#this kind of sort of turned into an exploration of both of their characters tbh

[whateven333]

What you prefer bonnie going dark with kai or kai being redeemed for bonnie?

I think, and forgive me, I feel like I’m always picking answers that are kind of in-between (I’m a “little” bit of an indecisive person lmao) but I like when they’re sort of a mix of both.

What I mean by that is like for Bonnie’s character, -I think she’s not as “good” as the show tries to convince us, and don’t get me wrong I think this is a positive because it makes for a more interesting/ complex character, -well it would have if the writers actually acknowledged it and did something with it, instead they kept her boxed away as some sort of “saint-like” figure (with none of the respect) but I think they did that in order to keep her away from any of the fun action in the show that the other leading ladies were allowed to be apart of, -like getting romantically/ sexually involved with villains, being careless/ misusing her powers for selfish reasons (like how the vamps in the show got to be reckless/ indulgent with their powers) without consequences, going to parties/ balls whatever and just being there to look pretty in a dress and have fun etc. and I think the writers liked to describe her like she’s “too good” as an excuse to leave her out of storylines that would allow more development for her character and to neglect writing for her character unless they needed to use her as a plot device.

But even though Bonnie is selfless etc, she’s still done plenty of morally questionable things in order to protect her friends (who are mostly killers) so the “too good” thing the writer’s tried to pin on her is pretty stupid and an obvious ploy to keep her away from being a part of more interesting storylines.

So because of that I think although Bonnie is kind of a mostly ‘good’ character, she’s also at least a little bit morally grey? As well as a little dark at times (considering her expression arc, -we know she’ll go to great extremes to do what she believes needs to be done).

Though with Kai I do think he brings out more of that darkness in her and that’s really fun (this concept has been explored in a lot of fantastic BK fanfics and I LOVE IT).

And with Kai, I think that he doesn’t need to be redeemed and actually I think this applies to other characters as well, -like should they even be redeemed ? Do we need to ? I think it’s perfectly fine for darker/ morally grey characters to exist without any sort of redemption arc. I’ve enjoyed redemption arcs before so I’m not against them or anything but I think on TVD it’s been done a lot (though I wouldn’t say they’ve done it well,- also TVD focussed on the ‘her lOvE redeemed him’ trope which I’m not really a fan of, I think it can be one of the reasons a character is redeemed but not the sole reason).

I liked that Post-merge Kai still seemed to have kept his pre-merge traits. I would have hated if they turned him into some sort of strangely good version of Luke, -even though some people insist that’s what he was post-merge and that’s why he was apologising to Bonnie, although that doesn’t make sense since the merge is not supposed to erase him- Kai’s meant to just be himself but with emotions now and Luke really did not have any serious connections to Bonnie to make him care that much about her.

One of the things I like about BK is the intense way they affected each other even when they didn’t want to be affected, even when they tried to act indifferent to the other it was obvious how they were still influenced by each other.

The type of redemption arcs that TVD focussed on had one person changing because of / for the other person. I think with BK they would change each other, both for the better and worse tbh, and that would be so delicious to watch -some of Bonnie’s good bleeding into Kai’s bad and vice versa.

And it would be an unwilling change for the both of them that they would probably try to fight tooth and nail, but regardless of what they want, their mutual obsession would inevitably lead them there.

So all that to say... I'd prefer them to mutually destroy each others perceptions of their own self-concepts and egos 💖

And I mean if that isn't ✨️True Romance✨️ then what is 💕

Thanks so much for the ask ! this was interesting to think about, I tried to answer this earlier but I couldn’t decide which I preferred and ended up kinda in the middle after all anyways… 😭

[otaku553]

How goes the fma x albedo fic? I hope that doesn't sound pushy, I'm genuinely curious. And in that vein, do you have any little drabbles you may have written or want to write? Especially with your recent kny ocs/yourself and your siblings. That'd be super fun to read about! Your art AND your writing is so freaking good, the moment I see you've posted something new on your blog I'm clicking it so fast. Same with your ao3 account ❤️

Thank you for the kind words!!! Currently not working on any fics, since I just came out of 10 weeks of summer research where my days began at 8 am and ended at 9 pm for probably less than minimum wage hahaha (doing research is a Bit Sad but I get a whole month to relax before classes start again so thank goodness for that)

I do however!!! Have a lot of plans!!! If you’re interested you can read more below!

Plans include but are not limited to:

Finally working on Homuncular Nature again!! I definitely do have a lot of plans and cool scenes playing out in my head for the next chapter, it’ll just come down to when I actually put pen to paper (or stylus to iPad) to actually organize and write them all. The road block I think is that I have seen neither Albedo nor fmab very recently and all my concrete ideas are for around the 30 episode mark for fmab, the turning point with the first actual confrontation against father and the subsequent Briggs arc.

Rewriting Ten Thousand Maple Leaves! A lot of people have been very kind but I think I missed the mark with my first chapter to be honest. My writing has gotten a lot wordier and less succinct, which feels like I’m filling a chapter more with fluff and unnecessary description than actual content. I think I also dislike how I characterized Sanemi and how quickly Kazuha was willing to agree with things. Writing both of them is kind of a difficult challenge tbh! I think in rewriting it I want to give back to Kazuha more of his vagrant role in the games, where he is avoiding the law for reasons somewhat out of his control.

Ebisu siblings content! I think it might be fun to try having them interact with more of the canon characters in kny but I also think there’s some value in a complete sort of outsider point of view when inserting characters into a piece of media. I feel like whenever I see self inserts I see a lot of ocs making themselves indispensable and making meaningful relationships with existing characters that way and that’s totally valid! That’s a lot of what I do for crossovers as well. I think when it comes to my own ocs though, I want them to feel grounded in some form and the reality of it is that none of the characters I make based on myself or real people are that impressive or remarkable. But I also think there’s a lot of value in showing smaller scale things outside of the main interactions and plot to show that even though we aren’t remarkable, we still have our own meaningful connections and ideologies and stories :) in the end the Ebisu siblings are a lot more visual though so I may just continue making doodles and art without writing anything haha

Kirby & Meta Knight ageswap AU: I was mostly doing this on my ask-gikabi sideblog in short form comics, but I lost sight of what I wanted to do after making the discord and starting to interact with some of the people who followed it. I think a lot of people are inspired and have their own very cool ideas that I wanted to take into account but then eventually it was no longer my story or the story I wanted to tell, which is why I’m thinking of restarting it as a fic. This one is still in very rough idea stage though, I have honestly no clue how I’m even going to begin organizing it

Yanfei ace attorney crossover: this one’s just pure crack lmao I would definitely write it as crack taken seriously but I think this is fun to explore just for small ideas that pop up every now and then, i.e. yanfei is semi-immortal because she’s half adeptus so it would be Really Funny to me if she showed up in dgs era, got her attorney’s license, went into hiding after it became obvious that she wasn’t aging, and then re-emerged after rebranding herself as her own daughter or granddaughter. That, and I have a lot of fun imagining someone as pragmatic as yanfei trying to get through the sheer chaos of aa despite being otherworldly

Continuing winter weather advisory: I got to a really good point in that fic and was rereading it today like,,, damn I wrote that? And it would be fun to see where I planned on going with it so I do want to also try working on that a bit if I can

Kazuha & Kunikuzushi role swap au: this is something I posted about a Long While ago but it’s an idea I continue to be fascinated with :) I especially enjoy how these two characters could have had completely different roles and personalities depending on how their pasts happened (with wanderer being so nice and turning so bitter and kazuha growing up so spoiled (for lack of a better word) and turning out so weary and yet kind

Link click and mha crossover: this one is honestly just a very recent idea but I think it would be fun to make a drabble on how lightime photo studio would be able to continue operating even in another world and the trouble they might get into for illegal quirk usage and what using cheng xiaoshi’s powers in a world where being able to tell the future is canonically possible would entail

I have!! So many ideas!! And not enough time or motivation to actually write any of them most of the time :’)

But I’m very glad to hear that you enjoy them and look forward to my posts!! :D I really hope I can work on some of these over the last month of summer vacation that I have :)

[the-everqueen]

Wondering your thoughts on something I’ve noticed a lot in the Sandman fandom - namely, that every fanart or fanfic involving Daniel (based on the show!!) always portrays/describes him as white, despite the fact that show!Danny’s dad is a black man…

i think there's a few factors at work. first (and foremost) people trying to incorporate bits of the comix in the absence of "official" casting (almost every fanart and a lot of fanfics defaulted to Destruction as a white, red-haired man before the actor was announced). Danny in the comix is a blonde baby and then a sort of...ghostly amalgam of a young man who never existed and Morpheus as we knew him (disheveled hair, gaunt figure, sharp cheekbones, dark eyes). what would that look like in the show? i don't know! i'm hoping there's at least a nod to Daniel's human parentage (he's blonde in the comix BECAUSE he's Lyta Hall's son, and in the comix she's blonde), but i think there are a few ways that it could be cast. Danny!Dream as mixed, light-skinned, and/or racially ambiguous could be both really tragic and really compelling: the erasure of where he came from as metaphor for his personal losses (of family, of childhood, of "personhood" in a human sense), and the insistence on some reminder of his parents, his past, as a counter to his "function." i'd love to see that explored in fic! (as someone who also defaults to comix!Daniel - though there IS a reasoning behind this choice in the LA guard dog universe and non-Dreaming aus.)

at the same time, i think it's partially a function of fans getting attached to Tom Sturridge's portrayal of Dream. when s1 came out, i saw some discourse circulating about how already people weren't ready to "lose" him (and i think some of this filtered into the whole "retired" Dream headcanons, though that's another discussion). and i get that if someone else is cast as Danny, there's going to be a...reaction to both the actor figured as a "replacement" for Tom and the character as a "replacement" for the Dream that fans became attached to. which then becomes a possible burden on the actor. Rose's actor, Vanesu Samunyai, got significant backlash for being a Black woman to play a character who was white and blonde in the comix, and i could see that kind of racism seeping into people's reactions to Daniel. (also a fan grief/sadness at the tragic ending used as a "justification" for racism.) it's not clear to me how much support nonwhite actors like Vanesu get when they're cast in these roles where fans might "expect" a white actor. (like...Riordan told Leah Jeffries in the new PJO series not to listen to the haters because he chose her, which is great and all, but...is production working to ensure that she has someone she can safely process her experiences with, is she given reasonable accommodations, is someone else moderating her socials so she doesn't have to deal with trolls?) so that's another consideration.

