#they do change appearances a lot throughout the book tho

[ministarfruit]

day 3: your life is mine ♡

(femslashfeb prompt list)

[littleblueberryartist]

Hello! I’m relatively new to the genshin fandom and after doing Venti’s story quest I have decided that he is the favorite, but all of the fics I try to find with him he’s usually just a side character, so do you have any recommendations? :)

Sorry if it’s too much to ask you can ignore this if you want

Anon we are shaking hands!!! Venti's story quest really got a lot of people onto the Venti fan train huh XD

Also you're in luck because when ever I hyperfixate on a character I tend to scourer their ao3 tag like a dog digging holes in someone's yard (admittedly I've only begun organizing my bookmarks recently so I may miss a fic but it's fineeee)

Anyway onto the fic recs! (I'll mention the potential quest spoilers since I don't know how far into the game you are)

The Melody of a Gentle Breeze A recent fic I read and one I made art for! Nameless Bard/Venti's friend gets yeeted to the present learns about how the world has changed. I love how he's characterized here and how his relationship with venti is portrayed <3 (admittedly venti isn't the main focus here but you can feel his presence and influence on the fic and I adore that!!!)

Singing to the Mountains, Only My Echoes Sing Back This one is based on the Wings of Shimmering Galaxy (anniversary glider) description! It's about Venti's story and the fic ties it to song and I love it a ton!!!

Pure Sky This one is a lighter one that uses wine as a character study and honestly I love that! Venti and his love for Mond and their love for one another in return my beloved!!!!

Three Evenings Before the End THIS ONE THIS ONE IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FICS!! It talks about Venti's friend's throughout Mondstadt's history and the whole thing with repeating parallels and how he notices the similarities and differences between his friends throughout the ages,,, o u g h A lot of the stuff in the fic is regarding bits of old mondstadt and aristocratic mond lore that you can find in book, weapon and artifact descriptions in game so it's not quite spoilers. But you might get a little confused regarding the characters if you don't know the jist of mond's history sfdgdfs (the author has the second chapter dedicated to worldbuilding and lore speculations tho which is hella neat!!!!)

Event Horizon I THINK ABOUT THIS EVERY SINGLE DAY Not really spoilers but it does talk about the Cataclysm and destruction of Khaenri'ah + speculations(?) though a convo between Venti and Dain (The guy that narrates the character miscellanies and who first appears in game in Bough Keeper: Dainsleif and later on in subsequent archon quests)

The Archons (soldier, poet, king ANOTHER FAVE OF MINE! This one's a series about Venti and his interactions with the other archons!! I love how it shows the more serious side of him that others may not see along with his usual silly whimsy <3 Of course, since each fic talks about the archons we meet in each nation, spoilers for all the archon quests so far!

The Springtimes You Never Saw Okay this one's longer than the ones I've recommended so far (my ADHD fucks with my attention span so I tend to stick to one-shots for the most part) but it's so good!!!! I know I say that about all the fics here lmao but I do genuinely adore this fic. It's a canon divergent AU where Dvalin never gets poisoned during the fight with Durin 500 years ago and it's such a good character study of my boyyyyy Also while the fic is tagged xiaoven it's queerplatonic and the pairing doesn't take center stage (not that into shipping in general lol so I tend to prefer fics without ships or with them not as the main focus)

[allisonlol]

hey aliceee babyyy!

first things first, let me congrats you on achieving your 2k followers! as a fan and a friend, I'm genuinely proud of your accomplishment! my girl, all of your posts are top-tier content and you deserve each one of your followers!! 💞🖤

now, let me introduce myself for your match-up:

starting with my appearance, I have mid-long wavy hair that is naturally red, greenish-brown eyes, freckles, birthmarks, and (unfortunately) some s/h scars throughout my body. my height is something around 5'1 and 5'2 (1m58/1m60) and my body is an average hourglass. my style is dark academia, and I appreciate adding a lot of its aspects to my daily life.

my mbti type is intj, my enneagram is 5w4 (like yours) and I'm that typical introverted girl who loves staying inside surrounded by her books and blankets. I'm a calm and patient person (not that much) and my friends usually describe me as someone intelligent and considerate. and well, regardless of being soft and affectionate, I hate clinginess. like, I definitely can deal with clingy friends or s/o's, but I tend to go to the ones who understand my desire for personal space and whose love language isn't physical touch, but quality time.

however, I don't have that many friends, and, since I'm a quiet and cold person (mainly with strangers), people end up thinking of me as someone arrogant and go away. I'm also annoyingly ironic, especially during arguments. (and I'm kinda manipulative too, but we don't take about it 🤫).

talking about my hobbies, they are playing the piano/accordion, drawing, painting, reading and playing games like cards and chess. I love sunny days, classical music, tea, vintage stuff, and studying things like history, philosophy, and society itself. but I also hate crowded places, loud noises, and cold weather.

that's all, I guess.

desired fandom: BSD

NSFW? of course-

꧁♥ ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴘʀᴏɢʀᴇss… ♥꧂

i match you with . . . fyodor dostoevsky!

ok ok, i'm not just doing that bc u are a super mega simp for him!! it genuinely MAKES SENSE. i also had poe in mind, but the whole thing about hating clinginess and being a tad bit manipulative (me too girl) made me change it. anyway, shall we begin?

Relationship:

first of all, can i just say what an aesthetic couple you two are??

while fyodor tends to move around a lot for work purposes, you both illegally own an old-victorian style house on the outskirts of yokohama where you frequently stay

since both of you prefer to stay home rather than go out often, it's there that most of your time is spent together

^doing things like playing the piano / cello together, chess & card games (where you test your near equal intelligence against the other), and listening to classical music

outings are not nonexistent, tho! on sunny days, you'll convince fyodor to join you on walks through yokohama where you'll visit antique shops or bookstores

often scholarly conversations about history, sociology, and the psychology of humans <3

you and fyodor share an office, where you often work in a comfortable silence. the two of you share the kind of relationship where simply being in the other's presence is calming, and not many words are needed

fyodor tends to neglect his personal needs in favor of working, so you make sure to bring him tea and small trays of food every now and then

arguments are VERY rare, since you both are very logical and straightforward with your words (to each other, at least). it's unlikely you would ever misunderstand due to your similarities and deep understanding

although not being the most inclined to physical affections, fyodor frequently likes to give you head pats, kisses on the cheek, and snuggle together in bed while reading (especially on cold days)

and yes, you were able to convince him to read to you a few times. his voice and accent are so lovely and v calming to fall asleep to <3

NSFW

sex is not the most often occurrence due to your busy schedules, but when it does happen, DAMN does it leave you satisfied until the next time

with you, fyodor is a very intense person in bed

he adores your figure and every part of your body. insists that you look more ethereal than the most infamous portraits of goddesses in the past <3

the significant height and size difference between the two of you is definitely something that comes into play. sensing a sliiiight size kink in the way he likes to hold you down and make you feel powerless

degrading, but praises you at the same time. things like "you're such a pretty whore for me" and "what an obedient slut you are"

sex tires him out easily due to his "weaker constitution" so one good round is probably all you'll get at one time

favors positions like mating press so he can both hold you down and get to watch all the pretty expressions on ur face. makes fun of you for it too >:((

ALWAYS doms, but it you want him in the palm of your hand just give him head and tease him <33 will darkly glare down at you whilst also shaking and struggling to maintain his composure

oh also. breathy whimpers when he's close...that's all i have to say <3

[kittyandco]

YOU HATED CARRIE'S FILM ADAPTATION TOO?? Let's be friends, it's a travesty they changed the ending from the book so much !!!

HOLD ON HOLD ON NOW I DON'T HATE IT I DON'T

y'all listen to me tho: i see so much of my younger self in carrie. she's described as awkward, quiet, chubby, almost grotesque at times, but with the capacity to be beautiful (per the book's framing) if she wasn't a victim of her circumstances. i relate to carrie in many ways, still. that's why i root for her and appreciate her and love her

in my critique i mostly want to focus on her appearance, because it is not trivial or superficial in her case. she was ostracized for being "fat" (she was called a pig because she wasn't skinny, that's why the pig's blood poured on her at the dance specifically was important), for having acne, for dressing too modestly, for looking too severe and like an easy target at the same time.

i understand that it was the 70s and everyone on screen had to be skinny especially if portrayed as sympathetic hell it's still that way in 2023 lmao, and i do like sissy's portrayal of carrie, she's iconic! BUT THOSE ARE IMPORTANT DETAILS, ESPECIALLY TO ME, WHO COULD REALLY RELATE. the things people say to you, the way you are treated -- those things do not leave you for a long time.

of course that isn't the only reason i relate to her, but her appearance was described in detail many times throughout the book. and it all stems from her mother, and the primary plot is the relationship between them.

her mom overfed her on purpose, in part, so that she didn't get attention from men. carrie ate a lot of chocolate and other comfort foods to "fill the gaping hole inside" (or something to that effect), and then she'd notice that she would gain weight and see a new breakout, but she wouldn't care, because she felt hopeless anyway. she wore "unflattering" clothes because of her mother's ideas of modesty and to hide away from the shaming of her peers.

