#while drawing this was trying to figure out what these ships had in common and i think its the

[devsgames]

Consumer FAQ About Unity's Recent Decision

I've noticed there's a few frequently asked questions by non-gamedev folks about how Unity's recent direction might affect them as consumers, and a lot of folks still (understandably confused) about all the Unity happenings.

Given Unity's half-elaborated approach to this decision it's difficult to come up with concrete answers in some cases as we don't know how this is all going to roll out, but I figured it would be worthwhile to try to provide some clarity on common topics where I can.

If anyone has additional questions please leave them as a reblog or an ask and I can try to help. I'm not a definitive source and I'd encourage folks to look around at what other developers are saying on this subject.

Q: I don't get it! It's only a few cents off the top and it doesn't effect most developers. Why are so many devs mad about this if it doesn't affect them?

A: Here's a good overview on the whole situation up to this point. It's a long read but excellent background and likely to answer a lot of questions.

While the pricing decision doesn't affect all developers (due to thresholds), the way Unity is implementing it does and there's a lot of that side of it which is a massive sweeping change. They're planning to track users on a per-install basis, which is an incredibly unreliable approach to business and largely lacks precedent for a game engine. Installs can be spoofed, and tracking universal installs from things like piracy, countries with stricter data laws, etc. is virtually impossible for every type of application. This is why most companies like Epic simply charge based on game revenue, because revenue is tracked and it also doesn't rely on charging developers for money they potentially don't have.

Additionally, some devs operate on incredibly thin margins and 0.15 cents an install is easily enough cost to tank a company, especially in the realm of Free-To-Play where installs don't make money. This also means that low-priced games are at risk, as 0.15 cents off a game that is, say $5, really adds up. Unity also seems poised to chase after distributors like Microsoft and Valve in some of these cases, which is...a daunting legal battle that could easily cost the company a fortune, and this is probably the biggest hurdle they will cross in putting this into action.

Moreover Unity has been incredibly cagey about the actual technical implementation of how this will happen, and it's going to be implemented on any game made in Unity by every developer, regardless of sales or platform. It's a massive core change to their product and how users are tracked, and they're rolling it out in a very unplanned, untelegraphed way across everyone in their ecosystem. Many developers find it difficult to trust a company that makes decisions like this (*cough*Twitter*cough*) and don't want to be associated with shipping games that track users like this.

If I had to draw a comparison it's a bit like if an electric company gave you electricity and charged you for it, but being unwilling (and also unable) to show you how much they came up with the numbers on how much you owe them - all because one guy in your whole town was using more electricity than the rest of you.

Q: Will I lose access to my favourite dev's Unity-made games when this happens?

A: Assuming devs choose to remove their games, it depends on how the platform handles it. Steam, for example, keeps games in users libraries even if they're delisted from the store. You'll need to investigate how your platform of choice handles game removals to determine the risk there, but I imagine keeping access of the game to users is fairly standard practice across various platforms.

This is also assuming a company or platform chooses to remove a game because of this. As of right now it's hard for most people - devs included - to tell if this plan is going to stick as is, which means it's hard to know if devs will de-list their games because of it. It's a huge risk dev-side and I'm sure most would prefer to avoid that however possible.

Q: Should I avoid installing a developer's game if it's made in Unity? I don't want to charge them money!

A: These policies (if they go through) don't kick in until January 1st, 2024, so anything you download now is fine to download risk-free. After that, assuming these decisions go through as-is, it largely depends on the game's sales figures and how the developer wants you to handle it, as I imagine every one will have a different approach. Some devs will signal their intent.

Remember too that this largely depends on the game's user numbers and sales figures, which aren't often made public to consumers and are even hard to track for developers. It's very muddy water, but I'd honestly say you're going to be generally safe to install games. Also keep in mind Unity alleges it's only "for a first install" - assuming this is true, if you've already installed a game you're theoretically safe to reinstall it on your device as many times as you need without charging a dev.

Q: Is every game made in Unity going to be taken down?

A: I suspect it's likely you'll still have access to all your titles you have access to in some way or another. Some games could potentially be lost but I imagine popular titles that everyone is asking about (Cult of the Lamb, Hollow Knight) will continue existing in some form whether that be preservation or re-publishing by developers - after all they're the ones most in the public eye and most likely to be hopped on by presevationists. Unfortunately though, it's hard to know right now and depends on the decision the developer makes with delisting their product.

Q: Should I download all my games for preservation purposes?

A: If you're planning to actually archive them for others! I imagine a lot of preservationists are eyeing this and taking action as we speak.

Q: I'm a consumer, how can I support developers?

A: This one is tricky because options are limited consumer-side. At this point, short of denouncing Unity's decision, even developers are limited in their options. We can't "strike" or "boycott" against Unity because...well none of us work for Unity and refusing to interact with the ecosystem would cost many people's livelihoods. Many devs have already cancelled their payment plans to them or threatened to abandon the platform should this go through.

Consumers have even less options, but being vocal towards Unity especially in ways they will notice - such as their official forum thread or tagging their official social media channels on the subject - is incredibly valuable and lets them know that you as a consumer are against this. Moreover, listen to developers and what they're saying about all this, and what their plans are for their games when/if this decision goes through. Be vocal in your support for devs who are denouncing Unity's practices - I promise if this is scary as a consumer it's even scarier as a developer as this is very much putting dev's jobs at stake. You should also stay up to date with Unity's messaging and what developers say about it - the first step is staying reliably informed and not jumping head-first into wild speculation.

I suspect in most cases boycotting Unity games on the whole is not helpful for paid titles, as you'd likely just be punishing the developers.

No matter what be respectful to the workers at Unity and do not threaten them. I've worked at companies that made shit decisions, and they are never made by choice of the workers at a company. It's a frustrating situation and given how fundamentally flawed these changes are I fully believe that they pointed out the flaws here ahead of time and were likely ignored. The folks working there are not to blame and do not deserve your ire or threats, and I guarantee they've spent this week internally denouncing this decision from management as well.

Q: I'm learning/started learning Unity, is all my knowledge gone to waste? Should I stop learning it?

A: No! Game engines are all similar to one another and many skills are transferable across them. Any game developer who works in an IDE eventually learns how to swap to another and at no point are you ever locked in to one. Practices and processes you learn in Unity are very much applicable in Godot or Unreal.

There's no moral imperative that forces you to let the decision of executives compromise your learning - you're not paying Unity anything to use their engine for learning, and it will teach you skills you can carry on to a new engine when you're done.

[divinecomedyproductions]

RWBY Saints of Remnant Notes: Adam Taurus, Surrogate Brother, Liberator, and former slave worker

WARNING: This post contains is a radically reimagined Adam Taurus in a positive light in a heavily reimagined RWBY AU and has cliche and a ship that may turn you off due to Canon, if Canon Adam has given you a permanent bad taste in your mouth, I understand, this is an AU, just please do not come in with bad faith and ignore me instead.

Said AU is connected to The Emperor-Verse

Now following my altered Jack Schnee is Adam Taurus

Now given the whole grievances the RWDE tag as made about him, and looking back on him myself, I'd had figured there were two options for him, at least in my opinion

Either make him anti-villain or initial antagonist turned ally, which I have chosen for the latter. Either way, I threw out him being Blake's ex because I honestly thought it was kinda dumb and melodramatic.

Though FRWBY as I heard has done a good job tweaking that to make it work as well as Adam as a villain.

But I chose to go for something else, Adam being something of a surrogate older brother for Blake instead.

For this specific backstory, Adam is from Mistral, from a small village led by his father, a respectable Huntsman.

Now I'm trying to figure it out but with my Altered SDC and Jacques post, Arthur Gray(Watts) megacorporation GigaWatts Incorporated has outsorced work, and much like the SDC in Canon!RWBY Adam's family worked at one of their factories in the East under poor working conditions which claimed the life of his parents.

Adam much like his Canon counterpart, also worked pretty much as a slave, and his eye injury I chasing between either branding or a factory accident.

Now this draws on Fritz Lang's Metropolis which I feel like doesn't get enough love, and I will use this clip along with Metropolis when I get to post about the not-so-good doctor, his mega-corporation, and the current state of Atlas later.

But basically, Adam was emotionally drained at that point. A zombie of a young man who felt hopeless.

One day in his younger days The White Fang's Eastern Branch attacks the factories. And the one leading the charge was the current White Fang leader, a spider Faunus by the name of Rina Kumokage(first name a placeholder) and her second-in-command Sienna Kahn. Seeing them in action reinvigorated and inspired him and joined them instantly when the two offered a hand.

However, this wouldn't be the liberation that he thought it was, at least not entirely.

Rina's leadership was questionable over in the East while the other branches of the other three corners were busy, Rina seemed to be driven more by politics than the morals of common decency, and had abusive tendencies towards Adam and later on Blake whom she also took under her personal tutelage due to knowing her late father Kuroto(aka Ghira) who was a high ranking member of the White Fang.

But it wasn't all bad, for while Kumokage was a cruel teacher, Kahn on the other hand was the closest thing he had for a mother after losing his parents, and she herself was often downplayed by the current WF leader.

Soon Adam began to realize Rina saw the White Fang as a means for political power, a demagogue exploiting a legitimate cause for mercenary motives. But he wished for no outside help, for reasons I am trying to figure out, but partially the same reasons for Blake of being introverted, not to hurt those close to him.

Now for his allusion, there's always been the argument he was the beast and Blake was the Beauty

But after remembering an analysis post I can't remember where on Tumblr I figured

What if Blake and Adam were both the Beast? like a collective allusion? Which is based on my RWBY collective allusions theory but that's another post for another day.

Adam's individual allusion however is not the Bull Demon King, but Red Boy, with his late parents being The Bull Demon King(his Father) and Princess Iron Fan(his mother), both of their lessons sticking to him. So unlike his canon counterpart while his sanity may had been bent, it wasn't broken.

Now Sun in this AU is the 'Beauty' to Blake's 'Beast' and as for Adam, the ‘Beauty’ to his ‘Beast’ is and hear me out here...

Yang Xiao Long

now I know what you all are thinking...

But here's the idea

Adam as a good guy I would imagine being this grumpy kinda no-nonsense dude and something of a ham(he writes poems in his downtime) and I feel like that would compliment Yang's 'flirty party girl' personality and would play off Black Sun too

Two ships that are similar, yet different, and I just don't mean in a gender bent way.

But not only that, Yang’s role is also to mend the strained brother-sister relationship of Blake and Adam. Adam isn’t obsessed with Blake but was kinda like “Blake, what the hell?” When she left. He’s kinda pissed, but not a flat-out murderous lunatic.

And Yang being an older sibling herself can relate to Adam and talk it out with him, notably all the good things Blake has told Yang about him.

And then of course Yang does try to resort to some spicy flirting, but Adam being taught about earning the blessings of the parents and abstinence, doesn’t reciprocate the same way.

Spoiler alert, Adam is flustered by Yang’s midriff but also know it’s not good for practical purposes in her line of work. Yang notices and tries to tease him further, only for him to tickle her mercilessly to make his point, leading her to make a wardrobe upgrade for “V2”

And I’d be lying if my this was not somewhat influenced by my Catholic faith about modesty and no sex outside of marriage, but I’d think it be kinda cute and funny to ship Yang who’s flirtatious and likes to flaunt it with a very honorable and kinda traditional dude. Expect lots of disappointed pouts from Yang.

Now his altered personality I was inspired by 2 sources

Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

But also Grimlock in Transformers: Fall of Cyberton which the game is also an influence for my reimagined Arthur Watts

For those not in the know-how, Fall of Cybertron due to it success had become the reboot basis for all G1-esque Transformers stories onward.

In it, Grimlock is the commander of the team and had been captured by Shockwave, who is a scientist, to be painfully experimented on which would turn them into Dinobots. Grimlock, driven by furious vengeance free's his comrades and seeks to destroy Shockwave.

Now Grimlock is still a good guy and believes defending the weak and migh-for-right, but he's bad tempered, stubborn, and headstrong really doesn't see eye-to-eye with Optimus Prime, seeing him as a weak leader and barely accepting him as leader due to the Matrix.

So it's kind of the same principle with Adam, with Watts being the 'Shockwave' to his 'Grimlock', though to be specific, Adam has a vendetta against the one running the factory he and his family worked at. Will get to him in the future.

So yeah, that's my Adam so far.

[waywardsalt]

Can you please tell more about your redeemed Bellum that hangs around with the main cast in post-canon? Or, like, your hum!Bellum ideas in general?