(obviously the "solution" isn't to never cast nonwhite actors, but there's been an increase in "diverse representation" in media without a discussion of how these predominantly white spaces have material impact on nonwhite creatives.)

last thing is just that i've noticed the sandman fandom generally seems...more reluctant to engage in alt. casting than say, musical theater fandoms, where there's an expectation that the principal actor won't always be in a role or present when you witness the performance. there's this automatic turn toward finding someone who fits, for example, Delirium from the comix in the absence of an official show casting, rather than playing around with the uncertainty. (personally i'm out here championing Bailey Bass as my Delirium face cast, and tbh if they cast the rest of the Endless sibs as white, she and Stephanie Hsu will remain my primary Del references.) which i think is common in fandoms that rely on a visual "text" for reference, and even more so for Neilman tv fandoms, where fans seem to want/expect "word of god" affirmation. again, another discussion, but i'll just say for now i think the fandom suffers for it.

[straightyuri]

what relevance does gladstone have in the comics? like. in terms of relations, plots, character in generalll because i dont know much in generals

Uhmmmmmm Well he's Donald's super lucky cousin that's his main thing. His 3 main consistent traits are 1. SUPER LUCKY probably most important one 2. Lazy cuz of said luck. this is both just because of the nature of living his whole life lucky but also in a lot of comics his luck will punish him for working so like. #sucks 3. Egotistical as fuck.

the intricacies of his personality kind of depends on who's writing him my favorite kind is when he's an asshole to donald but mostly just kind of clueless and unaware. his ass does not pay attention. esp when you can't really tell if he's purposely pushing Donald's buttons or was just made in a lab to specifically piss him off. I think it's both tbh.

^ one of my favorite examples. He's really funny. I mostly see this in Barks comics and stuff obviously inspired by him.

like it's just a really good phenomenon. He's mostly a character who is a hindrance to Donald but in which way depends on the plot. I've noticed a sort of cycle where it's like. Donald doesn't like Gladstone cuz Gladstone is an ass to him (understandable), but even if Gladstone is not actively trying to piss him off and just existing Donald will usually be mean to him (both cuz Gladstone is an ass but also his luck pisses him off soooo much), which causes Gladstone to be annoyed back and purposely piss him off. What if both of you stopped. freaks. this is just kind of Donald's nature tbh but this isn't about him.

^ that's just like. my favorite interpretation. there are so many versions of these characters cuz of all the different writers and I usually just take my favorite parts of the different version, but barks is def my fave just purely 1 version of gladstone wise. Rosa Gladstone is usually just an asshole for no reason and a really big one. It's kind of funny. I don't have it on me but there's one comic where he specifically walks ontop of Donald and uses his hat to clean his feet for no reason. what a freak.

you can tell it's Rosa Gladstone by that he looks kind of gay. sorry I didn't say that. Rosa's artstyle is really distinct tho lol, sometimes he has blonde hair it depends on who colored it (inking and coloring are done seperately. this is also why some comics have different versions of the same story with different colors)

not my fav personality wise but he draws him rather cute

not really related but talking abt Rosa he drew probably the most well known family tree. let's look at the family tree. waow.

uhm the 3rd most well known version of gladstone is topolino gladstone I don't really have much to say abt him. he's much nicer than other version usually. there's versions within topolino cuz topolino is like. a bigger thing. rather than just a single writer. I kind of got off track. there's also dt17 gladstone but. again I got off track.

uhmm.. the three main kind of stories gladstone appears in are. 1. Gladstone centric. 2. hinderance to Donald 3. just kind of there because the whole Duck family is there. then there's categories within those. also dd comics loveee reusing plots btw this is why they're so easily to put into catergorie

gladstone centric comics usually center around either him 1. getting sad about his luck cuz people exploit him or don't like him cuz of it 2. he either loses his luck or THINKS he loses his luck and freaks out because of it. these get kind of repetitive but I like how they explore his relationship to his luck 3. who up exploiting the golden goose. other characters love taking advantage of his luck and it always blows up in their face cuz his luck serves him and only him. lol. lmao.

hinderance to donald comics are uhm. big category and includes most of his apperances. stuff includes like 1. donald is in a competition and it turns out gladstone is also in it. 2. kind of the same as b4 but there's a lot of stories where it's specifically a raffle??? 3. donald and gladstone fight over daisy. I hate these comics. a lot. they're often just really misogynistic... if I can get away with it I try and read them as if Gladstone is just kind of odd and one of his only friends happen to be his cousin's girlfriend. usually makes the stories much better LOL. I don't really like. I hate the concept of them fighting over her and the way she's written where she's two timing them basically. but also sometimes they have good parts in them... like the one where it turns out gladstone has written really sappy love letters to daisy. I like when he's sappy it' something that comes up sometimes #SAPPYFUCK. 4. scrooge makes them compete in something usually a business cuz they're his inheritors but he doesn't want either of them to have his money cuz he thinks they'll waste it. often they both technically lose or gladstone wins but either he doesn't want to do whatever scrooge wants him to do afterwards or scrooge gets scared cuz gladstone's luck can outpass him in riches lol. gladstone publishing is named after one of these stories where scrooge gets scared and so gives him a comic publishing comic cuz "who can get rich through comics?" it's a little 4th wall break that I find funny.

IM NOT TALKING ANYMORE I HAVE TO CUT MYSELF OFF. I GOT OFF TRACK I THINK? SORRY. I will love if you ask me to elaborate on anything tho smiels. when I say he's my favorite character ever I means it. why couldn't i have a special interest in math or something WHAT IS GLADSTONE GANDER.

[thevideogameshutterbug]

The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog: Can We Get More of This?

No joke. You might have noticed from my sudden return to activity after a while, but I really, really liked The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. Gaming April Fools jokes are quirky and weird by nature - that’s the point. But every once in a while a game developer will release an April Fool’s joke that is so fun and unique in its quirkiness that it takes off and completely captures the audience with its charm. Sometimes these are even on purpose - attempts to test the waters and deliver some fun at the same time, like the trailer for Fighting Ex Layer. Sometimes it’s probably not, but... maybe it could be. I think that’s what The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog could be.

I‘ve been a Sonic fan for a very, very long time. I’ve loved most games in the series for the whole length of that time. There are few Sonic games I could say I outright dislike, tbh. But something I’ve long felt the Sonic series could’ve benefited from way back when was a stronger spinoff game. I think people give spinoffs a bad rap just on principle. “Why make disposable spinoffs when we can focus on making mainline games?”, people say (Sonic fans are also a bit unreasonably petrified of alternate gameplay styles). But I think that’s the missing the point. Spinoffs are a major part of what gives game series their identity - especially family focused series like Sonic. Not just because they give accessibility to a wider range of gamers, but because they make a buffer zone. Main line games take a long time. You have to wait years to see it, and if it has problems... well... that’s the reputation of the series for the next few years until the next game comes around. Spinoffs, however, mean that there’s always something involving the character out there to keep people interested. I means that if even if one game isn’t so good, there’s always others out there delivering quality. It gives the series something to look at at all times, and that gives it longevity. So why think about Sonic, a series about super speed and hi-momentum platforming, and make a visual novel spinoff? Visual novels are slow by nature, static images and careful deduction. Well... you make it for exactly the reasons everyone loved Murder.

People like these characters. People really like these characters. They’re fun. They’re all unique from each other. And they bounce off each other so well. But Sonic fans rarely get the chance to really experience the characters. Sonic’s long had a problem of loads of characters without quite knowing what to do with them. Characters like Rouge, a jewel thief primarily used for spy parodies, just plain isn’t going to be in most Sonic games - the games don’t have those kinds of plots often.

But that’s where a visual novel shines. Visual novels are all about going from scene to scene interacting with large swaths of characters, quirky conversations and unexpected character and plot developments. It’s not just that you can use tons of characters, but that you can give them center stage far more freely than you can in a platformer or a more action-focused plot. Sonic has been absolutely killing it this past year with adaptations and projects that were all about exploring the characters and what makes them fun, and Murder’s just the latest example. All the characters get segments to themselves to show off, tell jokes, and be fun - it’s silly and cartoony, charming with lots of character moments and eccentric turns, and it’s perfect for Sonic. So I really want to see more of this sort of thing!

