#or any character that 'gets in the way' of the ship

[onthecrescentofthehill]

it’s funny when ppl talk about the harpy omelet scene and say things like “why did he do all of that? he didn’t need to. JUST doing that for laios???” (seen these nearly verbatim on posts i’ve made.)

i don’t really get how you can hear his backstory & not understand that every decision he makes within the dungeon is fueled by a profound trauma borne out of horrific, structural negligence. of course he would do fucking anything to enact his plan? if he computes “getting in laios’s favor = proxy control of the dungeon” and he has very limited time to do so, he will jump at the chance. he’s already DIED for this.

kabru has maybe the clearest possible motivation that a character can have. he has a Protagonists Motivation, and it guides him forward in a very coherent way in the beginning of the story. things get more complicated in later acts that directly address how that motivation manifests itself/gets contradicted, bc ryoko kui is great at exploring this, but it’s still extremely present.

and as a labru fan i strongly dislike the implication i see from some ppl that his interest in laios is mostly personal or romantic (posts that range from pure joke to actual ship meta.) even when taking the “confession” at face value, where i think he was telling the truth, there’s still a lot more to it than that. i think at first kabru does see laios as a means to an end in a way that’s impersonal, partly because he tends to keep everyone in his life at arms length. but that “end” (preventing history from repeating itself) is something foundational to his psyche, and we should consider that potential sense of safety getting mixed in with his warring fascination/apprehension towards laios. he’s drawn to him for visceral reasons, and his stated motivations are so intertwined with his sense of self that untangling this push-pull is much more interesting than boilerplate Yearning, to me.

it’s just confusing when any meta or basic discussion of kabru diminishes the weight utaya has on his inner world and i’m really surprised every time i see it? like i understand that different types of meta will put other lenses on things intentionally, and in most cases i think it’s an interesting tool to work with. but it’s a massive disservice to his character to put the most foundational experience of his life on the back burner ESPECIALLY when it’s in favor of shipping. dissecting character relationships, romantic or otherwise, is at its best when you have their full personhood in mind!!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Something I’ve noticed across collecting different cards is that Twisted Wonderland seems to have a bit of a skew in which characters get character x player ship bait. Between events and card lines, some characters look like they are getting neglected in the ship teasing category. Is there some kind of popularity bias behind this? Like maximizing profit or game popularity by targeting certain groups of fans among the fandom?

Mmm… I haven’t noticed a skew, personally. If there is one at all, I’d wager it isn’t significant and it’ll probably depend a lot on what point in time you’re evaluating at. Since TWST is consistently releasing new content, the voice lines are sure to “even out” eventually if given enough of a waiting period. For example, you could say that the GloMasq boys have “more” bait lines… until Playful Land boys were released the year after, thus leveling the playing field.

All cards have character x player ship bait to some degree. Most of them will have at least 1-2 lines which involves complimenting you/your look (and if not in the card lines, then directly in the event, especially when Yuu has changed into a new outfit), Yuu touching them in some way (or being invited to), or asking Yuu to hang out or to do an activity with them. Everyone gets these lines because there are fans of every character that have spending power; it doesn't make sense to intentionally devote more lines to one while leaving the others starving for content when there are big spenders for all characters (which will vary widely anyway depending on the server too, so there are very few consistent "favorites"). Devoting time and energy to every character is what makes the most profit in the long run, as you risk losing the fans (and money) of "less popular" characters if they don't get new food too. It doesn’t matter that the high spenders for like… Azul stay because they’d still be losing the revenue coming in from Jack stans who dropped the game due to content drought.

I would say that what is and is not categorized as a "shipping bait" line depends a lot on other factors, the strongest of them all being individual perception. For example, if you ship yourself/your Yuusona with the character, you may be more likely to perceive any line spoken by your favorites as "more romantic" than other characters. This feeds into your preexisting expectations, and is therefore a form of confirmation bias. Meanwhile, if you ship two canon characters with one another, there are many more potential combinations so it's less likely that the particular ship you're into will get "bait". Additionally, some people are more liberal with what they perceive to be romantic or not. For example, Ace inviting you out to do something can be seen as both platonic or romantic, based on who is judging the line because there isn’t anything inherently romantic in spending time together. This is also the case in the main story or events; some players see Yuu giving Malleus the VDC/SDC ticket in book 5 as "a date" while others do not. This brings me to another point: character relationships within the main story and their personalities will also have a drastic impact on what is perceived as romantic or not. Rook, for example, speaks in a very flowery manner. Because of this, a majority of his lines could be seen as "bait". Characters that are gruffer (Jack) or "loner" types (Idia) would naturally have fewer inviting lines due to their characters. And again, with Ace, since he is presented as one of Yuu's closest friends in the main story, it's easy to perceive him as a platonic bestie when reading his lines since your friendship is already established.

Lastly, I think it's worthwhile to consider that there are also nuances that are lost in translation between JP and EN, which may alter which lines are seen as "bait" and which aren't. A really popular one I see floating around is Malleus's vignette level up line, which is translated in EN as "You aren’t afraid of me. But I’m starting to become afraid… of losing you.” Many fans perceive this as romantic and often joke that “Malleus missed the meeting about TWST not being a dating sim!” However, this line has a different context in JP which reads as more platonic.

The original Japanese line is お前は僕を恐れない。そんなお前を失うことが僕は恐ろしくなり始めている。This roughly has the same meaning, but the wording Malleus uses seems to specify that he is afraid of losing the Yuu that is not afraid of him. EN omits the そんな (son na) part, which would refer to a type or kind of person (as in, “son na hito”). In this case, Malleus is afraid of losing “the kind of Yuu that is not afraid of him”. So really, the original meaning of the line is that he is expressing a fear of what would happen if his true identity comes to light (as Yuu is the one person who doesn’t know), not that he is afraid of losing Yuu as a whole.

To summarize: it’s up to individual perception and, given enough time, every boy will get their fair share of fanservice for the player.

[meraki-sunset]

This is a long letter of gratitude. Embrace my endless words of pure gratefulness.

Dear Autor of the most amazing thing I've ever read.

I was writing this letter from the moment I reached the middle of your Crow Strider AU fanfiction. There is so many things I want to say and I'm so happy that I can say it to you all here without words limit. Forgive me for exuberance, I'm squeezing out all my abilities to express what I feel in this foreign language that's not of us first language.

Let me list all the things I'm grateful for, because I'm autistic and I love listing:

1. Crow Strider

The arc of Davesprite you created is masterpiece of writing. The process of deconstructing his personality, forgiving and letting his part behind as well as embracing his new identity and new body is written so thoughtfully with such a care of details. I love how you made him so different from Dave as well as still kept his Daveness in full glory of Striderness. You made him happy and more emotional available and open, at the same time it felt so natural for him to be that way because of the proper build up you gave him. Thank you so much for creating Crow Strider and letting us read his well written arc.

2. There's a Dave for everyone

THERE'S LITERALLY DAVE FOR EVERYONE. You have no idea what struggles I went through trying to understand what person Dave ended up with in canon, and then being sad of what happened in epilogues. I wanted Dave for Karkat. I wanted Dave for Jade. I wanted them to be happy. And you did it. You made it possible. You made them all happy. I love it so much. Thank you so much for making them happy. You even gave Teresi one Dave for her. I can't believe it. It's so beautiful it's unreal.

3. More Davepeta

This part is simple, I simply love Davepeta and you gave me a lot of good Davepeta content. Thank you for that.

4. You made me like characters I didn't like

I wasn't big fan of Tavros. I got tired of Vrisca by the end of Homestuck. I didn't really see Hal as an interesting character. I honestly hated Gamzee. And Jasprosesprite squared was so annoying for me

Well, not anymore! You somehow managed to write these characters more compelling for me than Hussie did. Now I love Tavros and Hal, I mean, cat Hal? Is there anything more cute and cool at the same time?

And NGL I genuinely wanted Gamzee to die and I can't believe that now I'm not, because I just read a very good redemption arc of this clown. I also love the way you dealt with Vrisca. Heck I love all characters written by you!

5. God tier Karkat

I've dreamt of seeing a good piece of god tier Karkat. I was so curious how does it even work to be Knight of Blood, we didn't see any version of Blood god tier in canon. I'm big fan of your version, it fits the character and the aspect so well, and the execution of his arc as he is chosen to open the door... Honestly? I prefer that over canon, though it wouldnt make as much sense as in your fanfiction. It just feels like you took a much better care of Karkat than official ending of Homestuck. Don't get me wrong, I love Homestuck an it's ending, your fanfiction wouldn't exist without it. I honestly think that Hussie didn't really have as much time and space to give his characters as extended arcs as you gave them without losing the dynamic of his story. But you could. And you did. Thank you so much.

