#what is the end goal here with these changes

[miniatureredtoaster]

Fasting tips!!

First you need to establish your goal. Most people fast to engage ketosis, but what actually is it? Ketosis is a metabolic state where your body is running on stored fat instead of day to day carbohydrates! This helps decrease fat, so that’s what makes it so desirable. It can also help reduce cravings (ketones naturally suppress appetite, Helps preserve muscle(with adequate protein), improves blood sugar levels, and can actually help people suffering with epilepsy, PCOS, and improve mental clarity!

After fasting or eating a keto diet it may be hard to tell if you entered ketosis, but here are some ways to tell: Fewer cravings, more energy (after a few days), Keto breath (metallic-y Idk how to describe it), weight drops (at first mostly water weight trapped in the carbohydrates in your body), and you can also test with ketone urine strips and blood meters .

In this community obviously the goal is to eat very little (so not all benefits may not be as visible), so it’s common to see things like water fasts. Although it is possible for long stretches of time (382 days being the world record) It isn’t sustainable.

If you’re a few days in you may be feeling extremely hungry, but there are ways to eat without ending your ketosis period. You don’t only have to drink water, most diet sodas won’t disrupt your metabolic state, but some artificial sweeteners can. (aspartame and Sucralose have some scientific backing to potentially disrupt ketosis by triggering insulin) Certain proteins, vegetables, fruits, and nuts are all keto too! (It is important to note to get the effects this community desires you must eat sparingly, and across a longer period than usual. Eating intuitively during an extreme keto diet will help you drop weight the quickest)

There are some negative side effects to note too, as always. A lot of people experience something called, “Keto Flu” the symptoms are: Headaches, fatigue, nausea, and brain fog. It should pass in a few days if you drink a lot of water with salt or electrolyte packets.

The following is basically food groups that have keto friendly foods, but please remember if you want the massive changes in weight and desired results eat sparingly, slowly, and intuitively!

Proteins:

Eggs (boiled, poached, scrambled)

Chicken (thighs, breasts, wings)

Turkey

Salmon

Tuna

Sardines

Mackerel

shrimp

tofu (watch carb count)

Fats and Dairy

Avocados

Cheese (Cheddar, mozzarella, goat cheese, feta, and certain cream cheeses)

Sour cream (Check carb count)

Sugar-free mayonnaise

Coconut oil

Olive oil

Low-carb veggies

Spinach

Kale

Iceberg lettuce

Zucchini

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Mushrooms

Asparagus

Green Beans

Cucumber

Nuts and Seeds (In moderation!!!)

Almonds

Pecans

Walnuts

Macadamia nuts

Chia seeds

Flax seeds

Pumpkin seeds

(Avoid pistachios and Cashews! Very high in carbs!!!)

Drinks

Water (duh)

Club soda (No sugar!!!)

Tea (Herbal, green, or black. avoid adding sugars at all!)

Electrolyte drinks (Sugar-free)

REMEMBER TO CHECK FOR CARBS OR SUGARS WHEN EATING THROUGHOUT KETOSIS

I love combining STEM with my eating so let me know if you guys want a deeper breakdown or recipes I really enjoyed doing research on this!!!

[saycheeeese]

Somewhere Safe.

You knew nothing about how you got here. You had absolutely no idea what happened after ... after it all went to hell. Your boyfriend of 5 years, the first man you ever decided to trust and give your heart to - had been cheating on your since God knows when, and you didn't give him a chance to explain himself, play the victim card or manipulate you before you dashed out of the room, the image of him with your best friend threatening to pull you under. All you know was that you abandoned the party, your hair falling out of the meticulously crafted hairstyle and bracketing your paling face in rogue strands. Your mascara had long since dried on your cheeks, makeup ruined and dress dripping wet in the cold, unforgiving rain lashing down upon you the entire way, the black lace dress filthy and drenched - but you didn't care. Not when the entire world was snatched from you, only after you were convinced it was yours. Your best friend ...

And now, as you stare up at him, at the way his face remains impassive - maybe you were truly hysterical, or his eyes actually widened and a potent emotion shadowed them in the span of a second - you can't hold back the never-ending deluge of tears that you had pent up for too long. He crossed his arms and curled his lips.

"I'm giving you one second to speak up one good reason you're dripping on my doormat right now," his crimson eyes bore into yours, pink hair ruffled in a way that suggested he'd been sleeping. Of course he wouldn't care; you were only roommates, after all.

You sniff, wiping at your face with a quivering hand. "I ... " you search for words and fail to bring up an explanation. And, true to his word, he slams the door in your face. Your shoulders sag, and a broken sob escapes your lips.

Truth be told, you don't even know why you'd come to Sukuna's chambers. The only thing you remembered was one goal: reach someplace you know you'll be safe, cared for, and is like a second home to you ... and you eventually wound up here.

Merely six seconds pass before the door opens, your back almost turned to him. He groans.

"Come inside, woman. I cannot stand to see you look so miserable and pathetic. Miserably pathetic," he claims, and does something he'd die before doing for someone else - hold the door open and shift to the side, as if a loyal, obedient servant.

You trudge inside, a warm fire roaring in the hearth, your body almost collapsing at the relief from the harsh ice, but ... you feel detached, like you don't care whether you exist from now on. You stay rooted at the threshold for a solid minute before he actually sighs - in defeat - and you get no warning before your feet are swiped from under you. He hoists you up in his arms, bridal style, his jaw set and face cold, taking long strides to the couch and dropping you there.

"Care to enlighten me? Because what the fuck just -"

"My ... my boyfriend cheated on me. With my - my best friend," the words burn in your throat, and it physically pains you to choke them out, and you force yourself to swallow your tears. You swear not to cry in front of him.

The atmosphere changes, and you dare to look up at him. Calm, collected facial features - but no, barely suppressed, feral rage contorts his features ever so slightly, his eyes dark and lips set in such a way, the area around him so daunting, that he looks like an angel of death - fitting, for the darkness and piercings and tattoos and sharp edges. He lets through no suggestion or hint that he's a ferocious beast inside, looking just as tranquil as he'd seemed before.

He eyes you warily, his gaze making you feel as if you're naked in front of him and he can see through every shield you've put up, utterly exposed. Your chattering teeth, damp clothes and ruined makeup don't support your case, and his eye twitches. Wordlessly, he pivots on his heel and turns the heater on - with the fireplace. And just like that, he simply stalks into the kitchen.

You curl into yourself, sobs racking your body, a bizarre darkness beckoning you to it, lulling you to sleep, her eyes burning.

"Wake up," someone grunts, shaking your shoulder. You jerk awake, clutching your chest, and relax at the sight of Sukuna, a - what?

A cup of steaming drink along with macarons atop a tray in his hands, he scowls at you - yet, he hopes that you notice that the scowl is a tad less bitter and extremely devoid of annoyance this time - extending the tray. You blink once, twice ... You vaguely recall confessing to him you liked macarons and could devour as much as you were offered, to which he said he would never share his macarons with you. And now, pink and purple and glittering and frosted macarons sit innocently with the scalding mug of hot chocolate - a porcelain mug with bows painted over it. You would've laughed, taunted him ...

But the emptiness in you. Your lip juts out and trembles. "You're ... sharing it with me?"

"Don't push it, brat," he grunts, folding his toned arms over his chest - very sweaty chest. The shirt he's wearing is soaked through, perspiration beaded on his adorably flushed face (from the heat or something else, you didn't want to know), and you realize ... the heat is making him uncomfortable. He's feeling immensely hot because of the various sources of warmth, yet he's not complaining or turning anything off because ... of you. You needed this, and that mattered most to him, though he'd take a dagger to his heart before ever admitting that.

