#suppose i would be interested in hearing others takes on this but im just curious i genuinely don't have answers here

[vamptastic]

i genuinely don't understand what capitalist countries stand to gain by fighting each other instead of collaborating economically. like why does the us warmonger against china when we would benefit more from trade? ostensibly it's for moral reasons, but regardless of the veracity of any given claim i think the united states has shown itself to prioritize economic success over human rights on a number of occasions especially during the cold war. i suppose i assume most wars are waged on the grounds of economic gain (natural resources, global political power, straight up money in the form of the military-industrial complex) but you could make an equally solid argument that just as many are waged over purely social and political issues- ethnic and religious conflict, blind nationalism, the whims of a dictator. it just confuses me at times, i guess. i have a hard time believing that the united states is bound and determined to wage war against china over human rights abuses, infringing on other countries sovereignty, and neo-colonialism in africa when we've propped up fascist dictators in many a country who've done far worse. is it literally just the association with communism? because surely whatever evil fuckers actually want war know that china is very far from communist right now. is it just nationalism? the idea that we must be on the top of the totem pole, even if our economy would stand to gain from trade? because i suppose i could believe that, but i think if that was true we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today in the first place. blegh. at the end of the day i am also ignoring the fact that many many different groups of people want war against china for reasons ranging from sinophobic jingoist nationalism to a genuine belief that the united states is a global moral watchdog determined to establish ~democracy~ worldwide. but there is a definite slant to media coverage on china right now, genuine attempts at disinformation, and given that the media in the us is so deeply tied to corporate interests it leads me to believe that there has to be some economic motive here, and it frustrates me that i can't figure out what it is.

#this post is long and convoluted and circuitous. sorry. #please do not try to like. publically own me or erupt into moral outrage over this post if you're reading it btw. #suppose i would be interested in hearing others takes on this but im just curious i genuinely don't have answers here #i don't want to argue or be accused of being immoral for not taking a hard stance on an incredibly complex issue. #anyway. i am also not trying to say that either the us or china are ' good ' or ' bad ' #insomuch as any country can be good or bad. particularly a country millenia old or one that changes leadership every four years. #individual actions taken by each government are undeniably bad. yes. #but as a us citizen i find it very difficult to find reliable information about what is happening in other countries. #our media has become so wildly polarized that you can often figure out national issues by looking at both sides #but when the media is unified on portraying one falsehood both left and right? you're fucked. #often media that claims to be neutral could be more accurately described as western #i trust ap and the bbc on us politics - not global politics. #all that being said when it comes to things like the treatment of uighur muslims or the political situation in hong kong and taiwan. #i'm not entirely sure what to believe. #and i also believe that if every single immoral act the us claims china has done is real... we still wouldn't wage war based purely on that #...i do genuinely think the claims that china is colonizing africa by offering loans is horseshit though #even if it was itd be fucking rich for european countries that wrecked africa in the first place #to moralize about the means by which another global power allows them potential economic power #the problem arises from capitalism on a global scale itself i mean #there is no way to build up infrastructure and trade routes for an entire continent without #in some way eventually profiting from it #i do see the comparison to the us and latin america and i think that's kinda apt but #the way ppl talk about it you'd think they were doing what france did to haiti good god

[spacexseven]

would demon dazai n chuuya ever join forces and share a darling? i imagine itd be a huge mess if they both took interest in the same darling so im curious if you think theyd be able to share or if all hell breaks loose once they find out theyre going after the same person :3c

love this au, ure doing a great job ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔ

hello user teethsies!! its always nice to hear from u huehue ^^ for more demon bsd content, check out the #demon au 🐟 tag!

cw: yandere characters + themes, violence

according to your very reliable source, the ritual was only supposed to summon one (1) demon.

but inhabiting your space now was not one, but two demons.

you tried to calm yourself down first before either of them could fully realize what had happened. maybe they were a package deal—unable to summon one without the other tagging alone, and you could ask them nicely to go back so you could summon the one you wanted. or maybe it didn't matter. the reason why you wanted to summon a demon didn't change just because there were two now, anyway, so as long as they were bound to you (at least, that was what was supposed to happen), you could make them do your bidding and promise to send them back right after.

but of course, none of that happened. for starters, your new housemates abhorred each other, and your so-called binding had no effect on them. it seemed you had, instead of summoning a particular demon, opened up a portal of some sort that the two happened to come across, which meant that you held no power over them.

to make it all worse, they were both completely deranged.

you're not sure what you were expecting from a demon, but it was foolish of you to think they didn't deal in trickery and torment. dazai was a master in both, somehow able to even make an invitation to stay in his torture chamber enticing (until you, fortunately, snapped out of it and realized just what that would entail). chuuya, though he never threatened you, had a permanent sneer on his face, and from the little conversation you overheard between him and dazai, was also no stranger to violent, cruel tactics.

it didn't matter why you wanted to summon them. dazai finds it silly anyway, whether it was for revenge or curiosity, the fact that you believed you could do such a thing and still be alive by the end of it was almost cute, and chuuya had made sure you knew how angry he was that you thought you could boss him around. regardless, they were here now, and...they were refusing to leave.

in retrospect, it was quite obvious when they were starting to take interest in you. dazai had always been a little too interested in you, apart from studying your clipped nails, which were completely different from his own claw-like ones, and constantly pointing out how small and human you looked, dazai found everything about you entertaining. he especially liked to make you frustrated, turning off your computer in the middle of your game, mixing salt into your sugar, hiding away your phone—little things that ruined your day,

chuuya, on the other hand, was a little harder to figure out. he seemed to hold a grudge against you, but there were times where he'd be almost...nice. after a particularly rough day or a night where you couldn't sleep thanks to someone deciding to also sleep right on top of you, you'd wake up to see your favorite drink waiting for you and all of dazai's usual tricks sorted out in advance. of course, he wasn't completely innocent. he had his own fair share of tricks, though never as bad as dazai's. chuuya was also a lot more familiar with the human world, and provided surprisingly good advice when you needed it.

the problem with the whole arrangement is that dazai cannot share anything, let alone his new human toy. he's suffocatingly possessive, and painfully competitive, constantly wanting you to spend more time with him and be nicer to him and smile more at him and—it went on. once he realizes that chuuya's warming up to you, he immediately starts plotting for damage control. he tries to send chuuya back and convince you that chuuya was only going to hurt you. while chuuya isn't opposed to the idea, dazai's hostility on spurs him on. having the two of you like the same darling will only end up in a lot of fighting.

#i have a whole list of Perverse things dazai would do too but only if youre interested in hearing it #like he would lick ur hand when ure asleep to freak u out #and so on #yandere bungo stray dogs x reader #yandere bungo stray dogs #yandere bsd x reader #yandere bsd #yandere bungou stray dogs #yandere dazai osamu #yandere dazai #yandere dazai x reader #yandere chuuya x reader #yandere chuuya nakahara #yandere chuuya #chuuya nakahara x reader #chuuya x reader #chuuya nakahara #dazai x reader #dazai osamu x reader #bsd x reader #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #yandere demon x reader #yandere x reader #ask 🐟 #drabble 🐟 #demon au 🐟 #chuuya 🐟

[ganondoodle]

So your took rewrite. I have a very important question regarding the Zonai. From what I hear they're supposed to be the dragon tribe I think? And that theory with Dinraal,Farosh, and Naydra. People were making theories about them being originally Zonai. Would those 3 have a important role in the rewrite??? I'm curious because I would love to see how you draw them and implement them into the lore. Also I love your demise and hylia! Love your work too so ye that's my question, apologies if I worded this wrong or seemed rude. I am not good with words ^^;;

so, with no intention to sound mean, this is a little awkward for me to answer bc i ... loathe the idea of the three dragons having been of sonau origin

i talked about it in a few rants before but i loved the dragons before bc they were something unexplained and ethereal, spirits older than time that yet still circling the skies unknown if they ever had a purpose, or if they even had to have one, just a part of this world, a mystery i loved bc it was unsolved (personally i liked the idea of them being like the last stage of evolution for the dragons from skyward sword but again thats just me) whenever i saw them i stood there and watched in awe, one of my most favorite things from botw ... or were ..

