#ugh but the thematic canonical themes are SO PRETTY

[ccyans]

AS fanfiction is such a bad idea the most I’ll write is 2.5 character studies and like. 3 SUPER DUPER obscure crossovers. Why are my fingers twitching for the keyboard anyways.

[fatebreaking-a]

Tagged by : I am a thief. ( Stolen from @starthieve​ ) Tagging : steal it from me.

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

( I will not, I will pick all my muses, how dare- I’ll leave everything except this blog + my other Sona blog out, for length’s sake.) long post, so it’s under the cut.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES-ish / NO. ( people who like her like her, and people who don’t... really don’t. )

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — lol. I take inspiration from canon, let’s put it that way.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  Your local patron saint of lost causes, a heroic entity who has overcome betrayal and judgement to become an existence that can save the world. Also she’s tall and strong and hot and nice, what more could you want? Huh? You want more than being hugged by a 6′4″ lady??? Sona can also be in various countries, and can participate very easily in fluff, angst, and all sorts of other types of threads.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  Lots of angst and drama, a bit of a loner with a distant vibe. Having no etwahl and not playing music kills the interest and ‘usual interactions’ for a lot of people, and being mute & not jumping to telepathy can make threads dry and slow. Being a ‘sexy boob lady’ ( u g h ) also has painted her in a certain light - I’ll never forget that someone said that ‘ofc everyone ships with Sona, she’s the village bicycle.’ I’ve made her exceptionally strong ( almost overpowered ), and that doesn’t jive with people sometimes - shoving in all these themes that I personally like and crafting an interesting story of a divine / demonic seer witch who doesn’t know what to do with herself, is finally ‘too strong’, and finds power distasteful... The themes can be a little depressing and cold, even when she acts nice. And seeing “Even though she feels nothing, she still acts nice” in character can feel... tiring. A mute is not an easy person to write with, and I don’t shy away from trying to give the impression that ‘waiting for Sona to communicate can be tiring’ - because I want my readers and mutuals to feel the kinds of things she goes through everyday. While I try to make the blog accessible, Sona has a speech disability, and that can be tiring.

Also that she doesn’t act like a fancy noble... I don’t know. I feel like the way that I write her is very, very different to the fandom’s impression of her, and that leaves people disillusioned. “This isn’t what I expected or signed up for.” She’s just not that person... And because she doesn’t speak, a lot of prompts are off limits. I’ve also recently reset because I wanted to emphasize that she is patient, grim, and secretive while still being kind. I’ve toned down her tendency for mischief a lot, she used to be an absolute gremlin.

A lot of these things also apply to my other Sona blog ( @virtuous-dignity​ ), where she is extremely structured and self-confident and a bit of a recluse, so while she’s much much nicer, she’s also a complete hardass. It’s rough stuff, especially since I make sure to point out, “hey this Sona practices music over 8 hours every day.” “Hey this Sona finds it morally wrong to play music for small audiences.” There are certain traits that just cut ideas in the bud.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  I played Sona a lot in bot lane. Multiple years of sexist remarks, shitty writing, and bad characterization made me frustrated. A lot of things were left unexplained and the etwahl felt like too much of a focus that I could not answer, “who is Sona besides a musician with a fancy instrument”. She has to be someone, right? But we never get to that in the story ( nor in the apparent upcoming lore rework either... ). She has to be someone, her being a famous musician is not everything. So I forcibly tossed aside the music part, especially to also prevent accidentally being pulled into ‘your music is so pretty’ plots. Plus: I wanted to write a character with an internal conflict who was going through some things but wanted to be nice anyway - I believe in that idea a lot. And I wanted to write a character that, tbh, could ship and flirt and just... be flirty and easy going more ( hah! didn’t work out so great now! ). My first canon characters were a ‘left by the void Malz’ dealing with his sins and Ori, who I talk about below, and neither were really great for getting that flirty vibe out. I also really wanted to emphasize that... Well, to be blunt, that if I wrote Sona as sexually promiscuous, that wasn’t a bad thing. That ‘being sexy’ and ‘sex positive’ did not equal ‘objectified tiddy witch’ and ‘perfect candidate for oppai mouse pad’ and other things I’ve heard directed at me in my league experience. Many, many things. Ugh. It kind of did end up turning into a thing where Sona herself draws an interesting line between ‘haha I can tell everyone’s looking at me with those eyes and it’s the fucking worst’ and ‘ok but I trust you and am in bed with you, so I want you to grab me’ - but that’s getting more into ns/fw topics so I’ll leave it there. 