Ooooh, I have a lot I could say about Bellum. I'll go a bit off this ask and just talk about him in the context of post-ph and some other aus, since he's fun and because most of them share the common thread of him being in human form often. This will probably be messy, but I'll divide it into sections to force myself to stick to one topic at once to keep this from devolving into what might as well be a transcript of a discord dms infodump.

(there should be a keep reading just under here- there are a few thousand words under the cut- if it's lower than it should be then idk, even while drafting this i had issues with it moving further down than i put it)

Human Bellum Basics (mostly design stuff)

It's less of a human Bellum au sort of thing, and more like a design for what if Bellum had a human form that he could change into. Kind of like Oshus having his human form while actually being a whale, it's the idea that Bellum can switch between his human form and his demon form at will, and I have spent... way, way too long trying to figure out this design.

I can't quite remember why I decided to give Bellum a human form (could've been anything from doing it for the hell of it to for shipping purposes) and it took AGES to decide on his final design.

Describing it would take a few paragraphs, so there's art! Commission pieces by @roskii specifically, he's great, he did great, check him out. (i dont know how to make these smaller :)))))) enjoy)

Half of it is directly taken from his demon design, he keeps the tentacles (not always present, he manifests them at will and tend to have much less reach when he's human), his eye, his teeth, his hair color (kind of), and half of it is more... brought in by ideas related to Bellum in general, with some vague references to that demon design; specifically him being scarred all over is a mixture of the idea of him as a violent and almost warlike creature, while also vaguely referencing the markings on his demon body (in the earliest drawing I ever did of a human Bellum design, he did just straight-up have those markings. That picture no longer exists, I'm sure).

As a basic reference, I suppose, in the second image, the character to the right of Bellum (Damien Fletcher) is an oc of mine, and therefore a character I designed (totally worth mentioning tho that with both Damien and Bellum while I did technically design them and gave roskii my notes for how they look, he also took some small liberties with their designs and... ugh theyre great im keeping them), so those two could provide some insight to my character design sensibilities, even if they're just a small fraction of the (mental) character designs I have.

Bellum is made up of pieces of his canonical design, pieces that I think make sense considering what we know about him, and just pieces of other character designs. He has more or less the same haircut as Joker/the protagonist from Persona 5. His hair has been like that for a while, but seeing Joker's hair helped me figure out specifically what I wanted.

It's been... hard, trying to give him a humanoid design, I've seen a bunch of other human Bellum designs, looked at other Zelda characters with both human and inhuman forms, took inspiration for what I could do and how and what parts could be carried over. His hair is easy to explain, it literally is meant to look like he does as a demon. Easy. It is absolutely directly inspired by that bitch from Tokyo Ghoul. I'm not looking up the character name I don't care about Tokyo Ghoul.

I keep him having sharp teeth, I've transposed those markings on his bodies as being scars (which I'll elaborate a little more on later), kept his eye and that he only has one main eye (there is nothing under the eyepatch. It's just smooth. If you've seen The Goonies, it's like what's going on with One-Eyed Willy. That's probably where I got it from tbh), the yellow and black color scheme is further kept with a yellow tank top-esque shirt and black pants and boots, and while they're not constantly present he still has access to his tentacles.

He's not human, just pretending to be.

Leading me to some other little details, such as his lack of ears. And nails. And. Other things not visible that he didn't bother with. He pretends to be human, but doesn't care enough to look truly human- though he can pass as human. When he does bother to actually look human, he does have nails and ears, and changes his eye to a human one, with a color of choice. He goes by 'Warren' when actually pretending to be human. It doesn't mean anything in particular it's just a play on how 'bellum' is latin for 'war'. But, most of the time, he's not really trying. A sense of lack of real care is something I try to communicate with his humanoid design, hence him having generally baggy and plain clothes.

The 'war' thing about his character I think is decently expressed in game with him having an army of sorts with the phantoms and him just coming off as sort of violent but strategic. He also seems very scrappy, mostly attacks with direct contact including just straight up running into Link, and seems to put a lot of stock into sheer force and just fucking killing you at any cost after a certain point, but seems genuinely wary and cornered once someone is shown to be capable of actually posing an actual threat. I like the idea of human Bellum being a bit of a brawler in a sense, fighting with his bare hands and just being incredibly violent when he fights like a human, really only breaking out his more supernatural abilities when he just wants to get shit over with.

Part of the fun with Bellum is that there isn't much to him, so I'm taking a lot of liberties with him. His loose clothes are something that won't really get in the way of him fighting and do the bare minimum, and the boots he wears have metal toes for just a bit of extra ways to hurt people. He's built but still soft in places, not intended to be a muscular as Damien, he's intentionally designed his own human form to be a bit unassuming, so I've kept that he's made of a lot of circular shapes, his face is meant to be a bit of a round shape, his hair gives a round shape, and though he's fairly tall (he and Damien are 6 feet tall btw Linebeck throws off every post-ph cast height comparison) I think of him being a bit... small? If that makes sense? His clothes help with that, they're slightly oversized, and his posture isn't great; He's a bit like a delinquent, starting fights intentionally for the sake of violence and putting little effort into his appearance.

His scars are technically cosmetic. They aren't results of injuries; technically nothing but the Phantom Sword and things like it can hurt him. His scars are references to the markings on his demon body, and just further reflection of him being a creature all about violence and conflict. They aren't totally consistent between the times he uses his human form, but some of the bigger ones are, most notably the scar across his face.

I'll be honest. My earliest human Bellum designs were some Tumblr sexyman shit and I've been trying to ditch that SO BAD ever since. I think I've done well. The scar across his face is a big one. An added imperfection, a massive facial blemish that isn't really conventionally great to look at. His nose specifically has been though some development stages, at first I kept switching between different full nose shapes, then brought in the facial scar and decided that he'd be missing a chunk of that nose, then, decided, fuck it! I can't decide on a nose shape, so he gets no nose at all. I think it works pretty well and I like it.

I really tried to get in a lot of his personality to the design, and I don't want to go into all of it in this section, so just keep in mind that a lot of his design has been influenced by the way I've decided to write him, and some stuff I've already mentioned might be made a little clearer when I get into that. As a quick aside, he's pale partially because I've intentionally made him look halfway similar to Link, and partially because I figure he does not get a lot of sun; you literally meet him in what is effectively a basement, and from the way he operates, probably hasn't made himself seen in a while by the time the events of the game happen. He can't get sunburns, but, as he cannot change a lot of extremely major things about his human form, he can't manually change his skin tone in a major way, and it's likely that when he was considerably younger and newer and spent time in the sun, his skin tone would be closer to Oshus's, so a bit more tan.

In the Context of Phantom Hourglass and Post-PH

Moving swiftly on, as there is pretty much no real info about Bellum's background, I have taken matters into my own hands and decided a lot of it for myself in headcanon; Bellum is technically Oshus's son. Not in the traditional sense, but he was created by Oshus and can very much be considered his child, and to an extent, Ciela, Leaf, and Neri are all also Oshus's kids due to them being created by him (yea even considering Ciela calling him 'grandpa', in her and my defense she lost her memories and he is old as a human), therefore making (in some terms) Bellum to be Oshus's son and the brother of the three spirits. I think it's an interesting dynamic, to have Oshus be the one responsible for Bellum's existence, and for the three spirits you travel with and help you defeat Bellum to be closely related to him.

Oshus himself (when you get the hourglass in ph) says that the sand of hours is made of force gems of the ocean king (whatever... that wording means)- which then suggests that at the end of the day, all sands of hours are derived from the power of the ocean king, and Bellum dissolves into that sand at the end of the game, and I am standing in front of a wild-looking conspiracy cork board trying to piece this all together. I find it interesting if Oshus was the one who created Bellum before he created the three spirits.

(This is a topic for another post/fic but Leaf and Neri were neglected so bad in ph and it would be interesting to see more of how they feel abt Ciela before she gets her memories back and how they feel abt... anything else ig. I think they're neat, too, and I like tying the spirits together with Bellum in this way)

In Phantom Hourglass, it's strongly suggested (mostly through dialogue) that it's been a decent amount of time since Bellum defeated Oshus and took over the Temple of the Ocean King and created the Ghost Ship (though I suppose it could be possible that the Ghost Ship's existence precedes Bellum taking over that temple and defeating Oshus), but things across that sea are relatively calm, despite the new influx of monsters and the Ghost Ship making most people too afraid to sail. No one knows it's Bellum, though, and people do know about the Ocean King, so I wonder if Bellum is known about at all by the general public, or is a being that's more or less completely unknown? My personal theory is that he's vaguely known in some sense, as an obscure deity, and that he was behind the collapse of the Cobble Kingdom, since they were aligned with the Ocean King and Bellum appears to be his direct enemy and would likely then target the allies of his enemy.

Bellum seems to do a lot of behind the scenes stuff, never been seen until the end of the game and not even being mentioned until halfway through. As I think I've said before, he's practically won by the time he comes across Link and Tetra, the Ghost Ship going out and collecting people for him while he sits at the bottom of the temple and drains anyone who might be heading directly for him. He doesn't even seem to concerned about hunting Oshus down for good, and I suspect he likely doesn't even know about Ciela being split apart, so (asides from my idea that gods/spirits/stuff like that only being able to be sealed away, only properly killed under certain circumstances) I bet there's a level of confidence that he's got things under tight enough wraps that he's good to do whatever he wants.

Aaaand then he panics when he realizes how much of a wrench in his plans Link is, throwing two sea monsters at him and causing earthquakes, he's a procrastinator, I think. That, or he underestimated this kid. Both are very possible. Either way, it's interesting to look at what he's done and caused, hiding away the spirits and beating back the Ocean King, taking over his temple, creating the Ghost Ship to roam indefinitely, screwing with the Yook and wiping out pretty much all of the Isle of Ember, and likely being the reason behind the increased number of monsters. If you really look into it, while most characters don't really seem to realize, things are kind of fucked at the start of Phantom Hourglass, and it's interesting how Oshus himself seems powerless and even dissuades Link from giving it a shot, even if he secretly wants him to go and handle things.

With my idea of Bellum being a sort of technical relative to Oshus and the spirits, it opens up a handful of new avenues for motivation beyond just being after securing control and a steady stream of prey, I enjoy the idea of it being a matter of him becoming more and more ambitious, far beyond the station he was created for; going off of his name and ability to create phantoms, I imagine Oshus created him specifically to be warlike, perhaps initially with the intention of having him as a more violent protector of the realm, maybe to keep monsters in check or maybe just as a secondary deity for the world of the ocean king; I'll admit, I'm still a little foggy on what Bellum would've been initially created for, the spirits are easy to figure out, but I do figure it was something not as passive as just representing something, I imagine it as a deliberate opposite to Oshus himself to account for his weaknesses. Either way, I figure a part of Bellum's motivation involves him wanting more than he was given access to by Oshus, and deciding to fully wage war against him in a sense. The short and silly version is that Bellum is Oshus' shitty disowned son. Oshus isn't entirely innocent in whatever I decide caused Bellum to turn on him and the spirits, but Bellum does suck: that is important. The Cobble Kingdom looks like it's been destroyed for a while, I figure that was Bellum's first major target when he started outwardly going after Oshus and hunting the humans of the realm.

In Post-PH, he's the group's pet evil squid on a very very very short leash until he starts behaving himself and having a character arc.

Effectively, Bellum doesn't die at the end of Phantom Hourglass, instead being broken down into the sand of hours he's made of and being sealed inside the Phantom Sword- after all, after the final boss, the sand Bellum turns into goes into the Phantom Sword. I imagine that the Phantom Sword, after breaking and restoring Oshus, turns into the hourglass for Link to keep, while Oshus and the spirits keep the remaining sands, therefore keeping a hold of Bellum. (A bit like Oshus just being left alone after Bellum defeating him, they can't really kill Bellum so they just keep an eye on him while he's in a weakened state) They kind of just keep him prisoner at the bottom of the Temple for a bit, and Oshus finally decides to send him to Link's world as a punishment, since he's at his weakest and Oshus wants to get him to learn some lesson, it's a work in progress. Bellum is grounded in Post-PH.

It's basically that 'the villain when you unlock him as a playable character' bit, where he's quite a bit weaker than he is in Phantom Hourglass, though mostly for the sake of keeping things balanced, so Bellum can't break everything for everyone. He's still powerful, he still accesses his demon form, can't be conventionally killed or injured, and move through walls and turn people to stone, the whole deal, it's just that his demon form's size is impacted (i hc that the size of his demon form can be manipulated at will, but the largest size is dependent of how much power/stored life force he has. he's small at the start of post-ph, but his human form isnt impacted at all. i imagine that for beings like oshus and bellum, their human form is a like a 'low power mode' kinda thing) So Bellum is the Post-PH crew's fourth member, the swabbie on the ship and pet sea monster when they need it and when he has the energy for it.