We could get more parodies like this - hey, if Detective Pikachu can be a thing, why not more Detective Tails? Or we could get more involved stories. Something more Adventure-esque, or something more Saturday Morning Cartoon-y like Colors. Or a mixture of both! Character focused, or whole cast all at once just like this. Another everyman as the focus character, or one of the cast - Tails actually makes a very good protagonist for this sort of thing. The sky is the limit, here. Even this little April Fools joke gave us a surprising amount of worldbuilding and fun ideas I hope get revisited someday. Plus, it has to be said that visual novels take an entirely different creative process than platform games, and this game indeed was made by a third party, so the crowd nervous that any spinoff could take away from the development of the main titles doesn’t really have much to worry about: in the end, these would be made by different teams. It’s just a good idea all around. So I really hope this doesn’t get abandoned. Give us the continued spinoff visual novel / point and click adventures of Sonic and friends. I imagine any future ones wouldn’t still be free, but sure I’ll pay for it. Why not? I mean, you’ve got a perfect premise right here:

Eggman Industries’ Famous Eggscape Rooms! They’ll scramble your brains. And maybe your lifespan.

[ohmeadows]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

i wasn't tagged, i just wanted to do it 😌

How many works do you have on AO3? 10 currently. if we’re counting all past accounts and orphaned works… easily 50-60.

What is your AO3 word count? currently 149,834. if we account for the grand total, well. more. ha.

What fandoms do you write for? i’ve been in quite a few, mostly video game ones, but right now it’s mostly only honkai star rail on my mind though i have the odd rhaenicent idea rattling around.

What are your top five fics by kudos? you and me are a twisted fantasy (kafhime enemies to milkies), i’m on a leash called you (kafhime with dom himeko), da capo al fine (kafhime time loops), the dew of dying stars (ruanliu mara body horrors and cannibalism), and spark (kafxuan horny).

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? yes, i try to most of the time! i had a lapse this fall where i just didn’t have enough energy to do it for months on end, but i cleared my inbox of that backlog on january 1st. i’m trying to be more consistent going forward.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? none i can link bc orphaned or on old accounts, but i do love a good angsty ending if it makes sense for the way the story has been going. kinda aching to write one again i won’t lie.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? most of them are quite happy in terms of endings! i know people doomed so hard about da capo was going to have a sad tragic ending but that was… never in the cards for me. i already have it written and i’m very excited about getting there.

Do you get hate on fics? sort of. i wish people would offer up critiques instead of just leaving comments like “ew this is unhygienic”, “disgusting”, “can’t believe i read 8 chapters just for BOTTOM KAFKA” or whatever else pointless stuff i’ve deleted.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? mostly, yes. i think 99% of my writing stems from a very clear and vivid image of a sex scene, and then me building backwards to root that sex in a way that feels natural and consistent to both characters. and i'm always looking for some new angle in smut, or else it'll bore me, so that means exploring new kinks or dynamics each time.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? no, i frankly hate crossovers and it’s one of my blocked tags on ao3.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? oh yeah lol. sucks! what can you do! it always amuses me because if these people just bothered to talk to me in the way of “hey, i love x idea, i want to do my own take of it, can i discuss some ideas with you?” i’d be 100% down to help nurture that. i reblogged a post about it the other day but i definitely feel that fandom community has turned into a fandom clout competition which feeds into this, too many of us looking for a quick boost in some imaginary clout chasing.

Have you ever had a fic translated? several, yes. for a while i had a bunch of old fics translated into russian. it always flatters me that people would go through that effort with my works.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? yes, i’ve written a ton of unpublished wips with others and enjoyed the process, and then one i co-wrote with junie and published in an old fandom. i’d love to do it again, tbh, it’s incredibly energizing and fun, but wrangling two people’s creativity together over an extended period of time is always a lot of work and agreements, as well as being able to actually produce. you both need to trust each other and deliver.

What's your all-time favourite ship? uhm. i don’t know. i really don’t. ships by themselves don’t make me feel that excited, weirdly enough, but rather what people make exist in them. i have absolutely lost interest in compelling ships because the fandom de-fanged them, pulled their punches or morphed every single aspect about them into “uwu soft healing together”. (i could go into a long rant about how healing tends to be kinda… ugly…. in interpersonal dynamics. but that’s for another time.)

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? most of my unfinished wips i’m completely at ease with leaving behind in the dust. most. i do spend a lot of time thinking about a dorothea/rhea court drama au.

What are your writing strengths? visuals, i think. i have a very vivid inner eye when writing and the scenes play out like a movie for me, so i pay a lot of attention to the choreography and details of the scenes, where everyone’s hands are, and so on, to try and translate my inner vision to text. i can be a very harsh editor which means i’m always looking at what effect each scene is striving for — does it make sense for it to meander, or does it need to be snappier, sharper?

What are your writing weaknesses? i feel like my vocabulary could do with enrichment. i spend a lot of time looking up synonyms because they never stick in my head, and most of my reading books is spent noting down words in a notepad i’d like to use. sometimes i leave too much to be fixed in editing instead of putting it all down in the first draft. i don’t like involving too many characters so sometimes i think fics can get a bit too narrow — and sometimes i can play that for good effect, i guess.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? if you know it, sure, if you want; or at the very least use a beta who knows the language. i tried reading some fics that made use of my mother tongue and my god was it jarringly obvious google translate as well as irrelevant. i think it is worth asking twice what effect it will have for the reader and if it will come off as jarring.

First fandom you wrote for? lord of the rings! man i loved my mary sue silly era.

Favourite fic you've ever written? completed: spark. the amount of research i poured into it, as well as dedicating myself to convoluting fu xuan’s internal voice and outlook on things was some real hard work, but satisfying in the end. incomplete: the dew of dying stars. this one pushed me to research more, think harder about what i wanted to convey, and make them be worse. it’s been a very fun shift in how much i allow myself to dig deep, and relaxing and trusting the audience more. truly a new level of sicko weirdo fic for me.

[capitaletele]

Both inexperience takes were so good and the way Johnny just casually goes "oh yeah ive mostly been with guys" and Cristal has to reconsider some things is interesting because it implies Cristal didn't really know a lot about queer people(i mean bi Cristal for the win but maybe she didnt know idk) and saw it as unusual while it's just perfectly normal for Johnny (i may be overanalysing i apologize). Also i cant quite put my finger on what gives off that impression but i feel like the way theyre acting shows they have different concepts of sex, like it's treated kind of like a taboo subject/something you shouldnt talk about among the people Cristal grew up around and with the Etoiles Noires its just normal and people wont get shamed for wanting to have sex (same thing for not wanting to and/or being repulsed by it)

Okay i think i overanalysed sorry for that essay i just really liked it

Heeeeee thank you! :D :D :D (I'm guessing you were the original prompter? If so I'm glad you enjoyed my takes!)

And neverrrrrr apologize for analysing, my god, I'm pretty sure anyone who writes fic would talk about all the possibilities of the universe 24/7 if they could!! This is what I *want* to be doing so you're doing me a favour here :p

I'm definitely torn about the queerness aspect tbh, because I love the idea that in Monopolis there is no issue with gender and sexuality doesn't matter (this is certainly emphasized I think by the 2022 mise-en-scene where you see male dancers in skirts during the Opening and Naziland for example.) So it follows that there should be no "whoaaa you're queer??" from Cristal (or anyone else.) And I also (obviously) adore the idea of queer!Cristal.

But I also *love* exploring different variations of the world and the characters; that's how you don't run out of ideas, you know? I don't really have one fixed headcanon, I like to think "Okay Cristal is [A]" and then "Okay this time Cristal is [B]" and seeing what happens if you move the cursor slightly one way or the other :D

ANYWAY this is not what you were talking about.

YES I love thinking about the way the Towers people and the Underground people might think about sex and gender in all their configurations. I left the ending deliberately pretty vague so it could be interpreted anyway you wanted :p

Like, perhaps the Towers are supposed to be a Puritan society where Marriage is Sacred and you must Preserve the Bloodlines or whatever, but people in the tunnels don't care and are fucking like bunnies out of wedlock and it's all very "savage" and "uncivilized" (and thrilling.)

Or, on the contrary, perhaps sex is normalized in the Towers because it's like the Roman orgies of the elite, very blasé and consequence-free, but it's more controlled for "regular people" because they have things to consider like how they're going to find the money to raise a kid if they get pregnant?? (And then we get into the whole question of like, how dystopian is Monopolis, really? Is there population control? Massmedia and I have talked about this *so much* haha.)

Or perhaps Cristal was simply taught that people in the tunnels are not "as advanced" or as "open-minded" as people from high society, and so she expects Johnny to be a sort of basic play-boy like she's seen in old movies, but it turns out that he's just as liberated as anyone from high society (and perhaps even more than her).

Or she's still struggling with the media image of him as a violent, uneducated, boorish criminal, and she thought he would also perhaps be a bit homophobic.

OR, her mind is boggling because Johnny just outed a bunch of people to her which shows that he's maybe a little dumb of heart 🤣

OR.... something else I haven't thought of yet, but perhaps you have, and which is just as valid!

[theboarsbride]

Hi! I love yours WIPs. I'm exploring some of the genres (gothic, horror) and was wondering if you could share how you cast your characters? I've been struggling with deciding who my characters are... conflict and plot is fine, though. For example, how did you make the decision that Temperance Cavell runs a convenience store with her mother? Or that Jane Sterling is interested in Paleontology? Or deciding to write an arctic gothic story and settling on a British naval captain on an expedition? I feel stuck when I get to this part, I blame anhedonia + indeciveness. I hope it's alright to ask for advice, by the way.

