#canon in the context of its in the trans not-AU

[aliatori]

Trust and Defying

The Forsaken and the Forsworn | post-Fate and Furor | Hugo Melançon/Vidakai | 2.3k words | Mature | M/NBi (Secrecy, magic during sex, hands-free orgasm, getting together, metaphysical monsterfucking)

Lavender washes over the contours of the mortal world, a dull haze muting its vibrant colours. They’ve docked in one port or another—the Enclave, if the echoing sensation of Vidakai’s dedicants and their memories through their consciousness is to be believed—but they couldn’t care less about which territorial waters the physical ship rests on. Form over function, forever their favourite.

Vidakai’s focus, their entire reason for manifesting here in the still-dreary permutations of this coil, belongs to the captain of said vessel and the ongoing game of wits and wills between them.

BORING. HAVE I GIVEN YOU THE IMPRESSION I CARE FOR SUCH THINGS, WHEN EVERY PLACE MY BONDBREAKERS AND SECRET EATERS CALL HOME BELONGS TO ME AS WELL? IF YOU’RE TRULY TRYING TO INTOXICATE YOURSELF WITH AN EXCESS OF MAGIC, YOU’LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN LIES ABOUT MERE GEOGRAPHY.

(.are they who are They .sake s'amusement for ,own their of lie little A)

The lack of a First blunts Vidakai’s sensation in this realm. But they do so adore piecing together a puzzle, and the clues draw an inevitable conclusion of torrid summer heat: Hugo reclines on his bed at the stern of the Tide, stripped down to only his breeches and little else, sweat-drenched tendrils of greying hair clinging to his neck. Vidakai’s taunt draws his gaze from the windows to their form, a rearing serpent from a half millennia ago.

“If land won’t suffice, what about the heavens?” Vidakai’s irritation ripples their form, an invisible hand waved through a cloud of amethystine smoke. If it weren’t so charming, they’d unravel Hugo’s smirk with the point of a claw. “Xeheia’s constellation Rises in the winter season. The Enclave bases their calendar on the twin stars they’ve named for Rhohnas. If you measure the distance between the sun and the horizon while in the Unchartables back-to-back, you get the same figure each time.”

They’re lies by the most pedantic definition, petty falsehoods in spite of truth. Each one plunks pathetically into the bond like a pebble into a rushing river. Agitation curls Vidakai in on themself, their serpentine curves coiling in a prelude to danger… that is, until a stronger ripple draws their attention.

A single stone dropped into an ewer can still make it overflow.

Their flirtations with falsehoods have succeeded. Somewhat. Hugo’s bare chest rises and falls as he scrutinizes Vidakai’s form, and Vidakai recalls enough of mortality to know it for the clue it is. More relevantly, the reserves of his magic—magic Vidakai continues to feed him with glee each time he lies—competes with the oscillating, shadow-pulse aura of the ring around his middle finger, an obsidian circle of carved teeth and the most subtle facet of the puzzle box in his possession. Vidakai senses it less in ‘sight’ and more as a resplendent beacon of whispers, a recursive waterfall of their own essence pouring back into them. A gift from a gift. The tether of the secret they share, of their deepened bond, tugs at Vidakai wherever they are, in this realm or their own, reeling them toward a fixed end.

It breathes a life Vidakai only half remembers but craves intensely into Hugo, painting him in a vivacious palette, his edges sharp as his tongue.

IF YOU INSIST ON WASTING MY TIME WITH SUCH PUNCTILIOUSNESS, I CAN SIMPLY LEAVE AND FIND A BETTER BOUNTY ELSEWHERE. YOUR IMPUDENCE AND IRREVERENCE AMUSE ONLY TO A POINT.

Speaking of things they adore. Their favourite, their would-be First of the Forsworn stares at them, direct and hungry, a feast of emotions writing themselves on his unguarded features. They are all too aware their divine fluidity is magnificent complicated spLENDID TERRIBLE MARVELOUS—hard. Hard to behold in this realm.

Hugo’s eyes (twins of different eyes, in a different time, sea green and spilling salt as Vidakai sinks their teeth into their sun-drenched bond, tongue coated with bright betrayal) narrow. A fond affection surges like storm-tossed waves through Vidakai at his constant suspicion. “And here I thought you couldn’t afford to be so particular about your vintages. Not yet, at least. Never mind the quality of your company.”

Oh. A mortal exclamation for a distinctly immortal phenomenon. Clever, clever, clever Forsworn. The subtle sweetness of the lies rustle through Vidakai, all the better to be savoured. They want to be across from-near-INSIDE-next to Hugo, and so they are, a stolen shape of a dedicant long deceased their form as they mimic a human’s cross-legged pose.

BETTER. MUCH BETTER. BUT IT TAKES MORE THAN A SIP OF EVEN THE FINEST VINTAGE TO ACHIEVE OBLIVION.

“Best to approach the challenge on two fronts, then.” Hugo waves what remains of his right arm to an adjacent shelf carved into the Tide’s timbers.

Vidakai intends to follow with only their sense of sight but ends up beside the shelf in the form of a sleek ermine, claws braced on the wood. This close, they can read the script, their newfound multitude of bonds supplying the meaning of the label: Luminous Age. Vidakai deems the smaller subtext cramped beneath it irrelevant.

I RECOGNIZE THIS FROM YOUR SPECIAL CABINET, THE ONE YOU ONLY OPEN IN TIMES OF GREAT SUCCESS OR CELEBRATION. WHAT CAUSE DO WE HAVE TO CELEBRATE? Vidakai says, borrowing the aromatic whistle of wind through wildflowers to make their point. Hugo gives them a look of such affront that Vidakai dissolves—literally—into their mirth, reappearing across from Hugo in their sailor’s form. WHAT? YOU DIDN’T TRULY THINK YOU COULD KEEP A SECRET COMPARTMENT HIDDEN FROM THE DEITY OF SECRETS? PLEASE. YOU MAY MANAGE TO OFFEND ME IN EARNEST.

The affronted expression melts into a warm amusement, underlined by an easy laugh, Hugo’s baritone a rich music in Vidakai’s perception, all the more beautiful in its rarity. He takes up the bottle, tips the elongated neck to his mouth, and takes several swallows of clear liquor before returning it to the would-be nightstand.

“Nothing,” he says, his smirk gone lopsided. “I’m celebrating nothing.”

Another lie, and an enticing one at that, a lie that promises delectable truth. Vidakai rewards him accordingly. They pour magic into the overflowing vessel Hugo has made of himself, the seed from which Vidakai themself grew back into the world, the flesh-and-blood dendritic heart of their divinity.

Mortals have differing reactions to an excess of Vidakai’s power, most of them pleasant. Honey instead of vinegar, like the human expression. After all, Vidakai was once the shepherd, the guardian of those who found their oaths to the other Exiled or Exalted too much to bear. Why make serving them another torture?

Judging by the flush in Hugo’s cheeks and chest, pale skin shot through with pink, and by the groan that blossoms low in the column of his throat, his reaction to a superfluidity of Vidakai’s gifts certainly proves pleasurable.

It awakens a divine hunger in Vidakai. They want, as they did in Xeheia’s collapsing Heart, to crawl into his skin, to make his breath their breath, their power his power. They want to rip out the broken shreds of Xeheia’s touch from his butchered soul and make him truly theirs and theirs alone.

They want (time, always more time, the lives of their devotees spending drop by inevitable drop like sand through the turnglass yet faster than they can count, their spirits snatched to realms they cannot follow to, hollow ruins like empty graves left behind in their lavender-drenched world) Hugo. They want (seimene sih fo staorht eht dner retteb yam eh os wodahs dna terces ni hteet sih nroda ot ,raw ot gniydaer dna srebmuls rieht morf gnikaw sdog eht morf mih dleihs ot ,mih retlehs ot sterces fo sisoehtopa eht eb ot) to feast on the magic emanating from him in lush waves, like a stonefruit juices dripping down a jutted chin.

Waves crashing against the cliffside, the cracking of the earth beneath the seafloor, the heady desire of a courtesan in the Imperial shadow-harem: LIE TO ME AGAIN, FORSWORN. GO ON. YOU KNOW I DON’T MIND. I’M CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

Delirium outlines the edges of Hugo’s laughter, and were it any of their other devotees, Vidakai would deem it a giggle. “Assume your true form and I might consider something better.” Hugo leans back against the Tide’s skeleton, eyes half-lidded, knees falling open like the gentle fan of butterfly wings as he stares at Vidakai. “A secret for a truth.”

ALL FORMS ARE MY TRUE FORM. Vidakai assumes the manifestation of a shadowkraken and circles in the air above the bed, waiting, Hugo’s too-vivid colours blurring as distraction fragments their concentration. ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT DIRECTLY, OR DO NOT BOTHER TO ASK AT ALL.

And here, the iron spine of him, resilient even through an overabundance of power so intense Vidakai finds him difficult to focus on directly. “You know exactly the form I mean.” That the words are softly slurred with desire-liquor-longing-lust only makes them all the more appealing.

Vidakai is here, everywhere, nowhere, and now they find themselves in their favourite deific form, floating horizontally above Hugo, all four arms reaching for him, claws extended. They match claws to scars—the two crescents beneath his chest, the pulsing lavender beacon where Vidakai plucked a secret from his soul to swallow, the knot of jagged white flesh where Xeheia’s chosen son electrified him back to breathing life.

HERE’S MY TRUTH. NOW, MY SECRET. I’M WAITING.

Hugo’s chest rises and falls beneath the four pinpricks of Vidakai’s touch. To be able to touch him at all, to not be driven away—were the intention different, it could almost count as a secret. He beholds Vidakai with a complex awe, pupils blown wide, grappling with whatever hidden truth he’s about to sacrifice on their altar.

“I’m not a fool. The bond, the outings, the games, the gifts. I can recognize flirtation, such as it is coming from a once-mortal deity. You’ve been courting me.”

A delicate, precarious position. Not quite a secret. Not yet, not yet, not YET. Push too hard and Hugo will retreat—they learned this lesson after the Heart, when they took their transgressions too far, got too greedy in their eagerness to have him as their First.

FINALLY. I WAS BEGINNING TO WONDER IF YOU WERE LESS INTELLIGENT THAN YOU SEEMED. OR RATHER, LESS INCLINED TO MY SERVICE. I DON’T TEND TO ATTRACT FORSWORN WHO REQUIRE MY INTENTIONS SPELLED OUT IN BLACK AND WHITE FOR THEM.

“Then allow me to spell it out for you,” Hugo says. A tension gathers in the air, a prelude to magic. “I’m too old and have lived through too much to waste more time. I want you, everything you have to offer save being First, and I’ve never been afraid of gods, and I’m celebrating because I already know you’ll give it to me.”

The magnitude of the truth explodes through Vidakai, tearing through the fabric of their manifestation and dissipating them back to their own realm for an instant, or an eternity, or one in the same. The succulent power of such a tender secret fills them upon their return, rendering the entire mortal plane in perfect clarity for a crystalline moment. It brings them the beautiful recollection of what it was like to walk the world alongside their devotees—and the yearning to do so once more.

Language, humanity, shape abandons them, leaving only an ancient tongue and primal hunger in its wake.

ፕⶴቹክ ረቹፕ ፕⶴጎነ ፪ቹ ፕⶴቹ ቻጎዪነፕ ፏጎቻፕ ፕዐ ጮልዪኡ ፕⶴቹ ዐርርልነነጎዐክ.

Vidakai redoubles the magic through their bond with Hugo, with the Forsworn who heralded their return to power. They turn him into an eternal loop, a fountain designed to overfill and spilling lavender floods over the edges, more than any mortal could reasonably bear.

The ruination it wreaks on their most adored devotee… astounds. Vidakai commits this memory to the few, the precious, the treasured fragments they’ve maintained.

Hugo’s back arches from the sleek embroidered covers of the bed, mouth open in a long, unabashed moan of pleasure, hips questing in miniature arcs towards a physical sensation that doesn’t exist. A dark stain of desire colours the fabric between the open vee of his legs, spreading more and more as he spends and spends and spends. His bare toes mirror his fist, curling in the sheets as he gasps, jerking as helplessly as a marionette.

And Vidakai supposes, in a way, he is that to them. They are that to one another. They cherish the strings tied tight between them.

It takes Vidakai whispering his name, a redolent rustle overlaid in a hundred different voices, for Hugo to open his eyes. They expect to see shame, but full of spiritual fortification and earthly liquor, all Vidakai gleans from his expression is a decadent covetousness. He reaches between his legs and unbuttons his trousers deftly with one hand, peeling the drenched fabric down, and the secret of it—exposure of such sacred skin, a private act performed for their pleasure—scatters Vidakai’s awareness once more. Hugo’s fingers circle against his flesh, his breath quickened, chin proud.

Vidakai moves their hands, making a delicate cradle of their claws for his jaw, their other hands feather-light on his thighs.