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  All my characters tend to be expressions of myself, as well as answering important thematic questions, like “What does it mean to be rejected by your home and no longer have a place”, and some other stuff. I usually go back to that. Plus, exploring concepts around abandonment and loneliness is something I do a lot with her - feelings of neglect and disillusionment, and ideas surrounding “do I need to like someone or be liked by someone to treat them with dignity”. ( virtuous-dignity, on the other hand, was created because I wanted to write something as soft and uwu as possible, and then it turned into something about ‘balancing dignity for oneself with duty to others’ and handling those kinds of conflicts. )

I also really do enjoy, on some level, turning people around on these characters. “You made me care about character x” is such high praise.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. ( idk, how many of you think robots are hot- )

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. ( I think people downplay Ori’s intelligence a lot, but Riot also casually implied she did open heart surgery on herself so??? )

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — hahahahahahaha. hah. hah. Sorry. Everything I write is divergent by default.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  A genius inventor and cute spherical robot duo who speak to other robots and shoot lightning, run around acting cute, and try to save their city one step at a time - all while dealing with deep existential dread and fighting off a fate that decrees Ori’s death. Between ‘pancake bot’ and Ori being an accidental flirt, there’s plenty of variety and development here as my oldest canon muse. Not to mention that the blog ‘grows’ and ‘changes’, and in the last year, Ori has taken to dying her hair pink ( because Vi is cool is why, just don’t let her near a rifle or she’ll try to imitate Cait ). I also regularly think about / draw different hairstyles and clothing styles. Ori is very much ‘alive’, the most so out of the three muses on this blog. A human that has the memories of being a robot, trying to live on and live a good life. Also, there are bird, angel, and time themes. So many clocks. Mega clocks!

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  Deep angst and existential dread, because she knows her fate is to die and she’s cheated time. Themes of dysphoria and other troubling topics abound. Being stuck in time loops, thinking she’s an aberration, needing crutches because her legs stop working, etc.

Also, removing the fact that she is a robotic automaton is a bunch of the appeal of Ori. Or well, it’s what makes her character ‘interesting and unique’ to many. Without that, she is ‘yet another Zaunite’, as the thing that made her most interesting was her death and rebirth. ( Nevermind that her entire story is that she’s a selfless person but- I’m supposed  to act like she’s bad, right? )

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  Hey remember when institute of war was a thing? And then when it wasn’t? And Ori’s lore was “died to a turret shot trying to be a champion”... and then it was up in the air for two years?

That’s why. If no one else will love her, I will. She deserves better. And then the lore became close to my lore so I rewrote everything a second time trying to stick to the themes I had.

Ori’s thematic question is, “What do you do when you don’t recognize yourself anymore? How do you get back to ‘okay’ and what do you do from there?” It’s a pretty dim question that has a lot to do with body image, but also to do with abandonment and neglect, and  just dropping out of people’s lives. I think that’s something that people can really relate to. I originally wrote her on a multi with a ‘post void Malz’, who was dealing with the trauma of being puppeted around for years and all the things he had done, trying to get back to ‘okay’ without getting killed. More below:

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  Themes as noted above, Ori is super cute, and a lot of my art & general ideas. I’ve kind of turned these three characters in borderline OCs and keep developing them as they grow... Sometimes I think the stories and concepts I’ve written have outgrown the fandom. And thinking about her, and how she would live, and what her story is... mmm.

Also, the themes I write... I think they matter. Maybe it’s not obvious to anyone but myself, but writing a character who feels dysphoria and hates their body for ‘betraying them’... is relatable. It’s not nice. It’s not simple. But it’s relatable and it matters. Ori’s theme on this blog has a lot to do with “fighting a fate that says you’re going to lose and defying expectations” as well as “coming back from something wicked and rotten in your psyche/body”. And I do write some other skin verses for her but they’re all adapted to meet that theme. ( For example, in SG, she rises to guardian after finding out she’s fated to become a dark star and fights that fight alone, because ‘hell no she’s not going to go dark’. This was 5+ years ago back when there were theories SG and DS were same universe. )

Mostly it’s writing about these themes of expectation and reality. Overprotective parent, absentee parent, dealing with trauma... All my writing is like that. It can make my characters seem overly tragic, yes, but these ideas are not so far gone that they’re completely irrelevant and beyond belief. I’m sure many people have experienced emotional exhaustion and problems with body image. Even though I do write ‘polite but ready to fight’ characters only... Well, I believe in exploring and expressing these kinds of problems. Inner conflict and all. But also fluff! Fluff is really nice! Talk to her about pancake robot.