see it might have to do a little with me not liking the canon sonau at all bc of how they were handled, a big point of that being how they felt artificially shoved into every part of this hyrules history so nothing was there that hadnt been done better or touched by the sonau before already; i get that making that connection between the sonau and the dragons is very obvious and can be interesting for some but i personally hate it bc it just destroys that sense of awe i used to feel when i saw them .. they are a mystery that shouldnt ever been 'solved' or even considered as soemthing TO solve, their mystery being unsolved is what made it GOOD to me

i now have to actually work to still seem them as i once did instead of just some sonau dude eating a god damn stone, again i dont mean this to sound mean about it but i just .... it takes it all away what i once felt about them, oh ... it was just some sonau guy .. its them again .. it wasnt an ethereal ever wandering spirit of never known origins it was just some sonau guys .... oh .... oh ...no ... (good morning i am very brave and when the dragons are revealed to not have been unknown always there spirits ever wandering the world from the beginning of time which was one of my favorite aspects of botw but instead have been just some sonau dudes eating a stone destroying my feeling of awe and respect to them forever i wont cry about it ..)

so .... the dragons (Eldra, Farodra, Naydra for me as im using their german names) do play a role in my rewrite .. but not as people or having anythign revealed about them, im keeping them as i once saw them, as spirits that have always been there (they play a role to repair the mastersword as a reference to how it was forged in skyward sword)

(and the reason the stones cause someone to transform into a dragon was bc those creatures are the most magical beings to exist and the stones are made of an insane amount of spirit energy and if that all gets released all at once there is no way for it to go other than explode or if consumed to twist whatever organism is trying to take it in into a draconic form)

the sonau in my rewrite are not dragon people, tho they do worship them as they are incredibly spiritual, but an underground dwelling species (loosely based on bats and monkeys, with somethign of a deep sea vibe to them) who only appeared on the surface after their population was already beyond saving (the reason for it being that they mined the stones for their tech to such a degree it killed the land they needed to live and as they dug deeper and more intensely for more stones, now more for pure survival than anything else, they both found more of the engima stones AND the remnant of the past that warned of ganondorf, which then prompted them to breach the surface and establish contact with the ones that dwell there; they never did that before bc its hard to get there and they considered themselves to be above any other species spiritually and didnt want to messed up their structures of society - something that changed as they stood on the brink of extinction and had found the warning which then made rauru break their old rule of not breaching the surface)

(i will say that i can get behind the idea that the big skeletons you find in the underground having been of sonau that ate an enigma stone and that is how they knew it doing that for sure, it otherwise just having been part of their belief system as dragons are the most spiritual of all aside from gods)

(... i dont want to think about the reverse possibility tho .. the orignal dragons being dead and the sonau replacing them.. i dont like that even if it made sense ,,,,, ... yet another thing they replaced ... stop that ..)

im sorry if this sounds mean or dismissive but i just ... dont like the all dragons having been sonau theory at all and im kinda glad they dont seem to plan any DLC bc i was afraid it would outright confirm it, which would suck .. at least like this there is still some denialability about it (like all the clothing and dragon themed stuff being used purely for worship on their own)

thank you for otherwise liking my work tho!! i hope this isnt too disappointing for you to hear, in the end the rewrite is primarily a way for me to cope with what i dont like and implement the ideas i have had to fix it for me :C

#ganondoodles answers #ganondoodles talks #ganondoodles rants #yeah that fits #ganondoodles rewrites totk #i wrote some stuff here i havent written before so im tagging it as such #sorry for repeating some things #im not good with words either but i just loved the dragons as they were in botw so SO much #yet another thing totk took away from me >:C

[blood-choke]

hi! i have a question, but before that i just wanted to thank you for giving such amazing sapphic rep in both of your games. as someone who's sapphic (Im a bi girlie) I'm always a little bit disappointed when the female sapphic characters are given not as much thought even when it comes to both female gender locked ros and the female/nb counterparts of gender selectable characters in comparison to the male characters/male counterparts of gender selectable characters in other ifs. i absolutely adore both of your games and the fact that you take such great care with each of the characters' identities, even if they share the same sexuality or gender, they express their gender and sexuality in different ways and i also love the stud rep with hana. And I love that your gender selectable ros in tnp present in a similar way regardless of gender, yet there are still differences in the way that they express it or experience it. my first language isn't English so if i get any terminology wrong please lmk. ❤️

as for my question I was wondering what your thoughts were regarding sapphic ros in IF. do you think gender selectability could be used in a better way to explore a characters' identity in some circumstances. i am curious as to what you think regarding gender locked and gender selectability especially regarding to female/nb ros. i always love to hear your thoughts on different topic so i thought i would ask. ❤️❤️

thank you so much! 💗 now, get ready for a really long-winded response!

honestly, my opinion on genderselectable ROs tends to fluctuate. it's kinda a love/hate relationship, hahaha. there are a lot of games that i think do a fine job handling it, and overall i prefer having the option as a lesbian because typically we don't… get sapphic/gay female characters… like, at all.

now for my controversial opinion: i don't really think most of these female genderselectable characters are actually sapphic. they're just playersexual. and this goes for the opposite, as well, for the male versions. they're not gay or bi they're just playersexual. genderselectable characters can only work if the author is willing to make an effort & flesh out both/all versions of a character as well as acknowledge their sexuality. if one version of the character is meant to be a bisexual woman, then you should be writing her as a bisexual woman. unfortunately i'm sad to say i've seen more than one author publicly admit that this is "too much work," but i suppose i can commend them for being honest about it…

it's been interesting to see this kind of stuff in the IF tag recently. for a while it seemed like we were actually moving more towards favoring genderlocked characters, with set sexualities, and then suddenly it feels like we've ended up in a worse spot than we used to be. i see some really egregious gender essentialism with some genderselectable ROs, down to even their sense of fashion and tattoos changing so the female version can be more feminine and dainty. it's very bizarre, and i really, really do not like it.

i don't necessarily think it's a bad thing for selectable characters to be different. it makes sense in some cases, like if you had a character that was gender nonconforming in all variations. it would make sense that their clothes would be different and their experiences would be different. i even think it can be interesting to explore how certain characters are affected differently by society because of their gender. if you had a character like Lea that existed in a misogynistic society like ours, their experience as a butch would be very different from their experience as a masculine trans man or androgynous nb person… and they would also share a lot of similar experiences, too! but this is not what i usually see. it's usually just… woman: wears pink, is shorter and skinnier, has long hair. man: wears blue, is big and muscular, has short hair. nonbinary (if there even is a nb variation): thin and androgynous artbreeder mashup of the other two. and then in every other aspect they are the same. unfortunately, that's as far as some authors are willing to take it. the rare times i do see someone add in differences it's always just the female version experiencing some form of misogyny that her male counterpart does not, with very little elaboration or reflection.

i don't really think i need to explain why that kind of characterization is a problem.

i do think there is a lot of potential with the gender selection mechanic. i've tried to do something interesting with Lea, and i like to think i've been successful with it. but in my honest opinion, if you want to write a story about gay and/or sapphic characters, you should just genderlock them. for one, the IF audience at large is always going to favor the male version of your character. that is just a fact. if your only female or nb characters are selectable, they will be erased by the wider IF audience. i know this sounds kind of cynical, but this is my honest opinion & my experience as someone who has been involved in this community for almost four years now.

i think if you are someone who is setting out with the intention of writing a sapphic RO, you are doing them a disservice by making them genderselectable. just genderlock them! you may get people that complain, but they can suck it up or go play something else. and i don't think i need to tell you this but just to be clear, genderlocking gay or trans characters is not the same as a game with an all straight or all cis cast. it just simply is not. cis, straight, & white people are already considered the "default." most games already cater to this demographic. it is not the same to genderlock or even lock your characters race or ethnicity to something other than cis, straight, or white. cis, straight, white people are not a minority. you are not underrepresented. there are millions of games out there for you to play. & it's irritating when people pretend like someone getting upset at the exclusion of gay people (or any other minority, for that matter) from a game is somehow comparable to another game "excluding" straight people (or white people, or cis people). arguing this is just blatantly ignoring the reality of our misogynistic, racist, homophobic & transphobic society. again, straight people are not underrepresented. you are automatically included in almost everything except the gay media that gay people create themselves.

gay women especially are repeatedly left out of IF. unless you want to go read yuri VNs (which, no offense, but little anime girls are entirely sexless to me. i do not feel represented by feminine, bug-eyed little anime girls) you're pretty much shit out of luck. there are very few lesbian ROs out there, fewer gnc women, almost no butches and definitely no studs that i've seen in this specific tumblr/cog IF space.

so all of this to say, if you do really want to make your characters genderselectable, then just take your time with it. really think about how their gender may change their experiences within the world of your game. does it change anything at all? maybe not. there does not need to be a drastic difference at all if it's not applicable. don't loop back around into gender essentialism. but you should still think about it, and consider what the gender selectable mechanic can offer as a narrative and characterization tool.

what is my plan for this character? what am i trying to accomplish with them and their story? does making them genderselectable add to that narrative or does it hinder it? how can i explore the potential differences between these versions of this character without falling into and reinforcing harmful stereotypes? how does their sexuality impact their experience? i think these are some of the questions authors should ask themselves when deciding if they want to make their characters genderselectable.