6. So many people got better, more extended arcs

Like above. You made Jas much better. You gave Nanna much better, more compelling arc than she had in canon. You made Hal and Tavros much more relatable and gave them very well character development plot, even if short. You took your time to write very needed and wanted dialogues between characters than didn't have their time to interact in canon. Like Jake and Dirk (ESPECIALLY THEM OMG). Like Erisol and Feferi. Like Jas and Rose. And I didn't even know that I needed the last one. Thank you so much.

7. You made ships that I didn't know where even possible and I like them????

Seriously, Tavros and Jane?? Erisol and Arquius??? Josh and Dirk??? I love how your brain works

8. You absolutely nailed the delicate topic of transgender

I used to not be a big fan of June, because there were no realistic signs of John having any kind of thoughts or doubts about his gender in canon. You made a very much needed and really great thoughtfully written arc from June and Josh, even caring about the topic of transition and executing it really great. Thank you so much for yet again being so good at writing arcs.

9. Eridan and Sollux

I love them both and their weird toxic rivalty, and I absolutely love that you gave them some attention and let Eridan grow and try to redeem himself while also helping Sollux with hii2 p2iioniic problem2. I download almost every single frame of it.

10. YOUR ARTSTYLE

You're artstyle. I don't know where to begin with that. It's so amazing. Expressive, dynamic, cute, beautiful, colorful. I love every line of your comics. Your style is the way I always wanted to draw. It's just perfect. And also perfect for Homestuck fanfiction. It's just so similar, yet gives it a bit of softness as well as the kind of expressiveness I love, that makes every single shot more appealing. Warm scene are so warm, sad scene are so sad, dynamic scenes are so epic, it's like so delicious. Yes, I just ran out of words. Let me grab a dictionary...

Your style is outstanding. It gives me this feeling of familiarity, it's similar of Homestuck style, yet so different, its fresh and new while also feels like home.

I wish you have a printed version of your fanfiction (but I probably can't afford it sadly). There is something so soothing in this simple colors, it's not too loud, not too many colors, yet so many and smooth colorful lines. I will learn to draw like you, I'm sorry for adapting your style, but I really want to draw like that and you even posted some tutorials how to draw like you.

Thank you so so much that you put so much time and effort into making this wonderful comic and then share with all of us completely for free. You drew so many expressive pages, sometimes even 10 pages per static dialogue, which means you officially outbested the master of overdoing Andrew Hussie himself, that did maximum of 3 pages per 1 static dialogue scene. I noticed you slowed down a bit at the end and drew much more simplified panels as well as you started using same panels many times. Good. It's okay to go the easier way. No one wants you to overwork yourself and burnout. No one wants you to have trauma with drawing and not wanting to draw comic ever again. It's extremely generous of you that you posted for absolutely free such a wonderful and huge piece of art. I'm endlessly grateful.

11. The plot

I love how you started from one simple idea of giving Crow more arc, and then gradually extended it into a whole huge fixfiction. It went so smoothly it looked like really one different decision of one person can change the whole timeline. It went so naturally, it felt so realistic as if I read something that Andrew Hussie wrote as a coexisting canon.

I have to admit, the whole idea of not doomed and not canon timeline is pretty ridiculous, and I love every bit of it. Paradoxally, it sounds so much like something that could actually exist in Homestuck canon. I love it

A few little things I didn't like that much

I wouldnt be myself if I didn't comment on some stuff that wasn't perfect. I'll be bery brief with that, because these things didn't really bothered me that much, I just want to share a little bit of criticism I have.

I hope it won't sound rude when I say that I didn't really felt like you understand the character of Nepeta very well? She didn't felt that like Nepeta in your fanfiction, at least for me. I felt like some stuff were explained a bit too many times. I know that characters needed that, yet we as viewers already know some stuff and didn't need to read it again. Also, I really missed the type styles of characters. I know how hard it is to keep it through entire fanfiction, especially writing some of the characters with quite complicated type style. I just missed it a bit. On the other hand it made a few characters much more comprehensive.

I hope I didn't hurt you with this few words of critics. Now I want to share a few of my favorite pages, I hope you don't mind if I end this letter with fangirling over your drawings. I actually wanted to do a lot of comments during reading your fanfiction, but the website didn't let comments. Sadly. That's why I'm writing here. And now is time I will do what I wanted to do back then:

This scene, my fav scene in Homestuck, got so extended in your fanfiction, I felt so gifted and it wasn't even my birthday

I cried.

This. Made me laugh so hard. And it's even funnier without context.

I just reached photos limit. Sadly. I'm so grateful for your comic. I love it so much. Thank you again for making it. You're a wonderful person

Hey there! Thank you so much for the letter, and for taking your time translating it to English for me to understand. Since it’s in a list format, I guess I’ll answer as list as well! So:

Crow strider

It was challenging writing Crow because I needed to basically write Dave but with a twist in his personality due to living with the Harley-Egberts and their grandma, in a very cozy and caring environment.

Honestly I don’t think I managed to portray enough Daveness, his personality is very particular and difficult for me to replicate, but I did the best I could and my friend and editor will help me reach the right amount of striderness in the epilogue

2. A Dave for everyone

Indeed, there’s Dave for everyone. The homestuck epilogues made me realize how lonely Jade ended up, and I always loved Davesprite and jade, but with one being human and the other one a Sprite the relationship was bound to fail, and even tho I wasn’t fond of JadexDavepeta, still i would’ve prefered it to jade being all alone and Davepeta dying fighting Lord English. So now, not only Jade has Crow, and they’re happy, but the Karezi – davekat – daverezi mess all got fused into one, because I love them and their trip was a Little different from in canon. And also Davepeta is around, I don’t think they’ll end up with anyone, but they’ll vibe on EarthC.

3. More Davepeta

They’re alive, and I like showing the craziness that comes from them knowing all timelines but being above them and detached from them. 

4. The characters you didn’t use like

I like exploding underused characters. Because with them, you’ve only seen the Surface, but at the same time you have info about them that can be used to make them more profound. If Tavros got revived, why isn’t he mad at Vriska? What was he doing those 3 years in the bubbles? If Jasprose is a seer and has knowledge of all timelines due to being ultimate self, doesn’t that make her the ultimate clairvoyant? Doesn’t that mean she’s the key to winning? Does she miss the mother like rose does? If there’a already an Arquius, why make another? Why not have just Hal as a Sprite and have him figure out what being alive is actually like?. You get the Surface of the characters and knowing what you know about them, you dig deeper, until you find their humanity and write about it.

5. Godtier Karkat

I love Karkat on Homestuck, but I feel like the character lost weight towards the end of the story, he stopped being the leader and while everyone went and fought someone important like the Condesce, the jacks, the dogjack, or Lord English, he was just somewhere else doing whatever. I wanted to give him his hero moment that closes his development.

As for the door, I feel like in canon john was the right choice to open the door, he’s the hero and the leader, not to mention it’s a human session, it makes total sense and I wouldn’t change it

Every story has things that don’t get to be explored, because that would make them too long and cut the flow, making it unreadable. That why we love fan fictions and AUs so much, they take the pieces and reassemble them into something new, filling the empty spaces.

What makes the events on AUs fun is that they didn’t happen in canon. So if John opened the door in canon, and it was right, then Karkat can open this one, and it can be right on this specific timeline. He gets closure from the door he never got to open, and takes back his role as a leader, even if it’s just for a moment, since the battle is over by now. He’s the leader once again, but this time he understands the weight of it in a way he couldn’t grasp when he was 13, claimed he was in charge and let everyone down. He now understands it’s not just something you ask for, it’s something you earn, he’s now the Knight of blood, god of bonds, he took down the Condesce in the name of his species, and will open the door for his peers to enter the new universe they created together where they’ll create a free society, he became what the signless predicted, his rightful successor. His arc is completed.

6. Extended arcs

Jas was planned since the beginning to close crow’s arc about his rose and his regrets about leaving her behind. It’s only when he’s made peace with losing her, has left his old self behind and is ready to face the battle and his future, that he gets his reward. He gets her back, in the strangest way

With Nanna, i just though nobody ever focused that there was an actual adult around during the whole adventure, Nanna would’ve spent a lot of time around john and jade, them being each others remaining family. So I tried to give her the role of a guardian, breaking a Little with this “orphaned children on their own” that all characters have.

