#this'll probably become a series

[yanderecookierunkingdom]

:)

[mikichko]

⛔ this blog is 18+ !! minors and ageless blogs please dni ⛔ part of: blurb a day series (trying to get these gears moving)

ghost hates the feel of hands on his skin. despises it. it makes him feel dirty, filthy. even the cotton of his shirts feel too thin on some days and he wishes he would've added more layers. just as a precaution.

so when you ask, "may i touch you?" it catches him completely off-guard.

it's been a long time since someone asked if they have his permission to do something to him. simon has long since lost the privilege of choice, since he'd joined the SAS that is. he's long parted with the idea that he is something other than a weapon and a tool for the crown to maintain its power, however fleeting it may be. molded to obey orders and execute them as cleanly as possible. and yet, here you are, offering him a choice, something he hasn't had in years.

it makes his mouth water.

he nods silently, fearing he'll drool onto his mask if he opens his mouth. he watches your fingers work, peeling back the soiled fabric of his shirt as you expose the fresh wound. you're diligent, handling his arm with such care you'd think he was made of porcelain.

you rummage around in your kit, pulling out the alcohol and the gauze, "this'll sting a bit, apologies." you're so sweet for thinking that a mere swipe of alcohol would bring pain to his battle worn skin. too sweet.

jesus christ. he has to look away lest the entirety of his blood flow suddenly redirect itself between his legs. it's insanity that this bit of kindness is enough to drive him to such a state. he's had men hurl knives, grenades, shoot live rounds at him, has felt them thrash at his body with full force. has become so accustomed to violence and yet, your gentle touches make more of an impact than any of those blows ever did.

you are so careful with him. he wants to let you know that your hand, your blessed hands, could never harm him. not the way the rest of the world seeks to.

he wonders what kind of man he'd have become if you had found him earlier. if he had felt your soft hands before he ever felt the hot metal of a bullet graze his skin. what if he had been handled as softly as you handle him now since his birth?

would he still be here? a man turned weapon, in the perpetual cycle of violence? would he have opened his farm?

he doesn't know, probably would never know, but he knows one thing. he would have found you. would have still met your soft touch.

he'd still felt like a proper man, an honorable man, under your hands.

[shiny-jr]

So what was the process like for creating the MC's personality in damantion au? Like how similar they are to their counterparts

how close they are to the version of the characters in the film they are based on.

I assume you're asking this for each MC thus far? Since I won't reveal too much on the last two MC's yet. So, this'll probably be a long post, or not, as there isn't a lot about the MC's that hasn't already been said.

King!MC. The very first MC I developed for the damnation series. In fact, I thought of this MC before I even knew damnation would become a pretty long series. They were the first, they came before the majority of the plot and all. At that point, all I knew was I want an MC that acts like the king, and screws things up. And thus, King!MC was born. I mainly drew inspiration from the animated version of the King of Hearts, however, the fate the MC knew awaited them was inspired by what had happened to the King of Hearts in the live-action version. I would say that of the MCs thus far, they are the most like their counterpart. Although the King of Hearts is not a major character in the animated film and only appears for brief moments, those few seconds give the little guy a lot of personality, which I drew from and then some. Really, I just wanted someone kinda pathetic with Riddle.

Chief!MC. Before I even began writing for them, my main goal for them was to be the epitome of girlboss, boyboss(?), theyboss(?). Basically I wanted them to be badass, a mature figure but still with a bit of a temper or snark at certain times. Someone that could stand toe-to-toe with Leona when he's being cunning. Like the previous MC, here I had the privilege of having two sources, the animated one and the live-action version. In the animated version, Shenzi is more humorous at times but in the live-action, she's much more serious, so I used both. I thought I'd used their point of view to portray a different perspective of the Lion King story, and use Chief!MC's traits and desire to survive push the plot forward but eventually make mistakes due to being a bit rash at times.

Diviner!MC. Ah yes, the first difficult MC. For them, I had to think a while. I was stuck thinking, just where exactly I could assign their role since there was essentially no role for them. For a short time, I entertained the thought of a possible apprentice under Azul, but in the end I opted against the idea as that would make it difficult for MC to reason why they would want to leave and it would make things more complicated with the whole legs and fins, air and water, thing which was hard enough to write for. Diviner!MC is loosely inspired by Vanessa, the identity taken up by Ursula. I say loosely, because yes, while they did take over seducing the love interest, they also changed things. There were a lot of changes I had to make in order for this new role to work, such as the protagonist also being seduced. Really, it just made a whole mess and it was not fun. Ultimately, not an MC I'm proud of, but they're there. I figured someone suave and confident was needed for the role, not only to be distinct from the meek King!MC and assertive Chief!MC, but also to be on par with Azul.

Anyways, that's a lot so I'll leave that there for now. Let me know if you wanted to hear about Vassal!MC and Retainer!MC, and I'll answer that in a separate post.

[iavulture]

Headcanon and story time (related to Despicable Me 2)

All right, I know everyone is onto DM4 (or rather, a certain cockroach man), but I've been way too enamored with a headcanon that I have stemming from DM2, which has since evolved into an ongoing AU/alternate continuity fic that further explores it in its own way. Ready to hear it? Because this'll be a long one.

(Spoilers for Despicable Me 2 and a warning due to mentions of death. Also, I will rant a bit, not out of outright hate, but because I wish things were handled better.)

*deep breath

I have this headcanon that Silas Ramsbottom is Lucy Wilde's adoptive father.

Yes, this man.

Now, before you think that's ridiculous, before you go "No way, Silas? That big man who was kind of an arse to Gru in 2 is Lucy's dad?", I can explain that, beginning with a personal story.

See, back when trailers for DM4 were being released, I decided to throw in my lot to the Despicable Me fandom for the first time by writing a future fic featuring a grown-up Gru Jr. following his parents' footsteps as a newbie AVL agent. Following that, I also decided to write another Despicable Me fic that is my take on what happened with Lucy's parents, who were killed by a villain when she was a young girl.

Above is the Twitter post describing Lucy's short backstory. This is back in 2015. 2015! Two years after DM2's 2013 release!

Anyway, after seeing that tweet and browsing through Ao3 and Fanfiction.net for Despicable Me fanfics, I was disappointed to find so few fics that explored that part of her life. Yes, I know that Gru is the protagonist of the mainline films, but does it hurt to shed some light on the character who becomes his wife? Y'know, someone who's one half of a couple, and (ideally) just as important as the other half?

