#that's 3x more than this show's characters

[azu-cena20]

I would be slamming my head into my desk, no, my wall, if it didn't cause brain damage. This went from intended 3rd person to straight-up yelling at a fictional character.

Because how the FUCK is Alya this stupid. Revelation spoilers ahead.

I understood believing in Lila before a certain episode because, you know, everyone is 14 and a really cool girl came and told these really cool stories, but Alya. Alya you complete and utter idiot. Marinette TOLD you she was Ladybug, she has transformed in front of you, you have seen Tikki, YOU KNOW ABOUT HER HATRED FOR LILA. And you think Marinette is in the wrong. You think the girl with no proof of any of her stories is right compared to the girl who IS Ladybug.

Even if she never outright TOLD you, in specific detail, why she hates Lila, no 14-year-old BLOGGER WITH DREAMS TO BE A JOURNALIST would believe Lila as much. We know you have at least two brain cells, use them. Marinette and Ladybug are the same person, Marinette hates Lila for being a liar, and Lila hates Ladybug. Lila has been constantly saying that Marinette is an awful person and a complete bully, EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW that's not true because you can ask anyone in the class, and they'll tell you Marinette is a good person. EVEN the teacher, who keeps feeding into whatever fantasies Lila has, constantly tells Marinette to "be the good person you always are".

The utter bullshit you pulled with Adrien telling you and Nino that he is also aware of her lying and manipulation is unfathomable. "Aw, you're defending your girlfriend!" HOW ABOUT YOU DEFEND YOUR BEST FRIEND? YOU TAUGHT MARINETTE THAT CHLOE WAS POINTLESS TO HELP IN THE BEGINNING, YOU LITERALLY GOT HER TO STAND UP TO HER. But Lila? No, she can't be a bully, it's just a misunderstanding that she planted a necklace that got her expelled, that she "fell" down the stairs one day and the next she's completely fine, that she GOT MARINETTE EXPELLED THEN WENT BACK ON IT LITERALLY THE NEXT DAY, NO, THE NEXT HOUR.

Every single time Marinette looks for a friend to aid her, you pretend to be open arms only to try and suffocate her into your beliefs. Alya, you are the worst in this show.

[jazzthatonewriterchick]

Turn Off Your Phone (Dom!Pro!Hitoshi x sub!Plus-Sized!Black!Fem!Reader 18+ One Shot) [REQUEST FILL]

Pairing: Hitoshi Shinso x Black!Fem!Plus-Sized!Reader (Married Couple/Dom x sub Dynamic)

Synopsis: In which Hitoshi gets tired of not being the center of your attention and forces you to put your damn phone down.

Warnings: Smutty Smut; 18+ (MINORS GTFO); Dom!Hitoshi/sub!Reader; Husband!Hitoshi/wife!Reader; Pro!Reader; Aged Up!Hitoshi (he’s in his late 20s-early 30s); Dom/sub Dynamics; BDSM; Consensual Hypnosis; Dubcon; Bondage; Oral (Giving & Receiving); 69ing; Facefuck; Riding; Doggystyle; Reader Cums 3x; Dumbification; Cum Drunk!Reader; Cunnilingus; Spanking; Hair-Pulling; Unprotected PIV; Creampie; Aftercare

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in this fic. However, as this is my writing, I do not give permission for my work to be reposted on any other sites that are not from my own accounts. Thank you! 

Writer’s Note: This is a request by @dance-to-mythoughts-blog that was sent soooo long ago & I just managed to get to. I’m so sorry for the long wait! School & work literally became my entire summer, so I barely had much time to write. I hope you enjoy this regardless! -Jazz

*********

“Turn your phone off.”

You turn over to look at your husband, dazed and confused from scrolling through Pinterest. He is lying down next to you, in a tank top and boxers that do nothing to hide the muscles straining against the fabric. And he doesn’t look happy.

Sensing his irked tone, you slowly turn over in your cami that sticks to your soft, pudgy form and teeny-tiny shots dedicated to Hitoshi, his pro hero name printed across the back in bedazzled letters. “Excuse me?” you scoff.

You want to think you’re just hard at hearing or that your brain is muddled from the past few days at work. You work alongside Hitoshi as a pro hero, kicking ass, taking names, and sitting through boring meetings fantasizing about your hubby bending you over a table.

You love working with him, mostly because of how respectful he is towards you. You are more than just his wife when you work together. You’re equals. Hero to hero. He respects your intelligence and skills, allows you to use your voice…which is why you can’t understand why he’s talking to you like you’re a goddamn child now.

He glares at you, his handsome face written with irritation and his scarred lips pressed into a thin line. ”I said. Turn your fuckin’ phone off. You’ve been on that thing all day instead of on me.”

You sit up and place your phone in your lap for the first time in hours since he got home from your morning shift at the agency, much to Hitoshi’s joy. His shift is overnight patrolling which starts in an hour and he’s still here arguing with you.

“And that’s my fault?” You sharply ask. “We have a very demanding job, Shinso. This whole day, our team has been blowin’ us up about meetings, reports, villain sightings, and other bullshit.”

Hitoshi sits up too, on the same time as you are apparently.

“Yeah,” he replies, “but you’re not at work anymore. You’re here with me scrollin’ through Pinterest.”

He nods down at your screen showing one of your Pinterest mood boards that you’ve recently become obsessed with making. ”I have about eight hours till I have to get up and be back at work,” you argue, referring to your 5AM shift tomorrow at the agency. “Morning patrols. And you know my social media time relaxes me!”

And you’re not lying. An hour of scrolling through social media, watching YouTube, and online window shopping does relax you after a long work day. But Hitoshi begs to differ. When your phone suddenly dings with a notification, you go to check it, but your husband stops you by placing a hand on your thigh.

“I can’t relax you more?” He asks. He looks up at you with those damn violet eyes that always seem to melt you other than that handsome face, cropped lavender hair, and those muscles.

And his touch…it’s like you immediately lose all bodily functions when he touches your skin. And he knows that because his fingers, ringed and tatted at the knuckle, slink farther up your thigh to squeeze the soft flesh there. You ignore the way his calloused palms feel on your heated skin and scoot away from him.

“I’m not arguing with you tonight,” you sigh, swatting his hand away when he attempts to smack your ass. “Besides, don’t you have to get dressed soon and head into work which requires you to be on your phone just like me?”

You didn’t mean for it to come out as argumentative as it did, but it’s too late. As soon as Hitoshi hears the edge in your voice, his eyes darken and his brows narrow. Aw, shit.

“Yeah, and I’d rather spend my last hour of freedom with you.”

Your phone dings again, but the lavender-haired pro shoots across the bed and snatches it from you before you can check in. ”Gimme this,” he growls.

“Hey!” You snap. You go to grab it back, but Hitoshi is so tall, even when you’re both sitting, that all he has to do is hold it away from you and you can’t reach it. “Shinso, stop! Gimme back my phone!”

You try to stand up on the bed to reach over him, but he puts your phone on the bedside table before grabbing your ankles. You shriek, feeling the soft cushion of the mattress leave your feet as you find yourself falling backward in the air. Before you can hit the bed, Hitoshi quickly flips you both so he is underneath you.

He hits the mattress first while you’re wrapped up in his arms, your plush, soft body pressed against his harder, toner one. Your hands press against his hard chest, secretly indulging in the hard planes of his abs and shoulders.

Your husband stares up at you through long lashes, molten lust in his gaze. “Not until I get some attention…or do I have to use more persuasion?” His hands move down to grab on your ass while his lips toy with your neck.

You softly moan as soon as his lips touch your skin, his kisses tinged with the slight sharpness of his teeth as he nibbles on your collarbone. As he does this, your phone dings again.

“Shinso, c’mon,” you whine. “It’s a text. I have to answer it.”

You try to push off of him, but he stops you by suddenly rolling on top of you, trapping you beneath his big body. His knee wedges between your warm, plushy thighs, pressing right against your crotch…which is the last place you want anything of his right now.

“Mina can fuckin’ wait. You can tell her later that you were busy gettin’ put in the mattress by your one and only.” He gives you a smirk before pressing his lips to yours in a wanton, rough kiss that leaves you breathless.

You absolutely love his kisses. You love it when he teasingly nibbles along your bottom lip, pulling on it a bit before letting it pop back into place. You love the way his tongue slips out to swirl against yours, sharing spit and drawing the most desperate sounds out of you. You love the way he grinds his hips into yours as if he can’t wait to be inside of you.

As he does all of this to completely turn you to mush, just the way he likes, your phone continues to ring. Hitoshi pulls away, drawing a line of saliva with him that connects to your bottom lips. He then pulls your top up to reveal your soft, juicy breasts and hardened nipples.

You gasp as he leans down to begin caressing and showing your titties some love, sucking and tugging on the nipples with his teeth. “‘Toshi,” you moan. “Baby, no, we don’t have time.” Your hands raise to push him away, but they just tangle in his short, lavender locks.

His violet eyes flick up to meet yours as he pops one of your nipples out of his mouth. “We’ve got more than enough time. Just shut up and let your man take care of you.” He continues his pleasurable assault on your tits just as your phone begins ringing, filling the bedroom with the sound of ‘The Boy is Mine’ by Brandy and Monica.

“I-It’s Mina,” you breathlessly say. You reach one of your pudgy arms out to reach your phone. “I need to—“

“No.” Hitoshi’s voice is firm and not with the bullshit. It shocks you into silence and causes warmth to zip through your belly as it usually does. He looks up at you from your chest, his eyes nailing you to the spot. “What do I have to do to take that damn phone off of your mind? You got any ideas, babydoll?”

He sits up, straddling you and giving you a very nice view of his body and hard cock pressing against his briefs. You instantly feel yourself throb and get wet not just at the sight of the tent in his underwear, but all for the idea he’s got in store for you.

You can tell just what he wants by the smirk playing on his lips and the way his eyes have darkened. He knows you want it too. You need to feel like you’re under his complete and utter control, walking through the fog that he holds your hand in.

Your arm slumps against the bed, defeated. “Fine,” you sigh. “But only for the hour.” Hitoshi gives you a big, sexy smile that turns you on immediately like a light. Immediately, he goes to the bedside and fetches his scarves that he wears with his hero outfit.

They don’t just work nicely for combat when fighting villains. They also make for great restraints. Your heart pounds vigorously and does mini somersaults as you watch Hitoshi mount you and begin tying your wrists to the headboard. His hands move expertly, making the finishing knot tight enough to keep your hands tied but not tight enough to hurt you.