He scowls, trying to keep his voice bored and insouciant. "Want me to bring you more snacks ... (y/n)?" He addresses you by your name; not brat, or woman, or sweetheart (highly awkward in this situation) - you, and your own name.

You smile sadly at him, shaking your head, and he disappears upstairs. You can hear the faint ruckus upstairs, his irate stomping on the stairs, and he appears all of a sudden, a shirt in his hands.

"Wear this. You're going to die in that," he passes you the shirt, not making eye contact, his voice slightly, subtly hoarse. And before you can scrutinize the rest of his body, he vanishes from sight. You strip off the skimpy lace dress and tug the shirt over your head, the fabric smelling faintly of burned incense and ash, weapons and iron and tangy blood, spices and herbs and charred sandalwood and a familiar cologne. You wonder who the shirt belongs to as you half-heartedly devour the spread.

He descends the stairs with a few cushions, and stiffly strolls over to you, handing over the pillows. He hesitates for a moment - the fearsome, no-bullshit Sukuna, hesitating to come near you - and the couch dips under his weight, sagging where he sits. He eyes the shirt hanging on your frame, a traitorous heat creeping up his neck, and you soon realize ...

It's his shirt. Of course, you stupid dumbass person, you almost roll your eyes.

The scent ... It’s overwhelming at first ... too potent, too strange, and you feel scared to touch it, to wear it ... but slowly becomes something addictive. Not because it’s comforting, but because it makes you feel alive. Like holding fire in your hands and daring not to get burned.

You only remember him humming a strange tune, his voice strained and inexperienced, as he tried his best to lull you to sleep. And, strangely, you fall asleep in his arms, his fingers tentatively stroking your hair, that song on his lips, body pressed against yours, the clock hands swallowing the time away ...

"Y/n?" He asks, his voice barely more than a growled whisper.

"Hm?"

"Would you care if those ... two ... died?" He asks, carefully wording his sentence. You would die from shock if only you were not dying with exhaustion.

"No. Not at all. I don't care what happens to them, because I've decided to let them go," you murmur, nuzzling your face into his rock-hard stomach.

"Very well," you hear him say before you nod off to sleep, a slumber more comfortable and at peace than any you've had recently.

. ★·.·´¯`·.·★ .

The next day, though, he's back to being a pain in the ass, yet he still keeps an eye on you, keeping close to your side, and a wicked, wild gleam in his eyes the morning after. He'd been washing off something from his hands ...

And in the afternoon, your ex and ex-best friend's corpses were found, stabbed and bloodied. You smirk, knowing who's behind it, and mentally make a note to tease Sukuna for the crack in his walls he allowed you to see.

[alexanderwales]

Game Review: FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time

This is a bad game, but it's a bad game that I played to completion.

There's a principle in cooking called depth of flavor which is where you use different ingredients and cooking techniques to make something multidimensional. My go-to example of this is chili, where I do my best to create depth of flavor by using multiple forms of the same ingredient: onions get sautéed, but I also add in onion powder, and when the chili is done, some finely diced fresh onion, scallions, or chives as a garnish. These are not exotic ingredients, but by having many different but similar notes, you get something better as an end result.

FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time has a dogshit title, we'll call it Fantasy Life from here on. But the title isn't the only thing that's dogshit.

The story is awful, mostly because it commits the cardinal sin of being boring, but there are multiple ways in which the story is bad: cardboard characters, nonsense plot, stupid and predictable "twists", and a bunch of irrelevant fetch quests. There are too many characters, and they're all completely forgettable, merely suggesting ways in which they might be interesting. But I don't think you come to Fantasy Life for story elements, probably, even if you're the target audience.

So that leaves us with the gameplay, and I would say that this, too, is actually pretty bad when looked at on a granular level.

The game's main thing is that there are fourteen "life classes" that you swap freely from. Four of these are combat classes, which are all redundant with each other because you don't need more than one, but then there are also gathering classes and crafting classes, which is what you'll spend most of the game on. Each of these is incredibly shallow and there's a great deal of repetition among them all.

Mining and chopping, for example, are just clones of each other, where you find a node out in the world, circle it until you find the "sweet spot" and then hack away until it's given up the goods. The crafting classes are particularly egregious about this, as there's not really a functional difference between any of them: a timer starts, you're sitting in front of three stations, and you have to move between each of them, hitting a button, mashing a button, or holding a button. The only thing that changes is aesthetics, and whether you have particular bonuses you get from gear or the class skill tree.

And the combat, which you have to engage in with regularity, has absolutely no challenge or substance to it, and does not feel enjoyable to play.

And at this point, you might be asking "well why did you keep playing", which is a great question.

The thing is, while each individual element of this game has almost nothing to it, they're all somehow working in harmony. There are three time periods to move between, one a rip-off of Breath of the Wild, one more like Animal Crossing, and the last one of the most generic JRPGs you've ever seen. And because you can switch between them, because you're encouraged to keep adding things to the list of things to do, there's something that becomes dynamic about it.

There's something hypnotic about it, a "one more turn" feeling. It's a dopamine drip that works by varying the stimulus and jangling some keys in front of your face at regular intervals. You get distracted and go off to do something else, forgetting your original goal, but it doesn't actually matter what your original goal was, so it's fine.

And this is the depth of flavor thing, I think. There is nothing complex in this game, nothing original, nothing interesting, but all the uncomplex things together make it feel complex. This is the magic at the heart of Fantasy Life, the thing that makes it work as a game.

I despise it, in case that wasn't clear. It's rare that I walk away from a game feeling manipulated, like I wasted my time, but this game did that to me. I think it helped illuminate this pattern for me, in some way, one that I'm sure I've fallen victim to before, cheap garbage assembled in an interconnected pile.

Hopefully I remember to get out earlier next time I find this happening.

[airas-story]

400 Drabble Milestone!!!

As of this morning, I hit 400 prompts filled in drabbles! Which is entirely exciting for me, when I started, I really didn't know how long I'd last. Thank you for everyone who has stuck around for that! I really would not have made it this far without you guys!

Having said that... I am going to be making some small changes to the process on my end. Going forward, I am no longer aiming for exact 100, 200, and 300 word counts. However, I want to keep the spirit of the endeavor intact. What does that mean?

From here on out the goal is for prompt fills to have a minimum of 100 words (same as the drabbles) and a max of 400 (because I need an upper limit or it will get away from me) and since I've now hit 400 prompts a max of 400 words felt like a good choice. (...we'll see what happens when I hit 500...)

Anyways, thanks again for everyone who has been around to encourage and prompt! You are AMAZING.