I also really do enjoy, on some level, turning people around on these characters. “You made me care about character x” is such high praise.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. ( post rework??? oh my god )

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. ( hard to consider ‘martial’ characters strong when Xer/ath and Syn/dra exist )

Are they underrated?  YES / NO. ( she’s a little overrated, isn’t she?  )

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / MAYBE ?

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — I still draw from old lore with her big four blades of doom and ‘reviving’ with the help of Raka ( though I leave it vague / easy to gloss over ). I also had a lot of ideas about music and rhythm and tradition before the update ( drums were a big thing for her, so strong percussive beats and motions reign over the more silk and ribbon dances that flow more, drawing on things like Zelos existing, Lito’s lessons & harsh behavior, and her own internalized habits of trying to calm herself ), so I draw on those a ton. For me, the progression is ‘classic’ -> ‘infiltrator / nightblade ‘ -> ‘aviator’ all as one timeline. Also wrote her as being ‘missing in action’, which makes the awaken cinematic weird. I also really try to emphasize that she’s an emotionally stunted wardog with scars and not ultra pretty, so.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  A world traveler and a wardog, you can find her anywhere, any time, ready to kick some butt and enjoy the local food. Her simmering fury is a counterpoint to her relatively muted demeanor and adventurous spirit. However you may find her, there’s a definite charm to being flown up above the clouds to watch a sunset and talk. She will fly you where you need to be.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  I’m a little stuck on old lore and writing Lia as a character that has “left behind” her past and is pretending to be dead does make certain interactions tough. She’s also a deeply stunted character, emotionally, and I write her ten years of experience as having chilled her to a cold, ever burning ember rather than a passionate flame. Also, ‘aviator’ is kind of weird to handle for a lot of people.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  This one is really simple. When this blog started, the only splash where Irelia was smiling was the aviator splash. That’s it. That as the whole reason. “I want her to be happy and have found her happiness.”

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  I will admit that Lia is the character that I give the least attention to out of these three, and part of it is because I don’t really do flirting or shipping with her as much. She’s not one to reach out to others, and there are a lot of popular Lia blogs to the point that when I, as a multi, write with someone... She probably isn’t the first pick.

But I just... want her to be happy. That’s it. As I mentioned with the Ori section, what I’ve worked out for her has kind of outgrown the fandom itself, she’s become a different entity. Her themes largely involve recovery and finding oneself anew, and writing a character that is passionate about others while still being cool-headed is some of the variety I need. Because Lia is ace/homosexual, she sits out on a lot of the flirty content, but the chances I get to write her being romantic and caring... my god. Just a few posts back and forth with @unholyshe​ ‘s Akali and a So/na I used to write with....... Unforgettable. ( On that note go follow @unholyshe​ what a good writer, gosh dang. ) It’s these small interactions I find intensely compelling, and having a ‘quiet intensity’ and really thinking about her body language...

Also it’s nice to write a character with little secret agenda, who is just straightforward. “Will I enjoy kissing you? Only one way to find out. ‘It was okay.’ “ A ‘the only way forward is through, just do it’ attitude is refreshing.

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

Learning to write all three characters helps me write the others: The little things I think about that are specific to each person really help me out for the others. The depth of using body language from Sona bleeds into how Lia uses body language, and how Ori doesn’t ( even common ticks ), etc etc. Ori’s blunt, observational style of speaking ( telling you that you look good like it’s an observational fact ) helps me understand how to be straightforward with Lia.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES …? / NO. ( sometimes I do get very anxious abt it, esp. since I’m so divergent and do things like ‘so/na is one part succubus lol’ )

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO. ( do excerpts count? less headcanons and more musings, since I’m on like 5+ years with 2/3 of these. )

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO. ( time is not a thing but I used to write a ton, my drabble energy goes to novels now )

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO. ( this is why you see mobile posts from me constantly, and so many excerpts / musings ).