Sigh. Of course, we never see this bit about her in the films: not during a conversation between Lucy and another character, not even a mention or a flashback (though correct me if I'm wrong and overlooked a movie that does mention or hint at it; if not, my point stands).

Not long ago, I brought this up with a friend, and I hypothesized that the reason why this was never implemented in some way in the films is because it's too dark for a kids franchise like Despicable Me, even though I can argue that several other kids series have elements that are as dark or even darker than that: my friend brought up Frozen 2 and Elsa dying, meaning you could definitely insert legitimately dark moments into a kids film. Hell, I can bring up The Lion King, which has Mufasa dying to the wildebeest stampede after Scar lets him go, traumatizing Simba; in fact, Mufasa's death impacts Simba even in adulthood, showing that childhood trauma can have an effect even after growing up.

In any case, it IS possible for a kid's film to be quite mature, but Lucy's backstory? Just thrown into the wind, especially in regards to the films after DM2.

Like, can you imagine the effects of such an event on her psyche? What would Lucy think of villains after her parents died? Would she ever have thoughts of revenge? Forgiveness? Would she hide it from her husband, the kids, or even her past dates? (She mentions having gone on a few bad dates in DM2 and that's the reason why she keeps a lipstick taser.) What would her life be like after they died: would she live a mostly normal life, or would she be trained to be an AVL agent at a fairly young age? Heck, would Silas know that her parents died when a villain attacked them, and would he and the AVL do something about it, perhaps avenge their deaths?

So many questions, so much wasted potential.

(Here's me crossing my fingers for a TV series that'll probably never happen, because I think Lucy's past could be explained well in that format.)

But now I'll turn to a much lighter note and the real cut of lamb of this post.

Going back to my headcanon that Silas is Lucy's adoptive father, I noticed something interesting in DM2.

During Gru and Lucy's wedding, notice the number of frills on Lucy's dress and Agnes' dress? They're both the same, and if you think about it, Agnes was the one who was the most enthusiastic about the idea of Lucy marrying Gru, implying she looked up to Lucy in high regard and thus wanted to dress up like her for the wedding.

"But Vulture! What about the note saying 'same color as Lucy's usual attire'? What's that got to do with anything?" That's likely to show how much Gru loves her, to the point he dresses up with the same color she usually dresses up in. You know what Lucy's usual getup looks like? If not, here you go.

Light-ish shade of blue, right? Now, look at this.

Maybe I've taken crazy pills or need to have my eyes checked, but I don't recall seeing any other AVL personnel having something that's just as light blue on them. I'm pretty sure in reality it's all just to help create a unique character design, to make them stand out from the generic AVL agents, but yeah. It's just something that I noticed, there's nothing to officially confirm that Silas and Lucy have some sort of close connection with each other other than they're both with the AVL.

But given my observation of "character dresses a bit like another character they admire or at least respect," you can sort of see why I have that headcanon.

I still find it interesting how Silas is around Lucy in comparison to when he's around Gru, in that he's never actually antagonistic toward her or any of his other spies and doesn't doubt her skills. Of course, since one of them is essentially a former criminal, it makes sense that he'd have some animosity toward Gru. Heck, I'm pretty sure Silas might've even been hostile to Gru way back then after Minions 2 since Silas told Gru to "stay out of trouble, kid," only for Gru to break that promise by becoming a thief anyway. However, given that Silas appears at the wedding and even helps Gru, Lucy and their children move to a safehouse in DM4, it's clear that things got better for both of them.

About the fic that I mentioned earlier in this post, I based it on this headcanon specifically, along with a few others that I wrote down on a list. There, Silas adopts an orphaned Lucy shortly after her home was destroyed by a villain and her parents were killed. Traumatized that she survived but they didn't, she often gets worried and nervous, even having a hard time at a new school. She also has to contend with living with Silas, who has his own problems to deal with, from being in charge of the AVL and a few things from his past, including his own family. (And yes, I did create OC family members, and Silas' relationship with them is... a bit complicated to say the least.)

All in all, I wanted to try my hand at writing something that explores familial themes, struggles, and dynamics, especially since I feel they aren't handled as well after 2. Plus, I get to play with some tropes and elements present in the canon Despicable Me films (and, rather appropriately enough, other spy/espionage works like James Bond), except instead of a(n ex-)supervillain with his adopted daughters, it's with the AVL director and his (fan'verse) adopted daughter.

*sigh* And now this post is done! It's been a long one, but I just wanted to type out my thoughts on a few things related to a fic I'm currently working on and because I feel upset that things could've worked out better in canon.

[zelcii]

SWITCHED: TABLE OF CONTENTS (TMR)

sum; This series follows through what I believe happened in the Glade before Thomas through the perspective of an additional character: Florence Nightingale. Imagine the terror and trauma I can put her through. The girl in the Glade. Let her suffer.

a/n; finally gonna start this. expect slow updates but long reads. some aspects will be a little different from the book and the movies so I can work with the material better, but it's primarily book accurate. all my writing energy will probably go to this so... yeah :)) this'll also have aspirations of becoming a gally fic but the plot doesnt revolve around their relationship.

SWITCHED FAQ, OC MOODBOARD

№1 The Glade: Life before Thomas

cw; swearing, lgbt themes (nothing big), character deaths, one sided love, deep trauma, plot twists, no lovey-lovey yet, a mix of book-canon/movie-canon/claire-canon elements, cursing, slow-paced, etc...

1. Box, 1.9 words, 09/03/2024

2. Nick, 2.2 words, 09/03/2024

3. Bonfire, 09/00/2024

4. Names, 09/00/2024

5. George, 09/00/2024

№2 The Maze Runner: The End Begins

cw; swearing, lgbt themes (nothing big), character deaths, one sided love, deep trauma, plot twists, no lovey-lovey yet, a mix of book-canon/movie-canon/claire-canon elements, cursing, slow-paced, etc...

1.

№3 The Scorch Trials + The Death Cure: The Final

cw; swearing, lgbt themes (nothing big), character deaths, one sided love, deep trauma, plot twists, no lovey-lovey yet, a mix of book-canon/movie-canon/claire-canon elements, cursing, slow-paced, etc...

1.

