#((except not actually shut up i will infodump and you will enjoy it >:[ ))

[dimdiamond]

What are some of your favourite Tintin headcanons? Whether that be about Tintin himself, the albums, his relationships or just any other character :)

OH I HAVE MANY OF THEM!!! I am afraid this would be a looooong post so I will put headcanons about Tintin and his relationship with some characters under the cut!

Tintin

Many maybe won't agree with this but I headcanon him as not being fluent in languages. He tries really hard to learn them but he has difficulty and even after studying them he's more comfortable to listen than speak in this language. The reason he has managed to communicate with other foreigners is because they know French (as French was a worldwide language at least before WW2).

He LOVES comics and picture books but he's ashamed of buying them or asking them from the library so he always mixes them with more serious books and magazines to get them unnoticed. In the early stage of living in Marlinespike mansion he hid them (although the rest eventually found out, after Haddock having suspected that Tintin might have a secret investigation going on and Calculus and Nestor having suspected that he just hid porn magazines or something) but gradually he let himself enjoy his hobby freely, finally feeling comfortable and safe.

Tintin and Milou

They're both coquettish but Milou is more than Tintin and Tintin is reminded of this everytime Milou refuses to wear any other collar except the most fancy one.

The first period Tintin had Milou he tried to discipline him but gave up and let his puppy sleep with him on his bed. When eventually Milou wanted his space and started sleeping in his own basket (or other random places) the one who was sad wasn't the dog.

Tintin and the cat of Marlinespike

They're both cats, they needed time to get used to each other but now if you can't find the cat with Haddock, you'll find it with Tintin. Don't you dare separate them!

Tintin and Haddock

No matter what they will always say Good Morning and Goodnight. It's the only rule they have set between them and try to follow it every day. It happened gradually, having spent so many days together traveling and if not traveling talking on the phone, but after The Land of Black Gold, where it was the first time they separated since they met, it just felt like a necessity, to make sure the other is fine and well. Living together made it only easier for them to keep this up. And if one of them doesn't get to say one of the two it immediately means that something is wrong.

Their birthdays are one day apart (Tintin's on 10 January and Haddock's on 9 January) so they celebrate them together by blowing the candles on the birthday cake at midnight. They usually have a gathering with friends on 9 January and leave the 10th of January for something fun to do together. (I will stop here because I won't be able to shut up about them)

Tintin and Calculus

Tintin has mad respect for Calculus and always listens carefully to what he's saying and Calculus considers Tintin the only one who can actually keep up with his way of thinking but at the same time he can't keep up with Tintin's way of thinking so their interactions are mostly: Tintin absorbing all the infodump by Calculus/ Calculus worried but intrigued to see what Tintin will do (for example when he shows a new invention).

Calculus will never initiate a hug with Tintin (like he does with Haddock) because he knows Tintin has his boundaries and if he wants a hug or touching he will initiate it.

Tintin and Nestor

Nestor will never let Tintin alone in the kitchen no matter how much Tintin nags that he can manage well enough warming his milk. He doesn't. He put the kitchen in fire. (Note: not that Tintin can't handle a kitchen but Marlinespike mansion's kitchen is another story and till he got used to it he was careless and Nestor loves his kitchen alright).

Nestor kinda still feels bad for how their first meeting was (although when he gets pissed off with Tintin he remembers that time he hit his head longingly) but Tintin doesn't even count this time he got hit on his head by an old man as the list is long and frankly other bad guys deserve to be in the list than Nestor.

Tintin never asked things from Nestor during his visits and he kept this attitude the first period of his living in the mansion until Nestor had enough and started asking him what he wants (like "Do you want coffee or tea?", "Do you want me to add the towels in the laundry?"). Slowly Tintin got used to have someone doing the chores for him but never neglects saying "Thank you" to Nestor.

Tintin and Thompsons

They had a rough start but this was what made Tintin respect them and regard them as good policemen and detectives and now friends. The same goes for them as now they fully respect and admire Tintin. Tintin's secret is that he finds himself agreeing with them many times but he won't ever admit that as it would end up being embarrassing since their thoughts are proven false. But yes, this is why he is always open to hear their ideas and thoughts but won't comment on them until they are proven wrong or Haddock says his snarky comment. Tintin laughs but it's mostly of the thought "Oh, your comment made me see how this doesn't make sense, thank you". Nevertheless, Tintin likes to tease them too, as he likes to tease all his close friends.

Tintin and Chang

They exchange letters regularly and even more often after Tibet. When Chang starts traveling to the world and shares the news with Tintin, who has gradually lessened his trips, Tintin can't help but feel proud and happy for him (and a bit jealous but mostly because he misses his friend so every time after Chang's letter he starts planning with Haddock a visit to him).

After Tibet their friendship changes to one more sincere and equal, meaning that both are more open and honest with each other and see each other on the same level (because Chang always saw Tintin above him before that, idolizing him even). This leads to fighting but they always make up immediately. (I have a long post about my thoughts on them so I will stop here before it becomes too long)

Tintin and Castafiore

Of all the relationships, this might be the most "familial" that any other. Tintin likes opera but that's not the only reason he admires Castafiore. She is a strong woman with a loud personality but elegance and most of all a huge heart, even if she tends to love luxury way more than Tintin, and this heart was what made Tintin trust her and consider her a dear friend. Castafiore sees Tintin as most people won't dare to see Tintin, a young gentleman who needs to be protected and spoiled. Maybe she sees in him something of herself as she was young and proud and confident and she knows how desperately he needs to be reminded of his vulnerability. Whatever it is, Tintin lets her be, to the surprise of everyone, because he can't find himself being strict with her, in a way spoiling her in return.

They are both into messing up with Haddock and that's why Tintin not only lets her do it but mostly gets amused by this torment. Of course, it's because he knows there's no ill intention behind it. Tintin sees it as it really is, teasing between two much alike friends who otherwise would fight all day.

Tintin and Captain Chester

At first, Tintin didn't see Haddock's old friend with a good eye (mostly because he was afraid that Haddock would prefer the company of his old friend to his new friend) but he soon realised that in Chester he can see an ally and mostly a friend that he can catch up with his way of thinking. Without either of them realising, they share more common traits besides their mutual care for Haddock and they can read each other dangerously well.

The rare times they happen to meet and go to someplace where it's music, it's over, they will dance nonstop (they're both excellent dancers with a good sense of rhythm).

Tintin and Abdullah

I have mentioned before how much these two are alike but the thing is that neither of them sees it. They both refuse to back down and insist on the other to indulge them and their relationship only starts to get fixed with time, as Tintin changes his point of view regarding children and gets more sympathetic and more like "the adult who is here to understand the kid" and not "the adult whom the kid must listen to". Abdullah changes his opinion on Tintin too as he gets to learn him better. His pranks are aimed at Haddock, anyway.

I imagine when Abdullah is a teenager, he confides in Tintin and asks for advice on various matters and Tintin is more than eager to help him. (He wouldn't go to Haddock because it's embarrassing to go to your childhood crush for advice and such)

Tintin and Zorrino

Tintin gets really well with Zorrino but he doesn't realize it's mostly because Zorrino idolizes him and most probably is his first crush. As Zorrino gets older and gets over his childhood crush he can see Tintin as the older friend who can always count on. Tintin remains oblivious.

Zorrino keeps in touch with both Tintin and Haddock (the last one securing the boy's education and anything he needs for his life and he is ready to even host him in the mansion if he ever needs it) but mostly ends up exchanging letters with Haddock, something that makes Tintin evaluate again his relationship with kids and teenagers.

Tintin and Martine

After Martine getting rejected, they end up being besties who go to art exhibitions together, to shopping, to drinking cocktails, etc. Look, I just need Tintin to have a friend his age close to where he lives, especially a girl so they can do all the girly stuff he hesitated to do alone (like wearing dresses or talking about emotions- he's a repressed man, I am not making the rules). In return, Tintin helps her to stop basing her confidence on things like fortune-telling and boosts her confidence by teaching her how to demand what she deserves.

Tintin and Mrs. Flinch

He still stops from time to time at his old apartment building to check on his landlady and drink tea or coffee together while exchanging news. She always buys his newspaper and reads all his articles and writes down her thoughts to share them with him whenever he comes. Tintin will never say out loud how much he is grateful to her for all the help she had given him when he didn't even have a bed to sleep in because he can't find enough words to express that. Mrs. Flinch sees that through his visits.

Tintin and Jolyon Wagg

Tintin doesn't like him. Especially every time he comments on his bachelorhood.

#sorry for taking so long real life is a bitch #hope you like these and if you want more headcanons for more characters or something more specific feel free to ask me #i have so many thoughts please someone take them out of my brain and write them in a coherent way #tintin #captain haddock #archibald haddock #milou #professor calculus #chang #chang chong chen #and so many characters oh god just let them #the adventures of tintin

[aftg-stuff-lol]

Quick rant: there's a big distinction between critiquing a book and bullying an author.

Lately I've seen more and more people shutting down any criticism of the All for the game series because they automatically equate it to people being assholes to Nora.

If you don't want to engage with criticism and you just want to enjoy the books, that's completely fair, but it doesn't mean that criticism is to be forbidden or ridiculed. That doesn't even mean that people being assholes to Nora is not a thing.

And being able to recognise flaws in something you like, doesn't have to diminish your enjoyment of it.

I honestly don't care much when people say "I don't understand why people say these books are badly written", cause that just means you don't know a lot about writing, and that's FINE; but when people try to say that there's nothing at all problematic about these books, that worries me, because that's about critical thinking, and about judgment of stuff that might impact you in real life.

So here's a list of problematic aspects that I've noticed, or that I've seen people point out over the years (and promptly getting shutting down and ridiculed because HOW DARE YOU talk shit about my fave?)

Torture porn: some of the most intense events are used for shock value, don't actually further the plot or impact the characters beyond what had already been established by the narrative, and that's considered problematic because it undervalues the importance of that traumatic event.

Demonization of drug use and drug users

Misrepresentation of psychiatric drugs, how they work, what they do, and how a sensible psychiatrist would assign one to a patient

Demonization of psychiatric drugs

The only POCs characters (Riko and Nicky) are the two guys that get no redemption.

Alternatively, and in opposition to the last point, people argue that Nicky's kiss with Neil was never really condemned by the narrative, making it look like "it's not that important, it was just a drunk kiss"

Except for the POCs characters, the ethnicity of anyone else is not specified because white is treated as a default.

The books messing up between psychopathic and psychosis is a huge fucking deal (I will die on this hill), considering that people with psychosis are probably one of the most discriminated groups on Earth, and the books associate them with what in the common immaginary are dangerous criminals with no empathy.

Misrepresentation of alchool abuse (as in, these characters drink their livers away every other day, and still win championship)

The ending doesn't really dwell on wether Neil understands or cares that him funding the Moryamas means that he would be funding murderers, drug trafficking, human trafficking, rape, pedophilia (you know, the stuff mafias do?).

You might not agree with the points above, not with all of them, or you might not see these traits as problematic. I know I don't agree with all of them, but the point is that a healthy fandom should be able to have a conversation without resorting to insults and ridicule.

(and since I woke up petty, the reasons why people say these books are badly written is for multiple unfinished storylines, multiple set ups are left with no payoff, there's infodumping every three pages or so, most secondary characters have little to no depth, the most important villains are killed by characters that were barely even mentioned before. If none of this bothers you or doesn't strike you as bad writing, that's fine. I still think these would be some of the same parameters by which any other book is critiqued, and All for the game is not above criticism).

Now that being said; do I love these books? Yes.

The characters work, development, the relationships between them, the pacing, and the dialogue is masterly ctafted.

Those are reasons enough for me to fall in love in a book, and it's what I care about the most.

#I woke up petty #I saw another one if those posts about how aftg is perfect and anyone who says otherwise is trying to hurt Nora's feelings #aftg #all for the game #nora sakavic #the foxhole court #andreil #andrew minyard #neil josten #nicky hemmick #riko moriyama

[excaive]

i love KJ so much. i see them in my dreams. obsessed with this freak and desperately need to know more

BIG FAT MOOD ANON 🤝

I can share some facts n fun stuff! Some I've mentioned whenever I ramble about KJ but I haven't like done anything that gives an overview of them in one place :3

This will be in no particular order. Also way longer than I initially imagined but I can't shut up about KJ ever <3

KJ's name KILLJOYE is based on the initials of their legal name, which isn't relevant to know and I also don't actually know their last name so I couldn't tell you fully even if I wanted to

He's a pretty well known music artist in Black Orbit. You'll know who people are talking about when throwing around their name KILLJOYE, even if you haven't heard anything he's made. Primarily rap, and it will absolutely be hit or miss because they're a Certified Freak™ and makes very niche tunes that will make you go "eugh..... yuck. what sane person would listen to this." (and then either you'll just turn away or you'll keep listening either out of morbid curisosity or you're a freak who unironically is digging it) I just thought about how I haven't made a playlist that's specifically for what I think KJ would make BUT their personal playlist will suffeciently let you know their vibes as a person and the vibes for what they'd make themself. I did talk about oc playlists a while back and how the first few songs will tell you everything you need for what to expect - and KJ got a few new songs so I've moved around the order a bit and I think this is so funny:

Disgusting Pink(Freak)........ yeah this literally KJ.

KJ became friends with Roger online when they were teens! Met thru a music sharing forum as they both enjoy making music. When Roger moved into KJ's place when he was about 20, they eventually teamed up to make music together as REDROOT. here's that playlist for the kind of music they'd make together. If you're curious about how their voices sounds if you listen to the tunes, I just loosely imagine that deep/rumbly vocals are KJ and more high-pitched vocals are Roger

Going off what I just mentioned, KJ is able to alter their voice due to their parasite, which allows them to get real rumbly and also just make noises that should only be possible by fucking around with the vocals in a program.