Bellum is kept mostly in line by a vague fear of Link and his general fear, respect, and curiosity about Linebeck. Linebeck is usually the one holding onto Bellum's leash. Bellum is decently civil with the group from the start, since he's weak and unable to return home until Oshus permits it or he gathers enough power to make that trip, and works mostly as a fighter- when he wants to. The earliest limitation I came up for him, since he's the member with the highest chance of breaking things, is that he will just straight-up choose not to help. He decides he's busy, decides it's not his problem, or other limitations, such as his involvement likely to cause more problems that they solve, since he's rather destructive when fighting.

He's the least sociable most of the time, for obvious reasons, but can pretend, and has the least... casual skills to offer to the group, hence why he gets stuck as swabbie (also general disrespect/as a punishment for the ph thing) and it takes a while for him to properly warm up to the rest of the group. He and Linebeck start off on decent terms and get closer through them just initially trusting each other, he and Link take the longest to get used to each other for... obvious reasons, it takes a lot of fighting together and seeing that they can rely on each other and they learn to be decent with each other just by existing in the same space, and things with Damien start off half decent, Damien was not present during Phantom Hourglass (obviously) and doesn't have the full context of how much he sucks, but it starts decent, gets worse when he learns what happened, and then gets good again because Damien's kind of amiable in general and sees that Linebeck thinks he's fine.

SO! To actually address your question about him being 'redeemed'- he does have a bit of an arc that I'm still mentally workshopping. He isn't entirely redeemed, as the group's general morality is a big off-kilter when Link isn't looking or is willing to get a little gray with things, and there's not really a whooooole lot of atonement Bellum can do in terms of the volume of bullshit he pulled in the past. It's less him atoning or w/e for the bullshit he's done, that's not entirely feasible, it's more him just. being forced to Be Decent and learn some actual kindness and think about more than just his own survival, he's essentially forced to actually appreciate life and the world, it's more him actually... experiencing the world for a reason other than consumption and war and conflict and doing what he's been told, he's effectively just on this long voyage with Linebeck, Link, and Damien, going with them from island to island and seeing what's up. I'm going to try and keep empathy out of it, so he's not really relating on a visceral level, more just choosing to be kind and take gentler paths to solving problems and interacting with others. He's also the group gremlin.

The way I write Bellum is definitionally inspired by other characters, Power from Chainsaw Man comes to mind in how he has a kind of shitty brat attitude at times, he'd fling vegetables across the room because he's a piece of shit who likes live meat. He's got his shitty messy delinquent loser side, where he causes problems and acts like some asshole teenager, and he's got his more serious, calm, almost professional seeming side that reminds the group that he's a few centuries old at the least and practically a god in his own right; generally outside of Post-PH I would pick one of these two sides to focus on for aus, but in Post-PH I need to figure out how the two of them work with how Bellum generally operates.

He's interested in Linebeck and initially decides to go along because he wants to figure him out, but grows to enjoy the rest of the group and that curiosity expands to involve the world as a whole; he experiences things like art and music, where he can't just brute-force his way into a satisfactory outcome and has to learn and find his own style, he reads books and listens to stories and sees the different ways humans live on the seas and I want his arc to, in some part, be about him just finding meaning in the world beyond what he does to secure survival, and the other members of the group introduce him to those other facets of life that he has access to, has had access to. The other part is the group getting Bellum to see most living things as more than just prey for him to hunt and consume, but that generally goes hand in hand with the prior point, as he actually enjoys life and figures out what he likes beyond the basic things he was created for.

He can't fall back on just smashing through everything or creating phantoms, since he's far too weak to do either effectively at the start, and I intend to just force Bellum into basically just being a human character with some unusually powerful magic at his fingertips, first just wanting to build himself back up to what he was in Phantom Hourglass, then just getting to see things in a new light. I'm not sure how to explain it or even what I'll want to do when I get to it, but that's the general gist of his arc, I think.

Other than that, he's just the fourth members of the crew with a serious knowledge of... a lot of things as a centuries-old demon and the hardest hitter in the group who can't and won't cook for shit and kind of just learns to actually live without constantly gunning for those bare necessities long after he's gotten them. I don't want it to be 'he learns to be human' because he... isn't human, but just him appreciating life and seeing some value in it, especially as something with as much power as Bellum, it's a bit messy and I'm still figuring it out, but I've got the general direction figured out.

Bellum is effectively the ship's best defender, and ends up fitting into the group as a friend and with his own specific role with the other individual members of the group. Linebeck kind of kickstarts his arc for him and connects with him the most and Bellum generally stays the closest with him, but Damien and Link help him see other little corners of life, as well as other characters he has to interact with, and I think I want Bellum's side of the story to have the most outstanding mundane-ity to it- there's absolutely meant to be a slice-of-life aspect to Post-PH, but I want the biggest points of Bellum's arc to be comparably the most mundane. It's the little things with him. The others have little things, too, but... I'm not sure how to express the difference, but I promise there is a difference.

Outside of Post-PH, though, when Bellum is present in a big way, his arc either tackles a similar idea in a different way, is just about something entirely different, or he doesn't have an arc at all, either due to not being a big enough part of the story or just straight up not being present.

In the Context of AUs

Bellum is only present in a handful of aus, either fully present as a character, halfway present, or just being referenced. When he is present in an au, he's usually some kind of major character, and he's notable in the crimson king au, the space au, the murder mystery au, and the horror au and one of my 'ruined hyrule' aus. (the horror and ruined hyrule au will be put together for this bc bellum's role in both are very similar) (for reference, here's my au explanation post)

In the horror au and ruined hyrule au, Bellum serves juuuust about the same role, just with different capabilities, contexts, all of that, but it's more or less the same thing. He's frequently present, but usually not acknowledged, and is very close to Linebeck in both, and the two of them pretty much rely on each other to live due to circumstances out of their control; they didn't really go into this whole thing liking each other, but have been more or less forced to become each other's friends due to proximity and just. Needing the others' presence in order to survive. In both, Bellum usually is a character who knows more than the others, but doesn't bother sharing that information since it's either not totally relevant or he just doesn't want to, and he tends to be protective of Linebeck, half because he needs him in order to live, half just because he's ended up liking him. (there is. more to say. but since i may actually write one of these aus [likely ruined hyrule bc the horror one has to be visual and it is VERY plotless rn] i'm not gonna go into much more depth since it would require spoilers lol)

Can't say a whole lot about the space au, either, since the story of that one is still a work in progress, and Bellum isn't particularly a major character, though he is important to some B-plot stuff. Without digging up too much world building and background and general story stuff and important plot bits, he's got a fairly close relationship to Linebeck in this au, as a general beneficiary and friend, and he actually tends to mind his own business and just wants to hold his own position; he's not really antagonistic or anything, but definitionally morally dubious even if he doesn't really directly do a whole lot.

In the Crimson King au, though, Bellum is one of the main characters, and a bit different than in ph-related stuff. He spends a lot of time in his human form, only switching to his little demon form a handful of times, and usually just for fun. He plays the role of Linebeck's closest friend and beneficiary, practically being the reason why Linebeck is able to do any of the things he does in the story, helping him from behind the scenes at times and balancing that business with Linebeck with his more outward appearance as a mostly normal guy working for the person who runs his section of the city... who also happens to be him. The vague politics in this au would take a bit to explain in full, but Bellum in this au spends a lot of time keeping his actual identity under wraps, the basic premise being that he's decided to integrate himself into current mortal society like a normal person to see what trouble he can cause, how he could sustain himself while keeping things stable, and to see just how far he can go- essentially, the only danger he faces is if others figure out what he is, but even then, he knows he could very easily cut his losses and go back to what he's done best.

He's not very active in the main plot, mostly giving Linebeck assignments and pulling strings behind the scenes in order to help and keep him safe, but Bellum does occasionally meddle directly in Linebeck's situation whenever it relates to him, when he needs something extra done, or, later in the story, when he gets a bit worried about Linebeck. His general arc is essentially him owning up to the fact that he does, in fact, care about Linebeck's well-being. Crimson King Bellum is fun, because he can't really just be 'violent demon', and I just like the supporting role I've got him in. He's Linebeck's rich friend who hires him to kill people for him. It's fun.

How I Like to Write Him With Linebeck

Of course, Bellum is going to have stuff with Linebeck, both in aus and in post-ph. Bellum has interactions and relationships with other characters, but the dynamic(s) with Linebeck tend to be the most diverse and important.

With aus: There’s usually a general sense that Bellum is above Linebeck, both in the power sense and in the sense that he’s typically his boss or in charge of him, but in a handful they are on equal footing (specifically, the modern school one, where they’re just classmates.)- the most common dynamic is usually along the lines of Bellum hiring Linebeck to kill people for him. Bellum is typically someone that provides Linebeck with things like payment or equipment or safety- in the Crimson King au, he gives Linebeck a fair amount of money, and supplies his equipment and gives him a place to live when he does jobs for him.

I like to imagine there's a level of... recognition? Not empathy, trying to keep that to a minimum... He's almost gentle with Linebeck, and is uncharacteristically merciful towards him. In post-ph, Linebeck survives being possessed and this marks him as notable to Bellum, since most people he possess die very soon after being released, so he's initially motivated by curiosity and a desire to observe Linebeck when he acts less violently- that curiosity is the biggest reason why he's cordial with Linebeck across my aus as well.

With Phantom Hourglass-centric stuff (which is what I'll mostly just talk about here, since it's kind of the 'base' for all other Bellum and Linebeck stuff I do), Linebeck and Bellum start on halfway decent terms, I'm planning a Bellumbeck fic sometime in the future, which is a bit less focused on that actual fight and more on whatever's going on between Linebeck and Bellum. I'm still trying to pin down exactly what I want with Linebeck and Bellum's dynamic.

I’ve fallen back into shipping them, (Still iffy on ship name lmfao, Bellumbeck is taken by the game and ‘Linebellum’ is lame imo, so I’ve been sticking with just ‘bellum x linebeck’) but it’s not really typically romantic/sexual, though there are some aspects of both, it’s still kind of abstract and easier to define with example stuff rather than just trying to explain it in a concise paragraph.

They both go out of their way to effectively research each other before properly meeting, starting as just trying to find advantageous information, but eventually just doing research out of curiosity, especially on Linebeck’s end, hunting down any material that so much as alludes to Bellum while Oshus refuses to say anything extra on the topic. They have a mutual interest and curiosity about each other.

With Bellum, its a similar curiosity with how Linebeck survives being possessed, and a general interest in him as a person, as Bellum doesn't really care much about the world beyond how it can serve him, but felt the need to look into Linebeck. A lot of the time, Bellum starts with the intention of exploiting Linebeck in some way, then ends up actually caring about him, he usually goes through variations of the same arc regarding Linebeck. It works with Linebeck for me since I tend to read and write him as fairly morally gray, so he's more willing to reciprocate Bellum.

(There's also the whole bit with Linebeck being kind of a monsterfucker and having a thing for being tied up and just a handful of like. sexual stuff on Linebeck's end, but we're talking about Bellum's perspective here we can't be focusing on Linebeck)

Bellum primarily operates with survival on the mind, and at odds with anything that might get in his way, and secondarily treats mortal creatures as something to study. When his attempt to use Linebeck fails, he shifts to that studying, and therefore has some respect for him due to his survival. They both focus quite a lot on survival, and don't have the most interest in making connections, seeing most relationships as transactional. They understand each other; Bellum sees Linebeck's mind when possessing him, and therefore knows a great deal about him.

There are similarities between them; not-great relationships with their fathers, a strong desire for survival at any cost, generally low empathy and a habit of mostly viewing others for how they can be used, curiosity about anatomy, a higher tolerance for things like blood, gore, things that would likely make others squeamish, they both hate Ciela...

(As an aside to that last one, an idea I've decided to integrate into my ph stuff and may touch on in a future fic is that Linebeck calling Ciela 'sparkles' gives her a strong sense of deja-vu before she gets all of her memories back; it's something Bellum would call her, when he was more cordial with the other spirits)

Bellum hangs around on the ship, and he hangs around Linebeck the most, to the point of being annoying, but learns what boundaries are and ends up respecting them decently. I lean more into... things just working out, Bellum more or less being put in a situation where he chooses to change things up and be a bit kinder, starting with the guy he's decided was the catalyst for all of this.