Rewritten:

1. The Ivy, 5.6K words, 04/08/2024 THE GLADE

2. Bonfire, 4.6K words, 04/08/2024 THE GLADE

[sapphic-agent]

This is MHA though.

AKA, the series of constant fakeouts. So I'm going to go on record and say that these recent manga events are done for shock value and will be reversed. If Tomura actually stays dead and Izuku ends the series quirkless and armless, I'll happily look like a clown.

I just find it impossible to believe that the same series that let Gran Torino survive a fist through his torso would kill the main villain and also permanently maim the protagonist. No. The general lack of lasting consequences in MHA doesn't vibe with this. Because Izuku failing to save Tomura makes him the biggest loser in Shonen history. This would be like if Sasuke got killed by Madara and stayed dead, and Naruto ended the series in a wheel chair after barely surviving having Kurama ripped from him. In a shonen, when you pledge to do something, it has to come to fruition. Especially if it's an end of series goal. So that's why I genuinely believe this'll be undone.

Because the alternative is a worse ending than any other shonen in recent history. Shoto can succeed at saving Dabi. Uraraka can succeed at saving Toga (I don't believe MHA would kill Toga, again, because of a lasting lack of consequences in this series) but Deku fails. Completely and utterly. Imagine if they just kill AFO while he's using Shigaraki's body. What makes this even worse is the fridge logic of a world where they simply wanted to kill the villains. If Izuku hadn't gotten yanked away from the fight by Toga. If everyone went for the kill from the start. We have a "better" outcome in that fewer people got hurt or injured. Is that the message? That we should just kill our enemies, and that the product of a flawed society and failed social safety nets should be taken out back and shot like a rabid dog?

That's also an ending where they'd learn absolutely nothing and would ensure this probably happens again 20 years from now, except worse given the number of singularity quirks that will be running around. On a side note, you wanna know a practical reason for why they shouldn't ever kill Tomura? Because if he can be convinced to stop, he could go around and harvest dangerous quirks from people in the future, and thus save everyone. The quirk singularity isn't that big of a deal when we have someone who already has a singularity body and also can give and take quirks. He becomes a repository of all the powers that would destroy humanity in the future. Tomura is a very neat and tidy solution to a problem the heroes haven't put any effort into understanding or solving. It's an issue that we have definitive proof is a thing, and Deku can't punch it out. For utilitarian reasons, Tomura must live. What's a few of the hundred lives he's taken vs the entire world? They legit don't have any other answer.

Maybe. But even if it is for shock value and they undo everything, that's worse than it happening in the first place for me. Because then it was for nothing. I'd rather Horikoshi make a decision and stick to it, not just in this case but in general. Even if Izuku being armless and Tomura being dead is the last thing I want, him reversing it and putting them through that for nothing feels even worse.

(Also, this is Izuku and Tomura we're talking about. Horikoshi hates them I can definitely see him giving them a bad ending)

And no one in MHA- especially the so called geniuses- is smart enough to actually use him as a solution. Haven't they already decided it's better for him to die? Even if Izuku does manage to save him, he'll get locked away immediately.

It's a lose-lose situation

[jadeazora]

So now that's the final chapter of the Villain Arc/Paulo's arc is fully out, a summary of my thoughts. This'll probably be long-winded and rambley, so please bear with me:

Cons:

We waited 3yrs for Paulo to snap and become a villain. He was only a villain for, like, 1.5 Interludes and 3 to 5min into a roughly ~40min story chapter. Talk about underwhelming for just how long we waited... (A friendly rival being corrupted into a villain is something I always wanted to see Pokemon do, too.)

Paulo is shown to be very observant, so it feels foolish that he would charge right into Giovanni's base after seeing how TR's played the other villain teams like a fiddle. You think he won't do the same thing to Hoopa?

It was kinda lame that it took just one line from Giovanni to sway Hoopa. I guess because Paulo had taken that power from Lear, while Giovanni had power of his own with being an experienced villain boss and the guy who tamed and commanded Mewtwo? 🤔 I just wish we got more of a fight out of it.

Missed opportunities for the player/Lear to have interactions with Paulo as the villain. Like, we didn't even really get a reaction from Lear to Hoopa getting stolen/forcibly driven into a rage-state, until everything was said and done??? And even then, Lear's praising Paulo for drawing out Hoopa's power??? It just feels very weird.

I feel this is the only game that they could do the sort of storyline in, where the rival-turned-villain wants to eliminate all the world's evil, even if he must become evil himself, since we have almost all of the series' major villains on Pasio.

I was hoping for more cross-game villain interactions since it was something that I wanted to see all the way back in RR, and then they give us Lusamine, Lysandre, and Rose all teaming up over Team Break. That was really cool, but it would have been hype if we got more villains banding together to defend themselves and their organizations from Break.

Several villains don't have alts still, and we're missing most of the admins aside from TR's, Plumeria, and Courtney. Team Flare's are still MIA (at least Xerosic, since Mable, Celosia, Bryony, and Aliana aren't really that notable) Moreover, the various grunts themselves were datamines with all the regular dialogue, so it seems like they're expected to be Scouted at some point.

It's also notable that it feels like the BW arc ended pretty openly with it never being clarified if N retrieved his Reshiram. I know I wondered about there being a Pt3, with alts going to Ghetsis, Rosa, and Nate, at least until they announced Kalos. Even as the conclusion was coming, I was thinking we might get Ghetsis with W-Kyurem as one of the anniversary pairs, and him/Giovanni trying to take advantage of Paulo creating chaos with the villain teams on Pasio would be one of the driving conflicts in the next storyline.

I feel they could have added AZ in a VA Pt2 arc too, given him and Lysandre are related? I always wanted more interaction between them than what we got, plus there was that whole established parallel to Lysandre and Paulo (with Paulo even about to attack, or potentially even kill, some disarmed grunts in a similar manner to how Lysandre did), and there's a bit of a connection between Paulo and AZ with how they were willing to go to such extremes, since the two of them were driven to do what they do because of a loss of their beloved Pokemon partner.

As for the final chapter itself, kinda a missed opportunity to see the villains again when the tide against Rocket finally turns, and any other possible interactions we could see. Some after-the-battle dialogue would have just been fun.

It's frustrating because Masters generally has pretty solid storytelling! They've even fixed problems I've had with a few mainline game portrayals, like with Sycamore, and given development to characters the mainline games failed, like Cyrus.

