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#My AU is a lot more complex than a simple character swap but I really felt like LWJ + YLLZ fit this scene.
poorly-drawn-mdzs · 6 months
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"See you tomorrow"
MDZS Disco Elysium AU part 4 [prev parts]
#better drawn mdzs#MDZS Disco Elysium AU#mdzs au#Lan wangji#wei wuxian#yiling laozu#Happy Belated Halloween!#digital art#Thank you all for your patience as I drove myself into a madness only known by those lost at seas alone.#I put a lot of time into this one! It's not perfect but I am very happy with it + I am so happy to put down the tablet pen.#Digital art has some nice features but I'm sticking with traditional! I need a month to recover from the 2+ weeks of torture.#Okay lets talk about the AU and the comic now#Disco elysium has some of the best existential-horror-dream sequences I have ever seen.#The dialogue here is heavily inspired by The Final Dream - A scene I'd love to talk about more were it not so heavy with spoilers.#My AU is a lot more complex than a simple character swap but I really felt like LWJ + YLLZ fit this scene.#The final dream is about being unable to move on from a lost love. From something You made holy. From something You ruined.#It is about realizing that no matter how smart you are or what you offer or how you try to change -#You will never be able to turn back time. You will never ever be able to fix what is broken. That you also have been broken for a long time#You are a fuck-up who worships the nail covered ground of someone who did not want to be holy. And even though it hurts-#You cannot let this nightmare go. The pain keeps the love close. It is worse to forget. You promised to remember.#WWX died thinking LWJ disliked him. LWJ lost someone he thought was revolted by his love.
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earnestly-endlessly · 3 years
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I love your fic recs! Do you have any with Protective!Erik?
Protective! Erik is one of my favourite tropes so I have a TON of fics to share with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Protective! Erik fic recs
Erik Lehnsherr's Guide to Saving the Universe By Meeting Your Soul-Mate and Falling in Love in Less than 72 Hours – madneto, Pangea
Summary: Army Pilot Erik Lehnsherr is just trying to enjoy his day off when a mostly naked person crashes through the roof of his car. Even more alarming, the strange falling naked person—who goes by Charles Xavier when he's not speaking an ancient dead language—brings tidings of the apparent potential end of the world, and begs Erik to help him put a stop to it.
Well. His mother has been nagging at him to go out and meet new people.
In Sound and Silence – endingthemes
Summary: Erik is assigned to care for the special patient in room 301.
How Not To Meet Your Future Boyfriend – ikeracity
Summary: Erik punches Charles in the face the first time they meet. There isn't anywhere their relationship can go from there but up.
Forgotten – FuryRed
Summary: Charles is having a really bad day. Not only has he woken up in the middle of the afternoon with no idea where he is or how he got there, but when he returns home he’s confronted by a stranger with intense eyes, who insists that he knows Charles rather more intimately than Charles remembers…
Thou Shalt Not Eat Stones – valancysnaith
Summary: Two months after Washington, Raven found Erik in a skeevy motel off the Florida interstate.
“They have Charles, Erik,” she said.
The bedframe shrieked. In the bathroom, the showerhead snapped in half and clattered into the tub.
Demoted – JayPendragon
Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a detective-specialist with the NYPD Mutant Tactical Unit, ready to help out where his skills are needed. Or he would be, if he and his partner hadn’t been demoted. For the next four months, he is patrolling the Lenox Hill precinct with Azazel – if he doesn’t die of boredom first. One night they are called in to investigate a potential case of domestic violence, yet the tenant assures them he is both alone and unharmed. However, there is something about this Charles Xavier that compels Erik to follow up.
Warning: Sensitive material, domestic abuse and dubious consent
Watch Your Back – swoopswoop
Summary: Bodyguard AU where Erik is overly protective and things aren't as simple as they seem.
If We Met Differently – swoopswoop
Summary: Erik wasn't the only mutant 'taken in' by Shaw, Erik learns this the hard way when a new mutant is dropped into his cell. They manage to escape together, but things aren't all roses after that. Erik has a score to settle and needs to make sure Charles is safe.
The Color of Love (Character Swap Remix) – BadLuckBlueEyes
Summary: Nobody sees in color until they meet their soulmates. When your soulmate dies, your vision returns to black and white. What happens when your soulmate only dies for a few minutes?
Omega Online – miss_aphelion
Summary: Newly imprinted Charles is having trouble dealing with his overly protective alpha—so in desperation he seeks advice in an omega chat room. Emma Frost is more than happy to help, Raven isn't helping at all, and Erik can't stand to be out of touch with Charles for more than five minutes at a time.
Cannot be Contained in Words – wallhaditcoming (uvcatastrophe) 
Summary: Crime syndicate head Erik Lehnsherr travels to London on business, where he meets oxford student Charles Xavier. Their liaison spawns into a years long transatlantic affair, kept apart by Erik's work and Charles' studies,which Erik chronicles in photographs. When distance ceases to be an issue after four long years, the overlap between Charles' past and Erik's work create a whole new set of complications.
A Pertinent Reminder – ikeracity, Pangea
Summary: Sometimes it's easy to forget that getting involved in Erik's mob business isn't all fine dining and sex on yachts. There's nothing like taking a couple of bullets to remind Charles of the reality.
Part 3 of the Associates series
A Dangerous Game – ikeracity, pangea
Summary: When a familiar enemy of Erik's returns to the city for some old-fashioned revenge, Charles is sucked deeper into the world of the mob than ever before.
Part 6 of the Associates series
You don’t choose the thug life (except when you do) – Anonymous
Summary: Charles is kidnapped and discovers that Erik, the Alpha he has been dating for the past few months and is head-over-heels for, is not just a wealthy businessman but actually the head of a syndicate.
He is rather unhappy about this discovery and Erik gets an earful for lying to him. Then Charles is kidnapped again and really, he hopes mating Erik won't result in weekly kidnapping because he has a thesis to finish and papers to grade.
Marrying a Mob – Ook
Summary: Charles is a teacher at a very exclusive school. When armed men burst in on the trail of two children, of course he stands up to them and gets hurt. The children are Erik Lehnsherr's children (of course); a "prominent businessman" or, less politely, "mobster".
Erik is grateful to Charles for saving his children's lives at the cost of his kneecap. So very grateful.
Naturally he tries to reward Charles for his actions. Equally naturally, Charles will be having none of that.
Azazel finds the whole thing unspeakably hilarious. Naturally.
Rumor Has It – blueink3
Summary: "Did I hear the doorbell earlier?"
"Yeah, but I'd steer clear if I were you. It seemed a little tense. I don't know what's going on, but there's a kid out there who looks freakily like the prof."
Nearly six months after Cuba, Charles' life is turned upside down for the second time. Though he's slowly learning to adapt to the first, he's not sure he can handle the second. Luckily for him, there are a few people out there more than willing to help.
Forward Momentum – AsYouWish
Summary: Six months after Cuba, Charles and Erik find themselves thrown fifty years into the future, where they meet their older selves, the Avengers, and a world that's very different from their own. Faced with the pieces of their broken relationship, an unparalleled adversary, and dealing with Tony Stark on a daily basis, Charles and Erik do their best to adapt while trying to find a way back home -- and to each other.
Runs in the Family – Anonysquirrel (chibirisuchan)
Summary: Alex knew his own reputation. Hell, he'd started some of his own reputation, because it kept some of the smarter thugs off his back. Everyone knew Alex's reputation. There was no way Hank didn't know his reputation, but he'd brought Alex into a house with some really expensive things and a lot of innocent little kids and his too-friendly, too-harmless dad.
But clearly Hank hadn't told his family anything about Alex, just like he hadn't told Alex anything about his family. At least, not about the brain-breaking parts of his family.
"I didn't know where to start," Hank said, for the dozenth time.
Featuring mpreg!Charles in a Kiss The Cook apron, overprotective!Erik in wet black leather, and baked goods. Lots and lots of baked goods.
Round the Corner Waiting – swoopswoop
Summary: When things go so spectacularly wrong during a relationship, Charles - now a single dad - almost makes a big mistake, only to be stopped by a mysterious man who just might turn his life back around.
Hide Your Fires – swoopswoop
Summary: As the sole heir, Prince Charles, had no problem with the roles and responsibility that would come with ruling a kingdom. Though he was the only one who did not see a problem. After years of being shuttled back and forth between kingdoms, his Regent hoping he would find a match more suitable to being King, he is finally sent to Genosha. Though the path has never been less clear than the one to a foreign kingdom with no ties to his native land.
Shaw’s Captive – swoopswoop
Summary: Magneto killed Shaw, it had to be done for the sake of mutant-kind but what he wasn't expecting to find hidden deep with Shaw's complex was a man held captive, obviously tortured, that somehow made Magneto turn into Erik.
Erik now has a potential human in his citadel as he continues the war with the human's.
Mind’s Eye Blind – Sperare 
Summary: As far as Erik is concerned, if you want to scare a person into talking, you have to present him with something more compelling than what he stands to lose...
And there is nothing in the world more compelling than Charles.
Chipped – Rosawyn 
Summary: Magneto's fledgling Brotherhood find Charles Xavier in a mutations research lab as an apparently willing subject for an experimental suppression device.
Okay, I Feel Better Now – Harleydoll
Summary: The AU in which Erik is sent to a mental health facility after being convicted for Shaw's murder and pleads insanity, and Charles is his paranoid schizophrenic of a roommate. Powers, Hellfire conspiracies, protective!Erik, and of course the inevitable angst.
Five Nights in Nuremberg – FuryRed
Summary: When Charles escapes from the mutant prison he has been held in for the last two years he knows that he’s going to need help to avoid being recaptured.
What he doesn’t expect is that help will come in the form of a mysterious German man who rescues Charles and takes him to his home; a handsome stranger who, frustratingly, doesn’t speak a single word of English…
Five Bullet Points – Sperare
Summary: It was supposed to be Erik locked away in a prison one hundred stories below the ground.
Charles was never supposed to be there with him.
Notes: Unfinished but an excellent read. Highly recommend it.
Stolen – ishipitsobad
Summary: Erik is a miserable, grumpy, cantankerous bastard, and he has every fucking right to be. He drew the short end of the stick when he got the Underworld as his domain, and there isn't very much fun to be had in judging and governing dead souls who would rather be anywhere else but with Erik in the depths of Hell.