KJ's normal speaking voice is like.... idk how to explain, but when they're excited (which they are most of the time) they'll get more high-pitched. They sound like whatever makes you unable to describe them as feminine or masculine sounding. KJ is a freak and they sound like one. That's all you need to know <3

KJ is gay and they're intersex

If you ask them about anything related to skateboarding, they'll infodump so hard if you let them or if you aren't careful. You'll activate them. He knows like literally everything. Be it the history of skateboarding and how it evolved, the history of the skateparks in Sunjin (in case u don't know, Sunjin is the massive metropolis that Black Orbit takes place in), all the technical parts about skateboards and the different types, and everything about how to skate and do tricks and which parts of the body is especially important and how to be postured to pull off tricks well and how to avoid getting too hurt if you do fall etc etc.

KJ is very involved with a skatepark in the region they live in! That's where they vibe with their many friends. It's such a chill and friendly skatepark and easy to approach for kids and adults who wanna learn how to skate - and it's also just a great place to vibe and hang out with friends!

KJ is extremely social. They hang out with their skatepark buddies as well as their music fans often. He's definitely overwhelming to be around at times, but if you just tell him to tone it down, he'll be considerate of that. If possible, he'll just get his energy out away from your space and vibe with ya a bit later.

KJ does have OCD and struggle with intrusive thoughts mostly, but nobody except Roger knows about the latter (well. the extent of it. It's Bad) If you've been around KJ long enough, you'll notice repetitive actions but most of what they do you won't pick up on unless you're aware of the reasons behind it.

KJ has 3 dimples on their face. They're not very obvious but they are There when KJ smiles and I do forget to add em, especially if i simplify the way I draw KJ

Here's a comparison between KJ's haircut pre-story and post-story (if you don't know, KJ isn't involved in the main story of Black Orbit. They have no plot-relevance. But they ARE a key-person to Roger's life - if not for KJ, Roger wouldn't be part of the main story at all)

This is mostly to differentiate between KJ depending on where they are in life for art reasons - realistically, they'd keep the pre-story look, but I'm here for the Layers and Symbolism. They're very different post-story (still a massive freak tho. Might even be more freaky actually <3) and the grown out hair symbolises letting go and changing. Not as rigid, not as obsessed keeping things in one specifiic way that ultimately was holding them back. Breaking self-made rules. Wearing the cap more tilted makes it more loose than snug on their head - making them more open, which is big part of their character development! Despite loving being social and around others, KJ never really opened up to anyone. They kept a massive safety wall between themself and people they care about that was only noticable when they got hospitalized because they were so active with socializing and taking initiative that nobody really realized they had no proper way to get in touch with KJ, so they just. disappeared. Roger was the only one who knew why and where they were hospitalized since they live together.

Man. I can go on forever about KJ and very specific symbolism that no one but myself (and some friends) will be able to pick up on.

I do have some more facts to share but I'll put it under a cut as it's NSFW related. I'm not gonna describe anything terribly explicit, but it is certifed freak facts ;p

I've mentioned this before but KJ doesn't have a gag reflex. This is due to the nature of their parasite, so they don't choke whenever their parasite pops out their mouth.

KJ can hold their breath for a stupid amount of time. This is also because of their parasite.

KJ has purple tendrils in their throat that they have control over and isn't part of their parasite. The tendrils are there because of their parasite, but they aren't part of the parasite itself.

KJ has a pretty flexible jaw. Also due to their parasite

They have an oral fixation. This is not because of their parasite, they're just like that

can you tell where this is going

Anyway!

KJ makes bank by taking advantage of their mouth situation. It's a win-win situation because they'll have money to spend for their homies because they're ride or die for friends - and they're also just a freak who can provide the most wicked sloppy toppy in the city

They do this on the side of making music. This business is under wraps, and even if there's no concrete public proof they do it... It's very obvious. With a mouth like that belonging to the weirdest fucking gay guy around who makes questionable, mouth-related, nsfw songs..... like c'mon. water is wet. Even if anything scandalous leaked? Everyone knows KJ is a freak and the only thing this info would do is the equivalent of KJ getting a stupid amount of onlyfans requests. Now all the other freaks in the city knows KJ will get on his knees for good cash and they all want a piece of that mouth. KJ can never lose <3

They still do this when they start dating Roger post-story. Roger already knew about what they were up to, and it didn't deter Roger from catching feelings for KJ. Besides, living with KJ and also Cass later on (both people who are very sex-positive) doesn't give Roger any reason to believe that KJ's business would affect the integrity of their relationship. That's just more money for date trips or other things, and KJ is into some things Roger can't provide for various reasons and that's fine.

What KJ provides is only what they can do with their mouth. Make sure to read their TOS throughly or they'll bite off your precious parts, and you'll be absolutely certain they're serious and threatening you if they have to give you a warning. Don't fuck around and find out or you're going to the hospital <3

ANYWAY. There's some freak facts.

If this doesn't deter you from liking KJ, that's epic

If you are deterred.... well I can't do anything about that. I don't constantly call KJ a freak for nothing, it's what it says on the can. If you like them even more now, i'm shaking your hand. Join the club with me <3

#ask #ocs #killjoye #cai arts #damn that's a lot of facts huh #I just love kj so much they're so fun <3

[koravelliumavast]

My favorite fanfic tropes

Character A: rambling about something to just talk Character B: kisses them to shut them up

The classic: Oh, Oh!

Forced proximity something something no we won’t share a bed something something we end up sharing a bed. Both characters haven’t had a good sleep in a hot minute because of fear/desperation/other reason but they both sleep soundly when the other characters right next to them

“We’ll just stick to our sides of the bed.” Wakes up cuddling together

One sided enemies to lovers where one perspective is ‘I hate them’ and the other perspective is like ‘hhhhh I want to kiss them so badly’

Grumpy/sunshine but the grumpy is the one who is the golden retriever and the sunshine is the one with every reason to be the grumpy

All the characters except the main pairing think that the main pairing have been together for forever

Characters placing bets on how long before our main pairing gets together. Bonus points go to if there’s “big money” riding on the bets

When we find out the more grumpy one is actually a big softie

Pre-relationship one character somehow acquires the others sweatshirt/jacket/sweater and doesn’t want to give it back because it smells like them but refuses to acknowledge that fact

Intimacy through infodumping. As in one character is talking about anything and the other character is looking at them like nothing else matters

SLOW BURNS THAT ARE OVER 100K WORDS

Soft intimacy aka moments that won’t seem intimate to bystanders but to the main pairing it’s everything (like listening to music together or playing cards or even a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate)

Helping the other through an anxiety or panic attack

Stargazing where the character who knows about astronomy moves the other (who doesn’t) arm to show where the constellation is and the second character’s dialogue is ‘so glad it’s dark out so they don’t see how red my face must be.’

One character is a bad cook. The other is a pretty good one. The first character tries to make a cake or something for the other and it doesn’t turn out (burns or something) and the second character is so touched that they tear up because their partner did all that for them

The character who you wouldn’t think is clingy ends up being the super clingy one who always cuddles up right next to their partner. Bonus points if they’re ace (just because they’re ace doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy cuddles)

This is specifically for daredevil fics because I think they’re funny but I’ve only read like four like this: but when Matt gets injured in some way and the avengers take him back to the tower and they believe the injury caused the blindness and not that he was blind before and then like a few days later when they find Matt fighting crime even though he should still be blind but it’s like nothing changed and they freak out and he’s just like oh yeah I’ve been blind this whole time

When a typically calm and reserved character goes absolutely feral and everyone else is like woah holy shit

Absolutely poetic dialogue that makes you go holy fucking shit what are they doing on ao3 get them a book deal

Crack fics written with a specific reasoning behind it and the reasoning is absolute insanity (this is a direct call out to the zellion fic because it was so horrible. I loved everything about it)

Alternate universes but it’s not just like ‘no magic’ it’s like this is an original story if I changed a solid three things

The most random characters popping up. (Good Omens characters in a sandman fic. Yeah that’s the only example I can think of right now)

Before they get together one character describing the other to their sibling/friend and it goes on for like a long time and the person they’re talking to is like I think you have a crush and the other is like no way we’re just friends. They’re not just friends. They’re in love

One character just casually saying I love you, leads to the other character to totally freak out because how can they just say it so casually and when it gets brought up the one who said it is just like well I do love you…

Mutual pining but they’re both bad at realizing that the other wants to get with them but literally EVERYONE they go to for advice is like yeah I think that you’re gonna be just fine. Tell them how you feel and the characters are like but what if they don’t feel the same way and everyone goes oh I don’t think that’s a problem.

I think I’m good at flirting. <- absolutely terrible flirt.

Band fics. Bonus points if it’s enemies to lovers

#tropes might not be the right word #fanfiction #archive of our own #ao3 #long post #lists

[eldritchamy]

Hey, hello, how do I hear more of your world building because whenever you have it in tags of stuff, I am OBSESSED

I mean currently the answer is you have to be a specific person in my Discord DMs (and future housemate), who is the recipient of all of my infodumps about this particular topic.

The reason for this is that she's my ACTUAL DM (who runs a delightfully homebrewed Ravnica setting which takes a VERY liberal approach to MTG's concept of a multiverse), and my own homebrew Une-iverse is sort of the version of my characters and their story that exists in my head (I normally refer to this as "Story Mode") and is slowly being built out into its own whole world and, with any luck, several books. She greatly enjoys my infodumping in general, and has also been thrilled to have me as a player (in my first DND campaign!) because, and I quote, "Your passion and care for the story of your character is infectious." Her DMing style also very much jives with how I like to play the game, and the other players in the party, and their characters, are all excellent.

I'm pretty big on establishing and keeping to narrative arcs, and so far I'm pretty happy with where my character is in her journey as a person and how she's relating to the world around her, and in particular her story NPCs. One of my NPCs in particular (my favorite and the one I'm proudest of coming up with) she plays almost EXACTLY how I envision her, so every scene with that character is like a 5 pound brick of dopamine physically pummeled into my bloodstream through blunt force. She's also a very interesting character mechanically, so she's been the subject of QUITE a few infodumps about the mechanics of time and Second Sight and causality. I may make a post about that specifically, because I have a really cool way of explaining it.

When she first put out the call for a campaign she wanted to run, I was the first person to respond because I'd recently been in a bit of a DND hyperfixation (thanks in part to Critical Role) where I had turned a character concept I came up with several years prior into a functional PC. Her pitch for the campaign she wanted to run fit with the character I had started building, and I figured it was as good a time as any to actually get over my anxiety about it and actually join a party.

....While writing up my character's backstory initially, I was typing in a document that hit seven pages before my character was even born, if that's any indication of What I'm Like As A Person.

A fair amount got revised during and after character creation (I homebrewed an entire new 5e class (Witch) between levels 1 and 3 and she let me swap to it). I had some really cool ideas for her character backstory and her story NPCs (whom I, in an extremely on-brand obsessive fervor, had given some pretty deep backstories of their own), and she really enjoyed the creative direction I took everything character-wise and narratively.

And I STILL send her walls of text about character stuff and how they relate to things that happened and why they had the reactions they did to what events in their backstories and how everything interacted to make them such fleshed out and compelling characters.

Because when I get excited about a topic I am utterly, hopelessly incapable of shutting up about it. But she likes it and has a mutual interest in the particular topic, so she's ended up the person I direct all of the infodumps at.

As far as I can remember, I haven't posted anything about it except what's in either the "eldritch OCs" tag or more recently the "Uneiverse" tag on my blog.

I could be encouraged to post more about it, if enough people show an interest. I do think my cosmogony is pretty neat. I do need to work out a historical timeline, though, because currently some Pretty Major Stuff is a bit up in the air in terms of "ok cool but WHEN".

#Uneiverse

[mythgirlimagines]

ANON-CORRECT QUOTES

---------------------------------

(How interactions between Wet Sock and Scar tend to go...)

Wet Sock: (smiling slightly) My top surgery went really well.

Scar: (returning that smile) That's great, High Demon of Frost! My bottom surgery is next week!

Wet Sock/Scar: (in unison) I can't believe we're both goth and trans!

Egg: (wedging themselves in between the two) I'm a birdkeeper!

Source: Meme

Image Source: (https://www.reddit.com/r/moviescirclejerk/comments/crr622/the_little_mermaid_2020/)

---------------------------------

Wyre: (brooding in the corner, sighing) I'm so upset...

Nerd: (paternal instincts kicking in, genuinely kind for once) Why? What happened?

Wyre: (glaring at Nerd) Shut the f*** up!

Nerd: (back to the usual Nerd) Okay, Wyre! F*** YOU! STAY UPSET! Hope your day gets worse! Like, actually!

Source: Twitter

---------------------------------

Purple: (about to attend her first ever major poetry competition) 

Fusion: (smiling in pride) Before you go, Purple, I have a little surprise for you! 

Fusion: (reaching into his hair and pulling out a hoodie) It's my old lucky hoodie! I was going to save it until I graduated, but I thought you might like to have it today!

Purple: (smiling, as she takes the hoodie) Fusion...I truly am astounded! This garment shall function as my personal talisman! 

Purple: (unfolds the hoodie, revealing it to be way too big for her)

Fusion II: (smirking) Or you could throw it up in the air and cover that big hole in the ozone.

Source: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

---------------------------------

(Context: Sparkle is trying to get the other Anons into magical girl anime, so she could have another infodump buddy...)

Sparkle: (to Curious) BUT YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE PRETTY CURE SERIES!

Curious: (with a dissonant grin on their face) Well, I do not have to do anything except do my duties and die.

Curious: (turning to the screen with a pained smile, as applause sounds in the background) 

Sparkle: (highly concerned for her kohai)

Source: Vine

Video Source: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic71PtlDH-E)

---------------------------------

Dream/Eldritch: (on a date together)

Eldritch: (blushing, currently at a loss of words)

Myth: (spectating on their date from the bushes) Psst! Ritchie! Just tell her something hot! 

Eldritch: (dead-serious, gazing at Dream) The rate of global warming has been increased by nearly three times as much, over the last three decades.

Dream: (confused)

Myth: (sarcastically) Yep, that's definitely what I meant. Good job, Ritchie.