Once he finishes, he sits back and admires his handiwork…and you. “That’s my girl. Just hold still and look at me…thaaat’s it.”

His violet eyes begin to glow, piercing deep into yours as if he is trying to unravel the mysteries of your soul. You allow him to, letting yourself relax under his hypnotizing gaze. It doesn’t take long for your body to loosen and your head to fog as you fall deep under his spell aka his quirk.

Hitoshi only wipes your brain enough to take away the anxiety surrounding not answering or being near your phone and replaces it with him. Only him. When he finishes, you feel as if you’ve just smoked a blunt, your body and mind relaxed.

“How do you feel?” he asks, his eyes searching your face.

You relax against your binds, your muscles like putty. “Good, Daddy,” you reply, your voice breathless and soft. “Really, really good.” A slow, stupid smile stretches across your lips, feeling giddy and at ease.

Hitoshi smiles, immediately stripping off his shirt to reveal his beautiful body and tattoos to you. ”You’re about to feel even better.” And that’s a fucking promise.

Minutes later, you’re naked and your legs are wrapped around Hitoshi’s head as he slurps and sucks on your pussy, his tongue fucking your hole so skillfully that you can’t keep your voice down. “Oh, my God ‘Toshi, yes!” you cry out. “T-That’s so good, ohhh, fuuuck yes!”

You have no consciousness or self control. You can think about nothing but your husband and his mouth making you feel oh-so incredible. He peers at you from between your thighs, his tongue slashing against your clit. “Mmm-hmm,” he hums. “You’re makin’ such pretty sounds for me, babydoll. Keep it up. That’s exactly what I wanna hear.”

His pillowy-soft lips begin to gently suck on your clit over the hood of your pussy lips, sending shivers and sparks of pleasure throughout your body. You tug at your binds, your body unable to keep still from the pleasure. It twists like you’re possessed and your back arches off of the bed as if a demon is being expelled from you.

Only Hitoshi can be the one to release you. Only he can make you so insane like this, damn near seeing heaven’s gates with his lips, tongue, and fingers as he replaces his tongue to flick and rub your clit.

Sloppy sounds begin to drift through the air as his mouth moves faster in an effort to make you explode. It doesn’t take long for that feeling of your peak to near, causing your body to tense. “Oh, shit, I’m cumming!” You gasp. “Fuck, Hitoshi, yes! Please, Daddy, let me cum!”

You know the drill and that’s why you beg. Hitoshi knows that you won’t cum because of his quirk. He has to order you to do so. It’s a little game that you play together and he always wins. So when he finally feels like you’ve had enough, he looks up at you, his lips glistening with your juices.

“Cum,” he orders, his voice echoing in your head.

Like a button being pushed to activate something inside of you, your orgasm is triggered and you cum in your husband’s mouth with a choked moan. Hitoshi gladly slurps up what you offer him as your body shakes and thrashes against his mouth, the aftershocks taking over.

Your loud moans die down into soft groans and sighs while Hitoshi hums appreciatively against your pussy. Once your orgasm high fades, he pulls away and licks his lips clean of you. He stares down at you like a starving man and you’re a dessert plate.

“Look at that face,” he chuckles. “You’re so cum drunk, it’s adorable. I bet you want more, right?” You nod, unable to let out nothing but a soft whimper. Your man doesn’t like that.

He takes a handful of your braids and harshly tugs on them, causing you to gasp at the sharp sting. “What was that?” He growls, getting reeeeal close to you. So close that you can smell the mint gum on his breath.

Your stomach flips and your pussy gushes despite the orgasm it just had. You love it when he gets like this. “Yes, Daddy, I want more.” He smiles and presses a soft, chaste kiss to your lips. “That’s my good little kitty. Now come here.”

He unties your wrists and gives you time to recover before flipping you on top of him. You giggle, settling down onto him with your plump ass in his face. His hands come down to smack it, watching it recoil deliciously for him. “You’re just too fuckin’ perfect,” he sighs. “I can’t believe I have to go into work and give up this for an hour.”

He adjusts underneath you so his cock is in your face, only separated by his underwear. “Take me out, baby,” he raspily orders you. You do so, peeling his briefs off of him to reveal his long, thick cock dripping in precum for you.

While you spit on your hands and proceed to stroke him, he begins to eat you out again, flicking his tongue against your overly-sensitive clit. “Hitoshi,” you whimper. “P-Please go slow. M’sensitive.”

SMACK!

He begins to do that ‘thing’ that you like—where his big, fat cock bobs without him using his hands or hips to do it. Your eyes grow big, hypnotized by the lewd movement. “As long as you do a good job suckin’ this cock,” he huskily says. “Think you can do that for me, kitty?”

You look back at him, knowing he loves it when you do that. “Yes, sir.”

Minutes later, you’ve got your throat full of his cock while he plays with your pussy, his fingers gently stroking your clit in semi-circles. You indulge in his delicious sounds and the way his toes curl as you bob your head up and down along his length, taking him in and out of your tight, wet throat.

“Such a good little slut,” he groans. “Your mouth was made for me, baby I swear.” You begin to take him deeper, coaxing him to use your mouth for his pleasure. He catches on immediately. “Oh…you want me to fuck that gorgeous face? Say no more.”

He lifts his hips up and begins thrusting into your mouth, plunging his cock deeper and deeper into your throat. You begin to gag along his length, but you never tap out. You take all of him, desperate for more.

“Yeah?” he chuckles. “You like that? This pussy certainly seems to—she’s so wet for me.”

He begins to eat you out, swirling his tongue inside of your wet hole and nudging his nose against your clit. As you indulge in each other and your tastes, the sound of a buzzer suddenly pierces through the air.

Hitoshi’s iPhone alarm. He sets it every morning when he wakes up or before a late shift when he needs to rest beforehand. He doesn’t want to oversleep. You pop off of his cock, catching your breath. “T-Toshi, your phone!” you moan. “You have to get ready!”

But Hitoshi never moves, his voice muffled by your thighs as he continues to eat you out. “Don’t care. Now cum for me.”

And like a puppet on a string, your body does exactly as your man wants it to.

You grind your hips shamelessly into his mouth as you have your second orgasm, pleasure zipping through you as fast as the speed of light. You moan and sob to the ceiling as you cum all over your husband’s waiting mouth, his cock throbbing and pulsing at the sound of your sweet, sexy moans. At some point, his alarm stops and all that fills the air are the sounds of his sloppy pussy-eating and your moans.

You think that Hitoshi will see how exhausted you are as your second orgasm fades. You think he’ll see that this is enough and your pussy can’t take another orgasm…but as usual, you’re wrong.

Hitoshi is a greedy lover. “Nicely done, gorgeous,” he chuckles. “You listen so well to me.” He begins to fuck your hand wrapped around his cock, groaning as he does. “You’ve still got somethin’ to take care before I leave, kitty, don’t you?”

And like an obedient submissive for your Dom, you turn to him and nod. “Yes, Daddy,” you obediently say.

Gently, you lift yourself up with Hitoshi’s cock still in your hand. Slowly, you sit yourself down and take the head inside of the wet, quivering depths of your pussy. You both moan at the sensation, especially as he gets deeper and deeper, sinking inside of you as you sit on it fully.

Desperate and needy, you begin to bounce on his cock. It is slow at first, but gradually, you grow frantic and begin to fully bounce on him, your tits jiggling and your pussy open for him.

Hitoshi grabs your tits and massages them as you bounce on him, watching your ass jiggle and shake as you take his cock.

“That’s. Fucking. It,” he growls, each word punctuated as you come down. “Such a. Good. Fuckin’. Girl!” He wraps a hand around your braids, tugging them back. “You love takin’ this big dick, don’t you? Much better than a phone, right?”

You can’t agree more with that. “God yes!” You practically sob. “Yes, I love it!” Your hips begin to grind as you ride your husband’s dick like you stole the damn thing, pleasure zipping throughout your bones and muscles.

Suddenly, the sounds of your mixed moans and sex are interrupted by your ringtone again. Mina is calling again. You look towards the glowing screen, but Hitoshi stops those thoughts by wrapping a hand around your throat. “Don’t even fuckin’ think about it,” he growls. “I’m about to break that phone if you keep playin’ with me.”

The phone continues to ring, rudely puncturing the air and ruining the atmosphere. “B-But—“

You squeak as you’re suddenly picked up and placed on all fours on the bed. Face down, ass up. Just the way Hitoshi likes to fuck.

With his cock still inside of you, he grabs your hips and begins to draw himself out of you “Or do you not wanna cum?” he asks. The loss of that feeling sends you spiraling. “‘Toshi, no!” You beg and plead. “Please don’t stop! I’m sorry!”

Hitoshi slides back home inside of you, drawing a loud moan out of both of you. “You’re what?” he firmly asks. “Say it again.” His hips begin to piston in and out of you at a slow but hard pace, stretching your pussy out and abusing your G-spot in the best way possible.

You gasp, moan, and wail into the bedsheets, your hands gripping the sheets in an effort to keep yourself from exploding. “I-I-I’m sorry!” you sob. “I’m so sorry, Daddy!”

Hitoshi places a foot on the bed and begins to fuck you silly, his cock stroking your insides and filling you up over and over again. “Keep sayin’ it,” he demands, his voice low and deep. “Tell me you’re sorry for ignoring me. That you’re sorry for bein’ a little brat all the goddamn time. Say it if you want more of this cock.”

You would say that you’re a cow and can moo if he ordered you to. “I’m sorry, ‘Toshi! I won’t be a brat anymore, I promise! I’ll be your good girl!”

The tears that have begun to prick at your lashes wet your lash line. Hitoshi reaches down to wipe one away, sucking on his finger. Freaky ass bitch. “You are my good girl. You just need to be reminded sometimes.”

He goes faster, harder, drilling your pussy into the bed. “So you’re not gonna be a brat no more? You’re not gonna be in your phone while you should be fucking me, right?”

“No!” you wail. “No, I promise, Daddy, oh, my God, I’m gonna cum!” Your words come out in a rushed, rapid sentence as your moans grow louder and your third orgasm of the night peaks.

“Do it,” Hitoshi growls, his voice deep in your ear and echoing in your head. “Cum for me and I’ll forgive you. C’mon, baby, give it to me. Do it for me.”

His voice and his cock demand you to have your final orgasm of the night. As soon as it hits, it is intense and abrupt. You let out a loud moan of your husband’s name along with a string of sobs as you cum all over his cock. Hitoshi chases his orgasm with yours, your pussy clenching around him and stroking his orgasm out of him.

