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tryslora · 2 months

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On Writing Combat and Sex Scenes

Today I want to talk about writing sex and combat (and no, I do not mean combative sex). This post is inspired by a few recent events:

Once, a long time ago, I read a blog post that said “if you can write a combat scene, you can write a sex scene” and that was mind-blowing for me because while I was well-versed in writing erotica, I couldn’t write combat to save my life.

More recently, at Boskone, I participated on a panel about writing combat, and the research involved there-in.

Even more recently, I had someone look at me say, “You’re not a gay guy. How do you write gay sex scenes?”

So. Let’s begin.

I get it—sex and combat aren’t interchangeable. But at their core, they have some strong similarities which can be leveraged while writing. Both are intense, high drama, and can involve a lot of anxiety and quick thought. Both tend to narrow focus down to the moment and the current feeling and action. Both are heightened emotion and physical reaction. Both can involve actions that lie outside the author’s personal experience.

I started writing erotica when I was a freshman in college. I posted it online (does anyone remember rec.arts.erotica?) and was surprised (and pleased) by the compliments I received. Turned out my readers were not expecting the idea of emotion being entangled in their erotica. They were invested emotionally in how the stories went, and how my characters felt. Since I was writing from the point of view that made sense to me at the time, they were het stories from a female perspective, and they were very focused on the emotional connections and how the physical events heightened those emotions.

Male readers were surprised by the intensity of the feelings that these stories gave them (as opposed to pure arousal). It got me thinking about how I wrote, and why I wrote, and I tried to talk about it some at the time. I was eighteen. I was still a new writer. The internet itself was new. I wasn’t entirely certain how to frame it, but I remember getting one comment where a guy was surprised at how struck he’d been by the moment in the scene where everything shuddered to a halt due to an event in the story that interrupted the action, and I replied that that was because I wasn’t writing about the sex. I was writing about the character’s reaction to the sex.

Which has always been how I write. At the time, that was my only tool: put myself in the character’s mind, and write what they feel. If that’s affection and attraction and physical reaction, write that. Tangle it up, and hope the reader feels that entanglement.

Now, fast forward several years, and take a little side trip onto a tangent wherein I learned something very important about writing craft.

I was reading Syne Mitchell’s End in Fire, I think it was, and I kept having panic attacks. Now, I did most of my reading late, often when I woke in the middle of the night due to stress, or just because my brain refused to rest. I was in a rough place in life in general, with a lot of external work stuff going on and very small children. I wasn’t sleeping well. And it took me some time to figure out why I was struggling to read a book which I actually loved (and when I read it later in life, I enjoyed it greatly).

It was the sentence structure.

In order to induce the emotion of the scene, the sentences were short. Sharp. Quick. There was no time for the reader to breathe, much like there was no time for the heroine to do anything but act. The reader was caught up in the rising tension, to the point where my anxious, sleep-deprived brain, caught a panic attack from it.

The technique was brilliant.

Now back to our original timeline, wherein I read a post about how if you can write combat, you can write sex scenes. This post assumed that more people felt comfortable writing violence than sex. I was the reverse. I’d been writing about sex for over a decade when I saw this post, and it made a light bulb go off in my brain.

If writing sex was like writing combat… was the reverse also true? Could I improve my skills at writing battles by analyzing what worked when I wrote erotica?

So I tried doing just that. Back then, I found combat overwhelming. There was so much going on, and I was trying so hard to write good description that I lost all of the intensity. I was focusing on everything that was going on at the same time.

Thinking about how sex scenes were all intense emotion and narrowed focus, I applied that to my combat scenes. I wrote only what the point of view character experienced, and tied everything to their actions and reactions. I thought about how they breathed, how they moved, how they thought. I used those short, sharp sentences as they processed the scene.

That doesn’t mean I forgot about everything else going on in the scene. That’s impossible. After all, in any story the things the character doesn’t pay attention to might be as important as the things they do focus on. Stuff still happens, and there is still fallout. I needed to know what else was happening so that if the character moved from one place to another, or did something that put them in the path of a different part of the action, I could have them start processing it.

But it also meant that on the page, out of sight was out of mind. Everything narrowed down to the now. The immediacy. Suddenly my combat scenes snapped into focus.

During the panel at Boskone, all of the panelists had experience with different fighting styles (fencing, street combat, and of course, me with taekwondo). I spoke about how for me, that narrow focus is very real when I spar. I know there are some people who naturally see a move or two ahead while fighting; I don’t. I am stuck in act and react mode. Can I kick them now? Can I attempt a head shot? Oh, no, circle back and away or they’re going to hit me… that’s how my brain works during a sparring match.

It’s not like a total blackout—there should be a vague awareness of things around the character. Sounds in particular, or sometimes flashes of movement. Something distracting can catch the attention of the fighter, but the personal fight will always pull the character back.

Combat feels easy when I’m writing like that.

Of course, there’s still the question of writing about something if I’ve never experienced it. As someone did point out to me: I am not a gay man, so how does that affect writing sex scenes? I’ve also never fought with a sword. Brawled. Fought from horseback. I have, however, held a blade, shot a gun, shot an arrow, rode a horse. I have a vague idea of how these things work, much like I have a working knowledge of sex in general.

So yes, research gets involved. Sometimes research is observational, sometimes it’s reading (there’s so much good stuff out there). I highly recommend video for combat scenes—find things that have the feel that you’re going for, then put yourself in the place of the character you want to write about. Practice. Work through the ideas of how things fit together, and what your character will (and will not!) know during the fight.

If you need to, stand up and block the scene by thinking about how you would experience it. What can you see, and what is out of sight? If someone is coming at you with a blade, what are your options? How do height differences affect you? Yes, I have asked friends and husband to help me block scenes.

“Stand right there and show me what it looks like if you punch me. Okay, so if I do this then…” Yeah. It’s a thing. But it works.

When doing your research, remember that movie fighting (and hell, movie sex scenes) isn’t realistic. It’s meant to look good. For combat, if you can find re-enactments, or sparring videos, I highly recommend taking a look at those.

Anyway, the point is: I don’t have to have shot someone, and I don’t have to have had gay sex in order to write about them. What I do need to know is how it feels emotionally to do those things, and I can extrapolate that from what I do know. I need to know enough about the details so I can get it right, and that’s where research will help me. Also, use language to create emotion. Because emotions are where we grab the reader, and how we pull them into the scene.

Combat and sex aren’t so different when it comes to writing, and the personal experience. Now, go forth and write!

#writing #writing resources #writing sex #writing combat

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zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u · 4 months

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Kuya- Is character developmentTM necessary?

(NOTE: I have not played every event nor watched all intimacy rooms. If anyone has additional info, please let me know!)

Soooo idk if anyone in NU Carnival tumblr also follows fanartists on twitter, but there was a lil bit of drama over some character criticism amongst some midsized fanartists (I say midsized cause they're moderately known in the English-speaking fandom, but MUCH smaller than more popular anime or kpop fanartists). And 2 things- I really like all the fanartists that were involved so I hope it doesn't become a long lasting fight. I know big fandoms can get in a lot of fanwars (coff kpop), and would hate to see how relatively mature NU Carnival has handled things, turn into fanwars over small stuff. Get fights over the gacha system pricing, sure, but not over opinionsTM on fictional characters. Anyways, that's a twitter problem. Tumblr fandoms, although they can get into fights too, the NU Carnival tumblr analysis people seem more chill and I haven't seen any public fanwars yet. But also there's also fewer people active on tumblr.

AAAANYWAYS. The point of this is my response to their arguments. Basically the discussion was over whether or not Kuya had any character development. And I say- with a cast of 12 lead-ish characters and not everyone getting the spotlight all the time, there will be some screentime sacrifices made. But I would also like to propose- is it absolutely necessary for EEEVERY character to get "character development"? And is it necessary for every character to get the SAME kind of "character development"?

Let's take a side tangent at Avatar the Last Airbender. Zuko is infamous as the poster child for character development. And while that works for Zuko's character, it would not be right for EVERY character to follow his pattern. Specifically for some characters such as Uncle Iroh. Or they deserve to have smaller scale or slower character development, such as Aang or Toph. I'm not saying Aang or Toph don't have character development, but they don't have the massive 360 changes that Zuko does. And that's because they don't need it!

Now let's move over to NU: Carnival. I'll bring up Garu/Karu first. I'm not sure if everyone realizes this yet, but Karu is probably the best character who is starting at the beginning/bottom of his character development arc. He's got lots of issues and none of it is solved yet. Their role is also being a victim of the plot- stuff has happened to Garu/Karu and they've got no agency yet. We can also predict that Karu is going to eventually lower down his walls, accept or overcome his trauma, mature from his delusions of grandeur, become actually powerful, and experience ~character development~. Garu doesn't have as many problems with Eiden or the rest of the clan, but he also lacks empowerment and maturity that he's been slowly building up since Eerie Escapade. For them, because they are starting their story completely unsolved and at the bottom of the barrel, "character development" is necessary- especially now that we have hints on how much of a victim they are of the plot (essence/gemstone experiments) and how crucial they might be to solving things. And that can't happen if they've still got amnesia and blacking out from trauma.

