#maria be like info dumps even though no one asked for it

[azure-wolf-227]

Hamefura x Pokémon AU: Pokémon: Fortune Lover - Gameplay

Some Info dump on what the ‘game’ is like in this AU. I’ll later discuss how Bakarina’s actions change things.

-

Part 2: Changes Due to Katarina’s Actions

-

The game’s premise is that the main character is accepted into Sorcier’s Academy of Magic and Pokémon due to possessing rare Light Magic despite their commoner status. ‘Maria Campbell’ is the default protagonist but their name, gender, and appearance can be customized.

All Pokémon games introduce some new gimmick or mechanic. The one for this game is Magic Boosting. Trainers who are mages can use their magic to boost their Pokémon’s power. This works best with Pokémon whose Type is compatible with your element. In the main character’s case, Light Magic works with all Types except Dark, Poison, and Ghost and is most compatible with Fairy.

While there, the player can choose one of four storylines connected to each of the Capture Targets: Geordo, Alan, Keith, and Nicol. Now, while we are aware of their conflicts in the original Fortune Lover game, I want to alter them a bit so that they fit in the world of Pokémon and you need to do complex stuff to resolve them. For example:

Alan’s storyline is that he wants to become the Master Champion to prove he is better than Geordo. He sees you (the player) as a rival for that position and often battles you while you are on your journey to compete in the League.

Nicol’s storyline involves battling against Sophia’s bullies to protect her. I want there to be more to it but can’t think of something.

I’m also not sure what to do about Geordo’s and Keith’s storylines.

Anyway, the romantic elements are still present but they have less prominence. Sure, you can still win the Capture Targets over, but that’s not actually the main thing of this game.

Let’s talk about the female rivals. Besides the three you expect (Katarina Claes, Mary Hunt, and Sophia Ascart) there is a fourth one specific to the Keith storyline: Lady Charlotte Vulcan (© @logo-comics).

While each storyline has their own rival, Katarina Claes stands out in that she antagonizes the Main Character in all the storylines, not just Geordo’s and Keith’s. And though you can befriend the other three, Katarina is unrepentantly a villainess, at least on the first half of the game.

The Condemnation scene happens in all storylines with the Target you are pursuing coming to your defense. Unlike the og FL, there is no bad endings where Katarina dies. She is sentenced to exile but somehow escapes before they can go through with it.

Which brings up to the second part of the game.

No matter which storyline you chose, you always come into conflict against Team Dark, who seek to take control over all Pokémon and use them to conquer the world. I haven't decided who their boss is but, I kind of want it to be the king’s recluse brother since the guy is sus in the LNs.

Now completing the main for storylines unlocks the final storyline where you must find out what Team Dark is up to and stop them to save Sorcier. The first even of the second half that sets you on the path to defeat Team Dark is saving Sirius Dieke/Raphael Walt from the Dark Spirit possessing him.

Once you save Raphael, you learn that Marchioness Dieke was a member of Team Dark, so the Ministry asks for you assistance in stopping them. All five Capture Targets volunteer to help you; you can even ask the remaining three female rivals for help.

During the investigation, you discover that the fugitive Katarina Claes has joined Team Dark to take revenge on the Main Character. Other antagonists include Sora and Sarah.

At the end of the game, after you defeat Team Dark, you can end with either one of the five Capture Targets, all of them for the Harem ending, or Friendship ending.

-

What do you think? Do you have any ideas to expand stuff and make it better?

[princelettow-archive]

yeehaw babys 🤠

i haven’t talked about her much on main because i’m still half into the game and don’t know much about what happens aside from who dies dfshkj but her name is hannah and she joined the gang when she was 9 because her parents died in a robbery that went wrong ): they originally took her in only temporarily but she diagnosed all of them with family (hosea: this is my literal child now / dutch: it’s not / hosea: yes it is)

she has a silver tongue so she works as a swindler / con artist (papa hosea taught her well!), she is kind and has a big heart but she’s also diagnosed with bastard disease (she’s basically like a smug cat, the duality of man!)

↑ a bit like this

anywaysies arthur is her big brother and john is her feral brother but they all love each other like family because that’s what they are and you can pry that from my cold dead hands!! (also she ends up going by the surname matthews because that’s her literal dad and i will gun down anyone who dares call me out on this, let me have fun while i can)

she is also bffs with javier and leo (my friend’s oc) and she hates micah and never pronounces his name properly on purpose (”hey moocum, meekah, meechuh, meechum, maykey”) 

she’s irish and sean called her “the smaller sean” for a while after they met and she almost kneecaped him but they were good frends! (sean: i feel like hannah is the only person here who genuinely likes me / leo: that’s because she is)

she is also not allowed to hang out with trelawny because no one can stand it when they’re together because they literally never shut up (hosea went to bed once and after sleeping for 8 full hours they were still at it)

that’s all for now folks *tips cowboy hat* m’yeehaws

[kitkatopinions]

Okay, confession time? I... Really don’t know why Maria exists. RWBY already had a pretty severe character bloat problem even before volume seven. Yes, they split off from Team JNR for part of season six (which was a great choice in my opinion,) but they still had quite a few characters who hadn’t been developed much yet, like Oscar or even Nora. So while they cut Nora out for half a season to spend more time on the main four, Oscar/Oz, and Qrow, they also added in Maria, which took time away from them.

I understand adding characters for a specific purpose even if you already have main characters who you aren’t developing, but I just can’t figure out what functionality Maria has that couldn’t have been given to someone else.

What Maria brings to the table: She’s a longtime Hunter and can therefore guide the children. She also has clearly been through a lot, and is able to make the kids think about the real toll of the job they’re all pursuing. She knows more about the region than the kids. She knows about the Silver Eyes and can teach Ruby how they work.

But do you know who else has literally all of that?

Qrow. Qrow is a longtime Hunter and established guide to the children, he shepherded them around and did the work of seeking out other hunters while in Haven, the kids seemed to like him and were willing to work with him, and he was capable for the most part. He had also clearly been through a lot, with having lost Summer and Raven both, having a passive semblance that made his life worse, and struggling with alcoholism and depression. He had also just gotten injured and almost died, and had seemed to take it in his stride as if it’s happened before. Qrow is one hundred percent able to fill the roll of making the kids think about the true toll of being Hunters, but also is able to represent a long time member of Oz’s inner circle and the toll that takes at the same time. He seemed knowledgeable of Mistral and knew where to find people and it’d follow that he had been around the other Kingdoms and outside of them. Maria points them towards a trail? Qrow could’ve just as easily known about that trail. And he was close friends with Summer, the Silver Eyed Warrior. He was the one who info dumped to Ruby originally about her Silver Eyes, the fact that they were special and had special powers, and also that it was dangerous to have them. Ruby asked Maria how they worked, but Qrow didn’t need to have had the power himself to tell Ruby how her Silver Eyes worked and how to use them. He likely knows, since he and Summer were so close, and he’s already been their info dump and story teller for magic things.

I really don’t understand why they didn’t just have Qrow also know about the trail they should take rather than adding a new character, because he fits the rest of the role. Qrow was the story teller, faulty role model, the one with knowledge of SEW, and the long-time Hunter. And yes, his alcoholism was harmful to him and made him less capable, but CRWBY could’ve addressed that without giving his functions as a character to someone else, and then having Ruby tell him that they don’t need him and don’t care about his opinion at all (you know, when he was saying they shouldn’t unnecessarily steal a plane.)

Maybe they just wanted someone to read the journals at Brunswick farms, while they had Qrow drinking, so he couldn’t do that. But you know who could’ve done that? Literally any of the others. Maybe Oscar could’ve been the one reading the journals, give him something to do. Or maybe they wanted someone around to tell Qrow he wasn’t doing good enough? But then again, I’m pretty sure no one can berate Qrow more than Qrow himself already does, so he filled that role already too. Also, as a disclaimer, I know Qrow was punching children in V6 but 1. CRWBY just shouldn’t have done that, and 2. They didn’t frame that as wrong (even though it obviously is,) so it’s not like they wanted to make Qrow a bad person and therefore had to replace his role.

I know this got sarcastic near the end, but if anyone has any insight into what reason they think Maria was brought in outside of diminishing Qrow’s role, I’d actually be interested in hearing it. I could’ve just missed something.

[spaceskam]

anon prompt: I don't suppose you'd be willing to write a coda to your own little "spite" fic, would you? Something like how Maria finds out Michael spent the night with Forrest and Alex and gets mad about it, but they're like "not everything is about sex you know." If you don't want to, that's cool. Just thought I'd ask lol

follow up to this; it’s a mix of this prompt and just straight-up self-indulgence that has been on my mind since I finished the original

ao3

Michael woke up slow, his mind reminding him that he was snuggled into Alex and, thus, making him really not want to move.

He could hear Alex breathing and feel his heart beating, all the best signs that he was doing great. Michael’s hand was still pressed over his stitches and the hand print that he didn’t even have to open his eyes to know had fully formed. He could feel that too. Loving Alex was never as easy as it was in that moment when he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Alex loved him right back, even though he was still sound asleep.

However, Michael smelled coffee and eggs and, well, he hadn’t fucking eaten anything in a day. So he opened his eyes and reluctantly peeled away from Alex, looking over him to make sure he was okay. He looked more peaceful than Michael had ever seen him. Still, he peeled his hand away from his stitches and moved it to his forehead, checking for a fever. He couldn’t really tell, but he didn’t feel any hotter than he normally did so that felt like a good sign. 

A stupid part of his brain wanted to kiss him awake or just kiss him in general, but that wasn’t an option when Alex’s boyfriend was in the next room. So he didn’t, just let his hand slowly trace over his cheek and his jaw before pushing himself up.

The old mattress creaked no matter how careful he moved and Forrest’s head popped out from the kitchen. 

“Morning,” Forrest called, smiling softly before he disappeared back into the kitchen. Michael got up, his back hurting just a little bit from such a shitty mattress. That is to say, it wasn’t his shitty mattress, so his back wasn’t quite used to it yet.

“Morning,” Michael said, clearing his throat as he pulled himself into the kitchen. It was old and underused, but Forrest had still managed to put together a breakfast. “Where’d all this stuff come from?”

“Uh, I took your truck, hope you don’t mind, but there’s a farm about a mile from here and I know one of the farmhands, so I asked to borrow some stuff,” he said simply. Michael eyed him and then the carton of eggs, the coffee grounds, the perfect procured bacon, fresh milk, and presumably gas for the generator if the working stove said anything.

“You used to sleep with a farmhand who just gives you shit without question?” Michael clarified. Forrest grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

“You have your ways, I have mine.”

“Hey, I’m not arguing.”

Michael poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, watching Forrest layout bacon on the pan like he’d done this a million times. And maybe he had. Michael wasn’t sure what a typical morning after with Forrest Long might’ve looked like.

“How are you feeling?” Forrest asked, looking over at him. Michael had to blink a few times before he realized he was talking to him. Right, he actually wanted an answer.

“Uh, my head’s still a little fucked and my back hurts from that mattress, but otherwise I’m more worried about Alex,” Michael admitted. Forrest nodded. He cleared his throat. “A-and you. How are you? Are you okay? Yesterday was a lot.”

“I’m okay,” Forrest sighed, “Still processing the alien thing, I guess, but I can wait for more information later. And it’s not every day your boyfriend gets kidnapped and then presumably kills four guys with his bare hands and one leg.”

