BB stands for 'big bang' and is for all my 'cosmic lost and found' stuff. OG is my ocs stuff :). Fox is anything aftg-related that isn't for wipw. and finally wipw is... wipw.

ALSO 'strips and tags' is the doc where i keep my little 'headings' for wipw posts as well as the tags so i don't have to type that shit everytime! (ex: 'WIP Wednesday (10/25) | Guardian Angel Neil (Part --)'

anyway! i write on them and cut them into chunks for wipw. the size of the 'chunk' each ask gets depends on how well the story flows and if it's a good stopping point. so sometimes it's just a couple paragraphs and sometimes it's almost a full fucking page because i couldn't decide where to chop it?

also usually i like to work a bit ahead so i'm not starting with nothing the next week. so when i don't and i get a lot for a certain au it stresses me out bc i don't know where we're going and i have to come up with it on the fly so i can answer asks??

this is also why i write in order and i could never write bits and pieces here and there all over the timeline like Ash does. it would Stress Me Out sooo bad lol

to answer the actual question: yeah.

for the most part, it's mostly how the final draft will be. but in the final i'll probably flesh out certain bits to make it make sense. like we just Jump into the scene a lot in wipw posts and it makes sense for wipw posts. but it wouldn't in an actual longfic on ao3? you know?

also in angel neil, some of the events are out of order. i never expected people to care about it so much so originally it was gonna be a lotttt shorter so andrew talks to betsy about it right away. i think in the Finished Fic (whenever that will be) he won't mention neil to betsy for a while?? but idk for sure we still have a long ass way to go.

thanks for asking this i'm sorry if you didn't want to read my life story but i don't have anyone to talk about writing with really and also i'm insane and can't just say yes/no i have to EXPLAIN

[chronicparagon]

Though one shadowflame cultist was brought down, the rest remain.

"Let there be shadow and flame in one mix, free to corrupt this whole grove." the high priest (their leader) calls. "BURN THE FOREST, MY BROTHERS! BURN IT ALL! DO NOT LET THAT GIRL STOP US!"

He IS deranged, and must be slaughtered.

One down, and many more to go. Harmony did not know there were others until they rose from the darkness embracing the endless labyrinth of towering trees. Robed figures approach her, praising what they call shadow flame to feast on life thriving beneath the evergreen canopy.

The high priest's words drove that icy dagger of fear into her heart. Darkness closes in and she finds herself choking on pure dread. It's a terrible feeling, trapped in a realm of darkness and blistering flame. Memories of her past flood Harmony's mind. She remembers the fateful day when she was a child, trapped in wildfire that reaped the lives around her. Harmony would have been one of those souls without divine intervention or luck.

Scars on her skin and in her mind are what's left. Now, she fears history will repeat itself thanks to this unusual cult. Yet, beneath the layers of fear is something rising from the depths of her heart.

Something that is visceral fury, fury borne from the wish for not another soul to relive her nightmares.

This forest and all life that calls it home are in danger. She will be damned if she allows shadow flame to consume this green world. Red lips curl back, revealing white teeth clenched tight.

"No!" She snarls, "No! I won't let that happen!" She turns around, finding a lone axe nestled in a wooden chopping block with some logs. Possibly left behind by a careless lumberjack or forgetful campers. Another stroke of luck on the woman's side. Slender hands grab the handle and lift the axe's sharp blade.

"I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE THIS PLACE!" She cries before she breaks into a run, wielding the axe.

[bloodofgrapes]

I’m so obsessed with the way you draw nrmt ;-; You draw them like actual men… it’s a huge problem among aa fans where one of the two of them (usually edgeworth) gets written or drawn as a tiny long-eyelashed hairless submissive twink and it’s like. They’re Grown Men. And no one will ever be able to convince me that edgeworth would let his guard down/let go of his control-freakiness enough for some of the shit he’s portrayed as doing lmfao 🫣 I’m certain a big part of it is that you’re gay and You Get It lmao.. I’ve sent you way too many asks in the past few days and i’m sorry if it’s weird but idk you’re my fav ace attorney artist and i appreciate you sm

Alrighty, finally free enough to tackle this anon. So, before I say anything, I want to preface this with my belief that there’s no right or wrong interpretation of a character in fandom—I love to see the immense variety of ways that characters are depicted, and I think it’s fascinating to get to see through the lens that people view them. What I will be talking about in this ask though, is my (and clearly anon’s) personal preference. I just wanted to get that out of the way, because I would be very unhappy if people read this and thought that I judge any interpretation of the characters I spend much of my time talking about on the hellsite.