Source: Texts From Last Night

Image Source: (https://ifunny.co/picture/tell-me-something-that-ll-make-hot-the-rate-of-Hlwnzxk84)

---------------------------------

(The Baby Squad introducing their found family to others...)

Iris: (gesturing to each respective Anon) Janon adopted me as his sibling, Wet Sock and Egg are basically my parents, Myth is the single and childless adult Wet Sock is still pining for, and Curious keeps telling everyone that Janon is their master.

Janon: (sarcastically) That's why I'm so lively and colorful...

Source: Parks and Recreation

Source: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFN9dt1FrC0)

---------------------------------

(During the Mastermind trial...)

The Fancy One/Mastermind: (answering the Survivor's plees about their motivations) I’m not a comic book villain. Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome?~★

The Fancy One/Mastermind: (looking back in regret at Myth exposing them) I triggered it 35 minutes ago.~★

Source: Watchmen

Video Source: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5g3tUrBvPo)

---------------------------------

As always, I hope you enjoy what I've created for all of you! Be sure to stay tuned for more content by yours truly!

-Fusion Anon

#submission #great as always! #anon #fusion anon #incorrect quote #fusion anon ii #purple anon #iris anon #just anon #eldritch anon #dream anon #curious anon #sparkling anon #egg anon #wet sock anon #anon nerd #anon scar #my evil twin #anon kg

[friendandphoe]

/sliding back onto tumblr like what up new year new name new pronouns new movie house

anyway hi y’all it’s ya boy Phoenix back at it again with the donexa brainrot pls enjoy @ahbonjour @museumlad @creativeskull95

There are days — plenty of them — when the distant disbelief doesn't quite fade from Alexa's eyes. She stares around their apartment like she doesn't recognize the furniture she'd spent agonizing hours choosing, her photo prints they'd painstakingly hung in straight rows with their award certificates neatly organized into a binder on the bookshelf, the four to seven stained coffee cups that perpetually clutter her work desk. She's withdrawn and snappy and eager to start a fight at any given opportunity, and the only touch she'll accept from him is rough and unyielding. She taunts him the whole way through, goading him to tug her sharper, press harder, use her until he's satisfied without sparing her a second thought. "Because then I know I'm at least good for something," she'd explained the morning after that first rough night, crunching away on a dry handful of Fruit Loops like it didn't break his heart to hear how little she thinks of herself.

But there are days — more and more frequent now, and Donnie's so fucking grateful for it — when she gives him an earbud to pass judgement on her latest editing project; when she wraps her arms around his waist and clings to him while he's cooking dinner; when he can hear her laughing from the couch because she's FaceTiming David and the motherfucker is funny. Sometimes she hangs out in the hallway for an extra twenty minutes, chatting with the neighbors about mindless shit even though she's got groceries that need to be put away. She's been loudly declaring that their next bathroom cannot and will not be so goddamn small, which makes his heart sing in all the best ways possible because it means she's thinking of the future — of their future, together. He'll come back from work to find her in the middle of a pile of their friends because she felt lonely. And there are days when she stays in bed an extra hour and tugs him close to her any time he makes a move like he wants to get out, whispering into his collarbone that she's not okay, can he please just hold her a little while longer. He picks up his ringing cell phone and it'll be Jaimey on the other end, asking how they've been and what's new. Alexa holds his hand the whole time they're grocery shopping these days, even when she's scolding him for sneaking in snacks they both hate just because he knows it'll get a rise out of her. And more often than not now, he's allowed to love her softly, sweetly, reverently, the way he wants to — the way she deserves.

"Lacey says it's never going to fully go away," Alexa had told him in the dairy aisle during a late-night grocery run, staring hard at the Greek yogurt like it held the secrets to finally uprooting her deep-seated assumption that one day, they're all going to get tired of her and leave her behind like everyone else in her life did.

He'd kissed her cheek, let her flinch away from him, because that had been a bad day and he'd known even then it was less about him and more about the poisonous fog in his girlfriend's head. "Yeah, well, neither am I." He'd promised, because even when she'd turned to snap that he doesn't fucking know that, don't say stupid shit, he knew he was in it for the long haul.

"Hey," he says now, almost two full years later, and drops a kiss on her bare shoulder.

She shifts ever so slightly underneath him, exhausted and nearly cross-eyed from everything he's done to her, because tonight was a soft, sad night and he wasn't about to focus on anything besides making sure she knew she was loved and wanted, but she still manages the tiniest of smiles for him. "Hey."

Fuck, he can feel his own smile, stupidly fond, stretching across his cheeks, wide enough to hurt in the best possible way. He is so soft for this girl. "I love you so much."

And her cheeks flush dark again, but she hums in acknowledgement and tugs gently on a loc. "I love you," she says, and starts crying.

"Oh, babe —" he says, grin fading, and he reaches down to cup her face, kiss away the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just — it's hard to believe this is real sometimes, you know?" She traces over the lines she'd scratched into his shoulders, and he says nothing because yeah, fuck, he knows. This long in the game, he knows. "I didn't ever think I would get this."

He kisses the scars twisting across her cheek. "Hey, love, you got it."

And despite everything, despite the slow, sweet night and the progress she'd made even since they first met, Alexa makes a low, frustrated noise in the back of her throat. "Yeah, but — how long."

It's not a question, it never is, but Donnie has a solution. "You wanna List, baby?"

"Fuck. Maybe."

"Okay." He rolls onto his back, pulls her up on top of him so they're pressed chest-to-chest, and trails his fingers down her spine, grounding her as best he can. "Your last project went really well. Your clients loved it. They recommended you to a bunch of their friends and now you're booked all the way through for the next six months. And they sent you a really nice bonus."

She sniffs. "Yeah, they did."

He snakes his hands under her thighs and pulls her up a little higher. She automatically tucks her head under his chin, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head in response. "Lacey said you've been managing your spirals really well. And Jaimey called earlier, wants us to come over for dinner next week."

She hums, tracing circles into his bicep.

Donnie drops his voice to a low rumble. "Toby misses you. She asked me to find out your schedule so she can take you for breakfast soon. David texted you this morning to tell you about some cool gardens he thinks you'll like. Mags is making us mugs with dicks etched on them because they know you think it's funny."

"It is funny," Alexa insists, too exhausted to properly argue, and he huffs out a laugh.

"Yeah, but the point is, you're stuck with us," Donnie says, and blows a raspberry against her hairline to make her laugh. "You've got a whole crew who loves you so fucking much, baby, you're never getting rid of us. Remember how we all fell apart when you flew out to Colorado for that wedding shoot?"

Alexa presses a grin into his collarbone. "I was gone for a week. Less."

"Yeah, and we need you." He scratches at the shaved side of her head with one hand, wrapping the other securely around her waist. "You're funny and smart and a complete enabler as long as you think it won't kill us. You've punched people in the face for messing up Ethan's pronouns. With your bad hand. You're the first person Lark tells anything to. Fox does literally anything you ask him to, I think you're second only to Mags for him. My parents absolutely adore you, they ask about you all the time."

She groans fondly, smacking his shoulder with no real strength behind it, and when she speaks, her voice is much lighter. "Okay, okay, I get it."

But Donnie keeps going, because apparently he's not quite done yet: "I wanna marry you."

Alexa goes completely still on his chest, matching his frozen heartbeat, then peels herself up to stare him right in the eye. "What?"

He closes his eyes, throws his head back in the pillows, and groans deeply. Fuck, okay, it's not like they've never talked about the future before, he's always talked like they're staying together forever and she's been sending him house listings for the past three months, but — "I wasn't supposed to say that. Forget I said anything for the next month."

She smacks him on the shoulder again, and this time it stings a little. "Next month! Donnie!"

"That night market you like opens next month!" He argues, gently shoving at her head. She goes without protest, staring at him the whole time. "Don't look at me right now, oh my god."

"Next month." She repeats, and that might be a shocked smile ghosting her lips. "You want me to wait a whole month?"

"Yeah? I have a plan, I have a whole speech, it's gonna be cute as shit!" Or it would be, if he wasn't weak and incapable of keeping any kind of secret in the wake of Alexa's sad face. "Stop making me talk about it!"

No regerts, says the tattoo on his hip. Maybe some regerts.

"Tell me everything." Alexa breathes, and she's definitely grinning now.

Donnie, meanwhile, is scowling. "Absolutely not. I'm not — I put so much effort into this, I'm not — fuck outta here with your puppy-dog-eye bullshit, you're not getting anything out of me."

"I'll ask David," she threatens, making no effort to move. He doesn't know where her phone is right now, and she doesn't even have her prosthetic on, but he tugs her back down against his chest anyway. "I bet you made a whole group chat to plan it all out."

He raises his eyes to the ceiling. "The fuck I didn't," he says, because it's technically true, but he had absolutely considered it, and he kind of hates that she knows him well enough to guess that. "I cannot believe you're razzing me about this. I'm returning the ring tomorrow morning."

She jolts up and smacks him on the shoulder again. "You have a ring!"

"Oh my god, shut up," he groans, but there's no heat behind it. "What, what's with that face?"

Because Alexa's brow has furrowed over her eyes, and there's a peculiar mix of confusion and concern pressing her lips thin. "I don't — I don't know if I can wear a ring." She says uncertainly, looking at where her left hand is resting on his chest.

"You've got enough of the finger left for rings to go," Donnie points out, because obviously he's thought about this. "And if you can't, or don't want to, you could just wear it on your middle finger, I don't care. But —" because she's opened her mouth to say something. "You like the symbolism of the ring finger, so I did get a chain to go with the ring just in case, 'cause I know you think wedding rings on a necklace is cute. And it would work, so."

She stares at him for a moment, then covers her face, and for the second time tonight his heartbeat stutters, because, fuck, maybe they're out of sync on this one, maybe he's been reading her wrong, maybe it's not time yet or she doesn't want to or never wants to. But she only scrubs at her newly-teary eyes and smiles shy and fragile at him. "You — you really want to." She whispers, and Donnie remembers Truth or Dare on New Year's Eve back in college so fuckin' clearly.

It'd be nice, she'd said, tiny and hollow, resigned to the idea that it was never going to happen. If someone loved me like that.

He breathes deep and forces himself to hold her gaze, trying desperately not to show how nervous he is. "I — fuck, Aleja, I wanna marry you so fucking bad. You're — you're my best friend, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, you make me so stupid in all the best possible ways, I'm —" and he's dipping dangerously close to just reciting his whole damn speech to her right now, but Alexa's shining in the dark, lips curling ever-so-slightly as she looks at him, and fuck him, he's so soft for this girl. He stops, makes sure he's not about to burst into tears, then says: "I'm so fucking in love with you. Of course I want to marry you. If — if you want to."

She collapses back into the crook of his neck, and he pretends not to notice the way she's trembling. "I do," she says, so softly that he would have missed it if her mouth hadn't been right up against his shoulder.

Something in his chest bursts. "Yeah?" He asks, breathless, and he can feel her smiling.

"Yeah." And she twines their left hands together, five against three. "As if I'd say no."

He chokes out a relieved chuckle, squeezing her hand. "You could do better." He admits, dipping his tone just enough that it could be a joke, if they both want it to be one.

But Alexa doesn't rise to the bait, and he loves her. "No I couldn't. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, too."

And yeah, objectively he knows he's been good for her, but hearing it out loud never fails to make him all mushy. "I'm gonna marry the shit outta you, I can't wait," he murmurs into her hair.

"I mean, we can just make it official now," Alexa says innocently, and Donnie's fond smile immediately drops back to a scowl.

"But my plans," he whines, drawing it out just to make her laugh, and she does, which is great, but it doesn't deter her from pushing herself back up to look him in the eye again.

"I can't wait for the plan," she says sincerely, cupping his face in her palm. "I'm not saying get rid of the plan. I'm saying, technically, you already asked and I already said yes." And because she can tell by the look on his face that he's not fully convinced yet, she adds: "I've got three big project deadlines coming up in the next couple weeks anyway, I'm going to immediately forget everything you tell me."

He snorts. "No you won't."

"No I won't." She agrees, giggling. "But consider that the love of my life just told me he wants to marry me, then told me he wants me to wait a whole month, and I am very impatient."

Donnie pokes her on the tip of her nose. "You're so lucky you're cute. Get off me for a second, I'm gonna Beyoncé you real quick."

She snorts. "Bitched about your plan for so long and then you crumble anyway," she mutters, but she obligingly rolls off him and lets him scramble to the closet and fish the little velvet box out of the left half of Alexa's newest pair of sneakers.

"You're not keeping it," he warns, making his way back over to their bed. "This is, like. Mini proposal. Trial run. Beta testing."

She wrinkles her nose at him. "Put your dick away, then."

He just wiggles at her and flops hard back into bed, only avoiding crashing into her because she laughs, cries, "Donnie!" and throws herself back. It's hard to say who reaches for the other first, but she's got him in a headlock in the blink of an eye and he's pinching her hips and thighs because she banned him from retaliation licking her seven months ago. "Ow, ow, knock it off," she grumbles, but she's still giggling when she shoves him into the pillows. "You're so stupid, I can't believe I have to marry you."

"Haven't properly asked yet," he says cheerily. "You can say no."

"No, fuck off, I'm gonna." Is the immediate answer, and he pulls her down into the pillows next to him, blowing one last raspberry right on her cheek for good measure. "Ugh, nevermind, get out of my house."

"My twelve-step plan to seduce Fox into running away with me," he jokes, and opens the box.

"Oh," Alexa breathes, eyes wide in the dark, and Donnie's never felt more accomplished in his life. "Oh, Don—"

"Good choice?" He asks, just to preen a little bit, and she makes a noise that's just as much a laugh as it is a sob.

"Yes, oh my god, can I—" and she takes the box, bringing it up closer to her face to examine the teardrop-cut opal, the two crystals on either side, the matching band that nestles under the wide end of the gem, fanning out with more crystals in a pleasing semi-circle. "Oh, it's so thin!"