[yourdandelionofthedeathknell]

OK, this gets into what I like to call a "reverse Theremin Argument". For those unaware, the Theremin Argument, coined by Youtuber Dan Olson, is a term for when someone tries to defend a creative choice in a work via appealing to the in-universe justification, without acknowledgement for the fact the author also made the justification IE well, the orcs are only violent monsters that tear people apart because they're genetically predisposed to be violent since they were created by the Dark Lord Gumush. But, of course, if your criticism is that the idea of a race of people who are universally and genetically evil is screwed up, you can't justify that by pointing to that fact, because the writer also wrote that, ya know? It's named after the Theremins, a race in the cult classic Star Trek parody film Galaxy Quest, whose "thing" is that they have no concept whatsoever of fiction, and understand all fictional media as if it were, like, a documentary of some sort. Since the argument presumes that the story, like reality, simply is the way it is, rather then having been consciously designed. OK, sorry, that took a while. But, the reverse Theremin Argument, the one I think applies here, is when a story has a message that makes sense when viewed as a metaphor...But doesn't actually make sense when viewed on its own in-universe logic. Think stories wherein the main cast have access to resurrection magic that could bring their loved ones back without trouble, but refuse to use it, because death is a part of life and must be accepted, even though they use magic to solve problems all the time, why is this one different? The answer being "because, in the real world, death isn't something we can fix, and this is a metaphor", but...You get the idea. Anyway, bringing this back to the post i'm reblogging, a lot of time travel stories do something similar, where time travel exists, but the characters refuse to use it to benefit themselves, loved ones, or humanity in general because it isn't natural and one should accept the past for what it is. Which is a great message for us in the real world, where it is impossible to change the past, but doesn't make sense in-universe. In a world where you literally can change the past, why...Wouldn't you? But, on the other hand, if the main character actually does use time travel and it fixes everything, then...Like...What message are we, the viewers who live in a world without time travel, supposed to take from that? "Time travel is awesome" is not a resonant moral, ya feel? See also: Why basically every Vampire story settles that it's better to be human, because the audience and it would be weird if the end message was "being a Vampire is awesome, hell yeah!" Basically, I get what people mean when they criticize the ending and the message it sends, but also, getting back, back to the past, Samurai Jack, was Jack's whole goal the entire show.

i've seen people argue that jack should have stayed in the future and the moral of the show should have been about trying to fix things in the present and not trying to relive the past

and i feel like that's a perfectly good lesson... for a world that doesn't have time travel. because in a world that doesn't have time travel, you can't live in the past and you can't change the past. you must move on.

but samurai jack does have time travel. jack literally can change the past.

so in that context, saying "he shouldn't go back to the past to fix a bad thing" is kind of like saying "if you're in a building that catches fire, and the arsonist throws you out a window, you should write the whole building off as a loss and move on. that's it. once you're outside, you're outside. it's over. your only option now is to watch the whole thing burn down. you can't go back to the building with a hose to put out the fire, because that would be bad for your mental health or something. just let that bitch burn. yes even if there are still families trapped inside. yes even if you're literally holding the hose and all you need to do is walk close enough to aim it at the fire. it's too late! you've left the building! make no effort to save anyone from the arsonist!"

making the moral "accept that you can't change the past" only makes sense when you can't change the past.

[fiddleabout]

every time im like oh the football industry can't possibly get any stupider the ifab will kamikaze its way off a building hollering at the top of their lungs that i should never ever ever underestimate them

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

I’m the anon who sent you that ask about Sonic and Shadow’s relationship in the Chronic Sonic au. If your post saying you ignore long asks was directed at me, can you please just… post the latest version without answering? I would prefer to save it to my likes and maybe have other fans read my thoughts.

thank you

Well no, it wasn’t just directed at you, there are a couple long asks in my inbox (some of which are positive and very beloved and i cherish, Dopambles I’m looking at you <3). But you’ve sent your ask twice now and this one too so I’ll answer this one. I don’t really want to make this a big long thing, but I also don’t really wanna leave ya hanging when this seems so important to you so lets do this (everyone else can ignore this if ya want I’m going long-winded through everything.)

So, reasons i don’t like to respond to or even post long asks sometimes lets do this [cracks knuckles]

1. I don’t like posting things onto my blog that I haven’t checked over first. I struggle a lot in reading and comprehending long asks. I don’t know why, it’s weird, okay. Let’s leave it at that. I’m not gonna blindly post walls of texts to my blog without checking them over first, because I want to make sure I’m filtering asks so nothing harmful gets posted to my blog. You’d be surprised at how whack a lot of anons can get. Not to say your ask was whack, but I also am struggling to read it so it’s hard to say for sure! It’s not due to the nature of your ask, it is simply because my brain be like dat.

2. Sometimes, I just don’t like having to scroll through walls of texts that aren’t my own to get to my latest posts. I get a lot of asks as it is. I do love answering them, but when they get long, the amount of time it takes to scroll through em makes it hard to refer back to my previous posts and is just is not intuitive or fun when interacting with my own blog, which leads me to my next point

3. This is my space. My blog is by me for me. I choose to post and share to interact and have fun with other people but at the end of the day this blog is my space. I did not create it for anyone other than me. I welcome the people who find joy in my stories here, but this remains my space. If i was being paid for this it’d be different, I’d absolutely curate and change things to make it a better and easier experience for those that i charged to be here, but like… I’m not being paid for this? And to ask me to do what you want in my space so that you can have the experience you want is… i dunno it sounds a little entitled. (I’m not saying that you ARE entitled, only that it sounds like it to me personally.) Contacting me even after I expressed my difficulty in answering asks to try and convince me to post it for your sake is a little rude. I’m not a professional creator, I’m not a person with fans, I’m just a random dude trying to have a good time with other people on a dumpster-fire website. I’m not a creator trying to make sure everyone else is having a good time. This is what i do in my free time to relax and—

4. —being a moderator for other peoples hc’s and conversations is not personally relaxing to me. My blog is not a public confessions blog and I am not a public message board. I am honoured when people share their personal stories and how what I doodle has helped them feel seen and that things will be okay, but I’m not a place for other people to come say what they want to each other, I’m a person, not a message board. How other people use Tumblr is up to them, however, I am not going to change how I use tumblr so that you can have a better experience when it will make the experience worse for me.

5. If i answer asks, I don’t draw. And I like drawing. If I’m posting asks (even without answering them) and stressing about being the middle man in conversations that I will have to regulate to make sure conversations stay kind, that takes a lot of time and energy and I got so incredibly burnt out when i tried to do that. So i stopped. And I will not be starting up again simply so you can have a good time, because I will have a bad one. And this is my space to not have a bad time. If something stresses me out, I will not do it here, it is as simple as that. I have my whole irl to be stressed about.

These are some of the reasons I don’t like to post long asks. I have notified you that I struggle to read, I don’t understand why you continue pushing. I have amazing anon’s who send wonderful long asks who have been kind and considerate with me about my struggles reading and processing. They continue to send their wonderful asks and have assured me it’s okay if I never post them. I am confused as to why you cannot seem to respect my decision as well.

The final reason regarding my hesitance in posting your ask in particular is simply that your hc was not accurate to how I was aiming to portray the characters in the current timeline. You are more than welcome to hc and speculate, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I cannot simply post it without answering it like you suggest because I would need to clarify that it’s not true. When I used to do that, people would start to misinterpret my au’s and it stressed me out. It takes hours for me to write up responses to things sometimes because I want to make sure I’m being kind and thoughtful and accurate. I am honoured that you shared something personal but what you wrote is simply not where the characters are at right now. It could be them in the future, but it is still early in the au so that kind of resentment hasn’t set in yet. Shadow is hurting because he’s taking the brunt of Sonic’s negativity but he is resigned to it because for him nothing else matters as long as Sonic stays alive, even if he has to be the person Sonic hates in all this and that is heavy. He’s angry at him when he does not take care of himself, but he is not resentful. Sonic struggles with being a burden on all of his friends, not just Shadow. The way you described the relationship was closer to how Tails and Sonic interact than Shadow and Sonic and even then, there’s more going on that I just don’t have the time or energy to really walk through. And besides, I want to save that energy to draw out things later.