Hi - thank you so much for the ask!💖

Tbh I've always been more of a character writer... Most of my WIPs start off with the characters, and then a story sort of develops around them.

Like for Temperance in 'Temperance & Mr. Wyrm': I knew I wanted to write a book featuring a character who was either a nurse or had vague medical knowledge, but also lived a very restricted life despite being a grown adult. So I made her live with an overbearing mother who owned a convenience store.

For Jane and paleontology, that mostly came from me projecting onto her, as someone who used to be very into paleontology - and wanted to make it into a career but never had the chance to/lost interest. I also liked the idea of her being a very feminine girly girl trapped in this werewolf horror... and to have HER be the one that fights a werewolf... making the ditzy bimbo character the final girl!

A lot of it is wanting a KIND of character, then creating a character to cater to that want, and then developing a plot that would require a character like that to exist........also more often that now I choose a faceclaim (especially with my love interests...whoops...) before anything else because it helps me visualize them as a real person!

Wanting to write an 'Arctic' Gothic where a naval captain is battling inner demons while trapped in ice in 110% shameless fic inspired by AMC's The Terror and my bear wife oc.🤣 It's an idea I was too endeared to to NOT turn it into a book! tbh a lot of my writing journey has been 'I feel like writing this.... ok imma do it, IDC what anyone says!' Just unabashed, shameless self-indulgence!

I feel like I'm horrible at giving advice because I know what works for me doesn't work for everyone but this is what helped me: realizing WHAT kind of character I want to have, know the kind of vibes I want both them and the story to have (both separately and together), and figuring out HOW I want the plot to revolve around them.

I hope this helps!!!! If it's confusing or anything like that feel free to ask for clarification!!!! Best of luck to you on your writing journey!!💖

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

For the ask game! 14, 18, and 23!

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

the renification of akira's personality, to steal a term from my sibling. akira is genuinely one of the most interesting characters in persona 5 but people characterize him in the most boring ways. i blame the terrible anime for this. genuinely the only fic i've ever read that nails him is daredevil, you've hit the wall, and that's a travesty. git gud you guys. write this man as complexly as he deserves. you make akeshu so boring by turning akira into a self insert! he's got a whole personality you guys!! stop ignoring it because the anime made him boring!

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

harugoro friendship. or at the very least harugoro INTERACTION for fuck's sake. i'm so damn tired of seeing all these goro redemption fics erase haru from existence. sometimes it's fine and appropriate for the tone or purpose of the fic, but i draw the line when it does include futaba. don't get me wrong, i adore futabagoro friendship as much as the next guy, but are we seriously going to pretend their dynamic isn't just as complicated as it would be with haru? there are so many interesting and complex ways we could approach how haru and goro deal with each other post canon but everyone has decided to not explore it at all instead. it's cowardly and disappointing as hell. haru deserves better than this. she's already sidelined in canon, let's not do it to her in our fanon too.

i want to see haru dealing with her anger. i want to see goro struggle to be sorry. i want to see haru extend kindness despite it all, and i want to see how goro responds to that. i want to see the two of them dealing with their own mixed feelings toward their fathers in opposite ways and the clashing that comes from it. i want to see goro angry at haru for "forgiving" her father and her explaining she's done nothing of the sort, and i want to see haru call goro out when he claims he doesn't and never did love his own father. i want to see them talk about how they both wanted to be heroes! about how neither of them ever can be the ideal heroes they idolized! they could be so good for each other. they could be so terrible to each other.

please for the love of god let's explore their complicated and tragic dynamic that has so much potential for both goodness and hurt instead of insisting that the kindest phantom thief would cut him off and never speak to him again! SHE WOULD NOT FUCKING DO THAT!

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

souji x marie. i was adamant they are mlm wlw solidarity and my opinion on that hasn't really changed but man. the persona 4 golden anime makes them so compelling ngl. they're fated lovers, representations of doomed gods, two halves of a whole.... souji runs through a snowstorm for her! she erases herself from existence for him! they are soooo autistic4autistic!!! makes me mad how good they are in the anime tbh. my primary ship is still souyo but because of these two i now have my line polycule of rise x marie x souji x yosuke. that dynamic is so funny to me. i need to draw them sometime...

send me asks?

[kyogre-blue]

tbh thought the new gadget was just there to be cute like the paper thing cloud retainer sent and the seelie...I like having useless things float besides me you know.

Now that i know it has a mechanic it kind of turns me off. It's basically of no value besides finding those things in ONE small part of the desert. I understand that they needed a spin to the same ol' "run around the map and collect balls" but this isn't really cutting it.

Paimon is a lot like those gadgets if I think. She's worthless ; what's the point of a "tutorial character" if she doesn't guide the players? How the hell do mfs get so lost they don't know a basic plotpoint and game mechanic such as the traveler changing elements at ar 55. Why does everyone have timeline anomalies. (not to mention the game isn't down to the ground with no instructions either ; you do unlock entries that give you one singular primogem. so what's her purpose?). Also she floats.

What annoys me is that we get new gadgets for like every second new area, but until the supposed gadget wheel (however that works) gets added next patch, we've always had only one item slot. So you want to use the treasure compass in Chasm? Well, have fun running around in the dark. You want to use the compass on Tsurumi? Now switch back to the feather to activate this puzzle. You want to use any of the exploration items like the gliding fan, the updraft bottle, the NRE? Well... :))

I hate switching things around, whether my equip items, my party, or my gear, so this has always driven me crazy.

So when the racist bottle from the previous desert was moved into your pet slot instead and didn't require any input to work, that seemed like a smart move. A compromise of sorts.

But now, we have this thing that takes up both the item and the pet slot. (While also having really big and intrusive animations for exiting battle mode.) So it's like, one step forward, two steps back.

I also just really hate the three axis movement method? It's extremely unintuitive and works so poorly on PC.... seriously, is Scaramouche this bad too?

As for Paimon, her purpose is not to tutorial you, realistically.

Paimon is a combination of various writing shortcuts stuffed into a character. At the start of the story, the Traveler doesn't directly talk and doesn't even express their thoughts to the audience, so Paimon is there to repeat things back to us. She also forces the storyline in various directions, like the blatant "I want food, I want treasure, let's go see X character" quest hooks or when she... suddenly determines you want to go see Morax's corpse or some other nonsense. She also plays the stupid one in various situations so that the Traveler can act in a way that's smarter than some of the intended audience.

It's fine if you buy into her "bestest companion" emotional appeals, I guess. But if you don't... haha.

[monstersinthecosmos]

RJ will treat Marius like a saint. He will play therapist/father-in-law to Louis and vouch for his son's innocence and loyalty to Louis. He knows both of his sons fuck Louis so occasional bribery gifts work to preserve his good will.

first of all sorry this is so hot lmfao: He knows both of his sons fuck Louis so occasional bribery gifts work to preserve his good will. 🥵

but no really, like okay here's the thing, and I've said this a few times so I don't want to say it again LOL but obviously everyone can read the same book and we all come out with different ideas about what it meant, based on our lived experiences and tastes, and I think we all knew that the books needed some updates. Not just because they're way too whacky and nonlinear to work smoothly as a TV series, but because there's a lot of outdated tropes & -isms that weren't going to fly.

And like the convergence of those two concepts means that we're gonna get one team's version of the books and also one team's opinion on what needs to be updated.

Like don't get me wrong because Marius is my favorite character in VC (and one of my fav characters in anything ever tbh) but I like him because he's fucking reprehensible. And I would've liked to see a version of him where he's just as charming and soothing and "wise" but where there's no ambiguity about the harm he causes. And like I don't wanna get too deep on Marius meta on a post about RJ & AMC but I think there's a lot of author intent to consider about Marius in the later books and whether or not Anne ever intended to hold him accountable or if she got bored and wanted to write fanfic by the end. That type of inconsistency might be something worth "updating" or worth exploring in a visual medium where we aren't stuck strictly to the interior of someone's POV, and the show is clearly expressing that it wants to play with POVs.

But we all know the types of like, sort of casual surface fans who just enjoy Marius and buy into his bullshit and don't see the harm he's caused, and don't see that he's actually fucking diabolical. I would argue that a lot of these are the same fans who do this to Lestat lmao. (He is, after all, MiniMarius.)

And I'm having a hard time reading what RJ will think of him. On one hand, so many of the decisions made to update the text have been just, overwhelmingly like cishet middle aged white guy decisions. That's exactly Marius's type LMAO. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought he was a saint and portrayed him as a saint, especially bc LET'S BE FUCKING HONEST I don't think they've actually done good research into the entire series, so like he's not thaaaaat bad yet in the trilogy. (There's signs, but, I think we all agree he becomes especially potent in TVA.)

On the other hand!!!!!!!! They've really turned Lestat's abusive behavior up to fucking 3578193587135 so like. Maybe they get it? (tbh I'm still having a hard time sussing out what they intended to be abusive and what they didn't, though. Fucking yikes lmao.)

Plus the lore is so fucking shoddy on AMC I'm curious like what kind of goofy nonsense they'll come up with to create a power imbalance when like idk it feels like all vampires have all powers or some shit like what is Marius going to be able to hold over these guys to impress them?

