#so you really shouldn’t compare them to any of the others lmao but it is a noticeable difference in circumference lol

[akkivee]

nobody has ever understood what you were giving but it’s okay i understand you ew02 ramunui

[kopilot-pop]

[Tired] pt.1

- Le Sserafim x 6thMember!Reader

Summary: After a harsh criticism from one of your teachers, you started to fall into a bad habit again. You started staying overnight at the company, your knees are always bruised, and you probably shouldn’t have 3 cans of Redbull everyday… Thankfully, your bandmates have easily recognized your behaviors and decided to put it to an end.

Warnings: overworking, self-hate, etc.

a/n: I think I’m a bit too obsessed with hurtfics lmao. I mostly wrote this as just a platonic relationship fyi.

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

Nauseous.

That’s how you feel right now.

Sitting in front of you is the dance teacher, with her legs crossed and tapping her clipboard. This wasn't the first time, actually, this is the third time you were put in this situation this week.

You’re the main dancer of the group, so the teacher always put extra pressure on you compared to the other girls, but today she seemed extra fed-up with you.

Thus, here you were, dragged out to an old practice room in the middle of a session with your whole group.

“That’s it?” She sighed.

“That’s all you can do? Really? Did you even notice all the mistakes you’ve made? Listen, Y/n-”

There’s not much you can do. You’re well aware of the steps you missed and you’re also well aware of how talented the woman sitting in front of you is, too. That doesn’t change the fact that every word that comes out of her mouth feels like a stab wound.

“I don’t care how talented you think you are-“

‘I don’t think I’m talented.’

“Did you even practice at all? This is a special stage L/n Y/n-"

‘You watched me practice every day.’

“Are you trying to be an embarrassment on live tv?”

‘I’m trying my best not to.’

“Main dancer my ass, a trainee could do better than you-”

‘You just came back from yelling at them…’

“Are you not even embarrassed to stand next to your group? I mean, if I’m being honest here Kazuha-”

‘Ah, there it is.’

If there was anything this teacher was know for, it’s the constant comparing and belittling between teammates. You thought you might have gotten used to it by now, but that hit your throat.

You don’t have anything against your teammates - goddamit, you’d risk your life in a second for any of them. But, whenever she decided to use the girls to bring you down, it hurt just a little more than usual.

After several minutes of the teacher’s lecture, you were finally let go.

When you entered the practice room the girls were starting to pack up. You checked the clock and realised that it's almost midnight. Eunchae is curled up against the wall, wearing your jacket, while Sakura is trying her best to wake her up. Your leader noticed you immediately and walked up to you in worry.

"Hey Y/n, everything okay?"

"...Yeah. It's nothing."

Her deep frown made you sick to the stomach. You don't want her to worry- you don't want any of the members to worry. This is something you can deal with yourself, right? If you get better everything will be perfect. Just perfect.

"I was thinking of staying a bit more. Y'know, the teacher had me held up for quite while." You let out a tired chuckle.

Chaewon didn't like the idea at all and you could tell.

"I... fine. Just make sure you to keep contact, okay?"

"Of course."

"Huh- is Y/n not coming with us??" Yunjin with her tired body dragged herself towards the two of you. She gives you a tired hug and leaves for the car.

"Don't take too long Y/n." Sakura gives you a worried smile after helping Kazuha carry a sleepy Eunchae on her back.

"Yeah, I promise."

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

You're an amazing liar.

That's what Chaewon realized while staring at the sun slowly coming up from the skyline.

As the leader, she stayed up late waiting for you to come home. A worried Yunjin insisted on waiting with her, but unfortunately she fell asleep after a bit on the couch.

Chaewon called you 50 times and messaged you a 100 times, but you haven't responded to a single one of them. She was pissed off at first, but that anger slowly dissolved into worry- all sorts of concerns popping up in her head.

'What if you passed out? What if you got hurt while practicing? You sprained your ankle in the past, what if the same thing happened again? Oh, what if your trainee habits are happening again? What if-'

Her train of thoughts stopped when she heard the door lock beep. She practically sped to the front door.

You sent her a nervous look, frozen while trying to take of your shoes.

"..."

"..."

"Hey unnie.."

"Do you know what time it is?"

Chaewon folded her arms and glared you down. She started her usual lecture. How worried she was, how disappointed, and how absolutely furious she is because of you ignoring all her efforts to contact you. She was absolutely furious.

"Didn't Kkura unnie tell you to not take long? Didn't I tell you to answer my calls?? It's 7 in the morning Y/n! You're telling me you were in the practice room for, what- 6 hours?! Do you realize how dangerous-!"

"YES! Yes, I know! And I'm sorry. Just... please... can we talk about this later?"

Chaewon looked at the bags under your eyes and let out a sigh.

"..Fine... Go get some rest.... This isn't over."

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

A/N: I know this isn't the best place to cut, but like... I'm extremely tired. So sorry. I'll come back with a second part soon. Love y'all <3

[arcadekitten]

Hello Arcadekitten!!! I read the Stellamb wedding post(s) and it got me wondering about how Stella’s wedding dress would look like… I absolutely love Sweet No Death, so I knew I had to make some artwork of it!! And, because I absolutely suck at explaining things through text, here is my interpretation of Stella’s wedding outfit in traditional art! ✨💫🌟

Materials Used: Mixed Media Paper, Ink Fineliner Pens, Alcohol Markers Gel Pens, Paint Pens, Highlighter and Mechanical Pencil

Time Took: 1 week

I don’t know if you’re okay with people sending fanarts and stuff to you, but I absolutely love your work and well, I’m quite proud of this piece (even if I probably shouldn’t be lol) as I worked extremely hard on this and wanted to share it with you! I hope that’s okay ❤️

A little artist “#Deep Dive tm” because I put WAY too much effort into the tiniest details and I am NOT gonna let them get overlooked 😤 /jk

-Stella’s dress is made with her signature colors rather than white, because I felt that with her being a Star Witch and all, a species that mostly has extravagantly colorful clothes (in my humble opinion) she felt that just going with plain white on what is possibly the most important day of her life would feel… well, a bit redundant, so she opted for a more ‘colored’ ballgown, with lacy gloves and a pearled veil and all. The local tailor and dressmaker is a bit confused, but Lambchop is definitely not complaining! ;) 💕💓

-(Well, that, and I also felt that the color blended WAY too much with her skin tone and changed it, but that’s my little secret hehe 👀😉)

-In my mind, Stella can make her hair look like it has a small galaxy within it! With actual moving stars and little twinkling lights. ✨💫✨⭐️🌟I think that she usually saves it for special, grandiose occasions, buuut since she’s not the kind of person who would THROW a grand, special occasion, she never unveiled it before her wedding day! (Poor Lambchop’s heart nearly gave out on the spot right then and there! 😭❤️)

-I didn’t add her usual Star hair clip because she already has like… 10 stars in her design already lmao /lh ⭐️

-As you can see, her bouquet’s… cloth? Fabric? I’m not sure what to call it… thing? The stuff that her flowers are wrapped in are Lambchop’s colors! Thought that it would be a neat visual detail… also, I can totally imagine Stella requesting that specific color scheme from the local florist! 💐🌷🌸

-Speaking of flowers… I decided to color in one of the moon daisies a little bit… differently hehe ;) It’s a small reference to the beginning of the game, where we see Stella change the color of the one rebellious moon daisy, from orange to lavender, except this time… she keeps it and uses it in her bouquet! 💖💗

-I like to think that it symbolizes Lambchop versus the rest of the townspeople… and Stella’s way of acknowledging him as a “real person”, at least compared to the others… one who is different, one who is unique… the one that she’s going to marry 💍🩷

-(it’s so absolutely sappy when she tells him so that he just couldn’t resist kissing her right then and there)

-And finally… (this is the last one I promise) I cut out the entire drawing to make it look like a potion bottle, partially because Stella is a witch, and partially because I had this cute lil idea that she stores all of her happiest memories into a magical bottle and takes it out whenever she feels sad, so that she can ‘experience’ it again and feel happier. Of course, with Lambchop by her side, she never really has to use it!💞🩷💗

-And yes, I also made the bottle have Lambchop colors as well 🐏 Just a nice little thing tying em together more visually… ❤️

…And I am SO SORRY for ranting!!! I worked incredibly hard on this piece (traditional art is NOT my strong suit, lol) but I wanted to make something special for one of my favorite games and one of my favorite game devs! So here it is, and I hope that you like it! 🤞❤️😁

(P.S: Any ideas for Lambchop’s wedding design?)

Oh my goodness this is BEAUTIFUL!! The artwork itself is just stunning!! You took so much time on it and it really shows, especially with all your attention to detail in it(and I LOVE hearing your explanations for some of the choices you made!! They're just so darling!) Everything about this is stellar and I'm in love with it, thank you so much!! ♡ ♡ ♡

Also I TOTALLY AGREE Stella would not wear white for her wedding!! Color all the way!! ♡

As for Lambchop's outfit...I think I've got it envisioned in my head but I haven't quite drawn anything for it yet! Top hat, definitely. I think his suit isn't black. Probably brown! Bowtie on the neck. His pants are more like shorts and are cut juuuuust above the knee! Still wearing long socks with garters. He looks incredibly dapper--as he should!! It's his wedding!