#it's so hard to talk about it bc i DO like the gender selection mechanic #but i dislike the way its typically used #a lot of people just use it for brownie points/to catch a wider audience #but then dont put in any work to actually earn those brownie points or keep that audience #and to be completely frank i just don't respect that mindset #if someone is going to make their characters genderselectable and claim theyre all bisexual then i want to fucking see it on the page #not just in asks on their blog #not just in the lamest way possible where this RO is a girl now cus she has long hair and is feminine and uses she/her #no i want her to be a bisexual woman!!! i want to SEE that in the text #and if that's 'too much work' then just dont bother #genderlock them one way or the other #anyways. sorry i have a lot of opinions about this LOL #ask #anonymous

[socialist-microwave-laser]

hi!! i hope this isnt too invasive, but im just curious, as someone who has converted to judaism would you view religion/judaism as a choice?

the reason im asking is that i studied theology in college and it was something we discussed within the class, whether religion was a choice or something inherent within a person, but my entire class were either muslims from muslim families or atheists, so a lot of the perspectives were that it wasnt a choice (ie "im atheist because i dont believe in god, but i wish i could be religious, so it isnt a choice" or "im religious because i do inherently believe in god, and for that reason i couldnt choose atheism") so id be curious to hear your take! no pressure of course if its an invasive question or likely to cause disagreements

oh no worries at all! i think honestly part of the problem here is the definition of judaism as a religion lmao. it's an ethnoreligion with a unique approach to history (it's currently pesach, and we are commanded to feel as though we personally were brought out of egypt. we re-enact the exodus, every year not having enough time for our bread to leaven. highly recommend reading yerushalmi's "zachor" if you're interested in how judaism interacts with time). basically, joining judaism is WAY different than joining any other religion (afaik). you literally have a new ethnicity, jewish

so talking about this from the other side, there are a bunch of atheist jews, and my rabbi told me i'm not even really required to believe in gd in order to convert to judaism, and on the other hand i can believe in the existence of other gods! i'm just not allowed to worship them. so there are some religious jews, there are atheist jews, there are agnostic jews, buddhist jews, witchy jews, and so many other kinds!

to me, this gets to my understanding of religion as a culture. the measurable parts of a religion are common practices, common objects, common texts, common important days, either common answers to a question or common frameworks or common questions or whatever else. religion to me seems like a framework through which we can channel our feelings about the world, and which we can use to understand/interact with the world around us. in a sense, culture is the same. growing up in kentucky has given me the common practice of corn mazes in the fall, the common object of horseshoes as symbols of luck, the common texts of shakespeare and poe, the common important days of the derby and oaks, the frameworks of thinking in terms of a two party system and having a hesitancy about going to a Big City™️. i can't change the fact that i grew up in kentucky, and i can choose to adopt new practices and habits and even to move to a different place, but it's harder to unlearn some of the stuff ingrained in me, and even if i do move, that doesn't mean i get rid of my memories and feelings about kentucky. it's the same with religion. i can't change the fact that i grew up in a christian household, was told to mourn in a christian way, and have lived in the bible belt all my life. even converting to judaism, i still have good memories about christmas and easter, and i'm still expected to go home for christmas

aside from this, honestly i wouldn't even say my beliefs have changed very much from christianity to wicca-flavored witchcraft to judaism. i still have a Wow This Is Big feeling when i'm hiking in the appalachias or singing in a big group of people, i still fundamentally love humanity and think human collaboration is powerful and beautiful, i still try my best to live my life according to my set of morals (which honestly have changed more due to my queerness than my religious affiliation). i feel like, at least partially, my religious exploration has been more of finding what framework best fits with what i believe and what i deem important to me. so i suppose in that way, i'd say beliefs aren't a choice but religion is

but what about the beliefs in my life that have changed according to some intentional impulse on my part, like that trans people are weird or the belief that statism is the best way to organize a population? i deconstructed and unlearned that, a practice that was definitely not by accident, but it also wasn't as easy as flipping a switch and going "i don't have any transphobic thoughts anymore." i think as easy and tempting as it is to say that hatred and bigotry is a choice, i don't think i agree. it's a choice whether or not to be an asshole to someone. but even still, the framework of who you should care about if you've been an asshole to may be something more inherited

i honestly could keep going, but i've already written enough. i'll go with this: for many people, their religion is what they grew up knowing. however, i would argue that most people have enough access to information about other frameworks that they probably made some sort of decision to continue on the path they were already on (those who are staying within a certain religion because of force are not who i'm talking about here). so in that way, religion is a choice. however, i do not think that religion and belief are necessarily the same thing. i think beliefs are more fundamental and that religion is what allows us to put those indescribable gut feelings into words. i think beliefs are changeable, and that one can choose to put in the work to change a belief, but i think it is much harder for me to classify beliefs as 100% a choice as well

bc i just love studying talmud so much, i'm going to complicate your question even more by moving us out of the realm of personal decisions. i think it's interesting to note that my being jewish technically won't be my decision. when the time comes i will go before a beis din, a group of three rabbis, who will ask me questions and will ultimately have the authority to say that i cannot complete my conversion. additionally, the rabbi overseeing my conversion also has the ability to say i'm not ready to go before a beis din, or to say she doesn't feel comfortable overseeing my conversion anymore and turn me away. it's also an interesting complicator that my conversion likely will not be considered valid by some (namely, orthodox people) who only consider orthodox conversions to be valid. same goes for those who are known as patrilineal jews, or jews with a jewish father and a non-jewish mother (yes this framework does struggle under queer identities and relationships but we don't have time to get into that LMAO). currently, orthodox and conservative (no relation to the school of political thought) judaism only recognize jewishness as being able to be passed down matrilineally, and as such there are many people who have lived their entire lives as jews, and yet have needed to undergo some sort of conversion ritual to be considered jewish by a certain group

#long post #jumblr #anarchist #queer #transgender #פסח #jew by choice #jewish conversion #kentucky #torah commentary

[familyabolisher]

re: annihilation im glad im not the only one who disliked it lol! ive struggled thru the second book as well bc people keep telling me the third is the best but. we'll see. id be curious abt ur thoughts & if you have similar critiques (lack of interiority for the mc for one, a lack of clarity on Whats Going On but not in a fun way imo but in a way that makes me really unsure what the Point of it all is, & (book 2) just. the most tedious mommy issues ive ever had to read thru) or if its something else entirely. no pressure tho! i just like hearing ur opinions on things.

tbh my immensely pedestrian answer is that i just couldn’t get on with the style at all—it felt very clumsy and, like, amateurish. i got the sense that vandermeer wanted to narrate The Horrors in a quotidian, somewhat clinical tone that established a discordance around an effort to record and empirically tackle something that resisted the boundaries of human language and communication, and i think a more skilled writer could have pulled that off to great effect; however, as it was, he neither leant far enough into that voice that the discordance could fully emerge & exert a significant enough narrative force to make the piece compelling, nor relaxed it enough to allow his language to play around with the lurid, macabre, paranatural setting. 

like, for example, i’ve just gone to a random page to give you some sense of what i mean.

