#this is probably outdated by now this story changes constantly

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.180 thoughts

[You're Back! And Your Front - You're Both Here!]

(Contents: Fuuko analysis)

After over a year completely absent from the story, Andy has finally returned!!! Sort of. This one's just a clone, but it's still his consciousness, so we can't go so far as to say he's a fake or anything like that, it just means that he's not back permanently just yet. Sadly, he'll be gone before we know it, probably by the end of next chapter or the following depending on how quickly a "minute" passes

While that is the most exciting part of this week's chapter, though, I have already talked about it in a separate post, and thematically it contributes very little to the chapter as a whole, so it doesn't give me much to chew on right now

But you know who does? Fuuko. Fuuko continues to be one of the best protagonists I've ever read if for no other reason than because she is constantly growing. In fact, this chapter gives us two instances of her immense capacity for growth, one retroactive and one current

First, I want to talk about her surgical skills. Upon seeing Fuuko's proficiency with a scalpel, Rip notes that it took him ten years to get that good, to which Fuuko replies that everyone has their own set of talents - it took her 100 years to get to that level. We know that Fuuko's been kicking around this loop for 200+ years now, but aside from getting in on the ground floor of the fossil fuel economy and flirting with old martial arts masters, we don't really know how Fuuko spent most of her time. This revelation makes it clear that she wasn't just twiddling her thumbs and waiting for everything to fall into place, she was using her time to learn everything she might need to know going forward. She couldn't rely on being lucky enough that someone would know how to perform Leila's surgery aside from Rip, she had to be the one who could do it just in case. It was difficult, obviously, but that didn't matter - she had to do it, and when you have a potentially infinite lifetime, something being a "waste of time" isn't a valid excuse anymore

Compare this to when Fuuko was instructed to write a manga to get close to Anno Un in ch.37 - immediately she tried to get out of it, declaring that there was too big of a gap between reading and writing for her to be able to succeed. It didn't take a ton of convincing to change her mind, obviously, but she still needed to know that Andy was at her back and had the skills necessary to cover for her before she was willing to take even so much as the first step. This time, though, she had nobody. She had to do everything all alone, with no safety nets or guarantees, and she was able to turn those anxieties into the motivation she needed to succeed

It's also interesting that this means that she's taken the same basic path as Andy this time around: when Andy learned he was immortal, he started dabbling in various skills, such as hairdressing and manga authorship. However, whereas Andy was just aimlessly picking up skills to kill the boredom, Fuuko used her time wisely to plan out every eventuality along her 200-year path

I will say it's not exactly fair to say that it took Fuuko ten times as long as Rip to learn how to perform surgery, though - if she took 100 years, she must have started 100+ years ago. How different was medical knowledge and technology between 1800 and 1915? What tools do we have now that they couldn't have had? Society moves as fast as its tech will allow, so obviously someone working with outdated materials is going to learn that much slower, especially if she's trying to learn modern techniques

Not only has Fuuko shown her growth as an individual, though, she's also shown her growth as a leader. In accidentally triggering Unluck on Rip (with the same level of affection as she had for Andy when she first kissed him, I might add!), Fuuko summons a meteor that she knows will destroy the hospital. The last time this sort of accident happened was at the end of the Buroja Conflict in ch.153 when she inadvertently dropped Disc on Nico. At the time, she was paralyzed with guilt and fear, crying from the knowledge that she's not only killed one of her best friends, but possibly everyone who matters to her, and she can't do anything about it. What snapped her out of it was the reassurance from her friends that this was not an inescapable tragedy, but a problem to be solved by everyone working together - all she had to do was give the order

This time, Fuuko still knew that what was coming was terrible and was afraid of the outcome, but instead of wallowing in guilt, she jumped into action, figuring out the best course of action for everyone involved near instantly. Of course, she still didn't have the solution totally figured out, but she was able to create a plan on the fly because she didn't need any reminders that everyone present was strong enough to come together and save the day so long as they have strong enough leadership to unify them

But of course, Tozuka wasn't going to let Fuuko get away with simply minimizing casualities, he was always going to give her a definitive way out that would bolster her courage to the max. With Andy's return, all of Fuuko's anxieties are washed away, and the path to the goal has become clear as day - all she has to do is give the order

[jenukiart]

OC Stuff - BKW - Kisyku & Roombot

This is Kisyku!! (That's "Kiss-eye-coo" ^^,)

He's my main OC for a space story I've been working on, Bodacious Kisyku World (BKW for short). I've had this character for like.. 7-8 years now?? He's gone through so many changes and iterations, but I'm really happy with where he is now. ^^

Kisyku is a Celestial! They're a powerful species with the ability to channel something called "Cosmic Energy," which is sort of this universe's like "energy" you know the whole shonen thing

Cosmic Energy

Cosmic Energy is channeling the vacuum of space into a combustible dense "liquid" like blob. Think of their appearance like the dream blocks from Celeste, except you can sling it. Kisyku's main form of attack involves slinging this explosive space jelly around. CE also is used to sponge damage to his body among other things.

Channeling and using Cosmic Energy is incredibly dangerous though, so not many people can use it (like humans can't at all for example), so it's a pretty forgotten/unknown thing in the present day.

But Celestials are VERY good at it, like dangerously so.. the story mainly revolves around Kisyku's usage of it, and how he tends to push the limits to dangerous degrees..

Okay NOW Kisyku and Roombot!!

Yeah so Kisyku is a Celestial!! They're a pretty complicated species.. supposedly they can just take on any form they'd like, but Kisyku likes to keep it simple and just appear as human.

I think he messed up a few things though, like he's got pointy Hylian-like ears for one. Just a couple of small quirks like that. So he's not 100% human, but that's ok I still love him, he's doing his best.

I think it's very important to mention that he just has this transmasc energy to him though, I don't really know how to describe it. In earlier versions of the story, when he was just a normal human, he actually was trans. I wanted to keep that element of him in the modern story, by having the transness be more metaphorical through the way Celestials work. That will probably make more sense when I eventually get the official story rolling, but for now just know that he's this transmasc-energy little gremlin.

Despite his size (an outstanding 5'3"!!) Kisyku is a pretty loud, active, and rambunctious character. He's a little scrunkly who can get kinda cocky at times, but overall his heart is in the right place. He can be rather sweet at times, as long as you aren't trying to pick a fight with him.. or commenting on his height.

He also is totally that kind of person who will steal snacks from your fridge, i wouldn't be surprised if he does that a lot with the Brigade

Kisk spends most of his time chilling on Earth. He resides on the dock of a small n' quiet beach-side town. He also enjoys bothering his rent-debt collector, Emily. I'll share more about her and Earth another time though. All you need to know is that he's constantly in debt to her.

He really enjoys watching the waves of the shore sway, among other things as he explores more of the town and it's boardwalk and stuff. It's nice after all to have some quiet time in between the crazy action and antics he gets himself into.

Speaking of...

Outside of Earth-rest stuff, Kisyku likes going out into space and raiding the Cosmos. I like to call these hit and runs of his "rampages," as he seems to have this goal to cause as much destruction to the Cosmos as possible.

The animatic above is a little outdated with the Cosmo designs, but it gives you a good idea of the rush Kisyku throws himself into. In the animatic, they appear as this evil Star Wars-like space empire, but in the current story, Cosmos are very much different. Now they're kind of a secret "shadow police" that only Kisyku really knows about...

He seems to have beef with them, and they don't really like him either... maybe one day you'll learn about why...

But yeah finally, his little companion pal: Roombot. They're like an actual cat.. if it were a roomba.. and can fly.

It's kinda bitchy, sometimes snarky towards Kisyku. You won't really be able to hear their vulgar language though, since they speak in R2-D2 beep boops and whirrs.

Kisyku talks to them a lot though, and sometimes Roomboot puts the snark aside to really listen to him, especially for more emotional moments. They're kind of who Kisyku comes to the most about his problems in the early parts of the story.

Yeah, Roombot is rather silly. They can also float, and Kisyku can grab onto them to get some extra height. Kisyku also sometimes uses them as a stepping stool, but I don't think they really like it when he does.

Holding Roombot feels very buoyant, like as if you were holding onto a paddle board in a pool y'know? That kinda vibe. Despite not always enjoying it, they're always there to help Kisyku out in a pickle!!

But uhhh yeah!! That's Kisyku (and Roombot)!! Kisk really means a lot to me, since he's been around for so so long in my life now. I hope that someday I can really get his story out there for you all to enjoy haha.. but until then, I hope you enjoy the drawings I make of him and his world!!

[quitealotofsodapop]

So out of all the Celestials amd members of the Heavenly Court, it's pretty much a given that Wukong was the closest and most familiar with the mortal world at the start of the story but... who would you say is the second most familiar? I personally feel it'd be either Quan Yin or Lao Zi. Quan Yin because she just feels like the type and Lao Zi because, well, he probably gets great amusement from the mortals' inventions

Lao Tzu/Zi is super interested in human tech, especially the kind that has cropped up in the last hundred years. He's also a little frustrate because the fundamentals surrounding science have changed! It's like being out of college for decades and learning that all the material in your course is now outdated. He's *constantly* trying to sneak off to earth to get an education, but his duties are in very high demand. The best he can do is send his lab assistants (Jin and Yin) down to get an education in his sted. Now if those two actually attended classes, it would be all peachy...

