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#and EVERY ONE OF THESE NOTES. is still fully accepting what the original post posits
devilfruitdyke · 1 month
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I HATE FANDOM WANK YALL ARE UNHINGED. VERY NEGATIVE BTW
#post (bad) was like 'adults need to take responsibility for what kids see online even publically posted fanwork'#it INCLUDED the sentence 'parents should monitor their kids internet more' and implied that people arbitrarily designated minors#dont have the impulse control to not look at content with warnings#all of this is not fucking true. children are people#and then every note arguing with the original post is like 'can we not have ONE SPACE without FUCKING minors... 😮‍💨'#'why is our responsibility to raise peoples kids for them' 'this implies that non kid friendly content shouldnt exist'#the last one is 100% true for the record but i think what yr getting at is that this random 'antishipper' on the internet#is responsible for like. sesta/fosta. no lmfao get real#and EVERY ONE OF THESE NOTES. is still fully accepting what the original post posits#that people arbitrarily designated minors are unable to resist barging into fan spaces#this is not true. kids are actually able to display the required self control in most cases#it doesnt come from a material condition of being a teenager. it sure as hell doesnt come from lack of brain development#people under 18 (age chosen by the government) are not easily impressed animals who just cant resist looking at triggering things#and then like. start whining about it because of their delicate constitution#the people you are talking about have every marker of 'adulthood'#theyre just a convenient pawn for yall to bitch at each other about shipping fictional characters#thats the only capacity that some people give a fuck about children in and it shows.
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footballffbarbiex · 2 years
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Neighbourhood Watch. pt 1 snippet.
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Player: Roman Burki Summary: She’s always had a flirtatious relationship with her next door neighbour Roman but when he takes it to the next level, allowing her to see him privately whilst at his most intimate, will they finally give in to each other?Warnings: Very strong language, male oral sex, voyeurism, jealousy, reference to masturbation (male and female), foreplay (use of fingers). Word count: 3109   Original Word Count to this point: 1868   Snippet: 698 Posting to Patreon: 19th August, 7pm.    Posting here: September/October
A/N: this is YEARS overdue. But enjoy my smut bunnies. I've very much enjoyed re-writing this.
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After an awful shift, the last thing you wanted was to come home and cook and so, you’d spent the last half an hour of your work day looking through your food ordering app to see what took your fancy. Ten minutes before reaching your stop, your phone buzzed to say that your order had been accepted and made your stomach rumble audibly, loud enough for those who sat near you to hear. 
By the time you’re reaching into your bag for the house keys as you approach the front door, you notice the notification stating that your order is now on its way. With a bit of luck, you will be able to get inside and slip into something a little more comfortable. You have no other plans other than to sit on the couch and eat until your tummy feels nice and full. 
You lock the door behind you and toe off your shoes before hanging up both your coat and bag. Taking your phone from the pocket of your coat, you make your way to the bedroom, flick on the lamp rather than the big light and give a big stretch high above your head and go up to your tiptoes, groaning with mild satisfaction as your muscles stretch out and your mind goes a little hazy from it. 
As you’re pulling your arms back to by your sides, you feel a tug, as though something or someone is trying to draw your attention. Turning your body, rather than just your face, towards the window, you’re able to view Roman laid on his bed on his side watching your every move. Colours flash through the room, illuminating it with quick succession so you know he’s watching TV. Your fingers move to your blouse, slowly pushing the top button back through the buttonhole until it pops open, exposing a little more skin with each new one opened and still his eyes are on you with every movement you make.
Turning away from him, you pretend as though you don’t care about him watching when in reality, your skin vibrates with excitement and you need him to continue staring. Your blood feels as though it’s becoming hotter, skin burning where your fingers touch the lower down your abdomen they go, until finally, your blouse opens fully, exposing you in your bra as your hands move to the back of your skirt and unzips it.
You remove the blouse, throw it into the laundry basket and turn your back to the window as you begin to peel off the skirt, bending forward, keeping your knees straight as you do so as the fabric pools at your feet before you step out of it, leaving you in only your lingerie; making a mental note of thanks to yourself for choosing this set this morning. It clings to you perfectly, working your curves and boosting your assets. 
It’s not until you turn back to the window that you pop the bra clasp that you notice he’s changed positions. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed, a tent pitching at his waist as he observes you. Lowering your shoulders allows the bra straps to fall and you watch as Roman sits forward wanting to see more. Your heart is pounding against your chest as you decide what your next steps should be. You hadn’t intended to walk in this room and do this, there’d been no plan to strip for him but now you were here with his unwavering attention on you and purely on you. 
Just as you’re in the process of, unbeknown to him, shakily pulling the bra down, the doorbell sounds. Your head snaps to the side as you listen as a knock comes a few moments later. Turning back to Roman, you place your arm over your breasts and give him a grin as you close the blinds but not before you see him chuckling to himself as he lays back on the bed, cock now straining against his clothing and as you pull on something so that you can answer the door, your cunt pulses at the thought of finally being able to have him.
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ynscrazylife · 3 years
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Hey !! i love ur writing style <3 i wanted to ask you if you could write a loki x reader where the reader and loki have been best friends for a long time now and after he faked his death in tdw he knocks on their door and the reader and loki have an argument and then they kiss?? maybe like the scene in crimson peak “you lied to me” “i did” “you told me you loved me” “i do” smth similar? :)
The Greatest Deception | loki angst fluff fic
Summary: After Loki reveals himself to be alive, Y/N has some choice words to say. Loki has a question.
Authors Note: Thanks for requesting! Also, I want to say that I fully support and acknowledge that Loki is genderfluid. Seeing as this fic was requested with Loki having he/him pronouns, I will use those pronouns. (Also, I didn’t know which pronouns you wanted me to write since you mentioned they for the reader but typically I use she/her, so lemme know if you want that edited)
Request to be on a taglist (or multiple) here! (Taglists are at the end of the fic)
MCU Masterlist #1 | MCU Masterlist #2 |  Main Masterlist 
PSA: Do NOT copy, steal, translate, plagiarize, republish, etc any of my works on Tumblr or any other platform. Also, do NOT claim any of my works as your own. All of these works are either requests I’ve gotten that people have wanted me to write or original ideas I’ve had for works. If you happen to take inspiration from anything I’ve written and want to write something inspired by that, please a) ask me first and b) IF I say yes, credit me as inspo in your post by tagging me and link whatever work of mine that inspired you. Thanks.
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“Lady Y/N?”
The voice was muffled through the door and the one in question rolled from her side and onto her stomach as she laid in her bed. A low groan emitted from the creature whose limbs were tangled in the blanket and sheets.
. . .
“Lady Y/N?”
A short knock-knock accompanied the repeating words, and Y/N had a feeling of that the lovely woman who she’d love to talk to at any other time wouldn’t stop until she replied.
She pulled herself into a sitting position, smoothed over her unruly hair, and finally pulled the covers up so her pajamas wouldn’t be seen and called out, “Come in!”
The woman opened the door and sent her a sheepish smile. “The All-Father has requested your present, ma’am,” she informed her.
Y/N furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Do you know the reason as to why?” She quizzed.
The woman spared a quick, darting glance at Y/N’s window. “Well, the All-Father has requested all of the palace’s royals and higher-ups to gather in the courtyard. He is gathering local citizens for a, ah, play, and more would like, in this words, his ‘most esteemed confidants to enjoy,’,” she answered, subtly bouncing her weight from one foot to the other.
Y/N thought for a moment. This was the first time she was hearing that the King was holding a play — not to mention, the fact that the last play (if you could even call it that, because by Heimdall’s recounting it was horrific) was held before any of the children of Odin were born.
Just thinking about that caused a twinge to hit her stomach and for it to twist up. Loki. Odin’s youngest child and the one that had most recently left her, as he sacrificed herself to save his vaillant brother, Prince Thor. It had been weeks, maybe even a month, since Y/N had heard the news and had been resorted to a lonely, saddened version of herself. Loki was her best friend, the person she trusted more than anything and—no, no, who was she kidding? He’s more than that, and he deserves to be remembered as more than that by her.
He’s also the one that she loves, and has loved for at least the past year when she realized it.
Nonetheless, she had taken many steps to get through the grief of Loki’s dead — as had his father — and she wasn’t going to let all her hard work crumble down on one, singular thought.
“Very well, then. Please inform the All-Father that I will be there shortly, thank you,” she said.
The woman nodded and bowed her head before exiting.
Once the door had been fully shut and she could hear footsteps no more, Y/N crossed over to her window and drew back the curtains, not having missed the look at said window.
The sunlight poured into her room but the stage was indeed sent. Rows of fine chairs sat with rows of fine people in them. In front, Odin stood with a red curtain drawn closed behind him. His arms were gesturing wildly and he had a big grin on his face as he gave his speech.
Despite the curiosity that itched into Y/N’s face, she pushed it aside. She had never seen the King conduct himself in such ways, but alas, everyone grieved differently. So, she closed the curtains and got dressed for the day ahead.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
The moment Y/N stepped outside, she could’ve sworn that there was already long beads of sweat trailing down her skin. She let out a huff but journeyed on towards the courtyard, as this formal royal wear was necessary and she had no intention of pissing off Sir Snotty-Dickhead — as she called him (he had some fancy and long name she couldn’t remember, in her defense) — who was Odin’s right hand man.
By the time she got there, Odin was still rambling on with his speech, but his sudden notice of Y/N saved the guests from boredom.
“Aha, the guest of honor! Lady Y/N, herself,” Odin announced, bringing his hands together in a clap and gesturing for her to come toward him.
She betrayed herself and her cheeks involuntarily reddened as all eyes laid on her. She approached Odin and curtsied out of respect, but her mind was full of wonderings of why she, of all, would be singled out.
“I’m sure you all know who Lady Y/N is, yes?” He began, briefly pausing before continuing. “If you sadly do not, let me tell you. Lady Y/N had been a friend of the royal family, specifically my child, Loki’s—” the name caused her to suck in a sharp breath, “—and she was granted the title of Lady to uphold the image of the palace and to complete very important Asgardian duties.”
Once he stopped talking and the crowd clapped politely, Y/N took the opportunity she was presented before it’s door could close and quickly went and sat in her seat, the only seat not occupied yet, in the front row.
Odin then began speaking against whilst he walked to the side, “Speaking of my dear child Loki, this play that has been put together is one designed to honor him and his heroic sacrifice. Without further ado . . . ” He let his words trail off, and the red curtain pulled open.
Y/N’s face contorted into surprise at the words, not expecting this to take place. Again, she reminded herself, everyone grieved differently, so she decided to give it a chance. However, as the play went on, she was quick to realize that honoring Loki wasn’t the intention here. The horrid acting could be excused but Odin himself allowing this mockery of how Loki died? Of how he sacrificed himself? Well, with every second that passed, her face heated more and more — and not due to the sweat — and she grit her teeth, just barely refraining from yelling.
The worst part for her came though when the actor who played Loki did a dramatic reenactment of his sacrificed and the actor who played Thor did the worst fake crying ever. Y/N turned to the others, expecting them to be just as enraged as she was, but was floored to find that no—they were laughing. And not just that, but Odin was having himself a chuckle as well!
Her fingers tightly gripped the edges of her chair and she forced herself to look straight ahead, just about able to hold in her tears until the play was over and the actors bowed.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
Afterwards, while everyone was standing and giving Odin rounds and rounds of praises, Y/N stayed rooted in her seat. She couldn’t just let this go by as if it were nothing, but she was struggling to compose herself to confront him.
After a couple minutes of going back-and-forth, she decided, screw composure. She didn’t have to be composed. She was allowed to be angry.
So, she stood up and marched straight for him.
“All-Father,” Y/N said through grit teeth, forcing herself to curtesy, “I request your company in private, if I may.”
It took Odin a moment to tear himself away from accepting his latest comment, but the way he quickly glanced over at Y/N, she knew that he had not noticed — or perhaps he did not care — the state she was in.
“My apologies, Lady Y/N, but should I depart now, I fear I shall upset my comrades!” Odin said, ending his comment in a boastful joy, which resulted in laughter and cheers.
He didn’t wait for her response before engaging in another conversation, and Y/N’s lips remained tightly shut until she decided to just go forth and let her stuffed-up emotions out.
“Fine. I will say it in front of everyone, then!” She said, firmly and loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. “That was a pathetic excuse to remember Loki . . . It was an insult! You mocked him, your own child! How could you even— I . . . I just don’t understand . . . He sacrificed himself for your son and for Asgard and this is how you repay him? God. I expected much, much more from you for him because I . . . Let’s just say that we both love Loki, in our own ways, and I-I . . . I am very disappointed.”
Wanting to flee from the tears that were now streaming down her face and from the silence that was pounding, she turned around and she walked away, the realization that she had just confessed her love in front of everyone hitting her.
“Lady Y/N!”
Odin’s words stopped her in her tracks, but she did not turn around. Just stood. Waited.
“He told Thor, before he passed, that he, uh . . . He loved you, too.”
Y/N stared straight ahead, her hand jutting out to grab the pillar next to her to steady herself.
Loki loved her?
She didn’t stop the tears from coming this time. She let them, and the sobs, overwhelm her.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
“Lady Y/N?”
The voice and the knock were much more stiff than they were this morning.
“Come in.”
Her response was devoid of emotion, much more curt than it was this morning.
The same woman turned the door’s knob and opened it, sending Y/N, who was curled up on her bed, head nestled into her knees, a wary look. “The All-Father has requested your presence at his quarters,” she said.
Y/N let out a small huff, in no mood to talk to the King after what had happened. She forced her head up and gazed boredom at the woman. “Is it an emergency?” She deadpanned.
The woman looked around the room and by her lack of response, Y/N knew that either she didn’t know or didn’t want to say.
She sighed. “I will be there shortly,” she said.
The woman nodded and wordlessly left.
After she did, Y/N stood up and went in front of her mirror, taking in her appearance. Her once brushed hair was now frizzy and in knots and her eyes were puffy and red. Angrily, she practically tore the hairbrush through her hair and dabbed at her eyes with makeup until the red could be seen no more. She had no intention of letting him see her this way.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
Screw formalities, Y/N thought, as she walked straight into Odin’s quarters which composed of a small living room, a bedroom down the hall, an office, and a bathroom. She didn’t bother to curtsy or announce her presence.
When he finally and gradually turned around from whatever he was doing, a slight look of shock crossed his features, before he replaced it with a warm smile. “Y/N!” He said, but quickly corrected himself, “Lady Y/N.”
Y/N frowned and crossed her arms. “I hope that you have called me here to apologize,” she said, an icy edge to her voice.
Odin nonetheless looked at her kindly. “In a way, yes,” he vaguely said, before a magical transformation underwent before her.
His wrinkles disappeared, his beard disappeared, his grey hair turned jet black, and his clothes transformed into his usual wear.
No longer was the All-Father standing in front of her, but her best friend. The one she loved.
Taken by utter shock, Y/N instinctively stumbled back, her jaw dropping and her eyes widening. “What the hell is this?” She gasped out, not wanting to believe it at first. It was a cruel trick — it must be! There was no way.
“It’s me,” the mischievous deity said, a rare softness to his voice and in his eyes. He took a step forward, but then stopped himself. “I never died, I only impersonated my father.”
Y/N stared at him, angry tears coming to her eyes once more. “How?” She forced out, thinking that maybe she was dreaming. “Why?”
Loki looked around, slightly dumbfounded, as if he hadn’t expected anyone to question him. “I wanted the throne,” he answered, as if it were obvious and a perfectly acceptable reason.
Y/N stared at him as if he had grown two heads. To her, he might as well have.
“Oh, really? So you take over your father, trick everyone - me, your brother - into believing that you’re dead, you banish Sif . . . All because you wanted the goddamn throne?” She cried.
The cluelessness left his eyes and replaced itself with guilt, regret pooling inside him. He looked down, shoulders falling with a sigh.
“I’ve felt guilty tricking you ever since it had all went down. I wanted to tell you but, honestly, a part of me didn’t think you’d be that upset over my death. But you were really, so upset and I . . . I was lost. I didn’t know what to do. All I wanted to do was hug you and tell you that it was fine, that I was here, but I thought I’d screw up your emotions and hurt you even more,” he admitted.
Y/N just looked at him, her frown growing deeper. “That’s an awful excuse,” she hissed out, words laced with venom.
Loki immediately snapped his head up to look at her and his gaze held desperateness. “It’s not an excuse,” he said quickly. “It shouldn’t be. I’m . . . I’m so sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to was to trick you, and . . . I did. But today was the final straw. I couldn’t continue like that.”
Y/N took a step forward, having an inner battle in herself on whether or not to forgive him. “You lied to me,” she reiterated bluntly.
Loki nodded guiltily. “I did,” he agreed in a small voice.
She took a pause, taking in a deep breath. “You told me you loved me,” she added.
There was a brief moment of silence before Loki said, in the same small way but a little more firm now, “I do.”
Y/N kept walking, not even fully sure or convinced of what she was doing, but knowing that she needed to do it, until she was standing just inches away from him. They looked at each other for a couple moments, neither saying anything, until Y/N wrapped her arms around Loki. He returned the embrace.
“Never do that to me again!” She yelled through the tears that were now coming. God, was she tired of crying. Especially today.
Loki hugged her tighter, his own tears falling. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, and repeated that over, and over, and over again. “I’m an idiot.”
Y/N leaned back and cupped his face with her hands. The love she had for him overwhelmed her pain, and more than anything she needed him now. Besides, she could see his guilt. She could see the truth shining in his eyes. He wouldn’t do anything like this again, because he loved her. And she loved him.
“At least you’re self-aware,” she whispered through a sniff, taking a page out of his book with her joking remark. Before he could quip back (and she was sure he’d have an excellent one), she leaned forward and captured his lips in his a kiss. Loki smiled against her lips and wrapped his arms around her waist.
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chasingpj · 3 years
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𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐳𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬
"I might spread a rumor about you and Percy rendezvousing at midnight. The Aphrodite cabin will have a hoot with that one."
pairing: percy jackson x child of hecate!reader
words: 4,931
warnings: none
timeline: post sea of monsters
if you want to be tagged every time I update this story, click here
a/n: hi hi! this is part one of a self-insert series I'm working on. in this story, y/n is a child of hecate, and this storyline follows the books. the current timeline here is post sea of monsters and will continue through the Heroes of Olympus books. though it follows the original plot, y/n has her own storyline and quests. i tried to make y/n gender-neutral but as I continued to work on the timeline for this project, i had decided that this fic is for a fem reader. guys, this is really just me projecting my fantasy into fanfiction lol. i feel like this is a slow start?? and there is a lot of info dumped in this so bear with me. it'll get better and I'll be working to improve my writing as the series continues. I was on a writing hiatus for a really long time and I'm out of practice so this is my way to get back and hopefully, exceed the skills I had when I was a consistent writer. anyways, if you have any feedback, let me know! I'd love to hear what you think. as i get deeper into the series, i might ask for some suggestions on what to do with the fic. anyways, i'll stop rambling and i hope you like it!
Part One Part Two
You ignore the aching in your neck as your focus is fixed on the herbology book in front of you. You’ve been seated at your desk for Zeus knows how long reading and taking notes in your Book of Shadows, determined to finish reading it as fast as possible. Your half-brother, Alabaster, insisted that you need to memorize all the herbs and their properties before he can properly teach you how to use them in potions. Even though you understand its importance, you hated introductory work. You are itching to get to the real stuff, resulting in you glued to your chair, studying through the night as your cabin mates were fast asleep in their beds. But as determined as you are, Ambrose, your familiar, wasn’t much help. Ambrose whines as he rubs his head against your legs like a needy kitten, making it difficult to ignore him.
“What is it, Ambrose?” You whisper, sitting back in your chair in defeat. You take a second to massage the back of your sore neck before turning to face the translucent hound sitting attentively at your side. His tail sweeps the floor as it wags excitedly, and a short huff leaves his snout as if he was proud to have finally gotten your attention.
Your eyes meet his, racking your mind to figure out what Ambrose needs to tell you. At first, you thought he wanted to play, but you didn’t have time for that, so you decided to ignore him. Usually, after being ignored for a while, Ambrose will give up, finding something else to occupy him. But tonight, he was particularly persistent, and he’s only like this when he needs to tell you something.
Before you can ask what he wanted again, Ambrose gets up from his seated position, running over to the small table that stands beside your bed. You furrow your eyebrows, the first thing you notice when you walk over are your crystals neatly placed in front of your spell books as usual. Seeing them made you suddenly remember what you had planned to do.
You had told Ambrose to remind you to charge your crystals and collect water from the lake since there is a full moon tonight and of course, Ambrose being your loyal companion, did exactly that. Before looking down at the hound, who now is breathing heavily, his tail somehow wagging faster than before, you smile to yourself.
“I told you to remind me earlier, didn’t I?” Ambrose snorts and runs around your feet enthusiastically. You couldn’t help but giggle at his excitement as you reached down to pat his head. “Good boy. What would I do without you?” You continue to praise him, grabbing a black pouch and carefully placing the crystals in it. You put your index finger to your lips, signaling Ambrose to be a little quieter despite his excitement. If he accidentally wakes anyone up, then you definitely weren’t going to be able to fulfill your plans.
You bite your bottom lip as you tiptoe out of the aisle between the bunks. You look around the notoriously cramped Hermes Cabin to make sure your assumption that everyone was asleep by now was correct. It wasn’t hard to make out the faces of your cabin mates since seeing clearly in the dark was one of your many gifts, so you carefully walked along the bunks, being as quiet as you could. You are especially cautious as you approach the front where your cabin leaders, the Stoll brothers, slept. You study them for a second, knowing for sure Travis was asleep since he was snoring and loudly at that. Before you can check if Connor is asleep, you hear him shifting in his bed. You stand frozen in your spot, hesitantly looking over and you were expecting to be met with the usual mischievous grin. Instead, his back was towards you now. You have a feeling in your gut that he wasn't asleep, the timing of his moving was much too convenient. You really didn't want to wait any longer though so you decide that you might as well leave before he could stop you.