“Yeah, Alex is a badass,” Michael laughed softly. Forrest nodded.

“You got that right,” he huffed, “I knew that, but I guess I never really... knew it. Like I was aware that he was pretty decently high ranking for his age and that he was apart of special intelligence ops and stuff, but he’s... Is he gonna be okay? Is this gonna fuck with him mentally?”

Michael shook his head slightly. “No. Alex only would’ve done that if they were going to do something much worse. He would’ve only subdued them unless they were doing something actually harmful. I think he’ll be okay. Might take a little reassuring, but he’ll be okay.”

Forrest flipped the bacon and nodded, thinking it over. Michael just watched him for a moment while he sipped his coffee before peeking back out to check on Alex. He was still sound asleep. It was probably the longest Alex had ever slept at one time.

“I checked his stitches,” Forrest said suddenly.

“You did?” Michael asked hesitantly. In the info dump of alien bullshit, Michael hadn’t really gone over the concept of a hand print.

“Yeah, both of you slept a lot harder than I did. Kept waking up, so I just made sure you were both breathing and that Alex wasn’t bleeding,” he explained. Michael held his breath subconsciously, not really understanding how someone just casually woke up to make sure he was still breathing. For Alex, yes. But for him? “So, uh... The hand print.”

“The hand print,” Michael repeated. Forrest started separating the eggs and bacon on three separate plates, each of them seeming to be made of wood. “Uh, we don’t really know why it leaves one when we heal people. The working hypothesis is that we’re giving so much of ourselves that it sort of... leaves a trace.”

“So it’s not gonna hurt him?”

“No, he’ll be okay.”

“And you? Does it hurt you?” he asked, turning and handing him a plate. Michael grabbed it and furrowed his eyebrows, staring at him for an extended amount of time. Forrest didn’t seem phased as he waited for an answer. “Does it hurt you?”

“Um,” Michael said, “Not... not really.” He tilted his head in concern, but Michael spoke again before he got the chance. “I’m sorry, I’m just still confused. Why do you care about me? I know you said that I take care of Alex, you take care of me, but... I’m Alex’s ex. I still love him. You should hate me.”

Forrest laughed and shook his head, putting his and Alex’s plate down and using his hand to touch Michael’s arm gently as if he was about to make a very important point that Michael should listen to. So, obviously, he did. 

“Let me explain it like this. You’ve both been through more shit than I can even imagine and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that neither of you have had a real safe space before. And, well, you love Alex and Alex loves you. You protect him and he protects you and, fuck, you both protected me. That’s what you do for people you love, isn’t it? Yesterday was scary and we only made it out because it was all three of us, that makes us family. I take care of family, so let me do what I can since I don’t have superpowers or, special training like you and Alex,” Forrest explained. It still didn’t really compute as he stared blankly at him. Forrest rolled his eyes. “I care about you, Michael, stop questioning it. Eat.”

Michael stood there, feeling frozen in place as Forrest just picked the plates back up and walked into the living room. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel or respond to that. Alex’s boyfriend liked him. Not in a I-Wanna-Sleep-With-You way, but in a You’re-Safe-Here way. Was he allowed to like that? Would Alex be mad if he did?

He blinked away tears that threatened to fall and turned to go eat breakfast with the two of them. 

Alex was sitting up against the two pillows the three of them had shared the night before, bare shoulders seeming that healthy color with the sun peering through the windows instead of how pale he’d looked when he was hurt. That helped Michael breath a bit better and he sat cross-legged on Alex’s left side, across from where Forrest sat on his right.

“Morning,” Alex said, reaching out to touch his arm as if he couldn’t help himself. Michael’s eyes drifted to Forrest who didn’t seem phased. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t jealous. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t all that jealous either for once. 

“Morning,” Michael told him, eyes scanning over his face to make sure he was okay, “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Alex admitted, picking up a piece of bacon and biting into it, “Better than I should be after getting stabbed.”

“Stabbed? I thought it was a GSW,” Forrest said, leaning forward and pressing his fingers around the slightly swollen area that was glowing with Michael’s hand print. Seeing him touch it, feeling him secondhand, made Michael feel like getting caught in a wave in the middle of the ocean. He was just drowning in feelings he didn’t understand. He had to take a deep breath to bring himself back.

“I think it was both?” Alex said far too casually, touching the stitches himself. Again, Michael got taken out by a wave. “Yeah, one of ‘em shot me and then his buddy stabbed me to make it something that couldn’t be fixed. Clearly they forgot I have good company.”

“Jesus, Alex,” Forrest sighed, shaking his head, “You will never fail to impress me.”

“Good,” Alex said with an easy smile. Michael watched them share a kiss, something short and not meant to hurt him and it didn’t. But it made him feel like his skin was on fire. “Sorry, Guerin, you okay? You feel weird.”

“Hmm?” Forrest hummed, looking between the two of them, “Feel? Is that what you meant by not really?”

“Not really what?” Alex asked. There was too much attention on him and Michael looked away. He didn’t really know how to explain himself. “Hey,” Alex said, his hand going to his chin and making him look at him, “What’s wrong?”

“I think I should go talk to Maria,” he said. Alex’s hand immediately dropped and hurt washed through his system.

“Oh, okay,” he said, clearing his throat. Forrest’s eyebrows knitted together, tilting his head. “Are you gonna come back?”

“Um,” Michael said, looking between the two of them before nodding, “Yeah, I’ll be back in a couple hours. Call me if you need me.”

Michael got up, plate still in hand, as he quickly slipped on his boots and headed out of the door. He needed to think things over. Mainly why the hell he didn’t hate Forrest right now.

He made it about halfway to his truck before he heard footsteps and his name being called. He couldn’t explain why, but he turned to give Forrest his attention.

“If I made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry,” Forrest said, “But Alex is on painkillers that make him emotional and you hurt his feelings.”

“Yeah, I can feel it, thanks for letting me know,” Michael said. Forrest stepped up to him and cautiously took the plate from him, hands brushing deliberately.

“It’ll be here when you get back,” he said, “I’m sorry if I crossed a line.”

“You didn’t,” Michael admitted, “You didn’t and I’m still trying to figure out why you didn’t so I’m gonna go and I’ll be back later.”

“Okay. Drive safe.”

And, for some reason, Michael put in effort to listen.

-

“We’re closed.”

“For me?”

“Especially you.”

Michael hovered in the doorway at that, not quite understanding what he did wrong. Sure, he may have accidentally stood Maria up the day before, but he had a damn good excuse. He started walking towards the bar.

“Look, about last night, I–“

“Went on a little trip to the wilderness to spend the night with Alex and his boyfriend, yeah, I know,” Maria said, looking to him with more than a little bit of annoyance. He just blinked.

“Alex was hurt,” he said simply, “He needed me.”

“He had Forrest,” she said, “His boyfriend.”

“I had to heal him,” Michael tried to explain, “He needed me.”

Maria eyed him for a minute, irritation slipping into straight hurt. He felt like he missed a few steps and suddenly he really, really wanted to crawl back into bed with Alex and Forrest even though he was confused. They didn’t make him feel bad.

“So, what, you had to sleep with him to make him feel better?” she asked. Michael blinked and his head moved back in shock. Where the hell did she get that from?

“What?” he asked, “No. We didn’t–Where did that even come from?” She just stared at him like he should know. He couldn’t help but scoff. “It wasn’t about sex, we just had been through a shitty event and didn’t wanna be alone. We just slept.”

“Sure, like I believe that.”

“You don’t have to, but you should,” he said simply, no animosity in his voice, “Alex almost died and Forrest was shaken up, I wasn’t about to leave them.”

The stress seemed to build the more she stared at him with hurt, accusatory eyes. But then he could feel Alex, trying from afar to make sure he was okay and knew that he was loved. It made things click a little more in Michael’s head as to why he didn’t hate Forrest and it just so happened to be for similar reasons that Forrest didn’t hate him. They both loved Alex and Alex loved them both to the point that they were all a little too willing to put themselves in danger for each other. That was bound to bring two people together.

But, more importantly, it was hard to hate someone who put so much effort into making you feel safe and welcome. He’d been so scared of saying or doing something wrong that he hadn’t realized that, as long as he asked before he didn’t something drastic, he wouldn’t say or do anything wrong. They wanted him there because he was him, not because of who he was pretending to be. He was wanted.

Why had he even left in the first place?

“I didn’t sleep with Alex or Forrest, Maria,” Michael said, “It wasn’t about that. They just needed me there and I needed them. That’s what you do for people you love. Simple as that.”

“So you don’t love me?” she asked. He took a heavy, grounding breath and focused on Alex.

“I do,” he said honestly, “But I don’t think it’s the way you want me to.”

Maria stared at him for a moment before nodded, turning away from him. It was clear that was the end of them. He didn’t mind.

“Right. I don’t really want to see your face right now. Tell Alex I hope he feels better.”

“Okay.”

-

Michael took a deep breath as he stared at the cabin. He’d only been gone two and a half hours, having stopped at the store to get groceries since it was clear they were going to stay here until the rest of the crew figured out what was going on with whoever took Alex.

He grabbed the grocery bags and started heading towards the cabin, unlocking it with his mind to let himself in and then immediately locking it back. Forrest and Alex were still in bed and they turned to give him their attention when he walked in.

“Hey,” Alex said, trying to sit up.

“Hey,” he said back, “Let me go put these up.”

He headed into the kitchen where the fridge had gotten cold since Forrest had plugged it back in once he started up the generator that morning. He started putting what he got in there or in cabinets when he felt a hand on his hip. Michael jumped and spun around to see Alex holding his hand up in defense while the other clutched a crutch he absolutely should’ve heard. He had a soft smile on his face and he was still shirtless, eyes tired but still beautiful. He was beautiful. Really, unfairly beautiful.

“I’m sorry I left, I didn’t mean to upset you, but I needed to clear somethings up with Maria and–“

“Hey, we haven’t gotten the chance to talk just me and you,” Alex said softly, changing the subject away from Maria, “Can we do that now?”

Michael swallowed harshly and nodded, waiting. Maybe he wasn’t as wanted as he thought. But that idea only stayed in his mind for a few seconds because, instead of talking with their mouths, Alex grabbed his hand and pressed it to the hand print.

“I wanna try it,” he said, “Liz said we can share memories with it. Show me something?”

“Like what?” Michael asked, that confusion hitting him again. He knew that the last few months, Alex had been a lot more open with him, but this... Well, this felt like he was asking permission to cross one of those lines with his boyfriend in the next room.

“Anything.”

So Michael pressed his other hand on his back, pulling him in close and resting their forehead’s together. Alex gave him an encouraging smile before they both closed their eyes. And then he thought of Alex.

It wasn’t hard to do that, to just flood him with the way he saw things back in high school. The first time he saw him and being confused, playing Romeo opposite his Mercutio and being confused, staring at him in every advanced math class they shared and being confused, constantly just being lost until he realized he wanted to kiss him. Which cleared up the second he did.

He skipped over the pain of the night in the shed, instead skipping to long nights making out in the back of his truck in the desert. He reminded him of that one time they got caught by Sanders who acted like he didn’t see anything or that night that was so hot they were sweating buckets but couldn’t bear to separate or that night they went skinny dipping the only pond in Roswell. He showed him how much he missed him when he was gone, how happy he was when he was home, and how much he loved him even when he left. And he showed him how confused he was right now, not quite understanding what this meant for them.