Guanyin is ultimately the "closest to earth" literally. She rejected the Pure Lands to remain on Earth and help humanity. Her island, despite being enchanted, is still very much in the Pacific Ocean. She was born human, died a human, revived, and became Bodhisattva all in the same lifetime. She's privy to a lot of human suffering and their troubles, though she often fails to understand *modern* issues that her flock experience. She has no idea what a block-chain is - just sit down and eat some fruit and maybe you'll feel better.

Wukong is interesting to both of them, cus while he may not understand the modern day; he's willing to go full force into learning Everything that there is to know now. Video games, computers, social changes, the new ways people love and/or fight, he want to Know! He's an invaluable in-between for the Celestials since he's able to exist in multiple spaces and express at length at what he's learned!

[javacad0]

Finally explaining my absence

https://www.deviantart.com/jay-javacad0/journal/Finally-explaining-my-absence-1064284972

"+ MORE SOCIALS BELOW

This will probably be the last post I make on DeviantArt so LISTEN UP!

And don't worry, nothing really serious has been going on aside from the typical mental shit we all get sometimes. Either way, I just felt the need to step away for a few months.

As for why... well, for starters, I just couldn't keep up with the pace. Part of why I made a Discord is so I could still interact with some of my followers and mutuals without having to commit to such a rapid schedule and post everything on here all the time (except it's not actually everything, just the best looking things), and that's what encouraged me to finally take that big break I didn't even know I've been craving the whole time.

I'm glad to have DA and have made it as far as I did, but lord it can be draining trying to stay active, especially for someone who just doesn't like to run around constantly working on shit in general.

The more time I spent away, the more I questioned whether staying here was even worth it anymore. And I mean, specifically here.

To make a long story short, I'm actually leaving DeviantArt and moving socials. I'm sure I don't have to explain why.

It's really a shame that I must do this, I have quite the history with this site (eight on-and-off years) and it's where I met some of my closest friends currently, but if DeviantArt wants to reject humanity and become Deviantron 3000, then I'll let it. I'm not necessarily proud or happy for her transition, but I respect her.

And like I said, I have a list of links to all my new accounts at the bottom of this journal. As of now, pretty much all of them are completely empty, but if you want to support me, I encourage you to please follow them! As for this account, I'm not going to deactivate it, I'm just going to leave it as is to serve as a little old archive for all my older Pokemon related work. Which brings me to my next announcement...

As for another decision I've made within my break, which could be good news or bad news depending on how you take it...

I am now fully committed to transitioning "Street Cat" (now Flea Season) from a Pokemon series to an original one. Some of the later images in my gallery may give you an idea of what it will look like, but a lot of changes are being made every day so those designs are already more than outdated.

Reasons include more creative liberty and freedom, an excuse to just restart from the ground up without the pressure of forcing in all these Pokemon elements and PG filters because there are more kids, and uhh... the relief of not just being followed because of a fandom but rather my own general interests.

I hate that I'm coming back here after about three months, only to tell everyone I'm leaving DA and discontinuing my series... sort of, but it's what needs to be told. I'm sorry I've put this journal off for so long, I've been so caught up with real life stuff, and constantly battling exhaustion, anxiety, ADHD, amongst other likely issues in between. So in terms of productivity, I'm basically frozen in place. It certainly hasn't gotten easier, but I want to at least try to pick myself back up before July.

So I will be doing ArtFight this year. By the time it comes around, that account will be showcasing all my current designs and where everyone is at now. I can't promise there will be much to present aside from a rushed lineup, or that I'll participate much in general, but at least it's something.

I've also had thoughts about a more public Discord server, but there's usually a lot of responsibility and general bullshit that comes with maintaining one, so I'll have to think carefully about that.

I don't know how to conclude this aside from saying I appreciate y'all for the support you've all given me on here over the past year and a half, I'm so glad to have made it this far and feel good about what's to come next.

That being said, here's all my current accounts you can expect me to continue my work on, from most to least likely to be active (plus my AF again just in case).

https://artfight.net/~javacad0 https://sheezy.art/javacad0 https://javacad0.tumblr.com/ (main blog and the only thing that isn't currently completely empty) https://str33t-c4t.tumblr.com/ (current series blog, will either be reconstructed or replaced)

(Just... just trust the process. I'll get to posting and makeovers after July.)

It is 4am as I am finishing this journal, but if you're reading this the next day, then uh... have a great rest of your day and I hope to see you again soon.

I will respond to comments here and notes, and may comment some add-on info myself. Otherwise, I'm signing off. Love y'all."

[thephantomcasebook]

Hello. I was wondering why they changed Helaena's personality, in the book they describe her as a sweet and cheerful girl, as well as a good mother, she even seems to have a good relationship with Alicent, in the series is the opposite, maybe they wanted to give more mystery to her personality because she is a dreamer.

Do you think that Daeron is given more prominence in the series than he has in the book? That would be great.

Could he be able to reach King's Landing with his army in the series?

I read about the history of Jaehaera Targaryen and it seems to me that if ahi much relationship with the children of Aegon iii, I find it curious that his last daughter is called Elaena and the second son is called Baelor when the younger brother of Jahaera is called Maelor, it seems that these names are in honor of them.

This one will probably get me into trouble.

But, uh, it's probably because Sara Hess and Spotchnik didn't think that the perimeters of Helaena's character from the source material was good enough or interesting enough to tell a story with - not that they did anyway.

They probably wanted to do something special with Helaena at the outset, because, in their mind, a Targaryen has to be special or spectacular. That a woman whose ambition is to be a mother and raise babies is somehow outdated or "Problematic" to them so they gutted Helaena's character and purpose.

In case you haven't noticed the people that were involved in season 1 were extremely political and seemed to equate everything in the show to their ideology. It nearly torpedoed the show, so much so that some of them got fired and GRRM had to come in and rewrite and rebreak Season 2 to get it back on the right track.

The changing of Helaena's character shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the "Dance of the Dragons" by Hess and Spotchnik. They were trying to tell the story of how exceptional women are being held down by men. When the point of the story was that women, same as men, can be corrupted by power and become insane for it. They keep trying to promote women like Rhaenyra and Rhaenys as vitreous exceptions when the whole point of the story of "The Dance" is to show that there is no exceptions.

You can't girl boss your way out of being a murderous tyrant.

Helaena is - in the end - a victim of power hungry women, not men. The most heinous things done to Helaena is committed exclusively by women. Rhaenyra orders "Blood & Cheese" and the White Worm executes it. Maelor is murdered by a woman and his dead body mutilated by Lady Caswell. Rhaenyra orders the nightly rape of Helaena which the White Worm brokers

The change to her character is most likely politically motivated by some of the activists in Season 1 to make Helaena more interesting (to them) and to run cover for the other ambitious female characters so that they won't be considered monsters in later seasons. Cause murdering children and raping an innocent and sweet queen isn't very girl boss to the general public.

Say what you will about GRRM, but there are consequences for the things done, even for women, in his stories.

Which transitions nicely to Daeron.

To be honest with you, I can't speak educated to what they'll do with Daeron. His character is one that has been cut down and cut down in relevance and characterization constantly in different edits and editions of the Source Material since 2018. He started out as an incredibly crucial character - the king that should've been - and it seems that GRRM still thinks he is from interviews. But now, in the new Tie-In Edition of "Fire & Blood" he is kinda relegated to a background character now.

As I've said in other places. The people in charge of Season 1 did not want Daeron on the show and wrote him out of existence so that Rhaenyra and the Strong Boys look better, rather than give Alicent and the Greens the actual noble and heroic character that everyone would root for. But once again, after Spotchnik and several of the producers got fired, GRRM swept in and announced very publicly that Daeron would be included in the show.

And even recently Condal flat out said that in Season 2 he expects a lot of people to switch sides and support the Greens based on the preliminary outline that GRRM, Taylor, and he are working on. And I think a part of that is probably having to do with what they have planned with Daeron.

As for if Daeron will get to King's Landing to rescue Alicent?

I can't say.

But I know that Daeron rescued Alicent, Corlys, and the others in the book.

Ask me about the "Daeron is "The Hedge Knight" theory" some other time, this post is too long as it is! lol!

To be honest with you, I would like to say that Jaehaera has some deeper meaning and history. But, in all reality, GRRM most likely made Aegon and Helaena's children weird and deformed because he was enraptured and in love with Daemon and so he wanted to make Daemon and his lineage super important. He also was trying to big up the Velaryons as well for the spin off TV material.

I wish there is more to it other than Author bias ... but there isn't.