Hopefully he at least looks good for the photos before he decides to get any mysterious red stains on his outfit. (It's fine. Stella could clean them with the snap of her fingers, but still!)

[kageyuji]

Hii! This is my first time trying this, but do you have any advice for starting and building a writing blog?

I've been wanting to start one for a while but I'm not sure how to gain followers and stuff.

hi!! no worries :D and tbh.. i’m not exactly sure LMAO despite it seeming like i have my shit together i Do Not. but!! i can give you some general things/ideas:

write for yourself. write what makes you happy and what you genuinely want to write. despite how much of a people-pleaser i am, it’s also really important to remember that this is a hobby and if you write things you don’t really want to write, it’s going to show through your work but it’s also going to burn you out quickly.

(that said, if you are writing for x reader content make sure your reader is ambiguous. having a character be a 5’4 brunette with a knack for baking is cool sometimes, but it’s also a very slim audience and it’s going to throw some people off)

similarly, don’t compare yourself to other creators and don’t compare yourself to.. yourself. if you have something that does really good, and then you post the next week and it does shit, that’s okay! sometimes tumblr algorithm is just shit. sometimes certain characters are more of a fan favorite. but, also remember that people who have already built a large following are going to have more notes. just don’t get discouraged easily — every fic is something entirely new and it shouldn’t be weighed off of someone else or an entirely different work.

make a masterlist, and make it organized. if you write for a lot of characters and use different posting types this can get really confusing, but look around at other places or play around with it until you find something that you think feels right.

watch your blog activity (once you start posting, anyway). i believe mobile doesn’t have it, but on desktop (or just login to tumblr from your phones browser app lol) there is a little icon that will show interactions with your posts/blog and you can ask it to show the chart based on time of day, weekly basis, etc. post accordingly to that, and hopefully your posts will gain a little more traction :)

aesthetic is (unfortunately) pretty important in my opinion. of course, if you have the most well written thing i’ve seen i’m going to ignore the kinks but i’m also going to be a lot more likely to read things that are organized well. this is mostly about fics to catch someone’s eye, although this bleeds into your actual blog as well.

(pinterest has lots of cool stuff for aesthetics. twitter layout blogs also usually have a lot of good headers. if you want dividers, you can search the “dividers” tag on tumblr or there’s loads of mobile apps to get the thin color strip dividers like i use.)

similarly, try to make your pinned/navi organized and easy to follow. in my personal opinion, i like adding things like rules/dni, tag guides, and especially masterlists linked somewhere in the post. although, again, it’s up to personal opinion on what exactly you want to link there. as long as it’s organized and somewhat simple, you’re good.

as far as a masterlist and rules go, i would recommend laying out certain things beforehand, like what characters you’re going to write for and hard “no”s. as much as i love people on tumblr, sometimes they just cannot read — it helped me a lot whenever i was new to tell myself “hey, i don’t have to do that. it says that right here and it’s not my fault that they didn’t see that!”

(i also added a little rule that said “if you actually read this, add a ‘<3’ in your asks so i know” LOL it helped me filter requests between who actually cared to read my rules and who didn’t)

add tags to your fics. add so many tags. add many more tags than you think you probably need. add so many tags that you get sick of them — that’s how people are going to find you.

try to keep anonymous asks on, that’s where a lot of interaction comes from. ik people can be dicks sometimes but there’s also a lot of shy people on tumblr. probably 90% of my asks are from anons and i use anon 90% of the time whenever i send asks (especially to my moots bc they’re scary :[ lol)

just generally be nice to people. you don’t have to go out of your way to send love letters to everyone on your feed, but i’ve found that just leaving a little “i hope you enjoy reading this” or something similar as a little note helps my mental for some reason, but it also (hopefully) makes me seem a little less intimidating

[cham-chammity]

I’m..very confused about Viv’s tweet, not gonna lie. Perhaps because I’ve never really been interested in Striker’s character before the current drama caught my attention so I might have missed something?

First off..how is Striker bigoted? Did I miss something? Admittedly, it’s been a very long time since I watched the first episode he was featured in. Is it because he hates Stolas and the ruling class or whatever? Because if that’s the reason, that’d be..incredibly shitty lmao. There’s this trend of white people exploring oppression in their shows where they try to ‘define’ the valid ways for oppressed minorities to react to their oppression - and if they stray even slightly and their reaction to said oppression deviates from the ‘acceptable’ ways defined by the white creators, then they are defined as “bigoted” “reverse racists” “just as bad as their oppressors” etc. And usually the “accepted” is for the minority to either want to prove themselves to their oppressor, showing that “not all minorities are bad!” and they are “just as capable” OR be willing and enthusiastic to create bonds, relationships and friendships with the oppressor class with little to no hesitance. Now, if they are actually angry about their situation, wrathful, if they show any intense rage, or are got forbid vengeful about the way they have been treated, they are labelled as “just as bigoted”, “just as ignorant”, “just as evil” and so on which is just..extremely ignorant. Neither is good but they are not equal and not comparable because the situations are inherently different - lashing out in anger or rage at everyone from the oppressor class because of the way you and everyone around y has been mistreated, abused and stolen from is different from oppressing a class of people because you perceive them as less deserving, or as subhuman who deserve little to no rights and respect. One of those things is reactionary. Pretending that they are the same or equally as bad erases all societal context around the issues but white authors LOVE pretending that they are the absolutely same thing, just in opposite directions from one other. Thing is, wanting to prove yourself is not the only valid way to react to oppression. Minorities and oppressed individuals do not owe it to anyone. They shouldn’t have to “prove” themselves to their oppressors, they shouldn’t have to “prove” that they are worthy of rights and respect and the like - because that’s something they are inherently entitled to but was STOLEN from them. In that context, experiencing rage and even hatred is in no way shape or form morally bankrupt or “bigoted”. Minorities and oppressed individuals are allowed to experience rage for being mistreated & the idea that they have to go out of their way to prove how worthy and “deserving” they are is extremely harmful because again, they simply have NOTHING to prove. And how is Blitz a champion of the working class? He is very opportunistic and simply wants a good living for himself, doesn’t seem to be overly concerned with imp oppression or whatever? And doesn’t seem to be doing what he is doing with the idea of “I’m going to show them that we, as a class, are just as capable and worthy of respect!”. He is just. Doing his own thing. Which is valid, ofc, not every oppressed person needs to be a “hero” or a “champion” for their class.

I’m also confused about the toxic masculinity aspect. Is it because Striker exhibits stereotypically more masculine traits? Because being masculine doesn’t necessarily mean that you have toxic masculinity. Or is it perhaps because of his beef with Moxxie? Because being competitive and looking down on someone you see as less capable than you, though shitty, is not necessarily indicative of toxic masculinity either. Toxic masculinity cannot exist without misogyny and hatred for the feminine and I don’t recall Striker being misogynistic? Or at least not any more misogynistic than Blitz who, in the new episode alone, referred to the lady in the vet office as “tiddy haver” as an insult which absolutely can be read as misogynistic. And I won’t even start at how misogynistic the writing has been when it comes to any episode concerning Verosika & how the episode could be basically summarised as Blitzo’s character being written to make every single misogynistic joke at her expensive. I mean, “I could smell fish for miles”? “Pussy wagon”? Be for real now. And I know that Viv’s intentions probably weren’t to write Blitzo’s character as misogynistic and that the show is supposed to be over the top but it’s weird to try to hold it against another character, when your main character’s shtick is making Family Guy-esque jokes at almost any female/female presenting character on screen. Idk, maybe I should rewatch Striker’s first appearance, perhaps there is something I’m missing.

And the homophobic allegations are super strange to me too cuz like. He didn’t seem to have a problem when Blitzo low-key flirted with him in the first episode, from what I recall? Their fight kinda had a lot of tension and lowkey homoerotic vibes and Striker didn't seem to mind lmao. And like, reacting with disgust when someone you are not attracted to starts describing detailed sexual acts or saying "choke me", is..a pretty regular reaction. Like, Stolas going in detail about how Blitzo fucks him sometimes makes me uncomfortable because of how explicit the descriptions are lmao. And Striker's reactions weren't even that extreme, I feel? idk, man, the whole thing is super weird.

am i missing something or is the writing a bit weird?

Sorry for the late response Anon, your ask was long! But that's okay!

First off..how is Striker bigoted? Did I miss something?

No, you didn't miss a thing. I am just as confused about the tweet as you are. Striker did absolutely nothing bigoted. From what I have gathered, Vivzie is trying to make Striker seem like a "big bad villain" that everyone hates to save the little ship she has going on between Blitzo and Stolas. And so, calling him "bigoted" creates the idea that he is a morally or just overall "bad" character (when he's really not). As far as your note on creators trying to represent oppressed minorities, hell--I don't even know. I think, as I said before, Viv is kinda grasping at straws to try and make Striker an all-round hated character.