So when he meets Charles, brilliant and lovely Charles who is more popularly known amongst the mortals as Persephone, and feels the promise of something wonderful that could make his eternally doomed existence infinitely more bearable... you can bet all your drachmas Erik's not going to let Charles go any fucking time soon.
My Barbaric Darling – baehj2915
Summary: Erik is revivified caveman. Charles is the anthropologist(?) taking care of him. This is as ridiculous as it sounds. Romcom misunderstandings and prehistoric wooing ensues.
Swimming with Sharks – Not_You
Summary: Erik used to be a shark. Now he's not, and has to figure out how to be a good human father to his twins. Charles is willing to help.
Eucalyptus leaf of my soul - kageillusionz, ourgirlfriday
Summary: Zookeeper Raven at Taronga Zoo keeps having ideas on how to capitalize on interest in the zoo mascots, Koala Charles and Drop Bear Erik (the only drop bear in captivity!), who have captured the hearts and minds of the public. First it was to introduce prospective mates (It’ll generate attention, Hank. People are perverts. They’d love to see koala porn.). This idea was not effective the first through fifth attempts, as Erik and Charles seemed to show at best polite interest in the newcomer before resuming whatever marsupial debate they had going. However, the resulting lesbian koala orgies did indeed generate interest. Then Raven unveiled the Hug-A-Koala program, which was successful, as the public showed great interest in hugging Charles, and Charles seemed to enjoy being hugged.
Then Raven unveiled the Hug-A-Drop Bear program, and Hank, not for the first time, wished he had a flask handy.
Notes: Yes, they’re Koalas, yes they’re adorable, and yes, Erik is super protective even as a Drop Bear.
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the-sprog · 3 years
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So since I'm very bad at remembering my ideas, I'm gonna throw this out there and hope one day I'm like "WAIT didn't I have an idea for a fic??? What was it???" And I will find it on my tumblr.
It's about Danny Phantom, obviously.
There are actually two of them in here so:
The easiest one: Jack and Maddie are not stupid. I mean they're scientists, the use the scientific method. One of the things about the scientific method is that if you do a bunch of tests, based on an hypothesis and only one of them comes out disproving it, then your hypothesis is incorrect.
Phantom has disproved basically all of their hypothesis.
So, next thing to do? Create a new one. Do new tests. They take Jazz's suggestion and try and see if the ghosts of Amity are actually conscious. Because obviously they're sentient, but are they like animals? Or are they like robots with artificial intelligence?
Or even better yet, are they like humans?
They grab Phantom's attention and ask him if he would cooperate for this test. A simple Turing test. Obviously they're still wary because of everything that happened with him, and do the test with witnesses to keep both Phantom's and their minds at ease.
He passed the test. With flying colors.
They're shocked and ask him if he knew peaceful ghosts that would be willing to take the test (because, y'know. Scientific method. Need to try over and over again). Phantom would have to explain that not all ghosts are as human-like as him (as, first of all, he's a halfa, but he doesn't say that. And second, lots of them are blobs or animal-like ghosts), but cue his parents meeting Jhonny and Kitty (cause I like the idea that they have a truce with Phantom and that going out of the zone helps them with their couple problems), as well as Shadow (example of a less human-like ghost). Then Sidney, Dora, the Fright Knight (cause king ghost Danny ftw) and Frostbite.
They all pass, more or less. Some, like Dora, the light and Sidney, where given away by their choice of word, but other than that all of them passed the test.
OK SO MORE COMPLEX ONE:
I love crossovers. I love finding ways of putting the two universes together, of making them work with each other, adapting the rules so that they apply to both. (With Danny Phantom it's also really cool to just... Make him travel the multiverse. He doesn't adhere to the rules of where he goes to, so it's always hilarious. But we're not here for that now).
One of the best ones to do this with is My Hero Academia. Whenever a show has someone with powers I end up asking myself "how should that work in the world of my hero?" And start trying to incorporate it in the lore.
So, first thing first, we're getting rid of the canon story of my hero. Completely unrelated to the show. This takes place decades in the past, when the first people where developing quirks (so if I wanted to write something with this and actually use my hero characters, I'd make it so that they where hit with a time traveling quirk or that Clockwork was somehow involved).
The Fenton's hatred for ghosts? Make it discrimination against the people who have quirks.
Danny being half-ghost? His quirk's fault. He calls it Ghost, for simplicity, it allows him to come back as a sort of ghost-like creature after he dies. Somehow, one day, he doesn't die completely so his body fixes it the only way it know how. Making him partially ghost.
Obviously that would mean that all the ghosts he fights aren't ghosts anymore. They're villains with quirks, and their powers would be based on what they can do on the show, minus the basic intangibility, invisibility and flight.
Obviously only Sam and Tucker would know he was Phantom and he had a quirk, he's also kinda the only one in town with one. People would be a little racist against quirk havers, but the kids, like in the show, come around to it. And actually start loving Phantom and thinking of him as a hero.
How do I fit Vlad in all of this? Ehm ahhhh this is the one thing I didn't think about. Very basic, but could give him a power similar to Danny, were instead of a ghost, he becomes a vampire. But his quirk is caused by an accident in college, so it's artificial.
Why does Skulker (who doesn't have a quirk. He's just a guy in a suit) hunt Danny? He has a very unique quirk.
Does Dani exist? I mean. Yeah. Cloning is not so farfetched, especially with the existence of quirks.
Clockwork can control time, he involuntary does that being a child, then an adult then an old man thing. The Observants are people without quirks that keep him in check, an organization that made a pact with him to stay young forever or something in change of idk what. No idea what Clockwork would get out of it I won't lie. Money maybe? Or somehow they found a way of keeping him there against his will?
Walker (and I'll make a seperate post about this) is an ex guy in white. Yes they still exist, but they hunt quirk havers instead of paranormal stuff. Walker was kicked out because he actually has a quirk but lied about it. He's after his own kind in the show as well. I mean, he's a stickler to the rules, but he only ever seems to care when it's ghosts that brake them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but never has he punished a human. His quirk is making semi-sentient minions. They're not copies of himself. They're like clay humans with basic forms. They all look alike and have no special characteristics.
Frostbite is just... A yeti. With cryokenisis. It's a mutation type quirk.
Same goes for Wulf, he's just a humanoid wolf that can create teleportation portals. I can't think of a reason why he would only speak Esperanto though. It could be something similar to Five from umbrella academy. He accidentally got stuck in the 1600 as a kid and managed to come back only relatively recently.
I feel like all the other ghosts have obvious powers.
Cujo can become ginormous,
Technus can control technology,
Dora and Aragon can become dragons,
Jhonny gives people bad luck and can control his shadow,
Kitty can make man disappear,
Ember can mind control using music,
Spectra can use people's negative emotions to stay young,
Bernard has shapeshifting,
Youngblood can't be seen by adults (side effect: can't grow old) and his sideckick has a variant of shapeshifting where he can only transform in animals. A definitive father figure),
Box ghost can control boxes,
Pandora can control the plagues of the world,
Desiré can make people's wishes come true,
Sidney can swap bodies with people,
Undergrowth can control plants,
Pariah Dark- I... Actually don't know...
Lunch Lady can control food,
Aaaanndddd no more come to mind.
I want to do something with this AU but I can't really think of an interesting story, other than "kids from 1A get misplaced in time and Danny has to help, discovering the existence of Clockwork and the Observants, whom he hates. So he tries to get Clockwork out of there with the other kid's help" but that's it, really.
I actually have a 3rd idea, but it basically works the same as the MHA one. Crossover with the X-Men.
Substitute quirk havers with mutants and quirks with mutations and you get the idea.
The plot would be more of a "Danny gets recruited by Xavier after the trauma of almost dying activated his mutation and goes to live at the mansion. This happens after the events of season 3, alla salted to make sense in the world of Marvel, but without Phantom planet. He makes friends there, since Sam and Tucker aren't with him and everything is fine and dandy and happy. Until it comes out that the Fentons actually contribute to the creation of the Sentinels, because they hate Phantom that much.
So Danny has to infiltrate his own family to get info on how the Sentinels work so they can destroy them, since his parents are still oblivious and they made it so that the Sentinels wouldn't attack Danny thinking that his accident just somehow make him register as a mutant on machinery" and that's it.
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emmarzhere · 3 years
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3am AU time: Sanders Sides Swap!!
Once again I can’t sleep due to my brain insisting it’s much more important to write down these ideas for a Light and Dark side swap AU than sleep, so 3AM TUMBLR RAMBLE IT IS BABYYYY!!!
So I wanted to try using traits already existing in each character to make their inverses, rather than just swapping traits or completely changing the character’s core values, and these are my initial late night ideas:
(Note: I saved this as a draft and revisited it in the morning / afternoon to make sure it all actually made sense and to add to it with a fresh mind)
(Extra note: I accidentally lost all my additions and the entirety of Patton’s and Virgil’s descriptions by refreshing the page, so it’ll now be written out again in a less formatted way. DAMN YOU TUMBLRRRR!!!!!!)
Roman:
My initial reaction was to make Roman “Pride”, and extend on his egocentric nature (like what is done with many Dark!Roman interpretations), however five minutes of laying in bed thinking about it later I found a trait I felt fit him better: Delusion.
This Roman could still be very much “Netflix kids and family”, living and trying to make Thomas live in a fantasy land where everything is always fine and dandy. This insistence of only seeing things through his figurative or not so figurative rose tinted glasses makes this Roman very naive and hard to get through to, and while on the surface appears very appealing to Thomas (when they first meet Thomas doesn’t understand why Roman counts as a dark side) can be very dangerous if Thomas leans too much into his ways of escaping reality, aka making Thomas a delusional person. The best part of this choice of trait for Roman is that I can still tie in his ego; delusions can be fuel people’s egos, and also to protect them from harsh realities, hence why Delusional works as a role for Roman.
While normally I see Dark Side Roman designed to be an evil prince or king, I decided to go for a more glamorous look which I think fitted my version more: Roman would wear a pristine black and red suit consisting of a red waistcoat, tie and trousers, a black button up shirt and black or red heeled boots. I also wanted his design to link to the white peacock (a rare type caused by a genetic mutation), so I topped off the outfit with either a vintage white shawl or a Cruella style coat (leaning towards Cruella because we know Roman and Disney!) with white peacock feathers attached (still trying to decide if I want Roman to have decorated the feathers with red and black accents or not), and a pair of literal rose tinted glasses to hide his white peacock eyes - pale blue with a glassy look to them which always gives the impression that he is far away, even when he’s not.