[disfrutalakia]

Hi it's evillous AU anon again!! Now i've got time and it's not 11pm so I'm going to try and dump all my thoughts on it in your askbox >:D I started conceptualizing this while the election arc was still ongoing and something i've learned is that it's really difficult to make a complicated au of a story with characters that are constantly developing. several times i've assigned characters to one role only for the literal next day have a new plotline start that makes them fit a different role so much better and then i have to change everything around again. So this is 100% going to be outdated in like a week tops lmao. I've also taken a lot of liberties with things like who reincarnates into who and what order some events happen in, so it doesn't 100% fit the structure of either story. For reference i leaned toward making the relationships line up more with the QSMP storyline rather than evillous canon and its still heavily a WIP so things are going to be changed around a lot probably even while im writing this ask. I put a lot of thought into how the original sin arc would go in this au and there's a lot of details to it so to shorten it just a little bit i'll just explain that the federation serves as an overarching force/government/scientists thing throughout the entire story. they're conducting an experiment on the islanders where they're stuck in a cycle of reincarnation for 1000 years and their lives are going to be extensively documented to see what changes about them and how their society develops. The seven sins are something dropped into the world by the codes in order to mess with said experiment rather than being created by one person's soul like in the original story because tbh i hated that. I put ElQ in the role of Irina and Bad in the role of Elluka. I think they fit really well because I can then interpret The Song I Heard Somewhere as ElQ vowing revenge on Bad for assassinating him (in canon, at least. for AU purposes he kills all the other election candidates and wins) and Bad REALLY fits the role of the morally grey immortal whos creation is marked by a catastrophic event that destroys a whole civilization and they carry the guilt of that for their entire lives. As for the sinners themselves I haven't entirely figured them out yet? but for a couple of them i've got really detailed thoughts. For reference I also made it so each of them can reincarnate as many times as needed even if they've contracted with a sin before because I didn't want to remove characters from the story entirely. so: - Lust: I have no idea who i'm even going to begin to put into this role but the most likely candidate would be Pierre i think because of the whole bed thing? - Gluttony: I had Cellbit as this because of the whole cannibalism history thing he's got but other than that I hadn't really thought about it too much. I am sad to report however that the more BBH talks about eating living beings and inedible things he may fit better. it'd also be funny for the immortal assigned the task of gathering the sins to be the demon of gluttony itself. - Pride: tbh this one is pretty difficult to assign a role to because of how specific the original arc is and how it technically involves two characters. It's not something I could've put many characters in without really mischaracterizing them and I was thinking my best bet was probably Forever but then the happy pills happened and there's no way i could've not made him sloth. So my most recent idea was to change the pride story almost entirely and put Pac in the role? But more in the sense of 'two criminals are always fucking things up for the federation get a bit too cocky and have a warrant out for their arrest, Mike getting Pac to flee and as the feds are able to get at least one of them they're like "eh fuck it watching as your platonic soulmate dies is good enough torment for the other one."' but also idk. (1/2)

Ohhhh anon so sorry I forgot to check my inbox to reply to this BUT NOW I'M HERE AND AGH THIS SOUNDS AWESOME

First of all, I love Bad as Elluka (also i'm listening to survival ma, really sets the vibes I think) and also he is such a perfect choice for the demon of gluttony, like he would die by eating himself like Conchita (also who would be Carlos I wonder? Have no clue but someone gotta sing the best Kaito song ever made, drug of gold I love you so much)

And hum lust is a difficult one to pin down, especially cause like there is not many people I can see going the Duke Venomania route and having a fucking harem? Trying to remember who I saw being attacked by the lust mob more than once in the server and I think it was Bad (he really is Elluka hum, constantly finding sins left and right)

I think that Forever could fit well on pride actually, he is not like Rilliane was of course, but he is prideful in a way. Waiting to be the best president he can and not really accepting that sometimes his ways could be wrong.

[enderexplorer1212]

Saving Brace

“I mean, yeah. I’ve always wanted to go to a furry convention someday, but I don’t really have the money for that, and it’s kind of out of the way and stuff, and none of the dates work for anything, but still, if I’m able to, then I’d love to do it someday.”

There goes George again. Constantly finding a way to shoehorn being a furry into every single god damn conversation. I don’t get how he manages to do it. I mean, I have my interests, but I don’t shove them down everyone’s throats.

“Hey, George. Do you have any personality besides being a furry? I mean, do you?”

“Well, it depends on what you define as a personality.”

Look, I’m not the biggest fan of furries. They’re weird, off-putting, and kinda fucked up if you think about it. But he’s not really that bad, just kind of obnoxious, so I put up with it. Besides, he’s good at Fortnite.

“Yeah, whatever. Anyways, the house should be up here on the next right according to the map.”

“That map’s from 1956. It’s probably outdated.”

“Look, this is rural goddamn nowhere. I highly doubt the roads have changed particularly much around here.”

“Yeah, but the geography might’ve.”

“I don’t see ho-WAIT STOP THAT’S WATER!”

“Shit shit shit, I’m braking!”

CRASH

Fuck, fuck. Oh fuck the car’s filling up fuck fuck. Ok, shit. Doors don’t work, gotta kick the window. Fuck. Oh fuck me, can’t swim. Fuck, no no no, this can’t be it. God damnit fuck fuck fuck f-

Oh god. I do not feel good. Fuck, I am, fuck me. Fuck, my chest hurts. Ugh, super tired and sore, can barely move myself. Ok, shit, I have no clue where I am. Am I dead? I hope not. I feel warm though, that’s good. Shit, still don’t want to get up, but, I mean I should. It’s not like waking up when you’re tired, it’s kind of a weird feeling. I don’t know.

Ok, ok. Eyes opened, what do I see? So I do have a blanket, brown. Ok, wait, why’s it on my hand? Fuck, that’s not meant to happen what the fuck? Is that a… claw? On my hands? What the fuck? Did George stuff me into a goddamn fursuit or something? What the fuck is this?

“Oh good, John, you’re up.”

Who is that? Wait, that’s a furry. That’s like a goddamn wolf, hold on. What the fuck is this shit. Why is there a goddamn werewolf or something here. Wait a minute, don’t tell me-

“George?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“What the fuck is going on? Why am I… you know?”

“Yeah that, well. Long story short, I’m a werewolf.”

I refuse to believe that for a second, but considering the current predicament, I’ll keep listening to whatever weird RP shit he’s doing or whatever.

“And, well, you had passed out in the car. So I tried CPR, didn’t work. Some of your ribs might be cracked though. So I thought, ‘shit, what do I do now?’ Then I realized, oh yeah, I’m a werewolf, and it’s a full moon, which is real goddamn convenient when you think about it. So I bit you, turned you into a werewolf, and now you’re healed.”

“I- What?”

“Yeah, you’re a werewolf. It’s pretty cool though, since you c-”

“Hold the fuck on, I’m like this from now on?”

“Well, yeah, every full moon, you’re like this. It’s kind of permanent.”

“So I’m stuck like this?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say stuck, but yeah.”

Oh fuck oh fuck. No no no, this cannot be happening I cannot become a furry what the fuck. This is actually the fucking worst holy shit.

“Fuck fuck, this is the worst fucking scenario, fuck.”

“What’s so bad about it?”

“You- fucking you turned me into a goddamn furry!”

“Well the only other goddamn alternative would have you been fucking dying!”

“Yeah, well maybe you should have done that!”

“Alright, look, look. We can debate fucking voluntary euthanasia another time, alright, right now, you’re just going to have to deal with this, alright?”

Goddamnit. I cannot fucking handle this shit. Fuck, I’m a goddamn furry now, fuck. I’m probably going to have to purchase a fursuit now, fuck. Wait, hold on a minute.

“Hey, does you being a werewolf have anything to do with being a furry?”

“What? Oh, not at all. It’s just a weird coincidence is all.”

“Ok, do you get off to it?”

“…yeah.”

[robertwalton]

2,4,6,8,10,12 for the writing asks!

THANK YOU... honestly i'm sure you were just sending the even numbers as a pattern but these happen to be really good questions!!!!!