He gets along well enough with Damien (damien ends up in that shipping, too, considering that he's already dating linebeck by the time bellum sorts his own feelings out, so in post-ph, bellum ends up being a sort of on-and-off polycule member), he is eventually friendly with Link, often because Linebeck likes him as well. It takes a very long time for he and Link to warm up to each other, so they'll likely end up in situations where they must rely on each other at the start of things.

Bellum is… very not used to social stuff or acting human, and isn’t even very used to his human form at the start, so he does spend that time with Linebeck while he figures things out, as well. Linebeck's not the best role model for decent social interaction, especially since he works on dismantling his own mask and figuring himself out for a bit at the start of post-ph, but he's the only person Bellum tolerates and respects at that start.

Bellum eventually gets roped into helping Linebeck cook, follows him around for ship maintenance, watches him patch up wounds, and just ends up as a crew member that can kind of fill any basic role, but he’s not making it much further than swabbie.

I haven’t actually written a ton of interaction between them yet, but what I have written always comes off as casual, almost humorous, they joke around with each other and Bellum is detached and unserious at times, but very capable of switching to dead seriousness. A lot of the time, Linebeck tends to take things more seriously at face value, but Bellum is more prone to joking around due to the fact that very few consequences mean anything to him.

He and Linebeck are typically close in one sense or another in most things where they're included, and I generally consider all dynamics between them to fall under the ship umbrella, because I don't consider it strictly romantic (though it usually ends up being vaguely like that), just more that there's some kind of intimacy between them at some point. It's a relationship whose dynamic I think is interesting given the... lack of actual interaction between them, but with just enough interesting conclusions that can be drawn.

I guess it's similar to the general stuff I have about Bellum, kind of just scraping ideas together from canon and then following whatever threads can be connected to them, while trying to make sure it still has roots in that canon. It's similar to my personal 'design philosophy' or whatever for my aus.

I've also considered making their relationship parasitic in someway, as a sort of homage/callback/reference to their canonical relationship, but it's not entirely a direction I really want to go in, and I feel like some aus get decently close.

Final Points

I think Bellum's really neat, so considering the general lack of information or depth to him, I've been playing with expanded ideas and building up my own ideas for him, specific within the context of Phantom Hourglass and a post-ph setting, while many of my other ideas with him tend to then derive from that.

His (human) design is one I've spent a very long time figuring out, trying to mix his demon design in with more human traits, trying to keep him distinctive without getting too complicated, and trying to have that design represent him decently with a fair bit of reasoning behind a lot of that design. It's something Bellum himself controls to a certain degree, so it's in a bit of a crossroads between portraying him based on his character, and being something he uses to come off as generally innocuous.

I've got a decent idea of what Bellum's whole deal is in Phantom Hourglass and afterwards, and I use him in a fair number of aus, often in tangent with Linebeck, whom I often give him some kind of intimate relationship, be it romantic or some other form of closeness, based off of ideas for ways they would interact and why.

Bellum's fun! He's fun as he is, and he's fun to build off of and develop further than what we see in the game. And giving him the ability to shift into a humanoid shape gives even more room to play around in. I don't know when I first came up with the idea, but I've had ideas for a human form Bellum for quite some time now, I've just only recently really started solidifying a lot of it. Even between the time when I got the ask and finished it, I came up with new ideas.

But for now, these are the broad strokes! Not just about post-ph humanoid Bellum, just about my ideas for him in general, though it all really relates back to that one in particular, honestly.

He's surprisingly fun to speculate about! I didn't really expect Bellum to end up as one of my favorite LoZ characters, but I guess any character can end up as your favorite if you spend enough time thinking about him. At the end of the day I think he's funky, and he's fun to use in a post-ph setting.

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog,  19 February, 2024: Episode 3.13 “Proving Ground”

Andorian Commander Shran (YAY!) and his ship the Kumari are in the expanse seeking Enterprise while the Xindi are prepared to test Degra’s (the Humanoid Xindi scientist leading the weapon research) new prototype. Enterprise has picked up the signal they planted in the kemocite a few episodes back. They will however have to traverse a dangerous field of the Expanse’s subspace anomalies. They are caught in a large one and taking damage when someone tractors them out. Archer answers the hail from their rescuers to hear a familiar, “Hello, Pinkskin.”

Shran boards Enterprise and offers his crew to help. He mentions that they know about the Xindi attack on Earth, and how little the Vulcans have done to help; he cites T’Pol having to resign her commission to stay on the NX-01 as an example. He states that Andoria sees an opportunity here, and that he personally owes a debt of gratitude to Archer. He even offers up some Andorian ale.

As the Andorians help Enterprise, they begin to slowly win over an initially reluctant crew. Reed in particular is wary of sharing information on weapons with Andorian Lieutenant  Talas who is trying to help him. Slowly he warms to her, and they recognize they have a few things in common. Tucker asks Shran if they could have an Andorian intermix injector. Shran is reluctant to provide the item, as much as he understands Tucker wanting vengeance for what happened to his sister. Shran reveals he lost a brother in service to Andoria. Tucker tells him he’d love to get his hands on the Xindi responsible, but mostly, he just wants to make sure no one else dies from one of these weapons. Shran hands over the injector.

The two ships track down the signal and find a system that is full of debris, which they realize is a proving ground for the weapons. Four Xindi ships and a weapon sphere are there. Shran gathers scans with a ruse of pretending to be a member of the Andorian Mining Guild looking for “Archerite,” and they realize a test in imminent. Shran talks Archer into waiting to see the prototype at work rather than trying to destroy it. Archer says he wants to capture it.

Shran is contacted by an Andorian admiral, and it turns out they are not here to really help Enterprise, but have instead themselves been tasked with stealing the weapon to protect Andoria from the Vulcans. Shran is reluctant; he sees Humans as a possible ally, but the Admiral insists. This leads Shran to hatch a plan with Archer where the Kumari will grab the weapon. As they watch the weapon fire, they realize it is faulty; Archer is happy to see Gralik—the Xindi Arboreal who promised to help back when they put the tracker in the kemocite—has come through.

While Degra is trying to figure out what’s going on and drawing the ire of the other Xindi council, the Humans and Andorians attack, and while Archer has insisted on being on the Kumari, he is there when Shran begins to run with the weapon rather than give it to Enterprise.

Archer was a step ahead though, and Reed, despite the amicable relationship with Talas, has undone the sensor sabotage Shran had her do to cover their escape. When Shran leaves Archer in an escape pod, Enterprise picks up him quickly, but then also find and catch the Kumari. Archer reveals that Hoshi was able to glean the activation codes for the weapon during the melee, and it starts priming in the Andorian ship. Archer will not be responsible for Andoria having a weapon like this to use on the Vulcans. The Kumari drops the weapon, but is damaged in the resulting explosion; they refuse Enterprise’s offer to help. 

As the NX-01 resumes its mission, Hoshi notices that they received a secret transmission from the Kumari before parting ways; Shran has provided full scans of the weapon for Archer to send to Starfleet. Archer asks T’Pol if she and Trip would join him for dinner and some Andorian Ale.

Since I have only been reviewing season three, this is my first chance to absolutely gush about what Enterprise does with the Andorians. It certainly helps to have someone of Jeffery Combs’ talent in the role of Shran, but what a marvelous job they do with characterization, their overall arc from brutal enemies of Vulcan to founding member of the Federation, and the makeup, good LORD, the way the antenna convey mood is unmatched in any of the modern Treks. So glad the writers decided to take the time to figure out how to include the Andorians in the Xindi arc. 

Nice callbacks to previous episodes as well, particularly “The Shipment.” In the modern TV market, the four seemingly unrelated episodes between there and here would not be allowed to happen; indeed I remember beginning to suspect when this originally aired that they weren’t going to pick up on that story.  It’s a conundrum for me: As I look at say, the first season of Picard, I felt like they had too many episodes for their story, but the contiguous nature of the series required all episodes to tie to the main storyline, which for me personally was not enough story spread across too much time. Had there been some opportunities to play with a little more of what we would now call filler, I might have felt differently. I do praise Strange New Worlds for finding that balance well. 

Next Voyage: The Enterprise does literally get their hands on the man responsible for the weapon that attacked Earth in “Stratagem.” 

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[rotschopf-thedrow]

That Dialogue Tag Game

Tagged by the wonderful @dandenbo <3

rules: pick up to 10 characters and share one of your favorite lines of dialogue you have ever written for them!

Major Daryl Coats in my opcoming Kaidan Alenko / Major Coats story "The loneliest Hour":

“I lost my sister and my best friend during the battle of the Citadel,” Coats said softly, taking all fight out of Kaidan. “My sister was one of the navigators of the SSV Madrid. My best friend was a scientist assigned to the SSV Jakarta. Trust me. I do know how you feel.”

2. Chris Shepard and Wrex discuss if the marines on board of the Normandy are paying attention.

Fredricks. Of course. He had seen him equip his omnitool earlier. Naturally, he would try to reduce Shepard’s ability to throw them around like ragdolls. “Good one, Fredricks. At least, one marine who pays attention.” Fredricks actually blushed. “Thank you, sir.” It was that little moment of distraction that Wrex needed to throw Fredricks off balance and put him on his ass. “Are you sure he’s paying attention, Shepard?” “Well, there’s always hope,” Shepard replied, lifting two crates and Williams into the air. “Pay attention!” he barked. “Look at Negulesco! She got the memo!” Everyone turned to look at Negulesco, who was taking cover behind one of the immovable targets. “They don’t learn, do they, Shepard?” “Only the hard way, Wrex,” Shepard returned softly, before he threw all four remaining marines into a barrier. “Dead. All of you.”

3. Chris Shepard and Kaidan Alenko discussion poper protocol. Side note: They have romantic history in that universe:

“Commander on deck!” Joker called when he spotted them, but he made no move to stand up. “At ease, everyone. You don’t need to spring to attention every time my ass is in sight,” he shot back, earning a few laughs and catcalls from the present crew. “Ah. While your ass is certainly attention-worthy, Commander, I don’t think saluting it would be, ah, proper protocol,” Kaidan said quietly enough for him to hear, but for his voice not to carry across the deck. Shepard stopped dead in his tracks, staring after Kaidan. “What the fuck, Alenko?” Kaidan smirked at him and went to the galley. “Careful, Commander. - I’ll have the pancakes. Biotic’s style,” he said to Miller, grinning when the mess sergeant handed him a plate with pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup. “Want some as well, Shepard?” he asked while nodding at Miller to prepare a second plate. “Why do you even ask?” Shepard retorted, sitting down at the mess table. “Because that’s proper protocol. And common curtesy.”

4. This is actually from a tiny scene I wrote for the Big Place server, and the line in question again comes from Major Coats:

“We found him, Kaidan,” Coats said without preamble, and Kaidan’s insides churned. Coats didn’t have to explain who they found. “He’s alive.” “What?” Kaidan looked the other man in the eye, looking for any kind of deceit he didn’t find because Coats was too decent a man to do that to him. “How?” “Hell if I know. Bloody bastard was even conscious and complained about the sun being too bright.” Kaidan choked on his laughter, mixed with tears, and he welcomed Coats’ one-armed embrace. “I’m going to kill him.” Coats snorted, before he pressed a soft kiss to Kaidan’s temple. “Vakarian said the same when he got the news.” “Figures. He can draw a number and get in line,” Kaidan replied.

5. EDI in The Pendulum.

“Jeff and I are in a monogamous relationship, so banging you against a shuttle isn’t a viable course of action.” Kaidan couldn’t help but stare at EDI with his mouth hanging open, and he was glad to see that Joker was just as flabbergasted. “That was a joke.”

6. Joker, a couple of paragraphs later

“You want me to make a ship-wide announcement or something?” Joker said, not even bothering to mask the sarcasm. “Kaidan is back. Everybody: come to the bridge and cram yourself into a tight space because Kaidan’s back!”

Anyone who hasn't been tagged yet? XD @westernlarch, @ficbrish, @briarch, @mallaidhsomo, @clericofshadows, @monowires

[cityandking]

glance, stillness, informal, texture, + hair for minah, narayani & bran!

tyyyy // oc asks: character design edition

glance: At first glance, what stands out most about your OC's appearance? What's their distinguishing feature?

MINAH — minah puts a lot of effort into looking the perfect degree of bland-and-normal that makes people overlook her. if anything about her is distinguishing, it's probably that she's got a scar over one eye, but she wears her bangs long to hide it so—distinguishing, maybe, but not stand-out NARAYANI — it's the easy answer but it's still true: her vallaslin (she's got dirthamen's in a sort of deep red-brown). she also has a scar through her right eyebrow and another along her left jawline. BRAN — it's gotta be the hair. the blue eyes are pretty distinctive too, but at a glance it's absolutely the hair

stillness: How does your OC act while still? Are they fidgety? Do they have any common gestures or tics? Does their clothing affect how they hold themselves while at rest?

