#knives is such a complicated and interesting character

[bobosbillionsknives]

Rem named an infant Knives and was surprised when he grew up to have an identity crisis and violently lash out at the world around him 🤣🤣🤣🤣‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - I'm Muddled, there is SO MUCH on, but also I have FEELS

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

July 2024 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Goodday (Sat YT) ep 11 of 12 - Yak is such a demanding babygirl princess type. It’s kinda hilarious in a fierce boxer dude. I do adore the core brother friendship in this show. It’s so sweet. Also I guess Yak is out OUT now, on TV and everything. 

YES PLEASE GMMTV!!! This ship! Sail it!!!!

The Rebound (Weds Gaga) eps 4-6 of 12? - So it started out as a relatively simple sports romance: first love, separation, reunion. But then just went entirely off the rails: gay mafia orgies, kidnapping, druggie ex teammates with knives, I am Spartacus. All erratic Thai pulp mumbo-jumbo aside? MeenPing are doing great in these roles. Zen's hurt confusion, Ryu’s struggle with internalized homophobia that keeps hurting Zen as much as him. 

Am I wrong to ship FrankPing Just a little bit? I only wanna see them kiss. It’s not asking too much, is it? 

Not sure what’s going on with Gaga and their "ep 6 of 6" thing. Or why they bundle-aired them. Did they just get the rights for the first half? Where is the rest?  

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 5 of 12 - I always end my Saturday with these 2 simply because I love this pair. I also enjoy the show. It’s sweet and I giggle a lot. I like that they’re dressing (and letting) Lin be a bit femmey - with his pussycat bows, coco bag, and little heels. I’m not sure about the pet names but I’ll accept them if I must.

My Stand-In (iQIYI) ep 12 fin - I would like to watch an entire show about the older brother boss and his hot secretary. Bit of a bully romance? Please & thank you?

This was a good solid ending, less predictable than I expected, which I appreciat. I liked that they had a full conversation about forgiveness. But overall, I am left in a muddle.

The show itself? A summation? Oof, here we go...

Adaptation of Chinese novel "Professional Body Double" by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KinnPorsche. Stuntman Joe dies on the job and wakes up in the body of another Joe with an entirely different life. But Joe just starts repeating the mistakes of his previous self - love, work, play. I enjoyed the experience of watching this show, I looked forward to it every week. I thought everybody did a great job with it and in it, and I liked that is was something substantially *different* for Thai BL. But I’m not sure I'll rewatch it or if it's bingeable. It left me feeling more sanguine than happy. Is there, objectively, anything wrong with it? No. But am I in love with it? No. I think that rests on the central characters, Ming in particular. I never liked him or warmed to them as a couple. I spent most of this show just very very sorry for poor Joe. Thus I was never rooting for their romance. I would recommend it, if you enjoy your BL more cerebral, with complicated unlikable love interests, and a downtrodden sympathetic lead. Is it, perhaps, more JBL that ThBL? Am I biased because it's a Thai production and I had expectations? What magical carnage could Japan have done with this IP? I'm left with questions, but I'm ultimately glad I watched this.

All this means that this show should, by all my own standards, get at 9/ 10. But I'm giving it an 8/10. So there.

We Are Cute (Weds iQIYI) ep 15 of 16 - It really is the antidote to Friend Zone. Like GMMTV just set out to make a nice little show about nice boys being very nice and kissing each other nicely. And it makes me very happy.

Century of Love (Weds Gaga) eps 1-2 of 10 - DaouOffroad are back, this time as fated mates in a quasi historical paranormal moment. Very much Director Who Buys Me Dinner meets First Love Again, hopefully better than both. I love this pair and think they can handle the premise, it's whether the storytelling is up to the challenge.

So far? I like it a lot. I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and bullshit like that. I’ve always liked this pair too (it’s not their fault I didn’t enjoy most of their first series.) Daou’s wushu is pretty snazzy. We got a fun meet cute. (Erm... Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) And this is a very PRETTY show. With more comedy than I was expecting.

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 2 of 8 - I like the friendships, but so far I’m not sold on the personalities of the main couple. Of course I love the pair, and I know they can handle it, but I hope the story justifies their chemistry.

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 6 of 12 - They are so damn teen dramatic and over-the-top. To have really played into the impact of the counselor character's original casting, they should’ve had Krist play the role! (GET IT?) That’d be ridiculously ironic. Not that I object to GMMTVs #1 Daddy Papang. Never that. 

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 2 of 12 - Ah ha, I figured it out. This reminds me of The Devil Wears Prada. I’m finding most of the rest of the interns too caricature and thus annoying. But I’m still liking this more than I expected. 

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 5 of 10 - The bullying GL subplot is just bad. And I’m getting an overall squick from the fact that the two rich privileged characters are essentially taking advantage of the two lower class poor characters. Trash watch here.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - I’m coming around to Almond + Latte, but I’m not super sold on any of the other plot lines.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - It’s still good and it’s still sticking relatively closely to the mango. So I’m still enjoying it.

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I just don’t really like the dynamic of the younger, poor, country kid desperately chasing the older hot boy. It’s a bit too desperate or something. It’d be different if Takara were a nicer person, but he doesn’t have much going for him but a pretty face.

It's airing but...

Meet You at the Blossom

In case you missed it

OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ???) 10 eps - It's ended. Should I watch it? right now 1 vote for and 1 vote against.

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer released to Korean theaters 5/25. HoTae & DongHee, side couple from Unintentional Love Story are back! Same actors, same character names. I love them. Devastated this hasn't had international distribution. I demand you tell me the moment you find it!

The Last Time (Thai Fri YT) - Got bumped to Aug 2. Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

July Releases to Come

7/24 I Saw You in My Dream (Thai Weds WeTV) - Dee Hup is behind this one so I have high hopes. Younger boy chronically teased his whole life by the older boy next door suddenly starts having horrific prophetic dreams about his bully and must save hime.

7/26 4 Minutes (Thai Netflix or iQIYI?) - Great is a university student from Faculty of Business and the son of a wealthy business owner. Out of the blue, he gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future.

7/29 Battle of the Writers (Thai ????) - trailer here, TutorYim return and while I adore them, I really hope this is better than Middleman's Love. Won't be hard. However: that premise! Ugh. Something something authors fighting - save me. Why don't writers understand that nothing is more boring than writers?

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Such a Best Boy, not leaving his drink behind!

YES please.

Follow me here... these 2 in the Thai BL version of Tein Bromance X, which is to say: Mean assassin meets and falls HARD for snarky school teacher, they adopt a kid together. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO WATCH IT.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in it's infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

There's these tricks, remember.

[beenbaanbuun]

I need fuel for my addams! Matz delusions soooo.... what are some of darling's personal goals/hobbies? Who is she outside of her relationship with hwa and joong?

Personally I can actually easily imagine her as a webtoon creator for some reason LMAO, I can imagine her taking inspo from her lover's actual lives to add to the lore of the world she's built in her comics, holding a laptop or drawing pad in her lap while she follows hwa around the house.

But that's just me and my headcannons lol

~lyra

i think art would definitely be a big one for darling. she just loves to create things and it’s even better when she gets to show her lovers and they just give her a proud little smile and a kiss on the cheek. you’re so right about taking inspiration from them too!! darling would traipse up to hongjoong one day to show him a sketch of a new character and he can’t help but recognise himself on the page. when he asks about it, you deny it, but he doesn’t quite believe you…

as for other hobbies, i think that darling loves to learn. whenever she’s not with seonghwa or hongjoong (it’s rare, but sometimes it’s unavoidable) you can definitely find her curled up on jongho with a book about some obscure craft that’s she’s decided she absolutely has to learn. she has about 4 languages that she’s trying to wrap her head around, 3 different types of yarn craft, 2 types of old-fashioned board game and a sport that no one has heard of in at least 40 years. seonghwa had joking called her a jack of all trades at one point, hongjoong quickly joining in to tell her that the end of that saying is ‘master of none.’ she might’ve given him a glare for that comment before going back to the rather interesting book she’d found on wood carving. perhaps if she begged hard enough, they’d buy her a set of carving knives…

as for goals, i think her main aim is to find a sense of purpose in life. despite looking and acting like an absolute princess most of the time, she can’t deny that sometimes her mind wanders into pretty complicated territory. why exactly was she put on this earth? what is it that she is supposed to do to leave her mark for the next generation? perhaps that’s why she studies all those different hobbies so hard. maybe she’s hoping that her purpose will just drop into her lap one day. to seonghwa and hongjoong it’s pretty obvious that her purpose in life is to be spoiled by them, but they’re happy to help her in her pursuit of wisdom and enlightenment. after all, if stressing over what you’re supposed to be doing to appease the universe makes you happy, then so be it. they’ll buy you those carving tools.