You turn on your heels, walking over to the window before you push it open. You cringe softly as the hinges creak, and you look back at the cabin to double-check if anyone has woken up from the sound. You sigh in relief when you see no one has moved, and you turn back to the window, carefully crawling out of it. This wasn’t unusual for you. You’ve done this so many times that using windows as a mode of exiting and entering a room was as natural to you as walking in and out of a door, and soon you were hopping down onto the grass. Your back is pressed against the cabin as you walk the side of it. You look up at the trees and the sky, eyes scoping around for any harpies hanging around. After deeming that you were alone, you begin making your way to the lake, Ambrose walking by your side attentively and cautiously to make sure you are safe.
The night was clear; the stars and especially the moon shone brightly in the sky. You sigh softly, taking in the stillness of the night, admiring the glistening lake reflecting the full moon placed above it. You’ve always enjoyed how quiet and cool the nights were, preferring it more than the daytime.
Unfortunately, you couldn’t avoid it as much as you wish to. Most of your siblings can agree with you that they’d prefer to sleep in most days so that they can study and practice their magic at night. However, that wasn’t the schedule of the Hermes Cabin. It was pretty impossible to sleep in since the mornings were always hectic. In fact, the cabin was just hectic, period. There was always something going on, whether it was an elaborate prank or the guys arguing over who gets to shower first after coming back from training which usually resulted in an intense game of rock, paper, scissors. You can’t say that you didn’t like it; at least you were entertained.
You also always had someone to talk to, and because there were often new campers coming in and out of there, you have easily familiarized yourself with a lot of the kids at camp. However, like your mother, you did enjoy and yearn for the occasional periods of solitude. As fun as living with the Hermes kids was, you and your siblings did find yourselves getting a little irritable at their shenanigans. It was at those times, you did wish that your mother, Hecate, had a designated cabin.
You and your siblings had always said if they ever got a cabin of their own, they would make sure everyone had separate rooms and would have designated spaces to socialize and practice their magic so that it was quiet for the most part. Alabaster, especially, was really passionate about this topic. He complained how it didn’t make sense that your mother wasn't recognized since you and your siblings were a powerful little bunch. You all needed a space to practice your magic and practice preferably at night since you were the most powerful at that time of day; you were also less prone to making mistakes in your spell casting at night. You agreed with him and would get upset about it sometimes, but the Hermes Cabin was a place you considered to be a second home. The communal feel of the space was something you enjoyed, it was one of the few places where you felt fully accepted which was rare to find being a demi-god with abilities like yours. In return to the Hermes Cabin welcoming you with open arms, you accept the inconveniently loud environment as an admirable quirk and went on with your days.
Then to compensate for the lack of silence and solitude, you would often stay up late, taking advantage of the quiet to focus on your studies. Even if you had to sacrifice the amount of sleep you got, you felt like it was worth it.
It doesn’t take you long to arrive at the dock, sitting down close to the end with your legs folded under you. You first collect lake water in a jar before carefully taking out the pouch's crystals. Assuming you had only a few left in the pouch after laying most of them on the dock, you tilt it with your hand under it, only for the crystals to come out all at once. You fumble, hands trying to bring them to your chest, but with your luck, one of your crystals falls right into the water with a plop.
“Dammit!” You peer over the edge and groan, Ambrose whining at your misfortune as he stands beside you. You look down at the water, noticing Ambrose’s and your dim reflection in it. There was no way you could get that crystal now because you didn't know how to swim, and you consider that maybe tomorrow you can convince your twin brother, Atticus, to look for it or Alabaster if Atticus refused, which you were expecting him to.
Your breath hitches at the back of your throat, jumping back as a head of dark hair abruptly pops up from right where you were staring. Ambrose barks loudly next to you, equally as startled, and your eyes widen. You stand up hastily at the realization that Ambrose's loud barks in the dead of night will catch the attention of the harpies, and right now, that was more important to you than the mysterious person that just sprouted up in the water like a zombie coming out of a grave.
“Shush! Ambrose, quiet!” Your frantic command was enough to make him stop with a whine, and you sigh shakily, turning towards the camp to check if there were any harpies.
“I think you dropped something.” Ambrose moves in front of you protectively, a low growl coming from his chest as he cautiously studies the person. You look back where the voice came from and to your surprise and your relief, you find that the mysterious person in the lake was no other than Percy Jackson. You never had a conversation with him before, but you definitely knew about him. It was kind of hard not to know who he is since he’s been the talk of the camp since he’s arrived. Your thoughts about him weren’t any different from most of the camp. You’ve seen him fight and use his powers during capture the flag, and you were just as impressed as everyone else. You did have to admit that you found him to be pretty cute too. His eyes were gorgeous, clear, and bright like a shallow, cyanic sea. You also found it adorable how his hair always looked a little disheveled.
Your (e/c) eyes met Percy’s green ones before looking at your rose quartz in his hand. You smile sheepishly, noticing the amused look on his face.
“Ah, yeah, that’s mine.” You walk over to him, but as you get closer, so does Ambrose, and his growls get louder. "Ambrose, heel. It's okay," you say softly, and he stops in his place, but his stance is still at alert, his eyes watching Percy cautiously. You pat Ambrose's head before walking past him and over to Percy. "Thanks," you smile, taking your rose quartz from his hand.
"No problem… I don't think your ghost dog likes me," Percy jokes, moving to look past your legs at Ambrose, who’s standing tall on your left side.
"Yeah, well, you kinda scared the crap out of us," you point out, amused. You take in Percy's goofy smile as he pulls himself up from the water, and you notice that he’s completely dry as he settles on the edge before turning his body to look at you.
“It’s y/n, right?” He asks, and you nod, figuring he’s probably heard about you in passing from Connor and Travis since he was friends with them too. “What are you doing out here so late?"
"I could ask you the same thing," you retort playfully, making him smile. You move to sit down where you were standing. You spread the crystals neatly on the wood, making a mental note to get them before you go to bed.
"I couldn't sleep, so I came out here to hang out, but then a hippocampus swam up. One of its friends got stuck in a fisher's net not too far from here, so I went to help," he explains, and you nod. "I told you my excuse, so what's yours?"
You hum, "It's a full moon out tonight, so I thought I should take my crystals out. I also needed moon water for a potion, so I collected some for that," you point over at the big mason jar full of lake water. "It’s not as cool as your excuse,” you say playfully.
A short laugh comes from Percy, and when you look up from your crystals, you notice he was looking at Ambrose again, who was still in his tense stance. Ambrose was especially protective of you and Atticus, and it wasn’t unusual for him to be cautious of the new people you come across. You assumed that Ambrose was particularly tense with Percy since he had successfully caught you both by surprise.
"Ambrose, relax.” You pat the top of his head to soothe him. "Lay down." Ambrose whines, licking your hand affectionately for a little, and you can tell he was still uneasy about the other. He was hesitant, but he follows your command anyway, laying down with his head on your lap.
"You can touch him?" Percy asks, his eyes wide and curious as he watches you pet Ambrose.
"Yeah, I can touch ghosts in general. My mother is Hecate, goddess of necromancy, along with magic, the night and the moon," you tell him. "This is Ambrose. My mother gifted him to me to be my familiar, kinda like a guardian." You look down at the hound, smiling softly as you scratch behind his ear softly.
Ambrose is a burly Molossian Hound who lived in the time of Alexander The Great. From what your father told you, his breed was well valued in Ancient Greek and Roman times and was often used in war. It is easy to understand why the breed was used in war. Ambrose is huge and muscular, about 6 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs, and he weighs around 200 pounds. At first, Ambrose can come off as a little intimidating. You remember how your siblings had avoided him when you first arrived at camp before they realized that he was the clearest definition of a gentle giant. Even though he was trained to fight when he was alive, he was still as gentle as a well-trained house dog unless he was given a reason not to be.
"When did you get him?" Percy asks, his eyes focusing on Ambrose’s translucent body that looked like it is made up of this gray swirling vapor. He couldn’t exactly wrap his head around how Ambrose’s head was comfortably propped up on your thigh.
"We met on the night I was on my way to Camp so about 2 years ago. Without him, my brother and I probably would have never made it to the borders.” You look up at Percy, meeting his eyes again; you watch as his face softens as he shifts to lean back on his hand.
"Really?" You hum and nod, ready to drop the conversation there, thinking you shouldn’t bore him with the details. You didn’t really like talking about it much, but the way he was looking at you made you feel like he was inviting you to continue talking.
"We got separated from our father at the gas station a couple of miles away from here. He went inside the convenience store to get us snacks, and while he was in there, a cyclops had found us, tried to grab us out of his car. We jumped out and ran into the woods nearby," you explain as you look out at the dark horizon.
You remember the sound of your father yelling after you and Atticus and how it broke your heart hearing, for the first time, such despair in his voice. You knew your dad didn’t want to bring you guys to camp, but he knew it was in Atticus’s and your best interest to come here and be with other people like you guys.
When you and Atticus started developing your powers, your father had simply told you guys that you were special and to refrain from using your telekinesis anywhere else but home. He didn’t say anything more until one night, you and Atticus had gotten in a screaming match about a reason you don’t even remember. However, in your screaming match, the both of you were so angry that a green aura had formed around you both, and books, magazines, even cutlery were being flown across the room because of the sheer energy you were admitting as a unit. It was then your father had decided to take you and Atticus to the camp to control and learn about your powers before you guys destroyed the house over a dumb argument like who’s turn is it to have the TV remote.
"We were more concerned about the monster hurting our dad, so we decided on a whim to run in the forest. My brother and I have telekinesis powers, and I aimed well enough to send a rock right at the cyclops eye. We lost him a little after that, but we didn't know where we were. We made too many twists and turns; we had no idea what direction we came from. And then, this buddy appeared out of nowhere from a distance. I saw him glowing from far away and couldn’t make out what he was, but I felt that I had to follow him. So we did, and he got us to camp with no detours for any other monsters. He's been with me ever since," you say, and a low whine comes from Ambrose’s mouth as he nuzzles the side of his face on your thigh contentedly.
Percy nods, and he huffs softly, "You guys got lucky. How old were you and your brother when you got to camp?"
"12, we're twins. We actually got here a couple of weeks after you did,” you mention. You watch Percy’s mouth curve into a half-smirk.
“Wow," he says, amused, and shakes his head. “So you have a twin and a dead dog, no fair," he jokes. You giggle, rolling your eyes playfully,
"Oh please, and you have crazy water powers. You’re completely dry after swimming! I think that's pretty envy-worthy."
"Hey-,” he shrugs, taking a second as if to form a protest. “I guess you're right,” he admits and laughs. You laugh with him, opening your mouth to say something else but unfortunately, you were interrupted by a screech echoing in the distance.
Both you and Percy stand up quickly, trying to figure out which direction it came from. “The harpies,” you both mutter in unison. You bend down to grab your things, and you look at Ambrose.
"Go distract them, bud," you tell him, and Ambrose jumps up to his feet, and you watch as he runs away, barking to get their attention. Just then, you see the wings of the Harpies coming up from the trees of the forest. You turn to Percy, grabbing his hand quick,
“Incantare: Transpectus!" You exclaim confidently, closing your eyes to envision you and Percy becoming transparent on the dock. You've never tried doing this spell before, but you've gotten better at visualizing and setting intentions, so you had some hope in yourself. You open your eyes, not feeling any different, and you hoped that you just didn't make a fool of yourself in front of Percy. But when you look down at your hand hesitantly and notice it was hard to make out since you were see-through like glass, you sigh in relief. You smile to yourself, more than satisfied that you were able to pull that off.
"Woah, are we invisible?" You look over at Percy, able to see him just fine since he was under the spell with you. Percy looks down at himself, eyes widened as he processes he can’t see his body anymore. You observe him for a second, finding it cute how he looked surprised and obviously entertained at the fact that he was completely see-through. You feel yourself growing a little flustered, trying not to focus too much on the fact that you were holding hands with him.
"Something like that. C'mon, it won’t last too long," you whisper, and your grip around his hand tightens as you guys begin running to his cabin. You hear the harpies screeching in frustration as they swoop down to try and grab Ambrose, only for their claws to go right through him. While the harpies were growing more annoyed, Ambrose, on the other hand, was having way too much fun, running in circles and barking at them as if he’s teasing.
"Man, I wish I had a ghost dog," you hear Percy mutter behind you as you arrive at the steps of his cabin.
"Yeah, Ambrose is pretty great," you admit, watching him play with the harpies before shifting your gaze over to Percy. "Thanks for getting the crystal for me." As much as you wanted to stay talking to him, you knew you couldn't stay too long. You were still eager to finish studying, and Ambrose can only hold off the harpies for so long.
"It was no problem. It was on my way up anyways," he shrugs, and you smile, trying to ignore the fluttering feeling in your stomach. You look down, the two of you still holding hands even though the spell wore off already. You awkwardly let go of his hand, shifting on your feet.
"Well, I'll see you around," you say sheepishly, fiddling with your fingers.
"Yeah, I'll see you.” His hand comes up in an awkward wave. You nod, returning the wave. Your eyes meet Percy’s green ones one more time before turning on your heels and walking down the steps of his cabin. You notice that Ambrose is now long gone into the forest, taking the harpies with him to give you time to rush to the other side where your cabin is.
As you hurry back to your cabin, you couldn’t help but smile to yourself as you replayed the interaction you just had with Percy, and you couldn't help but wonder when would be the next time you could talk to him.
You carefully hoist yourself up, climb back into the cabin through the window, sighing softly once you get in. You slowly close the window, your face scrunching at the creaking sound, but you successfully get it closed before turning around, only to be faced with Connor Stoll standing a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest. You gasp loudly, almost dropping the mason jar in your hand, being startled for the second time tonight.
“Oh, look who’s back,” he says, his lips pulled in his usual mischievous smirk, his right eyebrow raised as if he's suspicious of you. You shift, giggling nervously under his graze,
"Hey, Con.” Shit. You knew he wasn’t asleep, and a part of you wasn’t surprised that he had caught you sneaking out again. You weren’t too worried since Connor wasn’t one to be strict or easily angered, neither was Travis, but you can understand if he did get a little upset with you since the cabin could also get in trouble, and he worried about you getting hurt.
"You leave so often, I'm starting to think you're seeing someone," he teases, and you furrow your eyebrows, not really sure what he was trying to get at.
"I'm not seeing anyone. You know what I do when I sneak out," you tell him, putting your hand out to show him the jar full of water. After being caught the first couple of times, you had explained to Connor why you occasionally needed to head out at night. He was understanding of your reasons, telling you to try and not sneak out as often. When he did catch you, he always kept your outings secret. It came with a price, though. You were sometimes stuck doing extra chores, especially anything that had to do with cleaning, since he hated doing anything that had to do with mopping or sweeping.
"So that wasn't you and Percy on the dock?" Your eyes widen, and you feel your face get hot again. You shake your head, stumbling over your words for a second.
"Uh… n- that was a coincidence!" You hear him snort, laughing quietly as if he didn't believe you. Even though he couldn't see your facial expression very well in this lighting, he can still tell how flustered you were at his sudden question.
"Yeah, sure," he says sarcastically, and he hums, "Anyways, what are you going to do for me so that I don't tell on you?" He asks, and your mouth drops open. Usually, he wasn't so forward, and he never threatened to tell on you. "I might spread a rumor about you and Percy rendezvousing at midnight. The Aphrodite cabin will have a hoot with that one."
You gasp, "Connor, are you blackmailing me right now?" You narrow your eyes at him, and he shrugs,
"I guess you can say I am." You shake your head, walking over to your desk to put down your moon water before turning toward him and crossing your arms in front of your chest.
"... what do you want?" You ask, expecting him to make you take up one of his chores. But from the way he was smiling at you, you can tell that there was something more he wanted, and you were beginning to worry.
"Help me turn the Ares Cabin into bunnies," he says, and you shake your head frantically,
"No way! Clarisse will kill me," you whisper. Connor smiles,
"No, she won't. She can't kill you if she's a bunny," he points out, and your face falls flat,
"They're not gonna stay bunnies forever," you say, and you fiddle with your fingers nervously at the idea of the outrage you'd get from the Ares Cabin after shifting back from being bunnies. "I don't know, Con. I don't even know if I can turn all of them into bunnies at once."
Connor waves his hand at you, dismissing your concern. "I don't care for the logistics now. We can work on that later, but you have to agree to at least help me," he says. "Or I'm telling everyone I saw you smooching Percy on the dock."
"What!? We didn't even kiss. We talked for like 5 minutes!" You whisper-yell, your reactions much too entertaining for him, and he was having a hard time holding in his laugh.
"Your decision, y/n."
You sigh, throwing your head back. You look at the ceiling for a second as you consider your two choices. And you decide that getting your head potentially put on a stick by Clarisse was better than the burning embarrassment of Percy thinking you're spreading rumors about kissing him. "Fine, whatever. I'll help you do the bunny thing," you mumble, your shoulders slouched.
Connor nods with a proud smile on his face for trapping you into helping him. "Good choice. I will be going back to sleep now. Good night… again," he announces, turning on his heels and walking over to his bed. You frown a little as you walk back to your desk to study. Plopping down onto your chair, you decide that you’ll worry about Connor’s little plan later so you can focus on your studying. After a while, Ambrose comes trotting in, joining you by the desk as usual. You smile at him, praising the other for distracting the harpies for you before he lays down, his head laying on your foot.
As you study, you find that you couldn’t help your mind drifting back to Percy once and a while. You deem that there was no way that you could have a crush on him since you guys have only spoken once. In the midst of your internal debate to decide what you felt for him, you suddenly remember the crystal that was retrieved for you. You remember how Percy presented it to you, holding it out for you with his fingertips. It was your rose quartz. What a coincidence. You smile, rolling your eyes as you tell yourself that you’re thinking too much into it. You look over, noticing the dim illuminating light of the beginning sunrise shining through the curtains. You sigh, deciding that you should probably get to sleep and take advantage of the maybe, four hours of sleep you’ll get tonight. You close your herbology book before making your way to your bed, and with a soft sigh, you retreat under the covers, and finally, you surrender to your drowsiness.
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ramzawrites · 3 years
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Rivals - Prince!Reader x Prince!Eret
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Male
Pairings: Eret x Reader
Characters included: Eret
Warnings: n/a
Series: a request from 🌱🌟 my beloved <3 /p
Summary: Prince Y/N and Prince Eret hated each other. That was just a fact. Mostly causing trouble together in order to one up the other. Though over the time even their relationship can change.
Words count: 5367
Authors Note: I’ll be honest you hit me with this request at a very good time so I ended up writing 10 pages in one go haha
At the end I made the executive decision to finally cut it off or I probably would have written even more, for which I’m honestly don’t have the time at the moment. I hope it’s not that obvious but if it is I apologize.
Thank you for the request 🌱🌟
I am reposting it since the original post doesn’t seem to appear in the tags no need to check the original post but I wanted to give a reason why it’s twice on my blog
Prince Eret and Prince Y/N hated each other.
That was just a universally accepted thing and something that made sense. Just like how water is wet, the ground was made out of dirt, Eret and Y/N hated each other.
Both of their respecting kingdoms never had a good relationship to say the least. Way back in the day the two nations have wared against each other which almost ruined both kingdoms forcing the two to an act of neutrality with the behest of the neighboring kingdoms.
Though this was way off in the past. Nowadays they had rebuilt. Their forces and monetary situation stood strong but they stayed neutral. Eyeing each other closely for any slip ups, though they were also bound to contracts that would involve other nations as well should they begin to go to war again, which wasn’t in interest for both parties.
So they tried to mostly ignore each other which only worked to an extent. If you are a strong nation with an impressive military force or with a lot of money, other nations will invite you to their balls, banquets or whatever fancy party they have going at that point. And it was in your best interest to join these as well, to show off your might, wealth or to connect with other foreign powers.
The first time Y/N’s family took him with them to one of these balls, he was barely six years old.
For a six year old a ball was a boring affair. All the adults were courteously laughing and only sipping on their drinks. Occasionally walking on the stage to dance to the slow and boring music.
Y/N was busy watching two older women dance in tandem. Their dresses and silk moving together in a sea of fabric that seemed to hypnotized the child as he sat on the side of the stage. His parents were off somewhere else, feeling they could trust enough in his proper upbringing to not cause any problems, that they left him. Saying that he should try to enjoy himself.
Enjoy himself how? Dance with the lonely grandma that was busy drinking away all the wine in the castle? No, thank you.
Finally tearing his eyes off the dancing women Y/N noticed how someone else was cautiously approaching him. It was another kid in what he assumed was his age. This stranger had fluffy wild hair and had a sympathetic smile on his face. He wore a simple suit similar to Y/N’s but there were a ton of differences in details.
As he got closer Y/N could swear that something seemed off about him. Something in him was screaming but he couldn’t place why he felt like that.
“Hello.” The other kid greeted Y/N.
Y/N looked around the room for a second before setting his attention back on him “Hello. Who are you?” There was a small hope in him, hey maybe this boring ball won’t be so boring after all.
With a proud expression the kid did a proper royal greeting, bowing in front of Y/N for a second “I am Prince Eret from the mighty nation of-“
But Y/N interrupted him “Prince Eret?! I know of you! My parents warned me and told me to ignore you.” He then stuck his tongue out and made a point to look away from him.
Eret furrowed his brows, exclaiming loudly his confusion to this reaction “Huh? Why?”
Y/N rolled his eyes and got off the chair he was sitting on. Just like Eret, he did his own version of the royal greeting that he got taught by his etiquette teachers “I am Prince Y/N.”
He knew he didn’t need to say more which got confirmed by Eret’s worried and confused expression turning into a proper frown.
“Oh, yuck, so that’s what you look like.”
Y/N gasped in anger “What do you mean yuck? You are the yuck one here! Between the two of us I’m clearly the cooler prince!”
“Oh really? Prove it.” Eret huffed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Now fired up Y/N looked frantically through the whole ball room but couldn’t seem to come up with anything, that was until he saw a servant of the local royal family sauntering around with a plate of drinks and even with a few cheese and meat skewers.
“I bet I could steal more of these skewers from the servants than you.”
Instead of backing down Eret now had a competitive glint in his eyes “You are on.”
And that’s how both Eret and Y/N got into their first real trouble with their parents and other nobles.