A few pros to balance things out:

I loved the villains joining the fight all over Pasio. Including Lys when you think that TR's rampant greed is just the thing that would make him royally snap on everyone again (since Flare was developing some new weapon), but nah, he means it about letting the chosen ones decide the future.

I loved the interactions we got with Archie/Maxie and Colress/N! It's nice how Archie and Maxie continue to be the two (divorced) dads of Hoenn with their dialogue to Paulo about the similarities to them and him, and how they didn't want him making the same kinds of mistakes.

Ghetsis showing up to help, largely because he was salty about Giovanni doing what HE wanted to do and throwing a bit of a tantrum over it was the funniest thing.

I like how Gio is out there, still scheming. He even seems to take an interest in Paulo still, going by him watching the battle with you and Paulo at the end, focusing on him specifically.

[v4narana-w0nderl4nd]

HMMMMMMM

Imagine a genshin x reader series, but instead of the normal cheesy romance stuff, reader gets stuck in a repeating nightmare where they're stuck in different urban legend stories and have to solve the dream to wake up.

So for example, reader is stuck in the "kisaragi station" story in their dream, so they have to find clues and survive.

If the reader doesn't survive, they either die irl too or the dream repeats itself, growing more realistic and causing hallucinations the more it gets repeated.

Also, reader solves their dreams with different characters each time, depending on who they hung out with that day.

The characters in their dream also gets the dream, but they're unable to move by their own will, only being able to follow reader and talk random stuff

Almost as if they've become NPCs.

I'll probably write this on my alt account

@shitp0st-acc0unt

I've also got a few ideas for endings

+ this'll be an interactive fic, so your choice matters :D

[estellardreams]

Okay... Um... I don't mind whichever answer comes in but...

The fic in question:

The reason I'm asking is because this'll canonize the side plot ship: Sayrose (Rose (aka Camellia Rivera ((Aaka Amy Rose)) x Sayori)

[MORE INFO BELOW CUT]

Of course, this plot will not influence the main story too much. If anything, it'll be like general bonding and small moments of affection, but the main story will not be intertwined with the romance at all.

All I would allow is cuddling, holding hands, and hugging. The character's ages are 12 (Rose) and 13 (Sayori) respectively, so they're young children, which also means ZERO NSFW. In terms of fic ratings, they're very G rated and the fic will only go to T because of the Heliophobia AU's main story.

Rose would oftentimes be on her own and could lean on Sayori for moral support, but that's as far as it could go. The rare chance to wrap up this plot is at least a kiss on the cheek, and if not then it'll be a hug. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'll just say what plot points I'd like to include in the future if this route is taken, and if you'd like to discuss this more throughly with me please do:

At least one scene of cuddling with a blanket while hanging out.

Sayori assisting Rose is an escape if Starline finds them

Rose breaking into the facility (despite her PTSD) to rescue Sayori

However Rose's story ends, she may or may not stay with Sayori. She could leave, or she could say. But she does have plans to reunite with her friends/brothers near the end.

And... As you can probably tell, at least only one of these (the first) is closest to a romantic moment. The others feel more friendship aligned by comparison. But that's just how their relationship is: They are both very inexperienced with romance and have the tendency to become awkward about it, hence they don't act on these feelings too much. Also Sayori develops the crush first, and Rose has a slow realization that she does like Sayori back.

I'm not asking for much. But those are just my thoughts.

[myrmica]

this'll probably get rehashed in a blog post at some point because i have more to say. but the thing about watchers, or any reading of the life series that takes it from "game people are willingly participating in for fun" to "fucked up situation people are trapped in by a higher power" is that the cultural imagination for death game fiction does largely fall into that second category; minecraft hunger games as a foundational part of early mc pvp tournaments is literally Minecraft Hunger Games. but these things are also usually a social critique of some kind, and to write a social critique requires a grounded world with history and governmental systems and all of this stuff that minecraft never NATURALLY has. when you play out the hunger games in minecraft it becomes a decontextualized tournament for tournament's sake. the archetecture of minecraft as a setting implies that, unless something else is clearly and intentionally set up to take it's place (for example, qsmp's federation as an in-universe entity keeping the players "trapped"), a minecraft server is a thing that people join intentionally and can leave as they please. life series is very much just minecraft. the thing that makes a "trapped by a higher power" story meaningful, its defined world and system, is absent. so the watchers as a villainous force end up feeling directionless, especially when they've traveled so far from the starting point of evo's little meta nod to the audience/early-mc herobrine allusion that mapping them onto the audience nets you... nothing really? like, "the audience controls the death game" no we don't, the players do. "the audience... likes watching the death game" yeah, because it's minecraft?

[synergysilhouette]

This'll sound wild, but I kinda want Disney Animation to make their own Kingdom Hearts movie. HEAR ME OUT.

It definitely felt like a good film to make to celebrate 100 years, but I've got several stipulations:

Rather than relying on fanservice, I'd want to focus completely on the original aspects of this. I know it's ironic for Disney to make a film based on a video game series featuring many Disney movies and remove all of them, but it's better to focus on the original characters here, given that they already have A LOT going on. I don't mind Disney references, though! (Honestly, after KH2, the series relied mostly on it's own story while the Disney worlds felt like pit stops in the main plot, so in retrospect, it'd be better to stick to original content.)

2. Sora, Riku, and Kairi would be the main characters in lieu of Sora with Donald and Goofy, while the villains would be Xehanort (who can change shape, allowing us to see him as younger versions of himself, and shapeshifting as other characters to mess with the group's minds), Marluxia, Terra, Vanitas, Xigbar, Larxene, Axel, Saix, Demyx and Luxord. The rest would simply be assistants/guards for Ansem the wise, as they were in the games before becoming nobodies. Regular monsters would not exist here, except for the Unversed, since Vanitas summons them himself, and the fact that most of O10 are nobodies. Xehanort would manipulate darkness, while the other O10 members would use their magical weapons as usual. The villain backgrounds outside of Xehanort's are explored, albeit briefly. This shouldn't be a problem; Axel/Saix, Larxene/Marluxia, Vanitas, and Terra's don't have an immense amount of details in their backstories that have to be explained. Xigbar, Demyx, and Luxord may need some extra time to explain, though. I'd also remove Namine and give Kairi her powers over memory; I'm kinda mixed about this since we have so many characters, but I did want to improve the female-to-male ratio.