[cheapshrimpysheep]

CONGRATS FOR YOUR MILESTONE!!! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!! And you're one out of the only 5 twst/om writing blogs I have notifs on for, your writing and blog aesthetic makes me so happy!!!

For a request, could you write Kalim sparring with a reader who's a good fighter? It's my personal hc that Kalim can throw a punch of two due to Jamil drilling various self defense techniques into his head. But the whole sparring thing is very lighthearted and fun, since Kalim is not really interested in fighting anyone (especially the person he has a crush on, wink wink 👀) and his fighting partner is not interested in hurting him either. Everything just turns into them being silly and getting into a tickle fight instead or something.

If it's not something in your comfort zone, that's okay! I still wanted to drop by and congratulate you for your hard work. Requests or no requests, writing is content that deserves to be praised and celebrated to thank you! Sorry for the long ask erifidnwyrkd ~ray

COMMENTS: THANK YOU! 💖 I'm always so happy when people tell me they like what I write that much. That's why I love writing this. This is where I feel most appreciated. 🥰

In fact, I am a coward. 😅 So I'm not very familiar with knowing how to fight. But still, I hope I got around it well. As you can see from the number of words, I ended up having fun writing it. I hope you and all have fun reading it too. 😉

CHARACTERS: Kalim Al-Asim x Reader

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader

WORD COUNT: 1.150 words

CONTEXT: Jamil and Kalim used to train from time to time. One way for Jamil to guarantee that, in an emergency, where he wasn't present, Kalim would have any chance of defending himself and escaping or something like that.

But that day, due to some complication at the basketball club, Jamil couldn't train with Kalim. However, he remembers that he already saw you defending yourself against some NRC students, and thinks you might be a good replacement. And maybe, in a way, it would be an interesting idea to have Kalim fight against you, knowing that he has a crush on you.

So, he calls you and asks you for this favor, and assured you that he would somehow repay you.

You arrive in Scarabia, without Grim. He knew that in Scarabia they liked to have banquets from time to time and he loves to eat. But Jamil wasn't there to cook a feast and probably most of the food he would get is the food that Kalim likes to shove down his throat. So he decided he would be better off with just tuna in Ramshackle.

You've just walked through the front door when...

“HIIIIIIII!” Kalim greets you, while running towards you. He has the cutest smile on his face. “How was your day? Do you want to eat anything? Jamil left some really good things in the fridge.”

You tell him that you already ate some time ago, so you would be ready to train with him as soon as you arrived in Scarabia.

“Train? Train what? AH! Is there a test I forgot?!”

You say no and ask if Jamil hadn't told you what he had told you.

“Oh! That. Ha ha HA HA! Sorry, I guess I got so excited when he told me you were coming that I forgot to pay attention to the rest of the conversation. Hum... Don't tell him that, pleeease.”

You promise you won't say anything and he thanks you with an appreciative smile. You remember that Jamil had said that he had left some papers with instructions for training somewhere. When you ask Kalim about this, he doesn't know where they are, but he can guess by knowing Jamil. Or maybe Jamil only knew where to put them because he knew Kalim would forget.

You see the papers and as you would expect, they are all self-defense techniques, where you would be Kalim's aggressor. Techniques for him to defend himself from punches, knives, being grabbed by the arm, neck, etc. You didn't like the idea of even pretending to attack Kalim, but it was the instructions and it was for his own good. Right?

“Can I see the papers?” Kalim asks you when he sees the slight discomfort in your expression. You hand him the papers, he takes a look at them and smiles. “Ah, the same as always. Don't worry, this seems to be just a review. Jamil does this a lot since he says I'm very forgetful. It's okay. Nothing very difficult. You just have to pretend to attack me.” But your discomfort doesn't leave your face. “Hum? What's wrong? You're not feeling well?”

You tell him that you don't want to hurt him and that you don't really like the idea of attacking him, even if it's just pretending.

“I don't want to hurt you either. Not even Jamil, despite what he tells me to do. But we don't need to do this training like the ones I do with Jamil, right? I really hope not, otherwise I'm going to lose all the rounds.” He says with a slightly embarrassed smile. You ask why. “Because like I said, I don't want to hurt you, so I think I'll end up letting you win every time. Ha ha. AH! That's it! Why don't we play fight? Some of my siblings like to do it. We don't need to take this so seriously, we can just have fun. Right? What do you think?”

You think about it and agree. And both of you also agree that it's okay as long as Jamil doesn't get upset. Or finds out.

The "training" started normally. But it was when he got to the part of training to defend himself from knives that Kalim had an idea. He went to get one of those thick markers, took off the cap and said: “You know paintball right? The goal is not to get hit by the paint. Why don't we try to do something like that?” He hands you the marker. He removes his coat and other accessories from his torso until only his white shirt remains. “You're going to try to paint me and I have to dodge it. It'll be fun, you'll see.” he says with a big amused smile.

You ask if he doesn't think Jamil will be upset with him for ruining his shirt.

“Maybe, but don't worry, I can buy lots more where this one came from. Ha ha ha.”

He was right, that was fun. You forgot that you were training self-defence and looked more like a couple playing. At one point, Kalim managed to grab your wrist and steal your marker. And he looked at you with that rare mischievous smile of his. “My turn!”

You seemed surprised. What does he mean his turn? Weren't you the attacker? But then he looks at you and straightens up.

“Oh. You should take off your coat first. I'll get a better see if I catch you with the marker on your white shirt.” You hesitate. You don't have many shirts like that. “If I ruin the shirt I can buy you a new one, or two, or as many as you want. No problem!... Pleeease? I'm having so much fun with you!” He's making puppy eyes.

You agree and take off your coat and accessories. You continue that "training" until there comes a time when both of you have kind of given up on defending yourselves and are already covered in paint streaks on your shirts, arms and even your face. You realize you dropped the marker and can't find it.

“You lose your weapon?” Kalim says “Well, it looks like there's now only one way to find out who wins.” And he attacks you with tickles. “Surrender!”

You try to resist, but end up really surrendering. Kalim was too good at tickling. And as soon as you know it, the two of you were on the floor, practically hugging each other. He smiles affectionately at you.

“I wish you were in Scarabia. We could have fun like this every day. I could see you and be with you every day for much longer.”

Your noses were almost touching when Jamil appears and drops his training bag to make a noise that would get both of your attention. He looked bothered. “WHAT?! Why are you two-? OH, for the patience of the great seven.” he sighs.

If you dropped in here out of the blue and want to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

[ama0310]

The President's Daughter (2)

Character: Finnick Odair

Requested: Sorta lol

Type: Angst/Fluff

Summary: Arianna Flemings-Snow, the adopted daughter of Coriolanus Snow, bravely volunteers for the 75th Annual Hunger Games. Now it's training day for the tributes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arianna would be lying if she said she didn't like training.

She did. She trains everyday for at least two hours. Last week she threw knives at holograms for four hours straight and loved it.

Even after winning her games she knew she had to be prepared for everything. At fifteen she realized how unprepared she was for life, and she was never going to feel that way again.

What she didn't like was having to train with nineteen other people that will want to murder her for their own survival. Obviously minus Mags, Finnick, her district partner, and Johanna.

It's not that she was worried. She just never wanted to return to how inhumane she was all those years ago. Training for fun was one thing, but training for the Hunger Games was completely different.

"Snow White in the flesh. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" She smiles instantly turning around finding Finnick in his uniform.

"My fisherman." He laughed and put his arm around her walking her through the training center towards Mags.

She looked at each District pairs stopping her eyes at the District 1 pair throwing their knives at the holograms. Gloss smirks at Cashmere before meeting Arianna's eyes and winks.

Finnick pulls her her towards him glancing at the man, "What's that about? Making an alliance with the Careers?"

She shakes her head looking around to District 3 trying to create fire, "Nope." She then turns to see Finnick staring right at her. "I'm serious. Gloss invited me to the Careers and I told him I would ask you. You're the only alliance I really care about and you know it."

"I was thinking about the newbies." Though Arianna knew that's where he was heading she was skeptical. The girl seemed nice, but her father gave her one rule and it was to not fraternize with the enemy. And Katniss is his #1 enemy currently. "Unless you weren't?"

She runs a hand through her hair, "Can we even trust them Finn? At least with the careers we know they'll have our back until the end."

"I'm sure Gloss would stab me before we even make it halfway." Jealousy bright in his eyes. Gloss definitely had a crush on Arianna, he doesn't blame him though, everyone does.