Now, if they are actually angry about their situation, wrathful, if they show any intense rage, or are got forbid vengeful about the way they have been treated, they are labelled as “just as bigoted”, “just as ignorant”, “just as evil” and so on which is just..extremely ignorant.

Minorities and oppressed individuals are allowed to experience rage for being mistreated & the idea that they have to go out of their way to prove how worthy and “deserving” they are is extremely harmful because again, they simply have NOTHING to prove.

There is absolutely nothing bigoted about hating the upper rich class when you have trauma or beef with that group of people, especially as the oppressed, as Striker is obviously faced with in this episode. Striker clearly shows anger and overall being upset at Stolas, because he resembles and reminds him of a person in his past that caused a very deep scar. This part of him saying "you don't get to talk over me" is paired with the B plot when Blitzo is shown fighting that other demon while waiting for Loona's shot. the point of those two scenes being juxtaposed (or contrasted, in other words,) together is to show that imps/demons like Blitzo and Striker face racism/classism-- specifically classism--as the female imp in sloth mentions Blitzo being "jobless" (or something like that I can't remember). Because of this, the messaged I gathered is that both Blitzo and Striker were standing up for themselves against that classism they were both facing simultaneously (at least, that is how Striker interpreted it when Stolas commented on his cave). Which brings me to the point of--yes, Striker jumped to conclusions on what Stolas was saying, but Striker's reaction makes sense. He is not being ignorant or bigoted. He is expressing anger against Stolas and his upper class because he wants to feel heard, he wants Stolas to see what it is like for hellborn like him, finally has a chance to talk and have the upper hand. While yes, Striker's reaction might have been a bit ignorant, it doesn't make him ignorant--or bigoted, at least as a character overall, since he did jump to conclusions on Stolas's comments. (which I do not think is enough evidence to call him a bigot).

And how is Blitz a champion of the working class? He is very opportunistic and simply wants a good living for himself, doesn’t seem to be overly concerned with imp oppression or whatever? And doesn’t seem to be doing what he is doing with the idea of “I’m going to show them that we, as a class, are just as capable and worthy of respect!”.

not every oppressed person needs to be a “hero” or a “champion” for their class.

Yes, these are very good points. The idea that Striker is going out of his way to prove himself doesn't change that he and Blitzo face the same struggles with classism. However, Striker's behavior is very personality-based. He's shown to have more of a fragile ego. That can go a lot into how Striker treated Stolas this episode--which plays into my disappointment of the inconsistency of his character. He gets angry too easily and seems to care a lot about being compared to others, whereas in the other episode, it seemed as though he would brush that kind of thing off easier. Part of overcoming classism is learning to not care about others' personal thoughts and opinions, and Striker seems way more obsessed with that than he should be, which kind of feeds in to his whole "hero" or "champion" mindset you mentioned he has of himself. I think part of this is a matter of Striker believing he will be the overall hero of the lower imp class, which leads me to this point:

Striker might be enraged of Blitz's success, being that Stolas is a big reason for that success, which further feeds into Striker's anger. Which makes sense, being that the oppressed class can't advance without the help of the rich, which gives Striker the idea that he is a hero (for Blitzo?) for the imps that have a hard time making a living.

I’m also confused about the toxic masculinity aspect. Is it because Striker exhibits stereotypically more masculine traits? Because being masculine doesn’t necessarily mean that you have toxic masculinity.

This one I literally have no idea how to dissect because there is absolutely no evidence, that I have gathered so far, of Striker being masculine in a toxic way. I think Viv was, again, grasping at straws when she said this, and I think the fact people (or even Viv) are assuming he is clouded by "toxic masculinity" because he has a lower voice and is stronger and appears more masculine is actually toxic masculinity in itself. (hmmmmm, so weird!!)

And I won’t even start at how misogynistic the writing has been when it comes to any episode concerning Verosika & how the episode could be basically summarised as Blitzo’s character being written to make every single misogynistic joke at her expensive.

Holy shit you are right. I didn't even notice that. Which even FURTHER adds to my point of Vivzie just trying to make Striker look bad so we don't hate on Blitzo and Stolas. One thing I have noticed about Viv, is she will only point out the bad in characters she wants us to hate, and only points out the good in characters she wants us to like. I feel a good storyteller/writer would give us points on any and all characters so we can decide as an audience what we think, based off of the writing AND their comments outside of the content istelf. What she puts in her shows v.s. her tweets are super inconsistent and does NOT align with the claim I made about good storytellers.

And the homophobic allegations are super strange to me too cuz like. He didn’t seem to have a problem when Blitzo low-key flirted with him in the first episode, from what I recall? Their fight kinda had a lot of tension and lowkey homoerotic vibes and Striker didn't seem to mind lmao.

I agree with you on this as well. I think people are just misinterpreting some stuff. Which, there is nothing wrong with that, I just think the reasons behind it don't make sense because as you said, the flirting in the first episode did not run by as weird or uncomfortable to Striker at all. I think he was just caught off guard because sex talk is the last thing you'd expect when trying to kill someone.

-----

In conclusion, I believe Striker is a hella complex character with lots of anger and unresolved trauma. I think he most definitely has flaws, but I refuse to listen to what Viv's idea of "flaw" is until she decides to finally come out and say that Stolas's character himself is bigoted towards the lower class and that Blitzo is very misogynistic towards women. ESPECIALLY Verosika. Cause holy shit that exchange in Spring Break was AWFUL. Thanks for pointing out cause my dumbass didn't think about that lol. (and don't even get me started on the flaw of Andrealphus).

-----

Anon, bro, you didn't miss anything. Vivzie is the one lacking here. Thanks for the ask! I had fun answering it. Shoot me another ask if I missed anything you want me to touch on.

(P.S. This goes to everyone--please don't spam me with "I am wrong and bad and being rude or overly critical" because oh my hell guys let me be critical. I would love to hear everyone's points and counterpoints and I want to be corrected if I am wrong on anything but please don't be rude or I will not answer you.)

[shinygoku]

Captain Scarlet Headcanons

A man stands in the gloom of an alleyway, lit up only by a yellow tinted spotlight. He’s tall, dark and handsome, and his striking red and black uniform give him quite the presence. The latest in the line of Anderson Heroes and the one tasked with enduring the most gruesome of settings and personal circumstance.

Also he’s gay and autistic, good for him!

Welcome to my Headcanons for Paul Metcalfe, aka Captain Scarlet.

I’m primarily drawing straight from the one true canon source; the 1967 Television Series, with some supplementary tidbits from the Haynes Manual and bonus material from my DVD set. I’m not counting from tie in novels, audio only stories, or comics, as they’re lower in the hierarchy and hard to come by, but if they’re any good then they shouldn’t contradict anything I have here ;D

This is a long post, so I’ll put the cut up here. Great to read when you’re sitting down with a nice drink and/or snack~

CANON INFO

Paul Metcalfe will be born in Winchester in 2036 and the series starts in 2068, making him 31 with change (as his DOB is in December and Ep 1 sure don’t look like Winter) when he’s killed and Mysteronised. That’s really quite sad, but of course, this is a series about a war…

With his December the 17th Birthday, he’s a Sagittarius. The prophecy aspect could allude to the occasionally remembered Mysteron Sense he has? Key traits mentioned include (Positive) Idealism and generosity, and (Negative) pronounced impatience and being shockingly blunt. These all fit nicely with our man in red here.

I ain’t sufficiently interested in Military crud to rehash it or try to put my own spin (I had to look up what a commission is in that context and I still only half get it!), same applies with Academic stuff, so for both them I’ll let the bio provided in the Haynes Manual cover it lmao

“Background: From a long-serving military family. Trained at West Point Military Academy. Following completion of degrees in technology, history and mathematical application at Winchester University joined World Army Air Force as private, rising rapidly to colonel through inspiring capacity to command and military professionalism. Having noted qualities of leadership, strategic thinking and dedication to duty, approached by Spectrum selection committee to become leading field agent. Commission accepted immediately.”

Yeah, the main characters of Anderson shows go real hard on the expansion pack pasts, I’m unsure how hilariously over the top it is compared to the 5 Tracy Boys but they weren’t shy about making the leads Cool and Experienced!

Also from the Haynes manual, instead of Personal Interests like most’a the other cast members, there’s a Special Note. It strikes me as a bit more cold and impersonal than what the Show has, and take it with a slight pinch of salt, but I’ve got it transcribed as written:

“After reconstruction by Mysterons following death in car crash and subsequent fall from tall structure, replica accepted as serving officer having completed extensive tests revealing capacity for retro-metabolism and loss of Mysteron influence.” 

Well anyway, that covers the Canon info, it’s limited but pretty interesting for what it’s worth. Below is another short bio, this one from my DVD set (the info presumably having been provided in Annuals prior).