Finally his sword is replaced with a grandiose black walking stick with silver details, along with the handle being a silver peacock head (note: possibly detachable from the cane to reveal a silver knife?). I chose this as weapons like these in fiction are often used to appear innocent, only to reveal a hidden depth of skill and character; a description which I think applies well to Delusional Roman.
Extra note: Delusional Roman gets snappy, angry, or even threatening when people try to break him out of or correct him on his delusional ways, though he will often try to slip deeper into his fantasies than actually deal with emotional confrontations.
Extra extra note: Roman is incredibly jealous of his brother as he can’t understand why he’s been accepted despite Roman being the one who creates such wonderfully perfect worlds for Thomas to escape off into! He’s also jealous of how his brother doesn’t care what others think of his work and doesn’t seek validation from the others, not that Roman would ever admit that he does either of those things.
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Patton:
So the 3 main aspects of Patton I felt would work best for a Dark Side are his destructive selflessness, his overly strong morale compass and how he encompasses many of Thomas’ more negative feelings.
I couldn’t decide whether to officially label him as “Denial” or “Repression”, but either way he holds a similar role: he represses his / Thomas’ negative feelings, as well as tries to push Thomas to do the morally right thing (as he still represents Morality, just not as his main trait) which almost always is the selfless option. It’s almost impossible to convince this Patton that his viewpoint is not necessarily the correct choice (he’s in denial that he as Morality can ever be in the wrong), and he becomes hostile when his views are continuously challenged.
The light sides see Patton as the main holder and cause of Thomas’ negative feelings (eg. makes Thomas act selfless and do things for others until he’s burnt out and depressed), and when Thomas is feeling these negative feelings Patton experiences them but more strongly to the point where the others have to force him out of bed (usually Logan) and take care of him until he and Thomas get out of the depressive slump. However once he’s out he will deny that he was the problem and begin pushing Thomas down the self-destructive path again.
While this Patton will deny his depression and many negative feelings, he is still not as upbeat as Happy-Pappy-Pal-Canon-Patton, matching more with how the side acts in more serious moments such as at the end of SvS redux. He will smile and comfort others, but laughter and puns are rarely seen.
Another thing about this dark side Patton is that he is very manipulative (a trait shifted from Janus to Patton), even if he doesn’t believe himself to be. He uses his role as “morale compass” to invalidate other’s opinions if they clash with his, and often emotionally hurts the sides he gets close to by caring for them and performing selfless acts for them to show his love (eg. makes breakfast for the other Darks sides every morning, goes out of his way to learn more about their interests so that they can have someone to talk to them about) followed by him simplifying complex morale dilemmas in a way that makes it appear that his option is the only correct one, making the others feel bad about their differing viewpoints (a bit like how Roman felt invalidated and morally wrong throughout SvSR as his views didn’t line up with Patton’s).
This Patton wears a worn out pale blue shirt with a fraying black jumper over the top, leaving only the collar of the shirt visible. He has frog features too; with blots of green skin scattered all over his body, slightly webbed hands and he croaks! The splodges grow larger the more emotion Patton represses. He also really doesnt like his frog features as they don’t align with the perfect image of himself that Patton has in his head, so he tries to cover them up as much as possible with his black jumper, pale blue gloves (leather ones as he tried woollen ones and his frog skin made them go sticky) and baggy trousers, although there isn’t much he can do to hide the blots on his face or his brown frog eyes....
(He’s also constantly worn out as frog-pops has no clue what self-care even means)
Extra note: Patton goes through a sort of alternate character development to canon Patton, where as he begins to be accepted by some of the Light Sides and Thomas they discuss how he doesn’t just represent Thomas’ negative feelings, but all of his feelings; a lot of them are just also accidentally repressed alongside the “bad” feelings. As time goes on Patton becomes more cheerful and goofy, even dropping the occasional dad joke, although never quite to the levels of canon Patton.
Extra extra note: The happier this Patton is, the less faded the blues on his clothes become (much like Virgil’s eyeshadow), until at moments of peak happiness his gloves and shirt are canon Patton blue (eg. when Thomas is with Nico, or when Janus and Thomas first accepted him). Cute blue embroidered designs also form on his black jumper at peak happiness, such as butterflies, simple cats, pawprints and frogs.
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Logan:
So Logan is the only side I have decided to leave with the same official trait title: Logic, although he also has the orange trait Anger within him. He will also be taking the place of Virgil as the Dark Side who is prematurely accepted.
However Logan here is still different from canon Logan: he represses and denies his emotions even more than canon due to the other dark sides attitudes towards him (Delusional Roman in particular does not appreciate the truth bombs and logical reasoning the calculator watch drops), leading to more angry outbursts / orange showing through. This makes Logan a horribly unstable side, with him appearing completely apathetic to any sort of feeling for an undetermined period of time until he next reaches his limit and has an explosion of rage - he holds both Logic and Anger/Orange in him here, but the anger shows through a lot more due to his circumstances.
His clothes are always shredded and falling apart due to him tearing them when he’s angry + the rage can come out like an explosion that wrecks everything in his surrounding area, including the clothes on him. He sticks to plain black t shirts and trousers to start with as he claims he doesn’t see the point in putting effort into an outfit as he has no desire to please others.
However when Thomas starts making videos Logan can’t help but show up from time to time. He is unsure why as he could not care less what Thomas or the idiotic “Light Sides” think of him, though he figures while he’s there he might as well educate the buffoons so they can reach more informed, educated conclusions to their constant dilemmas.
At first the Lights don’t take his presence well, and more times than one he’d leave towards the end of an episode to explode in the privacy of his room. But surprisingly they eventually start listening to him, considering his inputs, and Logan leaves filming shoots satisfied, even popping into the Light Side’s area occasionally outside of filming days to talk to them.
However Logan notices a pattern as time goes on: the more he’s around the Light Sides, the less he goes Orange. He tests it by spending a week only hanging with the Lights and finds that his anger barely built up at all. Logan quickly reaches the conclusion that his orange trait isn’t actually uncontrollable, it’s how the others treated him that made it so hard to act civil. That is what leads to Logan hating the Dark Sides (much like canon Virgil does) and finally joining the lights.
Soon after being accepted Logan has an outfit change, where he goes from his burnt, tattered rags to his canon outfit, as he finally feels stable and appreciated enough to trust himself in not ruining a nice new Logic outfit. From then on his journey is about accepting that he has feelings and learning that they’re valid.
Extra note: Logan’s worst fear is the idea of going Orange in front of Thomas or the Light Sides - he finally has people who listen to him and if they see his orange side it might scare them off or they’ll lose any respect for him they had. Worst of all they could get hurt…
Extra extra note: Neither Thomas or any of the Light Sides apart from Janus are aware that Logan holds the Orange trait, believing that he only ever was Logic, just more apathetic to start with (and they actually all buy his reasoning of his old outfit being trashed due to him not caring enough about appearances to fix it, to Janus’s dismay but not disbelief - a bunch of himbos, the lot of them!).
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Virgil:
Virgil still represents the “Fight or Flight” response in this AU, just without the excess Anxiety. His official title would be “Instinct”, and he would be more confident than canon Virgil. The decrease in anxiety would also make him better at making rational decisions, though he would still freak out and make not-so-great choices in stressful situations.
Rather than a spider, I decided to link this Virgil more strongly with a cat, with heightened senses, lightning reflexes and eyes that reflect light much like a cats. These additions also match with his change of aesthetic from patchwork emo to fantasy vigilante mixed with bright purple punk, plus the addition of purple eyeshadow applied actually correctly. I made this choice as both canon and this Virgil see themselves as a protector of Thomas, yet Virgil is still slightly more morally grey than the other 2 Light Sides (sort of like canon Logan) hence a darker design. Plus is it really Virgil at all if he doesn’t spend his free time listening to MCR?
Virgil also takes the role of canon Roman when it comes to Patton being accepted: he initially falls strongly for Patton’s caring qualities, with the Dark side helping sooth his anxious moments and suggesting that Thomas make other non-selfish options that don’t make Virgil feel as anxious as some of Janus’ options. So for Patton’s first few conflicts Virgil sticks up for him, claiming he’s not all bad. Then he witnesses how Patton’s selfless choices affect Thomas and realises he’s been manipulated; there was no reason to go all the way with Patton’s choice and hurt Thomas, yet Patton had convinced him that it was either his way or the wrong way, no compromises available.
So by the time Patton reveals his name Virgil really dislikes him and makes a snarky remark in which Patton replies with a jab at how he didn’t realise being Thomas’ protector meant that you could be as evil as you wanted with none of the consequences. Virgil’s equivalent line to Roman’s hero one could be something like “Don’t you trust me?” or “I thought I was your best friend?” - then again Roman’s hero line does work with this version of Virgil.
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Janus:
This was one of the easiest traits to decide: with a lot of his more manipulative and deceitful traits being distributed between Patton and Roman, Janus is officially titled “Self-Preservation”, and while he doesn’t claim the father role like Patton does, he is still very much seen as a parental figure and guiding light for Thomas and the lights. He tries to be warm and welcoming to the Light sides (part of his role is to take care of Thomas, hence taking care of the parts that make Thomas), and they naturally gather around him as he gives off a safe aura.
However he is not quite as kind to the Darks - he still has the role of managing what truths Thomas can handle, so he controls which sides stay hidden from him. The darks being revealed tends to be down to him slipping up or the side finding a way around his defences more than by him deciding Thomas is ready to meet them, and each time it happens he beats himself up over it and tries to work harder to not let it happen again. The problem he doesn’t realise is that the slip ups tend to happen in the first place due to him overworking himself to make the others / Thomas happy - he doesn’t quite perform the self-care he preaches about.
I’m still not quite sure where I want to go with Janus’ outfit: the initial thought was to put him in a more Patton inspired attire, however this is still Janus, and he is still a theatrical boi. I ended up settling for a mainly cottage-core aesthetic with a flowy long sleeve yellow shirt made out of a light fabric, brown trousers and an overly large sunhat. He also drapes himself in bright patterned shawls and wraps (still predominantly yellow in colour) as while he doesn’t look as snake-like as he canonically does he still has certain snake traits, such as a weakness to the cold and a yellow tint to his left eye.