She ruffles his hair up a bit, "And I would make sure every ounce of blood drains slowly and agonizingly out of his body if he does that."

"My wicked Snow White." He smirks at her threat. He knows if the roles were reversed he would do the same thing. That's how their relationship goes. Even outside of the games every time there was a possible threat towards his girl he was always one step ahead already ready to rip some heads off. She boops his nose before continuing their walk down the pathway.

The moment they made it to the hooks sections she immediately hugged Mags, "Let me see what you're doing Mags." The old lady smiles big before licking her fingers and continuing her work.

Finnick couldn't help but admire the girl as she was following Mags' directions. She was captivating. He couldn't help but stare. Realizing he was staring a little bit too long he starts observing the rest of the Victors. He then noticed Katniss on the other side looking at the ropes. He comes up next to her and grabs onto the rope she was tying (horribly).

"Girl on Fire can't even tie a rope. Hm interesting. Here let me. "He starts wrapping the rope around his hand twirling each strand beautiful. "Let me show you the best knot in the arena." Katniss still stares at him annoyance visible on her face making him chuckle. "Arianna better not see you staring at me. Look at the knot not my beautiful face. This is the bit where it gets complicated."

He then puts it around his neck, tightens it until it's snug against his throat. He grabs the end of the rope, "And this is for...well you know..." He then pretends to be hanging.

The girl in front of him smiles sarcastically, "Fun"

He turns to the girl offering her the end of his rope, "Do you want to take me for a walk?"

Katniss glared at the man about the leave when she retorts, "Shouldn't you be asking your girlfriend that?"

He chuckles keeping the rope around his neck before pointing to the Knives section. "She's a bit busy being a badass right now."

The duo walks towards where all the tributes seem to be admiring the young girl.

As the first holographic target flickered to life, Arianna's hand moved with lightning speed. A gleaming silver knife soared through the air, embedding itself precisely in the center of the target.

A particularly challenging hologram materialized—a ferocious muttation with razor-sharp teeth. The tension in the air thickened as Arianna locked eyes with the holographic beast.

With a swift, controlled motion, she flung a set of knives in rapid succession, hitting the muttation's vulnerable points. The hologram dissipated in a burst of light, and the crowd erupted into cheers

Arianna, unfazed by the attention, took a moment to acknowledge the crowd with a nod and a confident smile then hugs a proud-looking Mags. "This is my go-to knife and now it's yours. Use it well."

As people were finally going back to their training she stops in front of Katniss and Finnick.

She looks at the rope around his neck while raising her eyebrow. She twirls the loose end of the rope around her hand and tugs hard making him immediately lose his balance and lean towards the girl smirking. "I like this."

Finnick couldn't help but reciprocate the feeling. "You and me both...I was just showing Girl on Fire here the best knot in the arena."

Arianna ties her up in a ponytail before crossing her arms. " You learned from the master. He was the one to teach me many years ago how to do that. When he wasn't even my mentor." She then points to where she was. "I was teaching Mags how to throw a knife. I think she was too busy hyping me up to actually be looking."

"Couldn't leave Snow White in distress. The best part of the Hunger Games is the rope tying." Arianna lightly hit his chest. "And let's be honest here Mags definitely agreed to the demonstration so she can show you off. Very wise woman she is."

Katniss cleared her throat making the duo look at her. Peta also decided to stand next to his fiancé. "That was impressive."

The short compliment made the girl smile, "Don't worry you won't be at the end of my throws." Peta sighed in relief making the duo laugh out loud. "Hopefully we'll be able to be allies, right Finnick?" He nods and winks at Katniss before following the girl pulling his rope.

"If I knew you liked being dominant I would've given you a rope a long time ago." Arianna couldn't help but laugh letting the rope go and taking it off him, she caressed her hand around the rawish area. An intimate yet beautiful moment between the two. Both looking at one another intensely.

Peta and Katniss were still looking at the pair who were a few feet away from them. "So what do you think?"

Katniss really didn't know what to think. Finnick's threat last time ran through her head. Seeing them now definitely solidifies her thoughts of them being together.

It's very interesting seeing those two claim they're not together yet so openly show their care for one another. A part of her loves the idea of a true love connection at the games, but she can't really see the playboy of the capitol and the tyrants' daughter together as a symbol of love.

Now the two were at the plants section with Arianna quickly matching all the plants correctly. "She's brilliant and skilled, but I don't trust either of them."

Peta liked the duo. He understands Katniss' skepticism, but he also doesn't want the duo as possible enemies especially if they're so willing to be allies.