As i shared with another commenter who asked something similar, I can absolutely DM you your ask back if you want to save it. However I don’t understand why you need me to post it to save it your likes if you simply want to save it. You have your own blog you can post it to. Why does it need to be on my blog? Why do I have to do extra work so you can have an easier time to do what you want? I am very grateful for your interaction and love of my comic, and I understand it’s frustrating when people make things harder for you to have a good time, but that’s exactly what you’re doing to me by asking me to change how I use tumblr to suit your wants instead of what is easiest for me. I am not a public service you pay for. I am a person, a full time student with family issues, struggling siblings that I’m trying to help, a person who is struggling myself. I have a limited amount of energy in a day, I get tired quickly. If i want to continue to find joy in drawing I have to set boundaries. You may not always know why someone does something, I guarantee there is more here that I will not share because it is personal. Sometimes you just have to be okay with not knowing, you have to be okay not understanding, and you have to be okay without an explanation that makes sense to you. All you need to do is understand that often times there is a reason people behave the way they do. It’s not a reflection on you or their opinion of you, it is simply many other factors at play that lead to such an outcome.

I sincerely hope this did not offend you, I am not angry with you, nor do I wish for any of this to be taken as scolding or upset you. If it has come across that way, I apologize. I am sorry I am not in a state to give you what you want, and I’m thankful for your patience with me in reading through this and I hope it is enough to at least paint a little bit of a picture as to why I will not be posting your ask. It’s unfortunate that I ended up spending hours addressing this anyway both to you and to another commenter—the very thing I wanted to avoid—but I value you as a person and did not want to leave you feeling negatively if I could change that. I hope this does not affect your enjoyment or experience with how you were having fun with my au, and if it does I am deeply regretful. However, I do have to set boundaries and make sure I’m doing okay or there would be no AU at all. Thanks for your understanding and I hope you have a day as kind as you are.

[letmyrighthandbeforgotten]

(posting my response beneath a read more because I don't want this post getting too much longer)

Viktor not liking Mel or other politicians is mostly personal opinion/interpretation. I grew up poor in communities affected by people who don’t actually know anything about our lives and I can’t stand politicians. I think 90% of politics fails the people it’s meant to serve. This definitely affects how I view Viktor, who has the added experience of being physically disabled and dying as a result of Piltover’s politics. But it is an extrapolation. 

“You said Viktor hates any politician but he looks up to Heimerdinger even tho he’s the root cause of his nation being oppressed.” — Heimerdinger. I failed to mention him, but I was also thinking more of Mel than Viktor. If I wanted to analyze Heimerdinger’s relationship with Viktor … I think Viktor compartmentalizes a lot. He is someone who has been directly affected by Piltover’s policies but now lives in Piltover, working for someone who made those policies, and Hextech is sadly used mostly to benefit the rich rather than the common people. I think the scene of him and Jayce on the bridge is another example of this — Viktor put his trust in someone from Piltover because he liked and trusted them personally, only to be faced with how they are still a part of that oppressive class. I think he likes Heimerdinger and kind of closes his mind off to how Heimerdinger has failed not just him, but Zaun. There’s been meta by other people about Viktor as someone from Zaun and how he does or doesn’t stay true to his roots. But yeah, I was thinking of him and Mel, not really other people. And again, some of this is personal speculation/interpretation that not everyone will agree with. 

“He also smiles to Mel when the vote for Zaun’s freedom is unanimous” — This is a good point too. Mostly I was thinking of season 1, and this is the moment that blows everything before it out of the water. I mentioned originally how I wish Season 2 could have been better and focused more on Mel’s political development instead of her becoming a mage. I think an AU where Viktor doesn’t go the commune route, and Mel stays working with people like Lest to ensure Zaun’s freedom, could have seen a huge change in their dynamic. I think if he saw that kind of things she was doing in early season 2, they could have formed a different, friendly relationship from what we see in them. But instead the two are shunted into different plotlines and don't speak directly again until the end of season 2. It’s ... not how I would have written things. 

“this is quite a jump don’t you think? They barely know each other. Viktor reaches out to Jayce bc of what Jayce is working on. Had Jayce blown up an apartment creating a booty scratching device, I doubt Viktor would’ve helped him.” — That’s kind of the point I make? Or at least what I was trying to say. Viktor stands to lose a lot if it doesn’t work out, but he believes Jayce is worth the risk. Because of his ideas, because of hextech, because it’s monumental. Viktor saw what he was working on and is willing to take a huge risk on it. That’s all a part of taking a risk on Jayce to me. 

“So you’re basically saying here, if I’m right, that Mel and Jayce are fundamentally different bc she wants hextech for power and Jayce just wants it to help ppl. This is also quite…ingenious imo. Bc we see that their goals and ideas align.” — I think that Jayce allowing Hextech and his ideas to be corrupted by power and politics is a part of his arc. The part he ultimately has to reject. Jayce started wanting power as much as he wanted change, and that is bad for him. His ideas end up being hugely powerful and influential, and everyone is worse off for it. Hextech did change the world, and Jayce calls it a curse. I said in the original post that I see him and Mel as intersecting lines headed in different directions — this is where they intersect. It’s after this where he has to change course. 

“It’s like they boost Viktor and Jayce with Viktor and dilute Mel or MelJay. Viktor is the pure hearted guy and Mel is the person that only thinks about herself. Vitkor is the person who genuinely cares for Jayce and Mel just wants him for what he provides. They often pose it as a JayVik vs MelJay or Mel vs Viktor. Which makes sense. If you see Jayce and Viktor as canonically together at the end, you have to see MelJay as superficial, not genuine, harmful, just not good for each other, etc” — I feel what you mean about people posing Mel vs Viktor. I hope I showed in my original post that while Mel does have negative traits, I think that these traits make sense from how she was raised, are something she wants to overcome, and ultimately make her a better and more interesting character. I do think Mel seeks power because I think it’s the only way she knows how to interact with the world from her upbringing in Noxus. I think she initially misses the negative effects of her soft power. I think she also assumes other people want power for itself (because no one and nothing ever taught her different), and this affects how she views Jayce. I think her meeting Ambessa again in season 1 shows her that wanting power for the sake of it — purely to protect herself, and secondarily her people or family, and damn everyone else, the way Ambessa lives — is not how Mel wants to live. It’s after this that Mel decides to change, to be different, and I love that arc for her. I wish we’d seen more of this instead of the magic in a potential alternate season 2.

Viktor also has bad traits — he is proud, even arrogant, and often willfully blind in season 1. He wants personal advancement and allows his affection for Jayce to cloud his judgment (Ex. It was affection that held us together). These traits culminate in the machine herald arc that almost ends the whole city. But it was a Mel post, not a Viktor one, so I only touched on their differences briefly. 

Basically, I think Mel does genuinely care — about Jayce, about Piltover, and eventually about Zaun — and that caring is tangled up in her trauma and personal goals. She doesn’t know how to have one without the other. I don’t think this is unique to her. I think you could say basically the same thing to describe any relationship in the show. Ex. Jinx doesn't know how to love Isha separately from her trauma around Silco and Vi. With characters this messed up and complex, you can’t get uncomplicated love. I think that makes them all more interesting and it’s part of why I love the show. Everyone ends up hurting each other even when they don’t mean to.

A lot of this is personal interpretation, and at the end of the day, different ships will jive with different people. I don't ship Mel/Jay, but I still love Mel's character completely separately from that ship. My original point wasn't to hate on that ship, but to show why I don't love it as well as why I love her without it.