But what about Kuya, whose the point of this whole discussion? The 2 sides of the twitter argument were- Kuya has stopped progressing and is boring and a bitch vs Kuya actually has a lot of character development. How about another perspective? Well, let's take a look at where Kuya is starting and what role he plays. Realistically, he starts out being a villain archetype, he's Huey's former right hand man and super close to the lore. Half the time Kuya is saving the day or creating the chaos, and the other half of the time, he already knows the answer and is providing the exposition or mystery/backstory reveals, or has personal experience/connections with whatever mystery they're encountering.

"Development"-wise, he's the oldest character whose gone through the most changes over time, except in the past. Yeah he's a total bitch and still emotionally constipated. But he's been like this for 200, maybe 300 or 400+ years. In fact, he was worse 100-200 years ago. So what does this mean for present-day Kuya with Eiden's clan?

a) Kuya is not at the start of his character development and he does not need major character development, like Garu/Karu or Dante or Yakumo or Edmond. He has already done the bulk of his character development in the past, and is now changing very very veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly simply due to time and he will keep changing at his own much slower pace than everyone else.

c) Kuya's main role is also the extremely powerful being who has answers to almost all the lore. Yeah, there's still a LOOOOT of things he doesn't know or learns along the way, but 90% of the time, he's so experienced and smart, he figures it out (except for the playing cards, which kickstarts his interest in Eiden). For example, figuring out the night crane in Silver Miracle or the Tanuki in mystic banquet or the time shenanigans in Astral Duo and he already knows whats going on in Frozen Echoes. (Rusted Nations is a bit hard to compare since it's mostly flashbacks to past Kuya). He's just so bored of knowing the answers, or being able to easily figure out the answers that he fucks around with people. Heck, there's a small possibility that, if Journey to a NU World is canon, that means Kuya is so OP he's basically Jobu Tupaki from EEAAO or Monika from DDLC, and he knows the actual game developers.

If we think about it in terms of gaming, Kuya has maxed out and finished the game. He is super powerful and has nowhere upwards to go. The only thing he can do now is doing Lost Relics, filling out the pokedex, sidequests, and exploring after game content. Or playing the sequel, which would be equivalent of universe hopping to Eiden's world. Another example- you've solved over 200 puzzles and the difficulty level never changes. Your character development was in puzzles 0-150, and when you encounter puzzle 201 but it's STILL that easy, eventually most people will get bored. That's what Kuya is like.

I don't have a fancy conclusion or anything, but yeah that's my thoughts. If anyone has corrections or their own interpretation, I'd love to hear it!

#nu carnival #kuya #personal #analysis #meta

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fumifooms · 9 days

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You're always so on point with your posts. On that note, it made me realize that; Considering the themes of desires in DunMeshi. It's also to say that what you think you want isn't what you actually want.

Like, Marcille thinks she wants the handsome prince from the novels she reads... But what she actually wants is someone maybe more like her father who she admired so much. Kind, virtuous, caring to a fault, a family man. Things she later finds in Chilchuck.

Because as traumatizing as it was to see her mother's spiral after her father's death; Her memories of her father itself are some of the most important to her. And it fits with her pursuit to increase her loved ones' lives, because she does want what her mother and father had.

Sipping. I do go over ‘what you think you want vs what you actually want + what you need’ in my (upcoming) Marcille & Chil arc analysis ;) It’s a part of Dunmeshi that I really like and is super fascinating, I’d honestly like to make an analysis-post on the topic: all the different threads and characters in canon that reflect that, desires vs wants and themes of idealization in Dunmeshi, but it’s one of those things that’s just so huge to make. See this is the freaking problem with doing Dunmeshi meta you start talking about the themes or a narrative and everything is so interwoven you get distracted with tangents BUT IT’S ALL COMPELLING AND RELEVANT

I know that’s something laimar does a lot too, the dad thing, with Marcille in a post-canon comic knitting beside him paralleling her parents and whatnot. I don’t know if I fully agree on the angle but there’s definitely stuff to dig at there…

Like I know that I’d like to analyze Marcille’s succubus more, it comes up in my analysis draft but it’s not the point I’m trying to make there so I focus on other stuff but… I always saw the focus of Marcille’s succubus as that she sought out an emotional connection most of all, it’s romantic and courtly in nature but more importantly there’s personality and behavior there and it’s a character she already loves and knows deeply from having read the series, so it’s not like Chil where it’s just a pretty face whose identity doesn’t matter. A friend of mine though, @room-surprise, goes with the angle that it shows she isn’t ready for a relationship and that the appeal is very self-centered, and I def think compelling points are made…

Point I was trying to make, the succubus is definitely at the crux of figuring what it is Marcille wants and craves in someone I’d say, where she’s emotionally at wether consciously or subconsciously, or how she sees herself being involved in romance at least… It’s true Marcille is enthusiastic about romance, but always someone else’s, never hers, and she seems unwilling to examine her own relationships with people. She oversteps boundaries either obliviously or carelessly and doesn’t like change…

and then there’s how complex people’s relationship to fiction can be on top of that and graaaaah

Edit in bc I forgot I wanted to mention this like an idiot: OH and I do think the Daltian Clan serves a role in the general tapestry of Dunmeshi as well, sometimes in in depth ways that Room-Surprise will tackle in their research paper way better than me I’m sure. My understanding of the importance of general Hagreus in a more general narrative sense is that he reinforces the theme of idealization/fantasy vs reality that’s super present through the manga. Beyond just Marcille’s arc and his importance to her he’s designed uncannily close to Mithrun, it feels parallels of real elves and their very flawed military system and the broken people it cultivates vs the romanticized elves put on an aesthetic pedestral in novels, especially considering it’s "general" Hagreus

To give some previews of the analysis wip: Thus the succubus targets Marcille’s wish for a perfect knight who could cherish her forevermore, someone safe and known and fantastical, just hers in a way, free to see and construct however she wants because he’s a character to interpret Dungeon Meshi is in part about resisting desires, the irrational cravings, mostly through the character of the demon. I mentioned needs earlier, and to ideals vs wants we also add vs needs, both emotional and physical. And needs alongside wants are what Dungeon Meshi wishes to promote for a healthier person. Dungeon Meshi illustrates very well with the dungeon lords that you can be a slave to your desires. Dunmeshi prones the important of balance for both a healthy body and a healthy mind, and the arc of optimism vs pessimism with Marcille & Chilchuck is one such case <3

Ouuuugh how flawed relationships with flawed people can still be made into somehing good and healthy that make the world brighter…

We’ve gone far from the topic of how her family shaped what she seeks in relationships haha, I think you put it well already though I don’t have much to add on that front Edit in 2: SIKE! I’ll add that there’s an interesting thread in the manga of Marcille maturing and becoming more like her mother, which would be interesting and fun to pair with the fatherhood of Chil. Because Marcille is sometimes a mother figure as well: she’s the mom friend. I go over it here, and since when I made that post I’ve seen more interesting analysis on the topic too, like noticing she hides behind her mother’s portrait in the nightmare chaoter, perhaps the inspiration behind her more mature reserved academic persona she sometimes has. Her parents are def important to her so it’s interesting to see how all the dynamics and her own psychology fit into that….

But yeah I think what she (thinks she) wants out of romance has a lot of layers, both conscious and subconscious… I haven’t gone into the bigger picture of how fiction affects her relationship here but it’s the central topic of my Marcille & Chil arc analysis so. She idealizes the trope of the prince charming and finds it attractive but is that what she would actually latch onto… Is it fully superficial, is it more about herself than it is about her potential partner... Is it mainly because she wants to get validation, from being special that she typically gets from high academic performance… We do see she can be rather insecure and worried about others’ perspective of her, that they think she’s not useful or capable enough, especially in the mandrake chapter… Unconditional love perhaps

What is your emotional landscape Marcille. How emotionally intelligent are you. I don’t think she knows what she wants romantically. I think she has a job so she don’t really care about that rn I’m just not sure if we can figure out what she ~actually~ wants on her behalf that might be too many levels of interpretation but idk idk, thinking on it still

#Ask #marchil #Spoilers #Dungeon meshi manga spoilers #As an aroace obviously obsessed with shipping. Me 🤝 Marcille very possibly being uncomfortable at the thought of being in a relationship #Considering her fear of loss + loss of control at categorizing her relationships and the Falin bath scene analysis yk the one #How she pushes herself to think of Falin as a kid still bc it’s more digestible and less scary. Bc change and aging and vulnerability #Like she could totally be super on board to get into a romance at a snap of fingers buuut there’s enough material where also could be not #The post ended up not being very marchil but yeah… in the end i ship it bc i think chil is both what she wants and needs in a lover #It’s ok even if they don’t do much pda she’ll just romanticize that it makes it more special #Marcille donato #Meta #Btw big recommend the youtube video essay on OFMD season 2 by The Sin Squad… Makes me think about Marcille v much

