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Hey. PST. I’ve heard Tumblr loves OC content.

So, If you love these characters…

…then you’ll love my OC.

Meet Nula.

-He’s the (step) Prince of a powerful kingdom.

-He’s witty, sassy, snarky, and sarcastic.

-Has a heart of GOLD but mess with his people and he will eff your ish up.

-Traumatized AF (the ultimate whumpee).

-He’s disabled and neurospicy (canonically PTSD, OCD, trich, Depression, and an amputee).

-Golden retriever in human form.

-Loyal as hell (to a fault 😅)

-Would 100% be an earthbender.

-HATES peas 🫛 🤢

-Unironically would listen to divorced dad rock from the 2000’s.

He’s one of the mains in a book series my best friend and I have been world building for almost 20 years. I’ll be posting more about him and the series, as well as original art, snippets from the story, and other random shit. Hope some of you guys stick around and fall in love with him bcz he is literally my most special boi 😭🫶

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LOVED the Dragon Prince live stream tonight; some of my personal highlights:

Jack said he wants to introduce fans to a special guest who debuted in s7 and alluded to it being his newborn. [SIC. ARE WE GETTING A #Rayllum baby!?!! 😭]

Callum is probably dying, several comments were made including a funeral reference 🥲. Jack was really trying to avoid spoilers but I’m pretty sure our boy is cooked. They definitely confirmed that SOMEONE dies.

One of the writers made a flag that said “AGONY” to describe the new season (RIP).

Paula described the tone of the season as “sad” so big yikes

The whole cast in tears talking about how much the show meant to them 🥹 Why are they all so wholesome?!

Cast is begging us to PLEASE promote the hell out of the show so we can get arc 3!

Gren, Villads, or Opeli would probably be the best drivers out of the dragaang lmao (Corvus was downvoted for likely losing his cool in traffic, which is fair)

Claudia is not allowed to drive and Soren would be in Tokyo Drift 😅

Callum would lose his car in a parking lot and then give up looking for it (so real, buddies)

Jack 1000% leaned into Rayllum before it was ever even canon. Same for Paula. They just kinda felt it and went with it even tho it hadn’t been intended. These characters wrote themselves ISTG. Thank God for them giving us Rayllum.

Never gonna beat the #percabeth and #hiccstrid allegations

Confirmed that Callum cut his hair as a response to the Rayllum breakup (no wonder that cut is so emo coded lawl)

Callum immediately after Rayla leaves:

SOREN LOVE FROM THE CAST ❤️

VA’s giving advice to their characters— Paula said she would tell Rayla she needs to work on her human impersonation 😂

Wished we got some more talk about Ez and Zym

Did I catch Harrow’s VA make a reference to that damn bird or did I hallucinate???

Literally everyone loves Rayllum

DIVERSITY REP 🥳

TDP Fandom: “I’ve had Astrid for 5 minutes but if anything happens to them I’m k***ng everyone and then myself”

Do with this information what you wish 🫡 Godspeed, tomorrow we weep

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What does Aaravos want out of Callum. Clearly it wasn't to set him free.

Yea, I think just like how Aaravos' relationship to Claudia isn't so simple, it's just as complicated with Callum.

Consider that Aaravos likely knows Callum is capable of primal magic (as he did possess his mind). And recall what his daughter died for - teaching humans how to harness primal magic.

Then along comes Callum, who is not only capable of primal magic, but discovered this entirely on his own, without even needing to guidance of tomes or teachers. Meaning that not only was the Cosmic Order cruel in killing Leola, it was also completely pointless - sooner or later, humans were going to figure out magic for themselves.

So, that kind of sets up a pretty complicated relationship. If Claudia represents who Leola was when she was alive, then Callum represents what Leola died for. So the fact that Aaravos seems to be targeting Callum is pretty significant.

Which makes it doubly interesting that, on the surface at least,

if controlling Callum is what Aaravos wants, he seems to be pursuing it in a confused and unfocused way:

Upon seeing Callum, he takes control of him in the most violating, repulsive way, brags that he'll belong to Aaravos when all is said and done.

Then...disappears. And despite demonstrating he's perfectly capable of interacting from inside the pearl, doesn't bother doing so to shift the battle in Claudia's favor in s5. Allows the pearl to come to Katolis.

He then takes control of Callum again, has him hold the pearl which sends him into the prison temporarily. Only...it later turns out that Aaravos couldn't have freed himself using Callum here, because Callum didn't have any of the components needed to do so. Instead, this prompts Callum to leave to the Starscraper, where he is purified of dark magic and thus even less in Aaravos' control.

And then in 7x01, Aaravos doesn't seem all that thrown off that he suddenly can't possess Callum, instead just trying to trick him into eating an extremely suspicious looking apple...