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. ( It’s what I want but it can also be disillusioning / disappointing to people so. Dunno. Anxiety. =/  )

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. ( It takes me a bit to warm up to a character again, but yes. I know my writing is not bad but I can be a little insecure about it. )

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. ( Very. I cry a lot and I get upset pretty easily. Sometimes I end up being really cold instead but idk. )

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  — To a point. Sometimes criticism is irrelevant or meaningless, or is just personal taste. “Sona shouldn’t be that strong” isn’t helpful ( but thinking about ways to pare down the complexity is good! ) Sometimes I get criticism that is the equivalent of tasting a chocolate cake and going, “It should have been vanilla, I like vanilla better.” That’s cool, but that has nothing to do with the taste of the chocolate cake I made. ( Ori as a human isn’t interesting, talk more about Sona & the etwahl even though it’s broken, Lia flying doesn’t make sense, etc - these are foundational flavors, so what can I do? ).

Also sometimes people make comments that make me feel they’re just being petty / catty and not sincere. I’ve seen quite a few hypocritical comments and it’s hard to take them seriously. So, yes, but ‘to a point’... Mostly I take suggestions, which I then talk about for the muse. Exploring those ideas. Unsolicited criticism is... hmm. In my experience, about half of it isn’t constructive. And from the wrong person, it can sound judgemental. 

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  — Of course? I love asks. Always. Great. Awesome. If I have a chance to draw to answer these asks, even better.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  Not really. I’m divergent, they probably disagree because they have a different vision for the character. I’ll be honest here and say I’ve had enough people tell me that “my portrayals are not what they expected” that this can be... disheartening. I usually have a good reason for 80% of my hcs. If we’re talking in IMs though or just conversing, I’m totally fine with it. This comes back to unsolicited criticism - to be a little blunt, some people just straight up don’t know what they’re talking about. And given that I put a bunch of effort in trying to make sure most of my headcanons can be glossed over, so it doesn’t cause conflict and my ‘ultra grim take’ doesn’t cause the end times... I dunno. I’d rather that someone tell me “the kind of interactions they want”, so I can lean into that direction. If you just want fluff, I can leave most of my darker hcs for So/na at the door... But you need to tell me that, so I can work with you. 

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  — just leave? huh? I mean, I already know people disagree. If you’re not rude, then we’ll just move on and be chill. Otherwise... well, we won’t be chill and you can still go, but I’ll consider you a dick. I don’t expect everyone to agree with “Ori is a human”, but why bring that up to me?

This is why a lot of the time, when people talk about characters and my muses, my brain defaults to “Well that has nothing to do with me.” Why should I invest any time being upset that people are disappointed with my portrayal or I’m not what they expected. It’s exhausting. People have some really strong opinions about Lia and Sona sometimes, but... ‘that has nothing to do with me.’ There’s no point in trying to convince someone to try your flavor of ice cream when they’ve already decided what flavor and toppings they want. It just leads to tremendous insecurity. I should not have to argue that ‘my portrayal is worth paying attention to’. 

Ugh. I might be too sensitive about this. There was a point where people really got in the habit of saying, “this is how character x is” ( not their muse ), and it felt like someone trying to enter my kitchen. It did not feel like a suggestion or an idea. It was an assertive, “this is how Irelia is” by, say... a Ry/ze or Ken/nen blog or something. That felt extremely isolating and alienating to me, because it felt like I could not participate in that conversation at all. Or stuff after. I had to sideline myself, because... that has nothing to do with me or my interpretations. Ofc griping at them is wrong because I know they mean, ‘this is how I see it’, but ye. I’m short tempered and easily upset. Working on it.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  — um? bye? hello?

god I used to go “ ok that’s cool you don’t like my portrayal, here are some other great So/na blogs that I love” but I realized that I was directing someone who felt the need to tell me my portrayal or character is bad to those people... and no. no no no. I still feel a little guilty about it, because thinking I directed a toxic person to my duplicates...  yuck.

If you don’t like the characters, or you don’t like my divergent takes, that’s fine. I get it’s not for everyone. Just unfollow me. You’re not paying me. You’re not under any obligation. To an extent, i don’t mind being critical of the character, but there’s a difference between being critical and being hateful to someone’s muse? And it depends a lot on how close I am with a person. For example, I think Sy/las is a complete scumbag and I hate him, but I don’t go yelling that to every Sy/las blog I see. C’mon.