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iintervallum · 1 month

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some tma and tmagp meta and thoughts, disclaimer that this does contain some more negative critique

i think i realized why i still think about tma despite not actually fully loving the podcast. i like a lot of the lore and the workings of the avatars and the meta narrative around power structures,and many of the themes it discusses and disects through the subtext are intriguing, it has a very interesting tapestry of the inner workings of it's universe

but the actual way the podcast tells it was, at some points, repetitive and a little bit boring, i would have to relisten sometimes to episodes just to remember what was happening even though i was listening to a lot of it in the same time span and should have remembered, i havent felt as much of a need to revist the story as i have with other audio dramas ive listened to. I do want to say that i genuinely enjoy tma its just not something that ive latched onto as i have with other shows.

side tangent -> and seeing how volatile the fandom was in its peak i don't want to be involved further lol. I'm someone who has a bad habit of looking at discourse and critical tags because i like fandom history and I'm nosy, and seeing posts about jmart being "too fluffy" and the ending of tma having "no impact" and how they were "pandering" right next to posts about how "traumatically tragic" the ending was and how jmart was "extremely toxic" and they made them "do terrible things how dare they" was really funny. there were legitimate critiques of things there as well but the divisive nature of s5 is amusing to me as an outsider that came in late additionally some stuff with how fandom centers whiteness and white narratives, as nice as it that there is a widely adopted fanon of Jon as a person of colour, specially a brown asian man, i think the fandom still didn't really decenter whiteness at all, like sure you're solving the sexy man problem by making them non white but have you done...any thinking into the deeper implications of it? i have, being south asian myself makes it impossible not to. tangent over

I guess some aspects did not feel as tight as they could have been, with some themes the show deals with being hits and misses. i think the structure and the statement format as iconic as it is, restricted the way the story could be told, if i'm making sense? (and the decision to go with more realisitc and more grounded horror that intersected with real world issues are a part of said hits and misses from my perspective, some things i feel didnt fully work from a narrative standpoint but thats a subjective thing that i wont get into)

thats why i'm enjoying tmagp a little more, i think they took what worked well with tma and expanded on it with a fuller cast from the offset,the inclusion of the non statement parts that tma had (the interpersonal relationships and conflicts) and intergrated it without fully losing what makes tma intriguing to listen to. tmagp so far seems to balance the cases and the character interactions well. it doesnt feel like we're just going with the same format and its not too unfamilar either.

like one thing i'm looking forward to is the guest writers, specifically a few of them since ive listened to their work and loved them, and it will be really interesting to see how their writing would work within the tma universe.

and an aspect which makes tmagp intresting as well is if you have proior knowledge of the tma universe, we know much more than the characters, and have our own perceptions of what is going to happen to them based on our previous understanding of the series and the events that transpired. we're just waiting for the characters to catch onto what we know, and all the foreboding tragedy and devastation that will come with it.

some part of me wonders, if this season will be about how tragedies like the universe ending in the way it did in s5 are unavoidable, how even in an alternate universe where the circumstances are different the same things are bound to happen again. no matter what its inevitable, the mark of what transpired cannot ever be reversed,

like there are parallels to be had with how jon was ultimately pulled into everything against his will and had not that much agency in what happened to him, even if he did make the decision to use the power he had(for both good and bad reasons), it was forced onto him in the first place. meanwhile we have sam who is desperate for a connection to something greater, as a part of his self worth is tied to being chosen, even if we know that being chosen is not what it seems, hes willing to endanger himself if it means finding out more with his curiousity overpowering the risk factor. i wonder if the outcome of it all will be the same because that would be very very interesting.

either way the tighter nature of tmagp seems to work well for it and i hope that the momentum continues till it's conclusion, and even if not I had a decent time with it so it still would have been worth it

#aster.txt #the magnus archives #tma #the magnus protocol #tma spoilers #tmagp spoilers #meta #fandom meta #critical #tmagp theory

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heartrender6 · 1 year

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i love jesper sososososo much. with all my heart. he means everything to me.

BUT HOLY SHIT I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM FOR THE WAY HE TREATED KUWEI.

kaz was pretty awful too but like that's just kaz so I'm not as upset by it. jesper was just mean.

Even when he's saying something not inherently mean to him. like his tone is so belittling it makes me wanna GAASFAHSHDAS

and like, i can forgive the teasing i guess, because that's kinda how jesper talks to everyone, including wylan. (it's a little different since kuwei is literally their hostage and they shut him in a tomb for weeks and then tried to sell him so kuwei probably wants nothing to do with them at that point, but he does end up having kinda a crush on jesper so maybe he didn't mind idk).

BUT OH MY GOD. when jesper said "those shu soldiers can smell us. YOUR father made that possible" I WANTED TO PUNCH HIM. kuwei watched his father die in front of him. parem was an experiment meant to help kuwei hide his powers. and then kuwei got dragged off and kept in the ice court for god fucking knows how long and was forced to make the formula for a drug that would massacre his own people. Jesper knows all of this and still decides to say that. As i said I love jesper but that moment makes me so mad at him.

then later in another jesper chapter, he internally says "The sooner Kuwei got on that boat, the better. The tomb was starting to feel crowded." KUWEI DOESNT WANNA FUCKING BE THERE?? literally leave him alone wtf did he do to you.

then in the entire black veil scene, jesper responds to almost everything kuwei says with some little dig at the fact that kuwei's dad made parem and everything is kuwei's fault to the point where kuwei is basically begging jesper for understanding and jesper dismisses him like annoyingly easily. I felt for kuwei so hard reading that scene. I wish we got at least one chapter from his POV just to know how he's feeling.

mostly i think jesper is just projecting his internalized grisha-phobia onto kuwei which i get is part of his character growth and stuff but it's just so unfair to kuwei. all kuwei is trying to do is relate to him and find some common ground on some level but jesper just acts like such a jerk. and when he kisses him and then just runs of and leaves him there... that was,,, like im not gonna act like jesper was 100% in the wrong for that situation because he wasn't but he definitely could have handled that situation better.

He also is probably doing it to impress kaz too because there's a lot of moments where the 2 of them gang up on kuwei like middle school playground bullies. Those parts probably infuriated me the most, because like... you kidnapped him. obviously he's still in a better situation than the ice court but i would at least expect jesper to have some sympathy.

but one thing that really gets me is how the fandom acts like wylan and kuwei are enemies and like, wylan despises kuwei. that's just so out of character for everyone involved. wylan and kuwei are the closest to being actual friends than kuwei + anyone else. jesper is the one who hates kuwei. I hate when people project their kuwei hate onto the crows but at least do it to the one who's actually shown being mean to him. when wylan said that "push you in the canal" thing he was running on broken ribs, a dead friend and like a half hour of sleep so he would have said that to literally anyone.

this was a really messy and unstructured tangent but i just really needed to get this out there. lmk your thoughts

#bishangzoy #shadow and bone #six of crows #wylan van eck #wesper #kuwei yul bo #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #kuwei is treated like a bargaining chip and an object and a punching bag by everyone involved and it upsets me so much #he has no agency #even nina is only nice to him because she can use him for her own personal gain #i LOVE the crows with all my heart but what they did to kuwei was not ok.#crooked kingdom should have been called 'kuwei kingdom' as far as im concerned #obviously not but ykwim

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thenickelportrust · 1 year

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So I've spoken before about how one of (and probably the) main reasons writing Model Citizens always takes me so so long is because I have my own guilty-pleasure for making deeply branched but otherwise inconsequential conversations.

And I thought, for funsies and as a preview of the new part of the interview, I'd show you a little what I mean.

If you like to go in completely blind, then all good, it's under the read more. But I chose a part of the next update that is pretty much entirely devoid of anything plot relevant, and is one of the points that is only used for building your character, your relationship with Yolanda, and your relationship with others.

(I'm using a test file for this, so some choices you'll see, like divorcee-relevant things, are hidden because I skipped through a bunch of previous stuff to get to here.)

So as I mentioned way back before, for the next part of the update I wanted to add some questions that are otherwise inconsequential but provide you a basis to change your relationship with Yolanda so that you can get better or different responses in the more meaningful questions.

Enter the opinions questions.

But like, my brain goes, wouldn't it be fun to hide little things in here? Not even just plot things, but just little conversation branches to get to know people.

And, my brain continues, it would be far more fun if even inconsequential questions can lead to interesting conversation paths. It makes them actually worthwhile, and not just time-wasters.

So, we click on "today's fashion trends".

So of course, you click on it, you get a little stuff, but oh boy it doesn't end there. It's MC building time. How does your MC respond to this otherwise irrelevant little subject? I think it's fun to think about. Makes your character feel more alive. More involved.

Like, maybe your MC doesn't really like fashion itself, but they are the type that likes seeing other people get passionate. That's cool! I like that. I want to write that. I'll include an option for that.

And Yolanda is the type of person who also likes to see people passionate about things! So if the MC expresses that same inclination, she'll want to know more about them as well.

But, I realize, maybe the reader feels this is dragging on away from the subject at hand. Ok. I'll put in an option to go back, end the conversation here.

But otherwise-- while this MC might like hearing other people talk about it, what if they're the type to not be so honest about their own hobbies, or maybe they're concerned about their standing with Yolanda, and want to try and impress her, and think lying about their interests will do that?

Or, maybe they are really, genuinely excited to say something that they're interested in. Oh, what could an MC be interested in?

Well, I could list a bunch of things but... what if I added things that could be relevant to the conversation at hand?