He put an arm on her shoulder, "If we get Arianna, then we get Finnick, Mags, and Johanna by association. It honestly makes sense."

~~~~~~`

"Well, sweetheart, you got your pick of the litter." Haymitch folds his hands giving their duo a smile.

"I want Arianna."

[celaenaeiln]

something i’d love to see more of is angsty rebellious teenage dick grayson. i don’t know why i enjoy the trope but the image of dick “golden boy” grayson getting plastered with roy as he slowly sinks into depression before somewhat getting his shit together is an interesting picture

also he just seems like the guy to get impulsive piercings. dunno why

oooh yeah that fantasy's a guilty a pleasure of mine.

I am 1000000000% an enforcer of Dick was not an angry robin. And he wasn't because the comics show just how happy his demeanor was and how fun he is. But angsty teen Dick? 16/17 year old Dick?

I LOVE IT.

Again throwing a little bit of canon in

"When we started this you were open and encouraging. You were my father...but these last few years...all you've been doing is trying to control me even more."

This is so loaded.

The anger Dick feels when Bruce is trying control him, trying to lock him in a cage in the batcave because of worry, has so much ao3 potential.

Like angsty teen dick is so complicated to think about because Bruce acts a bit like an alcoholic father and Dick's compartmentalization issues come from his parents' death. So what would this result in?

I have no fcking clue.

Because Dick would totally get wasted with Roy, hazy blue eyes staring emptily into space, watching with a flushed cheeks as his short black hair fans out on the back of a beaten blue couch at Roy's place, just breaking down quietly as Roy rants and screams about life's injustices in the background, slinging an arm around Dick and jostling him.

Or maybe he and Roy would also go bar hopping, both of them sloppy drunk, laughing and crying at the same time while they max out their daddies' credit cards and then crash somewhere in someone's pool. Maybe they end up inadvertently on Katy Perry's Friday Night music video.

Or maybe Dick would be a hurricane of disaster, lashing out with knives of sharpened words stabbing the deepest, sorest spots of pain in people, his anger alighting a fire in all. He would be magnificent, ferocious, and catastrophic.

He could be any of these three and all three at once.

He would feel the need to act out if Bruce was becoming more controlling.

BUT AT THE SAME TIME, Dick raised Bruce and that perpetually sense of responsibility he's instilled into himself from a young age as well as his self-sufficiency is never erased so one night he would be blacked out from the excessive alcohol but next morning 6'o clock his body's walking up and he's going through his morning routine like a machine and out the door to work. He just keeps going like this day and day until he collapses and the titans intervene or Bruce drags him back to the manor, screaming in love and fear and Dick screams back and the cycle begins.

Nightwing (1996) Issue #135

Like canonically Dick ran away from home at 16, got a job, got caught up in a major anarchist group, and did a whole freaking investigation while Bruce sulked in the cave because Dick ran away.

There's so much angsty dick potential that could go in so many ways because he's such a complex character that all of them apply.

LOL!!! I totally think he would get impulsive piercings too. Maybe when he's drunk and pissed and then the next day he would wake up be like wtf. He'd sit in turmoil and a little regret for a while and then be like whatever because these piercing are freaking cool.

Bonus: no one (except the og titans and Alfred bc Dick never keeps anything from Alfred and the titans are family) ever find out about the piercings and it's kept a tightly guarded secret until a decade later when he does something in the batcave and one of the batkids notice and they're like, "DICK YOU HAVE A PIERCING?!" The rest of them just about break their neck whipping their head around to look at him. Dick just shrugs nonchalantly because time has tempered him and goes, "oh yeah. I guess. I forgot." Bruce passes out and wakes up on the floor to Dick hovering worriedly over him while the rest of the family watches in amusement at his predicament and also half brokenly because their golden boy big brother has piercings. Plural.

Bruce gasped out a pained breath, "Piercings?"

Dick stared at him silently, gemstone eyes holding his gaze as the quiet of the cave melted the seconds into hours. His eyes slowly slid from Bruce's to where the rest of the family was standing, watching them with bated breath for his answer, before they met Bruce's hopeful ones again.

"No." Bruce, with all the strength left in his body after recovering, raised a questioning eyebrow as Dick continued, "I don't have any piercings and never did."

"Hmn." But he swore he could've seen-

The kids erupted in protests.

"Dick, come on!" Jason hollered, pushing forward. "We clearly saw it there-"

"Where?" Dick asked, spreading his arms wide and invitingly, offering them to see for themselves.

The piercing they had all gotten the barest glimpse of was gone from where they had seen it on Dick.

"But you said you! You said, 'yeah. I guess so. I forgot.'" Stephanie put her hands on her hips, "Admit it Boy Piercing!"

"Boy Piercing?!"

"Fess up, pretty boy!"

"Steph," Dick visibly bit his lip to keep from laughing, "I was joking. You guys should've see your reactions - they were so funny!! Dick has a piercing. OMG. You people were hilarious."

Damian clicked his tongue. "Enough Richard! Did you implement metal into you skin like a heathen? Richard, how could you?! Who dare touch-"

"No Dami!" Dick quickly interfered to prevent a possible murder on his behalf, "I was just kidding, okay? Besides, did you guys even really see it? Like full on?"

Harper crossed her arms. "Close enough."

Dick quirked his eyebrow at that. "But you didn't actually see it right? You thought you saw something shining and turned to look. C'mon you guys know what it is - peripheral vision hallucinations. Things you see in your peripheral vision that aren't real because you are tired," He pinned a look at each other, emphasizing the words, "and stressed."

Dick pressed his lips together and folded his arms. "Time for bed. Now. I know you all haven't been sleeping for the past few days so you all are going to bed. At the manor." Dick finished, shooting Jason a look when he tried secretly shuffling toward his bike.

The rest of them were unmoved for a moment but quickly caved under Dick's patented "I'm mom-ing you."™ stare as Jason liked to call it.

They trudged upstairs while Bruce and Dick watched in companionable silence.

Bruce turned to look at Dick as the sounds of their bickering and footsteps faded away.

"How did you do it?"

Dick hummed distractedly and tilted his head to look down at Bruce still sitting on the floor. "Do what?"

Bruce growled, impatience, annoyance, and apprehension swimming in his voice, "Don't lie. To me. How did you hide it? Now. And for so long?"

Bruce watched tensed as the tip of Dick's tongue ran over the ridges of his top row of teeth, the first sign of anger he had seen from him in weeks. The pink flesh of his tongue barely avoiding cutting itself on the slightly too sharp canines that Dick loved to call his vampire teeth since he was little. He had even threw a veteran-dentist-scaring-tantrum in the dentist's office when the man suggested shaving them down once.

Bruce watched warily as Dick crouched down, balancing on his balls of his feet like a cat on a fence, and forcefully tamped down the sudden urge to pull out a hidden batarang when the boy grinned, eyes lighting with the wild fire of joy and madness from his robin days that still had Bruce on edge for decades.

"How did you it?" He asked again, not sure if he really wanted to know anymore but the principle remained. There was no way Dick's activities could be hidden for so long. He didn't invest in his detective following skills for something like this to escape his observation. But at the same time Dick had evaded his tracking skills when he was seventeen and ran away from him. But something so obvious as a piercing would never escape his notice. But a whole 17 year old boy also shouldn't have escaped his notice. However, Bruce had improved. He had gotten better at his job and his skills. Right? Right, of course, he was the best in the world. Dick definitely did have a piercing. But...on the off chance...what if he really had just seen a flash of light? Sweat on a body? The edge of a birdarang? Peripheral vision hallucinations? "Do you?"

"Do I what?"

You already know what I'm asking. Bruce thought, frustrated with Dick for lying. Frustrated with himself for not knowing if Dick was lying.

"Do you have piercings?" Bruce ground out.

Dick laughed, his voice echoing like choir bells in the spacious cave and bouncing off the stalactites to create a ringing, haunting melody as he leaned in closer to Bruce.

"C'mon, B! You know every showman's got his own tricks," Dick grinned brightly.

And you're the whole damn circus. Bruce hissed viciously in his mind.

Dick's eyes twinkled back at him.

[characteroulette]

Here is another random rambling about Layton identity diatribes (I wrote it but I need elabouration):

I think the most interesting thing Layton can feel for Descole is nothing.

I mean, what can one feel for a brother they had blocked out of their memories?

Layton finding love for Descole would be a given. Probably the most in-character thing for Layton, honestly. That was his brother. His brother who sacrificed everything to ensure that Layton had a family and would be loved. That's the brother whose name he now carries, whose life he was gifted. Of course Layton would be able to find it in himself to love Descole even after the murder attempts, the counter terrorism that was just terrorism, and lying to his face for an entire road trip. Layton has a big heart and he is used to loving those who have complicated morality.

Hatred, though less in-character, would also make sense. This is a man who attempted to kill him. Who kidnapped a friend and blackmailed the other with it. Who deprived his best friend of his mother for six months and then tried to have that friend killed as well. Who drove a creature who was the last of her kind to her death. Who lied to his presumed dead friend and made a terrorist out of him. Who has hurt and pushed aside so many people in pursuit of his one goal. Hatred makes sense for someone who has done so much wrong. Hatred makes sense for a man who abandoned even his own identity in pursuit of vengeance. How much better than Leon can Descole claim to be when he's forsaken his once family just the same? Even if not pure hatred, then distaste or annoyance would make an equal amount of sense.