TELL ME YOU WANT ME GONE. TELL ME YOU’RE ASHAMED. IF YOU’RE CERTAIN I’LL DELIVER ON MY PROMISES, ANY LIE AT ALL WILL DO.

Hugo laughs, breathless, euphoric. His eyes are faerie fire, ancient fields as he holds Vidakai’s gaze. “You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you? But no. I expect you to watch—to appreciate this for the gift it is.”

An audacious order and a secret. Far better than a lie. Vidakai rewards Hugo with a torrential flood of power, drinking down every drop of magic Hugo pours back into them as it surpasses his reserve. The urge to possess, to rend, to be as one nearly overtakes them. Hugo’s hips roll beneath the bounty, rutting into his own hand as paroxysms of pleasure overtake him again, his throaty moans thick enough to taste.

They grin, exposing all the many teeth of their most well-known visage, then place a clawed finger of a new, fifth hand to their lips in a shushing gesture.

I’LL DO MUCH MORE THAN WATCH, FORSWORN. Then, then—they begin to demonstrate.

#the forsaken and the forsworn #hugo melançon #vidakai #hugo melançon/vidakai #F&F kinktober 2023 #my writing #this is absolutely canon and I am not apologizing #well you know #canon in the context of its in the trans not-AU

[the-s1lly-corner]

ATTENTION CREEPYPASTA FANS

hiiiiii i kinda wanna write some hcs/self insert stuff but im kinda stumped on who and what to write; especially since its been a while since ive written for these characters (a while = about a month?? give or take)

so! i'll be opening requests for creepypasta characters, a 'short' run down of my rules below + characters i write for + some info regarding how i write certain characters that may or may not be important

i apologize for any typos and mistakes for this post, im back to writing on my silly computer!! formatting may be a little whack as well, but that parts more so because idk how i wanna structure these side posts

it should be said right now that the way i write these characters leans very heavy on my own personal interpretation/au rather than ideas that the bulk of the fandom has (although, to be fair, i havent interacted much with the current state of the fandom, im kinda stuck in 2016 </3) so personalities or worldbuilding/common ideas may be different or totally absent in my writing

will not write;

this blog does not allow explicit nsfw material, at most there will be suggestive jokes or themes but it will likely never ever be the main theme of the post!

basic nono criteria, no gross stuff

personally i dont like writing prompts surrounded by cheating so most likely i wont write it

anything overly graphic (gorey), yes i understand that this is creepypasta but there are some things that i just simply wont write; however implied/minor gore is allowed to an extent

really asides from that im mostly chill with anything, but on the off chance you send in something that makes me uncomfy/a request i feel i cant fulfill, i will do my best to communicate that

ohoh also! unfortunately i do not take oc requests :(! no hate to oc x canon, esp since im part of that community, but i just dont trust myself to be able to do justice or your oc TToTT

if i turn down a request it is nothing against you or your wants, please do not take it personally ^^;

will write;

fluff and angst, along with specific scenarios! im fine with most angst but as said above, if a prompt cannot be done i will communicate that!

the reader by default is GN/is not referred to with pronouns outside of like. they/you/your, the POV i write in is kinda inconsistent tbh ,, but i am comfy with writing for specific genders + trans readers, although i admit im not sure how much pronouns or gendered things will come into play unless gender is the main point of the request

im fine with poly! though ive yet to actually. write poly

i dont just write romantic hcs! im down with platonic/familial ones as well!

again im not at all picky with things, and once again, i will communicate if something cant be done

added thing since im not sure where else to put it! by default i write short hcs and scenarios, short fics being very rare on this acc since im not confident in my writing; so !! yeah!! there isnt a real limit to how many characters you can ask for per request but it should be noted that the more characters there are, the shorter each section will likely be

list of characters i will write for!

if a character has a * by their name there will be added notes on how i write for them/special rules stated after the list

Slenderman

Trenderman

Splendorman

Masky/Tim*

Hoodie/Brian*

Laughing Jack

Eyeless Jack

Ticci Toby**

Jeff*

Jane*

Ben*

Nina*

Puppeteer*

Bloody Painter*

Zalgo*(?)

added character notes:

for characters that are minors in their source (jeff, jane, ben, and toby and nina) i will not be writing any romantic hcs; thats just a personal boundary of mine and while i dont think its particually gross or problematic depending on context, its not something i myself feel comfortable writing for! however i am more than willing to write platonic or family hcs for the characters stated above!

onto the proxies! im still figuring out how i wanna write them but i wanted to blend together the creepypasta take and the og marble hornets version into something new (mostly for my au) however due to my brain forgetting most the stuff that happens in MH (i gotta rewatch it, bad) it more so leans into the creepypasta take of these characters! i also by default write tim and masky as different characters, and the same for brian !!

main reason for puppeteer and bloody painter having the star is because im not too well versed in their lore but im willing to write them! though i am struggling to find a consistent source on helens age so ill be going off the fandom wiki (with a grain of salt) that hes in his 20s-

zalgo is a weird case because in my au he does indeed exist but also isnt?? okay so hes more so this untouchable being/mostly nontangible; like the dude is more so like a sentient force of nature bordering on something incomprehensible rather than being a person; more of a concept if anything... but because i want a challenge, and because i need to flesh him out in general im making him an available character!

but yeah i think thats mostly it! this post ended up being longer than i intended but i fully blame that on me being totally incapable of shortening things down 😭😭

#creepypasta headcanon #creepypasta #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #creepypasta imagines #laughing jack x reader #eyeless jack x reader #slenderman x reader #splendorman x reader #trenderman x reader #puppeteer x reader #bloody painter x reader #zalgo x reader #crp #masky x reader #hoodie x reader

[callmearcturus]

DVD Commentary KTOWL Chapter Six, The Sex Scene

Pursuant to discussion of Ace People Writing Sex Scenes, I thought I'd do a DVD Commentary for one of my own sex scenes. This is the sex scene in so we don't kill the ones we love, chapter six, "The Black Keys 'Turn Blue' (2014) Side A"

Yes, that is the chapter title.

This is fairly dense scene with a lot of deliberate choices. If I pointed out every single one, we'd be here all day, but I'll point out a lot of things and talk about the things I think about when I write something like this.

[Let me set the scene a bit for people who might not have read so we don't kill the ones we love. This is a full setting AU detached from the canon material. Our principle characters here are Karkat (an alien immigrant who is basically an indentured servant stuck working for a hotel for assassins) and Dave (a human who is, unbeknownst to Karkat, stuck working for the same hotel for the rest of his natural life and cannot hope to escape his contract). 

I am going to explain stuff that might feel very obvious, but this is a learning exercise.]

Wisely keeping his mouth shut and accepting the mercy offered, Karkat followed Dave up into the loft.

There was, as he expected, a bed. It was however dismantled. The mattress was on the floor, shoved flush to the corner. The support structure was against the wall, and Dave had repurposed the wooden slats to hold his music albums. They were spaced and arranged in a way that was pleasing to the eyes, very deliberate.

Below them was the turntable, spinning a blue and pink vinyl.

[This is my favorite expedient trick to use when describing a space is to give the reader just enough context to build a space in their mind but, unless there is something truly important and relevant about placement, not handing the reader blueprints. 

I recently got into a snag with Punct about Benji's apartment in our AU because they had envisioned something completely different than I had for the space, and it did become plot-relevant. But outside special cases like that, I think less is more. Do just enough description, so that when you stop to do florid, expanded description, the audience notices. And isn't mentally tired by the time you get there.]

Karkat reached out and turned the volume dial down about a third, until the sound wasn't liable to give him a fucking migraine.

"Square," Dave accused, and dropped himself unceremoniously onto his bed.

"Better than prematurely fucking deaf."

Dave cupped a hand around his ear. "Sorry, what?" Dave asked loudly, then snickered. "So I was thinkin'."

[This patter is very naturalistic, the way that— when we talk to people online, we can often maintain multiple threads of conversation. If I send you a paragraph block about what I had for lunch, asking you where you got those shoes, and asking how your day went, that's very difficult to navigate verbally. Something is going to get pinned or dropped in favor of something else.

So I frequently and pointedly have my characters swerve like this, where Dave consciously takes the reins of the convo to prevent lingering on the joke. There is an agenda here, and he wants to keep things moving. 

It is also one of the MANY times in this scene and other sex scenes were its reinforced that Dave is the guy getting fucked but he is completely in control. I think "topping from the bottom" is reductive, so I just like to talk about who is controlling the encounter the most.]

Feeling overdressed, Karkat started taking off his shoes.

"I was thinking this time, you can probably introduce your prehensile dick to my—" He tipped his head to the side with a hum. "You know, I kind of dig 'nook.' Not the worse terminology available by far."

[I've written a lot of trans characters but Dave is my favorite. I don't personally think I am equipped to write a story about The Trans Experience, but I think about gender and about bodies and identity a lot, and I poured a lot of that into specifically Dave and Jake in this story. 

Dave does not dig the terms "cunt" and "pussy" nor any of the more clinical terms nor the more euphemistic options. Like many people, there just doesn't seem to be a good neutral option to his tastes. So meeting an alien with their own term, a term that by the nature of being alien completely lacks humanocentric baggage, finally gives him an out: "nook." He even uses "nook" in his personal narration, it's such a relief to have it.

I just did an Entire Work search, and the only occurrence of "pussy" is Jake using "Pussyfooting" which feels right.

Worth noting: I think Rose would use "cunt" under the right circumstances. Different characters have different levels of comfort with terms, and you shouldn't assume that Dave's take is the author's take, if that makes sense.

But that's a discussion about Close Third Person Perspective for later.]

"Along with 'magic button?'" Karkat asked.

"Eh, I guess 'clit' doesn't sound as stupid as the other one. But I was just trying to help you along, give you some indicative nomenclature, I know trolls are huge on that, and no joke I think it's a cool thing. It's like y'all are constantly havin' a brainfart and forgetting the words for things. Like, damn, what's that thing in my chest, it's a— a chest throbber, right?'

"Pump biscuit," Karkat said.

"Whatever. The fuck was I saying, I had a point." He watched Karkat take off his jacket and fold it, draping it over the edge of the loft. "Tentacle on nook action, let's do that."

"Oh." Karkat liked that idea. A lot. "I thought you didn't want to do that."

[Boom, immediate characterization point. Karkat is turned on by the idea of putting his bulge in Dave's nook, but he immediately sidelines the idea to check on Dave's comfort level. He has already done this before with Dave and thus has pieces of information about what Dave likes and where he's comfortable.

Karkat prioritizes physical comfort in sex and he will communicate shit, even if it taps the breaks on his own progress to getting an orgasm.

ON TOP OF THAT: This is a 252,409 word long epic and I'd estimate at least 200,000 of those words are about how people in this story don't tell the truth. Sometimes because they are lying, sometimes because the truth is painful, sometimes because they're too busy being charming to be upfront, sometimes because their truth is different than someone else's truth.

Act One is a lot about Karkat figuring out that everyone's perspective on the world is Very Different, so he overcommunicates. This is that.]

"That was the first time, now I've gotten a taste of that thang, and I wanna feel it all the way up in me."

Karkat pulled his shirt off over his head. "I feel like I'm missing some�� really stupid human-centric cultural context here."

Dave smirked at him. "You kind of are? But… I sorta dig that too. I don't have to explain shit to you or— it's good, it's a bonus in your column, okay?" He sat up, arms hanging over his knees as he watched Karkat undress with absolute focus.

[See, here Dave literally confirms that Karkat is lacking information. Reinforcement of the themes, even in the patter leading up to sex.

Dave is Karkat's closest ally in the Umbra and even he will not give Karkat the full picture.]

Karkat got down to his briefs before realizing he'd just been on autopilot, stripping efficiently. Dave seemed to have no problem with this, taking in the sight and swaying to his music. Reaching over, he picked up another bottle of cider beer and took a big swallow, waggling his eyebrows at Karkat over the bottle.

Leaning down, Karkat stole it and lifted it to his our lips. He was fucking parched, and it was crisp across his tongue.

[Phy! Si! Cal! Ity! Karkat is from a background that makes him point A to point B in his movement, and sometimes he just falls into locomotive routines.

Dave's locomotive routine is to be constantly attuned to his surroundings and reacting to them. When he's working around the Umbra, his entire presentation changes to match the environment. When he's in his loft, he reverberates with the music.

Karkat's recurring motif in the story is being out of synch with the world. Dave is almost agonizingly in-synch with the world.

Also Karkat steals the sip of beer. It's an acceptance of the invitation Dave is giving him.]

"Rude as hell," Dave said, but allowed it nonetheless. "Come on, what happened to my show?"

Glaring at him did nothing, as Dave was immune. Still, Karkat dispensed with the last of his clothes.

The way Dave smiled and ducked his head was worth it. "I'd stick a dollar bill in your belt, but whoops."

[Oh, so, I love the fact that Karkat is canonically Fucking Hot in this story. This fic is written in Extremely Close Perspective Third Person, meaning it's a re-skin of First Person with "he" instead of "I". Karkat only notices things he would, only uses phrases and terms he would. If you read KTOWL, you will notice that his POV sounds different from Dirk's and from Rose's and from Dave's and from Jake's. 