He'd purposely kept the bands plain and small, just to be extra sure the ring would actually fit on the little nub of Alexa's finger, and hearing her pleased coo does something good to the anxious knot in his chest. "Do you want to try it on?"

She looks up at him through watery lashes, a smirk teasing across her lips. "Sure that won't mess with your plan?"

He sticks his tongue out at her, just to make her giggle. "Trial run. Beta test. File name final-project-one. I can go get it fixed for the actual thing if it doesn't fit you."

Reader, it fits perfectly.

"Fuck yes, I am the king of the universe!" Donnie crows triumphantly, lifting one pointed leg towards the ceiling in victory. "Can't say shit to me for the rest of the week, babe."

"Wasn't planning on it," Alexa laughs, admiring the glittering gems on her finger. "Oh, I really love it." She says, suddenly choked, and Donnie rolls over to gather her up in his arms. "We're gonna get married."

He kisses the side of her head. "Yeah," he murmurs, trying (and failing) to stomp down his own tears. "Yeah, we are."

Alexa tucks herself into his chest and says: "Good luck trying to get the ring back, fucker."

"What — no, wait, my plan—" and they dissolve, wrestling and giggling like giddy little kids.

(The next month looks like this:

Donnie will manage to steal the ring back when Alexa's washing her hair a few days later. He will hide it on the top shelf of their kitchen pantry, where Alexa's five-foot-two ass will not be able to see it, let alone reach it. Alexa will grumble for thirteen hours before succumbing to the stress of her aforementioned projects. Life will continue as normal for another thirty-seven days; Donnie will go to work, to rehearsals and costume fittings and performances, and come home to Alexa hunched over her desk with her ninth coffee cup in her hands. He will drag her away from the screen whenever he will think she needs a break. They will go on walks in the park, on coffee shop dates, back to bed to both sleep together and just sleep. Their friends will flit in and out of their apartment like normal; Mags and Toby will stop by for brunch and dick mugs, David will stay the night whenever Donnie and Ethan are going to get stuck at the theater, Lark will call with reminders to eat and drink and offers to drop off leftover food. Donnie will take Alexa to her favorite night market four separate times once it opens up, and he's going to laugh and tease any time she will stare at him suspiciously. They'll take a day off to drive out to Jaimey and Juno's house for dinner, and Jaimey and Alexa will be laughing and teasing each other like normal siblings, and Juno and Donnie will exchange fond, relieved glances over their wine glasses. They're going to make plans to have dinner again next month.

Donnie's last show will close the day before Alexa will submit her final project; he will invite the whole crew over to their apartment for movies, food, and games in celebration. At nine-fourteen, Alexa will excitedly yell that it's snowing, can they please go outside so she can take some pictures, and everyone will tease her for immediately jumping into a new project but no one will say no. Donnie will slip the ring into his pocket just before they all head out and will follow his family through the streets as they will follow Alexa's meandering, aesthetically-driven path. He will stop and pose every time Alexa tells him to, and will goof off with Mags and David whenever the lens isn't pointed at any of them. He will try and sometimes succeed in making Lark laugh when she's trying to be a good model and will sign shit with Toby whenever Fox's back is turned. He will gently steer the group towards the night market, and luckily for him Alexa will light up the minute she will realize how close they are, and she's going to drag them all the rest of the way there.

The night market this year is really going to be an artisan's paradise; all the vendors will pull out their biggest and best, and the group will ooh and aah over all the hand-worked leather bags, the delicate wire jewelry, the carefully curated antiques, the second hand books and clothes. Ethan will pick up a couple of scented candles and Fox will buy them all hot cocoa and cookies from one of the bakery stalls, then will grumble that it's just a bribe to get them all to stop being so loud and obnoxious in public, Jesus fucking Christ. This, of course, will not work, and will only fuel their obnoxiousness further. No one will notice because the night market has always been like this, and there will be plenty of kids and teenagers and adults alike running around fulfilling their own personal agendas of chaos. Alexa will take an excellent video of Fox getting pulled into the tangled mess of Lark, David, and Mags, each with cookie crumbs on their faces, loudly whining that he doesn't love them anymore and what'll they do about the kids and the mortgage.

At ten-forty-six, Alexa will be forced to hand her camera off to Ethan, who will insist she needs to be in the photos too, and it will spur a whole new onslaught of goofing off. The snow is going to come down a little heavier, promising a proper snowstorm once it really gets going, but they're going to stay out at late as possible before it starts getting bad because they'll be right in the crossroads of all of Alexa's favorite times and weathers, and after the month she will have had, they won't be able to say no to her.

At eleven-o-three, Alexa will start wincing at every other step. Donnie will lift her up around her waist to pull her away from the group; she'll laugh and cackle and shriek at him, but will go happily enough when he's going to lead her towards the gazebo. It'll be beautifully decked out in hanging lights and evergreen garlands, and it'll provide a welcome break from both the snow and the walking. They'll sit on one of the benches inside and watch their friends goofing off outside; Alexa will brush snow from the top of Donnie's hair, and he'll tease her about some small comment she will have made a few minutes before. They'll shove at each other in a mock-fight for a minute or two before dissolving into shrieking, sobbing laughter, and Alexa will grin wide and bright at him and murmur that she loves him so much.

At eleven-eleven, Donnie will slide off the bench and onto one knee. He'll tell her that he loves her, that he feels so lucky to get to know her and love her, that he wants to make her smile like this for the rest of their lives. Alexa will be stunned for about two seconds because she really will have forgotten about his plan, and they'll both laugh and cry (only a little, this time) and he'll slip the opal ring back where it belongs on her finger. They'll kiss, soft and sweet, and their friends will surround the gazebo almost immediately, summoned by the PDA. The hooting and catcalling will startle them out of their reverie, and they'll laugh their way out of the gazebo and back out into the strengthening snowfall. They'll all decide it's probably a good idea to head back, especially considering the market will have been closing up for the past ten minutes, and they'll take the more direct route back to Donnie and Alexa's apartment in an unspoken agreement of a sleepover. Fox will swing Alexa up on his back when she'll stumble over a snowbank, and Donnie will teasingly beg Ethan to carry him, too.

David will be the first one to notice the ring, back at the apartment when he and Alexa will be gathering up blankets and pillows to pad out their fort in the living room, and he'll yell out "when the hell" loud enough that the rest of the group will come running. The rest of the night will be a blur of yelled congratulations and a few tears shed here and there, and exhaustion will overtake them one by one, starting with Ethan around twelve-twenty.

Donnie will fall asleep sometime past one-thirty. His head will be cushioned in Alexa's lap, his legs flung out over David's, and Fox's rumbling snores will echo somewhere to his left. The last thing he'll see before fully falling asleep will be the sparkling glint of the ring on Alexa's finger as she signs to Toby, and the last thing he'll hear is Alexa murmuring into Jaimey's voicemail that she's "getting married, Jay."

And he’ll be so, so fuckin’ soft for his girl.)

#i forgot how terrible tumblr was about copy paste fuck #anyway if ive got a potty mouth so does everyone else i dont make the rules #hi i missed movie house and my movie house crew so fuckin much how have yall been doing #im not dead ive just been having gender crises and making friends and storylines on tiktok and also being depressed #anyway 2020 was a fuckin shitshow and sometimes you need to write your favorite ocs getting engaged to cure your sadness #ive had movie house brainrot so fuckin bad lately ive been writing s o m u c h #ive had Many Thoughts And Ideas And Revamps #as hinted at above #so i. might start posting here again. movie house only zone #anyway big smorch for yall it is now 1 am and im going tf to bED #movie house #alejandra ochoa #alexa darmond #donnie frasier #ahbonjour #museumlad #creativeskull #writing #shut up phoenix #((except not actually shut up i will infodump and you will enjoy it >:[ ))

[tofumedic]

Interacting w/ Levi (GN!MC)

summary: levi stops masking how he acts when hes with you as he gets more comfortable and learning youre his henry and therefore safe. this mainly surrounding just levi and his actions

(alt. i am promoting autistic leviathan agenda ive claimed him n also so did u just in a general way when u made the pact as in hes urs now<3)

Levi didn't mean to at first but he infodumps to you, you just hinted about something he liked like TSL and he was gone.

Since it is at the beginning of you two interacting probably pre-pact he back pedals even when you try to ask questions to promote his behavior, to let him know it's okay

He's been through a lot, not being given the time of day before he doesn't trust you wanting to know more so he will quiz you

If you don't know the answer then he is quick to shut you out again, strike one of being vulnerable but..

If you get something right? Or say you're not sure and ask him to repeat saying you understood key words yet not understanding others, he's embarrassed

There will be no in-between

He can't believe that you actually listened? Why would you do that are you planning to get close to him for something? Some long term prank? He's suspicious, picking at small scabs or at his nails.

However in that scenario, he will do his best to continue and go over parts he rushed over in his mouth trying to keep up with his brain so excited at the prospect. Now it is stumbling and stuttered being melted down in language with small "uh" or "ums"

A way to help him feel safer or more comfortable talking so much about his own interests and things that are only really important to him without him feeling guilty is to let him know about stuff you like too, he tries to mirror you and ask questions too or relating it to something he knows

He will look it up when you're not around or even during conversation, too nervous to look at you while you're happily talking about your own interests, wanting to see a creature you're talking about or help find this lore bit you couldn't remember the words to

He starts remembering about yours, always seeking out to find stuff you'll like as a gift or to see as a post

Levi also has anxiety tics, he doesn't like going outside in crowded venues or stores because he doesn't want to "get a chill" and have another demon just give him that look

Help him be comfortable about it, not asking or doting on it. He wants to be normal but if you do ask as they get more frequent he would most likely enjoy calling it something else so he doesn't feel that negative tie to the phrases he's received in schooling or from his brothers

"Levi, are you glitching again?"

"Just some lag, I'm okay, sorry"

He does have some verbal ones like different small disgruntled noises or phrases, you'll get them sometimes when you reach to touch him and he's not ready and is quick to apologize and urge you to continue he doesn't want to chase you away unless he actually needs the space

More excitable maybe on late night calls while he's gaming he will get tics often after getting really happy, these he doesn't apologize for but still brushes off. They may be his favorite purely due to the relation of how they're triggered

Oh and his stims???????

He is so excited to have your company, hands shaking or when you call his name or give him praise?

Something about one of his main sources of happiness being happy at him? He stomps, not aggressively or rude but quiet and rushed settling his feet down quick

You made a funny joke or laugh- like genuinely completely and fully laugh at one of his jokes? He will do a small spin in his spot if he's standing up, he can't quite express otherwise his joy!

He would also have the small stress plushies that come in mystery boxes or figures close by that have a nice texture he loves the grooves of this one Ruri-chan's petticoat? It's his favorite

He likes small things as comfort objects, sometimes losing them but unable to focus until they've been found and made safe

He has this bracelet from you that has beads and is themed in the colors of Henry (yours being themed in the Lord of Shadow's) and he wears it all the time except in the shower or doing chores, he doesn't want to ruin it but it keeps him safe just like his headphones

He hates some textures, passionately. It makes him worried to go on dates with you to get stuff to eat even if you're ordering to eat in his room, he wants to try new stuff or stuff you like but he doesn't want to be rude if he has to spit it out

And personally??? Just looks like the kind of person to hate the sound of paper tearing and when kids would scratch the plastic 3D material on books that made the images move? Also not a fan of feeling of windbreaker materials for clothing for example? It's detestable, it's "extremely unfair" that the new merch for Underwatch is a cosplay jacket of his main but in that texture >:/

#im sorry if these seemed rushed or have misspellings im dying my hair rn aa;; #i just project a lot #obey me leviathan #obey me levi #obey me levi x mc #obey me levi x reader #obey me imagines #obey me headcanons #tofus blurbs! #send me asks about this or msg me and i will tell you about what personal experiences fueled these #like seriously #for realsies even

[melon-boyy]

👀 oc you ship with melon? :3c /tell me more/

First of all I love you?? My OCs are my biggest special interest and I consider them my most favorite hobby, but I almost never get anyone who's interested in hearing about them so I cherish these rare moments so so much 💞💞💞

Get ready for a serotonin-boosted infodump because I am autistic and I Do Not Shut Up 💖

Her name is Ajima and she's an ugly bitch who I love very much. She has a toyhouse with a more detailed bio! I use toyhouse mainly for storage and not to share publicly so it's not THAT prettied up but it's actually one of my better ones bc I love her a lot

Ajima is a mutt, as in dog hybrid of a chinese crested, pitbull and schnauzer. My headcanon is that dog hybrids aren't quite as unaccepted by society as hybrids between fully different species, as they're still dogs at least. However crossing anything with a chinese crested was a bad idea regardless.

She's a mostly-hairless dog with the muscular built of a pitbull, the moustache of a schnauzer and patches of coarse fur that really only make it worse rather than save it. (We're going by animal human standards, not human ones. You know the "hair" is definitely not pretty to them)

Ajima is a lil bastard who works at a small club near the black market as a sex worker and dominatrix, specializing in pain play (hehe). She may not be much to look at, but she has low predatory instincts due to being a full dog, which enables her to indulge in more dangerous kinks with herbivores without endangering them. To her, it's a form of venting, as she's been mistreated all her life, so she enjoys to, in a way, enact revenge through this, but without it being too illegal. She loves to be in control, but she doesn't want to actually hurt or even kill anyone (beyond consent, that is).

Her mother was a pureblood fashion model who hated her daughter for being a stain on the bloodline (even though she's the one who thought it was a good idea to fuck a pitbull) so Aji grew up being on countless medications and unapproved trials to promote fur growth, and was often shaved down to at least look even, as well as forced to cover up with clothing. She moved out from home as a teen and has since cut all contact with her mother, and does the exact opposite: loves revealing clothes, out of pure spite. She hates her body, and knows she's ugly, but goddammit she's gonna make it everyone else's problem.

While she lives near the black market and regularily eats meat, she's never killed anyone and doesn't plan to - she doesn't have the instincts so there's really no point, meat is much easier bought. She couldn't care less about other people's crimes though. She prefers to not make a scene, but if anyone else wants to go on a killing spree, that's their business. She really doesn't give a shit.