This was really the only thing I discovered in him after his return: a deep and unending solitude, as if he had been granted a gift that he didn’t know what to do with. A gift that was poison to him and eventually killed him. But would it have killed me? That was the question that crept into my mind even as I stared into his eyes those last few times, willing myself to know his thoughts and failing. As I labored at my increasingly repetitive job, in a sterile lab, I kept thinking about Area X, and how I would never know what it was like without going there. No one could really tell me, and no account could possibly be a substitute. So several months after my husband died, I volunteered for an Area X expedition. A spouse of a former expedition member had never signed up before. I think they accepted me in part because they wanted to see if that connection might make a difference. I think they accepted me as an experiment. But then again, maybe from the start they expected me to sign up.

this is like … the first time we get a real, direct account of the biologist’s backstory. it’s like a speedrun of heterosexual our wives under the sea (also a bad book btw lol) and is supposed to pack a pretty hefty emotional punch, but it’s just … well, i mean. “a gift that was poison to him and eventually killed him.” like, the extract falls back on cliches; the prose lands in a very ‘safe’ register and feels a little afraid to push anywhere significantly outside of that. this is pretty representative of (what i read of) the whole book, tbh—and it stings especially when you have things like a mysterious tunnel-tower seemingly made of flesh that only the narrator can see that’s spawning fungi spelling out sentences as other characters in the novel start to die … like, that’s good, and that’s just really not being communicated on the page in any compelling manner. 

it felt as though vandermeer had established this fascinating world and then just failed to communicate any of it to any memorable standard. also, the pacing was all over the place, lol—like, take your time with it a little more, spend some time on setting and description! or if you want to lean into that clipped, clinical account, maybe experiment a little more with the texture that that could lend; like, journals, reports, the kind of temporal weirdness that those can generate (as is common in the gothic novel, for instance) … like, there were just a lot of ins where vandermeer could have negotiated a more interesting piece of work than what i was reading.

it just felt very, like—the word coming to mind for me is ‘timid.’ like the text found its own concepts a little too unwieldy and pared itself down into a very meek prose rather than rising to the challenge that its scaffolding presented. and as a result, i was just, like, bored and irritated trying to read it. i’m told that the film is very different so i might give that a go at some point, but i really couldn’t push through to the end of the book, lmao. maybe it’s worth reading for like the last 70 pages, but i��ll never know. sad! well there’s other genre fiction

#ask

[thotsforvillainrights]

absolutely scrambling to get a request in im so hyped!!

can i request something with Redestro where his step-child (reader or nondescript) comes home from college for the holidays? and perhaps their college is out of the country so they dont visit often?

happy holidays to you and the baby!! 💕

(Happy holidays!!!! Dude you got it in just in time! I was shocked to see the box filled up to like 30 asks in the span of 2 days lmao. I'm thankful for it because now I get to write more about my favorite big bads!)

~Dad!Rikiya Kid Home for the Holidays~

*I love him and his big ass noggin uggggghhh*

headcanon|scenario|imagine|match-up

-There are lots of things in this world that can make him happy, and a pretty good amount that can make him jump for joy. There is a very small amount that will make him drop whatever he's doing in sheer excitement. You would think he heard that they outlawed quirk discrimination by the way he dropped his book and smiled widely. However, what he was told instead was that his child would be coming home for the holidays from college. It's hard to understand why he'd gotten so happy from this. Did he think you were just going to stay overseas and not see him at all? It was your second semester/year in college and you told him you were coming home. I suppose he just couldn't contain his excitement regardless of knowing it was going to happen anyhow.

-Suddenly anything else didn't matter. Unfortunately his poor assistant would have to take the grunt of the work considering he was already halfway out the door of his office for the day. He immediately went straight to shopping and picking up a few things he thought you would need/want in the coming week while you were home. Even though you were an adult now, he still got the same snacks you liked since you were 5. He also picked up a few more presents for you despite having several beneath the tree already. He'd informed the others of your return and planned a massive Christmas dinner. Obviously they'd mostly proclaimed themselves as being your unofficial uncles and aunts (except Skeptic who opted for acquaintance, and Geten who would technically be like a brother to you considering he'd been taken in by ReDestro at a young age).

-No matter how relaxed and low-key you'd prefer your return to be it didn't matter in the least bit. You still returned to find tons of confetti, decorations, food cooked, and a very happy dad waiting with open arms. You can only roll your eyes and laugh at the thought of how much effort he put into this as though you'd been gone for several years. You thanked the kind Detnerat employees that took the time to bring you home from the airport and even invited them in to eat with you since let's be honest...there was no way you'd be able to put a dent into the feast he'd prepared for your arrival.

-The two of you spent the better half of the night discussing all the things you'd learned and achieved since being away for college. You fessed up to failing a class of two but he assured you things would be fine so long as you retook them and redeemed yourself. He was so proud of you and it showed in the way he stared at you as you talked about your experience. He was awed by the new friends you made (not particularly too fond of any love interest you may have found), excited to hear what your plans were for the next year, and already planning your graduation ceremony despite it being far off into the future for now. He eventually let you settle down and rest but not before bringing you a rather large box.

-Opening one gift early on Christmas eve was a tradition of sorts around your home.

-The next day you got to spend some time catching up with the other MLA members as well. You got a little help for your computer and I.T class by sitting and listening to Skeptic (even though he offered to hack the school and set your grades to A+ instead). Of course Trumpet and Curious only added to your already large set of gifts to open. You had to remind them these likely needed to be shipped back overseas to you. It was also very nice to have a minute to catch up to you official/non-official little brother Geten and see what he had going on for the moment. Of course you asked him if he wanted to join you at some point since he'd only opted last year to pursue his G.E.D essentially. He denied your offer but you could only hope he'd change his mind eventually. You had high hopes for him and knew he could achieve anything he put his mind to.

-Everyone sat down for a nice dinner together after you finished opening far too many presents to count at this point. There were a few holiday games played, and a couple of small tears shed (mostly by Rikiya at the thought of you having to go back in a few days). It was a nice reminder that you were quite loved by the people in your circle. How lovely to have a family like this!

#bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #meta liberation army #mla #dad!rikiya #redestro #rikiya yotsubashi #headcanons

[suffarustuffaru]

what do you think of 'grasp' so far

like that Pridebaru fic where he gets kidnapped by Reinhard

ooh this is an interesting question… anon im curious as to why you asked me HAH but i suppose im flattered!!! very grateful to have the chance to speak my Opinions… (warning this is gonna be kinda long i have a lot to say 😅 i put it under the read more!!)

i really like grasp!! pride if reinsuba seems to be pretty popular in this fandom (which im guessing is because reinhard and pridebaru are both like. powerful in their own ways. and they have the most feral relationship out of any version of reinsuba) and tbh i eat up any pride if reinsuba content every time. i enjoy their dynamic and i like seeing the different takes people have on it!! grasp is particularly fun for me in that iirc there isnt really much fics specifically about reinhard capturing pride, plus reinhard’s characterization here is super interesting. grasp emphasizes how much reinhard genuinely cares about subaru and also emphasizes reinhard’s softness—even as hes. you know, kidnapping pride, imprisoning him, gaslighting, etc etc. and grasp’s reinhard is Specifically most likely from the main route, judging from the events he describes. i love seeing darker versions of reinhard in general, and i suppose it’s unique to see a reinhard from the main route act like this. though i will say that reinhard in like ch6 does say he doesnt “give a fuck” iirc which. im sorry i cant imagine reinhard saying that 😭😭 but i do like the addition of him going fuck you to the literal council though!!

on the other hand, though, i feel like grasp’s pridebaru characterization isnt sharp enough for my personal taste. like i know grasp’s pridebaru is still like not that far into pride if—like he was whisked away right before he killed petelgeuse. but at this point i still feel that like. hes jaded and accustomed to violence and i feel like he would be A Lot More Pissed Off in this situation (being imprisoned by reinhard of all people). like the way i see pridebaru, he very much Is Pride, you know? hes stubborn as hell and he wants to be in control and Powerful at all times and he LOATHES reinhard specifically for his power and heroism. i just feel like that even while pride is afraid of reinhard here for knowing personal shit about him + insisting that main route events happened (ie subaru being close with emilia, saving the day, etc etc), i still feel like prides gonna like double down and do Everything he can to make this difficult in any way for reinhard. like i feel like to pride, hearing reinhard talk about this other version of events is like. prides like hearing about basically some other version of himself, which probably sounds like hearing about a literal stranger to him bc Why would he even be friends with reinhard. itd sound totally alien to pride. but this is like, all my personal opinion and i mean no disrespect!! that and 95% of my personal taste in fiction is like composed of the most unhinged things, meaning that my general (kind of biased) consensus with most ifbarus is that you might as well write them to be as insane as possible T^T so take my opinion with a grain of salt maybe, i suppose!

but anyway that aside thats just a very long explanation of basically saying while grasp’s pridebaru take isnt a personal favorite of mine, i do really really enjoy the fic and seeing reinsuba shenanigans happen in it!! and ill definitely be tuning in for each update whenever i get the chance :o

#rezero #natsuki subaru #pride if #reinhard van astrea #reinsuba..? #yeah like just i think ifbaru characterizations just vary a Lot bc theres a lot of different ways you could go with them o.O i am of course #no different and my characterizations of the ifbarus ive written thus far may be something people may or may not like which is totally fair #i do love #seeing variety tho!!! and grasp updates so fast its impressive o.O #i do also quite like the title grasp. bc u could take it as a gentle grasp (like a hug) or a more violent one... which makes sense given #the plot hah. fun fic!!!! i recommend reading it if it sounds up ur alley!! it has a Really good synopsis tbh so i clicked on it right away #the moment i saw it in rezero ao3 u know?? #tho uhh ok this veers into fandom meta a tiny bit but i do think its interesting how popular reinsuba and pride if reinsuba are!! but i #think it makes sense that its pretty popular yeah.

