#obviously violet

[awwfulsounds]

Nintendo Game Boy Micro in Blue Japan 2005 (x)

[shouyuus]

for reasons unknown even to myself I'm having a lot of thoughts about popstar!reader x vi like. idk IDK imagine vi gets pulled into being security to one of ur concerts and she's rly never been one for pop music but hey a job is a job and this beats slamming ppl in the interrogation room for info (although she does also love that) but like. JUST. she's so startled by how pretty you are on stage how you literally have this glow about you and yeah like she's heard OF you ur piltovers darling ur face plastered on every single ad from endorsing everything from shipping companies to like idk skincare but she's never paid much attention to that till she's standing in front of the pit, right under the stage where you're prancing around in this darling little magenta number the exact color of her hair with glitter on ur cheeks and later she's SHOCKED to see you in one of her normal watering holes in zaun cause??? what r you DOING here you look so out of place and she can tell you're a lil uncomfy but you're just wide eyed and curious and laughing at something someone is saying, and before she knows it she's pushing thru to get closer to you, overhears someone asking you if you've ever been underside before, to which you give some flirty cryptic answer but vi catches the pause in your voice that tells her there's more to the story.

when she finally managed to wedge herself into the slip of space that's opened up next to you at the bar she's figured out that one of your groupies was the one who dragged u down here w the promise of a good time, but she's off making out w some rando and you're trying ur best to not stick out too much, and she's about to shoot her shot when someone jostles you so you're toppling into her and she catches you so naturally catches a whiff of your rosewater perfume, barely has time to register how soft you are in her arms before your pulling back trying to apologize but ur palms are splayed against her sternum and one of her hands has somehow ended up on the bend of your hip and she truly cannot help but notice how your breath hitches as your eyes meet for the first time, so she tries not to look too smitten, pulls a signature smirk and says --

"hey princess, aren't you a little far from home?"

shed expected you to blush and stutter or try to pull away, but what she DOESNT expect is for you to smile right back, sweet and without a HINT of uncertainty --

"if i tell you im lost... will you take me to yours?"

[seeleybooth]

[promised-daisy]

Back with this silly group

Why do I love the group with the least content the most :,)

[spacedlexi]

its my birthday who wants some KISSIES!!!

[pollyannawog]

Eepy...

[blu3per]

"I don't wanna be alone anymore!!"

tw: implied animal/pokemon death

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

The way they just introduce all these different mediums for animation to tell story points will never cease to amaze me.

Seeing Vander buried memories that soon transpire to see Vi and Jinx's childhood with their parents before everything went downhill was so fascinating. Mesmerizing even.

Also, hearing they're dad calling bby!Powder "Pow-Pow" during the sequence like Vi did when the girls reunited had me crying even more than before.

[fixated-dark-king]

Sooo, I had the amazing experience of attending a panel C.S. Pacat was part of during the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 25th May 2024. The panel was called “Creating a Monster” (with two other YA authors).

And finally a week later (because adult-ing is hard), I had time to actually go through my notes and write up some of the fascccccinating things Pacat had to say about: monsterous heroes, and villains, and enemies-to-lovers deliciousness, and queer identity!

I didn’t want to forget some of the interesting things said in this panel and thought others might be interested in hearing about them too? Please indulge the splurge. :)

(Please note that all bold headers are just my thematic summary of each section for people to jump to, not the actual question asked.)

WHAT APPEALS ABOUT ‘THE MONSTROUS’ TO PACAT:

From a technical writing standpoint, the ‘Monstrous’ is appealing because a villain will often do an act and the hero reacts to that. It gives unconscious clues to the reader that when the villain turns up, something exciting is going to happen. In that sense, villainous characters have a special sort of ever-present attention given to them (possibly because human nature is to always keep one eye on the dangerous thing that could harm you).

On a personal level: A) When queer characters are awesome but also ‘Monstrous’, Pacat says it can feel really ‘electric’ and empowering to reclaim/allow yourself to embrace the monster role that you’ve been told you fit into by society. Like in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles where queer people are allowed to be beautiful/glittering & powerful & witty & have existential conversations about good and evil while fitting under the Monstrous label. Like heck yeh, that’s cool. And B) as an author, you can feel a ‘minority pressure’ to have characters be Good all the time and be the perfect ambassador for that minority, but sometimes you just want to be a vampire and take over the world, you know?

THE EXISTENCE OF ‘PROTAGONIST-CENTRED MORALITY’ WITHIN THE DARK RISE BOOKS:

When pondering whether it is hard as a writer to convince readers that a Monstrous protagonist is a likeable character, Pacat pointed out that the funny thing is that the question ‘How am I going to make readers like this monster?’ never really ends up being an issue because people actually really like monsters! The thing you might not expect is that the struggle is actually: ‘How am I going to make these readers who are barracking for the protagonist feel that this ‘monster’ is actually monstrous?’

Pacat explained that when a protagonist is also a monster, it brings into play something called ‘Protagonist-Centric Morality’ -- where you bond with that protagonist and want the best for them etc, so much that it can obscure when the protagonist is actually doing something bad. Pacat mentioned that he has found the Protag-Centric Morality fairly striking in the case of the Dark Rise books because people have said to him things like: ‘The Dark King Did Nothing Wrong Ever In His Whole Life’ and Pacat questioned whether the moral centre of the story was landing somewhere different than intended. He was curious whether the other authors had experienced that with their ‘monstrous’ protagonists too.