However snake features do begin to form later on into the AU as Thomas’ views on Lights and Darks alter over time: he begins to realise that despite how it appears Janus is not always in the right, such as how if it hadn’t been for mistakes Thomas would never have met the Darks and learnt to grow as a person - in fact if Self-Preservation got the say in everything he would likely do little growing whatsoever. He and in turn the other Lights begin to find Janus too stifling until SvSR happens where under the stress Janus becomes a true snake boi. The scales and proper snake eye don’t fade afterwards due to Thomas’ subconscious change in perspective, and while it is a big new insecurity at first over time Janus learns to accept these new changes to himself and the Mindscape, and begins adding a touch of darker mystical aesthetic to his look (slightly fantasy fortune teller based) to match his new look better - although cottage-core remains his go to!!
Extra note: In this AU Janus is definitely the side that would most likely be seen going around the Mindscape in a dress (Roman would also wear dresses on occasion but mainly only within his daydreams in the Imagination); he is all about taking care of yourself, and that includes wearing what makes you happy! Though I’m still kind of tempted to put him in a dress full time...
Extra extra note: while Janus is very much the “adult figure” in the Light Mindscape, he still has his goofy moments like in canon - in general he is more relaxed and jokey with the others...though he’s still a sarcastic shet.
(I struggled finding images that matched at all with the ideas in my head, so take these as very vague links to the actual design)
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Remus:
Oh boy, Remus is a fun one...
So now that Roman is the twin known by a different title (like how canon Remus is referred to as “Intrusive Thoughts”), Remus now has claim to the Creativity role!! However Remus isn’t going to do a 180 personality wise - he’s still going to be a chaotic gremlin, just with a light side twist.
His design is purposely all over the place: his aesthetic is mainly pirate based with a long sleeve pirate shirt, loose black trousers and heeled black and silver pirate boots, alongside a dark green pirate jacket and slightly brighter bandana. However he has other seemingly random elements thrown in there, such as a white and green hero cape (fuck what Edna says) coming off the back of the coat, and random colourful potions in the green belt under his coat alongside a knight’s sword. This mismatched look is due to the type of imagination Remus provides: while he still represents and creates intrusive thoughts, he also creates adventure stories and life goals/dreams for Thomas, hence takes a form that has mixed elements from Thomas’ self-inserts and protagonists for said stories. While he personally loves his messy design (do you know how much fun can be had with magic potions, swords, tentacles, and a day in the Imagination? Remus sure does), it does cause some arguments between him and Logan over how illogical him and his ideas are (like canon Roman and Logan).
Roman makes this Remus....uncomfortable. Not necessarily because of his ideas (those are just dull and vomit-worthy in his opinion), but because of how he can’t separate dreams and reality - while Remus loves coming up with Imaginative stories for Thomas and setting slightly outlandish goals for the future, he has a level of awareness that Roman lacks in how he knows Thomas won’t ACTUALLY end up being a morally grey pirate travelling the seas to claim back the magical pendant of octopus powers (unless...). He’s also uneasy with how easily Thomas can fall for Roman’s delusions of grandeur and romance, in fact it opens up quite a major insecurity on how despite being the “good” twin his brother seems to succeed more as the creative role, eg. how Thomas will come up with a dream future career path, husband and even car in a matter of seconds yet Remus has to slave and hone in on decent ideas for weeks to reach his own standard.
This leads to another thing about Remus: while he doesn’t care what others think of his ideas (the trait I mentioned earlier that Roman was jealous of) he hold a high standard to himself and gets extremely happy when he perfects an idea. Besides he still wants his ideas to actually be used by Thomas as them being dismissed for not being good enough does hurt (a bit like how Remus got frustrated in the recent episode with how his “good” intrusive creations were being torn apart by Logan’s methods).
Extra note: The fact that Thomas doesn’t like or appreciate some of his darker ideas / intrusive thoughts doesn’t bother Remus too much as he tends to put less effort into them as he knows they won’t be liked - he just can’t help that they pop into his head and he has to get them out - repression is bad after all! However maybe there can be some episode drama about Remus wanting to be less stifled and have Thomas at least consider some of his more mature themes that he thinks would be good to expand upon.
Extra extra note: Just assuring the fact that Remus not caring what the others think about his work does not correlate with him not caring about the others. He loves his fellow Light Sides and Thomas - he’s just confident in his own craft and while appreciates advice and improvements from the others (he and Logan have a field day on creating biologically accurate gore together) he also is aware that HE is Creativity, and he understands his craft better than the others.
Extra extra EXTRA note: Wasn’t really sure how to put it in there but Remus still represents Thomas’ lust. Do with that what you want.
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Thomas:
So all these changes to the sides....of course it has it’s effects on character!Thomas! However I’m getting REALLY tired now so this will be done in bullet points:
Not as Disney-centric as canon/real Thomas.
Has less issues with Anxiety, and more issues dealing with Depression
His morals start off a bit more flexible than canon due to always having we-live-in-a-society Janus as his guide
Still has intrusive thoughts, but not as debilitating with the lower levels of anxiety and the much better relationship with Remus.
Still overworks himself trying to help others (nice one Patton!)
Might have a different career due to Roman being more out the frame - maybe goes into writing instead with Remus’ more diverse form of creativity.
Does explore more diverse creative ideas and darker themes, but still out of habit sometimes puts down possibly good ideas as on surface level they appear too morally wrong.
However could possibly be in a non-creative career, and his major longing for a new career path could be what allows Roman through for the first time.
Less dad jokes but still incredibly goofy with both Remus and Janus being more present.
I think I’m going to wrap up there for now! I may make some art for this at some point, but I also want other’s opinions and ideas for this AU.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!!
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zed-36 · 3 years
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hey hey! for the hot wheels asks: any questions that you wanna answer but haven't gotten (or repeat questions that you might've had multiple ideas for and wanna share)!
yeah totally!! i Always love talking asdjshdfdf ill do a few more for now
20. What would you like to see/have seen in a continuation?
Aside from the obvious “finish the story” in a general sense, i i really would like to see actual previous WR character’s present and expanded on if we assume a number of them did stay with Tezla. And honeslty, not even in a “they are all Silencers” way? bc i think that would be boring if they all were Silencerz. i also wouldve liked to have seen some solid cross team friendships form between individuals (vert and markie for example) because it never felt like anyone was really that close even though they started to work together at the end.
16. Any crossover/AU ideas?
i obviously explained a markie/kurt swap which is a sorta AU, so i wont go over that one again but. heres a few quick ideas i have on mind!
AU where Taro is Zed-36 instead of Kurt (based on my the comic theory/headcanon i posted)
complete team swap AU. Teku guys and now MM, MM guys is now Teku. sounds like a mess but also a fun way to push some characters tbh.
Gelorum/Tezla AU swap... They actually are the same (gelorum is still a drone) but their intentions are swapped. Tezla is the antagonist and managed to control the drone army while Gelorum is ‘good’ (as good as tezla was in canon lol) and gathers humans to help her. more complex than that but thats the basics
i would love to think of crossovers but i just dont like enough fandoms i feel would work lol... but i do think a crossover/AU with other existing HW stories would be cool, i loved Velocity X and it has a real cool aesthetic too which feels in line with Acceleracers. seeing those stories/worlds crossover would be neat.
4. Favorite & least favorite character(s)?
Most Favorite - Kurt Wylde because im predictable. i think hes a character with the most potential and also most interesting development even with where it lacks! of course ive spoken of what i would want to change, but i still like him a lot
Least Favorite - ok i dont want to be simple and say like.. Sparky/Monkey/Porkchop because theyre annoying comedic relief... so picking a character i genuinely dont care for that much uhhh it would have to be Nolo... as i have explained i just do not like his attitude through 90% of the movies. and i blame more of that on poor writing, because he did a complete 180 after somehow forgiving Tork which made no sense, but it didnt change my impression of him lol. i like the fanon but not the canon.
6. Favorite & least favorite realm(s)?
(Neon) Pipeline realm would be least favorite i think... in terms of like, idk i just found it very boring to watch? it felt like it would be cool but the whole scene with it was kinda lacking (aside from giving Silencerz stuff) and i think couldve been tackled in a much cooler way. Second to that would be Cavern Realm but its only because it was in a minisode that got no screen time and seemed very boring anways
Favorite in general would be Warped Realm! but thats from the cards only and i just think it sounds really cool. from the movies, i would pick the Metro Realm. even tho i felt it wouldve been nice to explore deeper (and got sidetracked to plot stuff i wasnt super into watching lol) its a favorite for how weird it is. i cant be the only one who found it super ominous?? the robotic traffic and stuff.. really weird and i like the slightly off-putting vibes
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vandorens-archive · 4 years
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ten questions tag | i was tagged by: @mshelleys, @emdrabbles, @pe-ersona, @evergrcen and @septemberliterature. thank you so much, and i’m so sorry i’m getting to this so late!
everything is under the cut!
@mshelleys
i. if you could change the genre of one of your wips, what would you change it to and how would the story/characters change?
So, trahison already features a ghost and a brief stay at a manor. have i considered turning it into a full fledged horror because of that? perhaps.
ii. do you think of your characters as actors playing a part in a movie or as people in history actually doing things that effect the future?
i think of them as actors playing in one long, crazy, unpredictable play. 
iii. role swap your protagonist and antagonist but keep their personalities the same; how different would your story be?
honestly, not different at all, because when it comes to it, the subject of trahison’s antagonist (s) is pretty complex. 
iv. are any of your characters based on you, family, friends, or someone else you know?
oh, absolutely. my characters range between self inserts, to characters i wish i was more like, to characters that are essentially walking, talking, breathing love letters to the people i care about.  
v. how long have you had your main protagonist(s) of your wip(s)?
I’ve been working with marin, nate and ruby for years, long before they were even called that and were a part of a dystopian crime novel (don’t ask). antoine joined them soon after, followed a while later by beth and isadora, and miles was invented during the plotting stage. 
vi. do you prefer to write chronologically or just make a bunch of scenes and order them after they’re written?
it depends on what i’m working on and how serious i am about it, but if we’re only talking about trahison, then chronologically!
vii. imagine the problem in your wip is sorted out, how would the protagonist recount the story to their children if they asked?
with a far away look in his eyes and an uncharacteristic fondness in his voice, marin would turn to his children, and tell them how extraordinary his friends were during his university years—their zeal, their inquisitiveness, and conveniently leaving out the uncomfortable loyalty they all had towards each other, until time and life’s commands separated them. 
viii. favorite (non-spoilery) line(s) of your current wip(s)?