[joltning]

sometime if you feel like it i'd be really interested to hear more about your georgia and utah's personalities and their dynamic together. I've picked up some from art context and some of your posts but im curious to see it written out :3

guess who’s back. Me

warning⚠️ warning this post is me blabbing ⚠️ you have been warned ⚠️

acckkk where do i start.

Georgia? Kind of a dick for no reason. he’s the bully of the moi and everyone kind of hates him a little bit. he has like an air of superiority to him despite not being like the highest rank n doesn’t have a lot of close friends, so he usually hangs around south (probably cause she doesn’t want to sit with the other lancers n the other lancers don’t want to sit with him Lmao.) he kind of parallels carolina n how he reaches far over his limits trying to be the best but unlike Carolina he isn’t actually the best n will pussy out prob. (for other reasons too but that’s not important.) Other notes in the other ramblepost blah

Utah is silly and yippeepilled Ok. He has a pretty calm demeanor and is pretty optimistic, even though that might just be cause he’s a little dim (not like, in a caboose way but more in like a donut way. like you could get him to eat dirt with enough convincing). Most people on the moi generally like him, he’s friendly to even the lower tiered lancers and to employees, but he only has a select few closer friends. I see him as the leader of the B team, so he can stand his ground and have a loud voice when he needs, but usually takes a more seated back approach to try to support his team instead. He usually keeps his helmet off.

okay now them as a dynamic. since they both have pretty small friend groups that includes eachother. they work well together as they have contrasting fighting styles and they generally enjoy eachothers company

Georgia has a Horrible crush on Utah. utah kinda knows but he’s really stupid a bit to advances and kind of just stares off into space confused sometimes. they’re generally very close friends tho like they steal eachothers clothes but it’s not gay its just being homies yk. geo will still be kind of mean to him but it’s more in a playful way than like actually trying to hurt his feelings

however, all that being said, one of the main reasons Utah’s friend group is so small is because of Georgia. no one really likes him so since they’re together so often, people tend to stray away from Utah too. even though utah can stand his ground in a battle situation, he’s kind of a pushover when it comes to Georgia’s bullying, telling him to stop and reacting negatively to it but not really going farther than that. they’re a bit toxic like that. georgua would be a horrible partner tbh.

in canon I feel like either geo gets his shit together in the endless void of space or he lands on a planet and continues to be an asshole. destined to be horrible or dead or something.

uhhhh. if you want to see more of my interpretation ov them I have 2 oneshots in this fic (yes, I know now you’re suppose to post separately) one with my au n one of them with them generally. thanks for letting me yap mikey

#rvb #red vs blue #georgia rvb #rvb georgia #agent georgia #utah rvb #rvb utah #agent utah #geotah #ask box #txt

[im-smart-i-swear]

If funky guys had become paladins of voltron which one would be in which Lion?

back in the VERY early days of this whole au(like. buddys-name-was-still-ryou early) i wanted to base every clones personality/character on a diffrent lion.... but over time it slowly stopped fitting their personalities and i kinda abandoned the concept lol. though you can still see some remnants of that in . certain design choices...

going back to this concept after uhhh two years?? i think? was definetely interesting! all the characters changed WILDLY since then and i tried to re-assign the lions to fit the changes........ it was surprisingly hard

i couldnt for the life of me decide in a few cases, so instead im just gonna give the most suitable options lol

tashi & soup - im putting these two together beacuse- and i have NO IDEA how that would work- theyre copiloting the black lion! they function the best as a duo and separating them would NOT be a good idea in a situation as stressful and complicated as piloting voltron. they barely manage to keep everyone alive on a good day... also picking only one of the two as The Leader just feels wrong

buddy, ideally, would like to stay as FAR AWAY from voltron as psyhically possible, thank you very much- but nothing in this cruel world is ideal, so they get the red lion:) i actually have this whole story idea where basically stickbug ""goes rouge""(like. some sort of 'sleeper agent mode' left over by haggar gets activated by accident??) and runs away to do some evil shit so buddy goes after him(on a whim)(alone)(without telling the others) and while searching for him they bump into fUCKING VOLTRON- so they form a very uneasy truce until they find stick. and at some point buddy finds out he can pilot the red lion! its awful he hates it:/ he pilots anyway cause his loved one is in danger(this whole thing is way too complicated to talk about here lol)

i had A LOT of problems figuring out the last three..... they changed so much that i just cant rlly fit them into these categories anymore... but i tried!!

ORIGINALLY stickbug was supposed to be based on the green lion but he doesnt fit it as well anymore....... i think taks does pretty well tho! shes very bold and iquisitive and a pain in everyones ass<3 plus loves learning about diffrent planets' unique ecosystems n stuff. stick IS very curious and likes exploring so he still kinda fits? but hes not as forward as taks, so yeahhhh im very torn on this one

i have NO FUCKING CLUE what to do with blue. all three of em could propably fit there ngl....

yellow could either be taka or stickbug- taka is the youngest and the brightest, hes what brought all of them together in the first place(it takes a village to raise a child)....... buuuut hes not really a 'puts the needs of others above his own' kind of person? hes still a kid and NOT ready for that kind of responsibility. soup is an OBVIOUS choice here of course, but im not sure- honestly, the more i think about it, the more stickbug starts to feel like the best option here? ok hear me out: stickbug, for most of his life, had very little power over his life. even while with the funky guys(ESPECIALLY in the beggining, these bozos were dysfuctional as fuck) there were moments when the others would talk over him bc 'hes a kid', and even without that theres still his people pleasing problem wnich meant he often disregarded his own good to make other ppl content. so, taking this scrawny guy desperate for control over his life and putting him in the toughest, stongest, most resilient lion- basically i think he deserves to go a little apeshit. as a treat. let him wreck shit for once

honestly it kinda funny im stting here and calculating all of this like a mad man where IN THE ACTUAL SHOW the paladins switch the lions like pokemon cards

realistically speaking i think they would all trade and switch em a lot and then squabble over who gets to pilot yellow bc they ALL want to wreck shit sometimes:)

#thank you for asking!! #i know it took me a while to answer lol #but i did it!!! yippie!!!! #ask #my funky guys #i feel like i dont talk enough about how dysfunctional this family is sometimes...... they love each other and theyre working on it!! theyr #all trying!! #but after everything theyve been through OF COURSE theyre not doing well..... #no family is prefect and ESPECIALLY if they went through so much shit as these guys #i know i mostly talk about how wholesome and caring they all are(and they ARE) but that doesnt mean they dont have a lot of problems also #and thats okay. shit happens sometimes y'know? what matters is that they make the effort to change and grow #its messy and complicated and Not Fun sometimes tho- love is never easy....... #im propably going to go into more detail about the whole 'buddy teams up with voltron to get stickbug back' thing someday cause MAN i have #a ton of thoughts on that one #i dont have the energy to explain All That rn.........

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

it's so interesting for me to hear that houses localization changed the script to vilify(?word?) the church bc when i played the game (i recently finished my first and so far only playthrough in lions route) for the first half of the game i was waiting for the shoe to drop to reveal the church is the big bad guys but it never came and the revealed was actually ed. idk if it should have been obvious but i was too focused on suspecting the church to see it or if it was actually subtle as i tend to be oblivious to hints(¿word again?) given in media lol.

idk where im going with this but i hope it makes at least some sense bc i am so sleep deprived rn

and the thing tou said about Henry being changed i am so curious of that too

hope you have a nice day and better sleep than me!

I'll answer the last part first since the rest is more descriptive.