My comprehensive Mel Medarda analysis.

I think it’s easy to separate people who talk about Mel into three groups: people who ship jayvik and hate Mel, people who ship jayvik and “like” Mel in a way that simplifies her almost past recognition, and people who hate jayvik and love Mel (sometimes while simplifying her). And I am someone who loves jayvik and Mel, but I definitely do not ship Jay/Mel, or Jay/Mel/Vik. And I think there’s a dearth of good Mel meta. 

I have three main points: 1) All of the main cast are an antagonist to another member of that same cast. If you don't acknowledge that, then you're not really engaging with the show, you're writing an au in your head. Which you can do! I love au's where all the characters are friends. But that's not the show. 2) Mel IS a corrupt politician who uses manipulation as a tactic; she is also an empath and someone who cares deeply. I do not think these are unrelated facets of her character, but actually deeply related to each other, integral to who she is, and directly resulting from how she was raised. 3) Mel and Jayce are not a good couple, and that makes both of them more interesting.

A/N: And before anyone tries to play identity politics with me, I am a queer, utterly broke woman of color! Mel and Viktor are both dear to me! They are not in competition for my affection! 

Mel the Politician: 

I think of Mel as someone who WANTS to be good but was never taught how, so her initial attempts at goodness fail. Manipulation seems to her a good middle ground from the violence she was raised in. She does not see it as a different, but still horrific type of violence because she was immersed in so much overt violence growing up. 

Mel is introduced in episode 2, which focuses more evenly on the Piltover cast whereas episode 1 focused entirely on establishing the Zaunite characters with Piltover as a villain. Mel stands in direct contrast to them. And make no mistake — from Zaun's perspective, Mel IS an antagonist. Episode 1 shows us enforcers murdering Zaunites on the bridge and Vi openly saying that no one in Piltover is going hungry, in direct contrast to the undercity. With that context, let's look at Mel's introduction.

Mel is introduced to us as the epitome of the Piltover elite. In her opening scene, she stands in a huge room, presumably an office or similar, having a private meeting with a merchant there to sell her something. She almost entirely ignores the merchant in favor of speaking to her assistant Elora, who outright states Mel is the richest woman in Piltover. Mel immediately bemoans the fact that she is still the poorest Medarda. Remember: this scene does not exist in a vacuum. Mel is standing in a room larger than the one shared by Vander’s 4 children, and still complaining that she doesn’t have enough. I think that we the audience are meant to go "is she for real right now?" The sun shines on Mel, and the undercity is covered in smog. 

In retrospect, this scene also introduces Mel's conflict with her family and identity as a Medarda. But again, in retrospect. We don't have that context at the moment. Mel does not exist independently of the Zaunite characters, though she might think she does at first; they are all tightly woven together. Mel is not introduced as cruel — and I don’t think she is cruel on a personal level — but she is introduced as the exact type of person who directly benefits from the oppression of the undercity. This is not by accident. Mel is that person. And she does not need to be intentionally cruel for her actions to have cruel effects.

Some people want to hate the council without acknowledging that Mel is one of them. That is willful ignorance and erasure.

(also look how stupid they all look. why are they posing. Mel is the only one who kind of looks cool, the rest are just funny.) 

Mel is not just a part of the council, she is their de-facto leader after Heimerdinger (gonna expand on this later). She is the one who first addresses Marcus and Grayson directly in this scene. The kind of violence Mel and the council inflict is the kind of silent violence oppressed communities experience every day: Sending enforcers to do their dirty work. Restricting commerce, and therefore inflicting poverty on an already impoverished community. Raiding and searching everyone in Zaun, regardless of if you have any reason to think they’re connected to what actually happened. While characters like Jinx, Vi, Sevika, and Silco are directly, physically violent, this is the kind of insidious violence that is accepted as the norm. To draw a comparison from our world, why does the world care when the head of a health insurance company is murdered, but not when that company denies healthcare and lets people die every day? When our healthcare system sends people into debt for daring to live? Why do we care when violence is done with a gun, but not a pen? They are wealthy, they have power, therefore it is accepted that they have the right to benefit from other’s suffering. 

This is obviously an incomplete view of Mel … but it’s not inaccurate. Anyone from Zaun in universe would have reason to hate her.

I would argue that this is the Mel we see from episodes 1-7. Someone who is beautiful, charming, sounds nice enough, but ultimately self-interested and who benefits from the suffering of others without a thought. 

But then episode 8 feeds us. Let's talk about her flashback scene.

Mel’s Relationship to Power and Goodness: 

This scene haunts me. I love this whole scene so much. This is where we are introduced to Ambessa. And oh, what an impression it is. 

Suddenly, a lot about Mel clicks into place. We see past her mask of perfection and realize she is still a child with a mother who is violent and loves her dearly.  Who says her violence is for her family. Done in Mel’s name, no matter how much she does not want it.

They stand in a destroyed throne room that belonged to someone Ambessa conquered. Ambessa characterizes herself as a wolf and Mel as a fox. We immediately know what Ambessa was like and how Mel was raised. Ambessa is brutal and merciless; Mel uses guile and trickery. Ambessa crushed the throne; Mel talks about what sort of puppet leader they should install to control. But to her mother, it is not enough for Mel to be a good politician. She needs to be without mercy. Brutal. This is the kind of violence Mel understands, the kind she was raised in. And it is what she abhors. 

Then Ambessa asks Mel what they should do with this girl. A living symbol of a power that Ambessa has conquered, a member of the old regime, and as young as Mel herself. Ambessa plans to kill her; that much is clear. But what Mel suggests is also cruel. Stripped of her lands and titles, banished from her home, her family and people dead. That's horrible! That's a horrible way to live! 

And Ambessa doesn’t even let her have that. No wonder Mel doesn’t recognize her own actions as cruelty when this was the alternative she was shown. She does not know kindness. She only knows violence or political games. She was taught to seize power and hold onto it. There is no other option. Not that she knows. 

(This girl’s name is Mion by the way. Look at how she looks down and away from Ambessa, versus how she looks at Mel with hope 🥺) (And if I say that this is the character I ship with Mel. That I have a whole canon divergent au in my head where she lived and grew up alongside Mel, developing a deeply unhealthy, uneven, and codependent but ultimately loving relationship. What then.) 

I love that this moment haunts her. It's not just a flashback for the audience, Mel is actively having a nightmare about it years later. She paints the girl's bloodied necklace. She's one of the forms LeBlanc takes to speak to her, and it's her necklace that Mel uses as a power conduit in her final confrontation with Ambessa. She carries this moment with her for over a decade. It’s when she loses her mother and when Ambessa loses her daughter. This is Mel’s loss of innocence.

With this in mind, it’s suddenly clear why Mel is the way she is as an adult. The council casts Jinx and Silco as violent, but utterly fails to comprehend that violence is not inherent to them. It is directly because of Piltover's treatment of them. Neither Jinx nor Silco start out as cruel people. They were created, not born. But while other members of the council are either willfully ignorant (Heimerdinger) or casually cruel because they genuinely don’t view the Zaunites as actual people, Mel seems to not realize her own cruelty. She does not mean to be cruel. I don’t think she wants to be. I think that she believes this is genuinely the best option that still lets her hold power. And power is everything. Power is how you make sure no one hurts you the way Ambessa has hurt others. But foxes and wolves are both predators, no matter how they kill you. 

So what changes? 