This small bit of description, albeit a little purple prose-y, is one that i’m very, very proud of.
“ The morning rain had made its grave in the dirt, the bittersweet smell—like exotic black tea—rising into the air. It was the night pluviophiles came to dance. If I think hard, I can still taste the ghost of the raindrops on my tongue and sense Beth’s radiating warmth beside me; its own ghost ” - trahison, chapter three
ix. if your wip was a movie, could you see it be done in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s? why that decade in particular?
so, fun fact, i hadn’t decided when to set trahison (see: the big question mark in my plotting notebook) but i have recently made up my mind and decided to set it in the seventies! if it was a film, then i could see it being made in seventies france! very a la the dreamers.
x. are you able to just make up a story on the spot, or do you need help (plot generators or other outside influences)?
sometimes i’ll take the help of prompts or media, but otherwise i just come up with things on my own!
@emdrabbles
i. what do the names of your main characters mean? did you pick them for the meaning or another reason?
i picked the trahison characters’ names based on two things: how much it related to the character’s backstory or personality, and how pleasing it sounded out loud. here are the meanings of their names:
marin — of the sea
ruby — deep red; precious stone; behold a son
elizabeth — god is my oath
nathaniel — gift from god
antoine — priceless one; beyond praise
isadora — gift of Isis
ii. what book are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading the time machine by h.g wells!
iii. last sentence written?
“ When the end of the world comes — I’ll film it ” — copycat, or the one where i predict the future. 
iv. who are some of your faceclaims?
i usually don’t use faceclaims, but if i had to choose:
marin van doren (trahison) — timor simakov
eloi hill (psychophantia) — maxence danet fauvel
cass parker (penny lane) — monica tomas
v. gimme some worldbuilding facts!!
alright, here’s one: in the world of psychophantia, not only is the magic system and your powers controlled by your morals, but so is your social ranking, your education, and any future you may have—to an extent. 
vi. do you outline? if so, do you have a specific method?
i’m a plotter and only really work well with a solid outline, however, my outlines range from a series of messy, incoherent bullet points to meticulous scene-by-scene planning based around the three act structure. this post is my go to for plotting assistance! 
vii. favourite author?
Like every tumblr user ever, i love donna tartt and maggie stiefvater, but i’m also a huge fan of f.scott fitzgerald, agatha christie and vera caspary!
viii. what is your oldest wip?
trahison! It went through many, many changes — from changes in genre to changes in character names, and there’s still a possibility that it could change even further. 
ix. what is your favourite wip?
every wip i reblog under my #others. tag! You all are so damn talented!
x. where do you get your inspiration from?
everywhere around me! from conversations i have with people, from films and books i consume, from the music on the radio — i like that anything and everything can inspire me to create.
@pe-ersona
i. in one sentence, explain your current wip!
a group of secretive students attempt to become immortal, only to uncover the worst parts of themselves — and each other — as they do. 
ii. was writing your main interest or did you have other interests?
although writing is my main interest (see: my social media bio on every platform ever), i also like to journal, sew, cook and make videos! my interests usually do have to do with the intention of creation. 
iii. what’s your favorite genre to write? to read?
I love writing horror and mysteries. those are my favourite genres, but i also love reading a good contemporary romance!
iv. what is one goal you have for your wip this year? how’s that goal going?
to finish the first draft! so far, not so bad, though i do wish i could write more, but unfortunately, time constraints plus school restrict me from doing so. 
v. how old is your wip? or when did you start writing your wip?
trahison is nearly three years old, but i only started writing the current version of it a year ago. 
vii. what scene made you cry or laugh or both?
these lines made me laugh out loud the first time i wrote them:
“ Up the stairs stumbled Miles, my slovenly genius roommate. He grinned at the giggles and winked at the exasperated stares. 
The gall of him! 
I wanted to be him. 
He managed to find his balance enough to reach our dorm. I immediately stepped back to let him in, and to make sure I was in no association with his uncomposed state. Nate gave a disapproving look at his back as he staggered in. 
I took another step back, raised a pointed eyebrow, and closed the door ” — trahison, chapter three
vii. how many ocs does your wip have? who’s your favourite?
my main wip, trahison, has six main characters. out of the main six, my favourite has to be nathaniel. he is very much the epitome of pure, and sometimes i wonder how he ended up in the middle of such a dark plot. 
vii. you have a brand new idea for a wip, what do you do? 
brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. scribble down whatever the hell pops up in my brain, attempt to link it together by a thin string of yarn, cross my fingers and hope for the best.
ix. you are having your first book-signing, where are you?
i’m in a small bookstore, nestled in a corner near the storage room. almost no one knows about this town, so the line is small but chatty, fans exchanging theories and analysing certain paragraphs. the sight of them makes me feel warm inside. 
x. you have the ability to live in any book, publishing or not, what would it be?
would it be too cliche to say the harry potter universe? other than that, other worlds i would love to be a part of is the world in my novel penny lane, or in midst of a detective story.
@evergrcen / @septemberliterature
i. how did you come up with your wip’s title? what does it mean in relation to the story?
okay, so i discovered the word ‘trahison’ after hearing my french teacher say it, and immediately knew i had to use it for something. ‘trahison’ means betrayal or treason in french, which is one of the main themes in the novel. 
ii. do you title your chapters? if so, what’s your favourite?
I don’t, but I would love to!!
iii. what’s a recent line you really like?
Not a very dramatic or noteworthy line, but here’s one from a poem i’m writing:
“ So the two of you get in the car, proceeding to have an argument with the radio ” — examples of easy solutions, or the one where the internet has no answers. 
iv. are there any writing-related quotes you really like?
“i think a lot of art is trying to make someone love you” — keaton henson
v. do you have an idea for a cover design for your story?
A black background with serif text, that’s it. It’s simple. It’s mysterious. It’s the type of vibe I want to exude. 
vi. what sort of au can you imagine your story being?
...dark academia au anyone?
just kidding. in all seriousness, though, i can see a royalty/political au for trahison, or a medieval fantasy au!
vii. which oc would be the most angry with you as the writer?
eloi. i really need to give that poor boy a break. 
viii. if you had to tell the story from a different pov, which character would you choose?
ruby! she’s the token enigma of trahison, so i think her point of view would be very interesting to see. 
ix. what would be your oc’s taste in music if they lived in our world?
OKAY let’s see:
marin — classic rock, so the who, queen, def leppard.etc
ruby — that one person who you’re pretty sure only listens to classical music, but is actually very attuned to modern day music. she would mostly listen to female singer-songwriters, so take lorde, marina, lana del rey, and other such artists. 
beth — take one look at her playlist, and you’ll see that ninety five percent of it is mitski, while the other five percent is bedroom pop. she would like very tender, calm, cry to in bed music. 
Antoine — same as marin, but add other modern day music artists with eclectic sounds, such as twenty one pilots, arctic monkeys, that sort of thing.
nathaniel — classical music, instrumentals, and film soundtracks make up his playlist. if it has sung words, he won’t listen to it. has little to no understanding of modern day music and is too scared to find out more about it.
isadora — 2000’s diva pop plays in the background of her life. rihanna is her go to whenever she gets to control the party. Don’t be surprised if ‘rich girl’ by gwen stefani starts playing in your head at the sight of her. 
x. what’s one personal goal you want to achieve by the end of the story?
finishing it with pride!
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feynavaley · 5 years
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K, T, and U :)
Thank you so much for the questions! 😊(list here)
K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?
Well… I’m not really good at angst because, while I like to make my characters suffer, I also like to end on a hopeful/positive note. So, the angst is never too bad. 😅
That said, I guess the worst idea I toyed with was a story set in a war scenario, where the opposing forces (the humans on that side, actually) are trying to capture America to cripple the nation’s military power. (Not knowing that personifications aren’t actually vital at all to a nation’s military.) After an ambush that leaves America unconscious and Canada injured, Canada, believing to be less important than America, swaps their uniforms and leads their captors on a chase away from America. Due to his injuries, Canada is eventually captured. Afterwards, Canada is tortured for information as he’s believed to be America, while America cannot divert all his energies to finding and rescuing Canada because he still has his duty and people to think of. This leaves him feeling torn and guilty. In the meantime, Canada’s captors discover his true identity and stop the interrogation but not the torture, using him instead for some experiments on personifications’ physiology (their healing and immortality). America eventually finds out where Canada is being held. Seeing the condition Canada is in, he gives himself up in exchange for Canada – but their enemies don’t keep their words and keep both of them. Canada gets tortured in front of him to convince America to spill information he doesn’t even have (even in canon, America isn’t privy to all the decisions of his government) and he couldn’t give anyway, because his people are more important than a personification who cannot even be killed and will eventually recover, no matter how much he’s tortured. Canada can still feel pain, however, so it’s horrible for America. On the other hand, Canada feels like he’s too weak and worthless because he didn’t manage to escape on his own, which lead to America being put in danger (and basically nullified Canada’s initial sacrifice) and suffering by witnessing Canada being tortured. America and Canada would manage to break free, of course, (courtesy of America, mostly) but the rest of the story would deal with the struggles both of them face recovering from such a traumatic experience, with a lot of difficulties and setbacks. I don’t actually think I will write it, though – I’m afraid I would end up not being able to deal with such heavy themes in a satisfactory way, and I don’t want to make light of them.
T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?
Ohh boy that’s a heavy one. There’s a lot of stuff that really gets on my nerves on the long run, haha.
Before I write my answer, however, I want to specify that these are just my personal preferences. I’m writing them down because that’s what I have been asked – but I would never dream of dictating what other people can or cannot do. If I don’t like something, I just avoid reading it and keep quiet, I would never complain to the author about it. These are just very personal opinions of mine.
I have already talked about it [x] [x] so I won’t dwell too much on this, but I really don’t like how many people turn Canada into an edgy asshole. Why can’t nice characters just be nice?
I also hate when people behave like it’s canon that Canada is a stoner, when it’s not. In canon, he consumed marijuana exactly once, and his reaction and strong embarrassment afterwards hint that he strongly regretted it. I really don’t think he ever repeated the experience. (Not to mention how being a stoner would clash with his sensible, hard-working, and selfless personality.)