The law of this specific perspective is that the audience should learn things that the character does not. Now there is a lot of Very Serious Examples of that in KTOWL, when you the reader should glean something even if Karkat does not.

But a cute jokey one is the Karkat Is Hot thing. Karkat does not know he's hot except that he has to navigate humans hitting on him all the time.

What I like about this is that you learn Karkat is hot from other people. Here, let's look at the next bit, it's related.]

"I don't get out of bed for a dollar anymore," Karkat groused, and lowered himself down to the mattress, knees landing and bouncing a bit. On a guess, Karkat curled a hand around Dave's bare ankle and dragged him closer, claws going for the snap of his cutoffs.

A flush of pink spread over him in three seconds flat. "Oh, shit, Karkat gettin' hands-on. Someone's learned a thing or two." He settled his arms behind his head. "If you're volunteering, have at."

[So I am very very very Weird about character description in fic. I wildly prefer to have a POV character noticing someone else than to have a POV character describe themselves to the audience.

So Karkat is very specific about the physical attributes he notices about himself. These do not overlap with what other people notice about him. As each person meets Karkat and remarks on him, the audience gets more information about Karkat's actual body, since Karkat doesn't… think about his body as much.

In comparison, Dirk and Dave both think about their own bodies more, but for very different reasons. 

Anyway, this moment shows us that Karkat has some fucking muscles and can easily move people.]

Karkat hadn't realized he was such a contrarian until he met Dave Strider, who said everything like it was a dare. It was impossible not to push back, to respond, even if Karkat knew it was exactly what Dave wanted. Glaring at Dave's flushed, smirking face, he unzipped the shorts and pulled them down, catching the boxers underneath with his claws to haul them off as well. It was worth it for Dave's little gasp.

Karkat was no longer sure his subvocal noises were being drowned out by the music. He could feel a bone-deep satisfaction humming through his bones. Giving into the greedy thing in his thorax, Karkat pushed his hands up under Dave's shirt, claws dragging lightly, palms firm against the soft give of human skin.

[Lets get into sexy stuff. 

I'm very specific about what characters like about sex. I am very ace, so the idea that people Just Like Sex is sort of odd to me. I guess it'd be like someone who enjoys running marathons. Sounds fake, what's the part of that you like?

For Karkat, he hones in species differences between himself and humans. He has a lot of trauma regarding being hunted by his own people and how his destiny was to be culled as a mutant who needed to die. So one of the many manifestations of that trauma is a curiosity and interest in human bodies.

He really really likes that Dave is soft. He hones in on the soft parts of Dave's body, since alternians don't have as many.

When you write a sex scene, I think it'd very powerful to have the POV focus on the points that the character would. This is how, as an ace person, you can lockpick the backdoor to understanding attraction. When you are deep in another person's POV, then you can make their attraction more tangible to you by knowing these anchor points.]

The hitch in Dave's breath only made Karkat want more, now. When he pulled, Dave lifted his arms, bending his head to help Karkat peel the shirt off him, leaving him in nothing but the bold stamp of his armband. The warm flush in Dave's skin deepened and spread down his chest. Karkat touched him there, cupping the softer flesh and squeezing.

"Um!" Dave said in a higher voice than Karkat had ever heard from him.

"What?" Karkat asked, his own voice lowering, his worried tone starting to fragment and hum with the chirring in his thorax. There was no way it wasn't obvious now.

[Even though we're not in Dave's POV, I also heighten the parts of Karkat I know he likes: the sonic.

This is also a tacit reminder to the audience that Karkat super isn't a human. I never want them to forget it, so I will keep his alien oddities present on a regular basis.]

"Nothing!" His ears were red, and he puffed out a breath. "Initiative, I like it. Great job." When Karkat remained still, concerned, he rolled his eyes. "I swear to god I'm fine, you just— surprised me."

"I can slow down—"

Dave dug his knees into Karkat's sides.

[Dave is in control of the scene.]

Fine. Easing in closer, Karkat rubbed his thumbs over the nipples and squeezed more firmly, kneading with his fingers, careful to keep the points of his claws from pressing too hard against soft skin.

["the nipples" makes me laugh every time.]

Dave's mouth opened into a little 'o', his body slumping against the bed, his throat working as he swallowed thickly. "'Kay. God, those are— are pretty sharp, huh?"

"I won't hurt you," Karkat told him.

A sound equidistant between a laugh and a moan answered him. "Good with your hands, Karkat?"

"I mean, you try growing up on a planet where it's real fucking useful to have knives on your hands." He dragged his clawtips down Dave's ribcage, stroking his sides.

"I like 'em." Dave pressed his head back, back arching a bit as he sighed, lazily enjoying being touched.

Karkat crawled further up onto the bed, trying to bite back his smile as Dave eagerly sat up with him. He hesitated, unsure what to do next.

[How do you show a person is aroused? How do you portray desire?

A lot of thinking, mostly. 

I think my sex scenes tend to buck some sequencing tropes (kissing then clothes off then prep then sex then clean up) and its because I think about blocking constantly.

I'm unsure if that's a well known term. I learned it in drama class in high school, when the teacher/director talked about how it's not enough to remember your lines and say them. You have to use body language just as much, and the 'script' of that language is "blocking." It's the direction people physically follow in a scene, where they are going to move and when, what marks they have to hit, etc.

When I have a scene outlined and ready, I think ENDLESSLY about the blocking. I think about it when I'm driving, when I'm on breaks at work, when I'm making dinner. Figuring out how the characters are going to show their intentions with their bodies takes much more time than writing dialogue. At some point in the craft of writing, dialogue became the easiest part. I can do that in minutes.

The rest of the direction is the bulk of the work.

This is why I watch Mission Impossible and scream "UGH, PHYSICALITY" because this is… how I learn. This is how I work that writing muscle, I just…. find someone in a film or whatever who moves in away that catches my attention, who is saying something with their body language, and I study that shit. And I put it here.]

Dave pressed his hand flat against Karkat's thorax, his teeth against his lower lip as the subvocals immediately strengthened, modulating into a drowsy wave of noise. "God, that's so fucking cool. Don't let this go to your head, but that's pretty sexy."

[Dave is in control of the scene.]

He looked up at Karkat through his lashes, smile playful.

Karkat really want to kiss him again.

Instead, Karkat pulled one of Dave's legs to the side, stroking the hairs there. "Dude, not against the grain," Dave laughed, and redirected Karkat's hand to stroke in the right direction.

"Humans are so fucking complicated and touchy," Karkat said.

"And yet you came here for your treat," Dave reminded him. His knees pressed against Karkat's side. "Oh, shit, this song rocks, hang on—"

The guitar got noticeably crunchier, the drum thudding dull and steady. It grabbed Dave's attention, away from Karkat, and heat flared in Karkat's body.

Grabbing Dave's wrists, Karkat pushed, falling with him until he had Dave held flat to the mattress, his grip around warm skin and the cool material of the armband.

Fever got me guilty, just go ahead and kill me, Karkat heard vividly as he braced over Dave, looking at his mouth.

Dave stared up at him for a second, then lifted his head, pressing his lips firmly to Karkat's, and Karkat just fell in. He kissed Dave's mouth open, tongue exploring those strange flat teeth, tasting boozy fruit. Dave's moan vibrated through Karkat's body as he squirmed under Karkat, hips rolling, working to line their bodies up.

[So right before this scene started, Karkat unthinkingly kissed Dave and got chided lightly for it.

Here, he thinks about doing it again, then another 160 words pass before it happens. I told you directly Karkat wants to kiss Dave and then I showed you how it happens.

There's that advice, "Show don't tell" and I think it's… situational. I am of the opinion that you need a balance of both. This is about tempo and expediency. When you just Tell the audience something, it can be impactful like a punch. 

Also, when you stop to Show, the audience will notice more. If you are only doing Show Show Show and never just Telling, I personally find that kind of narrative a little exhausting and I think it lacks snap. 

So, I tell you Karkat wants to kiss Dave, and then I try to paint the moment with details about the taste and the music and the vibration in hopes you'll pay more attention to those.

I want this moment to be their Big First. So it has details that they'll remember. All the way in Act Three, Karkat puts on The Black Keys' Turn Blue, and Dave literally identifies the opening song as "their song."]

Karkat's bone sheath had been taking its sweet fucking time getting with the program until then. It parted immediately, and his bulge felt up Dave's thighs, rubbing over his nook.

Laying there and making out for a while sounded like a great idea. Karkat carded a hand into Dave's soft hair, holding his head still as he mapped out his mouth and swallowed every little groan. In perfect counterpoint, Dave grabbed Karkat, blunt nails dragging through his hair to find the bed of one of his horns. Stroking the base of it brought a thick, curling pleasure surging up Karkat body.

[Another instance of them honing in on the anchor points of their attraction. Karkat's attraction to softness and being allowed to be gentle, Dave's attraction to Karkat's anatomy and (as a beloved friend once told me) the joy of being aliens to each other.]

Eventually, Dave broke the kiss, lips wet, parted as he breathed. He kissed Karkat's jaw, his cheek, his eyelashes dark against his skin, eyes closed.

He looked so good, it almost burned to stare down at him. It made Karkat's breath catch.

Dave seemed oblivious to Karkat having a fucking moment and knocked his legs into Karkat's sides. "Come on, party hardy, is that guest of honor ready?"

[Dave is in charge of the scene and is currently not at a point where he'll let it get too tender. He is in control.]

Karkat headbutt him gently. "Don't talk about my bulge like that."

"Why not, he's my new best friend," Dave said, snickering. Blinking his eyes open dreamily, he looked down, between their bodies, and wiggled his hips again. "It's like, what's the fuckin' word, autonomous?"

"Mostly." It was currently autonomously grinding loops through the coarse hair, painting translucent red streaks over Dave's skin.

"Well, can you ask Mr. Red Joy Toy to take this bit slow? It's been a while since— actually, fuck, better idea. Flip." Planting a hand on Karkat's shoulder, Dave shoved. Tipping over, Karkat let out an offended noise that Dave completely ignored as he swung himself over, straddling Karkat's hips.

[Dave is in control— you get it. There are constant signifiers.

Also you might note I didn't give a blow by blow on Karkat's bulge coming out. I have compared my sex scenes to other people's and one of my constant notes of concern is, frankly, my overuse of blocking.

I often worry that I am explaining too much, spending too much time making sure the audience is aware of the exact positions of everyone at all times. Which can become exhausting and can kill the tempo/flow. So over the last five years or so, I've made a conscious effort to just drop unnecessary beats and trust the audience to follow along.]

Staring up at him was a little like staring into the sun. "Oh."

"Yeah, I dunno if I got the gams for a full rodeo," Dave said, his hand reaching down to grip Karkat's bulge, "but let's, uh, get it going before we turn tables."

"Whatever you want," Karkat said, because really? Honestly? Yes. He had zero complaints about the situation.

Dave laughed, tucking his hair behind his ear in a way that made Karkat's chest ache. "I don't do this part often, so just…"

[I love this moment of Dave doing a shy motion despite he is, as stated, in control. The royal flush is in his hand, but something about Karkat still makes him a little bashful, just for a moment. 

Also this is a purposeful juxtaposition: it's a cute bashful moment while Dave is straddling his hot alien coworker and working his alien dick. That kind of contrast adds texture and, in my opinion, a verisimilitude to the situation.

Because I've said this 100394823 times but while it is always okay to have a sex scene just for the fun or a sex scene, that's great, I tend to write sex scenes for a purpose. I want my sex scenes to convey something that can't be easily conveyed in another context.

This one here exists (among other reasons) to make it clear that Karkat isn't just a coworker to Dave, that he is getting something unique from Karkat, and it's something he's been lacking in his life for a long time. Which will make it harder for him to pretend this is purely fun and devoid of emotions.]

Putting his hands on Dave's hips, Karkat squeezed in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

Dave's smile was so fucking bashful, completely at odds with the way his hand worked Karkat's bulge, long wet strokes that had it curling around his wrist. Karkat groaned, hips lifting despite Dave's weight.

"Oh, huh," Dave said as he was jostled. "Looks like you got the gams. Impressive core muscle strength. Maybe test that out next time, but for now." Using both hands, he coaxed the narrow tip of Karkat's bulge up until it dragged along the slick folds of his nook. He stared down into his lap, focused, keeping a firm grip so Karkat wouldn't accidentally move too fast.

[Dave is in control and is already thinking about another round of sex with Karkat.

Also, I dunno how subtle this is, but Dave is in control in a way that speaks to the fact that the Umbra has him employed as a sex worker basically (its Complicated) and thus he has a lot of experience and instead of just lying back and letting Karkat have fun, he physically directs the action to ensure it goes correctly. He knows how much penetration he can take and at what speed, so he controls that too.]