I’ve only accelerated a process that you started. Mel says she wanted to protect the city. I believe her. She believes herself. But what parts of the city? Certainly not the undercity, who have no access to Hextech despite Jayce and Viktor’s own desires. Not the people for whom violence, disease, and starvation are just a part of life. Mel has tried to be good; Mel has failed. Now her own mother bluntly tells her that Mel is the one who started this; Ambessa only intends to finish it. 

This is the scene where Ambessa tells Mel why she was sent away: she weakened her. Ambessa couldn’t make the necessary decisions (note how she says it; necessary decisions, not hard ones) and look Mel in the eye. Everything Ambessa did was out of love … 

And look what she did. 

I believe that this scene with Ambessa is Mel’s “my god, what have I done” moment. Maybe she had good intentions; so did her mother, in her own way. Intention hardly matters when these are the results. It is after this moment that Mel votes for Zaun’s independence. That she works with Lest. Mel finally starts to see the harm she has done, and she decides that she must undo it. Mel has failed … but she will keep trying until she gets it right.

Mel’s relationship with Jayce (and Viktor): 

This is the controversial part of my analysis. But what can you do? 

Here’s the thing: I think that most of Mel and Jayce’s interactions are knee-deep at best. They like each other on the surface, but they do not deeply understand each other. And once they do, they realize that they do not match. They are not meant to be. 

To me, Mel and Jayce are fundamentally different. That’s fine. You want characters to be different, you want that push and pull. But Mel is a politician, a power player. The person who looks at the pieces on the board and tries to maximize her own influence. (And to be clear: Mel is allowed to want power. That is a good and fine trait for a character to have. It creates conflict for her character and we see her use that power for good in season 2 before she is unceremoniously yanked off screen.) Jayce is an inventor. A dreamer. He wants to change the world. Not for his own sake, not for power, but because he just wants to make things better for everyone. Oh, he also wants recognition. Who wouldn’t? But he wants it to come as a result of the good he does. And he has an obsession with magic, but because that magic saves him. 

Let’s look at the scene where Jayce becomes a councilor. 

He’s stressed, he’s breathing heavily, he’s looking around like he desperately wants someone to put a stop to this. The camera spins, like Jayce is getting dizzy. His expression … he looks hunted. Viktor is the only one who notices his distress, but is powerless to stop it. Mel might not be a wolf yet, but she is a powerhouse, steamrolling over everyone else. After all, she knows what’s best, right? OBVIOUSLY Jayce wants this life, he just doesn’t know it yet. This is as close to goodness as she knows, and Jayce wants to do good, right? Doesn’t everyone want that kind of power? (Mel, you break my heart)

But Mel cannot understand Jayce at this point because she doesn’t fully understand herself (see everything with Ambessa). It's only after the two are separately isolated and forced to self-reflect that they actually understand each other … and it is as their whole selves that they realize they do not fit together. Season 1 Jayce/Mel could work BECAUSE they are not yet who they are meant to be, instead bowing to the expectations of others and themselves. The golden children of Piltover, they look good together, they are expected to be together … but they are not meant to be. 

I think Mel IS subtly manipulative of Jayce in the same way she is for everyone else on the council and in high society. But Jayce rarely gives her any pushback, and she looks genuinely shocked when he does (ex. after he talks to Ambessa in the bathhouse and Jayce decides direct confrontation is the next move). I think Jayce trusted that Mel was the best at what she did — which she is — but he failed to consider that he did not want to be the same as her. Like Viktor says, "In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good." Mel could make him great, but she could not make him good. Jayce is not meant to be a leader and is poorly cast in that role. Mel could never be a mere supporter of the world, she belongs as a power player. They are perpendicular lines — intersecting but moving in different directions. 

(Side note: It's so funny to me that Mel calls Jayce the de-facto head of the council when that could not more obviously be her! And she knows it! She is the one who changes Hoskel's votes with a single glance. She is the one who decides to add Jayce to the council and convinces everyone else. Jayce proposes kicking Heimerdinger out, but I do not think all of the council would have agreed if Mel was not the first to voice her support. Probably none of them would have. If the council actually has a leader after Heimerdinger (who's been here 200 years), it IS Mel. But Jayce makes a useful figurehead for Mel to work more subtly.) 

Jayce and Mel like each other well enough. At least, they like the versions of each other that they see. But Mel is so used to wearing a mask that she doesn’t even realize that’s what he’s seeing. She is so used to other people’s masks that she can’t see Jayce’s heart even as it’s plain on his sleeve. And being a councilor brings out the absolute worst in Jayce. If anything he needs to become a councilor so that he can realize the extent of his own prejudice and change. But it is not who he wants to be, nor who he should be. I think that Jayce, after everything he sees and does and goes through, could be happy living in a cabin by a stream with his love and 4 kids. Mel could never be satisfied by that kind of life.

While we're here, let's talk about her and Viktor. (Yes I am a jayvik shipper but this is about Mel.) Even with no context, the two are practically designed to contrast each other. Mel is from Noxus, Viktor is from Zaun (interestingly, both are cultures with a lot of violence, but Noxus is a conqueror, Zaun the oppressed). Mel is rich, Viktor is poor. Mel is a politician, Viktor is an inventor. Mel is a black woman, Viktor is a white man. Mel is able bodied, Viktor is disabled. Mel is born with magic, Viktor is an inventor of artificial magic. They're both outsiders to Piltover, but Mel is accepted and Viktor is not. They stand in direct contrast to each other through the show and represent two extremes Jayce must choose between. Mel is power and politics; Viktor is science and idealism. Both are valid. Both are interesting. But only one aligns with Jayce.

Two similarities between them that aren’t brought up often (if at all): They both have childhood flashbacks where an adult parent figure brutally harms an innocent they identify with in front of them (Singed to Rio, and Ambessa to Mion). They both see their bodies as things that betray them — Viktor through his disability and later corruption by the Hexcore, Mel by the magic blood that runs through her veins. These are both complex, emotional, and deeply interesting characters and I get why Jayce wants them both. This is the bisexual representation we need. 

Let’s take this scene as a microcosm of their season 1 relationship. Viktor is putting a lot on the line. He is helping Jayce break into Heimerdinger’s lab to illegally use equipment that has been confiscated from him after a building blew up. Viktor stands to lose everything if helping Jayce does not work out; his position as Heimerdinger’s assistant, the scraps of power he’s managed to claw out of Piltover. He stands to gain a lot if it works out, granted. He says that he doesn’t want to be an assistant forever. But he believes Jayce is worth the risk. He understands hextech, understands the science and magic behind it. Jayce and Viktor share a vision. 

Mel stands to lose nothing. Even visually, Jayce and Viktor are in this together. Mel stands alone. She is in this as long as she stands to benefit. Jayce and Viktor are in the sky together; Mel is firmly planted on the ground. 

Okay, typing it out like that seems harsh, but it’s only to contrast the characters and their relationship with Jayce. Mel doesn’t NEED to do anything for Jayce at this point. She does not know him! He is just some guy! She also does not have the same understanding of hextech that Viktor does; that is not her area of expertise. She is very good at people and politics; he is very good at science and invention. She’s kind of just hoping Jayce pulls through. But it shows how Viktor and Jayce immediately have a deep and connected relationship, while Mel and Jayce’s early relationship is focused on being mutually beneficial. 

However, even after the timeskip, Mel wants the golden boy; she and Elora say as much. But that person isn’t real. And Jayce is not the man on the poster. They seem to barely know each other better than they did in episode 3. 