Basically Henry went to Wizard School (tee em) and it was a cool and great experience. In JP, it was... iirc basically close to torture/hellish? It was a more mature situation/topic, but the loc changed it to be silly and fun sounding. For some reason Treehouse in particular seems deeply if not fatally allergic to mature topics and/or properly handling them.

Thank for about the sleep comment and I assure you, I sleep too often!! I wish I could send you some of my sleep and make it extra quality for you. :(

As for Three Houses, yeah, in AM it doesn't really happen that way. Nobody is really vilified (not even the imperialist warmonger invading neutral lands!) in AM (same with AG in Hopes).

What you saw/understood was the whole point! It was made it look at first like the Church was suspicious, but then the reveal was meant to be no, it was a fellow house leader all along. That was what the red herring part about the Church was all about. You were supposed to suspect the Church at first, hence Jeralt's warnings, and if you're playing GD, Claude's suspicions.

Unfortunately what happens in the other routes, especially in CF, is that Rhea's trauma is never explored, no characters stop to understand her motivation, etc. She's just used as the resident bad guy because she's Edelgard's enemy. Basically, you're seeing it from the point of view that Rhea is bad because you see it from Edelgard's perspective... but it fails to work because the game, in particular the localization, amps Edelgard up as a huge progressive hero. AM is the only route that really confronts her about her "views", and even then, it's a mess because all the things she argues with Dimitri about aren't her end goal (i.e. they don't ever end up actually happening in the vast capacity she claims she's going to do).

About Edelgard:

The localization avoids any particularly negative comments about her and changes or outright removes them (true of Hopes as well). In Dimitri's case it would make sense because of their connection, but when it ends up just being another route in the pile of feeling sorry for Edelgard (and... not Rhea, who had her family massacred and their bones turned into weapons), it just feels stale.

They basically tell you Edelgard is very cute and easily embarrassed, and she's just this headstrong progressive woman fighting For The People (tee em). The truth is (as per the game itself, i.e. content they can't change/localized because it's the contents of the game itself) that she's invading innocent lands, conscripting her own citizens, turning her citizens into demonic beasts to add to her military strength (lelz when u can't even rely on ur nation's own military strength without demonic beasts), and victim blaming anyone who fights back (if you have yet to see the extremely infamous "no u" line from Edegard to Dimitri in CF, you've been blessed) among other things.

They basically shove it down your throat, characters and narrative both (in the loc in particular), that Edelgard is good and just, while the story itself is looking at all that like ???. The JP script still tries to take good care of her and her image, but they're a lot more blunt about her/her goals (i.e. they don't dance around them nearly as much).

The localization showers what she does with love and attention, and even when they have to say she's the problem/aggressor, they still pretty it up as much as possible (such as Dimitri wondering if maybe her vision of society could possibly be just and righteous, instead of outright admitting what she's done is absolutely atrocious when it's way worse than anything he ever did, all of which he admits to doing and takes responsibility for).

The JP version is more clear on her being the villain. There's definitely bias toward her (as the writers were, confirmed by an interview), but it doesn't slap you in the face with it nearly as badly. Also, Dimitri has won a character popularity poll every year since the game's inception in Japan. In the west, Edelgard is much more popular than she is in the east. That, of course, is because of the way the loc pushed the writing for her/about her.

Edelgard's "progressive" stuff is supposed to be just propaganda (which is ultimately, even as per the western endings because there's only so much they can change). The way the loc frames it is that it's actually what she's aiming for. It's what she uses to inspire people to fight for her though, not what she's actually doing.

About Rhea:

This one's the real doozy because it's a victim of the above. Since they wanted to pretty up Edelgard's dialogue and make her A Hero (tee em), they needed whoever her main enemy was to be the "villain". Since Edelgard, now popular because of the tweaks in her dialogue, hated and wanted to kill Rhea, so too did her raging fans who gave no fucks whatsoever about any character who opposed her... even if it was just to save their own life!

They changed the tone of Rhea's voice in the loc to make her more angry and villainous sounding, rather than sad or kind. She was basically altered in the loc to make Edelgard look better. Like, of course, in the perspective of playing a villain in CF, she's the bad guy and the enemy. The problem comes when they have Rhea say things that are more aggressive than in the original script, and change her tone to sound demeaning and vicious (when she was otherwise not or not as much).

But like, why? The only reason any of us can think of is because they wanted to market Edelgard more. This is likely a result of the west's views and especially political views, since Edelgard's pretty words would sound good to a westerner's political beliefs... until you dig into them/the actual story content more.

Rhea also being the head of a Church probably got tweaked because of the west's recent irl views on religion. Religion in the west has been looked poorly upon in recent years. Instead of accepting this is just a fictional game though, the loc team just... pushed that they're Really Bad.

Rhea is more of a victim of them needing someone to be worse than Edelgard to make Edelgard look like less of a villain (which again, this isn't the case in the original script nearly as much), and they couldn't use Thales/the Agarthans because you were allied with them in that route.

The other characters vs Rhea as a villain choice:

The goal wasn't to make a playable lord a villain in the loc's case. It was the intention of the original script with Edelgard, but the loc tried to make her actions sound more justified because ??? like idk, I can't wrap my head around them justifying what she does.

Dimitri isn't handled too badly by the narrative itself and he's overall seen as a good person (even the loc didn't alter that or Edelgard's ablest mentality toward a mentally unwell person), so he wasn't really a good candidate for all that. Also, Dimitri's story is one of recovery, and because they ventured into mental illness, he wasn't a good candidate. He was treated well and pretty fairly (Edelgard not treating him particularly well makes sense with her character, but the narrative itself doesn't push him as being a monstrous person. Even in the time he considers that he was, there's depth, logic and complexity to the situation).

Claude being the main bipoc character would have just been an all around disaster if the loc or even original script tried to make him the top villain, yadda yadda (understandably). There was no chance that was going to go over well, especially in the west (have you seen the shitstorm GW caused? And that was with the writing not considering him a villain!!). He was basically safe from the get go as far as villainy if they writers/localizers didn't want serious backlash (there are discussions about the overall treatment of poc characters in Houses/Hopes, but I can guarantee it would've been legit backlash if he was made to be a genuinely and intentionally horrible person, so that wasn't really an option if they wanted this game to actually sell and be enjoyed).

So since Rhea isn't playable and is the head of a Church, that kind of makes her the only candidate. Players will get attached to the other lords and not like killing them, so it won't feel like a badass victory to kill them. I guess for some reason the loc team just... hated Rhea or something?

Dimitri's death in CF is either extremely sad and garners audience sympathy, or in the other version of his death in CF it's clear his mentally stability is starting to break right before he's killed, which in and of itself is another topic. Claude is either free to go by choice of the player or can be killed, and his death is sad and he's not villainized. Aside from how some characters treat Claude's death (in contrast to Dimitri's which is never outright villainized even by Edelgard), the scene meant for the player at the time it happens is supposed to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

So again, it really just leaves the loc team with the option of Rhea if they want to make the final battle seem like a big victory for the player. VW also has its big happy victory, and surprise surprise, Rhea dies in that route (offscreen no less!).

SS kills off Rhea but actually makes it sad, and it's, you know, actually the route that focuses on her/the Church most. AM doesn't kill her off and doesn't treat any character death as a badass victory, and instead gives a bittersweet ending (which again would be in line with Dimitri's connection to Edelgard, and it only feels botched down because of all routes obsessing over her).

So while, technically, the writing in the JP script wasn't trying to make Rhea as bad as the western version of the game, if the loc wanted to go for that, she was the best option. It just... came at the expense of butchering her character to make Edelgard shine, which shouldn't have been done but it was.