They snuck around the people, hiding behind huge skirts and trying their best to grab a skewer from the plate. At first they waited for the servant to look away while they were talking to someone but soon their maneuvers turned riskier and riskier. Jumping up to grab one or even trying to distract them before grabbing another.
At some point for whatever reason both jumped into the air at the same time, grabbing the same skewer which ended with them smashing into the servant who in return fell down, the drinks spilling onto a couple that stood closely by.
As the adults were trying to understand what just happened Y/N grabbed Eret’s arm and yelled “Run!”
The two begun running away, making their way into the garden, hiding behind a bush as they heard some adults screaming and running around.
Y/N didn’t care if Eret got caught by the adults but he was worried he might sell him out to them as well. No, he was positive he would definitely snitch on him.
Out of breath the two kids huddled together, keeping their ears open, trying to catch any sound that might come closer to them.
Eret looked at Y/N  “I clearly won.” He then showed off the skewers he was holding against his suit, effectively ruining it.
Y/N shook his head, showing his own off “Nuh-uh. I clearly won.”
For some reason or another they managed to acquire the same amount of food so they sadly had to come to the conclusion that this was a tie. As they angrily begun snacking on their loot, they still continued throwing childish insults at each other.
This only lasted for a few minutes until their parents found them and figuratively tore them away to yell at them. Saying things like “this is not the proper behavior of a prince! Now we have to apologize to all the people! Do you know what this could cost us?”
From that point on their rivalry really started. Every few months they would meet up again by proxy of being invited to the same noble festivities. In fact every time Y/N was on such a party he fully expected Eret being there as well.
He would arrive and keep look out for that oh so dashing prince from the rival kingdom. Y/N scoffed, Eret wished he thought of him like that but in truth Y/N probably knew the best what kind of idiot he could be. After all he had firsthand experience for this.
While they always ended up in some sort of trouble there was this one moment, when they were twelve years old, that always stood out to him.
As usual Eret and Y/N found each other during a banquet. Both immediately fell back into arguing and making fun of each other. The adults got so tired of it that they sent the two outside so they could, in their words, cool down.
“You look ridiculous in your suit.” Eret mumbled towards Y/N as they wandered outside into the garden. Y/N just rolled his eyes as a response, choosing to ignore Eret at this point, not feeling comfortable with being banished outside together with him.
The garden was beautiful, of course.
Different kinds of flowers were planted along all the sides of the garden. Between them stood a few Willow trees with their long leaves hanging above the flowers and seating opportunities while in the middle of the whole place stood a beautiful huge pond with a statue protruding from the middle of it. The statue displayed two unidentifiable human beings holding on to each other, both holding an urn up into the air together where some water was rushing out ouf down into the pond.
While this all, together with the moon light, looked almost magical Y/N was more concentrated on what was inside the pond.
As he walked over to the water he could see a few koi fish flitting around in there. He sat down and lazily begun drawing invisible patterns into the water. Sometimes the fish would come close only to immediately swim away once they either saw the hand or felt the movement.
Eret was just standing dumbfounded to the side. Staring at Y/N which infuriated him. He could feel his dark eyes lingering on him and it just annoyed him. Eret finally shut up but now he was just standing there in uncomfortable silence.
Y/N let out a frustrated sigh “Stop doing that.”
Eret looked bewildered at that “Stop, what?”
“Staring! I can see you staring! I know I’m handsome but come on.” Y/N snickered at the last part.
This time Eret rolled his eyes “Nah, I was just thinking how easy it would be to push you into the water right now and was debating if it was worth getting into trouble for it.”
“And what did your small brain come up with?”
Eret walked over and sat down next to Y/N “It’s sadly not worth it. I feel like I would get in even more trouble than last time when I was destroying you in that food fight.”
Y/N angrily shook his head “Oh, no! I was winning! You were lucky my father literally pulled me away from you or you wouldn’t even be standing here right now!”
“You wish! Your father saved the small bit of dignity you have!”
Ignoring Eret’s attempt to obviously rile him up and make him more angry, Y/N turned now fully away from him and instead returned to watching the fish. They looked more interesting and had more personality than Eret anyhow.
It was also definitely easier to look at the animals than Eret. Every time he would look at him even only for a little bit this fuzzy anger inside the pit of Y/N’s stomach would come up and by god he hated it. Unbeknownst to him this feeling was mutual.
Eret almost seemed chuffed that Y/N didn’t seem to react and instead chose to follow him suit with watching the fish.
“If we are already stuck out here let’s make it at least interesting.” Y/N broke the silence “Let’s catch some fish. I’m betting I can catch more than you.”
Eret was already getting rid of his jacket and pushed his sleeves up “I doubt that!”
Not wasting time Y/N shed his jacket as well and rolled his sleeves up only to jump into the water himself once the fish stayed out of both their reaches due to their incessant punching into the water.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Not losing!” was all Y/N said.
Eret not feeling too keen on possibly losing, jumped into the pond as well, trying to ignore Y/N who was inadvertently splashing water his way.
As a bit of a payback Eret threw some water towards Y/N which resulted in him loosing a prime chance for trying to grab a fish.
Everything is allowed in love and war after all and this was definitely war.
Though this action led to Y/N retaliating with spraying water back on Eret. Soon the two didn’t care about the fish anymore and were too busy trying to wrestle the other under the water. It wasn’t a full blown fight, no real punches fell but there was a lot of pushing and pulling.
They only stopped once they heard a blood curdling scream. Apparently the noble who owned the garden saw them inside her pond and was obviously not too pleased with it.
Yeah, there was a lot of anger and screaming afterwards but for Y/N and Eret it just fueled their hatred toward each other. If the other one wasn’t there, then they wouldn’t have this problem in the first place but since this wasn’t the case all they could do as proper heirs to their respecting kingdoms was to make the others existence pain.
Over the years their rivalry became infamous and nobles who invited both to their festivities either tried to keep increased watch over them or to the detriment of both sides of the families, tried to incite them. Noble people where a strange lot, trying to find entertainment in the weirdest places.
Not that Y/N or Eret cared too much. They were too busy trying to screw the other over though their methods changed over the years. As kids they were more physical with it while the older they got they tended to use their words more and more to the relieve of their parents.
A good example for that was when both were about sixteen years old.
At this point they learned to rein in their anger towards the other and instead concentrated more or less on their royal duties. Well, they tried but every time they saw each other anger would just flood their systems.
It was a typical ball really. The nobles were busy mingling with each other, spreading false compliments in order to gain the political or social upper hand. Some called it an intricate game but Y/N thought it was just stupid. Just say what you think and don’t sugar coat it. That was something and maybe the only thing he and Eret could agree on. As much as he hated that guy he wasn’t scared to tell Y/N what he thought of him.
He appreciated him for that. A shiver ran down his spine as soon as that thought crossed his mind and Y/N just shoved it away. Never in his life would he actually appreciate that mad prince.
That said it was a bit weird how he hasn’t spotted Eret yet. Not that he was specifically looking out for him or anything. He just wanted to be aware where he was so he could avoid him. Was he invited? His family was here but he seemed to be gone. Maybe he finally gave up trying to one up Y/N and stayed home.
Y/N doubted that though. The only reason why Eret wouldn’t appear to something like this was if he was seriously sick. It happened only once and Y/N ended up being bored to death. So what if he derived entertainment from his rival? That’s a part of the reason what rivalries are for, right?
Spending so much time thinking about him made Y/N uncomfortable. This one feeling in the pit of his stomach just flared up again which he didn’t appreciate one bit. Just another reason why Eret was so annoying. He was the only person this happened with.
Bored out of his mind Y/N begun moving through the ball room. There was one place Eret could be hiding away at. If anything Y/N could predict some behavior from him over the years. Making sure to stay away from all the dancing people and the conversations, not feeling interested to take part in it. Instead he moved towards the gardens.
It was just the place he and Eret would default to since at the slightest chance of trouble the other nobles liked to throw them out immediately.
So when he spotted Eret walking around the rose bushes it didn’t completely surprise him.
“And here I thought I spied a birds nest in between the bushes but alas it is just Eret’s hair.”
Eret visibly flinched once he heard Y/N. Apparently he had been so busy with his own thoughts that he didn’t notice Y/N approaching him. He frowned at the other prince while he in return was just smirking smugly.
Sighing Eret walked over to a particular big rose and begun inspecting it“ And I thought I would finally be free of you. You arrived late, huh?”
“Hardly my fault, though I too was hoping you finally conceded and stayed home but here you are just staring at some roses like some hopeless romantic prince from some sort of fairy tale.”
When Eret didn’t immediately fire back and hesitated Y/N’s eyes widened “No! Don’t tell me! Don’t tell me you actually have a crush on someone! Who is the poor person?”
As he spoke the words out loud it felt like his chest was ablaze. Something about that thought rubbed him the wrong way. He just labelled it as a different way for his annoyance towards Eret to show up but it confused him nonetheless.
Realistically what did he care about his love affairs?
Finally Eret vehemently shook his head “No, nothing like that! Why was this where your mind went? I was just bored and am looking at the flowers. Even you can admit that they are pretty, right?” Eret chuckled “Or are you jealous somehow?”
“Only in your dreams.” Y/N responded with a disgusted expression on his face.
“Nightmares you mean.” Eret added before pulling one rose out of the bush.
Y/N looked around hoping none of the staff or someone else saw this “Dude, what the hell are you doing? If you get into trouble for stealing flowers and I’m around everyone will think I’m part of this.”
“They won’t notice, Y/N. Well, they will only notice it if you aren’t careful enough. You need to have an eye for such things and me begrudgingly knowing you as well as I do, you do not have an eye for that.”
This is always how it happens. Every god damn time. One of the two would make a statement that the other person couldn’t do a very specific thing and all bets were off.
A dangerous glint appeared in Y/N’s eyes “I’ll give you the most amazing rose bouquet without tipping anyone off.” He didn’t seem to realize what he just said but Eret did.
While Y/N turned around in order to scour out the place Eret was still standing in the back. A soft blush on his face. Almost angry with himself he frowned and turned to the opposite direction Y/N just went. He was just so frustrating to be around. Doesn’t even think before he speaks.
This whole endeavor took longer than both initially expected. Most of the time they would just saunter between the bushes only occasionally plucking a flower off. Often enough the two stood in front of the same rose, trying to act as fast as possible to get it before the other.
Eret clearly went for the flower first but once his hand touched the stem of the rose, Y/N was there as well, his hand brushing past Eret’s, holding onto the lower part of the stem.
“You’ve got be kidding me.” Y/N cursed.
Eret squinted his eyes as he looked at him “What do you mean? I went for it first! You still continued grabbing it like the brute you are!”
Y/N gasped in a fake display of disbelief. Acting like the biggest insult just got hurled towards him when in fact Eret has said worse things before or even the countless nobles who suffered damages due to their shenanigans.
Both stared at each other, not letting go off the rose. Their brows furrowed into deep scowls as they just continued staring at each other. Hoping that for some reason any kind of weakness would just magically appear or that someone will let go off the damn flower.
It was incredibly uncomfortable for the both of them. Y/N and Eret both stared directly into each other’s eyes. Pink dusted faces turned towards one another, not daring to move a muscle.
“God, I hate you so much.” Y/N grumbled.
Eret nodded “Believe me the feeling is mutual.”
After a few more seconds of staring and angry expressions they both let go at the same time.
There they stood. Two princes of enemy kingdoms holding each a small bouquet of roses with blushing faces.
If you would ask them about it they would immediately exclaim the blush was just a result of their anger bubbling out.
Eret let out a breath he didn’t notice he was holding “Tie?”
Y/N looked down at his own bouquet “Yeah, sure, let’s call it a tie. This is stupid anyhow.”
That was the last time they saw each other for a while.
Since they both were heirs to their respective thrones they soon got sent away to boarding schools in order to get properly trained for their future duties. Besides being educated and introduced what these duties actually entailed, they also got trained in the art of combat.
While most of, if not all, nobles learn how to fight it was something expected from Y/N and Eret. They had to get good at it. A tradition that still stemmed from the waring days of their competing nations.
So for the next four years Y/N was sent away to a boarding school inside his own nation, only later hearing that Eret befell the same fate, which didn’t surprise him.
The years dragged on rather slowly. Most of the subjects were boring but Y/N realized they were important so he put himself through the grueling task of proper studying. The daily training sessions helped him immensely by bringing some sort of change to his every day and tended to look forward to them. Mostly since he became good friends with his coach. A mercenary hired by his family to train him.
Becoming a friend to him, while others tried stay away from Y/N. Most didn’t dare to approach the only heir of their kingdom, others knew he was a bit of a troublemaker and stayed away from him because of it.
Y/N caught himself missing Eret from time to time. While he was annoying and infuriating at best, Y/N couldn’t help but think it was more enjoyable than spending his time alone surrounded by people around his age.
Every now and again his thoughts would always jump back to Eret. Hell, he even once considered writing him a letter before he stopped in his tracks, realizing what he was about to do. Silently chastising himself for it.
Y/N graduated when he was twenty. His parents amazed by his progress threw compliments towards his improved behavior.
“Guess Prince Eret was the problem all along.” His mother noted.
He scoffed, of course Eret was the majority of the reason for the problems. His mother only needed to mention him and Y/N already felt the same annoyance from back then again. Guess some things never change.
It was the time for a lot of nobles to graduate so one family took it up on themselves to prepare a grand ball in order to celebrate these young adults. It also helped to bring all the heirs and influential people together to form new relationships that could be beneficial for their future rule.
Y/N got invited as well.
As a graduation gift his parents bought him fancy new clothes made out of the finest cloth. While he thought it was a bit over the top, it was comfortable so he didn’t complain too much. They even fashioned him with a ceremonial crown that complimented the whole outfit quite nicely.
It was only then that it really sunk in what this all meant for him. He had to act proper no matter what from now on. While people were always aware of him, now they were really watching. This also meant he had to start to properly get into contact with other influential families and nations which meant he had to actually dance on this ball.
So when he and his family stepped out of the wagon that brough them to this event, his heart was beating fast. Y/N was nervous and yet he still managed to put on a confident smile. He didn’t go through all these etiquette classes without learning a few things at least.
When he walked into the ball room, a servant announced his and his families arrival which caused a lot of people to turn their heads. It was the first official outing of an heir to an incredibly strong nation, of course they wanted to see what he was like.
In fact it didn’t take long until Y/N got swarmed by multiple people talking courteously and making conversation with him. He returned the gestures and mingled with the others, curious to see if anyone interesting was here. It was the first time in a long time people didn’t seem to avoid him, even if it was purely for the purpose of forming new beneficial connections.
It beat sitting around alone.
Y/N slowly scanned the huge room with his eyes that’s when he spied something that made his heart figuratively jump into his throat.
In the corner stood someone tall with a shock of brown and fluffy hair that got pushed down by a crown. He wore an amazing suit made out of silk and with a variant of different purples completed with something that resembled a cape. As he talked to the person in front of him he had this huge, genuine, beautiful smile on his face that made Y/N’s heart skip a beat.
He was handsome that’s all he could say about him. Knocking all the air out of Y/N’s lungs.
Pressing his hand against his madly blushing face Y/N tried to look like he was deep in thought and not just silently checking out this one person way off in the corner.
“Be still my beating heart.” Y/N mumbled as he pressed his free hand on his chest. Feeling his heart beating fast and hard against his ribcage. Luckily no one heard him but he did receive a few worried and confused looks. Guess he wasn’t as sneaky about his display of emotions as he had thought.
Y/N took a deep breath in and coughed in order to calm himself down a bit “I’m sorry to interrupt you all, but I need to go. I need to find something out. It was an honor talking with you and I hope we can continue this later on.”
With all the confidence he didn’t have Y/N slowly made his way towards that person. Something was just pulling him towards him and he needed to at least know his name. It was like his heart and mind both yelled at Y/N.
While walking he could tell that his breath was short. He felt hot and he was certain that his face was still in a lovely shade of red.
Did he just develop a probably one sided crush? Perhaps.
Once he got close enough, he begun to tremble. His knees felt weak and by god he wanted to turn around but something in him just forced him to move on. As if this was his only chance to ever exchange even a word with that stranger.
Y/N was about to put on a polite smile and wave towards him but the stranger was faster and turned towards him.
The stranger audibly and unmistakably gasped. His eyes wide open as his face suddenly turned into a similar shade of red to Y/N.
“Hello.” Y/N begun speaking. He wanted to introduce himself but his voice failed him. Throat and lips dry out of nervousness.
“Y/N?” he spoke with a deep, soothing voice and Y/N had to admit he liked hearing his name coming out of his mouth.
Wait that handsome stranger knew him?
That’s when it hit him. But that can’t be! That was impossible, he would have recognized him immediately!
“Oh. Eret?”
Y/N put his hand against his mouth trying to hide the smile and blush. Why was he feeling like this? Why wasn’t his typical white anger returning? He still had that fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach but something felt different. Maybe it was the maturity from the years or maybe he just imagined it.
Eret was madly blushing and just staring at Y/N as he slowly lifted up his trembling hand “Let’s talk. Would you care for a dance?”
That feeling in his stomach increased as well as the beating of his heart and yet Y/N put his hand into that of Eret’s. Together they walked towards the middle of the room. Slowly beginning to dance.
Y/N was at this point biting his lip. He wanted to talk, say anything but his mind was running in overdrive. No proper sentences would form. Luckily some sort of muscle memory jumped in when it came to the dancing but everything else? No, he was completely screwed.
Why now? Why was he reacting like this?
“You look like you are doing well.” Eret suddenly spoke. His voice trembling almost as much as his hands.
Y/N nodded as he continued moving in tandem with Eret. Their feet skillfully moving around on the dance floor.
“You look good, uh, I mean, you look alright as well, you do look good but I mean you seem to be doing good as well.” After Y/N stammered that out he mentally begun cursing himself out.
He used to wrestle Eret into the mud, why is this happening to him? Why can’t he just go back to his anger, that was easier to deal with. Wait, is that the reason why their anger towards each other held on for so long? Sure, their families had always a rivalry but over time something must have subtly changed concerning their relationship that it managed to end up like this.
Y/N felt like a lovesick pre-teen and he hated it.
Eret suddenly let out a short laugh “I’m guessing you didn’t expect this as well?”
Y/N raised his eyebrows “I- I have no idea what you mean. Like, seriously, what exactly of this do you mean?” Of course his nervousness showed itself via him ranting his thoughts off.
“Us meeting like this again.”
“Seeing our past track record I feel like it was inevitable, though this time it certainly does feel different.”
“Yeah, I can tell.” Eret smirked and gave Y/N a wink only to end up turning back into a blushing mess himself.
Now Y/N begun to chuckle, his blush ever present on his face, he pressed his forehead against Eret’s shoulder. Trying his best to hide his face from his view, not willing to give Eret the satisfaction that he succeeded in whatever the hell he just did.
Instead of stopping the two continued to dutifully dance. The best way for a private conversation was while dancing after all but the two were too busy snickering at themselves.
While Y/N had his head still pressed against Eret, Eret spoke up “I’m glad you are here, Y/N. Meeting you here like that again after these years, it made me realize something.”
“Like what?” The same was true of him, of course but he was almost scared of saying it out loud.
Y/N looked back up again but Eret hesitated. His eyes landed on Y/N’s lips only to immediately snap back up to his eyes.
So when he asked “May I?” Y/N knew exactly what he meant.
He gave him a nod which resulted in the two stopping to dance. Eret placed one of his hands against Y/N’s jawline and the other continued to rest at his side as he closed the space between their lips. At first softly brushing their lips for a small second but then Eret went back in pressing his lips properly on Y/N’s only to separate after a few moments.
Y/N put his hands on Eret’s chest, feeling his rapidly beating heart beneath his fingertips “I thought you hated me.” He noted smugly.
Eret laughed “I guess we both were wrong in some way.” He immediately dove back into Y/N’s lips, deepening the kiss, ignoring the confused and surprised noises from all the other guests.
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luckgods · 3 years
Text
Why all the white guys in whump?
I got Inspired by a post asking that question, and here we are. Warning: long post ahead.
I think it’s due to a combination of factors, as things frequently are.
The preference for / prevalence of white male characters in fandom is well-known and has been examined pretty thoroughly by people already.
What’s worth noting for discussing this tendency in whump in particular is that the ‘whump fandom’ itself is not a ‘fandom’ in the traditional sense of being made of fans of one single source narrative (or source setting, like a particular comics fandom, or the Star Wars extended universe) with pre-existing characters. Although subsets of traditional fandoms certainly exist within the larger whump fandom, a lot of whump is based on original, ‘fan’-created characters.
So, given the tendency of ‘traditional’ fandoms to create stories disproportionately centered on white male characters due to the source material itself being centered on white male characters (and giving more narrative weight to them, characterizing them better, etc), if we say hypothetically that the whump fandom is split say 50/50 between ‘traditional’ fandom works and original whump works, you’d expect to see a higher number of works focused on white men than the demographics of the ‘traditional’ fandom’s source work would predict, but not as extreme of a divergence between the source material & the fanworks as the one you’d see if whump fandom were 100% based on popular media.
However, that doesn’t quite seem to be the case. Whump stories and art remain focused on overwhelmingly male and frequently white characters, which means that the tendency of the fandom to create stories disproportionately centered on white male characters cannot be ONLY explained by the source material itself being centered on white male characters (and giving more narrative weight to them, characterizing them better, etc).
And, having established the fact that whump writers & artists presumably have MORE control over the design of their characters than writers & artists in ‘traditional’ fandoms, we have to wonder why the proportions remain biased towards men, & white men in particular.
The race thing is pretty simple in my opinion. Mostly, it’s just another extension of the fanbase’s tendency to reflect the (predominantly US-American, on tumblr) culture it exists in, which means that, in a white-centric culture, people make artworks featuring white people.
There’s also the issue of artists being hesitant to write works that dwell heavily on violence towards people of color due to the (US-American) history of people of color being violently mistreated. I’ve actually seen a couple of posts arguing that white people SHOULDN’T write whump of nonwhite characters (particularly Black characters) because of the history of actual violence against Black bodies being used as entertainment, which means that fictional violence against Black people, written by white people, for a (presumed) white audience, still feels exploitative and demeaning.