With that out of the way, I do agree with you anon. I’ve hesitated to answer asks like this in the past (you’re not the first to say this), but you have put it in a way that I think fits how I feel about them. I am a gay man—I love men in any shape or form they come in, but I truly adore masculinity. Hairy belly and ass, boxy builds, square jaws and hands, receding hairlines, deep voice, the works. This is not to say that these characteristics cannot also be feminine, but I am approaching this in the context of speaking about male characters, and the things I enjoy from them—but make no mistake, I love effeminate men just as much, especially in the variety of ways that they can manifest.

Which is a good lead in to something I have always loved about Edgeworth, from the first time I played these games nearly twenty years ago: Edgeworth has always struck me as inherently traditionally masculine, even in spite (or perhaps because) of his more flamboyant tastes, such as wearing a bold pink suit, jabot, preference for frilly things and flowers, etc. He’s not what any boomer would call a man’s man, but I feel like a lot of fandom overlooks that he’s barrel chested, deep voiced, stoically cold, and prone to masking or outright shutting down his emotions. As a gay man these traits really resonate with me—I embody many of the same things, while also having a certain air of “fruitiness”, if you will.

I’m in my mid-thirties, and while I believe it’s never too late to have heroes or feelgood characters, it’s a little unusual for me to have a character that makes me feel “seen”, at least in the way he does. Being a trans man specifically, I’ve spent much of my life grappling with the inherent masculinity and femininity I was born with, so it’s always been a comfort to me (even if I didn’t quite realize it when I was younger) to see a man that sacrificed absolutely none of his masculinity while wearing frills and a bright pink suit. So I love depictions of him (and Phoenix, because I think he’s viewed not dissimilarly in this fandom) that lean away from the typical shiny smoothness of most anime, and more into making them standard 30-something males. As I said in the first paragraph of this, it's all personal preference, there’s no right or wrong way to vibe with these characters, but I appreciate you anon, because I do think that we’re in a very small minority in this fandom, and while that’s not a bad thing by any means, it’s nice to see a kindred spirit <3

[insomnya777]

hi i just want to say i reallllyyy love your smalletho superhero au on ao3 it's amazing and aughhhh im so so insane about it and i cant sayy anyyythinggg to my friends cause ofc theyre twitter people and i have to be insane about your fic alone *sad face*

i love love love the amount of taylor swift titles btw

(also id go insane if you name a fic after false god or i can see you lyrics just a thought hehe)

awwww thank u so much omg! i lovelovelove naming things after songs i love (which is why there's so much taylor and olivia rodrigo LOL) and omg ive been thinking about lyrics from i can see you for a while now actually!!

[singsweetmelodies]

your mom being a springbok supporter omg I love that😭 would u consider writing fics about them tho ?🇿🇦

morning anon! ohhh, great question - but i'm afraid it's going to have to be a no, for various reasons. firstly because, well, i simply don't know enough about rugby or about the team... my mum might be a big rugby fan but i'm not, really. i only ever watch 2 or 3 matches once every four years for the world cup 🥲

secondly, even if i did know more about rugby, i would still have to say no because my writer's block is currently so bad that it's even extending to my PhD. (🤣😭) in all seriousness though, i can't write anything of quality at the moment, and the second i do get my writing mojo back, i have a whole list of f1 rpf fics that i need and want to get to.

sorry to disappoint, love! but i hope this answers your question 🥰

[heytheredeann]

Do you have any advice on responding on commenters on fics. I want to interact with commenters but I don’t know what to say and I feel awkward doing it.

Ooooh alright, I feel you LOL. Bad news is that it does still feel kind of awkward to me, because I'm BAD at taking compliments and I never feel like the way I answer can properly convey how excited I am that this person liked what I wrote... but, to be fair, I don't think ANY answer could really capture that excitement LOL.

Still, I do answer comments as a general rule, so hopefully I can be of some help anyway! And of course, if anyone else has any suggestions feel free to drop them in the replies or in a reblog.

So.

There is no real “rule” for answering comments, I think it’s important to remember that it doesn’t need to be a formal interaction, you are just two people with a shared love for some characters/ships (A LOT of love, I’m assuming, considering that one of you is writing fics and the other is taking the time to interact with said fics), so try to treat it like a casual conversation, not a performance!