But ambivalence? For Layton to look at this man and all his complications and feel nothing? That's the most interesting option to me. Here is your namesake, someone who sacrificed so much for you, and yet all you know of him is that he's tried to strike you down where you stand. A brother whom you once knew nothing else but love for who has now hurt too many others, has jostled too harshly those knives which sit in your heart. Here is a man whom you once knew as well as yourself, and yet despite your own identity being a hodge podge of those you've loved, you now have more solid of an identity than him. He who wears a mask, who hides behind persona after persona and holds nothing but vengeance beneath it all has less purpose than you who have plunged so many knives into your heart.

You can't feel anything for this man. Not anger, not sympathy, and not fondness. You don't remember anything about him. You know nothing about him. Whatever he's told you while wearing the face of Sycamore, you can't believe to be true. Whatever he's declared behind the mask of Descole is nothing more than the pure Vengeance dragging him forward.

You don't know him. You can't even remember what he used to be.

And so your heart is empty when you stare down at this man.

There is so much complication behind this choice that it's just fascinating to me. Luke can hate Descole all he likes (while also being conflicted about Descole saving him that one time), but I want Layton to look at this man who was once his brother, who gave up everything to ensure Layton had a life, and feel nothing.

It's an uncomfortable feeling. There should be something there. A knife plunged straight to the hilt.

But it's just an empty space. What used to be grief, anger, and love is now a void of nothing.

He blocked that memory from himself. It was once too painful. Now there's nothing there and nothing he can use to respond with.

[chainoftalent]

Can i ask for koiki/pg kokichi yan headcannons?

Ah my boy Koiki, who's original iteration became so specific that he split off into an oc and pregame got given the much less cool name of Koiki.

Yandere PG Kokichi/Koiki Headcanons

Pregame Kokichi will be referred to as Koiki

Koiki's not an easy person to catch the eye of, incredibly particular and somewhat secretly misanthrope, Koiki views everyone as just pawns and other game pieces for his quest to world domination. He's taken a lot of influence from the best character in Danganronpa, which he will fight about, Monaca Towa. Truly, she's everything he wants to be.

So he makes himself seem pleasant, sweet, naive even, as he peers up to you in those big round glasses in that soft woolen sweater. One would not be amiss to mistake him for a sheep, but with tongue and eyes as sharp as claws, beware the wolf in the sheep. He'll lie, cheat, steal, push down the stairs, and then blame you for all of it, because poor little bullied Class Rep Koiki could NEVER.

Though while everyone thinks they're friends with Koiki, Koiki feels nothing for them. No empathy, or pity, or sympathy, simply dominoes to line up. However, don't mistake this for a total detachment. He has his more early interests, like sweets, and especially animals. Koiki adores animals, seeing them as much more honest and understandable then people. People have all this pomp and charade and knives in backs, a dog is just a dog. Simply, effective, understandable. Truly what could a person give him that a cat or dog or bird couldn't?

With quite an ego and viewing himself as just inherently better then humanity, it's very very hard to make true attachments. Which does leave him a bit lonelier then he likes to admit. So this won't be a standard meet cute, no, this will be calculated. He'll see you around, just another pawn in his game, as he learns all your secrets. Then you break the scripts he had thought with you. You take him off guard, you call him out for a moment, or you rescue a dog from traffic, or you reveal that you were smarter then you appeared. Either way, you proved his calculations wrong.

And if there's something Koiki can't stand, it's being wrong because if he's wrong that means he's not perfect which means he's slacking, and he CANNOT have that.

So he focuses in on you, spends more time with you, trying to figure out where his calculations, his precious gears and pawns and plans, failed him.

He just can't seem to get it right though, maybe you don't want to be around him despite his charms, maybe you keep changing the rules he thinks he understands, for whatever reason he keeps failing.

Suddenly this isn't a pawn, or an actor, or just another shadow on the wall, but a person, like him, complex, complicated, alive.

He's never met another person before, just shadows and facades of what it means to be a person.

Such a rare occurance, such a thing he didn't think was possible

well....

it's certainly not boring, and he certainly isn't going to let something like that slip through his fingers. Oh no, you won't escape your new best friend so easily, and if you try, he'll make everyone hate you as the cruel cold person who spurred the sweetest kindest person in school...do you think your reputation could take that? your future? no? good, so put your hand in his, and dance this dangerous dance of dominance and conflict with him, and he won't blame you for a black eye.

[goattypegirl]

If you were giving a rough overview of how powers and trigger events worked in Worm, what character would you use an example? Ideally it should:

1. Showcase the cosmic irony of powers without being too on the nose or too abstract. Part of what makes the powers so interesting are the way they reflect trigger events, but you'd need a whole ass essay to fully explain how Jack can extend the range of knives (and, you know, do that other thing), and you really need to read all of Worm to understand why Taylor

2. Be simple. Clusters, Trumps, Cauldron capes, case 53s, and buds are a bit too complicated to explain for this purpose. Dauntless probably falls in this as well on account of him telling his passenger 'fuck off, im busy' mid-trigger and how that shaped his power.

3. Not spoil too much. I don't want to give away a dramatic moment or something from a character's interlude. This disqualifies most of the Undersiders and Breakthrough though...

So. A non-major character who's trigger is not revealed in a climactic moment, not a Cauldron cape, part of a cluster, or a bud, where it's easy to draw a line between trigger and power... Vista fits the bill. And I can't think of anyone else. And I'm looking at the wiki and I don't recognize half these names what the hell.

[montywithchildhoodtrauma]

So from the look of the new hotel Lucifer might be staying with them from this point on, becoming a beloved main character with the rest.

I love this fact but... I haven't seen the topic of his depression come up yet with this new living situation.

Sooo head cannons.

Warning, this will contain suicidal thoughts, intrusive thoughts, self harm, throwing up, and thoughts of self harm. If this triggers you in any way shape or form, please, for your safety don't read.

People often talk about depression meaning you sleep a lot and you're sad all of the time. And yes that is one thing that can happen, but people don't often talk about the exhaustion of being too tired to do anything and your brain to loud and filled with hateful thoughts that force you awake. Lucifer often lays in bed for hours, the night ticking away slowly. He knows that he has to get up soon but the thought of not getting any sleep hurts his head. But he can't, and he doesn't know why- hes exhausted and tired but his head wont shut up-

He stays in his room for days on end. Any attempts to coax him out of his room fail, after a while they just start leaving plates of food that never get eaten outside of his room.

He often forgets to eat. Doesn't deserve it anyway

Sometimes he purposely doesn't eat. Hes just gonna throw it up again-

He wanders the halls of the hotel when everyone else is, theoretically, asleep.

Man drinks so much coffee he should be double dead, five times over.

The only one who hasn't vented to Husker. (Its only a matter of time- Huskers hidden all of the wine and champagne)

Everyone now has their own custom Duck! Alastor's is set to explode soon but lets not talk about that (A lamb duck is set carefully at the bottom of a lovely statue, wonder who it could be for...)

After staying in his room for days he does wayyy too much for everyone, it's concerning.

Depression meals! (Its- two slices of bread and cheese?)

Non depression meals! (Very nice- Coffee isn't a meal)

He and Alastor have been given separate kitchens due to... complications...

Pancakes and jambalaya don't go together- Holy fuck, they don't go together-

He keeps his windows shut and covered at all times, no matter how stuffy his room gets- It would be so easy to just fall, everyone would think its an accident, no one would care~

The windows stay shut. One little lock between him and a free fall

He tries to avoid Nifty as much as possible, not that shes really interested in him anymore, she just... freaks him out.

Depression meal squared! ( All he did was add a second slice of cheese)

Wonder where all this blood's coming from... it's staining the corners of Lucifer's sleeves.

A few knives from the kitchen have gone missing... ah Nifty probably took them.

Interventions won't work! Hes the king of hell!

Damn it, the puppy eyes get him every time.

Refuses to join in on the trust exercises. Hes almost as stubborn as Angel on that front.

He often forgets what hes doing or what he should be doing.

I'll make a part two if anyone wants me to!

[meliissa-art]

My headcanons for Belarus

Belarus is a character that I dislike in canon. Hima did her dirty :(

So here are some headcanons I have for Belarus <3

Her human name is Natallia Arloŭskaja/Arlievič (the last option is gender neutral)

Her nyo! name would be Mikalaj Arloŭskij/Arlievič

If you are interested in knowing why I think those names would suit the character better, check out this post:

Ok, back to the headcanons!

I ship her with Romano or with

Could talk for hours about knives with Sakha/Yakutia

Has a complicated relationship with Russia

She is not his sister. I don't think nations are related to each other. Sure, nations can call each other "brother" or "sister", but because they are close to each other and have no romantic feelings, not because they are genetically related.

Perhaps she had a close relationship with him in the past and called him "brother" during that time. But nowadays their relationship is more complicated.

Belarus is extremely worried about her language, as it's getting more and more russified over time.

She is very protective of her own culture and tries to preserve it as much as possible.

She could have been close to Lithuania, as she was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (I need to do more research about this though...)

I know little about Belarus' history, but she is an interesting character! I will probably talk more about her in the future

[nanomooselet]

Episode Nine: Millions Knives

Knives is firmly among my favourite characters. Adore him, fascinated by him, need to hit him over the head with a baseball bat.