I also feel like it's hard to gauge what they're squeamish about and what are their standards; ie: aging Claudia up at a glance was OH OKAY SURE LESS GROSS STUFF, but then in reality it was LETS MAKE HER 18 IN LIKE 5 MINUTES AND HAVE HER HYMEN GROW BACK EVERY TIME HER LIL 14 YEAR OLD BODY HAS SEX.

And then in one of the panels RJ made like a kinda dismissive/grossed out comment about Lestat/Gabrielle?

idk man like, update if you need to but I feel like maybe don't commandeer this project if these topics make you squeamish LMAO.

So would they lean into Marius/Armand being predatory? Would they age Armand up so it's not as gross? Will Marius be a saint or will he be so over the top fucking disgusting that he's the no. 1 villain of the show?! Will Armand be aged up but they'll still find a way to make it fucked up?!

It's so hard to say based on RJ's opinions on sexual assault in fiction; like I could see him leaning into it for the shock factor but I could also see him so blithely misreading it that he doesn't see it as an issue in the book at all. Especially because Armand's experience of it doesn't fit neatly into RJ's whole "rape makes you tougher" trope since Armand doesn't ask the reader to think of it as rape. I just worry that this man has such a disconnect with this topic that he wouldn't really see it in the text, idk.

Anyway whew who knows, alls I know is I don't want them to even involve anyone else from canon I cannot stomach this LMAO. I have to keep reminding myself not to dismiss this man/this team as misunderstanding the text because they're educated professionals and keep reminding myself that this is deliberate because they do not care and in the end this is a corporate cash grab and not an artistic project made for us LMAO. And they're already so fucking far off the mark of the books anyway I don't think it's possible to make predictions at all.

[kattythingz]

10 and 13 for the ask game

-👑🐢

Hello hello! Ofc!

10. Which three fics were you most nervous to post? Why?

Just for You - Oh boy, this fic. This fic. So, at first glance it's pretty innocuous, just a cute roleswap of my boy Hiccup getting the Scourge of Odin instead of Astrid. But this prompt has originally started as a VIGCUP idea specifically. And I reaaaally wanted to keep that element because—that was why I was writing the fic in the first place! But, y'know, people get weird about ships of this nature, even when both parties involved are adults. Sigh. I worried a lot about the reception of this fic, but it thankfully reached its target audience at least!

Apple of Your Eye - as stated in a previous ask, this fic explored several darkfic elements, including predatory behavior from Adam. I made it VERY CLEAR throughout the fic that Adam was fucked in the head for his obsession with Reki, but a big part of me still worried people would think I liked the ship unironically because I. Kinda went ham on Adam's creepy behavior. BUT I HAD TO MAN!! PREDATORS ARE VERY REAL PEOPLE AND I WASN'T ABOUT TO SUGARCOAT THAT SHIT. I was dedicated to portraying the sheer fucked-up-ness of Reki's situation. Despite my extreme anxieties.

Mother(ghost) of Mine - also in that same prev ask, I mentioned this fic being very self-indulgent. In this case, it involved Dani and Dan calling Danny, a boy, mom. And the phandom as a whole looooves its trans Danny headcanons (I don't personally hc it, but I respect it). So naturally at the time, I worried people would get the wrong idea from the use of that title (and I def did receive a few comments of that nature lol). The phandom is uh... kind of a monolith, in the worst way possible. I don't regret leaving that fandom tbh. That fic was a huge stepping stone for me back into serious writing tho, so I'd never tell my younger self to not post it. No matter how much I cringe at the old writing.

13. Which three fics did you enjoy writing the most?

What Sort of Imminent Threat - I BLAZED THROUGH THIS FIC IN A STRAIGHT WEEK. It was honestly insane how consistent my energy was for it, but I had a very strong love for Ody and Eury's relationship, and I had an even stronger love for Ody as a nuanced character. Honestly, as soon as he sang "I could raise [the infant] as my own", I was locked in to make this man a father. He deserves it, damn it! It doesn't help how precious little Galen turned out, and put together with Ody being soft for him??? I'm only a woman, plz.

reap what you sow - I'm a sucker for Edward Elric and I'm an even bigger sucker for FURY Edward Elric. I really, really, really love my Hades au okay. Really. And getting to explore Ed's pov?? While exploring his several friendships and his budding relationship with Ling?? My absolute FAVORITE thing to do is explore/expand a character through their relationships, and this fic was kinda just that, with a lovely side of self-indulgent world-building. Did I mention that I love my Hades au?

By No Auspicious Day - Crown by itself is obv a fic I enjoy writing a lot (you don't slave over 110k+ for sth you don't adore lmao), but its unedited sequel holds an esp dear place in my heart. I will have to revamp it to match the new Crown, BUT, even as it is—this fic was so goddamn CUTE. It's edling being silly despite the end of the world!! They're in love!! I was giggling the entire time I was writing this fic back in 2022, and I'll do it again after Crown's finished. (Hopefully.)

[coolfire333]

Not to post discourse but *posts discourse*

Tldr; "proshippers" piss off and touch grass you are GROSS I do not welcome you here AT ALL, "antishippers" please learn to be respectful of "weird/morally questionable/toxic" but otherwise "legal" ships and have media nuance you are on thin ice dude JUST BE KIND TO PEOPLE AND BLOCK (/REPORT WHEN APPLICABLE), DON'T HARASS

Ok I seriously hate the lack of nuance in modern fandom re: shipping discourse

Granted I was not online until 2016 when I first made my tumblr so I only got remnants of the untagged "wild west" of the internet but I truly feel as if I've seen some of the worst when it comes to shipping discourse

Like I'm actually worried that I'm gonna get burnt at the stake for liking a boss/employee age difference ship because of the questionable power dynamics that come with it even though there's nothing else "wrong" with the ship the way I wanna depict it. Like god I wanna explore that ship more in art/writing despite knowing that it's questionable but I've already got told to kill myself once over my writings (don't even know why that happened tbh) and I really don't want to have that happen again

But I also don't want people to see that I ship something like that and think that I'm proshipper-friendly, anyone who earnestly uses that label 9.9 times outta 10 is just an absolute creep who hides behind the "it's fiction :)" excuse to romanticize pedo/incest/noncon stuff which is NASTY like you realize how chronically online you have to be to think that's remotely ok or normal to most people

And the earnestly "anti-ship" side is so bad too like jesus christ I can't even fully align myself with them either!! Like I swear to god they'll see a ship with a 20 year old and a 30 year old and think that 10-year age gap is inherently problematic and that depicting dark content is Bad even if it's not even being romanticized and they're WAY to eager to harass people over stuff that literally doesn't matter

I swear to god some of these people need to retake english class or any other sort of media analysis class because oh my god depiction is not always normalization/romanticization!!! But the second you start to say that a bunch of absolute CREEPS begin crawling out of the woodwork to defend your points like no dude piss off I know you're whacking it to morally depraved pornography in your spare time and trying to pass it off as "normal fantasies" YUCK!!!

The staunch antishippers will assume you're proship if you don't want to use either label and the proshippers will do the exact same thing like "yeah sure no label but you're one of us right ;)" NO!!!!!!!!!! I literally do not want to be associated with either side they are both cesspools and the antiship side is only better if you ignore the rampant harassment and intimidation tactics and undeserved callouts

Literally go touch grass and leave me alone both of you I really do not want to receive more suicide bait or any death threats over wanting fictional characters to kiss each other or hold hands or, yes, even (consentually) fuck nasty even if it's morally questionable but I swear to god if you're so much as turning your head to people outwrite getting off to depraved shit romanticizing pedo/incest/noncon like "hmmm it's fiction, doesn't bother me if other people do it" then you are VILE

But don't go out harassing people who like nasty stuff just block them and make sure not to let them enter your space jesus it's literally THAT EASY

[amelikos]

Some character notes and episode notes for HZ032, writing them down for future reference.

Diana asking Liko and Roy whether they think what Lapras is wrong or not for stealing food makes me think that this kind of questioning will come up down the road. It's good that they didn't just brush off Laplace's acts as just evil for the sake of it and actually tried to understand where the Pokemon are coming from and why they might be doing what they are doing. I was hoping they'd delve a little more on the Pokemon's pasts but I feel like there are some implications that they were hurt by humans? At least Whaleoh, given the scars it had (so that's probably why they avoid contact with humans). Either way, I like that they are trying to expand perspectives and questioning the Pokemon's actions that could appear as bad at first glance. It really feels like this conflict is all setting up for eventually questioning the Explorers' motivations and why they are doing what they are doing (just like how HZ028 was showing that Tepen could still turn his life around despite his shady deeds).

Landau sailing the ship was really cool! I like that they're allowing Nuoh to shine by using Surf too. Just because the characters aren't "battlers", it doesn't mean they aren't experienced at what they are doing or their area of expertise. It does make me curious about Landau's past tbh.

Friede and Diana are both on the same wavelength on many aspects, they reacted in similar ways to Lapras being gutsy and attacking the ship. They were a bit worried but impressed w Friede still has room to be surprised by Pokemon.

Liko guessed where Lapras's secret base was since she noticed the empty food boxes near it. Love how observant she is! She also apologized to Lapras for intruding in the base... polite, even to Pokemon (just like how Friede asked them not to board the ship unless they have permission to do so).

Terapagos seems to befriend Pokemon quickly in general and Lucius's Pokemon feel some kind of loyalty towards it, given how Oliva and Galar Fire decided to follow it to fulfill the promise.