I'm not going to get into all my thoughts on this discussion here but suffice to say that there's probably an impact on the demographics of whump works from authors of color who simply... don't want to see violence against people of color, even non-explicitly-racialized violence, and then another impact from white authors who choose not to write non-white characters either due to the reasons stated above, or simply due to their personal discomfort with how to go about writing non-white characters in a genre that is heavily focused on interpersonal violence.
Interestingly enough, there’s also a decent proportion of Japanese manga & anime being used as source material for whump, and manga-styled original works being created. The particular relationship between US-American and Japanese pop culture could take up a whole essay just by itself so I’ll just say, there’s a long history of US-Japanese cultural exchange which means that this tendency is also not all that surprising.
GENDER though. If someone had the time and the energy they could make a fucking CAREER out of examining gender in whump, gender dynamics in whump, and why there seems to be a fandom-wide preference for male whumpees that cannot be fully explained by the emphasis on male characters in the source text.
I have several different theories about factors which impact gender preference in whump, and anyone who has other theories (or disagrees with mine) is free to jump in and add on.
THEORY 1: AUTHOR GENDER AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
 Fandom in general is predominantly female, although these days it might be more accurate to say that fandom is predominantly composed of cis women and trans people of all genders. However, pretty much everyone who isn't a cis man has had to contend with the specter of gendered violence in their real personal life. Thus, if we posit whump (and fandom more generally) as a sort of escapist setup, it's not hard to see why whump authors & artists might willfully eschew writing female whumpees (especially in the case of inflicted whump), because (as in the discussion of people of color in whump above), even violence towards women that is explicitly non-gender-based may still hit too close to home for people whose lives have been saturated with the awareness of gender-based violence.
THEORY 2: SICK OF SEXY SUFFERING.
 Something of an addendum to theory 1, it's worth noting that depictions of female suffering in popular media are extremely gendered (in that they specifically reflect real-life gender-based violence, and that said real-life violence is almost exclusively referenced in relation to female characters) and frequently sexualized as well. There's only so many times you can see female characters having their clothes Strategically Ripped while they're held captive, being sexually menaced (overtly or implicitly) to demonstrate How Evil the villain is, or just getting outright sexually assaulted for the Drama of it all before it gets exhausting, especially when the narratives typically either brush any consequences under the rug, or dwell on them in a way that feels more voyeuristic and gratuitous than realistic and meaningful. All this may result in authors who, given the chance to write their own depictions of suffering, may decide simply to remove the possibility of gendered violence by removing the female gender.
THEORY 3: AUTHOR ATTRACTION. 
I'll admit that this one is more a matter of conjecture, as I haven't seen any good demographic breakdowns of attraction in general fandom or whump fandom. That said, my own experience talking to fellow whump fans does indicate that attraction to the characters (whether whumpers, or whumpees) is part of the draw of whump for some people. This one partially ties into theory 1 as well, in that people who are attracted to multiple genders may not derive the same enjoyment out of seeing a female character in a whumpy situation as they might seeing a male character in that situation, simply because of the experience of gendered violence in their lives.
THEORY 4: ACCEPTABLE TARGETS.
 The female history of fandom means that there's been a lot more discussion of the impacts of depicting pain & suffering (especially female suffering) for personal amusement. Thus, in some ways, you could say that there is a mild taboo on putting female characters through suffering if you can't "justify" it as meaningful to the narrative, not just titillating, which whump fandom rarely tries or requires anyone to do. This fan-cultural 'rule' may impact whump writers' and artists' decisions in choosing the gender of their characters.
THEORY 5: AN ALTERNATIVE TO MAINSTREAM MASCULINITY.
 Whump fandom may like whumping men because by and large, mainstream/pop culture doesn't let men be vulnerable, doesn't let them cry, doesn't let them have long-term health issues due to constantly getting beat up even when they really SHOULD, doesn't let them have mental health issues period. Female characters, as discussed in theory 2, get to ("get to") go through suffering and be affected by it (however poorly written those effects are), but typically, male characters' suffering is treated as a temporary problem, minimized, and sublimated into anger if at all possible. (For an example, see: every scene in a movie where something terrible happens and the male lead character screams instead of crying). So, as nature abhors a vacuum, whump fandom "over-produces" whump of men so as to fill in that gap in content.
THEORY 6: AMPLIFIED BIAS.
 While it's true that whump fandom doesn't have a source text, it's also true that whump fans frequently find their way into the fandom via other 'traditional' fandoms, and continue participating in 'traditional' fandoms as part of their whump fandom activity. Bias begets bias; fandom as a whole has a massive problem with focusing on white male characters, and fans who are used to the bias towards certain types of characters in derivative works absolutely reproduce that bias in their own original whump works.
I honestly think that there is greater bias in the whump fandom than anyone would like to admit. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems as though whump fans avoid introspection and discussion of the issue by bringing up the points I talked about in my previous theories, particularly discomfort with depictions of female suffering for amusement.
However, I think that, as artists, we owe it to ourselves and one another to engage in at least a small amount of self-interrogation over our preferences, and see what unconscious or unacknowledged biases we possess. It's a little absurd to argue that depictions of women as whumpees are universally too distressing to even discuss when a male character in the exact same position would be fine and even gratifying to the person making that argument; while obviously, people have a right to their own boundaries, those boundaries should not be used to shut down discussion of any topics, even sensitive ones.
Furthermore, engaging in personal reflection allows artists to make more deliberate (and meaningful) art. For people whose goal is simply to have fun, that may not seem all that appealing, but having greater understanding of one's own preferences can be very helpful towards deciding what works to create, what to focus on when creating, and what works to seek out.
GENDER ADDENDUM: NONBINARY CHARACTERS, NONBINARY AUTHORS. 
Of course, this whole discussion so far has been exclusively based on a male-female binary, which is reductive. (I will note, though, that many binary people do effectively sort all nonbinary people they know of into 'female-aligned' and 'male-aligned' categories and then proceed to treat the nonbinary people and characters they have categorized a 'female-aligned' the same way as they treat people & characters who are actually female, and ditto for 'male-aligned'. That tendency is very frustrating for me, as a nonbinary person whose gender has NOTHING to do with any part of the binary, and reveals that even 'progressive' fandom culture has quite a ways to go in its understanding of gender.)
Anyways, nonbinary characters in whump are still VERY rare and typically written by nonbinary authors. (I have no clue whether nonbinary whump fans have, as a demographic group, different gender preferences than binary fans, but I'd be interested in seeing that data.)
As noted above with female characters, it's similarly difficult to have a discussion about representation and treatment of nonbinary characters in whump fandom, and frankly in fandom in general. Frequently, people regard attempts to open discussions on difficult topics as a call for conflict. This defensive stance once again reveals the distaste for requests of meaningful self-examination that is so frequent in fandom spaces, and online more generally.
TL;DR: Whump is not immune to the same gender & racial biases that are prevalent in fandom and (US-American) culture. If you enjoy whump: ask yourself why you dislike the things you dislike— the answer may surprise you. If you create whump: ask yourself whose stories you tell, and what stories you refuse to tell— then ask yourself why.
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gisellelx · 3 years
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I've got to object HEARTILY to Esme being Jewish. Domestic abuse is anathema in Jewish culture (with the exception of *maybe* some very very fundamentalist sects), and it's canonical that her parents knew Charles was physically hurting her. I don't care what time period we're talking about, Esme's parents would have taken her home and she would have recourse to a divorce. That headcanon is not awesome, it's extremely culturally tone-deaf.
Oh you have decided to come into my inbox to talk about someone else's headcanon. Well, strap in, anon, this is going to be a semi-long post because there are four separate things this ask makes me want to talk about. tl;dr--this is interesting and useful, so why not direct this comment in a thoughtful manner at the OP? First, let's talk about headcanons. Headcanons are what in the trade are called backstory. They're the stuff that you, as the author, know about your character which may or may not end up on the page, but which should influence what does end up on the page. When you're talking to the writer of a source, there is a "right" and a "wrong" headcanon because the author actually does know what they had in mind (or at least, they should; I happen to think that is often not the case for Stephenie Meyer). But when it comes to fans reading between the lines, making up their own headcanons to guide their own engagement with characters? There's no such right and wrong. There're some things that are better supported or less supported, either by canon itself or by history/circumstance, of course. We can agree or disagree on them, or argue about why one makes more sense than another, but when it comes to it, we aren't the originators of the canon so unless they're running contradictory to the canon, they're not "wrong" per se. Second. Esme as Jewish. This is a piece of Twi Renaissance fanon with which I happen also to HEARTILY disagree. While I happen not to be Jewish and don't know this particular piece of information you've offered, anon, there are two big reasons why I think her being Jewish is a nonstarter: one, the Jewish population in Ohio was very small in 1911 and mostly in Cincinnati, which was the largest city at the time, not Columbus. It was also very insular--a Jewish family was not particularly likely to horse-and-buggy it to the city to see a doctor. I agree, the way Esme's parents behaved is much more consistent with Protestant, Calvinist Christianity, which would make a ton of sense for the middle of Ohio at the turn of the 20th century. I've never fully fleshed this one out in my head, but I'd be leaning toward Methodist. The second reason I disagree with it is that it strikes me as very unlikely that Carlisle would be open to marrying a Jewish woman. This is a rant suited for another day, but please never mistake my curiosity for Carlisle's character as a blanket condoning of everything he is and stands for. He's quite racist, which we see in canon, he's pretty misogynistic, and he doesn't experience much contrition for the ways his actions harm others. The religion he was raised in would've taught him to be derisive of Jewish people, and the circles he moved in thereafter would not have offered very many opportunities for him to change his mind. So I am starting from a base of assuming that Carlisle is pretty anti-Semitic. I think he probably woke up on this front around the Holocaust. These things are actually why I find him so compelling--he's pretty deeply prejudiced about a lot of things and it means he has great blind spots I can exploit as a writer. Okay, onto thing three. So why would I reblog something and tag it with my "awesome headcanons" tag when I don't agree with every single word? Because it's interesting and fun and sharing fan content makes the world go 'round. And consistent tags make it easier to navigate old content. But shouldn't I be really clear that I don't agree with that one part just be sure that no one mistakes it for my idea? Well, imagine if every headcanon or meta someone shared was followed by a bunch of reblogs of people going, "Well, actually I don't like this part even though I agree with most of these..." this place would stop being fun real quick. I lived through a time in this fandom when fic authors told their readers to go fuck themselves in their author's notes, when people created whole blogs and livejournal communities just to anonymously make fun of anyone whose fic was remotely popular, where it was seen as totally acceptable to drag people's
personal lives out in the open and mock them for whatever personal thing they mentioned having done in service of you know, just being human and talking about their lives.
That sort of constant fighting makes you not want to engage with other people. Most of us just took our balls and went home. So I'm not going to do that to another fan because I enjoy being a fan with other fans. This is also the same reason I don't spend a lot of time going "I know you all love calling Esme Jewish but I disagree because this this and this other this"...like, that's just not fun for anybody, even if I can support my position well. I will quietly hold my own headcanon over here and I'm going to not jump on somebody else about theirs.
But what if the thing somebody said actually could be unintentionally harmful? Am I telling you to just shut up about that? Part four: your very odd decision to anon into my inbox about headcanons from someone else. What you've offered here is really useful information, because as you point out, it suggests something negative about Jewish people (an already marginalized group) that isn't true and therefore is harmful. So here's a much more useful way to address that. Rather than going anon into the asks of a person who reblogged it, which doesn't get you anywhere, you could choose to either thoughtfully engage the OP, or you could reblog it yourself and say, "You know, this particular headcanon is actually problematic. You may not know this, but domestic violence is actually very frowned on in Jewish culture and it's very unlikely her parents would not have taken her back in. That they didn't suggests she's not Jewish. To suggest that she is Jewish would ascribe this untrue awful behavior to Jewish people which, given the extent to which Jewish people were and are still persecuted across the globe, is a thing you don't want to do, even unintentionally in good fun. So I just want to make you aware." The latter is probably the better option, in part because then you'll ascribe your own blog to the comment, and people can know it was your well-supported point. You'll then allow yourself room to let the OP rebut directly about why they followed that particular headcanon in the first place and what they think of your critique of it. But since it's not actually my headcanon, and one I don't actually hold, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. Thanks for the soapbox, though.
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Answering these two asks in a post so all the content can stay in one place!
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The original post in question can be found here!
Drift
·He's delighted to have a whole group of young humans on board to foster diplomacy, and he fully intends to do whatever is necessary to make them feel safe and welcome. Though his introduction is polite, the small crowd immediately takes note of his ever present swords, and to his delight their reaction is purely one of innocent awe at his impressive weaponry. Always happy to encourage responsible sword use, he explains the significance of each blade and is incredibly careful when showing the very tiny and very delicate humans what they look like up close. Their delight is so simple and pure some part of him is reminded of his long gone naivety, and his promise to protect them becomes a vow he never intends to break while his own spark still flickers.
·When he casually mentions time on earth one day the group is surprised and effusive in a sudden burst of questions. When he's actually able to recall a surprising amount of pop culture facts their little minds are nearly blown, and from then on they seem to seek him out just to socialize, something that quite surprises him for a multitude of reasons. Even after all his time with the Autobots, many still don't fully accept him as one of their own, so to be seen as a companion by beings so young and innocent... If absolutely touches him, while also making him determined to ensure they never discover that aspect of his life. He tells himself it's for their safety, and that the young shouldn't be troubled with burdens not their own, but he knows that losing the simple delight of their company and respect would hurt him deeply.
·Due to his need for frequent training to keep his skills sharp, it's no surprise that his little fans one day stumble upon him dicing up training dummies in one of the many gymnasium inspired practice areas. Upon seeing them in action he's soon surrounded by a group of very eager wannabe sword fighters, and while he's still recovering from the idea that he's wanted as a teacher a casual mention of Spectralism prompts a new wave of curiosity and interest that he can barely handle. It takes all of his willpower just to keep from letting on how impossibly touched he is by each and every one of them. They're just... interested in who he is? They look up to him just because they think he's cool and want to learn more about his faith, his skills, and his passions...
·The simple goodness of the relationship is all brought to what he thinks to be the end when his past is exposed by accident. He's not even with them when they find out, but he's devastated, and can't bring himself to face them now that they know who he used to be. It's only through sheer determination on behalf of the whole group, and what he thinks is bad luck for him, that the young liaisons manage to find and speak to him once more. For an instant he breaks and can only apologize effusively, begging their forgiveness for... well, everything from the secret to letting them down to allowing them to believe he was what they thought he was. It takes all of them working in tandem to speak over him and make one thing clear; no one is angry.
·His little group of fans makes it abundantly clear they don't see him as "Deadlock" or a Decepticon or anything but the bot they've come to respect. He's not his past in their eyes, and his present has been nothing but kind and welcoming to each and every one of them. Their little hands take hold of his in a gesture of affirmation, and in the strength of their compassion he can't help but feel dwarfed by each of them. Somehow, the experience brings them even closer, and they can frequently be heard referring to their "older brother" when heading off for the training sessions he painstakingly caters to their size. When some of them begin to show him Spectralist greetings and goodbyes he has to take the time to shed a few tears in private, but they definitely notice how affected he is regardless, and each of them make a point to show him how important he is to them every day.
Rodimus
·It was his own genius diplomatic skills that got these little humans secured on the ship in the first place, so he's quite eager to welcome them on board when the day finally comes. The fact that he stresses about impressing them for hours beforehand is something he keeps entirely to himself though... Yet it turns out he has nothing to fear, because each human is rendered speechless merely by the size of the Lost Light when they first see it, and he can't help but be made giddy as a result. He doesn't need to fake any of the enthusiasm he shows as he takes them on a tour, speeding through the hallways and alternating between giving them lifts in vehicle mode and bot mode, the latter of which has him carrying the group on his shoulders and in his arms.
·It's impossible not to be shocked as he sees the humans all... like and respect him immediately? Everything from his altmode to his jokes, they just... their little faces light up and they compliment him and they all want to hang out with him again as soon as possible?! What is this?! Despite having no idea he happily throws himself into this new and strange relationship with these tiny humans. So many of the interests and hobbies he's been told are "unfit" for a bot in his position are met with fascination, support, and requests for him to teach them all he can. It quickly goes from pleasantly surprising to absolutely touching. The whiplash of suddenly having so much positive attention spurs a change in him, namely one of uncharacteristic levels of protective instinct towards these precious visitors.
·Though he's entirely casual to their faces, behind the scenes he's checking on absolutely everything to ensure they're all taken care of. Are their rooms comfortable? Is the food to their liking? Does the crew make them feel welcome? Can he do anything to make their stay better? The various bots he checks in with to ensure everything is running smoothly quickly grow irritated with his constant pestering, though this new side of him is refreshing to most, particularly because he hasn't ever been this responsible about anything in the past. He even checks in with Magnus on the regular! And submits reports in a timely fashion! All to make sure he's doing everything in his power to keep these young liaisons as happy as he can.
·To the humans themselves though, he's the ultimate fun uncle, introducing them to the entire crew and showing them all the fun things there are to do around the ship. If he hears even a rumor that one of them is missing something about their home or wants to try something they don't have the ability to make happen, you better believe he is going to do everything in his power as captain to get things going. But of course he keeps all this work to himself, he wants to be the most effortlessly cool bot they know, and also doesn't want to concern them with all of the details. Unfortunately a slip up for one particularly epic movie night at Swerve's reveals the many sleepless hours he spent arranging it all, and in his rushed reasurances it comes out that he's been working himself ragged taking care of their every need.
·The entire group is shocked by his dedication, but also his incredible talent. He's funny, charismatic, friendly, and he's also been doing so much for them? The entire group brings him into an impromptu hug of appreciation, and he very nearly tears up in front of them. Somehow, these young aliens have become everything he didn't know he needed. They're his friends, but they look up to him, and his new honorifics of "Fun uncle" and "big brother" are there to prove it. But from then on they refuse to let him do all the work of arranging things himself. If someone has an idea to improve the ship, it gets done as a group, with one very happy bot surrounded by his ever present posse of humans ready to help the coolest captain in the galaxy. They're even kind enough to pretend they don't see the happy tears misting his optics from time to time.
Rung
·Not having ever been to earth, along with never seeing humans outside of their media, means he really didn't know what to expect of the incoming humans. Hearing that they were all exceptionally young just made him concerned, especially after a quick bit of research made it apparent that humans are quite emotionally turbulent in this protoformesque stage. He's not concerned for his sake though, even the tallest human is tiny at his side, he's worried they made need a little extra assistance adjusting to life after such a big change. Thus, he makes quite sure to be present when they're brought on board to introduce himself and extend his services. A small part of him can't help but be delighted upon meeting them; so small, yet so exuberant! They're all polite despite their wide eyed wonder at... everything, but his description of his proffesion really catches their attention for a group exclamation; Cybertronians have psychologists?!
·Having prepared to offer help, he's blindsided by their interest in simply... learning about his career? They want to know about the places he's been and the ships he's served on, particularly when they learn he has models of each, and they're so small he's not at all worried when he brings a couple collectibles down for them to see up close. Watching these little beings clamor to see something most of his own kind finds boring makes the protective feelings in his spark strengthen into a promise to keep each and every one of them safe. He takes note of each individual human's traits and personalities while memorizing their names, being quite aware of how much it means to simply have one's designation remembered, and also commits to guiding them all through their unique interests and goals.
·Spending time with the liaisons in their group as well as one on one, it doesn't occur to him that they don't follow the same pattern as every Cybertronian he's ever met until one of them brings it up; why do the other bots always get his name wrong? It's only in that moment he realizes none of them have ever forgotten, mispronounced, or even hesitated to say his name. The surprise is enough that he can't even reply to them initially. When he does manage to find words they're quite insufficient, and he tries to explain that even he doesn't know, but he's always just assumed his small stature and quiet demeanor simply meant he tended to fade from memory rather quickly. Nothing else beyond his "historical constant" theory really explains it, as far as he knows.
·Ever able to defy expectations, the little liaisons react to his indirect self depreciation with emphatic reasurances that he's not at all forgetable, and are so intent on making sure he knows that they speak over one another in an emotional gaggle of supportive youngsters. It's all more than the quiet psychiatrist could have ever expected. Of course he never enjoyed being forgotten, but he's become so accustomed to dismissing those feelings he has no way to process this sudden outpouring of support. The humans are all around him in a kind of embrace, which is made difficult mostly due to the number of them and the size difference, but the affection in the gesture is still quite clear. It's all he can do to hold them in return as they all promise to never forget him no matter what happens.
·He keeps his tears private, but that doesn't stop them from coming when he's behind closed doors, though he just lets the happiness brim over into the few that run down his cheeks after he removes his glasses. The irony of it all doesn't hit him until he and the group are present at a movie night, and as he listens to them all gush in turn to the cinema selection of the evening it occurs to him that his initial intent to help them has been flipped quite completely around. These little ones have helped him, helped him feel worth remembering, helped him feel like he belongs, helped him find a family... Watching them gather around him almost protectively from a forgetful world, he isn't quite sure if he's been adopted or if they have, but he can't bring himself to care about such details. Neither can any of the liaisons who vowed to each other their new friend would never feel lonely again.