HEADCANONS 

As ya can see in the Marital Status section, he’s Single. I shall make the bold statement too that he’s gay but possibly isn’t consciously aware of that …yet? He can see when a girl is pretty but he doesn’t React much to it, and none of the interactions he does have with ladies is romance coded. In fact, when Linda Nolan pretty strongly implies attraction he literally says: “Thank you. Let’s go, Adam!” –  I really think he didn’t Twig her intent and then he’s instantly getting Blue’s attention instead XD ~ But he does have stronger and more diverse interactions with other guys, especially Blue ;3

I think he’s autistic but good at masking – even before being Mysteronised his resting face is very unexpressive and his seemingly sincere bidding of good luck sounds quite flat. Other factors include the above mentioned focus on professionalism but deviating when his principles are challenged or things aren’t going to plan, plus how he spends free time in a quiet environment and mostly hanging out with Blue when given the chance. Also, again his canon Good At Academic angle. I expect he thrives fairly well in the pseudo military environment as it provides structure, routine and clear rules (Though he will disregard those when he’s being particularly spicy!).

Can be stubborn and impatient (noticeably uses a louder voice when re-asserting something), and isn’t the best at hiding his thoughts. Otherwise seems to have a stiff upper lip and good nerves. Slight hints of arrogance on occasion but strongly principled. He’s got a dry and sardonic sense of humour.

Mostly very professional but he’s not “on” all the time. Sitting at his Boss’ desk with his feet up on the desk as he Vibes is the oddest example, yet it doesn’t feel shockingly out of character. I’ve noticed he sits weird in many scenes too, sometimes his ankle rests on his knee, propping his feet way up on White’s desk, or sitting in a chair sideways (can file under gay / autistic traits / omg he just like me fr), and states in Spectrum Strikes Back that he enjoys the quietness of nature with less people around too (he’s SO real !!) Like when he needs to cool off in White as Snow it’s the little flower house on the Promenade Deck he picks to gaze out into the blue yonder.

I like the idea that Agent Blake from the Secret Service is his grandfather (Meta: the Captain Scarlet puppet was reused for the role), personally I see it working better as him being Paul Metcalfe’s Maternal Grandpa. As for the Paternal line, that’s where several generations of Military dudes comes from :T –  At least the Blake personality may explain where Scarlet got the history and maths nerd interests, Blake does have that bookish vibe rather than a strong presence.

Seeing how his Mysteron Sense manifests as Nausea, I think he gets motion sick more easily than a Pilot and Guy who drives Armoured Tank-Cars Backwards ought to… so he wears Pressure Bands to alleviate the sickness response (but the Mysteron Sense may bypass that, being psychic rather than motion based). I know it’s in part due to the puppets but he sure seems to prefer wearing high necked, long sleeved shirts, be it uniform of civvies (And well, 60’s fashion be like that too lol, maybe he’s a smidge Trendy!).

MYSTERONISATION & RETROMETABOLISM

Ok, so as one of the first to be Mysteronised, it feels like the Mysterons were themselves experimenting with how their duplicates were going to be. Black seems to be forcibly possessed with his personality overridden, and both Brown and Scarlet are killed in a car wreck fireball to be copied. 

While Brown was used to be a suicide bomb, Scarlet was used to try to take the President alive instead. Scarlet’s second death was from being shot in the chest and then falling maybe 10,000 feet (idk distances. It was REALLY really high!) to a presumably gory landing. However, after they get his remains back at base, they’re shocked to discover him showing signs of life again and his body reverts to his as-new form after the first Mysteron Reconstruction, but instead of being a pawn of the Mysterons, this time Scarlet is back to his original body’s personality, and that’s how he stays thereafter. I theorise that as he was an early draft, the Mysterons didn’t have the expectation that the healing factor they installed would be that potent, nor did they put in a way to Keep their programming after said death. That, or they did want to have a worthy opponent in their ongoing war of nerves… But yes, Scarlet remains completely unique as both a Reconstruction (effectively a clone of Paul Metcalfe [re]born at 31 with all his memories before the explosion-death intact), but also one with free will and unlimited healing powers that bring him back from death multiple times.

The Mysterons presumably don’t install a healing factor into the Mysteronised Drones thereafter, though they are harder than normal to kill, with High Voltage Electricity being the only surefire to kill them, and presumably would permakill Scarlet too. They are also unable to be X-rayed, instead being opaque on such photographs.

But yes, the grisly central premise of the show is that even though Scarlet can indeed be killed, he won’t stay down forever. Though he’s Indestructible, that’s from the healing power repairing injuries and reversing death rather than a Superman-esque bulletproof skin (the opening of the show features this only for brevity lol, the episodes themselves stick to the rules). Nope, it’s even explicit that he feels the pain of injuries and dying each time! That’s rough, buddy! 

A much lesser side effect of being a Mysteronised Clone is the “Sixth Sense” Mysteron sensing response that the writers sometimes forget about, where Paul feels nausea when another replicant is nearby.

The healing power is called the same term that the Mysterons use to recreate destroyed matter: Retrometabolism. And now I’ve recapped the origin and summary, I wanna dig in to the headcanoning part that they show sadly didn’t make enough time for… >:3c

🟢👁👁🟢

Here’s how I think Retrometabolism works for Scarlet specifically: In the event of injuries, the wound in question will get healed pretty quickly. The smaller the wound, the faster it heals, but even something like a broken leg or bullet wound will still leave no scar tissue or residual effects after the process is complete. However, if he’s been killed, then the Retrometalbolism probably focuses first on his most major organs to get his body restarted as swiftly as possible, with lesser injuries coming afterwards. 

I also imagine if the cause of death was something like being shot, the Retrometabolism will also force the bullet out, assuming it got stuck in his body. If he was poisoned, it would purge and/or neutralise this before getting his body back online. If he had brain damage from either the direct cause of death (hello, Operation Time!) or as a side effect of his brain being starved of oxygen, that damage will be waved away all as part of the package. It also seems he’s immune to disease, a hypothesis actually observed in Place of the Angels. I think he must also be immune to the harmful effects of Radiation, or at least that the death and rebirth would cleanse any lingering sickness.

However, the more grisly his death, the longer it will take to heal. I reckon the only way to speed up the Retrometabolistic process would be for surgical intervention to essentially do as much clean-up as possible so the Retrometabolism can ‘focus’ on the regeneration part. For this reason I think being riddled with bullets would probably be a simpler process than the times Scarlet is caught in an explosion, or some of the potentially-canon situations shown in the end credits which vary from a stock Pulp hazard (Dynamite, being thrown out of a speeding car, threatened by a cobra) to honestly quite nightmarish (the walls of spikes, the swamp/quicksand, being about to be run over by a tank, the impending inferno as he trips on a burning beam….), and the end credit scenarios offer an underrated facet of Spectrum.

It’s easy for bad faith takes to dismiss the dynamics of Scarlet as “the guy who always dies” and the other Spectrum officers as being surplus to requirements, but that’s a reductive and daft way of looking at it. Instead why don’t we focus on how much interest and (for lack of a better term) variation in strategy it offers when one member can offer to make the riskiest plays, in the safety not of having regenerative powers, but the assurance that there’s backup to retrieve him and look after him while he’s completely helpless. Like, in the Shark picture, I think the threat is much less the toothy fish, but instead that Scarlet is doomed to be stuck underwater, maybe ready to return to life but without outside assistance unable to do so without drowning all over again. There would be a lot of trust and courage needed in these situations, not to mention how deeply unpleasant it is for humans to be around a dead body that may also be in quite a state, so it’s a strange sort of sweetness that Scarlet has all this back up when needed.

I also feel it’s worth mentioning my headcanon on the mysterious case of the Two Scarlets - OG Human who is perma-dead and the Mysteron version with Retrometabolism. First of all, while it happens entirely unmentioned and offscreen, I expect Spectrum New York dug around the crash site a bit more after reporting Brown’s corpse and then found Scarlet’s. This body is presumably in a morgue, perhaps cremated or buried but perhaps not. Presumably it’s Scarlet’s call to make…

I don’t think there was any personality change at a core level between the Scarlets, though if he got more moody or distant or whatever I don’t think anyone can hold it against him! But in part of their accepting, embracing even, of Mysteron!Scarlet, I feel like his Self would remain how it was, with the caveat of the new tactical routes opened by the indestructibility. 

And, while the headcanon train chuffs along, I guess I can wonder how long Retrometabolism will last with the Scarlet we know and love? Will repeated use ever cause it to fade, or is it as unshakable like the movement of planets? Will it prevent him from aging, each death reset bringing him back to 31 physically, or will it see him into twilight years? If the Mysterons were defeated, would the power be taken away with them, or eased off as their influence fades like a memory? It may depend on how the Mysterons were to be beaten, or come to a peaceful agreement. If they could strip it from him, then their keeping it active for their recurring counter may add fuel to the idea they’re playing a game and need specific pieces to always be in play.

In that regard, I only have questions. But puzzling out and solidifying my interpretations of this fine fellow has been a lot of fun, and even after I finish editing this, and after I’ve posted it, something else is sure to occur to me to mull over! This show deserved to be longer, but everything it gave me is cherished, and at the heart of that is this autistic gay king. He’s intriguing and, of course, indestructible!