MINAH — minah gets a little fidgety, but usually in discreet ways. she's almost always got a line of a song threading through her head and usually her fidgeting is tapping out those rhythms, or sometimes doing violin fingerings against her palm. she's pretty used to waiting around for periods of time—waiting for a stage cue, waiting for a job, waiting for a guard patrol to pass—and she's good at not drawing undue attention. she dresses mostly for comfort and to be able to move easily, so her clothing doesn't much affect her, though sometimes she'll fiddle with whatever's in her pocket. lots of doing coin tricks where no one sees NARAYANI — narayani's got a bit of the hunter's coiled waiting to her. she's not a big fidgeter, but she'll shift her weight regularly and tense/un-tense her muscles so nothing falls asleep while she's loitering. her armor is pretty light so it doesn't cause any real issues posture-wise BRAN — she's definitely a fidgeter; she has a bunch of energy to burn. if she had an idle animation it would be taking her hat off, pushing her hair back, and putting the hat back on, but she's also prone to futzing with the hilt of her rapier or the butt of the gun or her jewelry. her heels have a bit of a heel that affects her posture and sometimes she has to compensate for how the wind tugs at her hat or coat, but there's nothing specific about how her clothes affect how she holds herself

informal: What's your OC's lazy-day look? How do they like to dress when they're winding down?

MINAH — out of her warden blues, minah wears a light shirt, a short-cropped jacket and a wrap skirt or a pair of leggings—pretty much exactly what she'd wear with the orchestra. she maybe? replaces her old leather jacket with the quilted warden half jacket after joining up? I'm still trying to decide how her orchestra fit transforms into her warden fit and unfortunately I don't draw well enough to do a full set of concept options. mostly she dresses in what's familiar and comfortable and allows her the most range of motion. NARAYANI — definitely wears something cut in the same fashion her clan wore, which I am still figuring out. I think it's probably a simple shift with some kind of belt situation and a? shawl? I feel that there's a lot of (lightweight) fabric with a couple belts/sashes to shape it but I'm still hashing out specifics BRAN — pants, shirt (very unbuttoned), hair worn loose or tied up in a tail. no coat, no hat, probably no boots. it's her Hanging Around The Ship look

texture: Does your OC favor any specific kinds of cloth or textures? Is there anything they can't wear or don't like? What sort of fabrics do they prefer?

MINAH — she doesn't really have any preference. she likes cotton and linen and fabrics that breathe. she also has a certain appreciation for silk and satin and velvet and other fine fabrics—there's a certain pleasure in wearing really nice stuff, even if it's only for a show (or stolen from a lordling's closet) NARAYANI — wears a lot of natural fibers? and a fair bit of fur and leather probably. she doesn't like anything too stiff/starched and metal armor is also a little heavy/uncomfy, but she appreciates not getting stabbed so she'll figure out how to deal with a set of greaves or a breastplate if she has to. BRAN — isn't picky. she likes breathable, light fabrics for the heat and dense, waterproof fabrics for the cold and the damp, but overall she's more interested in how much wear something can take than how it feels. she left the silks and the softness behind a long time ago.

hair: How does your OC wear their hair? Does it have some kind of meaning?

MINAH — keeps it cut short about jaw length with bangs, and she dyes it regularly. there's not real meaning, she just prefers it that way. short means easy to deal with and she prefers darker shades to her natural blonde (I think maybe next time skip she might grow it out and start wearing a french braid. feels like a vibe for her) NARAYANI — wears her hair long (about mid-back) and in a perpetually-fraying braid. it's naturally a bit curly/unruly so it doesn't always braid so well, but better that than having it flap around in her face. BRAN — wears her hair long and loose and absolutely wild. she trims it short at some point (about shoulder-length) but lets it grow out again. is it a nightmare? sure, but she likes it!

[purplechaosguardian]

Starry Bandages and Gunshot Wounds

Cesar likes to think he’s doing a good job adjusting with the whole “dying and turning into an alternate” thing. But patching up after an encounter with the MCPD drags him down a rabbit hole he’s all too familiar with.

For @sound-less-noise’s alt au! Go look at all of their stuff is all very neat :)

Tag this as ship and I will kick your ass so hard your vertebrae will pop out of your mouth one by one like a pez dispenser :D

CW for Gunshot wounds, blood, mentions of injury

Cesar doesn’t know why Mark still puts up with him.

He can see him out of the corner of his eye. Mark is squinting in concentration, gently holding one of Cesar’s hands, carefully bandaging it up with their dwindling supplies. There was a small pile of bullets on the kitchen table that had grown steadily over the past several minutes, each stained with blood, courtesy of the lovely folks over at the Mandela County Police Department. Someone must have spotted Cesar minding his own business while in the woods, and since being an alternate more or less meant you were an enemy of the county, that apparently meant you were shot on sight. Regardless of whether or not you actually hurt anyone. Guilty by association, that's his best guess, anyway

He wished he could have explained everything, anything, but as far as anyone knew, the real Cesar Torres died years ago in his kitchen, laying in a pool of blood with the knife still in his hand. It wasn’t like that God or fate or luck or whatever was pulling the strings here had decided to give people second chances was common knowledge. But not as a human of course, that would be far too generous, but as the very thing that had taken his life.

The cops had managed to hit him once, twice (which was stupid in his opinion, he and Mark would still be alive if these things could be hurt with guns or knives or whatever). A third had grazed his shoulder as he fell to his knees, trying to find somewhere to hide. He could hear bullets fly by, hitting rocks and trees. (It was almost comical how they continued to fire even after he was out of the line of sight). He had to bite down on his lip, feeling a burning sensation in one of his shoulders. Stupid alternate body, why did feeling pain have to be part of it? He was bracing himself for yet another bullet, but the burning pain never came. Cesar mustered up the courage to open his eyes, only to be greeted with a gray hoodie he could recognize anywhere. Mark.

The other boy had his back to him, arms outstretched and shielding him from the officers’ guns. He could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves, a stark contrast to his usual demeanor. He could still peer around Mark, and could see that his glare alone enough was enough to intimidate some of the cops. There were a few moments of hesitation, and Mark took full advantage to pick up Cesar and take off running deeper into the woods, not stopping until they made it back to their shared home.

And that’s how they wound up here, in a dimly lit kitchen with Mark covered in gauze off his own, patching Cesar’s wounds to the best of his own ability with what they had, at 1 in the morning with a pile of bloody bullets between them. And it's that incredibly rare moment of calm that lets Cesar really look at Mark. At his messy hair and patched up hoodie that Cesar wholeheartedly believes is practically a second skin, and then at Mark’s mouth, or at the lack of one. At the pale and old scars intersecting with the more fresh and vibrant ones. Cesar doesn’t know who decided it would be funny to take his mouth away, but he will beat them into a pulp as soon as he figures out. Or maybe the universe just likes making Mark Heathcliff suffer.

An excited hum from Mark caught his attention, and he could see the other boy hold Cesar’s arms in front of him. They were also covered in bandages, but Cesar could see there were little drawings and doodles decorating them. It was strange to think that little stars and flowers and hearts were protecting open wounds, but it was something sort of a tradition. Mark had insisted on it every time Cesar got hurt ever since they were little. It was magic to him then, how Mark made pain from skinned knees and scraped elbows vanish with just a sharpie. His eyes began to sting.

He could hear more hums, these ones far more frantic. Mark was gently squeezing his hands, eyes scanning to see if there were any more injuries that he had missed. The other boy was tapping a code on his hand, another relic from when they were younger. ‘What hurts?’ Cesar tried to compose himself the best he could. “I’m ok Mark. I’m ok. It’s just the dust.” All he had to do was look at the other boy to see that he wasn’t buying it at all. His eyes were narrowed slightly, and Cesar could practically see the disapproving frown. He could always see right through him.

‘Not your fault.’ Cesar was about to protest. Surely there was something he could have done that night. He should have saved his mom, he should have tried to fight it off. But he did nothing, he was too much of a coward to do nothing, and now Mark was pulling bullets out of someone that had his killer’s face. ‘Not your fault.’ But if Mark Heathcliff was anything, it was strong, and it always was something Cesar had admired about him. So leave it to him to always be able to pull Cesar out of the hole his mind seemed determined to trap him in. ‘Not your fault.’

Cesar held him as best he could, minding both of their injuries, and buried his face into Mark’s hoodie. It was almost funny how even now, after everything they’ve been through, he still smelled like laundry detergent. Mark hugged him just as tight, and Cesar sighed, feeling the tension and stress leave his body. Does he make Mark feel safe too? He hopes so.

He could feel Mark letting go, if only slightly to tap a message on his back.

‘Love you.’ Cesar genuinely smiles for the first time that night, burying his face deeper.

“Love you too Marker. Love you too.”

[kork-inkorkerated]

Part two (ig) of the Dr:S inspired fantasy AU !

For Nagito, I decided to play pretty heavily into the little mermaid aesthetic since his canon story has decent parallels ( hopeless romantic, tragic back story undertones, unlucky, self destructive levels of devotion) and also because whenever I draw him please imagine his Japanese VA instead of his English VA.

(When it comes to memes , Bryce is pretty good and I don’t hate his voice, but I think Megumi does a much better job of encapsulating ALL of Nagito’s character better( her softer tone definitely helps imo) not just the more comedic bits.)

As for his outfit’s individual details, I leaned into servant’s pretty liberally as well lol. My initial thought for this was some sort of twist on a holy prophet. Like he could be an envoy of the god of the sea or something, or even a water nymph himself.

Like with the Kokichi piece, part of the fun is not knowing entirely what his deal is lol. My Nagito in Danganronpa S had “Ice freeze all” so I gave him hand wraps since like Rantaro he’d probably get cold a bit too easily (and also because in canon he’s pretty sickly) .

The pseudo shawl around his shoulders and his waists have stripes on them, a nod to both old style striped sailor uniforms and Servant’s striped shirt. He also has the skill “debuff” so I decided to lean into the more “gentle death “ type Nagito ( the one seen more clearly in his character songs lol) who is kind of not even trying to be an antagonist but he’s long accepted that it’s just how things are. He also has “sleep”in my game and I like to imagine that translates into songs like lullabies or ballads lulling people into sleep. His shawls and over skirt are white and airy but tattered, to complete the whole eerily beautiful look, like the transience of life that is again referenced in one of his character songs.

For Izuru, I wanted his body and outfit to clash in a sort of way. I wanted to make it look like his head didn’t fit his body or uniform because he was technically “possessing” it. Obviously he and Hajime share one for this specific concept I had, although that was only this design and since it’s a fantasy au, I’ve grown more fond of the idea of them having seperate bodies so I might redo his design!

Though it’s not colored, I imagined him with the typical red eyes and black hair Izuru has. I also really like the “Izuru has emotions he just doesn’t know how to express them” headcanon ( and this is an au so I do what I want uwu) and the Izuru I like to draw is typically the silent affection type. He’s still got the look of someone who is born of apathy but he’ll do things like lean in for a hug or skin ship or be an absolute cuddle monster, all while not changing his expression. Out of all of his design choices , his hair was the hardest. I tried to make it as similar to his canon hair that I could but looking at the references, his hair is kinda a little dumb so I reworked it just a little bit, giving it a more proper whorl and making it a bit thinner to fit the wispy shadow motif he has going on .

The two of them are obviously close in the AU, and much like canon I like to imagine that Izuru is a godlike figure for Nagito, with Izuru being not really all that excited about that lol. I also like the common headcanon that Izuru isn’t entirely ‘bored’ of Nagito and might even be one of the less boring people in his life due to his luck cycle, so that’s in play here. This Izuru is kinda uncomfortable with how much Nagito puts himself down but lacking the full range of expressions he can’t convey it as clearly or bluntly as Nagito would need to see to get it. Part of their character arc is dealing with that and working towards common ground, kind of like a fusion of an old married couple and newly weds lol.

That’s pretty much it for now for this au in terms of characters I’ve drawn ^^

Thank you for reading if you got this far and have a good day!

[libertys-lovers]

A Basic Guide to 🕶️💥Dramatics💥🕶️

Good evening everyone; the time has come for me to begin spamming my own format~ I used the almighty randomizer wheel to decide which ship I’d discuss first, and what’dya know, it picked the goober that the account’s currently themed after! So welcome to a breakdown of Freedom x Karamatsu, otherwise known as Dramatics.