Honestly I tried to make it as interesting as I could, sometimes I would take characters that didn’t have any screen time and think, what can they do? What’s in their mind at this moment that they could tackle in conversation? And with whom? Who else needs screen time?. And that’s how you get, Jake and Tavros bonding, Nepeta, Fefeta, Davepeta and Feferi ship-chat, Arquius telling Terezi and Karkat about Erisol, Hal comforting Eridan, ect.

It’s actually a really cool writing exercise I do sometimes. I grab two characters that have nothing in common, and write a conversation between them. What’s the common ground? Are their stories alike in some way? Do they have a common hobby or worry? It’s really cool because you find stuff about the characters you never paid attention to before

7. Unlikely ships

Tavros and Jane came from me wanting Tavros to be more assertive. In canon Vriska instructed him to not interact with the Alpha kids during those 6 months, but since this Tavros doesn’t listen to her because he took self-esteem lessons from Rufioh, I felt like he probably spent that time actually being a guide to Jane and then becoming Friends while solving puzzles, Jane being a fan of mysteries and Tavros probably missing his flarp days. Also theres a funny thing about Tavros and Jane, and it’s Tavros is supposed to represent Peter pan, while Vriska is supposed to represent both Tinkerbell (she dressed up like a fairy for him and later became an actual fairy) being attracted to him but being short fused when rejected, and also represent Captain Hook, Peter pan’s enemy (with her flarp persona and her ancestor being a pirate), but she’s not Wendy in any way, and I feel like Jane is, she’s the homeschooled girl, with blue eyes who looked through her window waiting to be free because her father wouldn’t let her out (also Wendy’s brother was named john who used big glasses). She’s a normal girl coming in contact with this fairy boy from a world of only children. Idk, makes sense to me. (besides, Wendy darling’s daughter, who Peter pan later takes on adventures too was named Jane, who also has blue eyes)

Erisol and Arquius was a crack ship that suddenly made sense, because it’s one-sided, and I feel like arquius is a caring person, he just has a difficult time socializing like a normal person. He’s just really happy to be a sprite and is pissed by Erisol’s insistence on wanting to explode.

Also, Arquius promising Fefeta that he wouldn’t break Erisol’s neck unless he had a good reason ( he kinda wanted to) and eventually having to break his neck for the good reason of god tiering him (he now doesn't want to and feels bad about it) was something I planned for months

Josh and dirk, i think it’s funny. Dirk wouldn’t have dated jade because she’s a girl, but Josh is a boy so it’s good, AND, he’s like a more direct, version of Jake who takes no bullshit.

8. The topic of transgender

Originally the second spaceship post retcon was supposed to arrive empty, or with only Davesprite, but I saw an opportunity to solve a division in the audience. Some people were interested in John remaining as he was, while others wanted to see June. Since John never showed any doubts about his gender in canon, it wasn’t in my original plans for June to make an appearance during CSAU, because the comic only covered the same period of time as canon. But when it came time to write the retcon I realized I had an opportunity to make them both coexist, making a shift in the timeline, but said shift being there both since the beginning and for the purpose of surviving the recon. Making June and Josh a reality since the beginning, so the timeline would survive the consequences of the two Egberts crossing paths post retcon.

It’s nice to hear you liked it, I know not everyone did. I tried to be respectful but at the same time be true to the nonsensical nature of canon Homestuck that makes timelines twist and change to the story’s convenience, making the events real but chaotic. Also since i knew John’s dad wasn’t coming back and Jane’s dad wouldn’t make it, June would be the last remaining conection to John’s old home and so John would be June's, relying on eachother for comfort when it comes to the loss of their father and home.

9. Eridan and Sollux

I want to cover Eridan’s redemption in the epilogue, since all we know is he grew as a person during his time in the bubbles, leading to his change of heart interacting with Sollux and Kanaya

10. Art style

Thank you! I like to give the characters a full range of emotions and for the surroundings to accompany that

No need to be sorry for learning through my art, in the end my style, like everyone else’s, is bits and pieces from other artists we’ve seen, admired and/or learned from. Just make sure to add your personal touch to make your artstyle trully yours

It’s true that by the end I reused more static panels for dialogue, both because there was a lot for the characters to say, not that much action left, and my battery was running low haha

11. The plot

I tried my best for the story to be a big butterfly effect steaming from crow’s decision to ascend, working towards the most possible outcomes like Crow getting grimdarked by the Condesce too, the sprites surviving because of Nanna and so on

I wanted this timeline to coexist with canon because I don’t like the idea of overwriting it, canon happened and was important, CSAU just happened to be taking place close by

12. Things you didn’t like

I do in fact not understand the character of Nepeta very well, I reread Homestuck in order to get the original troll's personality better, but Nepeta is a character I don’t get. On top of that, she doesn’t appear much in CSAU so didn’t have much time to develop her.

I do struggle with over explaining, I think is stems from not wanting the reader to be confused (it has happened on discord that people come and ask me what was going on in the story when i thought I had written it in a way people could understand with no problems), which leads to me explaining everything too bluntly sometimes, so the characters sometimes ramble TOO much, and I wish I could go back and reduce the dialogs, but that would involve going back to the page’s codes to delete certain pages and replace others, and also changing the programming for the page’s backgrounds, not to mention my computer crashes when I try to modify pages too far back, since they’re 4000 of them. It’s one of those things I can only learn from and try to do better in the next project

The character’s typing was a core part of Homestuck because it was mostly portrayed as blocks of texts and the quirks made it easy to know who was talking even with people having the same typing color. The reason I didn’t use them it’s simply because I could barely write good enough in English, let alone add quirks. My friend offered me to add the quirks at some point when we were revising the dialogs, but I declined because some people found it easier to read without them and I didn’t want to add another step to the render of the pages.

13. Favorite pages

I also cried with that Gamzee panel, I planned it for months and i waited a long time to draw those last panels, I’m glad they made people laugh

Haha, also yeah, the Strider reunion got really extended with so many extra striders. Davepeta, Crow and Hal making the reunion complete

Thank you for this message! i'll do my best to write a good epilogue (which by now is actually a secuel) and i hope you have a great day🌻🌻🌻

[buddiebeginz]

I left a comment on a video that the official 911 insta posted for pride the other day and these are the responses I’ve been getting:

I’m sorry but as a queer person I’m getting really sick and tired of people telling me that canon couples and characters matter more than those we see as lgbtq. Like since when has this ever been a thing???

Obviously getting canon queer rep is important and we should always keep pushing mainstream media to do better but lgbtq people have always headcanoned queer characters and ships. Historically it was sometimes the only way we could even see ourselves in the media we watched.

Just because a show like 911 has canon queer rep doesn’t mean everyone has to like and or relate to those characters and ships. I don’t ship b/t (and never will) and while I care about the show as a whole I relate the most to Buck and Eddie. A lot of people see Eddie as queer and just having him be a part of the show at this point matters. Hopefully they’ll have Eddie come out maybe they won’t but it won’t stop people from seeing themselves in him.

Buck wasn’t even canonically bi before s7 and so many people still saw him as a queer character and still related to him. A lot of you who are now b*mmy stans had no problem shipping Buddie and seeing Eddie as anything but straight prior to s7, yet now that you’re all about T*mmy you keep trying to shut down any discussion about Eddie’s sexuality.

It’s so obvious that you’re terrified of what Eddie coming out will mean to your ship and you know what you should be. But even if Eddie never comes out there is definitely a ticking clock on b/t and I’m curious will you just stop shipping them when they’re no longer together? I’d love to know the arbitrary rules you all have for a fictional show and how hypocritical you plan to be when your ship is no longer together in canon.

[vellichorom]

something something there's something to be said about the fact that the curator & the settings person both most often getting characterized antagonistically despite doing next to nothing in the game to the main characters;

the " worst " the museum curator does ( not influenced by the whole bucket thing, which often goes ignored anyway ) is ask that You, the player, spare both the narrator & stanley from their cycle & stop playing the game,

& the settings person is weaved through the in-game narrative revolving stanley's co-workers, at least SEEMINGLY, & really just happens to show up after the fall of everything to speak to you, THE PLAYER, keep the cycle going, improve your game experience - etc etc;

now i get why the settings person is villainized, kind of- it's because ONE person did it & they just so happened to be the person to draw attention TO the settings person's existence in the first place & now everyone wants to make their settings person an antagonist of some kind & usually a threat to the narrator, despite there really being NO substance canonically to back this up beyond them being a little cheeky & fucking with him gently,

but why the curator, when her sole purpose is to try & spare the characters of the game? do you hate women. is she getting in the way of your hot gay ship

do you guys not realize that villainizing them directly betrays their characterization, for as little that there is to present?

did you guys forget that the narrator seems to hold the majority of power in that game? & no- he's NOT the token bad guy either, nor is stanley.

this is not a game where there's a " bad guy, " there is only circumstances & people at odds with each other. why are we DESPERATE to portray any one of the characters as the root of all evil- BUT ESPECIALLY why are we painting the " side characters " as the villains here? answer me that;

[boombox-fuckboy]

any podcast recommendations for guys Going Through It. im a sucker for whump and i’ve already listened to TMA and Malevolent sooo

Fiction Podcasts: Characters Going Through It / Experiencing the Horrors

Gore warning for most, here's 15 to get you started:

I am in Eskew: (Horror) David Ward is arguably the Guy Going Through It. Stories from a man living in something that very much wants to be a city, and a private investigator who was, in her words, "hired to kill a ghost". Calmly recounted stories set to Eskew's own gentle, persistent rain. The audio quality's a bit naff but the writing is spectacular. If you like the writing, also check out The Silt Verses, which is a brilliant show by the same creators.