Lucius's flashback was quite ominous, and he is talking about Rakua like it refers to a person. There is the sense that something really bad happened to him and he probably died after promising that he wouldn't... His Pokemon all seem to miss him (and cry thinking about him), so it feels like they remember what happened too. Either way, I like that so far, all the confrontations with the Six Heroes involved communication as a strategy to reach out to them and appealing to their emotions instead of simply battling. Lapras's friends also encouraged it to follow the group (which good, because I wanted their reactions to be taken into account).

Liko got to talk with Diana while everyone was sharing food. What I found interesting is that Diana offered her perspective of what a "Pokemon trainer" means for her, and I think that's the first time in Horizons we get a definition for it? I liked that her view of it is "someone who bridges the divide between Pokemon and people"... I feel it's a nuanced approach and covers all sorts of possibilities (instead of just "trainer means battling"), and I look forward to them.

Rayquaza showed up at the end. It's probably there to guide them towards the others heroes they need to find, it's unlikely that this is a coincidence.

[lvllns]

candescent

redacted asmr | damien x huxley. 3k words. tiny bit of angst, but mostly fluff and comfort. it's just the way that i am (i'm alive and it's bittersweet), chapter 1 of 3.

[read on ao3]

—

Damien has been doing better, really he has, but there are still moments where his chest gets tight, eyes burning, and it’s all he can do to remember how to breathe.

This morning was one of those moments.

He woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air and clawing at the comforter. Kicking and flailing until he tumbled to the floor, blanket spinning through the air as his hip slammed against the hardwood, missing the rug entirely. He had groaned, muttered an extensive litany of colorful curses under his breath, and then plucked his phone off the nightstand. It was three in the morning. Damien had two options then. Attempt to get some more sleep so he doesn’t pass out at Huxley’s tonight when everyone gets together, or just start his day.

The park is empty this early, it always is. Damien knows this intimately. He’s lost track of how many days he’s started before five, pushing himself to his limits as he runs the path. Headphones in, music blasting, water bottle held so tight in his hand his fingers ache, he runs. It’s what he’s good at, the running. He likes it. Likes the way his lungs burn, how his head goes blissfully blank as his muscles ache. Sometimes, when he thinks he needs to stop, when his body protests so hard he expects to just drop on the concrete running path, he forces himself to go faster. Go farther. More, more, more. Erase the memories, the sounds.

It’s when everything hurts, when it all feels like an inferno, that Damien starts to feel like himself again.

It’s a process, he knows this. Some days are better than others, some are so bad it’s all he can do to crawl out of bed and exist. Most days start well before sunrise after the nightmares have choked the air from him and ripped the earth out beneath his feet.

There is, also, perhaps some misguided attempt to run his emotions out of him, Damien is aware enough to admit that. The earlier he’s out, the less chance he has of seeing Huxley, and it’s not that he doesn’t want to see Huxley, it’s just that being alone with Huxley is starting to make Damien fumble.

Damien doesn’t fumble.

Or, at least, he didn’t.

Fuck, maybe failing that one class did more damage than he thought.

The point is, he runs and runs and runs until his legs buckle and when the sun begins to snap the horizon in half, he staggers back to his apartment before Huxley can show up for his morning run. It’s just easier like this, for right now. Even if it makes Damien want to scream into a pillow because Huxley has never pushed, never done anything aside from asking once why Damien wasn’t there for their morning run, and when he had told Huxley he had run earlier, that had been it. Huxley had let it go. Hadn’t pushed for an explanation or anything, just accepted that Damien had changed his schedule around. Part of him wonders if Huxley thinks he’s avoiding him, which he kind of is, but…well. He really hopes Huxley doesn’t think that.

It takes four tries to get his key in his apartment door, his hands are shaking so bad from exhaustion, and he barely makes it inside before he collapses on the ground. Back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of him. The pain is grounding. Chest rising and falling, eyes closed. He’s going to feel this in his legs tomorrow, from his thighs down. When he checks his watch, he finds that he’s hit a new personal best, both in distance and mile time. He’s getting quicker, stronger. Next time…next time…

Damien doesn’t remember falling asleep on the floor in his running gear, but he did because he’s woken up by his phone going off. Rapid fire texts. Groaning, he swipes it open and sighs. The group chat, of course. Freelancer and Lasko are talking about food for tonight. Huxley sends the most ridiculous meme about pizza Damien has ever seen and fireflies take flight in his chest. They light up the darkest parts of him, illuminating places he’s kept hidden, and tickle his neck as they crawl up the inside of his throat.

Ever since the inversion, since all the shit they went through together, something has…shifted. Damien isn’t an idiot, he knows that he has a crush on Huxley, but he can’t tell if it’s reciprocated or not, so he keeps it to himself. Locks it away. Stuffs the fireflies in jars and shelves them.

And he runs.

And he avoids being alone with Huxley.

He locks his phone. Forces himself to his feet, and trudges to the bathroom to clean up. It’s later than he expected, and he needs to get ready to pick up Lasko and head to Huxley’s without being late this time.

Lasko talks the entire way to Huxley’s place. Damien welcomes it, welcomes the distraction. He’s thankful that Lasko is opening up, talking more about work. The question dodging still happens sometimes, but it’s slowing down. Damien asks about his day and Lasko responds, honestly, about what’s going on. What he’s doing. He offers his opinions and advice when Damien asks for them, and fuck, it starts to feel normal. It’s all starting to feel normal again, and there’s a little twinge in Damien’s chest.

He hangs back as they walk up to the door. Part of him wants Lasko to knock, to open it, but they don’t even get to that point before Gavin flings the door open and leans against the side dramatically.

“Lasko, Damien,” he says. “Get inside, Hux and Freelancer are out back.”

Damien smiles and it’s tight at the edges. Gavin cocks an eyebrow, head tilting to the left, but Damien waves him off. Not now. Preferably, not ever but he knows that won’t happen. Not when—

“Hey buddy!” Huxley’s voice cuts through his racing thoughts.

Lasko is already outside talking to Freelancer and when did that happen? Gavin squeezes his shoulder as he walks by, something flickering in his eyes that Damien thinks is concern. Or curiosity. He can’t really tell.

Damien blinks and Huxley is still grinning at him. “Hey, Hux.”

“Hugs?”

And how the fuck could Damien ever say no to that?

He nods, an actual, genuine smile cutting through the chaos of his emotions. “Yeah, Hux, please.”

“Fuck yeah dude.”

And then all Damien can smell is redwood. Evergreen. Dirt, soil, mud, clay. Crisp air, the kind that stings a little because it’s so clean. Huxley is warm, arms tight as he holds onto Damien, and Damien doesn’t even fight it. He melts. Presses his forehead against Huxley’s collarbone, wraps his arms around his waist, and just. Breathes. Eyes shut, hands clutching the fabric of Huxley’s tank top.

“Hey,” Huxley says, breath skating along the side of Damien’s face, “you okay?”

Damien shrugs. “Tired.”

One of Huxley’s hands—(big, broad, Damien cuts those thoughts off immediately)—starts drifting up and down Damien’s spine. “You wanna talk about it?”

Yes. “No.” Damien winces. “That was…curt. Sorry.”

“It’s fine bro, something is buggin’ you, I get it.”

Of course he does.

“I just. Maybe later. Tonight is supposed to be for fun and relaxation and not worrying about whatever bullshit won’t clear out of my head.”

“Damien.” Huxley steps back. Rests his hands on Damien’s shoulders and meets his gaze. “Don’t think you have to, like, put on a show for us. If you need to go chill, or, or even leave, don’t force yourself—“

“Huxley,” Damien says, so soft it’s barely a whisper, and he doesn’t miss the way Huxley’s eyes go a little wide. “I’m okay just…dealing with some shit. I don’t want to leave, I want to hang out with everyone.” He swallows. Flicks his eyes to the side to look out the back door. “I’ve missed you. Uh, all of you. Everyone.”

Fuck, Damien does fumble.

Huxley smiles, honest and wide, and his cheeks dimple. “I’ve missed you too dude, runs aren’t the same without you.”

Damien winces. “Ah, yeah, so—“

There’s a hand over his mouth.

He blinks.

“No apologizing, it’s all good.”

The palm against his skin is calloused but warm. Fingers light against his face and shit, shit, that’s the temperature kicking up.

He swallows. Steps back and paints a shaky smile on his face. “Thanks, Hux.”

“No worries.” Huxley throws an arm around Damien’s shoulders and really, honestly, he’s going to light something on fire at this rate. “Now come on, let’s go save Lasko from whatever Freelancer and Gavin are doin’ to him.”

“Oh shit.” Damien falls into step next to Huxley, trying desperately to ignore how good he feels pressed to his side, tucked under his arm. “We did leave them alone, didn’t we?”

They weave their way into the conversation easily. Freelancer throws themself at Damien when he says yes to more hugs, and then Gavin draws him into the topic at hand. Which Damien is hardly paying attention to because Huxley is standing to his right, arms folded over his chest, and it’s taking every single ounce of Damien’s willpower to not blatantly stare at his biceps and what the fuck does he do to get them looking like that?

He’s in the middle of talking with Freelancer about their classes coming up, the increased healing courses they’re taking, when the doorbell rings.

“Oh, that’s the food.” Huxley starts to move but Gavin places a hand on his forearm.

“I got it.” Then he looks directly at Damien. “Come help?”

A split second to consider if he can get out of this, and when he concludes that no, actually, he cannot, Damien nods. “Yeah, of course.”