So by the end of s6, on the surface it looks like Aaravos' machinations had backfired - not only did he not swing Callum to his side, not only did Callum not help set him free, Callum is now seemingly even further from under his thumb because now Aaravos can't possess him.

Hmm, so on the surface it seems like Aaravos has a very confused way of manipulating Callum...unless manipulating Callum isn't actually his goal.

And when I remembered this image, it all became clear:

Suppose this is what he wanted: he wanted Callum to leave Katolis Castle (to escape its demise). He wanted Callum to be purified of dark magic. He wanted Callum to discover his One Truth...because in doing so, I think Callum now has the one form of magic that Aaravos doesn't.

Because while Aaravos' core is a dark void, Callum was able to fill his darkness with light.

Recall that, due to Aaravos' "fallen" status (which is likely tied to why his chest piece consists of a dark void), he only has access to a fraction of his power.

Of course, due to his unending grief, he can't fill the darkness inside him with love...

...but Callum can.

So what if, Aaravos manipulated Callum into despising both him and the dark magic inside him, manipulated him into going to the Starscraper, where he can free himself of dark magic and discover his One Truth...

...all so that Aaravos can seize him and restore the rest of his power.

All because Callum played right into his hands.

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Act 3 how we feeling

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It’s fine I’ll just go lay down and cry now.

FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT!!

Even if most people are just joking, it bothers me when other people actually think it's all due to a failed relationship when the problem is actually bigger than that. Vi getting to this point isn't because she broke up with Caitlyn. She has bigger, more difficult things going on than just a failed relationship. Adding to that the most painful factor for Vi is when she fights Jinx, which is one of the factors that really affects her. She went from being protective of her sister to "hurting" her sister. (Even though her sister Jinx brought this on herself, but anyway)

"Losing Caitlyn was the last straw, as they say"

Caitlyn was the one who got Vi out of prison, She got her out of the worst place Vi had ever been in. And Caitlyn was the last person Vi could trust and now she's gone.

I mean you can see she wasn't that miserable when she was in prison because she said herself, "The only thing that kept me going, was the thought of getting back to you." Now her sister is gone and Caitlyn is gone, the only two people left in her life. It's only natural that she would come to this point after literally losing everything.

Vi now has no hope no purpose and no one left after all the people she's lost along the way. It's really hard for Vi.

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So how are we feeling about Arc 3 of Arcane and S7 of The Dragon Prince? 🥴

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vox machina comes out in october

arcane immediately following in november

and the dragon prince in December

thank you cold months to give me my favorite shows 🥰 (and make me drown in misery)

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Please ask me about my OCs I don’t have a lot of stuff out here yet but I wanna

Hey, can y’all rb this if it’s okay to send you messages asking about your ocs, cause on god I wanna interact with y’all but I am terrified of being annoying lol

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I knew something felt familiar.

I present: Callum getting possessed by Aaravos 🤝 Stiles getting possessed by the nogitsune 🫡

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Resources for Writing Sensitive Topics

As always, when writing about sensitive topics/injuries/illnesses, we encourage everyone to research and tag works appropriately. This is to ensure that the whump community can remain a safe space for everyone, as well as assist writers in creating well-informed works that avoid offending people and stereotyping, romanticising, or sensationalising hard topics.

Below are some links to resources we and others found useful - we'd like to thank the wonderful members of our community for helping us with finding great resources.

Blogs/Tumblr Posts:

@cripplecharacters - A whole blog dedicated to helping people write disabled characters.

^ A Guide to Writing Disabled Characters

@writingwithcolor - A whole blog dedicated to writing and resources centered on racial, ethnic and religious diversity.

^ Stereotypes and Tropes Navigation

Resources for Writing Injuries (Tumblr Masterpost)

Resources for Writing Sketchy Topics (Tumblr Masterpost - please note that a couple of links are broken due to the post being 7 years old, but many are still working!)

A guide to designing, drawing or writing characters who use mobility aids (Tumblr post)

Writing A Blind or Visually Impaired Character (Tumblr Post)

Independent Websites

Avoiding Stereotypes in Fiction: Characters with Mental Health Issues (WritersHelpingWriters)

How Do I Depict a Disabled Character Respectfully? (Fay Onyx, Mythcreants blog)

Respectfully Depicting a Character Adapting to a Disability (Fay Onyx, Mythcreants blog)

Writing Deaf Characters (T. Frohock, author.)

How to Write Deaf or Hard of Hearing Characters (Melanie Ashford, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association)

How to Write a Blind or Vision Impaired Character (AllWriteAlright)

If anyone has any additional sources, feel free to share them in the reblogs/replies!

POST CONTRIBUTERS - Thank you!