VAST Horizon: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller/Suspense Elements) And Dr. Nolira Ek is arguably the Gal Going Through it. An agronomist wakes from cryo to discover the ship she's on is dead in the water, far from their destination, and seemingly empty, barring the ship's malfunctioning AI, and an unclear reading on the monitors. I think you'll like this one. Great sound design, amazing acting, neat worldbuilding, and plenty of awful situations.

Dining in the Void: (Horror, Sci-Fi) So, the initial pacing on this one is a little weird, but stick with it. A collection of notable people are invited to a dinner aboard a space station, and find not only are they trapped there, but they're on a timer until total station destruction: unless they can figure out who's responsible. And there's someone else aboard to run a few games, just to make things more interesting. The games are frequently torturous. If that wasn't clear.

The White Vault: (Horror) By the same creators as VAST Horizon, this one follows a group sent to a remote arctic research base to diagnose and repair a problem. Trapped inside by persistant snow and wind, they discover something very interesting below their feet. Really well made show. The going through it is more spread out but there's a lot of it happening.

Archive 81: (Horror, Weird Fiction, Mystery and Urban Fantasy Elements) A young archivist is commissioned to digitize a series of tapes containing strange housing records from the 1990s. He has an increasingly bad time. Each season is connected but a bit different, so if S1 (relatively short) doesn't catch your ear, hang in for S2. You've got isolation, degredation of relationships, dehumanisation, and a fair amount of gore. And body horror on a sympathetic character is so underdone.

The Harrowing of Minerva Damson: (Fantasy, Horror) In an alternate version of our own world with supernatural monsters and basic magic, an order of women knights dedicated to managing such problems has survived all the way to the world wars, and one of them is doing her best with what she's got in the middle of it all.

SAYER: (Horror, Sci-Fi) How would you like to be the guy going through it? A series of sophisticated AI guide you soothingly through an array of mundane and horrible tasks.

WOE.BEGONE: (Sci-Fi) I don't keep up with this one any more, but I think Mike Walters goes through enough to qualify it. Even if it's frequently his own fault. A guy gets immediately in over his head when he begins to play an augmented reality game of entirely different sort. Or, the time-travel murder game.

Janus Descending: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Tragedy) A xenobiologist and a xenoanthropologist visit a dead city on a distant world, and find something awful. You hear her logs first-to-last, and his last-to-first, which is interesting framing but also makes the whole thing more painful. The audio equivalent of having your heart pulled out and ditched at the nearest wall. Listen to the supercut.

The Blood Crow Stories: (Horror) A different story every season. S1 is aboard a doomed cruise ship set during WWII, S2 is a horror western, S3 is cyberpunk with demons, and S4 is golden age cinema with a ghostly influence.

Mabel: (Supernatural, Horror, Fantasy Elements) The caretaker of a dying woman attempts to contact her granddaughter, leaving a series of increasingly unhinged voicemails. Supernatural history transitioning to poetic fae lesbian body horror.

Jar of Rebuke: (Supernatural) An amnesiac researcher with difficulties staying dead investigates strange creatures, eats tasty food, and even makes a few friends while exploring the town they live in. A character who doesn't stay dead creates a lot of scenarios for dying in interesting ways

The Waystation: (Sci-Fi, Horror) A space station picks up an odd piece of space junk which begins to have a bizzare effect on some of the crew. The rest of it? Doesn't react so well to this spreading strangeness. Some great nailgun-related noises.

Station Blue: (Psychological Horror) A drifting man takes a job as a repair technician and maintenance guy for an antarctic research base, ahead of the staff's arrival. He recounts how he got there, as his time in the base and some bizzare details about it begin to get to him. People tend to either quite like this one or don't really get the point of it, but I found it a fascinating listen.

The Hotel: (Horror) Stories from a "Hotel" which kills people, and the strange entities that make it happen. It's better than I'm making it sound, well-made with creative deaths, great sound work, and a strange staff which suffer as much as the guests. Worth checking out.

[official-locke-writing]

Clarke Boetticher - A Character Study

Let's start with the Tumblr Special: how would Clarke react to meeting you?

Let's consider a scenario in which Clarke does not immediately attempt to get far away from you. He might appear guarded, aloof, or even hostile right off the bat. He may be reserved, speak cautiously, or keep conversations brief to avoid revealing too much about himself or his involvement with the cult. He could suddenly become agitated or withdrawn and not want to be around you. Small gestures of kindness and clarity are something only seen after trust has been built. He's rather enigmatic and introverted. Quiet, but in a calculated way.

The moment you know too much, he'll slit your throat, so try not to pry.

And I know there's the age-old question of, "is he romanceable/can I ship him with my character/myself, etc?"

The answer is circumstantial. This isn't a man with any kind of social skills nor has he known love. He tried that fiasco with Natalie and it ended with him hysterically laughing at her maimed corpse.

If, theoretically, you could get past his skittish eraticisms, constant disappearances, disloyalty and him awkwardly brushing off your affection... perhaps. He will choose the cult over you every time. This is a situationship mixed with sporadic one night stands at best.

Chances are, though, he would want nothing to do you with. You better be damn special, and even special might not get you very far with Clarke.

As Clarke's creator, I genuinely do not care what fanfiction you write with Clarke in it, but I beg you to try and stick to my narrative. He's like this for a reason. Also it would make me happy.

Will he get along with my OC?

Clarke likes normal people. The more normal, the better. He's so tired of seeing monsters every day... so that's up to you. Is your OC a creepypasta or a survivor? He'll go for the survivor in terms of a budding acquaintance (as long as they don't end up with a mark on their back from the Web.) It doesn't matter if killing your character will absolutely crush him, Clarke can't say no to the cult.

Where's Masky and Hoodie? Are they friends with Clarke like in the classic creepypasta?

Copyright means we can't use them so we had to write them out.

This lovely trio from the classics is not really affiliated with each other in Blessed Be The Wicked. As stated in a previous post, Brian is a human hellbent on revenge against the cult after Slenderman took his friends' lives away in the events of Marble Hornets, and he is currently hiding among them as a "proxy." He walks, talks and makes himself look like them, and they haven't noticed quite yet, but Brian is on borrowed time...

Tim, however... well, he ended up getting a little too messy and violent than the cult would've liked, so they fed him to Calibri.

Clarke doesn't really know who Brian is, and Tim is dead. RIP.

What about his Tourettes? Has anything changed with how that is written?

His Tourettes overlaps heavily with his OCD. Clarke's tics are more word-based and compulsory actions than twitching. E.g., checking the locks repeatedly, flipping light switches, echolalia, or repeating a word/phrase during speech. He struggles with his brain hanging on words and sounds during a conversation, which can quickly trigger his anger and frustration.

One might catch Clarke arranging his belongings in a certain pattern, counting his steps as he walks, or adjusting things to make sure they line up/are straight. Clarke's inability to stay clean most times severely bothers him.

Here's some other little bits of info:

Smells like dirt, sweat and metal... sort of like ozone. He showers whenever he can afford to spend extra time in a victim's house after he's finished the job; but it's mostly rinsing off briefly in an icy creek.

The guy will absolutely demolish a cheeseburger and shitty diner coffee. After eating what he could hunt for so long (which was very little,) he's pretty strung out on hunger.

Clarke was inducted into the cult at seventeen and is now twenty-six, meaning he has been a "proxy" for about nine years.

Clarke was written to this song.

Be prepared to bring your Rad-X because this man is a walking elephant's foot. Radiation poisoning (or slender sickness) is in his wake after spending so much time around the Spawn of the Web.

He's king of the Compartmentalized Emotions.

You might catch him doing dangerous shit because he doesn't know pain, and his dissociative coping response can lead him to believe what he is doing isn't real.

(If he believes it's real, he'll hate himself, and he can't do that yet, now can he?)