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loser-poser-emo · 3 years
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brief history of emo (by me)
1. 80s - "first wave" 2. 90s - "second wave" 3. 00s - "third wave" 4. 10s - "now"
so where did it started? most people think it started in 1984, in washington, dc, when the legendary rites of spring were formed. their self-titled album came out next year. they were big fans of minor threat. also ian mackaye formed embrace - other pioneering and important emo band. it's useful to note that emo bands in scene back then fucking hated that label - like, can't other hardcore bands be emotional? but the difference i see from so-called-"emocore" (formed from emotional hardcore) bands and other hardcore bands - emo stuff is more melodic i think? and more about exploring emotions - while hardcore was more political. anyways, emo then was just a dc scene thing. and guys from rites of spring and embrace founded fugazi - an awesome post-hardcore band. must-listen!
notable bands form that period: rites of spring, embrace, gray matter.
you know that copypasta? "real emo only consists.."? that's what i'm talking about - "midwest emo". as i see this - it's emo, but influenced by math rock and all that suburbia sadness. more indie, may i say. still awesome, though. second wave started by one of the most important bands - sunny day real estate. with their 1994's diary they became one of the most popular bands in emo scene. not only grunge, but emo also became [more of] a subculture in 90s. but instead of continuing their hardcore legacy, emo more shifted into math rock/pop-punk/indie/etc influenced alternative rock scene, with the guys in it copying weezer's rivers cuomo "nerd" style - morrissey's glasses, mom-knitted sweaters, thrifted t-shirts... although are weezer themselves emo? a big question. someday i will write about it. emo became not just a dc thing - it was all over united states. specifically, midwest. most of midwest emo bands were located there... unexpected? nevertheless, in some way emo became more mainstream(but it fully broke into it in 00s) and we have may more different bands influenced by different genres than we did in 80s
notable bands:
of course. sunny day real estate.
more midwest emo: the get up kids, american football, the promise ring.
more influenced by pop-punk: jawbreaker, saves the day.
oh, the 2000s. this is gonna be kinda controversial, i’m afraid. i think, one of the first thing you need to know, some stuff you think is "emo" - is kinda... not. and it all started in here, when people realised they can make a profit of emo stuff and there were tons of bands who were positioned in society as emo bands while being their own form - and like that, fifteen years ago almost every popular alt-rock band was called emo! some kind of fashion became a deeper point in whole subculture - you know what i'm talking about - all this heavy makeup, huge fringes... this kind of style became inseparable of the word "emo" back then - and even now! everyone was "emo", everyone was listening to mcr, p!atd, the used... (none of them are emo ???)... while in 90s - aka "second wave" - everyone just dressed up way more casually and "vintage". but there were "real emo" bands in 00s, don't worry. in late 90s, and 00s, screamo was more and more involved in emo scene - i would recommend an awesome band i hate myself - and it shows. so yeah, screaming was almost always a part in emocore… now i’d like to write some bands, and some may not agree, i accept it. in this part, i’d also like to list some bands that are commonly mistaken as emo - one day i’ll make a post about why they are not emo.
notable bands:
emo: thursday, jimmy eat world, saves the day, taking back sunday.
not really: the used, blink-182(seriously? how?), green day, all time low, my chemical romance, fall out boy, panic! at the disco, paramore, arctic monkeys.
what’s up with emo now? the only thing i know, are “midwest-emo” bands, that are just making stuff like midwest scene did in 90s. i don’t know, are they real emo. they are just making math-rock influenced alternative stuff, and that fine… not always my thing. but they are great. apart from such bands, i don’t really think we really had an emo revival of some sort. all those “not really emo” bands like paramore and fob had albums in 10s, but they are even less emo than everything! seriously, i saw too much people guessing is fob’s mania emo or not. IT IS NOT. it‘s never been. it’s- it’s just alternative rock - not saying it’s bad, but… also like twenty one pilots??? no fucking way they are emo. i will explain it all later - however, it seems pretty obvious.
notable bands: modern football, mom jeans.
in the end i would say, topic of which band is emo or not (especially about 00s bands) is a really hard - because to resolve once and for all is your favorite 00s alt rock band emo - we would have to define what emo is. originally, 80s hardcore? or midwest scene of 90s? or fake emo bands like mcr are, in fact, emo, because it’s the emotion that counts, and we’re all just mistaken? who knows. stay tuned for more of my emo poser thoughts!
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ok...ok ok ok... ok... so I watched Mulan (2020)... spoilers + LONG POST (yo this took me an hour and a half)...
before yall scream at me for spending money on it, lemme just say i was fully intending to wait until December so that I would not have to give even more money to the Disney machine (especially in light of things that happened with John Boyega) nor endorse individuals who support police brutality or oppression... but my mum and sister nagged me to buy it so we could watch it now, and explaining the politics of supporting both Disney’s greed and the controversy around the lead actress and would’ve just frustrated us both so I paid for it -_- please don’t crucify me... 
also want to preface this by saying I am not Chinese (though I am Asian), and I understand that the 1998 film and this film have inherent issues, given neither were directed by Asian directors, let alone Chinese ones... so the representation of the Chinese culture is likely flawed (and likely straight up wrong) in many ways... additionally, Li Yifei has been shown to support the actions of police in Hong Kong, so just know I’m viewing her role purely from an acting and movie standpoint...
now that’s done... general rating for the movie
when compared to the original animated film (my favourite Disney movie of all time): scrapes by on a 5/10
movie that stands on its own as I watched it (just note I’m the type of person who can enjoy pretty much anything - even if I’m hyper-critical of it): 7/10 (I’m very generous but my viewing experience was nice)
if I break it down completely into its underlying faults and wash away the Hollywood sheen and the nostalgia filter: 4/10 for themes 8/10 for cinematography and the technical aspects... (this movie was gorgeous to look at and had some really fun camera work, sue me for enjoying the visuals)
Full SPOILER review:
For the most part, my nostalgia filter from the animated film, which I dearly dearly love, basically had me ecstatic anytime there was even a hint of a reference to the animated film (see: occasional notes from the songs), and also sorely disappointed when the acting or the general pace pulled the fun or the emotion from key points (see: A Girl Worth Fighting For being abruptly cut off upon seeing the carnage would’ve been so much more impactful because they actually showed the bodies in the 2020 version but instead we got this kinda funny convo referencing the lines completely separated from that scene)...
The biggest issue I have with the film is that Mulan was naturally skilled from the beginning and was told to suppress her abilities.. making her OP from the beginning undermines the 1998 journey where we see every step of her development both in physical ability and her emotional struggles... then through her wits, intelligence, and strategy, as well as being on par and even better than her fellow soldiers, she manages to defeat Shan Yu and makes us feel her “Hero” status is very much earned... so it takes away from what the 1998 film tried to show in suggesting Mulan could just OP her way to victory at the drop of a hat.. and also implied her being dishonest about her true identity was her primary flaw? idk thematically they were trying to be super empowering of women and the capability of women, and the boxes women are forced into according to society... but then suggest Mulan was always inherently gifted/had a special power and that is why she succeeded, while the other soldiers worked hard and effectively achieved the same goal (albeit in a less flashy manner)... so the message gets very confusing...
i felt that Xian Niang (was that her name?), the Witch, had a lot of potential, but I was also really concerned they introduced her to make sure Mulan had a female enemy to defeat, and Shan Yu/Bori Khan was a minion of this female enemy... so in that sense I’m glad she served as a foil to Mulan... I would’ve liked the parallels more if the “being your true self”/”bring honor to us all” theme wasn’t so muddled... Mulan was accepted while XIan Niang wasn’t because they both had powers, but then Mulan convinces her to take the noble path and so Xian Niang died for her? idk there was a better way to fold her into the story...
Shan Yu/Bori Khan was about as much as I expected from him... I think he matched Shan Yu for skill, though idk about ferocity or intimidation power, though the actor was decent enough... but I did enjoy his and Mulan’s fight... less impactful because he didn’t even know about her and how she was the one to take down most of his army...
didn’t mind that Mushu was missing... fondly referred to the phoenix as Mushu (though I understand there may be cultural missteps in a phoenix being the spirit/ancestor/guardian)...
I also didn’t mind they removed the power imbalance between Shang and Mulan and had her love interest be a fellow soldier...I really liked Yoson An’s character actually...but the romance element was significantly dialled back, so we didn’t get the bisexual icon that is Li Shang... also Li Yifei’s emotional acting was normal but not outstanding... so her feelings for Honghui didn’t really register much except for that first time they chat in the barracks about girls, and right before she goes home... (just me being pouty about him not joining the Imperial Guards to Mulan’s home and presenting himself for matchmaking... though I understand it was to keep focus on Mulan’s journey, not her love interest)...
while it probably wasn’t the intention of the 1998 film, the positive portrayal of gender fluidity, the specific empowerment of trans and bisexual individuals through Mulan and Shang (bc let’s get real, he was just as attracted to Ping as he was Mulan), all did not ring in quite the same way in the 2020 version... again I’m not part of either community, so I can’t say for sure, but this is what I read from it...
overall the fun was taken out, with the songs... I would say this is probably on the higher end of Disney Live Action adaptations, there were some fun moments and funny dialogue even, and I didn’t mind that they were trying to do something different, unlike some of the others which made it note for note the same... but ultimately the biggest flaw of most of the adaptations are that it removes the fun and the levity in lieu of a more serious tone... 
I accepted no songs (I was hopeful and then pleasantly surprised when they did pay some minor homages through the score to the original’s songs)... but the fun moments were meant to be intentionally undercut by the reality of the war... there’s a reason A Girl Worth Fighting For was cut off so abruptly in the 1998 version... it was the moment where these trainees (all of them young and having never experienced battle or war before) suddenly realised the severity of the situation before them, and it was in that moment they accepted their fate and duty to protect the kingdom...
the 2020 version just kind of had them walk through the carnage without any real build up... the grand battle sequence with the avalanche was pretty well done, the overdramatic “Hua Jun died but Mulan lived” scene notwithstanding.. i didn’t mind that Mulan volunteered to expose herself rather than be forced half-naked into the snow by the Chancellor dude... didn’t like Honghui got the “you listened to Hua Jun, why is Hua Mulan any different?” line... the “I believe in Hua Mulan” was kinda goofy, but I could see what they were going for... it was kinda undermined by the Commander saying “you dishonoured your family and this regiment but hey, you’re brave and loyal kid”...felt very patronising...
I’m not gonna lie, I kinda loved Cricket... he was adorable and I had half a heart attack when I thought he’d died... 
DIDN’T REALISE MING NA WEN MADE A CAMEO UNTIL I CAME ON HERE...so that was nice..
still pissed they didn’t even put the drum beats for “I’ll Make a Man Outta You”...they were using drums during the training sequence too so would’ve been real easy to do so AND THEY DIDN’T...they did it for “Bring Honor to Us All” and “Reflection”...idk why they couldn’t even give us that much of my favourite Disney song...
again, cannot emphasise enough how gorgeous this whole movie looked...and there were so many fun camera work moments... the visuals had me dead on the floor ya’ll...
idk what else i have to say now...
tl;dr I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but hooooo boi the film is flawed as hell...
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BNHA CHARACTER BIO ANALYSIS MASTER POST
This was originally supposed to be the second thing on the list of things for me to write but thinking about it, the other thing would take longer to finish. Since my other analysis was meant to be an analysis to help design your OC physically, this entire analysis is here to help flesh out your OC mentally.
You see character bios a lot in anime and manga. The variety of a character’s likes and dislikes are meant to tell us something interesting about the characters. Horikoshi utilizes his bios to explain the character’s mental states: to explain something about the character’s design, personality, quirks, and roles in the story. The bios aren’t for fun facts, but to learn more about the mentality of the characters.  
I am going to analyze BNHA’s characters’ bios to help you get a better idea of how to write your bio for your OC.
Alright, let’s get started.
Name and Age:
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The details of real names and ages are at that spot on the top right corner of the page. The age is located on the right next to the name of the character. A hero's true real name and age are revealed on this very spot with the real name below the hero name.
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That’s the location you need to know when you’re doing an OC bio for name and age.
Birthday:
One thing I noticed when I looked at the character birthdays is that It references their quirk and overall design.
For example, Manami's birthday is on February 14th referencing her quirk “love,” since Valentine’s Day is a day of love. Gentle’s birthday is August 29, a reference to Michael Jackson, who was born on this date and sung “Smooth Criminal,” a song which is a reference to Gentle’s role and quirk. While it may seem to be reaching, Horikoshi often uses pop culture references in his work.
Additionally, Horikoshi uses Japanese wordplay, or Goroawase. Goroawase uses Japanese words that can be read with several different meanings, and pronunciation associated with a series of letters, numbers, or symbols.
For example, let’s look at Seiji Shishikura’s birthday, February 9th. When split it goes like this: 2 = Ni 9 = Ku In Japanese, 29 can be read as “niku” meaning “meat.” On the 29th of every month, restaurants and groceries give special offers on a discount on meat. This is all a clever reference to Seiji’s quirk: “meatball.”
Another example is Fat Gum. His birthday is August 8th, or when initiated, 8/8. When spoken, it sounds like the word “ate” which is related to his character always being seen eating food. The two circles inside 8 look like a silhouette of a heavy person, noting Fat Gum’s design.
Also, Rumi’s early March birthday is a reference to the march hare in Alice in Wonderland, which correlates to her rabbit motif.
There’s also Kigo used in character birthdays, Kigo are words and phrases associated with a particular season. An example of Kigo is Tsuyu, whose birthday is around February. In Kigo, frogs are associated with February through May, and are known for their loud singing during that time of year. Hence, Tsuyu’s entire frog-themed motif in her design.
Another example of the use of Kigo is with Mineta and his birthday, October 8th. The Kigo associated with Autumn are grapes (fruit that is typically harvested in autumn). This part correlates to Mineta, whose character design is shaped around grapes.
Another I want to point out is Mirio’s birthday. He has the same birthday as Izuku’s: July 15th. This may seem like a coincidence, but if you look closely it isn’t. Mirio’s birthday reinforces that he is Izuku’s foil, with them bearing the same background dealing with a troublesome quirk and working towards being a hero despite problems with their quirks. In the story, Mirio was supposed to be the successor of All Might and was originally meant to inherit OFA instead of Izuku. There’s a clever use of this foiling to the main character in Mirio and Izuku sharing a birthday.
This is interesting to add when you're working on your OC’s birthdays.
Star Sign:
Next up: what if a birthdate doesn’t have a Kigo, Goroawase, or national holiday associated with it? Well, you can just use star signs to tell an OC’s personality.
As I explained in the Dabi bio, his Star sign matches his personality, and Himiko’s Zodiac references both her cat-like features and her personality. Horikoshi knew what he was doing when writing his characters. He assigned the zodiacs deliberately.
I will help you in choosing a star sign for your character by analyzing these characters and elaborating on these star signs below.
Izuku Midoriya: Izuku’s star sign is a Cancer, Like Cancers, Izuku is a kind and caring person that doesn’t hesitate to help those in need, with this being his natural trademark.
Izuku is a very emotional person. His actions are fueled by his own emotions in any given situation; this is seen in how he said “my body moved before I thought” when he jumped in to save Bakugo from the sludge villain, and Uraraka from the giant robot in the exams, and trying to take action in saving Eri when he confronts Overhaul. One of the hilarious things to note is his trademark in that he overreacts in any given situation and displays a variety of exaggerated emotions to the point of being oversensitive.
Izuku is intuitive to the feelings of others and is highly empathetic to the pain and suffering of other people. Cancers are natural nurturers, as seen in how he is very supportive of his friends and prone to motivate them and boost their confidence. For example, he attempts to try to help Todoroki overcome his emotional issues in the sports tournament and to save Uraraka in the entrance exams. Izuku doesn't stop until he makes sure that the people around him are happy and safe. However, this also causes him to endanger himself and his well being to help other people.  
Izuku’s dream of being the world's greatest hero sounds vague since it is not clearly defined, but it is a very emotional goal. Izuku loves heroes. It's no secret. He keeps track of them in a notebook analysis that he carries around. He loves learning about heroes’ history and quirk he even a large fanboy of All Might since he has all his collectibles and his room is decorated with merchandise. Cancers are known to be stubbornly fixated on something, which fits Izuku.
Much like Cancers, who love home life, Izuku loves being around the comfort of his hero action merchandise in his room as well as happy and content when surrounded by the presence of heroes.
Izuku enjoys being in good company such as his friends and family. Izuku scores are high in cooperation as his stats in the databook show, which fits with traits of cancers such as being dependable and being a good team leader. He’s a good team player working together with his classmates in helping them to fully utilize their quirks to their fullest potential. He’s observant and intelligent as well as adaptable, being able to grasp the machinists to quirks and notice the ins and outs to someone’s quirk to use them to his advantage.
Cancers tend to daydream, which goes with Izuku. He’s a dreamer who dreams to be a hero and is known to be a little too in his own head, as Cancers often are. Izuku can be a little too self-absorbed to notice what’s going on around him; this manifests in his muttering habit when he gets lost in his track thoughts to know what’s going on around him. This is seen when Izuku loses himself in fighting Shigaraki and loses a feral side when he faces strong dangerous villains.
Izuku’s sentimental side is referenced again in his star sign since Cancers are soft creatures underneath their shell: they can get easily hurt by the slightest criticism. Despite Izuku’s newfound confidence within himself in the series, he still suffers from a lack of self-worth. Much of his insecurities stem from his initial quirklessness, that he feels useless with no quirk and that he can’t be a hero. He’s so internalized that he can’t be a hero without a strong quirk that even after he was given one by All Might he doesn’t believe that he’s worthy of wielding the quirk. Izuku feels the need to get stronger, to not make mistakes, to prove to someone that he isn’t useless. He wants to feel needed by others when he feels that he didn’t meet their expectations. It crushes him. This line of thinking causes him to be very reckless to the point he neglects his well being. As Bakugo points out, he doesn’t take himself into account which is seen in his battle with Shigaraki.
Izuku is timid and quiet but one of his most notable strengths is that he never gives up. Like Cancers who are tenacious and possess strong perseverance, Izuku’s determination is one of the greatest strengths of his character. Izuku's bravery, courage, determination, and kindness make up his heroic qualities.
Katsuki Bakugo: Bakugo’s star sign is an Aries. You could argue that Bakugo is a Taurus because he was born on a cusp but closer inspection a lot of Aries traits match Bakugo. Aries is a fire sign, which is seen in his personality. Bakugo harbors both the positive and negative traits of Aries.
Like the traits of Aries, Bakugou’s confident, passionate, impatient, and short-tempered. Bakugos prefers to do things his way; he hates being told what to do by other people and be pushed around. Bakugo is competitive and will put everything he has to win striving for a perfect victory. Bakugo won’t settle for just winning: he's very thorough and wants the task to be 100 percent complete. Bakugo is hardworking and serious in wanting to be the top hero; he's ambitious in surpassing All Might.
Bakugo is impetuous; in a fight he charges forward to victory without a single thought. Bakugos is competitive in everything, whether in training or arguments he always will fight to have the last word. Bakugo is obsessed with perfectionism and expects everything to be perfect if he isn’t looking for the perfect victory. Bakugo doesn’t like accepting help, and has trouble doing so and can be argumentative. Bakugo’s constantly pointing out the faults in other people around himself comes from wanting to be seen as the strongest, but manifests as him demanding things from others and bossing them around.
Bakugo is intelligent. He was ranked the highest in class for his written exams good at coming up with strategies in battles. Bakugo is straightforward, something you wouldn’t suspect from him but he hates any form of deceit and won’t resort to any low means to win. He's perceptive and hates liars and gets angry when he perceives someone is lying to them.
Bakugo can be petty but this is large can be at fault for his perfectionism and competitiveness which is the source of all his problems. Bakugo had trouble managing his feelings; he never knew how to deal with his anger, so he came out in explosive outbursts. He vents his anger at Izuku because of his perceived notion of weakness Izuku emits and the need to feel better to not let that weakness come over him. He wants to be strong and doesn’t want to show weakness in front of others. Bakugo’s pride prevents him from doing so. When he isn’t on top of everything it causes him great distress and cannot take the stress and pressure; you best see this exemplified when he breaks down to Izuku over All Might’s retirement.
After his battle with Izuku, Bakugo gets better. He comes to accept his mistakes and becomes a little more aware of his shortcomings. When he puts his good qualities to use he’s a great leader you see this when he leads his group in the sports festival and the joint training arc showcasing his leadership qualities. Bakugo is now willing to work together with others as long as it guarantees victory. He may be a humongous jerk but has great character development.
Shoto Todoroki and Ochaco Uraraka: Shoto and Ochaco are both born under the star sign Capricorn. They share many similarities.
Todoroki has all the cold traits relating to the Capricorn.
Shoto is hardworking in his hero studies and very serious when it comes to training it could be said that he’s the more serious and focused out of all of class 1-A. Todoroki’s the most cool-headed out of class 1-Al when it comes to a crisis he still retains a cool head often calm in parlous situations. Shoto’s reserved qualities border on airheadedness, or even slow on the uptake, like him correctly deducing Izuku’s connection to All Might only to fall short when he asked if he was his love child. Yet Todoroki is smart, being scored 5th in the midterms. He’s a high achiever and he's good at keeping everything on top when it comes to everything such as school work and training.
Todoroki is distant with his peers but in contrast to the loner image, he socializes when he partakes in group activities with his classmates but more as a wallflower.
Capricorns are often unforgiving, which fits this with Todoroki who is a serious grudge holder. He’s spiteful towards his father for what he’s done to his mother whom he abused to the point of having a mental breakdown. Todoroki is willing to hold a grudge against those he cares about; this aspect of his shows just how loyal he is to his loved ones.
Todoroki is very doubtful in himself; he tends to criticize himself so much that he feels he is not enough. He harbors doubts about becoming his father and is traumatized by the abuse. Todoroki has a lot of inner demons because of the abuse of his father he uses an exterior as a defense mechanism to defend against them only makes things worse for himself this is apparent in his interaction with Inasa.
So, that’s Todoroki. How is Ochaco similar to a Capricorn? On the surface, it may not seem that Ochaco embodies the traits typical to Capricorns, but if you take an in-depth analysis of her character it turns out she has more in common with the Capricorns than we thought. Ochaco is devoted to her studies and loyal to her family and friends, She has a steel grit and incredible determination. She is willing to do anything to achieve her goal. This side of her personality, her great determination, and stubbornness are shown at the sports festival in her match with Katsuki. The Capricorn matches Ochaco more serious, determined traits. Ochaco is practical: she’s aware of her limits and she takes an internship in combat training from Gunhead to increase her mobility.
Both Ochaco and Shoto are strongly resolute in their desire to become heroes. Both of them show these sides at the sports festival.
Another thing two that they have in common is that they both don’t hesitate to say what’s on their mind there, honest in their own opinions which can be off-putting to some people. This can stem from the aspects in Capricorns to be realistic, to throw cold hard facts in others’ faces. For example, during the hideout arc, Ochaco points out that Bakugo would find it disgraceful to be saved by Izuku, showing that she has an understanding in their relationship Todoroki notes that their actions in wanting to rescue Katsuki are very selfish since it wouldn’t be accepted by Bakugo or anyone else. This aspect references both of them being real.