🌈🚀🌟

[suavis]

Never interacting with ST tumblr ever again. Went to the tag after Vol 2 expecting to see posts about the episodes/s5 set up, instead I got

Death threats to Duffer Bros for not making by//er canon

People who don’t support by//er are homophobic

Horrible hate to Mileven fans

Duffer Bros are homophobic for killing Eddie bc “Eddie is gay & they killed him bc they didn’t like Stedd¡e”

We’re sick & tired of El, she shouldn’t be focused on in s5, instead Will & Mike

Mike’s speech to El is out of character, he doesn’t love her

El is boring & her abuse for her entire life isn’t comparable to Will, his unrequited love for Mike is worse than her torture

Mike should’ve died instead of Eddie & he’s homophobic to Will, Mike is the worst person in the show

I’m also not interacting with ST tumblr again bc of the white mlm fetishizers. Billy was clearly racist to Lucas & abusive to Max (I understand he was abused but that doesn’t excuse his racism and horrid treatment of Max) but yet Steve & Billy is a popular ship. If Lucas was white, we’d see more Lucas/Dustin. But we don’t. Women are also always pushed to the side for mlm ships, so many posts diminish El for by//er

LITERALLY you’ve encompassed everything i hate abt the fandom 💀 it’s never really surprising when fandoms only care abt bland white men they can hc as gay/bi and then fetishize but truly the attempted character assassination of multiple whole ass children bc they don’t play into their specific narratives they want is extra foul.

i thought st*ddie was cute in passing at first but then the fans and esp eddie fans started acting Like That and i was outta there 💀 ain’t no way they thought it was going to end any other way have the ever watched this show before??? like he was fun but ultimately he was just some guy that some ppl in this fandom care more abt than MAX who’s been around for three seasons now like make it make sense???? and same with billy stans they just choose to ignore full on racism like i saw one say they did believe he was racist but still liked him 💔 truly no saving them the way y’all will cape for random white men even if they’re racist and abusive…… ur not seeing heaven

and YES the way this fandom passes over the black characters (the very few that exist 🥴) is sooooo…. obvious truly. billy apologists are obviously the worst of em but. if will had been in love with lucas and he’d been acting like mike first of all there wouldn’t even be a quarter as many shipper and second lucas would have been eviscerated 💔 people’s priorities in this fandom could not be clearer tbh

and people’s hatred of eleven is so transparent 💀 if she wasn’t in the way of that certain ship nobody would give a fuck but instead they’ll say she’s just his beard, she’s aroace/lesbian (which obvi i support hcs like this wholeheartedly but when the ONLY purpose is to try to make it so she couldn’t possibly be attracted to mike and so now will can have him???? gtfo), she looks like a man (which is mentioned MULTIPLE times in the b*ler slideshow LMAO make it make sense….. i’m a woman with short hair does that make my gf straight???), etc.

also yeah their fixation specifically earlier on the fact that mike couldn’t say i love you to her and then when he finally did it was out of character/him projecting his feelings for will on her??? it’s disrespectful to the characters tbh like the way they characterize mike idek how they like him anymore considering how they seem to believe he’s manipulating eleven AND being an asshole to will while still being in love with him??? i have truly never seen a fandom so deluded over next to zero actual evidence but i wasn’t around in the days of tjlc so 💀 but i’m definitely seeing some similarities LMAO it’s bad like. i think EVERYONE can agree that will is into mike but b*lers seem to think that means mike is going to have to be into will too like. ik they’re still hung up on their middle school/high school straight best friends (or are still IN middle/high school with that straight best friend 💀) and want to think that he’ll get the happy ending they didn’t but. truly i do think will deserves better than this even if mike DOES return his feelings like. they would not be a good couple 💔 here’s to hoping will gets a bf in s5 and all the characters get to be happy for once and b*let fans finally shut up <3

[elvendorx]

So… if we’re talking canon Harry Potter do you think James and Sirius had the best friendship in the story? (I think so) Where they the closest friends? How do they compare to the golden trio? Do they just top everybody? (Again I think they and with relative ease.) You write about them so beautifully and explain your thoughts and points well. I hope you don’t mind be asking

Hello! Thanks for your ask & kind words! 

I completely agree, it’s not even a contest for me, they’re the best friendship in the series. ‘Best’ is obviously subjective, but in terms of trust, loyalty, intensity and unconditionality they top everyone. Even outsiders (McGonagall, Fudge, Hagrid, Rosmerta), with the (incorrect) context of Sirius being the traitor, emphasise the intensity of their friendship, the extreme loyalty and trust - “Potter trusted Black above all his other friends” - and their closeness as a pair. For me, they outdo everyone else in terms of how far they’re willing to go together and for each other, the endurance of their friendship - absolutely zero signs of growing distance or mistrust, and in terms of the absoluteness of their trust and loyalty. It’s unconditional love, basically, lmao.

The golden trio have a different dynamic as a threesome. Because of their centrality in the series we see more of their ups and downs, their bickering, their fall-outs, so it’s easier to find those points of “weakness”. They’re teenagers and there’s the pressurised environment of the war later on so I don’t think that should undermine their friendship. Even so, I do think it highlights James and Sirius’ high levels of tolerance for each other and the exceptionality of their friendship. I don’t see them having any meaningful, lasting conflict, I don’t think they’re competitive with each other, whereas with Harry and Ron there’s a sort of two-way jealousy that crops up (again, Harry doesn’t have a typical childhood so it’s exceptional circumstances) but I just don’t see that coming between James and Sirius.

I don’t see Sirius being annoyed that James has doting parents or holding it against him (whereas Harry is a bit bitter about Ron’s “easy” life as he sees it at times). There doesn’t seem to be any lingering fallout from the prank between James and Sirius either: SWM is post-prank but they target Snape without any apparent concern that doing so might encourage him to spread the information about Remus’ condition in revenge and they don’t seem to have considered that maybe their pursuit of Snape has gone too far (“Shit Snape nearly died, maybe we shouldn’t push our luck anymore!”). James has no concern that encouraging Sirius to pursue Snape might be a bad idea. The consequences for James and Sirius are negligible in a way that I don’t think they would be had it negatively impacted their friendship, even momentarily.

Sirius brings up James wherever he can, so I really feel like he would have mentioned any effect that the prank had on his friendship with James (especially in PoA where he expresses feeling responsible for James and Lily’s deaths) - just something like “James gave me a hard time about it” or “I nearly lost my friendship with your father over it” but there’s nothing like that. I also feel like Sirius would feel more ashamed of it if James had expressed any disapproval but he’s still just like “it served [Snape] right”. Remus was supposedly the more morally concerned one at school so if he’s largely letting it go, I can’t see James coming down any harder than that (could be a priority thing with Remus there considering he and Sirius are in the middle of trying to kill Peter but I feel that that just assists my point if anything). 

In terms of other pairs in the series, I would say that as readers we’re supposed to see James and Sirius & Fred and George as almost parallel double acts: they’re both involved in pushing boundaries, lax interpretations of rules, magical inventiveness and creativity, etc. I also think this is where the Marauders as pranksters thing comes from but they don’t strike me as “lol let’s slime the corridor!!!!!” kids, more “let’s show everyone how clever we are” in a superior way, hence the power play with Snape. 

I would say that J/S and F+G stand either side of the same line though, Fred and George are a bit more fun and J/S are a bit more risky, a bit darker imo. Fred and George aren’t totally harmless - stealing the car, putting boil powder in people’s pants, giving Dudley the Ton-Tongue Toffee all strike a similar note to James and Sirius blowing someone’s head up twice its normal size - but I don’t think they take themselves as seriously as James and Sirius do. I can’t see J/S opening a joke shop, for example, and Fred and George don’t actively pursue one person and torment them for sport.

So there’s a distinction there, there’s a boundary for Fred and George, and a big part of James and Sirius’ bond is the boundlessness of their friendship. There’s no limit to their trust for each other, they’re willing to die for each other, they keep the switch secret from Dumbledore because they have complete trust. But they also have similar boundaries (or lack of) in terms of what they find acceptable re: Snape and their more unsavoury activities. It’s their joint willingness to indulge in extremes, to push boundaries, their lack of limits re: themselves and each other, that suggests to me an intensity and unconditionality that brings them closer than other pairings we see. 

It’s also different because Fred and George are related, they haven’t known anything but each other, they’ve grown up together but James and Sirius forge their bond as separate people coming together. They have different upbringings yet have similar spirits and it’s essentially love at first sight on the train to school which kicks off a lifelong bond involving being prepared to die for each other. Again, unfair to expect to see Fred and George as teenagers to mirror that intensity, I’m sure Fred and George would die for each other, but I still just think it’s different.

Lily and Snape also meet as children, they call themselves “best friends”, but where James and Sirius are bonded in their beliefs, Lily and Snape’s friendship is broken apart by ideology, by one not being able to trust the other, by a fundamental disconnect in values. Ultimately they don’t have each other’s backs - Snape calls Lily a slur, Lily believes the worst in Snape even before Hogwarts, blames him for her problems with Petunia, etc. The “they’re kids and can’t be expected to always act fairly and logically” disclaimer applies here but in comparison James and Sirius are backing each other up vs Snape when the train’s barely even started moving, which sets them apart again. Outdoing friendships that predate them, I’m crying.