He could deal with Forrest being kind to him and caring for him, but he couldn’t comprehend how Alex could feel how much they loved each other and not want anything. Right now, they knew, and yet that still didn’t make sense for them. How fucked up could they be?

“You thought you weren’t good enough for me?” Alex asked when he pulled away. Michael stared at him, wondering how that’s what he got from everything he’d shown him. “That day in your truck, when I said that I wanted to be with you, but not if you threw your life away, you thought that meant that I thought you weren’t good enough. And you never stopped feeling that way. You feel that way right now.”

Michael stared at him, unsure of how to answer. Alex looked sad all over again and it was his fault. He tried to pull his hand away, but Alex held onto it and stepped in closer so they were chest to chest with only their hands between them.

“You’re good for me,” Alex whispered, “You’re so good for me.”

“Your boyfriend’s in the next room,” Michael told him. Alex bumped his nose against Michael’s.

“You don’t think he knows how I feel about you?”

“He’s been too nice to me, I’m not about to–“

“Listen to me,” Alex said a little more firm, staring him in his eyes, “You don’t think he knows?”

Michael felt like his skin was on fire again, that wave hitting him again as Alex’s eyes flickered down to his lips.

“No,” Michael said, “You’re just feeling an echo of what I feel for you. That’s not real. Or-or if it is, you’re not in the right headspace. Forrest is in there.”

“You don’t think he knows?” Alex repeated, slower this time. Michael exhaled slowly, his shoulders deflating and his heart going haywire. 

“Knows what? You know I don’t understand half the things you say,” he said. Alex smiled and shrugged a shoulder.

“True,” he said, laughing softly. It sent chills down his spine. Alex’s hand slowly slid up his side and then two fingers pressed against his jaw, tilting it up and his eyes locked with Michael’s. It was unspoken as it usually was between them and Alex pressed a soft kiss to his lips, not lasting more than a second and yet somehow packing more of a punch than any kiss they’d ever shared. It wasn’t even like a real kiss, there wasn’t even passion, it was just him saying ‘hey, I’m here, you’re safe’. Michael loved it. “He knows about what I want.”

“And he doesn’t care? You’re his boyfriend,” Michael pointed out, torn between wanting to kiss him again and feeling guilty for doing that to a guy that had been so nice to him. But, more importantly, he’d shared Alex once and he never wanted to do that again. Still, Alex shook his head.

“I’m not gonna kiss you for real until the hand print is gone and we have a conversation about everything, okay?” Alex said. Michael nodded.

“I don’t wanna share you, Alex, not like that,” he said. Alex nodded.

“I know,” he whispered, fingernails gliding over his stubble, “But Forrest knows everything now, so he can’t just disappear completely.”

“Everything?”

“I filled him in on it all,” Alex confirmed, “He doesn’t want to leave even if that means not having a relationship like that. We already talked about it, we already set new boundaries.”

“How?” Michael asked. Alex smiled and shrugged.

“He’s a good man. Better than we’ve ever been raised to see,” he answered simply. Michael knew that well enough to not need any further explanation. “I love him and he loves me, but not necessarily the way we love each other, does that make sense?”

“So much.”

“Good.”

They sat there for a minute, just staring and sharing what exactly this meant. And it just meant that, for now, this was their new boundaries. Michael was okay with that.

He helped him with his crutch and they made their way back to the pullout couch. As uncomfortable as it was, he couldn’t imagine a place he’d rather be. Forrest didn’t seem upset which was wild in concept, but Michael appreciated in practice. He really was great.

“Thank you,” Michael told him as Alex got settled in the middle. Forrest just flashed a smile.

“No worries,” he said. Michael huffed a laugh and kicked off his shoes before climbing into bed. “How’s your stitches?”

“Fine. Painkillers are wearing off, but I can handle it,” Alex said.

“You sure?” Forrest asked. Alex grinned his way and nodded. Michael settled into the pillow as he watched Forrest lean down to kiss him again. This time he recognized it as what it was: an act of comfort, not pleasure or romance or desire. Which would explain the weird feelings he got from the mark when they did it before and the kiss Alex had given him only a few minutes prior. That was definitely not something he was used to.

He liked it.

“You look exhausted even though you slept until noon,” Forrest noted as they all three got comfortable, “Is that like an alien thing?”

“No, it’s an ‘I just got accused of cheating and then got dumped’ thing,” he teased. Both men looked towards him with confused faces.

“She accused you of cheating? With us?” Forrest clarified, disbelief laced in his voice. Michael blew out a breath of air.

“Yep, apparently it’s weird to want to be around people if you don’t want to have sex,” Michael said. 

“I think if I tried to have sex, I would pop open my stitches and it would not be sexy to started bleeding from my abdomen in the middle of it,” Alex noted. Forrest snorted a laugh and his eyes went to his stitches again, double checking that they weren’t irritated.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t pop your stitches open, I think Kyle would’ve killed me,” Michael added. Alex smiled easily and closed his eyes, looking so relaxed that it was nearly unreal. Especially when they all knew he could feel the pain of literally being shot and stabbed and beaten.

“I feel really loved,” Alex admitted.

“Yeah, you definitely still are feeling the painkillers still at least a little,” Forrest whispered. He smiled a bit broader and shrugged his shoulder. 

Michael mindlessly pressed into Alex’s side, wanting to just fuel that feeling he had even more. He pressed his nose against Alex’s jaw, breathing in slow as he closed his eyes. Alex’s arm made it’s way under his head and his fingers wove into his hair, his bicep making the world’s best pillow. Michael’s hand went to it’s rightful place over the hand print.

“How close am I wanted?” Forrest asked carefully to both of them.

“As close as you want,” they both answered without hesitation. 

Michael had a newfound appreciation for Forrest in a way he hadn’t really expected, but he understood things better after thinking things over. Forrest was clearly as much as touchy as Alex was, if not more. Michael had taken it as clingy before, but now he was starting to see that’s just how he gave and received comfort. That’s why he kissed Alex when their new boundaries had been set, that’s why he touched Michael when got confused, that’s why he was so fucking aware at all times. Michael wasn’t used to platonic affection; he was interested.

So Forrest pressed up on Alex’s other side, the man in the middle having to lay on his back due to his wound. Then his arm went around, laying on top of Alex’s in Michael’s hair. His other arm draped over Alex’s abdomen and paralleled Michael’s. His fingers laid gently against Michael’s side, just enough to know that they were there.

And he was welcome.

[ender1821]

Hm.... I have no idea what I want to do today, let’s rant a bit for the six tbhk au for now, I’ll figure something out later.

Spoilers for the second chapter of Toilet-bound K Howard!!!

I hope my warnings work, I still can’t figure out how to add the read more button :’D

Anne and Joan are the only ones left who aren’t even mentioned, but don’t worry, they still have important roles for the story! I think I will make a list of the characters and more information about them later, but now all I’m gonna do is to write a bit about newly introduced characters in the recent chapters..... Maggie and Catherine!

I think Maggie’s role for the au is Tsuchigomori’s, who is originally a science teacher in the original anime! In this au though, Maggie is still a student, but she does volunteer work for the school’s library. She is in the same class as Anna, Maria and Bessie.

Catherine’s role is Teru Minamoto’s in the original anime. Catherine is the student council president and an exorcist, which is Teru’s original role in the anime too! However, in the original anime, Teru is related to Kou Minamoto. Catherine is not related to Cathy in this au..... for now? The two simply know each other as fellow exorcists in the academy right now.

I’ll explain more on each character once it gets to a certain point in the story, so now I can only give out the basic settings for them. I will probably include their actual appearances in the au too, but I have no artistic talent at all, so the best you’re getting is the characters I’m referencing them off of :’D, sorry about that....

Lastly, I’d like to add a bit of clarification for some parts of the fic. The person who appears in the start of the two current chapters is the same person. They also appeared in the end of chapter two, but they aren’t revealed yet, just a mysterious individual who you should definitely not worry about ;D

Jane appeared in the scene in the first chapter where Anna was trying to develop a new hobby, for anyone wondering... she is a student in the academy, but there might be more to her than you think....

There were two flashes of memories in the two chapters. One with Anna and one with Cathy.

In the first chapter, Anna was under the effects of the mermaid curse and saw a distortied piece of memory, hence the palace collapsing and the mysterious figure in the memory.

In the second chapter, Cathy saw a flash of memory of guards arresting her and a king commanding the guards to behead her. This memory was not distorted. (I added this in because I think I heard about her almost being beheaded before, so I took the chance to add that in once I wrote Katherine’s fight with her)

That’s it for today’s info dump! Tell me anything you didn’t understand or want to know more about and I’ll include it in the next info dump/answer you through an ask. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to clear things up :’D

[system-of-a-feather]

That ask game you rbed, how bout 3 lol

“3. Rant. Just do it.“ - The Other Anon

(tw; positive cursing, bloodborne images so moderate gore)

OKAY HERE WE GO. I GOT ANOTHER THING TO RANT ABOUT. It took me time to get the topic and info dumping / rambling urges for something that I was comfortable posting here. So anyways

Our system has a bit of a thing with gaming and between our system, we have a pretty wide taste that includes a lot of things other than MMORPGs and those multiplayer stuff (Battlefield and COD); so we have like everything from Stardew and Harvest Moon, to Souls-borne, to Management Simulators, to Stealth Games, to Casual Garden / Plant / Animal Sims to Visual Novels to RPGs to some Horror to Minecraft and all that.

Me, Ray, and another part we don’t talk about here really take an affinity to gaming. I typically prefer more story-driven, management games, and more casual farming games. Ray on prefers a lot more AAA action titles. You know those games you bank hours and hours into and BARELY finish the main story - yeah those, I can’t play those for the life of me XD

But anyways, I usually REALLY love me some Bugsnax (lowkey a slight obsession lately), Stardew Valley, Pokemon, Harvest Moon, Hakuoki, Amnesia: Memories (even though they have a problematic “DID character”, its a guilty nostalgic like), and all that but like....

My absolute favorite is probably Bloodborne. A lot of the other ones have a nostalgic pull and/or I REALLY like them, but I think at this point Bloodborne and similar games have become my genuine favorite genre even though it stands out because firstly, they tend to have legit music, secondly, they tend to have legit aesthetic, and thirdly, they are so frustrating and well managed in combat that it is so much fun to just analyze it all and try to figure out the best way to go about doing things.

So like, lets start with Bloodborne in this - because believe it or not the original intent of this rant was not it, but I really do have to establish this. 

Reason Bloodborne is Awesome, lets go

One, the story - if you can follow it - is really interesting and well scattered, but I very very much particularly love the theme / question / moral of “Would you rather return to a world blissfully unaware of all the horrors you have seen and learned and live innocently unaware” or “Live in the horrors and be aware of the rest of eternity but at least you know the truth” cause honest to god, if that aint a fucking mood I don’t know what is. 