#DCB Ask #sorry this got pretty long. my thoughts are kinda. all over the place a lot lol. and I'm bad with expressing my thoughts in few words #this might be a liiittle discoursey for anyone not interested in that stuff #which sadly the loc changes ARE part of what had a hand in the discourse so it's #unfortunately a bit unavoidable when discussing loc changes and whatnot #but also like... what is discourse at this point? ppl seem to think discourse is just #any negative comment ever about the game/loc? like. idk lol #not sure how the truth is discourse but at this point I think it's bc the game has been #such a problem overall in the west that any negativity around it whatsoever is viewed by most as discourse #like I could say I don't like xyz character and here's why and if it's a certain character in particular (of a few) #then it's automatically considered discourse and not just someone's opinion on a game's writing/story? #but really any negative thing ever about Edelgard is considered discourse because like... it's a fucking mess lol #and well we primarily have the loc to thank for that mess so... it's hard to avoid when discussing the loc #anyway here is my resident ASHNARD comment of the week #you can have a villain just like Edelgard - identical even (cough Ashnard) - and if you handle it right #there's no need for discourse bc everyone's on the same page about the character! #but thaaaat's not what happened here bc pretty lady step on me loc/writer mentality. :(

[nightglider124]

Maybe it is me but I don’t get the vibe that dickkory’s small convo was flippant on either side (i mean a little on dicks at first cos he be like ViSiOnS dOnT eXiSt) but at the end, Kory was like ‘like you said, to hell with visions’ but she seemed so sad about it like she thinks he won’t accept their shared vision bc he doesn’t want it with her. (We all know he does like duh)

I saw some people annoyed that that is all the conversation was but i think it speaks louder than just what was said. I mentioned it on another post but Brentons acting was real good in that scene bc he seems to really wrestle with what to say and although he just says ‘idk’ i think he feels torn. And they’ve also got much bigger issues than that particular vision at this point. Like we can circle back ya know?

Poor Kory though like the convo with Rachel in the beginning when Rae is like did he not tell you and shes just like no he didnt…

Ugh i want the angst. I am also v curious as to when Kory gets hurt since they’ve left off with Jinx dead (for now).

Other thoughts:

I get now why Lisa posted that stupid ass ig story 😂 bc jinx still be into Dick a little it would seem which back off bitch he has a whole child with Kory on the way so leave 😂 nah but I don’t think that will be explored more - i reckon that is more so a wistful thing on Jinx’s part but nothing will come form or at least i hope nothing does cos lets face it she isnt dead dead 🤷🏻‍♀️

Very curious how Jason will be appearing this season. It was said he is in Joshua and Teagans livestream a couple weeks ago. Not that i want to see him but im curious how he slots in in this particular season 🤔

MY BABY GAR 😭 he is going through it and when i tell you i was cryING when he grabbed Kory in a hug like i needed a GarKory hug more than I realized. 😭 I am extremely interested in Gar’s whole story this season. I LOVE that he is finally getting more. He seems to forgotten in other seasons and that is a crime. I worry about baby boy but am super happy that its getting explored more.

On the note of Gar, I’m assuming Sebastian or Brother Blood now I suppose was the one to send them to another existence or dimension but Gar went to the red so I am guessing Gar is separated from the team to begin with in part two of the season. I am v excited for part two of the season for multiple reasons.

Connor irked the shit out of me. I get it; tis his Lex side and I completely understand why but the attitude is so grating. Joshua plays it so fucking well but my God every time he spoke I was like stfu 😂😂

Rachel got her powers back and became White Raven!! I was v surprised to see the white dress and cloak but I was like OOOOOH. Her powers are gonna be fierce af in the second half of the season. And talking of powers, Kory’s having gone up to 80% has me NERVOUS. I bet that is how she gets hurt. I fucking bet she supernovas and fucks herself up. Like why else would they mention it?? 👀 i am scared for my fave in second part. 😭

Tim and Bernard are cute. Like it was sweet when they had that litte scene. And omg when Tim was like we kissed to the team, Kory had like a lil smirk on as did some of the others and Dicks like oh big night for everyone then - loved it.

Jinx may annoy me cos of the whole Dick history and clearly being into him still but she really does have me giggling. When she got stabbed i was like aw gurl ya took too long with taunting her frozen self 🙄 but I appreciated in the RV when she was like ‘i could take her out, fucking nut her’ feels so fucking British and I greatly appreciated it. I literally hear people talk like that all the time so I enjoyed that part 👀😂

I can’t think of much else now but I liked the episode. Wasn’t the absolute best imo but it will tide me over til second part of the season which I hope is sooner rather than later- anyone know when it’s meant to be returning??

#my thoughts #dickkory #dc titans #dc titans spoilers #titans s4 spoilers #titans spoilers

[pesterloglog]

Jade Harley, Calliope

Act 6, page 7016-7021

JADE: callie...

JADE: when you said you were a monster...

JADE: what did you mean?

JADE: were you just being hard on yourself...

JADE: or did you mean that literally?

CALLIOPE: no.

CALLIOPE: i was being rather literal aboUt my trUe appearance.

JADE: i see

JADE: and your brother looks the same way too i take it?

CALLIOPE: yes.

CALLIOPE: we look identical, thoUgh he was sUrely more a monster than i.

CALLIOPE: he still is.

JADE: was this his tooth?

CALLIOPE: yes.

CALLIOPE: it was once mine as well, bUt that is a topic which woUld reqUire some elaboration.

CALLIOPE: to tell yoU the trUth, i woUld rather not talk aboUt my brother. or anything from my past, really.

CALLIOPE: dwelling on it for long makes me feel very anxioUs.

JADE: thats ok, we dont have to talk about it

JADE: its just

JADE: seeing this tooth

JADE: and listening to your voice...

JADE: i think im finally starting to remember something

CALLIOPE: oh?

CALLIOPE: what do yoU remember?

JADE: i remember

JADE: you!

CALLIOPE: me???

JADE: yes

JADE: im quite sure now that we met once before while i was asleep

JADE: it was you, and yet...

JADE: it wasnt

CALLIOPE: do yoU mean to say yoU saw my trUe appearance?

JADE: i think so

CALLIOPE: egad.

CALLIOPE: i hope i didn't frighten yoU.

JADE: i was a little scared at first actually

JADE: but it was not so much because of what you looked like

CALLIOPE: :u

JADE: your voice was the same

JADE: and i can tell now that you are basically the same person she was

JADE: yet...

JADE: you seemed so different

JADE: so much more

JADE: serious

JADE: also...

JADE: you were a god tier!

JADE: what do you think it means callie?

JADE: if that was you... but not QUITE you... then who was it?

CALLIOPE: that was a version of myself i coUld have become, bUt for whatever reason, did not.

CALLIOPE: she is the one i am sUpposed to find.

CALLIOPE: bUt it woUld seem yoU foUnd her first.

JADE: i see

JADE: an alternate universe version of yourself?

CALLIOPE: yes.

CALLIOPE: the version who was able to defeat my brother before he coUld commit his mayhem.

JADE: that makes sense

JADE: no wonder she was so...

JADE: well

JADE: no offense to her, but you are much friendlier :)

CALLIOPE: i was that bad, was i?

CALLIOPE: or, ahem. she?

JADE: not really...

JADE: it was not long at all before i could tell she was good

JADE: actually, the more i think about it, the more im starting to remember about the encounter

JADE: she had a lot to say

CALLIOPE: what did she tell yoU?

JADE: she mainly told me stories!

CALLIOPE: :U

JADE: she seemed to really like telling stories

JADE: so i think your personality must have been in there somewhere :D

CALLIOPE: yoU don't...

CALLIOPE: by any chance...

JADE: you want to know if i remember any?

JADE: yes, its been coming back to me little by little

JADE: i think i can retell some of them

CALLIOPE: ^u^

JADE: hey i have an idea

JADE: why dont you help me?

CALLIOPE: how?

JADE: do you have anything to write on?

JADE: a pad of paper or such?

CALLIOPE: i think so. one moment.

CALLIOPE: how's this?

JADE: perfect!

JADE: ok, i will write the words, and you can draw the pictures

CALLIOPE: oh, what a good idea!

JADE: yes

JADE: ok where to begin

JADE: if i recall...

JADE: the first story was about how she defeated her brother

JADE: but i dont remember much about that one

JADE: and maybe you dont even want to hear a story that has to do with him?

CALLIOPE: that woUld be the way in which she and i differ.

CALLIOPE: in my story, it was the other way aroUnd.

JADE: hmm

JADE: that makes sense

JADE: the rest of her stories i think were meant to account for the differences in the way her life went

CALLIOPE: ooh. how interesting.

CALLIOPE: now i am very cUrioUs!

JADE: :)

JADE: so she went on to tell another story

JADE: not one about your brother

JADE: but one about mine

CALLIOPE: it already soUnds like a mUch more pleasant story.

JADE: well

JADE: not exactly...

JADE: this is the story about how he died

#homestuck #jade harley #calliope #homestuck act 6 #page 7016 #page 7017 #page 7018 #page 7019 #page 7020 #page 7021 #homestuck act 6 act 6 #homestuck act 6 act 6 intermission 4

[gribblehusband]

*crawls out of the depth of the earth*

I arrived!