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

HAHA UM. well the casual observer might think i'm about to say the theodred series but i'm not remotely embarrassed about that. ok i reflected i looked inward and it's probably all the nddp fanfic i orphaned on ao3 from 2016

4) favorite character you’ve written

PLEASE I CANT CHOOSE MY FAVORITE... theyre all real people that live inside my little head... okay fine kajack. and yes i am saying it because i wrote an entire book from his perspective, but sue me... he just comes so naturally to me. otherwise i like writing robert (i haven't written him very often, but i keep finding myself giving him a unique wistfulness + nostalgic kind of tone, i think first person perspective works really well on him, AND he's a million billion times easier to write than victor, who i Just Don't Know About)

in twb specifically, i've really enjoyed writing mira so far, but i've mostly stuck with third person omniscient, so we haven't gotten to see anyone's voices intimately yet... although i think i Will start switching up who dominates the narrative as soon as i get them out of the city

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

interesting... i don't tend to regret a lot... i mean colleen and winter are always building out their setting which means my bode series gets more & more outdated the more mestrian culture develops, BUT i don't regret that and i wouldn't change it - it's like a time capsule. in my mind anything written in a collaborative/constantly evolving setting doesn't need to be consistent with the most updated information because there is always going to be more updated information, and editing old work all the time to try to keep up would be. well. sisyphean! and punishing. HMM... WHAT WOULD I CHANGE THEN... no i'm sorry i don't have any regrets. i'm having fun i wouldn't change a thing

8) favorite genre to write

SCI FI FANTASY!!!! and the reason for this is that i am so much more confident with fantasy settings. embarrassingly enough, whenever i try to write a story that takes place on earth, i get really bogged down in whether i'm representing real life/science/law accurately... i need to research the funniest little things, like gas prices or how you're supposed to pay at a restaurant or how laws work or what the weather ought to be like in x geographical area etc etc. i feel like i need to get everything absolutely accurate if i'm writing in real life, and that pressure kinda overwhelms the actual story. plus. i'm 23 and i have limited life experience (no car never been to a party rarely go on adventures have only had a few jobs) so like. BASICALLY I DO NOT FEEL LIKE I CAN ACCURATELY REPRESENT ADULT LIFE IN A REALISTIC WAY!!!!!!!!! i feel like people would laugh at me. my naivete. my complete lack of intuition. you don't have to worry abt any of that in a fantasy setting because you can make up your own rules

i make do with robert + victor + esme because i'm completely obsessed with them as people and they're worth the effort of researching... and plus the city they live in is not only fictional but Meant to be a little quirky

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

silence... oh my god im the worst i can't even do music... IT DISTRACTS ME!!!!!! if im on a really good writing kick i dont need that kind of stimulation anyway! plus i constantly talk to myself while i'm writing (most of the time i'm reading everything under my breath to make sure it flows well, ESPECIALLY dialogue). and sometimes if it's really good i hoot and holler and slap my thighs

i would LOVE to be the kind of person who is capable of engage in parallel play + write while someone else is in the room, but i have NEVER EVER successfully written anything whilst hanging out. i get too excited about having company. i keep trying to enlist them in the writing. like i will giggle and kick my feet and talk... im so bad at hushing up and just being quiet together... ill ask for suggestions ill try to read stuff out loud to the other person and then nothing gets done

music is a really useful tool For Writing though! i'll listen to my little character/plot playlists and i'll feel very intensely and then i'll pause the song and write

12) your weaknesses as an author

see the real life setting issue above

i really struggle with pacing

i'm flighty... i get discouraged too easily and give up if i think the writing isn't good enough

i take a lot of random risks and i write without outlining (or i hold the outline in my head) and that can lead to me having 10 pages of absolute garbage that serves no purpose that i wrote off the cuff and yet i never wanna delete it so then i either give up or commit to the garbage. 50% of the time it works out and the garbage becomes genius. currently doing this rn in twb

i dont know how to write a cohesive short story. ONLY longform narratives and short snippets that aren't complete and don't stand on their own. i'd write a trilogy before i successfully produced three short stories. i wouldnt say i'm even particularly long winded. i just dont know how to resolve conflict fast. LMAO

[reverieprince]

i never post here but im answering this question bc its too long for curiouscat!

answer is under the cut ^^;

yes kinda! the story abt this is basically when briar is 2 and astair is 6, the rulers decide they should split them up, with their weird logic being that 'hey we can teach and influence them, but if they're separate they can't be sneaky and create some secret plan and conspire against us together when they're older' which is funny bc that's literally what happens anyways

so astair is like 6 when they tell him his baby sister passed away. He's pretty upset, but it doesn't affect his life too much, especially since his parents would always tell him it didn't matter and to move on. So for the next eleven years, the rulers are there but on and off- they'd spend a few weeks with him, then some castle staff (is staff what you call people working at a castle? idk...) would take care of him on the off weeks. (this is when they were spending time with briar, and the cycle would repeat.) 

only thing is, briar had a ton less liberties growing up- astair was their main focus since he was to be the next king, so briar really spent most of her life in a very limited area and didn't get to do much of anything. so when she's 13, she tries to escape by basically hurling herself out a window, because i guess she wasn't thinking critically or somethin? luckily, emalise (i don't mention her much sorry but she used to be an apprentice castle guard for the Chastels) happened to be flying a little ways under the window and caught her. 

so briar's all like “my parents are bad” and emalise is like “we been knew” and helps her escape to nocteram. they figure by the time they get there that people have totally noticed that the princess is missing and now they're both kinda on the run from castle guards. (which is true, but it isnt like they figure out theyre in a whole nother kingdom by now.) so now em and briar are kinda just wandering the city and come across this abandoned building that still has light coming from it. it's the old pterasi headquarters! (i forgot to mention this but this is all like 3 years from the start of arc 1! briar's 13, caspians 19, emalise is 18, and theo is 16.) 

so there they meet theoden, who's pretty nice to them and offers them a place to stay in the old pterasi hq where he and caspian are lving rn. (this isnt too long after old pterasi disbanded leaving just the two of them kinda hanging around in the hq building cause they didn't really have anywhere else to go.) so briar and emalise accept pretty eagerly, but then whuh oh caspian comes in later bc he was doing something at the time i guess, like a patrol or something. he kinda wants to keep up the illusion that pterasi is still a thing :( anyway hes kinda miffed, but trusts theoden with letting them stay "for now" as long as they mind their business.

briar does not mind her business. 

she's frankly awed by everything in nocteram, caspian included. she's kinda hangin around him all the time and asking what this or that is. she hangs with theoden a lot too, but she also kinda thinks annoying caspian is fun. caspian himself is slowly warming up to her though, despite insisting he doesnt have time for some kid. they get pretty close pretty fast once caspian lets his guard down, they just kinda click and have a close-knit, fun siblingy dynamic and get into trouble together :D

so three years and one big fat status upgrade later pterasi is kinda thriving yaa! to answer your second question, their first meeting is once they've got astair in their new hq, courtesy of ambrose's sollis minions. briar knows they're siblings bc she knows who her parents are obviously, but she has zero memories of the guy so what gives? soon after hes just kinda. settled in their penthouse headquarters thing, briar approaches him with a bunch of questions, not just because shes suspicious of him, but because she also wants answers to piece together the puzzle of her own life. 

this is where they kinda make a deal with the rest of pterasi- you help me investigate what's going on with the king and queen and i'll join pterasi and help you do some mission stuff. normally it'd be a no, no one trusts him yet- but briar shares astair's objective. the rest see that this is quite personal to her, so they accept. 

briar and astair's relationship starts off quite amicable, but a bit awkward and forced- like the way you're friendly with an acquaintance you have a lot in common with. it gets a bit rocky when astair kinda goes helicopter mode, starting to try and distance her from pterasi out of concern for her. eventually he learns to pull back and kinda trust her and pterasi, and they manage to get close to each other!

[luciiferous]

A very early conceptual look at a Mau skull.

More general info about them under the cut, but as an overview: compared to elves (and humans) they only have 24 teeth, more sloped heads and slightly smaller braincases. Both males and females have a sagittal crest (that bony bit on the back of the skull), and the size is not linked to sexual dimorphism. This provides a lot of bite force despite a fairly small jaw, and with so few teeth, damage to that area is a much bigger threat. It's pretty common for Mau to die of starvation if they aren't part of a "pride" (not their word).

Below is more about their general biology and why catgirls exhibit aggressive mimicry!

So some background terminology because I'm going to be using the term mimicry a lot. Most people are probably familiar with Batesian mimicry, where a harmless creature will evolve to look more like something toxic/dangerous/unpleasant to eat generally. This deters predators from eating them, even though they would be perfectly safe to.

The classic example is the monarch vs. viceroy butterfly, but afaik this is now considered an outdated classification (the viceroy butterfly is actually somewhat toxic as well, so this is an example of Müllerian mimicry instead). So for a better example, I'll use hornet moths and European hornets.

The hornet moth is on the right, and obviously... is a moth. It has no real defenses other than the fact that it looks like the real hornet (left). You can break this down further by classifying if the mimicry is mutually beneficial to both species, if only one benefits, etcetera... And there are several other kinds of mimicry as well!

For our purposes, the mimicry the Mau exhibit is something called "aggressive mimicry". Unlike Batesian, the mimic species isn't relying on a bad reputation to protect it; it's actually trying to seem harmless in order to avoid being detected by its prey. This often allows it to sneak closer and launch surprise attacks; sometimes, they might even be mimicking the prey species itself.

(Above, ant. Below, ant-eating mimic spider)

Do you see where this is going yet?

If the Mau shared any common family tree branches with elves (or humans, but that's another story), it would have been a long, long time ago. Their most distantly-recorded ancestors looked a bit like a mix between spider monkeys and small cats. They were largely arboreal, opportunistic hunters which ranged from about 24 inches to 30 inches at maximum, when upright. Though they were almost entirely quadrupedal at that time.

Due to a mass migration and genetic bottlenecking event that forced them out of their native habitat (too long to get into, but dragons were involved), they gradually began to shift towards an upright posture. They got larger, and their guts were changing as the need for other food sources was becoming pretty urgent... But, this migration also put them in contact with other Spoken species for the first time, and elves were now a viable source of much-needed calories.

So things started to shift a little.

Over thousands and thousands of generations, as the Mau built up the first civilizations in Kha, they were constantly adapting to better infiltrate their elvish neighbors.