Bit by bit, Dave loosened his grip, and Karkat sank into Dave's nook, taking gulps of air and digging his fingers into Dave's hips to keep from bulge from thrashing. God, he felt— so lush and wet, similar to working into another troll's nook, but different, more delicate, and without another bulge to tangle with. That was the best part, that nothing stopped Karkat from filling Dave up, his bulge twisting and exploring.

[Sexy advice hopefully but: I tend to focus in on the level of familiarity characters have when they fuck. Here, Karkat is fucking Dave for the second time but first time in his nook, so the narrative focuses on the differences, on what sets Dave apart from anyone else Karkat's fucked.

Later in the story, when it's established that these two fuck very very regularly, the focus shifts to what they've learned about each other. It's an aspect I think is sexy.]

Dave's expression went distant, eyes unfocused, face flushed. He bit his lip as his head lolled to the side, a soft, "Fuck," leaving his mouth as he rose up on his knees, then settled slowly back down. "Okay, okay, yeah…"

Karkat stroked his hips, his back, waiting. "Take your time."

"Don't tell me what to do," Dave said automatically, even as he slowly rocked his hips in a circle, letting Karkat's bulge go carefully. As it buried itself in him, he dug his slick hand into his hair, gripping, holding on. "Oh my god."

Because he was an idiot and his bulge had the reins of his brain, Karkat said, "You look so good."

[I'm not sure if I'm good at writing dirty talk? Like, I have no idea. But I really like writing sex talk.

Well, it's another thing that varies, I think. Sometimes it's fun to have two fucking chatty people who cannot stop talking fuck. It's also fun to have the moment when that all falls away because keeping up the patter is too difficult. And then again, sometimes a silent, intense, wordless fuck is the right choice.

It all depends on who is involved and also what the goal of the scene is. This scene is Dave and Karkat continuing to navigate their dynamic, so they can't shut up. The form fits the function in the story.]

Dave hitched a moan as Karkat stretched as far into him as he could. "I— jesus, Karkat, I—" He patted Karkat's hands on his hips. "Come on, it's time for you to do some work, let's go, babe."

[Dave. Control. Etc.]

Karkat rolled them back over, got his knees braced under him, and fucked into Dave.

Nothing about the situation felt real, and that was strangely what made Karkat feel helpless against it. The bass line that stroked down Karkat's spine as he moved and the way Dave looked at Karkat, hazey and pleasure-soaked, were so completely unbelievable… it didn't matter. There was no reason to hold back.

So he fell into it, tried to get his bulge as far into Dave as he could, kissing him just because he could, and fucked Dave in time with the music just for the way it made Dave start laughing.

Dave managed to sing a loose "Ba da dahm" before he completely lost it, laughing and moaning against Karkat's mouth.

[This is the part of the sex I always have the hardest time with. All the blocking and arranging bodies and banter and themes, that's EASY. But when someone needs to finally get off and come, it's like two to seven paragraphs that are agony to me, lmao.

For this one, I have a lodestone of the music. KTOWL is more than a bit about music, and how music is Dave's primary form of communication, so it makes its way into this moment, and that's the lifeline I need to wrap up the sex.

But if there is anything I think I need to work on in sex scenes, its orgasms themself. How do I make them a better conveyance of character? It's a point to work on.

(Ah, quick note, I phrased that as a question but I am not seeking advice on that. I don't tend to take unsolicited advice on my writing for several reasons. Thanks.)]

If coming here was a mistake, Karkat was so fucking glad he'd made it.

His bulge looped around itself in Dave, and Dave threw his head back with a shout, his legs bending.

Karkat pressed them both flat to the bed and felt how Dave shook with each stroke of his hips. He was so focused on Dave that his orgasm fucking shocked him, just there suddenly, making him thrust furiously into Dave as he just unspooled and flooded him with a heavy pulse of slurry. "Oh, shit," Karkat swore, eyes slamming shut as he tried— but nope, no, he was done for.

[I really like non-synchronized orgasms actually. Not to be gauche but sometimes you're coasting along and are turned on and think you've got a handle on it, and then the orgasm just happens! Whoops!]

"Oh, what, Karkat, hey," Dave whined as Karkat slowed. "Don't you fuckin' dare, I'm so goddamn close." He shoved a hand down between them to rub himself, groaning.

Karkat helped, folding their hands together, still pulsing drowsily in Dave's nook as they jerked him off. He felt Dave come, and thrust weakly into the clench of him, groaning.

His head rest against Dave's shoulder. He nuzzled in. It was so soft. Were all humans this soft? How was someone like Dave so soft under his clothes? It felt like privileged information he'd stumbled into bulge-first.

A hand cupped the back of Karkat's neck. That felt really nice, and he opened his mouth to exhale, layers of vibration coloring the tone into a modulation of subvocal hums.

"Fuckin' agreed," Dave sighed, deep and satisfied. "We are… real good at this. If there were awards for accomplishments in th' tantric arts, competitors would try to take out our kneecaps, we'd be such obvious front runners."

Karkat hummed an agreement to that nonsense.

Fingers gently toyed with Karkat's hair for a moment. It was so soothing. Karkat could sleep. Maybe his bulge would stay tucked up and warm in Dave for longer if he just dozed off.

"Hey, roll over." Dave nudged him.

"No," Karkat said, trying to nuzzle in more.

"Yes," Dave answered, and poked Karkat's sides, right along the grub scars.

With enormous effort and a deep groan of complaint, Karkat lifted himself up and flopped onto his back instead. It wasn't nearly as comfortable, and his bulge tucked up into his sheath again.

[Do I even need to say it?

I mean, it's important. If you read KTOWL, you know why Dave And Control is extremely important.]

Dave sat up, moving wearily. He dragged a hand through his hair. "Holy shit, I'm a mess," he laughed, and moved, legs slipping off the bed. He was shaky as he stood, holding out a hand in case he fell, but still managed to get up and pulled the sheet off the bed. "This is totally ruined." He balled up the sheet and used it to wiped himself off before… just throwing over the side of the loft, letting it fall. "Deal with that fuckin' later," he muttered, and stumbled a few feet away.

[A small note: we have all done the orgasm-then-clean-up thing. Sometimes, the scene has overstayed its welcome so you wanna just breeze over that stuff.

But sometimes, like here, it's an opportunity for a Character Moment, learning about how Dave interacts with his own space and possessions. And it's cute and funny.

I think that covers everything about This Specific Scene. I hope this is at all interesting. I think about this shit a lot.]

#talking about writing #swdktowl

[nenilein]

since it's pride month, do you have any lgbtq+ headcanons/interpretations for the puyo cast?

I got this one before pride month, so I was waiting till it's actually June to answer it.

Let me preempt this by saying that I don't really like making "headcanons" that would create contradiction in how I read the text as presented by the writers, because something that doesn't gel with the source material in a way that enhances my experience with it isn't a "headcanon" to me but an AU.

(I infamously once made a post on here where I was yelling about how people need to stop calling their AUs "headcanons" that went kinda viral... oops.)

(Don't look for it, that was YEARS ago)

So, while I love reading, for example, Arle x Rulue fanfics, lesbian Rulue would be an AU to me, not a headcanon, because Rulue being into Satan is just an undeniable reality of the source material.

(That said, bisexual or pan Rulue WOULD be a headcanon)

Likewise, due to how extremely proud Raffina is of being a "lady", trans girl Raffina would be a headcanon, but trans boy Raffina would be an AU... Anyway, I am rambling. This is just how I define those terms for myself.

So, let's move on to the queer readings I have for the Puyo characters (it's a lot).

Arle is asexual and aromantic. Schezo is asexual.

This one is obvious, I even drew art for that a couple days ago. It's not just a case of me projecting my own sexuality onto "my favorite characters" either; Schezo and Arle aren't even close to my favorites, I'm more partial to the Primp characters. However, in most of the games, with some sparse exceptions from the Compile era (where characterization was generally inconsistent and spotty), Arle and Schezo are written in a way that I can only describe as "arch-asexual".

Whenever Arle is written as she is currently understood (spunky, freedom loving, adventurous), she never shows interest in relationships of any kind. She outright calls Schezo and Rulue "sexy" multiple times in both, the Compile era and the Sega era, but that doesn't seem to make her feel anything, she uses the terms as blunt descriptors that don't have much meaning to her personally. As an asexual, I do find that very relatable. In general, Arle's only one true love seems to be the concept of adventure (especially dungeon crawling) itself. In the novel "Everyone's Dreams Come True", the projection the dream mist tries to entice her with when its sleep curse fails to grip onto her is a projection of the entrance to an underground dungeon. In the Web Original Manzai Shorts, when she tries to explain the concept of a "wedding" to Amitie, she is incredibly awkward about it, like she's never even considered it herself before. She really doesn't show any interest in "partnering" up with anyone (other than Carbuncle) for life.

Meanwhile, Schezo's entire running gag simply doesn't work if he's not asexual. His slip ups are funny because he does NOT mean it that way, but is really only interested in three things: Power, cute stuff and food (in that order). The two times in the Compile era where he's not written as "asexual" infamously are hated by fans because they ruin his entire characterization: Saturn Madou's portrayal of Schezo is a black sheep for the entire franchise, both in the Japanese and English fandoms, and the one line he has in Nazo Puyo Tsuu that contradicts his otherwise asexual portrayal (I won't even repeat what he says...) makes absolutely no damn sense, even in context. A Schezo who portrays actual genuine interest in sexual matters in canon materials is a badly written Schezo. We have empirical proof of that.

That said, unlike with Arle, I don't feel comfortable also calling Schezo aromantic, because... I feel like he just hasn't had the room to explore whether he wants someone in his life or not yet. He had the Dark Mage business forced upon him at a very young age. He's isolated himself from people in a way that made it hard for him to start connecting again once people actually did come back into his life. When he thinks someone (I think it was Draco, but I forget) is flirting with him in Waku Puyo Dungeon, he seems genuinely flustered, not because he's interested, but because he's never thought anyone ever would act like that towards him (and unlike with Arle, that moment doesn't disrupt his characterization at all), and when he thinks Ms. Accord is flirting with him in Puyo Puyo 15th he has a minor meltdown, because he's not even sure if he wants to turn her down, but also thinks he just shouldn't have a romantic partner as the dark mage... So yeah, I think Schezo still needs time to figure stuff out for himself.

Satan is bigender or genderfluid

While he's portraying a super-masculine image whenever he's on screen, he's also shown zero qualms about slipping into more feminine roles, and openly and happily admits that he wanted to LARP as a princess in distress for Arle to save in Chronicle. His "Satan Saturn" alt in Quest is also really girlish, with the bow and the ponytail and the cherry blossoms, and he seems to be enjoying himself... As an ancient, possibly primordial demon lord, I think it would be weirder if he didn't have a rather lax approach to gender, tbh.

Oh, fun fact, in Madou Monogatari 2, the first time Satan ever appeared, his description of the person he wants to marry does not mention gender at any point. His only condition is that they're powerful, beautiful, wise and intelligent enough to make it to the bottom level of his dungeon in the Layla ruins...

Klug is a baby gay.

His babysitter-crush on Lemres is so palpable, it's downright painful. :'D Even Feli sees him as a romantic rival! The way swoons about Lemres during Tet 2 was quite telling as well.

There are a couple of moments in 15th where Klug portrays interest in women (specifically, older women...) but those just stink of comphet to me and are genuinely just extremely awkward moments that I am glad have never been addressed again since. 15th was only the second time Klug was more than a minor side character and I feel his characterization wasn't quite settled yet back then, so even aside from this, there is a lot of stuff in there that generally "feels wrong" in comparison to how the character has been consistently written in all materials since then. Even in his White Day alt in Quest, he only talks about how being popular by giving girls chocolate gifts will give him a sense of authority AND bring him closer to Lemres, so yeah. In retrospect, I absolutely read those awkward moments in 15th as comphet. He's a baby gay with a babysitter crush on Lemres and will hopefully find himself a nice guy his own age as he grows up.

Amitie will grow up to be poly and pan

In the drama CDs and novels its shown that Amitie absolutely doesn't understand why anyone would want to have only one romantic partner, and when she first hears about the concept of a "wedding" (which she apparently has never been confronted with directly before then??) she immediately wants to have one with her entire class.

Rulue attributes this to Amitie being "still a child", but I don't see it that way, given this behavior persists for two novels in succession. Even when Amitie shows signs of a specific crush on Sig, it always comes with the caveat on "I want to get others in on it too!"

So yeah. No way this girl won't have amassed a "harem" of boy- girl- and other-friends by the time she's off age and certified as a sorceress...

Raffina and Lidelle give off trans girl vibes, and Raffina is probably a lesbian

Raffina's determination to prove herself as a "lady" and Lidelle's fear of having certain of her physical features be "seen" seem to connect really strongly to a lot of my trans friends as analogue to their own experiences and I can totally see it. Portrayals like that would just blend in perfectly with their characterization.