I don’t understand why people take the few times America displayed some insecurities as undeniable proof that the other 99% of the time he was positive and confident was all fake, and he actually has major depression issues and no self-esteem at all. I mean… people can be more complex than that. Why should all be fake? A person with a healthy self-esteem can still have some insecurities – and some moments of insecurity don’t mean that a generally positive attitude is completely fake (actually, even people with major self-esteem issues can retain a positive attitude – see Canada – so I think this last part is even more of a stretch). Of course, it is a possible interpretation, but it irks me when people claim it’s the only right one. Actually, I think that being so overconfident yet well-meaning and, in particular, always able to keep a positive outlook, is what makes America such an endearing character.
This is a very small pet-peeve – but in canon, there’s no FACE family. Not in colonial times, especially. So, I’m always a bit baffled when people write France and England living with America and Canada like a small, happy family in colonial times and consider it canon instead of the AU/canon-divergence it actually is.
Always about America and Canada, I don’t dig the ‘America and Canada are the children of Native America’ interpretation. First of all, why would there be a single personification of Native America? I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure there should be different personifications for the different peoples of Native Americans… Moreover, whether you consider it rightful or not (I’m not discussing this, but the canon portrayal) I think it’s pretty clear Himaruya wrote America and Canada as initially representing the cultural and political establishment of the coloners in North America… that, as far as I know, didn’t really have strong ties with the indigenous populations. That’s why America and Canada look Caucasian – and why it makes sense for them to be, too. Now, they represent all the different peoples in their countries and there is a lot of diversity, but they were born representing a much smaller (and less diverse) group so those were the features and ethnicity they mirrored. 
Romano being part of the mafia. a) This statement goes against canon; b) Maybe I’m oversensitive, but considering the personification of South Italy as siding with the mafia for shit and giggles feels really disrespectful to all the people of South Italy who are struggling to fight against mafia – who died fighting it.
People making everything about shipping and acting as if the slightest indication of two characters caring about each other is an undeniable proof of a romantic attraction. Don’t get me wrong, this is something you can build a romance from – but people caring for each other doesn’t necessarily mean it’s romantic. Most times, it’s not even a hint, actually.
Aand I should probably stop talking or I’ll get too salty over stuff I have no business being salty about in the first place, haha. 😅
U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
That’s a nice one! Allow me to ramble a bit, because there are some truly amazing writers who have inspired me a lot and deserve all the credit they can get. 😊
@mandelene – Her writing is just fantastic. It isn’t only about the plot and characterization (which I should mention is phenomenal, too – she always paints complex and realistic characters), but also the structural aspects of the writing are incredible. The pacing is always perfect, and she strikes an excellent balance between keeping her style simple and making the story immersive – she uses just the right amount of details to let you get into the story and convey (very well) the characters’ emotions, but not become long-winded. And the phrasing and choice of words is meticulous. Just a pleasure to read. 
Emperor Kumquat – She wrote some of my favourite long fics ever. Her characterization is intriguing and well-thought and researched, and it’s also very coherent through the story. The character arcs are built naturally, you can really feel them grow. Also, her plots are something incredible. They are original and interesting, but there’s also a meticulous foreshadowing and attention to details that really pays off. As the plot unravels, you start putting everything together and seemingly random events and words get a new meaning. They are incredible reads.
Azumizai – She wrote some of the first fics I read for Hetalia (years after they were published, though), and centred on Canada in a way I really love. It’s a lot of fluff and hurt/comfort but there’s also an interesting plot and take on the characters. I think her fics were the ones that actually drove me to try writing for Hetalia.
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muzzmurray · 6 years
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year in fic review (2017)
You can find all of the fic mentioned below on my ao3 account, savedby. If you’re looking for my football fic edition, you can find it here.
Year at a glance: Total number of completed stories: 32 Total word count: 77707
Overall Thoughts:
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? I wrote way more than I realized for this fandom, um, wow. There were a couple of months where I was writing like four or five fics and I have no idea how that happened.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Oh, the Vegas Golden Knights! Because when they signed two, I was joking around on twitter about how I could ship them now, and my friend was like ‘well, why don’t you’ and then that evolved into Sabaton and by extension into the Bold in Gold series, which was one of the most rewarding parts of my year for sure.
What’s your own favorite story of the year? these tornadoes are for you, which was Nick/Bob and written for the Cannon Fodder exchange. The combination of magic realism, humor and their general softness was really nice to write, and @frecklebombfic did a beautiful podfic of it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? Purely in terms of style, I wrote descent, in second person, which I know tends to polarize opinions. I love it, for whenever I want to write something that feels more immediate and intimate. I actually tried to rewrite it in third person, because the friend I was writing it for told me she wasn’t a big fan of second person, but it just wouldn’t work. It had to be written exactly as it is.
Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? I’d like to finish this chaptered Mcdrai magic AU fic that I’m working on and I’d like to continue writing the Vegas Golden Knights as their narrative unfolds, so the Bold in Gold series can become a sort of written history of the team and its fandom. Ambitious, but. We’ll see. I’m already working on the next part.
From my past year of writing, what was…
My best story of this year: armet. I think this was in the works the moment I realized that there was a possibility that Flower might go to Vegas and it ended up becoming exactly what I had hoped it would be.
My most popular story of this year: i still get jealous of your old boyfriends, judging by kudos, which is actually funny to me, because for the longest time I really hated what I wrote for that fic and I ended up posting it after having it written for a period of time.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: foundations, my Marleau/Thornton fic. I mean, it’s a niche pairing and a character study, so it’s probably as good as it’s going to get, but it’s basically peak me and my love for old men and their narratives.
Most fun story to write: world i can call mine , which was my Pod_together project with @frecklebombfic . Having her input on it was so essential (as it was in many of my fics this year) and I had such a fun time discussing Auston, Zach and Mitch, and poly with her. And her podfic ended up being perfect. It was just a great project.
Story with the single sexiest moment: Man, I don’t know, I’m an ace essentially floundering in the world of smut. But I did manage to post, like 4 explicit stories this year, which just goes to show you that you can be anything you set your mind to, kids. As it is, I’m nominating this line from wake me up come tomorrow
Oscar does, adds another finger only when he feels Adam completely relax into the first. He fingers him slow and easy, watching his face as it relaxes from discomfort to pleasure. Adam makes these noises too, cut off moans, helpless and involuntary. Oscar adds a third finger and he whines, high in his throat.
Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: circumstance, which I hadn’t realized was still posted on anon until right now. So I’m owning up to it, I suppose. I’m not ashamed of it, because it still makes me laugh a lot on re-read, but please heed the warnings.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: your morning cup, my Tim Horton character study. I didn’t even really know anything about him when I decided I was going to be writing this fic. But as I researched and wrote, the story ended up being one of the most important things I wrote this year.
Hardest story to write: something like hope was an exercise in frustration, until I figured out how to frame it with quotes from Pekka’s Players’ Tribune article.
Biggest disappointment: I don’t really post things I’m actually unhappy with.
Biggest surprise: I was most surprised by how well fandom received Sabaton, because I figured it was something so niche that only a few people would actually click on, but it became one of my most popular stories. I’m really grateful for that.
Highlights + Wrap-up:
Favorite Opening Lines (4):
From tomorrow is going to be pretty pawsome
Ryan is halfway through his breakfast when he hears his front door opening. It’s 9am and he’s not wearing pants, so if he’s going to be robbed, he’s pretty much defenceless, unless he pelts the robber with some granola.
What still gets me is how real this ship became as the season progressed.
From Sabaton
There’re a few things Vadim expects to see when he lands in Las Vegas. His new teammate holding up a big sign with his name on it, decorated with footballs and pucks and glitter, isn’t one of them.
Am I still prissy about how badly they treated Shippy? Yes. Absolutely.
From LXXXVII
Sidney Crosby isn’t high on the list of people that Vadim expects to see in the hotel bar in Pittsburgh before the Knights game against the Penguins, and yet, there he is. Crosby is wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses and a hat, presumably as some sort of disguise. It only makes him stand out more.
He also seems to be getting closer, swapping stools whenever Vadim glances away, until they’re sitting elbow to elbow.
Ridiculous Sid is my favorite plot device and he was in full effect in this fic.
From your morning cup
Strictly speaking, there’s never been a hockey player called Tim Horton.
I just liked the way this commands attention when you read it. I think it when you have something so niche, you need the first paragraph to grab your attention, and I think I did well here.
Favorite Closing Lines (5):
From dust in your veins
Then, Geno pulls him into another kiss, desperate, his chest shaking under Sid’s hands and Sid thinks that maybe he won't have to separate them after all.
That he can have this – his heart beating rapid fire in his chest, and Geno’s steadying palms on the muscles of his back, and the ghost of ice above them both.
I love the removable heart AU (not to be confused with the escaping heart AU) because it just works so incredibly well for those sports narratives.
From knight
“You know, it’s actually a pun, because I used to play for the London Knights and-”
“Oh my god, please stop.”
From we were a house on fire
“I want.”
“It’s been years.”
“Want still.”
“...yeah, okay.”
“Like that?”
“Yeah. Just like that.”
I love how deceptively simple this is, with no dialogue tags, but it feels like it packs a lot of punch, cutting through the complexity of their situation.
From descent
The streets of Edmonton turn slick, coated with fallen snow. Daylight is scarce, and cold besides, and you wear a jersey that doesn’t mean much to you and you watch out for the boy that means everything.
At night your curl around Connor in your bed. He always runs hot, burning in your bones and warming you from the inside out.
He presses his mouth to the nape of your neck, and you blink, mind muddled with sleep, and you realize you don’t know which one of you is the one doing the protecting.
Ask me sometime about my thoughts about enforcers and their relationships with star players, and why end up romanticizing them so much.
From armet
“Fleuuuurrrryyyy,” the fans scream, without a hint of mocking, echoing off the concrete of the building,  “Fleuuuurrrryyyyyyyy!” and it’s all he can do to smile through his tears, waving at these people who have crucified and martyred him over the years, but have loved him through it all.
His crease hasn’t changed. He pats the pipes, feels them steady beneath his palm, familiar. His teammates are all on the ice now, circling his goal, and he catches sight of Nealer coming forward with the puck. His face is grim and determined, and Flower remembers he’s got something to prove too.