“I’m gonna cum,” he moans. “Stay right there.” You do as you’re told and stay still even as your pussy quivers and throbs around him, overstimulated by his rough fucking. “Cum for me, husband,” you purr. “I’ll take it all. I always do.”

That is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Hitoshi. He grabs his arms around you and holds you tight as he cums deep inside of you, filling you to the brim with his spunk. You let out a delirious giggle as he cums, the high of his sex and the orgasms washing over you.

When your dual highs fade and you come down from the clouds, Hitoshi peppers your face and neck in kisses. “My perfect little wife,” he sighs. “My kitty. My good, good girl.”

You shiver and melt at his words and under his lips, feeling his quirk begin to fade. Once it does, Hitoshi lays you down under the sheets and presses himself against you. You curl into him, spooning with him. “That was much better than Pinterest,” you softly say.

Hitoshi’s raspy laugh makes your stomach joyously flip. You tilt your head up to share a kiss with him, but the sound of his alarm stops him. “Ah, shit, I’m late,” he groans. His hand shoots out to slam on his phone screen, stopping the sound.

He turns over to face you, giving you a lazy smirk. “Might as well take my time then.” He kisses you and trails his lips down to your neck, sending goose pimples across your skin. “But what about—“

Your phone rings again and this time, Hitoshi lets you answer it. You moan weakly as he begins to massage one of your breasts, his thumb playing with one of your hardened, brown nipples. “It’s Mina,” you giggle and shush him. He gives you a wink as you answer the phone. “Hi, hon, it’s Y/N.”

“Y/N, hey, I’ve been calling you!” Mina says. “Where’s Hitoshi? I’ve been trying to reach him. We’re supposed to patrol tonight.”

“Pssst.”

Hitoshi motions for you to give him the phone. When you hand it over, he then crooks his finger in a come hither motion towards you, exciting you. ”Yes, sir,” you giggle.

Like a moth to a flame, you draw yourself to him and begin to kiss, touch, and stroke him to your heart’s content while he keeps his voice level on the phone. “Hey, Pinky, it’s me,” he says. “Sorry about the confusion. I got caught up in something.”

That overnight shift never happened, by the way.

THE END.

[bcacstuff]

Day 2 Highlanders 7 con 20 July 2024 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham

Fan Meet with Richard:

If he's a betting man there will be Rebus 2 (with a wink)

Hasn't read more than 4.5 books (of OL) couldn't get through the Gathering in Fiery Cross

Everyone's really sad about it ending

Doesn't like the stickers chosen for the Rebus books but the author did so he was outvoted

Charles & David Q&A

As part of training for the roles, they were taught them how to stand and sit using the "Alexander Technique" Demonstrating the "Alexander Technique" of how to stand up straight 18th-century style 👇

Question: if you could play another character who would it be: David - BJR; Charles - didn't know - fusion of LJG and Jamie

What won't you miss after OL ends - David travel; Charles didn't answer the question but said he'll miss his friends in Glasgow

Who would you go to a convention to see - Charles Eddie Vedder & Robin Kimmerer (author); David couldn't name anyone

Richard, Charles and Jamie Roy play Magic the Gathering (red: a card game) together almost every day when not working

When asked about a LJG series, David said if people want it he'd be up for it and people need to speak up about it

David and Charles singing O Canada 👍

Charles can walk on his hands - went back and forth 3x

Richard & Sophie Q&A

What song would describe your relationship on the show: Sophie - Lover (Richard joked Tolerater)

What role would you like to play: Sophie - Black Swan; Richard - Wolverine or Iron Man

Richard & Sam made different animal noises each take during the birthing scene

Hardest scene they had to film: Sophie - physically the ones with the horses; Richard - one where Brianna tells Roger Jemmy might not be his

If you could take a character ahead in time to see something - Sophie BJR to see Frank; Richard Jamie Fraser into the modern world - Richard loves Sam's reactions to modern things

What are you binge watching? Sophie - The Bear; Richard - Queen of the South and BBT

Sophie spoiler: Joey and I were in a tent (Richard adds "in the 80s")

Who would you go to a convention to see? Richard - BBT, Peaky Blinders: Sophie - Friends

They don't really get recognized in the UK but yes in the US "people in England don't really watch Outlander" (Sophie) - when they started in S2/3 it wasn't really "present", especially in Scotland.

Taken anything from set? Sophie very tempted to take the pearls but hasn't taken anything yet; Richard not yet either (made a joke about the musket balls and Lallybroch in the 80s trying not to spoil anything)

What song represents your character - Sophie "Girl on Fire" because she powers through things

Ed Speleers & Steven Cree

Favourite role so far - Jack Crusher (Ed)

Cree - best part of Outlander is the conventions

Favourite scene was when Bonnet kidnaps Brianna and they explain how he became what he is

Ed read for LJG and they came back to him the next year with Bonnett

Cree auditioned for Dougal (who's the guy who raised $250K for a film then never made the film? - ouch!!). Then they cast Sam and had to make Dougal age appropriate

What era would you time travel to: Ed - 60s: Steven - his early 20s

Sam created MPC and whisky "unlike the guy who embezzled $250K" (ouch again!! Cree used the word "embezzled")

Cree to Sean - how does it feel to be a millionaire? Sean - pass me your phone I'll call Sam and ask him

Cree was offered roles in Bridgerton 1 & 2 and said no after he read the scripts

Cree went on for 5 minutes about how Claire brought Jamie back to life in Monsters & Heroes - it was hilarious

Seems that the 2 of them (Cree and Ed) go way back and are good friends (Ed said Cree was the most excited when he landed the star trek role. They wouldn't ever have crossed paths on OL. They know each other's families too.)

Caitriona

Funniest lines she couldn't get through - where she asks BPC if the bite was from a monkey and when Ian offers to go looking for Jamie and Claire says "but you don't have a leg"

Prefers to be called Caitriona

They talked about the ending of the books and someone yelled "Sam knows" then she said Sam THINKS he knows

Will be odd knowing they're not going back to Scotland when they finish filming. Couldn't say if they're staying but her husband is from Scotland and her in-laws live there so they will be there in some capacity

Costumes in S8 are her favourite since S2 Paris

Thanked everyone and said how much doing the show has meant to her

Asked if she and Tony share the same musical taste. She thought they said Sam and Steve said "no, your real husband" (she does with Tony, "definitely not" with Sam)

To prepare for Claire & Frank since they had a history, she and Tobias wrote each other letters. Tobias would redact his because he was in MI6. They didn't do anything to prepare for Claire & BJR because she didn't know him

During the rapid-fire someone asked "Sam's whisky or Graham's bourbon". She said Sam's whisky but hasn't tried the bourbon (she doesn't really like bourbon it's too sweet)

All credits to my reporter at the con (who chose to remain anonymous), including the pics.

[cogentranting]

Ranking Animated Horse Designs Take 3

This time I really am back by popular demand because the other two posts have been getting a steady trickle of notes for over a year now.

(If you're looking for stuff like Disney and Dreamworks there are two other posts. Here we've got mostly random cartoons and also the Pokemon horses)

Starlite (Rainbow Brite) 6/10 Little weird that he seems to be drawn in a style that's like 3x more realistic than any other character in this show but hey sometimes you just ascend to a higher plane of existence. (2014 Reboot Starlite gets a 3/10. I do not trust him.)

Skydancer (Rainbow Brite) 7/10 I bumped Starlite down a point because he wants what Skydancer has. Skydancer doesn't need rainbows to fly. Skydancer has a lightning bolt. Skydancer has the Drama. (The one wiki page said he's a Shire or a Clydesdale and um I don't think so. Maybe a Friesian.)

On-yx (Rainbow Brite) This is a rocket powered balloon animal. 2/10

Sunriser (Rainbow Brite) 5/10 Eh. I like her hair though.

Swift Wind (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power/ She-Ra Princess of Power)

Right (older version) 8/10 I don't understand the wing physics going on here. Also not sure if the horn is part of the mask or just attached to the mask. Diggin the bib though. Also love that he's a ginger.

Left (new version) 4/10 If the older version wasn't there this would score higher because just as a character design I don't think it's bad but if these are supposed to be the same character he seems so cutesy and I do not vibe with it. I don't know either show. So maybe that works. But it feels wrong.

Amalthea (The Last Unicorn) 9/10 They gave the unicorn the split deer hooves, and the lions tail and that is automatic points from me. Bummed they didn't go all out and give us the goat's beard. Rude. Any distance shot, I love. Close-ups of the face creep me out with the giant doll eyes and tiny nose.

(Pokemon and more below)

Honey Pie Pony (Strawberry Shortcake) 8/10 Adorable. Fantastically chunky design. The others from this... show? book? brand? are like 6s or 5s depending. But Honey Pie has the It factor. (The It Factor here apparently being that recurring pattern of only the main character's horse being able to talk?? This is the third. Swift Wind, Starlite and Honey Pie have dark secrets about how they come by this knowledge).

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic "ponies" Just as characters they're cute in a "trying so hard to be cute that they almost miss the mark entirely" way. But this is about how they are as HORSE designs. And these are magical gremlins not horses. 1/10 (WHAT is happening on the far right of this set. I do not approve. Zebra is fine though).

My Little Pony: A New Generation Like if the MLP: FM ponies and the Trolls characters somehow had children. Somehow the main character of Bee Movie was also involved. The one on the left makes TikTok thirst traps. -2/10

My Little Pony Tales 3/10 I can almost tell they're meant to be horses. Plus that one has a tattoo of a comb. So. Full extra point for the comb tattoo.

Bratz Horses I can't tell if there's an official video game or cartoon design for these but in ANY given version I found the conclusion is the same: if you look into the gigantic distended eye you will be put under the horse's curse. 1/10

Boxer (Animal Farm) 4/10 All horses are equal but some are more equal than others, but Boxer is not one of them because his mouth is not okay.

Marvin (Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse) 5/10 I mean. Dude's got spats. Come on.

Ponyta (Pokemon) 3/5 The armpit and middle thigh flames were a choice.

Rapidash (Pokemon) 8/10 Look at his face. The angst. He has seen things.

Mudsdale (Pokemon) 8/10 The classic mohawk, dreadlocks and legwarmers trifecta. Love it. Would love to hug him.

Galarian Ponyta 3/10 It's giving sheep, and it's giving dog. Very little horse.

Galarian Rapidash (Pokemon) 4/10 He's angry because his hair is too long and he can't walk and also he has not eaten enough somebody feed this horse.

Origin Palkia (Pokemon) 6/10 A built-in hoola-hoop AND thigh high Boots?! what fashion.

Keldeo (Pokemon) 1/10 Clown goat.