Secondly, GOD do they have the aesthetic down on point. Theres another ask below this asking about my aesthetic, and part of that answer is just fucking Bloodborne now. Like at one point I went “Man I would look cool in Bloodborne aesthetic clothing and shit” and I guess I accidentally ended up with bloodborne armor in the inner world and at first I didn’t know how to revert back to whatever I was wearing (I don’t even remember at this point) and I was like “Uhhh” but HONESTLY I don’t want to change it? I have not found something that is such a solid aesthetic that I love that makes me feel cooler when I’m running around in the inner world so why drop it? And also lowkey now I want to actually adopt that into my IRL life if I ever get the time and money so..??? I mean I’ll go more into that on the aesthetics post but dude look

Are you really going to tell me that isn’t a solid dark aesthetic? And then the bosses are legit af?

And then the clothing and Lady Maria???

Okay and then say all of that is just average or not selling you. Okay okay thats fine.

Like there is also how absolutely frustrating, meticulous and well planned the game is yeah yeah we all know that its Souls-borne genre, but sure - give that number three as a reason.

But number four, oh god NUMBER FOUR. I don’t know how much this has been made apparent on our blog, but our system is VERY in love with music as an art. We were raised with musical instruments (both older siblings played instruments from elementary to highschool, we still continue into college), growing up we were exposed to a lot of instrumental music, and we developed an EXTREME reliance on music to deal with both our abusive family / trauma, to help regulate our own mind, emotions and all, and to also deal with how uncomfortable silence is for us. 

So music has been a HUGE developmental factor in our life and we REALLY love and appreciate it and its sometimes painful. But the composition of Bloodborne music - it is BEYOND words for me. I could probably write pages and pages of appreciation for how masterly crafted, perfect and well put together almost EVERY SINGLE piece of the game is and how - after years of listening to them on repeat - I can still find new aspects of it and a new technique or aspect I hadn’t noticed or thought much about to still adore.

I legitamently have screamed over how certain parts just click together perfectly. I can get so much positive overflowing joy and excitement from how well the parts interact and how perfectly dramatic the music flows and how active and physical the experience is that I feel the need to SCREAM internally and sometimes externally. 

I obsess over orchestral music and OSTS and film music and trailer music and video game music and all of that and I have to say with almost complete confidence that I’m pretty sure Bloodborne is - in my opinion - one of the best crafted orchestrated units.

Even from my own source, one that I love, have they only recently been able to produce a SINGLE track that echoes similarly in the intensity and amazement that I would consider it around par.

I will DIE internally everytime I hear it and sometimes I have actually had to turn it off because it was TOO overstimulating to listen to because of how much UGH it brings me. 

More than it is fun to play, Bloodborne is AMAZING to listen to and I can’t state that enough ugh XD

But anyways, before I go on THAT too much, I love Bloodborne. Joke is that as a fictive it is my “second source” even though it makes no sense. I have adopted it, I have claimed it. I love it and I will die for Bloodborne

So LATELY I’ve started a new game I just bought called Code: Vein and its apparently Anime Bloodborne or something like that and so far its really legit and while the music will never compare to Bloodborne - at least from what I’ve seen - I’ve REALLY been enjoying it and its music isn’t half bad itself

It also hilariously talks about “hearts” and loosing them and also memory issues and I’m dying cause they legitamently took Bloodborne’s Aesthetic, put anime on it, gave it a dark story with memories and indepth characters and served it on a platter for me?

And like dude I love games that comment on memory and emotions and stuff like that and I love the aesthetic and that I can kind of look like myself AND wear cool clothes like? 

Man I’m enjoying it and I’m realizing that Souls-borne is probably my favorite genre officially and I’m embracing it. Good game play, good aesthetics, good fighting, and good stories. I love it.

Anyways to finish this rant, here is the first photo I took of my avatar.

-Riku (Host)

[peachymess]

Narration in SNK

Strap in for my longest and most magnificently boring meta yet.

TL;DR at the end.

After the unnerving thought struck me a few days ago, that Armin’s days as narrator may be over, I decided to do some further digging into the narration of SNK over all – to see if my initial theory had any reason to continue haunting me or not (thanks to @holly-wee​​ for putting me on the track on this not being as clear-cut as I thought). While I can’t say I have a clear yes or no for you even now, what I found is still surprisingly interesting. So I’m going to give an overview of the narration, and from there, you can all make your own guesses. I’m gonna give mine at the end. I can spoil as much as to say I lean clearly towards one certain answer, even if it’s still very up in the air.

To start with, there are several narrative stories going on throughout SNK, not just the overarching exposition narrative; aside from several voices, there are also several degrees/types of voices throughout the entire work! And I might just be slow, but to me, this all… sort of surprised me; I hadn’t put much energy into giving narration an attentive eye past “it’s probably Armin”, and appreciating whenever his soothing, overlapping voice would grace the anime episodes now and again. It’s on me that it took me this long to realize the rules around narration were as lenient as they are. So,… different types? Yes. So far, I’ve counted 7 types of explicit narration (a voice relaying information, versus contextual narrative):

1. The formal informant This is the narrator we’re all aware of. It’s the one that opened the story with “On that day-“, voiced by Armin in the anime. Presented in square speech bubbles*.

2. The emotional informant This narrator is also presented in square speech bubbles, and is thus the second of only two “standard” narrator types. Type 2 is different from type 1 in the way that it’s used by several characters (Armin, Eren, Ymir, Reiner, Mikasa), whereas type 1 is so far only done by one entity (Armin’s voice in the anime, but not necessarily him). Type 2, as opposed to 1, address smaller matters, gives more personalized reflections, has shorter running time, and uses “I” more liberally (an informal narrator, in other words; I’ve chosen to call it emotional, because this version is largely driven by emotion and/or has clearer indication of personality). Used by: Mikasa, Hanji, Kenny, Eren, Armin, Reiner

3. Extra information Additional information presented in form of dry text. Mostly the kind of information that in the anime has been turned into half-time text cards, because it seems to be voice-less; “by the way, you should know this”. Other times it’s woven into the monologues of Type 1.

4. Speech overlapping This is a verbal speech given by someone in the present time (or present time of a flashback), often done to drop smaller doses of information/exposition, or to retell a past event. It’s presented in round speech bubbles that overlap panels depicting something pertaining to the theme of the speech. It differs from regular speech-giving in that it 1. Is more informative, and 2. Is more frequently detached from the point in time or physical place it’s spoken from; the speech may start, middle or end with shots of the speaker, but will waver in time by visiting panels of events from the past and/or time-neutral symbols and scenery shots. This is a very liberally used method by Isayama, and sometimes it’s hard to separate this as narration from just larger spans of info-dump monologues. I’ve mapped some of the instances I feel it’s used as narration, but there are many more instances in there that’s on the fence and thus left out. Identify them yourself, if you want.  Used by, among others: Teacher, Armin, unnamed soldier, Erwin, Mike, Ymir, Reiner, Hanji, Pixis, MP man, Rod Reiss, grandpa Ackerman, Kenny, Historia, Floch, Grisha’s dad, Krueger, Zeke, Willy, Pieck.

5. Retelling This is a mix between type 2 and type 4: it’s an informal standard narration (2), but being spoken by a character in present time within the story (thus narration inside the narrated story). It’s similar to type 4 in that it’s verbally shared in the present, and is majorly detached from the speaker. Unlike type 4, however, type 5 is usually situated within the mentioned flashback; the speaker is talking in real time, but the scene is set to the past. It’s presented through hovering black text (same as type 6), to symbolize that it’s narration given to in-verse listeners as opposed to type 1 and 2’s time-suspended audience.  

6.  Internal monologue This is internal thoughts presented in the same way as type 5: with hovering black text (or, for the first third of the story, interchangeably with rounded speech bubbles with fuzzy/spiked edges, as per type7). This borders on non-narration, as it’s unintentional as such. However, it’s often used for exposition and contextualizing drive, and thus serves largely the same purpose as narration.  Used by, among others: Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Ian, Jean, Sasha, Connie, Mike, Gelgar, Reiner, Ymir, Sannes, Levi, Nile, Pixis, Historia, Traute, Keith, Marco, Marlowe, Zeke, Falco, Magath, Gabi.

7. Echo dialogue This is also unintentional narration: it’s dialogue from the past, echoing half- or fully detached from the speaker, (usually) over shaded flashback panels to indicate it coming from the past. It’s narration in the sense that the author – Isayama – has chosen to do callbacks to them in order to further contextualize the present time scene (in other words, it has the same function as type 6). Echo dialogue is presented in rounded speech bubbles with fuzzy/spiked edges.

Despite these categories, several instances of hybrids have occurred – or places where one type leads into another. The provided categories will help map narration for the sake of this analysis, but are a quickly thrown together attempt at such, and will unbeatably be flawed. Take them for the general overview they are.

Narrating voice Now, that’s a lot of different types of narration, isn’t it? Yeah... But while they all have some significance, 4-7 are a lot less important for this analysis than the first three. Though, here’s some foreshadowing for you: get yourself acquainted with type 5. 

Before I move on to 1,2 and 3, I want to say a few things:

a) The reason 1-3 are more relevant than 4-7, is that 1-3 are narrating voices directed (on purpose or indirectly) at the reader (or a reader/listener that is situated outside the ongoing story narrative; if not a real life reader, then someone in-verse being told the story after the fact) – while 4-7 are narrative voices inside the story itself. “Maria told Benjamin ‘I love you’ yesterday”: Maria is the 4-7 voice that said “I love you” yesterday, while the person telling the entire story of Maria telling Benjamin, is the narrator – the 1-3 voice… I hope I’m making sense, haha.

b) When we look at the chart (provided below), we’ll see that while 1-3 thus are the only official narrative ROLES in SNK, we’ll see that for the majority of the story, the in-verse voices, are the ones carrying the story. This way, we can say that SNK is – without a doubt – told from an array of POVs; while there are few narrating roles, the story does not want to be strict with who can talk, have focus, etc. The 4-7 voices jump back and forth between players very liberally; SNK is in a way a story about people, told by people. The 1-3 seem to serve as the wrapping that keeps it all together within a structured frame, on top of this.

But not only the in-verse (4-7) voices are many… Also the type 2 narrator role has been shared by several people. Among those: Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Kenny and Reiner. There’s also Hanji – when talking about Sawny and Bean, Ilse Lagnar, and Ymir’s letter to Historia. The latter three are hybrids that, while not directed at the same listener as 1 and the aforementioned 2’s, are still presented in square speech bubbles, to indicate written and/or verbal distinct narrating role. (Although, I’m using the scans provided on the website kissmanga, which provides varying quality, chapter to chapter. Thus, it looks like Ilse’s chapter and the second part of Reiner’s story might be type 5s, drawn over in white squares by the translator. Either way, included or not, there’s enough material without this that the above reflections still stand).

1,2,3 Now to the narrator ROLES. Let’s be unconventional and start with type 2. Type 2 chapters are the digression-esque narrations that add an emotionally important piece to the greater story puzzle. They’re told by an identifiable in-verse character, and have both a clear beginning and end; whether abrupt or phased out, we can always tell when it’s over and slips back into general story mode. These narrations are not all told to the same receiver – and sometimes they seem to be mere musings with no direct recipient at all. But all of them are elevated as voices that transcend the reach of in-verse. Kenny’s piece is a perfect example of this. After the cave collapses on him and he’s sunken down against a tree to die, his backstory with Uri starts. Nobody is around, and he’s not casually type 6’ing it by just thinking about it to himself; he starts to muse. Cue the magical wavy “back then” segue into a flashback. Perhaps the difference between type 6 and type 2 here is that, while 6 is internal thoughts popping up while the story progresses, type 2 musings take over the drive; in Kenny’s case, the rest of the story goes on hiatus as we delve into his digression.   Kenny proceeds to think his way closer to present time, where he eventually wraps it up by wondering if he finally had his answer “or what”. 