He gives Nealer a sharp nod and crouches. Smiles.
He’s ready.
Flower’s game against the Pens in Vegas was emotionally devastating and I can only imagine how it’ll be when they play in Pittsburgh.
Favorite Lines From Anywhere (6):
From be your spine
The Bruins seem just fine without him, which is just a metaphor for his life, really. He notices the absence of Boston, but Boston is too big to notice he’s gone.
He limits his texts to Tuukka, and eventually they taper off, growing sparser and more impersonal as months go by. It’s understandable. Anton feels the absence of Tuukka like a phantom limb, but Tuukka is too brilliant, too beautiful, to be affected by Anton’s absence.
My first fic of the year was a homage to the journeyman player, the one who isn’t a star anywhere, the one that’s expendable. And this was one of the lines that summarized it pretty well.
From teddy bear
“I just want to be a cool dad, like Bozie! You’re the lame dad, Zach is the big brother figure and Leo is the grumpy grandpa. We all have roles to play!”
Matt bites back his first comment, and the second one. They’re both swearwords.
This whole sequence between Mo and Matt still makes me laugh really really hard.
From foundations
The Sharks are Joe’s team by virtue of wanting him more than anyone else did, but they aren’t his team like they’re Patty’s, who’s left pieces of himself in every crack in the Shark Tank concrete and who wears the jersey with more pride than anyone Joe’s ever known.
This fic hurts more now that Patty got traded.
From heart like a home
Roman is still sprawled across PK’s bed, entirely naked, reading one of PK’s magazines. His tanned skin glows in the soft yellow light of the bedside lamps. The sight never fails to make PK’s mouth go dry. As if sensing his gaze, Roman looks up, arching an elegant eyebrow, a stray curl falling across his forehead.
I want to eventually try to capture the various details of Roman/PK in a longer fic but for now this image of naked Roman will have to do.
From these tornadoes are for you
Bob is standing at the stove, muttering something to himself. He still looks like he did last night, little bolts of lightning racing across his skin, and when he turns around his eyes are still glowing pale in his face. It’s a little disconcerting, but Nick goes with it.
“What are you doing?” Nick asks, walking next to him to look at the pan and wincing. He’s careful not to touch Bob, doesn’t know what it’ll do to him. “Was this supposed to be scrambled eggs?”
I really enjoyed writing the whole scene of Bob releasing his magic in the woods, but what made me happiest to write was the morning after and how all that magic becomes somewhat of a hindrance.
From i still get jealous of your old boyfriends
“Are you telling me that Connor McDavid’s favorite show is My Super Sweet 16?” he asks incredulously. Mitch grins at him.
“Oh, no,” he says and Auston lets out a sigh of relief, “it used to be his favorite show. I think his favorite right now is Extreme Couponing.”
Connor and Extreme Couponing is the greatest love story I’ve written this year.
Fic Goals for 2017: I want to finish off the four WIPs that I didn’t manage to this year. Beyond that, I don’t have any particular expectations. I hope I can continue to enjoy writing in this fandom and that people will continue to enjoy my work.
year in fic review (2016)
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bublp0pr · 7 years
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Roletale Sans & Paps
Now the struggle of who to swap first…. the pressure is crazy. Hmmmm. HMMMMmMmmm. Let’s start with the obvious characters you think of in UnderSwap: Sans and Papyrus.
(I don’t know how I’m formatting these or whatever so don’t expect structure that makes complete sense haha. Also i got too lazy to capitalise their names or spell out Papyrus’s full name all the time so i’ll just call him paps)
Main differences to UnderSwap
Normal US
In normal underswap, papyrus becomes the chill laid back one and sans becomes the obsessive one that wants to be a member of the royal guard. Sans chases down papyrus a lot for slacking off but it’s papyrus who’s actually more observant and ends up looking after him. Paps drinks mustard where sans drank ketchup. And for some reason they made sans like tacos. I’m guessing it’s the AU equivalent of pasta for pap? Sans is considered one of the most adorable versions of himself within the multiverse: hyperactive and demonstrating beliefs and understanding similar to a child in some cases, though has been shown to be capable of being more serious in other instances like Errortale.
(askError!Sans, my one true love… will your hiatus ever end??? Error’s ORIGINAL universe-destroying emotionally complex character (not that fan art inkxerror fluff and smut) has imprinted on me for life ;_; Atleast i have Fatal!Error plot to sustain me)
From what I understand of the webcomics, papyrus becomes the one to watch out for in a genocide run, having their own megalovania sequence in the judgement hall. Papyrus is also considered to be the one with a science background. Whether or not he is aware of the timelines isn’t something the webcomics I’ve seen dwell into. Judgement hall would usually imply that he is the character with some awareness of the implications of determination. On the other hand though, it’s swap sans that ends up in multiverse shenanigans more frequently than paps.
Because of how these characters were swapped, it’s like inserting a papyrus straight into sans body and a sans straight into papyrus. Which is pretty impressive. But not the goal of my AU. I want sans to still be sans an paps to still be paps in their own way.
RT
Take puns as a simple example, sans will still love puns and paps will still hate them… you know what? Sentence form of this will take ages. How about I just make this a list of things I’m keeping from UT?
Sans:
likes puns
likes science (this is canon to undertale. Papyrus says so in one of his calls)
cares for his brother deeply
has an awareness of at least the scientific implications and likeliness of resets
won’t fight you unless you give them no other choice because they realise the futility of trying
one day stopped being a scientist probably due to either losing WD or learning about resets
knows an old lady from the other side of a door who shares puns
Paps:
likes making spaghetti
hates puns
will always respond to your calls
fights you in Snowdin
will believe in you when no one else will. Has a a lot of faith in people and trusts that you can do better. To a fault… = )
is capable of being a royal guard but doesn’t have the value set for it (because of previous point)
How, you may ask, can I make this a swap universe when so many things are the not swapped? Well that’s the fun part.
Backstories etc.
Sans
It wouldn’t be swap if sans didn’t aspire to be in the royal guard… and be slightly pathetic at it despite all of his highly motivated efforts. But i have a solution.
What if before the CORE, sans was a scientist who loved puns but didn’t really have any friends and was always focussed on his work? (Remember papyrus didn’t have friends before in UT either so it’s reasonable to impose this scenario on him. Puns aren’t always popular with crowds afterall) He worked with Gaster and then after the… incident, sans had vague recollections of WD and studied determination in an effort to figure out why he can’t remember him properly. With a certain someone playing around with time, this study leads to the reports that show timelines starting and stopping until suddenly, everything just ends.
This comes as a huge blow to him. But not in the way it does in UT, where he finds it harder and harder to care about things because of how powerless he is. Quite the opposite, he starts to realise that if his life doesn’t matter he wants to spend it doing what he wants to do rather than what he’s good at, because there’s no point anyway. He wants friends. He knows paps used to be a royal guard and he’s popular so sans makes it his lifelong dream to become a member of the royal guard and receive a little love and recognition, to bathe in a shower of kisses every morning etc. etc.
Kinda tragic really considering how good he was at science and how terrible he is at his duties. I mean, he only has 1 HP and 1 AT. This is the main reason they haven’t let him in the guard yet, because if he entered a fight he’d just die.
With motivations like that, you can sorta see how a normal sans might show papyrus behaviour, right? No need to just swap the personality entirely.
I will concede to say that in this universe sans has passion for making the puzzles (a normally papyrus trait that i really shouldn’t be adding but it just simplifies things). He tends to make them overly complicated and convoluted in reference to his science background but he always misses the obvious point in their design.
Papyrus
Did you notice I said pap used to be royal guard? Yep. This is one of those I’m-tweaking-with-the-plot-in-a-big-way things. So papyrus in US has a bit more of a level head than UT. Which is sorta hard to bring out in our normal loveable skeleton. 
Let’s say that in this universe he somehow became a royal guard without the struggle he faces in UT. In fact, let’s say that he became a royal guard a long time ago. His vigour and commitment made him a good candidate and they hired him a thought. So, without having to be desperate about getting people’s approval like in UT, he found he didn’t need to try so hard to make friends which actually made him more popular and likeable. 
He was a capable royal guard really. I mean, Undyne admits in UT itself that he’s actually pretty strong. But what stops him from fulfilling his duties is exactly what Undyne notices in him with UT, he’s too morally good for the job.
*queue the weird screen wobble of a backstory*
I’m not sure on the details but in my head, papyrus learns his fault in a serious way. Maybe facing one of the past humans or another monster (I might use this loose end to tie up some other plot point later..). 
Anyway, at some point in the past he confronts an assailant one on one. He knows what he must do: kill them. He’s been in FIGHTs before of course, dealt damage and captured badguys, but he’s never actually turned a living thing into dust. Facing his enemy, he faces a moral conflict at the core of his being. Papyrus can’t kill. Because despite everything, no matter how heinous the crime or horrible the person, he can’t help himself from believing in the potential of others. From hoping that people can do a little better. And as long as he thinks like this he knows he will never be able to rob someone from an opportunity to improve themselves. To give them that chance at change. There, facing this villain just waiting for him to strike, he realises that he will never be able to be a true royal guard.
They stand for what feels like hours but may as well be just moments of real time in a standstill waiting for papyrus to FIGHT, or atleast even ACT. Finally, papyrus relents and shows mercy, giving into his true nature. It’s at this point that Alphys arrives and intervenes, fighting and capturing the assailant. But papyrus has already learnt a lesson about himself that cannot be forgotten.
Despondent, realising what this means for his job, papyrus begins to care less and less about his work. A stigma grows around him. The guard who won’t FIGHT. The laziest member of the force. It’s around this time he starts frequenting Grillby’s. He eventually quits the guard entirely and embraces what people assume he is. Laziness becomes his escape from the blame he places on himself for all the things he HAD done as a guard and the one thing he couldn’t that fateful day.
Years pass and his time in the guard is all but forgotten. Paps is popular, easy-going and doesn’t care to do much of anything. That is until the one thing he does care about intervenes.
Sans and papyrus always had a strong relationship while younger. Paps is one of the only ones who stuck by sans through his awkward scientist days. Before, sans hadn’t cared much for gossip or other people in general and didn’t really bother to learn about why pap left the guard. What he did know was that somehow being on the guard had left him popular all this time later (which motivated his need to be in the royal guard like I said). Because he was concerned about how lazy paps was getting, he encouraged paps to join him as a sentry. 