3. Have Terra join Ansem of his own volition after Xehanort sends Aqua into the realm of darkness and Vanitas "kills" Ventus (he's actually been hidden away by Aqua beforehand, but Terra doesn't know this). He joins Ansem the Wise as an apprentice, furthering his research into the nature of hearts without the latter realizing his malicious intentions.

4. Give Ansem the Wise the role of Yen Sid, making him much more altruistic (and magical) than in the games. His investigation is tied with creating life and controlling others--moreso curiosity rather than actual plans to utilize it, largely encouraged by Terra in order for Xehanort to learn better how to control the hearts of others.

5. Terra serves as a cautionary tale for Riku, but Xehanort manages to break his mind and enlist him into the ranks. Unlike Terra, who sadly obeys, Riku is much controlled, becoming cruel and condescending, similar to his arc in KH1 and Sasuke Uchiha.

6. Flashbacks are given to the Wayfinder Trio, but nothing to take up too much time. Just give us the idea: they fought Xehanort, and they lost. I do like the idea that Ventus and Vanitas are his sons--well, Ventus is his son while Vanitas is the darkness taken from him and raised alongside him, until Xehanort abuses him once Xehanort kidnaps Ventus to get him away from Xehanort. It's better than expanding on the lore with the Foretellers (though I'd probably have them mentioned as the founders of the kingdom the film is set in without involving them too much), and we can still keep the reason why Vanitas looks like Sora. I'd also like their colors to be more apparent in their outfits (Ventus in green, Terra in red, and Aqua in a more vibrant blue). Plus explaining how Eraqus was Xehanort's childhood best friend until Xehanort was forced to kill him is a good way to explain how far our villain has fallen--I do want to nix Eraqus trying to kill Ven, though; instead he's the one trying to hide Ventus, before Vanitas and Xehanort intercept him. Xehanort kills Eraqus, and Aqua fends off Vanitas while she hides Ventus.

7. Neither Roxas nor Xion exist. Axel just befriends Ventus and Kairi instead. I feel like it creates more confusion (Sora has to become a nobody for Roxas to exist, and Xemnas to capture Sora in order to get his memories of Kairi to make Xion) to include them. These friendships make him question working for the Organization, hurting Saix. In fact, Vanitas and Kairi's pure hearts of light is what makes them uniquely strong against Xehanort, which is why Xehanort wants to capture them (plus to prevent Axel's swaying allegiance). Ventus is also of pivotal importance once Xehanort corrupts Aqua, as he becomes concerned that seeing him will break his control/influence over them.

8. Xehanort's goal is clear. I'm super confused in the game what he wants, and something that I'd love is his quest for equality with light and darkness; as Fairy Godmother said, "strong rays of light create long shadows." Perhaps his world is consumed in darkness, or his home was filled with light, creating disproportionate corruption in other parts of the world. Plus this is reflected in his sons, Ventus and Vanitas: Vanitas is the embodiment of darkness, while Vanitas is pure light. Plus he'd keep his ability to see into the hearts of others, explaining his interest in Ansem. I'd nix the time travel abilities, though.

9. Make it a musical. No, I'm not kidding. I love Disney musicals, and I'd love for it to have amazing original songs to go with the score. Hikaru Utada co-writing the songs would be nice.

I know a lot of people will bash this, but I hope you at least indulge me! Lemme know if you have any questions. I may tweak this later.

[itsbenedict]

get star seeker sequel adventure thing up and running and through the first case

get datasouls combat toy complete up to the first miniboss combat

catch up on TFJ recap logs

become an accredited AWS Certified Solutions Architect and get that raise my boss has been talking about for ages

get an adjustable standing desk and under-desk elliptical thingy, and otherwise get an ergonomic workstation set up

fix the light situation in the bathroom

get through The Sekimeiya and really go to town on that mystery until it’s solved

also finally play Disco Elysium

finish TFTBN character portraits

get a beatrice portrait for my poster wall

run some TPIVW games

badger the condo association landlady until she does something about the junk clogging up that basement storage room i’m supposed to own, and clean unused bulky stuff out of my house

clearly this waitlist thing isn’t working out so take some steps to see an actual doctor for the first time in like three years (and maybe get a cancer screening, or do something about that closed sinus)

get through the remaining 7 WaniKani levels

Alright, so September- mixed bag! I definitely, 100% accomplished the main difficult goal for the Datasouls combat toy, but...

Wow! I sure did... zero updates! This is mainly because the next update's another big one, since there ended up being less meat on the bones of "now that you have magic-sight, reevaluate the crime scene with the new evidence" than I thought there'd be- but I still got less done on that big update than I thought I would. It's a pretty significant failure.

I've started bolding the stuff that isn't complete yet, since the wall of strikethroughs are starting to look a lot like "oh, I did so much stuff! I'm basically done!" and I don't want to lose track of what still needs doing. Apart from the raise thing (which is kind of out of my control, what with my supervisor's limited ability to negotiate budget and the crazy reorg that's going on), there's four things left. Two are just, playing some games, and shouldn't be hard (I'll probably save The Sekimeiya for December, when I've got holiday stuff to contend with)- but the other two I've got to get serious about.

For October, I'm going to try catching up on TFJ recaps. I stopped because there was this commission series I wanted to use as art for the next update, and that's now finally coming in after a long dark time in the artist's life. There's a lot to get through, and last time I decided "this'll be my thing for the month!" I only got through 13, and there've been more sessions since then, so... could be a big lift. I'm also going to try to get least get that first big update for the new J/A phase out, if I can swing that too. (It's also going to be rough at work, since I need to catch up on the last two weeks of vacation.)

[greenhousethree]

11, 20 and 26 for Ginny....

26 with respect to Lily Potter...?

Thanks for the questions, anon! (Wheee more procrastination for meee...) Ask game here.

11. Faceclaim for the role of Ginny:

This'll be disappointing but I don't really picture a particular person for Ginny; she has a face and disposition in my head that I haven't seen and don't have the skills to artistically render. Closest would probably be, you guessed it, Luca Hollestelle. I think there's a reason she's so widely accepted as Ginny's face claim.