The story then uses this newfound context, to wrap up the theme, and find its way back to a more general POV. Kenny’s type 2 starts and ends here, at chapter 69. (Here’s my own digression: since he ends up asking Uri this, one could argue that he’s addressing his type 2 to Uri, but since the man is dead, I’m more inclined to believe it’s a general musing, where relevant players are sometimes brought to the forefront because they’re the ones they would talk with if anyone. Standard “deadman talking”). 

The purpose of the type 2 narrator role may be debatable, but here’s my take on the matter: the purpose of there being a type 2 narrator popping into the story from time to time, on top of type 1 and in-verse narration, is that of a theme and relevancy compass. Sure, there are many more ways theme is stated, and MPVs highlighted, but these digressions oftentimes seem to enter at times where the story events are very broad– where the current timeline can be seen in many different lights, through many different POVs. The story can at these (though also many other) point(s) develop in a heap of directions, all equally plausible and logically relevant – especially with such a big cast. With these narrative digressions, a theme and temporary MVP can be naturally presented. With this compass, we’ll see which of the many plausible paths ahead, we’re meant to focus on and pay extra attention to. Like in Kenny’s case, we’re invited to put aside any “what if there was some additional spinal fluid left on the floor and a wounded MP licked it”, “are we gonna flip out about Eren’s new titan skills right now” or “Annie when”s; right now, we’re supposed to indulge in Levi and Kenny’s dynamic, and how Levi is about to develop as a character (which later will have an effect on the serumbowl). Now… up until now, Armin has explicitly only had one such type 2 piece (chapter 106). He has had four smaller origin dumps: one in chapter 5 on how he was bullied, one in chapter 11 on how he was always a burden to Eren and Mikasa, a flashback through Eren in chapter 4 on how they bonded over the book, and a flashback through Eren in chapter 83 on how they first met – but none of these were told through a time-suspended type 2 narration. There are a lot of things pointing to Armin being the type 1 narrator, or in the very least someone whose POV we’re meant to keep in mind – and I’ll get to that when I talk about type 1 – but for the time being, can we be sure he’ll be type 2 narrator again? … It can only be speculated on, but to me, the odds are 50/50. Mikasa had a hybrid turned type 2 early on in the story (chapter 6), and another one in the newest chapter (123), so we know repeat narrators is possible. Armin is thus eligible for a type 2, a prominent character who’ll undoubtedly have something relevant to provide, but there is no guarantee that it will be necessary. Thus, we can only speculate.

But I’ll tell you this: even though Armin’s origin pieces weren’t type 2, I think they were meant to parallel Mikasa’s origin pieces going on at the same time. See, after Eren “died”, the POV toggled quite evenly between Armin and Mikasa, back and forth: we got Armin’s origin story pt1, then Mikasa’s. We were in Armin’s head, then Mikasa’s. Then Armin’s head again – then we were served a small continuation of Mikasa’s origin – because yes, she had a pt2 that was in the same style as Armin’s (type 6) – then Armin’s pt2. Over all, at the beginning of the story, Isayama’s use of the types was a lot less polished (something I’ll have to do a callback to later) than they eventually became; looking away from type rules, it’s in other words quite clear that we were being introduced to the two friends Eren left behind in equal tandem, priming them to take on roles as mains alongside him: we got to know their backstories, and how their internal voice sounds. I’m saying this because I think this kind of paralleling happened again: I believe Armin’s type 2 in chapter 106, is meant to parallel Mikasa’s type 2 in chapter 123. Just like the first round was about both their origins, this time, it’s about their reflections around Eren’s actions from chapter 90 until present time. Let’s have a look at their pieces:

Armin’s type 2: “I know that… you wont like it… But I need you to hear this. At that time, three years ago… It might have still been possible… To change something. I liked it, back then. We Eldians were hated and feared by the rest of the world, by people from way across the sea who had never seen our faces. But… not only enemies came from across the sea. The world was a complicated place. And there were many things we didn’t know about. I’m just saying… that maybe… there is another way… I can’t get that thought out of my head.”  

As his type 2 is a direct verbal narration to Annie, his type 2 turns into type 4 as his narration catches up with real time, where he goes on to say:

“[...] I want to understand Eren more than anybody… Even more than Mikasa does… But… I just don’t understand him anymore… Eren was going to go through with his plan, with our help or without it. Whether we decided to cooperate, or turn our backs, was a terrible decision we had to make[…]”      

Mikasa’s type 2: “Everyone ssays Eren has changed. I thought the same. But maybe that was wrong… Eren has never changed from the start. If that was Eren’s true form… I wonder… what part of Eren I had been seeing. We… didn’t notice. Or… perhaps we didn’t want to notice. Since that day… Eren disappeared from us. Afterwards, he wrote that he would entrust everything to Zeke. Next time our faces met, it was already too late. I wonder… if there ever really was a better choice. Perhaps everything was decided from the start. Regardless… I can’t help but think, if back then, I had… chosen a different path.”

Do you see the similarities?

a) They both present us with what’s on the line for them: their heartfelt connection to Eren. For Armin, it’s their shared dream that faded, for Mikasa it’s her romantic feelings that never came to fruition. 

b) Both of them express a reluctant re-evaluation of their view on him. 

c) Both chapters cover the same storyline of an emotional separation and Eren’s eventual run-away, albeit with different personalized backdrops; they both directly parallel each other about Eren writing home.

d) Both narrations feature Sasha as a symbol for how they feel like the path they took, felt “not right” to them. 

e) They both express feeling like they had no say in the matter; that they had no choice...

f) .. and yet, they both express a nagging, lingering thought that maybe... just maybe, there could have been a different path. 

If we agree that these similarities point to the chapters paralleling each other, it would stand to reason that they’d both need the same kind of treatment going forward. Both chapters put something on the line, and both open up the theme of “was this inevitable, or was there another path we could have taken?” They’ve presented a problem, which in fiction needs solving. The problem belongs to both chapters, and thus the answer also does. Now, perhaps the upcoming chapters will show us in convincing details how there was indeed no way to avoid this, because Eren was always headed down this bleak, hate filled spiral. In that case, neither chapter might need a follow-up, as Eren can indirectly answer that through theme and we’ll have our answer in his actions. But! If the coming events will provide us with this elusive “other path”, and the conclusion becomes complex to the degree that these chapters need a follow-up, I believe they’ll both have one.  

So, is Armin an eligible type 2′er? Yes. Is he likely to have another type 2? ... It’s 50/50. Personally, I believe we’ll see another type 2 from him. But as type 2 isn’t the over-arching narrator, and the story can end properly without another type 2 of any kind, it’s not a given that we’ll see another one. If the narrator of type 1 is nobody - just a voice without a body - then it may indeed be true that Armin has narrated his last chapter. I don’t think he has. But it’s possible.  ... If he’s not also the type 1 narrator. 

Type 1: THE narrator.  I said at the start of this that my aim was to find out whether Armin would narrate again or not. My initial worry was that since Mikasa was narrating the newest chapter, this meant she was the new narrator. It caught me off guard; I hadn’t been paying attention to the fact that there had been several type 2 voices – even less so that the type 2 voices were different narrators from the type 1 voice; I wrongfully assumed that the overarching story narrator, and these personalized digressions, were the same voice. Now that I know that type 1 and type 2 are separate roles, should that not answer – without a doubt – that type 1, remains the same: Armin? Well… With the narration discourse flaming back up, I’ve taken notice of some claims that Armin isn’t conformed as the type 1 narrator to begin with. As a matter of fact, @suniuz​ – someone I know to be a well informed and reliably source critical gift to our fandom – recently mentioned having remembered an interview with Araki, where the man gave an explanation for why he had chosen Marina Inoue for the voice of narrator. In other words, it may seem as though the identity of the narrator hadn’t been decided by Isayama, until the anime adaptation needed someone to voice the text. And even then, a) does this mean the choice of voice actor doesn’t have anything to do with the identity of the narrator; aka, the narrator is Marina Inoue, not Armin? And b) even if Araki’s choice influenced Isayama to decide it was Armin, does the fact that Isayama hadn’t already decided on this, mean that the identity of the narrator isn’t meant to play an important part to the story?

Now, I don’t have time to dig for this interview myself (if anyone knows of it, I’d love a source), but I want to address these arguments all the same. Because while “Armin voices type 1, hence Armin is narrator confirmed” could easily settle my question of “will he narrate again” (now that I see that type 1 and type 2 are separate, and that the type 1 narrator never did - nor likely ever will - pass hands), I still want to combat the obviously relevant argument that the type 1 doesn’t belong to anyone. Obviously, as Marina is cast to give voice to the type 1 text, we will at the very least, indirectly, hear Armin’s voice narrate again. However, I both want and believe that it’s not only Marina, but Armin, who is this voice. Here starts my analysis of why.

Armin as THE narrator: In SNK, there is a distinct “I”; a person, as type 1. The narrator, despite being mostly formal, does have a distinct emotional presence ala type 2: on several occasions, the narration includes unnecessary and/or subjective observations, such as “… the flowers had begun to bloom as the butterflies danced” (ch. 90), and poses questions (indicating a consciousness capable of wondering and/or rhetorical thinking), such as: “how did the humans who saw that sight feel?” (ch. 73).

Not to mention, there are explicit pronouns used: “we’d have four people ready with enough horses for everyone” (ch. 58), “the precise location was the Shiganshina district, south of wall Maria, where the titans broke through five years ago, and where the three of us had lived” (ch.12).

The instances where pronouns are used, the narration borders on type 2. Especially in chapter 50 (“…we didn’t know what Ymir’s actions meant”) and 58. It borders on type 2 to the degree that it’s questionable whether this is still the type 1 narrator at all. However, these instances stick out like a sore thumb, if they were to be placed in the type 2 category: unlike all the other type 2s, these are not explicitly attributed to one character, they don’t digress from the ongoing story drive, and nor do they have concrete beginnings and ends. In other words, they are injected into the story in the same kind of hovering, sparse POV as the type 1 narrator. Given that this happens several times throughout the story, I feel confident stating that this does not come across as unrefined narration that fell between two types before Isayama knew how he wanted type 2 digressions to work – but instead seems to be the type 1 narrator. After all, it cannot be explicitly attributed to any other role, nor would it have a strong place or point, if serving as anyone’s momentary additional voice NEXT TO the narrator.

This appearance of a personal “I” in narration, happens as early on as in chapter 12. SNK started its serialization in the monthly Bessatsu Shounen magazine in Semptember of 2009. If we consider SNK from then on being published monthly, this means that chapter 12 would have been published during fall of 2010 – almost two whole years before WIT studios was founded (June 1st 2012, according to Wikipedia). See where I’m going with this? Well: to me, this is a strong argument in favor of the narrator having been a specific person long before Araki decided whom to cast for the voice. Thus, him giving an explanation for casting Marina, other than “Armin is the narrator”, seems obsolete. My guess would be that it was an intentional avoidance of spoiling the fact that Armin is the narrator, without technically lying; for example: if his argument was that her voice was soothing for such a role, it wouldn’t be wrong – she does, after all, make for a comfortable narrating voice, generally speaking – it’s just not the only reason/whole truth.  