Spectrier (Pokemon) 10/10 Beautiful goth girl horse floating around like a Victorian ghost who's too modest to show her ankles.

Mudbray (Pokemon) 5/10 He has passed through the depths of existential dread and returned world-weary but unshakeable and with a snazzy bowl cut.

Glastrier (Pokemon)

20/10 ICE HORSE ICE HORSE ICE HORSE. I love him so much. He's punk rock

The Fat Horse (Looney Tunes) 10/10 Queen.

[bearieio]

hi spencer lets talk about keegan! 🥰

ummmmm !!! i don’t really think i have much to say about keegan !!!!!!! hmm……. (＾＾＃)

except for the unfortunate fact that i think of him as being a total heartbreaker :(

I DONT KNOW WHY DONT ASK!-

another thing is when the two of you first started going out, and he tried to act like the nonchalant, quiet, and mysterious guy, but failed on like the third date because you mentioned your love for video games. 

now that the two of you are moved in together, he WILL torture you with that voice and those eyes of his.

he’ll sneak up on you and startle you with his deep-toned and booming voice, making sure to get his lips as close to your ear as he physically can. 

he’ll also just stare at you until you notice that he’s staring at you. genuinely scaring you, and giving no context as to why he was staring at you. AND LIKE IT’S INTENTIONAL SO-

toxic loser gamer bf. idk. probably plays overwatch and league/valorant and gets mad and screams into that poor mic of his..

“where’s our GODDAMN lucio?!- w-WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING REIN-“

definitely makes random dad noises…

speaking of dad noises, he has one of those la-z-y boy recliners that has a built in cup holder, back massager, and led lights or some shit

i think he gives off a sort of “older brothers best friend” typa vibe… which ALSO means that he’s definitely a bully and teases the absolute hell out of you.

one day he’ll go to town on some show you seem to enjoy. “isn’t this show for kids?”, “ babe why the fuck does the main character look like that?”, “you’ve seriously watched 3 seasons of this bullshit?-“

and then like the very next day he’ll be like “baby, why aren’t you watching that show you like so much?

MOTHERFUCKER YOU-

also correct me if i’m wrong but isn’t keegan’s love language acts of service? whether it’s big or small, he’ll always want to do something for you!

tying your shoes

opening doors/pulling out chairs

helping you out with the laundry

putting gas in your car

making you a cup of coffee/tea/anything in the morning

helping you out with dinner

taking the time to ask you how you are, if there’s anything you wanna talk about. 

how he loves watching your eyes light up and widen and how your lips will contort into that “stupid little smile of yours” (his words, not mine!), and how you get all excited and your muscles don’t look so tense anymore.

he’s mean but he cares :(

keegan is that person we all know whose literally an endless pit. eating anything and everything in sight (he’s just like me fr).

he will eat tomates whole

and more than likely brags about his “human vacuum” ability to everyone he meets. 

is most likely the person who asks if you’re gonna finish something on your plate you haven’t even touched yet.

speaking of eating everything in sight, when he’s the one making dinner, he’ll serve you 2-3x the amount you usually eat. but he just wants to make sure that you’re okay and eating! (eat your food, people!)

keegan’s just a really crazy silly wacky guy!

he sends you and the guys memes that only he understands.

and he MAKES the memes that only he understands.

the one time you guys can even look his memes without trying to decipher the four color theorem first, they usually look something like this: 

circling back to when i mentioned that he bullies and teases you every chance he gets- he teases you ALL the time, in private AND in public!!!

“babe- it was literally just like that time when you shot milk outta your nose and then you tripped and fell over-” he shouts, in front of the rest of the ghosts

“guys this one time my girl and i were walking somewhere downtown- and- and we saw a lizard scurrying along the ground- and she LITERALLY almost crapped herself-“ 

this guy will almost always automatically bust into a full song & dance routine whenever he hears taylor swift on the radio. 

does he necessarily like taylor? fuucckk no! but IS going to be bussin it down to ‘love song?" fuccckkkk yea!

‘party in the USA?’ you’re curled up on the bed, reading a book, when you’re suddenly transported into a stadium with 50,000 people screaming and the voice of miley cyrus is engulfing your ear canals. minus the fact that you’re not in a stadium, and 50,000 aren’t screaming and jumping around you. it’s keegan and his portable speaker blaring the obnoxiously loud music, while doing backflips n shit on your guys’ shared bed, messing up the sheets and prompting the dogs to come running in right after him.

he’s insane. i love him.

[bastila-s]

Baldur's Gate 3 Screenshot Tutorial

Hi, I decided to make a more in-depth guide for my twitter followers, as I'm super limited in characters and formatting options over there.

For this tutorial, I'll explain how you can enhance your screenshots. I'll divide it into five parts: ReShade, making your screenshots high resolution, camera mods, photography basics, and post-processing. By the end of following all of these steps, you should have something way better than the start!

I recommend going through this tutorial downloading things step-by-step for the first three parts, as it'll help you to quickly identify where you've gone wrong if you have any issues.

1. ReShade ReShade is a post-processing tool that allows you to change the look of a game with an array of different effects and adjustments to use. It can be a lot to wrap your head around at first, so I recommend starting off by finding a ReShade preset that speaks to you from this page if you're not already familiar with using it. The mod authors should explain how to download it. I find 22:20 of this YouTube video to be helpful to introduce ReShade if you're completely new to it. This video is for the Sims 4, but ReShade typically works the same across different games. Now that ReShade is downloaded, we can get depth of field working within the ReShade. This step is optional. Depth of field refers to what will be in focus in your screenshot, and what will be blurred. It's essentially simulating shooting with a camera, like so:

To get this effect working, you need to follow this tutorial within the ReShade menu.

2. Making Your Screenshots High Resolution Typically, Baldur's Gate 3 is ran in 1920x1080 resolution, or standard HD (unless you have a higher resolution monitor and are running the game in 4k, in which case, you can ignore this step if you'd like). This is definitely an acceptable quality, but if you'd like to capture any detail, you're not going to get much out of this. To get a better quality image, there are two ways to achieve this. The first method is through hotsampling. Hotsampling is briefly running a game in a much higher resolution than your monitor supports, allowing you to capture screenshots with incredible detail, then bringing it back down to a native playable resolution. To hotsample, you'll either need to use the BG3 camera tool, or SRWE. For either of these hotsampling tools, it's important that you've downloaded ReShade, or they will not work.

Once you have either of these downloaded, make sure your game is running in windowed mode. If you have more than one monitor, you need to change your display to show only on one screen. Or again, this will not work.

Next, you're going to want to make sure you have a key set for taking screenshots in ReShade, as well as making sure you like the folder where your screenshots are set to be saved. You can find this in the settings tab. Once you have those set, you're ready to take really HD screenshots!

To do that, you want to set your game's resolution to 2x, or even 3x what it's currently displayed as. Once it's set, your game screen is going to look giant and probably run way off your monitor. This is a sign it's working! Once it looks like this, press the screenshot key you set earlier within ReShade, and there you go, a nice big screenshot should be in the folder you set!

If you don't want to do hotsampling, and if you have a Nvidia graphics card, you can download their their app, which can take resampled screenshots. It won't be as high quality as hotsampling, but still better than standard HD.

3. Camera Mods

There are two camera mods that I know of for BG3. One is paid, the other is not.

The first one is the Native Camera Tweaks mod. This mod allows you to move the camera around more freely as you're traversing the world, but in cutscenes you'll still be stuck.

The second one is the paid one, but it allows for total freedom within the game, even during cutscenes. This tool is also very helpful for hotsampling. Within this tool, it's very useful to configure your own controls for moving the camera around in game, as well as setting a key you'll remember for pausing the game so you can set up a screenshot. I changed the movement keys to be wasd and the keys to change the angle of my camera side to side/up and down to the arrow keys.

4. Photography Basics

Taking screenshots in a game is a lot like doing photography irl tbh lol, same rules mostly apply. You of course want to do the basics like making sure your subject is in focus, it's not too dark or too light. But some other tips for people not very familiar with taking photos to take note of are:

Make sure if you're taking a photo of a person, the top of their head is within frame

Try and either make sure someone is front and center, or in the rule of thirds

Pay attention to the lighting, sometimes it's too bright or too dull. Sometimes it's unflattering in certain angles. Lighting will always make a huge difference

5. Post-Processing

You can now leave your screenshot as is, or edit it further with a photo editing software! I recommend using Photopea, as it offers basically everything Photoshop does without the insane price tag. From here you can do whatever you feel is best to enhance your image.

And that's all! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and if you get stuck anywhere in this tutorial, don't feel bad. A lot of this stuff is just trial and error, but if you're very persistent with it, I promise you'll get these working. Also I would just like to mention that a lot of this stuff applies to taking screenshots in a lot of games! So you can take this knowledge with you elsewhere <3

If you happened to follow all this, please send in an image of your Tav you took!

[campbyler]

our chapters average at 27,000 words, the total fic length is already 3x the average novel length, and we lost one of the authors working on this fic. it must be so nice to only have to endure the wait for a chapter to be uploaded so that you can interact with it rather than being the one to actually write it.

im going to be cruel (no pun intended) to be kind: this is such an intense externalisation of blame. you are the ones in control of the fic length; the chapters could handle some heavy editing and it wouldnt make them any less wonderful (such as regarding the descriptions of mike and will's internal thoughts, not the action between the characters themselves). fic is free and its a gift to be able to read works that inspire our hearts and minds while we wait for the show, but then again, when at the stern of a juggernaut work such as this, one that will inevitably have many followers chomping at the bit on tumblr as well as ao3 (as you designed it to have!), you surely must be aware of something that only usually exists in professional marketing spaces involving customers + brand IP: the relationship between consumer and creator, and what they can give each other.

not 'owe each other' - nothing is owed, except perhaps basic human kindness. fans want your work, and its free, so we should be grateful; likewise, you want readers, feedback and clicks, and that should be free, too. but in order for this to work smoothly, there has to be fair give and take. i mean, if you wanted to monetize the fic i'm sure many people would pay to read it, but thats beside the point here.

what fans of this fic simply want is the same honesty and self-awareness from you that they might expect from any artist who has embarked on such am ambitious project. and this doesnt just mean transparency about potential uploading dates (which is already much appreciated by the majority!), or notifications about how hard it is to balance work and life (something most people on the planet struggle with). it means total honesty and hard answers. people like to know where they stand. plenty of writers (both professional and fan alike) abandon works for months, years at a time, and if the work is THAT good, people will always be thrilled to see a return. it's the mucking people about that is what destroys relationships - no matter how good your reasons are.