Another bit of salt but it’s... kind of a sad topic, really. There are some characters people love to hate, whereas other ones get the ‘protection squad’. And in general it’s really disheartening to see someone shittalk Lux every two weeks, but go ‘these other champs are off limits’. If you have that attitude, it makes me think you’ll shittalk my characters the moment they get popular ( COUGHIRELIACOUGH ) and that’s kind of sad. And mean. So general advice on this is: Probably just don’t tell someone you hate their muse, you know? Idk. Everyone has their own tolerance level too so. meh.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  Somewhat.  Not much to say here, sometimes I am very tired, sometimes I comma splice like a madman, sometimes I overuse hyphen dashes to avoid deciding whether to use a comma, period, or semicolon - like this. I don’t need an editor. English is my first language. But if there’s something egregious or you have tips, let me know? I’m someone who looks up grammar rules regularly, and breaks teh rules just as regularly. Knowing when and how to break grammar rules is useful. Though I do tend to... overuse something once I’ve learned it. Hyphen dash, I’m looking at you.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   — Yes and no. I’m chill, I can be a little overly passionate, and I’m pretty quick to apologize... But I have certain moral standards and if you break those, you’re done. Also I can be a vengeful bastard. I try to give as much benefit of the doubt as I can and many chances, but I’ve noticed that I really... have a sour attitude towards a lot more people than I expect. Sometimes people who are very well liked, just because they said or did something that ticked me off. Luckily, I have the special skill of not being a jerk even if I don’t like you, and overall trying to be nice to most people, so it usually won’t matter. 

Ah and I can be a little selective in who I talk to / play favorites a bit. I’m a busy person with an adult life and a stressful job, I only have so much patience. I skip from “tolerating it” to “leaving”, and that can seem like I ghosted, but that’s not always the case. Just better to leave than to pick fights. I have some pretty strict standards and harsh opinions. Short temper. Vengeful. Alas.

Somehow people think I am very nice and baby, so take that for what you will. Pft. I just want people to be happy and feel comfortable and okay. Wrong is wrong, blah blah blah ok I stop now.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

( If you managed to read all this, with 3 full muses... Let me know, I want to hug you??? )

[glassmenagerieofmusesarc]

Book vs. Movie

Oh well some people want me to explain my IT muses canon. I guess I will go most to least book canon. This is likely to get long so there will be a cut also this is in no way intended to make people who haven’t read feel lesser, it’s just how I personally balance the various versions in my own writing:

Bill: Bill is pretty exclusively book canon for me. I don’t really like what the movie did with Georgie just being missing--it really changes the dynamic with him and his friends. They also seem to be pushing for him to be more of an artist than a writer and I’m not a fan of that... I also don’t like that in the movie the group turns against him. I get that it was meant to be thematic like “Pennywise is getting to them” but it goes against one of the most fundamental themes in the book--the Losers LOVE each other! In the book they all trust Bill implicitly all the time and he’s de facto leader not because he lost his brother and is the one who is obsessed with IT but because he brings everyone together and watches out for all the others. It is literally canon that all of the Losers had a crush on him at some point... When I write him with people who follow movie canon, I will accept if they want their characters to be mad because I can’t control them but Bill’s brother was dead. There was a body with no arm and a funeral and his parents just forgot he existed. All of that is so important to making him a sympathetic character. I won’t accept anything besides that tbh.

Stan: Stan is largely book canon as well. I don’t care about the painting scene even though it is a good/interesting representation of his inner fears. I prefer the Stand Pipe for reasons that would need to be its own post/rant/novel. With that said... Wyatt does an excellent job with his body language and behaviors in the film. I think he does the closest job to portraying the novel’s version of the character. The small things like him leaving his bike stand up or cleaning the window at Bev’s in a perfect pattern ugh... he’s so good. I do wish they had brought up his birds but I recognize that when you cut the most important scene in the book (bitter much here) you also lose the significance of prioritizing that hobby. Although I do have Stan more aware of being Jewish and what it means than the book often implies, we’re just gonna ignore this idea he’s the most Jewish boy in school with a Rabbi for a dad because--no. Don’t. I have the strongest feelings about this mix of book/film canon because Stan is honestly the most important to me (and yet who hasn’t written him in weeks????)