As for lesbian Raffina, it's just a vibe I get from her. The few times she mentions handsome men, it seems more like she wants them as a status symbol, but has no actual interest in being with them. Even when she thinks the prince Otomo is looking for is "handsome", she has 0 interest in helping the man search for the prince until Otomo offers her a reward. Then, "Everyone's Dreams Come True" showcasts it even more clearly when the dream she is trapped in includes her "keeping" an army of young bodybuilders as "servants", and enjoying the fact that they want to be with her soooo badly, while she has no intention of ever giving them the time of day, holding the fact that they are "not worthy of her" over their heads. Meanwhile, when she's with other girls (like Rulue or Lidelle post Fever 2) she seems far more appreciative.

Either Maguro or Risukuma is a trans boy. Either one of them.

I don't think about this one too often, but it would make sense. Maguro was bullied as a kid for "looking like a girl", and a friend of mine has this amazing headcanon that the experiment that turned Risukuma into a squirrelbear was actually homebrew instant HRT. Amazing, 10/10.

I'll admit, this is partially just me having fun with the fact that Maguro and Ris were originally written as girls before plans for Puyo Puyo 7 changed, but, hey! It doesn't contradict with anything, so why not?

Ecolo is Ecolo

'Nuff said. There is no gender that can contain the absolute glitch in spacetime that is Ecolo.

The fact that Ecolonosuke (one of Team Ecolo, who all represent aspects of Ecolo's personality) is canonically nonbinary helps, too!

Seo and Accord are lesbians and they will get married in this essay I will-

I AM SORRY, BUT SEO CANONICALLY NEEDS ACCORD TO REMIND HER TO EAT FOOD OR SHE WILL DIE.

THEY ARE THE GASLIGHT AND THE GIRLBOSS, THEY BELONG TOGETHER (Popoi is the gatekeep)

Eight = GAY

I'm sorry, Quest is not even SUBTLE about this one!

The day Eight shuts up about how badly he wants to get closer to Zero and his genius is the day he finally forgets to breathe between his words and perishes.

Okay, so these are all the big ones. If I forgot anything, it's because I don't think about it often or because it's canon anyway (cough, cough, dapper bones...)

#neni replies #puyo puyo #pride month

[lewis-winters]

May I get "Kitty/Harry on the Frontlines" and the Parenting Winnix People-Like-Us AU for the ask game!

:))

Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry! for some reason tumblr didn't show me this ask in my notifs, so I only saw it now!

Um. Ok. So, no mood board for these ones bc I'm kinda busy rn. For the Harry/Kitty on the Frontlines AU, I've posted an excerpt of it before, over here! Here's a different section, though!:

Harry hollers; "Grogan! With me!" and Kitty doesn't think twice.

She really fucking should, though.

"You," she hisses, lifting the bazooka over her shoulder and pointedly ignoring the menacing, lumbering force that is that panzer tank, slowly aiming its massive canon in their general location. "You are going to get me fucking killed, Welsh!"

--

And the PLU, Tab & the mortifying ordeal of being parented by Winnix WIP is what it says on the tin! Context: my OC, who happens to be a trans girl, breaks up with Tab via letter and then runs away from him for 2 years bc she doesn't think she can give him the life she wants, being who she is. Tab struggles to understand that, so Nix has to help him understand. Here's the excerpt!:

Tab glares. First at Nixon, then at Dick, who is politely loitering outside of the diner with his hands in his pockets and his face turned inconspicuously to the side, pretending with all his might that mere seconds ago, he hadn't been turned toward the window they're sat in front of, with eyebrows furrowed in barely concealed worry. Any other time, Tab would've found this hovering reassuring-- knowing that Dick has his six, just as much as Tab has his, was always the very crux of their relationship. But that's been as good as shattered, tested to its limits and broken one summer day in Amish country, Pennsylvania, when Dick had revealed that he'd known where Natalie was this whole time and never told Tab. Now they're doing what men do best: loiter around the edges of each others' lives and pretend like they aren't devastated.

#ask #ask game #estrella_marie #band of brothers #harry/kitty #people like us #winnix #morbert

[96percentdone]

Is Shouma really the trans rep y'all want? Someone who had no agency in their metaphorical puberty blockers and was forced and threatened into 'taking' them, hated it for years, and eventually decided 'yeah i guess it's pretty neat i'm still youthful but also but also fuck that guy who did this to me?' Is this not just a right wing talking point about how doctors are abusing innocent children with irreversible surgeries to trans their genders being with trans-positive paint? I think reclaiming transphobic narratives them can be powerful, but the context of Nirvana Initiative canon this doesn't feel like 'reframing conservative beliefs' so much as just. Doing their arguments beat by beat including the medical abuse part and saying 'its good actually we want this.'

I haven't seen works transformative enough that change the text so Shouma wasn't abused into the early stages of her transition, or that she was actually willing to take the abuse and deception once she learned about it to see if it could get her what she wants for her body, and her grievances are with the abuse alone. It's just treated as a given that canon is exactly as we know it to be, and the ends justify the means.

Maybe a controversial take, but I just think a lot of transcanons are poorly considered, genderbent or no. This isn't specific to aitsf, and I'm also not saying anyone who likes them are just as bad, even for the ones I don't like at all like this one. They are popular with trans people first and foremost, that would be a bizarre claim; I'm not your dad, fandom should make you happy, do whatever. My beef is that as far as I have seen, a lot of the popular ones in trans fan communities are done by picking some part of the text, ignoring the context it exists in, and then using that detail to justify the hc, even if the context flies against it, and without providing any new context to supplement or even replace the old one. We're just left to assume that everything else is the same still, and transitioning is often the focus of genderbent ones making it stranger. In the case of transfem!shouma, this style of creation just like accidentally leans into transphobic ideas, but even for characters where it's not doing that, they're still similarly thoughtless. Transmasc Kuranushi Mizuki has its own popularity, to distinguish her from Date Mizuki, but like...that's it. No one posts about what it would mean for his character, their life, it's an aesthetic decision alone. It means nothing other than the petty fan grievance or wish-fullfilment that inspired it.

That laziness is what I hate the most. Fandom is transformative, those transformations have the power to be extremely beautiful and compelling and meaningful. They can elevate the text into something more than what it was. I love that. I am a trans person who loves good art. That's why the way trans headcanons are made and portrayed is so irritating to me, because they feel low effort. People will say they have thought about them a lot, and maybe you have! But if all of that consideration is in a private discord server, that means nothing to me. I refuse to consider the merits of context I have no access to. If the context exists, put it in your work!! I just want better art than that.

Fandom wants to be taken seriously. It wants to be treated as art, and yet it also wants to be treated as just a fun hobby unworthy of criticism, but I don't think you get to have both. You cannot position your creations as art, your community as an artistic one worthy of respect, and yet its immune to the treatment all art and art communities get: criticism. I just want more thoughtful and considered fanworks. I want transcanons, even if they exist for a ship, or out of spite, or for fun aus and comedy fan-comics, to be taken just a bit more seriously and with more effort.

#hope.txt

[public-trans-it]

you mentioned your wol is cis(ish), what does that mean? (/gen)

(In relation to my WoL post) Sorry this took too long to respond to, distracted by stuff

Short answer:

Long answer under the cut, but probably not as interesting as you might be hoping. But also deeply personal. Mostly a recap of the stuff in that thread, with a bit more context from my personal life and my evolving feelings of gender involved.

But if you don't wanna read all that, its basically "She is a in-universe fantasia addict and has no real attachment to her physical body, and that includes her genitals."

Read More

Language is going to be a get tricky in this one, given we are talking about a setting that may not have the same views of gender as we do.

She is Cis(ish) simply because she is an afab woman who treats gender like just another part of her dresser. Were she educated on the topic, she would probably consider herself either genderfluid or agender. She is always a girl, but rarely 'just' a girl.

T'sraetn is my main. All of my characters are some reflection of myself, but as my main, T'sraetn is more myself than anyone. As such, many of her changes throughout the years are based on my own changes.

She started 1.x as just an afab miqo'te, because at the time, I was a trans woman and T'sraetn represented who I wanted to be, and remained that way through ARR. By the time Heavensward had launched, I had grown more comfortable with being trans, and fantasia'd T'sraetn into a trans Au Ra girl.

I know "Are fantasias canon?" is a very contested question in the fandom, but luckily I don't give a fuck about other people's opinions, so I don't have to care about that. And the fun thing about treating magic gender/race change juice as canon, is it vastly increases the number of options for gender presentation.

T'sraetn became an Au Ra cause she thought horns and scales were cool and wanted some. She stayed a girl cause she viewed herself as a girl and wanted to remain that way. She got a penis cause she wanted one. It was really that simple.

Just before Stormblood I... changed her back to Miqo'te. I didn't really do it cause I wanted to, I did it because I was in a really shitty relationship and the person I was with at the time wanted me to. Shortly after Stormblood launched, I stopped playing her as that person turned into a stalker, and started playing a new character, T'alia.

T'alia was kind of built on the loathing I had for T'sraetn at the time. How I felt she wasn't mine anymore, so I made a bastardized version of her that I justified as being her mom. I joined another FC, and got to start roleplaying as this character and fleshing her out more. I filled in the role they needed of a central antagonist, which fit in with the loathing I had built the character on. I built a few other characters to play as when we didn't need a central antagonist that week. But as Shadowbringers drew closer, I noticed a problem. In order to do any RP's in Shadowbringers areas, I'd have to do the expansion a second time in order to get there. I'd have to unlock flying, and do all that other bullshit.

I didn't want to, so I introduced a new character: T'alia. Or more accurately, a clone of her, which the FC affectionately named 'Tali' to tell the two apart. This new version of her rejected T'alias goals for her, and wanted to be her own person. Someone fighting along the FC. However, she had cybernetic enhancements that allowed T'alia to control her body and keep her from fighting back. Now I had an excuse to be on either side of a fight, without it being a question of "Why do you go missing every time we fight this one specific bad guy"

I made a central part of Tali's personality her crisis of identity. She didn't want to be the person everyone told her she was. I uh... I was not that subtle about it being a metaphor for my saltiness over that ex who's FC I was in. She was constantly modifying herself, trying to replace her cybernetics or alter the organics of her body. I only *actually* fantasia'd her twice, first time into a Viera, but I imagined she was changing up her body pretty regularly, trying to find the one that actually felt like "her".

Eventually, I got kinda fed up with the limitations of Viera in the game, specifically after one of the holiday events where Viera couldn't even wear the reward from it. So I decided I was going to fantasia her again when I had the chance, and worked it into the RP. I had worked a lot of frustrations about my own mother into the character of T'alia, and so I had known for a little bit before hand that Tali was actually T'sraetn, and had dropped a few hints in RP about it (mostly referencing past stuff with other FC members who came with when leaving that old FC). Stuff the players would go "We sure did that together, yep." while being subtle about the fact that my character absolutely should not remember that.

Eventually, I did the big reveal in RP, changed my characters name back to my old main, and reclaimed my old character. The ACTUAL old character became Gaelicat. That... is not canon to T'sraetn's story (unless... hm...) I decided to leave in the love for changing up her body she had acquired as Tali. She still had the cybernetics at this point, and it was a recurring joke in RP that her arms would fall off in every fight and she would have to find someone to fix them. Even once she had her cybernetics removed, she still retained the same attitude of having no attachment to her body. It could be changed and altered, maybe not easily, but it was certainly possible.

So she has no real attachment to her current form anymore. She looks that way just cause that's how she wants to look. She might see a pretty hrothgal and decide to be one of those for a bit. She might want to go for a (slightly. very slightly) bit more of a masculine look for a bit and become a male viera.

Ultimately it boils down to... it doesn't matter what configuration the parts of her body take, its just a fucking body, and it can and will be changed on a whim with this handy blue drink.