As far as the roleplay I'm in with her goes, we're currently about 38000 words in and still on day one, so it's definitely going very well!! Basically, Ajima and Melon first meet at the tattoo parlor when he's getting another leaf added to the collection. Aji just hears the screams and goes over to see what the fuck is going on, and they see each other and promptly begin to verbally tear each other down. Except they both kind of see it as fairly enjoyable banter, because they can both dish out equally well and don't actually get their feelings hurt that quickly. They both chose equal amounts of violence that day and in a really weird way it's compatible.

Fast forward a couple days and they run into each other by pure chance while out and about, and against better judgement somehow wind up hanging out for a bit. It's fun for half an hour or so. Then people start dying because Melon is still Melon. Ajima almost gets murdered when he's had enough of socializing, but instead of running like a normal person she follows Melon to his job and becomes a therapy dog for a day. An elephant also dies. Somehow they consider this bonding. He also certainly does not hate her job.

Basically, it's realistic levels of fucked up because writing him out of character would just be boring. But they're gonna end up together at some point. Probably. No one is getting magically healed through the power of love though. We die like men.

#we lovingly refer to Aji as Melon's emotional support dog #the relationship hasn't developed very far yet but i love them so much #in my head it's all planned out in sixty different ways lmao #also for the record i held back here a LOT i could write a whole essay about my baby #i have a million more ocs too #but ajima is my favorite for this fandom #i got tired of pretty ocs with snatched waists so i just thought 'what's the ugliest i can come up with' #and this is the result #beastars #beastars oc #ajima chiba

[fictionadventurer]

@lady-merian, Well, now you’ve made me curious. How does each chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe end? I’m going to use the same categories I used to classify the Hunger Games chapters, but there are a few things that alter how these endings function in this book.

Genre: This is a portal fantasy, not an action-adventure book. To borrow terminology from Orson Scott Card, this is a Milieu story rather than an Event Story. The tension comes as much from exploring a new world as from navigating a plot, so a lot of the revelations and narrative changes aren’t going to be as dramatic or devastating as they might be in a more intense narrative.

POV: Rather than a first-person narrator, this book has an omniscient narrator who can show us things that the main characters don’t know about. This means that chapter endings are classified by how they function for the reader rather than the characters, since we know things that the characters don’t know.

The Categories

Bombshell: A surprise event or revelation occurs that’s outside the characters’ control. We want to turn the page to see the fallout from it.

Cliffhanger: Something is about to happen or be revealed, but we’re not sure what it is yet. We turn the page in the hope of learning this new information.

Tension-builder: We’ve just learned some new information that  makes the situation more difficult or stressful.. It’s sort of a long-term cliffhanger--we know this is going to have an effect on the story, but not necessarily at the beginning of the next chapter.

Initiative: Characters are about to or have done something to take action.

Resolution: Main conflict of the chapter has been successfully resolved.

The Chapters

Chapter 1: Lucy has just entered Narnia and seen a faun. The faun is startled by her and drops his packages. Bombshell.

Chapter 2: Lucy comes back to the spare room and announces to everyone that she’s alright. Resolution.

Chapter 3: The witch demands to know what Edmund is. Edmund says he doesn’t know what she means, and says he’s at school, but it’s the holidays now. It’s a very odd place to end a chapter, since the next chapter picks up with the same argument, and this is the second time that the Witch has asked what Edmund is.  I’ll call it a Cliffhanger, since we’re waiting to find out what the Witch means by asking “what” Edmund is.

Chapter 4: Edmund and Lucy are going back to the wardrobe. Edmund feels sick knowing that his siblings are on the side of the animals and he’s sympathetic to the witch. Lucy says, “What fun we shall have now that we’re all in it together.” A nice little bit of irony that serves as a Tension-builder.

Chapter 5: The four children hide in the wardrobe (and they don’t shut the door, because you never shut yourself in the wardrobe). Cliffhanger.

Chapter 6: Edmund and Peter argue if they can trust their guide, and Edmund points out that they don’t know the way to get back home. Bombshell.

Chapter 7: The children have just finished a meal with the Beavers and Mr. Beaver says it’s time to get down to business (and that the snow means no one will find tracks if someone’s trying to follow them). The gentlest form of Cliffhanger. We’re about to get an infodump, and we turn the page to learn the answers to questions, but it’s not a dramatic need-to-turn-the-page-now kind of tension.

Chapter 8: They’ve just found out that Edmund has gone to the White Witch, and the Beavers tell them they have to flee immediately. I’m going to call this a Bombshell, because Edmund’s defection is a huge surprise to the other three, and the announcement that they have to leave feels like an extension of that surprise.

Chapter 9: Edmund has just told the witch where his siblings are, and the witch orders her sled without bells to be prepared. Tension-builder.

Chapter 10: After everyone enjoys tea and sandwiches in the cave, Mr. Beaver tells them it’s time to move on. Initiative.

Chapter 11: The dwarf tells the White Witch that winter has been destroyed and it’s Aslan’s doing, and the Witch says anyone mentioning that name will be instantly killed. Tension-builder.

Chapter 12: Peter, still shaky after killing the Wolf, kneels before Aslan and is dubbed Wolf’s-Bane. “Whatever happens, never forget to clean your sword.”  Peter has just been prepared for the coming war. Initiative. 

Chapter 13: Aslan announces he’s made a deal and the Witch has renounced her claim on Edmund. When the Witch questions his promise, Aslan roars, and she flees for her life. Resolution.

Chapter 14: The children cover their eyes as Aslan is killed. Bombshell.

Chapter 15: Aslan brings the girls to the Witch’s home and they find themselves in a courtyard of statues. A resolution, because Aslan is alive, the journey’s over, and they’re safe, but as I’m reading it, it feels like a mild Cliffhanger, because we’re still curious about what Aslan’s going to do next.

Chapter 16: Aslan’s forces join the battle; Peter’s tired forces cheer, Aslan’s forces roar, and the enemy gibbers. Cliffhanger, since we’re not told how the battle goes, but an extremely joyful one, since it’s clear that circumstances are on the side of good. (And the first line of the next chapter tells us the battle was over in minutes). 

Chapter 17: “And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.” Resolution of the whole story, but with a tantalizing promise of more.

Observations

The children are pulled along by the narrative and make no decisions for themselves (at least in the chapter endings). Even in the two chapters that end in Initiative, other characters are telling the children what action to resolve upon: Mr. Beaver tells them to keep moving after tea and Aslan tells Peter to go forward in the fight. And in both cases, they’re just continuing actions that have already been happening: the flight from the Witch and the battle against the Witch’s forces. This is part of the function as a middle-grade portal fantasy. First off, they’re children, who usually need authority figures to tell them what to do. Second, the characters are just vehicles to explore the world; we don’t need to explore their struggles with finding the right course of action. We just need them to go along for the ride so we can see more of Narnia.

Only three chapters end with neat Resolutions: Lucy coming back from meeting Mr. Tumnus, Aslan sending the Witch fleeing in terror, and the very end of the book. The first one serves to set the tone: this is a place where you can go on wild, fantastical adventures, but don’t worry because you’ll get home safely in the end. (It’s like those two chapters are a miniature form of the entire book). The second one gives us a moment of triumph before the ultimate, heartbreaking defeat of the story’s lowest point. And the last one is there because the book has come to an end (though we do get imagination-firing sequel promises).

The tension-builders all relate to the villain’s wider plot. They all relate to Edmund, and two of them come when Edmund is with the Witch and separated from his siblings. This makes sense, because the villain’s plot is the only large-scale thing happening in this otherwise very immediate quest story. The story isn’t driven by tension between the characters (except the tension introduced by the Witch). It’s a very concrete “we need to go here and do this” kind of story, which provides more opportunities for the promises of immediate resolution that we get from cliffhangers and bombshells.

The cliffhangers are all very mild. It’s not “oh no, are they going to be okay?” It’s a much gentler, “I want to find out what happens next” or “I want to find out what’s going on.” We turn the page, not necessarily because we’re worried about the characters, but because we’re curious. This makes sense with the portal fantasy structure. The story is driven by that sense of wonder and curiosity.

The bombshells are the hardest-hitting moments of the story. And this story provides plenty of opportunities for them, since the children aren’t the ones driving the narrative. The four bombshells actually provide some of the turning points of the story according to Seven-Point Story Structure.

Plot Turn 1(The character’s world changes): Lucy discovers Narnia in the wardrobe

Pinch 1 (forces the characters to action): Learning that they don’t know the way home forces them to continue with the adventure, but the third bombshell is the actual pinch point that forces them to act, because Edmund’s defection is what them to flee from the Beavers’ home.

(Midpoint is Peter joining the battle after meeting Aslan)

Pinch 2 (lowest point): Aslan’s death

This function of the bombshells makes sense according to the demands of the structure. The midpoint occurs when the characters move from reacting to taking action, so it can’t come from a bombshell, but the Plot Turns and Pinches happen when the characters are faced with events that are outside of their control.

All this is fascinating to me, because we have an story where the main characters make almost no choices, yet the underlying structure is still present and still satisfying. The characters aren’t driving the story; they’re just swept up into it, yet it works because a portal fantasy is driven by wonder and curiosity. We’re the ones going on this adventure, swept up by the story with no control over where it goes, so the story functions best when the characters themselves lack that control. The story’s momentum comes not necessarily from life or death stakes, but by the readers’ curiosity to know what happens next or what’s around the next corner. And yet, because so much of the story is outside of the characters’ control, we have opportunities for bombshell revelations that provide the story structure. There are a couple of odd chapter endings, but Lewis knows what he’s doing, and can keep up the tension in a way that’s appropriate for the tone of the story. No wonder this book has become a classic.

#the chronicles of narnia #c.s. lewis #the lion the witch and the wardrobe #adventures in writing

[samatedeansbroccoli]

22-23 and 42-43 for the ff ask thing, due tomorrow, hand me your essay in person please

Sheeeshh tapping into my inability to shut up like that? You’re playing a dangerous game and I am here for it.

22. Favourite part about writing fanfiction?

Research! I will spend hours researching a fic before or somewhere in the middle simply to try and understand what I’m writing about. I have an addiction to accuracy, and no matter how many things I can make up in the story, I like it when there’s small attentions to detail that certain readers will pick up depending on how they’ve grown up (such as referencing back Soviet cartoons by naming Bell’s toys the cartoon character names). Plus, setting the story in a believable world helps the atmosphere.

23. Least favourite part about writing fanfiction?

Avoiding infodumping. How am I supposed to explain and entire war that half the people I write to without making them feel overwhelmed? There’s thousands of tricks to presenting things seamlessly, but part of it is a mental battle of “why can’t I assume this is common knowledge?” mixed in with the amount of time it takes to explain. This is actually why some fic I was supposed to start posting at the beginning of February still remains in draft status.

42. Something that makes you stop writing a fic?

Boredom and an outline. Boredom is probably obvious. I just don’t enjoy what I’m doing, I don’t care anymore. Outlines kill my motive because I feel like I’ve already written it and I don’t want to do it again.

43. Do you ever get emotional when writing?

Nope. That’s why many of the characters I write are about as emotionless as me, or have no empathy for others. Much of what I learn on writing emotions comes from finding a fic I like, copy and pasting what the characters do, then paraphrasing what the other author wrote until the two hardly resemble each other except for the core “they’re sad.”

I can make myself laugh if that counts, though. It’s my sense of humor, I get to choose the jokes.

#thebroccoliresponds #thanks Liz!

[crimeronan]

i wanna hear more about your headcanon of declan as autistic (no pressure! only if u want to)

oh ariana we’re really in it now

not all of these bullet points are specifically related to autism bc this just turned into a post about how fond i am of declan.  however.  autistic declan lynch rights here we go

speech

declanisms

really, keeping a list of action-based conversation starters to meet your goals that all sound like something a caricature of a high-level business executive would say... honey

memorizing clever turns of phrase and the cadence of storytelling

and refusing to ever use this love of language in public lest it make him vulnerable or ruin anything he’s built

having practiced regulating his vocal tone and inflection to make them both as normal and as free of personality as possible

being unable to modulate his vocal tone and inflection when he’s Not actively concentrating on regulating them - speaking impulsively from a place of upset, getting excited about things, etc

physicality

having also practiced his physicality to appear as unthreatening and unobtrusive as possible

mirroring strangers, casual acquaintances, criminal associates

actively schooling himself not to talk with his hands; natural storytelling comes with gesturing and physical involvement

having pleasant conversations and being pleasant to exist around while managing to have absolutely no friends

anxious stomachaches

nervous tics

refusing to allow himself comfortable clothing or a comfortable living space despite seeming to want these things

deciding he can have nice shoes, as a treat (doesn’t have anything to do with neurodivergence i just think it’s cute)

internal emotions

Everything Is Horrible, All The Time, But That’s Fine Because That’s Just How Life Is For Me And I’ve Accepted It

deeply unhappy, deeply bored, deeply exhausted, deeply terrified

given up on dreams and ambitions because they will never be accessible to someone like him (one of those things that in-narrative isn’t autism-related, but sure can be a hashtag relatable feel)

happiness, excitement, joy, any positive emotions are all “dangerous” because they represent a loss of control

zero to one hundred IMMEDIATELY in terms of anger, manic excitement, terror, misery, self-flagellation

constantly self-regulating, compartmentalizing, putting aside, and refusing to act on emotions despite feeling Incredibly Deeply

anxiety

obsessing, catastrophizing, making contingency plans, exploring bad outcomes, regretting past actions literally every single second of every day

aforementioned physical anxiety manifestations

resigned to ronan and matthew’s eventual deaths even when things are Mostly Okay

convinced that if and when something happens to ronan or matthew, it will be his fault

none of these things are autism-related specifically, there’s just something in his repetitive thoughts / methods of self-soothing / ways of internalizing trauma that's..... a feeling

child development

one of those kids who would have been called “precocious”

had developed a system for watching/protecting ronan and trying to convince ronan not to dream things by age five

specific interests in things deemed uninteresting or unimportant

didn’t engage in the same play behavior most kids his age would

got overwhelmed and cried over liking a gift too much

consciously aware of niall’s disdain for him, aurora’s ephemeral nature, and ronan’s dangerousness to himself at age five

some of these things are definitely exacerbated or fully caused by a childhood of emotional neglect and endangerment; autism reading integrates with this rather than replacing it.  i strongly feel declan would still have been a “precocious” child with a healthy happy parental upbringing as well

sense of responsibility

extremely stressed by any situation he can’t control

will attempt to control situations beyond his jurisdiction to minimize this

studies so many parenting books after technically becoming ronan and matthew’s caretaker because he has no frame of reference for parenting and does not trust his instincts