The descriptions of Dumbledore and Grindelwald - “the boys took to each other at once”, “both such brilliant young boys, they got on like a cauldron on fire” - mirror“your father and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school” and “never saw one without the other” but Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s shared boundaries of ideology are broken and their friendship starts and ends within a matter of months. Again, James and Sirius endure - through school, through Sirius leaving home, through the prank, through a war. 

I’m mainly going off friendship pairs because of how closely James and Sirius are aligned as a twosome and because it makes for clear contrast where James and Sirius have the endurance that the others don’t - “Nothing changed when they left school”. We also don’t really see codependence like the use of two-way mirrors in any other friendships - the Golden Trio have individual activities, Lily and Snape have other friends. Even if you consider Dumbledore and Grindelwald codependent, their mutual obsession crashes and burns. At the prospect of an hour or two apart, James and Sirius are like no no no absolutely impossible which in my opinion at least gives them the title of closest friendship in the series. (Sidenote: how much easier would like, an audio device have been to use in a detention? Sorry, not good enough, they need to look into each other’s eyes or whatever.)

The main thing for me is the trust, I just don’t see any instance where James or Sirius’ trust in the other falters given James’ insistence on Sirius being secret keeper, his agreement to go along with the switch when Sirius suggests it. We see a lot of friendships/relationships struggle in the series, particularly pre-second war: Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Lily and Snape, Sirius and Remus, Sirius and Regulus, Peter & the other Marauders (though covertly rather than openly until PoA) - James and Sirius survive all of it.

If you’re looking for a super healthy friendship - potentially not, because I think they bring out the best and worst in each other (which I love!!!!), but in terms of unconditionality and loyalty, imo they embody that in its most concentrated form in the series - which I think is saying a lot considering how little they actually feature together.

I will again stress that I’m obviously biassed when it comes to James and Sirius and if anyone disagrees or interprets anything differently I’d love to hear it. Also talk to me about comparative friendships I’ve overlooked! I’ve really loved answering this (apologies it took a while), thank you so much! 

[proshiphasfailed]

I will say, that as much as I’m all for paraphiles using fiction and such to not harm real people/animals, just about every pedo and zoo space that I’ve seen actively advocates for pro contact. I’ve mostly only been exposed to zoo spaces though compared to pedo ones.

With that being said

Just about every zoo I’ve come across has been avid for pro contact. Very few are anti contact. Saying that’s it’s not abuse and so on. It’s just so odd to me that they are animal rights activists (a lot of them donate a shit ton to charities and take better care of their pets that I take care of myself lol) but then they are all for sexually abusing animals at the same time. I don’t think it’s because they only want animals to be treated as equals to humans so they can justify sex (some absolutely think this way, but it really seems like a minority from my perspective at least). I honestly thinks it’s because they are extremely deluded by the cult they surround themselves with. It’s an echo chamber of “there’s nothing wrong with being in love”, “animals CAN consent”, and “they also want a sexual relationship with you”. Through various means, I’ve seen these conversations take place and it’s way too similar to a cult. It amazes me that so many proshippers will say that antis are a cult, but when fellow proshippers are actively part of a different cult, they turn a blind eye. Which is why I honestly see paraphile spaces to be extremely harmful imo for the individuals who are a part of these spaces. Sure, there’s the whole “justifying harm to others” thing that’s downright nasty too, but it’s just something I don’t see a ton of people talking about and I wanted to bring it up!

I don’t think people with paraphilias shouldn’t have a space whatsoever, because there are absolutely places that advocate for not acting on those feelings and thoughts and only using fiction as a means to not act on those things. I just think that there’s nuance with what groups people are using as a place for their paraphilias. And things can turn sour quick if people aren’t careful. Because most para spaces I’ve come across are pro contact and disgusting

Sorry for rambling lmao just can’t really talk much about it on my blog

Anti-contact zoos are definitely the minority. And however anti-abuse they want to call themselves they are not the main ones fighting against those that abuse animals. The amount of people proud of raping their pets makes me sick and feel so helpless about not having the power to stop it.

Zoophiles are not animal rights activists. They are just trying to manipulate, obfuscate, and justify their objectification and sexual exploitation of animals. Their victims are always domesticated animals. They’re so convinced that their pets, bred for thousands of years to trust them and be dependent on them, have agency yet won’t try to form a “consensual relationship” with any wild animals like a wolf. I wonder why? Could it be because naturally an animal would have no interest in you and/or physically harm you? Could your “relationship” with your pet be nothing but your delusional anthropomorphication of your horrific exploitation? Makes you think.

There are also different flavors of “anti-contact” zoos. The lines are fuzzy, some think it’s ok to take sexually enticing photos of their pets. You really don’t know where someone’s lines are just because they’re anti-c.

I understand the frustration, it’s why I made this blog. If it can just be a place for people to vent about the awful things they’ve witnessed that’s fine.

Anti-c’s have to do better if they want to be taken seriously as anti-abuse. They casually share content made by pro-c’s all the time. And that so many of them tolerate pro-c at the very least makes it seem unshakable. You are one person removed from a pro-c at all times.

Anti-c’s also share symbols with offending zoophiles and don’t seem to have an issue with that.

[villainanders]

You have a few posts about how Oramas arc is literally the same if you enslaved her or not and I wonder how would you rewrite it/her?

Oo this is a good question thank you! What really bothers me about Orana is that when working for Hawke she still doesn’t really seem to have any other choice or agency in what she wants to do, and while she could leave she’s been conditioned her whole life to not see that as an option. In my headcanon I always imagine Hawke trying their hardest to make it clear to her that she’s welcome to stay working for them as long as she wants, but she’s free to move on and they’ll do what they can to support her in finding what she wants to do.

In game I’m imagining this like.. after you hire Orana you can progressively click on her and continue talking with her at the estate, and just generally ask her questions about herself and her life and be supportive (probably with the option to be an asshole boss instead, which I imagine would stop this plotline from progressing). (I’m just now realizing how similar I think an Orana arc would kind of look like Zevran��s arc lmao, as wild as comparing those characters is, I think they’d be in very similar places of latching onto the player character because they’ve never really had agency before). And then if you’ve done that consistently then near the final half of Act 3 you could get some kind of very mini side quest from her. I feel like it could really be a lot of things as long as it sets up as moving forward with her life. Like idk maybe she tells you she always loved baking and you can help set her up getting a job doing that, or maybe she tells you she has family or friends still back in Tevinter and you can talk to a couple of people to help her reunite with them. And at the end she tells you she’s going to move on and thanks you for your help and whatnot. And ofc this is all entirely optional/contingent on you interacting with her so if you don’t do this I guess it could play out like it does in canon with maybe a line or something about her leaving Kirkwall with Bodhan and Sandal at the end of the game bc I do worry about her and would like to know that she ended up okay

As for what happens if she’s enslaved, that’s a tougher question. Mostly bc I think Bioware shouldn’t have made that an option if they weren’t going to deal with it more significantly but I think that would require a way bigger rewrite than what a little chosen choice in a side quest for a character a lot of players miss on their first time would conceivably have, so in the spirit of what I think DA2 actually could have done, I think I’d keep what actually happens with Orana more or less the same (so, you know, just kind of being there. Maybe safer than when she was enslaved a crazed blood mage but separated from her family with no other real options. And then maybe Hawke could have a line in DAI mentioning she left kirkwall with Bodhan and sandal too bc like I said I like to know she ended up okay) but with more reactions and consequences from everyone else.

So obviously a sizable approval hit from the companions (I would say sake of the way the game works everyone in the party, but that doesn’t make SENSE to me bc everyone is going to find out later and react to it, so fuck it absolutely everyone. Maybe not Carver and Bethany if we pretend that nobody told them. I don’t care this is the only choice in the game where that happens). I do like/find it interesting that a diplomatic Hawke can minimize rivalry by arguing that she doesn’t have anywhere else to go so we can keep that. Fenris should leave your party or mayyyybe I could buy him staying with high enough friendship or rivalry, but you take a big rivalry hit/all of your friendship swaps to rivalry (like Merrill will do in her act 2 quest) and he breaks off any romantic relationship with you. Not totally sold on that but I am compelled by the super fucked up “companion goes along with things totally against their values” rivalry path dynamic you can get in like the Anders rivalry. Idk tho. Anyway beyond that I just think it needs to be a thing they bring up and not let you forget about it! I’m willing to buy that the champion is an important enough figure that they’re able to get away grievous crimes but “the champion literally participated in human elf trafficking” is a thing people would bring up. Leandra should comment on it (she does but weirdly permissively), Bodhan should ask about it, people should whisper about it in the hanged man, companions should DEFINITELY bring it up in their high rivalry cut scenes (that’s one of the bigger asks bc it would involve having a separate version of a cut scene depending on one decision but I feel like they could record a line that gets included or not). You could even have either Orsino or Meredith (whoever you side against) bring it up at the end of the game to point out that Hawke is a fucked up person too. If there was space to do a little more with it I’d like to see the city elves and the dalish being resistant to interact with you and maybe even have a fight at some point with a group of vigilantes trying to attack you bc you are, well, literally a known slaver. Idk it’s a tough balance. That all simultaneously feels like too much hinging on one choice in a side quest and not enough given what’s actually going on but something like that idk! Actual consequences that show people remember the things Hawke has done

[crowtrobotx]

Man, I know you shouldn’t do this. But I was staring with increasing bitterness at the kudos/hits on Chrysalis and sinking further and further into the whole “what even is the point” mindset I’m so prone to. Probably this was triggered by having come to expect a handful of kudos with each new chapter and this time I didn’t get… any.