your fic is wonderful and very, very memorable. you could take a big, undefined hiatus and people would, im sure, return, including me. seeing you admit that you have been prioritizing this fic over your mental health does not inspire confidence either, or even comfort - do i want to read something that has caused the creator such harm?

i think everything about this process would be happier for everyone if you set boundaries that work for you and didn't place blame elsewhere. after all, as you said, it's just a fanfic. it doesnt matter if you don't finish it. it doesnt matter if it takes all the way to s5 for 10.2 to release. everyone would, though, appreciate you taking a stance and being consistent (and therefore fair) to both yourselves and the readers.

please feel free to not post this publicly or do as you wish with it.

hello! thank you for your feedback and for sharing it in a way that is both kind and respectful. you make many valid points that i agree with -- we are in control of the word counts and could stand to edit down more, and we do recognize where being transparent about the reasons behind the chapter delays might not inspire confidence or comfort. i do, however, think that isolating one response/chain of responses to a particular ask is a little unfair, so i'd like to provide additional context.

i do not think that it's fair to say that we haven't been honest, self-aware, or fair, because we have been incredibly transparent throughout the entire run of the fic (over a year) about our writing process. just last month suni said she hadn't been working on 10.2 at all because abby had been visiting her house, and readily took ownership of that fact. there was a 4-month wait between chapters 9.1 and 9.2, and i was very open about the fact that i simply needed a break for at least the first of those months because i didn't want to write it. we have continued to maintain several times that we are not abandoning the fic, even if it takes longer between chapters, and have tried to stay as active as possible on the blog because we know that seeing us interact with asks Does inspire confidence. if you just scroll down and see how we have answered other asks inquiring about the upload, we responded kindly and respectfully.

what you interpreted as externalization of blame in that one (1!) ask response was me trying to provide perspective to someone who clearly lacked it. we understand that people will be frustrated about chapter delays, especially if we keep pushing them back, and this is also something that we have received feedback about before and tried to implement; however, it is also a double-edged sword where if we don't give an estimated upload, people get upset, or we give an estimated upload that we think is completely reasonable for us to achieve and then hurdles get in the way, whether it's writer's block or work or time with friends. i absolutely get the frustration on the receiving end, but something i have learned from being in this fandom for two years is that a pretty big majority of those who are interacting with fanworks are not creating it themselves, hence why my response -- while snippy and annoyed, because i was matching the energy, and will not apologize for that -- was contextualizing the whys behind the chapter delay: the chapters are long, the fic is long, we are down one entire body from where we started. the intention was not to shuck blame off of ourselves, but i get that intentions don't always translate into effect, so it's understandable that it was received differently.

we don't always respond to things perfectly. when we have a million and one asks inquiring about the next upload, one stray one that comes off the wrong way is likely going to set us off, because we are people, and this is not a job. we have set a boundary by disabling anon, and again, i cannot stress enough how much i appreciate that you've come to us with this feedback off-anon and with respect and decency. i get where you are coming from and again, agree with a lot of your points.

the only other thing i want to make clear is that this fic, no matter how much attention its garnered, should not be treated as a creator/consumer relationship that mirrors anything where the exchange of money is involved. not only is it unfair to apply this standard to fanworks, where it is illegal to monetize such content, but the entire purpose of fanworks is to celebrate what you are a fan of together. when you apply expectations on either end -- i am a fan of this work, therefore, people should create timely content for it; i am creating this fanwork, therefore, people should interact with it -- defeats the entire nature of fan-created work as a whole. while we have continued to be vocally grateful for the love and support our fic has been shown, we both maintain that we would continue writing and continue uploading even if we were getting less than half of the amount of interaction that we do. it's nice to have interaction, but not necessary, because we what write and post is done because we love it, and it's shared so that we can look back on it, so our friends can enjoy it, and anyone else who might want to. we are, of course, excited to share that world with anyone who cares -- we created the blog and the promo because we wanted to share it -- but that does not mean that the relationship between us and our readers should have expectations. we are all creating and enjoying this work for free for the sake of love for the characters, as the star trek obsessed housewives of the 60s (and the law) have intended.

i feel like this response is a bit jumbled so i apologize if anything isn't clear or hard to understand. thank you again for your time!

[jabberwocky-warrior]

Other ways they say "I love you"

///Magishift Club Edition///

Characters: Leona, Ruggie, Epel

Tags: Gendernetrual pronouns, Can be read as Selfinsert/Prefect/yuu/Twstsona, Pronouns used are only "you" ,

Tw / Cw : Implied relationship but you can read as pre-established, Food talk in ruggie's but only pizza mentioned by name, Reader/Prefect/Yuu is able to drive,

A/N: this is my first time writing like this. If I missed a TW tag please please PLEASE tell me. I am working on more of these with other characters. I wrote all of this for Leona and Sebek's, but it spiraled into more.

711 words | Not betaread | Quickly edited | tell me if i made mistakes

Writing undercut

Leona

“Pull over. Let me drive for awhile”

I think that regardless if youre Male, Female, or anything else Leona would still take a “protector” role. I think it's just how he is, not just because he’s a lion. I feel like his love language is protecting/providing. So making sure your fridge is stocked, You have a nice blanket for winter, and getting you a fan for the summer heat is more his style than verbalizing it.

I have this HC that he would pretend to get up before you both go to sleep to get water/ go to the bathroom but he’s really checking all your doors and windows to make sure they’re locked.

I think that the protective, caring side would lead him to prefer driving while you rest. It’s not a matter of thinking you’re a bad driver or not trusting you, it's a simple matter of wanting to do something for you.

“Watch your step”

He probably likes watching people eat pavement so I think its just a simple matter of not wanting you to get hurt.

He definitely holds the door open for you. Again regardless of your gender, he does this. You can be 3x his size he is still doing this.

Epel

“I’ll walk you home.”

A classic. Really this could go for all the boys but I can see Epel doing this clearly. He lives in the country on acres of land, surrounded by miles of trees. As someone who lives near the country, I can say It gets DARK at night. the street lights are normally a bit far apart and because there is less light pollution there isnt really any extra light. Trust me its not fun to walk alone. So having someone walk you home is super normal and more less expected.

Felmier family Headcanon: If Epel’s Grandma was out at someone else’s house his grandpa would go over to where she was when it got late so they could go home together, chatting and laughing as they walk. Epel’s parents carried this tradition on even doing it to Epel when he’d stay out late.

Even though you’re both at NRC and there is much more light at night, its no longer about comfort of someone walking with you and more about walking together. Just like his grandpa, Epel loves the time spent walking you to your dorm. The jokes and stories you too share. Just going over what your plan for the week is. It’s one of his favorite parts.

“It’s not heavy. I’m stronger than I look.”

You don't work on a farm for your whole life and not have upper body strength, Okay. I think kinda like Leona, Epel is a provider or wants to be. So being able to help you AND show off his muscles is not a chance he will pass up.

Ruggie

“I saved a piece for you.”

“Try some.”

Okay, so both of these have to do with food and it's not anything you haven't heard before BUT hear me out.

IRL when you don’t always have access to food, Going out of your way to share your food and enjoy it with another is something special. But going out of your way to save food for someone is normally reserved for family. If you have extra to give, give to your neighbor. But when you don't have that extra, everything is for family.

Even if Ruggie is no longer worrying about food, those habits die hard. When he saves a slice of pizza for you just because he thinks you will enjoy it, it means something more than just making sure you’ve eaten. He knows you’ve eaten, there is food in the cafeteria, and in your dorm, and he even knows Sam would give you freebies if you didn't have food. So it's more about just sharing it with you. The experience of eating together so to speak.

I do think there is an aspect of it being about making sure someone he cares for has a full belly. Him wanting to make sure you never go to bed hungry or have to worry about food. I don’t think it would be his main love language but food is definitely one of his ways to show he cares.

=================

I don't think I wrote Ruggie's part right. And I think I could have done better in Epel's part but I really like this series. It's a little hard sometimes for me to find my wording. This is a problem I deal with IRL too so I hope yall understood what I was saying. I'm trying yall.

I really like this series idea and I already have the basketball club version drafted I just have to edit it. So expect that at some point.

Anyway, Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. this was my first time writing this style. As always feel free to send asks and questions to me!!

[animatedjen]

I'm curious, how long does it usually take you to take a picture in Survior? You post quite a bit, so I'd honestly be very interested in hearing about your overall process if ur willing to share. What decides what picture u take? Do u ever use the lights? (I have the vaguest knowledge about how to light subjects and I just can't get it propely in my head, so I personally find that a bit difficult, tbh. Both irl and otherwise.) Do u do something w them outside of the in game photomode, aside from cropping? Do u ever consciously think about composition like the golden ratio or the 3x3 grid? Do you spend a lot of time setting them up or is it more spontaneous? I'd love to know just bc I find myself very fascinated by them and I'd like to know what goes into them (:

- @frunbuns

Love these questions @frunbuns! Though I do genuinely wonder if I'm posting too much sometimes 🫠 Both because A) I don't want to swamp the Jedi tags, and B) it probably means I'm playing Survivor instead of sleeping and that's... not helpful haha.

Answers under the cut!

What decides what picture u take? Do you spend a lot of time setting them up or is it more spontaneous? - Sometimes I'll have a very specific idea (like the Cal silhouette photo or these portraits of Bode) so everyone gets posed and lit very intentionally. But most photos are "discovered" while exploring the environments, watching different character animations, etc. I'm constantly pausing and zooming in with photomode to see what a moment looks like.

I want to make a video tutorial that walks through the entire process (because describing this stuff with words is a struggle) so let me know if you have any specific questions!

Deciding on a photo theme or goal is helpful though. If I want to take photos of Cal and Merrin fighting together, I'll obnoxiously follow Merrin around and make sure Cal is near her while attacking the Jedha patrols. There'll be a bunch of duds and a few cool moments (and a bit of electrocution, sorry Cal)

Do u ever use the lights? - Always! The lights make a huge difference in photomode, but I know they're tricky to use. I posted a mini tutorial on lighting recently, but it goes through general concepts rather than any technical how-to. Definitely want to break down the process more in a video tutorial.

Do u do something w them outside of the in game photomode, aside from cropping? - I'll edit my favorite photos by adding more contrast, either from the built-in phone app or a photo editing software. This ask has a good before/after example.

Do u ever consciously think about composition like the golden ratio or the 3x3 grid? - Sometimes! I've been in the photo/video industry for almost nine years (oof that makes me feel old) so a lot of that experience probably shows up in my photomode compositions. I like shooting IRL portraits with a telephoto lens, so these virtual portraits are almost always at 3x-4x zoom to mimic that look.