It started first with vocalizations-- just like our housecats learn to meow at us, the Mau found out how to mimic voices, words, common phrases. They began to understand names, and even parts of their language. By stalking their prey for a time, they could figure out how best to lure them out of the village and into the dunes-- maybe by pretending to be injured, calling out to them directly.

So off to a good start!

But once their prey got close enough to see them, the illusion was harder to maintain. So why not continue adapting, continue to seem "appealing" to them. The Mau may keep their fur, their ears, their whiskers, their tails... Claws and paws and all the things not immediately noticeable, but a familiar face would be enough to fool them on first glance. Clothes could hide a more animalistic form. So they sacrificed a few teeth in the interest of having flatter faces, developed a weaker jaw and thinner bones but honestly, when your prey walks up to you, you don't need to be so overkill with your equipment!

Eventually, as the elves began to have cities of their own, this predator-prey dynamic would shift to be on more equal footing. The Mau were already able to communicate with them, to trade and barter if they wished, but eating them was so much easier. The elves had been at a significant disadvantage until the invention of stronger weaponry, and that only caused the Mau to grow more clever in response.

By this point, they had been dubbed the Sphynx in the south and Mantichore in the north-- reflective of how each culture was getting along with its neighbors.

So-- in the modern age, how do they get along now? Well, obviously, much better. Eating other Spoken is considered exceptionally taboo, though the Mau were the last ones to come around to accepting that idea! After the desolation of Kha, they were forced into another migration that significantly reduced their population, and their greatest cities were lost to the sea. This meant that they were more or less forced to assimilate into other cultures, though many Mau still retain a strong identity with their homeland. While not entirely obligate carnivores, their diet skews heavily towards meats; their ability to taste sweet things is greatly diminished, and usually fruits, berries and honey are only used in poultices or teas.

Nowadays, they're less inclined to see their fellow Spoken as food... Though they might not turn it down if offered. Think about eating your pets in an emergency situation. Most people would probably never consider it!

… But some might.

[madara-fate]

honestly question I alays value your opinion and we mostly agree on everything but I do like the damsel in distress (of course with a limit and depends on the writing there is many good writters that make a situation where even being rescued comes off as non weak if i could word it properly) I like it specially on self insert situations like a prince saving? I am a girl so... Maaybe that helps but do you think this is bad? )=

It's definitely not bad if you like this trope. It's a subjective topic, so I'm obviously not gonna criticise anyone for liking it. However, for me, I detest this trope with a burning passion. Maybe I wouldn't hate it so much if it wasn't so common, or if the genders were reversed more often and it was the girls who needed to save the guys from something for a change. But for some reason, hardly any writers (relative to the number who use the damsel in distress trope) ever think that a male could ever find himself in such a situation. Even when the male would need to be saved from a simple living situation rather than a dangerous physical one like being kidnapped, these plot points just hardly ever happen. And yet, these writers will readily go out of their way and the extra mile to create all these outlandish scenarios where even the most badass woman will need to be saved from something or other by her knight in shining armour.

It's not the fact that it makes the women look weak that I have an issue with (well not entirely anyway), it's mainly the fact that writers constantly feel that they need to put these women in these situations in the first place, even when they've demonstrated that they can very clearly take care of themselves. Or if it's a romance, they feel that the men need need to rescue his love interest because that would prove his worth, or the depth of his feelings, or they include them for some outdated chivalric purposes, because for some reason, a man saving a woman is considered to be romantic, but a woman saving a man isn't. Why is that? It's the same damn thing, and the levels of romantic undertones in an action or gesture shouldn't be dictated by the person's gender.

Maybe the fact that I generally just hate all kinds of gender discrepancies in society, plays a large role in my utter hatred for this trope, but its prevalence also just often makes the plot progression rather predictable. I mean, as an example, look at the original trilogy of Spider-Man movies...

In No.1, Mary Jane gets kidnapped by the Green Goblin, and Peter has to save her.

In No.2, Mary Jane gets kidnapped by Doctor Octopus, and Peter has to save her.

In No.3, Mary Jane gets kidnapped by Venom and The Sandman, and Peter has to save her yet again.

It got so damn boring to see the same thing over and over again. Now, whenever I come across a story about a male action hero, I just know that his female love interest is probably eventually gonna need saving at least once. MJ is obviously powerless in comparison to those superhuman beings, but why was it necessary to put her in those situations in the first place? Why is it, that some writers feel this incessant need to have the male hero save his love interest? Are they so unimaginative that they can't think of anything else to include during the hero's conflict with the villain, so they fall back on this tired trope, to the point of including it in their fiction 3 times in a row? Would it kill them to have a scene where the hero gets himself in a dire situation due to being initially bested by the antagonist, and his love interest saves/rescues him from that situation?

Okay rant over. Long story short, no you liking damsels in distress is of course not bad at all. But personally, I can't stand that trope.

[walkerismychoice]

Queen of My Heart - Chapter 36

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Drake X MC, Liam X Olivia, Hana X OC Lydia

Rating: NSFW (I didn’t intend it but it just happened

Summary: Liam finally clears the air with Constantine, and we go to the Fire and Ice Ball at Lythikos, the final social season even before Liam chooses his future Queen.

A/N: Umm, I don’t even want to know how many years it’s been since I updated, but it is with the encouragement of you readers that I was compelled to finish.  My tag list is probably way outdated and I’m sure I’ve missed some poeple who’ve asked to be tagged along the way. Feel free to let me know either way if you want to be tagged or removed from the list.

Tag List: @khakie4 @dreadpirateemma @ritachacha @blackcoffee85 @choices-fanatic @boneandfur @butindeed @simplyaiden-blog @bobasheebaby @traeumerinsworld @theroyalweisme @umccall71 @lizeboredom @debramcg1106 @enmchoices @jadedpixiescribbles @withice @viktoriapetit @mfackenthal @drakesfiance @drakelover78 @speedyoperarascalparty @silviasutton1989 @krisnicjack @devineinterventions2 @choiceswreckedme @notoriouscs @blackcatkita @hamalu @akrenich @drakewalkerfantasy @jamielea81 @andy-loves-corgis @jlouise88 @jovialyouthmusic @sleepwalkingelite @i-miss-trr @dragonball-luver @gkittylove99 @lovingchoices14

Word Count: 2861

Queen of My Heart Chapter Index

“Hello, Father.” Liam greeted Constantine as he walked into the hospital room. He noted the King's color was back to normal and he seemed in good spirits.

"My son, I knew you'd come!" Constantine reached towards Liam with arms outstretched.

Liam just shook his head and held up a hand to stop him. "This is not that kind of visit. I'm here because I know... I know everything."

"What-" Constantine choked out before a coughing fit ensued.

Liam fought the instinctual urge to comfort his father. "Enough with the theatrics. I know about Madeleine...about you threatening the show if they didn't help her win...as if me choosing the woman I plan to spend my life with is some political game to be won."

 "How did you find out? I gave strict orders that my demands were confidential."

Liam scoffed. "Seriously? I just told you I found out you tried to have the producers manipulate me into marrying a woman I don't love, and that's all you had to say for yourself?"

"You have to understand," Constantine pleaded. "Madeleine is what's best for Cordonia, and what's best for Cordonia is what's best for you."

"Unbelievable!" Liam felt the anger rising in his chest like a simmering pot ready to boil over. "You may have told yourself that to feel better about choosing your commitments to Cordonia over happiness, love, family... Maybe you’ve lied to yourself for so long you’ve actually started to believe it, but it's one hundred percent bullshit. I know I'll be a more effective leader if I get to choose the woman I want by my side, and that woman is Olivia."

Constantine's jaw dropped and there was a long pause before he gained his composure to protest. "Absolutely not. You know her family's history. I'd rather have you on the same page as me, but I am still King-"

"Save your breath," Liam shut him down. "You should know that your perfect candidate Madeleine has displayed some behavior quite unbecoming of a future queen, and it is all on film. I know Cordonians are generally flexible with their views on monogamy, but I don't think Madeleine sleeping with the host of the show while she's trying to compete for my affection will look good in anyone's eyes. She has been eliminated from the show and is no longer in the running. That leaves only Riley aside from Olivia, and I know you know what's going on there."

Constantine's face fell momentarily in resignation, but then he perked back up again. "Well, then you can bring back someone else. Kiara is quite lovely and is fit to play the part."

"Enough!" Liam practically shouted much too loud for the thin hospital walls. "Not that I owe you an explanation, but Olivia is stronger, smarter, and more capable of ruling a country than anyone you could hope to pair with me. You seem to forget that I am the son who stuck by you and am now the rightful and only heir to the throne. Your reign is coming to an end, and you have no choice but to accept my decision."

Unexpectedly, Constantine's demeanor changed, a sly grin creeping across his face. "My boy, I've always been a bit worried you were too soft to be king. However, seeing you stand up for yourself today gives me hope. I still don't approve of your choice, but I will no longer stand in your way."

Liam shook his head and let out an incredulous laugh, reeling from Constantine’s sudden change of course. "Bastien will take you back to the palace. We can talk more when I know it's not just the medicine that's gotten to your head."