“if you want something done right, do it yourself” a life motto by declan lynch

“everything is my fault, all the time” a life motto by declan lynch

“except when it’s dad’s or ronan’s fault” a pretty fair addendum by declan lynch

mental stimulation

so unbelievably bored with his life situation

THRILLED any time he gets to play games or engage in clever conversation - seen a little in his “crime makes me feel alive” vibes, his back-and-forth banter with jordan

won’t let himself get engaged in things because passion feels unsafe

enjoys himself for about one hour of one single night and then immediately starts cracking to pieces about how living in a constant state of mental dissatisfaction is killing him slowly

somehow manages to be surprised by this turn of events

interests

he hides art he loves in a murder attic like a feral cat who refuses to eat in front of people. i don’t even need to get into this

absolutely immediately enchanted to the point of self-labeled stupidity by watching jordan paint

infodumping about art history

trading art interests with jordan bc he’s legitimately interested and excited by what she knows and feels passionate about

this entire post should just be the murder attic. declan oh my fucking god

aforementioned collecting of language he likes

the whole tyrian purple thing.  again.  declan oh my fucking god

emotional intimacy

craves emotional intimacy but is TERRIFIED of being known and/or being rejected

is convinced he can never and will never have emotional intimacy in his life

has all the stamina of a wet tissue in terms of keeping his emotional secrets when jordan cottons onto them

gets annoyed by relationships with people who want emotional connection but continues playacting through the motions of said relationships in the hopes of being less lonely

comforting people / expressing genuine care

declan attempted to dispense comfort.  “everybody dies, matthew”

i have to put attempted to dispense comfort on the list again.  oh my god.  to declan’s brain, emotional comfort is a vending machine that’s eaten ten dollars in a row and is now falling on him after he made the mistake of shaking it

declan regretted saying anything.  [immediately says the worst thing possible]

write your routine, ronan. now. now. write it. write it down. (because i’m worried you’re going to kill yourself but have no idea how to say that so i have to focus on concrete action.)

every time he’s tried to say “i’m worried about you” and instead gone “why are you inconveniencing me this way.” king

having no sense of how to communicate feelings or solve emotional conflicts through talking despite attempting to do these things frequently, AFTER STUDYING OUT OF BOOKS, to his detriment

preferring to take care of people silently and subtly through protecting them and making things easier for them, extremely similarly to how ronan does

irritability

constantly in a low level fugue state of annoyance

runs on caffeine and fumes

very thin patience for anyone else’s inability to stick to plans, manage time, regulate emotion, do their jobs, follow through on commitments, etc

the unceasing “i’m not unhappy. i’m not unhappy. i’m not unhappy” while at work screams of “i am in sensory/emotional hell all the time and checking slightly out of this plane to deal”

loses control all at once, when he does lose control

drains energy like a broken cellphone battery from the effort of combating misery, anxiety, mental overload, boredom, masking all thoughts and feelings

bonus content: parents

the actual in-universe reasons for these things aren’t related to neurodivergence as far as we know, but

growing up as the unfavored child whose interests are constantly ignored or shut down 

seeing your siblings get preferential treatment for no reason

being silenced or punished every time you express dissatisfaction or unhappiness or anger

being considered disposable

internalizing the idea that you’re a burden unless you’re worth something to others

that’s a real common lived realty for autistic ppl

bonus content: brothers

i read all three lynch brothers as being on the spectrum and all having different experiences with it

i read matthew as having had the inverse experience of declan, in which he flaps and stims and chews loudly and talks a mile a minute and expresses himself with excitement and passion and bouncing

& he has Not been punished for it or made to feel like it should be hidden

declan’s ferocious protectiveness of matthew is in many ways bc he wants to keep matthew from suffering the same way he has

differing autism spectrum experiences fit neatly into that

ronan and declan’s experiences are in some ways wildly different

in other ways, though

going zero to one hundred on the emotional spectrum, defaulting to anger to avoid fully feeling internal chaos, being unable to understand the other’s feelings or thought processes / making wildly incorrect conclusions about them, preferring to show feelings through action rather than words, struggling to translate genuine emotion into expression without coming across as a dick

they are Very Similar

declan and ronan do a lot of “dog growls at its own reflection” about this because neither of them is more furious than when they see their own perceived shortcomings in the other

i’m positive i’ve forgotten some things and also positive i have not communicated all of these thoughts as effectively as i would like but i have been typing this post for a thousand years.  here you go

#trc #cdth #declan lynch #i love my idiot son #suicide m #ableism - #Anonymous

[hanbereviews]

Tropes to Avoid: Mental Illness

The next trope to avoid is in the building! Today we’ll be focusing on the elephant in the room that much joseimuke and otome media refuses to address. Mental illness. 

As a snobby psych major in college and someone who struggles with it myself, I find that mental illness as a part of the plot can be interesting. It gives the character a multifaceted personality as well as informing us about what tangible things their lived experiences created. This can be something as simple as a character being clinically depressed due to a big moment in their past, or as complex as a character’s trauma shaping how they interact with others. But this is frequently mishandled to the point that it’s kind of comical.

Disclaimer here: I’m not saying the tropes I include in this list are exclusive to mental illness or even outright bad. It’s the times that the use of traumatic situations are meant to “explain” them that I snort and move on.

Now, speaking about mental illness in primarily japanese focused media is a bit tricky here. And I want to preemptively address the counterargument that I could be looking at it from a western lense. Ableism, much like other forms of discrimination, is everywhere. It just does not manifest in the same way. Of course Japan differs from the American viewpoint when it comes to mental illness, and I will touch in that when discussing the types of illnesses present in otome media. But that does not mean developers don’t have room for improvement, especially when there’s a wonderful amount of anime and manga out there that addresses mental illness and trauma in a healthy and sympathetic way. So this will follow a list of mental illness tropes I feel are handled awfully. 

1. The “psycho” yandere. 

Big disclaimer here to say I do enjoy myself a good yandere on some days. I find the personality type very outlandish and thus it doesn’t instantly register as harmful to me. Especially because there’s a lot of variation, following the heroine around like a puppy. Acting mean to everyone else but incredibly nice to her. There are actually a lot of ways to utilize this trope without dipping into any real mental illness explanations.

The problems come when there is an attempt to use a character’s trauma to explain his outlandish behavior. The yandere is usually a very polarizing character in otome because writers frequently take the things he does way too far to the point that it can get very uncomfortable for a lot of the audience. And the way it is justified is that he’s simply not a bad person because of a textwalled infodump about how bad he had it as a kid, or a teenager. 

It’s totally fine if whatever traumatic situation he’s in gives him certain issues with attachment or otherwise. But for some reason, especially in “darker” scenarios their immediate thought will be to have him hurt or violate the heroine in some fashion and explain it away with the fact he’s just like, super crazy and insane cause his mom hit him! It’s just ridiculous and I wish they’d stop doing it.

2. The split personality

Many of you may know this one so let me conjure up a familiar scenario.

The heroine meets a nice and sweet man, who tends to her every need and is in general just a good person. Their friendship or romantic relationship doesn’t have much conflict or road bumps because he’s agreeable and does everything right. Then, for some reason or another, it’s discovered he has a second personality that is typically the complete opposite of him. Some writers will characterize this personality as mean and aggressive, and position is as the antagonist in regards to the relationship. 

This is actually a really poor and oddly common representation of Dissociative Identity Disorder in otome and joseimuke media. I’m not going to fault anyone for not getting it 100% right, because it’s a very complex illness. But I feel like “main personality= Nice and sweet. Sub personality = Evil and wants to destroy and kill” gets boring after the 50th time. 

This is especially goofy when you consider that the “trigger” for the second personality to appear usually makes absolutely no sense. This is compounded with the fact that there will be little to no explanation for how the character developed this second personality, and the consistent “resolution” is that they just...Fuse together into one being. Except there is never a direct change to the main personality, so it’s like he’s just...Cured? 

3. The hypersexual character (tw for sexual assault) 

This is actually one of my favorite character types so it personally hurts me when the explanation for the way they are is so terribly mishandled and written. 

The hypersexual character is flirty, constantly makes innuendos, and is a little more ready to get handsy with the heroine than other men. The heroine may be anywhere from put off to consistently shutting down his incredibly forward advances because she just like many other people, wants to get to know him and not just have a one night stand.

This is totally harmless, and I actually am directly staring at “darker” otome VNs for this complete and utter mishandling of their character. In visual novels with darker topics, the hypersexual character is turned up to eleven here. Frequently displaying that he’ll use sex to get what he wants, perhaps trying to get the heroine in compromising situations. Basically it’s all that’s on his mind. Sometimes it manifests in really really uncomfortable H scenes.

And how do they explain it? Well, see, for some reason there’s this very pervasive backstory trope with these types of characters where writers will explain their heightened libido away as a symptom of them being sexually abused in their past. While this isn’t exactly a bad explanation, because it leads you to understand why the hypersexual character is the way he is. It’s written for shock factor most of the time. And usually the person who abuses them is so comically evil everywhere else that you never really get to feel anything but briefly grossed out.

Not to mention there’s an odd lack of character growth, of course it’s not expected for him to get over it immediately. But the heroine kind of just accepts he’s horny 24/7 and that’s it. 

I cannot stress this enough as I end this off. But again, none of these tropes are something bad that people shouldn’t write. It’s just that when writers are incorporating mental illness into the mix I expect a certain amount of research and respect put into it so I can properly extend my sympathies. Be realistic! 

#tropes to avoid

[moonlightreal]

Fate Episode One

At long last, it’s tiiiiiime!

First: whitewashing bad.  Fact acknowledged.  Everybody else has said everything on the subject (ad nauseum...) so no reason to say it all again!

I’m diving in with questions.  The main one is “Will there be a good reason for Musa to be a mind fairy rather than a music fairy?” Dunno why that’s what I’m wondering the most, but it is.  There’s also “Is Fate!Stella truly an unholy union of Stella and Diaspro?” and “so what makes them fairies not witches/psychics/mutants?” and “So what’s up with Beatrix?  We know nothing about her, and as an Umineko fan I’m favorably disposed towards witches named Beatrice!” and also “They’re not really having sex are they?!”

I’m going to try and approach Fate just like I do every season of the cartoon, ready to celebrate the good, snark at the bad, enjoy many headcanons, reference random stuff, and have a good time.  Pretending I haven’t had my fannish heart nigh to broken by the state of the fandom and that I’m worried I’ll get hate for even posting this.  I’m’a try to start from zero to find my own answer the really big question… “Good, bad, or totally irredeemable?”

So… In which we discover a new world.

We start with… a night scene.  Not promising when “too dark can’t see” is one of my pet peeves!  An old fella comes out to check on his cute Irish sheep.  He passes through the barrier, into the dangerous forest beyond to look for a missing sheep.  Yup, he’s gonna be guest victim in the first five minutes.

Oh no!  Something has disemboweled a sheep and left it hanging in a tree!  Clearly there are leopards in the magical realm!

There is a great roar and an unseen but very large-sounding beast chases our poor shepherd!  The guy trips and falls just as he’s about to get through the barrier and is set upon and devoured by the unseen beast!  Blood spatters the rocks!

Opening! It’s the wings we’ve sen and some really beautiful music.  One point for the music.

Then a gorgeous flying shot of the outside of the barrier and Alfea. Whatever the plot turns out to be, the outdoor setting is beautiful. Music that seems to be both pop and edgy plays as we zoom in on the logo on the gate, and there’s Bloom coming in the gate.

And there’s Terra with her father and a tray full of plants.

And there’s Aisha walking by with her dreads

And there’s Stella taking a selfie with other students.

And there’s Musa leaning on her suitcase, headphones on, looking at her phone.  Another girl says something to Musa and she turns and replies and smiles.

And there’s one of the guys twirling a knife.  I’ve heard Sky starts out in a pink shirt so this must be Riven.  The camera comes back to Bloom as she gives him a doubtful look.  In the novelization she’s mentally labeling him an edgelord, and that kinda fits.  Any dude showing off his willingness to twirl weapons at a high school probably is best avoided—except the dudes here are training to fight so the weapons rules must be different.  I wonder if Bloom knows yet that dudes with swords are normal here.

Bloom gets a text to meet Stella at the gate.  She waits.

Camera pan to Sky talking to another guy.  Sky looks… Sky-ish.  Chris Evans style handsome, blond.  I’d’ve made him grow his hair to mimic cartoon Sky’s silly shaggy haircut, but points for making Sky look like Sky!  Minus points for not dying Riven maroon.  They could’ve made it work!

Sky is indeed wearing a pink shirt.  In the novelization Bloom thinks he’s wearing it “because gender roles were for the weak” which is a line I think is funny and intend to use in a story somewhere. There is no obvious hint in the show that Sky thinks gender roles are for the weak

Bloom’s tired of waiting.  She heads off.  Sky ditches his buddy to go meet her.  “Wow, you are so lost.  I’m impressed with your confidence in the face of complete ignorance.  Issue is, you’re overcomitted. You’re essentially running.  And now that I’m here you can’t possibly give me the satisfaction of turning around.”  he says, all in one go.  

I can’t decide if that’s jerkish or charming.  Maybe Bloom shares my weakness for men with accents because she decides on charming.