we really don't see any of that in the movie. as someone who used to binge at times like that, who gained a lot of weight due to depression in my younger teens, who didn't want to be seen but couldn't because people would target me and beat me down for YEARS... i could really relate to her that way. and i had no idea because up until 2021, i had only seen the movie (and i loved it, i still like it, but when She's Just Like Me For Real in the book, it's harder to accept some of the film's choices).

body image was a big theme in the book, and i wish that the movie would have explored that more. a lot of time was dedicated to it. carrie constantly lamented over it. i think it would have been more powerful if she looked more like herself on screen, especially to girlies like me

also i don't think margaret was as unhinged as she should have been aljaslksd

[ocdhuacheng]

i get that people genderbend male character to be female in mxtx stories (esp if those ppl are wlw) because the majority of characters are male and it is focused on mlm content. so i support wlw simping over cool necromancer lesbians you go girlies, but in general i tend to stay away from genderbend stuff because sooooo much of it is made by cis ppl and it can be a bit transphobic? it also a lot of the times falls into the cishet gender stereotype shit of "women big boobie slim waist small big lips big eyes, men big buff strong macho 8 pack square" which is! oh no cringe!

yeah EXACTLY like my thoughts too. bc the vast majority of genderbending made by cis ppl really is just. like you said. biological gender stereotype shit. i feel like most trans people i see are made pretty uncomfortable by this, and i can totally see why, so i am too. but at the same time i DO understand wlw who want more content with girls/wlw characters esp when there are so few to begin with. so like im kinda willing to give wlw the benefit of the doubt in this case even though i dont rly like to interact with it myself. but also, my beloved sisters in christ... baihe exists

the only genderbending ill really interact with is works with sqx, he xuan*, and hua cheng like since theyre the ones that are shown to or mentioned to change gender in canon. (ling wen too, tho tbh i dont rly care about male!ling wen lmfao, just for the sole reason that, well. i am a lesbian. tho i do have to say the lore behind her male form is actually rather compelling and i think if mxtx were more skilled and open to writing analysis about gender, it could lead to a very thoughtful and nuanced discussion of how ling wen views herself, rather than just if she looks like a cis woman shes a woman if she looks like a cis man shes a man. because iirc she only shapeshifted to get the extra power she had in her male form? that doesnt mean that she is now a man, but in those scenes the book automatically refers to her as such. would love an extra about ling wen's self image and gender. but no, we had to get the statue sex and weird underage amnesia stuff 🙄)

BUT ANYWAY like idk if it really counts as genderbending in tgcf's case? but either way i know mxtx made that ~gods and ghosts can change gender at will~ thing just as a haha comedic relief thing like i think them having the power to do that is totally cool but i do not think it was done respectfully at all, especially with sqx, since mxtx kind of either intentionally or not sends the message (at least to me) that you can only be trans if you pass as cis. ive said it a million times before and ill say it again but the way sqx is never referred to as a woman (by the characters, the narrative, and even THEMSELF) after they lose the ability to LOOK like a cis woman is so so infuriating to me. like theyre not going to just STOP being genderfluid/trans just bc they cant change their appearance. and also not to mention throughout the book they were just kinda treated as being silly and immature for wanting to change their gender in the first place, so, another win for transphobia i guess. though i can appreciate having a canon trans/genderfluid character, they definitely could have been written better in that regard

*while i love fem!he xuan... it did leave a kinda dirty taste in my mouth when mxtx had to make sure we knew that he xuan only did it to appease sqx, and actually hated being a woman. and the way it was talked about too like 'oh he was forced to be in a womans body so OF COURSE he was super pissed the entire time' like i cant explain it but it was just kind of upsetting. kinda transphobic and misogynist. one might even say,..... transmisogynist 🤔

this answer kinda ended up going on a tangent but yea lol thanks for the ask ^^

[fallenraffe]

Blaze (Dark in You #2) by Suzanne Wright

<b>3.5 stars</b>

ok so there was a lot of summarising going on here, it happeneded throughout the whole book, but the bulk of it was contained to the first 30% so that wasn't so bad - and I guess if you were reading this in real time, waiting for the next release, but not wanting to reread the previous books then all that was probably quite helpful - however it doesn't translate well to binge reading, cos there's a lot of repetition of stuff I've literally just read about.

that aside I really enjoyed this book, I loved being back with Harper & Knox, and the crumbs for Tanner & Devon + K2? ate them uppp

I do wish we got to see even more of T&D and K2, but at the same time I appreciate that H&K's book was focused on them (hopefully the same courtesy will apply for the other couples too) and I was v happy with every lil crumb thrown our way and happily lapped them up

Devon & Tanner, as if I didn't already love them to pieces after book 1, this book just made me live them even more, honestly I tried managing my expectations and not setting the bar too high for them but I just can't keep myself contained i love every teeny tiny interaction they have and can. not. wait. to get to their book (crossing all my fingers it won't disappoint)

Keenan & Khloe, tbqh I didn't much care for them after book 1, we mostly just saw Khloe in that, Keenan didn't feature that much and K2 barely had any actual interaction, not in book 2 tho! my level of excitement isn't quite what I have for D&T, but this book really put K2 on my radar, their dynamic was interesting, Khloe made sure the whole thing was fuckin hilarious, consider my interest piqued

Lucifer - an icon, he doesn't have a book yet, and what a shame, Id be so down to read about his escapades

Also interested in Larkens' story, I don't real care for the whole levi&piper situation based on what I've read about them (tho maybe one day I'll give them a chance, but that day is not today or any time soon lol) and I really don't think I'll be readin rainiy's books, she's nice enough but as far as harper's friends go I'm the least interested in her and the whole sex demon being ashamed and hiding instead of embracing her full nature, just no, aslo apparently her guy was a fuckin bore too, so yeah idk maybe I'll see for myself one day, but just like with l&p, it won't be any time soon

so yeah love the world, love the Mcs, love the side characters, just a fun time all around

as for the big bad of this book, I didn't dwell too much on it while reading, but just before they appeared I made an educated guess and it was who I thought it would be, so kudos to me

(audiobook on 2x

same goes for the narrator as in book 1 (tho I'm currently on bk3 and it seems she heeded the advice/heard the complaints, cos her harper tone changed to a much better one there))

[bluebxlle-writer]

How I create my characters

masterlist. main navigation.

@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram

I’ve been getting questions on how to create characters recently, because apparently lots of y’all don’t know where and how to start creating a new character. I don’t think this post will help everybody, since everyone has different methods on creating characters (eg. some come up with names first, others come up with appearance first), but in this post I’ll be sharing my character creation process. I hope it will help! <3

1. An iconic line

This is a less well-known method to start creating a character, but for some reason it's always how I do (and it always works lmao). It's hard to create a character from scratch, so instead, I think about an iconic line that the character could say, which is usually related to my wip's theme or mood. I came up with this line for an oc :

"I've been trying so damn hard to make everyone smile, but I get it now. The world would be happier without me, wouldn't it?"

Just from this single line, I already know lots of things about this character :

• They always put the happiness of others before their own.

• They've probably been told that they need to have a positive effect on others in order to have the right to live.

• They've been trying to please others, but end up worsening things.

• They're determined and desperate.

• ...They probably had a corruption arc and won't get a happy ending :"D

• The moment when they say this line is their breaking point

See? Just from two sentences, I already have an idea of their personality and backstory. Sometimes, I even get an idea for their appearance too. This is way easier than not knowing what to do first to create a character from scratch.

2. Appearance

Lots of people come up with character names before their appearance, but I always need to generate their appearance first, because otherwise, I can't visualize or imagine them. I usually play around with picrew.me (an avatar generator website) to generate their potential appearance. I don't spend too much time on this stage tho, because I'll end up changing their appearance again after figuring out more details about my wip (that's why I said potential appearance).

3. Personality & backstory

After having a rough idea of how they look like, I'll imagine them in various scenes in my wip and come up with their personality. If there are already other existing ocs in the wip, I always be careful to not repeat too much aspects from the other characters, so each character will be unique.

Then, asking why the character has a specific personality will create their backstory. For instance, if a character has trust issues, ask why. Maybe they've been betrayed by a loved one before? Or they live in a dangerous world where everyone double crosses people to survive?

4. Name

After I know their appearance, personality, and depth, that's when I decide a name for the character which fit their vibes or has symbolism. For example, my character Bayu's name is symbolic because it means "wind", reflecting how he's a thief who moves as fast as the wind.

Sometimes, I don't immediately search for a permanent name if I'm out of ideas. I'll just choose a random placeholder name that fits their vibes, and remember to come up with their real name later.

5. Character arc

After knowing all the general information about the character, I'll begin plotting out their character arc - their development throughout the book/series and whether it's a positive or negative character arc. This stage is the hardest for me, because I need to figure out its starting, breaking, and ending point, and also the factors and people involved in the arc. I have a post series about both redemption and corruption arcs, you can check my masterlist to find them!

[flightfoot]

Apollo’s Redemption Arc

Apollo was never “evil” per se within the books, not really being actively malicious during the course of the story. He did some stuff that COULD have given him the villain slot (What he did to the Cumaen Sibyl, to Harpocrates, and to Coronis most specifically) but those terrible, malicious actions that led to IMMENSE suffering were only introduced via flashback, and not in great detail. Before that, his worse actions were only referenced vaguely, like him talking about sending heroes to die on quests and not caring, and other things were toned down, like the flaying of Marsyas which supposedly didn’t happen the way it’s portrayed in myths, so it’s up in the air how bad that actually was.