Saying this, I believe that there has been a concrete identity for the narrator from the start. Furthermore, I believe that the identity of this periodical “I” speaker, is the identity of the narrator. So, who is the “I”? If it’s indeed an unchanged “I”, it’s either Armin or Mikasa: knowing from chapter 12 that the narrator is one of the EMAs (“where the three of us had lived”), it can be narrowed down to the two of them thanks to chapter 58, where the narrator expresses being part of a plan that only Armin and Mikasa from EMA, took part in. Other arguments aside, Araki’s own casting, will in this moment be reversed from an argument against Armin, to one in favor of him: why cast Armin’s voice actor, if the “I” is Mikasa? He wouldn’t.

I feel like I could close my little analysis here and sit comfortably on my beliefs – at least for the time being – but I want to keep going with some less concrete, more circumstantial evidence that, without being hard proof, perhaps still helps to swing the pendulum further in the favor of my above conclusion:

1. Armin phases in/out like a narrator. This is perhaps the least waterproof of my observations, but nonetheless the one I’ve been leaning on the most: Armin gives off the “feel” of a narrator – or more precisely: the one whose POV we’re meant to take. You may find everywhere, what you look for, but consider these:

a) Unlike in the anime, the manga doesn’t show the 104 bootcamp years until after the battle for Trost is won. The trainee years are a sudden re-winding in time – a big positional move in the story. So far, the story has been linear. Chapter 14 closes with the narrator taking over (the “end scene” being one where Armin is present) wrapping up how the battle for Trost was humanity’s first win against the titans… and the next thing we know, we’re sent back in time, to a scene where EMA are working in the fields. The scene’s main purpose seems to be that of showing how Armin’s upset with the MP’s population management. In other words, the scene is entirely Armin centric. It furthers his drive, his POV. From this scene, we’re segued into a wide shot of Armin presenting at bootcamp. In addition to this contextualizing why specifically HE (of all people) took the path of joining the military, this is also our introduction into this 4 chapter long bootcamp side-story; Armin’s the one we’re entering it through. If there is indeed a conscious narrator, it would make sense that the narrator is the one deciding where, how and when to jump in time, story-wise. They are the one telling it, after all; they’ll know when a jump in time and additional digressions is necessary for the context. Even more: would it not make sense that, with such a jump – given that it’s chosen by the narrator – the starting point of such a reposition, would be through the POV of said narrator (if not a type 2, which this wasn’t)? There is nothing concrete, like I said, but… it FEELS like Armin is the one whose eyes we’re seeing this transition and opening through. Aside from Eren opening several of the bootcamp scenes that follow, Armin is the only other lead who does this: in chapter 18, he’s the one who opens the last flashback scene: the jog-scene. Here, he’s the first one to be monologued about by Keith, and is thus furthered as an MVP. 

b) Perhaps the most remarkable of these transitions, though, is the one in chapter 73: EMA are making their way back to Shiganshina – RTS to follow. At the end of Armin and Eren’s talk (the one about his eyes), Mikasa joins in about how she recognized the area, and Armin makes a comment about how “We’re back here…” Right here, the speech bubbles do something interesting: they go from regular dialogue, move into type 4, and then end on a type 5. This is yet another “feels to me like” example, but if you’ve gotten yourself acquainted with the types, perhaps you see it too: the way Armin talks, starts to sound a little synthetic if it’s supposed to be seen as regular dialogue, when he says “for the first time… since we ran away that day.” Eren and Mikasa both know it's the first time they’re back and that it’s the first time “since that day” specifically; telling them this in the way he does, feels redundant. This could be the mark of meaning lost in translation, but reading the entire work translated, Isayama isn’t USUALLY this synthetic, in my opinion. What more, this isn’t all there is to it: the redundancy is expressed in a scenery panel, removed from the speaker and carried away to a bird’s eye view. In other words, despite this initially seeming like regular dialogue spoken to two people right next time him, Armin’s words start to detach from him, and turn into type 4: informative monologue. This isn’t necessary, nor natural, unless the audience broadens; he’s talking to Eren and Mikasa, but we get the feeling that the words are starting to transcend into narration that we, as readers, also are hearing. We could still be on the fence about that, however, until the wide shot of Shiganshina, and the words “back to our home town” is presented as a clear type 5, in big letters, over it. Type 5 is a style Isayama has used explicitly for conscious narration. Thus, as these words - in this example - are either spoken by Armin or by the narrator, this cannot be type 6, which looks the same, but is subconscious thought. No, this is a clear indicator that Armin’s words turned into narration. Whether the narrator of the story chose to highlight what Armin said, for the sake of his (the narrator’s) own use or not, can be debated, however, the fact that this is supposed to be a narrating technique, is clear.

To me this is, therefor, another indication, that Armin is the narrator.  2. Armin journals We’ve all seen the picture. Armin taking notes in Eren’s cell. What, exactly, is he writing? The only time Eren type 2s, is when he’s talking about his father’s journals, at the end of chapter 85. It’s brief, and then the next chapter opens with Grisha’s journals narrating. The way Grisha’s type 2 phases out, is by the story returning to present time, where Eren is discussing Gisha’s memories with Armin, who’s writing something down. It’s clear to me that, in the very least, Armin is taking notes on Eren’s memories and how they correlate with what’s written in Grisha’s journals. Eren type 2ing in chapter 85, is apparently, the opening of him talking to Armin about all this, in his cell.

So what? Well, seeing as Grisha’s journals are already written, there is no need for Armin to re-write all of the information they already have gathered in Mr. Yeager’s notes. Armin is thus - like I already mentioned - AT LEAST, making original notes on Eren’s memories; how they support the claims of the journals, and expanding on the knowledge where Eren’s able to see more. A more creative take would be to say Armin’s writing his SNK narration right now, but even without that take, there is definitely something to take away from this: we’re being explicitly shown that Armin is either appointed, or voluntarily record-keeping. That’s a role he’s now explicitly shown to have. Let me reiterate: he is canonized as someone who naturally fits the role of re-teller. 

3. Is this story oral or written? *It’s time for me to make a callback to this very early asterisk: “Type 1 [...] Presented in square speech bubbles*”. Above, I talked about how Armin’s words turned into a type 5 in chapter 73. So what? Well, aside from it being one of the types that are unmistakably conscious narration - making this an instance of narration, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say this is THE narrator, because: at the beginning of SNK, the narrating voice, was not presented in its now iconic square bubbles: the beginning was, like the instance in 73, type 5: 

5. Retelling This is a mix between type 2 and type 4: it’s an informal standard narration (2), but being spoken by a character in present time within the story (thus narration inside the narrated story). It’s similar to type 4 in that it’s verbally shared in the present, and is majorly detached from the speaker. Unlike type 4, however, type 5 is usually situated within the mentioned flashback; the speaker is talking in real time, but the scene is set to the past. It’s presented through hovering black text (same as type 6), to symbolize that it’s narration given to in-verse listeners as opposed to type 1 and 2’s time-suspended audience.  

This will have to be a wild guess - especially since Isayama’s narration types were a lot less refined in the beginning (though type 5 has been the most unwavering of the types), but I believe that the story of SNK is narrated, specifically, orally. The narration starts out being told in the type that throughout the story has been specifically spoken narration. More so - if connected - it has another instance of this use late into the story (73), which at this point means Isayama knows his types too well for it to be a mistake.  This does, however, not discredit the argument above that Armin keeping records is a point towards him, because you’d likely need to keep things on record in order to remember the kinds of details that the narrator has been able to pull up anyway (not to mention that Armin still, with that chapter, is pointed out as a natural narrator type person).  So while irrelevant to my initial question, I find it interesting to theorize that the story is being told verbally. I’m looking forward to see if it’s right or not.  A second narrator?  “God, will it never end? We get it, Armin’s the narrator”. Yes, yes, at this point, I don’t have much more to add. I’ve given my musings and then some. But I wanted to bring up one last point of interest before giving you some rest from this long ass meta: type 3. Thought I forgot?  You see, type 3 is the dry information bit. I believe that in certain instances, where all the narrator says, is “Stohess district” or the likes, might actually be type 3 instead of type 1; especially when the narrator doesn’t add anything else.  But in this case, where does this type 3 information come from? Is this a second, identity-less narrator (more like the author himself)? If so, what does that mean for the personalized type 1er? I don’t know... it’s worth comment on the varying degrees of personality the type 1-presenting pieces have. Especially when chapter 73 and chapter 90 are concerned; while the narrator becomes more personal in chapters such as 12, 50 and 58 - in 73 and 90, he becomes... more linguistically embellished. So while the first bunch can be challenged as perhaps type 2ers and not the main narrator, the second two (73/90), can - with their strangeness - perhaps point towards further proof that Armin is the narrator. namely, 73 is the chapter that opens up the Return arc - the arc in which Armin plays a big role and eventually gives his life. it would not be surprising if the narrator - if Armin - would have a more personally emotionally affected approach to this part of the story. The same goes for chapter 90 - the chapter in which Armin reaches his life long dream of seeing the ocean. In this chapter, the narrator remarks on things like how the snow falls and melts, and how the flowers bloom and butterflies flutter. In other words, the narrator seems more sentimental, or even enamored with the upcoming segment.  What this has to do with type 3 is that, looking closely, we’ll see just how varying the type 1 narration is. So... is it possible that the instances of the narrator being more flat, is a different narrator altogether? If so, that opens up the can of worms that is: “the overarching narrative isn’t tired to one single entity at all, and is just a culmination of important contextual information, small clarifying comments, musings to spark curiosity, etc.  Because there’s also this: 

As well as: 

... which almost seems to indicate Erwin and PIxis narrating these particular instances of the narration.  It’s all up for debate - although, given all the evidence I’ve provided in Armin’s favor, I personally wager that these are casein in which the narrator summarizes information that Erwin and Pixis are talking about in such detail that it’s better to have a summary and jump in at the end of said speech, rather than having to sit through half a chapter worth of unnecessary details.  There’s a couple more points of interest what type 1 is concerned, but at this point, there’s nothing concrete in either camp, and this thing is getting entirely too long. So I’ll leave you with this: 

TL;DR: Will Armin narrate again? As an emotional narrator, not necessarily, yet it’s plausible. As the overarching narrator? If he is the narrator, yes, but... is he? I still don’t know. In conclusion, I don’t god damn know. I think so, but I don’t know. 

[1zdex]

tagged by @bunnycykes (thank you so much!!!! this made me smile)

RULES: answer the following 22 questions and then tag however many people you’d like!

STARZY WILL PROCEED WITH MORE INFO THAN ANYONE ASKED FOR

Name: except here. as i put out too much info about myself as it is im sorry but you guys are still getting my penname unless we’re close Maria

Nickname: Starzy, Starz, Aqua, H20, Ryan/Brennt mun, Kitty, Lil Mouse, Badger, idr any others. There’s probably mean nicknames I don’t know about *killed*

Zodiac sign: PEGASus!!!!!!!!!! I don’t put any stock in astrology (but the actual sign is virgo. Just for the record. Whatever the horoscope tells you will probably be completely wrong. For me. ;) )

Height: 5′2″ last i checked. which was a while ago but. i’m pretty sure i haven’t grown.