* Introductions: Karamatsu Matsuno is the second-eldest brother of the Matsuno Sextuplets, therefore being a main character of Mr. Osomatsu. With his signature blue jackets (or his even-more signature biker-aesthetic ‘fits), Karamatsu’s known for being a try-hard when it comes to being cool. He thrives off of replicating romantic tropes and using a mysterious/solitary persona... all of which fail. The question of “what’s his job?” does not apply to this man for he does not have one. Meanwhile, Freedom is a comic creator defined by her "sleep-deprived artist” tropes. Though she’s often the common sense of the brothers, she’s also one to happily fuel their chaos whenever she can. She’s the type to go on random hobby-centric or “deep” tangents that nobody else can understand, as well as tangents about American food... for no known reason. Oh, and she’s also an interdimensional traveler- They two have incredibly passionate and eccentric personalities and often build off each others’ praise.

* Meeting: The two first met at the Fishing Holes, an iconic location from Mr. Osomatsu. Karamatsu’s youngest brother, Todomatsu, bet that Karamatsu wouldn’t be able to talk to a girl. Karamatsu, figuring the lone artist across the way would be easy to approach, decided to approach her for the bet. Though Karamatsu tried to make suave conversation with this artist (AKA: Freedom), she was so invested in her sketching that she barely noticed him. Once she DID notice him, she was so startled that she accidentally knocked her notebook into the water, which Karamatsu dramatically dove in to retrieve said book. This SOMEHOW lead to a successful conversation, ending with Karamatsu requesting she draw him. Kara didn’t know she existed before then, but Freedom knew he existed before then.

* Behaviors: The beginning of their friendship had Karamatsu being nervous because he was buddies with a new girl, while still trying to be smooth and cool. Freedom was relatively shy, often not initiating conversation until he did, but she still laughed at his antics (in an affectioate tone) and tried to compliment him back. They often went out of their way to avoid alerting each other of their troubles, both not wanting to be a nuissance. Fast forward to today, when these clowns are CONSTANTLY bouncing off their “r/imfourteenandthisisdeep” personas, making dramatic gestures and statements all the time- They do plenty of performative romantic actions, but underneath is a couple that genuinely cares about each other. When they’re facing anguish, the first people they go to are each other, and the other won’t stop until it’s resolved. Though the two are still easily flustered by physical affection (Karamatsu being MUCH easier to fluster), they’re definitely more comfortable with each other physically than before. Freedom loves crawling onto him just to cuddle when they’re laying down, and he just loves hugging her... like all the time-

* Development of Feelings: While Karamatsu’s development of “shallow lusting because he knew a chick” into “feeling genuine love” was gradual, there was a distinct moment when he realized it happened. See, when they weren’t as close, Karamatsu would always pull flirtatious nonsense without shame. However, as he grew closer to her, he started feeling more shy about doing them. Once he realized this happened, he KNEW he’d fallen into the pit known as love. As for Freedom, she entered the dimension having idealized feelings towards him. Those feelings relaxed into friendship though... until they resurfaced as actual romantic interest- There wasn’t a specific moment that reignited them, rather it was just the fact she kept seeing his dramatically cute and dorky self.

* Iconic Moments: The entirety of The Karamatsu Incident; since she was there, it played out just a bit differently >:3. For context, in the episode, Karamatsu got held hostage in the middle of the mfing ocean by Chibita (his buddy) to pay off his oden-stand debt. None of Kara’s family came, so Chibita felt bad, and they planned to prove his family cared about him... by threatening to burn Kara at the stake in front of them- Now in Dramatics canon (because rewriting actual canon is based), Freedom realized he was out at sea (albeit super late) and rushed over there to pay off his debt. She’d try to prevent the whole “burning at the stake” bit, but ultimately fail. So rather than Karamatsu being left on the street by Chibita (like in canon), Freedom would offer to take him to her place so he could have a moment of peace. Needless to say, he took the offer. The next few days consisted of Freedom helping him with injuries and Karamatsu enjoying himself on the beachside.

* Confession: Okay, so technically Karamatsu’s been confessing his interest in Freedom ever since they met, but nobody took that seriously so- The first proper confession actually came from Freedom (his flirting made her... VERY confident he’d say yes lmao). She confessed on Valentine’s Day, catching up to him while he was on the hunt for chocolate. She stumbled over her words a bit, but her dramatic flair pulled her through. It was overall a wonderful moment full of dramatic tears and phrases, ESPECIALLY for Karamatsu (as he never actually expected he’d get a partner). It was also a very lucky moment since the other brothers weren’t there to see (for they would’ve freaked out if they did / neg & lh).

* Nicknames: Karamatsu LOVES nicknames; he usually calls Freedom “honey”, “my dear”, “princess”, and of COURSE “My Karamatsu Girl”. Freedom (which at this point is just another name for “me”) is ALSO a sucker for nicknames. She usually calls Karamatsu “sunshine”, “baby” “my knight in (shining) cornflower blue armor”, and even “My Freedom Boy” (to compliment his “Karamatsu Girl” nickname).

* First Date: Their first date was simply a walk throughout the Matsuno’s area of Japan; the idea was to just explore and try out whatever they found interesting! Freedom enjoyed this because she wanted to spoil her little scrimblo and see parts of the dimension she hadn’t yet, and Karamatsu enjoyed this because he wanted to show her off and spoil her as well! They ended up trying out a cute lil cafe, checked out a pet-shop, and browsed a fashion store; they encouraged each other to try on different outfits as they took photos! Karamatsu’s brothers kept a close eye on them, and there were even a few attempts to sabotage the date, but comedic timing sabotaged the attempted sabotages :3. Freedom was a little embarrassed (/lh) whenever Karamatsu would show her off, and the two were aware that his brothers were near, but it was ultimately a pleasant time!

* Late Nights: Most of their late nights together are when Freedom joins the brothers at Chibita’s oden stand; she’s usually the sober friend and LOVES seeing the comical chaos break out around her. She’s also sometimes hung-out late at the Matsuno household. There’s been a time or two when she’s spent the night over there as well, though she always stole their upstairs couch for that. In terms of nights when it’s only Karamatsu and Freedom together, those mainly consisted of them taking nighttime walks around the neighborhood.

* Living Spaces: They don’t live together permanently, BUT they spend a hell of a lotta time at each others’ places. Freedom’s more likely to visit Kara, at least when it’s contained in his dimension; she often goes to hang at the Matsuno house for writing inspiration or just to chill, but sometimes Kara will visit her beachhouse too! Outside of Kara’s dimension though, Karamatsu visits Freedom’s pocket dimension literally ALL OF THE TIME. He’s one of the most consistent vistors there.

* Love Languages: Karamatsu provides Words of Affirmation and Acts of Service, but he C R A V E S Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation, like EXTREMELY so lmao. Freedom provides Words of Affirmation, Gift Giving, and Physical Touch, but she craves Words of Affirmation and Quality Time the most.

* Friendships: Freedom’s made friends with Kara’s friends; Chibita’s one of her best buddies from this dimension, in fact! Freedom doesn’t have friends in this dimension that Kara didn’t know beforehand, but he has become close with her lovers and buddies from different dimensions (mainly Hawks from MHA).

* Family: Freedom’s interdimensional parent-figures like him! They worry a bit that he’s mooching off her (ya know, since he has no job), but he’s very sweet towards her AND them, so they trust him with her life. Her interdimensional kids usually find him super fun and reliable, albeit a bit cringy at times. Karamatsu’s family generally likes her; Osomatsu’s read some of her comics and finds her decent enough (though she’s too stuck-up for him), Choromatsu practically idolizes her for working in the comics industry, Ichimatsu thinks she’s too energetic but has her chill moments, and Jyushimatsu LOVES infodumping with her. Todomatsu and her are the closest; they have this incredibly close bond built from being the youngest/smallest out of their respective groups. Not to mention Karamatsu’s parents; O H how the Matsuno parents adore her, especially their mom! Freedom and Matsuyo always go on girls-days-out kinda adventures, and Matsuzo just thinks she’s a good influence.

* Symbolism or Aesthetics: Roses are a staple image of their relationship, for no other reason than it being Karamatsu’s default flower (with it being Freedom’s favorite to sniff). I also associate beach imagery with them a lot, but no particular aesthetics. The passage of time is a common motif/theme(?) I associate with them.

* Tropes: All Girls Want Bad Boys (except he’s only role-playing as a bad boy), Birds of a Feather, Cheesy Playboy x Straightwoman (he’s only a playboy in energy and aspiration-), Chocolate of Romance, Covered in Kisses, Devoted to You, Divine Date (Right? Because of Freedom’s dimensional nonsense?), Extrovert x Introvert, Everyone Can See It, Foot Popping, Malewife x Girlboss, Sickeningly Sweethearts.

* Free Space: Freedom’s able to bridal carry him whenever she wants; this isn’t even because of her powers making her stronger, it’s just that Karamatsu’s light. Their theme song is Buy You a Rose from AJR. Freedom also wears a matching version to... t h a t outfit of his. You know the one; the leather jacket w/ the tanktop that has his face on it? Yeah... she wears that... and wears it proud- They are also Bicons. Their ship name, 🕶️💥Dramatics💥🕶️, purely comes from the fact that they’re both dramatic af; that’s really it. The sunglasses reference Karamatsu’s sunglasses, and the explosion references action bubbles in comic books (ya know, for Freedom!).

[apricot-kingdom]

Thief King for the ship ask 😁

Send me a character and I'll tell you (<- Still Accepting)

**Just a warning, I accidentally wrote 1000+ words and probably more then half of them are slightly off topic

My NOTP for them 

If I had to choose, probably Ryou Bakura/Yami Bakura but only because I write him (Thief) as 32/34 and them as 16/18 and as his little brothers. So I can’t see them in a romantic light, which is a shame cause I had this cool fic I was writing back in 2016/17 that I can’t finish cause I write Thief so differently these days. But as found family they are absolutely the best group you could imagine!!! (Thief virtually is prepared to sign adoption papers for them in most things I’ve been writing lately. Hideki doesn’t mind letting his sons have an extra sibling so it’s all good.) In saying that I still adore when others draw them (mostly cause I know they draw a different Thief King to me) 

My BROTP for them

Mai Valentine, I mean they’d gossip about girls and boys all day and go shopping maxing out Thief’s budget constantly and never even leaving a dent in Mai’s. They stay up late watching trashy tv with the most sarcastic remarks and they try on perfume together. They have loads of fun, Ishizu still isn’t overly keen on Thief but still her GF loves him, what she gonna do? It confuses people sometimes since Mai on odd occasions refers to Thief as Big Brother and Thief refers to her as Big Sister. They don’t know why they can’t both be the oldest sibling.

My OTP for them 

Atemu!!! (Pharaoh Atemu, not Yami Yuugi-I count all Yami’s as completely separate people to their host or past selves) but I love enemies to lovers and the amount of times Thief has tried to kill Atemu until it turned into crappy flirting and plus while he was trying to murder the guy, Atemu still felt compelled to help bandage him up if any of the attempts backfired like when Atemu moved in with Yuugi for a while to figure life out and Yuugi smashed Thief with a chess board. Yeah… he kinda kept breaking into Atemu’s places to fight, Solomon set up a curfew and battle hours because Yuugi needs his sleep. 

My second choice pairing for them 

Hmmm, honestly not to sure. I kinda been stuck on the he’s married to Atemu thing for a few years now? maybe if I wrote him younger, Otogi? but honestly I made all the ancient peeps a lot older then the main cast, I just can’t think of anyone from that era for him as a second choice pairing. But I mean him and Otogi can sit around playing with dice and looking fabulous. Plus I think Thief would 100% support his dice game, anything to show up duel monsters just cause he knows how important it is to Atemu and co. The only issue with this pairing would be that Otogi and Malik’s relationship can be iffy and Thief would probably be one of Malik’s besties if they were the same age -_-

Actually!!! I changed my mind, but like a platonic ship if thats fine, I mean Otogi was sorta platonic anyway so I doubt it matters. But Kisara. I feel like she could kick his ass and he’d be totally amazed by that, plus she looks flawless and moves so swiftly when she kicks him in the cheek to stop him stealing her lunch. He also likes that she’s sorta deceiving cause no one expects her to stand up for herself and he smirks, takes a step back as she tells off whatever jackass was being rude to them. That and they can share jewellery and stuff, probably have things in common about lost and found family, young deaths, unjust deaths. Fire… I honestly don’t know a lot about Kisara but this old RPer (they’ve sadly deactivated) wrote her really well and I’ve read one or two short fics about them and thought they were cute!!! ((still leaving my above answer just cause))

My fluffy pairing for them

Atemu… I know it’s enemies to lovers, but like image when they get to the lovers stage. They’d be so cute and fluffy half of the time. I bet Thief would love to snuggle up to his husband and probably bite him at random yes… but still! I love writing random domestic stuff too and they’re so cute. Thief cleans their place and if Atemu tries, Thief just redoes it claiming he did it wrong. Where as if Thief cooks, Atemu has to recook it since it’s all basically raw. Atemu is supposedly Thief’s control tower to stop him doing stupid stuff, but honestly Atemu can get distracted from time to time and find himself in the middle of it instead -haha >u< ((Yeah for people who didn’t know, basically all I write about is casteshipping already married or engaged. It’s like my second or third favourite yugioh pairing - I say that cause currently two are tied for first, otherwise it’d be second for sure))

My angsty pairing for them 

Mahado / Dark Magician. I’ll admit I’ve never written or drawn them romantically and Mahado’s aromatic and not very interested in a relationship let alone one with Thief, but I do like their dynamic. In all honestly I feel like there’d be a lot of difficult feelings between them, different to how Thief would be with Atemu. Atemu he blamed for a massacre his uncle did and his parents hid. Thief may never forgive Atemu for this, not completely but he can come to terms with it, it wasn’t his fault and they were both messed up kids by fate and the Gods. 