The jarring change in Tyrant’s Tomb came from seeing his more actively malicious actions instead of aggressively uncaring actions and attitude of previous books. During The Hidden Oracle, The Dark Prophecy, and The Burning Maze we learned how he used to watch demigod battles on TV as entertainment, not caring about the suffering they went through. Not to mention how he didn’t care much about Commodus beating his cupbearer for spilling a drink beyond some vague pity and think it was distasteful. He’s mostly chastised for being a bystander during these first three books. The great harm he’s caused more actively was only really emphasized in the fourth book, after he’s already turned around enough that he’s not really considered the same person anymore, something that’s accentuated in the text by Reyna and Meg during the confrontation with Harpocrates.

It appears to be an effort to strike a balance; making sure the reader doesn’t forget Apollo’s screwed up and needs to change, but also never wanting him to come across as a true villain. So in early installments when he’s first starting his redemption and is still a bit of an arrogant prick at times, it just portrays him as being MORE of an arrogant prick at first, along with being uncaring. In later installments once he’s changed and any vestiges of his jerkishness have been swept away, Rick’s able to delve into how bad he’s been in the past. We’re already invested enough in Apollo to not only want him to be redeemed, but to already have seen his growth, to have already gone through a lot of it. It takes a lot of the sting out of his horrific actions in the past. 

Redemption arcs need something to use to redeem a character, something that makes them realize they need to change and provide ongoing motivation for such a strenuous task, beyond just stopping doing bad stuff. Because just not doing evil things anymore ain’t a redemption; that guy who killed Katara’s mother in Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t redeemed just because he retired. It takes changing as a person. Often doing some specific redemptive action is also required to sort of ‘solidify’ the character change, to demonstrate that the change isn’t just in their words, that it’s a change that will stick, as well as to bring the audience and those who the character hurt or who were wary of them because of their past, onto their side. Even if the character knows they’ve changed, it’s not like anyone else can see into their heart; they can only judge by what they observe.

One thing that’s needed here is relatability; can we put ourselves in that character’s shoes and see and understand how they view the world? If a reader can do that, can understand that thought process, the redemption arc will be far more likely to work; it might even be required for a truly great one. 

A lot of Apollo’s actions that require a redemption arc (sending demigods off on frivolous, dangerous quests as errands, standing by while people are slaughtered, enacting petty punishments on people who really don’t deserve it, for instance) are written in such a way that the reader could reasonably understand his mindset, though it’d vary by reader obviously, as personal experience and mindset play a large role here. It helps that for a lot of Apollo’s actions we’re inside his head, we know what he was thinking, even if we don’t know the full story of how he developed into thinking that way. With him starting off thinking of demigods and mortals as expendable, we get to thoroughly understand that aspect before changing it. Others are more mixed, like with seeing his thought process concerning the Cumaen Sibyl and her curse. He helpfully explains a piece of his thought process, namely about hoping to find the one true romance that would wash away his past failures, and then how he started hating her when denied what he wanted, and couldn’t understand that her love wasn’t transactional, wasn’t to be bought. 

Come to think of it, he may have had that viewpoint because as a god, he had a lot of capital to trade. Power, wealth, longevity, all sorts of extremely valuable things he could use to ‘buy’ what he wanted. So the idea of being able to obtain love, peace, and fulfillment that way was tantalizing - especially since it wasn’t something he could obtain that way from most of the other gods. He was fortunate enough to have his sister and mother at least, so he DID have some good, healthy relationships, but that didn’t provide immunity from that mindset.

Being thrown down to Earth, being among mortals as one of them, changed everything.

Having good role models helped.

Even way back in THO, Apollo’s touched, nearly driven to tears at his children’s desire to protect him, at their love and care for him. He doesn’t expect it since he can’t provide them anything special.

And it’s not like it ends with them.

TDP: Jo and Emmie’s kindness towards others, their acceptance of those in need, their desire to help even people like himself and Lit, touches him deeply.

TBM: Jason sees worth in him, SAW worth in him, even back in Blood of Olympus, first time seeing him. Even then he risked his father’s wrath to try to get him to go easy on Apollo, because he thought it was the right thing to do. And ultimately he was willing to die in part to save Apollo.

TTT: The camp just accepts him in, weary though they are. Frank in particular expresses concern for him, that he wouldn’t want to live in a world without Apollo.

TON: Any sort of kindness towards him drives Apollo nearly (or actually) to tears (granted this isn’t exactly new). The Jackson’s/Blofis’s willingness to shelter him and Meg despite the danger, treating it as a natural sort of thing that they couldn’t possibly NOT do, Will having gotten clothes for him on the off-chance, on the hope he’d be back and wanting him to have his own stuff - the casual kindness and compassion just continues to drive home to him that THIS is how people should be - including himself.

While Apollo was shown the negative effects of his previous terrible actions, shown why he needed to change, it wasn’t just left at that. Throughout the entire series, he saw, he experienced what being better would actually look like. He wasn’t just torn down, but also built up again at the same time, this time with a healthier view of the world.

That’s one of the things that really stood out to me with Apollo’s redemption arc in particular; while he faces the consequences of his previous terrible actions and mindset, even having them thrown back at him at times, experiencing them from the other side (hello Britomartis); he isn’t treated cruelly by the people around him… pretty much ever. People are temporarily mad at him, but not for more than like, an hour, and they usually come around pretty quickly. (Not counting the people he wronged REALLY badly in ancient times, talking more about current demigods). It doesn’t feel like a redemption arc based around punishing Apollo, but one around changing him.

It’s especially fitting since this whole thing was *supposed* to be a punishment from Zeus, but ended up being far more than that.

I think Apollo put it well here, near the end of TON.

To be honest, though, I could no longer consider my time on Earth a punishment. Terrible, tragic, nearly impossible… yes. But calling it a punishment gave Zeus too much credit. It had been a journey - an important one I made for myself, with the help of my friends. I hoped… I believed that the grief and pain had shaped me into a better person. I had forged a more perfect Lester from the dregs of Apollo. I would not trade those experiences for anything. (TON 373)

[phdna]

Curious about your thoughts as a long time comic fan: what do you think of the whole White Wolf narrative that marvel seems to be taking with Bucky in the MCU?

I simply love him and his arc as the WS in the comics, and am unsure about making him the white wolf, even though it's very clear that his journey to becoming the Winter Soldier in the movies is quite different from the comics. Idk, what do you think?

Yeah, so. I do have Thoughts about it. I started writing about it and ended up writing you a whole novel, sorry lol

The tl;dr version would be that I don’t know that I vibe with the White Wolf thing. The longer version... is long.

Since I grew up reading about perma-dead Bucky, his Winter Soldier arc in the comics was always going to be a hard sell for me - how can you convince me that undoing decades of canon is Actually A Good Choice and not just a gimmick? Ultimately, what won me over is how careful Brubaker was to pick a theme and follow it across its many facets. We see Bucky as a child struggling with the shame and regret of feeling like he can’t live up to his father’s orders. We see Bucky as a teenager being trained to follow whatever cruel order the army gives him because it’s For The Greater Good, and at the same time, we see how desperate he is for Steve’s approval at all times and how that’s tied up in his head with respect and authority and a lot of unresolved issues with his father. Then comes the Winter Soldier, and Bucky’s entire existence becomes about following orders, even though there are some orders he can’t be made to follow. Then comes the BuckyCap days, in which he more or less feels like he has no choice but to pick up the shield, but he starts exploring his agency in small and big ways. And then he becomes the Winter Soldier again, but - crucially - this time he’s taking the name that represents him at his most powerless and he’s reclaiming it in a wonderful way because only Bucky can be the Winter Soldier - there’s no other hero I can think of who has the gruesome skills and the modus operandi of an antihero combined with the idealistic, almost naive attitude of a Golden Age hero. For me it works because it’s amazing to have Bucky figure out that his identity includes everything he’s ever been while at the same time being something he can choose by himself according to what he wants and needs from life. It really is just a very beautiful way to wrap up this entire theme.

Now, the MCU. For all the changes the MCU has made to Bucky’s character, they’ve done a decent job of keeping this theme more or less alive throughout his appearances imho, which makes me very happy! It’s less well-developed because he’s not given too much screentime, but even fans who have never picked up a comic book got the theme from the subtext in the movies - how Bucky’s story is about agency. TFatWS explored it further. But I just don’t see what the White Wolf adds to this theme? I mean, it sure is a way of having him leave the Winter Soldier mantle behind for a while before he’s ready to take it up again. But he could, y’know... be Bucky. There’s no need to come up a whole new identity to him.