Hogwarts house: *looks up my last answer* Kindlehorn. The one that everyone hates because we shun magic. They hate us so much for ruining the ‘fun’, they wrote us out of history. JK Rowling was disgusted with us and dumped us from the pages of her chronicles. but we have Jesus so we’re overall content not to care. (this makes much more sense in context of my previous answer but I don’t want to copy/paste ;P Just listen to my insane ramblings instead.)

Last thing I googled: ...my zodiac cuz i care so little i never bother to retain what it is in my memory. busted. But that only proves how i literally just don’t put any stock in it. I only look it up for... “quizzes” merely for sake of curiosity because those quizzes ONLY give you an answer based on the zodiac. Zodiacs are based on constellations. But honestly? No idea what virgo looks like in the sky. I tend not to like what the constellations “draw”. They look better as just dots of light imo. Stars are great by themselves. ...Before that I looked up the lyrics to Relient K’s “Don’t blink” even if both were technically Bing because even though Bing S U C K S I’m literally too lazy to change it back to google after it forced itself onto my browser without consent.

Favorite musician(s): Relient K, The Classic Crime, Skillet, Superchic[K], Evanescence, Within Temptation, Tenth Avenue North... well i typically just kinda pick songs here and there from artists so it’s kinda hard to say beyond that? I love some of Cascada’s stuff. Asking what genres i like--wait. Nevermind.

Last song I listened to: Grey by Barlowgirl

Song stuck in my head right now: um. i’m literally still listening to the aformentioned song. Is it possible to have another song stuck in your head as you listen to a song? maybe? i can’t remember.

Followers: 299. I can’t wrap my head around it. I don’t even roleplay on this blog anymore. I have to assume it’s because i stopped posting ooc (usually...) and so even though I don’t post roleplay stuff, I still reblog psa stuff. Whenever I say stuff ooc people generally ignore me lmao

Following: 837. (about 200 are rp and the rest are asthetic/writing/other) no offense to anyone but thank God most of them are inactive bc i have an obsession with scrolling my dash which has become a major problem on my 15 minute work breaks trying to go down to the last post i remember on my dash within a time limit and usually this means I end up taking more than 15 minutes -- *inhales* im a bad worker

Amount of sleep: i try to get 8 hours every night but that doesn’t always happen. sometimes i don’t so well, and sometimes i have the morning available so when i wake up and my lethargy kicks in like i only slept 4 hours... i go back to bed and sleep up to 12 hours which im trying not to do anymore. im missing out on life.

Lucky number: another thing i don’t really believe in but as far as my fav number i always liked 5 for some reason.

What I’m wearing: blue jeans, black jacket that fits just right, and underneath it, an “emo” sweater hoodie that’s actually really too small for me but no one can tell because it’s under my zipped-up-jacket. i like this shirt. even if no one can see it. >> m i n e

Dream job: lol, i gave up on dream junk. but i do want to keep applying to the local humane society. that would be a more comfortable work environment for me personally. im not much of a dog person though so i would want to work with cats. Don’t hate dogs. Just... i don’t like being licked. mew

Dream trip(s): I’ve been getting into my Bible more {kinda}, and the more i do i’ve lightly had the thought of seeing Israel. I’m not like... set on it though. I honestly don’t know if there’s anywhere I really care about going in particular anymore?

Favorite food(s): no idea what it’s called: cream of mushroom soup cooked and blended with beef over rice. kinda similar to S.O.S. I also like Ramen, Pho, and (a bunch of other things yet i’m picky?) chips and salsa.

Instruments: My favorite instrument is the Triangle. I can play a mean rendition of “Infinite” by Dangerkids... @fritzymagpies and khloe have heard it. They can attest. It is super bad!! (on your ears)

Languages: just english. i tried to learn spanish for school. no hablo bien. muy mal. muy. i can’t really say anything else in spanish. That’s 3 years of learning folks, down the drain.

Favorite song(s): mmmm... i have no idea. well one i like is “It’s a Dream (Anesthesia remix)” by East Clubbers.

Random fact: i talk too much. about nothing. BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT, DIDNT YOU. (starzy’s next big feat: learning to be mute. and not be judged for it.)

Aesthetic: fairytales, Jesus, star shapes, actual stars, mermicorn stuff, sparklies, kitties, and pink/purple/blue or pastel color schemes. (blue tho)

tagging - KHLOE I CAN’T TAG YOU DANGIT--wait bwahaha @m3dicinal-music, @fritzymagpies, @theaiexperiment, @sacredprayer, @the-dark-omochao, @the-inked-quill, aaand uh. i think i’m a bit shy to tag anyone else (if they find this info too personal or whatnot i don’t know them well enough) so IF YOU WANNA, STEAL THE MEME. THING. (i don’t condone any other type of theft tyvm)

[a-pandoras-box-of-characters-a]

Information about Lillian

[ This is the information I have on her so far, I used a template my sister found for me which can be located here.

As for the pictures included, they were found on Google and edited by me. The face claim I am using for her at fourteen, I believe is a model by the name of Leyla Erdmann. The one for her at sixteen is Acacia Brinley, and the newest (and oldest) one for her is Georgie Henley. ] 

                   [I am willing to write her older, even if the oldest version of her is still being worked on.. just ask me. :) ] 

                                                     . . .

Backstory

After having given up on finding Steve when his plane went down in the ice, Howard Stark thought that he was smart enough to figure out how to remake the Super Soldier Serum - that he could figure it out even without the help of the original creator’s help. Naturally, that meant that he needed someone to test it out / use it on.

Having gotten this idea when his wife was already pregnant with their second child, he decided to use her. Although Maria protested to it, something was given to the baby not long after she was born, and she was then cryogenically frozen. Then telling everyone that Maria lost the baby, this is where she stayed - the same lab where Howard was trying to reconstruct the serum and the process of creating a Super Soldier.

Since he intended to use the serum on her from the beginning, this was another reason that the baby was kept ‘on ice.’ To be kept young, in affect, until when the serum was finally finished.

Given that he and Maria died before that could happen, or he could finish trying to remake the serum, she, and the unfinished worked on project, sat forgotten in that lab; until it was found years later. 

When both were found, they thawed her out, and tried to contact Tony. It was, unfortunately, during the time when he just could not ‘be bothered’ with anything - and he could never be gotten ahold of. With that in mind, the next relative that they found to send her to live with was their cousin Morgan (he’s from the comics, I found him while looking up the family tree) with as minimal information as possible. SHIELD having figured since she’d never actually been experimented on yet, and was therefore a normal baby, there was no reason not to give her back to her family. 

Later on when she is old enough to be told about her brother, she is the one to find Tony and initiate contact with him.

Basic info

Full Name: Lillian Reenae Stark

Nickname(s)

She has quite a few, the one most often used by most people, is simply ‘Lil.’ 

Biological age: 16

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Romantic Status: Single - with a secret, growing crush on Peter Parker. (Who she won’t tell, but really wants to meet.)

Date of actual birth: October 12th

Date she was thawed out and uses as her birthday: November 17th

Species: Human

Ethnicity: American (?)

Blood Type: AB-

Affiliations/Organizations: The Avengers, Stark Enterprises (by birth)

Current Occupation: Aspiring hero; little sister of Tony Stark.

General Appearance...

Lillian is paler than Tony, due to the fact that she spends most of her time inside reading or tinkering with things instead of going outside. She has light green hair, which she keeps long; naturally, her hair is the same shade of brown that her other relatives have/had. They are not very visible, but Lillian does also have a bit of occasional freckles lightly scattered around on her.

She has small ears, which is part of why she keeps her hair long. Another thing she hides about herself as much as possible is that she has small feet (what some would call “pixie feet.”) Lillian does this by stuffing extra ‘fluff’ into her tennis shoes and wearing ones that are technically too big for her. (Side note: her feet are not the only things she has to do this with out of being self-conscious.)

Height: About five-foot, maybe taller. No one can agree.

Weight: A hundred and ten dripping wet.(Like if someone dumped water on her..Like maybe Tony...)

Handedness: Ambidextrous, but more prone to using her left hand.

Tattoos/Birthmarks/Scars: Lillian is a bit clumsy, so she has a few scars here and there from falling or smacking herself in the face while working. She has no real tattoos, but has a habit of drawing on herself while thinking or getting as many fake tattoos as she can. Sparkly ones are her favorites - specifically food with faces.

Jewelry/Accessories: She has one ear piercing on her upper right ear, and has a belly button piercing that she did herself.

Who she is...

Personality: Lillian is very inquisitive, and likes to read. She has a problem with sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, and with figuring things out that other people do not necessarily want her to know. Lillian has a caring nature that is sometimes masked by smart-talk and facts (basically, to convince someone not to do something, she will site statistics as to why they shouldn’t do it and why it is a bad idea.) While Lillian is very smart in a scientific and mathematical sense, she also tries to think things through from a ‘common sense’ point of view. Her mind is more open to the unknown: this makes her more apt to believe things that might actually contradict science or reason, than one might think she would be.

Favorite things: Books in general, solving puzzles or riddles, animals, stickers (mostly scratch and sniff or sparkly ones), oddly named crayons, her sort of rickety little robot friend Roddy. (That she built and is constantly repairing.) Older tv shows, movies, or books.

Least Favorite things: Being told she can’t do something because she is ‘too small,’ losing or having her books taken away from her; when her favorite book series ends too soon, or she has to wait on the next book for too long, not being able to figure something out.

Hobbies/Interests: Reading books, building or tinkering with things (she also will take things apart to see how they work or try to fix them.) She likes to draw, collect different types of markers, crayons, or other art supplies which she finds interesting. (Side note: when upset, she will either count extensively, recite the numbers of pie, or try to put her crayons in an alphabetical order.)

Phobias/Fears: Her biggest fears are that she will one day deteriorate to the point that she loses her mind, or that she will end up alone in the world. (So yes, she does worry about her brother, even though they are constantly giving each other a hard time.)

Habits: Lillian has a habit of talking to herself, sometimes chews on her pencil’s eraser, clicks her tongue in thought, chewing on her lips or inner cheek, or sometimes tapping her pencil.

Mannerisms: Lillian tends to be more of a happy person, and will talk non-stop when it comes to science or trying to learn about something. Most of the time though, she is to be seen in silent contemplation or with her nose stuck in a book. When speaking, she has a habit of saying things like “um,” or “so,” quite a lot.

Skills/Talents: She is a talented artist, even though she does not think so. Her biggest strengths are in fixing things up and figuring out things quicker than other people might.

Best Qualities: Smart, tries to use common sense, a big heart, and a huge sense of curiosity and wonder about the world.

Worst Qualities: Sometimes is too curious, does not know when to leave things alone, often disobeys what she is told to do if she thinks she knows better, has been known to overthink things into the ground and get stuck.

Morality/Ethics: Lillian has a strong sense of doing what she believes to be right. If she can help it, she won’t lie to people or take advantage of them.

Goals/Motivations/Dreams: Lillian’s goal is to one day be seen as a great hero and to help as many people as she can. (Whether through science or other means, she just really wants to help the world.) 

Her other goal is to keep her older brother (or anyone else, for that matter) from finding out about her growing crush on a certain web-slinger. 

How she relates to others...

Reputation: Since she is and isn’t much like her brother, a lot of people are still developing opinions on her.