He promises Freelancer to pick their conversation back up in a minute, and then he’s off. Into the house with Gavin. Who is an incubus.

It takes all of fifteen seconds before, “So, have you finally figured out you want to fuck Huxley?”

Damien sputters. Mouth opening and closing and he can’t get the words out to explain that he doesn’t want to fuck Huxley, except he really, really does but it’s more than that. It’s deeper. It’s everything he saw, the fear of almost losing Huxley, of almost dying, the way it kicked him out of the haze he’d been in. Realizing that he’s been slowly falling in love with one of his best friends and was too stubborn to admit it until everything was shattering to pieces around them. How would he bring that up now anyway? Everyone is healing, things are going back to how they were, and Damien is so scared to smash the window with the rock he’s holding.

“I don’t want to fuck Huxley,” Damien says. Even to his ears, it’s a weak lie.

Gavin levels him with a stare. “Hello, my name is Gavin, I’m an incubus which means—“

Damien shoves his shoulder. “Would you shut up and grab the pizzas?”

As he walks backwards towards the front door, he points at Damien. “This isn’t done.”

With a roll of his eyes, he grabs the stack of plates and napkins, fully intending to be back outside to avoid whatever talk is coming his way, but Gavin just fuckin rifts. With the food. One second Damien is about to leave the kitchen and the next Gavin is directly in front of him, pizza boxes in hand.

“Shit!” Damien almost drops everything he’s holding, barely managing to juggle it and keep it in his grasp. Frowning, he lifts his head to look at Gavin. “Can you fucking not?”

“Are you okay?”

Damien blinks. “What?”

“Don’t play with me, Damien.” Gavin sets the food on the counter. “I can sense the knots. You’re all tangled.” He pokes the middle of Damien’s chest. “What’s going on?”

Damien sets the plates and napkins back down and rubs a hand over his face. “I just haven’t been sleeping.” A heavy, weighted exhale. “My last therapy appointment got pushed back, and I tried to set one up with another therapist because I need to keep the weekly schedule but no luck, so I can’t talk to anyone until next week, and I’m just so fucking tired.” He laughs, rueful, and shakes his head. “I’m a mess right now.”

Gavin hums. “Nightmares?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Damien says. “Bad ones.”

“Freelancer gets them, hell, I do too.” He steps closer, propping his hip against the fridge. “The difference is I lean on them and they lean on me.”

“Are you telling me you want phone calls at one in the morning from now on?” Damien jokes weakly, giving him a lopsided, half-hearted grin.

Gavin scoffs. “Not me, not Freelancer. Not Lasko.” He grabs the pizzas. “Damien, you’re bright, but this is—“

“I don’t,” Damien grits out, “want to ruin things.”

“You won’t. Trust me.”

Gavin leaves him standing in the kitchen staring at the counter. He gives himself thirty seconds. Half of a minute. He counts down. Composes himself, and then takes everything outside. Gavin gives him shit about getting lost. Damien flips him off. Lasko and Freelancer make exaggerated shocked gasps in unison. Huxley bursts into laughter and Damien thinks it’s the sweetest sound he’s heard all week.

Damien replays that sound, the deep, rumbling laughter, over and over and over while he picks up all the dishes. He leaves everyone in the living room, cycling through Switch games like they aren’t all going to just play Smash again for the millionth time, and ducks into the kitchen. 

A sense of calm washes over him. Bracing his forearms on the counter, he leans down until he can touch his forehead to the cool granite. It’s quiet in here. The sound of everyone bickering and laughing muted through the walls. He just needs a minute. A moment. Some time to ground himself because he knows he’s going to end up squished on the couch next to Huxley, and with the way he’s been reacting to Huxley’s touches all night, he doesn’t want to light the damn sofa on fire.

“Damien?”

Huxley’s voice cracks the silence.

Damien didn’t even sense him get close.

He shivers.

“Yeah?” Damien asks.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay dude?” Huxley stands next to him. All strength and warmth. Damien can’t help but tip his head in Huxley’s direction, a flower seeking the sun, cheek resting against the counter. “You’ve been…off tonight.” There’s a beat of hesitation and then, in a voice so small it breaks Damien’s heart, “Did I…do something because, like, if I did, could you please just tell me?”

“Hux, Hux, no.” Damien snaps his head up. Grabs Huxley by the bicep—(shit, he’s solid)—and sighs. “I haven’t been sleeping well, and my therapy appointments are all fucked right now, I’m just a bit of a mess. Temporarily.” Huxley frowns, face twisting, and Damien drops his hand back to his side. “I’m fine.”

“You’re such a shit liar, man.” Huxley groans. Tips his head back and rubs his hands over his face. “Fuckin’, you and Freelancer. You don’t want to burden anybody else so you never say shit until you’re cornered but, like, dude, we care about you.” Damien’s eyes sting. He shakes his head but Huxley’s fingers curl around his wrist before he can speak. “I care about you, Damien.”

He laughs, wet and tired. So, so tired. “Half the time I feel like I’m going to wake up and you’re not going to be on the other end of the phone,” he says, the admission loud in the quiet of the kitchen. Damien swallows. Looks up at Huxley, and inhales sharply at the intense look in his eyes. “I’m a mess, Hux. It’s bad right now and I don’t—”

Huxley sighs. Moves closer and holds his arms open.

Damien tumbles into them.

He clings to Huxley, hands fisted in his tank top and cheek pressed right over the center of his chest. Where Huxley’s heart beats steadily. Damien is swallowed up by the hug. Moved so close he isn’t sure where he begins and Huxley ends and he doesn’t fucking care. He doesn’t care. Huxley’s arms are strong and solid, and he smells like the forest they went camping in months ago. Like freedom and second chances and life.

“I think,” Huxley says softly, voice rumbling through his chest, “we’re all kind of a mess right now, dude.” He starts moving his hand up and down Damien’s back, and Damien leans into the touch. “But, like, I’m strong, man. You can lean on me when you need to, I’m not gonna, like, tip over or anything. I can handle it.”

“I don’t—”

“Damien, please.” Huxley catches his chin and tips his head back, meeting Damien’s eyes. “I’m here for you, I want to help, and like, if it’ll make you feel better, I promise to share what’s buggin’ me and shit too.” Huxley’s thumb drifts across Damien’s jaw before he drops his hand. Damien fights to breathe, to keep himself from bursting into flames or burning Huxley or lighting something on fire. He hardly hears Huxley when he asks, “Hey, are you busy tomorrow?”

“What?” Damien blinks, still looking up at Huxley. “Tomorrow?”

Huxley grins. “Yeah, dude. If you’re not busy, we should hang out. Just us. We haven’t done that in, like, weeks.” The corner of his mouth twitches like he’s fighting a frown and Damien wants to smooth the wrinkle forming between his brow away. “We can get lunch?”

“Yeah,” Damien says without even thinking about his schedule for tomorrow. “Yeah, I’m free. I’d love that, Hux.”

“Fuckin’ sweet,” Huxley says, eyes going bright. “I’ll pick you up at one?”

Damien arches a brow. “Do I get to know what you’re planning or is this a surprise?”

Laughter, bright, windchime laughter, and Damien’s heart catches in his chest. Stalling before kicking into overdrive as Huxley beams at him.

“You’ll know what’s up tomorrow.”

He snorts. Shakes his head and smiles. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

“Come on,” Huxley says as he squeezes Damien’s shoulder, “let’s go kick everyone’s asses at Smash.”

Damien follows him out of the kitchen feeling like every nerve in his body is on fire.

He’s never been so warm.

[theveryworstthing]

So over on patreon Trevor asked for my take on the Addams Family and I grew up LOVING the Addams family movies so here we are. Instead of doing a straight up style interpretation, I decided to do a full on design challenge, using the characters as bases to make a black southern gothic Addams au. I actually drew the kids first, using the character bases of Wednesday and Pugsley to create some delightful kiddos I'm calling Sunday and Blanche. I of course then redesigned Gomez and Morticia into Carlisle and Mortesha.

The Addams have a very specific high aristocratic goth aesthetic (they've got a butler and nobody really works among other things) so in this re-imagining I wanted to go with vibes that run a little more middle class/upper middle class.  I thought it would be interesting to think about what would be considered weird and off-putting in an entirely different culture, and how being a big ol' goth is way less controversial than it used to be.

I tried to keep this short (HAHAHAHAHAHA) so I didn't spin off into an essay about villain coded families, black people in the horror genre, and normalcy as it pertains to social survival, but just...bits of that are in these designs and lore. Keep that in mind.

Also I made the kids twins because they've flip flopped in age so much in different media and also twins run in my family (i'm the daughter of one). And let's face it, I'm pulling a lot of their southern gothic traits from living as a southern goth so *shrug*.

10 thousand pounds of lore incoming loooooooooool.

The Parents

From the moment he saw her he knew that there was a 50/50 chance of him either never making it out of that swamp alive or marrying the figure that was creeping out from under the distant willow tree in a black cocktail dress. The third time she found him trussed up in one of her traps, he complimented her rope work and asked if she'd like to go out sometime after his head wound stopped bleeding.

Or while it was still bleeding.

If she was into that.

Some kids and a mysteriously burnt down Piggly Wiggly later, their love is still as strong and inescapable as a bear trap in a sink hole.