#ffxiv #ffxiv wol

[legendarceus]

volo is cynthia / cyllene is cyrus au: family trees

and also me talking about them :)

put below keep reading bc its gonna be a lot lmfao

cynthia (volo) family tree

cynthia is cogita's grandkid! her parents weren't present so cogita raised her until, of course, she got disowned for the whole trying to destroy the world thing. cogita sadly passed away before they could truly reconcile.

while there is no canon ancestor to iris, i think its fun to say that cynthia met iris' ancestor and they had kids and 200 years or something later, iris exists and cynthia gets to meet her great great great great grandchild or something. we'll come back to iris in a minute :)

i also think that lusamine also decended from cynthia, which means gladion and lillie also are related to cynthia! not that its important but you know. giant family.

i do ship cynthia and diantha. i think diantha is one of the few who know that cynthia is immortal but was most definitely the most recent to find out. iris is not aware of this. but these three are found family anyway <3

speaking of found family, prof. carolina and cynthia's younger sister are purely adoptive of sorts. but they're still found family. love them. wow cynthia 2 found families thats crazy.

cyrus (cyllene) family tree

yes this looks odd without context but we do have context so it doesnt matter. cyllene x laventon is canon and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. too bad cyllene got widowed and then found out they were immortal AND trans after laventon died.

anyway, cy and lav were married and akari + rei were their adoptive kids. ingo was akari and rei's adoptive uncle too but that isnt relavent to the family tree. also laventon is a distant relative to leon and hop :) maybe he had siblings or cousins who are great (x?) grandparents to them. who knows.

anyway damn cyrus why do you got 2 found families. but yeah team galactic is naturally cyrus' found family of course. he is his commanders exhausted adoptive father since all of their families suck lmao

mars family tree

i think mars and cynthia have the biggest family trees. anyway mars' was the first one that i did incase that wasn't obvious lmfao, but anyway, lets get into it!!!

arezu is ariana's great (x?) grandmother. ariana had a spouse that she had mars (maria at the time) with, but then she left them once she was like 'oh shoot im having silver!!!', so mars is vaguely aware that silver exists somewhere out there but she has no clue who he is otherwise. and then ariana and giovanni are married and had silver, who has no idea who mars is (he'd probably go through a crisis if he looked at sinnoh news, so lets keep it that way). silv and mars have a 9 year age gap btw just throwing that out there

silver found a new dad (lance) and some really weird teenagers about his age who he got stuck with. he's dating one of them. you have to guess. (i already know which one but im leaving it up to the mind bc silver isnt the focus in this au so imagine whatever you want).

mars and her silly little astronaut friends are her found family! i think arezu would flip her shit if she found out her great (x?) granddaughter was adoptive siblings with that one criminal lady (coin). but hey its fine!!! mars has her weird spaceman father and her weird astronaut siblings and life is good (mostly)

arezu deadass just has a bunch of decendants who commit various crimes

saturn / jupiter family tree

i grouped these two together since they've got the smallest family trees.

saturn is (obviously) a decendant of coin, but he has no contact with his family and hasn't spoken to them in years by the time pokemon platinum takes place.

jupiter and fantina are siblings (fantina is older by a few solid years) but they really don't like eachother. they have little contact with eachother and dont exactly speak often. but they do wish eachother happy birthday sometimes so thats a plusside i guess.

and of course saturn and jupiter both have found family with team galactic. awww how sweet :)

#galactic boss cyrus #champion cynthia #galactic commander saturn #galactic commander jupiter #galactic commander mars #pokemon #pokemon au #btw if it says “pronouns (pronouns)” then the parentheses is what the character would go by if they. you know. #figured it out. did some self reflection. werent 200 years in the past. #coin they/them is real in my heart but you know #miss fortune sisters #btw i gotta mention that candace and saturn are really really really distantly related

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

FTH 2024

Fandom Trumps Hate bidding is live as of today and this feels like a good time to tell y'all that I'm offering two gift works this year! I had to skip last year as I had just way too much going on, and while I guess technically I'm still just as busy I really missed writing as much last year so I'm prioritizing it now. But anyway - my offerings! Here's the link to my offering page itself if you'd like to look there or think about donating, but for the full breakdown (and a bit of explanation) click the readmore 😌

So as I said I'm offering two works this year, one 5-10k words and the other 10-20k words. The minimum bid for the smaller fic is $5 and for the longer one it's $15. My ships/tags/special interests/etc. are the same for both, and for those of you who are familiar with what I write I'm sure you can guess what they are lol but I'll put it all here anyway!

Ships I will write (and they are listed in order of personal preference for writing): 3zun (or any pairing within it), Wangxian, Chengqing, Xuanli, Junior Quartet

Especially interested in: Fix-its, AU's (specifics can be discussed), Canon Divergence, Slice of Life, Fluff, Angst with Comfort, Smut, Gender Fuckery™, Rule 63/Cisswap

Ships I don't want to write: SongXueXiao or any pairing involving Su She, Wen Chao, Wen Xu, or Jin Guangshan.

Unwilling to address: Angst with No Comfort, Bathroom Kinks, Underage, Rape (I can make exceptions at my discretion depending on context)

Other notes: I can be fairly flexible! I've worked before with a bidder who wanted an extra written for one of their own stories, I can write requested extras or missing scenes for any of my existing stories/universes, or we can come up with something completely new. I prefer specific prompts, but please allow me some wiggle-room for my own interpretations, we're working on this as a team!

Special interests: F/F ships, Poly ships, Genderswap/genderbending, Canonically trans or nonbinary characters, Trans or nonbinary interpretations of canon characters

This year I've chosen to select specific charities I'd like donations to go towards, and I chose ones that take international donations and that focus their efforts on people of color, children/youths, and LGBTQ+ issues.

Organizations this auction benefits:

In Our Own Voice ["...lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals..."]

Middle East Children's Alliance ["...organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East...They are currently responding to the Gaza crisis with medical supplies and emergency assistance for displaced families."]

Never Again Action ["A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense."]

Sherlock's Homes Foundation ["...provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves..."]

And that's it really! I'm really excited to be doing FTH again, I loved it the first time and I love feeling like this ridiculous hobby does some material good in the world in a way that's a bit more targeted and magnified than the writing usually does on its own. Financial contributions to good causes isn't something I've been capable of managing in a very long time, but I can spend my time writing a thank you gift for those who can and do ❤

#fandom trumps hate 2024 #the untamed fanfic #my offerings

[amarriageoftrueminds]

same anon but I just realized that in that context "trans omega couple steve and bucky" can easily be read in many ways and many directions (transdesignation, transgender, etc/some or all of these?) but that just lends itself further that the worldbuilding of abo has the possibility to go in many directions and ask questions of what is normative and what are the analogues of IRL experiences and how'd they might coexist with each other, but it's woefully underexplored by that genre

Anon I'm so sorry but I have lost the first ask about this because I wrote out a whole long answer and queued it up without knowing that my post-limit had just run out... so tumblr deleted it. So for the second time ... *from memory*

You were decrying the lack of A/A, B/B, O/O etc fics (possibly in ref to this old post of mine??) and how great it would be if there were, eg. big beefy trans O Steve and Bucky.

ITA! It is a shame that more people don't go all-in with the super broad potential of worldbuilding in A/B/O fics.

But, on the other hand, that genre was invented merely to speed along horny werewolf PWPs... so you can't say it's defeating its original purpose! 😅

A thing that occured to me, recently:

If you think about it, in a world where no one gives a crap about gender, there really ought to be way more they/thems, because the societal pressure to be binary wouldn't exist, since it's the designation (the designation trinary?) that gets enforced, instead.

But you never see that in A/B/O fics, not even in bg/npc characters, despite it being the logical conclusion to make about such a world!

Maybe that's because it's rare- or has been rare in the fandoms I've known- to see a canon character characterised as being anything but their original gender, even in fics dealing with trans experience.

But I think it would be a neat thing to incorporate into A/B/O fics, just a small background detail to lampshade the massive impact upon gender expression that designations would (should?) have.

[under cut for length]

The most original A/B/O I've read was that clownfish A/B/O one where people can transform into any designation at will, everyone is expected to be poly, and IIRC no one has any preconceived notions of what an A/B/O should look like or act like because everyone is everything. So creative!

Speaking of A/B/O Steve/Bucky, IMO Steve in particular is very easy to read as trans, in canon, because of the way he's treated by cis men, both before and after serum (read: before transition).

He's seen as inferior to them and needing to 'prove' his right to exist in their cis spaces (eg. the army, the social group of 'men whom women ask to dance'). He's relegated to women-centered show business, he's called tinkerbell, sweetheart, an "experiment", "not enough", and ofc Tony Stark famously says to his face that "everything special" (ie: masculine) about him came out of a bottle.

All while looking like Chris Evans!? (Can't help but think there's some jealous over-compensation going on in that writers room.) 💅

.

So for a while now I've been daydreaming of an A/B/O Au (I think I've rambled about this before) where Erskine was working at the Hirschfeld Institute before the Nazis took him, and the serum was invented to help trans A/B/Os physically transition, not to create super soldiers.

In that AU, I see Steve as a trans OtB (omega to beta!), who Mulan'd his way into the Army by living and passing as a beta, before the serum. He'd be successfully avoiding omega attention, pre-serum, because of anti-beta prejudice, and because his lack of interest would go unremarked since betas aren't susceptible to pheromones the way alphas are.

(And after serum, when he looks like a stereotypical alpha, but isn't one, people would mischaracterise his disdain for dating omegas for Manly Stoicism and an ascetic devotion to Duty... When the real reason is he's gay af (meaning, in this 'verse, only attracted to betas and alphas, with a preference for men) and, again, betas aren't susceptible to, eg. scent-bombing, in the way alphas are, even when they are attracted to omegas.)

For variety's sake, Bucky would be a BtA (beta to alpha) trans alpha, and would not be the 'I knew I was X from birth' kind of trans person, but more of an 'I didn't hate being beta, I just slowly began to realise that I wasn't one,' later on in life. His transness would be a crucial component of his defiance of Hydra, since they thought he was beta, and wanted him kept beta (subservient to alphas). But deep down Bucky would've known he wasn't, and this knowledge would armour his memory and allow his inner identity to survive, deep down, despite brain-damage.

His physical transition would only happen once he gets free of Hydra's preventative medical interference -- the serum would only begin to physically transition him once he has his identity back and confirmed for him Steve. Mental and physical transition would coincide with true freedom and a renaissance of mental clarity and health, for him.

Both of them would confound what people expect their identity to be, both before and after transition. Eg. Steve is the hero, so he must be an alpha, right?? whaddaya mean Captain America isn't an alpha?! (but he has a deep voice!! he drives a pick-up truck??) oh he was disabled before, so he must have had no omegas! he had no omegas so he must be a virgin! whaddaya mean this big beefy alpha WS is a victim?! this big beefy alpha does crafts for a hobby?! and so on.

sidenote: Steve finding it hilarious when handsy omegas, assuming he's an alpha, try to hit on him by complimenting his alpha scent... but he doesn't have one, it's Bucky's residual scent left on him... 😏 (and Bucky nearby, within earshot of all this, turning bright red the more the omega rhapsodizes about how amazing 'Steve's' scent is.)

.

Completely off-topic, but I also love the smaller, grittier details of worldbuilding in A/B/O Aus.

Like when people factor in the vomeronasal traits, and mention eg. scent-blocking air fresheners, scent-blocking body sprays, perfume being a huge industry, ditto heat-supplies, how heat/ruts affect domestic architecture, heat/rut being a huge component of the sex work industry, etc. etc.

(Although writers often give away their class background by never, ever talking about, eg. people who can't afford or don't work in industries offering heat/rut leave, or a home with special nest rooms, etc. It's always white collar people!)

Another aspect I don't think I've ever seen addressed in fic:

how A/B/O biology would affect beauty standards.

Noses!! Necks!!!

These are both big deals in our world (when have you ever seen a model with a short wide neck? look how common nose jobs are!)

But in a universe where everyone smells and everyone has scent-glands on their necks (in a lot of A/B/O Aus), why aren't nose and neck shape a huge component of attractiveness?

Characters' inner monologues should be talking about them!

*lol, imagine someone starting an Onlyfans just to post sexy neck and nose pics. Or Hays Code era films being censored for having a racy up-nostril shot.*

Is a long neck better for longer scent-glands, or worse because the scent is dispersed and diluted over a wider area?

Does a short neck have stronger scent concentrated in a smaller area, or less scent altogether? Does it depend on the person? Is a short neck seen as prudeish?? (eg. harder to stick ur big old alpha schnozz into?) Do omegas deliberately try to make their necks look shorter to appear more modest? Or try to make their necks longer to seem sexier? Is the pose of tilting your head back (both lengthening the neck and flashing those nostrils!) seen as raunchy?!

And how does this intersect with racism?

Example: if flared nostrils in a thin caucasian nose are a sign of someone scenting, and drawing in scent is part of a/b/o sexuality, how does that affect people who just naturally have flared nostrils, by dint of their genes or ethnicity?

(Black men in America have been seriously endangered by their stereotyping as hypersexual, especially around white women, so imagine how much worse this would've been if their very noses were treated as provocative, and merely sighing deeply could be taken as a sign of hitting on someone? 😬)

Conversely, would white men and women be praised for having, eg. sexy broad-bridged noses? (*cough* big-nose-having wish fulfilment honestly*cough*) Would white omegas be contouring their noses to look more flare-nostril'd, and black omegas be pissed off about it?

I read a study once which said that people regard men with longer noses (as oppose to a shorter mid-face) as inherently more trustworthy (like Steve!!) So would that be true of long-nosed alphas too (who can't suck in scent so quickly? Is that, like, a chivalrous-lookig physical trait to have)?

And again, how does this work with racism, since longer/thinner noses are an adaptation for cold dry climes (including 'Eurocentric beauty standard ground zero' Scandinavia), and short/wide noses originate in hot humid climates around the equator / sub-sahara, where the people are most likely to be black?

Just imagine the racist field day that eugenicists and phrenologists would've had with this, throughout history...

How do sniffing and sneezing and colds fit in with perceptions of beauty?