It’s an offer papyrus couldn’t refuse, knowing how vulnerable sans truly was. Someone needed to keep an eye on him. And really, the dynamic works both ways with sans being there to stop paps from giving up on life entirely some days just by being his perky self.
Dynamic
There’s still that adorable by-play between the bros.
Sans gets frustrated at papyrus for being lazy.
Papyrus silently cringes at the puns sans makes (but he doesn’t react to it like he does in UT)
Despite being the laziest monster in the underground sans still considers him ‘the coolest’
Papyrus somehow always manages to have access to spaghetti 24/7 which drives sans crazy. Sans refuses to eat the spaghetti because of how ridiculous it is. This is supposed to replace the pun thing in UT. I keep thinking of a twist on something in the game: “Papyrus! You need to stop making spaghetti all the time! It’s getting out of hand!” “come on bro, your stomach is grumbling just looking at it.” “I know and i hate it!” 
Instead of a hotdog stand, papyrus has a full-on spaghetti kitchen concealed in his sentry station.
Sans is the one that has all the extra sentry jobs around the underground though that he impossibly manages. Most people don’t question it because he’s always putting 110% into everything he does (but how can he possibly be in so many places at once i wonder... *audible wink* )
Papyrus will give Frisk their phone number and answer their calls whenever for each room but I’ll explain how and why that works in another post (I’ve let this one drag long enough)
To be continued i guess?
Ok... That’s not EVERYTHING. But that’s the basics. I still want to go into how frisk encountering the skelebros would work (like i mentioned with the phone calls), the whole lady behind the door thing (but i’ll probably cover that in the Asgore/Toriel swap), who you fight in the blizzard exiting snowdin, who you date in a true pacifist route and how the whole genocide drama would run down. Not to mention i still need to elaborate on the separate friendships they have with alphys, undyne, hapstablook etc. but i’ll them bring up with their own swaps rather than this one because the skeletons are too integrated with everything and everyone to explain it all here.
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samirgianni · 7 years
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Seasonal Ontario Food's Top Ten - The Heart of the Blog - Vegetable Side Dishes
Here are the recipes that to me define the purpose of this blog. There is any amount of information out there about cooking meat based dishes, vegetarian cookbooks abound, and the making of desserts is an art and a science and yet a good dessert is easily had. But damn, it can be so hard to find a nice, simple vegetable side dish that isn't swimming in butter, cream, cheese, bacon etc, and yet has that special touch that makes it stand out. I get all excited when I come up with one. (But you'll also note that I'm don't exactly turn down the butter, cream, etc when it seems like a good idea.) Ten recipes won't cover my enthusiasm for these, but ten recipes for each vegetable seems excessive, so I'll go with breaking them down by season. That's admittedly a very crude division. Some things are available for months, with others if you miss the week they are available they are gone. Still, here goes... Spring: Sautéed Parsnips - These could be made in the fall or the winter; anytime the parsnips will have been touched with frost which sweetens the roots. I'm putting them here because it is so nice to have delicious vegetables at that difficult time in the early spring. This is also my most viewed vegetable side dish recipe. They are certainly very good, but I think I like Parsnip Fritters just that little bit more even though they are also more work. Cabbage & Bean Sprouts with Shiitakes - Lets face it, when it comes to "green" vegetables in the winter and early spring, we are talking about cabbage. Also cabbage, cabbage, and cabbage. Fortunately, cabbage is good, bean sprouts are a crispy treat, and shiitake mushrooms are sublime. Leeks & Spinach - Leeks and anything, really, but this was the first of that genre, and remains a favourite. To have leeks in the spring you must grow them yourself or find them (maybe) at a farmers market, but they are worth looking for. Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Goat Cheese & Asparagus (or Spinach) - This is probably more of an appetizer or main dish than a side dish, but too bad. It's also fine as a side dish, as long as you can put up with it stealing the show.
Hodge-Podge - Is more of a seasonal Nova Scotia recipe than an Ontario one, but I have no qualms about stealing it. It's delicious, versatile, and a bit too on the rich side, what with the cream and butter.  Never mind, it also has lots of vegetables. The yummiest, most excellent vegetables of the year.  Asparagus & Wild Leeks - There are probably about 2 days a year when this could be made, but sometimes I love these fleeting little pleasures just because they are so fleeting. And pleasures, of course - it's an excellent combination. Endive & Mushrooms au gratin - More of late-winter/early spring dish than a later spring one, when you long for bright zingy vegetables but cheesy baked things still seem far too appropriate. Why not both? Stir-Fried Radishes with Their Greens - Cooked radishes! Entirely possible and quite charming. One Pot Creamed Spinach with Mushrooms -"Creamed". "Spinach". "Mushrooms". Need I say more? Oh, all right. "One Pot". Swedish Colcannon - Not Swedish and not exactly Colcannon, but nevermind. It's awfully good. Summer: Green Beans & Cabbage "Scandia" - This one has been made in the family since the 1930s. It's a bit of job, for a side dish, but it's a real marker of summer for us. And also really, really, tasty. Green Beans in Tomato Sauce - Just about every country around the Mediterranean has some version of this dish, on account of because it is just so easy, logical, and perfect. Yes, perfect.
Fried Cauliflower, Mexican Style - Just greasy enough to give it that air of decadence, while being perfectly wholesome, really. Or is it that soft, mild cauliflower obtains some substance and presence from the eggy coating? Eat some and decide. Lambs Quarters as a Vegetable - Not a recipe, but a much read and commented upon post. What it says on the tin. Puréed Peas - This is what it says on the tin too. How to make slightly past-it peas better and good peas sublime. Visualize whirled peas, said one joking commenter, but you don't have to visualize. There's a photo. Buttered Beans - Here it is in the summer, because that's when beans are in season, but really I do this all winter with frozen beans. So simple, so tasty. Fresh Corn Polenta - I tried to get a corn recipe in here - this is it - but admittedly I mostly boil it, butter it, and eat it. This is pretty good too though. Green Beans a la Poutine - Yes we eat a lot of beans. I used to not like them that much, then we started growing them. What a difference. This is definitely gilding the lily, but sometimes that's good. Bean & Zucchini Curry - More beans. With zucchini - another popular summer veg around here - in a sprightly curry sauce. This is substantial enough to be a main dish, but it could also play second fiddle. Lively and satisfying. Ratatouille - No new culinary ground being broken here, but this is a staple for us. We've taken to freezing it in vats, then using it in the winter for soups - it does get a bit soupy once frozen - pasta sauces, and casseroles. It's also delightful fresh in season, of course. Pizza Style Zucchini, or Possibly Eggplant - Another one that could be a side dish, or a main dish. It's fun, it's easy, it's flexible, and it uses up those overly large zucchini. Fall: Broccoli Stem, Cabbage & Carrot Stir Fry - I originally cooked this in the summer but it is really more of a fall dish. There's something about the combination of vegetables, and the fine grated texture that really appeals to me here. I make this one again and again; and I enjoy the same combination as Broccoli Stem Cole Slaw.
Pattypan Squash Stuffed with Corn & Cheese -A late summer or early fall dish, and again it could step  up and be the main course. It's not just tasty, it's also ridiculously cute. Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Onion - Well just about anything green goes well with bacon and onion. But in this case, it's Brussels sprouts. Roasted Squash, Brussels Sprouts & Shallots - A really well-balanced trio; each one the better for the presence of the other two. Brussels Sprouts & Jerusalem Artichokes - I wish we called them Topinambour and I wish we ate them more. Jerusalem artichokes, that is; they are not from Jerusalem (they are one of the very few vegetables that are historically from Ontario) and they are not artichokes. They sure do go with Brussels sprouts though. Ginger-Lime Mashed Sweet Potatoes - I love ginger and lime, and I love sweet potatoes, and they all love each other, and yes! It's just a great big orgy love-fest. Kale and Parsnips a l'orange - Oh look! It's a way that I will eat kale and like it, and there isn't even any greasy meat involved. That's an accomplishment. Cauliflower with Mushrooms & Garlic - And paprika. Sautéed. Excellent, in other words. Rosemary-Garlic Rutabaga - Rosemary is an underused herb; at least underused by me. Along with garlic it raises rutabaga to new levels of subtlty and sophistication. Beans & Kale with Tomatoes -Greens, beans, and tomatoes are one of the all-time great food combinations. You can swap out different greens, you can use all kinds of beans, and fresh, sauced, diced, tinned, or just about any form of tomato but ketchup can be used. (Hmm. That sounded like a challenge. Did that sound like a challenge to you? Fortunately I'm too old and canny to fall for that.) Winter: Clapshot; a Mash of Rutabaga, Carrots & Potatoes - Smooth or rustically mashed, these three are greater than the sum of their parts. A classic of Scottish cuisine - stop laughing - and a really delicious comfort-food dish. Red Cabbage Braised with Beets - Like so many of these vegetable combos, better together than apart. Rich, flavourful, and an amazing colour. 5-Spice Parsnips - Two slightly nerdy flavours that are just soul-mates. Rum & Raisin Sweet Potatoes - Sweet potatoes, with rum-soaked raisins, honey, and butter. How could it not be good? Belgian Endives with Blood Oranges & Honey - Sweet, juicy, crunchy, and just a little bit bitter - a symphony on your plate.
Roasted Carrots on a Bed of Lentils - Visually lovely, complex in textures and flavours, this is inspired by Turkish cooking. Yet another one that could be the leading actor but will play a character part with grace and style. Lemon Cabbage with Poppy & Sesame Seeds - It's winter, so it's cabbage. So much cabbage. This is an easy and delightful way of changing it up. Maple-Balsamic Glazed Onions - Onions - always a bridesmaid, never the bride. Except they can take centre stage very well, as this dish shows. Sweet Roasted Beets - I spent 30 years hating beets. Then I started doing things like this with them. Beets? They're terrific! Braised Red Cabbage & Onion with Goat Cheese - I made this a year and a half ago, and when I saw the photo I started to drool. I remember it very well - I don't know why I haven't made again. It was simply amazing. Goat cheese is a little spendy, I suppose, but some things are worth it. from Seasonal Ontario Food http://seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/2017/06/seasonal-ontario-foods-top-ten-heart-of.html
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