20. Scars:

Most of Ginny's physical scars come from growing up with six older brothers. I've mentioned the one above her belly-button from Ron's wooden sword in this fic, and I think there might be several other little ones, a few of which become bittersweet reminders of Fred (he knocked her down two flights of stairs with a flying trunk, ffs). Her first time falling off Charlie's broomstick earned her a pretty banged-up knee, too; she was so eager to climb back on that her mum didn't get around to healing it until it had scarred over. You can still see a few of those jagged lines, if you know where to look.

Ginny's lucky to not have many lasting scars from the war. She broke an ankle in the Department of Mysteries, but only needed a bit of Skele-Grow. And while she was pretty battered and bruised after the Battle of Hogwarts, most of that was temporary, too.

The big one I'll mention, I guess, is less of a surface scar and more a minor disfigurement as the result of an injury, which again is described in this fic and alluded to in Chasing. For me, it was important to represent the Carrows' physical violence that Neville references, in addition to spells and curses that can sometimes be hard to relate to as a reader, particularly at a point in the series when the Unforgivables are thrown around so callously. Magic isn't the only thing that hurts, and magic can't fix everything.

26. What would Ginny do if stuck in an elevator with Lily Potter?

Not sure what circumstances have led to this situation, but we're rolling with it...

First thing's first, Ginny's trying everything she can think of to get the lift moving again. She's not scared so much as annoyed; she stopped by the Ministry on her way to meet a friend for coffee and now she's running late, trapped between two sets of metal grills and surrounded by anti-Apparition wards.

I'm imagining Lily is some sort of spectral presence here, a la the Resurrection Stone (my toxic trait is my inability to synthesize anything AU). Still, it doesn't take Ginny long to realize who she is. Thoughts of later plans vanish, and she quits trying to transfigure the lift's ceiling into a trapdoor as she recognizes Harry's eyes.

And they talk.

Ginny asks questions, of course. The first ones that come to mind, because naturally she draws a blank about anything she's ever wondered up till now. No one expects to be caught in an elevator with their fiancé's dead mother. Do you know who I am? Do you get to watch over Harry, or something? Did you always know he'd be okay, or were you still worried about the prophecy? He still doesn't talk much about his parents. Now's her chance.

The harder part comes with Lily's questions. Is her son happy? Overall, yeah, I think. Does he take enough time for himself? Er... sort of. Does he make you happy? Do you two want kids?

They talk a bit about Teddy (Remus sends his gratitude), and then Ginny stares at her boots as Lily thanks her and bestows her resounding approval, which feels a bit odd coming from someone nearly Ginny's own age.

She promises to pass on Lily's apology for not being there, at the wedding. As if that day will really even matter, as if there haven't already been a million birthdays and holidays and Sunday afternoons Ginny would rather him have with them instead.

Magical Maintenance doesn't take too long to arrive on the scene, and by the time the lift is clattering back to the atrium Lily's gone and Ginny's wondering if she's gone funny in the head. She spends the rest of the afternoon walking along the river, bypassing the coffeeshop where she's due and wondering how she'll talk to him about it, whether he'll even believe her.

She'll regret it later, not asking about Severus or James.

[sunny-fox]

Fate Brought You To Them

Warnings: blood/gore, violence, a human(?) being hunted

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

Footsteps pounded lightly against the muddy ground of the woods. 

The shouts were increasing in proximity, along with the excited barks of hunting dogs.

“GET HER!”

“SHE’S GOT NOWHERE TO RUN!”

I’m doomed, aren’t I?

The woman panted as she ran, holding her wounded arm.

Her vision was starting to become foggy, probably an effect of the poison smeared on the arrow which was shot into her arm. The rain didn't help at all - raindrops slid down her face, her arms, her body, making her blink repeatedly to get the water out of her eyes, stinging her wounds.

Her light footsteps started to turn heavier, and she was finding it harder to move her legs as each second passed.

Tripping over her own feet, she landed on her side with a wet thump, mud staining her once snow-white clothing.

But she didn't stop.

She rolled over and over down a slope.

Gasping in shock, she squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her wings around her, which cushioned her fall successfully.

But the fall from an immense height - she had rolled straight into a trap; a huge hole with sharpened branches, probably set up by normal hunters to catch normal prey - had affected her wings instead.

She heard a sickening crack, and felt the pain shooting up her left wing. Her right wing was impaled by one of the spearlike branches instead. Forcing her watery blue eyes open, she reached to grab the huge leaves that once covered the trap.

The hunters' footsteps were approaching. She pulled each leaf over her body randomly, trying to make it seem as if an animal had accidentally triggered the trap but managed to escape before falling in.

She held her breath as the hunters stood nearby. Raindrops pattered against the leaves loudly, and she prayed that no one could hear her breathing over the noise.

"Where'd she go?!"

"We lost her!"

"She fell down somewhere over here; I'm sure of it!"

The dogs barked and sniffed here and there. She was thankful that the amount of filth and mud on her had covered her usual dandelion scent.

After what seemed like eternity later, the hunters left while arguing between themselves. She let out a shaky breath and sat upright.

She grabbed her right wing and pulled it from the branch. Quickly covering it with feathers around the wound so she wouldn't have to look at it, she turned her attention to her arm.

She'd pulled out the arrow earlier, but the poison remained in her body. She knew that the poison wasn't deadly; these twisted-minded hunters enjoyed the process of capturing their prey alive and torturing them to death. But nothing too extreme, oh no - that would ruin the purpose of hunting her.

Still, she was in danger. She looked around anxiously - hopefully no one was around - perhaps she could climb out of this trap?

As she tried to stand, her left ankle gave away beneath her, sending her crashing back onto the ground. She huffed in frustration: her ankle was injured too. Sprained, probably. She tried to stand once more, leaning on her right leg this time, but the pain in her bones was so severe that she collapsed. She curled up on her side in the trap, tears mixed with rainwater trickling down her pretty face.

Now empty of adrenaline, fatigue overcame her, threatening to pull her into the sea of unconsciousness. She barely heard people talking, leaning over the edge of the trap, peering at her.

"I'm sorry...Barbara...Alice...Klee...everyone..."

That was all she managed before she blacked out.

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

This is a crossover fic - Genshin with my OC-universe. This'll likely become a non-SAGAU series.