Has the occasional fit of Cotard's Delusion.

Clarke is a complete stoner and pays the monthly visit to Jingles for the good stuff.

He doesn't flinch. Ever.

Does not own a cell phone and is really bad with technology. Nine years in the woods will isolate a man from how fast tech has progressed.

[cleveradjacent]

Golden Kamuy Fics For Donations!

what you do: donate any amount to either or both of these causes

Голоси Дітей (Voices Of Children) - a Ukranian organisation that provides psychological and humanitarian aid to affected Ukranian children and their families

Help Gaza Children - a vetted on-the-ground Palestinian organisation securing essentials for the people in camps. OR, if you can't donate to gofundmes: Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) - an international organisation providing medical relief and humanitarian care for Palestinian children

what you get:

one cause: i write a short fic at your request, about 600-800 words. here's my ao3 for a sample

both causes: i throw in a thank you doodle featuring a character from the fic

DM to participate. shares welcome. Q&A below (read all before DMing)

Q: why the doodles?

A: i want to motivate you to give to ukraine as well as to palestine without imposing a choice. palestine needs all the help it can get, and so does ukraine.

i am ukranian, though not living there, and i haven't witnessed war myself. still, much of my family has been displaced or forced to live through horrific cruelty; the places that raised them and me have seen destruction i can't bring myself to imagine. for the virtue of commissioning work from me, a ukranian affected by the conflict, please consider ukraine in your donations.

Q: why these charities? why (only) two?

A: this is a very small-scale endeavor, so i picked one per country to focus the efforts and simplify your choice. the charities were picked based on their reputation, credibility, and similar goals. UPDATE: added a direct-to-Palestine grassroots organisation to the Palestine option. still kept the PCRF because some people can't donate to gofundmes, and the PCRF has a paypal option

Q: does it matter how much i donate?

A: not at all. i'd say donate however much you'd tip me for my writing, but i know how broke most of the planet is, so the amount is not important.

Q: what exactly happens?

A: you DM me, telling what kind of fic you'd want to read. i OK the idea. you donate and send me the receipt (black out personal info if you want). i write the fic

Q: what do you need to know about my fic idea?

A: basic gist of the scene, the characters, the indended purpose (pwp, gen, romance, etc). example: i wanna read koito suck tsukishima so hard he makes progress in therapy. or: modern AU usami and ogata smoking weed in a college dorm, and i want it to be funny but also have weird unresolved sexual tension. be as specific as you want. you can even just throw "i want [ship name]" my way and we can talk about where to take it if you want my spin on it. mind the short format - that much is enough for one self-contained scene. we'll workshop it in DMs!

Q: what will/won't you write?

A: i will enthusiastically write gore and unhealthy porn. i will enthusiastically write gen. i will write dead doves on a case-by-case basis. i will write OCs or romance or AUs or what have you. basically, go nuts, as the drawing says, and if you're unsure, just ask! i won't judge even if i end up declining. my universal no's are x reader (self-insert OCs are fine) and yuuo. not my cup of tea

Q: how long will it take you?

A: i write this much in an evening, but when that evening happens is highly dependent on my energy levels and available time. pinky promise to try my best and not be long

Q: how many fics are you willing to do?

A: idk yet. i don't expect a lot of requests, so i'll just close up shop when i feel like it or when they stop coming

Q: will you publish these?

A: yes, i plan to publish the fics in a single work on AO3! with your consent, i'll mention you as the commissioner

this is my first time doing commissioned writing, so i may edit these terms as i figure out the process. thanks for reading!

[do-you-ship-this-comic-ship]

propaganda:

They interacted in one (1) arc, pre-Flashpoint, pre-New 52, and as far as I know they have not interacted in any way since. I’m obsessed with it. Their team-up involved them and Donna Troy, aka Troia, Kyle’s ex-girlfriend. Kyle spent the entire team-up antagonizing Jason, thinking Jason wanted to get with Donna, because *of course* Donna would fall for his good looks and bad boy sex appeal!! He’s CLEARLY irresistible!! And he was so mad about it. Meanwhile Jason was just like, tf is up with this asshole?

[cerosin-bis]

Hello Cerosin :]

I have several questions, if I may.

1. How are you?

2. Has Nikto always been bad at taking care of himself or is that a result of the torture?

3. how does Krueger handle rejection, if he's interested in someone?

4. In your fic "Anger Management" (btw I love both your arts and writings!) Nikto hugged Krueger tight, before Krueger fucked him. It says "it's conflicting for Nikto" what does that mean? Would Nikto like to have a normal relationship with someone? Like, does he want/need a certain tenderness but knows Krueger probably isn't able to show it?

Thank you for your time and all your great works for this ship! It literally wouldn't exist without you and I mean it in a good way!

Have a good one and be safe :]c

Hi hello! 1. I'm doing mostly fine! Thank you for asking 🥺 I hope you're well, anon!

2. I think Nikto never really practiced "self-care" due to both his education (or lack thereof...) and his personality. However it's noticeably worse since his torture and the development of his mental illnesses/conditions because he now barely even thinks of basic human needs.

3. Good question. I think he'd be very frustrated because it's RARE, but be able to move on very quickly. Orrrr he would try extra hard (which ultimately does succeed but at very high costs with dire consequences. this would have happened with Nikto, but didn't need to because these two were doused in gasoline to begin with imo.)

4th answer regarding Nikto, Krueger and intimacy under the cut bc this got long.

(And thank you so much. I don't want to be presumptous as to say I ~invented~ the ship because there were like 3 fics when I posted Remanence already, but feeling like I was able to set its foundations in art and then consistently over the past years is unbelievable when I see where it is today.)

4. Thank you so much for letting me know you like both my art and my fics!! I feel like I never say it enough, I'm incredibly grateful people are reading all the shit I put out, let alone let me know they liked it. 😭

So, in my headcanon, Nikto craves intimacy in very very short and specific "windows", but he has a conflicted relationship with it as a concept.

Krueger can display tenderness/intimacy without a second thought if he knows it's needed by the context (and this is one), but his affectivity is abnormally... dulled? if I may say. Krueger's emotions are genuine... but extremely dampened. So it suits Nikto, because it's "as if" there were no feelings (there are. but it's beyond gestures, it's whatever they have. the codependency and violent devotion, the wordless communication... Tenderness is a rare occurrence in this whole frame - an occurrence that Nikto likes, but would rather not acknowledge, if this makes any sense.

In my headcanon, again, Nikto wouldn't be able to have a normal relationship with anyone. Normalcy repels and scares him, and even if it wasn't the case... Without extensive therapy, which he will likely never want to get, he has too many issues regarding emotions, attachment, jealousy and violence. (I want to stress this again, this is just my specific and personal hc of the character)

[freakartack]

What is your least favourite misconception or fan interpretation of the WarioWare cast?

And/or do you have a favourite headcanon the community has made for the cast?

Oooohhhh we are really going for the hot hot takes today huh. Just handing me the baseball bat like that

Well I suppose it had to come to this. I've been dancing around this for far too long. It's time for

TOP 10 FREAKATTACK HARDASS MOMENTS

NOTE: please do not open this if me shitting on popular headcanons will ruin your day. I don't generally care what people do with their life do what you want forever

OK with that out of the way it's time to get narsty. Many of these will be ship-related so if that will make you mad or bored just a heads up

1. MONA AND WARIO ARE IN LOVE

OK i lied you can't do this one forever. ENOUGH!! She is in HIGH SCHOOL and if you think she has to secretly be an adult just because she has a job and drives a scooter then not only have you never been to high school but you also have not been paying attention during any of Kat and Ana's cutscenes. "High schoolers don't usually drive that much" 5-year-olds don't usually trek the mountains high and kill people with swords but they do. I get when people get frustrated that almost all the girl characters in warioware are marketable kids, because that does kind of suck, but you can't just ignore that to get shippy about it. Cmon. "Wario was dreaming about her in that 1 microgame break" yeah, and I thought that was weird. I choose to read it as a non-romantic moment (since, again, he's old enough to be her dad), and the fact is that nothing like that has happened since. Yeah mona might think he's a hunka hunka but she has every right to! Doesn't mean they have to get married

2. MIKE AND ORBULON ARE IN LOVE

This one will stir far more pots/torches/pitchforks/etc. but since we're bringing out the fine china i might as well go all out. Here's my reasoning: Orbulon is 2000 years old. Mike is like 2. I'm not saying this one is Problematic (mike is a robot that can file taxes after all) but moreso that it is unrealistic. Picture this: You are orbulon, with all of your weird hangups and whatnot. Your buddy that fixes your car all the time and plays Go with you just had a robot son. Would you fall in love with him? Probably not. On the other end of the coin, you're the robot son now. Your inventor/employer/cyborg dad keeps inviting this weird animal into your house to study it. I don't think he would fall in love with that either. "I would," you say, "i'm built different." And more power to you. I just don't think they are.