@psychologeek - Thank you for sharing some of the primary resources with us, it helped us a great deal :)

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Boys, when my baby found me I was three days on a drunken sin I woke with her walls around me Nothin' in her room but an empty crib And I was burnin' up a fever I didn't care much how long I lived But I swear, I thought I dreamed her She never asked me once about the wrong I did When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her

Work Song - Hozier/Rayllum

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me in 2008 watching ATLA warn Aang that "In the Avatar State, you are at your most powerful, but you are also at your most vulnerable. If you are killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist" and that if he leaves to save Katara he won't be able to use it at all, only for him to die in the Avatar State in the S2 finale and be revived by his love interest, Katara, because sacrificing her was never the right answer

me in 2024 watching TDP warn Callum that, "Dark magic left a hole inside you, but the star-truth ritual can fill the darkness with light. But beware: if you ever use dark magic again, the darkness and corruption will overwhelm you," and him going "I understand," knowing the likeliest route in future seasons is that he does dark magic again because sacrificing his love interest, Rayla, will never be the 'right thing to do' and that she will likewise save him afterwards

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Warrior cats, ATLA, and hardcore music. Hell yeah.

I firmly believe what ever you’re obsessed with at 11/12 years old becomes a core part of who you are, regardless if you lose interest in it or not. Maybe some of you were lucky and were obsessed with warrior cats or smth, and if you’re real unlucky it was probably twilight.

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writers, don’t delete that sentence you think isn’t good. have it saved in a separate folder where you can come back to later. because here’s the secret, more often than not, those sentences/paragraphs you hated ended up being not just good but great when you came back and reread them later.

and the reason you even disliked them at first is mostly because writing can understandably take a lot of energy from you, and when your brain is tired, it tricks you into hating your own creation and thinking that it’s bad, when it could in fact be a masterpiece.

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OKAY BUT THE CALLUM WHUMP IN THE DRAGON PRINCE SEASON 5!!!

Specifically S5 E8.

First, just him being locked away in the captain’s cabin, isolated and tortured by Finnegrin for the dark magic info.

And him absolutely refusing to reveal anything right now, laughing at Finnegrin for what he sees as a hypocritical thought process, because it would go against his morals and he doesn’t want to give Finnegrin the ability to kill Domina Profundis.

Finnegrin taunting him about his dark magic usage, typical villain spiel of asking if Callum has never thought about it or wanted/needed to use it. Learning that Callum has studied it extensively (and though Callum points out that he has also studied the other types, his curiosity always seems to get the better of him) and has once used it, to save his friends. Finnegrin taking this information in and twisting it on the boy. The defeated way Callum gets pushed out by Finnegrin, seeing all his friends chained up and having to make a “decision” for Finnegrin.

Finnegrin forcing Callum to choose one of his friends' hand to cut off. Not being able to choose anyone, and the gang standing up for each other, offering their own hands. Preaching the love and friendship deal, only to peeve off Finnegrin even more, who tries to goad Callum into using dark magic once again. You can see the way he actually thinks about it, the guilt in his eyes but also the determination to save his friends. Only for Rayla to escape, making sure to take any option for dark magic out of Callum's hands. I believe if Rayla hadn't intervened, Callum would've eventually gone through with it, as the main thing holding him back was said guilt and own mental blockage. Finnegrin then freezing Rayla's blood, putting her in excruciating pain, and Callum, doing a full 180, goes batshite over Rayla being tortured, decking Finnegrin full force in the face. He is calm when faced with his own pain, but when someone he loves is hurt, especially due to his inability to do anything, he immediately loses his temper.

However, this small win ends them back up at square one, with Callum tied up and at the captain's mercy. When Finnegrin tells him that he's gonna feed Rayla to the leviathan, and Callum can't do anything, he immediately gives up the info, thinking that would save her. Only for Finnegrin to turn around and go "nuh-uh," completely destroying him.

He can't even save the person he loves. Callum may have primal magic (one or two of the arcanum depending on how you want to look at it), but he still can't do anything; he is completely useless in this moment. Realizing this, all hope drains out of him, and he does the only thing he can think of, spill the beans. He begins to break his principles by telling Finnegrin the dark magic spell (one of the darkest spells at that), in hopes of him releasing Rayla, only for it to backfire and be completely for nothing. Now, not only can he not save Rayla, but now Finnegrin can kill Domina Profundis. The guilt weighs even harder on him, he has essentially doomed everyone.

Then, Callum gets out, stands up to Finnegrin, using his own arcanum against him, gaining said arcanum at the same time (also, I just really love how he figured it out, using Finnegrin's words against him, and the idea behind the ocean arcanum is just very fun, I just really liked this moment), and save his homies.

So, everything turns out fine, right? Nope!