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Batwheels

or How to Stop Worrying and Ride with the Punchline

I remember watching the surprisingly kino Teen Titans GO! movie and getting to the scene where they have the trailers for Alfred Pennyworth and then the Batmobile. I of course snickered poshly and then continued watching the film. It was the year after when they premiered an Alfred series set in the Gotham TV universe and I went "Cool." I didn't care for either so I chuckled robotically and moved on. Then in 2020, they announced a Batmobile kids cartoon and the joke stopped being funny. First, the world descends into madness faster, and now we were getting BATWHEELS?! COMING VROOM?!?!?! Felt like I became the joke because I had to know what it would be like. So it's the current year and this was finally released on Cartoonito. What do I think of it? It's actually pretty fire.

Didn't think we'd get two nickels worth of good cars content this year

To preface, yeah this is more for preschoolers but thankfully it's more family-friendly since it's just entertaining you with crime-fighting adventures. I say it's like a Hot Wheels show that has the vibes of Batman: Brave and the Bold. It works like it feels stupid at first but they run with it; it's like 60s Batman or the Lego Batman Movie where things can get serious but it doesn't have to be serious. It's best to watch the first episode to get the origin story which explains how the cars become sentient. Otherwise, the titular Batwheels work like the Batfamily and it's an enjoyable romp about teamwork, leadership, and getting tricky. Speaking of which...

This series looks amazing like hell yes Neon Gotham

The coloring, character designs, and animation of this are phenomenal. I love the use of 2D particle effects and how the vehicles are able to be expressive. We don't reach Pixar levels of uncanny but aren't just static either. Some goofy ass nerd'll go "Oh, this is just to sell toys" and I'd honestly say "Fuck yeah" because the human and vehicle characters look on point. If you're gonna sell a product, make it worth the purchase. I don't know if this'll go beyond a couple seasons unless they expand the roster but I can see kids loving the look of all this. My only issue... is Joker. He looks zoomerfied, dressed like a bedazzled goober, and is the worse looking out of everyone.

This ain't Joker bro, this is The Jickler #NoJoke

I like how this is both about the vehicles finding their place as heroes and the human heroes you know doing their job. We get a surprisingly diverse cast like it's the first time seeing Duke Thomas Robin on screen. Ethan Hawke works well as Bats, though he's not Will Arnett I'm sorry. The show's probably limiting since it's about cars, but they knew better than to just make this Batman™ except everyone's a car for some reason. The cars don't upstage the heroes and villains, it manages to be a great introduction to the Batman universe. I dunno, something goofy like this surprises me in being a competent, fun-loving action cartoon that makes me forget the turmoil I've been having lately about superhero content. Just saying, the last time I said the word "capeshit", ten angels cried and this series is like the fresh air I needed since Peacemaker.

Takes me back to the Bat Credit Card days anew

This and Hamster & Gretel do good in being superhero shows that work more than expected. I admittedly am tired of Batman being everywhere like when will Green Lantern have his turn again? At the same time, this is cooler than I figured. If you told me in 3rd grade we were gonna have a Batmobile cartoon, I would laugh in your face. If you told me this before 2020 happened, I would still laugh. Now that we're here... I have to kneel. I was gonna point this a 7 or 8 out of 10 cuz you know it's a simple, fun time; good for Saturday mornings. You know what though? For actually sticking the landing and proving me as a naysayer wrong...

9 out of 10; A Motorized Marvel

[scribe-of-maat]

Ranking EVERY Demigod PJatO Introduced

We know literally nothing about this kid except Percy thinks he's one of the most troublesome Ares kids. Would've been interested to see him actually do anything but since that never happens, at the very bottom of the list he sits.

We know slightly more about Castor than Mark, which is why he's only slightly higher than him. I really think Castor had potential to be interesting; Percy describes him and his brother as pretty capable fighters but we don't even find out this dude's name until AFTER he dies.

Phoebe actually gets characterization - she's pretty tough but a poor judge of character. If she'd actually gotten to go on the joint campers and Hunters quest she'd easily have ranked higher, but she basically disappears from the narrative until it's time for Rick to kill her off, and since we don't care about her, she gets this spot.

I doubt this'll be TOO controversial, but even though Jake seems like a pretty standup guy, he's just SO. BORING. He's Charles Beckendorf's replacement once that mainstay gets hit by the Black Dude Dies First trope but he's just kind of here to be shown up by every other Hephaestus kid who gets introduced. The only particularly interesting thing about him is that he's recently been Dumbledore'd.

This guy only recently got the barest amount of characterization in The Tower of Nero. He seems to be your typical Athena kid, so he's only really here because he still exists in the narrative and could potentially be more interesting in the future now that's he's been Dumbledore'd in The Sun and the Star.

Compared to everyone else so far, we know QUITE a lot about Sherman, surprisingly. He's incredibly rowdy, probably the meanest Ares kid now that Mark and Clarisse are gone and he's got a girlfriend so clearly he's not all bad. But still, the only actual pagetime Sherman's makes him out to be a typical Ares kid, so we'll have to see if there's anything more interesting there.

Pollux is another low-scoring character we know quite a bit about. He feels bad about his brother's death, he's a good fighter and he's got to be pretty capable all around to have survived to adulthood as a demigod (he's 18 in The Last Olympian). But Pollux seems to only exist as a way to humanize Dionysus. There's substance here, but as he hasn't reappeared, and in the canon of the series he's pretty much aged out of godly camping, he'll likely never return to the limelight to get any more love.

Here it is. The nuclear hot take. The Sun and the Star was the death knell for Will's character in my eyes. If Oshiro had opted to make Will the deuteragonist a la Sadie, he'd be much, much higher as we'd have been forced to see things from his perspective for longer than a few paragraphs every chapter and thusly they would have had to actually make him interesting. As it stands, Will has thousands more words dedicated to him than anyone else this low... but it's regarding his relationship, NOT him as a character. 400 pages later and we barely know anything about him other than he likes kissing Nico and enjoys being a living accessory to his boyfriend. He's just not interesting.

Next up is the second of the four named Apollo campers introduced to us in TLO. Austin is pretty interchangeable with the next rank on the list, but we know exactly as much about Austin as we do about Will (you KNOW it's true) but Austin is younger and thusly might actually get to be interesting in a future book if Will ever ages out.