The thing is, imho, that people who aren’t into comics don’t have any reaction to the White Wolf because it’s not a household name, and people who are into comics are like “Why. He has nothing in common with 616!White Wolf.” Nobody is going to hear “Bucky is the White Wolf” and go “Oh my god that is awesome I’m gonna go talk to all my friends about this right now!!!” So the MCU really needed to develop the White Wolf angle like they do whenever they introduce a new mantle to the MCU, but they never do develop it, they just seem to expect the fans to come up with a plot in their heads with almost no clues to work with. To be honest, I’m still not even 100% sure whether White Wolf is a hero name or a civilian nickname! Because titles in Wakandan culture seem to be a big deal and come with a specific duty, but Bucky is implied to have been essentially a civilian under royal care and protection, not someone who was expected to do anything in particular. I had initially guessed that was just a code name to avoid other people finding out his identity, but if it’s a code name, then Marvel sure is clinging on to it more than they’ve ever done with other code names used in the MCU. (”Natalie Rushman” doesn’t follow Natasha all over the MCU!)

Of course, if we had a movie exploring Bucky’s days as the White Wolf, or even if we got a single poignant scene specifically about what being the White Wolf actually means, then sure! That could’ve been interesting and meaningful. But almost all of the White Wolf saga happens offscreen, so imho this detail doesn’t explore anything as much as it adds a random unconnected subplot to the Bucky’s main plot. And I don’t think everything in the MCU has to be Very Important! For instance, I think these random name drops could’ve worked if they were just fanservice, you know? It’s hard because Bucky doesn’t have many mantles, but I don’t know, maybe have him be The Sargeant and people would guess that’s a reference to The Captain or whatever - at least it comes from his corner of the 616 instead of stealing a Black Panther character who has nothing in common with Bucky.

Basically, I find the whole thing to be WAY more confusing than it’s worth being. I’m sure there are fans out there who are making amazing things with this concept, but it’s just not for me. I wish Marvel had 1) developed this mini-arc better, 2) picked another name and made it just a fun easter egg or 3) not given Bucky a Wakandan title at all and just let him spend his time between HYDRA!Winter Soldier and hero!Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes.

So. Yeah. I have many thoughts and they’re not very positive! I can’t say that it bothers me enough for me to spend much of my time feeling bad about this storyline (the way I do with other storylines I dislike), but whenever I do stop to think about it I just have a hard time understanding where this story even came from and why Marvel keeps bringing it up. I don’t think it’s even a bad idea, it’s just so random that I find it more... weird than awful, I guess. Thinking about it doesn’t make me go “THIS SUCKS, I HATE IT!!!!” just “...okay. sure. why tho.”

...now I’m thinking about it, this whole post could’ve just been “???????????” and that would’ve summed up my feelings just as well.

[zalrb]

tv rewatch: gg edition s2e1

LOL the recap of the last season is so DRAMATIC

i like how they start with nate making out in a car and all you see is blonde hair so you’re supposed to be like, is it serena??? no just an adult who should know better.

and now she’s betty’s mom on riverdale because ofc she is. 

i don’t know of any reading where the author isn’t immediately talking to the people who came to hear them read. the bookstore sets you up with a table at the back of the room with a pile of your books and a pen because authors need MONEY. 

“i told him it was good as your story in the new yorker” you mean his diary entry?

penn bulked up a bit in season 2 tho.

i get that they’re trying to show jenny is interning in a hostile work environment but if her superior is just talking about how everyone needs to do twice as much and jenny is already done, she wouldn’t deride her for already being done, she just would be dismissive and give her more work to do.

dan, you can start a story without a date being the title.

“blair will never forgive you for you did to her” it turns out that blair, in fact, forgives a lot of shit that chuck does to her. #truelove 

lmao like they really would take the jitney. blair waldorf would not do buses.

“the only thing lamer than dating dan humphrey, is mourning dan humphrey.” lol blair.

i didn’t realize that robots got jealous, did they update your software while i was away? now, that line would be some terrible dialogue about patriarchy with a wooden delivery.

“well, if you call a different girl every night dating.” yes, jenny, that is literally what dating is.

ok i’ve studied with some harsh writers in the past but if dan is genuinely having writer’s block then his mentor would do something to help, like if he isn’t the type to actually talk about what it is that’s blocking dan then a free writing exercise or a prompt, a book recommendation.

honestly, nate’s makeouts/sex scenes with mrs. robinson 2.0 do not look hot.

“how well do you know blair waldorf is kinda boring for those of us who actually know blair waldorf.” “not to mention, transparent.” drag him. 

chair angst! “see you at school” sounds better than nate’s “good catching up.” 

i remember when i watched in real time when blair took the pin back i was like YAAASSSSSSSSSSSS oh teenage zal, you didn’t know then that chair would become one of your notps. lol.

“i don’t even like james!” “thank you i was waiting for that.” lol serena is nicer than me, i remember when initiumseries didn’t like a dude and she finally said it and i was like so are you done now? like are you done?

“besides, it’s tourist season in the city, easy pickings.” wow chuck are you ever not predatory? 

you know, it’s interesting, rewatching gg and blair and chuck because in season 1, we see how chuck falls for blair, we see him view her in a way nate didn’t, we see him jealous, we see him enamored but really, post limo save for texting each other when she was at nate’s fitting and that one soft moment on her birthday, we don’t really see how blair views chuck because she’s so caught up with trying to work things out with nate. i mean, yeah, shippers are going to say she didn’t want to admit that chuck means anything to her, she felt guilty for sleeping with him so she threw herself into being with nate, but because chuck is blackmailing her and she’s stressed out the entire time by the time we get to the finale when they’re kissing on the dance floor and even now, it’s like hmm, i think i needed to see a bit more of what blair misses with chuck when she isn’t with chuck in season 1. we needed a little more of those texting moments where she’s happy and giddy while with chuck or a bit more of what happens in season 2 where she’s fantasizing about him and then stops herself. i just bring this up because when she’s talking about how she didn’t want chuck to know how badly he hurt her and stuff i’m like i get it, i’ll go with it but i think there needed to be more.

but dan’s writer block is stupid.  just ... write something ELSE. at least TRY.

“I know that face, that face is not your friend!” lol eric.

nate is just so ... basic. lmao. 

the hamptons is the richest they ever look actually.

“thanks for giving me another chance.” “thanks for being worthy of it.” what has jenny done to be worthy of it tho? 

“trying to ruin my marriage?” you’re a grown ass woman. 

cece just looks like she’s hitting on dan, it’s uncomfortable

i’m your biggest fan i’ll follow you until you looooooooooooooove me. 

that kiss also isn’t as hot as it’s supposed to be, i guess because it’s supposed to look hot since it’s performative. 

i actually liked serena’s dress. or well, i think it’s OK.

so finally rewatching the derena scene where dan sees the serenate kiss has me like, is dan an ass because he’d been two-timing girls throughout the summer? yes. is he wrong for being frustrated that serena is kissing nate to make someone jealous and she can’t tell him who or why? no, not when he says that it’s the same drama different city because this is exactly what broke them up in the first place, she can’t be honest with him about things that are happening even though those things find a way of getting involved in his life somehow. but this is the point of derena and the two people from different worlds context but instead of it being a class difference it’s mostly that serena always finds herself in some kind of drama involving the same people and dan will never understand why the drama has to exist at all but they love each other anyway, so it’s basically this 

which is also supposed to be chair in a different way.

what’s funny though is that those girls are mad that dan was making out with one of them when he was supposed to be meeting someone else but the girl he was making out with brought a date without telling dan so, i mean. all they had to do was change ‘date’ to ‘friend’ to make him appear more of a sleaze.

blair’s face when marcus speaks in his english accent is HILARIOUS.

lmao why would nate and betty’s mom leave TOGETHER? 

aww three words, eight letters... the way blair leans forward and holds her breath just trying to urge the words out, if there’s anything i can say about chair it’s their chemistry.

i feel like it’s unrealistic to think that dan knows how to build a fire.

also sex on the beach is like ... sand, man, sand EVERYWHERE.

xoxo zalrb

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 3

part 2 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to our watch-through of the first season of Magia Record! Last time, we met a trio of Kamihama magical girls, Momoko, Rena and Kaede, and, after Rena and Kaede fighting, Kaede is kidnapped by the “chain monster”, a part of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. Now, it’s up to Iroha, Momoko and Rena to find and take her back. Will they succeed, or will someone lose their heads? The only way to know is by watching, so let’s get right to it.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Episode 3

Rather than going back to the plot right away, we are given a flashback of Iroha’s younger sister and two other girls. The brown haired girl has apparently created an eternal motion machine in the form of a toy train, saying something about how adults must be stupid if they never thought of that before, and that toy train proceeds to crash into a pile of books and set fire on them. Good job. 

I don’t want to hear this from a gacha game character. Your original work is even more fragile than this!

The megane girl, Nemu, compares the brown haired girl, Touka’s actions to the burning of the Library of Alexandria (dramatic much?) and the two start fighting, with Ui trying to stop them. They’re just like Momoko’s trio on the previous episode, breaking their friendship up and everything.

Once again, it was Iroha’s dream. You know the erasure really went in on it when even the rug is cut in half.

Iroha’s sister had friends at the hospital, so she could get some new clues if only she could find them.

Floof Momoko.

Before going looking for Kaede, Momoko and co. drop by Kamihama Mirena-za, aka. the Coordinator’s. I tried searching if Milena constellation was actually a thing, but the only thing I could find was that there’s a Galileo satellite named Milena. Huh.

The Coordinator had a client, but she’s done right away. We learn that the Coordinator’s name is Mitama Yakumo, but still have no idea what she actually does.