Callum had to use dark magic to get out, preforming the same snake chain spell he had before on his restraints. When he was all out of options, Callum always reverts back to what he knows, even if it might break his morals. And while this action is totally justifiable, as he basically had to, Callum doesn't really seem to see it that way. Despite knowing that there are parts of himself he can't understand, he still is riddled with grief over it. The deep pain and guilt on his face as he hugs Rayla, not telling her or anyone else what he had to do to get out, shows us that he believes he had committed a grave sin. In his eyes, he is just as bad as Viren and Claudia, and he is still dealing with the PTSD of being possessed by Aaravos, of having the chance to turn completely to the dark side. This paranoia and anxiety makes him keep everything to himself. He doesn't think they would understand or forgive him, and he doesn't think they should, as he doesn't really either.

The ocean arcanum also gives us a look into Callum. He states himself about how it is accepting the hidden depths in oneself, even if you may not truly understand it. Callum's ability and willingness to do dark magic at times is part of those deeper depths. He doesn't truly understand it yet, and may never will, but, like any other human, there are many paths for him to follow. I do not think he is truly evil, or what he has done is irredeemable, but I believe that Callum, like all of us, is neither truly good or bad, but chooses where he takes himself (we also see this with Viren throughout the season). He could become someone filled with light and kindness, a "do-gooder" if you will, which is what I believe he wants to be, but he could also lead himself down a much darker path if he isn't careful, placing himself among the ranks of Aaravos, Viren, and Finnegrin, or he could be someone who carefully struts the line in the middle. The point is that it is up to him. Though he has become in tune with the ocean arcanum and those "hidden depths," him not accurately understanding his potential for darkness could usher him into a much more disastrous existence. Hopefully linking with the ocean arcanum will allow him to slowly accept these parts of himself and find a true balance between dark and primal magic, whatever that balance may be.

(Also the implications of him being the one in the intro rather than Viren...)

All in all, this whole episode was just very whump (even in the B plot somewhat). Callum and Finnegrin were very much whumpee and whumper -coded and you can't convince me otherwise.

The emotions in this episode for the main gang were top-notch. Watching what each character did to try to help themselves and their friends, and seeing the physical and emotional consequences of their actions (whether positive or negative) was amazing. Not just with Callum, but also the others (Ezran instantly offering himself up again and again, practically begging; Rayla breaking herself out to try and save Callum, only to be quickly and severely subdued; and Soren continuously taking the hits to help Elmer find his own worth, saving the gang in the process), was very well done.

ABSOLUTELY SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS!

I hope we get more moments like this in future seasons.

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This moment in Sozin’s Comet where Toph and Sokka think ‘this is it, we’re going to die, we did everything we could’ is heartbreaking for so many reasons. Because it’s tragic and seems final and they were just kids. Sokka holding on to Toph with all his strength even though his leg is broken and Toph putting all her trust in Sokka because he’s the only thing saving her? Devastating. But can we think about something for a second? 

Can we think about how the last time Toph saw her parents they rejected her and wanted to put her in a box, hide her away from society rather than accept who she was. How she thought she was going to see her mom in Ba Sing Se but got locked in a small cage where she couldn’t bend. How she decided she hated them but deep down actually missed them despite everything. 

How she still wanted to have them in her life and did miss them and took the small step to send them a letter. That was the last time she interacted with her parents and for all we know, she never heard back. Hawky didn’t return. She never got her reply. Toph never got to know if her parents wanted her back. 

She could have died without anything resembling catharsis or closure. She’s crying as Sokka tells her “it looks like this is the end” and she believes him. That was going to be it. After everything they went through, they weren’t going to make it out alive. 

And then Sokka? 

The last time he saw Hakoda was in The Southern Raiders. They barely had time to spend with each other after The Boiling Rock and they didn’t even get a full goodbye. All they got was Hakoda telling them “it’s not forever” and a quick hug in the heat of battle. Sokka was so sure they were going to see each other again because he didn’t know about the plans for the comet and he didn’t know what was going to happen in the coming weeks. 

And right here? He could have died with this being the last time he talked to Hakoda. Sokka could have died with only this fleeting moment as the last time he talked to his dad. That could have been the end of it after years of separation with only a few weeks together in all those years.  

And they were kids.They shouldn’t have had to be the ones to save the world. They shouldn’t have had to invent metalbending or save their father from a high security prison or march into battle without knowing if they would live or die. 

Toph and Sokka were so sure they were going to die in this moment. They were so sure the quick goodbyes and attitudes that ‘it’s not forever’ were all they were going to get to leave behind to their parents. They thought they were going to die and had no idea if Suki or Aang would come out of it okay. They had no way of knowing if Zuko or Katara would live. And they never got the chance to get anything close to resembling closure with their parents. 

They just had this trust in each other. Just this grip. That’s all they were left with in the end. Because the world never protected them the way they protected the world.