The thing about Knives is that he lies constantly. I think he's so used to lying that he's come to believe himself truthful and sincere. To be fair to him, his emotions are very sincerely felt - I think they rattle his teeth, actually - but I don't think he understands them, even in hindsight. I don't think he understands the emotions or responses of others, either. They make no intuitive sense to him. So he rationalises reactions he doesn't expect as weakness, error or corruption to avoid admitting to himself where the problem might lie, and considers them only on those terms. Which must be terribly, terribly isolating, and it means he also lies to himself.

I suppose it's not a secret that I see a lot of myself in Vash - the guilt, the distance, the way he exaggerates his reactions around others - but there's a little bit of Knives there too. Enough that I feel sympathy. But I also recognise parts of him that aren't in me at all; they were a sickness I didn't realise I had, or the voices of people I wish had known better.

So my feelings about him are complicated, to put it mildly. I remember after watching the finale I had simultaneous urges to wrap him in a blanket and beat him to death with a tire iron, and that hasn't really changed. It's a difficult state of mind.

He's a great character.

Such a sweet, sad scene from a character we saw being so vicious. The notes begin slow, faltering - loneliness, hesitation. Perhaps even regret? And then Vash enters in his memory and adds his voice, and while it's still a little awkward, the notes themselves seem to smile along with him. Knives has learned over time to play the song himself, but it's still incomplete without Vash. The room is ridiculously huge, which makes Knives in the centre even tinier and lonelier than he'd otherwise be; the distance of the long-shot also conceals that he sits just a little further to the right than he needs to, so the realisation is slow. There's a lot of empty space. It looks like the room is unfurnished besides the piano and bench, with some random debris scattered around. How long has he been staying here? How long has he sat on that bench, trying to fill all that emptiness? Around him, beneath him, humans do human things and he is indifferent. He permits it only because soon none of it will matter.

I have to wonder what it is that Conrad got for Knives that made Knives look so pleased. Can't help but consider it ominous.

Also, Luida wasn't the only member of the SEEDs crew to pass on a haircut.

They have very similar clothes, too. That must have been an interesting shopping trip.

I spent literal hours combing through all my references trying to figure out if that was SEEDs Ship Five the city was built in, and I don't think so - Ship Five had human passengers and July was built in a Plant carrier. (So much for "I made sure the Plant ships would survive.") So at least we're spared the twist of the knife (sigh) it would have been to know somewhere in among all these withered Plants might be the twins' birth mother or the one who greeted them with Rem - but Jesus V. Saverem Christ, that doesn't make it better.

Knives, y'know - I do get why you killed those men. I really do. Humans are not innocent of this horror. Humans are not angels. Humans are survivors. We're also unfortunately greedy, short-sighted and brutally indifferent to those we don't perceive as part of the ingroup, especially when desperate. Even if you're willing to overlook this callous, casual abuse of living beings - and I wouldn't be - this is a recklessly unsustainable approach. Almost like a decision one might make in panic out of misfiring instinctive urge to seek safety? Not that I'm implying anything about your decisions.

And so when he sees Vash Knives immediately blames all of humanity when Knives bears at least a portion of the blame himself. There would always be casualties in such wide-scale destruction, even among those he intended to spare. Nor did he seem to do anything to protect the Plants aboard the crashed ship (likely because it would require relying on more humans), though it's obvious they would be vulnerable. But there's no way he can take responsibility for the deaths of his own kind on top of everything else he's done... though truly we're also our own worst advocates.

I'm sure they were happy to be useful.

Maybe Knives should have thanked the technician who said that to him before his death, because what he said made Knives so very angry. Anger, for Knives, is strength, and strength is certainty. A frightened little boy is sorry that he killed his mother and drove his brother away. A frightened little boy couldn't do this. Vash is frightened, of course. Clinging to Rem's skirts, a coward still, years later. Totally lacking conviction. But Knives thought of this. He knows how to work with that too.

Interesting that when Vash felt unworthy of the people of Home, he took off the coat they gave him to give it back. Knives, though, he snatches the gift he gave Vash straight out of his hands. If he's learned to play a duet alone he doesn't need Vash to do this either. He doesn't need Vash. It'd just be nice! You know. Not to have to rely on himself all the time!

His stupid little face and its utter bafflement. Where is this coming from? Vash isn't like this! I don’t remember it being like this! What could possibly have changed?

Knives intended to keep his calm throughout this confrontation. You can watch him visibly gather himself when he notices Vash enter; take a deep breath, push his hood back - it's why he went from kneeling to standing. It's like he can't be vulnerable, or even ask for comfort, but I swear if he'd just asked Vash for a hug instead of stabbing people the series would have ended there. Instead he tips further and further over the edge, refusing to reach out for help on terms other than the ones in his head, which he refuses to explain. And the moment a variable he can't control enters the situation, his first and only reaction is to violently remove it.

(Poor Luida must have no idea what the hell is going on. Although I bet this reunion explained a lot with hindsight.)

Why do you point that gun at me? Even though I saved you?

That's really the question Knives needs to consider the answer to himself, and he's not going to. Instead he imposes a time limit (and I'm starting to think when it ran out, that was when the Eye of Michael got into gear, so it's been around for approx. forty-five years) and runs off to cry in his piano room as though Vash is the one who needs a time-out.

Well.

He does, at that.

There's so much hope in what follows. Compared to Knives's vast hollow space, Vash's little room is so full of warmth and acceptance. He has people who love him and even a solution to the ongoing crisis, albeit an imperfect one - but he has something, he's not just flailing around until the day he catches one too many bullets. He has a goal in healing the Plants and helping people, and he has people who support him in it. And sure, he faces scepticism. Not to mention the parameters he's put on himself (I'll never kill, ever again... I'll figure out a way to save everyone. The humans, Plants... and Nai) which are Dark Souls times Atlus superboss impossible. But even Brad, who once called him a monster, thinks he's in with a chance.

I truly wish I found that more comforting than I did.

[swagcoolcat]

Different Superstore Characters and Their Autism

(These are all headcanons)

(some have canon support)

Dina

* Strong Points

* Math

* To the point of being able to do basic math in her head

* 198+535? Give her 5 seconds.

* Math always came easy to her

* Music

* Learned guitar very quickly

* Also can play piano

* She’s a very skilled singer despite never having lessons

* Speaking

* Dina is really good at keeping her voice and her words clear. She knows how to get her point across. Even when under stress, she usually doesn’t crack.

* Weak Points

* Social cues

* She’s not bothered by this, and she doesn’t care. It’s not her fault neurotypical bitches make things so complicated.

* Pop culture

* She does, however, know the most random niche information, and is appalled when others don’t also know the random trivia she knows.

* Takes everything so literally

* Her response to Jonah’s “soon we’re gonna have to pee in bottles” during Curbside Pickup comes to mind

* She’s also bad with common phrases

* “I don’t like you spreading lies about fish!”

* Doesn’t seem to recognize how dangerous some things are

* Or how fragile humans are

* Sense of direction

* This bothers her a ton because she feels like she SHOULD have a good sense of direction, but even though she’s lived in St Louis her whole life, she still needs a GPS to get the vast majority of places.

* Yums

* Sorting things, specifically by color

* Anything that isn’t sorted by color when she buys it is sorted by color no later than an hour after it’s purchased

* Eye contact

* She actually aggressively likes eye contact lol

* Socks

* Icks

* Physical affection

* She only sometimes tolerates it, depending on who it’s from

* She’s somewhat okay with being touched, but she doesn’t particularly enjoy it

* Changes in routine

* Includes things like having to buy a new Halloween costume, or having to get new pens (both canon instances)

* High pitched noises

* A lot of noises actually

* Masking

* Does not bother masking most times

* She does it so rarely that it’s very obvious when she is masking

* Stims

* Making noises vocally

* Jumping

* Waving her arms

* Twirling pens or knives in her fingers

* Special Interests (past and present)

* Birds

* Security

* Knives

* Music from the 1940s-1960s

* Coping Mechanisms

* Sex

* Hitting and breaking things

* Driving

* Yelling at people

* Other details

* Low empathy

* Strong sense of right and wrong

* Usually this is in a rule sense, but there are a few cases where her morals don’t align with rules, and she breaks them to stick with said morals.

* Biggest example in my opinion is her efforts to keep Mateo from getting detained

* Undiagnosed

* She’s the most likely to have a diagnosis, but probably still undiagnosed

* Blunt

* Cares a lot for animals

* Especially any type of bird

Jonah

* Strong Points

* Vocabulary

* He has a large vocabulary and prides himself on knowing a lot of words

* (He’s so annoying about it sometimes too- he’s just like me FOR REAL)

* This exercise is teaching me I’m more like Jonah than I thought lol

* You’d think with this he’d be able to get his point across well but you’d be wrong

* Vibe Check ??

* (Sorry I couldn’t think of a better way to put it)

* He just is really good about knowing when something is off

* Does he handle the situation well when something is off? Totally depends.

* Weak Points

* Bad at reading social cues

* In denial over his struggles with reading them, thinking he’s great at it, when in fact he’s exactly the opposite

* Implying he’s bad at reading social clues will offend him

* Auditory processing issues

* Tends to give too many details

* Specifically about pieces of media, he’ll share a bit too much. He’s not good at giving a quick synopsis.