-----

“Well, this place certainly explains a lot about Olivia.” Riley mused aloud as she scanned the ballroom. Ornate floor to ceiling windows with deep alcoves were surrounded by walls with intricate, gilded accents leading up to a hand-painted ceiling measuring at least 3 stories high. The grandeur of the space was both intimidating and beautiful at the same time, much like its owner.

“Has she shown you all the toys in her armory yet? That too says a lot about Olivia," Drake chuckled at his own joke.

Riley laughed along. “No, but she does constantly remind me she keeps a dagger hidden under her skirt. Are you sure Liam knows what he’s in for?”

"Heh. Better him than me, that's for sure. Liam's warm and fuzzy exterior can make him seem like a pushover, but he can hold his own when it matters. Olivia needs someone who can roll with her mood swings but still call her on her bullshit when needed."

"You know, I admit I had a little trouble wrapping my brain around Liam choosing Olivia, but when you put it that way, it makes sense. Now I suppose I need to find Kat so I can figure out if I need to dance with Liam or something. Ugh, I cannot wait until all these balls are over.

Drake almost doubled over laughing. "Oh, Bennett, I hate to break it to you, but this shit never ends. Next will be the coronation, then some charity gala, Liam's wedding...the list goes on. Welcome to your life as a noble woman."

Riley stared ahead blankly as a giant wave of realization washed over her. It was all so much, so fast. She'd never had time to think past the next day to consider this was all ending soon, and then what? Did she stay with her new-found family and live this life that was still foreign to her in so many ways? What about her life in New York? Sure, she didn't have much going on at the moment, but she still had her aunt Susan and best friend Sarah along with some good friends at work like Daniel. Becoming a therapist was still one of her goals, at least it was until the day she left for Cordonia. Now everything was so unclear, and she could hardly breathe.

Drake must have noticed her face looking some kind of way because he placed a hand on the small of her back and guided her to an open doorway to a nearby balcony. "Why don't we get you some air before you go off and do your thing for the show?"

Once outside and around the corner of the wraparound balcony, Drake pulled Riley into his chest, holding her securely, and she was almost instantly calmed. All the what-ifs fell away, and it was just them. All she needed was the be with him, wherever that turned out to be, and everything else would fall into place.

But what if Drake didn't quite feel the same? They'd been talking as if they'd be together indefinitely, but in reality, they'd only known each other two months. The anxious fluttering in her chest started up again.

Drake pulled back to look her in the eyes. "Riley, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. You know, we're both still half American. We can move back to the states....or uh, I mean you can move back to the states if that's what you want." His eyes darted bashfully to the ground.

Riley's face lit up, the nervous thumping in her chest giving way to excited butterflies. "I like the sound of 'we' better if that's what you really meant. You'd really move back to the U.S. with me? I mean I've hardly had the chance to think about what I want, so that may be irrelevant, but you seriously see a future with me?"

"I do." Drake smiled earnestly. "I'm sure anyone who knows me will think I've gone mad, but whether it means being in New York City and putting up with cramped apartments and way too many people, living a quieter, simple life in Texas, or stealing moments away at dreadful Cordonian events such as this, I know we can make our own happiness...together."

"Wow, the Drake Walker I met two months ago would not believe what's coming out of your mouth right now." Riley touched the back of her hand to Drake's forehead in jest. "Are you sure you aren't running a fever?"

"Haha, very funny." Drake swiftly but gently pushed Riley back again the stone wall. "I'm not feeling ill, but I know how to make your temperature rise.

"You pushing me against duchy walls is becoming a thing, huh? Must have really enjoyed the almost public sex last time."

"Possibly," Drake teased as he slipped his hand through the side-slit in her icy-blue gown, gently gliding his fingers up her thigh. Riley braced herself as Drake neared the place she wanted him the most. Goosebumps gave way to a burning need before she remembered where they were.

"Wait." She pushed a hand against his chest. "We're not exactly alone here, and we've gone to such lengths to keep this under wraps. Someone could walk out here at any moment."

Drake shrugged. "I know it may be a bit reckless, but honestly at this point, I don't care. I just want you."

Riley opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out before Drake swooped in for a searing kiss. She instantly melted into him, Drake continuing his earlier action and deftly plunging two fingers inside her, his eyes widening slightly in surprise when he noticed there was no fabric barrier to work around. A strangled moan escaped Riley's throat as he stroked the exact spot he knew always left her at his mercy.

Drake pulled back with a satisfied grin. "Do you want me to stop? Just say the word and we'll go back in right now."

Instead of answering, Riley yanked him by the collar and crushed her lips to his. Drake responded by hoisting her up and over to the balcony. He perched her atop the railing, one hand grasped firmly around her waist and the other making quick work of undoing his pants.

Teetering on the narrow ledge two stories high, Riley clamped her hand tightly to the railing on either side of her and Drake noticed. "I've got you Bennett, no need to worry. I won't let anything happen to you. I'm just doing my job after all," he said with a smirk.

She smiled at his reference to what was now an inside joke between them. But all joking aside, he always made her feel safe. She released her grip, flinging her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

Drake eased his cock free and Riley could tell how hard he was just by sight, the skin stretched taught from his perfect proportion of thickness and length. He lifted her dress and she couldn't wait any longer. She pulled him in and he took the invitation to thrust inside her. Even as wet was she was, his size created just the right amount of fullness and friction to take her breath away.

Riley moaned and gasped with each thrust, which in turn seemed to turn Drake on even more. The thrill of being up so high with nothing but him to hold her only added to her excitement and when he began rubbing circles over her clit with his thumb that was all it took to push her figuratively over the edge. She tightened around him everywhere, her orgasm eliciting immense heat and pleasure with every pulse, resulting in Drake picking up his pace until his own release followed shortly thereafter.

Drake carefully set Riley down before putting himself back together. "I'm almost a little disappointed we didn't nearly get caught this time."

"If I don't get back in there immediately, that's still a possibility." Riley had no idea how much time had passed but it was probably more than she thought. "Fuck, Kat is going to be pissed." Riley straightened her skirt and started towards the ballroom door.

"Wait!" Drake puller her in for a quick kiss. "I love you. Just so you don't forget."

Riley rolled her eyes but smiled. "You know you have nothing to worry about. If Liam's charms haven't wooed me yet, I think you’re safe. But I love you too. Now go do your job." She smacked him on the ass before hustling back to the ballroom, Drake following shortly thereafter.

As expected, Kat was frantic when Riley found her. “Where the fuck were you? You were supposed to meet up with me twenty minutes ago?”

Overhearing Riley’s scolding, Olivia smugly sidled up next to them. “I mean, I didn’t mind getting extra time with Liam, but you know Jo and Kat and there ‘ratings’, Olivia said while gesturing with air quotes. She scanned Riley from head to toe and then glanced over to Drake on the perimeter. “Ugh, I can tell you exactly what, or rather who she was doing. Gross. I guess that just makes my position more secure, but really, couldn’t you have waited until after my ball to fuck him?”

Riley sheepishly smoothed her hair and adjusted her dress. “I just needed some air, that’s all. I was having a moment.”

Olivia scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever you want to call it. Although I still cannot fathom why you chose Drake, I suppose I should be a little easier on you for eliminating yourself from the competition and allowing Liam to break free of his distraction of the shiny new object.”

“Aww, Olivia, that’s so sweet. Next thing you know we’ll be best friends,” Riley replied sarcastically.

 “I don’t know about friends...but I do dislike you less than the rest of them.” Olivia tried and failed to hold back a smile.

“I’ll take it,” Riley said with a laugh before turning to Jo. “Okay, now tell me where I need to be.”

Jo set Riley up with Liam on the dance floor. It still wasn’t hard to pretend to be into Liam because it wasn’t all pretend, but there was no lingering pining between them.

“Well, I spoke to my father this morning.” Liam spun Riley around and brought her back to face him.

“Finally!” Riley exclaimed. “How did that go?”

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it to be completely honest, but it went surprisingly well. I told him I knew everything, and he no longer had a say in my decision. He tried to argue with me at first, but somehow something I said made him respect me. He still may not agree with my choice, but I think this is finally all over! I am free to choose who I want without any threat or blackmail hanging over my head.

Riley pulled Liam in and hugged him tightly. “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you, and for all of us.” The weight on Riley’s shoulders was suddenly ten times lighter. She hadn’t let herself think too deeply about how much was at stake, but now that the air was clear, she realized how stressed she had been. “Now all that’s left is for you to tear my heart to pieces on national television, and you get your fairy tale ending.”

Liam chuckled. “I’ll try to let you down easy.”

-----

Drake stood in his usual position off the side of the dance floor. This may not be the last of these events he’d have to endure, but at least it should be the last time he’d have to stand on the sidelines watching Riley dance with someone else. He was secure in what they had, but it still didn’t stop that twinge of jealously seeing her and Liam together talking, touching, and having fun. But it wasn’t a bad thing that his best friend and girlfriend get along so well. Girlfriend...that’s the first time he’d used that term for anyone he’d “dated”, even if only in his head. It was hard to believe everything was falling into place.