Capricorns are family-oriented signs. They are loyal to their own family and willing to do anything for them. This trait says a lot to do with both Todoroki and Ochaco in the way their motives in becoming heroes came from them. Todoroki’s desire to be a hero was inspired by an All Might interview he watched with his mother when he was young, Ochaco’s motives to be a hero was to get her parents out of poverty to have an easy life. Both of them are loyal to the people they love.
Capricorns have two sides of them they won’t show until you befriend them. This holds for both Ochaco and Shoto, Ochaco doesn’t tell her classmates about her family situation; only her close friends Izuku and Iida know about it. Izuku is the only one who knows Todoroki’s family situation. Todoroki only told Izuku his abusive family background by choice because he felt a strange familiarity from him other than his connection to All Might.
The Capricorns have two sides that both contradict and work side by side: the goat’s torso and fishtail. Ochaco and Todoroki poses two sides of their personality Ochaco who is energetic and a huge chatterbox yet can be serious and determined when she sets her mind on her goal. On the outside, Todoroki came off as cold and unemotional but deep down he’s passionate and driven, his cold exterior masks his much warmer gentler traits that were close off in the abuse. Todoroki’s quirk “half hot and half cold” may have been inspired by his star sign. Thanks to their friendship in Izuku, Todoroki opens up his more warm traits and Ochaco with her serious and more practical traits.
Both Ochaco and Todoroki are greatly reliable and trustworthy friends as seen in the way in their friendship with Izuku. Ochaco is kind and supportive of Izuku giving positive encouragement to a derogatory name Deku; Shoto worries about Izuku being the only one to sense what was wrong when Izuku was in trouble. They both care about Izuku and rush in to help him when he’s in danger. Todoroki rushed in time to save Ida and Izuku from Stain, and Ochaco latches onto Izuku when his quirk goes out of control, while she calls out to Shinso. Both Todoroki and Ochaco were inspired by izuku by bringing out the best in them in their friendship. Because of their friendship with Izuku, they brought out the more positive traits they kept hidden.
Height:
For character heights, they can be whatever you want it to be. When comparing the heights of the characters look at other animes for reference and look up height to tell what is short and tall a tip for advice when measuring the height of a character is line them up with the other characters.
Heights call back to the motifs in character design, for example, Tsuyu is 150 cm, Mirko 159 cm, and Mineta 108 cm with rabbits, frogs, grapes in their design the common thing about them is that Frogs, grapes, and rabbits are all relatively small.
Favorite Things:
The most important thing about the bio is the Favorite things about the character. Do you want to write a BNHA Oc Bio? That’s what you need to look at when writing one. In character bios, the person's likes and dislikes say something about the character’s mentality This is no different for BNHA likes.
Horikoshi uses the likes to explain something about the personality, quirk, and role of the character in the story. Unlike how the birthday says something about the design of the character, the likes are used to describe the character’s mentality saying something about the character and quirk. This couldn’t be any more true for the main characters.
(It’s perfectly okay to put your personal preferences in the likes if you want to do that’s fine too.)
What do the characters like have to say about them you may ask? Well, I am going to explain.
Izuku Midoriya:
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Let’s start with Izuku, the main character of the series. His favorite thing is listed as katsudon.
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Katsudon is made with deep-fried pork, rice, and some other ingredients, and it’s a popular dish in Japan. There’s a common tradition for students to have to eat katsudon the night before a major test or school exam. It's good luck to do well on the test and eating katsudon is supposed to make them victorious when passing the test. The reason why they believe that is because when the kanji of katsudon is split apart it contains the kanji  “katsu”  which means “to win” and is a homophone of the verb “katsu” meaning “to win” or “to be victorious”.
One other thing about Katsudon is how it ties into Izuku’s relationship to Katsuki Katsudon shares the same kanji as Katsuki and is both related to winning and victory like with Katsuki when it comes to the perfect victory. Katsudon referenced Izuku’s admiration towards Katsuki since to him, Katsuki is the symbol of victory someone he admired for always does whatever it takes to win no matter what which is one of the reasons he looked up to him despite how Katsuki treated Izuku in their relationship.
Izuku’s personality is referenced in this gag, In Japanese police films where suspects, when interrogated, will speak the truth with tears in their eyes while they eat katsudon when asked: “did you ever think how your mother feels about this?” This part in the gag reminds of Izuku’s constant waterworks he sheds plenty of times in the manga and relates to his anxious expression and how he always looked nervous like a suspect being under interrogation in which the gag notes.
The line, “did you ever think how your mother feels about this?” notes Izuku’s relationship with his mother for whom he cares about and shares a close relationship with. The line reminds us of how much Izuku cares about his mother and feels guilty for constantly making her worry when he injures himself when using OFA.
I believe what it means for Izuku to like what it says about his character itself. Izuku is slowly learning to get stronger and win throughout the series and that every small moment in the series is his victory of getting closer to becoming the greatest hero.
Katsuki Bakugo:
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Next is Bakugo’s favorite things, spicy food, and mountain climbing.
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Spicy food is a reference to Bakugo’s indigestible character and unpleasant personality as well as his quirk explosion being all hot and spicy.
Japanese people believe that preferences in food say a lot about a person’s personality. They say that people who like spicy food are supposed to be short-tempered, daring, and competitive. That isn’t much of a surprise since it matches Bakougo’s short-tempered and competitive character but what was surprising was finding out mountain climbing was listed down in his likes.
In Japanese symbolism, mountains are sacred places between heaven and earth. The birds flying over the mountains symbolize overcoming life challenges. This is seen in Bakugo on how he likes to overcome difficult obstacles and does whatever it takes to win until he overcomes his challenge.
Ochaco Uraraka:
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For Ochaco her favorite things are Japanese cuisine and starry skies,
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Although Japanese cuisine sounded confusing when I narrowed down, I found out that Ochaco likes mochi. Mochi is a traditional Japanese food made from rice cakes and ice cream. Mochi, when used as a term, is there to describe someone who is soft round, and cute like Ochaco herself with her entire round motif.  As well as used to say one has round cheeks referring to Ochaco’s round blushy cheeks in her design. A fact on Japanese foodstuffs is that people who like sweets are considered sweet people, being kind, relaxed, easy to get along with what she is.
Eating mochi on the first day of a new year provides warmth and nourishment and imparts strength, endurance, and good health for the cold winter ahead. Noted at their first meeting as being like a breath of fresh hair to the nervous Izuku, she goes on to empower Izuku by changing a derogatory nickname Deku from something that he hated into something positive. Ochaco’s entire character serves as refreshing to the people around her.
Mochi being eaten is a prayer for health and good fortune: good health signifies her upbeat chatterbox personality as someone who is always in good health.Mochi is eaten all year round and is very affordable.
Mochi symbolized material and financial wellbeing. People eat this food boosting their economic vitality. References to Ochaco’s poor financial background, the symbolism in mochi has a lot to do with family and Ochaco’s motives in wanting to be a hero (to get her parents out of poverty).
There's a legend in the Bungooku Fudoki that there was once a wealthy family who used their rice cakes as archery targets instead of eating them. This is a wasteful and disrespectful act that laid the family fields bare and fell into financial ruin. The legend references Ochaco being adamant in wasting money and being stingy in spending money not wanting to be wastefully seen in the legend notes Ochaco and her frugal lifestyle.
There’s a new year event called Mochizuki. Mochizuki is a traditional event that is held on 25-27 of December a reference to Ochaco’s birthday being held on the 27th of December. Mochi is used in the word Mochizuki which means full moon in Japanese the moon largely references her quirk zero gravity since the moon relates to space. This is called Mochizuki because of the round shape calling back to her entire design, the round motif.
Ochaco’s second favorite thing is starry skies, starry skies refer to space references her quirk zero gravity with it relating to space.
Shoto Todoroki:
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Now on to Shoto, his favorite things are Soba.
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Soba being a Japanese food also correlates to Shoto’s oriental design. Soba is a Japanese food that can be eaten in both hot and cold, which refers to his quirk (half hot and half cold). Shoto preferring to eat his soba cold is an important detail heavily applying to how he favors using his ice side over his fireside in combat.
According to Japanese foodstuff, people who like soba are considered cool in appearance and personality-wise. Soba gives the impression that people who choose soba are more determined and cool as well as uncompromising and determined. This matches with Shoto’s entire character.
All Might: I wanted to talk about one thing I noticed in All Might’s likes on his favorites things that are listed,
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It may not seem to mean something about him all that much on the surface but when I researched I found that it has a deep meaning in both All Might’s entire character and role.
Cedars are large trees that grow up to 100 feet tall and live over 300 years. In Yakushima the great cedar tree is estimated to be 200 to 7200 years old, the oldest tree in Japan. This fact alludes to All Might’s unknown age and incredible height.
Japanese ciders are extremely important in ancient Japanese as a source of building material. In Japanese culture, cedars are used for building materials used in building floors and pillars in traditional architecture because cedars grow straight with a certain hardness used for building industrial products. This refers to All Mights status as the symbol of peace that upholds society, putting people at ease with his calming smile to inspire others to be safe and hopeful. All Might be a symbol of peace that keeps society stable with his presence.
Sugi or Japanese Cedars is a national tree of Japan and prized for its fragrant wood in Japanese culture. This could note All Might, who grew up in Japan despite his American influences, is Japan’s most popular hero.
In Japanese mythology, cedars are the closest to Japanese gods since these trees are planted around shrines and temples and grow straight to the sky showing their connection to the Japanese gods. This notes All Might’s god-like powers from his quirk and idol worship of others of hero society. All Might is god-like and inspired people’s unattainable goal to surpass him in strength, which is impossible since he is close to a god.
Japanese symbolism for cedars is grandeur, majestic and strength and “I live for you.” This symbolism has a lot to do with All Might in character: grandeur and majestic both note the immense charisma that he radiates in his dramatic flair and his giant smile which inspires others to feel safe. Strength in the cedar symbolism is related to him being the world’s strongest hero and immense strength of his quirk in being the number one hero of BNHA.
Lastly, the cedar symbolism “I live for you” calls back to his character, how All Might being told of his prophesied death by Nighteye accepts this until Izuku comes along pushed to live. Inko requests him to live for Izuku since he needs him not as a hero but as a mentor. In a way, all these means is that All Might is living for Izuku like the symbolism states.
Supplement and Behind the Scenes:
These are thoughts about the characters on the bio frankly they can be whatever you want to add the titles supplement and behind the scenes are different from each other in the way that they are used in bios.
Supplement are facts about a character’s background and details on their personality history that hasn’t been covered in the main story. Horikoshi adds tidbits of info and facts about the character in his suppliants whenever he was going to clarify something to the audience.
Behind the scenes are talking about the design and concept of the characters in BNHA. Horikoshi interviews about his inspiration when he’s creating characters and his thoughts that he implanted on their designs.
Its usual called behind the scenes in bios but the title can change depending on the character your bio is referring to much like this,
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The title can be whatever you like it to be when writing for your OC.
Ultra Archive Extra Details:
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Blood types:
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You might be confused about this and ask why are Blood types important? Well in Japan they look at blood types the same way we look at Zodiacs: they can tell a person’s personality. You see this is used many times with anime and manga in the character profiles where the character’s blood types are displayed. The BNHA characters have their blood type displayed in the datebook of the characters. You don’t have to add this to your character’s bio; this is only there to be a fun fact insight on their personality. I will talk about how the blood types go with the characters in personality.
Izuku and Shouto are both blood type O. O is the average and best blood type. A character with this blood type is considered deeply determined and easy going. Izuku is much like the O in his blood type being generous, pleasant, kind, and optimistic. He is very peaceful as he tries to pacify arguments in his friend group. He’s easy to get along with and is very intuitive when it comes to the feelings of other people. He looks out for others and rushes in to save them.
Shouto and Izuku show deep determination in wanting to become heroes. They both take care of others and are cautious and careful. Shoto is logical and always looks at the big picture like Izuku he thinks before he acts. Like the O blood type, Todoroki and Izuku embody leader-like qualities in their groups.
However, Todoroki embodies the much more negative aspects associated with O, such as being spiteful and ruthless especially concerning his father. Shoto refuses to use his fireside out of spite when he focused on rejecting his father; it causes him to ignore the feelings of the people around him. You see this ruthless side of him when he freezes villains from the USJ he is doing for interrogation. Todoroki is ill-mannered and rude seen in his comments on others. Todoroki tends to be a loner rarely if ever interacting when he does he comes off as very quiet. Shoto can be a bit of a workaholic when it comes to training and studies. Izuku and Shouto are both insecure and doubtful about themselves with the feeling that they can never be good enough due to their problems. Izuku can be self-absorbed manifesting in his muttering habit and Todoroki be a little too into himself and not realizing other people’s suggestions until it is pointed out.
Both Izuku and Todoroki have O blood; however what makes them different is their star signs, Izuku with the nurturing and sensitive Cancer and Todoroki with the cold serious yet caring Capricorn.
Ochaco’s blood type is B. She has a lot of positive traits of B: Ochaco is cheerful, outgoing, optimistic, and can be strong and passionate about the stuff she holds dear. She’s practical and open, not pretentious, and pragmatic; she's very frank in vocalizing her opinions and always wears her heart on her sleeve. Ochaco is insightful picking up on Bakugo and Izuku’s relationship and good at reading signals others give off. Ochaco provides support to the people she cares about, goal-oriented, and determined she will do whatever it takes to reach a goal no matter what. That is a reference to her goal of getting her parents out of poverty. This makes her hardworking and determined and strong to reach that goal to provide for her parents. all these matches Ochaco perfectly.
People who possess A blood type are honor student types. Iida and Momo are textbook examples of people with blood type A: both of them are presidents of their class.  Iida proved to be trustworthy in leading the class and being a good friend. He is honest, serious, he can be too honest at times he can be uptight when it comes to inconsistencies with Mineta or keeping the class in line. Iida is well organized. You can see this in his room how everything is lined up. Iida is a stickler to the rules; he won’t tolerate anyone who breaks them. Iida wants to be the ideal hero like his brother who inspired him to be one Iida wants to be the perfect ideal of a hero. Iida wanting to be a perfect idea of the hero he idolizes causes him to be selfish. You see this in the entrance exams and when he went after Stain, neglecting to rescue a hero both times neglect to rescue the people around him and charged straight ahead with his desires. Luckily Iida admits when he’s in the wrong and is willing to improve.  
Blood type is known to be the perfectionist of the blood group; this is seen very well with both Iida and Momo. Momos being a perfectionist is seen when she sees the inconsistencies of her classmates in the battle trail; she does this because she wants her classmates to improve. She only can excel in thinking and careful planning not on one battle after she lost to Tokoyami in the sports festival she became insecure about her abilities and compares herself critically with Todoroki.
When you look at Bakugo you wouldn’t think of an A automatically. However, taking a deep analysis of his character reveals that it matched him in more ways than you think. There’s no chill with Bakugo: he's a huge ball of nerves. He’s always yelling in explosive outbursts. But while he may seem impulsive, he’s hard-working and wants to make sure that everything is perfect. Bakugo is obsessed with cleanliness and wouldn’t tolerate the single dirt. In contrast to his attitude with his peers, he keeps to the rules and is well behaved in front of authority figures
Bakugo’s fastidiousness with being the best can be very stubborn with what he wants and easily frustrated when things don’t go his way. He’s a perfectionist after all so he has ridiculously high standards. He wants everything to be perfect that comes down to the perfect victory that is seen best in the victory in the sports festival. Bakugo can be nagging when he points out their inconsistencies in other people he honest to the point of rudeness makes him inconsiderate of other people
Like blood type As, Bakugo is terrible at dealing with his emotions and can’t bottle up his stress Bakugo was in deep turmoil on All Might’s retirement and has insecurities if he’s not being strong enough his insecurity when it comes to his weakness causes him to bully Izuku.
You may be wondering if Iida and Bakugo both have A-type blood, then why are they different? As I said before with Izuku and Shoto it’s because of the star sign.
One last thing if you can struggle to understand the blood types and they appear too similar look at B and O, B might seem similar to O but if you look more closely B comes off as more individualistic and hardworking towards a goal and will do anything to achieve it and O are much more group-oriented and self-absorbed. As are fussy about appearances need to be on top and in order due to their perfectionist tendencies.
Though you don’t half add this it’s here to help you gain a better understanding of blood types and how they are used in Japanese culture. When you're doing blood types for your OC look up which blood types and find one that better matches your OC.
Place Of Origin:
Place of origins that are listed in the character’s data book its where the characters live, Izuku, Todoroki, and Bakugo all live in the Shizuoka Prefecture since they are the ones that had their origins in the series.
The place of Origins has something to do with characters like Ochaco for example, She has a Kansai dialect she grew up in the Mie prefecture which is located within the Kansai region of Japan where this dialect is frequently used. Kansai dialect is stereotyped as passionate and honest which matches Ochaco’s personality because she displays these traits. Mie Prefecture is known for its break taking scenery and clear starry skies nothing Ochaco’s presence is refreshing and calming to others around her and her quirk zero gravity.
Mirko grew up in Hiroshima where most of her fighting style is influenced by Filippino foot fighting. Hiroshima is a city that experienced firsthand the horrors of war but decided to pick themselves up and become the city of peace. Hiroshima has many peace-themed monuments created by international organizations called “mayors for peace” which reach out across the globe to bring the world peace. This is similar to how Mirko's hero works on who she travels endlessly across her country in hopes of bringing peace to the world as well when defeating villains and coming to the aid in the town she’s in to see news of breaking out. She’s a rabbit fighting for peace.
I am not an expert on Japan geography and state this is just what I found out when I was researching. Like the blood types you don’t have to add this If you want to add a place of origin for your OC; do your research on the Japanese geography.
Rooms:
As the saying goes, a room says a lot about a person. You can tell a lot about someone just by looking at their room. Since it would say a lot about someone’s personality. Personal and distinctive details the dorm rooms illustrate are the visible reflection of a character’s identity. Horikoshi took creative liberties to his character’s personality and identity just by drawing their rooms.
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Izuku’s room is very self explainable, the wave of All Might collectibles in his room tells that Izuku always idolized All Might when he was young. He's the reason he wanted to be a hero. He centered his whole life revolving around All Might. The collectibles show the aspects of his character.
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Ochaco’s room reflects her frugal lifestyle and that she came from a poor household.
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The constellation chart is about her Zero Gravity quirk. The cactus in the small area symbolizes endurance and determination, one of her personality traits’ tea and mochi because she is a great host and because her name came from tea and her love of mochi!
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Todoroki’s room is a traditional style Japanese room. He’s been raised in a traditional Japanese household and despite the abuse that Shoto has been through he simply can’t get comfortable living in a place unlike home. His room and upbringing references his Japanese character design.
This is less of a writing thing but more of a designing concept when you’re doing with the character’s rooms. Mostly this a design thing to show the character’s personality. This was only here for people to know how to design a room your OC would sleep in but you don’t have to do the entire room thing for your OC.
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Just take a blank room for reference then work your way around it.
Villain Bios:
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At first, when I thought about villains not getting bios I was relieved because I wouldn’t have to spend so much time and energy working on them. But when vol 23 rolled around, they started to get bios.
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Horikoshi once stated in the complaint corner that there supposed to be terrifying in that were not supposed to relate to them in any way. The main reason he didn’t give them bios was that we wouldn’t relate to them and humanize with the villains as people. Villains are not supposed to be sympathetic.
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It’s refreshing to know that there aren’t any big changes to villain bios and they aren’t any different from the other characters’ bio. If you want to do a bio for your villain one look at the directions again I already addressed with the characters bios look over the directions I said previously. This might help you whenever you do a villain bio.
Examples:
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Here are examples of how I utilize this for my OCs, Hozuki Kizuki, and Keiko Uchihara. Their likes to reflect their motifs and overall character designs
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Hozuki’s birthdays fall on February 2nd. Her birthday’s initials are 02/02, a katakanization of the English numbers. “o” from “0”  written with the kanji “○ ” and the Japanese for two is ni together can be read as “Oni” repeated twice correlating her Oni motif.
Her birthday is a reference to Setsubun an event held on February 2nd through 3rd in which people wear masks and have others throw sow beans at them to drive out misfortune and evil to bring good luck. This is a reference to Hozuki’s role as someone who chases after villains to keep others safe from evil.
Also, her birthdate makes her an Aquarius, which showcases her standoffish and independent personality.
For her likes, they are list as roasted soybeans, baseball, Oni related items
For Soybeans I explained already up above with Setsubun. For baseball, when I look at the players holding bats it resembles clubs that Oni use in Japanese folklore.
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Keiko’s birthdate is September 25th which is a cusp, meaning she has two zodiac signs in her birthdate. She is both the logical and pragmatic Virgo and fair and honest Libra. This matches kitsunes’ benevolent and malevolent natures in mythology.
Keiko’s favorite things are Rice, sake, kitsune udon, and inarizushi roll. Sake is a wine that is made ground up from rice. Both sake and rice are a reference to Inari the goddess of foxes, rice, sake, and agriculture. Another called back to the god Inari is inarizushi,a pouch of fried tofu typically filled with sushi rice. It is believed that the fox messages of Inari have a fondness for tofu as the Inarizushi has pointed corners that resemble foxes’ ears. Kitsune udon or fox udon is topped with aburaage and is similar to inarizushi.
All this in her bio goes with her fox motif in her design the Japanese mythology for fox references Keiko traditional Japanese character design.
For blood types, Hozuki is a blood type B and Keiko is a blood type O It is said that people with B blood possess a unique character. Hozuki’s standoffish personality comes to mind when I read this. Hozuki is unapproachable at first glance due to her curt attitude but she’s acutely easy to talk to when you get to know her. Hozuki is practical and serious and has an objective that she is working towards. She is passionate and driven. She would stop at nothing until she reaches her goal. B highlights her serious individualistic traits.
Keiko is friendly and open. She reaches out with kindness and unconditional acceptance. She is empathetic to the plight and suffering of others. Her blood type notes her personality which has many of these traits associated with Os.