Are people squicked when pets sniff them?

Would mankind have discovered a cure for the common cold, purely because nose-related illness is a huge turn off?

Or would it be the other way round? Would the sinuses be so sensitive, in everyone, that a drippy nose would be like an exaggerated sign of attraction, like when a cartoon character drools over a hot person?

If scent is part of attractiveness, is blowing your nose a snub, tantamount to loudly saying 'omg everyone here is soo ugly.' 🤣

What about people with broken noses?

If noses are an erogenous zone, wouldn't a broken nose read as a sign of someone who's been punched for sex-related reasons? Would a broken nose be seen as a sign of an overstepping creep, a homewrecking Casanova, or someone who's rough in bed? Would alphas be going out of their way to try and get the 'broken nose' look, just to seem more passionate and dangerous?

And what about nose jewellery? 😱 Phew, talk about racy!

Instead of being dress-coded, would young omegas be sent home from school for having septum piercings?

Same deal with necklaces! Are long and dangly ones sexier, because they leave the neck itself exposed? Are chokers sexy in a 'completely covered up erogenous zone' kind of way, like a long slinky dress? GASP: what about turtlenecks?!

And hands! If hands/wrists carry scent too, did handshaking still become a thing? Is air-kissing (air-scenting) more the standard method of greeting? Are gloves more commonly worn?

Yeah never mind just gender, gimme the weird neck/nose/Fashion class-and-racism worldbuilding! All of it!

#a/b/o #long post #toAyourQ #dat's me #hey nonny #omegaverse #omegaverse meta #meta #trans beta steve #trans alpha bucky #trans steve rogers #anon: asks serious question #me: rambles about unrelated nonsense #TURTLENECKS #yet each man queues the thing he loves

[abeinginsand]

Hi, lovebird! Hope you're having a wonderful day 💚💚💚 Thoughts on Hencedes for the ship bingo, pretty please, mayhaps? 👀

Heya Happi! Thank you for the ask and hope you are having a great day as well <3 Hencedes (Henry x Mercedes):

When I first listened to season 1, I was blown away by how affectionate Henry and Mercedes are--to their children and to each other. The nicknames are very sweet! They are so open, passionate, and happily strange too if that makes sense? Its really nice to see :D Also both of them, especially Mercedes--going to great lengths to get to each other no matter what challenges kept them apart before is heart-warming. I drew a few cloud shapes around some of the choices, particularly the projection and hell one since I feel like I could maybe project on them? but don't have a specific idea in mind yet. I mainly think of them in canon context but I think I would enjoy more au stuff in theory. Hencedes in Hell seems very cool--in an escaping from hell context or ruling it, might explore the idea more in the hell garden au or other writing! Hmm, I feel like they could fit into a lot of different scenarios and aesthetics in general! Its the kinda pair that makes me feel warm and fuzzy--love reading fics/seeing art involving them! I also love the trans hc for the both of them too--feels canon to me :]

#abeinginsand talk tag #dndads #henry oak #henry oak garcia #mercedes oak garcia

[luffythinker]

said it was ok for me to come back and talk about Shigaraki/Dabi so now im gonna do that. Like, im not going into canon events all that much and my version of LOV is like face view these are bad guys but they are people and everything isn't happening back to back so take it as a silly scenario i guess? possibly an AU?

What do you think about trans Shigaraki coming out to Dabi while drunk? like Dabi just accepts it and when Shigs done with his hangover the next day he remembers he came out to him like "oh shit i really did that" and now he's insecure because he thinks Dabi's gonna view him differently, not that his view matters but it does.

This needs context. Lets say after kamino that's when the gang really started to be friends they all started treating eachother with a little more respect but your all still my bitches - everyone in the league probably 2023 lol

Dabi and Shigs have been getting super close, like it's not boss and henchmen it's we are almost equals but you know im in charge winky face. After a heist they always have pizza partys or whatever they can steal for dinner cause we don't have kurogiri :( Shigs and dabs always sit close enough for their shoulders or knee to touch and Dabi notices Shigs getting a little too up in the air. Dabi is not gonna be that ass so he takes Shigs outside to get some air and water away from everyone "can't see out leader looking like a he got drugged at the bar" and when i say he picks him up he throws him over his shoulder, nobody says anything cause he's just taking care of Shigs they just get a comedic voice from Twice like "STRIKE, your out!" followed by laughter Dabi gets him to get some water going through his body but he's high as a astronaut and sweating, Dabi makes sure his gloves are on and is just genuinely taking care of him complaining about how he rather not be but he really doesn't mind he's just putting on a show for noone, Shigs is mumbling and crying fake/real? tears about how being "Tomura" is hard work and at first Dabi thinks he's just talking nonsense until he starts complaining about his binder and how he fucking can't breath in it 9 times out of 10 of the time and Dabi's like "wait, what?" and he just continues to go on about how his shitty dad would always dress him up in a dress want him to be a propper young lady while sticking his pinky out and everything. He was compared to his sister all the time and he hated it Dabi is being flooded with information he can't have time to processes and he ask Dabi "If i told you i was trans would you hate me?" Like any of this is supposed to mean something to Dabi and Dabi tells him he needs to go to bed. After that night Dabi is internally freaking out "What just happen? why???" and he can't sleep that night after the fact Shigs is avoiding Dabi which is strange for everyone to watch and they think their in a huge fight. Himiko keeps asking Dabi what he did and Dabi tells her to butt out.

if you care about this i'll come back for a part 2

i honestly hold bnha canon events very in the back of my mind, at this point i barely remember the order of things, so yeah don't worry about staying truthful to a timeline or anything cause i assure you i most likely don't remember muchdjjdflkfk

and i absolutely love trans shigaraki, even in canon he gives me big non binary vibes so!!!!

oh my god i love how you painted this picture, his childhood was super hard with his father and transphobia. He probably felt like himself for the first time after he left the family and could explore his gender by himself. He knew since early age he wasn't a girl, so he would fully invest himself into looking like how he feels. I think AFO giving him a new name also marks his transitioning, he has always had a smaller chest so the binder helps with keeping it flat, but it is shigaraki so obviously he doesn't have the greatest relationship with himself, so he wears it super tight to the point it hurts him (i think its some kind of internal punishment). He never really told anyone about it because it's not anyone's business, but he likes dabi so it just feels so weird to not tell him that, not that he really wanted to because he doesn't want things to change but he also lowkey wants to be accepted fully as he is, while also too scared of being rejected again.

telling dabi about it while he's drunk is so on brand because he would never master up the courage to do it sober, i think the day after he would act like nothing happened and hope dabi wouldn't bring it up, but I'm curious to see how dabi would confront him about this from your pov!!!

(this might be weird but i really like shigaraki, like i think he's such a good villain)

#shigadabi #shigaraki tomura #dabi #mha #bnha #rei replies

[yomiurinikei]

hibiki for the ask meme (annie)

I TYPED ALL THIS UP FOREVER AGO THEN. never uploaded it. it’s just been in my drafts.

cw for mentions of the god awful ship (not /pos and it’s not brought up by name) + brief mentions of her canon trauma and my desire for it to be handled differently (not in depth/explicit)

everything after this read more was written forever ago i don’t even really recall what’s there i just skimmed it for cws

hi annie!!!!! we have the same brain huh (both asked for biki..)

my identity hc for them

just a little girl. uhhhh ya okay. obligatory 'this is an au where things were. not good but Better' disclaimer, im gonna handle this whole post under the context of. i do what i want and what i want is for hibiki to be okay. she's still a system just because of abuse at the hands of her parents which was exacerbated by kanade being toxic. not uh. yeah.

aaaanyways. she's very nonbinary to me!!! i think she likes like.. all the labels. nonbinary trans genderqueer and one hundred million thousand microlabels. she prolly rbs a ton of incoherent "i am like if a bead rolled underneath a industrial refrigerator before eventually being sucked up into a vacuum, slipped out of the garbage onto the ground where it slowly sunk into the earth was a girl but also not a girl" posts.

also i think she's questioning her sexuality/how she experiences attraction but she like. loves loves having qpps. to her its like... a great sign of friendship but also she wants to signify that shes very close with a lot of people. its a high honor but not a rare one to receive. her relationship with it is just like. i have someone who is very dear to me but without any sort of romantic or familial connotations how lovely and cool this is, how happy it makes me <3. she's just chilling!!!

Thoughts on their home life/family

ooogh. okay. actually i never included this in the ask meme. mm,,, how do i want to handle this. hm. i thiiink.. hibiki and kanade deserve some time to be estranged from each other. obvi this is again, within how i choose to write them. so i dont think this will be a relatable take. buuuut yeah. sometimes the best thing for siblings is to not be siblings for a bit. if anyone asks they just share a last name but have no relation. i think that would be good

i have a very normal relationship with my siblings (<- only child who used to be a younger sibling. that is what i am choosing.)

How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

mmmm,, she is so so so fucking system and i really wish she belonged to anyone but linuj. do u guys remember when i said hm maybe the otono twins were abused by their parents and thats why kanade took control of the situation by hurting the one person she could who would always have to be around her? and then a few months later linuj was like oh kanade is just born evil shes inherently bad because i think thats fun and cool^^ ? i remember. i remember very well.

i think,, hibiki was just ultimately underused. and like. it sucks and was bullshit what happened but also i Understand it within what it did narratively. even if i think linuj kinda dicked up the way it couldve affected the tone of the game. buuut. really the largest disservice that happened was like. the way she ultimately had no agency. according to linuj, no matter what, kanade would be Like That, and hibiki would get hurt, and the end. im not saying what happened to her was her fault, thats not what i mean when i say she has no agency, i mean. there was no in universe reason for what happened, not at the end of the day. she was doomed from conception in and out of universe and it just sucks and makes her feel flat because u cant even go what if not without completely ignoring the way linuj writes a wholeass character. hoping that all makes sense?

buuut yeah. tldr. she couldve been vv well written and handled well, even with her ultimate fate staying the same. but by admitting there's absolutely no way hibiki could have made it out okay, not even a "well, the cards would never line up like this, but if x had happened, and then y, then kanade would've fucked off", but making it that no matter what, kanade is gonna do what she did. it just kinda leaves a bad taste about things

The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

she actually is a person who exists outside of what kanade did <3. yes she has that puppet state sure whatever but also she's part of a system and has alters and one of them is "puppet state" but the others have hopes and desires and likes and etc etc.

My number one favorite ship for them

going off earlier, just assume all these ships are qpps <3! her and setsuka have a really fun relationship. cop out answer but ya know

…Now everyone else i ship with them

i like sora and hibiki!

The thing i will NEVER ship

ignoring the Obvi. i can’t think of anyone? again using ships here to mean like. hibiki having bestie-isms, i think she’s p shippable. she’s fun and friend shaped!

a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

uhhh i agree w/you she and nikei would be silly. they deserve to be character who is like :D but is then like D:< together.

thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

hair so pretty eyes so pretty. kinda weird colors

A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

dreamin chuchu always makes me think of her i cannot explain why

#sdra2 #hibiki otonokoji

[ghostygremlin]

so i spent the last two years writing a critical role campaign one fanfic.

title: if i went and hurt my body (would you love me the same)

author: ghostlyGremlin

fandom: critical role (campaign one)

pairings: multiship, vax'ildan vessar/shaun gilmore, vax'ildan vessar/vox machina, vax'ildan vessar & vox machina

category: m/m, m/f, multi, gen, f/f (mentioned)

rating: teen & up

summary:

Vax'ildan Vessar hides his soul marks from the world for a reason.

He is broken. He must be.