* He’s just like me for real

* He’s so fucking impulsive

* HE CAME TO WORK IN RETAIL IN A COMPLETELY SEPARATE STATE ON A WHIM

* AND HE ONLY CAME THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE HE WANTED A SNACK LMAO

* Has some insomnia

* Very bad at staying on topic sometimes

* The way he’ll just randomly start talking about something else in the series? Canon. Canon.

* Speaking in general

* If he doesn’t think very carefully before he speaks, he will stutter. Even if he does think carefully, there’s a chance he’ll stutter anyway.

* He’s. Just. Like. Me. For. Real.

* Yums

* Loves physical affection

* To the point of pushing it, and not noticing when it’s too much

* He gives hugs a lot

* He and Amy are very much the loves affection x doesn’t like affection that much.

* He enjoys changes in his routine

* He would literally reorganize an entire house if given the opportunity, he loves change

* Unless it’s initiated by literally anyone else, but he likes to initiate changes often

* Socks

* Icks

* Loud noises

* RSD

* This isn’t necessarily an ick but he wants people to like him SO bad so I guess people not liking him is an ick

* Masking

* He cannot stop masking

* He doesn’t realize he’s masking, but he was raised to mask his entire life, so it’s just normal to him

* He is always exhausted because of this

* He always seems uncomfy when he’s not masking

* Stims

* Moving his hands or arms in any way

* Twirling pens

* Repeating words

* Tapping his fingers

* Pacing

* Special Interests (past and present)

* The Americans

* Politics

* Musical Theatre

* Constellations

* Horses

* Coping Mechanisms

* Comfort shows

* Talking about it

* Or yelling if he needs to

* Quiet alone time

* Cooking for others

* Other details

* Feels the need to prove himself constantly

* Out of the three, Jonah probably had the worst upbringing specifically in regards to his neurodiversity, with his parents showing very obvious favoritism to his older brothers, and with his brother, Josh, always bullying him because of his neurodiversity

* High empathy

* Strong sense of right and wrong

* Undiagnosed

* Also so in denial

* If anyone implies he might be neurodivergent he’ll be like “I couldn’t possibly be, not that there’s anything wrong, but like, couldn’t be me, actually”

* Not good at making friends

* He gets better at this over the course of the show

* He’s not good at this before the show because he never sticks with anything, so even though he knows more of who he is than he did in childhood (where he was more of an outcast) he doesn’t stick around long enough to make long lasting friends.

Eric

* Strong Points

* Details

* He’s very detail oriented and notices small things

* He’s good at recognizing when things are off center and it drives him crazy

* Weak Points

* Bad at reading social cues

* Literally the worst

* He knows this to an extent but he’s not aware of just how bad he is at it

* Especially bad at reading the tone of a social situation (whether it be serious, funny, sad, whatever)

* Generally more quiet and reserved

* With his ‘safe’ people he is literally the exact opposite

* Also this isn’t a weak point per se but this felt like the right place to put it

* Dissociates a lot

* Auditory Processing troubles

* He literally looks like he doesn’t know what’s going on sometimes and it’s always funny

* Yums

* Loves physical affection

* But he’s picky on who he’s affectionate with

* Likes to sit on the floor

* Socks

* Sorting things by color/organizing in general

* Mateo leaves Eric home alone. He comes back and the closet has been rearranged by color. This happens often.

* Mateo doesn’t mind this tbh because he likes stuff organized that way too.

* Sometimes when he’s at Amy’s and he’s playing with her kids, he’ll get distracted and sort their toys

* Icks

* Dislikes changes in routine

* Loud noises

* A lot of clothing textures

* Velvet is the worst of these

* Strong perfumey smells

* Masking

* He does mask

* However, he unmasks around his safe people (Mateo, Amy, etc)

* He doesn’t really have the proper terminology for it but he’s sort of aware when he needs to put up a nice face or where he can just be stoic

* He’s good with eye contact and doesn’t hate it

* Stims

* Biting/Chewing

* Clicking pens

* Anything he can busy his hands with actually

* Whistling

* Repeating words

* Rapidly blinking

* Pacing

* Special Interests (past and present)

* Plants

* Specifically succulents

* Trains

* This one is literally so self indulgent but I don’t care lmao

* Baking

* Giraffes

* Filmmaking

* (Because of a line where Mateo says he’s using Eric’s projector)

* He definitely still has a VCR player and a good amount of VHS tapes, and you can pry them from his cold dead fucking hands

* Weather

* He likes thunderstorms in particular

* This one is also self indulgent but I also just think it’d be kind of funny for Mateo to have severe storm anxiety and for Eric to be one of those bitches that would stand outside and watch the tornado if given the chance.

* Coping Mechanisms

* Rocking

* Hugging his giraffe stuffy

* Baking

* Sorting things

* Other details

* High empathy

* He Must be wearing jackets

* He can be without one, but he tends to have a shorter social battery when he’s not wearing one

* He doesn’t know why this is, he just is like “hm, I don’t really like being upset all the time in public places, guess I’ll just wear jackets all the time”

* Short sleeve jackets are okay, it literally just has to be an extra layer

* It’s an extra weight thing but he does not know this

* Undiagnosed

* Ron Sosa is also aggressively neurodivergent so their family is just like “ah, so the men in our family are just fucking weird, carry on then”

* Blunt

* Less so than Dina but it is definitely there

* Most of his close friends are people he’s known for a long time

* Basically saying he’s not great at making friends that he hasn’t known since he was in school

[laurelnose]

a disorganized pile of ninefox ttrpg thoughts

it is HERE! also it was late in shipping by like, a day? or two? so android press sent me the PDF version also, which was very very nice of them. For this I will forgive them the weird jank in the PDF version’s character encoding. (Maybe like 5% of characters consistently copy-paste as different characters. I think they fucked up the font subsetting somehow. It’s fine, it’s just weird. Makes quoting it a little bit of a hassle. Might be less fine if you use a screenreader.)

So pleased with several little random details which are not at all relevant to like, gameplay or the worldbuilding at large but which I just kind of wanted to know. The calendar months! The full set of Kel rank symbols! Signifiers for Kujen and Tseya! <3 Also, an additional set of symbolism for the factions per the calendar months? If I’m reading this correctly it's Rahal/Wood (!?), Andan/Bells, and Vidona/Knives. [We basically knew the other three, which are Shuos/Eyes, Kel/Pyres, and Nirai/Stars.] As a visual artist I am contractually obliged to be hype about all my little guys getting Symbols, they make my life easy and fun.

This is a slim little volume, so it’s light on lore details that you couldn’t find either a) in the actual series or b) on Lee's dreamwidth. That said, one new bit was that it was not previously clear to me that the nominal arrangement of power in the heptarchate was explicitly unequal between the Liozh and the others — I thought the extant six turned on the Liozh as one of their fellows, not that they deposed the ruling faction. Interesting.

Disappointing: there are no mechanics for the calendar besides the ability to tag the current festival/remembrance. :( I wanted to roll dice about calendrical rituals!! Funnily enough there's a whole little caveat section where he’s like, inevitably someone will want to have space battles, which can be accommodated by keeping them character-focused bc this system is not designed for battle sim crunch. No similar apology for those who might want magic system crunch, if anyone wanted any further evidence that Lee and Jedao are the same guy, lmao.

Other than that I’m not actually that much of a crunchy rules guy myself so I like the system itself fine. I enjoy the concept of every check involving not necessarily skills but character traits. And also the commitment to sixes. You need A LOT of d6s for this game.

If you’re really committed I think it would be fun to play with a set of these (normal d6s except instead of numbers or pips they have clock faces showing hours 1-6):

Jedao’s character sheet is so funny. “Complications: I have abysmal taste in lovers.” BE NICE TO HIM LMAO

It’s not entirely clear to me under which circumstances you wind up the Hexarchate Clock. Is it actually only if Kujen is in play? Does that mean he’s literally required if you want to run a long take-down-the-whole-hxx campaign?

The prewritten scenarios are neat! I don’t have a lot to say about them. They look like they would be fun. I like “The Field of Diplomacy” and the concept of the adjacent polity a lot. Oh also the note at the end of “A Heretical Sacrifice” that is just like “if the ‘human sacrifice’ bit is too vague for you and you want to add more torture, here are some ideas!” is 1) funny and 2) appreciably graphic and wince-inducing. HXX-typical gore: delivered on!

This is a petty note, but excluding servitor PCs on the grounds that this is a game about moral complicity and thus only human faction members can be PCs sure is a Statement. I know servitors are slaves and thus the moral calculus is certainly different, but like, the complicity is the entire point of Hemiola’s arc??? And faction servitors quite obviously often consider themselves to be legitimately part of that faction? The one Shuos servitor we meet is as interested in games as any fox, the assault on Shattered Needles is made possible because the Unspoken Law’s servitors consider themselves Kel, the Aerie interlude with sin 𝑥² is about a servitor who considers itself so deeply Kel it wants to go down with the hivemind. I understand they complicate things mechanically but excluding servitors for thematic reasons is silly.

That said, I feel like a servitor hack wouldn’t be too much more mechanically complex. None of the prewritten scenarios work with an all-servitor group, but I think they could all be run with one or maaybe two servitor PCs. You’d have to do some pregaming to figure out how you’d open communication between human/servitor PCs. Lore-wise, the faction traits are clearly not meant to represent the faction exotics or the Shuos wouldn’t have one; they read more like “specialized skills developed as a consequence of picking this faction” than calendrical stuff, so faction servitors could have standard faction abilities, with the caveat that a lot of interpersonal Edges may be hard for Andan servitors to hit on account of social interaction between servitors & humans being, well, you know. Alternatively, no faction abilities for servitors, but all servitors +2d6 to anything involving grid-diving and/or mechanics. Servitors can have ranks just like human PCs, though these ranks are only relevant to other servitors (and possibly moths). Servitors can probably tag calendar traits like humans, they just can’t participate in formations or affect calendrical gradients (neither of which have explicit mechanics in this system anyways). Heresies are the same for servitors as humans.