For example-- what if the MC shared an interest with their Ex? Raf liked baking, so if they choose that and he was their Ex...

Or Lucy was big on being active, and if the MC liked to exercise with her...

... but Yolanda's sister also likes to knit and sew! So what if they shared a hobby with her? Yolanda would respond well to that.

So this otherwise small, inconsequential little tangent also builds a bit more character, both of the MC and, potentially, their relationship to others!

I find writing and hiding these little nuggets of world and character building a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite parts of writing interactive fiction, honestly. So I always enjoy writing these kinds of branching character dialogues.

But, of course, this isn't the only one where this kind of conversation tree is hidden. Here's the one I'm currently working on:

For an MC who has 0 interest in fashion. Not even all the options are shown here, Raf and Lucy's are both missing because, like I said, I skipped through to show this part, haha.

Anyway, I find this fun, and I find the idea of it branching in these small ways a lot of fun too. It takes a damn long time to write through all the scenarios, but it's what I love about this format of writing.

So I hoped you enjoyed this little ramble and preview! I hope it also gives you some insight into my funky lil thought process. And thank you once more for your patience on everything! :D

#model citizen unmasked game #model citizens: unmasked #preview

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knowlesian · 2 years

Text

gonna indulge my inner ed here and split a hair real fine, but because i have somehow never talked about this: why the semantic difference between ‘stede burned that ship down’ and ‘stede said a lot of entirely true but very uncomfortable to acknowledge stuff, and doing that led to a bunch of new money assholes losing their absolute shit on main and burning their own ship down’ is pulling so fucking much thematic weight it kills me.

i’ve said it that first way before jokingly and i will say it again, but the other is actually a lot more accurate.

because what’s the actual sequence of events? not just the consequences, but the context.

- stede asks if they want to play a game in a way they could avoid by not being insecure little noveau riche babies; they take the bait much in the manner of fish stuck in the proverbial about to be bullet-riddled barrel

- stede says a bunch of true stuff about these people, things they are ashamed of and lie about but are 100% accurate. not insults! just facts.

- they delight in the first few chances to shame each other, but as stede keeps going and the secrets expose them all to the truths they all sort of already knew but balanced their social circles on not openly acknowledging, they go absolutely hog fuckin wild, fight in the parking lot of the shittiest bar i ever worked at style.

- while they go apeshit and attack each other and burn things, stede (and everybody else in this scene we actually like) stands back and goes ‘...wow, these people are really doing this??? really??? fuckin’... wow. oh shit, are they gonna kill each other for real? and they say we’re uncivilized.’

so stede’s not insulting these people, and even better: he’s not being passive aggressive.

he is, in fact, being the exact opposite of passive aggressive. he’s being honest. and it’s not that ‘oh, i’m just brutally honest so you have to let me get away with out of pocket shit’ crap people pull when they’re looking to be cruel but don’t want to admit it.

that one dude IS embezzling! those two siblings ARE going full dime store lannister! that one dude DID have a child out of wedlock with that other chick!

(i love the inclusion of that one in particular, and how it’s markedly different than what comes after: because i think p solidly that’s the only one where i’m like, hey: as long as everybody involved was chill, who cares? that’s as morally neutral as having a baby with someone you are married to: the context is where the ballgame lies, on that one.

but these people care. they really, REALLY care. and they care because society has told them they have to care, if they don’t want to end up shamed by said society for it.

outside some select exceptions that mostly come down to ‘ahahahaha capitalism can go fuck itself, the phrase cost of living is far more obscene than most of the words you can’t say on broadcast tv’, i would agree the other truths stede reveals are baseline Not Great. however: fucking somebody you’re not married to only matters if the people involved decide it does, there’s no general moral absolute there.

like, look. this is why i find debates about if humans are ‘meant’ for monogamy or polyamory tedious and wrongheaded at the same time. are we meant to be on sailboats, or eat cheese? who fuckin’ knows, and who fucking cares. those are all questions that cannot be answered on any practical or universal level.

we are MEANT to make our own choices, and do what works best for us. the presumption that monogamy is moral or natural versus just... sometimes easier to navigate, because good communication is key to a healthy relationship and the more people there are, the more communicating must be done, is stupid. god knows plenty of monogamous couples cannot communicate for shit. there’s no right way or silver bullet there, and given the lucius and pete of it all, ofmd obviously knows that.

g o d i love this show.)

anyway, tangent over: nothing stede says is not just the simple, unvarnished truth.

if these people weren’t ashamed of themselves and so afraid of the truth it drives them to freak the fuck out and vomit on each other mid-fight and then burn their own fucking ship down, none of this would be happening. literally none of it!

they react to the truth like stede does set the ship on fire: but that’s all them. they set their own ship on fire. stede doesn’t do anything but hold a mirror up to their faces and i don’t think there’s an argument here that he shouldn’t have said that stuff, unless you think society should run on people never telling each other the truth if it would be uncomfortable, lest we run wild in the streets and literally burn everything down.

which is a fun little thematic wink/echo: stede breaks their world there, and he does it by working with his actual natural allies and in particular, by listening to frenchie and then going to ask abshir for his help, because he knows things stede doesn’t and stede literally cannot pull this off without him. so stede shows solidarity, and having recently realized this dynamic is a thing he’s gonna have to be aware of and start pushing against if he genuinely cares about ed, actively and purposefully uses the social privilege looking the way he looks, and having the money he has granted him.

but what he does with it makes all the difference. because having realized these people will listen to him in a way they will not listen to ed, he takes that assumed right to hold the floor and he uses it to burn the motherfuckin system of agreed-upon dishonesty calling itself politeness down. the system, not the ship.

(there’s a read on ‘these are my people’ that’s a lot sadder/less positive, and i think that’s in the mix too, but for this part of stede’s development i love what it also means about how he’s realized the world looks at ed and makes some assumptions they will never, ever make about stede or the other rich white people in that ship.)

so tldr: stede doesn’t actually burn the ship down, not outside the broadest ‘this was what happened next’ terms.

the rich assholes burn their own ship down, because they literally cannot handle the basic truths about themselves being spoken aloud, and that context makes a whooooole lotta difference.

i mean... this SHOW. what the fuck? i just wanna talk to these writers.

#our flag means death #my ofmd meta #also GOD i love that the Fragile New Rich are in literal whiteface #i know i know face powder is a real history thing but purposeful anachronism on this show does thematic work alongside the rule of cool #the new money white people who freak out about not being fancy enough so they paint themselves whiter and love phrenology #i MEAN. OUTSIDE. I WILL SEE THESE WRITERS. I WILL YELL WHYYYY AND I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU????#and p cry.#okay now back to my bigger e5 piece i just needed to yell this

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zuppizup · 2 months

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Hiiii I just finished the first two chapters of Fuel the Pyre! I'm super excited for it, it's very well done!

I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your writing process. How do you outline? What kinds of things need to be in an outline in order for you to visualize the story? Do you outline the entire story, one chapter, or just one scene at a time?

Thank you for your time!

Hello! Thanks so much for your kind words! I’m so happy you’re liking the fic so far.

This is a super fun ask. Not sure how coherent or helpful my response will be, but I’ll give it a try. 😆

So, stories like Purgatory, Fuel the Pyre or my WIP dark magic AU, always start out as a bunch of questions.

What if Ezran hadn’t interrupted Callum and Rayla in Viren’s study…

Could a human/elf halfling do primal magic? Can all of them or just a few? What would control that?

What would the world be like if dark magic actually was controlled and regulated.

I usually don’t start out planning a fic when I ponder questions like this, it’s usually just my mind wandering. For me, while I love big, wonderful, imaginative worlds (like the world of The Dragon Prince) what I’m really more interested in is how these things affect individuals. I actually tend to visualise the story before I outline. In fact, I often visualise far beyond where I think I’ll finish the story. (I say where I think I’ll finish because both my current long fics are now firmly in the “after the end of the planned fic” territory)

So, in Fuel the Pyre, for example, I imagine there’s a lot of unknowns for the people involved. Halflings would be pretty new on the scene, all things considered, so the characters themselves wouldn’t have the answer to these questions, which felt like a great excuse to add tension and drama.

Once an idea has got me and I can imagine how that conflict is going to affect the characters, the general outline tends to sort of write itself. I am a planner, so I by the time I start putting pen to paper (so to speak), I’ll usually have a beginning, a rough middle and an end. There will be plot points, tangents, twists and sometimes side stories that I haven’t figured out, but I’ll have a plan for the general flow of the story.

From there, I’ll come up with a pretty messy draft. So, I just sort of go wild in a document. Usually, when I’ve decided I want to write a longer fic, it’s because certain scenes just play on repeat in my head, so I’ll indulge myself and write those out. Then I’ll go back and make rough chapter/arc notes, which usually leads into some other fun scenes I get inspired to write, and slowly, piece by piece, I sort of string the fic together like that.

I used to outline more linearly, starting at the first chapter and working from there, but I found I’d get stuck on transition scenes (the bane of my writing life) and then avoid the fic. (If I put my fingers in my ears and sing very loudly, the transition scene can’t hurt me). I find letting myself write the scenes I’m excited for makes me much more productive. They usually give me ideas for other fun (I use the term loosely, I generally mean “angsty”) scenes and I essentially build my story like that. I do like adding foreshadowing and twists, which is made a lot easier by writing like this too.