Where as Mahado, he fought along side Atemu and I do believe him and Atemu are best friends, but theres a lot of difficult feelings between him and Thief that I don’t think either would want to address or bring up so they’d put it off until you could cut the tension with a knife somedays. It’s complicated. 

Thief doesn’t overly hold many hard feelings toward Mahado in a general sense, not for the things that happened in their first life, if anything he’d probably be the one to form the crush first. But Mahado, Thief killed him. Thief threatened the life he knew, everything her cared about was threatened because some misguided child waged a war against his childhood best friend over something he didn’t even do. Mahado has trouble seeing that Thief has changed, that things are different now, he more so tolerates him. Which pisses Thief off because he’s worked hard on himself and it hasn’t been easy putting his entire past behind him when it was apart of him for so long, and he thinks Mahado can still be a ‘Self sacrificing coward with no will of his own. Pathetic.’ If they dated I’d say they’d break up, but I do enjoy the dynamic and the idea.

My favourite poly ship for them 

And despite the above statement, most likely Atemu and Mahado. Mostly cause I think Atemu would be interested in a three way, while he admits it’d most likely be a very hate filled three way, he’s curious. Thief and Mahado took a hard pass. 

My weirdest pairing for them

IDK, most of the things I do with Thief revolve around him being married to Atemu, Mahado checking in on him to make sure he’s not fucking things up ((the gods assigned Mahado to do this)) Thief adopting Ryou and Bakura cause Hideki’s always working and Amos and Amelia are dead. He plays big brother a lot of the time, and I say he’d like guys only so IDK between everyone being too young for him in the universe I’ve created in my head and I’ll be honest I got sorta off track with canon and non-canon when it comes to ages and siblings and family and everything else. Also Zorc is trapped in another dimension and he calls him his uncle when people ask and Diabound is just Diabound, his protector and guardian angel. Basically watches over him…

Picture by itself

[stars-below]

i don't know how much overlap there is between the ofmd fandom and rdr2 fandoms (or if modern reader aus are a common thing- i haven't encountered them elsewhere yet) but...

The next thing you know, you're warm, and while not /dry/ not completely soaking either.

You sit up, trying to get a look around and-

"Be ye Man, Spirit, or Selkie?"

Suddently there's a tall man pressing into your personal space. He stares down at you with eyes seemingly ready to pop out of his skull, and stands with his .

"I-"

You can't get out more than a squawk of confusion out before a voice from behind the man draws his attention.

"Actually I don't think that it's possible he's a selkie." For a half-second the second person seems reasonable. "Seeing as there isn't such a thing as a male selkie, is there? Or mermaid either, that's why there always trying to seduce sailors, isn't it?"

A low rumble of disagreement from the several people you now realize are gathered at the far end of the room, seemingly having sent the man in front of you to delegate.

You hear a wid barrage of theories about your apparent situation, from - to wondering if you're under some sort of curse, all cut short when the man at your side gives a sharp reply.

"Except for the fact that there /is/ a male equivalent to the selkie; that bein' a Sea Lord!" The man calls back, with all the familiarity of an argument long-repeated. "Though the title does nae mean he's born of any sort of status neccesarily."

That sends a ripple of disagreement through the group, and you can't help but be a litle mischevious.

"Yes." You eventually manage, pulling your voice as deep as you can. "Something like that."

A [knowing] nod from the man. "And I suppose you'll be in search of your coat, then?"

You go blank at that, but the man doesn't seem to care if you have an answer or not. Instead, he turns back to the other end of the room, where a figure has emerged at the door.

"What's going on down here, guys?" The figure asks, his , "I thought we'd agreed to let the [stowaway] [rest for a bit]?"

"He claims to be a selkie, Cap'n." The man at your side states, completely disregarding the question. "Likely tossin' him overboard now would be [highly cursed]."

The man- who you can now see is [notably] more [well-dressed] than the men around him, as he steps closer into the light- gives a small sound of disbelief, face wrinkling in confusion, and instantly you want nothing but to confound him further. "A selkie? Buttons, I can't imagine that's *real*?"

"Oh, they're definitely real, captain," the same dissenting voice from before pipes up, met with a murmur of agreement from the room, "and it's actually good luck to keep a selkie around. Usually don't hear about them on ships though."

You shrug at that, not liking the implication of being a living luck-totem, but knowing that it's your best bet to not get tossed back into the sea.

The captain gives you a scrupulous look, but he doesn't really seem to know what to think either way. His gaze flips from you to 'Buttons', and then back to the group gathered behind. You wonder if he's actually in charge here.

After a long moment, he seems to make up his mind. "I don't suppose you have any experience in more, ah, *niche* forms of work here on the high seas. For example, say, piracy?"

His tone is, if anything, hopeful, and there's a collective groan from the otherside of the room, making the attempt at 'deception' largely futile, but the captain doesn't visibly react, still waiting on your response.

You nod, making no move to give an example. You've had more than you're fair share of on-the-ground managers in training in your time, and it's not *technically* a lie.

[sesshy380]

10 for Tangled Web of Fate?

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Oooh! Longfic question! *rib crushing hug* Long reply incoming!

There are a few different pairings in longfic, but the main two are Atem x Bakura (which is still a WiP) and Marik x Kat(OC).

I'm going to assume you are asking about Marik x Kat, since it's the main pairing atm, but I'll also explain how the Atem x Bakura came into being as well lol

For Atem x Bakura...that wasn't even on my radar when I started writing longfic. That came about when one of my oldest son's friends asked to look at my writing (they were thrilled at the idea of an adult writing fanfic). They literally read the first two chapters (I think I only had 3 at the time) and said 'Yami and Bakura are going to kiss. I just know it'. Cue me staring in blank confusion trying to figure out what kind of Evil Knievel leap their brain took to go from 'Yami looked at Bakura with disdain' to the RMS 'These two will kiss'. Brain did that 'now how would that work' thing, and tadaa! Two idiots made for each other because I said so lol

As far as Marik x Kat, when I first started 'brain-writing' the story years ago, it was originally a poly ship with Kat at the center (very reverse harem). Due to the many alterations I made (namely the shared Ra relation between Marik and Bakura), I removed the poly/reverse-harem thing going on. I stuck with Marik and Kat in the end because those two do have a lot in common.

Marik is still freshly recovering from the whole Battle City fiasco. He's lost and uncertain who he is supposed to be. Cue this crazy girl that makes his own crazy seem 'normal'. Like her, he is a blend of both the old world and the modern one. He can relate to things she says in his own way.

Kat has spent millennia striving towards a goal that, while she achieved it, things didn't quite turn out at all how she had expected (sound familiar?). She's now torn. Cue (cute) guy who just finished speed-running a similar scenario and just 'gets' her. It's nice to feel 'normal' for a change.

Those two are great for helping each other in their own way. It's what draws them together and helps build things between them. Both are accepting of the things that make the other a bit 'different'. Kat doesn't mind Marik's more effeminate traits, and Marik doesn't mind Kat's more animalistic ones. If anything, they both adore those things about each other.

I could go on and on, but I think my point is made. It just 'worked' (in my mind at least lol)

[thetomcruiseblr]

I wrote my last post in the middle of the night, and I realized I forgot to censor the word "Roosmav" in the middle of a tag, so I quickly changed it now. I've even had to be cognizant of the fact that I can't use the words "Roosmav," "Tom Cruise," "Miles Teller" in the body of any tags I write because it accidentally causes my post to show up in the mobile version of their tags, so I haven't been able to even openly talk about the things that I love because I don't want to cause drama, I don't want to draw attention to myself, but I still want to be able to express my interests. I don't know if they felt I was being nefariously secretive for the first half of this year, but I genuinely just didn't want to cause drama while I was still trying to figure my own feelings out. And I do say what I feel, what I've been thinking, on here.

The reason I wanted to befriend Kat, even besides that she is an amazing writer and was so kind to be one of the few people to leave genuine feedback on what I've done this year, is that she was finally the person to have an interest in common with myself outside of Roosmav that I felt I could carry forward if this doesn't work out for me. I still have so much that I want to do, that I want to give to Roosmav, but I've always said that I couldn't do it by myself, and I can't. I just can't do it myself. It would take me 1000 years to be able to get to 5% of the level of writing that the people there are on, and the stories that I feel deserve to be told for Roosmav.

I've talked about how there are still 90% of the things I want to see for Roosmav - and the truth is that I want everything for them. Every scenario, every AU, every weird sex thing possible for them. I honestly didn't realize what it was to be married to a ship until Roosmav. I don't look for anything else, read another ship (outside of Fuddle's CyMav because I do have nostalgia for how that was originally how I discovered her - her second Roosmav fic was gifted to me because I had been one of the people to encourage her to continue writing for them in her very first Roosmav fic), my eyes haven't strayed to anything else for this entire year. I have not watched another movie, another TV show, played a videogame. Every spare moment I have had has been devoted to writing/drawing/reading/commenting Roosmav. This is how single-mindedly devoted I have been to Roosmav this year.

I have had a very difficult, intense, sad story with this ship. And I don't want to drag it out much longer. I do want to thank Kat for having danmei in common with me, and if Roosmav can never work out, I am ready to go back to what I had thought I was going to be doing by now last year and start watching TGCF, go back to drawing those Chinese twinks. I don't think I will ever try writing again after Roosmav - it's true that I've only ever felt compelled to express actual written thought for them, and I'm glad that I did.

I never got to even talk about my own fics with other people outside of the two very kind people who have beta'd them, and I did put a lot of things that I loved in those fics, that I wish I could have discussed with people. I'm still glad that I wrote them because they have been fun for me to re-read for myself - my bottom!Bradleys were truly all gifts to me for myself: I love Bradley, and I was happy I got to write my Maverick (me) loving him the way I wanted to.

I want to give some things time, but I don't want to drag any of this on to the next year. It's been a very difficult, lonely year for me, and I think through this I've gotten to appreciate everything. Just having one conversation with a friend every two weeks. But I've wasted enough people's time outside of my own - it's the writing that has wasted people's time because those people really did take the time out of their busy adult lives to help me do something like this. No matter what happens, I will always appreciate that they helped me, and even getting their little comments while beta-ing my fics felt like that little bit of Roosmav interaction that I have been so desperately wanting.

I do have nothing but love for Roosmav, the Roosmav fandom, and every friend that I have ever known. I'm so sorry if even writing things on my tumblr has inadvertently caused any conflict in the fandom - I've tried to be careful not to tag anything I say, and I was terrified this morning when I woke up when I saw that I had accidentally written "Roosmav" instead of "R00smav" in my previous post's tag body. I hope it isn't showing up on the actual tag.

[wolfsgravity]

Ship- Familial: Father-sensei (Jiraiya father figure)

The two were by the river, the young Remee with her feet dangling in the water and Jiraiya sitting cross-legged next to her, staring across the water as she spoke.

"It's like my team hates me," the 13-year-old griped, clearly comfortable enough with the older man to let herself really show it bothers her, balling up her fists and holding one up to her forehead like she's holding back from striking herself, "I was never good at those stupid kunoichi classes in the academy, but I managed to pass. Now I'm expected to be good at kunoichi stuff and I can't."

Jiraiya glanced at the youth without moving his head. He had to admit, despite her first impression on him trying to desperately be a more mature woman, she didn't exude much femininity. She always sat with wide legs, shaking one when she was thinking (which was always). She didn't care about makeup except for weird, painted looks (which he couldn't knock, he always needed his face paint). Really the only things she had in common with young girls were stuffed animals and boys, but her taste in boys... He huffed with a smile.