Bloom says she’s a fairy, giggles because that’s something she never thought she’d say, they’re standing in the courtyard of a college for fairies, Bloom’s from California, not the Otherworld.  So we get all that established.  Sky is kinda charming here and points out the specialists’ hall and fairy hall.

Sky: “I’d be happy to-”

Bloom: “Mansplain it?”  

So the writing team does know some modern issues!  Bloom says Sky seems like a mansplainer, which seems like quite a leap since she is new and he is helping her, in a friendly-sarcastic kind of way.  She’s giggling, clearly charmed.

Then Riven comes up, and he’s like a foot shorter than Sky, and Bloom escapes for some reason so maybe she wasn’t enjoying the conversation as much as it looked? Or maybe it was just the plot needs to move along.  Riven glomp-hugs Sky.  He’s got a great accent too.

Bloom must’ve left because she saw Stella, they say hello.  Bloom says she got impatient waiting and Stella says, “How very American of you”  So American stereotypes are known in magical worlds also?    

So, Stella!  Blonde, tall, zero Stella vibe.  Accent. Long pale coat and a satiny top with big chunky pendant.  She gets to her ring quick, “Portal ring, the only thing that keeps me sane in this place is the ability to leave it.  Your world may not always be thrilling but it beats this one.  There are seven realms in the Otherworld, each a different kind of boring.”  All spoken in a jaded monotone.  Ugh, what have they done to our Stella!

The girls walk inside while Stella speaks, the school is pale stone and arches and plants.  Other students are arriving, hauling suitcases, hugging.  At least some of them seem happy to be here!

Cut to the globe!  and it’s a magical globe, the water moves and there are lil sailing ships!  But the lands are totally blank, so it’s a cheap magic globe Dowling didn’t pay enough for the one with tiny forests too.  Alfea is in the realm of Solaria.

Maybe they shouldn’t have made Ireland = Solaria.  I’ve only been to England but we did not see the sun the whole trip!  Bloom’s in Dowling’s really cool office.  She spins the globe but the camera pans away before we see the names of the other realms.  Bloom’s talking nervously about seeing people updating their insta stories, expecting Tinkerbells, and the lack of wings.

Dowling: “We had wings in the past.  As we’ve evolved, transformation magic has been lost.  Tink was an air fairy, you’re a fire fairy.”

Dowling says classes tomorrow, learn to use magic slowly but safely… we establish Bloom is here to learn to control her magic so she can go home and not keen on ‘slow.’  Dowling says, ‘trust the process’ which immediately makes me mistrust her.

Then she gives a great lil speech: “Alfea’s graduates have ruled realms and led armies.  They have forged powerful relics and rediscovered long lost relics.  They shape the otherworld.”

But Bloom just wants to get done and go home.  She says, ‘I'm here because you promised you’d teach me control.” and Dowling says, ‘no, you’re here because you knew you have no other choice.” and Bloom looks betrayed.

Yeah Dowling’s sus.  

Next scene: Bloom showing her dorm to her parents over video call!  How does that work between dimensions?  Her folks look nothing like Mika and Vanessa, dad’s got a beard and silver temples, mom’s got big blonde curls.  Neither of them have burn injuries or the sort of freaked out vibe I’d expect from folks whose house was just on fire.

Roommate pan-around!  Terra puts potted plants everywhere!  Stella preens at the vanity! Musa headphones-and-laptop but smiles at Terra.  Aisha comes in with her laundry bag.

Bloom’s parents get suspicious about the timezone thing, they think Bloom’s in the Alps, and Aisha comes and covers for her saying it’s time for lights out.

Aisha intro!  She is wearing a pink and brown checkered dress that’s not super fashionable or flattering.  I like her blue braids though. Aisha does not seem to have the accent that many Alfeans have.

Bloom explains the “human parents, fairy daughter, I must be a throwback to an ancestor” thing.  Aisha looks dubious.  Then they mention Harry Potter!

Bloom; ‘Ravenclaw, sometimes Slytherin.’

Aisha; ‘Explains the lies then.  Gryffindor.’

Bloom: ‘Explains the judgment.’

Congrats, you both were jerks in three short lines. 9_9  But they’re smiling so I guess it’s friendly sniping.  

Bloom goes to see Stella, who’s holding up sparkly tops to herself. She’s also got this weird rainbow skirt that looks like gymnastics clothes not real clothes.  Stella’s changing for the party because people have already seen her in her clothes.  Bloom asks confused, ‘People expect you to wear multiple outfits?’ and Stella comes back with, ‘people expect me to care how I look.” In the same jaded monotone.

Before Bloom can WTF outta there like a sensible person Stella snaps her fingers and creates a ball of light.  Bloom gapes, but not nearly as much as I feel like she should.  The magic is beautiful, it’s all rainbowy and sparkly.  Bloom just hesitantly asks, ‘Can I ask, how exactly you..?” and Stella shuts her down with an almost kind, “I’m a mentor, not a tutor.”

But she does give a little infodump.  “Fairy magic is tied to emotion. God thoughts, bad, hatred, fear, the stronger the emotion the stronger the magic.”

And Bloom says, ‘Do you hate me or fear me?  You were looking at me when you did that.  And I’m pretty sure you don’t love me.” Smart cookie, Bloom!  Points to you!  We know it’s because Bloom was talking to sky, and that gives Stellla some emotions.

And points to Stella, she thaws out her voice and talks like a real person, ‘I don’t know you.  I’m sure once I do I’ll find something to love.”  She sounds rather doubtful about the last bit but yay actual emotion!

Then Stella goes over to Terra for her intro scene and I cringe because the novelization did Terra dirty and I’m not keen to see it on screen.  But it works ok.  Stella gently calls Terra on the number of houseplants and says the secret garden was better kept secret, Terra responds that wasn’t really the message of the book, Stella looks at her with amused patience and leaves Musa and Terra to continue the scene.  And I decide if there’s no infodump about how earth and the Otherworld relate to each other in this show I shall be cross.

Then Terra chatters on about her family and how she grew up at Alfea since her dad works here (she’s holding a 100% fake plant) and drops that Stella is a second year.  Musa asks why a second-year is in a first-year suite and Terra says it’s some administrative thing probably best not to mention.  But Terra totally knows the secret.

Musa’s eyes glow purple.  Magic!  But we don’t hear what she hears.  She starts putting her headphones on.  Terra goes on to say they should all not mention it to Stella, then interrupts another headphones-attempt to offer Musa a succulent, “They’re low maintainence, perfect for you, not that I really know you...’

Musa: ‘If I take it will you stop talking?”

Terra visibly deflates and Musa apologizes and grabs the succulent before finally getting to escape into music.

Aisha leans in to ask Terra if Alfea has a pool.  It has a river and Aisha’s been swimming—twice a day every day!  Terra says no pool, just the pond where the specialists train but nobody swims there, at least not on purpose.

And we immediately cut out to the pond, which looks pretty mucky, I wouldn’t want to swim there either!  Two specialists, a boy and a girl, are whacking away at each other with wooden swords on the shore.  They’re all dressed in black pants and tank tops, very Divergent movie poster except with the Alfea logo on the front. There’s a bunch of specialists training all around the pond and one does indeed knock their opponent in with a splash!  But we home in on Sky and Riven and I cannot get over how short and skinny Riven is compared to Sky!  And the fact that I’ve just been rewatching Lord of the Rings and Riven doesn’t look 100% not like Dominic Monaghan… sorry Riven’s actor, I’m sure in future episodes I’ll stop thinking you’re a hobbit!

Anyway, Riven’s teasing Sky about his crush on Bloom, says Sky always goes for the crazy ones and all redheads are crazy.  Sky puts Riven on the mat and Riven says he was getting high all summer and not practicing. Before Sky can give him a “big brother speech” on that riven skedaddled because here comes the teacher with a different speech!

This show’s Codatorta, whose name is Silva and who looks very irish and I like him, does a little speech about how y’all gotta train, singles out a black guy I think is Dane and says, ‘even you will be able to fight like him.” and attacks Sky, who fights back.  They spar for a minute.

Infodump: “Sky’s father was Andreas of Eraklyon, that makes him a legacy.” Also, some of these kids are from families of specialists and some were selected by Silva based on their talent for combat and weaponry. “This place will seem like hell until actual hell comes.  We are the first line of defense, a certainty when the future is uncertain!’

Then Dane snickers about the whole ‘school full of kids with swords’ and Silva says it must be nice to be so ‘soft’ he can make fun. And Dane drops that the barrier exists ‘to protect the school from Burned Ones.”

As he says it, we cut to Sky going out through the barrier to smoke.  

Burned ones are gone.  But Silva saw one when he was a kid.  His father shot it but was killed by the Burned One’s poison.  Burned Ones are inhumanly strong and fast, and have a terrible poison, or disease that kills people who get away.

Sky looks over and sees the shepherd’s body.  Yikes!

Cut to the staff arriving to look at the remains.  Just three: Dowling, Codatorta, and Terra’s dad.  Is that the whole staff?  Who teaches? Could’ve been a wolf or a bear… Terra’s dad collects some gunk from the body and I think calls it “char residue.”

Dowling says, “She killed all the Burned Ones.”

She? This world’s Marion/Daphne, likely.

But the adults clean it up so the kids can party!  Our girls are gathered around the food, and they’re better dressed!  Aisha’s got her hair up and a blue hoodie, Musa’s got a little red coat.  Terra has not been blessed by the fashion fairy, she’s in some overalls it looks like, not flattering.  Terra is saying hopefully that maybe the shepherd died of old age and Musa’s ‘Yeah, that old age decapitation” is gentle ribbing not cruel.  

Aisha’s loading up a stack of cookies, says how much she eats and, ‘If I didn’t swim I’d be massive.” it’s not aimed at Terra , but Terra flinches.  Aisha heads off and Terra says something that boils down to, ‘Musa, you’re tuning out me in particular.” which, Terra you’ve known Musa for what, six hours?  Way too short a time to take it personal.  Musa says, ‘It’s a me thing, it’s not you.” and Terra just flusters and heads away.  Musa looks troubled but not sure what to do and puts her headphones on.

This is SO much better than in the book.  Not perfect, all the interactions between the girls have been very weird as if they’ve been given a script full of cruel catty lines and instructed to say them in a kind way, but at least they’ve tried for the vibe of “trying to be nice to people we don’t know yet and flubbing it” rather than “we are all terrible people” like I feared.

Terra meets her dad and tries to go to the greenhouse with him but he makes her stay to enjoy the party.

Cut to some grownup dude—Dowling’s secretary? Apparently searching for something in a desk that I presume is outside the headmistress’ office.

Beatrix… or possibly a gothed-up Bloom… comes to see Dowling and when told the headmistress isn’t in says, ‘I’ll just take a water, room temp, thanks love.’ and then when the door opens Beatrix greets Dowling with a simpering ‘I'm your biggest fan, I’m obsessed with Alfea...” and cascading apologies for swearing, with more swearing. Dowling and her secretary are as confused by this as I am but Dowling says Beatrix can study the history of Alfea in the library if she wants to.  I assume this is evil Beatrix slyly getting permission to hit the books.  Is Beatrix even a student at Alfea?

Cut to Bloom’s notebook, she’s already started taking notes about powers being linked to emotions, love hate and fear.  Great initiative Bloom, but are there no textbooks you could be reading ahead in?  

We get dumped back to a flashback: Bloom’s mom wants her to go out on a Saturday night, to a party or a movie or whatever teen thing.  All Bloom wants to do is go to antique sales apparently.  Bloom doesn’t want to be a “basic bitch” like her mom and her mom doesn’t want her daughter to be a “weird loner.”

Pause while I urban dictionary “basic bitch.”  Huh.  Not a term I ever heard in my circle of nerds.  

Bloom and her mom are awful to each other.  Back in the present Bloom’s eyes flame up as she remembers.  She decides it’s time to go experiment!  Right now!  Before even one day of magic class or one page of a textbook!  The idiot ball has entered play.

Night has fallen because of course it has.  Bloom runs into Sky at the party.  But she’s not looking to party, she’s looking for a place to be alone outside.  Sky directs her to beyond the barrier, because we’re about to have Plot.  If it weren’t for Plot I‘m sure Sky could’ve suggested a specialist workout area inside the barrier. Sky says there might be wolves or bears or “maybe something much scarier” and Bloom catches the idiot ball and says, ‘But no people?  Perfect!”

Sky offers to go with her but Bloom says no thanks in a “I think you may be flirting and I may be down for that in the future just not right now.” kind of a way.  Good character interaction!  Except Stella grabs Sky for a chat once Bloom heads out to meet the Plot.

Sky and Stella have an opaque exchange that really just establishes they have a past of some sort that everyone knows about because everyone stares—or at least Stella thinks everyone is staring.  I’m starting to feel weirdly sorry for this Stella who has none of her namesake’s sparkle and confidence.  Why does she think all the realms are boring?  Is she ever enthusiastic?

...wait, it’s still day!  Why was it night inside??  This show is weird about lighting.  Gosh Ireland is beautiful!  Where’s this castle they got to be Alfea?  Can I go there?  This FOREST!  It is a fully magical forest.  Aisha is swimming in the river, with goggles and a cap but Bloom heads into the amazing forest.  Good music here too!  Forests and magic and music, come on Fate you CAN be a good show, I believe in you!  Just put down the idiot ball and step away...  Bloom goes through the barrier and outside it sees a swirl of orange and white sparkles in the air.  She watches it and laughs and then hikes through a little more forest.

Finding a clearing Bloom calls her fire.  At first she can’t, then she looks through the pictures on her phone looking for emotion. “Pictures of my sad teenage years are not happy thoughts.  Noted.” She says with an angsty little smile.  Then there’s a photo of the burned out house.  She zooms in and stares at it taking in all the details.  And we get flashbacks to the line of fire racing towards her parents’ bed.