I would have asked more questions earlier but life got in the way. Sadly I didn't come so far to listen to the other playlist on YouTube BUT my god I have been listening to the music on Spotify so much.

It's too the point where I hear certain songs from the playlist and think about your fic.

I vaguely remember that you said it's alright to ask what you have planned for the side fanfiction and I stand here to ask just that :33

omg im so curious about which songs specifically you associate with dotf. the one i associate most with vos isnt even a serious one (xoxo kisses hugs) but everytime i hear it i see that little freak doing a little dance in my head

alas i dont have a lot planned out for balm for the soul. i wanna finish dotf first, which im currently taking a break from writing right now until i get some stuff sorted out. however! i will tell you my unorganized thoughts i have right now.

if the main three love interests from balm for the soul were animals theyd be: tes would be a wolf, helex would be a grizzly bear, and tarn would be a bird of some sort. probably a bird of prey.

i have a scene planned out where helex and the mc lady and the tramp a really juicy peach reminiscent to how he was supposed to do that with a brain in the comics before it was scrapped. and it will be sexually charged mark my words.

tarn is going to nickname the mc after a city on cybertron to cement their place by his side. because hes possessive like that. you will see this in dotf btw.

tes will have long fluffy hair that’s naturally very soft. he melts when you run your fingers through it.

im still working on exactly how tarns transforming addiction will translate when he literally can no longer transform. he will take up a vice of some sort to replace it. im considering smoking although i do think hed be the most insufferable pretentious vaper to ever walk the earth

the mc knows how to play various instruments. violin and piano being two of them. i headcanon that music on cybertron is very synth heavy and industrial so itd be new sounds to tarn that he would appreciate and be fascinated by. its what bonds him and the mc together at first. thinking about having him call them his songbird.

some songs that remind of of balm for the soul include: concertina ballerina by alternative radio and like a dog by ferry!!

this is so disjointed and im sorry i have nothing actually concrete but i thought i should share what i do have >:33

#asks #dotf

[kaeyapilled]

Tbh I really like the... what's the word. Stuffy??? (That's not quite right but it works) sort of sound Kaeya's eng voice has on the early quests and voicelines, though I think they may have tried to slightly up the animeness(?) of it in some later ones (which doesn't sound bad, either; just an observation). It's very human and feels more like a real, genuine voice than the [generic smooth playboy Femme Fatale: Guys Edition] voice some people seem to think of him with would have.

He is smooth and witty and charismatic sounding by design (both his own in-character and by actual marketing character design), and that's good, and I'm definitely not saying anyone talks like he does irl* - I just appreciate them letting him have that smidge of Some Real Guy voice too. It adds character distinction and charm. Like you can hear it some in the "Knight of Favonius" line I think?? That I do hear people talk like in my daily life.

It's interesting, actually; I'm not actually that familiar with most characters' other language voicings (this is extremely still a stupid gacha game (affectionate) and I have a life, hyperfixation be damned), or know enough about the languages to distinguish tone beyond the most obvious, but there are definitely character differences.

I do often see fans of the Kaeya's Chinese voice complaining about his Eng character being more flirty-toned and sadistic, when in it he's a bit more friend's-older-brother-coded (my own 'what I'm reminded of', though the older-brother-ness sentiment def isn't original to me) and pranksterish. And I saw someone joke at one point that Korean Kaeya is just too chill to be the Kaeya in their fic because he's too calm to be bothered by any of it.

One other example I'm familiar with is Childe: ENG shows anger really well, and is a bit more childish and hypocritical, but [I forgot which language but I think it was Chinese or Japanese?] Childe was more resigned and accepting of Sometimes Lying Happens Back To You, if still upset about it, and slightly more mature about that incident. (I looked into his because I saw someone saying they thought that made more sense with him being someone who had to tolerate the Abyss, and I got curious.) And Korean Childe sounds slightly more violent, in my opinion, at least on some of the more playful english lines.

...I mostly specified eng Diluc because I don't actually know anything about his other voices

I think all of the characteristics are interesting, of course, and I suppose they're all 'canon' in each language. In terms of fan stuff, I think it just depends on what the goal is! I just go by preference, but I have seen people specify what "language" of each character they're thinking of for stuff before, and even mix and match a few times.

*(related: while I was looking into the voice differences I happened across a clip where his VA was going on this whole thing about how much breathing the Kaeya Voice takes. It is literally so full of air - catch in universe Kaeya silently inhaling as much as he physically can every time no one's looking at him.)

i have several bones to pick with the english voice acting (and most of them have to do with with the goddamned anime-ness which i am, most of the time, not super fond of) but i actually really like kaeyas voice! particularly early game lol which is also a constant with genshin voiceovers for me.. what i really like about kaeyas eng voice is like. the cadence of his words. the rhythm of his speech. it sticks in my head and i keep repeating his voicelines to myself like a stim lol but anyway. once again i digress.

those are really cool details to know about! i had never looked into it before; im not familiar w like.. any of the other voiceovers (stupid gacha game (affectionate) and all that) (i thought about switching to a diff language a while back but i was too attached to kaeyas eng voicelines and that singlehandedly made me decide against it lmao) but i think it's pretty fun how the tone of the voice actor and the words chosen in translation can slightly change the characterization sometimes. i think the smooth talker flirtatious tone kaeya has influences a little how i imagine him, like, what sort of persona he displays to others, what he wants people to believe he is like, etc. in the end its all subtleties! and i love the idea of mix and matching these little characterizations when making fanon content because that is what fandom is all about babey

#i... did not shut up about kaeya this entire answer. sorry. this will happen again #thank you for the interesting ask anon!! love discussions like these #and also lol what you said about the kaeya voice and having to breathe a lot to do it #kaeya miscalculating the amount of air he'll need for his next sarcastic remark #having to take a pathetic gulp of air halfway through #successfully ruining the effect of his charms #anonpilled #kaeyaposting #(mostly) #meta/analysis

[fragileizywriting]

okay the fic would be something like

kitty is scrambling to go from alya's house back home after the sleepover to take opening shift and she's texting luka using her bo staff (terrible idea, could get caught by hawkmoth, but opening shift is opening shift) telling him she's super late and whatever and ends up taking a detour the moment she hears adrien is singing— his window is open, an indication that he's open to guests, and she might as well pop by. he usually doesn't do much on sundays without her, so it can't hurt.

he's in the shower. he's screaming. kitty complements his singing, and asks him to sing more. he throws a shampoo bottle at her and tells her to scram. although his aim is near-perfect, she dodges (dodgeball!) and tells him she'll appear back later, because she's got work, but she definitely wants to hear him sing later.

meets luka. shuts him up with a croissant in his mouth. tells im to take care of the register while she goes make breakfast for herself, checking on all the bread that they left to rise during the night. gets distracted on instagram, spending like 30min on it. sees luka's thirst trap.

luka walks in on her while she's making heart eyes at her phone. screaming shenanigans. he asks her why she has it saved in her saves. she tells him to fuck off. walks to the cash register and comes across adrien.

he's wheezing, red as all hell, asking for a coffee and luka apologieses for taking so long. marinette decides he deserves a cookie because he likes cookies, and tells luka to relax bc she'll make it.

notices that the two of them know each other. this doesn't make sense, considering that adrien and luka shouldn't know each other. why does viperion know her sunshine?

"how do you know each other?" kitty marinette asks, ignoring coffee.

adrien completely blanks. how is he supposed to explain that he shouldn't know luka but he does because viperion is luka and viperion knows his identity because of a very long, convoluted thing, and he knows the indentities of lady noire and mister bug? it'll be a mess.

"we go to the same piercing shop," luka lies nearly instantly, while adrien is still buffering. "we met when i went to go get pierced. he told me about how terrified he was about getting his ears pierced while i got pierced."

oh. "you pierced your ears again?"

"nah." and luka leaves it at that, because luka's smart. adrien is just trying not to pass out from how close that was.

"what did you pierce?"

"wouldn't you like to know."

"yes." she's a curious cat. "what did you pierce?"

"oh? oh? you interested? you... want to find out?"

"no."

"i guarantee you'll like the piercing spot," luka continues.

"i held his hand for it. the piercing," adrien tacks on. "looked like it hurt."

"i think you'll like it," luka finishes. "you'll find it very fun."

marinette makes a noise, turning back to the coffee machine to make adrien's coffee. "as if! fuck off, you know i'd never see a man naked, especially not—"

she saw adrien naked today.

she starts screaming to herself.

#speakizys #sharks and sugar