3. LUIGI AND DAISY ARE MONA'S PARENTS

FINALLY, a non-shippy one! Anyways, since Get it Together came out, a lot of people took one picture on the wall and the shape of mona's house to mean that Mona's House is actually Luigi's Mansion and that Luigi and Daisy had a child together 16 years ago and promptly abandoned it to play tennis. I think it is obvious by now that I don't think that's true. Not only has Mona described her parents extensively (one of them is an artist that is obsessed with noses, the other is a supermodel that travels the world), but neither of them are anything like Luigi and Daisy. "But what if Luigi is secretly obsessed with noses and Daisy is secretly a supermodel," you say. Okay. Then I think that Luigi cheated on Daisy with Peach, and had Rosalina together, because Peach and Rosalina both have blond hair and Luigi had a telescope once. Don't play games with me, Matthew. I know what you are.

4. PYORO IS INNOCENT

He's not

--------------------

OK now that all of that is out of the way, let's move on to the fun stuff. Top ten favorite things that people have said about warioware!!!

1. PENNY IS DR. CRYGOR'S CLONE

I first saw this thought expressed here, but I've seen many people continue the sentiment and I think it's beautiful. Penny Crygor is the good doctor's transgender lesbian clone whom we all love dearly.

2. ORBULON KNOWS WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH POLYBIUS BUT WON'T TELL ANYONE

Self-explanatory. Unfortunately the genius who thought of this one has since deactivated and the post is forever under an inaccessible read-more so this is the only evidence i have that it ever existed. You have to trust me on this one.

3. WARIO IS LIKE THEIR DAD

This isn't really a headcanon moreso a popular interpretation of the text but I do like to think that despite being a jackass he does genuinely care about all the weirdos he has racked up, including the many wayward children that have glommed onto him over the years. This is like every toxic "we're all a family here!" workplace, except that they actually are all a family here and it's toxic for unrelated reasons

[dangermousie]

Ep 27 was all plot and no ship. In fact none of my favorite characters except Jiang Li herself appeared in it - it was devoid of the Duke, his sidekicks, Shen Yurong, Princess Wanning, any of the Yes and except for a few seconds’ appearance devoid of Jiang Jingrui.

Still it definitely moved the plot forward - namely the plot of the serpents’ nest that is the Jiangs. Because the grievances were not suffered by our protag but the original Jiang Li and any connections of love or blood were also not hers but the original Li’s, she’s able to be clear headed and not really emotionally involved except insofar as she feels bad for injustice and she’s gonna need that because stepmom has lost the few restraints she had and the rest of the family is useless.

I found this ep humanized both Ruoyao and stepmom for me. I found it so tragic that Ruoyao has finally stopped stepping out of her mother’s monstrous, smothering shadow (her mother’s love always looked controlling and conditional but this ep shows just how downright abusive it was and how Ruoyao had so little chance) only to have her agency taken away from her by mommy on the most basic level. A woman who would poison her own child to get rid of a stepdaughter should not be called a mother in any sense.

I hope Ruoyao gets some sort of a happy ending and a way to find out who she actually is but I doubt that since the drama very clearly implied in this ep she is not a Jiang but is a child of adultery between stepmom and diviner. Papa Jiang is not much of a father even to his blood (he just goes with whatever the woman he is currently sleeping with likes) but the moment he discovers she’s not his, that nunnery is gonna be best case scenario for Ruoyao. Not every family can be the Fans from JoL or the Xiaos from Nirvana in Fire 2.

Stepmom? What a horror show but the drama humanized her (while showing she shouldn’t be allowed to run around at all.) All the woman wanted at the start was to run off with that painter and live in obscure bliss (Ruoyao’s desire to run with worthless ex-fiance is quite reminiscent of that - like mother like daughter - tho at least Mom’s boo genuinely loved her.) But daddy prevented it and was going to marry her off to some sort of mental defective with a family that wanted that dude to have a child (and in that society that marriage is pretty much life of horror) unless she found herself another match and was all “why don’t you off Papa Jiang’s wife, she’s sick anyway” - and not excusing stepmom being a murderer but it’s like Shen Yurong - when all your choices are bad choices you are way more likely to do bad things to survive. In some other alternate universe, she married that painter who never became a diviner and is living a placidly virtuous existence.

Honestly, the moment she killed a friend to escape a hellish marriage it was the end for her - she sent Jiang Li away because of the whole “I murdered your mom can’t have you find out or just look at you” (and daddy blames her for soft heartedness in not killing her!!!) and the other kid was an accident - it’s basically she started out as a villain out of perceived necessity but then she had to continue and got worse and worse. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, indeed.

I found it poignant she ultimately wasn’t able to maim monster daddy as requested by diviner. Not so poignant that she’s apparently repeating the way she was parented in the way she’s parenting her daughter despite knowing firsthand what that’s like. (But I wonder how much her obsession with getting Ruoyao the best marriage, the nicest reputation (no showing in public at age x), the best womanly skills (zither) is driven by her forever remembered terror of being a woman with no power and no options and no good marriage prospects.)

Even that scarred cousin who married the abuser got a little bit of interest from me - the way she tells his paralyzed body that even tho he beat her so badly she will take excellent care of him and the sheer terror in his eyes was great. Go girl!!!!

Still, hope next ep brings back the Duke and Co. (Jiang Li sent away the guard the Duke had on a mission for her and girl - bad life choice - guard had a big point in that he was there for her protection. And now diviner is coming and there is no guard. I guess she’s so bad at listening to instructions, the Duke will have to move in with her himself to make sure she does what he wants. What a hardship 😂)

[spacerockfloater]

House of the Dragon, Season 2, Episode 1: Discussion

Overall, I did not like the episode at all.

First of all, am I crazy or was the whole scene at Winterfell and the Wall purely fanservice so that HOTD can gain the sympathy of old fans? I mean, it lasted like, 2 minutes, and added nothing to the plot. Cregan’s speech was amusing though.

Daemon didn’t let a single moment go to waste before he started acting like a king. Typical and at least consistent with his character.

Sigh. Preparing myself for the backlash I’m going to receive for this. I did not like the way Rhaenyra’s and Jace’s emotions were portrayed. Where was the shock? The agony? The horror? The pain? Too much silent grief for someone who just found out that their son/ brother was murdered. Hell, Rhaena showed more emotion than both of them combined and we saw her face for merely a second.

Good for my girl Alicent for finally getting some I guess, but the Alicole sex scenes were weak as fuck. No passion, no chemistry. It was robotic as shit. All that subtle tension between them during the first season led to nothing. Rushed as fuck and not at all what they made us think it would be. Provided absolutely zero context. Boring as hell, too. Thank fuck that it was leaked because it would have been a jumpscare. Nothing could have prepared me for it, it came out of nowhere.

Alicent standing her ground against Otto was surprisingly very good. I loved seeing her take the lead. And it was touching to see her light a candle for Luc, too.

Aegon II was very entraining. Refreshing to see him try to be a good king, actually care for his subjects and love his son. Distracts you from the fact that he’s still a stupid unseasoned teenager. Looking forward to some more character development on his part.

Now, what the actual fuck could Aemond ever possibly have to be angry about? Didn’t he just have his revenge? Who is he so pissed at?

Daemon and his murder cloak are the strongest ship in HOTD, which they should rename to “House of Misunderstandings” at this point.

I nearly pissed myself when Cheese’s super secret hidden path through the castle, that only he as a specialist knows, was crossing the fucking throne room on their tippy toes. Did they sneak back outside to meet Daemon the same way while leaving a bloody trail behind them? Are the writers actually insane? Who gave that shit the green light? Why does the door to Aemond’s room open by a lever? Is he Batman? Where the actual fuck was literally everyone? The guards? The servants? The ladies of honour? How was the fucking queen all alone?

And lastly, speaking of the queen… Oh my God. This was the most anticlimactic scene in the whole episode. I nearly fell asleep. I don’t know what’s Helaena’s deal, like is she neurodivergent? Is she just not fazed by anything because she has already seen everything play out in her head before it actually happens? It’s never explained and it makes it so infuriating that she looks just… concerned. Not traumatized or shocked, just perplexed and worried, lol. She pointed to her son faster than lightning. Did she just want all of it end as fast as possible? No idea. All the tragedy of the situation was removed. Luc’s death was much more impactful and shook the audience. This seemed so underwhelming and stale. And then Helaena quietly goes to her mother’s room, walks past her riding Criston like this happens to her every Tuesday, sits down, refers to her own son as “the boy”, and looks slightly distraught. Dian Doesn’t even shed a single tear. Nothing like the mourning woman gone mad by grief we saw in the trailer, though maybe we just have to wait I suppose. Like, lol okay. This was not giving like y’all promised it would. The only grotesque thing about it was listening to them sawing Jaehaerys’ head off.