This really made me want to dig out that calendrical cryptocurrency heist concept I had to see if I can put together a scenario. And maybe also make some cardboard game spinners for a tactile clock experience...

[practically-an-x-man]

Remember how I kept saying I gotta show up in your inbox again with weird asks? Guess what! I'm back!

Your characters gain the ability to summon one (1) type of object. It can be any object that's not living (but it can be something that was once alive). They can summon as many as they'd like whenever they'd like for the rest of their lives, but it can only ever be the exact same object originally chosen with zero future modifications.

What do they choose?

Ooooh, I love this!! That's really cool!! Thank you!

Rae: Just a regular ink pen. Do you know how many times she's needed to write something down and doesn't have a pen?

Robin: Something really basic like a granola bar or other simple food item. Obviously very useful for herself, and means that no matter what she won't go hungry, but even more useful when Peter burns a lot of calories zipping around and needs a quick boost.

Madison: Just a bottle of water. Convenient after training or missions or wherever else, even better if she ever ends up in another survival situation, it's just... practical.

Ophelia: A roll of gauze. Look, she's out in the battlefield a lot, she gets pretty beat up and so do all her allies, and maybe a roll of gauze isn't a perfect fix but it's better than nothing in a pinch.

Gia: Probably something super practical and consumable, like a bag of soil or plant food that she uses in her shop. Saves her the money and trouble of having to order it in bulk every week.

Jasper: A very basic first-aid kit (they argue that the kit counts as one item, even if it contains other supplies, because when you say "first aid kit" you have a general idea of what it will contain) that has bandages, burn cream, arnica gel, ibuprofen, and a suture kit. Similar to Ophelia's idea - not a solution to every problem, but definitely helps while they find that better solution.

Kestrel: An empty field journal. Do you know how many field journals they go through?? They take copious notes when they work, and having a fresh journal whenever they need it would be a lifesaver on complicated missions

Katherine: A new, freshly-sharpened pencil. Similar premise to Rae's, she has a writing implement whenever she needs it, but extra helpful for Katherine when she feels like sketching or doodling.

Quinn: A bottle of pain meds in her prescription. No more doctor's visits to get it refilled, can be summoned whenever and wherever she needs them, and useful if anyone else on the team needs them as well since she doesn't have to be stingy with them. Could this cause a drug crisis? On a large enough scale, probably. But she literally just uses it to save herself the trouble of dragging herself to some doctor every three months to get the prescription refilled.

Eris: A small throwing knife. The details don't matter all that much - infinite throwing knives? Hell yeah!

Nikoletta: A pair of gloves like the ones she wore in Belle Reve. Useful for when her shadow-touch returns or she loses her usual gloves, helpful in more mundane ways (like when there's something she just doesn't want to touch with her bare skin), and sometimes it just helps with some of her ongoing anxiety.

Jimmy: A copy of his favorite book (Jane Eyre). It's always going to summon the same book, and by now he's pretty much got the whole thing memorized, but he honestly can't think of anything else he'd want or need to summon. And if nothing else, he could donate the books to Little Free Libraries or other programs he finds.

Vivienne: Does a glass of orange juice count as "was once alive"? If it does, that's what she's going with - combats the hydration problem AND the Vitamin C problem while out at sea, all in one fell swoop. Neither of those are generally huge problems for Vivienne, being a siren and all, but you bet it uses this power to take care of Wojchek and his crew while they're at sea for months on end.

Spider: More tapes for his handheld recorder. He's always taping interesting sounds he finds, and he goes through a lot of tapes because he refuses to tape over what he's already recorded unless he absolutely has to. An infinite supply of blank tapes would be incredibly useful for him.

[generic-whumperz]

OC in 3

Choose 3 pics to represent your OC

Oops, I got overly excited and made 10 three-picture collages

Omg thank you @mj-iza-writer for the tag! I am honored that I came to mind! 🥹

No pressure (& open to anyone interested!) tag: @rainydaywhump @eatyourdamnpears @clairelsonao3 @dresden-syndrome @lights-out-knives-out @snakebites-and-ink

| Aid Masterlist | Aid Character Sheet | Character Info

Soooo, I know I’m supposed only to pick three pics, but honestly, I simply cannot (I know, no surprise there). I have been wanting to do a vibe photo dump for The Aid (the Whumpee & title of the story) but have yet to do it (hello, my ever-expanding Pinterest boards), so I’ll take this chance to explore The Aid’s past phases he’s gone through (pre & post-Wyatt {Whumper #2}) and give some explanations because it’s a lot. However, I don’t know if explanations are necessary for this tag game, but I’m famously too much, so of course, I’m going to over-explain myself because of my crippling fear of being misunderstood!

Ironically, I call his time with Madame Eleanor (technical Whumper #1) his “Aid Era” because that’s when he becomes this character we are introduced to and currently know him as. Yet, this is the part of his life he is phasing out of. **Insert something-something about being haunted by your past.**

(In the current storyline, he is going through a succession of more changes, and his world is about to be turned upside down yet again, but I’ll hold off on showing those for now because they’re spoilers, and I have more than enough here!)

Starting from the top, here we goooo—

P.S. The people in these pics are not what the characters look like, this is simply vibes only!

Day 1

1. As soon as The Aid arrives at his new home, Madame Eleanor gets custom-made Gucci uniforms made for him that looks like this. This is his go-to everyday attire. (I spent too long looking at scrubs and hospitality uniforms on and off for over a month—tell me you like it and think it’s cool and sleek.)

2. He has a special built-in in his closet specifically for all his fancy, jewel-encrusted collars Madame Eleanor gifted him throughout the years, but this is what the facility's standard-issue collar looks like for his designation (Grand Servant: Domestic Aid).

3. His favorite Prada frames Madame Eleanor got him. (Wyatt later breaks them because he’s an asshole, leaving him straight up blind for several months).

Fancy Threads

Eleanor Sullivan was a Rich Bitch™️, so best believe she had her servant dressed to the 9s in designer fits when out and about or for Family events and the like. She may also put him in a butler uniform from time to time when they were hosting a party at their residence—which was often, Eleanor was known for her soirées. (To clarify, he’d still wear a collar even when dressed up, and all those attending knew who and what he was.)

The Host

He loved a good party just as much as Eleanor did! He likes serving and seeing people have fun and enjoy themselves (people-pleasing empath). He was known for his food displays and had a knack for creating a proper afternoon tea spread that garnered attention from all those present.

Speaking of Empath…

We can’t talk about him without bringing up his not-so-secret secret! Lil’ homie has a gang of abilities (telepathic empathy, hyper intuition, premonitions, and psychometry) just bubbling up inside him at all times. His relationship with himself and his sixth senses is complicated, to say the least—he finds them burdensome, yet he cannot function without them, despite how much he argues otherwise. It’s a whole thing, but for a certified Telepathic-Empath™️, he sure is dead inside (which only gets worse after Wyatt OFC).

*Sorry for the shitty upload quality of the Emotional Sponge, idk why it looks so bad!

Domestic Duties

Not only can he slap together the best charcuterie board you’ve ever seen and easily untangle Christmas lights, but he’s also a man who can cook, clean, and keep a house. What can’t he do?

Hobbies? Interests?

Don’t be ridiculous, he didn’t have time for leisure activities! But when he had some occasional downtime, he would spend an ungodly amount of it doing facials and grooming himself. He also loved to go to the spa with Madame Eleanor. As far as reading went, he wasn’t into novels, but he would occasionally peruse short-story myths and legends, old fables, or read picture books in funny voices to Eleanor’s grandchildren. Primarily, he’d like to read trashy magazines, comics, and cookbooks. But let’s be real, he considered cleaning, gossiping, and baking his primary hobbies.

RIP Madame Eleanor Sullivan

(She’s been dead for about a year and a half when they story picks up)

First and foremost—above everything else—The Aid was Eleanor Sullivan’s literal live-in medically trained caregiver, which is why she bought him in the first place. They had a very close relationship for five years, and he did everything for her. When she died, his world was shattered, and he took her death really hard. Wyatt was jealous of his Mother’s relationship with her servant from day one, which is where part of his animosity comes from. Quick note—Eleanor was a posh, vintage-Chanel-wearing Grandma and would never be caught dead wearing a bathrobe outside. Eleanor was Queen of being That Bitch.

Enter: Wyatt Sullivan

These pics are pretty tame all things considered, but after Eleanor’s death, The Aid is now in a World O’ Hurt and the subject of Wyatt’s drug-and-alcohol-fueled rage. The Aid went from a high-class servant loved by his Madame and respected by her friends, associates, and family (besides Wyatt) to a human punching bag overnight. The beef between these two runs deep and maybe Eleanor isn’t as innocent as she seems. Stick around and you’ll find out all the Sullivan family tea.

To: Wyatt

Just some memes directed towards Wyatt and The Aid being painfully aware of his shitty situation (I got too many of these and had to sprinkle some in).

Where We’re at Now…

Quite the fall from grace, wouldn’t you say? Our boy is currently bed-ridden and zombified while having the worst time imaginable. He’s drugged up, fucked up, and can’t move half of his body!

*This took me an embarrassing amount of time to assemble, but I went the extra mile because this doubles as a reference guide.