Hope some of this is helpful! Survivor's photomode is really fun and I love seeing how other people use it 🙌

[dangermousie]

All caught up with Fox Matchmaker Spirit.

1. I think we are supposed to feel bad Princess Dimwit is dead but I am just happy we are moving on from Stockholm Syndrome: The Love Story.

2. I agree with everyone who’s been saying this is like an old shoujo storywise - unfortunately that also extends to plot complexity. Plotwise, you can watch on 3x or in the background or even skip and ep and you would not be lost at all.

3. The design and CGI continue amazing.

4. I like the concept of the main OTP much more than the actual execution but we have storylines like “ML holds inside and protects the soul of his ancestor who he thinks FL was in love with as ML pines of unrequited love and heartbreak for said FL” and honestly at this plot point I genuinely can’t be bothered to care they don’t have much chemistry or their acting is limited. GIMMEEEE!

5. This is a show that would be great fodder for some super fun fanfic.

6. Not enough angst and intensity for me to be invested. I don’t really feel for the characters, not for real. I think some of it is directing which is mediocre.

7. I want those outfits!

[425599167]

Two weeks later, I worry Barriss's half of Tales of the Empire lacks staying power. It's something after eleven years, but not enough.

It confirmed what Barriss fans knew the whole time, that Barriss cherished the ideals of the Jedi and is not irredeemably evil, especially when compared to other servants of the Empire. But it didn't do much to convince casual fans, it's too short to explore her thoroughly and didn't build interest in her character. I've been picking apart her brain for a decade, I don't expect average viewers to know what I know and TotE didn't show them.

It also doesn't leave much room for future appearances. Considering Lyn's desertion and Ahsoka's implied involvement, Ep 6 takes place anywhere between the Kenobi show and Twilight of the Apprentice, 9-3 BBY. Maybe ANH at the latest since we don't know exactly when Ahsoka left Malachor or what she did after. Since Lyn looks exactly the same, the shorter time skip seems more probable, but that's not conclusive. Barriss presumably lived in that snowy area for a few years to become known locally, and went unnoticed by the inquisitors since her escape. She isn't actively involved with the Rebellion.

Then there's her ambiguous death. I know it's Star Wars, nothing is unsurvivable and Barriss could return Somehow, but this is getting absurd. Barriss sent away her attendants and told them not to come back, implying she didn't expect to survive, she seems accepting as Lyn holds her, and her breathing stops. Animation isn't easy, they could've picked any environment for this episode, they chose a snowy area where breath becomes visible so it could be seen stopping. This franchise should not rely on its audience expecting increasingly implausible fake-outs.

If she's dead, there's nothing left to do. If she's alive, she's also unusually aged, possibly due to sacrificing her lifespan for healing purposes. That's not confirmed or textually supported, it's just people guessing about a visibly extreme change, and I don't have any better explanation. Her unnamed attendants call her "wise mother", fans are saying she's a milf now. Guys, she's in her late-20s to mid-30s depending on what year this is. Barriss looks older than Luminara, and Mirialans can live ~3x longer than humans, aging so much from stress seems unlikely. She's not just aging worse than Obi-Wan, she's aging worse than the clones. She'll probably keep sacrificing herself to death in a decade at this rate, limiting what can be done with her.

For another thing, I've only seen one person make fanart with Barriss's latest look. I know people generally like the haircut, but the outfit sure didn't leave much impression. A new hood & robes reconnecting her to her culture would've been more appropriate. She didn't get any more tattoos suggestive of later adventures, either.

Looking around at the fan response, the interest in Barriss plummeted within a week of the premiere, nobody new got invested. Barriss fans won the battle and lost the war.

[ladysophiebeckett]

Some of you are being really weird about Aura Maria in regards to her treatment of Freddy and her overall character\personality traits. Overall, if you dislike a character its fine. It means nothing to me. But these posts about Aura Maria are getting a little misogynistic.

The facts are, that yes--she is immature, she does string Freddy along, she is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of men like her.

You know who else is immature, strings someone around, is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of women like them?

This guy right here.He's gonna string around his assistant for at least half a novela.

But there's already some excellent meta on Aura Maria and Freddy vs Betty and Armando and u can read them here and here. so I'm not gonna get into that.

Again, if you don't like Aura Maria thats fine. She's a flawed character in a show with other flawed characters. I don't like Patricia, for example. I think she's annoying, she's mean, her goal is to find a man to fix all her problems and she fails at it. She's immature. She's classist. She gets paid 3x more than the other secretaries bc she's a nepo hire and yet still can't make any payments bc she's terrible with money. I could go and on.

But a lot of you like her and sympathize with her and her problems and how nobody wants to help her.

Aura Maria is also sympathetic character. She became a teen mom. The guy that got her pregnant is not in the kid's life nor in hers. She's a receptionist at a company who's alternate slogan is 'women don't advance here'. Her parents kick her and her son out, yes it was a consequence of Aura Maria's party girl antics. But that's not a good enough reason to kick out your daughter and grandson. Knowing that she's a receptionist and doesn't make much money to begin with.

And then the Mario of it all. No, she shouldn't have gotten involved with him but he's the one in the position of power. He shouldn't have gotten involved with her, he shouldn't have encouraged it, nor should he have been seeing her and Patricia at the same time. Both women who work where HE works. And who does he want to fire when he gets caught? Aura Maria. She's the one who gets the low end of the stick.

Aura Maria and Patricia are looking for men with money to support them and don't do well in this endeavor bc the only man that looks like a prospect is using them in some way. That or the men they encounter don't take them seriously.

Freddy likes Aura Maria and yeah she does like him but she doesn't take him seriously as a prospect bc he's not rich and when you're a poor young single mom--bc REMINDER Aura Maria is in her early 20s forced to grow up quickly (she was a child having a child)--living in your friend's\co workers house--he doesn't completely fulfill her list of requirements of what she needs financially. She's not looking at the full picture. Much like Patricia, who doesn't look at the full picture when it comes to her transactional relationship with Nicolas.

So because Aura Maria mismanges her relationship with Freddy, I'm supposed to what? Have her burned at the stake? That because Freddy is kind to her, and does things out of his own free will over and over again, that Aura Maria needs to be devoted to him? Automatically? Because people think she owes him?

If you don't like Aura Maria, that's fine. But a lot of the posts I've seen in the general tag are past not liking a character bc the vibes are off--it's becoming about hating her bc she's not reciprocating to one guy bc you think he's earned it. Or it's about her not being a good mother bc she's not acting 'like a mother'. And want to see her punished for it as a result, as if getting sexually harassed by Gutierrez (ON TWO OCCASIONS) isn't punishment on it's own.

Because reminder (again)---that Mario AND Gutierrez have taken advantage of Aura Maria in some way bc of their position of power. Bc Aura Maria is young, beautiful, and poor. She can be easily be taken advantage of and tossed away. (Much like another character who gets utilized as a consequence of financial fraud)

But Freddy is the true victim in all of this bc Aura Maria sometimes take advantage of his kindness. Do you realize how dumb that sounds?

There is a double standard in how Aura Maria is being viewed bc she's not acting grateful or humble or self sacrificing enough to gain sympathy. She's being judged solely on how she's treating (1) man and not about all the other factors she's living in--some of them out of her control.

If one can feel bad for Patricia even tho it's primarily her fault that she's in the predicaments she's in, then I don't see why one can't extend that same grace to Aura Maria.

[mamadarama]

I was going through some posts I missed and came across the “tatsumi is mature but still does 19 year old things” and I just wanna say I’ve never been able to put it into words when my friends ask but like. That’s exactly what I love about this game.

We’ve got scandals and drama and weird crypto currencies and convoluted backstories of implied murder or identity theft or military shit or relations to underground gang activity or so SO much more and yet the writers still succeed in reminding you that this is a game full of high schoolers.

Natume was one of the five oddballs and suffered through so much during the war where it affects him to this day, but he also refers to his tech savvy and love of the occult as magic and loves the junior he “adopted” to death. Despite Aira struggling against every odd to become a real idol he still buys merch and looks on the internet to look for content of the ones he likes. Rinne was destined to become the monarch of his homeland but ran away in an attempt to find happiness and acceptance and is an amazing strategist who uses it to take down corruption, but his sense of humor is entirely made up of sex jokes and romantic teasing like Aira being “hiiro’s little girlfriend”. The amount of characters that assign themselves the mom friend role just because. Trickstar. I don’t think I need to explain Trickstar-

Like this game has made me cry so many times and it has its ridiculous moments but it also has its genuine ones while also being the most teenage shit I’ve seen in my life and I feel like so few media can balance those and still have a decent story like that. Sorry for the long ass post I just have so many feelings about this kind of stuff 😭

YEAH this is exactly what i was talking about in a previous ask when i said i have nothing meaningful to add to the enstars cast that isnt a headcanon . its all very well thought out and the interpersonal relationships are nuanced enough to feel realistic but outlandish enough to be interesting .

worldbuilding and character design is one of my special interests and i say this any chance i can get: the most important part of building a character (and a story in general) is realizing the importance of comedic irony and comedy as a whole regardless of genre or tone. it makes characters feel more 3 dimensional and relatable because people arent stagnant and theres multiple facets to any individuals personality (this is also why some of the most popular animes of all time have filler episodes or funny bits that show the characters personalities, every event hits with 3x emotional impact the more you know about the characters as people but that's a different discussion) enstars does a really good job of this . like for example if wataru were to have had a realistic reaction to eichi starting the war it wouldnt be nearly as good of a story. the fact that eichis ridiculous ass backwards plan to get wataru to fall in love with him actually worked is a perfect example of comedy used to make a story more interesting. another thing similar to this is how sometimes its better to not detail something and let characters do things for a mundane reason or even no reason at all . for example subaru hating chiaki just because he annoys him, or shinobu being on the broadcasting team despite his character not being associated with technology otherwise and therefore having no real backstory on why he likes radio stuff. its all really well planned worldbuilding with an insane amount of subtle details , which is why enstars is one of my favorite stories to analyze . the only thing i could possibly want more out of it is hardcore tragedy but thats entirely a personal preference rather than a critique because im a slut for catharsis and i love sad endings , especially ones where characters die . (don't worry im in therapy)

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - STAR TREK

PROPAGANDA

T'Pol

1.) dressed as a sex object. far more qualified & experienced than the (male) captain yet treated as less capable. had her agency removed when her past rape was revealed against her wishes & the episode treated it as a good thing. her taking command of the ship got humanity wiped out in an alternate timeline & she "redeemed herself" by becoming a housewife. there was a scene where the captain fell face first into her boobs. whatever they paid her actress, it should have been at least 3x more

2.) i think you can most clearly see the misogyny t'pol deals with in her costuming and makeup. she is given clear special treatment to make her look "more attractive": she wears catsuits throughout the show (despite neither institution she works for having any other similar uniforms, even for other women), sexy little silk pajamas, a cropped jumpsuit one time (even tho…it's a one piece?? and makes no sense to be cropped????), and SFX makeup that doesnt make her look as "alien" as other members of the literal alien species she's a part of. enterprise's main crime is sexualization, and while everyone (quite literally EVERY member of the cast) is hit with it at least once, t'pol pretty much never gets a break. there's a difference between sexy and overly sexualized, and ent is FAR into the over sexualized side of that spectrum. love you t'pol wish your canon was better xoxo

3.) The classic “Rick Berman Star Trek needs a woman who is strong and competent and part of the crew but gets skintight jumpsuits with low necklines instead of standard issue Starfleet uniforms to show cleavage and keep the male audience on board”.