The episode felt rushed as fuck and has severely reduced my interest in hating or loving any of the characters. There’d better be some top notch acting next Sunday or I’m dropping the show.

All opinions are welcome, just please be civil to one another!

[thedeviltohisangel]

All The Things I Did (Interlude): Wave Goodbye to the End of the Beginning

a/n: ahhhh it is here! i am so freaking excited to do this little band of brothers crossover with cass. we have all been dreaming of what her friendship with nix would look like and i am happy to report that it is phenomenal. this is most certainly not the last we will see of him because i know for a fact that a night of him and john drinking together can only end in debauchery and we should all be able to experience that for ourselves. side note...what other characters should we explore? part of me wants to write a full cass x ron speirs BoB au? not sure. let me know and i love youuuuuuu

The room was more full of soldiers than she had been used to recently. Thorpe Abotts had been shrinking, slowly but surely, with each and every mission. The hole in her heart growing and growing before it tore to shreds with the loss of her husband. All her days were spent working on ways to get him back. To leverage her capability to get to the camp as a way to get him out of the camp. A man like John was not built to be caged and she would be damned if she let it go on any longer than it already had. 

“Jesus Christ, it had to be you?” Cass smiled as she turned away from the pot of burnt coffee and took in the sight of the one and only Lewis Nixon. 

“I’m just getting a cup of coffee, Nix. Not sure what Jesus has to do with it.” She put the cup down just in time for his hug, the smell of an old friend comforting her in a way she hadn’t known since London.

“Of all the intelligence officers in the entire Army Air Force…it’s good to see you, Coop.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, he noticed, and she pulled him back in for another hug. This one tighter and almost sadder. Like she was asking him to confirm she was here and she was okay. “We got a lot to catch up on?” Lew could almost tell by the way she was carrying herself that she had experienced the gamut of war over in England. Had already learned what it was like on the frontlines before he had even suited up to jump and join in. 

“More than a lot.” She looked over to the maps that were covered in canvas until the briefing was set to begin. “But I think we’ve got an invasion of the European mainland to learn about first,” she muttered.

“Didn’t ever think we’d see the day.” Nixon drank from a flask and Cass smirked.

“The boys need this. Hope that it will end soon.” Lew noticed the way she was playing with her necklace, it looked like a ring, and had a hauntingly far away look in her eyes with her words. 

“You got someone to bunk with?” He led her towards two empty chairs in the back of the room and sat next to her, arm slung casually over the back of her chair. 

“If I say no, does that mean you are going to offer your company?” Having already known how this was going to go, Cass had a few bottles of Vat 69 in her suitcase. Nix may have been surprised to see her but she had done her research.

“Because we didn’t have a blast in DC a few summers ago? Don’t you remember how hard you laughed while swimming in the reflecting pool? You even let me hold you while we watched the sunrise.” Lewis Nixon had first met Cassandra Cooper at a seminar in Washington, DC for all recent intelligence course graduates. It had served the purpose to prepare them for their transition to the life of espionage before they shipped out. One last weekend of an air of normalcy before everything changed forever. 

“That is the perfect reason as to why I would be apprehensive about sharing a hotel suite with you this weekend, Nix! I can’t afford to get into any more trouble than I’m already in.” The lights dimmed and he had to swallow his question. 

“What kind of trouble?” he whispered. “Can’t be that bad if you’re a Captain now.” Cass looked at him out of the corner of her eye. 

“I’ll tell you when you buy me a nice dinner tonight.” 

“Now we’re making bargains?” Someone coughed a few rows behind them. 

“I’m getting soup and salad and dessert.” Partially, they had bonded over the family legacies that they had run from but knew were still waiting for them at home. For that reason they both knew they could afford whatever kind of luxurious night on the town that they could find.

“You’ll tell me everything that has happened since we last spoke? Not a single detail spared?”

“Just ask if I got laid in England, Nix, it’d be easier.” He laughed out loud and the entire room shushed them. Cass snuggled deeper into her seat with a smirk as the canvas in front of them was finally illuminated and an officer stepped out to brief them. 

“Ladies and gentleman, the ground invasion of Europe is here.” Everyone cheered but Cass wanted to cry. Why couldn’t it have come sooner? Why couldn’t it have come sooner to prevent the need for John to go on that last mission? The map revealed landing points along the coast of Normandy, France. She was already calculating how long it might take them to reach Germany. How long it might take them to reach the POW camps. Every calculation came back that it wasn’t soon enough. That she would have to do this herself if there was any hope of saving John. And she would need to move quickly. The minute American soldiers landed on the shores of Normandy, the SS would take control of the camps.

“Well? You impressed?” Nix asked as he held the door open for her, leading her out onto the streets of the English countryside. 

“Sure. Quite the orchestral undertaking.”

“Dinner?” he asked as he offered her his arm.

“Yes. Dinner.”

----

True to their bargain, Cass spared no expense when ordering. In turn she had answered all of his questions as best he could. What had happened to that fiance that she ran from? Had she gotten to fly in a B-17? Was she really the girl on that mission to Berlin? He stayed away from the ring on her neck. From the circumstances of her promotion and relocation. The last name on the registration paper that wasn't Cooper. 

“Tell me, Coop. What’s it like being in Moscow? Soviets planning to take us out with the Krauts?” She dabbed at her mouth politely as she chewed her bite of steak. 

“It’s busy. They have me doing a lot of internal things. Not a lot of mainland travel but I’m trying to get back there.” Soon.

“You really are fascinating, Coop. Southern belle from so much money it could make the angels weep. Gives it all up to become a spook. Lands in Berlin before the paratroopers and gets a cushy yet high profile gig in Moscow and wants to scoff at it because she prefers the mud.” He made her sound better than she deserved. Her family money wouldn’t get John back. She had to fall back on her intangibles. The skills that she had always had, before OSS school, and that they had just taught her to weaponize. Once this conference was all over she would have the time to practice with them and sharpen them and get ready to wield them at the gates of the Stalag. 

“You want to ask about the ring,” she remarked as her eyes stayed glued to her mashed potatoes. 

“I’m curious. But it’s not on your finger, leads me to believe the man on the other side of it isn’t with you anymore. Yet you have it on a chain around your neck which means you parted amicably, still in love even. There are only two ways that happens. And neither of them are good dinner table conversation.” Cass had to admit she was impressed. His logic and skills of deduction were impressive especially when you considered the sheer amount of whiskey he had consumed since she bumped into him at the coffee table alone. 

“And you told me you learned nothing while you were in Maryland,” she teased as she stabbed a green bean with her fork and pointed it in his direction. “He’s not dead. I’ll take that thought right of your head.” If anyone thought about it then that would give it life. Allow it to fester like an unattended wound. Cass would allow no such thing to happen.

“So the worse option then. Captured.” It was oddly comforting for him to acknowledge that it was the worse option. An odd sense of validation from an old friend blooming in her chest. 

“Yeah. But like you said. Not dinner table talk.” He nodded in agreement and was back to tucking into his dinner. “I don’t have a roommate. But I do have a few bottles of Vat 69.” Life was breathed back into Lewis Nixon in an instant. 

“God, I fucking love you.” They continued to laugh around dinner and she forced her stomach to compensate for the chocolate cake but then guilt started creeping in. Guilt that she was enjoying this time and living this life and it wasn’t with John. They should have been able to live these joyous moments together. “Ready?” Nix was standing and grabbing her blazer from the coat hook.

“Lew, if the tab is too much, just say so. No need for us to dine and dash.” 

“Handed them cash on the way in. It’s taken care of, Coop.” Her cheeks heated as he helped her arms into the jacket. “Someone’s gotta take care of you while the other half of that ring is out of commission.” His arm was around her shoulder and he pulled her in close. 

“He is very protective and very jealous. I’d be careful if I were you,” she cautioned as they walked towards the hotel in sync. 

“Tell me about Mr. Cassandra Cooper.” Cass tugged the hand that was resting on her shoulder tighter around her.

“He’s a pilot from Wisconsin. Joined before Pearl.” Lew hummed in acknowledgement. “Has a mustache,” she added with a smile. 