Besides not having a sense of personal space.

Momoko explains that Iroha’s not there to get adjusted, whatever that means, and asks if Yachiyo is there yet. Who’s this Yachiyo though?

Aaawkward.

To no one’s surprise, I guess, since I already said it, but this girl is Yachiyo. And she absolutely ignores Iroha. Rude.

Yachiyo and Momoko start talking between themselves about Kaede’s case. (and MItama’s fixing Momoko’s hair. Cute). It seems Yachiyo is well aware of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. She pulls out a notebook, and Momoko notes that she’s knowledgeable about these things.

Momoko asks Yachiyo to lend them her help, and Yachiyo agrees to do it, since Kaede is in danger, but adds that she won’t work with people who will only be a burden, looking at Iroha.

...not that she’s wrong, but still rude.

Well, I mean, that might make sense when you’re so op, but you don’t have to say it outright!

Still, Yachiyo has a point: it’d be too dangerous to bring along a weak magical girl to a fight with an unknown enemy. So Mitama offers a solution: why don’t they just adjust Iroha’s Soul Gem?

Mitama does a very short explanation of what “adjusting a Soul Gem” actually entails, and this one short screen tells us the rest. It’s basically what let Momoko and Rena do that joint attack earlier. I wonder if this was even long enough on the screen for the people who watched this on tv to read it. 

Momoko says that Yachiyo should have no complaints as long as they do that and Yachiyo is like “yeah, whatever”.

...now that I think about it, what is Mitama doing here?

Continue? Iroha hasn’t sacrificed anyone tho.

...oh, I forgot we don’t get to see Iroha getting adjusted.

So, our girls are now at the rumored stairs at Kamihama University Affiliated School. Leaving aside Momoko and Rena, since they are students there, one has to wonder how exactly did Iroha and Yachiyo manage to get up there without being found. This school’s security is lacking!

While the girls run up to the rumored Staircase of Severance (this is so annoying to write) we see some messages on screen of what I assume are Rena’s classmates, and get pushed some ideas of what friends should be like, all while Momoko tries to cheer Rena up.

Okay, that’s a really narrow staircase. Who decided to put this creepy thing here?

Momoko writes her and Yachiyo’s name on the staircase (and we sneakily learn Yachiyo’s surname is Nanami). The two are reenacting the rumor, so now they’ll make up to draw the Chain Witch out. That is, after they give us their transformation scenes!

While Yachiyo’s themes are water and stars(?), and she has gracious movements, Momoko’s literally burning up and kicking things. Their transformations parallel one another, and yet they are completely opposites. I love it! (but Momoko kicking the sword still takes the cake for me).

Now that I think about it, for all that fire theme she has going, Momoko's not that hot-blooded. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, I guess.

Rena’s transformation focuses on her shapeshifting powers, throwing her through mirrors and with lots of expression changes. It’s not because she’s tsundere, the transformation seems to tell us Rena has lots of faces.

...I also like her DDR routine right at the start, it’s cute.

The theme of Iroha’s transformation is birbs. Rather than telling us something about who she is like the others, I see hers as basically about what she’s doing right now: much like she did by coming to Kamihama, Iroha takes the courage and jumps into the unknown, chasing after a mirage.

I’m always a little bothered with how she falls straight down despite taking impulse when she jumps, but hey, what can you do lol

One of the (many) cool things about this whole sequence is how the bgm is continuous throughout the transformations, only changing a bit to match each of the girls.

That’s not very convincing acting, Momoko. Yachiyo’s is not much better, either. They theorize it only works if they’re really fighting, and Rena says she’ll do it.

Rena starts apologizing, but nothing happens. Iroha says it might be because she’s not saying it from her heart and Rena’s gets upset.

Rena can’t just feel like making up right away, but it’s not like she doesn’t want Kaede to come back. These two seem to have a complicated relationship, but in the end, it’s clear that Rena does like her. Rena starts crying and apologizes for making Kaede be friends with someone like her all this time. Then, the Chain Witch appears.

We get a flashback to Rena flashbacking (confusing, I know) about all the times Kaede apologized to her, while watching an idol show.

Don’t we all?

So, yeah… Rena is a complicated character. (and a Sayuki stan)

Iroha wakes up in Rena’s room for some reason. Clearly-not-Momoko starts a monologue of how no one could ever like Rena.

Rena hates herself, so she wanted to change. She wanted to become someone else, so her wish gave her shapeshifting powers, but didn’t change her, so she still hates herself (considering the implications when this type of wish does work, see Oriko’s Kirika, she might have gotten the better end of the deal.

Kaede calls out to Rena and Iroha and Rena break out of the strange television-exposition-vision-thingy. So the first thing they start doing, naturally, is start bickering again. Great friends! 

Oh look, the weird Kyuubei is back! Like the nice mascot character he is, he’s showing Iroha the way to the main Witch.

Rena and Kaede start to have a heart-to-heart while fighting (the familiars now, not each other).

Familiar: hahaha, that tickles

Rena says their friendship is over once they get out of there, since they were never real friends to begin with, but Kaede doesn’t want that. Kaede says that if Rena’s problem is that she never apologizes, she just did earlier and Rena says that didn’t count, so Kaede replies that then they breaking up doesn’t count either. Nice, Kaede!

Kaede basically says that, yeah, Rena can be terrible, but she likes her that way anyway, so they can continue being friends.

Rena says that Kaede needs to listen to her, she needs to let her apologize too and tells her she’ll do it once they get out.

While they’re doing that, Yachiyo and Momoko climb to the top and knock down the witches’ main body. Momoko then calls for Kaede and Rena to finish it off. Nice VFX there btw.

Rena and Kaede join hands and using both their magic they pinball the witch into the air with Rena's mirrors. Rena launches plant-enchanted copy spears at it and the witch bursts into leaves and dries... Kaede's magic is kind of scary like this.

Oh, how adorable. Aaaand he's gone. 

The witch is defeated and Rena now has to make good on her promise to apologize. But, seems like honestly apologizing is still too much of a hurdle for her so after some struggle she swerves to another thing. Thankfully, Kaede knows Rena well enough and she's fine with this.

Look at them, so precious.

While Momoko and Iroha catch their breath, Yachiyo approaches them and informs them the Witch didn't drop a Grief Seed. In fact, she says that might've not even been a Witch at all. Yachiyo points out it's weird to have a Witch that comes out anywhere whenever the conditions of a rumor are met, in particular since they didn't even feel it's magic beforehand. She warns them that something weird is going on in Kamihama, then leaves in the most dramatic way possible.

Sometime later, our group is back at Satomi Medical Center. Seems Rena has given in and decided to help after all.

Going by the original plan, Rena transformed into a nurse and investigated the hospital. It's pretty cool how her voice is slightly distorted in this little sequence with her undoing her transformation.

No one in the hospital remembered Iroha's sister, but they did remember Touka and Nemu. That means Iroha's memories aren't entirely wrong.

With that, Iroha goes back to Takarazaki for the day, with some new friends and a very small but important step closer to finding her beloved younger sister.

"Sorry for making you my friend."

That's it folks, this was the third episode of Magia Record('s first season)! No one lost their heads... well except that not-witch if we count the bell as it's head, but I think that's just fine for this series, because--

OH WAIT THERE'S MORE

Talking about lost heads, look who's here! I totally forgot this episode had a stinger. My bad.

Kyuubei can't enter Kamihama now for some reason, so he needed someone to investigate the cause for him and contacted Mami as a strong veteran Magical Girl. There are rumors about that someone in Kamihama is gathering all the Witches around to monopolize Grief Seeds, which would explain why the city is infested with them and they being stronger than normal. Mami says she doesn't want trouble with the Magical Girls of another territory, but will investigate whether the current events are due to a Witch or Magical Girl. I like the short cut that shows her from beneath the grating, it's neat. Just have no idea what it's supposed to mean.

!--rant incoming--! (I say, as if this whole post isn't one)

Anyways, like I was saying... writing? Before the stinger disrupted my thoughts, I think it's just fine that Magia Record's ep3 doesn't have any big twists like Madoka. The original had that maybe for the shock factor, yes, but also because it needed it to make clear what kind of story they were actually going for, and that worked great for that show and the time when it came out. But Magia Record is more of a mystery. We don't need it to push the point of magical girl suffering because the original already did that, we need it to give us things to puzzle about, and that it already did with the weird witch of this episode. Could it have made that better? Maybe, but Magia Record also has the problem that it's cast is significantly bigger, so they have to fit those introductions somewhere. So while it introduces Momoko's trio and a bit Yachiyo, it also tries it's best to situate us (and Iroha by extension) as to how Kamihama's magical girl's world is like and what's going on there. It's a lot to juggle and the anime doesn't get the benefit like the game of being able to just put the character's backstory on a separate chapter. I really like character focused things, so I don't mind the anime trying to fit as much as it can in, but I can see how that might turn other people off. That's one of the things that's really a matter of taste I guess.

!--ok, you can come back now--!

One of the visual things I really like in this episode is the effect with the floating kana and kanji on the Labyrinth. I wonder how that was done. It's animated, so I don't think it's part of the background, but then I'm also not sure at which stage of production that'd be put in. It's really neat.