Kes

1.) Poor Kes had it so bad. She's an Ocampan, which is a kind of alien with psychic powers and a 9-year long life-span. I was pretty interested in what they were going to do with her character when I started watching because in theory with the show having seven seasons, we could have seen her go through pretty much her whole life span over the course of the show. Unfortunately, most of her character is tied up in her terrible boyfriend Neelix, who is at a lower estimate in his mid 30s, and at an upper estimate his mid 50. He met her and started dating her while she was taken prisoner after being kidnapped. Neelix is mostly meant to be comic relief, he acts like an annoying, forcefully cheerful clown for the majority of his time on-screen (when he's not having war flashbacks) except for when he's interacting with Kes. With Kes he is possessive, controlling and manipulative. He's constantly accusing her of trying to cheat on him or leave him, throwing himself pity parties whenever she talks to another man and belittling her. And worst of all he's often framed as being in the right. She hardly gets any screen-time that isn't somehow actually about her boyfriend, the Doctor she's the assistant of or another male crew member who has a crush on her (also too old for her). When she does it's pretty much always focused on her psychic powers and not her as a person.

Some of the highlights of her time on the show include the time that Neelix's lungs were stolen, and after he spends the whole episode feeling sorry for himself and accusing her of being happy about it because he thinks she wants to leave him she donates him one of her lungs. Then there's the time some space anomaly makes her prematurely fertile so she has to decide if she ever wants kids right at that moment, and for some reason, almost the whole episode is focused on whether Neelix wants kids. She eventually breaks up with Neelix. Which is great! But she was possessed at the time. So she didn't even get to do that herself.

She was written off the show at the start of season 4 when another character was added and they needed to boot someone. She "ascends to a higher plane of existence". And then everyone on the crew proceeds to completely forget her about her straight afterwards. I'm not sure anyone was actually sad about her essentially dying. She comes back in a later episode called "Fury" which is about her trying to take revenge on the crew for her poor treatment. You'd think this would be good. But for some reason, she's mostly angry at the captain for allowing her to get on the ship in the first place, despite one of her few character traits being that she's adventurous and always wanting to learn things that no one else has. So the episode mostly focuses on trying to pick apart one of the only parts of her character that was well-defined and consistent. Her past self does tell her that she's forgotten what she truly wanted or something to talk her out of her revenge plan. I'm not really sure what they were going for. She tells the captain she was only an innocent child, so she shouldn't have been allowed to make the decision to get on the ship. She is never shown to be angry at Neelix. The man who started dating her when she was according to her future self a child. And a prisoner.

2.) She's kind of the sexy born yesterday character who's already taken. She's an alien whose race only lives nine years, so when i say that she got married at two that's a bit less alarming. She lived underground her "whole" life (about a year and a half) before she left her town, to find the surface, got kidnapped and then rescued by Neelix, a middle-aged scavenger/smuggler/chef who looks like a Cats character from a regular aging alien race. Neelix promises to show her new places and they apparently fall in love and get married and then Neelix takes her to the Voyager, and she leaves her home forever. At the age of 2. She lived in a cave her whole life, then found this gross little man, married him for some reason, and then was convinced to leave everything she had ever known, her entire family and life, to get on a star ship whose express mission was getting to the other side of the universe as fast as they were able.

Once on the ship she was able to find some independence and her own interests, and eventually left neelix, but god their entire relationship was really just loser old man and naive teenager and it was soooooooo uncomfortable

3.) I rewatched the Kes parts of Voyager. The "General Observations" section can be taken as a TL;DR (sorry for the essay). Here are a few not-so-fun facts about Kes:

General Observations:

Kes was kidnapped 4 times over the course of the show.

Kes often talks like a child especially early on in the show. She acts like a classic Disney Princess; sweet, but not quite understanding what's going on around her.

A lot of Kes's character revolves around the fact that she is very young, and a lot of the more uncomfortable aspects of her treatment revolve around this too. It's not like it's an impossible concept to pull off, in the same show the EMH is actually younger than Kes, and has several romantic relationships that don't feel super creepy in the same way most of Kes's do. This is because the writers don't make him act like a child and they actually give him agency in his relationships.

Kes's people, the Ocampa, live underground on a desert planet. Kes travelled to the surface when she was less than 1 year old, where she was captured by the people living there and tortured for information using "every method of persuasion" that they know. This is where she met and started dating Neelix. He explicitly says he thinks she is dating him because she owes him for getting her out of that situation, and yet it seems like the writers think this is a cute and heartwarming relationship.

Nearly all of her screen time is devoted to emotionally counseling the men around her, helping their character development, comforting and caring for them. She is hardly ever shown to have negative emotions ("Fury" aside), and then it's generally only when a man she cares about is in trouble. This includes when she is kidnapped. Even then she has to be calm, understanding and empathetic.

Kes's established character traits: curious, smart, psychic, caring, kind, young, innocent, naive. Pretty much all of these get tossed out the window in "Fury". She kills people she's known most of her life and tries to sell everyone out to organ harvesters because she gets "confused". She decides not to do this in the end because her younger self tells her she's acting out of character. This episode is one of the worst instances of character assassination I have ever seen.

In about 10 of her 70 total episodes on the show Kes makes a significant contribution to the plot that is not focused on a man. Most of those were more her acting as a psychic plot device rather than anything about her as an actual character. There was only one episode "Before and After", which I would count as truly being devoted to Kes as a character.

Practically every man Kes comes across is attracted to her. Often her attractiveness is mentioned in the same breath as the fact that she is literally a 1-3 year old.

Kes's love interests: Neelix, the EMH, Tom Paris, Tuvix, Ameron (while possessed), Nori (while possessed), Zahir. Aside from Zahir, she has pretty much no agency in any of these relationships.

Neelix calls Kes "sweetie", and talks to her like she's a child. When he's not shouting at her, anyway. Kes unconditionally loves and adores him for some reason.

Observations while watching:

When Neelix's lungs are stolen Kes refuses to leave his side and one of the first things she does is offer to donate one of her own, refuses to let the EMH perform any medical procedures until she's sure it's safe. Meanwhile, Neelix goes on a jealous rant at her because she called another man by his first name.

When Kes donates a lung Neelix refuses at first because the operation would be too dangerous, but Kes says "you've done so much for me, let me give you something once", implying that Kes owes him a lung for him helping free her from the people torturing her.

The episode "Elogium" was apparently meant to be a metaphor for teen pregnancy. With Kes as the teen and Neelix (whose actor says that he sees him as being in his 50s) as the father.

Ocampan puberty apparently happens between the ages of 4 and 5. Kes starts the series at less than 1 year old, and leaves at 3. She is apparently at an age where it would be dangerous to conceive a child in "Elogium". She is not sure she is finished growing. She has been dating Neelix for about a year (possibly more) at this point.

When the EMH hallucinates Kes as his wife, she makes him promise not to tell Neelix, because he tends to get "a little jealous"

In "Elogium", Neelix interrogates Kes over the fact that Tom Paris says "see you later" to her because he "Sees the way he looks at (her). (He) used to look at women that way (he) knows what it means." Neelix is later implied to be in the right here, Kes is being naive thinking Tom Paris could be her friend, apparently.

In "Twisted" Kes turns two years old. Tom Paris gives her a locket for her birthday. Neelix gets pissed off because he thinks he's trying to charm her. Neelix is, again framed as being in the right here.

Kes has a very good memory and is able to remember where everyone's rooms are. When she demonstrates this, Neelix implies she knows this because she's slept with every man on the ship. At the end of this episode, Kes decides to put his photo in her locket to always keep him close.

When Kes is upset that Neelix attacked Tom Paris over her, the EMH tells her she should consider herself lucky to have two men fighting over her.

Tom Paris admits to Neelix that he finds Kes attractive, but says that he won't try anything with her because he respects Neelix. He asks if Neelix would allow him to be her friend. Because who cares what Kes wants right? I guess if Neelix had said no he would have just stopped talking to her?

Tom says Kes is very devoted to Neelix, and Neelix admits he thinks she's only with him because he saved her life and she's grateful he freed her from captivity and she owes him. He is dating her despite this. This is never addressed.

Tanis, another Ocampan, calls her innocent and naive, so she seems quite young even by the standards of her own species.

Tuvix, having inherited Neelix's manipulative tendencies tries to manipulate Kes into begging the captain for his life.

Kes gets kidnapped by caveman aliens. When someone comes to rescue her, the cavemen try to trade another woman to them so they can keep Kes.

Kes goes into a coma and acts as the damsel in distress again in "Sacred Ground"

"This is typical of you Neelix… it bothers you that I'm making friends of my own, you always have to involve yourself somehow." "You can spend time with anyone you want" "As long as I spend most of it with you… I never realised a relationship could be any different. I've never been with anyone but you." Kes when she breaks up with Neelix. Except this isn't Kes because she's actually possessed at the time. She doesn't even get agency in her own breakup.

Kes is dressed in skintight leather trousers and high heels and tries to seduce everyone while possessed by a male warlord. He describes Kes as a "little girl".

In "Darkling" Kes starts wearing form fitting jumpsuits somewhat similar to the ones Seven of Nine wears (though not quite as tight). This is possibly because she's supposed to look more mature, and she starts having "young adult" storylines instead of teenager storylines.