“Always saw you ending up with a mustached man.” She laughed, working her way through the hotel lobby and towards the elevator. “Sit tight. My bags are with the desk.” While waiting, her hand unconsciously drifted to grab the ring around her neck. If she focused long enough, she would almost feel it burning her palm. On particularly lonely nights she would run it down her cheeks and feel wisps of his fingers. Press it to her lips and feel the way he would whisper how much he loved her. It was exhausting to be without her other half. The piece of him that resided inside of her trying to reach him. Stretching herself thin and wearing down to the bone with the effort it took. 

“How’s Kathy?” she asked when Lew got back. 

“Fine,” he shrugged, “we fight over the dog a lot.” 

“The dog?”

“Why? You and Mr. Mustache a picture of peace and tranquility?” His arm held the elevator doors open as she stepped inside and pressed the button that said eight. 

“Major Mustache to you, Lieutenant.” Pulling her own rank on him would feel ridiculous. “And our play fighting and bantering is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Or…got me out of bed in the morning.” Now the only thing that fueled her was her plot for revenge. She was half tempted to throw a lit match into the camp and see how far that got her. 

“Major. Your mother won’t be upset he isn’t a Colonel? General, even.” Harding flashed across her eyes quickly. 

“She’ll be upset he isn’t a politician or a banker or a lawyer or some other traditionally pleasant profession. And she’ll be even further incensed when she learns I got married in London without her permission.” Just past the open doors, her shoes were kicked off angrily as she stalked towards the crate in the corner. “Bottle or glass?” Nix weighed his options.

“Bottle.” The one in her left hand went to him and the other went to her mouth. “It’s that kind of night?” 

“That kind of year.”

----

They lost track of time as they finished their bottles and decided to share another one. They were on the floor, pillows under their heads as they looked up at the peeling paint of the ceiling. 

“When this is all over, I need to meet this Major of yours. We can meet in Chicago or New York or bumfuck middle of nowhere. We can get drunk just like this and be fucking happy.” Cass smiled and laughed as he fumbled to try and light his cigarette.

“John will love that. We’ll still be married but you and Kathy…” Nix groaned.

“Kathy.” He handed it to her once he finally managed to capture it in the flame. “Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder, Coop.” 

“I don’t like being away from him. I don’t feel like myself when he isn’t with me.” She absent-mindedly played with the ring that was resting against her chest. “I was so close to getting him out of there. He was in my arms…I just couldn’t get him on the damn horse. I wasn’t strong enough to get him out and now they have him caged.” A tear snuck out of the corner of her eye and she wiped it away harshly. 

“Cass,” Nix set the bottle to the side and opened his arms up to her, “your love is going to survive this. Whatever version of you makes it out of here and whatever version of him makes it out of there are going to be so fucking in love I am going to be sick.” She snuggled deeper into his chest. 

“Do you think they’ll fire me if I get myself thrown in a POW camp on purpose?” He’d warn her against it if he thought it would make a difference. 

“Well, walk me through the tradecraft. Do it right, they’ll never know.” When she sat up, she looked more alive than she had in awhile. 

“One of the guards has a very sick mother…”

The rest of the night was spent with her walking him through her plan. The network she had built to get her to the edge of the camp in the first place, the vulnerabilities she had found within the ranks of the guards to get her husband brought to her when required and the web she was weaving to get past the fence and into the barracks. He challenged the motivations of the guards. Challenged the security of her assets along the path. Offered her perspectives on a cover story and made sure she was emphatically aware of the danger she was taking on by enacting this plan. 

“I can’t think of anyone more qualified in recklessness to take this on, Captain,” he said as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. “He’s one lucky fucking bastard to have a girl willing to do this for him.”

“I’m the lucky one. He’s given me a home. Something to look forward to and a place to feel safe while doing it.” She laughed with no humor behind it. “That future…he’s the only one I want it with. Any other version and it isn’t worth it.” He heard the meaning behind her words. If this was her last mission, she would be going out exactly the way she wanted to. Cass was not meant to live without John. And she didn’t plan on doing so either. 

“As if I needed another reason to want Hitler dead. Now I have to add your love story to the list.” Nix rolled his eyes but there was nothing but love in them. 

“Oh, have you heard the tale of Princess Spook?” 

“Does she have a dashing advisor named Sir Nix?” 

“Not yet but she can.” 

Saying goodbye to him hurt in a way she couldn’t describe. The time spent with him shielding her from the pain and suffering that her reality had to offer her. It had felt good to talk to someone about John and not have to comfort them. Not have to recognize their pain in losing him as well. To share her thoughts and have him listen and provide solutions and not try to dissuade her from the path she was on. It was the first time she had been able to let her guard down in a long while. It would be her last chance to do so for many months.

Cass waved goodbye from the door of her train until it pulled away and Nixon was a speck on the horizon. She stayed there and looked in the same direction until the wind whipped too cold. And as she did everytime the breeze kissed her cheeks, she imagined it was John. And she kissed her fingertips and held them to the wind with a message in the hopes it would return her sentiments in kind.

I love you, John.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

[diavolos-world]

More of my Obey Me Opinions 🤣 just because I want to share my feelings with you guys

- I would die for Diavolo's VA

- A lot of people think Barbatos is hot. I agree

- I'm indifferent to Luke and Thirteen but I don't think there are any 'bad' characters. There's something for everyone to enjoy

- Diavolo's the best Obey Me Character any way

- I'm too shy to self-ship but if I did, I'd ship myself with Levi or Mammon. Levi because I think he's adorable and we share interests. Mammon because he's super sweet and attentive.

- Why do I go with OCs instead of one self-insert? Too shy to self-insert and I tried one MC. Didn't work because I hated any of my favorite characters ending up alone. So I'm coming up with an MC team 🤣

- I hate Diavolo's father and how he apparently was Mother Gothel towards Dia before he bounced out and went to sleep

- I love how colorful and sparkly everything is in Nightbringer. Makes everything feel special

- I love how I'm about to spend ACTUAL MONEY on DP so I can get Dia's shower card because who doesn't want what will be the greatest card in the game series

[his-tamine]

SPIDER'S ATTEMPTING HIS VERY FIRST COMMS!!!! RAAAA!!!!! (I’m legit sooo fucking nervous - everyone point & laugh /lh)

Info below ↓ (looks like way more than it is)

- As I said, this is my first time doing commissions, so thank you in advance for your patience with me. Contact me via email (coyotespicer@gmail.com), Tumblr DMs, or Discord (eldritchwhore_) - whichever you’re most comfy with - if you’re interested! I'm also open to using other social media(s) you prefer, just let me know what. :]

I WILL draw:

NSFW (only of 18+ characters)

SFW (characters of all ages)

Fan art

Gore/Injury

Ship Art

etc. (just lmk)

I WON'T draw:

The obvious (anything hateful or illegal)

Furry (genuine skill issue on my part)

Mecha (again: skill issue)

Realism

ETC.

you can always request to see my progress, but I will show you when I am halfway finished, either way, incase you want to make any changes.

$ up front - it won't be spent until after completion.

Payments via Paypal, Cash App, or Venmo.

-

MORE INFORMATION:

If you do decide to commission me, first of all, thank you sooo much in advance! And Please keep in mind, that there is a vanilla family member currently holding and running all of the financial service apps (Paypal, Venmo, Cash App.) They do know that I draw adult content, but they do not know the specifics of what kinds of adult content (& I'd love to keep it that way lol.) So if you do decide to leave a note with your payment, please, please, PLEASE, make sure that the note is appropriate, otherwise blank is also completely fine. Have mercy on my soul, basically. If you are getting some NSFW artwork and wanna talk specifics, please do so with the email provided above (& again right here: coyotespicer@gmail.com), Tumblr DMs, Discord, etc. so that you know you are talking to me.

Also, if you contact me & don't get a response right away, my timezone is EST (I could be asleep,) and my life's been a little stressful lately to say the least. But I promise that I will get back to you ASAP. Furthermore, if there are any delays during the process of actually making your commission, I will immediately reach out to you and keep you in the loop. - major shoutouts to my homies, @indulgnc - for helping me figure everything out. He helped me with the base sheet, some common art terms that I somehow didn't know the meanings of, coming up with good prices, & basically walked me through the entire process. I would’ve been way too clueless and way too chicken shit to even attempt this without him.

and @dsnzfb - for allowing me to use a drawing I made of her ocs Cactus & Rose, as one of the examples above. I needed a good example of a colored bust-up, & dye’s color palette for her characters is so gorgeous. thank you guys for always being so supportive - y'all rock. I don't know if I can actually do anything to help dig myself & my family out of the hole we’re in with ocs, & kink art, but goddamn it, I will certainly try. -