Also very important to remember, what you are doing when you are answering a comment is, at its core, giving validation to the reader. You are letting them know that you appreciate their comment and that you wanted to take the time to say thank you, which readers, in my experience, DO appreciate very much. So like, even just saying “Thank you very much!” or “Thank you, I’m happy you enjoyed it!” is a good answer that is nice to receive. This kind of answer is a good baseline for answering comments imo, if you can’t think of anything else to say just leave it at that! Just like a short comment is very much appreciated and way better than no comment, a short answer is very much appreciated and way better than no answer.

And if you fear that you are being too repetitive in your answers, remember that you are the one writing ten answers in a row, the reader is only getting one thank you!

Still, if you want to come up with more elaborate answers, I’d say try to “mirror” what the comment said.

Meaning that, for example, if someone points out a line they liked, you can thank them for the compliment on that, or say that you are happy they liked that, or, if you can, add some commentary on it (which in my case would be about the thought process behind the line, or about what’s going with the characterization, or something along the lines of “LOOOL yes, they are idiots”).

Or, if someone points out something else that they specifically liked, for example a scene, or bits of characterization, you can discuss those, for example by sharing what you think was going on in the non-POV character’s head during that scene, or discussing how else that scene could have played out by changing certain details, or discuss headcanons that you have related to the fic, maybe what would happen after or what was happening during a time jump, etc (readers, as a general rule, do love to hear about this kind of stuff!).

And, again, it doesn’t have to be formal! Since I have the charming bad habit of writing a lot of pain, sometimes people leave me crying emojis and/or screams as a reaction (which, btw, is DELIGHTFUL LOOOL) and my answer tends to be something along the lines of “SORRY, MY BAD *collects your tears in a jar*”, so like. there LOL.

Also, I had never thought about this before, but you can add pictures/memes/gifs to your reply if those help you express your feelings, that could be fun! (Maybe I should try too loool)

It’s also nice, imo, when a reader leaves a row of comments, to let them know in one of your answers how much you appreciated that! Let them know if you grinned for an hour, if you kept checking for notifications and were delighted when you saw them leaving more and more comments, if you were having a bad week and that was an excellent pick-me-up, etc. (letting them know how they made you feel could be a good idea in general, even if you are answering just the one comment).

That is pretty much all that I can think of at the moment, hopefully there’s something useful in here loool Mostly I think it’s just a matter of trying to let yourself have fun with it, it’s not serious, it’s not a performance, you are fine! <3 (Said the extremely anxious bean, very hypocritically. I swear I’m getting better at letting myself go LOL)

[nikki-tine]

Hayyy i was wondering are you in the tickle community just wondering cause iv seen. Few of ur posts/reblogz

Technically yes, but I haven't really stepped my foot entirely through the door here. It's uh...

it's complicated to explain, for me. I've been told growing up by multiple people I considered friends at the time that I was rather annoying about my interest? (love?) of tickling? and so I'm admittedly a little shy to say much on the matter outside of posting what I make and reblogging what inspires me.

[cronchywaters]

howdy! umm... are you still okay with kin and/or fictive edits involving wtcd characters? i just noticed recently that it looks like the offical wtcd blog was deleted(?) and wasnt sure if that meant you weren't ok with it anymore!! i really would hste to assume and cross any boundaries. hopefully this question isn't upsetting at all!! thank you!! have a good day or night!!

hi! fictives are fine, i know people can't exactly control that, which is something i was really ignorant about when i first made wtcd. i lumped kinning in with fictives which is stupid and that's not how it works, and i do want to apologize for that. as for kins, yeah, go ahead, i honestly don't really care. as for edits of the two i would rather they not happen anymore. i don't want to erase my past exactly but after one of the worst mental breakdowns of my life happened the other night (don't ask please, i'm fine now) i made the wtcd blog private on impulse. i honestly just want to forget it ever even happened at this point. my writing for it was awful and my bigotry even worse. the instagram account is staying up only so myself and other people can see my mistakes and learn from them, but overall i really would just rather move on.

as a general statement, please don't contact me about wtcd anymore. honestly even if the messages are nice or just simple questions like this i really don't want to deal with it anymore. it does nothing but remind me of how shitty people have treated me for years and while i acknowledge my mistakes i honest to god just want to let it die. you're allowed to like it, i can't stop anyone from doing that, but please just leave me alone.