In Purgatory, for example, I tried to drop a lot of subtle hints about Callum and his slowly building arcanum connection. It’s so fun when people pick up on that stuff, but I also don’t want it to look like I just pulled a twist or a revelation out of my rear. Nowadays, I do prefer to write the bulk of a story before posting, which this method obviously works better for.

Often, when I start a fic, the beginning and the ending are the most defined parts of the story and the middle is the area that requires the most work, but by stringing the various elements together, I sort of “discover” new conflicts and fun elements to explore, which (hopefully) makes for a richer, more entertaining story.

So, not sure if that was what you’re looking for, but if you could describe the stream of consciousness that is how I write, a process, this is mine. 😅

#anon asks #thanks for the ask!#writing

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vulpinesaint · 5 months

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tell me about faedrennnnnn

oh my goddddd okay. essay. putting this under a readmore cause not only do i not want all of this directly on people's dash i personally do not want to have to scroll past all this when i go through my little faedren tag for funzies (<— subtle promotion for my faedren tag. which is very funzies)

trying to remember what i told you in my last very long faedren post. i think i have to approach this from my constant litany of 'people think faedren is like this but that's NOT what's going on' and then i will tell you what i've been thinking about with him plot-wise lately :D

so. my thing with faedren is that people often think he is a certain way based off of surface-level observations and while those things may be true to a certain point they are NEVER fully accurate. faedren from the outside seems like a violent fuckboy religious fanatic who wants to fuck his goddess and like. hm. yeah. some of that. but more thoroughly:

faedren is a cult member 👍 this is not something that he knows about himself but it is something that his party members have noted and are. concerned about. lmao. the point being: he absolutely is a religious fanatic, and his views are skewed because he was taught an extreme version of the dictates of calistria (goddess of lust, trickery, and revenge), but it comes along with like. other stuff. he is extremely easy to set off on a tangent about how beautiful and perfect his goddess is and it seems like usual fucked up religious fanaticism but also faedren is like. for real in love with his goddess. he grew up in an environment where he was NOT receiving the connection that people need, and in his head, his goddess is the only being that truly cares for him. so he talks about her with stars in his eyes and follows what he believes to be her edicts with absolute devotion, and a lot of it is driven by this parasocial and extremely personal connection that he created with his image of his goddess as. a coping strategy, essentially.

from that. faedren sleeps around at whatever chance he gets but that's primarily an extension of the sentiments that i mentioned just now. first of all sex as an explicitly approved religious thing haha. second of all he is starved for connection and affection and at this point in his life he has rationalized that the only way that he can get that is in casual hookups. does that come across when he's making out with a random soldier or flirting with any woman he sees at the bar. no. but it's important for me to note about him.

faedren perpetrates and idealizes a LOT of violence but he is not an implicitly violent or angry or destructive person. he's incredibly chill, actually, all things considered. when i say he rocks up to the function sounding like a personal trainer who's really involved in social media wellness trends, that Is reflective of his demeanor and inner life. for him, sex and violence are religious dictates that are the course to personal peace and catharsis and the ultimate path to a happy life. faedren espouses all the beauty of terrible gory revenge not because he really wants to hurt people but because in his head, it's about taking the anger that builds when someone wrongs you and directing it back on that person with extreme prejudice until you find catharsis, and that lets you continue on with your life in peace, unburdened by that frustration. he's not even really that pressed about being wronged. he acts like he's hot shit but that's just a high charisma score and confidence in his objective attractiveness and skill with weaponry; he has very little ego or self-worth, and so he doesn't really care when you bump into him too hard at the bar, but he is very dedicated to his goddess and following her teachings so he's gonna turn around and beat the shit out of you on principle. it's not about retribution as it is about acting out revenge: he's following the steps of revenge as he sees it, which is 1) identifying some wrong and 2) returning that wrong. he has been hurt much worse by people he cares about and trusted before, but he doesn't follow through with that as revenge, because he doesn't process it as a wrong done to him; of course he can be hurt by someone he cares about.

to that point. he is chaotic neutral. not chaotic evil. he'd burn down that village but it wouldn't be about destroying things or hurting people; it'd be some other motivation at play. he sucks really bad (for reasons that are not entirely his fault) and he doesn't do good things but he's not a Bad Person. he's not malicious, doesn't treat people with malice. he follows through on a set of principles that he's been given with devotion bordering on obsession, but that's about personal principle.

he's actually a pretty positive guy :) walks into every social situation with a smile ready to meet new people learn new things. he doesn't really. know how to handle negative emotions. so he brushes off physical and emotional pain and continues on as best he can. tries to numb and ignore the pain whenever possible. he has an alcohol problem 👍

so that brings us to the present! and also to faedren with his party, who he's gotten very close with over a long, harrowing time spent fairly isolated fighting in terrible conditions. group of guys who all have to sleep in the same room with each other to feel safe. shout out to all of these motherfuckers for not knowing anything about connection and affection (abused cult member) (literal demon from hell put into a mortal body) (girl who was raised alone in the woods with just her parents) and therefore not knowing how to express that they care for each other. or even fully realize it, really. the polycule <3

faedren's friends (who he's kind of in love with but doesn't know how to process that) are very invested in trying to get him to realize that he's cared for, that he's worth something, etc. etc. and faedren is REELING with the positive personal connections and affection from people who genuinely care for him. totally fucking crazy. rewriting the rules of life as he knows them. absolutely does not know what the hell to do with that.

it's good though! so they all pile into the same bed to ward off the nightmares and they all go into battle together knowing exactly how they should structure the party and they all know what order they walk in when they go through a dungeon. and then they're getting through a vampire-infested cave system and they get to the end of a puzzle room and they find what they're looking for. and they don't know that this stone is going to temporarily vampirize the person who touches it. and faedren's party member touches it and when he walks into the room, unaware of what's happening, he gets attacked and nearly gets his throat ripped out by someone he loves.

so that. sucks. and he's fucked up about it but he's so woozy on bloodloss that he can't even begin to process that. so it waits until the morning, when he decides that he's going to be pragmatic about it, and tells his party member (who he flinches when he sees in the room, because he may be trying to be reasonable about this but his body is learning otherwise) that it's fine. it's okay. it doesn't matter that he was hurt; there's no hard feelings, because faedren's been hurt way worse before, he can take this, it wasn't their fault, and relationships are supposed to hurt. that's how things work. he was doubting it for a second there, but now he's been very clearly reminded of the way of the world and he's fully aware that caring about someone hurts. smiles. tries to laugh about it. doesn't know how to deal with the negative emotions that would come with this, so tries not to feel negatively about it at all.

and what he takes from that is that yeah. caring about people will always hurt you. and he resolves to pull himself away from his party members to spare himself the pain the next time. he's never been loved by people like that before and it was wonderful but it makes him so much easier to hurt, so it's better to keep things shallow, easy, trysts with strangers and comrades in battle only because he can't take on a whole group by himself.

lucky for him the party member who bit him is also feeling extremely fucked up about it! so they both independently start to pull away from the party. and one of their party members, the little pumpkin leshy who faedren taught to read, gets fucking Slaughtered, and so what is there to really keep them together any longer?

anyway. faedren pulls away. and it's one thing to promise yourself that you'll do that and it's another thing to be face-to-face with the Distance between yourself and the people you were so close with. and he's so so sad and so frustrated with the lack of simplicity and the lack of trust and he's only ever been taught how to channel that into anger

faedren's only ever having been taught to channel negative emotions into anger, and when he's finally dealing with intense negative emotions that he can’t falsely cheer himself out of or staunchly ignore, he only knows how to turn it into tenseness, standoffishness, anger. and he’s not angry. he’s so so sad in a way that he’s never been before (and possibly in a way that he’s always been but has never let himself recognize) but when it starts bubbling over he only has one channel for it. so when he flinches without meaning to at the sight of his party member around a corner (because even though they have lurked in the shadows as long as he's known them, his body doesn't trust them like that anymore) the only thing that reaction can become for him is clenched fists and a tense jaw and eventually snapped harsh words that he doesn’t mean and that he would never have said before. trying not to put a hand to his sword but if his body is in fight or flight then fighting is all his body knows how to do.

so he crosses a bunch of little lines doing things that he didn’t really mean to do and wouldn’t have wanted to do and regrets doing, but he’s never been taught to apologize, and he’s never substantially fucked something up with someone who he actually had to repair a relationship with over something that he actually did wrong and so he just. doesn’t. he gets defensive. gets angrier about it. he knows somewhere implicitly that yelling at his party member after a battle that went wrong was not the right thing to do and that it wasn’t justified, he knows that he wouldn’t have wanted to yell at his friend otherwise, but it’s so so so much easier on his heart to let his mind start spinning the cognitive dissonance into defensiveness. false justifications. more anger in response to being too harsh to begin with. and it cycles and cycles and cycles.

and THIS is where i get back around to my main point because i think this is where faedren starts turning into the person that people THINK he is.