Drake took his eyes off Riley to scan the perimeter. What he saw didn’t immediately register as out of the ordinary, but then he quickly recalled this person walking towards the dance floor wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Bastien, check out three o’clock.” Drake altered Bastien via his radio earpiece. “How did she get in here without security clearance?”

“I don’t know.” Bastien replied. “I’ll check with the other guys to see who let her in. Keep an eye on her.”

Drake watched in concern as Madeleine marched towards the dance floor. She’d been banned from the rest of filmed events after her stunt. Not wanting to let her cause a scene, Drake was about to stop her from getting any closer, when she pulled out an unmistakable object. She had a gun and it was pointed right at Riley and Liam.

Before Drake could alert the rest of the team, people started to scatter. He heard a familiar click and knew he had to disarm Madeleine immediately, but it was too late. A shot went off and he didn’t hesitate. Drake dove between the bullet and his two best friends on the dance floor, and that would be the last thing he remembered before he hit the floor.

[mindareadsoots]

Elements and the Four Temperaments

For me, one of the biggest takeaways from the Elements miniseries was the way it used the four temperaments, and what it means for the various characters in the show. I touched on it here and there as we visited the various elementally charged locations in Ooo, but now that I’m through the series, this seemed like a good time to go in depth on the topic.

The Four Temperaments are a very old and long since outdated method of classifying personality types. The temperaments are Sanguine, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Choleric. Once upon a time, it was believe that these personalities were caused by an imbalance of the four classical elements, which is taken to a very literal extreme in the Adventure Time mini-series. 

Despite being long since discredited in favor of more nuanced classification systems, the four temperaments still show up a lot in fiction since they’re an easy way to sort out characters. It’s so pervasive that the Four-Temperament Ensemble page on TvTropes is extensive. So let’s get into how they’re used here:

Candy

The Candy Kingdom is characterized by a Sanguine attitude, taken to an extreme by becoming an outright manic enthusiasm for everything. In real life, the element tied to the sanguine personality type is air.

For the many background candy citizens, this isn’t much of a change, just an exaggeration of their existing personality. For the major supporting characters however, particularly Lemongrab and Fern, the transformation is kind of horrifying since they are very much Not That.

Even Princess Bubblegum herself is robbed of much of her character depth with only pure sugar fueling her personality. 

Ice

The Ice Kingdom is characterized by a Melancholic attitude, taken to an extreme by becoming pretty dang depressed. Ironically, melancholy is not associated with water in real life, but instead Earth.

We don’t get to see very many background characters here compared to the other kingdoms. The one character to get a major focus is Carroll, who doesn’t seem to have changed much, oddly enough.

Patience St Pim on the other hand undergoes a drastic change, and not for the better. Gone is much of the energy that she used to have. One of her defining characteristics in prior appearances was her constantly weird way of walking, and now she doesn’t walk at all. Instead she just glides around.

It’s unclear what happens to Patience at the end of the miniseries. She is last seen putting herself in a protective ice shell which may or may not have protected her from the LSP wave, and which may or may not open up any time soon.

Slime

Fittingly, the Slime Kingdom is defined by a Phlegmatic personality. This is also where the water element goes in the traditional temperament model. 

The Slime Kingdom ultimately proves to be Jake’s downfall as his already laid back personality gets amplified into complete passivity. Finn is ultimately forced to carry on the rest of the adventure without him after Jake succumbs to his baser urges. 

Fire

And finally, we visit the fiery tempered Fire Kingdom. As you probably guessed, the traditional element associated with the choleric personality is... fire.

Despite having the most drastic physical change, Flame Princess doesn’t have much of a personality change in her pure elemental form. Mostly we just get FP without the filter, much like she was back when she was first introduced.

This is also the kingdom that Finn is weak to, which is fairly unsurprising given his general personality. He’s always enjoyed fighting monsters, but it was always for a good reason, and the elemental magic just removed the need for that caveat. 

The most interesting minor character to appear here is Lady Rainicorn. Is her presence in the fire kingdom meant to be ironic, or does it indicate some hidden depths beneath her usually calm and motherly personality? Given what we know about her backstory, the latter is easy to believe, although it is still pretty funny seeing the whimsical unicorn recolored to look like Godzilla.

And that’s all of the elements present in the special.

Yup. Every one.

...

Lumpy

I’m... not quite sure what to do with this one. I feel like any analysis I have of LSP’s role in this story is tainted by the fact that she is by far my least favorite character in the series, but honestly that seems to be the point?

There is some technobabble about how LSP is from another dimension, and that’s why she’s immune to elemental magic, but when they break down the reasons why she’s immune, and when you take into account the VERY obvious subtext of the elements as personality types, it really just seems like LSP saves the day because she is a terrible person.

She’s too narcissistic to be in the slime kingdom, too much of a killjoy for the candy kingdom, and lacks the empathy needed to help Finn through the fire kingdom. This doesn’t even look like a metaphorical personality disorder. It looks like something that’s actually diagnosable, but I don’t feel qualified to do that.

And if that’s the case, then I don’t know what the message is supposed to be. What is the audience supposed to do with LSP? Are we supposed to be patient with her for being neuro-divergent coded? Does that excuse the genuinely terrible stuff she’s done? I really don’t know. It’s a quandary. 

[not-poignant]

Defs think its time for Ef and Arden to seek some couples therapy <3

Oohhhh no, respectfully I disagree.

A lot of people think throwing couples having difficulty at a couples therapist will solve everything. But okay, firstly, a lot of the modalities for couples therapy are not quite outdated, but extremely pathologising, a lot of 'sorry we won't treat couples where one party or both parties have X mental illnesses until they've dealt with those things on their own.'

Secondly, even with the very best couples counsellor in the world, how do you think Efnisien's going to react, given how he's reacted just having to deal with one other person - a stranger - in the room re: Mika? Efnisien felt extremely ganged up on when it was Mika and Gary - who were both only there to help him - and reacted with extreme volatility.

There's no way Efnisien will get anything useful or positive out of couples counselling, and he probably won't be a good candidate for it for years. In the story alone, we know that a) Efnisien takes a long time to trust a therapist, b) he feels ganged up on if the therapist isn't Dr Gary, c) he can harm himself in an extreme fashion if he feels ganged up on therapy and finally, d) he has pretty severe therapy-related PTSD! Constantly changing the therapeutic landscape right now, to someone extremely vulnerable and fragile, is not the answer.

Imho, some of the biggest disasters I've seen / heard have happened via couples counselling. Most couples counsellors aren't actually trauma-informed, and those that are, don't have the kind of additional training that they'd need to handle someone like Efnisien (just because we're used to his history, doesn't mean another counsellor will just blandly sit back and be fine with 'I've killed animals and molested women').

Aside from my own extreme side-eye at the idea, it just doesn't work with Efnisien's characterisation. If Arden suggested couples counselling now, Efnisien would break up with him and never return. To him, that would just be the final nail in the coffin of 'I'm bad for you, and this relationship is broken.'

They both have their own therapists, and they're both generally communicative, believe it or not, this is often enough to see a lot of couples through difficult patches. :)

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

I’m back!

So, I kinda quit using this blog a while back. There are some notes about it in my old pinned post and probably on my fanfics, lol, but basically, I felt overwhelmed by fandom and everything going on irl and I crashed. I just withdrew from like, everything. I still logged in on Tumblr but I just liked things to later view them with the boyfriend or laugh at them again myself.

Honestly, it’s not that fun, just doing that, and not really that fair to people who put effort into their posts like art, music, writing, etc., or even just people who are very passionate about a subject and may want it to reach others that are the same. Because I know I’m like that!

But anyway, this is going to be my new pinned post. So! (More under the cut, please keep reading!)

About Me

You can call me Prowess, I’m a FtM transmasc (he/him please)! I use this space to elevate my personal works, such as art or writing, while also occasionally posting about topics I am passionate about. I realized I was trans in 2020 at the age of 19 years old, in the midst of a pandemic and college fallout, so as you can imagine, I’m still riding the rollercoaster of emotions that come with that. I’m also ADHD... so expect some posts about those sort of things.

But that is hardly the focus! I am big on art and writing. While I am mostly obsessed with Pokemon, I am a lover of stories, and so generally, I love most fiction, even the really bad stuff. Along with my Pokemon stuff, you can expect posts involving ARK: Survival Evolved, The Tales of Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir, animated movies (Luca, Toy Story, Spirit - you name it, I probably love it), and plenty of other stuff.

While I have too many older posts to go through and try to sort out the unclean tags, going forward, I am going to use these sort of tags: subject (whatever the post is about, for example, Pokemon), characters depicted, media (whether it’s art, writing, animation, or a mix), and any warnings that may need to go with it (for example, cussing when stronger language is involved, or racism if racism is getting discussed, etc). Memes or one-off posts will likely be tagged with simply “memes.” While this is pretty true for most any blog, this is so you know if you need to block certain tags! For example, if you hate Miraculous Ladybug, you’d just blacklist ‘Miraculous.’