Fire! Bloom turns her handful of fire this way and that, delighted, then tries for two hands.  This is the scene from the trailer, playing with fire.  Good music here.  And good that Bloom thought the magic was neat… uuuuntil she realizes she doesn’t know how to put it out.  She freaks out and waves her hands around trying to blow out the flames.

Aisha comes to the rescue and says dumb things like, “You’re losing control.” and “If you get angry at me...” and Bloom does get angry and throws lines of fire right at Aisha.  Who looks terrified. Sensibly, but also has she never seen fire magic before?  She grew up in a magic realm, does she know nothing about how to help someone get control?  Is control taught to magical babies so teenagers rarely see someone wigging out?  But if magic is emotion then everyone will lose control sometime since we all get upset.  How does an emotion=magic society function?

Anyway. aisha pulls water up from the ground and puts out the flames.

Inside Aisha gives Bloom what for about losing control.  Including, “Is that American for sorry I almost set you on fire?”  Srsly, this show is Irish people and Italians stealth throwing shade at Americans!  *Laughs in January 2021* Bloom retorts that she went away from people to experiment for just that reason, and tells Aisha about not having had fairy parents or any magical experience.

Aisha responds with the story of flooding her school including the toilets and having to wade through poo.  (I also tend to call it poo, after watching Mike Rowe.  I wonder if they watch Dirty Jobs in the Otherworld.)

And Bloom tells her story.  Bloom isn’t a cheerleader, she likes antiques and staying home by herself, so she and her mom don’t get along.  Her parents removed her door, which is awful!  And Bloom got flamey eyes and sent fire straight at her parents while they slept. While Bloom sat on her bed in a rage trance.  Understandable level of fury after that fight.  And Bloom feels awful, also understandable. And she snuck out to sleep in a creepy warehouse to protect her parents.  Her folks didn’t know it was her of course, they don’t know about magic.

Aisha says that beats her flood story, but Aisha is also wondering about something.  “You drew on a good deal of magic without even trying. it’s hard to believe you’re from a dormant bloodline.  Is there any chance you’re adopted?”

Bloom laughs.  Then says she heard the story of her birth a million times, she was a miracle baby diagnosed with a heart defect but then after birth her heart was fine.

Aisha: “Oh god, you’re a changeling!” … ‘It’s barbaric and it barely ever happens anymore….”

Bloom has had enough and just says, “why would you even tell me that?” and leaves.  Musa comes over and asks Aisha what she said.  Aisha: “The truth.  Because someone’s been lying to her.”

Cut to Dowling, lookin’ sus!

This changeling thing had better be fully explained later.  Why was it done in the past?  Why is it considered barbaric?  What happened to the parents’ real kid?  I assume she died of the heart condition, but that’s a bigole dangling bit of Plot.  In the unlikely event that Fate goes for many seasons that baby will turn up with magic too or as a specialist or something. 

Dowling pours tea.  Then she telekinetically locks her office door and opens a secret passage!  Dowling is sus.

Back at the party, where it again seems to be night.  Dane is leaning on a column hangin out when here comes Riven with a flask!  He offers, Dane says no thanks, Riven says, ‘There are two types of first-years: pussies and aspiring former pussies.” and pours the entire flask’s worth of booze into Dane’s cup anyway.

Dane says something about, “It feels like less a binary choice and more like a spectrum.”  And points for the actor delivering this line like it’s a sarcastic comment on social juscice-ness rather than the large sign saying “Dane is not straight!’ that the writers intended.  Dane drinks, makes a face, and Riven bullies him into drinking the rest, tipping the glass so Dane chokes.

Terra rides to the rescue, “Bullying the first-years?  Can you be more basic?” and Riven says Dane was into it which he wasn’t.

Terra: “Thinks he’s some badass but you should’ve seen him last year he was just a tragic nerd in disguise.”

Riven: “And she’s just three people in disguise.”

Dane does call Riven out on that bit of nastiness but Terra just does a great lil speech and strangles Riven with vines.  Thought I’d hate that but I kinda liked it.  Go Terra.  Then she introduces herself to Dane, says that wasn’t a great first impression but Dane says he’s about to make an impression by throwing up after a single drink, and Terra hurries him away presumably to the nurse.  

Bloom google-imaged changelings!  Lotsa woodcuts, someone’s fanart entitled “horror of fairy babies.’  There’s more nuance to it than that…  Bloom looks at a family photograph.

There’s Stella, coming to be sympathetic?  Nope, she’s coming to conivingly advance the plot!  “You know there’s no shame in that, wanting a normal life, wanting to be home...”

When the girls get back Bloom is nowhere to be found.  Musa mind-reads that Stella is wracked with guilt,  They put it together, Bloom was talking to Sky and now she’s gone.  Apparently Stella did something nasty to the last girl who talked to Sky.  Terra is kinda straight up badass.  Stella confesses, she kindly loaned Bloom the portal ring so she could go back to “the first world” but to use it Bloom has to go deep into the forest outside the barrier to a door in a graveyard.

Portal’s super low special effects, Bloom pushes open a door in a cemetary, the ring glows, and Bloom walks into what must be the warehouse she hid out in.

It’s very dark inside both buildings but away from the cemetary it seems to still be day so we can see a Burned One’s shadow coming towards the portal.  Day and night seem to depend on location in this show, and anywhere you need a monster it’s gonna be dark!  Bloom seems to leave the magic portal open and we see her step out on the warehouse into a weirdly well-lit night on earth.

Real actual nighttime on earth.  Bloom walks to her parents’ house and calls them from outside.  Her dad’s surprised she called twice in one day.  This call her folks seem just worried and nice, not awful like they were in the flashback.  Bloom cries.  She can’t ask her parents about the changeling thing.  Her mom says very kind, ‘Your path isn’t like mine or your father’s but I can’t wait to see who you become.”  Bloom hangs up and cries and watches her parents in their house, then walks back to the warehouse to return to Alfea.

But first we get to see where she was camping!  In a little office in the warehouse. She brought a lot of stuff, bedding and pictures for the walls and everything.  She opens a notebook and we see that she was experimenting already, discovered she was fireproof, wondered if she had superpowers.  Then she senses something and looks out through an interior window into the rest of the warehouse.

Yikes! it’s a Burned One!

Bloom staggers back, trips, and drops Stella’s ring down a grate in the floor.

Bloom’s never heard of Burned Ones at this point but she knows a monster when she sees one.  She cowers, back to the wall. The Burned One breaks through the window and tries to grab her!

Bloom escapes into some kind of tunnel, I guess she opened the grate that the ring fell through?  It’s not totally clear.  There’s the ring, on the other side of a different grate or screen, Bloom can’t reach it, there’s lots of roaring, Bloom runs like hell!

And there’s Dowling!  She says, ‘don’t stop now.’ and gestures Bloom through the door back to the cemetery.  The door closes behind her.  Terra, Musa and Aisha are waiting to make sure Bloom’s ok. Bloom says the Burned One got the ring.

Stella, meanwhile, is on Sky’s bed when he comes out of the shower! Dressed, at least.

Sky is not interested.  “You can’t be here, Stell.  If Silva finds out-’   Sky goes for his trousers but Stella comes over and snuggles up to his bare back.  Sky is still not keen.  Seems Stella dumped him then went silent all summer and now she’s jumping in since he talked to Bloom.  Stella… comes out and says, “I got jealous. I did something really stupid.”  and she says, “I can’t sleep in a room where everybody hates me.”   For sending Bloom into danger to get home when that’s what Bloom wanted?  Not great, Stella, but hateworthy?  Did the girls all tell her they hate her or does Stella just think she’s an awful person?  And is Stella actually desperately unhappy or is she just trying to get in Sky’s pants?  Not sure what to take away from this.  Sky hugs Stella and tells her she’s better than she thinks she is.  

The others get back to the dorm and Aisha reassures Bloom that Dowling can take care of the Burned One.

Cut to Beatrix leaving her raid on the library with armfuls of books. She passed Riven, who’s smoking.  They say flirty things and Beatrix says she’s been “snorting the midnight adderall” to show that she’s a bad girl.  Riven offers her a puff but her hands are full of books so they do this almost-kiss so Riven can blow smoke into her mouth.  Erotic, also gross.  Is that a real thing people do? Riven asks Beatrix if she’s a first-year and she says “I’m lots of things” and walks off leaving Riven and the room he’s in, which has the most gorgeous arched windows with trees in them.  Is this place real?  It’s the same place the party was but now it’s night and these windows are glowing green with tree outlines in them. This has gotta be something the filmmakers added.

Pajama scene in the girls’ suite, Terra waters plants, Musa hops in bed with headphones on.  Terra does a needy little wave.  Musa reluctantly un-headphones.  Terra offers a speaker she borrowed from her brother so Musa can have her music without shutting other people out.

And I cringe so hard because just let people tune you out if they want! Communicate by whiteboard!  People not wanting to share doesn’t mean they hate you, it means they have their own thoughts they’re busy with!  Come on Terra, be better than your novelization self!

Musa calls Terra out on her fake-happy bullshit.  Musa can feel all of Terra’s insecurities and anger.  Seems like maybe empaths shouldn’t have to share a room!  What’s the range on mind reading?  How did Musa hit 16 without learning to tune stuff out or going mad?  But Musa says, ‘but if you want to know how I really feel...” and switches her music to a speaker, it’s guitar-y and nice.

Up in Dowling’s office, Silva says she should’ve killed the Burned One not left it chained up and knocked out in a shack outside the barrier.  Dowling needs to investigate this Burned One, see if there are more of them.  Then Dowling spills that Bloom is a changeling, from the time the last Burned One disappeared.  And she says, “Rosalind kept so much from us.  I’m worried about the students. The Alfea they know is very different from the one we attended.”  There’s something very “there was a war before” about the two of them.  Dowling may not be sus after all, though that may make her a terrible headmistress depending on how the next episodes go.

Montage of sleeping students.  Terra and Dane are texting.  Dane accidentally likes one of Riven’s sexy photos.  Riven’s pleased.  Sky and Stella are sharing a bed but after the last scene I can’t imagine they actually did anything.  Sky seemed pretty unseduceable.  

And outside a Mysterious Cloaked Figure passes through the barricade, finds the Burned One in the hut, and zaps it awake with lightning. It pushed back its hood… Beatrix!  So if she undid her too-tight braids she’d be Stormy?  So is Beatrix the villain?  I mean obviously she’s a villain but the threat of the Burned Ones feels... bigger than one teenager in Bratz clothes who has not got the presence of even one Trix much less all three wrapped up together.  But anyway she’ gets to be a doomful cloaked figure at the end of episode one.

Very pretty ending credits music. Listened to it several times.  I can’t understand the lyrics which is probably just as well.  Is it in irish or is it just sung in a way to not have clear lyrics?  C’mon fate, Irishness is a big thing you’ve got going for you, please milk it for all its worth!

I… I LIKED it!  Now my friends say future episodes get worse so I can’t get my hopes too high but this wasn’t awful.  None of the girls really had any vibe of their characters, only Bloom and Sky really look like Bloom and Sky.  The worldbuilding is lacking, I’m left with more questions than answers.

And oh god one episode was ten pages and about five hours.  I… I meant to do this with every episode but I’m not sure I can.  There’s so much to comment on it takes forever.  Maybe I’ll do each one in parts.  Or maybe I’ll abandon the writing and just watch the show like a normal person.  It’s a lot of fun to fine-toothed comb each scene but I’m’a be here forever!

#fate the winx saga

[samsbastardzone]

15 18 44 94 96 for whichever characters you want!

so I misinterpreted which ask meme this was about, so have some Bonus Content at the end. you’re welcome.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

Hmmmmm.... not many of my characters go/went to school. I think Osfyr still fondly remembers their first magic book– the first time they went oh! This could be something!

18. ideal weather?

I Sam am simply a slut for thunderstorms, and that’s the whole theme for Sahov, but I’m gonna try and think of a character who likes each broad type of weather. Bly is great in a blizzard, she can hide and jump out of the snow and stab people! Zize likes the heat (ew) cause Lizard. Vinny I feel like would love sort of “hurricane core”? Like, not in actual danger, but POURING rain, still warm out, lots of wind. Pointy enjoys fall SO much– downside of being fire resistant is she runs so hot all the time.

44. favorite scent for soap?

I feel like Havi really enjoys floral, perfumey scents. Not quite Bath and Body Works level of sweet, but up there. He smells fantastic all the time. Pointy, for the same reason of running hot, prefers mint shampoo.

94. favorite season?

Winter: Bly, Topaz, Allie/Remi

Spring: Vinny, Sahov, Ner

Summer: Havi, Zize, Guy

Fall: Pointy, Cap, Osfyr

Wow this actually worked out to 3 characters per! Amazing!

96. desktop background?

hmmm... I answered one about phone backgrounds Somewhere but desktop backgrounds has different vibes. I don’t get strong vibes off any of my lads except that Cap is fully a boomer and would have the generic one forever. I’ll also roll for one more– Sahov’s is an aesthetic picture of their ship. Or rather, it looks like their ship,  but it’s a similar stock photo with the name edited off.

aaaand now for the bonus ones!

15. ♥ Do they enjoy talking to their partners before going to sleep or is it straight to dreamland?

So I answered this for Osfyr, who’s very much like me in that regard.... I’ll pick a few who are Not like me at all. Vinny falls asleep way too fast for that bullshit. You can try, but you’ll get an earful of Snoring Orc, or Snorc, within five minutes. Zize will actively shut that down. Yes, they’d stay up all night with a partner in their workshop, working and infodumping and shooting the shit, but when he’s sleeping he’s Sleeping. shut Up. Sahov is also very pragmatic and used to sailing ship sleep patterns where Every Minute Counts.

 18. ♥ Do they have a ‘type’?

hmmmmmmmm let’s see... I answered that for a few already so let’s go with. Guy’s type, before Myriphis, was already Pretty Boys. Cap and Ner’s types reflect their own personalities and are total opposites– placid homebody vs Brave Adventurer.

#once again... my Rights #asks #pointy #sahov #zize #osfyr #guy #cap #vinny #ner #allie #havi #bly