"Everyone seems to be treating me like a child, I'm three years old now"

The EMH kidnaps Kes in "Darkling" when he turns temporarily evil. His treatment of her in this episode includes shoving her into a wall and putting his hand around her neck, repeatedly grabbing and shoving her, holding her at gunpoint and throwing her off a cliff.

The evil EMH kidnaps Kes because she wants to leave the ship to travel with her new boyfriend. This is framed as the good inside of him because he is trying to "protect" her. Kes decides to stay on the ship because of this. She never expresses any negative emotions about this incident.

In "Before and After" Kes goes through her entire life in reverse. In the future she sees, she has married Tom Paris and had a daughter with him, and her daughter has a child with Harry Kim, who was the best man at Kes and Tom's wedding. This is by far the best Kes episode, but she never really gets to react to anything that happens in it. Soon after this she ascends to a higher plane of existence in "The Gift".

In "Before and After" Kes sees threats in advance and warns the crew about them, preventing the Captain's death in the future. This isn't really acknowledged.

Half of "The Gift" is focused on Seven of Nine and the Borg. Not even Kes's send-off episode is really focused on her.

In "The Gift", Neelix and Kes have one final scene together. Neelix gets quite self-pitying again and says she broke up with him because he was holding her back. Kes says that wasn't it but doesn't say why it happened. This is the only time they directly talk about their breakup outside of when Kes was possessed.

When Kes decides to ascend, the captain begs her to reconsider. Kes insists she has not lost her judgement or come under an alien influence. Captain Janeway tells her she's family and tearfully embraces her. Tuvok puts out a candle in mourning (everyone forgets about her after this episode ends though).

In "Fury" Kes is back in physical form somehow, despite ascending into some higher plane of existence in the last episode she appeared. She is also much older in appearance.

In "Fury" Kes gets onto the ship, starts exploding everything she can with her psychic powers, kills everyone she comes across and goes back in time to the start of the show to kidnap herself.

Kes and Neelix have a scene in "Fury". It makes Neelix much nicer than he ever was in the early parts of the show (especially to Kes). He actually notices something is wrong and asks her how she is and prepares her favourite meal for her because she had a bad day. I'm not sure he ever even asked her how she was before. I guess at this point they must have wanted to pretend the relationship was a lot less creepy and unhealthy than it actually was. Especially since Kes is the villain of the episode.

Older Kes's plan in "Fury" is to travel back in time, sell out the people she spent the majority of her life with to organ harvesters so she can send her and her younger self back to her home world because the crew "abandoned her a long time ago". I think this manages to dismantle practically every established character trait she has.

Older Kes's explanation of her actions in "Fury": "You (Captain Janeway) took her (young Kes) from Ocampa. Her home. She's a prisoner on this ship. I was a child, you corrupted me. Your ideas. Exploration, discovery. I believed you. In three years I'm going to leave Voyager in search of higher things because you encouraged me to do it. You encouraged me to develop my mental abilities. What I found, I couldn't control it, it scared me… I trusted you!" Neelix was the one who took her from Ocampa. As noted before, Captain Janeway begged her not to ascend.

Old Kes is killed by the captain. They know something terrible happened to Kes when she ascended, but apparently all that they did was get Kes to record a video of herself saying that she shouldn't take revenge because it's not who she is. This worked for some reason, she says she killed everyone because she was confused.

Kes decides to go back to Ocampa. Due to the Ocampan lifespan, everyone she knew before she left is probably dead. To add insult to injury, Neelix is the last person she sees before she leaves for good.

[absolutebl]

10 BLs With Bad First Impressions

BLs that sounded terrible in their synopsizes or trailers or in the first few episodes but really are worth watching.  

1. My Lascivious Boss

Vietnam (202) YouTube 

Not that we got much of a synopsis (Vietnamese BL isn’t listed on MDL) but from the trailer I was very suspicious. It’s now one of my favorite VBLs with fantastic queer rep. Yes, the seme is a drunken idiot most of the time, so you have to be okay with that, but it’s totally worth it for the uke character and his hella gay besties. They are beyond adorable. Full review here.

2. He's Coming to Me

Thailand (2019) YouTube 

I hugely dislike the my ghost boyfriend trope because China (and now Korea Peach of Time and Thailand Something in My Room) has made me expect it to be sad. HCTM is one of the few exceptions from GMMTV with two heavy hitting actors and one of BL’s greatest coming out sequences. Full review here.

3. Gameboys

The Philippines (2020) NetFlix?

Pinoy BL is not my thing. Also I didn’t want to watch anything about quarantine while in quarantine. But everyone said I should, so I did, and I loved it. (*whispers* I do like See You After Quarantine? even better, tho.)

4. My Esports Genius Brother 

China (2021) Gaga  

A strangely cute somewhat incomprehensible censored magical realism BL micro series about fated mates who balance each other out and must find the courage to stay together. Way more gay than I thought China could get these days. Full review here. 

5. Great Men Academy

Thailand (2029) ?

I HATE body swap. I love this show. Is it BL? That’s open to debate. But I liked it despite the premise and that’s real rare for me.

6. We Best Love

Taiwan (2020) WeTV 

I read the synopsis for this and I was like, really Taiwan? Have you NO imagination? Just stuffed with classic overused tropes. There is literally nothing unique about this show. Yet it worked out GREAT because WBL is a poster child for pair chemistry carrying a BL and it’s now one of my favorites of all time. Full review here.

7. DNA Says Love You 

Taiwan (2022) Gaga

Terribly weak first 3 episodes but stick with and you’ll be glad you did. As expected from Taiwan the acting and intimacy is on point it’s just the initial paranormal investigation arc is off - fortunately we switch focus to Amber and then it becomes and gloriously queer show. Full review here. 

8. Secret Crush On You

There cringiest cringe to ever cringe (and I watched 90s Japanese comedies, so I should know). Look this one was really hard for me to watch all along (I started and stopped 3x), but most watchers felt like it got substantially better after the 4th episode. The support cast is amazing, the queer rep unprecedented, and the chemistry is fantastic. But the cringe never really stops. Perhaps this is a case of “in knowing it better the cringe is better understood” (sorry Austen). Full review here. 

9. My Tooth Your Love

Taiwan 2022 Viki & Gaga 

Look the pitch was this is a “romance involving a dentist and dentistry,” and that’s true, which is hella weird. For many this was (and is) a turn off but I don’t have that phobia, and I enjoy medical dramas, AND I like Taiwanese stuff even when it gets odd. And ya know what, this is an absolutely wonderful show. My highest rated Taiwanese BL of 2022. 

10. Be Love In House I Do 

Taiwan (2021) Viki 

Apparently Taiwan really isn’t great at beginnings because a lot of them ended up on this list. The whole premise of this show is absurd and the incoming boss with his rubber gloves is creepy, but it becomes such a romantic bit of business once it finds it stride: ridiculously saccharine, domestic, and hella hot. Trust me, just watch it. This is peak Taiwanese BL, if you wanna know what Taiwan does well, this is it, this is what they do. Full review here. 

(source) 

[just-here-with-my-thoughts]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged in the 20 Questions game by @the-little-moment and @kybercrystals94! It was fun to read both of your answers too! :D

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

15, although one of them is a collection containing multiple short stories :)

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

160,403. That's 3x 30k multi-chapter fics and the rest short stories :)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment, The Bad Batch. I have fond attachment to older stories for Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, and Iron Kingdoms as well.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1/ System Upgrade The Kaminoans upgrade Echo's cybernetics before he is cleared to join the Batch, and then he has to bond with his new squad. 2/ A Fair Price To Pay Crosshair is determined to break Omega out of Tantiss. Along the way, she saves him too. 3/ Test Subject Originally a one-shot, now the prequel/first part of System Upgrade. Echo being experimented on by the Kaminoans. 4/ Beach Days & Hair Braiding Nothing but sweet, tooth-rotting, brotherly fluff. Hunter, Omega and Crosshair on Pabu. 5/ Phobia 300 words, Omega helps the Batch deal with an unwelcome 8-legged guest ;)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I'm an inherently social creature. I always want you to know how much your comment means to me, and it's even better when we get a conversation going.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, this is probably a draw between Soup Of The Day and Presumed Dead. Definitely no positive outlook at the end of those.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Another toss-up between Beach Days & Hair Braiding and Human Weapon aka. the Birthday Cake Fic. Both set with everyone living happily on Pabu and both end with Hunter and Crosshair starting to regain some of their old brotherly closeness :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Haven't yet, apart from getting caught up in the AO3 bot comment fiasco!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do ;) My flavour is more to do with the emotional connection and closeness between two people who trust each other very much, M rather than E rating. I love a love story :')

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No but I get to brainstorm them all the time with @ninjadeathblade! The craziest one? There's been so many! But I want to say The Bad Batch/Mamma Mia crossover. Nobody was finding out who Omega's dad was in that because all the clones have the same DNA XD

11. (Question 11 was missing! So I wrote my own!) Which fic are you proud of but wish had gotten a bigger response from your readers?

Welcome To The Outpost got off to a slow start, and I wonder if it's because for half of the story it didn't include a single main character from the show? But the people who did read left such wonderful comments so I shall continue to consider this fic my underrated gem!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Adrenaline Crash by the fabulous @tech-o-mania

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

None of my published ones, but I literally spent my teen years writing fic by passing notes back and forth in class, me and my friends taking it in turns to add a few lines to the story!

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I don't think I have one? I am fairly open to reading anything and know how to use the back button if I don't like it. It's less about the characters involved and more about reading the same idiots-to-lovers trope in as many different ways possible.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Well it would be lovely to finish all my Iron Kingdoms inspired stories because I'm so attached to them, but it's also so sprawling and I have only me to motivate myself so... I guess that's not happening ^^;

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think it's the occasional absolutely devastating heart-breaking descriptive prose that sneaks its way into my writing :P

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Over-punctuation ^^; I tend to add punctuation every time I pause for thought, which means at times, there really isn't a lot of flow, to my writing, because the little reset counter in my head, forgets when the last time I stopped for a proper break is. Then I have to go back and edit it into sensible length sentences!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I have only used fantasy languages, but in Iron Kingdoms a large part of my main character's drive was her heritage so language played a significant part in that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Final Fantasy 8! Oh so long ago and sad to have lost it in many computer transfers since then. I think everyone should keep the fics they wrote when they were 14. I worked so hard on that story ;_;

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I have a lot of favourites but my number one is probably Adrenaline Crash. I am feral for Feral Hunter.

Tagging if you'd like to play! :- @royallykt @theproblemwithstardust @lifblogs @holdingonforheaven @tech-o-mania @fanfoolishness and anyone else who fancies copying the questions and letting me know about your writing ^_^