"Tell them to stop expecting a kunoichi out of you."

"Every team needs a kunoichi." She groaned, notably not arguing against not being a kunoichi. Jiraiya definitely noticed that.

He finally turned his head towards the young girl, so different from Minato and his team but strangely just as compelling. "You're still young, and I know it feels like you need to be someone that other people want you to be. But there will come a day when your squad, your parents, none of that will matter more than you being who you want to be."

Remee fell silent for a while, drawing her knees up to her chest and hiding much of her face in them. Ah, adolescence, the insecurity. Jiraiya placed a hand on her shoulders, already strong and broad for her age, and let her come to her next thoughts on her own.

"I hate being a girl sometimes," she finally mumbled, barely audible over the water of the river.

"In a 'I want to be not-a-girl' way?" Jiraiya asked simply.

She nodded, then dropped her feet back in the water and kicked, "But I gotta. I'm my team's kunoichi, and my mom's only daughter."

"Let me talk to your team leader next time I visit" the older man winked, the insinuation that he'd make it back from another bout of fighting in the Third Shinobi War making Remee smile despite herself, "No more kunoichi missions for you, and your teammates don't have to know exactly why. They can think you're a bad kunoichi all they want-- you and I will know you just aren't one at all."

Remee giggled, "Maybe now that I don't have to do stupid kunoichi stuff, I can catch up to that Hatake jerk. Or at least be brave enough to try hard in the Chunin exams."

"I wouldn't call that kid a jerk," Jiraiya admonished gently, knowledge of things beyond Remee's current comprehension weighing him down, "being promoted so young isn't a walk in the park. He's been through a lot for such a young kid."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize to me," he groaned as he stood up, looking skyward to get a read of the time, "just keep it in mind if you run into him. I think you two would get along if he ever had the time."

He looked downwards again and caught Remee with a blush on their, he was going to call them them until they figured themself out, face, and oh, they brought him up because they have a crush he thought with a chuckle. He held his hand out to help the child he couldn't help but feel affectionately responsible for up off the ground.

Their eyes welled up as they knew what was coming next. "You'll be safe out there, right, Dad?"

He smiled warmly. He'd tried to tell them to save 'Dad' for their real father but they had told him they like him as much as they had liked their birth father before he'd run off. He'd been a shinobi, so the older man didn't have the heart to suggest maybe he'd perished in the line of duty. Jiraiya reached out and ruffled their hair. "Safe is hard in a war like this, but I promise you I'll be back soon. Do your best until I get back, okay?"

They sniffled, "Okay. You better keep that promise."

"I will, I will. I'll come find you when I get back. Until then!" With a grunt, he jumped up into the trees, out of sight, to rendezvous with his team.

[homunculus-argument]

There's one thing about finnish culture that I haven't seen anyone else elaborate on, so I figured I would: The finnish concept of honour. Honour is a fairly universal concept, excisting in every culture in some way or another, and you can pretty well draw the outline of a culture by looking at what unique features they consider honourable and shameful among the roughly universal ones.

One which I've encountered in Finland and nowhere else is the refusal to explain oneself into a positive outcome. While this is getting less common in younger generations, I've seen it more in rural and working class families: Children are taught that there is no difference - no difference at all - between an explanation and an excuse. If they're caught with something, trying explain will just be punished further.

If you're now thinking "that's not a cultural quirk, that's just emotional abuse" then well, this is where the distinction between a culture's negative traits and simple cycle of abuse gets drawn: When doing the opposite is rewarded. Trying to explain why one did the thing they were told not to do is just as bad as insisting they didn't do it when the evidence is right there, but simply admitting "I did it", refusing to elaborate, and then stoically accepting the punishment regardless of whether it was fair in one's own eyes isn't simply acceptable, it's the mature and honourable thing to do.

While explicitly teaching boys at a young age that this is "manly" is absolutely not something that millenial parents tend to do with their kids, that's still something you see carrying onto adulthood. Many older men - and working class men whose parents simply didn't have the time and energy to work through their own shit before having children or while raising them - will always opt for the option of being a martyr of their circumstances rather than taking any sensible way out of the perfectly avoidable situation.

Boys who grow up being taught that "excuses are excuses" and it's better to not say why you were late for school or couldn't do what had to be done, will grow up to be men who refuse to tell bosses that they can't work efficiently with broken tools, or can't mangage their duties due to failing mental or physical health. The situation - no matter how intolerable - must simply be endured. It's dishonourable to do otherwise, and unmanly to explain the situation.

While I've never seen a situation where a foreing manager would need to personally handle finnish workers without a finnish upper middleman to handle it, I could see how this could be frustrating as shit to deal with for someone who isn't familiar with the culture. As a part of their international national identity finns pride themselves on being honest, never bragging or over-promising, the flip side of this is the refusal to explain perfectly natural failures.

Finnish men simply dropping dead in their 50s and 60s because of years' or decades worth of unchecked and untreated physical health issues (that may or may not have been caused by self-neglect due to years' and decades wroth of unchecked and untreated mental health issues) isn't unheard of - everyone seems to have at least one grandfather or uncle who went down this way, as did my father.

While luckily this kind of thing is becomeing less common and accepted in younger generations, it still exists as a type of background radiation in the culture - the idea that not only should the captain go down with his ship, but that it's more honourable to do so than to avoid the crash in the first place.

[fireflykaizoku]

Hey!! I'm obsessed with your soulmates swap aus, really i love them they're so good i can't even explain 😭

Could i ask you one with kid but no one can really see they exchanged bodies 'cause they are literally the same? Like y/n has the same character as kid so they seems literally the same as always and it's quite a problem.

Thank you if you do, have a nice day 💕

helloo anon my love! ❤ i'm so so glad you like them! i'm sorry i took long, by the way! but here it is, and i hope you like it! have a nice day ❤

— What are you looking at? — you snapped at someone at the bar. That person was looking at you for you don’t even know how long.

— (Y/N), calm down. It’s your birthday, don’t stress trying to fight again. — one of your friends asked, holding your arm. — Just leave it.

You sighed, taking a sip of your drink. It was easy for you to get irritated and start a fight, you had quite a temper, and honestly, you don’t know how your friends put up with you. The only reason why you didn’t get into more fights, it was because of them.

— I swear, your soulmate better be someone calm. — another friend giggled. — Imagine if they have that temper.

— It’d be a chaos. — you laughed, forgetting about the fight you almost started before. — But I guess the world couldn’t handle a couple like that. I hope they’re level headed.

It was late when you went back home, and you fell asleep right after, hoping you wouldn’t have a hangover the next morning.

Your peaceful slumber got interrupted with a loud bang on the door. Since when your roommate got so aggressive? You barely had time to open your eyes, and realize you were sitting on a chair, in front of a desk, in a room that wasn’t yours. It smelled like oil and metal. What an awful time to switch bodies with your soulmate.

You knew it’d happen eventually, but it wasn’t something you looked forward to, unlike your friends who acted as if it was such an event.

— Kid, the ship just docked. — someone said. — We’ll go get some supplies and head to a bar.

— Go away! — you screamed, still in shock while looking at that body which obviously wasn’t yours.

The man had scars on his chest and right arm, while apparently he didn’t have his left arm, replaced with a heavy mechanical one. You looked at the long coat over your shoulder, the vest and his pants and couldn’t help laughing at his fashion taste. How tacky.

— What a clown. — you whispered to yourself, still laughing. — Out of all people, this is my soulmate? How lucky…

You got up and headed to a bathroom, maybe when you washed your face and actually felt awake, you could find a solution to switch back and go home. Looking at the broken and dirty mirror, your soulmate was very attractive. He had red hair, no eyebrows, a scar on the left side of his face, and goggles. He’s someone you’d look at if you saw him at a bar.

— Now, how do I find him? — you asked yourself. — Well, if he’s in my body, I’ll call my house. I’m sure there’s a den den mushi here somewhere.

When you left the bathroom, you tried to find the transponder snail. It took a while, walking from room to room, but you finally spotted one in what seemed to be the captain’s bedroom. You started calling your house, hoping that your soulmate would answer.

— What?! — the man answered. — If you’re the person who is in my body, you better find a way to switch back.

— Look, I’m not happy with this situation either. I want to go back to my body, so what do we do now?

He sighed, obviously as annoyed as you were.

— I’m the captain of this ship, so you tell my crew to come here to your island so we can switch back. Don’t let people know what’s going on, I don’t want anyone to know about that. I have a damn reputation.

— Are you even that relevant? — you laughed.

— Watch it, just because you’re my soulmate it doesn’t mean you can talk to me like that.

You rolled your eyes, hanging up before replying. First, you went to the kitchen, feeling thirsty. Luckily they had some beer. You took one, and soon enough, you found one of the crew members that stayed on the ship. You demanded to go to your island quick.

— We need to go there. It’s important, and don’t ask any questions, I’ll be working on something or whatever.

You went back to Kid’s workshop, slamming the door behind you. Being in another body was annoying. You didn't know who this person was, you were far from home, and his mechanical arm was so heavy it was bothering you.

When a tall blonde man wearing a mask knocked on the door, opening it right after, you just told him to go away, threatening to throw something at him if he didn’t leave. After that, everyone left you alone.

The only time when anyone knocked on the door after that, was the next morning, when someone said they arrived at the destination.

Finally!

— I’ll be back soon. I don’t want neither of you following me around, got it? — you asked and the crew nodded.

You left the ship, going towards your house. And when the door opened you saw your figure, which was very weird.

— Took you long enough! — he said with a frown. — How do we switch back now?

— I should’ve know you don’t understand about soulmates. — you sighed. — We need to kiss.

— Is that all? — he seemed surprised, thinking it was too easy to be true. — Then let’s kiss now!

— It’s not a simple kiss, you fool. It’s a kiss when we’re in love, which it’s probably not going to happen, so we need to figure something out.

Kid yelled, complained, cussed, and finally accepted how things really were. You two tried to talk without bickering on each other, trying to think of another solution. And after a long discussion, with you yelling at him, both decided that you needed to stay with him on the Victoria Punk until you could switch back.

The crew kept whispering, curious about who was that small person that their Captain just brought to the ship. Maybe an affair? A new member or an ally? No one dared to ask him directly, though, especially since he was in a bad mood.

Kid still didn’t want the crew to know, even though Killer was smart enough and could probably help. You spent many times together at his workshop, seeing him work while you complained you were bored. At night, you two agreed that sleeping in his room would be the best. The red haired man let you keep the bed, saying he didn’t want his body to be sick or in pain, apparently. Whenever his mechanical arm got too heavy, he tried to ease the weight or help you take it off.

Eventually, you had longer conversations with him, seeing you two had a lot in common, surprisingly.

The showers were a little weird, especially during the first few times, when he kept saying your body was very hot, making you feel flustered for the first time in your life. But after a while, it just felt normal.

It has been almost a month since you two met. The ship had docked and everyone was at a bar. A man was flirting with you, or well, with Kid, while thinking it was you. Indeed, you used to draw attention from people when you went out, and you forgot about that until a man was approaching Eustass, complimenting his beautiful looks.

Feeling annoyed, and perhaps even a little jealous thinking that other men wanted you, he got up from his sit and pulled you into a kiss. Of course, the crew had their eyes open. Who knew the mysterious person Kid brought was that straightforward, and who knew their captain would let someone steal a kiss from him.

The kiss wasn’t romantic or cute. It was full of passion and desire, it was unexpected and possessive, as if he was saying “you’re mine”. He bit your lip, and it felt like he was claiming you. Honestly, it was a good feeling, as if you’ve been waiting, without even knowing, for him to make this first move.

You felt butterflies, something you’ve never felt before.

When you opened your eyes, you saw his figure towering over you, and a grin that wouldn’t leave his face so soon. He pulled you closer, making it clear that you were his. He didn’t even ask, but your answer would be “yes” anyway.

— I can’t believe we finally switched back. — he laughed, flexing his arm. — I missed my body.

The crew gasped.

— Switch back? — Heat asked. — Wait, you were in (Y/N)’s body this whole time? And (Y/N) was in your body?

— I must say, I’m surprised. I couldn’t notice any difference. — Killer said. — You two are very alike.

At first, you two seemed offended until realizing the masked man was actually right. You two has the same personality, and it wasn’t what you expected your soulmate to be. Someone peaceful and quiet would be fun, but someone who could raise a little hell with you could be even better.

— You’re annoying sometimes, but I want you to sail with me anyway. — he said gently lifting your chin with his index finger, still with his signature smirk on his face.