Carlisle Guillermo (now Addams through marriage but I wanted to give him two first names for a name since Gomez has two last names) makes a vaguely described living practicing ‘law’ around town. A loophole king, people come to him from miles around with contracts signed in blood, fights over chunks of hair buried in their rivals’ yard, dehydrated primate hands, memories that seemed like dreams until the evidence of their happenings became too real, and other regular Legal Items asking for counsel which he is all too happy to give. For a price. Sometimes that price is a homemade pie and sometimes it’s a million dollars, depends on who you are. Whatever you’re asked to pay it’s worth that price, and if you try to scam him out of work or he just plain doesn’t like you? Well. He knows how to twist a contract better than anything at the crossroads.

And he always gets his due.

He doesn’t just serve the local (living)humans though, there are many things that need proper legal representation in this day and age. You wouldn’t believe how many city councils try to build on sacred burial grounds even after he lets them know that his ghostly clients are totally gonna haunt the FUCK out of the ensuing shitty condos and curse their families for all eternity. At least 50% of his energy goes towards dealing with real estate bullshit.

Carl is an excitable and good natured(?) man who loves his family, cigars, dancing, and his many knife-based hobbies. People find him very charming once they get past the feeling that they’re talking to a sultry gator badly disguising itself as a human. I didn’t put a ton of deep thought into designing him, mostly I wanted to make a middle aged dude who looked like he would have been voted ‘most likely to smooch the literal devil’ in high school. Tbh he probably has, but no demonic ex’s can compare to his lovely wife~

Mortesha Addams(her name was already perfect so I just tweaked it)is a woman of many talents. A self proclaimed homemaker, she prides herself on a greenhouse full of Concerning Foliage, a beautiful wasp apiary, and a coop full of what are probably chickens that she keeps for what are probably eggs. She’s also an avid creator of the outsider art that can be seen around the estate. She has taken on the family business of selling her homemade goods in a little stall by the road just outside the swamp with her mom, and makes pretty good money doing so. A surprising amount of poison gets bought in quaint southern towns.

Speaking of poison, people who come out to the edge of the swamp to buy it are usually carrying a lot of secrets around, and Mortesha knows most of them. It’s not like she pries the truth out of people, it just so happens that many nervous hellos eventually turn into the tragic backstory power hour if she’s alone with a client for long enough. She supposes that’s just how people are. Despite the fact that the Addams are very active in the community (whether the community likes it or not) she especially, as a direct descendant of the first Addams matriarch, is seen as…Well not an outsider because the community feels A Certain Way about outsiders and despite it all the Addams are their people, but maybe something like an exception. They feel like whatever weirdness they’re hiding can’t be weirder than any given Addams, so they get a little loose with their words.

This is amusing to her, since Addams’ don’t naturally keep the kind dramatic secrets that their surface level prim and proper neighbors do. It’s much more fun to openly talk about those things.

Do they have a sadly decrepit yet terrifying grandma up in the attic? Yeah, like three. They got a tv, all the creepy porcelain dolls they could want, and they’re close to family. Where do you keep your gram-grams?

Any bodies buried on the property? Yeah some, but most are thrown to the gators.

Any creeping through the balmy summer night with ill intentions? Yeah dude, everyone loves a nice family stroll.

What about dangerous forbidden love? If an adult Addams isn’t incorporeal then they’re either queer or in a torrid romance with some person/thing mysteriously drawn to that awful swamp. Sometimes both at the same time. Most times actually.

Mortesha would know.

The current head of the Addams family is just as outgoing as her husband but a lot quieter and harder to read. She never really seems to get mad about much and always has a genteel smile for everyone whether they deserve it or not. A seven foot tall human shaped “Oh, bless your heart”. A perfectly composed Lady even when she’s, oh I dunno, burning down a Piggly Wiggly. You know. A regular southern mom. Chat her up at the hair salon for 50% off a jar of wasp honey with your next purchase of a mysterious but foreboding packet of herbs.

Designing her was pretty easy because I just drew a lankier Grace Jones and called it a day. I had some problems with her outfit simply because if we were going HARD southern gothic then she’d probably be wearing a white/cream dress with a fuller skirt but I thought keeping the silhouette and the black was more important. She’s supposed to be an anti southern gothic southern gothic character anyway. A woman who looks like she has a million secrets who is actually the most open person you could meet. For better or worse. The red hair came from a coloring error that I really ended up liking (my mom had red hair her whole childhood that only darkened up in high school so I can buy that an Addams can be naturally fire engine red) and the veil was to get more of that classic Morticia silhouette in there.

The Children

Sunday and Blanche are the twin children of Carlisle and Mortesha Addams. Some say the Addams clan got their cursed homestead when a wealthy local businessman made a deal with the devil and lost, leaving his grand mansion to his least favorite maid and cutting his losses once he realized that the swamp would do everything it could to drag the house into the water and take what was owed with its horrible curse. Others say that the family has just always squatted there and no one really cares because man, fuck that particular swamp. Have you been in there? Absolute horror show.

Anyway.

Blanche is the more outgoing sibling and quite the engineer/mad scientist in the making. He started going grey at 2 weeks old but considering he was also rocking some extra fingers, toes, and a tiny tail (he takes after his dad), his parents just put it on the 'not life threatening' pile and decided not to worry about it. He's the kind of smart that teachers find utterly infuriating, less a dog eagerly learning and obeying commands and more a hyena who keeps teaching itself how to pick locks. He has a few friends in his school's robotics club (which they honestly allowed him to make so the school could contain his... creations) but mostly hangs out with his sister exploring the swamp. They find all sorts of neat things in there! wedding rings, suspiciously lumpy garbage bags, cloaked cultists who can't read private property signs, it's an adventure every day!

Blanche is all about experimentation with his creations, his look, and his tether to this mortal coil. Is lipstick a cool thing to try? Let's find out. Can he get out of a strait jacket fast enough after being pushed into the depths of the swamp by his sister? let's find out. He's not dead yet and confused local doctors can attest to the fact that he's rarely attained more than a bad bruise so he's pretty set on continuing to kiss rattlesnakes on their cute little heads and have his sister practice her knife throwing at him until that fact changes.

Blanche is very much a country goth. Cowboy boots (customized by his mom), knife, and lighter are daily accessories. He likes to wear the crusty swamp jewelry they find (the rust adds a splash of color!) and despite appearances he does try to keep himself neat. He's just got  natural Grunge Colors and a tendency to wear clothes he likes until they fall apart. Pugsley always seemed the most modernly styled to me (which might just be because little boys clothes have been the same for a long time) so I wanted Blanche to be the most purposely fashionable Addams. Everyone else is goth by nature, but he's the only one truly familiar with goth as an alternative fashion.

I got really into designing Blanche because honestly, I find Pugsley to be the most boring member of the family. And he was hard to design! I had to mess with his vibe a lot to get him looking how I wanted. I know he's supposed to evoke an " 'evil' little boy next door who's parents never reign him in", but that's just goth Dennis The Menace.  I's 2020. We can at least go queer goth Calvin.

Sunday was much easier to design. Wednesday was my favorite as a child (of course) and I really wanted to keep the spirit of her look while adding things like billowy sleeves (it gets HOT down here), big poofy twists instead of braids, and a nice tie. She's a professional after all, been running the local pet cemetery since she was 6 and the previous groundskeeper met with an unfortunate accident after telling her that tarantulas don't have souls. Her specialty is creating beautiful naturalistic animal funerals similar to those that Maquenda (https://linktr.ee/artofmaquenda) makes, and she takes pride in creating miniature dioramas of her subjects after each burial which she uses as a kind of 3D catalog for future clients.

She really wants to try out her skills on humans one day. Well. Publicly try out her skills. Lotta random bodies float into the swamp. None of them have turned down her requests for diorama models so far. Most seem downright flattered. Plus, she usually figures out which graveyard/crime scene they floated over from and gets her parents to give them a lift back. She'll even help enact terrifying revenge from beyond the grave on whoever put them there if she's not, y'know, busy.

Besides arts, crafts, and pet based funerary arrangements, Sunday is an avid lover of archery (any ranged weapon really), books where little fantasy adventure animals die dramatic deaths, and history. She is That Kid who eagerly raises her hand when asked who Christopher Columbus was and ends up being sent out of class after 15 minutes for making 'a scene'. Her favorite party trick is just picking an item in the room and talking about how it relates to either some obscure historical figure with a buck wild life or a horrible disaster. At least one charity pancake breakfast ended with children in tears after her vivid description of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Social-wise, while Wednesday is the girl that people ask to smile because they think she'd, "look so pretty", Sunday is rarely asked anything at all. People just kind of assume from her quiet nature (in between horrible history facts) that she's angry all the time and that she hates everyone. This is untrue. She hates some people but she's ambivalent to most everyone else and even downright friendly if you bother to talk to her like a person instead of a terrifying cryptid. Like, she IS a terrifying cryptid but she's also a little girl.  

That’s about it for now. One day I might do the other family members but for now I’m happy with the four I’ve redesigned. Making an au! Lurch in a family that doesn’t do butlers could be interesting. Over on patreon I put forth that he could just be Motesha’s mute little brother (similar bone structure) but Amy Crook had the nice idea of quote: “ a mysterious "cousin" that "helps around the house" whose origins are both long in the past and faintly unsettling. He's good for lifting heavy things, like that tank of propane you're about to throw into the burning Piggly Wiggly... “ which i now consider canon. Who's kid is he? How old is he? Not important. Anyone willing to commit arson with you is family.

Annnnyway.  This challenge was a lot of fun! I love indulging in AU’s.