Well, with this, we are done with episode 3 of Magia Record! What will we do next? Who knows! It doesn't seem like Iroha noticed it, but just knowing that Touka and Nemu existed, not even getting their surnames, does not give her any new clues to go with. She barely started and already is at a dead-end, poor girl.

Before jumping off the building, Yachiyo also added another question to our already filled question bucket: what was up with that weird witch? What is this strange thing that is going on in Kamihama? Why are you looking like that at Momoko's team?

As viewers, however, there is only one way of answering all this: by watching. So I'll be looking forward to having you guys join me tomorrow for episode 4! Have a good morning/afternoon/evening!

PS.: The last two episodes had about 30 screenshots, this one has about 40, at this rate by the time I get to episode 13 I'll be taking screenshots of the whole episode...

[thetorchwoodnineroleplayerwriter]

Popular!Luz AU concept post

This au concept is something me, @crispyclown , and @molotov-does-stuff worked out together on @pastatiger ‘s TOH discord.

The basic concept is “what if Luz never did become friends with Willow and actually did become popular” based on an offhanded comment from boscha in ‘Understanding Willow’ that went to the effect of “that human could have been popular if she wasn’t hanging out with Willow”.

Here’s all the headcanons we’ve all put together:

Timeline:

1) 'teenage abomination' never happens. Luz just has a boring day and becomes vaguely aware of Hexside.

2) during ’Covention’, Amity and Luz meet for the first time. They don’t hit it off but they don’t not hit it off either. After the Lilith speech, Amity still steps on King’s cupcake, but it’s completely by accident. Amity tries to ‘keep up appearances as a Blight’ and ends up accidentally insulting Luz and King while attempting to apologize. Luz ultimately still has the “Bog of Immediate Regret” line, but Amity doesn’t really care one way or the other, so she nearly says ‘you read Azura too?!’ Before instead accepting. Amity and Luz’s bet is pretty low stakes — Amity apologizes to king if she loses, Luz apologizes to Amity if she loses, maybe? But Eda and Lillith get waaaay into the bet and both sides cheat as canon. Amity still breaks down when the construction glyph is revealed, but Luz formally concedes anyways (with low stakes she doesn’t have any serious need to win, and she still would rather be this girl’s friend than her enemy), citing their own relative skill levels, before going and talking to Amity. Amity is still DISTRAUGHT about the whole ordeal, but she and Luz have a much more in-depth heart-to-heart, where Luz explains what she did, tells Amity how cool Luz thinks she is, and manages to tell her the “I’m not a witch, but… I’m training to be one“ line. Amity leaves Luz with the line, ‘they say humans can't learn any magic. But... I don't think that's going to stop you.' And… they’re, maybe friends? Unclear friends? Probably just acquaintances but the point is its nonnegative relationship development.

3) ‘Hooty's Moving Hassle' is removed.

4) in ‘Lost in Language’, Luz is still a little over-friendly with Amity (Amity respects her for serious but also She Has A Reputation, Luz) when they meet in the library. Luz still gets sucked in to the twins’ chaotic energy, and Luz still thinks hanging out with them will somehow translate to brownie points with Amity. When Amity walks in on them in the secret room, she’s much more visibly and viscerally betrayed by (what she thinks) Luz did. However after saving themselves from evil Otabin, Luz does convince her the twins tricked her, they book trade as canon, Amity actually clearly thinks of Luz as a friend at the end of it all.

5) the moonlight conjuration incident happens after the library incident. Amity spins a BS story about Luz being a skilled witch to her parents and invites her to the conjuring. While initially their conjuring goes as canon (ie nowhere), Luz turns it to a regular party with Boscha, Skara, Amity, and herself. (and Cat, i think? Whoever their canon fourth was, she’s still here.) Eventually they try again, and since (in this au) the conjuring's power == your conjuring group's friendship's strength, and everyone here is at least somewhat friends with luz now, they do manage to animate a few things.

6) at some point here, Luz, Boscha, and Skara team up for a pickup game of grudgeby, and Luz learns the fireball glyph.

7) During ‘Once Upon a Swap', both Skara and Boscha notice how out of character King!Luz is acting. They can admit King!Luz is being cool, if a lil dorky, but they have an out-of-character moment where Boscha tries to ask 'Luz' if she's okay. King doesn't get it, but the others walk in on it so Boscha resumes acting like a challenged alpha bitch. (Luz eventually explains to Skara what was goin on that day. Luz ‘conveniently’ never got the chance to clue Boscha in.)

8) at some point around here, Luz manages to get Eda to enroll her in Hexside.

9) 'adventures in the elements' is changed bc Luz does know two glyphs. However, She and Amity want to hang out some more and Amity thought Luz's fire glyph could help her learn the fireball spell, so they still go to the knee together (with Eda, Emira, and Edric as terrible excuses for chaperones.) Luz learns the ice spell under Eda’s somewhat hands-off tutelage, possibly after accidentally angering the Slitherbeast as in canon.

10) In ‘First Day', Boscha is looking forward to finally getting a read on this girl who wormed her way straight into Amity's heart. (she's not jealous. nuhuh. not even a little. YOU’RE jealous!) Luz still immediately gets Detention'd, tho, but this time Amity and Boscha show up to bust her out unprompted, leading to a VERY awkward moment where Viney (and Jerbo and Barcus) refuse to trust Luz on the basis that Boscha and Amity are her friends, and both of them are notorious jerks who would ABSOLUTELY bully the DT kids. Amity has to duck out for her performance tho. the episode concludes as canon.

11) we get an extended time where we see how Luz easily makes friends with almost everyone at Hexside. She's friend-shaped and she gets a HUGE popularity boost for being honest friends with Skara and Amity. (she gets rancid vibes from Boscha when they’re at school together, but she can't put her finger on *why*. and besides, Boscha calls Luz her friend too, so that probably counts.) during this time Luz meets Gus, who is one of E&E's classmates. Gus can have an episode, as a treat.

12) Luz finally meets Willow, and gets slapped in the face HARD with confirmation that Amity and Boscha are kind of massive assholes. Luz tries to befriend Willow, but Willow refuses to trust her due to how often Boscha, Amity, and the rest of the popular girls who make up most of Luz’s closer friend group have bullied her.

13) Luz tries to get Boscha to take it down a notch. Boscha takes it up a notch. Luz tries to get Amity to help, Amity asks why it matters — it’s just ‘half a witch willow’, no one cares. Luz realizes, awkwardly (and probably with the assistance of Jerbo and/or Barcus), that while she currently has a lot a friends and is popular, if she defends Willow from Boscha’s bullying she’ll lose a lot of her popularity. Luz kind of has a small breakdown over this, because she doesn’t want to risk friends here when in the human world she has so few, but at the same time, she has Principles! She can’t just ignore this! As one of her schemes to help Willow without going against Boscha directly, Luz manages to get Willow transferred out of Abominations, although Willow is kinda annoyed by this since even though she’s in plant track she feels a stranger. (This alienation eventually goes away, but not before…)


14) Luz snaps and punches Boscha in the face one day for bullying Willow once too many times. Boscha gets PISSED and Luz is NOT BACKING DOWN, even though she’s scared. Boscha basically exiles Luz from the friend group, which has the added effect of making almost all of Luz’s friends stop talking to her, most painfully Skara and Amity. Willow starts to tolerate her, but only barely. (Gus is still Luz’s friend tho. In fact, Gus, the DT kids, and E&E Are the only Hexside students at this point who’ll be caught dead with Luz.)


15) ‘Understanding Willow’ Is changed; Luz catches Amity burning up Willow’s memories. However, since Amity, Luz, and Willow are distinctly *not* talking to each other, the quest to save Willow’s mind is *much* more tense. Luz keeps taking potshots at Amity for abandoning the both of them, Inner Willow hates both of them, and Amity is trying desperately not to have fun with people who hate her and also trying desperately to defend her actions. Amity still reveals the same secret of the day she stopped being Willow’s friend; Luz, meanwhile, reveals some bad memories of her own human school that make it very obvious how much the chance to be popular meant to her and how she genuinely empathizes with Willow’s whole situation. Ultimately ends with a bit of a tense moment between the three where they admit they’re not friends yet… but at the very least they’re all willing to be friends, now.

16) We get some time watching Luz slowly re-making her friends throughout the school, as people decide they really do like Willow and Luz as people and they’re kinda tired of Boscha been an alpha bitch. Maybe spliced with Willow & Luz & Amity hangin out, being friendly, or with Boscha been salty and Skara et al. being here by obligation even though they *clearly* wanna hang out with Luz some more.

17) ‘Wing It Like Witches’ happens largely beat for beat here. Boscha attempts to re-assert social dominance, Luz invokes the sacred rites of a game of grubby with a bet, Luz tries to get Willow and Gus in for it but Gus can’t and Willow won’t; Amity talks Willow into forming a 3 person team with her. Extra angst from the fact that Boscha and Luz did actually have some bonding over being on the same team on an earlier grubby game.