my vision for faedren is that this is when he starts to develop an ego. because this is when he starts putting up walls: he finally gets the love he's wanted for so long and it's ripped away from him, and he's so so sad and so so angry, and he puts up boundaries to protect himself. builds up an ego to protect himself. says, for the first time, "no, i don't want to be hurt," and starts channeling that frustration out on other people. and this is where he does become malicious, because it's where he starts saying "i want other people to feel the hurt that i'm feeling." this is where his revenge fanaticism becomes less about devotional acts for his goddess and more about him becoming genuinely furious at the smallest slight, and carving out pounds of flesh for himself in retribution because it's gratifying. like i said, i don't think that faedren ever really truly has ill intent toward people unless they disrespected someone he loves: i think this gives him the capacity to hate people, given time.

and he's drinking more. and following the pleasures of the flesh. and if he's sleeping with people it's not for any care or connection with them. and he's mean in a way that he wasn't before, that he didn't have the capacity for. and violence is just another pleasure to indulge in because even if it doesn't lessen his own hurt at least he can watch someone else suffer for it. if faedren's ever manipulative it's at this point in his life: when he starts wanting things and taking them from other people. putting his insane intimidation stat to good use. enjoying the lying as the 'trickery' aspect of his goddess' edicts. and then there's the bad person that people have been interpreting him as. which is all to say that i think faedren gets hot and evil. nd i'm really passionate about it 👍

#and of course he's actually very hurt and damaged under all of that. but does that really matter if you're hurting everyone around you 👍#he's gonna be so awful i think about him so much. i care about him so much actually #our dm let us have social time challenge these bitches need to destroy their own relationships with each other #faedren #he has a +13 to intimidation at level 6 btw! :D #this is not the extent of my faedren thoughts but i have to wrap this up SOMEHOW or i'll never stop talking about it 😭#anyway faedren bad person arc!!!! whooooo let's goooo!!!!!!!!#ask

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dogtoling · 1 year

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hey do you have any tips for making splatoon ocs? I’ve never played the games but i’ve seen plenty of gameplay and lore videos and i want to make an oc but i have no idea where to start! You have super duper cool ocs and I thought maybe you might have a few good pointers for starting to make one!

first of all thank you, and second of all I have no idea what i'm doing but i might have some advice for making splatoon OCs. Really what kind of OC you want to make and how in-depth you want their story or footing in the world to be depends entirely on the individual person. It's pretty important to have a solid understanding of the world and setting but especially if you've done the research, you should have a pretty good understanding of how the game works, so that's already a good starting point.

First off, what I feel is important (and what i dont follow myself nearly as much as i should) is to figure out what kind of character you WANT to make, and then start drafting a basic concept based on that. When it comes to Splatoon, there's a lot of species to pick from (although Inklings are by far the easiest because they have the most context). But Splatoon also has a very unique setting and the world has potential for a lot of wacky things that you couldn't really focus on in other fandoms. So again, I don't do this that much myself, but making an OC that is clearly connected to the world and has a direct link with the series identity is always a good call. Once you have a strong start and a solid understanding of what kind of character you're working on (and you can change this later, OCs often evolve when you use them) it's a really good place to get started.

For example, you could make an OC that works at the grocery store (boring, we do that in real life). Or you could make an OC that works in collecting and selling Super Sea Snails from the woods and in the market stalls - we have markets, but there's also a hook of something that's Purely Splatoon, at its core - it is relevant to the WORLD SETTING.

(And also, by making up professions and minor things about the world, you're not married to what canon says or doesn't say. For example, everyone making their OCs work with Grizzco is kind of struggling with a vastly underdeveloped setting where Nintendo is still calling all the shots, because Grizzco is a real thing in the world, so you don't really have the freedom to make shit up and have to deal with whatever they say even if it's ridiculous.)

Second, and this is kind of important especially for people who aren't super involved with Splatoon: turf wars aren't EVERYTHING. Splatoon has weirdly broad worldbuilding for the type of game that it is. Turf Wars are just a sport - an extremely culturally important sport, but Inklings have Lives outside of Turf War and there's likely Inklings who don't do Turf Wars at all! What this tangent is getting into is that don't be afraid to set your OC footing that's unrelated to Turf Wars, and don't be afraid to break rules and come up with your own things for the world. There's a lot of wacky things going on and not everybody is going to do the exact things that are shown in the game. The curse and blessing of working with the Splatoon setting is that you have to be prepared to make up a LOOOOOT of headcanons for how anything works, because we really don't know a lot about... well, anything. The upside is that you can get really creative if you want to. Basically, it's good to use the game as basis, but you can really go places if you ONLY use it as basis and make up new stuff from there.

In terms of actual OC design: Inklings and Octolings are the easiest to work with due to the variety of designs we see for them in games and concept art. But if you're looking for other species, here's a list with species that appear in the Splatoon world. However assuming you're working with Inklings, I'd recommend looking at different species of real-life cephalopods if you want a character to feel unique. Base traits off of real squids or octopuses that exist (you could even use species as inspiration for what the character is like otherwise), but even outside of species, Inklings can have a LOT of variety in their body structure. So my point is you can do a lot more with Splatoon OCs than just making them a carbon copy of the playable characters in the game. Play with their body types, or eye shape, eyebrows, nose, ear length or shapes, et cetera. Inkling masks are also a good way to create interest in the design.

More Inkling-specific design: their tentacles. Now, if you're making a squid OC, they'll have 6 tentacles on their head - typically four shorter ones and two longer ones, although the game doesnt seem to differentiate on those much, judging by some hairstyles. Octolings however only have four tentacles, and they have suction cups on the outside. This is kind of the same as above: there are many canon hairstyles to pick from, but also don't be afraid to go nuts and do weird stuff with the tentacles. Inklings are known to trim their tentacles, cut them up into blocky shapes or even cut them into long strips or super-specific hairstyles that don't even really resemble tentacles anymore, and of course you can do different color combinations, scars, piercings, tattoos even. And of course if you're looking at real-life species as inspiration, you will probably end up getting ideas for the tentacles based on that. Basically, tentacles are often THE THING that sticks out about OCs.

The next best thing? Clothes. Full disclosure I really hate designing outfits (because I'm bad at it) but clothes do a lot to build character. Now, in Splatoon, clothes are REALLY not a problem because the game has such a big focus on fashion that you will never run out of options when it comes to what an OC should wear (Inkipedia has full lists of all gear from all games). But if you want to get really in-depth about what your character dresses in, there's also been blurbs of what kinds of brands the different clothes brands are and what kind of style they are known for - they have loyalists, basically. When it comes to gear, I personally don't like using the in-game gear much, mostly because I hate having to go out of my way to look at reference every time I want to draw a character. But there's a lot to choose from, and if you want to be original with it but still stick to the brand, you could make your own modifications of existing gear or make up fake new gear for your OC to wear.

But as a rule of thumb, what everyone wants from their OCs is different and I think the most important part is to just make something fun that brings you joy. So I hope this helped maybe? (I need to start using my own advice...)

#mailbox #splatoon oc #(related)

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seasononesam · 1 year

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thoughts about sams first few months at college?

gonna try to respond to this without basically rewriting @spneveryseason's amazing post on the subject that everyone should read! also like everything I write this is gonna be all over the place no organized thought process we die like men.

oh that's a good question, I love thinking abt stanford era sam (disclaimer I did no research for this I started college in 2018 and very much did not go to a school anywhere near the level of prestige as stanford but ANYWAY) ...I definitely think there would be a lot of mixed emotions and a lot of stuff he had to figure out on a practical level (like registering for classes and paperwork that would be really hard to fill out since he went to so many high schools and doesn't have his fathers support). I go back and forth on dean trying to contact him, I think it's canon that john never did (beyond checking up on sam without his knowledge) so I can't really imagine dean reaching out but maybe they had a few awkward emails in the first few weeks.

I think he'd feel lonely and out of place for a while, it would be the first time he was around a large group of people for an extended period of time since he switched schools so often. and although he went to public schools growing up so he wasn't as sheltered as he could have been, he obviously grew up in a very different environment than most people and would have to learn how to behave in such a new setting. I made another post about this but pre law isn't really a major that you can get a degree in, so I personally think sam was undecided for a while (even if he knew he wanted to be on the pre law track at least) bc there were just so many options before finally settling on something in the humanities by the time he had to declare. I also go back and forth on his general emotional state bc while I understand the concept of him possibly struggling with feelings of depression and anxiety (and like I 100% think he did) I also think he was overall happy there once he started making friends and getting involved in things (which brings me to my side tangent about his line in skin where he says deep down he never really fit in at stanford- I think he was telling the truth about that, both because of general feelings of never fitting in anywhere, added to his upbringing but I also think part of him wanted to make dean feel better, especially after the shapeshifter made the comment about how everyone dean loves leaves him if that makes sense??? so yes he knew he would never truly "fit in" but he still tried and found a lot of good things about being at school and did genuinely love his time there). I think he'd be so interested in everything the school had to offer and take full advantage of it, from the dining hall to clubs to the library. he'd love exploring campus and learning new things and just feeling like he could make his own choices for once in his life. and actually have his own space even if it's a small dorm with a roommate like it's such a small thing that most college students take for granted or actively disdain bc dorm life kinda sucks ass but for sam it's the most amazing thing ever bc it represents a new life and a new world.