Epilogue:
This is what you do when you are writing your OC bios. I hope it at least gives you a better understanding of writing bios for your OCs. I am not an expert when I explain their likes. I did research when writing this post so If I missed anything feels free to add I am open to people’s suggestions. I don’t take any credit for the images I used in this post, all credit goes to the original owners of the chosen said images.
Lastly, have fun writing about your OCs!
References:
METI ON THE BAD GUY Class 1-A Dorm Rooms EXPLORED | My Hero Academia Discussion
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yukipri · 4 years
Text
On Koala and Fishman Karate - a One Piece Mermaid AU Story
Not an ask response, but here with another story which was posted last month on Patreon!
I never actually intended on writing this, because this was originally supposed to just be exposition leading up to Marco's Bauble 2, and kinda explaining why Luffy's being tutored in Fishman Karate. But, it ended up being too long and going off on WAY too many unrelated tangents, so I chopped it off and made it its own thing ^ ^;
Mostly introspective, with Koala x Luffy, mention of Sabo x Luffy, and some thoughts on Nami from Koala's perspective as well.
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Koala gently nudges Luffy's hand a little higher, and the mermaid makes a tiny whine of frustration as she sways on her tail, trying her best to maintain the posture she's been taught. Luffy glares at her own fist with such adorable determined ferocity that Koala doesn't have the heart to tell her that she doesn't need to try so hard, and that if anything, staying relaxed is the point.
Koala's been trying to teach Luffy Fishman Karate during the few lulls between their adventures. She knows that the disciplined martial art is probably not Luffy's style, but Fishman Karate focusses fishmen and merfolks' innate sensitivity to water. It's honed for combat in this case, but it can be applied to daily life as well, which is why fishman karate is a regular part of grade school curriculum on Fishman Isand. When one lives surrounded entirely by water, ten thousand meters below sea level, it's remarkably beneficial to be in tune with it.
Even if Luffy never fully masters it, Koala's sure she can gain something of value to apply to her regular fighting style, and even if not, it's part of her heritage. It's why Koala had insisted on teaching her, and Sabo had grudgingly agreed (Koala knows the grudging part mostly comes from Sabo still being petty about being terrible at it himself. Which, shouldn't come as a surprise since fishmen arts are difficult for non fishmen and merfolk, but it gives Koala something to rub in his face, which is always wonderful).
It's nice, Koala thinks as she sings praises in Luffy's ear while fixing her posture once again. It's nice because even though Koala'll do any assignment thrown her way, and will do anything to further her primary goal of achieving justice for fishmen and merfolk, being an assistant Fishman Karate instructor is her actual formal position in the Revolutionary Army. It's so easy to forget, with the number of missions she's been on with her acting support for Sabo and others, and the increasing amount of time she spends away from Baltigo and her students. But suddenly, she's given an unexpected opportunity to actually practice and share her passion, and to someone who could really benefit from it too. It would be an utter waste for Luffy to not learn from Koala while they travel together.
(Even if it means Sabo sulks and stews with pathetically transparent jealousy over losing sibling bonding time. He can deal. He'll have plenty of time later.)
And well, Luffy's honestly a joy as a student too. Even if explanations mostly go over her head, she's got amazing physical intuition and picks things up fast. And she's so dedicated, staring at Koala with wide eyes like she holds the secrets to the universe when Koala shows her something new, always blurting out her awe exactly as she feels it and--it's endearing.
Luffy, everything about her, is honestly endearing.
The fishman karate tutoring sessions are honestly the only times Koala can have alone with the mermaid (or as alone as one can be, on the deck of a small vessel like Merry), especially without Mr. Nosy Possessive Big Bro butting in between them. So yes, maybe Koala enjoys spending time with Luffy for reasons other than just getting to do karate together, but she'll confess that to Sabo over her own dead body.
Not that Koala thinks it really matters; Sabo's already giving her the Suspicious Stink Eye (though to be fair, he gives that to everyone other than Ace). And yeah, in hindsight she honestly should have expected his suspicion, given how well her partner knows knows her dating history.
I'm warning you, Koala, Sabo'd grouched when they were alone, dropping his Cool Big Bro act to reveal the Shitty Little Dumpster Brat that Koala knows and grew up with. Don't even think about it with Luffy. Even if she's infinitely cuter than what were their names...Marinara and Cartwheels.
Their names were Marina and Kara. And I don't date every mermaid I meet!
Koala's honestly offended, but decides to let it go; Sabo's overwhelmed by his sudden wave of previously repressed Brotherly Love, and he's still not entirely rational (not that rational's a particularly good word to apply to him at any time). And she doesn't have a thing for fishgals and mermaids, she swears. She just happens to spend a disproportionate amount of time working with them, given her specific focus in the Revolutionary Army. It just makes sense.
Or fine, maybe she has a slight thing for them. And, well, maybe Luffy's her type. Just a little bit. On top of being, well, a super cute pupil. But Koala's not going to do anything, other than enjoy spending time together! Is she not allowed even that?
But, the point is, Sabo's being ridiculous! Koala's been his partner for years! Doesn't he trust Koala enough to know that she'd treasure Luffy, in the very hypothetical situation they ever dated?
(Koala knows the answer to that, knew it the moment she saw Sabo's expression melt as he cupped Luffy's face, and sighs. She never imagined she'd be love rivals against Sabo of all people, but well, shit happens.)
Anyway, Fishman Karate times are Koala's times with Luffy, and if Sabo comes poking his snooty little nose into their sessions, well, Koala's happy to volunteer him as a punching bag. Which he knows, hence why he's not here.
In fact, the deck is mostly empty, the other members of their limited crew occupying themselves elsewhere. Their sole observer is the navigator, sitting by the rail and marking up some maps, seemingly not paying attention.
But Koala knows that Nami's very much attuned to their lesson, her head jerking every time a particularly hard smack lands.
Koala doesn't blame her. She's aware of what Arlong did, had had to swallow bile when she accessed the full report when it came through, days before their fateful meeting with Luffy and the ASL pirates. She knows what Nami must think of fishmen, and to know that her impression came from former Sun Pirates leaves Koala feeling a special kind of numb.
Because that isn't what they're like at all, she wants to say. The Sun Pirates, to Koala, are a gleaming example of why fishmen deserve better, and are victims of human prejudice and ignorance. It's terrible that they mean the opposite to Nami. But given her experiences, Koala knows she has no right to preach at her. If anything, she just feels sad, and bitter, knowing that the cycle of hatred can come back to hurt those so very far away from where it started.
Koala guides Luffy's arms into position again, and despite Luffy struggling to remember everything mentally, the young mermaid's body easily accepts the form. It's an art designed for her kind after all, unlike the marine martial arts that Sabo said their grandfather had beaten into them. Koala's sure Luffy struggled with those, unable to fully copy moves that require certain feet positions, and an assumption of a more human perception of the world. But this, Fishman Karate, was made for her.
Nami twitches again, and Koala makes a note of it. She knows Nami has likely seen the form before; there were several martial artists in Arlong's group.
She knows it's difficult to watch, but admires Nami's stubborn determination in doing so. Koala's sure that part of Nami's reason for watching is to make sure Koala doesn't teach anything unsavory to Luffy, and she respects that wariness, because they haven't known each other long enough for Nami to open up to Koala and her history of friendship with fishmen.
But, and it's only a guess, but Koala thinks Nami also watches to try to learn and accept this part of her captain as well. Koala might not be important, but Luffy is the captain Nami's pledged to follow, for all that Ace is also her captain. And whether she likes it or not, Luffy's a mermaid, which, while not the exact same as fishmen, has plenty of things in common.
Now that she's no longer isolated on an island in East Blue, heading closer to Fishman Island which they'll inevitably have to cross in order to enter the New World, Luffy's learning more about herself. Specifically, the mer part of herself. And she'd be doing that, regardless of whether Koala's there to help her along.
Koala thinks it wise that Nami's forcing herself to learn alongside Luffy, so that there are no surprises, and that one day, she doesn't wake up and realize that her captain shares far too much with her tormentors for her to handle. Koala hopes that Nami's love and acceptance for Luffy will plant a seed of hope that eventually helps her accept other fishmen and merfolk, to see that they're not all Arlong--but Koala can wait.
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Thanks so much for reading if you got through this~! <3 As always any comments/thoughts are super appreciated!
❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀
~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~
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ratbastarddotfuck · 3 years
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Hi! are you still answering questions about your system? I was curious about how you found out you were plural? I had a relationship with someone who was and she didn't know for most of her life (she assumed her defender alter was her brother and that most of the others were friends or relatives, she wasn't aware they shared a body until her late teens/early 20s). Did you always know you were plural or did you figure it out as an adult? no pressure to answer if too personal :)
Oh, sure! Right off the bat - it's worth noting that we don't have DID, but rather OSDD. The difference is pretty minimal from an outside perspective and I won't go into it a lot here, but it's relevant because it means that with out plurality we largely have shared memories/don't experience a lot of memory loss. So we've never really been in that position of not being able to tell if an alter was an outside person or not.
Anyway -
Definitely didn't always know! We didn't know much about plurality in general until a couple of years ago. When we were a teenager we had a couple of online friends who were varyingly open about their own plurality. We didn't really ask or research much about it in any case, just kind of rolled with it and treated each alter as their own person (as you should) and carried on.
We really started to learn about plurality when I (Will/Remy) started dating a system (towards the end of 2018). They explained about their own plurality when we started dating, but it didn't have a huge impact on our relationship so, just kept on trucking (the readiness with which we have just happily accepted the plurality of several people close to us and carried on without any real questions should maybe have been a sign, lol).
This relationship is a polyamorous one, and through this partner we met other systems who they were dating and/or friends with. And it's a thing, right, that in this group of people I was essentially the only "singlet" (non-plural person). And it just kind of happened that as we got to know other systems and learn what it's like to BE a system, we started realising like... "hmm... a lot of this sounds VERY familiar". But didn't want to bring it up with anyone partially because like, there's that stigma around plurality, but mostly because a specific part of the trauma we have from childhood is "people have never believed me when I bring my issues up to them and have always told me im lying or faking for attention so this will be the same thing". 😑 My logic was that people would try and say I was just trying to fit in with my friends (even though it was more comparable to queer kids sticking together before they even realise they're queer).
Anyway, late 2019 (Friday December 13th, remember this date) it had really started to get to us. I/Will (Will was the host at the time but I've stolen their job and most of their original personality) went on a research spree. It wasn't the first time I'd done research, obv, but it was the most intense. I think I was sick at the time - I was exhausted from work and not sleeping properly. Did all this research and then promptly took a nap. Had some fuckin weird dreams, and then when we woke up a couple hours later, ya boi Damien was existing and I... wasn't.
Now obviously this isn't the first time someone else had fronted - we worked out later that Damien has been his own distinct person at least since we were 16 - but it WAS the first time that we know of that an alter was fully aware that they were a different person to the host.
This is how he chose to announce himself:
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(Yes I did search for the word "nap" in chat to find this conversation lmao)
It didn't take long before he was working out things about himself - a notable thing he said was "i am very much absolutely not a girl whereas [deadname] is ambivalent about being a girl". He worked out that he was kind of an emo boy, and found it MADLY funny that he began existing properly on Friday the 13th (every Friday 13th is now His Birthday). He didn't already have a name (kinda - he did have a name as a teen but it didn't stick because we didn't realise that character was Him), and he googled "spooky baby names" to settle on Damien.
A couple days later Ducky started fronting and being around, because when it rains it pours. More alters kept popping up and we still get new ones occasionally. The rest is history, basically!
Also, sorry that this post is a million miles long akskfn I have a lot to say all the time. But thank u for asking!!!!
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pebblysand · 3 years
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[may '21] - the life update no one asked for (and some quick links)
Hello team! How are you? What a month it has been! But: we have had some proper sun, the days are getting longer, I have gin&tonic with me to give me fuel to write this and it is now the 30th of april - yay! I know I'm bending the rules of these monthly posts a bit there, by writing the may post by anticipation but I really want to focus on 'proper' writing this weekend, so I hope that you will forgive me :).
But, first, some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :
to read my fics [links to the hinny ficfest fics: one ; two ; three]
to read my original work
fic recs [new additions]
proper blog/site [that I never update but maybe one day I’ll bother]
[NOTE: i am currently accepting prompts for short ficlets on the hp fandom if you fancy. my ask box is open :).]
Everything else, under the cut (contains: ETAs for current WIPs - say, if you’re waiting for chapter 8 of castles, for instance... -, reading lists, and life update)
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Currently, I’m writing:
**Castles [HP - post-war canon]**
links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi
This is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT the priority for the coming days. We are having a bank holiday here in Ireland on Monday and the main objective now is to get the first draft of next chapter done. I have the outlines (both general and particular) and have - maybe - around 15% of the actual chapter done. Due to external factors (more on that below), I've had quite a hard time finding the time and energy to actually focus on this over the past few weeks which is why I kind of booked out this weekend to Get Shit Done. Hopefully, it works. ETA for next chapter: 30th May.
**R O A R series**
Harry&Hermione one-shot [ETA: July probably]
An original horror/thriller story [ETA: this is the next thing (after castles chap 8 on the agenda. Considering the ETA for chapter 8 of castles, we're probably looking at beginning of June for this.]
Something to fill this silk prompt [ETA: TBD]
That Peaky Blinders fic I started and never finished [ETA: TBD]
** Hinny Ficfest **
I am very happy to announce that I'll have not one but two short stories coming out for the upcoming hinny ficfest. I obviously can't talk about them too much on here but here's what I can tell you.
- the first one will be called: [like fire in the rain] and answers to prompt 78 - "truth or dare". It's a short three sentence story (a format I used to enjoy but haven't done on tumblr in aaaaages) that's a bit angsty (you know me) and is set within the 'sunlit days' in year 6.
- the second one, I'm not too sure of the title yet, but right now I'm thinking of a line from a song by passenger called 'holes': [she said the wolf's just a puppy and the door's double-locked (so what'd you gotta worry me for?)]. this is (loosely) inspired by prompt 27 (Molly finding out about Ginny/Harry) the summer after the war, but has kind of grown into a what-if-castles-wasn't-my-headcanon kind of fic. It's currently just shy of 3,000 words. I'm considering posting it on AO3/FF as well by the time it comes out on here but I'm not sure. We'll see.
They're both fully written but need a bit of polish but will definitely be ready by the 10th :).
Currently, I’m reading:
Calypso by David Sedaris: I've finished this! It was absolutely lovely - would highly recommend if you're looking for a nice, non-fiction read. I'd probably give it four stars. Not magnificent but definitely worth a read.
I’ve started re-reading the Divergent series because I have the attention span of a five year old atm. -- Update: yeah, still there. I don't think I've picked this up recently.
I've also started Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly. I really loved her thriller He Said/She Said so thought I'd give it a try. For now, it's fine but I've found it sort of hard to get into it if I'm honest.
I’m still labouring through Troubled Blood, the JKR/RobertGalbraith book (ugh), but I have made significant progress on this. I'm on page 789 so almost at the end. I cannot wait to be finished with it. On top of everything else, it's just way too long. And, that's coming from someone whose favourite HP book is OOTP.
In other news:
I have to say, this month's been a bit of a struggle. Not in terms of mental health but just a lot of things happening at once. I had my exams at the start of the month, obviously, then I went home to France. Then, Ireland decided to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine so I had to change my tickets, come back early to avoid it. Then, the day before I left, my mother had a stroke. I just - I don't want to dwell on this too much. It's over, now, she's fine, has (from what the MRI showed) very little damage to her brain. She's at home and living her best life. Frankly, she's a bit of a miracle. This being said, I can't explain to you the stress and anxiety and heartache of last few weeks, and of not knowing what to do. Of not being able to fly home, having to be in Ireland because I was starting a new job and couldn't afford the hotel quarantine; it was just a lot. I think I didn't even have words to put on it at the time, which is why I didn't write about it before. It's easier now, now that it's over. In the thick of it, I didn't know where to start.
Now, I also didn't want to mention this because I don't mean it as a sob story. I just feel like I should explain why I haven't been the best at putting content out, lately. For that first week after it happened, when we were waiting for the medical exams to come through, I had to start a new job, pretend to be 'happy to be here' and 'excited' like everything was fine and that alone kind of sucked all the energy out of me. I was texting her every half hour at the same time, anxiously waiting for a reply. She lives alone, you see, and she's the only family I have left. I feel bad about not being able to write, but it's been hard. I just couldn't focus. On top of that, while the new job is interesting (and it pays money, yaaaay!), it's just a new routine to get back into, so I've also been feeling very tired.
Additionally, the extrovert in me has been begging to see more of her mates, lately. The weather has been really nice and I'm so eager to go out that I have struggled to keep my resolutions of 'no, I'm staying in and writing tonight.' I used to get plenty of social interactions at work, back in the day, but now that I'm fully remote, all I want to do on my days off is see people (especially with the easing of restrictions in Ireland). I feel like overall, it's fair, though. Introverts have struggled in our society for years, now, it's fair that we, extroverts, during the pandemic, bear more of the burden. It's just that this sudden return of my social life has also not truly catered to much writing time, haha. Hopefully, May will be more stable.
I am feeling better, now. Mum is doing good, the results of her MRI were very positive and the only real thing that's changed is that she says she's 'exhausted' which I guess can be expected after a stroke, haha. She's a warrior and I love her. This week, I've been feeling finally more able to focus and with the bank holiday, I really hope to get some proper writing done. I just need to escape in the magic of HP again, haha.
Anyways, sorry for this rather grim update. I suppose I also want to be honest and say that it's not always rainbows and butterflies. Here's to May, though. Hopefully, it'll treat us better :).
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aristidetwain · 4 years
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Who on Earth is Rasputin?
If you answered “the Fourth Doctor using a Chameleon Arch”, you have seen the 1971 biopic Nicholas and Alexandra and you have the sort of spirit we’re looking for. We love you, Tom Baker, we love you.
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Nevertheless, while it is clearly canonical that every other part played by a given Dr Who actor represents that actor’s Doctor under a Chameleon Arch, (/s), let’s dig a little deeper, because it’s fun and we have cause to do so, into the life and history of Grigori Rasputin in the Doctor Who Universe.
(Lengthy development under the cut.)
1. 
The PETER HARNESS Story
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the flood of great content springing from the Doctor Who: Lockdown event like slightly wobbly ambrosia from the Cornucopia, Peter Harness has released a synopsis for one of the most improbable missed opportunities of the Welsh Series: a Capaldi one-parter entitled How The Monk Got His Habit. 
This story would have seen the return of the Time Meddler himself, or, as you may know him, the Monk—a positively delightful antagonist from the 1960′s who got overshadowed by the more enduring and more malevolent Master, and whose gimmick was that he was an amoral hedonist who changed history for fun and profit with no care for the consequences. In his televised appearances in the William Hartnell era, the Time Meddler was played by Peter Butterworth; first encountered posing as a monk in an 11th-century monastery, he was subsequently remembered as “the Monk”, wearing that costume, and known thereafter as “the Monk” or “the Meddling Monk” in fandom and in subsequent appearances. 
Harness decided to feature an early incarnation of the character colliding out-of-sync with the Twelfth Doctor, giving nothing less than the origin story of the Meddling Monk, both the “meddling” and “monk” parts, and just from the original pitch email he dug up, it is a thing of beauty.
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(Source)
Further enjoyment is to be gleaned from the fully-written-out opening scene of a hypothetical novelisation of the unmade story, which can be found here and establishes the incarnation of the Time Meddler at the start of that story (currently going by “Roger”) as being his fifth. 
This is mildly interesting in that in true Doctor Who fashion, it manages to contradict one of the very few already-existing stories that had tried to make sense of the Monk’s timeline. I refer of course to John Peel’s The Mutation of Time, which took time off to establish that the already-meddling, already-monasterial Peter Butterworth incarnation seen in The Time Meddler and The Daleks’ Master Plan was the Monk’s first incarnation. But never mind that.
Note that the historical Rasputin died at the tail end of 1916. I could construct elaborate theories of how and why Rasputin turning insane in 1917 could affect the Russian Revolution and the rest of human history, but I’ll spare you and myself the additional headache, and assume this was simply a typo.
2. 
The BOOK OF THE WAR Story
Where it gets complicated, as is often the case, is when you factor in the Time War. See, The Book of the War, in one of its most entertaining side-stories, establishes that Grigori Rasputin actually did not die in December 1916. Instead, Faction Paradox, those lackadaisical jackanapes, thought it would be funny to spirit him away to their hideout a few days before his death, leaving a barely-sentient clone to act out Rasputin’s real death. 
Unaware of this, the Celestis (a faction of Time Lords who turned themselves into incorporeal demons to escape the Time War) had decided to recruit Rasputin in their usual faustian way, offering him a form of immortality in exchange of his accepting to be Marked by them, becoming a slave to their will. Because the Rasputin clone’s basic programming included “Do whatever freaky time travelling sorcerers are telling you to do”, the thing blithely accepted the Celestis Mark and was on its way. 
And then, unaware of what the Celestis had done, but having caught wind of the Faction Paradox cultists’ plan to bring Rasputin to their homebase, the actual Gallifrey-based Time Lords decided to duplicate Rasputin themselves, leaving a “trapped” Grigori for the Faction to find, one who was secretly loyal to them, the Great Houses. And so they showed up one day before Rasputin’s death to perform the switcheroo, being under the impression that if the Faction were to whisk Rasputin away, they would do so mere instants before he was supposed to die. 
(Maybe the Time Lords thought that because that’s how they would do it. For more information, see S09E12, Hell Bent.)
Hence, come the fateful day, the Time Lords’ doctored duplicate of the Faction’s doctored duplicate of Rasputin, now secretly immortal thanks to, and under the control of the Celestis, (are you still following this?)… not only does it take forever to die because duh, it’s a badly-made golem, not a human being… but once it does find it within itself to die, it is instantly resurrected by the Celestis, who activate their Mark, ordering it to do their shadowy bidding.
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At this point, the misbegotten triple-zombie experiences an existential crisis too big for its artificial brain to handle, as what passes for its soul has now been conditioned to faithfully serve the interest of three different factions who are at war with each other. Not-Rasputin goes instantly mad with confusion and goes drown itself in the nearest river.