18) Grom happens now, largely as canon. When preparing Luz for the main fight, Amity theorizes (incorrectly) that Luz’s greatest fear is losing her friends on the boiling isles; Luz goes along with it, because ‘I already faced that fear once this year, it’ll be a cinch’. Grom tries it but it doesn’t work, but then from turns into her mom. (We see Amity nearly cry from Grom turning into her, but realizes what’s going on, and then has a massive blush from being called ‘her’ Amity. Skara rolls her eyes, bc she’s been clued in. Boscha is deliberately not caring.)

.

20) Boscha eventually gets to the point where she decides to apologize to Willow. She starts with a BS ‘lol sry’ approach, ends with a record-scratch-sudden rant where Boscha really does break it — and herself — down in honest apology. Some of the bad attempts are played for comedy, this one played completely straight.

Miscellanious other elements:

Unrequited Boschamity / exes Boschamity, boscha has cool banter with her friends (mildly platonic boschluz banter, snarky boschamity banter, member boschkara banter, etc), Boscha being really jealous of Luz, Everyone — EVERYONE — pines at Skara, Luz also pines at willow eventually, BOSCHA ACTUALLY GETS A REDEMPTION ARC AND ITS WELL WRITTEN AND NO ITS NOT IN SERVICE OF A SHIP, Boscha::Azula Amity::Zuko wrt redemption arcs, Boscha joins the inevitable rebellion as one of those ‘everyone in public thinks I’m an enemy of the rebellion so I can help them out real nice in the DL’ people, and yes we ARE overthrowing the government at some point in this au just not right now, right now we’re having ANGST and LUMITY, boscha is actually very nice to her friends when she wants to be she just usually doesn’t feel like she Should Be Vulnerable, any episode that’s just ‘Luz With Willow And/or Gus doing Hijinks’ (ex ‘Really Small Problems’, ‘Something Ventured, Someone Framed’) that hasn’t already been mapped to an event in this timeline is skipped completely, yes that means Mathholomule successfully becomes president of the human club, none of this aus cast is actually friends with him tho don’t worry, Edric has been quietly dating Jerbo for a while now but his sisters don’t know, Emira is a disaster lesbian for Viney and the teasing is relentless, Emira is a terminal prankster with a maladapted sense of boundaries as a result of her parents, this is a point of contention for her courtship of Viney who can and will go OFF on her for crossing the line and not feeling guilty, Edric is very aware of boundaries but he also finds looking to her for direction gets him in trouble the least at home so he just feels terrible afterwards and tries to get Emira to tone it down and/or apologize, basically the library incident was her idea in this au and he went along with it because of blight child optics stuff, Luz’s memory may out Luz to Willow and Amity, Willow and Amity absolutely say ‘gay rights’, in fact the entire isle says ‘gay rights’, this au tricks you into thinking ‘oh easy lumity’ but then Willow comes in like a wrecking ball, during that murky period when Luz’s friends all hate her bc she punched boscha all the people still willing to talk to her get friendly REAL fast, yes that includes willow and amity once they all stop hating each other, nobody lets Amity live down “Oh, wow,,, sports” except Luz who didn’t get it, Everyone has a song assigned to them at the sleepover, Luz’s is Bad Reputation, Skara’s is Caramelldansen, Boscha’s is Money Machine, Amity’s is Eminence Front because I say so

[makushiin]

OK YEAH I DO KOTLC BUT I’VE BEEN IN THE PJO UNIVERSE SINCE I WAS LIKE 6 SO I N E E D TO DO THIS:

Things I notice about the most dramatic Olympian in the universe, Lester Papadopolous or whatever his name is

OK YEAH THERE’S A LOT OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES SO I’LL TRY TO POINT EM ALL OUT IG

“Why?”

Arrogant

Self-centered

“The world doesn’t revolve around you” “aight bet”

Prideful

👌thIs CloSe To BeinG NarciSsUs

Demands respect in his acne flabbed imperfect mortal body

Prolly thinks at some point he was better than his father

Despite being physically and emotionally abused and manipulated by him

Despite being a god he’s one of those overprotective dads that’s really proud of his children

Only focused on the quest that impacts his quest to become a god again

Watch as his self-esteem and self-confidence plummet as fast as he fell to earth

God of medicine and healing. Has shown no actual care of taking top-notch care of his own damn body

Head of the Meg Protection Squad

“Yes. I would die for Meg Mccaffrey.”

“What do mortals say? Suck it up? I sucked it way, way up.”

Treated his Oracles like a piece of shit the whole series is their payback

He killed his ex-boyfriend by drowning him in his tub

Prolly has no problem going dark for the people he loves

Has gone through shock more times in every book than I want to count (see Lester randomly maniacally laughing at random moments)

Relates to Meg more than he likes to admit

But Meg might know

Since the emperors keep outing his flaws and attitude in their villain monologues

Gentle reminder he flinches at Zeus’s statue, voice and appearance (symptom of abuse)

Gentle reminder he was humiliated, stripped naked, then hosed out of Olympus

He’s a walking gay flag

Loves his children and YES I LOVE APOLLO FOR THIS

Sometimes needs advice so he turns to the Arrow. I see the bromance

Is scared that he’ll turn back to the arrogant god he started to hate throughout the series

But I think he’ll remember what it’s like to be human—he promised after all—

Understood that in the end he can’t change his father. The best he can do is be different and be better.

Identity loss

Final Note: This series really shows the character development he’s been through and how he became from an arrogant self-centered Olympian to the dramatic still a lil vain lovable dad/brother combo there is. There are so many things I can say about him but I think I already said what I can lol

The one thing I still dont understand tho is why Rick suddenly decided to put Kane Chronicles references in the last book and NevEr explained it(at least to my knowledge) and isnt it already the end of the PJO universe???? Like??? I don’t get it????

Neways

Peace out—

[henriiiii-1001old]

rambling pt 10(?) - fnaf world

a i g h t rambling time bc fuck it i wanna talk more fvgbhnjm

i’m just gonna copy and paste some hcs abt this concept bc it’s LONG and i’m too lazy to type anything (i will be making adjustments to some of the copied messages bc i’m picky xdd)

loooong hcs down below

categories: william’s first visit william’s second/permanent visit chica’s magic rainbow/end of michael’s tyranny omc and william’s family fredbear and springbonnie

William’s first visit

i have made an official hc a while back that fnaf world is kind of the equivelent of the underworld from greek mythology. everyone who dies goes there, no matter if you have been good or bad. they separate you into different areas of fnaf world depending on how good or bad you have been. upper floor/animtronica is good people, 4th level is the worst people.. at least it should have been that way but someone else went into power of fnaf world.

soooo after the fire in ffps, william ends up here along with charlie, elizabeth, kathryn (william's wife), two fazbear employees (mike schmidt and fritz smith), and michael (who calls himself mk even though mk is still alive :/). thing is everyone is separated throughout, and william first appears in the plains part (the green thing in the world? i don't remember the names of the places qwq). he and the other missing children (who have been there since the year prior to the ffps fire) head off to find everyone else. it's basically fnaf world version 1. so he's found everyone except for michael. where does he find him? where you're supposed to be fighting animdude (i will explain this in the next part because i don't want this to be too long) sooo william defeats michael and in my au, michael's like, self proclaimed king, so he's got like his own mini castle which have portals to different dimensions and timelines. william sneaks into the castle and finds the portal back to his timeline and dips aaaaaand then vr happens but i'm gonna skip that because we need to cut to the juicy part.

William’s second/permanent visit

the second time he gets here is after something going on in sb (yes ik it's stupid to have hcs before a game comes out, but idc they just came man qwq) where [SPOILERS HERE I DON’T WANNA EXPLAIN YET >:(((( i will be referring to a specific character as vivi tho bc why not] and they both now end up in fnaf world. william is reeaaallly salty he officially died again and vivi is freaking the fuck out. and guess who comes into the scene. fucking michael. he introduces himself to vivi as mk, but vivi actually knows who mk really is, and michael just makes it seem like mk was a liar (vivi obviously doesn't believe that tho. william on the other hand... yeah xddd). now all of a sudden, michael sees vivi's soul is FULL of remnant (side note here: souls cannot hold remnant by themselves in the living world and it must be removed. they can hold it in fnaf world though since the world is made from remnant, but they lose it slowly overtime. michael thinks he can extract the remnant from souls in fnaf world though and he thought when william came back he'd have a lot, but as william was stuck with vivi after vr, most, if not all, of his remnant transferred over to her). aaaand william actually tries to defend her saying "fuck you", taking vivi, and booking it out of there. uuhhh that's all i got for now. ig it's kind of like version 2 of the game because you get animdude as a playable character in that version, and the two are trying to find him so power could be restored in fnaf world

Chica’s Magic Rainbow/End of Michael’s tyranny

you guys remember the bitch chica's magic rainbow? uuuuh yeah that's vivi. here she was manipulated (and kind of mind controlled??) by king michael (the bitch majesty himself uwu) to help him take down william and make him suffer like he's supposed to. thing is, before the fight william and vivi found animdude, the actual caretaker of fnaf world and is kind of like god ig, so animdude helps william fight king michael and chica's michael’s magic rainbow. michael loses and vivi kind of... dies? she just gets knocked out really if anything but she wakes up just fine. animdude takes his place back as the caretaker, michael is sent to fnaf world's version of purgatory, and william is sent to his own personal hell (don't worry he isn't a bitch abt it like he'd usually be xddd) and william's personal hell is a challenge that he is supposed to die over and over again and never win (guarded and managed by cassidy), but if he wins at least one night of hell, he will be able to roam fnaf world freely (he was given this "if" situation since he helped animdude take back fnaf world. it was like a "thank you, but still get fucked" thing ya know?)