in conclusion we should have gotten some flashbacks of his time at stanford like I know the show would probably butcher them but alas thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#yet another ask i answer like a week later SORRY #but also thank you :3 #answered #saintedcastiel

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meowsticmarvels · 3 months

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im curious. who are your fav characters from each mainline persona game that you have played 🤔🤔 (take this as an invitation to ramble about them)

YIPEEEEEEEE here we go will be long so im hiding it under a readmore again. also since you said mainline im not including toshiro or eri but you Know...... im abnorma, abt them

i have NOT played p1 and i've just barely started p2is (though ive watched snippets of someone elses's playthrough) but i will say. based on my limited knowledge i rly like hidehiko, ayase, naoya, tatsuya, jun, eikichi, yukino, maya, and lisa

p3 and p4 are difficult bc theyre the ones im the most autistic abt and the main entire casts as a whole are comforts for me. but anyways. going to talk about p3 first Yes I Will Include SLs too. im abnormal. top 3 main insaners for p3 though are akihiko, yukari, and junpei. for me

makoto/minato sooo so gender envy. im obsessed with his design a lot. his character i do also like hes a little goofy and so mecore but mainly his design is something i love a lot

same with kotone. also love how she has a sort of distinct personality that you can tell with slight dialogue changes that her counterpart doesnt say. shes rly real. love reload but i miss her...

as stated yukari's one of my favs. she didnt Use to be (i did like her but Not as much) but she's slowly become one and man. i love that silly girl. her haters will not survive the winter actually. it does piss me off though because like. yeah shes not perfect no character rly is but she's a traumatized mentally ill teenage girl with a dead dad and a neglectful mom cut her some slack maybe? god forbid women do anything. idk. but im obsessed with her. her character is actually so interesting to me and not a lot of people talk about it? like her whole fear of death causing issues with summoning her persona like at the beginnning, her dad being involved with the kirijo groups shit, how she puts on a cheerful front but is actually deeply really lonely :(, her kinda playful insult friendship with junpei (deep down they do care abt eachother. i wish that was explored more. i found a rly good fic abt it once.) and etc etc. idrk what to say but shes sooo. i also love how she initially HATES mitsuru and is super jealous of her and then. Well. gay tension is real. anyways shes a transfem lesbian to me btw. yukamitsu ftw

junpei's also become one of my favs. somehow. in a similar vein to yukari in that he wasn't initially my main fav character but i think his character's also pretty interesting and has. a lot of unexplored potential. he's very silly and i love him for that a lot but something i don't see many people talk about is like. his Issues. like yeah hes silly but he's also got some fucked up self-worth issues!!! remember the scene on 5/9 where he kinda gets really upset and goes off on his own and stuff. for example. like i think him being imperfect and having these moments where he's NOT cheerful and goofy all the time and actually deeply really jealous of you because he feels that fighting's all he's good for and he's not worth much else is what makes him interesting. do you get it. like him being tbe silly funny guy isn't all he is as a person yk!!!!! also as far as characterization I point a lot to the scene where yukari's more than willing to go confront the people in the alley while junpei's worried, or scene near the end of the game where yukari teases junpei and he snaps at her, confessing that while he doesn't show it he really is terrified. they all are, at that point. yk what I mean? also people don't acknowledge his trauma with his father enough (maybe because it's only really discussed at all in femc's route... his SL is so good but not enough ppl see it... BUR YEAH did not think I'd go off on a tangent about junpei fucking iori tonight but he's real. hashtag brokeback tartarus. also he's an adhder to me. (oh yeah also want to point out this line in his SL where he says "maybe I have anxiety or something". yeah. that's a line!)

akihiko fucking sanada. ohhhh man. this guy. where do i even START. he's so so crazy like what if your local high school upperclassman boxing champion guy was also really gay for his dying childhood friend and autistic as hell and also traumatized. and he's doing boxing in the first place to overcompensate because the death of his sister made him fear losing anyone else again snd he needs to feel like he has power. he needs control. yk? like this guy made me insane for like several months straight in 2023 and he still makes me ill. to this day. as you can probably tell by my distaste for people seeing yukari and junpei at face value you can probably gather that I hate the protein jokes and i Do. he said it like. Once in p3. it never rly was funny????? and what they did in spinoffs esp p4a to just make him look like a gym rat and nothing more makes me upset bc of the REASON he's obsessed with fighting. he's not just a dumb jock (he also isn't dumb lol he canonically scores very high on his exams) he's overworking himself because feelings of self doubt from trauma have caused him to feel the need to overcompensate so he never loses anyone again. you know? it would've been interesting to see him relapse in p4a if theyd actually done it well. like he doesnt rly give himself time or room to grieve in game (theres rhat onw scene on 10/5 and then he barely talks about it again. man i wish it was developed more...) so realizing that grieving isnt a linear process that he can just repress for a long time and even years after it can still hurt would go INSANE. but no they just turned him into i love protein joke number 20. okay!!! (im very angry) thinking about when my non persona friend after hearing me explain some of the plot described p3 as like a greek tragedy because like. damn. he and shinji were doomed from the start with personas like polydeuces and castor huh. anyways. yeah. continuing writing now that i've watched october 4th in reload AND akihiko's breakdown as a reuslt and i wanna scream and cry and throw up that will be for another post but ooh man it mad eme cry like 3 times. and I KNOEW WHAT HAPPENS. THEYRE SOOOOOOOOOO if you know me im an insane akishinji truther. im just. i wanna talk abt other charactrs so ill stop here but always ask me about akihiko + akishinji + ships i like in general. i am really normal. oh btw transmasc akihiko is forever real to me. also he's autistic and a ptsder. to me (tbf what persona character Doesnt have some form of truama but like. this guy in particular). up there with my highest blorbos

i dooont wanna go on for too long abt every other character in p3 so ill keep this next part short and sweet but if u wanna hear me talk more abt any of them. feel free to. starting with fuuka i love he rmy transfem autistic girlie who has every disease. i also love mitsuru a lot who i Wish had people acknowledge her deeper aspects more. like. she was experimented on and also very sheltered and also a little bit of a girlfail. shes not fully the girlboss you all say she is shes also just a teenage girl!!!!!!!!!! koromaru can do no wrong hes forever the best. i love that dog. ken makes me so so sad he is just a kid!!! what the hell!!!!!! :(. and oh man. shinji. guy who is so wracked with guilt. guy that is dying no matter what happens. guy that dies in his lover's arms

as far as non-sees characters. i rly like strega. esp jin and chidori. dont think abt them enough. also as far as SLs i like keisuke, hidetoshi, bunkichi and mitsuko, kazushi, yuko, and etc etc...i need to see rio and saoris links too they look real. oh also i LOVE ryoji

p4 time !!!!!!

again gonna cut this short so i can actually Fit it all in one post. but wow. i do like all of the IT so so much but im just focusing on my favs. anyways i love yu so much his autistic swagger esp in the animation is amazing. like he is not a "chad" he's just an autistic teenager. ok. also the animation broke me when nanako gets kidnapped he sounds fucking distraught there. love when people delve into yu's issues also bc hes a bit fucked up but Man. ouch. just like me fr tho

i love yosuke in a similar way to why I like junpei because he's kind of a loser /pos snd has some insane issues that his shadow delves into that are Kind of Insane for the FIRST shadow of the game. like ok damn. i really do love his social link in general tho his was the first one I maxed out in my (unfinished because i didn't want to finish it) p4g playthrough so!!!!! many things wrong with him and also the lgbt community has forgiven yosuke hanamura. also similarly to junpei he's adhd as hell. souyo ftw

naotos probably my fav p4 character I think which is Pretty Painful Sometimes. sometimes I need to kill both other persona fans and atlus if ykwim. but anyways i hc him as transmasc for one thing but also if atlus weren't cowards and actually made his story abt rhat it would've hit so hard. his shadow in general is often overlooked apart from that bc what about the part where he talks about being mistreated by others and feeling utterly alone and not allowing himself to act like a kid!!!! it fucks me up!!! he's also super autism btw like god damn. but YEAH point is I love naoto so much and i hate how both some fans and atlus tjemself treat him because his whole arc and shadow had the potential to be super compelling

apart from who i listed above i do like the rest of the IT so much they're such silly friends (i love you chie i love you yukiko i love you kanji i love you rise i love you teddie.). can't think of any SLs off the top of my head that were crazy but I do like daisuke and kou. OH ALSOO the dojimas..... 😢💧😢😢💧 love them

p5 time :3 I'm into it less so than p3 or p4 but Still

yusuke's my favorite p5 character probably. i domt know what it is apart from the common trend of my favs being autistic as hell (see: akihiko and naoto) but he's like. such a fucked up guy. he's traumatized. he loves art. something is deeply wrong with him. obsessed with this gug

i also do like ren/akira, ryuji, futaba, and also mishima (unfortunately. but in my defense there is something deeply wrong with him slash positive). i don't know a lot abt all of p5's confidants but i like iwai I think.... this reminded me I need to make more progress in p5 what the hell. i miss you futaba (i haven't even got to her palace yet im still on kaneshiros LOL)

but YEAH! thank you for asking!!! from the ones I've played my top favs are akihiko + naoto + yusuke respectively so👍👍👍 loved answering this :3 if u have any thoughts on a particular character feel free to ask and ill elaborate :3