The third named Apollo camper TLO gave us. Kayla outranks Will and Austin because we know exactly as much about each of them but she was the first one to canonize the long-held fanon that gods can obviously have children with mortals of the same sex because duh. I LOVED this development because it blows the doors off of what we know about the world. Imagine having two dads in 1890s Camp Half-Blood? Also she's younger than Will and has a longer time to potentially become interesting in her own right.

What little we see of Katie is - say it with me now - interesting. Extremely so. She's got a rivalry against the Stolls (for a very stupid reason, but hey) and she isn't afraid of voicing her opinions even if it may be the cause of discord. You get the feeling that she's a victim of Rick's laissez-faire attitude toward his canon since she's shown up since Miranda took over the Head Counselorship so who knows what's going on with our girl.

Michael is the fourth Apollo kid introduced in The Last Olympian. Obviously we know he amounts to another Cabin Seven camper offered up on the pyre of Rick wanting there to be stakes. We know very little about Michael canonically. We know he's short, which is kind of cool because that's rarely seen in YA guys his age, we know he's pretty mature, willing to give up his spoils so Clarisse will actually fight in the war with them, and dude is about that life to the end.

Lee quite literally came out of nowhere in The Battle of the Labyrinth, and the guy had so much potential to be an incredibly fun character. He's shown to be courageous enough to lead his own missions and isn't even afraid of dragons, can stand side-by-side with Clarisse of all people and is, obviously, an amazing archer. But of course he's only introduced to be killed off and give BotL some stakes. We may have been robbed, but for a glorious moment we were rich.

Chris is a minor character but is easily one of the most fleshed-out and developed characters in the entire PJatO series, and we barely see him! Doomed to madness by investigating the Labyrinth, he's rescued and eventually becomes Clarisse's beau. There's so much potential for intriguing exploration of this guy but even though he's definitely left godly camping behind there's plenty of depth here.

We're roughly halfway through the list, and here's Luke nearly bringing up the rear. I think Luke's biggest minus in my eyes is that he feels perfunctory as an antagonist. The coolest thing about him is his betrayal of Percy at the end of TLT for the prophecy twist. Luke fails on so many levels for me: he's not menacing, because he never beats Percy in combat when it matters and it's revealed he's actually afraid of Percy. He's not an obstacle to Percabeth because he's a literal adult the entire series and a bunch of people have to die before he learns one of the biggest evildoers in Greek myths is... a bad guy. Backbiter's awesome, though.

If Bianca hadn't been fridged, she could've gone to so many more places as a character. After being parentified since she was Elementary School-aged, her making an incredibly selfish decision for her own sake was sooo delicious. Ultimately, and sadly, she was the prototype for Jason in that her only real lasting impression on the story was the effect her death had on other characters.

Nico's powerful. He's traumatized. But for me, it was his friendship with Percy and his finding his own way as a young, untrained half-blood that was his most interesting point in time. Nico was Percy who turned his back on Camp Half-Blood at a time when it was most crucial to him, and as Nico became more and more open and bonded more and more, his character has been in this sort of weird position, where sometimes the narrative treats him like he's edgy and other times he's got a Damian Wayne coming-out-of-his-shell sort of rapport with whoever he happens to be speaking with at the time.

Silena's biggest downside is that we barely get any time between the reveal that she's a traitor and her death. The whole time she's pretty much a nice Aphrodite kid we know her as and basically nothing else. Still, there's a very interesting story there if we ever get to have it explored. She had to have been tortured on the inside for years. I do dislike how it's implied she was attracted to Luke, though.

One half of the most fun duo in the original series. Connor loses points for me because he acts like his funny bone broke the moment his brother went off to college in the sequel series. If Rick wanted to pass the torch to Alice and Julia he could've been a bit less blatant about it. But still, Connor is a quintessential Hermes kid and oozes personality.

Rick's adherence to a seasonal timetable is easily why Thalia loses out for me. We jump from her being resurrected in the final pages of SoM to her simply being One Of The Gang by the opening of TC. Obviously she gets a whole book to have her character shown off to us, and she's pretty cool, but Thalia's character is frozen as Lieutenant of Artemis for the foreseeable future.

His death hits the hardest in the series. He was a heroic character the entire time who didn't die in the same book he was introduced, and even though he was a victim of Black Dude Dies First AND The Worf Effect, everyone remembers his sacrifice. Plus, if you read the companion books, it's obvious Percy and Beckendorf are much closer than the limited timeframe of the books show. After all, Beckendorf knew about Percy's crush on Annabeth; the ONLY person aside from maybe Grover up until the end of TLO.

Travis is one of the most fully-realized demigods we're introduced to in the series. Like his brother, he's an incredibly capable half-blood, skilled with the gifts his godly parentage imbues him with, a good fighter in his own right, an amazing sense of humor with being the life of the party AND he was no doubt all of that in his personal life on top of being smart enough to get into college.

Wise Girl herself. You may be surprised that she isn't number one or two on this list, but I still like her a lot. Annabeth is a unparalleled in her resourcefulness and ingenuity even if she's one of the least powerful demigods that we follow. She gets to shine so effectively because we can count on her to carve out things for herself rather than needing contrived reasons for someone who can hit harder to get out of her way first.

Percy is an amazing character. Funny, strong, friendly, you couldn't find a better hero than him. We spend so much time in his head, feeling things the way he does, seeing things the he does, you can't dislike this guy. But yeah, he's not my favorite. Honestly, it may be overexposure. As more and more novels, our plot armored, untouchable ultimate good guy shows up more and more often. With there being fewer and fewer places for his character to go, it becomes less and less interesting to see him.

Number Two is Clarisse. I'll never forget being in Middle School and reading The Lightning Thief and seeing that Percy's bully was a girl. As a young teen non-reader, this was mind-blowing. Clarisse was COOL. And my favorite, most unexpected part of The Sea of Monsters was the quest actually being hers. She was such a well-rounded character, even if her choice to let Kronos take over the world over unseen "disrespect" felt INCREDIBLY contrived, I still love her.

My favorite demigod introduced in the PJatO era is Ethan Nakamura. Everything I loved about Chris I adore in Ethan. This guy had so much story to him and is one of the only characters who you could write a book series parallel to Percy's series about and have it be gripping. Ethan's never presented as a serious challenge martially to Percy so he avoids that particular pitfall of Luke, and he's a sharper example of the gods' being uncaring causing their kids to turn against them. He's just another demigod with no grander purpose fighting on the wrong side.