OMC and William’s family

so um.. omc’s not really that developed as a character, but what i can tell you is that either he's just only gonna be william's dad or there could possibly be two old ppl consequences and it's probably gonna be both his parents. when they died they at first inhabited the first sublevel of fnaf world where the "you were pretty good in life" people go, but when michael took over fnaf world and claimed himself king, he moved whoever was in the fourth layer to the third causing a lot of overcrowding, and put william's parents and older sister down there to wait for william to come so they could be his personal tormentors later on. amelia, william's sister, was of course wanting revenge, and she sat at the bottom of the lake, her spirit changing to adapt to the environment around her since her regular spirit form cannot survive underwater (also i just came up with this now, but the more you travel the sublevels downward, the more your spirit changes to adapt to the environment around it. those in the fourth layer get morphed the worst since the worst people are supposed to be down there). william's parents on the other hand, cherry afton and idk what the dad's name is gonna be yet so i'll just call him omc, do not want to do this since they don't know about anything he's done other than kill his sister (he would've gone to the third layer if he only killed her but.. that didn't happen :/). they do get out of the fourth layer eventually, but the fourth layer changes spirits forms extremely quickly so the people down there can suffer for eternity for longer since the changing of a spirit's form is extremely painful. so what ended up happening is that amelia ends up as a deformed siren who cannot survive on land, omc is a literal crocodile, and idk what i wanna do w/ cherry yet :/

Fredbear and Springbonnie

soooo my henry and william are as follows in terms of personality: william: bitchy bitch, child life nabber, hates his kids (except michael), springy boi kinnie, furry, g a e  a s  h e l l henry: baby boy, poor man who needs therapy, loves kids and adopted three idiots later in life, fredbear kinnie, maybe a furry, g a e as well but if you switch their personalities, that's fnaf world fredbear and springbonnie. fredbear acts EXTREMELY william-like and it even creeps out william himself. like.. william kinda gets a redemption arc while he's fighting his dead antihero son king michael bc through fredbear, he sees how fucked up he was as a person (doesn’t excuse his actions though *spits on him*). he also learns bc vivi basically turns into his therapist ig xddd william takes two full trips through fnaf world, first time fredbear was his mentor, telling him to "find the clocks" and all that shit. but the second time, it was actually spring bonnie, helping him and vivi stay out of king michael’s sight and help them find animdude. he got to see both sides of both characters during his two trips. fredbear and spring both have a happy-go-lucky side, but they both have darker, deeper, more real sides to them that reflect into the real world.

[rouge-the-bat]

OOPS I HAD STARTED THIS THEN SAVED AS A DRAFT TO FINISH LATER BUT THEN FORGOT SO ITS. BEEN A BIT SINCE I WAS ACTUALLY TAGGED FOR THIS LMAO

ANYWAYS i was tagged by @skayforrest :'33

Rules: Please make your own text post when answering these to avoid long posts. Highlight/bold what applies to you!

for me to make it easier for me to read im going for:

bold: definitely me :3

italics: kinda me!

strikethrough: not me at All

(subscript parenthesis): my comments! (bc im very rambly lol)

also changing // between different phrases to ♡♡ to make it easier for me to distinguish between phrases too owo

♡  Appearance ♡

I am over 5’5 ♡♡ I wear glasses/contacts ♡♡ I have blonde hair ♡♡ I prefer loose clothing over tight clothing ♡♡ I have one or more piercings (my ears!) ♡♡ I have at least one tattoo (i want to get one of a drawing ive made soon tho!) ♡♡ I have blue eyes ♡♡ I have dyed or highlighted my hair (its p much back to normal now tho- and i want to dye it pink someday) ♡♡ I have gotten plastic surgery ♡♡ I have or had braces ♡♡ I sunburn easily ♡♡ I have freckles ♡♡ I paint my nails (not super often but i have fun doing it occasionally owo!) ♡♡ I typically wear makeup (i rarely do and usually its just lispstick, with maybe eyshadow and/or eyeliner) ♡♡ I don’t often smile (i can be really smiley sometimes but i dont interact with others much (esp irl) so i tend to not emote a whole lot) ♡♡ I am pleased with how I look (im cute round n chubby!!) ♡♡ I prefer nike to adidas (i literally dont care) ♡♡ I wear baseball caps backwards

♡ Hobbies & Interests ♡

I play a sport (i play... wii sports and real life bowling sometimes at most :'3) ♡♡ I can play an instrument (its been a really long time but i learned clarinet from school band) ♡♡ I am artistic ♡♡ I know more than one language (id like to learn some tho, like japanese, french, and/or korean maybe?) ♡♡ I have won a trophy in some sort of competition (never a Literal trophy :O) ♡♡ I can cook or bake without a recipe ♡♡ I know how to swim ♡♡ I enjoy writing (i like to but school has made me anxious anytime i try now ;w;) ♡♡ I can do origami ♡♡ I prefer movies to tv shows ♡♡ I can execute a perfect somersault ♡♡ I enjoy singing (exclusively for singing along, i dont really ever sing on my own lol) ♡♡ I could survive in the wild on my own ♡♡ I have read a new book series this year ♡♡ I enjoy spending time with my friends (who wouldnt!! esp with my friends, theyre amazing :'3) ♡♡ I travel during school or work breaks (id like to travel more..) ♡♡ I can do a handstand

♡ Relationships ♡

I am in a relationship (my girlfriend is so wonderful 🥰) ♡♡ I have been single for over a year (been dating my gf for almost 2 full years now!) ♡♡ I have a crush (fictional crushes count right? bc i have a million of those lol) ♡♡ I have a best friend I have known for ten years ♡♡ My parents are together ♡♡ I have hooked up with my best friend (thats meaning sexual right? bc im sex repulsed and so is my gf whos my best friend so, absolutely not lol) ♡♡ I am adopted ♡♡ My crush has confessed to me (im p much always the first to confess lol) ♡♡ I have had a long-distance relationship (hopefully someday tho it wont be long distance :'3) ♡♡ I am an only child (dear god no i have. 1 full brother, 3 half brothers, 1 half sister, and 2 or 3 step brothers gjkxjfk) ♡♡ I give advice to my friends (im not the best with advice but i try when i can!!) ♡♡ I have made an online friend (all of my current friends are online!) ♡♡ I met up with someone I have met online (GOD I WISH)

♡ Aesthetics ♡

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell ♡♡ I have watched the sunrise (many times, after being awake all night bc im p mych nocturnal lol) ♡♡ I enjoy rainy days (god i love rain so much) ♡♡ I have slept under the stars (iirc im p sure ive slept in a tent for going camping before ??? but my memory sucks so im not sure if that happened or i just always wanted to gjkdjg) ♡♡ I meditate outside (maybe i should try that sometime..) ♡♡ The sound of chirping calms me ♡♡ I enjoy the smell of the beach (ive been to a beach just a couple times.. i dont remember what it smelled like) ♡♡ I know what snow tastes like (i eat snow EVERY time it snows here, esp to make snow cream) ♡♡ I listen to music to fall asleep (on occasion! always instrumental stuff, sometimes meant for relaxing or sometimes just a comfort song from a game i love) ♡♡ I enjoy thunderstorms ♡♡ I enjoy cloud watching ♡♡ I have attended a bonfire ♡♡ I pay close attention to colors (ofc ! i love colors and graphic design is my passion- but like Actually, im not quoting the meme lol) ♡♡ I find mystery in the ocean ♡♡ I enjoy hiking on nature paths (would REALLY need to be in the mood for it) ♡♡ Autumn is my favourite season (close ! i love the chilly air and aesthetic of autumn as well, but winter is my ultimate comfort season <3)

♡ Miscellaneous ♡

I can fall asleep in moving vehicles ♡♡ I am the mom friend (mom friend mode can activate on Occasion, but usually im silly bastard friend) ♡♡ I am involved in extracurricular activities (im not in school) ♡♡ I enjoy mexican food ♡♡ I can drive a stick-shift (i still havent learned how to drive yet owo;;) ♡♡ I believe in true love (probably not in a typical sense?) ♡♡ I make up scenarios to fall asleep (oh no, i make up scenarios constantly in my head throughout the day, i get way too invested in them so they usually keep me up if i think about them when trying to sleep) ♡♡ I sing in the shower ♡♡ I wish I lived in a superhero movie (i def wanna live in some fictional worlds, but superhero movies arent things im usually into) ♡♡ I have a canopy above my bed ♡♡ I am multiracial (im not super familiar with my ancestry rn, so idk. would like to know sometime tho) ♡♡ I am a redhead ♡♡ I own at least 3 dogs/cats (rn i have 2 dogs and 3 cats!)

and uhhh ill tag @spiiderbiites @miphelda @kipokin @queerplyke @ameila if yall wanna do it :3? (if yalld like i can go thru n supply a version of this without all of my font edits and comments!) AH WHOOPS I GOT A URL MESSED UP BUT XENOLEAF U CAN DO TOO IF U WANT