Friend(s)/Ally(ies): Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Thor, Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, Alexa Young. (My sister’s Oc.) Doctor Strange (and his cape.) Emily (another OC of mine) Peter Parker 

Unsure of: Loki

Enemy(ies): Hydra, or probably anyone else who would be enemies of the Avengers.

Relationship(s):

Anthony “Tony” Edward Stark: Lillian’s older brother, who she has a sort of ‘love-hate’ type relationship with. They pester one another a lot, though she actually does admire him and looks up to his success with robotics and with building his own technology. Lillian has also said before that if anyone else hurts him, she “Knows how to scientifically remove them from existence with such precision that she would never get caught.” (i.e. She can kill you and get rid of your body and no one would ever know.) 

{ This is my interpretation of how their relationship would be. If you want to write differently, be my guest. c: } 

Alicia Stark: 

They have had little time to interact so far or to learn about each other, but she is already very fond of her sister. (Her nickname for her is ‘Leecy.’)

{ Her blog is ran by a friend of mine, and can be found here <3 } 

Samantha Ascher: 

They have not had a lot of time to interact with each other, but she likes her older sister very much. It’s a work-in-progress sort of thing. 

{ Her blog is ran by another friend of mine, and can be found here. <3 } 

                                                           . . . 

[Lillian now, at 16 ^ ]

[Work in progress/Lillian older 18-? This would be her if she wasn’t dyeing her hair at the time.]

[comeondowntosouthparkrpg-blog]

Jessica Rodriguez

The Hispanic Rent-a-Tart is finally here! Jessica has been accepted! Please send in a blog and a face claim if you want to a featured on the main blog!

Name/Alias: Alice

Pronouns:She/Her

Age: 18 (FUCKING FINALLY) {{Happy Yearly Upgrade babe!<3}}

Join Our Discord: Yes 

Timezone: Central

Activity: 8

Triggers: N/A

Password: Dildo 

Character that you’re applying for: Jessica Rodriguez 

Favourite ships for your character: Anything and everything. 

in character info Full name: Jessica Maria Rodriguez Birthday: January 27th Sexuality, gender, pronouns: Pansexual, Female, She/Her Age and grade: 17, Senior although she dropped out. Appearance:  Hot fucking damn this girl is attractive. She’s the type of girl that when you see her passing by in the street you feel bad about yourself. She’s the type of girl who can wear a trash bag and still get asked to participate on a runway. She has tanned skin, which frequently earns her asks about what kind of tanning salon she uses. Her skin is relatively soft, due to frequent uses of moisturizer. Jessica has a tiny frame, with petite arms and legs. She doesn’t have a large ass or chest, but she wears clothing that make it seem like she does. She stands at 5'5, although typically wears heels that put her closer to 5'9.

She has black hair, that is constantly styled to perfection due to her obsession with looking her best. It can often be found in a windswept and messy but it’s totally intentional look. She frequently wears buns whenever she is just chilling out in her apartment however. Her eyebrows are always perfectly shaped, and she probably spends about thirty minutes per brow to get them up to her standards along with regular appointments for threading. Jessica has lively dark brown eyes, that seem to dance with amusement. Thanks to plenty of YouTube tutorials, her makeup is very sharp. Her mouth can almost always be upturned in a grin, or a sexy smile.

Jessica wears nice clothes; which people always comment on, asking how she could afford them considering how she’s only a ‘waitress’. She is very conscious about her style and doesn’t want to give away where or what she does due to being slightly ashamed of it. Jessica isn’t a big fan of shoes, so you can typically find her barefoot. When she does wear shoes, it’s heels.  Personality: Jessica is certainly a fun time. Everything about her screams party girl. She is one too. Jessica is bold and daring, she’s not afraid to go after what she wants or have whenever fun she wants. Most of the time she doesn’t care about other people’s opinions. Jessica does not get scared or intimated easily, and won’t back down from a challenge or from a fight. Jessica is always down to have a good time, and her idea of a fun time is the idea of a crazy time to majority of the population. Jessica is wild, she goes off the chain without a drop of alcohol in her. She’s flirty and seductive, promiscuous. She’s down to fuck anyone, anywhere. She will sweet talk your man or woman out from under your arm before you even realize she’s gone. She’s not too into commitment, and is prone to one night stands or flings. A socialite, she’s always up for socializing and talking with new people. She’s a tad bit manipulative, in the fact that she is not afraid to pull whatever strings she has to to achieve her goals. She knows she’s gorgeous, and will use her looks to get what she wants. She’s sassy, and is not afraid of calling people out on their shit. She’s fiercely loyal, and would fight tooth and nail for her friends. She doesn’t take anything seriously, and is very unlikely to be serious or solemn for any matter. Although she’s certainly proud and prideful.

Jessica, while this wild and party girl image is certainly her, her personality goes a lot deeper. Not many people are willing to dig down deeper into her true personality, instead preferring to use her for her body and dump her the second they are pleased. This has left Jessica with a guarded heart and soul. She’s doesn’t open up to many people, one of the few exceptions being David. She’s tough, and doesn’t let things get to her. If she did, she’d be an entirely different person. Jessica has a softer side to her that stays hidden underneath her sultry persona. She’s a huge dork. She loves pranking people and making them laugh with corny jokes. While a fan of wild parties, she also loves just calm chill sessions in sweat pants with Netflix in the background. Jessica is rather sweet to those she cares about, and will bend over backwards for them. She’s hardworking, and perseverance runs through her veins. She has a headstrong and stubborn attitude. Jessica is silly, and loves to just have fun. She’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she cares way more about family and friends than academics. She’s an independent young woman, and hates it whenever people try to baby and take care of her. She’s wildly protective over those she’s decided to take under her wing.

Overall, she’s just a freedom loving and passionate soul who loves to have fun.  History: Jessica was born in Boise, Idaho. Her parents were thrilled at having such a beautiful baby girl. Especially her father. He always bought her the nicest clothes and spoiled her rotten. She was daddy’s little princess. She grew up playing with David and running around pranking her neighbors. Her family was poor, but she didn’t concern herself too much with the finances. As her father grew more and more desperate for cash, he began to change. The warm and loving man he once was became cold and distant. Abusive. Her mother tried to shield Jessica away from this as much as possible, sending her to stay with her cousin as much as possible.

However, her father became increasingly domineering. He wanted to take advantage of Jessica’s beauty by posting her photos on the internet. He sold photos of his daughter to the highest bidder. He rarely physically abused her, and never sexually, but he did take advantage of her. Eventually, he decided whenever Jessica was in the fourth grade to move to a little town in Colorado, South Park, since he got a promotion in neighboring Denver. Jessica was forced to say goodbye to her cousin and aunt and uncle who had become more of parental figures to her than her actual parents. Jessica started school, and all she wanted to do was make friends. However, the other girls didn’t like her much. They would be nice to her face, but call her a slut and spread rumors behind her back. Jessica had some friends, but she was never popular due to the rumors spread about her being a two faced bitch and a slut.

Jessica went through middle and high school fairly happy. She had a good social circle of friends and was reunited with her cousin. However, her home life was getting steadily worse. Her father had put a large sum of money into the stocks and lost it all, so he wanted Jessica to bring back in the cash some how during the beginning of junior year summer. Jessica refused, which resulted in a huge fight. Jessica ended up getting slapped, and her mother ended up dragging her father to the back room. Jessica had had enough, and decided to pack her things and move out. She got an apartment in South Park, and cut off all ties with her parents. Her mother made sure her dad couldn’t find her. She tried going to school while working full time as a waitress, but soon found out that didn’t work. She was forced to drop out of school. Not like she was passing any of her classes anyways. She eventually got a job, being scouted as she was leaving a bar in Denver. A manager liked her look, and invited her to come work at the Cabaret. She ultimately accepted, even though she vowed to keep it a secret. She gets good pay, as the gentlemen who go there love her. She doesn’t do sex work there though, and is merely a dancer/stripper. However to ‘supplement’ her income whenever there are particularly bad days she is known for working in Denver’s Red Light district.

Sample paragraph: It was a Saturday night. Most teenage girls her age were probably having sleepovers, or spending time with their boyfriends. They most likely weren’t moving down a pole, getting their hair artfully tangly while random guys ogled at their body and stuffed tens and ones into their leather clothing and boots. They most likely weren’t bending over the front of a stage, running their finger up a businessman’s chest who obviously had a wedding ring on, giving them a look that could set someone on fire. This was however, a typical Saturday night for Jessica Rodriguez. Better knows as ‘La Yegua’ in this place. Jessica stood up slowly, making sure everyone got a clear view of her body before sashaying off the stage to roaring applause and cries for an encore. Someone had even thrown a rose at her feet. She was flattered, and would have stopped to pick it up if the next girl wasn’t already giving her a high five as she was about to go on. 

Far from the glitz and glam of the club, although still her favorite part of it, the employees only area was her favorite. Ceiling fans, vanities with light bulbs and makeup, racks of costumes and dressing rooms. Although her favorite part about it wasn’t the drinks in the mini fridge or the candy in the bowls, it was the couches. Jessica walked over, and without even bothering to take her shoes off flopped on the couch stomach first. She wanted nothing more than to sleep. She could picture herself at home, cuddled up under her blanket with her tigger stuffy under her arm as she dreamt happily. Her fantasy was interrupted by someone slapping her ass. Jessica didn’t bother opening her eyes before she threw a pillow at the perpetrator half heartedly. Ass slapping and cat calling were a regular thing with the girls who worked there, they were family. A band of sisters who were trying to make the most out of the cards life had dealt them. Some of the kindest and most beautiful souls were sliding on poles and entertaining guests in VIP rooms.

“Wake up sleeping beauty you gotta go take drink orders.” A voice said, one of her favorite people ever. A woman in her late twenties by the name of Gracie, although she was referred to here by the gents as Rainbow. Jessica groaned into the pillow she had left. “I don’t wanna, let me be lazy for once.” Jessica mumbled. Gracie chucked and pulled Jessica until she landed on the floor with a thumb. Getting up, she rubbed her eyes and went to go touch up on her makeup. “Laziness don’t pay the bills.” Gracie countered, walking over to her and placing a hand on her bare shoulder. Jessica laughed as she was adjusting her fake eyelash. “Ain’t that the truth.” She responded, before putting down the glue and moving her breasts up. It was show time once again. 


Headcanons:

She works at La Boheme Gentlemen’s Cabaret in Denver. She tells her friends she’s a waitress, only because she’s ashamed to tell them she works there. She purposely chose a cabaret in Denver so that no one discovered her secret or that she ran into anyone she knew. 

She will totally seduce people by speaking random Spanish words in their ear in a low whisper. She once got a guy to have sex with her whenever just started naming off school supplies. “Sacapunta, papel Mochila.” 

Has an obsession with cats, she adores them to no end. You wanna make her day? Let her talk about cats.

Loves skateboarding. 

David is her best friend 

Not a virgin

Is actually hypersexual 

Her apartment is a wreck, its constantly messy.

Wants a tattoo of a lotus blossom on the base of her neck. 

Her dream career is a Disney Princess, although they probably wouldn’t accept her due to her background. 

She owns a motorcycle and drives it to work. 

Her voice has a melodic and sultry tone to it. 

Anything else:

Her face claim is Diana Korkunova. Imma redo my Nichole blog to a Jessica one.