IF A HERO IS ALSO MONSTROUS, HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE THAT FROM THE VILLIAN? When pondering over the distinction between a Monstrous Hero and a Villain, Pacat shared some thoughts from his lived experience. He said the times when he has felt most threatened by the ‘Monstrous’ is when that person isn’t clearly identifiable to others around you; where there isn’t a shared understanding between everyone that ‘yes, that person is a monster’. Extending from that, the Truly Monstrous is when that person has some kind of control over you and control over the narrative as well; if the monster is the one telling the story but casting you as the monster. Essentially gaslighting via ‘narrative control’.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS TROPE:

This is Pacat’s absolute favourite romantic trope. And he elaborated that he doesn’t mean that in the sense of ‘these characters sort of don’t like each other’, but rather to the point where two characters really hate each other and for a very good reason. He likes when a path between two characters feels IMPOSSIBLE to overcome.

This trope was first explored in the Captive Prince trilogy and Pacat loved it so much he just had to use it again for the Dark Rise trilogy. The planning behind it for CaPri was brainstorming: ‘What is the worst thing I could think to use?’ (Answer: Killing a character’s brother, which lands the bereaved character into a set of hellish circumstances.) But that meant when Pacat decided to use it again for DR, he had to extend that to: ‘Now I need to think of something EVEN WORSE THAN THAT (CaPri)’ in order to separate the main characters. So Pacat had to spend ages thinking about what could be the absolute worst thing to use this time -- and he hopes that he came up with something that is ‘truly, truly way worse.’ Which essentially had everyone, including the moderator, laughing loudly in fear. XD

WILL KEMPEN: FOUND FAMILY & THE LONELINESS OF INAUTHENTICITY:

Pacat spent a lot of time trying to develop a really meaningful platonic friendship between Will and Violet. It meant a lot to see a friendship like that reflected on page for Pacat because some of the most important friendships of his life were across gender lines. The reception to Will and Violet has been so pleasantly surprising, so Pacat supposed he wasn’t the only one with a hunger for that kind of friendship within the romantasy genre.

Pacat also reflected on Will’s complex relationship with his Found Family -- that having the support of a Found Family can be so essential, but in Will’s case that lifeline is undermined by secrecy, turning that Found Family into a different kind of loneliness. Because the thing is: if something so immense happens to you that you feel you can’t talk about, or you feel some way about yourself but think you can’t share that with others, it means you can’t really be your authentic self. But if you’re not being you’re authentic self, who are your friends friends with? They can’t be friends with the true You; they can only be friends with a facade/with a performance. So as long as Will is scared to show his true self and remains hiding himself away from even his friends, he will be alone. It’s a hard step to take. (Note from me: so heavvvvy but poignant.)

NOT DR-RELATED, BUT PACAT’S FAV MONSTERS FROM POPULAR FICTION: Pacat was so excited to namedrop his favourite monsters from popular fiction, he volunteered to go first LOL. The answers: 'The Brat Prince' Lestat (Lestat has been on his mind a lot recently because the AMC TV portrayal captures Lestat so well & has completely rejuvenated Pacat’s 12 year-old love of vampires. Total mood); serial killers such as in the Ripley series; and simply: American Psycho.

Great panel, right? Now it’s Europe’s turn!

[sonseulsoleil]

After reading It's In His Kiss, I'm struck by how much Hyacinth has in common with Anthony. They have this very similar belief that they're always right, tempered by a need to be challenged even when it pisses them off. They're both used to getting what they want, albeit for different reasons. They're both wildly competitive. And they both find partners who truly match them in intensity, who challenge them in the way they need, even though it scares them at first.

I kind of love this characterization choice because when you think about it, Anthony is the only father figure she's ever known. Of course she takes after him. Who taught her to stand up for herself? Who taught her to play games? Who taught her to always win?

Who raised her?

[crooked-jett]

Ericson kids in a band.

In my modern au these four start a band in high school. Probably started out as some punk emo screamo shit. 😂 Writing songs about being troubled youths.

Was debating whether or not to color this cause I’ve really been chugging out art lately and I don’t want to crash and burn.

This is loosely based on this artwork https://www.tumblr.com/bellmanbessa/770429461243002880/korrasami-week-2024-day-6-band-au

[askblueandviolet]

Ask Box for them is open!

They all look a little rundown, but it's fine (kinda)! They've all been through worse haha. It's been a while since the three of them got together too.

Ask box will be open for 24 hours!

Update: Ask Box is now closed!!!

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[miraacleworker]

have some doodles :p

[auroraboringaliceinwonderland]

Chase and Buddy and Prunella and Deacan going into an ATLA book…

[agentc0rn]

Peach pit,

Plum pit

Sink yourself in

All of it,

Leave me whole,

Or let me rot,

Love me sweet,

Or love me not.

-p.bodii

[siobhanbooks]

realising that violet and xaden had known each other longer when they got married than my parents did when they get married was slightly humbling (it took riorgail 1 yr 10 months and my parents 1 yr 8 months)