I don’t think that Jayce and Mel not matching is some huge moral failing on either of them, by the way. Mel does not need to be better for Jayce. Jayce does not have to change for her. Jayce and Mel’s relationship is one of misunderstanding. They just don’t quite fit, and that makes both them and the world more interesting. 

I also can't get behind mel/jay/vik as a ship. Mel and Viktor knew each other for 6-7 years and they still don’t like each other. I think Viktor just on principle would hate any politician, never mind one actively perpetuating the oppression of his people. I get it because I love them both too, but sometimes the characters we like don't like each other! They're not even toxic in a fun way they just don't vibe with each other 😭 I'm chill with the mel/jay/vik enjoyers, but I could never be one myself. (someone said they ship Jayce with Mel and Viktor in the way of divorced parents splitting custody; I can support that) 

What I think could have been done better:

This is to say that Mel's season 2 arc should have focused on her political development, leaving magic for a season 3 (that still had political elements). (Also in my ideal season 2 ending Piltover just gets fucking BRUTALIZED, forcing them down to the level of the Zaunites, struggling for survival instead of victory. But they were not gonna write that, lol) I think a season 2 ending where Mel is kidnapped by the Black Rose BECAUSE she's going too far off-course from where they want her would be good.

Talking about season 2 is ... difficult. Because I do like it. I enjoy watching, the writers and voice actors and artists are all performing beautifully. But I think the show they wanted NEEDED a third season, and only having 2 meant they had to severely compress everyone’s character development. It’s like someone listed all the plot points they wanted, then crossed out everything they could to make it fit. It broadly makes sense, but you can tell a lot is missing. Mel, Jayce, Ekko, and Viktor are all yanked off-screen for long periods of time. A lot is implied, and a lot isn't as deep as you want it to be. Season 1 is tightly written, season 2 is loose. It comes together as well as it can while keeping the original endpoint for the characters rather than changing them to fit in a single season.

But I am very happy that Mel’s story is not over. 

Conclusion:

Anyway, I want Mel to have a lesbian enemies to lovers story arc in the Noxus show. I want her to meet a power player character who can keep up with her. Similarly to how I see Jayce and Viktor as the same character type (inventors) who are different in every other way and THAT'S why they work, I want her to meet someone who is her equal and peer but still so different from her. I want that mutual fascination, that clash and collide, and for her to fall head over heels. I want her and this new character to manipulate each other, hurt each other, and understand each other like no one else can (I like when gay people are toxic in a cool and interesting way). That is my wishlist.

So when I make funny ha ha posts about Mel, I am NOT doing that as someone who wants her out of the way of jayvik, nor as someone who thinks she did nothing wrong!!!! I am a Mel understander and I will die one!!!

[doodlejoltik]

my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator

[longagoitwastuesday]

ngl it sort of pisses me off the way adults regard Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen at times. Which could be a very interesting and poignant point in a good way if well written, but as it is it becomes mainly just frustrating and sad in a negative way.

Nanami saying Gojo never cared about anything or anyone other than himself crashes interestingly with Kusakabe saying the whole situation was just all his fault because he refused to kill Itadori. The students are very aware of those aspects of Gojo's personality, but overall they seem to regard him with way more kindness and fondness even when at their rudest, not truly coinciding with either Nanami's or Kusakabe's views.

[daddy-long-legssss]

had my personal assessment for work and it went well but i still felt like i could burst into tears at any given moment.

[voltaridylla]

I had two asks about my old OC rotting in my inbox -since I changed everything and have Asha now I decided to give this a go!! :) This was a lot of fun. 💖

1) If your OC celebrates Halloween (or their worlds equivalent of) what would they dress up as?

-Asha celebrates Halloween once she comes to America because she of course wants to be like the other kids. A typical reason. Anyways, she would dress up as an angel as a kid. When she masters the art of make up when she gets older, she sometimes goes all out on Halloween looks - that’s the perks of going into theatre!

2) Is your OC religious? What's their religion?

-She’s very agnostic! Raised by Christian parents, they didn’t necessarily practice but had respect for the traditions - also Asha is Mauritian Creole, she is of Indian descent so she finds herself learning about Hinduism purely out of curiosity as to be closer to her history/heritage.

-She is superstitious and believes in the supernatural, after her grandmother and grandfather died she sometimes feels their presence and often times she associates it with good and bad omens about to happen around her. It’s also why Kenny kind of unsettles her though she can’t put her finger on it as to WHY.

-I also want her to be chaotic like in the show so sometimes she’ll feel these presences but no one believes her only for it to come true. 😭

3) Sports, love 'em? Hate 'em? Do they play?

-Not a sport technically, but she loves dance! I’ve mentioned this but her grandmother had a big influence on her early years - playing sega music in the house and teaching Asha some of the basic moves it solidified Asha’s love for the art! She has a sega dress too! However after her grandmother died sega brought her heartache for a bit - during her time moving away from it whilst processing her grief AND identity crisis she gets into theatre. The choreography was some of her favourite parts and it led her to fall back into sega again. She also did cheerleading for a period.

4) What song describes your OCs relationship with their best friend?

-With Stan, I wanna give some lore so here it goes: the two of them were platonic best friends. They both ended up relating to one another in regards to their family issues and struggles with how they’re perceived,,, different reasons of course. They were each other’s safe space. However, one thing leads to another and they start dating,,,, and things quickly become rocky. They’re severely codependent on each other. In the good timeline they end things amicably BUT in the bad timeline, it’s more,,,, complicated. Their song is Elephant by Bôa!

-With Nichole, they’re both best friends and regularly go to eachother for advice, a good laugh and just overall, a good time! Asha loves Nichole and while Asha doesn’t understand all of the DnD intricacies she would listen to her with a smile on her face. It’s just a wholesome friendship based on mutual trust and understanding! Their song is Baby Love by The Supremes.

-With her and Jimmy: years of pining for eachother only for them to get together in their 20s (good timeline) made their reunion all the more memorable. They had their ups and downs and Asha disliked him at one point due to the internal crises she was having. In the end they do care about one another and really admires his drive and ambition to pursue his dreams in comedy - even inspiring her to take a leap towards her goals. Their song is Only Over You by Fleetwood Mac.

5) They're given a super power, what is it?

-Basing this on her FBW persona, it would be hypnosis. Her ‘Gogo’ persona is a psychic who can sing and uses rhythms of all kinds to thwart her enemies! If she wants to put them to sleep so she can get by on a mission, she’d do it in seconds.

6) Will they use their superpower for good? For evil? Or just to get by?

-For good!

7) What's your OCs biggest fear and why?

-Her biggest fear is change, her whole story is about it. She’s moved around and people have come and gone all her life. And now she’s in South Park. She’s also one of the only brown girls in town and things have been difficult for her to fit in, initially she didn’t interact with any of her classmates because she didn’t want to attach herself to anyone.

-It was until there was a huge incident with herself and Cartman that she came out of her shell. She took part in another one of his antics, claiming they’d win a thousands dollars for a talent show and he’d be able to ship her back to California - he had his own agenda but Asha took it because she wanted to go back home. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t work out but it was Jimmy who reached out to ask if she okay,,, and after that it made her realise things may not be so bad.

-She’s still getting used to change but as each day passes, she gets better at coping with it.

8) Has your OC taken a life? How does it effect them?

-No and if she did she would probably die from having heart palpitations upon realisation.

9) Where did they grow up? Country? Big city? On an island?

-She was born in Mauritius, but moved to California at age five with her parents and grandmother! She had friends and fitted in with the other kids but after her parents split up, her mother and grandmother decided to relocate to South Park. To get away from the fresh wound.