No one should have that many marks.

~~~

A soulmark AU where soulmates can be romantic or platonic, and you can have more than one. Vax is a bi disaster who doesn't quite grasp the fact that he can love as much as he does and its not a crime.

word count: 9,592

warnings: mild language, sexual innuendo, allusions to sex/sexual activities, use of alcohol, implied/referenced homophobia (past), canon typical violence, serious injuries, mild/hurt comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, self-esteem issues, implied/referenced alcohol abuse/alcoholism (light), discussions of religion (in the context of dnd gods)

additional tags: discussion of polyamory, polyamorous character(s), bisexual character(s), transgender female character, trans vex'ahlia, soulmate-identifying marks, platonic soulmates, romantic soulmates

Read it here!

more misc info and my own commentary below the break <3

its called "if i went and hurt my body (would you love me the same)" on ao3 and i literally spent exactly two years writing it!

its a Soulmark AU focused on Vax'ildan and his relationships to his Marks and the people he loves.

there are allusions to vax's relationships with all of vox machina, most of which can be interpreted as romantic or platonic according to preference, except for three.

vax and vex have each other's Marks, but their relationship is NOT romantic.

vax has gilmore's Mark, and has explicitly romantic feelings towards him.

vax does NOT have keyleth's Mark, but has explicitly romantic feelings towards her.

this fic is meant to be an exploration on (what i see as) vax'ildan's polyamory and his own self-esteem, specifically in relation to being polyamorous. im poly myself, and i related very deeply to vax's struggles with his feelings for gilmore and keyleth when i watched c1. and even though its been years since i last rewatched c1, i wanted to write something about this character i had fallen in love with.

over the past two years, this fic has received so much genuine support, attention, and love from the critrole community and i couldnt be happier. ive been a part of the cr community for around 2.5/3 years, and it is one of the kindest most loving fandoms ive ever been a part of. writing this fic was a hell of a journey, and every single person who commented, left a kudos, or even just read it means the world to me.

#critical role #critical role campaign one #vaxildan #vaxilmore #the legend of vox machina #cr1 #vox machina #fanfic #ao3 fic #ao3 fanfic #fanfiction #read on ao3 #ao3 author #character study? #polyamory #polyamorous character #polyamorous author #bisexual character(s) #soulmate-identifying marks #platonic soulmates #romantic soulmates #transgender character #transfem vexahlia #ghostlygremlinwrites

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- All Saints Street (Anime) - All Saints Street is on crunchyroll now! I like how they consolidated the episodes into 6 normal length ones, as while I enjoy the theme song it's so much nicer to be able to marathon the show without having to skip past it every 3-8 minutes. A new season will be airing soon so I figured this would be a good time for a rewatch and to hop back into the comics, as last year I considered this series to be an incredibly underrated gem given how cute its art style is, how good its comedy can be, and how likable all the characters are. It helps of course that I adore monsters, and this upcoming season will be including Crystal, one of my favorite characters from the webcomic. I hope they include the running plot of Nick accidently dating his coworker as well, as any scenario involving Nick being a cringe fail pathetic mess is top tier.

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Video Game) - I've been aware of the shoot a man war simulator franchise that is Call of Duty for a long while now and never in a million years did I think I'd ever be interested in playing one. And I still think that, as I haven't played one and never plan to. But. Some monster-loving blogs I like have been posting a lot of monster AUs about this particular cast so I went ahead and checked out some of the relevant canon plot/character interactions that would let me understand the context of the cool art and fics that I wanted to check out. The monster ones ended up being pretty fun so I checked out some of the non-monster ones too and again, some pretty solid fan works out there.

- Nimona (Movie) - I just watched this today so I do need some time to stew on it, but my first thoughts are that it's super cute and I had a lot of fun with it. I love how it looks, Ballister's design with his big puppy eyes and wet pathetic cat energy is great as is Nimona's with her pointy teeth and fun expressions, and how odd but fun the medieval yet also futuristic setting is. It's great to see a solid mlm couple in a movie aimed towards children as typically only wlw get that luxury, and as a non-binary/trans narrative I think it works pretty well. The found family aspect between Ballister and Nimona is of course great to see as well. There are some things I think could have been executed better, I wasn't too crazy about at least 50% of the comedy and I think the movie could get a little too predicable at times, but those are pretty small complaints for what was a very cute, wholesome, and visually impressive movie.

- Heavenly Delusion (Anime) - Probably my favorite of the season, This was a really solid first season - It's an interesting world and mystery, they don't overexplain things and are good at letting moments sit, the main characters were likable, and the pacing was really good considering how often we would receive satisfying foreshadowing that answered just enough to keep us invested while opening up all sorts of new questions.

- Oshi no Ko (Anime) - Once again I find myself at a crossroads of acknowledging that a piece of media not going in the direction that I wanted it to doesn't make it bad, but also being unable to separate my feelings of disappointment on the lost potential from my feelings on the show as a whole. I did enjoy this show, and I appreciate the behind the scenes looks at celebrity culture/show business and how it doesn't shy away from the darker and commercialized nature of it all, but with it springing between a reincarnation story to a murder mystery to a revenge plot to an actor career drama to an idol show, I just never felt like the focus was a strong as it needed it to be to keep me invested in the overarching plot. The weird age gap + First love but also new mother/brother/sister thing was also. A lot. That really didn't feel necessary when they could've just made the twins oddly intelligent children and gone from there. As I said before, I do love Skip Beat style narratives of actors working out how to get into character and affect the acting of those around them, so if it keeps doing that I will be interested in sticking around, but while I like the female characters more as characters their idol storyline is far less interesting, especially given how much the narrative is pushing that being an idol and idol culture is kind of awful actually, so maybe y'all should work towards a less toxic dream. Oh well, I don't mean to be so negative, the show did a lot of interesting things, including surprisingly portraying Youtuber and steamer culture in a realistic manner, and I did quite like the pseduo-main character of Kana Arima. I'll likely watch more but it's such a weird mix of ehhhhh and ehh actually maybe? That I wouldn't really recommend it to someone who isn't warned of a lot of weird stuff in advance.

- Ranking of Kings (Anime) - In retrospect it would have been nice to know that this season was more of a "additional content leading into the true continuation of the story" rather than a true second season from the beginning, as it would have saved me from watching the whole thing through a lens of "this is nice but uh when is plot going to happen?". Separated from that I am glad I watched it, it was nice to see Queen Hilling again, they did some fun things with the animation, and the last few episodes where we got some context for the Underworld brothers and the way demons work was pretty solid.

- Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (Video Game) - Alright, so getting back into it, the 3rd and 4th cases were pretty neat. I don't much care about the optics of HOW the murders were committed, as I feel like that aspect is far more interesting from a player standpoint when you yourself are figuring out vs the observer standpoint where you just want to see the story play out, but the characters this time were pretty fun, and I like the way the plot is progressing as far as the main characters are involved. For the 3rd case, the 3 friends all confessing to a murder they didn't commit in order to protect the other ones who they think could have done it was quite sweet and made for a good story, and for the 4th case the lesbian mad scientist robot lady Blackquill was a great addition. Going into the last section of the game I've unfortunately already been spoiled to the true culprit, but it's still very satisfying to see Athena and Blackquill and other Blackquill play off each other and deal with their trauma. I'm still excited to see how the game will end, after which I'll probably put a hold on the mainline series to look at the Investigation spin-offs before finishing up with Spirit of Justice, which a lot of people claim is the series highlight.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Okay actually now that I'm willing to explore it more the Depths are pretty neat. Also Tulin is my son and I love him.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - Yup.

Listening to: Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, Read Between the Lines by Tom Cardy, Ways to Go By GroupLove, Deathly Loneliness Attacks cover by SirHamnet, LosT by Bring Me the Horizon, Comatose by Skillet, Human by Gabrielle Aplin, Good Girls and Teeth by 5 Seconds of Summer, Nothing Good by Lea Salonga, That's What I Want by Lil Nas X, After Everything You Made Me Do and I Give Good Parent from Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

#weekly roundup #my post #This is late because I am tired

[psychoticwillgraham]

drag king Will au specifics (not everything but the most important bits)

Will’s trans backstory (the basis of this whole thing):

-his basic labels are non-binary trans man. sexuality wise he’s pan, but with a heavy preference for other trans people and feminine cis men

-still loosely follows canon, but certain events are different. the whole point of this is the cat and mouse game between them with the canon already established (the patient/psych dynamic and will eventually finding out that he’s the ripper). hannibal still tries to initiate Will’s becoming, but the whole thing is filtered through a trans lens where not only does Will become Hannibal’s partner in crime and goes on the run with him, but he also ‘becomes’ his true self identity wise thanks to hannibal and his way of life.

-his relationship with gender: he was raised by his father to be a ‘southern belle’ type of girl, and held to strict female gender roles. once he was able to get to college, he saved enough money to go on HRT, and began living his life as Will. when he first got to Baltimore, he bumped into Beverly, who knew some of the big ppl at the ultra exclusive drag/general hedonism club, and got him an audition which he aced with flying colors despite never having performed in any context and bev is basically his fairy drag mother bc she has experience of her own

-the club’s backstory: it’s basically a place for baltimore’s elite to go and be secretly gay and for drag shows, there’s a certain group of elites (which includes Hannibal) who wear masks and sit in the vip seats and do a digital tipping system so they don’t have to reveal themselves. basically, it’s an underground club where most things are allowed (with extensive rules, so also kind of a sex club, which Will occasionally partakes in but not for money, and does drag and burlesque and occasionally stripping if he has to fill in for someone). it’s very exclusive in its clientele and performers, and only performers who are considered to be amazing and near perfect are invited to work for them. basically, it’s a club for hedonism. politicians go there and extremely powerful ppl in general

-hannibal is a long time supporter and regular of the club (in most of the areas) but before Will was hired, he hadn’t gone in a year and decides randomly to go on the night of Will’s debut because he was curious about how Will would be. Will starts working for the FBI around the same time as his initial debut, and almost immediately knows it’s Will, but Will doesn’t find out about Hannibal going to every single show of his (drag/burlesque/stripping) until about mid way into the fic, which then leads into the section where Will purposefully chooses songs that he knows will rile Hannibal up. basically, Will ups the ante with every performance until he’s able to provoke Hannibal into action (aka they finally fuck).

-cont: once Will knows about Hannibal going, he starts to tease him slightly at their appointments and pretty much every time they’re together, even at work. he’s testing Hannibal’s patience at this point, and Hannibal starts to drop cryptic hints that he knows about Will and teases him back. eventually, the sexual tension comes to a head when Will does a duet with another king in front of Hannibal (and it’s a VERY sexually charged song), which drives him to act on his feelings and ambush Will backstage, fucking him on the counter and right against the mirrors as the other performers watch from the other side of the room (and they’re both aware of their audience). it’s at this point that Will whispers to Hannibal that he knows that he’s the ripper so nobody else can hear them, and they both confess their love for each other.

-cont: after the final curtain call, Hannibal rushes him out and tells Will that he’ll be staying at Hannibal’s house for the night and Will doesn’t even fight it. once there, Will convinces Hannibal to let him de drag first and get comfy before he’ll do anything else, and of course Hannibal whines about it a bit, but lets him. after Will is out of drag, Hannibal lays him down and tells him that they’re going to properly fuck, and it’s slow and romantic sex, compared to the spur of the moment fuck back at the club. the next morning, they talk about Will knowing he’s the ripper and they formulate a plan to fake their deaths and run away together. Will’s performer friends and contacts at the club help arrange for them to leave the country and get Will hired at a new club under a completely new identity (because not surprisingly, this happens A LOT there) and they live happily ever after as murder husbands in Cuba. before they leave though, they spend a while longer there just to be able to kill and make tableaus together.

-nobody but Hannibal and Beverly ever find out about Will’s job which is why he’s still able to be a performer (because the club is very protective of their talent and have close relationships with gov. officials). Chilton finds out but is appropriately dealt with

-Chilton also goes to Will’s shows and is very creepy about it to Will at work and starts to sexually harass him when Hannibal isn’t with him. Once they know about each other, Hannibal vows to make Chilton regret his advances, but Will stops him from outright killing him immediately. he hatches a plan to bait and trap Chilton at a secret location (that Hannibal owns obviously) under the pretense of a private strip show. when the time is right during his performance, Hannibal surprises him and they both torture him and castrate him. they do this just before they leave the country as their last murder in the US

-during the initial period of Will not knowing, Hannibal starts to theme his tableaus after Will and some specific performances, as a way of courting him. that’s when he finally started to suspect Hannibal because of the same reasons in the show. he starts to realize that the ripper is a huge fan of his and begins to try and cater to him without even knowing who it is, only knowing that he’s in the VIP section and is one of the city elites. as the tableaus get more and more bold and obvious, he officially begins to suspect Hannibal. so he does a number that is tailored exactly to what Hannibal likes and he stands directly in front of the VIP section, making eye contact with Hannibal and doing very sexual movements towards him.

-cont: at the next show, Will does an extremely sexual duet with another king and makes eye contact with Hannibal again when the other king gets on his knees in front of Will and has his face right on Will’s crotch and Will mimes an orgasm. This makes Hannibal absolutely snap, and he confronts Will backstage as soon as he gets off stage and ambushes him in the dressing room, and fucks him right on the makeup counter and up against the mirrored wall while the other performers watch them from the other side of the room while both of them are very aware of it.

-many politicians and even the occasional president have visited the club, some going regularly and requesting private shows with certain performers (Will has been requested quite often, but never actually taken anyone up on it bc he likes to stay out of that mess). Hannibal eventually finds out that Will has privately danced for several of Hannibal’s socialite friends (he only refuses politically powerful people, and socialites are the majority of his clientele) and eventually confronts Will about it, accusing him of sleeping with them. Will just smirks and says that it’s ’confidential’ and Hannibal punishes him for it, well aware that it apart of his job, but does it more as a jealousy thing. when they flee to Cuba, Hannibal lets Will continue doing his job, just not the outright sexual portion of it, and he has to be at every single performance and backstage with him.

-so basically, Will’s kind of a prostitute I guess, but he doesn’t do it for money, he just does it because he likes it and he gets paid more than enough for his actual job so he doesn’t have to charge for sex

#need to come up with an actual title for this verse gdi #there’s gonna be little side stories about their sex life and eventual wedding planning (under their aliases obviously) #Will’s fics