I think Bri is probably the only person who knows how personal this fic is to me and how much of myself I’ve poured into it. And I don’t really want to divulge what that means to everyone - maybe one day - but just rest assured this fic isn’t just the manifestation of an irrational love of a video game character (which it is, of course) but it’s… somewhat healing for me. And a gift to myself. And it took a lot, and I mean A LOT, for me to even put it out there.

I’m not saying everyone needs to shower me with praise and affection at all times, or that I think I’m uniquely incredible at what I do, or that I need validation to keep going - I am much more motivated by spite anyway lol. And I for sure don’t want to minimize the folks who have been devotedly commenting on every chapter, have texted me outside of here/AO3 to talk about it, have made FAN ART (which is crazy!!!!), have reblogged every chapter and sent me asks. I appreciate it so so so much and it means more to me than I could ever verbalize.

But like, damn. Sometimes the sadness has hands and sometimes it’s the absence of folks you thought would be there that’s all you can see, y’know?

And then I decided to look at the other Heisenberg/OC fics, and the ones that are purely platonic, and basically anything that isn’t 2nd person w/smut or part of a popular canon x canon ship. I looked at ones that came out right around the game’s release, ones that came out last week.

And like, damn. Chrysalis has a staggering amount of engagement in comparison, especially when you consider I published it two years late. I didn’t have an AO3 account at all until fucking February 2023. And that makes me feel sort of good, but now I’m just mad again lmao. You should not have to jump into things at peak popularity or have an established following or include popular pairings/tropes to have your work get noticed. I mean, logically, I know this is just how media and art works to an extent - and I’m not saying people who do write/create in the popular fandoms for popular ships are doing something wrong - but it really shows how unwilling folks are to step outside their comfort zones and read things that they think they’re not interested in or won’t like.

There are platonic, x oc, rarepair etc fics that are so stunningly beautiful that it feels criminal for them to only have a handful of commenters and kudos. And honestly the people writing these are doing so with an insane amount of passion because you HAVE to in order to keep finding the strength to publish that next chapter when you know you’re explicitly going against what people insist they want. Again, this extends to more traditional art forms too - how many fucking brilliant books and paintings are out there gathering dust because the creator didn’t have the right connections or they didn’t make something that had mass appeal?

I always try to do the “what advice would I give to someone in my position” exercise with stuff like this. And of course I would reference the reality that if you have ONE person who is cheering you on, it’s a whole complex person you’ve made happy and that’s a miracle in and of itself. And some folks don’t WANT to be noticed - they are much happier with small circles and good for them! But also - I don’t think people are wrong when they start feeling crummy from seeing their work get steamrolled or comparatively ignored.

Idk. Idk where I’m going with this except to say I really wish people would expand their fic libraries (and their media/art consumption in general) to include more than just whatever the current hyperfixation is because it gives them serotonin. Take a chance on something different, within reason. (I know someone will try to respond with OH SO YOU’RE SAYING I SHOULD TRIGGER MYSELF or something like good god, no.)

There are some truly awesome popular works and creators out there. Please don’t interpret this as me being some bitter small platform blog ranting because I’m not being elected prom queen. All I’m doing is thinking out loud and sorting through my own spaghetti brain. I think I’m gonna spend part of this weekend sorting fics with the least engagement/popularity first and leaving some comments on them.

It’s a brave and beautiful thing to make and then share art, no matter the form it takes. People deserve to be reminded of that. Frequently.

[nightroo]

May or may not have forgotten what I posted here myself months ago so the last post had a few repeats. oops.

Well I know for sure this one won’t because I stopped posting when I started the second semester, which is what this post is about. So the drawing above is the start of working with more complex shapes, using the ones we learned from last semester. This is also where things got interesting, since I could see the potential for architectural drawings.

There are a lot, and I mean A LOT of drawings like these in my sketchbook, I’m gonna show you only the ones I find interesting.

After that we went back a bit for cast shadows, which I have decided are my new mortal enemy in art. A long time ago it was rendering hair, but that’s nothing compared to this.

The amount of calculations you need to do for this and the different formulas for each shape make me wanna rip my hair off. And that’s before getting into more complex shapes.

They're not 100% correct but my teacher said the majority of people won’t notice anything wrong so I shouldn’t worry about it. I won’t until I need it for a personal project, then I’ll get very annoyed again.

After that nightmare I got rewarded with finally using colors to render for the first time!!! I love rendering with colors so I was very excited haha

The copper (right middle sphere) is my absolute favorite, and my teacher really liked it as well.

We also had a small lecture on arrows and ribbons/fabric and we got to render them with colors as well.

For all the colored drawings I used a combination of alcohol markers and colored pencils. The markers melted and blended the pencils and I could use this to mix colors I didn't have. For example, I didn’t have a red marker at all.

After that we had a fun exercise where we needed to either study an object or design our own. The purpose was to use the previous lessons about shapes in perspective, and the rendering of different materials. I went with a gun design, but not just any gun-this one is technically 3 guns, a pistol and an SMG that you can connect and form an assault rifle. So I designed each gun separately (somehow I managed to turn this exercise to designing 3 objects instead of one, leave it to me to make it harder on myself lmao), and thought about how they connect, making sure the chambers kinda align and stuff like that.

I don’t wanna brag but I got the highest grade in the class for this assignment. Mostly because I’m the only one that actually rendered the different materials (or tried to), but also because my teacher liked the idea and thought it was interesting, and something people would actually buy if it was real.

It’s not the best but I literally didn’t have a grey marker so I was pretty limited. I chose a stained-glass theme for some reason, I didn’t want to make it a normal looking gun. The scan made it a bit more contrast-y than it is irl.

After a huge break we came back and had one lesson of silhouettes, something I kinda knew but never went out and made studies of. The challenging part of this was the time limit, at the start we had a minute, but it went down to 30 seconds. We were allowed to go overtime but it wasn't considered good.

On the same lesson, we also had life drawing, using each other as models. We had to get the pose down in one minute, and then take that as a reference for a more detailed drawing. I chose to completely change the context at that point lol

The next lesson was about isometric perspective. I don’t think I’ve actually talked about this here, but I got scammed by a guy who asked me to make him a city island in isometric perspective, then when it came time to pay, he “took a vacation” for two weeks. Came back to tell me he’s definitely gonna pay me. Proceeded to disappear. Anyways I haven’t done isometric from that moment until this lesson, where we were given a prompt word and had to draw an environment following it. I used only colored pencils for this one because I forgot to bring my markers, but it was a nice restriction to only use 12 colors and try to combine them to make the rest. I really enjoyed this one since I got the freedom to make something cool.

(the prompts are top-to-bottom forest, COVID-19, underwater and space) my teacher walked up to my desk to see what I’m doing while I worked on the space one, and he said “you are crazy” every time he passed by. He showed everyone’s work around, and a lot of people liked mine :) The space one is based on a black hole btw, but if it was an eldritch horror.

The last lesson was a time for the teacher to review everyone’s work one by one, so most of the time we were waiting for our turn. He put up a pic of an old camera if any of us wanted to draw it, but I used it as a reference for a building because it reminded me of art deco architecture. After finishing that, I had an idea for a shrine kind of place, inspired by a spot I built for a friend’s minecraft server that we didn’t end up using. And I topped it off with Lykena and Eivrun sketches (that for Eivrun might turn into a full painting when it’s her turn)

The entire year my teacher was occasionally asking me if I’m not getting bored, because we were going through a lot of basics I was obviously proficient at already, but I always found something new to learn, no matter how small, even on topics I practiced a lot before. So I’d say this workshop was very useful for me. And besides, it’s always good to get critiques from a professional, and from people who are interested in art.