I will also reblog a lot of posts asking for help or boosting awareness. I will try not to inundate the blog with these, but as I will likely have to make a post asking for help at some point myself due to unfortunate irl circumstances, I want to pay it forward in advance. These will be tagged with simply “help needed!”

Below are some projects I’m working on + what you can expect from this blog.

Pokemon Retold

By far, my biggest project to date, is Pokemon Retold.

This is an expansive written anthology of all the pokemon mainline games as far as generation 8. Red, Heart of Gold, Omega Ruby, Platinum, Black, Black 2, Y, Ultra Sun, and Sword are all intended to get rewritten and posted on both my FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own accounts. I may also post some chapters here, but I admit Tumblr makes that difficult sometimes.

These stories are very personal to me, as I started writing them when I was struggling in college with undiagnosed ADHD, and felt like my life was falling apart and I was alone. I started writing a retelling of Sword, but the more I wrote, the more disappointed in it I felt, so I started writing Black instead and scrapped Sword altogether.

I’ve had some rough road since, but Black is complete, Black 2 is also complete, and Ultra Sun is (mostly) complete (but with plans to be heavily altered), while Red is underway!

WARNING: These stories can get DARK, and I would rather my readers be over 18. They are not dark with the intent to squick out or upset people, however; they are dark with the intention of exploring thoughts and ideas I find too difficult to think about directly. There are more personalized warnings at the beginnings of each story. With that out of the way, please just try and move on if you find yourself disliking a specific story or part of a story of mine... If you want to give constructive criticism, you are more than welcome, but tearing into me and my writing just because you didn’t like something helps nobody. Keep in mind I write these for fun and as a form of self-therapy throughout some of the worst years of my life.

Furthermore, I edit them a lot. And I do mean a lot. My FFN profile acts as a “changelog” for what has changed in the stories over the course of the time they’ve been posted.

Pokemon Retold posts are tagged “Retold.”

My FFN Profile

My AO3 Profile

Pokemon Retold: Black has been added to TVTropes! I honestly don’t even care that this person digs into it a couple of times, I was so incredibly flattered they took the time to do that at all. (But be warned the page does have some spoilers!) I have no idea if you enjoyed the story or not upon reading over that page, kind stranger lol, but I really appreciate that you took the time to do that nonetheless! <3

Creatively Destructive

This incredibly well-titled story is an idea I have for a retelling of Miraculous Ladybug. I know, I know - absolutely never been done before /s

While I know there has got to be a thousand retellings of this show by now, based on just how.... terrible, the writing is, I want to try anyway. Because I genuinely love the premise of the show! I’m just constantly disappointed by how it seems to never go anywhere with its plot or characters.

So, Creatively Destructive will be a fanfic, and when I have more information on it, I’ll post it under the tag “creatively destructive.”

Roleplays

Me and my boyfriend love to RP a lot. From Monster Hunter to Pokemon, we do a lot of different stories. Sometimes, I really get inspired by what we come up together and I want to share it with others! Be it quick art based on a scene from the RP or a quick rundown of what occurred in an RP, you can catch these in the ‘Prow RP’ tags.

Currently, we are having a lot of fun with an RP based on the Hoenn pokemon games that I am sure I’ll be posting about!

I may also be open to RPs with others in the future :> Don’t be offended that I’m not open to them already... I’m just a very easily overstimulated person.

The Ballad of the ARK

ARK: Survival Evolved is a lot of things. It’s an amazing concept, an open-world game where you befriend dinos and fight alongside tribemates against other tribes, or work together to survive the hostile environment. But the true tragedy of this game goes so much deeper than that, and I want to explore that in writing, starting with my story, my experience, and then graduating to where I think the issue primarily stems from. 

This strange memoir will be posted under the tags of “Ballad of ARK.”

Commissions

I hope to take commissions for art and writing in the future!

However, I need to figure out the parameters of what I’m willing to draw (and what I can feasibly draw), as well as what I can promise when it comes to writing, not to mention pricing.

That’s not to say I’m not open to ideas though! Feel free to message me/send me asks anyway and we’ll see if we can work something out. :)

Although I am not in a financial disaster just yet, I feel like I am not far from one. This is why I hope to try to build on commissions in the future. I know they will never support me, but I would still like to try to be useful and helpful to some. I currently live with my grandmother, having left my abusive home with my father, and although she generously allows me to live with her for the low cost of merely helping with some electricity and my own food, I struggle to remain abovewater financially due to difficulty finding work (thanks to issues with ADHD and physical problems following a bout with COVID in early January 2021).

If you would like to help anyway, feel free to subscribe to my Patreon, or make a one-time payment via PayPal. I promise no matter what or how much it is, your generosity is greatly appreciated!! <3

My Patreon

My PayPal

My Ko-fi

(Note that my Patreon is... very outdated and needs to be updated. I will do that soon!)

[thechekhov]

Do you think it's okay to completely separate artist from creation? Because I just found out a comic artist I really like is like against Transgender and wants to ignore race and all the bad stuff going on. I really like their work but their beliefs bother me. I dont know if I should continue to enjoy what I use to and separate artist from work, or to just unfollow. I'm not the type of person to try and force my views into others so I'm not gonna be harassing them to try and change their opinion

It depends on how you define ‘separate artist from creation’. Because there’s really two ways to do that. For the sake of this thought exercise let’s all imagine:

You have content you enjoy. You find out the author of that content is a less than stellar person. Maybe they support harmful causes, maybe they’re bigot and refuse basic respect to people different from them, maybe worldviews harm you and others that you love, etc.

Do you:

A) Pretend the author doesn’t exist but continue to consume the content while clapping your hands over your ears and going ‘LALALALALA’ and doing your best to forget who wrote it? Pretend Hatsune Miku wrote it instead? Separate the wonderful characters you’ve come to know and love, tear them from the hands of the author and say ‘they’re mine now, you never had them! I’ve assigned my own, healthier headcanons!’

OR

B) Acknowledge that their harmful worldviews will affect their content, regardless how indirectly... and consume the content anyway, but do your best not to support their views (i.e not following their main account, holding them responsible and not letting them get away with leaning on harmful/racist/outdated stereotypes)? 

... 

Here’s the thing though - if you picked B, you are NOT separating author from art. You are actively acknowledging that the author IS affecting their art - and aiming to minimize the harm caused through that content. You are already taking steps to protect others, and that does make a difference. That shows that you already know the answer to your own question. 

We realistically cannot separate art from artist. Not fully. Nor, I would argue, should we attempt to do so!

In this media-saturated world, we all consume a LOT of content. Realistically, we cannot filter and check ALL of it - or all of its creators - to be 100% sure that we are only following/consuming only the most un-problematic of all people. It’s just not feasible and holding yourself to that standard is unrealistic. 

But what we CAN all do is be critical. We can look at something that a transphobic person wrote and ask ‘does this content present harmful stereotypes?’ and we can ask ‘does this storyline have racist tropes?’ and etc. 

I’m going to be frank - I consume what could considered ‘problematic’ content. Biggest example is probably Brooklyn 99. The thing is - it’s copaganda!  And throughout the show, there are very clear, ill-disguised attempts to gloss over abuse to police power by using quirky lovable characters that are constantly breaking the law but end up as the good guys at the end of each episode! And this isn’t even the point of the show - it’s treated as a non-issue. At the beginning of season 5 they delve into prison system power abuse - but only really make it an issue for the ‘innocent good-guy cop Jake’. The next few episodes after the fact it shows - BLATANTLY - Jake and Holt screaming at and lying to a (Black!) suspect to get a confession out of him. It’s treated as the right thing to do! A quirky idea that good-guy Jake had! 

Wanna get psychological whiplash? Watch When They See Us on Netflix and then watch Jake yelling at his suspect in the interrogation room. Ask yourself why those two are different, or why they are interpreted differently. Then ask why they aren’t, and shouldn’t be. 

And when I watch Brooklyn 99 I have two options:

I can cover my ears and sing LALALA IT’S JUST A SHOW, I’M JUST HAVING FUN! or I can be critical and practice calling out the blatantly police-propoganda-y tropes when they come on-screen and evaluate the good vs. the bad and ask myself every once in a while ‘is the Good here outweighed by the Bad? Is there content here that I couldn’t get elsewhere?’

In the end, no one can stop you from consuming content. If you want to keep watching/reading - you will find a way. But ignoring the issues, turning away and trying to imagine away the bad parts... will ALWAYS leave you with less than the full picture. It’s far more harmful to pretend that everything is fine for the sake of making yourself feel comfortable than it is to just face it head-on and admit that the author will inevitably leave a part of their beliefs in their art. 

When people read my stories - even something as removed as WD!Steven - they will inevitably be coming in contact with MY political views, even if they’re not obvious. And honestly, I wouldn’t want people to separate my art from myself. 

I want to make it clear - in many cases, unfollowing/blocking is absolutely the best thing to do. I’ve done that for many creators that I realized were... not good people. But that sort of thing is for you to decide, and so I won’t just tell you ‘go unfollow them!’. It’s way more important that you make this judgement not because of peer pressure - but because you’ve thought about it and made the decision that makes the most sense for YOU.