Mike Hanlon: I mostly changed things from book canon for Mike based on historical specificity. I like the updated timeline aspect and am more comfortable writing in an 80s-00s social climate so I’ve adopted some of the film changes like him being home schooled. I think it’s important to explain his personality as the more timid and withdrawn in a social climate that is less aggressively racist (not that the 80s was perfect or that much better but segregation was over in most places). With that said, you can drag Will Hanlon from my cold dead hands. His family is so good in the book, especially his dad. Whatever they were attempting in the movie was a half-baked failure. Additionally, his experience in the Kitchener Iron Works is super important to both the plot and him personally so that stays. I also will not downplay the amount of research he did... everything Ben so easily pulled out of the library out of boredom took him FOUR YEARS to collect as a set of Oral Histories from all across Derry. I think it’s horrible the movie took that away from him... He is amazing and dedicated and THE researcher, thanks.

Richie Tozier: Richie is the character closest to the film canon for me for a few good reasons and a few not so good reasons. We’ll start with the not so good reasons. One, I’m not good at writing younger Richie in book canon at all. It took reading through adult Richie for me to connect with him as a character and I still prefer to write adult Richie generally. I get him, I can imitate him. I am less good at knowing the amount of intensity for younger Richie at any given moment. Two, the jokes he makes in the movies are easier to write so I fall back on some of the cheaper laughs (dick and fart type stuff) sometimes because I am not a comedian and I am lazy and not clever. 

So ... those are the bad reasons... I do have good reasons that partially balance out my laziness. One, book Richie’s comedy is SOOO painfully outdated. I have my Richie do voices sometimes but I try to steer clear of those that are culturally insensitive (which is more than half of them) and I tend towards more pop culture reference voices much like it seems they will in Chapter 2 based on the Jade of the Orient scene. Even his cheesier one-off jokes are just groan worthy now-a-days so I see little wrong with tending towards more crude modern takes. Two, one of my BIG problems with the movie’s portrayal of Richie’s sense of humor is how cruel it is. He puts other people down and that’s just... not what he would ever do. SO he is also more self-deprecating in my canon to balance that out. Richie is annoying for sure but not an asshole. Eddie is the only person I would ever have him personally pick at that way and only because of his crush. 

The other big difference for me from film “canon” (although it’s just from interviews and shit?!?!) is the idea that Richie’s family is neglectful or abusive in some way. I like his family SOOOO much in the book. It’s like a fucking episode of Leave it to Beaver there. I think his parents are great and that that stability is also why he’s the one most immune to believing in the strangeness for quite a while (This is also a big difference from the film--he is not afraid of clowns, really nothing in particular and also steadfastly believes that none of what happened is real). So my Richie will always be confused if someone is like but you’re afraid of clowns... no more than anything else really. He’s a loyal, brashly brave child and I love him for that. My favorite book scene is when he is the only one who stays after Bill gets emotional about Georgie and he does his best in his own haphazard way to comfort him. That’s the core of the character right there.

[zenosanalytic]

Crimes Unto Heaven

 MMmmmmOk so

This is A Gag

to be clear(tbc, fyi)[1].

I don’t actually think the Hiveswap team is attempting to cover-up TERRIBLE ZODIAC CRIMES to protect themselves from the Star Police and avoid Astrajail or anything, and obvsl they can structure the EZ however they like since the Zodiac’s been Public Domain for 3000 years, and their Extended additions are their creations. And, while I don’t take it terribly seriously, it’s Fun! Which: Yay. But, I noticed some seeming-discrepancies when looking it over to write a “My Thoughts” response to @witchknights on the EZ, and the idea of running those down a wee bit and writing about them was Also Fun, so I’m Doing This o_o I’m Making This Happen(Requisite(TM)) o_o o_o

My original idea was to get superdetailed about it and explain everything, but then I started taking SCREENCAPS of The Star Grid(this is what I’m calling The Symbol List), and each individual Sign so I could group them all into their various CATEGORIES to illustrate my arguments(:| :|), and then I said to myself “ok this is ridiculous, you don’t have that kind of time, your screencapper can’t isolate fragments on the MSPA page for some reason, it doesn’t seem like you can save custom-sized/shaped selection tools in Paint3D, and you are beiNG RIDICULOUS!” so instead I’m going to just write up the basic patterns I noticed(which prob aren’t all the ones in there, given Hussie), their seeming-violations, and their possible implications, according to Me. You -Our Dear, Sweet, Dear, Dear, Sweet Readers- can imagine the visuals if you like, though, I have no problem with this I am Very Gracious[2] vuv

EZ Rules

Each sign-class has two associated suffixes(they’re also associated with the Aspect of the canon troll of that sign. Possible Sign Pun? Can mean Both??): one for Prospit, one for Derse. The List:

Aries(Time): -ries, D; -rist, P.