#sparky speaks #persona #not maintaggjng BUT here i talk a lot about:#yukari junpei akihiko yu yosuke naoto yusuke #and some others. LOL. but i am indane #SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO RESPOND i just have a Lot to say #anddd i still wanna properly get into p1 and p2 tbh

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botslayer9000 · 4 months

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just watched the boy and the heron and i have thoughts?

loved the animation, it was gorgeous as always

music was great. joe hisaishi stays based

the atmosphere was incredible. there are so few movies i feel that really take their time and have quiet contemplative moments, which is why i usually leave the theatre with a headache afterwards, but not today! there were so many scenes with minimal music and just ambient audio and i liked that v much

the beginning was very interesting and really got me invested, like the part where mahito goes to fuck up the heron with his wooden sword and when he wakes up it breaks just like it did in his ''dream''? now thats what im talking about! downright cerebral

^^^^ i wish the movie had more of this particular avant garde direction tbh and was less. uh

what even was most of this movie? the best way i can describe the experience of watching most of the boy and the heron as watching someone else's dream. it makes sense as its happening, but you're detached from it. you just kinda have to roll with it as it happens. weird stuff happens but you don't question it, then suddenly the plot changes halfway through and you just have to accept it because its a dream, what are you gonna do? the problem comes in when you try to actually make sense of what happened the next morning/after leaving the movie theatre

like ???? im torn between liking the individual scenes/plotlines here (like kiriko the fisherwoman taking care of the weird little guys and dead people? based plotline. i would watch a movie about that. wait we're already moving on to the carnivorous parakeets. what. pls stick with one plotline pls)

what is happening with natsuko

why do we have this tangent involving the great grand uncle like 3/4s of the way through the movie...

man idk there are a lot of fascinating ideas here that i really like, individually, on paper, but jumbled together, it just kind of makes a mess. i wish there were some kind of narrative cohesion sticking all of these plots together. making a dream into a movie is great, but this just feels like me rambling in the morning right after getting up about that craaazy dream i had last night to my family while they don't pay attention because im talking total nonsense

just when i thought i was starting to figure stuff out, the ending kind of lost me. why is the parakeet king so important when we the audience became aware of his existence like 10 minutes ago

the more i think about it the less sense it makes and not in a good way

man idk. i wish i could love this movie more than i did but it was just doing too much

why were the parakeets holding up signs that said ''duch'' when tumblr has told me that they are nazi allegories... they should be holding up signs that say ''deutsch'' instead. plot hole alert folks you heard it here first

#the boy and the heron #back on my bullshit

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greenorangevioletgrass · 4 months

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OKAY SO when i said my thoughts around carmy and bradley werent coherent at all I meant that quite literally 😭 i havent thought about it in detail aside from the rough idea BUT if i have to expand on it i’d say it could be something along the lines of denim through the decades? or taking into account what you said about james dean/marlo brando i think it would be fun to see a campaign centered around iconic moments of denim in pop culture too. Maybe recreating some movie sets and outfits and such.

BUT im also thinking something a lot more chill bc ik recreating movie sets n stuff can be 1) a hassle and 2) a lil cheesy, so considering that the people involved in the campaign would be people with an interest in vintage denim n such i was thinking about levis incorporating some vintage pieces from personal collections. Picture one of the countless denims carmy stores inside his oven (sob) or one of bradley’s staples too. Mix that with a limited edition line of ‘brought from the past’ jeans, jackets, etc. and i think itd be golden.

By no means am I a denim expert, I’m talking out of my ass here after a few minutes of research LMFAO but its fun to think about it.

I’m sure carmy would be WAYYY more hesitant to participate than bradley. The latter is probably ecstatic and doesnt let his manager (im guessing levis would be in contact with his manager) finish. As soon as the words levis and collab leave his mouth, Bradley's sold.

I think carmy would be interested in working with levis, a little flattered that they considered him. Maybe taken aback too bc im guessing he’s a very private person and doesnt talk much about his denim collection and such so levi’s def did their research lol. Still, i think he was going to turn them down and then Sugar and Syd found out and tried to convince him bc ‘its levis, u gotta say yes’ but it didnt exactly work and in the end it was Richie who replied to the email with something along the lines ‘id be honoured to be a part of the campaign’ or smth weird in his attempt to impersonate carmen.

With the two of them on set, i quite frankly don’t know if they would interact or how that interaction would go. Think carmy might be too nervous to properly interact bc its a hectic environment. Maybe bradley saw him all closed up and semi alone and decided to strike a conversation with him, talking about denim and such. What do you think?

BTW im so sorry about the typos i keep making, i only notice after you respond LMFAO i swear my english is good, promise.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! thank you so much for indulging me 😭😭 and no worries, i feel like we’re speaking in a language beyond english where we’re just throwing concepts at each other and we actually understand it. it’s beautiful.

i totally get it that recreating movie sets is a lot. what they can do is recreate looks inspired by these iconic movies (like james dean in rebel without a cause—carmy would look great in that!) they can do a studio shoot or an outdoor city shoot like JAW’s CK campaign (still not over that btw skshsjdhsj)

ok hear me out: carmy is reserved in his private life but i feel like deep down he likes being the golden boy. remember his monologue abt smoking ppl out wherever he works? and just the way he steps up to lead and plays up to people who wanna hear what he wants to say. i feel like with the restaurant on the rise, he’s bound to have done some interviews, and on one of them he went on a hyperfixation-fueled tangent abt vintage denim like the first episode.

and you’re so right, it still would take him a lot of nudging and jostling to say yes. i loooove the idea of richie very eloquently replying to the email and making carmy sound very eager and cordial 🤭 (i imagine he would be a very short emailer/texter if he ever does reply)

with carmy, i feel like it’s not so much that he dislikes hectic environments (how much more hectic can his kitchen get, right?) but it’s the kind of hectic that he can’t control. and it drives him nuts, and he’d take smoke breaks often and eventually, bradley goes with him although he doesn’t smoke. he’d say that he has been to noma a few times and he enjoyed it and they bonded over restaurants and food and all. he’d love to visit the bear some time, to which carmy is like “of course let me know anytime you’re in town”

(Bradley thinks carmy is one of the coolest people he’s ever met. Carmy thinks for someone who’s that famous, Bradley is super chill.)

#this is an unlikely duo that i am INTO #bradley bradshaw #carmy berzatto #carmy & bradley crossover #fx the bear #top gun maverick #footballer!bradley #ask ava

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tuiyla · 1 year

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i find Born this Way legit so depressing. It's basically an entire plot of Quinn being relieved that Rachel is as insecure as she is. But then Rachel gets tons of support and reassurances that she's beautiful and doesn't need to "fix" anything. Reassurances that Quinn never got. In fact, Quinn is reminded that she's NOTHING without her face by being humiliated in front of the entire school (in part, by her "soulmate" no less, but that's a whole other tangent). And as usual with Quinn, I'm not sure the writers really got what they were doing there, because I don't think they saw that the flip side of their "look at how loved and supported Rachel is" was "I guess no one cared enough to do the same for 13-year old Quinn". They were kind of more focused on it being proof of how shallow and weak Quinn was to care about her looks. I suppose in the end, they have Finn be kind to Quinn in one of the like 3 okay Fuinn scenes. But it comes off like a pity crumb after watching Rachel be his priority the entire ep, and it REALLY doesn't hit in rewatch when you know how many more ways Quinn's about to get crapped on by him. Anyway, I kind of hate this arc, because it really feels like a way to say that all Quinn has is her looks, and they don't even really count cause they're "fake". And then as you said, you throw in the Dianna of it all and the behind the scenes implications in this plot are some of the more hard to ignore, imo.

The novels we could write on Glee's double standards and the constant attempts at villainizing Quinn for normal things. How dare she want to be liked! How dare she put an emphasis on appearances when people keep reinforcing that it entirely equals her worth! Kinda like how Rachel puts a lot into performing because people keep telling her that's all she's worth huh.

The writers never got what they were doing with Quinn. Period. Hold on If I Die Young came on shuffle I have to give it my undivided attention. Alright, so. Wait where was the train of thought.

Yes, so Glee is once again shitty to Quinn for no reason and champions this underdog narrative without expanding it to those who also should be involved. BTW is just so emblematic of how surface-level Glee's take on acceptance can be. Accept yourself, you were born this way, baby! Right, but also fuck you if you changed to conform and be loved and accepted because differences make you SUPERIOR actually unlike those shallow bitches who go by their middle name. Or something. And yet at the end of the day Quinn really is only worth anything as the pretty girl she is. The more I think about it the more I believe only I Feel Pretty/Unpretty was worth it in this episode. And all the Santana stuff but that's a given. Anyway gotta gay. Go! Go, I've gotta go.

#glee stop being weird about quinn challenge #glee give quinn a break challenge #you see when you're an underdog then you deserve love and support #born this way!#but when you're considered popular?? I gues?? then go fuck yourself #what was the thought process behind lucy caboosey #nothing i presume #no thoughts head empty just need a random plot #glee asks #anon #quinn asks

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