[pricklypear1997]

Have you ever thought, that just maybe, your ideas and opinions are what makes you ACTUALLY the colonists of today? Telling someone that borders shouldn’t exist and that we should be one big United world or whatever the fuck, really shows your hatred and disdain for individuality. A culture cannot thrive in that kind of society. So there are a lot of you vocally expressing against the existence of culture, while also complaining about being “oppressed”. Also the kind of people who say this crap come from countries like the US OR are of a very wealthy background from some poor country that they’re deeply ashamed of. What you want is power and control over others. You have jealousy and hatred towards communities built up of people of one specific ethnicity and culture. You look at us with hatred and disdain. You tell us that we have the mentality of farmers and even try to compare us as Nazis even though some of us were persecuted by Nazis or some other big bad in the past. The lot of you, had the privilege of never knowing what war and colonization is like. Some of you do know what colonization is like because you come from a country or a background that faced colonization, yet you want to attack people for loving their own heritage. For some reason, you feel entitled to their countries and land and go looking for racism where it clearly isn’t there. The world does NOT belong to you. You don’t have any kind of self awareness. You sound just like a colonizer, but sure I’m the Nazi lmao. I’m all for independent nations and for them to be able to keep their culture and for their people to be free and live a life with purpose and dignity, yet you’re saying I’m somehow a terrible fascist neo-nazi for that??? That makes no sense at all. You’re just angry because I love my culture and because I’m tired of foreigners thinking that they can force their beliefs and their life styles on everyone else. Go live your life. Accept who you are. Look for validation in your own community. Stop running away and resenting others because they have something that you don’t. We never took anything from you. We’re people of small countries, that have faced war, genocide, and colonialism from some giant super power, but we don’t keep ourselves in this victim mentality. No, we don’t forgive those who threatened our freedom, livelihood and existence of our cultures, but we don’t spew pointless hatred towards other small countries we don’t know 2 shits about while also trying to call for their eradication by using progressive liberal sounding points to try to make our hatred seem as something humane. That is what YOU do.

P.s. y’all don’t know the meaning of colonialism and alot of you think it only has to do with race lmao.

[germy-yy]

MXTX football/futsal/soccer AU

I’ve been a goalkeeper for 1 quarter and idk how to drop properly so my arms and knees are a lovely magenta. Mxtx football/futsal AU!  Luo Binghe would be your typical “star” player. He’s a striker (protagonist and all) but is really good in the other roles. He absolutely RUNS OVER those who are physically weaker than him. His kicks are so fucking painful too. He’s like “ah, I better keep the ball far from the goal as much as possible so that shizun doesn’t have to worry”.  Shen Qingqiu/Shen Yuan would be a defender or a goalkeeper. He’s nimble (ehe) to jump towards the ball (read: out the window). One second he’s on the other side of the goal, the next he’s right in front of you and has tackled the ball. As a goalkeeper, he’s screaming the mantra “YOU WILL NOT FUCKING SCORE IN MY GOAL FUCKER” in his head so he doesn’t hesitate to take a ball to the face. He’s also a slippery defender where he’s running towards you and passes the ball back to his teammates in the field. I think he’s lanky so he has long legs to steal the ball away from your feet.  Lan Wangji’s kicks are so fucking painful. Like, no goalkeeper or any player really has never not gotten a bruise from him. Someone even blacked out because they did heading with one of the balls LWJ kicked. Someone fell over when the intercepted a ball he kicked. Idk what role he would be though I am leaning towards striker.  Wei Wuxian would be a goalkeeper. Absolute menace because he flails his arms around trying to mock the opponent and can slide his enter body in front of the goal area. He has a lot of bruises since he’s teammates with LWJ and during training, they do kick-ins (the one where all the players kick the ball and the goalkeeper must intercept it). Though that’s not the only reason why he has “bruises”. (”WY why do you have purple spots on your neck?? Do you intercept the balls with your neck or something?? LWJ, did you play as goalkeeper too today?? You shouldn’t catch the ball with your neck, you know.”) Wei Wuxian slides towards the ball when the opponent is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GOAL and hugs the ball, sliding between the enemy’s legs, and making them fall over LMAO.  Hua Cheng is a defender. His gege ran across the field and he isn’t wasting all the effort! Very reliable defender. He steals the ball away from the opponent and is able to make the ball fly all across the field to XL. He rams into opponents (without extending his arms, of course. They were just too...weak compared to his bulk). Like. He literally runs them over and sends them flying when he stops the ball while they’re dribbling with it. He wears an eyepatch and has a medical certificate deeming him suitable to play.  Xie Lian is a striker!! Him and LBH do long shots and it’s a beautiful sight to watch them passing the ball towards each other. Like. they pass the ball to each other from opposite sides of the field. He’s a fast runner and during corner kicks, he runs away from the opponent and is awesome at making openings for his teammates to pass it to him. Since his luck sucks ass, in recent years, he became susceptible to rolling ball kick-ins, hand balls, and hitting the post of a goal instead of scoring.  Extra: 

Shang Qinghua joined the team but doesn’t have much experience. It would look good on college applications. He plays as defender.  SQQ: GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY I CAN’T SEE THE BALL AIRPLANE!!! SQH doesn’t take it personally and when he finds out he’s blocking SQQ’s view, whenever he’s defender and the ball is coming towards them, he’s like: SQH: bro can you see the ball??  love him fr  Also, do you call the sport Football or Soccer? 

[wichitalk]

hello welcome to my first c/w fic i am putting on the internet. this is like the first time ive put writing on the internet since like... early 2021 when i stopped using ao3 so be patient here lol i do not know what im doing

@ghostdragoncookieokie :333 i hope u enjoy!!!

here is my c/w masterpost for those unfamiliar!!

casper is like 18~ maybe 18 1/2 in this part of the story, post c/w running away

tws: panic attack, implied mania (outside character), suicide mention????? its a joke in the story LMAO

Tears filled Casper’s eyes as he rounded corner after corner after corner of the empty building, not knowing were he was going (did he ever now?) but needing the movement anyway. 

Will’s brain was going off again, as it frequently did nowadays. It was like it was metaphorically soaked in gasoline, and everyone around them seemed to carry and endless supply of matches. Any word or action or movement had the capacity to set him off, which did not strike him into common favor (could casper even blame them? Casper didn’t think there was a single thing that could make him dislike Will). 

For the first time in what must have been years Will’s brain had turned on Casper, and he was everything but aggressive with the other man every encounter they had. Will’s guard was up, Casper knew him too well to not notice that, and the tone he used was flat and sharp at the edges, a far cry from Will’s normal soft and sparky voice Casper knew better than his own.  

He shouldn’t be upset about this, he didn’t even think he had the right to be upset about this. It wasn’t Will’s fault, (none of this was Will’s fault.), but it was hard to deny the pain that Will’s fear towards Casper had caused. 

Casper sharply turned yet another corner, walking faster than he reasonably should when his eyes are filled with tears and he is clearly not in his proper state of mind. His thoughts about Will screeched to a halt, however, when he came crashing into someone. The only thing Casper noticed as him and the other man toppled to the hard tile floor is that he was very small compared to Casper (probably in general? Casper did not think of himself as that tall but his perspective may be biased, as Will was almost freakishly tall).

The man yelped and scrambled away from Casper, boots slipping and squeaking on the ground. Casper also gasped in surprise, but he just let himself fall naturally. When he got his bearings he looked over at the other man, who had an unreadable expression on his face. He tried to match a name to the mans very unique appearance. The mismatched cat ears, pink and black hair, one goat eye, one cat eye, and large butterfly wings. Casper was positive there should be a name Casper remembers to match to the man. But they had likely met long ago, months or possibly over a year. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” As the man spoke, Casper finally clicked a name into place. This was Juicebox, he had met Casper and Will when they first came to the city, and joined their small group of people. 

“No I’m sorry, it’s uh, it’s really my fault. I should have been looking where I was going.” Casper mumbled. He was only half sure he even said the words at all, they felt scrambled coming out. 

Casper reached up to his face, violently rubbing his eyes in an attempt to dissipate the red wetness that made his predicament all but evident. 

“It’s Casper, right?” 

“Uhm, yeah. Juice?”

Juice nodded. “Are… are you alright?”

Casper paused. The very obvious answer was no, I am not doing alright. Someone who means everything to me is spiraling in ways I never expected and I don’t know how to possibly deal with it or help him or help myself or help anyone. But he didn’t know Juice well enough to say that, he wouldn’t even tell Will that. So he would have to lie, he knew. He also knew he didn’t know Juice well enough to lie well. 

“Yeah I’m alright.” Simple, easy, the words rolled right off his tongue. 

“Sorry… but you really don’t seem alright.”

Casper says nothing to that. I mean, what is there to say. He’s right. He doesn’t seem alright, he is not alright. He keeps his face neutral, hopefully. 

Juice speaks again. “You’re like… shaking. Pretty violently.” 

“Uh. Yeah I do that sometimes. It’s fine.” Jesus, what an incredibly stupid thing to say. Right, sure, he just shakes and cries sometimes while pacing around abandoned halls. Seems like a normal thing to do. 

“Uhm, okay. Maybe you should get that checked out?” Juice was very clearly confused (worried?). 

Casper wanted to kill himself. 

“Erm, yeah. Maybe. I’m going to, I’m going to go. Sorry again.” 

Before Juice could press the issue further, Casper hurriedly rose to his feet, almost falling over in the process. Juice noticed that he looked incredibly unstable while upright, looking like even the slightest breeze could completely crumple him. (Good thing they are inside, Juice supposes.) Casper begins walking very quickly away from Juice, hands shoved violently in his pockets and body hunched over. 

Juice sincerely hopes he does not have the misfortune to trip, with his hands in his pockets that would suck a lot, and it seems he is going through enough as is without also having to cope with a broken nose. Hopefully, Juice will see him around again soon, and maybe next time Juice could do something to help. Casper hoped for almost the direct opposite.