Taurus(Breath): -un, D; -us, P.

Gemini(Doom): -mini, D; -mino, P.

Cancer(Blood): -cen, D; -cer, P.

Leo(Heart): -o, D; -lo, P.

Virgo(Space): -ga, D; -go, P.

Libra(Mind): -za, D; -ra, P.

Scorpio(Light): -pia, D; -pio, P.

Sagittarius(Void): -ittarius, D; -ittanius, P.

Capricorn(Rage): -iborn, D; -icorn, P.

Aquarius(Hope): -rius, D; -nius, P.

Pisces(Life): -sci, D; -sces, D.

Now, a Neat thing you’ll notice is that these suffixes are exclusively arranged in top-left-to-bottom-right diagonal series across The Star Grid(I’ll symbolize it \ thusly). So Aries(Derse) is the topleftmost, then the second sign in Taurus is Taurist(Aries-Prospit), the third sign in Gemini is Gemries(Aries-Derse), etc, etc. This pattern holds true; you’ll only find those suffixes along a \ starting with their “parent” sign(the “True Sign”. I’ll call this the “Alpha Sign”, with the meaning First not the HS meaning, to avoid “True”’s connotations), or in another \ an appropriate period down(the period being how long it takes to work through the other sign-suffix \’s. So the Taurus suffixes are on the \ below the Aries, and the Gemini below the Taurus, etc, until it reaches the Aires again). Generally, the Derse-Prospit alternating holds true as well, and that has implications for the verticals and horizontals; to maintain this they’d have to alternate between Derse and Prospit and the horizontals do from Aries untIL-

-LIBRA! At the middle of the chart, at the Libra-line, the pattern breaks down. BUT! From Libra to Lipio along the vert the breakdown in alternating starts at the Libra signs; beginning with Libza it becomes much less predictable. The Arza-Libza \ is “regular” until Scorza, then regular again until Pira. The Arga-Liga \ becomes “irregular” at the Virgo-line(Lega, Virga instead of Virgo). The Aro-Libo \ becomes irregular at Leo. The Arcen-Licen \ becomes irregular at Cancer and is highly irregular from that point on. Like I said I’m not going to go through, find, and list all of the irregularities and I’m CERTAINLY NOT going to try and figure out if there’s a mathematical relation that defines the irregularities(if they are formulaic, or, as I suspect, the result of a non-mathematizable logic), but you get the idea. Periodicity’s Whack! It ain’t right!! I doubt this has any bigger implications beyond the HS Crew wanting to place the 12 canon trolls as the “True Signs” of each of the sign families -which only makes sense from an Earth-centric or Game-centric viewpoint; I mean, Troll culture would order the signs by some interior logic of its own if it wasn’t a narrative creation, and wouldn’t care about preserving the primacy of 12 unknowable nascent apotheokids at the end of history- and there are other bits of evidence that this is the case that raise other objections.

Another pattern in the EZ is that the last(Omega) Sign in each Sign Class shares the suffix(and Moon and Aspect) of the first(Alpha) sign in the next class. This makes a sort of sense if you conceive of them as a ring or continuum: The Omega Sign in each Sign-Class(or symbology, or alphabet) would be the one “closest” to the next sign-class, and so it displays this similarity in its naming until-

-LIBRA! AGAIN!! Or Virgo, depending on how you want to figure it. There is a regular, predictable pattern -Arus, Taurmini, Gemcer, Cano, Lego- until the Virgo|Libra Interface where Virgo ends with Virza and Libra begins with, well, the obvious :\  Though a larger pattern of Omega Signs having one of the two suffixes of the next Sign Class over holds true; just this smaller pattern of Alpha and Omega sharing a suffix breaks down. Both Libra and Scorpio(or Virgo and Libra) are irregular, then the pattern reemerges at Scorpittarius, only to break down again at the Aquarius|Pisces interface. The Pisces|Aries interface is also irregular.