10) Pick an element for them! What is it?

-Air!

11) How do they feel about formal clothes? What would they wear?

-Adores formal clothes, especially in adulthood. If she could wear the tight fitted dresses all day she would.

12) Are they a team player? Do they do better by themselves? Are they at any way a leader?

-She would be a team player/leader.

13) What genre of music do they hate?

-She doesn’t typically enjoy metal - which is ironic considering she went to all of Crimson Dawn’s gigs. 👀 She has respect for the genre but it isn’t her thing, she’s more whimsical lol.

14) What are their biggest flaws?

-MAJORLY IMPULSIVE. Act first, ask forgiveness later. Sometimes it’s worked in her favour and other times it’s why her and Cartman get tangled up in the most bizarre mishaps together, especially in her childhood/pre-teen years. She’s also a bit delusional and needs to be snapped out of her bubble sometimes. She’s also a bit of a gossip which is also why her and Cartman even talk to eachother.

15) What are their biggest strengths?

-She’s GENEROUS, need something? She’s got your back! She’s overall a huge giver and would do anything for her friends at the end of the day. She’s also very curious about everything around her and is VERY resilient, she tries to live her life without too many regrets and wants others to know that it’s okay to have setbacks, as long as you’re able to get back up on your feet. She also keeps her promises and would do her best to not let those around her down.

16) When it comes to partners/love interests, what is it they look for?

-Someone that’s passionate and finds creativity really attractive. It’s why she found herself smitten by Stan and Jimmy. 🫢

17) They say people put a little of themselves in their OCs, how much did you put into yours?

-Mostly my own experiences with my own Mauritian family! I’m quarter Mauritian, I’ve visited and I have a very close relationship with my family from there and talk with my cousins/uncles/aunts so this OC is also a way for me to learn and embrace that part of myself.

18) Would you and your OC be friends?

We’re both kinda different,,, sorta, but I want to say yes.

19) Is your OC an introvert or extrovert? Somewhere in the middle?

Extrovert.

20) What's your OCs zodiac? When's their birthday?

-Pisces, March 15th.

21) Do they have piercings? If so how many and where?

-Yes! She has two on each ear. She also wears waist beads in her teens and Cartman rips on her for trying to dress like it’s summer.

22) What's their biggest source of strife?

-Her identity. She’s ‘too’ Mauritian to relate to her peers but ‘too’ American to relate to her family back in Mauritius. A big influence in her culture was her grandmother - her mom tried to pass off as more American so they could fit in and they wouldn’t face any kind of judgements but her grandmother wanted Asha to be proud of where she came from. After her grandmother died Asha found herself spiralling about who she is and what makes her, her.

23) What's their biggest source of inspiration?

-Music! Dance! She also finds inspiration in her friends and in moments of her life, like if she’s out clubbing she will see something from the corner of her eye and it’ll inspire her to write lyrics from time for time.

24) What are their loved/liked gifts?

-Her singing! It’s something she’s really proud about and when she was younger she would never keep her mouth shut - often repeating and humming the same melodies.

-A random talent but she’s also very good at gardening. She’s got a keen eye for aesthetics and when she finds the perfect flower combinations she makes her own bouquets and even does her own back and front yard!

25) What are their hated/disliked gifts?

-Her poetry. She does it in secret and thinks the words she writes are embarrassing or don’t encapsulate the exact feelings she wants to portray. She got Stan to help her with writing verses and stanzas so it makes her a little conscious.

26) How do they express their anger? Are they quick to it or does it take a lot to get them to that breaking point?

-She tries to keep calm but when push comes to shove she will stoop low. She’s impulsive and thinking before she says anything has gotten her into trouble before.

27) What's a secret about your OC that no one knows about? Something you couldn't quite fit into your story or character sheet.

-She still sleeps with her stuffed dodo bird, doudou. It’s the thing she clings to when shes feeling low because it makes her feel like a little girl again, but she’d never tell anyone that.

28) Say something nice about your OC, brag a little. Why do you love this character so much?

-She’s a lil ball of sunshine and I’ve been having so much fun developing her character since I created her !!!

Secret OC Ask List Part 2!! Because we don't know how to stop here, and you guys seemed to like the last one!

1) If your OC celebrates Halloween (or their worlds equivalent of) what would they dress up as?

2) Is your OC religious? What's their religion?

3) Sports, love 'em? Hate 'em? Do they play?

4) What song describes your OCs relationship with their best friend?

5) They're given a super power, what is it?

6) Will they use their superpower for good? For evil? Or just to get by?

7) What's your OCs biggest fear and why?

8) Has your OC taken a life? How does it effect them?

9) Where did they grow up? Country? Big city? On an island?

10) Pick an element for them! What is it?

11) How do they feel about formal clothes? What would they wear?

12) Are they a team player? Do they do better by themselves? Are they at any way a leader?

13) What genre of music do they hate?

14) What are their biggest flaws?

15) What are their biggest strengths?

16) When it comes to partners/love interests, what is it they look for?

17) They say people put a little of themselves in their OCs, how much did you put into yours?

18) Would you and your OC be friends?

19) Is your OC an introvert or extrovert? Somewhere in the middle?

20) What's your OCs zodiac? When's their birthday?

21) Do they have piercings? If so how many and where?

22) What's their biggest source of strife?

23) What's their biggest source of inspiration?

24) If they're evil, why? What happened? What would make them a better person, and could they be redeemed?

25) If they're good, why? What happened? What would make them a worse person, and could they fall?

26) What are their loved/liked gifts?

27) What are their hated/disliked gifts?

28) How do they express their anger? Are they quick to it or does it take a lot to get them to that breaking point?

29) What's a secret about your OC that no one knows about? Something you couldn't quite fit into your story or character sheet.

30) Say something nice about your OC, brag a little. Why do you love this character so much?

[calmbigdipper]

wow it’s the end of 2024!!!

my social media journey has been very… weird… due to mental health + confidence issues I’ve taken so many long breaks that every time I came back I felt like I had to start over again

last year on tumblr/ig, I started posting old (mostly) jjba art and tried to be active — until I got destroyed by the last semester of my awful college degree…….. but since the middle of this year, I’ve been more consistent??? I’m still getting used to all of this, so like… bear with me 😭

looking ahead, expect the usual art rotation of genshin impact (99% kaveh/alhaitham 😔) and jjba (99% part 5 😔) in 2025, as well as other things when I feel like it

as for specific projects… long comics for 🏛️🌱 and 🐞🔫 have been on the docket for a while, and I want to work on them in the upcoming year… I need these ideas out of my head…

I just wanted to say ty for supporting… and here’s to 2025!!! 🥂🎉

[moe-broey]

Why did I start like three other projects when I was already working on a big project when I just got hit with the autism exhaustion beam (requires. At least One Full Day just dead in bed, and then some more Taking It Easy time after)

[watery-melon-baller]

does anyone know a better way to try and reformat a research question for a survey because I am SUFFERING

[sabraeal]

1000 Followers Update!

Due to some super fun chronic health shenanigans, the posting for the 1000 Followers Celebration is being postponed a month! Posting will start on 2/2 with to all the ghost still standing in this room, and continue as previously planned from there. Thank you guys for bearing with me-- I struggled with the idea of even postponing for a week, but it became very clear on Monday that I would not be able to catch up with the schedule unless I took an extended break to recover. Can't wait to show you guys what I've got up my sleeve!