Meanwhile, in the members-only Faction Paradox treehouse, the original Rasputin whom the cultists replaced with the first golem is properly inducted into the Faction, where he is widely observed to turn into just as crazy a Grandfather Paradox zealot as he was a devout Orthodox and mystic. He proceeds to use his newfound authority as Father Dyavol of Faction Paradox to advise his fellow Faction member Princess Anastasia to secede from the Eleven-Day Empire and bugger off to Moscow.
After Anastasia and Dyavol’s revolution crashes and burns, his corpse is found in the river again, appearing to once more have been mutilated in more ways than it would take to kill a normal human being. The Book’s ambiguous in-universe authors are themselves unsure of quite what happened.
3.
The OTHER STUFF
Those two are the “big ones”, but I would be remiss if I did not mention other Doctor Who takes on the historical Grigori Rasputin.
Big Finish’s Companion Chronicle The Wanderer has the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara coming across the younger, wandering-pilgrim Rasputin in 1903. He briefly becomes a genuine prophet due to having come into contact with an alien artefact which grants him knowledge of future human history, but this is undone at the end of the story and so doesn’t amount to very much. 
I am told that this is because the story was originally written with Nostradamus in mind, which makes a lot of sense. What is of interest to us is that Rasputin is here depicted as a basically good, sane man, once you set the grandiose prophetic visions aside.
Dave McIntee’s The Wages of Sin, on the other hand, is also constructed around Rasputin’s death in December 1916, but it posits that Rasputin was a non-supernatural and non-crazy monk, totally undeserving of his ghoulish and supernatural post-mortem reputation. Rather problematically, it gives us a direct insight into Rasputin’s thought processes as he dies, with no thought of being a triple-zombie with conflicting allegiances to be gleaned: 
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4. 
The THEORY
What this tells us is that Rasputin’s death is not strictly a bootstrap paradox — the original historical death that the Faction fetishized to the point of wanting to get their own ritualistic mitts on Rasputin, the one the Monk accidentally averts, a few months before it’s supposed to happen, in a way that threatens to change all of human history, is not the farcical catastrophe described in The Book of the War. There was an original, untampered-with timeline that got thrown out of whack by too many different Time Lords trying to meddle with it.
You could, I suppose, posit that there are three different timelines: the Monk and the various Wartime factions both split off in different directions from the baseline Wages of Sin timeline where the human Rasputin died in the river. But that is no fun at all, is it? And furthermore, it does not account for the fact that the definitely human Rasputin of The Wanderer and The Wages of Sin is a good man unfairly maligned, whereas the Rasputin who becomes Father Dyavol is a rebellious lunatic. So let’s assume instead that the Book of the War story’s time meddling is building onto what happened (or, you know, would have happened) in How The Monk Got His Habit.
If we assume that the “the Monk drives the real Rasputin insane” incident happened a few months prior to December 1916, and it is on the day when he was driven mad that the real Rasputin is taken out of time by the Twelfth Doctor and replaced by the regenerated Monk, then this finally makes sense of the difference in characterization between pre- and post-1916 Rasputin. The sane, misunderstood Rasputin was the real human being, whereas the ranting madman Rasputin is the persona put on by the repentant Monk. Remember, per Harness’s outline, the Monk has a checklist of what Rasputin is supposed to do historically speaking, but I don’t see him having any real way of knowing how Rasputin is supposed to act. Most of his involvement with the man took place on the day that he drove him irreparably kookoo, after all.
So we end up with the following story:
The original Grigori Rasputin, who meets the First Doctor in 1903, is a mostly-sane and wholly-non-evil man. He has a traumatic experience with visions of future history, which the Doctor is forced to telepathically lock away, Donna-style. (The Wanderer) In the original timeline witnessed by the Third Doctor, Rasputin lives out his days largely as he had begun. He is assassinated in largely-mundane circumstances; Jo’s attempt to avert this by switching out the poisoned cakes for normal ones gives rise to a legend that Rasputin was unusually hard to kill, and causes the event to go down in history. (The Wages of Sin)  The Earth band Boney M write a song about Rasputin which inspires the Fifth Monk  to go back in time and make Rasputin listen to it. This drives him irreparably bananas, likely because of his having already had one barely-contained traumatic experience with future knowledge given to him by aliens, back in 1903.This screws with time to the extent that when he realizes he is out of his depth and calls for help, the Fifth Monk actually reaches the post-War Twelfth Doctor. After a lot of shenanigans, the Doctor leaves the Monk in 1916 with instructions to regenerate into a Sixth Monk physically identical to Rasputin, and then act out the part Rasputin was supposed to play in history to a T. (How The Monk Got His Habit)  The Sixth Monk’s Rasputin cosplay leaves a lot to be desired, since he mostly bases his performance on the damn Boney M song and on the bananas, post-listening-to-the-song Rasputin. Nevertheless, it’s enough to fool Faction Paradox into abducting him a few days before he was supposed to fake his death and go back to business as usual. The improbable series of coincidences which follows, with the triply-brainwashed duplicate, might represent Time trying to adjust so that the myth of Rasputin’s outlandish death, which started this entire series of events, still goes down in History somehow. Once in the Eleven-Day Empire, the Sixth Monk realizes pretty quickly that his being there at all, in the middle of the Time War, is a perfectly irregular breach of all the Protocols of Linearity. Hoping to avoid detection, he continues hamming it up as Mad Prophet Rasputin until he figures out a plan. To his surprise, he manages to fool Anastasia, and so he manipulates her into giving him a free ticket out of the Faction, namely the whole Thirteen-Day Republic thing. (The Book of the War) But wait. What happened to the real Rasputin who went crazy? I reckon the Twelfth Doctor took him to some place of caring or other. What’s more, I reckon he voiced his intention to do so while the Fifth Monk was still with him. (How The Monk Got His Habit) And so the final grisly piece of the puzzle comes into place. Desperate to escape back to his own place in Gallifreyan history, where it’s safe and black-and-white, when he sees the Valentine’s Day Battle approaching, the Sixth Monk commits his first truly evil act by hopping back into his timeship unseen, bringing the real Rasputin back to the Thirteen-Day Republic, and murdering him in a way which he hopes will look like the original timeline reasserting itself. To further avoid detection in case he should be intercepted on the way out, the Sixth Monk regenerates himself into a clean-shaven Seventh Monk right there and then, probably hiding in a closet. (The Book of the War) As far as any of the Wartime powers know, “Father Dyavol” is dead, and so the now-inconspicuous Seventh Monk is free to slink away back to his TARDIS. Knowing the Doctor is found on Earth in almost all of their incarnations, the Monk hovers close to Earth’s timeline, hoping to find the “right” Doctor again and rejoin Linearity by latching onto him. When they finally bump into each other in 1066 Northumbria, there’s still a 50-year difference between them, but the Monk thinks “eh, close enough” and reenters normal time for good, now with much-loosened moral standards. After all, act or no act, he spent quite a lot of time working with Faction Paradox — besides which he has seen that everything the Time Lords of his day stand for is torn down eventually by the War, so why bother with any of those Laws of Time he know will eventually be suspended? (The Time Meddler, The Daleks’ Master Plan)
…oh!
And if you want the real Rasputin’s story to have a happy ending, maybe the Faction, once they rifle through the possessions found on the corpse of Father Dyavol, find a fobwatch and open it… reviving the Fourth Doctor, who offers the befuddled coroner-Cousin a jelly baby, shrugs that this particular attempt to throw off the Black Guardian clearly didn’t work, and returns to his own era.
The jelly baby in question was then placed, with religious deference, on a velvet cushion inside the Catalogue.
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refcco · 3 years
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BATTERIES GONE WRONG – ASSESSMENT, MITIGATION, AND EXPECTATIONS
In the world of product safety, it could be said that there are two basic approaches to risk mitigation, proactive and reactive, with proactive being the preferred choice. Most would agree with the adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” but in truth, this oversimplifies the reality in which product manufacturers operate. As with most things in life, things are rarely black and white but rather a continuous spectrum of shades of gray. To this, there are many competing aspects in all commercial product ventures. Could you make a product that was fully reliable under all conditions? Perhaps, but the odds are that it would be a commercial failure as it would take an inordinate amount of time to produce and be prohibitively expensive. In today’s market, the traditional characteristics of safety, time to market, quality, cost, reliability, manufacturability, testability, and usability (to name a few) still apply. But these have been further augmented by more modern concerns of environmental impact, sustainability, social responsibility, and others. We mention these not to offer any judgment but only to note that the expectation that a product will perform flawlessly over its lifecycle is a difficult proposition given the myriad of competing needs. The battery industry is no different when it comes to satisfying market requirements. With batteries having become ubiquitous in our daily lives as the world has migrated to all things becoming portable, the challenge for providers of these products has increased. With the advent of high-energy, rechargeable lithium-ion chemistries, battery performance has dramatically increased, but so have the risks. No longer are battery packs simple devices. In most modern electronic products, they are better characterized as complex components of an integrated system with one key difference – most other components of such systems rarely have the ability to spontaneously overheat and burn (i.e., go to “thermal runaway”) with little to no warning, potentially resulting in personal injury, product damage, and the associated legal and market liabilities.
HOW DO WE ASSESS BATTERY SAFETY RISKS? In focusing on the safety risks, what are the options for risk mitigation in the battery space? Ideally, these begin early in the design phase. Clearly, there is no substitute for a good design using high-quality components. In the world of batteries, safety-critical components such as the cell, safety circuit, and passive protective devices such as fuses, positive temperature coefficient (PTC) devices, and other thermal devices are the initial focus. Mechanical considerations also come into play to help ensure that the cell is accommodated within its specified limits including levels of protection against reasonably foreseeable external use conditions. To ensure that such efforts are yielding the desired result, testing of both the components and the battery pack assembly is key, covering the aspects of safety as well as long-term reliability and performance. This testing should be initiated early in the product development process so that, if issues are uncovered, there is the time and flexibility to adjust the design, followed by retesting to verify the efficacy of the changes and to ensure that other problems were not inadvertently introduced. As the development process progresses, production samples should be built and evaluated to understand if manufacturing variations can create unanticipated safety risks. In many cases, this design-build-test-adjust process is performed by the component and battery pack manufacturers and is sometimes augmented by external testing laboratory resources. For more complex systems, the end-device manufacturer may also be involved early in the process to ensure system aspects do not negatively impact battery safety.
TESTING BATTERIES FOR REGULATORY APPROVAL As the design stabilizes, regulatory approval at the battery pack level is usually the next layer of risk mitigation. A key input to this process is the approval of the component cell as it represents the greatest single safety risk. Regulatory testing typically involves small sample sizes and is not meant to serve as a statistically significant sample size to find outliers in a large population but rather is meant to find gross issues such as design or process defects that have escaped detection in the early stages of product development. Common testing protocols involve a combination of electrical, mechanical, and thermal overstress. Some involve the application of faults to better assess the inherent safety robustness of the battery pack. Other tests attempt to evaluate the product for stresses that might be common to a specific industry or use case. At a minimum, battery packs will be tested to the transportation requirements found in UN 38.3. Testing to one of the 62133-2 series of standards (IEC, EN, UL) is also commonly performed and is required for regulatory approval in many global markets. Testing to such standards is usually conducted by accredited third-party testing laboratories with the end result being the authorized application of the testing lab’s mark to the product. This approval facilitates regulatory acceptance by government authorities and may also be a prerequisite for commercial entities such as retailers and distributors to offer the product for sale. Some approvals also require periodic post-market inspection of production facilities to ensure the design is still being manufactured as originally qualified. Infrequently, a testing laboratory or regulatory agency may mandate retesting when significant changes to the relevant test standards are implemented.
THE CHALLENGES OF BATTERIES AS END-PRODUCT COMPONENTS The discussion up to this point is intended as background for what is typically done in a normal battery pack product development cycle. The level to which these actions are implemented directly correlates to a base level of risk mitigation for safety events once the product is released into the market. This does not mean that there are any guarantees that there won’t be field problems, but the level of exposure is certainly reduced as more product safety information is proactively discerned and addressed. What if the battery pack is simply a purchased component and the purchaser was not involved in the design process and may not even have any visibility into the production of the battery pack? Similarly, what if the purchaser is procuring an end device that has an embedded battery pack? These are both very common situations for retailers and distributors who typically have very limited internal engineering resources. Certainly, buying such products from reputable sources and checking for the presence of the requisite safety marks is a good start, but is it sufficient? Modern supply chains are global. Therefore, discerning where a product was manufactured and by whom can be a challenge in itself. This means that regardless of the actual manufacturer’s liability, a retailer’s or distributor’s brand can be put in jeopardy by a single video posted on social media that quickly goes viral. How can product risk be mitigated in this situation? The general answer is to work backward beginning with production samples. A product teardown of new product samples by a knowledgeable third party can aid in assessing what risks exist with purchased products where the detailed design knowledge is not available. Although every product is different, an evaluation of a product from a portable energy safety perspective might include such items as: • Verification of any regulatory marks on the product. Was the testing actually done and is the regulatory status current? • Evaluation of insulating methods including their integrity and consistency • Evaluation of conductor sizing • Review of manufacturing quality indicators that might equate to latent defects • Review of the safety circuit or other protective devices for proper operation under abnormal conditions such as over-voltage, over-current, short-circuit, and under-voltage • Review of the charging circuit design. Does it subject the battery or cell to improper conditions? • Determination of the cell manufacturer and type. This also includes an assessment of whether the cell might be counterfeit • Cell examination (radiographs and/or CT scans), teardown, and construction analysis • Review of the mechanical design of the product in terms of its ability to protect the safety critical components • End-user instructions and safety warnings
WHAT ABOUT BATTERY PERFORMANCE ISSUES? In addition to a review of safety concerns, performance relative to competing market options should be evaluated through benchmarking. This is typically done in parallel with the safety review and is focused on how a user is expected to employ the product in expected use cases. Competing samples are drawn from the market ensuring that they are of the same price tier to ensure that the comparisons are valid. A custom evaluation plan is drafted and might involve visual inspections, functional checks, and even comparisons of long-term electrical or mechanical reliability. Many times, the criteria are drawn from marketing assertions as shown on the products’ packaging. Examples might include the number of hours that the device will operate in a given mode before needing to be recharged and how long that recharge might take. The evaluation can also go much further, perhaps considering the relative drop performance from a given height or the number of charge-discharge cycles before a loss of function is detected. As a general rule, safety concerns tend towards the absolute given the nature of such risks to people and property. Conversely, performance concerns lend themselves towards a more relative evaluation against other competing market options.
ANTICIPATING THERMAL RUNAWAY RISKS Given the above processes for minimizing risks through proper design or post-production design evaluations, are there other proactive risk mitigation actions that warrant consideration from a product safety perspective? Consider this – even if all of the above steps are followed with the best of intentions, what happens if things still go wrong? More specifically, what is the effect to the end product and nearby users if a cell goes into thermal runaway when the device is in use? Second, what happens if a cell goes into thermal runaway during the transportation and shipping process? Most designers can only guess as definitively knowing what happens is rarely directly investigated. To answer these questions, there are two general methodologies. Simulation is an option but requires very advanced electrochemical and thermal modeling. Our experience is that this tends to be cost-prohibitive for most organizations and thus is only seen in relatively large companies where such expertise is available in-house. What about direct testing? Like simulation, it has barriers for implementation as well, the most obvious being concerns related to personnel safety and expertise, as well as having the appropriate facilities to provide the proper test containment of high-energy events while being able to document their effects. With the right facilities and expertise available, a determination must be made about how to force the cell or battery into thermal runaway. Overcharging and surface heating are two common methods, although the design of the product and the chemistry of the cells will guide what method is most appropriate. Other considerations for such testing involve what data is to be collected and how. Video evidence is considered by most clients to be the most useful. It should be further supported by appropriate logging of relevant temperatures and possibly other product parameters, as well as forensic documentation of the actual effects to the end-product. Once again, the goal is to use the information obtained to determine if design improvement should be made to minimize the chances of personal injury or property damage during a thermal runaway event. Although the above is presented in a relatively clinical fashion, the danger of injury and property damage is very real. Depending on the energy level of the particular sample, an exploding cell can produce temperatures above 1200 °C (2192 °F) and deadly shrapnel particularly in the case of large-format cells with metal cans. Readers are strongly cautioned to not attempt such testing without the proper expertise and containment equipment.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAILURE ANALYSIS Designing and testing cells and batteries properly from a safety perspective, including understanding the impacts should a thermal runaway event occur, are the best risk mitigation tools that we have at our disposal. Even with those best proactive efforts, things will still go wrong. The real question is how often. True failure rates for cells and batteries are not publicly available as companies keep such information confidential. But anecdotally, high-quality lithium-ion cells have a rough order of magnitude (ROM) failure rate somewhere around 1 in 10 million, while lesser quality cells are likely to have poorer field performance. With over eight billion cells being produced globally every year, the math is inescapable that bad things will happen. These factors make clear the importance of using retrospective methods to gain insights into what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. These methods collectively fall under the heading of lithium battery failure analysis. Failures in the field can happen at any point in the battery’s life cycle and can vary significantly in severity and frequency. Responses to such issues also vary accordingly, ranging from simply replacing a product under warranty to retrieval of the product for a full forensic evaluation. For minor issues, it may be determined that a product change is not warranted. Conversely, safety issues may mandate a full product recall and rework of the design. In the end, failure analysis actions provide after-the-fact knowledge for organizations from which to make decisions that will impact future risk.
THE VALUE OF THIRD-PARTY EXPERTISE Like thermal runaway testing, cell and battery failure analysis involves expertise, processes, and tools that may not be readily available to most organizations. Because of the uniqueness and the infrequency of need, expertise tends to be primarily resident in third-party test labs that specialize in portable energy. Conducting cell and battery failure analysis through an expert third party offers a number of benefits, including: • Reduction of personal bias: A third-party test lab has no vested interest in the outcome of the analysis, nor do they have intimate knowledge of the product or company’s history. • Independent verification: A third-party lab can help to independently verify the findings of an internal team or a supplier. • Resource utilization: As noted previously, field safety events are generally an infrequent occurrence. Having an internal team staffed with the proper expertise and equipment to respond to such a rare event is generally not possible or even desirable. • Diligence: In the most severe of cases such as potential product recalls, it may be valuable for the company to have an independent party involved to minimize negative perceptions regarding objectivity. • Focus: Having failure analysis conducted by an external party may permit the company’s internal teams to remain focused on the day-to-day operations of their mainline business. • Process rigor: An external testing lab will have already developed the processes and methods for orderly evaluation and documentation of field failures, with specific expertise in evidence preservation. • Breadth of experience: Because of their focus on failure analysis spread across multiple clients over time, a third-party testing lab will generally have a wider range of technical experience when it comes to what constitutes typical versus atypical findings.
WORKING WITH A THIRD-PARTY EXPERT When working with a third-party failure analysis provider, you will be asked to provide more than the failed unit to facilitate the investigation. It is important to be as open and honest as possible. Your provider should be accustomed to handling confidential materials and should be willing to work under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to protect all proprietary information. In terms of the supplemental information, basic product information is the starting point. This might include specifications and similar documents to support the work along with any relevant details regarding product history. These will not be used to prematurely assume conclusions, but rather to supplement the physical evidence and help prioritize the investigatory efforts. Information on the specific unit along with incident details are also very important to piecing together what happened. How was the unit configured? Was it operating in a particular mode? Did the unit demonstrate anything unusual prior to the event? It is best to provide all of the information that is available and let the failure analysis team draw their own conclusions regarding relevance. It is important to realize that as the investigation moves forward, the relevance of such information may change as more information is learned. The actual failed units will need to be delivered to the laboratory. In this situation, more is better. It is possible that there may be multiple failure modes at play and having additional samples may help to isolate these. It is also important to preserve the evidence as much as possible by limiting unnecessary handling, examining, or actual tampering which might further damage the unit and lead to erroneous findings. Proper packaging is a must. It is best if all components of the reported system can be provided, i.e., the failed cell or battery, the end-device if applicable, charging devices and cables, etc., as it is possible that the root cause of the failure may have been external to the cell or battery that failed. Samples should be marked or segregated so that it is clear which components go together. In addition to the failed systems, it is also good if a fully functional new system can be provided for purposes of comparison. What should you expect from your third party expert? Every investigation is unique, and your provider should work with you to generate a project scope that meets your needs, and they should limit their efforts to that scope. Considerations include specific concerns, communication frequency, deliverables, and budget. Be aware that the actual work of failure analysis involves a mix of analytical tools such as fault tree analysis (FTA) combined with empirical methods such as x-ray imaging, CT scanning, optical microscopy, product dissection (battery pack and cell teardowns), quantitative measurement, circuit testing, and replication testing. Not every tool is appropriate for every situation. Your provider will provide guidance on these technical aspects. In the end, your provider should provide your team a clear, unbiased analysis report that details the investigation and its associated findings. What should you not expect from your provider? First, don’t expect speculation. This is a “just the facts” activity. If the evidence doesn’t support it, your provider shouldn’t be offering it up. Second, keep in mind that not every investigation yields the root cause or even the true failure mode. Depending upon the condition of the evidence and nature of the incident, it simply may not be feasible to reach this level of understanding. Conversely, the efforts may seek to eliminate likely root causes thus narrowing the possibilities. Third, don’t expect your provider to tell you if this issue will repeat in the future. A risk analysis to predict the likelihood of future failures requires a different set of information, although data from the failure analysis investigation may serve as key inputs into that analysis. Finally, don’t expect your provider to tell you what actions to take, although the root cause data from your provider may serve as a basis for your team to make those decisions.
FINAL THOUGHTS In conclusion, there is a wide array of proactive and reactive steps that can be taken to minimize and mitigate product risks associated with modern lithium-ion cells and battery packs. On the front end, these include the proper design for safety, use of high quality cells and components, thorough testing from the component to the system level to include thermal runaway evaluations, and third-party certifications where appropriate. When problems do occur in the field, consider the engagement of a reputable third-party failure analysis organization that specializes in cells and batteries. Their team of experts can help to assess what happened, how it happened, and possibly even why the incident occurred. In turn, your organization can use this information to objectively determine appropriate responses, both immediate and longer-term, to mitigate risk to your customers, your product, and your brand.
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