Just to give you an idea of the sort of thinking this can make room for in the EZ, I’ll do a deeper dive on Libra, por ejemplo(though similar implications apply to Virgo, and other sign-classes). One possible implication, I’m sad to say, is that Lipia shouldn’t be the Libra Omega(thus Ultimate) sign, but rather Lipio, which actually makes some very good symbological sense as:

This is Lipio

This is Libra

To begin with, Lipio is a struck-through latin upsilon, which looks like(but is not related to) an upside-down Greek omega. Upsilon, the ancestor of our “u”, is the first letter in the latin word Ultimatus which means mostly the same thing as Greek Omega; both mean “the last, final, end”[3]. So making it the “ultimate”, or Omega, Libra Sign(which is an Omega-themed sign-class) would be a Funny Symbology Pun. Its design would visually reinforce this Omega postion through it’s “letter” being “reversed” in form to Libra’s. Libra is an Omega “balanced” over a line, symbolizing a balanced scale; A potential visual reversal of this would be an overturned scale, an “upside-down” Omega with the bar across it, rather than under. It would also create a nice bracketing of the sign-class, though sadly not a complete one since Libra and Lipio aren’t mirrored. Of course, if they were, then Lipio would be in a kind of balance with Libra, which would undermine it’s conceptual opposition to it, making it less symbolically satisfying. If you dig that sort of reading *looks away at sky, squint-frowns, and kicks dirt; entirely metaphorically*

I suppose you COULD equally say that Scorpia should be the Alpha sign for Scorpio, but that’d break the Derse/Prospit pattern and I refuse to play favorites u_u u_u u_u Replacing Libra with Libza is, of course, Right Out since that’d mess up the visual symbolism. Although...

Libza

Lipia

Crap -__- One is angular, one curvy; one is balanced, one unbalanced; one is open the other closed; they are in (at least)THREE symbolic and conceptual oppositions: these DO make good visually symbolic opposites |:T |:T AND it’d preserve both the Derse/Prospit alternating, AND AND the Omega-Alpha interface to Scorpio, AND AND AND switching Libra and Libza would make Terezi the Fulcrum of the Libra Sign-Class which would be VERY thematically and symbolically satisfying since, if you think about it, The Omega-Sign being most like the Sign-Class to the right implies the Alpha-Sign would be the sign most like the Sign-Class to the Left, logically making the Fulcrum Sign, that furthest from the ends, the “Most Signiest Sign” within each Sign-Class. ANDx4 the \ pattern would then break at Libra instead of Scorpio...

 Daisuki :| :| :|

....Though I now realize that would ruin a potential 8reak/Scorpio pun....

Moving On........

The other Big irregularity I found was the Pisces line. ALL it’s Derse signs/suffixes are in the top half of the line, and ALL its Prospit ones are in the bottom half. Pretty odd.

The only other thing I have to say is that I noticed, in a very cursory way, that some signs are visually similar to the sign-class they share a suffix with(a decent number of Aquarius-suffixes seem to be), and some don’t. It’d be Cool if they’d really committed to this, but I understand why they didn’t since such a level of detail is really stressful to maintain and also creatively restrictive. But, like, clearly Sagius:

should be a Leo-suffix(Sagio or Sagilo), and Camino

should be an Aquarius-suffix(Canrius or Cannius). I Mean: C L E A R L Y. Right??[4]

Anyway, those are the SHOCKING REVELATIONS of my RUTHLESS PEDANTRY that will surely bring down this WRETCHED HOUSE OF CARDS we’re all living in, No Doubt in an Noir-Sufficient-Fashion. If I find/think of any more examples of Dastardly Chaos Weighty with Meaning in our beloved fictional cosmology, I’ll let y’all know :p

[1]Also tbc(and because repeating it here would mark the third time I’ve written it, and I find such triplication aesthetically Pleasing nwn nwn), the EZ lacks my own, secretly created and never shared, fansigns, and so it’s obvsl an incomplete symbology, possibly recovered from a damaged husklet for pre-wrigglers yet unable to pull their own pants on umu

[2]I’ll still probably end up doing that at somepoint though, so there might be a bevisualed vers of this post in the future X| X| X|

[3]Fun Fact: the “extreme” meaning that our “ultimate” inherited from ultimatus may possibly have a connection to omega even though it lacks such an explicit meaning since omega literally means “big O”. Etymology is Fun for many reason, but this un-looked-for and unexpected explication of an anime pun, years after I had last watched an episode of the series in question, is one of the better ones I’ve encountered uwu uwu

[4]Though Camino is a Gemini suffix, so it’s satisfying in it’s own ways.